Showcase Showdown … Winning!

So for the last couple of months, Coach has had me on a strict HR leash where the long bike is concerned.  With little exception, I have not been allowed over 131 bpm.  I started calling these the Showcase Showdowns....as in 'as close as I can get to the HR ceiling without going over'.  ;)  It’s been hard.  And it’s taken a lot of discipline.  Because let’s be clear – that translates to some pretty slow riding. What's actually been amazing is to see and experience even from week to week how much easier it has become to actually be able to execute that.  I've had my own targets that look something like 'no more than 5 minutes in a 4 hr workout over the target'.  For the most part I've been pretty successful at executing these.

The premise is this – I was supposed to be building my base.  Moving that curve to the right.  It’s clear from my lactate tests that in the past I have overworked my Z3.  It’s big.  My Z2, ummmm... not so much.  So we’ve spent a considerable amount of time growing that.  We’ll test again after next weekend’s race, but I suspect it has worked.  My speed and associated power at that heart rate have definitely increased.  And I’ve learned a lot of discipline on the bike, which I have definitely needed.  I’ve become SO very familiar with what 130bpm feels like on the bike. 

Of course, me and my type AAA challenges have been freaking out behind the scenes over the speed, but I’ve come to accept that it is what it is, and as we move into the Build phase, this discipline will reap the expected benefits.  As Coach said to me a week or so ago, “I’ve Z2-ed you to death.  Now we see what we have.”  So here we are at the end of the first Build set.

And don’t you know, it’s starting to happen.  Rode 120 miles on Sunday, and felt amazing.  With some good speed.  (no, still not where I want to be, but c'est la vie...patience girl, patience).  And that was still mostly Z2, although I was allowed to Z3/4 power the hills.  Well, ok, the first 110 miles were great anyway.  A little miscalc’ed math in my head, and I was 5 miles shorter than I needed to be, which mentally after 7 hrs on the bike is tough to take, and I was out of water.  I FOOLISHLY thought I’d be fine for 7 more miles.  Bad Idea.  Let me repeat, for any of you that haven’t already learned this lesson yourself – BAD IDEA.  Mentally I was ready to be done, which undoubtedly was the bigger issue, and then I also managed to dehydrate myself.  Did I mention it was a cloudless, humid 95 degrees?  I sometimes wonder about myself.  I am a smart girl.  Goes to show what 110 miles of hot riding will do to your decision making ability – hence why you have a plan and just stick to it when it comes to nutrition.  So the last 7 miles sucked, but that was my own fault.  The rest was great, and probably the best I’ve felt on a ride that long, ever.  And that was preceded by a pretty intense power workout the day before, which seemed almost easy.

So, comes as no surprise really, but his plan is working.  I’m liking what I’m seeing.  The race on Saturday will be exciting.  Can’t wait to see what I’ve got. 

Happy Training!

Kat

Just for the Hill of It

So last Sunday, as you may have read in my last post, I ran the north shore, aka the hard side, of the IMChattanooga run course, and was left feeling very intimidated.  It's pretty hellish.  And actually, really the big deal is where that 4.5 mile section falls in the race.  We run it twice, and the 2nd time around makes it the last 5 miles of this Ironman course.  While the uphills are intimidating, the corresponding downhills are the stuff nightmares are made of, particularly at mile 24 of the IM run.  These are seriously steep hills, and if you are a runner, you know this is just a very painful endeavor, and just that much moreso on tired legs.

By Monday, I had started wrapping my brain around it.  As tends to be my way, I made a plan to confront these demons of mine head on.  I mapped out a few courses and actually found a route right alongside my usual neighbourhood loop.  By mid week, I was mentally ready to take on this challenge of learning to love hills.  And I really do believe that I need to start loving them, even if in a twisted way.  Attitude is everything, and I need to embrace hills and the fear that goes along with them, if I want to be successful in this race.  As I was rolling these things around my mind over the course of a few days, it occurred to me that, as with any major change in how we do things, sometimes our perception of reality hasn't caught up with the new reality. In moments of stress, our gut reactions revert back to what was before; what we' ve always known...positive or negative.  We need to consciously re-program those reactions and rewrite our wiring to match the new paradigm.  It became obvious to me through a few email exchanges with Coach, that this was exactly what was happening here.  I'm not a life long athlete.  And although I dabbled in 'running', I really didn't pursue triathlon seriously until I was over 40.  I've never been good at running hills.  But as I thought about whether my gut reaction was right, I realized that actually maybe I could run hills now.  I thought about the Publix half, where I set a huge PR in March, and that's a damn hilly course.  I thought about how I run the Shiloh loop now compared to a few years ago, and even running the course on Sunday - it might have been hilly, but I never once stopped to walk.  Not so long ago I definitely would have.  And so I knew I had to start changing this particular belief about hills if I want to be successful in 12 weeks.  Hence the plan.  I'm a planner, what can I say.

So yesterday I ran my 20 miles on the new route.  God love Matthew for not laughing in my face earlier in the week when I talked about maybe doing one of the 10 milers on the new hilly route, and whether I should attempt both.  As soon as I ran the first one, I knew what a silly irrational statement that was.  But he's a smart boy, and probably knew I needed to figure that out for myself.  Which I did.  And so yesterday was 20 miles with 1300' of climbing.  And I did it at a pretty good pace.  Base 10 miler in the am was an 8'53 pace, and the afternoon's 10 miler was an 8'47 pace, with the last 2 miles at 7'52. And I did it all without an iPod too ;). Fight your fears head on, I say, and smash those old beliefs to bits.  Leave no room for doubt.  And, turns out this route is a damn fine proxy for Choo.  Got the massive uphill, and hence the just as crazy downhill.  Hard to say for sure, because there are differing reports depending on what map you look at, but I think the 1300' I did yesterday in 20 is about the same, or potentially a little more, as the full marathon in Choo.  So this route is now my new best friend.  Come 9/28, I'm going to be a master at these hills ;)

Something else happened too.  Through the conversations this week about the course, and how best to run it, bits and pieces about running form started fitting together in my brain.  I've had most of the puzzle pieces all along but they weren't ever forming the complete picture -- I think I was missing some of the edge pieces that hold it all together.  As an Agile Coach in my day job, I've learned that you need to be okay with saying the same thing over and over to the same people over time, because experiences and new knowledge allow them to hear it differently each time you say it.  I can tell someone something half a dozen times and they don't get it, and then magically on the 7th try, over a period of a couple of months or even longer, suddenly the lightbulb goes on.  A good coach knows this, and doesn't tire of saying the same thing.  And I love when I see this happen - it's a highlight of the work I do.  This is exactly what happened to me this week.  Yesterday, I became a better runner.  There is no doubt in my mind.  Finally I understood what it means to run from your core, and how it feels to run properly.  And it was kind of magical.  Especially on the downhills.  And man.  What a confidence boost I got from running the course I was so afraid of.  Thanks Coach for giving me that final missing corner piece that made it all come together.

Beliefs.  Our brain is so powerful yet so stubborn sometimes. We must train ourselves to use that power for good!  For the longest time, well past demonstrable proof, I did not think of myself as an artist...I'd been the Math and Science girl most of my life.  Others saw it, in my eye for design, in my glass art, now in my metalsmithing, but not me.  I call myself an artist now.  The same was true for sport.  Despite all the hours of training and some successful races, I never saw myself as an athlete.  In fact it was Luis who said to me a while back, like it or not, you are an athlete - get used to it. So there are probably still a few recesses of my mind that give me the funny look when I say I'm an athlete, but I'm getting there.  The mind is a powerful tool.  We sometimes have to consciously make it catch up to believe the new things we are capable of.  Sometimes we need to really examine these beliefs, these irrational fears, and just blow them apart with irrefutable proof.  I did that yesterday. 

Turns out I can run hills.  I am a hill runner ;)

Happy Training everyone.  Go blow apart some old beliefs.

Kat