2009 Ride For Heroes

I completed - scratch that, SURVIVED - the 66-mile route at the 2009 Ride For Heroes bike rally today in Aledo, TX.  This caps off a week of (indoor) cycling: 60-minutes of spin on Tuesday (155 bpm avg hr), 75-minute spin class on Wednesday (155 bpm avg hr), and a 45-minute spin class on Thursday followed by a 2-mile treadmill brick run in 16:04 (8:02/mi pace).

Walking up to packet pickup to get my T-shirt and feeling the wind and cold, I didn't think I was even going to do even the 8-miler, but ended up doing (a very windy and hilly) 66.7 miles in 4:31. Very slow between miles 30 and 50 - only 13 MPH average speed. I'm glad I did it, though - the hill/wind work now will pay off in the future.

Even though the turnout for the ride was low (probably only 200-300 people total), there were great volunteers at Aledo High's Bearcat Stadium - handing out complementary gloves at the start (which I wore on top of my running gloves!) and cookies at the finish.  I could see this ride having several thousand riders on a good day.

The hills were tough (especially combined with headwinds) and lactic acid was building up in my quads.  Had to take them slowly to work through the onset of leg cramps.  The ride through the neighborhoods of Aledo and Annetta was relaxing with lots of nice homes to look at. The route finished with a scenic ride around Lake Weatherford. I would have stopped to take pictures, but didn't want to stop for fear of not wanting to start again.

After finishing the ride, I met up with Don and Wilhe in the cafeteria for the post-ride lunch.  Derek had done the 40-mile route but I missed him at the start and he had left long before I finished, so I never got a chance to see him.  I actually didn't think my friends would still be there either - having done a shorter route and finished about 2 hours earlier.  However, they had stuck around for the raffle (new Trek bike) so I lucked out and had some company while I enjoyed a couple delicious burgers, chips, hot cider, and other snacks.  

MotionBased info and route map: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7887588

(Check out the elevation: 4,265 feet of climb/descent and weather: 21.9 MPH average wind speed)

Ride Review:

• Course: 4/5 - Overall, a pretty good course.  Roads were in good condition with little chip seal.  Had decide between 20/40 miles vs. 66 miles routes at the 5-mile mark!  Lots of hills, but that is a good thing if you are looking for that kind of workout. lightly traveled roads. Turns were generally well-marked and/or well-staffed with police pointing the way, but there were a few places where the signs were not prominent enough. It's tough to cover them all because the route had A LOT of turns, but regardless it's something that must be paramount to make sure riders don't get lost.
• Rest Stops: 3.5/5 - I only stopped at the 30 and 50 mile stops.  Limited selection - fruit, cookies, and water/Gatorade.  Some miscellaneous breakfast bars at Mile 50.  Competent, but average.  Volunteers to hold bikes was nice to have.  I also saw a fair number of SAG vehicles along the way so thumbs-up for those.
  
• Logistics: 4/5 - online registration available; no issues with race day packet pick-up; lots of bathrooms at the stadium and in the high school; T-shirt was a crazy fluorescent yellow color - I guess it's something "unique"; limited parking at Aledo High School due to construction - but not an issue with the low turnout; Good burgers, cider, other refreshments in the cafeteria.
• Overall: 4/5 - Very good ride despite today's poor weather.  Looking forward to next year - maybe I'll do the 100-miler!  :-)

Sunday Reverse Brick

I was amused to discover that I finished last in my age group (4th out of 4) in this morning's Fort Worth Runner's "Club Lucky 7" race despite running a respectable (for me, anyway) 57:34 (8:12/mi).  That's what I get for racing with these speedsters. :-)

I ran this seven mile race last year, and although the starting line was moved from the River Plaza to Trinity Park, five of the seven miles were still on the Trinity Trails - so the 2009 course was "5/7-identical" to 2008.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able set a new PR today - my time was almost 2 minutes slower than last year.  Still, it was a pretty good performance considering that I did the sprint tri yesterday.

My splits and my speed & heart rate charts:

As you can see, I kept a fairly consistent pace for the entire distance.  I took short walk breaks at Miles 1.9,3,4, and 5.1 (which are included in splits for Miles 2, 4, 5, and 6.  Even with those walk breaks, I stayed below an 8:30/mi for those splits - NOT BAD!  I may have gone out a little (too?) fast in the first half mile before settling down.  However, I'm very happy with my strong finish - my last mile was the fastest of all of them.  I think I need to really consider doing walk-run for all of my longer runs - and longer may be defined as anything longer than 10K.

MotionBased route and data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7802407

Full results: http://www.fwrunners.org/Results/2009/Mar_09_Results_All.pdf

After the race, I met up with some friends and did a 42 mile bike ride on the Trinity Trails.  The ride was at a relaxing pace although I did do "Nice Hill" in Lake Benbrook Park a couple of extra times.  Overall, a solid weekend of races and training.  Looking forward to a light week coming up - Spring Break!

2009 St. Patrick's Day Triathlon

A solid performance at this morning's St. Patrick's Day Triathlon.  This is the fourth time I've completed this 300m swim-12mi bike-5K run course (prior efforts: Monster Tri 2007, St. Patty's Tri 2008, Monster Tri 2008), which is right down the road from me in Keller.

I completed the now very familiar course in 1:10:48.5 which placed me 14th out of 42 in my age group and 82nd out of 477 finishers.  (The cold/wet weather kept a lot of people away - there were around 610 total registrants - but even with the more than 100 no-shows, the attendance was still greater than the original 450 field cap).  This time is 2 minutes and 32 seconds slower than last year's Monster Tri finish (1:08:16, which is my PR for the course) but as I'll explain below is still quite good considering the external factors which slowed the bike and T1.

Results for fellow triathletes: Lee captured 89th place with a 1:11:26, slowed somewhat by a calf cramp during the bike (having gotten two of those during the TMS Du, I knew exactly what he was feeling). Sarah, a fellow VOWS resident, took second place in her age group with a 1:13.49.6.  Jeff (from Irving LA Fitness spin - reunited before the race), Derek (recovering from a cold this past week), and Jenn also turned out solid performances with times of 1:16:45.9, 1:19:32.7 & 1:24:27.3 for 164th, 207th & 276th place, respectively.

My splits tell my story for the day:

• Swim: 5:33.3
• T1: 2:17.2
• Bike: 37:03.6 (19.4 mph average)
• T2: 0:56.9
• Run: 24:57.5 (8:03/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:10:48.5

I had a pretty good swim - a 300 meter PR, in fact - the short distance masking my recent lack of training in this area.

My T1 time was a lot longer than it should have been.  It was already going to be slow because I took my normal pre-bike AccelGel and had decided to take some time and towel off from the swim and put on a shirt, but the real mistakes were: (1) my long sleeve shirts for the bike were turned inside out so it took me extra time to get dressed (that'll teach me to be lazy when setting up my transition area), and (2) my timing chip strap was way too long and as I was exiting the transition area with my bike it nearly came off - I had to set my bike down and reattach the Velcro.  So all-in-all, I probably lost nearly 30 seconds in T1.  (For reference, my T1 time was 38 seconds slower than Monster 2007 when I also toweled off and put on a shirt for the bike).

As mentioned, the weather was cold, but not the temperature itself was not too painful.  However, heavy rains for the last several days left the roadways quiet wet.  And so with the wet roads, the cycling was on the slower side.  The two-loop bike course had 11 turns of 90 degrees or more and everyone had to slow down for them for safety's sake.  Thankfully, I believe the race finished without any wrecks.

Actually, when I first jumped on my bike past the Mount Line of the transition area, I had a lot of trouble clipping in and almost ran front wheel into a curb.  Luckily, I was able to regain my balance and avoid a (time-consuming and embarrasing) crash.  After that episode, I was on my way.

Compared with last year's Monster Tri (my PR for this course) bike time of 34:12, I spent nearly three more minutes out on the bike course.  Obviously, slowing down for the turns really added to a loss of momentum and speed. However, this is something everyone had to contend with, and my bike time was about 40th ... in the top 10% of the field - so no complaints!

After the bike, things were pretty smoothly.  My 0:56.9 T2 is a PR for this course even if just by a few seconds and my 5K run was just a few seconds shy of the PR I set in my first race on this course (Monster 2007 - 24:54).  I still haven't been able to break the 8:00/mi tri-5K barrier (darn!).

Took SaltSticks before the event, at T1, and at T2.  Despite this I felt a cramp in my calf coming on at the start of my run.  So I don't know if the SaltSticks didn't make a difference in this area ... or perhaps prevented a full-blown (disasterous) Charlie Horse.

After the race, I caught up with fellow racemates, took some photos, and had some pancakes with Lee and Jenn.  (Wisely, back inside the Natatorium to warm up.)  After learning that Sarah had taken 2nd in her age group, I decided to stick around the awards ceremony and was rewarded for it ... My bib number was picked during the door prize drawings and I went home with a new Rudy Project Kontact+ helmet!

So even though it wasn't the best weather, it was still a good fun race and a nice surprise at the end.

Full results at: http://www.racechiptiming.com/files/ST.PADDY'STRIRESULTS.HTM