The Season, part 2

Did I say disaster?  OK, that’s probably taking it a little bit far.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I completely underestimated my nutritional requirements at Vineman.  While not being a true “disaster”, the bonk in the wine country was an extremely humbling event.  I’ve been a sore loser (read highly competitive) for my entire life.  And make no doubt about it, I lost on that day.  Even if they were sympathizing, you feel like all of the racers passing you know you lost too.  My message to the Vineman course: I’m looking forward to taking you down next year!

 

Fortunately, the land is beautiful in those hills around Santa Rosa.  The day after the race was a fantastic recovery day on the slow-moving Russian River.  The team spent it drifting along in kayaks and inner tubes, celebrating the victories of the majority of our group, several of whom finished their first Half Ironman and have since registered to do their first full Ironman races in 2012.

Following the trip to the north, training took a turn towards long-distance cycling.  In early August, I traveled to Massachusetts to participate in my second Pan-Massachusetts Challenge.  This amazing ride is the highest yielding athletic fundraising event in the country - $35 million this year!  Its signature route is a two-day, 192-mile trek from Sturbridge (in the middle of the state) to the tip of Cape Cod, at Provincetown.  While the support of the fans in all of the neighborhoods along the route is inspiring enough, this year we had a special friend leading the way, none other than cycling legend, Lance Armstrong.  He cruised (far) ahead of us for the first day of riding to our overnight stop in Bourne, a mere 111 miles away…just one mile shorter than I’ll have to ride at the Ironman.  Perfect.

We escaped stormy weather on our bikes, but not on the ride back to Boston, where the ferry pitched so harshly that the band and their instruments were launched across the dance floor.  Snacks and drinks at the bar?  All on the floor.  It was a rough ride to Beantown, but all of that was forgotten with a bowl of the best clam chowder ever - found at Union Oyster House near Faneuil Hall, in case you were wondering.

Next on the schedule was the big team battle at Zuma Beach, the Nautica Malibu Triathlon.  I had spent the last few months doing long-distance training, but now it was time to get fast!  I have done the full triathlon at Malibu several times, but this year, we needed a fast all-male relay team to compete against Disney, Sony, and NBC Universal in the Entertainment Industry Challenge.  So, I registered to do the run leg of a team.  It was nice that I could just focus on the run, but I needed to make it a very quick four miles to keep the team in contention.  Getting fast means doing intervals.  Although a balky calf muscle kept me from doing too much sprinting, the race time was pretty good.  Unfortunately for us, it was the year of the ridiculous relay teams and we couldn’t do better than 7^th place – still very respectable.

The rest of the WB Tri Team also raced very well.  Our overall team time (top 3 male finishers + top 3 female finishers + top male relay + top female relay + top co-ed relay) was eight minutes faster than our championship winning time of 2010.  However, NBC Universal was faster and the Warner Bros. finished second.  Individuals on our team continue to amaze me.  Every year, there are impressive performances from podium-achievers to first-time racers.  This year was no different.

With another successful year at Malibu complete, all that was left for me was a return to long-distance training.  For two months, the coach and I would need to mix lengthy weekend swims/bikes/runs with shorter weekday interval workouts.  Before I went back to the extended distances, I wanted to check my movement patterns to ensure that I wasn’t going to cause an injury with repetitive inefficiencies.  We do a test at the Fitness Center called the Functional Movement Screen.  It’s available to all of our members and is an essential part of our fitness assessment offering.  The quick FMS highlights improper functional form, whether caused by weakness, instability, or immobility, which can then be targeted for improvement through corrective exercises.  As an example, tightness of the hip flexors could cause a forward-tilting pelvis, which would place undue stress on the spine and inhibit the activation of the gluteal muscles while running.  Over the course of training for a marathon, that could cause a multitude of injuries or at the very least, a very inefficient run and sub par speed.  With a positive test result and a couple of corrective exercises to do, I was ready for training.

As you can imagine, there aren’t a great number of sites in the city that allow for continuous extended-distance training.  We regularly use places like the San Gabriel Bike Trail which runs from Irwindale to Seal Beach and Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Port Hueneme.  Each of these sites allows us to complete combination workouts, typically called bricks.  We use these bricks to train our bodies to transition from one event to another.  Usually emphasized is the bike/run transition as your legs are the movement generators for both.  It’s not unusual to feel a little wobbly for the run after climbing off of your bike!

Top of the hill! (near Mammoth)

Our bricks varied over the two months we had to focus on Ironman training.  We ran the Long Beach Half Marathon then followed it with a 70-mile ride up and back on the San Gabriel Trail.  We swam two miles in the COLD Pacific Ocean at Zuma Beach before riding 80 miles up and down the coast.  To get some variation, we made the fantastic decision to travel to Mammoth Mountain and do some altitude training.  Over that weekend, we did a 2-hr bike/1-hr run/2-hr bike session on Saturday and a 2-hr bike/2-hr run at higher altitude on Sunday.  While extremely challenging, the new atmosphere and beautiful surroundings kept us motivated.  I already mentioned the 100-mile ride/1.5-hr run day from Santa Barbara to Malibu.  And this past weekend, the coach and I rode 70 miles from Irvine to San Diego.

There are only a few interval days left, otherwise, I hope this stuff got me ready!  The race happens in fewer than 12 days!!!!