Swim test

Yesterday I was supposed to do a swim fit test, to establish where I am physically to start the year. I took my run test weeks ago and did pretty well, same with my bike test.

I dread going swimming when it's cold outside, or I'm cold. With the cold front that came through, I had little trouble talking myself out of going. Since I was supposed to send my times to coach, I had to fess up. She didn't say anything, but I felt guilt all night.

I decided that last night I would skip the scheduled run to do the swim. Again today I was cold and feared I would talk myself out of going again today. I was busy all morning, and watching the clock tick away I knew each passing minute increased the odds I would skip again.

Finally around 3 I put on my suit, grabbed my bag and headed out. I finished the test and reported them to coach even if they weren't that good. It is clear to me where I need to spend some time - my cardio just isn't up to par right now, but I knew that already.

The big news is that I came home, changed again, and headed out the door for a 6 mile run. It was my first double workout of the season and I'm beat!

So now I'm sitting here watching football with the dogs in my lap, trying desperately to stay awake until bedtime. The dogs are snoring, why can't I?

10 Minutes

I’m two weeks into my training for 2011.  Foolishly I thought that as soon as I started training again the weight I’d gained would just drop off like magic.  No such luck!  My training schedule is too light, I’m still not strictly following my diet, and fat doesn’t melt off like that.

Coach is bringing me back gradually, which means I only train on one discipline a day, and at that the sessions aren’t that hard.  Looking ahead at the next couple of weeks I see more of the same.  Although she is “easing me back into it”, I’m pushing the limits of what she schedules.  If she says ride for 1.5 – 2 hours, rest assured I’m riding 2 hours.  If she says run a mile at 8-9 minute/mile pace I’m doing the fastest I can that is within the schedule range.

I’m not trying to ignore her directions, nor have I lost confidence in her.  In fact it is quite the opposite.  I figure she is giving me a range for a reason, and that is to allow my some flexibility to listen to my body.  As long as my body is holding up I’m going for the maximum she schedules.

I’ve had a couple of rides, all on club rides and on my road bike.  The average pace of those rides hasn’t been as blistering as it felt, probably because there are a lot of start and stops along the way.  I did better last weekend as my fitness gradually improves.  Although I was unable to stick with the breakaway group when we hit the sprint section, and again found myself in no man’s land, I beat half the group to the sprint finish.  I also had a better day than all but two of the group of 7, and those guys have been doing this ride for a long time.

The running is also going well.  I started off on a 6+ mile easy run only to discover when I was done that I was running negative splits for the entire time, with most of the run between 8 and 8:30 pace.  I also dropped down to 7:10 for a mile near the end.  That last mile seemed very fast.  Hopefully it won’t feel so fast as we get further into the season!

I’ve done a fit test on the bike and run, and both were better than last year.  My run speed was a full minute better than last year at this time, and the bike power was also higher.  In theory I should be at last year’s end of season speeds in a few months, and get better from there.  I hope so, my first real test is only 3 months away!

This year my goal is to be faster.  To be faster I have to work harder, and faster.  I’m approaching every workout with that mentality.  I’ve only had a few workouts, but when it has gotten hard to continue or go faster I remind myself that I need to shave 10 minutes.  That is my mantra:  10 minutes for 2011.

Getting ready for 2011

I’ve had several weeks off since the end of my 2010 season, time for me to rest, recover and rejuvenate.  During that time I ate whatever I wanted, drank when I wanted to, exercised little, visited Colorado and went on a cruise.  The result:  my joints feel better, I have no lingering aches and I gained 7-8 pounds.  I’m not sure which is worse, the added weight or that I REALLY enjoyed not having to exercise all the time.

Fortunately I don’t make my own schedule or I would put off training and enjoy some more down time, perhaps pushing that weight gain up to 10+ pounds.  Coach started me back Tuesday with an easy swim.  Two months ago I would have said it was easy, today it was very hard and I found myself fighting for air on a number of occasions.  Then we jumped yesterday into a field test, where I was to run 4-5 miles with mile 3 hard, and mile 4 harder.  I set some mental goals at the start and was able to exceed them, but what a price!  It was a very difficult run.  While the rest of the week is scheduled to be easy, it is easy compared to what I was doing at the end of last season.  I don’t think I’m going to be finding many workouts easy for some time.

I’m not complaining, just stating the facts.  I allowed myself to get out of shape and now I must do the work to get back to where I was.  Actually, I need to get into better shape this year because of the lofty goal I set.  The goal for year #1 was to get a national ranking, which I did.  The goal for last year was to improve my ranking and finish 3 half ironman distance races.  While I improved my ranking considerably, I only finished 2 of my HIM races.  This year the focus is on speed.  I want to qualify for the Age Group National Championships.  To do so I will need to finish in the top 10% of an Olympic distance race, which will require me to drop another 10 minutes off my PR for about a 2:35 time.

It won’t be easy to meet this year’s goals, a feat made more difficult by my loss of fitness to start the year.  I don’t care though.  This is something I really want, and I’m prepared to do what is needed to make it happen.  Last season there were too many workouts where I just wanted to get it done.  I suspect I will have those days again this year, and that is where I need to step it up and put forth the extra effort.  Only by pushing harder will I be able to meet my goal.

Follow along with me as I undertake  this next crazy challenge, and then cheer for me in August when I race in VT with the rest of the best!

San Antonio–race recap

Before I jump into the race, I want to take a minute to thank the people who helped get me to the starting line:  Coach Kelly Williamson with Durata Training who pushed, pulled and encouraged me for the past 15 months; Darrel Johnson, the personal trainer who got me off to a good start and has been supportive even after I stopped using his services; Ironman Betsy Morgan, my first real triathlete friend who was a wealth of information for a rookie triathlete and is always supportive of my efforts; newly ordained Ironman Susan Wallace, who gave me my first swimming pointers, calmed me down before the start of my first half Ironman, smacked me around when I needed it, and most importantly turned me on to coach Kelly; Sam Sann, owner of Iron Sports Gym, who is always there to push me and provides me with my aerodynamic ‘race-cut’ haircut; Gwen McFadden, who let me swim in her lake when she didn’t even know me and has been a good friend ever since; Airrosti Rehap Centers, who helped me recover from a badly sprained ankle earlier this year, and is always there to help with the injuries that come with this sport; Jason Kolodjski at Natural Health Center for making sure all my parts are working together correctly; Phillip Shama at Shama Cycles, who has been super responsive in helping me keep my bike running; my parents and number one fans, who always want to hear about my training and races and have waited for me for hours at a number of races; Professional triathlete Natasha Van Der Merwe, who’s company Tri Team Transport got my bike to California for Vineman 70.3, and has been very supportive of my efforts, always pushing me to do better.  Finally, a special thanks goes out to my wife and the love of my life, Kelli Lachner, who has given me the freedom to put in all these hours of training; tolerated my whining about training, injuries and being sore; driven me to the ER; driven to the middle of nowhere to pick me up when I couldn’t repair my flat tire; and been to more races than I can count.  Thanks guys!!

Two days before the race, at packet pickup, I ran into Frank Shorter, the 1972 Olympic gold medal winner for the marathon.  We spoke briefly while he was signing my race number, and I loudly proclaimed that I was going to beat everyone in the area.  I was sort of jesting, but I did expect to beat most people on Sunday.  I was feeling rather confident.

It was pretty cold for my Saturday morning run.  I thought I might have to wear gloves and a long sleeve shirt.  I also decided against getting a race-cut.  After a much too short visit with my parents, I was sitting in my hotel room, resting and trying to not think about the race.  I knew I would finish, and set a new personal record, but after all my talking I started to wonder if I could live up to my own hype.  I did get some sleep that night, but not as much as I would have liked.

Race morning was about 50 degrees, perfect running weather.  I planned to start with the group of people attempting a 1:45, and hang on as long as I could.  The pace leader Matt said we would start with the third wave, run the first mile a bit slower, and then run the rest of the race at about 7:50/mile pace.  That freaked me (and a couple other runners nearby) out, as I wasn’t sure I could run that long at that pace.

As we stood there my teeth were chattering and I was pretty cold, the start couldn’t come soon enough.  Then we were off.  The pace was a little quicker than I would have normally started, but it was ok.  After the first mile Matt indicated we were picking up the pace, and we certainly did.  I would have liked a bit more of a warm up, but I was going to stay with the group.

We hit an aid station, and suddenly the entire group split (there was water and stuff on both sides of the road), leaving me running all by myself.  Since I had my personal water bottle, I had no need to stop.  I figured either the group would speed up and catch me, or I would start to leave them, gaining 5-10 seconds at each station.  I didn’t see them for a long time, and in my head they were falling minutes behind me.

I fell into a comfortable pace at about 7:45/mile.  At the halfway point I started to think I could finish with the current pace, I was in no distress at all.

Around mile 9 I was really into my groove:  keeping an eye on my pace, watching the distance, and listening to how my body was feeling.  I was snapped back into the moment when I looked up and the pace group had passed me on the left.  I was totally bummed, wondering how I had let my pace drop enough that they could catch me.  They were running faster than I, and I was concerned that I might not be able to keep up and would thus not hit my goal time.

We hit mile 10 and the pace setter announced we had 5K left and I knew I had it.  I was 30 seconds ahead of schedule.  As long as nothing unexpected happened, I was going to finish strong.  We hit another aid station, the group split and I was running alone again.  This time it was for good!

Coach’s plan was to pick it up at mile 8 (not necessary), pick it up at mile 11, and give it all I had at mile 12.  I hit mile 11 and decided against picking up the pace this far out, I was afraid I might blow up.  I started to cramp up a bit in my hamstrings, but had nothing with me that would help.  I would just have to hold on and hope for the best.  When I crossed mile 12 I decided I couldn’t go any faster.  I was really tired, but seemed to be holding a good enough pace.  We made the last turnaround, and I saw that the last bit of the race was uphill and a lot of people were walking.  It had been mostly flat with a few rollers until then and was a little irritated that they saved the biggest hill for right at the end.

There was no way I was going to walk.  I didn’t end up picking up the pace, just fighting to hold what I had and finish strong.  People around me were waving to the crowd (I couldn’t even smile, I was giving it my all), and a couple of runners sprinted past me.  I was irritated at those sprinters, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.  And then I was done.  1:43:05!

I didn’t think I’d gotten any faster at the end, but unless my math was off during the race, which is certainly possible, I’d gained 90 seconds in the last 5K or 30 seconds per mile.  I know the chip results don’t agree with what I’ve said, but that is what my watch told me.  Officially I was 39/644 in my age group and 838/20436 overall.

Conclusion

Race season 2010 is over (really dear, I promise!)  Triathlon season ended last month, and while I am very satisfied with the time I posted on my last race, the run split left a bad taste in my mouth.  My performance in San Antonio wiped out all of that.  I always though I could run, but never seemed able to post the results relative to everyone else.  I finally did that yesterday.  I finished in the top 4% of the field, and am pretty darn proud of myself.

I rewarded myself with a large beer and Mexican food yesterday, and doughnuts today.  Now I rest up for a couple of weeks, and then we start all over again!

When a new PR isn’t enough

With six days left to my final race of the season, the time has come to figure out my race plan.  Not counting the run legs of my half Ironman races, I’ve only run a half marathon once before.  It was about 8 months ago, on a crushed gravel trail, and I met my expectations.  Knowing how hard I’ve worked for the past months, I should easily be able to set a new personal record time for the distance.

My original goal was to try and knock 7 minutes off my earlier time.  That is no small feat, requiring me to knock 30 seconds off my per mile pace and by itself is enough to make me a bit nervous.  Then I look at how well I’ve been running the past few weeks, really without any serious run training, and I believe I can break 1:50.

Then I had my normal pre-race chat with coach Kelly.  She reviewed my performance over the past few weeks and announced that I should be able to break 1:45.  That is another 30 second per mile reduction, down to 8 min/mile!  She has a lot of experience with athletes, and if she thinks I can do it she is probably right.

I ran 6 miles today with an average pace of 8 min/mile.  It wasn’t a steady pace, there was some interval work involved, and the recovery from those intervals usually costs me more time than the speed work gains me.  It wasn’t a great run either.  My legs felt heavy to start with, and by delaying my run until noon it was warmer than I would have liked.  Even still, I am pleased with my results.

So that’s it.  My mind is made up.  I’m going to finish in 1:45.  And when it’s done I’m going to enjoy a cold beer, a hot shower, and several weeks of well deserved rest!

Much needed time off

Today ends my mini break from training, which included a trip to Colorado to visit my oldest and dearest friend, Faisal. The trip started out well enough, the weather was clear and beautiful. As is normal for this part of the world, all you have to do is wait a few minutes and that could change.

We went to sleep the first night under clear skies and woke to an overcast and dreary day with a fresh sprinkling of snow to celebrate my arrival. We drove down from the mountains for some fresh coffee and food in Nederland. The plan was to goof around for a few hours to let the weather clear and then head back to his place to work on his new deck.

Several hours later we headed back up to a sprinkling of snow. The higher we got the harder it was snowing, and the deeper the snow on the ground. As we made the turn off of Apex road the snow was probably 4-6 inches deep, and there were no tire tracks on the road (and anyone who has been there knows I use that term loosely).

After a long and stressful drive we finally made it to his land, looked around for a few minutes, took a couple of pictures, and headed back down before we were stuck. In hindsight the drive up was a picnic, that drive down was scary with a LOT of slipping and sliding. I've never been so glad to get on a real road before!

We spent the next day at a horse vaulting show, and then last night at a wine tasting at the local Elks lodge. I've never done anything like that before and it certainly was interesting. That said, I can cross it off my list as neither is really something I need to do again.

We woke up this morning to clearer skies and some pretty cold weather. It's time for this southern boy to head back home for some good old fashioned heat and humidity. Two more hours then it is back to civilization via then Denver airport.

Tomorrow we get back to the grind of training, as I gear up for a half marathon! I think coach is going to be excited to see I still want to race more this season.

ps. Terra, an old friend of Faisal's moved to Reno. She is going to find us a half marathon for us to race in a couple of months. She will kill me, but it will be fun!!

Oops, not so fast

I wrote, but failed to post, earlier this week that I was done with my race season and enjoying the off season.  Unfortunately that was only half true.  I did enjoy several days of supposed off season, the only problem is that my season may not be over yet.

A month or so I’d spoken to coach about ending the season with the half marathon in San Antonio.  When I hit my tough spell, I decided I was tired, needed a break, and didn’t sign up.  Somehow this wasn’t communicated to coach and she assumed that I had.  This all came to light yesterday when she talked about building my training schedule around that race, and then ending my season.

This is further compounded by my ‘plan B’ I formulated in case I didn’t do well at Longhorn.  Plan B was for me to race again next month in Conroe at the Iron Star half Ironman.  I did well enough to not require plan B, but I’m still intrigued by the race.

I’ve spoken to coach about all of this, and she said it is up to me.  She didn’t recommend against racing in Conroe, only cautioned that I might not do as well as I want.  Now I have to decide to start the off season now, do a half marathon next month or really step it up and do another half ironman.

After some soul searching I’ve decided not to race in Conroe.  On the plus side I feel pretty good today and think I could do well.  I’m skipping the race because I’m on vacation this weekend and won’t be able to do any training, not a good plan with the race two weeks away.  I am also pretty excited about my current national standing and don’t want to do anything that might move me lower (silly I know).  The other drawback is that I would have no support team, and that is a pretty tough race to have to make it home on my own.

I’ve also pretty much decided to do the half marathon.  I booked a hotel room as many of the close hotels are already sold out, I have yet to sign up for the race.  I’m going to wait until this weekend and make sure I still feel like racing.  Right now I think I could do pretty well in that race.  It might be a good way to kick off the running season!

Longhorn HIM 2010 – what a race

Going in to this race I had three levels of performance goals.  Most importantly I wanted to beat my time of 6:30 I’d set at Vineman three months earlier.  The next level was to break 6:15 and my final goal was to beat 6:00.  I thought for sure I could beat 6:15, and thought 6:00 was possible.  I had calculated all kinds of scenarios (omitting the transitions which is pretty dumb), but they were all pretty much based on me running a 2 hour half marathon.  That was another mistake as I’ll point out later.

Although I hardly got a wink of sleep the night before, I wasn’t very nervous about the race until about 45 minutes before the start when there is nothing to do but stand around and wait.  I was really wondering why I was doing this race and why I didn’t just go home and go back to bed!  Then it was time to get in the water, and with only 2 minutes to get ready we were off.

The swim

I was excited that this race was wetsuit legal.  I know that it makes me faster and I do so by expending less energy.  I thought that at 73 it might be cold, but if it was I didn’t notice.  Before the start I positioned myself in the group about where I expected to finish, about 2/3 of the way back.  Once we got going it was like all hell broke loose.  I was getting pummeled on both sides and from the front.  The course was triangular shaped and for most of the way out and back it was like a gang fight.  Several times I had people hit my arm as I was trying to bring it forward, preventing the stroke.  I was fortunate that it never happened on a breath stroke.

It didn’t seem like it was all that long before I was climbing out of the water and up the hill.  I’d thought before the race that the hill was pretty steep.  I’m not sure what happened to it because I don’t remember it at all; only the strippers yelling at me to get on the ground and then to get moving again.

I saw my fan base on the way to my bike, and then again at the bike while I was trying to get ready.  I’d forgotten to remove the safety tape I put on my gels so they don’t blow off when I’m driving and now the darn stuff didn’t want to come off!  Finally I got it all together and was on my way.

The bike

I didn’t test drive the course before hand and the reviews told me that:  the first 14 miles were pretty tough with mostly rollers after that, and that there was a sharp turn at mile 41 that if I wasn’t careful I’d run off the road.  Everything Natasha told me was accurate, except I think the tough hills went though mile 15.  They were tough, but not bad if that makes sense.  My legs were fresh and I handled them without any problems.  In fact, I had to tell myself several times to settle down that this was a long ride/race.  I finished over 19 miles the first hour!

I was ecstatic with that time, and started extrapolating how this might end up.  I was about 38 miles at hour #2, but somehow my math failed me and I thought I’d slowed down.  I just now realized I was still at 19 miles per hour.  Anyway, I was still doing math in my head, not being passed by many people, when we came up to a turn with volunteers telling us to slow down.  They had done that on several other turns that I felt were unnecessary.  I was quietly fussing at them while I rode by, thinking that they had no idea how much energy I was going to spend getting back up to speed.  I started the turn and realized I was going much too fast.  I hit the brakes as hard as I could, heck, I was worried the cable was going to snap.  I held my lane until I had to swerve to miss a cone and then I was headed for the grass.  Knowing I was going in the grass I decided to unclip and stop instead of trying to ride back up the shoulder without stopping.  I’m sure it was very amusing for the policeman and all the cars that were stopped because of me!  I clipped back in and was back off.

The most exciting part for me was being able to pee while still on the bike.  Thanks Chris Lieto for showing me last weekend how to do it!

It really wasn’t that much longer before I was approaching transition.  I didn’t see my fans anywhere as I jumped off the bike and took off running.  They would have been proud to see how graceful I was (not!)

Transition

I spotted my fans near where my bike was supposed to go.  They were wearing these crazy foam hats, which I used later on to spot them.  My mind wasn’t working real well and it was very helpful to have them giving me directions to my bike.  As I was getting ready I told them to go to the end, where I planned to stop for a minute and stretch my legs for a bit.  Figuring on a 2 hour run I had lots of time to spare, so a few extra minutes in transition wouldn’t hurt.

I got to the end of my row and they weren’t there.  In the fog I hadn’t been very clear about where I wanted them to go.  I spotted my wife and mother near the run out and gave them high fives, and was informed that Dad was further up the road.  I gave him a high five and was off.  My break was probably 10 seconds, not what I’d planned or really needed.

The run

One little piece of information no one told me about the run was that half of it was a trail run.  I quit doing trail runs after badly spraining my ankle on one last January.  I’m still amazed at the conditions we ran on:  tall grass, rutted dirt and rocky trails, all without the benefit of shade.

Because my legs were tight I started off slowly.  I filled my water bottle at the first aid station.  I had opted for a small bottle because it wasn’t that hot and I didn’t want to carry the bigger one for that long.

I passed mile marker #2 and thought to myself “just like that, 2 miles down”.  The hills were hard and I did them without stopping, even the notorious Quadzilla!  It got hotter so I started grabbing sponges at the aid stations to squeeze over my head and tuck in the back of my shirt.

I hit the halfway point and my fans in about an hour.  I was really excited.  At my current pace I had a chance of breaking 5:45 and qualifying for the Half-Max championships.  That had never crossed my mind until then.

I planned to stop again, regroup and rest for a minute or two.  I planned to tell them how well my times were going and that so far I’d had a really good day.  All that came out as I gave them sweaty hugs was “We’re doing ok.”  My wife told me later she knew I was hurting because as I hugged her I put all my weight on her shoulders.  Aside from not being able to get words out, I also failed to take the planned break, again.  This time it really cost me.

I hit the first of two big hills on the road and my body gave up.  Frustrated I started walking up the hills and running down them.  It really got bad once I hit the trail section.  My stomach started acting up.  At mile marker #8 I had 55 minutes before hitting 6 hours.  I thought I could still make it, only my decline got worse.  The second time around Quadzilla just about killed me, even though I was walking.  I wasn’t breathing hard, but somehow knew I couldn’t breath much harder than I already was and God only knows what my heart rate was hitting.

My nutrition plan, which I’d stuck by pretty well, called for a gel at mile 9.  I skipped it partly because of my stomach, partly because I didn’t want to carry they empty container to the next aid station, and partly because I was too tired.  Finally, just after mile 10, I decided I’d better get it in me so I could finish, I needed the boost of energy.  I got it in my mouth, only my body didn’t want to swallow it.  I forced it down and immediately knew it was a mistake.  I hurried to the side of the trail so I could, in the most masculine manner possible, deposit it on the ground.  It was a short process as I had nothing in my stomach, and I actually felt much better afterwards.  I started running again to show everyone behind me just how tough I was.

I don’t remember the road back at all.  In fact, after cresting one hill I noticed that the turnoff was just ahead.  I thought there was still another big hill to summit!  Squeezing a couple of sponges over my head I took off running for the finish, not allowing myself to stop again.  I finished in 6:08.  The last 5.1 miles took me over an hour to complete.

Summary

I’m very happy with my time.  I’d secretly talked to some of my friends about racing again next month if I didn’t do well and this time certainly scuttled those plans.

My honest assessment today (I should come back in six months and see if I still agree) is that I didn’t make any mistakes race day that led to my collapse on the last half of the run.  I’d done exactly what I’d expected on the swim and bike, and paced myself exactly where I wanted to be for the first 7 miles.  My mistake, if you can call it that, was in my training.  While I spent lots of time biking in the hills, I didn’t get in enough run time in the hills.  If the last 6 miles had been flat it would have been a very different story.  I think it would also have been different without the trails.

Now that the season is over, where do we go from here?  First up is some recovery time.  I’ve been training hard without a break for 15 months.  I need a little down time to recharge my battery and let my body heal and rest.

I want to tackle the half Ironman again.  Now I’m confident that I can not only break 6 hours, but perhaps break 5:45 and make it to Half-Max Championships.  That said, I will probably only attempt one next year, late in the year, perhaps Kerrville or Conroe.  The rest of the year I’m going to focus on Olympic races.  With another year to train, and training for speed and the shorter distance I believe I have a real shot at making the podium.

So my fans, I’m signing off for a bit of R&R.  I’ll be back once I get bored, probably to tackle some winter running races.  I have goals there too…

Packed up and ready to go

My gear, bike, and bags are all packed up, loaded in the car, and I’m ready to go!  The plan is to leave in a couple of hours which means I get to spend the next two hours pacing and looking for something to do.  Despite the look I gave my wife when she asked for computer help, it was nice having something to do!

So with about 45 hours left to go before the race start perhaps it’s time for an assessment of where I am.  Let’s see:

• Three weeks ago I had arguably the best 10K race of my life.  I had a better time 25 years ago, but I seem to recall the course was flatter and the conditions were much better.
• Two weeks ago I had a very strong brick workout followed the next day by an equally strong run.  This past weekend also felt very strong but it was part of my taper week so everything was shorter.
• This week, being taper week, hasn’t resulted in any memorable workouts.  While my body certainly needed the break before the race I sure would have liked to go into the race on the high I felt two weeks ago.
• I’ve been suffering from a bit of allergy issues for the past few days.  This morning, as I was packing up the last few items, I realized that I had not been taking my allergy medicine for a couple of days.  I made sure that it was added to my batch, and only just remembered that I didn’t take one today.  With that now taken care of I’m hoping it clears up the problem.  It usually clears up by itself after a few hours, but a 45 minute swim with drainage from both my nose and down my throat isn’t particularly pleasant.  Heck, a 45 minute swim isn’t particularly pleasant in itself!
• There are a couple of things I wish I could change about the race:  I wish it was going to be wetsuit legal, and I wish the run didn’t have a hill called Quadzilla.  There is something I’m starting to learn after 15 months and 9 races:  you can’t control what you can’t control, so don’t stress over it.  So far I haven’t, and I don’t plan on starting today!
• Right now I’m feeling very rested.  Baring any unforeseen problems, this will be a very good race for me!

See you on the course!

Pre-race bike check

I picked up my bike from the store today where it was getting its usual pre-race check up. I also asked them to investigate a new creak in the crankset area. They said the left hub was too tight and thought that might be the source of the noise. It wasn't, so someone is going to have to take that area back apart and start from scratch.

I finished my last bike workout, leaving me with just one run workout before the race. Michael sold his car, freeing up space in the garage. I finally moved a bunch of bike stuff into that area, including my trainer, and completed my first workout in the garage. It's a nice cool day, but even with all the doors open it was hot in the there. Maybe I'll loose some more weight that way!

I think I'm going to have to keep training after race season; all this spare time is driving me crazy!

One last swim

It's Tuesday, and my last swim before the Longhorn half Ironman. As much as I have dreaded going to swim in that over chlorinated pool at 24 hour fitness, it was good to get in to work out the kinks and aches.

Did I mention that the pool is super chlorinated?  It is so bad that I have to rinse off poolside before heading home.  Then I have to take another shower, use conditioner (something I never do), and scrub my entire body with a loofah.  If I skip any of those steps I end up spending the entire night scratching myself raw.

Not long ago I posted that I'd never finished a swim as out of breath as my niece after her 1500m. I realized today that while that was correct, it wasn't accurate. I never finish a swim that gassed because I always get a couple hundred meters to cool down at the end. However, there are many times in a workout that I am hugging the edge of the pool gasping for breath. Although I am officially in taper week, today was no exception. I suspect the swimmer in the adjacent lanes wondered if I was going to survive!

So the day and its workout are done, and then there were two...

Random Thoughts

With just five days and 4 workouts left before my final triathlon of the season, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to focus on work, and really anything other than racing.  I try, but I am easily distracted by just about anything.  So today, I reduced to a rambling series of thoughts for my entry.

I had another super weekend of training.  It was about half the load of the previous weekend so I could be fresh Sunday, but it left me with extra time and feeling like I hadn’t finished my training.  This week is going to be hard with more easy workouts leaving me wanting more.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do when the season is over!

I’ve been waiting for this last race for so long, looking forward to the post race break I plan to take, and now I’m second guessing that idea.  Maybe I could get in one more half Ironman or half marathon in November and then take a break?

Last week Ironman, the company, announced a new race series called 5150.  It is all about the Olympic distance race, with 12 races and a championship in the US, and 3 races overseas.  I was originally thinking that I should target that next year and attempt to make the championships, but that might not be very realistic.  The only close races are in Galveston and New Orleans.  The other races are a bit too far for just a 3 hour race.  I also question whether I could really qualify for the championship.  These races will probably draw a large crowd, and I would probably have to finish in the top 5 to qualify.  They should be announcing the qualification rules in a couple of weeks, with registration opening in December.  I’ll probably do Galveston, and maybe New Orleans, but that’s it.

Saturday was my first bike ride since getting a new fit.  It is going to take me some time to get used to the new positioning and the different muscles being used to hold up my head.  I still had some neck pain, only with different muscles that I now have to figure out how to stretch.  The good news is that my power meter worked great.  The bad news is that my bike developed a creak in the crankset area whenever I apply serious pressure such as standing up for an uphill ride.  I took my bike in for a race check and told them about the noise.  Of course they were less than thrilled that someone else had worked on my bike.  I’ve got three stores that each think are my only bike shop.  What’s a person to do?

This weekend I spent more time in front of my computer watching the Ford Ironman Championships than I did training!  The last couple of miles of the men’s race were very exciting, and I was pretty happy for Miranda.  I stuck around to see coach finish in 15th place.  It was nice that they showed and said a few words about about her because I don’t think they did that with everyone.  I read where a lot of people were motivated by the coverage to attempt an Ironman; I’m not one of them.  Seeing some of those people unable to walk after crossing the finish raised some red flags for me!

I’m definitely ready for this weekend.  I feel like I’m in the best condition of any race so far, though I wish I was a few pounds lighter (yesterday I was at my lowest weight in years, so I’m not sure where this is coming from).  After great workouts the past few weeks, confidence is not a problem.  I’m getting a better handle on the required pacing and have been feeling good on my runs off of the bike.  I know it’s going to be hard and expect a serious battle in my mind telling me to stop.  I’ve got a few motivational tricks up my sleeve and with any luck I could have a GREAT race!

Last hard weekend before Longhorn

The Longhorn half Ironman race starts in just 13 days.  I’ve just completed my last tough training weekend and am now in taper mode.  Today’s entry is about the weekend and where I think I am.  I’m writing this down so that I have something to look back on after the race and compare to my results.

My training weekends usually start on Friday with a swim, a brick (bike and run combo) Saturday, and a run Sunday.  I dread the swim because the water is always cold (they keep the water at 82).  It is only worse if it is cold outside, like it has been here this past week.  I postpone going for my swim, subconsciously hoping that something will come up and save me from the cold.

Friday

Friday was no different, except that I forced myself to get up and go swim.  Yes, the water was cold, and no, it didn’t really get any warmer as I swam.  The trick this time was remembering that my race is two weeks away and I just don’t have the luxury of skipping the swims.  Having swum the day before my shoulders were sore and tired at the start, and I wondered how I was going to make it for another hour if I was suffering right at the start.  It was a hard workout, and it took me forever to complete, but finish it I did.  In hindsight it was my worst workout of the weekend.  Not because it was a bad one, but because the others would be so outstanding.

Saturday

Saturday morning came and I just didn’t want to get out of bed.  My wife got up and went to the gym, and I followed shortly afterwards.  It was cold in the house so as an afterthought I donned an undershirt.  That was brilliant on my part because it was 56 outside when I started the ride.  That isn’t super cold, just cold enough to be uncomfortable for the first 20 minutes until I warmed up.  As I rode, shivering, through the shadows, I remembered last year needing warmer clothes and cancelling several rides because it was too cold.  I thought briefly about cancelling this one, wondering when I would make that decision.  Before it got that far I warmed up and completely forgot about cancelling.

Two and a half hours into a planned four hour ride, the battery on my bike computer died.  I’d checked it the night before and thought I had enough juice to make it, WRONG.  I’ve decided it just isn’t worth the consequences and plan to charge the battery the night before each long ride (including Longhorn).  As a side note, my battery has died on each of my half Ironman races.

The plan was to ride 58 miles, check the elapsed time, and then ride up to 7 more miles to get to 3:45 – 4:00 hours.  I knew approximately when my battery had died, but not how much time had elapsed.  Also, I would have no way to measure the 7 miles.  So, at 58 miles I called it quits.

I racked my bike, changed clothes, consumed a GU, and took off on a run.  It was still cool, and VERY nice running weather.  With my bike successfully locked up, I was to stray further from my car and actually hit some decent hills on the run.  I couldn’t believe how great I felt on the run!  I found myself having to hold back to keep the pace down to 8:30 or slower.  The short, 20 minute run passed quickly.  I know I could have run much further, a comforting thought since I’ll be running 13 miles for my next big brick!

I can’t believe how good I felt after this workout.  Usually I would end up at home collapsed on the couch for hours, too tired to even eat.  Today I came home, cleaned up, ate lunch, and felt great.  I could have gone for another run!

Sunday

I woke up Sunday morning and my legs were pretty sore.  I stalled getting up, thinking if I stayed in bed a bit longer my legs would recover.  That never happened.  I ate some breakfast, goofed off for 30 minutes to let that settle, gathered my running gear, and took off.

I’ve been struggling with my long runs lately.  Coach told me it was ok, that it was due to the heat and that my conditioning was fine.  That’s hard to accept when you know that you have a really hard race coming and will have to do that distance when you are really tired.  Anyway, I would find myself counting down the miles, checking the time, and often shortening the distance, then berating myself for doing it.

Sunday was different.  I checked my watch, but just to make sure I was holding back on the pace.  I had a three loop route planned of 5, 4 and 3+ miles.  While on the 4 mile loop, I decided my run was going to be shorter than I’d like so I added a loop.  I never checked the elapsed time, and didn’t check the distance until I hit what should have been 9 miles.  I was short and knew that my run was going to end up closer to 12 miles instead of 13.

My legs were tired, and my back was starting to ache, but mentally I was still going strong.  For the first time ever I decided to add some distance to my last lap.  I also kept in mind an optional add-on right before the finish.  I knew it was unlikely that I’d tack on that last bit.  Normally that close to the finish line I’m exhausted and cannot summon the strength to do anything but run straight home.  I got to the intersection where I could go home or run further and didn’t hesitate, taking the longer route home!

What a strong run!  I never considered stopping.  I lengthened the run instead of shortening it.  I even had to hold back the last mile as I caught my pace dropping to 8:15.  I took a quick assessment at the end, and decided I could run further if I wanted to (or it had been scheduled).

Summary

This is no doubt the best training weekend I can remember and it couldn’t come at a better time.  With no more super hard workouts left to challenge me, I head into Longhorn with the huge mental boost of having my best workouts ever.

I don’t know how the race will turn out, but I’m headed into these last few weeks on a super high!

Wow, what a race weekend!

I went up to McKinney Texas this past weekend to participate in an Olympic relay triathlon.  It was an important weekend for me for a couple of reasons:  firstly it was the site of my first triathlon just one year ago and secondly I was doing the relay with my niece and father.  It was exciting for me as all I had to do was the run leg, and I could find out how much, if any, my fitness and speed had improved over the past 6 months.

While the relay race wasn’t until Sunday, I had also registered for a 1500M swim race on Saturday.  I figured I could see how fast I could swim when I didn’t have to save anything for the last 2/3 of a triathlon.  When it came down to race time I ended up not swimming for a number of reasons, including my distaste for swimming in cold-ish water without a wetsuit, and the deep water start (again sans wetsuit).

I stood on the side and watched my niece race the 750M, her first real open water race.  As you can see there weren’t a ton of people in the race, but this is very different than racing in a pool with your own assigned lane!

It was an odd preparation weekend for me, mainly because I was only running, and didn’t expect to start until 9:30 or so.  Compounding this was I my wife, my personal fan base and support team, wasn’t in attendance.  Fortunately these two issues worked together well as I took up the role of spectator coordinator.

This was my father’s first foray into the multi-sport arena in a number of years, and I think both parents would agree that while they had been to several of my races, everything changes when you have some skin in the game.

Once the race started, my Dad and I watched our wave complete the first of two loops.  Once several of them had headed out on their second loop we returned to the transition area to get ready for the bike leg.  We were supposed to get notified that Andrea (our swimmer) was headed in our direction so that we were really ready and not standing around day dreaming.  We got the call, with about 10 seconds advanced notice, so we were still fumbling with gear and didn’t see her arrive until she was trying to strap on the timing chip!

My Dad took off, so I spent a few minutes tending to Andrea.  Looking at how gassed she was I realized that I really held back on the swim.  I’ve never, been that tired looking after a swim.  I’ve got a lot to learn!

The bike course was four laps of about six miles each.  We positioned ourselves at the end of the lap and waited.  Dad waved as he passed by the first time.  The second time we got a nod and by the third time I don’t think he even noticed us.  I could tell he was hurting but giving it his best shot.  I left the spectators to warm up and position myself for the chip transfer.

I thought I saw him ride by on the last section of the course, but didn’t see him coming into transition.  Evidentially he dismounted early and had to walk an extra block to get to me.  When I spotted him I ran over, took the chip (which was probably illegal) and took off running, all before he got to our transition area.

The run started out almost immediately going uphill.  Since I hadn’t just come off the bike it didn’t bother me that much, but it did make it difficult for me to figure out my pacing.  We wound through parking lots, through underpasses, and up and down lots of hills.  I was breathing pretty hard when I hit mile marker #1, and still hadn’t gotten my pace going.  The hills (and wind) were so difficult I couldn’t tell if I was breathing hard from them or from the run itself.  I checked my watch and was just over an 8 minute mile pace, much slower than I’d hoped for, but I also wasn’t expecting this difficult of a course.

Disgusted, I decided not to check my watch again, and just enjoy the run.  I flew by a lot of people, and felt guilty for it since they had all done much more than I had up to this point.  That guilt probably made me run harder, knowing I should have been much fresher than all of them.  The turnaround was at an aid station.  Fortunately it wasn’t very crowded as there wasn’t much room, especially for the pace I was trying to keep.

I hit the last aid station, which was a mile from the end/beginning.  I checked my watch; 40 minutes elapsed.  I tried to calculate my finish time, but thought I had 1.2 miles left instead of 1 mile.  At an 8 minute/mile pace that put me at around 50 minutes.  Needless to say I was pretty disappointed.  Then I was caught from behind by some young kid, probably someone running the sprint, because he was really flying.  I stayed with him for a while, even caught up to him, but we hit the really hilly section and he pulled away.

All of a sudden the finish line was there.  I did one last check of my watch and it was 46 minutes.  I had run the last mile at a six minute/mile pace, hitting the goal time I’d set for myself and smashing my PR from just 8 months ago by 3 minutes.  It was a VERY hard race and I think I answered the challenge.

In Summary, all three athletes did as well or better than they had expected.  Andrea pulled in a 30 minute 1500M with only one workout a week, and my Dad beat his expected time by 20 minutes, riding much faster than he ever had in training.  Best of all two more people have been exposed to the thrill of triathlons.  My goal for next year is to get them both to do the entire race for themselves!

Equipment upgrades

I recently made a couple of equipment upgrades.  I’m not sure how much time difference they will make, but in my head they help a lot!

Upgrade #1

The first upgrade is to a set of racing wheels.  My local bike store wasn’t thrilled that I’d gotten them somewhere else, until I told them I got them from eBay and the price.  I saved hundreds of dollars this way.  I bought a pair of Zipp 606’s; a 404 front and 808 rear wheel.  I haven’t had a chance to get them out on the road yet because I don’t have a spare tube for the rear.  The rear wheel is so deep that an 80mm stem isn’t long enough!

I test rode a pair of 404’s at my last race, but as I suspected I couldn’t really tell any difference.  I was screaming fast on the downhill portions, and the flats were pretty quick as well.  I’m not sure if that is related to the wheels, but that’s what is getting the credit!

Upgrade #2

The second upgrade isn’t exactly for racing; it is a new pair of training shoes.  I’ve been using Saucany Omni 8’s since I started running again almost a year ago.  I haven’t really had any problems with them, so there wasn’t any reason to change.  I went to the local running store on a sale night because it was about time to replace my training shoes.  The store was out of the Omni’s in my size.  I tried a couple of other shoes and decided to try out a pair of Brooks.  As I was getting ready to check out, I made a comment to the Zoot representative about how I wished they had come out with their new shoes before I bought my racing shoes just a couple of months ago.  He told me the new shoes were training shoes, not racing shoes, and my curiosity was really peaked.

I’ve gotten blisters on every race I’ve used my Zoot racing flats.  I attribute them to going sockless, something I only do on race day.  With a pair of training shoes designed to be worn sockless I might be able to toughen up my feet and avoid that one race day discomfort.

I made the plunge and bought a pair of Zoot Kona’s, and I love them!  The feel like I’m running in slippers!  I’ve worn them several times now, the longest distance being 9 miles.  I did get some blisters, so I’ve modified my usage to wear my Omni’s with socks on my really long runs, and the Kona’s on everything else.  Once my feet get used to the Kona’s, I will switch to them exclusively.

With 4 more shorter runs before I my next really long one, that should be plenty of time to toughen up my tender feet!

My new toys will only do so much for me.  At some point I’m going to have to get out on the road and exert some serious energy, and for me that point is in 4 weeks at the Longhorn half Ironman.

A super new bike mechanic!

Coach told me about Philip Shama and Shama Cycles months ago.  I looked him up on the Internet and his shop was probably 30 minutes from my house, not a place I’d drive to Sunday afternoon to hang out.  A fellow triathlete introduced us at a race, but I’d already checked him out and he just wasn’t convenient.  Besides, I’ve got my local bike store with the employees I like.

That was until I needed a good bike mechanic.  I bought an SRM power system, and my local store didn’t know how to install it.  I took it to another shop, and they installed it incorrectly.  I decided to give Shama cycles a shot.  Not only did he fit me in as soon as I arrived, but he fixed the problem for free!

I haven’t really needed any mechanical help, until I had a problem with my SRM system and needed to send in the crankset to have the battery replaced.  It was going to take 3 days at my local store.  Three days for a job that should probably take them 15 minutes!

I called Shama, and they could take care of it right away, while I waited.  That’s what I needed to hear because with shipping and repair time my crankset was going to be gone for 2 weeks.

While they were replacing the crankset, I had a good opportunity to talk with Philip about bike stuff.  I told him that my local store had told me to change my chain to use with the new crankset on my race wheel.  He indicated that replacing the chain is something that should be done every couple thousand miles or so, or you will damage the chain ring and have to replace them both.  I’ve been riding bikes for years, bought two new bikes in the last year, and logged thousands of miles on them, yet no one bothered to tell me this before.

Aside from being irritated at two bike stores for not saying anything, I’m super pleased with Philip.  They changed my chain, and made a couple other suggestions for me.  While I was waiting, another guy came in needing an adjustment on his bike.  They stopped work on the currently racked bike, put his on, made the adjustments, and then sent him on his way.

He did all this work for me, including fitting me in and calling me by my first name, without me having spent a dime in his store.  Now that is customer service!  I’ll be back there in a couple of weeks to re-swap out my crankset.  While I’m there I’ll be replacing a few other parts and getting a bike fit.  Hopefully the fit will stop the neck problems I’ve been having.  The parts, well that will of course make me faster!!

Another great race!

I’m fresh from the Austin Triathlon, in you guessed, Austin Texas.  As I blogged last week, I had plans and high hopes for a couple of the legs, but no formal race goal.  That’s not really true, I did have secret hopes to set a new PR.  I didn’t think it was realistic since I’d just done that last week.  I really wanted to break the 2:45 barrier, but that was going to take a super race on my part and I just wasn’t sure I was up to it.

We start the day with a lousy night’s sleep, probably just a couple of hours.  I got up early because it was silly for me to just lie there waiting for the alarm to go off.  My wife slept in and planned to meet me later at the race site.  We forgot to set a meeting time and place, which was a real problem with the thousands of people there race morning.  I finally found her about 30 minutes before race time which saved me from having to abandon my shoes and bottle.

The race was wetsuit legal, which I always appreciate when it is a deep water start.  They said it was 75, but I swear it was colder than that!  The race starts and I almost immediately find myself boxed in.  I’m hitting the feet of two people in front of me, wanting to pass, but with racers to either side I was stuck.  The crowd dispersed quickly and I was alone for the rest of the race.  I pushed the pace a little bit, sometimes more than a little and had to drop it off so I could get my breathing back under control.  After the turn I started to pass people from previous waves.  With a 5 minute gap between waves I knew I was doing well when I started passing different colored caps.  I had some trouble with my goggles fogging up, making it hard to spot the end buoy.  Because I didn’t want to accidentally swim past the last turn, I had to look up much more often that I wanted, which slows me down.  I climbed out of the water just a shade over 30 minutes, almost four minutes off my best swim pace of last week.  I credit it to the wetsuit.  I think it is a bit faster than without, but it gives me the confidence to push harder knowing I can slow down if necessary.  It was a great swim though!

My spot in transition was dirt.  Coming out of the water my feet were wet and quickly covered with dirt/mud.  I took a second to try and clean them off, threw my shoes on my still dirty feet, grabbed my gear and took off running.  It was a long run to the mount line, but I ran it all, passing several people along the way.  Really, it was a long run, well over a minute.

I jumped on my bike and took off.  Natasha told me the course was pretty flat and mostly downhill.  I’m not sure how a loop can be mostly downhill, but it did seem that there were more easy parts than hard.  Just a couple miles into the ride I hit the first hill, and the rain.  The rain became the real story of the ride.  At times it was so hard I couldn’t read my bike computer.  There was standing water on the road, and the bikes in front of me were throwing up a rooster tail of water that was quite tasty!  I was very careful on the turns, as slow as usual on the uphill parts, but really went on the downhill.  It took a lot of concentration to stay upright, which messed me up a bit on my nutrition.  I saw several bikers on the side of the road being tended to after crashing, and witnessed one poor guy really wipe out.  He was just to my left on a right turn headed uphill, so I saw the whole thing in slow motion.  Parts went flying and he skidded across the road.  I was even more careful after that.

There was one rider, aged 50, that went back and forth with me.  He would pass me on the uphill, and I would pass him on the downhill or flats.  I passed him for good on the last straightaway and thought I would never see him again.  I was wrong.

I had one near crash, when I took my eyes off the road to yell out to my wife.  I looked back in time to see I was going to run into a big orange cone.  I was able to avoid hitting it straight on, thus avoiding a crash in front of a LOT of spectators.  I never saw my wife on the bike again.  She told me later that she left the bike watching because she didn’t want to see me crash!

The rain stopped about halfway through my last lap on the bike.  Then the sun came out, with the heat and humidity.  Perfect running conditions!

I jumped off the bike, and ran barefoot through the dirt for what seemed forever.  By the time I parked my bike my feet were a muddy mess, not exactly fun conditions for running without socks.  I wiped the bottom of my feet on the towel, threw on my shoes, and took off running.

My legs felt muddy, I was breathing hard, and I was going very slowly.  I remember thinking I didn’t really feel like running for the next hour, but just thought about keeping moving and how everyone else around me felt bad too.

It was a two loop course, with two small hills.  The first one hit me hard.  I passed people walking, determined not to do so myself.  I slowed down a tad to get up the hill, hit the first mile marker, and checked my time:  7:15!  I had forgotten to restart my watch at the run start so I knew the time wasn’t exactly accurate, but I was surely running sub 8 minute miles.  I checked the total elapsed time, did some extrapolation and determined that if I held this pace I would set a new PR for the run and race.  It was going to be close though, those long runs with the bike had really hurt me.

Remember the 50 year old biker I’d beaten on the bike and would close out on the run?  He passed me on the run like I was standing still.  I hoped he would fade and I would pass him later on, but that never happened.  He beat me by over 6 minutes!

At the start of the second loop there was an attractive lady in a bikini and hula skirt passing out lays.  I grabbed one and wore it for a bit until I felt it was making me hot.  Sorry Austin, I left it on the side of the road :(

I continued checking my time at each mile marker and doing the math.  At mile 4 my average pace was 9 minute/mile.  I had no shot of getting a new PR for either the run or race, so I stopped looking.  It was just causing me stress and not helping the cause any.  The funniest thing happened the next mile.  I knew I was on the second lap, had crossed the first mile marker already, but had to keep doing the math to verify I was approaching mile 5.  I can’t say how many times I said to myself:  one loop equals 3 miles, plus one mile already run, this next marker is mile 5.  I was so unconvinced that I almost asked another runner as I ran by.

My goal for this race was to run the entire distance.  I didn’t officially make it as I walked three steps at the last aid station.  Long enough to get a quick sip of cold water.  I had carried water with me, but it was warm from my hand and of little use.

All I remember of the last mile was the finish line.  I noticed that they were holding up the finish tape for each runner to “break”, but with one runner a short distance in front of me I knew they wouldn’t have time to put it up for me again.  That gave me only one option, pass the other runner and take away his crossing!  While he was almost 20 years younger than I, he had nothing left to retake me.  Hopefully it makes for a good photograph, as I doubt any of the others came out any good.

After crossing the finish I checked my watch:  I’d set a PR on the swim and run legs, and my race PR was 3 seconds over my aggressive goal of 2:45!  I was ecstatic!

It’s 24 hours later and I’m still exhausted.  Hopefully a nap, more food, and a day off from training will recharge me because I’ve got more fun coming soon!

What is the plan this time?

Here we go again!  It seems like just yesterday that I was packing for a race.  Well it wasn’t yesterday, but it was just a week ago!  These races are so close together that I’ve only been able to do one easy run since my race, with another VERY short run the day before the race.  With a recovery week this week, taper week last week, and my mini-mental-meltdown the week before, it’s been 2.5 weeks since I did any hard training.  Actually that isn’t quite true, I did have a race last weekend which should count as something!  I really want to write about my mindset and plan for this race, not my lack of training.

I am amazed to hear myself thing this, let alone write it down, yet it is a phrase I’ve repeated many, many times:  it’s only a three hour race!  The first time I told myself that was months ago before my first Olympic race of the season.  Thinking that kept me calm and relaxed going into the race.  I used it again last weekend because it was my first non wetsuit legal race, and it worked.  I haven’t told myself that much this week, because after all it is only a three hour race!

I raced last weekend, and set a new PR on a fairly flat and fast course.  Austin isn’t as flat and should be a bit hotter, especially considering I start later in the day.  Combined with the fact that I raced last weekend, I don’t expect to reproduce or exceed my record setting pace from last weekend.

If I’m not expecting to set a new PR, what do I expect and what is my plan?  I expect a faster swim split than last weekend because it will be wetsuit legal.  I plan to swim harder the return leg.  I’ve never swum hard enough to impact my breathing, but that is the plan.  I’m not going to change anything on the bike leg.  I’ll push a little bit; not enough to hurt but hopefully average close to 20 mph.  I expect a better run split than last week.  I’ve got a better nutrition plan (anything is better than none), and want to run the second half faster than the first.  I may also go out a bit faster than last week.

The key to this week will be to stay hydrated, keep my body temperature down, and stay mentally tough.  If everything goes according to plan I could end up with a new PR, but it isn’t my plan!

3 hours and two beatings!

Heading into this race, two things had been causing me enough grief that I really wanted to not even show up.  Thank you coach for not letting me back out!

This would be my first race that wasn’t wetsuit legal, and I had yet to swim even half that distance non-stop in open water.  The last time I’d tried, I allowed myself to get overwhelmed with thoughts of what could happen and chickened out of doing the swim.

Like everyone else, I’ve also been fighting the heat, only I’d let my struggles get into my head and diminish my confidence.  Heat and dehydration has already crushed one race this year (or at least been a large contributing factor) and cut short many runs.

So, I really didn’t want to do this race, and hinted several times to coach that she should have me pull out.  If she picked up on my hints, she never acknowledged them.  I knew that if I did well it would be a huge confidence boost, but doing poorly would deepen my doubts.  Race day I focused on keeping busy with the details, so I wouldn’t freak myself out.  I found stuff to do right up to start time , even giving other obviously new racers pep talks.

So here is what happened:

The swim:

It was another deep water start.  Since I don’t float so well, I opted to stand on the shore 20-30 yards behind the starting line.  I’d rather swim the extra distance than burn up all that energy trying to stay afloat.  This put me way back in the swim pack, a place I’ve learned to avoid because that is where the bad swimmers are.  The first 250 yards were a battle trying to get around people who can’t swim straight, or breast strokers who will kick you in the head or stomach and not even notice.  Several times I stopped swimming long enough to search out clear water, which would never last because I was swimming faster than most of those around me.

Once I got going it was just routine; stroke and breath, look up every now and then to make sure I was on course.  I did lose the seal on one goggle, but smacked it with my hand and kept going without hardly breaking stride!  The only real problem arose because of how the race organizers had scheduled the races.  I was the in the last wave of the Olympic distance.  Behind me was the sprint distance racers.  The course was an out and back, which meant that halfway through my “back” I ran smack into a bunch of sprint racers.  There were bodies all over the place and I couldn’t find any room to swim.  I got kicked in the head and stomach MANY times, and felt like I almost ripped the shorts off of one swimmer!  Normally I would have tried to accelerate through the crowd into open space, but no wetsuit meant less buoyancy, and less buoyancy meant less risk taking.

I finally made it to the end and was able to stand up.  Because there were only two volunteers helping people out of the water, we were pretty backed up.  I think that helped me, because once out of the water I didn’t experience any of my normal disorientation.  I took off, running around people trying to get to my bike.  I quickly changed into my bike gear, and ran past people to start the bike leg.

Beating #1:  that darn gorilla hanging on my back telling me I couldn’t do the swim.  It was an unofficial new PR for the swim split by 3 minutes.  I know I can do this, and he won’t be hanging around me any more!

The bike:

The first thing I did once I got going was to take a GU and drink some water.  I’d forgotten to bring an extra GU for race start, and I wanted to wash the salt water taste out of my mouth.  I was now out of the water and on track!

It’s been a while since I rode this distance (all of my recent rides have been longer), so I wasn’t sure how hard I could ride.  I wanted to go easier than my last race at this distance so I could have more left for the run.  This time I didn’t have any problems with my bike computer and I was able to monitor my activity the entire race.  I was in the 20 mph range and passing a lot of people.  Having started in the last wave I knew that each person I passed moved me up in the finishing order.  However, if people passed me it didn’t necessarily move me down because they could have started before me.  This really worked to my advantage.

I was doing most of the passing, until we hit the Kemah bridge.  I still passed people, but was passed myself by a couple of riders.  I checked my speed, and I was flying.  I was averaging speeds of 20-23 and didn’t feel like I was working that hard.  I know now that there was a bit of a tail wind helping me out as my speed dropped a bit in the other direction.  I had checked the route on paper, but wasn’t that familiar with this area and didn’t really know where I was other than my trip odometer.  It didn’t matter though, this was a flat and fast course.

With less than 5 miles left I was passed by one of my racing friends.  He is a much stronger biker than I, and since I hadn’t seen him yet I figured he had also beat me out of the water.  As he passed me I briefly thought about picking up my pace to try and stay close, but decided to stick with my original strategy:  save some for the run!

The run:

I started my run at close to 9 am, which meant I wouldn’t be running in the brutal heat of the day.  My plan for the run was to do the second half faster than the first.  While that is easy for me to do in a simple running race, coming off the bike I tend to start off faster than I can maintain.  I forced myself to hold the pack back, even though I was being passed.  I kept telling myself these people were going to run out of gas and I would pass them later on.  I also hoped to run the entire distance, that was my final battle of the day.

100 yards from the turnaround point I again saw my friend, coming towards me.  I walked long enough to down another GU, drink some water, and douse my head with cold water.  I succeeded with the first two objectives, but the water they were handing out was room temperature and didn’t do a lot to cool me down.  I had my own water I was carrying that was cool, but was trying to save that in case I started to overheat.  I started running again, only 3 miles to go!

I caught up to my friend, asked how he was doing, gave him words of encouragement, and then left him in the dust.  I stopped briefly at mile 5 for water to drink and my head, this time it was cold!  As we got closer to the finish I caught up to a taller and younger runner.  I stayed behind him to draft as there was a nice breeze coming off the water.  I tried to pass him a couple of times, but each time I drew close he would speed up and I would pull in behind him again.  Right at the end he found another gear I couldn’t match and he pulled away.  I wish I could have caught up to him to thank him as he made me work harder than I would have on my own.

Beating #2:  I beat my fear of the heat.  It wasn’t 90+ degrees, and I did walk through two aid stations, but for the most part I held my own today.  I also knocked several minutes off of my previous best run split.

Conclusion:

This was a huge race and mental victory for me.  Not only did I record new PR splits for the swim and run (and maybe the bike), but I knocked almost 10 minutes off my overall time.  I’m waiting to see the official results, but I think I’m within 15 minutes of the podium.  This was almost 30 minutes faster than my first Olympic race 10 months ago!

Finally, some swim help

I’ve been swimming for about a year now, and trying that entire time to find someone to help me with my swimming.  I had one lesson many months ago, and then the instructor never showed up again.  I tried to get lessons from the coach of the local swim team, and she chickened out at the last minute.  One of the lifeguards said he would help, but we never seemed to catch up with each other.  Keith at the gym said he teaches TI (Total Immersion), but seems too hung up on his experiences of 12+ years ago.

I found another swim coach, who also teaches TI, but he lives in Dallas which isn’t all that convenient to swing by for a swim lesson.  He said he would contact me when he came in town, maybe in September.

Then last weekend I went for an open water swim with the Bike Barn Tri Club.  As I was leaving the property owner mentioned that he had someone who taught swimming that came out every Friday afternoon to help people just like me.  I showed up promptly at 3, only to be informed he didn’t usually show up until 4 or later.  I waited about as long as I could before giving up and going out for a short swim of my own.  As I was toweling off to leave, here came Richard.

I only had a few minutes to work with him, but they were very productive minutes.  He showed me three things, two of which I could actually try to use in the race the next day.  The third was a drill and will have to wait for pool work (if I even try to implement it).  I figured a long open water swim was the perfect place to try out these two new techniques, as long as they didn’t get me too winded.  Nothing causes me more anxiety than the thought of getting winded in a deep open water swim, where maybe the lifeguards won’t spot me!

Either way, I have some stuff to work on that he says will fix my problem of swimming uphill, and I cannot wait to get after it!  I might even make it a habit of heading out there to swim several more times on Fridays for more help and open water practice.  It is a nice place to swim after all, even if it is 40 miles away!

It is just 3 hours!

With 20 minutes until I must leave for my next race what better to do than blog.  It should be a better use of time than pacing!

I must confess that I haven’t written much lately because I’ve been a bit down on myself.  I didn’t want to spend my energy thinking about my condition, but I also didn’t find a constructive use for said energy.  Finally, after speaking to coach about how I was feeling she thought I was a bit burnt out, and had worked myself into a mental hole.  A mini-break was due!

I took several days off, with my only workout an open swim.  It was the swim that I think did the trick.  I felt comfortable in the water, which removed much of my anxiety over the upcoming swim (scheduled to be too warm for wetsuits).  I’m still a bit concerned, and probably will be until I finish the swim without too much trouble.  But it is better!

My other concern has been the temperature.  It has been so hot in Houston, that the thought of a three hour race just wasn’t very exciting.  It hasn’t gotten any more exciting since my swim, but I am resigned to deal with it.  What the heck, everyone else will be running in the same heat!  The best news I’ve gotten in days was that it was only 85 today at 10:30, and I hope to be finished around that time.

The second best news?  I signed up for another similar race next weekend!  My first back-to-back races since I learned better!  Oh well, next weekend should be wetsuit legal (and much hillier and hotter!)

As I wrap up this entry, I get a chuckle out of what I caught myself thinking:  it is just a 3 hour race!

Questioning myself

It happened about 8:30 yesterday morning.  I was at mile 5 1/2 of a scheduled 12-13 mile run.  I’d been running for close to an hour, and I remember thinking how hot and humid it was, and how I’d already sweat so much that my socks were squishing with each step.  I hadn’t started pouring water over my head yet, so that was all sweat.

I had just started my second of three loops.  At the end of the first loop I’d changed out my water bottle for a larger one, and taken a GU.  I was set for another 8 miles.

The day before I’d ridden about 65 miles, followed by a 2 mile run.  It had been a tough workout, but I think I had recovered as best as I could.  My legs were a bit tired, but it wasn’t so much the running muscles and I had done this back-to-back workout many times before.

Then it happened, I was tired.  I really wanted to walk.  If I walk once, it becomes easier to walk again, so I really try to push off walking or avoid it all together.  I figured I would push off doing anything at all until mile 6, and hope I could then push it off again.  Mile 6 came, and I couldn’t push it off.  It wasn’t that my legs were shot, I was over breathing, my heart was racing (although it was probably beating harder than I would have liked); I was just really tired.  I walked for a bit in the shade, poured some water over my head and back, and then started running again.

It was now a real mental and physical battle to keep running.  I backed off of the pace some, kept using water to cool me off and fought the urge to walk.  I lost the battle twice more before I hit mile 9. 

Fighting through that second loop, I was also fighting another battle:  the thought of another 4 mile loop after this one.  I was calculating alternate, shorter loops, trying to figure out something I felt I could do that made sense.

I had to stop at mile 9 to get more water.  That extra break time, on top of my current mental state, was the kiss of death as I never got going again.  I’d like to say I’d made a rational decision that even a 1.5 mile loop made no sense if I was going to end up walking one or more times, but that wasn’t it.  I was just done and I knew it.  I knew it a couple of miles back and forced myself to continue.

That was all that ‘it’ was, in fact that wasn’t it at all.  It:  I started to question whether I have what it takes.  If I can’t finish a weekend run, how will I be able to finish a longer race?  If I can’t do the race, then why should I do these runs.  I wasn’t particularly enjoying this run, and if it isn’t fun why am I doing it.  The problem with these mental battles, is that if I lose them on the field, I struggle with my loss for days or weeks.

If there is a silver lining to my latest loss, it was in an email from coach.  Her exact words were:  “You ‘cracked’ at the end of a 3 week build cycle…  Perfect!”  I agree that I cracked, and I also agree that it was at the end of a 3 week build cycle.  Perfect?  I’m not so sure about that.

Here’s the funny part.  I almost just wrote “Why does this have to be so hard”, when that is exactly why I do it.  If it was easy everyone would do it and it would hold no allure for me.

So today I relax and recover and get ready to start up another week tomorrow!

I’m Baaack!

I feel like I haven’t written in a while, and I guess that’s because I haven’t!  I subscribe to other bloggers, some regular, and others who are worse than I about keeping current.  I don’t know how Fatty manages to come up with daily content worth reading, because I cannot.  I figure if I don’t have something worth saying I’ll just keep quiet.  So here’s what’s been going on.

I took a much deserved break after my last race, and my wife and I took a mini-vacation to Detroit to visit our babies.  Seeing the kids was nice, and minimal or no training for a few days was even nicer.

That lasted a week, and then coach threw me back into the deep end.  For a lot of triathletes, what I’m doing isn’t that hard.  For me, 12 hours a week of training IS a lot.  When I consider that my easy day consists of 1.5 hour bike ride, and a 5-6 mile run, it’s a tough week!

While the training has been tough, it hasn’t been back to my normal yet.  One weekend I did a long brick with the Bike Barn triathlon club, and last weekend I went to Austin to train.  When I hit the roads Saturday it will be the first day back on my normal bike route in 5 or so weeks!

Austin was fun and very different.  The ride was much hillier, and there weren’t a lot of other riders out there.  I did see one couple I wanted to catch/pass, but with 50 yards left they turned off onto another road.  Not being that familiar with the roads there, I keep my route simple – an out and back.  The last 10-15 minutes of the out were the best with the hardest hills.  I need to do some longer rides (longer than 3.5 hours) so I can get further into those hills.

I ran at Town Lake.  I tried that once before:  I ended up taking a wrong turn and wound up running down Loop 1.  This time I decided to follow someone to make sure I didn’t get messed up.  I jumped in behind a couple of older looking ladies.  Let me clarify what I mean by older.  They were younger than I, but older than the 29+ freaks of nature that frequent that area and run like Amazon women!  Seriously, there are some really fast people that run out there!

Anyway, I pulled in behind these women thinking I could easily keep up, only before I knew it I was sucking air and working hard to keep up.  Call it stubborn, or male ego, or whatever, but I wasn’t going to let those ladies drop me.  Fortunately they pulled off to end their run after about 3 miles.  Knowing where I was, how I got there, and how to get back to the start, I was able to do another 7 miles at my own pace; faster than some, and slower than many others.

I’ve got two and a half weeks to my next race, an Olympic distance and probably my first swim without a wetsuit.  The best part is that I’m hardly thinking about the race.  I’ve got this distance, it might even be my best.  The only thing that has be a bit concerned is the lack of a wetsuit.  I know I’ll be slower, so I just need to start a bit further back, relax, and just get through the swim.  The plan is to push a little bit on the bike but not as hard as the last Olympic so that I have more gas left for the run.  I think that is where I can make up some real time.

Let’s get it on!

Athlete, Athletic or neither?

Not too long ago someone called me an athlete.  To be fair, it was a trainer trying to convince me that I needed him for regular massages.  I’m not sure if he would have done it otherwise.  But he did get me thinking, am I an athlete?

I participate in athletic events, does that make me athletic?  I am a triathlete, does that also make me an athlete?  Is there a difference between being athletic, participating in athletic events, and an athlete?

I did some research, and found little distinction.  In fact, most of the definitions cross referenced each other.  In reality it doesn’t matter to me, I just want to know if I can label myself an athlete.

When I started this entry a month or so ago I wasn’t comfortable calling myself an athlete.  I then decided that if I finished the Vineman HIM I could use the label.  Well that race has come and gone, and I’m still not comfortable.  Maybe it’s because it feels like bragging, “I’m an athlete and you’re not.”

Perhaps it isn’t enough just to finish the race, but to do so within some arbitrary time constraint.  Maybe there is another race that simply finishing will be enough, or maybe it has nothing to do with racing at all.  I don’t know if it will be an aha moment, or something that will come to me over time.

I do know this:  today I don’t consider myself an athlete.  I hope to qualify someday, and at that time I will wear the label proudly!

An Iron Race!

Two days ago I completed my first Half Ironman, 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running.  What follows are my post-race thoughts in as much detail as I can remember.  Here is the short version:  it is indeed a long race, and it is hard.  I did finish and I am pleased with that accomplishment.

Now for the long version!

Race morning started pretty much like all the others.  I slept some, woke up before the alarm, and tried to choke down some breakfast.  Today it was oatmeal pancakes, cold and dry.  I choked down half of them and gave up.  I was hungry a bit later and wished I’d brought the rest of them with me.  Two pancakes was all I was going to get to eat for the next twelve hours.

Pre Race:

We got to the race site, set up my gear, and proceeded to wait.  This is where my nerves really kick in, and today was no exception.  It was also cold, in the low 50’s so I found myself wearing sweats in the middle of summer.  We positioned ourselves about 50 yards up-stream from the start and watched a couple of waves start.  There were a couple of people who panicked and quit the race or received assistance very near us.  I wasn’t sure what the problem was (piranha in the water did cross my mind), but it certainly made me a bit more nervous.  I needed to pee again, but the line was too long for how much time I had, so I opted to wait.  Then they called my wave. I got a kiss for luck and made my way to the start.

The water was 72.5, probably the warmest start I’ve had.  I actually did a little bit of swimming to warm up for the first time.  The water was waist deep, so I was able to walk around and pick my starting spot.  It was a river swim, there and back, with the first leg being up-stream.  I didn’t notice much current, but there had to be some as I’d noticed the water flowing over the dam below us.  I’ve come a long way with my swimming and I absolutely wasn’t nervous about the swim or any aspect of this leg.  10, 9, 8… the gun sounds and we were off!

The Swim:

The river was fairly narrow, so I figured that as long as I kept my distance from the bank I wouldn’t have to sight much.  That worked until I ran smack into the first buoy.  My wrist hit something hard like a chain and I was afraid I had knocked my watch off.  I hadn’t, but I vowed to be a bit more careful, especially since I spotted a couple of bridges up ahead.  I settled down and got into my rhythm.  I tried drafting some, but it seemed that they would start zigzagging and I kept running into their feet.  I came up on some guy doing the breaststroke.  I didn’t realize it until he raked my arm with his toenail.  I was so irritated I wanted to accidentally hit him in the head with my stroke.  Instead I moved over and out of his reach.  The stinging in my arm gave me something to think about for a while.

The next thing I remember was being able to see the bottom.  I thought that was odd because the water wasn’t all that clear, and then my hand started scraping rocks.  I noticed a lot of people walking, and the turn-around just ahead.  I finally decided the water was too shallow and walked around the end myself.  A glance at my watch revealed 23 minutes, a 46 minute swim would be fine with me.  There were a couple of more times on the way back where I hit shallow water again, but kept swimming.  I saw two bridges ahead and chastised myself for not remembering how many bridges I’d crossed and where they were on the course.  After going under the second bridge I thought I saw a beach and a big blue object (darn these old eyes!).  It was way too soon for the finish, but I didn’t remember seeing anything like that on the way out.  As I got closer I thought I heard a vuvuzuela and some cowbells, then the announcer, but I still didn’t believe it was the end.  Finally I saw racers walking out of the water and I knew I was there.  I finished this leg in less than 42 minutes, much faster than my Lonestar attempt.

Transition #1:

I remember jogging to get to my bike, and relief at spotting my wife.  I struggled to get my wetsuit off (they didn’t have any strippers), shove it and my other gear into a bag to hand to her.  That was a relief as now I knew I didn’t have to worry about losing any of it in the transfer to the finish line.  The ground was dirt and gravel, which made it interesting to get my shoes on.  Not wearing socks made it easier, but now I had to worry about dirt and rocks irritating me.  Duh, use the towel I’d brought just for that purpose!  Well I wasn’t going to waste time to take the first shoe off and wipe my foot, I’d just have to deal with it.  That never crossed my mind again so it must have been fine.  I walked to the bike mount line like most of the others.  Some were running, but I knew it was going to be a long day and 30 seconds wasn’t going to make much difference.

The Bike (start):

The bike let was at the bottom of a hill.  Friday night a multi-year veteran of this race told me to walk my bike up the hill.  Too many people crash right at the start.  I looked up the hill and the people walking and riding, and decided I could ride up.  I was confident I could get cleated and was in a very low gear just for this occasion.  Click, one foot in.  Push hard, second foot in.  Oops, I missed the pedal, my foot slipped and down I went.  Question:  If you fall over at the start of a race going less than 5 miles an hour, is it called a fall, a spill, or a wreck?  Neither, it is embarrassing!  I heard all the people gasp, then I lay there for a second.  My cleated foot was on the bottom and I had a hard time getting it out.  I’m sure there were a lot of people behind me that decided then to walk up the hill.

As I stood and picked up my bike I realized my water bottle cage had fallen off.  I picked it up and didn’t know what to do next.  I didn’t have any water bottles in it, but it also housed my spare tire and tools for fixing a flat.  Someone (bless her whomever she was) shouted there was a bike mechanic at the top of the hill, so I ran up the hill with my bike in one hand and bottle cage in the other.  Why hadn’t I just run to begin with?

A mechanic quickly came over, grabbed my bike over the railing and went to work.  While he worked, I assessed my situation:  I had a scrape on one hand, dirt on several other areas but no major road rash.  I would be fine.  The mechanic was taking forever, and lots of people were passing me as I stood there.  I thought about telling him to just give it to me, but I didn’t know what to do with my cages.  They were carbon fiber, very expensive and I didn’t want to just lose them.  Then I spotted my guardian angle wife walking up the hill, laden with gear.  I called her over and discussed my predicament.  A spectator came over with a napkin for me to try and clean off my hand which was now bleeding a bit and full of dirt.  She was trying to talk to me but all I could think about was getting my bike back.  Finally he finished.  I had lost a screw and he didn’t have a spare of that size.  He had tightened the other down real tight and thought it would hold.  I got on my bike, a bit more carefully this time, and was off.

The Bike:

We had driven the bike course the day before, so I knew what to expect.  It was pretty hilly in the beginning and I’d wished that I had gone in blind.  Thank goodness I didn’t, because at about mile 7 the battery on my computer died.  I was going to have to ride the remaining 50 miles by feel, without knowing my cadence, speed or power expenditure, but more importantly I wouldn’t know how far I’d ridden or how much was left.  The only gauge I had were the aid stations at miles 19, 29 and 41.  I tried asking several people on the way what the distance was, and was amazed at how many people didn’t know.  How can you do a race like this and not know where you were?

Did I say it was cold?  I was riding along at 18-19 mph, in wet shorts and a tank top, in temperature in the low 50’s.  Yes I was cold, and jealous of people I saw with arm warmers or jackets.  I remember thinking that it would warm up and they would be jealous of me.  Besides, I would want it cooler for the run leg.  The challenge would be drinking enough since I wasn’t hot.

My next challenge was the need to pee, despite having done that not far from the end of the swim.  We’d been warned not to pee on the side of the road, so I was very grateful when I saw the aid station with porta-potties.  Unfortunately so were a lot of people as there was a line.  I stood there for a while, silently cursing the people inside.  What could they be doing?  After a short delay I was back on my bike, only to realize that I needed to pee again!  What was I thinking, was I in such a hurry that I didn’t give myself a chance to finish?  I was forced to stop at the next aid station, and believe it or not also at the last one.  I told myself it was a good sign that I was hydrating, but I wasted a lot of time in the bathroom.  If I keep doing these races I might just have to learn how to pee on the bike!

On to the course…  The first third was pretty hilly.  Not long or hard hills, but just a steady up and down.  The roads were pretty bad too, full of potholes and cracks in the road.  The shade from the trees was nice, but it made it hard to spot the faults which made for a bumpy ride.  You could tell when a particularly bad section was coming up because the road would be littered with water bottles and stuff that had fallen off of other bikes.

I was passed a lot by some pretty fast people.  That didn’t bother me so much because I knew the waves behind me were the younger people, and it showed!  I was able to pass quite a few people myself, mostly women, that had started before me, which did my confidence good.

The last third included a road called Chalk Hill, with a hill that was supposed to “keep us honest”.  It hadn’t seemed that bad driving it, but there is a big difference when you have ridden 45 miles and your legs are tired.  I’m grateful that it wasn’t real steep, but it was long.  I was in first gear the entire hill, stood up for some of the worst parts, and just gutted it out.  I’m pretty sure I passed some people, though I wondered how we could be going that slowly and not fall over!

After Chalk Hill it was pretty flat and easy.  I dialed it back it bit to let my legs recover and get ready for the run.  This is where I was going to pass some of those people who had passed me on the bike.

Transition #2

Normally at the end of the bike leg I take my feet out of my shoes, leaving my shoes attached to the pedals.  This makes it easier to walk/run and supposedly saves some time.  I wasn’t worried about the time, but easier is always better.  For whatever reason I couldn’t do it this time.  I tried a couple of times but just couldn’t reach.  I certainly didn’t want to crash trying so I decided just to leave my shoes on.

Approaching the dismount line I decleated my right leg, swung it over the bike and coasted to the line.  I timed it perfectly and came to a stop right at the line.  Unfortunately my left shoe wouldn’t decleat and I started to lose my balance.  Certainly I wasn’t going to crash again!  There was a volunteer 2 feet away that I thought would help, but I think she was so startled she didn’t know what to do.  I struggled for what seemed like forever to get my foot out, catch my balance and not fall.  Just about the time I got my foot out another volunteer ran up and grabbed my shoulder to help steady me.  As I walked off he called it the most entertaining dismount he’d seen all day!

As I walked past my wife I remembered how I’d felt at this point in the race 3 months ago at Lonestar.  I was in much better shape.  I knew she was relaying information to family so I let her know I was good.

When I finally made it to the transition area, there was no room for my bike.  The racer next to me had used his space to store his bag, and my space for his bike.  I didn’t waste much time before I shoved his bike out of my way.  Once again I didn’t rush out of transition.  I made sure I was settled before starting the next leg.

The Run:

As I started running my legs felt reasonably good.  I was passing a lot of people, and really telling myself to hold back.  The first three miles were at 9 minute/mile pace.  I knew that wouldn’t hold up, but I wasn’t complaining, yet.  Then the hills started.  I hadn’t driven the course so I didn’t know what to expect.  In hindsight that was probably a good thing, because I would have been freaking out.  It was pretty darn hilly.  Not long or hard hills, but like the start of the bike with a lot of up and down.

I remember thinking to pat myself on the back when I hit mile marker #5, because I hadn’t made it that far in Galveston.  Then I either forgot or missed mile #5.  I think that was about the time where I realized I wasn’t going to be able to run up all these hills, not without risking blowing up and not finishing.  I started running about halfway up, walking, and then picking up the run after cresting the hill.  As the race went I ended up walking more.

This was the longest I’d run sockless in my Zoot shoes, and I was a bit nervous about how my feet would hold up.  I started to rub on both my feet, and remember thinking it was a good thing because it game me something to think about other than how tired I was.

I carried a water bottle, which I filled at each aid station, in addition to dumping water over my head.  At some point I started asking for ice for my bottle instead of water.  Squirting that down my back really helped wake me up.

I drank a lot, both at the aid stations and from my bottle.  That plus my regular GU kept me pretty full and at times unsettled my stomach.  I remember thinking that if I smelled that orange GU smell again I would throw up!

The run was an out and back, with the mile at the end being through a winery, on a dirt/gravel road.  Normally I would have been very grateful for the respite from a concrete road, but now I worried about getting dirt or a rock in my shoe.

Around mile 8 I could feel my leg wanting to cramp.  I knew this was because I hadn’t drunk all my fluids on the bike which contained the bulk of my sodium for the day.  There was nothing I could do about it now but hope it didn’t get worse.

The last half of the run was more of the same:  walk uphill and run down, water and ice at the aid stations, just keep going.  I watched the time and tried to calculate my finish time.  At first it was 6:15, then 6:20, near the end I hoped I would beat 6:30.

The Finish:

I don’t remember much about the finish except wondering where it was.  I heard them announce my name, and the beep of the timer as I crossed the finish line.  I struck a pose for the photographer.  She started laughing and falling backwards, so I don’t know if she got the picture or not!

I had finished, and what a great feeling it was putting that medal around my neck.  It was a huge burden lifted off my shoulders.  This is by far the hardest race I’ve ever run, and now I know that I can do it.

There were two questions that needed answering Sunday night:  will I sign up for another one and will I sign up for the full Ironman in the Woodlands.  The answers are a resounding yes and another resounding no.  I am absolutely NOT ready for a full Ironman.  I’m not even sure I would be ready in two years let alone next year.  For now that distance is off the table, maybe one day though.

I will sign up for another half Ironman though.  I’m not sure when or where, hopefully they don’t sell out before I decide.  I might return to Vineman, do something exotic like Hawaii, or try one further north where it would be cooler.  Where ever I go I know two things:  the race will be hard and I will have fun!

Thanks for listening and have a nice day!