Hit by a car

Yesterday I was hit by a car on my way to work. It was on Ainsworth and Interstate. Interstate has a bad streak of luck for cyclists lately.

A driver turned right in front of me and hit my front wheel. My bike is totalled and unridable.

I am really trying to be patient and understanding of this process. I had felt like I got back on the horse last weekend with my 2 hour run and now I'm sidelined again. I have stitches in my elbow that are preventing me from swimming for about 2 weeks and the pain in my ribs makes it difficult to breathe very deeply without pain.

I had been hoping to start my strength training again this week but alas it will wait for a week.

2 Hour Run

I don't think I could have asked for a more beautiful fall day. It was clear and cold and the trail was dry and you had to shuffle through all the fallen leaves. It was perfect!

I was afraid I'd be a bit cold because it was 40 degrees and I wore a thin base layer and a slightly thicker outer layer. Then I had tights on and gloves. It was also perfect once I got moving. I don't think I would have wanted anything heavier, or lighter for that matter.

I started out and maintained a steady even pace. I don't trail run much, hardly at all so it makes me a little nervous in that I am afraid that I will trip over a root or rock and end up injured. Also, I get a bit more nervous running by myself. But I have to say that after today I think I'll keep seeking out trail running. My knees never hurt and the time seemed to fly by. My pace was slower but i think that is normal when you are trail running.

Once I got past the 25 minute mark things just settled into a pace and everything felt good. I never felt like I was pushing or tired or anything. I was more careful at the end of the run about footing because it always scares me a bit when things are getting tired about twisting my ankle or something.

I wish I had taken a picture because I would love to share the experience and the beauty. I hope we get some more days like this.

Anyway.... that was my start of my off season training goal of improving my run. I think I'm off to a good start. Next week I will do 1 longer run (90 minutes) and then on Saturday post swimming I will do a track workout. The following week my plan is again 1 longer run and then a long run of 2:10.

Marathon Recovery

I just remembered this morning that it's been awhile since the marathon and I wanted to get an idea as to how long it took me to recover from the marathon so that i can make plans and predict my recovery for the Avenue of Giants.

So let's see here October 7 was the marathon and this past weekend I would say I felt completely recovered. No more soreness of fatigue feeling in my legs. I did a longer run at Mom's on the hills there and it was just fine. So it was 2 weeks out from the marathon that I felt like I could "train" again.

I think I would wait through this week for strength training for legs just to be sure and I would probably want to take my long rides back a bit too so that my legs could fully recover without getting fatigued again. I would also make sure that my rides were flat just base endurance Zone 2 rides.

So I'll get it mapped out on my training plan with my hours and see how it fits putting a marathon in my plan in early spring.

Planning and nutrition

This past week I have been in Seattle for training for work. I have been taking a SharePoint training which I really enjoy I just feel like I'm still putting together the pieces. I still ahven't wrapped my head around this yet. There are so many pieces to be put together.

Anyway, other than that, being out of town creates a difficult situation for me. I have a hard time eating well when I'm eating out. It is all psychological because obviously it isn't a physical problem. It is the enjoyment of eating out and eating good tasting food, the other is that the portions are so big and I guess I don't want to it to go to waste. It's hard for me. And I have to admit my motivation is low right now. I am rather kind of burnt out on watching things so closely but I'm noticing my habits are going back to my prior habits. I guess I don't need to watch it so close and could ease off on that and just work on good habits. That might be the best strategy at this point.

I have been listening to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and have been trying to apply the principles there to my life because I feel like I'm trying to balance so many things and I feel like my stress level goes over the top sometimes because I have a hard time prioritizing things.

Habit 1 is Be Proactive
Habit 2 is Begin with the End in Mind

...I want to find the book. I know I have it because I think I can use these principles to help me focus on my goals.

Portland Marathon

OK.... I feel like I can come up with 26.2 reasons not to do a marathon! I don't think I would have ever done an Ironman if I had done a marathon first.

So one thing you have to realize is that I am designed for this stuff and not only that I am trained for this stuff. I do long slow distance better than anything else in my life probably. So a marathon should have been a cake walk right? Well.... no..... a marathon is nothing like an Ironman, at least not an Ironman I have ever done. I can get off the bike after riding 112 miles and swimming 2.4 and run 26.2 miles but not a marathon, at least not like I ran this marathon. I guess if I could come off my bike and swim and truly run a marathon race I'd be doing great!!!! maybe that's the different between me and those whose strength is the run. Is I go into it knowing I can put together a MOP swim and MOP bike and that my run is a BOP run.

I wonder what the difference should be between a stand-alone marathon and an Ironman marathon. Although like I'm trying to get the point across above these are not in any way the same race. I suppose in an IM you could go out too hard at the beginning of the run but since you've already ridden 112 miles you aren't like to do that because you're just trying to figure out how to move your legs in a fashion that resembles running.

So here's my splits on my marathon according to Portland Marathon:

Place Overall: 4058 out of 7724
Women: 1631 out of 4194
F 35-39: 314 out of 683
AgeGrade: 49.98% Place: 3745
FINISH: 4:46:24 pace: 10:56
10k: 1:02:53 pace: 10:08
Turn-9.1Mi: 1:31:37 pace: 10:05
Half: 2:14:23 pace: 10:16
17.2 M: 3:10:11 pace: 11:04
20 Mile: 3:35:36 pace: 10:47
35K: 3:56:34 pace: 10:55
Chip Time: 4:46:24
Gun Time: 4:54:10

Needless to say I went out at a really good pace. And it's funny because my watch was pretty accurate with the mileage until about mile 14 which als happens to be about the same time that my legs started feeling really heavy. I think that my stride must change at that point in the race and that my foot pod no longer really works the same because it is calibrated for normal running not a run/plod calibration.

So the watch recorded 27.8 miles and here is what it reports:
Overall Avg HR 156, Max 188
Pace Avg: 10:06
Spd. Acg: 5.9 mph
Run Time: 4:43 (1 bathroom stop at mile 17)
1: 9:58, A 142, M 157
2:10:04 A 150, M 159
3: 10:48 A158, M 165
4: 10:00 A 155, M176
5: 9:48 A 131, M 163
6: 9:38 A 157, M 161
7: 9:32 A 155, M 161
8: 9:38 A 156, M162
9: 9:34 A 158, M 162
10: 9:36 A 158, M 161
11: 9:26 A 159, M 162
12: 9:34 A 158, M 162
13: (2:07:48) 10:16 A 158, M 163
14: 9:58 A 158, M 166
15: 9:44 A 158, M 160
16: 9:34 160, M 162
17: 9:48 A 160, M 162
18: 12:36 A 152, M 163
19: 10:58 A 159, M 164
20: 10:52 A 155, M 161
21: 10:42 A 153, M 158
22: 10:38 A 154, M 160
23: 11:00 A 155, M 169
24: 10:18 A 157, M 182
25: 10:30 A 158, M 172
26: 10:34 A 159, M 188
27:10:30 A 163, M 176
28: 10:18 A 164, M 174

here's what I learned:

• I need to do more mileage in running
• running downhill hurts if not at the time it will later (I couldn't really even walk for 2 days following the race)
• How do they do a race that is almost all downhill?
• I have alot of mental focus/willpower. My legs were done at 14 but I really did a pretty good job sucking it up and keeping up my pace. yes I slowed but really was able to just keep pushing through.
• Running down hill is an art and you better have really strong quads to compensate
• Running the same pace throughout a marathon is probably one of the hardest things to do. That is skill!
• I'm going to look for more opportunities to run

Aftermath:

So I was REALLY SORE for 2 days after the race. like I could barely walk. And going up and down stairs HURT!!! I had to have both hands supporting my weight on the handrails. Today, Wednesday I can finally walk up and down without support.

Also interestingly enough I gained weight following the marathon! I weighed in 3 lbs heavier monday than i did Sunday and trust me it was not because of any overeating. I could barely eat after the race because my stomach was upset.

The other thing of note is that I did not use the race day boost like I have been using. I don't know if that made a difference in my race at all. but if you notice the HR my HR was high. i would never do an Im at that HR. I'm sure I was running at close to lactice threshold as I could. the good thing to note is that I think my LT is alot higher than i first thought.

What ideas this gives me for training for IMC 2008

• More running
• Long runs will be 2+ hours every other week
• Mid distance runs will be 90 - 120 every week
• 1 tempo and 1 technique run

More racing during off season. Looking for halfs and want to do the Avenue of the Giants marathon in the spring. (Although I want to talk to someone about this) I want to really see how long it takes me to recover from this marathon before I plan that because I don't want to end up with an injury.

Anyway.... it was a good experience even though there is not a part of me that really enjoyed the race. Doing marathons does not have the same emotional passionate place for me that Ironmans do. But doing marathons will make me a better IM triathlete so they have their purpose.