Need a Couple Days

Hi All,

Thanks for checking my blog!  Its been a crazy couple of days, returning home late on Sunday and getting home late tonight.  I will post a detailed blog of my training weekend in Canada and the scary details of the Ultraman course,(think wind tunnel) on Wednesday.

See you soon!

Beth

The Voice of Unreason

Training for ultra endurance events can sometimes mess with your reasoning. For example…..I woke up Saturday morning with plans to ride 100 miles. However, after 12 hours of sleep, I woke up exhausted, a bit achy and starving, all signs of not being recovered. I called Rob who was on his way home from Eastern Washington, explained to him how I felt and that it probably would not be a good idea to ride 100 miles, so I would run for 3 hours instead. Now you have to understand, this totally made sense in my mind. So Rob, who is very good in dealing with me, and I do mean very good, treaded ever so lightly and said, “Honey, if you are feeling that bad, bad enough to not ride, do you think it’s a good idea to run for 3 hours?” I saw his reasoning and agreed with him. But then, I had another idea and unfortunately, he was out of cell range so I couldn’t fly it by him….I decided that I could swim 3 miles in Lake Washington instead, after all, I could just float my legs, right? Wrong! It was so rough that I had to kick the entire way and constantly lift my body to deal with the chop. If I thought I was tired that morning, it was nothing compared to that night. It was fun though, my big sis kayaked alongside me and I got a taste of what August 1st will be like.

Swim: It was an awesome week of swimming! I had 2 lake swims and 2 swims in an outdoor pool. My first lake swim was for only an hour, but my second was a solid 3 miles. My pool swims couldn’t have been better, watching the sun rise with every breath, I can’t think of a better way to start the day. If we ever move back to CA or HI, the ability to swim outside all year long will for sure be one of the deciding factors.

Bike: I rode outside all week, totaling 3 rides. For my long ride today, I really sought out a flat to rolling route and it was beautiful! We rode across the Hood Canal bridge towards Squim. The water under the bridge was glass and the views amazing. There were a few climbs but they were long and gradual, not the out-of-the-saddle stuff we have been doing. I was pretty tired at the start but then started to feel pretty good after about 5 hours.

Run: I put off my long run to tomorrow since I bumped my long ride to Sunday. It’s good that I will run on slightly rested legs but the downside is that I will be running until 9:00pm tomorrow night after a packed day at work. It’s the Ultraman/Corporate life balance. Last weeks run happened on Monday as well, but it was a rough one, 85-90 degrees, for 3 hours on very tired legs. It took a lot of mental strength to get through it, and required me to go to that place inside that has gotten me to so many ironman finishes. Positive thinking and believing can be very powerful.

Gear Pick of the Week.
Its been a couple of weeks since I ve done a gear pick ….I ordered a new pair of running shoes last week and just like I always have, I smelled the box as I opened it, after all these years, I still love “new shoe smell”. Most of you know that I work for Brooks, but you also know me well enough to know that I am a very straight shooter. I love the Adrenaline GTS. In my opinion, it’s the best shoe out there. It has the smoothest transition, actually fits a woman’s foot and for those of us who run the distance, it has just enough support to help when your feet begin to break down, but not too much to make your knees ache- it’s the perfect balance.

This Wednesday we will be heading to Canada to train on the course. I can’t wait to bike a couple of those passes and run on the trails. It will give me a good piece of mind for my last 7 weeks of training.

Well that's all for now, hope you all have a fantastic week!

Thanks so much for reading my blog, your support means so much to me.

Beth

9 Weeks to Go!!

The first part of the week was light training in Germany but I made up for that as soon as I got home. Since May was, “Bike to Work Month”, I bike commuted weds-thurs and since I was on a team who was focused on beating another team at work (by biking the most miles), I occasionally got lost on the way home which caused me to really pile on the miles (157 in 3 days).

I have really cut down on the sugar to the point that I don’t eat anything that has sugar added unless it’s fruit or vegetable based. This really helps when you’re taxing yourself, it’s a lot better than turning to coffee or tea several times throughout the day. Now for the training:

Swim: my swimming was very limited due to my travel schedule. I did however get in the lake. It was refreshing to swim a mile and have it feel like a warm up but I did feel some shoulder fatigue the next day which I know is from the wetsuit. I may decide to do Ultraman in a sleeveless wetsuit to help keep my shoulders from getting too fatigued.

Bike: I topped out at 257 miles this week, not including my hotel bike journeys through the countryside in Germany. Today’s ride was 100 hilly miles with our friend Ben who is pretty amazing. Rob and I began the ride on our little titanium speed machines where we have taken every ounce into account, down to our carbon water bottle cages. Ben had a pump and bike lock attached to his bike, along with 4 water bottle cages, but let me tell you, none of that slowed him down. Rob and I agreed after the ride that it’s a good thing he didn’t have a little speed machine because we probably would not have been able to keep up!

My focus now while I ride is to stay in the aero position as much as possible, especially on the hills. The stronger I get in this position, the better I will race, the toughest part is getting my neck used to it but that will come with a few 100 more miles.

Run: It was a great week for running. I had a few 1 hour + runs and tomorrow I will do my 3:00 run. I took tomorrow off from work so I could put off my big distance stuff until I felt more recovered from my trip. Traveling overseas is tricky business when you’re in full training mode, your immune system is already taxed from the training and then you throw a long flight and no sleep into the mix. I surely don’t want a repeat of what happened after my last overseas trip (URI, Sinus infection, the flu, hospital etc…)! So, I have given myself 3 days since traveling before doing any big distances.

This next week will be another high volume week and then it’s off to Canada to train on the course! Now that it’s officially June, I bet many of you have a race in the next couple weeks; I wish you the best of luck and don’t forget to have fun out there!

Thanks so much for reading!!

Beth

Hi from Germany!

Guten Tag!
Despite getting only about 3 ½ hours of sleep each night, it’s been a fun week of training in Germany. No matter what time I go to bed, I will always wake up in 3 ½-4 hours, could be all the Bratwurst I eat when I’m here but there’s no way I’m giving that up.

My runs have been on mostly dirt paths around a nice lake. I have actually gotten in 2-90 minute runs here and because the weather is so nice, you just want to run forever. It’s nice to focus on running for a week but I can’t wait for Tuesday when I get back onto my bike. Biking this week has been a combination of rollers, road, hotel stationary bike and this funky commuter bike that I rented from the hotel. Biking is the main form of transportation here so they have huge paths throughout and on the outskirts of town. I actually got in a 2 ½ hour ride on the hotel bike today, you forget how hard those bikes are to ride, as they are not nice and light with tons of gears.

Before I left I hit it hard in the pool and by next weekend I will be swimming in the lake. I plan to do a 3- 5 mile swim each weekend until Ultraman.

The one good thing about traveling is that I can always do core work in my room, so my core gets even stronger with each trip. I also come home incredibly focused as I can’t afford to miss or have junk workouts.

Next week will be about organizing my things for Ultraman because I don’t want to find out the week before the race that I’m out of my special salts, tape, etc…

Well, that’s all I really have for now, next week I will be back to my normal training so I’m sure I will have some big distances to report!

Take care and thanks a ton for reading!!

Beth

2 1/2 Months and Counting!!!

Wow, I'm down to 2 1/2 months!!

Even though it was a recovery week, I still managed to find a few adventures. We had our friend John from upstate NY staying with us and as luck would have it, he is currently training for an ironman. As John’s arrival became upon us, Rob was almost giddy with the idea of someone taking over some of the ultraman training load.

We also spent some time in the mountains for work and of course I brought my bike. I tryed to stick to my “recovery workouts” and for the most part I did. I slipped once, but who wouldn’t ride up a mountain pass if given the chance?

Anyway, it was a pretty light week.

Swim: swam 3 times. No big distances, just enough yardage to keep my current level of fitness.

Bike: I road 4 times, all on the road. For the most part they were under 2 hour rides with the exception of 1 (or 2), that may have been around 75 miles that I just had to do given my location.

Run: I ran 3 times, and totally stuck to my workout schedule. It felt good to only run an hour today as apposed to my usual 2:45-3:00 hour Sunday runs.

Strength: I had 2 days of strength training and an additional 2 days of core.

Next week I am off to Germany again. The first 3 days of the week will be very high volume, then it’s down to running and a hotel stationary bike for Thurs-Tues. I will get some great running in over there and I’ll hit it hard on the bike and in the water when I get home.

Well, I can officially say it’s the middle of May that means only 2 months left of Ultraman training. If I think about it too much I get nervous so my focus right now is just staying healthy and getting my workouts in. These past 4 ½ months have been quite the adventure, I look forward to what the next 2 have in store.

Until next week, Guten Tag! And as always, thanks for reading!

Beth

Happy Mothers Day!

It's been another great week of training! To make things even better, we had a sunny and warm weekend (something I was sure would never happen again in the great NW). Next week is recovery so this week had higher volume. It was also a long, high volume week at work so I had quite the balancing act. Every minute was planned for and until now, I didn’t have much down time. I am so thankful to have such a supportive husband as it’s hard to keep up in weeks like this and that extra little push that he gives me really goes a long way.
For those of you reading this who have done ironman’s and/or other ultra endurance events, you will really understand what I’m about to write….Training for events like these are not only tough physically, they also take their toll on you mentally. You have so many wheels turning at once that it’s easy to get anxious- did I meet that deadline at work? Am I going to get out of this meeting in enough time to get my run in? How am I possibly going to get the house clean with a 6 hour workout on Saturday and a 5 hour workout on Sunday? My legs felt tired riding 90 miles, how am I going to ride 170? The list goes on and on and on… but if you’re a veteran like me, you know that in the end it will all work out and in the big picture, those anxious moments are tiny. I did have a couple of those moments this past week, it seemed as though there was nothing I could do at work to actually feel caught up, and that mental exhaustion made me too tired to run which eventually led to anxiety. I worked through it though and I am now one week closer to the ultraman starting line. Anxiety is all a part of the experience, learning how to get through it will help you leaps and bounds.

Now for the training:

Swim: I swam 3 X’s this week and hit 11,000 yards. Still focusing on longer distance sets with some shorter pick ups to keep my speed up.

Bike: Yesterdays bike ride was the best, 90 miles with over 4,000 ft of climbing. It felt good to get a 90 miler in, that’s what my distance will be on day 1, finishing it feeling strong has given me a good piece of mind. I bikes 2 other times, once on the rollers and once on the road.

Run: I ran 3 times this week. I’m feeling stronger with each week, today’s 2:50 run on the trails was fun. My legs were a bit tired in the beginning but started to feel better after about an hour.

Strength Training: I did my usual Tues and Thurs strength training and 2 additional days of core. I’m down to one set of reps which helps my arms to feel fresher in the water.

I will be out of town this next week but I’ll have my bike and access to a lap pool. It’s a recovery week so I’ll try to squeeze in a massage as well.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!!

Beth

Opportunity

“The pessimist see’s difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist see’s opportunity in every difficulty”
- Winston Churchill

I thought about that quote on Saturday when I had the “opportunity” to ride my rollers for 5 hours because of the great NW rain. Riding the rollers for that long gave me the opportunity to work on my cadence, and my will power. Who am I kidding?? It actually s**((##ed! But it’s always nice to know that I can pull that off when I need to.

Coach D really pumped up the volume this week and I loved it!

It was a fantastic week of training, despite a little 2 day work trip to LA, where incidentally I had 4 star sightings: Paris Hilton, and 3 people from the upcoming Beverly Hills 90210 show. It was actually more fun watching the paparazzi though, those guys are crazy!

Swim: I swam 4 X’s this week and totaled 13,600 yards. I have been opening up with a 1,000 warm-up and then doing sets that equal 1,000 yards. Its nice to be covering more distance in a week than I will on race day, gives me a piece o’ mind.

Bike: Besides my 5 hours on the rollers, BTW- if you are on the rollers and a neighbor waves at you through your living room window- DON’T break focus and wave. I only rolled off 3 times in 5 hours, not too bad I guess. My other 2 rides were on the road. I can now bike to work which is a lot of hill climbing and good for about 30 miles RT.

Run: I had a blast running this week. 2 runs were in Beverly Hills and 1 was here at home on the trails. It was fun to run through Beverly Hills before any of the stores opened and I was able to confirm the location of my favorite store for later on that day (Sprinkles Cupcakes). My other run in BH was through the neighborhoods, it was cool to check out the mansions, they are beautiful but I have to admit, it just doesn’t beat Kingston, WA. My trail run today was 2:45, we ran easy which was nice.

Strength Training: I only managed to get 1 day in at the gym so I did extra core work on another day. That made 5 days of core.

The first day of May sent a few chills down my spine. For some reason, Ultraman seemed comfortably far off when it was April. This will probably be like my first Ironman, I imagine I will be a bit anxious until I take that first stroke in the lake on 8/1.

I took a sneak peek at next weeks workouts and it looks like another high volume week, looking forward to it!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thanks so much for reading, your support means so much to me.

See you next week,
Beth