10,000 Hours

My husband and I usually do double workouts at least twice a week, usually Wednesdays and Saturdays. Wednesday I met him at the gym at noon and did a warm up on the spin bike and then hit the weights - upper body.

Later that day, I decided that instead of driving from our house to our other gym (we are members of two different gyms - sad, but true. We are fanatics) for the second workout, I would run the 5 to 6 miles and then do core and squats. It was an awesome workout day. I need more of them! It's the way I use to always train.

The good thing about living in the St. Petersburg area is there are sidewalks, bike lanes and trails everywhere. I didn't have to run directly on busy roads although I did have to cross several which can get dicey with all the 80 year old drivers around here. I made it to the gym in 55 minutes, which gave me over an hour of cardio for the day. This use to be my standard, but the past six months it's been more like 20 - 30 minutes/day of cardio.

I did squats when I got to the gym, just to finish my legs off and make sure I wouldn't be able to walk for a few days and then core and stretched. My husband was nice enough to drive me home so I didn't have to run the 6 miles back.

My legs were not sore at all the next day and that surprised me. I did some pretty intense squats. I think that doing more weights all winter and increasing the reps and the amount of weight has paid off. I hope it shows during triathlon season. My first triathlon is at the end of this month and I haven't been on my tri bike or in the pool yet. 

Last year, all the strength training I did got me through the short sprint races without too much pain despite my lack of time on the bike or in the pool. All the work I did in the gym everyday seemed sufficient. I realize I wouldn't be able to do that in a longer race that requires more endurance. I would have to put in the training time to make it through one of those longer races fairly pain free. As if that's even possible!

But what's a little pain. After all "Pain is just weakness leaving the body, " right?

I admit that I am a little nervous because my first official race of the season is coming up at the end of this month and I've spent way more time reading and working on my writing than swimming and biking. I believe in the 10,000 hour rule that was introduced in the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell that says it takes at least 10,000 of doing something before you get proficient at it. Over the past 17 years I've put the 10,000 hours into swimming, biking, running and racing and now it's time to put the 10,000 hour rule to work in my writing.

The 10,000 hour rule not only means putting in the time, but it takes more than that as you can read about in this article HERE   that states not only do you have to put in the time, but you have to put in quality time as well.

Many years ago when I started biking I joined a local bike club. This got me not only riding longer, building up to Century rides, but also riding faster because I didn't want to get dropped out in no man's land and have to find my way home all alone.

When I started running, I ran with people who were a little faster than me so it forced me to go faster. Then when it came time to train for marathons, I had a small group to run and socialize with which made the time go by faster.

After learning the basics of the freestyle on my own and building up a small base, I started swimming with a masters group to help get my technique better and also get faster, since I think some of the people I was swimming with were part fish.

Recently, I started taking online writing classes to help me write better. I've also been reading a lot about writing and reading authors who write in the genres I'm interested in writing. I'm no where near the required 10.000 hours, I estimate that will take me about 7 years, but I've made the commitment and I'm on my way.

 I consider my blog writing as part of the 10,000 hours and I've been blogging for almost 3 years.

Have you used the 10,000 hour rule in your life and if so, what have you become more proficient in because of your commitment and time?

How Far Behind I Am - A Comparison

Image from iamtri.com

Last week was the 2nd week of my Ironman 70.3 training plan. I didn't exactly do a great job following it. To see just how far behind I am in training, I decided to do a comparison of what was on the plan to what I actually did that day.

Below is the comparison of the actual training plan and what I actually did...

                          The 70.3 Plan                                        What I actually did that day

Monday           1000 yd swim                                          8 miles on spin bike = 30 minutes
                         20 mile bike                                             Treadmill brick run .5 miles = 5 min.

Tuesday           1250 yd swim                                          Nothing
                          45 min run

Wednesday       25 mile bike                                             2 mile run aprox 20 minutes
                                                                                       

Thursday          1000 yd swim                                          6 miles on spin bike aprox 20 min                            
                           35 min run                                               4 mile = 40 min run

Friday                                                                              .5 mile run on treadmill = 5 min

Saturday           55 min run                                               Run 1 hr

Sunday             30 mile bike                                             Bike on spin bike 1 hour = aprox. 17 miles

I did core and weights on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday which is not included on the plan.

Total workout hours on plan = Swim aprox  1 hr 15 min to 1hr 30 min
                                                   Bike aprox    4 /12 to 5 hrs
                                                   Run  aprox   2hrs 10 min

                                                     Total aprox 7:30 to  8 hrs

Total I actually did last week = Swim aprox   0 hrs
                                                   Bike aprox    1 hr 50 min (all on spin bike)
                                                   Run aprox     2hr 10 min
                 
                                                     Total aprox 4 hrs

With weights, core workouts and elliptical added in I did aprox 7 1/2 hours last week so I got the number of training hours in, but not in the areas I was suppose to be working on. (which is very important when you are in the middle of a half ironman.)

It's clear I've got a lot of work to do especially swimming and biking. Not surprising that I have the run hours down plus some (since I ran 13 miles a couple of weeks ago already), but 0 swim hours.

That's so me!

Actually I don't feel so bad now that I've done the above comparison because I'm not as behind as I thought I was. The training plan doesn't include weights, which I do four times a week and core too. The plan also doesn't include brick (bike then run) workouts which I do every Thursday and sometimes after I do a long bike on Saturday or Sunday as well.

The 70.3 Ironman isn't until the end of October so I still have plenty of time. It was tough for me to focus last week because I was so worried about my cat, Phantom. He is doing great this week and seems to be handling the chemo drugs well. I've actually gotten some sleep the past three days. And when I sleep, everybody around here sleeps, husband and cats. (well maybe not the cats at 5 am).

Image from quotesvalley.com

Sleep helps me train better too. Maybe I should add it to the training plan!

Image from zazzle.com

Buster Britton Memorial Triathlon

Watching the 3rd place baby fly!

Saturday I raced in the Buster Britton Memorial Triathlon in Birmingham, Alabama. It was my 12th time to do the race which was the very first one I did in 1999 when my son was seven years old. I have raced it every year except two over that 14 year period. (read about last year's race here and here)

Over the years they have shortened the swim from 600yds to 400yds and shortened the bike from 16 miles to 13 miles and moved the transition area up the road a bit until now it's at the very last picnic area before you start up the barely paved rough road that winds it's way up the mountain to peavine falls.

That's where the run takes place. It goes gradually uphill out and then mostly downhill back except a couple of small uphills. It's not bad though. The bike ride is the same. Going out is rolling but mostly uphill and coming back is smoking fast downhills with a couple of uphills.

There's a reason it's called "Oak Mountain" State Park.

In line for swim start... adjust the googles.... it's important!

The swim start is not a mass start. Everyone lines up by race number and goes in the water every 3 seconds. It use to drive me nuts to stand in line and wait, but after last year being at the end because I registered late, it doesn't bother me at all. I even got to the race at 6:30 instead of my usual 5:30 a.m time and parked a fairly long distance away from transition and that was fine. This was my husband and chief athletic supporter, staff photographer and food and beverage coordinator that broke me of the my OCD habit of having to get there at a certain time, park in a certain place, do everything in a certain way or have complete meltdown.

I actually race better now!

There was one small moment of panic when I couldn't get my bike in transition area before the race start because I wasn't wearing my arm band. It was way down the street in the car because I hate wearing those things! We have to have our bike racked by 7 a.m and I only had 5 minutes to run back to the car and grab it and get back. I had also forgotten my bike pump and had pumped the tires a little before we left Pensacola on Friday, but I knew they needed more air.

I rode the bike to the car to get the arm band and then went by the Bike Link tent to get the guys to pump air in my tires. Good thing because the back tire only had about 65psi and I usually race at 100psi. Luckily, there wasn't a line and I got my bike in transition right at 7 a.m with tires full of air.

Image from Facebook.com -Team Magic photo

Ready to go!

The water as usual was very warm and very brown and squishy at the bottom. The ramp is slippery but they had us going in next to the ramp with a carpet down. I wish the carpet had been extended all the way into the water until it was deep enough for me to start swimming though. It was squishy.

Thinking if I lean back far enough it will postpone going into the icky brown water....

Finally in the water swimming around...

It was very foggy at the start of the race and my googles were a little foggy too so I had a little trouble seeing where I was going. I think I stayed on course though. My swim time was only a few seconds slower than last year at a little over 9 minutes. Two minutes slower than I had wanted though.

Buster Britton transition area... you can't come in without your wristband... don't forget the wristband! Trust me!

The camera battery died right after the swim start so the Murph couldn't take any other pictures of the bike and run portions of the race. I got the awards ceremony photos off of facebook. The President of the Vulcan Triathletes Club took them. I missed the group photo with them though. I usually do! Now I am a member of both the Vulcan Triathletes and the TriGulfCoast club in my new home city. I guess this will be my last year as a Vulcan Triathlete. 

I will miss that too even though I haven't been training with them much the last couple of years because I haven't been training much at all the last couple of years! That will change now that I'm training for a 70.3 race.

Transition area

Award ceremony

I felt a little flat on the bike and I don't really know why. It was the first time this year that I've used the race wheels. I didn't use them in the other two races I did last month so I thought I would feel faster but nope. I was a minute slower on the bike than last year which was disappointing since I've been on the bike more than last year.

Buster Britton Finish line... always a welcome sight!

My run was much faster and I that's because of all the 5k's I did in April. I've been working on speed and keeping my long distance runs under 13 miles. Long distance has always slowed me down.

Overall I was about 3 minutes faster than last year and placed first in my age group same as last year. This year we stayed for the award ceremony so I could get my award. I'm glad I did because I also got a bag of all kinds of goodies such as running socks, bike tubes, water bottle, bike co2 pump, power gels, etc. It took a very LONG time to get to my age group though because I'm so old. The Murph was somewhat patient and I appreciate it. He even broke down and used the port-o-potty, something I thought he would never do.

Also, new this year was that everyone, all the race finishers, received a very nice finisher medal. After all that hard work everyone deserves a medal, especially the ones on the course in the heat after the 2 hour mark. They deserve something more than the top finishers and now they get some hardware too.

At packet pickup Friday I ran into the psychiatrist my son has been going to for ADD meds since he was in 6th grade. The same psychiatrist who diagnosed the Boy with Asperger's when he was in 8th grade and changed our lives for the better. He told me he was racing and that Buster Britton was his first triathlon. I didn't see him during the race, but as I was heading over to look at the results after the race I ran into him again and asked him how he did. He kicked butt! He placed 6th in his age group and was 6 minutes faster than me.

I have to admit I couldn't find his results because I thought he was much younger than he is. When I first took my son to see him many years ago, I even remember thinking he's so young that he probably just got out of school. "How much experience does he have? He's barely older than the Boy." Of course, I immediately realized he was very qualified and I shouldn't be so quick to judge. After seeing the race results I realized he's older than I am! Oh, well, sorry I thought what I thought! I'll never tell though!

The race is named after Buster Britton, a Birmingham area triathlete who died while doing a fun run a couple of weeks after doing the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii about 25 years ago. Buster Britton's family was there and his daughter spoke about what a great legacy this race was for their family. This was the first time I had seen the family and I didn't realize that Buster Britton's daughter was pregnant with his grandchild when he died. The granddaughter had never met her grandfather, but his legacy lives on in the triathlon which is one of the longest running ones in Alabama.

That was very touching. I hope that I can continue to do the race in the future even though I'm not living in Birmingham. Oak Mountain use to be practically in my back yard and was one of my favorite places to train. I will miss it.

Another pic of award ceremony.... babies still flying!

Except not the icky brown water part!

My Half Ironman Training Plan - Because I Need One Now...

Image from tbtriathlon.com

Last year at the Coastal Triathlon in Orange Beach, AL, I came in first place masters category, which qualified me for a slot into the USAT Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee this August. It was the first time I've ever qualified for anything like that so I had planned on doing the race this year. Unfortunately, we have too much going on in August so instead of going to Milwaukee and doing an Olympic Distance Triathlon, I signed up for a half ironman 70.3 race in October.

Image from triradar. com

That means I have to start regular triathlon training. Not the kind of "regular" do what I feel like doing kind of training that I do now. I have to come up with a plan and I have to follow it. I have to somewhat follow it fairly regularly whether I feel like it or not. I have to start swimming and biking more consistently again. It's been a nice break but now it's time to buckle down again and get serious.

I have done several half ironman triathlons in the past and for all except one of them I have followed a training plan I found on the trinewbies.com website. Here is the link to the training plan below:

18 Week Half Ironman Training Plan

If you are new to half ironman training and don't want to hire a coach, I highly recommend it. I started using it in January several years ago for a half ironman that was in May. It starts out very easy, especially if you're like me and don't swim or bike much during the off-season which for me is November and December. All I do during those months is run and whatever I do in the gym. No swimming. It's easy to start with the swims in January and build up from there. I usually am way ahead of the run part of the training plan.

I find the race date on the calendar and count back 18 weeks and then start filling in the workouts on a blank calendar. I use to use a paper calendar, but this time I think I will use Google calendar. When I was training for Ironman Canada in 2010, my coach had my training plan on Google calendar and he could change things as needed and we could both access it. I still have some blank paper calendars that I can fill in the dates and my workouts if I want to do it that way too.

Below are my times for all the 70.3's I've done with the fastest being 5:42:18. My first 70.3 was 5:43:35 and in both of those races I used the above training plan.

All Years » Triathlon & Multisport » Half Iron

Best:	5:42:18	Gulf Coast Triathlon 2005 / Half IronHalf Iron (5/7/2005)
Latest:	7:23:52	2011 Ironman Hawaii 70.3 / Half Iron (6/4/2011)
Average:	6:09:47	6 races completed over 9 years 1 months 6 days

My slowest 70.3 was the most recent, Hawaii 70.3 in 2011 and the only only one where I did not use the 18 week training plan. (or any training plan)

Reason's (aka Excuses) for my slowest and latest half ironman results other than the fact that I'm just older and slower...

1. I followed no training plan and actually did not "train" at all for the race except for running and   
    getting on the exercise bike at the gym and weights.

2. I only swam twice before race day after taking 9 months off after doing Ironman Canada.

3. I only biked on my tri bike 3 times in those 9 months with my longest ride being only about 20 miles 
    since I was "burned out" from all the Ironman training.

4. I had to get stitches in my hand and elbow while in Hawaii after doing a practice swim the day 
    before the race.

5. My bike didn't show up until the day before the race and I wasn't able to do any practice rides before 
    the race. I barely got it checked into transition in time for the race. My bike fit was totally screwed up 
    with my seat being too low. (I actually realized I ride faster that way after I got use to the weird way 
    it felt.)

 6. Due to my inept packing of my bike, some bike parts fell out of the box during transport and I was 
     running around trying to purchase replacement parts after getting the stitches mentioned above.

7. During T2 when I was about to put on my running shoes, I realized that I had two un-matching 
    shoes (Here). I had packed them up, flown them all the way from Birmingham to Hawaii, then put   
    them in my T2 run bag, never even realizing my mistake until the middle of the race when it was 
    time to put them on and run. Luckily, I had one lefty and one righty, otherwise I would've looked   
    even stranger than usual.

Those are my excuses and they are pretty darn good excuses I think. There were so many times during that trip/race that I thought about calling it quits and not doing the race. Especially while getting stitches and worrying about getting my bike put back together in time. I was totally depending on the bike shop guys who were putting the bikes together at the host hotel to get it right the first time. There was no time for errors or for test rides. My test ride was riding the bike from the hotel to the transition area and that was about it. The bike guys did great!

The doctor who did my stitches was wonderful even though the tetanus shot and the numbing shot hurt like hell. Even the Murph had to look away.

This time a training plan is very important because I am going for a faster time not just "to finish". My goal is to finish in under 6 hours. With the above plan, I think I can do that since I've done it before with that training plan. I know I can already jump into week 1 and follow all the workouts pretty close and work my other races (sprints, 5k's, half marathons, marathons) around the training as I did in the past.

The key is to not get injured or burned out. Two things that have also happened to me in the past! 


Also, if anybody has a good training plan that they recommend, I am open for suggestions.

Two Triathlons And A Birthday

This week I raced in two short sprint triathlons and celebrated my "25th" birthday. Okay, well maybe double that number and subtract two to get my real age, but what's a number, right? I feel better and am stronger now than I ever was in my twenties.

Let me tell you I had the best birthday I've ever had and I mean EVER! How could it not be good when I'm at the beach with my wonderful husband, all my cats, on a gorgeous day, racing in a triathlon and eating cake afterward.

Perfect! 

On Thursday evening I raced in the Portofino Sunset Series triathlon and this morning I raced in the Pensacola Beach triathlon. Both races are sprints meaning short and fast as opposed to long and slower.

Portofino Sunset Series Triathlon - Thursday Evening

Team MPI, a multisport coaching organization, puts on a series of super short sprint races at Portofino Island Resort in Pensacola Beach. They do around 6 to 8 of these from April until August or September. The maximum number of participants is around 60, but there were only about 25 of us last Thursday.

It is a perfect race for beginners who have never done a triathlon or for racers looking for a fast workout. The swim is 300 yds in the Santa Rosa Sound, 7.5 mile bike ride and 1.5 mile run. All fast and flat. It was a lot of fun. I did the race as my cardio for the day instead of my usual "brick" indoor workout at the gym.

It's time to get outside now!

After the race, the Murph and I had dinner and then birthday cake. The Murph told me he wasn't going to eat any of it but changed his mind after he saw me shoveling spoonfuls of it in my mouth. We got the cake at Walmart during our grocery shopping expedition and he was telling the cashier that it was a "one person cake".  I thought he meant me since I was the only one who was going to eat it, but now I'm not so sure who that "one person" was since he was the one who finished it off the other day before I could get another piece of it!

He even ate the other rose! This size cake clearly isn't big enough for the Murph and I.

 Pensacola Beach Triathlon - Saturday morning

This morning I raced in the Pensacola Beach triathlon which was much bigger, but also great for beginners since the swim is only 400 yds and was also in the Santa Rosa Sound behind the restaurant, Flounders instead of being in ocean waters which can sometimes be a little rough.

Transition area for the bikes was across the street from Flounders in the Casino Beach parking lot. The bike was 10 miles heading east going a little past Portofino Island Resort and back. The run was a little over 3 miles.

Pictures in the transition area.

Pictures behind Flounders Restaurant.

The run from Flounders back across the street to Casino Beach was a little tricky since I was running barefoot. I noticed when I got out of the water that the smart people had left flip flops over there to run back in. Oh well, they might not have stumped a toe, but I'm pretty sure it slowed them down!

I'm fumbling around in transition trying to get my running shoes on. I need to work on this!

I placed second in my age group. See the first place finisher in the middle? She looks fast! Four minutes faster than me! She did the race in less than an hour. No way could I have done that at this point. It's too early in training for me!

Overall, I was very happy with my times in both races especially considering my lack of swim training and time on my tri bike.

Right now I'm tired, happy and a year older!