Learning Cold

I started riding after dark last night.  I was expecting dark and cold.  A few miles into the ride I had to stop and shuffle gear as I was melting.  All of my layers were drenched.  I ditched the balaclava and opened all vents on my jacket.  I focused on re-hydrating after the ride because I sweated so much.

I sweated so much my gear was still wet when I put it on this morning.  Pants, gloves, balaclava all still damp despite hang drying overnight.  This wasn't a big deal on the ride in. I kept vents open and tried to stay cool.  There was a bit of wind but the rain jacket is a great wind breaker layer.  I still sweated more.  Gear was even more wet.

This evening I donned my still wet gear and stated home in the daylight.  The sun was out. It looked clear and bright.  The forecast showed temps plunging as the sun set.  I hear and say "clear and cold" but didn't have an appropriate acute memory of "clear and cold".

It was deceptively nice riding in the light.  It "looked" nice but it didn't feel so nice.  As the sun dipped so did the temps.  It started at 45F and finished around 35F.  It was supposed to be sprinkling. I didn't really see rain but there were splotches on the shoulders of my jacket.  Rain, or dew, or just water condensing from the air was apparent on my shoulder.  And it looked distinctly crystalline. 

After a few cold dark stop signs and traffic lights I started thinking of cold not as a temperature or even a "heat index" but in my own unique measurement.  It is 60.  What is 60? 60 is the number of seconds I can stop peddling and stand still before the cold starts to creep in. 

Last night I stopped and removed layers to cool down. Tonight I looked for opportunities to keep moving.  Fortunately this helps me focus on pedal RPMs.  The cold weather is really helping with pedal rate.

Until I get cold, dehydrated, and hungry.

Things started to come apart a bit tonight.  I had a surplus of water - in my layers of clothing.  When the temps plunged that water tended to cool when I stopped. I had to keep moving to keep the water against my skin warm. 

Concurrently my water bottle ran out.  I'm learning to drink in the cold. It's not natural.  The balaclava covering my mouth doesn't help.  I was focused on drinking to offset all the sweating.  Then my source ran empty. My planned water stops were all unavailable.  Water sources were closed, locked, or disabled for winter.  Gotta practice better water planning.

And then there is food.  The rule is "eat for any workout over an hour".  My long way home takes about 1:15-1:30.  I've been slacking on food for a variety of reasons. It's early in the season and I have weight to lose, cold doesn't inspire me to eat, the balaclava gets in the way, and food is a logistical challenge with all the extra cold weather gear.  So I'm slacking.  And now I've been riding consistently for a week.  My body is waking up and remembering this routine.  My body's recollection of this state involves high metabolism.  Net result I'm not eating as I should, I'm pedaling particularly hard to keep warm, and my metabolism is tearing through calories like a kid does wrapping paper on Christmas morning.  Did I mention I had a big salad for lunch?  I supplemented that with a snickers bar.  I felt like that was gone before I even changed clothes to start biking.  I got hungry on the ride, arrived home hungry, and overate at dinner.

Things got a little frayed tonight.  Hey, it's a learning opportunity.

Closing with top of mind items:

• Practice carrying water. 2x what I think i might need.  And drink it.
• Get my moisture problem under control.  Wet clothes get cold. Not to mention wet clothes mean more drinking.  More drinking means carrying more water.  At 8.3lbs/gallon that's not a light proposition.
• Increase my calorie intake in both quantity and quality.  Healthy diet keeps me riding longer and stronger.
• I did some research into frame bags and water bladders. Gotta get on this. I'm setting a goal of this weekend to have a stake in the sand on these.
• My garmin is misbehaving.  I upgraded and reset it tonight.  I need to focus on GPS acquisition soon. I like this one for tracking mileage.  I'd like to hit around 3k miles before June. With around 18 weeks left that puts me around 160 miles per week.
• I found a great couple hills to add into my route.  Climbing++

Progress

First bike fitting on new bike over the weekend. Second fitting next weekend. It's going to take some getting used to. I can't wait to try it out. 29" is a lot of tire.


Other progress: Ordered maps for Canada section of trail. Added 2nd front and rear light to current bike for better night visibility. Added helmet light (thanks Rebecca!). I'm pushing around 300 lumens forward now and 150 backward. One front light points out to light the trail ahead. In traffic I flip it to strobe to annoy drivers and make my presence known. One light points just in front of the front tire for small obstacles at close range. Helmet light is set mid range and I course follows my range of view. All 3 rear lights are red strobes. Two on the bike with irregular cadence and one on my head. I got a few more miles in the saddle over the weekend. I need to focus more on that. I'm chalking this weekend up to easing back into riding. Moisture is a problem with current rain jacket outer shell. I like the warmth though. I'll experiment with more open vents. Top 4 priorities right now: Time in saddle New bike finished Order frame bags Schedule long biking trips Frame bags: http://www.revelatedesigns.com/index.cfm They tend to have long lead times so gotta order soon. Jan, feb, mar, apr, may could potentially be 5 training trips. On the wishlist are: Palmetto trail in SC TNGA route in GA Cowboy trail in NE GAP/C&O from DC to PA Multiple repeats on Curtis creek trail in NC. 15 miles all uphill.

daily progress

I woke up this morning feeling like a train had run over me.  And I was late.  And I had an early meeting. And it was "important".

Oh, and it was raining.

All that added up to no biking today.  So I needed to make progress some other way.  So I:
Ordered ACA Maps
Contacted bike shop about fitting the new bike.

A little something every day adds up.  I liked this post:
Great Acts Are Made Up of Small Deeds

BTWD#2

Less wetness today. 50's and cloudy. Rain jacket with vents still works well as outer layer. Need: wraparound prescription glasses with transition lenses, another handlebar light, helmet light. Need to start a list of what to carry on the bike. Add spare batteries, chain lube. Preparation: more riding. Several needs identified. Hoping for 1 long bike ride per month as practice. Need to plan those.

Cold wet ride

First cold wet ride of the year. What went well: Pants over shoe covers Sleeves over gloves Wool socks Hat/rain hood/helmet Lights for being seen What needs improvement: Lights for seeing Prep work: Riding Gear for cold wet

Experiments in Endurance

Tomorrow is fun with Ironman Wisconsin but no day is fulfilling without a bit of experimentation. My tests for tomorrow:

* Lots of z2 workouts this year. That's faired well for others. I'll find out soon.
* Slow twitch warmth. The day will begin and end in the 50's F. I'm hoping energy saved on thermal regulation turns kinetic! I'm also hoping 150bpm generates enough warmth!
* HIIT - how well does this prepare me for marathon?
* Are burpees really good endurance training?
* I'm pushing for 300cal/hour intake - 2/3 of a powerbar every 30 mins. This should keep me going a bit longer.
* Annual Adaptation - I did this last year. I did this in 2008. I've done several long events this year alone. I believe endurance events are cumulative at my level of competition. Here's hoping.
* Less is more - I'm headed into this race 5lbs lighter than last year. I'm hoping that helps especially on bike and run hills. It already makes wetsuit easier to get on/off ;-)

Big focus areas for tomorrow:
* love the wetsuit, be the wetsuit, work with my wetsuit. (thanks Gary, Dennis, and Christine!)
* 300 cal/hour intake
* ride smart on hills - easy up, hammer flat and down
* DON'T GET CARRIED AWAY BY THE CROWDS
* caffeine and pain killer on back half of run
* Bust ass after mile 20. Last time I finished with composure. This time I want to go hard for the last hour.

With good luck I will have some final results 25 hours from now.

Ironman Wisconsin 2011

This weekend I am attempting Ironman Wisconsin. The course is more difficult than last year's Ironman Louisville.  Challenges for me are:

• wetsuit swim - I don't get along with wetsuits very well. I have a long reach and glide.  Wetsuit makes this difficult.
• two loop swim - this means no escaping the crowds.  Leaders will invariably be swimming over and through. It also means no help from a current.
• very hilly bike course
• very hilly run course
• cold - this is a personal challenge as I prefer warmer temperatures.  IMKY last year suited me well.  This event will be 20 degrees F cooler on average 
• long distance travel - I've driven to every other event with all the creature comforts that entails.  This time I shipped my bike and gear (Thanks Edde Burgess at Inside Out Sports!) and am flying up and back.

This will be my third endeavor at an iron distance triathlon. In 2008 Peng Mok and I completed Beach2Battleship hosted by local company Setup Events. Thanks to Todd Spain for advice in my first endeavor.  I struggled to start, let alone finish, after stopping training two months prior to the event. I slogged it out to finish in 16:01:28 as one of the last competitors to cross the finish line before 12am cut off. I learned that I started training too early and lost focus.  A longer training plan is better only if you can stick with it.  I had a pretty miserable first endeavor but unlike most in that position, i would not be a one-and-done.  I did take 2009 off for recovery and family time.


In 2010 I attempted Ironman Louisville vowing to avoid the proverbial "death march" in the marathon. Special thanks to Scott Heider for inspiration and insight along those lines. Thanks also to Brian Barndt for Total Immersion swim lessons.  If you're looking for swim instruction in the RTP area give him a call. Brian is a heart transplant recipient and amazing swimmer. Brian is also a great coach and inspiration. Things came together well in Louisville for a 13:48 finish.  Details here.

My wife Rebecca caught the IM bug in 2010 and signed up for IMKY 2011.  I was race support for her so I had to find another event.  I squeezed into IMWI.  The timing is critical for me as training becomes difficult as the weather cools and days become shorter. The timing also means Rebecca and I can train together through the year.  The IMWI venue brings new challenges as noted above.

Rebecca succeeded in her first attempt at Ironman.  She set the bar high for me to follow.

Why Ironman?  There are plenty of YouTube videos about the occult nature of Ironman. Ironman is what you make of it - for better or worse.  The values I found in Iroman are:

• Focus - Know what is important and focus on it.  Anything else is a potential waste of resources.  Carefully budget resources toward exploration. Keep focus on core activities.
• Gradual Adaptation - keep doing the core activity, learning from it, and evolving it.  The core changes (time, temperature, terrain, tools) but the participant also changes (mentality, physiology).
• Capitalize on easy times - In biking it's hammer the flats and downhills so you can coast the uphills.  In life it's make use of less critical but still important situations to learn and gain momentum.
• Recovery - we can't go all out all the time. It simply does not work. In exercise the saying is "you get stronger on off days".  In life make the big push but then take time to recover. Learn from the push and identify a few opportunities to do it better next time.  Recharge your batteries before taking on the next project. When the previous leg is done put it in a bag and close it off.  Move on.
• Planning - In Ironman if you crush (ride fast!) the bike then you pay for it in the marathon.  The marathon is always after the bike. It is no surprise.  If you intentionally choose to push the bike and suffer on the marathon that is a choice. Otherwise save some on the bike to apply to the run.  Beyond that moving the goal posts is untenable.

These are a few of my learnings. There are many more both thought out and still in progress. Other observers and participants will invariably draw different conclusions.

If you find yourself bored or tired of news coverage on Sunday, Sept. 11, then follow along on my journey.  Rebecca will be updating my Facebook page.  Otherwise track me at http://ironmanlive.com, Ironman Wisconsin, Last Name:Sisk or Athlete Number:1448.