39 days AI(after Ironman)

I wasn't sure if I'd ever get back to this blog again or not, or start up a new one. Well, I'm going to keep this one going. I figure I'll still talk about current, future training and new races that come up. First off, post ironman thoughts...It's been a really strange month for me. I started training for that race just about a year ago. So between the time of January and November of this past year, my thoughts were really focused on the Ironman. Every training session was done thinking about how I was going to go about that race. Everything I ate, did, etc. My life was getting ready for that race. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was over.

Augusta Half Ironman Report

Augusta Half Ironman (September 2012) I remember this race very well, and this being my big race of the year I'll be a bit more detailed here. Pre-race (including the day before prep, it was hell) Ahhh...pre-race, that was memorable. So, I suppose I was stupid for making the assumption that the transition area would be near the host hotel. At this particular race, as may be the case for all WTC races, you have to drop your bike gear the day before. So I parked near the hotel, grabbed my bike and gear and started walking towards the river. I wasn't sure exactly where to go, so I looked around for others that had bikes and saw a few and moved their way. When I got to the river, I felt awfully alone. No more bikes around. Just people walking along the river. Oh, forgot to mention, it was in the upper 90's, and humid...typical Augusta weather for that time of year. Sort of a preview for what tomorrow was going to bring. So, back to walking. I knew the TA had to be along the river, so I started walking, and walking, and walking. No sign of anything race related. Finally after probably 30 minutes of walking (every now and then I jumped on the bike) I finally got to the START of the swim. Joy...this meant I had another 1.2 miles to walk. I wasn't the only person who made this mistake as it was at this point that I began to run into more and more lost souls. At least we knew how much further we had...Oh, did I mention it was in the upper 90's and now there was no more shade? Oh, did I mention I was wearing flip flops that aren't overly friendly to long walks? At least I was able to meet a few people along the way, one who who for whom this was going to be his first ever triathlon. Brave man! So finally, after I don't even know how long, the trudge to the TA was over. I got there, found my spot among the 3000 spots, set up my bike, my gear.....then began my 3 mile trudge back. Oh, did I mention it was 98 DEGREES AND HUMID AND I HAD TERRIBLE WALKING FLIP FLOPS ON!!!! A six mile walk in the blazing heat was not the best way to get loosened up for a half ironman. But, in the end, I got it done, got back to my car and headed back to the hotel. I did take the rest of the day off and did absolutely nothing. Race Morning Race day was not as expected. It was overcast in the morning and unseasonably cool. It was in the 60's in the morning, but I still assumed it would burn off and become sweltering, as it is for this race every year. Due to the wonderful format of this race where the start the slowest waves first and the fastest ones towards the end, I was lucky enough to have to get there at 6:30, but not actually start racing until 8:40. To keep my wife and kid from having to sit around forever I just had her drop me off so they could go back and sleep, and meet me later during the run. So I got there, did my thing, and was well done by 7:00, so I had a ton of time to kill. I found a nice patch of grass near the start and just laid down. Nothing much else to do. I won't bore you with the mind numbingly boring details of what I did during that time. Basically got bored sitting and moved somewhere else, etc. Swim Skip ahead to race start. FINALLY!!!! My wave got called so I moved with the rest of the cattle into the starting chute before making our way onto the pier and into the water. This is a point to point swim with the current, so in other words, REALLY FREAKING FAST! There wasn't much to say about the swim other than it was as easy as a swim could get. I swam about 20 yards from the edge, so sighting couldn't have been easier. The current was fast. I wound up with a swim time that had a pace that I would be lucky to maintain for 100 yards in a pool, let alone 1.2 miles. 27 minutes after the start i was out of the water and running the insanely long path to get my bike. Bike I don't remember much about transition, and I tend to have them very well dialed in and do them quite fast so lets just say, transition went great! On to the bike. Here is reason two why the wave start they have sucks. Aside from having to sit around, the bike portion becomes slalom on wheels. Sure it's a huge ego boost to literally be passing someone every couple seconds, but it wears on you after a while. When you have 56 miles to ride it's nice to just disengage and ride and not have to pay really close attention. But for this race, you pretty much cannot ever stop watching. The really fun times are when you had three cyclist spread across the entire lane and you have to go into the oncoming lane to get around, that was awesome! Anyway, despite that I wound up having a fantastic bike split. Beat my previous HIM time by over 30 minutes. I finished the bike in around 2:44:00, give or take. Run Oh boy howdy do I remember the run. My plan going into the run was to maintain 11 min miles for the first three miles then, based on how I felt, adjust my speed accordingly, while also walking every aid station, about every mile. I felt confident that worst case scenario, I could maintain 11 for the duration, but could speed it up if need be. So, on to the run. As is usually the case, the first mile is tough to keep in check. After moving your legs so fast on the bike they tend to want to keep moving at that rate. So what felt slow was closer to a 10 min mile. Much faster than I planned but I felt ok so I stuck with it. Despite my plan, I felt good and was able to maintain this pace for over 4 miles. I was feeling great, and thought that I was actually going well. That was until about 4.5 miles in. That's when things went bad. Really bad. Something in my stomach felt terrible. As if a huge brick just developed in there, and it was brutal. I adjusted my walk ratio to every 10 minutes. That lasted for one iteration. Then it became every 6 minutes. Then it became every 4 minutes. Then it turned into trying to just run for a minute straight. Every mile became slower. By mile 11 I had done a 14 minute mile. I felt absolutely terrible and was just struggling to survive. Once I hit the 11 mile mark and was nearly done, I was able to turn up the speed a little bit and get back to 11 min miles to the finish line. I had never been so ecstatic to get to a finish line. I felt absolutely terrible by the end and was so happy to have a seat and not move for a while.

Catching up on a lost year of posting...part 3, the final

Lake Logan International, August 2013 Another injury affected my performance at this race. 9 days prior I injured my calf while doing a trail run. I don't know what the injury was, but it was very painful. I tried running 2 days after the injury and only made it .3 miles before it blew up on me again. So I took the next week off from running and hoped for the best on race day. By race day, I still felt the injury but it wasn't killing me. I knew I could bike and swim with it, but it was the run that concerned me. Regardless, I set out.. Swim: I had a very good swim. This was the first time I really did a good job of drafting off of other swimmers. I had a faster time that I had done before and felt much more relaxed than in the past after the swim. I need to remember how I did that in the future. Time 24:00 Bike: I had a fantastic bike split. For the first half of the course there was a group of about 6 of us that were constantly passing one another as we approached various strengths and weaknesses. I was clearly the strongest climber in the group as I always took the lead by the top of hills, and others were stronger descenders and on the flats as I'd move towards the back. We never drafted illegally, but there was certainly some legal drafting going on. We probably averaged nearly 26 mph on the front half, never before have I managed that kind of speed for 12 miles. On the return trip we began to separate as the terrain began to favor the flat riders. I wound up finishing the bike in 1:07...average pace was about 22 mph. Run: This is the stretch I most feared due to my injury. Right off the bat I knew it was still there, and it was a matter of how long I'd be able to go before it blew up. I was going really well for the first 1.5 miles. This course is a 5k uphill then a return trip to finish the 10k. I knew if I could go strong for the first half I'd have a great time. It went according to plan for 1.5 miles, I was pacing about an 8:30 mile, a good minute faster than last years race. It was at that point that my calf blew out again. Initially I couldn't run at all on it. I could walk, so my worst case scenario was that I was going to walk the rest of the course. I was not going to quit. I walked it for a bit, and occasionally would jog slowly. I kept trying different kinds of strides to see if one hurt less than another. Ultimately, it became a constant juggle of different running strides until I couldn't tolerate the pain and then I'd walk for a while. I had given up any chance of beating last years time after my leg blew up so my goal became to simply finish. I kept checking the time just in case there was any chance. When I got to the last mile I tried picking up the pace a little bit, knowing I'd be done soon and I could tolerate the pain. As I got closer and closer I started watching my time more and realized I somehow still had a shot and my PR. So I pushed harder to the finish line, injury be damned. When I finally crossed the line I wound up breaking my PR by about a minute! I couldn't believe it, and I couldn't walk! My wife and son were there waiting for me, and she helped me get to a chair. Run time : 1:01:30 Overall time: 2:36:00 LPC Triathlon This was a great race as well, as iDaph puts on an awesome event. This was really fun event as the run is unlike any other I've done. It has a really short swim, only 200 yards, a longer bike ride, 17.5 miles, and as usual a 5k run. The swim was in a pool so it was quite easy. I finished in exactly what I predicted, about 3:00 even. I did better on the bike that I had predicted. I typically ride this course around 18.5 mph, but during this race I paced right at 20 mph, for a time of around 52:30. The run was the odd part. It starts off with about 1.3 miles or so of up and down and ending with a fairly steep climb. I hit the turn around pacing about a 7:30 mile. I had a very fast second half though. The second half turns off the road, onto gravel, then on to grass. You follow a grass trail for a short ways, which was very wet and muddy, which made it interesting, then around a baseball field, before finishing with a bit less than one lap around a track, which gave you a nice final kick. I finished the run setting another PR for a 5k at 22:32, for a pace of 7:16 min/mile. I finished 2nd in my age group and 9th overall. Definitely the best finish I've ever had. Overall time was 1:19:00 And that about covers the last year in triathlon! Lake Lure Triathlon is tomorrow, so I'll write that one up this weekend.

Catching up on a lost year of posting...part 2

Hot Chocolate 10k, January 2013 Flattest 10k in Asheville, and they're probably right. But that doesn't make you feel any better when you're climbing up what might be one of the steepest stretches of road I've ever ran for the final .2 miles. I did have a pretty good race, finishing in around 57 minutes, which gave me a pace of around 9:30 miles. It was a decent race, actually stuck to my plan to walk every mile, and i survived...even ran the entire climb without walking. Frosty Foot 30k, January 2013 This was my first race of the I was originally planning this to be a training day because I was training for a marathon. But I decided to drop that goal since I wanted to do the Charleston Half IM and wouldn't be able to transition fast enough to tri training, so the Frosty Foot became my primary run race of the off season. As I just said, running has been a huge weakness so I focused on it in the off season. This is an 18.7 mile trail run. So that means lots of obstacles such as roots, rocks, hills, etc. Oh yes, and people. The trail was quite narrow, which basically forced you to run at the pace of those around you. This race did not go well for me and I'm not sure what happened. About 8 miles in I started really losing focus and interest. I had no motiviation to keep going, and knowing I wasn't even half way there didn't help. My ankles started really hurting due to turning them so many times on the terrain. I was barely running at this point and wound up doing a lot of walking. By mile 11/12 I was pretty much only walking. I was very fortunate in that around mile 14 there was a bail out point and I was able to cut out the remaining 4 miles. My ankles were really hurting at this point and I was limping pretty badly. It was my first ever DNF. It was really hard to swallow, as a big part of me wanted to press on, but I knew there was no point. I'd be walking for another 4 miles, probably do more damage. My number one concern is triathlon racing and I didn't want to do anything to mess up the coming season. So I swallowed my pride and lived to race another day. Paris Mountain International, April 2013 This was a very fun race, albeit, a cold one. It's a an length for an international with a short swim, only 500 yards, a short bike, only 20 miles, and a short run, just 5 miles. However, it's short for a reason. It's considered one of the most difficult short distance races in the area. The bike has a 2 mile climb that rises 1200. The run is even harder, it's relatively flat for 1.5 miles, then it rides 400 feet over the final mile. I was registered for this a couple years ago before it was cancelled due to weather, so I was looking forward to taking another shot. We had quite a cold, rainy spring this year. While the water is typically in the low 70's for this race, by race day it was in the low 50's. So fortunately they cancelled the swim and made the race a duathlon. So, we wound up just lining up by number and starting on the bike. It really felt weird to do a race this way, as I'm used to frantically throwing on my bike gear before getting going. The course was very difficult. I had been thinking it was relatively flat except for the climb, but I was wrong. There were lots of rollers, so you weren't even really able to take it easy before the climb. I felt great on the climb however. I moved slowly and steadily, even passing a few cyclists on the way to the top. Charleston Half Ironman, April 2013 I wrote up a race report in another blog entry for this. But all in all, best race to date. My time was 5:17:00. Beat my previous PR by 27 minutes. Oh yea, and I joined the "pee on one's self during the cycling leg" club. I had a very large gap between this race and my next race due to an injury. I had a hernia that I wasn't able to get operated on until the end of may, so that put me out until the end of june. And the next race I could enter wasn't till later in July. Asheville Triathlon, July 2013 This is a really fun little race. It's a pool swim of 400 meters, an 11.5 mile bike ride and a 5k. Well, supposed to be a 5k, but it was mismeasured and wound up being only 2.75 miles. I improved on all segments of this race, although the run was hard to quantify since it was short. I think i was still pacing a bit faster than last year, which was my previous best 5k to date. I finished 14th overall, not quite my goal of top 10, but I did get 2nd in my age group, and a PR for the race overall. Continued on part 3

Catching up on a lost year of posting....part 1

So this post is going to be extensive. I've been a tremendous slacker and really want to start doing this again. I enjoy writing and I love triathlon, so why do I not write more about triathlon? Cause I'm a slacker, so I'm going to stop being a slacker. Here goes. I believe my last post was last summer? Holy wow do I have a lot of catching up to do...Ok, so the quick..Since then I've done the Asheville Triathlon, Lake Logan International, Augusta Half Ironman, Frosty Foot 30K, Paris Mountain International, Charleston Half Ironman, Asheville Triathlon, Lake Logan International, and the LPC Triathlon. First the quick and dirty... Asheville Triathlon (July 2012) I had a great race that day. It was my first time doing this race and although I went into it with the intent of taking it easy, I couldn't. I took off out of the gate and couldn't take my foot off the gas. I had a very good bike split and set a PR on the run with a time of 23:12. By far my best 5k to date. Lake Logan International (2012) I've never written a race report over a year later so I can't be overly specific. But, from what I remember, it was a good race. I had what I expected in the swim, about 25 minutes or so. My bike split was better than the year before, but considering the year before I was training for an Ironman and treating the race as a training day, I should've been a lot faster. I think I averaged around 19 or so on the bike. I broke my goal time for the run was to break an hour and I wound up around 57ish. I finished with a time of 2:37. Significantly faster than the prior year, but like I said before, I wasn't really racing it so much as using it for training. So all in all I was pretty happy with my race. Also, this is probably the most beautiful race venue that I've ever been too. It's a crisp, cold mountain lake, with mountains in every direction you look. When you get there the clouds are all settled down in the valleys of the mountains making the views absolutely breathtaking. It's a must do race for anyone, and it's one of the few races that I pencil in every year not to miss. Augusta Half Ironman (September 2012) I remember this race very well, and this being my big race of the year you can read more detail in my actual race report. But to be brief, the weather was amazing, especially considering how it typically is down there. Normal weather is hot, hot, hot and humid. Mid 90's is typical. This day it was in the 70's and overcast. Overall I had a good race, I set a PR by about 30 minutes. I had a ridiculously fast swim, since it was with current. A very fast bike split, and my run was horrific. My overall time was 5:44. My goal was to break 6 hours so that was easily accomplished, but that told me I still have a way to go on my run. 2013 continued in the next post...

Week 5, Wednesday

So far this week I had a much needed rest day on monday after the race and tough sunday run. Yesterday I did a high intensity bike ride, and today had a run with a lot of hills. The bike ride was about 13 miles, took 45 minutes, and consisted of 8 sets of hard 1 minute. The run was intended to have 6, 30 second pick ups, but I wound up just using the hills as the pick ups and tried my best to recover on the downhills. Both workouts were pretty tough. I made it through. I have a swim later today, but the swims have been pretty easy for the most part.

Starting Week 5, post recovery

So,I really took the whole "recovery" part of recovery week to a whole new level. I missed quite a few workouts, but I suppose that's the life of a husband/father/triathlete/graduate student/part time contractor/etc. But it was also a race week so I did want to rest a bit going into the race, as I knew I had a good chance to win this week. I came into the week on the back of a couple of very good long workouts, which I wrote up in my last entry..I've really got to start doing this more often. My only excuse is pure laziness and forgetfulness, alas I digress. So first off, my workouts weren't anything to write home about so I'll go straight into the race report. First off, I knew going into this based on last years results, and my time when riding the bike course that I had to be a favorite going in(in my mind anyway). This was the MedWest Sprint Triathlon in Clyde, NC. It was a small race with only 63 competitors, but it was a really fun race. It was a short pool swim, a 10 mile bike and a 5k run. Being a pool swim you're required to enter an estimated time. As usual, the time I entered was right on the money based on my pace, sadly, the same could not be said for those in front of me. I passed my first person in the third lap, and the fact that there was another swimmer coming on at the same time, in the same lane made for problems. I got elbowed in the face making the pass, but I was able to accomplish it pretty quickly. I passed the next person around 200 yards. Come on people, submit an accurate time! Although I was the 24th person to start, I finished with the 7th fastest swim time. My submitted time was dead on where I finished, which means that almost everyone in the race ahead of me has no idea how to estimate their time. I really need to start inflating my time in pool swims, because I'm tired of dealing with that. I wound up finishing the swim in 4:39. I was satisifed with that, as that's right where I expected to be. On to the bike, this was the part I knew from having rode the course a few days prior. It started out with a downhill right out of transition, which made mounting difficult since I don't put my shoes on till I'm rolling. But I managed to get them on and got on my way. Immediately after the downhill you have about a mile steady, but not steep climb, followed by a LONG downhill into a flat. I tried to push as hard as I could up the hill knowing I could recover on the downhill. I definitely had a strong bike. Knowing the course I knew which hills I could really push and which to take it a bit easy on. I passed probably about 10 riders out there, and didn't get passed at all. I was really strong on the downhills and flats, and only slowed a bit on the long hills. I didn't want to push them too hard, with the run coming up. I finished the bike in just over 30 minutes and averaged 19.6 mph. I had hoped to be at 20, but I was close enough. I wound up finishing with the 9th best bike time overall, so I was pretty happy about that. Next came the run. Dear god, I wish I had at least driven the course before hand. This run was brutal. I started with a short moderate climb before a long steep downhill. Then came about a mile long steady, somewhat steep climb. It was brutal. I finished the first mile in about 10 minutes. Yikes! But after that it wasn't bad for the next nearly 2 miles. It was mostly steadily downhill with small, short uphill sections that didn't bother much. I picked up my pace considerably in those 2 miles, until the final half mile or so. Then we had to wind our way up a switch backing road. It was long, it was steep, and it was hot and sunny. That final push was brutal. I wound up finishing my run in 29:06. Not a bad finish considering after the first mile i was on pace for a 31 minute run, but still not nearly as good as I was hoping for. I wound up finishing 33rd overall in the run. However, I did live up to my hope and did win both my age group(which I wasn't competing in) and the Clydesdale division. So all in all I was really happy with my race performance. I feel like I could've done the run better had I known what was coming, I may have pushed that first hill a little harder if I had known how long it was. I don't know that I could've done anything differently on the last climb as that was just a push for survival. I didn't do a long bike this week because I had to choose between long bike or long run. Seeing as how my running still sucks and my biking is getting a lot better I went with the run. It was another grueling run. I had done a 1000 meter open water swim earlier in the day, and coupled with the previous race the day before, I was running on fairly worn down legs. And it showed. I actually felt pretty strong for the first 4 miles or so, but around mile 5 I really started to feel the wear. I think my biggest mistake was going too fast for the first half. like the 7 miler I did two weeks ago, I started out sub 10 min/mile only to slow considerably towards the end. Last week I started slow and increased my speed by the end. So, lesson learned. Slow the hell down!