Now, I’m Training

Since I re-started my training after Ironman Coeur d’Alene, I’ve been building a foundation of confidence. That race was by far the slowest I’ve ever gone in any race, and showed me just how much of my fitness had been drained away while trying to recover from the multiple trauma I suffered, now 11 months ago. While I always felt in my mind that I was just as capable athletically, my performance told me otherwise.

Everyone I’ve talked to about that Ironman  has given me props just for entering and finishing. I just gave myself grief for dawdling around the race course, not really trying to go fast, just “falling off a log” and apparently content simply to finish. That’s not me, and if that was going to be the way I would be racing in the future, I was going to quit. Retire. End my career as a competitive athlete.

Two days after the race, I had a root canal. Then, 8 days later, a 4 hour oral surgery. The double whammy tired me out and drained my resources, so I didn’t really get going on Actual Training until July 18th, a full 3 weeks after the race. I gave myself 4 weeks of intense, high effort, short duration (45-75 minutes) workouts, with an emphasis an increasing the amount of time and effort I put into swimming, and adding some “easy” bike rides in between the harder stuff, to simulate the commuting to work I used to do when I was working more.

I was most disgusted with my swimming, and only a little less so with my biking, in the Ironman. I know there are all sorts of good explanations and excuses, but, still, I did not want that to be the way I raced. If I couldn’t get better, I didn’t want to play. Thank goodness my running, which I’ve always hated, seemed to still be competitive.

In the past 4-5 weeks, I’ve entered two Olympic distance triathlons and a half marathon race. Also, I’m doing testing in each discipline this week. A win at the Seafair Tri, and another one at the Tacoma Narrows half marathon, gave me some positive racing mojo.

Last week, I tested in the pool, 1000 yards as fast as I could. Last February, when I first started actual swim training (as opposed to getting in the pool, doing some laps, and then feeling sorry for myself at how weak and slow I was), I did that test in 18 minutes, 52 seconds. This time  around, 16:53, 10% better. But still 8% slower than what might have been my time just before my accident.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get all of that back, but I feel a lot better in the water now. I’m even able to “sprint” a bit. My best explanation is that I used to have 5 gears in the water. When I first went back into the water, 2 months after the accident, I didn’t even see 1st gear; I was just sorta drifting, amazed at how weak and painful my forearms were. By June, I was still only operating with the two slowest gears. Now, I’ve added 3rd gear, and can feel 4th somewhere in there, waiting to come out with just some more time in the pool, continued sets of intervals, and a willingness to put up with being just plain slower than I used to be.

On the bike, I found out there is no substitute for miles, lots of them. And some of them done harder than I’d like. So I’ve spent the last 4 weeks doing those longer, easier rides I used to do going to work and back. And, I’ve moved my interval work outside, and emphasized the hardest ones.

I found a good hill 4 miles from home. After the second Narrows Bridge was built, the Dept of Transportation and the County Parks got together to put in some access down the the Narrows just south of the Bridges. The road winds through the steep hillside bluffs along the Sound, so it’s steep and shady. It takes me 1.5 minutes to get part way up. There’s a plateau for a bit, then another minute of even steeper stuff to the top. This is a perfect place to do “VO2 Max” intervals. Basically, as hard as I can go for 1.5 to 2.5 minutes, back down, and do it again, for a total of 8-10 minutes total work time, an equal amount “recovering” going down hill.

And I’ve got a couple of spots for “FTP” intervals, slightly less hard efforts which can last for 10-20 minutes, for a total of 30-60 minutes of work time.

The weather during these 4 weeks has been perfect. Usually down to 55-60 at night, then sunny and 70-75 in the afternoon. Adding 20-40 minutes runs after the harder bike sessions has been heaven. The only thing I actually like about running is being done with it. I honestly enjoy the tired feeling in my legs, and especially the rolling sweat down in the small of my back and matting my hair. Running hard in the bright sun, along the Sound, with a slight marine breeze counterpoint to the radiance at mid day – that I actually like. It’s just getting started that bums me out.

Anyway, today I did my first bike test in quite a while. I was a little (well, a lot) leery of this, as I thought my interval times had stabilized at 215 watts, and I wanted to be faster. The good news about doing the test at higher watts, is, I get to race faster. The bad news, I have to train at that faster level as well.

So, I drove over the Bridge to the Chambers Creek park. This is an old converted gravel pit which is now a world class, County-owned public golf course. The 2015 US Open will be held there, that’s how good it is. I ride my bike down the hill to the Sound going into Steilacoom, turn left and start uphill at the old McNeil Island ferry terminal. The test starts there, 7 miles up into and through the road transecting Ft. Lewis into Dupont, with a side trip back down hill at Solo Point. Two minutes of easy riding, then turn around and go back home.

Tests are hard, and ones I take alone are even harder. Doing a time trial with a group, or getting up to speed in a race – no problem, really. But staying in the head space to work at the red line for 40 minutes – that’s as much a mental effort as it is physical.

But on this one I persevered, and insisted that I would keep going, no matter what. Totally pointless, but in the sun, with a smooth road, wide shoulders, no traffic lights, at least there are no environmental excuses.

And I finished the day with a result 5% higher than my last test. Compared to where I started, in February, I went from 185 watts to 225, a 22% increase. Again, I can see a place now where I can race again.

And that’s really the biggest thing that’s changed in this past month. Racing (and training hard, to race hard) requires a very tough mindset. In the past few weeks, I’ve found that place again. I see now that, prior to July 18th, I had been just in a rehab mode, accepting a lower performance standard for myself, letting the lingering pains and weakness, the ongoing voice and swallowing deficits, the lack of lower front teeth take forefront and make me feel “in-valid”. I’m not an invalid, I decided. And while the pains and problems have not gone away, the barriers they placed in front of athletic performance are now being dissolved.