The Dream

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)

(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

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

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

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

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

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.