It's you... Not Me

I never have the time I think I'm going to for writing about what I'm doing or what my latest thoughts are about where I'm at. (The less structured one's day is, the less time it seems one has to do...anything productive.) Aruba has been fantastic. Our last tropical vacation was to Atlantis in the Bahamas. The only thing missing that time was truly tropical weather. We had a fantastic time there because of the service and the ridiculousness (meant to be a positive remark) of the Atlantis hotel. In the case of Aruba, though, it seems that the people of this tiny island are able to one-up the opulence of the Atlantis with their general (and sometimes overwhelming) friendliness. The most fascinating part of the island is the complex mix of cultural forces. The Spanish and Dutch have had tremendous influence on the culture here over the past five centuries. Although the island reverted to the Dutch (and is now an independent state in the Kingdom of the Netherlands) in 1648 (credits to Wikipedia for the article on Aruba), the Spanish effects are apparent in the language here, Papiamento (an odd mix of Spanish, Dutch and some English - although there seems to be other words intermixed, which are none of the above...) and the culture. They love to party. A young man on the boat we went deep sea fishing on told me proudly, "we celebrate holidays that aren't even ours - the 4th of July, for example..."
The nicest (touristy) thing I can say about the island besides the people is the weather. I hadn't been here since 1989, so my memory of what it was like were quite dim. I read up a bit on the weather here. Most websites that do any reporting on Aruba state that the climate is steady. They are right. It has been in the mid 80's (30C) the whole time we have been here. The nicest thing about the weather - which I hear some complain about - is the breeze. It is constant. I love it. It means a pasty, white midwesterner like myself won't melt in the sun.
Another hot topic is the mix of tourists. Wow. You never really learn about your culture and that of others (I thought I had seen it all) until you're packed on a beach with people of all types of different sensibilities.

DJ Steveboy over at djsteveboy.com is one of the reasons why I was even able to make it through last week's battle runs. One of the most difficult things about getting back into the workout groove is that life's small interruptions - like a trip or vacation - can throw your workout schedule for a loop. My issue with interruptions in working out is simple: once I get into the grove of going to work out every or every other day, I really don't want to stop because if I do, that usually means missing more than just a few workouts. I really needed every helper I could get my hands on to stay consistent while trying to enjoy some R&R.
So, before the trip to Aruba, I told myself that I'd have to see through actually getting in some workouts - regardless of how good or poor the hotel workout facilities were. Well, the facilities at Hyatt Aruba were nothing to write home about. In fact, for how much it costs to stay there, I would have been embarrassed to call it a workout room. Regardless, the one thing I learned with tri-training is that you don't need a workout room to keep up the pace. A pair of running shoes is really all that is required. In the case of Aruba, there was also the luxury of swimming, which is something I'm not readily able to do here at home (because of the weather and lack of places one can do decent laps). So, I had two things that I knew would be possible to do and thus had no excuse not to. Plus, being the ever-so-addicted tech geek, I wanted to get some use out of my Forerunner 305 I had bought late last year.
The day we arrived, I decided that since weather wasn't a factor, I should get started with a bang and go for a run. I brought an older iPod Nano that I pack with running-only music - primarily techno, trance and/or fast rhythm music with little lyrics. Because I'm not used to running in any type of heat at this time, I hit my first wall at around mile one. My mind started saying things like, c'mon... we don't really need to go that far. Calculations of calories burned floated through my head in ridiculous fashion. But, suddenly the iPod switched to the next track, which just so happened to be a Podrunner episode that ran about 150 beats a min. For whatever reason, it was all I needed to plow ahead. I got past the two mile mark and decided to go for three and made it (with a little walking).

I know from training last year, how helpful the right music can be for a given workout, but this is one of those cases where I probably wouldn't have gone much more than a mile without the mental boost (obviously my body was capable because the next day I was fine). There is one run that I went on and used a 170 beat per minute episode to really push through. It got me a full 2+ miles up the coast and gave me a view of the beach and ocean that I won't soon forget. In the end, that run was about 4 1/2 miles and was one of the longest training runs I've ever been on (I think I've made it past five miles on only a handful of occasions).

So, if you're out there, searching for music to actually use as a training tool, then I highly recommend Podrunner. It helps you set a consistent pace and provides an upbeat rhythm to keep you going.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love coffee. It isn't the caffein, it isn't a crutch per se for getting up; it's the taste. There are only two drinks I could enjoy any time of day, regardless of situation: coffee and red wine. (Don't take that the wrong way, I've never had red wine in the morning, that I remember.) So, as part of my normal habit, on the weekends, I'll brew a few espresso drinks during the day because I'm home and I have the time. My normal during the week routine is to make a double or triple espresso drink in the morning and not have any more during the day. Usually, Josh and I have already worked out before coffee even comes into question, so I rarely deal with training after having had coffee. Yesterday, however, we missed our morning session and decided to hit the gym around 1:30 in the afternoon. By that time, I had already had two or three coffee based drinks and hadn't thought much of it. I hadn't been on the treadmill for more than 15 minutes since Wednesday, so I told him that I wanted to spend a good half hour running.
Thinking that I'd be able to do around 3 1/2 mi. in under 30 min. I decided to push it a bit. I started at the normal 6 1/2 mi/hr pace and got my heart rate into my normal 170 zone. After eight minutes, I usually start pushing the pace up in 1/2 to 3/4 mi/hr increments. So, I went up to 7 1/4 mi/hr. My heart rate went up like it normally does. Usually, I hit 180-182 and then it slowly goes back down to the mid 170's (now, if I were really in shape, I'd be able to nock a good 10 bpm off those numbers). This time, it hit 180, stayed there and then went up to 185. I struggled to change my stride and/or relax to reduce the heart rate. I can only go with my heart pumping at 185 for so long. I hit the wall somewhere at the 1.2 mi mark and lowered my pace to 3 mi/hr to reduce my heart rate to reset. Usually, if I can't get my heart rate down through relaxing or changing my stride, I'll go down to walking pace and reboot. I reduced my heart rate to 140 and started over with 6 1/2 mi/hr. After going through my startup routine again, I tried to push my pace above 7 mi/hr. Wham... again, 185. I was starting to get pissed. How the heck did I go from being able to drive away at 7.7 mi/hr last time, for over 10 min., and now I can't get more than a minute at 7 mi/hr without my heart going to the top end of my zone? I ended up going through the same routine above again before finally walking when I hit 3.2 mi. and then blasted away for .2 more mi. at 7.7 mi/hr until I hit 3.5 mi. I was dead when I got done, though, and couldn't understand why.
During the second part of yesterday's workout, I was telling Josh about it and he asked if I had any caffein... What? My mind started connecting the dots. Normally, when I go running, either I haven't had any coffee or it has been a few hours since. This time, I had a cup almost right before going to the gym. He mentioned that many people's heart rates are affected by 10-15 bpm by caffein. While they won't necessarily notice it during a normal day's routine, running really brings out the difference. It certainly did for me... I thought, though, that maybe it was simply a fluke and to test the idea, I decided to push it harder than I normally would when we went in this morning. I didn't run because I just did legs yesterday and I was somewhat sore, but I got on an elliptical machine and went through a routine I'm very familiar with and pushed it a few notches harder than I normally do. My heart rate never went over 170. (I know the results from running would have been slightly different, but not much.) So, there we have it. I can't drink much coffee before hitting the treadmill. It almost ruined yesterday's workout because I wanted to give up after a mile, but luckily it didn't go that far.
So, my advice (at least to myself) is to watch the caffein before an aerobic workout. I won't be doing that again.