Treadmill Love

With a half-marathon coming up, I'm spending some quality time on the treadmill. Tuesday's run was active recovery working on turnover, a perfect sesh for the tready. I did one of my favorite workouts, progressives. I started with a mile at 7:30, then 2 miles at 7:03, 3 miles at 6:52, 2 miles at 6:44 pace and then a half mile warm down. If you run on the tready, make sure you put the incline between 1.0-1.5 to best simulate road running. Besides being able to work on fast turnover without taxing the muscles, the tready is a great way to practice mental toughness. There is always a moment when my mind tells me, "I can't hold this turnover, I'm gonna roll off", or "It's too hot, I need air", and I really need to work through these thoughts. This is good practice for those race day negative moments. And finally, I noticed that when my hips started to fatigue, the treadmill would start to shake more when my technique fell off. This was great feedback and reminded me to focus on good running form, and to not let my hips drop and sway too much.

Libby and Neil had a layover on their way to Auckland, New Zealand for the World Championships. They must have brought the hot and sunny weather with them from Florida, because it was a cracker of a day in SF. I took them to all of my favorite spots including: a walk through the Mission, lunch at Samovar, and we basically saw all the sights along the Escape from Alcatraz bike and run courses. And to keep their stomachs full and happy for the 12-hour flight to NZ, I introduced them to the bread pudding at Tartine. Good luck Libster! It's no ironman so I expect you to redline it the entire time. And I'm including the video of my skydive over the Remarkables in Queenstown, there is no better view if you are going to jump out of a plane.

Dear & Yonder

Last week, I had an itch to watch one of my favorite movies, Dear & Yonder. My friend Judy, now a world famous bodyboarder since the movie release, is one of the females profiled in the movie. I attended the premier screening two years ago, and it was from that experience that I was turned onto some, as Oprah would put it, "of my favorite things" (how did that get in my head?):

The movie has a great message, especially for young girls (I intend to turn both of my nieces onto this movie when they are age appropriate).

The soundtrack is simply OFF THE HOOK!

It was the longboarding scene in Noosa that inspired me to seek this place out on the Sunshine Coast when I was in Australia.

Thalia Surf Shop was raffling off prizes at the premier, and since then, this artistic and eclectic surf shop is a favorite of mine.

Artist Jeff Canham does a lot of the art work for the surf shop, and now he too is a favorite artist of mine.

I know there are only five days until Christmas, but just in case you are out of ideas for gifts...

And on a slightly related note, I want to give a shout out and say goodbye to a favorite surfer chic of mine, Libby Bergman. She's taking a break from blogging and her exit, like her, is a class act. Go read it. Thanks for all of the behind the scenes advice Libster. Onward and upward!

A Whole Lot of Crazy Out There

Set a goal, get sick...that's been my pattern of late. After deciding I would run the 50-miler, I got sick the following week. I recently decided to do the Strava 100-Mile Challenge and boom, three days later, I'm sick and sitting here on a Saturday morning writing this post. The cool thing about being sick is that it makes you really appreciate when you are healthy and to not take things for granted. It must be the Universe's way to keep things in perspective and keep life balanced. Big woop woop to Beth Shutt for taking the leap and going pro next year, well earned and well deserved, you have my full support Beth! And big woop woop to Libby Bergman for gnawing on the endless possibilities out there for her next endeavor post Kona. Can you tell I've been catching up on blogs? Well, back to the title of the post.

Post 50-miler, I'm starting to learn that there is a whole lot of crazy out there, crazier than ironmans. A friend emailed me a couple of days after my 50-miler and reminded me that I had qualified to throw my name in the Western States 100-miler, and she encouraged me to do it. I immediately thought of this quote from a movie, "Go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here". I started to do some research, and well, there's a whole lot of crazy out there...and I'm not sure I'm quite ready to be that crazy...yet. The first crazy I found was a guy who raced the Leadville 100 in sandals: http://lunasandals.com/blog/14-Leadville-100-Trail-Run-in-Luna-Sandals. Just in case you don't feel like reading the entire article, I thought I would extract the best part from this read:

There's some debate at Luna whether miles run can be "junk miles," and after my experience I definitely believe in running the minimal amount necessary to get ready for an ultra. I'd like to take it one step further and say that there are not only junk miles but also "harmful miles," and on the flip-side, "golden miles."

Harmful miles are the ones that you don't want to be doing, the ones where you wish it were over. These miles will actually hurt your future performance, especially running in an event. Running with negative thoughts in your head is only going to make the negative thoughts come more easily next time. In an ultra, negativity will stop you faster than a brick wall. Golden miles on the other hand, are exactly the opposite. They're the kind of miles you spend running with your best friends, or alone on a trail feeling like you're flying through the forest, or where the rain won't stop coming down and the smile won't leave your face. These miles are worth millions. I strive to make all of my miles golden miles. Even though my training may average 5 miles per week, you'd be hard pressed to put in a better 5 miles than I do.

However, I would like to add one caveat to his golden mile philosophy. Golden miles can HURT. The term golden miles can be misleading and give an impression that all miles should be fun and feel good. But recall that he tells us golden miles are void of negative thoughts, you can hurt and still be golden as long as you don't have negative thoughts. Thus, keep doing those mile repeats at threshold or race pace minus 10. And keep doing those looooong runs of 20+miles, all the while, keeping them golden and void of negative thoughts.

The second crazy I found was a bit more inspiring, a trailer for a documentary on the Western States 100. Enjoy.

My Body

My body tells me no but I won't quit
Cause I want more, cause I want more

Crush dreams in Kona y'all! Though I can't be there, I'll be suffering with you because I just realized my 50-miler is on the very same day on October 8. My goal is to finish faster than the first place pro male at Kona, and to help me get there, this tune has served me well in training and will be on replay in my head come race day. I hope it serves you well too!

PR's

We've all been out on a training ride, run, or swim, feeling surprisingly good, and thus we continue to increase the effort. Next thing we know, we establish a PR. This type of PR is always a pleasant surprise. I've had several season PR's go this way, in fact, I think the majority of my PR's this season are happenstance. The happenstance PR is win-win. If you get one, great! If not, you weren't supposed to get a PR so you didn't fall short of anything. Yesterday, I went out and earned a PR the hard way.

The schedule called for a strong effort ride with hard efforts on two climbs. Since I've been claiming how fit I feel of late, I knew I had to back up this statement. There is no reason why I should NOT believe that I should get a PR. I'm three weeks out of my A race for the season, and I feel well prepared and ready to rock and roll! I should be in the best of shape and well capable of a season PR. The PR where you plan and then must execute is much tougher psychologically. The difference is the element of failure. But I had no time to think about failure, I was too busy working on believing in my capabilities. As luck would have it, I had read the article on Lukas Verzbicas, the high-schooler who just set a national record for the 2-mile (8:29:46), just before my ride. In the article, he said, "Setting a goal time is the first step in a record assault. I knew in my mind I had it the whole time, belief in oneself is a very powerful tool in my opinion." And with this thought in my head, I set out to set some PR's.

The first climb went off without a hitch, and mentally, I was in it to win it. The result was a minute plus season PR and about 30 seconds off my lifetime PR. Approaching the second climb, I was in a tougher place mentally due to fatigue. I found myself beginning to cushion myself for possible failure. Kiet, it's okay if you don't get this, you ran 16+ miles two days ago. I started to come up with excuses as to why I would not set another PR. And all of a sudden, the word "BELIEVE" popped in my head. I BELIEVE I can do this! And I spoke this word over and over again, all the way to the top of the climb in a season PR. As I was rolling home, I also realized that it was great that I got that second PR, but even more important than earning the PR, was believing I could do it and going for it. Believing in yourself and putting yourself out there to succeed has nothing to do with the outcome. You've succeeded the instant you decided to believe in yourself and go for it! I love this type of reflection when I'm out swimming, biking, or running. And this story was for you Libster.

Get the Work Done

During my sabbatical, the Aussies and the Kiwis taught me about HTFU; this past weekend, Ian taught me GTWD, or get the work done. Saturday was my longest ride of the season, 96 hilly miles, followed by an 8 mile brick run. Then it was off to the pool for 3200 yards of swimming. But one long day is not that hard, it's backing up that long day with more training, that there is the ironman training secret. It's the second day that you gain iron fitness. The second day involved a 12-mile run followed by 2 hours on the bike. By the time yoga came around that evening, my legs were thrashed and I suffered in chair pose. My yoga teacher, oblivious to what I do over the weekends, kept pushing me to sit lower, too funny. I really need to clue my teacher in as to what I really do before I hit her class. I also really need to do these things:

Take an ice bath after a long day-my legs were very sore the next day.
Refuel properly after a long day-I was calorie deficient starting my workouts the day after.
Always bring an emergency gel-on both runs I kept thinking to myself, "A gel would really improve my mood right now."

I started my coaching season last week which meant my training day started at 5:00 AM and ended between 7:30-8:45 PM depending on the day. After one week, there is no way I can sustain this schedule. Charisa to the rescue. She suggested I try an 8-2 schedule. Eight days where the focus is bike-run with some swimming and yoga thrown in as maintenance. Then two day recovery where I do weights and swim. The first two cycles are speed emphasis and the third cycle is volume. This schedule is much more sustainable, even leaving me some time to do things like clean my house and hang out with friends. The change-up is nice and there is reprieve every eight days.

And finally, the Libster gave me a pretty nice gift on Sunday. I was sitting at home thrashed after my 12-mile run, and opened my email to this picture. She ran her half-mary in memory of my mom, and seeing the picture made me realize how awesome sport can be. Simply put, you rock Libster!

From Burnout to Two Ironmans

I was hopping on the trainer at 5:15 AM and thought to myself, two years ago I was on the verge of burnout. I was only doing olympic distance races, my training was riddled with missed workouts due to lack of motivation, and forget about getting up for a 6 AM swim workout (been there, done that...ever since I was a kid). I didn't even race the first half of the year and only came back to racing after some teammates urged me to in order to get some points for a team race. After 17 years in the sport, and doing my first triathlon at 19 years-old, I wasn't sure how much longer I wanted to race. After several failed attempts at the ironman distance, I gave up and decided I would come back when I was 60 and most of my competitors were either playing golf or having reconstructive knee surgeries. Then I stumbled onto the blogosphere.

I can't remember how but I came across Bree Wee's blog and well, it was like a breath of fresh air. Her energy and enthusiasm for the sport was inspiring and contagious. As I followed, I started reading comments on her blog and from there, I was guided to other blogs, like Ian and Charisa. Over a rather short period of time, I was feeling inspired and motivated. As I kept following these blogs, and adding several more, I was stoking the fire within to race, and specifically to race the ironman distance. I had unfinished business. The whole process back was pretty organic and organic is good. Since then, I've armed myself with a gaggle of blogs for motivation and inspiration. Thus, when I'm up at 5 AM, I feel like I have company knowing that Libby was 30 minutes ahead of me (actually 3 hours and 30 minutes since she is in Florida), and several others whose day of training begins well before sunrise. It's funny how I went from burnout to two ironmans in one year, and if I'm lucky, I'll get a bonus ironman in October.