Four Days -- and I Feel Fine (sort of)

It's very difficult to describe the first few days of training for something as grotesque (for lack of a better word) as an Ironman length race. Each of the three disciplines within the race represent as far as any normal human would like to swim, bike, or run. It causes people who go regularly to the gym, stay in good shape, and like exercise as a complement to their lives, not as the focal point of their lives to ask "why," and with good reason.

But back to the difficulty in describing the first few days -- the problem is, to be honest, that they are in some ways the easiest and the hardest. They are the easiest because they actually ARE the easiest -- they are the shortest in length and the lightest in intensity of the entire six month training period. Yet, they are often the hardest for the body to absorb and assimilate, especially if, like me, you kind of eased into the training period following an enjoyable holiday season, football playoffs, and Super Bowl. They're also a challenge in terms of other components of your life -- from diet, to sleep, to figuring out which workout routine works best for family -- in my case, specifically, the daily routines of my daughter and son who stay home with me during the day.

So, here I am four days in and, while I feel good and relatively strong and fresh, I'm also tired -- and I'm typing away in a pair of sweatpants that smell of chlorine... or is that my hair? There's laundry to be put away, some to be done (and I cannot describe the urgency of laundry when you train for an Ironman and you sweat as much as I do!), and also work to be done. Let's just say I hope none of my clients ever get wind of this blog.

DAY ONE: 45 Minute bike, with 6 x :20 power intervals

I think the key to starting any workout routine is to do your damnedest to complete the desired tasks without cheating, compromising, or skipping. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm following a specific 24-week ritual composed by Matt Fitzgerald, accomplished triathlete and Triathlete magazine contributor. In it, it calls for "power intervals" on the bike. Specifically, 20 second bursts in the highest, most difficult gear, with two minute active (meaning you couldn't carry a conversation) intervals in between. For the math whizzes out there, the first workout, calling for six such power intervals, takes 12 minutes. Considering the whole thing is supposed to take 45 minutes, that means 33 minutes of warmup and cool-down.

Like all of the other bike workouts done during the work week (Day One was a Tuesday), I'll be doing it at the gym. At the Frogs Fitness in Solana Beach, CA, they have a cool bike which allows you to cycle specific routes, watching the scenery go by, while also monitoring all of your stats. For those of you who don't know me, I do have a certain obsession with stats -- in terms of bike stats, there are three very specific ones I like to pay attention to. First, the speed -- it's kind of obvious, isn't it? We all like to know how fast we are going. The second is the elevation or grade of the road -- man, oh man, would I like to have this information when riding around hilly San Diego. When the road is heading uphill, you can adjust your gear downward -- downhill, the opposite. The final stat, and this one has recently gained a lot of attention in the athletic community, is the "power" or "wattage." This, like it says, specifically measures the wattage that you are putting out at the moment you are cycling. For the best of the best (Lance Armstrong), 400 watts is a reasonable goal for a sustained ride. For the likes of me, 200-250 is when I really start to feel it and the sweat starts to run like Niagara.

So, after dropping the Princess and the Pea off at the childcare (and how wonderful are those lovely people who watch my children while I workout), I head to the bike and decide that my legs will never be fresher -- and off I go! Rather than do a comfortable, recovery pace (think easy ride in the country) ride, I decide to go for it and to try and average 200 watts for the 15 minutes or so before I start my intervals. The screen allows for a pacer to be placed at whatever wattage output you choose, so I set my pacer at 200 and go for it.

To be honest, I was extremely well pleased with the result. I had spent about 15 minutes on a bike, actual or exercise, since Thanksgiving and yet I was able to comfortably rip off about 20 minutes at 204 watt average, heading into my power intervals. For those intervals, I chose the highest possible gear, rode them out (they felt more like lifting weights than riding a bike), and kept my active levels in between. Needless to say, 12 minutes and an entire 16 oz. water bottle later, I felt rubber-legged, but good. I finished the course, which meant that I had ridden about 46 minutes, so one minute more than the prescribed distance, waddled back to the showers (my legs were tired, but in a good way), picked up the kids and was off about my day.

I felt so accomplished that I took the Princess not only for a slice of pizza (c'mon, I just burned 680 calories!) but a cupcake as well. I think she wants me to do this more often! The Pea? He was tired and was glad to hit the hay when we got home.

That night, it all came rushing back. The feeling of adrenaline still coursing through your muscles, which had been relatively dormant to that point, causing them to feel anxious and restless, like when your limbs won't fall asleep at night. The soreness and squeakiness of 36 year old joints and cartilage. It was all there, but it all felt good -- I was right at home with it and glad to be back on the horse.

DAY TWO: 1600 yard swim (more or less)

Okay, so as I opened the book to see what I was supposed to swim on Wednesday, imagine my horror when I realize that I was supposed to ride for an hour the day before and not just 45 minutes. Considering what I had said about completing everything, it was a bit of a disappointment, but at the same time I had really redlined that ride, leaving my pacer minutes behind me -- in addition, I had completed the most important part, the 6 power intervals and active recoveries in between. Let's just say my frustration turned pretty quickly into "oh, well." After all, I'll be putting plenty of miles in -- it's my lungs that need the shock just at the moment.

All of this is a prelude to an honest discussion about swim sets. Each prescribed swim set in the 24 week training program is specifically designed to allow you to swim hard and strong for well over 4000 yards come race day. To accomplish that, some of each set is warm up and cool down (presumably to help avoid injury), some is technique (drill sets, kick sets, etc.) and some is flat-out swimming as fast as you can for specified lengths. You see, unlike biking or running, swim workouts are described in terms of distances, not time length... but more on that later.

So, today's swim set started out, as they almost all will, with a 300 yard warm up. For those who are not familiar, your typical junior high pool is 25 yards long. So that means 12 lengths, or six laps. The warm up, like the cool down, is really meant to be a relaxed swim, working on rotating your torso, stretching out your arms and shoulders -- if I were as zen as a yoga instructor, I would speak to becoming one with your body for the workout to come. I understand and appreciate all of that, and agree to a significant extent, but for me it's also just yards and yards of swimming -- in many respects, that is what I will need to finish the race. So, I enjoy the warmup, but like anything, I hope to get it done and out of the way because it's more work than it is fun.

In the early days of the training program, the warmup is followed by 200 yards of drill sets. There are all kinds of drills, intended primarily to get you to rotate your torso and "catch" water with your entering hand. For me, it would probably also be good to work on breathing out of both sides (I only breathe to the left, which has potential ramifications for neck and back soreness), but I don't. I don't know why -- it's just not comfortable to breathe looking right.

After the drills, and I'm sure I'll describe them someday, it's the meat of the first set. Pretty simple stuff, actually. Six 100-yard intervals at a moderate aerobic (actually, swimming is anaerobic, like lifting weights, but you know what I mean) pace. Again, like the warmup, these are fairly monotonous. I actually find swimming at a moderate pace very contemplative. Not only do I think about work, about my day or my week, but also about how much I love my family -- all the while wondering whether one of them will have a diaper to change or a potty accident which forces the childcare people to come interrupt my workout. It didn't happen on this day, but I'm sure it will soon enough!

With the six intervals completed, this is where I "cheat," so to speak. The next 200 yards are meant to be "kick sets" with a kickboard. Let me just say this right now -- I'm never going to do more than 50 yards of kick sets. Is my kick that good? No. In fact, I seem to be the slowest kicker who's ever swam at the pool I work out in. It's a combination of things. The first is that I'm sitting in the bright sunshine (I'm fair enough skinned to be concerned about such things) in Southern California kicking like I'm in an 8-year old's swim class. I know how to kick and I'm also smart enough to be able to work on my kick while actually SWIMMING! But more than that, it's that if I'm going to cycle 112 miles and then run another 26+, I'm actually intending to do a lot more work with my arms in the swim than with my legs. If, when I'm swimming, I treat my legs as if I was dribbling a basketball, as opposed to kicking like an outboard motor on a boat, I think it will bode much better for the hours upon hours I'm about to sit on a bike. Plus, the Princess and the Pea are waiting for me (I promised the Princess some time in the pool when I'm done!) So, there you have it -- I'm never doing more than 50 yards of kicking, even though nearly every workout will call for 200. Suddenly a 1600 yard workout becomes 1450.

Or, even worse...

See, then there's the 300 yard cool down. This one, I just don't get. I have a fairly athletic background, mind you. I have played all manner of sports for many, many years. I understand the concepts of warming up, of stretching, and of allowing muscles to cool. I also understand that when you are as slow as I am in the pool, you don't need 12 more lengths to cool down your muscles -- what you need is to get out of the damned pool (and go rescue your kids from childcare! ;-) All that being said, I respect the idea, and also know that it's an opportunity to work on technique. So, I decide that I will do a 100-yard cool down, which takes me about two minutes (accomplished swimmers laugh). As the swim set lengths get longer, and the Pea is in child-care for longer, this will become important. I have two hours from the time I drop him off to get changed, get in the pool, swim, shower, and pick him up. It will become important to assess where I can save some time during the inevitably long swim sets of the months to come. The cool down seems an optimal place.

So, that is in a nutshell how you pare the first swim workout down from 1600 yards to 1250. But I don't mind, and neither did my legs, tortured from the first bike workout. I'll swim plenty and I'll finish the race -- the time spent with the Princess diving after diving rings is much more valuable.

DAY THREE: 45 Minute "Foundation" Bike

In most training programs, a set period of your training is dedicated to just getting your base level of fitness up to snuff. In this particular 24-week plan, the first twelve weeks are just that -- your "base period." During that time, many of the bike workouts are called Foundation workouts. What that means is just what it sounds like. Imagine you get on a bike, ride hard but steady as if you were out for the exercise, and then coast home after the set period of time.

On Thursday, the third day of my training, a ride of 45-minutes under those conditions was called for. Thursdays are a bit tricky in my world, and might well become swim days going forward. You see the Princess goes to "la escuela" or her Spanish-language preschool for two hours every Thursday morning. So, I have two hours from the time I drop her off, which invariably includes a few minutes for pleasantries for the teacher, other parents, etc., to be back at the school to pick her up. While I am a member of the gym literally across the parking lot from the school, I don't have any experience either with their equipment or their child care. So, while I'm sure I will end up there eventually, I much prefer to drive a couple of miles back to Frogs in Solana Beach, where the childcare people love when I drop off the Pea and where I can get back on the Expresso (that's what it's called!) bike with all of the stats. Call me weird, but I do prefer the stats and fake scenery to Oprah, or the View, or whatever those people on the regular exercise bikes are watching.

Given that I mastered the 200-watt threshold on Tuesday and that I could feel my leg's on Wednesday's swim, I decided "foundation" meant for me a 180-watt pace and that 45 minutes meant 14 miles. If I was quicker or slower in covering the miles, that would be either my reward or penance. I had just agreed to cycle the 16-mile leg of a triathlon relay with a couple of friends in three week's time, so I needed to focus on riding hard for about this length.

Let's just say that my legs disagreed -- at least initially. I had a hard, hard time keeping the 180-watt pace (what a difference two days makes!). After about four miles, and already drinking my entire water bottle, I hopped off of the bike just seconds ahead of my pacer (who kept going while I went to refill). I got back on a minute behind him, frustrated with myself and recommitted myself to the pace. I caught him with a few miles to go and then held him off while the course finished downhill (it's actually difficult to get your power numbers up when going downhill because of all of the work done by gravity -- so I had to put it in a VERY high gear and pedal at a high number of revolutions per minute to pull it off). It helped that the Expresso "radio station" was playing some good tempo music -- stuff like Livin' La Vida Loca and Sweet Home Alabama that would not otherwise be resident on my IPod, had I brought it. Anyway, as I went to pick up the Pea and drive back to la escuela (which means "school" in Spanish, for those that I have confused), my legs were clearly very taxed -- even more so than two days earlier despite the ten percent less level of exertion.

DAY FOUR: 1600 yard (erm... 1250 yard) swim set

The second swim set of a week often looks very much like the first. The third is a base swim of defined length in most weeks (the swim version of the Foundation bike, if you will), but the first two have many components.

Like Wednesday, the swim started with a 300 yard warmup and a 200 yard set of drills. I had once again forgotten my pull paddles (to help with the catch of your hand), but I found the right drills to do. Friday was an interesting day in San Diego, as well, as I had dropped the Princess of at preschool (she goes M/W/F in most weeks) in a torrential downpour. In actual fact, I was looking forward to a swim in the rain -- much of the stress involved in my swim training concerns sun protection, and this would not require any sunscreen. Considering I had already seen some level of sunburn (despite wearing SPF 30) on day one -- in FEBRUARY(!) -- it was a good thing.

Actually, the 500 yard combination of warmup and drills were remarkable in that I felt very, very good. I have come to believe that swimming, and more specifically how you feel doing it, is as biorhythmic as anything else. Some days you can go for miles and miles and it feels like nothing. Other days, 500 yards in you feel like you are going to die. Well, for me, that is. I'm sure for Michael Phelps, it's not really an issue. Or for my Lovely Wife, for that matter, for whom swimming is second nature. Now she would never skip a cool-down and they would be the entire length of one of my workouts!

So, it was with confidence that I entered the weighty portion of my swim workout -- on this day, it was 6 x 100 yard "Fartlek" intervals. Now, I don't know who this unfortunately named Fartlek was, but he is responsible for a lot of pain (and, to be fair, performance) of endurance athletes. The concept is to alternate ultra-high intensity exertion with recovery time, similar to the power intervals on the bike. The theory is that it builds your VO2 max, or the threshold level of exertion that your body is able utilize oxygen efficiently (I know that definition is incorrect in some way), thereby allowing you to exert at a higher level for longer. I don't know what level gets you to 17 hours, but I'll try and do what I'm told.

So, for these Fartlek intervals, it's 6 x 100 yards (four lengths of the pool), alternating maximum effort with easy effort. After every 100 yards, you only get ten seconds off before the next set. In theory, they work really well to build your endurance. In practice, if done right, they make you feel like you're going to hurl. In fact, this is the first of many instances before I cross the finish line in Florianopolis some 15-months from now where I hope to feel that way -- it's a good thing, right? It means you are making progress and taking your body somewhere new! Anyway, even under the clouds and as confident as I was feeling (and as relatively short as these sets were -- check in with me in a few months!), they were tough. I nearly swallowed half the pool doing a turn in set five, I think I turned ten seconds into fifteen at least twice (the poolside clock was broken!), and let me just tell you hoowwww sllooooowwww my "easy sets" were. I think another swimmer completed her entire workout during one of them.

Anyway, before you know it they were done -- that's the beauty of defined and short sets like that, as opposed to sets like "swim 3000 meters. Then I skipped all but 50 yards of my kick set (see above), did a 100 yard cool down -- quite happily, I might add -- and picked up the Pea from childcare. That's two straight swim workouts without the interruption of a diaper change and he seemed pleased as punch to be hanging out with Monika working on sitting up by himself. I was happy to see him, though, as we hopped in the car, drove back to the Princess' preschool (even early enough to have lunch with her) and eventually drove home.

So, there you have it. Four days in and I am a little sore. Add the soreness I feel now from having typed for 40 minutes (although I also feel the joy of having had the house cleaned today and the fact that they are both napping -- whoo hoo!), and I'll soon be ready for bed. Ironically, all this working out can make it hard to sleep. Certain muscles continue to have that restless feeling and they can unnerve you right out of a good sleeping pattern (and, for me, force me onto my side, which is bad for my shoulder). But, I know it's all good for my body in the short and long runs and I'm happy once again to be going forward toward a goal.

On to the weekend... and there is the boy waking up, as if on cue.