Training days

Today was a good day. Warm, sunny an dry. Lots of people out enjoying it, running at the Rose Bowl, swimming at the pool, and putting around Santa Monica getting in my way :)

The day started with a late wake up and breakfast, then some swimming. I swung by an endurance store in Santa Monica where Catra Corbett was sharing her stories about running. There was a man there who is running this nonprofit that takes veterans up the worlds 7 tallest peaks, including Everest. So the guy had been to the top of Everest. This was a coincidince because I had just finished reading "Into Thin Air" the previous night. Is life trying to tell me I should climb Everest?

Have been struggling recently with a running injury and soar throat that is lasting unusually long. I'm all angry about it because I can't run enough to train properly for the Sedona marathon, which is next week. Nobody ever said ironman training would be easy. After brunch with Catra, I wanted to see if I could do a long ride without any food, since this German guy named Jon who I run with sometimes boasted of riding 92 miles without food. After 75 miles today along PCH, I only have 17 to go, granted his may have had much more climbing, but I did battle fierce winds and rolling hills. I wondered how I'd feel after over five hours of no food and almost nonstop riding. The answer, pretty hungry, but I did feel pretty good and could have kept going, but it was about 6:00 pm when I finished, and dark, me riding without a light.

Tomorrow want to do a long trail run in the hills above JPL, at least 13 miles. Please right foot don't throw a fit at me.

Training for my first full Ironman

Ironman Coeur d'Alene is 22 weeks out (June 24, 2012) and I am 2 weeks through specific training. I made a new pair of running sandals and I like them, but dry winter weather combined with my huarache running and callouses that have formed on my feet have led to a split callous on the base of one of my toes, so I am running with toe sox in vibram fivefingers again, and thinking about super glueing this split skin back together. I ran the LA 13.1 half marathon yesterday at Venice beach. Woke up feeling very overtrained, which I was, having increased my training volume by more than 20% in the preceding week, so I almost climbed back into bed before heading out but something made me walk out that door. That's good because I don't run 13 miles often enough, and I actually felt pretty good - just 1:51 of steady pace at about 171 heart rate and a sprint finish the last half mile. It was the least fatigued I ever felt in a half marathon, so it's good to know my endurance is increasing.

I'm still working on my running form. A critique by my crossfit coach brought to my attention that even though I thought I was running with good form, my right foot has been pronating more than the left and I've not been lifting my knees. With that in mind I had a couple runs that felt really good in a way I hadn't felt before, with high knees and fast turnover, but I could tell from that half marathon that I still have work to do, since my right leg felt noticeably overworked compared to my left. That's a strange thing since I am sure it used to be my left leg that was getting overworked, as recently as two months ago.

Today I was custom fitted to my bike at Velo Studio in Burbank. They put my bike on a stationary trainer and attached motion capture markers to my joints and used cameras and a computer program to analyze my mechanics. We learned that I am right-side dominant, meaning I pedal more efficiently on my right, my bike seat was too low and my handlebars too high. A raise of the seat, bringing it forward a bit, and dropping and rotating the handlebars down, and some instruction on balanced pedaling with three pedaling styles: clawing, ankling and flat shuffling, and I rode home feeling about 15% more efficient on the bike. It turns out I have been riding with a cadence of about 60-65 which is too low, and I've been using too big a gear most of the time, so my focus for ironman is to use a lower gear and attain an average cadence of about 80.

My post ironman vacation was approved at work so I am going to start booking things for my summer trip to Europe. Going to ride ahead of the Tour de France again this year in the Pyrenees as part of an 8 person group of strong riders, including Tim Mitchell who I rode with last year and is a Kona Ironman finisher, then explore the Netherlands and get over to England and London for the opening of the 2012 summer olympics.

And from the literary realm, here is what has grabbed my attention recently.
"I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within than a secure future." - Chris McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp, from Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild