Pump up the volume!

                    


       Well, I'm half way through this new round of training, with volume being the name of the game here. I gotta say, trying to add this much volume into the schedule sucks. It was hard enough where I was before, but now trying to get in a couple of 2+ hr rides on the bike a week, plus a couple 1+hr runs in and then the swimming and the lifting, it's brutal! The lifting has definitely taken a back seat, but I'm trying to keep that up as well. I don't know how some people do it, and maintain any sort of life. Luckily, the family is supportive. The other day we had beautiful weather and I was able to get in a 2 hour ride while Shawna took the kids to the park. This was after a few days earlier when I didn't come home from work right away. Instead I tackled the Bogus hill climb with some friends from work. Shawna had some lunch plans, and with a late start waiting for everyone, I wasn't able to finish the full 16miles up the mountain, but I did manage 12.6 miles and they were pretty hard. I had to stop twice, just to give my legs a rest, even if it was only for a minute or two.
              I did the hill climb, and then the next day I did an 8 mile run outside. I'm trying to get more runs outside with the weather being nicer. I need to learn how to pace myself while out on the streets and not just based on what a treadmill is telling me. The 8 mile run went well, but the 6 mile I did yesterday was better in terms of pacing. After the 8 miler though, my right hip starting hurting. Nothing too bad, but just something that I had never experienced before. My hip flexor was just tight and sore, and I am attributing it to not stretching my hips before the run like I usually do. That 8 mile run was a last min thing, so I just threw my shoes on and went for it. While on the run, I realized that I'm not the smartest person in the world.

                I say I'm not the smartest because I have been planning on doing the run portion of the triathlon's with a visor (everyone else does, so why not me?). I've never really worn a visor on my runs before, but I will now. About mile 5 into the 8 miles, I started to really sweat. The heat was in the mid to high 80's and I was starting to feel it. The sweat starting getting into my eyes, but I just kept going. The sweat kept coming too. Pretty soon, my eyes were on fire from the stinging of the sweat now making it's pilgrimage to my eyeballs. While suffering with the stinging eyes and trying to not get run over, it donned on me. Why the hell do I not have a visor on? I mean, I plan on using one for the event, why not now??? Sure, my sunglasses protected me from the suns rays, but not from the sweat. When I got done with that run, Shawna made a comment about how my eyes, in particular the left one, was totally blood shot, and asked if I was ok. From now on, I will wear a visor.
               My 6 mile run yesterday was great for pacing. I usually average a 7:30-7:45 mile pace outside without really pushing it. I call it my cruising pace, as I feel that I can push out that pace forever. I still don't have a heart rate monitor that I can use at home, so I can't tell you where I'm at for my HR with that kind of pace. For the quick 6 that I did yesterday, I really wanted to push the pace a little bit and keep a sub 7:15 for the entire run. The night before, I had done some serious speed work on the treadmill, and the beginning of the run I thought that I might have bitten off too much. My legs felt really heavy and slow. I felt like I was not going very fast and was really working to keep a good pace. That first mile actually went down under 7 min at 6:50, the next mile was under 7:15 as well. For all 6 miles, I kept the pace under 7:10 except for one mile that was a 7:17. The last mile was the hardest because of a wicked head wind from the storm that was coming in. I was able to keep that one under 7:10 as well, and while walking home the rain starting falling, and falling hard. I was glad I got that run done before the storm. I still have one more distance run to cover this week, and I'm planning on that run being done on Sat while at work. I will use the treadmill to keep a 7:00/mile pace and see how it goes from there. At work we have a quarterly fitness evaluation which has a mile and half run at the end. I'm able to easily be under 9 min for that, so there is no reason why I can't be closer to maybe a 6:30-6:45 pace for my longer runs, it's just a matter of pushing myself.

             My Xlab stuff came in, and I got it mounted on the bike and ready to roll. I had ordered the "mini-wing" kit, which is their bottom end double bottle behind the seat mount. It came with a very small bag that squeezed in between the two bottle holders. I did the ride up to Bogus with both bottles on the back end of the bike, but that's it. After that, I stripped the left bottle rack off the frame, and bolted my old saddle bag in it's place. This was the idea that I had before I bought the kit, and so far seems to work out nicely. I did a 37 mile ride the other day with that set up and it was great. Used the water bottle on the down tube with some Powerade, and then had water w/ electrolyte mix in the Torhans and then an extra water in the Xlab mount. Refilling was fairly easy for being on the go, and I was even able to add some more electrolyte tabs with my fresh water.  I'll be posting pics of the bike in a new tab that I will have pics of what I'll be racing with so you'll be able to see the Xlab set up along with the Adamo seat and the Torhans system etc.

          Swimming is coming along, still a smidge slower than I was before, or so I think; but I'm getting back at being comfortable with my swim and not having a million technical things running through my head while I'm swimming. This is making me more comfortable, and making the longer distance swims more bearable. I did a 3x 500yd last week, and then a 2x 800yd this week for my longer swims, and then the intervals on top of it. After this season is over, I plan on revamping my swimming and getting more technical, but for now, I'm just going to swim and enjoy it.

Feed the Machine

So I woke up today with this rockin' song stuck in my head. I figured that I'd find the video and post it. It's an awesome song from an awesome band, who I've seen live a few times and they have yet to disappoint!

           This week has seen a change in my training. I have 8 weeks until the Boise 70.3 Ironman, and I've decided to switch things up a bit with the training and add loads more volume! Yippee for me! I will be doing the next 3 weeks with a way higher volume, progressing in a linear fashion; only to then have 4 weeks back the a more "normal" Crossfit Endurance cycle. I will then have a taper week and then the main event.
           I read an article in the most recent issue of Lava magazine that was written by a Tri coach and he was talking about what he calls "critical volume" which is 2 2/3 (2.67) x the race distance as your volume for the week on the bike. So a full Ironman would have 300mi of cycling in a week, and a half Iron would have 150mi/week. It is also understood that your running is NEVER more than 20% of the total volume of your cycling, except on rare occasions (which doesn't include me).
          With my limited time until the race, I've decided to get near the critical volume limit, but not reach it. This being week one, I will hit 60 miles, week 2 will get me 90 miles and week 3 will get me 120 miles on the bike. The runs, of course, are then geared in the 5:1 ratio off the bike distance. For the swim, there was no recommendation, so I'm just making sure that I get at least 2k yards in a week, which is almost the distance for the swim. The swim will be done mostly in long intervals, and occasional short intervals. I will also still be doing some S&C workouts, banging the weights around. I will be using the CFE intervals and S&C as my basis, and then just adding the increased volume.
            So here's to week one! It started on Sun, and I already have a 25mi bike, 1500yd swim and 3mi run down. Tomorrow I should be getting a package from Xlab with my rear hydration system. This is the last piece of cycling race gear before the event. It will allow me to hit the roads for the longer distances and have all the fluids I need. No worrying about running out of water or anything now. Nothing can stop me!! hahaha

           Right now, the only point of concern I have is with my swimming. I seem to have gotten a little slower on my distance swims when it comes to my 100yd splits. Nothing too super huge, but prob a 5-8 sec difference. I'm not sure if it's because I've been tired when I hit the pool, or because I have a million things going through my mind on my stroke technique, breathing, body position, body roll, etc... since I tried the change up. There's nothing I can really do about it now, other than just try to relax and just continue to plug away. I'm trying to get some good recovery at night, but there are still times like last night when it was after midnight before I got to bed. Such is the life of a family man, firefighter and soon to be triathlete. It's weird, I've been training for months, but I still feel that I can't call myself a true triathlete until this first race is over....
I guess I'll just have to continue to train and continue to feed the machine to fuel the training.

Staying on track

Whew, this last week and into this week have been crazy busy for me on the work front. Which means that the training has been creative and sometimes non-existant. Being in class for 2 days straight was making me go bonkers! I'm not used to sitting in one place for so long, being tied to a table and chair like that. Shawna didn't like it either. I was taking an awesome 12 lead ECG class, and the instructor was very good, but still after about a day and a half I was ready to run for the hills. Both days of the class were in the middle of my 4 days off, which meant time away from the family. Shawna said that if this was what it's like having an 8-5 job, then forget it! She'd much rather have me gone for a whole 24 hours and then be home the next day, rather than home for 2-3 hours before the kids go to bed. I agree!

Training this last week was squeezed around the class and everything else that I had going on. The weather is still hit and miss, but I have been getting out on the road more with my bike. I went for a ride 2 weekends ago and hit some major head winds. That was my first experience in the winds like that, and man did it suck. I went from a steady 19mph done to, at times 9 1/2mph. It was horrible. The crosswinds wasn't nearly as bad, but I was just holding on and pedaling, trying to not get blown into traffic. I do have to say though that the tail wind, yeah that ROCKS! The 11-9.5 head wind, not so bueno. The 26-27mph tail wind, es muy bueno! I did also do some hill repeats on the bike this last weekend. About a mile and a half from the house is the freeway, and there's a hill that takes you over the freeway and then keeps climbing to the top of the hill. It's just under 1/2mile from the base to just on the other side of the summit. I know that hills on the bike are a weak point for me, so I decided to tackle a weakness. I did 3 climbs, and was starting my fourth when I dropped the chain going into my smaller ring. Luckily, the road opens up and there is enough room for me to stand on the side away from traffic and get it fixed. Then I went down and did the fourth one to finish off the set. Since I had the break with fixing the chain, the 4th set wasn't soo bad, #3 was way worse. Im hoping that next week I will get a chance to do 5-6 hills. I've also scoped out a different hill for some repeats that looks steeper and is way longer. It's only a couple of miles down the road from the house, and it's way over a 1/2 mile in length. I also did a road ride yesterday since the day was beautiful. I only had enough time for about an hour, but I was still able to enjoy the ride. The biggest thing that I noticed about the ride yesterday was how comfortable I was on my bike in the aero position. Except for intersections, or reaching down to grab some Roctane from the bottle on the down tube, I was on my aerobars. Being in the aero position for an entire hour and not even thinking about my comfort or position was awesome. It only occured to me after I was home that I didn't get off the bars. They say that comfort is half the battle for the bike portion, and so far, it looks like I'm doing pretty good on that front.

Swimming this last week has been rough, but that mostly comes from my lack of sleep and recovery. My swims are almost exclusively early am swims before work, or on the way home from work. I did a 1500yd swim the other day that was absolutely horrible. It was the first time that I was not having fun in the water. Being tired and trying to swim sucks. I couldn't mentally get into any sort of rythm and it took all my effort just to stay focused and count to 4, so I knew when I hit another 100yds and could hit the split timer on the watch. I've decided to not change my swim technique at this moment. I simply dont have enough time, and it stresses me out trying to revamp my entire swim with less than 9 weeks to go. I'd rather be a little slower in the swim this year and be comfortable with where I'm at, than be faster and uncomfortable in the water.

Running is coming along. I feel that if I slack in anything, it's the run training thinking that this is probably my one strength right now; although I know that I shouldn't slack at anything. Since I did a ride on Sat I had to do my run on Sun. A long run, at work, on the treadmill. 10 miles on the treadmill when the weather was soo nice out was really a bummer. I actually waiting until the evening so I couldn't see how nice it was through the windows. I'm thinking that I'm going to be needing some new running shoes before the event, but that cost money, and money is tight. I have been using my Innov8's which I love, but they're about $100. I could try a pair of Brooks pure cadence that I can get from Promotive for about $50 so that's tempting, although Brooks says on their website that they are only good for about 350 miles, where my Innov8's can go for 600+.

 

 

Seattle Firefighter Stair Climb

Well I FINALLY have found some time to sit down and write about the Seattle Firefighter Stair Climb, along with posting some pics. I'm going to blame not having the pics as my reason for the delay. During the day of the event, Shawna's camera died just before I was about to go. Luckily Jeff's family was Johnny on the spot and had lots of cameras (3, one for each person). They graciously handed over one of their cameras for Shawna to use and then got us the discs after the event.  Without further adieu, here's some pics.



The Columbia tower. It's the second tallest building west of the Mississippi River. There are 69 flights of stairs, 1311 steps, and 788ft of vertical elevation that I took to get to the top.



My helmet for the event. A pic of Gabby from her wedding just a few months ago, and then a Spartan patch on the front. It reads "With Your Shield Or On It". Meaning come home victorious, or come home on your shield, having fought honorably and never backing down 'til your last breath was gone.

All dressed up and ready to go!

My beautiful wife before the event

Jeff and I as we were heading up to the staging area to start. Jeff is also doing the Boise 70.3 Ironman with me.

Jeff and I with the tower behind us, ready to go.

Once it was over, this is what I looked like coming off the elevator.

A pic of the entire NFD team.

            The event itself was AMAZING! There were Firefighters from all over the country, Canada and I was told even Germany (although I never saw/heard them). I wish I could have gotten a pic of the lobby area of the Columbia Center. It was absolutely packed with guys and gear everywhere. Departments had their own little sections that they staked out early in the am and there was just a ton of people coming and going. Seattle FD had their Pipe's and Drum team there, and they would occasionally start playing the Bagpipes and drums and it just filled the entire lobby and was super cool. It was insane just how many people were there.

         Shawna and I got into town the night before, and even in the dark and through the rain, the tower looked menacing. I wondered what the hell did I get myself into? The day of the event, I walked down the street to the tower around 10am. By that time, the event was well under way with the first climbers hitting the stairs just after 9am. My climb time wasn't until 330pm, so I had some time to kill. I checked in, got my paperwork and number and checked in on the some of the guys. I then made my way back to the hotel and got a late breakfast, early lunch with Shawna down by Pike's market and just tried to relax. Shawna and I met up with Jeff and his family at the market before the event. When it was getting close to our start time, Jeff and I went back to the hotel to gather my gear and head to the tower. Once in the tower, the nerves started to kick in. I must have gone pee every 10-15 min from when I got there to when I had to line up. Not that anything was coming out, but I just had the nervous urge. It didn't help that by that time, they were running late, and Jeff and I wouldn't start until after 415pm. That just made my nerves worse and wore me down. By the time we were walking outside to the entrance of the stairwell, I was already tired.

       Jeff had done this event once before so he knew what to expect. But for me and my first time, I had not a clue. I remember hearing a story from another firefighter about not turning your bottle all the way on for the event. The thought being that when you're down to your last 1/4 tank, the low air alarm will use more air if the bottle is opened all the way (it either whistles or has a bell depending on the maker). I thought that would be a good idea, so I only turned my bottle on just a little bit. I also thought that I'd be able to do the climb with one 45min bottle. Both of those would come back to haunt me during the event.

   Problem #1: Not enough air. I did outpace myself on the start, and hit the stairs pretty hard. I thought that I was doing good when I was only 4 or 5 floors up and I started passing people. But the problem was that I couldn't get enough air. Having the bottle open as little as I did made breathing way harder. Every time I went to take a breath in, my mask would suck to my face as the air came rushing in. This not only got me more tired, quicker, it was also screwing with my head and throwing me off mentally. All I was doing was just sucking harder and harder and could never really catch my breath. Somewhere around floor 25 it donned on me that maybe, just maybe, I should be smarter and open my bottle more. Now my mask was no longer sucking into my face, but by that time I was exhausted. I continued to climb, although still not as fast as I had originally started. But I was chugging along, and around the half way mark I was at about a 16:30-17:00 min pace for completion. 

      Problem #2:   Right after the halfway point is the "pits", the one chance you have to swap out and get a fresh bottle if you need one. For those who don't know, the bottle rating for the time is based on someone sitting in a chair watching tv breathing air. So the 30 or 45 min bottles (which are the most common) do not actually last that long when you are working and breathing hard. On the fire grounds, you're lucky if you can get your 30min bottle to last 20-22 min. They usually only last about 15-18 min when you're working up a good sweat. Like I said, I didn't think that I would need another bottle. I knew that I'd probably be cutting it close, but one 45 min bottle should be plenty. So I didn't reserve a bottle with our team bottle changer. When I got to the entrance of the pits I just went right past and got ready to tackle the next set of stairs. At the last minute though, I decided to look at my gauge. Oh man, I was low, really low.  I had about a third of a tank left. Crap! I better go grab a new bottle real quick while I have the chance so I thought. Well, since I didn't reserve one, there wasn't one waiting for me. Ted, our bottle changer didn't bring any extra bottle or packs with him, just enough to cover the guys who said that they would want one. So I made my way through the pits, said Hi and then went right back to the stairs. Ted felt awful that he couldn't help me, but there were a couple other NFD guys behind me who were going to need those bottles, and Ted wouldn't have enough time to go back down stairs and grab another bottle for them had I gotten one of theirs.

      I took a min to catch my breath once I realized that I wasn't able to get another bottle before hitting the stairs again. I decided that I would just go as far as that bottle was going to let me, and then I'd just take my regulator off and keep on trucking. Which is exactly what I did. Around floor 60 is when I ran out of air and sucked the bottle dry. At that point, I took my regulator off my mask and kept on climbing, which probably wasn't the best idea either. Now I was building up some CO2 with rebreathing some of my exhalation, and I could no longer really see since I fogged up the inside of my mask. Still I kept on climbing.

      Every landing in between the floors were posters of people who had been affected by Leukemia or Lymphoma. Some were just ordinary people, some were Firefighters in their uniforms. Some were kids, and some were adults. It was awesome to see all the posters to remind people why it was we were there. For those who somehow didn't know anyone that has been affected it was a motivation to keep going. The higher and higher I climbed, the more that guys were ducking off to the sides at the top of the landings to catch their breaths. Each one I gave a slap on the helmet, or a pat on the shoulder to encourage them to keep going. One guy had taken his helmet and mask off and was taking a break from the climb, but everyone that past him he was encouraging them to continue on.

       I finally made it to the top, somewhere after the 21 or 22 min mark, a little slower than the sub 20 that I was hoping for. I was a little disappointed in the time, but more frustrated than anything else. The lack of air, and then no extra bottle really took it's toll. But I was also very happy. I was happy that I was able to finish, able to be a part of an awesome fundraising event. There still is no official dollar amount posted on what was raised, but the last time I checked my department was in the top 5, with raising $19,076. Boise fire was also in the top 5. To have 2 departments practically next door to each other be in the top 5 is HUGE. Myself, personally, I was the second highest fundraiser in the department at $2095. To EVERYONE who donated or had positive thoughts and prayers for all of us during the event, THANK YOU!!!! Your support meant so much to all of us, and to all of the people who will benefit from the money that was raised. It was an amazing experience, and one that I plan to do again.