Learning to travel

Getting back to my normal training-albeit slowly for the past few weeks.  Melissa & I are on vacation this week in Monterey, California for 4 days then 4 days in Napa Valley.  Thanks to Get A Grip Cycles, I was able to pack my triathlon bike in a bike box and bring it here with me.  This meant I had to learn how to safely dismantle and pack it so I could easily put it back together.  I was a little nervous with doing this properly and getting it through the airlines with bike intact.  Kevin, the owner of Get A Grip gave me a few tips on how not to screw it up.  It might have been easier for me to rent a bike here instead but I figure this week is a good trial for me for when I go to Kona.  The bike made it safely and I was able to put it back together this morning.  Planning to try it out tomorrow morning on Big Sur if the weather holds.  Its about 50 and rainy here while Chicago is enjoying a sunny 75 degrees.

Melissa's uncle, Tim, has a home in Monterey but lives primarily in Los Gatos, about an hour north of there, where we stayed last night.  On the agenda this morning was a run in search of some incline.  Tim and his girlfriend Patti gave me some tips last night about where some good elevation could be found.  I finished the first part of the run through a couple hills and was heading to a second area with some trail running, but as a runner seeking hills, I could never pass up a stretch street with the name Overlook Road.  I deviated from my course, up around bend after bend I could hear the stream trickling down the mountain and surrounded by luscious trees that were straight out of a Berenstain Bears book.  My journey up took about 20 minutes of what I thought to be about 1.5 miles.  Once at the top, I turned around and tried the controlled descent that ticked off less than 10 minutes from my clock.  It was a beautiful run; certainly not fast but good none-the-less as I think any good run right now that my hip survives is a good run.  From mapmyrun.com, I estimated the total climb on the run was about 1200ft, about 3 times the climbing that I'll have to do in Hawaii.  Tomorrow morning I don't expect to feel the greatest but the hurt is part of the fun. 

Back on the wagon

Fortunately the long off-season is mostly over for me.  It’s been a trying one for me in not being able to run throughout the winter as I normally enjoy, especially given the pretty mild winter Chicago had this year.  As of this week, I’m partially back to running—not full speed & volume yet but SLOWLY getting there.  I’ve been focusing a little more this winter on biking on the indoor trainer and swimming.  As I’ve said all along, I don’t need to be in great running shape in April.  I don’t want this hip injury to linger on longer than it needs to.  Unfortunately I ran starting in early November and competed in a 5K which I think dragged this injury out longer.  I’m hoping that by having these past few months of mostly non-running that I can be a little fresher as I get going in high gear. 

A few weeks back while Melissa & I were on a Caribbean cruise, I thought things were progressing nicely as I ran 5 out of 7 days, including an 8 miler in the Cozumel heat.  The leg felt really good and I thought I was finished with the rehab.  Then I came back to the Chicago cold and the leg just wouldn’t loosen up, or it would be okay during the run, but after would tighten up and hurt worse.  The pain right now (as it has been all along) nothing to serious, but it’s the injury sort of pain that means something is wrong, not the hurt sort of pain.

The delay in running has also prolonged my shedding my off-season pounds.  As my races get closer, I become more disciplined with my diet but once the season is over, I do enjoy the occasional sweet.  Okay, truth be told I have a sweet tooth that has more endurance than I do.  I fully expected to put on about 10 lbs in the off-season and as of the end of January I successfully did that.  One request from a loyal reader is that I post my daily caloric intake.  I certainly do plan to do this as once my volume increases to a normal amount and see what gas I put into the tank. 

Dessert on the cruise--Melissa was of little
help so I pretty much finished both plates. 

Since the end of January, I have been more closely following my training specific diet, which for me is essentially limiting the alcohol and sweets I enjoy.  This really isn’t for the physiological benefits as much as the mental strength I feel I get by saying no to the things I enjoy.  With the Ironman training I certainly bike and run enough where I will get to the goal weight I want, so I don't think these calories would actually hurt me any, especially since they are simply replaced by other foods.  I do this because at some point during the Ironman race everything in your body tells you to quit.  I have only done 2 of these races but during the first race, this feeling lasted for about 4 miles, for the 2^nd race, this feeling lasted for about 18.  If I convince myself that I’ve done everything to make myself better, at those moments when the body says quit, I feel I have a stronger mind to block that feeling out.  So the limitation I put on myself is alcohol in moderation (less than 3 drinks on any given day) and one desert day per month, with 2 exceptions: 1) when celebrating someone’s birthday & 2) when on vacation so Melissa doesn’t have to enjoy dessert alone.  So, Emily France, keep posted for the food report. 

Oh, and for a quick update, I did pass my board exams so I’m happy to report I can put that behind me and continue to move forward focusing on other things at work and training.

Board Exams and Winter Training

Again been longer than planned since the last post--again, largely because the training hasn't been what I've wanted it to be.  Secondly, I have taken it easy with the training up until last week as I finished my 3rd board exams!!!  You might think that after 22 years of school and a couple extra years of training beyond that you wouldn’t have tests anymore.  You might also think that after this time I might feel confident in the knowledge I do have.  Sadly you would be wrong on both accounts if you thought either of those to be true.  Again, another exam completed, another humbling experience.  To be a licensed physician you have to take 3 steps of the USMLE exam as well as your specialty board exams (which comes at the end of residency—next year for me).  The USMLE Step 3 exam is a 2-day exam that consists of about 8 hours the first day and 6 hours the 2^nd.  It seems somewhat like a marathon each day although for a slower reader like myself I felt like I was sprinting to stay on pace to finish each section on time.  Everyone has strengths in life and these standardized exams are certainly not one of mine.  Now I just have to wait 3 weeks to find out if I pass. The good side of being on the other side of the exam is that I don't have to feel quite as guilty with spending the time working out.

I have been running intermittently but each time I try, I can tell my hip isn't quite ready to go yet, and it does me nothing to be in top shape in March or April.  So I've been relinquished to rehab, swimming, and the indoor bike trainer.  I'm am up to date on the latest news in the sports world via Mike & Mike, as well as all of the Office and How I Met Your Mother episodes thanks to the hours with the trainer.

The difficult part in this is that I don't feel like I'm truly training unless I can get in regular 12-18 mile runs which I'm nowhere close to right now.  I really do get a sense of satisfaction of coming in from a cold weather run where there is either new snow or the conditions leave the trails desolate.  I haven’t had any of that this winter and it is starting to wear on me.  At this point and after much debate about starting to run vs not, I guess my challenge is that I continue with my training by increasing intensity of my bike rides and swimming and continue to play it smart with not running. 

Fortunately I have access to a great pool where I can get my laps in (Big thanks to Marc Lopez—part of Team Lingor at Madison Wisconsin).  Swimming is one of the things you just have to learn how to do for the Ironman.  The cliché with the Ironman swim is that "you can't win the race on the swim, but you can certainly lose it."  The primary objective in an Ironman race is to be efficient as possible throughout the day.  That means my goal to conserve energy as much as possible on the swim but also be somewhat fast.  I would say I’m a fairly average swimmer, but for the Kona race, I’d like to take off about 4 minutes from my previous swim times.  Unfortunately, the Hawaiian Ironman doesn’t allow wetsuits to be worn and this is a disadvantage to someone like me that doesn’t have the most efficient swim stroke as the wetsuit provides a good degree of buoyancy and allows the hips to come up to make a more streamlined position.  Right now my swim pace is about 1:30 for 100 yards.  I’m hoping by Kona I can bring this pace to 1:24 / 100yds. The 6 seconds doesn’t sound like much of a difference but it is an important one that would mean over 4 minutes off the overall time.