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!

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!

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.

Race Report - Xterra Beaver Creek

So I decided to enter this race a few days before Ironman just for fun. It was a little close to Ironman to race again but I thought it would a good test of where I stood in terms of a faster paced race. Plus I just love off road riding and running.

So we arrived up at Beaver Creek ski resort Friday July 17, the day before the race. We checked into the Comfort Inn right near the resort, which I recommend for convenience, quality and value. We headed over to the Xterra venue to check in. We ran into Cindi and Cirk, Dana's mountain biking coaches, Xterra ambassadors and all around bad asses on the offroad frontier. Check in was not Ironman smooth. 5 people working, 4 people in line and a 20 minute wait. You can see where that doesn't make much sense. Anyhow I got done with registration and we headed out to dinner at the same place we had New Year's Eve dinner. A nice Italian place where I had some pasta and chicken breast. Perfect the night before the race.

Race Day - I woke up around 6am and given a 9am race time I was able to eat a normal breakfast. I had 2 hard boiled eggs and an English muffin with some black coffee. We quickly packed up the car and headed over to T2 (different from T1 as this was a point to point race). I set out all my run gear and then we drove/walked to T1 where the race was to start. I got my swim to bike transition set up and then got bodymarked and picked up my timing chip.

Swim 1 mile - 31 minutes - the swim started off pretty uneventfully. The lake was a little small so we were right near the edges for 2 laps. About half way through the first lap I was having a little trouble with the rhythm of my breathing. I thought maybe my race suit was too tight. Then it dawned on me, I was swimming at 7,000 feet. DOH! Anyway I got my breathing under control and proceeded to swim pretty decently.

T1 - 5 minutes - getting better at this but still can save 3 minutes. Need to get the wetsuit off and the helmet and shoes on. Had a Hammer gel and some Heed.

Mountain Bike - 15.5 miles 3600 feet of climbing - 2:20 wow the first 2 hours were climbing. It was incredibly hard and remember we started at 7,000 feet so the air was thin. I just kept plugging away and laughing about ridiculous it was. Then to add insult to injury (really no injury except maybe my pride) since it was point to point you don't ride all the way back down just about half way. However some of the downhill was a little technical and I passed some folks who were walking down the hill, which was nice. I just let it rip. Too tired to brake much anyway.

T2 - 3 minutes - maybe can save a minute and a half here, but Dana was there cheering me on and taking pictures and I was laughing still about the torturous bike ride.

Trail Run - 5.75 miles 1300 feet of climbing - 1:04 more Heed and Hammer gel. My heart rate was drifting into zone 4 on the hikes up hill given the steepness. I was basically close to redlining most of the bike and run. The run finally leveled out and I could jog at a decent pace. Once the downhill came I ran hard. It was pretty fun and I passed a couple folks.

Finished in about 4:04 which was on the slow end of my expectations. At the finish line I met up again with a guy I had chatted with on the bike named Ben. He was from Ohio and saw my Ironman Coeur d'Alene hat. He said he raced it too, his first Ironman and marathon. Anyway he was out for a family vacation and signed up for fun and rented a mountain bike. We've kept in touch and it's always nice to make new friends in triathlon. It was a brutal race but a fun experience. I'll do it next year if it's not too close before Ironman.

About This Blog

So, I've taken the plunge to start writing again. The primary purpose of my blog is to touch on the various aspects of my endurance life. Endurance sports, primarily triathlon but also mountain biking and skiing, have been a passion since way back in my NYC 80 hour work week days. After moving out to Colorado that passion has had a chance to be examined deeper.

My first duathlon took place in Central Park NYC back in 2005. It was a very short race and fit well with the difficulty I had finding a place to regularly train for swimming. I mainly remember the race being difficult, especially the road ride on my mountain bike but also loving the atmosphere of competition and camaraderie. I kept hitting the gym with no real purpose and reading about triathlon.

My wife and I moved to Colorado in the spring of 2007. I quickly put a short charity triathlon on the calendar for September. I trained with what seemed to me to be intensity. My wife and I stayed at friends' house the night before the race up in Boulder. Again I suffered through a road ride on my mountain bike (I hadn't shown myself enough commitment yet to warrant a road bike). But again that permeating feeling of competition wrapped with camaraderie had me feeling more like this tri idea had potential for my obsessive personality.

My training waxed and waned and my wife and I skied most of our first winter in Colorado. It was wonderful! My weight actually began drifting higher during the winter than when we lived in NYC. 226 and struggling with 2.5 mile runs something was about to give!

Spring of 2008 I decided to buckle down and give this a real tri. I signed up for the Buffalo Creek Xterra - Sport Distance in late June 2008 and the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 early October 2008. Through some training more realistically approaching intense I took my weight down 20 and the 40 pounds for these respectively. Both were for me personally huge successes. After Buffalo Creek I decided to jump in the deep end of the pool and signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene this past June 2009.

Ironman was incredible and personally very successful to me at an additional 10 pounds lighter (that nets to 50 or so pounds, and yes 2.5 mile runs are quite manageable). I also competed in the Beaver Creek Xterra a month after Ironman. It was probably a bit too early but it was fun even though brutally difficult. Coming soon (before Friday I hope) will be race reports for these 2009 races as they are quite fresh in my mind.

My goal with this blog is to touch on various aspects of training, nutrition, the lifestyle, and challenges. Also I would aim for it to be a place for friends and family to keep up to speed with what is going on in my endurance life.