Another solid week of training in the books as I prepare for Vineman 70.3. Less than 3 weeks away!!

Work was CRAZY busy this week, as its the end of the quarter and I was busy working on a number of quarter-end deals. Lots of early morning conference calls and late nights in the office. The result of that is that I ended doing my training at some odd times, the oddest of which had to be a couple trainer sessions that started at late at night and ended well into the wee morning hours. My wife told me I’m nuts…but she understands, I think. Sorta.

Here’s a quick day by day rundown

• Monday - Run 5.9 miles, 44 minutes. Easy.
• Tuesday AM -Run 6.1 miles, 45 minutes. Hills.
• Tuesday PM- Bike trainer 20 miles, 1 hr. Tough Spin class
• Wednesday - Run 8 miles, 58 minutes, Trail run, tempo.
• Thursday - Bike trainer, 40 miles, 2 hrs. Got on the bike at 11pm. Not fun.
• Friday - Run 6.3 miles, 46 minutes, easy, flat.
• Saturday - Run 13.4 miles, 1:41. Hilly.
• Sunday - Bike trainer, 60 miles, 3 hrs, Hard interval workout. Started at 9:30pm.

Ended up with 6 hrs on the bike (all on the trainer, sucks) - 120 miles, 5 hrs of running - 40 miles

I am in the midst of a heavy training block now. The calf injury, which plagued me the first half of the month, seems to be behind me now and I am running consistantly once again; putting in 37 miles in 6 runs last week. Most of it was a very easy pace. I had a great 12 mile run on Sunday…even though it was hot out, I managed a steady 7:33 pace at avg 151 HR, which is just a couple beats over my Maffetone pace. My PE felt lower than the HR indicated, it felt very comfortable and easy.

My bike mileage, which is typically very light (60-80 miles/wk)…is actually approaching a respectable level…I managed 140 miles last week with quite a bit of intensity. The highlight was a tough 4 hr + ride on Saturday, just shy of 70 miles…not very long, but it had 8500 ft of climbing. Again, I felt good despite the heat…my legs felt strong on the climbs. I’ve noticed a distinct change in my strength on long climbs during the last couple weeks…the hard intervals and big gear work I’m doing are paying off.

I’m looking forward to another big week…somewhere in the 150-160 range on the bike and 40-45 miles of running.

In other news, I’m a little bummed out - a couple good friends of mine (and riding buddies) are moving out of the area this week. We went out for some pizza and beers tonight for a little going-away party. I’m considering doing the Marine Corps Marathon this fall - that will give us a good excuse to go visit.

Stay tuned for some changes to the site…I am changing my blogging platform from WordPress.com to WordPress.org which will give me the flexibility to do some cool and different things with the site. I’m very much a novice when it comes to web design - but its a fun little project.

For you fellow tech geeks out there…check out this new web application called Evernote. It advertises itself as ‘your external brain’, essentially its a note-taking/web clipping app that syncs a desktop client, the web and a mobile device. In particular, the text recognition is pretty amazing, it will recognize handwritten text in a photo and make that text searchable. I’ve just started to play with it and its pretty cool. Check out the demo here.

That’s it for now…

I went for my first pain free run at lunch yesterday- an easy 5 miles around the neighborhood. It’s been three weeks since I injured my calf so I am itching to get some miles in. But, I need to be smart about it…the last thing I need to do is run too hard or too long and reinjure it.

Fortunately, riding does not hurt my calf at all…so, after the girls went to bed last night, I did a pretty hard 60 min session on the trainer.

• 8 min easy spin, 4 x 10 min HARD with 2 min rest, 4 min cooldown
• avg HR on the work intervals was 137, 147, 154 and 161.

I had some good tunes cranking on my iPod…Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and some Metallica. The hour went by fast.

This weekend, we were up in Anaheim for the Danskin Women’s Triathlon at Disneyland. It was my wife’s first triathlon. And for someone who has said she would NEVER do a running race, does not particularly like to swim and still gives me a hard time for insisting we go mountain biking while on our honeyoon…this was a momentous occasion.

So I asked her after the race…what’s going through your mind? “What the hell was I thinking??? I’ll never do that again…” or “OMG - that was awesome, I want to sign up for another one RIGHT NOW ” ??

The latter, of course.

It’s official. We have another triathlete in the family.

…pics to come shortly.

Well, I tried the Newtons and despite taking a very conservative approach to using them, I’ve ended up sidelined with a calf strain. I hurt it 2 weeks ago and have tested it twice on short runs. Both times, it was quite sore so I’m going to take a few more days before running again.

Guess they weren’t for me. Hopefully, I’ll be ok in a week or so. Vineman is about 5 1/2 weeks away so I should have plenty of time to get my running in order.

I’m really hoping to do the club Aquathlon next week as well, so fingers crossed.

Fortunately, my leg doesn’t bother me when I ride my bike, so I’ve been getting some good rides in. I rode on Sunday and felt awesome…did a 65 miler up to San Clemente and back, just a hair under 20mph average at a nice low 130 HR. Felt very strong, so that gives me some confidence.

This weekend, my wife is doing her first triathlon, the Danskin Women’s Triathlon at Disneyland. It should be very exciting…I can’t wait to see her race.

There are days, most in fact, that I wish I had at least that many. Somewhere close to thirty would be nice, don’t you think?

Let’s do the math…ideally, I’d like the following every day. These are weekdays obviously.

8 hrs of sleep
8 hrs for working
3-4 hrs to spend with the wife and kids.
2 hrs to train
2 hrs for food preparation and eating. I like to eat.
1 hr for basic maintenance (showering, getting dressed, etc.)

Ok, that adds up to 24-25 hrs. Notice that I’ve budgeted zero time for driving anywhere, standing in line at the grocery store, doing laundry, etc, etc.

Ay, there’s the rub.

So, as a working class triathlete with kids, a spouse that likes to see me now and then…how the hell am I supposed to train 10-12 hours a week and do the rest of it as well?

I’m still figuring it out.

Since I’m sort of a geek, I try to utilize technology where I can to maximize my time. There are times when i risk being a slaves to these tools….but for the most part, they really help me keep track of all that I have going on.

So…here is what I use to keep track of my daily life, work and workouts.

Hardware

1. HP Compaq NC6400 laptop - This is a basic company-issued Windows XP pseudo-computer. Not a fan. My work email and all work-related documents are here. My company doesn’t support Macs AT ALL…so it is what I am stuck with to get on the corporate network and earn a living.
2. Macbook Pro - My personal laptop. All my writing, music, personal email, photos, videos…pretty much my entire life is in this thing. I back it up to a 500GB external drive, using Apple’s Time Machine utility on a weekly basis.
3. Blackberry 8830 - My work cell phone and PDA. Syncs my calendar, contacts, tasks and, of course, my work email. A work requirement since I travel a fair bit. I also have the mobile Gmail client on here, so I can check my personal email.
4. LG Env2 - my personal cell phone. Yes, I have two cell phones. I CANNOT resist checking my email if my Blackberry is in my pocket, and it drives me nuts. So at about 7pm every night and on Friday evening, the work cell goes in the drawer so I’m not tempted to check work email over the weekend. It does have web access so if I want to check my Gmail account, I can do that. It also has a 2.0 MP camera for quick snapshots, a microSD memory card slot for transferring pics to my Mac, and it has a GPS navigation program which is handy should I ever get lost on a bike ride. Hasn’t happened yet, but you never know.
5. Garmin Forerunner 305 - a reliable gps device to capture my training data for all bike and run workouts. I use it in indoor mode when I’m on a treadmill or bike trainer.
6. Polar s625x - This predates my Garmin. Since the Garmin is not waterproof, I use the Polar for swimming workouts and during races. Highly recommended if you’re not into getting GPS data, but want an otherwise full-featured HRM/watch.

Software

1. Gmail - By far the best free email service. Accessible from anywhere. Loads fast. Endless storage. And the mobile client is clean and easy to use. I use the Apple Mail client to download it on my Mac. If I need to check it from work, I use the web client.
2. Google Calendar and Google Calendar Sync for Outlook - allows me to share my calendar with my wife and add to it from any laptop.
3. Ascent GPS Training Log - way better than Garmin Training Center for downloading my Garmin.
4. Motionbased.com - I upload my runs and rides here when I want to share the data with friends or my coach.
5. BeginnerTriathlete.com Training Log - accessible from anyway, powerful and easy to use.
6. Firefox and Foxmarks - The best browser (sorry IE and Safari) and an add-on that syncs all my bookmarks across both computers.
7. Office for Mac - allows me to work on my work-related documents on my Mac, I use a 2GB thumb drive to move them back and forth as needed, or simply email them to myself.
8. NetNewsWire - RSS reader for staying up on the all the latest blogs. If you have a blog and don?t have a RSS feed link…well, get with the program.
9. Quicksilver - a Mac-only application launcher and so much more…

That’s about it. So, busy triathletes, what are you using to keep track of your busy lives?

I’ve been derelict in posting to my blog lately. I suck. 

So what’s new….let’s see.

I did the TSCD Club Aquathlon last week, which is a 1000m ocean swim, followed by a 3 mile beach run. It was a blast.

My wife is attempting her first triathlon next month, the Danskin Women’s Triathlon on June 15th. She’s excited and nervous…

I’ve been training a lot. For me at least its a lot..thus far this month I’m at 10K swimming (ok not much swimming), 323 miles on the bike and 142 miles of running. Next month, I’m shooting for 20k/400/200.

I recently picked up a pair of these. They look kinda dorky, but they feel really good. Ok, they look really dorky. 

I’m itching to do a running race. I’ve been getting faster at the track so I’m really curious what I could do in a 10K or even a 5K. This past week I did 4×1200 in 4:10, 4:03, 4:02, 4:02 on 3 min rest. Two months ago, I did the same workout with repeats in 4:13, 4:11, 4:10, 4:03 so it seems I’m getting fitter.

It’s been nearly two weeks since my last post…you might say that of all the roles that I play on any given day, blogger is the one that is getting the least time on stage lately. My apologies if this entry is somewhat rambling…

Recovery from Wildflower was surprisingly quick. I took two days completely off,  but after that I felt nearly back to normal. Very different from Oceanside which wiped me out for 4 or 5 days.

The next big event is Vineman 70.3, which I am really looking forward to…I have a couple months to lay down some solid preparation and I’m very motivated to train. After a couple “decent’ performances, I’m ready to put the pieces together and go fast!

After a few email exchanges with my coach, I’ve decided to scale back my swimming pretty dramatically…down to once a week and really focus on spending a lot of time on my bike. I took a look at my log for the past few months, I’ve averaged 1.5 swim workouts  and about 4000 yards a week. I swam 28-ish at both Oceanside and Wildflower. Granted I could pick up a minute or two by swimming more consistently, but to make any big leap in swim fitness I need to be swimming 4-5 times per week. I simply have too much on my plate to devote 4-5 hours a week to swimming. Those hours are better spent improving my abilities on the bike, which is my weakest discipline. Over the next several weeks, I’m going to be riding (and running) a lot.

In other news, I’m volunteering at the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon this weekend and really looking forward to it. I’m coordinating the ’swim buddies’ which should be a lot of fun. These short races typically draw a lot of novice and even first-time triathletes, many of whom have not swum in the ocean before. So it will be cool to provide some support and encouragement for them. A bunch of us went out last weekend to preview the course and we were greeted by a school of dolphins. It was my first time in the ocean since the fatal shark attack on Dave Martin, and while I was not really scared; sharks were still on my mind. This sounds corny, but it was almost as if the dolphins were welcoming us back into the ocean. 

On that note, I think its time to call it a night.

Thanks for reading.

I’m writing this in the car as we make the drive home from Wildflower. My wife is driving…

Thoughts of the past few days at Wildflower are still fresh, so I figure now is a good time to write my race report.

The Wildflower Long Course is a widely considered to be one of the toughest half-ironman distance events in the world. Two years ago, I did the Olympic distance race and this time around I decided to give the ‘big’ race a shot, half to take on the challenge and half to enjoy some post-race beers on Saturday night instead of going to bed early to prepare for a Sunday race.

We arrived at Lake San Antonio mid-day Thursday and were able to get a good camp spot in Harris Creek, right next to a playground for our kids, and strategically positioned close to the bathrooms and the showers. Score! Once we got our tents set up, I did a short 1 hr bike ride to make sure the bike was functioning well and to loosen up the legs after the long drive. I noticed my rear derailleur needed an adjustment. Friday morning, we drove the bike course…I’ve heard horror stories about tough 56 mile route and wanted to get a sense of what to expect. I’m glad I did. Then we hit the festival and race expo, got some lunch, picked up my race packet and I went for a short swim. I also got my bike checked out. Aside from the long walk back to our campsite, it was a pretty relaxing, restful day.

Race morning. Despite the difficulty of the day ahead, I felt pretty calm. Breakfast consisted of cereal with milk, two bananas with coffee and a bottle of water. I took the boat shuttle over to the transition area and was ready to go about 30 minutes before my start time of 8:35. Saw the pro men and women exit the water. This year had a pretty stellar field so as a fan of the sport, it was cool to see some of the big names like Macca, Llanos, Lieto, McGlone and Gallo up close and personal.

Swim: I positioned myself one row back near the center…I would have liked to be in the front row but there were some guys that refused to concede their spots. No big deal, I’m confident in my swimming ability and a little contact doesn’t bother me. Once the gun went off, I swam pretty hard the first 200 or 300 yards, than got in a nice little group and found my rhythm. The water was perfect, 65 degrees or so… very comfortable to swim in. Lost the pack at some point, ended up swimming solo on the way back. Swim time was 28:12, about what I expected.

Had some trouble in transition area, for some reason I couldn’t get my bike shoes on. T1 time of 3:51. ouch!

Bike: the bike course starts out along the lake front for a mile, than goes straight up the infamous Beach Hill. I set up my bike with a 12-27 cassette and I was glad to have a extra gear to spin up the climb. I saw plenty of guys over-geared out of the saddle struggling to get the pedals over. I slid back on my saddle, put my hands on the arm rests of the aero bars and tried to keep my HR steady. Once over Beach, I relaxed, kept my effort steady and controlled as I left the park and headed out onto Interlake Road. After driving the course on Friday, I knew that the hardest part of the bike course was in the last 15 miles. Very different than Oceanside where the last 15 miles are pretty much entirely flat. I drank only water for the first 30 minutes and after than began taking on nutrition, three Thermolytes an hour, and 1 Gu (Tri-Berry w/caffeine) every 20 minutes. I alternated between drinking GuH20 from my aerobottle and water. Up to mile 40, I just concentrated on keeping it steady. No big efforts, no hard accelerations, just an intensity level slightly above what I would do on a steady effort training ride. Not easy, but steady. Mile 42 marks the left turn up Nasty Grade. Once again, I just alternated between my 25 and 27 cog keeping a high cadence up the climb. Only got out of the saddle once to stretch my back a bit. I said hello to the Energizer bunny as I crested the top. He pounded his drum in return.

The last 10 miles or so are up and down…but I felt pretty good as I rolled back into the park. 2:56:59 bike split. Under my sub 3hr goal. No cramps and no stomach issues. Another slow transition, my stuff got scattered a bit so I had to hunt down my visor and one of my socks. 3:01 T2 time.

Run: Heading out onto the run, I felt pretty fresh…Ran 7 min miles through the first 4 miles, which meanders along the lakefront. The first section was on a freshly paved with pitch black asphalt…it was getting hot out. I poured water on my head at every aid station. I briefly thought a sub 1:35 half might be in the cards, but Miles 4-6 were crazy hilly…I had to walk up a couple of the steep inclines….running up would not have been any faster. A 9 minute mile up the big hill. Once over the firebreak, the course mellows out a bit through Mile 9 as it goes through the massive Redondo Vista camping area. The crowd support was awesome, there were hundreds of people providing support and encouragement. I got into a small group and just hung on, but I really started to feel the day’s effort and was fatiguing quickly. I developed a side stitch that wouldn’t go away, so I just took sips of water. I couldn’t stomach any more gels or Gatorade, which I probably needed. After leaving Redondo Vista, there is a short climb, than a long descent into The Pit. I mentally cracked here…running down a long hill only to turn-around and run right back out. I was toasted and had to walk for a couple hundred yards through the aid station. Once back on the flat I started running again and just tried to get to the finish line in one piece. The course ends with a long descent down Lynch Hill.

Running into the finish chute was awesome….it was a great sense of accomplishment to finish this very difficult course. My run split was 1:45:05, just over 8 min/mile pace and my final time was 5:17:10. 41st in my AG, 176th OA.

All in all, I was very happy with the day. Even though it was my slowest half-ironman ever and my slowest run split…it’s really impossible to compare this course with any of the others I’ve done like Oceanside, Baja or Eagleman. This course is far, far more difficult. The hills keep coming and coming. It was a mistake not to do a full preview of the run course…mentally I was well-prepared to handle the bike, but the really difficult part of this race is the run and that took me by surprise a bit. All that said, its a fantastic challenge and I am really looking forward to giving it another shot now that I know what to expect.

I can’t wait until next year…

Oh, and the post-race beers I mentioned earlier? They tasted damn good.

We are heading up to Wildflower tomorrow. Well, almost. Actually we are driving up to Oxnard and staying in a hotel, then driving the rest of the way early Thursday morning. Our plan is to arrive by 10am or so, hoping that it’s early enough to get a decent camping spot. Two years ago, the last time we did this, we arrived in the late afternoon on Thursday and it seemed that we were on the tail end of the big traffic jam into the campground. We’ll see. 

There’s a bunch of packing to do tomorrow…our goal is to be on the road by 2 or 3. I’m sure we’ll sit in LA traffic, but there is really no way around that since we want the girls to get at least a 1/2 day of pre-school because they are missing Thursday as it is. I figure we pay way too much for pre-school as it is (a grand a month), I hate it when they miss a day, it feels like we’re throwing money out the door. Anyways, I digress.

Tonight I did a pre-race tune up workout, my regular Tuesday night track group at Carlsbad HS. There was a nice crowd tonight…much better than in December and January when we were lucky to have 6 people. On to the workout…

1 mile easy jog (8 min pace)

11 x 400 on 60s rest (should have been 12 but my calf was tight after 11 and I didn’t want to push it so close to a race) 

77 (164) 
74 (173) 
75 (173) 
74 (175) 
74 (178) 
73 (177) 
73 (179) 
74 (179) 
72 (185) 
73 (182) 
75 (178) 

1/2 mile cooldown, easy roughly 8 or 8:30 pace.

I mistakenly had auto lap on my Garmin turned off and wasn’t hitting the lap button, so I don’t have avg HR per internal. But I was able to capture max HR from the graph and it’s in parentheses. Not sure how valuable that data is other than to tell that the 72 on #9 was pretty much all out. 

I doubt I’ll get to posting tomorrow night and I won’t have Internet access over the weekend, so the next post will be a race report. Hopefully, it will be a good one!

Thanks for reading.