Andrien Wang - Tri Training Blog

RaceDayAlert: REDMAN Triathlon

2010-09-25T20:09:00.001-05:00

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At 20:13:29, Andrien Wang reached FINISH.

Total elapsed time is 12:59:08.

RaceDayAlert: REDMAN Triathlon

2010-09-25T16:45:00.001-05:00

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At 14:57:06, Andrien Wang reached RUNOUT.

Total elapsed time is 7:42:45.

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RaceDayAlert: REDMAN Triathlon

2010-09-25T10:07:00.000-05:00

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At 8:44:59, Andrien Wang reached BIKEOUT.

Total elapsed time is 1:30:38.

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The Dream

2010-07-27T09:06:00.001-05:00

You know that crazy dream where you're back in college or high school and you have to take a test but you know you haven't studied. Well, I had a variation of that the other night.

I dreamt that I was participating in this crazy multi-day triathlon. I finished the swim on the first day (and in my dream I remember thinking that I did well), but somehow forgot(!) about the rest of the race and was traveling on a plane to some destination (I want to say Europe). As I was flying through the air (over the Atlantic?), I realized that I was going to miss the bike and the run. And consequently spent the rest of the flight/dream figuring out a plan to make it back in time for the finish (the laws of time and physics don't apply in dreams).

Of course, the good news is that right as I was getting really depressed about screwing up my scheduling, I woke up.

Yeah, Ironman training is messin' with me ... :-P

Ironman Swim (and Others)

2010-07-02T20:21:00.001-05:00

(Yeah, yeah, I've been TERRIBLE at keeping up with this blog lately. Going to try to turn over a new leaf. I've been using Facebook status updates the last few months to log workouts, but I realize that it's darn near impossible to go back and look at past ones. Facebook Search is FAILED.)

Today, I did my first 4,000 yard (2.27 mile) swim since April. And it was a pretty good one - I completed the near-Ironman distance in 1:21:43. This is more than 2 1/2 minutes faster than my previous "PR while wearing baggy swim trunks" - and I was swimming so well today that I might have been able to break my overall 4,000 yd training PR if I were wearing the swim jammers. Scary! (And imagine the possibilities if the pool had been wet-suit legal :-)

Here are my 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:35.5 (warming up)
2nd 500 yds: 10:13 (better, switched alternating breaststroke/freestyle for the rest of the swim)
3rd 500 yds: 10:03
4th 500 yds: 9:48 (really cooking here)
5th 500 yds: 10:05
6th 500 yds: 10:13 (just over an hour for 3,000 yds - not too shabby!)
7th 500 yds: 10:27 (getting tired)
8th 500 yds: 10:18 (DONE!)

For future reference, here some other recent long swims (have to clear out my watch's lap memory). As you can see I've been steadily increasing the length for my long swims to get back in to Ironman distance.

Friday, 6/25/10 - 3,000 yds in 1:02:31 (almost two minutes faster than last Friday)

1st 500 yds: 10:20
2nd 500 yds: 10:17
3rd 500 yds: 10:22
4th 500 yds: 10:30
5th 500 yds: 10:31
6th 500 yds: 10:31

Friday, 6/18/10 - 3,000 yds in 1:04:28 (slower swim - I never like seeing splits in the 11:00's - but I'll take it after having taken 2 days off)

1st 500 yds: 10:47
2nd 500 yds: 10:58
3rd 500 yds: 11:08
4th 500 yds: 10:40.5 (alternating breaststroke/freestyle for this and the remaining sets)
5th 500 yds: 10:28
6th 500 yds: 10:27.5

Monday, 6/14/10 - 2,500 yds in 52:21 - not too shabby considering it was after the Collin Classic (58 mi bike + 2.5 mi brick run) + Sunday 11.43 mi run

1st 500 yds: 10:34 (freestyle)
2nd 500 yds: 10:51.5 (freestyle)
3rd 500 yds: 10:57 (freestyle)
4th 500 yds: 10:05.5 (alternating breaststroke/freestyle)
5th 500 yds: 9:53 (alternating breaststroke/freestyle)

Friday, 6/11/10 - 2,500 yds in 54:52 (a bit tired, this is at the middle of a long string of workouts that started on Tuesday)

1st 500 yds: 11:03 (freestyle, wow - so slow!)
2nd 500 yds: 11:09 (freestyle)
3rd 500 yds: 11:22 (freestyle)
4th 500 yds: 10:39 (alternating breaststroke/freestyle, faster - but still slower than normal)
5th 500 yds: 10:39 (alternating breaststroke/freestyle)

Weekend Fun

2010-04-05T15:34:00.004-05:00

No races = no new blog posts. So maybe I'll change it up with a training update.

I'm less than 6 weeks away from my next Half-Ironman race - the Texas Man Triathlon on May 16. So I thought I'd do a "full" workout on Saturday to gauge where I stand. Started with a 7-mile run - 3 miles by myself and then met up with the Keller Running Club for the first 4 miles of their 7-mile route. After that I went to LA Fitness for a 3,000 yd swim + 2.5 hrs on the spin bike (15 min warmup + 2 spin classes with 15 minutes in between). I had skipped breakfast (was running late for the phase 1 run) - Big Mistake: I was starving by last hour of spin. Pretty solid workout - 1.5 x Half-Iron Swim, 5/6 of Half-Iron Bike, 7/13 of Half-Iron Run - which makes for a nice confidence booster.

On Sunday, I put in some more time in the spin room. (Unfortunately, even though the weather was pretty nice, I didn't have time to do a properly ride outside - we have 11:00 AM reservations for Easter brunch. :-) In total, 2 hours and 15 minutes completed - call it about 40 miles of riding. Normally, I would estimate it as closer to 45 miles (assuming a 20 MPH average) but I was definitely moving a little more slowly today and the intensity was down a notch (especially for the first 1:15 which was self-paced) - some recovery from yesterday's efforts. But even though the bike ride wasn't optimal, it still counts as time in the saddle and back-to-back days of riding ("50 miles" + "40 miles"). This is definitely welcome as my other big upcoming event is the Sam's Club MS-150 - a two-day 150-mile from Frisco to Fort Worth on May 1-2 (less than a month away).

Finally, today, I did my longest swim over six months - 4,000 yds in 1:28:16. This is about 4 minutes slower than my equivalently-matched "PR while wearing baggy swim trunks" (and nearly 13 minutes slower than my overall PR of 1:15:23). A little disappointing, but now I know where I need to improve. I'm going to try to get in my some more long (4,000+ yd) swims, and hopefully some open-water swims as well, before May 16.

St. Patrick's Day Triathlon 2010

2010-03-14T18:35:00.016-06:00

My St. Patrick's weekend tradition - a sprint triathlon in Keller. :-)

Another Dallas Athletes St. Patrick's Day Sprint Tri is in the bag. This was my third time doing this race and the sixth time that I've raced this course - a 300 meter pool swim in the Keller ISD Natatorium, a 12 mile bike ride, and 5K run on the Bear Creek trails.

I finished in 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 9 seconds for 5th out of 58 in the men's 40-44 age group, 56th out of 393 men, and 61st out of 601 finishers overall (though I'm pretty sure the 34th place finisher only did one loop on the bike - 27.2 MPH is kind of a giveaway).

Here are my splits:

Swim: 5:42.8 (123rd)
T1: 1:23.9
Bike: 34:48.9 (20.7 mph average, 41st)
T2: 1:08.4
Run: 24:05.7 (7:46/mi pace, 159th)
TOTAL: 1:07:09

Another finish in the top 10% of the field and this is a new course PR by over a minute - my previous best time was a 1:08:16 at the 2008 Monster Tri. Needless to say, I am very pleased.

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1846565&pubID=3

Garmin Connect info - Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26991954

Garmin Connect info - Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26991962

I arrived at the transition area fairly early (one of the benefits of living very close to the race venue) and was able to get into transition and get bodymarked without delay. I saw Melissa (doing her first triathlon) and Tyler as she was getting set up in her bike rack and met with Elizabeth, Steve and Archie as well.

After grabbing my chip and a last-minute transition area check, I headed to the pool for a warm-up swim. Said hello to spin-classmate Eddie and did 4 laps (200m). Was winded despite trying to keep the pace nice and easy - still too fast! Another reminder that perhaps the best reason to do a swim warm-up is to remind yourself how painful it will be if you go out too fast at the start. :-P

On to the actual race. After waiting for the approximately 200 swimmers before me, I got into the water at about 8:06 - about 27 minutes after the first swimmer.

The swim itself went very smoothly (except for the approximately 27 minute delay before I got into the water :-P). I was almost perfectly seeded - I only got passed by one person and passed two people myself - and experienced very little congestion in the swim lanes so I guess the wait was worth it.

T1 was pretty fast for me. The weather was cool, but not cold enough (for me) to have to take the time to put on a top. Grabbed two SaltSticks so that I wouldn't experience cramping, but decided to forgo taking a gel.

The bike out/in was laid out a bit differently versus in past years - winding past Keller Town Hall before the right turn onto Bear Creek Parkway. I think it actually made it a bit slower to get onto the main part of the course (and for the reentry back into transition) so I'm pleased that my bike time was only 30 seconds slower than my personal best for this course in light of the changes. Other than that I pushed hard on my bike - was only passed by one person (who ended up in 32nd place and was the female masters winner) - and overall it was a smooth ride as road conditions were good. I did run into a little traffic on Bear Creek Parkway around around Mile 5 as two police motorcycles were parked in the middle of the road with flashers on - they were helping a runner (? - not part of the race?) on the sidewalk - but it ended up being a non-issue.

T2 was also smooth. Unlike last fall's Monster Tri where I lost my shoe, I had no such mishaps this time. Racked my bike, put on race belt and running shoes, grabbed my "green leprechaun hat" and was on my way. As I started off on the run, I got a "go get 'em" from Archie (18th overall at 1:00:22) who had already finished!

I thought I had a decent run. Not a bad run, but not a great run either - or so I thought. Turns out that I PRed the run course by almost a minute (previous PR was 24:54). I guess that marathon training paid off. :-)

After crossing the finish line, I got to see Eddie finish a few minutes later (131st overall) and then met up with Tyler to see Melissa come in on the bike and head into T2 and subsequently out on the run.

Some more good finish times by Elizabeth (84th overall and 3rd in her age group), Faith (125th and 4th in her age group), and Steve (158th overall). And congrats again to Melissa and Leslie on their first triathlons!

After a little recovery and checking preliminary results postings, we enjoyed some pancakes hot off the griddle and listened (and maybe danced a little jig as well) to the band playing some Irish tunes while basking in the sun of an almost-springtime Texas morning. What a great day for a race!

2010 Cowtown Marathon

2010-02-27T14:27:00.007-06:00

Hooray! My second 26.2 is complete. I finished the full distance at The Cowtown Marathon in 4:09:01. My goal was to beat my time at White Rock (4:18:35) with a stretch goal finishing in sub-4:10. So I made it with 58 seconds to spare. :-)

Unlike the wind and cold of last year, the weather was perfect today - cool but clear in the morning with only a gentle breeze, sunny and warming up to around 60 degrees by mid-day. (Yes, I remembered to put on my sunscreen.)

Traffic was a little heavier than I expected (and I left the house a little later than planned) so I didn't get parked until about 6:30. Ran into Melissa and Heather while heading to the expo and saw Fiona at race day packet pickup area. After getting my bib, T-shirt, and goody bag I went back to my car to get the rest of my gear and dump unnecessary items (I didn't know that they had a bag check service! - did I miss it in years past?). So by the time I made it (back) to the starting line, it was pretty crowded and I didn't really expect to find any of my friends.

I did run into Sean and Tonda while making my way back to "Corral D" (home of the 9:30-10:00/mi marathoners) and, even better, after hopping the fence and squeezing into the sardine can of runners, I heard someone call my name. Greatness, Derek was standing right next to me. Since the half-marathon (his event) and marathon shared the same course for the first 8 miles and his target pace was the same as mine, we were able to run together for the first hour of the race (as well as hang out and talk while we waited for both the starting gun and the 16-17 minutes before our corral group actually made it to the starting timing mat & archway).

The first 8 miles were exactly as expected. The pace was a little slow due a gradual climb (elevation chart below) following the steep descent behind the Fort Worth Courthouse building. I was perfectly (un)dressed for the run. I had donned the always stylish black trash-bag-as-disposable-windbreaker for the start and peeled it off just before the Mile 2 water stop - tossing my garbage bag into the volunteer's garbage bag.

Derek and I did a 5-min/1-min run/walk and did a nice steady jaunt to Mile 7. At that point, my legs were loosening up and I picked up my pace - according to my Garmin, I did mostly sub-9:00 miles from Mile 7 to Mile 16. The downhill grade from Mile 8 -Mile 13 definitely helped my averages, as well.

Obviously, everything from Mile 8-24 was virgin territory (Cowtown race-route wise) for me; Miles 1-8 & the final two miles are shared with the half-marathon that I've done in 2008 and 2009. However, since I had run parts of the route (Colonial Parkway, TCU area) with the Ranch View Gang in times past and obviously Trinity Park was home to many Fort Worth Runners Club races, there was still some "home-field advantage" working in my favor.

At around Mile 16, I ran into Kevin and we leap-frogged each other for most of the remainder of the race. We saw Michael at Mile 18 - he was volunteering and directed us (and fellow runners) to turn left and head north towards University Ave, Trinity Park and downtown. After crossing the river at the Rogers Road bridge, Mason joined us at the Mile 21 water stop to run Kevin in for the final 5 miles and Lori was added to the group at the top of the hill after passing the Duck Pond in Trinity Park (just before the Mile 24 FWRC-manned water stop).

As we headed into downtown, I had to walk almost the entire hill on 7th Street - I made it over the bridge, but lost all my power after that. Mile 24-25 was my worst Garmin-reported mile split (10:53). But the two-minute walk break helped a lot and I finished climbing the hill (seeing Tonda & Jenna helped too :-) and turned right onto Florence St (a mostly downhill stretch - yay!) before the final test of Lancaster Ave. That was not pretty - had to walk for most of it - but did pick up speed at the top of the hill. And kept it up after turning onto Throckmorton and entering the skyscrapers of downtown Fort Worth. I had hoped to run the rest of the way, but I needed one last break (45 seconds on last part of Throckmorton up to 9th St). During that walk break, my Garmin informed me that I could make my sub-4:10 goal if I hustled - so I fired the engine back up, turned onto Main for the final quarter-mile, and crossed the finish line in 4:09:01.

My official stats showed my overall pace and standing at the following split points:

10K: 59:25 (9:34/mi), 649th place

13.1mi: 2:01:50 (9:18/mi), 543rd place

30K: 2:53:21 (9:18/mi), 467th place

Finish: 4:09:01 (9:30/mi), 381st place

Wow, overall, I passed almost 270 people (more than a fifth of the field) over the last 20 miles. So while I'm definitely disappointed that I had to slow down on those hills in the final 2.25 miles, I still had a strong finish, relatively speaking.

Final stats: 381st place overall out of 1216 finishers, 312th out of 847 men, and 63rd out of 133 in my age group.

After collecting my finisher medal and relaxing & recovering for a little bit at the finish line, I headed over to the "party area". Met up with Elizabeth who had been up since 3:00 AM keeping the food tent stocked and operational. Thanks to Elizabeth and all volunteers for taking care of us runners!

As you can from the photo, with the 2009 & 2010 medals, I am 2/5 of the way to completing the Cowtown Marathon five-medal-series Texas Star. I will definitely be doing at least the half-marathon at Cowtown for the next three years to finish that star!

After feasting on post-race nourishment (an assortment of yogurt, bananas, chicken-noodle soup, ice cream, pastries, bars & gels) - along with downing two Muscle Milk Light recovery drinks, I said hello to Eva, Kim, and other marathon/ultra-marathon finishers. Driving home was "interesting" as my left calf kept cramping up as I pressed down on the clutch to switch gears - the downside of a manual transmission. Luckily, once I hit the highway, all was well.

Twenty minutes later, I got back to my house (another reason I love this race, close to home). After unloading my car, I prepped for my now post-20+-mile run ritual - ICE BATH. Between 20-minutes of my legs in ice water, keeping them elevated for an hour (while I took a nap) and some self-massage, hopefully I can avoid/lessen the dreaded next-day D.O.M.S.

Garmin Connect info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25672070

Full results (all races, all runners) at http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=4335

2010 Texas Motor Speedway Duathlon

2010-02-21T16:07:00.018-06:00

Rain on Race Day - Boo! I woke up this morning to cloudy skies and some drizzle. A glance at the weather/radar map showed the current rain subsiding, but a second storm cell to hit in a few hours - right around our 8:30 AM start time.

Oh well, I've raced in the rain before, so I headed out to Texas Motor Speedway to do the 6th Annual TMS Sprint Duathlon - my third time attending this event.

The race field was definitely sizeable - bolstered by collegiate teams from Texas Tech and Univ of North Texas. Ironhead Jack said that over 375 people had registered for the race. Some of them didn't show up - probably scared off by the weather - but there were still 300+ participants (301 finishers).

I got to TMS a little after 7:00 and ran into Lee and Serena heading to the transition area. Always nice to see my tri buddies! We got our bikes set up, picked up our timing chips, and relaxed a little in and around the transition area. On the next bike rack over, I was welcomed by Archie, whom I hadn't see in almost a year (since last year's St. Patrick's Day Tri). Melissa arrived a short time later and set up for her first multi-sport event. The standard pre-race meeting at 8:10 and then a little more waiting for the first wave to start.

Unfortunately, as feared, torrential rains (accompanied with thunder and lightning) hit around 8:25, but thankfully the start was delayed until 9:00. Aside from water on the course and a little wind, race conditions were almost perfect. No rain during the actual race. Very nice.

I crossed the finish line in 1:17:05 - 2 minutes & 42 seconds faster than my time from last year (which was already pretty darn good for me). I'm extremely happy with my performance - especially since my legs have felt so tired and sore the last few days. (I did an 8-mile run on Friday afternoon - my last longish training run for the Cowtown Marathon - and my legs just never seemed to recover from it).

My official results:

4th out of 21 in my age group
55th out of 205 men
59th place overall (out of 301 finishers)

Run 1 (2 miles officially): 15:05 (7:33/mi, 143rd place)
T1: 01:11
Bike (16 miles officially): 44:20 (21.7mph, 43rd place)
T2: 00:45
Run 2 (2 miles officially): 15:43 (7:52/mi, 119th place)

Compared with last year, I was faster in every part of the race except for T1 - I took some extra time to ditch my long-sleeved DRC Half running shirt (got warm after the run and I needed to be more aerodynamic on the bike).

Here are my stats as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 305 (split times very close to the official chip-timed results):

My average heart rate was 2 bpm lower than last year despite the faster finish time. Below is my heart rate and elevation stats for the race. I'm not sure why there is a crazy elevation fluctuation during the first run leg (between the 10 and 14 minute marks) and the heart rate spike at 12:00 (which means my max heart rate for the first run leg and overall should be 180 instead of 185).

Unlike last year, when Lee passed me at Mile 1.25 of Run 1 (because I had a 2:00 head-start on his wave), this year he passed me right at the start since we started in the same wave. I didn't feel great during Run 1 (or Run 2), so I was shocked to discover later that my run pace for both legs was my solidly faster than the last two years.

For the bike, I also felt that I wasn't pushing as hard as I should, so I was surprised that I shaved 1:24 off of last year's bike time. Part of it was probably due to the aero Louis Garneau Rocket Air helmet that I picked up a couple weeks ago on clearance. Nonetheless, I was very happy to have a strong bike performance considering that I haven't really ridden my bike since last October (see Monster Triathlon) aside from a few times around the block on Thursday.

The final run leg was also difficult but uneventful. As I rounded the final turn, I saw Lee, who had finished a little earlier; he shouted words of encouragement and jogged me in to the finish line. Done! After catching my breath, I did the same and cheered on Melissa and Serena as they worked on their Run 2 efforts.

So in the end, it was a day that didn't look that great for a race, but it all ended up quite well.

Congrats to Lee (who placed 3rd in our age group - I was in 4th, but finished over 4 minutes behind him so it wasn't even close :-P), Archie (3rd in his age group as well, and 31st overall), Claudia (3rd place in her age group in her first multi-sport event) and Melissa (also doing her multi-sport event).

Full results at: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=4070

Next up: The Cowtown Marathon - my next 26.2 in only 6 days!

Iron Distance Challenge

2010-01-31T12:56:00.007-06:00

During the month of January, I participated in the Iron Distance Challenge on Serena's team ("Me, Myself & Tri"). Our team did great (final results won't be out later this week, but we were in first place with a comfortable margin as of Jan 24) and I did pretty well, too. My goal was to complete the distances of 4 Ironman triathlons (4 x 2.4 miles swim/112 miles bike/26.2 miles run) in 31 days. As you can see, I made it! (click to enlarge chart):

Not only is the Iron Distance Challenge a great cause (a donation is made to the charity of the winning team's/individual's choice) but the perfect motivator to kick-start the new year.

I had been taking it easy during the latter half of December - recovery/recuperation from White Rock Marathon and lots of well-deserved rest during the holidays. The IDC got me in the pool on January 1 ... and I finished up today with a long spin session to get the final 64 miles that I needed for the bike. (IDC counts stationary cycling at 18 miles/hour so that was 3 hours and 35 minutes on the spin bike!)

I look forward to re-joining my teammates next year for the 2011 Iron Distance Challenge.

Lake Benbrook Half-Marathon 2010

2010-01-30T13:17:00.001-06:00

This morning's hilly and chilly Lake Benbrook Half Marathon was pretty tough but I survived and had a decent time to boot.

The temperature was only 30 degrees at the start time, and with a 15+ mph wind, the wind chill was only 16-17.

I had a pretty good race - all things considered - and completed the 13.1 mile course (13.36 per GPS) in 1:57:37 for a 8:59/mi pace (8:48/mi per GPS). My time placed me at 94th out of 217 finishers - and 10th out of 22 in my age group. There were fewer runners than in the last two years - the weather no doubt kept participants away.

This is a PR for me for this course, but that is not saying much since I was just 9 seconds faster than last year and in 2008 I had a DNF due to my nagging ITBS. However, I was proud to have a very consistent pace for the entire 13+ miles. Most of the race was done with 8/1 run/walk. Time taken from start to the course's turn-around: 58:47; time from turn-around to finish: 58:50 ... not quite a negative split, but close!

My run started off okay, but there were a few obstacles. Without sweat to hold my PattStraps (a must for my IT bands on the hilly and often banked roads of this course) in place (and I probably didn't put them on tight enough), I had to stop twice (once for each leg) to re-adjust them. At Mile 1, we hit the expected low-water crossing of Benbrook's park road. Unexpectedly, there was quite a bit of flowing water and no way around it. I tried my best to jump over it, but still got one shoe soaked (brrr) in the frigid water. Not pleasant.

At Mile 5, there was ice on the road and we were directed to go off to the grass to avoid it. Unfortunately, the grass/dirt was wet and muddy so it was still not an optimal path.

0.65 miles later, "Nice Hill" was reached. Having taken a walk break less than 7 minutes earlier, my legs still felt pretty strong and I was able to power up the 75 feet of elevation change (in 0.11 miles) in just over a minute - not too bad for such a steep grade. I just "rode the downhill" (and rolling uphill) to Mile 6.66 (hmm) and walked at the turn-around water-stop.

The return leg was the same as the "out" with the same ice & mud dodging at Mile 8.25 as Mile 5 and same low-water crossing/river at Mile 12.3. Unfortunately, the water flow was worse the second time (maybe extra ice had melted further upstream?) and I got BOTH feet wet - and despite (or maybe because of) being warmed up after 12+ miles of running, my feet were VERY cold after the second dousing ... and my shoes were a lot heavier for being wet.

Luckily, I could already see the Benbrook YMCA (the start/finish was right behind it) and pushed myself to an 8:00/mi pace for the final mile.

So not the most fun race, but I'm glad I got in the required 13 miles for my Cowtown Marathon training plan and I got to see some friends at the start and finish - albeit briefly - we all left pretty soon after the race due to the bitter cold (and wet feet!)

Garmin Connect info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23553989

Official results:http://www.runtimeracingservices.com/Results2.aspx?RaceID=780

Saturday Aqua-Bike, Sunday Blackjack Run & Monday Recovery Swim

2010-01-25T19:41:00.009-06:00

I had a solid workout on Saturday morning - a 2,500 yd swim in 48:37 - splits:

1st 500 yds: 9:30.5
2nd 500 yds: 9:55
3rd 500 yds: 9:52.5
4th 500 yds: 9:51
5th 500 yds: 9:28

followed by 2 hours and 35 minutes of spin class (avg hr 150 bpm) ...

Then, on Sunday I had the first of my two scheduled 20+ mile long training runs for the Cowtown Marathon.

Despite having to run all by myself (just me and my MP3 player) in my neighborhood, I ended up running 21.25 miles in 3:25:45 (a 9:40/mi pace). I'm happy that I kept a fairly steady speed for the entire run - the first 7 miles were at 9:26/mi pace, next 7 at 9:32/mi, and last 7.25 at 10:03/mi - so I slowed down, but not horribly. In addition to that I am now very familiar with the roads of my community - it's amazing that I was able to run so far and yet I was never more than 1.5 miles (as the crow flies) away from my house (in case of emergency) and (for the most part) I didn't double-back on any of the roads - i.e., I didn't do a 10 mile run and then just turn around and do it in reverse.

Afterwards, I tried my first post-run ice bath. I filled the tub with about 8 inches of water. Dumped all the ice that I had in the freezer (probably about as much as one of those big bags from the grocery store) into the water and hopped in. Brrrr, it was really cold. I could only stand to keep my legs in the water for about 10-20 seconds at a time and then I had to pull them out for 20-30 seconds for some recovery. I "dunked" them about 20 times - so probably only about 5-7 minutes of total "ice bath time" (15 minutes is recommended) but that was all I could take.

I have to admit that despite the pain and discomfort during the actual bath, my legs did feel better afterwards (maybe just from being out of the cold :-). And the next day I definitely felt less soreness in my legs than my previous 20+ mile runs. So I will have to keep going on these ...

Today, I was originally planning to take a well-deserved rest day, but because of a last-minute business trip coming up (which, by nature, usually equals rest days), I decided to squeeze in a recovery swim this afternoon. It ended up being one of my fastest 2,500 yd swims to date. Total swim time was 46:55 (I think that is a PR??). Not bad for a day when I was originally just going to sit on the couch. Splits:

1st 500 yds: 9:10
2nd 500 yds: 9:29
3rd 500 yds: 9:34.5
4th 500 yds: 9:25
5th 500 yds: 9:17

So my Iron Distance Challenge totals through today - Swim: 11.65 miles, Bike: 357 miles, Run: 83.65 miles. Three full Ironman distances complete - need 91 bike miles and 21.25 miles by this weekend (Sunday evening) to meet my personal goal of four. Not exactly sure when I can get them in, but I'm going to try my best!

Clearing the "Swim Watch" memory

2010-01-19T18:00:00.011-06:00

The 100 lap memory of my Timex Ironman "swimming" watch is full. Going to save the splits of my longer swims for posterity/future review.

Fri, Nov 06: 2,000 yds in 42:10.5 - not a very fast swim, but was at the end of a week of solid workouts.

1st 500 yds: 10:30.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:46
3rd 500 yds: 10:44
4th 500 yds: 10:10

Mon, Nov 09: 1,500 yds in 31:37

1st 500 yds: 10:33.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:40
3rd 500 yds: 10:23

Sun, Nov 15: 2,500 yds in 47:29 - good swim, might be a PR for this distance. For the last two sets of 250 yds - I alternated between breast-stroke and freestyle for each half-lap/pool-length. Followed up the swim with a 65-min spin session. :-)

1st 500 yds: 9:15
2nd 500 yds: 9:31.5
3rd 500 yds: 9:35
4th 500 yds: 9:39
next 250 yds: 4:52.5
final 250 yds: 4:36

Mon, Nov 23: 1,500 yds in 31:35 - recovery swim after 20.5-mile run on Sunday

1st 500 yds: 10:31
2nd 500 yds: 10:27.5
3rd 500 yds: 10:36

Tue, Nov 24: 1,500 yds in 30:53 - another (short) swim day; still recovering ...

1st 500 yds: 10:17.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:27
3rd 500 yds: 10:08.5

Sat, Nov 28: 2,500 yds in 48:45

1st 500 yds: 9:29
2nd 500 yds: 9:41.5
3rd 500 yds: 9:55.5
4th 500 yds: 10:05
5th 500 yds: 9:33.5

Sat, Dec 05: 2,500 yds in 49:32

1st 500 yds: 9:39
2nd 500 yds: 9:53
3rd 500 yds: 10:07
4th 500 yds: 10:08.5
5th 500 yds: 9:44

Mon, Dec 07: 3,000 yds in 57:49 - a training PR for this distance ... until Jan 18 (see below)

1st 500 yds: 9:28
2nd 500 yds: 9:37.5
3rd 500 yds: 9:37.5
4th 500 yds: 9:42
5th 500 yds: 9:53
6th 500 yds: 9:31

Sat, Dec 19: 2,500 yds in 49:24

1st 500 yds: 9:31.5
2nd 500 yds: 9:44.5
3rd 500 yds: 10:04
4th 500 yds: 10:14
5th 500 yds: 9:50

Mon, Dec 21: 2,000 yds in 38:05 - squeezed in a quick lunch-time swim before our evening flight out for the holidays :-)

1st 500 yds: 9:22
2nd 500 yds: 9:30.5
3rd 500 yds: 9:45
4th 500 yds: 9:27.5

Fri, Jan 01: 2,500 yds in 53:44 - Happy New Year! My pace was not that fast, but I was back to wearing baggy swim trunks for this swim and it was my first workout in a several days (and first swim in almost two weeks) due to vacation/holiday.

1st 500 yds: 10:22.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:45
3rd 500 yds: 10:57.5
4th 500 yds: 10:58.5
5th 500 yds: 10:40.5

Sun, Jan 03: 2,500 yds in 49:25

1st 500 yds: 9:26.5
2nd 500 yds: 9:49
3rd 500 yds: 10:02
4th 500 yds: 10:14
5th 500 yds: 9:53.5

Tue, Jan 05: 1,000 yds in 20:39 - not a bad pace for following an hour of spin class

1st 500 yds: 10:27
2nd 500 yds: 10:12

Fri, Jan 08: 1,000 yds in 21:07 - this was following a 7-mile elliptical/treadmill run

1st 500 yds: 10:44.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:23

Sun, Jan 10: 2,500 yds in 49:20

1st 500 yds: 9:24.5
2nd 500 yds: 9:54
3rd 500 yds: 10:01
4th 500 yds: 10:12
5th 500 yds: 9:49

Sat, Jan 16: 2,500 yds in 49:50 - I don't know why my weekend morning swims are getting slower?!? I had even taken yesterday off. :-(

1st 500 yds: 9:50
2nd 500 yds: 10:01
3rd 500 yds: 9:59
4th 500 yds: 10:04
5th 500 yds: 9:55

Mon, Jan 18: 3,000 yds in 57:14.68 - I believe this is a training PR for this distance! What a change from Saturday's swim - and what a great time considering that I did that 2,500 yd swim + 2.5 hours of spin on Saturday, and then 14.5 miles of running (including a 15K race) on Sunday!

1st 500 yds: 9:08
2nd 500 yds: 9:20
3rd 500 yds: 9:34
4th 500 yds: 9:52
5th 500 yds: 9:51
6th 500 yds: 9:30

Ahh, now the watch memory is cleared - all ready for more!

2010 Too Cold To Hold 15K

2010-01-17T15:58:00.007-06:00

Good run(s) today. Beautiful running weather. 5 miles before the race and then the Too Cold To Hold 15K for a total of about 14.5 miles.

My "warm-up" run went pretty well. My route was west across the northernmost bridge of White Rock Lake and then south down the west side of the lake - past the 5K water-stop & turnaround - and then back to my car. My was a little faster than I had originally planned and a little longer than my Garmin stats recorded. I had mis-read (or mis-recalled) the race information and thought that it began at 8:00 AM (the start time was actually 8:30) so I only took one walk break and really picked up the pace on the return leg. 4.94 miles in 43:36 (8:49/mi pace). But like I said the distance was actually a little longer - I had to reset/restart my watch after 0.25 miles because my heart rate monitor wasn't working correctly.

The Too Cold To Hold 15K had a new course this year (and the 5K did as well) - it was an out-and-back from Norbuck Park down along the east side of White Rock Lake with the U-turn just past the Arboretum. Coming back, there was a small deviation and we went up the hill at Winfrey Point before rejoined Lawther Drive.

Unfortunately, because of my mis-timing, instead of getting back from my workout run and then immediately starting back up on the 15K, I had almost 30 minutes of down time after dumping my fuel belt, soaked shirt and empty gel wrapper. In the morning air, I cooled down quickly, but luckily, there were multiple outdoor patio heaters placed around the registration area (NICE!) so the wait wasn't too uncomfortable.

I ran the first mile with Serena at a relaxed 9:30/mi pace before speeding up. I really felt great during the run - a lot less tired than I thought I would be after already putting in 5 miles. I didn't do my normal run-walk intervals though I did stop and walk for about a minute at all of the rest stops (except for the first one where I only slowed briefly). At around Mile 7, I calculated that I did about an 8:15/mi pace for the rest of race I could break 1 hr and 20 min. I came very close (my official time was 1:20:02) and had a sub-8:00/mi pace for the last half-mile+, but didn't quite make it. Oh well.

My final result of 1:20:02 put me in 200th out of 719 overall (137th out of 268 men and 34th out of 52 in my age group). From the results, my official 5K splits were

1st 5K: 27:35.74 (227th place)
2nd 5K: 26:23.25 (181st place)
3rd 5K: 26:02.21 (177th place)

And here are my splits (yes, I'm really digging the consistent pace and strong finish :-):

I am very happy that my time for the 15K was only 2 min, 20 sec off of my PR (which I set at last year's race). The almost perfect race conditions - mostly cloudy (the sun didn't come out until near the end of the race) yet not too cold nor windy - really helped me today. They also helped Lee (2nd place in his age group and 12th place overall) and Serena (a new 15K PR). Woo-hoo!

I'm probably going to take it easy this week, running-wise. 20 miles on the schedule for next weekend - less than 6 weeks until Cowtown! :-P

Miscellany:

Garmin Connect info (5-mile warmup): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22586508
Garmin Connect info (15K race): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22586543
Full race results: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/2010/TooColdToHold002/TooColdMenu.htm

Monster Tri "One"

2009-10-25T22:37:00.000-06:00

This morning, I participated in my second Monster Sprint Triathlon of 2009. Monster Tri "One" (in Keller) was actually the weekend following Monster Tri "Two" (in Denton). I had a pretty good race today though not quite a PR - more on that later. I completed the 300 meter pool swim at the Keller ISD Natatorium's 50-meter lanes, "12 mile" bike (12.5 miles per GPS), and 5K run in 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 43 seconds for 11th out of 42 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 42nd out of 541 total finishers overall. With over 600 participants, turnout for this race continues to grow (last year, there were just over 500 entrants) even with the addition of the Denton event. Apparently, the recession has not damped triathlon event interest in the DFW metroplex.

Jack was 5th in our age group with a 1:06:25, and Lee captured 15th place with a time of 1:05 flat and grabbed 2nd place in his age group. My friend Eddie from spin class finished 4th in his age group as well. My splits:

Swim: 5:46 (1:47/100yd pace)
T1: 1:30
Bike: 35:22 (20.4 mph average, 21.2 mph per GPS)
T2: 1:11
Run: 24:56 (8:03/mi pace)
TOTAL: 1:08:43

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1805631&pubID=3

As I alluded to earlier, this is actually 27 seconds slower than last year. I would have guessed that my run would have been my weakness, but it was actually my bike time that was slower - by over a minute! My T2 was also a little slower - I think the reason for that was because my costume today (a "Hugh Heffner" robe) took a little longer to put on than last year's caveman outfit. Oh, well - the sacrifices one must make for art :-).

Last year's splits for comparison:

Swim: 5:51 (1:47/100yd pace)
T1: 1:34
Bike: 34:12 (21.1 mph average)
T2: 1:00
Run: 25:40 (8:17/mi pace)
TOTAL: 1:08:16

The weather seemed to be about par for this race. Cool - a little chilly at the start of the bike when wet from the swim, but perfect for the run.

Lee actually beat me into transition - surprising since I live so close to the venue - and greeted me as I entered the bike racks. After we set up our bike & gear and grabbed out timing chips, we headed out for a short warm-up run.

Back inside the Keller Nat ... and more waiting. We watched the LONG line for chip-pickup. So glad we got there early. By some miracle, the race didn't start TOO late - only 10-15 minutes after the scheduled 7:30 AM.

My bib number was "454", but since the first swimmer into the water was actually "325", I only had about 100 people in front of me for the pool. The swim was uneventful and my time was decent - I probably could have shaved a few seconds off of the 5:46, but I hit some traffic about two-thirds of the way through as well as at the ladder for the pool exit.

T1 was pretty smooth. I was slower than everyone else on my rack, taking in an AccelGel and putting on socks, but that's just how I roll. Mounted my bike fairly smoothly upon exiting the transition area and headed down Bear Creek Parkway to start the bike leg.

I felt a little tired on the hills, though my (GPS) speed was still about the same as last weekend. There was a little bit more discourteousness/cluelessness from fellow racers today with regards to blocking ("On Your Left, guys!") but that honestly didn't mess me up. I did do a spin class yesterday and ran 3 miles yesterday, but I can't really use that as an excuse when comparing with last year because a year ago I did 15K worth of running at the Four Seasons Cool Run event the day before Monster Tri 2008!

As I finished the bike leg, I got a cheer from my friend and fellow Keller Running Club member, Melissa. I had a small mishap at bike dismount - couldn't unclip my left shoe out of the pedal (I really need to take a look at that pedal/cleat) - so in the end I had to just pop my foot out of my bike shoe, dismount, and run through the transition area with one bike-shoe and one sock-foot. Fun stuff. :-P

Aside from being "left-shoeless", I had a fairly smooth T2. As mentioned earlier, the robe costume is a little more involved than the caveman outfit. It was hard to get my arms into the sleeves and tying up the "belt" took a few extra seconds, too. I grabbed a gel and snapped on my race belt and headed out on the run course.

I had neglected to take a SaltStick before the bike and about a 1/8 mile into the run, I started to get some small cramps in my calves. Uh-oh ... Luckily, they disappeared after another 1/8 of a mile and I turned onto the Keller running trails. Since the course is part of the normal Keller Running Club route, I can pretty much run these trails in my sleep. The run went fairly smoothly. I didn't think I was having a very good run - every time I looked at my Garmin, my pace was listed at 8:10/mi or so - but it wasn't terrible either.

My costume wasn't too unwieldy, but it kept slipping off my shoulders. It was also a little warm - I wasn't wearing any top at all during the bike and its 21+ MPH speed - and now I had on an extra layer while going slower and at a higher heart rate! Hmm, something to think about for next year ...

Speaking of costumes, my "side goal" for the last few Monster Triathlons has been to be the first person to cross the finish line in a costume. There was a "referee" who had a 1/8 mile lead on me at the start of the run. We were pretty evenly matched; we were nearly to the turn-around until I finally passed her. After making the U-turn, I saw an "Elvis" and a "Wonder Woman" but they were 1/8 and 1/4 mile behind me, respectively, so I thought I was okay as long as I could keep a steady pace. However, as I neared the Mile 3 marker, I heard a volunteer/fan shout out "Way to go, Wonder Woman". Uh-oh, I guess my cushion is gone. I kicked it up a notch for the final sprint through the grass, around the corner and to the finish line - finishing only a few seconds ahead of her. Actually, Kristina (Wonder Woman's alter-ego) started the swim & race about 45-50 seconds after me and bested my chip time by 52 seconds (and took third place overall female)! Oh well, I guess I was still the first costumed finisher by clock time. :-P

All-in-all, a great race and a nice end to the 2009 triathlon season. Okay, now it's time to get serious about White Rock!

Monster Tri "Two"

2009-10-18T21:15:00.001-05:00

My legs were definitely a little tired from yesterday's century ride, but I still finished strongly in the inaugural Dallas Athlete's Monster Tri "Two" at the Denton Natatorium this morning. I still find it weird that Monster Tri "Two" is a week before Monster Tri "One" (this coming Sunday in Keller), but I suppose the latter is the original race.

I can't believe that it's been six months since I last did a sprint-distance triathlon. Between doing the Olympic distance for Texas Man, PlayTri, and Disco (and of course the PrairieMan 70.3) - and skipping the TWU Power Sprint (I never liked that pool swim and Dallas Athlete's charged $20 more than Ironhead did!), Old College Tri (also too expensive) and Take On The Heat (Las Vegas vacation) - I missed out on doing the shorter events. Anyway, maybe the time away was a good thing, because I had a blast at this race and a great performance to boot!

I completed the 250 yd swim, 16 mile bike, and 3 mile run course in 1:19:52, which netted me 6th place out of 25 in my age group and 24th out of 289 overall. This is one of my best performances ever - top 10% - and to think I did it only 24 hours after a hard 100-mile bike ride - needless to say, I am ecstatic! Here are my splits:

Swim: 4:52
T1: 1:26
Bike: 46:51 (20.5 MPH, 12th fastest bike split!) - 21.1 MPH for 16.5 miles per GPS
T2: 1:15
Run: 25:30 (8:14/mi pace) - 8:13/mi for 3.1 miles per GPS
TOTAL: 1:19:52

Full results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1804210&pubID=3

Garmin Connect map & data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16600918 (bike) & http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16600936 (run)

The swim went relatively smoothly, though the 10 x 25-yds set-up made passing difficult. I did pass three people (and got passed by two as well) in the swim including the young woman who went immediately before me; however, she must not have appreciated that because on the final lap she swam up beside me and basically crowded me against the pool wall. Not cool! (I see from the results that she got first place in her age group so maybe there is a competitive streak trumping sportsmanship ... ). Anyway, I finished the final lap and hopped out of the pool a lot more gracefully that I would have expected and sprinted out the open doorway to the transition area.

T1 was okay. I got to the race site relatively late so I had a bad rack position and had to run in my bike shoes the maximum distance to Bike Out. However, despite the cool morning weather I opted not to put on a tri-top so my swim-to-bike transition was pretty fast except for my normal AccelGel & water break.

The bike leg was great. The course was an out-and-back from the Denton Nat with a turn-around at the Aubrey Middle School. There were definitely some hills along the way (~400 ft of elevation change over 16.5 miles) and my still-tired legs were complaining during the climbs. Here is the elevation profile:

However, FM-428 (Sherman Rd) had a very nice road surface - a huge contrast from 70+ miles of chip-seal the day before - and that got me motivated to get some speed. In fact, between getting warmed-up on the bike and the fact that the climbs were more gradual on the return leg, I was actually faster during the second half of the bike (21.5 vs. 20.8 MPH). Speed and other stats below (I ended "Lap 1" as I entered the Aubrey Middle School parking lot for the turn-around):

T2 was very smooth. I had no problems putting on my caveman/Tarzan costume and made it out of there quickly.

My run was not my best, but still pretty good. We had nearly perfect running weather. I'm sure that if I hadn't done such a long bike ride the day before that I could have gotten closer (or perhaps beaten - one can dream :-) my tri-5K goal pace of 8:00/mi. Here is my run speed (blue) and heart rate (red) charts:

The heart rate looks a little funky. I'm thinking those spikes are in accurate. Probably a bad connection between the strap and my chest during the run.

The drop in speed at Mile 0.4 is because I had to stop to redo my timing chip strap which was falling off (bad initial Velcro job on my part, I suppose). The slowdown at Mile 3.0 was a near-collision with the runner in front of me - he was circling around the cone (and me) for his second lap of the run course, while I was making a "hard right" to head to the finish line. Luckily, no serious incident occurred.

Following that I sped up again for the final push (though the hill up to the parking lot did slow me down a little) and crossed the finish line. My streak (2 for 2) of being the first finisher of those wearing costumes is intact! (though a girl in a Twister outfit was probably only a few minutes behind me :-)

With the standard disclaimers ("Hindsight is 20-20"; "If 'if's and 'but's were beer and nuts, oh what a party we'd have!"), I think that if I hadn't ridden yesterday, I probably could have shaved 90 seconds off my time (say a minute on the bike and 30 seconds on the run) which would have gotten me 4th place in my age group and 17th overall. Oh well, no biggie, though - 4th is still not award-worthy, and since this is my first time (okay, everyone's first time) doing this race/course, it is automatically a PR. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to a repeat/better performance at "Monster Tri One" this coming Sunday - a familiar course (will be my fifth time doing it) right in my backyard in Keller.

Race Review: The bike and run courses (the small mishap with the "second loop turn-around" notwithstanding) were great. The pool swim was a little annoying with the 25yd "short lanes", but manageable and over before you knew it. Overall, I definitely would do this race again.

Kiwanis Crazy Kicker 2009

2009-10-17T22:30:00.008-05:00

Woo-hoo, another century-ride under my belt. My last organized bike tour of 2009 was also my longest. I finished the 100-mile route at the 6th Annual Kiwanis Crazy Kicker this morning in Mineral Wells, TX. It was a tough ride with lots of hills (3,245 ft of elevation change) and not-the-best road conditions. I was fortunate to be able to ride with Angela and her friend Phillip for most of the ride - it would have been pretty lonely without the company.

The ride started off okay - though the cannon blast from two years ago was absent. The road on Rt 180 was very smooth - as was Rt 337 and its Three Amigos - so the first 14 miles of the ride went by pretty quickly despite the hills. However, upon turning onto Rt 254, the chip-seal started. I hoped it wouldn't last, but alas pretty much the entire middle of the route (nearly 70 miles) was chip-seal and about half of it was VERY rough. So it made for a long (jarring, vibrating, tiring) ride - in addition to the overall distance.

However, even with the chip-seal, Angela, Phillip and I kept a pretty fast 18.5 MPH average speed through the first 60 miles. In fact, coming down one of the hills, I hit a new max speed - 39.7 MPH!

We stopped at the Mile 65 rest stop for cookies & pickles (and the porta-potty) before heading for Cherry Pie Hill. I'm definitely in better biking shape than when I tackled Cherry Pie in 2007. While it was still tough (nearly 400 ft of climbing) in about 1.25 miles, I was able to do it seated this year. (In fact, I think I did just about the entire ride without needing to get out of the saddle.) And while my speed did drop to 6 MPH at it's slowest, I averaged around 8-10 MPH for the bulk of the climb.

Unfortunately, I got a flat tire at Mile 75 and it took about 20 minutes to fix (and check the tire for embedded nail/glass - there was none to be found, so it either fell out, or the chip-seal just took its toll on my tire). This was my first flat during a race/tour this year - oops, I just jinxed it - so it may be time to put on the new Vredestein Fortezza TriComp tires that I have sitting in my pile of "backup gear."

After the flat "adventure", we rode another 10 miles to the final rest stop to collect our breath and legs before the final 14 miles and hitting the Three Amigos in reverse - although only the final two Amigos are steep climbs when approaching from the north. In fact, in some ways, the "Reverse Second Amigo" is tougher than Cherry Pie Hill in that it lasts for 1.5 miles and starts at Mile 91. On the other hand, at least it was not on chip-seal (just before the turn onto Rt 337 after the last rest stop, there is a sign that reads "Smooth Road Ahead ... Ahh!" - truer words have not been written) so that made it a little easier.

After those hills, there was just a few more miles on Hwy 180 before the return to West City Park. It was a little tricky crossing the traffic with Jello-wy legs, but I made it. Upon turning into the park I noticed that my GPS read 99.5 miles so I made an extra-wide loop around the park to make it an even 100.

Garmin Connect map & info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16491257

Ride Review:

Course: 3/5 - fast blacktop on Highways 180 and 337; other roads had chip-seal galore - much of it "fresh"; course was fairly well-marked and there weren't too many turns (and none on small/non-obvious roads); roads were fairly straight; minimal traffic control but traffic was not too bad; great routes if you like/want hill challenges
Rest Stops: 3/5 - very limited selection - some fruit, homemade cookies, and water/Gatorade - nothing to write home about. Stops were well-marked with signs alerting that they were "1/2 or 1 mile ahead"
Logistics: 3/5 - no issues with race day packet pick-up - packet was pretty weak but the long-sleeve T-shirt was nice; only $20 for pre-registration; minimal porta-potties at the start/finish, but lines weren't too long; adequate parking at West City Park for the number of participants (approx 300 this year)
Overall: 3/5 - a pretty bare-bones ride, but I will definitely do it again for the challenging course to make for a good "end of season" ride; hopefully, by next year some of that chip-seal will have worn-down a bit and this grade will improve!

Heels & Hills & Him Half-Marathon

2009-09-27T16:48:00.007-05:00

A lot of my tri friends were out doing the PlayTri Stonebridge race this morning but since I'm training for December's White Rock Marathon, I need to get my running miles in.

So this morning, I ran in the Heels & Hills & Him Half-Marathon in Las Colinas (Irving, TX). The mostly out-and-back course showcased the City of Irving's Campion Trail system. I know these trails fairly well - having done training runs with Derek, Jarrod, and Matt in the past (but not in at least 18 months) and rollerblading on them as well ~10 years ago when I lived closer to the area.

Despite being a warm day, I ran a pretty good race and completed the half-marathon in 1:54:09. I must have started my watch about 20 seconds early because I had the time at 1:54:31. I ran with Kim ("recovering" after running 40 miles yesterday - training for the Palo Duro Trail 50 Miler) for the first 3 or 4 miles and she noted the discrepancy in our Mile 1 split.

My official pace was 8:43/mi. However, even with the aforementioned "early start", I only recorded the course at 12.99 miles. So using the GPS distance and the official finish time, my pace was 8:47/mi. This is a little faster than last week's Tour Des Fleurs 20K for an extra half-mile distance and in warmer weather. So that is pretty encouraging. Some things working in my favor today were a flat course and quite a bit of shade from the trees on the trails.

I finished 57th out of 580 half-marathon finishers and 6th out of 24 in my age group. I completed the first 6.5 miles in about 56 minutes and the remaining 6.5 in about 58, so my pace slowed down by a little in the second half of the race - mostly because I walked more (e.g., almost 2 minutes at the final water stop around Mile 11.5). I had done 2 1/2 hours of spin classes on Saturday, so my legs got tired and I was definitely running out of gas by the end.

As I said earlier, the course was nice, shaded and flat and there were some cute signs every few miles encouraging us on. A couple that I remember: "I like to run, it makes me smile, I think I'll run another mile" and "Running is a mental sport ... we are all insane".

Today's stats:

My heart rate was fairly high due to the pushing of the pace (thanks, Kim!) and the warm weather. After the fifth mile, my average went down only when I walked at the water stops. Speaking of the water stops, we probably could have used one or two more (that would have been hit twice on the out-and-back). There were a couple of water fountains on the trails, but those are not very convenient when on the go.

I was able to catch up to Kim again around Mile 7.5 and we ran together for another 1/2 mile or so before I had to drop the pace. There was an extra loop (around a playground in the La Villita community) and an out-and-back (near the Irving Police Station) on the return trip. I think that it would have been better for me mentally to have done those "side excursions" on the way out, but I guess the runners would have been too bunched up earlier in the race.

Overall, I had a great run today and enjoyed the chance to race at my old training route. It was very nice to see that the Campion Trails (PDF, 13.8 MB) now extend into Sam Houston Trail Park and Valley Ranch. I'll have to come back some time to do more running/riding/rollerblading on them!

Race results: http://heelsandhills.com/Events/Race_Results.html

Garmin Connect map & info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/14500476

Ironman Swim #5

2009-09-25T18:57:00.008-05:00

Took the day off yesterday. Getting over a cold/cough and I just wasn't "feeling it" yesterday. It felt weird to skip the Thursday lunchtime spin class, but at least the sushi buffet I had in its stead was muy bien. :-)

Maybe that rest day recharged my batteries. I did a long swim today after work and completed 4,000 yards in 1:15:23. This the fifth time that I've swum this distance, and this is a PR time by a lot (previous best was 1:24:22) - but it's really not a fair comparison since I was wearing my aerodynamic (or is it "aquadyamic") ClubSwim compression jammers instead of my baggy swim trunks. Nonetheless, it was a really solid swim session. Here are my 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 9:07
2nd 500 yds: 9:18.5
3rd 500 yds: 9:21
4th 500 yds: 9:29
5th 500 yds: 9:35.5
6th 500 yds: 9:36
7th 500 yds: 9:38
8th 500 yds: 9:18 (alternating breaststroke/freestyle)

My pace definitely slowed down a little bit as the laps wore on, but overall a good swim and no breaks at all! At least the first part of a Full Ironman should be doable. :-)

Double-Race Saturday, Recovery Workout Sunday

2009-09-20T11:05:00.013-05:00

Saturday morning:

Completed the 20K race at Tour Des Fleurs in 1:49:24. This works out to be an 8:49/mi pace for the 12.4 mile distance. I finished 338th out of 1182 finishers, 231 out of 555 men and 53rd out of 111 in my age group. My first 10K was in 54:40 (8:49/mi pace, 359th place) and my second 10K was in 54:43 (8:50/mi pace, 310th place). So I am very happy to have kept my pace mostly constant for the entire run.

My splits/data - obviously, I missed a couple of the mile markers :-P:

Speed chart - the drops in speed are walk-breaks at the water stops:

Heart-rate chart - the drops in HR coincide with the aforementioned walk-breaks at the water stops, but it looks like the final two breaks were too short to make much of a dent!:

The weather was not too hot, but still felt muggy and humid. Although not a PR (my time was 3 minutes slower than last year), I thought I did pretty well. Especially since overall, I have not been running as quickly this year vs. last year and the fact that I had my Half-Ironman race just 6 days ago. Something is quite interesting is the difference between my average heart rate this year (161 bpm) versus last year (172 bpm). I think the walk-breaks definitely helped keep it down and yet my speed didn't drop too much.

Was nice to see lots of friends before and after the event. Melissa and I carpooled from Keller - save the planet (and save some gas) and met with some of her Luke's training team before the race. I also met up with Derek and ran into Chris & Kara before the start. After finishing, I saw Kim and Eva at the finish line area and we walked up to the "party-zone" and I grabbed pizza, bagels, and some breakfast burritos. We met up with some RVG members and compared results and snapped a few photos before heading back to the parking area at Winfrey Point.

Race results: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3891

Garmin Connect map & info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13586343

Saturday evening:

The Community Storehouse Run In The Dark is a local charity run that occurs at night. The 5K event didn't start until 8:00 PM. Luckily, the streets of the route were well-lit. As far as I know there were no darkness-related injuries.

Before the 5K, there was a 1-Mile Fun Run, which I did with my 6 year old. Actually, according to my Garmin Forerunner 305, it was about 1.3 miles - and she completed the entire thing!

The starting area of the 5K was a little cramped and crowded. Because I wasn't paying close enough attention to the time, by the time I made it to the start line, I had two choices - just jump in at the front of the pack or go all the way to the back behind the strollers, etc. So I chose the former because it was easier ... and thus I started off way too fast (7:16 for the first mile) - swept up by the speedy front-runners.

The route had a fairly steep hill up Bear Creek Parkway between Mile 1.15 & 1.45 so that slowed the pace for me (8:13 for the second mile). About 2 1/2 miles in, I got some encouragement from John from my spin class - his wife, Cassie, and daughter were running the 5K as well.

I finished up the remainder of the course and crossed the finish line in 25:22 for 116th place out of 946 overall and 20th out of 82 for men 30-39. Not too bad considering I had done a 20K just 12 hours prior.

Officially, my pace was 8:11/mi. However, my Garmin showed the course as 3.25 miles long - which calculates to a 7:48/mi pace. I'm going to with that ... since my ego is bruised thinking that I can't keep an 8:00/mi pace for a 5K. :-P

Race results: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/2009/RunintheDark965/DarkMenu.htm

Garmin Connect map & info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13618057

So between the two races and the Fun Run, I ran 16.5 miles (17+ if you believe the Garmin) today. Logging the distance in my Dallas White Rock Marathon training log. :-)

Sunday:

No more running - gotta give my knees & shins a rest. So the workout of the day was a 2,500 yd swim followed by 1:15 of spin class. I completed the swim in 48:09, which is a pretty good time considering the hard efforts of yesterday (and the long swim on Friday). Here are the 500 yd splits for the swim:

1st 500 yds: 9:23 (started off fast, probably too fast)
2nd 500 yds: 9:30
3rd 500 yds: 9:48.5
4th 500 yds: 10:04 (the fast start is definitely catching up to me)
Final 500 yds: 9:23.5 (alternating breast-stroke/free-style)

I was able to speed up for that last set, but I paid for it. After getting out of the pool, I needed about 5 minutes to fully recover.

The spin class afterward was a solid effort. Our instructor, Michelle, is a cyclist (has done the MS-150 a couple times) and triathlete as well - and is planning to do the Monster Triathlon at the Keller Natatorium in October. Always nice to meet fellow racers.

As for the class itself, I avoided coming out of the saddle (so as to not put too much weight on my legs), so my heart-rate only averaged 146 bpm for the 75 minute session (usually when I do standing climbs, my heart-rate goes up quickly). However, it was still a great class and the spinning really helped get the blood flowing to my legs and should speed recovery.

Whew, that was quite a weekend. I think I'll take a well-deserved rest day tomorrow!

New 3,000 Yard Swim PR

2009-09-18T14:16:00.006-05:00

Sweet, I just got back from a 3,000 yard swim at lunch-time today. Not only is it the first time that I have done this distance in a while (my 8:00 AM Saturday morning "long" swims usually top out at around 2,500 yards because the 9:00 aquaerobics class participants start gathering and giving me "the eye" at 8:50 or so), but I also set a new PR for this training distance! Total time of 1 hour, 1 minute, and 31 seconds (about 20 seconds faster than my previous record from almost exactly a year ago).

My 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:29 (warming up)
2nd 500 yds: 10:16
3rd 500 yds: 10:12
4th 500 yds: 10:27.5 (getting a little tired)
5th 500 yds: 10:23 (picking it back up)
6th 500 yds: 9:44 (pushed hard right to the end)

For that last set, I alternated between 25-yard lengths of breast-stroke (for recovery) and then of fast free-style (the push). With the extra breaths and use of different muscle groups during the breast-stroke laps, I was definitely able to go MUCH faster for my free-style swimming.

I probably should have be resting today since I have 15.5 miles of running tomorrow - the Tour Des Fleurs 20K in the morning and then the Run In The Dark 5K in the evening. Oh well, the swim as a good cross-training workout so no regrets!

Ironhead PrairieMan 2009

2009-09-14T06:54:00.018-05:00

Oh yeah! I have finished my third Long Course (Half-Ironman distance) triathlon! I completed a rainy and soggy (but FUN!) Ironhead PrairieMan "56.3" on Sunday in 5:01:24. (The bike course was re-routed and shortened to 42 miles due to flooding on some of the roads. It's been raining here for four straight days.) I finished 12th out of 28 in the men's 35-39 age group, 59th out of 134 male finishers, and 62nd out of 170 finishers overall. Needless to say, I am ecstatic about my performance.

Here are my splits:

Swim: 43:20 (48th place)
T1: 3:12
Bike: 2:03:36 - 20.4 MPH (25th place)
T2: 1:07
Run: 2:10:07 - 9:56/mi pace (96th place)
TOTAL: 5:01:24

Full results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1796401&pubID=3

Garmin Connect info - bike (3 loops on Lake Ridge Parkway): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13238704

Garmin Connect info - run (out-and-back course): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13238709

From the Garmin Forerunner 305 info, it appears that the distances were longer than advertised. I had the bike course at 42.97 miles (20.9 MPH average speed per GPS) and the run course at 13.37 miles (9:43/mi pace per GPS). Fellow finishers also commented that they thought the swim was a little long too.

Random thoughts:

Pre-Race: Loading up my car the night before, driving to Lynn Creek Park in the rain, setting up my gear in a downpour ... I was seriously questioning my sanity. Luckily, I had brought along an extra trashbag - a staple of winter running pre-race wear - couldn't believe that I was actually using one in the summer! My cardboard bike number had already eroded away (along with everyone else's) and there was no body marking. Except for the race belt & bib - no numbers today.

I ran into Steve, who was doing his first tri ever, Sabrina & Tim, and Tara in transition ... and Melissa at the pre-race meeting. Nice to see familiar faces. On a day like today, fan support is pretty much limited to fellow racers and the great race volunteers. The "sprinters" started 30 minutes before the Long Course so Melissa and I huddled under Sabrina's umbrella to try to stay dry (well, drier) before our start at approximately 8:00 AM.

Swim: Not too bad. The water of Joe Pool Lake was in the low 80s and actually felt much warmer than the air temperature! There was a little chop in the water, not sure if it was because of the rain or the boats out there. Regarding the boats, I really wish they could stay further away so their wake wouldn't affect the swim course. Also, the motor fumes were horrible - between that smell and the chop, I was getting nauseated. Ideally all boats near the swim course would only have exhaust-free electric motors!

T1: Wasn't feeling the greatest after the swim so I pretty much just walked from the lake to the transition area. I actually missed my rack and had to backtrack 2 or 3 aisles to get to my bike. Helmet, glasses, wet socks, wet bike shoes ... the trash bag I had set over them helped a little bit, but on a day like today it's pretty much a lost cause.

Bike: Not as tough as I thought it was going to be. Though, you know how you're supposed to spit in your swimming goggles to keep them from fogging up ... I should have done that to my cycling glasses! I must have wiped my glasses lenses at least 10 times during the 42-mile 3-loop bike course. Not the safest thing to do when riding at 21+ MPH down in aero and in rain.

Actually, the most treacherous part of the course was occasionally having to move from the right lane to the left lane to avoid large pools of water collecting on the side of the road. The changing of lanes itself wasn't too bad, but Lake Ridge Parkway like many suburban concrete roads had "turtles" on the white lane markings. Those bumps might not seem to bad in a car, but when going over them on a road bike, there's a possibility of catching some air and there is definitely some jarring of the hands.

Because of the cooler weather I didn't drink very much - just going through about 20 oz of water from my AeroDrink. I had grabbed a Gatorade at the aide station but ended up not needing it at all - I guess I will count that as a race souvenir. Because of the danger of the ride, I didn't eat much either - just one AccelGel about an hour into the ride. Hopefully, my lack of nutrition won't hurt me ...

T2: Uneventful. I had already resigned myself to soggy running shoes and was not "disappointed". Ditched my helmet and glasses, switched shoes, and grabbed my hat and I was off.

Run: Having done the F1 Duathlon earlier this year, I was familiar with the course (PrairieMan run = F1's 2-mile run + 11-mile bike) which is always a nice feeling. The rain felt great, but the puddles on the road were annoying. Luckily, those were mostly just at the beginning 1.5 and (since it was an out-and-back course) final 1.5 miles. The road on the dam (being elevated) was fairly dry. I started at a steady 9:30-10:00/mi pace and my heart rate was in the mid to high 150s, which is pretty good for me.

I had two AccelGels with me - I took the first one at the 0.5 mile water stop and the second at the Mile 7 aid station. It was around Mile 3 that I realized that I had forgotten to put on (well, actually, forgotten to even set out in transition) my PattStraps - they were sitting safe and sound in a closed Ziplock bag in my tri-bag. D'oh! (Luckily, as I write this Monday night, I appear to have escaped any IT Band issues - phew).

There was a short, but fairly steep hill to get to the turnaround at Mile 6.63, but after that I think I actually accelerated on the return. At around Mile 7.5 I saw Melissa (at her Mile 5.5) and she shouted "Don't let me catch you!" - I think that may have helped me for the final 5 and half miles as well . Yep, the stats confirm this: 1:05:39 for the first 6.63 miles, and 1:04:28 for the final 6.74 miles. Woo-hoo, negative splits! (Thanks, Melissa :-)

After another water and walk break at the Mile 10 aide station at the base of the dam, I knew I was getting close. I ran past the lot where I had parked my car and once again waved at the one hardy fan standing under an umbrella and cheering as loudly as she could (I saw her going out and coming back in on the bike, and going out on the run as well - 5+ hours standing in the rain - wow!) Aside from her, the only cheering section on the run course were passing fellow athletes on the out-and-back and the great aid station volunteers.

A final loop at the eastern park of the park road and there I saw it, the finish line. Oops, nope, have to do the final loop down by the water - only about another 1/4 mile, but that was a little deflating. Oh well, just a little bit more running and then a charge up the hill from the water to the finish. Done!

Nobody at the finish line except the volunteers to collect the timing chip and hand me my finisher's shirt and mug. No finish line photo - the photographer had long since left - and the only other people were fellow Long Course triathletes sitting under a canopy eating pizza and drinking Gatorade & Vitamin Water. But that's okay. Today was the kind of race (and kind of weather) that is just for the athletes. And it was great. Out of the three half-Ironman distance races that I've done, this one was the most enjoyable despite the lack of festivity and fanfare.

In fact, the ONLY regret that I have about the race is that the bike course had to be shortened. Unfortunately, I still have not done a true 70.3 distance. At last year's Lone Star Half (completed in 5:59:01), the bike and run courses were 55.09 miles and 12.55 miles respectively per GPS. And then at Ironman Longhorn 70.3 (5:46:32), the bike and run were pretty much spot-on (55.94 and 13.03), but the swim about 500 meters short - there is no way I can do 1.2 miles in 33:45. I figured if we had done another loop (~13.5 miles) on Lake Ridge Parkway, even at a more conservative 19 MPH pace, that would have added about 43 minutes to my time ... for a 5:44 total time ... definitely would be a PR and at a true (even slightly longish) 70.3 mile distance to boot. Oh well, there's always next year - right?

Post-Race: Water, water, everywhere. As I detached my AeroDrink, I was initially surprised by how much "remaining" water I had to dump out of it - "gee, I thought I drank more than that on the bike?!?" ... seconds later I realized that it had collected "a wee bit" of rain during my 2+ hours on the run and time spent for post-race refreshments. Ditto for my super-heavy backpack, it was only when I got home that was reminded that the water-proof lining of my tri-bag was in serious decline (note to self: order a new one) and discovered that my towel and spare clothes had absorbed 10+ pounds of water.

The morning/night after, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that my body bounced back pretty well - my knees (no IT band issues), feet (no Body Glide and wet shoes & socks and yet no blisters - what are the odds?) and legs in general survived pretty much unscathed. The only sore parts are my shoulders (I gotta keep my upper body loose on the run!) and back (not enough long bike rides!), and they should be good to go in another day or two.

Okay, so when's the next one? :-)

Half-Iron Weekend

2009-08-02T11:14:00.001-05:00

My plan for this weekend is to do (close to) a half-Ironman triathlon, but over two days ...

Saturday, August 8: Day 1 of "Half-Iron Weekend" completed! I survived a 2,500 yd swim (in 47:05 ... then the 9:00 AM water aerobics class kicked me out of the pool) + 2.5 hours of spin (avg hr 153 bpm) ... Time for lunch - man, I'm hungry!

Swim splits:

1st 500 yds: 9:17.5
2nd 500 yds: 9:20.5
3nd 500 yds: 9:29
4th 500 yds: 9:34
5th 500 yds: 9:24

Bike stats (15 min before class, Class #1, 15 min intermission, Class #2 - split into two halves):

Bike heart rate (click to enlarge):

Saturday, August 8: Day 2 of "Half-Iron Weekend" is now done. An 11.17 mile run in 1:56:45 (10:26/mi pace) ... Wow, if 11 miles is this tough at 8:30 AM, how am I going to survive 13.1 at around 11:30 AM for the actual tri?

Stats/Splits table below (click to enlarge). I (tried to) hit the "lap" button on my Garmin Forerunner 305 whenever I started/stopped my walk-breaks - you can see that I took many of them (and several were 5+ minutes in length) after the first five miles (Lap 4 and on):

Speed graph, again you can see that my average speed dropped significantly, :

Heart Rate. The depressing thing to note is how high and quickly it went up, even after the many and lengthy walk breaks. A combination of the heat and my lack of run conditioning.

Elevation profile (no notes, just included for completeness):

Looks like I'll need to do a lot more running training in the next month. Otherwise, it is going to be a tough run on September 13th ...

A Run and A Swim

2009-07-27T20:24:00.004-05:00

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

2009-07-25T19:29:00.001-05:00

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

2009-07-23T21:04:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-19T21:15:00.004-05:00

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

2009-07-18T21:15:00.000-05:00

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

2009-07-16T19:55:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-12T19:57:00.004-05:00

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

2009-07-11T20:11:00.005-05:00

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

I Hate the Stairmaster

2009-06-05T14:31:00.005-05:00

Didn't wake up early enough this morning for a run so I headed to the gym at lunch time instead.

Why is it that the Stairmaster never gets easier? 20 minutes on that torture device then a 3.5 mile treadmill tempo run in 28:29 (8:08/mi pace). Almost a minute and a half faster than Wednesday's effort for the same distance (albeit after a 20-minute stair session vs. 60 minutes of spin class).

Three quarter miles at 6.0, 6.3, and 6.7 mph respectively. Then, 0.75 miles at 7.1 mph (around an 8:30/mi pace) - heart rate still at a respectable 156 bpm. The next mile was at 7.5 mph (8:00/mi). Finally, half-mile segments at 8 & 8.5 mph (7:30/mi & 7:03/mi paces) to finish the run.

Back From Break

2009-06-04T23:01:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, May 20: My last hard workout before vacation. I will be taking it easy over an extended Memorial Day weekend as my brother, his wife and my niece and nephew are coming to town for a visit. Today's workout: 110 minutes of spin (148 bpm) followed by 1,000 yd swim in 19:31 (9:52, 9:31)

Sunday, May 24: My ONLY workout during the 5-day holiday/vacation - a 5.91 mile morning neighbor run in 57:24. Very slow (that's a 9:43/mi pace - there are many walk-breaks), but at least I broke my "lazy streak"!

Tuesday, May 26: 1 hour spin class (150 bpm) + 500 yd swim in 10:23

Wednesday, May 27: First a 1 hour spin class (150 bpm). Then a 3-mile treadmill brick run in 27:03 (9:01/mi, 154 bpm). I started at 6 MPH and slowly worked my way up to about 7.5 MPH.

Thursday, May 28: 45 min solo spin session (149 bpm) followed by 45 min spin class (157 bpm). Afterwards, a 500 yd swim in 10:34 - a little slower than Tuesday, but can you blame me after that nice long (albeit indoor) bike ride.

Saturday, May 30: Morning workout: 1,500yd swim (in tri-shorts) in 29:05 (set times: 9:40, 9:46, 9:39) followed by 2hr,40min on the spin bike (24 minutes before class then back-to-back classes with 16 minutes in between). A solid session and I kept up the intensity (154 bpm overall average heart rate) the entire time.

Sunday, May 31: Another Sunday morning run. This time - 7.16 miles in 1:07:09 - 9:23/mi pace at an average heart rate of 157 bpm. Quite a bit faster pace than last week's effort even though the route was 1.25 miles longer. Progress!

Monday, June 1: Skipped the lunchtime workout. My daughter graduated from Kindergarten at 1:00 PM. :-)

The rest of this week is almost a clone of last week.

Tuesday, June 2: 1 hour spin class (144 bpm), 500 yd swim (freestyle) in 10:04 (no tri shorts - so this is pretty fast) followed by another 500 yd of breast stroke (hadn't planned to go this far - just kept following Don - so no timing for the second set)

Wednesday, June 3: First a 1 hour spin class (147 bpm). Then a 3.5-mile treadmill brick run in 29:58 (8:34/mi, 154 bpm). I can't believe that I cut my pace that much as compared to last week while keeping the same average heart rate and going an extra half-mile. Yay!

As you can see, a key improvement was being able to hold a sub-8:30/mi pace at 156 bpm (see Lap 4) this run while that same heart rate was nearly 9:00/mi (see last Wednesday's Lap 3). Hopefully, this is a trend and not just a fluke.

Thursday, June 4: 50 min spin class (146 bpm) followed 500 yd swim in 9:19 (tri-shorts) and other 250 yd that were (again) untimed (hit STOP instead of LAP on my watch so no stats)

So that's it ... catching up on a long list of old workouts. Not sure why my heart rate during this week's spin classes was lower than normal. Well, actually I do know, I felt tired. :-P Will try to do a little better next week.

Tomorrow, I plan to do a morning run (I guess I had better get to bed now!) and then on Saturday, I'll be doing the 100K route at the 2009 Mesquite Rodeo Bike Ride.

Texas Man Taper??

2009-05-14T08:43:00.017-05:00

I should be tapering for this coming Sunday's Texas Man Olympic-distance Tri, but instead I seem to have been building up steam the last couple of weeks instead. I guess it feels good to have some "normal" workouts - i.e., having my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS and heart rate data available again (after breaking during the MS-150) and a healing/improving finger (I was finally able to go in the pool after getting the stitches out).

Anyway, here are the workouts from the last week and a half:

Tue, May 5: First training session after two rest days following the "MS-72." A 2-mile run followed by a 1-hour spin class. No stats due to my broken watch, but it was a good workout.

Wed, May 6: 60-minute spin and a 500 yd swim. First time in the pool since the Caveman Tri - got my stitches out yesterday. 11:10 - my slowest swim pace for this distance in quite some time. Oh well, if this is my (re)starting point in the pool, I'll take it. Post-swim: my wounded fingers are a little sore from rubbing against each other - I may need to bandage them up.

Thu, May 7: 1-hour spin class and 1.5 mile brick run on the treadmill. Nothing special, just chugging along.

Fri, May 8: Woo-hoo! I got my replacement "newly overhauled" Garmin Forerunner 305! Only took $79 and about a week of waiting. Looking forward to testing it out tomorrow.

Sat, May 9: 6-mile treadmill run in 51:54. Tried to concentrate on base training and keep my heart rate under 150 bpm. I was somewhat successful for the first two miles, but it kept steadily creeping upwards. I increased my pace by 0:30/mi at the 4.5, 5, and 5.5 mile marks - and was running at a 7:30/mi pace at the end.

Followed my run with 2.25 hours of spin class (avg hr = 154 bpm). Actually, my heart rate was averaging 157 bpm for the first hour or so, but by the 1:45 mark, my right foot started hurting. I usually don't wear my running shoes for spin class - and this is the reason. Lesson (re)learned.

Sun, May 10: Texas Man Pre-Tri - about 1,000 yards of open water swim practice (yay, my wetsuit still fits) followed by a 10-mile bike - a well-deserved easy day, I suppose, after yesterday's killer session :-)

Mon, May 11: 6.5-mile treadmill base training run in 55:35. I was able to keep a 150-153 bpm average heart rate for the first 3 miles at my approximately 9:00/mi pace. Unfortunately, at that point, it started to creep up. But I definitely see improvement versus Saturday's run - with my average heart rate about 3 bpm lower through five miles while running at the same or even slightly faster pace than that of two days ago.

Tue, May 12: 55-minute spin (avg hr = 148 bpm ... must have been tired from yesterday's run) and then 500 yd swim in 10:27. Much better swim pace that last week.

Wed, May 13: 60-minute spin class (avg hr = 154 bpm) and then a 2-mi treadmill run in 18:21 (4 x half-miles at increasing pace: 10:00/mi, 9:30/mi, 9:00/mi, 8:30/mi). The run felt tough even with the overall slower pace, but it was still good to get it in.

Thu, May 14: 70 minutes of spin. My average heart rate for the bike was only 143 bpm. I tried to push harder - and I think cardio-wise I could have done more - but my legs were just very tired from four days in a row of running and cycling. After spin class, a 500-yard swim in 9:27. A lot faster than the last two swims - definitely feeling better and more comfortable in the pool, however to be fair, I also was wearing fast/aerodynamic tri-shorts (and that also helped my speed).

Fri, May 15 (plan): Early morning 3-4 mile run. I need to do some runs outside instead of just on the treadmill (where it's perfectly flat with no humidity and a mild temperatures! :-P)

Sat, May 16 (plan): One more (easy) swim - going to try for 1,500 yards - and then take it easy for the rest of the day.

Sun, May 17: Race Day!!!

A Slow Swim Is Better Than No Swim

2009-04-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

2,500 yards in 54:35 at lunch today. Not super fast, but a solid effort and I didn't even get dizzy despite no Meclizine.

The first three sets were normal freestyle (preparing for the season's upcoming Olympic distance tris with their 1,500 meter swim legs), the next set was breaststroke only (prep for Navy Seal Fitness Challenge) and the final set was of alternating 50-yard laps of freestyle and breaststroke. My splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:38
2nd 500 yds: 10:49
3nd 500 yds: 10:54
Water/AccelGel break: 0:36.5
4th 500 yds: 10:23
Water/AccelGel break: 0:36.5
5th 500 yds: 10:38

Overall, a solid effort. I am happy.

Iron Gym Pull Up Bar

2009-04-20T14:37:00.007-05:00

I picked up the "Iron Gym" pull-up bar from Target on Friday for around $30 + tax. Despite the cheesy packaging (and extremely annoying web site), it looks like a solid product (and it got good reviews on Amazon.com)

I have it attached to the door frame of my laundry room. It's one of the few doors in the house that seldom gets closed. It doesn't look like it should hold "up to 300 pounds" but it actually works.

Here's a view of the back side. The z-shaped metal clip in the middle of the bar (wedged between the door frame molding and drywall) is there just so that the bar doesn't accidentally come down when not in use. When I (or anyone else) hang on it, the weight is distributed across the top and sides of the door frame and it feels safe and stable.

Overall, a worthy addition to my fitness gear collection. Now, I just have to USE IT. Less than 3 weeks until the Navy Seal Fitness Challenge on May 9!

2009 Sam's Club MS-150 - Please Help Support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

2009-04-20T07:52:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone,

It’s almost time again for the annual MS150 bike rally from Frisco to Ft. Worth. On Saturday, May 2nd I’ll ride 86 miles and stop at Texas Motor Speedway, and on Sunday the 3rd ride 74 more to the finish on the cobblestones of Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth! With still two weeks to go, nearly 3,000 people have already registered to ride this year to support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s efforts to fund research, advocate for change and help people with MS and their families lead powerful lives! I’m trained and ready to go – over the past month, I have logged over 300 miles of cycling, so bring it on!

I know I do a lot of races and events during the year, but this one is for a great cause. If you’d like to support our ride by making a donation, I’d truly appreciate it. Any amount ($5, $25, $100) is welcome. All donations go to the National MS Society.

HOW TO DONATE:

You can use a credit or debit card to make your tax-deductible donation - just follow the link below to access my online donation page.
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=4687176&pg=personal&fr_id=10662

Thanks for your help!

Best,
-Andy

2008 USAT Ranking

2009-04-17T18:31:00.000-05:00

By way of some semi-random web surfing last week, I came upon the USA Triathlon Rankings web site. After playing fairly close attention to the rankings in 2007, I had all but forgotten about/given up on them last year because USAT had (and acknowledged) some ("technical") problems getting the rankings published in a timely manner.

Anyway, here are my tri results from 2008:

Not bad at all. My overall score of 71.78625 gave me 4,674th place out of 11,382 in the men 35-39 age group (41st percentile). And much improved from 2007's score of 65.30078 (5,125th out of 8,150 = 63rd percentile).

Let's see if I can keep it up in 2009!

SEAL Swimming (x 2)

2009-04-07T18:20:00.001-05:00

Some swimming to get ready for the Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge - one session planned, the other unplanned -but both were good.

Monday: My first long swim since mid-February. 2,000 yards. Yay!

First 500 yds - breaststroke - 10:05 (a bit slower than last Tuesday, but not too bad considering that I raced yesterday)
Second 500 yds - freestyle - 10:51 (slow ... ouch!)
1 1/2 minute water break.
Third 500 yds - alternating between 50 yds of freestyle and 50 yds of breaststroke - 10:37 (better)
1 minute water break
Final 500 yds - same thing, alternating freestyle/breaststroke - 10:20 (good)

A lot of work to do, but a good start.

Tuesday: Normally, a spin-class day but ... I FORGOT MY SHOES. Oops! So had to settle for the only gym workout possible with no footwear: more swimming. Kicked it up a notch with a total of 2,500 yards today. Similar format to yesterday's session:

First 500 yds - breaststroke only - 9:44 (fastest time yet)
1 minute water break
Second 500 yds - freestyle only - 10:08 (not bad!)
1 minute water break.
Third 500 yds - alternating between 50 yds of freestyle and 50 yds of breaststroke - 9:59
1 minute water break
Fourth 500 yds - more freestyle/breaststroke - 9:55
1 minute water break
Final 500 yds - another breaststroke set - 9:47.5

The pool is my friend.

After the swim, I rested for about 5 minutes and then tried some push-ups. Big mistake. I could only do ten in 29 seconds (you get 2 minutes in the SEAL Challenge) before complete muscle failure. A short rest and then another attempt - only six more. Sigh ... oh well - lots of room for improvement. Next up: sit-ups ... a little better - 37 completed in the 2-minute time limit.
I guess I just have to work harder and get better. A little over a month to go ...

2009 Fast & Furious F1 Duathlon

2009-04-05T23:33:00.000-05:00

I participated in the 8th Annual Fast & Furious F1 Windfest ... er, Duathlon this morning at Lynn Creek Park on the shores of Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, TX. I believe the "F1" refers to the race format of 2 mile run, 11 mile bike, another 2 mile run, another 11 mile and then a sprint to the finish line (with your bike helmet and cleats)! With a 24+ MPH average windspeed this morning, biking across the dam (especially on the return trips) was challenging at best and a little unnerving at worst.

Here are the stats from my Garmin Forerunner 305 (click to expand):

and these were very close to my official splits:

Run 1: 16:11.9 (a solid 7:52/mi pace to start off; Roberto, along with the other speedier runners, passed me early on, but that was expected so I didn't try to go too fast and blow up)
T1: 1:20.8 (a little slow; decided to shed my gloves and then had a little trouble getting on my bike shoes and my helmet and sunglasses had blown over; also took my normal extra time to down a SaltStick and AccelGel)
Bike 1: 30:46.8 (20.2 MPH is more than 1 MPH slower than my time for the Texas Motor Speedway Du, but not too bad considering the stiff wind during nearly of the ride).
T2: 0:53.6 (missed my bike rack - but just by a few rows - so overall a passable bike-to-run transition)
Run 2: 16:43.7 (still an 8:05/mi pace - not much a drop from Run 1; I'm very happy about that!; Lee passed me just before entering transition - darn, I'm now officially 4 minutes behind him)
T3: 0:59.0 (much faster than T1 even though I again took a salt pill and gel)
Bike 2: 31:41.8 (30 seconds slower than bike 1 - getting tired, wind picked up, or both! Passed Lee about 1/4 mile into the bike - gotta try to get some of that time back ...)
T4/Finish: 0:19.6 (rack bike and then sprint to the finish line - just outside the transition area -- while still donning helmet and bike shoes! I finished just behind the 1.4 seconds behind the guy in front of me - who placed second in the Clydesdale [men over 200 pounds] division - no wonder he was pushing so hard at the end. :-P)
Total Time: 1:38:57.4

I placed 42nd out of 150 finishers and 7th out of 18 in my age group. Lee took 28th place overall (about 2 1/2 minutes faster than me) and got an award for 3rd place in his age group. I believe this is his first multi-sport award. Way to go! Roberto was there with his friend Nick(?) and ran a solid race (top third) as well.

After the finish, we grabbed a (rather Spartan) post-race breakfast of Gatorade, bagels and bananas (Ironhead Jack said that the caterer didn't show up - not sure if that was a joke :-P) and waited near the beach at Lynn Creek Park for the awards ceremony. Overall, it was a good event and a great course. And the F1 format is interesting (and I heard that it used to include a third 2-mile run leg at the end). I look forward to doing this race again in the future (especially if it is without the wind).

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1725091

SEAL-Worthy?

2009-04-02T21:57:00.002-06:00

In other news, last Friday, Lee and I signed up for the Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge. The event is on May 9th at the Keller ISD Natatorium (same venue as the St. Patty's/Monster Tri) and consists of:

500 yd swim – Sidestroke or breaststroke only
[10 minute rest]
Push-ups – Max you can do in 2 minutes
Sit-ups – Max you can do in 2 minutes
Pull-ups – As many as you can do (not timed)
[4 minute rest]
1.5 mile run

I've been doing so much (too much?) "swim, bike, run" so this looked like a good goal to work towards for increasing my pathetic upper-body strength. The web site notes that the standards that must be achieved to enter the SEAL training program (BUD/S) include the following:

500-yard swim (using sidestroke or breaststroke) under 12 ½ minutes
42 Push-Ups (in 2 minutes)
50 Sit-Ups (in 2 minutes)
6 Pull-Ups (no time limit)
1.5 Mile Run under 11 minutes

Furthermore, the elevated SEAL standards for the PST, which statistically gives the candidate a much greater chance of completing BUD/S, include the following:

500-yard swim (using sidestroke or breaststroke) under 10 minutes
80 Push-Ups (in 2 minutes)
80 Sit-Ups (in 2 minutes)
11 Pull-Ups (no time limit)
1.5 Mile Run under 10 minutes

I think I can handle the swim and run segments (though the necessary sub-6:40/mi run pace for the elevated SEAL standards will be a stretch), but my weakness will be in the push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. So, I'm going to start focusing on these areas (and practice my breaststroke) during my workouts in the weeks ahead.

Tuesday: I got to LA Fitness before spin class and started with 20 push-ups. That was about all I could do (maybe 5 more may have been eeked out, but whatever). Next up: the pull-up station - which is not a true pull-up bar (has a "gap" between where you hang on). I did 5 pull-ups, but I'm not sure if there were actually full/legal ones - I need to find a real pull-up bar. Then, 17 more push-ups and about 40 sit-ups (I lost count :-P) and then 2 pull-ups before running to spin class. After that, a solid 50 minute spin class (average heart rate of 156 bpm). I finish the workout with a 500 yard swim (breakstroke only) in 9:57. Pretty good (and probably would be even faster if I wasn't wearing baggy swim trunks). After exiting the pool, some push-ups. Not a very good performance - the session went something like: 3 push-ups, break, 2 push-ups, break, 2 push-ups, longer break, 5 push-ups .... probably 16-20 total.

Wednesday: Baseline run: 1.5 miles on the treadmill (no incline) in 10:34 (7:03/mi pace). Not bad, but it will be tough to shave another 34 seconds off the time. After the run, I alternated between push-ups and sit-ups: 3-5 push-ups and then 10 sit-ups. Approximate totals: 15 push-ups and 30 sit-ups. Finally, a 60-minute spin class (avg hr of 152 bpm) for some more cardio work (gotta prepare for this weekend's Fast & Furious Duathlon)

Thursday/Today: A little more cycling in the form of a 45-minute spin class (avg hr of 152 bpm). Afterwards, about 500 yds of swimming - mix of freestyle and breaststroke and little sidestroke (which seems slow and inefficient compared to breaststroke). My watch died on me so no splits - time for a new battery! A set of push-ups after getting out of the pool ... 9 total. Uggh, I'm going backwards! My arms still sore from Tuesday & Wednesday. I think I'll take a break from the arm/chest work for a few days and try it again next week.

Overall, I still have a long ways to go with my push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups ... but at least it's a start and I have a baseline from which to work. Hopefully, I'll make a lot of progress in the next five weeks.

2009 Ride For Heroes

2009-03-28T22:35:00.004-06:00

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

2009-03-15T19:46:00.007-06:00

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

2009-03-14T15:37:00.011-06:00

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

2009 Cowtown Half

2009-02-28T21:57:00.009-06:00

I finished the Cowtown Half Marathon this morning in 1:57: Not quite a PR (I was hoping to get to 1:50), but I'll take it.

Met with part of the Ranch View Gang near the starting area for some photo ops and pre-race inspiration, but it turns out that some of the smarter members of the gang had been waiting in the Starbucks around the corner.

The day started off cold and very windy (22 MPH average with 30+ MPH gusts). Panicked due to the wind and bundled up for the start. Consequently, I was completely overdressed for the race - gloves, two long sleeve tech shirts and two pairs of pants over my tri-shorts.

The shirts came off at Mile 2 or 3. And if they weren't my good wind-pants (and my running gloves were stuck in the pockets), the pants would have been tossed as well. So I definitely wasn't in my "comfort zone".

The course what I expected since it was the same as last year. After the initial steep downhill from the Courthouse, a steady uphill climb to Mile 8, then downhill for a couple miles and finally uphill again when approaching downtown Fort Worth to the finish line. Elevation map in the MotionBased stats below.

I didn't have a great race, but it was okay. Lowlights: Had to stop at mile 0.5 to adjust my PattStrap which had slipped down (probably from rubbing against my running tights - another reason I shouldn't have worn long pants) from its above-the-knee perch. Also had to use the "portolet" at the Mile 6 aide station - I think I was just tired and convinced myself that I needed the rest :-P. However, despite these stops, I still had a sub-9:00/mi pace, so it was still a respectable performance by me - the total time being almost exactly what I did in the Benbrook Half last month and the DRC Half back in November. I'd like to do more running training, but am worried about reinjuring my stress fracture. We shall see ...

Oh well, I still had a great time and got to see my friends before, (a few) during, and after the race. Lots of good refreshments at the finish and an awesome medal (the first of a series of five!) to boot. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Course map & MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7706995

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventLinkageID=17319&year=2009

2009 Texas Motor Speedway Sprint Du

2009-02-22T20:31:00.007-06:00

Great day for race this morning. I thought the weather might be on the cool side when loading up my bike this morning, but it turned out not too bad and very little wind (yay!) Big crowd – 350 participants. Ironhead Jack said it was the biggest duathlon in DFW since he ran the Du National Championships back in 1996(??)

I ended up finishing with a 1:19:47. I’m very happy with this result because I shaved over five minutes off my time from 2008's race - despite that last year the run legs were only about 1.8 miles each and this year they were the full 2 miles. Granted the lack of wind (which was very strong in 2008) also helped.

My official results:

16th out of 30 in my age group
87th out of 219 men
94th place overall (out of 319 finishers)

Run 1 (2 miles officially): 15:36 (7:48/mi, 162nd place)
T1: 00:58
Bike (16 miles officially): 45:44 (21.0mph, 57th place)
T2: 00:54
Run 2 (2 miles officially): 16:33 (8:17/mi, 191st place)

(Obviously, my running is still the weak link.)

Here are my stats as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 305 (split times very close to the chip timed results):

I'm pretty happy with my level of effort as my heart rate was fairly consistent and not out of control (keeping my speed down for first run leg helped):

Lee passed me at Mile 1.25 of the first run leg – the 2:00 head start that my age group had over his evaporated. I trotted into transition and was changing my shoes as he was heading out on the bike course. My 7:43/mi run pace was a little slower than last year’s 7:35/mi, but not by much. First run leg speed chart:

After a sub-minute T1 (nice, smooth transitions), I started the three loops around Texas Motor Speedway for the bike. I passed Lee at about Mile 3 of the bike (south side of the Speedway) knowing full-well that he’d pass me again back on the run. The lack of wind really helped my speed (and maybe those new tires that we got last summer). My bike avg was 18.4 MPH last year ... this year, 21.3 MPH (per GPS). Woo-hoo! I might have been able to go even a little faster I hadn’t gotten two Charlie Horses – right calf during loop 2 and left calf during loop 3. Yep, I had forgotten to take my SaltSticks. Live and learn.

Bike elevation:

Fairly consistent bike speed:

Luckily, the cramps had pretty much subsided after T2 and the start of the second run leg. As expected, Lee re-passed me at about Mile 1.75 for a strong push in the final stretch. My run pace was 8:23/mi per GPS (vs. 8:37/mi in 2008) so while still lumbering, it was actually a stronger finish than I felt it would be. Second run leg speed chart:

In the final results, Lee finished in 67th with his great runs. My friend Archie, who I saw at many races in 2007, is back in DFW after moving out of state last year and obviously has been training hard ... he crushed us both at 36th place and a 1:13:49 time. Jenn, my spin LA Fitness instructor, had a good race as well and finished in 5th place in her age group.

Full results at: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3396

Next up: The Cowtown Half Marathon

Moving the Cheese

2009-02-16T20:33:00.003-06:00

(Perhaps "moving the finish line" is more accurate, but I really like that book.)

The only way to get better (for endurance training, anyway) is to go longer and harder. So I'm going to try to kick it up a notch the next few weeks until I begin tapering in mid-March for the Lonestar Half-Iron.

On Saturday, I started the morning by meeting up with the Keller Running Club at the Keller-Smithfield Node for their "6-miler" on the Bear Creek Trails. I took a detour up the steep hill on Elaine St (both times - on the "out" and the "back") and did the loop around the baseball fields at the Keller Sports Part so my run totalled just over 8 miles. Afterward, I did another couple of miles (oops, forgot to restart the Garmin) with a fellow Cowtown Half-marathoners - back west on Bear Creek Parkway to Keller Town Hall and the KISD Natatorium and then wound along the trails back to the Node (and my car). About 10 miles total. MotionBased data & map (for the first run): http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7619648

After the run, I hightailed it to LA Fitness and was surprised to find that even at 9:00 AM (15 minutes before the start of spin class), all the bikes were already reserved. I caught a huge break when someone working out on a bike told me he was planning on leaving at 9:10 and that I could have his bike then. Nice. Not only did I get a bike when it wasn't looking likely, but the bike he was riding was "my" bike (you spin regulars know what I mean).

After 6 minutes on the rowing machine (while waiting for the clock to reach 9:10), I hit the first class hard (avg hr 155 bpm) and then took a 4-minute breather during the 15-minute intermission (note heart rate drop on chart from 1:05-1:09) and the tried to hang in there for another hour. The second class was very hard - the run was definitely catching up to me and my legs felt very sore. But overall, I ran 2.75 miles more than last week and added the 6-minute rower session - so definitely a significantly more vigorous effort despite the lower heart rate during the double spin-classes.

Today, after two 2,000 yd swims last week, I decided to go a little farther. Total swim time: 52:44.6; Total distance: 2,500 yd. My splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:31.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:29
3rd 500 yds: 10:25
4th 500 yds: 10:40
5th 500 yds: 10:38.5

Still a ways to go when compared with my 3,000 yd PR pace, but overall, not too shabby ...

Symmetric Week

2009-02-13T16:14:00.003-06:00

Symmetric as in [Swim] - [Bike+Run] - [Bike+Swim] - [Bike+Run] - [Swim]

Monday (2/9) : 2,000 yd swim in 37:54.4 (splits: 9:28, 9:31.5, 9:25, 9:30). Pretty fast time (5:45 faster than January 19) - mainly because I "cheated" and wore tri-shorts. Taking yesterday off helped as well. Still, it felt good to get in a longish swim.

Tuesday (2/10): 1 hour spin class (144 bpm avg heart rate - hmm, why so low? - lazy!) followed by a 1:16 transition and a two-mile treadmill brick run in 16:29 (8:15/mi pace; 153 bpm avg heart rate)

Wednesday (2/11): 1 hour spin class (149 avg heart rate - better intensity, but still doggin' it!) and then a 500 yd cool-down swim in 10:36

Thursday (2/12): A clone of Tuesday - 1 hour spin class (156 bpm avg heart rate) followed by a 2:53 transition and a two-mile treadmill brick run in 18:20 (161 bpm avg heart rate despite the 9:10/mi pace; I was a little tired after that spin class)

Friday (2/13): I ended the week the way I started it - with another 2,000 yd swim. No tri-shorts this time so I'm back to my normal pace. My time was 42:26.6 with splits of 10:23, 10:38.5, 10:41, 10:44. Not bad at all - just 1:08 slower than my 2,000 yd PR.

Happy Friday the 13th and that "other holiday" tomorrow!

Weekend Accomplishments

2009-02-08T14:57:00.003-06:00

Saturday's Accomplishment:

Woke up early and met up the Keller Running Club on the Bear Creek trails. Got in a 5.8 mile run with a steady 8:30-8:45 pace (and 170-175 bpm heart rate) while running, but had two 3-5 minute water stops to break it up - so the total time was 58:48 and 161 bpm avg hr. MotionBased info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7585006

After the run, I headed to the gym for spin-brick-spin workout. First class: 75 minutes at an average heart rate of 159 bpm. Then a 2:05 transition to wipe down the spin bike, change into my running shoes, and get upstairs to the treadmill (wow, I wouldn't have guessed it takes that long - I thought I was hustling) to get in a 1.5 mile run in 12:45 (8:30/mi pace) at 173 bpm. The second transition was faster (1:21) so I got back downstairs and back on the bike quickly. Second class: 60 minutes at 156 bpm. It was tougher to keep the intensity up for the second session, but I think I managed to still make it worthwhile.

So the totals for today: 7.25 miles of running and 2.25 hours of cycling (equivalent to 45-50 miles). Almost "Half-Iron-worthy."

Sunday's Accomplishment:

Not feeling too sore from yesterday. :-)

Multisport A-Go-Go

2009-02-06T22:32:00.004-06:00

(Or "Stimulating the Economy with Race Entry Fees")

I just registered for the Ironhead Texas Motor Speedway Sprint Duathlon (Feb 22) and Dallas Athletes St. Patrick's Sprint Tri (Mar 15).

http://www.ironheadrp.com/tms_du (register today or tomorrow for the $45 rate)
http://www.stpatrickstriathlon.com (already 50%+ full!)

So let the 2009 multisport season begin! Who's going to help me kick it off? :-)

A quick week for workouts:

Monday: 1,000 yard swim. Splits: 10:27 + 10:54 =21:21 for the total time.

Tuesday: 1 hour of spin. 149 bpm average heart rate - so a little lower than normal intensity, but still a solid class. Followed up the cycling with a 500 yard swim in 9:54. My first sub-10:00 set in quite some time. That is encouraging but I really need to ramp up the distance.

Wednesday: 75 minutes of spinning madness. 155 bpm with no drops below 140 in the final hour. Very consistent effort.

Thursday: Wanted to do a reverse tri today, but the swim fizzled out. Started with a 2-mile treadmill run. Completed it in 17:47 at an average heart rate if 166 bpm - the effort was a lot harder than the 8:54/mi pace indicates because I had a 5% incline for more than half of the run. After a quick 1:24 "transition" (stopping the treadmill, grabbing my stuff, heading downstairs, and settling on the spin bike), I did a 45-minute spin class, which also ended up being a higher effort at 159 bpm average. The post-bike swim started off well, but after a couple of laps, my shoulder developed an "interesting" pain. I switched to breast stroke to try to get in more time in the pool, but after three straight days of cycling, my back just didn't want to arch that way when coming up for air. So in the end, it was only about 350-400 yd in the pool, and it was slow and inconsistent. Disappointing, but the run and spin felt great (or as great as a 64 minute 161 bpm avg hr workout can feel ...)

Friday: OFF DAY! All I did was register for races and rested up for the weekend. I have some tough training planned for Saturday and Sunday.

[Haha, my needling paid off. Matt is joining me for the TMS Du. Derek is in for the St. Patty's Tri. And Lee and my spin instructor are in for both. Now about those stimulus checks ...]

Lake Benbrook Half Marathon 2009

2009-01-31T20:58:00.000-06:00

Despite the excellent weather (mild and sunny), with the tough hilly course and being on the same day as DRC's Tal Morrison 15K, the turnout for today's Benbrook Half was limited to locals and runners who like hills.

I had a pretty good race - all things considered - and completed the 13.1 mile course (13.32 per GPS) in 1:57:46 for a 8:59/mi pace (8:50.5/mi per GPS). I wasn't expecting to PR and a sub-9:00/mi pace is very respectable (for me) for this course, but I think I could have done a little better if I didn't have the calf issue (see below). My time placed me exactly in the middle of pack - 123rd out of 246 finishers - and 14th out of 16 in my age group (the competition was tough today).

The run started off uneventfully. I tried to keep a slower pace to not burn out before the big hill, and everything seemed to going well, albeit at an unexciting speed. However, right around Mile 3.5, I felt a sharp pain in the muscle just below my left calf. "Oh, not again" ... I pictured walking back to the start as I did last year. It was very strange - it didn't occur on a hill, I hadn't slipped or landed funny - and very painful.

I stopped by the side of the road and massaged the area for a few minutes and then started walking to see if the pain would subside. My leg/calf did feel a little better as I walked (the sensation moving from sharp pain to dull ache) and a few of my fellow "Ranch View Gang" members passed me with quick hellos. A couple more minutes of hobbling and I felt good enough to try running again as Roberto, Leah, and Randy approached. I ran with them for the next couple miles and really appreciated their company as we approached "Nice Hill".

For those of you who are not familiar with the park roads of Lake Benbrook, in addition to the smaller hills and banked curves in the road, there is a steep hill with a 12.5%+ grade about 5 1/2 miles from the starting line. Luckily, it's only about a 1/4 of a mile from base to top so the trek was over in less than 3 minutes, but with a ~75 foot climb, it certainly felt like it took longer than that. Anyway, as we approached the "summit", waiting for us in blue spray paint were the words "Nice Hill" and smiley face right below.

After going down the back side of the hill, I felt a lot better and started speeding up. Grabbed some water at the turnaround/aid-station started heading back to the start/finish line.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Nice Hill wasn't too bad (at least no worse) the second time and I kept a solid 8:15-8:30/mi pace and took a short gel/water/walk break at Mile 8.75. I grabbed some more water and sports drink at the final (through Mile 11) aid-station and tried to push hard for the finish, but I was definitely running out of gas at the end and averaged a 9:15+/mi pace for the final miles. Guess I need to work on my endurance a bit more - in my defense, this was my longest run since the DRC Half almost 3 months ago. So, all-in-all, I am very happy with my performance.

Next up, the Cowtown Half!

MotionBased: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7545392

Full results: http://www.runtimeracingservices.com/results/LAKEBENBROOKHALF(OA).HTM

Age group results: http://www.runtimeracingservices.com/results/LAKEBENBROOKHALF(AG).HTM

[Update: I'm thinking I pinched a nerve or something freaky like that at Mile 3.5 because the pain (which was horrible right after the run and later Saturday night) was mostly gone by Sunday afternoon - just sore legs/quads from the hills - and completely gone on Monday. So, anyway, everything appears to be A-Okay. Phew ...]

Tough Weekend

2009-01-25T11:32:00.003-06:00

Saturday: 11.11 mile run with Ranch View Gang. A tough run with 19+ MPH winds in our face for the first 5.75 miles as we run north on the Trinity Trails. Took walk breaks approx every 2 miles and a 5-minute bathroom stop at the Braum's on University Ave. So the overall time was 1:52:39 for a 10:07/mi pace but during the bulk of the run we were averaging 8:45-9:00/mi which is pretty good for that nasty wind. With the breaks, my average heart rate was 159 BPM, but during the run segments was generally between 165-172 BPM - solid exertion, but not the torturous race effort.

MotionBased info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7505283

Sunday: "Slept in" until 7:00 AM - after waking up at 4:00, 5:00 (6:00 Eastern), and 5:00 the previous three mornings (due to early morning flight for business trip, morning workout before meeting, and yesterday's run). Arrived at the gym shortly after 8:00 and did 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, 15 minutes of rowing (3,100 meters), and a little strength training before entering the cycling classroom. 15 minutes by myself before the 1-hour spin class began and 15 minutes afterwards for 90 minutes total - avg hr 154 BPM.

My legs are still a little sore from yesterday's run, but not too bad. I think I'm ready to increase the distance two more miles next weekend for the Lake Benbrook Half-Marathon.

My tough weekend is complete. Relaxing this afternoon and indulging in a little Maki Boy sushi. So nice! ...

Longish Swim, Redline Spin, Getting It In (When I Can)

2009-01-23T12:22:00.001-06:00

Mon (1/19): After taking yesterday as a rest/recovery day (still in euphoria over my Too Cold To Hold performance :-), I headed to the pool at lunch. The goal: To swim at least 2,000 yds. Mission accomplished (in 43:39) but it wasn't easy. By the end of the fourth 500 yd set, I was feeling dizzy. I can't believe that I got motion sickness in a pool! You would think that I was swimming in the Atlantic or something with the way the room was spinning when I exited the water. Sigh ... I guess I need to take a Meclizine before any swims longer than 1,000 yds - for now anyway until I get this thing licked. Maybe I've just been out of the pool for too long. My splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:24
2nd 500 yds: 10:49
Water/AccelGel break: 0:47
3rd 500 yds: 10:47
4th 500 yds: 10:52

This is about 2 minutes slower than my PR pace, but definitely not too bad. Will work on increasing speed and adding distance in the weeks ahead.

Tue (1/20): Normal 60 minute spin class - average heart rate of 158 bpm. Maxed out my heart rate (to 183 BPM and held it there for almost 2 minutes) during Seal's ("Guy who sleeps with Heidi Klum" -Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock) "Crazy". I'm glad I made the push, but I was so beat up after the effort that I had to take it easy for the last 10 minutes of the session. Afterwards, instead of a brick run, I had to settle for a "brick inclined walk" on the treadmill - 1.5 miles at 4 MPH with the first 1 mile at a 10% incline which was gradually lowered during the final 1/2 mile. Total time: 22:15. Total vertical distance: 645 feet. Total calories burned: 235.

Wed (1/21): Had to take my parents to the airport (leaving Texas after an extended visit over the holidays) so I missed my normal spin class. So I dragged myself to the LA Fitness near my office and did my own spin session. 45 minutes of cycling at an average heart rate of 151 bpm. Not too bad. Afterwards, a quick 500 yd swim - 9:54.40 - definitely one of my faster pool sessions in recent memory.

Fri (1/23): I'm finishing up a two-day business trip to New Jersey. I surprised myself when I was actually able to get up early and do 30 minutes on the hotel elliptical trainer and a little bit of strength training. I was even able to squeeze in some breakfast before starting my morning with a 9:00 AM meeting. It's the small victories ...

Too Cold To Hold 2009

2009-01-17T21:55:00.005-06:00

Woo-hoo! A new PR for the 15K distance. I think we can confidently say that my stress-fracture recovery is now complete!

I finished this morning's Too Cold To Hold 15K (9.41 miles per GPS) in 1:17:42.8 (8:21/mi official pace; 8:16/mi per GPS). This is more than two minutes faster than the FWRC Labor Day 15K and just shy of my "target" 8:15/mi pace. Looks like I'll have to set a new goal pace soon. :-)

Don T and I carpooled and met up with Wilhe at the race site. Many of my other running friends were doing the Houston Marathon on Sunday so I wasn't expecting to see a huge turnout at the race (whether I knew them or not). It was a crisp January morning with cloudy skies. Overall, the weather was nearly perfect with cool temperatures - a bit of headwind (13.5 MPH average from the south) was the only part that could have been improved.

I didn't really know what to expect going into this race as 9.3 miles is the farthest that I have run in over two months (since early November's DRC Half and my shin injury). My plan was to start off with a slow pace, take walk breaks at the water stations, and finish strongly.

I worked hard at keeping a steady pace in the opening miles and I did accomplish it with a 26:02 split at the 5K mark. The next 3.1 miles were completed in 26:37 and the final 25:04. So I did finish strongly. Full (per mile/5K) splits from my Garmin Forerunner 305:

Though it may seem like I slowed down in the middle of the race, the times are actually deceptive because (1) there was a lot of headwind as we ran south down the west side of White Rock Lake and (2) there were 2 water stations (and thus walk-breaks) during that stretch - there was only 1 each for the first and last 5K segments.

Speed chart - only walked at the 1.8-mile, 4.1-mile, 6.1-mile, and (briefly) 7.4-mile water stations:

I felt very good for the two big hills of the course - the ramp heading up to Mockingbird at Mile 2.9and at the south end of the lake at Mile 7.5. For both of them, I was able to bear down and make it to the top without slowing significantly. Elevation chart below.

Finally, here is my heart rate chart. Good drops during the walk-breaks at Mile2 4.1 and 6.1. I was actually planning to keep my heart rate (and pace) lower, but during the race, I felt really good - even running at a 8:16/mi average. I was a little worried (surprised) that I was going too fast, but it just didn't feel too fast. I guess it just goes to show that heart rate is just one factor (along with weather, course, and overall "feel") in determining the optimal speed and effort for the day.

With my time of of 1:17:43, I placed 28th out of 57 for my age group (M 35-39) and 159th out of 632, overall. My finish time was also nearly 3 1/2 minutes faster than last year's race when I was nursing my IT band injury (uggh, bad memories). But that's in the past, today is a great milestone - both for injury recovery and just an awesome race overall. :-)

At the finish line, I cheered in Wilhe and Serena (who also PRed!) - somehow I missed Don - must have been grabbing water - before heading up to the Winfrey Point clubhouse for some breakfast tacos (yum) and rehydration. The weather for the day lived up to the race's name, but solid performances and scrambled eggs, salsa and tortillas made us warm inside.

Final race results: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/2009/TooColdToHold904905/TooColdMenu.htm

MotionBased data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7464559

A Run, 3 Spins, 3 Swims

2009-01-16T16:04:00.004-06:00

Mon (1/12): 7.9 mile run in 1:09:05 (8:44/mi pace). My fastest pace yet of my last three runs (6.55 miles on Dec 31 & 8.3 miles on Jan 9). I don't want to be overconfident, but I'm feeling good about this Saturday's race. No more running this week (actually, planned to do some treadmill work but never got around to it - maybe subconsciously that was on purpose :-P)

Tue (1/13): Bike - 50 min spin class; 151 bpm avg hr. Swim - 500 yd in 10:19.5

Wed (1/14): Bike - 75 min spin class; 152 bpm avg hr. Swim - 750 yd in 15:48. Good workout!

Thu (1/15): Bike: 1 hr spin class (no stats - left the Garmin on the charger- but I think I pushed it fairly hard). Swim - 500 yd in 10:42. I wanted to do 1,000 yd swim, but my arms actually started getting sorry after the first set, so I decided not to risk it. Three straight days of swimming (even though they were of short distance/duration) after being out of the pool for the better part of two months was a good jump start in and of itself.

Fri (1/16): No workout today. Resting up for tomorrow's Too Cold To Hold 15K race!

2009 is Gonna Rock

2009-01-11T14:50:00.005-06:00

Happy (Belated) New Year! My blogging took a serious hit with the holidays and the first week back from work after two weeks of well-deserved vacation time. Luckily, unlike my blogging, I was able to keep up my workouts, and I can say with a straight face that my fitness level is at the same level or better than before the holiday madness began.

On the stress-fracture-recovery front, things are looking very good. On December 31, I did my first post-injury, non-treadmill run since November's DRC Half - a "quarter-marathon" in my neighborhood - 6.55 miles in 59:30. I followed that up this past Friday with an 8.31 mile run in 1:17:32. So my shin rehab is going well and I should be all set for next weekend's Too Cold To Hold 15K (9.3 miles) and the Lake Benbrook Half-Marathon at the end of the month.

Despite what I just wrote, the majority of my workouts for the last three weeks were not runs; they were spin class sessions. 2-3 hours during the week. On Saturdays, two one-hour spin-classes with a 15-minute cycling warm-up and either more cycling or a quick treadmill brick-run for the 15 minutes between the classes. All of the sessions were more-or-less the same, with average heart rates between 152-156 bpm - fairly intense (effective).

Swimming is definitely an area that needs more focus. I did a couple swim sessions, but the longest distance was about 1,250 yards. I need to get back into the pool with more frequency and longer durations/distances.

But, overall, I am feeling strong and very excited for a new year of fitness and competition!

2008 Events

2009-01-01T09:09:00.000-06:00

Just for future reference.

Marketing Geniuses at the Cowtown Marathon

2008-12-19T22:13:00.006-06:00

I had heard about these medals for the Cowtown Marathon, but my friend Charlie found an image of the designs and forwarded them to me a few days ago. Wow, does the "5-year Texas Star medal" look sharp!

http://www.cowtownmarathon.org/images/2009_Medals.pdf

I guess I will be running the Cowtown Half/Full/Ultra for the next five years. The Cowtown Marathon race directors are marketing geniuses ...

Half-Marathon Training Schedule

2008-12-18T18:45:00.002-06:00

Finished up a 70-minute spin class (149 bpm avg hr) for my last workout until this weekend - planning to take tomorrow off for a home project.

Here are my "weekend" target distances for the next month and a half. During each week, I plan to run 4-7 miles spread out across several days - brick runs after spin class or a few miles before swimming. The end goal is to work my way up to 13.1 miles for the Lake Benbrook Half Marathon at the end of January.

December 21 - 4 miles
December 28 - 5 miles
January 4 - 6 miles
January 11 - 10K (maybe the Rotary Resolution Run in Addison)
January 18 - Too Cold To Hold 15K
January 25 - 7.5-8 miles
January 31 - Benbrook Half!

We'll see if I can stick to this plan ...

Addicted to Caffeine? & Running Progress

2008-12-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

Seasons Greetings!

Ugh, so busy with work and family activities pre-holiday. Not enough time to blog regularly, but at least I've been able to keep up regular workouts for the most part. Training log entries:

Mon, 12/8: Took the day off. I deserved it after a solid weekend effort ... and plus I needed to get my car inspected (luckily, everything passed A-okay - my wallet exhaled a sigh of relief)

Tue, 12/9: Busy day at work. I tried to get in a swim after work. The first 500 yard set was at a slow but uneventful 10:55. I got about 250 yards into the second set when I started to feel dizzy and nauseated so I had to stop. It could have been a fluke thing, but upon reflection I realized that I might be suffering from cafffeine withdrawal!

I've never been a big user of caffeinated drinks - I don't drink coffee for the most part. So when I do use it, I feel its effects right away - those 1 or 2 gels with 25-40 mg of caffeine each feel great on race day. :-) However, I have to admit that I fell into a routine of drinking one or two sodas a day (it seems to go along with meetings at work) and sometimes a gel with caffeine during spin class. So today when I didn't have any intake, my body may have been rebelling. Anyway, I'm going to track this closely and also gradually ramp down my daily caffeine intake until it is back to nearly zero.

Wed, 12/10: 55-min spin class (165 bpm avg hr - I was pushing hard!) followed by 2.5 miles on the treadmill in 20:42 (8:17/mi pace, 165 bpm avg hr). My running is definitely improving - longer distances at faster paces. And, better still, no pain in my shin post-run!

Thu, 12/11: 60-minute spin class (160 bpm avg hr)

Sat, 12/13: Double spin classes again with, like last Saturday, a quick run in the between them. However, today, I was able to make it a 2.25 mile run (8:02/mi pace)

Sun, 12/14: Another day of rest (well, to be honest, more of a day of errands than rest). Christmas tree set up, some shopping completed, and major cleaning/organizing efforts going on at the Wang household ...

Mon, 12/15: 5K on the treadmill in 24:24 (7:52/mi pace, 154 bpm avg hr) ... Splits (and average heart rates):

Mile 1: 8:07 (149 bpm)
Mile 2: 7:56.5 (154 bpm)
Mile 3: 7:41 (159 bpm)
final 0.1 miles: 0:40 (169 bpm)

My overall heart rate looks (and felt) low for such a fast pace - under 160 for most of the run. Definitely "A Good Thing" (TM).

After the run, a quick 1,000 yard swim in the pool (splits: 10:31, 10:35.5)

Tue, 12/16: 45-minute spin class (150 bpm avg hr). The effort seems low after previous spin classes, maybe I just needed to take it easy. Office life is stressful enough these days with end of the year project efforts.

Wed, 12/17: 3.5 mile run on the treadmill in 26:18 (7:31/mi pace)... Splits:

Mile 1: 7:47.23 (156 bpm)
Mile 2: 7:32.52 (168 bpm)
Mile 3: 7:27.42 (171 bpm)
final 0.5 miles: 3:31 (182 bpm)

and FYI my 5K split was 23:53 (half a minute faster than Monday). High heart rates, but that was to be expected with the faster pace. After the run, 60-minute spin class (154 bpm avg hr) - a bit lower than normal, but I needed the recovery.

As you can see, still pretty busy the last 10 days or so. I hope I can keep it up over the holidays - especially continued progress on my running. (Knock on wood: full recovery from injury is right around the corner!)

Motivating T-Shirt

2008-12-07T11:13:00.004-06:00

The girl in front of me in spin class today was wearing a T-shirt with the classic Marines quote/slogan "Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body" on the back. Love it! And staring at those words helped get me through the last 20 minutes of cycling to complete over 2 hours (over 2:15, in fact) of a tough workout.

Stairmaster: 20 minutes (First 15 min at level 10; remainder at level 8) at 158 bpm average heart rate - "2.23 miles" distance / 267.7 calories burned

Rower: 15 minutes at 160 bpm avg hr - 3435 meters / 208 calories

Treadmill run: 1.5 miles in about 13 minutes (8:40/mi avg pace) at 166 bpm avg hr. Getting better, stronger, and faster!

Spin class: 75 minutes at 159 bpm avg hr

Layla=Torture & The Road to Recovery

2008-12-06T16:30:00.007-06:00

At the end of the 10:30 AM spin class this morning (the second of two), Patti, our instructor, had us finish to Layla. A great song, but her plan also included us doing a LONG standing climb with interspersed "hovers" during the second movement ("piano coda") which is over 5 minutes in duration. Uggh! By the end of the song, we were cursing our legs, Patti, and Eric Clapton himself. :-)

Anyway, today's torture session was necessary after slacking off Wednesday through Friday. The week had started off well. Sunday's workout was modeled after Thanksgiving's. It began with 30 minutes on the Stairmaster with the first 25 mins at Level 10 before backing down to Level 8 - stats: 165 floors, 3.48 miles, 415.6 calories (using weight 172 lbs), avg hr: 166+ bpm (started watch late), average pace: 89 steps/min, 831 cal/hr. After some weight work, another go at the rower - stats: 10 minutes, 2256 meters (about the same pace as Thursday's 6-minute session), 83 calories, avg hr: 161 bpm. And to top it all off, a 75-minute spin class (155 bpm avg heart rate).

I took Monday off to take care of some personal errands and to recover from the back-to-back weekend workouts.

Tuesday's workout wasn't as robust as I would have hoped. Just a 45-minute spin session. HOWEVER, I did run on the treadmill afterwards (6 MPH pace with a 5% incline) and completed an entire *0.5 miles* and had no pain in my shin the following day. This is first time I have run since the DRC Half Marathon and the subsequent aggravation/worsening of the stress-fracture in my shin. Woo-hoo! The road to recovery has begun.

Unfortunately, after that small victory, crazy stuff at work intervened and made working out on Wednesday and Thursday impossible. For Friday, there was no such excuse other than I just felt lazy. Oh well.

So back to today ... I did my now-normal Saturday morning routine of double-spin classes (duration/avg hr: 70 min/153 bpm and 65 min/153 bpm, respectively). The one change from last week is that I did a 9-minute run in between the cycling sessions. One whole mile on the treadmill! Charts below:

In other news, I have all but signed up for the 21st Annual Lake Benbrook Half-Marathon - to be held January 31. I know I have a long way to go before being able to do 13.1 miles, but I am confident that I can make it over the next 7 weeks.

Thanksgiving Week

2008-11-29T21:33:00.007-06:00

It must be a holiday week as I took both Sunday and Monday off. I had better burn some calories before jumping into the holiday food fest. :-)

Tue, 11/25: 60-minute spin class (153 bpm avg heart rate). No time to swim. I was already taking a half-day off work (actually off the the rest of the week - woo-hoo!) to make it to my daughter's school's "Thankgiving Feast"

Wed, 11/26: 75-minute spin class (154 bpm avg heart rate). Again, no time to swim. Had to bring my daughter to her classmate's birthday party.

Thu, 11/27: Tried a couple of new things. First, 20 minutes on the Stairmaster (156 bpm avg hr). The first 12 minutes were at level "10" and then I backed it down to level "8". This machine never gets any easier ... Then some weight work - mostly arms and chest - and a quick session on the rowing machine (stats: 6:08 minutes, 1388 meters, 83 calories). That felt good. I'll have to add the rower into my routine - it seems like a good complement to swimming as it works my back and triceps (swimming is mostly shoulders and chest). I didn't start my Garmin recording for this activity so no stats, but I remember reaching 170-171 bpm by the end of the 6 minutes so I was definitely getting some cardio in as well. After all of that, a 70-minute spin class (157 bpm avg heart rate) to finish the pre-Thankgiving meal workout!

Fri, 11/28: 2,500 yard swim in 53:35 with 500 yd splits of 10:30, 10:34.5, 10:31, 0:41 (break), 10:36, and 10:42.5. I needed to finish my swim in under an hour because I had to beat the 9:00 "Aqua-Fit" class. Next time I'll have to get to the pool earlier! Not a bad performance (and a minute faster than Friday, November 14), especially when considering (1) this was my first time in the pool in over a week, and (2) my arms and chest were quite sore from yesterday's weight session.

Sat, 11/29. Another double-spin session morning. 12.5-minute warm-up before the first class, 1-hour class @ 9:15 AM, 15-minute intermission, and then the second 1-hour class at 10:30 AM with an extra 2.5 minutes tacked onto the end to make an even 2 1/2 hours total. Stats and heart rate chart:

I can't believe I averaged 157 bpm for the entire two and a half hours. A very solid workout for the holiday weekend.

Quick Week; Quick Log

2008-11-21T19:06:00.002-06:00

Tue, 11/18: 45-min spin class (159 bpm avg hr) + 1,000 yd swim in 20:48 (splits: 10:31.5, 10:16.5)

Wed, 11/19: off-day; full day of meetings at work

Thu, 11/20: 60-min spin class (154 bpm avg hr) + 500 yd swim in 9:43.5

Fri, 11/21: another off-day today; I guess I'm taking it easy this week. I'll chalk it up to resting up for tomorrow's Denton Turkey Roll Bike Ride.

The Swimming and Cycling Continues

2008-11-17T21:59:00.006-06:00

Sorry, no witty commentary for this post. My shin is healing, but I'm still staying away from running - I don't want to risk reinjuring it before the fracture is 100% gone. So just a week's work of (spin & swim) entries for the training log:

Tue: "5 miles" on the hotel elliptical trainer in 50 minutes. Not bad for an "on-the-road" workout.
Wed: 50 minutes of spin class (avg hr 155 bpm) - had to bug out early for a lunch appointment.
Thu: The normal 1-hour spin class (avg hr 155 bpm - looks familiar) and then a "quick" (but should have been quicker) 500 yd swim in 10:28
Fri: 2,500 yd swim in 54:33 with 500 yd splits of 10:37.5, 10:44, 10:47, 0:42 (break), 10:56, 10:47 ... A solid effort as I ramp up my distance again
Sat: Double spin classes: First hour-long class @ avg hr 156 bpm, 15-minute "intermission" (and water bottle refill) @ avg hr 144 bpm, Second hour-long class @ avg hr 152 bpm. Average heart rate of 153 for the entire 2:15 effort.
Sun: Off - ahhh ... grabbed some dim-sum and did some yard work (the weather is still mild in Texas)
Mon: 3,000 yd swim in 1:05:53 with 500 yd splits of 10:46, 10:51, 10:49, 0:43 (break), 11:02, 10:58, 10:45 ... The speed is not quite back yet (this is more than 4 minutes slower than my PR), but at least the distance/endurance is coming along nicely.

In other news, I registered for the Denton Turkey Roll today. My cycling legs actually feel pretty good so I think I'll be doing at least 71 miles - either "just" the 71-mile route or perhaps start on the 35-mile until it merges with the 71 at the Lake Ray Roberts Dam Store (see Tour de French Fry)

Monday Swim Before Travel

2008-11-10T15:22:00.003-06:00

2,000 yard swim in 45:48.5. My 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:11.5
2nd 500 yds: 10:19
Water/AccelGel break: 3:51.5 (was talking to the swimmer next to me about turn techniques - of which I have none!)
3rd 500 yds: 10:39
4th 500 yds: 10:47

I'm a little disappointed that even after such a long break that my swim times for the last two sets weren't faster. Oh well ...

Headed to Boston (for work) tonight. If I get ambitious, I'll try to do a quick session on the hotel treadmill (incline walk - still no running for me) and/or swim and/or strength training. Lots of options, I just need to be able to wake up after a scheduled late (~11:30 PM) arrival at Logan International.

Double Spin

2008-11-08T20:43:00.004-06:00

After the normal spin class (60-minutes, avg hr of 151 bpm) and quick 500 yd swim on Thursday, I took Friday off because I thought I felt a cold coming on. However, by this morning, it seemed to have passed, so I headed to the gym to get in a workout.

The LA Fitness class schedule posted on the web showed spin classes at 9:15 and 10:30. I got to the gym just as the 9:15 class was starting and was lucky to get one of the last open bikes. I completed the first 60-minute class (avg hr 161 bpm) and then filled my water bottle and took a quick break during the 10 minutes between classes and then did the second 60-minute class (avg hr 159 bpm).

So over two hours of cycling completed. Not quite the same as a 100K bike ride, but still a solid workout. In fact, it took longer than a half-marathon with a lot less stress on my knees, feet, and legs! :-)

On the Running DL; Bike & Swim Focus

2008-11-05T16:18:00.002-06:00

Well, I decided to bite the bullet and put myself on the "disabled list" for running. I've had pain in my left shin following my last several long runs (including Sunday's DRC Half) and even though it goes away after a day or so, it's recurrence is troubling. With some Internet research and discussion with friends who've had similar conditions in the past, I am pretty sure that I have a stress fracture in my tibia (shin).

Anyway, I'm planning to lay off running for 4 weeks. I'll do a 3 mile test run at the end of November and if I feel good, I'll sign up for the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon (December 15). Otherwise, no running or running races for me until 2009.

So with this restriction, I've been focusing on my swimming and biking. So far this week:

Monday: A solid 2,000 yard swim in 42:39. My 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:20
2nd 500 yds: 10:21
Water/AccelGel break: 0:30
3rd 500 yds: 10:22
4th 500 yds: 10:46

Tuesday: 75 minutes of spin (159 bpm avg hr)

Wednesday: 65 minute spin class (150 bpm avg hr)

So far, so good. The spin classes don't seem to aggravate my shin and I have been walking (even up and down stairs) without pain for the last couple days. Staying away from running will be difficult (never thought I'd say THAT before) but I know this is the only way to let the bone heal.

DRC Half Marathon 2008

2008-11-02T20:22:00.003-06:00

The Dallas Running Club's Half-Marathon ("The Half") is one of the oldest half-marathons in the country, and also one of the 50 largest ones according to an article I saw in Runners World. The DRC Half hit its registration cap of 4,000 runners more than a week before race day and there were about another 400+ people running the 5K.

I had to arrive early at Norbuck Park this morning to do race day packet pickup. Nice long-sleeve technical shirt and various samples and coupons in the bag. No time to go through that now, however. I jogged back to my car (and along the way ran into and said a quick hello to my new friend Serena - who I met last month on a flight back from India!) to get ready for the race.

The weather was already warming up so I decided to run shirtless - into the trunk it went. From the packet, I hooked the bib number to my race belt and attached the Chronotrack "D-Tag" chip to my shoe. A few most last-minute prep items - sunscreen, FuelBelt with 2 flasks of recovery drink powder (half-teaspoon of Glutamine and 2/3 scoop of Accelerade mix in each 8-oz container) and 2 flasks with water (backup/emergency hydration for the run), and reset my Garmin 305 and put on the heart rate monitor strap - and I was off.

As I recrossed Northwest Highway to get to the race site, I groaned at the long lines forming at the two sets (10-11 total) of portolets and thought to myself - that's all they have for a race with 5,000 people (plus volunteers). A helpful fellow runner pointed out that there was a huge bank of additional facilities near the finish line - and he was right - two rows of 25+ each. Looks like the Dallas Running Club and race organizers were prepared in this area.

I met a few fellow Fort Worth Runner's Club members before the race - just chatting and did a half-mile warm-up jog. After that I started heading over to the starting line to meet with Derek and Jarrod. Along the way, I ran into Lee and Fiona who were right at the front of the pack and ready to go. It's always nice to see familiar faces at these events.

The run itself went okay for me. The weather for today's race was deceptively hot - about 60 degrees at the start; 75 by the end of the race. And the humidity was approximately 70% as well. I had about an 8:30-8:35/mi pace (per GPS) through the first 8 miles. Miles 9-11 were slow and painful with the pace slowing to 9:30-9:45/mi at times. I tried to speed up for the last mile or so with limited success for an overall pace of 8:51/mi per GPS. During the last third of the run, my legs got really tight. (Thankfully) they never completely cramped up, but they did feel like heavy "cement legs" ... due to the warm weather, taking the entire week off from running, or both.

My official chip time was 1:57:40.64 for the 13.1 mile course (13.27 miles per GPS) - which is about 4 minutes slower than last year. The 8:59/mi pace was a lot slower than I would have liked, but it was still under 9:00/mi so not a total meltdown. 936th place out of 3,299 half-marathon finishers and 123rd out of 270 in my age group.

Although the weather was warmer than normal, I can't really use that as an excuse since many of my friends had personal records today. Derek and Jarrod finished only a minute behind me with their 6/1 run-walk strategy - I could have stayed with them and done the same time with less pain and suffering! After the race (and food tent :-), I ran into Fiona, who told me that she got second in the Masters and won $200! I missed Lee after the finish line, but he told me on the phone that he got 3rd (out of 250) in his age group - and I saw later in the results that he was 40th overall! Kim and Roberto also PRed and so did a few other FWRC runners. Congrats!

I was a little disappointed that the post-race food was pizza instead of burgers on the grill that they had last year, but it's understandable given that the number of runners was nearly double from 2007. Overall, a great day and a great race.

MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7082171

Full results at: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/Fall2008/DRCHalf2008/TheHalfMenu.htm

Finally, the Dallas Morning News has a gallery of some nice race photos.

Longer Spins and Faster Swims

2008-10-30T18:54:00.004-06:00

I've been having some tenderness in my left shin so I decided to avoid running (impact) this week to let it recover and concentrate on spin classes and swimming:

Tuesday: 45-minute spin class (avg hr = 153 bpm) and 500 yds in the pool. The swim was very slow (11:05) and I had to stop for a few minutes about halfway through to catch my breath and stop the room from spinning.
Wednesday: 50 minutes of spin class (avg hr = 149 bpm) followed by 1,000 yd swim in 21:07 (splits: 10:42, 10:25). Felt much better than yesterday and did the full 20 laps without stopping. Not as fast as I would like, but still a respectable pace.
Thursday: 1 hour of spin (45-minute class + 10 minutes before and 5 minutes after; avg hr = 158 bpm) followed by 1,000 yd swim in 19:18 (splits: 9:39.5, 9:38.5). Faster still (though part of the reason is because I was wearing my tri-shorts).

My shin is feeling much better, but I think I will continue to lay off of the running for the rest of the week. Will try to use the StairMaster or elliptical trainer tomorrow and then do some strength training on Saturday. If my shin continues to improve, running the DRC Half on Sunday may actually happen!

Monster Triathlon 2008

2008-10-26T21:31:00.005-06:00

This morning, I participated in my second Monster Sprint Triathlon with its 300 meter pool swim at the Keller ISD Natatorium, 12 mile bike, and 5K run. I finished the race in 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds for 10th out of 52 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 59th out of 463 total finishers overall (actually 58th because I assume the person in 53rd place with a 29.3 MPH average cycling speed only did one loop of the bike course :-P). With 512 entrants (the race was supposed to be capped at 400), turnout at this year's race was much higher than last year (when there were only 230 finishers).

Lee captured 51st place with a 1:07:02, besting me by over a minute on the strength of his 20:01 5K. Derek and Matt also finished strongly as well with times of 1:13:26 & 1:16:44 for 106th & 151st place, respectively.

Swim: 5:51 (1:47/100yd pace)
T1: 1:34
Bike: 34:12 (21.1 mph average)
T2: 1:00
Run: 25:40 (8:17/mi pace)
TOTAL: 1:08:16

Full results at http://www.doitsports.com/results/page.tcl?id=195714

Compared to last year (times below), everything was faster except for my run and that may have been because I ran over 10 miles the day before (so much for resting up/tapering). In any case, my overall time was 3 minutes and 15 seconds faster - quite an improvement!

Swim: 6:02 (1:51/100yd pace)
T1: 1:39
Bike: 37:52 (19.0 mph average)
T2: 1:07
Run: 24:54 (8:02/mi pace)
TOTAL: 1:11:31

Since I live less than 10 minutes away from the venue and got to bed early last night (super-tired from the Cool October Runs and two days at the Great Wolf Lodge water park), I was parked and ready to go at 5:30 AM. Since the transition area wasn't open yet and I literally hadn't been on my bike in three weeks (since the Ironman Longhorn), I spent 10 minutes riding around the parking lot and practiced clipping and unclipping my cleats from the pedals.

I ran into Lee about 20 minutes later as the line for body marking and bike check snaked out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk along Bear Creek Parkway. We chatted and traded business travel stories and then set up our transition areas.

The morning weather was cool but definitely warmer than yesterday - taking off my shirt for body marking was uncomfortable but not painful. So I made the decision that unlike last year, toweling off and putting on a shirt after the swim before hitting the bike wouldn't be necessary. That definitely improved my T1 time compared to last year.

Like last year, the pre-race mood was festive with the songs like "Monster Mash" and "Abracadabra" playing over the transition area PA system and the fog machine running at poolside. I was well-seeded in slot 162 for the swim. I passed 3 people in the pool and didn't get passed by anyone en route to a smooth 5:51 split as I headed into T1 to put on my bike shoes and grab my bike.

Exiting the transition area, I clipped into my bike pedals without a problem - the pre-race refresher definitely helped. I am now very well familiar with this bike course and its hills - especially the two big ones on Bear Creek Parkway. Keller is a lot hillier than you would think - my GPS shows 650+ feet of elevation change for the two-loop ~20K mile bike course. However, I was able to crank away pretty well and had a solid 21.1+ MPH official average speed. This is a new PR for my average bike speed in a tri (and it probably was even faster since my GPS recorded 12.59 miles for the course distance - which would make for a 22.09 MPH average)!

MotionBased bike data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7051596 (Note: Started the Garmin late, so time and distance are slightly undermeasured)

As I came in from the bike leg, I was pleasantly surprised as a heard a familiar voice saying "dismount here" as Don T (who is tapering for this Saturday's Ford Ironman Florida) was a volunteer for the event. Unfortunately, no time to chat right now, so just a quick hello after dismounting and a jog back to my bike rack. T2 was a breeze and even putting on my costume for the run went smoothly.

The out-and-back run course was the same as previous races except for one part of the trail which was being redone. Unlike last year, I didn't have any cramps, so the run was quite smooth albeit a little slower than 2007's split.

MotionBased run data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7051597

Even though I only took 59th place in the race (note to self: top 13% is nothing to sneeze at) and 10th in my age group, I take some pride in that I believe I had the fastest time of every one who wore a costume - although there was a woman dressed as a belly-dancer (complete with jingly metal on her skirt) only a few minutes behind me!

All-in-all, a great race and a great way to end to end my 2008 triathlon season. A new PR time for a sprint tri - 1:08:16 vs. the Old College Tri's 1:08:42 (and that race had shorter bike and run courses). Really nice weather and a chance to see friends and coworkers.

Okay, time for running season 2008-2009 to hit "full stride"! :-)

A Trio of Four Seasons Cool October Runs

2008-10-25T22:14:00.000-05:00

This morning I took a break from our two-day stay at Great Wolf Lodge - Grapevine and got in 10.3 miles of running in Las Colinas (Irving, TX) at the Four Seasons Cool October Run. I did the Fun Run for a warm-up and followed it with the 5K and 10K races for 10.3 miles of running.

As advertised, it was quite cool - kinda chilly, actually - in the hour or so before the race. I was wearing my 2007 DRC Half long-sleeve tech shirt as well as my T-shirt from Thursday evening's Friends of the River run, but I was still shivering. Luckily, the Cool October Run race shirt was also of the long-sleeve variety so I just threw that on as another layer.

Details/Thoughts:

Fun Run: 0.97 miles (per GPS) in 8:32 (8:49/mi pace). I ended up going a little faster than I planned but felt good. There was a big hill right after the first right turn - good info to know as I assumed (correctly) that the 5K and 10K courses would also include this "early surprise". The Fun Run turned out to be a great warm-up and I shed my layers of shirts for the other two runs.

5K: 3.24 miles (per GPS) in 25:50 (7:58/mi pace). Place: 8th out of 28 in my age group; 111th out of 335 overall. MotionBased Info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7046689 (no heart rate data because I forgot to put on my strap - d'oh!). I think I did a good job with my pacing - 13:10 for the first half of the run and 12:40 for the second half for the desired negative split.

10K: 6.14 miles (per GPS) in 50:21 (8:12/mi pace). Place: 8th out of 15 in my age group; 63rd out of 182 overall. MotionBased Info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7046688. Similar to the 5K, I started off slowly and tried to build up my speed. I think I accomplished that because my pace was fairly consistent. In fact, the last half of the race was actually a lot faster than the splits shown below indicate because the return trip of the out-and-back course was mostly uphill. Although, I really wanted to break 50 minutes for the 10K, all-in-all, I am very happy with my performance since I ran the 5K beforehand.

Full race results: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/Fall2008/FourSeasonsCool5K2008/CoolMenu.htm

After the race, I feasted on bagels, fruit and grabbed some of bottled water to make my recovery drink (Accelerade mix combined with glutamine powder). Pizza from i Fratelli was also available, but the line was quite long and I had to head back to the Great Wolf to pack up for an 11:00 AM checkout time.

Felt a little tired when it was all done, but I'm not sure if it was because of the run or if it was because I had to rush off to check out of our hotel room and then go to packet pickup for tomorrow's Monster Tri.

Workouts and Friends of the River Party In the Village

2008-10-24T05:45:00.006-05:00

Wednesday: 80 minutes of spin. Forgot my Garmin watch - so no heart rate readings - I'd guess the overall average was on the low side since I took a easy a few times for recovery. But doing over an hour of cycling still felt satisfying.

Thursday lunchtime: 60 minutes of spin (avg hr = 159 bpm - solid workour). Only one more week with my favorite spin instructor - her due date is the second week of November! Afterwards, 500 yard swim in 10 minutes and 11 1/2 seconds. I haven't been in the water since before Austin (was letting my finger heal) and I was definitely out of practice after the 2 1/2 weeks away from swimming. 10:11.5 for the set was not bad, though. Luckily, this Sunday's Monster Sprint Tri is only a 300 meter swim - I think I can handle that!

Thursday evening: I participated in the Friends of the River "Party In The Village" Run - a "3.4 mile food line" before the party - check out the restaurants serving the food and drink. My official time was 26:25 for the 3.4 mile course for a 7:45/mi pace and placement of 110th out of 783 overall, 75th out 324 men (459 women in the race - an uncommon gender skew), and 11th out of 31 in the M 35-39 age group. Per GPS, the course was 3.43 miles long and fairly flat; with this distance, my pace was 7:42 mi. The run wasn't my best, I lost steam at after the first mile. I'm still working on my pacing. I'll try to redeem myself at this Saturday's 5K and 10K runs. Splits:

Mile 1: 7:09
Mile 2: 8:00
Mile 3: 8:06
Final 0.4 miles: 3:08 (7:30/mi pace)

MotionBased info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7029118

Full Race Results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1637859&pubID=3 or http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3343

In other news, I picked up a costume on Tuesday for the Monster Tri. So I am all prepared on that front as well!

Breaking Up May Be Hard To Do, But Coming Back From A Long Break Is Harder!

2008-10-21T20:18:00.005-05:00

Shock to the system! Getting myself back on the horse after two weeks of laziness – post-Austin recovery + biz travel to India. Anyway, here is what’s on my plate for this weekend:

Thursday evening: Friends of the River “Party In the Village” Run – Fort Worth. My friend Roberto says it’s a “food and drink party that just happens to have a 3.4 mile run in the middle of it!”

Saturday morning: Four Seasons Cool 5K/10K Run – Las Colinas (Irving). I’m doing both for a total of 15K of running fun at the Four Seasons Resort.

Sunday morning: Monster Sprint Tri in Keller. With my slacking off of training I'm probably not going to PR the course this time ... so I think I may dress up in a costume at T2 for the run. If I can't have a good finishing time, then at least I can look good for the race photos. :-)

I did get in a couple of spin classes the week after my 70.3. And I wasn't a total slug during my trip to India. I had three sessions of approximately 60 minutes each on the hotel elliptical trainers/treadmills. And I'm happy that I was able to get those in.

However, today, for my first real workout, I ran 5 miles with Derek, Jarrod, and Matt on the Campion Trails and it was TOUGH. The temperature at 12:30 seemed much hotter than the advertised 79 degrees - maybe it was the humidity. I ended up completing our 5 mile out-and-back route in 49:12 for a 9:51/mi pace, but it would have been much faster if I didn't have to stop several times after the 2.5 mile turnaround (at 23:19) to get my heart rate down. I've had a nagging stomach ache for the last couple days and it started acting up for the last 2-2.5 miles. I'm hoping that was the root cause of my less-than-stellar performance.

After the initial 2.5 turnaround point, I hit "LAP" every time I switched from walking to running

My heart rate kept spiking in the 180s. Not good and unexpected since my pace while running was never higher tha n 8:30/mile for the last half of the run.

MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7019538

Oh well, hopefully I'll be better by the end of the week for the actual events.

Ironman Longhorn 70.3

2008-10-06T07:47:00.009-05:00

(Initial race report. Will post more details and photos later.)

Second Half-Ironman race complete! Almost 13 minutes faster than my first - Lone Star Tri at Galveston back in March.

Swim: My plan was to be in the front but along the side. I was just to the left of the right start buoy (there are two start buoys between which the swimmers are supposed to line up), but a bunch of people went to the right (outside) of that buoy so I ended up kind of in the middle. Not the best place because I got "run over" by about 20+ people in the beginning. After the initial flailing, I slipped into a decent rhythm. The water in the lake was a great temperature - 77.9 degrees - just barely wetsuit legal. I think the swim course was short - I find it hard to believe that I had a swim pace of 1:45/100M pace (without a wetsuit - I decided not to bring mine - FAILED) when I was trying to hold back for the rest of the 70.3 miles.

T1: Felt pretty good on the run up from Decker Lake. Hated the fact that my feet were all dirty from the grass/dirt transition area. Had to take extra time to clean them off before putting on socks and also to put on my TNT tri-top (no bare torsos for Ironman events). My bike rack was very close to the Swim In entrance and directly opposite of the Bike Out/In so I had a long way to run with my bike to get to the Mount line.

Bike: Despite two mishaps, I had a great bike - 20.5 MPH and I literally passed hundreds of people over the 56 mile course. Overall, it was a decent course, although there was a bit of chip seal and a stiff headwind from the west which came into play in the second half of the route.

Mishap #1: My chain popped off when downshifting up a steep hill at Mile 6. Since I was going up a hill, I quickly lost speed and couldn't unclip from pedals, and fell to the side of the road. Luckily, no injuries other than to my pride. I got up and put the chain back on, but didn't think I would be able to mount my bike on the steep hill - so I ran with it the rest of the way to the top. There was a race photographer up there too, so I may get a photo of this glorious moment.

Mishap #2: Around Mile 42, came up on a bumpy bridge, a lot of debris (water bottles, etc.) on the road and bunch of bike traffic. The jostling caused my water bottle to become loose in its cage. Reached down to adjust it and ended up clipping my finger in my front wheel spokes instead. Ouch! Kept rinsing out the cut by sipping water from my AeroDrink and then spitting it out on my finger. Adrenaline is an amazing pain-killer and eventually the bleeding stopped.

At Mile 54.5 as we neared the end of the bike, we hit a big hill - really big. I looked over to my right and beyond a chainlink fence was what looked like a running trail. A running trail with runners and volunteers on it. I guess this must be "Quadzilla - The Hill of Truth".

Speed (note my stop at 0:15 when my chain popped off):

Heart Rate (averaged at 156 BPM - probably on the high side, but fairly reasonable):

Elevation (2,396 ft - not flat!)

MotionBased data for Bike leg: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6921403

T2: Not much to report except that I was dead-tired coming off the bike. Didn't even bother jogging with my bike to my rack. Still, 2:02 is decent bike-to-run transition time.

Run: Very painful. There was hardly any flat terrain on the entire run. My quads cramped up while going up a hill at Mile 1 and I started my first of many walks. At the top that hill, I started feeling better - a combination of my lower heart rate and good music from a live band. I ran past a guy and girl dressed in disco outfits (and thought of the Disco Tri) who pointed the way to the next rest stop. After the first turn-around I headed down that I had walked up a 15 minutes earlier. At Mile 3, I saw Jarrod exiting the park grounds a couple miles behind me.

At Mile 4.5 the run course turned onto a grass and dirt trail and I headed down a long hill. Although it was fun to run down the hill, the entire time I kept thinking to myself "What goes down must come back up." Sure enough, after passing through a festive aid station hosted by superheroes - including Batman (oddly, dancing to the Superman theme), Mr. & Mrs. Incredible, and a guy dressed as (I assume) one of the Super Mario Brothers - I came up to Quadzilla.

For my first trip up "The Hill of Truth" I ran about the first third of the hill, walked the middle third, and jogged the rest of the way to the top. The second time, I walked almost the entire thing - defeated! There was an announcer at the top of the hill greeting passing runners as we cross the chip timing mat (there was one at the bottom of the hill too - the fastest male and female runners up the hill got a special award) - that was a nice touch. There were also signs with amusing quotes along the path up in an attempt to keep our minds off the painful climb. A few I remember:

All power corrupts, but absolute power is pretty neat
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
Suburbia - where developers chop down the trees and name streets after them

After passing by the transition area (and passing the finish line - so close yet so far), I started the second loop of the run and headed out on the now familar course. At Mile 7.5 or so I waved at Derek who was about two miles ahead of me on the course (but doing his first loop) and at Mile 10 I saw Jarrod for the second time, but I don't even know if he heard me shout his name. He was in the zone!

Along with my leg cramps (first it was quads - those loosened up - and then I had Charley Horses in my right calf intermittently throughout the entire run) my bladder was hyperactive and also slowed me down. I was eating a lot of PowerGels and I think the caffeine (and it's diuretic properties) in some of the flavors caught up to me. The "zero mph" dips in the speed chart below were portolet stops (4 of them!). A few of my more experienced friends told me that I need to learn how to "go" on run, but those "rest stops" were a welcome relief for legs as well as my bladder.

Fairly consistent heart rate on the run - cardio was still strong. My overall speed was definitely limited by my tired legs. If I could just build up my legs more, my run time would greatly improve. I'm sure I left running legs on the bike course. I joked to my tri buddies that I need to either switch to Aquabike or get a tri-bike so at least I'll save my hamstrings. Or I guess I can just train harder. :-)

Elevation profile (Hardly a flat stretch on the entire route. Quadzilla at Miles 4.75 and 11.25. 900 ft of elevation over 13.1 miles ... hillier than the bike!)

MotionBased data for Run: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6921404

Race Review:

Pro: Well-supported race. "Big race atmosphere" with 2,400 registrants. Decent lake for the swim. Four live bands on the run course (and other music) and great rest stops (8 of them!) - which were all hit twice.

Con: Trail/Dirt run course is knee-friendly, but totally ruined my fairly new running shoes. Didn't like the grass and dirt transition area either. The shuttle buses from the parking to the race site were totally inadequate so I ended up walking the 1.25 miles in the morning (after the race, I rode my bike).

Stats:

1.2 mile Swim: 33:45 (1266th place)
T1: 03:39
Bike: 2:43:34 (20.5mph, 359th place)
T2: 02:02
Run: 2:23:29 (10:57/mi, 1042nd place)
Total Time: 5:46:32

Overall Place: 735 out of 1929 finishers (1376 M / 553 F)

Gender Place: 581 out of 1313 (age group Men)
Division Place: 140 out of 306 (Men 35-39)

Full Results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventLinkageID=89178

Here We Go!

2008-10-05T04:32:00.004-05:00

The bags are packed (race-wise and luggage-wise - gotta check out of the hotel). The plan is to eat some breakfast and then head over to the Travis County Exposition Center -parking location - and then grab a shuttle bus to Walter E Long Park.

The race starts at 7:30 AM with the pros (including Michele Jones, Tim DeBoom and Lisa Bentley). My swim wave (#5) should be at 7:41 AM.

Rock and Roll!

T Minus 1 Week (And Counting)

2008-10-02T12:09:00.001-05:00

Monday: 2,000 yard swim in 43:36.5. Wanted to do 3,000 yards but felt tired. No need to be a hero. This is a taper week anyway. My 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:39
2nd 500 yds: 10:52
3rd 500 yds: 10:46
Water break: 0:34
4th 500 yds: 10:45.5

Tuesday: 45 minute spin class (147 bpm avg hr). 500 yard swim in 10:10.

Wednesday: 50 minute spin class (150 bpm avg hr). 500 yard swim in 10:18.

Thursday: Feeling a bit weak. Don't want to get sick, so I decided to just rest.

Driving down to Austin this afternoon!

VOWS Half-Marathon 3

2008-09-28T16:22:00.006-05:00

Third time's a charm??? This morning, I finished my last run before Ironman Longhorn. Same half-marathon route as the last couple times. 13.1 miles in 1:59:47. 10 seconds slower than last time's PR for this loop. Not bad at all!

I really didn't know what to expect as my legs were still a little tired from yesterday's long ride. So I started off the run very slowly, keeping about a 9:30/mi pace. Here are some of the overall stats from the run:

Looks like I had a 9:19/mi pace at 3.04 miles when I made the U-turn at the end of Park Vista Blvd. Although it appears that my running speed slowed down for the next 6.59 miles, the time/pace numbers are misleading because as you can see from the chart below, the second "lap" of 3.31 miles included one walk/gel/water break (at time=0:31) and the third "lap" of 3.28 miles included two breaks (at time=0:59 and 1:28). So my speed actually increased as I went along.

During my last walk break , I figured out that if I really pushed hard, I could break 2 hours for the full 13.1 miles - and so that became my goal. The pace picked up quite a bit in the final 30 minutes (8:28/mi pace is faster than my half-marathon race PR pace) and I sprinted (well, it felt like sprinting) up the hill to my house and the "finish line" to finish while my watch still said "1:59" on it - unfortunately, no seconds displayed when elapsed activity time is over an hour!

My heart rate was consistently below 160 bpm for the first half of the run, but ratcheted up considerably as my pace and the mileage total increased along the way to the finish.

I am very happy that I completed it in under 2 hours considering Saturday's 79 mile ride in Waco. I am also very pleased that I started slow and picked up speed throughout the run for a strong finish. I need to remember to do this for Ironman Longhorn - it appears to be a much better strategy than my standard "start off way too fast, hit a wall, and then slow down & walk continuously in a death-march to the finish" :-P.

Only one week to go until the big race!

Waco Wild West Bike Ride

2008-09-27T19:58:00.003-05:00

Discretion is the better part of valor. Similar to Benbrook Half-Marathon when I walked 4.65 miles back to the finish line rather than reaggravating my IT Band Syndrome, I decided to end this ride early rather risk a freak ailment only one week before Ironman Longhorn.

For today's Waco Wild West bike rally, the plan was to ride the 100 mile route with Don T and his friend Scott from Gorilla Multisport (slogan: "[Tri training] is like wrestling a gorilla. You don't stop when you're tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.").

The ride started off a little shakey. Scott took off in the beginning, but Don felt something "off" with his bike and stopped to tinker with it. I caught up to Scott a few minutes later to let him know the news. He told me to go on and we'd catch up at the rest stops. So I continued on, but just a few minutes later I heard a popping sound and then a rattling. I stop and looked down at my front wheel - a broken spoke! And it was the spoke upon which my bike computer's sensor magnet was mounted - so no speedometer. Oh well, just gotta roll with it - I bent/wrapped the broken spoke around the next nearest good spoke (and I could still see my GPS-based speed on my Garmin Forerunner 305) - and restarted my ride.

After the initial bumps, things went pretty well. I completed the first 57 miles in 2 hours and 54 minutes before stopping at the rest stop in Mother Neff State Park near Whitson, TX. Because I had such a good pace, this was the first rest area at which I stopped. In fact, apparently, we rode right by Prairie Chapel Ranch (aka George W Bush's home away from the White House ... http://www.tagzania.com/item/28187) outside of Crawford. Don T told me about seeing Secret Service vehicles and large antennas around that area, but I was so focused on the hard I don't recall any of that (except maybe for passing one radio/cellular tower).

Anyway, the bad news is that I quit at 79 miles (at 4 hours and 23 minutes) and took the SAG wagon back in because something (dust?/pollen?) was irritating my lungs. I've never had asthma but I imagine I was feeling something similar to an asthma attack. I think I could have toughed it out and ridden the final 21 miles, but with my big race next Sunday I didn't want to risk getting an infection or something stupid like that.

After getting back to our vehicle and loading up my bike, I wandered over to the finish area at Indian Springs Park to grab some cold beverages. I also took a walk over and around the Waco Suspension Bridge and enjoyed the music and cooled off by the misting fans.

I'm a little disappointed at not being able to finish the full century, but I'm still happy with doing nearly 80 miles today. And I got a HUGE box of candy to take home. The ride was sponsored by M&M/Mars/Skittles and at the end the ride organizers were all but forcing the candy on the departing riders ("Take it all, we have way too much, and we don't want to haul it back"). So I'm all set for trick-or-treaters next month! :-)

My stats for the ride - good speed for the first 57.17 miles, the 10 minute rest stop, and then the final (for me) 21.5 miles ...

Things got painful at the 4-hour mark ...

My heart rate wasn't too bad for such a fast pace.

It's encouraging to know that I had a fast pace even though the first 35 miles was mostly uphill

Ride Review:

Course: 3.5/5 - a lot of chip-seal, but not too much traffic; route only marked with painted arrows on the road - they were done well, but are no substitute for also having signs; NO traffic control when crossing over some highways - not good :-(
Rest Stops: 4/5 - decent selection - fruit, cookies, PB&Js, assorted candy and bars, and water/Gatorade
Logistics: 3.5/5 - online registration available; no issues with race day resistration; only park bathrooms (but was okay since the ride attendance was not huge); lots of parking at nearby mall/businesses; not much post-race refreshment (less stuff than the rest stops) - but tacos for sale
Overall: 3.5/5 - pretty good ride; will probably do again, but the drive (almost 2 hours) is a bit far

Triathlon Strategy

2008-09-25T22:32:00.002-05:00

I read an article in Runners World a few days ago that highlighted "pace groups" in marathons, and one of pacers presented a great strategy to her group - "We're going to run the first 10 miles with our heads, the next 10 miles with our heads and the last 10K with our hearts"

I really liked that quote and I think it applies to triathlons too (with a little adaptation) - "Swim with your head, bike with your legs, run with your heart".

Swim: Nobody wins a tri with the swim. It's the shortest of the three parts of the race - for my half-Iron I'll (hopefully) do the swim in about 45 minutes, but the bike is 3 hours and the run is 2 hours. But by going out too fast, getting nervous in the open water, and host of other things, an early meltdown is possible. We need to think about our training, get a good rhythm and finish the swim strongly to be ready for the (bigger) last two legs of the race. As legendary Ironman Dave Scott puts it, "swimming is the most inefficient way to get to your bike" :-)

Bike: The longest part of the event, but the one that can be trained for most easily. So here the amount of spin classes and long bike rides pre-event will really pay off as we use our legs to power to T2.

Run: Unless a triathlete has done the event distance in the past, it is likely they are entering a new "zone" of their fitness training. Very few people doing an Ironman normally swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon in a single day (except for perhaps a past Ironman race). Similarly I hadn't swum/biked/run for 6 hours at "close to max speed/intensity" before the Lone Star Half-Iron in Galveston. In addition to having the run at the end of the longest workout effort of a racer to date, running is the most stressful on your joints and usually falls at the hottest part of the day (unless the sun has already set at the 14th+ hour of an Ironman!)

These issues "run" doubly true for me since running is my weakest sport of the three triathlon disciplines. Training definitely helped improve my running ability but in the end there is something "inside" - whether it is completing the race in support of a charity, dedicating it to loved ones, or just personal achievement - that is what gets you across the finish line (or at least get across it with a smile on your face).

Took it easy this week. Wanted to go harder but still feeling linger effects from the tough weekend.

Tuesday - 45 min, 153 bpm avg hr + 500 yd swim in 10:38
Wednesday - 55 min, 148 bpm avg hr + 20 minutes of fast-walking on treadmill (some inclines)
Thursday - 45 min, 153 bpm avg hr + 500 yd swim in 10:18.5

Taking tomorrow off ... planning to ride 100 miles on Saturday at the Waco Wild West Century bike ride

Texas Man Triathlon 2008

2008-09-22T13:04:00.006-05:00

I did the Texas Man Triathlon yesterday at Johnson Branch Park at Lake Ray Roberts. Derek and Jarrod joined me for the Olympic distance race - a 1,500 yard open-water swim, a 23 mile bike leg, and a 10K (6.2 mile) run. Lee was there too and did the Sprint distance race.

My normal goal would have been to try to finish faster than the Disco Tri since that is my PR for this course, but with my legs and feet (toes especially) still sore from yesterday's long run, I would be happy just to finish "upright". The race went much better than expected and I ended up crossing the finish line in 2 hours and 34 minutes.

My time is 8 minutes faster than last year, but 5 1/2 minutes slower than July's Disco Tri - not bad at all. I finished 15th out of 29 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 77th out of 142 finishers. Here are my splits (with my Disco Tri times in [square brackets]):

Swim: 27:17 (76th place) [26:53]
T1: 2:43 [2:12]
Bike: 1:07:00 - 20.6 MPH (29th place) [1:03:38]
T2: 1:22 [1:10]
Run: 55:45 - 9:00/mi pace (108th place) [54:59]
TOTAL: 2:34:07 [2:28:49]

Full results at http://www.monstertriathlon.com/results.htm

Not quite as many participants for this tri compared to last year (when there was a Half-Iron distance option) or the Disco Tri two months ago. The rescheduling due to Hurricane Ike probably resulted in a lot of people who couldn't make the new date. My bike rack was half-empty - a welcome change but I'm sure a little depressing to the race organizers.

Swim: The sun had barely risen as we gathered at the beach. Good news! With some morning haze/clouds, the east-bound start of the swim wouldn't be met with a bright sun. As Jarrod and I wandered the beach (while waiting for Derek who was still in line to get his timing chip), I met up with Lee who had run the 20K with me yesterday (well, not "with" me - he finished 24 minutes before I did!) and said hello to Coach Todd who was helping to run the swim starts.

While doing a quick warm-up swim, I immediately noticed that the wind was making the water a lot more choppy than normal. It also made me realize that I had forgotten to take my meclizine tablet - between the waves and lifting my head up and down to sight I had a good chance of getting dizzy. So a quick jog back to the transition area to gulp down a pill ... I got back to the beach just as the first wave of sprint racers took off.

About 12 minutes later, it was time for the Men 30-39 age groups to go - so away I went. Jarrod was swimming next to me and I saw him for the first few minutes whenever I turned to my left side. Eventually, things got a little more spread out and I slipped into a comfortable stroke.

About a third of the way into the course, I looked up and saw some racers standing/walking(!) in the middle of the lake. As I approached them, I looked down and could tell that there was a sandbar only 6 inches from my fingertips (normally you can't see anything in the lake unless the water is shallow). But I wasn't going to cheat and take a break - and swimming is faster than trudging through knee-to-waist-deep water anyway - so I veered away from the shallow water and kept pushing towards the first turn buoy.

The water temperature was good, but the choppiness did push me off-course the entire time. In the end, I would have thought that my swim split would have been more than just 24 seconds slower than my Disco swim ... maybe the swim course was short.

T1: I took my time in T1. Took some extra time to put on my Garmin heart strap (I wanted to capture the data) and also took an Accel Gel and two SaltSticks. Even though the weather was cooler than last year's Texas Man, I knew that my electrolytes were still probably on the low side - depleted from the previous day's run.

Bike: Had some trouble clipping in - first time on the bike in more than 2 weeks! (I should have practiced a little yesterday.) Tired legs. First half of the ride was not bad. Felt pretty smooth and I passed a few people. Shortly after make a U-turn at the 8.5 mile turn-around, I saw Derek and then Jarrod. The second half of the ride was definitely slower - partly because of the aforementioned wind coming from the south, partly because the road was a little rougher with chip-seal and patches, and partly because I was getting tired! Still a 20.5 MPH average speed (20.9 MPH per GPS for the 23.33 mile course) is not too shabby - even though I obviously lost the most time (almost 3 1/2 minutes) during the bike vs. my Disco PR. Looking at the Garmin stats, my average heart rate was 152 BPM (about the same as most spin classes) and the elevation change was 922 feet (not flat, but definitely not as hilly as some of the other rides I've done).

Route Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=6827923

T2: Felt good as I rolled into the bike-to-run transition. Nothing interesting to report. Everything went smoothly (downed another Accel Gel and two more SaltSticks) as I headed to the now very familiar entrance to the run course to start the final 6.2 miles.

Run: Not as painful as I thought it was going to be ... maybe because I had realistic expectations. I tried to keep my pace between 8:45 and 9:00. I had an 8:53 pace at the first mile marker. Then I messed up and hit "STOP" instead of "LAP" on my watch - and didn't realize it until just before Mile 2. So my Garmin stats are missing almost one mile of data. Sigh ... one of these days I'll get it right.

The weather got hotter, but the temperature was still bearable at 9:30 AM. I only walked briefly at the rest stops - along with grabbing needed fluids (one cup of water - gulp, one cup of Accelerade - gulp, another cup of water - drink half & dump the rest on my head). High-fived Derek just after the 3.1-mile turnaround and then greeted Jarrod just as I passed Mile 4. The second half of the run definitely went more smoothly than the first half because it had an overall downhill grade. As I passed Mile 5 and did the last stretch towards the water, I tried to pick up my speed a little bit. A final burst as I entered the beach to finish the 10K and cross the finish line! Lee was waiting for me at the finish - having completed the sprint race about an hour earlier.

My average heart rate for the run was about 160 BPM and average pace of 9.07/mi for the 5.16 miles that I tracked with the Garmin. Since my heart rate wasn't that high, it is apparent that my legs were definitely the limiting factor for both the bike and the run. So this is good news - I had aerobic capacity to spare. I'll definitely need it for the Ironman Longhorn 70.3 - now less than 2 weeks away!

Full race results at: http://www.doitsports.com/results/page.tcl?id=195704

Tour Des Fleurs 2008

2008-09-20T12:46:00.014-05:00

I finished the Tour Des Fleurs 20K race this morning and had my best running outing since the Cowtown Half Marathon. I finished the 12.4 mile course (12.5 miles per GPS) in 1:46:16. I placed 48th out of 104 in my age group, 254th out of 610 men, and 259th out of 1279 total.

My time made for an 8:30/mi pace - which is just shy of my Cowtown pace (8:29/mi), better than my 15K PR pace for the Fort Worth Runner's Club Labor Day run (8:32/mi), and overall 6 minutes faster than last year.

I'm sure the cooler weather (70 and clear - a gorgeous day!) and my awesome running partners helped with my time. For a race where none of my coworkers attended, I ended up running into quite a few people that I knew. An hour before the start, as I was listening to pre-race music from the Dallas Arboretum stage, I saw Jeff from our LA Fitness spin class stretching. He had mentioned on Thursday that he was planning to be here and it was nice to actually see a familiar face. I also saw Lee about 30 minutes before the start and said hello and wished him luck, but didn't expect to see him much on the course since he is much stronger runner than me (he ended up 22nd overall with a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes, and change).

I then headed down to the path next to White Rock Lake to get a short warmup in. While heading north I ran into Cy from TNT who was headed the opposite direction (and not running in the race) to meet up with his TNT training group on the west side of the lake. So I turned around and we chatted/ran for about half a mile during which I saw Kim from the Fort Worth Runners Club - didn't know she was doing this "short" race since she is training for the Chicago Marathon.

Anyway, Jeff, Kim (who was recovering from illness and wanted to run "slow and easy" - "You want to run 8:30 miles, I'm your man!") and I ran together for just about the entire run. Having their company really helped me keep a fairly consistent pace - though I definitely slowed down near the end, especially at the last big hill at Mile 11.5.

From my split times and running speed profile, it looks like I slowed down at Miles 9-10 and Miles 11-12.

The slowdown at these points make sense since at Miles 8.5-9.5 was uphill and there was the steep hill at Mile 11.5. Also just before Mile 12, my Patt Straps were getting loose so I stopped to take them off and stow them in my Fuel Belt pocket.

You can see my heart rate spiked just before Mile 9 due to the hill climbs - hence the slower pace for Mile 9-10.

After the race, I grabbed some refreshments from the various booths and met back up with Lee who introduced me to Jack from the Grapevine Runners and Walkers and afterwards Lee and I talked about doing some open-water swim practices in the area. Over by the Stampede Light tent, I ran into Randy from the Keller Running Club and Roberto from the FWRC. Had some good conversations on upcoming marathons and then I headed back home to enjoy the rest of my Saturday.

Route Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=6804896

Full Results: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3361

One race down and one to go!

Big Weekend

2008-09-19T20:02:00.005-05:00

Another day off in preparation for a two-event weekend - the Tour Des Fleurs 20K tomorrow and the Texas Man Olympic Triathlon on Sunday.

The standard spin-centric workouts the last few days ...

Tuesday: 45 minutes of spin class (avg hr: 159 bpm) + 2.5 mile treadmill run in 21:17 (8:31/mi pace, avg hr: 165 bpm ... first mile at 5% incline)

Wednesday: 2.5 mile treadmill run in 19:38 (7:51/mi pace, avg hr: 164 bpm ... first mile at varying 2.5-5% incline) + 60 minutes of spin class (avg hr: 158 bpm)

Thursday: 61 minutes of spin class (avg hr: 155 bpm) + 500 yd swim in 8:52(!)

I have most of my stuff packed up for tomorrow mornning's run. Since parking will be a hassle - I will have to park at least half a mile away from the venue (the Dallas Arboretum) - I'll be wearing my Fuel Belt during the race, not for hydration on the run, but instead because I have put my glutamine and Accelerade powder in the flasks to make 32 ounces of recovery drink (just add water) right after I cross the finish line (hopefully in about 1 hour and 45 minutes :-).

Hey, Rest Is Good

2008-09-15T14:10:00.004-05:00

I guess those two days off really recharged my batteries. I swam 3,000 yards at lunch today and had a new PR - 1 hour, 1 minute, and 50 seconds (more than 30 seconds faster than August 19's previous record).

My 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:10
2nd 500 yds: 10:15.5
3rd 500 yds: 10:23
Water/AccelGel break: 0:32
4th 500 yds: 10:01
5th 500 yds: 10:17
6th 500 yds: 10:11.5

It's interesting that the second half of the swim was faster than the first half!

Overall, that workout felt great. I need to take days off more often! :-)

Three Weeks To Go

2008-09-14T14:04:00.000-05:00

Less than three weeks to go until the Ironman Longhorn 70.3 race down in Austin. Am I ready? I guess I am not "unready".

Hurricane Ike (tropical storm by the time it got to the D/FW metroplex) caused my race today to be postponed until next week. It was quite humid, rainy, and windy yesterday so an outdoor workout was out of the question. So all I did was pick up my packet for next week's Texas Man Triathlon. Today, I should have worked out, but was just feeling lazy. So instead I went out to brunch with my family, did some shopping, and worked on my "honeydew" list - in other words, all the stuff I would normally be doing if it weren't for the triathlon training craziness. :-)

Morning Run

2008-09-12T11:36:00.005-05:00

Because I have commitments today at lunchtime and this afternoon, I had to get my workout in during the morning. So I decided to go for a run.

I wanted to do another half-marathon distance but I got started a little too late - still have to work! - and although the temperature wasn't bad it was quite humid.

Ended up doing 8.35 miles in 1 hour and 19 minutes for an overall pace of 9:28/mi and an average heart rate of 159 BPM. This doesn't really tell the entire story, though.

What really happened was that I did a 6.53 mile run at 9:07/mi pace (161 BPM avg hr) and then a long 6-minute walk/water/gel break and then 1.47 miles back to my house at a 9:03/mi pace (167 BPM avg hr).

Speed, Heart Rate, and Elevation profiles below:

Texas Man Tri Postponed

2008-09-11T22:32:00.004-05:00

Hurricane Ike is coming to town. Even though we'll probably just get wind and rain, it still would make for a miserable race, so I am very happy that the race organizers decided to delay the Texas Man Triathlon by one week - to Sunday, September 21.

The only downside is now I have to (get to? :-) run the Tour Des Fleurs 20K next Saturday and then do the Texas Man Olympic tri on Sunday. Oh well, this will still be less of a workout than a Half-Ironman and plus I get a chance to really see if this glutamine stuff actually does what it's supposed to with respect to speedy recoveries.

The Week's Workouts

2008-09-11T19:13:00.000-05:00

Monday: 2,000 yard swim in 41:43. My 500 yd splits:

1st 500 yds: 10:31
2nd 500 yds: 10:50.5
3rd 500 yds: 10:18
4th 500 yds: 10:03

25 seconds slower than Friday, but still not bad.

Tuesday: 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer (avg hr: 137 bpm)

Wednesday: 75 minutes of spin (avg hr: 152 bpm) + quick 1,000 yd swim (splits: 9:52, 9:37)

Thursday: 45 minutes of spin (avg hr: 150 bpm) + 15-minute 1.5-mile treadmill run at varying inclines (5%-10%, avg hr: 157 bpm)