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!