I just signed up for the Florida 70.3 race on May 17th. I was looking for a big race to get excited about in the Spring, and hope this will be the one.
I realize there will be challenges with getting in the riding necessary to excel at this thing. The weather doesn't typically get enjoyable here for riding until late March, and there isn't enough light in the day for me to do many mid week rides outside until around the middle to end of April, so that is going to be my challenge, but I'll do the best I can.
I'm looking at the possibility of doing a week long camp in a part of the country where the weather is a bit nicer, and will allow me to pack 2-3 times my normal weeks swimming and biking volume over the course of a week to take my riding forward a few levels, and to get me right for something as challenging as a 70.3, but that is all just a thought at this point. Not sure if I'll make it happen.
The Florida trip sounds awesome. We just used hotel points and will be staying at the Swan Hotel on the Disney property. We got two rooms, and are asking my in-laws to come down to help us with the kids. Our newest addition to the family joins us in a little over a month, so Elise will be very little when we are there and having an extra set of hands and someone to stay back at the hotel while we are park hopping with Reagan and maybe Jake will make the weekend more enjoyable for all.
Should be a good time. For now, I'm focussed on the running, and David is guiding me through this phase. We'll keep the swimming and biking on low for now, but will try not to neglect it despite colder weather.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Four Seasons Cool 10K
This morning I did the Four Seasons Cool 10K in Las Colinas, TX.
My friend and coach David and I headed over there this morning, and the race went well for me. I hadn't done a stand alone 10K road race since I did the Peach Tree Road Race on July 4, 2002, so I didn't really know what to expect, other than it would probably hurt like hell, and it did.
I ran a 49:54 averaging an 8:06 pace and 180 HR for the event. I sort of figured I'd be somewhere in the low 8 minute mile area, but probably thought 8:15 was more likely, so this was a pleasant surprise. Cracking the 50 minute mark was satisfying as well.
David and I were hoping to use the race to get a good benchmark we could use to set up pace and HR zones that will guide my training over the fall and winter. We'll test every month, so this is the first stake in the ground.
I had no idea what the course would be before hand, but it turned out I was very familiar with it and I am glad that I was. About 80% of the course was on my Wednesday night Dallas Athletes group ride. We basically started out with a steep climb, then it is pretty flat until mile marker #1. Then it was down hill for the next 11 minutes dropping about 110 ft. I looked across the street as we headed down and saw cones across the island, and knew I had to climb back up this thing at the end of the race. This climb is hell on a bike when hammering on my group rides with the DA studs, so I knew it would be worse on foot. Once your at the bottom of that hill, it is pretty flat until you hit some sharp rollers at the turn around before you are at the base of the climb at mile 4.1 ready to head back up to the finish.
I've got great graphs of my pace and the elevation, but can't figure out how to import them to my blog. I'll add them later if I can figure it out.
My splits were:
mi 1: 8:02
mi 2: 7:53 (lots of downhill)
mi 3: 8:06
mi 4: 8:12
mi 5: 8:33 (lots of uphill)
mi 6: 8:02
mi 6.2: 1:03 (7:04 pace)
Not much to report. It was weird having the race over so quickly. I paced it pretty well, didn't really die anywhere, ran with some folks for a while, and seemed to pick up more people at the end than there were people passing me.
I feel pretty good this evening. We'll see if I'm stiff or sore tomorrow morning, but I'm not anticipating it being too bad. The weather has been nice this weekend, so I'm looking forward to getting in a good ride tomorrow.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Garmin 405 is on it's Way
I couldn't make it to XMAS, so my gift is on the way. This will mean good data this fall, and more time to help my kids open and set up their toys on XMAS morning! A win-win!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
10/18 SNL
Not sure if anyone else caught last night's Saturday Night Live, but it was probably the best one they've had in years.
Highlights included cameos from Oliver Stone, Sarah Palin, Alec Baldwin, and Mark Wahlberg, and the host was Josh Brolin, who I didn't realize was the big brother in The Goonies, an all time fav of mine.
Top skits for the night included:
This show was probably one "A" list musical guest and host away from an all time classic. All of the memorable skits had little if anything to do with Brolin. This show goes to the writers and cast. It was nice for them to take half a step back from the political topic, and sprinkle in some of the economy as their undertone. It was also nice for the political commentary not to be the typical sledge hammer to face pro-Obama anti McCain stance it has been the last half a dozen episodes or so. I guess having Gov. Palin on the set was enough for them to bring it down a notch.
Highlights included cameos from Oliver Stone, Sarah Palin, Alec Baldwin, and Mark Wahlberg, and the host was Josh Brolin, who I didn't realize was the big brother in The Goonies, an all time fav of mine.
Top skits for the night included:
- The opener with Tina Fey doing Palin, only to be walked in on by the real Palin
- MacGruber skits where MacGruber realizes that his stock portfolio has taken a hit which distracts him from defusing the bomb
- A scene with Andy Sandberg and Mark Wahlberg building on last week's hilarious imitation of Wahlberg by Sandberg where he talked in a classic Wahlberg style to animals. This week, Wahlberg was at 30 Rock to get revenge on Sandberg only to be interrupted by people (and a donkey) and recite lines from last week's imitation
- A Honkie Tonk bar scene where Brolin is hitting on a seated Amy Poehler only to realize when she stood up to come over that she was extremely pregnant
- The weekend update where the real Palin joined Seth and Amy, and Amy did a rap Palin was "supposed" to do that she at the last minute thought better of that included background Eskimo dancers, a guy in a snow machine racing suit playing Palin's husband, and someone in a moose costume - all the while Palin is bobbing her head along with Myers off to the side.
This show was probably one "A" list musical guest and host away from an all time classic. All of the memorable skits had little if anything to do with Brolin. This show goes to the writers and cast. It was nice for them to take half a step back from the political topic, and sprinkle in some of the economy as their undertone. It was also nice for the political commentary not to be the typical sledge hammer to face pro-Obama anti McCain stance it has been the last half a dozen episodes or so. I guess having Gov. Palin on the set was enough for them to bring it down a notch.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
What's Next
I'm two weeks out from Longhorn, and am ready to turn the page. I didn't work out until the following Sunday a week after the race, and have had a light week here just trying to get into the swing of things.
I feel okay when I'm out there. My left hamstring which has bothered me for about 3 years now is still fatigued from the race, but is fine. The taper, and two weeks of hardly any training and I can tell that my fitness has taken a little step back. Nothing I couldn't get back in a couple of weeks, but the HRs are elevated, and although I've only put on a couple of pounds, I've probably dropped a lb or so of lean muscle mass in exchange for fat.
David and I have got things set up on TrainingPeaks.com where he'll be setting my workouts, and I'll be logging my data. My workouts are public (assuming David has no qualms) though I couldn't tell you how to navigate to them. My public username is Dinger.
So we've set up a plan to get us through Feb '09. It will start next weekend were I'll be doing a local 10K to put a stake in the ground and set my training paces and HR zones. Doing a flat out road race will be a new phenomenon and I expect it will hurt, but I'm game.
Once we've got that set up, we've got a couple of weeks of base training. We're going to train through the San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marry I'm doing on Nov 16th with some friends from Houston, then one more week of base before we enter into a series of build weeks with some rest-n-test weeks sprinkled in. David's got a 15K Bold-in-the-Cold race on my schedule on Jan 11th, and the run season will culminate with the Cowtown Half Marry at the end of Feb in Ft. Worth, TX.
My goals are to improve my half marathon race pace which I hope will translate over to my triathlon running next season, build up my run volume, stay fitter over the winter than I normally am, and stay healthy.
David's going to keep me in the pool for an hour or two every week, and I'll probably stay on the bike a couple of times a week, particularly while the weather is still nice.
So that is the plan. Looking forward to it.
I feel okay when I'm out there. My left hamstring which has bothered me for about 3 years now is still fatigued from the race, but is fine. The taper, and two weeks of hardly any training and I can tell that my fitness has taken a little step back. Nothing I couldn't get back in a couple of weeks, but the HRs are elevated, and although I've only put on a couple of pounds, I've probably dropped a lb or so of lean muscle mass in exchange for fat.
David and I have got things set up on TrainingPeaks.com where he'll be setting my workouts, and I'll be logging my data. My workouts are public (assuming David has no qualms) though I couldn't tell you how to navigate to them. My public username is Dinger.
So we've set up a plan to get us through Feb '09. It will start next weekend were I'll be doing a local 10K to put a stake in the ground and set my training paces and HR zones. Doing a flat out road race will be a new phenomenon and I expect it will hurt, but I'm game.
Once we've got that set up, we've got a couple of weeks of base training. We're going to train through the San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marry I'm doing on Nov 16th with some friends from Houston, then one more week of base before we enter into a series of build weeks with some rest-n-test weeks sprinkled in. David's got a 15K Bold-in-the-Cold race on my schedule on Jan 11th, and the run season will culminate with the Cowtown Half Marry at the end of Feb in Ft. Worth, TX.
My goals are to improve my half marathon race pace which I hope will translate over to my triathlon running next season, build up my run volume, stay fitter over the winter than I normally am, and stay healthy.
David's going to keep me in the pool for an hour or two every week, and I'll probably stay on the bike a couple of times a week, particularly while the weather is still nice.
So that is the plan. Looking forward to it.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Official Longhorn 70.3 Race Report
What a freaking week. Actually, what a freaking last two weeks. I am just now back home and sitting on my couch with my feet up for what seems like the first time in years. I promised a more detailed race report, so here we go.
We'll back up to the week leading up to the race. It was one of the longest weeks of work I've put in, and to be honest, it could have been much worse. I had analysts on my team working well into the morning hours most nights, was eating lunch at strange hours while at my desk putting down whatever I could find. I was missing planned taper workouts right and left. It was the worst possible week leading up to a race you could imagine.
I didn't have a minute to even think about the race, my nutrition plan, logistics for me or my family on race day, nothing until I got on the plane to fly down to Austin on Friday night.
Saturday came and it was packet pickup and bike drop off day. I did a short 20 minute ride around my parents house to make sure the bike was in working order, and to shake the rust off of my legs after not working out in a couple of days.
Packet pickup was at the Sheraton downtown on 11th street and it was a zoo. Lines, cramped quarters, etc. This was the second year of the race, but first as a 70.3 branded race, which means the entrants doubled year over year, so there were some organizational challenges experienced throughout the week that I'm sure Keith and Endorfun Sports will have ironed out by next year. I've got the race survey in my inbox and am waiting for some time to provide meaningful feedback.
I ran into David in line and we met up in the Pro Q&A for a bit. The panel was a good one. Kieran Doe, Richie Cunningham, Tim DeBoom, Bjorn Anderson, Simon Lessing, Bree Wee, Pip Taylor, Michellie Jones, and Lisa Bently. The questions were sort of boring, but the crowd was big.
I left the pickup to make the 20 minute drive east of downtown to the race sight, and while I was dropping of my bike, I noted how freaking hot it was, and that it was 2p, the time I thought I'd be finishing my race the next day. 90 degrees. So much for the low 80s Austin had earlier in the week. I took a big sip of gatorade and figured I'd better step up the hydrating.
I was in wave 12 of 14, so my race morning started off around 5a, not too bad. Parking was a zoo, but I found a good spot on the side of a road an easy walk from transition.
Body marking went smooth and I entered transition and started setting up. David was racked a couple of rows away from me and found me right away. We talked and got settled and it went smooth. A quick trip to the port-o-johns and I was ready to go.
Two weeks ago, we got an email from the race director saying the lake was in the high 80s, so wetsuits weren't likely to be legal, so I didn't even bring mine. By some amount of magical influence (ie icing down the thermometer, or dropping it in the deepest point of the lake) the temps were measured at 78 making it wetsuit legal for age groupers to the satisfaction of the slow swimming masses. There was no way this thing was 78.
So the waves set off in 3 minute increments and eventually I was up. We waded into the water, and the gun was off. For the first minute I was swimming through weeds and recall them wrapping around my neck and shoulders. Some even managed to latch on to my timing chip around my ankle and stay with me well into the first half of the swim.
In these 70.3 races, the competition is very good. You get the most serious of triathletes so I wasn't surprised when there were several swimmers up around me as we made our way to the first buoy. It took only 4 or 5 minutes before we'd caught the waves ahead, and it was chaos the rest of the way. I found a few feet to swim on for a minute or two in the first half of the swim and tried to take advantage when I could.
Before long, I was sighting the finish buoys and was up and running into transition. I looked down at my watch when crossing the first timing mat and saw 23:0x and thought, oops, someone measured this thing a little short. Another nod to the slow swimming masses by the race director. I figured I was going to swim about a 28 or 29 minute swim, so I'd say it was 5 minutes short at my swim pace.
Swim 23:28 (AG - 6th out of 224)
T1 was cake. I took my time, put my shoes on there rather than on the bike because so much of the transition area was dirt.
T1 3:33
Right after mounting my bike, some idiot was trying to get clipped in and was looking down at his pedals and not where he was going. He took a nice 90 degree left hand turn right in front of me and I had to slam my brakes throwing me off my saddle and headed for the ground. I managed to get a foot out of my pedals milliseconds before I was headed over and managed to stay upright, though I drove my chain ring right through the back of my leg opening up a pretty good scrape.
I told the guy he was an idiot, and went on my way.
The bike course was a blast. Rollers, wind, lots of turns. Because it was so variable, you were never doing any climbing or fighting the wind too long. It wasn't too hot that early in the morning and it was a pleasure. My meal plan for the bike was to take a clif shot block every time my stop watch hit a 20 min and a 40 min, and to take a gel when it hit the hours. I sipped water from my aero bottle whenever I felt like it and to wash down my gels and blocks, and tried to sip from my gatorade bottle every 10 minutes. I'd started putting just a few grams of whey protein into my first bottle of gatorade to promote digestion, and it seemed to work well.
The course was packed with riders, and I was overcoming people the entire way. It seemed a little like riding in the MS150 (more on the MS150 in a minute) because you are blowing past riders at a rapid rate all day wondering where the hell they are coming from. I guess that is a result of being the 12th of 14 waves and having such a short wetsuit legal swim.
I found myself riding with a few people for long stretches of the race. I'd pull ahead on flat or downhill sections, they'd pull away on climbs or when I was eating. Having that constant made me feel good. I rode through the first half of the course in 1:26 and was pretty pleased with that pace. I didn't have a computer on my bike, just my polar wrist watch (no HR strap) so I could occasionally look down at my speed, but the recording was intermittent so I knew the odometer wasn't going to be right. When I felt fast, I'd look down and be cruising at around 25 mph, when I felt slow, I'd only see 17 mph, so I knew I was moving well.
I tried to hold back a little on the climbs in an effort to save some legs, but other than that, was just riding comfortably. My cardio felt good the entire way. Legs did too. Back grew sore from being aero the entire way, but there were plenty of opportunities to stretch your back on downhills that had a sharp turn I'd have to break for anyways at the bottom.
Around mile 30, I was riding along up a slight hill when I dropped my chain. I thought about trying to pull it back on while still on the bike like I'd seen David Millar do at the start of the Prologue of a Tour de France a few years ago, but thought better of it. So I hopped off, spent a minute or so pulling it back on, then hopped back on and grinded my gears for a bit while trying to get going again before things were reset. I finished the climb and was cruising again.
During the second half of the ride, I looked around and felt like the scenery was very familiar. I figured the only way it could be was if we were on the same roads the MS150 used to roll into austin, and it turns out they were. Probably a good 7-10 miles toward the end was an overlap.
I ended up splitting a 2:43 which meant I brought the second half back in a 1:17 despite the chain incident. If I've learned anything in triathlon, it is that distances are never right, so who knows if the half way point was in the right spot.
Bike 2:43.04 = 20.6 mph avg (AG - 46th out of 224)
T2 was uneventful as well. I think I ran right past my spot on the bike rack for the 3rd or 4th consecutive race, but no big deal. Socks, socks, shoes, shoes, hat, number belt, go!
T2 2:39
I guess the run is where this thing got interesting. When does it not for me. I had to pee pretty bad, had tried to on the bike but couldn't relax enough to do it, and didn't think pissing all over my bike to save a minute was worth having a pissy bike I'd have to clean up when I got home. So I hit a port-o-john. One word of advice, if you have to pee after sitting in an aero position on a bike seat for 2+ hours, make sure your mouth is closed. You never know.
My plan for the run was to try to get comfortable as soon as I could, and hang on. I had no illusions of feeling golden at the end, so it was just a managed damage control march to the door steps of purgatory.
My HR shot up in the first few miles of the run from the excitement and change in motion. I think this may have led to my stomach shutting down a bit, because I noticed I slowly bloated as the race went on, and don't think I was absorbing as much of the fluid as I was putting down, but other than that, the GI track was good. No pain or cramping like last time.
The course was a 2 loop 6.5 mile track with about 4 miles on a long out and back on asphalt, and a 2.5 mile loop on grass/dirt trails. Let me tell you, this thing was hilly. Ups and down the entire way, including Quadzilla which was on grass/dirt at miles 4.7 and 11.2. The course had over 2,600 feet of elevation gain and loss on it according to my GPS watch.
Eventually I settled in and was ticking off 9:45 miles, was just trying to quiet my mind. Don't think about the heat, the hills, the people, anything. Zone out, hit the aid stations, and snap out of it twice a loop when I ran past my family.
After the first 4mi on asphalt, I was feeling okay, but as we hit the grass, the steep sharp hills started, and my legs started to load up with lactate acid.
I hit Quadzilla and there was an aid station at the bottom. I had no plans of running this thing, so I loaded up on fluids and started the climb up it. My GPS watch had the entire climb half a mile long at a 9.0% grade, with the steepest part 0.3 miles 13.9% grade.
At the top of the hill, there was a timing mat and a guy reading out names. About a second after my name was read, I hear the guy call out Female Pro Bree Wee from Kona Hawaii.
As she approached me from behind, I turned around to her and told her I loved reading her blog (http://breeweehawaii.blogspot.com/). She slowed a bit as she got next to me and gave sort of a sheepish laugh and said something I couldn't make out. I couldn't tell if she was laughing at me, so I asked her if I was coming across as a stalker, and she laughed harder. She said, "no, I'm just having another really bad day, and I'm sure you're tired of reading about my bad days on my blog." I told her to hang in there, and she looked over at me, stuck out her hand and said, "thanks, my name is Bree, what is yours?" We shook hands at the top of Quadzilla, she asked if I was on my last lap, and we talked about the weather a bit. She started to pull away from me, so I said goodbye to her, and she said "bye Greg, it was nice meeting you!" Pretty cool. The next thing I know, she turned the juice back on a bit and was gone.
As the run went on, my legs just started to lock up. At the start of the 2nd loop, I could feel my form going, and my power was gone. I started taking walk breaks on the uphills, which was very frequently. I tried to stick to the plan of running the flats and downs, and walking part of each hill, and all of the aid stations.
I was doing math in my head and knew no matter what, my swim and bike had set me up for a PR, even if I walked the second loop. I really wanted to go under 5:40, and started doing split calcs to make sure I was on track. When I got back on the trails for the last loop, I was hurting. It was hot as hell, and my legs were loaded. I ran down to the bottom of Quadzilla and started my march up it. At the top I had about 1.5 miles to go, and I was doing a run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute run/walk to bring it home. I cycled through about 5-6 times, and on the last few cycles, really had to dig deep.
I crossed the line with one arm in the air, proud of my PR.
Run 2:21.31 = 10:48 avg (AG- 129th out of 224)
Overall 5:34.17 (AG - 76th out of 224)
Usually when I finish, I am in terrible pain. I always leave it all out there. Normally within a few minutes of finishing, I start to feel better. For some reason, after I finished I didn't start feeling better. I actually started feeling worse. I made my way over to the medical tent and sat down for a minute. Someone found me a gatorade, and Ingrid found me and we just sat for a few minutes. My diaphragm started to tighten up and breathing started to become an effort. The volunteers at medical took me to one of the 50+ cots they had laying around in there as soon as one became available and hooked me up to an IV bag of saleen. I started to feel good in a matter of minutes, and the breathing was fine as soon as I lied down. Another bag (this time of electrolytes) and I was in good shape.
Ingrid and I left the kids with my parents that night and went to the post race BBQ that evening at the Hills Cafe in Austin. The food was good, the beer was cold, and the live music was outstanding as it always is in Austin.
I loved the race, and look forward to doing it again next year. I know I need more power to have a good run on that course. I'll probably need to hit the weights, and drop my weight a bit more (I lost 11 lbs in training for this thing, racing at 171lbs) to improve my power to weight ratio.
I've been out of town all week and am just now ready to go for my first run (or workout for that matter) since the race. I'm going to start with the running this week with the help of David, and hope to improve their a bit.
Off I go.
We'll back up to the week leading up to the race. It was one of the longest weeks of work I've put in, and to be honest, it could have been much worse. I had analysts on my team working well into the morning hours most nights, was eating lunch at strange hours while at my desk putting down whatever I could find. I was missing planned taper workouts right and left. It was the worst possible week leading up to a race you could imagine.
I didn't have a minute to even think about the race, my nutrition plan, logistics for me or my family on race day, nothing until I got on the plane to fly down to Austin on Friday night.
Saturday came and it was packet pickup and bike drop off day. I did a short 20 minute ride around my parents house to make sure the bike was in working order, and to shake the rust off of my legs after not working out in a couple of days.
Packet pickup was at the Sheraton downtown on 11th street and it was a zoo. Lines, cramped quarters, etc. This was the second year of the race, but first as a 70.3 branded race, which means the entrants doubled year over year, so there were some organizational challenges experienced throughout the week that I'm sure Keith and Endorfun Sports will have ironed out by next year. I've got the race survey in my inbox and am waiting for some time to provide meaningful feedback.
I ran into David in line and we met up in the Pro Q&A for a bit. The panel was a good one. Kieran Doe, Richie Cunningham, Tim DeBoom, Bjorn Anderson, Simon Lessing, Bree Wee, Pip Taylor, Michellie Jones, and Lisa Bently. The questions were sort of boring, but the crowd was big.
I left the pickup to make the 20 minute drive east of downtown to the race sight, and while I was dropping of my bike, I noted how freaking hot it was, and that it was 2p, the time I thought I'd be finishing my race the next day. 90 degrees. So much for the low 80s Austin had earlier in the week. I took a big sip of gatorade and figured I'd better step up the hydrating.
I was in wave 12 of 14, so my race morning started off around 5a, not too bad. Parking was a zoo, but I found a good spot on the side of a road an easy walk from transition.
Body marking went smooth and I entered transition and started setting up. David was racked a couple of rows away from me and found me right away. We talked and got settled and it went smooth. A quick trip to the port-o-johns and I was ready to go.
Two weeks ago, we got an email from the race director saying the lake was in the high 80s, so wetsuits weren't likely to be legal, so I didn't even bring mine. By some amount of magical influence (ie icing down the thermometer, or dropping it in the deepest point of the lake) the temps were measured at 78 making it wetsuit legal for age groupers to the satisfaction of the slow swimming masses. There was no way this thing was 78.
So the waves set off in 3 minute increments and eventually I was up. We waded into the water, and the gun was off. For the first minute I was swimming through weeds and recall them wrapping around my neck and shoulders. Some even managed to latch on to my timing chip around my ankle and stay with me well into the first half of the swim.
In these 70.3 races, the competition is very good. You get the most serious of triathletes so I wasn't surprised when there were several swimmers up around me as we made our way to the first buoy. It took only 4 or 5 minutes before we'd caught the waves ahead, and it was chaos the rest of the way. I found a few feet to swim on for a minute or two in the first half of the swim and tried to take advantage when I could.
Before long, I was sighting the finish buoys and was up and running into transition. I looked down at my watch when crossing the first timing mat and saw 23:0x and thought, oops, someone measured this thing a little short. Another nod to the slow swimming masses by the race director. I figured I was going to swim about a 28 or 29 minute swim, so I'd say it was 5 minutes short at my swim pace.
Swim 23:28 (AG - 6th out of 224)
T1 was cake. I took my time, put my shoes on there rather than on the bike because so much of the transition area was dirt.
T1 3:33
Right after mounting my bike, some idiot was trying to get clipped in and was looking down at his pedals and not where he was going. He took a nice 90 degree left hand turn right in front of me and I had to slam my brakes throwing me off my saddle and headed for the ground. I managed to get a foot out of my pedals milliseconds before I was headed over and managed to stay upright, though I drove my chain ring right through the back of my leg opening up a pretty good scrape.
I told the guy he was an idiot, and went on my way.
The bike course was a blast. Rollers, wind, lots of turns. Because it was so variable, you were never doing any climbing or fighting the wind too long. It wasn't too hot that early in the morning and it was a pleasure. My meal plan for the bike was to take a clif shot block every time my stop watch hit a 20 min and a 40 min, and to take a gel when it hit the hours. I sipped water from my aero bottle whenever I felt like it and to wash down my gels and blocks, and tried to sip from my gatorade bottle every 10 minutes. I'd started putting just a few grams of whey protein into my first bottle of gatorade to promote digestion, and it seemed to work well.
The course was packed with riders, and I was overcoming people the entire way. It seemed a little like riding in the MS150 (more on the MS150 in a minute) because you are blowing past riders at a rapid rate all day wondering where the hell they are coming from. I guess that is a result of being the 12th of 14 waves and having such a short wetsuit legal swim.
I found myself riding with a few people for long stretches of the race. I'd pull ahead on flat or downhill sections, they'd pull away on climbs or when I was eating. Having that constant made me feel good. I rode through the first half of the course in 1:26 and was pretty pleased with that pace. I didn't have a computer on my bike, just my polar wrist watch (no HR strap) so I could occasionally look down at my speed, but the recording was intermittent so I knew the odometer wasn't going to be right. When I felt fast, I'd look down and be cruising at around 25 mph, when I felt slow, I'd only see 17 mph, so I knew I was moving well.
I tried to hold back a little on the climbs in an effort to save some legs, but other than that, was just riding comfortably. My cardio felt good the entire way. Legs did too. Back grew sore from being aero the entire way, but there were plenty of opportunities to stretch your back on downhills that had a sharp turn I'd have to break for anyways at the bottom.
Around mile 30, I was riding along up a slight hill when I dropped my chain. I thought about trying to pull it back on while still on the bike like I'd seen David Millar do at the start of the Prologue of a Tour de France a few years ago, but thought better of it. So I hopped off, spent a minute or so pulling it back on, then hopped back on and grinded my gears for a bit while trying to get going again before things were reset. I finished the climb and was cruising again.
During the second half of the ride, I looked around and felt like the scenery was very familiar. I figured the only way it could be was if we were on the same roads the MS150 used to roll into austin, and it turns out they were. Probably a good 7-10 miles toward the end was an overlap.
I ended up splitting a 2:43 which meant I brought the second half back in a 1:17 despite the chain incident. If I've learned anything in triathlon, it is that distances are never right, so who knows if the half way point was in the right spot.
Bike 2:43.04 = 20.6 mph avg (AG - 46th out of 224)
T2 was uneventful as well. I think I ran right past my spot on the bike rack for the 3rd or 4th consecutive race, but no big deal. Socks, socks, shoes, shoes, hat, number belt, go!
T2 2:39
I guess the run is where this thing got interesting. When does it not for me. I had to pee pretty bad, had tried to on the bike but couldn't relax enough to do it, and didn't think pissing all over my bike to save a minute was worth having a pissy bike I'd have to clean up when I got home. So I hit a port-o-john. One word of advice, if you have to pee after sitting in an aero position on a bike seat for 2+ hours, make sure your mouth is closed. You never know.
My plan for the run was to try to get comfortable as soon as I could, and hang on. I had no illusions of feeling golden at the end, so it was just a managed damage control march to the door steps of purgatory.
My HR shot up in the first few miles of the run from the excitement and change in motion. I think this may have led to my stomach shutting down a bit, because I noticed I slowly bloated as the race went on, and don't think I was absorbing as much of the fluid as I was putting down, but other than that, the GI track was good. No pain or cramping like last time.
The course was a 2 loop 6.5 mile track with about 4 miles on a long out and back on asphalt, and a 2.5 mile loop on grass/dirt trails. Let me tell you, this thing was hilly. Ups and down the entire way, including Quadzilla which was on grass/dirt at miles 4.7 and 11.2. The course had over 2,600 feet of elevation gain and loss on it according to my GPS watch.
Eventually I settled in and was ticking off 9:45 miles, was just trying to quiet my mind. Don't think about the heat, the hills, the people, anything. Zone out, hit the aid stations, and snap out of it twice a loop when I ran past my family.
After the first 4mi on asphalt, I was feeling okay, but as we hit the grass, the steep sharp hills started, and my legs started to load up with lactate acid.
I hit Quadzilla and there was an aid station at the bottom. I had no plans of running this thing, so I loaded up on fluids and started the climb up it. My GPS watch had the entire climb half a mile long at a 9.0% grade, with the steepest part 0.3 miles 13.9% grade.
At the top of the hill, there was a timing mat and a guy reading out names. About a second after my name was read, I hear the guy call out Female Pro Bree Wee from Kona Hawaii.
As she approached me from behind, I turned around to her and told her I loved reading her blog (http://breeweehawaii.blogspot.com/). She slowed a bit as she got next to me and gave sort of a sheepish laugh and said something I couldn't make out. I couldn't tell if she was laughing at me, so I asked her if I was coming across as a stalker, and she laughed harder. She said, "no, I'm just having another really bad day, and I'm sure you're tired of reading about my bad days on my blog." I told her to hang in there, and she looked over at me, stuck out her hand and said, "thanks, my name is Bree, what is yours?" We shook hands at the top of Quadzilla, she asked if I was on my last lap, and we talked about the weather a bit. She started to pull away from me, so I said goodbye to her, and she said "bye Greg, it was nice meeting you!" Pretty cool. The next thing I know, she turned the juice back on a bit and was gone.
As the run went on, my legs just started to lock up. At the start of the 2nd loop, I could feel my form going, and my power was gone. I started taking walk breaks on the uphills, which was very frequently. I tried to stick to the plan of running the flats and downs, and walking part of each hill, and all of the aid stations.
I was doing math in my head and knew no matter what, my swim and bike had set me up for a PR, even if I walked the second loop. I really wanted to go under 5:40, and started doing split calcs to make sure I was on track. When I got back on the trails for the last loop, I was hurting. It was hot as hell, and my legs were loaded. I ran down to the bottom of Quadzilla and started my march up it. At the top I had about 1.5 miles to go, and I was doing a run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute run/walk to bring it home. I cycled through about 5-6 times, and on the last few cycles, really had to dig deep.
I crossed the line with one arm in the air, proud of my PR.
Run 2:21.31 = 10:48 avg (AG- 129th out of 224)
Overall 5:34.17 (AG - 76th out of 224)
Usually when I finish, I am in terrible pain. I always leave it all out there. Normally within a few minutes of finishing, I start to feel better. For some reason, after I finished I didn't start feeling better. I actually started feeling worse. I made my way over to the medical tent and sat down for a minute. Someone found me a gatorade, and Ingrid found me and we just sat for a few minutes. My diaphragm started to tighten up and breathing started to become an effort. The volunteers at medical took me to one of the 50+ cots they had laying around in there as soon as one became available and hooked me up to an IV bag of saleen. I started to feel good in a matter of minutes, and the breathing was fine as soon as I lied down. Another bag (this time of electrolytes) and I was in good shape.
Ingrid and I left the kids with my parents that night and went to the post race BBQ that evening at the Hills Cafe in Austin. The food was good, the beer was cold, and the live music was outstanding as it always is in Austin.
I loved the race, and look forward to doing it again next year. I know I need more power to have a good run on that course. I'll probably need to hit the weights, and drop my weight a bit more (I lost 11 lbs in training for this thing, racing at 171lbs) to improve my power to weight ratio.
I've been out of town all week and am just now ready to go for my first run (or workout for that matter) since the race. I'm going to start with the running this week with the help of David, and hope to improve their a bit.
Off I go.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Long Horn 70.3 Mini Report
Just a quick update on how the race went. I'll try to find time to do a proper race report, though I don't know when I'll get the chance. I've got a full week of travel to Indianapolis and Atlanta this week, but hopefully I can check in early this week.
The race went well. The swim felt good, and was very short. I split a 23:28min swim, and I'd guess it was about 5 mins short.
The bike was a blast. I felt fast and calm the whole way. My cardio was good so I wasn't working my aerobic system too hard, but probably could have chilled a bit on some of the climbs to save a bit for the run. I think I split around 2:43.04 (20.6 mph avg). Pretty good, only one little incident were I dropped my chain on a climb and had to hop off and wrestle with it a bit.
The run course was a bear. It was pretty warm, and this run was up/down the hole way, and the ups were unbelievably difficult. I was running sub 10s most of the time, but did my share of walking the up hills and through most of the aid stations. I think my run was around 2:21.31, but I'm not positive. I took one pee break at the beginning, but other than that, it was just a bunch of hard work.
I pushed the run pretty hard towards the end shooting for a time goal I established after finishing the first loop of the run, and it really did a number on me. The good news was that I made that goal, and had myself at 5:34.20 on my watch, which was a PR by over 34 minutes. The bad news was that I destroyed myself pretty good, and ended up in the medical tent after the race to take on two bags of IV fluid.
I felt good about an hour later, and now am full from the post race BBQ party at Hills Cafe.
I just watched the highlights from the Dodger game last night, and am ready to hit the hay.
More later.
The race went well. The swim felt good, and was very short. I split a 23:28min swim, and I'd guess it was about 5 mins short.
The bike was a blast. I felt fast and calm the whole way. My cardio was good so I wasn't working my aerobic system too hard, but probably could have chilled a bit on some of the climbs to save a bit for the run. I think I split around 2:43.04 (20.6 mph avg). Pretty good, only one little incident were I dropped my chain on a climb and had to hop off and wrestle with it a bit.
The run course was a bear. It was pretty warm, and this run was up/down the hole way, and the ups were unbelievably difficult. I was running sub 10s most of the time, but did my share of walking the up hills and through most of the aid stations. I think my run was around 2:21.31, but I'm not positive. I took one pee break at the beginning, but other than that, it was just a bunch of hard work.
I pushed the run pretty hard towards the end shooting for a time goal I established after finishing the first loop of the run, and it really did a number on me. The good news was that I made that goal, and had myself at 5:34.20 on my watch, which was a PR by over 34 minutes. The bad news was that I destroyed myself pretty good, and ended up in the medical tent after the race to take on two bags of IV fluid.
I felt good about an hour later, and now am full from the post race BBQ party at Hills Cafe.
I just watched the highlights from the Dodger game last night, and am ready to hit the hay.
More later.
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