Goodlife Toronto Marathon, unfortunately not a miraculous day.

Warming up at the start of the TO marathon.

I first ran the Toronto Marathon in 2007. It was my first marathon ever. I decided I wanted to try it again and take another kick at the sub 3 hr mark last weekend. When I first starting training for the marathon in 2007 I had a comprehensive plan and stuck to it consistently for 4 months. All things considered my first marathon went well, I qualified for Boston. Even though I didn’t achieve my goal of a sub 3 hr marathon (it was ambitious for a first attempt I know, but hay I really didn’t know what I was getting into). Since that time I’ve ran about a half dozen marathons and have literally come within seconds of the 3hr mark. This past Sunday, I diluted myself again to thinking I could break the 3hr mark with less that optimal training, when I never have before with very good training behind me. I basically compressed most of my marathon training into just over a month of solid month of running. A friend once said to me “don’t expect miracles on race day”. This statement is so true, but we are an optimistic species by nature. Given all the pain and suffering out there I think we have to be. Bottom line is if you want to see personal best results on race day, you need to have put in some personal best training before race day, no exceptions. Unless of course you are the Pope or something and really do expect miracles.

Mike M.

Training while pregnant

Here starts a new block of training.  It is called the pregnancy phase.  Gone for this year are the posts about hard training sessions, race preparation and race results.  I will be writing about how I am ‘training’ (note: keeping active, healthy and strong) through my pregnancy.

I  found out in January that I was pregnant.  It was not unplanned, but it was definitely unexpected.  To be completely honest, given my age, activity level and low body fat I thought it would take me much longer than it did.  In fact, I thought there was a definite possibility that having a child would not happen for me.  Apparently my ‘fast twitch’ genetics don’t just apply to muscle and nerves…

 

Training in the first month was a struggle.  In particular I felt out of breath at paces or powers below my ‘zone 2′.  I had to take breaks often and my heart rate soared at the mere mention of working out.  I did persevere and continued to exercise allowing my body to tell me what I should be doing. I did not force the pace, did not look at the clock and just did what I could.  Napping during the first few weeks came easily. This was a pleasant surprise as I have always struggled to nap.  It has always been hard for me to shut down, both physically and mentally. 

The following two things I found the most interesting: a severe lack of drive and motivation, as well as a crazy, cannibalistic hunger after every workout.

After I had conceived, but before I knew I was pregnant, I recognized an uncharacteristic drop in motivation.  I noted this on several occasions in my training log but wrote it off as being tired from other life events.  I have this intrinsic desire to push, to do, to achieve (these are not always good things, believe me).  I used to hate siting down. Honestly.  I had major difficulty simply sitting down to watch a movie – I had to be doing something else at the same time, situps, stretching, sorting laundry…  But this all changed.  I was perfectly happy to sit.  I was okay with not finishing workouts.  Frustrating people, things, situations all bothered me less.  I was blissee…and I continue to be.  This is one of the very great things about pregnancy, everything seems good.  The new and copious amounts of hormones are to blame, so all should return to normal in about 6 months!

The most disturbing thing was the hunger.  I have done Ironman and I have been racing and training triathlons for over 10 years.  I know what being hungry feels like.  But this, this was something else, and it hit as soon as I finished training. Triathlon hunger is this low-mid level desire for food (carbs, mostly) that buzzes throughout your whole body.  THIS pregnancy hunger felt like someone had taken a power drill with a very, very large drill bit and was driving it right into my belly button.  It was a desperate hunger and I am surprised that no one in my immediate vicinity lost any body parts.

The first three months, I trained 1-3 hours a day in smaller pieces and at a lower intensity.  I biked, ran, swam and did weights.  The only exception to this was 10 days I spent in Clermont leading a training camp where I did a few 2 and 2.5 hour rides to accompany my athletes. 

For running, I have kept my HR below 160 (4:45-6:30/km) for the most part and I don’t deliberately seek out hills.  For biking I have kept my power under 170 for the most part (again HR under 160).  The one exception to this was the PowerWatts session I did a few days after conception (I didn’t know I was preggo) where I was up at 300+ and I really thought I was going to die.  I had NEVER felt so awful on the bike before and it was the closest I have ever come to quitting a workout (but I didn’t…I thought it was nutrition so took too gels, sucked it up and got back on the bike!).  The swimming has slowed considerably, but I use effort and body temp as my guide, not pace.  I am still able to do intervals at 1:20/100m, as long as they are relatively short.  The key thing with swimming is that I float now.  I haven’t ever floated in my life.  This new body comp of mine is helping me maintain pace with less effort in the swim .  After each pool session I go off to the site and just float around for a few seconds because it stills seems a little unreal that I can!

I will keep you all posted about how training is going and what I am up to over the course of this new block of training.  If you have any questions, shoot!

 

Around the Bay, no expectations

Around the Bay at the finish, obviously happy with the result.

Last weekend I did the Around the Bay road 30k in Hamilton. This is a great road race that feels more like a marathon from an energy and organizational standpoint, though 12 fewer kms does sure make it feel a lot easier than a marathon. There is always a Grim Reaper and midget, sorry little person near the last big hill at about 26km. I always wonder about these odd characters, why they come year after year, are they paid by the race or do they just love participating. This year the little person was in a wheel chair and not dancing to we will rock you, which made me feel a bit sad as I ran by but it was also somehow motivating. The race is apparently older than Boston, at least according to the race shirts.

It was my first road race of the year and despite a lack of long run training it still went really well, only about a minute off my PB. The lesson is that sometimes going into a race with no expectations can be a great thing. It really takes the pressure off and allows you to really pay attention to your body, stay on pace and really enjoy the moment. Sometimes all the pressure to hit a certain time can cause you to go out to fast, which will catch up to you later and lead a blow up. It is definitely important to have goals, but sometimes going into a race with no expectations can be a great think and the result will more often than not be pleasantly surprising.

Mike M

Training with Power

Power Spin Class at the Trek Toronto Bicycle Store

I’ve been riding inside relatively consistently at the Trek Toronto Bicycle Store and as always I’ve been using a power meter. A couple of weeks ago was the last inside spin class at the Trek Toronto Bicycle Store and the Canadian Cycling Magazine came by to document the event. They put together a piece on using power to improve your training and racing. I was interviewed after the ride and rambled off something about how I would suggest you go about starting to use power in your training. Surprisingly, I didn’t come off sounding like a total idiot. After thinking about it more here is my more complete answer to how I would suggest you go about starting to use power in your training.
First, I’d suggest trying out training with power at a spin class that has power trainers. There are many types of spin class offered around the GTA. The classes at the Trek Toronto Bicycle Store are a great option and very reasonable at $20 per workout. The class size if small, 9 or less, so you will get lots of attention, but alas these classes won’t start again until next winter.
After trying a power spin class, if you like what you see, the next step would be to consider purchasing a trainer with power. Trainers with power can also be pricey, mid hundreds to thousands, really depends on what you get. Again there are many trainers around and Trek Toronto Bicycle Store had a great sale on the trainers they used in this year’s spin classes. The trainers were the TACX, Flow T2200, see the link below for more details. http://www.tacx.com/en/products/trainers/flow#tab_2
Finally, if you are going to do longer races and are really concerned about your race results, you might consider buying a power meter that is built into your bike, again there are quite a few models out there. Built in power meters can be pretty pricey, from over a thousand to 4 or 5 thousands. If after you go to a few classes and you are serious about your race results, I’d suggest forgoing the trainer with a power meter and going right to the build in power meter. This will give you the best of both training and racing with power. You can buy a trainer without power meter (much cheaper than those with power) and use it with your build in power meter to do indoor workouts with power just like with a power trainer. And when it’s race day and it counts you’ll be able to hit the numbers you’ve been using in training and have your best possible race result. I have a PowerTap, and I’m very happy with it.
The link to the article/video using power to improve your training and racing by Canadian Cycling Magazine is below.

http://cyclingmagazine.ca/2013/03/sections/training-guide/training/use-power-to-improve-your-training-and-racing/

Happy Training.
Mike M.

Mike’s Ironman Cozumel Race Postmorten

Ayesha and I at the Finish with our medals.

Ok I’m finally getting around to writing my race postmortem. Cozumel was my first Ironman and though I thought it would be my last, much like my first marathon (I’ve done 5 now 6 if you include Cozumel), it may not be my last. Going into Ironman Cozumel, I expected the worst and prepared for it. I knew it would be hot and humid from my 1/2 Ironman experience in the Cozumel in September. I prepared myself through heat acclimatizing and formulating a good hydration plan.

To heat acclimatized I did all my long bikes (up to 5hrs) and long runs (nearly 3hrs) inside. I know this sounds insane, but I think it worked and the theory says it does work.

I had a hydration and electrolyte plan that I practiced on my long indoor rides and runs. I formulated this plan by measuring how much I was sweating per hour by taking my weight before and after an indoor ride. I took my starting weight – my finish weight + added any fluid I drank to get how much I sweat per hour. I sweat about 1.5L per hour under hot humid conditions. I used my sweat rate to calculated how much salt I needed. You can do this easily if you know how much you sweat and assume the sodium content of your sweat, I used this good resource to figure out my concentration concentration. The next step is to total all the sodium you will take in an hour (including sports drinks, gels, bars, and salt pills) and match it to your sodium need per hour. To meet my sodium needs I drank 1.5 of Gatorade, ate 2 Cliff gels, and took 4 E-Load salt pills per hour on the bike. I cut the Gatorade down to about 1 litre per hour on the run.

The race went really well. The swim was really rough with a strong current from the north. I heard that hundreds of people didn’t make it out of the water. My time was slower than I wanted, but still good relatively speaking. I took the bike really easy, trying to never let my watts go much above 200. When I finally started the run everything felt really relaxed, no muscle tightness. I took the run easy trying to stay just under 5:00/km. The whole race I was thinking the race doesn’t start until the first half of the marathon is over (some good advice I got from a friend, Glen). I only focused on managing my pace and sticking to my nutrition and hydration plan. Before I knew it I was approaching the finish line. With about 200m left to go a feeling of euphoria came over me and I sprinted to the line. I really didn’t expect it and I’ve felt such intense happiness at the end of marathon before.

After some post race pizza and coke I went back to the hotel room for a nap. Then I went back to see the last finishers at 11pm and it was truly inspirational. If you ever have the chance to do this I highly recommend it whether you’ve participated in the race or not, but especially if you’ve participated.

I’m not sure if I’ll do another Ironman anytime soon, but I’m pretty sure I will do another one. If only I could somehow avoid the 5hr bike rides in training I might do it sooner rather than later.

Ayesh and I scoping out the race start.

Mike Medeiros

Ayesha’s Cozumel Race Report

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best you have to give.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

 

I usually hate it when people wish me luck going into races.  I don’t feel that luck has a lot to do with outcome if you have dedicated yourself to the preparation.  Good luck might apply to getting your bike in one piece off the plane ; but it shouldn’t apply to having your bike stay together during the race.  If you haven’t done your due diligence with your bike parts, maintenance and assembly and it falls apart during a race, this is not bad luck.  This is negligence.

I am openeing with this quote from E. R and with this rant on luck because open mindesness, courage and preperation are the themes of my Ironman race report.

 

I completed my first Ironman on November 25th.  I raced to a 9:53 which was 10 minutes under my goal. 

The Race

The weather on race day proved to better than I expected.  It was 25, sunny with some cloud, 20km/hour winds.  Best of all, the water was churning and choppy because the wind was blowing from a different direction than it usually does.  In the past the swim had been 5-12% faster than normal due to favorable currents and glass-like water.  Not this day. 

As I lined up with the over 75 other pros (men and women combined – a huge feild by Ironman standards) I chose a spot at the front, closer to shore.  The current would be a little less strong closer to shore.

When the gun went I pushed hard to get away from the weaker swimmers and to try to get onto the feet of the stronger swimmers of the feild.  This was easier than I had imagined and by less than 200m I had broken free of the masses and was swimming comfortably fast pace on someone’s feet.  The pace was not devastating and so I figured that the super swimmers (Mary Beth Ellis and Tenille Hoogland) were already well ahead.  This was good – it meant that these were probably going to remain my feet for the rest of the race.  The left side of my neck had been a bit tight during the days prior (from sleeping in a new bed, carrying bags for travel) and the index to middle fingers on my left hand promptly numb at about 300m.  This was annoying, but nothing I haven’t dealt with before in open water.  I just had to make sure I didn’t just ignore my left side completely; I had to be constantly aware of hand mechanics on the left side.  I sighted as infrequently as possible with the faith that my leader wanted to swim as straight a line as possible.  I only ended up running into two bouys because she cut them really close. This is a tradeoff I am okay with!  As we were swimming I was getting a little mad at myself for being such a bad drafter.  I just couldn’t stay off her feet both into and against the current.  I kept trying to adjust my arm entry, my kick, everything, but I was running into her feet what seemed to be every stroke.  It was only after the race I would realize why.

We made final turn and started heading the 800m towards the swim finish.  I had been counting the 200m laps that my Garmin was chiming out.  On this final stretch I thought I hadn’t noticed my watch for a couple of laps because it was taking so long between chimes.  I also felt a little boredom settle in.  The swim seemed to get too easy…So with what I thought was about 300m to go, I pushed past my escort.  I honestly just wanted to play a bit.  She matched my stroke and hung close to my hip for the final section.

Getting out of the water I felt fresh. Jogging along the ramp my heart rate was low, my shoulders felt relaxed, my Achilles didn’t ache.  Sometimes after a long, open water swim my calves and Achilles feel stiff and sore from being in the plantar flexed position for so long (this doesn’t happen in the pool because of all the pushing off the walls).  I was told that this is the feeling you should be striving for upon exiting the water in an Ironman.  I was looking forward to getting on my bike.

As I jogged towards transition I asked the volunteer if I HAD to go through the change tent.  I hadn’t left a T1 bag on the racks and I didn’t need to change and it was shorter just to follow the mats into transition.  The volunteer said no and blocked my path, so I went allll thheee wayyy around and through the tent.  This was a preparation mistake:  I hadn’t needed to do this and I should have looked at the WHOLE T1 setup and asked my questions BEFORE the race.  Instead the day before I had sat, waiting at my bike while Mike did the whole T1 run through twice.  This is something I normally do.  I was cocky and it cost me 30 seconds to 1 minute (This may not seem like much, but it is free time that I threw in the garbage).

At my bike I took the time to put arm coolers on.  It is amazing how time slows down and the attention narrows at transition.  Every movement seems to take fore-ever. The simple movement of shoving my salt pills in my bra feels like 15 seconds in my memory, when it probably took 3 seconds.

 

I had my instructions and plan for the bike.  I did not get caught up in any drama – particularly because my transition had taken so long and the other girls were gone – in the first 20kms.  I did what I trained to do, my only concern was that I felt a little tightness in my VMOs.  This tightness went away as my system got into its rhythm.  My only deviation was to take an unplanned gel after 10 min on the bike.  I  had felt hunger pains at 6:35 AM when I had gone to the start to line up, so I figured I may need a few more cals than I had planned.  I wasn’t used to such an early start and my stomach wasn’t ready for the breakfast calorie requirements of an Ironman and unfortunately this left me a little hungry.  Again, this is something I did have control over; it was a mistake not to practice this. To compensate I grabbed a few extra gels at the aid stations just in case. I did take 1 more that was unplanned and I drank a little bit more gatorade than I had planned.

At about 20km, I came together with a couple of pro women.  We worked together and managed to pick up 2 pro men and a 4th pro woman.  It was really great to have company over the remainding 160kms.  At times one or two of us lost contact, but we were all together by the end.  Many people have asked me what I thought about for 5.25 hours on a flat,3  loop course.   I don’t remember being bored –  I seemed to have a lot to think about in terms of execution and technique.  One of the very specific instructions I was given by Coach David Tilbury-Davis was to force my aero position and to minimize coming out of it, even for nutrition, when I hit the windy sections.  I had to stay on track of my timing of my nutrition and coordinate with the non windy sections.  I had to pay attention to surges and changes in our little group’s dynamics.  I had to negotiate feed stations and all the thongs of people in the second and third loops (2700 people were all on a 63km loop by the second loop…if you run the numbers that is over 40 people every kilometer…).  I had specific technical things I was working on in terms of aero position and core engagement.  The right side of my low back tightened up in the first loop and I was managing that discomfort.  I was thinking about cadence, power, speed. On occastion I made comments to myself about how that person I just passed really shouldn’t be sitting up into the wind…and that person really shouldn’t be wearing all black, including compression sleeves in this weather…And things like “Wow.  That guy  has a clear plastic shopping bag with a sandwich inside of it tied to the underside of his seat”.  Honestly, I don’t think I thought about much else.  I got the job done, to the best of my ability and according to plan. 

T2 went smoothly – I didn’t feel any tightness in the quads or calves getting off the bike.  I loved how the volunteers actually put my hat on for me!  I felt so ‘taken care of’!

Heading out onto the run, I was nervous.  I was about to run a marathon.  A full marathon.  The longest I had run was 36 kms, let alone a marathon.  But I had my pace, nutrition and electrolyte plan and specific instructions not to make any decisions before 30kms.

I felt like I was jogging.  And I told myself that this was okay and this is what I should feel like.  I struggled to go slower than 4:40/km, when I was told to go no faster than 4:50/km.  I told myself to slow down.  I lambasted myself for making decisions…and I argued with myself that I wasn’t making decisions, that I couldn’t go any slower, that I felt like I was jogging.  This continued for 10kms until I did slow down.  My HR was holding were I wanted it to be, so I let the pace drift up.  The run was still enjoyable and felt fairly easy until about 24kms.  Then it got hard and I had to focus to hold the pace under 5:00/km.  I was fortunate to have motivation from pro women behind me, chasing me down, and ahead of me who I was catching.  I focused on 1km at a time.  I drank at every water station.  And then something weird happened around 28kms.  Things, I guess were starting to shut down, including mental faculties.  I got a thought into my head that I had been drinking too much pure water (even though I had been taking electrolyte pills diligently) and that if I didn’t stop I was going to get hyponitremia.  So I stopped taking water.  I reverted to Pepsi only at each water station that had it (which wasn’t every one).  The secondary thought was that I shouldn’t eat my gels if I am not drinking water. So I also stopped eating my gels.  My HR started dropping as did my pace.  My HR eventually fell to about 10 beats less than what I had been previously pumping at. Thankfully the Pepsi provided enough hydration and cals to keep me going, although slowly. My quads started to feel like rocks and everything in me wanted to walk.  I kept myself going by repeating the words “just keep running”.  A bit like Dora the Explorer…”Just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.  Every step was painful as my quad contracted agains the pavement.  It felt like someone was thumping them with sledgehammers.  I did keep running, it seems surreal that I didn’t walk.  I thought in the back of my mind that if I walked I may not get started again.  This seemed to keep the legs going.

Seeing the crowds at the finish, seeing the finish line, seeing my time…there should have been some divine, spiritual elation.  But, sadly, I felt nothing but that I had prepared and executed well.  

This brings us back to the quote from E. R.

I accepted that I needed to do an Ironman to understand the training and the race to its core.  I did not do this as a lifelong dream to finish or podium.  And so, I must accept that I did not have brilliant moments anywhere in the race.  I took on this challenge, and with my coach, prepared as meticulously as possible for this specific race. Finally, I commited to doing the best I could on the day.  Could I have done better?  Perhaps.  Do I want to do another one?  Not at this point.  I took it on, did the best I could do and I am happy with the result.

 

I will post pictures and more detail regarding the prep, lessons learned and some more reflections in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Hot Weather Racing

At the Race Start at the Cozumel 70.3, there are dolphins in the background.

2 weekends ago I raced in the Cozumel 70.3 and it was really hot. I knew it was going to be hot, but I thought that I could finish before the heat exhaustion really set in. I was wrong. The swim was great, the bike was good until about 70kms in when I felt the heat was really taking its toll on me. I slowed down a bit, but by the time I got to the run I knew that I would not be able to survive the 40 C (with the humid X) so I decided to cut my losses and walk every water station. I made sure to stuff ice down my shirt (a tip I got from Leslie, thanks Leslie), drink lots of Gatorade and douse myself with water. While my run time was not great I did manage to stave off heat exhaustion and finish the race relatively unscathed. I consider myself lucky as I had a friend who needed an I.V. after the race. Though I wasn’t prepared well for the heat of this race there are ways that you can prepare for an race where hot weather is expected, if you live and train in a cool climate like in TO.
To heat acclimatize you can overdress for your workouts or do them in warmer temperatures inside. When you go out for a run overdress or better yet do it inside on the treadmill. For bike training, you can bike inside with no fan, this really makes you sweat due to the lack of wind, but simulates hot humid conditions. Well this won’t make for the most enjoyable training, it’ll certainly prepare you the next time you have a race in a hot place like Cozumel, Mexico.
Mike M.