Broken Record

Now that I am riding the trainer several times a week to do my fancy altitude training, I am also using my ipod often. It hasn't been used much since my marathon in February and sadly I have not made any new play lists. I need to do that. It is essential to my training that I create a few new trainer play lists. I am finding that the songs I have are mocking me during my workouts. Let me provide you with some examples of what I am dealing with.

1) The Tragically Hip keep asking me 'are you ready, are you ready, are you ready..?'. Quit taunting me, you know the answer is a resounding NO! If I were ready I wouldn't need to be on the trainer with this mask strapped to my face, come on boys, use some common sense!

2) Freddie Mercury making comments about the size of my butt. 'fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round, Get on your bikes and ride'. Dude, what the heck do you think I am doing! and no I'm not gonna take you home tonight, you just told me I had a fat ass. Plus, not too sure you liked the ladies;)

3) White Snake seems a little sympathetic to my cause. At least they tell me 'Cos I know what it means, to walk the lonely street of dreams,  An' here I go again on my own, Like a drifter I was born to ride alone'. Just the fact that they keep saying, here I go again makes me think that they like to rub it in that I am once again going into oxygen deprivation.

4) Bono likes to remind me 'its a beautiful day, don't let it get away'. Hey Bono, I can see that through my window, I'll get out there as soon as this suffer fest is over.

5) Amy Winehouse tells me 'yes, I've been black but when I come back you'll know, know, know'. Is she referring to bruises on her hips from falling off her bike? Makes me think of my bruises and how at least I haven't fallen off the trainer, YET!

6) Janis Joplin actually gives me a bit of a pep talk. 'and each time I tell myself that I, well I think I've had enough, but I'm gonna show you , baby, that a woman can be tough. I want you to come on, come on, come on and take it, Take another piece of my heart now baby'. This is the point where the pep talk ends and I notice how fast my heart is beating and begin to wonder if I am missing a piece.

7) Pink shows me no respect by asking me 'So What?' when I am proud of accomplishing yet another high altitude session. I think what she is trying to say is, you have many more to go and it is nothing to celebrate until you complete the real altitude session on August 14th. Come on girlfriend, let a sista revel in the small victories!

8) Meatloaf doesn't seem to think the burn I am feeling in my legs is intense enough and knows how to remedy this 'and I wanna take you out of the frying pan, And into the fire. Out of the frying pan and into the fire'. Okay, message received load and clear, work harder, burn harder, I got it, I got it!

9) Sheryl Crow sympathizes with the cuts and abrasions on my legs from my off road adventures. She assures me that 'the first cut is the deepest, baby I know, the first cut is the deepest'. Wonder if she knows how long they should take to heal?

10) Nickelback brings my attention to the difficulty (slight understatement) I am having breathing by wondering 'would somebody help me breathe, would somebody help me breathe?'. Get over it, no one is going to help you breathe, suck in, blow out!

11) Flo Rida knows that by the end of my workout 'you spin my head right round, right round, When you go down, when you go down, down, You spin my head right round, right round'. Yup my head is spinning round alright, and that race I'm doing all this training for is 'going down, down'!

Even though these songs are razzing me during my workouts, they are providing a warped sense of motivation. I have heard these play lists so many times that they have become like a broken record that just keeps replaying over and over and over and over. I need new songs to taunt me while I experience the simulated rocky mountain high. Readers, send me your favorite songs and I will make a special Leadville play list. Please, you can see 'it finally happened, I'm going slightly mad'.

Dizzy Blond

One of the extra benefits, besides the princess canopy bed look, of the altitude training system is training at altitude. That's right, I get to train at altitude without leaving the comfort of my home, or my bedroom since I am too lazy to move the generator around. The unit came with a special exercise mask and instructions on workouts to do.

Air Reservoirs

I hook up the tubing with the air reservoirs to the generator unit. I can then choose the altitude that I wish to work out at. The first three weeks I am to workout at 9000ft. I then hop on the bike trainer, since I am training to bike at altitude that seemed the best exercise of choice. After a 5 min warm up I put on the mask.

Mask as it goes towards me

As seen from the outside

Now that the neoprene face mask is strapped to me with velcro, the real workout begins. The whole system reminds me of work because it sounds like a ventilator or CPAP machine. I have to drown it out with tunes, that is until I am working so hard I can't hear! The instructions all revolve around maintaining a certain oxygen saturation at different stages. Very technical for a girl who doesn't even use a bike computer! I am committed to doing this though, so I follow the guidelines. In order for me to know my oxygenation I am required to wear a probe on my finger. Yes, I feel very much like a lab rat during this time. They also explicitly say that if you are emptying the reservoirs you are breathing too hard. I keep a close eye on those, at least as long as I can. Once I am seeing black spots there is no focusing. I haven't even come close to being able to empty them. Perhaps, a challenge to work towards.

So far the sessions on the trainer haven't been too hideous. I only have to drop my saturation's to 86%. I have already noticed that I am having to ride a harder gear at a faster pace to do this. I guess that means it is working. If nothing else I am expanding my lungs while gulping for air. The sessions are also only 30 minutes at a time, to be followed by an actual ride outside. I can only imagine what it would be like to ride outside in traffic or on a technical trail while experiencing lightheadedness! Pretty sure it is going to be extremely uncomfortable when I progress to the final three weeks. At that time I am to be over 12,000ft and drop my saturation's to 74%. When that happens I hope that my old instincts don't kick in and I start to bag myself and prepare for intubation!

For now, I am putting my faith in the experts and believing that this will prepare me to race at elevation. The blond isn't real and I don't want the dizziness to be real either. I would hate to end my day as the dizzy blond!

Days Like This

Today was one of those days, a day of the good, the bad and lots of the ugly! When I got my altitude tent I was warned that I wouldn't be able to work out as hard for a couple of weeks. The literature said that it was common to have to back off a bit while adjusting to the altitude. I was cautious at first but have been in the tent a week now and have been cranking out awesome workout followed by awesome workout. Until today. Today the accumulation of mileage, intensity and altitude all came crashing down on me. I may have stayed home if I had known what was in store for me. Instead I had planned a rather ambitious workout of climbing on the mountain bike. It all started out great. Beautiful weather, great scenery and just me and my bike.

View back down the the bottom from 1/3 way up

Too bad the good was so short lived. About 1/3 of the way up the 12 mile climb it started to get bad. Seems that they were doing road work up ahead. The rumble of an engine working hard to climb the hill would get louder and louder and then the dust storm would be upon me. I got passed by several water tankers and dump trucks. I was breathing pretty heavily at this point, I had been climbing pretty hard cause things were still good. Sucking in the exhaust fumes and dust while riding through the deep sand on the side of the road, soured my mood!

One of the many trucks that passed me, luckily this section wasn't too dusty!

At the half way point of the climb I came upon the construction crew. I wasn't sure they would let me through, but not only did they let me through they promised that there were no more trucks up ahead. I got about 10 minutes up the road from them and what do you know, they drove their construction truck up past me. More dust! Around about this point my left glut- who am I kidding, my ass started to cramp up. I changed position on the bike, altered my pedal stroke and it wouldn't loosen up. Now, to be fair it had worked pretty hard in Pilate's class yesterday, and it had let me know then that it wasn't happy. I didn't listen to it last night, so it made sure I heard it loud and clear today. I had to get off and stretch a few times but I was determined to get to the top of the damn mountain! Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I hit the tree line and the gnats arrived. Head down, don't let them get to you. Who was I kidding? I was beyond being able to deal and was so physically and mentally wiped at this point. Finally, I crested the top and was able to descend. Today was a day where the reward did not erase the pain or tribulations from my mind.

Even though it was a day where the ugly was more prevalent than the bad and really outweighed the good, I still will reap the training benefits. I was working my butt off (it wouldn't have been screaming so hard at me if I wasn't) and my mind was put to the test. Undoubtedly, if I continue to push my limits there will be more days like this. I'll take a bad day on the bike any day over a bad day off the bike!

For those of you keeping track, I am now sleeping in Park City, Utah. I did make a stop for a few nights in Colorado Springs.

Blood, Sweat and ...

This past weekend I put in some good hours on the bike. So many good hours that I am now sporting lovely biker tan lines. Ladies, you know the biker girl girdle, so attractive. Saturday was a long, hilly, and hot ride. This is where the sweat came in. It was well above 90 and during one climb we were up against a rock face with no wind. I was covered in salt, resembling the rim of margarita glass. I wore it as a badge of honor, proof that I was working hard in the heat. Luckily, Jen, I did not need to recycle!

Sunday, I took to the mountain bike. I did not crash on Sunday but the cuts on my legs from my crash over a week ago took a beating from the bushes. Fresh blood was drawn. My mascot and I now had visible proof that we are not pussies! Just look at her face.

Evidence that I have lost blood in training!

I have never been so happy as I was on Sunday to have gears on my bike. I can't believe that some people choose to ride a single speed. If it weren't for the granny gear there is no way I would have made it up several of the climbs yesterday. My legs were worked from the day before and I was using all my gearing.

Trail goes up over far left of picture

As mild as this hill looks it took all I had to get up and over at the midpoint of my ride. I can't believe that I will have to climb up over the powerline climb in Leadville at mile 80. Oh boy. That is going to be another day for blood, sweat and gears!!

Road Kill

Riding a bicycle along the side of a road often brings you up close and personal with the animals who thought they could out run the vehicular traffic. Yesterday, it seemed that the animal kingdom had been watching too many WWII movies and decided that they all wanted to be kamikazes. There were carcasses scattered everywhere! Going uphills on a nice hot day meant we weren't blazing by and we got to get up close and personal with the casualties. Often, too up close and personal! The visual and olfactory assaults were not pleasant. I didn't stop to take pictures of any of the bloated bodies, thought I would save the image for my readers imagination. Plus, I was trying to get by as quickly as possible, pedalling as fast as I could while holding my breath!
The genocide reached greater heights  when we came upon the locust swarms. Now, rather than witnessing the aftermath of the killings we were part of it. One on one a grasshopper is a cute little insect that as a child I loved to watch and play with.

Pretty cute grasshopper

They lose their cuteness factor pretty quickly when the are flying at you from every direction. All we could do was put our heads down, pedal and keep our mouths closed. If we were going to kill any of them, we were not going to eat them! It went on for about a mile of being pelted and bombarded. There was no way we could avoid hitting or running over them. It was a giant cloud of insects. I tried to get some pictures, while riding. The blurs you see are the locusts and the brown line on the road, well I'm sure you can deduce what that is!

        ' You have failed noone grasshopper, only your own ambition  '

In retrospect a road kill scattered ride was great training for Leadville. It forced me to ride hard with my mouth closed and often holding my breath. Hypoxic intervals. Now to just be able to ride the whole 100 miles in that state! The saying goes that a sensei is just a grasshopper grown up. In 10 weeks I hope this grasshopper has learned patience and grown into the sensei she needs to be.         

Into Thin Air

As I may have mentioned in a previous post or two, the Leadville trail 100 occurs at altitude. The town of Leadville where the race starts is at 10,152ft and the highest point of the race Columbine mine is at 12,500ft ABOVE sea level. I live at sea level, which means I also train at sea level. There is a big difference in the percentage of oxygen in the air up there compared to the 21% I breath down here. My holding the breath method of acclimating has shown only mediocre results thus far so it is time for plan B. Plan B arrived two days ago in the mystery package. My rented altitude simulation tent is now set up and in use. Every night while I sleep I will now be training, this is the most awesome kind of training ever! Now, if I want to sleep late or go to bed early I have the excuse that I am training. Ingenious. Of course, what girl wouldn't want one of these over her bed?

 My Princess Canopy Bed

http://www.hypoxico.com/

Last night I slept at 5000 feet. I prefer to think that I slept in Lima Peru. It was quite comfortable and I strangely liked being the girl in the bubble. Lets hope that by the time I work up to 10,000 feet I am still finding it comfortable and enjoying it. Normally, I wouldn't go to such extreme measures for a race, but this race is extreme and not normal. I plan to do this race once and I need to do everything I can to ensure success in the preparation. I am relying on the tent to take me into thin air each night while I dream.

'can you take me higher, up high I feel like I'm alive for the very first time, Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine, can you take me higher'.

Lady in Waiting

That's right, today I got to live out a fantasy and be a lady in waiting (cause really, every girl dreams of being the princess, why not the maid?!). However, I wasn't waiting in a fancy parlor surrounded by opulence. I also wasn't waiting on a queen, just a princess with four paws, but that I do everyday. Today I was waiting on a package. A very important delivery from the UPS man that required me to be home. The time frame for delivery was rather broad and I didn't want to risk missing the drop off. That would mean having to spend another day in anticipation so I settled in for the long haul.

Taking a bike ride was far too risky of a venture, or was it? Not if I set my bike up in the yard on the trainer and got my workout in. I was still outside and I could see the UPS truck, PERFECT! Of course, that only killed 15% of the vast delivery window. During said torture fest I was sure that the driver would show up, don't they always arrive when it is inconvenient. A few times during my harder intervals I sent out telepathic messages 'now would be a good time to show up' ,  'I am not sure I can hold on any longer, please save me' and 'SOS'. NO response, I need to work on my relationship with the UPS man!

My mystery package did arrive and I was here to receive it. I also got a lot accomplished today in the process of waiting. Ralph Waldo Emerson asked the question 'How much of the human life is lost in waiting?'. I can honestly say that this lady in waiting lost nothing, and some spring cleaning got done - and I still have 20 more days of spring:)