Flip Turns

As a triathlete, I race in open water. However, I practice at the pool once a week. I proudly wear my LA Tri Club swim cap to proclaim to my master swim group that yes I swim slowly, but I run AND bike too!

Nonetheless, I've gotten the urge to learn to do a flip turn. My grab-the-wall-and-push-off technique is pretty well streamlined, but real swimmers do flip turns.

The way the flip turn should go is, flip over, push off with feet onto back, turn onto stomach, and swim.

Mine goes something like this:

One stroke to go before hitting wall. Look up and hesitate fearfully. Take deep breath.

Flip over. Realize, I'm flipped over, don't inhale.

Panic and inhale, getting water up nose.

Search for wall with feet.

Push off. Be surprised by random direction in which I am pushing off. Sometimes launching to bottom of pool. Other times diagonally toward oncoming swimmer.

Panic again with water up nose. Eventually hit surface. Cough.

Proceed with stroke.

I need a *lot* of practice with flip turns. For now, though, the grab-the-wall-and-push technique is working well enough.
Image from blogs.phillyburbs.com

Zapped

I've never experienced anything like this.

Coach Jamie told me to take it easy this week to recover from Vineman 70.3.

Now, I've done marathons, and I'm sore for three days, but after that I'm up and roaring, back to my usual workouts.

Not this time.

I raced on Sunday for almost seven hours of swimming, biking, and running. Then, on Tuesday I went to my usualy bike/run workout. I got on the bike, and whoa, I definitely did not have my usual strength.

Then I thought I'd be fine by Wednesday, the day I do speed work at the track. Not so much. I was more tired and far slower than my typical speedwork pace. So instead of the usual workout, I mostly ran/walked around the track on my own.

I asked my coach how long -- he said to give myself a week and a half. I've taken today off completely from working out, and I'll swim tomorrow.

Maybe by then I'll be back to my usual self.

My First Half Ironman -- Vineman 70.3 -- Done!!!

Initially, my goal for Vineman 70.3 was 7 hours and 30 minutes. Then my coach suggested 7:10. And as I thought about it, I figured I can do the swim in 45 minutes, the bike in 3:45, and then run even if I completely fall apart can be done in 2:30. So my goal was seven hours.

And I had to remember, this is my "A race". I'm only competing against myself to do the best that I can, but this is *the* race that I've been training for. And, I need to focus. Often in races I find myself daydreaming and acting like it's just a training swim/bike/run, but this time, this is the real deal.

The day started chilly. My wave, the 30-34 year-old women headed to the water for a start. I hadn't been too nervous until just then.

"Ten....nine....eight...."

"I think I'm going to throw up." Not sure where that came from. But as the gun went off, any nausea dissipated and I started swimming up the river. Aggressively to start, per Coach Jamie, trying to draft off of someone. The outward portion of the swim seemed to last forever and I settled into a good pace. Shortly after the turnaround, my arm hit the ground and I stood up in the water which must have been only three feet deep. I glanced at my stopwatch, regained my concentration, and dove back in.

I finished the swim in 41 minutes. In transition, I tried to put on my bike shoes without removing my wetsuit. Whoops. That ate up a couple seconds. To the person who keeps mocking me that my transitions take too long, no I did not put on makeup or cook tofu in transition.

Off on the bike. I used disposable water bottles, which did not want to stay in the bottle cages. My Gatorade flew off the bike as I rounded the first turn. Whoops! So I had only one bottle of water, and no electrolyte solution, for the first nineteen miles of the bike. I bent my front bottle cage so that the water would not fly out. That took me a couple extra seconds.

The first five miles of the bike were flat. Then miles five to fifteen were rolling hills, and a bit challenging. Then around mile 25 was the first "hill". I pounded up it, and at the top wondered, "Was that a hill?"

Something hit my face around mile 40, then fell on my leg, and then there was a stinging sensation on my right thigh. I looked down, and there on my leg was a bee!!!! I was stung, through my bike shorts, by a bee!!!! It stung like crazy, and thanks to adrenaline I was able to for the most part ignore the pain for the duration of the race. But on the way home in the car that evening, I definitely felt the bee sting.

Then there was yet another, far longer and a bit steeper hill at mile 45. Not too bad. I was surprisingly faster than I anticipated on the bike. My average pace was 16.2 mph, faster than my goal pace of 15 mph, and in total the bike took 3 hours 36 minutes.

Then, off on the run, which was really hilly. I reminded myself that I had 2 hours and 40 minutes to finish the run -- even if I completely fall apart on the run, I will break seven hours for the course. The first four miles seemed to be all uphill, but as I ran them the opposite way on the way back, they sure didn't seem like they were downhill at all. My legs felt like they weighed fifty pounds apiece. My stomach started getting upset at mile eight. I'd start to walk a bit, but then I couldn't get myself to run again. We ran through the La Crema Winery, which was really the only pleasant part of this run, as the rest was just hills and more hills.

I felt awful during the last 5k of the run. I was exhausted, and my legs were heavy. My left calf started to cramp up in the last mile, and I tried to ignore it. I pushed myself for the final stretch. The announcer called out my name, then asked, "We've been waiting for you all day. Where have you been?" Kind of a bizarre question. Nonetheless, it got me some applause as I finished.

My finishing time: 6 hours, 48 minutes. I'm pleased.

Tapering and Chilling Out

There are four days until Vineman 70.3. I'm supposed to taper -- in other words, significantly decrease the amount of time spent exercising. It feels so weird. I went to the pool today, instructed to swim 500 meters, as opposed to my usual 2000 or so. I rebelled and swam 600 meters.

Coach Jamie says to do lots of stretching. Take "me time" -- when is that? When I'm busy blogging about how I have no time to take "me time"? I'm supposed to lie down for five minutes in a quiet room every so often and just relax. That's called sleep and it happens for five, maybe six, hours a night.

I don't relax. I'm pretty high-energy, high-strung. But, I'm trying to get more sleep, do less, and just chill out this week. But work is busy, and that's just not happening. Nonetheless, I'm trying to limit my outside committments to get myself ready.

Tomorrow I'll wake up and run my easy 1-2 miles, which will just feel downright bizzarely short.

Possibilities

Various statements I've made througout the years:

"I like to run... but I could never do a marathon. That's just too far."
(Since then, I've run three marathons)

"Yes I'm a vegetarian... but being vegan would be impossible! How could I live without cookies?"
(Vegan for three and a half years... and still enjoying a cookie every now and again)

"I do sprint triathlons, and maybe one day I'll do an olympic distance. But I don't ever need to do a half ironman. That's crazy!"
(I'm doing Vineman 70.3 this weekend)

"I think I can die without having ever done a full Ironman."
(I haven't done one yet... but I would love to be able to say that I'm an IronWOMAN!)

With this in mind, I'll contemplate whether I want to do an Ironman this November, or wait until next year to take one on. I'm just not sure I want to do it yet.

Breath of Life Triathlon Race Report

For me it was a good race. And a race where I finally have a picture of myself running where I don't look like I'm about to die. Excellent.

If you look at the race stats, I'm number 15 out of 17 in my age category, which is a bit depressing on first glance. BUT, this is only my fourth olympic distance race ever, and I've only been doing this sport for less than three years, and my times are getting better. My overall time, 3 hours and 9 minutes, is 17 minutes faster than my previous fastest time. And, my 10k run was in 59 minutes. I've never run a 10k in under an hour, let alone having swam, biked, and then run a 10k!

Swim: Cold ocean water, a bit choppy, but a favorable current.

Transition: Ran way too far on sand to get to my bike. I was a little tired out.

Bike: 25 miles almost perfectly flat. I cruised at 16.7 mph. For me that's fast. Your grandma could probably pass me on the bike.

Transition 2: How did it take me over three minutes to get out of my bike shoes and put on my running shoes? I'm still not sure, but that could use some improvement. Maybe I was thrilled to hear my name on the loudspeaker: "Heather Shenkman is racking her bike and is looking strong and about to go out and run 10k!" It was some guy from my tri club who had the microphone. It was cool.

Run: Whooooo hoo! I just had fun with the run. Cheered for people from my tri club,mostly people I don't know, because when you're in a club with 1500 people, you simply can't know everyone. Told some 70 year-old man who was racing that he's my hero and that when I get to be his age I just want to be able to crawl across the finish line. No, really. He's my hero.

Finish: Heard my name on the loudspeaker again as I ran toward the finish line. Felt great. Ate a post-race Boca Burger, which I swear was the tastiest burger I've ever eaten in my life. The man serving the burger asked me, "How come all the early finishers eat meat and you're getting a veggie burger?" My response, "How do you know I wasn't just chilling out for an hour?" I wasn't, but I'm not going to let him think I'm weak because I don't eat meat.

So that's the race. Two weeks until Vineman 70.3, where I'll try to dawdle less in the transition areas.

Still alive and Tri'ing

I haven't posted much. There are just over two weeks until my Vineman 70.3, my first half ironman, and I'm in the middle of a move to a new place. But I did the Breath of Life olympic distance triathlon this past Sunday, with a time of 3:09, my best olympic distance triathlon by 16 minutes. I'm still slow, but I'm getting faster. More on that, and a better picture, soon.

More on Tim Russert's Death

This is the best article that I've found to assimilate the medical facts and fictions with respect to Tim Russert's death.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert's death at age 58 has drawn a lot of attention to coronary artery disease, particularly because of his young age.

There has been so much speculation about what occurred. What we do know is that he had coronary artery disease, he was overweight, and he was a diabetic. He had "passed" (whatever that means) a stress test recently.

In all of the scare over coronary disease and sudden cardiac death, there is one thing to keep in mind: the vast majority of them do not occur out of thin air. Most people who have cardiac events had at least one risk factor, whether that be diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, a history of smoking, or a strong family history of coronary disease. I can think of only very few cases where there was no significant traditional cardiac risk factor.

The bottom line remains the same: Know and manage your risk factors. If you do not know your blood pressure or have not had your blood drawn recently to determine your cholesterol and electrolytes, then it's time to see a doctor for a check-up. And if you do have risk factors, they need to be managed with appropriate medications, diet, and exercise.

But, most important here is how we take care of our bodies. By eating well and exercising, the risk of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia is significantly reduced; and as a result the risk of coronary artery disease is far less.

Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon

On the day before this race, I rode 47 miles, rounded on 19 cardiac patients, drank a Corona.... and still I had my fastest Olympic triathlon yet!

That said, this was not my "A" race. It's a concept that I'm getting used to. My "A" race will be Vineman 70.3, my first half ironman distance triathlon, which is in *gasp* six weeks.

Swim -- Don't ever put on sunscreen and then use the same sunscreen covered fingers to wipe out your goggle lenses. Baaaad idea. After a lot of rubbing, the lenses were clear. This was a small race, so maybe only 50 or 60 women, I think. The good thing is that there were fewer thrashing limbs to contend with in the water. However, on the flip side, I'm used to following a pack of swimmers, so I had to use a little more effort to make sure I was swimming in the correct direction.

Bike -- Three loops. I think the women were the last olympic distance wave. So, men who were on lap 2 or 3 on the course whizzed by. On my third lap, the quantity of cyclists on the course had thinned out, and a police officer directing traffic asked me, "Are there many more behind you?" "Yes there are," I responded, in deluding myself that perhaps many others at my pace or slower were still out there. How would I know how many people were behind me anyway? My bike wouldn't go into the small chain ring, which would have been helpful on a couple of hills, but wasn't a huge problem.

Run -- Due to a last minute course change, someone told me that the run was only 5.3 miles, not 6.2. Ack, ruin my celebration of beating my best olympic tri time!!!! Whatever. The run went better than my last run, but due to the small size of the race and the fact that I was in the last wave, I ran mostly alone. However, I did chat up an Australian guy who will be doing Vineman 70.3 next month also.

The End -- Never good being the last group to finish. I had to yell at some guy to get out of my way as he was meandering across the finish chute as I was sprinting in. And they ran out of Boca Burgers. Lately places are running out of veggie burgers -- are vegetarians taking over the world?

Pictures may be coming soon.

Making Change

A blogger friend asked me how to get her father-in-law who is undergoing cardiac bypass surgery to make lifestyle changes.

It's not easy. I struggle every day with motivating my patients to change their lives.

If many of my patients with high blood pressure stopped smoking, started exercising, ate better, cut out excess salt, and lost weight, they would be on fewer blood pressure medicines. And, in the long run they would have fewer health problems and live longer.

How do we get people to do these things? To someone who has lived a sedentary lifestyle eating whatever they want, making all these changes at once must be overwhelming.

The best time to get people to make changes is at a life-changing moment, such as when hospitalized with a first heart attack or when needing coronary bypass surgery. People are scared, and as a result they are receptive.

So, to my blogger friend who asked how to get her father-in-law how to live more healthfully, use the resources at your hospital while he's recovering. Ask for someone from the hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program to talk to him. Get the nutritionist to sit down with him and explain what he should and should not be eating. Encourage your father's nurse to educate him also. And, you personally may live a healthy lifestyle, but it's hard to hear these things from a family member. There's too much emotional attachment. It really has to come from someone else, not just you, so try not to sound preachy.

Think back if you've made lifestyle changes. Did you do it overnight? I certainly didn't. In college, I was a vegetarian who ate way too much sugar and dairy and barely exercised. During my sophomore year of college, I decided I should start running -- on that first day, I got halfway around the block before my friends drove by and picked me up.

Be patient, and be supportive, and best of luck.

A Needed Break

The Blog has been slow. Life has been busy in balancing work, triathlon, family, and friends.

I just got back from a very needed vacation in Ixtapa, Mexico. Four days to just relax in the sun. I didn't completely slack -- I did take a couple of 30-minute runs barefoot on the sand. I brought my goggles and swam a few laps, Perhaps I could have done more, but I didn't.

More to come to the blog soon.
Photo taken from http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/images/vacation-travel.jpg

Building Up

Here's an action shot from Wildflower, the triathlon that I did last weekend:

My training is being turned up a notch. I'm in what my coach calls the "Build Phase", which is supposed to get me ready for my half ironman race in two months. On Saturday, I rode 32 miles, and today I swam a mile in the ocean and ran four miles along the Santa Monica and Venice boardwalks.

One of the perks of having this blog is that every so often someone will send cool stuff. I was selected to sample some of ProBar's new flavors. This is the Sesame Goji bar. I was a little daunted when I read that the bar had 400 calories, but as I thought about it, that's the perfet number of calories for a bike ride of almost two and a half hours. The bar was delicious and gave me the energy I needed for my ride. I don't think I'd use it as a meal replacement, as it would leave me feeling quite hungry, but for a long ride or run it'll work.

Wildflower Race Report

First off... camping was successful. I assembled a tent all by myself and slept in it for two nights. I consider this an accomplishment.


This is the toughest race that I've ever done. It's a hilly course, particularly the bike. The run is pretty hilly too. Because the bike has been my weakness, I've been training hard for the bike with a long ride on the hilly Pacific Coast Highway on weekends and two spin classes each week. And, while I felt ready for the bike portion of this course, I should have run more hills. I also should have hydrated myself better while on the bike.


The swim went well. My goggles kept fogging up, so I lost a few seconds in the water trying to sight the correct direction to swim in.


Next on to the bike. The first mile and a half of the course is uphill, and it is one heck of a hill! I was absolutely sucking wind getting up that hill. In past races, I've been passed left and right, but this time around that wasn't the case. I was definitely stronger on the bike.

The run did not go well at all. At the beginning of the run, I checked my heart rate -- 180. That's way too high. So I walked. And I could barely get my heart rate under 170. On top of that, the hills were awful. I ended up power walking much of the 10k, with a time of 1 hour 10 minutes, surprisingly faster than what I thought I had done, but definitely slower than what I wanted to do.

Even after the race, my heart rate was still high. I was standing waiting for the shuttle a half hour after finishing, and my heart rate was still 145!!! I sat down, chugged some water, and it came down to 120, and finally when I got back to my car where I had some extra water bottles, I drank more and it came down after about an hour and a half.

It was a challenging race. I'm so glad I did it, and I feel like this race will definitely help me prepare for Vineman 70.3, my half ironman race in July.

Thoughts before the First Tri of the Season

My first triathlon of this season is on Sunday -- the Wildflower Olympic Course. I'm not nervous about the course; never mind that it's the toughest course that I've ever raced -- I'm well trained and I'm ready to race. What I am fretting over is the preparations and travel to get there. And the camping.

Wildflower is taking place about four hours from LA. It is known as the Woodstock of Triathlons. People camp out at the race site. Thousands of them.

I don't camp. I haven't camped since I was 19 years old, and for good reason. I like a bed and plumbing and indoor amenities and protection from the elements. Houses and apartments are really not that bad of inventions.

In fact, when I registered for this race over a month ago, I booked a hotel room about 30 minutes away. Then I thought I'd sleep in my car. And then I had the courage to do the unthinkable.... I bought a tent. I looked over the instructions thoroughly last night and I think I can put this thing together. Heck, I do angioplasties to unclog coronary arteries; I think I can handle assembling a tent.

And finally, there's the packing. I had no idea that so many things had to be thought about before traveling to a triathlon. Here's my tri club's packing list. Amazing.

I'm a little overwhelmed, but I think I can do this.

Another Vegan Passover

I was far more inspired to cook last Passover, but this time around I made my veggie loaf, which came out far better this year:

This is my vegan Passover dinner. Accompanied by the Passover Frog, my niece Samantha's new toy, starting from upper left and going clockwise: Vegan kishke, veggie loaf, pasta with mushrooms (unleavened pasta of course), sweet potatoes in brown sugar, sauteed broccoli and asparagus.

Shark Attack Kills Triathlete

Dave Martin, a member of the Triathlon Club of San Diego, was killed on Friday while swimming at Solano Beach near San Diego. He was out for a training swim with eight other tri club members. Apparently, sharks can mistake a person in a wet suit for a seal.

The last shark attack in San Diego was in 1994, and the last one in the Los Angeles area was near Malibu in 1995.

It all gives me pause before I head to Manhattan Beach tomorrow morning to swim.

Training Progress

I'm feeling pretty good about my first race, the Wildflower Olympic Course on May 4.

I've been biking longer, consistently doing a weekend long ride up to 35 miles and two spin classes during the week. Today we climbed one of the canyons on our bike ride. Now, the last time I climbed with a triathlon club group, I was dead last up the hill. Totally different story today. I was toward the front of our group on our twenty minute climb!

One month ago, I ran hard for one mile and finished in 8 minutes 38 seconds. This week, I completed the distance in 8:21

Master Swim Experience

I've done Master Swim, an organized swim program for adults, in many places. I'm always one of the slower swimmers, but in my current Master Swim, these folks absolutely blow me out of the water (ok, perhaps not literally).

Amongst triathletes, I'm an okay swimmer. I'm somewhere in the middle of the pack. And of the three sports, it's the one that I place best in at any triathlon that I've done. But in Master Swim, I'm in the slow lane.... oh no, I stand corrected, it's the "development lane". And I'm the slowest person in that lane!

The workouts are written for elite swimmers. For an hour workout, we may have 700 m to warm up, then 6 x 150, then 10 x 50's and then something else, oh I don't know, maybe 4x10000m. I lose track after a while, so it doesn't really matter to me, because were I to complete all that we are supposed to do for that workout, I'd be in the pool until midnight. I get through maybe two thirds of the warm-up and then we move on. The 150's are supposed to be on 2:45. Are you kidding me? My 100's are on 2:30!!! And if we're doing this in the big 50 meter pool, then you can bet I'm missing that nice wall that I expect to find at 25 meters across so that I can jet myself to the other side.

They expect us to do backstroke and butterfly. While attempting to do the backstroke, you can call me Crash. I'm weaving back and forth in the lane just trying to propel myself forward. And as for the butterfly, I think I can flail my arms up and down once or twice to look like I'm attempting the stroke.

Now I do understand, I'm one of those triathletes who "crawls out of the woodwork" sometime in March or April to get back into the pool. I was a little bit busy training for a marathon during the winter, and I'll admit, I don't love to swim. I like it, but give me a chance to go run an hour, I'd take that any day over swimming laps in the pool.

The coaches are welcoming and encouraging and give some good tips on technique. But a part of me feels out of place amongst these swimming all-stars.

Photo courtesy of http://www.ci.san-marcos.tx.us

Balancing Act

Being a cardiologist and a triathlete don't always go together so well.

My job is unpredictable, because my first priority is always an ill patient. When I'm on call, which is about every three days, I have to answer my pager when it rings. That means that my pager is in a plastic ziplock bag at the edge of a pool when I'm swimming laps. Or it's sitting on my shoulder while I'm in a spinning class because the music is so loud that I wouldn't hear it otherwise. Or, it's on my fuel belt, along with my cell phone, when I'm out for a long run.

On occasion, I actually have to rush to the hospital to take care of an acutely ill patient, and that can mean dropping a workout completely at the spur of a moment. If a patient is having an acute heart attack I need to be at the hospital within thirty minutes. I've adapted my workouts during times when that is an issue. I have a run that I call the "MI Shuffle" -- MI for myocardial infarction, or heart attack. I start the run at my apartment, and I run the 2 miles to my hospital and back. From any point on that run, I can either sprint to the hospital or back home to get my car to drive to the hospital. If I have a bike ride to do, then I ride laps around the local park, because from any point in the park I can ride to the hospital in a timely manner.

And then there's the issue of time. My average work week is about 60 hours, which for a physician isn't that horribly busy. I know busier doctors. And I do about 10 hours of training each week right now. I wake up every weekday between 4:15 and 5:15 am to get to the gym, the pool, or onto the streets for a run. Mornings are the most reliable part of the day with the fewest disruptions and hence the best time to work out.

Weekends aren't always open either. For triathletes, the long workouts are done on the weekends, and those are the core of training for those of us gearing up for a half ironman. But, I'm rounding at the hospital every third weekend, which can mean up to 16 hours of running around the hospital seeing up to thirty patients in a day. So, if I'm on call on the weekend, I'll move my weekend workouts to the middle of the week so that in case I get very busy I don't miss out on too much.

As I advance from base training and put in even more hours of training, it's going to be very interesting.