Subscribe in a readerMay 19, 2008
Game On
Today is the day I get my game back on. Two months ago I started a new job - one that I had sketched out in my goal planning several years ago. Unfortunately my training suffered somewhat. I have been able to maintain my great base - but have lost 8 weeks of building on it that I really needed (or at least wanted) to conquer Ironman USA.
Saturday I conquered Beast of the East. It was 1/2 of what I will face in July. But I felt great afterward and was even able to do some yard work on Sunday. It's time to ramp up a little more, buckle down on the nutrition, and get ready for a great race.
So today it is game on. I am going to log my nutrition, log my workouts, and make my key workouts each week from here on out.
Posted by Mike at 8:00 AM | Comments (1)
May 18, 2008
I Conquered the Beast
The Beast of the East Half Iron Distance Triathlon, that is. Leading up to the race I found very little information about this tri, so I promised myself that I would blog about it for any future athletes that ponder tackling the course.
This triathlon is a very low key event. There is no medal at the end and no chip timing. I'd say there were maybe 50 participants this year. And they were all above average competitors. Actually, not all of them, because I was there. It was mentally challenging for my with my ~24% body fat to be there with so many lean athletes who have already conquered the iron distance. But I got my butt in the water with the rest and went on my merry way.
The swim course is flat (inside joke). The only thing that really stunk about it was the lack of buoys to site on. They had two markers in the water, maybe 200 meters from shore. They really have nothing to do with the half iron race - they are there for the sprint race the next day. In the half iron distance, you are to swim to the left of the island, out to the dam, around a catwalk that you really can't see very well from that distance, back past the island (the other side this time) and out of the water. I heard a rumor that the swim cutoff was 45 minutes (I actually had this conversation with the race director and asked him to post this cutoff online). So if you're used to Setup Events or Ga Multisport where you get 1 hr 15 min to swim the 1.2 miles, you might want to not do this race.
The transition area is covered is goose crap. No lie. It's grassy and on a slant. Bring 1 more towel than you normally would, or a small cooler to sit on. Your call.
You hit "The Beast" on the bike course pretty quick. It's the equivalent of climbing a 20 story building over 2 miles. Not that big of a deal really. Coming down was tricky as they have "repaved" it recently. In North Carolina, repaved is apparently a term for totally screwing up the road surface for cyclists. There were a few tricky corners but again, no big deal. The course is beautiful, and aside from a few rough roads and a couple with wide shoulders that were fouled up with rumble strips, the ride was great.
The transition area was still covered in goose crap when I returned back to T2.
The run was equally nice - except that it was 2 out and backs. The dam seems to go forever, but then you hit "The Beast" on the run course. It's essentially straight down an access road. Of course coming back it's straight up.
In all - it was a beautiful course. Low key event, but I got a great race shirt. And I can say I've tackled what is undoubtedly the hardest 1/2 on the east coast the same weekend many flocked to the flatlands of Florida.
And for those of you wondering - there was still lots of goose crap when I packed up and headed out of transition to go home. I will post some pictures to Flickr and here in the next few days.
Posted by Mike at 7:00 PM | Comments (0)
January 7, 2008
2008 Race Schedule or What Was I Thinking?
Here is what I'm looking at for 2008. What was i thinking?
January 1 - Resolution Run 10k completed in 49:59
January 12 - Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon
January 13 - Walt Disney World Marathon
That's right. A half and a full back to back. It's called Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge. I signed up back at the end of January 2007 and can't believe a year has already passed. Yes - I am ready for it and looking forward to it!!!
March 30 - ING Georgia Marathon (anyone up for a century ride in the North Ga mountains the 29th?)
April 26 - Tri The Parks Carrolton Sprint Triathlon (?)
May 17 - Beast of the East 1/2 Ironman (*)
July 4 - Peachtree Road Race (*)
July 20 - Ford Ironman Lake Placid
October 5 - Emerald Point Sprint Triathlon (?) A return to the site of my first triathlon
October 25 - Ridge to Bridge Marathon (?)
December 13 - Rocket City Marathon (?)
? - indicates a tentatively planned event
* - indicates a definite that I just haven't registered for
bold - indicates my 'A' race. THE 'A' RACE THAT I'M TOTALLY STOKED FOR! Sorry for yelling. BUT I JUST CAN'T WAIT!!
Ironman is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Of course I see it and deal with it every day. In fact, I'm 194 days and 22 hours away from the starting cannon right now. It's not so much the gorilla for what it is as much as I don't know what the rest of my season will look like after it. I know what I want to do, but I'm going to listen to my body as I recover and do what my body tells me. Right now I know that I can run a marathon one day and 3 weeks later run another. Starting July 21st I'll learn what proper recovery from an Ironman means.
I'm sure I'll do a 5k somewhere along the way, and maybe the Possum Trot in June. But that is basically it. This is the year of Ironman for me. Hopefully it won't be my last.
Posted by Mike at 8:00 AM | Comments (1)
December 31, 2007
2007 is in the Books
Wow. Very few posts the last couple of months and here are 3 today. 2007 officially ends in my neck of the woods in 12 hours, but training for the year ended when I got out of the pool this morning. Here are my stats for the year:
| January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007 | |
| Swim | 217387.42 yards / 123.52 miles |
| Bike | 2354.04 miles |
| Run | 864.82 miles |
That's a total of 3,342.38 miles of swimming, biking and running. I've included an image to help put that in perspective. It's a total of 3,352 miles to drive from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida. So essentially, I swam, biked, and ran from Seattle to within 10 miles of the Miami city limits. Must've gotten attacked on the outskirts of town, I guess.
My run mileage was lower than I would've liked, thanks in part to an injury in February following the Austin Marathon. I set a new PR there, but it was over a month before I could run again (just in time for the ING Georgia Marathon). Couple that with more focus in the pool and on the bike and you have a recipe for <1000 miles of running this year.
The bike mileage is a combination of road and trainer miles. I didn't start cycling in earnest until late May in preparation for the Macon Half-Ironman. That has changed as I have a new bike and several pieces of cold-weather and rainy-weather gear. I expect to be closer to 3000 miles on the bike this time next year.
I couldn't be happier with my swimming. Moving over to the YMCA gave me access to a cooler pool and slightly easier access to getting a lane. It looks like that last statement may be changing a little as the master's swim program is moving days... SO I may be looking for a new pool in 2008. Either way, it will work out fine.
My 2007 race schedule was quite packed. You never would've known I had a bad knee injury in mid-February!! Here's a recap of my races this year -
January - Resolution Run 10k
February - Austin Marathon
March - ING Georgia Marathon
May - My Next Tri (1st in division)
June - Macon Rock & Roll Half Ironman
June - Possum Trot 10k
July - Peachtree Road Race 10k
August - Hiawassee Summer Sizzler International Distance Triathlon
September - South Carolina Half Ironman
October - South Carolina Marathon
November - Atlanta Marathon
December - Jingle Jog 5k
2008 promises to be even better. Here's to a prosperous, safe, and injury free 2008! Thanks for reading!
Posted by Mike at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
October 1, 2007
2007 Triathlon Season is in the Books
I executed my strategy this past Sunday and came away with a respectable finish. My time was 7 hours 10 minutes, although the posted results show 7:22:00. Here's the scoop on the time differential and my race recap.
Swim
My swim time could've been better. My friend had extreme anxiety on shore so I didn't start in my assigned wave. Should've been no big deal since it was chip timed and you had to cross a timing mat before going in the water. In marathons we call this seeding ourselves accordingly. It shouldn't have been a problem for me to start further back. Unfortunately, my time reflected the 12 minutes of the original wave assignment rather than when I checked into the swim start. Oh well. No biggee. I'm not that hung up on time. Then my friend had a flat out panic attack in the water. After about 750 yards the panic went away and we swam. Take away the panic attack and the 58 minute swim would've been more like 48.
I see a good sale going on wetsuits, which combined with a gift certificate I got for my b-day should get me in the wetsuit I rented this weekend for about $100. That's awesome since it's a $300 suit!! What does that mean?? Lot's more open water swim training starting as early as February. It's just gotta be above 55 or so with the full suit to swim. Sounds crazy, I know. I think the panic attack was brought on by getting in a big, dark lake and swimming out into it. So we'll work on that in the off season to see what works to psychologically get past it.
Bike
There was a nasty headwind and less than perfect roads on the bike course, which slowed me down on my cheap ass road bike by 1.5 mph under my planned pace. I just managed my power output and tried to ignore speed as much as I wanted to hit 18.7 mph on average.
This was probably my last race on this bike. I'll probably stick to road geometry, but get a stiffer and lighter frame, much better component group, and a lighter engine (that's me). I've gained a lot of strength and power output and it's time to channel that into a higher end machine. With white bar tape. Hahahaha.
Run
My half marathon time was just over 2 and a half hours, so I shaved somewhere around 12 minutes off my run time from last June. I felt great on the run. It was only around mile 10 that I felt any real fatigue. It was hot out in the sun in the middle miles of the 6 mile out and back course that we had to run twice.
Overall
This is my 2nd triathlon put on by Setup Events. They really do a great job putting on these events. The run course was very well supported both in terms of the people, but also the supplies. There were gels, pretzels, water, Gatorade Endurance, flat Coke, oranges, bananas - and that's just the crap I remember - roughly every mile on the run course. A lot can change in a mile and it was nice to always have the whole variety of options to replenish your body. The shirts and medals were cool as was the race venue.
I'm really stoked by what this year has brought and am looking forward to pushing myself to Ironman Lake Placid next summer. For now, it's time to bask for a few days and then start training for my upcoming marathons.
Posted by Mike at 8:27 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2007
SC HIM Training - By the Numbers
This is quite possibly the last time I'll write prior to racing in the South Carolina Half Ironman. It's an exciting time for me. This time last year I was only swimming 400 yard repeats and getting geeked up for a sprint - the Emerald Point Triathlon that I recapped here. Many people are hitting my race recap now preparing for the 2nd running of that event this October, so I re-read it just to see what kind of bad advice I was giving people :). I've often wondered why I post this blog and share my pictures. If nothing else, it gives me an easy way to look back on where I was and help my appreciate where I am.
But enough of this memory lane crap. At the end of that race recap, I posted two things that I wanted to take forward into the off season - 1) was more swimming and 2) was more bricks. It is with a smile on my face that I say I accomplished that. Those fruits were actually beared back in June when I ran the Rock & Roll Man 1/2 iron distance event in Macon (race recap). Since that time, I have focused more intently on all 3 sports and am excited to see what Sunday will bring.
OK, now for the numbers.
The following compares the 17 weeks leading up to each event. It's measured simply in yards for the swim and miles for the run and bike (I was not confident in some of the time data entered in February and March since I didn't start using Training Peaks until April and had to manually fill in the previous months' data). The first set of data is the most recent, starting the day after the Macon race. The second set of data begins 17 weeks before Macon, and does not (at least I think it does not) include the Macon race itself.
Week Swim Bike Run Week Swim Bike Run 6/4/2007 2700 0 4.3 2/5/2007 3500 0 16.75 6/11/2007 8350 0 15.44 2/12/2007 4650 0 30.2 6/18/2007 6600 17.12 22.8 2/19/2007 5000 0 0 6/25/2007 7700 12 15.3 2/26/2007 0 0 0 7/2/2007 2500 22 16.71 3/5/2007 4900 12 2.6 7/9/2007 7000 75.5 14.5 3/12/2007 3000 11 15 7/16/2007 6450 35 16 3/19/2007 3200 11.4 26.2 7/23/2007 7500 61 23.25 3/26/2007 1800 60.9 4 7/30/2007 5908 57 8.35 4/2/2007 5500 0 23.33 8/6/2007 4500 75 24.7 4/9/2007 5900 23.05 10.2 8/13/2007 0 116.2 26.63 4/16/2007 3500 0 18.35 8/20/2007 3950 54 8.5 4/23/2007 6625 45 4.35 8/27/2007 6750 87.11 22.2 4/30/2007 4490 50.1 15.18 9/3/2007 3500 115 20 5/7/2007 5200 47.3 13.15 9/10/2007 7100 86.82 21.66 5/14/2007 4750 67.7 25.8 9/17/2007 2600 132 16.95 5/21/2007 5900 47.05 8.2 9/24/2007 3750 28 2.12 5/28/2007 3740 0 7.91 86858 973.75 279.41 71655 375.5 221.22 % Change 21.2% 159.3% 26.3%
My bike mileage went up signifcantly following Macon. At least 1 session a week was a brick. A signifcant number of miles were accomplished on an indoor trainer, but an equally signifcant amount was experienced on the road. The week with the 0 pool yards in February was following my knee injury at the Austin Marathon when I decided to take a week and a half off of everything. The goose egg in August was the week (plus 1 day) that thepool was closed. I missed 4 swims because of that, but the timing was ok. Otherwise my swim volume would have increased roughly 25% as well.
All in all I am very pleased. It's the journey that defines you as a triathlete, not a single event (although we'll see what tune I'm singing after I do an Ironman). This reminds me of a Sun Tzu quote:
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
My training will assure me victory. This Sunday is the battle. Thanks to all that have supported and participated in my journey. The next post you see should be details of my 2nd half iron distance finish! Good luck to everyone doing this race with me and my buddies doing the Two Bridges Triathlon in Cumming this weekend!
Posted by Mike at 3:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2007
Ironman Events on TV
Tapering for this upcoming half inroman has led to extra time on my hands. In that time, I've ended up spending too much time in bike shops, running stores, and watching television. For those of you who haven't seen recent tv listings, I wanted to point out that race recaps from 6 Ironman distance events would be on Versus in the upcoming weeks. Arizona was on a couple of weeks back (thanks, TiVo!!) - here are the remaining ones to watch:
Oct 7th at 4pm Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene
Oct 28th at 4pm Ford Ironman USA Lake Placid
Nov 18th at 4pm Ford Ironman Louisville
Dec 2nd at 5pm Ford Ironman Wisconsin
Dec 16th at 4pm Ford Ironman Florida
Each program should be 1 hour long. Of course, check your local listings as all times I listed above are Eastern time. The Ford Ironman World Championship is slated to be aired on NBC on December 1, 2007 from 4:30 - 6:00 pm Eastern.
I have no idea how I will occupy myself during the rougly 3 week taper that Ironman Lake Placid will require next summer. I guess I still have 9 months or so to figure that out. As for today's stats - it was an easy 1 hour spin. All the time in the saddle on what was a mostly flat course. I'll do a short swim in the morning to keep the feel for the water and consider my work complete.
Posted by Mike at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2007
Frequently Asked Questions about the South Carolina Half
Here are my answers to the two questions I've fielded the most over the past week with some additional thoughts aimed at no one in particular.
Q) Do you think the bike course will be hilly?
A) I'm prepared for it to be, but based on the elevation profile you can find on the official website I don't think it will be quite as difficult as Macon was. Of course all it takes is a strong headwind and you'll think it was hilly.
Just because I went for a 114 mile ride on the comet last week doesn't mean I'm preparing for a flat bike route. It just means that I didn't feel the need to kill myself a week and a half before the race.
Q) Do you think it will be wetsuit legal?
A) I don't know. I figured once I procured one that a heat wave would break out (it kind of has - it was 90 yesterday). You should've been in the pool or lake more to better prepare yourself. My experience has been that the more prepared I am, the less fear I have.
Fear is a giant limiter. You've got to find a way to minimize that fear. A little fear is good, even healthy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Your success is not determined on race day, but in the months of training leading up to it. A magical water temperature of 78 or below isn't going to make up for the time you didn't spend in the pool.
Now on to today's workouts. It was a brick day, starting with a 5:15 spin class - strength ride. Since it's a taper week, I held back a little and didn't go for the full hour. 42 minutes on the bike and I figure roughly 12 miles. I then put my running shoes on and ran 2.1 miles in 20:03. Mentally I wanted to run slower than that, but my feet kept the turnover at that pace so there wasn't much I could do. I would've adjusted if it were going to be a longer run than that.
Only 4 more days separate me from running the South Carolina Half Ironman to become a 2-time finisher of that distance!!!
Posted by Mike at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2007
Gear Check for the South Carolina Half Ironman
Taper time is rough on everyone. For the athletes it means weight gain and irritability. For those around us it means listen to us bitch about weight gain and dealing with our general irritability.
Today I rented a Blue Seventy suit. I tried it on again when I got home with my tri shorts and just verified that I could breathe, swim, and not hate life. That's about all I can say. I'm not hating life in it. I'm getting the creeps looking at this picture though.
The recap of the Silver Comet ride is coming, I promise. I cleaned up some of the pictures today so that the lighting was right. All that is left is to write the narrative and throw in some pictures here to tell the story.
Today's Workouts: NONE.
On tap for tomorrow is an easy 10 in my running shoes.
Posted by Mike at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2007
It's 5:45 am at the Fowler YMCA
And all these people beat me here. That was Monday. Today I got there just before 5 and there were people lined up to get inside. This is nothing new - I've witnessed it over the past 5 or 6 months. It's simply amazing to me. I used to work out at Gold's Gym in the mornings and there were never this many people there. Granted, they didn't have basketball, a swimming pool or an indoor track. But STILL??
Today was a brick day. It started with a 55 minute (or so) spin class (a roughly 17.5 mile equivalent) in a hot room. I normally will drink around 24 ounces of Powerade in a 1 hour spin, but today I drank the full 32 ounces. I felt like dog meat. I was sweating like a pig. Maybe it's always like that and with the different music I was just more in tune with the pain. I don't know.
It was great to finally get outside of that musty room for a 3.5 mile run. It was hard to get my legs under me, and REALLY hard to run in the dark. The sun didn't poke it's head over the horizon until after 7 and by then I was back to the Y. Total of roughly 39 minutes on the run. Sad - I know people who can run a 10K in that time AFTER swimming 8/10 of a mile and biking 25 miles!!!! Oh well - I can't compare myself to them.
The day was rounded out with a 1 hour martial arts class. Roughly 30 minutes of it was fighting technique - the other 30 minutes was a mix of cardio and core work.
As you can see by the post time, I'm up later than I wanted to be. Tomorrow will bring a long run in the morning. Hopefully my body will be up for it!!!
Posted by Mike at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2007
Pool is Closed Until Monday
I've gotta find another place to swim between now and then. I have 0 yards logged in the pool this week. 8450 yards logged in August... none this week. Yikes!! South Carolina HIM is coming up in like 44 days!!
Oh well... at least all the summer funk will be gone from the pool come Monday.
Posted by Mike at 5:57 PM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2007
I'M IN
What am I in?? Read on my friends, cause I'm in DEEP DOO-DOO.
Over the last 3 years or so, I've been working out. Maybe we'll call it training. The first year was really just working out to lose weight. The second year, I started doing more running and what I'll call sport-specific workouts. The third year, marathoning and triathloning. This year has seen me do a half ironman in Macon.
At some point, working out stopped and training began. I didn't know training for what, but I think I know now. You see, the last 3 years I've been training to train. Learning to train. Figuring out what it meant to train. Sure, I still wrote code and managed projects for 8 hours a day. But I also started working out for at least 30 minutes a day. Sometimes running a couple of hours a day. Eventually, waking up at 4 am to bike and run for 2 hours and squeeze in another hour in the pool at lunch and then doing something else at night. I found myself logging weeks of 20+ hours of swim/bike/run/weights - this is a part time job!
So what am I in? What does someone like me do with all this fitness?? They sign up for 2008 IRONMAN USA - LAKE PLACID !! I am 361 days out of the biggest endurance race I've ever contemplated. It really hasn't hit me yet. Since completing my first marathon (and 3 more since then) back in October 2006 I've thought that I had the meddle to attempt Ironman. I've read every blog, book, article, and training plan I could get my hands on. I've watched 6 events in 3 countries. I've covered over 2000 miles in the water, on my bike, and on foot. I've DREAMED.
So yesterday, against all odds (there were only 800 slots available online and they sold out in less than 10 minutes), I succesfully registered. Registration was supposed to be easy - but it turned out to be an event unto itself. They had more people at onsite signup than anticipated and had to delay opening online until 1pm. When I went to lunch (skipping my high noon run - OH THE HORROR) I figured that I would come back to a press release saying there would be no online signup. And yet - there were 800 spots available. And they took my money. AND HOLY CRAP WHAT NOW!?!?!
So this morning was a brick workout. 1 hour on the bike, 40 minutes of running. It felt fantastic. At 5 am. 29 miles from home. So for those of you that think I'm crazy, just think - there are only around 350 more days of getting up at 4am to train (there WILL be a few easy days). As for me - if I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it.
Posted by Mike at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
June 5, 2007
Friction is Your Enemy
Sports Pickle ran a satirical article about a guy who got bloody nipples while running his first marathon. I've sawed off my nipples a few times with a variety of shirts while running and biking. Running specialty shops sell a product called "Nipple guards" that work absolutely fantastically. Band-aids also work, but the glue on them is not as strong as I've found the nipple guards' glue to be.
Showering with bloody nipples is quite painful. Salt gets crusted on your body and when you shower it gets washed into the wound. This can be more excrutiating than the event itself. Sunday I learned that blisters on your feet can be much the same. When I took my sock off, the skin peeled up, exposing raw skin. When I jumped in the shower, all the salt that crusted on my over 7 hours washed down my leg, and into the blister. It was pouring salt straight in. OUCH.
So, the morals of this story are:
1) Guys need to wear protection over their nipples to protect them from being sawed off.
2) Use a product like body glide to protect other friction points (where the arms rub, where your shoulder rubs your neck while swimming, etc)
3) Re-apply either of these treatments if the previous one wears off.
4) After your event, you might was to try sponging off the excess salt before jumping in the shower. This might help reduce your pain.
And one last tip - don't ever use someone else's body glide stick. There are a couple of friction points that are just a little toooooo personal and private!!!
Posted by Mike at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
June 4, 2007
Training To Succeed
I've heard people amazed with the hills on the 1/2 ironman course in Macon. Same at the Emerald Point Triathlon last year. At the same time, I read people listing favorite training places as being the Silver Comet Trail, spin class, or some greenway somewhere. Those places are fine - but at some point you need to get out on roads with some elevation change.
Here I am at the top of Fort Mountain after climbing roughly 2500 feet over 7 miles. It started at around mile 17. That's roughly the amount of elevation change over the 56 mile 1/2 ironman course in Macon this weekend. We rode roughly another 25 miles after taking this picture.
Don't get me wrong - my time wasn't the fastest you've ever seen in Macon - but I felt great at the end of the ride! And that is the bike I rode, no time trial setup for me. Training days like the one pictured here are my secret. Now you know.
Posted by Mike at 8:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 3, 2007
2007 Rock & Roll Man 1/2 Ironman Experience
Today I completed my first 1/2 iron distance event. That's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run - all in succession. My overall finish time was 7 hours 7 minutes and 39 seconds (male results female results). Here are my splits:
Swim: 50:56
T1: 4:15
Bike: 3:18:26
T2: 6:42
Run: 2:47:22
Saturday started off uneventfully. I left home around 1pm for the 2 hour drive to Macon. About 15 minutes North of Macon, it started raining. It did not stop raining until 5:45 am Sunday morning. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except that half iron athletes were required to rack their bikes in transition by 7pm on Saturday. So my bike sat in the rain for roughly 13 hours. I picked up my race packet, attended the pre-race meeting, scoped out the swim course, and headed for Carraba's for some carbs.
Overnight I did not sleep well. I guess my body was actually pretty well rested. Heck - I'm sitting here writing this after a 3 hour nap and my eyes are wide open. I assumed the on again, off again sleep Saturday night was due to my obsessing over the weather conditions. There was only a 30 percent chance of rain, and that equated to occassional downpours and a constant rain for 14 straight hours. If race day turned out this way it would've been miserable.
I arrived at the race site around 5:45 am this morning. After a quick jaunt to the port-a-johns I aired up my wheels and lubed up the drive train. I methodically laid out my cycling and running stuff in transition so that I wouldn't have to think about what I needed on each when I got in there, I could just grab and go. If you call a 6 minute transition grabbing and going, that is. 7:15 arrived before I knew it and it was time to get out of the transition zone to avoid a 4 minute penalty.
The event was a little late starting. Presumably the late break in the weather did not give them ample time to set the turn buoys. The swim course was triangular. You were to swim out roughly 620 meters and turn right. Swim another 650 meters and turn right. Then swim a final 630 meters back to shore. As I'm watching them put the buoys out, I realize that we're burning into my water stores and I did not bring a water bottle down to the beach.
Note to self: Take water bottle to beach and sip all the way up to race start
My wave starts and I go out a little too fast. It wasn't too bad and is a fairly common occurrence. After about 600 meters I settled in and life was good. All except for the calf cramp in the final 400 meters. I pulled up and started doing breast stroke just to figure out my options. USAT rules say you can hang on to anything non-motorized that isn't moving. So, I could've held on to a canoe for a few seconds to gather my bearings and alleviate the cramp. As it turns out, that was unnecessary. A few minutes of breast stroke and I was under way towards the finish. You're already in a hydration deficit coming out of the water, but I knew I was beyond normal and would have to immediately work on it.
Once in the transition area, I grabbed a spare bottle of water and drank roughly 2/3 of it. I dried my feet off, put on my socks and strapped on my Shimano cycling shoes. Gloves, sunglasses and Gu packets were all in my helmet. I headed out to the mount line and hopped on for a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough, the tiny bike was tossed. Ok, ok... enough Gilligan's Island. If you had told me I'd be in a headwind for 3 hours on a LOOP course I would've said you were crazy. But the swirling winds the low pressure system known and tropical storm Barry put off gave me just that. I averaged 17 mph on the bike, which I was pretty happy with. My goal was to not blow up. There was a lot of elevation change on the course. At least 2500 feet according to rudimentary GPS mapping. I'm happy with my time - it was roughly 8 minutes slower than I planned but I didn't plan on the wind.
Back in transition, I changed socks, shoes, donned a hat for running and took in more fluids. A couple of my friends were in there and said I was looking really good. I was feeling really good and was totally happy to see them. I came in shouting out the Kramerism "Who wants to have some fun??!!". They had done the sprint and I was looking to see if either wanted to go run a bit of a half marathon with me. I had 1 taker and was on my way.
I was able to get my legs under me pretty quick and tried to run between aid stations. That didn't always work out. It turned out to be a sunny and hot day in Macon on a course with little shade. I love my hat. The cold rags helped bunches too. As did the ice in the gatorade. My nutrition plan worked out as best as possible, taking GU with water every 45 minutes and drinking mostly gatorade endurance other than that. I saw a lot of people doing a slow death march down the lane line on the pavement. Death probably isn't the best word to invoke there - it was just a mindless movement of one foot in front of the other with the lane line as a guide. You don't have to be a marathoner to do an 1/2 ironman, but it sure does help.
Around mile 10 I came up behind a guy and checked out his calf (your age is marked on your calf). He was 33. I checked out how he was holding his head and tried to figure out whether he was going to care if I passed him. I knew that once I passed him, I wouldn't be in last place in my age group, but I couldn't say the say for him. As it turns out, there were quite of few in our age group behind us, so it didn't really matter. After the mile 11 aid station, I ran the last two miles (walking through the mile 12 aid station) and I can't tell you what a thrill that was. There were still a lot of specators in the crowd yelling "go 347 - you're looking good!" And I was looking good. I still had some in the tank and my run split would've been sooooo much better had the blister in my right arch not developed a blister of its own. But all in all it was a beautiful day. I ran through the cheers, crossed the finished line, and got a really cool finisher's medal.
1 man. 7 hours. 70.3 miles. Anything is possible.
Posted by Mike at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
June 1, 2007
2 Days Out / May Recap
I'm 2 days out from the Macon Half Ironman. Really it's just 1 day and a wake-up. Am I ready? You betcha.
Things that are out of my control:
Weather
Smoke
Other participants
I often wonder whether I'm physically ready. This is the worry of the self-coached athlete. You get lots of advice, read lots of books and articles, maybe even use a plan from Training Peaks... but you just don't know until you get out there. My training in the month of May looked like this (with the last week being a taper week, thus the avg weekly mileage won't look exactly right if you do the math):
Swim 22330.42 yd (roughly 12.6 miles)
Bike 212.15 mi
Run 61.09 mi
48+ hours of total training logged, for an average of 16 hours each week. Again, that weekly average is a little skewed due to reduced volume this week.
All in all I feel ready. I've got my checklist. I think I have my A-game. I have my sunscreen. I have four marathons under my belt. And I have 8 hours to finish if it turns out to just not be my day. Since it's my first half-iron distance event, I won't obsess over time. I'm just going to enjoy my day and relish the fact that I am able to swim - bike - run a distance that most people don't even want to drive a car!
Posted by Mike at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
Train in the Conditions You May Experience
Right now there are massive wild fires burning in South Georgia, and smoke has blown all the way up to metro Atlanta. 11 days away from the half ironman in Macon and I realize that there is some likelihood that this condition will arise during the event (especially on a one loop, 56 mile bike course).
The National Weather Service issued this statement:
THE SMOKE WILL ENHANCE THE AIR QUALITY PROBLEMS TODAY...ESPECIALLY IN THE METRO AREAS OF ATLANTA...ATHENS... COLUMBUS...AND MACON. PEOPLE WITH RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS AND THE ELDERLY SHOULD REMAIN INDOORS IN THOSE AREAS WITH THICK SMOKE.
I'm about to go for my lunch time run. Sounds crazy, but I'm almost as healthy as they come. Don't worry, I'll take it easy out there.
Posted by Mike at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2007
Random Thoughts and a Brief Recap of My Podium Finish
Is it pretentious to do a sprint distance triathlon as a brick workout when you're training for a 1/2 iron or full iron distance event?? I did just that a few weeks back and ended up in first place in my division!! I woke up after a night of storms - had a flat tire on my bike (nothing new there - you ride enough miles and inevitably run over glass or something and get a flat). Went to the triathlon parking lot, fixed my flat, paid cash for the entry fee, went out and got first. Overall I was around 57th out of over 300 finishers. Gotta get a bike set up for time trialing and I'll be all set. The water temp was in the 60s, so the extra buoyancy and warmth of a wetsult would've helped, too.
I'm trying to figure out how to improve safety, and about the only thing I can come up with is some sort of licensing scheme. But the issuance of racing licenses would be difficult to administer (just look at the DMV). I think of this because during the bike leg one of the leaders was hit (or ran into - not exactly sure which) a mini-van on the course. I wasn't far behind him and when I first came through he wasn't moving at all. His bike was separated from the fork - the fork was separated from the wheel. I did see him move when I came back through (it was roughly .5 miles to the turnaround point). I got reports later that he was totally banged up, but would do OK once he got to the hospital. Dude probably knew what he was doing and it was just one of those freak accidents that happen - licensing probably wouldn't have helped.
It's really nice to be able to eat an average of 3700 calories a day and still lose weight. The flip side to this is that it's really a chore to consume 3700 calories in a day. I guess I could just got get a few Big Macs and french fries and be done, but they really need to be a healthful 3700 calories. 50% carbs, 25% protein, and 25% fat is the fuel mixture I'm shooting for right now.
The Macon Rock and Rollman (Ironman 70.3 distance) event is just 2 weeks away!! This weekend was a sort of iron weekend. Friday was a 2700 yard swim (1.5 miles), Saturday was a 52 mile bike ride (with a flat at mile 49 - curses!!) and today was a 13 mile run. I've always been a cyclist, but I really love the simplicity of running. You just gotta lace your shoes up and go. There is no drive train to clean and oil, no flats to fix, and the road rash is much less severe.
Does Initech have an electronic version of the cover sheet for their online TPS reports?? Surely they went online with those things after the fire. I'm sure they kept Hawaiian shirt day on Friday.
Posted by Mike at 8:05 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2007
Where Am I?
I am 17 days out from a half ironman event. You may ask, "what is a half ironman?" Great question. It's a 1.2 mile open water swim, followed by a 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run. Sounds like fun, no?? I have been so busy training (and working) that I haven't written anything out here. Sure, I post every calorie I put in my body and every workout to my onilne log, but unless you are an endurance athlete, you probably don't have a clue where that log is.
I'm getting ready to taper for my event. That's where I scale back the intensity and duration of training in order to have my body peak on race day. I'll try to post some pictures and stories of the happenings since my marathon PR back in February in Austin - the injury, the comeback, the heroic climbs, the podium finish, and all the nitty gritty in between.
So stay tuned... there is definitely more to come.
Posted by Mike at 7:00 AM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2007
What is the swim start of a triathlon like??
Triathlon season is fast approaching (I just have to get through 2 marathons first!). Many of you wonder what the swim leg is like with all those people around you. This 30 second clip pretty well sums it up (hat tip to Brian G.):
I'll have to incorporate this into my training regimen.
Posted by Mike at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)
December 30, 2006
Training Ride Today
Today was a regular training ride. Just did 13 miles since it was raining and cold. Cold on its own is ok. Raining on its own is ok. But cold and raining sucks. To top it off, the greenway was covered in training groups. Large training groups. Filled with people who think that the 12 foot wide trail is there for them to fill. Come on people, don't run more than 2 abreast. One chick said "I don't like all these cyclists out here." Listen lady, I'm hugging the side of the trail as it is. You're FIVE ACROSS!!! What do you expect. There was almost a major wreck right here 'cause another cyclist was coming form behind them.
OK. I think my rant is over.
Last weekend was a training ride around Stone Mountain and then out and back to Clarkston and the area I grew up. It was a pretty good ride. Brian got to try out his new ride (the 2006 QR Kilo) and Laura saw some snow flakes while tooling around on her 2006 Giant OCR1. Our goals for 2007 are pretty ambitious, but I think that we can push each other to realize them.
Posted by Mike at 1:55 PM
December 5, 2006
Weight Lifting at Oh-Dark Thirty
I'm not the only one crazy enough to routinely work out at this hour. Besides, the place looks kinda cool in the dark.
The only problem I have each morning is remembering whether to go to Dynamo or the gym.
Posted by Mike at 8:14 AM
December 4, 2006
It's 6 am. Do you know where your triathlete is??
He's at the pool. Fortunately for me on this 28 degree morning, it's an indoor pool. They had the heater on which was ok, but there was one spot in the lane I was in where the pump head was missing a diffuser so I got blasted with warm water every time I swam over it.
Today's workout was the first time trial in from my swim workout book (more on that later).
200 yard warm-up
3 x 300 Time trial with a :30 rest interval between sets
3 X 100 cool down
My T1 100 yard pace calculated to 1:45. This is my baseline for starting this program. We'll see how it goes. I'm faster than that over shorter distances, but this is (dare I say) training for a half-iron event so I'm not freaking out over the 1:45.
Posted by Mike at 8:13 AM
December 3, 2006
The path to 1000 miles
I haven't officially run 1000 miles for this year yet. There could be some errors or missed days in my logs that would put me over that mark, but the official 1000 mile mark will come right around Christmas Day.
This is a photo of one stretch of the Suwanee Greenway that I took back in October as the leaves were just starting to change. This section is in Suwanee Creek Park.
Posted by Mike at 7:43 PM