Ironman Wisconsin - Race Report

Well I haven't had many forced reasons to write this season.  IM MOO as it is known is my second and last race of 2011

My little buddy (hint: she's fast!)

So MOO (Ironman Wisconsin, it's in dairy cow country), my friend Barb was doing it for her first and my buddy and Tepper classmate Chris was doing it.  It was on the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 where I lived and worked at Ground  Zero.  The second plane flew over my head into the south tower.  I also decided to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the war on cancer.  When I was 16, I held my mom's hand while she died of this wretched disease.  I decided on a $5 thousand fundraising goal and have since passed that goal (if you want to push me  further over the limit...http://tinyurl.com/2d6d9kk).

Yeah my world was emotional this day, but you dig deep in this life...period end of sentence.  There are no ifs, second chances, redos, mulligans, this is it.  So go big or go home.  That's our household motto.  Creates its fair share of physical therapy and other problems, but well worth it.

Swim 1 hour 21 minutes: yeah I learned on my way in the water that we would not be exiting.  The flipside of being the mellow calm fellow, is um yeah you don't know what's going on sometimes.  I confirmed with Barb and 10 other people that yeah just swim 2 laps and then exit.  I did and it was fine sans some of the people I clubbed in the head with my paws.  I was hoping for closer to 1:15 given the work I had done on the swim, but I think I just went too light, I did not feel my normal tired, groggy self after the swim and that is a good thing, with 138 miles to go.  6 minute PR so that will work.

T1, like 10 minutes, MOO transition sucks!

Bike 6 hours 38 minutes: Ouch, wind, heat and humidity are not a 185 pound man's friend for 112 (btw my Garmin said 113) miles.  I have discipline and held back till mile 70.  But man I wanted to bail in the heat.  Then I remembered, 10 years ago living and working at Ground Zero and watching people jump from the heat.  It wasn't that hot.  I think like 1 minute slower than Placid.  No complaining!

T2 I think around 5 or 6 minutes.  MOO Transition SUCKS!

Run: I train for the run, no worries.  I just plowed through it, soaking in all the emotions and the experience.  It was great seeing Barb and Chris out on the run course too.  Made it more friendly.  The crowds were awesome in Madison.  I got to give my wife and friend Joe a high five on the run, which was sweet!  Always great to see support out there!  4:16 ish and another PR about 4 minutes.  So you will recall 6 on the swim, 4 on the run and -1 on the bike.  But only 1 minute faster overall vs Lake Placid at 12:29.  And I repeat transitions SUCK @ MOO!!!  But whatever, its all for charity and the war on cancer in my book.  And I nailed that goal to the wall!!!

3X Ironman Finisher, Jason Bezon, I like the ring!

Banzo of course nailed a Kona spot first try.  Awesome job for her first IM.  She and her awesome family made it that much more fun.

And my awesome family makes it all possible year in and year out.  Thank you Ironmate!

A special shout out to my buddy Joe Doucas and his family.  He had no business driving the 140.6 (yeah we raced the same distance) from Chicago to Madison on a Sunday with work to do on Monday, but he did it.  He also took most of these awesome pictures. Thanks Joe, you're a good friend!

The whole crew!

Happy Training

Leadman (0.65) Race Report

I am little (ok a lot) delayed writing this.  Been slacking off some since the event ended but also enjoying the weather, mountain biking and working on the yard and garden.  I digress, this race was kind of a last minute idea.  I started to see the advertisements in Triathlete magazine.  I had signed up for the full, but somehow managed to injure my hip (I am not one to get injured so this was new).  I spent 6 weeks in physical therapy, dry needling, and acupuncture.  My time on the bike and running was limited to shorter efforts.  I made a decision the week of the race to drop down to what they called the Half Leadman.  This would be a 1.55 mile swim (vs 3.1), a 74 mile bike (vs 140) and the same 14 mile run as the Full Leadman.  Hence my 0.65 in the title.

I convinced my buddy Scott to do this with me.  He would still be doing the full Leadman event.  We decided we would drive to Vegas and save on flight and rental car.  It would be a 12 hour drive.  We took off Thursday at 7am for a long drive of chatting and listening to music.  We arrived at the Paris Hotel and Casino around 7pm that night, where I had a free suite hooked up, keeping the cost of the race quite low.  Friday we checked into the race and went over to the transition area for a short swim, bike and run at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Race time would begin at 6:30am so we got to bed early for the 3:45 wakeup call.  I ate a banana, 2 protein bars upon waking along with 2 cups of coffee.  We headed over to the race venue and started to setup.  The race was very well organized with only 44 or so competitors (6 relay teams, 8 people in the half, and 30 for the full).  It was a small field to say the least.  We had changing tents for T1 and T2 with our own seats in each tent.  I placed all my stuff in various bags including the finish bag, as the run was a point to point and would end a shuttle ride away from the start.  Time to head down to the water for a group start, all competitors at once.  This would be quite enjoyable, as 44 people or so would be far less than the 2500+ at an Ironman swim.

Swim 1.55 miles in 1:02 exactly.

Well not entirely pleased with my swim, but I was very relaxed, maybe too relaxed.  The water was calm and clear as was my mind.  I exited the water figuring I still had about another 6 or so hours to work, so stay calm and focused.

T1 1:36 - wow enough said for me, but I do think they must have stripped my wetsuit pre timing chip pad.

Bike 74 miles 5 hours 20 minutes

Argh!  This was supposed to be 69 miles and trust me by the end the additional miles were more than enough.  The race director said based on the logistics they could move the turnaround out 2 miles or in 2 miles, they went longer.  This ride was horrific.  60mph gusts and all hills.  The slight wind at my back turned into a frontal onslaught coming back.  The temperature start pushing up into the 90s, peaking at 97 degrees.  I imagined that I was riding uphill on the way out.  I figured I'd pick up speed on the way back, with the wind no way.  I had almost an exactly even split.  So just to note a 60 mph gust will slow you down to 4mph going friggin downhill.  It will also push you out into the road when it hits you cross ways.  Hard to stay tucked in aero.  3400 feet of climbing in those 74 miles.  So thankful I was only doing the "half."

Anyway about 10 miles from being done, I just start laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.  I really wanted to quit, accept my first DNF and move on.  I decided I didn't have any other plans for the day so I would just chip away at the run and eat and drink at the aid stations.  I arrived at T2 with lots of cheers and encouragement, which made my decision to move on a little easier.

T2 3:37 not bad considering I took my time and had some fuel.

Run 14 miles 3 hours 2 minutes

Holy crap!  I knew I had a slight uphill to get out of the first mile of tranisition.  Yeah, the point to point run had 12 miles uphill and 2 miles slightly flat to down.  1800 feet of climbing with the final 5 miles at 10% grades up a friggin mountain for all intents and purposes.  It was insane and hot and my legs hurt.  I would run, walk, run, walk.  It was more like shuffle, shuffle slower.  Take in aid at the aid stations, laugh with the volunteers about the insanity of it all.  There were more volunteers than racers and they were so friendly.  I figured this was my adventure, be mindful, enjoy the pain.  The finish was set up beautifully after that long ass hill.  I cruised in, pumped my fists and promptly looked for food and water.  9 hours 29 minutes later I was done, a bit off of my 7 hour expectation, but good enough for 3rd place of the 7 men who started (4 finished) the half and my first and probably last mention in a Slowtwitch or any endurance sport news article.  Sometimes persistence beats speed.  Or as my wife said well you just needed to do something crazy enough that nobody else would do it.  Per Chuckie V an apt description.

I talked to the timing folks who said Scott had not started the run.  So I got a shuttle back to the start.  It looked like a war zone.  The Leadman had blown up the field.  Bodies lying around the start covered in ice bags, some stuck with IVs for fluid.  I found Scott who had puked and cramped on the full bike (140 miles of the hell I previously described, actually got hillier in the Valley of Fire).  His arrival to T2 was not the cheering encouragement that I received, but more of the it's OK, call it a day variety.  That seems psychologically unfair, I wonder what happened to the mood.  He was bummed but very happy for me.  He's a great friend!  We loaded up our stuff and headed back to the Paris.  It would be a nice buffet meal and early bed to get up for our 12 hour drive back to CO.  At the end of the day I'll probably remember talking on those long drives as much as any of what happened at the race.

Happy Training!

2010 to 2011 Transition

Well I have been the absentee blogger as of late.  Both this blog and my food blog have suffered.  So now it is mid January and I will update both and re-commit to better blogging.  So where has the triathlon world left me.  Well I did run the Denver Marathon.  Note run not race, I was careless in my prep and over weight, about Ironman Lake Placid + 15 pounds.  Anyway I finished in 3:55, 23 minutes better than LP, at altitude and fat.

Next up was deciding my approach to 2011.  I thought about a coach and thought about staying self coached.  I decided to buy some of Joel Friel's canned plans that load into TrainingPeaks.  Great value as I have email access to his coaching staff and can reuse and move around the plans as I need.  This is really the balance I need, being a student of triathlon training and coaching.

Now next on my list, how to improve the bike.  I took the plunge and bought a Computrainer for the off-season.  This thing is incredible.  It's like having a bike lab in my basement.  I can get power, create ergometer workouts, ride Ironman courses in 3D or ride other courses with a pacer robot.  Very cool and gets me motivated.

Next up was fixing my swim-slacker issues.  I joined the local Tri-Masters swim group in my neighborhood rec center (If you know the Ranch you know neighborhood is a bit of a stretch, but our facilities are second to none, superb!)  Anyway tri-masters kicks my butt and is getting me motivated to swim.

Lastly trying to get some social benefits from triathlon, I decided to join the Bike Source Multisport in my 'hood. Again superb value.  I have not got to meet up yet, but it looks like from the calendar it picks up in March.  Until then if I am not skiing in my backyard of Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge or A-Basin, I will hit up the Sunday swim.

So that's it, I have made some commitments and moved the ball forward.  The A race for 2011 will be Ironman Wisconsin on September 11, 2011.  I will be raising money for Livestrong in memory of my Mom who died from cancer and remembering those who lost their lives having lived and worked at Ground Zero.  There is my motivation!

Happy Training!

Harvest Moon Half Ironman - Race Report

Well this is the first time I have ever raced a course again.  This was also my PR course, but battling a sinus infection for 2 weeks prior wasn't the best warmup.  This race recap is also way behind.  I am a burned out triathlete right now.  Fat and out of shape.  The purposeuarter of this race was to show my fitness with little work on my own, didnt happen.  Um yeah so on to shitsville.

I felt flat when I woke up but at least I found Scott at the starting line.  That didn't help, he wanted to go home, but if he goes home the field breathes, me nobody notices.  So I smiled at giving him inspiration (funny sport where i the high school quarterback gives brett favre inspiration) and told him go have at it (he finished 2nd in his age group).  He is one tough dude!

So Swimming felt good at 1:40 I thought I went faster.  People say the course was long.  I know we got it back the run,  So out on the bike they ran out of water and I got this apology (though given my splits, I don't think it was only 70 people with no water)


Hi Jason, I take full responsibility for running out of water at the aid station and feel terrible. I can't apologize enough to you and the 70 or so athletes in the same situation. There's no excuse at all and I can't apologize enough. I've been racing half Ironman's since 96' back in New England and can't imagine what it would be like out there to run out of liquids, for that I apologize. Our first year at Harvest Moon (2009) it was cold and we had 30% water bottles left over. When it was hot this year we upped last year's totals by 25%, but as you know it wasn't close to what we needed out there. For 2011, regardless of the weather, I PROMISE we'll have plenty of water out there with tons of extras. There's a list of tweaks we want to make for 2011, then there's a list that has "WATER" written on it in bright colors and big letters. I truly hope you had a good experience out there, despite the water issue, and hope to see you in 2011 at one of our events. If so please be sure to introduce yourself! 

Thank you,

Lance

Anyway, these guys work hard to deliver affordable races and I quit whining after my bike.  Yes I puked twice on the run.  I am out of shape and a fatty (Barbanzo loves to call us fatties)  But whatever I wanted to quit the whole race and I gutted out 1:50 on the run, not bad for a fatty.  5:46 Total time, which is my worst half IM in a while.  I ended up spending the next 2 weeks on antibiotics for a  major sinus infection.  Not fun times!


Happy Training!

Xterra Lory - Race Report

Ok so yeah pretty lazy writing this report.  It's been almost 2 weeks and I have a half Ironman tomorrow, so I figured I better write it.  This was a last minute race I signed up for before Ironman Lake Placid, just for fun.  It was only 5 weeks after Ironman so I didn't have high expectations.  The race was up in Fort Collins, often voted one of the best places to live in America.  We went up Saturday and checked into the Residence Inn.  Honestly, it reminded me of Highlands Ranch.  We went out for sushi very similar to restaurant by our house but a little worse.

I woke up at 5:45am and had my pre race breakfast of about 600 calories, carbs, protein.  I did not feel particularly great and this would be a prelude to my race and next two weeks.  Bad sinus infection has been the result.  We headed over to the race site to get checked in.

Swim half mile 16:09 (that's my watch time, long run up the beach and cleaning off the mud my net time was about 17:00).  The swim was a wave start and siting was very difficult as the sun was rising right in our eyes on the out and back.  Coming in was much easier.  I was satisfied with my swim since I didn't really work on it since Lake Placid.

T1 - 3:31 - kind of fumbled my way through this.

Mountain Bike 10.5 miles - 1 hour 10 minutes.

The mountain bike was challenging, with a solid 2 mile climb to start and then leading into rollers.  It was difficult to pass or allow people to pass.  I tried my best to get over when approached and tried to yell out when I needed to pass, but very different from a road tri.  Overall I was about 10 minutes slower than I hoped but I did my best and was feeling ok afterwards.

T2 - 2:17 - both transitions were relatively slow, I was definitely feeling sluggish

Trail Run 4.8 miles - 47:57

Per my heart rate monitor I ran this 1 second faster than my Ironman marathon pace with a heart rate 30 beats higher.  Something definitely felt off.  Granted it was the same 2 mile climb to start from the bike, but I struggled.

Overall I finished in the middle of the pack which is better than all my prior Xterra races.  I just don't train for that interval style effort.  I have a pretty good middle gear, but that high end zone 4 and 5 heart rate is just not really there.  I may try to work on this more over the winter.  We'll see.  Overall the race served it's point.  It was fun and got me out doing something.  That night I never slept.  My nose was completely clogged with no reprieve.  Sleeping with your mouth open in Colorado is awful completely dry out every 20 minutes and wake up to drink water.  So last night I slept 11.5 hours.  We'll see how I hold up for Harvest Moon Half Ironman tomorrow.

BTW - 9/11/2010 Never forget!

Happy Training!

Ironman Lake Placid - Race Report

Wow where to begin, my 2nd Ironman was a huge success in my humble opinion.  We left Colorado for upstate New York on Thursday and spent the next 15 hours getting there.  It took 2 days to get back so not a likely repeat race as long as I am living in Colorado, very difficult coordinating.  We stayed Thursday evening way up state in Star Lake at my family's place.  Friday we drove down to Lake Placid and got checked into the race.  We skipped the pre race dinner and instead went to a cookout that my friend Chad invited us to.  That was a great change of pace and helped me relax.  Chad and I knew each other through email and his blogging of all things tri.  He had a big crew for the cookout, some very super triathletes, probably at least 6 Kona qualifiers there.  Anyway it was fun.

Saturday was a day of resting with a brief swim in mirror lake, a brief bike and run then checked in my bike and transition bags.  Then it was back to our house in Upper Lake Saranac to rest.  I had some more chicken and pasta for dinner.  Always works pre-race.

Race Day - Awake at 3:45AM (that's 1:45AM for me in Colorado, another difficulty).  I did sleep ok though, about 5 hours.  Pre-race meal was 2 bananas, 2 hard boiled eggs and a sugary granola bar.  I also had my first coffee in 3 days.  That did its cleansing trick and I got a quick hot shower.  Then we were off for a 40 minute drive to Lake Placid.  We stayed further away but it was cheap, probably won't save money next Ironman and try to be super close.  We came in the back way, which is paramount to parking at Lake Placid.  Then Dana and I walked up to the transition area.  I put bottles where they needed to be and then made the long hike to the special needs bag drop.  I had about an hour to kill so I decided to stand in the bathroom line and go one more time if possible.  I saw Chad and his crew sitting on the grass and wished them all luck and then headed to the swim area.

6:50AM the Pros take off on the swim.

7:00AM Swim start, mass chaos, 3,000 people give or take.

Swim 2.4 miles - 1:25

I thought I'd get done around 1:15 but it took me extra time given all the friggin people.  It was ridiculous really.  It never opened up.  I got kicked right in the eye the first minute of the swim.  But the cable is pretty sweet on the out and back swim.  I definitely kept it for siting, which helped.  I got out of my first lap around 42 minutes and promptly went back in the water for round 2.

T1 - About 6 minutes - there is a decent run from the swim back to transition so this was a pretty solid T1 for me.

Bike 112 miles - 6 hours 36 minutes

6 and a half hours is a long time on the bike.  I took it easy the first lap and kept my heart rate right where it was supposed to be.  No ego battles with the people near me.  Let them work hard.  I'll see you later.  I knew most of my race came down to the bike and Lake Placid is a hilly course.  In particular mile 44 and 100 (it's a double loop) have about a 10 mile climb.  It sucks really.  The funny thing is keeping my heart rate down, I was flying the first 28 miles.  It's mostly downhill.  I was like damn I am smoking.  Then around mile 28 the temperature goes up about 10 degrees in this low lying field.  My Garmin said it was close to 80 degrees.  Then the gradual uphill begins, ugh.  Now I am in the heart of Ironman.  Once again I realize I am not as fast as I hoped on the bike but my heart rate is holding.

I finished Loop 1 in about 3:20 and saw my family screaming for me.  That helped.  Now it was time to let loose with whatever I had left in the tank.  I gave it all I had on lap 2.  I figured I passed 500 people, all those crazy folks who went out too hard.  After the race it turns out it was about 490 people.  Not too bad and one heckuva a good feeling.  I negative split with about a 3:16.  Very happy with that and now just need to run a marathon.

T2 - about 3.5 minutes...I did not waste any time and wanted to get this thing over with.

Run 26.2 miles - 4 hourse 18 minutes.

I figured this would be tough but dang that run course is just mean.  I had to crap at mile 1.5 but was happy to get that over with I thought my stomach was going to explode.  There's a good downhill coming out of town.  I saw my family again and they screamed and I managed to high five a bunch of them.  I took it nice and easy with little steps on the downhill.  This time the passing started right away.  I held a steady pace under 10 minute miles.  But man that hill coming back into town was a beast on the out and back.  I finished the first 13.1 miles in about 2 hours and 4 minutes.  Just 13.1 miles to go.  I held steady under 10 minutes or so but that 2nd half hurt my quads every step.  But I kept running and gave it every ounce of energy I had.  I took in aid at every station (coke, powerade, chicken broth, water).

A lot of people were walking.  There's an old line I read about the run course of Ironman being littered with fit dudes walking and talking about their great bike split.  I felt like I passed another 500 people.  Turns out it was about 425 people.  Another great feeling.  When you run uphill in town and other people are walking, the crowd goes bonkers and screams your name for putting out the effort to run.  That was just AWESOME, really kept me going.  My family was snapping pictures and screaming too.  So I made it up the big hill again and made the turnaround toward the finish.  The finishing shoot was going crazy, I was pumping my arm and screaming back at the crowd.  It was surreal, like walking on clouds.  And with that I am a multiple Ironman finisher in 12:30:02...1 hour 8 minutes better than my first.  Very satisfied putting all I had into that race.  It felt good to push hard one week after our little cat Maui passed away.  To top it off I raced for the Janus Charity Challenge and raised almost $4,000 for Autism Speaks.

YEAH BABY!!!

ONE HAPPY DUDE!!!

THE BEST CHEERING AND SUPPORTING CREW IN THE LAND!!!

HAPPY TRAINING!!!

The American Triple T - Race Report

Holy Cow!  First response, but I will digress to give you my race experience.  I flew out Thursday to see my sister and her family.  I awoke at 5am to catch my Chicago flight and final flight to Columbus.

I arrived around 3:30 and called Chelsea to let her know I arrived.  I spent the evening with my sister and brother in law Joe and my nephew and niece, Spencer and Schaeffer.  Wow incredible!  Dana and I are looking at kids in a few months.  But Chels and Joe are really in the thick of it and it is awesome.  We dropped Schaeffer off for soccer, then saw Spencer get recognized for his all A's report card, smart little dude,.  Then we went to baseball practice for Spencer.  Reminds me of T2, switch out and get ready to roll.  Then we headed back and helped Schaeffer with her history test, I hope my New England Patriots analogy helped.  Family dinner at 8pm, wow I eat at 8 after training.

I woke up in the morning and everyone had to roll.  I loaded up the car and headed out for Portsmouth, OH.
1.75 hours with some wrong turns and a Wendy's chicken sandwich (same sandwich as before my 1st Ironman in Couer d'Alene so seemed appropriate) but I made it.  I headed over to pick up my race packet.  Then on to the Comfort Inn, Wheelersburg, OH.  Check in was no hassle.

I go up to unpack and check out my race packet.  Apparently a SINGLET is a race top.  There were no bottoms.  WTF!  Oh man sick to my stomach as my first race is now about and hour and a half away.  So singlet to my uber tri friends Scott and Barb means a top.  To me, my wife and Chris (former MSU wrestler turned triathlete) a singlet means a one piece uni (uni means you are good to go).  I brought no bike shorts.  The problem was when I packed, the race rules said MUST WEAR SINGLET AT ALL TIME OR YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.  Ugh!!!

I wanted to go home but I tried to find bike shorts.  I called 2 sports stores but no love.  So then to Walmart Super Store.  This was backcountry.  I asked for bike shorts and the first dude looked at like me like I had 3 eyes.  Do we have bike shorts?  Um I don't know let's ask bobby?  Bobby we got bike shorts?  Um I don't know let's ask Billy. Wow.  So my panic says find shorts or race the first triathlon in running shorts which means no pad for on the bike, ouch.  The first race is so short this would be manageable. But for the weekend, I need to drive to Chilicothe or worse Columbus.   I had emailed my mental support Barb and she said hopefully there would be a race expo.   No race expo but there was a dude in a van with some stands set up.  Oh, jackpot I bought a pair of 50 dollar shorts, but that dude probably could have got close to 200, 100 easy.

 Race 1:  ready to roll, 250 yard swim, 5 mile bike ride and 1 mile run.  Before the race I met my friend Ben, who told me about this crazy weekend.  Swim was in this disgusting muddy water, given all the floods in southern Ohio recently.  The whole weekend was like this, swimming in a mud puddle and happy I had a recent Tetnus shot.  I finished race one in around 29 minutes.  I didn't bother with nutrition during the race, given the length.  Back to the hotel I decided to order pizza for take out.  I got enough for Saturday night as well.  Off to bed.  BLARING SIREN at 4am, well before my alarm, tornado warnings.  I went back to sleep.

Race 2, 1500 meter (1 mile) swim, bike 25.2 and run 6.5.  Before the race I recognize Joe, from Facebook who knows the aforementioned Chris from Chicago.  We chatted briefly, and he was still deciding whether to gut it out with his injured soldier (side note he did, and did well).  The weather was still cooler but starting to warm up.  I got out of the swim in around 31 minutes.  Hopped on my bike and begin to learn what the hills of the TTT were all about.  Wow, crazy long grinding hills.  My bike took about and a half, around 16 mph.  I've averaged 20mph for 2 different half Ironmans (56 miles) in Colorado if that hints at the grueling nature of these hills.  I was a little bummed but realized there was a lot to go.  Later my GPS would show close to 2,000 feet of climbing.  I hopped of the bike and begin my run on a rocky muddy trail through the woods, which was also, wait for, friggin hilly.  GPS showed this close to 1,500 feet.  I ran around an 8:15 per mile pace, so I felt pretty good, getting done in about 3 hours.  Fuel for this race was a mixture of Heed, Cran-Grape Juice, EFS Gel, and Hammer Gel.

I drove back to the hotel to prep and rest for race 3.  I had some coffee, some fruit and some Ultragen recovery drink.  Got my same fuels prepped and headed back to the race.

Race 3.  Same as race 2 but this will be bike, swim and run.  I am faster in my events but slower in transition.  Putting a wetsuit on after a bike is ridiculously hard even with plastic bags over your feet.  Swim was seriously scary, leg cramps left me sort of swimming with my legs forced straight to try and uncramp my hamstrings.  I make it out of the water and headed up to T2 to get ready to run.  I hammer the run at 8:04 pace and finish about 1 minute slower than Race 2.

Back at the hotel I finish my pizza, nicely microwaved.  I barely sleep the last night.  Oh well.  The alarm goes off at 4:45 (that's 2:45 to me being in Colorado).

Race 4, Half Ironman 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.2 mile run.  I've done 4 halves and 1 full.  So the half iron started out fine and I have reasonable expectations.  No way.   6,000 feet of climbing or there bouts.  Ironman California - 2800, Ironman 70.3 distance Harvest Moon - 2300 feet.  Oh my god, first race I thought about bailing.  Primarily because I thought I would miss my flight home.  So I decided I would miss my flight and finish the best I could.  I got out of the swim in about 36 minutes.  Transition is uneventful.  On the bike I realize I am missing a water bottle, ugh need to conserve and the temperature is rising.  It would get to be 85 degrees with 80% humidity.

First lap of the bike registers 28.5 miles so seems long (lots of distances this weekend seemed inaccurate).  It takes me over 1:50 this is not going well, the hills are killer and the downhills have switchbacks u-turn style that kill your speed.  2nd lap I get more water and fuel and have further fuel issues as the humidity builds and my other fuel bottle splits open.  Oh well, keep grinding.  About another 1:45 for lap 2, slow as my first FULL Ironman speed-wise.  I hop off for T2 and the run.  My legs are beat.  I start out the run and struggle on the hills.  First 3.25 miles I am pushing on my thighs to go up hills and hitting a 10 minute mile pace, wow I haven't run this slow in awhile.  Legs aren't working and I am wondering why I am doing this, it's so hot and muggy.  Finally I start to get some turnover and push myself.  I bring my average for the whole half marathon down to 9:14 pace and crack the 2 hour mark.  Not too bad, I'll hang my hat on the effort.  3 days, 4 tris, 140+ miles and 15,000+ feet of climbing.  My official time was 13:00:14.

The best part of TTT is the camaraderie.  You are in the same transition area all weekend based on your best half IM time.  So you see all your neighbors running back and forth during the races and setting up and breaking down their areas afterward.  Also the way the run course is set up I got to see my friends Ben and Joe multiple times through the weekend and exchange words of encouragement or fist bumps.  Very cool setup.

I rush through the finish and say bye to Joe and his crew as I now have to run and break down my bike and quickly pack.  I grab a shower and head for the 1:45 drive to the airport.  I arrive 30 minutes before departure.  Crap I figure I am stuck.  But Southwest late checks my bags not promising they will be on my flight and let's me board.  YEAH!  We get to Chicago for my transfer to Denver.  I grab a slice of pizza and inhale it then snag a sandwich for my backpack and go to board my last flight.  I quickly fall asleep.  Wake up eat my sandwich and we get back to Denver.  Happily all my bags and bike arrive.  You rock Southwest!  Great experience overall, crazy hard.

Happy Training!

Fruita Fat Tire Mountain Bike Festival

So the annual bash in Fruita took place April 29 through May 2.  Events like these have always been on the back burner for me.  Partially it's been confidence...am I really a mountain biker or similarly am I really a triathlete?  It's quite silly given the accepting, encouraging nature of both groups, but anxiety is illogical.  We often fear things and underestimate our abilities.  Bottom line my wife really wanted to go and since she is gracious enough to entertain my Ironman endeavors, I try to return the favor where ever possible.

We headed up for the 4 hour drive to Fruita, Thursday evening after work.  I received a Domino's email for 2 medium 2 toppings for 5.99 each.  So I tried the online ordering system, very slick Java implementation and easy to order for a 5:35 pickup time at 12 noon.  We ate the pizzas on the road, 2 thin crusts that were quite tasty.  Not our typical diet but very fulfilling for a drive.  The drive was peaceful and uneventful, though weather was expected around Vail Pass.  Thankfully our weather was sunny.

We arrived at my cousin Brad's just before 10pm, happily before we kept him up to late.  We chatted briefly and all got headed off to bed.  Brad offered us breakfast at 6 if we were willing to get up, but we smiled and said we'd go for sleep instead.  I slept like a rock and we woke up around 9:30am Friday.  Brad and his wife Brenda have a beautiful house that they designed and built with minimal assistance.  It is built like a fort, I never heard a sound the whole time we were there.  We sat at the counter and ate some fruit and a couple biscuits from Brad's early morning feast.  How cool is it that he cooks breakfast for anybody and everybody each and every morning?  I don't mean cereal and toast, I mean real American style, old school on the farm, breakfasts that will fuel Ironman training or long days of mountain biking.  His reputation is of the stellar, irrepressible host.  He is and so much more.  We felt welcome and comfortable every moment.

We chatted with Brad for a bit while we mapped the days plan.  He has the enviable luxury of working a real, paying job from home.  We got all our bike gear on and headed out with the bikes firmly mounted on the 4-runner.  Downtown Fruita is about 10 minutes from our abode.  We quickly found a close parking spot, thankful to be there for the first full day Friday.  It was unremarkably, uncrowded.  We headed over and it really appeared to be still setting up.  We decided to get some food.  Yes we just ate but not much.  We split a pulled pork sandwich, an italian sausage and a pulled pork platter.  Wow, this after pizza.  If this were fiction, I would be foreshadowing my liberal eating for the bulk of the weekend.

After eating we began to walk around.  Dana quickly determined that all bikes were free to try out.  She asked me if I wanted to partake and I quickly obliged.  This was a shock to both of us.  I am logistically inflexible for the most part.  I hate headaches.  Thank Brad's uncle, my Grandpa Don for that.  But I thought heck free, I am down let's try some fancy bikes.  I got a Titus Rockstar 29'er (big 29 inch wheels) and Dana got a Santa Cruz Blur.

We headed to the Kokapelli Trail for our first day out and rode Mary's Loop, Horse Thief, Steve's Cutoff and the short part of Steve's Loop.  The 29'er took a little getting used to and some oomph to get over the big wheel inertia.  Wow that thing rolled over stuff like a giant.  My chops are definitely better on a mountain bike than ever before.  I definitely don't lack confidence anymore.  It's amazing what an Ironman and a handful of half IMs can do for both your confidence and ability to endure.  Dana loved her Santa Cruz.

After we wrapped up our ride we went out to dinner with Brad and Brenda at Naggy McGees (yes Naggy not Maggy).  Awesome new restaurant in  Grand Junction.  Generous portion sizes, a little fusion with India (curry added to some traditional Irish dishes), and just right ambiance.  We shared our food and great conversation.  I learned my grandfather was in Time magazine in the 70s for figuring out away to crystallize steel to eliminate weak points (totally bastardized that but for me and the other laymen out there you get the idea).  Funny, he is so humble still in his 70s and living the American Dream.  After dinner we headed to a local brew pub that had some Dark Walnut Stout (I think if memory serves me).  Delicious.  After one of those it was time to head home, watch the Nuggets get eliminated and head to bed.

Saturday, I woke up at 8:30 with no alarm.  I headed downstairs and Brad was raring to go on the stove.  Omelettes and pancakes for the rise and shine day.  Incredible!  He could give Naggy a run for her money.  We got showered and headed over to the Festival.  This time we decided on aggressive downhill rides.  I got a Kona Stinky, 30 pounder I am guessing (that's heavy for the non-bikers out there).  Dana got a Pivot with similar aggressive build though it was not as heavy but had a lot of travel and no lockout.  We headed to area 18 to ride.  In general huge mistake on bike choice.  They were brutal on the uphill.  Most folks were getting rides to the top and then just downhilling it.  I have become a bit of a purist in that sense.  You need to ride up it to ride down it.  We gutted it out.  Dana took a doosy of a spill and her big gear snagged some ankle meat.  But we got back to the car and she found some antiseptic and said she could cleanup and continue.  STUD!  I love her!  So we grinded out some more essentially strength training workouts on these bikes.  I will say that I could not find anything big enough to jump off or ride over that my bike would notice.  Silky smooth.

After a solid day of riding we headed back to Brad's.  We grabbed some Guinness and Corona for the cookout he planned.  I decided to bang out a 7 mile run when we got back to stay on top of my training.  Brad grilled some perfect pork chops with a salad and baked beans.  My cleanest meal of the trip with unbreaded, nicely seasoned pork.  I did have a few chocolate chip cookies afterwards while we watched Old Guys.  Surprisingly funny movie, though I had a ton of endorphins with my long ride and run.  Early to bed again.

Sunday we woke up at 8:30 again.  Brad had us set to go with biscuits, eggs, gravy and bacon.  I tell you, maybe B and B for his retirement life???  I will have to suggest.  We decided today to ride our own bikes.  My wife says better the devil you know.  But we headed back to Kokapelli and headed out straight from Mary's Loop to the big part of Steve's Loop.  Wow spectacular scenery.  And our bikes were spot on.  I keep the shifting dialed in like butter.  That is the one thing a shop never gets right so I am happy to have basically a bike shop in my garage.

We enjoyed the ride and headed back to Brad and Brenda's to clean up.  We quickly showered, grabbed our stuff and made our way out of their hair.  A little trying time on the drive back, with a 20 car pileup near Vail Pass, but we were home within an hour of our projected time.  To summarize, we got it just under 10 hours of mountain biking.  I threw in an hour of running.  Brad and Brenda are awesome hosts!!!  Fruita is world class for mountain biking.  The opportunity to test ride bikes for free is unreal.  See you in 2011!

Happy Training!

Why train with a power meter?

In the interest of full disclosure I will note I only have a power meter on my trainer.  It is very expensive and/or inconvenient to have an on board power meter.  This is soon to change.  The company I am waiting for is Brim Brothers who will place the power meter in the cleat of your shoe.  This will be bike independent.  They seem to be the most honest in terms of projecting their delivery date.  Assuming they are reasonable on their price, my money will soon follow.

Now to the point, why train with a power meter?  The easiest place to start with this question is actually running. If I run up a hill one day and on a flat surface another day, these are two very different workouts.  Trainingpeaks refers to this as Normalized Graded Pace and is expected to be available on their web interface (as opposed to their WKO+ software).  Now you might conclude off the cuff, that this is not too much difference.  But at the end of the day, for a triathlete.  In particular we are not simply swimmers or bikers or runners, but a hybrid of the 3.  Lots of little differences add up to big issues.  Are you training hard enough?  Are you training too hard?

At the end of the day we are looking to push our cumulative training load up to the edge and a little past, then back off.  For biking we can use power output.  For running NGP, which uses GPS data to determine workoad.  Ideally for running we could capture wind resistance too, which would give us close to power output.  But with a power meter on the bike and GPS on the run we get pretty darn close to your work effort each workout and the cumulative build up over time.

Now some folks who race faster than me and might even be smarter argue only for heart rate training.  But in the same vein as above many things change heart rate.  The  biggest  immediate factors are diet 24 hours before, temperature the day of and sleep.  So you could finish a workout and say wow I did great, my heart rate was X.  But reality is that you did very little work because your heart rate was elevated from cookies last night and 6 hours of sleep with 80 degrees and humid conditions.

This is not to dismiss heart rate.  It is actually extremely important, but it is one of only several important aspects of determining proper training load.  Thinking of triangulating cell phone positions we need three data points.  For training it makes the most sense to have power, heart rate and perceived exertion.  If we can replace perceived exertion with something less arbitrary we will reach the holy grail.  It might look like power, heart rate and some factor taking into account air temperature, blood pressure, wind resistance and breath rate.  This would require science a bit a past where we are today but is well within reach.

Happy Training!

Ironman California 70.3 Race Report

The well laid plans of mice and men…not.  So I signed up for this race and made it a B priority for 2010.  Then I decided from a periodicity standpoint that it would work better as an A  race to gear up now and then have a long base build period for the big boy, Ironman Lake Placid.  This was a risky strategy particularly for bike training since I would be dependent on the Colorado weather, which was the worst I’ve seen in our 3 years here.  Lots of snow and cold down in Denver Metro.  This meant lots of time on the trainer.   Anyway everything in my prep and taper went well.  I felt strong.

We arrived in San Diego on Thursday March 25 and got the bike and luggage and headed to the rental car.  All was relatively smooth, and no the rumor that Southwest flies bikes for free is not true, 50 bucks each way, which is cheap and respectable relative to some of the price gougers out there.  And the rest of your luggage is indeed free of charge.  We drove up 45 minutes to Oceanside, in about an hour with some traffic.  It seemed like there were a lot of chain restaurants on the web and once we checked into the hotel, the girl at check in confirmed our best bet were chains.  So we had some Mimi’s Café for dinner, salad for Thursday.  Friday we did Macaroni Grill with a build your own pasta.  The chain restaurants were made up for with a Trader Joe’s where we stopped for supplies, including coffee and filters for the tiny coffee maker in the room.  I went caffeine free for 3 days leading up to the race but no Starbucks would be open at 4:45am for my wakeup on Saturday.  But this plan fit the bill and will be utilized going forward.

Saturday morning, up and at ‘em at 4:45am.  I slept great actually, a solid 7 hours.  I felt great and the coffee was gooood and worked it’s digestive magic (yes you know what I mean).  I ate 2 bananas and a cliff protein bar at 5 giving me 2 hours before my race start.  We packed up the car and headed over to the race start.

We arrived to the parking area no problem, topped off the tires and headed by bike to the transition area.  Dana took a shuttle bus.  The swim to bike transition had a quarter mile run in the wetsuit.  Then you quarter mile coast into it off the bike to the run and still have a solid 300 yards or so back out the start so reallllly long transitions.  There were tons of race waves (3 for my age group alone).

Swim 1.2 miles – 40 minutes

The swim is cool.  An out and back and my first deep water start.  Also my first salt water swim.  Hard to site into the sun on the way back in though.  I puked after about a mile in the water.  Dana read some funny stories about triathletes swimming through the puke of their fellow racers on slowtwitch.  I wonder if anyone swam through mine, haha.   I wasn’t really sure what that all meant but I knew I should hit my spare water bottle in transition.  I ran through transition with my legs feeling a little wobbly.  Got situated and downed the water.  I was a little bummed I was slow but I figured no biggie, 35 minutes would be good 33 optimum, but plenty of time to make up 5 minutes.

T1 – 5:42 minutes

It was long, 2 minutes probably just running around.  I was wobbly and tried to get the puke and salt taste out of my mouth.  

Bike 56 miles – 3:00 hours

So the first half of the bike is pretty easy in terms of hills, but this is where I knew there was a problem.  My riding on Friday had me sailing up slight inclines at 21 mph with no discernable effort.  I was struggling to keep over 18 mph and my rpe was through the roof.  It just felt like nothing was working.  I was getting depressed and couldn’t figure it out.  Then it dawned on me I was sucking down water and not needing to pee at all which is uncommon for me on the bike if I drink too much fluid.  I realized that the puke was all salt water and I was dehydrated so I just kept downing water and not sure how the race would turn out.  About mile 40 I started feeling better but I knew at that point even a PR would be tough.  Because even feeling better your bike legs are tired and there isn’t much room to go.  The course is beautiful, but windy, hilly and humid.  I saw people walking up some hills.  I used my triple on 2 hills.  It is the first time I was ever scared of being blown over on the bike.

T2 – 3:08 minutes

Long again but feeling less wobbly at this point and my head is feeling better, now I’m sort of just mad.  I decide I will go for broke on the run.

Run 1 hour 44 minutes – 7:56 min/mile pace

So I rolled out of T2 not sure where my total time was but thought maybe I can eke out a PR but I planned to run till it hurt and just keep going.  It did hurt.  So seawater over ingestion works like this.  First response, puke.  Lots of folks end up pulled out of the water and day over.  Dana says I should be happy just to finish.  Next step, your body sucks water out of your bloodstream and muscles to neutralize your stomach, thereby dehydrating everything else.  RPE increases but performance rapidly declines.  Your muscles don’t fire.  That’s what the first 40 miles of the bike felt like, just like your riding through really thick fog.  Once you start to rehydrate you can feel the bloating which feels like cramps.  I did feel that and thought I was cramping on the run.  I did pee a tiny bit at a rest stop which helped a little.  I just kept running and every time I looked at lap or avg pace I was seeing 7 handles so I just said keep pounding this out at least get a 7 handle pace and call it a day.  The run course is awesome, two out and backs, jammed with crowds cheering.  Music blaring definitely keeps you fired up.  I strolled across the line and saw 1:44, happy with that but spent.  The run saved my day, but it was tough.

I had some pizza and water in the tent.  Started to feel the full effects of that bloating.  Decided time to get moving.  Well run race except transitions are too long and getting back to parking was a pain.  Some lessons learned, March is early for a race if you live in Colorado.  Never underestimate humidity, wind and hills on the bike.  A trainer won’t prep you for that.  Lots can go wrong in a race.  We are fortunate to do each and every race.  I appreciate all the more finishing my first full Ironman last year.  Goals for future race...Goal 1: Have Fun, Goal 2: Finish, Goal 3: PR.  Anyway IMCA70.3 served its purpose.  I finished in the top 3^rd overall and the top half of my age group.

We met my buddy Scott and his family (Trish, Cassie and Nick) for dinner Saturday night down in San Diego at World Famous Seafood. That was great.  On Sunday our friend Gary showed us around San Diego.  We got to check out Coronado Island and the Navy Seal training grounds.  Very cool stuff.  Had a nice open air lunch at a Greek restaurant.  All in all a nice vacation.

Happy Training.

St. Patty's Day 5k - Race Report

I signed up for this short Saturday race on Wednesday.  It fit perfect with my schedule as I needed to do a 5k in preparation for my Ironman California 70.3 training.  Wednesday was 70 degrees and sunny, Thursday too.  But alas that fairy tale ended Friday.  That morning it started snowing and continued through the day.  In the afternoon it picked up steam, enough so that my 7 mile commute from work took an hour.  It continued on into the night and when all was said and done, we had about 12 inches of fresh pow pow on the ground.  Unfortunately I was running not skiing.  The website said we run no matter what the weather.  I read some and went to bed.

Saturday 3/20/2010

I woke up around 7:30 for the 9am race and saw the frozen tundra out my window.  The thermometer near the window said 20.  Yowch!  I decided to dress warm and wear heavier trail shoes.  2 goals for this little race, don't get sick and don't get hurt!  1 week out from an A race to kick off the tri-season = be cautious.  So I wore some underarmour compression gear and a fleece, hat and gloves.  Breakfast was a protein and berries shake, followed with some good coffee.

I drove over to the race and my car said 14 degrees, ugh.  Anyway I arrived around 8:40, parking was a breeze.  I ran up and grabbed my registration packet, fumbled to pin on my number and ran the bag back to the car.  Saw my buddy Scott in the midst of this, no real time or desire to chat in the cold.  It was FREEZING, so I jumped in the car and started it up again and warmed my hands.   I headed back to the race and waited for about 5 minutes for the gun.

Off we went.  My shoes felt heavy, the fleece felt heavier and it was cold to breather.  I sort of figured something below 22 minutes would be achievable.  Alas the whole race was on icy pavement and I decided to simply go conservative and enjoy the sunshine on my face.  I slipped twice but didn't fall or sprain anything and finished in 23:36 good enough for a PR (I don't run 5ks much, haha) and 23rd overall out of about 250 people, so it was acceptable for my purposes.  Saw Scott again afterward and did a quick cool down walk / run.  Then I made the executive decision to head home before I felt cold.  I figured once I felt cold I'd be sick.  Good race, I finished up the day with a time trial on the trainer bike and tried out my new wetsuit in the pool.

Happy Training

What Watch Should I Buy for Triathlon?

I mentioned a few posts ago how nothing great exists for triathletes trying to capture all of their performance data.  I decided over Christmas and New Year’s to dig deeper into this after spending some time skiing and running with my buddy Chris who uses the Polar RS800CX Multi.  We assumed his was compatible with the Polar Power Meter WIND (not the greatest power meter, but nonetheless it would create the whole package).  Unfortunately after doing more research I determined you would need a CS600X for the bike and then switch watches for the run.  He confirmed and concluded alas still no single solution exists.  That system would make for 2, $600-ish watches and 2 data uploads.

Then I came home from the mountains to find Triathlete Magazine with reviews of systems.  I thought, oh well saves me time since they wrote my blog.  But these were very superficial and misleading, they claimed the above watch was compatible with the power meter.  These reviews were a total disservice to readers.

So first let me define great as far as I can tell.  In no particular order I would say:

Ant+ – this is the gold standard of data transmission.  Think WIFI for your watch, heart rate, speed, cadence and power.

Ant+ Power – the ability for the watch to read a power meter is imperative, however I will investigate other options given the current situation

HRM – Duh!, this is the only thing available on all options

GPS OnBoard – not having a separate pod for GPS is nice, the cost is a watch you will not wear anywhere else, actually that’s not true since Garmin has a sweet running watch with GPS onboard.

GPS Long, Lat, Elev – if you have GPS, you should get all the data which allows you to upload to Maps

Elevation Change no GPS – watches with barometric altimeters can do this, this is handy for just going out for a run and determining normalized graded pace (this may be a trainingpeaks term).

Bike Speed Cadence – Surprisingly some systems rely solely on GPS and won’t give you cadence

Run Cadence – Ditto to the above

Swim HR – This requires more than a basic chest strap, it needs onboard memory and data transfer capability.

Battery Life – I think 30 hours if it is rechargeable will suffice.

Rechargeable – If you’ve replaced those little CR2032 batteries enough (they look like nickels) you’ll know they’re not cheap.

Memory – 30 hours as well, figure an Ironman takes 17 hours and 24 hour races take I think you can figure that out…30 hours gives some cushion.

Cost – with a power meter I think this whole deal should be under $1,500.  This is still a ginormous price tag when you think about it, but we are asking for great, so $1,500 seems fair given that the 3 closest approximations that are NOT great all cost about that much.

So on to the contenders and I am not going to go into too much detail here as I see this getting long already.  Luckily I built a table in Excel so we can see approximately what this whole deal would look like.

Polar – you would buy 2 watches the RS800CX, CS600X a bike mount, S3 Stride WIND, G3 GPS WIND and Power Output Sensor WIND.  If Polar let the RS800CX read the Power Meter you would be close to great but not ANT+ compatible (WIND is Polar’s Beta/HD DVD vs the world’s VHS/BluRay) and no swim HR (which is low on my list of great)

Timex – the Ironman Bodylink with GPS Pod and Data Recorder 2.  The cheapest of the bunch.  Possibly pair this with a Garmin Edge 500 to get power on the bike but you would be missing run cadence, which is still silly at around $1600 with a cadence sensor and power meter for $1,000 (side note: $1,000 power meters are coming out in June 2010 from Metrigear (built into the pedal, so you can use whatever wheels you want) and Brim Brothers (built into the cleat so you can put your shoes on any bike))

Suunto – t6c Triathlon Pack and GPS Pod, this will get you the swim heart rate but would require the Edge 500 and Power Meter like Timex and set you back closer to $2k…yikes, but Suunto does have sweet heart rate monitors.

Garmin – first buy the Forerunner 50 from Costco for 80 bucks, it gets you the HRM, footpod.  Cadence and the Forerunner 310XT get you to the closest contender with a watch you will not wear anywhere but triathlon.  One thought I have on this now after writing this is to pair a Forerunner 405CX with the Edge 500, this is probably the best solution with a wearable rechargeable watch and better scree, but will be close to $1,750 and no real swim data, lowest on my priority list.

Some other swim options include a sweet swim “watch” Aqua Pulse you could buy that measures heart rate from your earlobe and tells you in your ear (jawbone technology) but is not uploadable to a computer and would set you back $140.  The Aquameter counts laps and strokes and time but is also not uploadable and is $120.  For a triathlete these are probably overkill and based on TrainingPeaks training load methodologies you can get pretty close once you know your 1K Time Trial pace to figuring out how hard you are working with a stop watch and counting laps in your head.  Neither of these would do much for you in an open water tri anyway especially by themselves and certainly don’t seem worth $260 combined.  I’d suggest an MP3 player instead from H2Audio since swimming in the pool is pretty boring.

So the results based on my definition of a great watch are below.  Prices are from Amazon for what all you need.  Green means it’s got it, red sorry not so much.  Some footnotes are included too.

So from the above what I conclude is that the Garmin options are the best.  But they are also the priciest.  What is the difference between Garmin 310XT option and 405CX option?  Well for $275 you get a wearable watch, a dedicated bike computer with better screen, better data recording of bike performance and you don’t have to fool around with moving the watch to the bike and back.  You also have 2 data uploads, but that is no longer a problem thanks to trainingpeaks.  I train with trainingpeaks and they will now accept multiple files and merge them.  Another example of software solving a hardware problem, which also solves using the CS600X and RS800CX from Polar.  Comments on missing info or experiences are more than welcome.

Happy Training!

Metabolic and Threshold Testing

Well I finished my annual metabolic and threshold testing sessions.  Last year I did an LT test for the run only.  This year I decided to do it for both the run and the bike.  I also threw in an additional base metabolic rate test.  The tests were performed by Rob Lockey at Optimize Endurance Services who provides very thorough testing and results at a reasonable rate.  I paid $250 for all 3 tests versus $145 last year for just the run test up in Boulder and that was with a $100 coupon from my friend Barb.

Anyhow, so why does someone get said tests?  Primarily to know where we are today and the best way to get where we are going.  Triathletes and endurance athletes are primarily guilty of working too hard on their easy workouts and too easy on their hard days.  This leads to way too much time spent working out at the level where we already are our strongest and most likely race at.  Needless to  say that leads to the unenviable plateau.

So with the tests we can figure out what the appropriate efforts are based on heart rate and bike wattage.  I started 2 Saturdays ago with the base metabolic test.  This test simply tells you how many calories you burn sitting around.  It was valuable for me because based on my weight and age my base metabolic rate estimate was 10% lower than the test showed I actually burned.  The test requires a 12 hour fast and then 10 minutes of lying down and breathing into a tube that analyzes the composition of the breath you exhale to determine calorie burn.  After reviewing my nutrition log and considering the test Rob and I determined I need to eat more carbs and fat as well as more overall.  This has helped me sleep better and go harder on my workouts and I have actually not gained any weight with the increased intensity.

The following Tuesday I headed back over for the Lactate Threshold test on the bike.  The test involves warming up and calibrating the machinery for about 10 minutes.  9 minutes in we take the first blood sample from my finger tip.  Rob notes my heart rate, power output and blood lactate level.  We then continue this process of pricking my finger every 3 minutes with increasing tension on the bike.  Finally when we reach the point of no return we take the last reading and begin a cool down.  After 10 minutes of cool down we take one last reading.  So the result was a 220 watt threshold power and 147 heart rate.  This was about 30 watts below an interval workout I did at home and we considered my trainer was off.  But upon a little digging we determined it is being driven by my recovery rate.  Namely I recover from hard efforts very efficiently.  From my peak of 10.5 moles per liter of blood lactate I was able to clear 7 of that lactate down to 3.5 in 10 minutes.  So on intervals I can average a higher power output than a steady climb.  This will be useful on a hilly course.  I can power up a hill and recover on the back side.

A week later I went for the run test.  Same idea with a prick of the finger and blood sample after 9 minutes then every 3 and a 10 minute cooldown.  Here the results showed more efficiency with a lower blood lactate during the initial ramp up and a 7:12 pace at 155 heart rate.  This basically is the pace I should be able to run for about 2 hours, a little less for someone just starting out in training.  In other words as fitness improves the longer we can sustain threshold pace especially with proper fueling and training the stomach to digest food at pace.  Rob projected a properly tapered marathon time in a couple weeks of 3:20 which seems fast but makes sense given the effort I've put into running lately.  My VO2 max on this test was 61 which is in the top 1% and gives me confidence with my potential for hard work.  It is also out of whack with my bike which came in at 45 and although the bike is always lower (less muscle mass used on a bike) it should be closer.

So with solid bike work I should quite realistically be able to lift my threshold wattage up to 270.  Bottom line, proper swim technique, a 270 watt threshold output and about a 10 minute faster straight marathon time (IM marathon should be within 20 minutes of your straight time otherwise it is bike fitness that is lacking) put all my goals for Ironman Lake Placid within reach!  Time for me to get after it!  If you are looking for proper training zones, go see Rob!

Happy Training!

Highlands Ranch Turkey Trot 5k

So Thanksgiving this year was my first Turkey Trot and first 5k. Yes some parts of my endurance world are not linear in the normal progression sense. Ironman before 5k would be a shining example. But I digress. After having raced the Wildcat Mountain Half Marathon, I am a fan of the Highlands Ranch Run Series. It is all very well organized, and a great value. Since we didn't have much planned for Thanksgiving anyway, the Turkey Trot seemed like a good idea.

The weather was perfect. Sunny, around 50 degrees nice and crisp. I arrived at the race around 8:30 and found some parking in the back of Shea Stadium. Race time was at 9am so I walked over to grab a t-shirt, timing chip and a goodie bag (like I said well organized for a little local race). There was a good crowd and about 1250 racers. I saw my friend Jackie and spotted my buddy Scott near the starting line. I got about 10 feet back from him. That put me about 100 people back which ended up being about right.

I had no real expectations other than close to 7:30 minute miles. The gun started us on our way and I went out feeling pretty light. I was passed by some folks and passed some others. The first half mile was gradually down hill but the next mile and a half was a gradual up. So I stayed strong and kept my pace between 6:50 and 7:50 depending on the hills. Around 2 miles I saw my friend Mark who manages the races and was running today. He said it looked to be downhill the final through the home stretch so I gave what I had and came in at 23:0 I think that is around 7:25 so not bad. I passed my friend Jackie near the end, but alas gun time and finish time can be different and she got me by about 4 seconds. Scott was in the top 20 and I was around 125 out of 1250 overall so top 10% and about 100 back from him which is where I self seeded myself. Some people don't get that I guess.

Anyway I hung around and chatted with folks for awhile and wished everybody Happy Thanksgiving. I said goodbye to Scott and his wife Jenn and headed home. Dana and I went out for a good hour and a half road bike ride. Thanksgiving was very chill, pizza and a movie.

Happy Thanksgiving and more importantly Happy Training!

Rebuilding My Tri Bike

Triathlon is in fact about the bike. Over half a race is spent on the bike. For most of us the bike is a work in progress. The bike itself and our relationship with it. You get comfortable on the bike and then you make it less comfortable but faster. As your body adapts to this change you repeat the process.

I raced my first race on a mountain bike. It was a road race in Boulder and the director assured me the little charity race would have plenty of folks on mountain bikes. Being new to Colorado and not knowing really what Boulder was (aka World Class Athlete Mecca) I didn't know this was a ludicrous statement. But I wasn't prepared to buy a new bike at the time so it didn't matter too much. I suffered through my first tri but was hooked. I decided if I demonstrated a certain level of commitment to training on my mountain bike I would purchase a road bike. In the summer of 2008 I got a great deal on a Giant from Craigslist with full Ultegra components and a carbon frame. It was gently used by a mountain biker who decided it wasn't for him. Luckily we were the same size.

I rode this bike in a half Ironman in 2008 and all of my 2009 season. During the 2009 season I made 2 changes. I added aerobars and a 0 offset seatpost with the help of Bicycle Pedal R in Highlands Ranch. These changes shift you forward on the bike and make you more aerodynamic. After 2009 ended I was really itching to buy a new bike but I also try to choose my spending decisions wisely. I decided a good project would be to convert the front of my existing bike to a full tri bike which would basically give me the ability to shift in the aero position thus allowing me to stay in this position for a great portion of time. Also by changing to carbon bullhorn handlebars I would save significant weight. So I began this project and did become a little nervous that I was in over my head.

I carefully continued the recabling and installation progress and was able to add the aerobars, shifters, bullhorn and brakes with little fanfare. I went with Profile Designs Carbon Stryke and their Cobra bullhorn.

Next was the big decision and the primary reason I was going this route with my spending. I really felt I would benefit from race wheels. But a new bike and race wheels would be exorbitant. So through some research I decided to patiently look for race wheels gently used on Ebay or Craigslist. I decided I wanted Hed H3 carbon race wheels with tubular tires (versus clinchers). This would save me about 1.6 pounds from my current wheels and significantly reduce my rolling resistance. I lucked out and found a pair from a masters racer in California.

The wheels arrived and I went through the process of taping the tubulars with Tufo Extreme Tape. I added a cog from Shimano's Ultegra line to match my training wheels. And with that the mission was complete. Net monetary savings for my bike is about 60% off retail and the weight savings is approximately 2.8 pounds. That combined with improved aerodynamics and lower rolling resistance should save me around 15 watts or improve my speed by about 1.5 mph. Now it's time to ride, because at the end of the day real improvement comes through consistent training.

Happy training!

Wildcat Mountain Trail Half Marathon - Race Report

Saturday Nov 14, 2009 - I woke up for race day around 6:15. The race started at 8:30 and was 2 minutes from the house but I wanted ample time for breakfast, coffee and just to stay relaxed. It was snowing the night before so I was happy to see minimal accumulation outside as this was to be an offroad trail run. I looked outside and saw the temperature at a brisk 38F. It also would have been my Mom's 52nd birthday. She passed away when I was 16. I thought this race would be a good healthy way to celebrate her life.

I arrived over at the race around 7:45. It was pretty packed but well organized. I picked up my race packet and headed over to Southridge Rec Center to change and put my stuff in a locker. One of the big pluses of the Ranch is the Rec Centers, along with the ample trail system. After changing, taking in some EFS gel and a banana I headed back to the starting area. I was looking for my friend Scott Swaney and also Jackie Branch. Both were racing today and they happen to be very fast. Scott's a world class adventure racer (he'll laugh that I wrote that, but it is true) and Jackie is a Boston Qualifier in marathon. Anyway I found Scott (easily recognized by his ginormous calves) and we chatted near the start. I saw Jackie too and wished everybody luck. I scooted back a little from them since I didn't plan to be up too close to the front of the pack.

The start went off at 8:30 and we were off down the hill. This was the first time I ever ran a half marathon without it being at the end of a half Ironman. So I wasn't real sure on strategy but figured I should hold some back for the first half. If a few people passed me on the way out then I was probably doing it right. I felt very good from the start and my heart rate stayed in a pretty good range for me. The first 3 miles seemed mostly up hill. This was an extremely hilly race. The race organizer Mark Geibel said nobody should plan for a PR today. Anyway after the uphill we got some rolling hills and I was still feeling pretty good. I was going below 9 minute miles at this point and happy with that given the hills. I had a rough target of 1 hour 50 minutes which would be a 10 minute PR for me. I figured no swim or bike first should more than compensate for the hills.

Around mile 6 there was a big aid station with porta potties, etc. The race was incredibly well organized with aid stations every other mile and even a pretty good crown considering the temperature and general overcast day. I was still feeling good and so I started to push a little harder. I felt very relaxed and was able to stroll down the hills and muscle up the next hill. The course was relatively solid with minimal mud.

As we meandered through the remaining miles my strength held and I started to pick off people. I counted around 11 people I passed and was passed in the final mile by 2 people. So net +9 turnover ratio (a football term) on the second half and like football I guess the best defense is a good offense. The whole race was a very fun experience. I thought about my mom a lot and smiled and said hello and thank you to every volunteer I saw on the course. I finished the race in 1:52. Good enough for an 8 minute PR and 41st out of 245 people. Not bad for me at all. The hilliness and elevation of the course is probably worth about 12 minutes for me (rough estimate comparing other people's times). So my speed is coming along in the running department.

My wife Dana was at the finish line and made sure they got my name write not Benzon or Benson. We chatted with Scott, Jackie, Scott's wife Jenn and others at the finish line and waited for the awards ceremony. Congratulations to Scott, finishing 3rd in his age group...which would have been better sans his late night of watching midget wrestling, but enough for a medal. And congratulations to Jackie, winner of her age group and 2nd overall female.

Happy Birthday Mom and happy training!

Endurance & Charity

So there seems to be a very strong connection between the world of endurance sports and charity. This starts at the very entry level of running/walking a 5k for a local cause. It ratchets all the way up through Team In Training, Livestrong, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation Team Challenge, Endure to Cure (E2C), and my personal endeavor for 2010, Ironman - Janus Charity Challenge.

Team In Training raises money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Livestrong Challenges raise money and awareness for all types of cancer. Crohn's and Colitis raises money for those respective diseases. E2C, started by Jason Sissel, raises money for pediatric cancer. The Janus Charity Challenge allows an athlete who is racing in a full distance Ironman to raise money for the charity of their choice. Janus provides the management and documentation tools. For Ironman Lake Placid July 25, 2010 I will be raising money for Autism Speaks. I will be trying to help children like my cousin, Malachi Fleck-Raybuck, in their battle with Autism. The more we raise the better the odds of getting matching funds from Janus.

So where does the tie between endurance and charity begin? That's a tough question, but I think it lies in the initial motivation to undertake something outside of our comfort zone. Endurance activities particularly on the longer end of the spectrum aren't done on a whim. They require planning, sacrifice, prioritizing and often a single minded focus. These qualities lend themselves very favorably to a fundraising campaign. The similarities are not lost on potential donors. People see someone willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears in preparation and completion of some event, and figure OK I can put a few bucks behind that.

It becomes quite the virtuous circle. The athlete has motivation for those early morning training days. Donors have something tangible to cheer for in the fundraising and the event. The charity receives more money than is likely through simply asking for donations. The awareness raised also pushes those buttons in others, who think, "I could pick up that torch and carry it too!" When all is said and done, the completion of the event is icing on an already fantastic cake.

Happy training!