IMOO - A Year Early

One week Before It's Over

2010-08-25T18:47:00.000-05:00

What's this? A training blog post? Am I in the right spot?

Well, in fact it is a training post. With starting up the coaching business and putting in the training for Ironman Wisconsin, I haven't spent much time talking about the journey.

I'm now at the point where every waking moment and most non-waking moments (sleeping) is taken up with Ironman obsessing. Analyzing equipment choices, weather possibilities, race strategy. In 5 days when the training volume drops precipitously the obsession will only accelerate.

Friday and Sunday are my last tough workouts. Friday is a 4.5 hour ride on the biggest hills I can find. A few real doozies over by Prescott, Wisconsin. Sunday is a 3/1 brick. Probably a flat ride by the cabin followed by a similar run.

My legs are feeling pretty beat up and my energy is sagging. In other words training is going perfectly! After Sunday it's all about charging up for September 12.

Looks like the Sherpa plans are coming together. The Doc is volunteering putting on sunscreen in T1. Lots of family will be on hand AND I will have a gps tracker from myathletegps.com so you and everyone else can know my position in real time throughout the day. I'll put the link up on Friday before the race.

I'm looking forward to this a lot more than I thought I would. A lot more than I was at the beginning of my training when I was cursing OB's name.

Where have you (or I) been?

2009-12-03T13:51:00.003-06:00

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been around the old blog much lately. Others may not have noticed or cared.

I've been a busy boy. Getting my USA Triathlon coaching certification, starting up a business, setting up a website, not training.

Well yesterday the website went live. I invite you to stop by, check it out, the Resources page is updated pretty frequently and I have a coaching blog now too. I'm sure I'll be back around here when training starts back up for IM Wisconsin.

Happy training!

Coach Rich
Tri For It! Coaching

IM CDA Kids Race Slideshow

2009-11-10T08:58:00.002-06:00

Not much training to report - I was sort of preparing for a 10k but that seems to have come undone. Have done a couple of rides in this nice November weather - almost seems like stealing!

I finally started playing with PhotoStory and the CDA pics. First the kids 1 mile race.

The Doc is an Irongirl!

2009-09-28T15:57:00.004-05:00

Yesterday the Doc entered IronGirl. It was her first duathlon. She loves to bike and is learning to tolerate running. If there's any question that I married waaaay over my head the next picture settles that question once and for all! She's waving to the kids.
Here she is climbing the 1/2 mile hill. Still spinning in the saddle just like her coach told her (flying by the women WALKING up the hill). The last minute course change reversed this part of the course. The carnage was unbelievable as women walked, abandoned, grinded up weaving all over the road in massive gears.
Oh yeah, they got to do it twice too. It was straight out of transition so you had the whole first loop to think about going back. Here she is flying into T2 waving to her adoring fam.
Heading out of T2 - that's a lot of enthusiasm. More than I can typically muster at this stage of a race.
Hitting the finisher chute.
Celebrating with Zman and JRose. She totally rocked finishing 209/859 overall, 49/174 in her age group. Her second run was 1 minute/mile slower than the first run. Later in the day she felt bad for feeling sore. She said "I trained for the distance." I explained that the soreness coupled with her relatively consistent pace indicated she had pushed it just the right amount.
Irongirls all around. The Doc with the girls from the clinic Loriann and Julie. Next year they'll be back for their second.
Now to figure out how to get the Doc in the pool. I see a Minneman novice division entry next year!

Oh yeah, I entered a 5k for Zman's hockey team on Saturday and ran it in 8:18s. I'm entering a 10k in 7 weeks. My new goal pace is 8:18s.

How the Not So Mighty Have Fallen

2009-09-24T08:47:00.002-05:00

Went for a just under 30 mile ride with NS Rob yesterday. Talk about depressing - not being with NS - but the ride. We headed east from White Bear into the rolling hobby farmland. It was beautiful but each hill dug into my legs. We weren't even on the "big" ones. How quickly fitness gains can be lost!

I could try and blame the soreness in my legs on Tuesday's tempo run, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. I just haven't been putting in much mileage on the bike lately.

Good thing I have almost a year before IMOO. I'm going to need it.

Starting today with yoga. Ohmmmmm!

I Can Feel It!

2009-09-21T12:05:00.002-05:00

It's creeping into my every waking thought. I feel like Peter Parker in Spiderman 3 when the dark Spiderman was taking over. It's Ironman Wisconsin.

This weekend we were at the lake taking an evening boat ride and I found myself looking at the water contemplating all the OW (open water) swims I'll be doing next summer. How often will the Doc be willing to kayak along? That led to consideration of the IM swim. It sounds like I'm going to have to enter the washing machine this time. There's no way to stay to the outside in clear water. That's going to take a mental adjustment and perhaps a stroke adjustment as well - quicker turnover less power per stroke. I'll have to harken back to my MLB (that's middle linebacker not baseball) days and welcome the contact.

This wouldn't be such a surprise if there hadn't been about 30 minutes between the time IMOO 2010 came onto the radar and when I registered.

One big difference next year. This past year the whole family bought into the IMCDA experience: the big 2 week family excursion, missing 2 weeks of lacrosse, all of the prep time, the mental focus. Next year that can't be the case. I can't ask them to do that. Obviously I've got to put in the training time and sacrifices will be made by all (sorry) - but I'm going to make an effort to minimize the sacrifices.

Actually there is a second big difference. This year I'm going to have one of my ten best friends, ok my best friend, going through the training at the same time - all be it in the sweltering land of big hair, belt buckles, and boobs - Dallas. Most likely he will be using the same plan I will. Our daily schedules are a bit different (he's an aspiring restaurant magnate) but each week we'll be putting in similar workouts. It will be fun to share similar experiences on a weekly basis. I'm looking forward to watching the Ironman process for OB from afar.

A Funny Thing Happened

2009-09-14T21:25:00.003-05:00

on the road back from IM CDA 09. I somehow find myself on a different road. The road to:

Also known as the "YOU'RE DOING WHAT!?!" Highway.

It's a year earlier than I thought, but after watching the coverage yesterday, I was pretty excited, and when OB signed up I really had no choice.

Those of you who have been bitten by the bug will totally understand. As for the rest of you, one day the bug will bite you too!

Turtleman Photos

2009-08-17T17:46:00.006-05:00

So here are a few pics from the "race who's name shall not be spoken" (Turtleman) Leaving T1.

Believe it or not this is BEFORE the bad weather really got started. (No the race was not held at night)

They did capture Jim passing me at the line. Thanks for the condolence pat on the way by, Jim. (I will point out because I am small minded, that he still took third (last) due to starting about 1 minute before me.)

It's kind of hard to see, but it is absolutely POURING. I think based upon my expression I gave it my all (or maybe it's just disappointment in losing the Turtle). I really like the backwards AND upside down visor. I may wear it like that at all my races.A couple of photos of the Doc heading out for the bike leg of her relay. Spinning up the hill out of T1 - staying in the saddle - nice!

C'mon Doc, that guy may have race wheels but he's not even in aero position. I think you can smoke him. Make sure you drop back out of the draft zone before overtaking him!

Friday Smile

2009-08-14T09:45:00.003-05:00

What's that you say? This is a blatant ripoff of Steve in a Speedo's Friday Funnies. Maaaaybe.

I thought this video was clever and perhaps even funny.

It's all about PERFORMANCE! I think the best part is the "carbon frame."

(Thanks Capt Winter for pointing this vid out on FB)

Speed to Read Race Report

2009-08-09T20:14:00.006-05:00

Sunday morning following the Turtleman found us not sleeping in (as we would have liked) but pumping up tires, putting a bike on the rack, gathering gear for transition and heading back to Shoreview.

Zman was entering the Speed to Read kids triathlon. I was looking forward to it because it had a pool swim as opposed to the usual kiddie swim (like my last triathlon!). Z was second into the water. He broke 2:00/min for 100m. Take that NS Rob!

Look at that high elbow! He's smooth and relaxed in the water.
He could work on his head angle when breathing and he turns his head further than necessary - but he's 11. He's got years to work on that.

Unfortunately I missed the pic on the first loop - Zman following the lead escort. How cool would that have been! At the end of the second loop he and Sven (the boy in red) came in together. The escort had dropped back for 2 reasons: 1) she was having trouble staying in front of the boys and 2) they had opened up such a gap that the escort had to drop back to guide the others.

Both Zman and Sven suffered on the run. Zman opened up a lead but then was walking with a side stitch. Eventually he started running again.
As they finished their 2nd loop they turned the corner to the finish straight. Sven slowly edged past Zman. The look that came across Zman's face was priceless. He maintained this expression for the final 100 yards, giving it everything he had. It was really fun to watch his internal competitiveness come out. It was all from him, we hadn't talked about any of it. I didn't ride the course with him or point out kids to try and pass (as some parents did).

Here is a closeup of the determination on his face.
Here is Zman almost taking out a little girl as he crossed the line. Easy big fella!
He's looking forward to entering a real triathlon some day soon. This is my 100th post in this blog. Crazy huh - most of you are probably saying "What a waste of time!"

All Good Things - Turtleman Report

2009-08-08T21:32:00.004-05:00

All Good Things . . . come to an end. So ends my reign as holder of the Turtle Trophy. Circumstances and a fierce competitor conspired to my end.

Threatening weather changed the already shortened 1/2 mile swim (from 1 mile) to a "kiddie swim" - that's right everyone marched over the timing mat, dashed out to shin deep water, turned right to the swim exit (hoping not to fall in a hole or slip in the muck) and over the exit mat. After beating Stomper by 3 minutes in a long 1/4 mile swim I had figured to gain at least 4 minutes in a 1/2 mile swim.

Still gave it the college try. Stomper started roughly 3 minutes in front of me, with Jim starting about 1 minute before me. I hit the bike hard. As we started out the rain started falling - hard. Rather than trying to look at my computer I just went on feel. Passed Jim around mile 7 and Rob around mile 10. Realized I was going a little too hard and backed off a bit on the second half. Ended up averaging 22.4 mph in wet conditions. I've never ridden that hard before. It was tough to choke down 2 cliff blocks - I'd planned on 6.

Now for the run. Screwed up my watch - AGAIN. Didn't reset my last training run. Have no idea how the 1st mile went. I was riding the edge with my legs just keeping moving. Rob passed me before mile 2. Knowing he was going to put at least 1:30/mi into me I knew that the battle for the Turtle was over. Still focused on my other goals for the race - biking hard and hanging on for the run. I was hoping to hit sub 9:00min/mi.

Right after Rob passed me the sky got really scary. Looked like a huge wall cloud (at least to me). The wind kicked up and blew my visor right off my head. Then the rain started again.
Huge torrents of rain. Someone said we were getting 2 inches an hour. I just kept moving as best I could. Mile 4 is mostly uphill. My quads were killing. I kept thinking I'd see Jim anytime now.

I hit Mile 5. Only a little further to go. Inside the chute I felt this rush of air as Jim sprinted past me. Nicely Done! I hope they got a picture at the line, but it was raining so hard I'm not sure that they were still taking pictures. He still finished 3rd and got the new "Take me to Funkytown" dancing/singing plush turtle but it was something.

In the end, Rob ended up beating me by just under 4 minutes. Hmm, where have I heard that number before. We race the course we're provided in the conditions of the day though and today he won the Turtle - no asterisk. I ended up with a 9:23 min/mi average on the run.

In other news, the Doc hit 19 mph for her average in the bike leg of her relay. She cut 12 minutes off her time when we road the course in training. Great Job!
Speed to Read tomorrow for the Zman. More pics to follow.

Group Ride or Pre Fight Weigh In?

2009-08-04T15:35:00.003-05:00

Sunday I rode down from the cabin (18 miles) and met Jim and Stomper for a Turtleman bike course preview (22 miles). It's a course we all know well, but it was fun to ride together and the families gathered for bagels afterward.

To the casual observer it may have looked like 3 guys out for a ride on a beautiful day, perhaps getting in a tuneup ride on the course the week before the big event. That casual observer couldn't have been more wrong. This ride was about one thing, plain and simple, psychological warfare. It was like a pre fight weigh-in. No one wants to show any weakness and hopes to exploit some chinks in the armor of their competitors.

Ok, I have a sneaking suspicion that the ride was only cloaked in psyops in my mind. I repeatedly rode off the front, trying to mask any effort as if I was easily spinning 24mph and could do it all day. I'm not sure they even noticed.

So what's with all the drama? First of all, it's three guys competing in the same race year after year. Second of all it's the local race for Stomper and Jim. Thirdly, the event distances balance the competition fairly well (Stomper and Jim can trounce me running, Stomper resembles a rock in the water and has improved on the bike, Jim swam in high school and holds his own pretty well in the water). Finally, throw in a silly travelling trophy and you've got an annual grudge match. Here is the trophy pictured in front of anniversary poster from last year.

Yes, I'm aware that it's a tortoise not a turtle and rotund as all get out, but it's currently mine and I'm not letting go of it without a fight.

The shortened swim this year (cut to 1/2 mile) really plays into Stomper's strengths. Monday I took my garmin and used the boat to drop a buoy .25 miles from my dock. Took me 14:30 out and back in ideal conditions. Decent enough, but I'm not sure I'm going to get all the time I need.

The weather also isn't looking too favorable for a big guy like me. 90s and muggy.

I've got my plan in place. If I execute well, I've got a shot. There's a chance I could meltdown (literally) and it won't be pretty.

Got my last hard workout prior to the race today. A 4 mile tempo run. I will not reveal the pace for two reasons - 1) it was embarassingly slow and 2) don't need to help the competition.

Now to rest up and stay out of the kitchen.

So This Is How It Feels

2009-07-29T12:56:00.002-05:00

Chisago Lakes Triathlon was the Minnesota debut (as far as I know) of Team Trinity Designs. Here are 3 charter members - Stomper, Me, and NS Rob. There were a lot of us out there and it was kind of fun. NS knew some team members through kids, but didn't know they were on the team.

So this is what it feels like. I'm trying to remember what they call this. Oh yeah! It's racing. After months of focusing on going long, keeping effort sustainable it was really really fun to ride that edge. To push on the swim and bike and hold on for the run.

For the swim I started in the first row and went out hard. Early on a guy was 1/2 body ahead so I tucked in behind him. He was a strong kicker so the water was really churned and easy to follow. I no longer had to worry about picking my way through the numerous floaters, back and breast strokers. This guy was flying. I lost him at the turn despite executing a perfect stroke, backstroke, stroke turnaround. Now I was slightly overcooked with no pilot fish. Took a few breast strokes to catch my breath and put my head down to get to the beach. Where the heck is the beach? I know I was flying on the way out and I haven't lost that much on the way back. Why is this taking so long?

Clearly the swim was WAAAAAAAAAAY long. The fastest pace in the sprint was 2:04/100m which is crazy slow. Finally:

I hit the beach and made it up the hill in 10:11. The usual T1 - not fast but not too slow - 1:59. Wow my heart rate is up there. Took a bit of easy spinning before it dropped at all. I had been hoping to hammer out 22mph for the bike but could tell early that wasn't going to happen.
Rode along at around 21.5. Being in the 3rd sprint wave there weren't a lot of people in front of me. I had expected to get passed constantly but that wasn't really happening either. There was one stretch of road that was rough (the rest was awesome!). I hit a bump and heard what I thought was a tube popping. It was windy so the handling was just squirrely enough that I thought I was going flat on the rear. Pull off, hop off. No flat. Aha. Also no extra tube that I had wedged in between my bag and seat. It had stayed in there for all of IM CDA and numerous other rides, hauls on the rack, but it couldn't last as I charged over the bumps. Only lost 30 seconds as opposed to the minutes it would have taken me to change out the rear.
Finished the 21+ mile ride in 58:52 for an official average of 21.4mph.

My heart rate hovered above 160 for the bulk of the ride. That's way higher than the 135 I'd been training to ride for 6 hours. Not sure how the run will go.

Rocked T2 - 38 seconds. Jog bike to rack, slip off bike shoes and helmet, jam on running shoes, grab pile of gear (hat, glasses, watch and belt) and head out. No reason to stand there putting on the pile. Didn't realize I had another pair of glasses in the hat. Didn't realize it until I took the hat off to dump water on it at first stop. When the glasses hit the pavement I knew. Turned around and picked them up. Now I've got 2 pairs of sunglasses. Tuck 1 into the side pocket of my Trinity Designs top and kept moving.

I didn't look at my watch for heart rate or pace. Just tried to ride that fine line - pushing up to, but not over, the edge as far as my legs were concerned. Once I hit the park I tried to kick it in. There was a woman who had gone back and forth with me on the bike. She passed me early in the run and I thought I wouldn't see her again - yet there she was as we came into the park. I tried to encourage her to run it in hard - "you've got this" she said to me.
Finished the 5k in 27:44. At the finish I was in second but it was really early. Quickly I dropped to third. I never thought it would hold up. After some post race pancakes and soft serve (sweet!) they were calling my name. 3rd place in the Clydesdale division. Sweet. I had hoped to make the podium. I also finished ahead of Stomper - so it was a good day indeed.

After some research I may have discovered what happened to Stomper.
If you're smiling this big during a sprint you are NOT riding hard enough. Keep smilin' at Turtleman Stomper!

Ramsey lost his triginity. Here he is crossing the line. Pretty impressive for a big man training for Twin Cities Marathon in 2 months. He's hooked! Looking to do another race this year before TCM. Easy big fella. We'll get you out there plenty next season.

What a great day for a race. NS and his family came over to the cabin afterwards for some post race beach fun. What a great day!

Chisago Lakes Sprint - mini report

2009-07-27T14:25:00.002-05:00

I was tired of the negative post about the upcoming Turtleman swim leading off the blog so I wanted to get something else up. No pics yet. Full report soon.

Short story - raced well despite rookie mistakes with electronics, balky electronics, and phantom flat. We were in the 3rd wave of the sprint and I didn't think my time would hold up, but it did. Took 3rd in Clydesdale. I had been hoping to hit the podium even though I know I have no control who shows up (only supposed to set goals you can control).

Met Steve in a Speedo briefly before the race. Trinity Design was well represented and everyone had a good morning.

Anyhow - "So this is how it feels" post coming soon.

Turtleman 2009 Swim Preview

2009-07-14T18:18:00.003-05:00

NS Rob - Read no further as I want you to grab one of the remaining spots.

Muck . . . Yuck . . . Ouch . . . Yuck (repeat)

Turtle Lake is low, really low. If you've done the race before you are familiar with the submerged roadbed and the watermelon sized rocks. I almost met one with my face last year. Those rocks are now DRY.

This morning I met Stomper, NS Rob, and Ramsey for a little OW swim in Turtle Lake.

They must have added some sand at the beach - piled it right on top of the muck as it has a springboard feel to it. (the Muck)

You're swimming in/over weeds until you get to the roadbed (the yuck). To the left of the big dry rocks there is a relatively large rock free area that's about 4 inches deep then goes to knee deep for a while. There are smaller rocks though (the Ouch).

Then it is back to the weeds. (more Yuck)

Eventually it deepens enough that you're out of the weeds.

At some point you turn around and get to do it again.

Ok, this may be an overly negative post, but the swim is not going to be great with a stretch that requires walking on the way out and the way back.

I wouldn't predict that Turtleman is going to challenge Minneman for event of the year this year, which is too bad since Tman is such a great event.

I'm still looking forward to the Race for the Turtle. Heck, I'm even looking forward to the swim. Hoping to see how good I can go swimming "only" a mile. There are just going to be some people really freaked out by the muck, the weeds and the walk.

Mentally prepare yourself and rock the swim.

The Fourth Discipline

2009-07-06T14:26:00.003-05:00

Most of you know the 3 disciplines of triathlon - swimming, biking and running. There's a 4th one, and without it we would ever get to race the other 3: volunteering.

Zman and I started our 4th of July off volunteering at the Minneman Triathlon in Oak Grove. I've done the race twice and last year took 2nd in the Clydesdale division. It's WAAAY too soon after CDA for me to racing so I figured I'd give back. I'm a member of the club that sponsors it so I figured I better sign up. We were assigned to the finish but had to be there long before the athletes - 5:15 am. The sun was coming up over the lake as we left the cabin and it was gorgeous. Even Zman thought it was cool. It did make for a really long day with the party and fireworks later but he seems to have recovered.

They grabbed us to pass out chips which was pretty cool - sooner or later every athlete came to see us. I haven't been a spectator at a sprint before. The Minneman has a special novice division which had 2 waves this year. The distances are particularly short - .25, 13 and 3 and it attracts a lot of newbies. It was great having them pop down their kickstands to get body marked and answering their questions.

One of the things I love about this sport is how generally open to newbies it is and how helpful people are. Sure there are a few overly intense jerks but most the most part everyone is out to have a good time.

An athlete came up to us and had forgot her goggles. I directed her to the PA who asked over the soundsystem. No fewer than 6 pairs of goggles were delivered to the PA table for use by anyone who forgot theirs.

Here's a pic of Zman passing out chips.

After the start we made our way to the finish line. We didn't have long to wait for pro David Thompson (placed 2nd at Escape from Alcatraz) who broke his course record - coming in under 54 minutes. I'm sure he was back out on the road that afternoon completing his training for the day.

There were about 5 kids passing out water and taking chips. They had absolutely no feel for who needed a little space after crossing the line but all the athletes were good sports about it. I was at the exit to the finish corral - making sure we got all the chips. A lot of athletes forget about their chip, grab a water and keep moving.

I met another member of the triclub which was nice. It was a beautiful morning and a fun time - even if we missed out on the hotdogs. Zman and I more than made up for it later at the neighbors. Wendy even made me a special fruit pizza! There were 2 ROUNDS of desserts and I tried them all.

Ironman CDA 2009 Race Day Report

2009-06-29T14:14:00.014-05:00

OK, here it comes. The much promised (threatened) race report. So many choices, break it into multiple posts, chuck it up there in one mega post, pictures, video. Decided on one big chronological post with a follow up reflective post.

Here I am headed out with Doc and OB. Having the race on the longest day of the year (in so many ways) has its benefits. I never imagined it would be fully light at 5:00 a.m. Guess I've watched Kona coverage too much - it's always pitch black when the athletes arrive.

Body marking came first. I must admit I was a little disappointed with the sharpie marking just like any ole local triathlon. For some reason I thought we were all marked with the press on numbers like the pros. Got the Guru all loaded up (maybe a little too loaded up it turns out) and then it was time to wait.
Then it was time to SUIT UP! (How I Met Your Mother reference) and head into the beach. I hadn't really told OB and the Doc where I was starting from which was too bad as after a warmup swim we stood around for 15 minutes and I could have talked to them. As it was I used the time to reflect and tried to calm my nerves. I did manage to run head on head into another swimmer during the warmup. Fortunately we were both ok. The waves made it pretty tough to sight. He kept apologizing like it was his fault. I was swimming too!

Anyhow, I went WAAAAAY to the right. I'll trade open water for distance anyday. I couldn't even hear the music and announcements. I did hear the gun though and we were off. Not only did I start right but I swam right. I think the energy I spent swimming an extra 3oo yards paled in comparison to the energy trying to go around, between and over other swimmers in the peleton (can you use that term in a swim?) Maybe scrum is a better term. Here's a shot of the pack.

Believe it or not, my rockstar crew of Sherpa's was able to capture me in the water. Guess having a distinctive swim style pays off sometimes. I have a really slow turnover compared to most swimmers - trying to milk every inch out of each stroke.

My head looks pretty high in these pics but I'm going to attribute that to the waves and it looks like I'm getting decent body rotation.
The swim between the far buoys was really rough. Once you got out there there was nothing sheltering the waves and there was plenty of boat traffic out to see the race kicking up rollers. I thought after the first loop that I could swim closer to the buoys since everyone would be swimming about the same speed. The diagonal from the beach to the first buoy quickly dispelled that notion. Upon reaching the first buoy I kept going wide. The downside was that I couldn't find any feet to follow. I just focused on staying smooth and not pushing it too hard. I exited the water in 1:14:10. That's right around what I was anticipating. After coming out of the water I got out of the top of my wetsuit, found some open strippers and flopped onto my back. It took them a couple of tugs but off came the suit. Fortunately she shoved the suit into my chest as she directed me to the T1 bags. I would have just wandered off without it.
Heading into the tent for T1 (all the kids are wearing their suits this way). From my reading I knew to dump out my bag rather than picking through it to find stuff. Next time I'll have a better plan. I sort of fumbled around - started to put on helmet before shirt, things like that. After a short stop at the Biffy I was grabbing my bike and heading out.

Here's Team Van Sickle - minus OB. I wouldn't have finished without them - of that there is no doubt.
As hard as I tried I could not get my heart rate down where I wanted it. It was still in zone 1 but I was hoping to do the first loop in lower zone 1 instead of upper. Eventually I quit worrying about it and just focused on keeping it in zone 1. The pictures are all in town (where Team Van Sickle was watching) so you won't see me grunting up the hills.

The beginning of the bike was like the swim but on land. Just a scrum. 1:14 puts you up with and in front of some pretty fast bikers. Just as we leave town for the short out and back we make 3 quick sharp turns. This guy with a fully tricked out bike screamed past a bunch of us after the 2nd turn. I turned the corner on the 3rd turn just in time to see him skid across the pavement on his helmet and right shoulder, as his ride went the other direction. His day was over. I kept him in mind throughout the ride - particularly on the more technical descents. That was not how I wanted my day to end.

Sporting the GO BIG Sports jersey. If you're ever in Crested Butte, CO and have a biking need stop in and ask for Pete. These pictures really highlight the need for me to get some racewheels. Ok, so I averaged just under 16 mph so they wouldn't have done much good, but plenty of people behind me had them. It's not even really for me, but don't you think the Guru deserves them.
The first loop of the bike went pretty much as expected. At the beginning of the second loop I stopped to get my special needs bag. Read the card that JRose had made, grabbed some food. Didn't need the change of socks or extra tubes, cartridges. Shortly after getting the SN bag I stopped to pee. Clearly I'm getting enough fluids.

I was really dreading the hills on the second loop. About the time I hit the country club (about mile 80 of the 112 right where the hills start) the inside of my left leg started to cramp. Oh snap! This could get interesting. I was really worried about how it would respond on the climbs. The first climb from the country club is pretty short but steep enough to get your attention. The leg didn't cramp any more on the climb but just felt like it could lock up at any point. I decided I better get some more nutrition in and took banana pieces at the next couple of aid stations. I also ate some powerbars and hit the Gatorade pretty hard. (At this point in the story the soundtrack would feature some foreboding music so you the reader would know a mistake was being made even though the main character was blissfully ignorant.)

At one aid station I wanted Gatorade. They had started to shrink down the number of volunteers at the stations. There were 2 people handing out Gatorade. A women in front of me pulled up to one and stopped. Ok, I'll go to the next guy. As I approached he turned to someone behind him, shouted something. As he turned he took the bottle out of reach. Great. Now I've just got water. I drank the water and ate some more solid food (more foreboding music). At this point of a long ride the slightest thing can start to upset you. I realized what was happening (as far as my mood), told myself that it was outside the box of things I could control and tried to let it go. It worked.

I was amazed at how unfamiliar the course seemed on the second loop. On the first loop it was just as I had ridden it on the Computrainer and driven it (twice, once with Team Van Sickle and again with OB since he wasn't there for the first time). On the second loop I had no idea how many hills were left. I just wanted off. I didn't mind riding into the wind on the way back into town. I just wanted off.

As I coasted into the dismount line a friendly volunteer firmly grabbed both aerobars, made sure to look me right in the eye and said firmly, "I've got your bike, walk behind me for your T2 bag." It's amazing how 7 hours on a bike will turn you into a little bit of a zombie. He clearly had been dealing with some dazed riders as they came into T2.

After getting my transition bag, I realized I needed to hit the Biffy. Nothing upsets the volunteers like an athlete moving in the wrong direction, but they quickly grasped where I was headed. Hmmm, I thought, this is unusual, I've never had to poop during an event, but this is a long event. (more foreboding music).

T2 went very quickly after that - even with the complete outfit change. As I started running I was feeling great. Glad to be off the bike, making decent time, walking the aid stations. I did the first 2 miles in around 11 minutes per.

The Zman ran with me for a bit. It was shortly after this point that it hit.

My bowels shut down. Everything I had taken on the run was sitting in my stomach. I was bloated and cramping. I was quickly reduced to a walk starting at around mile 3. I walked the next 7 miles on my own. The course winds through town and then follows the lake. The wind was screaming off the lake and it started raining. I was cold. I was upset. I didn't take in any fluids or food during those 7 miles (almost 2 hours). I did the math (wrongly) and was convinced I was going to come in at least 5 to 10 minutes after the midnight cutoff. I thought about finding a medical station and just throwing in the towel.

They don't really have the medical stations well marked. Plus I didn't want to wait for a ride back to the park. I decided I would walk back to the park and abandon the race at that point. Several times I was on the verge of tears thinking about having to walk up to the Doc, Zman, JRose, my mom and OB - people that I love, people that had traveled with me to support me in this effort and tell them - "I can't do it." Even now it brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. I knew Anne was emailing a big group around the world with my progress (or lack thereof). In addition, I'm exploring the possibility of getting into athlete coaching. Ironman finisher looks a lot better on the website/resume then Ironman DNF. I felt like I was failing everyone including myself.

Fortunately the Doc and OB hopped on mountain bikes and met me as I came back into town. This is what they found:
I was freezing, walking with my hands in my pockets, and pale green in color. The Doc noticed I was on the verge of tears, and immediately went into crisis management mode.

Months ago I had shown her a blog entry from Bigun's wife Diana that contained a Sherpa guide. One of the things it said is that at some point during the day your athlete is going to want to quit. DO NOT LET THEM.

That's the last time I share any information like that. Somebody asked me if she went into cheerleader mode - I think it was more like drill sergeant. She told me I would make it. She reminded me how bad I wanted this. She did her best to get me to focus on something other than my suffering. She asked me if there was anything in my SN bag that would help. Yes, I had a long sleeve technical shirt in there. "Great! Just concentrate on getting to that."

I told her it didn't matter, I didn't have time. I had done the math. OB looked at me like I was crazy. "Rich, you've got plenty of time. If you keep moving the way you are you have an hour to spare." That was not the answer I wanted at the time. If looks could kill OB would still be lying by the side of the road.

He wasn't the only one to receive a killer look. As I got closer to the park, one of the owners of the house we rented saw me and shouted "You're going to make it Rich!" I was confused, my vision isn't great after long rides - cloudy, and my bib said Richard so I knew it must be someone who knew me and wasn't reading my bib. I didn't recognize the voice and still didn't really want to make it. I turned in her direction with disgust on my face. The person next to her asked her what she had done to me. Ooops. Sorry Kristina. Glad we saw you after the banquet so I could apologize and explain.

At some point I got a mylar cape with a hole for my head. It helped a little. I then noticed a guy going the opposite direction using his race belt to hold down the cape. Looked a little like Conan (the Bararian not O'Brien). Ooooh, I thought. This guy's a genius! So I rigged mine up and kept going.

Zman met me at the end of the short out and back that starts both loops. He wanted to be sure to run through the 7 goals of your first Ironman that don't involve a finish time. 1. Finishing 2. Finishing standing up 3. Finishing without visiting the medical tent etc. . . Why do I let these people read? Actually it was really cute and did help.

I got my long sleeve shirt. The thought of stripping off my cape and jacket to put it on was less than appealing. I hit the bathroom in the park (have I left the course am I DQ'd?) to strip down out of the wind. Got myself reassembled and headed out.

It was at this point I started walking with a woman from Texas. You can see her in one of the video shots - she's got a black garbage bag on and is in front of me. She had been in a motorcycle v. semi accident in 2006 (she wasn't driving the truck). Her leg still bore the scars. She was carrying pictures of it from the hospital and was just so positive about being able to be doing what she was doing. Her attitude was infectious. I started to realize that I was being negative about my situation.

XT4 (Becoming Ironman) has a blog entry about encountering negative people during the race and staying as far away as possible. I didn't want to be that negative energy on the course and tried to turn it around. I still wasn't feeling good so I had to slow down and let her go ahead. At this point I started taking water again. I even tried some chicken broth which almost caused me to hurl immediately. The water was helping. Aside from one mile that involved 2 Biffy stops (right after the broth) I maintained about 17/min miles. Not flying but not strolling either to be sure.

The weather on the second loop greatly improved. It actually got warmer by the lake. The wind died down and the water was warmer than the air. At one point near the turnaround the course curves right and heads uphill. They had lights at the top near the turnaround. There was steam rising from the road and several athletes were walking towards me through the mist. The lights behind them gave it an ethereal backlit feeling. All that was missing was some Chariots of Fire music. (The athletes were already providing the slow motion at that point in the evening).

At long last I made the left had turn towards the finish. A volunteer offered to take my cape for me (now being carried since it was warmer). I felt cheesy running in after walking for 23 miles but it's almost a requirement.

As you can see in these pics I was thrilled - as were my Sherpa's.
The Doc has been saying for months that this was my Ironman, not my first Ironman, my Ironman. I couldn't resist putting up 1 finger and announcing "First one done" - much like Lance and his 7.
Despite the excitement - I was exhausted and couldn't keep from yawning.
Final time 15:47:53. Left 1:12 on the table, but still think I got my money's worth. What does it all mean to me? That's a good question and one for another post.

My IM CDA Video Compilation

2009-06-29T10:35:00.002-05:00

So here it is. The compilation of video taken by OB during the race. For reasons which will become readily apparent, I'm calling it "Nice Job Rich, Way to go Rich!"

I think the race and trip is catching up with me. I'm deeply fatigued. Just taking the kids to swimming and hitting the store have really wiped me out. I'm still intending on describing the day and adding pictures but right now it seems like too daunting a task.

Ironman CDA 2009 Highlights Video

2009-06-28T09:24:00.003-05:00

I promise (or threaten) more personal race videos and pics plus my "story" for the day. If you've got ten minutes to kill I highly recommend checking out the vid produced by the IM people. They took out the cool music they had at the awards banquet (stupid copyright laws), but it definitely gives you a flavor for the day:

Ironman Video

if you don't have the quicktime plugin you can choose a different format at

http://ironmancenter.com/

Upon our return we discovered vandals had struck our garage in our absence. Cool Vandals!!!! Thanks Stomper and Ramsey!

The Bottom Line

2009-06-22T22:39:00.003-05:00

That's the bottom line. I know some of you want more details. They'll be forthcoming - probably not until next weekend as Glacier is not a wi-fi hotbed. I've been pretty tired today, but am not very sore so that's good. We've got a ton of pictures and more videos from the day.

I can tell you that the thought of all of you following me out there following me online, via Anne's updates was one of the factors that kept me going during what we are calling my dark patch.

Off to bed for me.

Surprise!

2009-06-20T08:38:00.003-05:00

So I got a surprise last night. Anne and my mom didn't go to Spokane for facials; they went to pick up my lifelong friend and head sherpa OB. Don't get me wrong, the Doc has been doing a bang up job sherpa'n for me this week (despite all the grief I've been giving her . . . "OB wouldn't have left me standing in this registration line by myself" and the like). I feel guilty since OB has purchased a new business this year and has been working for months straight and is here with me instead of on vacation with his family. Danny will you ever forgive me?
Oh yeah, what do you think of the new haircut? High and tight for the race.

We went to the mandatory meeting last night. The director of each sport and the overall director went over the rules. No real surprises - other than the no passing zone on the bike course. That should be interesting. When you think about it - 7 meters is a long way! That's how much space we're to maintain between bikes.

What do you mean I can't wear flippers and a snorkel?

As it said in the paper this morning "1 days until Ironman" - I thought that was funny. No need to have a special graphic for the last day - just plug in the 1 and print it.

The weather looks to be very interesting. High of around 60 (nice) but with rain and possibly thunderstorms in the afternoon. If it gets wet out there it could make for a long chilly day out there.

Today I'm planning on getting in a short swim, finalizing my transition bags and special needs bags and checking in my bike and transition bags. OB wants to see some of the bike course so we'll probably drive out and take another look. The registration for 2010 for this year's athletes is also this morning. There's one line I won't be in (or so I've been told).

Thanks everybody who has sent me comments on the blog or emails wishing me luck. It's nice to know you all are thinking of me as I undertake this ridiculous event.

Gatorade Swim

2009-06-18T11:48:00.004-05:00

This is the goal!

This morning the Doc and I headed down to the park for the Gatorade Swim. The have a place where you can check your gear while you swim and then get either a Gatorade bike water bottle or a bottle of . . . Gatorade.

I know I put my goggles in here some place.

Yup, wind out of the south again this morning. Made for a roller coaster like swim. They have some buoys set out 3 on each side. It was about a 15 minute swim. I'm guessing it was 1/2 the course or a little under. The water is a pleasant 65 degrees. No need for neoprene cap, booties or anything. The water is clear, there are no weeds (which is a pleasant change for me) - just some funky debris on the bottom occasionally.
The Tribike Transport trucks were all lined up and unloading. The Guru is in there someplace (I hope). Registration, shopping and lunch, then picking up the bike.

Getting in the water has really seemed to lift my mood. I've been grooving to music in the house ever since we got back. I would have to say that I am getting excited. That's a good thing right.

Some Pics

2009-06-17T20:58:00.003-05:00

The brightest rainbow I've ever seen. Over Lake Yellowstone at sunset. Great way to end the day.
Morning kayak on Lake Yellowstone. It was freezing cold but we had a good time. We thought we were going to see some features you could only see from the water. Not so much. But the 4 mile paddle was still a good time.
Idaho at last. That trip from Yellowstone to CDA seemed to take forever. Lots to see. We only let my mom stop to take 1/2 the pics she wanted.
The hills on the bike course are as advertised. Right now the weather for race day is predicted as a high of 64 (clydesdale weather!) and dare I say it - "isolated" thundershowers. As in, Rich is racing so the thunder is isolated to the course. Guess I better strap my jacket onto my bike as I may want it if the skies open up in the morning. If it rains on the run that's no big deal. (Famous last words).

5 - 4 . . . Ignition . . .

2009-06-17T12:28:00.002-05:00

So I ran today for the first time in at least a week. Just a couple of miles ON THE RUN COURSE. The flat little out and back that starts it off. It's gorgeous, although I'm not sure how much I'll appreciate that the next time I'm on it.

The good news is that I felt nothing in the knee. As I sit here typing I feel nothing in the knee. That's a great sign. Tomorrow I'm reunited with the Guru and will take her out for a spin and I'll have an even better idea how the knee is doing.

The wind was out of the south and pretty brisk. Granted it was later in the morning than the start. It was kind of fun running past all the toned legs standing there staring out at the whitecaps pounding into the beach - looking nervous. While I'm not hoping for rough water, I'm not dreading it either.

We're staying about 2 blocks from the beach. As I headed out the door I could see a guy with disc wheel, deep front rim, full aero helmet, matching arm and leg warmers, full kit. He'll be home and in bed before I finish!

That's one of the reasons that I'm going to minimize my contact with other athletes. While I want to soak in the whole experience, I don't need to spend extra time around the 155 pound greyhounds. I'll feel the energy enough with registration, check in, and swim tomorrow a.m.

Those of you who know me best know I'm essentially a hermit anyhow.

We're driving the bike course this afternoon. I feel like I know it pretty well from the Computrainer. It will be nice to see it firsthand. Right now the family is at the Visitor Center (which is also the volunteer hub). Who knows when I'll see them again. It's apparent in the media how enthusiastic the community is about the event. It seems like sometimes other places I've been have been less enthusiastic about big festivals or events - sort of tolerating them. I get the feeling that this event draws the community out - volunteering and often participating.

The house seems to be working out great. Zman was a little creeped out about renting it with the owners' stuff still around as opposed to a designated rental property. The owners' are super nice - even cleaning up and clearing out on 4 hours notice when they thought we were arriving a day later.

Tonight I hope to put up some pics from Yellowstone and the course.

Beware of Snakes and Sendoff pics

2009-06-14T07:51:00.003-05:00

Always good advice I suppose.

These pics are in reverse order because that's what happened and I can't spend the whole trip blogging. Yellowstone and breakfast beckon. Below are the Team shirts Pearson ordered up. I'll be looking for the crew in red on raceday.
Here I am at the sendoff party with my training partners - NS Rob, Zman, Jim (holding Ben up), me, Ramsey and Stomper. Thanks guys, especially NS Rob went above and beyond in joining me for those basement spin sessions.
I won't be back until Tuesday when we hit CDA. I doubt Yellowstone is a hotbed of wifi hotspots. Geothermal hotspots - yes, wifi - no.

Number 1068

2009-06-11T10:40:00.003-05:00

1068 VAN SICKLE RICHARD 40 M AGE M40-44 MINNEAPOLIS MN USA

Hey, that's me.

You can track my progress on raceday at ironman.com. Just enter 1068 for my bib number.

Note: CDA is on Pacific time so I'll be hitting the water at 9:00 a.m. Central (and the race isn't over until 2:00 a.m. Central) - although I'm hoping it won't take me that long.

Major, ridiculously drastic bike position change in the works. What? Don't change anything right before the race. How about changing everything. Well, if that's what the doctor orders and it helps me limp this knee through the race what choice do I have?

What's all this?

2009-06-09T12:13:00.002-05:00

Can I really need all this stuff? The race is "only" (officially) 17 hours long. Actually looking at the picture it's hard to tell how much stuff is really there since some of it is stacked.

I've got basic mild/warm weather gear for all 3 legs (swim, bike, run) plus cold/wet weather for bike and run, plus change of socks for bike and run, body glide for each transition and special needs bag.

Apparently some of you think special needs bag is a funny term. Nothing funny about a change of socks, peanut butter and jelly and inspirational note from loved ones 127 miles into the day.

I had grabbed a Rubbermaid tub to put all the stuff in so I only have to keep track of my tub on the way out. Thought it might be ridiculously large - turns out the stuff barely fit.

New Plan

2009-06-08T17:20:00.004-05:00

I've got a new plan. It may come as a shock to some of you (especially if you were planning on watching my kids tomorrow while I bike). I'm done.

No, I'm not giving up but I'm done. In triathlon one principle is to work on your limiters. If you're a bad swimmer put more energy into that aspect than you do in your strengths. Most people enjoy doing the thing they're good at so they usually do the opposite.

Right now my limiter isn't my training - it may become my limiter but right now it is not. Right now my limiter is my right knee - specifically the quadriceps tendon. The only way to get it to heal is rest. I can continue to get PT - iontopherisis to reduce inflammation, but to heal it needs rest. I can work on strengthening my hamstrings and glutes to reduce to stress on the knee. What I can't do if I want to finish is continue to limp along half training and half healing.

I'm shutting it down.

I will continue to swim my prescribed workouts. I will ride my bike upon arriving in CDA to make sure everything is buttoned down ready to roll. I may even run a bit in CDA. Other than that I am saving the remaining undamaged fibers of my tendon for raceday.

Well, at least that is my plan at 5:25 on Monday. Check back with me at 10:40 on Tuesday and it may change. Until then I'll be the one twitching in the corner with the worried look on my face.

Confindence gained, confidence lost

2009-06-08T08:30:00.004-05:00

Yesterday morning I had a real confidence booster. I completed a 1 hour open water swim with a stiff breeze stirring up some chop. Went out for 15 minutes, back, walked up to the cabin and then repeated. The walk was to simulate coming out of the water between loops at the course. It felt good. No real fatigue. Granted I was on my own without 2500 thrashing competitors but I was happy.

Yesterday afternoon I had my confidence crushed. I went for a 2 hour ride and the knee really started to bug me. It wasn't too bad unless I stopped at traffic signals (yes, Dave those lights are for us bikers too) and then it would stiffen up quickly. The only positive was that at the end of the ride I threw in a decent hill and that didn't seem to make it worse. I did run off the bike and that wasn't too bad.

Got a call this morning that my therapist is in having a baby (nice planning, eh) so I'm not getting therapy today. Arrrrgh! Ok, now I just got a follow up call and I'm getting iontopheresis over their lunch hour. At least that will knock down the inflammation.

I knew Ironman was going to be painful but I thought it would be the "man, I'm tired and sore" kind of pain not the I'm injured and just suffering through this hoping to limp across the line kind of pain. I told Anne last night that she should be prepared for me to head to the medical tent if I am fortunate enough to finish because I'm surely going to need some help for the knee.

Wednesday I have PT and a doc appointment. First issue for doc is whether pushing through pain may cause long term damage or is it just a matter of gritting my teeth through it.

Happy Monday!

Clearance Clarence

2009-06-03T16:58:00.002-05:00

So I went in for PT today. They didn't have me scheduled for the video analysis, but she wasn't with a patient so she graciously agreed. Couple of minor issues - revealed the need to stretch more.

Received Graston on my IT band. Think of it as rubbing the side of your leg with the end of a wrench.

Got some new clenching exercises - since apparently I don't clench enough.

Had some steroids electically injected into the tendon site to reduce inflamation.

The best news is that as long as pain stays at 2/10 or less there's no reason to stop training. Thus the clearance Clarance. Hoping to get on the bike for 2 hours tomorrow and see how that goes. I've got about a million appointments between now and when I leave.

I'm also going to be one of those athletes on raceday - kinesio tape. It's pure voodoo, but when in deep doo doo you grab voodoo - it's what you do.

Ironman - Where Healthy Hobby Meets All Consuming Obsession

2009-06-02T08:39:00.003-05:00

It's really amazing to me how this single event has completely taken over my every thought and action. It seems even more all consuming now that I've had to drastically reduce my training to try and get this knee healed up. Whether it's making arrangements for dog care, reading any of the collection of articles, books and blogs - searching for that kernel that will take me across the line, or just plain obsessing, IM CDA is always there. Even thoughts of starting a new career are only minorly distracting (probably since it's a triathlon related career).

Sunday I sherpa'd for the guys at the Minneapolis Marathon. They were doing the half. It started at 7:00 a.m. (as all great races do). Afterwards we got some Panera. We commented that I would still be out on the bike course. As I went to bed that evening I realized - odds were I'd STILL be out there (not on the bike) - hopefully close to the finish. That's a little daunting to say the least.

Sometimes in the midst of it, I forget how crazy this whole thing really is. A 5 1/2 hour bike ride seems completely normal to me. It's much better than a 3 1/2 hour ride in the basement, even on the computrainer. I mean who doesn't do that? Oh, pretty much everyone.

Rode an easy hour with NS Rob following an open water swim. The knee tightened up pretty good especially in the evening. It's not healed yet. I couldn't get in to PT until tomorrow. I'm hoping my shoes will arrive today (darn these wide feet and the need to order online) so I can put in 3 miles and see how that goes.

I keep trying to tell myself that I have the training in and I'll cross the line. I can't help from wondering though . . . Do I really? Looking back I've missed a couple of significant chunks of time with the bronchitis and now the knee. At this point in my training I should be just about completely wrecked and then bounce back over the next 19 days. Instead I've "tapered" early. I'd be better off if the race was this Sunday (assuming my knee could take it).

Anyhow, all of these self doubts and concerns are totally par for the course. I need to get past them though and trust the work I've done. Remind myself that the goal, the ONLY goal, for me on June 21 is to finish.

I need to ride like my century ride where I spent 1 hour 15 minutes in Zone 1, 4 hours in Zone 2 and 20 minutes in Zone 3. NOT like my Kentucky Half IM where I spent ZERO time in Zone 1, 13 minutes in Zone 2, 2 hours in Zone 3, nearly 1 hour in Zone 4 and 2 minutes in Zone 5.

If I can do that I WILL finish the marathon. I will be an Ironman. It's a matter of having the will to remove the if.

I'd like to get the last brick in the schedule in the books just to see if I can run off the bike. Time will tell.

Now with Ironman Killing Capabilities!

2009-05-27T13:05:00.003-05:00

As a Clydesdale triathlete pursuing Ironman distance dreams, shoe replacement is a critical issue. At 215 pounds (or more most days) shoes break down quickly. For the past couple of years I've been in the latest incarnation of the Brooks Adrenaline GTS. I survived the introduction of the GTS 8 so I thought nothing of it when it was time for new shoes and the GTS 9's were introduced.

What the literature didn't include:

"Now with added Ironman Killing Capabilities" what it said was:

* Engineered Heel Geometry: We altered the “crumple zone configuration” (the lateral/outsole heel where the foot strikes the ground — or, the “colored heel” portion of the shoe) through a separate mold piece that helps to better control motion at impact.

Apparently altering the "crumple zone configuration" was the equivalent of altering the biomechanics to a sufficient extent to push your weary ironman training tendons over the edge.

We'll get this verified when I have a full gait analysis next week but the current suspect is in the words of Spike Lee "Money, it's gotta be the shoes!"

I have already found and ordered a couple of pairs of the GTS 8's so hopefully I'll get the quad tendon calmed down, loosen up the IT band and get back out there. For now I'm headed to the pool!

This post is in no way to be interpreted as a slight against Brooks, its shoes or employees. I'm sure the improved crumple zone works great for most other people. (No tortious interference or commercial slander here folks - corporate drones move along)

Century Ride/Bump in the Road or Brick Wall?

2009-05-25T20:12:00.001-05:00

Well, that's a first! I'm spinning along the county highways in Anoka/Isanti and Kanebec Counties. I turn the corner from Viking onto Rum River and then it happened.

No, I didn't have to dash into the woods for natural break as they say in the peleton (at least that's what Phil Liggett says).

It was a bear.

A black bear, ursus americanus, to be precise. We don't really have any other kind in Minnesota outside the zoos.

At first I didn't realize that it was a bear. As it came down the embankment into the ditch about 50 yards in front of me I thought "That's a big dog!" and instantly sat up from the aero position. I'd encountered 2 loose dogs in my last race and was prepared to give it the "HAAAAAAAAAY - Go HOME!" treatment when I realized what I was dealing with. Hit the brakes moving just enough to stay vertical. He (I say he only because "it" had no cubs and seemed big enough to have one if "it" was a she) stopped on the shoulder in front of me, sized me up and ambled across the road and into the woods on the other side. There was a jogger about 200 yards in front of me. The bear was in between us and I'm sure he didn't see it. I'll have to figure out where that was and check my heartrate.

Anyhow, the rest of the ride went great. I was on flat terrain for reasons I'll get to later, but I finished 100 miles in 5:31. The day was gorgeous and I had no issues, other than the one.

THE ISSUE - BUMP IN THE ROAD OR BRICK WALL

My right knee is cranky. Patellar Tendinosis is my laymen's diagnosis. It's also known as runner's knee. Unfortunately biking is aggravating it. I felt a little something during the race last week. Thursday I went for a short fast spin and it bothered me quite a bit. After my 2:30 run on Friday it was really barking. I postponed my long ride until Sunday, and decided to ride the flat ground near the cabin rather than heading for the hills. Even so, I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the ride. It didn't bother me too much (other than the ocassional tweak) until the last 5 miles.

Today, Monday, I took off except for a short rough water (for here) open water swim. I'm heading in to the doctor and will be checking with my bike guru (the guy not the Guru) to make sure there isn't a problem with my cleat position.

Hopefully I can get this cleared up and proceed. I take some solace that I got both of my long workouts done this week - somewhat close to the peaks next week so if I have to go based on the training I have in I think I can finish. Assuming I can heal the knee.

Time will tell if this is a bump in the road or the dreaded brick wall.

Race Report? or Self Flagellation? No, No that's flatulation

2009-05-19T16:31:00.004-05:00

I'm a masters athlete, that means I'm 40 years old. That's SUPPOSED to mean that I have attained a certain level of wisdom and experience. I've been doing triathlons for 4 seasons now. Saturday was my 4th Half Ironman.

Let's examine the closing of my last pre-race post. "My goal is to stay well within my heart rate range on the bike and see how it goes on the run."

Percentage attainment of goal: 0%

But I suppose I should start at the beginning. First of all, the weather report. Rich is doing a HIM so that means it's raining. I'm 4 for 4 with thunderstorms and HIMs. Fortunately this one was only during the setup and not during the race. I still got wet though so I'm counting it. At one point I was leaning into the mini-van when suddenly there was a bright flash followed immediately by a crash that echoed through the lake valley. A women in the parking lot was holding an umbrella and felt a spark. Lucky for her that was all. She must have raced because on the run I heard some spectators encouraging a women "lightning doesn't strike twice."

The weather did cause a delay in the start because they had to stop setting up the swim course and then had motor trouble on the boat. I think the course ended up a bit short based upon my time.

The swim.

We were lined up waist deep in the water on the boat ramp. I was suprised how many people were hanging back. There were probably 150 of us in all. The men started as one group. I found some open water after just a couple of bumps.

Found myself swimming next to a guy stroke for stroke. He's breathing on his left and I'm breathing on my right so every stroke there's this guys face. I thought, this is crazy, just get behind him. A couple of breast strokes later I'm drafting. Really having to take it easy because we were going the same speed. One hundred yards later I see a guy moving faster. I get on his feet and ride them for the last half of the first loop and the entire second loop. He was a straight swimmer and moving. The couple of times I lost his feet I had to goose it to catch up, but while I was behind him I was swimming easy.

Picked the right guy to follow. He finished 5th overall and won the 45-49 age group. No wonder he thought I was being negative when I thanked him for the ride and said "now to spend the rest of the day getting passed." I was out of the water in 28:54. A 1.2 mile PR (assuming it was 1.2). They didn't break it down overall, but I had the 3rd fastest swim out of the 15 40-44ers. Which only made my finish of 13th even more bitter.

Transition:
A couple of volunteers offered to strip for us, errrr to strip us. They were inexperienced and didn't quite get the wetsuits off in one smooth motion. I'm not sure it was faster than taking it off myself, but I give them credit for the effort. I guess maybe an inexperienced stripper is better than no stripper.

The Bike.

This is the hill out of transition. It doesn't look like much in the first picture but it climbs about 200 feet and the second picture is more representative of the slope. When I got to the top my heart rate was pretty much redlined - 170 bpm. There was no real opportunity to spin easy and bring it down. I spent the whole 3+ hours telling myself I needed to get my heartrate down. I wanted my average to be under 135, ideally under 130. I ended up at 145.

I did spend the whole bike getting passed. Nobody who swims faster than 30 minutes bikes slower than me.

The t-shirt has the motto "At Least the Water is Flat" - no kidding. The bike has at least 3700 feet of vertical.

These hills are representative of what we on the WHOLE ride. The real gem was a 300 foot climb (gentle but long) at mile 48. The inside of my left quad threatened to cramp on that one (and is still pretty knotted up).

The last few miles, including the big climb were on a four lane divided highway with shoulders. The rest of the course had no shoulders. They're pretty much unheard of in rural Kentucky. Most riders were riding in the right lane, getting passed by trucks hauling boats and horse trailers (not at the same time). I figured I'd rather flat on the shoulder than be flat on the highway. Got my wish at mile 52. In sight of the turn into the park. The change went alright, although I had to stop and refill it since I hadn't put in enough air - 5 minutes lost.

3:17 for a 17 mph average. Ugh, and that wasn't taking it easy enough. 3:12 on the bike computer for a 17.4 average.

The Ralk.

The Ralk (Run/Walk combo - mostly walk) began climbing that same hill out of transition. Once at the top we ran a 2 mile out and back 3 times, then back down to the finish.

I planned to walk the big hill. No sense totally killing myself in the first 1/4 mile.

It's all a blur of hot sun (I've got yet another creative burn pattern to prove it), rolling hills, and cursing myself for not saving more for the run.

At the beginning my legs were shot. Eventually they stopped bothering me. Then it was more a matter of will (or lack thereof) to get myself running. I think I let my nutrition slip away on the last 45 minutes of the bike - a man can only eat so many lemon lime cliff blocks. I probably should have stopped and eaten more during the run - perhaps I would have rebounded. I was afraid of getting bloated.

It was probably good training for CDA in that I just had to keep going even though I didn't feel like it.

It has caused me to reevaluate my goals. Actually I now have one goal for CDA: to finish within the time limit. Anything else is gravy. If a 15 mph bike will help me cross the line that's what I will do. I CAN NOT spend the bike trying to get the heart rate down in June. The one nice thing is that I don't encounter the real hills until mile 19 or so. That's plenty of time to spin easy after the swim.

Interesting (to me). In finishing a 2 fricking 43 1/2 marathon my average heartrate was 146. If I were to step outside and do that same 2:43 my bpm would probably be under 130. Clearly, something was going on.

Now to recover and start back at it. The Guru should be back in my hands Friday ready for the 5:30 bike ride Saturday. Anyone up for a century?

Stupid Boy

2009-05-17T07:57:00.001-05:00

I am a stupid stupid boy. Race report to follow once I'm back in town with
A keyboard instead of iPhone.

Bye Bye Love and Are You Sure

2009-05-11T16:57:00.003-05:00

Bye Bye Love:

So I packed up the Guru into a slightly undersized box - beggars can't be choosers (thanks to Larry from The Fix my masseur/coach/bike fitter for the box). It was a tight fit but she's in there. I took it to an authorized Fedex shipper who apparently specializes in sending money orders out of the country. I'm sure I'm on some watchlist just for walking in and out of the place carrying a large box. Their "computers were down" but if I wanted to leave the box they'd call me when they were up and running. Uh, no thanks. Headed to Fedex Kinko's down the road. $31 later I was without a tri bike. I can't believe that's all it cost even with a declared value of 2k. Sure beats $175 EACH WAY from Delta.

I just checked and she has arrived in Kentucky. She should be at Main Street Bikes in Shelbyville, KY getting reassembled and tuned tomorrow.

Are You Sure This Was A Good Idea?

Here's the bike profile for the half IM next week. Yes I wanted a hilly course but I'm not sure this was what I had in mind. There's no profile for the run, but I imagine it looks a lot like the bike. The website says we will enjoy several hills on the run.

My goal is to stay well within my heart rate range on the bike and see how it goes on the run. Last week I got my head handed to me. I had a 3 hour, 1 hour brick. I rode the bike with a couple of friends and got a little overbaked. My legs were tired when I started and rode a little harder than I should have. Knew it at the time, but thought I'd be ok. WRONG! A shuffling 1/2 hour into the ralk (run/walk with mostly walk) I pulled the plug. Believe me, I will remember that day in Kentucky and at CDA.

Open Water and Tweaks

2009-05-05T17:27:00.002-05:00

We spent the weekend working at the lake - putting in the dock, lift, yard cleanup. Man that just killed me. Woke up and felt like I'd been on a bender Sunday a.m. Decided to go for a ride. A little over 1.5 hours of spinning on the flat roads by the cabin and I felt much better.

Before we left I cracked out the new wetsuit (which looked suspiciously like a women's suit - necessitating a call to NS Rob to compare it to the cut of his), threw on a couple silicone caps and ear plugs and hit the water. The ice has been out for 3 weeks so it wasn't too bad. Granted I was in there for about 10 minutes but no ice cream headache or white fingers or toes. My escort (Zman) was blown away in the canoe by the wind so we headed back. The suit works although it is still an adjustment with the restrictive nature of a wetsuit.

Monday I had a follow up bike fit appointment. We put the seat back where it belongs. On a long ride I found it was completely loose at a rest stop and just cranked it down where it was. Turns out I've been riding the nose the past few weeks. It should be a bit more comfortable now.

We raised my hands a bit, which dropped my elbows a little. All in all it takes some pressure off my lats and should make me slightly more aero. I'm not sure how my aero bottle will work as it will be tipped back, but we'll see on my ride on Thursday.

The video shows that my pedal stroke is pretty decent - knees don't flare out anymore (guess losing most of that gut was a good idea). My upper body stays quiet so all in all I should be pretty efficient.

At the end of the week I ship the Guru down to Kentucky for my 1/2 IM tuneup. I will be glad when that's over and the Guru is home. For some reason the logistics are stressing me out. Probably doesn't help that we're headed down to Illinois this weekend so I've got two trips to get organized for when I'd really just like to focus on CDA. It will be good to have a race under my belt though. I'm anxious to see how the run feels compared to my other 1/2s.

Riding with Dave Thursday a.m. - odds are something interesting will happen (as opposed to this post which was decidedly dull).

A Tale of Many Rides

2009-04-29T08:34:00.003-05:00

In the past 3 days I've ridden 148 miles. It was really only two rides - the Ironman Bike Ride and a training ride on most of the TCBC Tinman route yesterday, but it seemed like it was many rides.

Ironman Bike Ride

The Ironman Bike Ride has been held for 43 years in the south metro. It has no association with the Ironman triathlon but is able to continue to use the Ironman name due to prior usage (sorry, the recovering attorney comes out every now and then). The ride has 30, 67 and 100 mile routes. Officially it's a 65 mile route but when I mapped it out and when I rode it, I got 67.

It's called Ironman because it's late April in Minnesota and it goes in whatever weather. Their motto is "there's no bad weather, only poor clothing choices."

This year the Ironman really broke down into three seperate rides, the dry ride with the wind to the first rest stop (22 miles), the wet 45 degrees F ride into/cross the wind in the pouring rain with occassional flashes of lightning to the second rest stop (mile 45), and for some, the bus ride from the rest stop to the start. Half of our merry band of 6 dropped out at the 2nd rest stop. No shame there - it was damn cold. They haven't published the official totals, but I bet the 67 and 100 had around 50% SAG rates.

I debated dropping out since I'm getting over this cold, but felt good - actually felt stronger as the ride went on. Dave and I dropped NS Rob right out of the gate. Felt a little bad about that but we needed to keep rolling to stay warm. Fortunately NS didn't mind.

It may be a symptom of my particular dementia, but I actually had a blast. It seemed like when it started raining everyone on the road slowed down. I couldn't figure it out. It doesn't suck any less when you're going slow, it just sucks longer.

Tinman Route

Yesterday NS and I rode the TCBC Tinman route, starting from NS's house. I had never ridden in the Afton area and loved it. It was a bluebird spring day. A little wind, but that just added to the challenge. I did 78 miles in 4:40. Still rolling pretty slow - generally kept my heart rate about 20 beats below LT - went above LT on 2 of the climbs. I had hoped to ride for 5 hours, but shortened the route a bit on the north end a little too much. 3,600 feet of climbing. I want to go back and ride the up the hill on the south side of Afton. It was a sweet descent - smooth road, clean shoulder, winding curves, but will be a great workout going the other direction.

Worked on my nutrition plan for CDA. Sports drink every 10 min and solid food on the 1/2 hour. It's still a little loose, as we get closer I'll have to actually calculate calories and make sure I'm getting enough.

TMI Warning
I really wish they didn't use so much die in Powerade and Gatorade - the blue ones really make for some interesting colors after they've been processed by your body.

So You're Telling Me There's a Chance

2009-04-22T08:58:00.002-05:00

Forgive me Ironman, for it has been 7 days since I have trained. That's right after my 75 mile ride last Wednesday I have not swum, biked, run, or yoga'd. Instead I've sweat/shivered with chills from a low grade temp, hacked like a 2 pack a day smoker but mostly obsessed about how my visions of Mdotness were slipping away.

Fortunately there are a plethora of articles on the internets (tip of the hat to the mangled syntax of our former prez) about training interruptions due to illness. They helped calm my jitters by assuring me that I'd be ok.

Based upon the duration of my symptoms the Doc decided it was bronchitis and hooked me up with a Z-pack. Monday night I took the first dose. Tuesday afternoon I was fit to be tied - 101 degree fever, still felt like crap. Then as the afternoon became evening, I suddenly started to feel better - almost like myself again. Funny how that works. Today I feel great. Still hacking up phlegm, but I feel great.

I've even got a plan to get back on track. I'm looking to do an easy swim this afternoon, yoga and a run tomorrow then a bike on Friday. I'm going to keep the intensity low for the next couple of weeks and just work on getting my volume back where it needs to be. I've already switched from the 100 to the 65 mile ride at the Ironman Bikeride on Sunday. Now I'll be able to ride with Ramsey, Stomper, NS Rob, Jim and Dave. Should be a good time.

So you're telling me there's a chance I can do this thing after all.

Lobbying for Sunscreen App Clinic

2009-04-16T15:09:00.004-05:00

The various Triclubs in town have clinics every year: Your First Tri, Bike Handling, Stretching, Nutrition you name it. Well, I'm lobbying for another clinic: Sunscreen Application for Triathletes. Apparently I could be case example number 1. You would think that last year I would have learned that your clothing moves once you drop into the aero position. Nope, now in addition to the stripe on my back - still visible from last year, I have a nice band around my left bicep.

See what happens when I lie around all day instead of getting out there training. You get partial nudity.

Bounceback Shutdown

2009-04-16T08:05:00.002-05:00

Well, that was short lived. Started to feel the crud coming back after the repeats on Tuesday. Apparently a 75 mile hilly ride doesn't really help fight a cold. Had a great ride though. NS Rob came along for about 56 miles before heading back to pick up his little girl.

Immediately upon my return home, I started getting chills. I spent last night with cold sweats. I'm taking that as a sign that I need to back off again. If I take today and tomorrow off, hopefully I'll feel up to my long run on Saturday. Next week is a recovery week so that should help.

Yesterday's ride definitely showed me I've got a long way to go. I can't imagine having to run yesterday. Hopefully it was the cold holding me back.

Carry on.

Nason Hill Road Repeats

2009-04-14T20:24:00.004-05:00

Today was the first day I made it outside for some hill repeats. I headed out to Nason Hill Road just south of Marine on St. Croix. According to my Garmin, it has 213 feet of climbing in .6 miles. The elevation looks like this (and shows closer to 180 feet of vertical):

A decent hill. I need to check the CDA course to see how it compares with those. Bottom line on the workout - I need more! More repeats, more hills, more rollers, more long climbs, more.
After 5 climbs that took between 4 and 4:30 minutes each I was pretty well cooked. I'm sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow on my long ride (4.5 hours is the plan) but the weather is supposed to be too sweet to pass up. Plus NS Rob is coming along for the trip. He still says he's not doing the 100 at Ironman Bikeride - actually no one from the group is, but I'm saving my stored up vitriol for another post.

Healthy Again

2009-04-14T08:44:00.002-05:00

So I think I kicked the cold finally. It really couldn't have come at a better time. With having the kids at home last week I'm not sure how I would have gotten my workouts in. I ended the week only short 1 run and 1 swim. Got all my key workouts in and feel better. A successful week I'd say.

We decided to take the kids up to Duluth and the North Shore for Easter Weekend since we didn't travel for their spring break due to their first communion. I planned to do my 2:45 bike on Old 61 along Lake Superior Saturday a.m. It was about 34 degrees when I left. I now remember why I don't like riding when it's in the 30's. First off, with tights and a jacket I feel like I'm pushing a snow plow down the road. Secondly, after about an hour my hands and feet started to go numb. Third, they could use some rain up there as there was quite a bit of sand on the shoulder.

It wasn't a pleasant ride, despite the beautiful surroundings. One thing about riding a tri bike in beautiful surroundings. Unless the scenery happens to be on the road about 100 feet in front of you, you're not really going to see it without an effort. The aero position just doesn't lend itself to sight seeing.

I'm heading out today to do hill repeats on Naslon Hill. I'll let you know how it goes.

Still fighting the bug

2009-04-08T14:07:00.003-05:00

So I'm still not 100%. Yesterday I dragged the kids (or is that drug the kids - now there's an idea) to the gym and got in a swim. Last night I went for a run while Zman was at LAX. The run didn't go well and I was irritable as a wounded bull afterwards (just ask the Doc).

Today I decided not to drag the kids to the gym. JRose is coughing like a TB patient and Zman was complaining about his throat. Fortunately it's not strep just allergies. Zman and I did go for a 3 mile rollerblade. Can I count that as X-training?

Tomorrow I plan on swimming in the a.m. and doing my 2/50 brick in the afternoon. Friday a.m. I'll get a run in before we head to Duluth. Saturday I'll get my 2:45 ride in on old Highway 61. I'll be down 1 swim and 1 bike for the week, not too bad if the extra rest can get me over the hump.

Extended Rest, Spousal Support and Realism

2009-04-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

First things first. I'm taking today off. A perfect storm of phlegm, chills, kids home for Spring Break, and advice from my "coach" led me to call off today's swim and bike. I really didn't want to have to lion tame (chair, whip, top hat) the kids out the door this morning. They're both dragging a bit from sleepovers and it is THEIR spring break.

In looking at last week's totals, I made the mistake of pointing out to the Doc (and myself) that if you move some of that total from swimming to running the total for the WEEK would be about equal to race DAY. Since that week's efforts have left me a bit sore and coughing it makes me wonder if I'll ever be ready to go the distance in a single day. I realize I've got 12 weeks of training left, will be well rested and won't be spending much time at or above threshold (at least I better not be). Last week I spent time in all three disciplines at or above AT.

After a rest day of grazing on the various treats in the house and continuing my Diet Coke with Lime binge (if it goes on for months is it a binge or is there another name for a lengthy 12 pack a day habit?) the Doc turns to me as says "So . . . when are we going to drop the hammer on the diet?" It's a question that has been rattling around in my head for some time. The answer is TODAY . . . as soon as I polish off this last 12 pack of Diet Coke w/Lime.

If you two wanna dance you gotta . . .

2009-04-04T18:06:00.002-05:00

Take it outside! The weather here was finally decent enough that I was able to get my Friday ride done outside. A little under 2 hours base ride - perfect for getting back out there. I'd love to tell you that the 12 weeks of riding the trainer had me zipping up hills with a double digit heartrate - unfortunately that wasn't the case.

What is this odd pressure against my face and chest? Why am I going 17mph with my heartrate at LT? Where did those core muscles come from and why are they sore? Apparently there's this thing out there called wind - especially in the Spring. That explains the pressure and the heartrate. When you're on the trainer there's not need to worry about staying upright - on the road it's another matter, thus the core muscle issue.

Wednesday's long ride was decent. NS Rob came over to the studio again. He spent more time "fixing" his bike than riding or so it seemed.

I'm fighting the training crud. Slow moving in the a.m. but once I get going I'm usually ok.

My 2:10 run this afternoon went well enough. Implemented the 10/1's - hopefully they'll do everything Galloway says and help with recovery. Caught a short nap afterwards and now I'm good to go.

Totals for the week:

Swim 7,200 yards
Bike 7 hours
Run 22 miles
Yoga 1 hour

No really long ride/run next week, "just" a 2 hour/1 hour brick (or something like that). Good thing since the kids are off school. It's just me and them Monday - Wednesday so it will almost be like I've got a job.

We're supposed to get 3 inches of snow tonight so I don't know when I'll be back riding outside - hopefully by the end of the week.

In the Soup Now

2009-03-30T11:20:00.003-05:00

You call that a recovery week! " . . . eh eh I guess" (hear Garth's voice) Each preceding recovery week has left me feeling refreshed, enthused and ready to roll. This past week it took until after the rest day before I felt good. Each workout seemed harder than it should be. I think that even though my body was recovering my mind was still suffering from training fatigue.

I had rearraned some of the workouts and ended up doing most of the true recovery work at the beginning of the week leaving the intervals and hills for later in the week. A tactical error on my part.

On a side note, I'll be glad when each news cycle doesn't contain a new study about the cardiac risks of triathlon. Apparently it's about 3 times that of marathoning. In talking to the Doc, we're not even sure where to begin to get my risk assessed. Most cardiologists offices aren't set up to test someone who's resting heartrate is 48 and can run for a few hours. From what I've found, it would take a full radiological echocardiogram to see the thickening of the heart wall called "athlete's heart." A regular ekg could detect a dangerous rythym, but I think the Doc would have noticed that - although she hasn't listened to my heart in a while. Maybe it's time to get the Doc to play Doc.

The articles aren't helping her nerves about the whole IM adventure. [Ramsey - skip this next line or two] The only good news is that the risk seems higher for newbies with little open water experience. Our bay of the lake was free of ice yesterday, so I should be starting my open water experience for this season in the next couple of weeks. Cold water heightens the risk - um, Lake CDA is COLD. Hopefully it won't be as cold this year as it was last. I haven't checked on the snowpack out there which will be a good indicator.

Anyhow, the forecast for Friday is calling for 45 degrees. I'm currently vowing to take the bike outside for my 1:45 ride. The 4 hour ride will be on the trainer - NS Rob is coming over again.

Long run of 2:10 on Saturday. I'm planning on putting the 10/1 plan into action as it will be closer to what I'll be doing on raceday (hopefully).

What are you on?

2009-03-24T16:32:00.002-05:00

People ask me that question sometimes. For different reasons than this though:

Wasting time on youtube and couldn't resist posting it here. There's a whole slew of pretty cool Nike commercials and one for Dick's Sporting Goods that you're sure to see here later.

The recovery week continues with a 40 minute run and yoga today. Short swim and some intervals on the bike tomorrow.

It's beginning to look like we're going to have 6 or 7 guys riding the 100 miler at the Minnesota Ironman Bikeride the end of April. Should be fun (although I don't plan on seeing any of them for the last 50 miles).

Another Recovery Week

2009-03-23T13:22:00.002-05:00

Hey out there. Seems like this blog is turning more into a rest and recovery blog than a training blog. That could be because the only time I feel like I have the time or the energy to do a post I'm resting or recovering.

Had a great week last week. Both my 3:45 bike and my 2 hour run went awesome. NS Rob came over and to the subterranean spin studio for the long bike. I punished him with both country music and hip hop (not simultaneously) after watching What It Takes - a documentary about 4 IM athletes. He lost focus a bit at the end, but considering his last ride period was at least 3 weeks ago I'd say he was a trooper. As he will attest - "Cowgirls Don't Cry." I think he might have liked "I Love College" even better.

For my long run I got out and ran along the Mississippi from Stone Arch down to Ford Parkway and back. It was beautiful on Saturday - I even have a bit of a matchstick tan going (brown head - white everything else). Although I still have my racing stripe on my back from a long ride last year where I missed a swath on my shoulder with the sunscreen.

I was a bit sore still this morning, but after a massage from Larry @ The Fix Studio, I'm good to go - even going down stairs.

This week should be nice and easy - it almost didn't seem worth the trip to the gym for the 1,700 yards in the pool this morning.

At the end of this week I will be 1/2 way through my 24 week program. One more build cycle before I start the peak (there's really not a discernible difference - the volume still builds throughout the peak).

This week's video is less motivational than it is informative. It's Paula Newby Fraser giving some insight to the CDA course. So if you're signed up for the race or curious about a few of the specifics it's worth checking out.

Now That's a Rest Day

2009-03-16T17:22:00.003-05:00

This is how I spent just about all of Saturday. The kids went to a retreat at Luther Park so the Doc and I used it as an excuse to continue up to Larsmont on the North Shore. She worked out Saturday morning - I didn't pack any shoes or spandex for such activity so I took a REAL recovery day. We both finished a book.

Those of us who are addicts often look to those "more" addicted to show we're not really addicted. I mean look at that guy, I'd never: drink malt liquor in a paper bag, sell my wedding ring for some coke, or in my case, run an ultra-marathon. I mean those people are truly crazy. I'm "just" going to do my first Ironman. The Doc still cringes everytime she hears or read first Ironman. Anyhow, I read "Off the Deep End" about a 45 year old guy trying to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Trials in the 50m free. Now that's truly crazy (he didn't quite make it, but he did win the Masters Nationals and better his college swimming time).

The most intense undertaking of my Saturday is shown below:

We wandered around on Lake Superior for a while. Sunday after we got back to town I had a 50 minute run and had to continually hold myself back. My HR stayed low and the legs felt great. It was 60 degrees (which in March means there was a hearty South wind) but it was awesome to be free of tights and the jacket. I'm going to need the rest with the 3:45 bike and 2:00 run, plus 1.2 mile swim TT this week.

I'm still kicking

2009-03-11T16:23:00.002-05:00

Wow, it seems like the last thing I want to do after finishing up my training for the day is talk about it, log it or blog it. I haven't put anything in my log for 2.5 weeks. I'm still doing the workouts. The runs are in my watch and the rides are on the computer so I can dig up the stats if I want. I probably should just to see the total hours rise.

Last week took a pretty big toll on me. I was nowhere close on my wattage goals for the long ride. After 1/2 hour all I wanted was off the bike. I spent the next 3 hours watching my wattage drop. I did spend the full 3 1/2 hours moving so I'm chalking it up as a mental toughness ride. Fortunately this week eases up a bit with the key workout being a 1:30/30 brick. Next week the long stuff returns 2 hour run, 3:45 bike and a 2,112 (1.2 mi) TT in the pool. I'm sure I'll be begging for mercy by then. I am going to try and get the run in AFTER the bike next week.

On a happier note, my weight seems to be moving in the right direction - despite the weekend dietary debauch in the Dells. I'm craving healthier foods which is good. M&M's new pricing strategy (those Easter bags are on 12.6 ounces, they used to be 14 ounces and 16 before that) is helping. Thank you M&M/Mars you finally figured a way to price out one of your heavy users.

I better get cleaned up and start on dinner. Hope your training is going well.

Not the 225 pound weakling we thought!

2009-03-03T14:02:00.002-06:00

Despite the graph at the bottom of the page, I did train last week. I just haven't logged it yet at trifuel.com. I've responded well to last week's recovery week and am feeling pretty recharged. I'm sure the 11 mile run and 3 1/2 hour ride will knock that feeling back a bit this week.

I went in yesterday to redo my LT test. The last test showed an LT at 153 bpm and a paltry 180 watts. None of my rides were corresponding to those numbers so we knew something was funky. The retest showed my LT at 150 bpm and 240 watts. While this doesn't put me in the Ain-Alar Juhanson league (his LT is a ridiculous 453 watts) or even the Tor Sindballe (LT of 400 watts). It does mean my power to weight ratio is 2.4 instead of 1.8 which is good (weighing 100kg sure makes the calculations easy!). Now if I can get that weight down to 90kg with a slight increase in power all will be good (to 300 or something).

I'm going to try and push 220 watts for 1.5 hours on Thursday, we'll see how that goes. Friday I'm doing my 3.5 hour ride and will probably shoot for around 200 watts and see what my heart rate does.

We found a conference for the Doc at the Wilderness Resort in the Dells so the whole support crew is headed there Thursday night. The midwest faction of the extended crew is coming also. We'll get to meet the newest member, which is pretty exciting. (The Doc does love the smell of newborn scalp)

Does the fact that I'm hauling my bike and computrainer seem over the top to you? If it doesn't cause you to even raise an eyebrow you're my kind of people. If there's no snow or ice on the roads I can get my hill workout in on Saturday - otherwise it'll be on the dreadmill in the resort.

Breaking out the big pale guns!

2009-02-25T08:04:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, the sun was shining, the wind was out of the south and it was at least 35 degrees. This may be hard for those of you south of the Mason-Dixon line, but that can mean one thing and one thing only. It's time to bust out the shorts. As you can see in the pic below, those things haven't seen the light of day for months. Keep in mind this picture is AFTER my 40 minute run so you can only imagine how pale they were BEFORE that sun exposure!
After months of choosing between putting on the tights or heading to the gym for the dreadmill it was awesome to hit the trail and feel the breeze flowing through my hair (leg hair that is). I'm sure it will be short lived as we're getting 4-6 inches of snow tomorrow.

Is it too early to be this tired?

2009-02-20T20:28:00.003-06:00

So, I'm almost done with week 7. Finishing my 2nd build cycle. "All" I have left is my 90 minute run tomorrow. Today I swam 2,400 yards and then hopped on the trainer for a 3 hour ride. I'd love to tell you how I completed my first full loop of the CDA course on the computrainer. Only I didn't. I'm ready for my recovery week.

2 weeks ago I rode for 2:45 and went 40.44 miles @ 171 watts with an average HR of 128 bpm. Today I rode for 3:00 and went 43.11 miles @ 170 watts with an average HR of 136 bpm. Those speeds are depressingly slow.

Lessons from today:
1. start working on ride nutrition now. I was pretty haphazard and took in 840 calories in 3 hours. Not enough!
2. if you don't have your fan adjusted, get off your bike and fix it.

That was yesterday (Friday). Today I got my 90 minute run in and despite the 5" of fresh snow it went pretty well. The path was plowed so I just had to deal with about 1/2 mile of loosely packed snow on the road to get there and back. It wasn't fast but I got the time in.

Looking forward to my massage on Monday and a scaled back training week. Not to mention tomorrow off - whoo hoo!

It's beginning to look like I'm really going to have to focus on my diet. I need to drop some pounds so the climbs aren't so tough.

Here's the video for the week. It's a long one but it shows some of the sights, sounds and emotions surrounding some amateurs from last year's Ironman CDA.

Life outside of Ironman

2009-02-12T20:09:00.003-06:00

I interupt this previously scheduled training blog for . . . Life.

Outside of Ironman training, there's really only one thing going on in my life . . . Hockey, Hockey, Hockey. One or both of the kids has hockey six days a week it seems. The seasons are winding down - which is almost too bad because both kids have really improved their skating. Zman's coaches have said some great things about his effort and coachability. (Now if he would just clean his room!) JRose (like her brother) is most comfortable playing defense. She is convinced she is one of the best on her team which is VERY interesting. You go girl!

JRose trailing the puck.

Zman clearing the zone against the dreaded Johnson team. Last Sunday Zman had a 7:30 a.m. practice - following his 6:40 game the night before. We hit church and then what else? MORE HOCKEY. Santa brought Anne 4 tickets (8th row) to the Minnesota Wild v. Edmonton Oilers (for those of you south of Madison those are NHL teams). We got there early so the kids could watch the players come out of the tunnel.

The game went into a sudden death shootout and the Wild won. Zman said his stomache got butterflies in overtime and during the shootout - "like when the other team has a breakaway and I need to stop them" Guess he was into it.

It was a fun day. Now back to the pool.

Week 5 wrap, LT test and video

2009-02-07T16:19:00.003-06:00

Week 5 - or back to base building. First things first. I'd like to tip my hat to those of you who have kept an interesting blog going while training for an Ironman. I'm only up to 11 hours of training a week (did I really just say that) and I'm having trouble finding the time and energy to do much with this. Maybe as I get further into the training I'll have more interesting things occurring.

As I said in my last post. I went in and had Larry at The Fix calculate my LT threshold. With that information I can tailor my training on the bike to make sure I'm getting the most out of my time in the saddle. The test involves a structured warmup, a slow build to close to your max (then the blood draws start). A little glucose meter like device measures the lactic acid in you blood stream. You get a short recovery and then start back up. Slowly increasing workload until you find the point where your body is producing more acid than it can clear - your LT balance point or LT Threshold. Here's my graph:

The blue line is my build up to near max - 168 bpm. The green line shows my second buildup heartrate v. watts and the red curve shows the acid buildup. Note how steep it went up once I got past my threshold. That's not good.

The test showed my threshold is at 153 bpm. That number is fairly accurate I would say. It also showed that it is at 180 watts. That number is wrong and here's why:

Wednesday Bike: 1 hour 15 minutes, 185 average watts and average heartrate of 130 bpm with no muscle soreness.

Friday Bike: 2 hours 45 minutes, 171 average watts and heartrate of 128 bpm. NS Rob came over and rode the whole 2:45 with me - what a trooper!

I think we had the rolling resistance calibration below the minimum for the computrainer resulting in skewed watts figures. If my threshold was really 180 I should have been wiped after 1:15 at 185 watts.

We'll see how this week's rides go. I'll probably get tested after my next recovery week and see if we can get better numbers.

Totals for the week:

Swim 6,400 yards
Bike 5 hours approx 75 miles test/course
Run 2 hours 38 minutes 15.4 miles
Yoga 2 hours

My swimming continues to progess - I had a long set of 1800 on Saturday. 500s of 8:03 (oops that's a little fast and going to hurt), 8:09 and 8:15. I think the speed work has been paying off. I should probably add a little to my running and see if that can improve too.

Here's this weeks video. I'm not sure which the Doc is more worried about - that I will end up in Scott's position or that the addiction will set in.

You can quit, and they don't care. . . but you, will always know.

Belated Week 4

2009-02-04T12:12:00.002-06:00

So, it's been a while. I know. I've been in the pool, on the trainer or bundled up trudging over ice and slush. Or recovering.

Week 4 was about recovery. It started with trying to recover from our combined 80th birthday blowout on January 24. (The Doc and I turned 40 one week apart so we rented the back room of the Bulldog N.E. for apps and drinks with friends.) Thanks to Ramsey (and my inability to say no) I had 2 purple hooters after many beers. They are aptly named because hoot I did later that evening. Sunday was a scheduled rest day and I needed it.

The rest of the recovery week went well. Including a good 1 hr/20 min Brick with NS Rob.

Totals:
Swim 4,750
Bike 4:15 or 75 miles
Run 11.7 miles

On Monday of week 5 I had my lactate threshold calculated using the FACT method. I'll get a post with all the pretty graphs and charts as soon as I can.

Week 3 Wrapup

2009-01-24T16:02:00.004-06:00

YES! I finished my 3rd week. Felt pretty good, although my "long" run was sort of a slog. Here are the totals for the week: Swim - 5,800 yards. Long set of 1,500 in 24:54 with 3 consistent 500s. Bike - 3 hours 35 minutes ( a whopping 59 miles). Run 2 hours 30 minutes (14.3 miles).

If the computrainer resistance is to be believed, I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into. Two of my rides this week were on the Live Course and they were both slow. I should be killer strong on the hills by the time this training is over.

I had workout partners for 2 sessions this week. Meet my new spin partner:

The kids were off of school on Friday. Zman wanted to join me for part of my ride. He worked up a sweat. Wasn't much company as he plugged in his ipod, but we had fun.

My other partner was Ramsey who is threatening to join the multisport craze. He said he was going to swim with me but it mostly looked like he was just floating in the lane next to me. Actually he's trying to learn TI and I've got to say I was impressed with his ability to focus on drills. I should probably explain TI - it's Total Immersion and it's a distance swimming technique that is quite effective but hard to pick up.

I was able to get all 3 of my runs done outside this week and here's why:

Four 1/2 inch machine screws work great for gripping the ice. The don't help much in the loose mush, but they're great on the hard stuff.

When you next hear from me I will have achieved full MASTERS status. Tonight's the big blowout for both mine and the Doc's impending classification change. Looking forward to it!

And if you're still with me, here's this week's video:

Making Strides (er Strokes)

2009-01-20T12:24:00.002-06:00

I felt much better at the end of week 2 than I did at week 1. Even just the 1 day off going into week 2 really seemed to help.

As a yardstick for where I'm at, I compared my 1200 yard set on Friday of week 2 with the same set from week 1. Week 2 19:59 Week 1 20:23. I'll take it!

Learning - I found yesterday that I'm not in shape to push 190 watts for extended periods of time. Hopefully that will change but I was struggling to maintain it at the end of 1 hour yesterday.

Hoping to get LT measured next week.

The weather has finally broken and I've been outside for a couple of runs. Man is that nice. The sun is shining and it's almost 20 - sounds like perfect running weather.

This week's Ironman Motivational Video

2009-01-13T20:39:00.002-06:00

This week's Ironman Motivational Video

I used to run to this song all the time. I'll be thinking of it if I'm still out on the road after the sun goes down in CDA.

Whew! Week 1 in the Books.

2009-01-09T16:15:00.004-06:00

Wow, did that hurt! Week 1 of my 24 week program is done. That's just over 4%. Of course in terms of time/mileage it's probably less than 1%.

Is it a bad sign that I'm looking forward to my planned massage to start off my recovery week? That's only 2 weeks away.

So here are the totals for the week:

Swim 4,900 yards, Bike 3.5 hours (58 measly miles, at least some were hilly), Run 130 minutes (12.45 miles) and Yoga 2 hours.

If you're looking for the "You Might Be a Triathlete If:" list you can find it here:

http://imcda09.blogspot.com/2009/01/you-might-be-triathlete-if.html

Can you hear it?

2009-01-09T13:06:00.006-06:00

Can you hear it? It's calling you! In science it's said that nature abhores a vacuum. Well, I can't stand an empty trainer. While I haven't gotten into long rides yet, I did have a 1:45 ride today. NS Rob came over with his bike and helped the time fly by. I had a little trouble with the Computrainer LiveVideo and had to switch over to the 3d. But we got the ride in. NS Rob on the Kurt Kinetic shifting to try and match the contour (although he didn't have a gear for the 11% grades of CDA)

For the really long rides we can pop a movie and just keep the Computrainer on the computer.

What do you say Stomper Rob, Jim, Capt Winter, Ramsey - Care to ride? And yes that is my helmet in the picture. I decided that I need to wear it for my longer rides so my neck muscles are used to the extra bit of weight. NS was a good sport and brought his too. All right I'm off to the pool.

You Might be a Triathlete if:

2009-01-06T12:37:00.004-06:00

I can't take credit for this list but thought it was funny so here it its. If you think of any additions, feel free to add them as comments. Jim you may want to pay particular attention to the first item. Reading it had the Doc doing her "octopus covered in glue" impression of you at Turtleman last year.

You might be a triathlete if:

25. One of your goals this year is to be faster at getting out of a wetsuit
24. You talk about a “hammer” and “brick”, but you’re not referring to construction
23. You spend 7 days going to 8 stores in 4 malls before buying a pair of running shoes but you take 1 afternoon to go to 1 car dealership and walk out with a new car 4 hours later.
22. That charming "cologne" you wear to work is chlorine.
21. You have more water bottles than glasses in your cupboard
20. You have enough pairs of old running shoes sitting in your closet to open your own shoe store
19. You immediately bow down before someone with the Ironman "m dot"tattoo.
18. You have NO idea what to do with yourself on your off day. You mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, washed the car, and there's STILL 4 hours of daylight left! Aarrgghh!
17. When you're always showing up to work in the morning with goggle imprints around your eyes
16. You have so many tan lines you look like a zebra (running socks, bathing suit, jersey, biking shorts, tri shorts, sunglasses, gloves, watch, etc)
15. The first three items on your grocery list are Gatorade, power bars, and gels.
14. You get funny looks when putting on Body Glide on your neck because people think it's deodorant
13. About half the shirts you own have at least a dozen logos on the back of them.
12. You wait a couple of days to take your car in when the "check engine light goes on, but when your bike needs a tune up you take it right away.
11. You refer to the front hall of your house as the “transition area”.
10. The one "suit" you own has a QR on the chest
09. When you get home from a training session, the newspaper is just being delivered to your house.
08. You consider work, regeneration time between training sessions.
07. Your bicycle is in your living room.
06. Your car smells like a locker room
05. There’s a separate load of laundry every week that is just your workout clothes.
04. When asked, how old you are you answer 35-39.
03. Your first thought when you wake up is how high your rest HR is.
02. Your spouse cried during Terms of Endearment; you cried during the television coverage of the Hawaii Ironman
01. Most of this list doesn’t seem like a joke to you.

And so it begins . . .

2009-01-05T13:01:00.003-06:00

I've climbed my last flight of stairs without that familiar ache in my quads. I started my 24 week training program for Ironman Couer d'Alene (IM CDA). Yesterday was a 45 minute run on the treadmill at the gym. I must be a wimp, but I just can't get too excited about running when the temps are in the single digits and the wind is blowing.
I'm not in the shape I'd like to be in when starting but that's what the base phase of the training is for I suppose. I know I needed the break though.
This morning I hit the pool for a short swim and I'm on the trainer this afternoon. I've ridden the computrainer a few times and I love it. Granted the software is a little wonky, but it really adds some realism to the mind numbing tedium of riding in the basement.
Just a short post to let you know I've started. More later.

Turning off the Frontage Road and on to the on Ramp

2008-12-18T14:51:00.004-06:00

That's where I am now. I'm not quite on that highway, the Road to IM CDA 09, but I'm on the on ramp. After a welcome break I'm starting to ramp up the training a bit. Making sure I make it to yoga 2x week, getting on the treadmill (or outside when it's not in the single digits) and starting back on the trainer
Here's the form that has gotten me to this point. I hooked up with Larry and Sophie at The Fix Studio and have a new position. I don't have a photo of it yet. Here's the scoop, raised the seat (increasing leg angle to 141), lowered the bars (hip angle down to 98.8), shortened the cockpit (elbow angle down to 90.1). It's slightly more aggressive, but also more efficient as my upper arm should carry more weight instead of back and lats. I've ridden it a couple of times and it seems good. If you really want to see the new position send me an email. I can send you a file and a viewer and you can see it in motion. I can almost feel the excitement.

I'm anxious to get on the Computrainer but that will have to wait until next week, once we get back from Rockford.

Minneapolis Marathon - I've signed up to run the Minneapolis Marathon 1/2 on May 31. I'm scheduled for a 2 hr 40 minute run that weekend so I may have to run to the start or something. Brian, accross the street has also registered and I think NS Rob too.

Have a great Christmas and may achieve all your race goals in the new year (or at least learn from missing them).

Better Late Than Never . . . Maybe

2008-12-02T15:24:00.004-06:00

So my sister Tracy, and the rest of my mom's side of the family (the Tracy Tribe) came into town for Thanksgiving weekend plus. I dubbed it our clown car Thanksgiving since our little story and a 1/2 house wasn't really designed for having 14 for dinner and lodging. We stashed half of them up at the lake and kicked Zman and JRose upstairs to the Doc's and my room.

Anyhow, I told Tracy she was going to have to run the Turkey Day 5k with me. It was surprisingly easy to convince her - especially when compared to the arm twisting it took to get her to do the run leg of the Rockman 1/2 IM with Team Lack of Enthusiasm (thus the name).

I even found this sweet hat online to get ready for it.

We had no idea what we were getting into. Sure Lifetime had several packet pick up opportunities, but we don't live by a Lifetime (and I didn't want a Friends episode type sales pitch).

We left the house 50 minutes before the race. It takes about 5 minutes to get downtown so we had 45 minutes to pick up our packets and warm up by jogging to the start. WRONG!

Downtown was a zoo. The Target Center was packed. They were out of shirt sizes XS, S, M, XL, XXL. This was on the level for pre-registration. It's hard to figure how you run out of shirts for pre-registered athletes, but they did.

We ended up getting to the line about 12 minutes after the start. That was far enough back to be behind ALL of the walkers, dogs, and strollers. I've never passed so many people in a race. We quickly abandoned running together. It was every runner for themselves trying to negotiate the crowd. Tracy and I were running about the same for the first 2 1/2 miles. At that point I started to get a little tired and wasn't willing to dive for every opening in the crowd. Tracy left me behind.

I thought I'd include this pick of us before Childress finally found someone he could out coach. Lovie - you've tried 3 times from the 1. Take the 3 points on the road to go up 7. Oh well, at least now it looks like the Queens will be saddled with Chilly for another year.

San Antonio Recap

2008-11-18T09:17:00.002-06:00

Decent weather, good food, great friends. Sounds like a recipe for a sweet weekend. Combine it with the energy and excitement from 30,000 runners and you've got it!

What would any trip to San Antonio be without a visit to the Alamo. I particularly appreciated the unbiased and evenhanded presentation of the factors leading up to the conflict. Texas - it really is like a whole other country. Having read Michener's Texas as a kid it was cool to see the site of the battle.

Here's Angie at around mile 2.5. Getting ready to hand off her extra hat and gloves. Her sherpa's were glad to have the gloves.

So this is what it feels like to stand on the side and cheer. I was glad I had brought my Turtleman cowbell. It was pretty quiet early in the race.

I was suprised at how little interest I had in running the race. Even going to the expo didn't cause any regret.

Here's the whole crew celebrating Angie's 15 minute PR. Wow! She was even so considerate as to run 3 seconds slower than my Grandma's time this year. Whew!

Here she is - Injured Runner Report #992-1. They document everything at the medical tent - even just needing a bandaid for a blister.

The Doc had to document putting a whippet in an ambulance to warm up at mile 20 of the Twin Cities Marathon one particularly cold year. That was their first (and perhaps only) veterinary incident at TCM.

Neither Anne nor I slept very well and we had an o-dark 30 flight out on Monday so the trip wasn't as restful as a weekend away usually is. Back to the hockey grind!

For those of you who have had concerns about a certain dietary anomoly of mine - never fear changes have been made. Stay tuned.

Quickly from San Antonio

2008-11-14T08:36:00.002-06:00

Just a quick note from San Antonio. We got in late afternoon yesterday. Here's the view from our room down to the Riverwalk.

As some of you know, I'm not planning on running the race. I will go out with Mike tomorrow and get a good run in. I decided that I needed to keep focused on CDA and not risk putting my tired body through a late season 1/2.

Since I'm not running the race, it's Katy bar the door! Last night the Doc and I hit Coyote Ugly (at her suggestion). The Doc didn't make it up onto the bar last night, but it was close at times. We had watched a few episodes of the Making Coyote Ugly show so it was interesting to see it live. We were out of there by 10 and it was a Thursday. Maybe we'll get back there tonight with the OBs - should be even more lively. If there's a bartop dance I'll be sure to post pics here!

It's going to be 80 degrees down here today! Sweet! After that it cools off a bit. I can feel your sympathy streaming my way!

Just got an email from Zman's coach that they came back and tied in their first game of the season. It was a bummer missing his first game (and the next 2) but did I mention it was going to be 80 degrees today?

Texas - it's like a whole other country!

Prerace Press Conference - Squinting in the Bright Lights

2008-11-05T14:54:00.003-06:00

Having emerged from my self imposed training cave (the "TC") it was time to sit down and fulfill my prerace media obligations. After having spent the last 8 days in the TC the bright lights of the cameras from the assembled media throng (the "AMT") were a bit harsh, but I'm no longer seeing stars. The following is a mostly unedited transcript from the press conference.

AMT: When last we heard from you, you were trying to determine your goals for SA Rock n Roll 1/2. What have you been doing in the interim?

Me: I've spent a great deal of time in my training cave ("TC"). I've undergone complete body composition, VO2 Max, Anerobic Threshold, pinky strength and intestinal fortitude testing. The results have not been pretty. I've been deemed category FSAW - fat, slow and weak. FSAW is not something that can be overcome in 8 days. Although I have given it my best shot.

AMT: What about training?

Me: Well, during those 8 days I've started multiple runs. I even finished a couple of them. Thanks to NS Rob I just finished an 11 mile run in just under 2 hours. Not pretty.

AMT: Will it be enough to beat the lovely Angela?

Me: Thats a great question! No.

AMT: What is your plan for SA Rock n Roll?

Me: I'm going to go down to SA, walk the River Walk with my wife of excessive hotness, check out the Alamo, enjoy a ton of TexMex, have some cervesa on Friday evening and I suppose on Sunday morning I'll tie my shoes and run 13.1 miles (or some part thereof).

AMT: Specifically what's your plan for the race? What will you do about Angela?

Me: I'm going to go out in around 10/min miles and hopefully pick it up a bit in the second half of the half. Finish prediction anywhere from 2:05 to 2:15.

AMT: Is it true that you've been seen at your computer next to a pile of fun sized wrappers?

Me: That wasn't me unless you have photographic evidence and even then those weren't my wrappers. I mean that's my kids' candy - like I would eat that candy one sweet mini snickers bar after another followed by mini twix - damn why are these individually wrapped it really slows me down (although not enough).

At this point the Doc ripped the microphone out of my hands shouting "NO MORE Questions, can't you see he needs help."

Thanks again for the run today NS Rob. I think part of my deal is that I've been out there alone too much, I'm too tired. Couple that with FSAW and it's not good.

Rhetorical Question: Can I call it a taper if I had about 10 days of training, somehow threw in a couple of long runs - 9 and 11 miles and am now resting?

Going Dark

2008-10-28T09:17:00.005-05:00

That's right folks. I'm going dark. No that doesn't mean I'm shutting down the blog (how could I disappoint both of you so close to Halloween). It just means I'm taking my training underground. I figure it works for the pros so it should work for me. Based on the information the PR machine in Dallas has been sending my way there's a good chance that OB's wife, Ang, could not only beat me on race day, but also beat my 1/2 PR. I'm not sure there's anything I can do about it but I'm going to try. I've got a plan. The two weeks I had to take off while I was sick aren't helping.

There's 2 things this could mean:

I don't want to tip my hand to Ang regarding my fitness or race plans for San Antonio; or,
My pace and distances are so embarrasing after my hiatus that I'm not willing to blog about them or even twitter them.

Here are some pictures from last Friday's neighbor Halloween gathering:

Shane

2008-10-21T13:34:00.002-05:00

For those of you who didn't go to movie night every week at Sullivan's during law school (and maybe even for those of you who did) that post title is a pretty obscure reference. As in "Come Back Shane. Shane Come back!" from the ending of the movie Shane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane That's a long way to go to my comeback. But it came to mind, so it came to blog.

I may be back. This morning I woke up and felt like I could breathe for the first time in about 12 days. I ran 3 miles at a 9:33 pace and it feels pretty good. I'm not hacking up a lung or feeling feverish so it's all good. Now I need to figure out how to go from essentially zero to 13.1 in 26 days. We'll see what I can do for a long run this weekend and go from there. I think the legs probably enjoyed the break, but the lungs need some work.

Looking back it's pretty easy to see how I got here. Sometimes we get sick because we're exposed to a nasty bug. Other times we get sick because we were stupid. This is one of those times. In the week leading up to my illness I had 3 really poor nights of sleep, thanks to the Doc having deliveries in the night. No I didn't have to go with her but I don't sleep much when she's gone and I know she's coming back. I was also training pretty hard - probably too hard. The new spin classes were pretty fun and I was getting back into yoga and training for a possible PR in San Antonio. To top it all off, I hit Oktoberfest pretty hard despite already having the start of a cold. Truth be told, I'd do it all again. I guess that just proves I can be too stupid to gain wisdom from my mistakes. Life's too short to skip Oktoberfest or go about it half heartedly.

Plus I got all the inside dope I need to motivate me to keep The Turtle next year - sorry Jim.

Lost

2008-10-17T10:21:00.003-05:00

This week has been a complete loss (at least from a training perspective). I still can hardly speak and have enough congestion that I can't contemplate running.

And the rest of you in the blogosphere - I'm done with you! All your marathons, mountain biking, pie rides, 5k's and duathlons make me sick. Actually, I'm already sick. Next week though, I'll be right there with you, cheering on your latest adventure or training drudgery. Hopefully I'll be out there too - moving again.

Anyone have any good "4 Weeks to your Best 1/2 Marathon" programs?

Convalescing

2008-10-13T10:15:00.004-05:00

The Doc hanging in the garage at Oktoberfest. Note the permanent beer can collection display. No those cans are not stacked on one another. They rest upon custom made stadium style shelves. Only Jim.

Speaking of Jim, here he is with the lederhosen t-shirt and Oktoberfest beads. Dave is sporting the fuzzy beer mug hat. Is that a paisley shirt Dave? You've been living in Uptown too long!

As predicted Oktoberfest did not improve my cold. I've completely lost my voice. It didn't help that the Doc had a delivery cooking all night involving several calls in the night. That made about the 3rd night of bad sleep that week. Combined with an ambitious training schedule I had the perfect set up to get sick. I'm feeling a little better today, but still can't speak and the phlegm is on the move.

As a result I didn't get in a long run last week. I got in plenty of cardio, but really needed a long run to get the endurance up before San Antonio.

Right now I am so looking forward to taking a break. Granted, I haven't exercised for 4 days now and that makes me edgy too, but my body and mind needs a break from training. It's been 9 months of pretty solid training.

5 weeks until San Antonio. I think that's enough time assuming I can get over this cold and get back out there soon.

Oktoberfest Time

2008-10-10T15:02:00.003-05:00

Tonight is Tall Jim's Oktoberfest. I just spent the morning helping convert his spacious double deep garage into Shoreview's best bierhall. I'll be playing injured tonight as I'm fighting a cold, but I think I'll be up to the task. The Doc may have to leave me unsupervised for a while tonight as she's inducing a patient and may have to go in for the delivery tonight if it doesn't happen today. What could go wrong (with me being unsupervised not with the delivery)?

I was hoping to get out for a run this afternoon (man it's beautiful outside) but I think that would send me into a major decline and I can't risk it. Sunday I'll get in a long run assuming I feel better. (I don't think Oktoberfest is going to help) - Paulaner Oktoberfest and brats. What's the saying feed a fever, drown a cold . . . I should have it covered.

Anyone want to drive Zman to hockey at 6:45 a.m. on Saturday? Bueller? Anyone?

It's beginning to sound like the third option is off the table for San Antonio - Angie just ran over 6 miles at 8:30 pace. With a little rest 9:00's for 13 should be doable for her. It's looking like I'm going to have to run sub 2 just to stick with her. The first option is also off the table - 1:55 just isn't there either. I'm shooting for a hybrid. Nice dinner and a couple beers on Friday. Near complete rest on Saturday, pasta dinner, the whole pre race routine. Angie and I will head out and attempt to break 1:59:40 (and if one or both of us can avoid peeing on ourselves so much the better). If I don't wet myself at the finish OB will think I left some time out on the course.

Obligatory Post

2008-09-30T11:27:00.003-05:00

Hello:

I realized it has been over 1 week since I last posted and even that one was just some pics from a previous race.

I've been flailing a bit this past week. Diet isn't on track - although I may be down to 220 so at least I'm not going the wrong direction. The running seems to be going ok - although I'm concerned that my pace goal is over ambitious. The last thing I want to do is develop some injury at the end of this season that will hurt my chances at IM CDA next year. Right now I'm focusing on my right achilles tendon. It always gets a little touchy when I pick up the pace a little. I decided to just do a base run today instead of the hill workout I was contemplating.

I do a tempo run tomorrow and my 8 miler on Friday. After that I'll have a good idea where my goals should be. Right now I see 3 possibilities: 1) go for it - 1:55 or less; 2) scale it back but still shoot for under 1:59:40 - a PR; or 3) coast - put in enough miles to finish comfortably, practically eliminate the speed work, eat and drink my way through San Antonio leading up to the race, run with Angie as she shoots for 2:10.

That third option is looking better and better. I know the Doc would like it. This is our first trip to San Antonio and she would rather be there with the relaxed, just having a good time, up for anything me as opposed to the more tightly wound than usual, resting, inwardly focused, going for a PR pre-race me.

Doc, OB and Ang who should I bring? Fun Rich or Focused Rich (those terms being relative of course)?

I'm hoping to get out and cheer on Capt Brian, Caroline and XT4 at TCM Sunday. The day looks perfect. It'll be wierd not doing the 10 mile - I've done it 4 times in a row.

Since I'm Not Training Anyhow

2008-09-22T16:47:00.003-05:00

I might as well throw some pictures from Square Lake. Compare the first running picture to the last ones. I see a difference - do you?

Reset Button

2008-09-22T09:34:00.002-05:00

Where is the darn reset button on this thing? This thing being . . . me. Apparently my decision to cut my run short on Friday was a good decision. It took until the middle of the night on Saturday before I came down with the full cold. Woke up to completely stuffed sinuses. Sat around yesterday. Started to feel better last night. Felt great this morning, but after running a couple of ERRANDS (not miles), I'm starting to feel ick again.

Depending upon how long this lasts I may have to rethink my goals for San Antonio.

Hopefully I can get a short run in tomorrow and go from there.

To Get Fast(er) - I Must Get Lean(er)

2008-09-16T09:41:00.001-05:00

The Sibs weekend was a nice break. I didn't train at all (although I did have a couple of strange Ironman dreams - so I didn't get completely away from it). Skiing, fishing, poker, football, hanging and the younger crowd wakeboarded.

Now I'm back at it. If I'm going to go under 1:54 in San Antonio, I'm going to have to get serious about it. I know I can put in the miles, hills and speedwork. Where I'm going to have to make some changes is on the front end - the intake. The only way I seem to be able to change my diet - no more massive handfuls of M&Ms, is if I'm logging my calories. I use a calorie counter at http://www.fitday.com/ . They've updated it since I last used it (not a good sign) and it seems even more user friendly.

One advantage to being in the Clydesdale division is that I burn a lot of calories. If I limit my calories to 3,500 a day I'll lose weight. You wouldn't think that would be much of a challenge. Did you know that 1/4 cup of plain M&M's has 220 calories? That's about one small handfull. Now take one of those every trip through the kitchen and I'll have 1,000 calories that do nothing for me. That's why I have to log. When I'm logging my food I have to budget the calories. I generally will choose a quality food over the quick handful of candy coated chocolatey goodness.

We'll see how it goes. I'm on day 2.

My tempo run this morning didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped. It's not supposed to be comfortable, but I really struggled to get to 8:30s and came up a bit short. I believe two factors made it tough:

I'm still just 9 days out from the Square Lake 1/2 IM. It took almost the full 2 weeks between Rockman and Grandma's before I had my legs back.
I weigh 222 lbs. As I shed a few pounds it will get easier to make the pace goals.

I'm actually looking forward to more of a run focus for a while. I'll still bike and swim at least once a week, but just for kicks.

Thursday planning a big ride with the Doc. It (and she) should be gorgeous. Not many days like that left (for the weather, not the Doc - she's got a lot of gorgeous days left). I'm thinking gateway from 694 to Pine Point Park, up to Scandia, lunch, and then back.

Sibs Weekend Crashes Video

2008-09-15T13:58:00.003-05:00

Here's a video montage of crashes by James and Mike. The one segment where the music drops out so you can hear the laughter and derision is Mike trying to slalom. What you can't really see is him supermanning holding on to the rope as his ski trails behind him through the water.

Enjoy.

Sibs Weekend

2008-09-11T22:08:00.003-05:00

My brothers and their wives are coming to the cabin this weekend. Should be legen . . . (wait for it) . . .dary. Hopefully I'll get some videos of some sick wakeboard crashes to share. Until next week I leave you with the profile from last weekends run (thanks Steve).

Critical Eye

2008-09-09T15:46:00.007-05:00

So the Doc is reading the Square Lake Report Monday night when she looks over at me and says "Do you think people really want to read all this stuff?" Ok, I'll admit the race report was long winded - I gave you a shorter version at the beginning. My answer to her, that I'll now share with you was . . . "maybe they do, but not everything I write is necessarily for you, the audience, some of it is for me."

While I try to interject some humor where I can, I really want to be able to use the entries as a reference. To look back on mistakes I made or the occassional triumph and see if I can fix it or for the triumph duplicate it, that's a big reason for this.

For, though a "presidential campaign isn't supposed to be a jouney of self discovery" (I'm sure Mindy will stop reading now that I've quoted Palin) what else is signing up for an Ironman, putting in the long and often lonely training hours, toeing the sand with 2500 other nutjobs for 14 hours of pushing yourself, but a journey of self discovery.

Recent Discoveries

Eventually the aches in my quads and knee from Sunday's race will go away, any fitness gains will also fade, but hopefully the lessons learned under the crucible of race day will be remembered and applied to future endeavors.

So you're saying - enough preamble Rich what are these self discoveries and lessons learned on Sunday?

Drumroll . . . . (I'd have a real drumroll here for your listening pleasure but it got unbelievably complicated so you'll have to just imagine your own.)

Get some arm warmers (taken care of thanks to Capt Brian) , and probably some leg warmers too.
Do some run training on a similar profile to the race course (hilly, flat etc.)
Don't go into a half iron man (HIM) with your only run over 7.5 miles some 2 1/2 months prior to the race.
Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition - know how many bottle stops there are going to be on the bike, don't rely on just the big aero bottle. Put a cage and extra bottle on your seat tube. That way you're not trying to get and dump one bottle into your aero bottle and then grab another to fill it up (unsuccessfully). Continue to take in fuel on the run - 4 oz of gatorade every 2 miles (or even one mile) is NOT going to get you there. Bring some gels/beans/blocks.
If you don't get what you need at a bottle stop - pullover and STOP - 30 seconds to grab that second bottle could save you, oh . . . 14 minutes on the back of the out and back run.
Electronics - make sure you've got your time alarm set to help you stick to your nutrition plan.
Don't gain 5-10 pounds in the weeks leading up to the race - they won't help.

You might think that I had a bad day, but really most everything went well. I stayed within myself on the bike hitting my time goal and keeping my legs relatively fresh. With better nutrition and better run training I think MJs PR would have been in play. Maybe next year.

Square Lake Half Ironman Race Report

2008-09-08T22:30:00.001-05:00

I'm back baby - well at least my blog is.

Race Report

Short version - 6:01:16 fast swim, reasonable bike, 1/2 of a good run, rain, vertical, pain, ice.

Longer version

Weather considerations. The forecast called for 50s with possible showers throughout the race. That’s a tricky forecast - 50 degrees with the sun shining is pleasant on a bike, 50 and cloudy is chilly and 50 and raining is downright cold. Checking the radar before leaving in the morning it looked like there was a small band of showers in western Minnesota. I didn’t think it would rain until late in the bike or maybe the run. I decided to wear a long sleeve compression shirt with a short sleeve shirt with a rear pocket over it. I had a self storing coat with a waist belt but I decided not to take it on the bike.

THE SWIM

Square Lake is a real gem. Crystal clear water - think Lake Geneva. The wind was calm so it was like swimming in a pool with 50 of your best friends. The water temp was slightly warmer than the air so no problems there either. The first swim in a while I haven’t started to heat up in my wetsuit. It was a 2 lap swim counterclockwise. I was happy to hear that we didn’t have to come out of the water in between laps (some races do this so you cross a timing mat and they can make sure you swim both laps).

I was in the first wave with the elites, men 29 and under and the clydesdales. In which category do you think I was? Ordinarily (when I’m not in with the elites and young bucks) I try and go out hard in the swim to get some open water and then settle in to a rythm I can maintain for the distance. With these guys though, I just needed to focus on getting into a rythm, maybe finding some feet to follow and letting the open water come to me. Why follow feet? Drafting (swimming closely behind someone) reduces the effort required to maintain the pace by up to 10%. In other words, I could theoretically take 3 minutes off my time just by following someone who swims a little faster than me or I could save that energy and use it later in the day.

I did find someone to follow for quite a ways on the return during the first lap. He tired so I went around. For most of the second lap I was by myself. There was a group in front of my but it turned out they were from a later wave, on their first lap, and considerably slower.

I left the water in 32:54 (1:34/100 pace). That compares to 36:20 for my Rockman swim. In order to get to the transition area you have to go up about 40 steps. I thought I’d take my wetsuit off before going up the steps. Unfortunately, after about 30 seconds of fumbling for the pull cord I finally just started up the steps. Eventually I found the cord as I got to the top of the steps.

T1

Now the weather was going to impact my transition time. I didn’t want to swim with the long sleeve compression shirt on (too restrictive) so I had to put on both shirts while wet and then do my regular routine. Socks, shoes, helmet, glasses, on the road. Between the fumbling for the wetsuit cord and the extra dressing - 4:07. (This easily cost me the 1:16 I was over 6hrs - or a good chunck of it)

Bike

The bike was good preparation for Coeur D’Alene in a couple of ways. 1) vertical profile - Square Lake has around 2400 feet of elevation gain in 54 miles, CDA has, ugh, around 6000 in 112 miles. Ok, so this bike isn’t quite as tough as CDA. It’s still the most climbing I’ve done in a half ironman and required me to hold back the whole time. 2) getting passed - the first lap (the bike was also 2 laps) I spent getting passed at regular intervals by cyclists of all shapes and sizes on all kinds of rides. At least no one passed me on a hybrid but there were a few aluminum road bikes with or without aerobars streaming past me. I was trying to keep my heart rate at 130 when cruising and limit the increase on the hills. For the most part I was successful and felt decent getting off the bike for the run.

Time 3:00:26. Note, this is course is just over 54 miles instead of the full 56 so this time is slight misleading. Even with the short distance it’s my slowest bike split in a half IM. It was supposed to be, I was hoping to save my legs to have a good run.

The long sleeve/short sleeve combo was perfect for the bike. At one point I thought I was going to be too warm but then it clouded up and started to sprinkle.

T2

I knew I didn’t want to run in the long sleeve shirt. This meant I needed to take off both shirts in transition, carefully so I could easily put the short sleeve shirt back on. I probably should have had a 3rd shirt so I didn’t have to worry about seperating the 2 shirts I was wearing.

Time 1:32

Run

All in all my legs felt pretty good at the start of the run. My left foot was pretty numb and every now and then I’d get a little shock as it came back to life. My quads and calves were sore but it was at a manageable level. A couple of miles into the run it started to rain pretty steadily. Fine with me, I don’t mind a little rain - helps keep my large mass cool. The run is also very hilly - around 2500 feet of climbing. I made it to the turn around in 1 hour 4 minutes. The turn around is at the top of huge hill. It was on that hill that my quads and calves completely revolted. At this precise point, halfway through the run it became a real battle to keep moving. The second half took me 1:18. That’s over 2 minutes per mile slower. On the last hill it came down to running to the next “no parking” sign and then walking to the next. I knew I was close to breaking 6 hours but also knew I wasn’t going to do it. My heart rate wasn’t coming down when I was walking, I was sweating more profusely than I should have been when walking, and it felt really good to close my eyes both while walking and running. I didn’t have any energy to reply in kind to the encouragement from other racers.

Time 2:22:19. That compares favorably with Rockman at 2:36:56 especially given the difficulty of the course.

Total Time 6:01:16. You might think I’d be disappointed with not breaking 6 hours. I’m not. I feel like I raced a smart race and didn’t leave anything in reserve. I’ve got the ice on my knee right now to prove it. I’m more sore than I was after my marathon.

I’m still not sure how I’m going to double all of those distances. At least the run at CDA isn’t quite as vertical. (I hope)

Tri season’s over. Now it’s time to recover and focus on the San Antonio Half Marathon. NS Rob’s time is going down!

Square Lake Preview Ride

2008-08-26T07:51:00.003-05:00

Looking for a place to ride on Saturday a.m.? I'm heading out on the Square Lake long course at 8 a.m. and doing 2 loops. Park at Square Lake Park ($5 fee) and head out into the rolling hills. Stop at the park after 1 loop and replenish your water bottles for the 2nd loop. Self supported ride.

Here's the route:

Square Lake Tri long course 2 loops=56mi
Find more Bike Rides in Stillwater, Minnesota

The weather looks like it should be fabulous. Probably a little cool at the start but warming up nicely.

Vacation Takes It's Toll

2008-08-25T08:51:00.003-05:00

I'm sitting here blogging and icing down the arch of my left foot. This won't suprise any of you runners out there - it's a way to help prevent/heal the dreaded plantar fasciitis. No, that's not what I'm doing here. I'm icing down the spot where a yellowjacket somehow got between my sandal and my foot. It didn't want to be there any more than I wanted it there and it let me know! It's much better this morning than it was last night but I don't think I want to head out for a run. Maybe tomorrow.

Aside from the human/animal interaction, vacation left a mark in another way too. I'm up a few pounds. I could blame myself and my lack of self control, but I blame the Doc. She likes to have snacks around, have 1/2 a serving herself and then sit back and watch me eat the rest. It started with a ginormous (yes that's actually a word and I'm lobbying for hugantic (which is actually bigger than ginormous)) http://http//www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hugantic batch of gorp. We're talking about at least 1 gallon of gorp which is perhaps the most calorie dense substance known to man. The gorp disappeared after a couple of days and was followed by Special K bars, rice krispie treats and cookies (including those frosted sugar ones that don't fill you up at all but have like a thousand calories a piece). Fortunately she's tucked back into work and can no longer wreak havoc on my dietary intake.

Now I've got to figure out how I'm going to lug these extra 7 pounds (based upon my Rockman weight) around Square Lake. Good thing it's a hilly course - because that's exactly what you want when you're above your ideal race weight. (that's sarcasm people).

Managed to pack on the pounds despite biking 175 miles, running 13 miles and about an hour of swimming in 10 days plus all the projecting around the cabin. The cabin residing is nearly complete. Now for the big ol garage.

Vacation

2008-08-17T22:15:00.004-05:00

Lest any of you think that my life is empty, but for triathlons, I thought I'd share a few pictures from our time at the cabin. (We're still there). But don't worry too much, I'm currently alone, blogging from our "bonus room" (formerly the guest house before a friendly neighbor called the City of East Bethel) above the detached garage waiting for the coverage of the Women's Olympic Triathlon to start. It's 11 now and I'm not sure I'm going to make it as the local news is starting first.

Anyhow - here are the pics. Click on a photo to see it MUCH bigger.

Where is my driver when I need her most? Look at that butter! Oh yeah, there are a couple of kids catching sunnies and putting them in a big Rubbermaid (tm) bin. My driver (the "Doc") was wrapping things up at work before her week off.

The weather is supposed to be picture perfect all week.

The dog chilled between sets during this after dinner ski/boarding session.

JRose taking a break from tubing. But in case you think it's all sunsets, full moon rising, chilling in the sun. Here's an action shot from the tubers:

On a training note - I did go for my first run since Turtleman this morning. 3 miles - whoo hoo. Tomorrow I'm planning a long ride. Next Sunday the Minnesota Tri Club's August Century Ride conveniently goes very close to the cabin. I'll jump in and get 60 - 70 miles in.

Turtleman

2008-08-11T16:49:00.003-05:00

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm new to this blogging thing. Perhaps if I had more experience with this thing, I'd have a picture of Jim unveiling his Secret Weapon race morning, a picture of my reaction to said Secret Weapon, a picture of the presentation of THE Turtle.

As it is, you'll just have to settle for a few pictures of me from behind. That's right folks, I was so fast all day that they couldn't get the pictures of me from the front.

I know, I know, the suspense is killing you (or not). Yes, I did win THE Turtle. That makes me the first multiple Turtle winner. Yes Rob, I'm counting 2006 - it's not my fault Jim fainted prior to the start and couldn't go. I still beat Rob that year.

Rob won last year and added a plaque to THE Turtle. He put his name on it, but failed to add mine for 2006. In putting my name on it for this year I added the 2006 victory too.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though.

We all met at Rob's house before heading over to the race. Instead of pulling his gold Bianchi road bike with clip on aero bars from his truck, Jim gets out the SECRET WEAPON. A racing red fully tricked out tri bike complete with Zipp racing wheels and tubular tires. It was a pretty bike! How the heck did he talk Mindy into that? Oh . . . it was borrowed. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless. Worrisome? Slightly. The new bike looked fast, but was not without some risk. Jim would be in a completely new body position. I wondered how his back would hold up and how the bike to run would go.

This year Turtleman was again a time trial start (one person every 3-5 seconds). This year they went oldest to youngest. This meant both Rob and Jim were starting before me. Rob about 5 minutes and Jim about 2. This meant psychologically I would start out as the hunter instead of the prey. A pleasant change.

I was somewhat secretly hoping to be the first out of the water despite starting so far back. Jim swam in high school and our times are usually pretty similar. Rob dreads the swim. As I came out of the water I heard the Doc yell "Rob's waaaay in front of you." What she actually said was "Rob's right in front of you." He was just about getting ready to head out when I got to our rack. Jim's bike was still there too. Apparently he saw me pass him "before the first buoy." How he saw me go by I don't know. I think a small nuclear submarine could go past me and I wouldn't notice.

I stripped off my wetsuit and got my shoes on as quick as I could. I headed off chasing Rob on the bike. I should note that I was operating on very limited information. When we got to the rack that morning I discovered I had neglected to charge my Garmin. Fortunately, I had decided to use my Polar heart rate monitor since the Garmin has been acting up (something to do with the 2 inch crack in the face). On the ride I didn't have any information about cadence, speed, distance. I've ridden the course about 50 times so I know it pretty well. It actually was kind of nice to just focus on keeping my heart rate in the zone and not worry about whether I was going fast enough or what my cadence was.

I caught Rob about halfway through the bike. He tried to stay with me for a while. Cha, like that's going to happen. It'd be like me trying to hang with him on the run. The thought never crossed my mind when he passed me a mile and a half into the run. I was too busy trying to figure out if he could make up 5 minutes in the remaining 3.5 miles.

I saw Jim for the first time since the start about 3 1/2 minutes into the run. He was coming in on the bike. This put him about 6 minutes back. I thought I might see him at around mile 4, but he struggled on the run and I didn't see him until after the finish.

The whole last couple of miles I kept telling myself. "You don't want to lose to Rob by 3 seconds - keep moving." And I did. My mile splits were - 8:41, 8:49, 9:08, 9:11, and 8:47. That last mile is mostly uphill (not steep, but still up) so I'm especially pleased that I was able to drop the pace back under 9. I was really concentrating. I didn't react to the Doc or Mindy and the kids until the Doc yelled at me to "RUN FASTER." That's a joke between us and isn't something people usually yell. I did manage to smile and give a little wave after that. As I came to the finish there was a women a little ahead of me. I think she thought I was kicking to try and get by her. I didn't care about her, I just didn't want to lose to Rob by 3 seconds. She sped up to stay in front. At the line I eased up as if to say - it's all yours.

The day was beautiful. Great to hang out in the park eating free hotdogs and hoping to win some awesome prizes. No one in our group won anything this year.

Here are the numbers. I don't think they could have been much better. I would have liked to have broken one hour on the bike, but overall I'm pleased:

Time
2:13:34
Overall Place
269 / 795
Gender Place
214 / 494
Swimtime
25:51
Swimpace
1:35
Swimplace
160
Tran1
1:46
Biketime
1:00:47
Bikemph
21.1
Bikeplace
276
Tran2
0:38
Runtime
44:34
Runpace
8:45
Runplace
449
Penalty

Sometimes Inspiring Others Hurts

2008-08-05T07:13:00.002-05:00

So a couple of you have told me you've signed up for races because my signing up for CDA inspired you. (Wow if signing up inspired you, just imagine what actually running the race might do). One of those two, neighbor Brian, signed up for his first 5k - the Villagefest 5k. I told him I'd run it with him. Brian's a big guy. He's down to just under 250 (or an eighth of a ton as I used to describe myself back in the day).

He told me his goal was 31 minutes. We were planning on being at the lake that weekend. I thought cool - the race doesn't start until 8. I'll ride my bike down (28 miles), change and go for a short training run with Brian. Then I'd ride back up to the lake and go about my day. Fortunately the Doc had to round that morning so she offered to give me a ride back to the lake. I thought about it and said sure. I probably didn't need to ride my bike back.

The race starts and we're off. A half mile into it I look at the Garmin and we're doing an 8:50 pace. Uh, Brian . . . you're starting off a little fast here. I'm worried he's going to fry himself in the first mile and we're going to be walking it in. I've done it before, I recognize the signs. He says he feels pretty good. We slow a little and finish the first mile in 8:55. We come to a couple of small hills in the second mile which slow us a little more.

Brian's huffing and puffing pretty good. As I said he's a big guy. I start thinking that his wife probably blames me for Brian's bike purchase and everything that goes with that. A fact that she confirmed after the race. I decide if he drops over she's going to blame me. Good thing I didn't find out until after the race that his mom died from a massive coronary during an aerobics class. He really hasn't slowed down too much but I can tell he's running near his limit.

I had stashed an extra shirt at the start. It was about 50 feet off the course with 200 yards left to go. I was thinking about diving over and getting it when all the sudden Brian kicks it in. Guess I'll get the shirt after the race.

We cross the line at 29:15 which worked out to around 9:15/mi. So much for 10:30s. I go home get cleaned up and immediately take a nap while waiting for the Doc. I'm really glad I didn't have to ride back up to the lake. I would have been toast.

Shameless Plug

2008-08-02T22:17:00.005-05:00

Hey

Just wanted to point you to one of my new "sponsors." I met Colleen through Stomper Rob at a swim class. She was preparing for her first triathlon - Turtleman - a 1 mile swim, 22 mile bike and 10k. No small task.

Anyhow, she's started a business selling tri related picture frames, jewelry and stuff. Here's her description from her website:

Our purpose is to offer you fun and affordable keepsakes that mark your athletic accomplishments. Trinity Designs was created by someone who, after participating in her first triathlon in 2006, wanted to find a way to mark this achievement, but had little luck finding a way to do so.
At Trinity Designs we offer creative keepsakes for you to recognize your hard work and discipline.
At this site you will find products such as picture frames, plaques, necklaces, bracelets, key chains and zipper pulls that give you the opportunity to celebrate your athletic achievements.
You are able to choose from the products on this website or work with Trinity Designs to custom design a keepsake of your own. Thank you for taking time to see what we can offer you!

Check out her products at http://www.trinitydesigns.org. She'll also be at the Turtleman packet pick up this week. If you get something from her tell her "Rich sent me" No I don't get any kickbacks or anything.

Chisago Kids and Sprint Tri

2008-07-29T08:21:00.008-05:00

I know both of you have been anxiously awaiting a race report for the Chisago Lakes Kids and Sprint Triathlon. Well here it is. Saturday was an early morning as I had to get everything loaded up (including the dog) for both the tri and the weekend at the cabin. Then I had to run it all up to the lake, drop off the dog and the non-tri stuff, load the fridge and drive to Forest Lake to meet Doc and the kids. Anyhow, we got to the transition area with plenty of time for the kids to mug for the camera: Zach finished in the top three the first year he did the race (this is his third). The event wasn't nearly as big, but it's set the bar pretty high. At first they put him in with the 10 year olds because of his size. At the last minute he told them he was 9 and moved up to that wave. Unfortunately it was too late for him to get to the front of the wave. He's a good swimmer and would have rocked it. He came out of the water way behind the leaders and had no chance to podium. Fortunately he has a good time whether he places or not. (A lot like his dad that way!)
Jenna wants to win a trophy like Zach's and was pretty disappointed when she didn't.

I recognize this look. The pain at the finish. Plus, they're too young to have a Leinie's Summer Shandy - the unkindest cut. Zach crashed TWICE on the bike. The first time he clipped some one's rear wheel and the second time he got squeezed into the curb. Knowing how crazy it can get in the adult race, I can only imagine what it was like with kids flitting around.

Here's a short video of Jenna coming off the beach, washing off her feet and heading into T1. She needs to work on her turnover!

And one of Zach dismounting the bike. The doc says he'd been practicing. I wish I could get down that technique.

Sorry about the size. I know Youtube embedded videos are bigger, but I wasn't able to get the full code blah blah blah.

We went to the Swedish Inn in Lindstrom after the race to kill time before I could get my packet for Sunday's sprint. Sorry no pictures. If you want to see pictures of postrace food check out http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/ for Steve in a Speedo's race report.

Chisago Sprint Report

The Chisago Sprint - also known as the Golden Globes of the Ex-Neighbor Tri Battle
(it's nice to win it, but everyone only remembers the Oscar (Turtleman) winner. New bike course this year - shorter and less hilly. In previous years, the longer bike course has helped me. Jim and I are in the same wave - which is nice. Stomper Rob signed up the day before the race so he's a ways back.

We're the ninth sprint wave to go. Standing waist deep in the water looking out at the swim course it looks like there was a shipwreck. I've never seen so many heads just bobbing in the water. What the heck people, it's 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile - keep it moving out there. The tattooed guy next to Jim starts talking about needing his space. We joke with him a bit, but I'm not sure he's kidding.

The gun goes off and I take off fast, not wanting to get caught up with the space needing tatman. I feel somebody hit my right side a couple of times. I figure it's Jim - sorry - turns out it was probably tatman. Almost immediately I'm dodging to bobbers, sidestrokers and backstrokers from the earlier waves. I stayed waaaaaay to the outside and it wasn't too bad. It took me a while to recover from the fast start. My watch said just over 7 minutes when I hit the beach. It took a bit to get up the hill to transition.

The Bike

I feel bad about the bike. I think I may have ruined some one's day. There were 4 of us riding at about the same speed. One guy was doing the half and had the full aero kit. He was faster on the downhills but in trying to keep his watts down was slower on the uphill. He had a guy on a roadbike drafting off him in the most blatant fashion I'd ever seen. We hit a flat stretch so the aero guy started pulling away from me slowly. I watched the other guy sit 6 inches off his wheel for at least 2 miles. We got to some hills again and I started to pass them. I commented to another guy that we were all passing that it was the shortest 3 bike lengths I'd ever seen. As I passed the aero guy I told him "he had an achor" - what I meant was a remora sucking on his tail. I think he thought I was pissed that he was going slow on the hill or something. Right before the sprint turnoff he passed me and said something I didn't catch. I hope he didn't fry himself passing me. I had two other courses of action - both of which would have been better than my passive aggressive actions. 1. Shrug it off. If some guy wants to suck wheel in a race that's his deal. 2. Take it up with the drafter, not those around the drafter. Hopefully aero guy had a great race and doesn't even remember me.

Running Scared

Spent most of the run doing math in my head. As I was coming out of the park I saw Jim riding on Stinson heading towards the park. Looking at my watch it read 2:24 into the run. I figure I have about 3 minutes on him. Can I hold him off for 3.1 miles? At the turn I check my time, and then when I see Jim again I do some quick calculations. He's gained a little. I pick up the pace knowing he's going to haul trying to catch me. Not today!

The numbers:

Me Swim 8:29.9 T1 1:39.6 Bike 47:06.3 T2 40.7 Run 27:13.8 Total 01:25:10.5

Jim 9:45.7 1:20.2 49:33.9 1:23.7 25:00.4 01:27:04.2

Stomper 10:13.9 2:28.8 50:33.8 01:28.3 25:51.5 01:30:36.5

It looks like Stomper Rob may have a tough time defending the Turtle. We'll know in two weeks.

If you've made it this far in the post - wow do you have a lot of spare time!

You can now post comments without registering. Feel free.

Rolling Alone No More

2008-07-25T12:41:00.002-05:00

It's been a different week for me. Last Thursday I rode with Jim and Stomper Rob, did the group ride on Saturday in Rockford, on Tuesday I did an open water swim followed by a ride with NS Rob (not Stomper Rob). Hit a spin class with Neighbor Brian Wednesday, and Thursday I ran 6 miles with Cpt. Brian (freshly back from Iraq).

That's more group workouts than I've had in the last 3 months and it was refreshing. I'm not sure how great it was for my training since on the group rides you often find yourself sitting up chatting. That's the point of a group ride though - otherwise it would just be a couple (or more) guys who happen to be riding in the vicinity of one another.

Cpt. Brian is training for the Twin Cities Marathon, lost 30 pounds in Iraq (I should consider moving my kitchen 1/2 mile down the road) and pretty much could have dusted me at any point. After 2 miles I was struggling, but after another mile or so at a slower pace I came back and started to feel good.

Not to worry all of you who know me as the somewhat antisocial curmudgeon - I'm sure I'll be swimming, rolling, and running on my own next week.

My next post should contain some wildly different triathlon pictures - the triathletes will be much shorter! Zman and JRose will be doing the Chisago Kids Tri tomorrow a.m. Well Zman will be, I can't promise that JRose will toe the line. How did I end up with such a non-gung-ho daughter; I'll never know.

One of the Many Benefits of the Trilife

2008-07-21T11:45:00.003-05:00

Returned to Rockford for our 21 year (yeah well, it took an extra year to organize) high school reunion. We had a great time. Drank a great many beers. I recognized most of the guys. I generally had no clue who the women were. You know it's not the easiest thing to discreetly check out some women's name tag when she's wearing a low cut cocktail dress. Then to make it harder, they throw on their current name so you've got to sort that out from the maiden name and the next thing you know they're slapping you for staring at their cleavage. But anyhow, I digress.

The benefit of the tri-life. I must have heard at least 100 times that I looked exactly the same as I did the day we graduated, "except for a few lines around the eyes."

I realize how lucky I am in a lot of respects - still have my hair, my schedule allows me to undertake significant training schedules without sacrificing family or sleep (much). I have a supportive spouse (the Doc).

It's triathlons and the lifestyle that goes along with it that has me within 10 pounds of my playing weight senior year. It's what had me going down quiet country roads on the Lemond (I'll have to introduce you to the Lemond some day - I was a freshman in high school when it was born) with MJ, his dad, the Doc and a small group from the Blackhawk Cycling Club Saturday morning. It's why we could have dropped MJ if the other Mike had taken a pull at the front after we broke from the pack. It's why I'm down 45 pounds from my zenith.

I can only wonder what they'll think 9 years from now after I have 5 or 6 Ironmans (Ironmen?) under my belt. (Don't tell the Doc that or she'll freak!)

This coming weekend the kids are in the Chisago Kids Tri. Zman got a brick workout in last night. He finished 2nd a couple years ago. The race has grown by leaps and bounds. JRose is just hoping her chain doesn't fall off again this year. She walked her bike the entire course last year, but finished. She's got a new ride so it shouldn't be a problem. Apparently the Disney Princess bike from Walmart isn't the most durable - and don't even get me started on the aerodynamics.

Lifetime Fitness Pics

2008-07-16T13:21:00.003-05:00

These pictures are WAAAAY different than the Minneman pictures. See, there was no balloon arch at Minneman; I'm actually TURNING in one of the bike pictures and I have a WHITE hat on the run (not orange). WAAAAAAAY different.

A Short Breather

2008-07-16T11:17:00.003-05:00

Hey All,

Took a short break after Lifetime. I was pretty sore until Tuesday. I did try and get a swim in Monday night - had goggles, swimcap, shower shoes, towel, watch . . . no suit. They're pretty flexible at LA Fitness, but not that flexible. It was already pretty late when I headed over there so I decided to bag it.

Got a quick ski set in yesterday - thanks Wendy! It was a great day at the lake with the kids. J-Rose got up on two without the skis being tied together (not for long). Zman continues to ratchet up his slalom. I'm resisting the temptation to start talking to him about technique, just letting him get more aggressive. The day will come when we can talk about head position, one armed turns, hip position etc.

Hit up a spin class this morning. It's a nice break from riding the roads, usually alone. Tomorrow I've got a training ride with my rivals for the Turtle - Jim and Stomper Rob. They both did the full marathon at Grandma's so they haven't spent as much time on the bike as they'd like. That suits me fine as they're both faster runners than me. The Turtleman organizers did me a favor by dropping from the 10k back to 5 miles on the run. I think I'll need about 7 1/2 minutes going into the run. May be time to pick up that aero bike helmet (ok, ok I don't want the Turtle that bad).

This weekend the family is headed down to Rockford for our high school reunion. Training will continue to take a bit of a backseat for now. Next week the kids have day camp and I'm planning on getting in a great week of training - assuming I don't spend the whole time painting window trim at the lake.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It looks like we've got the lodging issue resolved for Coeur D'alene. I wasn't getting much response from the homeowners (I think they've been overwhelmed) but I did find something very close to the start. It should work out great for race day. Mom and the kids can see some of the race and then go back and hang out at the house. The Doc and OB will have their bikes and be spread out on the course. Now I need to come up with a catchy theme for their matching shirts. Suggestions?

Lifetime Fitness Report

2008-07-12T15:38:00.005-05:00

As promised, here are some pics of the pros from Lifetime Fitness. Sorry about the quality. We weren't racked right around the pros so it was tough to get close. To the left, Greg Bennett is walking. Below, Kevin from GearWest is helping Craig Alexander inflate his rear tire.

To the left, TJ Tollackson (in red) and a couple other guys discuss either where the run exit is or where to find a Biffy. I think that's Matt Reed drinking the Red Bull on the far right.

My race report:

I know I said I wouldn't make a long post like I did for Minneman. And I won't. My bike computer died so I couldn't give you too much information even if I wanted to (see earlier post about equipment issues - HEED plus cracked face = dead computer). I did have the 2nd fastest swim in Clydes 30-39. The bike went well (the pace in the results is wrong - for some reason they figured the pace based upon a 22.3 mile ride rather than a 24.8 mile ride). I wanted to run the 10k in under an hour and I did. I took almost 14 1/2 minutes off my time from last year!

Year Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total

2008 26:01 3:03 1:15:57 1:46 58:51 2:45:40

2007 28:20 3:48 1:16:45 2:13 1:09:07 3:00:15

Got faster in every phase - how can you not be happy with that?

Pacing information for OB

1:44/100, 20.1 mph (per revised official distance), 9:30/mi

Olympian Sighting

2008-07-11T11:22:00.003-05:00

So I'm pedaling the Lemond down to the Convention Center to pick up my packet for Lifetime tomorrow. After crossing the Stone Arch bridge, I see this guy coming towards me on a tribike. Solid disc rear wheel, aero helmet, USA bodysuit. Clearly one of the elites who flew into town and is making sure the bike travelled ok. Did I think to pull out my phone and snap a picture? Noooo. For purposes of this story I will swear it was Andy Potts (or maybe Hunter Kemper or Matt Reed). I should be racked right by the elites tomorrow. I'm going to take my camera. So instead of a boring race report with my heart rate, cadence, splits, blah blah blah; I hope to share some pics of sweet rides and real athletes!

More Pics

2008-07-08T07:20:00.004-05:00

I know, I know. These triathlon pics all start to look the same. Oh, well. And in case you haven't seen the Guru before - yes those are flames. It was a great deal what can I say. I really should try to relax my shoulders on the run.

Bling for the Big Man!

2008-07-06T17:09:00.011-05:00

I was right - as long as I avoided too much fruit pizza on Friday, I was going to have a good day Saturday. Placed 2nd in the Clydesdale division. Won a pint glass for my efforts. Here are a couple pics of me receiving my bounty:

Race Report:

Swim

1/3 of a mile swim counterclockwise triangle. I placed myself on the right (outside) in the front row. It's a very shallow start so there is a lot of dolphining. My goggles slid down my face on the first dolphin (or is it porpoising?). Can't stop now, I'll fix them when it's deep enough to start swimming. Finally get them adjusted and try to get in a groove. I'm breathing to the right so I don't know what's going on on my left. After a hundred yards or so I realize no one is swimming over me or anything (and I'm still on the course) - wow, this is going well. On my next head up sighting to make sure I'm heading in the right direction, I sneak a peek to my left and it doesn't seem like anyone is there. What the heck! I'm leading my wave. By the turn there are a couple of white swimcaps in front of me. All of the sudden I'm having trouble going straight. Apparently I'm not the only one as this dude in a white cap crosses directly in front of me at a 45 degree angle heading straight off the course. As I get close I remind myself to resist the urge to stand too early. Two years ago I did too much walking/running in the water and cooked my legs. Split time 9:03 for a 1:43/100 pace. 33/350 overall and 2/18 in Clydesdale.

T1

There are 3 clydes in the transition area. The first guy took off just as I got there (never saw him again either). The other guy and I head out at about the same time but I think I was just in front of him and he had a slow bike split. The Doc was volunteering at the bike/run exit so she was able to snap a pic or two. She also commented on how efficient some of the running bike starts were (compared to my standing there and getting on). Something to work on as I'm sure you lose some of the efficiency if you miss the pedal, slam on the seat and spend a moment or two on the side of the mount line writhing in pain. T1 - 2:35 (a little slow, but it was a fair distance to run - top time 1:10)

The Bike

It's only a 13 mile ride. I've decided (with no real evidence) that I can ride with a heart rate of around 150 and still have a decent run. Coming out of T1 my heart rate is over 160. It's a little windy but not nearly as bad as some of my rides/races this year. I'm moving pretty good, a little conservative to try and get my heart rate down. I'm not feeling the burn in my legs so this all seems good. The first part is into the wind and I'm averaging over 20.

The waves behind the Clydes/Athenas were all novices, and the waves in front of us were older. I must have passed 100 people and didn't get passed once. Man, that was fun. A lot of the guys looked like they could be Clydes, but none of them had a C on their calf. I did see a big guy with a bright yellow shirt but I couldn't catch him.

Final stats - 36:54, 21.1 mph, 3rd in Clydesdale, 55th overall, HR 150 bpm, Cadence 93 rpm.

T2

As I approach the dismount line I unclip from my right pedal, swing the leg over and coast in standing on my left foot. As I approach the line I realize, I've never done it this way before. I sure hope I can unclip my left foot when I stop; otherwise I'm going to end up on my ass. I have to brake hard and my rear wheel comes off the ground at the same time my left foot comes out. I'm still standing - not pretty but effective.

I check the Clydes racks - 1 bike (nice disc rear wheel - no wonder I couldn't find him). Ok, as long as I have a good run, I should finish on the podium.
T1 Time 1:17

The Run

The first time I look at my watch, I'm clocking 8:15/mi and the legs feel good. Knowing that's too fast I slow it down a touch. Long story short (well, I guess it's too late for that now), I run 3 miles at around 8:30s. Missed seeing the Clyde in front of me (waaaaay in front of me). Only got passed by a few skinny folk. The run went so much better than what I remember from 2 years ago (when I ran 9:27s). Time 25:36, 8:32/mi, 11th Clyde, 151 overall (hey that's still in the top 1/2).

Total Time:

1:15:24

Comparison to 2006

Year Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total
2006 9:08 2:59 38:11 1:21 28:21 1:19:57
2008 9:03 2:35 36:54 1:17 25:36 1:15:24

Difference 4:33
Improvement 5.69%

At that rate, I'll be ready to go pro in 10 or 15 years!

Had a fun day. A big shout out (isn't that what the kids say on their blogs?) to Jim, Cory, Amanda and Cooper. Hope your 10 mile training goes well. Jim fill me in on Steelhead. Doc says that after "my" ironman - singular, I'm to return to 70.3 so that one might be on my calendar in 2010.

Lifetime Oly on Saturday. No podium hopes, I just want to do better than the 1:09 10k I trudged last year. Did 6 miles on the treadmill today - man I forgot how long an hour lasts on those things.

By the way - there were 2 pregnant women competing at Minneman. One was 7 months along and had a shirt that said "I'm 7 months pregnant . . . what's your excuse?" If you're not training for something what is your excuse?

Equipment Issues

2008-07-01T10:56:00.003-05:00

In addition to worrying about time, we triathletes spend countless hours fretting over equipment. We're suckers for anything that promises to make us faster. If we're not studying the latest issue of Triathlete for the latest and greatest we're online at http://www.trigearreview.com/. I guess when I say "we" I mean me. Not all trigeeks are that focused on gear, but they do have that reputation.

Sometimes our gear let's us down (or more often we let it down). I don't mean, the gear doesn't deliver on the promises of Faris Al Sultan bike splits, although that happens often enough, I mean it breaks.

This weekend was marked by broken or misbehaving gear. The first casualty was my Garmin 305. In getting ready to head up to the cabin, I threw it and the rest of my bike gear (and the Doctor's as well) into my gym bag.

When I got it out on Saturday it looked like somebody had put one of those cracked windshield stickers on it. Only it wouldn't peel off. The plastic had been pushed all the way down and impacted the lcd screen. Great - this will last exactly one wet ride. Fortunately Garmin has a $99 repair program. Beats $250 for a whole new shebang.

The only thing hard enough to break it was the Doc's spd cleats. The only way they could generate enough force would be if some kid was jumping on the thing. I know a couple of suspects. I've sent some fiber samples retrieved off the bag to the lab, but I doubt they'll be definitive.

The week before Grandma's I took the Guru in to get it tuned up (mostly just to keep me off the thing leading up to the 1/2 marathon). It was not shifting as smoothly as it could. Turns out it also needed a new chain. These 10 speed chains just don't last. Anyhow, they had adjusted my front brake so tightly that I had virtually zero clearance on both sides. After changing my front tire, the brake pad was rubbing. I thought I had fixed it when I headed out on my ride. Wrong.

I was pushing hard and barely making 16 mph. I reached down and opened it up a bit and thought that's a little better. Finally, 3/4s of the way into my ride I realize it's still rubbing. I open it up all the way and now can finish my ride at a better pace. I was really worried that I'd lost all my cycling form in the nearly 2 weeks since I last rode.

In that instance, I really let the equipment down. I should have made sure I had the problem fixed before heading out. I think I just moved the rubbing from one side of the wheel to the other.

Sunday I was able to ride from the cabin over to the Minneman course and preview it. I hadn't ridden it in a couple years. I'm hoping to have a good race Saturday. I think as long as I don't eat too much fruit pizza and brownies on Friday at the lake I should be good to go.

I talked the Doc into volunteering as medical support for the race Saturday. It'll be fun having her there.

I probably won't post again until after the race - unless something truly heinous occurs. Now to get back to some obsessing about race wheels and aero helmets.

Talking about Time

2008-06-25T11:17:00.003-05:00

Time . . . it's something we triathletes focus on, well, all the time: training time, split time, transition time, recovery time. You get the picture.

I'm luckier than most triathletes when it comes to finding training time (usually). I'm a stay at home dad to two kids both of whom are in elementary school. As long as I keep the laundry flowing (only fair since I create most of it), the fridge stocked and the meals coming, I pretty much have from 9-3 to get my training done.

Until summer, also known as triathlon season, that is. Once the kids are out of school I'm in the same boat as most of you other triathletes. Trying to arrange my workouts around a work schedule (in this case, my wife's). Most mornings I can sneak out for a swim or a run as long as it's of the shorter variety. Sometimes she's out the door before 6:30 (like today) and I can't fit in the workout I was planning.

In preparing for the Rockman 1/2 Ironman, I was getting in 9 workouts a week (3 in each discipline) plus yoga once or twice a week. In my heaviest weeks I put in around 12 hours of training. Typically I'd only have 1 workout to do over the weekend so I could spend some time with the fam.

This summer I've already planned to drop to 6 workouts a week (2 in each) and hopefully hit yoga once a week. So far that's not happening; in part due to recovery needs from Rockman and Grandma's and the related travel, but also from lack of time.

I'm currently treating the Turtleman Olympic distance (August 9) as my next "A" race. For those of you who don't know, an A race is one that you train to a full peak including resting immediately prior to the race. If you attempt to achieve this peak too often it can lead to injury and/or under performance. I want to win back THE Turtle (more on that to follow).

I'm not sure how I'll prepare for the Square Lake 1/2 the following month, but I've got some time to figure that out (in keeping with the theme of this post).

Anyhow, I won't waste any more of your time waxing on about my time trials (so to speak - pun explanation for non-bike/triathlon fans - a time trial is an individual bike race against the clock - similar to a triathlon since drafting is not allowed). Like most jokes, it loses something if you have to explain it - assuming it had anything in the first place.

Oh My Lord, I've Done It Now!

2008-06-23T14:15:00.003-05:00

It's official. I have now volunteered, no make that paid a small fortune, for the privilege of hauling my carcass 140.6 miles in under 17 hours on June 21, 2009 in and around the apparently lovely burg of Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.

If you've done it before I'd appreciate your input as I go through this process. Either way I hope you enjoy following my journey. And I encourage you to click through on some of these triathlon ads - it's the only way I'll be able to pay my entry. Although for my married friends I recommend sticking to the training websites and not the "triathlon singles" sites.