S - 10,000 yards
B - 122 miles
R - 35.8 miles
Time - 13.25 hours
So there are two main themes this week: the first was returning from Santa Barbara after an AMAZING 2+ week trip there with MOOSE and it was very saddening to return but return I did; the second theme was a double race weekend at Stumpy Creek (International Saturday and Sprint Sunday!) in Mooresville. I felt pretty sluggish across all three most of this week so was a bit apprehensive going into the race on Saturday, especially considering the ridiculously stacked field. Due to Stumpy being a double points race in the NCTS, every fast person in NC showed up it seemed. Perusing the participant list made me think top 10 was going to be a good day for me, although in the back of my head I felt I could manage top 5 on a good day.
Stumpy Creek International: 1500m/27mi/10k
Swim 1500m (ish!) in 25:09 (15th)
Well, just like in Latta, my swim had timing chip band issues. This time it was not due to a crappy band but primarily to a crowded first 200m with the very large open field. I started off on the left behind Scott and for 3+ minutes it was a maelstrom! I felt someone's hand hit my leg and slide down; taking with it the chip strap. It maintained its position for a little while but after a bit the kicking moved it down around my ankle and I had to stop to put it under the leg of my suit. I stopped swimming the middle of the pack and I'm sure some people got mad but whatever, it wasn't my fault. I took a relatively short amount of time to replace it under the suit leg and get back going again. Unfortunately I had lost my position and my rhythm and played catch-up the rest of the swim. At around 1000m I caught Stacy and Tom and as I passed Stacey got on my feet and swam behind me the rest of the way until at the last turn buoy I forgot to turn left and went a bit past before realizing my mistake and heading in towards the finish. I saw the clock at swim exit and was pretty peeved at myself for a horrible swim time (although, Wistoff and Soko are 19ish minute 1500m swimmers on real courses so their fastest 22 minute swims today tell the tale) and ran up to my bike thinking my day was off to a bad start.
T1 - 00:50 (17th)
Put my helmet on, took off my speedsuit and put on my shoes before replacing my chip band on my ankle and headed out on the bike. With no watch, I was unsure how fast my T1 was (I was assuming it was really bad) but it turned out to be right in line with most people's; a welcome change.
Bike - 1:06:45 (3rd)
Passed a couple of people initially on the bike before getting to the first sustained climb and while out of my saddle my right hamstring suddenly locked up and I was forced to stop and get off my bike to stretch it out; at this point I was both upset about my swim mishaps and so was only even angrier as I got back on my bike. My lower quads felt absolutely horrible and I was curious to how the rest of the bike would play given my cramping issue less than 5 minutes into the ride... Donny caught me shortly after I got going again and we managed to set a good pace before catching Duncan and Scott, but only Duncan came with us as we went up a hill. As we went past I could heard something rubbing on Scott's bike as he stood up but I couldn't say anything since I was breathing so hard (Donny rides up hills SO HARD it's unbelievable). For the nest 30-40 minutes we all rode together and caught sight of Mark Carey up ahead and finally caught him at about 55 minutes and the rest of the way was just surviving the Masters Open slug-fest happening with me as an innocent bystander! Rolled into T2 behind Mark and Donny...
T2 - 00:54 (14th)
Took off helmet, grabbed number and put on my shoes, not necessarily in that order and headed out on the run course eager to catch Donny and Mark.
Run - 35:52 (2nd)
Once out on the run I put the hammer down for the first 5 minutes to try and pass Mark and Donny to put a nice gap on them initially and hope that out of sight meant out of mind. For the first time today, I finally felt good but had no watch so could not really tell how fast I was running. Throughout the bike my quads were yelling at me and while tired on the run I felt smooth and fast (although I was a bit worried about my calves as there were some initial warning signs). I tried to keep the pace high and the run went relatively smoothly through the first lap and at about mile 4 I looked back for the first time to see Clifford gaining on me; something inevitable that I felt would come eventually... He passed me about a half mile later but soon after I realized I was right behind Soko and passed him just before the long climb, which went much slower on this second lap! I ran down the hill and around the field to cross the finish line in 3rd place OA, a pretty awesome result for me after a great run (although I had no idea how fast it was until they posted results later in the afternoon...). Fortunately for me (and Clifford and potentially Wistoff) but unfortunately for him, Kenneth missed the turn-off to finish his second loop (and race) and continued on before realizing his mistake and turning around to finish properly, but pretty dejected.
I was really pleased with the result as despite a sub-par swim and bike I finished very well in the most well-represented NCTS race since I've been doing triathlons with a super awesome run split! The run course at Stumpy is very difficult so to go under 36 minutes there is a big achievement for me (especially since last year's run split was 40:xx!!!)
Now, for Sunday!
Stumpy Creek 19.7: 750m/16mi/5k
A bit of a preface: I was incredibly sore/tight all Saturday afternoon and the feelings only abated slightly by Sunday morning. Added to that I couldn't fall asleep Saturday night so the double race was leaving me extremely tired! I should have had a 5hr energy on Sunday morning but forgot to buy one so substituted with a huge coffee. A warning to all others that do double races: drink tons of water on the afternoon after the first race, not mountain dew!!
Swim 750m in 11:54 (4th)
I figured the main competition in this race would come from Fletch, Donny and Richard Bailey. I knew that on a good day (and considering Donny and Fletch forgot their speed suits!!) I could gap them a little bit and in a race this short any gap would be beneficial. So at the gun I sprinted all out for 200 meters before settling in (settling in is putting it a bit mildly, I was still going really hard, I just naturally slowed down!) at the first turn buoy. At this point, I was sitting 3rd in the wave with a 30-50m gap on the two guys out front (although I had pre-judged them to not be overall competitors...) so I pressed onwards, maintaining a fairly good, smooth rhythm and exited the water still in 3rd place. I turned around and with a quick glance didn't see anyone close so I ran hard into transition.
T1 in 00:57 (17th)
Put on helmet, took off suit, put on shoes, ran out; not sure why I was slower today than yesterday...
Bike 16 (actually 15) miles in 38:21 (5th)
Headed out on the bike in 3rd but quickly caught and passed the two swimmers. From that point on I just pushed hard and rode solo, only breaking the monotony at turns and intersections. I kept the pace high and gradually lost sight of anyone behind even on long straightaways so I knew my gap was growing. At about mile 11-12 there was an awkward bump that launched my bike computer off the side of the road! Now, with a normal computer I wouldn't have worried about it but given that this was my precious multi-hundred dollar Garmin I couldn't exactly justify sacrificing my watch for this race! So after a very brief moment of thought I grabbed the brakes, slowed down enough to make a u-turn and went back to where I thought it went. After a bit of searching I managed to find it and stuff it in my shirt before getting back on my way. I hate making excuses (well, sometimes), but I lost a LOT of time here as the watch was off in a ditch and slowing down from 26mph to 0 and making a u turn and looking for a tiny object was a frustratingly time-intensive process. As I got going again I looked back down the long straightaway and saw a tiny orange kit in the distance and assumed it was Donny. I got back on the gas and finished strong down the hill into T2, a little annoyed but with a decent gap.
T2 in 00:47 (33rd)
Took off helmet, put on socks (I had developed a couple of chafe spots yesterday with no socks and wanted to make sure they didn't get worse today) and shoes then grabbed my number and sunglasses and headed out of transition.
Run 5k in 18:46 (7th)
As I was getting onto the course I saw Donny coming into the rack so I figured my 1st place was safe. I'd like to say that I made myself run hard and leave it all out on the course in the quest for a fast run time but in all honesty, I pretty much mailed it in on the run knowing that I had the victory well in hand. I came around the track and I saw Richard Bailey had made up some good time on me so as I finished he came in relatively soon thereafter.
All in all, a solid performance and good weekend/week! I was annoyed that I continue to experience these strange mishaps in each race but as time goes on and I get more experienced hopefully they'll slowly disappear
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
SB Part 2
S - 9600 yards
B - 239.6 miles
R - 38.7 miles
Time - 22.74 hours
This week started off with me feeling a bit sluggish, but luckily we celebrated July 4th with a trip to 6 Flags in Valencia. To put it mildly, it was awesome. One might expect an amusement park to be crowded and miserable on July 4th but after an hour or so the crowds dissipated (many discouraged due to the high temperatures) and we basically had our way with the rides. We went on almost all of them and the best one twice. I felt funny once I went to sleep that night as my head was still looping around and spinning as I was laying there... My running and biking legs felt like they took a little nap from Monday through Wednesday but luckily by Thursday they seemed to be back in action.
I felt very strong on the bike Friday-Sunday, which was good since on Friday Moose and I did Gibraltar (~7mi climb up to ~4000 ft, one that Lance is said to frequent during Tour prep), on Saturday we did a loop out to Solvang and back of 4+ hours and then Sunday I did Gibraltar again solo but this trip was timed...
My running and swimming volume were definitely a bit low this week, a fact I'll contribute to a bout of laziness and a bout of fatigue. Maybe those two go hand in hand for me? Unfortunately (very unfortunately), I hop on the plane back to CLT tomorrow afternoon and leave this all behind :(
The consolation is that I get to race twice next weekend, at Stumpy International and Stumpy Sprint! The doubled points race on Saturday looks like it is going to be one of the more stacked fields in an NCTS race so it will be interesting to see how low down I finish!!
B - 239.6 miles
R - 38.7 miles
Time - 22.74 hours
This week started off with me feeling a bit sluggish, but luckily we celebrated July 4th with a trip to 6 Flags in Valencia. To put it mildly, it was awesome. One might expect an amusement park to be crowded and miserable on July 4th but after an hour or so the crowds dissipated (many discouraged due to the high temperatures) and we basically had our way with the rides. We went on almost all of them and the best one twice. I felt funny once I went to sleep that night as my head was still looping around and spinning as I was laying there... My running and biking legs felt like they took a little nap from Monday through Wednesday but luckily by Thursday they seemed to be back in action.
I felt very strong on the bike Friday-Sunday, which was good since on Friday Moose and I did Gibraltar (~7mi climb up to ~4000 ft, one that Lance is said to frequent during Tour prep), on Saturday we did a loop out to Solvang and back of 4+ hours and then Sunday I did Gibraltar again solo but this trip was timed...
My running and swimming volume were definitely a bit low this week, a fact I'll contribute to a bout of laziness and a bout of fatigue. Maybe those two go hand in hand for me? Unfortunately (very unfortunately), I hop on the plane back to CLT tomorrow afternoon and leave this all behind :(
The consolation is that I get to race twice next weekend, at Stumpy International and Stumpy Sprint! The doubled points race on Saturday looks like it is going to be one of the more stacked fields in an NCTS race so it will be interesting to see how low down I finish!!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Santa Barbara is awesome, part 1
S - 20,000 yards
B - 300.8 miles
R - 41.9 miles
Time - 27.28 hours
If there is a better place to be in June/July than Santa Barbara, CA I would love to be there, because I cannot possibly imagine it. It has been a so-called "warm" 75-80 degrees in the afternoons around here and with that temperature plus no humidity it's hard to even put into words how welcome a change from Charlotte that has been this week! Pools that are outdoors, riding that is on mountainous and exceptionally scenic roads, and running that is along the Pacific Ocean all adds up to one amazing experience. Well that and staying in a sweet house with some sweet company! Those are all ingredients that add up to a super sweet week of training and hanging...
Despite missing two swim workouts this week I still managed to log 20k yards, which - while not an all time high - is a lot when factored in with all the other stuff. About half the swims this week were meters and the other half were yards and one was a double swim day; something I've never done before. 8300 yards in 12 hours is definitely a "career" high. I was hoping to "compete" in the 3 mile OWS that's part of the Semana Nautica series of races that's going on this week. To count in the race, you can't wear a wetsuit, and when the water is a stated 65 degrees and the last open water swim I logged was at Tri Latta in 88 degree water well, 65 degrees was a bit too much! I tried, admittedly, but couldn't put my head under water without hyperventilating and having a mild panic attack! So I got out and got some breakfast and waited for Moose and the others to finish...
The real good time was logged on the bike this week. My hour totals in the saddle were ~17 hours which, out here in this hilly terrain equaled 300 miles but at home in Charlotte would be closer to 340-350 miles. But while it's fun to chase a mileage number, the real number that matters is the time. I had to do a great deal of riding by myself unfortunately since Moose doesn't usually log 15+ hours/week on the bike (yet) so I had a lot of solo time! Oh well, just makes me mentally tougher!!
I had some good runs this week on some hilly terrain and some flat terrain and saw some amazing sights and ran on an amazing track and amazing and amazing and amazing! Consistency is the name of my game.
A little over a week left here in SB and that's about as far ahead as I care to think right now... Ready, go! Happy 4th of July!
B - 300.8 miles
R - 41.9 miles
Time - 27.28 hours
If there is a better place to be in June/July than Santa Barbara, CA I would love to be there, because I cannot possibly imagine it. It has been a so-called "warm" 75-80 degrees in the afternoons around here and with that temperature plus no humidity it's hard to even put into words how welcome a change from Charlotte that has been this week! Pools that are outdoors, riding that is on mountainous and exceptionally scenic roads, and running that is along the Pacific Ocean all adds up to one amazing experience. Well that and staying in a sweet house with some sweet company! Those are all ingredients that add up to a super sweet week of training and hanging...
Despite missing two swim workouts this week I still managed to log 20k yards, which - while not an all time high - is a lot when factored in with all the other stuff. About half the swims this week were meters and the other half were yards and one was a double swim day; something I've never done before. 8300 yards in 12 hours is definitely a "career" high. I was hoping to "compete" in the 3 mile OWS that's part of the Semana Nautica series of races that's going on this week. To count in the race, you can't wear a wetsuit, and when the water is a stated 65 degrees and the last open water swim I logged was at Tri Latta in 88 degree water well, 65 degrees was a bit too much! I tried, admittedly, but couldn't put my head under water without hyperventilating and having a mild panic attack! So I got out and got some breakfast and waited for Moose and the others to finish...
The real good time was logged on the bike this week. My hour totals in the saddle were ~17 hours which, out here in this hilly terrain equaled 300 miles but at home in Charlotte would be closer to 340-350 miles. But while it's fun to chase a mileage number, the real number that matters is the time. I had to do a great deal of riding by myself unfortunately since Moose doesn't usually log 15+ hours/week on the bike (yet) so I had a lot of solo time! Oh well, just makes me mentally tougher!!
I had some good runs this week on some hilly terrain and some flat terrain and saw some amazing sights and ran on an amazing track and amazing and amazing and amazing! Consistency is the name of my game.
A little over a week left here in SB and that's about as far ahead as I care to think right now... Ready, go! Happy 4th of July!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Off we gooo, into the wild blue yonder!
S - 14,800 yards
B - 211.9 miles
R - 42 miles
Time - 20.25 hours
So, not really much interesting to say this week. I'm truly becoming a broken record. I feel as though I've told the same stories over and over again and I use the same tired cliches and phrasings over and over but you know what? I don't care. This is my blog! I'll do whatever I want in my blogosphere.
That being said, thanks for reading and don't leave! Please continue to read my boring training and racing stories!!
This week I did a little bit of swimming, a little bit of biking and some good running. I'm really pleased with how my running is going, at least in terms of my consistency and progression. I actually had three run "workouts" this week: a long run with threshold intervals on the treadmill, and a sweet long run with threshold and tempo intervals in Santa Barbara. I definitely felt the best on Sunday in spite of no sleep and little food as the 65 degree weather helps a ton!
So these next two weeks I'll be in sunny Santa Barbara with Moose (she hasn't started blogging yet, but beware it's going to happen soon!) putting on my game face and logging some solid training. I'm sure these next two weeks will hopefully include a lot of good pictures, good recapping, etc etc. Just good stuff. That is all.
B - 211.9 miles
R - 42 miles
Time - 20.25 hours
So, not really much interesting to say this week. I'm truly becoming a broken record. I feel as though I've told the same stories over and over again and I use the same tired cliches and phrasings over and over but you know what? I don't care. This is my blog! I'll do whatever I want in my blogosphere.
That being said, thanks for reading and don't leave! Please continue to read my boring training and racing stories!!
This week I did a little bit of swimming, a little bit of biking and some good running. I'm really pleased with how my running is going, at least in terms of my consistency and progression. I actually had three run "workouts" this week: a long run with threshold intervals on the treadmill, and a sweet long run with threshold and tempo intervals in Santa Barbara. I definitely felt the best on Sunday in spite of no sleep and little food as the 65 degree weather helps a ton!
So these next two weeks I'll be in sunny Santa Barbara with Moose (she hasn't started blogging yet, but beware it's going to happen soon!) putting on my game face and logging some solid training. I'm sure these next two weeks will hopefully include a lot of good pictures, good recapping, etc etc. Just good stuff. That is all.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Go fast!
S - 17,200 yards
B - 258 miles
R - 39 miles
Time - 22.62 hours
I'm going to mix it up a bit this week and go in chronological order as I think it will best capture my weekly schedule; at least this time around. Plenty of time to experiment.
Monday - swim + aerobic run; nothing too special here, I'm starting to feel a bit better in the pool and need to whip myself into shape before heading out to CA. I may be an ok swimmer on my best days amongst the crowd here in CLT but out in a land of unknown quality-of-swimmer I need to make sure I represent well...
Tuesday - 2.5 hrs aerobic bike ride + run w/ 5k time trial; the ride this morning went well as it was with a fun group (starting to become a weekly thing it seems) in the morning although my legs felt a little tired. That's nothing unusual at this point as it seems as though every single workout involves some level of fatigue. Later in the afternoon I headed over to Myers Park to participate in my second track meet of the summer. Last week I ran the mile/2 mile and this week I had the 5k on my schedule. I wasn't super excited simply because I had ridden 50+ miles that morning and had doubts of my ability to perform. I ran a 16:32 a little over a month ago on the roads at the Biathlon (flat, accurate course) so I was hoping to run sub 16:30 on the track today, although I didn't come to fruition due mainly to a pedestrian first mile. I ended up with a 16:35, which is still very good but not quite what I was hoping for. I'd like to do a 5k later in the fall and see just how much I've improved my road 5k speed with little to no actual track work.
Wednesday - aerobic run + swim; not a whole lot to mention today, I was feeling pretty tight (but not sore) from the 5k last evening but a nice, easy run loosened my legs up nicely. The swim that night was tough as I felt quite slow but Kenneth and I slogged through the whole workout without too many problems (Kenneth destroyed everyone but a former ITU Pro at Bandits this weekend, pretty impressive...but not surprising for a guy that has a 5k PR of sub 14 minutes!)
Thursday - swim + aerobic bike; pretty much in line with the daily grind. Extra long swim LC with Ashley (5k LC meters, ugh) that went well and a tough bike workout with Jason. My threshold intervals are getting longer, but they're also getting more powerful. 2-3 months ago I was on the "low" end of my threshold range and now I'm on the higher end for longer periods of time. Progression.
Friday - run w/ quality + aerobic bike; I got to head over to Mcalpine today to do some 1km repeats that were pretty tough. My legs were feeling tired and had little pop but the 1k repeats went alright. Plugging my 5k time into Mcmillan's pace calculator gives me a target of 3:17-3:22 for these repeats but I knew that right now, those times are beyond my reach. Mcalpine is slow, my legs were tired, and I've done little to no structured distance intervals with specific time goals this year so I was just hoping to be 3:25-3:30. Mission accomplished. Bike ride was just normal around the booty loop.
Saturday - aerobic bike + aerobic run + swim; Quantity, not quality was the name of the game today. ~4.5-5 hrs is a fairly normal Saturday as it's been a triple workout day almost this entire year.
Sunday - bike w/ work + aerobic run; I'd been stressing about this bike ride all week as on paper it looked remarkably difficult. Lots of threshold work (60 minutes worth) plus some VO2 level power work sprinkled in at the end of each threshold interval. Needless to say, it was tough, but not quite as bad as I had built up in my head.
So that's the week in a blogshell. A relatively big week, but not huge (run volume is down a bit lately, but I'm back to being consistent atleast). Next week is more of the same, but by Sunday I'll be in sunny Santa Barbara. Not too shabby...
B - 258 miles
R - 39 miles
Time - 22.62 hours
I'm going to mix it up a bit this week and go in chronological order as I think it will best capture my weekly schedule; at least this time around. Plenty of time to experiment.
Monday - swim + aerobic run; nothing too special here, I'm starting to feel a bit better in the pool and need to whip myself into shape before heading out to CA. I may be an ok swimmer on my best days amongst the crowd here in CLT but out in a land of unknown quality-of-swimmer I need to make sure I represent well...
Tuesday - 2.5 hrs aerobic bike ride + run w/ 5k time trial; the ride this morning went well as it was with a fun group (starting to become a weekly thing it seems) in the morning although my legs felt a little tired. That's nothing unusual at this point as it seems as though every single workout involves some level of fatigue. Later in the afternoon I headed over to Myers Park to participate in my second track meet of the summer. Last week I ran the mile/2 mile and this week I had the 5k on my schedule. I wasn't super excited simply because I had ridden 50+ miles that morning and had doubts of my ability to perform. I ran a 16:32 a little over a month ago on the roads at the Biathlon (flat, accurate course) so I was hoping to run sub 16:30 on the track today, although I didn't come to fruition due mainly to a pedestrian first mile. I ended up with a 16:35, which is still very good but not quite what I was hoping for. I'd like to do a 5k later in the fall and see just how much I've improved my road 5k speed with little to no actual track work.
Wednesday - aerobic run + swim; not a whole lot to mention today, I was feeling pretty tight (but not sore) from the 5k last evening but a nice, easy run loosened my legs up nicely. The swim that night was tough as I felt quite slow but Kenneth and I slogged through the whole workout without too many problems (Kenneth destroyed everyone but a former ITU Pro at Bandits this weekend, pretty impressive...but not surprising for a guy that has a 5k PR of sub 14 minutes!)
Thursday - swim + aerobic bike; pretty much in line with the daily grind. Extra long swim LC with Ashley (5k LC meters, ugh) that went well and a tough bike workout with Jason. My threshold intervals are getting longer, but they're also getting more powerful. 2-3 months ago I was on the "low" end of my threshold range and now I'm on the higher end for longer periods of time. Progression.
Friday - run w/ quality + aerobic bike; I got to head over to Mcalpine today to do some 1km repeats that were pretty tough. My legs were feeling tired and had little pop but the 1k repeats went alright. Plugging my 5k time into Mcmillan's pace calculator gives me a target of 3:17-3:22 for these repeats but I knew that right now, those times are beyond my reach. Mcalpine is slow, my legs were tired, and I've done little to no structured distance intervals with specific time goals this year so I was just hoping to be 3:25-3:30. Mission accomplished. Bike ride was just normal around the booty loop.
Saturday - aerobic bike + aerobic run + swim; Quantity, not quality was the name of the game today. ~4.5-5 hrs is a fairly normal Saturday as it's been a triple workout day almost this entire year.
Sunday - bike w/ work + aerobic run; I'd been stressing about this bike ride all week as on paper it looked remarkably difficult. Lots of threshold work (60 minutes worth) plus some VO2 level power work sprinkled in at the end of each threshold interval. Needless to say, it was tough, but not quite as bad as I had built up in my head.
So that's the week in a blogshell. A relatively big week, but not huge (run volume is down a bit lately, but I'm back to being consistent atleast). Next week is more of the same, but by Sunday I'll be in sunny Santa Barbara. Not too shabby...
Monday, June 13, 2011
Tri Latta
S - 10,100 yards
B - 189.7 miles
R - 30.4 miles
Time - 15.84 hours
The only interesting things to happen this week were that I attended a track meet for the first time in a year (racing the mile and the two mile rather poorly), raced at Latta, and booked tickets to fly out to Santa Barbara, CA for 2.5 weeks to get my butt handed to me repeatedly (at least it's in a glorious, glorious location though so I'm ok with that)... Run volume was a bit low this week as well as overall time volume but racing usually disrupts good training. Lots of fast stuff this week.
Tri Latta (750/17/3.1)
Rode to the race sit with the Behmes and had an adequate amount of time to set up and get in a brief warm-up before the 6:30 am race start. It should be noted (as many people asked about it post-race) that I developed an infection in my hand sometime before the race (Thursday pm or Friday am, not really sure) and the infection area (4th knuckle) was pretty swollen and sore to the touch. While I wish I could say it slowed me down, unfortunately (or fortunately?) it did not!
Swim - 12:01 (7th)
The gun went off and away we went! I knew the first 100 yards or so were basically going to be a mad dash, but I hadn't positioned myself particularly well so I was running up on people's feet for a bit. In hindsight, should have moved out a bit towards the left and been on the front; I think that would have positioned me better from the start. After a while, the furor settled down a bit and the group stretched out; I figured Brad and Jenny would be off the front, leaving everyone in their wake, then Scott, Selle, and Frank would be the next group and hopefully I could be on the tail end of that or in the front of the 3rd "group" (note, calling these groups is a bit of a misnomer, as when you're actually swimming it feels like there are either people all over the place or no one at all...).
About 2 or 300 meters into the swim I felt my timing chip band suddenly loosen and fall to the bottom of my ankle and make its way towards my toes. I immediately had to stop and reach for it and take it off and stuff it in my suit. I initially tried to re attach it on my ankle then realized how dumb that was and put it under my leg. This was frustrating because I lost my spot "leading" some chasers and lost some not insignificant time. I'm sure it wasn't a lot of actually sitting still, but losing your rhythm and placing on the swim is very frustrating. Someone ran into me while I was fixing it and I'm sure they were probably annoyed but oh well, sorry dude. I started swimming again and managed to find a rhythm to the turnaround and then felt like I was by myself. With about 100m to go I saw someone off to the left swimming about the same speed that I had been catching the whole way back. I swing over that way to get on their feet and after a bit realized that it was Fletch. We exited the water together (Fletch, Me, Nicole and Ashley apparently) and I ran up the long hill to transition.
T1 - 2:00
Coach Desert Dude emailed me Sunday after looking up results and asked if I had stopped to eat breakfast in transition 1. Losing 20 seconds for no good reason to the rest of the top 10 is pretty frustrating, especially considering I didn't think I wasted any time in T1. 20 seconds in a race like this is not an insignificant amount of time... Although in hindsight putting my chip back on certainly did not help.
Bike - 40:01 (2nd)
Headed out on the bike behind what felt like everyone and started hammering down Sample Rd. The speed bumps were extremely annoying and felt mildly unsafe at 27-28 mph! At least they were table tops and not actual speed bumps. I managed to pass a few people on Sample Rd and eventually made it out onto the real course where I found myself in front with only Brad up the road. Soon thereafter Donny passed me and Ryan Barnett also passed and we ended up riding back and forth for the first half of the race before turning into the business park where Ryan unfortunately kept going straight despite my efforts to yell at him; unfortunately it's tough to hear anything in an aero helmet at 30+ mph. From that point on it was pretty much Donny and I going back and forth every once in a while to the end. I started feeling warmed up with about 7-10 minutes to go and at that point felt much more comfortable. Donny rolled into dismount just ahead of me and we ran under the blow up thingy together.
T2 - 1:17
Unfortunately we both also got our handlebars stuck in the flag line that was marking the run into transition. After getting free of that I made my way to my rack and put on my running shoes, took off the helmet and grabbed my number. Unfortunately the clasp on the Scott flats didn't attach properly so I came out of my shoe and had to stop and adjust that before departing transition.
Run - 18:34 (4th)
Headed out on the run a little bit behind Donny due to my mishap and ran behind him for a while. This run course is fairly difficult as it is both on trails (included loose gravel) and hilly. I stuck on Donny's back for a while before going around him relatively soon into the run. I heard him behind me the rest of the way though so I never really opened up a gap. Before the first turnaround (Y shaped course) I saw Brad coming the other way and he didn't look like he was going too fast but he had a fairly significant lead so I knew it was basically a race for second place. I continued on feeling pretty smooth and strong but I could tell I wasn't going to produce a blazing run split. At the second turnaround I saw Donny and Scott right behind him and tripped a little bit going around the 180. I knew Scott was running fast if he'd made up that much time so I tried to pick up the pace a little bit to make the catch a little later. Once he passed me I stuck on his tails for a bit but didn't really feel like trying to sprint it out with him into the finish chute. So he gapped me a bit into the finish line and I crossed in 3rd, 8s behind Scott and roughly 1.5min behind Brad.
All in all I was a little disappointed with my performance today. I had a very solid swim/bike/run but little mistakes and/or mishaps slowed me down a bit. I shouldn't be upset, however, especially considering that 3 weeks ago I didn't think I was going to be racing for a long time. Plus, it was a really fun day out there seeing tons of people I knew and a lot of people had good races, which is always fun to see.
B - 189.7 miles
R - 30.4 miles
Time - 15.84 hours
The only interesting things to happen this week were that I attended a track meet for the first time in a year (racing the mile and the two mile rather poorly), raced at Latta, and booked tickets to fly out to Santa Barbara, CA for 2.5 weeks to get my butt handed to me repeatedly (at least it's in a glorious, glorious location though so I'm ok with that)... Run volume was a bit low this week as well as overall time volume but racing usually disrupts good training. Lots of fast stuff this week.
Tri Latta (750/17/3.1)
Rode to the race sit with the Behmes and had an adequate amount of time to set up and get in a brief warm-up before the 6:30 am race start. It should be noted (as many people asked about it post-race) that I developed an infection in my hand sometime before the race (Thursday pm or Friday am, not really sure) and the infection area (4th knuckle) was pretty swollen and sore to the touch. While I wish I could say it slowed me down, unfortunately (or fortunately?) it did not!
Swim - 12:01 (7th)
The gun went off and away we went! I knew the first 100 yards or so were basically going to be a mad dash, but I hadn't positioned myself particularly well so I was running up on people's feet for a bit. In hindsight, should have moved out a bit towards the left and been on the front; I think that would have positioned me better from the start. After a while, the furor settled down a bit and the group stretched out; I figured Brad and Jenny would be off the front, leaving everyone in their wake, then Scott, Selle, and Frank would be the next group and hopefully I could be on the tail end of that or in the front of the 3rd "group" (note, calling these groups is a bit of a misnomer, as when you're actually swimming it feels like there are either people all over the place or no one at all...).
About 2 or 300 meters into the swim I felt my timing chip band suddenly loosen and fall to the bottom of my ankle and make its way towards my toes. I immediately had to stop and reach for it and take it off and stuff it in my suit. I initially tried to re attach it on my ankle then realized how dumb that was and put it under my leg. This was frustrating because I lost my spot "leading" some chasers and lost some not insignificant time. I'm sure it wasn't a lot of actually sitting still, but losing your rhythm and placing on the swim is very frustrating. Someone ran into me while I was fixing it and I'm sure they were probably annoyed but oh well, sorry dude. I started swimming again and managed to find a rhythm to the turnaround and then felt like I was by myself. With about 100m to go I saw someone off to the left swimming about the same speed that I had been catching the whole way back. I swing over that way to get on their feet and after a bit realized that it was Fletch. We exited the water together (Fletch, Me, Nicole and Ashley apparently) and I ran up the long hill to transition.
T1 - 2:00
Coach Desert Dude emailed me Sunday after looking up results and asked if I had stopped to eat breakfast in transition 1. Losing 20 seconds for no good reason to the rest of the top 10 is pretty frustrating, especially considering I didn't think I wasted any time in T1. 20 seconds in a race like this is not an insignificant amount of time... Although in hindsight putting my chip back on certainly did not help.
Bike - 40:01 (2nd)
Headed out on the bike behind what felt like everyone and started hammering down Sample Rd. The speed bumps were extremely annoying and felt mildly unsafe at 27-28 mph! At least they were table tops and not actual speed bumps. I managed to pass a few people on Sample Rd and eventually made it out onto the real course where I found myself in front with only Brad up the road. Soon thereafter Donny passed me and Ryan Barnett also passed and we ended up riding back and forth for the first half of the race before turning into the business park where Ryan unfortunately kept going straight despite my efforts to yell at him; unfortunately it's tough to hear anything in an aero helmet at 30+ mph. From that point on it was pretty much Donny and I going back and forth every once in a while to the end. I started feeling warmed up with about 7-10 minutes to go and at that point felt much more comfortable. Donny rolled into dismount just ahead of me and we ran under the blow up thingy together.
T2 - 1:17
Unfortunately we both also got our handlebars stuck in the flag line that was marking the run into transition. After getting free of that I made my way to my rack and put on my running shoes, took off the helmet and grabbed my number. Unfortunately the clasp on the Scott flats didn't attach properly so I came out of my shoe and had to stop and adjust that before departing transition.
Run - 18:34 (4th)
Headed out on the run a little bit behind Donny due to my mishap and ran behind him for a while. This run course is fairly difficult as it is both on trails (included loose gravel) and hilly. I stuck on Donny's back for a while before going around him relatively soon into the run. I heard him behind me the rest of the way though so I never really opened up a gap. Before the first turnaround (Y shaped course) I saw Brad coming the other way and he didn't look like he was going too fast but he had a fairly significant lead so I knew it was basically a race for second place. I continued on feeling pretty smooth and strong but I could tell I wasn't going to produce a blazing run split. At the second turnaround I saw Donny and Scott right behind him and tripped a little bit going around the 180. I knew Scott was running fast if he'd made up that much time so I tried to pick up the pace a little bit to make the catch a little later. Once he passed me I stuck on his tails for a bit but didn't really feel like trying to sprint it out with him into the finish chute. So he gapped me a bit into the finish line and I crossed in 3rd, 8s behind Scott and roughly 1.5min behind Brad.
All in all I was a little disappointed with my performance today. I had a very solid swim/bike/run but little mistakes and/or mishaps slowed me down a bit. I shouldn't be upset, however, especially considering that 3 weeks ago I didn't think I was going to be racing for a long time. Plus, it was a really fun day out there seeing tons of people I knew and a lot of people had good races, which is always fun to see.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Give me a better title
S - 9,000 yards (blah)
B - 302.9 miles (yay!)
R - 42.1 miles (no appropriate exclamation found)
Time - 22.09 hours
I'm gonna start this one out by talking about one of my favorite things: riding alone. As far as I know, I'm not crazy so I think it's important to examine some of the pros and cons of solo riding to properly assess my feelings on the subjected.
Pros:
1) Lonely (yea, I said it) - out there all by yourself, just enjoying the day (hopefully) and cruising along...
2) Only have to worry about yourself (I - at times - hate worrying about other people on a ride; how they feel, where they want to go, what they want to do, how thirsty they are, whether or not they need to pee, if they'll blow their nose on you, what workout they have to do, whether you blow a snot rocket on them, I could go on and on and on...
3) Stop for as long as you want at the store stop! (no wham bam thank you ma'ams at the stop, I like to really enjoy my mountain dew!)
4) Your own schedule (If I wanna ride at 7:06 am by golly I can ride at 7:06am!)
Cons:
1) Risky (can counteract said riskiness by carrying ID, but it's still riskier than riding with people)
2) Lonely (nobody to talk to except for gas station employees who think you're crazy, nobody on whom to drop the proverbial hammer, boring at times)
3) Even some triathletes think you're crazy (of the 300ish miles I rode this week, 200 of those were by myself)
On the one hand I'm definitely kind of a loner. I like the solitude of long rides by myself. I like being able to have to talk myself into hitting all of my intervals even though nobody but me will know that I gave up on them. I like that I can listen to music and nobody will judge me because they can't hear it (hello Katy Perry and mayyyybe some Ke$ha plus assorted techno-ish stuff that nobody will admit they like). On the other hand I like riding with people every now and then so it's important to find that appropriate mix. Group rides are great from a fitness standpoint, it's just that there's no specific workout involved. Sure, you'll hit a wide range of zones but none of it is focused and none of it is as good as specific intervals for long course racing. While I'd love to make people hurt (not even sure I can) on group rides I prefer the mental fortitude it takes to get through that 5th and 6th 10+ minute threshold interval by myself and not having to rely on anyone else to get the work done for me.
In some ways, riding solo is a lot like swimming. While I was out of the pool for ~2 weeks I thought a lot about why I enjoy it and why some people (most people) do not. I think what I like about swimming is how rhythmic it can be; once you start an interval/set, you're on your own under water. There aren't any noises, just bubbles. Sure there are other people around and that's also part of what makes swimming fun: people watching. For example, several weeks ago I swam at the MAC the day before Ultraswim and Olympic Gold medalist Rebecca Soni was swimming right next to me (or mayyybe I got in the lane next to her...). Not only was I admiring her swim stroke... Eh you get the point.
Now, onto the more exciting and always interesting weekly recap!
While I was back in the pool this week, I certainly felt "off." I think that's the longest I haven't been in the pool in the 3 years I've been swimming. Kind of strange. I had some workouts but none of them were very long and/or hard (well they were hard in the sense that I feel out of shape, but they were not difficult). I spent a little time at the outdoor pool at the Harris Y on Saturday and that was fun, but not for the swimming part....
Big miles on the bike this week (I think it may actually be the most I've ridden, or at least "documented") and that was pretty awesome. As mentioned last week, I rode Monday up in Chapel Hill, Tuesday solo intervals, Thursday solo intervals, Friday solo aerobic, Saturday small group with some progressive work, Sunday solo with intervals. By the time Sunday rolled around my legs were quite tired so that plus not quite as much sleep as I'd normally enjoy had me feeling pretty smoked. I had to do some intervals and thought I was going to have to quit mid-way through the first (of 6!) but luckily my legs didn't get any worse and I just plodded on; it was unremarkable but, as coach said, "good for you." That particular ride was probably the hardest non race-related workout I've ever had. Pretty awesome.
I did a good amount of indoor running on the treadmill this week; that's something that will become more and more common for me I think. As it gets warmer outside, the ability to get in a truly quality run session without risk of dehydration diminishes rapidly. If I wanted to do a tempo workout at 6:00/mi pace outdoors on a 90 degree day I'd HAVE to factor the temperature into my pace goals or I'd kill myself. Not so on the treadmill. If I want to run 6:00/mi pace, I can run that pace and not worry about overheating. While I do feel as though (for me) pace is "tougher" on the treadmill than outdoors, maybe that's not such a bad thing? Anyway, your mileage may vary.
Next week brings my first "real" sprint of the year at Tri Latta (no I'm not counting Cool Breeze because it is a stupid, pointless race) where I'd certainly like to do well, but I feel as though my swimming may hold me back a bit.
B - 302.9 miles (yay!)
R - 42.1 miles (no appropriate exclamation found)
Time - 22.09 hours
I'm gonna start this one out by talking about one of my favorite things: riding alone. As far as I know, I'm not crazy so I think it's important to examine some of the pros and cons of solo riding to properly assess my feelings on the subjected.
Pros:
1) Lonely (yea, I said it) - out there all by yourself, just enjoying the day (hopefully) and cruising along...
2) Only have to worry about yourself (I - at times - hate worrying about other people on a ride; how they feel, where they want to go, what they want to do, how thirsty they are, whether or not they need to pee, if they'll blow their nose on you, what workout they have to do, whether you blow a snot rocket on them, I could go on and on and on...
3) Stop for as long as you want at the store stop! (no wham bam thank you ma'ams at the stop, I like to really enjoy my mountain dew!)
4) Your own schedule (If I wanna ride at 7:06 am by golly I can ride at 7:06am!)
Cons:
1) Risky (can counteract said riskiness by carrying ID, but it's still riskier than riding with people)
2) Lonely (nobody to talk to except for gas station employees who think you're crazy, nobody on whom to drop the proverbial hammer, boring at times)
3) Even some triathletes think you're crazy (of the 300ish miles I rode this week, 200 of those were by myself)
On the one hand I'm definitely kind of a loner. I like the solitude of long rides by myself. I like being able to have to talk myself into hitting all of my intervals even though nobody but me will know that I gave up on them. I like that I can listen to music and nobody will judge me because they can't hear it (hello Katy Perry and mayyyybe some Ke$ha plus assorted techno-ish stuff that nobody will admit they like). On the other hand I like riding with people every now and then so it's important to find that appropriate mix. Group rides are great from a fitness standpoint, it's just that there's no specific workout involved. Sure, you'll hit a wide range of zones but none of it is focused and none of it is as good as specific intervals for long course racing. While I'd love to make people hurt (not even sure I can) on group rides I prefer the mental fortitude it takes to get through that 5th and 6th 10+ minute threshold interval by myself and not having to rely on anyone else to get the work done for me.
In some ways, riding solo is a lot like swimming. While I was out of the pool for ~2 weeks I thought a lot about why I enjoy it and why some people (most people) do not. I think what I like about swimming is how rhythmic it can be; once you start an interval/set, you're on your own under water. There aren't any noises, just bubbles. Sure there are other people around and that's also part of what makes swimming fun: people watching. For example, several weeks ago I swam at the MAC the day before Ultraswim and Olympic Gold medalist Rebecca Soni was swimming right next to me (or mayyybe I got in the lane next to her...). Not only was I admiring her swim stroke... Eh you get the point.
Now, onto the more exciting and always interesting weekly recap!
While I was back in the pool this week, I certainly felt "off." I think that's the longest I haven't been in the pool in the 3 years I've been swimming. Kind of strange. I had some workouts but none of them were very long and/or hard (well they were hard in the sense that I feel out of shape, but they were not difficult). I spent a little time at the outdoor pool at the Harris Y on Saturday and that was fun, but not for the swimming part....
Big miles on the bike this week (I think it may actually be the most I've ridden, or at least "documented") and that was pretty awesome. As mentioned last week, I rode Monday up in Chapel Hill, Tuesday solo intervals, Thursday solo intervals, Friday solo aerobic, Saturday small group with some progressive work, Sunday solo with intervals. By the time Sunday rolled around my legs were quite tired so that plus not quite as much sleep as I'd normally enjoy had me feeling pretty smoked. I had to do some intervals and thought I was going to have to quit mid-way through the first (of 6!) but luckily my legs didn't get any worse and I just plodded on; it was unremarkable but, as coach said, "good for you." That particular ride was probably the hardest non race-related workout I've ever had. Pretty awesome.
I did a good amount of indoor running on the treadmill this week; that's something that will become more and more common for me I think. As it gets warmer outside, the ability to get in a truly quality run session without risk of dehydration diminishes rapidly. If I wanted to do a tempo workout at 6:00/mi pace outdoors on a 90 degree day I'd HAVE to factor the temperature into my pace goals or I'd kill myself. Not so on the treadmill. If I want to run 6:00/mi pace, I can run that pace and not worry about overheating. While I do feel as though (for me) pace is "tougher" on the treadmill than outdoors, maybe that's not such a bad thing? Anyway, your mileage may vary.
Next week brings my first "real" sprint of the year at Tri Latta (no I'm not counting Cool Breeze because it is a stupid, pointless race) where I'd certainly like to do well, but I feel as though my swimming may hold me back a bit.
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