Nike+ Human Race 10K

I ran the Nike+ Human Race 10K today - along with about 1,000,000 other runners worldwide. Our event was not an official race (the closest one being in Austin, TX) but we still had close to 100 participants. Which is quite impressive considering the race had no bib numbers and no timing chips - and no entry fee. :-)

I completed the course that Run On! Coppell had set up for us in 53:24. Total distance was 6.28 miles per Garmin for a 8:30/mi pace. Not great, but decent for a hot day.

As seems to be the case these days, I started off the race too fast and had to slow down substantially for the second half of the run. I really need to pace myself better. I'll try to keep my pace at 8:45 or slower for the first half of tomorrow's race.

If nothing else, I am happy that I ran the entire race except two brief stops at the water station.


The course was fairly flat. It mostly followed the trails of Andy Brown Park in Coppell. Route map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=6655349

As you can see from the heart rate chart above, I was working pretty hard the entire time (the only time my heart rate dropped was at the two water stops). It was a warm and humid day and by mile 2, I was already sweating profusing - and regretting that I forgot to take my SaltSticks before starting. A lesson that I (should) have learned many times before, but I must learn again.

All-in-all, for what some might call a bunch of people getting together to run on a Sunday morning, this is actually a fairly big event (according to the organizers, it was the largest "Run Where You Are" location in the entire contry). We had a nice start and finish line organized by Racing Systems, a nice course, a water & Powerade station on the course that was hit at the 1K, 5K, and 9K marks of the route, professional photographers, visitors from the Jack FM (100.3) radio station & Koala Wellness (giving post-race massages), and refreshments from Vitamin Water and Powerade. Impressive. Run On! knows how to put on a good race.

Oops, need to get to bed now - have to wake up early again tomorrow morning for the Fort Worth Runners Club Labor Day 15K! :-)

Swimming Time and Boredom?

Back in the pool - another 4,000 yard "IronMan" swim today. I believe this is my fourth time completing this distance - I completed the 80 laps in 1:25:12.5 - just a little slower than my last outing back in March (1:24:22). Wow, has it really been almost six months that I've last done this swim distance? Here are my 500 yd splits:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:40
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:39
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:19.5
• 4th 500 yds: 10:41.5 (42:20 for the 2,000 yards)
• Water/AccelGel break: 0:34
• 5th 500 yds: 10:32
• 6th 500 yds: 10:35
• 7th 500 yds: 10:39
• 8th 500 yds: 10:32.5

I'm happy that the pace stayed pretty consistent through the entire swim. And the 42:20 time for the Half-IronMan swim is respectable in its own right.

My friends often ask me "Isn't it boring to just do laps in a pool for over an hour?" and when I think about it I can hardly believe that I can truthfully answer "No, it's actually quite relaxing."

There definitely are some days when the long swim is tough to do, but it is more because of tiredness (from lack of sleep or overtraining) rather than boredom. Once I get into a groove, I'm literally lost in thought - using the time to figure out a recent problem, mentally organizing my schedule and to-do list, or psyching myself up for the next race. (Don says he uses the time to figure out [computer/web/mobile application] code - if all my technical knowledge hadn't been lost to "managementality", I'd probably be doing the same.)

It's the same as running without an MP3 player. Note: I am not one of those anti-iPod Nazi's. When I was in college, I didn't run with an iPod because I usually ran with other people and headphones didn't allow for conversation. Now, since I can't run with headphones during a triathlon I don't think it would be wise to train with one. And I've really grown to like it. Even when I'm running alone, I enjoy looking at the scenery and the rhythm of my stride. Maybe I'm weird, but I think if I was listening to music, it would just "numb" that experience.

Weekend Workout/Race Plans

Friday: Off-Day. If I get ambitious, might do an hour on my home elliptical trainer ...

Saturday: Swimming at LA Fitness before helping a friend move some computer equipment (which will be a workout in itself - 5+ servers, a heavy power supply, and the big rack that it sits in!)

Sunday: Nike+ Human Race 10K. I can't make it down to Austin for the official Texas race so I'll be doing the "Run Where You Are" local event at Run On! Coppell.

Monday: 13th Annual Fort Worth Labor Day 15K. Probably not smart to do two consecutive runs, but what the hey ...

Have a great (long weekend) everyone!

Spin & Swim X 3

Monday: Complete off-day - recovering from a busy/tough weekend. Yay!

Tuesday: 1 hour spin + 1,000 yard swim. 147 BPM average heart rate for the spin class. Swim splits: 9:56, 9:49. 19:45 total.

Wednesday: 1 hour spin + 1,000 yard swim. (Look familiar? :-) 144 BPM average heart rate on the bike. Swim splits: 9:39, 9:23. 19:02 total. A little faster.

Thursday: 1 hour spin + 1,000 yard swim. (Yep definitely a pattern :-). 152 BPM average heart rate (Amy was really kicking our butts today). Swim splits: 9:29, 9:15. 18:44 total. Over a minute faster than Tuesday. Still need to get it down another 40 seconds to break my 18:07 PR.

Yep, no running at all this week. I figure I'll give my legs a little rest because I'm doing two running races (totalling 25K) this weekend.

Tired Legs

I participated in the Texas Man pre-tri workout this morning. I was without any of the usual crew because almost everyone was at the Hotter Than Hell bike ride yesterday. So I made the trek to Lake Ray Robert's Johnson Branch Park myself, arriving at the park entrance just after 6:30 AM.

Because the open-water swim practice/clinic didn't start until 7:30, I did a quick bike ride on the park roads. I had traded bikes with Jarrod last Thursday - he got my "Red Baron" Specialized Allez Comp and I got his Motobecane Nemesis Pro tri bike - and get in some easy miles on it before doing 25+ miles during the pre-tri bike workout. The ride was smooth but slow - my legs were still sore and tired from yesterday's half-marathon distance run.

The practice swim didn't start off on the right foot. My goggles (specifically, the nose bridge between the two lenses) broke! Luckily, I always carry around an extra pair in my tri bag. So I just jogged back up to the parking lot/transition area to trade them out and then back to the beach. The open-water swim itself went well. Worked on my sighting and did three identical swims - out to the first buoy, to the second buoy, back to the first buoy, again to the second buoy, and then back to the beach. Each one took between 13:30-14:45 and I'd guess that the distance was 700-750 meters. So about 2,100-2,250 meters total. A solid swim workout.

I was actually the last swimmer out of the lake - I followed the guy in the kayak as he pulled in the second buoy back to shore - so, by the time I got back to the parking lot, the transition clinic was about to start. Since I really wanted to get in a longer bike ride than the schedule allowed (the planned activity was to ride the 17.6 mile sprint bike course once, but I wanted to do it twice), I skipped the transition clinic and headed out on the road.

I've ridden this bike course many times so I pretty much knew what to expect - i.e., where the hills are. With the two loops, I ended up riding 29.81 miles and completed it in 1:31:23 - a 19.6 MPH average speed. That's a pretty fast training ride speed for me, and since my average heart rate was only 148 BPM, it looks like my tired legs (and perhaps the increasing temperatures) were the limiting factor to going faster. The ride on Jarrod's tri bike was very smooth and the 54cm frame fit me perfectly. I'll have to seriously think about getting one! :-)

After a quick (1:26) bike-to-run transition, I headed out on the run course. Here is where yesterday's long run, the tough bike earlier, and the quick transition really caught up to me. I was only able to go able 3/4 of a mile before I had to start walking. Five minutes of walking did wonders, though, and after that I completed a 3.71 mile run with only three breaks at the water stops. Total run time: 38:06.5 for a 10:16/mi average.

The heat was definitely getting to me, and, overall, not my best performance. But it was still a really good opportunity for the open-water swim practice and I'm glad I was able to push myself. Lessons learned: continue to work on my running and also do warm/hot weather training to get acclimated to the heat.

Neighborhood Half-Marathon

Don T, Jonathan G, Scott, Jarrod, and Derek are all up in Wichita Falls, TX this morning for the Hotter Than Hell bike ride. Some to do the full 100 miles and Jarrod & Derek planning to do the 100K. I wish I could join them, but family commitments keep me from being gone both days this weekend. (I'm planning on attending the Texas Man Pre-Tri Workout tomorrow morning).

By combining and explanding routes that I run in the past - see Long(ish) Run and the Neighborhood 10K - I was ended up doing a 13.05 mile route. Just a little bit shy of a full half-marathon.

Unfortunately since I overslept - Waking up at 6:30 AM on a Saturday is oversleeping? How warped is that?!? - I started about an hour later than I would have liked, and only a few miles into the run I was already feeling the August Texas heat. Still, I was able to keep a 9:00/mi pace through the first 6 miles and a 9:57/mi pace through 10.75 miles. However, the final 2.3 miles was a complete walk-fest. Total time: 2:22:49. Overall pace: 10:57/mi.

Thoughts during the run:

• Mile 1: I'm going slower than normal, but that's okay I'm planning to go for a long distance.
• Mile 3: Wow, it feels pretty hot, this might be painful.
• Mile 6: I'm right at 9:00/mi pace, but this is not going to continue. Time to walk for a bit.
• Mile 8.3: Okay, I'm just going to walk down this hill (so I don't aggravate my latent ITBS) and then start running again at the bottom.
• Mile 10.75: I'm really out of gas. Time to walk.

Training run speed:


Elevation profile (I'll have to remember that it is uphill almost all of the way until Mile 10! Total elevation change was about 590 feet.):

Heart Rate (My average was 157 BPM, but that was mostly because of all the walking. Heart rate during run segments was 170-175.):

Route map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://pages.andrien.com/2008-08-23VOWSHalf-Marathon.kml

Oh well, at least I finished the full distance. That's the great thing about running outdoors - you're forced to at least walk back home. If I was on a treadmill, I would probably have quit at mile 6!

This is the farthest that I've run since the Lone Star Triathlon, and while it was a mediocre time/pace this is a good base to build upon.

Only six weeks left before Ironman Longhorn 70.3 - time to kick the training into high gear!

Time Crunch

The latter half of this week was a lesson in time management. While I didn't get in the workouts that I wanted, I got pretty close so I can't complain (much).

Wednesday: Planned to do 90 minutes of cycling, but only got in 75 minutes. I thought my legs should be fresh since I only swam the last two days, but it was a tough spin class - even at a 154 BPM average heart rate.

Thursday: Wanted to do a 2mi-45min-2mi run-bike-swim, but got to the gym late so I had to skip the first run. 160 BPM average heart rate for the 45 minutes of cycling and then finished 2 miles on the treadmill in just under 16 minutes (a better than 8:00/mi pace) with an average heart rate of 168 BPM, steadily increasing to 178 BPM by the end.

Friday: The goal was to match Monday's & Tuesday's 3,000 yard distance, but due to two conference calls sandwiching my lunch break, I only had time to squeeze in 2,000 yards, completing them in 41:20.5. My 500 yd splits:

• 1st 500 yds: 9:56.5
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:16.5
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:32.5
• 4th 500 yds: 10:35

45 seconds faster than a week ago. Getting better ...

Why Do We Race?

I read a great quote this morning in the Summer 2008 issue of USAT's Triathlon Life magazine. It came from the founder of a Temple, TX triathlon group called "Mighty Mommies"

"Triathlons are a 'Personal Best' sport ... and so is life."

This is so true. It doesn't matter where in the pack you finish. Just that you did the best that you could ... and had some fun while getting there.

Have a great weekend!

It's Hard To Run & Bike Without Shoes

Went to LA Fitness with Don at lunch intending to do a spin class and brick run. Unfortunately, I got to the gym and discovered that I hadn't brought my running shoes. Idiot!

Normally, I keep a pair of older (but still serviceable) running shoes in the trunk of my car for just this sort of memory breakdown. However, today, that option was not available because my car (and thus my backup shoes) was at the Nissan dealer getting a faulty "park/neutral switch" replaced, which had caused the "check engine" light to be illuminated and annoying me to no end.

So without shoes, I did the only thing that I could at the gym ... swim. I completed another 3,000 yards -and, even better, I did it in 1:02:21 - a new PR for this distance!

My 500 yd splits:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:09.5
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:07
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:05
• Water/AccelGel break: 0:29.5
• 4th 500 yds: 10:27
• 5th 500 yds: 10:26.5
• 6th 500 yds: 10:37

Almost 2 minutes faster than yesterday. Hey, maybe I'm getting better at this swimming thing again!

Longer swim

3,000 yards today. Getting (more) comfortable with longer-distances again. Last week, I bookended Tue-Thu spin/run workouts with swims of 2,000 yards. Maybe, I'll be able to do 3,000 again this Friday.

Total time: 1 hour and 4 minutes and 17 seconds. 500 yd splits:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:20
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:33.5
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:33
• Water/AccelGel break: 0:29
• 4th 500 yds: 10:45
• 5th 500 yds: 10:48.5
• 6th 500 yds: 10:47

More than a minute and half slower than my PR of 1:02:42 for this distance. However, definitely not bad at all considering I haven't swum this far since June 20.

A good start to a new week.

Take On The Heat 2008

I had a great race this morning at the 2008 Take On The Heat sprint tri up in The Colony, TX. Refreshingly, there wasn't that much heat with cloudy skies and temps in the 70s - so race conditions were excellent.

I ended up finishing the 350M swim, 12mi bike, and 5K run course in just under 1 hour and 10 minutes. This garnered me 15th place out of 52 in the M 35-39 age group and 56th out of 283 finishers overall.

Here were my splits:

• Swim: 6:57.3 (1:59/100M, 114th place)
• T1: 1:51.75
• Bike: 34:54.35 (20.6 mph, 29th place)
• T2: 1:02.00
• Run: 25:09.90 (8:04/mi, 109th place)
• Total: 1:09:55.30

Last year's performance:

• Swim: 7:35.35 (2:10/100M)
• T1: 2:24.30
• Bike: 39:28.85 (18.84 mph)
• T2: 0:59.55
• Run: 28:46.30 (9:13/mi)
• Total: 1:19:14.35

Compared with my sprint tri PR (1:08.42) at the Old College Tri, my official time is a little slower. However, I think my performance was actually better because (1) the swim was 50 meters longer than OCT, (2) the bike course was about 12.7 miles (according to my Garmin GPS - about 0.4 miles longer than OCT), and (3) the run course was about 3.15 miles (also per GPS - about 0.1 miles longer than OCT). So my bike and run speed/pace were actually 21.8 MPH and 7:59/mi, respectively. So except for a slightly slower than PR swim, this is definitely my best performance at a sprint distance ever.

Full results at: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1623034&pubID=3

Due to vacations (Matt & Derek), injury (Don), and not registering in time (Jarrod), I ended up doing this race "by myself." But actually I ran into so many people that I knew that it wasn't lonely at all. Formally met Lee, a marathoner who I've seen at many running races (FWRC, Don Zetnick's Winter 10K, White Rock Marathon), who was doing his first tri ever. Despite being several minutes slower on the swim,bike, and transitions, Lee finished less than 30 seconds behind me due to a blistering 20:27 5K (6:33/mi pace and 11th place overall for the run!).

I also ran into Cy & Misty from Team-In-Training who did the race (Cy placed 30th with a time of 1:07.08 - nice!) and was cheered on by Sabrina from Dynamic Touch Massage who was working the race (I had met her at the PlayTri Festival back in April). So the race was enjoyable for the comraderie as well.

Afterwards, I met up with some friends at Osaka Sushi in Plano for a great recovery meal. :-)

Mini Du today; Tri tomorrow

Did another mini duathlon right in my neighborhood this morning. Needed a short(ish) workout at high intensity and these run-bike-run efforts always seem to do the trick. Probably still a little tougher of a workout than I should have done (don't want to wear myself out before tomorrow's race), but oh well the long-term goal is still getting prepared for the Ironman Longhorn 70.3 in October so I can't take too many days off.

The route was very similar to the mini-du I did back on July 4. Started with a 1.1 mile run around the block, followed by a 12.5 mile bike through the neighborhood, and ended with another lap of that 1.1 mile route.

Here are the stats for the workout:

Compared with the results from July 4, my first run was exactly the same speed (7:16/mi pace), the bike was quite a bit faster (19.7 vs. 18.6 MPH) and also a quarter-mile longer, but the second run was slower (8:20 vs. 8:08/mi pace). Transitions were about the same. So, overall, my time this morning was almost a minute faster (57:32 vs 58:30) despite the slightly longer course.

On the downside, my heart rate was quite high - averaging 165 BPM.

This is quite a bit higher than the July 4's effort (154 BPM) with the biggest difference being during the bike leg (162 vs 149 BPM avg HR). So while I was faster today than last six weeks ago, I was definitely pushing hard to meet that goal.

Not bad for an hour-long workout on what I had originally planned as an off/light day. I'll be relaxing and recuperating this afternoon and tonight I'll pack up for tomorrow's Take On The Heat sprint tri up in The Colony, TX.

Not To Plan, But Close Enough

Got to the gym late yesterday so I didn't have time to do the full reverse indoor tri, but I did 35 minutes of a spin class and then ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill for a solid brick workout. The run took 21:30 - an 8:36/mi pace.

Today, I swam 2,000 yards at lunch. Kept a pretty good pace and finished it in 42:05.5. This is more than a minute faster than Monday's effort at the same distance, which is a little surprising since it comes after 3 consecutive days of hard workouts. Splits: 10:15, 10:31.5, 10:35, 10:44.5

Tomorrow, I'll rest up for Sunday's tri. Hopefully, the thunderstorms will stay away for the race - the weather is looking a little sketchy for the weekend.

Back-To-Back(-To Back?) Spin Classes

My first full week back (in town and in the gym) is going pretty well. After a decent swim on Monday, I've had two more good workouts.

• Tuesday: 60-minute spin class followed up 2 miles on the treadmill at a 5% incline in just under 20 minutes. Solid workout. Worked pretty hard with average heart rates of 159 BPM and 172 BPM for the bike and run respectively.
• Wednesday: 75-minute spin class. Almost non-stop mashing and held an average heart rate of 160 BPM for the entire session. No time for swimming so just did some free weights at home after work.

Here's the plan for the rest of the week:

• Thursday: Full indoor reverse tri - haven't done one of these in a while. A few miles of running, then spin class, then 500-1000 yards in the pool.
• Friday: Some swimming - 3,000 yards is the goal. Hopefully, I will be able to follow through with it (mentally and physically).
• Saturday: Quick run and bike just to make sure everything is still working properly.
• Sunday: Take On The Heat Sprint Tri.

Productive lunch break

Had a productive lunch break today. I was able to (1) mail out some bills and a package at the post office, (2) stop by Bicycles Inc to get new Velox rim tape for my rear wheel, (3) swam 2,000 yards in 43:19.5 at LA Fitness (splits:10:33, 10:53, 10:49, 11:04.5). Not super fast, but a good start on my comeback from traveling/vacation swim training oblivion.

The reason for item (2) was because I actually gotten flat (rear) tires after 3 of my last 4 rides. Luckily, the flats didn't occur during those rides, but instead appeared the next morning. After some careful analysis, I concluded that there wasn't anything wrong with my tire and it seemed unluckily (or very very unlucky) that I would have three bad tubes in a row. A post-mortem of the "holey" tubes showed that all of the punctures occured on the rim side of the tire. Sure enough, the original rim tape inside the tub had failing/failed adhesive and was sliding around in there. Most likely my tubes had rubbed against a rough edge of a spoke point and developed their holes in that manner. Problem (hopefully) solved for $4.50 + tax.

Absent-Minded

Was planning to start this morning with a run. Unfortunately, it didn't happen because

(1) I got up late
(2) I couldn't find my Garmin 305, so I was scrambling around looking for it
(3) By the time I found it (it was buried under a pile of laundry) I realized I had to ton of things on my to-do list (including the aforementioned laundry) and so I bagged the workout and started on those chores instead.

Oh well ...

Feeling Like Slug

I'm still vacationing and haven't worked out at all since Thursday's run in San Diego. Except for some short walks around Seattle's East Side - it's been working in the mornings, and then eating, relaxing, eating, and catching up on sleep in the afternoons and evenings. I'm already mentally planning out my workout activities for when I get back to Dallas on Thursday.

Good Luck tomorrow to Derek (who's running the San Francisco Marathon) and Jarrod (who's doing the River Cities Triathlon)!