Running interlude: 2 weeks to train for a tri

While I recognize this is a bicycle blog, I am going to interlude for an entry which I will periodically update on my n00b running training.  If you read my last post, I talked about how in the name of camping, beer and good company I signed up to compete in a triathlon with 2 weeks notice and without having gone running in over 9 months.   I hope it may be of public interest to document my 10K in 2 weeks training routine.

The theme of this training regime is what I like to call "keeping it real".  As anyone who has ever played a sport, musical instrument, or tried to learn a subject such as math knows, the real key is consistency.  It's not optimal to go hard for a week and then lose interest, it's best to try to practice frequently.  "Keeping it real" to me means trying a training plan that I will actually stick with.  

Run 1: Tuesday June 19.  2.3 mile easy jog.  (Read last post for details)

Run 2: Friday June 22.  My legs felt used for the past couple of days after Tuesday, so I was not in a hurry to run again.  However, I am going out of town this weekend so will have a couple recovery days, which is the perfect opportunity to break my running legs in and be a little sore.  I woke up super early to get a run in before hitting the road to go see Phish.  I found the very very very worst part of running early in the morning was seeing every single cyclist out there.  Talk about bike envy.  It's even worse when you're doing something awful like running.   

Here was my run:

12 minutes easy jog warm up

6x 4 minutes run/1 minute walk

5 minutes easy jog cool down

5 minutes walk

I made it all the way to Highland Park, a distance of about 2.5 miles, so I got about 5 miles in with 24 minutes of solid heart rate up running.  I'm bringing my yoga mat with me on the road for some major stretching.

Run 3: Monday June 25.  Same 2.3 mile easy jog.  Consistency was the key here: "better to go on a short run than no run".  I had to barter that with myself; I didn't want to go running so badly this morning that I had to compromise a realistically short jog in.  Beat my time from last Tuesday by almost a minute!

Run 4: Friday June 29.  65 minute jog/run/walk.  When my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I had to channel my "inner Kamden".   The best part is, "inner Kamden" told me it was supposed to be really hot today and it was run now or never.  Then, when I got back, the real Kamden said about my run, "You beat the heat!".  That made me really happy.
On this run, I almost got hit by a cyclist running a red light when I was on the crosswalk with the green light.

Run5: Monday July 2. Same 2.3 mile jog.  This time I mixed it up a little: sprinted up Friendship avenue starting at Negley, then walked a minute.  Then ran for 4 minutes, jogged easy for 1, then pushed myself home.  Beat last Monday's time by 41 seconds.

That description makes it sound like I'm a badass who hops out of bed to run with a plan.  The truth is, getting out of bed sucked real bad and I feel I'd be globally more productive sleeping.  The mantra of "Consistency, consistency!" is what fueled me this time once again.  Hopefully I'll make time Thursday evening for one final longish run before this race, otherwise it'll be an easy jog/walk Friday morning (race is Saturday!).

Racing at the oval progress report: Tonight I got humbled

Tonight at the track, my teammates Jackie and Cynthia raced in their first race!!  Way to go ladies!!!!

Jackie raced her first race tonight!!  

And for me, tonight at the track, I was humbled.  I've been getting better every week, but still have little strategy.  A few weeks ago, I started to think I knew what was going on, and then two weeks ago realized I was at level 2 I have no idea what is going on.  Last week seemed magical, as in, I knew what was going on enough to hang.  Steph told me to focus on holding someone's wheel the whole race, which was a great learning strategy.  I hung!
However, it seemed I was pulling people up the little hill all the time and then at the very end I was so tired I couldn't sprint.  After the race, Michael told me that I don't have to do that, and that I needed to work on drafting up the hill.

Rewind a second for some back story:  last night, at the pool, Tony was telling me about he, Kamden, Laura and some other people were going camping in Buffalo the weekend after the 4th of July, competing in a Saturday triathlon and coming back Sunday or Monday.  Camping for the weekend, competition and beer?!  All my trash talking competing in tris went out the window as I thought of having pleasantly sore legs relaxing in a beach chair next to my tent with some awesome people throwing back cold beers and eating a crap load of food.  Wait - triathlons can be fun! Well, the first thing I knew, at 7 o'clock this morning I'm out jogging.  I haven't gone running since September when I was in Bonne and combating jet lag.  So, I figured an easy 2.3 miles would be a great kick off for triathlon in 2 weeks crash training.

Well, tonight while I was racing at the track, my legs were so weak.  I was miserable!   When it started, I kept thinking, "Oh, this must be a godsend.  Since I'm so tired, I'm not going to do stuff like sprint up the hill every single lap, and work on strategy to get pulled and get lots of rest".  And honestly, it really was.  I need to remember next time to ride the wave more, because I really felt the difference up the hill.  Be patient, feather your breaks when that person in front slows, and you'll actually get rest going up.

For all my grumbling, I did win some chafe cream in a
prime tonight.  

But I just kept getting more miserable and weak.  With something like 7-10 laps left, I got dropped by a breakaway pack.  I was so tired.  Suzanne was screaming for me at the top, and I was so weak and miserable and staring at this big gap in front of me.   I started thinking, "Maybe I do need a coach!  A coach would have told me, 'Don't run the morning of a bike race when you haven't been running in 9 months!'".  I really hate those learning your lesson the hard way moments.

My godsend was that the breakaway started slowing down.  And I was still riding strong enough to catch that.  It took a few miserable laps, but I caught up and rested happy on someone's wheel.  This saved my race here.  By the time we had two laps left, I was mostly recovered at the back of the lead pack, where I rode chilling up until halfway through the last lap.  Then these boys in front of me started trying to use some strategy, and I hopped on their wheels, getting a free ride behind whatever they were doing, which pulled me up from being at the very back of the pack.  Then, at the final hill, from somewhere I remembered that I had just coughed up $35 to join the Allegheny Cycling Association , and I better ride hard if I want some of them points!  I put everything I had in, pressing really hard on the handlebars so my wheel was wobbling (that's bad!  Thanks Carl!), and sprinted.  I have no idea how it turned out, but I passed a couple people in that sprint, and I was exhausted, so that's good.  Really, that's what I think the key to sprinting is: putting your all in for a short period of time so you are really tired.  If you're not tired, you didn't sprint.  (I do recognize there is the element of efficient technique in this formula too, and I will listen to any and all advice on the subject.)

My race finishers of teammates were absolutely dazzling and totally badass, and I was really glad Coach Suzanne was there to talk to at the end of the race.  Suzanne told me: next week, work on staying in the top 5 the whole race.  My inner coach told me: don't go running in the morning on race day.  

Race Report: Fort Cherry Classic, June 3, 2012

Before I begin my race report, I'd like to take a minute and tell you all about this women's bike racing skills clinic coming up on Saturday at the Bud Harris oval, sponsored by Velo Femme and Steel City Endurance.  If any ladies are inspired to learn the first thing about bike racing, this is your opportunity.  I believe the spandex dude count will be pretty low at this thing, and all you need is any bike, a helmet and some enthusiasm.

http://steelcityendurance.com/events/2012-womens-cycling-clinic/

Po Boy: race finisher.

The Fort Classic is only a 45 minute drive away, making this race local compared to the other ABRA road races, so that was exciting in itself.  Further, the route is an 8 mile relatively flat loop that repeats four times for cat 4 women (32 mile race) on pretty well paved roads.  In more detail, the loop starts out with the closest thing to a climb in the entire race, followed by the closest thing to a fast descent, and is then pretty flat and straight with the exception of a sharp right turn onto a small grade uphill, which turns into roughly a 2-3 mile straightaway ending at the finish line.

My goal going into this race was to hang, meaning I wanted to stay with the pack the entire time and experience the opportunity to watch what happens at the finish line.  Velo Femme teammate Kate Wagner was up for it too, so we drank coffee, pinned each other and did donuts around the Fort Cherry high school parking lot together before the race. It is so great having a teammate at these things.

Before the race, Greg Flood gave us coaching tips with proved to be invaluable to me throughout the race.  He told me two things: first, to stay with Greta as she is a strong rider, and secondly, that I was "too strong to hang".  The second tip helped me mentally: just like in Morgantown I kept hearing Suzanne telling me I was strong and powerful, I kept thinking "yeah, I'm strong", which pulled me through when stuff got hard.

End of loop 1

Due to a shortage of volunteers, we were racing with the cat 4/5 men.  We took off with the men too in Greene County, and from my skimpy but accumulating racing experience, I am beginning to work out a theory that when we start with the men, the race starts out faster.   Keeping tip #1 in my mind, I followed Greta.  As stated above, the race started out on the closest thing to a climb, and we got dropped from the dude pack (containing our very nice race winner from the University of Minnesota), so within the first 4 miles a girl paceline started up consisting of me, Greta, the Dynamic Physical therapy girls, a couple girls in red and yellow and this tiny fierce girl.  It took most of the first loop for us to work out a rhythm, and then, on the second loop, near the top of the hill, I crashed.

Yup, you read that right.  I crashed.  It was pretty textbook: I was behind one of the Dynamic girls going up the hill and we were keeping a steady pace.  She slowed down, I saw it, and quickly thought, "Move your wheel to the side!".  So I moved my wheel to the side, but my inexperienced ass forgot right from left and moved my wheel to the wrong side, right into her wheel.  They tell you: when you are behind someone, and this happens, it's you who crashes not the person in front, so don't be an ass.  Well, I was an ass and I went down.  The pack went [insert race car doppler effect sound effect here], and I got up and back on my bike.  Immediately, Tip #1 came to my head, and I started pedaling with all my might.  Slowly, rational thought started to work its way into my head: "If I don't catch up, I'm going to miss an entire race worth of racing experience.  I don't need to come out in front, but I do need to try to stay with the pack to experience the racing dynamics." Well, it took almost the entire loop, but I did it.  My computer was telling me I was holding 20-23 mph for most of this time.  At some point right when the girls got back into my line of vision, I saw it drop to 19 mph and heard tip #2, "I'm too strong to just hang!".  This was then processed into spin! spin! spin! and it was back up to 21 mph.  The low grade uphill at that right turn really helped me, I took that corner into the hill significantly faster than the pack and when they all slowed down on the hill, I was back on Greta's wheel panting like I pushed myself really hard, which I don't usually do.  (And need to learn how to do!  I had not gotten tired in a bike race yet this summer until this point.)  Once the Dynamic girls figured out I was back, they tried to speed up the pace line which was a great strategy except I was mentally in on the riding tired thing, and I was riding strong.

I actually recovered very quickly from this; by the time it was my rotation in the front of the line again, I was feeling fine.  I think I annoyed people on the hill starting loop 3, and I have no idea what I was doing.  I took the hill faster than the pack, so was at the top first, and so led the descent and did all this on the right without getting over to let someone else lead.  I think that's what they were yelling at me about near the bottom of the hill.  I really must have pissed some of these girls off.  I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm the ass who crashes on someone's wheel, and they just couldn't get rid of me.

When we got into loop 4, I set myself up to watch everyone like a hawk.  Again, I took the hill the fastest, slowed down at the top, looked back and wondered, "Is this the strategy?  We take the hill easy together to have more energy later?  Did I just blow it by going up the hill that fast?".  I slowed down to almost a stop waiting for the pack, so when they caught up I was in the front again.  After a little bit I flapped my arms and went over because my turn to lead on this rotation was over.  And... everyone just followed me over.  No one wanted to lead.  I flapped my arms some more, slowed down some more, but no one took initiative.  I finally sat straight up on my bike, took out my water bottle, and started drinking water and barely peddling. This strategy worked great; and finally a line pulled next to me on the right.

The pace line settled in comfortably on the straightaway, and as we were approaching that sharp right, I started thinking, "Okay, if I have tons of energy and I peddled a whole loop alone, these girls are waiting for something.  This right turn is the PERFECT place to make an attack; it's really easy to turn really fast into that hill, but hard if you're following the line near the back, and once you slow down on the uphill, it's really really hard to accelerate".  The more I thought about it, the more perfect sense it made.  So I was near the back at this point, and kind of cut to the side going into the turn so I could get the acceleration, and went into the turn really really fast to the left of the paceline.  No one attacked, and I was looking goofy next to Greta (who was leading then) having zipped up that turn past the entire pack.  I just went, "Oh, I was so sure someone was going to attack right there."  She sort of panted out, "You should have.", and after the race was over I really realized how right she was.  I just got back over into the paceline, but I knew there was only a couple miles left and I did not want to be at the back when everyone started sprinting.

Here we are, coming into the final sprint

It didn't happen until we got to the 200k sign.  I was pointing out some cool looking bird flying in the sky before anyone started sprinting.  As soon as we got to the sign, a few girls took off, and I was so busy thinking, "Finally!" that it didn't occur to me to take off too.  I only had it in my head that I didn't want to be the last in the pack, which I wasn't.  I was fourth out of six in the pack.

I met up with Kate in the parking lot, and we drank some beers in the sunshine, cheered on the podium people, and I want to say we talked about math, but that's a lie.

So I clearly have A LOT to work on. Last Thursday at skills at the oval, we worked on acceleration.  I started quantifying which gears I started at and how fast I'd end up, so I was playing with that a lot.  The lesson I learned is that I can go faster at a lower gear.  After the race, that was the first thing Greg Flood said to me (he was following in the vehicle, so he got front row of our race) was that I needed to work on shifting.  He also said I needed to keep a straight line.  So now I have some things to work on - except I think I need a skills lesson in shifting.  My current shifting knowledge is developed from over 3 years of bicycle commuting and playing around with the high cadence/low gear and low cadence/high gear relationships.  But that's why I'm in Velo Femme: to learn.  Overall, I feel awesome about that race, and I can't wait to work on lessons learned going into my next race.

Post race/pre shower beer and banana.  The grease marks
on my legs were the closest things to injury from
my crash.

Bike in a limo

Riding in a limo with the Schwinn.

On Saturday May 22, my friend Stacey had her bacherlorette party in Pittsburgh's South Side.  Sarah D. decided that instead of driving, we should take a $50 limo to and from Stacey's home in Regent Square.  I actually went on a century ride on my cyclocross bike that day, so did not make the pick up time.  Instead, I rode the Schwinn Traveler to the South Side and met everything there.

While we were out on the town, Stacey's Lotus friends made it clear that there was a special surprise waiting in Regent Square for afterwards, and it wasn't worth missing.  However, the entire group also figured that my bike would probably fit inside the limo.  They were right.  The limo driver even helped take the front wheel off and get it inside the door.  And the Schwinn Traveler promptly had the awesome, lifetime experience of RIDING IN A LIMO!

And for anyone interested in the surprise, it was a game a "Pin the macho on the man".  And the macho was David Bowie.

Riding a bike down a volcano

In the months preceeding the trip to Maui, my friend Chris and I had been excited about doing a bike ride trip down a volcano.  There are several companies that run these trips, and the general idea is that they put you in a van, bus you to the top of Mount Haleakala, and from there you ride a bike down the volcano from a high elevation without having to pedal.

My bike at an elevation of 6,400 feet, still in the clouds

In the weeks before the trip, I spent a considerable amount of time researching which downhill tour we should go on.  Due to the dangerous nature of this tour, in 2007 the National Park suspended use of commercial downhill tours from the summit at 10,000 feet elevation.  To adapt, commercial tours now typically take you to the crater top in a van, then bus you down to 6,400 feet elevation right outside the national park.  If you really want to ride down from 10,000 feet, you do have options.  You can rent bikes and a bike rack, get someone to volunteer to drive, and do your own downhill tour at your own risk from the summit.  You can also ride all the way up the volcano and turn back around and go down (Now, I think that one sounds really fun, but not on a cruiser).

Check your head.

Chris and I determined that we had no interest in going to the summit in a van with a bunch of other people and that that could be done in a vehicle by ourselves, and so we were interested only in the riding a bike down a big hill part.  Further, most of these tours start very early in the morning in order to view the sunrise; we had no delusions of getting up early, we were out to find the tour that started the latest.  Also, I started to notice that a lot of these tours don't actually end up at the beach, and some end towns before the beach.  To top it off, we didn't want to get picked up and dropped off at a hotel by a tour van; I've ridden enough airport shuttles to know that this sucks.

After considerable research, calling companies with misinformation on their websites, and a great deal of help from Tom Barefoot, I finally found Maui Easy Riders.  This ride had the whole package: meet at the beach in Paia at 1:30 PM, ride to 6,500 feet elevation, and end back at the beach in Paia.

We got to wear these awesome helmets.

We left Ka'anapali at around 10:30, in Chris' rental jeep that we took the roof off, and had a scenic ride through the northern portion of West Maui, and got to Paia around 12:30.  We spent an hour walking around and getting burgers.  (Doesn't this already sound better than an 8 AM leave for the tour time?).  At 1:30 we found the Billy's (Maui Easy Riders is run by two dudes named Billy and Billy) and got in the van.  The van was nice, and had air conditioning vents on every row.  They drove us up taking the route we would be taking down, telling us about the plants, history of the area, famous people whose houses we passed, etc.   When we got to the 6,500 foot elevation point, it was in the 60's and we were in the clouds.  (At the beach it was a hot sunny day).

We got bikes, which were single speed cruisers with hand brakes, and each was named after a Phish song.  I want to say I rode Guyute, but I know that's a lie and an artifact of waiting too long to write this.  When I looked at all the bikes' names, Guyute was the song I got stuck in my head.  It turned out one of the Billy's is a huge Phish fan, so that gave us something to talk about.  Here's Phish fan in Hawaii trivia I learned: you gotta go to San Fran or something to see them, which is what Billy is doing this summer.

We also each got these awesome full head helmets to wear, and were offered windbreakers.  One advantage of the afternoon tour was that it was much warmer up at the high elevation than in the morning, but my sleeves were perfect for the ride.

We got on our bikes, one of the Billy's leading with a walky talky and Phish Billy driving the van behind us.  There were hand signals about what to do to let cars go by, and to know when we were going to stop.  The first stop was at about 6,400 foot elevation, where we were still in the clouds but were low enough to see all of Maui.  I could really see how in thousands of years it's going to be two islands.

The ride downhill was amazing.  Maui is the best smelling place, and just taking deep breaths and looking around at everything was an incredible experience.  We were going at a real slow pace, so there was plenty of time to look and ride at the same time.  At some point, this couple on their honeymoon was set to lead us behind Billy, because they were getting dropped, and that sort of changed the quality of the descent.  The new husband was the worst cyclist I've ridden with in just about ever.  I have no idea how I kept coasting into him on my brakes when he was peddling almost the entire time.  And his front wheel was wobbling all over the place.  I started giving him about 20 feet because it just wasn't fun riding any closer behind him.

Church we stopped at in Paia town

One stop we made near the bottom was at a church just at the Paia town outskirts sign.  There was a statue for Saint Damien there, which excited Chris a little.  He was very interested in the island of Molokai where they put the lepers back in the day.

Father Damien

The ride went all the way through the beach town of Paia and ended at the beach:

We loaded up the bikes into the van and said good bye to the Billy's:

The ride was really fun, and I recommend taking the Billys' bike tour to y'all if you head out to Maui and want to ride a bike down the volcano on a tour.  If you're heading out to Maui to ride a nice bike up the volcano and then back down a little, you should invite me to come along.  Except now my new dream is to become a professional surfer, so I may go surfing instead...