Texas Man Pre-Tri

Had a very good workout this morning at Johnson Branch State Park at Ray Roberts Lake. This was the "pre-tri" practice/workout for next week's Texas Man Triathlon.

It started off with an open-water swim clinic. Even though I have already completed a tri with open-water swim (the Metroplex Sprint), I still picked up a few good pointers in terms of pacing (don't start off too fast - heart rate increases too much), sighting (don't pull head completely out of the water too often - will make your body "go vertical" and tire you out), and exiting the water (swim as close to shore as you can because running in the water is difficult, will tire you out, raise your heart rate, and make you look like a dork). After that I did about 900 meters of open water swimming: one lap around the dropped buoys (approx 700 meters) and another out-and-back of 100 meters each way. The open water swim also gave me a good reminder about the visibility in the water of lake swimming - i.e., NONE.

Following that, there was a transition clinic. Again, since I have never attended a formal clinic, I gained some good info. Most was common sense, but it was still useful to hear it. Nuggets that I got:

(1) make sure everything is "open" - helmet upside-down with straps laid out, sunglasses opened not folded, socks laid out
(2) water bottles should be screwed tight and the tops pulled up/open - not as applicable to me since I use the AeroDrink
(3) pump up tires the night before so flats/slow leaks can be discovered before the race rather than at T1
(4) put needed items in "reverse chronological order" from front to back of transition area - i.e., bike stuff in the front, run stuff in the back; as portions of the tri are completed, put those items in the back - i.e., at T1, put goggles and swim cap in the back.
(5) similarly, place items "bottom up" since you usually put/change the stuff on your feet first (socks and shoes on top, race belt & hat on bottom; sunglasses go inside helmet)
(6) make sure your bike helmet is put on and strapped before taking bike off rack and after put bike back on rack
(7) miscellaneous stuff about looking for landmark so it is easy to identify your transition area and having a bright towel and/or putting objects on the end of the rack to help as well.

After the clinic, I joined the "Alpha" group of riders who were doing the half-Iron/Olympic bike course. The speed was advertised as 20+ mph, but bike computer said that they were averaging close to 25 mph (at least while I could keep up with them) so I had to drop back after about 6 or 7 miles. (I'm sure riding 60 miles yesterday also played a role in my slowness). I ended up riding 23.83 miles in 1:15 ... good enough for a 19.064 mph pace. I was surprised/disappointed by rough roads (lots of chip-seal) for about 4 miles of the course.

This was the longest distance I have ridden with just my tri shorts. Not sure if it was the rough roads, the need to further recover from yesterday's 60+ miles, or both, but my posterior is a little sore from the ride. Oh well, not a big enough problem for me to want to get a new seat and/or use time to put bike shorts on during T1 for the tri.

After the bike, I did a 3.19 mile run. I wanted to do the 5K course but it wasn't very well marked so I missed an out-and-back and only had gone 1.2 miles when I hit the turn around. However, using the Garmin I found another path that allowed me to add enough mileage to get a little over the desired distance. I finished run in 28:44 - almost exactly a 9:00/mile pace.

It was a cloudy day, but the rain held off until the run. About 1/2 mile into it, a welcome drizzle started coming down. Unfortunately, the rain became a downpour by the end of the run, so I didn't stay for the scheduled nutrition clinic (and I don't even know if they held it). In fact, when driving home, I had to stop on the shoulder of I-35 twice until the torrential rains let up enough to allow at least a little bit of visibility.

All-in-all, though, it was a great workout and I am looking forward to next Sunday's tri.

Cowtown Classic

Don and I completed the Cowtown Classic bike ride in south Fort Worth today. Don rode the "42 mile" route (which would have been 47 miles) and I did an extra out-and-back loop in Godley for the "56-mile route" (which would have been 54 miles). However, due to inadequate course markings, a large (really large - 100+ riders) group of us missed a turn and went about three miles off course. So Don did about 53 miles and I did a little over 60. This was Don's first ride after recovering from his broken clavicle and it ended up being more than half a century. Amazing!

According to the Garmin Forerunner 305, I traveled 60.33 miles in 3 hours and 55 minutes - for an average speed of 15.4 miles per hour. The ride time was 3:34 - for an average ride speed of 16.9 mph. I was able to ride with Don for most of the ride, I sped up after the 19.5-mile rest stop (which I left quickly) and then did the extra 6 mile out-and-back and met back up with Don at the shared 26.5/33.5-mile rest stop right at that intersection. During the second half of the ride, I tried to add some hillwork by "redoing" three of the big hills of the ride - which probably added less than a mile of distance, but definitely injected some increased heart rates and additional leg work.

MotionBased link: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=3906322

Ride Review:

• Course: 2.5/5 - fast concrete roads near the start/finish but all country roads after that; some of the roads were narrow, rough, and with lots of tight/blind turns; course markings need improvement as noted above - there should always be signs/volunteers whenever the course turns from a major road onto a smaller one; very bad/rude traffic at Highway 171 -the speed limit on that road is 65 mph - an alternate route should be sought; lack of traffic control (or the police officers themselves) caused big packs of riders to have to stop at several intersections.
• Rest Stops: 3/5 - very limited selection - some fruit, cookies, and water/Gatorade - nothing to write home about. One stops not easy to see and not well marked - I completely missed Rest Stop #4 - I didn't need it, but others may have.
• Logistics: 3.5/5 - online registration available; no issues with race day packet pick-up; lots of porta-potties and indoor bathrooms in the high school were available; good parking at North Crowley High School; not much post-race refreshment variety (same fruit/drinks/cookies as rest stops and free Pickle Juice samples); post-race showers available - NICE!; staggered start with marching band playing; finish line passed by packet pickup tent so high-school volunteers cheered on the finishers
• Overall: 3/5 - pretty good ride but the course needs to be improved and have better traffic control/buy-in

Tired

Not much to report today. Did a spin class with Don. It was pretty tough considering that it's only 45 minutes (versus the 60-minute class on Wednesday).

Taking tomorrow off. My Texas Man training plan originally called for some swimming, but I think I am experiencing workout/training burnout. I think this will also better prepare me for this weekend's activities - the Cowtown Classic bike ride and Texas Man Pre-Tri workout session (at the tri site!)

Another LA Fitness Brick

Similar to what I did last Thursday, but longer. A 1 hour spin class (instead of 45 minutes) and then 5 miles (instead of a 5K) of running. The cycling was pretty tough - my legs felt more sore today than yesterday (the Labor Day 15K catching up to me). The instructor motivated the class well but I had trouble pushing myself as hard as last week. Wimp!

After the spin class, I did some running on the treadmill. My goal was to do a 10K, but I didn't quite make it and settled for/stopped at 5 miles. I did the first 2 miles at 6 mph, the next 1.5 miles at 7.5 mph, the next 1.25 miles back down to 6 mph again and a "sprint" for the last .25 miles at 7.5 mph again. Which evens out to 9:13/mi or 6.11 mph

Naturally, the heart rates followed the pace: 150-155 bpm for 10-minute miles; 165-170 for the 8-minute miles.

I think I could have done the entire 10K if I would have stuck to a 10:00/mi pace. So that should be my target speed for the Texas Man Tri unless I get a burst of energy half-way into the run. Possible, but I'm not counting on it!

Distance Swim

My legs don't feel too bad from yesterday's Fort Worth Runners Club 15K, but I wanted to let them recover some more so I did a swim workout today.

I did 2,200 yards (44 25-yd pool laps; approx 2,000 meters) at LA Fitness. Note: this is 1.2 miles, the swim distance for the half-Ironman triathlon distance!

Here are the splits:

• First 500 m: 13:08
• Second 500 m: 13:25
• Third 500 m: 13:29
• Final 500 m: 13:20

The total time (including water breaks) for the 2,200 yds was 54:49. At this pace, I should be able to do the 1,500 meters of the Texas Man Olympic in about 37 1/2 minutes. Of course this is just an estimate - there are many factors that will make the time faster (will be wearing tri shorts instead of "parachute" baggy swim trunks, drafting off other swimmers, adrenaline for the race) and/or slower (open water current/turbulence, other swimmers getting in the way, have to save energy for the bike and run) - will just have to play it by ear.

FWRC Labor Day 15K

Woke up early on my day off for a 15K run in Fort Worth. The 9.3 mile out-and-back course wound mostly along the Trinity River going through Trinity Park, Heritage Park, and almost reaching Rockwood Park, then a U-turn back through the first two parks (in reverse order) and then a quick pass near Forest Park before ending at the University Park Center (where it started).

Derek was going to run this race with me, but hurt his leg/hip yesterday (note to self: water-skiing can be dangerous) so he ended up walking the 5K instead. The weather was mostly cloudy but the rain stayed away. If it wasn't so humid, it would have been almost perfect weather.

I finished the run in 1 hour and 23 minutes for an overall pace of 8:53/mi. This was good enough for 176th place out of 340 runners, and 18th out of 29 for the 35-39 Men's age group. Full results at http://www.runtimeracingservices.com/Results2.aspx?RaceID=499

I was pretty happy with my performance/improvement. For reference, the 8:53/mi pace for today's 15K was faster than the 9:00/mi pace for the Denton Independence Day 5K just two months ago. Additionally, I ran this 15K almost 18 minutes faster than I ran the "Too Hot To Handle" race at White Rock back on July 21st. Sweet.
Here are my mile splits. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling as the Garmin GPS mileage numbers matched the mile markers on the course (yep, I'm a nerd). As you can see, my pace started out pretty fast (maybe too fast?) for the first 5-6 miles. I started taking walk breaks after that - one break at around 6.5 miles and the other at around 8 miles - so my pace dropped accordingly.

The course was fairly flat - about the same as White Rock Lake - but it was definitely more uphill between mile 5.5 and mile 8.5. That incline - in addition to burning out too quickly - probably contributed to my slowing run pace.

Again, my heart rates were extremely high - averaging in the high 170s for most of the run; and I reached 184 bpm(!) during the final sprint. From this chart, it is pretty obvious when I took my two walk breaks. :-)

Afterwards, Derek and I grabbed some refreshments: Panera breadsticks, hot dogs, drinks (water, "Amino Vital" recovery drink (I like my Accelerade better), sodas, yogurt smoothies), and sample Clif Bars. I gotta say, the amount of food and other goodies at running races put the bike rides to shame!

The Fort Worth Runners Club also gave away a bunch (probably 50+) of door prizes, but I didn't win anything. Oh well, running a 15K without injury is already lucky enough. :-)

Overall, a great run. I know I still have more training to do so I can keep my pace up, but the progress is very encouraging.

Map and online stats at http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3847689

Happy Labor Day!

Burleson Honey Tour

Just got back from the Burleson Honey Tour bike ride. This was supposed to be my second ride back in May, but it got rained out. Big kudos to the organizers for rescheduling and letting every who paid back in May ride this one without additional fee!

I did the 100KM/62 mile route and my bike computer confirms that distance. Since I was doing this ride by myself (most of the team had vacation or other commitments due to the Labor Day weekend) I tried to keep the rest stops to a minimum and get in a faster ride. I completed the route in 3 hrs and 37 mins, with 3 hrs and 27 mins of ride time - for an overall pace of 17.14 mph (17.97 mph not counting the breaks). So it was a pretty decent workout.

The course wasn't flat - it was hillier than last week's HHH - but still not too bad. Looking at the Garmin splits, I averaged almost 20 mph for the first 20 miles and about 19 mph for the next 10 miles, but the speeds were closer to 16 mph for the second half of the ride. The Garmin's altitude sensor is not the best (uses GPS instead of barometric pressure) but its elevation stats correlate well with the speeds (overall climb from 30 miles onward). [Note: Garmin distance axis is messed up because I accidentally stopped the timer/GPS for about 8 minutes/2.5 miles at one hour mark - hit "start/stop" instead of "lap" - d'oh!]

This ride didn't seem crowded - this is partly perception after last weekend's 10,000+ riders at HHH, but I also think the turnout wasn't spectacular since it was Labor Day weekend. I saw a lot of extra/leftover T-shirts (both rider and volunteer flavors). I rode by myself for a good chunk of the second half of the ride (after leaving the 30 mile rest stop).


Ride Review:

• Course: 3/5 - fast concrete roads in Burleson, decent conditions on country roads - some chip seal; rolling hills; course markings need improvement - a big pack of riders missed a turn very early in the race, near the end there were several intersections that were only marked by faded arrows painted on the road, there were volunteers directing traffic and riders at many/most of the key intersections so a thumbs-up for that; at least two major intersections had no traffic control and riders had to wait for a traffic light cycle with cars and trucks; there were 10, 25, 55, and 62 mile routes - I would think instead of 55 miles should be something more midway between 25 and 62 for the intermediate riders.
• Rest Stops: 4/5 - good refreshments and drinks - no complaints. I stopped at the 30-mile and had cold water and Gatorade, fruit, and Soy Joy bars and crackers. I wasn't planning on stopping any more, but there was a train at around 50 miles with a line of cars and bikes waiting for it to pass - luckily, there was a rest-stop right there so it was perfect(ly planned?) - more of the same with pickles as well. Rest stops were not marked on the map - not a huge deal for me, but could be for others.
• Logistics: 3.5/5 - again, big kudos for being able to reschedule the rainout!; no online registration; very reasonable entry fee; decent parking around Kerr Middle School; decent post-race refreshments (hot dog, chips, fruit, drinks); some post-race entertainment with a band, but I missed it (not sure if I was too early or too late); starting line not marked (riders rode around confused from 7:30-7:55 until a volunteer got on the PA system; riders could have been better staged (100K-ers were "suggested" to be in the front) - a staggered start would have been safer.
• Overall: 3.5/5 - pretty good ride; the organizers just need to focus on the route and related logistics a bit more