Lunchtime interval ride

So yesterday while I was at home,  #3 was sleeping and Shawna decided to take the boys to the store so I could get my intervals done on the bike. No sooner after she left and I had the garage all set up with the bike on the trainer, and was all stretched out did she wake. CRAPOLA! What's guy to do now? Instead of leaving her in her crib for the next 30min screaming, I decided to adapt and over come. Knowing that she would be hungry, I got her up and got her lunch ready. I then placed her in the high chair and brought my stuff inside the house so I could watch her and she could watch me. Here's a pic after we were done.

We had lots of fun for the next half hour. Unfortunately the food didn't last that long, and I had to go grab some more on one of the rest portions of the intervals, but we were able to get it done! Just a little thinking outside the box to get a workout accomplished.

Rotten Tomatoes

What does rotten tomatoes have to do with training for a triathlon you ask? Well it has everything to do with raising kids. You see, when son #2 starts telling me that his tummy hurts, and it feels like rotten tomatoes, you listen. Last week was extremely crazy. Not only was his 3rd birthday last week; and not only were we having a big party and family coming in from out of town; we also had sick kids. It started with the oldest and diarrhea. Diarrhea to the point that it was uncontrollable for him at times, and there were multiple underwear changes. Poor guy. I thought that the rest of us had skated by it when no one else had gotten the diarrhea. A couple days pasted, and while #1 was almost better, there was no sign by anyone else that trouble was brewing. But on early Thursday am, #2's official bday, I woke at 3:45 to hear him call out before he started puking. Poor guy, it was his 3rd birthday and he had just covered his entire bed, and parts of me in vomit. After cleaning him up, and changing the bedding, he finally went back to bed ~415. The next am, it was more of the same. You put something in him, something came back up. All the plans for his actual birthday was scrubbed. To top it off, #3 also woke up puking. At least #2 can tell us when he feels like it's going to come back out, but poor #3, she would just let it go where ever. What else could a 15month old do??

So we had sick kids, family coming into town and the madness of work. Fortunately, by the time Saturday came around, and everyone was in town and the party was starting, we had been puke free for over 24 hours. We had to be real selective about what we tried to feed and drink the two of them for a little bit, and even had to put #2 on some Zofran for his vomiting. But everyone was looking and feeling pretty good on Saturday and we had a great party. Awesome weather, so the kids were able to play outside on the trampoline and in the back yard. We had no major injuries and nothing was broken in the house. Everyone had fun, and we even ran out of beer. Other than the beer issue, we had a great party.

 Needless to say, it was a very busy week with everything. Throw in trying to train for your first ever triathlon, not to mention one that's a decent distance, and things got even more complicated. I've been running short on sleep lately, and hope to get to bed early tonight.
Really, the last week of training has been a blur. I kind of remember what I did, but not completely. I have it written down on scrap paper here and there, but still haven't found the time to log it into my journal. I do remember that I had a good 40/10 brick a while ago, got some good lifting days in (which seem to be slipping as of late) and did manage to get a nice 10mile early morning run in the other day.

The other big training news is that I have contemplated changing my swim technique yet again. I find that this might be a little dangerous being soo close to the event (less than 11 weeks right now). I stumbled upon a web site called swim smooth. I was intrigued with there philosophy about the freestyle stroke, and they definitely seem more geared to the real world of open water swimming and competing. They are not big fans of the Total Immersion (TI) system, which is what I have been doing up until now. The theory about the swim smooth is that TI over emphasises the glide, which looks wonderful, but isn't very practical. It promotes a dead spot in your stroke; isn't practical when there are 15 million other people around you swimming as well; and isn't easy to do when you have rough water from swells and other people's wakes. Swim smooth doesn't encourage the lower stroke rate like TI does either. There is a relationship between speed and your stroke rate, and it's ok to increase your stroke rate if you are also increasing your speed. The other big thing that swim smooth encourages is the bilateral breathing (breathing from both sides) and not holding your breath while you are swimming.
So I've been experimenting with the bilateral breathing, and the constant exhalation. It's definitely a mental game to breath on the weak side and no hold my breath. My 100yard splits are, right now, faster; but I'm not able to keep that momentum and do any real distance, yet. I'm definitely working harder, my left side is starting to catch up with my right. I can feel it by how winded I am at times, although it doesn't feel like I'm moving faster. I'm easily 8-10 sec faster on the 100's, but in the water I don't feel like I'm actually going that much faster (if that makes any sense at all). I've also been working on keeping my head more upright, being able to see the far end of the pool while I swim, and not just the black line on the bottom. I think that this has helped me with a better positioning for my breathing, especially on the left, and has helped me with my rotation as well. I will continue to work on the bilateral breathing for the next week or two and see how it goes. Swim smooth claims a two week adjusting period for the transition to bilateral breathing. I will also be increasing my swim volume and looking to build my endurance with the bilateral breathing. If it goes well, I'll be able to put out like I have been before in a couple of weeks. If not, well then I still have what I had before and it was working decently well. I know that I'll be able to finish the swim portion the way things were before, now I'm just going to work on being able to do it a little faster. Now it's off to bed, to get some much needed recovery before it starts all over again tomorrow.

Faster while slower???

                     I've decided to start this blog post off with another music video. This is Egypt Central and their song Kick Ass. I'm in that kick ass kind of mood after my very well performed 40/10 workout today. After my last 40/10 workout which was horrible (click here to relive that nightmare), this one was way better for me. I put out some really decent times on both the bike and the run, and felt good while getting after it. The race day nutrition testing looks like it's coming along quite well.
After my severe cramping issue on the last 40/10 workout I knew that I needed to supplement more electrolytes into the nutrition equation. I happen to find myself having lunch across the street from Tritown, so I stopped in and talked with Antonio about the cramping issue. He suggested a few things, and I decided to give the Nuun tablets a shot.

                  These are nice electrolyte tablets that you can just drop into your water bottle and be done with it. There's no measuring or mess. One tablet for every 16oz of water. I was a little surprised to watch them fizz in the water and remain bubbly. That's something that I'd have to get used to, but the taste was good. I dropped 2 tablets into the Torhans and called it good. I also had a water bottle filled with the Lemon Lime Roctane for the calories. Let me say this about the Lemon Lime flavor..... I don't really care for it. If you like the original Gatorade lemon lime flavor, then you'll like the Roctane. But I was never a big fan of the Gatorade, so the Roctane lemon lime just didn't do it for me, flavor wise. Luckily, it was from a free sample pack that I got from Gu so I'll be sticking with the Tropical Fruit flavor from now on. I did a gel before the workout, had the Roctane on the bike with the Nuun infused water, a gel at the transition and then one more gel half way through the run. Luckily I had both water and a Powerade with me on the treadmill. Around mile 4 I started to feel some cramps in my quads and I started to get a little concerned. I was sooo close to finishing the workout and I was putting out some good times. I went for the Powerade and started chugging. The cramps never went away, but they didn't get any worse, so that's the best thing I can ask for I guess. Lesson learned, Nuun the water bottle for the run too.
                        With the Nuun in the Torhans, I was able to keep a good eye on how much water I had left in the system and monitor my hydration intake. The only problem was that there are no markings on the side of the Torhans, so I can only guess the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 fill levels. That will change this week. I plan on marking the side of the bottle towards the rear so I can easily see how much I have left at any given time. I will also be getting a clear water bottle for the Roctane as well for the same reason. Speaking of my Torhans, I had a splash issue last week went I got out on the road with it filled to the top. It was a little frustrating to say the least, and I spent some time afterwards trying to figure out how I could get the splash issue resolved. I emailed Kevin over at Torhans with my suggestion, and he said that they were working on something very similar to what I had thought of. They will be sending me a new "splash funnel" since I cut my other one for the time being, and then will send me the new and improved splash funnel once it's out.

                          Going into the "Faster while slower" topic, I discovered something yesterday while doing another bike workout. This last week has been crazy with the training since coming back from Seattle, so I was just kind of winging it and will get back on the Crossfit Endurance web site tomorrow. Yesterday, I decided to do 3 rounds of 5k on the bike with 4 min rest. I thought that I would try a lower cadence, mid 80's, with also dropping my gear down a notch. Normally, I try to keep my cadence in the 90's, but if I don't pay attention, or start to get tired, I naturally drop into the mid 80's. So I thought that I'd try to just go with what seems to be natural for me and see what happens. Well, my cadence was slower, but my speed was FASTER. Not only was my speed faster, but it didn't feel like I was working as hard to put out that extra speed. Don't get me wrong, the last interval was difficult and I really had to work to keep myself on that same pace, but still. Overall I was faster. The last time I tried that interval workout, I had times that were all over the place and nothing consistent. This time, they were all within a few seconds of each other. I have since emailed both Antonio and Doug (who is the cycling coach at CFE) about what I discovered to get their opinions and thoughts on the matter. So far, no response, but I'll let you know what they say.

             Yesterday was the 12 week mark for the Boise Ironman Now, re-watch the video and have a kick ass kind of day!

new seat

So I'm back from the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge and have a few minutes to write. I started this last entry about 2 weeks ago when I got my new seat. But all I really did was just load the pics. It's been crazy busy here. A blog about the Seattle trip will come in a day or two, once the pics get loaded. Until then, enjoy the new saddle pics.

Here's the old ISM Adamo Road saddle that belonged to my friend Todd. We called it the bumble bee saddle. It worked really well for me, and made me a believer in the design. Unfortunately, it didn't belong to me and Todd wanted it back when he got his new tri bike. Not unfortunately, the saddle was uglier than almost anything when on my bike. But all that was going to change.

With needing to get a new saddle, I started shopping. I did the research on the ISM site here and decided that the road model was still probably the best option for me. So then it was off to Ebay to shop. I'd been watching several different ISM seats for a while, but never actually bought one. But now I needed to. Fortunate for me, I found the PERFECT saddle!

Here she is. A black and green ISM Adamo road saddle. It's like it was made especially for my felt. The colors match perfectly, and the price was even better. These things retail for $170, but I got mine for under $100 shipped. Harold over at Tri Town says I basically stole the saddle, while Antonio says that the color scheme is a dealer only color and I was very fortunate to get one. Antonio rechecked all the measurements and had me rocking the new seat in no time. He did want to drop me even lower on the bars, but I told him not yet. I'm fairy comfortable with my position right now, and would like to keep it for this season and reevaluate at the end, unless I have some major issues.

I have since done a few rides, both on the trainer and on the road. The new saddle feels just like the old one, comfy. I feel that I can ride all day long on this; and so far, I don't get any soreness after my rides. If you're looking for a new seat, seriously consider the ISM line. They have a ton of different models, and so long as you have someone who knows how they are supposed to be set up they are awesome!

Hard lesson learned

Sat was a very busy day at the station, and a hard lesson was learned on the nutrition front. It was hard, but very informative for my sake. With the Seattle Firefighter stair climb coming up next week we had one more fundraiser to do. This was the same as last week at Costco. I missed last week as we had some child care issues and I couldn't get out there in time. But this Sat I was there, and got my stair climb on. To be fair, this was the one and only official day of stairclimbing I've done to prep for the event. I've been too busy training for this triathlon thing that I haven't given the stairclimb any training at all. I ended up doing 20min on the machine in all my gear and did, according to the machine, 71 flights of stairs. 2 more flights than the building in Seattle.

            After the Costco event, we had a few more calls to run, and then I was finally able to attempt anther 40/10 brick. That's 40k on the bike, followed by a 10k run. I've done these a few times before, but this time I was going to be using the Gu and was really excited about trying it out. I did a long swim the other morning coming home from work with nothing more than a Vanilla Bean Gu in my system. The swim went AWESOME! I easily could have kept on swimming, but I needed to get home so I got out of the pool.

          Back to the brick. I had some Roctane in my water bottle, lots of water in the Torhans with a refill, and a Gu pack on the treadmill and next to my shoes. The bike went awesome, I was putting out some really good times and pacing quite well. Pushing myself, but nothing too hard, or so I thought. I got off the bike and ran to the bathroom before jumping on the treadmill. That bathroom break should of been my first clue that something was a little off. I've never had to pee that bad while on the bike. I know I was putting the fluids down, but I didn't want to get dehydrated. I was sweating, so I was drinking. Unfortunately, I think I drank too much on the bike. I went through my 30oz Torhans and then prob another 10oz or so in the almost 25 miles. Not to mention the 24oz of Roctane. I definitely flushed my system a little too well and the run was about to hurt.
       I've done enough bricks to know that the first mile to 2 miles are horrible coming off the bike. My shins are super tight and it takes a little bit to get them to cooperate. This run was no different, except my calves were also screaming at me, and my low back was stiff. I attributed my low back to the heavy workout a few days earlier. But the calves were something new. This was the first time that I've had to slow down and walk, and get off the treadmill to stretch. Nothing seemed to help. I would rest for a min or 2, and then be able to run for a min or 2. It was terribly frustrating for me. Mentally, I was sharp and ready to crush this 10k, but physically, my body was saying no way Jose. It was just after the 3 mile mark when the crazy train decided to take a stop in my left quad. My quad totally locked up on me. Not cramp, but lock up. I've never had a muscle EVER do that; and now it was happening to a big muscle. With the quad locked up, I finally realized what my body had been trying to tell me before. I needed salt, and salt NOW!!!

  I hobbled into the kitchen at the station and grabbed the salt shaker. I poured a heaping mountain of the much needed goodness into my hand, threw it back into my mouth like a Tequila shot with a chaser of water. The next min saw my quad loosen up, but it would still be a few more before I was really feeling better. I finished the run, but it wasn't pretty. It was a very hard lesson to learn, but I'm glad that it happened in training and not during a race. I will soon be ordering the Gu electrolyte tabs and maybe getting some salt tabs just to make sure that never happens again. I can only blame myself for what happened. The Gu was working great. Mentally I was ready for it, my salt content on the other hand, had other plans. Here's to learning the hard way, Cheers!




  

Race day nutrition winner!

So the long awaited results of what I have chosen for my race day nutrition has finally come! This task was way more complicated than I originally thought that it would be.  Ultimately, I decided to go with a product that has several features that  I considered to be important. Things that I did look at and consider were: ingredients,  cost per serving, where it was made and how diverse the companies products are. I really wanted a company that had both gels and powder so I could have liquid nutrition on the bike, and then switch to the gels once on the run. The main companies that I looked at were: CarboPro, Hammer, Honey Stinger, Power Bar, Pacific Health Labs and Gu. Here's a pic of just some of the stuff that I tried.

The ones that I didn't choose and the reasons behind my decisions.

CarboPro- While CarboPro has a great reputation and following, the ingredients list is extremely vague. Its vague enough that you can't find an ingredients list anywhere on line, and I had to ask Antonio over at Tri Town to take a pic of the label just so I could compare the ingredients. Also, CarboPro doesn't have any gels of any kind.

Hammer and Pacific Health Labs- Both were interesting because these two companies both had products that contained protein in their powders. There's mix reviews on the effectiveness of the protein during the endurance events, and the possible GI issues associated with the protein as well. Plus, I know that Accelerade, made by Pacific Health, is a pain to mix up and stays foamy for a while after mixing, and I seriously don't have the patience to deal with that.

Power Bar- Power Bar only makes bars and some gels. The few gels that I did try were flavorful and thinner in consistency (as compared to the Gu). But again, they didn't have any powder for the liquid nutrition.

Honey Stinger- This is the brand that was recommended by the coaches from the CF Endurance site because of the use of honey instead of sugar. The only down side to the Honey Stinger is there lack of liquid nutrition for the bike.

Gu- The WINNER!!! After looking at all the categories Gu was the winner for the trial nutrition period. I like their use of both simple and complex carbs for an immediate and sustained energy release. Not only are the Gu products made in the USA, but the company makes their products themselves. No out sourcing to a 3rd party. This means that they have complete control over their products. It also helps Gu that they have the liquid nutrition covered with both the Roctane for the calories, and electrolyte brew for plain ol' electrolyte goodness, and then gels as well. The final nail in the coffin for Gu was that the cost is better than anything else with the discount from Promotive (50% off of retail).

The order was placed and then the waiting began. I thought that I was going to get a follow up email after the initial order to give me some shipping info, but it never happened. I ended up calling Gu to track the package only to find out that it would be delivered that day.

The oldest was almost as excited as I was when the box arrived. He begged me to let him try one of the flavors. I had to search through the gels and find one that didn't have any caffeine, and then let him have it. So here he is trying the Mint Chocolate, which is VERY yummy by the way.

My official first order. A box of the mixed gels so I can get a good sample of the different flavors, a small tub of the Roctane to try, and then a box of the Roctane gels. I got super lucky as the mix box has some Roctane gels, but it didn't come with the flavor that I ordered separately. I have a nice little sample pack now that should last me at least through March. The Roctane powder will be put to use on Sat, and I'll be taking a Roctane gel on the Seattle Firefighter Stairclimb next week as well. Really, my only complaint about the Gu product line is that there are NO protein/snack bars. If Gu got into the business of making some healthy, gluten free protein (whey based, not soy) then I'd be in heaven. Hint hint Gu people, make it happen. PS- I'd be happy to volunteer as a taste tester too  ;)