A Disturbing Ironman

And I Thought Chicks had a lot of Shoes

2011-02-13T19:58:00.004-06:00

A big brown package arrived on my doorstep this week. Now, I have a pretty bad amazon.com shopping habit so this isn't at all unusual. This was a package that I had been looking forward to for awhile though.

This last fall I had developed a case a shin splints that eventually sidelined me for an extended period of time. Thus, as you may recall, I faked my way through a half marathon that a wiser person would never have run. The thing with shin splints is that you can't continue to run through them. I learned this the hard way. Pretty much the only way to get past them is rest. There's some calf strengthening exercises that I've been doing to prevent a recurrence of them but really the only way to prevent them is to identify what was causing them in the first place and eliminate that cause.

Now, I've never had shin splints in all of my short running "career" so, being the master detective that I am, I was able to deduce that something had to have changed in my routine to cause this. I immediately identified three culprits.

1) I took two weeks off of physical activity after IMMOO last fall and after that I started running. There's a possibility that my body had not recovered from the stress of an Ironman yet and was more prone to injury.

2) After the break I was so sick of swimming and biking that I needed an alternate source of exercise to keep me active. Enter P90X. The shin splints always seemed to be worse after the plyometrics workout. Damn you Tony Horton.

3) Upon resuming running I switched exclusively to a new shoe, the Brooks Ghost 3. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Brooks products. I'm pretty much a 5' 8" Brooks advertisement when I'm out running and will continue to use their products. Prior to the new shoe I was running in the previous model, the Ghost 2. I think they made some changes in the new model and I never really liked them as much as the Ghost 2, mostly because they were a little heavier.

So three variables. I'm a scientist and when I'm running an experiment I don't like changing more than one variable because then the result you get cannot with certainty be attributed to a single variable. In this case though, if the end result is pain free running I really don't care.

I took a couple more weeks off. I cut plyometrics from the P90X workouts and eventually the workouts ended altogether (and I still don't have a 6-pack! WTH!). And I switched back to my old Ghost 2s when I cleared myself to start running again. Oh, and I also started wearing some calf compression sleeves, so fourth variable.

Running from that point forward has been relatively pain free and I made it through that half marathon with no shin pain (my hip on the other hand.....). So what does this have to do with the package I got the other day? It was a box with four pairs of Brooks Ghost 2 shoes. I figured I get about 500 miles out of a pair so that will get me through another two seasons worth of running. I feel kind of ridiculous with that many pairs of shoes, but hey, if that's what gets me through another season of Ironman training then it's worth it. In fact, maybe I should have gotten more. Now where did I put my credit card.........

January - Not Just a Half Marathon

2011-02-01T20:11:00.002-06:00

So January has come and gone and that means it's one month closer to spring! And as I write this in the midst of blizzard my yearning for warmer weather couldn't be greater. Not only did January give me a fun, warm half marathon, it also marked my return to more consistent SBR training. I got in the pool more, and spent a lot of time on the bike while I was resting my shin splits. All things considered it ended up being a pretty solid month for January.

Bike:	18h 46m - 362.43 Mi
Run:	4h 51m 09s - 36.83 Mi
Swim:	8h 14m 24s - 25300 Yd

Now Ironman training is underway and I expect all of those numbers to continue to climb from here on out. I'm taking a little bit of a break from running to ensure my hip cooperates, but should be good to go after that. The long winter break from training has left me refreshed and recharged and I'm looking forward to tackling this challenge again. Now if only the weather would cooperate.....

Carlsbad Half Marathon

2011-01-29T19:29:00.007-06:00

Okay, I realize I went into hibernation following IMWI, but what better time to bring the blog back than to report on a trip to Southern California where I participated in a half marathon. I had been looking forward to this race for awhile for many reasons. One was to get the heck out of cold ol Iowa in the middle of winter and enjoy the warm sunshiny weather of Southern California. Another was the chance to meet a group of virtual training partners from beginnertriathlete.com. We had "met" over a year ago online and decided that we all wanted to get together to run a race. We stayed in a house for several days and it was delightful to finally meet them all in real life. Unfortunately due to a string of maladies, snow induced biking injuries, and home acquisitions, only two of us toed the starting line for the race. The rest made for some excellent sherpas though! Thank you!

Race morning I forced down a bagel with nanners and PB before departing for the race site. The morning was fairly cool so I waited as long as possible before handing my sweatshirt off and making my way to the corrals. I chatted with Melissa until just a few minutes before the gun before heading to my corral. I was surprised that it wasn't more crowded. I edged my way up the front and got ready to go.

So I wasn't sure how to approach this race. I had taken a lot of time off to take care of some pesky shin splints so I was pretty much assured that the chance at a PR was already out the window. There was a 1:35 pace group so I decided to settle in behind them. I figured if I hit the turnaround and still felt good then I could turn things on.

The gun sounded and we were off. The first thought that entered my head was, "I'm running a half marathon in January!" And it brought a smile to my face. I had been having thoughts like that all weekend. I'm wearing shorts in January! I'm walking on the beach in January! All smile inducing happy thoughts.

So I ran and the first few miles weren't bad. Got up the first hill and was greeted by the sun. I had debated whether or not to go with the sleeveless shirt and was happy that I did because it was warm. I'm hot in a sleeveless shirt in January! I did a quick shin assessment and was pleased to find that things were A-okay. I haven't had a problem since I switched back to my old shoes.

Running along the coast was just gorgeous. Waves were crashing along beach and it was serene enough to take my mind off the fact that my legs were starting to disagree with this whole running thing. I was approaching the hill at mile 6, which was a good thing because that meant the turnaround wasn't too far away, but on the flip side it was a bad thing because, well, it's a hill. I powered up it, switched directions and exalted in the fact that I was halfway done. I didn't bother looking at my watch. The 1:35 pace group had been widening the gap on me for the last couple miles so I had a rough idea of how things were going.

Heading back was about the time I noticed my hip starting to bother me. Last winter I had been sidelined with hip bursitis for a few months and don't think I've ever quite recovered from it. From time to time it likes to yell at me just to make sure I don't forget that it's still hanging around.

So my pace was slowing and my hip was hurting. It was going to be a long 6 miles back. But then the 1:35 pace dude loops back to about where I was and says he was carrying them a little to fast. Maybe things aren't so bad after all. I stuck with him for awhile, but my hip was starting to hurt pretty badly. In fact, it felt like it was going to explode. In the interest of my health and the safety of the other runners around me who would likely not enjoy being hit with exploding hip shrapnel I decided slow it down to a walk.

I gave myself 45 seconds and debated the logistics of taking a DNF. I've never DNF'd before and the thought of doing so didn't sit well with me. On the other hand, a full blown re-aggravation of the bursitis would take 2-3 months out of IM run training to rehab. I decided to gut it out to the next aid station and see how things felt then. Running again, the pain was better, manageable even. At the aid station I kept going, not giving the DNF a second thought. I just grabbed a couple of cups of water to dump on my head to cool off. I'm dumping water on my head to keep cool in January!

The rest of the run involved a tedious countdown of the miles remaining that ticked away all too slowly. I hit the last steep downhill (Ouch! Quads! Ouch!) and knew the finish line wasn't too far away. I found the ghoulie support crew just after the last turn and gave them a wave as I passed by. A finish line never looked so beautiful and I was glad to cross it. I finished a half marathon in January!

Final Time: 1:35:05, 7:29/mile pace
Overall Place: 327/7044
AG Place: 58/508

I'm pretty sure with a little more training and a little less exploding hip syndrome I would've have finished with a time closer to my PR. All in all, though, I was quite pleased with how things turned out. I negotiated my way out of the absurdly barricaded finish area to reunite with the best sherpas a guy could ask for and cheer on Melissa as she crossed the finish line. Then the two of us collapsed on the curb in pain. The good news was we were able to drown out that pain with beer and tequila later on.

Excellent race! Excellent weather! Excellent friends! Excellent weekend! That's all there is to it.

Ironman Wisconsin Race Report

2010-09-16T19:31:00.014-05:00

Well, the day finally came. I swam. I biked. I ran. And at the end of the day I could call myself an Ironman. It was the culmination of a multi-year journey and hours and hours of hard work. It was a day that I am still glowing about, and I will continue to do so for the days, weeks, and months to come until I get the chance to repeat the experience next year.

I rolled into town Friday afternoon, totally anxious and excited. Soon after I got set up in the hotel and went to Monona Terrace and got myself registered. I winced a little on the scale. I knew I packed on a few pounds during my post crash inactivity, but was pretty surprised to see a number closer to my winter weight.

I committed an ironman faux pas by doing some shopping at the IM store before I even finished a race, but I had some time to kill before the athlete dinner. Then as I'm hauling stuff to my car I get a call saying I left my race packet at the bike store. Oops! I'm trying to make the race interesting already.

The athlete dinner was fun. I got eat with a bunch of BTers and the whole energy of the weekend was palpable. Pre race video, listening to Mike Reilly talk, yeah I was definitely ready to race after that.

Saturday morning came around soon enough. It was raining out so I bailed on taking a final ride. I was a little nervous about having two whole days off before the race for fear of being a little flat come race day, but it turned out to be a pretty non issue. I made a last minute decision to head to the Terrace early so I could register for next year. It felt a little weird to be registering for my second ironman before completing my first, but considering how the last 6 weeks of my training went I knew I wanted a second shot at this.

Soon after I met my parents and they helped me drop of my transition bags and the bike. We made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to catch the Iowa game. After 3 quarters of a complete beat down of the cyclones (Woohoo!) it was time for dinner at the Olive Garden.

I tried to crawl into bed by 9:00, but I waited up for my sister and her boyfriend to get into town. They made a last minute decision to come up and support me so it was the least I could do. I said hi and then kicked them out of my room so I could get some restless sleep.

The morning came quickly and I was absolutely jazzed to get going. We left early enough to get to the Terrace by 5. I am anal about getting to transition as soon as it opens to allow myself plenty of time to make sure everything is set up. I put the bottles on the bike, dropped of special needs and then put the remaining odds and ends into my transition bags.

Ok, 5:45. Now what? I decided it was worth the time to wait in line for an indoor crapper. Great decision on my part. Chatted away the rest of the morning and then wrestled into my wetsuit and headed down the helix.

It was hard to believe I was finally at the start line of my first Ironman. I chatted nervously with my fellow athletes as they herded us into the water. The line was long and I was a little nervous that we wouldn't get in the water by 7, but I made it in with a few minutes to spare. I had enough time to drift out to a spot just north of the boat ramp behind about 3 rows of people. No sooner than I made it to my spot did the cannon go off.

The Swim

Oh boy, here we go! The start was physical for sure, but nothing overwhelming. I gave and took my fair share of fists, elbows, and feet, but managed to get moving at a pretty good pace. I took one hard kick to the shoulder, but that was it. Thanks for missing my face, buddy!

Things spaced out (relatively speaking) after the first few hundred yards or so and I cruised to thus first turn buoy. It was crowded there! I brought my head out of the water briefly to join everyone else giving out a loud "Moo" at the turn.

Time to get back to business. Stuck my head back in the water and forged ahead to the next turn. Down the "backstretch" I felt great. I was going at my "cruise all day pace" and even found a nice pair of feet to draft off of for quite some time. It was probably my best bit of drafting I've ever accomplished in a race. I lost the feet at the next turn, but that was okay. I was pretty much done with the first loop and things were feeling good.

I decided not to check my watch at the halfway point and just kept on swimming so I have no idea if my swim splits were even or not. At the start of the second loop my sighting got a little off as I drifted to the north side of the lake, away from the fray. I had trouble staying on course until the next turn. After I was golden, holding a nice tight line against the buoys on the way back.

I was starting to feel a little bloated (I've determined that I swallow air during the swim) towards the end and I knew that wasn't a good sign going into the bike. At the same time I was getting increasingly excited to be done with the swim. As with any race, I love getting this sucker out of the way and on the bike.

Rounding the last buoy and seeing the swim exit was awesome. I was almost done with the first leg of my first ironman. I started kicking a little more to get some blood flowing into the legs and soon enough I was getting out of the water! I was ecstatic coming in at 1:12. I did absolutely no swim training for 4 weeks due to the crash and even after I came back I stuck with pull bouy sets to not aggravate the injury. Only the last week of taper did I finally start feeling "good" in the water again.

Time: 1:12:02
Pace: 1:43 / 100yds
OA place: 608/2550
AG place: 53/186

T1: 7:36

Transition is looooong at this race. I felt like I moved pretty quick though. This was my first experience with wetsuit strippers and it didn't disappoint. She had that sucker off in a heartbeat. Then it was a long run up the helix, but I didn't mind it because it was just packed with spectators and it felt like everyone was cheering for me.

I made it too the transition room and grabbed my own bag off the floor. In the change room I had a great volunteer. He dumped out the bag and made sure I got what I needed. He even sprayed sunscreen on for me. After that it was a long run to my bike, in which I learned not to try and run with a full bike bottle in my back jersey pocket. It was bouncing all over the place and I eventually carried it in my hand. My bike was very close to the bike exit, which was fine by me. Volunteers were busy so I had to pull it off the rack myself, but that was fine. I was just excited to go!

The Bike

It was a great day for a bike ride. I'm so glad I left the arm warmers in the transition bag because I was very comfortable. I told myself to not get caught up in the excitement and hammer too hard too early. The ride out on the stick was nice. I was getting passed by a few people so I knew I wasn't going too hard. I was real glad I had ridden the course a few weeks back because being on familiar roads helped a bunch.

Early on it was cool and I wasn't even getting through half a water bottle between said stations. Other than that I was just sipping on my concentrated infinit and cruising along. All of the signs and spectators and volunteers were awesome. Every once in awhile I'd get that "I can't believe I'm racing an Ironman" feeling. The whole thing was at times surreal.

I knew things were going to get crazy at the start of the 3 big climbs, but I had no idea how crazy. The crowds were absolutely phenomenal. It brought such a surge of energy to have so many people cheering you on up a hill and I probably went up that first one much faster than I should have. I knocked the other two out and then got on the way to Verona, where I was excited at the possibility of seeing my support crew in the crowd. They had kept themselves busy that morning by making chalk drawings and signs and such.

I knew they were shuttling spectators out, but I was blown away by the number of fans lining the streets we went through. Craziness. I didn't see my family but hoped they caught a glimpse of me to make all their waiting worth it.

Soon enough the first loop was done and I was halfway through my Ironman ride. I was still feeling alright, but the residual bloating gassyness from the swim was starting to be a little uncomfortable. I blew by special needs but considered stopping at the kybo to, uh, ease the pressure. Thought I'd try taking some spare gas-x in my bento box first and see how things played out.

By the second loop it seemed to be getting a little hotter. I was going through water much more quickly (almost an entire bottle between each aid station) and at one point I could feel the sweat starting to roll off my arms. Between that and the hills and bowel trouble I really slowed down near the end. The 3 big hills on the second loop had their way with me and by the time I got past them I was ready to get off the damn bike.

Unfortunately I had a ways to go to make it back to Madison, but I toughed it out. In Verona I missed my support crew again, but swore I heard my mom yell out my name. That was enough though. The rest of the miles back on the stick passed by slowly, and I could tell I was pretty fatigued. I was getting passed a lot, but really didn't care. I just told myself to keep pedaling and I'd get there soon enough.

I had never seen a sight as beautiful as Monona Terrace when it finally came into view. I'm sure my pace picked up in that final mile and even the ride up the helix seemed easy. It was so good to be done!

According to my splits I definitely had a rough last 30 miles. It was either heat, hills, gassyness, lack of bike fitness or some combination of all of the above that caused my demise. Biking is usually my strong suit and it was the only of the three that I had any confidence in coming into this race. The crash had only forced me to take a 2 week hiatus in August so I don't think it suffered as much as the rest. Whatever the cause it was irrelevant. I was finished with my first Ironman ride!

BIKE SPLIT 1 40 mi. (2:03:57) 19.36 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2 43 mi. (2:15:07) 19.09 mph
BIKE SPLIT 3 29 mi. (1:40:26) 17.32 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (5:59:30) 18.69 mph

OA Place: 556/2550
AG Place: 54/186

T2: 6:17

I toyed with the idea of getting out of my shoes before the dismount line, but figured I would probably screw something up even though I practice it every ride. I handed my bike off to a volunteer and then ran inside to transition. I had another awesome guy helping me out in there. Shoes on, visor on, and everything I needed in the pockets. I was set. Upon exiting the building I made a bee line for the kybos, where I took a few moments to drop the kids off at the pool. I felt sooo much better after that and was able to comfortably run to the exit

The Run:

Okay, so I've briefly mentioned the bike crash I had not too long ago. 6 weeks before race day I did a flying superman over my handlebars while going very fast and landed on my head and shoulder. Coming too in the back of an ambulance having no idea how you got there is never a fun thing to experience and during my overnight stay at the hospital I was questioning whether this IM would be happening. Luckily I didn't break anything and pseudo-recovered quickly. My subsequent attempts at running led to an inordinate amount of groin pain that hadn't been present before the crash. I had to table running for awhile. 3 weeks before race day I started doing some long walks. Eventually I started working in some running intervals and the last week of taper I was able to run 3 and 5 miles pain free. That said, I hadn't completed a straight run over 5 miles since July 22 and I was pretty intimidated by the whole marathon and really didn't know how my body was going to respond.

It responded pretty well right out of the gate. I was able to run out of transition and the legs didn't feel too dead from the ride. Right away I spotted my support crew off to the side. Finally! I hadn't seen them since before the swim start and seeing them right then was just the boost I needed to start this marathon. I rushed over, gave big sweaty hugs to my mom and sister, high fived my dad and sister's fiance, wiped a tear or two of joy from my eye, and continued along the course.

The legs felt pretty good initially and when I made it to the first aid station I didn't want to stop running, but I forced myself to walk it. I knew I would be asking for trouble if I didn't take regular walking breaks. Ice down the jersey and nice cold sponges were an absolute life saver early. I had trained in far warmer temps than this but I was still burning alive. I told myself that I would be walking every aid station until at least mile 15 and if I felt good then I could cut loose.

Soon I came to the donkey aid station and they were doing a great job. Kimk told me to look for my ghoulie sign up the road. It kept my eyes peeled but missed it :( Apparently I have the worst eyes known to man. I couldn't spot my family, I couldn't spot signs for me, I only saw a couple of the BTers and other friends on the course out of the dozen or so I knew were racing. Weird.

I made it to Camp Randall stadium and enjoyed the nice soft surface, posed for the camera, and thought about how fun it would be to come here and watch the Hawks whoop up on the Badgers. At this point I realized that the little GPS unit I had rented so my family could track me in near real time had fallen out of its case. I was worried that they would be worrying about me since it would probably appear that I had stopped somewhere. I was hoping they'd keep checking for my splits as I crossed the timing mats along the course and realize I hadn't died or something.

Another mile or so down the road things started rumbling downstairs again. I needed a porto-john stat! Luckily there was one along the running path up ahead and I stopped yet again to take care of business. It was a quicker stop than the last one and I was on my way again.

As I neared the turn around by state st the crowds were going absolutely nuts. I couldn't help but pick up the pace. I saw my old college buddy, Mitch there. He was being his normal loud and boisterous self and pretty much ran out into the street to give me a high five. The guy next to me told me that I had some pretty rockstar friends and I couldn't agree more.

That energy boost got me out to the inspiration station. On my way by I danced to a little YMCA that was blasting on the speakers. This may have also been the point where I got passed by the women's leaders. I tried to keep up a bit to get some camera time, but they were cruising! They left me in the dust for sure.

I got back to really the only significant hill on the course and decided to walk it because my legs were extremely unhappy with me. Everything was starting to tighten up and each footfall was getting more and more difficult. At that point it was hard to fathom that I wasn't even halfway done with the run. I knew this was going to be a tough marathon coming in, and it didn't disappoint.

My legs weren't the only things unhappy with me. At the underpass I had to duck into the port-o-potty once again. I was really hoping that was the last time I needed to stop.

I came back to State St and there was my dad off to the side! I waved and looked around for everyone else. I caught the rest of them on the other side of special needs and waved. I hit the turn around and told myself that I had ONLY 13.1 miles to go. I did the first half in about 2:05 which wasn't bad at all.

As I passed my family again I pointed at my race belt and yelled that I lost the GPS. They're pretty smart. I'm sure they had figured that out by then. I stopped at special needs. My wet socks were starting to give me blisters and I was so happy to have a fresh pair in there. I slathered on the vasoline beforehand to help with the blisters. My helper had opened up the packet of tums so I grabbed a few. I probably should have taken a couple of tylenol too but I forget they were in there.

I took off again in fresh socks and for a moment felt great. I saw Mitch again and he came and ran beside me for a bit. I know it's against the rules but I didn't stop him. He even admitted later that he was having problems keeping up so it's not like he was pacing me. I told him I couldn't give him another high five because my hand was covered in vasoline, but I could stick my finger up his butt if he wanted me too. He laughed, clapped me on the back, and offered some other awesome words of encouragement before letting me go on my way.

Shortly after that I heard donkeyKim shout out my name and she yelled out, "The Village is with you!" I thought of all my friends on BT, and specifically in the challenge forum and all of the support they've given me day in and day out during the past year. I knew many of them would be tracking me today and I wanted to make them proud and drew on their collective spirit to keep forging ahead.

The second loop was hard, no lies. I was a hurting unit and couldn't wait to get to the aid stations so I could do a little bit of walking. Many times that walk extended well past the aid station and it was a monumental argument with myself to get started again. I walked any semblance of a hill along the way too. Somehow, someway I managed to make my way around the course again. I don't remember as much about the second loop. I kept drawing off the energy of the crowd to keep moving and making sure one foot fell in front of the other. I hit up chicken broth and coke. For some reason solid food did not interest me at, even though I hadn't had anything solid since the morning clif bar.

I hit the state st turn around again and knew there wasn't much left. I also knew I had a good shot at breaking 12 hours. Unfortunately I also had that little guy dressed in red with the pitchfork on my shoulder. He kept telling me it was okay to walk. He reminded me that I was in a crash 6 weeks ago and just completing this thing would be good enough. Then the little guy in white popped up on the other should and told me I can do better than that. I didn't want an excuse. I didn't want to finish the race and say yeah I did it in XX:XX:XX, but I crashed beforehand and could have gone faster. I wanted to leave to leave it all on the course and finish DESPITE that crash, with the best possible time I could. My groin felt fine. That wasn't a limiting factor. My bowels had settled down. All it was was just muscle soreness and stiff joints. I've ran through that crud before and I had less than a 10k to go so get moving!

I still walked the aid stations and hills, but I the breaks were shorter than I had been doing. Soon it was less than a 5k. The thought of getting to the finishing chute spurned me on. The capitol was up ahead and I could just feel the crowds and excitement. I ran through that last station, just grabbing a sponge to wipe my face clean (I had to look purty for my finisher photo). The sunglasses went on my head and I was just in awe of all that was around me.

I wish I would have slowed down a little but I couldn't help but run hard at the end. I entered the finisher's chute, something I had only done in my dreams before, and couldn't believe the spectacle. Hundreds of fans cheering for me, yes me, as I ran down. I high fived some random people, in the process missing my mom's own outstretched hand on the other side of the chute. There it was, the finish line with Mike Reilly up ahead. I heard my name. I raised my arms. I crossed the line. I gave a fist pump. I was an Ironman!!

Time: 4:21:28
Pace: 9:59 / mile
OA Place: 488/2550
AG Place: 53/186

DonkeyKim caught me at the finish line and it was great to have a friend there at the end. She got me my hat and shirt and medal and got me to the photo spot. I felt good. I was walking just fine and felt "with it" still. No medical tent for me. Wooohoo!

Met the family and a few friends just outside and took some pictures and was able to hold some coherent conversations so that was a good. After some time I found the food tent and scored myself the first solid food I'd had since breakfast. Mmmm! Pizza!

My first IM experience was nothing short of phenomenal. The fans were great, the course was fun, my family rocks, my friends rock, and every single one of the 3000 volunteers were most appreciated. All of that combined to make one fantastic experience that I will never forget and cannot wait to repeat next year!

Final Time: 11:46:53
OA Place: 487/2550
AG Place: 53/186

Ready to Go!

2010-09-09T19:53:00.003-05:00

Well, I leave for Madison tomorrow morning. It's hard to believe this weekend is finally here. I've been looking forward to this since I toed the line at my first triathlon, and knew that I wanted to become an Ironman.

The hard part is over. The training is done. As the popular expression goes, the hay is in the barn. It's time to reap the rewards on a long, hard year of training. Here's exactly what that year looked like in terms of training volume:

Bike:	209h 46m 38s - 4033.55 Mi
Run:	95h 36m 09s - 702.58 Mi
Swim:	95h 40m 08s - 304699.6 Yd

As you can see, the remaining 140.6 miles will be a mere drop in the bucket. They always say the hardest part of Ironman is getting to the starting line. I had a few doubtful moments following the crash six weeks ago, but here I am.

Let's get this party started.

T-minus 1 Week!

2010-09-05T20:14:00.002-05:00

Holy smokes! A week from this very moment, if all goes as well as I can possibly hope, I will be an Ironman. It's crazy to think about as I sit here now. All of those hours of hard work are about to be be rewarded, and I couldn't be more excited.

The taper is in full swing and the workouts are short and sweet, but that's not to say that they haven't been quality. In fact I've had a few breakthroughs that have allowed my confidence for next weekend to soar. In the water I had been relegated to doing swim sets with the pull buoy to prevent myself from kicking and aggravating the groin. Slowly, but surely I've been working in regular sets and last Friday I was able to do a straight 3000 swim without it. I've even been able to work in drill sets that were troublesome before, and although I can tell I've lost a little speed since before the wreck.

Out of the water, my running has been improving equally. I was able to lower my walk breaks while increasing my run intervals, and the last run I did yesterday morning was a 3.25 miles of pure running without any ill consequences. I can tell that my muscles aren't used to running continuously, but at least my groin has decided to quiet down. I will still be employing some sort of run/walk interval at the race, but it is going to much more aggressive than I originally thought.

All of this seems to be coming together at just the right time, and I couldn't be happier. A few weeks ago I was in a dark place, really questioning whether the race was even going to happen and whether I would be content walking a marathon, but my body has seemed to respond positively. I can't wait to race come Sunday!

That said, I realize that I have been training pretty solidly since February and I think I'm ready for a little break. With the extra free time I've been able to get all sorts of important things done like clean the apartment, catch up on some reading, watch a ton of college football, and get the last few months worth of comics cataloged and put away. Then there's been the whole checking of my pack lists for next weekend that pretty much occurs on the hour, every hour. They seem short. There's no doubt I'm forgetting something. Better check again, right? ;)

Gear is being laid out in the middle of the freshly cleaned living room and in just a couple of days it will be packed away on on its way to Madison. A quick tune up of the bike, a few more light workouts, and bam! it's going to be IM weekend before I know it.

I'm ready.

It's Officially Taper Time!

2010-08-28T19:10:00.002-05:00

Wow! I seriously can't believe I'm only sitting 2 weeks out from my first Ironman. When I signed up last year, a year seemed like so far away, like it would never come. Yet here I am.

2 weeks to go means the taper is in full swing. My long ride today was a mere 60 miles. I rode about 20 miles out to one of the few significant climbs around here and did hill repeats. I think I confused a farmer nearby who was baling hay because each time I rode up I'd wave and he'd look at me funny. The new 12-25 cassette worked out just fine and I'm pretty sure I'll stick to that for the race.

Normally I'd run on Saturday's too, but given my recent running woes I decided to give the groin another rest day. My long run Thursday was 13 miles, but was still about 75% walking. The run segments felt just fine, but I'm at the point right now that I really don't want to push anything. I'm going to play it cautiously from here on out and if I feel good come race day I'll push it then.

Swimming is still pull buoy intensive, but at least I'm getting some yards in and my shoulders are getting used to the work again, even if I have lost a lot of speed.

Other than that there's just a lot of pre race visualization going on. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through another 2 weeks of work because I swear my mind starts drifting to the race every few minutes. It doesn't help when there's a wealth of inspirational stuff on the internet to distract me either. This was posted on BT last week and I wish I knew the original author so I could give them credit because it honestly gave me goosebumps of anticipation:

Right now you are about to enter the taper. Perhaps you've been at this a few months, perhaps you've been at this a few years. For some of you this is your first IM, for others, a long-overdue welcome back to a race that few can match.

You've been following your schedule to the letter. You've been piling on the mileage, piling up the laundry, and getting a set of tan lines that will take until next year to erase. Long rides were followed by long runs, which both were preceded by long swims, all of which were followed by recovery naps that were longer than you slept for any given night during college.

You ran in the snow.
You rode in the rain.
You ran in the heat.
You ran in the cold.

You went out when others stayed home.
You rode the trainer when others pulled the covers over their heads.

You have survived the Darwinian progression that is an Ironman summer, and now the hardest days are behind you. Like a climber in the Tour de France coming over the summit of the penultimate climb on an alpine stage, you've already covered so much ground...there's just one more climb to go. You shift up, you take a drink, you zip up the jersey; the descent lies before you...and it will be a fast one.

Time that used to be filled with never-ending work will now be filling with silent muscles, taking their final, well-earned rest. While this taper is something your body desperately needs, your mind cast off to the background for so very long, will start to speak to you.

It won't be pretty.

It will bring up thoughts of doubt, pain, hunger, thirst, failure, and loss. It will give you reasons why you aren't ready. It will try and make one last stand to stop you, because your brain doesn't know what the body already does. Your body knows the truth:

You are ready.

Your brain won't believe it. It will use the taper to convince you that this is foolish - that there is too much that can go wrong.

You are ready.

Finishing an Ironman is never an accident. It's the result of dedication, focus, hard work, and belief that all the long runs in January, long rides in April, and long swims every damn weekend will be worth it. It comes from getting on the bike, day in, day out. It comes from long, solo runs. From that first long run where you wondered, "How will I ever be ready?" to the last long run where you smiled to yourself with one mile to go...knowing that you'd found the answer.

It is worth it. Now that you're at the taper, you know it will be worth it. The workload becomes less. The body winds up and prepares, and you just need to quiet your worried mind. Not easy, but you can do it.

You are ready.

You will walk into the water with 2000 other wide-open sets of eyes. You will look upon the sea of humanity, and know that you belong. You'll feel the chill of the water crawl into your wetsuit, and shiver like everyone else, but smile because the day you have waited for so VERY long is finally here.

You will tear up in your goggles. Everyone does.

The helicopters will roar overhead.
The splashing will surround you.

You'll stop thinking about Ironman, because you're now racing one.

The swim will be long - it's long for everyone, but you'll make it. You'll watch as the shoreline grows and grows, and soon you'll hear the end. You'll come up the beach and head for the wetsuit strippers. Three people will get that sucker off before you know what happening, then you’ll head for the bike.

The voices, the cowbells, and the curb-to-curb chalk giving you a hero's sendoff can't wipe the smile off your face.

You'll settle down to your race. The crowds will spread out on the road. You'll soon be on your bike, eating your food on your schedule, controlling your Ironman.

You'll start to feel that morning sun turn to afternoon sun. It's warmer now. Maybe it's hot. Maybe you're not feeling so good now. You'll keep riding. You'll keep drinking. You'll keep moving. After all, this is just a long training day with valet parking and catering, right?

You'll put on your game face, fighting the urge to feel down as you ride for what seems like hours. You reach special needs, fuel up, and head out.

By now it'll be hot. You'll be tired. Doubts will fight for your focus. Everyone struggles here. You've been on that bike for a few hours, and stopping would be nice, but you won't - not here. Not today.

You'll grind the false flats to the climb. You'll know you're almost there. You'll fight for every inch of road. The crowd will come back to you here. Let their energy push you. Let them see your eyes. Smile when they cheer for you - your body will get just that little bit lighter.

Grind.
Fight.
Suffer.
Persevere.

You'll plunge down the road, swooping from corner to corner, chaining together the turns, tucking on the straights, letting your legs recover for the run to come - soon! You'll roll back - you'll see people running out. You'll think to yourself, "Wasn't I just here?" The noise
will grow. The chalk dust will hang in the air - you're back, with only 26.2 miles to go. You'll relax a little bit, knowing that even if you get a flat tire or something breaks here, you can run the damn bike into T2.

You'll roll into transition. 100 volunteers will fight for your bike. You'll give it up and not look back. You'll have your bag handed to you, and into the tent you'll go. You'll change. You'll load up your pockets, and open the door to the last long run of your Ironman summer - the one that counts.

You'll take that first step of a thousand...and you'll smile. You'll know that the bike won't let you down now - the race is down to your own two feet. The same crowd that cheered for you in the shadows of the morning will cheer for you in the brilliant sunshine of a summer Sunday. High-five people on the way out. Smile. Enjoy it. This is what you've worked for all year long.

That first mile will feel great. So will the second. By mile 3, you probably won't feel so good.

That's okay. You knew it couldn't all be that easy. You'll settle down just like you did on the bike, and get down to your pace. You'll see the leaders coming back the other way. Some will look great - some won't. You might feel great, you might not. No matter how you feel, don't panic - this is the part of the day where whatever you're feeling, you can be sure it won't last.

You'll keep moving. You'll keep drinking. You'll keep eating. Maybe you'll be right on plan - maybe you won't. If you're ahead of schedule, don't worry - believe. If you're behind, don't panic - roll with it. Everyone comes up with a brilliant race plan for Ironman, and then everyone has to deal with the reality that planning for something like Ironman is like trying to land a man on the moon. By remote control. Blindfolded.

How you react to the changes in your plan will dictate your day. Don't waste energy worrying about things - just do what you have to when you have to, and keep moving. Keep eating. Keep drinking. Just don't sit down - don't EVER sit down.

You'll make it to the halfway point. You'll load up on special needs. Some of what you packed will look good, some won't. Eat what looks good, toss the rest. Keep moving. Start looking for people you know. Cheer for people you don't. You're headed in - they're not. They want to be where you are, just like you wanted to be when you saw all those fast people headed into town. Share some energy - you'll get it right back.

Run if you can.
Walk if you have to.
Just keep moving.

The miles will drag on. The brilliant sunshine will yawn. You'll be coming up to those aid stations fully alive with people, music, and chicken soup. TAKE THE SOUP. Keep moving.

You'll soon only have a few miles to go. You'll start to believe that you're going to make it. You'll start to imagine how good it's going to feel when you get there. Let those feelings drive you on. When your legs just don't want to move anymore, think about what it's going to be like when someone catches you…and puts a medal over your head... all you have to do is get there.

You'll start to hear the people in town. People you can't see in the twilight will cheer for you. They'll call out your name. Smile and thank them. They were there when you left on the bike, and when you came back, and when you left on the run, and now when you've come back.

You'll enter town. You'll start to realize that the day is almost over. You'll be exhausted, wiped out, barely able to run a 10-minute mile (if you're lucky), but you'll ask yourself, "Where did the whole day go?" You'll be standing on the edge of two feelings - the desire to finally stop, and the desire to take these last moments and make them last as long as possible.

You'll hit mile 25. Your Ironman will have 1.2 miles - just 2KM left in it.

You'll run. You'll find your legs. You'll fly. You won't know how, but you will run. The lights will grow brighter, brighter, and brighter. Soon you'll be able to hear the music again. This time, it'll be for keeps.

Soon they'll see you. Soon, everyone will see you. You'll run towards the lights, between the fences, and into the night sun made just for you.

They'll say your name.
You'll keep running.
Nothing will hurt.

The moment will be yours - for one moment, the entire world will be looking at you and only you.

You'll break the tape at the finish line, 140.6 miles after starting your journey. The flash will go off.

You'll stop. You'll finally stop. Your legs will wobble their last, and suddenly...be capable of nothing more.

Someone will catch you.
You'll lean into them.

It will suddenly hit you.
YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!

You are ready.
You are ready.

Madison Training Weekend

2010-08-25T20:51:00.002-05:00

So last weekend I traveled to Madison to get in one last good training weekend before the taper starts for IMWI and I must say that it was quite the confidence booster given what I've had to put up with the last few weeks.

I rolled into town Friday night and met up with a group of people from BT that are doing the race as well. We ate dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant called Bucatini's that seemed to be a hit with everyone. A few of us may be using it for our Saturday night meal come ironman weekend. It was nice to meet and chat with some other people doing the race and I instantly had eight new friends/training partners.

Saturday morning was a 2.4 mile swim race put on by the U.S masters club. I got to the race site much earlier than anticipated so I picked up my timing chip and then headed back to the car for awhile since I had left my water bottle there. After chilling for awhile I made my way back and wrestled my wetsuit on. My middle finger on my right hand is still a little swollen from my crash 3 weeks ago so gripping and pulling the wetsuit on was interesting to say the least. Soon enough they were herding us into the water like cattle.

I floated out a little ways with 200 of my friends. I figured I would be swimming for an hour and twenty minutes so there would be plenty of time to warm up once the gun sounded.While technically this was a race, I had no intentions of racing it. This was merely part of a training day to prep for IMWI. This would be my longest OWS to date and the goal was to simply survive it. Add the fact that due to RAGBRAI, a bike crash recovery, and flooding in my hometown I had swam (swum?) all of 4000 yds in the previous 4 weeks, I really had no expectations.

The gun (or was it a horn?) took me by surprise. Other people started swimming so I figured it must be time to go. I started several rows back and close to the shore side. As a result this was probably the furthest away from the mayhem I have ever been so my start was relatively clean. About midway down the first section someone made up for it by kicking me in the head. The goggles started leaking and I thought I got most of the water out and sealed back up but my eye was really irritated after the race and is still a little red 2 days later.

Sighting was pretty much awful the whole day. I haven't done a long OWS since June, but even so you'd think I'd retain a little sighting skill. Aside from that I cruised along relatively easily, never really pushing the pace. As I got close to the end of the first loop I could feel my right shoulder (the one that, along with my head, took the brunt of my crash impact and kept me from raising my arm above my head for several days) starting to get a little sore. I couldn't tell if it was just normal fatigue or something I should be worried about. Usually it's my left elbow that starts to get sore after awhile so this was new.

I glanced at the clock as I finished the first loop and saw I was around 37:00. 2 minutes slower than my last HIM, but still good enough to keep me on pace for a 1:15, which is my goal for IM. I felt like I sighted better and held a smoother stroke throughout the second loop, but my pace must have slowed some because by the time I scrambled up the ramp I just over 1:17. Oh well. I accomplished what I set out to do and that was survive with enough energy to tackle the rest of the day.

Afterward I chatted with our training group till my dizziness subsided and then found some food and water for a quick refuel before the ride. It was a good confidence booster to get an IM distance OWS in before the race in 3 weeks. Given the circumstances surrounding the last month of my training (or lack thereof) I am pleased with the result.

Next up was a ride on the bike course. I drove out to Fireman's park where the loop part of the course starts and met back up with our group. Ben led us out and it wasn't long until I hit the first of the infamous hills of IMMOO. It was definitely hillier than anything around here by a longshot. I don't mind the climbing. In fact, for living in a relatively flat area and keep a little more weight around my midsection than I should I am a pretty decent climber. What I am not, is a good descender. Give my a hill straight down I am fine. Put me down a hill that curves and I can't see turns coming up I have a deathgrip on the aerobars and am riding the brakes like nobody's business. I doesn't help that I just had a high speed crash 3 weeks ago.

That said, part of the goal of riding the course early was to get a feel for it. I have a better idea of where I need to brake and be cautious and where I can open up and enjoy the speed. I also got to experience the three big hills on the loop and see just how bad they are. They were big for sure, but I wasn't overly impressed. Only once did I wish I had another gear and I'm still debating whether or not to swap out my 11-23 cassette for the 12-25 I bought. I probably will just to have that extra gear on a few of the climbs, but it will mean a lot more switching in between the small and big chain ring.

At the end of the first loop I decided to turn left on Whalen and ride the stick portion of the course. I had plenty of nutrition at the time and figured I'd be more apt to do it now than at the end of the second loop. I did about 10 miles out and then back to the park, putting me a little over 62 miles for the first portion of the ride.

After a quick refuel I headed back out for another loop. At some point early on I made a wrong right turn. The course was marked with chalk arrows designating turns and I swear I saw one pointing toward that turn but apparently not. Pretty soon stuff starting seeming a little unfamiliar and then I went down a monstrous hill and I knew I was definitely off course. The problem was I really didn't want to go back up that hill so I kept on riding for awhile. Finally, several miles later, I summoned the gumption to turn around and head back. Let me tell you, that hill was the hardest climb I face that ride. Ouch!

Eventually I made back onto route 92 and rode for awhile. As I neared Mt. Horeb I saw I was over 90 miles for the day already so I decided rather than complete the loop I would be better off just turning around and heading back to the park. I rolled in at roughly 105 miles, which was plenty for me that day. I was a little bummed that I didn't get a second look at the full loop, but it was a darn good training anyway. Needless to say I slept like a baby that night.

Sunday I made the drive back to Ames. My legs felt awesome that morning, probably the best they've felt after a century ride. I attribute this to a couple of things. I rode the first loop pretty easy, wanting to just get a good look at the hills and how to attack it. In addition, on a hilly course like that, the descents are so steep that often times I was just coasting down. Around home I am pretty much pedaling the entire ride, with my only breaks being for turns. Lastly, I may just be in the best bike shape I've been in all year, I don't know.

Whatever it was I wasn't just content to sit inside for the rest of the day so I went out for a walk. I hadn't discussed it with my PT yet, but I decided to throw in some jogging intervals to see just how the groin felt. I did a 6/1 walk/run combo and felt great. Last night I did a 5/2 walk/run run combo and felt pretty good as well. I can't begin to explain how relieved I am to get in a little running. I know my marathon won't be the speediest ever, but getting to confidence to know that I'll be able to run at least a portion of it has helped immensely.

All in all, the weekend was a HUGE success for me. Just a couple of weeks ago I wasn't even sure if Ironman was going to happen for me, but know the pieces seem to be falling into place at the right time and I couldn't be happier. Just a couple more days of regular workouts and then the taper begins. 18 Days!!!

Moving Forward

2010-08-17T19:50:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I will be the first to admit that the last couple of weeks have been depressing for me. I've been dealing with a groin injury stemming from a bike crash not too long ago. I think I have covered the entire range of emotional reactions during this time, ranging from 'Oh my God, my Ironman is ruined!' to 'Maybe I'll have a miraculous recovery and everything will be just fine.'

The truth is I think I have found a happy medium. I have come to terms with the fact that this will more than likely not be my best Ironman. That's okay. I just want to make it to the start line as healthy as possible and finish the dang thing, even if that means walking an 7 hour marathon. Any time goals have been thrown out the window and that may be a good thing. No undue pressure to put on myself come race day. I can just go out and enjoy myself. There will be more IM races after this one where, if I get to race day as prepared as I can be, I will concern myself with the ticking clock.

The race will not be a total loss though. I still expect to have a solid swim and bike and get myself out on the run course at about the 7 hour mark. I started swimming again this week, and while it hurts the groin a little to kick, I have limited myself to pull buoy sets and believe the wetsuit will help come race day as little kick is needed with one of those.

Biking-wise I feel pretty good. I was able to get out a couple of times last weekend. I did a cautious 30 miles on Saturday and felt no pain whatsoever. I followed that up with a 106 mile ride on Sunday that felt pretty good too. It has taken me a little while to recover, more than the last century, but I think that's most likely due to the 2 weeks of inactivity that I had after the crash.

This weekend should be another good training weekend. I am heading to Madison for a 2.4 mile open water swim race on Saturday at Lake Monona. After that I will be riding the entire bike course to get a feel for it. I am excited to check out the hills and see just how bad they really.

Then it's one more week of hard work and some sort of modified taper. Not sure what the taper is for zero running miles. Lol! In actuality I am going to begin some long walks to get my body somewhat used to that. I'm not sure if anything is really going to get me used to being on my feet that long.

Until then I will continue to see my PT in hopes that the groin will improve and keep trying to get into the orthopedist to get his opinion.

3.5 weeks to go!

Quick Update

2010-08-08T19:11:00.002-05:00

I feel I owe everyone a quick update. I haven't been in the mood to write much lately but didn't want to neglect the blog completely.

It's been a week since RAGBRAI ended. It wasn't the trip I had anticipated. We had some setbacks that included our team bus breaking down and the remnants of our team completing various amounts of the trip. Despite that it was still a pretty fun trip. Luckily for me one of the members of the original team biked and drank at about the same pace as me so we pretty much hung out the whole week. Well, the whole week up until my accident.

On day 6 I had a pretty bad accident. I was changing lanes and my front wheel stuck in a gap in the concrete. Needless to say my bike stopped and I didn't. Nasty concussion, 7 stitches in my head and a couple more in my finger, road rash galore, and generally a pretty achy body. Lucky for me nothing was broken.

I spent last week in recovery mode. I had absolutely no energy for anything and making it through an 8 hour work day was difficult. Mid week I attempted a run but didn't make it far due to said low energy levels. I laid low the rest of the week and finally got out on my bike yesterday for a 50 mile ride. All in all things felt good and for the first time since the crash I started to believe having a good IM race was still in the cards for me.

So today I decided to go for a run early now that my energy levels had returned. I didn't make it very far before I started getting a sharp pain in the upper groin area of my right leg. It slowed me to a walk and even now 12 hours later it is still pretty sore. I had noticed a faint pain there earlier after the crash, but it was the least of my worries at the time. My amateur diagnosis is just a strained muscle, but even that is going to take a lot of rest to heal. With just 5 weeks to go, time is becoming a scarce commodity. But I have to do what I can do to get myself to the start line.

RAGBRAI Eve

2010-07-23T21:32:00.003-05:00

Well, technically it is RAGBRAI eve eve, since the ride starts on Sunday, but come tomorrow I will be leaving on a bus full of 12 strangers to make the trip to Sioux City to partake in my first ever RAGBRAI.

I have heard of this event every year growing up, but it's only been the last couple years training for endurance events and realizing how much I love being on my bike that it has really piqued my interest and I knew it was something that I just had to do. For those of you that don't know the ride is roughly 500 miles across the state of Iowa spread throughout 7 days. Like I said this will be my first time participating and to say I am looking forward to it is an understatement.

Physically I know I am ready for it. I have covered nearly 3000 miles ytd on my bike, including multiple century rides and these 500 miles won't be hard training miles. They will be leisurely, have fun miles, with multiple food and beer breaks in between towns. It's probably not the ideal Ironman training, but this week is not about that. It's really about doing three things I love: riding my bike, drinking beer, and eating.

Now, for those of you that know me, this is a huge step outside of my social comfort zone, which I can only imagine is a good thing for me. As I mentioned earlier I will be riding with 12 strangers, which is a daunting thing for me. I am not the most social person in the world and making friends can be tough. Stepping outside of what's easy for me can only be a good thing for me and I'm both nervous and excited at the prospect. I suspect the beer consumed on the trip will help me loosen up.

I am already looking forward to a few highlights from the trip, which are overnight stays with some familiar faces. On the second night we are staying with an old college roommate of mine in Whittmore, IA. On the third night my parents have graciously opened their home in Clear Lake. After that, it will be a grand adventure till we dip our front wheel in the Mississippi come Saturday. Stories and pictures to follow!

The Gauntlet (century and race reports)

2010-07-12T20:44:00.007-05:00

Well, my crazy weekend of training and racing is officially over and I must say that it was rather successful. I awoke bright and early Saturday morning and departed on my second century ride of the season. I've come to the realization that my body doesn't really want to do anything right when I wake. I always struggle with my morning runs and this ride was no different. I covered only 17 miles in the first hour and I thought I was going to be in for a long morning of riding. I even hopped off my bike at that point to make sure my brakes weren't rubbing. Slowly but surely I began to feel a little better and by the time I was making my first pit stop at the apartment I was feeling much better. I refilled the drink bottles and headed out on the second loop. It was a peaceful morning to be out on the bike and I actually enjoyed the entire ride. As I finished up there was no doubt in my mind that I could go another 10 miles.

Miles: 102.36
Time: 5:15:38
Pace: 19.46 mph

I was happy with the effort. My goal at IMMOO is a 20mph average on the bike and in race conditions I think that's doable. Once I get a taste of the hills on the course we'll see if that goal is still realistic. I finished the ride shortly after 11:00 so that gave me plenty of time to recover, nap, and watch the Tour.

Next up, the Midnight Madness 10k at 8:30 that night (a misnomer, I know). I parked a few blocks away and then ran a little over a mile to warm up along one of my old running routes from when I used to live downtown. The legs felt less than spectacular, but slightly better than dead. I walked the rest of the way to the start line and arrived with about 2 minutes to spare.

So the strategy for the race was to go out hard and see just how long I could hold on. There was a clock at the first mile marker and it read something like 6:10 when I got to it. Whoops! Not that hard. I know I can't hold that, especially with the first hill coming up.

Heading up the hill, my friend Henry pulled up alongside me. This was another sign that I went out too hard as he's usually pulling me along during group runs. We chatted for about a minute then he took off. Eventually I hit the first turnaround and started making my way back toward downtown.

They were a lot of spectators along this part of the route, which is helpful. I heard a few people call out my name, which surprised the hell out of me. Hey, I’ve got fans! It was a couple of people I knew from my tri training group.

I hit the 5k mark at 20:53, which I was okay with. The goal was 42 minutes and I was right on track. I just needed to hold on for the last half of the race. I did the loop around downtown again and noticed the temperature at the bank had dropped from 86 to 77 in the course of the first half of the race. Sweet! Why do I feel like I'm burning up still?

The second loop was tough. My legs were starting feel it, especially up the hills. Suck it up, Sally, less than 5k to go! I kept chugging along. At one point some dude pulled up along next to me and struck up a conversation.

Dude: I hope we're still in the running for mugs.
Me: Mugs?
Dude: Yeah, top 100 finishers get mugs.
Me: Sweet!

Notice my one words sentences? Yeah, I couldn't manage much more than that. When I hit the turnaround I was happy that there was just a little over a mile left. As I started approaching downtown I knew that 42 minutes was going to be awfully close. I managed my best sprint to close things out.

Finishing clock had me at 42:07, garmin at 42:09, official time: 42:14. What? Oh well, still finished in the same place. I got handed my mug and was a little disappointed to find out it was a coffee mug. I was thinking beer mug. Hmmm, I wonder where my mind was! I guess I can use it to make Irish Coffees.

Run Time: 42:14
Pace: 6:48 / mile
OA: 87/645
AG: 10/46

My beer-errrr.....coffee mug!

I walked around a bit and drank a few glasses of water. Then I chatted with some friends and got a big ol plate of spaghetti to replenish the carbs. Yummm! I wished I could have stayed around for the party and beer, but I had a tri in less than 11 hours and I needed my beauty sleep.

While I definitely didn't have my best racing legs, it was still a solid effort. I didn't feel all too bad afterward, but now it was time to see how well I would recover for round 3.

The morning came quickly enough and upon waking up my legs were a little tight, but not as bad as I thought they'd be. I hopped in the car and was on my way to the Iowa Games Triathlon in Ogden, IA. The race was a short one: a 440 yd swim, 13 mile bike, and 5k run.

I drove to the race site in pouring rain. Oh goody another wet triathlon! I parked my bike in one of the middle racks right next to one of my friends from our training group. I chatted with him and a few others I recognized to pass the time.

I decided it would be in my best interests to warm up in the water a bit since I hadn't swam for over a week. I swam the whole course and the water felt great. I was good to go.

The Swim:

I positioned myself in the second row, hoping to get on the feet of some of the faster swimmers. That didn't work out so well as there was quite a bit of contact at the start and I couldn't get clear. At one point some guy started climbing up my back, which is fine because I expect that sort of thing to happen. Then I felt a palm on the small of my back and the a-hole shoved me straight down. I was pretty much vertical in the water at that point, but I managed to get going again. Try that again, d-bag, and I'm kicking as hard as I can. Sure enough a couple of seconds later the hand was pushing on my back again. My feet connected with something solid, more than once, and he let up. See you later.

The swim cleared up after that. I rounded the turnaround without incident, surprised at how many people I was passing after the first couple hundred yards. Do people really gas themselves that much in a 440 yard swim? Maybe I just had that rough of a start. Anyway, I made it to the boat ramp and headed into transition

Swim time: 6:59
Swim pace: 1:35 / 100 yds
OA rank: 34/295
AG rank: 3/17

T1 was a quick 29 seconds

The Bike:

So about a hundred yards from the mount line is a hill. I've complained about this hill before and I'll complain about it again today. It's not that it's all that big, it's just the positioning of it. You can't use the downhill on the way back because of the dismount line. What a waste!

Anywho, some goofball passed me at the crest of the hill, but then he struggled to get his feet in his shoes and I took off and never saw him again. Time to catch some swimmers!

I tried to gauge how my legs felt in the early miles. I could tell they weren't all there, but I pushed as hard as I could regardless. The roads were wet and it may have still been raining but I don't really remember. I caught a lot of people on the way to the turnaround, including most of the "elites" that started in the first wave.

As I approached the turnaround I started counting heads coming back the other way. One.....two......uhhh....really? I'm in third? A brief deluded vision of reaching the podium danced through my head. Hold on, Neal, the fast old dudes (35+) started in the wave behind you. Don't get ahead of yourself.

There was a slight headwind on the way back and I could feel my legs start to falter a little bit. I was passed not once, but twice with about a mile left to go to transition. The second guy was in my age group. Grrr! I kept him in my sights until we were back in.

Bike time: 34:25
Bike pace: 22.66 mph
OA rank: 8/295
AG rank: 3/17

T2 was a quick 22 seconds, but I made a little mistake by accidentally grabbing my goggles

The Run:

I pass over the timing mat, throw on my visor, and as I start to put on my race number belt I realize I accidentally grabbed my goggles at the same time. Fudge! Maybe after not swimming for a week I subconsciously wanted to go for another dip

I wasn't sure what to do so in my confused state I backtracked to the timing mat (careful not cross it again and mess up my results) where there was a volunteer to ask what to do. She said to just toss them on the ground where I could find them afterward. Well that sounds logical. Bye, bye goggles. Okay, off we go a second time. How much time did that cost me? 10, 20 seconds? Oh well, let's run.

At that point in time I could still see the guy in my age group in front of me and I had visions of running him down. After the first mile when we hit the first turnaround area I could tell that wasn't going to happen. If anything, he was widening the gap.

Okay, consolation goal: don't let anyone pass you. I estimated the nearest competitor was at least 30 seconds behind me at that point. I continued to push and coming off the second turnaround point I saw that the guy behind me was gaining. Crud!

He passed me before the long hill about a half mile from the finish line. I held on for the last little bit and finally crossed, pretty spent for a sprint race.

Run time: 21:12
Run pace: 6:50 / mile
OA rank: 24/295
AG rank: 3/17

Finish Time: 1:03:29
OA Rank: 8/295
AG Rank: 2/17

The goggle mistake bugged me. I was only 5 seconds off of 7th and 25 seconds off of 6th. This may have been the difference. Quick side story that is a point of comedy for family and friends. Former Iowa Hawkeye and stud NFL kick returner Tim Dwight competes in this tri every year. I was finishing my post race food when he crossed the finish line some 8 minutes after me. I'm not sure why, but it's just fun to say I beat Tim Dwight at an athletic contest of some sort.

I waited around for the awards. I was given "1st" in my age group due to the fact that the guy who beat me was 3rd overall. Darn, I was hoping for a clean age group win before aging up next year.

A shiny gold medal!

I'm pretty sure that if I had not ridden a century and run a 10k the day before I would have moved up a few spots in the overall placing. All in all I am pleased with the finish (my best in a tri so far) and extremely happy with how my body responded. The weekend was quite a confidence booster for IMWI.

Ready for a fun weekend

2010-07-09T20:33:00.003-05:00

Well, last weekend was fun and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got to spend time with family, played some mean whiffeball, and managed a fair amount of training.

This weekend will be a little different. This is another "confidence boosting" weekend. I have 2 races on tap, but instead of going in thoroughly fresh and prepared I plan on riding a century tomorrow before the fun gets started. I am likening this to coming into an IM run thoroughly worn out and tired and pushing through.

I still envision myself doing fairly well in Satuday's 10k and Sunday's sprint tri. A time over 42 minutes on Saturday and placing > than 3rd in my age group on Sunday will be disappointing. Man, I sound like a cocky sonofab@#&%, but I have a good feeling about things right now. I had a nice 80 miler last Saturday and felt great for my afternoon run. No reason things shouldn't feel the same this week. If not, I've got a good excuse, right?

Heading to bed soon. The drink bottles are mixed, the race wheels are ready for Sunday, and I really can't wait for the weekend. Should be a good time!

See ya June

2010-07-02T20:52:00.002-05:00

Another month down, another month closer to Ironman. The month of June was a light month for me volume-wise due to the fact that I had to work in a taper and recovery period for the June 12th HIM I did. It was worth it though, as I crushed that race and met a long time goal of mine of going sub-5hrs.

I'm only now getting back up to speed and fully into the IM build so I am anticipating a much better July. Bike mileage is going to be insanely high with RAGBRAI (500 miles) the last week of the month. Conversely that ride, combined with a pool closure next week, will cause my swimming volume to be much lower. Running is getting back to where I need to be at this point. I started off with a 16 miler yesterday so I should have plenty of time to build to a long run of 20 miles before IM.

Anywho, quick post since I have an early morning date with my bike before heading to my parents place to spend some quality time with the family over the holiday weekend. Here's the month's totals:

Bike:	22h 47m 02s - 454.03 Mi
Run:	10h 03m 20s - 79.33 Mi
Swim:	10h 42m 57s - 34858.81 Yd

First Century of the Season

2010-06-27T19:06:00.003-05:00

I completed my 100 mile training ride of the year yesterday! It was nice to get one of those under my belt with just 11 weeks until the ironman.

For awhile I thought the ride wasn't going to happen. The weather forecast for Saturday looked pretty grim. Storms rolled in the night before and when my alarm went off at 5:30 it was still pouring outside. I rolled over for a few extra hours of glorious sleep and when I awoke again at 7:00 the sun was out. A quick glance at the radar showed that the storms were out of the way and there were several hours of clear skies ahead.

I ate a quick breakfast and was on the road by 7:45. I was a little nervous for the ride since my quads were still pretty sore from Thursday's long run. I tried to ignore the negative thoughts and just enjoy myself.

It was fairly cool at the beginning of the ride but it didn't take long for things to heat up. I knew the temps were going to be breaking 90, hence my attempt at an early departure, but that was just another thing I tried to ignore.

The plan was to do two 50 mile loops, but ended up doing 60 for the first loop. I had plenty of nutrition and fluids and by adding that extra ten miles I wouldn't have to tackle one really big hill on the second loop again. I stopped by the apartment to refill the water bottles before heading out again. It was tempting to stop at that point in time because I was definitely feeling fatigued and the wind had picked up to 20 mph, which made the last 10 miles of my route miserable. I told myself to suck it up and headed back out.

I think it was at that point in time that I realized I had forgotten sunscreen. I now have a pretty hot looking two inch red stripe along both biceps since the jersey I wore had shorter sleeves than whichever one had previously given me my tan. The 40 mile loop was pretty uneventful. My legs were sore, my butt was sore, it had gotten HOT (I went through just as many fluids during the 40 miler as I did the first 60), the wind had her way with me, and by the end of the ride I was pretty much ready to be done. Official mileage was 100.72 miles done in a time of 5:24, which resulted in an average pace of 18.65 mph. Given the conditions I was happy with that, but there's still plenty of work to do before IMMOO.

The legs were pretty sore today so I had to give them a day off. It was unfortunate too because it was a lovely day out. I really need to recover so I can have some quality workouts this week. There's a lot to cram in before heading home for the 4th of July holiday where training time will be sparse.

During my free time today I managed to get a lot accomplished around the apartment, including filling up this little guy, which was a present from Santa Claus (aka mom):

I have to admit it feels a little weird having a shrine to myself in the living room, but the case does look a lot better with stuff in it. Of course, I forgot to leave room for my IM finisher's medal and race number so it will need to be reconfigured in a few months

Recovery!

2010-06-24T21:17:00.003-05:00

Recovery is an essential part of any triathlete's training regimen. Not just recovery from hard workouts, but recovery from tough races as well. I needed to recover properly from my last race in order to get in good, quality workouts for IM training. The HIM was about a week and a half ago and only today do I feel that I've fully recovered from it.

I once heard somewhere that you should take a day off for every hour on the race course. It seems like a good general guideline, but I've found in my own personal experience that it's not quite realistic. For instance, I do not require a full day's rest after a hard sprint, which would take roughly an hour. In fact, I often times tack on an extra workout later in the day.

That said, I know a hard HIM will take several days to recover from. I did take 3 full days off (which is about my tolerance for inactivity), and after that it was just some light swimming and biking. Neither of those workouts felt good so I knew I needed to continue to keep everything light and the intensity low.

This week I finally was able to add a little mileage and intensity to the rides and feel good during and after. I added interval training back to the swim and ripped off some of my fastest 100's ever today at the pool.

The only thing that seemed to be taking forever to come around was the running. Every time I hit the road my calves would start to hurt and I would cut the run short. I eeked out 4 miles on Tuesday and was getting a little discouraged. It was taking my legs as long to come around as they did after my last marathon. So tonight's run I set off and told myself to head home as soon as things started getting sore. Surprisingly, I got through a couple of loops at the park without any unusual pain so I decided to keep plugging along. I ended up going 15 miles, which is what the training plan was calling for. I started to wilt in the heat the final 4 miles or so (which is sad because it was only 80 and it's going to get much worse this summer), but all in all it felt as good as any long run I normally do (ie the last few miles suck!).

We'll see how the legs respond tomorrow. They get a day off since I only have a swim on the schedule. After that I'm toying with the idea of doing a century on Saturday. We'll see if the legs (and my ass) are ready for that too!

Liberty Half Ironman

2010-06-14T19:17:00.004-05:00

This past weekend I traveled up to the twin cities to participate in the second biggest event of the my 2010 racing season. I was racing my one and only half ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) of the year, and after having finished in 5:01 and change the year before I had really set my sights on a sub 5 hr finish this year.

I got into town Friday night. Whoever came up with the idea to have packet pickup at the host hotel is a genius. The line was long when I got there so I checked in, went to my room and ate my subway sandwich, and came back later when things calmed down.

I haven't had good luck with quiet hotel stays and this was no exception. A few people were having quite the loud conversation out in the hall at 1 in the morning. Grrr!

I woke up early and mixed up a couple of bottle of gatorade endurance for the bike. Then I ate my bagel and peanut butter and had a banana followed by a Clif bar on the drive to the park.

I was glad I packed a sweatshirt because it was chilly in the morning. As I set up transition I wondered if I should have packed some arm warmers for the bike. Too late now I guess.

At 7:00 I met up with a bunch of the Minnesota BTers, which was nice because racing out of state I didn't know anyone. It's always nice to know a face or two along the way.

I threw on the wetsuit after that and thought I'd go test the water before the pre race meeting. Just a few hundred easy yards to get the arms moving. Afterward I proceeded to shiver my butt off waiting for things to get started.

The Swim:

I was nervous and excited waiting for the start. I had some pretty high expectations with this race, and it was going to start with shaving a few minutes off my swim time from last year. No pressure, right?

Things started off well. No more than your ordinary jostling for the first few hundred yards. After that I was able to comfortably fall into pace. I couldn't find anyone to draft off of so I just swam as well as I could.

It was a long haul out to the turnaround, especially after hitting the Olympic buoys. The distance between those and the half iron buoys seemed much greater than last year. Oh well, I kept the arms moving and rounded them pretty well.

The way back went well too. At one point I managed to catch the feet of a blue cap (wave after me) and draft off of her for several minutes before she finally dropped me for good. After that I just cruised into shore.

Overall it seemed like a solid effort and I felt like I held a steady pace throughout and wasn't gassed at the end.

Initially, running up to transition, I was a little upset at the time. I was hoping for 34 minutes, but now, after looking at the overall results I'm pleased. Top 20% overall is good for me and I even had the fastest swim split in my age group. I guarantee that never happens again.

Time: 35:02
Pace: 1:40 / 100 yds
AG Rank: 1/11
OA Rank: 47/235

T1: 1:24

This was a good T1. One of my better wetsuit exits this year. Time was the 11th fastest of the day

The Bike:

Self control was the name of the game here. The plan was to bike just a wee bit slower than last year in an effort to give my legs a chance to run. Now, it wasn't like I was just going to noodle along for 56 miles. I still hit it hard in spots, but not quite as hard as I could have.

The first thing I noticed was that I was cold. Yeah, those arm warmers would have been nice. The feet were cold too. I kept telling myself that at least it would be nice running weather later.

The second thing I noticed was how lonely the course was. I followed one guy out of transition, but didn't see anyone else for the first 8 miles or so. I didn't pass a whole lot of people during the whole ride and really was only passed a handful of times. At least the course was well marked and the volunteers were helpful so I always knew which way to go.

The nutrition plan was a simple one, but effective. 3 shot bloks every half hour with sips of GE and water in between.

I finished the first loop and checked my time. It was a little slower than I was hoping for so I decided to pick it up a little that second loop. I would probably describe the effort as comfortably hard, if that makes any sense.

At one point it tried to mist a little bit, which was only a little irritating. Thankfully the heavy stuff waited until I was off the bike. It looked like there was a pretty stiff wind out of the north too, but I don't think it affected me too much. The course is pretty protected with trees and hills, unlike Iowa where the flat, endless miles of cornfields offer no protection at all.

I got a little off the nutrition plan that second loop as I was starting to feel a little full and really didn't want to eat anymore. I did manage to down all of the GE I had so that was a good thing. Once I reached the Homestead hill for the second time I happy because that meant there was only 6 miles or so left!

That 3 mile out and back section was nice. Turns out there were other riders out on the course, not just the few that I had encountered the previous 50 miles. Soon enough I was winding back into the park and hopping off my bike.

My goal coming in was a 2:40 split and I pretty much hit that right on. Four minutes slower than last year, but planned that way.

Time: 2:40:23
Pace: 20.95 mph
AG Rank: 5/11
OA Rank: 46/235

T2: 0:52

I missed my foot with one of my shoes, but other than that it was speedy. 3rd fastest of the day. It helps going sockless on a HIM run. Maybe I need to learn how to put my shoes on, which is sad because I probably should have learned this about 25 years ago.

The Run:

Coming out of transition and heading down that first hill I was surprised at how good my legs felt. Last year they were screaming at me immediately. That was a good sign.

My race number was rubbing annoyingly on my leg so I wrestled with it trying to get it in a better position. In the process I knocked one corner out of the clip so as I was running up the treacherous woodchip trail I was trying to get it clipped back in. Eventually I had to come to a complete stop because my fingers weren't working. Not sure if it was the stop mid-climb or my relatively fresh feeling legs, but that climb was so much easier than last year.

After that I settled into as steady of a pace as I could, considering all the mico climbs and descents on the course. Seriously, no real flat sections so to speak of, but no deadly climbs either. I just kept the legs moving, enjoying how good I felt.

After the first few miles I couldn't help but check my watch to see how things were going. At that point I had two thoughts: Wow, you are killing this run and please don't blow up later. My stomach still wasn't real happy, but I managed to take in Heed and water, and a couple of gels later on.

I passed a few people along the way and there was a couple of guys that just flew past me, including the second and third place guys in my age group. The final couple miles out to the turnaround I had a heck of a time catching up to a woman ahead of me. As I really narrowed the gap I remember thinking how it wouldn't be such a bad thing to hang out back here, but I had a pace to keep. It was funny the number guys running back that encouraged me to go "catch that." I finally did just before the turnaround. Bye, bye pace booty.

I took another look at the time. Sweet merciful crap! I've got 56 minutes to make it back and still break 5 hours! Hot diggity dog!

No sense lolly-gagging on the way back. I continued to push the pace. Mist turned into a steady rain and the wet shoes started to give way to a couple of hot spots on my feet. The risk of running sockless I guess. It was nothing too debilitating though, and I plodded ahead.

With just 3 miles to go, I could feel the legs starting to tighten up a little. I had to increase the effort level to keep the pace up, but with just a 5k to go I knew I could get away with pushing a little harder. The goal now was to see how far under 5 hours I could go.

With less than a mile to go I heard footsteps coming up behind. No way I'm getting passed this close to the end. I picked it up. Quite a bit actually. I came dangerously close to taking a header down the woodchip trail, slipping in the mud.

At the bottom the trail straightens out for the last few hundred yards to the finish line. I was surprised to see that the woman I had passed 6 miles ago pull up alongside me. Of course I did what any male would do in my situation, that is speed up. And not just speed up, I was pretty much sprinting, and there was still a long way to go to the finish line. She matched me stride for stride too. I'd surge ahead, then she would, and back and forth. All the while the crowds along the way were going nuts and cheering us on pretty loudly. After 70.1 or .2 miles of racing we still had enough to burn it into the finish.

I edged her out at the finish and she was a good sport about it, sharing a laugh with me afterward. I told her I really didn't need to be doing that at the end of the race. I thought she was the overall women's winner but it turns out she was part of a relay. Either way I congratulated her and then headed out in search of food. What a fun finish to a great race.

Words can't explain how pleased I was with this run. 12 minutes faster than last year and less than 2 minutes off my stand alone half marathon PR. That's a tough run course too. Hardly any spectators so it's just you against your mind for 13.1 miles. It was nice to finally have a HIM run that lived up to my potential.

Time: 1:33:30
Pace: 7:08 / mile
AG rank: 3/11
OA rank: 23/235

Once I stopped moving and the rain really started in I was freezing. Made the executive decision to get my stuff out of transition before attacking the post race food. It absolutely downpoured as I grabbed my stuff out of there and I was shivering the whole time. I actually sat in my car for about 15 minutes before the rain let up. Then I went and hunted down the post-race food.

Final stretch put on a top-notch race. The volunteers were fantastic. As I approached the run aid stations they would yell out ahead asking if I wanted HEED or water. You don't get that kind of service at larger races where the aid stations are overrun with runners. I never thought I'd come back for a second time, but this was really the only HIM that worked out with my schedule this year. At least I know if I come back a third time I'll be well taken care of.

Final Time: 4:51:08
AG Rank: 4/11 (missed 3rd by just 2 minutes!)
OA Rank: 31/235

Nervous Energy

2010-06-11T20:02:00.003-05:00

So, I'm sitting in my hotel room on the eve of my one and only HIM and I am full of nervous energy. Maybe nervous energy is not the correct term. I have some high expectations for the race tomorrow, but I'm not worried about it. I'm just really, really excited.

I tried doing some reading but after a page or two my mind would start wandering and soon enough I'd start visualizing the race tomorrow. Now visualizing is a good thing. I've thoroughly gone through each of the 3 sports and execution of my race strategy for each, including transitions. I have a strategy and I think the nutritional plan is solid as well. At least it looks like it's going to work perfectly in my mind :p

At this point I wish my mind would just quiet down a little. You know, shut down for a few hours so I can get some sleep.

Race weather is looking just about as nice as one can hope. The temps will be in the low 60s to start and won't get above 70 all morning. Overcast sky, and some wind, which may get interesting, but really I'll take it. I wouldn't call it optimal for a PR attempt, but darn close.

Last year I did the course in 5:01:46. This year I'd like to break 5 hours and I think that's a distinct possibility. Just for the heck of it I'm going to pull out the ole crystal ball and predict my splits.

Swim: 34:00
T1: 2:00
Bike: 2:40:00
T2: 1:00
Run: 1:40:00
Total: 4:57:00

That seems pretty reasonable, I think. Now, I just have to make sure that I don't place too much undue pressure on myself. The number one goal still remains to enjoy myself while I'm out there. I'm pretty sure I'll be smiling plenty if I put up those times :)

Pigman Sprint Triathlon

2010-06-07T19:50:00.005-05:00

Sunday was my third race of the season, a sprint tri held in the little town of Palo, IA. I was feeling a little more rested for this race than the last one due to the HIM taper starting to cut back on my training volume. I ended up finishing with 500m swim/15.5 mile bike/5k run with a pretty good time, 1:14:25, which was good enough for 29th/657 overall and 5th/39 in my age group. Plus I shaved 45 seconds off my time on the same course last year! Here's a little glimpse inside my mind:

Pre-Race

Beep! Beep! Beep! Is that my alarm clock? Yes it is. Is it really 3:15? Yes it is. Frick!

Out of bed, clothes on. Bagel, toaster, PB, nanner. Yum. Out the door by 3:45.

It's dark. There's no one on the road. All the sane people are sleeping right now. In my younger days I might still be awake on an all night bender. Getting sleepy. Open the windows, crank the tunes, headbang a little. Deer!!! That'll wake you up.

Where are you sending me GPS lady? I think I remember how to get there. I'll trust my gut on this one. GPS off.

Okay, I'm 15 minutes early but people are showing up. How about the packet pick-up tent? Yes! Open for business. Put another piggy shirt in the closet. Race number is 232...hey that's a palindrome.

Tires pumped. Where's a nice lady with a marker? She must be new, asks if numbers are vertical or horizontal. Must. Refrain. From. Quoting. Tommy Boy. Top to bottom, left to right... a group of words together is called a sentence. Take Tylenol for any headaches... Midol for any cramps. Wow, they are really marking every limb this year.

Let's find a spot in transition. As close to the bike exit as possible. That'll work. Chat. Drink. Wetsuit half on. Mosey on down to the beach.

Warm-up

The elites are off! Man, they are fast. Fast swimmers make me jealous. This tri thing would be a whole lot easier if I was a fast swimmer.

30 minutes till my wave start, but in reality probably closer to 45 minutes. I'm in wave 8 and the time trial start is ALWAYS late. Might as well hop in the water and swim a little. That's a toasty 75 degrees. Good thing I went with the sleeveless wetsuit. 10 minutes and I'm out. Now to play the waiting game.

The wind has picked up because the buoys are curving now. Hmmm, note to self: follow them on the way out, beeline for the swim exit on the way back.

Hey, that swimmer just got attacked by a duck! Should I laugh? Yeah that's funny, haha.

Line's getting shorter. It's go time!

The Swim

I'm the 3rd one in my wave to go. Runnnnn! High knees! High knees! Dolphin dive! Swim!

See you two guys later. Arms are moving, breathing is good. Take a right around this girl. Straighten out. Left around this one. Now in the middle of these two backstrokers.

Wow, I am cruising by a lot of people. Is this what it feels like to be a swimmer? Watch out! More dodging. That's the buoy rope. Can I get by one more. Is that chop? Is it wavy? Must be. Dang wind.

Keep pushing. Hard to with all the traffic. Round the bouy. Halfway there! The smell of boat fumes under water is going to make me vomit. That would be gross.

First green cap (my wave) is trying to pass me. Quick, grab his feet! Can't, there's a girl in the way. Zig. Zag. Cripes am I swimming or playing frogger?

Just a little further. Kick it in. People are standing up around me. Should I stand up too? No, wait for your hand to hit the sand. There it is, get up! Cap, goggles off. Run it in

Hear the announcer say something along the lines of, "and our first green caps are out of the water." I'm at the front of my wave! Thank you time trial start.

Time:8:39
Pace: 1:35 / 100 yds
OA Rank: 88/657
AG Rank: 11/39

T1: 2:00

The legs don't like to move after a swim. We're racing legs, in case you hadn't heard. Go! Go!

It's a long transition area. Where's my bike? Wait for it....wait for it...there it is!

The wetsuit pops right off. That's so mush easier than my full suit. Shoes and helmet on, grab bike. Clip, clop, clip, clop to the mount line

The Bike

Pedal, pedal, here we go. Can't hammer yet, gotta negotiate traffic out for awhile. Runners (yes, there are people on the run course already. Depressing.), spectators, bikers, CARS, and a partridge in a pear tree.

There's an opening. On the left! Let's roll. Heading south now. Which way is the wind out of? Feels like a crossie, but might be kinda at my back. Oh well, enjoy it while I can.

On the left! Pass, pass, pass. Does anyone look before they start to pass. I'm getting dangerously close to the yellow line and I'm tired of yelling.

Ooh, it's the loop through Palo. Hello, Palo. Yikes! Ambulance and stretcher, that can't be good. Goodbye Palo.

Heading north again. That minivan better get a move on or I am going to have some road rage. Good, he's turning right. Good riddance. Will they ever shut down these roads for this race. They should. They won't.

Up the hill. Should I get out of the saddle? Why not, it's a sprint. Mash away my friend. And down the other side. Woooooooo!!! Why aren't you people pedaling? Don't you want to see how fast you can go? I do. Hammer, hammer.

I'm getting close to the turn around now. 180, I hate 180s, and back in business. Nice volunteers pointing out ginormous potholes. "Thanks!"

Aaack! That guy just passed me! What's the calf say? 31? Okay, but still, push it back up the hill. Back to the park, almost there. Steep hill, watch out, make the turn. Okay uphill to the end. Traffic's getting dicey. Lots of runners, lots of cars. Someone's gonna die.

Let's the get the feet out of the shoes and spin it on in. Did that chick just repass me in the last 50 feet??!! Oh! And she biffed it at the dismount line! That's gonna leave a mark. Volunteer is helping her so hop off and run it in.....and try not to laugh.

Time: 41:58
Pace: 22.2 mph
OA Rank: 29/657
AG Rank: 3/39

T2: 0:55

Zooooooom! Rack the bike. Look at all those empty racks in my section. Sweet! Shoes on, grab stuff and go!

The Run

Legs feel thick. Shorten the stride. Focus on turnover. Hit the turnover, the pace will come.

Mostly downhill the first mile. That's gonna suck coming back. Why is my breathing out of control? Settle.

Have I mentioned how much of a cluster@%*& the park is? Cars going both ways, bike coming in, runners heading both ways. Lots of weaving. Gotta be nimble while running. I'm about as graceful as a bull in a china shop.

I'm going to pass this car on the left, no room on the right. Do I say on your left to a car? Wow, that bike almost clipped me. Would've too if it weren't for my graceful nimbleness.

Hey, aid station! Not thirsty, but the water is cold on the head. Refreshing! Okay, can't be too far from the turn around. Yep, there it is ahead. Woot!

Homestretch now, gotta turn on the afterburners. There's the aid station again. I'll take a sip this time, but the rest is going on my head again. Now, run! Heard some lady yell, "Go 232! Look at that runner goooo!!!!" Thanks for the smile.

Ow, ow, ow. Can I hold this pace? You better, Sally. This hill hurts. Do I look like death like these other runners? There's the last turn. Balls out now. There's trained medical staff at the finish, right?

Sprint, sprint! Go, go! Done!

Time: 20:55
Pace: 6:44 / mile
OA rank: 41/657
AG rank: 7/39

Post-Race

Let's grab a water and walk a little. There's the food tent. Pizza, strawberries, cookies! Yum!

Let's check the results. 45 seconds faster than last year! Nice OA place, stupid fast AGers. But they're giving hardware out 5th place in my age group so I'll take it.

Waited around for awards and talked to fellow BTer Eric (ersynder3654) who kicked my butt for the 2nd straight race. Grabbed my ceramic pig and left. This race has the best hardware!

Bye, Bye May

2010-05-31T19:32:00.002-05:00

So a few weeks ago I wrote a post about how I thought my number of long training rides had been lacking leading up to my HIM in 2 weeks. Well, since that post I think I have remedied the situation by spending a lot of time in the saddle, especially this weekend.

We had some gorgeous weather here so that made the decision to get on the bike that much easier. Saturday's ride was an 80 miler that I only enjoyed maybe 40 miles of. The official plan was to be out the door by 7 in the morning so I would finish up at 11, just as the winds were starting to pick up. Well, I was lazy and possibly sleeping off a little bit of a hangover so my day didn't get started until around 9 instead. This meant I was fighting a headwind the almost the entire way back and it thoroughly trashed my legs. I literally was running on empty by the time I made it home. I was supposed to run later in the afternoon, but even after a solid nap my legs wanted nothing to do with it so I bailed and ran Sunday morning instead.

Sunday afternoon was a relaxing one. We had a family golf outing and grill-out, which was a lot of fun, despite my poor golf game. I never realized how good of a core workout golfing 18 holes was. Man, I was sore this morning!

I took another ride this afternoon, this time a 70 miler. I settled on the 70 miles because that would put me at over 600 for the month of May, a feat I have only done once before. The ride itself was so much better than Saturday's. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and spent some time exploring a few new roads. New scenery sure does make the time pass quickly. And, in contrast to the Saturday ride, I had plenty of juice left in the tank to push it hard the last 20 miles home.

There's nothing quite like a solid training weekend to get the confidence soaring for the upcoming HIM. Now that I sit back and think about it, it has been a pretty solid month of training. Here's what my totals look like:

Bike:	30h 41m 26s - 601.07 Mi
Run:	13h 47m 03s - 107.68 Mi
Swim:	10h 56m 43s - 37486.81 Yd

The taper has started for the run and in another week I will be in full-on taper mode as I get ready for Liberty. I am really looking forward to this race because right now I feel that I will go under 5 hours at that one. It's really just a matter of how far under.

Bluff Creek Sprint Triathlon

2010-05-26T20:45:00.006-05:00

Last Sunday I participated in my second triathlon of the season, a local sprint tri held in my neck of the woods. While the weather wasn't optimal for racing (ie. lots of wind), the results were good. I ended up finishing the 500m swim/15 mile bike/5k run in 1:14:53, which was good enough for 9th place overall and 3rd in my age group. Here's how things went down on race day:

Thankfully the race wasn't too far away so I was able to sleep in until 5. Ate some breakfast and was out the door by 5:30. I got to the race site and there was a bug infestation! As soon as I got out of my car I was swarmed. No amount of swatting kept them away so I got my bike ready as quick as I could and speedwalked to transition. Note to self: bug repellent in the transition bag would be a key addition.

I snagged a decent spot in transition, got set up, and then proceeded to chat the rest of the time away with some friends until it was time to board the bus to the beach. I got into the water beforehand and swam a few hundred yards. They said the water was 60 that morning, but I don't believe them. 65 probably. Everything felt pretty good so I didn't do too much more than that. I swam back in and found a few more friends from our training group to chat with before the start.

The Swim: Oh Billy, here we go! Run in, couple of dolphin dives, and I'm on my way. A little crowded, lots of contact, but for the most part I feel like I'm swimming real well. Took a pretty good straight line alongside the buoys. I didn't have to sight too much. I figured as long as the water was still frothing all around me from all of the other swimmers I couldn't be too far off. Just before the turn in to the boat ramp I got stuck behind a couple of guys moving a little slower but we were so close to the end that I just hung back and drafted on in. No sense trying to pass in the last 50 yards.

I hit the boat ramp and it was a little slick. Luckily there were a couple of volunteers there helping pull people out. Thanks for the lift, dude! Time for the loooong run to transition. Seriously, it was a good 30-40s worth of running. I passed a couple of people along the way too! I was more than pleased with that swim effort. Shaved over 2 whole freaking minutes off of last year's time!!! It's great to see all that off season work pay off.

Swim time: 8:36
Swim pace: 1:34/100yds
OA Rank: 26/225
AG Rank: 7/21

T1: 1:15. Aside from the wetsuit really getting stuck on the ankles this wasn't too bad. I did waste a lot of time getting my feet free though.

The Bike: To sum up the ride in one word: Wind. From some accounts you would have thought that a tornado had rolled through, but in reality we faced a steady wind in the low 20s with gusts near 30 mph. Sucky for sure, but it was compounded by the fact it was an out and back course with a pure tailwind to start and an epic 7.5 miles back into it to end things.

Heading out of the park I passed about 3 people struggling to get into their shoes. That always makes me smile. After that I settled in and enjoyed the speedy wind-aided trip out to the turn around. Before I got there I counted about 6 people ahead of me which is right where I expected to be. The 180 turn was interesting. I took it a little fast, skidded the rear wheel a little, but managed to stay on the road.

Holy mother of God! That's a stiff wind! I thought I could stay in the big ring, but quickly reassessed that decision. Things absolutely slowed to a crawl. I'm glad I don't have a bike computer because if I had known my speed it would have been even more demoralizing.

But I fought through. I kept my eyes on the guys ahead of me and tried to catch up. One of the guys I had passed earlier repassed me. A few minutes later I retook him. We did the leapfrog thing all the way back, each of us taking a 2-3 minute legal pull at the front, before the other would take over. It was a long haul back, but I made it eventually even though I think I lost a spot or two during that stretch.

With the exception of the Pigman long course last year, this may have been the most relieved I have ever been to get off my bike so transition was a welcome sight. It was still a good ride all things considered. My split was 3 minutes slower than last year, but I think times were down all across the board for everyone.

Bike time: 42:50
Bike Pace: 21.01 mph
OA rank: 11/225
AG rank: 4/21

T2: 0:38. Nice flying dismount and then a quick in and out. I knocked my glasses off taking off my helmet, which may have cost a few seconds, but really not too bad.

The Run: The legs did not want to turn over right away. They're usually not that cranky coming off the bike but it took me over half the run to get settled and into a groove. Starting out, I just set my sights on the guys ahead of me and and ran as best I could. Unfortunately I wasn't gaining any ground. Hit the turnaround and kept moving. I had a pretty good lead on the guy behind me so I wasn't too worried. Was a split second away from dumping a cup of gatorade on my head at the aid station. That could have been ugly. Maybe I need to yell "water" a little louder. The rest of the run was uneventful back to the finish. I wish I could have pushed a little harder during this run, but I didn't really have that extra gear I needed today to close the gap on anyone.

Run time: 21:33
Run pace: 6:56/mile
OA rank: 21/225
AG rank: 5/21

This was another good race put on by our local crew. I was hoping to move up a couple of spots in the overall from last year, but all in all I'm not too disappointed. I'll take a top ten finish in ANY race. I think regardless of whatever happened later in the race I'd have to consider this a personal victory based solely on the swim improvement. I'm still smiling about that.

I'ts Beginning to Feel Like Tri Season!

2010-05-18T20:42:00.002-05:00

I know I have already completed a tri this season, but after coming back to some very April-like weather it hadn't really started feeling like tri season yet. Well, the weather has turned around and I have a race in 5 days.

I've managed to get in some good quality training the last week. And not just quality, but the long stuff I need to get in to build my confidence for the upcoming HIM. Both my long run (13 miles) and long ride (65 miles) went off without a hitch and I felt great both during and afterward. All my other workouts went well too, and I even got in a little more open water practice during our last group workout of the year.

I'm not sure exactly how I am going to attack training this weekend though. I have a sprint tri on Sunday. I really don't want to do my long ride on Saturday as scheduled, but we shall see. Perhaps I do a shorter ride and run and then tack on some bonus bike mileage Sunday after the race. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

The weather is going to be warm Sunday, a high of 87, but with the 8am start and the shortness of the course I should miss the majority of it. Not sure if I should set any goals for Sunday or not, but after looking at last year's time I think I could feasibly shave off 1-2 minutes, maybe more if everything comes together. The good news is, I'm feeling strong in all 3 events right now, which greatly improves the odds of things going well.

For now, I'm just happy the sun is out and there are plenty of races around the corner!

T-minus 1 Month!

2010-05-12T21:31:00.002-05:00

Holy smokes! It's May 12th already and I just realized I have my one and only HIM of the year coming up in exactly one month. Do I feel prepared for it? Heck no!

Of course I have the usual propensity for self doubt as much as the next person when in reality I'm probably sitting pretty good. I am feeling very confident in the running and swimming department right now, but I know my bike miles are lacking. I can count on one hand the number of 50+ mile rides I've gotten in and when I compare that to how many I had gotten in at this point last year that makes me a little nervous. A good solid bike leg that get's me to the run with semi-fresh legs is key to having a good run.

So the next two weeks are key for me. Anything after that won't do me much good to get ready for the race. So the plan is to get in as many bikes miles as possible, with a couple of long rides of 60-70 miles thrown in there. First the weather needs to cooperate. Rain, cold, and wind have caused me to wuss out and hit the trainer the last few days. I haven't been outdoors on a bike since Alcatraz. It looks things are finally going to take a turn for the better just in time for the weekend so I shall be spending a lot of time on the road. I'm looking forward to it!

Escape from Alcatraz

2010-05-06T19:58:00.014-05:00

I finally had the opportunity to partake in my first triathlon of the season this past weekend. I flew out to San Francisco to engage in the 3oth annual Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, which consists of a 1.5 mile swim, an 18 mile ride, and an 8 mile run. It was easily the coolest triathlon experience that I have ever had.

I got into town on Thursday night made it to my sister's place where I would be staying for the weekend. Friday I assembled my bike and went for a test ride with my brother-in-law to make sure that everything was shifting okay and the brakes were working. I can't tell you how relieved I was when when everything worked out great. It had been a recurring nightmare of mine that shipping the bike would cause irreparable damage.

Saturday was packet pick-up, athlete meeting, and race expo. After that I drove the bike course to get a feel for the hills. For some reason they never seem as bad in the car. After that I had a lengthy debate with myself over whether or not to hop in the water at Aquatic Park since I hadn't been in a wetsuit or open water yet this year, but in the end laziness won out. I figured I'd be fine.

Race morning started early, a quarter till 3 to be exact. I was staying down in Mountain View with so a little drive was in order. I made it to transition early and set up shop. I always forget that wet grass + open-toed sandals + chilly morning = cold toes. Luckily the ferry that was transporting the athletes out near Alcatraz island was warm enough to erase the chill.

The ride out to Alcatraz was fun. There was definitely a little energy in the air. I talked to few other other excited triathletes, hydrated and ate a little, watched Andy Potts step over me at one point. About a half hour before the swim start I realized I needed to go the bathroom and about 2 seconds later I realized the line was more than a half hour long. Great I needed a way to warm up my wetsuit once I got in the water. There was no real chance to warm up for this race. I did a few arm circles and called it good. Not much I can do when I'm in a crowded boat with 1600 people.

The Swim:

Alright, the infamous alcatraz swim. As the race start approached the athletes began crowding the guard rails. They were sending us off from 3 jump points, 2 at a time, every 3 seconds. The horn sounded and the pros took the plunge followed closely by us age groupers. I made it to the edge within thirty seconds, made sure the guy ahead of me was out of the way, and then leaped into the water.

Son of a bee-sting, that's cold! It definitely felt like the 55 degrees they said it was. I started stroking like mad to get out of the way and then settled into a nice rhythm. The nice thing about the current was that people spread out fairly quickly so I wasn't getting pounded like normal. Within a few minutes I didn't even notice the cold. Glad I opted for the 2 swim caps, because the squid lid was unnecessary.

The swim was quite uneventful. Sighting went well: towers, ft. mason, and finally the dome near the end. Waves weren't a real issue. I just did a little more of an exaggerated roll when breathing on my right so the mouthfuls of saltwater were few and far between. Between the salt water, the wetsuit, and the strong current the swim felt pretty effortless. Before long I was stumbling out of the water just left of the swim exit as planned. Success! The easiest part of my day was done!

swim time: 30:56
swim pace: 1:10 / 100yds
overall rank: 426/1524
age group rank: 33/114

T1: 6:51

The first transition was interesting because there was a mini transition area at the beach and then a half mile run to T1 where the bikes were kept. Immediately after the water were some steps up that I took a little wobbly. I saw my sister and her family in the crowd so I gave them a quick wave and fumbled in to T(0.5) were I lost the wetsuit and slapped on some running shoes.

I passed a lot of people running that half mile to T1. Lost the running shoes, donned the bike shoes and helmet and took off. I was glad to have a rack position near the bike exit since I hate running with my bike.

The Bike:

Oh boy, the bike. This was the leg that I was the most worried about. I didn't exactly get a lot of hill training in in Iowa and the hills I did train on paled in comparison to the hills on this course. That, and after much debate I decided to leave my bike set up with a compact crank and an 11-23. I figured my legs were in for a trashing.

The first mile or two was pretty flat so I cranked, passed a lot of people, and took in some nutrition. Soon enough I hit that first mile of climbing and wondered to myself just how the heck I was going to survive the entire 18 miles. I didn't run out of gears but I was huffing and puffing something fierce by the top.

And then the descent. Holy crap! It was steep and curving and I had a mini freakout. Started riding the brakes a little until my back tire started sliding a little bit. Great, now I need a new pair of bike shorts! I got things settled down after that, but let me tell you I was not comfortable descending at all. If there weren't turns at the bottom of the hills or the road wasn't curving I was okay. That and all the guys I was passing on the uphills were flying past me on the way down. Crazy bastards!

And that's the way the bike leg went for me. Passing on the flats and uphills and then being retaken on the downhills. A few of the hills stretched the limits of my gearing and several times I was mashing that last gear pretty good, especially on the awful climb up Clement St. As I told a fellow rider on that climb, they don't make hills like that in Iowa.

I was more than glad when I finally made it back to mason drive. Spun the legs pretty good there to loosen up for the run and then took things on in.

bike time: 59:47
bike pace: 18.07 mph
overall rank: 286/1524
age group rank: 29/114

T2: 1:23

I had a great T2. Perfect flying dismount and then in and out pretty darn quickly.

The Run:

Time to run! Amazingly my legs felt pretty good starting off and I settled into a pretty good clip. I got to see my support crew right away and the helped lift the spirits. My brother-in-law came and jogged alongside me for a bit and asked how I was doing. At that point, great!

The first two miles were uneventful. Saw Hunter Kemperer en route to a sub-2 hr victory a little after the first mile. Man, those pros are fast! Shortly after mile two the ascent started on a narrow dirt trail. The pros and other FOPers were screaming by as I wound up the hill. I thought that was pretty cool.

A little later I was surprised by stairs. Who put these here, and why wasn't I informed of them? Grudgingly, I burned up them and continued on my way. Soon enough I was winding down to Baker's beach where we got to enjoy a mile of beach running. Running on sand with the waves crashing in and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background was pretty cool. Challenging and tiring, but still pretty cool.

After the turn around was the dreaded sand ladder and it was every bit as awful as described. I plodded up the steps with a liberal used of guard wire to pull myself self up. The quads were absolutely screaming by the time I made it to the top of 400 steps. And as if things weren't bad enough, the next half mile was still uphill. Eventually I got the legs turning over but the sand ladder had decimated me.

Luckily the last couple miles were pretty flat. I did some quick math and figured I needed to run a couple of sub-7s to come in under 2:40. I tried my best during that final stretch, but I was pretty beat up by that point. There were good crowds along that stretch and that helped carry me home. Soon enough I was running down the chute toward the finish line. I made quick detour to high five my support crew along the way and crossed the finish line, thoroughly spent.

run time: 1:01:19
run pace: 7:40 per mile
overall rank: 198/1524
age group rank: 228/114

I was pleased with the result. Coming into the race I knew that I wasn't prepared for the hills, but my good endurance base allowed me to cross the finish line with a respectable time. I would love to come back in a few years properly trained and see what I can do to the course. My support crew was great and it was so uplifting to see them several times along the course. The race itself was top-notch. The event coordinators and volunteers were amazing and the course itself presented an incredibly unique experience that will be hard to top. I am proud to say that I escaped the Rock!

Overall time: 2:40:13
Overall rank: 178/1524
Age group rank: 25/114

Last Minute Freak Out

2010-04-27T20:11:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I'm all set to fly out to San Francisco in two days. My bike's already there so now all that's left is get me there safe and sound. I've been piling gear and clothes into the living room and double checking it against a list of stuff that I absolutely need for the weekend. I think I have everything, but seriously every so often I come up something to add to the pile. Luckily it's still a pretty small pile, but that's the thing about triathlon, it takes a lot less crap than one would think. Either way, I'm hoping by quadruple checking everything I don't forget any necessities.

In addition to the packing I've been spending quite a bit of time reading race reports from the past few years. All I know is that it's hilly. How hilly depends on which report I read. Either the hills are not that bad or they are totally gonna suck. Being a native flatlander, I'm not real sure what to expect. The bike leg is usually my strong suit, but I have a feeling these hills could humble me and make for a less than stellar run. Funny that I'm more worried about the bike than swimming a mile and a half in the frigid bay.

I thought about setting a time goal for myself, but without really knowing what to expect I figured I better not. I need to just relax, go out and have some fun, and enjoy a truly unique racing experience. Those always seem to be the best races when I go out without putting any pressure on myself. Buuuuuut........if I happen to come in under 2:40 that would be phenomenal ;)

See you on the other side of The Rock!

Bye, Bye Bike

2010-04-21T20:02:00.004-05:00

It was a sad day today. I had to say goodbye to my bike for a week as I shipped it out to San Francisco. I spent a lot of time with her on Monday and Tuesday, putting around 70 miles on her in hopes that she wouldn't mind being taken apart and stuffed in a box for a few days.

Now I like tinkering with my bike but disassembling it into an unrideable pile of parts was a little disconcerting. I took my time last night, savoring a well earned beer in the process. The "travel case" I had purchased from Crateworks went together surprisingly easily and every part of the bike fit where it was supposed to. Their instructions could have included a picture or two, but I think I managed to get everything in the right place. As long as it arrives in one piece that's all that matters.

After work today I made a stop by the local UPS store to send her off. I was tempted to slip the clerk a 50 if he would personally ride in the back of the truck with her and keep an eye on her, but in the end my rationality won out. It's gonna be okay. She'll make it where she's supposed to, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Clear Lake Earth Day 10k

2010-04-18T20:14:00.002-05:00

This weekend I decided to run a 10k. It was my first stand alone 10k in a couple of years so I was excited at the prospect of a possible PR. In addition it was going to be a pretty good indication of where my run fitness was at following an off season waylayed by injury.

It was a good day for a race. Upper 40's with a lot of sun, can't get much better than that. It was neat to be running in my hometown. After just recently discovering this whole racing thing it was fun to come back and do an event in the town I grew up in. We lined up at city park for the start and had to listen to my old econ teacher/football and baseball coach give out the pre race instructions in that same droll voice that put me asleep so many times back in high school. It's a good thing I had some pre-race adrenaline flowing otherwise it could have been lights out again.

Soon enough we're off. There seemed to be a pretty large contingent of high school age tracksters here so I let the young-uns go out ahead of me. We loop city park and then head out on south shore drive. It's been a while since I've been on this road. When did they put a bike lane in?

I settle into my pace and start picking off those that started off too fast. There's still a pretty decent size pack ahead of me, but we started out the same time as the 5kers so I didn't want to push too hard to catch up in case they were just running the 5k. About a mile in a guy passes me. I let him go by, but decide to keep him within striking distance. We get to the marina and there's a truck pulling a boat blocking the entire street and sidewalk so I had to resort to a little creative off road action to get around.

At the 5k turn around almost the entirety of the pack turns around. Holy carp! I think I'm in third! We cut through State Park and on the other side I catch the guy who had passed me heading up a hill. I tell him good job and continue on. The first place guy is on his way back already, well ahead of us. No chance of catching him so the goal is to just stay in second.

I hit the turnaround and tell myself that it's time to start running. There's a little wind on the way back, but nothing too bad. I push through it and once I hit the 5k turnaround point I really kick it into gear. Only a mile and half left. Can't hold back now.

The last bit went pretty quick. At one point I could hear the guy behind me and realized he was either catching up or had stayed with me for the last few miles. That was enough motivation to kick it up a notch. I got within a couple of blocks of city park and decided it was time for the final sprint. I cruised through the finish line in second place with a time that surprised the heck out of me. 37:27!!!! A huge PR!

Afterward I walked around a bit and hit up the post race cookies. I chatted with my sister a bit and few people that I had gone to high school with then cheered on some later finishers after that. Overall I thought the race was pretty well organized. We even had bike escorts at the front of the pack!

They might want to remeasure the course though. Not that I'm not happy with the time, but the garmin had it a 1/4 mile short. Almost don't want to count this as an official PR because I will never come close again.

I am still happy with the effort though. Coming back from the hip injury I have been very cautious and didn't have a real good idea where I was speed wise. I haven't done a lick of speedwork all year. I've just been putting in the mileage and making sure the hip is happy. Even so, I think I'm right back to where I was at the end of last season and that's an exciting prospect heading into the next two months.

I have one more hard week of work ahead and then I'll do a short 1 week taper for Alcatraz. I ship my bike out on Wednesday, so I'll try to get in a couple more rides before I send her away

2010 Donut run

2010-04-11T20:26:00.002-05:00

Every year the Iowa State tri club puts on an annual donut run to help fund their trip down to collegiate nationals at the end of April. I had been aware of the race but had never had a chance to run it until this year.

What is a donut run, you ask. It's basically a 5k where you get time subtracted from your finish time for each donut you eat along the way. Now you may be thinking that this seems like a really bad combination of activities and after personally experiencing the donut run I can confirm your suspicions.

It was a great day for a race. 50s and sunny at race start, which is darn near ideal in my book. Prior to the race start I set a few goals for myself. I know I can run a 20 minute 5k, but I also wanted to eat a few donuts along the way. Based on the time bonuses awarded, which incrementally increase for each donut eaten, I decided to shoot for 10 donuts.

We took off from the start and things felt pretty good. I passed by the first two donut stations since I figured there was no point piling them into my stomach early on. First mile split was a 6:08. For a moment I considered shooting for a PR, but then thought why miss out on the fun of eating donuts.

I stopped at the next aid station and had my first 2 donuts of the day. This were not the nice little Krispy Kreme's that I was expecting. This were big honking glazed donuts and my first thought was that I would never get 10 of those down. As I sat there consuming my donuts (they wouldn't let you leave the aid station until they were gone) I learned a couple of things from my fellow donut eaters who had obviously done this before.

1. Donuts are dry and hard to chew and swallow. This is where a nice cup of water comes in handy for "softening" them up. It's no milk, but I'm not so sure that would have been any better.

2. Taking the "fluff" out of the donuts is key. Take two or three at a time and smash them together like a big donut sandwich.

Okay, lessons learned. With my newfound knowledge I proceeded to the next donut station and downed a couple more. I met a guy here who was also shooting for 10. Turns out we were running about the same pace too, so we ran to the next station and had a couple more. This is where I started to slow down and realized my eating skills did not match my running skills. He finished his 2 before I was even halfway done with mine.

Okay 6 down, 4 to go. My stomach was starting to mildly rebel at that point and the thought of putting down anymore donuts did not seem appealing. In hindsight I probably should have just ran it on in, but when I set my mind on a goal it's hard to let go. I came here to eat 10 donuts and that's what I was going to do.

At the last aid station I forced down the last of my donuts and it was quite the struggle to do so. It seemingly took forever. There was a lot of people there trying to put down one last donut so at least it was entertaining to have some company with which to commiserate with. After that I ran the last half mile hard, my stomach protesting all the way.

I was shocked to see that my finish time was 32:00. I had turned the auto pause feature on on my Garmin so every time I stopped at an aid station the timer paused. So it had my actual run time at 18:45, which mean I spent 13:15 eating 10 donuts. Man, I'm a slow eater!

Those 10 donuts that I ate were worth a whopping 10:30 in time bonuses so my official finish time was 21:30. So the moral of the story is that it's not worth eating donuts, unless you're a speed eater. Guess I should have just run!

This is one of those races that I just wanted to experience at least once. It's nice not to worry about setting PRs and just going out and having fun for a change. That said, it was also nice to find out that I don't have what it takes to enter any speed eating contests. I think from here on out I'll just stick to running.

Before I get too far ahead of myself...

2010-04-06T21:17:00.002-05:00

Holy cow we are almost a week into April and I haven't even gotten a chance to say goodbye to March yet. Well, here we are. March, you were a good month but I'm glad to say goodbye. It just means we're one month closer to race season, and that is an exciting prospect.

Here's a glimpse at my total training volume for the month:

Bike:	24h 25m 31s - 463.72 Mi
Run:	13h 12m 21s - 100.48 Mi
Swim:	14h 21m 50s - 45700 Yd

It was a pretty solid month all around. Not nearly enough of those bike miles were outdoors, but I'm trying to rectify that this month. I was shocked at the running total. If you had told me at the beginning of January, after running all of 4 miles in December, that I would have a 100 mile month in March I would have laughed in your face and questioned your sanity. Thankfully the hip is holding up (I know I say that every week, but I still think about it every run and I will continue to do so until I get through Sept 12).

This month will be a little different training wise. I'm dropping a swim workout during the week so I'm 4/4/4 for s/b/r sessions. That will allow me, with the help of some crafty scheduling, to take a true rest day if needed. Currently I have been dedicated 2 days a week to just swimming, no running or biking, and not taking a true rest day. Recovery wise I feel that my body is appreciating this approach compared to what I've done in the past so I'm not entirely sure that I want to change anything. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

April should go quickly though. Like I said we're already a week in. I've got a 10k on the schedule and am contemplating another 5k just for the heck of it. I get to eat donuts during the race so it's hard to pass up. Then a short mini taper for Alcatraz and I'm off to San Francisco. It's going to be a short month indeed.

A Tale of Two Rides

2010-03-31T20:55:00.003-05:00

We've hit a heat wave here the last few days in Iowa. Temps have been in the 70s so it would have been so wasteful to not get out and ride and take advantage of the warm spell. My last outdoor ride had been in sub-40 weather so I was really chomping at the bit to get out there in some nice weather.

The plan yesterday was to ride about 40 miles, head north and hit some of the good hills that, while big by Iowa standards, probably still won't prepare me properly for Alcatraz. On my longer rides I will use a 48 oz bottle that straps into the aerobars for easy access while riding. The bottle is secured with a couple of rubber bands. After a couple of years of use these were looking pretty brittle and worn. I made a mental note to hit up Wally World for some new bands in the near future.

I took off and enjoyed the 25 mph tail wind while I could. Just six miles into the ride I hear a pop. One of the rubber bands has broken. I debate the likelihood of the other one breaking too and, after deciding that the odds are against it, continue along my way. Well, what do you know, 6 miles later: POP! The other band breaks! You have got to be freaking kidding me!

I pull over and try to MacGyver something to hold the bottle in place, but apparently I'm no Richard Dean Anderson. If only I kept a roll of duct tape, paper clips and some chewing gum in my saddle bag. Resisting the urge to chuck the thing as far as I could into a field, I instead decide to gently toss the bottle into the ditch so I could come back for it later.

At that point, with the fuel supply waning and the prospect of dealing with those ridiculous crosswinds, I decide it's best to just head home. 3 miles later, as if things can't get any worse, my front tire goes flat! Thankfully, I've changed a tire or two so get a new tube and the tire back on pretty quick. Time to test out my new hand/CO2 hybrid pump. What a POS! The hand pump did nothing. I hit it with CO2 and it inflated, but just enough to ride on. I debated using another cartridge, but decided to ride for awhile and stop to hit it with some more CO2 if necessary.

So off into horrendous headwind I go, taking those last nine miles on an underinflated tire slow as snot. I've never been so relieved just to get home!

Fast forward to today. Another beautiful day, but minus the crazy wind from yesterday. I'm armed with rubber bands and a shoelace (to tie the dang bottle to the aerobars if I have to) and ready to go on the rescue mission.

The first twelve miles passed quickly and uneventfully and soon enough I spot the bottle down in the ditch. I grab it and secure it to the aerobars. The rubber bands were a bit short so I ended up having to use the shoelace. Richard would be proud.

With the mission accomplished I start to head back. Twelve more uneventful miles and I'm pulling back in to home, not feeling relief like yesterday, but rather yearning to continue riding on such a perfect day.

The stat's tell the story as well:

Tuesday: 24.20 miles - 1:23:32 - 17.38 mph

Today: 24.22 miles - 1:11:12 - 20.41 mph

What a difference a day makes!

The Mundane

2010-03-25T21:20:00.003-05:00

Well, I haven't posted about anything in well over a week and that's not quite like me. But what can I say, things have been pretty uneventful around these parts so you should probably assume that no news is good news. There have been no major disturbances in the training schedule and my hip is giving me zero issues so it's all good.

So here is a rundown of some entirely mundane events that have occurred since the last post:

I had my first shorts and tee-shirt run (sweet, it's spring!)

I had by first outdoor ride in shorts (sweet, it was summerish for a day!)

Less than 24 hours after said ride we got a few inches of snow (suckage, winter's back!)

Said snowstorm left things covered in ice making the following morning's 10 miler quite treacherous (Grrrr!)

By the next day the snow had melted and I ran in shorts again (ok last weather related topic I swear)

My tri group substituted in a 50 minute core workout since the pool was closed (That was 4 days ago and I'm still sore!!)

I put ugly blue tires on my tri bike (They were 15 bucks cheaper than black ones)

I found out my 6 mile commute to work takes twice as long on a bike as it does in a car (and my new lights work awesome!)

I worked some ridiculously long hours this week (but it was also a recovery week so I couldn't have asked for better timing)

I nearly accidentally ran a sub-20 minute 5k during a 4 mile training run today (Fan-Friggin-Tastic!)

I'm still determining whether or not ice cream has enough protein in it to constitute viable recovery nutrition (more testing necessary)

Who's afraid of the ironman swim?

2010-03-15T21:22:00.002-05:00

Not this guy, that's for sure. Last Friday I decided to take a different approach to my swim workout. I had missed a session the night before due to work so I decided when I got there to swim until a) I completely wore myself out, b) hurt something, c) had a complete breakdown in form or d) went completely insane from boredom.

After awhile I started to feel a little twinge in my left elbow so I called it a day at 4500 yds. I think I was rapidly approaching scenario d as well so it was probably a good thing I called it when I did. Other than that things felt great! It was easily my longest continuous swim ever and after the fact I realized it was further than the Ironman distance of 4224 yds.

Now granted I didn't do the swim in close proximity of 2000 of my best friends and I got that brief second of rest at the wall every lap, but I'm still pretty happy with the feat at this point in the season.

On another note we hit 50 degrees over the weekend and that meant that I got outside for my first ride! It was cold and my head froze, but I was nice to get off the trainer for a bit. More nice weather is in store the rest of the week so I am hoping to hit the road a few more times before the next cold spell hits!

First brick

2010-03-07T21:28:00.002-06:00

Well today I did my first brick of the season. Now I don't incorporate a lot of brick sessions into my training. I am one of those fortunate people who can run really well off the bike so my main focus is to usually get in quality workouts of each individual sport. But when your tri group is doing a brick workout you might as well play along. Besides, it's the first week of March and with Alcatraz only 8 weeks away a brick can be a good indicator where my fitness is at right now.

I did my morning workouts on my own (1:20 on the trainer and a 2500 yd swim) so I didn't arrive at the group workout particularly fresh. We met at the local bike shop and set up our trainers inside so I got to drool over several bikes as we rode. The ride was about an hour and fifteen minutes with several sprint and force intervals interspersed throughout.

After that we hit the road for a nice 3.5 mile jaunt. My legs felt fine throughout and our pace was fairly quick, a 7:30 pace. All in all I am pretty happy with the workout. My cycling and running fitness are definitely coming back. I didn't even feel the need to throw on the recovery tights afterward!

Horn Tooting Pt. 2

2010-03-02T20:57:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago (well 8 to be exact) I posted about the improvements that I had made in swimming, which had been my focus all off season. In particular I had trimmed 1:14 off of my 1000 yd Time Trial time. This had come after eight weeks of hard work in the pool. The improvement surprised me a little bit, but I knew I didn't want to stop there.

I decided another 8 weeks of hard work were in order. I wasn't expecting gains akin to the first eight weeks, but I was certain that I could reach my goal of going under 16 minutes for the time trial.

So last night I hopped in the pool again to gauge my progress. I ripped off a 15:37, a time that I am very pleased with. It works out to a pace of 1:34 / 100 yds. I dropped a total of 1:44 from when I tested in November.

I can't wait to see where this lands me come race season. I may have just swam my way out of the middle of the pack!

February Numbers

2010-02-28T19:29:00.002-06:00

Another month is done! And what a great month to have over with. This means we are entering March, and with March comes warmer temperatures and the chance to take the bike off the trainer and get some cold windy rides in. My neoprene shoe covers and balaclava are resting in my bike helmet, just jonesin to get used. It looks like we may be near 40 by the end of the week so that may become a reality.

That's not to say the February was without its merits. It was a good month for me. It marked my return to full time training and several running milestones that seemed well out of reach just a month or two ago. Here's a breakdown of my training numbers for the short month:

Bike:	17h 40m - 339.29 Mi
Run:	9h 17m 42s - 66.49 Mi
Swim:	16h 18m 52s - 49800 Yd

Bike mileage was more than double what it was last month. That means I spent some quality time with the trainer. I discovered the TV shows Fringe and Chuck and am currently satisfying my inner nerd with episodes of Smallville.

Running-wise I was able to leave those run/walk intervals behind for good and build my mileage up safely. I only had one minor violation of the 10% rule, but I iced and stretched the crap out of things as a precaution and the hip is cooperating with me thus far.

Swimming was solid month as well. I was only 200 yds short of having my second ever 50000 yd month. If we hadn't stopped today to do some more underwater videotaping I would have made it for sure. I can't complain though. The video is really cool and insightful.

Next month should bring about a few changes. I am at the end of my 2nd 8-week swim focus block so I will be time trialing sometime this week. After that I haven't really come to a decision on how I want to attack the swim training. I will probably drop the monthly yardage to 40000 or so and shift my focus to long endurance efforts in addition to the speed/drill work. In the bigger picture that yardage may get reduced further as the focus on biking takes over. Of course that is very dependent on the weather. After the sucktastic winter went through I can only hope that we have a nice spring.

It's good to have a solid month under my belt. Like I said a few posts ago I am starting to feel like a triathlete again, and that's a good thing considering the first race of the year is just 2 months away. I might have to sniff out a local 5 or 10k before that just whet my racing appetite. We shall see.

Starting Recovery Week.....With Hill Repeats?

2010-02-21T19:40:00.002-06:00

Ahhh, week 4. I like week 4. After spending the last three weeks progressively building the training volume I finally get to take what is known as a recovery week. The recovery week is a necessary staple of the triathlete's training plan. It gives their body time to recover and adapt from the training stresses that have been put upon in order to build strength and endurance that it may not be able to obtain by keeping it in a constantly stressed state.

Fortunately this doesn't mean that I will be doing nothing this week. I did enough of that in the off season. Typical I like to drop my volume to about 50-60% of what I did the week before. So that means that this early in the ironman training plan the workouts will be short and sweet for sure.

But while the workouts are shorter, sometimes I like to compensate with a little more intensity. Take for example today, although I really didn't have much choice in the matter. Our training group decided it would be a good day for some hill repeats. I was a little unsure about this as I have not really run anything remotely resembling a hill since I have been rehabbing the hip. After a good warm up we found a nice little quarter mile stretch with tough a gradient. We ran up and down that puppy 8 times. Hip felt great, but the rest of my legs were screaming at me, as seems to be the usual case these days.

So while hill repeats probably aren't in my top ten ways to start recovery week it did feel good to work hard for a little while. It's nice to know that the hardest day of my week is out of the way now. I can relax, enjoy my week, and get mentally ready for the next one.

I Just Might be a Triathlete

2010-02-14T20:26:00.002-06:00

Ok, 32 weeks minus 2 weeks leaves us with what? 30 weeks to go? This is a good thing because for the first time since September I am starting to sort of feel like a triathlete again.

Two weeks of base building are in the books and I have successfully followed the plan to a "T". This means a sore butt from all that time on the trainer and some tired legs that's for sure, but you know I've missed it. That tired feeling after a good workout, the soreness that creeps into your body afterward, and the realization that, dang, I've got another workout to do yet today.

It was earlier this week that I felt exactly that after a particularly exhausting swim session. I was driving home from the gym and knew I needed to hit the road running in order to have enough daylight left for me. It was one of those moments where I thought, "wow, I'm starting to feel like a triathlete again." It made me smile.

Today was my first "triple" in awhile. I hit the trainer shortly after waking up this morning for a little over two hours. My tri group gets together on Sunday afternoons and this was the first time that I've felt confident in my running to join the group. We did around five miles and the pace was fast as usual. It was a struggle to keep up and it was the first time I've even remotely tried pushing the pace since the injury. I averaged sub-8s though, which I was pleased with. I know that speed will come back with a return to consistency. After the run was a fun little 2900 yd ladder workout to top things off.

Needless to say I'm a little tired, but it's a good tired, a welcoming tired that reminds me that my body just might becoming one of a triathlete again.

Long run?

2010-02-05T18:35:00.002-06:00

As of now my schedule entails a long run on Saturdays. Tomorrow I'm looking at about a 5 miler, which at this point last year was the minimum length I would run for any run I went out on. Funny, now that I am coming back from injury I am approaching this with a little trepidation. On Wednesday I ran 3 miles straight for the first time in nearly 3 months. It was a scary but thrilling experience and all the while I kept thinking to myself, "when is the hip going to give out on me?" Thankfully it didn't and I managed sub-9 minute miles, which did wonderful things for my confidence.

Tomorrow I will approach it with caution. I will probably run 2 miles, walk a few minutes, run 2, walk and finish the last mile. It seems like a good conservative plan that should serve me well. I sure hope it's snowing again like it was earlier this week. Running on the cushiony snow doesn't seem to aggravate things as much.

This is all of course hoping that I am feeling well tomorrow. I was struck by my first cold of the season today. A little bit of a runny nose and just a real thick feeling in the head that was just punishing me all day during work. So I skipped my swim in favor of a nap. I figure there's no real need to punish myself this early in the season. I also wonder if its a coincidence that this hit as I worked a 50 hour week and put in my highest training volume since August or so.

I'd like to think that I'll have this thing beat into submission tomorrow. If not, a good ride and run always seem to do the trick ;)

32 Weeks!

2010-01-31T19:38:00.002-06:00

It official, the Ironman training started today. Well, the official training for it anyway. I had been keeping up some semblance of training over the winter but today was the first day in a long while I took a look at my plan and said here's what I have to do today.

I'm going to miss the off season just a little bit. I didn't accomplish quite all that I wanted but that's okay. I got some much needed rest and recuperation and that's huge. Here's what my January consisted of:

Bike:	8h 09m 14s - 155.79 Mi
Run:	5h 42m 32s - 31.88 Mi
Swim:	15h 37m 30s - 46750 Yd

Not nearly enough biking, but I hit the swimming hard again and it's really paid off. My local tri group started training again and both coaches and others have commented on my speed gains. Nothing like a few good compliments to bring a smile to a guy's face. That month of run volume looks great in comparison to last month's measly 4 miles too. The hip continues to get better although I wish it would get better much faster. I want to run fast again!

Today was an effort at rectifying January's low bike mileage. I started the day off with a 2 hour session on the trainer which accounts for 25% of this months mileage. Yeah, I was slacking and I butt knows it too. Ouch!

So, 32 weeks till the big day. I have a feeling its going to go very, very fast.

The Great Outdoors!

2010-01-27T20:47:00.002-06:00

Man, I love running outside. I just wanted to let everyone know that.

When I got injured in November I had to stop running for a few months and even when I started up again the doctor's orders were to stay on the dreaded treadmill. I complied, grudgingly, however my recent trip took me to warmer weather that was impossible to resist. I sneaked (snuck?) in a couple of great, pain free outdoor runs and upon arrival back in Iowa I thought I might as well resurrect the outdoor workouts.

I prided myself on the fact last winter that I only let the unpredictable Iowa weather keep me indoors only once. If I did that last year surely I can do it the last month or so of this winter, right? Apparently not. A nice ice storm coated about a 1/4" of ice on everything the day I returned. Treadmill. The weekend warmed up though and enough of that ice melted to allow me to get out. I didn't even have to layer too much. Okay, back on track.

Then Monday rolled around and a literal blizzard blew through town. They even closed down pretty much the entire north south interstate of the state. Treadmill. But today, today I made it out again. Still a lot of snow on the ground so it was a slippery slidy sort of run, but the kind that I've really really missed in a sick and twisted sort of way.

Needless to say I'm looking forward to getting out again this weekend when the temps get down in the single digits. Did I mention I love running outside ;)

Vacation!

2010-01-21T20:50:00.008-06:00

So just one final obstacle remained before I could conclude that my off season is officially over. And what an obstacle to have: vacation! As is becoming tradition in January I took my annual pilgrimage to a state with much better weather than Iowa that my sister and her famliy resides in. For the third straight year it took me to California, although this year instead of sunny, warm San Diego I got mildly sunny and warm and slightly rainy San Fransisco. Still not a bad deal in my book.

It was my first visit here so I did plenty of touristy stuff upon arrival. We spent an afternoon at Pier 39/Fisherman's wharf. I got to see Alcatraz which was pretty cool considering I will be swimming from there to shore come May. It was a little intimidating, especially when, as we were passing over the Golden Gate Bridge, my brother in law pointed out a small sailboat that was struggling in the current. I get to swim across that? Grrreeeat.

It was great to run outdoors a little bit and my hip handled it okay. We also got in some great hiking through Muir woods amongst the giant redwoods and I got to jog around the Stanford campus where my brother in law is doing his fellowship. Man, what a beautiful campus. The only thing that I was slightly disappointed in with the trip was that I babied the hip while playing with my niece and nephews. Usually there is a lot of running around and roughhousing and whatnot, but I tried to err on the side of caution and tone it down a bit. We still had a good time and I spent enough time with them to get my yearly shot of birth control. No kids in my future ;) (Sorry Mom)

As always the trip was too short and I was welcomed back to Iowa in the midst of an ice storm. The good news is I'll be back in San Fran in just a few short months to take on Escape from Alcatraz. I can't wait!

Meanwhile its back to training here. I am in desperate need of reacquainting myself with my bike. That is the goal this next week before the "Official" training plan starts.

In other news, I wished myself a happy 29th birthday today with a tortuous little workout. I ran for 29 minutes on a treadmill and followed that up with fun 29X100yd @ 1:50 set in the pool. That set was much harder than I anticipated it would be. Good times :)

Progress!

2010-01-12T20:53:00.002-06:00

Progress. It's seems like so long since I've seen any semblance of progress in the running department. Sidelined by bursitis since the beginning of November, the weeks ticked by with little perceivable improvement. Well all that has changed in the last few weeks.

Lately, I have managed a few test runs with no irritation. The doctor gave me the green light to start on a run/walk progression. Today was a particularly great run and I have had to forcibly make myself adhere to the run/walk plan outlined by doctor. I'm sore, but not anywhere near the area of the injured hip. Having to recondition these running muscle is going to suck, but I've got plenty of time to do it.

Part of the plan is also keep to the treadmill, which I absolutely abhore (not to be confused with adore). Although I may be violating that rule when I head to California on vacation in a couple of days. Trails there will be calling my name with their siren call and I doubt I will be able to resist.

After vacation it will be time to get serious about this whole training thing. Official ironman training will kick in around Feb 1. Once I get a training plan written up (seems like a good use of my time on the flight) that date will get firmed up. I'm excited to get training again. It's been a long off season, and a much lazier one than I ever anticipated

Bye Bye 2009

2010-01-04T22:08:00.002-06:00

So I realize I probably should have made this post on the first of the month/year/decade but I figure I'm getting it in there before the first week is up so that's got to count for something right?

2009 has come and gone and a lot of good things transpired in that year. I won't go into details on the race season since I did that a few post back. Instead we'll just take a peak at my training numbers and then head forward.

So here they are:

2009 totals
Bike:	192h 20m 12s - 3612.89 Mi
Run:	134h 27m 59s - 1029.57 Mi
Swim:	108h 41m 26s - 318543.2 Yd

I could do some fancy mathematical comparisons about how biked across the US or how I ran from here to Utah, but I'm half watching the Fiesta bowl, half napping, and half surfing the internet. Yeah, I wouldn't trust my math now either ;)

But looking ahead there are some new and interesting things on the horizon. Before I even get to the tri season I've got to make sure that I am healthy. This is definitely a new facet to my training that will require extreme patience on my part. I am slowly easing back into into running this week and am cautiously optimistic that things are going to get better.

Next up, will be a unique experience out in San Francisco with the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. This might be a once in a lifetime shot at this race so I might as well make the most of it and enjoy it.

Then of course there is that little Ironman race at the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to training for and racing that puppy.

Yeah, I think its safe to say that 2010 is going to be an exciting year for sure

A Little Horn Tooting

2009-12-29T20:59:00.002-06:00

So I'm going to brag a little bit tonight, something I rarely do, but after today's swim workout I just can't help myself. I set a goal this winter to improve my swimming. It's easily the worst of the 3 sports for me and the one I struggle with the most. So eight weeks ago I set my focus on the swim and embarked upon a new plan. This plan had me swimming 4-5 times a week with a huge emphasis on drilling. At the beginning of the 8 weeks I swam a 1000yd time trial. This is an all out effort in order to see how fast I was. The result of that test was 17:21 or 1:44 per 100yds.

Well, after 8 weeks of hard work (and ample time due to a running injury) I got to repeat the time trial to see if there was any improvement over that span of time. Well, I finished in 16:07, or 1:37 per 100 yds, taking a whole 1:14 off of my previous time! I was so stoked when I finished today. This is the most notable improvement I've had since I first was able to finish 100yds without being completely out of breath.

So there it is. Yay me! Kudos! Congrats! A little well deserved horn tooting.

But I'm not quite done. I originally set out with a goal of going sub-16' by the end of March. It's time for another 8 weeks of swim focused fun and I should easily be able to shave off that 7 seconds and more by the time March 1st rolls around. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish. Swimming across the bay come May should be a breeze ;)

Recharged

2009-12-27T20:17:00.002-06:00

So Christmas has come and gone once again. Not only that, but it passes quickly like always. I enjoyed some down time with my family and spent nearly 5 days with almost no activity and some pretty atrocious eating habits. It was awesome.

But, with the holiday over it is time to get down to business. I was dying to get back in the pool today and had a pretty good swim all things considered. I figured all the food I put in my gut the past week would cause me to sink and slow me down. Fortunately that wasn't the case. With today's workout I have come to the end of my 8 week swim focus. Sometime this week I will be doing another 1000yd time trial to measure my improvement. I know I am faster, but I really can't wait to see how much faster.

And while there has been mucho progress in my worst sport, there has been little to no progress on the running front. Last week I managed a short run with little pain, but the constant discomfort is still there and I just can't fathom running hard or far at this point. I have one final appointment with my PT and we will discuss a long term plan.

I ceased biking a few weeks back in hopes that it would help facilitate the healing of my hip. I'm not real sure if that accomplished much of anything so I will be getting back on the bike this week. It's perfect timing too as there is going to be a lot of bowl games to watch and I have a fun interval workout while I watch that makes the trainer time pass by.

I realized today that I have just four months to get ready for my first tri of the year. Having not run for 2 months makes that seem a little daunting. If only Santa had just brought me a new hip like I had asked for. If I'm not completely 100% my May 2 perhaps I will just take it easy and enjoy the San Franciscan scenery. Either way, the off season is starting to wrap up and I must say that I am sufficiently unwound and recharged, ready to tackle the goal of the upcoming season.

Trying to stay positive

2009-12-03T19:35:00.003-06:00

Well, my injury has an official name so I guess I better take it seriously. I haven't been injured since my sophomore year of high school in wrestling when I separated some tendons from my sternum. This time it doesn't sound as painful, but it's irritating nonetheless.

I have hip bursitis in my right hip. Burisits is an inflammation of the bursa sacs (fluid filled sacs that provided lubrication for joints) and in my case it was caused by repetitive motion, ie. running. I've been working with a physical therapist to try and get this thing nipped in the bud. I was allowed to try some run/walk workouts where I would run a quarter mile then walk a quarter mile. I was okay for about a mile and then things got ugly and painful. So we decided I would be better off with some more rest. Biking and swimming are still in play and I can use an elliptical (meh) or do some aquajogging (double meh) to keep the aerobic fitness up without the high impact.

During the appointment yesterday I got a patch on my hip that delivered anti-inflammatories for four hours via magnets (sweet, I know) so I was forced to lay on the couch and be lazy when I really wanted to swim. I'm hoping they help, but my hip feels more sore today.

I'd wouldn't be lying if I were to say the my motivation is lacking. Even though I've been cleared to bike I've been rationalizing that skipping some workouts here and there can only help the hip rehabilitation. It doesn't help that winter is settling in(it's cold and we got some snow today) and all I really want to do is settle under a blanket and watch a movie. I will continue to swim and I'm still really excited about that. It helps to have a concrete goal there and I can still feel the progress being made every (well, almost every) time I get in the water.

It helps to focus on the positives and before I know it February 1st will roll around, marking the beginning of Ironman training. Provided I am up and running by then I'm sure motivation will be firing on all cylinders. For now I'll weather the off season storm the best I can and hopefully retain some measure of fitness these next couple of months.

Early Hope

2009-11-20T21:07:00.002-06:00

So as most of you know I started my swim focused training at the beginning of November. I have a goal of reaching a 16 minute 1000 yd time trial by the time March rolls around. It seems to be a pretty daunting goal considering the first time trial I did was 17:21 on the first of November. That reduction is the equivalent of going from a 1:45/100yd pace to a 1:36/100 pace.

I started swimming 5x a week, with 4 out of the 5 swims focusing heavily on drills to hopefully bring about changes to my stroke that make me faster and more efficient in the water. Today my swim set consisted of 1000 yds of drilling followed by a nice, easy 1500 yd continuous swim. Well, my time for the first 1000 of the 1500 was 17:04, a 0:17 reduction from just 19 days ago. And this was an easy swim! Just a nice long, efficient stroke. No heavy breathing. No really pushing the pace. I won't time trial again for another month, but I'm ecstatic about the progress I'm seeing in just 3 dedicated weeks.

For the first time I'm feeling like I don't have to settle for being just an average swimmer. Granted I have a lot of work to do if I ever want to be front of pack, but if I can continue to make progress I feel like maybe I can contend at not just sprints, but Olys as well.

It has me completely excited to head to the pool for each workout. In fact I'm bummed I'll have to miss a few over Thanksgiving, but I've already set a record high for monthly swim yardage. I can't wait to add to it!

Test Run = FAIL

2009-11-17T19:10:00.002-06:00

So I have been harboring a hip injury for the last two weeks or so. I'm not sure what it is, but being the stubborn person that I am I decided to try and treat it with my normal course of action: copious amounts of rest. Well, maybe not copious, but I did go twelve days without running and that has to be some sort of record for me. In the meantime I have been able to walk, bike, swim, and lift my lower body (ie squats, lunges, etc.) without pain. So I thought hey, why not give a light jog a shot.

I made it through the first mile with little discomfort, but after that it seemed to escalate. No sharp, shooting pains like before, but definitely not something I would want to contend with for multiple miles. Grrrrr!

It appears I'm probably contending with an actual injury. That means getting an actual diagnosis from a doctor. Looks like I'll have to overcome my proclivity to avoiding doctors. I guess at this point all I really want to know is what is going on, how to treat it, and just how dang long I'm going have to go without running. Is that too much to ask?

In the meantime, back to the pool. Yippee!

Fishy, fishy, fisheee!!

2009-11-09T18:34:00.002-06:00

I've been to the pool so much in the first week of November that I'm starting to get that permanent chlorine scent that doesn't wash off no matter how long I shower. In the first 9 days I have gotten in 7 pool workouts for a total of 16,300 yards. I've had full months with less yardage than that.

Is it helping? I don't know it may be too early to tell, but I'm starting to feel some things coming around. I read somewhere once that when you change something, whether its a swim stroke, golf swing, or running gait, it takes a minimum of six sessions with the change before it is integrated into muscle memory. So correcting bad habits may take awhile, and I have the distinct disadvantage of trying to change several aspect of stroke and that itself diminishes the returns. Am I doomed? I don't think so. I am persistent and that's half the battle. Replacing old bad habits with new good ones is the tricky part.

The good news is that I'm not getting bored. The workouts are varied enough that my time flies by and overall they've been enjoyable, except for the kickset from Hell on Friday. I'll die a happy man if I never do that workout again.

On the injury front the hip feels good, but then again it felt good last Thursday when I last went for a run and came hobbling home 3 miles later. I will continue to rest this week and contemplate a test run this weekend. It's too bad really because the weather will remain nice all week. I won't even be able to ride because there just isn't enough light after work gets over. It's a good thing I tripled dipped the rides over the weekend while it was 70 degrees out and got my fix for awhile.

Aches, pains, and injuries

2009-11-02T18:53:00.002-06:00

Day #2 of my official off season training and I'm already taking a rest day. I'll give you 3 guesses as to whether or not it was planned and the first 2 don't count.

I've been dealing with some pretty intense hip pain all day. Yesterday I did my longest run since the marathon, an 11 miler, and felt pretty good throughout. Well, as the night moved along I started to sense a little pain in the hip and by this morning it felt pretty bad. Walking, stairs, planting and turning all are painful. So in my ever infinite wisdom I decided it would be a good day to take rest. I realize it is the off season so I can treat these aches and pains with rest, rather than pushing through like I would be tempted to do if I were in race season. I'll do some light stretching tonight followed by an intense session with the foam roller to see if that does any good. I'll play it by ear after that, but it may just be me and the pool for awhile (which is where I should be anyway). So far in the past few years I've lucked out with major injuries. I've had some knee and ankle pain that has put me out of commission for a few and that's about it. I'm hoping this is just another one of those fluky things that seems to happen to me every once in awhile.

I completed the first workout of the new swim program yesterday. The main set was a 1000yd time trial, which I completed in 17:21, a 1:45/100 yd pace. That seemed about on par with what I expected. Using the time trial I am able to set up some training zones and target paces for specific sets in subsequent workouts. Tomorrow's workout should be fun. 2800 yds of mainly drilling. Goody goody.

An another note, I got an email today from Brooks saying that I was accepted into their Inspire Daily program. This was the first of a few sponsorships that I applied for recently. Very cool.

Goals, pt. 1

2009-10-25T20:04:00.003-05:00

It's about time I got around to setting some goals. Some are new, some are carried over from last, but either why they are going to guide how exactly I approach the off-season, next season, and beyond. First up are the immediate goals (ie. off-season goals)

During the last few weeks of my unstructured training I managed to scrap together a rough training plan for the next few months. And by rough, I mean it's very free flowing. There's no "you must run x miles on Thursday and ride the trainer with 16' LT intervals on every Monday morning following a full moon." I figured this way I can keep my sanity this way by not being overly anal about missing workouts and not getting the distance in. I'll have plenty of time to freak out about the plan once the official Ironman training starts.

That said there are some definites. For instance the swimming has got to improve. I'm tired of seeing guys finish ahead of me in my age group only because I was out-swam. It's no secret that it is my weakness and probably one of the areas I can most easily improve upon. So, as things get busy, these workouts will take priority. How will I improve? Well here's the off-season plan:

4 swims/wk with an optional 5th. I have gotten a lot of good information from www.swimsmooth.com and will be using a 12 week plan from there. The fourth day will be a light drill-focused 1500yds and the optional 5th would be a long steady swim. The workouts look fantastic and I'm looking forward to working on my stroke rather than just putting in the yardage.

3 rides/wk with an optional 4th. One of the members of BT is running a 14 week "Improve your power" workout group. He is a very knowledgeable individual and having never really followed a structured biking plan I am looking forward to hopping on the trainer and not just putting in the mileage. The optional workout would be a 2 hour steady effort ride. The DVD collection is stocked and I'm now the proud owner of a PS3. Hopefully that will make the long steady rides fly by.

4 runs/wk. One day of speedwork and a one minimum long run of 10 miles. In the past I have allowed my longest run to drop to around 5 miles over the winter. It makes for a long build up in the spring. I gotta suck it up this year and brave the elements for longer periods of time. More frequent running has definitely helped my speed this fall, and I'd like to keep these gains over the winter. I think 4 days a week will do wonders to maintain that speed.

And last but not least, stick to the strength and flexibility plan. I am notorious for letting this slip, mostly because when I do it, it's at 8-9:00 at night. It's hard to not convince myself to veg out at that point. So this will consist of 3 core sessions, 2 circuit training sessions, 3 foam roller sessions, and 1 total body stretching session per week. It seems like a lot, but they are short sessions (even more reason to not skip). And I may add in a day of yoga too, but we'll see how things go first.

It seems like a lot to handle in the off-season, but if I want to improve its what is needed to be done. If enjoyed the last few weeks of unstructured training, but it's time to get down to business. And after some much needed R&R, I'm ready for it.

Season in Review

2009-10-18T19:40:00.002-05:00

Well, I am now a few weeks into my off season. I think I have managed to escape the blues that usually accompanies this time of the year. I've allowed myself a couple of weeks of unstructured training. Initially I was going to take 2 whole weeks off, but I think I may have been kidding myself. I had to get off my butt and do something. But the lack of structure has been a welcome change. I haven't been worried about the mileage, I've just gone out there and moved, and there has been a sense of freedom I've come to associate with that.

But like any good triathlete I have become reliant on a good plan to improve and progress and make myself race ready. So I have been laying the bricks for a focused 3 month off season plan and in doing so I have had to think a lot about what I want to accomplish in not just the off season, but next season as well. So as I contemplated that, I realized that I needed to take one step back and look at this past season and what goals I have accomplished before moving forward. Thus, the title of this entry.

So I have decided to dissect each race to find at least one positive that came of it, as well as what goals were achieved and what goals I fell short of.

The year started with a 5k in February. We had gorgeous 40 degree weather and I PR'd by 29 seconds. Next up was another local 5k in March and I set another PR, this time going under 20 minutes and crossing that goal off my list. I ran my first ever stand alone half-marathon in April and finished well under my goal time of 1:35.

Next up, tri season. I did a chilly sprint up in Minnesota mid-May, and despite an incident where I almost ran into a parked car and fell on my bike I managed to put up a decent time and place 3rd out of 14 in my age group. That race was a real confidence booster and the first time I thought that I could really compete in my age group.

Next up was the Bluff Creek sprint. I had a great race and cracked the top ten overall and another 3rd place finish within my age group. One week later I finished a much larger sprint 5th out of 44. I was especially proud of my swim time which was 14s/100yd faster than the previous weeks.

Six days after that last sprint I raced my first half ironman on the year. I completely blew away my expectations of myself and finished in 5:01:46. The goal was to break 5:15 and I shattered that, setting a 33 minute PR in the process.

Hy-Vee was next and this was the first time that I would repeat a race from the year before. The course was a little different but I beat the previous year's time by 7 minutes and that was without a wetsuit. Next up was another sprint and another repeat course at the Iowa Games triathlon. I beat that time by over 5 minutes and had my fastest bike split and run split pace-wise of the year. Also, it was my fourth hardware race of the season with another 3rd place age group finish.

My second Oly of the year was Big Creek. I ran a 2:22:09, a PR by 2 minutes on the same course as last year. The Pigman half was an entertaining race this year. Massive rainstorms combined with raging winds made for a fun race. While the weather made it impossible to come close to a PR, I relaxed and truly had fun with this race while still managing to beat my previous year's time by 11 minutes.

My last tri of the year was a Olympic-ish distance that came in the thick of marathon training. That led to a super fast run split and allowed me to beat last year's total time by ten minutes. And last but not least was the marathon I ran two weeks ago. Obviously the 22 minute PR was the icing on the cake there and it ended my season on a positive note.

So I really didn't know how much progress I had made from year one to year two until now. They say the biggest gains are made early on and while I really don't expect to move by the same leaps and bounds between this year and the next, I will work hard to make sure I keep moving forward. That's all I can do, right?

Now it's time to decide exactly what I want to do with next season (besides becoming an ironman, that's a given) and how exactly I want to do it. Just a few short months before ironman training begins. I better make the most of it.

Twin Cities Marathon

2009-10-06T19:46:00.002-05:00

Sunday I completed my second marathon ever, another stepping stone in the ironman journey.

I arrived in the twin cities Saturday night and did the whole expo / packet pick up thing. I managed to sleep okay at the hotel even with some rowdy neighbors. Ate a couple of clif bars in the morning and walked to the metrodome. It was chilly and they were letting us inside the dome to warm up so that was handy. Soon enough it was getting close to race time so I dropped off my sweats bag and headed to the race start. I got to start in corral 1 and that was not nearly as packed with people so that was nice. With a race this long I was going to warm up in the first few miles. No sense making this any longer than it was going to be.

So I'm at the starting line of my second ever marathon and I couldn't be happier. I'm injury free, training was near perfect the last 7 weeks, and the weather is as good as you could ask for on race day. Excited may be an understatement.

A little pre-race hoopla and then there's the gun and we're off. Starting in the front corral was a bonus. Things spaced out very quickly and I settled into my own pace fairly early. Okay, quick check. Does this feel too hard? Nope. How's the breathing? Under control. Alrighty then. Let's run.

I was wearing my Garmin but I told myself to ignore it. I didn't want to get too caught up with what pace I was running. I just wanted to run and as long as things felt easy and I wasn't getting carried away with an absurd effort I was just going to run. It seemed like a simple approach. Did it hurt me later on? Maybe. Who knows.

Crowd support at the race was amazing. Hardly a block went by without someone out there cheering for all of the runners. That alone made it easy to keep going. I smiled, waved, high-fived when appropriate. Random spectators calling you out by bib number and telling you good job never gets old.

I hit the 5k mark at 21:36. A little fast. Tone it down a shade, mmmkay. I tried. Hit the 10k at 43:18. Holy shnikies that's a PR (yeah, I haven't run a stand alone 10k in awhile). So that toning down thing, were you listening? I think so. This is feeling effortless right now, let me enjoy it while I can okay.

Those miles flew by early on. I was enjoying myself, soaking in the atmosphere, loving the crowds. Spent a mile behind some excellent pace booty. Mmm, baby blue shorts. It was a good day to be running. Sadly though, I had to leave her behind. I started taking in nutrition at mile 5. Popped a gu and then had one every 4 miles from then on. Water at the aid stations and I was good to go.

When the halfway point hit I happy not to be having dreadful thoughts of having to run another one of those. I saw my time (1:31:46) and was ecstatic, but kind of scared at the same time. Ecstatic because I was on pace to go under 3:11:00 and fulfill my semi-delusional goal of BQing. Scared because I was only 3 seconds off my half mary PR. Way too fast my friend. Tone it down or you are going to crash and burn!

I dialed it back a notch. Really, I did this time. The next few miles went by and slowly but surely I began to notice more people passing me. I began to sneak a few peeks at the watch and saw the pace was dropping too much. That and the effort level was rising. Oh, and pain increasing in the left hammy and right calf. The wheels weren't falling off yet, but I definitely felt a few lugnuts loosen up and go tumbling away.

The fan support continued to be amazing. I wish I could remember all of the great people and cool signs. I liked the one that said "toenails are overrated." Then there were the people dressed as nuns (or maybe they were real nuns) with the one sign that said "run like hell" and another that I couldn't make out. I flashed them the devil hooks and stuck out my tongue. Yeah, could be going to hell here.

Where am I? Mile 19. Ugh, too soon to be falling apart. Suck it up. Hey, I recognize those blue shorts passing me. I tried my best to stay behind her, trust me, but couldn't. I reached the giant inflatable wall at mile 20. Yup, I'm definitely hitting the wall. Nicely placed symbolic balloon fixture. I managed to keep running until the mile 22 aid station, where I stopped to walk and take in some powerade to help with the cramping. I stopped again at the next aid station, but this time had a much tougher time getting going again. Move feet. Feet? Are you listening? Come on. We are running startingggggggg.........now! No? Okay a few more steps. How bout now?.........now?........ok, now! Dammit, get moving!

Eventually I mustered up the energy to get moving again and as punishment I told myself that was the last walk break I was allowed. Miraculously I stuck to my guns and ran the last few miles in. At least it was a pretty good imitation of a run. It felt so disjointed and painful at that point. I was pretty sure that it wasn't pretty.

Soon enough, I had the finish line in my sights. I realized I was going to be really close to 3:20:00 so I started running harder the last half mile or so. The mileage was off on the garmin so I really had no idea how much further it was. When we started the final downhill I was flying past people like they were standing still. I guess there was a little juice left in the ol legs and it was coming at a very painful cost with each stride. In my mind I kept alternating the words "ow" and "3:20" until I pounded across the finish line.

Woohoo! I'm done! Did I go under 3:20? I don't care, get me one of those heat blankets and some food!

I am envious of those people that can go out and run an evenly paced marathon. I am hoping that as I continue to lay on the mileage year after year that becomes a reality. Seriously though, I went out at a pace that would have gotten me a BQ and I couldn't hold it. Simple as that. Am I disappointed? A little. But this was another valuable learning experience and a heck of a confidence booster. Boston is in my future in the next few years, I am sure of it. This was an awesome, awesome race. I would highly recommend this marathon and if I ever plan on repeating one, this would be high up on the list. Missed my BQ, but you know what? I don't care. It was a huge 22 minute PR!

Peregrine Charities Race Report

2009-09-28T19:10:00.008-05:00

My last triathlon of the year was yesterday. It was sad to see the season come to an end, but at the same time it capped off what has been a rewarding and successful season. Here's how it all went down.:

Pre-race routine:

I got into woo town the night before for the expo and bike check in. I'm still not sure about the whole body marking the night before thing. The number on my arm was well faded by morning and gone by the end of the race. I spent the rest of the night yelling/cheering at the tv as Iowa knocked off Penn State. I was so jazzed after the win that I had troubling falling asleep. On the bright side trouble sleeping due to race nerves is a non issue.

A little on the chilly side race day morning, but it seemed like it was going to warm up so I tried not to think about it. Transition set up is getting routine.

Event warmup:

None to speak of. I really didn't feel like hopping in the water and back out to freeze in the cold air and breeze. I did chat a little, but I wasn't planning on used my jaw muscles too much in the race, except for a little cheering, so I don't think that counts.

Swim:

Well, last tri of the year. No need to hold anything back. I stayed to the right early and that seemed to alleviate the congestion. I found a decent stroke and just went about my business. We were the first wave to start after the elites so I didn't have to worry about navigating around slower swimmers (yes, I do occasionally pass people in the water). About 2/3s of the way to the turnaround I passed one guy in my wave that had gassed. After that I was by myself until the end, with a person or two from the wave behind me getting by. Boring really.

The nice thing about this out and back course (aside from being really long) was that they had a rope between 3 big buoys and attached to the rope were a bunch of noodles. I realized early on that every time I breathed to my left I would catch a glimpse of the bright flotation devices and sight that way, instead of looking forward into the glaring sun. Sweet! So I switched it up and breathed every four strokes so I was always looking to the left. Soon enough I was out of the water and up the boat ramp.

What would I do differently?: Not much. I was hoping for 30 minutes or better, but with the lack of emphasis on swim training lately I wasn't too disappointed.

Time: 00:31:02 | 1760.72 yards | 01m 46s / 100yards
50/107 overall, 7/10 age group

T1:

So I mosey into T1, have a seat on the ground, prop up my feet, and open up a good book.

No, I really didn't do that but I feel I could have with the amount of time I spent in here. My dang wetsuit zipper stuck. I wrestled with it from the moment I got out of the water until I was standing helplessly at my bike. It came down about 3 inches and just stuck. Crap! Yank! Nothing. Frick! Yank! Nothing. Frick! I reach back there. There doesn't seem to be any neoprene stuck in there. Try it one more time. Yank! Nothing. Frack! Okay, time to reverse the tracks. Up again, and back down. Woohoo! I'm free! There was a nice little cheer from the crowd behind me. As I struggled out of my wetsuit I smiled and thanked them. Okay. Glasses, helmet, shoes, let's ride!

What would I do differently?: I usually lube up my wetsuit zipper with a little zipper lube before each race and that will make it come off quicker than a prom dress. Forgot that this time and it had been a month and a half since the last tri. So, when in doubt, use more lube.

Time: 1:46

Bike:

I'm always happy to get on the bike after the swim, even more so this time around after the T1 debacle. I passed a few people heading out of the park and once we hit the roads I settled into a pace that was comfortably hard. No reason to go totally balls to the wall with the marathon next weekend. Just keep that in mind. Okay, so maybe there was one ball on the wall.

This course was flat, flat, flat and felt fast, fast, fast. I think we went over a couple of overpasses but I don't even think those could qualify as real hills. One section small section was under construction and wow, that was a rough little patch. It was like our mini little block's worth of Paris-Roubaix. Cool! Not.

I successfully navigated the corner that I crashed at last year so that was a bonus. Other than that, things were pretty uneventful. I didn't get passed and I passed a lot. Standard.

What would I do differently?: Nothing. After a less than stellar bike split at Pigman last month I had an underlying fear that I had lost some bike speed somehow. Stupid irrational fear, take that!

Time: 00:58:08 | 22 miles | 22.71 mile/hr
14/107 OA, 3/10 AG

T2:

Flying dismount. In and out. Quick stuff.

What would you do differently?: Nada

Time: 0:32

Run:

I gave a quick wave and smile to my parents on my way out and started turning the legs over. There were 2 guys up ahead not to far at the start. Okay boys, you're carrot #1. Ran them down in the first half mile. Legs are a feeling GOOD. All that run training does pay off I guess. I ran past the MXC club member with the speakers on his bike trailer and cowbell in hand. That made me smile. Soon enough I'm on the park trail that is nicely shaded. I love this run course. So much shade and quite flat.

Saw Noz before the turnaround and after a high five and a woot I did some math and figured there would be no catching him. He wasn't audibly swearing so I figured his toe was okay. That was good to see. After that I continued to pick people off. Once back on the roads I saw another guy up ahead running at a good click. The final mile and a half I tried to catch him and got dang close at the end. He heard the footsteps though and turned it up a notch. I had burned a few matches the last mile trying to catch him and couldn't close the gap.

What would I do differently?: Nothing. Smoked it. I wish they would add the extra 0.2 miles to make it a 10k. I would have crushed my PR.

Time: 00:40:07 | 06 miles | 06m 41s min/mile
23/107 OA, 6/10 AG

Total Time = 2h 11m 29s
Overall Rank = 27/107
Age Group Rank = 6/10

Post race

Warm down: Walk, gatorade, food, chat.

What limited my ability to perform faster: Residual swim and bike fitness carried me through. Trying to save a little somethin, somethin for the mary (and possible BQ attempt next weekend).

10 minute improvement over last years time! Woot! It helps when you don't suck at swimming, crash your bike, or have a foot injury. Awesome organization. Great race. An event like this should attract many more people than it does. Hopefully it keeps growing. It looks like they're adding a sprint distance next year too so maybe that will help. I'll be back. 2 weeks is enough to recover from IMMOO, right?

Confidence

2009-09-23T19:29:00.002-05:00

Confidence is a funny thing. When you have it, it's like you're walking on air. You feel like you can do anything. When you don't have it, the most trivial task seems insurmountable and you shrivel with anxiety.

When it comes to racing confidence can be almost as important as fitness. Going into a race knowing you can go the distance or knowing so can hold the pace can make all of the difference in the world. Fortunately this season my training has gone extremely well and I have entered into every race with the confidence not only to finish, but with the confidence to finish well. Now that's not to say that I haven't had less than stellar races *cough* Pigman *cough*. That will happen from time to time, sometimes due to things you can't control *cough* sideways rain *cough*.

In a little over a week I will be racing my second marathon. Last year was an experience to say the least. About a month out I hurt my foot during an 18 mile run and after that I did very little running leading up to the race in order to stay semi-healthy. Come race time I wasn't feeling real confident and I switched from a time goal to a "let's just finish this thing" sort of goal. Well, I did finish that thing, but it was a complete sufferfest after mile 20. I finished in 3:42:09 (8:29/mile pace), but it wasn't pretty.

This year things are going much different on the running front. I've stayed injury free and have been putting in all kinds of mileage. In fact for 5 consecutive months I've put in 100+ miles. All of my long runs have gone very well. The last was a 20 miler that I ran at an 8:00 minute/mile pace, with limited discomfort and soreness both during and after. Things have been going so well that a couple of letters have been floating through my thoughts the last few days. That B and Q keep on fluttering by, tempting me, taunting me. Part of me think its absurd, but there is also part of me that thinks qualifying for Boston is quite possible with proper training.

Have I had the proper training? I'm not sure. I think if I set aside 2-3 months to focus solely on running its a sure thing. All this biking and swimming tends to get in the way though, and I'm not ready to sacrifice that yet. I ran a 1:31:42 (7:00/mile) half marathon earlier in the year and based on several running calculators that predicts a 3:13ish marathon finish which is 3 minutes shy of the BQ time. I would hate to go out too hard and completely blow up. Maybe I should just be satisfied with a solid PR. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

I guess I have another week to figure out what to do. Actually only 4 days as my decision may dictate how hard I go at this weekend's triathlon. It's a nice little Olympic-ish distance event in Waterloo. I'm hoping to take another crack at the bike course (I crashed last time. Don't ask). Until then I'll do my best to keep those pesky letters from dominating my thoughts.

Simply Amazing

2009-09-15T18:55:00.006-05:00

That pretty much sums up my experience this past weekend, and I'm relatively certain that is an understatement. I journeyed to Madison, Wisconsin to volunteer at the 2009 Ironman event. My motive for doing so was twofold. First and foremost, volunteers get first dibs at signing up for the 2010 events (well, second dibs since the current race's athletes get a shot before they even race this year). Since doing my first triathlon a little over a year ago I knew that I wanted to race an Ironman so volunteering seemed like a sure fire way of getting in (Wisconsin is notorious for selling out online within minutes once open to the general public).

The secondary motive was to scope out the event ahead of time to see what I was getting myself into. What I found simply blew my mind. The energy was palpable even before the event started and it only seemed to escalate as the day progressed. That energy transferred to each and every athlete competing, infusing their souls with the strength to progress one swim stroke, pedal stroke, and footfall after the other.

My volunteering experience started out Saturday morning. As the athletes brought their biking gear into the first transition area I helped them find their spot amongst all of the other transition bags. Some people looked nervous and I did my best to help calm them and answer their questions. Others I could tell had done this before as they methodically went about their business. I ran into a few people I knew and even met for the first time a couple of my online friends from beginnertriathlete.com. All in all the 5 hours flew by and already I was starting to feel a little jealous that these people were going out to become ironmen the next day and I would have to wait a whole year. After my shift I found an outlet for my energy by going on a nice long run along the lakefront path of Lake Monona.

The next day I arrived at Monona Terrace an hour before the race start. It was already packed with athletes and spectators. 2400 bikes sat in transition while the athletes made their last minute adjustments and ensured that all of their nutrition was in place. Friends and family watched the preparation, some sporting custom shirts in support of their favorite athlete. I moved through the sea of people, amazed at the enthusiasm. At the top of the terrace I could hardly squeeze into a spot to see the swim start. When the cannon went off the race was on and the crowd went wild with enthusiasm. Now, I have watched Ironman starts on tv before but seeing it in person was something different all together. All athletes start at the same time and the water instantly turns into a frothy mass of churning limbs in what is affectionately referred to as "the washing machine." I was so awestruck that it sent chills down my spine.

After watching for awhile I retreated back down a few levels to the transition area where I reported for my first volunteering duty as a bike handler. As the athletes came out of T1 it was our duty to grab their bikes off the rack and get it into their hands. It was slow going at first as the pros came through, but we all cheered loudly and soon enough the age group athletes started pouring through. Like a fire brigade we called out the athlete numbers to those further down the line to get correct bike pulled from the rack. It was chaos as 2000+ athletes filed in. Some took their bike straight from your hands, some asked you to hold it as they pulled on their bike shoes, and almost all had kind words of thanks. The best part of all was the crowds cheering just as hard for the last man through as the first.

A few hours later I was manning the transition aid station as athletes came in off the bike and took off on a grueling marathon in the heat. We handed out ice and water or any combination thereof and were as helpful as we could be. Our cheering was loud and boisterous and amidst the grimaces of pain you could see the smiles on the faces of the athletes. In 26.2 miles they would be calling themselves ironmen, and you could see the determination in all of them.

Later in the day I was privileged enough to find myself at the finish line. I sort of felt like a VIP. The general crowds were not allowed back here, only volunteers and other race officials. I was working as a catcher, which entailed supporting the athlete after crossing the finish line, guiding them to their finisher medal, shirt, and hat, ensuring they got fluids if they needed it, getting them to the photographer for their official finisher's photo, and in extreme cases walking and/or carrying them to the medical tent.

Again it was slow as the pros trickled in first. I got to see them give interviews (the winner talked about how he had vomited several times and lost his vision for awhile during the marathon). Off the record last years winner, Chris MacDonald, who finished 5th this year, put it succinctly: "That %&$#ing sucked."

And then, slowly but surely, more ordinary people doing something extraordinary began crossing the finish line. It was a privilege to be there for them, to be the first person they talked to. There was so much raw emotion it was overwhelming. I heard so many uplifting stories over the course of the evening, whether it be fist timers or IM veterans.

I caught a couple pros and several top age groupers. One woman in particular qualified for Kona for the third time despite in her words having a horrible marathon. She was in good enough spirits to joke about it and playfully infer that the woman who had beat her had lied about her age. I spent ten minutes helping another man walk after he had jumped around so ecstatically at the finish that his left calf had completely seized up. "Why did i do that? That was stupid," he kept saying over and over, but with a smiling grimace on his face.

Some people were all smiles and tears of joy, others were dazed and out of it after pushing their bodies so hard for so long. One man, after walking and not saying much, finally turned to me and simply asked, "Do you think I could get an IV." "Absolutely," I told him and promptly took him to the medical tent. Another woman I took to the med tent because she could not stand on her own anymore. She said her rear derailleur had broken during the ride and she had to ride the last half in a fixed gear. Doing so completely torched her legs. Those hills were hard enough with a full range of gears. Speaking of hills, everyone I spoke to that had completed IMAZ or IMFL (notoriously flat courses) said those courses were cakewalks compared to the hills of Wisconsin. That may have just been the post-IM pain talking though ;)

I watched best friends cross the finish line at the same time. I helped a young woman who set a 2 hour and 15 minute PR. She had a smile that I'm pretty sure was still on her face even when she fell asleep that night. The stories were numerous, the athletes inspiring, and I wish I could remember it all. I spent over 6 hours catching that night, and it was easily one of the coolest and most rewarding things I've ever done. After a full day of volunteering, I took a break, got a bite to eat, and found a spot just before the finisher's chute to watch the remaining ironmen come through.

By the end of the night I was exhausted, even though I had not done near as much as those incredible ironmen had done over the course of the day. Despite being tired I didn't sleep all too well as I was excited to get signed up for next year's race in the morning. By the time I reached the registration site (1:15 before it officially opened) the line of volunteers was already stretched out along monona terrace. Thankfully they were letting people in early so the line was moving, but even so it took about an hour and a half to get in. The time flew quickly though as I chatted with a girl from Iowa City. Turns out we had done quite a few of the same races this year and we exchanged contact info so we could do some training and/or racing together next year. Soon enough I was through the registration line after plopping down a good chunk of change to become an Ironman. I practically skipped back to my car, as if I was holding the golden ticket or something.

This year is going to be a life changing experience and I am so ready to undertake this adventure. I love a good challenge, and what better one to take on than Ironman. Bring it on!

All the cool kids are doing it

2009-09-07T21:13:00.002-05:00

It seems like everyone is blogging about something these days and in my never ending futile attempt to be one of the cool kids I figured I might as well give it a shot too. While my life is pretty mundane I do have a teensy weensy interest in this little sport known as triathlon. I am nearing the completion of my second season and next year I plan on taking the plunge into the full Ironman distance (No, not the one in Hawaii). I figured a semi-routine blog would be a good way to let my family and friends in on the journey.

My original intent was to start this thing up next weekend as I spend a few days volunteering at Ironman Wisconsin and take the first official step towards becoming an Ironman: slapping down the hefty registration fee. However, I figured things could be a little hectic and knowing me, I would push this off so long that it would never get done. Well, for a change I'm ahead of the curve.

Today I took an unofficial step towards becoming an Ironman, a step that I will be taking many times over in the future. This morning I awoke at 6:00 am, strangely chipper and well rested. Although, I did have to set an alarm to wake up. I mean who in their right mind gets up that early when they don't have to? After a decent breakfast and a little too much internet surfing I meticulously began filling water bottles with gatorade endurance. A couple went in the fridge for later and the rest went down with me to the bike after I threw on some biking gear (shorts, jersey, and arm warmers since it was chilly out). It took me a little while to get the bike set up (bottles in their places, food in the bento box, double check that I have the spare tube and tools, pump the tires up, etc.) and after that I kind of just sat and stared at it for awhile. I was going to be spending the next 5-6 hours on it and I was oddly a little nervous.

Cyclists call it a century. 100 miles. To an ironman that's merely a fraction of his race. I had never attempted the distance before. There was really little doubt that I could do it. I had completed several 70-80 mile rides in training for my half-ironman events this summer and another 20 or so miles didn't seem like too much to ask. Of course at the same time there was that little bit of unknown, like hitting mile 18 of the marathon last year knowing that I was now running further than I ever had before. For my psychological sake, I kept telling myself that I was doing two 50 mile rides, with a brief pit stop at the apartment in between for refueling. I hope that wasn't cheating ;)

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. My legs didn't fall off. I didn't get run off the road by upset motorists. I didn't have any annoying songs stuck in my head. It was cool and for the first part I wished I had more than just arm warmers. I remember doing rides last February and March when it was only 40 degrees out and now I couldn't handle low 60's. Despite that it was a nice calm morning with very little traffic, which is why I love early morning rides. Too bad they don't happen all that often. Before I knew it I was back at the apartment with the first 50 miles in the book. The legs felt good at that point and I felt like I could push the pace a little the second half.

It took me all of 10 minutes to stop to refuel and I reasoned that wasn't too timely of a layover. I was back on my way and still enjoying things. The wind had picked up a little and I could feel it pushing me along. I enjoyed it while I could, but tried not to think about the last 25 miles in which it would be a headwind. I continued along, mooed at some cows, outran a dog, and before I knew it I was turning around to head back home. At this point in the ride I was starting to feel my legs getting tired and my butt was starting to ache from being on the saddle for so long. I really just wanted to get home. The last few miles were a struggle on weary legs and into the wind. A few of the hills particular kicked my butt, but I managed to continue pedaling. I kept looking at my watch to see how many miles were left. Only 20 miles, down to 15, woohoo less than 10! Soon enough I was pulling back into the parking lot and hopping off the bike quicker than you could blink.

So now that that's done I should sleep easy tonight (which I really should be doing right now). The first century is in the books and I feel pretty good about it. There will be plenty more in the future as I train for the 112 mile bike leg, but for know I think I've laid another brick in the ironman foundation and building that foundation has really been what this year has been all about.