Peter Vu's Ironman Blog - Vineman 7/31/10

My man Carlos or "los" does a great job of updating his Ironman blog and providing more fun features. Please check him out below.

IRONMAN CARLITOS

Coach Paul sent us a very important email today...here's his gift to my readers:

  GUIDELINES. one bottle of drink an hour. From here on out, water
  does not cut it. You need sports drinks.

  THE MAGIC NUMBER. Your body weight divided by 2.2 = your body
  weight in kilos.

  From here on out, you consume your Magic Number in CARBOHYDRATES
  each hour while training. Not calories, but CARBS. Again - your
  Magic Number consumed in Carbs every hour.

    * Hour 1 - ALL LIQUID. You want to drink your Magic Number.
      The body has a hard time digesting solids out of the water,
      and getting liquid mixture going will set the tone for the
      rest of the training.
    * Hour 2 - Solid food. You still want to get to your Magic
      Number, but now rather than just liquids, start to add solid
      foods. Long slow burning foods. (i/e, NO GU'S!) You, as an
      athlete, have to figure out what works for you. Powerbars
      are great. But there are a host of other options.
    * Hour 3 - Repeat hour 1. BUT - give yourself a treat. Gummy
      Bears, Peanut butter and jelly, Pringles .. what ever you
      want to try.
    * Hour 4 - Repeat Hour 2. As we move forward in training,
      we'll add on. This will get you started for now.

Quick rundown:

1/18/2010:  Nothing - resting day after marathon.
1/19/2010: 45 Minute trainer ride. 1 hour pool session. New drills and longer swims.
1/20/2010: 1 hour trainer ride
1/21/2010: 45 Minute pool session - 64 laps in the rain. Session would have been longer but lightning and thunder caused the Santa Monica Swim Center staff to shut down the pool. Good news - SMC is open again!!! I love that place.
1/22/2010: 1 hour pool session - 80 laps or 5 x 400 yds. Longest distance yet. Btw, I love having a lane all to myself. Luckily, the weather had calmed down too so no pool closures.
1/23/2010: 40 mile bike ride (2 loops around Palos Verde peninsula) + 30 Min Nutrition Information Session- about 3.5 hours.

• Solid bike ride with lots of hills (that 2 miler in the middle is like whoa) and one really fast downill on the coast - I wish I could describe the feeling of zooming down PV, going about 30 mph, with the beautiful coast to your right - breathtaking! (also kind of dangerous)
• No falls!!!
• Each loop is 20 miles. after the first one, we came back and practiced changing one tire. then we were off for our 2nd loop. I was quite exhausted by then, but kept thinking about all the things I could eat afterwards to stay motivated. once again, a triathlon program is NOT a diet program. (craving a juicy cheeseburger so bad - Umami Burger, I'm thinking about you)
• Revelation: Ironman training is way more intense than marathon training. I was more beat up today then after my marathon last weekend.
• Nutrition session: no more Gu! (or "kid stuff" as coaches like to call it") - you need to build up reserves throughout the day for your run, so basically those 6-7 hours on the bike require proper energy intake. And no, you can't eat or drink during the swim. First hour on the bike - only liquids. Second hour - start munching on food/liquids. Third / Fourth / After - Food / Liquids. Key is to ingest your weight/2.2 = amount of carbohydrates per hour. About 70+ for me. Coach recommended CarboPro, a flavorless carbohydrate powder, that you can add to your energy drink. He also recommends a recovery product like Fluid that will help you heal faster and feel less sore. You are supposed to take it within 30 mins after exercise. The thing about triathlons is that you always have to be thinking about the next day of training. NUTRITION IS PROBABLY THE MOST CRUCIAL THING TO FINISHING AN IRONMAN. Also, you need to know what works for your body - Fluid and CarboPro might not work for you. Maybe peanut and butter jelly sandwiches work or Powerbars. You have to use these months up until training to figure all this out! What helps is to label your water bottles with numbers so you know what you need to take every hour on the course. And yes, you have to consume something every hour or you will SUFFER. Once you stop with nutrition for any brief period, you cannot gain that time back. 
• Overall, great, beautiful ride. A challenge, but sooo worth it. 
• My Saturdays are only going to get busier - we started at 7AM and finished around 2PM today too.

Diet/Nutrition: Rashmi (roommate), Stephanie (her friend) and I made this wonderful Portuguese potatoe/kale/sausage soup the night before my Saturday ride. I was still hungry later so I whipped up a quick whole wheat pasta (from TJ) with some chicken breasts and vegetables. A lot more fruits/vegetables this week for me: asparagus, tomato soup, bananas, blueberries, apples, etc. However, I get so hungry sometimes from training that I just want to eat anything (minus super greasy/fatty foods).

Tomorrow: 1.5 hour run and 1 hour swim.

Go Team!!!

You can watch me cross the finish line here. Search by Bib and enter 6245. I'm the purple runner coming in...
http://arizona.competitor.com/features/finishreplay/

Joe, my Caucasian Team In Training captain, sent us this blog post link today. You can judge for yourself:

From "Stuff White People Like" blog:

In life, there are certain milestones of physical activity that can define you.  A sub 5 second 40 yard dash, a 40 inch vertical leap and so forth.  To a white person, the absolute pinnacle of fitness is to run a marathon.  Not to win, just to run.

White people will train for months, telling everyone who will listen about how they get up early in the morning, they run when it rains, how it makes them feels so great and gives them energy.
When they finish the marathon, they will generally take a photo of themselves in a pair of New Balance sneakers, running shorts, and their marathon number with both hands over their head in triumph (seriously, look it up, this is universal).

They will then set goals like running in the Boston Marathon or the New York Marathon.
If you find yourself in a situation where a white person is talking about a marathon, you must be impressed or you will lose favor with them immediately.  Running for a certain length of time on a specific day is a very important thing to a white person and should not be demeaned.

Also worth nothing, more competitive white people prefer triathlons because Kenyans can’t afford $10,000 specialty bicycles.  If the subject ever comes up, just say that triathletes are in better shape than football and basketball players.  It’s not true, but it will make the conversation a lot more genial.

I had an amazing weekend in Arizona with the TNT Westside LA Marathon team. Everyone finished their half/full marathon and the Greater LA team raised $100,000+ for the Leukemia and Lyphoma Society. Here are some unorganized highlights:

• 4:04:44 - I had a GREAT run considering all the training/missed training I had up to this point. My favorite accomplishment of this run was my negative split (which is having a faster second half of the race then first half). It demonstrated to me that I could hold back for the first half and cut loose for the second half - as the coaches always preach.
  
• Shaved off ~44 minutes off my previous marathon run...unheard of, and I would have been pleasantly surprised if I had gotten 4:20/4:25.
• I followed my fellow TNT Mentor's marathon strategy since I was using 9 minute run  / 1 minute rest intervals: skipped the first interval, slowed down during miles 6-13, skipped interval around 13 miles, held constant pace around miles 14-20, skipped interval around 19 miles, toughed it out for the last 6.2 miiles and skipped all intervals between miles 20-26 except for mile 23 to re-Gu.
• Goal was to keep it steady for first 13.1 miles and hold back. I felt good for the whole race (where in San Diego I was dying by mile 14). There are really two races in a marathon...the first 20 and the last 6.2 miles. Since I was trying to PR (personal record), I knew that I needed to pick up the pace around miles 6.2 miles; however, it's not easy to do math towards the end when your brain wants to shut off.
  
• Arizona (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe) is quite a boring, non-scenic run, but flat. Weather was perfect for running or "no excuses weather" according to Olympian Frank Shorter - 50 degrees with no wind or humidity
• I picked up a few things from the Fitness Expo on the prior day: Spibelt to hold Gu, Power Balance Hologram band (which I am still unsure if it works) and a Triathlon Backpack. FYI - If you ever want to buy discounted quality running/tri gear, always wait for a marathon/half-marathon to roll into town before buying anything. Discounts were awesome!
• My Gu energy gel intake was efficient - 5 Gus with the last Gu (Roctane - Double Gu) coming at mile 23 to pull it out. I really hit no "wall" and I think it was due to my proper energy intake for every 4-5 miles. I consider a marathon or any endurance event as a thinking game: you have to know your body, how it operates and how to provide it with the energy to support it for 26.2 miles.
• I also took a lot of Endurolyte salt pills - about 2-3 every hour. The pills help with my perspiration and water intake. By mile 21, I downed 3 of them to help with the cramping. I think it worked.
  
• Breakfast - 2 mini-bags of Whole Food trail mix per the wonderful Kelley Puckett.
• I started cramping around miles 21/22 in my calves and I was worried that I would have to stop...Tom told me you just need to run through it or else it would cramp up even more. Sometimes, when I was stepping, I almost tripped because I could feel my legs tightening, but I mentally focused harder and tried to pick up the pace.
• I used my Ipod shuffle for the last 6.2 miles (first time in a race) and I think it helped. I don't like using it for more than 2 hours because it just turns into noise. Next race, I will probably start using it around mile 18. 
• I definitely wanted to use the restroom during the race since I had been drinking a lot throughout...thankfully, was able to hold it in.
  
• I ran by myself for the first whole race and I actually enjoyed it. Not to say I don't like having people there, but when I'm in race mode, I just like being focused on the task at hand.
• Major runner's high afterwards - no major aches and pains. I did have KT (kinesiotape) Tape on my shins since they were a little sore heading into the race - first time using it.
  
• I shared a room with Coaches Craig and Kelley and Lauren Bollinger at the Sheraton Hotel.
• I was able to get a decent amount of sleep in prior to the race - fell asleep around 11pm and woke up around 5:20AM. Considering I had been falling asleep at 1 or 2AM for the past couple nights before the race.
• I saw Ryan Hall at the expo. He's an insane runner. I didn't see Deena Kastor, Olympic medal holder and female superstar runner,  but I am hoping she kicks some butt this year after her injuries the past couple years. Watching them race online is just surreal. They have amazing form and make it look so easy. (4-5 min miles throughout the 13.1 miles is just CRAZY!!!).
  

This run felt like "night and day" compared to my first marathon; whereas, I suffered in the San Diego marathon towards the end, I picked up the pace for the last 3.2 miles of this marathon. I think the things that helped me for this race were my nutrition (more vegetables the past few months, pasta loading this week), hydration (more water and less sugar or alcoholic drinks), weight loss (about 10-15 pounds less than San Diego), flat, fast course in AZ, and most importantly my mental grasp and preparation for a marathon.  I won't have time for another solo marathon anytime soon, but maybe after triathlon season, I can attain that sub 4 hour mark. Now, it's time for Ironman training to go into full effect. The next six months will be INTENSE, but I can't wait: New Adventures, New Challenges, New Friends, New Goals Achieved, New Discoveries, New Cancer Patients Helped.

Go Team!!!

I'm heading to Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow morning for my second marathon on Sunday. Overall, I feel okay except for a slightly sore right shin, some minor chafing under my left arm and a small burn on my left foot that I received trying to make pasta tonight. Let's recap some of the training highlights from this week:

1/12/2010: 50 minute trainer ride to Vampire Weekend's new album "Contra". My bottom was quite sore towards the end, so I stopped (plus I had to leave for our final sendoff event at Bodega Wine Bar in Santa Monica for the AZ TNT Westside LA Marathon team). Hopefully, I can get that ride up to 1:10/1:15 for next week. It's a much more strenuous workout than biking outside.

1/13/2010: 5 mile run (my apartment to Brentwood Country Club, two loops around, and then back to the apartment). Since I hadn't run since Friday of the previous week, my legs were a little rusty and my breathing was not entirely in sync.

1/14/2010: 1 hour coached pool workout at Los Angeles Valley Community College. Tough but good workout. We learned some new drills/sets. I started off slow but was able to pick it up by the end. I definitely feel that I am improving, but I just need to keep hitting the pool.

1/15/2010: 10 mile run from my apartment to Santa Monica and back. I kept a decent pace and only used one Gu energy gel, trying to not kill myself before race weekend. It took me about 1.5 hours to complete or roughly a 8:45 pace with only a couple short breaks in between. It will be incredibly hard to sustain that over 26.2 miles, and I will also be doing 9:1 intervals.

Anyhow, I am just hoping to get a decent time on the AZ marathon and remain injury-free. It should be fun. I'm excited!!!

I got a mile or 64 laps in at the Culver Pool today. Hopefully, my body is starting to adjust. FAIL = TNT complimentary swim cap broke while I was putting it on. I ended up reverting back to my black Speedo swim cap. I would like to get a new pair of goggles in the future because my current one does not cling that well to my face.

Tomorrow: maybe some biking on the trainer. I have to pick it up from Performance Bike Store first though.

Next Swimming Goal Practice: 75 laps next non-coached swim.

A lot of training these past two days.

1/8/2010:  I was supposed to go out for a 13 mile run, but I didn't have an accurate gauge of how far I was going. I was basically running from my apartment in Brentwood down to Venice Beach and back. It ended up being close to 16 miles. I started around 4:30 and finished a few minutes after 7pm. No issues along the run, but I had to pull through a few mental blocks especially when you're out by yourself for 2.5 hours. Having music on my Ipod Shuffle helps. I also kept the pace slow since it would be stupid if I injured myself during tapering mode. I think this will be my last long run before my marathon next Sunday in Phoenix, and I will try to maybe do a couple milder runs this week to stay fresh. Tomorrow, we have our seasonal costume run for the TNT Westside marathon team - it's the last practice before the marathon. I am going to reuse my Halloween costume and dress up as a chef at the water stop!

1/9/2010: First long, challenging bikeride of the season. Highlights included:

• 30 mile loop that I finished in about 2.5 hours
• Got to see some remote areas of LA that I did not know existed in Westlake Village (i.e., farms and pastures)
• At some points on the downhill, you're just zooming...you have to ask yourself, "Is this safe to be going this fast?"
  
• We had some challenging hills on the course. Given my shape, it really tests you out there when you are trying to pedal as fast you can and you're not moving that fast and your cadence is still slow. Once I was able to master my shifting better and also "push and pull," things became easier, but it was still a grind. There was one hill at the beginning and towards 2/3 of the way where you kept asking yourself when is this incline going to end. One thing that has helped me over this past year of endurance training is this ability to embrace the challenge and know that most hardships on the course are usually mental. You have to keep telling yourself that you might be "in pain" or "dying" out there on a run or the course, but you will get through it if you just focus, emphasize proper technique, and keep moving forward.
• Trying to keep my cadence around the 90-95 revolutions per minute
• Most frustrating about today's bikeride that didn't have to happen: another fall. I had my hands on the top of the handlebars, and I tried to bring them down so I could hold on to the sides. As I looked down to do so, I took my eyes off the road and veered into the curb and flipped onto the sidewalk and almost hit a wall. Luckily, I wasn't going too fast. I got a cut on my hand, a couple small scrapes on my shoulders and knees, and slightly bruised my right forearm. Given how much worse it could have been, no complaints from my end. Scott and Chris were tailing me on the course and stopped to make sure I was okay and check my bike. I may have bent one of my sprockets on the fall, so I am going to take my bike in to get it serviced hopefully tomorrow (also looking to get new aerobars and a bentobox). One great thing about the Ironman team is how everyone is really helpful and nice --always trying to teach you things, give you advice, encourage you, etc. Also, I must be quite clumsy compared to others to be falling so much.
  
• Louis and Carlos taught me how to change my first tire after. I will need to practice on my own later this week to get a handle on it.
• Training tips: you need to drink a bottle of liquid every hour of training. Even if it's freezing in the morning, you need to constantly be sipping on your liquids during the first hour. As you warm up later, it becomes easier to take in liquids. Louis also pointed out that you should not use Gu energy gels during an Ironman race since they provide you with sudden bursts of energy and will not sustain you over 13-14 hours of activity. Instead you should divide your weight by 2.2 and that is the amount of carbohydrates that you need to consume every hour. I plan on buying this drink supplement called CarboPro to add to my athletic drink (which only has 30g), Based on my weight, I need about 72-75g per hour.
  
• Diet the past few days has been helping. However, I was starving after today's bikeride. I went up to Louis and basically offered to pay him for anything in his car. He actually had day old bagels and rice krispie treats that I destroyed. 
• After our bikeride, we went to The Counter Burger, where I continued to satiate my appetite. Given how hungry I was, a burger sounded amazing. I did opt for the smallest meat patty to stay healthy.
  
• First "transition" or "brick" from biking to running after the ride for about 10 minutes. They call it a "brick" run sometimes because you're legs feel like bricks after biking for so long and then starting to run. Coach mentioned the key to the transition was to start off really slow on the run since you will have been biking for a long time. You can pick up the pace later as your body adjusts.
  
• Overall, great training session and happy to get my first long, challenging bikeride out of the way. It will be interesting to see where I am 2 months from now. FUN FUN FUN. 
• On a sidenote, I went to see "Avatar" last night at 11:15PM since it was still hard to get seats. I didn't get home until 2:30AM and fell asleep 15 minutes later. I had to wake up 4 hours later at 6:45AM to get out to training...argh.  I still felt good this morning after the bikeride, but had to take a nap later in the evening. I am going to make a more conscious effort to get some rest before these longer training days in the future. 
• We ended up finishing around noon today, which coach mentioned was early. As the season unwinds, the training will get longer and longer. I can't wait for the 100 mile bikeride from LA to San Diego!
  

Last but not least, I also attended a pubcrawl that Frenchie and Javier put on tonight to fundraise for their TNT efforts. I was able to make it to Bigfoot Lodge and Saints and Sinners in Culver City. Fun time w/ the TNT marathon/Ironman crews.

Go Team! Tomorrow, I am going to hit the pool for some lapwork.

A doctor convicted of assaulting two bicyclists by slamming on his car brakes after a confrontation on a narrow Brentwood road was sentenced today to five years in prison.

As a biker myself, I have no remorse for this guy. I know that I am making a huge effort to stay safe on the roads and not get in the way of any other traffic when I ride. If a car slammed his brakes in front of me, I probably wouldn't be able to react fast enough and injure myself. EVIL.

Read more here.

Tonight's swim practice was INTENSE. I am surprised I survived. I am still feeling the after effects of my extended, non-active vacation. We were doing timed sprints for most of the night. 4x100 and a 400.  Granted, the distances are small compared to our later training, but there was a point halfway through my 400 where I wanted to throw up. I must have a lower pain threshold than most people, but sometimes little things will get to me during a race/workout. Luckily, I mentally pulled through it...still not sure how, but probably sheer will.

I hope to get into better shape now that I am back from my vacation and can get serious about training. Coach mentioned before our workout tonight that we're entering an intense training phase and we need to focus on our dieting / nutrition. A bottle of liquid (water, Gatorade, Accelerade, etc.) for every 60 mins of training and constant hydrating everyday. He made a point that when you see people on raceday suffering, it's usually not from lack of training, but poor dieting / nutrition before and during the race. Carlos Pineda, another teammate of mine, also made an interesting remark that an Ironman is not a diet program but a triathlon program. Basically, you need to eat to maintain your energy.

Taking his advice, I went home today and cooked myself my first healthy meal in a while. I went to the Westwood Farmer's Market today, so I was able to pick up some tasty leafy greens (they ran out of kale -> darn those stay-at-home housewives), fresh bell peppers, onions, garlic, etc. I made a simple braised green chard dish with those ingredients and pan fried some Trader Joe's tender chicken breasts with a simple pepper, salt, and lemon marinade. It wasn't too bad, but I will hold off on the excess oil, salt and onions next time.

Another training day down...tomorrow I have 13 miles of running.

I just got back from my two week vacation to Africa/Paris/New York and now it's time to really get serious about training. I didn't do anything during those two weeks and it definitely showed on my first day back. I ran 4.5 miles on Monday, and it was not a good run. I felt a little winded at the end and it was at a comfortable pace too. On Tuesday, I hit the Culver Pool (since most of the pools on the Westside are closed for maintenance right now) for about 45 minutes. That was not a fun swim either. I did about 50 25m laps and took many breaks in between. In any case, I was just trying to get the mileage under my belt for Thursday's coached swim, which I am really dreading so far. We're going to do timed sprint swims! After Tuesday, I was really feeling the effects of 2 weeks of inertia. However, today, I went out for a 9.5 mile run from my apartment down to Santa Monica and back, and felt decent most of the way through. I went out in the late afternoon/evening time so the weather was perfect (about 60 degrees). Although I love SF and NYC, sometimes you really can't beat running with only a shirt and shorts in the dead of winter along the beach as the sun sets.

Right now, I am in a wait-and-see mode to see if I can really pull off a marathon by the end of next week. If I can get myself up to 16-18 miles by this Sunday/next Monday, then I will give it a shot. Otherwise, I will think twice. I am going to try and do a 13 miler on Friday.

I have also decided to skip today's bike ride since we'll be biking with the team on Saturday.

Diet: I'm starting to get serious about my diet and nutrition again. I definitely indulged myself over the vacation (Laduree French Macaroons / Levain Bakery Cookies / NYC restaurant food are a deadly temptation). Hopefully, I can cook more this year. Trader Joe's salads have been holding me over though. I am really interested to find out more about the benefits of kale as that vegetable seems to be all the rage amongst athletes/nutritionists right now.

I'll post again shortly. As the title of this post indicates, we are entering an important stage of the training and it's time to put in the hard work.

Before I end this post, I would like to share a recent e-mail from Krissy, an honored teammate, on the Westside Marathon team. She was diagnosed with Leukemia not too long ago. If you're reading this and can help out, please do. There is truly no better gift for someone to receive than the gift of life. When I read emails like hers, it really puts the pain/suffering during my training into perspective.

**********************************************************************************

Krissy's e-mail:



Go Team!