Ironman Canada - 23 weeks out

	IMC: 23 weeks to go (Feb 16-22)	Challenge: 23 weeks to go (Mar 10-16)
Total training hours	9:12	15:21
Swim	3:05 / 6400m	2:55 / 5900m
Bike	1:05 (spin class)	7:45 (trainer + 60.5 km outside)
Run	3:02 / 28.9 km	2:21 / 25.2 km
Strength training		1:20
Yoga	2:00	1:00
SBR Total	7:12	13:01

So this week marked the first week of the taper. Two rest days on the schedule and you know what I did? I spun that into 3. Yes, I did so. Tuesday was track day and despite the fact that I loathe loooove track sessions, I skipped it. Did I need the extra day of rest or just want the extra day? We’ll never know. But I didn’t want to run at the track. And I didn’t want to do an easy run in the ‘hood either, despite the fact that it was a beautiful day. So I didn’t. The next day, feeling well rested and schmucky, I e-mailed Coach to ask if I could make up the track session. We had a little chat but the bottom line was no. Later he shared this photo on Facebook. Yup, I get it.

Wednesday night was Spin and if I’d had any lingering regrets about bailing on the track session, they quickly evaporated when Michelle treated us to a MAP workout. Yeah, had to stop drinking my water during the recovery spins because I was worried I was going to throw up on the hard efforts. Good times.

On my Friday morning swim, I had the good fortune to enjoy a lane to myself for the duration of my swim. Happy day. I focused on finishing my stroke, which I’d gotten chatter about from a couple of directions on the previous week’s Club swim. I think I did a good job of following through because by the end of the work day, my arms ached so badly, I could barely lift them. Swimming properly is hard work! And no, I wasn’t any faster as a result. Saturday morning’s Club swim was a bunch of hard effort stuff – and instructions to finish my stroke. Frack. My arms. My arms.

The complete and total absence of strength work… that’s a problem. I really need to set some intention there – but after I get back from Napa because jumping back into strength work is just not worth the injury risk so close to race day… maybe a little core work this week, but that’s it.

Comparing the two weeks, I got excited initially thinking I must be getting faster with my swim if 10 minutes of extra swim time translated to 500 extra metres in the pool… and then I got to the run line. [sigh]

This is how taper week one went:

Monday	Not a damn thing.
Tuesday	Yup, still nothing.
Wednesday	2300m swim before work PRM Spin Class
Thursday	Hatha Flow Yoga Class
Friday	2200m swim before work 8.5 km run after work
Saturday	1900m PRM swim 8.4 km run Hatha Flow Yoga Class
Sunday	12 km run

Ironman Canada - 24 weeks out

	IMC: 24 weeks to go (Feb 9-15)	Challenge: 24 weeks to go (Mar 3-9)
Total training hours	12:31	15:28
Swim	3:06 / 6350m	2:49 / 5650m
Bike	1:00 (15.4 km on the trainer)	4:33 (trainer + spin class + 24.9 km outside)
Run	6:25 / 61 km	4:20 / 54.59 km
Strength training		1:45
Yoga	2:00	2:00
SBR Total	10:31	11:43

Since Monday was Family Day, I put in a request that it NOT be a rest day. Who wants to spend an extra weekend day laying around doing nothing? Yeah… not me! Coach made a comment about risk vs rest given the heavy previous week, and the particularly full previous day (Run. Bike. Run. Yoga.) but compromised with an easy swim and a light yoga class. CCAC was doing a ladies-only swim in the morning so I went thinking it would be less crowded. Half the genders, half the swimmers? Yeah, no. It started off weird seeing that they had hung curtains over the lobby windows so men couldn’t even see in to the pool… OK… and wow, once in the pool… a whole lot of diversity going on. I’ve never swum with people fully clothed in pants and long-sleeved shirts. Uh huh. Weird.

I came home, tired, and fighting a killer carb craving. The previous day, I’d been about 1500 calories under what I should have been taking in for my activity level which might have played in to what happened next… After 7 weeks or so of saintly eating, I succumbed to that killer carb craving and ate my body weight in tortilla chips and fresh salsa. Then promptly fell asleep on the couch. Who wants to spend an extra weekend day laying around doing nothing? Me, apparently.

Tuesday I had a great swim – I had 16 x 100 to do for my main set and decided to target 2:30.  I managed that for almost half, then slowed to 2:35 for a bit, a couple of 2:40, then I don’t even know – I was tired and the math got hard! The swim-high was tempered by a ridiculously boring zone 1 (zone 1!) 1 hour spin on the bike. To add insult to injury, I was watching what may be the most boring episode of the Breaking Bad series (let’s hope) where the entire hour was about killing a fly.

Wednesday I reluctantly dragged my ass to the track. Oh, how I hate track-work. It’s just so… hard. I had 6 x 600m hard assigned and I ran them at a faster clip than I was running the week before, running the first one at a 4:17/km pace. Yeah, I was pretty happy with that. However true to form, I ran the rest slower and inconsistent (4:23, 4:31, 4:27, 4:33, 4:35). BUT… I did them. Which [spoiler alert] is more than I will be able to say when I post the next week’s training!

Sunday was my last long run before Napa and far, far shorter than I usually take my long run to pre-marathon. For my previous 4 open marathons, my long run has peaked at 35-37 km. This week I peaked at 26 km. My overall mileage this time is much higher. In the 5 weeks up to and including Sunday, I’ve run 296 km. For my first marathon (Seattle Rock’n’Roll), my 5-week pre-taper mileage was just 117 km! For my last marathon (Whidbey Island), it was 216. I’m a little uneasy about having such a short long run but I trust my coach. In order to manage the inner gremlins, I’ve been doing some reading about accumulated fatigue in endurance training, as well as the notion that there’s not much fitness to be gained on the really long runs, and that the impacts to recovery and subsequent workouts hinder improvements in running performance.  I know I will need to keep returning to these sources over the week leading up to my race so that when I’m tiring on race day after that 26 km mark, I can counter those gremlins that may whisper I’m not prepared to run longer.

This is how the week played out:

Monday	1900m swim Hatha Yoga Class
Tuesday	2600m swim before work 1 hr zone 1 spin on the trainer after work
Wednesday	10 km run – speed work at the track after work
Thursday	SFA – and for once I was grateful for it!
Friday	8.4 km run at lunch
Saturday	1850m PRM swim 11.6 km run
Sunday	26 km run in the morning 5 km recovery shuffle late afternoon Gentle Hatha Yoga Class post-run

Ironman Canada - 25 weeks out

	IMC: 25 weeks to go (Feb 2-Feb 8)	Challenge: 25 weeks to go (Feb 24-Mar 2)
Total training hours	14:18	12:02
Swim	2:32 / 5550m	4:42 / 9500m
Bike	3:21 (spin class + 16.8 km on the trainer + 30.3 km outside!)	1:45 (trainer time + spin class)
Run	7:05 / 67.7 km	3:34 / 33.2 km
Strength training	0:20	1:00
Yoga	1:00	1:00
SBR Total	12:58	10:02

So I continued to run my ass off… figuratively… not literally. Not that my ass needs shrinking but there are other parts that do and none of this training and saintly eating is doing a damn thing… Oh, oh… we’re heading back to Crazytown!

Monday was another of those frustrating “nothing-at-all” rest days. Look how they show up in my plan, with a smiley-face as if that’s supposed to make it fine. It’s not that I was opposed to getting a day off from SBR, the day before on my long run I’d been thinking I could use one, but I could really have used a yoga class…anyhoo, bygones.

Some thoughts on the week:

• Tuesday was an uneventful swim before work, then a trip to the track for some speed work after work. I hate speed work.  More specifically, I hate track sessions. Tempo runs taunt me from the training plan all week leading up to them but I can usually tackle them and feel successful.  Track work, not so much. I think I’m not built for speed. I certainly don’t know how to suffer well. Tuesday’s session called for 6 x 800m hard and I went out hoping to be fast and consistent with each effort. The only consistency was in running each one slower: my 800s were run in 3:43, 3:49, 3:53, 3:54, 3:58, and 3:57. Gah!  Driving home from the track, I tried to calculate how many more times I’ll get sent to the track this year… I’m guessing twice more before Napa…then maybe nothing until after tri-season. Too good to be true? Probably.
• Wednesday morning, I started the day with an early morning zone 1 shuffle. I love running first thing in the morning. I love it more when it’s summer and it’s light out but I get very few summer early morning runs on the plan – that’s swim time. Wednesday, I was out the door before 5, head lamp flashing around my waist, reflective clothing on and… can you guess at which point in my run a douchebag in a red mini-van nearly ran me over on a cross-walk?
  
  To the people living by PME that I may have woken with a blood-curdling scream at 5 am… Sorry-not-sorry. I am starting to feel like there is an inverse relationship between the efforts one goes to in order to be visible, and the likelihood that one will have a close call… And crosswalks. Really. Motorists don’t care. Today, I had someone honk angrily at me just as I left the cross-walk to get back on the sidewalk. I can only assume that she was angry she had to wait while I exercised my right of way… and that I wasn’t RUNNING fast enough for her. Sheesh. McDonalds getting cold on the seat there lady?
• Saturday morning I had my biggest swim since Challenge. Tough workout. But a good workout. And nice to get a big swim in and reassure myself that I can. I wasn’t even that disappointed in my time (1:22 for 3050m). One thing about that morning though: about a dozen Cross-fitters showed up at the pool, most with complimentary passes (they were ahead of me in line). When they hit the pool deck, they got in the shallow end, then got out, milled around a bit, and then went and spoke to one of the lifeguards. Said lifeguard then proceeded to shrink one of the existing lanes to open up a lane just for these guys. But wait, it gets better. Lengths swimming is a challenge …most pools have only a few windows where you get any real pool real estate for swimming lengths, it’s usually at noon or first thing in the morning. The rest of the time, you get a wee bit’o’space and the rest of the “swimming” pool is for people who want to play in the water. So when these guys showed up at 7 am on Saturday, when ALL of the competition pool is reserved for lengths swimming, and then were gifted a lane, well… because they weren’t swimming lengths. No, they all lined up on the side and then jumped in, climbed out, jumped in, climbed out, jumped in, climbed out. You get the idea. I tried to stay zen about the resulting water turbulence by telling myself it was good practice for open water on race day. They occasionally did lengths but it was clear they were here for a bit of cross-fit cross-training that included the in & outs, and a considerable amount of time spent as a group treading water. And while I’m glad I didn’t have to share a swim lane with these folks, I’ve got to say, I just don’t think this was OK. I might feel differently if they got their very own lane for swimming but that’s not what happened. And even then, if I showed up with a bunch of my tri friends during lengths swimming and asked if they could shrink a lane to give my little gang exclusive use of a lane… well, come on, we know that would never happen. So… shame on you Maple Ridge Leisure Centre. And will I rant every week about a local pool? God I hope not.
• Fast forward to today… yes, fast forward a whole day… and what a day it was! Sunny, dry and so warm for winter. I snapped this pic before heading out for my run this morning, it was about 7:30 and 10 degrees.
  
  I had a fabulous run and followed it with a text to my coach asking if I could go out for an easy spin in the afternoon if the weather held. I got the green light for 75 minutes! A fantastic “winter” ride… 30 km easy, and 13 degrees? More, please! Post-spin, I had just enough time to change and head out for my second run of the day (a little 5K shuffle) before another quick change and a one-hour Gentle Hatha class. The perfect way to cap a day of run-bike-run.
  

Here is a summary of the week:

Monday	SFA
Tuesday	2500m swim before work 11km run – speed work at the track after work
Wednesday	5 km early morning zone 1 run Strength work at home – mostly core, some squats & lunges PRM Spin Class
Thursday	13 km run after work
Friday	“Bench press for cyclists” x 18 - trainer workout after work
Saturday	3050m swim 10 km run
Sunday	22 km run in the morning 30 km ride mid-afternoon 5 km run post-ride Gentle Hatha Yoga Class

Note to self for next week: strength! More strength!

Race Report: Abbotsford Hypothermic Half

So, a couple of weeks ago, I took another shot at a sub-2 hr half marathon. And you don't have to read the whole post to know that I didn't make it (if you're reading this within a few months of my posting it anyway)... you just have to glance over to my PBs listed on the right to see that this was a swing and a miss. This run was my 13th half marathon and my 5th attempt to get under 2 hours. Oh, I've taken as long as 3:01:52 to complete a half (Feb 2010, Historic Half) but as I continued to shed the weight, my times started dropping as well. Then in 2013, I ran the First Half in what was a crazy fast time for me (2:07) and started thinking maybe... maybe... I could get under 2 hrs one day.

1st attempt: Victoria Half, Oct 2013, 2:04:31 (brief thoughts on that here)
2nd attempt: Boundary Bay Half, Nov 2013, 2:04:05
3rd attempt: First Half, Feb 2014, 2:05:20
4th attempt: MEC Race 4, June 2014, 2:00:33 (I know!!)

Which brings us to attempt #5, and lucky half-mary #13. I don't want to brag, but pre-race self-doubt and negative thinking are a couple of my super powers. So it was a pretty curious thing for me, the night before, to be feeling pretty darn confident. I was stockpiling evidence to boost my confidence:

• I ran the MEC Race course long (21.3 km), and Strava marked my time at the 21.1 km mark as 1:59:36 Post-race, that was adding insult to injury but now... now, it was evidence that I had it in me to go under 2 hrs for this distance.
• I took my most recent race, (New Year's Day Generation Run 5K, 25:11) and entered it into the Running Room's race equivalency calculators. The Reigel prediction was 1:55:52. Performance Factor 1:57:21.
• At 132, I was toeing the start line lighter than I had been at any previous race.

I've got this. Race morning, I was nervous. I kept reminding myself of the points above - and maintaining that mantra: I've got this. Except I didn't.

We got there early... volunteers hadn't even organized themselves yet. I made a nervous trip to the washroom, did my warm up run, made another trip to the washroom, sucked back a gel, and got ready to start... but we were delayed. Race morning was warm and dry - and turned into a beautiful day - but the rains in the days beforehand had left the course flooded in places, prompting a sudden change in route due to an impassable section. After a slight delay, and a little confusion among organizers about which way they were routing us, we were off... beginning by funneling us over a narrow foot bridge. Go first? Don't mind if I do!

Now, leading up to the race, this event had not seemed that well organized. The course map didn't even make it on to the website until a few days beforehand. And when it did make an appearance, it was a little tough to decipher. I knew it was a couple of loops... and that we ran through 3 parks. Well, the route was lovely: very scenic, with very little neighbourhood or road running, and it had a variety of terrain... some flats, a couple of decent climbs... paved trail, gravel trail.. and one dicey section where you came down a short steep hill straight into a slippery mucky section, followed by a flooded section of trail that required tip-toeing around on the grass and through the muck back to the trail. Twice. "There's your 25 seconds..." a fellow competitor remarked to me after the race.

And while pre-race, there seemed to be a lack of organization, the race itself was excellent. The course marking was good and the volunteers controlling traffic were fantastic. I started out on pace, following the pacing plan I'd discussed a couple of days prior with my coach, but then somewhere in the race, I did the math, decided I'd lost it... and then I did.

When we debriefed post-race, with benefit of heart-rate and pace data, it looked like I eased up on the effort level between kms 9 and 15. Failure to execute. Inability to suffer. Whatever it was. I let that sub-2 slip through my fingers. I had decided I was going to end up running somewhere between 2:02 and 2:04 and when I crossed the finish line at 2:00:24, I was so disappointed in myself, that I teared up a bit and took a moment. 9 second PB and 25 seconds too slow to meet my goal. Too close.

Despite my disappointment, I have to say, this was a lovely race... I enjoyed the course and we were treated to amazing weather. Look at my fellow racers in the background... in tank tops and short sleeves. Hypothermic indeed! It was sunny and 13-15 degrees.

The race organization though... if I could take a moment... (of course I can, it's my blog). No course map until the last minute (and never an elevation profile), no indication whether/where there would be aid stations. I'd called the store after picking up my race package, noticing there was no timing chip, and was told that although it was timed, there were no chips. I was also told there would be age-group awards in 5-year groupings, and that the awards would be at the race, after the race, not at the brunch location. With this in mind, even though I wasn't making my time goal, I had pushed in the later part of the race to pick off women ahead of me. Because of the way the course looped, I knew there were at least 7 women ahead of me... but perhaps not many more. After the race, we were told the awards would be at the brunch so we headed over there... waited for more than hour (and a good 30 minutes past when the awards were supposed to be)... "oh we don't know, we're still waiting for everyone to finish" was the response... So we left.

Although the race website says results will be posted following the event, none have been. I sent an e-mail inquiring the week after the race and was told that they would be posted. But we are now two weeks post-race and there's still nothing there. I'm a little surprised at the disorganization and messaging given this is a Running Room event in multiple cities.

But... now that I've got that off my chest, I have to say, this was a nice little race. Your race entry gets you some gloves and a neck warmer/toque thingie which makes a nice change for those of us with drawers full of race shirts, and also gets you a buffet brunch of pancakes, eggs, sausages, bacon... yeah, so not particularly vegan friendly but the Hub ate his fill while I drank black coffee. The course was lovely, the volunteers were fantastic. If you're getting tired of running the same race courses around the Lower Mainland, give this one a try... I'd definitely give it a repeat.

As for my next attempt at sub-2... gah! I don't know, but I'm looking for a pacer who won't let me slow down!