Run Out Your Problems, Run Out Of Problems

So I saw some 30 day blogging challenge where you were supposed to answer some personal question every day for a month on your blog. Not usually a fan, since the internet will be just fine without all of our 2 cents about everything, but there was one question that I thought was strangely relevant to sports training, the topic of this blog.

Bear with me, you'll see what I mean. It has something to do with controlling the things you can control. Something I've long loved about running is that it gives you the feeling (however much of an illusion it may be!) of being in charge. You are the master of your fate when you set off with your Garmin (or stopwatch or no watch at all), right?

Even if you are waiting on a job application, in limbo about finding an apartment, looking for a relationship or trying to plan countless other projects that are beyond your sole control and depend on others not just you, you can decide to run 12K and go do it. Focusing on what you can do rather than what you can't is conforting and empowering.

The blog question was kind of pretentious and self-important (as things like 30-day blog challenges tend to be): if you could give a newborn baby one piece of advice, what would it be? Not that newborn babies are going to follow advice, they are going to sleep and cry, but suspend your disbelief to embrace the noble cause of sharing nuggets of wisdom on the internet for the greater good of all mankind (ha!) :)

So, what I think is important to know and will serve you well is this: you will encounter many situations in life that are beyond your control. You cannot change a system, a job, another person's mind, etc.  What you can do is change your attitude towards that situation. Even if it sounds like a weak consolation prize, this is very powerful. You can change your attitude so that something terrible no longer bothers you as much and it helps you accept difficult realities and make your life better, rather than worse.

Running is like alchemy-- it is fueled by negative energy you want to release in a productive way, it's a chance to take all your frustrations, anxieties and stressors and use them to power your body and accomplish something you decided to accomplish, meet a goal you set. You run out your problems and eventually, you'll run out of problems. Everything will end up seeming cool and zen, no matter who much it upset you 8 miles ago.



Our lives are the choices we make. Some help you feel better, move on and live your life happily and gracefully, and some prevent you from doing so. Running, like alchemy, is a transformative process, taking base elements like anger and frustration and turning them into something better, like an endorphin rush beneficial to your health and well-being and the satisfaction of meeting a goal that you set. As someone once said about committing to marathon training: ask yourself honestly, who do you want to be and what are you willing to do to become that person?

Balance

Balancing work, life and running has been nearly impossible.

Everything is tipping over in favor of work and I'm still trying to find a happy medium between work, sports and sitting around recovering from long tiring days...

Work is busy and demanding and will only become more so. This is actually the easy period. I'll have to become WAY more efficient and motivated...

I end up running like once a week (but usually half marathon distance, but still, this is not enough to improve or even maintain running fitness, I don't thinl) and I swim once or twice a week. As usual, cycling hasn't been happening. I've pretty much hated it since doing 2 miserable long distance bike races. It was also a source of conflict in my last relationship and my bike was stolen (also a casualty of previous relationship) so have an old heavy vintage road bike to train on and nothing more which makes cycling even more unappealing than if I had a nicer bike. The plan is to improve on the home trainer and then treat myself to a nicer bike whehn I'm better at cycling.

I just got a home trainer, but have no idea how to put my bike in it. And before even getting to the point where I have to figure out that step, first I have to change a flat tire on my bike (which I know how to do in theory but in practice by myself seems a little more intimidating) and change awful pedals with cages to more reassuring clip in pedals. Only then will bike be ready to face next puzzle of how to put it in the home trainer correctly. Not entirely confident in my ability to do any of these bike things, but will try to do it on my own first before bothering anyone about helping me.

So triathlon training across the board is not so hot right now.

I really have to work on swimming to go up to 1,500m next summer (olympic distance tri) when I already think half of that: 750m (sprint distance) is a lot... And I have a long term (6 month) marathon training plan that I want to follow for the Paris marathon in April and the pre-training phase starts next week. Pre-training actually sounds nice. Lots of slow jogging, I'm down with that.

5 Miles of Fun

And finally, first run during the week in 2 weeks!

Hello, endorphins, you're right, everything is totally cool. Everything. :)  Even if it seemed stressful like 50 minutes ago (it was a slow 5-miler, but did some hill repeats).

Did you know that the term endorphins comes from  'endogenous morphine?' Besides exercise, spicy food, dark chocolate, pain, excitement and orgasms also give us endorphin highs...  Most people are fans of most of those things... :)

Roller Coaster

Ever feel like your life is one of these?




Mine certainly has been lately! Marathon training has now officially been downgraded to half marathon training and despite a great month of August (I ran over 200K total for the month), everything fell apart in September. I started a new job that is intense and involves major class planning and since work pays the bills while running doesn't, it became (and still is) the priority. Since it's now week 3 of a 3-week intensive (read full time!) course that I should end up teaching every month, it's getting easier, so this week is supposed to be my triumphant return to training after a 2-week break. And Lord knows, I am feeling fat and out of shape after these 2 weeks of no real physical activity-- and poor eating habits...

Seriously, when I'm not working, feel like one of these.



I didn't run at all the week of Sept 16th when the job started, not during the week, anyway, but did run a half marathon that weekend (nothing spectacular, a sedate 2:10, but not bad considering that I'd skipped an entire month of long runs due to being kind of bummed about life in general and the longest regular distance I'd been doing up until then was 12K). The last kms of that half were hard. Last week was the same story, no running during the week, and strep throat kept me from doing Paris-Versailles which I was a little gutted about. That's how life is, though, right?

My next race is the Amsterdam Half in 3 weeks and I'd hoped to beat my previous PB of 2 hours (on that same course) but even if I just do it in around 2, I won't mind. My big Nice-Cannes marathon is probably going to become a half marathon relay, so if Amsterdam isn't a PB (which seems a little unlikely now!), I can just go for it on the French Riviera. It should be a fun weekend away, anyway.

I started planning training sessions during the week again and plan to run and swim tomorrow, run track Wed and swim on Thurs and do a long(ish) run on Saturday and a 10K race on Sunday. The race is a fundraiser for breast cancer research, so should be a fun run for a good cause.

Anyway, finally, after quite the hiatus, off to pound the pavement, first run in 8 days (!) and think about what to do with my students the last few days of their language course...

Weekend Workouts: Stretching and Pushing the Pace

I did yoga yesterday for the first time in about 3 months. It felt great, although it was hot (outside temperature-wise-- I don't do Bikram but Hatha) and I was sore today. Mainly my core and my legs. I do Yoga for Runners, which is excellent and focuses on areas that runners need to relax and strengthen. Lots of exercises to open the hips, loosen the infamous IT band, quads and glutes, strengthen the feet and prevent injury.



So good to be back in the land of "ooooommmm" and namaste. Especially since it's so well-adapted to what my body's doing now. I've been tracking mileage for the month of August and after my run today, I have officially run 102K so far this month. Right on track for marathon training which requires 200K a month (50K a week). Think I'll try to go up a little in Sept, maybe to 250K, if I can, and then back down in October since the big marathon is in early November and you should peak intensity maybe a month away and then reduce intensity closer to the competition...

And the seminal run that broke 100K for August 2013? I feel great about it because I pushed myself more than I usually do. It was a good feeling, it's a cliché, but you really are capable of so much more than you think you are-- although my legs were tired afterwards! We ran it in 9:15 minute miles (5:45 min km) For me, this is closer to my race pace (I run a 2-hour half marathon which is just a little over 9 min miles) than training pace, so very pleased. 15K isn't really that far, but confident that I can build up to longer distances at this pace.



I also tried to think about lifting my knees up more than I usually do (I've been told this is a problem with my form, one of many problems) and can feel that my glutes are sore now, so hopefully that means I was doing it bettter today.

Today's pace would be a great pace if I could train myself to run at entire marathon at that speed (that's the hard part!)  If I could push it just a tad under 9:15 (like to 9:09 min/miles) on race day, that would be a 4 hour marathon which was what I was going for in April in my first marathon.

As you know, running the Paris marathon in 4 hours was a fail, but a learning experience because, as I discovered, marathons are tough and the mental aspect is important! I wasn't sure I'd finish until I did, so already feel way stronger training for the distance the second time around. Now I know I can run 26.2 miles. Because I have. (Even if there was a good deal of walking in the last 10K...)

The advantage of doing the weekly long run with a group is that it helps you run faster than you usually do. I run with a group called Let's Run Paris. They're a great bunch with 3 different pace groups (5 min/km, 6 min/km and 7 min/km) and we finish our long runs each week with breakfast together. Tired but energised and happy is a great way to start the weekend!

Now ready to fall into bed and have a brick tomorrow, meaning doing 2 of the 3 tri sports one right after the other-- it supposedly gets its name from the fact that after when you move on to sport number 2, your legs feel like bricks since you've just finished sport number 1! The program for tomorrow is an open water swim in the lake, followed by a run and a picnic. Not a fan of cycling, so happy to replace it with picnicking any day-- my kind of triathlon! And it really does involve a picnic basket that looks like this one.

Marathon Training Plan

Running down a dream... Marathon number 2 is Nice-Cannes, a point to point along the French Rivera on November 10th!





If I were better at social media, I'd create some amazing training montage video or instagram clip to illustrate my training plan, but since I am fairly low-tech, here's my marathon training schedule in boring written form. I have a plan from runners.fr, but modify it a little to fit into my life. For me, the key is to make it social and I've been organising most of the running training for my triathlon team, which is great-- since I'm the host, I have to show up and do it!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Easy 12K (usually alone on the trail near my house)

Wednesday: Track intervals with ExpaTRIés triathlon team (5-10K, depending on session)

Thursday: Tempo run 10K with ExpaTRIés triathlon team

Friday: Easy 10k (usually alone on the trail near my house)

Saturday: Long run (this week 15K) with running group Let's Run Paris

Sunday: Brick session: open water swim and 6K run. Through the tri team, we have annual memberships to the Cergy Leisure Park (base de loisirs) where we can swim in a lake (wet suit mandatory). I really like going out there, feels like you're on vacation far far away from Paris.

While I sometimes cut short or even skip the Friday run, especially if the Saturday one will be super long (as they will be in about a month or so), this is pretty much what I do and should be about 50K a week, which I think is the minimum you should be running cumulatively while training for a marathon. My goal is to run 200K this month. So far, I'm at 77K for August and should break 100 this weekend.

As my training progresses, the main change I'll make to this program is that the easy 12K will get a little longer, and I'll increase the distance up to 16K and it will become a steady pace run. The idea is that if I train myself at a steady pace, it will in theory take care of the first part of the marathon and prevent me from starting out too quickly (which I did in my last marathon). One of the other easy runs will also have to involve hills, since the second half of the marathon is supposed to be hilly (and frankly, after 30K, even a miniscule speed bump will seem like an imposing hill!)

This keeps me pretty busy, but will have to add cross training-- a second swim session would be good and maybe one spin class/cycling once a week. I also need to add circuit training once a week with a focus on abs and core work, since weight training is important. Not only for aesthetic reasons (it'll make me look good in a bathing suit!) but it helps you as a runner. After the Paris marathon, I was surprised that my core was sore, so it clearly wasn't strong enough to hold me up for 42.2K!

Rediscovering Joy or a Long Strange Post-Marathon Recovery

I ran a marathon in April and in some ways, it was a great motivation to run another marathon (Nice-Cannes in November) but in some ways it also almost ended my running "career." Not due to injury, but just because it was so hard for me to get back into running afterwards! It took me about 2 months, maybe even 2 and a half months to start to enjoy running again. Boiling hot summer weather didn't help, but I definitely had a case of the runner's blues. It feels good to be over it but thought I'd share in case anyone else is having a similar struggle.

Although I'm over it, this is what it felt like every time I went running when I had the runner's blues:




Although this guy has one up on me, since he at least managed to get a medal before collapsing!

I'll explain. I felt very down on myself and said things like, I think I'm a worse runner after doing the marathon. I blamed the marathon.

My marathon was in early April and since it was my first, I didn't know how long to wait to start running again or how long a break to take. So I just did my best and tried to listen to my body. I ended up taking about 6 weeks off with maybe only a short jog once a week.

In trying to listen to the old body, something it said to me was that it was hungry. Like really hungry and it deserved lots of indulgence that it usually didn't get to have. It mainly wanted tiramisu. Lots of dessert, wine, WAY too much post-marathon celebrating in the form of eating and drinking...

Feed me! I deserve it-- I ran a marathon like a month ago...




I also kept eating like I was still training for a marathon and was suddenly less active, so gained a few kilos which also had me feeling kind of down and like the least fit person on earth, despite having accomplished something that should have left me feeling great! The extra kilos are off now and I'm feeling fit and good now, but running was definitely a bit of a struggle for the months of May and June, I would say. It was only towards the end of July that I felt like myself again.

Here's why: I wasn't running consistently, but did some 10K races and saw my times deteriorate. No matter your level in running, running is hard work that requires constant maintenance. I think I forgot this.  Luckily to compensate a little for running frustration, I did some sprint triathlons and saw an improvement between Versailles in mid-May and Dijon in early July, so that was reassuring. But it also meant that the problem was running and not overall fitness. I'm so slow and out of shape, I thought. And it didn't help that the super athlete I was dating at the time was fairly unencouraging about running.

I realised a few weeks ago that this was kind of all in my head. I wasn't training consistently, so of course I was going to be slower.

I had also stopped enjoying running and just felt performance frustration instead of enjoyment when I did it. So this made me not do it enough to have the kind of performance I wanted. Funny how those viscious little circles work...

All this changed a few weeks ago after a bit of an upheaval in my personal life and I just started running again for real, just for fun, for comfort, to feel in control in a world where you often aren't. Basically, all the reasons I started running in the first place years and years ago! Running to clear my head, to relax, relieve tension, to meditate and to feel better about myself in general (rather than frustrated that the watch said 10-min miles instead of 9!) I put myself on a schedule and I run a lot now-- 10-12K almost every day with a longer weekly run thrown in and I'm enjoying it again.

Happy runner. Ah, yes, hello, endorphins, I now remember how much I liked you!




What I wish someone had told me post-marathon is this:

• You won't want to run for awhile and you'll just want to drink wine and eat tiramisu, and that's ok-- but watch out for some weight gain. After checking with my female runner friends, post- marathon weight gain is fairly common (as is gaining some weight during marathon training)-- it's not that you're an out of shape freak!

• Swim or bike or do triathlons or yoga instead, but try to be somewhat active because you're suddenly eating a lot of dessert! These other sports are good for you but cannot replace running training. I think I kind of thought that swimming a few times a week was the equivalent of maintenance runs, and it's not. I also know to be a little less indulgent after marathon number 2 in November... I feel confident that the second time round, I'll be able to get back into serious running training more quickly.

• When you're ready to start training again, put yourself on a consistent schedule first and increase intensity slowly. I would also have also told myself to hold off on the 10K races, especially since I wasn't training for them properly and it just set up a cycle of frustration that discouraged me from running.

• Push a little harder. You will come back stronger after your 6-week break, BUT to get back to where you were, you WILL have to push yourself a little harder in training. I wish someone had said, you're still a good runner, stop being frustrated with yourself and just push a little harder. Stop comparing yourself to where you were at the height of your marathon training before and just focus on your training NOW.  I also kind of remembered that it was fun to push yourself in training and it's, of course, the only way you'll improve.

• Be patient. Run to be good to yourself, not because you have to maintain a certain pace. A good run isn't only defined as one where you run at a great pace, just one you enjoy. Now it's cheesy, but I think positive things like, this is so good for my body, I'm so glad I'm making this time for my health, this run is clearing my head, or I think about my posture, footfalls, etc.

And now that I just try to do it a lot and do it consistently, a positive side effect is that I am finally starting to see 8s on the minutes per mile pace on the old Garmin again.  :)  This is encouraging and I finally feel like in terms of how I feel about running mentally, I'm back to where I was last summer where after I went running one day, I couldn't wait to run again the next day.

Motivators

What motivates you to exercise? Love of food, love of endorphins, love of being outdoors or stress relief, perfectionism, addiction, frustration or anger?

My lastest workouts have been fueled by Alanis Morissette and other Angry Girl Music soundtracks.

But at the end of the day, by running out the frustrations, the person who I'm angry at is there in spirit with me helping me train.

First Sprint or Trying Not to Drown in a Green Pond at Versailles

I realise I am woefully behind on triathlon updates. This was my first season dabbling in the art of multi-sport competition and I did a super sprint (Meudon), and then 2 sprints: Versailles and Dijon. Not bad for a first season, I think.

I already mentioned the Meudon Super Sprint. You swam 300 meters in a pool, cycled 7K on a stationary bike next to the pool and then ran 2,5K. After Meudon, the distances got longer and goodbye, swimming pool; hello, green pond!

For a sprint triathlon, you swim 750 meters in open water (which usually means a gross pond or lake), cycle between 20 and 24K (it's supposed to be 20K, but the cycling distance seems to vary) and you run 5K.

Versailles was my first 'real' tri, meaning swimming in open water and not cycling on a stationary bike!

I didn't really know what to expect, had only practiced putting on and taking off a wetsuit like the day before and had never been swimming in open water before. We had to swim in a green pond on the Versailles grounds-- you could see the castle in the distance but we were well out of the path of tourists.

This is what the lake looks like-- despite the tiny pic, you can see it looking ominously big and hard to swim across in the distance behind the garden. It was not exactly picturesque tranquility, but cold and murky!

The fact that you can't see anything underwater when you swim in open water is really terrifying, I somehow wasn't expecting this, and the wetsuit felt weird and awkward. Something else I didn't know about wetsuits is that a little bit of water gets in it  when you first get into the water and shocks you because it's so cold.

When the gun went off and we had to start swimming, I panicked a little and didn't think I could do it. I couldn't bring myself to put my head in the water, I wasn't strong enough to do the front crawl with my head up out of the water (I ended up sinking a little despite the wetsuit when I tried), and I felt too inefficient at breast-stroking, so flipped over on my back and improvised a back stroke of sorts, although this had the additional challenge of not being able to see where I was going and swimming in a strange seemingly drunken zig zag...

I honestly thought there was no way I was going to make the swim cut-off time, so figured that this swim was my workout for the day and I might as well enjoy it. On my back, I didn't have to deal with the green pond and could see the blue sky, it was like being on vacation. Floating on your back is very comforting, sometimes when I train at the pool, I'll make deals with myself like 200 more meters of the crawl and then you can do a backstroke lap.

Triathlon? What triathlon? I'm just admiring the clouds...

I was one of the last ones out of the water, but I somehow made the cut-off time. I expected to be stopped, but instead I was helped out of the water and sent on my way. Taking a wetsuit off is an art that I have not mastered, so slow transition onto the bike, but then I was on my way. I was mainly worried about clipping in and out without falling and there was a hill right at the start which made me nervous about the clipping in, but it was ok. I don't really like non-triathlon cycling-- didn't particularly enjoy Liège or Vélostar, the only real bike races I've done, but I do like short distances on the bike when you have something else to do afterwards.

I enjoyed the cycling part the best. It was nice weather and a nice enough course-- 2 loops and a sharp little u-turn at one point, but it was well marked, and a steep little hill to do twice. I'm not a particularly strong cyclist-- I got on a road bike for the first time in February and am not great about training on the bike, but I was surprised to see that there were people who got off their bikes and walked them up the hill! They must have been in the wrong gear, poor things, because if I could cycle up it, it clearly doesn't require you to be the fittest person in the world!

The bike to run transition was faster then swim to bike, since you don't have to deal with the dreaded wetsuit. In this, my first real triathlon, I was suprised at how hard it as to run. The run was tough, I hadn't really done any bricks (doing 1 sport than another, like biking then running). Running 5K sounds easy, but it's challenging after swimming and cycling. It was also a trail around the lake where we'd swum and since I'm more used to road running, ran it kind of gingerly, trying to avoid spraining an ankle. It was also near a shooting range, so you kept hearing gunshots during the run, which made me wonder if they were starting guns for other races!

I was the last one on my team to finish (but not the last one in the competition. It works both ways-- there are always people in front of you, but there are also always people behind you!) but I was just pleased to have done it. My time of about 2 hours was not competitive at all, but I had also run the Paris marathon about a month before and was still in a bit of a post marathon recovery/overindulgence  state of not really running or exercising that much but eating dessert WAY too much... I definitely felt like I'd looked a little sleeker in my none too attractive trisuit at the super sprint in Meudon in March than in Versailles in May!

Despite not being particlarly good at it, I thought it was a lot of fun and a good challenge.  The first time I do anything athletic, it is usually slow and has lots and lots of room for improvement (like my marathon!)  so I immediately set my main and fairly modest goal for my next sprint: to put my head in the water and do the front crawl the whole way!


Before the swim: how do you get a wetsuit on again? (Notice that I am the only one not suited up at this point...) I look slightly delirious because I clearly must have been crazy to sign up for this!



Post-triathlon: we did it! No more wetsuits and now we can drink champagne!

All in all, it was a good experience. Something nice about Versailles is the women and unlicenced men (meaning they don't have triathlon licences so are probably beginners) compete earlier than the licenced men, so the boys got to cheer for us and vice versa. I was glad our race finished first, though, so I could relax watching the men of ExpaTRIés show us how it's done.

It was a nice day with friends, great weather and a lovely picnic with celebratory champagne that Roger the Bike Guru and his Lovely Assistant Shannon had carried on their bikes out to Versailles for us! Big thank you to teammates who cheered for me, lent me a wetsuit and helped me set up the transition area, to the other racing ladies, les belles sirènes de Versailles, who calmed each other's nerves pre-swim and to our fabulous picnic A-Team!

Career Goals

For marathon or triathlon training, for chasing any dream in life, for making bold life-changing plans when it's so much easier to do what you've been doing, even though it's not what you want, for leaving your comfort zone:

"Someday doesn't exist, there's only today.

It's not about finding out who you are, it's about creating who you are.

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

Ask yourself, who do you want to be? And what are you willing to do to become that person?"

Mustard City

The official triathlon schedule is :

Versailles sprint triathlon coming up really soon (seriously, I should be swimming right now instead of writing this!) on May 12!

I'm also doing another sprint tri in early July (July 7th) in Dijon, where I've never been (this is where the mustard is from) and is supposed to be a lovely little city.

My goals are just to survive Versailles, especially the swim (first open water swim) and then to see improvement between Versailles and Dijon. Dramatically improved race times would be nice, but probaby not terribly realistic. It would still be an improvement even if I'm just marginally less terrified of the swim...

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 80K: From a Beginner’s Perspective

First of all, what is Liège-Bastogne-Liège? It's a famous European cycling race. Not having grown up in Europe, I had never heard of it, but my French and Dutch friends' eyes went wide when I announced I was doing it and they informed me that "that's some serious cycling, babe" and ''fais attention à toi, c'est dur, ça."

So how tough and famous is it? Road cycling is a big deal sport in France and Belgium and the pros race 277K and go up lots of impossible hills (Belgium is NOT flat) and the day before, us mortals get  to cycle on the same course and do either 80, 160 or 277km. We don't recieve an official time (only some of the hills are timed, it's more just for the experience of cycling on this famous course). This was my first bike race ever, I'm a beginner cyclist and this is my write up of my weekend away in Liège and the 80K distance, mainly for the rest of my tri team, or any curious friends or family.

It was an inauspicious start. On the way to Liège, we encountered heavy traffic, and roads in terrible condition—little did we know we would have to cycle on them later and both would become staples of our race! When we checked in to our hotel, we were all a little traumatized to realize that there is, in fact, a world of difference between a normal Ibis hotel and a budget Ibis hotel. The ExpaTRIés were definitely not staying the in lap of luxury this weekend, but more like in the lap of the ghetto industrial zone with regulation cell block-sized rooms.

But we tried to make the best of the budget Ibis, at least it was close to the starting line (one of them, anyway—more on that later!) and we were there on a mission: to test ourselves on one of the oldest and toughest courses in Europe that the pros would do the next day.

Before this daunting European classic, many an ExpaTRIé wondered if they’d taken on more than they’d bargained for—and none more so than me, as probably the only beginner cyclist on the team!  The first time I’d ever ridden a road bike was when I showed up for session 1 of Paul S’s excellent ‘7 Weeks to Better Cycling’ class—with no air in my back tire and no real grasp on how physically to change gears! It didn’t help that I’d only started using clip in pedals the week of the race, which as we all know, results in falling over a lot and isn’t exactly a confidence boost before your first bike race!  I had also never cycled 80K before and had only a few days before learned which gears to use for uphill and downhill.

Needless to say, I just wanted to get round, have fun and be safe. Like a lot of the other ExpaTRIés, I was also looking forward to getting out of the city and biking in the countryside where I would be free from worries about clipping in and out.

The morning of the race, it was freezing cold. We wore all the biking clothes we’d brought, but we ended up all being underdressed! We cycled to the start together and then we had to cycle on to the other start line 13km farther into the race (cycling races usually have a 13K warm up, although we didn’t know that at the time). We ended up getting separated here, there were just so many cyclists on narrow streets all following signs to the starting line, but I knew everyone else would do great, I’d figured I’d do most of it alone at my own relaxed (meaning slow) pace.  We biked entirely on city streets and given recent clip in pedal trauma, I kept thinking, “please don’t make me stop on a hill,” and “if I have to stop at this traffic light, I hope there’s a curb I can put my foot on!”  Finally, we crossed the official start line and thought we would finally get out of the city.

There were fairly constant rolling hills, the landscape was thankfully less urban, but still not exactly the countryside we’d hoped for and none of the roads were closed to traffic. The beginning of the course was a steady climb, but not particularly steep. Things went smoothly and before I knew it, I was at the first (and only) rest stop about 35K in. I made sure I knew what direction to take off in again, drank some water and ate some bananas and bars. 

I was shivering when I got back on my bike, the weather still hadn’t warmed up and everyone’s feet were numb for most of the ride. Going downhill into the wind was a whole new level of cold. To my surprise, I ran into Jeff and Frank after the rest stop, both looking strong, who had taken a wrong turn onto the 160K course (no thanks!) and had doubled back. They zipped off to tackle the first hill and it was a nice boost to see some teammates. The first of the 3 steep hills on the 80K course was the worst, the infamous Côte de la Redoute.  This hill was nearly vertical with a 20 percent grade and I was not the only cyclist who ended up walking my bike up part of it… But the worst was over.

The second hill was pleasantly manageable, la Côte de Colonster was only maybe 5 percent and although it was long, didn’t feel particularly steep. This was the only part of the course that was out in the countryside, with cows and fields, exactly what we’d expected. We assumed it would stay like this, but no, we went back into town, to traffic lights and potholes!

After this hill, the course became very urban again, and since it was later in the day, there was more traffic. The worst parts were when we were routed onto the side of the highway (yes, a real highway!) and the last hill, la Côte de St Nicolas was on a busy road with traffic and the requisite Belgian potholes. As a beginner, I wished they had at least closed that one road to traffic.  This hill was also steep and tough because it came so late in our race, around km 75, I think, but it was mercifully shorter than La Redoute. After this hill, my Garmin gave up and died due to a weak battery and I thought I was more or less done. Getting to the finish line took longer than I thought, and here was the only place where the otherwise well-marked course became a little confusing. There was a sign for the finish for the longest distance, the 277K, and I asked other cyclists if that were for us, too, and the general consensus was yes and from then on, we realized we were following signs to the start line and hoped this was the same as the finish line. This part of the course seemed the longest. It was all urban, though the scenic industrial zone and even went very close to the budget Ibis.

Finally, I crossed the finish line and the sun came out, I saw Frank and Jeff at a picnic table covered in what seemed like a Belgian mirage: beer and frites! This was by far the highlight of the entire race! We discovered that we could return our race numbers for a 5-euro refund, which went to cover more beer and frites. We ate, drank and swapped cycling tales and then Seb, the first of the 160K crowd crossed the line, looking strong but ready to be done with scenic industrial zone Belgian cycling.

All in all, the ride was hard, but boosted everyone’s cycling confidence. We also thought we probably wouldn’t do it again, there was general disappointment that the short course hadn’t really gotten out of the city, although the longer courses had. If anyone is considering doing it next year, I would recommend doing the extra training for the 160K for a nicer, less urban course—although you’ll have twice as many hills! For more about what to expect on the longer course, see Kathryn and Paul’s write ups of their eventful rides at http://www.expatries-triathlon.com/blog/. 

 

 

Marathon Recap: from "Unspeakably Awful" to Psyched for the Next One

So the Paris Marathon has come and gone and what can I tell you about it?

I didn't train enough, or have a real race plan. Or know if I could actually finish it.

Until I finished it.

It was tough. Way tougher than the tri team made it sound! I often remind myself that I'm very fit for an ordinary person, although very unfit compared to my tri teammate super athletes. I also have to remind myself that what they make sound easy (like running your first marathon in 4 hours), will not actually be easy or even remotely attainable for me! They all did it in around 3 hours, which is really smoking fast. It took me almost twice as long.

I started out too fast, and I alternatingly ran and walked the last 10K, like everyone says you will. I just didn't feel very confident at the start of the race and after about a month of not doing any long runs over like 14 miles (pretty poor training and not even enough of those), I'd kind of gotten out of the habit of taking shot bloks and my stomach get violently upset on race day. Probably a combination of nerves and fake sports food...

My time was over 5 hours (5:21 to be completely honest), which is slower than I thought it would be, but I foolishly didn't realise just how hard it was to run a marathon. Until you've done it, I don't think you can imagine how you can be tired to the point that it can ever take you like 45 minutes or even more to run 5K (I usually do it in 27 min and just assumed that I could do every 5K split at that pace). The important thing is that now I know I can do the distance and also that the key is just to keep running (NO walk breaks), no matter how slowly. Knowing what doing one is actually like will help me train better for the next one (Nice-Cannes in November).

You're really a zombie afterwards and you can barely walk, or go down stairs or even eat. I had no real appetite the rest of the day. After I crossed the finish line, when I had to walk over to stand in line to get my medal, I realised I was limping. A woman turned to me and said, "God, that was terrible." I replied, "I know, unspeakably awful." I asked if she were a first time marathoner and she said yes. We commiserated together a little. I remembered back to seeing my mom and my friend Pamela cheering for me during the race around km 29 or 30 and when Pam asked, "how do you feel?" I said, "oh, pretty terrible" and she said, "that's how you're supposed to feel when you run a marathon!"

The highlights were seeing then during the race, I also saw my friend Sharon looking strong at the end and our friend Freda was there cheering for us, which was a huge boost. Finally, I used what little energy I had left to run across the finish line at a blistering 10 min/mile pace (which seemed like the equivalent of 7-min miles considering how tired I was!)

The absolute highlight was seeing my mom and Pam at the finish and then while I was looking for them in the crowd, I ran into Evelyn, who had also come to congratulate me! We ate some maracroons in the sun, courtesy of Ironman boyfriend (who was going crazy worrying about me since I was taking so long) and the girls and my mom were so positive and so proud of me that that was when I stopped feeling disappointed about running so slowly and going from competitive running goals to basic survival and started feeling proud that I HAD survived and had run a marathon! I decided that your first marathon is about getting round and not giving up and even just doing one is a huge life 'moment fort' (French for defining moment) and big event to check off the bucket list. While I've run a marathon, running a fast one, or at least one that I feel like I trained well for, is still on the list... But I'll have my chance in November.

This one, the second marathon can be about running fast, meeting a time goal, training well and most importantly, going into the race with confidence.

Paris Marathon 2013

I'm running a marathon this Sunday. April 7, 2013. While I've already signed up for my next marathon (insane!), this one will be my first.

Signing up for 1 is crazy enough. 2 is just plain psycho.

I'm comfortable running half marathons, but feel like this is the more intense sequel in an X-Men trilogy or something and this is the one where in the preview, they say something melodramatic, like This time, all bets are off, or, In the rules of trilogies, in the 3rd movie, there are no rules. Or coming soon, to an urban marathon course near you, April 7, You'll find out what you're made of.

I have been told to expect pain, tears and more pain. I plan to run with pain killers in addition to my shot bloks, just in case. I have been told it's a wild experience and just to tick off the Paris monuments that we pass and the miles will fly by. I've been told that in theory, it's easy-- right foot, left foot, repeat for 42.2 kilometers (26.2 miles), but obviously, in practice it's a little harder.

I'm running with a friend who has done marathons before and runs at my pace and was a lovely speed interval partner. I will also have brunch waiting for me afterwards thanks to tri team friends. My mother will be cheering for me at the finish line and so will Ironman (who is running it, too, and will no doubt do it in some impossibly fast time, like 2 hours). The closest thing I have to a race strategy (besides surviving and not stopping!) is just to focus on each 5K split and try to do each in half an hour. Easy and consistent.

I also don't want to alternate running and walking at the end.

I've heard that if half marathons really start at  the 10K mark, marathons really start at 30K. The last 10k are where the race is. Lots of people run-walk this part, you'll start to see people stop and stretch. This is where it happens. Trying to avoid time goals, other than around 4 hours-- would prefer closer to 4 than 5, but any time I run will be a personal best (the beauty of every new distance you race!), and my only other goal is to avoid walking. I'd like to run the whole thing, even if my pace becomes the slowest jog ever.

While this might be a slightly saccreligious comparison, marathon stratégies for first time marathoners are probably like birth plans-- you can have ideas about how you want it to go, but you should stay flexible since you don't know how the event will really happen and there will be factors beyond your control. Like the crowd, the weather, etc., (for the marathon, at least).

4 days away, I feel like I didn't train enough. I trained well in February, but couldn't really sustain it in March, mainly because of the social life and family visits (not that I am complaining about these things at all!) It just because harder to fit in. I also only did 1 run over 30k, and what now only seems like few around 30-- like a month of long runs at 26, 27 and 29K. My longest run ever was 32K and now I wish I'd done it twice, or even done a longer one...  

I did notice that I was at least getting used to long runs, though, when I did a little 16K last weekend and thought how luxurious it was to do a short run without having to carry water, shot bloks or gu chomps...

I think running is a little like writing a college thesis. In running, you've never trained enough. In the academic world, you've never researched enough. I once had a professor who told me that I just had to start writing and there was an infinite amount of research to be done.

I also wish I knew what to expect. Will my legs go numb? Will I hallucinate? Will I have to stop and pee in public? I think I'll probably cry at the end, just because I'm fairly emotional.

While I just want to survive the Paris marathon, someday I would like to qualify for Boston. That's what marathon number 2 is for! No, just kidding. My second marathon will probably still not be a Boston qualifier by any stretch, but I might be able to find some kind of intermediate goal that will put me on track for qualifying by the end of the year... And it should be the most breath-taking course ever-- Nice-Cannes marathon along the French Riviera.

First Triathlon Ever

So while I can't quite call myself a triathlete yet, I did complete my first triathlon a few weeks ago (and in a relatively new development, my boyfriend is an Ironman-- I swear, to me this is cooler than saying, 'my boyfriend's in the band' -- or after Twilight, maybe now it's 'my boyfriend is a vampire', is to a high school girl. I am amazed by athletic prowess, despite, or because, I have so little of it myself).

But not sure how much these things count in terms of triathlon cred, though, because the tri in question was a super sprint, which means really short distances. It was indoors, which was nice considering Paris spring weather (it basically stays rainy winter until May when we have 1 week of glorious sunshine and we all later realise that that was our summer). The swim was 300 meters in a pool, then you biked 7K on a stationary bike and then the run was 2.5K outside.

It was a good experience but harder than I thought to do all 3 in a row.

And the swim was brutal.

I am not a confident swimmer, but this was bad even for me. I couldn't find a breathing rhythm-- I probably started out too fast, and was already self-consious because people were watching. I panicked and breast-stroked part of it. Not proud of that, but all future triathlon swims will probably be better than that, I don't think they can be worse. Despite being in shark-infested open water... So I'm really making an effort to swim more and Ironman gives me drills to do each time we go to the pool.

Biking was the best part. Mainly because I was so happy to be out of the pool and they had bike assistants who helped you adjust your bike before the start of the triathlon and gave you water and encouraged you during the race. They were lovely, I keep meaning to write to the triathlon organsers to tell them how much I appreciated the bike assistants.

The course for the run was very hilly, so I was pretty slow-- I think I also forgot it was a race and not a Sunday jog! I was the last one to get out of the pool, and couldn't quite make the time up on the bike, so I didn't see many other folks on the course. So hills and stairs to go up and I didn't make up a lot of time on the downhill, since the path was slippery from rain the night before.

So I somehow avoided being the last person in the competition -although I was the last on my team, but motivated for the next (gulp, longer) one and working on the swimming.

Swimming with Pool Boys and Shark Fins

I run a lot more than I cycle or swim. Mainly because I'm a way better runner (ha, everything's relative!) than cyclist or swimmer and I have a marathon to run in April. I only cycle about once a week, if I'm lucky and I haven't really been swimming at all lately.

I finally dragged myself to the pool after about a month of just talking about how I should really go to the pool. It took a lot of moral support, including a pastry as a reward at the end but for the first time, I did half or more than half of the swim session without this:

 

 

This giant styrofoam peanut looking thing is called a pull buoy (pronounced 'boy' which just inevitably makes me think of pool boys...) and is a floatation device designed to help beginners focus on arm drills while they swim, or try to learn how, without sinking. This way, you can work on arms and then kicking separately before trying to put it all together, which can be overwhelming for those of us who didn't grow up swimming... If you're puzzled, don't worry, I had never seen a pull buoy before I started swimming with my tri club.

Here's a little flashback to my first tri team swim session and my introduction to swimming the crawl:

Me, gasping for breath (after probably 1 or 2 lengths...): I have no endurance, I just get so tired!
Coach: Here, use this.
Me: Um, what is that and what do I do with it?
Coach, suprised that there were people on earth unfamiliar with pull buoys: It goes between your legs.
Me, surprised that swimming involved putting something between your legs: Really? How high up between your legs exactly?

If you were wondering, there is absoultely nothing sexy about pull buoys at all despite the fact that they go between your thighs... You forget it's there because you're usually too busy trying to breathe properly or to do some weird impossible drill like extend your arms out all the way, swim using only one hand or lift up your elbows (that's called Shark Fin and it's my favorite because the only basic swimming technique that I think I can do right).

The drill I'm proudest of being able to do (with the help of Mr. Pull Buoy) is swimming with my hands clenched into fists. This makes you realise how inefficient your entire stroke and really everything you do is and I feel like it's a mental victory to make it from one the end of the pool to the other with the fists of fury. Surprisingly, I now find bilateral breathing pretty easy, but it's everything else (arm position, keeping your head far enough in the water, keeping your core tight and kicking enough but not too much) that I find really hard.

Swimming involves a lot of weird impossible drills because it's the most technical of the 3 triathlon sports. It really doesn't matter how fit you are, it just matters if you have the right technique. I used to hate this and find it unfair being in good running shape doesn't mean that you're in good swimming shape, but now I think that in some ways it's nice, since I will probably never be as fit as a lot of the triathletes I know. Since I can't compete with them in terms of fitness, I like that I might someday be capable of learning good swimming technique and find it strangely comforting that you just have to be efficient in the water and if you are, then it's ok if you're not particularly strong or able to do a thousand push ups or run a blazing fast 3 hour marathon...

Interestingly, a swimming coach in the US once told me that the land sport that prepared people best for being a good swimmer was ballet. Running and cycling are all about contracting your muscles, but swimming and dancing are both about lengthening your muscles.

I've also heard from some swim coaches (mainly charming Australian swim coach Breton Ford) that teaching complete beginners is really difficult, a lot of coaches have no idea how and are much more comfortable helping experienced swimmers shave 10 seconds off their time. I am lucky enough to have some great coaches on my tri team and think they're definitely much better at spotting problems and devising drills to correct them than lifeguards at the local pool. Anyone who asks me about swimming lessons (or for a recommendation for a gym to join), just gets a little promotional sales talk about why they should join the tri team and it's better and cheaper than gyms or private swim lessons.

The tri team will also never tell you that you're hopeless. You may go down in tri team history as being a legendarily bad swimmer, but they will keep coaching you. To go back to my first swim session ever, the coach's main comment after a few laps last November? 'We have a lot of work to do!'

So what have we learned today? We already know that swimming is hard because it's so technique- based. But for any beginner swimmers out there, remember that the pull buoy is your magic friend and really does make a big difference when you are learning to do the impossible (swim) and you'll be glad to have it for your swimming drills.

Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat: Paris Half 2013

I am probably the least competitive person on my triathlon team. I like to have goals and meet them, but that's it. Also feel like if you don't meet a goal, just analyse why, try to make appropriate changes and then meet it the next time.

I ran the Paris half marathon yesterday (semi marathon de Paris) and did it as a matter of principle-- I'd signed up for it a few years ago, didn't train and ended up not running it.

So I ran it yesterday. While victory and defeat are strong terms, here are the pros and cons.

The positive points were that lots of my friends did it, too-- I started out running with a dear friend of mine and it was great to have a buddy to wait for the start with. My wave started 25 minutes after the advertised start time... Felt more confident at the start than before any previous half and felt good at the end, too, better than at the end of previous halves. Also easiest recovery so far, feel fine today and even doing a recovery jog tonight. I was happy with my split times (up until the last 6k anyway). The sun came out, that strange glowing orb that we haven't seen all winter! Oh, how we've missed it! And it felt great to run in short sleeves in the sun.

The negative points were that I'd been trying for under 2 hours (like 1:55-1:59), but just missed it at 2:01. While this is a respectable time, 2:01 is also kind of a stupid time. A little annoyed by the 01...
My non-fitness friends are impressed and find a 2-hour half pretty fast. My fitness friends offer me their condolences, as if a 2:01 half marathon is the equavalent of my mother dying. Or they tell me encouragingly (I think it's meant to be encouraging, anyway, but it just comes off as slightly accusatory), with all your training over the last month, you should have been able to do it in under 2.

My own reaction is more philosophical. While it's too bad, it is not a devastating tragedy in my life, either and since I can't redo the 2013 Paris half marathon (not this year, anyway), will have to do another half this year. Like maybe in the fjords in Norway. I do, however, think I can run a sub-2 half marathon and will just figure out what I did wrong and not do it next time.

So what went wrong? It was mainly the last 6k. They took me 36 min when they should have taken about 32. This is mainly what got in the way of the sub-2. Also kms 10-15 took 30 min when they should have been about 27 min (like the km 1-5 and 5-10 splits did), so this is where I lost some time, too.

So the marathon training is going to have to intensify this month and I'll really really really have to work on negative splits (when the second half of your run is faster than the first half, since I clearly didn't do it yesterday). Luckily, I have a secret weapon: an ironman coach!

What Happens to a Dream Deferred? Paris Tri Cancelled!

So my last post was about annoying admin paperwork in sports. It affects organisers, too apparently, not just participants. I just heard that the Paris Triathlon was cancelled due to admin annoyingness! The organisers (Garmin), said that since they were still as of March 1 without the necessary city permits for the July event, and they were unable to go ahead with plans.

Way to defer my dream (or at least training goal) because of too much paperwork, France!

Really disappointed since my goals for the year were the Paris Marathon and the Paris Triathlon! I'd even psyched myself up for the swim in the Seine (gross!) and told everyone that I was almost sure I wouldn't die of pollution or other horrible river-borne illness and it would change my entire relationship with the geography of Paris-- I actually thought it would be cool that post Paris tri, every time I looked at the river, I'd have a completely different experience of it, even if that experience was due to swimming in its grossness. My girlfriends all thought I was crazy and that my skin would peel off due to toxic Seine chemicals. Some people just don't get triathlons...

The silver lining of swimming in the Seine is that it's at least supposed to have a strong current which we swim with, thank God, and this helps everyone hit a PB on the swim part. The guys on the team reassured me that even dead bodies would finish the swimming segment (which although reassuring for weak swimmers like me, made me wonder exactly how many dead bodies might be in the Seine at any given time ...)

So I'm signed up for the sprint tri of Versailles, which was always part of the plan. Paris was a longer distance (olympic as opposed to sprint), so not sure if I should find another olympic distance to replace the Paris goal or just do another sprint later in the season to see if I've improved. It wasn't the olympic distance in particular that appealed to me, but the fact that it was Paris.

A note on distances: a sprint tri means you swim 750 meters in open water, cycle 20k, I think, and run 5k. Olympic distance is longer (but this term does not mean that only olympians can do it!) with a 1.5k swim (yikes), 40k bike ride and a 10k run.

So I'll have to find a new ultimate triathlon goal for this year. Versailles was just part of training (and cool because it's Versailles!) and since it's in early May and triathlon season is all summer, it would be a shame to do only that one... So far, the Enghien Triathlon at the end of May has gotten a lot of recommendations as a replacement olympic distance goal.

On Traine Ou On S'entraine?

 

This ad for non-speciality, overpriced-for-poor-quality sporting goods store Go Sport is in every single metro station in Paris right now.  That woman with the giant hands is everywhere.

It's a little ironic that they're targeting women, since my local Go Sport has NO cycling clothes or gloves for women and their women's running section is like 1 pair of running tights with pink inseams. The only lady clothes they carry tend to be cotton yoga clothes, which are pretty much useless for people who do actual sports which involve sweat... Don't get me wrong, I love yoga, but you can't run, bike (or swim, for that matter!) in cotton.

The woman with the freakishly large hands in the ad (how did they decide to go with that weird camera angle?) is saying, 'are we hanging out or are we working out?' You have to admire her fake advertising spunk and perky motivation, especially since she's exercising on some horrible stair climber-looking machine alone with no music, although she is in what looks like heaven, or at least a large and uncrowded white gym with giant windows so it's clearly not in Paris. I stopped going to Parisian gyms because they were too small, windowless, poorly ventilated, overcrowded, overpriced and, as part of the lack of adequate ventilation, suffered from the overwhelming stench of sweat.

Despite having my share of perky motivation (and normal sized hands), 'are we hanging out or are we working out?' isn't really the question I ask myself before a run, bike or swim session. I tend to ask things like, do I have to? Could I stay in bed? Am I perhaps sick this morning and sleeping later would then be medically advisable? In the pm, the question is more like: can I have a drink with my non-fitness friends (I usually then wonder if they're still alive) instead of whatever run I have planned for that evening?

And the answer is almost always no, on s'entraine (we're working out,)  not going out to a bar with our friends. At least until the marathon is over.

Sports and Paperasse

Something fun about Paris is the insane amount of useless paperwork that comes with life in the Hexagon. I'm pretty much used to needing a "justification" or "attestation" for everything imaginable, even breathing, and it's no suprise that running races and doing triathlons requires its own level of paperasse or annoying paperwork, the famous "certificat médical."



You cannot compete without one. This is not a country where you can sign a liability waiver and do any harebrained thing you want, like in the US. I remember signing like 12 documents about how if I died or injured myself, I wouldn't sue this skydiving company (whose office was what seemed to be an abandoned airplane hangar in a cornfield, not particularly confidence-inspiring) for taking me on a tandem jump, nor would anyone in my family ever sue them, because it was my own crazy idea.

On the one hand, I am all for you being forced to reveal your tri or running goals to your doctor and have a chat about health in general, your training and what kind of shape you're in. It could be a good way to start a dialogue, get some idea of your baseline fitness and better safe than sorry, why not have a little physical checkup at only minor personal inconvenience, like going there and paying 23 euros, 75 percent of which is reimbursed by the French government? People always tell you about the Perfectly Healthy Runner Who Dropped Dead Of A Freak Heart Attack During the Race, don't they? I've heard that one several times. Why not get a quick physical? Ounce of prevention and all that.

On the other hand, it's also kind of a pointless farcical waste of time. The certificate is carefully worded to say that the doctor "didn't find anything today that could prevent you from competing in a race or a triathlon." In French, it's called a "certificat de non-contre indication." It mainly says, in lots of clever French negatives, you don't seem not to be ok-- and if I'm wrong, the doctor might as well add, because this is France and not the US, I probably don't need to worry about being sued... The medical certificate is valid for a year.

I went from being horrified by the French cultural experience of going to the doctor to actually enjoyng it. My doctor is easily 400 years old and sometimes if you call for an appointment, her feeble, elderly voice will come on the answering machine saying that she's away for a few days in the countryside resting. She examines patients more or less in her living room, on a folded up sofa bed futon with medical exam paper on it. She also likes to scold me, but nicely, I just think this is how older French women interact with younger women. I was affectionately scolded last week for not having a current doliprane prescription on hand at all times and she promptly wrote me one stat to avert the possible crisis of being doliprane-less. Doliprane is the favorite French drug for everything from the flu to headaches and it's a pill popping culture.  For the common cold, elderly doctor has prescribed up to 5 different meds for me to take all at once. I personally hate taking pills, even tylenol (or doliprane) for headaches, and will go to elaborate lengths to avoid it. I've been going to elderly doctor for a few years now, we get on well. Every year I mean to send her a Christmas card but never do. I no longer live in the same area as her office, but I really like her, so trek across the city a few times a year to see her.

Some doctors just sign your medical certificate. Not mine, she is pretty thorough and we chat about my training. She examines me and she listens to my heart and takes my blood pressure (she uses her ancient little alarm clock and waits for the second hand to sweep along the clock to see when a minute's up). Then we have a little ritual where I have to do 30 squats and she takes my blood pressure again immediately afterwards to monitor recovery time and she listens to my heart again. This time, I was complimented on my fitness, she said she could tell I exercised a lot and that I was in good shape.

Everything was ok and she kindly signed not only a running medical certificate but also a triathlon one (you can probably use the tri one for running, too, but I didn't want to take any chances). It was nice to see elderly doctor, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not these certificats médicaux are responsible sports medicine and important for athletes or just kind of pointless and another French bureaucratic hoop to jump through. And to jump through a hoop either in training or in competition in France, you would, of course, need a medical certificate!

Speed, Cadence and Chain Rings...

Cycling, whether on a velib or a fancy road bike, seems pretty straightforward, right? Get on bike, pedal and don't fall off.

Let me tell you, this is naive.

Last week, thanks to fab tri team coaching, us beginner cyclists figured out pelotons. Our speed was about 25km/hr-- slow to real triathletes, but pretty fast for me! I optimistically thought that drafting and the group dynamic was the hard part and that I was well on the way to conquering the world of cycling (despite the fact that last week's training session was my first time ever riding a racing bike! Despite living in France for so long, I've retained my American optimism!) Watch out, Tour de France, I thought. Or Tour de Longchamp, at least!

I was, of course, wrong.

We still rocked the peloton, but we also worked on sprints yesterday and suddenly by upping the pace just a couple km to 30km/hr, cycling became very technical requiring lots of gear changes! Yikes, that sport suddenly became a lot more complicated in just 1 week! I think a lot of it is just trial and error, so I'll need to set aside the time to practice and figure it out, either on Longchamp by myself or on the home trainer (I'll have to get one first) but for the moment, have no idea what gears I should be using! I've heard that cycling is the second-most technical of the 3 triathlon sports (swimming is the most technical-- it doesn't matter how fit you are, you need the right technique to do it effectively) and I believed it after yesterday.

After our first sprint, we were all in the wrong gear, judging by the position of our bicyle chains, which raised some very fundamental questions about gears and how exactly to train for the cycling part of a triathlon, anyway.

Our coach was great and very patient and gave us a Bike Gears 101 lesson (it was actually Bike Gears 102 for me, since last week I needed my own little training on how physically to change them and which hand controlled what...) On a bike there are 2 chain rings, one big and closer to the pedals (right hand side of photo) and one little on the back wheel (left hand side of photo) where you can see a ton of different chains, or gears. We should be on the little one, which means changing that one up or down when you need more or less resistance.

The big chain ring is only the gears you use when you're going like 60km/hr, a speed which I will never have to worry about attaining! Some of the experienced 'beginner' cyclists said they were used to riding on the big chain instead of the little one and they'd have to readjust their cadence and change their entire cycling universe completely. Cadence means how many revolutions, or how many times you pedal.  I have no cycling habits whatsoever (good or bad!), since I'm so new at it-- my cycling universe consists of 2 training sessions so far and summer velib-riding last year!

What surprised the other cyclists, who know way more about biking than I do, is that for a triathlon, you train for cadence and not speed (what they'd been doing with the big chain ring). Why? Here's the coach's explanation:

The key to successful cycling (and the subsequent run for a triathlon-- in a tri, you always swim, bike, run, in that order) is sustained effort.  We have to pick a target to set the pace, not let your heart do it for you. There are two targets to pick, speed or cadence.  If you pick speed,  you can ride in the big gears, keep your heart rate very low, and rely on leg strength alone.  But you run the risk of burning your legs out for the end of the ride. If you pick cadence, you will use lower gears, have a higher heart rate, and distribute your leg strength/endurance over the the route.  You will be surprised with this focus, the speed follows, it just doesn't dictate your style.  

 

This used to be a big debate in cycling (big gears versus high cadence), which has been largely put to bed with the advent of power meters - which demonstrate the cadence approach is best. 

 

Interesting to know, some different training theories. How you learn to do anything is really a product of the theories about teaching it at the time you learn. A swim coach once said that she could look at how someone swam and identify the approximate year that person had taken swim lessons. As a language teacher, from the way people of different nationalities speak English, I can infer a lot about how foreign languages are taught in that particular country.

Anyway, cadence-based training makes sense to me, especially since my goal is just to finish a triathlon in one piece and there's still the run to do after the bike segment!

Some other points I discovered yesterday-- I have pedals that require clip-in shoes, which I borrowed from a friend, but wasn't brave enough to try yesterday for the first time, I wanted to practice clipping in and out since I assume I'll fall over the first few times I brake with them! I really should have just tried the bike shoes anyway, my running shoes slipped off the pedals sometimes-- usually in the middle of hunting for the perfect gear!-- and everyone told me to get clippy bike shoes and promised that it would make riding so much easier.

Bike shoes or running shoes aside, the arctic blast weather was still in full force and we couldn't feel our toes after the ride! I was also already pretty tired after my 20 mile run the previous day, and despite a lot of watermelon flavored GU chomps, I was ready to go get my café allongé! Although bike gears are trickier than I thought and I couldn't keep up with the rest of the group and it was freezing cold, it was good to cycle for 2 hours, since I need the practice.

The other cyclists from different tri teams out in the cold with us were surprisingly nice and when I was falling behind my group, one who I didn't even know pulled up next to me, put his arm around my waist and gave me a push that sent me flying back into my group!  He actually did that twice-- a little alarming at first, but ultimately very nice. I resolved to do the same someday for a newbie cyclist, if I ever figure out my gears and how to go 30km/hr, that is! (Although I might explain that I was going to give them a push first, avoiding that awkward moment when I wondered if the other cyclist were trying to reach into my pocket and steal my GU chomps!)

With the exception of friendly tri teams who gave me the extra push (literally!), the one advantage of the terrible weather was that Longchamp was much quieter than usual. Like last time, we ended up in a café to relax and thaw out fingers and toes afterwards and chat about gears and cadence before the long cycle ride home (working on neither speed nor cadence!) to well-deserved hot showers and afternoon naps! 

Brr! The Problem With Training for Spring Marathons

The problem with training for spring marathons is that you have to do your training in the winter! And winter is cold right now. Paris has suddenly had an arctic blast cold front and everyone is freezing cold all the time and even fashionable French businessmen wear ninja ski masks, it's that cold. The high today was -1 degree Celsius (or about 30F) and the low was -5 (around 20F). Maybe that doesn't sound that cold, but there was a chilly, chilly wind so it felt even colder.

This is what winter training looked like today: 3 layers, thermal running tights, warm jacket, scarf (people in Paris just love scarves-- I must admit that I do, too-- and wear them pretty much all the time, even when they exercise), fleecy headband, gloves and in a Flashdance-inspired touch, legwarmers!

It started snowing on my run, giant flurries and it was really windy on the way back (I did 2 out and backs, coming back was tough each time, since I was running into the wind!) I couldn't feel my face anymore by the time I got home (must ask the businessmen where they got their ninja ski masks...) But the toughest part of my 20-miler this afternoon? The toughest part of any run: the first step out the door!

Despite the casual mention of a 20-miler (or 32 km if you train in km like all Europeans), this was the first time I'd ever run that far! It was slow-- slow like if your granny put on her red legwarmers and went out for a run in the snow, but it was 20 miles! I know the marathon itself will be a huge mental and physical challenge, but since it's in April, when the going gets tough, I can always console myself that at least it's not snowing...

I Can't, I'm Doing a Tempo Run Tonight

Is marathon training time-consuming?

Why, yes. Yes, it is.

This was more or less an actual conversation between a fellow runner also training for a spring marathon and me:

Me: So how about we meet up Monday evening?
Marathon Runner Friend: Oh, Monday I have track intervals, but want to come and we can have coffee afterwards?
Me: I can't, I do track on Wednesdays and couldn't handle twice in one week.
MRF: Maybe Tuesday, after my tempo run?
Me: I have Yoga for Triathletes on Tuesdays which goes kind of late and I do my tempo run on Thursdays.
MRF: I have yoga on Thursdays and my long run on Fridays.
Me: No worries, I swim and do yoga on Fridays, so that's out. Maybe Saturday evening? I do my long run Saturday morning.

Despite both being clearly insane, we did manage to find a time to meet up!

There's a saying I like which goes, "no one ever said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it."

Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance

I started a 7-week cycling training last week and embarassingly rode my racing bike for the first time last Sunday-- training day 1.

This is what absolutely not to do, as I showed up for practice with no air in my back tire and needed a  tutorial in how to change racing bike gears, since there are a lot of them and you have to figure out which gear shift to use (mainly, should I try going up or down with my right hand or left hand?)

I did, at least, cycle to Longchamp, the paved road which is a big loop around a racetrack where every single cyclist in Paris trains on weekends. So got used to the new bike on the way over, although no gear changes were required... 

Longchamp was simultanously a lovely and an irritating place, which is kind of how I feel about Paris itself. No traffic lights and the road is closed to motorists and it's in the woods, which was nice. But it was also extremely crowded. It was manageable from 9-11 am but after 11, it got a little dicey-- as in the insane traffic chaos that you regularly see at Place de l'étoile around the Arc de Triomphe because everyone and their mother and their Tour de France-winning tri team goes there. This is why our training sessions will always end at 11!

While I'm ok with changing gears now and even riding in semi pre-11 am chaos, bike maintenance is still a bit of a mystery to me, to be honest. A mystery that involves an awful lot of mini screwdriver things and other miniature lightweight gadgets. But bike riding is FUN. And it's fast, too!

We worked on riding safely in a group, in a specific formation called a 'peloton.' This really just means either in a single file line or pairs and you get pretty close to the other cyclists, so the goal was to practice and become confortable with 'getting on a wheel' (that just means getting close to the back tire of the cyclist in front of you). The person or people up front work harder (30 percent more, apparently) because they have more wind resistance. The rest of us have it easier because we're just mooching in their airstream and so everyone takes turns being the leader. Riding in someone else's airstream is called drafting, so check a big triathlon term off the list of 'what does this mean and will I ever learn to do it?' In some triathlons drafting is legal, but in some it isn't, so you have to check the rules each time. It did feel windier up front when I took my turn leading the group.

I tried to think of other examples of drafting before our ride to try to figure out what to expect: cars can ride in the airstream of big trucks on the highway, for example-- I've had friends who tried this to give their old clunkers a break, not that it probably prolonged the life of their old cars in any way. Canadian geese also do this by flying in a 'v' shape (to be honest, my main point of reference for airstreams, pelotons and drafting in general was Canadian geese, since I find the Tour de France too boring to watch on TV-- I really thought we'd be in a giant 'v' formation like how geese fly!)

Here's a video of a few seconds of our training in a peloton (and it is very much unlike Canadian geese migratory patterns, I might add!) Thanks to some expert coaching (big thank you to the tri team for organising these beginner sessions!), this is what a peloton should look like :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6l-LMrpdGY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

After the Cinderella hour of 11 am, the end of our session practicing the art of peloton riding, we gave our bikes and our legs a rest to practice the equally important art of relaxing at a café!