Trip to Phoenix

With my wife and kids headed down to Houston for a girls weekend, I decided to hop a flight Friday afternoon to Phoenix to visit my brother and his family.

To get a jump on the mid day heat, we went to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday morning to check out the Dale Chihuly sculpted glass exhibit which was aesthetically interspersed with the unique desert vegetation. Please excuse the poor quality photos from my cell phone cam.

Me and my nephew, Daniel

not glass, real flowers!

Brother and his family

After the gardens, we stopped by In-N-Out Burger for me to get my fill on one of my favorite fast food joints I frequented as a kid in Southern California. Double-Double, fries, vanilla shake. Mmmmm!

It turned out the Atlanta Braves were in town playing the Diamondback, so Todd and I headed over to the stadium and were treated to a great game. The ballpark was very impressive.

Chase Field

Famous Outfield Pool

Fulham FC to Europa Cup

I don't believe I've wrote about it here before, but my favorite Premiere League soccer team has just wrapped up one of the most remarkable seasons in the teams long history.

After fighting off relegation from the Premiere League down to the Championship League (the 2nd division in English Federation Soccer) last year by winning their last game of the season, this year they climbed out of the bottom half of the table to 7th to end the season. By finishing 7th, they have qualified for the Europa League Tournament, formerly known as the UEFA Cup. Quite an accomplishment for this smaller budget team.

I began following Fulham about 3 seasons ago because they had one of the best US born soccer players to play well in the EPL, Brian McBride. Last year, the team had at one point 5 American Internationals on the team (Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Casey Keller, Carlos Bocanegra, and McBride before he got hurt). While Dempsey is the only remaining American (Johnson has been on loan all year) to play for Fulham this year, I have grown fond of many of the non US players and really enjoyed following the club this season.

I was able to catch about a dozen matches this year on FSC, including the deep run in the FA Cup prior to their loss to Man U, and look forward to what I hope will be a strong showing in Europe.

Reagan Dancing with Donald

Some Photos from Florida 70.3

Had to pirate these from the race photo site. Site to excel, excel to paint, paint to jpeg. They look a little shabby, like the race.

Florida 70.3 Race Report

The morning started with a 4:30am wake up, then 30 minutes of trying to put down 800 calories with no appetite. I had a bottle of ensure, yogurt parfait, half a clif bar, a banana, half a cup of coffee, and a bottle of Gatorade endurance. Pretty gross to be putting that all down that early.

By 5:15am I was headed down to the lobby to see about getting a taxi or courtesy car over to the race. The courtesy car picked me up and we were at the race drop off to catch a shuttle bus in to Fort Wilderness where the transition area and race venue were.

The race was on the Disney property, but Disney had no further involvement than that.

I decided to hit the restrooms first, then go in and get my transition area set up. The race started at 6:20 and my wave would go off at 7:21, but transition closed at 6:15, so I had just enough time to get things set up. As I mentioned, my transition spot wasn't ideal. It turns out that the run out of the swim was very long, but it was because we basically ran around the outside of the transition area all the way around and entered very close to where my stuff was located, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After getting squared away, I made my way over to the beach. They weren't letting people into the water, so I had no warm up prior to the race. Instead, I found a patio chair and sat for about 40 minutes until my wave got closer.

The swim started in about knee deep water, and you could run about 20 steps before it got too deep. As the gun went off, I took off and tried to find feet. After 2-3 minutes I came across some and decided to settle in. I figured if they were ahead of me after 2-3 minutes, they were decent swimmers, but once back there, I really felt like we were going slow. I didn't think there was any way I was catching that good of a draft. I stuck with that swimmer for about 2 minutes until we first began to hit slow swimmers from the previous wave, and we got separated while working around a bunch, and I pulled away from that guy and moved on on my own.

The swim was very hectic. There were masses of people in large clumps that were very hard to get around. I found myself having to stop, pop up, pick a line, then shoot a narrow gap until I was clear, then do it again.

It wasn't a wetsuit legal swim, and there were lots of people struggling with that fact I believe. I can't tell you how many people were doing breastroke. There is nothing more dangerous to swimmers behind you than to do a breastroke kick. It is a wide kick, and in murky water, very hard to see coming, and is extremely dangerous for those around and behind you. I must have dodged half a dozen breastroke kicks headed right for my nose that missed by inches. Really scary.

The swim seemed to have been long. I thought so based on feel and time, and I overheard others with the same sentiment post race.

Swim: 31:33, 8th out of 239 AG, 104th overall

T1 was as I mentioned very long. You run about 300 yards from the swim exit to swim entrance. I spent only a few seconds at the racks before I was off to make my way through the length of the transition racks to the exit, again about 200 yards. I clipped in on the bike, and did not make the same mistake I did at Lonestar.

T1 4:34

The bike was a 1 loop bike course. We left the Disney property soon into the ride and didn’t return until the final miles. The course was pretty non descript. I recall seeing some cows and orange groves, and a few new track housing neighborhoods, but I really wasn’t paying an awful lot of attention.

My plan was to stay controlled and I think I was able to do that despite setting a bike PR for myself. The roads where very smooth and fast, and the course had about a 20 miles section of gentle hills in the middle. I only switched out of the big gear one or two times.

My plan was to find someone riding a little slower than I was comfortable riding, and to sit behind them at the legal distance, and make my progress that way. That way I was sure I was staying conservative. I pretty much rode the entire way behind 3 different guys.

It was getting to be hot, but the breeze on the bike masked it pretty well. I did notice salt on my shorts and face from the sweat, and knew it was going to get ugly on the run.

I took down 5 gels, 3x500mg sodium tablets, 3-4 bottles of water, 1 bottle of Pure Sport, and about 2 bottles of Gatorade Endurance. I felt the urge to pee about half way through the ride so I was confident that I was absorbing fluids, and was pretty much on the edge of feeling bloated the entire way.

Bike: 2:40:14 (21.0 mph), 88th out of 239 AG, 693rd overall

T2 went pretty well. This was the first time I saw Ingrid on the day. I had to make the long journey through the racks to my row, got switched over quick, took a swig of water and got my GPS synched, and was on my way.

T2: 2:32

The run was a 3 loop course. It was flat, hot, and much of it was on grass. Not scenic in the least despite being on the Disney property. We were in a pine forest for the first half mile, on back roads the next mile, then on grass next to a canal for 2+ miles before getting back on to roads to finish off the loop. The grass was very difficult to run on, and there wasn’t much shade out there.
First thing I did out on the run was find a port-o-john to relieve the bladder. After that, I tried to settle in to a slow and comfortable pace that I thought I could hold. I tried to ask myself very frequently if there was any way I could run slower, and if the answer was yes, then I slowed down.

My HR however was climbing and climbing and wasn’t stopping when it reached the Z3 spot I hoped it would stop at. After about 25 minutes, I was well into Z4, and was burning up.

At around the 3 mile mark, I broke the seal and had to walk. I would walk/run the rest of the race. By mile 5 I was doing 2 min/1min run/walk, which eventually fell down to 1min/1min. On a couple of occasions I would try to run as long as I could, but never could go more than 3 minutes, and would be wrecked for the next 10 minutes or so barely able to do 1/1 run/walk to recover.

With about 2.2 miles to go, I figured I had 29 minutes to keep my time under 6 hours, the only thing left to salvage the day after all of my other goals were long gone. I bore down and upped my run/walk splits to 90 sec/30 sec to up the overall pace.

With about half mile to go, I had to run carefull as my right calf was twitching as it would near a cramp on certain steps. It nearly seized up within 25 yards of the finish line, but I managed to cross without making a scene.

It was brutally hot out there. Lots of carnage on the course. I saw lots of people walking, people puking, people fainting. I ended up with the worst sun burn I’ve had in a long time despite putting on spf 30 the night before and morning of the race.

Run: 2:38:53 (12:08 pace) 182 out of 239 AG, 1476 overall

Time: 5:57:44, 124 out of 239 AG, 965 overall

After crossing the line, I just felt terrible. My ears were popping, I was woozy, and I had to search hard for some food and drink. I don't feel like going on the WTC rant, but they are terrible race organizers. It was so corporate, not designed for what was best for the athletes, and the post race support was cheap. They ran out of things out on the course and in the post race tent well before the later waves had crossed the line. It was really disappointing. This race was run by NAS until WTC bought all of the NAS races except for IM Canada at the end of 2008, so this may be a bad sign of things to come for these biggest of races in the US under the new management. I'm certain they made a fortune on the merchandising however, so I don't expect any changes.

So overall, not all that great of a race. I’m not disappointed because I pretty much got over the disappointment when the training fell apart back in March and April. It just sort of was what it was. I finished. It wasn’t as slow as my first 70.3, and wasn’t as fast as my last.

I came away from the race with 5 immediate notes on things to focus on for my next 70.3 in Oct. In no particular order, they are:

1. Increase the running as a percentage of my total tri training, more and longer long runs, more weekly volume, more running off the bike.
2. Do core work. My abs and low back are really sore after I race, which means I am using them and they aren’t up to the task. Maybe yoga is the answer.
3. Detail the objectives of each workout further. In base, go slower. Add more specificity to each workout.
4. Test more. Identify strengths and weakness and adjust training accordingly.
5. Stick to a diet, and get down to 165 by Oct.

The plan going forward is to take it easy for the rest of the month. I probably won’t train until after Memorial Day weekend. I’ll probably use the WKO+ software to monitor my fitness loss over time, and will start training when it is off 20-25% of the level it was at for the race.

I’m going to do a 6 week strength training block that will start up in a week or two. The purpose will be to add back some muscle, strengthen the tendons, and get myself ready for the Oct 70.3 training block.

I’ll build up the run volume in the month of June and would like to get up to around 100 miles of running a month by July.

I’ll do a 20 week build up to Long Horn, and will do a proper 12 weeks of base work before I start to take the governor off. That means the program will start in the second week of June.

Holy S That Hurt

I'm convalescing in the room, trying to muster the strength to get out of bed and cleaned up for dinner in 45 minutes.

I'll follow up with a proper report tomorrow perhaps, but I can sum up the race by saying it was the most difficult race I've ever done. The good news was that I found a ride to the race this morning, though it did cost me $18.It eventually would go downhill from there.

The swim was (long) a freaking war out there. I played pinball and dodged slow pokes threatening my face with errant breastroke kicks the whole way (rant on people doing breastroke in triathlons forthcoming). The bike was fast mostly due to the pristine roads and lots of legal drafting, but was surprisingly hilly at times. But the freaking kick in the nuts was that run. Absolute carnage it was so hot. Bodies everywhere, lots of walking, puking, fainting. I obviously walked a lot. There was no choice. The other thing that I underestimated was how much of this run course was on grass. I'd heard some of it was, but I'd guess about 7 of the 13 miles were on grass. Not trails, grass. It made for slower going.

I'm glad it is over, and that I managed to not out split my run with my bike spit. An absolute no-no which I came close to doing. I'm looking forward to a break from training. It is overdue I'm afraid.

Thoughts on Race Eve

I'm sitting back in the hotel while the family is over at the Magic Kingdom having dinner. I'd planned to go with them, but today's pre race activities were WAY more involved than I ever could have imagined they would be, and I opted to lay low and hang back in the room getting things squared away for tomorrow.

I like to make lists when it comes to packing things up for anything. Every trip I take starts with a list of what to pack. Races definitely have lists on what to bring. I guess in my mind, it removes stress on race morning. This race has had 3 lists due to how complex an undertaking it is. So with all of this preparation, you might find it shocking that with 12 hours until I'll depart for the race site, I still have no idea how I'm going to get there.

The beauty of Disney is that you don't need your own transportation. Buses, shuttles, monorails, water taxis, etc. But no transportation to the race site. The concierge looked at me cross eyed when I asked how I was supposed to get to the race. You'd think they'd know, there are only ~2500 of us in this thing.

I guess I'm going to try to take a taxi. Hopefully I'm not waiting long for it.

The race site was a flipping zoo. This is my first NAS run race, and I've got to tell you, I miss the personal touches and family focus of Keith Jordan's Endorfun sports races. This thing is a freaking money making machine, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't apparent that that was the top priority. I stood in line for 20 minutes to buy a visor, and they had 4 cash registers running full tilt.

I still have no idea if they think the swim will be wetsuit legal or not, but I didn't even bring mine, so it doesn't impact my list. I just wondered whether the other guys in my wave would have them.

The race starts at 6:20am, but I'm in the very last wave, and start at 7:24am. Plenty of time to let it heat up on the run, and based on my last 70.3 in Austin when I was one of the last waves, it means I'll have to swim over about 500 slower athletes and probably ride by another 1000-1200. It will be like riding in the MS 150, passing people pretty much every 7-9 seconds. It makes it very dangerous.

My bike made it to Florida with no set backs. I got it all squared away, took it for a short spin and it is now racked and getting rained on every now and then with the Florida afternoon showers. Awesome!

So let me gripe a little more about transition. It isn't an ideal spot. Long and narrow, and wouldn't you know, my bike is about as far as you could be from the swim entrance and the bike exit. I couldn't even see the water from where I left my bike, and from my best guess, I'll have to run a little over a qtr mile from the water to my bike, then I get to turn around and run about 200 yards with my bike to get out of transition, and another 200 yards or so when I get back in. The good news, I only have about 15 yards to get to the run exit, but who cares, I'll have running shoes on and no bike with me. I expect my S/B transition to take at least 7-10 minutes, and I promise, I'll be moving to keep it from being longer.

The other thing that has me pretty concerned is the heat. When you're in the sun, it is brutal. It seems worst in the mornings when the humidity seems to be highest. I definitely haven't adjusted yet, as I pretty much start sweating profusely the moment I get in the sun, even when standing still. I'm going to have to focus on staying hydrated, settle for a couple of porto-john stops, and perhaps a pee break on the bike just to be sure I'm topping off before the run starts.

I'm trying to pick up a positive before I end this post... Still thinking...Hmm. Maybe this. The run appears to be partially on paved trails through a tall pine forest. Maybe there will be some shade?

After this race, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Disney vacation with my family. I'm already making lists of what I'm going to eat/drink. We're having dinner tomorrow night at a brew house, so I hope to put down 3-4 pale ales, have some ice cream, a bloody marry on Monday morning. I'm taking a few weeks off after this race, at least 1-2 with zero training, and I'm really looking forward to it.

But first, I'm going to take myself to school tomorrow and teach myself a little more about my limits, my thoughts at dark moments, and how I handle extreme discomfort, all for extreme adulation. And to cross another milestone off of my life to-do list.

Official Florida 70.3 Preview

As promised, here is a bit more detail on my thoughts going in the Florida 70.3. As I mentioned below, this will be my 3rd 70.3 race, and first of a planned two in 2009.

Just a quick recap to bring us up to the present. I ended my last triathlon season with the Long Horn 70.3 race, where I had successfully executed a 12 week build up, and saw the fruits of that build up on race day. It wasn't perfect, but I exceeded my expectations, had confidence that I could self coach myself to newer highs, and was enthused for the coming off season.

I entered the off season with a run focus, and procured the assistance of Gorilla Multisport's David Gillen to write my workouts and give me guidance. I made some good strides in improving my run, and had several PRs over the course of the 4 months of focus.

On the heels of my last running event of the run focus, I jumped in to tri training upping the bike and swim volume from 1-2 times per week, to normal tri prep levels. I spent 4.5 days at a tri camp in Tucson logging a lot of miles in a short period of time, and within a few weeks, my cycling fitness felt very good for this early in the year.

For the Jan-April period, my training volume was up 65 hours over those same four months the year before. Year to date I have swum 90k yards, biked 1,228 miles, and run 333 miles.

All are stats I should be proud of, and I am. What I'm a little disappointed about is that I failed to execute on the prescribed volume in my most key weeks leading up to this race on Sunday.

It wasn't for lack of motivation, but illness. In early March I came down with a wicked GI infection that knocked me out of commission for 5 days, knocked 6 lbs off of me, and just so happened to occur on the first week of a big 3 week block. That week was lost, so I scaled down weeks 2 and 3 of the block knowing I was going to be a bit weak from the weight loss. I was able to hit the prescribed 11 hours of training the following week (3/16-3/22) however I couldn't bring it up to the prescribed 13.5 the following week coming in at just 10.5.

The second big 3 week training block was slated for 4/6-4/26, and again was derailed by sickness. This time, a respiratory infection, probably worsened by allergies that just go nuts up here in North TX every spring. I was able to hit the 11 hrs prescribed in week 1 (4/6-4/12) which came on the heels of a pretty good race in Galveston the weekend before, and was off to a great start to week 2 of the block until it came on. I went to the Dr. early, got antibiotics, but the cough lingered and fear of bronchitis forced me to keep the volume in check. Rather than hitting 13.5 hrs in week 2, I hit 7.2, and rather than 15 hours in week 3, I mustered 5.5.

Not ideal to say the least.

So the down side to all of this is that I don’t have peak fitness, and don't have a block to taper down off of, and I still have a lingering respiratory infection that hasn’t fully left me. I've had to modify the taper a bit by just keeping the volume consist in the 8-10 hrs range and will hold that clip right up to race day. any more and I'd fatigue, any less and my fitness would drop too low too fast.

The upside however is that I’ve got a pretty big block of fitness under me that has built up over the past 10 months. I also know that fitness being equal, I am a better runner now than I was 7 months ago. The other upside is that I think I can fine tune my race strategy a bit having had two 70.3s under my belt going in to this one.

I’m not really anxious or nervous at all which I attribute to experience from the prior two 70.3s, and just need to always be playing it conservative at every turn out there so I don’t wilt. The opportunity for an epic bonk is very real!

So my thoughts for the race are that I need to play it conservative, NOT GET SWEPT UP IN THE EXCITEMENT OF RACING, and focus on executing my race strategy. That means that I need to chill out as soon as I can on the swim, especially after the beach start which always sends the HR up, and makes for a little more chaos than I'm used to at the start of a swim. On the bike, I know I'm going to feel good out there. I'll have the race wheels on, the aero helmet on, and it is going to feel fast. I need to chill out and go SLOW for the first 20-30 miles or so.

I wouldn't be surprised if I swim a 30 min swim (6 mins slower than PR), bike a 2:50 (7 mins slower than PR), and have 7-10 mins of transition time before I even hit the run. That means I hit the run right around the 3:30 mark. The run is a complete crap shoot still unfortunately. I'm pretty comfortable running sub 10 min miles, but am not confident I won't be forced to walk because I'm a little concerned about the heat and humidity when I get onto the run. It should be approaching the low 90s as the run ends, and I’m sure it will be steamy. We’ve actually had a pretty mild spring thus far so I have not had the opportunity to bake myself a little bit in preparation.

I don't think I'll PR at this race. Part of the reason is because the swim at my PR race was about 5 minutes short. If I can come in around 5:45, I'll take it.

So here are my race goals in no particular order:

• Swim smart, stay on course
• Don't let my HR sky rocket in transitions
• Stay aero, but sit up and stretch at opportune spots (up hills, tailwinds, turns, etc.)
• Supplement wisely
• Chill out until the 10 mile mark on the run (because I'll be in survival mode at that point any ways)
• Minimize the walking on the run course to aid stations only
• PR my run split, which is currently 2:21.50 (a whopping 29 mins slower than my stand alone half)
• Shoot for 5:45, but don't watch watch. If it happens, it happens.

So there you go. I'll check back in post race.

Florida 70.3 Pre-Preview

One week from tomorrow I toe the line for my 3rd Half Ironman 70.3 distance race. The race will coincide with a family trip to Disney for a week with all three of my kids, wife, and my mother and father in-law.

The week of preparation and travel begins tomorrow when I drop off my bike at Richardson Bikemart where it will be picked up by the tri bike transport guys to make the journey to Orlando.

I'll stop in again early next week with my thoughts on the race. I can broadly summarize my thoughts by saying that I'm not where I hoped to be heading into this race. My training was so inconsistent in the critical build up weeks, that it will certainly have a negative impact on my outcome. I'm hoping I'm not so under prepared that I end up having a miserable experience out there, but only time will tell. I'm not planning on that being the case, and have chosen to focus on a couple of things this time now that I'm just a hair more experienced than last time I tried one of these things. I'll elaborate on these items I'm going to focus on in my next post.

More later...

Zydeco Friday - Enjoy!

Want to feel rythmless? Watch this. I found it while searching for footage of my all time Zydeco favorite, Boozoo Chavis, who can be seen below.

Boozoo Chavis - Johnnie Billy Goat
by fredozydeco

NZ All Blacks

The Haka!

Only in TX

I'm out riding yesterday, trying to get in some miles before the storms rolled in, and I run across this sign while out by the ranches in Bartonville.

It was too much for me to not stop and take a photo. In addition to the red neckness of the sign, please note the vintage farming equipment behind the sign. For some reason, old farming equipment qualifies as yard art out in ranch country.


I had to snap the photo quick for fear that "big Liz" would come out and squat me.

Cuban Fixes News Papers Overnight?

I've been fascinated with the coming end of the news paper. It is a topic that has been discussed widely in many forums, but especially in "new media" outlets which ironically are the cause of the news paper's demise.

Unfortunately, what papers are doing to cut costs as circulations and add revenue decline is impacting me. Earlier this week, the LA Daily News laid off Tony Jackson, the LA Dodgers beat writer. This means there are only two beat writers (only one print journalist) currently traveling with the team; Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times, and Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. As Jon Weisman notes, it wasn't long ago that there were a dozen beat writers travelling with the Dodgers to provide coverage.

I've heard a few suggestions for what to do about the troubles news papers are faced with, but none is better than what Marc Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks nonchalantly conjures up in his most recent blog post. It wasn't luck this guy made a billion in an internet bubble deal, and cashed out before the bubble burst.

Cool Clip on Suffering

I stole this off of my new friend Lindsey's blog