robert - 2009 ironman

New Blog

2011-02-21T12:32:00.002-06:00

Anybody here? I expect not, and that's ok.

After a long hiatus I've recently begun blogging again. My new blog is located at:

http://chasing-mailboxes.blogspot.com/

There is no real point to the new blog, but something was missing after blogging for so long. Sometimes I just want to write, be it on training, food, or life. And blogging was/is a good outlet for that, so I've returned.

To bring you up to date, I'm 6 weeks into training for the La Crosse Marathon. Must get the marathon monkey off my back ( I DNF'd Madison last year). And as of last week, I am offically an Ironman widow. My wife is signed up for IM Wisconsin this year, training started last week, should be interesting.

Ironman Wisconsin

2009-12-01T14:59:00.003-06:00

Wow, it's really hard to believe it's been almost 3 months. The time away from triathlon and training has been very refreshing. I'm not quite ready to dive back in, but there are moments. Below in small italics are excerpts from a race report I wrote on beginner triathlete a couple of days after the race. My comments and thoughts from today are intersperced throughout with normal text type and size.

Up at 4:00. Quickly dressed, packed up remaining nutrition for the day and drove up to Madison. Ate a couple of muffins and drank a bottle of airborne. Emotions were all over the board, from nausea, to calm, to fighting off tears. Once at the terrace I dropped off special needs bags, stopped at the bike, dropped off nutrition, aired up the tires, and attempted to walk away. I think I turned back three times and just looked at Wilson trying to remember what I forgot. Finally left and walked through the transition bag rooms, didn't open the bags, just verified they were still there. This was one of my fears, coming into T1 or T2 and having my bags missing. After that I tried to find a quiet relaxing place. It was only 5:30. The terrace was a madhouse, so I headed down to the lakefront. Ran into a couple of friends, met up with the family, one last stop at the porta potty (I think my 5th of the morning, nerves are a wonderful thing) and it's time to go, finally.

I get a queasy stomach again just reading this. The energy and emotion of ironman race morning are really something to experience. I can't really put it into words.

Got in the water with about 15 minutes to go. After the pros went off I left the comfort of the standing depth water and headed out to the start area to tread water. Lined up about half way between the ski ramp and shore, maybe 10 people back, adjusted position a couple of times when it got to crowded for my comfort level. Without much warning the cannon went off, I was expecting a countdown or something, but it didn't happen, just boom, and we were off. Holy crap, I'm doing an ironman swim. This thought/emotion was going through me the entire swim. I was elated. The start was/is everything you'd expect. I didn't take any serious blows, but my right eye got kicked four or five times. I was regularly pushed, swam into, swam over, etc. Nothing excessive or violent, but it was rough. I don't remember a whole lot about the swim, it went by so fast, I was really enjoying it. Swam wide the entire time, cut in fairly close to the turn buoys, then went wide again. Every once in a while I'd catch a glimpse of the announcer or hear the crowd. Heard "sweet emotion" by Aerosmith as I was starting the second loop. Somewhere mid swim my stomach started to not be real happy. Perhaps it was my effort to drink the lake dry, I don't know. Being surrounded by swimmers, the previously calm lake had an odd irregular chop, I had some trouble getting clean breaths through much of the swim and drank a lot of water. Well hydrated I was.

Now reading this again, I'm starting to tear up. It was an incredible feeling to be out there doing an Ironman swim. It was easy almost. Just keep swimming, keep your emotions in check, don't overdue it. Such a good time.

T1

I continue to excel at changing clothes. T1 and T2 were my best events relative to the field, T1 - 123/339 age group, 644/2397 overall. When I saw the clock coming out of the water I was absolutely thrilled. Managed to get out of the water without issue and made my way to the wetsuit strippers. I think I passed Amy Jo here, but everything was such a blur. The wetsuit stripper knew me, but I had/have absolutely no idea who it was. I'm sorry, I just survived an Ironman swim, and did it faster than I thought was really realistic, nothing was fully registering with me at this point. Made my way up to the terrace, grabbed my bag, and headed into the changing room. The men's changing room is not a pretty sight. Got in, got out, and tried not to look around. Carried my shoes and made my way through the bike racks to a volunteer waiting with my bike. I promptly told him "That's not my bike." Did I mention I was having fun? I don't know that I've ever seen a grown man become so flustered so quickly, but he took it really well. Made my way to just shy of the dismount line before putting my shoes on. Let's go for a ride.

Maybe I'm an ass, but that dude with my bike was funny, and being a slow swimmer, there were not a whole lot of bikes left on the rack.

Bike

I'm doing a freaking Ironman. Couldn't have wiped the smile off my face. I was having so much fun. Ride out to Verona and the first loop absolutely flew by. Rode in the aerobars through the flats and downhills. Sat up and put my hands in the elbow cups and just spun easy up all the hills. Many commented that it looked like I was just out for an easy Sunday ride. I was. Second loop was much of the same. The three bitch hills took some effort to get up this time, but it was still easier than any training ride on the course. Stomach continued to be unhappy with me, but it was tolerable. The ride back to Madison was more difficult. A slight wind had picked up and we were now riding into it. It was also pretty warm by this point. It hadn't really bothered me, but in combination with the wind, and the 100 miles I'd already gone, I was now ready to get off the bike. Tina's hill was my low point on the course. That hill is never mentioned when discussing the course, but it's a real bear 100+ miles into a ride. Once up that the rest of the ride in was easy again. Riding up the helix was a great feeling.

I had so much fun on the bike, seriously. The 6-1/2 hours literally flew by.

T2

Like T1, T2 was one of my better events relative to the field, 105/356 and 843/2307. 35+ years of getting dressed myself is finally paying off. Swung a leg over my bike at the top of the helix and coasted to the bike catchers. Grabbed my garmin and ran into the terrace. My friend Wade was volunteering in the T2 bag room, he grabbed my transition bag and got a huge hug (I'm not a hugger), that's how happy I still was. The faces in T2 weren't nearly as fresh and happy as they were in T1. Got in, got out.

Yeah I was still on cloud nine, feeling great, ready to take on the world.

Run

And now Robert's race falls apart. As usual, any stomach issues I have get exponentially magnified by running. I headed out of T2 at an easy pace and it wasn't good. Made it to the first aid station and walked through that. Ran down State and Henry, made the turn onto Dayton and ran maybe another block. I wanted to puke, seriously needed to puke. The heat finally hit me full bore and the stomach wasn't having anything to do with this running bullshit. So I started walking, thinking it was a long race, if I can get my stomach to settle, I'll be able to start running again and hopefully salvage the run. So I walked, and I ate and I drank, nothing was helping. Oranges, grapes, coke, water, ice. GE has never settled with me, so I ignored that. I had been chewing tums on and off since starting the bike and had a bag with me so I tried those as well. Tried running again at Camp Randall, made it about half way around. Didn't try again until the downhill at Observatory, was easier than walking. By this point I was good and pissed off.

Right there is the understatement of the year. I was fuming, didn't want to keep walking, couldn't run, and knew in my mind if I stopped moving forward for even a minute my race was over.

I didn't train all year to walk my way through Ironman. I still wanted to puke, half wanted to quit, and definitely didn't feel good about the effort. I don't remember when but the stomach finally started to come around, but by the time it had, the walking had caused major blisters on both feet. Walking was tolerable, running was not. On the second lap I only ran the first downhill on state and observatory again.

When I made the turn on the second lap I did some mental math and figured I could break 14-hours with a little running and some luck. My short run down State ended any thought of more running this day. Disappointing.

Somewhere on the return leg of the second lap, my attitude came back around. I realized I can actually walk pretty darn fast and I wasn't looking at a 7 hour death march. Started talking more with the spectators and volunteers and I think the smile more or less returned. Dumped a cup of water over my sons head at one point, which earned a pretty good laugh from the crowd on Henry. Hardest part of the race for me was the last 2-3 miles, not because of how I felt, but because I was watching so many people heading out for there second loop. I knew how they felt, and I knew how difficult (if not impossible) it was going to be for many of them to make the cutoff. It was inspiring to see them head out and not give up, but it was really hard to watch.

This was really hard, I knew what it took to get myself to the starting line healthy. I was already disappointed in my effort, but I was going to finish. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to have come all this way and possibly dnf. It still chokes me up some. We sat at Ian's on State Street until midnight hoping/praying some last friends would make the corner and finish. It was hard.

At the last aid station I grabbed one last cup of water, needed to fix my hair for the finish :) There hadn't been anyone behind me, but just before I made the turn onto MLK I noticed a runner coming in from behind. So I ran. The crowd was great, I high fived a bunch, at one point (unknowingly) knocking my garmim off its wrist strap and into the street. Tossed my glow stick into the crowd and crossed the line. Awesome feeling.

I was told I came in pretty fast. I probably did. If there is one race day thing I would have changed I would have slowed down and take in the finish instead of rushing through. It was all such a blur.

I initially felt pretty bad about my run. After looking at some numbers I'm coming around. I had what I consider an awesome swim, finished 304/356 in my age group and 1968/2397 overall. My craptastic run yielded me a 251/356 age group rank and a 1601/2397 overall rank. That either says something about my swimming ability or the difficulty of an ironman run. You decide.

I still don't really know how I feel about the race. Time of my life, so much fun, so many emotions. I'm not thrilled about my time, but I'm not incredibly disappointed either. I said it days after the race and I still feel this way, I feel like I have a score to settle with the run course. Not saying I'm jumping back in anytime soon. But I could foresee another Ironman in my future.

Some claim that Ironman was/is a life changing experience. I don't really see it that way. Ironman was a challenge, a dream per se. It didn't end the way I would have liked, but I did do it. I'm the same person I was September 12, maybe a little softer, but still the same person.

What's next, I don't know. If it weren't for the many friends made and people met, I think I could walk away from triathlon and not look back. As it is, there are too many good people in the sport, too many inspirational stories, too many potential experiences out there to just walk away.

2010 will likely be an "off" year, I have yard work to catch up on, a dog to train, and a wife doing her first half. Madison Marathon is a likely foe, and maybe an olympic or even a half. Beyond that I just don't know.

IM by the Numbers

2009-09-22T09:09:00.001-05:00

I've had no desire to read/write anything triathlon related since IM Wisconsin. I still don't, but I'll post the numbers before I lose the sheet I wrote it all down on.

2397 Individuals started IM Wisconsin assuming everyone finished the swim.

Swim - Super thrilled with time. Ten minutes better than I swam it four weeks prior at the Madison Open Water Swim, and my pace was better than any 1/2 iron swim I've done (Racine excluded for obvious reasons).

1:32:00 (2:10/100yards)
1968/2397 overall
304/356 age group

T1 - Still my best event relative to the field. Dressing myself for all these years is really starting to pay off.
7:59
644/2397 overall
105/356 age group

Bike - Also thrilled with time. On the fast side of where I thought I would be.
6:32:11 (17.1 mph)
1278/2397 overall
220/356 age group

90 didn't finish the bike

T2 - Second best event relative to the field.
5:59
843/2397 overall
123/356 age group

Run - Craptastic, wanted to puke for first 6-8 miles. Walked. By the time the stomach was better had huge blisters on both feet I'm still dealing with. Fun.

5:46:41 (13:14/mile)
1601/2397 overall
251/356 age group

131 didn't finish run

Overall - I'm ok with it now, all things considered. Only disappointing when I think of where I could have been with any reasonable run.

14:04:48
1480/2397 overall
239/356 age group

My one interesting overall fact about the race numbers. Even if you take into account the 221 that didn't finish the bike or run. My run ranking (where I walked almost all of it), was significantly better than my swim rank, which I'm still thrilled with. This either says something about my swimming ability or the difficulty of an Ironman run. Not sure which.

Pictures and report still to come.

Word of the Day

2009-09-14T08:46:00.001-05:00

Ouch.

Huge blisters on both feet, two nasty sunburn stripes, and extremely sore quads and calves. Race didn't go down exactly as planned, but I had a great time, and in 14:04 and change got to here those wonderful words.

You are an Ironman.

Full report w/ pictures to come. Just don't hold your breath.

Race Morning

2009-09-13T05:44:00.001-05:00

All that's left is the waiting. It's been a huge wave of emotions already this morning. From nausea to calm to fighting off tears. The next 90 minutes may be some of hardest of the day. The waiting, it's the hardest part.

My crew

2009-09-12T07:47:00.001-05:00

My support crew will be sporting the above shirts at IMoo tomorrow. Say hi if you see them.

Race week has gone by in a flash. This time tomorrow we'll be swimming. Gidde up.

Race Strategy

2009-09-09T08:21:00.001-05:00

Since I can't seem to focus on anything but Ironman, I'm going to lay out my race strategy. I've kept it simple, as it only has two parts. For lack of better terms, they'll go by "One Bite at a Time" and "All Day Baby".

One Bite at a Time
Somebody, somewhere out there in blogland (I'm to lazy to try and find it), has a quote that goes something along the lines of "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." This is how I intend to attack the course on Sunday. One bite at a time. The ironman elephant is much to big to consume in one bite. I think that is why it's so daunting from the outside, once you break it down into it's components, or subcomponents, it becomes much more manageable.

For the swim, I'm only going to focus on the next turn buoy, nothing more. I can't swim the next leg until I get through this one, no point thinking about it, or the bike, or the run.

I've dissected the bike course many times both physically and mentally. Sunday my focus will be simply to get to the next point; Verona, Mt. Vernon, Mt Horeb, Cross Plains, back to Verona, repeat, then back to Madison. One bite at a time.

And although the run is two loops, I simply can't take that big of a bite. The run will be aid station to aid station and nothing more.

All Day Baby
This would be my pacing strategy. Find a pace that is comfortable and I can hold, well, all day. The difference between a dream swim and a bad one is maybe 15 minutes. Absolutely no reason to push hard in the water. Nice and easy, relax, settle in and swim, and swim, and swim. And then swim some more.

Same theory applies on the bike. Although with the terrain of the Wisconsin bike course, it's really not a pacing strategy, but more of a "level of effort" strategy. Pace is going to vary greatly from moment to moment. My level of effort needs to remain much more uniform. So we settle in, find a comfortable effort level and just go. That's the theory anyway. I'll need to be extra vigilant and plan to focus on riding smart.

The run, for at least the first 20-miles, will be much the same. Find a comfortable pace and go. If by some miracle of nature I have anything left in the tank at the 20 mile mark I'll reevaluate and go from there.

And there it is. Ironman race strategy 101. I should get my coaching license and write a book.

Race Week Nerves

2009-09-08T15:21:00.001-05:00

Today is Tuesday. I think my nerves are all but shot. I'm keeping food down but it doesn't feel like it wants to be there. That's not good.

I don't even know what it is. I'm not obsessed with the weather, or gear, or race strategy, or nutrition, or anything. But it's still there, the knot in my gut which seems to be growing exponentially as the days disappear and Ironman looms closer. Yes I've committed close to 2 years getting ready for one day. But in reality, regardless of the outcome life will go on, and it won't matter one bit whether I finish in 13 hours, 17 hours, or DNF. Yet the nerves are still there. It's stupid, and I hate the fact that I'm letting it get to me.

Four more days. One more day of work. Check-in on Thursday. Prep-day Friday. Bike check-in Saturday. Race Sunday. Piece of cake.

Signs

2009-09-02T13:58:00.001-05:00

Ironman signs started popping up around town last week. Today I came into work and this was sitting in the lot. On top of that, race numbers were published today. Yours truly is 938. Starting to feel way to real.

Expectations

2009-09-01T16:13:00.001-05:00

These aren't goals per se. More of a guide to let friends/family know where I should be when. It's quick and dirty, but with the unpredictability involved, I'm not putting any more thought into it.

Swim
I'm not fast, 90% of the athletes will be out and gone before me, don't worry about it. 1:30 would be an absolute dream swim for me. Anything over 1:45 and I think I'll be disappointed. If I can swim straight and avoid any major issues I should be able to break 1:40.

So out of the water between 8:30 and 8:45, out of transition 10 minutes later, 8:40 - 8:55.

Bike
Assuming nothing harsh in the way of weather, no real mechanical issues, I'm guessing 6:30 - 7:15. Any faster than 6:30 and I'll be absolute toast for the run. Goal is to go out for a nice easy ride. I'm just fine with an uneventful 7 hours.

So on the bike:

Into Verona - 9:28 - 9:49
Back to Verona - 11:54 - 12:32
Back to Verona again - 2:20 - 3:15
Back to Madison - 3:08 - 4:09

Run
Total crapshoot, but to try and narrow it down, best case scenario I think will be 5:00. Worst case, well... who knows could be 7 hours+, but for arguments sake, let's say 6. We won't talk about any other possible outcomes.

Out of transition - 3:18 - 4:19
Finish first loop - 5:48 - 7:19
Finish - 8:18 - 10:19

Total time - 13:18 - 15:19

If I was a gambling man, and I guess I am, I'd put the over/under at 13:51. Two years ago when I started this journey I thought 14 hours was doable, now, less than two weeks out I'm still pretty much right there.

Vague Rememberance

2009-08-30T19:46:00.002-05:00

I vaguely remember this lifestyle. Today, on a Sunday, I did the following:

Ate a breakfast of solid, recognizable food.
Planted blueberry bushes.
Went to the hardware store.
Got the oil changed in the truck.
Went to three greenhouses.
Planted more blueberries.
Ate a normal lunch.
Took a nap.
Worked in the garden/yard.
Cut the grass.
Played catch with the kids.

I think that's about it. Taper isn't so bad.

Bring It

2009-08-25T16:05:00.000-05:00

I don't really feel ready, but I'm as ready as I'm going to get. With the completion of my long run last night I'm officially in taper mode.

Saturday was the Madison Open Water swim. 2.4 miles on roughly the same course as IM Wisconsin. I think 288 finished, I beat maybe 35 of them. Yes, I'm that fast.

Start was rough, one big mass start, and pure swimmers actually kick, hard. Got beat up pretty good in the beginning, after 400 yards or so it thinned out and was smooth sailing. Water was fairly calm. Nothing spectacular to report. Just slow steady swimming. Came out of the water in about 102. That would be 102 minutes, or 1:42, or 1 hour, 42 minutes. Maybe in Racine I could have done 1:02, but I digress.

Felt good about the swim, little disappointed about the time, was hoping to get out in 1:3x.

After a super long transition I headed out on the bike for the full course ride. Lots of people out riding the course. Spoke with a few on the first lap. Second lap I was mostly alone. Beautiful day but windy. Allergies decided to kick in with a vengeance. Spent the better part of 7 hours sneezing or blowing snot rockets every 3-4 minutes. Fun.

By the middle of the second loop I was completely wiped out. Actually stopped twice and just stood over my bike trying to compose myself. Other than that stops were minimal. Once on each loop to get water on Timber Lane (love that guy), and once on the first loop when a large group of motorcycles with a police escort rolled by. I think that was it.

I forget the actual numbers, but it was around 111 miles and pretty much right on 7 hours. Plan was to run off the bike. The last several hours of the ride I did the mental debate on whether or not to actually do it. Final verdict was yes, then it was a matter of how far. Decided I had to run at least as far I swam that morning, but three miles seemed like overkill. Ended up going 2.62 miles in 25 minutes. It wasn't terrible, but the prospect of doing it 9 more times wasn't pleasant at all.

Walked to Ians (I blame you Mike), than back to the truck. Drove home, showered, and went to bed.

I've actually held off posting this hoping that my perspective would change, it hasn't. I didn't go to sleep that night feeling all that great about the days efforts and I still don't. Hard really to explain. I know I tackled 2/3+ of the IM solo, without taper, but I still have no confidence going into the race. Barring accident, mechanical or health issues, I know I can finish. Just not sure it will be the race I'm hoping for.

Last nights long run did help in bringing some of the confidence back. I covered 18+ miles, running home from the office. It was slow but effective. I took short walk breaks every mile. Ate and drank regularly, and felt like I could have easily kept running. All good things.

And so it is. Nothing more I can do about the training. Time to rest and get all the nagging injuries healed up for race day. As I said above, I'm as ready as I'm going to get. Let's go.

Strong or Just Plain Stupid

2009-08-21T15:01:00.001-05:00

Last night was round five of the Madison Aquathon series. As luck would have it there were very strong winds blowing huge waves across our little lake. I wouldn't normally make a big deal of swimming in such conditions, but another triathlete died this week after a swim in Lake Monona. From what I can recall, this is the 4th in Wisconsin this year.

The first three occurred during races, and for whatever reason, didn't really bother me. This one for some reason has. She was on a training swim, not alone, but from experience I know that it's easy to get separated from those you are swimming with. A couple guys in a boat noticed her struggling and went to help out. Miraculously, rescue personnel were able to reestablish breathing and a heart rate and the story seemed to be heading for a better outcome.

For whatever reason she didn't make it, and the family made the decision to donate her organs. Words really can't express how much this sucks. I'm not even going to try.

Which brings us back to last night, our wonderful waves, and a race director who asked that only strong swimmers get in the water that night. I've never considered myself a strong swimmer, but over the last year I've become much more comfortable in the water and I came to swim. So I did.

The leg out was directly into the waves, this is where the serious doubts starting going through my head. Why am I out here? Why am I taking this risk? I started thinking about my kids, wondering if it was all really worth it.

Just when I'd be ready to say fuck it and turn around that other voice would get into my head. Quitting are you? Time to give up? Ultimately this voice won over and I pushed on. Aside from a couple of coughing bouts from swallowing way to much water, I was never really uncomfortable out there. It was just the doubts, and the situation I had voluntarily put myself in, and wondering if the risks were all really worth it.

I tend to look at things like this from a risk/reward perspective. From a reward perspective, I'm now that much more comfortable in the water and should be able to handle anything the ironman swim throws at me. But the risk, was it worth it, I don't know. Logic tells me I'm probably better off in my wetsuit in the lake in those conditions than on my bike (or in a car) sharing a road with 20,000 commuters yakking on their cell phones, but big picture, I still don't know.

I also really don't know what the purpose of this post is, but I spent 23 minutes in the water last night with all this going through my head and needed to get it out. For anyone keeping track, yes the swim did take me a good 4-5 minutes longer than typical. Same story for my swimmer wife, and I'm guessing for the majority, it was rough out there.

Relatively speaking, the run portion was easy. I broke my 5k PR by 20 seconds, although pace wise it was still a slower run than the 5-mile Point Bock Run back in March. Other than Aquathon, I have not run any 5k's this year. They hardly seem worth getting out of bed for.

Tomorrow is the annual Madison open water swim. 2.4 miles on the same course as Ironman, and in the same general location as the most recent drowning. I'll be out there, not really sure what will be going through my head. Ultimately I doubt it will impact me or keep me from racing, but it still makes you think. And I'll have plenty of time to do that tomorrow, as I'm following up the swim with a full course ride and a short run. Last long training weekend.

Back on the Horse

2009-08-17T11:45:00.001-05:00

Felt good to get back on the bike last week after my fall in Mt. Horeb. Everything seems to be heeling up nicely. My hip never really turned colors like I thought it would but it's still extremely tender, can't sleep on that side tender. Thankfully it doesn't bother me on the bike and it's tolerable while running. Palm of my hand looks better than it is, still some deep down soreness that really reared it's ugly head Saturday at Dairlyland Dare.

Ah yes, Dairyland Dare 100K+ of up, down, repeat. On a hot, humid, windy day, with some crappy road conditions thrown in just to make it interesting. On paper, this route is comparable to HHH. I'm not buying it. Maybe I'm just in better shape than I was at HHH, but this route, like Insane Terrain last month, just didn't bring me to my knees like HHH did in June. There was one long steep climb where swearing would have been completely appropriate, but other than that, just a lot of moderately difficult efforts. Was still a good ride. Passed one guy wearing a Tour de France king of the mountain style jersey. He was walking up one of the hills. Found it kind of humorous, no way I'm putting on that jersey unless I can climb like a mountain goat.

I'm contemplating heading back to the HHH course the last weekend in August. I need to know if it was the course, or if I'm just in better shape. I'm guessing it is a little of both.

Inevitable?

2009-08-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

I guess it was bound to happen. I fell off my bike yesterday morning. I can't really justify saying that I crashed, although it certainly feels like it.

Not really sure how, was rolling through Mt. Horeb, some 30 miles into an 80+ ride. Preparing to turn left into the Kwik Trip for a break. Actually signaled, and now with one hand on the bars my front wheel hit a big divot in the road (near as I can tell anyway) and down I went. That's about all I know, happened pretty fast, although if I was going 10mph I'd be surprised.

My right hip and hand and took the brunt of it. Lost a lot of skin on the palm of my hand and have a softball sized abrasion on my hip that I'm sure will change colors nicely over the next couple of days, I'll post pics when/if it happens. Ankle, knee, and shoulder also have some minor scrapes. Nothing too major, although I suspect my hip will be sore for quite some time and the use of my right hand will be somewhat limited until it heals.

After a suitable rest/bandaging, bike repair period we went for a short test ride. The rear derailleur was now bent at such an angle that it was hitting the spokes in the smallest gears, it's alignment was way off. I felt good enough to limp through the rest of the ride, but not on that course without all the gears. Ride over.

Today I'm tired, sore, and crabby. I'd probably feel a whole lot better if I had my bike back or knew the status of it. According to the bike shop, there is some semi-serious problem with the rear derailleur hanger. This can't be happening now.

Three Weeks

2009-08-03T11:25:00.001-05:00

Three more hellish weeks of training before the final taper into Ironman Wisconsin. Part of me feels like taper can't get here fast enough. The rest of me wants it all to be done with. Those two statements were meant to be contradictory, I guess at least mentally I'm ready for race day. Physically, not so much.

About two weeks prior to Racine I did something to irritate my hip. Extremely painful to run on. Drugs and adrenaline got me through race day, that was about it. I basically took two weeks off from running, stretched more, and hoped it would resolve itself. It's a little better now, but still painful, and I'm running much slower than usual. I'm trying to get into the UW runners clinic, but time isn't exactly on my side with Ironman less than 6 weeks out. Frustrating.

On a happier note, or at least a more sadistic one, I signed up for Dairyland Dare on 8/15 (and conned a friend into going with me). This completes my summer trifecta of torturous organized group rides. One last leg trashing ridiculously hilly ride in preparation for Ironman.

The following weekend is the last weekend prior to taper, and I plan on partaking in the 2.4 mile Madison open water swim, followed by a full course ride, and a very short run. Still looking for company for the ride, I'll probably do 16mph at best.

That's it. I'm hoping for three more uneventful training weeks going into taper. No more nagging injuries, no accidents, nothing. "Nothing Stupid" has been my mantra most of the summer. Meaning don't do anything dumb and go and get yourself hurt. Plan is to be extra vigilant in that regard until Ironman. Then all bets are off. I've been itching to go out and do some trail riding, and I also realized earlier this summer that Stoughton has a terrain park for bikes, fun.

Racine 70.0 Report

2009-07-21T19:51:00.005-05:00

I'm just going to get my bitching out of the way first, then I'll get to the report.

Race Organizers, if you're going to hold a set distance race (olympic, half iron, iron) at least make an attempt to get the distances correct. The swim distance at Racine was ridiculously short.

My swim time was 31:29, including my stripping of a wetsuit and running 100+ yards up a loose sand beach. Despite this, still a 15+ minute swim PR for me at this distance. Sure. Based on said time, I'd guess that the course was 1500 yards max. I also used one of the route making tools and a satellite image to double check. Being that the course ran parallel to shore (and just off it, more on that in a bit) it was easy to get a pretty good handle on the distance, ~1600 yards. Off by 500+ yards, nice work.

Second thing, being that this is a half iron race, an event where people should be expected to know how to swim, can you, as race directors, please lay out a course that isn't so close to shore that I hit the bottom with my hands during a normal swim stroke. It's not like the lake isn't big enough or deep enough.

Ok I'm done bitching, and I'm not even a swimmer.

Swim
Holy shit it was cold, I think 62 was the official word. Warmed up for a bit after the long march down the beach, but not enough to really get used to it. Was in the 3rd or 4th wave. Beach start, lined up towards the back and waded in almost to the first buoy before anyone started swimming.

Cold took my breath away for the first couple of moments, but I quickly got used to it and fell into a good rhythm. Maybe 5 minutes in I kept brushing something with my fingers but nobody was immediately in front of me, couldn't figure it out. Took a solid hand hit to the bottom for me to figure out I was grazing the sand. A quick stop to look around and it seemed like half the field was walking. Sad. I actually considered it for a half a second but realized it wasn't going to do me any good, just keep swimming. The water depth dropped off a bit after a couple hundred yards, not sure if it ever got deep enough where you couldn't stand, but I never hit my hand on the bottom again.

Best thing I did the day before was walk down to the beach and count the buoys, seven red ones, plus the two yellow corner buoys. It was very helpful to know exactly where I was on the course. Definitely something to remember come Ironman time.

Contact was minimal until the ladies in the wave behind caught me. Got sandwiched between two for a short spell, was rough, but I got spit out the back pretty quickly.

Swim was largely uneventful, I actually liked swimming in Lake Michigan. Clean, clear, cool water (it wasn't bad at all once you got used to it). Just layout a reasonable %^*$^@( course. Ok, now I'm done.

One notable thing did happen during the swim. I lost my nose clip. Haven't swam without it in probably 18 months. Somewhere after the midway point I reached for my nose/goggles and it was gone. No idea when it came off. So I guess I don't "need" it anymore. Sadly, once I knew it was gone it did get into my head some, but I didn't have any real issues from an actual swimming standpoint. Definitely will do some OWS without one between now and IM, not sure if I'll start IM without one or not.

Swim time - 31:29
Overall place - 901/1206
Age group place - 123/139

Transition One - 2:38
Took the wetsuit off at the edge of the lake prior to the long run up to transition. Jumped into one of the water tubs to get the sand off the feet and headed over to the bike. Was a cool morning so I stripped my sleeveless UA top that I normally race in and put a long sleeve one on (that we bought the night before). Shoes went on, biggest hill of the course just out of transition, no point trying to put them on going up that hill. Glasses, helmet, and clop, clop, clop in my bike shoes out of transition.

Good to see the wife and kids, met me at water's edge and ran up to transition with me. This where I was first told I was out of the water in 30 minutes, gave me plenty to think about for the first several miles on the bike.

Bike
I thought at Kansas I pulled off an incredibly fast ride (for me). Little did I know I was about to crush even that effort.

Spun up the big hill out of T1, put it the big ring, and tried to find a groove and relax. Like Kansas, heartrate was way up, but the effort felt right, so I went with it. Got passed by everybody and there little sister too. Didn't let it bother me, much. Did what I could to do my own thing.

Had an extremely stiff neck from the get go, took some aspirin and it subsided fairly quickly. Course was extremely flat, I only took it out of the big ring twice. Both times I could have pounded up the hill, but I had a couple moments of rare intelligence.

Most of the roads were decent, but some, like the I94 frontage road, were absolutely terrible. On the last stretch of the frontage road I actually lifted my ass repeatedly out of the saddle to lessen the impact. Bottles, cages, tools, tubes, tires, were everywhere.

Saw quite a few course marshals, also saw a lot of blatant drafting. Several pelotons flew by during the course of the race. I read that roughly 10% of the field received at least one penalty, probably wasn't enough.

I did hold a very consistent pace throughout. First hour, according to my computer, was 19.8, second at 19.9, with the remainder at 19.7. The last 5-6 miles I took super easy, trying to settle down for the run.

Nothing really notable to report. Aside from the stiff neck, and a bit of saddle numbness, my only issue was what felt like a blister forming on the ball of my right foot. Was guessing it was from the sand, but it never materialized.

Lots of support along the course, rang my bell a plenty, generally had a good time and enjoyed the ride.

Bike Time - 2:47:50 (20.0 mph)
Overall Place - 688/1206
Age Group Place - 115/139

Transition Two - 3:19
Turned the last corner of the bike route and removed my shoes. Half way down the final hill I swung a leg over and coasted to the dismount line where I nearly rear ended a rider in front of me. Oops. Transition was largely uneventful, family was there again cheering me on. Took off the long sleeve and opted for the sleeveless loose fitting shirt I typically run in.

Run
This is where the race gets interesting. I actually knew quite a few people racing, and I hadn't had the chance to see any of them on the swim or bike. The run, basically being a double out and back, really gave you a chance to see everyone and get/give the support needed at this stage of a race. Racing against, errrrrrr with, friends was a lot of fun.

Came out of T2 feeling really good. First lap went by without much issue. It was tough, but with walking through all the aid stations and parts of the two bigger hills, it was manageable. Made the turn for the second loop at roughly 62 minutes.

The second lap was another story altogether. Walked most of the two bigger hills this time, but up until about mile 11, still managed to run everything between the aid stations. The pace was definitely falling off, the walk breaks were a bit longer, and it was getting harder to continue running. Tried coke on the run early in the second loop, didn't sit well it all, but it wasn't crippling either.

Then I did something really dumb, don't remember exactly where. But decided to try coke a second time. I've heard so many good things about it during IM runs, had to see if it would work for me. Still in an aid station, I took a couple of sips and immediately new it wasn't going to work and went to pitch it.

They have these things, they look like temporary event garbage cans. Maybe 2-feet square and 3-feet tall, lined with clear plastic bags. Being the nice guy that I am I tossed it into the can instead of on the ground like all the other slobs. As soon as it left my hand I realized what I had done. The can was the drinking water supply for the aid station. I watched the cup/coke fly through the air as if in slow motion. Somewhat embarrassed, I kept moving and never looked back. Makes me wonder though about drinking water at aid stations. I can't be the only one.

At about the 11-mile mark a side stitch made its presence known. It quickly turned into an almost unbearable pain. Took one break midway to the last aid station, where I stopped for a bathroom break. The last mile was bearable, if only because of the long downhill, the impending finish, and support from the crowd.

Run Time - 2:08:44 (9:50/mile)
Overall Place - 840/1206
Age Group Place - 117/139

Conclusion
Big PR, I guess, have a hard time taking it at face value due to the short swim course, but even adding 15 minutes to get me up to a more normal swim time, I still easily broke 6 hours and met my 2:11 run goal, even if that part of it wasn't pretty.

Total Time - 5:33:57
Overall Place - 119/139
Age Group Place - 769/1206

Contrary to Kansas, I was extremely sore post race and even now. I have some additional thoughts and will post some pictures once I get them organized.

Racine

2009-07-19T18:55:00.001-05:00

Combine a ridiculously short swim course, an incredibly flat bike course, and a mostly overcast and cool run, and apparently I can put together a respectable half iron time

Swim - 31:29 (1:29/100yd) yeah right
Bike - 2:47:50 (20.0 mph)
Run - 2:08:44 (9:50/mile)
Total - 5:33:57

Full report to come in a couple days.

ITC / SoR

2009-07-14T12:04:00.001-05:00

Insane Terrain Challenge
A friend of a friend of my wife had an entry for ITC that wasn't going to be used and it found its way to me. And so I found myself at the starting line at 6:30 Saturday Morning, not quite ready to take on 75 miles of hilly hell.

ITC is put on by the same people that put on HHH. ITC however, is not the same event as HHH. For one, the field was much smaller. When the ride started there were maybe 50 people at the start line. When I arrived and later left the first rest stop there were maybe 30 bikes there. At the second, maybe 20 at the most. Normally I wouldn't complain about a small field, but when you don't know the route, are riding alone, and don't have anyone on the course to follow, it kind of sucks.

Course markings were largely adequate, but were missing from at least a couple of turns. Rest stop food was adequate, but the post race spread was disappointing to say the least. I could have also used a mechanic at either of the rest stops, saw none. Also disappointing.

Anyway, ride was good. I don't think it was as difficult as HHH. There were definitely some challenging climbs, but not the leg burning hell that I remember of HHH. I did get off course for the last 15 or so miles after missing a turn. Then, being annoyed that I had been lost and riding by myself, decided to cut out the last loop and then walk up the final hill into the park, ending my ride at just over 70 miles. I quite likely missed some tough climbs coming back in.

As if my experience with the event wasn't enough, I found out this morning that a rider was killed during the same ride when a 16-year old turned left in front of him on a long downhill. Obviously not the fault of the organizers, but it leaves a sour note for the event none the less. Sigh.

Spirit of Racine
On a happier note, the Spirit of Racine triathlon is this weekend. Many of the people I've trained with regularly over the last months are also partaking so it should be a good time. The Lake Michigan swim is a little nerve racking, but I'm not concerned about anything else.

Once again, my only real goal is to run the half marathon in less that 2:11 (10 minute miles). If I can manage this I'll have had a good race. I'd like to break six hours, but everything will have to come together perfectly to do so, and if don't run sub 2:11, it'll never happen. So 2:11 is the goal, won't hit 5:xx without hitting 2:11. I hope to go out with the same relaxed, have fun attitude that I took into Kansas. My bike bell will make its presence known Sunday.

Have fun, and be careful out there.

Devil's Lake

2009-07-06T22:00:00.003-05:00

Anna had mentioned the need to do a longish open water swim this weekend. With the water quality of the Madison lakes always in question, I had the bright idea of heading up to Devil's Lake for a morning swim.

And so we did. Headed out of Madison Sunday about 6:00 am for the ride up. Nice morning, calm lake. Started at the south beach. After some discussion about directions, distances, etc., basically said the hell with it, lets just swim to the north beach and then back (pretty much the longest possible way across the lake). I had guessed it to be about a mile one way, turns out I was off a bit, probably closer to 1-1/4 miles one way.

Water was cold but tolerable, relatively clear, but visibility still wasn't as good as I had expected. Nothing too exciting to report, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Took it at a nice easy pace. Nearing the north beach we came across one swimmer heading the other way. Turns out there were probably 10-20 others heading south that we had completely missed and only noticed once we stopped.

After a 10-minute break, and much discussion about alternate routes back, we headed south for the return leg. Again nothing too exciting. I don't know what changed coming back, but I was no longer keeping pace with Anna very well. Either she picked it up or I was slowing down. Still felt fine, little tired but not bad considering the amount of time in the water.

Eventually made it back to the south beach. Total swim time 1:43 and change, 51 minutes out, 52 minutes back in. Not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but 2.4 miles+ in the water. This makes me happy. Now I just need to do it on race day with 2000 of my closest friends trying to beat the hell out of me.

Regardless, I'd really like to do this swim 4-5 more times over the next 10 weeks. If anyone is interested please let me know.

Double Double

2009-07-05T20:56:00.002-05:00

Posted my first career non race day double double yesterday. 44 miles on the bike followed by 10+ by foot. There will be no pursuing the elusive triathlon triple double, that would be crazy. The swim alone would take me all day.

The morning started out innocently enough. Met up with Anna and Deanna with the plan to do a long brick. Both are getting ready for Spirit of Racine, their first half, and wanted to get a long brick in before tapering for the race. I didn't ask specifics, was just happy to have company for the morning workout.

Ride was easy enough. Racine is supposed to be a flat course so Anna mapped out a relatively flat route out of Madison, through Cottage Grove and Stoughton, before heading back up to Madison. Felt like we rode at a pretty good clip the entire way and I managed to keep my heart rate in check for the entire ride. Nice morning, air was muggy and thick, but tolerable.

Back to Anna's house for transition to run and we're off. I actually felt pretty good at this point. Half way into the first mile I asked how far they were planning on running. 10 miles was the answer. Gulp. I hadn't mentally prepared for 10 miles.

I complained (a lot), but the first 5 miles were not bad. The girls were running at a pretty good pace (9:10's) and even though they kept promising to slow down, they never did. At one point I may have called a motorist an asshole because he stopped at a crosswalk allowing us to keep running, 3 seconds of walking would have been much appreciated.

It only got worse on the second half, and the last three miles were pretty much hell. I searched high and low for a valid reason to stop and walk but never found one. It was hard, but other than general soreness, nothing really hurt, so suck it up I did. Finished 10.34 miles at a 9:07/mile pace.

That run turned what likely would have been a one nap afternoon into a two nap afternoon. I was tired.

The Whole Nine Yards

2009-06-28T19:49:00.002-05:00

It was actually quite a bit more than that, but I don't have the mental capacity right now to do the math.

Got up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning to tackle the IM bike course with Kristen. The entire 112. Met up at Law Park at 5:30 and headed out. My running buddy Anna joined us for the leg out and the first loop before turning and heading back. Picked up Phil in Verona for both loops and much of the ride back up.

Kristen did a fine job of summarizing our ride here. I'm pretty tired, so I'm not going to elaborate on it much. I will say that good company makes 7-hours on a bike so much more tolerable.

It was hard, it was fun. Somewhere on the second loop I had that aha moment. I've felt tinges of it before, but Saturday it hit me full bore. That feeling that I could really do this. That ironman was in my grasp.

Made it back to Madison after about 7-hours in the saddle and headed out for a short run. Two miles in I called it a day and jumped in the lake, literally. The heat was really getting to me and the lake was calling. Could have been the best decision I made all day.

This morning I got up and joined the WIBA group for a partial run course preview. Put in about 9-miles. It was a little hillier than I would have thought. Finally met up with XT4, a fellow Stoughtonite, and ran and chatted with him for a couple of miles. Ran the last 5-6 miles with another girl from NYC (whose name I can't remember for the life of me). But that statement I made about good company on the bike, sames goes for the run. Was a good morning.

11 weeks to go, damn it's getting close, still much work to be done.

Hell on a Bike

2009-06-21T20:59:00.003-05:00

That's my take on HHH Saturday. Horrible is right, some of those hills were downright ridiculous. Picture putting it in the granny gear, turning the pedals over at 40-50 rpm, while simultaneously seeming to try and push your feet through the bottom of your shoes and rip your handlebars from the bike. At times for miles at a crack. Expletives were flowing freely from all fronts.

Oh, and it was hot and humid, with not much in the way of cloud cover. So full sun, high humidity, and ridiculous hills. Joy.

Did have the pleasure of riding with some good company. First 40 or so miles it was myself and Amy Jo. At the second rest stop we met up with some others, including lazy marathoner, who had flown in from New York for a week of IM training Wisconsin style.

The downhills were a blast, many times reaching the 4o mph mark while not really trying. But after about 30 miles even the downhills started to lose their appeal. If we were doing downhill it only meant another stupid climb was around the corner.

AJ was having major bike problems until the first rest stop where the REI mechanics did a hell of job on her bike. As a result we walked up portions of two hills. After that I made it up every hill without having to walk, including the final climb through the park. I did stop at the top of a lot of them to regain my composure, but I made it up, and for that I am happy.

Total distance covered, 66.82 miles. Total time actually riding (there was much rest), 4:48:35. Average pace, 13.9 mph. There were many times climbing hills I would look down and state "I can run faster than this". There were even a couple times I realized I could walk faster than I was currently riding.

Saturday I'm contemplating taking on the full IM course with many of the same crew I rode with yesterday. Should feel like a peace of cake by comparison.

Aquathon #2

2009-06-19T15:58:00.003-05:00

Last night was Aquathon #2. Water was much warmer this time, upper 60's by one report. Didn't really warm-up, splashed around in the water briefly to get acclimated, swam maybe 50 yards.

Swim
The buoys looked like they were a lot closer than normal so I went out my way to swim an extra 1-200 yards, you know just to make it right. Actually my goggles half fogged up and I couldn't see shit for most of the swim and ended up all over the place, frustrating.

Put myself in the middle of pack and planned to try and draft as much as possible. I had a couple of brief moments of success, but they never lasted very long. With my goggles fogged it was good to be in the pack. Being surrounded by others I at least knew I was going somewhat in the right direction, still wasn't able to relax and just swim though. Not being able to see really screws with my mind.

Came into transition at 19:25. Slower than last time, but still well ahead of my Kansas pace. Not sure what is going on there. I kind of wish I would have taken splits on the Kansas swim to see if I slowed down at all on the second half. Oh well.

Transition
No issues. Was relieved to see that G was out on the run course. I thought I would spot her in transition while walking out of the lake, turns out she was already gone. Time of 1:32.

Run
Another sufferfest, not necessarily from a pace standpoint, but it was a tough run for me. Some heat, high humidity, a ton of little bugs providing protein I didn't really want or need, and a general desire to not be running. Not sure what it was, but I really didn't want to be running last night.

Had some slight hope of catching G when I made the last turn on the out portion prior to the turn around without seeing her. But she appeared way to soon and was probably close to a 1/2 mile ahead of me at that point, twas not to be.

Walked through the water station at the turn around for a drink, then again for about half the final hill. If I wouldn't have gotten passed by two men I probably would have walked the entire hill. Ended up repassing one of them and a couple of women prior to the finish. Run time was 26:24 (8:31/mile). Total time was 47:20.

Stopped for pizza downtown at Paissons (sp?). It was ok, nothing terribly special about it. Tonight is Relay for Life in Stoughton. So I get to potentially stay up all night and maybe even run a 5k at 3am. Tomorrow is HHH. Still thinking I'm going for 200k, little scared right now.

Kansas Recap

2009-06-16T19:19:00.017-05:00

This could end up getting pretty long, my apologies in advance.

Headed out of Madison for Kansas Thursday morning about 6:30, arrived after a largely uneventful trip at roughly 3:30 in the afternoon and set up camp. One of the first things that struck me was this sign on the doors of the bathroom / shower buildings in the campground.

So how exactly am I supposed to get my bike clean in a pit toilet? And why on earth would I want to try?

Turns out there were spigots with drinking water at all the pit toilets. So now instead of washing my bike in a pit toilet, I'm getting my drinking water from a spigot adjacent to one, much better.

Friday morning I got up and went for a run along portions of the run course with Patrick in tow on his bike. Nothing to exciting. After breakfast we headed down to the lake for a practice swim. Other than a small water snake causing some excitement among some other swimmers and families, the swim was fine. Water was comfortably warm, visibility sucked, but I'm used to swimming in murky water, so no big deal.

Headed into town and ate a good portion of a pig at Arthur Bryant's for lunch. Yum. If you ever get into Kansas City it is well worth a trip into the inner city for their pig. There is a reason this restaurant is world famous. I'm sure there are other restaurants in KC with equally good barbecue, but I have a hard time not going back to AB's.

The rest of Friday was spent visiting friends in KC, generally relaxing and having a good time.

Saturday morning G was planning on going out for a run and I mentioned that a 5k/10k race was going right through the campground (starting in less than 45 minutes). So we marched down to registration and got her signed up for the 5k.

G had a great race, finishing I believe 2nd in her age group (losing by less than a minute), 9th among women, and maybe 35th overall out of 200+. I could be wrong on the numbers, but I think I'm pretty close, as I've heard the details repeatedly since, along with constant complaints about how sore her feet are. I've been largely unsympathetic on the latter.

Later Saturday morning I went and got registered and checked out expo. Went back to the campground and got Wilson prepped for the race, including one last ride through the campground and out and about enough to know that everything was working right. Bikes needed to be in transition Saturday afternoon so Patrick and I rode down and dropped it off.

A short run back up to the campsite from transition ended my prerace workouts. Half way back Patrick and I stopped to walk through a big ass military helicopter that landed near expo while I was out on the bike. Cool bird.

The rest of Saturday was pretty low key. I made a considerable effort to eat and drink more than normal. Including our last big meal mid-afternoon. We headed into Lawrence for some shopping and wandering before heading back to camp for a relatively early night to bed.

Sunday morning came damn early. I actually slept fairly well, but was still up prior to the alarm going off at 4:45. Woke, made myself a PB&J sandwich, and headed to transition 2. This race had two separate transition areas, one for swim to bike, and a second, totally separated, for bike to run. This was a bit of pain prerace, but I actually really liked it once race came.

So all the run stuff came with me to transition 2. Once there I organized it all in my race bag, made sure nothing I needed in transition 1 was left behind, then zipped up the bag and put it all in a garbage bag. I had been watching the radar rather closely, and was convinced at some point we were going to get hammered with rain. If that were the case, I at least wanted dry shoes and socks to put on for the run.

Headed back to camp for my swim bag and everything I needed for the bike and made my way to transition 1 to set all that up. Back to camp one last time (we were just up the hill from t1, really nice in that regard) for I don't remember what. Family was up and getting ready for the day.

The kids and I at the campsite prior to heading down to the start. Look at all that energy. And yes, my future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.

Me waiting for my swim wave to go off. I think this look is half asleep mixed with cautiously optimistic, a hint of excitement, and maybe a pinch of scared shitless. I'm not real sure, I don't recognize it.

Race time, I know, finally.

I was actually remarkably calm. I think not setting time goals really allowed me to just relax and not get all worked up about the race. I was in the second or third to the last wave of swimmers, so lots of time to wait, even got to see the pros come in from the swim and head out on the bike, kind of cool, but not much different than watching any other competent triathlete.

Swim

Lined up on the ramp behind the green caps ahead of us. Once they went off we were herded into the water like a bunch of cattle. Had enough time to acclimate to the water and get in a couple of strokes. Lined up on the outside maybe 10-yards back from the buoy line.

And we're off, that's me on the right side, middle of picture, black wetsuit, white cap.

Short version. I was really happy with my swim. Swam relatively straight, but stayed to the outside the entire time. Only stopped swimming twice, once about 5-minutes in just to get my bearings, and a second time on the way back in when I swallowed a couple gallons of lake water trying to get a breath.

I did catch an elbow in the nose right at the start, had a little more contact early, some at the turns, but other than that it was just a relaxed easy swim. Water was perfect, siting was good.

My only disappointment with the swim came when I finally looked at my watch coming out of the water. I had purposely avoided looking at it during the swim just because I didn't want it to impact my mindset and stroke. The swim was so smooth and easy that I was certain I had swam at least 3-4 minutes faster.

Swim time - 46:20 (2:11/100)

Overall place - 1245/1449

Men - 941/1079

Age Group - 199/231

Transition 1

Coming out of the water I stripped my wetsuit to my waist and headed straight to a porta potty. I really had to piss coming out of the water. I tried while swimming but I just couldn't relax enough while moving, and I wasn't willing to stop, so the porta potty it was.

Made my way down the racks and promptly forgot my number and therefore, bike location. After a brief moment it came back and I made my way over to the bike.

I believe I'm stepping out of my wetsuit (grey shirt, black shorts). This is where I really like the separate transition areas. I had a long walk from my rack location to the mount line so I put the shoes on the bike before hand. My helmet and sunglasses were on the aerobars. The only thing under the bike was an empty gatorade bag for my wetsuit, goggles, etc.

So stuff the wetsuit in the bag, helmet and glasses on and we're on our way. Despite my bathroom break and temporary memory loss, transition 1 was my best event relative to the field.

Transition time - 3:04 Overall place - 462/1449
Men - 338/1079
Age group - 76/231

Bike

I've mounted my bike plenty of times with the shoes already in the pedals, but this was the first time I've done it in a race. Fortunately it went off without issue.

Let me preface this portion of the report by saying I have no idea where this ride came from. In training this year I've had one 17 mph training ride (a one way ride with a tailwind) Everything else has hovered in the upper 15 range, maybe lower 16's if everything was perfect. So to pull off an 18.5 mph pace is amazing to me.

First, loved the course. I'd ride it any day of the week and twice on Sundays over the IM Wisconsin course under similar weather conditions. It wasn't flat by any stretch of the imagination, but none of the hills were terribly difficult, and the rode surface was as nice as anything I've ridden. Anyone that tells you it is as hard as Wisconsin is full of shit. End of story.

So I come out of transition with the plan to go easy, heartrate was high, pace was fast, but by pure feel I didn't feel like I was pushing hard at all. So I kept at it and didn't worry about it much. Kept an eye on heartrate trying to get it down, the other eye on cadence, trying to keep it in a reasonable range.

Nutrition was going to be the biggest obstacle from this point forward. I made the stupid mistake of running out of Infinit in the weeks prior to the race and my new supply didn't arrive before we left town. I had hoped to pick some up at race expo, but didn't have any luck. So now I have none of the only nutrition I've ever used for longer rides, great.

Found some other stuff at expo, Accelerade I think. Mixed up two bottles of it, and planned to use it plus whatever I could from the aid stations. At the first I grabbed a Gu, chocolate, kind of gross, at the second aid station vanilla Gu found it's way to my hand, better. By the last aid station I was through my Accelerade, so I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade and another Gu, tangerine I think, not bad. Love grabbing stuff on the go from volunteers, didn't miss a single hand off and didn't really slow down either.

Bike itself was going well, somewhere between the 10 and 20 mile marks we hit the first out and back portion of the course, it was great having the distraction of oncoming riders to watch while going out. I didn't pass a lot of people, but the majority of those I did I passed going up hills. Riding hills has paid off, felt like a mountain goat compared to some out there. I'm sure HHH next week will eliminate that feeling.

Around the 45-mile mark my stomach started to cramp. I'm guessing because of the Gatorade, never really gotten along with the Endurance formula, but I can't really say for sure. Leg's still felt good and I was having fun, talking to other riders along the way, ringing my bell at spectators and volunteers whenever I could remember. I didn't use it on any other competitors, just didn't have the heart to. But the kids along the route seemed to really get a kick out of it.

At the 50 or 51 mile mark we hit the last major climb of the ride, one that took us up to the damn for the reservoir we swam in. I've read about this hill for months now and had it in the back of mind for the entire ride. I was very relieved to find it wasn't that bad or that long.

Easy 5 miles back into the park and I'm ready to run. Bike had other ideas, just after the 55-mile mark was one last downhill followed immediately by a short climb. Three quarters of the way up my chain falls off. I may have let a few expletives fly, but it was my only trouble on the whole ride so I'll take it.

Chain back on, finish the climb, feet out of shoes, coast to the dismount line standing on one pedal and almost entirely ready to run.

Bike time - 3:02:03 (18.5 mph)
Overall place - 919/1449
Men - 775/1079
Age group - 167/231

Transition 2
What I failed to mention so far, the rain I expected never came. And maybe 20-minutes prior to getting off the bike the clouds parted and the sun made it's presence known. It was now hot, full sun, and I was looking at 13.1 miles with little if any shade. Joy.

Anyway, ran to my spot and racked my bike. Sat down an pulled my race bag out of the garbage bag, on go the socks, shoes, running shorts, and shirt. Pull the garmin off the bike, visor on, walked to transition exit.

Transition time - 2:46
Overall place - 869/1449
Men - 674/1079
Age group - 153/231

Run
Run turned into a suffer fest for me. Headed out of T2 at an easy pace and my stomach cramps
immediately amplified to a point that made running very uncomfortable. Walked all the aid stations and many points in between. Ran when I could. This is the only picture I actually like.

Must have been the first time past our campsite, as I actually still look like I'm doing ok. Between the stomach and the sun I went downhill fairly quickly. Lots of water went over my head. Drank some water, one cup of coke (the only time I found it), ate a couple of pretzels. But was scared to consume anything else for fear of it coming back out.

So I ran when I could, walked when I had to, talked to and encouraged others as I went. As much as I hurt, it was still relatively enjoyable. Amazing thing was the time went by relatively quickly. Sad thing is my legs and feet felt really good throughout, even through the last couple of miles. If it hadn't been for the stomach issues I feel I could have cranked out a really nice run. I'm starting to have a lot more respect for those of you who can put together a decent run at the end of these longer races.

Run time - 2:20:14 (10:42/mile)
Overall place - 1104/1449
Men - 839/1079
Age group - 183/231

Finish
Coming into the finish was a huge relief, I started 40 minutes after the pros, thus the discrepancy on the clock.

Done

How tired was I? Didn't even register that none other than Chrissie Wellington (IM champion, female winner of today's race, and seemingly all around good person) placed the medal over my head. I'm such a tool.

Total time - 6:14:27

Overall - 1061/1449

Men - 834/1079
Age group - 181/231

Closing Thoughts
I have absolutely no complaints about this race at all. Course was great, volunteers were awesome, etc, etc. To top it off, it's now two days later and I feel great. The stomach took a good 24-36 hours to really get back to normal. Legs were a bit stiff after periods of sitting in the car yesterday, but nothing bad at all.

I put almost 17 miles on the bike after work today and then another 2 running. There was a little soreness at the start of the run, but nothing unusual and it went away pretty quick. I'll take it as a good sign that I'm doing something right. Need to get the nutrition back on track.

Done, done, and done

2009-06-14T14:43:00.001-05:00

Unofficial results

Swim - 0:46
Bike - 3:02
Run - 2:20

Total - 6:14ish

Tired, sore, but happy. Full report once we get home.

Kansas or Bust

2009-06-10T23:46:00.002-05:00

The van is packed beyond full and we're leaving for Kansas is less than 6-hours.

I'm feeling better about the race than I was two weeks ago. Not because I'm in any better shape than I was two weeks ago, I think I just got my head in the right place. I have no serious time goals, pretty much a first for me. I'm going to do whatever I can to go out and just enjoy it while still actually racing.

On that end, I finally tracked down the brass bike bell I purchased at Bike-O-Rama a couple of months ago. I think I searched the house three times this week looking for it. It's my reminder to have fun, and it's actually pretty loud. I installed it on the rear end of my aerobars right behind the cups. Out of the way but easy enough to get to. My wife thinks I've lost my mind, my daughter loves it.

So fair warning, if your race wheels cost more than my bike and I happen to pass you, I may just have to ring the bell.

I do have a run goal. I want to pull off the half marathon at the end in less than 2:11, 10-minute miles. Setting this goal, and only this goal, will hopefully force me to dial it back on the bike just a bit and have enough left to run at the end. I expect to finish somewhere between 6:15 and 6:30 (0:45, 3:15-3:30, 2:10 + transitions).

If you happen to be at the race stop by and look us up. Campsite #91. Gold van, two loud kids running around. I'll post a quick recap via Blackberry Sunday afternoon, but a full race report likely won't surface until Monday or Tuesday after we return.

May / June

2009-06-02T16:19:00.002-05:00

Trend wise May took on a similar look as last year. I biked a whole lot more, ran a bit less, and really slacked in the pool

Swim
Even though I only swan about 22,000 yards, sometime during the month I did surpase the 50 mile mark for 2009. Maybe not a big deal for the swimmers out there, but for me it's a big number. Last year I put in just over 60 miles total, as of today I sit at 52 for 2009.

Did get in a couple of open water swims up at Lake Kegonsa. I've heard the blue-green algae is in full bloom already so I don't know how much I'll be able to swim there this year. It sucks, the nicer it is outside the less I want to spend time in the pool, and Kegonsa is by far my easiest option for open water swimming.

Bike
Big miles this month, close to 450, by far my largest month to date. Not getting any faster, but starting to get in some quality long rides as well as commuting to the office a couple of times per week. It's easy to rack up miles doing this, the nicer the weather gets, the more I'll be commuting, win-win situation. Love riding in in the morning when it's warm enough.

Went in for a fitting at Chronometro maybe two weeks ago. They didn't make a ton of adjustments, but so far it's been working out pretty well. Seat came up and forward a bit, one cleat adjustment, and some fairly major changes to the aerobars. It was a good experience.
Long rides are going ok, trying to spend as much time on the IMoo bike course as possible. Last weekend that meant 71 miles starting and ending near the terrace. I've had a couple other decent rides as well, but nothing else over 55 miles.

Run
Similar to the pool, I slacked a bunch on the run as well, not getting in nearly the volume the plan calls for. Ended up at ~89 miles for the month, down slightly from last month. The will to go out and run is becoming harder and harder to find. If anyone wants to join me for a mile or eight please let me know. I'd love to have company more frequently. Pace is negotiable.

June
Summer is arriving and the season is starting to get interesting. Not going to run the Blue Mounds Trail Run next weekend do to conflicts with kids schedules. The week following we head to Kansas for my first real test of the year, looking forward to it, even if I am a bit freaked out at times.

Aquathon #2 on 6/18, my wife has a team set up for Relay for Life on 6/19. then I'm signed up for the 200k at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds bike ride on 6/20. Not sure what I was thinking on that one. Then the last weekend in June WIBA comes to town.

Gidde up.

Date Night

2009-05-30T06:30:00.004-05:00

Thursday night was the first Aquathon of the year. I convinced G to sign both of us up for the series. Seemed like a good excuse to get out of the house and get some open water swim practice in as well.

Let me preface this report by saying I've had no thought of ever being able to beat G in one of these races. With her swimming background she is simply too fast in the water, and I'm really not any faster by foot. Soooooooo......

Prerace
I arrived at the race site straight from work about two hours early. Had the bike in the truck so I went for an easy 1 hour ride along the lake. Nice ride, but I really don't like riding in Madison. Way to much traffic. Back to the race site I checked in and got body marked. Had no desire to get in the water, it was f'ng cold.

G arrived not particularly happy about the situation, cold water, not exactly warm day. Mentioned multiple times how crazy this was. To her credit, between the two of us, she was the first one in the water, actually swimming a couple hundred yards. I on the other hand got in with about ten minutes left, did just a couple of strokes, and pretty quickly got out. Cold water, somebody told G 58 degrees.

Swim
Beach start, waded in rather slowly while all the crazies ran in ahead of us. The first 3-4 minutes were the worst. The cold completely took my breath away, apparently my brief dip earlier did not acclimate me to the water. So it was swim a couple strokes, stop to breath, repeat.

Hands fairly quickly went numb (feet were numb before the start), but I was able to get the breathing under control and swim. Drank way to much lake water, as it was just choppy enough to be a problem. Sighting was actually not to bad, I swam wide for most of the race, but felt I at least was swimming in a straight line.

Coming into the beach I noticed a lot of people walking in so after a bit more swimming I joined them, stood up, and began the wetsuit peeling process. Was good to be out of the water. According to my watch I touched land at 18:12, my fastest swim at this race ever. I'm convinced the course was short, I never swim that fast, much less 1/2 frozen. I've been meaning to look at average swim times at last years races for comparison, but haven't got around to it yet.

Transition
Anyway, heading into transition is where it hit me. G's running stuff is still here. Oh shit, something is seriously wrong. No way I beat her out of the water. Look at the lake (without glasses), useless. Finish getting ready to run, still no G. Now I'm really starting to get worried.

Stand around and wait, finally after about 3 minutes she walks into transition. Panic attack is how she put it, the combination of congestion and cold (and lack of much open water experience in my opinion) was too much. She mentioned holding onto a kayak at several points and doing the backstroke for most of it. Tough swim, it reminded much of my first experience at this race last year.

Run
I left G in transition after a brief conversation and went out to run. Had bad side stitches for the entire thing. I'm guessing too much lake water. Stopped at the turn around to retie my shoes (read, excuse to stop) then ran it back in, passing G shortly after the turn. On the home stretch I looked down at my ankles and noticed I didn't have a timing chip. Shit, shit, shit. Not that I was going to win it or anything, but it's nice to have official results. Crossed the line at 49:30 after a 27:00 minute run. Not a stellar effort, but I'll take it.

Post Race
Headed downtown and ate at Restaurant Muramoto for what was easily the best meal we've had in a long time. Highly recommend it, if you're willing to try some things that may be a bit close to the edge.

Half Time

2009-05-24T17:43:00.004-05:00

Madison Half Marathon this morning. Beautiful day, probably started in the low 50's, upper 60's by the time we finished. Few clouds, some sun, one very brief sprinkle, good day for a run.

Short version, went out with some friends and the 2-hour pace group. Two of us ditched the 2-hour group about 7-miles in. Although it wasn't hot, I was struggling to stay cool. I think it was the aid station at the 4-mile mark where I first dumped water on my head. I repeated that process three other times during the race. More water went over my head then into me.

I never really was thirsty, but I should have made more of an attempt to get some calories in. By the end I was dead, no gas left in the tank, and no kick for the finish line. Other than the first mile, where it was so congested it was hard to get up to speed, mile 13 was my slowest at 9:09. Mile 9 was my fastest at 8:27, followed by mile 11 at 8:31. I guess those two stretches may have had something to do with me dieing at the end.

The results, which I'm thrilled with by the way.

Overall - 1,108/3,685 (finishers)

Men - 715/1503

Age Group - 128/258

Total Time: 1:55:03 (8:47/mile)

After hanging around the finish line and the cool down area for a bit, I did what any normal triathlete would do after running a half marathon, I rode my bike home. Nothing serious, a fairly easy 16-mile "cool down" ride. Legs are definitely sore now, tomorrow should be interesting.

3 x 11 x 3 x 23 x 3

2009-05-22T10:42:00.001-05:00

That would be by number for the Madison half marathon Sunday, 6831. If you see me out there stop by and say hi. Will be wearing blue shorts, orange sleeveless shirt, white visor. Probably be half asleep prerace, half dead post race.

Looking to break two hours. If I get through the first couple miles without issue I think I can do it. The weather appears to be favorable.

Good luck to all racing this weekend.

I can't take it!

2009-05-20T11:36:00.003-05:00

I sent the following email (with the above subject line) to by boss's boss last night after coming home from the pool. His son swims on the club team which has invaded my pool.

Can you please remove your club team from my swimming pool. It's humbling, if not down right embarrassing to swim next to them. Are they really that fast, or am I really that slow?

How long before your pool is back up? I don't think I can get back in the pool with them.

Holy crap those kids are fast. Felt like I was going backwards. Four lanes with 4+ kids per lane, and every one of them absolutely dusting me lap after lap. Back, butterfly, breast, didn't matter what stroke they were doing. No way in hell I could even think of holding their pace.

I'm used to swimming in a nearly empty pool, quite often I'm the only one there, especially near the end. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to share a lane with anyone. Yes, I'm lucky in that respect. So to now swim in a crowded pool with a ton of fast kids, extremely humbling.

As cold as the lakes still are, open water swimming is looking that much more appealing.

Meaningless Milestone #1

2009-05-12T14:04:00.001-05:00

With last nights run, I've surpassed my total run mileage from last year. In 2008, I ran a total of 309.2 miles in 55 hours, 37 minutes, and 4 seconds, for an average pace of 10:47. So far this year I've run a total of 310.35 miles in 51 hours, 34 minutes, and 39 seconds, for an average pace of 9:58. I'm guessing that by the time 2009 is through I'll have run close to 900 miles. Ouch.

I suspect that I'll eclipse my 2008 swim and bike totals in either late May or early June if all goes well.

Have Fun

2009-05-05T11:24:00.001-05:00

My wife tells me this every time I leave for the pool. I scoff, the pool is not fun. At least not this pool, under these circumstances.

But this training regiment, this journey towards Ironman. It should be fun, it should be enjoyable. With workout durations and intensities increasing, it's easy to forget this.

Yesterday on my ride home I encountered another rider on a side street in Madison. Nothing overly remarkable about him, middle aged man riding a 30 year old bike. But he had a huge grin on his face as he was doing big sweeping turns. Think of a skier coming down a groomed ski run, like that.

That should be me. Enjoying the moment. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely enjoying it big picture. I'm in better shape than I've ever been, doing things I never thought I'd do, I sleep better, and in general, I just feel better. But in the moment, while actually swimming, biking, or running, I definitely have difficulty remembering that this should be fun. That I should be enjoying this.

A couple of months ago I bought a little brass bell for my bike. I bought it just for this purpose. To remind myself to have fun and try not to take everything so seriously. I think it's time to install the bell.

Have fun out there. Smile. Laugh. If not at others, than at yourself. Life is to short.

Bear Trax Photos

2009-05-04T18:03:00.000-05:00

Couple of pictures from the Bear Trax 20k last week.

I beleive this is coming into the finish line. I look (and felt) like crap, but check out the muscle definition in those legs.

If I remember correctly this is right at the end of mile 7, near the top of a really long hill. I remember wanting to roll the photographer down the hill for picking this particular location to take pictures.

It's a Love Hate Thing

2009-05-03T20:16:00.002-05:00

As much as I like having a good tailwind. I absolutely hate riding into it. Saturday's ride was a prime example. Plan was to ride out to Verona and back. There was a pretty stiff head wind pretty much all the way out.

To illustrate, coming up on twenty minutes into the ride I was already calculating how much I had left. "Almost 1/9th of the way done" was what went through my head. For you math whizzes out there, I was planning on riding three hours.

I hate it, hate it, hate it. It saps the energy out of me like nothing else. And I don't buy any of that bullshit about the wind being your friend either, so don't even try.

Regardless, I made it out to my turn around point in Verona at the 1:32 mark. Made it back along the exact same route in 1:11. Almost exact same average heart rate both ways. Stupid wind.

From my driveway it is 13.6 hilly miles to the IM bike course at the corner of Syene and Irish on the stick. I'd prefer to drive out to Verona and just ride the loop every week, but when time is short, like it was on Saturday, this route will have to suffice. Either way it will be nice to have the "home field advantage" come race day.

If anyone cares to come out and ride the course with me I'd welcome the company. Drop me a line and I'm sure we can work something out, as long as your willing to slow down to my paltry 15-16mph average pace.

April

2009-04-30T21:28:00.002-05:00

April, well, it kind of sucked. That's what I had been thinking anyway. I've been composing this post in my head for a good week now. It's always started with that same opening thought. But now that it is over I look over everything, I'm thinking maybe it wasn't all that bad.

The bad, I didn't make any of my time/distance goals I set for myself at the beginning of the month. I missed way to many workouts, including a couple of the big ones. Can't keep doing that. Averaged roughly 10-hours a week, maybe a bit more.

Swimming is coming along, missed hitting the 30k mark in April by 600 yards. I did manage to break 10-minutes for a 500 twice, roughly two weeks apart. First time was 9:59:40. Sub-10 is sub-10, and yes I was wearing my watch. More recently I did it in 9:46. Yeah me! I also did a 11:40 earlier this week, so I'm not getting to excited about it.

The stroke clinic was well worth it. Picked up a couple of things to work on. Body position is ok, catch and pull are weak. Need to work on keeping the elbows up. Haven't swam enough since last Saturday to know what impact it will have long term.

Running is still going strong. Hoped to hit 100-miles for the month, missed it by less than 5. Average pace for the month, including the hellish 20k trail run from last week, 9:17. Double yeah me! There were a couple of individual 10-minute miles sprinkled in, but all my runs in total came in at sub-10. Last April my average pace was 10:35. Big improvement. Looking forward to running the Madison 1/2 marathon at the end of May.

I took the bike off the trainer early in the month and refused to put it back on when the weather turned shitty. As a result I actually rode about 60 miles less than last month, for a grand total of 240 miles. I did get a couple of good long rides in, one loop of the Ironman course earlier in the month, then last week I rode from Madison to Verona and up through Sauk to Devils Lake.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to pony up the dollars and get a proper bike fit. I'm still slower than dirt, actually quite a bit slower than last year at this time even though I have significantly more miles in. I monkeyed with the fit some this winter on the trainer, and now self doubt is really creeping in about everything fit related. I meant to call Chronometro today but totally forgot. If nothing else it will get rid of the mental games going on in my head, at least the fit related ones.

So May is upon us, I hope to start commuting to work by bike regularly. Looking forward to getting in the lakes and out of the pool. Can't forget to keep running. Last May I ran 11.7 miles, total, that can't happen again. Really getting the itch to race, but still nothing on the schedule in the immediate future. Madison 1/2 marathon and I think the first Aquathon of the year. That's it for May.

Bear Tracks

2009-04-26T16:35:00.007-05:00

Where to start, this morning I ran the Bear Trax 20K at Lapham Peak State Park. It was an inaugural event in memory of Nancy Sellars, an avid endurance athlete who was killed last year by a drunk driver.

Apparently Nancy liked to run on trails, really really hilly trails. And if you're not aware, it's been raining here for pretty much the last two days straight, including this morning leading up to the race. So on top of an insanely hilly course, we got to deal with mud and standing water wherever there happened to be a low spot. And there were a lot of them.

To help illustrate how tough the course was, my mile splits are posted below. I've never been accused of being able to run a consistent pace, but given a reasonable course, even I can do better than this.

Mile 1 - 9:42
Mile 2 - 9:27
Mile 3 - 10:20
Mile 4 - 10:42
Mile 5 - 9:08
Mile 6 - 10:21
Mile 7 - 11:29
Mile 8 - 9:08
Mile 9 - 9:25
Mile 10 - 12:29
Mile 11 - 10:38
Mile 12 - 10:32

The mud made going downhill almost as hard as going up. Less than two miles in I took a spill going down a hill. Not really sure how it happened, but my lower right leg took the brunt of it. Post race investigation only yielded a small scrape and a couple scratches, but I did feel some soreness for the rest of the race.

This would be the leg I fell on, I can only imagine that my ankle is clean because of the depth of the standing water we repeatedly ran through.

As for my race, it was hard but enjoyable. I didn't go in with any real goals, but I did hope to break 2-hours. I hit the 10-k mark at exactly 1-hour and based on how I felt and the hills I knew to be in front of me, 2-hours wasn't going to happen. Ended up coming in at 2:03:14, 21/24 in age group, 72/111 in the male group, and 90/187 overall. Good enough.

On my way into the finish line there was one last big puddle. Inspired by KT, I jumped in it. Both feet, big stomp. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of water that came straight up.

As challenging as it was, the course was really nice. Around the midway point two very confused looking deer wandered to within about 50-yards of the trail and just stood there while we ran by. To top it off the race was incredibly well organized and run, definitely didn't feel at all like an inaugural event.

One last photo, my old running shoes, what used to be white socks, and a couple of dirty feet. It may just be the last hurrah for those shoes.

I actually feel pretty good right now, not really looking forward to the day after.

HDL

2009-04-15T09:29:00.001-05:00

We had a "biometric screening" available to us at the office today. Height, weight, waste measurement, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Took about ten minutes.

All good except my HDL number, which I guess is the "good" cholesterol, was a bit low. While not extremely low, it wasn't as high as I guess it could/should be. When I ask how I might get that number up, aerobic exercise was the answer. Diet to some extent, but mainly aerobic exercise.

Interesting, I'll have to look into it.

Morning Swim

2009-04-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

I don't know how people work out in the early mornings. I'm just not a morning person, but do to some scheduling issues I needed to swim this morning. It was my first early am swim of the year. The following is a synopsis of my morning.

3:30 - Wake up, pray that I slept through alarm and don't have time to swim. Look at clock. Crap. Try to go back to sleep.

3:50 - Get up, use bathroom, back to bed, try to go back to sleep.

4:15 - Dog's up, get up, let him out, back to bed, try to go back to sleep.

5:06 - Alarm goes off, snooze, try one last time to sleep

5:16 - Alarm again, finally get up.

5:33 - Arrive at pool. Many cars in lot, going to be a busy pool.

5:45 - Finally get out of truck, walk in the building, walk through locker room to check status of pool. Looks like there is room for me. Damn the luck. Use bathroom, get dressed, use bathroom again, shower, head for pool, talk to lifeguard (one last attempt to stall).

6:00 - Start swimming.

I'll admit, once I started swimming it didn't completely suck. The one good thing, a whole new cast of characters in the water. People that I typically don't see at night. Nothing too unusual, but enough to keep it interesting.

I had until 7:30 to complete my swim so I didn't feel rushed at all and I just swam while trying not to fall asleep. Got through my 3,000 yards in 1:18+. Good enough. The last 1,000 or so were hard only because I was getting really hungry. I get the feeling today is going to be one of those days where I eat constantly.

Stroke Clinic

2009-04-09T21:27:00.002-05:00

For you locals out there. The Stoughton High School pool is hosting an adult stroke clinic. I don't have all the details in front of me, but I think it is at noon on Saturday April 25. I know it's limited to six people and it's only $10. I was the first to sign up on Tuesday.

I don't know what to expect from it or how long it lasts, but for $10, if I learn anything at all it will be well worth it. You'll spend more than that next week on gu, energy bars, and recovery drinks.

There is a link to the Stoughton pool site over there on the right. I doubt there is any info on the stroke clinic but there may be a number you can call if interested. I can't do all the legwork.

March

2009-03-31T20:29:00.002-05:00

March was a good month. At the start, I proclaimed it swim month. And it was. I swam more this month than I ever had, 23,000+ yards, substantially more than January and February combined, but still less than the plan called for. I'm not really any faster compared to last year at this time, but I feel much more comfortable in the water.

I'm guessing that if I swam according to the plan, April swim totals would reach 35k-40k. I'm going to shoot for 30k+, and want to be doing the complete workouts called for by the end of the month (3k 3x/week). Getting there.

Bike wise, I spent a whole lot of time going nowhere, and not really all that fast. I only rode outdoors three times, twice on my mountain bike and once on Wilson. April should put an end to my trainer days, I just hope it comes sooner than later. Oddly enough, biking feels like my weakest link right now.

I'm thrilled with my running progress over the last month, I just need to keep it up. Training runs are starting to be more consistently below the 10:00 minute/mile pace. Goal for April is to kiss the 10 minute/mile good bye for good.

If nothing else April should be an interesting month. Scheduling is already hard, weekly volume is starting to build, both kids start soccer next week, and little league starts just a couple of weeks after that. Planning (and sticking to that plan) is going to be imperative.

Open Water

2009-03-26T13:04:00.001-05:00

Lake Monona appears to be completely free of ice, which leads me to start thinking about open water swimming. At lunch today running down the lakeshore path I noticed there were already half a dozen or so loons out there swimming. Even stranger, none of them appeared to be together.

Also saw a large white pelican and numerous ducks and geese. Yes, I was referring to the feathered type of loon. While I think triathletes in general are a little odd, I don't any of us crazy enough to swim just after ice out. I still find the loon siting odd, very rarely do I spot them this far south.

Good run, nice day, with a little urban wildlife mixed in.

Candy

2009-03-23T14:25:00.001-05:00

Every year I pillage most of the chocolate from the kids Halloween collection, it's for their own good. Really, I do it for the children.

I just realized that my supply is dangerously low. I obviously don't eat much of it, but it's nice to have around for emergencies, and they are cropping up more often the further I get into training.

So if you're planning on buying my kids Easter candy (you know who you are), this is what I like:

Peanut butter M&M's
Snickers (the really little ones)
any other chocolate, especially if it encapsulates peanut butter or caramel
Jelly Belly jelly beans
Starburst jelly beans

That should get me through.

Stick a Fork in Me

2009-03-21T21:12:00.003-05:00

I'm done.

After what turned into a long afternoon nap I finally got on the bike just before 4:00. Three hours is a long time to go nowhere on a bike. The first hour wasn't too bad. Second hour seemed to take forever, but I held the best pace over the course of it. After two hours I got off for a bathroom break and stretched a bit before resuming. The last hour wasn't all bad. Ass was/is really sore, but with the end in site, the time went by a bit quicker.

Coming off the bike I actually felt really good. I've since collapsed into a very comfy chair and now everything hurts. I thought I figured out a couple of things during the ride, but right now I can only think of one.

I started eating a bar of some sort about 1-1/2 hours in, just taking a small bite every 5-10 minutes. After 2 hours, it got to be very difficult to swallow. Taste was fine, stomach was fine, just hard to get it down. Other than the bar I downed two bottles of Infinit and most of a bottle of water. Nutrition come race day is a great unknown for me. Planning on using solely Infinit on the bike, but I'd like to figure out Plan B should something go awry. Run nutrition? I have no idea.

March Madness?

2009-03-21T09:31:00.000-05:00

The NCAA tournament itself? Or planning to watch 3-hours of it from the bike. Going to be a long afternoon.

I hate that #$*&?!@ hill

2009-03-15T13:38:00.006-05:00

The one on the Shamrock Shuffle course Sunday. Observatory Drive, coming from the west back towards State Street. That hill, hate it, it kicked my arse last year and did it again Sunday. But mostly, because I'll have to run up it again come Ironman, twice.

Shamrock Shuffle was Sunday morning. Beautiful morning, upper 30's, low 40's. Sun shining with little wind. Can't really ask for much more from a Wisconsin March morning.

I didn't really have a plan going in. I wanted to beat last year's time but I also didn't feel like running hard. Every workout this week has been a struggle since last weeks effort. I even felt the soreness while swimming.

Just run. That was "the plan". Tried to go out easy, was getting passed by everybody and their mother. Didn't care. Approaching the turn around I spotted what appeared to be a 9-year old boy running with his father, probably 1/4 mile ahead of me (and I'm still running sub 9-min/miles). Unbelievable.

I kind of forgot about him but saw them again around the 4-mile mark maybe 200 yards ahead of me. Mission, catch him. But it was starting to be a real struggle, and that #$*&?!@ hill was coming. Around maybe 4.5 miles I stopped for water and walked a bit before the hill. Then the hill, which I ended up walking up maybe 1/2 of. My saving grace was being able to basically tumble down Observatory Drive. I closed on the kid quite a bit on this section and ended up catching him in the last 0.2 miles. I have to hand it to him, that is one hell of a run for a youngster.

Official Race Statistics:
Final time: 55:19 - 8:55min/mile pace ( a total of 21 seconds faster than last year)
71/108 age group
212/303 men
321/625 overall

From my watch:

Mile 1 - 8.55 / 155 bpm

Mile 2 - 8:39 / 164 bpm

Mile 3 - 8:56 / 169 bpm

Mile 4 - 9:10 / 170 bpm

Mile 5 - 9:04 / 173 bpm

Mile 6 - 8:54 / 174 bpm

Mile 6-6.2 - 7:44 / 180 bpm

Ouch

2009-03-08T16:56:00.008-05:00

Yesterday's Point Bock Run turned into 5-miles of hurt. Recovery hasn't been much better.

Weather was perfect but in that odd range where I had no idea what to wear. Upper 30's, little wind, no sun. Wore pants to the race site over shorts, long sleeve pullover over a tech t-shirt and a sleeveless UA compression top. About twenty minutes prior to the start I made the call to run in shorts. Was definitely in the minority, but it was absolutely the right call. Legs were never cold, hands were for a short spell, but I was still soaked through by race end. Pants would have made it much worse.

Course is an out an back with no real hills, just long steady gradual climbs. Plan going in was to go out easy, then drop the hammer on the way back. I don't follow my race plans very well.

About 1/4 mile in I looked at my watch and saw we were moving at 7:5x pace. Not good. By the middle of the second mile I was already in hold on mode, with a side stitch making it's presence known. Running up to the turn around seemed to take forever, made easier only by watching the leaders and the front of the pack go by (at a sub 5-minute mile pace).

Watching the back half of the pack after the turn around made the rest of mile 3 bearable. Mile 4 was hell, I think I checked my watch at least 10 times during this mile, searching for the last mile marker constantly. Once to the last mile, stopping or slowing down was no longer an option. Less than 10-minutes left.

I didn't puke, but I think I easily could have. Probably took me a good 10-minutes to get recovered.

The details from my watch:

Mile 1: 8:02/mile, 158 bpm (heart rate)
Mile 2: 8:25/mile, 169 bpm
Mile 3: 8:28/mile, 171 bpm
Mile 4: 8:18/mile, 176 bpm
Mile 5: 8:14/mile, 177 bpm

Official Results

Race Time: 41:39 (8:20/mile)
First 1/2 Split : 20:53
Second 1/2 Split: 20:46

30/75 Age Group
336/668 Male
421/1200+ Overall

The good:

Made my goal time of 42 minutes, or was it 43, either way.
Made it into the upper 1/2 of my age group, a first by a long shot.
Almost did the same among men.
Only got beat by 85 out of almost 600 women.
Beat last years time by almost 7 minutes.
Survived.

The bad:

Which really isn't that bad, just a perception issue on my part. I'm disappointed, and I can't really explain why. Seems like I shouldn't have had to work that hard to basically match my 5K PR pace (which I don't remember being nearly as painful). Oh well.

The ugly:

It hurts to run that hard (I typically run in the low 150's for a heart rate and at 10+ minute miles). And it still hurts. Although I'm sure some of it may be contributed to Point Beer, PBR, and Captain Morgan.

Good times, now I get to go sit on the trainer for 2-hours. We'll just call that active recovery.

Spring?

2009-03-01T20:30:00.003-06:00

Spring can't get here fast enough. I spent 2-1/2 hours on the trainer this morning and it sucked.

S-U-C-K-E-D

Watched the movie "No Country for Old Men" on Netflix and played penny ante Razz at Full Tilt to kill the time. Lost 19 cents, movie was odd.

Legs don't feel bad, but I rode at a very easy pace. A miss the cut-off by maybe an hour pace. We're talking slooooooooow. I'd have never gotten through it if I had pushed. Ass still hurts regardless.

Next week is a recovery week, which means I'll only have to suffer through 2-hours on the trainer come sunday. Saturday is the Point Bock Run, 5-miles of fun. It's an out and back, and I plan on going all out on the return leg, just for the hell of. Kind of curious what I can do.

This being swim month, I stayed as far away from the pool as possible today. We start tomorrow, 3x a week minimum. Time to put in some laps. Doesn't matter how fast I ride or run if I can't get through the swim.

Name That Tune

2009-02-27T12:31:00.002-06:00

Being immersed in triathlon this year and last, I can't help but associate things back to the sport or training. Today on the way to lunch it was a song, a snippet of which is below. I'm absolutely certain these guys weren't talking about triathlon, or anything remotely associated with physical fitness, but it made me think about tri-training none the less.

I used ta do a little but a little wouldn't do
So the little got more and more
I just keep tryin'ta get a little better
Said a little better than before

Gary, if you figure it out, I could use some music from these guys for the collection.

Good day to be a duck

2009-02-25T10:19:00.001-06:00

One of my boss's favorite sayings, and I here at least twice a day whenever it happens to be wet, overcast, and cold. Today is one of those days. It rained some this morning, just enough to get everything wet, is completely overcast, and while certainly not cold, with highs supposedly pushing 40, it's still a good day to be a duck, apparently.

Spring fever has a firm grasp on me. I absolutely dread looking forward at my training schedule. This weeks long ride is scheduled for 2.5 hours. I'm starting to hate the basement and riding on the trainer. I pulled off 2 hours last week, not one second more. I even showed G my watch. Actually, almost all my rides end within about one second of the planned time. No point over doing it.

Running, well running is running. I've had some good ones and some less than ideal outings. But I feel well ahead of last year at this point. Which is really the nice thing about blogging and logging workouts, it's really easy to see where you were at last month, year, etc. I look back very regularly.

Point Bock Run is next week, looking forward to it, my initial goal was to break 45 minutes on the 5-mile route. I think that's within reach, so I'll probably shoot for 42 or so.

March is going to be a focus on swimming month. I know me, and I know when the air warms and the lakes are still to cold to swim in, i.e. April and may, I'm going to have a hard time getting in the pool. So I declare March to be swim month. Maybe I'll learn to swim like a duck.

Bloggers

2009-02-17T22:03:00.003-06:00

Nobody has probably noticed, but I've added a bunch of new blogger links down and to the left. Now that we're getting into IM training, I'm looking more specifically for other bloggers heading down the same road I am. Specifically, those partaking in any Ironman for the first time in 2009, or anyone participating in IM Wisconsin in 2009.

The slower the better. I don't get much, if any, inspiration from you fast folk. But you slow folk out there, well, it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one.

So if you have a link I should add please drop me a note, I'll be happy to add it.

23 Minutes

2009-02-15T20:10:00.003-06:00

Garden Expo was in town this weekend. Which for me meant sitting at a booth talking about compost for a good part of three days. Good thing is, Garden Expo is a sure sign that spring is around the corner.

Saturday morning I was able to sneak out of the expo and do my long run up in Madison. Was planning on doing an out and back, but by the time I got to my midway point I was so far downtown that I decided to loop through town and head back to the Expo on the bike path.

Sooooo, 40 or so minutes into my 1-hour run I find myself on what appears to be a course for a race of some sort. The first course marshall I came across confirmed that the frosty 5k was running that morning. The second set of course marshalls confirmed that I was in fact winning, which earned an uncharacteristic (for me) fist pump in the air.

Knowing that the actual leaders were somewhere back there made me kick it in for the last 20 minutes, just didn't want to lose my lead, and I didn't. My planned route back to the expo followed the actual race course back to within maybe a couple hundred yards of the finish line. Good run, if such a thing actually exists.

There was enough downtime at expo and while running this week that I started thinking about setting a running goal for the season. At some point today I decided to shoot for a 23-minute 5k. I have no reason to believe I can actually do it, but what the hell. I think 26:23 is my PR to date, and I've never run faster, at any distance. For whatever reason 23:30 seems attainable, 23 minutes seems crazy.

Losing It

2009-02-09T10:02:00.002-06:00

I'm losing it, seriously. Last week it was the following series of posts from a discussion at beginner triathlete that had me laughing until I cried.

I wanted to bump that. Too many people train (for almost anything) by what Pro _____ does, or AG Guy #3, or their neighbors cat, etc. They figure it works for them, so it'll work for me. Doesn't always happen that way.
----------------
I tried training the way the neighbor's cat did in my first year of triathlon, and it was an unmitigated disaster. I'd stand there for 5 minutes, wait until something scared me, go into an all-out sprint for 30 seconds, stand there, lick off the sweat, get spooked again, sprint, lick, stand, repeat. Eff that.
-------------------
I bet the swim was a nightmare for you - truly scary.
Did you feel compelled to take a dump every time you got on the beach and bury it?

Then this morning on our internal bulletin board at work I come across the following which almost brought me to tears laughing again. These reactions are not typical of me at all.

I am looking to buy a riding lawn mower in good condition. Respond to this ad or call xxx-xxxx.
----------------------
Do you care whether or not it has been taken off of any sweet jumps?

And therein lies the problem with anonymous message boards. We get responses like this to legitimate posts all the time.

Four weeks in and I guess I'm tired. And hungry, I'm always hungry, lunch at the Eagle Crest last week actually got me through an afternoon. Nothing else has. I am trying to eat better. I've pretty much eliminated soda and fast food, but when I do go out I try to make it worthwhile, opting for local haunts instead of chains.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good. Running feels like it is starting to come around, biking is hard to tell, being stuck in the basement still sucks, first day I see 50 degrees and I'm coming out (of the basement). Swimming is swimming, I really want to get back into open water, I don't like pool swimming. Three more months?

Three Down

2009-02-01T20:23:00.002-06:00

Thirty-two to go, I think. Weeks that is. Training is coming along well, as far as I can tell anyway.

Swimming - I haven't been putting in nearly the yardage that I should be, at least according to the training plan. See, there is this point in every one of my swim workouts where I can feel my stroke completely fall apart. Now I'm no expert, but from everything I've read, swimming is much more about form then anything else. So when the forms goes, so do I. At this point I feel that continuing to swim with shitty form will do no good. I'm working on it and slowly building up the yardage.

Biking - The trainer still sucks. We have no tv in our basement so I'm limited to the laptop for entertainment. I've started watching season 1 of Weeds on Netflix. Netflix makes it bearable, but only barely, since I can only watch about 10-minutes at a time before it needs to reload. Most of my rides, with the exception of the first, have gone well. Yesterday was 1:45, which was really tough. I hope spring comes early, within the next 5 or six weeks I think my long ride is supposed to reach the 3-hour mark. Ouch.

Running - Still slow as dirt but the endurance is building. On a good day I can make it through a 45-minute run without a walk break. Today I was able to run on a balmy 30+ degree sunny morning. Not exactly shorts weather, but still a good 15 to 20 degrees warmer than anything I've run in recently. Could it be spring? One can only hope.

This week is a recovery week, which basically means my long run/bike doesn't get any longer. The oz-man is doing well. It'd be nice if he would figure out where to pee and what he can chew on, but it's only been a week. I forgot how much energy puppies can have.

What have I done?

2009-01-24T18:40:00.004-06:00

It wasn't supposed to go down like this, really. I actually had it all worked out. But let's set the stage.

For those of you that may not know, earlier this month we made the extremely difficult decision to have our dog put down. He had some aggression issues, and we just couldn't risk (another) serious incident. Our kids don't know where he went, we simply told them that he went someplace safe, somewhere he couldn't hurt anybody else. I'm not prepared to explain the harsh reality of the situation, so please, if you do happen to cross their path or ours, please be mindful of this.

That left us dogless for the first time in just over 8-years, which frankly, kind of sucks. There was a sudden realization that with two kids, and incredible amount of food actually reaches the floor. No wonder so many family pets are fat. Our vacuum cleaner was gone.

But with ironman training, I knew that this summer was no time to be training a new puppy, a new hunting buddy. The plan, get through summer, through ironman, then bring a new puppy into the house to fill the void left from ironman training. The perfect plan.

Our first vizsla purchase was done on a whim. We knew what breed we wanted, but we grabbed up the first puppy from the first litter we saw. Besides the aggression, he was a great dog and a true friend. I still miss him.

This time I was determined to get a dog out of some truly great bloodlines with the intention getting a great hunting dog and chasing as many AKC and NAVHDA titles as we could. This demanded research, so I started looking at different breeders and pedigrees, emailing some, and on monday I put a deposit down on a puppy for this fall. The plan was coming into place nicely.

But I still had my doubts about this breeder, so I kept looking and I ended up contacting a kennel I've had dealings with in the past and was very familiar with our situation and my wants.

Long story short(er), Ozzie, a 12-week old male vizsla pup, came home with me this afternoon. He's sleeping on my lap right now.

Ozzie and P

Ozzie and G

A busy summer just got a whole lot busier.

On a sidenote, trainings going well. I'm still slow as dirt, but it's going well.

Numbers

2009-01-21T15:51:00.001-06:00

I'm an engineer. Work related, virtually every thing I do comes down to numbers. More so in previous jobs where I did more design work, but still, enough of my day and my decisions revolve around numbers. And it's really hard not to let that mindset carry over, especially into the triathlon world.

Last night was a prime example. Short run, 30 minutes, out and back while P is at basketball. Ran the whole thing (30-minutes is about my limit right now), and I managed to cut 20 seconds or so off on the return leg.

Good run.

Felt good about it.

Until I realized how far I ran, or didn't run. It was only then, when I calculated my pace, my painfully slow pace, that I began feeling shitty about the run. The damn numbers, all was well until I looked at the numbers.

It's one of the many little mental hurdles I'll be jumping over the next 8 months.

Today I'd be thrilled to break the 11 minute/mile mark. Last year at the Point Bock Run in early March my pace was 9:42/mile. Seems like a long way off, but I hope to break that pace when I run it again.

Is it really only 8 months? Shit.

Brick *

2009-01-15T14:09:00.001-06:00

Is a brick really a brick if ones transition time is longer than the subsequent run?

The wind was the determining factor in cutting my run short, but I did get out and make an effort. After half hour on the bike in the basement I toweled off, put on most of the clothes I own, and went out for the run portion. Definitely a lot harsher than the previous night. Instead of running around the entire subdivision, I settled on one lap of the shortest block, roughly 10 minutes, it was enough.

Today my legs are sore from all the recent activity, calves taking the worst of it. When I first got up I felt like I was walking in downhill ski boots, unable to flex at the ankle. They've loosened up some, but the first couple of steps whenever I get up are a little iffy. I expected this, now waiting for it to pass.

Still have not swam, pool closed last night because of the weather, is closed again today, and will likely be closed again tomorrow. That makes today a rest day, something I excel at.

* Brick - for those of you not in the know, is a workout of one triathlon discipline followed directly by a second, typically bike than run, but technically it could be any combination of the three. Unless otherwise noted, my brick comments will always be bike/run related.

Foiled

2009-01-14T09:58:00.001-06:00

For the second time in less than a week I actually got off my ass and made it to the pool only to be greeted by a swim meet. What is a boy to do?

I did get through my first run yesterday. Cold and slow. How slow, let's put it this way, my run speed in min/mile was greater than monday's bike speed in miles/hour. I think that says something about my general state of fitness. But it was cold, somewhere around 1 (one) degree F. And there was snow everywhere, and ice, and some people don't know how to shovel, and some people don't shovel, and it was cold.

But I'm not making excuses, I was out there, and it wasn't that bad. And I actually ran for 30 minutes. No walking, only one brief stop to discuss my lunacy of running in this weather with a friend passing by.

Tonight I have a brick workout on the plan, which sounds like a brilliant idea, 30 minutes inside getting sweaty followed by a 15 minute run on a -5 degree wisconsin winter night. But it will get done, worst case it will be done in reverse, but more than likely it will just be a really long transition. But it will get done.

Now I just need to figure out when to swim.

Foreign

2009-01-13T12:52:00.001-06:00

Strange, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, odd.

That's how it felt getting on my bike again yesterday, day 1 of week 1 of ironman training. The sit region took the worst of it after not been on a saddle in quite some time. The rest was uneventful if not boring. And slow, I rode painfully slow. Not that I really expected much different.

But as odd as I felt on the bike, it's probably just a glimpse of what I'll feel like in the water tonight.

DNS

2009-01-01T17:52:00.003-06:00

I didn't make it out to the New Years Day Dash this morning. I have no solid reason for not going out. That really is the truth of the matter. Lot's of excuses, some fairly legitimate, but nothing that would have stopped me had I actually wanted to participate.

Hopefully this is not a precursor to 2009. Straight up IM training starts in less than two weeks. No more excuses, no time for them.

Deep and Steep

2008-12-16T09:32:00.001-06:00

That would be a rough description of the hole I've dug myself over the last several months. I really had no intention on going on such a complete hiatus from training, it just worked out that way. Truth be told, the only thing lower than my motivation to exercise was my want to blog about it.

So I didn't, no running, no swimming, no biking, no blogging (obviously), nothing.

And here I am, three months or so later. A little rounder and hopefully somewhat refreshed and ready to head into 2009. Now it's just a matter of doing.

This morning without any real thought I registered for a race. In two weeks. Nothing like an impending race date for motivation to train. I have a feeling there will be a lot of these to get me through winter/spring.

This one is the New Year's Day Dash, 5-miles of cold. It's not going to be pretty, but so be it.

I've also registered for all my primary 2009 races.

First off is Ironman Kansas 70.3. Selected for the hilly bike course and what appears to be a viewer friendly event. I reserved a prime campsite, right on the run course where the family should be able to see runners from each direction on the three lap course. Looking forward to the trip, we have friends in Kansas City, and if I can weasel in a trip to Arthur Bryant's again, it will all be worth it. (It really is all about the food.)

Next is Spirit of Racine. Swimming in the big pond, my only hesitation with respect to this race. The rest is fast and flat. If nothing else it should be a PR for the distance.

Lastly IM Wisconsin. Ten months and counting. I really have not thought about it much.

That's it for the big ones. I've all but written off the marathon plan, but there is still a part of me that wants to do the Country Music Marathon in April. If I can get in a running rhythm before the end of the year I'll hold onto it for a little longer.

Deep breath, that's exactly what I just did after rereading what I just wrote. Gidde up.

Reunited

2008-09-21T19:33:00.004-05:00

And it was ok. Not really the makings of a sappy love song, but it is what it is.

I got back on wilson, my tri-bike, for the first time in a good month. For whatever reason I haven't ridden it since Pigman back in August. Seems like a long time ago.

Felt like it too.

First couple miles were the hardest. First major bump was a quick reminder of just how much different this ride is then the mountain bike. Ouch.

We quickly fell back into a rhythm. Some cleaning and maintenance yesterday paid off and we had no issues all day.

Did one lap of the IMoo bike course. It's still hard. Imagine that, sitting on my ass for a month hasn't made the bike course any easier or faster.

Was good to get back out. If nothing else it was a quick reminder of what lies ahead. I anticipate many many miles on this course in the coming year.

Monday Night Ride Report

2008-09-15T20:13:00.002-05:00

Tonight P and I went out for a ride. Everything was going great. P was having fun, nice easy ride for me, just what I needed, probably what we both needed. Then I ran him over, literally.

I don't even know how it happened. He was riding off to my right and just in front of me. For reasons unkown he lost control, swerving into my front tire before going down. Flat road, no cars, no corners, nothing, except a 7-year old hyped up on chocolate and fresh air.

P ended up in a heap under his bike, under me and my bike, which I managed to bring to a stop only after the front wheel rolled over him. Not so good.

After shotputting my bike into the ditch and digging him out from under his we sat on the shoulder and surveyed the damage while he cryed it out. Amazingly, nothing significant. Three small scrapes on his back, some roughed up hands and a banged up knee. Typical boy stuff, at least from what I remember.

He sucked it up and we rode the last mile or so home without issue. Even with the trauma of getting run over by dad he still had a great time. Covered 9-1/2 miles, a new distance record (for him).

The Plan

2008-09-10T08:52:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure how well the following will show up, but it's basically my training plan for the next year in short form.

The IM plan morphed from a 30-week plan outlined in Don Fink's book, beIRONfit. The plan called for a 1/2 distance race at week 22. I want to do two 1/2's next year, so I'm starting early and repeating 5 weeks in the middle.

Seeing as I can't swim and I've never been a runner, I've morphed the plan a little more to incorporate some additional work in these areas.

First the swim, starting way early and focusing on open water come summer. I'm leaving myself another couple of months rest to hopefully get my shoulder recovered and my attitude adjusted. When I do start swimming again I'll be looking for some help to get my stroke in order. Sally, I'm looking at you.

As far as the run, I want to get a marathon in, and do it early in the spring before IM training gets heavy. I'd have liked to do one earlier, but I couldn't find anything appealing. I'll outline key races in another post.

For the next 12 weeks it's just going to be running with the goal of shaving some time off my 5k. No formal bike training plans. I'll probably commute to work some more, and I'd really like to do more trail riding now that it's cool and the bugs are gone, but nothing formal for the bike.

I think that's it, comments and thoughts appreciated.

I'm In

2008-09-08T19:35:00.002-05:00

Made it through the 2009 Ironman registration line this morning relatively quickly. Much to my surprise registration did not sell out on-site. It did sell out online within 20 minutes.

I don't think it's really hit me yet. There was no real emotion when I finally signed up. No relief, no nerves, no elation, nothing. It may just be exhaustion, we did a lot of running around the last couple of days. My lack of activity since Pigman may have come back to bite me in the ass.

Being around Ironman for the last week was fun. Catching bikes coming into T2 was eye opening. A lot of agony, especially towards the end. One guy made it in right at the cutoff. Thankfully I didn't have to witness anybody come in after it, would have been hard to take.

We didn't stick around to watch the later finishers, but I did walk the course for 1-1/2 hours or so after my shift. My opinion, watching runners midway through an ironman marathon is not the place to draw inspiration or motivation. At least not for me. It was painful watching some of those people run.

So here we go. I have my training more or less planned out and all of my key races selected. I'll lay it all out here soon. Also going to be participating in a second blog, a collaborative effort from bunch of peeps doing IMoo 2009.

Hold on, going to be a long ride.

Ironingman

2008-09-08T06:42:00.001-05:00

Living with a four year old can be entertaing. Yesterday G asked Mel where I was at, her answer, Ironingman. Foolish girl, she'll soon realize there is no such thing.

I'm here waiting to register. Long line, nervous people, fun stuff.

Gatorade Swim

2008-09-05T08:49:00.001-05:00

Wow, hard to believe it's only been a little over two weeks since Pigman and the last aquathon swim. Despite what I would call perfect conditions this morning, I felt like I had never swam in open water.

Plan was to do two laps of the leg that was marked out. Before I even got to the start buoy I knew the plan was out the window.

On the way out I couldn't swim straight at all, was all over the place. Never really did get in a rhythm. Swim a bit stop look around, soak it all up, fix goggles, catch breath, swim some more. It was cool being out there and in the start area, tons of nervous energy. I had a knot in my stomach walking down there, can't imagine how the athletes feel.

At one point on the way back I stopped and floated on my back and just looked around. Lake Monona feels much larger than any lake I've swam in. I thought having the Terrace on my left on the way back would be cool. I never saw it, unless I made a conscious effort to look for it, which was too much work.

Made it to the second to last buoy in 18:23, back in 16:08. With the swim out and back I figure I was in the water for 40 minutes. It was enough.

The rest of the course was getting set up as I left, I may try to get another swim in tomorrow before the volunteer meeting. One thing is certain, I have a lot of work to do.

Guest Post

2008-09-04T10:20:00.002-05:00

Ummm dad, it's me, the dog.

Remember me?

Some say mans best friend?
Running partner extraordinaire?

Any of this ringing a bell?

Probably not, it's been like, forever.

What's that, ice cream? Ohhh I like ice cream.

Come on dad, little lick.

Just a taste, come on.

Heyyy dad, over here.

Come on, one time.

DADDDDDD!!!!!!

Least let me lick out the bowl.

Come on.

Asshole.

Where was I, oh yeah, so, we ever going running again?

What's it been, about a year my time? Seems like it.

Case you haven't noticed, it's nice and cool out.

And dammit,

WANT

RUN

Dad?

(sigh) I thought I slept a lot

Anyone want to run?

I'm free, well, all the ^%$*!@% time!

Anyone?

Sick

2008-09-04T09:37:00.001-05:00

I took a detour on the way to work this morning to go look at the Ironman swim course. Only one long leg of the rectangular was marked out, but just looking at it made me sick to my stomach. The gas station ho-ho's I had for breakfast may have contributed, but I'm pretty sure it was the course.

Four buoys, two red, two yellow. Standing at the swim start area in Law Park I could almost see the last red one, holy crap. Down and back, twice, plus the short leg of the rectangle, twice, oh boy.

I didn't actually swim, maybe tomorrow, maybe saturday before or after the volunteer meeting. One way or another I'm going out there. Just need to know.

Dumbass

2008-08-21T21:25:00.001-05:00

That would be me.

Aquathon #4 was tonight. After sitting in the parking lot for 45 minutes (I go there straight from work) I head over to check in and get set up.

First order of business, change into race shorts. Problem, I apparently didn't pack appropriate shorts, no speedo, no tri-shorts, no bike shorts, zero, nodda, nothing. Only thing I have are the baggy shorts I put on over my swim/bike wear to run in.

Shit.

Quick check to see what I'm wearing for underwear, double shit, boxers.

What to do, what to do? Problem is I really wanted to at least swim. It was windy, wavy, and rough. I like it rough, makes it more interesting.

So the baggy shorts went on and I attempted to roll the wetsuit on over the combination of loose fitting shorts without pulling an excess of material into my arse. Done, for the most part.

Jump in, get bounced around by the waves, wait for the race to start. Still not sure what I'm going to do once I finish the swim portion, the thought of a 30-minute run unsupported wasn't very appealing, even after getting out of a relatively cold lake.

Think, "I was in the pool" - George Costanza. At least I've got something to think about while I swim.

Swim absolutely flew by, when I first pulled into the parking lot the buoys were already out and I swore they weren't out all the way. Amazing how perception changes after doing the 1/2. I'm curious to see the IM course markers, they weren't out yet this afternoon. Incidentally, I'd like to do a leisurely lap or two of the IM swim course sometime prior to IM if anyone would like to join me.

Plan again was to try and stay with a pack and draft. No such luck, I soon ended up alone, but remarkably, I stayed on the buoy line pretty much the whole way. On the final leg one swimmer was adjacent to me so I fell back and attempted to draft her. It's hard. I'd lose her every 4 breaths or so, stick my head up and go catch her. Never was able to just stay on her feet for any distance.

Swam in, walked to transition, pulled off the wetsuit, walked over to the finish line, and turned in my chip. Based on a quick glance at the race clock, my swim time was about 19 minutes. I'll take it, maybe next time I'll just do the run.

The Pig in Pictures

2008-08-21T07:16:00.010-05:00

Links to the complete race report: prerace, swim, bike, run.

Wilson decked out and ready to roll prior to my walk down to the start. The water bottle cage behind the seat is the one that decided to break just into the ride.

Prerace, coming up to meet the family prior to heading out. Seriously, does anyone look good in one of these things.

Go time, this picture shows the angle of the sun with respect to the direction we were headed, makes me realize I should have been able to see without issue.

Running up to transition, one of the few times I would actually run. I did walk once I got there.

T1, notice how empty the racks are, advantage of being a crappy swimmer.

Coming back in on the bike, apparently I couldn't even keep up with the camera.

On the way out, not really sure what I'm doing, besides ignoring my daughter.

Coming back in with Mel in tow. Done, finally.

The Walking Pig

2008-08-18T20:21:00.003-05:00

Pig's don't run, do they? I don't know. I guess they probably do if they have to.

T2 was an uneventful 2:53, sat down to put on running shorts and shoes. It still doesn't feel right to run in my underwear, which is what I feel like if I run in just bike shorts. So I added shorts and took off my compression top for my loose sleeveless running shirt.

The run out of transition was painful to say the least. I made it up to the corner where I walked to say hi to the family, then ran off again, partly because I just couldn't bear to walk in front of the kids. Seems somewhat foolish now, but that's how I felt at the time. This lasted maybe a 1/4 mile before the pain in my back was too much to take. Relatively speaking, my legs actually felt pretty good.

So I walked and kept trying to stretch or rub out the pain in my back. I had tylenol with me, meant to take aspirin but grabbed the wrong bottle. At the first aid station (mile 1) I took the tylenol and continued walking, I knew at the 2-mile mark there was a long down hill section, plan was to walk to that point and then start running at the hill.

I'm not sure if I had already mentally checked out already or not, the more I think about it, the more I think I had. The two mile mark came and I started running again. I almost made it to the bottom of the hill before I quit and started walking again, my back was starting to loosen up, but it was still quite painful.

At this point I basically quit, I don't know how else to put it. I don't know that the thought of actually stopping ever seriously entered my mind, but I quit. I couldn't see the point of continuing to try and run. Push and suffer, or walk and try to enjoy a 13.1 mile buffet of aid stations.

So I walked, just after the third aid station I felt like I had a something in my right shoe. At the 4-mile mark I sat on the bumper of a volunteer's vehicle to inspect my foot and shoe. Nothing, not in the sock, not in the shoe, not on the foot. But as soon I put the shoe back on the pain was back. Apparently blister #1 was forming, it basically took over the entire side and bottom of my second toe, the pinkies neighbor.

There were many times where I contemplated running again. Then I'd ask myself why, and I never could come up with an answer. The course was an out an back. I could see everyone coming back in and it wasn't pretty, lots of slow painful shuffles. I should mention that by this point it was about 85 and sunny, no shade anywhere and not much in the way of wind. Tough conditions to run in. My back had loosened up and felt more or less normal, but I was in a pretty good mood and didn't really want to leave my happy place. So I just kept walking. Focused on reaching the turn around on the way out, then on the next mile marker on the way back.

The blister on my toe soon had a companion on the ball of my foot. One that ended up larger than a quarter. Blisters are another thing I haven't had to deal with, good stuff.

My only real goal at this point was to find someone to walk with, didn't happen at all on the way out, on the way back there was an older couple walking maybe a 1/2-mile in front of me. It was enough inspiration to keep me moving, but not enough to make me want to run. I did catch them and walked with them for a couple of miles. At either the 10 or 11 mile aid station they stopped and I didn't really want to so I left them and walked on.

3:12:42 after leaving T2 I crossed the finish line with daughter in tow. Seeing how happy the kids were to finally see me made it worth while. I think in the end it was or will be easier to explain why I was slow rather than try to explain why I quit. That could be the only reason I stayed out there, I don't know.

We went back down to the beach where I hobbled into the lake to cool off. My two blisters had a third friend on my heel almost the size of a quarter. All of them on my right foot, same foot I burned two days earlier in the pasta water incident. The water felt great, the walk back up to transition and back to the van, not so much.

Total time ended up at 7:23:18. Obviously not the race I was hoping for. I have a whole new appreciation for IM and the training and dedication that must go into preparing for it. Walking for 3+ hours gives you a lot of time to contemplate why you do things and what your motivations are. I didn't come to any conclusions out there on the course, but I did enjoy the walk, which is a small miracle in and of itself.

The Biking Pig

2008-08-18T17:39:00.003-05:00

Made it through transition in 3:19, including a pretty good run up from the beach. No issues here, but I had to pee. There was one porta potty at the outlet, but there was one guy already waiting so I decided to hold it until the first aid station.

I can't bring myself to pee on the go, something inherently wrong with it from a back of the pack perspective. If you're looking to win, go ahead and piss yourself. When the difference might be between 364th and 370th place, have some dignity and find a pot to piss in, or a bush, anything. Enough said.

Goal on the bike was to find someone to pace off of and go easy. Didn't really happen, just out of the park I got behind one guy for about two miles before his pace dropped way off. After that I was generally moving faster than those around me, that happens when your a bad swimmer. I got passed by maybe a dozen guys within the first 5-miles and all I could think was wow, there are shittier swimmers than me.

At maybe the 6-mile mark we crossed some railroad tracks. There were a ton of bottles on the ground so I went to check mine. I grabbed the bottle and it was loose and came out just as I grabbed it, so I thought. Turns out the cage came off with the bottle, the bracket was still on the bike, it just broke clean off from the cage. I had an extra bottle holder in back on the other side so after staring at it quizzically for a moment I shook off the cage and stuffed the bottle in the spare. So much for cheap water bottle cages.

The first aid station came and went with no porta potty, maybe 17 miles in going through small town Iowa I came around a corner to find an aid station and a porta potty. Quick stop and I was a much happier boy. Little tough coming out and watching a bunch of people I just passed going by, but it was worth it.

The first 40-miles absolutely flew by. Seriously. I spun up and over the hills and coasted down them. There was nothing else, no flats, just up and down, but it seemed like it was all uphill. Nothing steep, nothing you couldn't spin up, I don't think I ever got out of the seat by necessity, they just never ended. It was definitely a challenging course, not hilly by IM Wisconsin standards, but it was anything but flat.

At about the 2-1/2 hour mark, maybe 43 miles in, something happened in my back which basically ended my "race". Up until this point I was feeling really good and having fun.

I don't know what it was, but it almost brought me to tears on several occasions on the way in. Basically felt like a major muscle strain or pull, left side from the bottom of the shoulder blade straight down to the small of the back. No idea where it came from or what caused it, I've never dealt with anything like it.

I sat up and tried to rub it out and stretch as best I could, didn't help at all. The last 13 or so miles were a real struggle. I couldn't sit in the aerobars for any length of time without big time pain. Sitting up wasn't much better. This part really was a mental game, I kept relating whatever distance I had left with known routes back home. Seemed to work and it took my mind off the more major issues.

Coming into T2 I took my shoes off just after the last corner, felt great to get some air to the feet and I had a long walk from the dismount line all the way through transition to my rack. Easier to do it in socks than bike shoes.

Final time was 3:15:22, 17.2 mph.

I didn't have any real issues with the bike course. The roads weren't ideal, no shoulders, the railroad crossings were brutal, and the bridge that was under construction was interesting to say the least. What I will say is that the race directors did an excellent job with what they had to work with. Everything was very clearly marked, railroad tracks, rumble strips, miles markers every 5-miles, and regular signs telling motorists there was a race in progress.

Volunteers did an excellent job as well. I did almost t-bone a minivan coming back through the last intersection in Palo, but it wasn't the cops fault, the bonehead in the van just chose to ignore him and turn left in front of me. Cop was livid, with the back pain I was experiencing it didn't really bother me. That's how bad I felt.

The Swimming Pig

2008-08-18T14:25:00.002-05:00

This was to be a race with many problems I've never had to deal with before, started from the get go.

Swim start was a time trial start, one person in the water every 3 seconds. Still by waves, and I was in wave 8 of 9. Entire start went off really smooth, big fan of the format.

The first leg of the swim didn't head straight into the sun, but pretty damn close. If I remember correctly the sun was just off to the left. I breath on the left. Couldn't see at all, just followed the swimmers I could see and hoped I was heading in the right direction.

This really messed with my mindset, instead of focusing on the swim I was totally taken over by not being able to see. To top it off I started to feel nauseous as well. Not sure if it was actually physical, or just something in my head. Amazingly I made it to the first swim buoy without much issue.

After I turned the corner, with the sun behind me, it became pretty clear that my goggles had fogged up. I've never had this problem while open water swimming. Pools yes, lakes no.

I was very hesitant to stop and fix it but pretty quickly did. Much better, but now I found myself a good 30-40 yards out from the buoy line. Kept swimming towards the next buoy, but never really closed the gap to the group of swimmers. Mindset was still out of whack from everything up to this point, and I still felt like I might puke.

Pretty soon a huge yellow buoy was in the distance and I thought it was the turn back towards shore, still being way off line, I made a much stronger effort to get to it and turn home. Only when I got there did I realize everyone else was still going straight. We were maybe midway through the second leg. This was another huge blow to the mindset. Relaxing and focusing on swimming just wasn't possible.

The rest of the second leg was uneventful, and I finally made the turn back to the beach. I ran into the most contact on the last leg, nothing terrible. Then something amazing happened, I remembered how to swim. For the first time I was able to just relax and focus and swim and everything felt good.

Swam in until my hand hit the bottom. I never do this, usually try to stand up and soon as I think the water is shallow enough. So I stood up, and promptly fell over. Took a little bit to get my legs under me. Stripped the wetsuit to my waist and began the long run up to transition. I felt good and was ready to get on with it.

Swim time was 49:05, much slower than planned, but I was just happy to be out of the water. G said she heard a lot of people complaining about the swim being long, could have been, I don't know. She also said people were complaining about boat exhaust, I didn't notice any of that either.

My only complaint about the swim was the lack of kayaks in the water. From the shore before the start I think I only saw one. While swimming I noticed none, and only one boat. You would think with 500+ swimmers stretched out over a mile (and the real possibility of a non wetsuit swim), a dozen or so support kayaks might not be too much to ask. Maybe I just didn't see them, I'm not always that observant.

The Pig (pre-race)

2008-08-18T09:04:00.003-05:00

I don't even know where to start. This could end up being a long rambling post with no flow what so ever, but more than likely it will end up being a series of shorter ramblings, interrupted by a series of naps throughout the day.

I don't feel bad, just tired.

Prerace
We pulled into the state park friday afternoon and set-up camp. Nice park, little odd there is no check-in or office, just drive to your site and set-up. Good thing I searched high and low for our reservation confirmation so I knew which site was ours.

Dinner friday night turned interesting when I decided to dump boiling hot pasta water on my right foot while wearing sandals. Son a bitch that hurt, and it hurt for a long time. Kept ice on it for the rest of the night, saturday morning it still hurt to put anything on it.

Ended up popping a kidney bean size blister in the middle of a pretty good size red area on the inside top of my foot. There was a good period of time where I seriously questioned being able to start the race.

Later saturday morning I went for a short ride, just out of the park down the hill and back, about six miles, just enough to loosen up, make sure everything was working right. Foot seemed ok.

Headed into town after lunch for packet pick-up. Went about as smoothly as possible. Picked up some waterproof band-aids for the foot. Jumped in the lake for a family swim in the afternoon. Water seemed cold (79 was the report from packet pick-up), but we had fun.

Dinner saturday night wasn't nearly as eventful, went to bed about 10, didn't sleep well. Up at 5, ate a bagel, pumped up the bike tires and walked down to transition in the predawn light, beautiful morning.

Set-up was uneventful, found out rather quickly water temperature was 77, yeah, wetsuit legal swim. Eventually put the wetsuit on and headed to the water.

Sat in the water for a while just relaxing and finally spotted the family on the beach. Big relief, for whatever reason I really wanted to see and talk to them before the race.

More later, time for a nap. I tired.

Leaving Iowa

2008-08-17T16:07:00.001-05:00

Finished, wasn't pretty. Blisters made for a really long walk. Complete write-up coming.

Protest and Frustration

2008-08-13T08:56:00.001-05:00

G and I did a sprint triathlon last weekend in New Glarus, Alphornman, small first year race, maybe a 100 participants. G wanted to do another sprint, some friends were also going out, so I tagged along.

My frustration and subsequent protest stems from my swim time, which I refuse to believe is correct. 11 minutes flat for a 450 yard pool swim (it also included a very short run to the edge of the pool area, maybe 5 seconds). That's 2:26 per 100 yards. 2:25 if you subtract the run.

Here are my swim paces for previous races this year. I am not Michael Phelps, nobody will ever confuse us, in or out of the water. With the exception of Capitol View, all of these swims are significantly longer than the 450 I did this weekend.

Aquathon #1 - 2:21/
Capitol View - 1:56/
Aquathon #2 - 1:45/
Bigfoot - 2:13/
Aquathon #3 - 1:48/

At Aquathon #1 I held onto a kayak at one point to catch my breath and swam the entire second leg on my back with my hands folded on my stomach (along with some of each of the other legs), yet still 5 seconds faster than last weekend?

Bigfoot was much the same, miserable swim, walked and/or stood still to catch my breath regularly on the second half of the swim, but 13 seconds faster per 100?

Aquathon #3 was reportedly long, and still 38 seconds per 100 faster?

I've emailed the race director, very nicely, asking that results and swim seedings be posted, so I can compare my swim time to those in my lane/wave. No response, and nothing at all has been posted. That's the frustrating part.

Other than that, good race, challenging bike, flat run, good support. G won her age group and I think was the 3rd overall girl. I finished maybe 11th in the boys. And yes, she beat me, by about the difference between my posted and what should be my expected swim time.

I feel better now, hopefully I can focus on the pig. Thinking about pig makes me hungry, mmmm bacon.

6:17

2008-08-12T06:16:00.007-05:00

Pigman is this weekend, the culmination of year #1 on my two year quest to become ironman. 6:17 is not really a goal, more of a prediction. Only real goal is to enjoy it and finish without completely self destructing. Haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that yet. I don't feel at all prepared for the distance, except ironically, the swim.

Swim

I'm no longer concerned about the race being wetsuit legal, I'd have worn it anyway, but last week was pretty cool and this week is following suit, with temperatures getting into the 50's at night and barely breaking 80 during the day.

My only concern is my shoulder, it still feels like it is going to fall off after swimming any distance at all. I'm thinking I should do a Kerri Walsh type tape job on it:

I don't know how it could possibly help, but it seems to work for her and I'd have some fantastic tan lines by the end of the day.

Swim is a wave/time trial start. Still broken into waves, but one swimmer in the water every 3 seconds, should be interesting, but I'm going to miss the mass chaos of a group start.

I hope to be out of the water in 39-minutes, based on my last two Aquathons this is pushing it, but still doable.

Bike

I'm starting in the second to last swim wave, couple this with my incredible swim speed and I'll have just about every participant in front of me to chase down on the bike, and there's the problem, I'll try. I just know it.

Pacing is going to be critical. It's something I've struggled with on long rides. Ten miles in I'm sure I'll find myself pushing 20 mph up a long hill only to struggle at 14 mph on a flat section for the next 10-minutes. It's an issue I know I have, but haven't been able to get over. Plan is to go out easy and keep it easy, getting the head to actually communicate this plan with the legs may be another story.

Plan is to be off the bike in 3:23. Definitely doable, if I go much faster than this I'll definitely pay for it on the run

Run

The real wildcard for this race. I have no idea what to expect, could be anything up to and including a death march. For simplicity, I'm guessing, and honestly hoping, I can pull off a 2:11, 10-minute miles.

I think this brings me to 6:13, throw in 4-minutes for transitions and we arrive at the magical 6:17 number quoted above.

The forecast looks good except for the rain. Highs in the 70's, beautiful. 40% chance of rain, not so beautiful. But I'll take it over 95 and sunny.

We leave friday morning, camping at the state park. The only part I'm not looking forward to is the drive home after the race. The thought of 3-4 hours in the van after 6+ hours on the course is not appealing at all.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

2008-08-10T16:58:00.007-05:00

With mom and I diving head first into the triathlon world, our oldest decided he really wanted to compete in one as well. Saturday Oregon held it's 3rd annual kid's triathlon. 422 kids finished, lots of fun. For his age group it was a 50-yard swim, 1.0 mile bike, and a 0.4 mile run.

Body marked and chip timed just like the adults, how cool is that.

Half way through the swim. He has all his fathers grace and skill in the pool. After losing his goggles recently, he refused to wear his sisters pink ones. I don't blame him.

Coming back in on the bike, after an early morning pep talk and walk through, I convinced him he didn't need me to ride the course with him. He's still kind of shaky on the bike, can't hold a straight line to save his life. It was a big relief seeing him on the way in.

Almost to the finish, pretty sure I've never looked that strong, or happy, while running.

Hanging with his buddy sam after the race.

Good times.

Aquathon #3

2008-08-07T21:27:00.002-05:00

Turned out to be a perfect night for Aquathon #3. Skipped dinner and was really hungry by the time I went to register. Grabbed a packet of orange hammer gel and some gatorade, it would have to do. First time for me and gel, strange stuff.

Swam out to the intermediate buoys as a warm up and then just sat around in the water waiting for the start.

Swim
My plan going in was to try and hold on to some feet and draft. Didn't work out that way. After the first 100-yards or so I was all by my lonesome. At some point I drifted maybe 20-yards off to the right, and even though I seemed to be swimming straight at the first buoy, I never got back in line with the pack.

Same thing happened on the way to the second buoy. It was odd, every time I sited (6-8 breathes), the buoy was right in front of me, yet I ended up off to the right. By the time I turned the second buoy I was convinced I was in last place.

I pushed pretty hard on the last leg, still convinced I was the last one out there, and surprisingly, found myself drifting right again. Overall time was 19:45, 70/84, and 32 seconds slower than the last Aquathon.

Run
There is a pretty good hill on this course in the first half mile, by the time I got to the top of it I seriously felt like I was going to implode. At the first mile mark I found out why, 8:05. That's unheard of fast for me, no wonder I felt like I was headed towards total system shut down.

I spent the second mile trying to get everything back under control. Shortly before the turn around I settled in behind a group of girls going at a much more comfortable pace. That lasted for about 1/2-mile before they dropped off, I think just to let the stalker (me) go by.

The second mile was much more reasonable at 9:32. At this point I knew I could set a 5K PR if I just kept a semi-reasonable pace for the last mile. So I picked it up again, pushed up the hill, pretty much tumbled down the other side, then pushed with whatever I had left back to the finish. Mile 3 at 8:11, total time 26:23 (8:31/mile), a new 5K PR by 1:26.

Run time was 64/84, Finished at 47:23, 2:23 seconds faster than last time, and 71 out of 84.

Obviously I feel pretty good about the run, but I feel pretty good about the swim as well. According to one of the race organizers, the second buoy drifted way off course, making the swim longer than usual. He didn't say whether it was 50-yards or 200, but combine this with the scenic route I took and it adds up to a pretty fast swim, for me. To top it off I actually felt pretty good coming out of the water, I didn't really want to swim another lap, but I felt like I could have if I had to, like I will next week at Pigman.

Game On!!

2008-08-07T14:22:00.001-05:00

After the cancellation of Aquathon #3 twice due to blue green algae, we received the following email from the race director:

"The aquathon scheduled for tonight is ON!
See everyone tonight @ 7:00 pm."

I'm not to concerned, it's early, it's warm, the sun is out. Plenty of time and perfect conditions for another algae bloom.

Actually I've been looking forward to these events. Anxious to see if all this open water training has paid off. Tonight I'm going to try and find some feet and stay on them.

Ice

2008-08-05T08:25:00.001-05:00

Mass balance calcs indicate that it would take approximately 12,202,995 cubic feet of ice to lower the water temperature of Pleasant Creek Lake from 79 to 77 degrees. That's the entire 401 acre lake from top to bottom. But, let's be realistic, we don't need to cool the entire lake down.

The swim area will occur in a roughly 50-acre area of the lake, if we concern ourselves with only this area, and only the upper 3-feet of this area, our required volume is down to just 304,314 cubic feet, again, approximately.

Logistics could be a problem. But, if I could convince each of the 587 individuals registered to bring ice, we're only looking at 518 cubic feet each. That's doable....

Open Water

2008-08-04T16:23:00.001-05:00

In the six weeks since Bigfoot, I've managed to get in 13 swims, all in open water. I forgot all about sets and drills and just swam, and swam, and swam, and swam.

Lake Ripley has become by beach of choice, the water is clean(er), the swim area is huge (9-10 minute laps), and it's generally pretty quiet. Lake Kegonsa scores much better in convenience, but the water isn't always so nice, and the swim area is much smaller (4-ish minute laps). Swimming at Lake Ripley also gives me the added excuse to stop at Camrock Park to ride the trails. I haven't broken anything there, yet.

Back to swimming....

On each of my outings I went in with the intent to swim non-stop, or if I did stop, to keep the feet off the bottom and recover like I might have to if say, I was in the middle of a deep(er) lake. With very rare exception, I did pretty well. The numbers:

10 hours, 27 minutes

An estimated 28,900 yards (16+ miles)

Most swims in the 40 minute range, several around an hour, and my longest yesterday morning at 75 minutes. Which incidentally, has left me feeling like my right shoulder is about to fall off.

Enough swimming that I should be confident going into Pigman, and I am, as long as I can wear my wetsuit. That's the downside, I haven't swam without my wetsuit in six weeks. Not a big deal, until I get an email from the Pigman race director saying water temperatures are going to be near 78 degrees, and the call on wetsuits will be made on race day.

Frankly, it's almost left me sick to my stomach, my choices, should water temps be 78+. Don't start, or wear it anyway. It'll be a race day decision. In the meantime, I'm hoping for cool weather and trying to figure out exactly how much ice I'd need to dump in the lake to bring the water temperature down a couple of degrees. I'm an engineer, shouldn't be to difficult.

Humbled....

2008-08-01T19:05:00.002-05:00

or just plain embarrassed, you decide.

Let's set the stage, I'm about 8-miles into my ride home from work, heading east on Cottage Grove Road going up the hill over the interstate.

When I get passed by a guy on a road bike, wearing a backpack, with a cast on one leg.

Let me repeat that for those of you in the cheap seats.

A dude on a road bike,

wearing a backpack,

with a cast on one leg,

passed me,

going up a hill.

Lest you think this is over, it is not, not by a long shot. I immediately catch back up to him and sit on his wheel. This lasts for about 12 seconds before he slowly pulls away from me.

This particular hill is fairly long but pretty gradual, so I keep him in my sights, he's not getting away. After a minute I pull it together and decide it's time to reel him in.

Ever so slowly I think he's coming back to me, I'm about to implode, but I just can't let him go. And then he turns, and the chase is over.

Normally I don't care all that much, I'm slow, I'm used to it, but this was too much.

Waunafest

2008-07-26T17:23:00.005-05:00

The longest run of my training plan corresponded with the Waunafest 10-mile run this morning so I decided to get in a training "race". Easier to run with a couple hundred others and crowd support so why not.

Despite a valliant effort to sabotage my body earlier in the week, I actually had a very good run. Let's recap the highlights of the previous week:

Tuesday: mountain bike and rocky trails, enough said.

Wednesday: 60-mile ride, a rough one, not much to say about it

Then comes yesterday and our annual marathon golf outing. 56-holes over 12-hours, preceded by a McDonalds breakfast, interrupted by a cheeseburger and fries at lunch, and followed by pizza and beer at 9:00pm last night.

With the exception of some after effects of my previous days "nutrition". I actually felt pretty good this morning. The annual golf marathon usually wipes me out, this year not so much. The exercise could be paying off, but we also had great weather.

Back to the race. Cannon start at 7:30 and we're off. Plenty of slow people to run with, big help. Morning was hot and humid with not a cloud in site. Saving grace were sprinklers, lots of sprinklers set up in the residential neighborhoods at the edge of the road. There were also a lot of unofficial water stations, just kids or families out handing out water. Community really seemed to get behind the event. Run was almost enjoyable.

Final time was 1:33:50, 9:25/mile. 29/33 age group, 192/213 male, 283/341 overall. Wow I'm slow.

Extremely happy with the run. Had planned on walking at least a portion, but I never felt the need. I did walk to drink, but they were very brief breaks. To top it off, I actually feel pretty good. Time to put cheeseburgers and beer back on the training plan, not that they were ever really gone.

Gneiss & Smooth

2008-07-22T22:06:00.002-05:00

I've heard rumors on how difficult the single track trails at Blue Mound State Park are. Now normally when I go in with high expectations I end up disappointed. Not so in this case. Holy shit.

Best decision I made was going back to the truck to get my gloves when I got to the trail head. First tumble came within 50-yards of the parking lot. Rocks, stumps, rocks, roots, rocks, and logs everywhere. Did I mention the rocks. Oy.

I struggled through, getting out of the pedals when necessary, often in a last minute panic. One of my last minute dismounts found me grabbing at a small tree for support. The result was what felt like a broken pinkie finger (it's fine now) and a bleeding thumb (also fine now, despite a pretty good gash).

At the 3-mile point I looked at my watch, 49-minutes. Shit, I can walk faster than that. It's possible the mileage on my bike computer wasn't right, it did quit on me later on in the ride.

I ended up riding two more single track loops, aborting each loop before the most difficult of the shit I rode the first time by jumping on the road and riding back to the state park entrance. Second time through was the easiest of the three, fading light and fatigue made the last one harder.

Just after hopping back on the road the last time my chain broke. I'm surprised something didn't break sooner. I've never run so much shit into rocks, stumps and logs. Pedals, cranks, chain ring, frame, I really don't like the sound of rock crunching metal.

I ended up at about 2-hours and I'm guessing maybe 10 miles. Of all things, my triceps are incredibly sore. It was fun, but I didn't enjoy it as much as my previous outings. Difficult is one thing, with my experience trail riding, these were bordering on sadistic.

Maybe next time I'll attempt the "difficult" trail, Holy Schist.

Rain Damnit

2008-07-20T10:16:00.002-05:00

Those were my sentiments less than 20 minutes into my long run with dog this morning.

Shortly after 7:00 am we set out, it wasn't that warm, low 70's maybe, but the humidity was 162% (my estimate). Those high tech wicking fabrics are useless when evaporation simply isn't possible.

It actually went fairly well. Despite 3 pee breaks (dog), 2 poop breaks (dog), 1 water stop (me), 3 swim breaks (dog), and stopping to smell everything that looked remotely interesting (dog, mostly) we actually managed to get in a bit of running. Including our 12-minute cool down walk at the end, we managed 10-miles in about 1:45.

I thought maybe I was actually wearing the dog out, until he broke into his own version of crazy laps at our last swim stop. He usually reserves this until we reach home, but when I removed the leash so he could jump in the river he figured it was time.

I think it's basically his way of saying "You're still a slow out of shape piece of shit, and you'll never keep up with me. To prove it I'm going all out, around the house, up the street, over, around, or though anything that gets in my way. Regardless of how far we just ran, or how hot it is".

He broke it out again when we got home, damn dog.

Tour de France

2008-07-16T10:23:00.001-05:00

I had the Tour de France on the other night when Melanie, our four year old, walks in.

Mel: What are you watching?

Me: A bicycle race.

Mel: Oh. (long pause) When's the running?

Me: There is no running, it's just a bicycle race.

Mel: No running?

Me: No, just a bicycle race.

Mel: Oh. (another long pause) Where are you?

I honestly don't know what I said at this point. All I could really do is laugh.

Singletrack Mind

2008-07-15T16:29:00.001-05:00

I had the opportunity this past weekend to do something I haven't done in a long, long time. I took the mountain bike off-road and hit some singletrack trails. Or maybe it was the trails that hit me, it's hard to tell.

The sign at the trailhead was green and said "easy", it wasn't all that, easy. Apparently puttering around on my bike for almost a year now on the side of the road does very little for bringing back ones bike handling skills on a narrow tree lined trail that turns repeatedly and without warning.

I used to do a lot of trail riding, 10ish years ago. If I remember correctly, my trail riding days came to a pretty abrupt end shortly after uttering the phrase, "I can jump that" up at Devils Head. I still have the busted helmet that came as a result.

Anyway, I seriously don't remember trail riding being that difficult. The climbing was easy, and I definitely have all the road miles to thank for that. Everything else, not so much. Being clipped into the pedals was the worst part. Managed a couple of last minute unclippings and grabbed a couple of trees to prevent unplanned dismounts. The first log I needed to cross presented a whole separate issue and I feel like my arm came off at the shoulder when I attempted to cross it, all 4-inches of it. Where or where have all those skills gone.

Aside from being difficult, it was one thing, fun. I loved every minute of it. Out of the wind, out of the sun, deer, birds, squirrels, nature at it's finest. Add in the bike, good company, and the constant change and challenge of the trails and it was a blast. I can't wait to do it again.

So after 3-days and maybe 3-hours of trail riding I'm sore, another whole new set of muscles screaming. Despite this, I am definitely going to try and get in a regular trail ride going forward. Not sure how it fits in with regular triathlon training, but if it's working new muscles I figure it has to be good.

Lucky I Guess

2008-07-10T18:54:00.004-05:00

I got stuck riding through this earlier tonight. I didn't intend to, shit just kind of happens when you head out for what was supposed to a 3-1/2 hour ride.

Went back out to Verona with the thoughts of doing one loop on the IM course plus either a sub-loop or an out and back on Whalen to kill the last hour-ish.

Nothing really to report, course is still hard as hell, thought of a second loop is still overwhelming.

Anyway, as I'm heading into Verona I start to notice it's getting dark, at 5:30, in the middle of summer. Coming down Main St. past the high school it's really dark, I don't notice a car without its lights on dark. As I pull up to the red light, it starts to absolutely pour. Luckily, I'm only about a mile or so from the truck which is parked at the Military Ridge trail parking lot.

So the light turns and I decide to do a controlled sprint in the pouring rain while trying not to get blown off my bike by some nasty crosswinds.

And all I could do was laugh.

Then I got cold, quick.

Unceremoniously tossed the bike in the back of the truck and jumped in. Transition time from bike to truck, 0.4 seconds.

One of these weeks I'll actually do a 56+ ride in preparation for Pigman. Maybe.

Five Weeks o' Hell

2008-06-29T18:52:00.002-05:00

Those were my first thoughts Monday morning when I looked forward to the upcoming training plan. Five final weeks of build before the taper leading up to Pigman. Oy.

Turns out when you don't really follow your training plan the first of those five weeks isn't that hard at all. So with four weeks left, priorities are 1) swim, 2) long run, 3) long bike, 4) everything else.

1) Swim - clearly my weakest link, so open water is job one for the next month. Shooting for three, maybe four times a week. Trick is finding clean water and an open beach. This week Lake Monona closed all its beaches again, not that I ever swim there, but it seemed to have trickled down to Lake Kegonsa State Park beach. My attempt to swim there this morning thwarted by a closed beach.

Determined, I searched out another puddle of mud, weeds, and who knows what else. First thought was Devils Lake, which apparently is open again, then G mentioned Lake Ripley. So we packed up the family and took a road trip to Cambridge, and it was nice, until it started raining. Attempt #2 thwarted after 20-minutes of swimming. But I'll likely be back, big swim area marked out by enough buoys to give you something to swim towards.

2) Long run - Another overlooked part of my training recently. I did get it in this week, but it also took me out for the next two days. Back issues, not so good.

3) Long bike - Probably my favorite of all the weekly workouts. This week it was the IM bike course, G joined me, and it was fun. Top speed of 54.2 mph, not sure where, not sure I want to know. Average speed not nearly as impressive, almost identical to my first time through the course.

Coming back through Verona we passed a brat stand. I rarely pass an opportunity to support our local youth (i.e. I love brats), so after riding back to the truck, running a rough mile, and loading everything up we headed back to the brat stand. Couple of brats and a soda later and all benefits of prior ride were shot, but damn they were good.

4) Everything else - Shorter runs and rides, should be easy to get in, but always seem to get lost in the mix.

So that's the plan heading into Pigman. Goal for the race is to have fun and finish more or less intact. We'll see.

Girl Power

2008-06-28T18:44:00.003-05:00

This is the only picture from Bigfoot really worth posting. Melanie, Patrick, and our niece Erin.

Pictures from Brightroom are also up, but I'm too cheap to actually buy them. If you feel the need, go here and search for 42 (me) or 43 (g). The one of me coming out of the water pretty much speaks for itself. I actually like the one of me on the bike with the storm clouds in the background.

Bigfoot Race Report

2008-06-22T19:04:00.004-05:00

Bigfoot Olympic Triathlon, let' just get to it, no fluff today, least not yet.

Swim
Sigh. That pretty much sums up my feelings on the effort. Experience was closer to my first Aquathon swim than my last. Started in the fourth wave, didn't really have a chance to warm up. Third wave goes off, we shuffle into the water like a herd of cattle and wait for the start. Water was nice.

Course was an out and back just off shore. The out wasn't terrible, very, very, little contact. But it was a long, long way out. Managed to freestyle the whole thing. I felt like just the out was harder than my last Aquathon. There was a decent chop on the water, but other than that, no reason it should have been that hard.

Coming back I just couldn't swim anymore. I'd get through 8-12 breaths and I'd need to take a break. Fortunate thing is the water was shallow and I could stand/walk when I needed a rest. As I'm walking out to the finish G pops up right behind me. At least she didn't beat me out of the water (she started 10-minutes behind me).

Swim 36:23 - 2:13/100 - 371/420 overall

Bike
Pissed off. Those were my emotions coming out of the water. I actually intended to try and pace myself a bit on the bike, but pace and pissed off don't exactly walk hand in hand. So I went out hard and never really let off. Somewhere midbike I forgot about the swim and started having fun again.

Drank my gatorade but found solid food was too much of an inconvenience. Around mile 17 I decided to put it in the big ring and push it the rest of the way in. With the exception of a couple of hills I managed to do just that. There's something to be said for cruising at 23+ miles an hour, even if I need some elevation relief and a tailwind to do it.

Bike 1:18:35 - 19.0 mph - 202/420 overall

Run
Coming into T2 I could barely walk much less run, hamstrings were in bad shape and I thought I was in for a long, long, 10.5k trail run.

Turns out it wasn't so bad. I walked through the water stations and, except for the first major one, the hills as well. About midway through the bike I started to feel the need to pee. So when I came upon a state park outhouse near the end of the first loop I decided to duck in for some relief.

Most disgusting outhouse I've ever been in. Just glad I wasn't having any more serious issues.

Second loop was much like the first. Took shirt off for a good part of it to help with the heat, otherwise just kept moving. Run went as well as I could expect. Came into finish and Patrick joined me for the run across the line.

Run 1:04:22 - 9:54/mile - 336/420

Overall time 3:03:33
58/65 age group
318/420 overall

It was great having family there to cheer us on. Really looked forward to seeing (and hearing) them throughout the race. Thanks much for coming out and sharing the morning with us. I'll post pictures when mom sends them over. Big thanks also to Kelly and Matt for letting us crash at there place and hauling us to the race at an ungodly hour of the morning.

I have a bunch of other thoughts on the race, but I'll save those for another post. If you need me in the next couple months, I'll be up at the lake swimming.

And for those of you who must know. The 10-minutes G put on me in the water were just too much to overcome. She had a great race, coming in at 2:56:49.

Not even close...

2008-06-19T21:08:00.004-05:00

...to DFL. There were at least 10 people behind me tonight.

Aquathon #2 is in the books. This race went about as well as I could have hoped, race report will be about as boring as you can imagine, I've got nothing to work with.

Prerace
Showed up at the site early, really early, roughly 2-hours before start time. Used my bag as a pillow and relaxed in the grass, snoozing on and off for almost an hour. Eventually went to sign in and get ready. Got in the water with 45-minutes to spare for a warm-up swim. Water was nice, not mind numbingly cold, and no raw sewage noted.

Did a loop around the 1/2 way buoys, took a little break and then swam out and back to one of the 1/2 way buoys. Felt pretty good. Tried to focus on relaxing and not pushing at all.

Swim
Once again let the crazies run in and took my place in the back and started swimming. Focused on going easy and trying not to push. Took a heel to the chin once, but otherwise no major (i.e. painful) contact. Had a hard time staying at a comfortable pace. Every time I'd feel someone on my feet I'd feel the need to push to keep from getting swam over.

Things really thinned out after turning the first buoy, but I still found myself pushing to much. Turned the last buoy and it started to get really hard. I had the most trouble siting on this leg and I was cooked. Arms felt good, legs felt fine ( I don't really kick much, if at all), but my heart and lungs were hurting. I walked in the last 30-yards or so.

Total swim time 19:13, I was actually surprised when I got home and saw the time. Based on my finish time I expected it to be less. I'm still thrilled to have gotten through it with no real issues.

Run
Getting started was tough, hell, the whole thing was tough. I was pretty wiped out from the swim. Random runner girl named Lisa was my saving grace. Shortly after the turn around she came up next to me and we ran/talked most of the way back. No way I would have ran the entire route without the help.

Total run time 29:15, fastest run of any distance I've posted since the last Aquathon.

Total time with transition, 49:46. Almost nine minutes faster than debacle #1. Couldn't be happier, but right now I'm tired and I'm going to bed.

Race Week

2008-06-15T20:59:00.002-05:00

It's shaping up to be a big week, with two races on the calendar in the next seven days. The first is the second race in the Fleet Feet Aquathon Series on Thursday night. All of the beaches in Madison are closed right now as a result of all the recent rains, so it's in question as to whether or not it will go off. Some nonsense about untreated sewage getting dumped in the lake.

I'm really hoping the Aquathon does happen, raw sewage or not, as open water swimming is still my biggest concern. Getting through an Aquathon with a semi reasonable swim effort will go a long way in the confidence department prior to our Bigfoot olympic triathlon on Sunday, the race I signed G and I up for without telling her back in December.

Since I'm 0 for 2 in time predictions on my previous triathlons, I'm going to hedge this one a bit. Goal for the race is 3:15. I really think 3:15 is achievable, so I'll probably finish in 3:30 or so.

The race plan is going to be remarkably similar to last week, easy, go like hell, hold on. The wild card is going to be nutrition. This week I'm going to actually try to ingest some calories/salt on the bike in the hope of feeling better on the run. My nutrition to date has consisted of water, and probably not even enough of that.

So despite the "nothing new on race day" mantra, new it is. I just haven't quite figured out what.

One for the Boys

2008-06-07T18:52:00.004-05:00

Prior to all the severe weather we've been experiencing this afternoon, G and I managed to get the Capital View Sprint Triathlon under our belts this morning. This one went to the boys, as I somehow managed to hold off G despite a miserable run.

Prerace
Arrived at site shortly after 6:00am. Set-up transition. Got arm and both legs marked after considerable thought as to my actual age. I guess it's true, mind is the first thing to go. Visited porta potties twice, prerace nerves. About 7:00ish, got into the wetsuit and tested the waters. Temperatures not bad, I think they were claiming mid or upper 60's.

Swim
Plan: Go easy, survive.

Turns out it was kind of a joke. Course was set out in a triangle, in mostly very shallow water. We went off in the third wave after the elites and the 20 somethings. The majority of the 20 somethings walked/ran all the way to the first buoy and then swam from there.

Four minutes later we were off and running towards the first buoy. Turned the corner and started swimming to the second. I stopped once to stand and get a breath, lots of contact and kicking. Turned the corner and swam about 1/2 way in before realizing people were walking again. I joined them (it was waist deep) and walked it in. One guy on the rocks held a sign that said "swim dammit", I just laughed.

I don't really have any thoughts on my time considering all the walking. Still intimidated as hell to do the olympic swim in 2 weeks.

Swim time: 7:46 (1:56/100, 72/278 overall)

T1
Had the wetsuit to the waist and goggles/cap off before getting to the beach. Ran to the bike rack and low and behold G is still there. We talked as we changed and I beat her out of T1. At least I wouldn't have to chase her down, now it was just a matter of holding her off.

T1 time: 2:02 (49/277 overall)

Bike
Plan: Go like hell.

My intention was to pretty much leave it all out there, and for the most part I did. At the turn around I looked at my bike computer because I wanted to know just how far ahead of G I was. Roughly 0.3 miles later we pass. Some rough calcs, and I figure I'm maybe two minutes ahead of her. Shit, still in striking distance, need to push.

Only real highlight of the ride was me locking up the rear tire on a corner shortly after the turn around. That moment earned me a "nice save" comment from one of the course marshals. It was a sharpish turn after a short steeper decent. It happened and was over too quick to even think about it.

Honestly I felt great on the bike, was racing without a watch again, so I had no idea of time or pace. Bike computer later told me 12.46 miles. I used 12.4 to calculate pace, which ended up almost 1 mph faster than our last sprint triathlon and is my fastest ride to date.

Bike time: 41:17 (18.0 mph, 55/275 overall)

T2
Took the shoes off coming in and coasted to the dismount line standing on the left pedal. Dismounted at a nice jog and cruised into T2, was a thing of beauty.

As I'm putting the running shoes on I realize my timing chip is sitting on the ground. It was held on with one of those water park type bracelets, don't know how it managed to come off, or how I got lucky enough for it to happen in T2, but it did. Struggled to get it back on and off I go.

T2 time: 1:16 (113/275 overall)

Run
Plan: Whatever I had left.

As it turned out, it wasn't much. I felt great coming out of transition. But I very quickly realized the day had become very warm, very humid, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I hadn't noticed the weather on the bike at all, was very comfortable the whole way. Not so much on the run.

The first 1/2 or 2/3's of the course is on the trails through the woods. In other words no wind but still plenty of sun. To sum it up, my run was pathetic. There was a long gradual uphill in the first 1/2 mile that kicked my ass and let me know just what I had done to myself on the ride. I ended up walking up most, if not all of the hills, never managing to run more than maybe 1/2 mile at a time. Sad.

Surprisingly, G never managed to catch up, turns out she wasn't enjoying the run either, although she did manage to make up 1:33.

Run time: 33:07 (10:41/mile, 150/270 overall)

Overall time: 1:25:25, 86/278 overall, 15/29 in age group (4 of the top 7, including the overall winner came out of my age group).

Big kudos once again to G, who finished 4/18 in her age group and 105/278 overall.

Post Race
Waited for G, but somehow missed her finishing. Drank and ate some, waited for some other friends to finish. Food spread was good, ice cream, bagels, fruit, beer, water, and some asian food. Would have been nice to stick around but we had to get home for little league practice and pictures.

I feel good, not sore at all, pretty happy about the race. Need to swim more in open water in the next two weeks, and obviously need to start running regularly, but considering how I've trained lately, this is exactly how this race should have gone down. Not surprised at all.

Whitecaps and Windsurfers

2008-06-06T14:22:00.001-05:00

No, I guess they weren't windsurfers, kite boarders? I don't know. They were standing on surfboard type things and holding onto big ass kites.

Where, at the lake where I'm supposed to be swimming tomorrow. Weather channel says s-sw winds at 20mph gusting to 40mph. It's windy. And the buoys that were out marking part of the course, blown way, way out of position. I had to look for quite a bit to find the second one, wouldn't be surprised if it isn't 1/2 way up the Yahara River by now.

If you haven't surmised, I'm in a bad mood. It started with having to drive to the west side for packet pickup, which turned out to be it's own little cluster^*@$. Stop at 5 different tables to get everything, if of course you get by the first guy, where you sign waivers, pay USAT dues, or try to prove your a USAT member because you don't like carrying every slip of paper or membership card you ever owned in your wallet.

We did get a nice technical wicking type shirt, which in and of itself would be fine, if it wasn't black. I thought the whole purpose of these materials were to keep you dry and cool, so why @!$%(*# black!

So being on the west side and wanting to swim today, I headed to the race site only to find said waves powered by said wind. Not going to swim today. On the way back to the office I saw a girl on the bike path off John Nolen basically get blown off her bike by the wind.

This should be fun.

Capital View Tri Preview

2008-06-04T21:10:00.002-05:00

G and I are doing the Capital View Sprint Triathlon Saturday Morning up at Governor Nelson State Park. After my swimming debacle last Saturday I knew I needed to at least get into open water again before race day.

And as long as I'm going up there, I might as well see the whole course. First the run.

Oy. The humidity was still through the roof. Add in running on trails, much of it hilly, with absolutely no breeze, and it was a tough run. No real long hills, just a lot of up and down and back up again. I saw most of it, got somewhat lost and ended up missing some.

On to the bike. After about a 15-minute transition I headed out on the bike. Another tough course. Short steeper hills on the way out, longer much more gradual ones on the way back.

Next the lake. I ended up sitting on a picnic table for a good 1/2 hour watching other triathletes come and go. Finally sucked it up, put my shark bait costume on and headed out. Water still cold. I waded in very slowly and took my sweet time getting acclimated. Once in it wasn't bad. I didn't do much actual swimming. Went out and back to the first buoy twice. Didn't have much problem swimming straight, but not real comfortable swimming any distance at all. Definitely need to keep working on it.

Saturday should be interesting. I think I should be able to pull off 85-minutes without much issue. I did a 43-minute bike split today (12-miles) on pretty tired legs. Add in a 30 minute run and that leaves me 12-minutes for swim and transitions.

That said, goal for the day is 80-minutes. The planets will need to align just right, but so be it. I think it's attainable, but it's going to take some work and maybe a bit of luck to get it done.

Realization

2008-06-04T08:32:00.001-05:00

I sometimes commute to work. On my rides in I try to go real easy so as to not work up a sweat. It hasn't been too hard to do, as it's usually in the 40's, maybe low 50's when I'm riding. We have a shower I can use here, but it's not in my building, and it's not the nicest community shower by any means.

Which brings us to this morning and the realization that no matter how easy I ride, when you dress for 57 degrees and later find out the humidity is 95%, you're going to sweat like a madman regardless of how easy you go.

Time to close the office door, look busy, and hope no one decides to bother me until at least noon, when I may just sneak out for a swim/shower.