T-13 weeks: "Base 3 Week 1 - A breath of fresh outside air"

Dear Papa,

While the world is being twisted on its head and shaken like a snow globe, my Ironman training keeps on going. I would be lying if I said that the current state of things isn’t having an impact on my wellbeing, and I’m so grateful to have structured training to concentrate on, focusing on something that has a positive impact that I can control.

It was a GREAT week for training, and I want to tell you about the highlights: The first one was doing threshold intervals running on the Hudson in New York! I had done 9 miles the day before on my run with Floor, so my legs were a bit tired, but the fresh air on the river and the sun were such an energy boost to both my body and my spirit that I had no trouble pushing it. It felt wonderful!

Then back in DC on Wednesday, the temperatures went up into the 60s, and Jim and I did our first outdoor ride of the year: 3 hours of mixed intervals up and down Rock Creek Park. After all those long rides inside on a trainer in front of the TV, it felt like coming back to life! The weather right now is back to freezing, so for now, this might’ve been an outlier, but it got me so excited for more outside bike training!

Here's another interesting development: I’ve been thinking for a while that my FTP indoor seems to be significantly lower than outdoors, and lower on my tri bike than on my road bike. (This means, I feel like I can push higher watts outside and on my road bike at the same perceived level of exertion and heart rate.) As I’m doing all my FTP testing indoor on my tri bike, I had a bit of a conversation with ChatGPT about it, which after screening multiple papers and online resources advised me to try raising my FTP by 5% when I take my tri bike outside, and by another 5% when switching to my road bike outside. I tested this, riding at 10% higher zones during this ride, and let me tell you, it seems to be working and pretty spot on! This also makes me feel a bit better about my current FTP, which is definitely lower than during other bike-heavy training times on my road bike. Either way, I guess this is a very nerdy type of triathlete excitement, but I loved that insight and thought I would share.

The last highlight was a truly uplifting long run of 14 miles along the C&O Canal Towpath yesterday with Rachael, Maryam, and Alex from my tri team E2P - my longest run in more than 7 years, and it felt absolutely amazing! It was still a bit cold when we started, but after only a few miles, it started warming up, and by the end of it, I could've been running in a T-shirt! The birds were singing, the water was sparkling and glittering out on the Potomac, and the world felt so good around me! Not only could I have kept going, but I felt fresh, alive, and excited! Partly this might have been due to the soft ground on the towpath and to the wonderful company of my fellow triathletes, but I can also feel that I’m building fitness and endurance, and while the full Ironman distance still feels like (literal) miles away, I am inching closer and closer in readiness! I’m getting there!

I picked swimming back up this week, but not with great success. The first swim I did right after a strenuous arm strength session in the gym, which wasn’t very smart: I wasn’t able to hit my goal pace on the intervals, and I decided to end the (double) swim workout after the first part. The next workout on Friday felt a lot better – I did my strength training after, which is what I will do in the future now, and ran home from the pool so that Jim could take off a bit earlier. Unfortunately, I only got two swims in instead of three – when I showed up at the pool after the long run yesterday, I found out that they had a mermaid event with a bunch of girls swimming around in mermaid fins, so there was no chance for the workout I had planned.

All in all I’m very happy with my week though: Two swims with 5,300yds in 1:45h, four rides with 120 miles in 7h, four runs with 25 miles in 4:45h, and two strength sessions in 2h, for a total of 15:30h. Next week is the last week of my base training – I will then have another recovery week, and then it’s on to build and peak training.

I’m thinking I will likely do an Olympic triathlon in early May to get into the groove of things before Hamburg, practice transitions and test all my race gear. It’s the Kinetic Festival Olympic, and a bunch of my teammates will be racing that as well. This and the Cherry Blossom 10 miler will be the only two races I will do before Hamburg.

I had a really emotional moment yesterday in the car on the way back from my long run. I was listening to Dvořák’s 9th Symphony From The New World, a piece of classical music that I was enamored of in my late teens. There is a part in the second movement that is so beautiful and sad at the same time that it has always brought tears to my eyes, but yesterday, it was just gushing rivers as I was driving home on the freeway. I was thinking about the time in my late teens when I was about to graduate. About the conversations we had, the generosity you always showed to me and my friends that I brought home, the wonderful summer in the newly built house addition and the garden. And I just missed you so so much! I’m so grateful for all the memories from back then! I wish I had more photos of us from that time, but my head was all with my friends, with life after high school, and with parties - and we didn't have smartphone cameras yet.

I also remember you were running your first marathon during that time! We were trying to find you on the route, but this was long before phones and tracking, and we weren’t able to cheer you on until you had already passed the finish line. How different that is these days – we can now follow all our loved ones on trackers all around the world. I wish I had been a better supporter back then! That marathon you did got my own ambitions started.

Sitting here and writing this on Sunday mornings while my legs are recovering in my Normatec boots has become such a wonderful ritual. I’m so grateful I’m doing this and that I have a weekly reminder to spend an hour to write to you.

13 weeks left, Papa! It’s unbelievable! Here we go!

I love you,

Kathrin

P.S. Dear Reader, if you have comments, questions, memories, or thoughts to share, please leave a comment (and leave your name in the comment so I know who it's from). I would love to hear from you!

Go to the full list of blog posts or read more about the project Ironman for Papa