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!

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!

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.

Defining Consistency

Einstein said insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting things to change (paraphrased).  Einstein was not a triathlete.  We effectively aim to follow a path repeating ourselves in an aim to make changes in the name of progress.  A key concept in training is consistency.  But what is consistency?


Googling "consistency definition" results in:

• the property of holding together and retaining its shape; "wool has more body than rayon"; "when the dough has enough consistency it is ready to ...
• a harmonious uniformity or agreement among things or parts
• logical coherence and accordance with the facts; "a rambling argument that lacked any consistency"
• (logic) an attribute of a logical system that is so constituted that none of the propositions deducible from the axioms contradict one another 

Doesn't help much in training.  The second bullet is probably closest to what we aim for in training.  I think it makes more sense to consider the scientific definitions of accuracy and precision.  Accuracy: the quality of being near to the true value, i.e. the closer to the bullseye on a dart board the more accurate you are.  Precision: the quality of being reproducible in amount or performance, i.e. the closer your three darts are to one another the more precise you are.  So in triathlon training, I would consider consistency to be training and nutrition that is both accurate and precise in terms of pointing you in the direction of your goals.

I include nutrition above because endurance athletes are notorious for training extremely hard and then eating whatever they like since they burned so many calories.  They're not getting fat so what's the problem?  The problem is the goal isn't to "not get fat" but rather "to get faster or go longer."  So if your nutrition isn't helping you reach your goal, then it is not consistent.

Training is similar.  The common fault of too much time at threshold is an example of being precise but not accurate and thus from training perspective being inconsistent.  So look at your training, are you getting the gut wrenchingly tough workouts in with intervals and tempo work as well as the mental grind of long, slow zone 1 endurance training?  If so, you will improve and are consistent.  If not, why not?  Are you focused the majority of the time on the task at hand and getting all you can out of it?  Are you getting enough sleep?

This leads me to the most interesting aspect.  This stuff is NOT rocket science.  But the old Buddhist saying goes, "A finger pointing to the moon is not the moon."  Simply put knowing what consistency is does not make you consistent.  Being consistent is up you.  Intellectual honesty about all aspects of your training, nutrition, recovery, etc. will tell you whether you are consistent.  Find the spots that are lagging and get to work.

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!

Tri Obsession: Data and the Droid

It is an understatement to say that triathletes are data obsessed. For the most part we are right up there with the best of them, baseball fans, gamblers, general fans of statistics and probabilities. Triathlon for the most part generates relatively simple data points. However the volume of training and racing creates infinite environments and sets of circumstances for this data. Couple that with the ongoing to desire to improve against the always moving against us clock (both in races and as we age) there is a strong need to see lots of data and how it is progressing.



The data mainly exists in swimming as time and location (so you can calculate speed). Heart rate monitors don't work well in the water. There is no decent way to measure power. In cycling we have time, location, cadence, power and heart rate. Cycling has the holy grail of data. Running is the same as cycling sans power. Though I am hearing that accelerometers which currently determine cadence on the run will soon give power readings.





Interestingly nothing great exists for capturing all this data in a single device. Swimming just needs a stop watch assuming you know the distance you are swimming, very easy in a pool, relatively easy on a marked open water course. There are some devices that count laps and such but not a big deal. Biking has some slick power meters and cadence computers, those coupled with a good heart rate monitor provide data but it's not all easily accessible. Running is a little better since you don't need to pair a heart rate monitor.





The best product out there (which I don't own and can only report on based on my shopping research) is the Garmin Forerunner XT310. This is similar to the Garmin Forerunner 305 except it is compatibly with power meters with the ANT+ technology. However 3 major complaints on this deal. Like the 305 it is like wearing a small brick on your arm. 2 the GPS doesn't function in the water to deliver anything meaningful. Lastly it sets you back 350 bucks and you don't have the power meter (a grand) or a cadence sensor (1oo bucks for the bike and the run) and that is the price without a heart rate sensor.





Now you can go way down the spectrum to the Garmin Foreruner 50. If you buy it at Costco you get a run speed/cadence sensor, a heart rate monitor for $79.99. For $40 more bucks you can pick up the bike speed/cadence sensor. So you have a good portion of data sans power and gps for $120. This is a pretty good deal and it comes with the upload antenna for you PC too. In fact when you compare what you get here for what you don't on the higher end stuff you'll understand why I am still using it. I have Timex Ironman with a heart rate monitor, GPS, and data upload for the computer. No cadence capability (let alone power) on the run or bike and I have to wear a big GPS monitor on my arm and carry the data recorder in my pocket (though I believe Timex finally put the recorder in the watch, not so with the GPS). My wife bought me this for my birthday several years ago for several hundred dollars and it still costs this much with the GPS on your arm and data recorder in the watch. Again not much for the money. So best value in my mind the Forerunner 50 especially since it is the size of a normal watch.



http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DROID-US-EN.alt

This brings me to my Droid phone made by Verizon/Motorola and the elephant in the room Google. The phone as is has a compass, accelerometer, GPS and level built in. If it could read a HRM and bike Power Meter it would be 99% of the way there and those two things are probably programmable since it has bluetooth and wifi. It's not waterproof and not a watch but my point is that a phone is probably already closer to the holy grail of triathlon data collection (it probably needs to store 24 hours of data too) than what the big companies in the biz, Garmin, Timex and Polar (not to mention Suunto and some others) already put out. Google also has the mapping capabilities on its website with Google Earth to allow you to visually "see" your data. Heck people are giving away an app to calc your exercise using the GPS and accelerometer already. So why doesn't somebody step up and deliver the product that triathlete's and endurance enthusiasts would gladly pay a reasonable price for? I have no idea. But I'd love to see Google shake up this market (admittedly much smaller) like it is doing in the mobile phone market along with Apple and the iPhone. Competition is good for these types of markets.





Happy Training

Denver Marathon Relay - Race Report

Going to a race completely for fun is indeed great fun. The Kernel Jsssup relay team was a mixed team, 2 gals and 2 guys. My friend Susan from work and her twin Sarah and my buddy Scott. We decided to meet at Susan's since it was close to the race venue in downtown Denver. I picked up Scott at 5:50am and we headed north to downtown. Everyone was ready to go and Susan's boyfriend Roland was our driver to the relay transitions.

We all loaded up the car and headed to drop Susan off for the first leg of 6 miles. The race start was 7am so we got her close by 6:30am and the rest of us headed to Starbucks to hang out. Susan was targeting below 10 minutes a mile so we had about an hour before we needed to make our way to the first transition (are the called transitions in a relay?).

After some coffees and lattes we got our numbers and timing chips fastened and loaded into the car again. We made it easily over to the relay station and got ready for Sarah to take over the running. She would be running the 4.2 miles and aiming for close to 9:30 per minute miles. Susan made it right around on time. It's hard to tell exact on relays because the start time is officially unknown until well after the race for the individual. But she was close to her goal and we were looking good so far.

Sarah took off for her 4.2 miles and we headed to the car to get Scott to the next station. We didn't a ton of time given this being the shortest leg. Again no problems getting the car to the next station. We all kept watch for Sarah. It was a beautiful day at this point crisp cool air and sunny. The atmosphere was very festive and the crowds and runners seemed to be enjoying themselves. Sarah made it through and looked to be right on her target as well. Scott took off on the big leg 9 miles and he was aiming for 6 to 6.5 minutes per mile. Not too specific but he was looking to move fast, our fastest team member.

We all piled back into the car with a decent amount of time to get to my transition station. We unfortunately got stuck in a traffic line blocked by the marathon. Minutes ticked away and we weren't too worried at first but we sat longer and longer. I figured I'd be happy to have 10 minutes to spare and hit the porta potty and eat a gel pack before my turn at the wheel. We got closer and closer to the crossing and watched one guy get out of his car to complain. That was comical. Well we made it with 10 minutes to spare and I got prepped to run.

We were waiting for Scott and the Ace Venture team, complete with pink frilly skirts, feathered back hair and a football made there hand off. Scott came roaring through right on target and I took off on the final 7 miles which I was hoping to do below 8 minutes per mile. I have raced several tris where you have the benefit of seeing the R on the back of relay team calves. I did not have such an R and got to enjoy that feeling of passing boatloads of people. It's always such an annoying feeling in a tri especially when you see that R. Well I felt good and kept my heart rate in the low 160s for the most part. I gave an OK kick for the final few hundred yards and looked at my watch which said 11:34am...official time to come later on.

We all met up and headed for brunch with a handful of folks. Thanks a bunch to Roland for driving and great job to the team! Official time 3:31. Susan 9:50 / mile. Sarah 9:36. Scott 6:25. Me 7:49. We all were right in line with our individual projections. Good enough for 39th of over 300+ relay teams and a top 20 for mixed teams. Well done!

Happy training!

Coming up soon...rebuilding my road bike into a racing machine!

Harvest Moon Half Ironman Race Report

Sept 11, 2009...8 year anniversary of 9/11 and the day before my race. Having lived and worked at ground zero that day and watched the horror fly over my head into the South Tower, the day is a stark anniversary of various emotions. Today I was pretty relaxed and focused for the day. I woke up at 5 and did 15 minutes each of swimming, biking and running with a couple of quick pickups in each. I kept my nutrition plan well. Nothing too fibrous. No caffeine (3rd day in a row...yikes). Lots of water to sip. I was looking forward to the first race this season (and my last tri of this season) in particular because I got to sleep in my bed the night before. I picked up my race packet after work at the Red Lion Hotel with no particular fanfare. At home I prepared a dinner of salmon and mashed potatoes. Nothing fancy and washed down with some water. I got the 4-runner packed and headed to bed at 9:30pm.



Sept 12, 2009...Race Day. I slept very soundly, a true benefit of a very local race. I woke up sharply just before 5 and headed downstairs to get coffee and breakfast. 2 cups of black coffee, 3 poached eggs, 2 bananas and a peach. A good mix of macronutrients and my first caffeine in 4 days. I felt good. I grabbed my prepacked nutrition from the fridge (1500 calories of Heed and one water bottle). I ran back upstairs and kissed Dana goodbye and headed out in the dark. I arrived at the Aurora Reservoir at 6:15 with a good hour and a half before my wave started. I methodically set up my transition and was pleased to again find the rear tire bike racks. After getting set up I headed over to the reservoir to check out the swim course. It was chilly so I headed back to transition and put my wetsuit on and a long sleeve shirt over it and waited. About 7:30 we all headed toward the water. I decided to get in and warm up a little. Being that the water was about 16 degrees warmer than the air (66 vs 50) I decided to stay in the water while the 3 waves in front of mine took off. I ate a Hammer gel and headed toward the start area.



Swim 1.2 miles - 35:20 - Perfect. Funny thing is I started out and felt strong. Then as the swim leg wore on I felt like man this is really taking long. I didn't want to look at my watch as I felt the impending disappointment. Alas I stepped out of the water and saw 35 on the big numbers of my watch and was very I happy. The 4 weeks of work I had done at Swimlabs www.swimlabs.com had paid off. 9 minutes faster than my swim a month earlier at the Boulder 5430 Half Ironman. I quickly ran up toward transition.

T1 - 3:03 - getting there. I am finally starting to get some rhythm in transitions. I decided this race to not take in gels in transition. I would rely on 1,000 calories of Heed on the bike and take some gels out on the run. I peeled the wetsuit quickly and got the bike gear on. For the sake of caution I sprayed my shoulders with sunscreen and headed out for the bike.

Bike 56 miles - 2:50:50 - 19.7 mph. I was worried about the bike. It was considered tougher than Boulder with the hills and wind. Here I would find out if I was fitter and if the long mountain bike rides in my legs would provide meaningful benefit. Also I was 5 pound lighter and hoping to get the 15 extra watts. My weakness would be whether my knee would hold up as it had really been bothering me the last 2 weeks and some massage work I had done was quite holding. Well it was windy and cold. My feet were freezing. Fortunately, I was able to keep in aero position most of the flats and downhills and really came up only for the tougher climbs. I methodically took in calories every 20 minutes. My knee held up great and I had no problems until after mile 41. Then the started to ache and the climbs really got tougher. But I gritted out and finished with the same time as Boulder. Definitely fitter on the bike and didn't give up my swim victory. Now time to run.

T2 - 1:38 - Awesome - except not. I put Yankz in my racing shoes for this race. So I quickly got out of my bike gear took a big 250-300 calorie gulp from my Heed bottle in transition and slid on my easy shoes. I grabbed my hat and was off. Buuuuuut 150 yards out I realized no race number belt. There was a strict warning that no number at the run turnaround = DNF. I changed direction and sprinted back to transition. I told the gate keeper I needed my racing belt number, she smiled. So from the looks of things on this transition time and my forthcoming run time this minute lost was stuck onto my run.

Run 13.1 miles - 2:01:15 - Great. I was really hoping to break 2 hours. I am certain my forgotten belt was worth a minute maybe not a minute 15, but given the stomach problems I encountered the final 4 miles and the aching knee the whole run, I don't really care. It was a solid performance and given the effort I put out on the bike everything held up including my psyche. I met a guy named Josh on the run who said he was aiming for under 2 hours about a mile into the run. We were spot on in terms of pacing so we just went with it. I was figuring if I could keep up with him I'd be good. He said the same. So we chatted and dealt with our individual pain. He had a nasty gash on his foot from the swim and cramping legs. I had a bad knee and some soon to be strongly felt stomach issue. Anyway we chatted occasionally and just hammered it out. My wife was out on the run course and took our picture. With 4 miles to go I was cramping and feeling the pain in my stomach. Burping helped a little and water helped a wee bit. But I figured I'd just keep pushing. Finally with the finish line in site I felt a little burst of strength and was able to give a little at the end, but not much. Josh and I shared congratulations. He thanked me for running with him, and I told his wife he did great. Then I went in search of a bathroom and to figure out what was going on in my stomach.

Total time - 5:32:05 - ECSTATIC. A month after shattering my PR, I raced a tougher half ironman and took 9 more minutes off my PR. 1 minute lost for not being mindful but all in all a very solid effort for my last triathlon of 2009. I look forward to the offseason, with a few run races, skiing and base building. 2010 looks to be quite promising. I'll need to figure out that issue with my stomach. Maybe too many calories taken in. Maybe not enough water since I backed off as it was cold. I'll figure it out. I give this race and 2009 an A for triathlongs. 1 full Ironman, 2 half Ironmans, 1 Xterra World Cup and 1 Xterra America's Cup offroad triathlon.

Happy Training!

Bike Trainer vs Cross Trainer

I have a very nice bike trainer down in the basement with a wireless power meter and all kinds of little bells and whistles. It's a fluid trainer so the harder I pedal the harder it gets exponentially (fancy talk for a heckuva lot harder). A bike trainer let's you put whatever bike you like to ride on outside in front of the TV or iPod and ride inside. It gives a lot of useful information and allows for a lot of workouts that cannot be done outside. Most importantly mother nature's weather whims are a non factor, which is great in the winter. The bike leg of a triathlon is the biggest portion of time so you can't really get away with skipping the bike all winter.

Some of the useful parts of a trainer ride are one the power meter. This lets you know how much effort you really are putting out at a particular heart rate. I can't do this on a road bike because convincing my wife of the merits of a $1200 on board power meter would require more endurance than an Ironman. Also a trainer allows me to ride at a consistent pace. I have yet to convince any local communities to wall off traffic for my training rides, so the trainer is the only place red lights don't exist (except of course mountain biking...which could constitute cross training). A trainer is also a controlled environment so no hills or dales (I don't really know what a dale is) and no wind. Lastly drills are easy on a trainer, 30 second spins, single leg pedaling drills (great for working out that kink at the top of your pedal stroke by pushing your toe forward). I've never been successful trying to single leg pedal outside and people give me really funny looks.

So why don't people just ride the trainer all the time? It is i n c r e d i b l y b o r i n g... I mean really boring. After an hour I get really antsy. Magazine or book on my little music stand, tv, movies, ipod...make it bearable. Plus with that boredom, intensity can be hard to muster. So for the motivated athlete who hates the trainer there is hope. Cross Training. Now there are several options. Simply a different form of biking like mountain biking. Or a new thing I am looking at called Cyclocross. This one takes place in the fall on muddy courses. They are basically set up in an obstacle style course with sand pits and walls and other things you have to get off your bike and carry over, around, or through. The bike looks like a road bike but with fatter knobby tires. Never done it...looks real cool. It was featured in this month's Bicycling Magazine.

The other option is to rely on the winter sports. Namely downhill bumps skiing, cross country skiing and snow shoeing. Think of bumps as your intervals. Cross country is your endurance. Lastly snow-shoeing can serve as your tempo. Mix these up with a swim in the pool first or a run after and you have a heck of a brick workout. Part of the pain of Ironman is the fact that you have to go so long 8 to 17 hours. So a solid 6+ hour day of bumps followed by an hour run will give you some serious mental fortitude to draw on when the triathlon season is in full swing. Now you don't get out of riding on the trainer all winter, but these detours do serve as a useful and enjoyable way to not just maintain but improve fitness. Xterra even offers winter triathlons to prove the point...Alpine Skiing/Skinning (cross between downhill and cross country), mountain biking and snow-shoeing are your 3 events.

Happy training!

Triathlon Evolution - Finishing to Racing

Triathlon is a very fast growing sport. It attracts a wide range of folks, but typically starts off in a very similar fashion. Namely people want to answer the question, "Can I do that?" "That" usually takes the form of a shorter race, be it a sprint or olympic or some slightly off middle ground of the two.

That first triathlon is the scariest. What to expect? We look to friends who've done one or know somebody who's done one, to offer us some mentoring or pointers. How much should I train? We underestimate the swim. Maybe we borrow a bike or use our mountain bike, cruiser bike, hybrid to get ready for the bike. Did anybody do a brick workout for their first triathlon? We go online and find a freebie program or buy the current month's Triathlete Magazine and see if we can't make sense of what should work.

Race day arrives that first time way too fast and way too early, getting up before sunrise to head to the venue. Everything is strange, getting bodymarked with those smelly black magic markers. Getting your timing chip (does this really stay on when I pull my wetsuit off). Setting up transition, hmmm where do I put everything? Oh that guy looks like he know what he's doing. She doesn't look nervous at all. How much am I supposed to eat?

Then the race starts to line up for the start. God this wetsuit feels tight. I should have swam in this before today, ugh. Everybody's in the water. Are we really going to all swim at once? My heart is pounding. BOOM! Start, chaos, madness. Oh this wetsuit is too tight. Why is this person hitting my feet? Ouch, my goggles are around my neck. I can't breathe. PANIC. Oh why I am doing this? RELAX. BREATHE, stroke, stroke, better breathe again not like the pool. Ok I am getting this now. Cool. Just keep it up. Hey almost done here is the bouy, oh man people are all over me. Ok just take it home.

You crawl out of the water weary yet relieved. Ok where is my bike? Ouch my feet hurt on these rocks. Ok helmet first. Shoes, no wait I have to take off this stupid wetsuit. Where is the zipper cord? Ahhhhhhh damn it. Ok all ready to go on the bike.

Fast forward a little while on the bike. Man my legs are sore. I am hungry. Oh I should eat a gel I guess. Oh man when is this gonna be done. My legs are aching. I am slow. Wow how is that lady passing me? Does it say 62 on her calf? This sucks. Oh almost done 3 more miles. My head hurts, my legs are sooooo tired. How on earth am I gonna run? Oh there's transition.

Ok rack the bike. Get the running shoes. I guess I'll have another gel. Ready to roll, half way out of transition. SH!T! My helmet is still on. Run back and grab my hat. Oh my God my legs hurt. This is so stupid. Ok just put one foot in front of the other. Ok this isn't so bad. Ahhhhh side cramp. Ok that's gone. Just a mile to go. Man I am so tired, why I am I doing this? Oh there it is the finish line. Just run strong baby. Head high. You're the man. Oh this is SWEET. Done!!! Panting...I...can...definitely...do...better.

So there we are one triathlon done. It's finished. We know we can finish better but we are still in a finish mentality. Maybe we'll move up from Sprint to Olympic and finish that. Then we progress maybe try to do a half Ironman. Sometimes we stick around and do a few of the shorter distances. Almost inevitably we aim for the Granddaddy of them all. The Full Ironman, 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile (aka a marathon) run. To which friends and family are equally likely to respond, "All in one day?" or "What's wrong with you?" Any of these endeavors it approached initially with the finishers mentality.

We want to know what we need to do to "get through it." In many ways the finisher has a tougher goal than a racer. As my aunt was insightful enough to point out at my first Ironman, all of the fittest and best triathletes spent the least amount of time out on the course. Relatively speaking we all compete in an aerobic zone. Granted a pro puts out a lot more power in their aerobic zone than a first time finisher. But who has the harder day (relatively speaking in terms of self pain of course), the pro going for 8 to 9 hours as hard as they can or the first timer going as hard as they can for 14, 15, 16 or even 17 hours?

Anyway, at some point the switch is flipped and we start looking to do more than finish. How did I do overall? How about in my age group? What were my splits? How were my transitions? Now we delve deeper into the data, the theory, the training and strategy. Maybe we hire a coach or find a little more robust pay program on the web. There are endless choices for coaches. Now the focus is on training, nutrition, active recovery, heart rate, anaerobic threshold, power output. All the buzzwords start to mean something. We join the local tri club. Maybe we chat on message boards looking for pointers. Our significant other wonders why we are obsessed. We will improve! Once the switch is flipped there is no turning back. The ideal cannot be reached, but we devote enormous time, energy and resources into moving along that path toward that goal. The closer we get the better we become.

My wife bought me a T-shirt that says: "TRIATHLON If you have to ask why you will never understand." She says she doesn't get it but she sees the positives it creates for me. The why is difficult to put into words. But every triathlete has it in their mind's eye whether they are an elite racer or a first time finisher. Happy training!

Boulder 5430 (2010 Ironman 70.3) Race Report

Saturday - August 8

Well given the race was about an hour and 15 minutes from the house and started at 6:30am driving in the morning was feasible but not optimal. Our friends had a house closer to the venue so we were fortunate. We went up Saturday to check in and attend the race meeting. My friend Barb was there with Colorado Multisport, so it's always nice to see a familiar face and make introductions. Beth and Joe came by to meet us and we headed to Pearl Street to wander and get some tapas. We wandered around some more and watched the street performers, which was cool. Dinner was pasta and chicken at Jay's Pasta (I think is the name)...pasta and chicken are becoming a pre-race favorite I guess. After dinner we headed over to the "spare house" to get settled. I got to bed by 9:15 for my 4:15 wake up.

Sunday - August 9 - Race Day

Woke up at 4:15 with no problem. It was a typical crappy pre-race sleep but I slept like a log Friday which had me feeling good. I had a peach, banana and 2 cups of black coffee courtesy of Joe's brother Carl. We headed over to the race venue at 5am. It was still pitch dark which is always kind of eerie (like why am I up right now?) We got over to the race site and I got bodymarked, picked up my timing chip and set up transition. Transition was cool with rear tire bike racks instead of the bar to hang your bike by its seat. After setting up transition I chatted with Dana and Joe while we waited for the start. I took a quick dip in the Boulder reservoir and found the water kind of warm, but still wetsuit legal. It was a wave start so I had till 6:55am to wait with the other men 30-34 in our nice pink swim caps.

Swim - 1.2 miles - 44 minutes - I had projected 36 minutes given swimming 1 mile in 31 minutes at elevation 3 weeks prior. I never felt any great rhythm in my stroke and felt like I kept getting off target, plus I did kicked in the face once and had to readjust my goggles. Regardless it felt like the swim grade was probably a C and I have the next 4 weeks scheduled at Swimlabs for them to video my stroke and figure out some efficiencies. It was nice to see Dana and Joe as I made my way out of the water, but I admit being discourage seeing 8 minutes more than I hoped for on my watch.

T1 3:30 minutes - pretty good here for me considering I took a Hammer gel and some water before peeling the wetsuit, getting shoes, helmet, gloves and another spray of sunscreen...me being the very pale type. Probably should be a minute faster.

Bike - 56 miles - 2 hours 50 minutes - that works out to 19.7 miles per hour. I started the bike in the proper gear and went out relatively smooth. I was getting passed a good bit at the beginning (the longer the race the more this is probably OK). I kept climbing the light hill and was going about 16 mph which felt good. On the downhill I noticed I was hitting high 20s and then on the flats being in the mid 20s. For my first lap this was seeming pretty good. I had decided against solid food for the race and didn't even touch my gels on the bike. I took in 600 calories of Heed from 2 bottles and one of the race provided Gatorades. On the second lap I started passing huge chunks of people on the uphills. I was feeling strong and started coming out of the saddle to charge the uphills. I was picking up a little speed and feeling good. When I knew I was close to finishing at the fast end of my projection, I started to wonder if I was going to blow myself up on the run, especially given my poor swim. But the bike was a B+ at that point and I was feeling more upbeat.

T2 - 3:22 minutes - probably a minute and a half available here. But I took in another Endurolyte (I had 3 before the race started) as it was getting hot and I was sweating. I also had a Hammer gel and stuck one in my race jersey pocket.

Run - 13.1 miles - 2 hours for the half marathon. The run was hot and I hadn't seen Dana (Joe had taken off to do some training), but I figured I just missed her. I just started to go at my pace and noticed I got passed a good bit. But I figured 13.1 miles is a long way and I was in it for the long hall. At the first 3 mile markers I noticed I was close to a 9 minute mile pace which was decent for me. Then on mile 4 my stomach was bothering me a little and it was uphill. Luckily the stomach was just a brief moment of gas. Given the heat I was taking the ice at the aid stations and sticking it in my hat then ducking my head down into the hat and putting it on with the ice in there. Worked wonders for the heat. Mile 5 I started to feel pretty good and started to give it a little more gas. Around mile 6 I took my Hammer gel and got ready for what I would hope would be one more hour. My pace felt good and again on the 2nd lap like on the bike I started to pass quite a few big chunks of folks on the uphills and even on the flats as I was running strong. I heard my wife yell out from near the parking lot "keep going JB." Heard lots of little cheers from nice job to keep running strong. I felt good. I hammered the home stretch with a little sprint finish. The run seemed like A- to me.

So I wrapped it all up 5:41:14 which was almost 35 minutes better than my 6:15:59 personal record down in Austin last October. I also finished 465th out of over 1,000 participants. I was hoping to break into the top half, which meant a lot to me. Boulder was the site of my first tri, a little sprint swim and run with an olympic distance bike for charity. I was the last place male finisher that day in the world's triathlon mecca (both Ironmen world champs male/female live there as well as many pros, elites, olympians, etc). In fact the women's race today had the current Ironman, current Ironman 70.3 and Xterra world champs racing...Dibens of Xterra won. So to be above average in a half Ironman less than 2 years later gave me some redemptive pride. And in a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts I give the race itself an A. Racing my race (versus finishing my race, more to come on this topic), staying strong and getting stronger and ultimately leaving it all out there on the course.

Anyway a nice burrito from Qdoba was waiting but still no sign of my wife. So I wandered around a little bit and then decided to go start packing my stuff. Mental note keep the cell phone in transition rather than hand it off to her. I left transition and headed to the car. I spotted her walking toward the race. She said she thought when she yelled I was starting the run. She now new it was my second lap. She also realized I must have been going pretty fast (for me anyway). She had gotten sick while I was riding and went to the car to rest. She's all better now so all in all a great day!

Xterra Indian Peaks - Race Report

Friday July 31, Dana and I headed up in the early afternoon to Fleet Feet Boulder to check in for the race. Afterwards we continued on to the Best Western Lodge at Nederland near Eldora Mountain Resort. This was a great little spot to stay, a nice log cabin with split beam ceilings and log walls, the works. It also has breakfast in the morning, a giant hot tub, and is 5 minutes from Eldora Mountain. After checking in we headed over to the race site to check out the sites and do a little riding. It was freezing cold and raining so we kept it quick.

For dinner we headed over to Kathmandu, an Indian and Nepalese restaurant within walking distance of the Lodge. There is also a Smokehouse restaurant recommended within walking distance, cool little town. Anyway I had chicken curry for dinner with some rice and na'an. It was very tasty. A lady stopped by to say hello and congratulate me on Ironman CDA (I was wearing my finisher's t-shirt). She had just finished Ironman Lake Placid on Sunday, with her nice Ironman jacket on. She was a little hobbled and told me the hills were killer. She also did CDA two other years and said Lake Placid was much harder. Her advice, if you think you did a lot of hill training and climbing on your bike go out and climb some more. Anyway great piece of advice for my next year of training all for simply wearing my t-shirt :) .

August 1, Race Day, My Birthday - The race didn't start till 9:30 which was very nice. I actually slept a half hour later than I do during the week. Unfortunately I slept poorly and woke up congested with a scratchy throat. I think it was the altitude (sleeping at 8200 feet) and the chill the day before. I had some whole wheat toast, a half bowl of cereal and a scrambled egg for breakfast. We headed over to the race about 8:15. Everything was very smooth to get bodymarked, timing chips, etc. My buddy Joe arrived at the same time with his girlfriend Beth and brother Carl. So we had a good little crowd for the race.

Swim - 1000 meters - 20:16. The race was a time trial start, a first for me, every 3 seconds based on your own projected finish. I said 20 minutes and was right on within 16 seconds. My throat and nose cleared up nicely in the freezing cold water. The swim was pretty uneventful but I did like the start, not commotion just get out and swim.

T 0.5 / Run 600+ meters - 6:46. This was also a first. We had to bring shoes down to the lake and peel our wetsuit, put on the shoes and run with our wetsuit, swim cap and goggles up the hill to transition.

T1 - 3:51 - still need to pull about 2 minutes off this spot especially since my wetsuit was already off. I had a Hammer gel, Heed and put on my helmet and bike shoes. Oh and some more sunscreen this time so I wouldn't end up fried like Beaver Creek.

Mountain Bike - 10 miles - 1:31:18 - The bike was an incredible challenge. First the swim was at 9300 feet so the bike and run both take place above that elevation. Colorado has had one of the wettest summers on record. The rain has rutted the mountains, leaving trails rocky, choppy and with the rain at Eldora the night before for this trail...very muddy. The trail was primarily rocky access roads and muddy single track. Around mile 3 the hike a bike began. It's about 800 meters of hill that is easier to climb with the bike than to ride. I did not see anyone ride it. After the hike a bike it was a lot of rolling and climbing. The muddy conditions made descents challenging and climbing a little slower. It was on one of the climbs I tipped over on a switch back. Then a little further along on a descent I got caught in a rut and went over the handlebars. Nothing broken or punctured so I jumped back on the bike and wrapped things up.

T2 - 1:54 - there's about 30 seconds available to improve here. Though if you check my race times I am focusing on the actual events in the near term for my improvement before I start nit picking about minutes and seconds. Just get faster in the big spots first...speed kills.

Trail Run - 42:48 - The run was pretty brutal. It was all up and down, up and down. I kept my pace the best I could and had to revert to hiking a couple of steep uphills and even some downhills, more like hopping down them. The whole race was well managed with lots of aid stations and people directing traffic. Trails were well marked and easy to figure out where to go.
The run wrapped up with a nice little flat reprieve into the finish.

Dana, Beth and Carl were all at the finish. It was great to cross that line on my birthday. It was the first time I felt like crap at the finish though. My chest was killing me and my lungs were burning. I think the altitude had taken its toll. After sitting for a few minutes I started to feel better. I enjoyed a taco from the Qdoba taco bar. Like I said very well managed race and just a fun experience. My buddy Joe bolted across the finish, about a minute ahead of me, after you factor in the staggered start while I was finishing my taco. It was a great day and I felt very fortunate to spend my birthday having so much fun.