My weapons of war (Part 1)

What do you use to train?

This is another part of my life as an athlete that undergoes constant revision.  During the ramp up to my first marathon, I had so much gear, that I remember non runner friends teasing me about the amount of technology and other crap that I carried.  And had to prepare - just to get out the door.

Now, even though I'm not a running purist by any means, I've streamlined my gear.  I'm going to break this up into three blog posts, for ease of reading (and writing), and frankly, so you don' get bored.  I don't want to turn this into a gear review.  You can head over to DCRainmaker's blog if that's what you're looking for - he has some great reviews.

Running outside:  Hat, sunglasses during the day, heart rate monitor and gps watch, non cotton low rise socks, and running shoes, foot pod attached to my shoe

Running inside: Heart rate monitor and gps watch (gps off), foot pod attached to my shoe

Whether I'm running inside or outside, I dress to be comfortable, and if I'm running for more than an hour, I use nutrition.  When that happens, I wear a running belt.
That pretty much covers my running gear, now for the pictures!
 

I use a headsweats supervisor right now.  Great hat.  Keeps sweat and sun out of my eyes.  Does its job pretty well.  I like this better than a regular hat because it lets me get rid of heat without letting me sunburn.  The downside?  Slightly too big and it can't be made smaller.

My sunglasses are the tifosi slip variety.  I just got these, so I'm still checking them out.  They came with three lenses, a hard case, and a softcase/lens cleaner.  Give me another month or two, and I'll be able to tell you more.  So far, I really like them.

I currently use the garmin 310xt with the premium heart rate monitor and the foot pod.  I calibrated the foot pod using gps (treadmills can be inaccurate).  I will be switching to the garmin 910xt in the future, just no rush to do so.  Garmin's best quality has been their customer service.  I've had a few problems with the gps watches, but nothing that would make me consider switching to another brand.

When I run more than an hour, I use the nathan elite 1 running belt.  I load up enough nutrition for two hours in the bottle, and if I'm going further than that, I make sure to have a stop on the way to refuel/rewater.

And last, I wear the brooks adrenaline when I run.  I really love their shoes.  After a brief and unpleasant affair with another shoe, I'm back in my beloved adrenalines.  I may consider getting into the habit of wearing a racing flat when I race 5 or 10 k races, but otherwise, I'll stick with the shoe that has taken the best care of my feet.

I do want to stress that just because I or any other athlete has had good luck with a certain product, it doesn't mean that you should go out and immediately change what you're doing if it works for you.

Tell me in the comments what works for you when running.

Confession: I train 15 minutes at a time

Well, that's kind of true.  Anything over an hour, I take in nutrition.  And I start taking in nutrition early.  Recent research has led me to adapt what I'm doing, and I'll be changing my methods a bit.  USAT had a good article on nutrition myths this month that is worth a read-emphasizing the importance of individual nutrition.  Meaning-don't take the cookie cutter approach to your race/training nutrition.  What nutrition works for one athlete is not guaranteed to work for you.  But this blog is less about the nutrition, and more about what happens between the nutrition...

Read on:

For a triathlon, I'll take in a half serving of my Infinit marathon formula about 15 minutes before the triathlon starts, then I'll start with my cycling formula right out of T1 and every 15 minutes after that until I hit T2, then I switch to my marathon formula.
For a running race, it depends on the distance.  I'll take in nutrition starting 15 minutes before the race starts, and nothing else unless the race is more than an hour.  If it is, I'll take in my marathon mix every 15 minutes.

But back to my point.  I train 15 minutes at a time.  I break down my 60 minute, 90 minute, 120 minute (OH MY GOSH THIS WORKOUT IS NEVER GOING TO END) into smaller, more bearable portions, broken up by my nutrition needs.  How does this translate to race day?  I swim/bike/run from transition to aid station, or from aid station to aid station.  And that's it.  I focus on each portion as one manageable bit at a time. 

And the best part?  Each 15 minute segment is different.  The scenery changes, the people change, my train of thoughts change, etc. It's like my system reboots every time I take a nutrition break and I'm ready to start again.

During a half/marathon I usually run aid station to aid station and I walk through the aid station so I don't unintentionally wear my water.  The 15 minute rule gets a little more flexible, but the concept is the same, and the nutrition still happens on the 15 minute mark.

"Why 15 minutes?" a person might ask.  I've set up my nutrition to take in about 18-20 oz of water per hour as recommended and trained for, and the Infinit as directed and trained with.  If I take it in every 15 minutes, I tend not to get "sloshy" or bloated.  So the answer is "personal choice."

Truthfully, switching to Infinit has helped substantially.  No more "What was next? Gel? Drink mix? Ugh, NO MOAR," and abandoning my plan to switch to on-course offerings. I know my stomach won't revolt.  It's simple and doesn't take any extra thought.

But the race or training session is manageable.  It's not one huge event, but several smaller ones that don't overwhelm me with the thought of completing it.  Beyond that, I take one day at a time.  Ironman training for IM Texas in May? Nah.  I entered each day from the Beginner Triathlete basic Ironman plan into my calendar, and I'm looking a few days ahead at a time.  Not weeks, not even to the race.  Just to the next day or so to make sure I have time to complete the training sessions, and switch around what I need to. I did the same for the Marathon in February, and the Ultramarathon on Saturday.

The lesson is the same whether you're training or racing.  Small, manageable parts.  I've chosen to break mine up by nutrition breaks (and sleeping at night!).

How do you break your training sessions up?

To my readers:  Infinit Nutrition has ended their amazing yearly sale, but you can still save some money.  Use the code "firegirl" at checkout to save 10% and help to fund the scholarship that I'll be running a marathon for in firefighting gear!

Why trainer and treadmill work are (in my opinion) important to any good training program...

There, I said it.  The boring, mind numbing, OH-MY-GOSH-THIS-WORKOUT-IS-NEVER-GOING-TO-END, work that involves a treadmill or a bicycle trainer (better known as dreadmill and drainer, muahahahahaha) is important to a triathlon training program in my opinion.  With winter setting in for the Northern Hemisphere, many of us relegate ourselves to hours of indoor riding/running.  Despite the mindsuck that is trainer riding/ or treadmill running, this is something that is an important piece of the triathlon puzzle for me.  Here's why:

No breaks, unless I take them.
When I'm out for a ride on the road, even on the flats, I can get to a point where I can stop pedaling and coast for a bit.  Not true on the trainer.  If I stop pedaling, the trainer stops.  Constantly pedaling, constant effort.  It's the same on a treadmill.
Of course, there are the breaks that I take... More on this in my next blog post...

Increased resistance... (trainer)
I've found that it takes more effort to push those pedals a similar distance when my bike is properly installed on the the trainer.  And, depending on the model of the trainer, I might even be able to increase the resistance even more.
Increased speed... (treadmill)
I've found out how fast I can really go under controlled circumstances, leading to greater gains in the wild.  Ideally.
Unsolicited advice:
The biggest thing here is if you are running this seriously that you care about times and gains and are keeping track of your miles, you should consider investing in a high quality gps heart rate monitor.  One that can keep track of your mileage inside and out.  The reason here is that I started to discover inconsistencies between treadmills and their speeds.  The key is that I calibrated my gps monitor about two weeks after I buy every  new pair of shoes. I'll post more about that later this month.

Cadence:
You can keep it where you want it for as long as you want it.  Well, if your legs hold out!!!  Thanks to tougholdbuzzard for pointing out this one, you can keep your cadence where you want it for a specified amount of time.  Combined with resistance, this makes for a MEAN workout!  This goes for both the bike and the treadmill. No dodging or running from dogs, cars, geese, or snakes (Texas, remember?)  I seem to remember my running and cycling mentors nagging me to keep my cadence high for both cycling and running, and, well, my training still reflects that teaching.  So, depending on what metric you use for training, cadence can be an important factor.  It's one of the few that I look at on a post run analysis (distance, speed, time, cadence:  that's it)

Inclement weather...
Pretty obvious here.  But what sends one person indoors may just be another day on the course for another...

The pros do it...
 Do I need any other reason?  Okay, so I'm kidding.  But, the pros do it. Companies that make money producing indoor workout videos for cycling make a big point of counting how many of the podium winners at each big race use their videos.  Lately I've been hearing more and more about treadmill videos!  But pros don't typically do useless workouts.  And as I get more and more educated about the elements of workouts the pros do and why, I'm adapting my workouts as well.

I want to point out that I'm not saying take ALL your workouts indoors.  I'm saying that I think I should do a few workouts a week indoors, and that I think treadmills and trainers are valuable to a triathlon training program the way that a race belt is to a marathoner.  Valuable, probably helpful, but not necessary.

There are many more reasons...  I'll update my blog post as readers give me some great reasons.

Why do YOU take your workout indoors, and why do you believe it's a necessary part of any good training program?

Garmin Sets the Bar for Customer Service

I want to send a shout out to Garmin customer service.  Twice now, I've had an issue with my Forerunner 310xt.  Twice now, I've called customer service.  And twice, I've looked back at the decision to use a Garmin training device and been thoroughly pleased with it.  Fortunately, the unit is still under warranty, so the issues are covered.

Devices break.  That's the nature of sports, especially triathlon. Endurance athletes play hard, and expect that our toys will last.  Well, the reality is, we outlast the devices we use.  We beat them up in use, put them away wrong, and expect that they'll keep working.  Since the technology is computer based, you need to have at least a Doctorate in working and caring for gps devices, mp3 players, phones and their apps, and have the ability to know all about the newest gadget within two days of its release date.  DC Rainmaker can help you with education you need to keep up!  www.DCRainmaker.com  But, I digress.  We need a company that keeps up with our rock star attitudes and diva behavior, and gets us back out training yesterday!  Enter Garmin.

The first problem I had was a heart rate monitor strap that reported a heart rate of 220ish.  Ummmmmm.  I don't think so. I wasn't running THAT hard. Google the problem.  Trouble shoot on my own.  Call customer service.  Trouble shoot again with people who know what they're doing.  Didn't solve the problem.  Part ordered.  Be there in a week.  Showed up in three days.  Problem resolved as soon as I paired the new strap.  Done.  I was so pleased with the service that I called back to talk to a supervisor and let them know how happy I was.

Last night the wrist strap broke.  It might have something to do with the 9-10 hours a week of training and racing I've been doing.  Maybe.  Wasn't really sure what to expect this time.  But when a company takes the time to walk through potential (temporary) solutions in order to keep you swim/bike/running, while the needed part gets ordered.  THAT is customer service.  I've easily spoken to more than a half dozen Garmin representatives total, and the service has been equally as good with each person.

Garmin, I'm impressed.  Kudos to you for your quality customer service team.

The beginning...

I started my day yesterday with an 18 mile run.  I got up early on one of the few days I could have slept in and went out for a three hour 'beat-the-heat' race.  With much of the country in an ugly drought/heatwave, long runs or rides have to start really early.  Thanks goodness for random port-a-potties (I really have no idea why it was there, but it was there, it was clean and it was pink!), water fountains in parks at the halfway mark, and a gps watch to keep track of the whole darn thing.

Later in the day, someone called my run a 'hermitage.'  Loosely defined, a hermitage is a place where someone goes to be quiet, clear their mind and be with their thoughts.  Yeah, that's about right.  One thing I thought about is putting down the lessons I've learned over the last several years about endurance sports.  So...  Enter the blog.  My goal is to start documenting the nutrition, hydration, physical training, and other lessons I've learned mixed in with motherhood, random observations about just anything, and appreciation for the people who have helped me to get where I am today.

So, for my random observation of the day:  I was watching the birds yesterday during my run.  And I realized that there is a point, right after sunrise, where the morning sunlight catches the wings of vultures and makes them looks like eagles.  Frequently these birds are called ugly, but in the early morning light, they resembled their majestic cousins. It was amazing.