March Appetizers before Oceanside 70.3

So, I'm a bit of an introvert, a control freak, so I hold back to prepare for "just in case".  Well it took a few months, but my coach figured it out....I kind of let loose and gave a sneak peak by accident and had a few amazing workouts in a row.  Hmmm. my goal for SD Half marathon suddenly changed.  RUN HARD.  RUN TIL YOU PUKE.  I WANT YOU TO ALMOST DIE AT THE FINISHLINE.

umm really? shit..this is going to hurt... AGAIN.  SD Half is my PR run. 2:05.  emptied the tank in 2013 and I couldn't walk for 3 days.  NEVER AGAIN was my motto. PRs hurt.  I don't like it.

My plan was to whine enough to get my coach to buy in that 4 months after foot surgery wasn't enough time to have a good run so another PR was out.  I haven't been hill training and Washington and Noell hurt my non-flexible feet...so I want to brick on Saturday pre race and run 5 miles instead of running hard on Sunday. ok Coach? OH .HELL. NO.  I swear she had her fingers in her ears. GO RUN HARD. JUST GO. no HR monitoring, no pace monitoring, just let go.... need to see your max. ....sniffle sniffle sniffle....but but I haven't run that fast in a YEAR!!!  FINE.. hate you.

So, I start off with the same old plan.... chase the damn 2:00 pacer for as long as you can.. hey just see what happens.  BUT I can't find the pacer and the clock is ticking away...I found the 1:55 pacer in wave 3.  He said the next pacer would be in wave 4...ok so I waited in wave 4 with Marcus and Jay and Alexis...well, I will just pretend I can run their pace and chase THEM as long as I can. My 2:00 pacer was no where to be seen. (turns out I was with the 1:50 runners!)  I CAN'T run without a pacer people!  Oh LAWDY!

The Star Spangle Banner was sung so beautifully that I really think it lifted my spirits to just relax and run.  Off we went...I chased Jay for maybe 500 -- feet?  I don't know ..OMG he is fast but he got us out of the pack.  Then I saw Alexis...I chased and chased until she was a blur in front of me...I lost her and my watch lap went off..WTH??? 8:34?? that's impossible.  I can't run that fast. Keep chasing... I looked at feet, cadence, calves...whatever it took to keep a quick rhythm in my head so my feet would follow. Another lap marker..8:37?? I don't believe it....keep going...Tina the Beast says the run is the Hunt...GO HUNT those runners, she said!!!...another mile marker 8:53 ??? Really?  3 eight's in a row...well maybe I should adjust my goals.  I just PR'd a 5k...so I will give Julie my best 10k and then call it a day...the  miles ticked by 9:14, 9:25, 9:35... but I haven't really been running much faster than 9:50 - 10:00 on the treadmill so this is really insane speed for me. OMG 10k 56 minutes PR...but I thought I couldn't run a 10k under an hour?  ok let's add 2 more miles and give Julie our best EIGHT miles lifetime achievement award..another 9:35/9:38 tick by..still not 10 min pace yet?? WHOOPS slam on the brakes, here's Noell and Washington.. deep breath...grind it out...yes I slowed incredibly.. slower than last year due to no hill training..BUT it didn't hurt as much as last year so that's AWESOME !!! yea foot surgery!

Got to the top of Washington, took a deep breath, and picked up a quick cadence again. I tried to pickup my lost time. I lifted my chin and dug in for the hunt...I was ACTUALLY on track to PR!!! How is this possible?? GO GO GO GO... I know all the landmarks. Take deep cleansing breaths for a mile.  Finally we are running along Balboa Park.  First, it's the Bridge Club; Next it's the Chess Club. Woohoo it's all downhill from here! Run like you are on FIRE!! oh no that was last year... run in control but VERY fast!!  I hurry down the first hill, cutting the corner close. Then it's mile 12 and it's 2:01 and both calves start pulsating...firing like they want to explode but NOPE this is not happening to me.  I will NOT give in to the pain.  My calves got louder with cramping and I struggled to extend my legs. NOPE not stopping ... this will be a PR...I WILL PUKE if I have to...I can see the finish line now!!! What if this was IMAZ?  would I crumble and stop for a massage like others on the sideline?  OH. HELL. NO is my mantra....I am screaming and swinging my arms, nips to hips, as hard as I can while my calves kept cramping...why are there 3 timing mats???  Finally I cross the 3rd mat and stop my watch which says 2:05.  I weep.  Tied my finish time with last year.  Damn it .  I hate running. sniffle sniffle sniffle.

On the way home, I thought maybe the seconds would give me a PR so I decided to compare year over year "official" times and GUESS WHAT?? I did PR! by 28 seconds!  I just pushed my STOP a little late!!!  Wow...I can't believe it!  I set a PR when I thought it was impossible.

Race Results 2013
Bib:	8290	Overall:	2389 out of 5711
Name:	Lisa Serrano	Women:	910 out of 3124
Gender:	F	F 45-49:	75 out of 291
Age:	49	Age/Grade:	58.77% Place: 1052
Hometown:	San Diego, CA	Finish:	2:05:22 Pace: 9:34
Race Results 2014
Bib:	1780	Overall:	2204 out of 6031
Name:	Lisa Serrano	Women:	854 out of 3369
Gender:	F	F 50-54:	44 out of 235
Age:	50	Age/Grade:	59.71% Place: 922
Hometown:	San Diego, CA	Finish:	2:04:54 Pace: 9:32

And what does my coach say about my results of this amazing day?  Oh now my run pace for Oceanside has to be 10:00 min pace!! WHAT???? But Coach, I run 11 minute miles off the bike! I can't see me running a 10:00 minute pace.  Coach said... don't worry, I can see it.   OH LAWDY!

Next appetizer is next weekend 3/15:  Oceanside Tri simulation: 35 minutes ocean swim, 51 mile bike, 6 mile run. Empty tank. Puke if you have to but JUST DO IT.

Feb & early March Shenanigans

I have realized over the last 2 1/2 years that the addicted triathlete quickly pats his/herself on the back for goals met at the last event, kicks his/herself for some of the stupidity - I mean lessons learned... and skips along with great adrenaline to the next event... I awoke from the Palm Springs Century/Half marathon weekend with the reminder on Monday March 1 - was  Day 1 of 7 weeks before my nemesis Ironman Oceanside 70.3 . Third time is a charm right?   I swear I can get this right if I train hard enough, get a coach, lose weight.. OMG I still have my winter weight to lose!!!   What's on the calorie burning training schedule? NOTHING... not a damn thing..It's just be still day ...oh...the suffering my coach puts me through... :(  and I'm starving. Eventually I'm going to have to go cold turkey on sugar.

Well I made up for the day off.  I did a triple workout Thursday.. so tired. and then Coach's schedule said 3 repeats on Scripps Poway Saturday.   I nearly died midway on the third one.  Seriously I just wanted to lie in the ditch and take a nap.  Coach says no brick run. WHY? We always run after we ride!  It's a 3day weekend. Fine I'll just kill myself on Sunday running up inside Torrey Pines and Portofino for 14 miles.  Why must I torture myself? ( I know my coach is laughing right now.) I do love the Torrey Pines North Beach shown in the picture under the bridge for the ocean view though!

 Yeah! Ride outside on holiday Monday!!! Coach says repeats on the Oceanside 70.3 course hill #1 and THEN brick...ok you win. I'm dead. VERY dead.  Weight loss... nothing...I still can't break away from sugar. Stupid. I know.  All this work, no fat loss, because of sugar. Crap. Must get brain to shut off the sugar suction.

My next day off was an appointment at Swim Labs which gave a detailed analysis by videoing your own technique (or lack of) with instant feedback (here's the perfect swimmer.. and here's you Oh Lawdy help me) and it helped me really understand the catch and hinge at the top. I was doing it far too late and losing a lot of pull. It's been my focus since this session and I'm seeing improvement.......in seconds... geez.  Swim improvement takes forever.   I hope to go again as I continue to improve and practice. It's crazy that you don't know how badly you swim until you see it for yourself...the video analysis is so worth the money.  Why keep practicing incorrectly?

Finally weather and timing permitted the Great Western Loop ride. I really wanted to ride these hills in my tri bike before Oceanside 70.3 for the first time for at least mental training.  Another sufferfest ensued.  I felt like a slug, cycling slower than I did a year ago.  I managed to get through the brick but very disappointed...But I met Maude the Jackass at the Market so it was worth it.  

Sunday was a run covering the SD Half section that is so painful which is shorty Noell St and demonized Washington st.  It's only 6/10th of a mile hill so why does it hurt so bad?  Cuz you are burning up Noell for 300 feet which sears your lungs at a sharp elevation, then you get 1/4 mile to calm your heart before you go UP Washington, recognizing your pace is dropping dramatically with every step up to see God at the top.  It's not that it is super steep, but it's the buildup to it, and then just as you think it is over WAALAAA, it bends sharply upward just to make you squeak out a little cry at the top!  I did a u-turn at the top and ran back down Washington to finish another 5 miles but during the race, your brain kicks your ass at the top and says RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!! you just dropped 2 minutes off your average pace!  and so you do... and you run with wings to the end about 2-3 miles down hill.  (alas.. hours later... you can't walk because you just shredded your quad muscles from running downhill like you were on fire..NOTE: don't run downhill out of control or you will pay dearly for 3 days!)  I have not been able to get my pace back up from a year ago since foot surgery so I can't consider trying to beat my PR time so I will just have to do the best I can and focus on it as a training run and not a PR run. My intensity is just not the same as last year before foot surgery and before employment when my life was all training.

I tried to run intervals on this 10 mile run as prescribed but I just couldn't do it consistently.  My legs felt like concrete....What the hell is wrong with me???  Well Lisa, you are trying to carry a 10lb bag of potatoes on your back and go faster...why not try something different and LOSE the extra 10 POUNDS!!!  Monday, Feb. 23,  I made a final decision to cut sugar, add a huge salad before lunch and a Progresso Light soup before every dinner....7 days later,  I have dropped 3 lbs!  Detox is hell.  I was very grouchy but I'm in week 2, still on the no sugar wagon, and I already feel better.  I emptied the house of all sabotage too.  I will get this extra weight off...I'm determined now. Why did I wait so long?

The NCC Challenge ended 2/28/14.  Woohoo this was my 2nd year.  I'm happy with this year's results although less than last year in mileage because I worked full time 2014 and last year, 2013, I was unemployed.   Last year, I was in AG 45-49 and earned 8th place of 178 with 2947 points . This year was so much HARDER adding a full time job!

Stats:

8th/170 Age Group 50-54
2578.87 total points

176th / 3000 overall

176th swim

248th Bike

390th Run

20th/71 TCSD participants

March 1, we had a weekend storm.  4 days of rain...Mother Nature was mean.  I knew I wouldn't be able to train outside every weekend up to IMAZ.  San Diego has near perfect weather but sometimes we do get that generous helping of rain on the weekend which means long rides will be a sufferfest on a trainer and a long run will be in pouring rain.  This is the mental training part of ironman training.  It's kind of required to suffer in practice just in case weather on race day is bad and you are prepared.  It still sucks though.  The best part of suffering is to do it in a group setting and so my
3 1/2 hour ride on a stationary trainer was amazing because of the great company at Endurance House and the wonderful vegan/veggie potluck afterwards.  Tina Valle is such an inspiration to us all.  Her Beast mode..(and beast balls) are amazing! I was lucky enough to dodge the rain for my 45 minute brick and enjoy running the coast watching the angry ocean.  It was amazing!  But as I laughed at the ocean on Saturday, Mother Nature punished me on Sunday with a 2:15 hour rain run.  It was tough and I had all kinds of mantras to get me through it, but I survived and was grateful for a hot shower and hot soup afterwards!

I was excited to get back to open water swimming but the rain blew out those plans so I replaced it with another attempt at descending 100s.  FINALLY I accomplished 15 x 100's 10 sec rest descend 1-5, 6-10,11-15.  Not only can I not count laps past about 8 but gradually increase speed every 100 yards 5x so you don't die on the 5th and THEN repeat 3x... REALLY?  I got super close this time so I'll take it as win!  Just being close kind of made me feel like a real swimmer!...I guess beforehand, I was a rubber ducky.

Well, I will finally venture back into the ocean this Friday.  Water temps seem to be 58-62 degrees.  Heavy sigh...I've been in the pool so long now that my body only knows 84 degrees.  It's in for a rude awakening but better now than on race day, March 29.  Hopefully my SD Half run goes well on Sunday too.  Stay tuned for the outcome and..drum roll...Ironman California 70.3 shenanigans.