CLYDESDALE RUNNING

My wife (hi honey) says I dwell too much on my negative experiences, so I’m going to try to keep this as positive as possible. I finished. Had it not been for 3 (yes, 3) flat tires on the bike, I would have finished approximately 20 minutes sooner, and even within my goal time. So all is not lost. I have some serious wheel issues I’ve yet to figure out. Thanks to everyone who helped me with spare tubes and CO2! I ran out after the first flat (never thought I’d need enough for even 2).

By the time I got off the bike, it was hot, real hot. When I woke up from my post-race nap (5ish), it was 87 degrees outside. So it was a pretty hot day, but I’m not exactly sure how hot it got during the run portion of my race. I know it hurt. Not my legs necessarily, but I never felt good, had and unsettled stomach, and simply no energy. The heat might have zapped it right out of me. I walked for much of the run, despite feeling good throughout the bike (physically - I was mentally exhausted from the flat-induced stress). A day later, my sunburn hurt more than my legs.

I finished very low among males, and even more embarrassingly low among my age group. I wish there was an asterisk next my name (i.e.; *the guy who was cussing in transition about getting 3 flats). A volunteer told me someone else had 4. I call “poppycock” on that. At least if we were expected to believe he got off the bike before me.

Anyhow, I walked away with some lessons, and some concerns, but I’m just going to work harder now. Starting Monday in fact. Taking just 1 day off. Not much for racing coming up. Think I’ll throw in an Olympic or something, if I can find one. Otherwise, other than an Aquathon (glorified training), it’s nothing but hard training until 8/2. My buddies Bob and Dwight did well. Dwight surprises me every time he goes out and races. He finished in just over 5 1/2 hours, in just his 4th tri, first half, and third week in a row of racing (sprint, Oly, and Half). Sooner or later I’ll just realize he is a gifted athlete and expect it out of him. Until then I’m really enjoying watching him do what he’s doing… succeeding.

Before 3 flat tires (smiling).

I needed a solid swim to recover from a poor experience in my last sprint tri that KO’d my open water confidence. Just 2 days before my first Half Ironman, I knew I needed to take it easy, so a calm and collected (1,000 meter) swim followed by a brisk but not too high of a tempo (5,000 meter) run was in order. I didn’t care much how I fared compared to others. I coulnd’t risk wasting energy, or being sore.

It worked out well. I swam comfortably and finished up in the lower half, but turned in a solid swim time for little to no actual “race effort”. About 18 minutes. This was about feeling good in the water. Mission accomplished. I’m certain with my next Aquathon, I should be able to trim about 3 minutes off of my time, and get down into the 42-minute range (transition included). Most of that time being made up on the run. I left this race feeling much more confident about my upcoming Half Ironman.

With just 95 days to go, I am no longer worrying about staying on track, but about catching up. Sickness, a few minor injuries, and a bad sprint experience that got into my head are factors, but not excuses. Lack of commitment is my official excuse, but hardly excusable. Too many times I’ve told myself “I’ll make it up”, now I’m full of anxiety, because I know I’m behind. Anxiety that can probably only be mitigated with a potentially unsafe increase in workload, and some success in build-up races. I also know I need to adjust my eating habits. This is no longer sprinting, which one can get away with training for “casually”. I’m learning from the training alone (or measuring what I have done in addition to what else I need to be doing) is a serious, serious commitment.

10 days from now I compete in my first half-Ironman distance event. I’m scared to death of the swim, not too worried about the bike, and intimidated as hell by the run. I will finish if I get out of the water, this I’m certain of, but finishing in a timeframe that gives me the make it or break it confidence to compete in an Ironman is questionable. I’m shooting to get out of the water in 45 minutes, spend no more than 3 hours and 15 minutes on the bike, and two hours and 15 minutes on the run. With transitions, this would bring me across the finish line somewhere between 6:15:00 and 6:30:00. 7 hours to me would be disastrous.

2009:
Swim: 09:30:09 / 15.3 Mi
Bike: 57:33:59 / 971.5 Mi
Run: 84:22:50 / 519.6 Mi

I had probably the most disappointing triathlon experience to date. By no means was I at my slowest, but with serious mileage under my belt, I expected much, much more.

The debacle started seconds into the swim when I took a little more contact than used to, and I panicked, forcing myself to stop, tread, and wait for things to clear before continuing. This scenario played itself out twice. My swim split was a poor 367th out of 594 finishers. Still coughing up water early on the bike, my misery was compounded by a cold rain. I don’t fare so well in the wet, lacking the handling skills to feel comfortable in corners and around bends. I still fared better, 150th, despite numb, cold feet. Finally, my run was slowly paced, but I’ll admit, slightly faster than any previous sprint tri run split. I didn’t gain feeling back in my feet and toes until roughly 2 miles in, which for reasons I’ll explain shortly, was probably a good thing. I had a 303rd place run split. Overall I finished 192nd, or in the top 32%, 12% (or 4 minutes and 18 seconds) short of my goal (top 20%). Based on past experiences, I can reasonably expect to swim 2-3 minutes faster. I also feel like I have the bike legs (miles) to have gone perhaps a minute faster (21 mph vs. 20.6 average) and probably 30 seconds faster on the run. So yeah, that’s enough to get me there. I just have to convince myself it was one of those days and move on, because in less than 2 weeks, I need to compete in my first Half Ironman.

I didn’t realize until I got home and peeled my socks off that my feet were sliced to shreds. A few dozen cuts, some deep, and some bleeding, spread evenly over both feet, but mostly my toes, had to have come from crawling out of the lake. I felt some sharp stuff, but chalked it up as rocks and kept going. Since my feet were numb most the rest of the race, these cuts didn’t bother me. I also didn’t think twice about it, because this has never happened to me at this level of severity. I’ve had 1 or 2 cuts, but dozens? I’ve cleaned them up the best I could, medicated them, and bandaged them. I hope they heel fast.

Congrats to my buddy Dwight for smoking me in all 3 legs, and by 5 and a half minutes overall in just his 2nd triathlon. I think he might have surprised even himself a little bit. If it wasn’t for my faster transitions (experience), he would have got me by even more. His run split was scary good (75th) for a guy who doesn’t run off the bike much.

http://runningdivamom.blogspot.com/

This month I had a cold and a foot injury. I’m still getting over the cold, and I think the foot injury has subsided. The effects were numerous missed runs, and 3 straight days of missed workouts. I opted to skip the workouts during the worst days of my cold. I thought the extra rest would help to clear it up faster. In the past I tried to workout through colds, only to find that it caused the cold to move into my chest and stick around longer. I think it was a good plan this time around.

I participated in a training camp, and got my first glimpse of the Ironman Wisconsin bike course, and swam in Lake Monona just outside of the terrace, for the first time. It was a solid experience. I also got my longest and 2nd longest rides in (ever), which is sufficient at this point (104 days from Ironman Wisconsin). Both of those rides actually being on the Ironman Wisconsin course. Training on those hills is working, or at least I think it feels that way. I’m getting stronger, and the only soreness I’m getting is in C7/T1 area of the spine (upper back/lower neck). I got a tip for that to close my elboes more to round out my back that I’ll try. My run has however probably suffered due to the lightest mileage I’ve pumped out in almost a year. This is due to the foot injury and cold. Swimming is coming around, but I still need to invest much more time.

May:
Swim: 02:48:00 / 7636 yards
Bike: 23:05:03 / 375.8 miles
Run: 12:45:31 / 78.8 miles

2009:
Swim: 07:38:00 / 12.3 Mi
Bike: 53:29:47 / 906.4 Mi
Run: 80:10:57 / 493.3 Mi

In the month ahead I will compete in a sprint tri, my first half Ironman-distance event, and an aquathon. I’ve come to the realization that the half is now less than 3 weeks away, and I’m not ready. If it was my goal race, or “A” race I would need to taper for it, but I’m going to have to build into it, especially with running. I haven’t done anything remotely long in ages. I’m shooting for a midweek middle-long run of 8+ this week to catch up (long enough for benefits, short enough that recovery won’t take more than a few days).

Great weekend. I swam the Ironman course (well, half of it), went for a ride on the bike course (sans the extra loop), got a couple of easy runs in, picked up a little road rash, got better at changing tires, went for another little ride, and I’m feeling like it was very productive (even the road rash). Thanks to Ryan Riell of Breakthrough Multisport for the Ironman Wisconsin training camp.

There’s no doubt that I have a lot of work to do, but my training totals for 2009 are finally starting to catch up.
Swim: 7:32:00 - 12.2 mi
Bike 48:29:47 - 820.9 mi
Run: 79:13:27 - 487.3 mi

Tomorrow night is my first Aquathon, a 1,000 meter swim followed by a 5,000 meter road run. I’m looking forward to it. It should make for a nice little evening of training.

Also over the weekend, friends and teammates Bob finished The American Triple T, Dwight PRd the Madison Marathon, Jon and Karen got a podium finish at the Pelican Fest Triathlon, and my wife, Jamie PRd the Madison Half Marathon.

This is a Thursday night occurence, 5 times each summer. I believe this is season 3 of the series. Should make for a good training race, and in middle of the week, which I like. It’s a 1,000 meter swim in Lake Mendota followed by a 5K run around the Warner Park area.

I will however probably skip June 18th, which is just 2 days before the High Cliff Half.

I have self-dignosed a slight sprain in my left foot. I therefore did not compete in the duathlon I would like to have done this morning. Instead I took a few of days off from running, and increased bike and swim totals this week. I did get back on the foot today for an easy 3-miler. I think it will be back to 90% or better for my next scheduled run on Tuesday. If I feel good, I would like to add an easy 3 on Monday.

I’ll save you the explanation about twitter, but I’ll explain that the #tweet5k is a twitter-based effort to benefit Athletes for a Cure. Run an organized 5K, or on your own, submit your time (be honest), be eligible for prizes (rules apply), and benefit a good cause. Fee is $10, unless you raise $100, then you get your money back. You can attempt as many times as you would like, but you get to submit 3 results, so if you improve upon the last, post it. If eligbible for awards, you’ll need to corroborate your result with a previous published result (within 3%), and the course must be “certified”. Certified by whom, I don’t know. With the technology and tools available today (I use Google Earth), measuring a course accurately is elementary.

I’ve been meaning to check my 5K pace, and I bailed on that race over the weekend due to weather, where the idea was to do touristy stuff afterwards. So I couldn’t think of a reason not to participate in this. I submitted my first effort last night, a PR (23:13) on a very reliable 5K course (I’ve been running/measuring it for years). Also a very hilly one. I plan to make 2 more attempts before the submission deadline of May 30th. These runs will replace my planned weekly tempo runs. However, I think I’ll find a flatter course and see if I can’t go sub-23:00. I’m sure I can. I’m not too worried about corroborating my result, because I won’t finish that high, but I my fastest previous published time is way more than 3% slower. This effort was however only 23 seconds faster than the fastest 5K I’ve ever recorded, which was also the last one I did, last July.