A Run and A Swim

Sunday: Since I didn't do a brick run after yesterday's Goatneck ride (well, to be honest, I'd be doing the long run today even if the brick had materialized), I had a goal of running 10 miles around my neighborhoood this morning. I thought this would be doable as the temperature this morning was "only" 81 degrees.

Ummm, yeah, it turns out that 81 degrees is not as cool as it would seem (especially when there is substantial humidity involved). I ended up doing 9.65 miles in 97 minutes (for a 10:02/mi pace). By the end, I was too tired to run around the block for an even 10. Exhaustion trumps OCD!

Still it was a (near-)victory of sorts. I hadn't completed a double-digit run since the Cowtown Half, and I was glad to run even longer than last Saturday's Too Hot To Handle (even if it was only by a quarter of a mile) since this was just a training session. My goal is to work my way up to 12-14 miles over the next month. I'm sure I can do the miles with consistent training; the trick will be staying injury-free during the ramp-up!

Monday: Normally, today would be a rest day following long bike and run over the weekend. However, instead I did a (slow and hard-fought) 2,500 yd lunchtime swim. Splits: 10:22, 10:35, 10:48, 10:58, 11:17. Yep, those sets got really slow and painful. But no rest for the weary - 48 days 'til the PrairieMan Half ... Yikes!

In other news, I've officially lost 4 pounds in the last two weeks. I want to lose about 6-8 more before the Half. I don't really "need" to lose the weight, but I just don't want to be carrying around extra ballast for 56 miles on the bike and 13.1 on the run!

The Goatneck 2009

Finished 69.5 hot and hilly (~2,900 feet of elevation change) miles at the 2009 Tour de Goatneck in 3:36:10. Overall, it was a good ride.

I was crusing with a 20.3 mph average speed through Mile 47, which was my first rest stop (stopped about 5 minutes). Of course there were some hills after that as well as a headwind, which dropped my average, but a 19.3 mph for the whole 69.5 miles is pretty good for me.

After crossing the finish line, I got back to my car and stared at my running shoes for about a minute ... brick run DENIED. Had my recovery drink (Endurox R4 - chocolate), took a shower, and then ate some pretzels & peanut butter, bananas and watermelon instead. :-)

Here are the stats from my Garmin Forerunner 305:

"Lap 5" was the Mile-47 rest stop. "Lap 3" and "Lap 6" were slow because there was a lot of climbing during those stretches.

Goatneck elevation chart: Big (up)hills during Miles 33-39 & 50-60. :-P

Garmin Connect map & data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9729497

Ride Review:

Course: 4/5 - road conditions were pretty good - little bit of chip-seal in the middle of route was the only downside; hilly, challenging course; good traffic control in the busy areas (and overall there wasn't much traffic at all)

Rest Stops: 4/5 - I only stopped at the 47-Mile rest stop (which had a luau party/rock and roll theme) so this is not a complete evaluation, but there were decent refreshments (pop-tarts & cereal in addition to fruit) and water & Gatorade (well-mixed, not watered down) at that one.

Logistics: 4/5 - easy online registration; reasonable entry fee; decent parking at Cleburne High School (good considering that there were over 2,400 riders); nice T-shirt (electric blue again, though!) and water bottle; no post-race meal, but at least there was some snacks (the aforementioned pretzels & PB with bananas, watermelon, and oranges)

Overall: 4/5 - will definitely do again; good, challenging course with excellent ride support

Kicking It Up a Notch

I feel pretty good after my back-to-back events from the weekend. Even my legs feel pretty good - surprising, since 15.5 miles is more than I have run in quite a while (even that 15K felt like a really long run).

Anyway, as I look at the date of the PrairieMan Half-Ironman Tri (September 13) circled on my calendar (okay, so I don't actually own any paper calendars - it's "virtual/digital" circle :-), I definitely feel a little anxiety.

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital. -Joe Paterno

Okay, so I'd better prepare and kick my training up a notch. Especially for the swim and run.

Tuesday: 60 minute spin class (avg hr 149 bpm) + 500 yd swim in 10:16. Okay, so not much of a "kick-up" today ...

Wednesday: Another Wednesday duathlon at LA Fitness - 3mi run (24:14), 60min spin, 2.5mi run (21:29). Last week: 2mi run, 45min spin, 2mi run ... PROGRESS! I was pleasantly surprised that even for my post-spin run that I could keep a sub-8:30/mi pace on the treadmill and my heart rate stayed around 150-155 bpm. On the downside, I was planning to do 3 miles for that second (brick) run but just couldn't finish the last half-mile even after cranking down the speed. Will look to improve next week.

Thursday: Another 60 minute spin class (avg hr 152 bpm) + 1,000 yd swim in 21:16 (10:44, 10:32). Double of my normal post-spin distance. Yay!

Friday: Instead of my usual day off, I did a lunchtime run of 2.16 miles (that 8 laps around a local park while my daughter played in the playground in the middle) in the 1:00 PM Texas sun. I was running for 17:37 ... however, I took a shade/water break after every 2 laps, so the total time was nearly 29 minutes. I'm too lazy to do the math right now, but I know that's a slow overall pace and not a very long distance. But still, it's better than nothing.

Okay, time to get ready for bed. I'm going to tackle the 69-mile route at The Goatneck tomorrow morning!

Disco Tri 2009

Completed the Olympic-distance course - a 1,500 yard open-water swim, a 23 mile bike leg, and a 10K (6.2 mile) run - at my second Disco Triathlon. My time was nearly 6 minutes slower than last year (which was my PR for the Disco/Texas-Man course) - finishing the course in 2:34:38 (vs. 2:28:49 in 2008), but I'm still quite pleased with my performance.

I finished 20th out of 40 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 103rd out of 273 overall. Here are my splits:

• Swim: 26:57 (111th place)
• T1: 2:56
• Bike: 1:03:56 - 21.6 MPH (23rd place) - 21.9 MPH for 23.3 miles per GPS
• T2: 1:20
• Run: 59:32 - 9:37/mi pace (157th place) - 9:40/mi for 6.16 miles per GPS
• TOTAL: 2:34:38

Full Results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1773386&pubID=3
Garmin Connect map & data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9184530 (bike) & http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9184584 (run)

For comparison, here are my splits from last year's PR:

• Swim: 26:53 (133rd place out of 277)
• T1: 2:12
• Bike: 1:03:38 - 21.7 MPH (54th place)
• T2: 1:10
• Run: 54:59 - 8:52/mi pace (151st place)
• TOTAL: 2:28:49

As you can see, the difference was mainly because of a much slower run pace this year - along with slower transitions (mainly T1). It's also interesting that my bike time was slightly slower than last year, yet I improved to the top 10% vs. top 20%. Maybe the bike course was a little long this year, the road conditions worsened or the overall field was weaker.

The swim went smoothly. I really want to get the new swim-proof Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch so I can see exactly how close the distance is to the advertised 1,500 meters. I just need to keep improving and do more long swims in preparation for the Ironhead PrairieMan 70.3 in September.

T1 was non-eventful - a little slower than I would have liked, but I took extra time to down a SaltStick and AccelGel before taking off on my bike.

Very solid bike ride. I'm very happy with placing 23rd overall - though I still would like to cross the 22 MPH threshold one of these days. I definitely felt stronger today than back at May's TexasMan race. As I was loading up my bike the night before I noticed that my rear tire was quite low and probably had a slow leak. So even after reinflating it before heading to the race, I had the Bicycles Plus crew take a look at it in the morning and replace the tube just in case. I think it was worth it!

In contrast, today's run wasn't my best. Running the 15K yesterday definitely had some detrimental effects on my legs. However, in addition, I just plain haven't been running enough in my training. In fact, the 15.5 miles that I ran over this weekend is the most running I've done in a 27 hour period (or less) in quite a while. Oh well, this is a good jump start to get my running up to snuff before PrairieMan.

Crossing the finish line, I met up with Lee, who had finished about 10 minutes before me, and Jenn who had finished her sprint race an hour earlier (thanks for waiting for us!). Lee crushed the race - especially the run (10th overall with a 6:47/mi pace) and took 37th place overall and 4th in his age group. And to think he could have been even faster if he hadn't do the 15K with me yesterday - hmmm.

Jenn shaved 6 minutes off her time in the Texas Man sprint race. Jenna did her first open-water swim tri (success in Lake Ray Roberts) and continued with a solid bike and run. Charlie also did the sprint and finished 48th. And last but not least, this was the first Olympic tri for Serena and her friend Roxanne; they finished strongly and were all smiles after the finish ... simply awesome!

Too Hot To Handle 2009

Well, I still need to work on my running, but I think I did pretty well at this morning's Too Hot To Handle 15K. My official finish time of 1:23:26 (8:58/mi) – was two minutes slower than 2008's THTH race. However, last year, the last 5K was torturous and I took almost 30 minutes to finish the final 3.1 miles. This year, I held back for most of the running since I have the Disco Tri tomorow and I ended up having a pretty smooth race even though the time was slower.

I ended up at 56th out of 107 in my age group and 403rd out of 1272 total 15K finishers. Here are my official split times/places:

• 5K: 27:47.88, 396th place
• 10K: 27:21.51, 358th
• 15K/Finish: 28:15.83, 461st

So a fairly consistent pace, especially considering that the final 5K contain the two uphill stretches of the course (see elevation in Garmin Connect). Here are my GPS stats (click to enlarge) with lap splits at each mile and 5K marker. Looks like the course was about 0.1 miles long for my run.

My average heart rate is still higher than what I'd like but at least it was under 170 bpm. Race day weather was not bad for July (got a break from the heat of a recent string of triple-digit temperatures).

Afterwards, I met up with Lee (42nd overall with a 1:04:19 - 3rd place in his age group despite "holding back") and Kim and Eva who had strong showings while also saving up for their midnight 25K at El Scorcho.

Full results at: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/2009/TooHotToHandle950/TooHotMenu.htm

Garmin Connect map/data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9104216

Disco Taper Week

Monday: Problem: I'm torn between wanting to run (to get better at it and maybe do it outdoors to get some climate training) and not wanting to run (so my legs/knees wouldn't get sore/injured). Solution: 30 minutes on the home elliptical trainer.

Tuesday: 1 hour of spin class (152 bpm avg hr) + 1,000 yard swim (10:25, 10:30). Feeling pretty good.

Wednesday: A "Lunchtime Du" - 2-mi run, 45-min spin, 2-mi run. The runs were pretty fast (averaging sub-8:00/mi pace for both). Too bad I can't do that pace in the heat. :-P

Stats below:

First run - started slowly and gradually increased speed - 0.25 mi at 6.0 mph, 0.25 mi at 6.7 mph, 0.5 mi at 7.5 mph, 0.5 mi mph at 8.0 mph, and 0.5 mi at 8.55 mph. Spin class was quick and tougher than the 45-min duration and 151 bpm avg heart rate seems to indicate. Second run was at a constant 7.5 mph (8:00/mi) pace.

This should be my last hard workout before the weekend races - will taper and rest starting tomorrow. Also picked up my Disco Tri packet today. Bib #701 - hope that is my lucky number.

Thursday: 50 mins of spin (150 bpm avg hr) and then 500 yard swim (10:17). The spin class was probably a little more energetic than I'd planned, but overall I don't feel like I'm overdoing it.

Tomorrow will be a full rest day and I'm looking forward to it!

Disco Pre-Tri

Good workout this morning and got to meet up with some fellow racers.

Swim: Two open water swims: 9:49 + 13:27.4. I'm guessing I did about 1,200 meters total. Good practice.

Bike: Rode the sprint course - did the portion on E Lone Oak Rd that was outside of the park twice for a total distance of 31.38 miles in 1:36 (19.6 mph average speed) and an average heart rate of 149 bpm.

MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8616960 (forgot to stop my watch right away so the time is a bit long)

Run: 3.68 miles in 40:22 (10:58/mi pace). More of a walk/jog than a fast brick run, but at least I got some miles in. Really feeling the effects of nearly 100 miles of cycling in the last 24 hours. My average heart rate was 155 bpm even with all the walk breaks and water stops. Oh well ...

MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8616961

Peach Pedal 2009

Another good Peach Pedal Bike Rally in Weatherford, TX after skipping it last year. Seriously overestimated how long it would take to drive to Weatherford and complete on-site registration - ended up waiting about an hour before the start. New starting area (much improved - good parking at Weatherford High School) and course (no longer goes through downtown Weatherford) from 2007. Executive Summary: 3,065 ft of elevation change; one major wrong turn; 95+ degrees at the end - one tough ride.

With the "extra credit mileage", the 100K became 64.68 miles. I crossed the finish line in 3:33:07 for a 18.2 mph average speed. Up until the Mile 35 rest stop, I was averaging 20 mph (35.2 miles in 1:43); however, this is a little inflated since the course was downhill overall to this point. After 8 minutes at that rest stop to refill my water bottles, I headed back out and was still close to a 19 mph average speed by the time I reached the Mile 53 rest stop.

Still feeling good, I decided to forego that rest stop and just finish up the ride. That was not wise as the hills started almost immediately afterward. The last 10 miles were quite painful and the rising temperatures didn't help. Many riders resting at the side of the road under shade between hills.

With a few miles to go, Lee (who had a flat tire and fallen back - I totally didn't see him) caught up to and passed me as I plodded along at around 15 mph (or below). Seeing him gave me a little burst of energy and I finished up the ride.

MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8608951

Ride Review:

• Course: 3.5/5 - good hilly course (different from 2007), but quite a bit of chip seal on the roads; needed better markings (the signage was pretty good - except for the one that our lead group missed - but the painted arrows on the road were too light and hard to see)
• Rest Stops: 2/5 - I only stopped at one stop and it just had water (from a hose), gatorade, and some bananas. Maybe the other ones were better ...
• Logistics: 3/5 - easy online registration, reasonable entry fee, nice T-shirt, free pass to the Parker County Peach Festival (although I did not use), post-race showers available, supposedly there were going to be post-ride tacos from Rosa's Tortilla Factory, but they had already run out when Lee and I finished and 30-minutes later, there was still no additional batches. And aside from the tacos, no other post-ride refreshments other than warm water, bananas and some disappointingly bad (not ripe) peaches
• Overall: 3/5 - a popular ride for the course, I'll do it again and hope that the post-ride food materializes