Anne's Triathlon Training

Eight Machines

I did eight machines for months, kept track, and set a personal record for circuit training on eight machines in March, 2011.  By July, 2011, I could barely finish any machines, much less set a personal record.  In July, my mother was in her last hospital stay, returned home to around-the-clock care, and died August 27, 2011.  My grandmother died on December 13, 2011, closing what I experienced as a very hard five years. 

When I was still in Tampa in 2006, getting ready to move back to my hometown of Blacksburg, Virginia, I looked at the pictures of the personal trainers at The Weight Club, and selected Don Belote to contact because of his personal fitness, credentials, and apparent life experience.  In July, 2011, I had worked weekly with Don for 5 years.

A new instructor at The Weight Club passed me while I was working on a machine with Don the other day and said teasingly, "Isn't it amazing how trainers get to stand around all day?"

I kept lifting, but was dumbfounded.  Stand around?  Was she crazy? What about the breadth and depth of his musculature spoke anything of "standing around"?  "Do you know how many times this guy has saved my life?!" I wanted to shout at her.

Yesterday, on January 7, 2012, with the supervision of Don Belote, although I did a one-mile warm-up, not a two-mile, and it took 57 minutes, not near a PR, after everything that's gone down, I did eight machines again for the first time in 5 months.  I thought I was down for good.  I don't quite feel the song.  But I can feel that I might feel it again.  Someday.

Circuit Training - Personal Record - March 26, 2011

Today, I set a new a personal record for circuit training for both length of running and number of lifts at age 52 under the supervision of Don Belote.  (Please see the Circuit Training category for more about this topic.)

Q: Anne, how did you get so fit?

A: Intentional intervals of exertion, sustained over time.  (Translation:  I keep doing it, year after year.  It's not a moral virtue. I can imagine both character strengths and character weaknesses contribute to my efforts.  Regardless, In July, 2011, I will have worked weekly with Don Belote for five years.  I have added a second weekly training session with Vaughan Twitter.   When you see Vaughan's 850 lb. tire flip video, you'll know why.)

My previous personal record for circuit training was set Saturday, October 3, 2010 at 51 years old.

When I use the term "circuit training," I am referring to a series of lift-run intervals using weight-lifting equipment rather than free weights, which I term "machines."

Today's P.R.:

2-mile warm-up run, approximately 20 minutes

Timed:

• 8 machines - 7 mechanical pieces of weight-lifting equipment, 1 series of overhead lifts while seated on a peanut-shaped, inflated ball
• 3 sets of 12 lifts on 8 machines = 288 lifts
• One 1/9 mile run lap after each set minus 1 lap = 24 laps - 1 lap = 23 laps = 2 5/9 miles

Total time for 8 machines and 23 laps: 56 minutes

1 mile follow-up run, sprinting the last lap.  Then, some sit-ups and hamstring work.

Total lifts:  288
Total miles: 5 5/9 miles
Total time: 2 hours 

Now, the song.

252 Lifts

When I use the term "circuit training," I am referring to a series of lift-run intervals using weight-lifting equipment rather than free weights, which I term "machines."

1 lift-run interval =
12 lifts
Run from machine to stairs
Run up stairs 2 at a time
1/9 mi run on elevated track
Run down stairs
Run/walk to machine
Last interval of timed circuit does not include the final 1/9 mi

Approx. 1.5 hours total for workout session

Workout session =
1 mi run warm-up
Circuit training lift-run intervals
Time taken
Last 1/9 mi to complete last interval
1 mi run to finish

Personal record for circuit training set Saturday, May, 14, 2010, 51 years old

6 machines, 3 sets each machine, 12 lifts per set = 216 lifts, 1 8/9 miles run in 1/9 mi intervals, 43 minutes

Total run workout: 4 miles

Personal record for circuit training set Saturday, October 2, 2010, 51 years old, 136.8 lbs

7 machines, 3 sets each machine, 12 lifts per set = 252 lifts, 2 2/9 miles run in 1/9 mi intervals, 50 minutes

Total run workout: 4 1/3 miles

Now, the song.

Urban Epic Race Report

"Today was a Dali painting."
- Twitter update from Anne after completing the Urban Epic Triathlon, Portland, Maine, July 10, 2010

Photos: 

A long walk to the  race start.  Swim photos are here and Capstone Photography doesn't have a link system so I'm in UE10RA0620.jpg, UE10RA0621.jpg and UE10RA0622.jpg.

Bike seat that created the hesitant posture in the bike photos which, if you're interested are here for bib #235.

Results:

Anne CLELLAND 52 WOMEN 50-54 Blacksburg VA 

swim rank 87 
swim time 20:02
mini run 10:56
T1 4:29
T1 rank 109 
bike 1 19:48
bike 1 rank 110
bike 2 15:53 
bike 2 rank 105 
bike 3 20:21
bike 3 rank 108 
bike total 56:01
bike mph 13.9
T2 2:40
run rank 108 
run time 44:10
run pace 12:37 per mi
total 2:18:15.6

Overall 110 of 118

(Urban Epic Overall Results 2010)

Report:

Race report given via Twitter, July 11 while watching Tour de France with Mr. Handshake 2.0.  Most recent is first, edited a bit for clarity.

Celebration lobster dinner at Fore St. Restaurant tonight. Settled in to watch Tour de France w/ Mr. H20. Done.

Highlights for me: completing swim, completing race, seeing friends there, Mr. H20 waiting to race w/ me and singing to me during run.

One of hardest physical challenges of post-40 life.

Endured and finished, didn't race. If I hadn't trained hard and well before, could have been at risk.

Cliff disguised with grass was uphill beginning of not 3.1 mi run, but 3.5+

Bike ended w/ 2 back-to-back hills that couldn't even play because of #claystmi

14 miles on guy's bike seat just pain to wait to be over.

Why, why didn't I say to bike rental co "I'm a girl. That's a guy's seat. Not a match."?

Ran .5 from mini-transition to transition in -10.0 diopter swim goggles. Don't get me started on logistics.

Best friend from childhood and her signif other came to watch, told me later she was worried when I came out of water: "wobbly"

Wondered if newborn baby felt same, coughing out primordial soup, struggling to breathe in air.

Felt strong for 1st 600 then took wave of salt water straight in face. Nose, lungs, stomach full of sea water like baby in womb

Put wetsuit on well, lots of room in shoulders, snug and warm inside, putting face in cold water such a challenge for 1st 100

No time for warm-up (shuttle logistics problem), so did snow angel in water beside early waves to start to acclimate to water temp

Basics: 750m ocean swim, Casco Bay, 61 degrees, mini-transition to put on shoes, .5 mi run to transition, 13 mi bike, 3.5 or so mi run

Urban Epic Triathlon: Logistics hassle for out-of-towners made event something to get through rather than enjoy or use as personal challenge

24 hrs later, recovering and able to remember race. Thoughtful, for many reasons, again,about what's important.

So triumph of health of finishing Epic Urban Triathlon made fragile by injury. Injury or ill health make love and luxury so hard to value.

The black bruise to what we will call my inner thigh, again under ice, I will attribute to luck that it wasn't one more inch "inner."

Thx to my personal trainer's careful attention to my upper body strength, my shoulder is in its socket and my ribs are bruised, not cracked.

Do not step onto the edge of a bathtub to hang up wetsuits to dry.

Sometimes my dad reads my Twitter stream, so I'll start here: I didn't hit my head and I didn't break anything.

***

Summary: 

Only for a few brief sections of the swim did I feel that ecstasy of absorption and intensity I love about doing triathlons.  Most of the rest of the race was just a hassle.  That was my 12th triathlon participating solo and least satisfying.  Given the context of all my results, the swim time was good.  I appreciated my past experiences with triathlons run professionally and smoothly by Set Up Events.  Enough.

Half Mile Run Carrying Wetsuit

I'm doing the Urban Epic Triathlon in Portland, Maine on Saturday, July 10, 2010.

Let me see if I've got this:

1/2 mile open water ocean swim
Mini-transition to put on shoes
1/2 mile run to main transition area carrying wetsuit
T1 to get on bike gear
13 mile bike
T2 to perform trademark Coach Jim McGehee grab-and-go to get run gear
3 1/2 mi run

My, my. 

Wait until I tell Actifity about this one!

Circuit Training

I treat circuit training as a sport.  To me, it has set forms and standards of excellence.  Currently, it seems to be a private sport, participant of one.

For me, alternating lifting and running is a perfect synthesis of exertion and form, asking for cardiovascular fitness, explosive speed, speed maintenance, and endurance, paired with the just-before or just-after intensity of having the quiet inner presence to execute full, injury-free, results-creating lifts.

When I first started circuit training, I did 5 machines in 1 hour.  I progressed about 18 months ago to six machines in 1 hour.

While my trainer had a mental estimate of about 50 minutes for how long a session began to take me, I established a personal record for circuit training on May 14, 2010 of 43 minutes.

Determined to be fit enough to outmaneuver a shark in my tasty-seal-resembling wetsuit during my first ever ocean swim at the Urban Epic Sprint Triathlon ahead on July 10, I tried for another circuit training PR.

On July 3, 2010, I set a new circuit training personal record of 40 minutes.  I cut 3 minutes off my previous record.

Catch me if you can, shark.

Photo courtesy of Justin Cook, The Roanoke Times

New Record Set on the Clay Street Mile

On July 1, 2010, on Clay Street in Blacksburg, Virginia, officials were measuring speed.  My downhill speed at the beginning of a bike workout: 31 mph.

Biking back up Clay Street at 5 mph, I had plenty of time to wonder if the device would measure human speed.  I didn't mind at all putting my bike in the grass to run by in my bike shorts and bike helmet.  7 mph.  I finished biking home, got a cap and a camera, and ran by again.  8 mph.  One more time.

9 mph.  Hammer time.

I know my Hammer time will be brief.  Unofficial results of various endurance tests offered by the unofficial Clay Street Mile are kept on Handshake 2.0.  Notice where I stand in the rankings.

The Clay Street Mile is an uphill climb of 217 feet in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Enka Sprint Triathlon

Everyone  confesses in the abstract that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for all of us; but practically most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does more more than circumstances drive them to do.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?
- Vince Lombardi 

Doing a sprint triathlon is not a moral good.  The exertion required to complete a sprint triathlon does not ease human suffering.  I did not win.

And yet...

Race	Swim	Swim distance	T1	Bike	Bike distance	T2	Run (5k)	Total
Enka Sprint, 6/12/10	19:20	750m	1:42	1:21:49	17.9 mi	1:29	36:03	2:20:21
Enka Sprint, 6/14/08	21:25	750m	3:12	1:34:34	17.5 mi	1:18	44:29	2:44:56

Photos from the Enka Triathlon by Carolina Snapshot.

Personal Records

Five personal records in 6 days!

Swim

750 open water, without wetsuit, 18:30, 8/2/09
750m open water, with wetsuit, 15:49, 5/10/09
1k open water, without wetsuit, 27:01, 6/28/09
1500 yds, pool swim time trial, 33:01,5/18/10

Bike

Speed
Home-Huckleberry-VTCRC-Home time trial, 17 miles, 1:07

Distance
25.2 miles, Home-Mt. Tabor out-and-back route, 2:10:41, 5/15/10

Run

5K in a sprint triathlon, 35:17, 5/10/09
1 mile, grass on inside of Blacksburg High School track, 5/20/10, 9:51
2 miles, grass on inside of Blacksburg High School track, 5/20/10, 20:50
Clay Street Mile, 5/4/10, 11:08

Circuit Training

At The Weight Club, 43 minutes, 5/14/10

Cumulative sprint triathlon results

Circuit Training - Personal Record

For over a year and a half, I have done weekly circuit training - usually on Saturdays at 10:00 AM - at the University Mall location of The Weight Club with trainer Don Belote in Blacksburg, Virginia.  I described circuit training in January 2009 here, write occasionally about sprint triathlons and why I do them on my corporate blog, and love this photo of a "Handshake 1.0" taken with Don after a session of circuit training.

On Friday, May 14, 2010, I set a personal record for circuit training: 43 minutes.

Here's the warm-up, the session, the post-session workout, and the cool down.

The Weight Club has an elevated track 1/9 mile in length.  Weight machines used during the session are all upper body.

Warm-up

9 laps to make 1 mile on track, easy does it at first, a nice stride at the end

Stretch

Session

Meet personal trainer Don Belote at first machine

1 pass = 1 set of 12 lifts at one machine, run stairs to track, 1/9 mi run, run down stairs to machine

1 series = 3 passes, total of 36 lifts, 1/3 mi run

1 session = 6 series = 18 passes = total of 216 lifts, 2 mi run

Time for the session is for 216 lifts and 1 8/9 mi run.  I complete the session solo with a last lap on the track, then begin the post-session workout.

Post-Session

9 laps to make 1 mi on track, sprint the straights or extend to 1/2 lap - approx. 1/18 mi - then jog to complete the lap, sprint again, finish mi with combination sprint and stride.

Walk 2/9 mi

3 x 12 leg curls (PT for long-ago hamstring injury)

Sit-ups on inclined board, lowest level, various forms

Cool Down

Stretch

Totals

Total run: 4 mi

Total lifts: 216

Total time: 2 hrs

Age at setting personal record for circuit training: 51 years, count 'em!  Hammer time.