Day before race day

Today we had a 22-mile tune-up ride. along the way we stopped to take team pictures. At one point we were very close to one of the mountain passes that we will be riding on the Deathride, so the ACE team rode a few extra miles along the route.
I recall driving up to Tahoe along the 395 highway and looking off to the left at a steep mountain and thinking "Gee, I'm glad I don't have to drive in that direction." Since then I have examined the route map for the Deathride, and determined that mountain is one of the passes I have to RIDE MY BIKE OVER.

In Tahoe for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride

The Team in Training group arrived a couple days early so we could acclimate to the higher altitude (about 7000 feet above sea level). What a difference! I ran from my hotel to the team's hotel (about 0.75 mile) and was out of breath before I got there.

This past week's workouts....

Friday 5/23-swam 1100y, using the new techniques Coach Luke taught me. It was tough to pace myself, and I had to rest every 150y or so, but overall I was still faster than normal even with the stopping. I really want to hit the pool and work on this more but my job is still killing me so it's hard to work swims into my day.

Saturday 5/24-Final prep day with Team in Training for the Tahoe century ride. Most of the ACE team rode with the C team, 42 miles. It was nice to ride fast and flat instead of grinding up a mountain at 5mph.

Sunday/Monday 5/25-5/26-Still feeling pretty blah, just did a bunch of walking to burn calories and keep my leg muscles loose.

Wednesday 5/28-I was supposed to run 90 minutes, but only ran 60. It was tough at first, with my knees hurting. Oh well, it was better than nothing. I need to keep my run going, I want to have a good showing at Vineman in July.
Also during my post-run stretch I noticed my knee still hurts from where I fell on my bike at Wildflower. More like a twinge, but it is still noticable.

Thursday morning 5/29-I actually felt good this morning when I woke up. First time in months, it feels like. Hopefully I am almost over whatever this "thing" is that's been making me feel like garbage (since February) and I can get back on my training plan.

Thursday workout

I knew I'd have to work late today and miss tonight's track workout, so I got in a spin and run on the treadmill during lunch (0:50/0:12). The run felt a lot better than yesterday's, my legs and ankles weren't so tight. I need to hit more spin classes if I'm going to complete the Deathride in July.

Today's workout

Ran for 60 minutes with Steve. Not one of our best runs, but we got out there for an hour and got almost 5 miles in. I need to keep stretching and start getting in long low-intensity run/walks.

I stole the Subway Employee's Manual

Here is an excerpt:
It is our goal to screw up every sandwich we make. Long-time customers realize this and will watch you like a hawk to make sure you don't throw on anything they don't want. Rise up to this challenge! The best time to sneak on unwanted food is when they turn to the register to pay.

• If it appears the customer is in a hurry, throw on a handful of olives. It takes forever to pick them off and the customer will just accept the sandwich as-is, rather than wait.
• If there is a long line, try oil & vinegar. It is impossible to pick off, the sandwich is ruined, and the customer won't want to hold up the line to have a new sandwich made. Warning: this is an advanced maneuver! You need to pick up the oil & vinegar bottles, invert them and give the sandwich a good soaking in about 0.5 seconds before the customer has a chance to say anything.

Today's workout

Spin class at lunch-50 minutes
followed by a 20-minute run on the treadmill.

Team in Training ACE ride

I have officially renamed the TNT ACE Team
Old name: ACE (altitude, climbing, endurance)
New name: ACHE (altitude, climbing, heat, endurance)

I have some other acronyms in mind, but since this is a family blog I will not post them here.

So with a heat wave descending on San Diego, coach Phil changed our scheduled 108-mile route to a 63-mile (Kit Carson to Palomar and back, 9900' of climb). I had new cycling shoes and a new rear cassette (changed from a 27 to a 32 to help with the hills).
Below are some of the fun fun things that happened on that ride:

• The 90 degree heat. I think it was cooler at the top of the mountain, but still...it was hot! With the heat my heart rate was elevated, so it was hard to tell how much the rear cassette helped, but I'm sure it did.
• At Mile 17 my seat post bolt snapped and pieces went flying; luckily I was on a flat (near Rincon) and was able to keep myself from falling, but as I'm standing on the pedals going 20mph I realize I've never clipped out and stopped while standing. Luckily I was able to do so without falling. So this is the second time in 2 years I've had a bolt snap on me, I'm thinking I need to center myself in the seat better (or lose some weight)
• Mentor Lisa lost her keys SOMEWHERE on the mountain...SAG drove her and Joanie back to the top of the mountain so they could ride back down looking for them (imagine riding down Solidad, and braking constantly to keep your speed at 5mph for 12 miles down that thing!)
• Joanie discovered (the hard way) that she can no longer drink a V-8 on long hot rides without getting sick
• Kudos to coach Phil for keeping a positive attitude, even when his team was strewn all over Palomar Mountain.

Skipped track tonight...

I was working late and couldn't afford the time to make the 3-hour round trip to La Jolla High. Luckily Jen Ferkins called me up and wanted to run, so we met at my house. Ended up doing an easy 4 miles (Cliffy, the big black dog, joined us for part of the run so that part was mostly walking while he sniffed all the new exciting things along the way...)
So 4 miles is better than nothing, I'm glad I did SOMETHING instead of just blowing off the whole workout

Lousy run

I was supposed to run 90 minutes tonight, but I stayed late at work and decided I could get the run done quicker if I just jumped on the treadmill. I forgot how much I hate running on the treadmill, and I only lasted 21 minutes. I need to break this funk that I am in.

Had a swim lesson this morning...

with coach Luke. I took away several good things to work on, which should make me significantly faster without a wetsuit and slightly faster with a wetsuit. Now I just need a pool, which will be tough with a heat wave coming to San Diego...the denizens of Poway will be filliing the pool at LA Fitness en masse with water walkers and people just wanting to splash around.

Training for Morons in 3 easy steps

1. Pay good money for a coach
2. See what you are supposed to do for a workout for the day
3. Do something completely different

My recommended 3-hour post-Wildflower recovery ride turned into a 9-hour tour of the hills of Poway. 6500'-8500' of climbing (depending on whose Garmin you believe), 86 miles. Lots of pain. I am swapping out my 27 rear cassette for a 32 for the duration of Deathride training, and the Deathride. Oh yea and I might lose some weight too.
Full Garmin Data http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5633843

Wildflower Long Course Race Report

WILDFLOWER RACE REPORT
I had a blast as usual. I highly recommend this triathlon for anyone who hasn’t done it before. It takes place in Lake San Antonio (freshwater swim!) near Paso Robles. Lots of camping, beer, and good friends.

The days leading up to the race were normal, with me trying to set a record for most weight gained in a week. What WASN’T normal was getting run off the road while on my bike by some pinhead in a car. I went head-first over the handlebars, which makes 3 times for me. I messed up my knee but I just rubbed some dirt in it and kept going.

Oh yea, also Brian tried to run a disabled person off the road. There was consequently some damage to our trusty RV.

This year I was doing the Wildflower “Long Course”, which I think is about a mile less than a half-ironman. It is supposed to be a very tough course, with a hill at mile 40 of the bike that is known as “Nasty Grade”. I only assumed that it was named that due to the toughness of the hill and not some sort of cleanliness factor.

THE SWIM:1.2 miles
Since I swam 1:27 at Arizona Ironman, my goal was to break 40 minutes on this swim. I put on my manly neon-pink swim cap, joined the rest of my wave and awaited my 8:55am start time.
After a short warm-up swim, the horn sounds and off we go. The swim was horrible. Usually I have about 3 minutes of people fighting me, then it thins out a bit and I can swim ahead unmolested. Not this time. I was fighting people the entire swim, and it was difficult to get into a good solid stroke. I was punched, kicked, elbowed in the eye, you name it.
I did get a good laugh halfway through the swim: At one point when I took a breath on my left side, I noticed someone towards my left was angled towards me and approaching fairly fast. 3 strokes later, as I was breathing off my right side, I noticed someone towards my right was angled towards me and approaching fast. Sensing danger, I immediately stopped and those 2 guys bonked heads right in front of me. It was just like in the cartoons, only there was no coconut-like sound when their heads bonked.
I completed the rest of the swim and climbed out of the water and ran up the boat ramp to the transition area. My swim time was 0:40:43; I missed my goal by 43 seconds but it was a PR (personal record); my prior best time for this distance was 0:45:00 so I best my prior best by over 4 minutes.

T1
I wasn’t really looking forward to the bike ride, so I took it slow in T1. As you can see from the picture, I slapped on some sunscreen without worrying about rubbing it in too much. My T1 time ended up being 5:17, which actually didn’t turn out to be too bad vs. the rest of the field.

THE BIKE:55-ish Miles
During the bike, I was suffering most of the time, as usual. I suspect that my triathlon bike isn’t fit to me properly which makes me lose power. Also, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had finished the bike at Vineman (hilly course, 2600’ of climb) in 3:26 and SOMA (flat course) in 3:10 but this course had 1500 feet of climbing more than Vineman (see profile elevation map). I decided to just take it slow and save all my energy for the dreaded “Nasty Grade”.
That first hill at Mile 1 was tough, since we had just came out of the swim and had cold legs and high heart rates. After that there was a bunch of rolling hills. I was taking it nice and easy, which is psychologically tough because people were passing me left and right. Around Mile 10 my friend Homa (who is on the Team in Training ACE team with me) passed me by and we rode together for awhile. He told me to just take it easy and have a good time and don’t worry about the clock (translation: stop being such a whiny bitch and just suck it up). I took his advice to heart and chatted with people as they passed me by.
I noticed that I myself didn’t pass a single person until Mile 15…next person I passed was at Mile 28. So much for the bike being my strongest discipline…
Around Mile 30 we took a right turn and right into a ~10mph headwind, which really wasn’t too bad. Finally at Mile 40 I reached the bottom of “Nasty Grade”. I had been drinking plenty of water on the bike, to make sure I didn’t have a DNF repeat of Ironman so I was feeling pretty good; unfortunately this meant I really had to use “the facilities”. There was an aid station at the bottom of the hill so I used the restroom, drank some water, poured water on myself to cool off, ate a GU and some salt tabs, then took off up the hill.
I guess it was good that I stopped because I flew up that hill without any problems. It was a piece of cake! The hill wasn’t nearly as steep or as long as I expected, and I still had a full tank of gas, so I flew through the last 16 miles and finished in 3:55:30. Slower than I wanted to go, but I was happy to have finished a bike course that other people have been telling me is very tough.

T2
As soon as I got off the bike, I felt my knee twinge where I had fallen. I chose to ignore it, threw on my running shoes and ran out of the transition area. T2 time = 0:03:59, nothing to write home about but it ended up being my best ranking of the day (see rankings below).

THE RUN-13 miles
Readers of my blog know 3 things about me: 1) I am a horrible runner, 2) I go too hard on the bike, leaving nothing for the run, and 3) I don’t drink enough on the bike which makes me cramp up on the run. So 1+2+3 means a lousy run time, and this course is very hilly (see elevation profile).
However, I have been working very hard on my running (kudos to coach Felipe of Breakaway Training, and my running partner Steve), I took it easy on the bike and I was careful to get enough hydration and fuel, so I was primed for this run. Plus it was a cool day.

Like I said, my knee was bothering me in T2, but the pain must have subsided quickly because I forgot about it for awhile (about mile 10 I realized “oh yea, my knee is supposed to be hurting”).
Other than that initial pain, everything went right on the run. Each aid station I took a cup of water (poured on my head), then drank 6oz water and 6oz Gatorade. At mile 5 I started eating caffeinated GUs. I walked up all hills. Some of the downhills were painful on my knee, and I was afraid it would give out and I would go tumbling down the hill so I had to take it a bit slower down the hills. But I was able to maintain solid 11-12 min/mile pace most of the flats, while walking up hills and walking through aid stations.
Total run time = 2:51:57. Another PR! I blew away my prior best run time in a half-ironman (3:26:31) by over 34 minutes!
Total race time = 7:37:29, which I am pleased with. I took an extremely tough course and almost completed it faster than I completed SOMA last October. I’m hoping to break 7 hours at Vineman this July (unless it is over 100 degrees again).

THE AFTERMATH

6 days later I am still a bit sore, but my knee is better and I got a professional bike fitting. Looking forward to next year!!

Rankings
Swim 0:40:43 1263 out of 1743
T1 0:05:17 1236 out of 1743
Bike 3:55:30 1525 out of 1743
T2 0:03:59 1155 out of 1743
Run 2:51:57 1455 out of 1743

Things to note:
This was my first tri where I did it like it is SUPPOSED to be done, i.e. the bike split is longer than the run
I beat almost 300 people on the run, as opposed to Vineman, where I think I beat 7

On work, weight loss and inspiring people

So I skipped track workout yesterday because I'm still trying to catch up a bit at work. Blech. I'm pretty ok with it though because I'm still sore from last Saturday (yes I owe you a race report for that).

Speaking of last week, I've lost 7.0 pounds since Tuesday morning (3 days), my body is releasing all the water and salt that it's been holding onto from the race. Hope more comes off, I've really packed on some weight since I left for Ironman.

Below is an excerpt from my buddy Bryan Jacobs, who is another person I suckered...err encouraged to complete a long distance event. He is training for a marathon in Alaska June 21st through Team in Training...
I have to say - this has been an extremely rewarding experience. I have been fortunate to do this with my girlfriend, and last night we were doing a CASUAL 7 mile run both reflecting on the first 2 miles we ran less than 4 months ago. We were dying, we were in pain, I couldn't even run the whole thing. Now, I'm casually doing 7 miles, and this weekend will be AGAIN, the longest I've ever ran. It's an exhilarating feeling, and wouldn't have been pursued without your newsletter updates.
Letters like that always give me a lift...it makes me realize my actions have farther-reaching consequences then I can sometimes see.

On never giving up....

Came across on Slowtwitch.com and thought it needed to be thrown out there.

FYI, I finished the Wildflower Long Course last Saturday. Total time ~7:38. I PR'ed the run by 34 minutes and missed PR'ing the course by 11 minutes. Not too bad considering the difficulty of the course. Race report coming soon!