Rebuilding

OK - so maybe I stole the title from Jim Ristow, but its sort of what I'm doing.  Reflecting back on the year - I had a lot of fun, still kept in shape and accomplished what I set out to do:  take a mental break from the discipline of Ironman training.  So I would say on that, mission accomplished.  After this break I am planning on some pretty serious IM training - I will be the youngest in my AG next year and that's the best time to try to get to Kona (as you get to the older AG's).  So, this off season I have taken a look at my body and am doing some serious work to get it ready for next year.
What have I done?
1.  Addressed my bunion issues - -this is a work in progress, but the podiatrist is pretty positive that I can take care of it since it was not too bad.  This has caused me to have to buy new shoes, wear braces on my toes and learn how to run again (in minimalist, zero drop shoes).  This rebuilding is going well.  I am up to 5 miles in the new shoes and everything is going well.  The real test on bunion pain wont come for quite a few months -- not until I start doing 100 mile bike rides.
2.  Give myself over to my Adapt trainer Scott - -Right now Scott controls my workout schedule as we work on my biomechanical issues:  my right hip and as we dig into things, also my left shoulder.  These workouts are really more physical therapy than strength training at this point but I have definitely noticed a difference in the running (my hamstrings are starting to do some of the work!). My hip still goes clunk - -but the clunk is getting less and less.  We have just discovered some weak spots in my shoulders - so very much a work in progress.
3.  Examine my body composition.  Its a hilly race at elevation next year--don't need to say much more.  Currently at 20% BF and would like to get down to 17-18% (This is pretty lean for a 50 yr old woman - -you youngsters and guys don't laugh)  I have a ton of difficulty dropping weight when I am training hard.  So despite it being the holiday season I am trying to take care of this now.  I am now down 7 lbs from where I was at on Thanksgiving day - -probably about 5 more to go.  I am guessing that I will have a bit of a pause for Christmas week but I want to be there by the end of January.  Then I will need everybody's support to keep me there all the way to September.  I will not have been this light since freshman year of high school!
4.  This isn't really on the rebuilding theme - but I have decided to be self-coached this year after many years of having a coach--I guess only time will tell if this is a good move or a mistake.  I learned a lot from my old coach and well - -I'm currently paying for 2 kids in college - so no coach will certainly make things easier.  Over this off-season, I have been laying out the structure of my program all the way up to Tahoe- and I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with so far.

Mentally, I am itching to get on with the real training - -and that is a good sign.  January 7th is the day to start - so I just have a couple of weeks of unstructured exercise left and then the work begins.

Learning to Run Again

This fall I am on an interesting journey to take care of all those niggling parts of my body that aren't exactly performing like they should.  #1 in this area is to spend some time with my trainer at Adapt to work on my right hip.  Just for a brief history, I have popped my right hip out of its socket twice in my life.  Being out was painful, putting it back in was painful and rehabbing from it being out was also painful.  I have been living with a less than 100% right hip for the past several years.  The guys at Adapt think that they can get it back to close to 100%.  Given the results I have seen from several of my friends, I believe them.  So, for off-season I have given myself over to Scott and am doing whatever he says.  Luckily, unlike Chris, he has said I can do some light running and biking during the therapy.

#2 niggling body part if my left foot - specifically the bunion on my left foot.  I have lived with it for years - -it mostly pops its head up at the end of a long bike - after being in the cycling shoe for 5 or 6 hrs if gets really stiff and sore.  If anyone has watched me start the run of an ironman, most of the weird run style is from the fact that the big toe on my left foot won't bend for the first mile or so.  Through the Adapt exercises I have been doing I have also discovered that the range of motion reduction isn't just at the end of a long bike, it's there all the time.  Scott recommended that I go see the podiatrist and get it taken care of before it gets worse.
A month ago I went to see Dr Ray McClanahan at NW Foot and Ankle.  He specialized in sports podiatry.  His assessment was that he can fix my bunion (without surgery) as long as I am willing to make a few changes.
So first change:  I have braces for my toes!  The purpose is to gradually move my big toe out over time.  He said it will take close to a year to do it completely, but I will see some improvement quickly.








Second change -- well, throw out all my shoes and get new ones.  Oh, yeah, forget about buying anything that is remotely stylish.  Basically, I need shoes that will allow my toes to straighten out and have no heel or toe spring (toe spring is the little upward curve that pretty much all shoes have right at the toe).  I don't think that I will be able to be 100% on this one.  I found a pair of shoes that I can wear to work on most days -- but they definitely won't cut it with a dress.  I also have a new pair of running shoes: Altra Intuitions.  They are zero drop shoes with a big toe box.  So basically, I am to learn barefoot running with a bit more protection/cushioning than barefoot or Vibram 5 fingers will give you.   I was already running in Newtons -- but they actually have several mm or drop and they also have a pretty big toe spring.  He said that I could bend my Newtons to get rid of the toe spring and then I could at least wear them until they wore out.  So like transitioning into Newtons from other running shoes, I have the same slow, gradual ramp up to running in the Altra's to do.  The recommendation was to just walk around in them, and my other new shoes for 2 weeks so that my feet would get a bit stronger and my achilles would start to stretch out before attempting any run in them.  Yesterday I went for my first run - -a little less than 2 miles.  They are definitely light and you can definitely feel that your calves are working harder than even with the Newtons.  I am going to take this slowly.  As for the toe -- it is starting to bend a bit further than it used to, but still has a ways to go.

XTerra Worlds: Race Report

I’m going to start this report the day before the race.  We had a pretty nice day and headed down to the pre-race briefing early to get some pictures and listen to the pro panel discussion they were having.  We hadn’t gotten everything ready for race day, figuring that we would do those final preparations when we got back home.  The panel discussion was good and for a change the pre-race banquet was also good.  Don and I usually avoid these events because we often get there and there is almost nothing that either of us can eat.  But we figured that it was the world championchips and we wanted to take part.  As a precautionary measure we had “dinner” for lunch—that way if we were left with not much to eat we would still be fine for race day.  Well they had a large variety of salads, rice, a couple of pastas along with meat and fish – both of us were able to get a decent meal from it.

We stayed and listened to all the speeches and stories and then decided it was time to head out---as many others had already done.  Just as we were leaving Dave K, the race director, picked up the microphone and said – wait everyone, I have an important announcement to make.  It seemed a little odd to wait until half the people had left to make an important announcement.  Well – they had just learned that there was an earthquake off the coast of BC that had generated tsunami waves and they were headed our way.  At that point they had only issued a Watch, and from the reports, Dave thought the race would be fine—but if the ocean was still too dangerous they would turn the race into a duathlon by adding a 4k run before the bike.

We headed home to do our final race preps.  We were greeted in the parking lot by one of the condo staff, handing our instructions of what to do—basically, get to higher ground if the sirens go off calling for an evacuation—we would not have to go to far—the local supermarket parking lot was high enough above sea-level—only about a quarter mile away – he was about half way through explaining this to us when the sirens went off calling for the evacuation.   So much for final race prep and a good nights sleep.  We went back to the condo briefly and assembled a few things:  change of clothes, water, food, pillows etc. – it sounded like some people were actually packing all of their stuff, but we did not go that far. 

We headed up to the supermarket and just hung out—there were people all over the place, sitting on lawn chairs, lying on the grass etc.  I guess where we were the evacuation zone is pretty narrow at the land slopes upward pretty close to the ocean, so things were not too crowded.  We talked to some people that were staying in Lahaina—and essentially the whole town was evacuated and it took them more than 45 minutes to drive the half mile up the hill to safety.

Then the waiting began—we read for a while, listened to the reports on the radio and decided that we better try to get some sleep so we kicked back in the car and did the best we could.  The tsunami hit - -but luckily it was not very big—at least in our area I didn’t see any damage the next day but we did hear of some flatter areas of the island where there was some damage close to shore.  Finally at 1:30 am they gave us the all clear to head back home.  We got to bed as fast as we could in an attempt to have a few solid hours of sleep.  Luckily XTerra starts at a civilized hour  (9) and we didn’t have to get up until 6.

Race morning dawned and we were not certain what kind of race we would be doing.  We certainly were busier that I normally like to be since we had not been able to get all our race prep done the night before.  We seemingly got it all together and were out the door just after 7.  We were staying about 1 mile from the race so just put everything on our backs and rode our bikes to the race—removing the parking hassle.  We just arrived at the Ritz (race was on the grounds of the Ritz Carlton resort) and Don proclaims a very loud :OH SH**  He left his running shoes back at the condo—I head on in to the race and he dashed back to get them.  I got my transition set up and then joined the line to get body marked.  At Xterra everybody gets the fancy ink numbers rather than just a marker so it takes a little longer.  I was getting close to the front of the line when Don showed up and joined me—so he did manage to get home and back in good time.

After we got marked we did our final preps and headed down to the beach.  They had said on Sat—that despite the tsunami the ocean was supposed to be pretty calm for race day.  Well they were wrong.  The surfers were out at the north end of the beach we were racing from—and they weren’t beginner waves. 

The race was going off in 3 waves:  pros, all the men and then all the women.  There was supposed to be 2 minutes between waves—but they promised that they would vary that by a bit so that they did not send any of us off into a big wave—it’s a beach start.

The XTerra swim is M shaped – we go into the water towards the north end of the beach, swim out and around a buoy about 350 yds out, back into the beach—run along the beach about 200 ft and then back into the water to swim out and around a second buoy about the same distance out—and finally back into the beach and then up to transition.  What that means is that we got to go into the surf and out of the surf twice.

I haven’t raced much in the ocean, and certainly don’t have any experience with race starts into this type of conditions so I placed myself conservatively and figured I would just swim around everyone once we got past the breaking waves.  The women did manage to get a start without the huge waves—I ran in and was able to dive under the wave that was coming at me.  Everybody ended up pretty scattered going through the surf so I didn’t actually find is very crowded out there.  Don did not experience the same since the mens wave was much bigger.  Once through the surf I started trying to sight the turn buoy so that I was sort of swimming in the right direction—it took a few looks as you could only see it when you were at the top of a swell.  I had been planning on using the end of the island of Molokai as a larger mark to sight on—but you couldn’t even see that if you were in a trough.  The water was quite cloudy—the rough water had all the sand stirred up.  I was expecting it to clear as we swam further out—it had the other days we had swam—but today it stayed cloudy the entire way.  Usually once you get past the shore break you are just into ocean swells and it doesn’t affect your swimming much—today was not the case—it was rough the whole way.  I felt like I was having a pretty good swim.  I rounded the first turn buoy and started heading for shore.  As I got close I started sighting behind me to try to see the size of the waves I would be going in on—well, I didn’t time it great and got caught in a big wave—the only thing you can do is cover your head and neck and wait for the washing machine to spit you back out.  I’m sure It was entertaining for those watching on the beach.  I extracted myself from the ocean and ran up onto the beach and around the flags—getting up and having to run in the middle of the swim really sucks.  Anyhow—time for round 2 with the surf.  I managed to time my second entry into the surf pretty good and had no issues.  The water seemed rougher this time—if that could be possible.  It really was quite fun.  The rough water  spread everyone out and I still had not crowding issues even though by now I was well into the men’s wave.  On the way back in there seemed to be more current and I felt like we were all swimming a big arc to get to the exit point on the shore.  Luckily I did not create entertainment on this time out of the ocean—timed the wave correctly.  I did get pulled back in a bit as I stood up—but that only slowed me for a few seconds.  Swim time 30:36 – or 4^th in my AG so pretty happy with the effort

The run to transition was pretty long – about 400m, all up hill (this will become a trend).  I practiced my Jim Ristow transition skills  I was just not very efficient.  5 min later (including the run from the water) I was out on the bike.

So the bike is 18.9 miles long and they manage to fit 3000 ft of climbing into in – Which means that you are either going up or going down for the entire ride.  The seemed to have a mission for us to get a great view right away so by mile 6 we were up about 1500 ft - -None of it super technical.  There were a couple of steep loose sections the pretty much everybody got off and walked.  There were also some long steep sections that if you were fit enough were definitely rideable – problem is most of us regular humans ran out of strength/endurance about halfway up these sections and were reduced to walking here as well.  The nex mile we got a reprieve and descended several hundred feet – which felt really good as that first climb really took a lot out of you.  Of course after descending that mile we turned around and when right back up.  I must admit the views from the course out over the ocean were beautiful.  A little afte mile 8 we topped out and then got to the fun part – 5 miles of pretty much solid downhill – there were some wide open sections (26 mph on a mtn bike feels really really fast), some technical sections and a couple of short ups that made you pedal a bit.  By the end of the descent we were pretty much back down to sea level – and it would have been nice for them to keep us there but true to their mission of killing us, the last 5 miles was up and down—no killer 5 mile climbs like at the beginning but just going up 300-400 ft and then back down – after the start of the ride this was pretty hard on the legs- they were ready to not climb any more.  In this section they also had a habit of bringing us screaming down and then putting a loose >90 degree turn at the bottom to send us back up the hill – which of course equates to not being able to carry any speed into the next uphill.  There were definitely lots of people in the bushes at those corners.  For anybody that followed us online, you could see from the times that Don and I were pretty close together – well we were.  I spent the majority of the bike ride watching his rear end about 2-4 riders ahead of me.  He took a bit out of me on the descents and ended up hitting transition about a minute before me (but remember he had a 2 min head start on me). 

I did a much better job of T2 and was soon out on the “run” course.  Keeping with the theme the first almost 3 miles of the race were up.  There was a bit of a break somewhere in the middle of the climb for us to weave our way through some trees on a flat to slightly down section.  At almost the top of the climb there was a section of about a quarter mile that was so steep it was even hard to walk it.  I will thank the race organizers for making about ½ of the run under tree cover—that really made it bearable from a heat perspective.  My race strategy on the run was to power hike the uphill sections and run everything else –I lost a lot of run training this year and really didn’t have the run fitness to run the big hills.  At somewhere around mile 1 I caught up to Don – I was power hiking a bit faster than he was.  He conceded me the race as I passed him.  Once I hit the top at mile 3 it was run time.  What I did discover is that I need to practice my downhill running skills more – I got passed by a few people that I had passed on the way up – just because I couldn’t relax and let it roll down the hill.  The run course isn’t too bad – there are a bunch of trees that you need to duck under or climb over but aside from those obvious obstacles the footing is actually pretty good.  They save one last short climb out of a pretty ravine at about the mile 5 mark and then it’s a nice gradual downhill to the beach.  Then, just for fun, they make us run the length of the beach (about 400m) in the deep sand.  Looking at my HR file its obvious when I hit the beach – my HR just spikes up to about 180 and stays there.  From the end of the beach it’s about another 100m uphill to the finish line.  Finish time 4:20:09

Overall I was very happy with my race given my fitness level and injury issues from this year.  I learned a lot and will know better how to train for this race in the future.  It was definitely a blast and I can highly recommend it to everyone.  I think in the end the XTerra training is going to help with my IM training – I am definitely much stronger because of it and hope to carry some of that strength forward to next year.

Pre-race: XTerra Worlds

We have been having a wonderful relaxing week here in Maui -- at least once we got our luggage and we got my bike repaired.  We have done some sight-seeing -- but nothing too strenuous.  Since this is our first time to Maui we hit the main tourist things:  Iao State Park and the Road to Hana--including O'heo Gultch.  To keep our time in a car down I think we will skip the drive to the top of the volcano this time.
Registration for the race opened Wednesday -- there was quite a big line as everyone wanted to get registered early -- you need your race number to get out on the bike course since it is all on private property.  We wanted to pre-ride as early as possible so that our legs were not tired for race day and also give us plenty of time if we wanted to go back out and practice any technical sections.
After we got registered we got ready to ride.
I doubt that any words I will use will do this course justice -- it is definitely not that technical -- I did not have to get off once for a technical bit.  Hills, on the other hand, reduced me to walking quite a few times.  From a physical perspective this course is brutal.  They fit 3000 ft of climbing into 18 miles.  I figured out how that compares:  Ride up and down Rocky point 3 times and you have your 3000ft in 18 miles -- only thing is we are also doing it in the dirt on mountain bikes and the hills are much steeper.  Right from the second you leave T1 you are heading up and it doesn't change much--except for how steep it is for the first 5 miles.  There are several longer steep sections that I just plain ran out of strength to turn the cranks in my tiniest gear.  Once you get to the top you are rewarded with some beautiful views of the ocean and neighboring islands.  You get a short reprieve of downhill for about a mile, just to turn around and climb back up a really steep jeep road that sucks all the energy out of your legs.  When you hit mile 8 you are at the top and finally get the reward of a super fun swoopy 5 miles of descending most of the way back down to the ocean.  Then you get the cruel joke -- on the course map it looks like you have a little climb and then a relatively flat 5 miles back to T2 -- well they lied--what actually happens over the last 5 miles is that you climb a couple hundred feet, head back down -- repeat way to many times until you legs feel like jello.  For fun they add a cyclocross like section where you do a really steep ride up onto the top of a dam, across the top, super steep descent, a couple hundred yards of single track through the trees to this loose rocky run up--kind of like Barton park only steeper, minus the rain.  It would have been nice if they gave us a nice long gentle downhill at the end so that our legs could recover for the run -- but of course they didn't.

Thursday we did a practice swim.  I love swimming in the ocean - and the beach we swim from is beautiful.  It is a beach start so we practiced running into and out of the surf (we get out and do a short beach run halfway through the swim - so we have to go in and out of the surf twice).  When we swam it was pretty calm - -and hopefully will stay so for race day.  Rumors are that sometimes there are some pretty strong currents - but I didn't notice anything particularly strong when we were out there.
Today I took off for my pre-run of the course -- it was actually more of a jog/hike--just to see what they had in store for us.  I think after the ride I was ready for anything--and came back thinking that is wasn't too bad.  The run course is of course also hilly -- the first 2.5 miles are straight up.  I know that I will end up doing a bunch of walking - particularly at the top where it gets really steep.

This is the view from almost the top of the run--we probably go up another 150-200 ft from here but there were no good views.  2.5-3 is rolling and somewhere in here you hit the highest elevation.  Mile 3-4 is a wonderful swooping downhill with pretty good footing and not to many obstacles to maneuver.  After that you drop into a ravine that is really pretty but a lot more technical -- and definitely has a climb to get back out of it.  After that is is downhill all the way to the beach - some good views a few technical spots - but a fun section.  At the very end you pop out on the north end of the beach.  Problem is the finish line is out past the south end of the beach - -they dont have it marked yet but we all know what is coming -- the course will be through the deep loose sand of the beach - -not down at the water or up on firmer ground--so about 300 calf screaming yards later we come off the beach and then only have another 200-300 yds UPHILL to the finish line.
And of course all of this is being executed in sauna like conditions.   We do this for fun right???
It is definitely going to be a challenging course and I hope my body is ready to hurt on Sunday because the only way to go easy on this course is to stop.

XTerra Las Vegas Race Report

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while--life continues to be jam packed and some things have to give.

Well--for me, race season has officially started.  First race for the year:  XTerra West Championships in Las Vegas.  I really could have picked something a little easier to start with--but its definitely high on the fun factor.
We are using this as a little 4 day mini vacation--it seemed like it would be nice to get a few days of sun and warmth--sometimes those plans don't work out--its actually been colder here so far than it is in Portland--though its supposed to get better for Sun and Monday.
I flew down Thursday night, Don drove to save the money on the bike transport, and picked me up at the airport.  Our hotel was right at the race site---remind me that its worth it to stay right at the race--makes race morning so much easier.  Friday we checked in and pre-rode the bike course.  It's changed a bit from when we did this race 2 years ago--they took out a couple of dangerous hills--but don't worry--they did not make the course any easier.
Race morning we get up to temperatures in the upper 40's--with the high for the day forecast at 55.  It was also raining-in the desert!.  I  open the sliding glass doors of out room to look out at transition to hear the cheerful announcer telling us that the water temperature is 57.  At this point I decided that I hadn't quite packed all the right clothing.  I figured out how to deal with it.
At about 7:30 we headed down to set up our transition area and pick up our timing chips and get body marked.  This is the one area of the race that they could improve on a bit--they didn't have enough body markers so you had to stand in line for longer than was desirable given the weather.  Once we were body marked we decided that being warm before jumping into the frigid water was more important than doing a huge warm-up so we grabbed all out swim stuff and headed back up to our room until it was time for the start.  We stayed in the warmth for as long as possible and then headed down to the start--we only had to be outside for about 5 minutes before the first wave went off.  We were in the 3rd wave--so we only had 6 minutes to convince ourselves to get into the water.  Jumping off the dock into the lake was quite a shock!  Given that we did not do a swim warm-up I knew that I needed to start slowly and use the first 400m as my warm-up--so when the cannon went off, I just started slowly so that my breathing did not seize (which is what it does if I go fast without a good warm-up in the water).  Once I got going the water actually wasn't too bad (of course I couldn't feel my feet).  I gradually increased my effort over the course of the swim--but not up to what I would consider a true Oly-distance pace.  Came out of the water in 26:25--fine considering how conservative I was swimming.
T1 took longer than I normally like to take--but then I wanted to be warm enough and took the time to put on a long sleeved jersey, socks, gloves etc.  XTerra T1 definitely has a bit more to take care of so should probably do a little practicing for the next race.
I headed out on the bike--the first part is a long easy climb up a paved road to the entrance of the off-road sections (which is 2 loops) and was good for getting the blood flowing to the legs before the relentless climbing started.  The beginning of the off-road loop is really hard--all you do is climb--and its pretty steep.  Once you feel like your legs are going to fall off you get a really short break that takes you into a climb that is even steeper--I didn't make it up this one (neither did most of the normal humans) and had to walk part of it.  I could write a whole bunch about steep climbs followed by loose sketch descents--but it will just all blurr--you get the idea--climb until you think your legs are going to fall off, try to get your breath back, roll down the other side and make sure you feel comfortable with you rear wheel sliding all over the place--that pretty much sums up the bike course except for one stretch of flat twisty single track around the lake near the end of the lap--it was a welcome break.  I was happy with my bike--though didn't quite break the 2hr mark as I had hoped (2:02)  Don passed me somewhere about halfway around the first lap and I didn't expect to see him again until the finish line--but unfortunately I did--about 3/4 way he had a flat tire and I passed him back.
I had a good T2--being pretty efficient and not taking too much time.
Time for the run--or whatever it was going to turn out to be.  I have been nursing a foot injury for the last couple of months--stress fracture--and haven't returned to running yet.  This race is actually before I am supposed to run again--I did not want to do a dnf so my strategy was to jog easily and if it started to hurt to walk the rest.  So--this was very different than what racing an XTerra is supposed to feel like.  I set an easy pace (more like IM marathon pace) and just hoped that the foot would feel good through the whole run.  Of course, since this is XTerra, the run course is anything but flat--we took off back out into the desert--and ran up some of those same hills we biked (or tried) up.  I knew the downhills would put the most stress on the foot so I took those really easy--I kept my competitive nature in check when women in my AG started passing me (I had gotten off the bike in 3rd place).  I think that I did pretty well on keeping the foot happy--I only started to feel anything on it about 1/2 mile from the end of the run--which is about when Don passed me--so he was having a good run.
I crossed the finish line in 3:36:46 - good for 6th place--again happy with that considering the foot (I I had run the same time I did when we did it 2 years ago I would have maintained the 3rd place).
This race was really about learning about XTerra since this is what we are going to focus on this year.  So what did I learn?
1.  I am not a mountain biker yet.  On the road I am typically one of the faster women cyclists--this is not true at all for mountain biking.  We have only gotten outside on our mtn bikes 3 or 4 times this year so I think there is a lot of room for improvement as we get more riding in.
2.  Mtn biking uses your energy very different than road tri's---there is no trying to keep your power constant--when you need to push, you need to push and it is likely a max effort.  Need to get more of this type of training included in the plan--the ability to recover quickly after a max effort is key.
3.  Because of the high efforts you probably need to take in a few more calories than you do on an Oly tri--I think I did pretty good on this - 3 gels on the bike, packet of Chomps on the run
4.  My body is currently used to IM level of intensity--I need to get it used to the high efforts of shorter distance racing--especially after a max effort--you don't get to recover if you want to go fast
5.  Once the foot is better I need to spend a lot of quality time running big steep hills
I can definitely recommend XTerra racing to anyone who wants to have a really fun race--it may hurt, but getting out in the dirt is worth it.

Life Exploded

So its been quite a while since I have been able to write.  Things seem to have exploded since I had that great weekend down in Huntington Beach.  What exactly exploded?  Well, work for one.  Things were getting pretty busy and then they sprang a major audit on us.  I can't wait until they leave at the end of this week.  Gabby also unexpectedly has come home from school for a while--she is doing some research and working through some issues and then is planning on returning to school in the fall - this has been taking up a fair amount of my non-working time.  I am also working very hard at getting back to being an athlete and a regular routine.  I'm going it without a coach this year--so there is also that time spent planning your workout program that I haven't had to deal with for several years.  Let's see--I am also coaching a friend who is just starting to bike--she has signed up for Cycle Oregon later this year  (and talked Don and I into doing it too!).   I think that maybe somewhere I might have a spare 5 minutes--anybody have a great idea what I should fill it with?

My diet has leveled out--my body seems to be adapted to being vegan as I am not noticing changes like I did the first few weeks.  My weight has stabilized at about 145 (which for me is 16-17% bodyfat)--so I guess if I want to get any lighter I will have to do it the hard way--I was hoping that the few pounds that I lost easily at the beginning would continue for a bit more.  I am finding that I feel satisfied now on less food.  I have found some great recipes and lots of good restaurants and am really not missing the meat or dairy at all.

So I think I am having a bonus, completely unexpected side effect of going vegan.  This is going to sound weird--but my hair is growing.  Now for most people having your hair grow is quite normal--but for me it isn't.  I went through several years of my hair actually getting shorter--and then we discovered that I was hypothyroid.  Getting some hormone into me seemed to stop the shrinking hair, but it hasn't really grown  (for the record I have not had my hair cut since we moved to Portland in 1999).  The last several weeks, it seems like its getting just a bit longer.  I will be tickled if it really is going to start growing like normal--somebody will have to recommend me a hairdresser!

Surf City Here I come

So this race isnt going to turn out as I originally intended.  What did I originally intend?  Well, I took a good break after Ironman Canada and then started marathon training around mid October.  I got in lots of great running up until about the week before Christmas.  Did a couple of things I have never done before like running more than 40 miles in a week.  Then my left foot started to hurt--at first I attributed it to getting a bruise on the top of my foot from tying my shoes to tight---but it didnt go away.  I suffered through a few runs over the holiday break and then when we got home from Toronto, fully admitted that I was injured.  I got myself off the the chiropractor to see what was going on.  Well it seems like I jammed up almost every joint attached to my metatarsals.  It took several treatments to get it all worked out over the course of 3 weeks.  During this time I quit running and did all my training on the bike, elliptical or water running.  About a week ago I had my first pain free run back on the foot.  Well then a week ago Friday my back started to tighten up and by Sunday my back was in a full blown spasm--I was mostly flat on my back.  Well 3 trips to the chiropractor later, the back is much improved but it is certainly not completely better.   So what am I going to do tomorrow?  Well, I am not going to run my first sub-4 hr marathon as was the original plan.  We will be doing a short test run this am and I will be switching my entry to the half -marathon--which will likely be done at a pace that allows me to really take in the scenery down here along the ocean.  I will be able to be waiting at the finish line to congratulate Don when he sets his HUGE PR in the marathon and hopefully runs a BQ time.  I will enjoy the warm weather and sun and my friends that are down here.   It will still be a great weekend!

Getting old sucks

So what I figured out this week is that when I have bad stuff to say, I avoid writing a blog.  Its not that I don't want to share.  I think that somehow my mind thinks that if I don's write it down it will go away and not have happened.
So there has been good and bad this week.  On the good side--2 more visits to the chiropractor, lots of ice and a golf ball have gotten my foot to almost 100%.  I am glad that is now behind me.  On the bad side, just as the foot has healed, I screwed up my back.  It started to tighten up on Thursday--nothing out of the ordinary--just figured I needed to do some stretching etc like usual.  Friday it was a bit tighter--though I still was not concerned.  Saturday I got up and went to the club swim--swimming usually really helps me when my back gets tight.   Well, it didn't.  Now it just hurts.  It's better when I am standing or walking, best when I am flat on my back on the floor, not good for sitting.  When I took the dogs out for a walk this morning, Don had to help me put my shoes on because I can't bend in that direction.
What does this mean for running a marathon next weekend?  Well--I guess my modified goal is to just get to the start line at this point--I think that any sort of performance type of goal is completely gone and I hope the weather is nice because if I get to the start line, there could be lots of walking for this one.

Pizza???

So tonight I experimented with a new recipe--it was for "pizza" --the recipe was specifically for Curry Lentil Pizza.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out--or if anybody else would eat it.  Luckily Don and Paul were open minded.
So the crust of this "pizza"  was made from brown rice, gound lentils, oil, curry.  I made the "dough" and was pretty skeptical that it would actually hold together and act much like a crust.  On top of the crust went some tomato sauce--this is sounding more like pizza--and then a ton of veggies.  But wait--where is the cheese?   Well--grated carrots instead.
Before I served it, I apologized to everyone if it really sucked.  What did we discover---it tastes awesome.  We think that maybe it should be renamed so that you don't get the vision of traditional pizza in your head.  And my doubts about the structure integrity of the crust were indeed correct--you could just barely get it from the pan to the plate intact.  Definitely needed to be eaten with a fork.  My two meat eaters are both happy and satisfied after their vegan mean.   I will be definitely making this recipe again.

Just What am I eating anyway?

So I am sort of settling into an eating routine--though still doing lots of experimenting and trying new recipies.  I am finding that I am eating 4-6 meals/day.  Four would be on a rest day or day with very light workout and it increases from there depending on the workout schedule. 
Breakfast:  some sort of hot cereal--oatmeal, quiona or mixed with lots of fruit and a little soy milk
Morning Snack--so far I'm finding I only need this on the weekends when I am doing a longer morning workout.  I guess that may change as the season progresses and I have longer workouts during the week as well.   This varies from fruit to nuts and seeds or sometimes a piece of toast.
Lunch - I've pretty much settled on a large green salad with a mix of veggies and usually some nuts/seeds/dried fruit.  I finish this off with 2 pieces of fruit--often apple and banana because they are easy to eat at work.
Afternoon Snack - I always need this.  I guess partly because I have a workout after work almost every day--but even if I don't I still need something.  This varies quite a bit.  Sometimes I do a smoothie or a peice of bread with peanut butter.  Other times its a handful of nuts and seeds.
Dinner - This varies completely depending on what we feel like having.  I'm usually including some sort of rice/legume/beans as part of it and then a variety of other veggies.  Still experimenting with lots of different recipies.
Evening Snack.  this is the one the gets omitted the most depending on the workouts and what time we ate dinner.  It will be small--a piece of fruit, a few carrots with hummus or something like that.

What I have noticed is that it does not take as much to make me feel full anymore.  Eating more frequently does work better and I never get ravenous.  What I haven't been eating is sugar--aside from a piece of cake that 3 of us split at a restaurant a week or so ago, I haven't had anything with added sugar and I haven't even missed it.

Feet and Food

So 2 things have occupied most of my week:  continuing to figure out how to be a vegan successfully and get my foot fixed. 
So first the nutrition:  Weight check in:  144.8 this am--about 2.5 lbs down from my Jan 1 weight.  I'm not doing this for the weight--but I do need to get back to race weight after the fall off-season. 
How do I feel?   Well, great.  I think my body was detoxing this week--I won't give you TMI, but my buddy Jim would be proud of me.  I am not having any issues with being hungry  (actually half the time at dinner I get full and have to stop before my plate is clean), have lots of energy.  I did a food journal for most of the week just to get a handle on what I was taking in.  None of my days this week have been particularly hard/long workouts--1-2 hrs each day.  I've been taking in 1800-2200 calories at a mix of about 60% carb, 25% fat, 15% protein--that seems reasonable.
I've been doing a lot of reading since I want to make sure I'm doing this right--and I also need some new recipies.  I'm currently reading Thrive:  The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life.  Looks to have some good concepts to make sure I'm getting everything I need as an athlete--and a bunch of good looking recipies--now all I need is to accumulate the needed ingredients.
I must say that I am not having sugar cravings--and that is good.  I have even been able to cut out adding sugar to my tea and on my oatmeal in the mornings.

And now for subject #2--my foot.  Just before Christmas I had a run that netted a sore foot--didnt think much of it--as it just looked and felt like I had tied my shoes to tight and it was irritated from the long run.  Well, it has hung on--going away for the holiday didn't help since I wasn't able to get into the doctor to get it looked at until after we got back.  It's not severe pain--but not what you want to be running a marathon on (remember Surf City Marathon Feb 5th).  A foot issue at the peak of your marathon training is not optimal.  So trip to doctor #1 on Monday netted the outer metatarsal and cuboid bone were all jammed up and not moving--so he adjusted them, told me to ice 2x/day and do a test run on Wed and come back on Thursday since it was likely that there was more jammed up.  Well Wednesday test run--the outer portion of my foot would now bend removing the pain from that area of the foot and I was able to run a little more normal.  Return visit to doc on thursday--ankle not moving right and the more central metatarsals and cuniform bones are still bound up.  Well quite a few adjustments later he is pretty sure he has it.--same instructions, keep icing and do a test run.  Now there is no pain when I am walking.  But when I did my test run yesterday there is still pain in the center of the foot.  I am not sure if it just needs a few more days for the inflamation to go down or there is still something going on down there--I will be calling back to the doctor on Monday.  Meanwhile--today was supposed to be my last 20 mile run.  Well that isnt happening.  I am going to turn it into a 2hr ride followed by 1 hr of pool running.  Hopefully that hour will not bring up any urges to commit suicide.  I am still hopeful that I will get this thing taken care of in time for the marathon--but I know that I will have to adjust my goals given the amount of running I have missed over the last few weeks.

What's this Vegan thing about anyway?

So part of the reason I'm blogging is I want to document what my experience is trying this vegan experiment.  So first of all--why did I decide to go Vegan?

Well--it started a couple of weeks before Christmas when I got an email from a friend of mine Bob, who has been fighting cancer since 2000.  According to the doctors he should have been dead a long time ago.  Bob isn't the sort to just listen to the doctors and go home and die quietly--he had been looking into and trying everything out there.  Well, over time he has really been cleaning up his diet--and eventually has ended up as a vegan (should I mention again that with regular cancer treatments he was supposed to be dead a few years ago).  Well in his latest update to his huge group of friends he recommended that we all read the book:  The China Study.  Well I did.  I actually left for Christmas break with 2 diet books--the Paleo Diet and the China Study.  Read them both--and well, I guess you can tell which one I am going to listen to.

So--January 2nd I quit eating anything from an animal.  The goal of the diet is to minimize animal products--so I will not be a way over the top Vegan--if I get somewhere and I happen to get something with some animal product in it--not a big deal--but you wont be seeing me eating a steak any time soon. 


Everybody is worried about whether I will be able to train like I do on this type of diet--well, I guess we will see.  I have found a website  www.organicathlete.org for vegan athletes so hopefully that will help me out as my training really gets underway for this season.  This week I am keeping a meal log--to see what I am really eating and what the nutrient balance is--I'll post the results next week.  So far I just keep eating what seems like everything in sight and am not hungry at all.

Here I go!

So I figured that I have enough stuff going on that it was about time I started a real blog.  I really enjoy reading to blogs of many of my friends and figured it was time to take a stab at it.  You'll probably see a flurry of a few posts in the next week or so as I get stuff laid out and then I will continue to share the results of the experiment.  My body is a great lab experiment with a sample size of 1.

So what does this experiment consist of.   Well this year brings a couple of new things:
1.  I am adopting a vegan diet.
2.  For the first time in 8 years I will be self-coached.
3.  I am taking a break from Ironman racing and this year will be focused on XTerra racing--so I will have a journey to get my mountain biking skills back up to snuff.