cool video

check this out…

in transition

After three 70.3 races this season, I’m up in the air about what’s next for the season.

My original plan for the year was to dial it back after Vineman for a few weeks and then build up for another fall marathon (probably Long Beach again)…taking another crack at the 3 hr barrier.

But, due to my wife’s company and her connections at 11Global, I may have an opportunity to race an Olympic distance race in Singapore on October 18. Which, of course, would be killer. Training for both a marathon and an Oly distance race are sort of at odds, obviously. I should know in 2-3 weeks whether that’s going to happen so I can nail down my program.

In the meantime, I’m just getting back in a good training rhythm. I took most of last week off, just doing a couple short runs to shake out the legs.

Last night, there was a great track session at Carlsbad HS. Some fast guys showed up and we had a solid first group…it was a lot of fun. We did four 1200’s with 3 min recoveries and a couple guys did the last one in under 4 minutes, they were smoking! But, I was happy with my performance…after getting the legs loose on the first one in 4:16, I did the last three in 4:05, 4:03 and 4:03.

That’s it for now…my email inbox is calling me.

Vineman 70.3

We just got back into town after a killer weekend up in Sonoma County. We stayed with my cousin and his family in Sebastopol, it was great to have some local support for the race. And, of course, the local knowledge of the area wineries came in handy for the post-race festivities on Monday!

Here’s the race report.

Pre-Race:

3:45am alarm. Shower, change and pre-race breakfast consisting of a cinnamon-raisin bagel with schmear (aka cream cheese), 1 vanilla-flavored Ensure and 2 cups of coffee. Final gear check and we are out the door by 4:45. Arrive at in downtown Guerneville at 5:20, park and walk down to transition. We are among the first to arrive, I set up my gear, hit the porta potty, get bodymarked and relax until 6:20 or so. Sip on a bottle of Gu20 sports drink. The official water temp is 71.5, so wetsuits are legal. I don my trusty blueseventy helix and get in the water with my fellow 37 year old green-capped comrades and do some light swimming to warmup for my 6:46 wave start.

Swim:

I’ve been swimming virtually zero the last few weeks, so despite the fact that I’m a strong swimmer…I’m feeling a little nervous about my ability to swim a decent 1.2 miles. The gun goes off and I immediately get on some feet. I swim with a group of 4-5 other guys to the first turn around. The water gets very shallow after the turn and my hand is hitting bottom. I opt to walk and porpoise my way forward for about a hundred yards or so. Some guys chose to keep swimming though. Start swimming again and once I do, I start feeling pretty fatigued. I am at a pretty high effort level to stay with my group. Now, I question my thinking of choosing to stay with the group versus swimming solo…but at the time it seemed the right thing to do. Get back to transition and exit the water in 28:09. A decent time, but I wonder if I emptied the tank a bit too much.

Bike:

Get to the rack, rip off the wetsuit and get my shoes, helmet, sunglasses and race number on. I promptly drop my bike and spill the contents of my aero bottle on the ground. Rookie mistake!! Another athlete gave me a heads up about a steep little hill coming out of transition, so I had my bike in my 39-23. This was a good tip as I got on my pedals and easily spun out onto the course, while several others weaved and struggled to stay upright in their big chainring on the sharp incline.

The nutrition plan: 1 Gu every 20 minutes and 2 Thermolytes every 30 minutes, alternating sips of water and sports drink every 5 minutes. Since I spilled most of my sports drink, all I had was my frame bottle with water and had to wait for the first aid station at Mile 15 to get some Gatorade. Fortunately, the weather was quite cool so I wasn’t too worried about dehydrating.

Kept the effort steady through the first 15 miles or so. At one point, I heard a faint flapping and discovered that my spare tubular, inflator and C02 cartridges were no longer strapped to my saddle. (the flapping noise was the strap moving around in the wind). I guess they came loose somewhere on the rough pavement of Westside Road. Now, if I flat, I’m done. Put that aside, I tell myself, and try not to worry about something I can’t control.

At around Mile 20, a race official rolls up next to me on his motorcycle and informs me that he is giving me a yellow card for blocking. WTF? I guess I was riding in the center too much. In my defense, I was passing a series of slower riders, trying to cut the corners of the curvy, technical course and avoid the rough pavement on the far sides of the road. But, the rules are rules…so I bit my tongue and as instructed, stopped at the penalty tent. There was no time penalty, but I did have to sign an acknowedgment and get my race number marked with a big ‘P’. That stop cost me a minute or two. Again, try to put it aside….just keep rolling. From here on out no big spikes in effort, just keep the intensity at a moderate/steady level.

The rest of the bike course was uneventful…other than the spectacular scenary, of course! The ‘big’ hill on Chalk Hill Road (Mile 45) was not too bad at all. The rest of the ride went according to plan until I got back to Windsor HS. There was a lot of traffic on Windsor Road and somehow I missed the left turn into T2 and ended up riding past about a 1/4 mile past the HS to the next stop light. Very confused, I realized my mistake, turned around and finally got back into transition, glad to be off the bike and getting onto the run course. Bike split was 2:44:44. My goal pre-race was to ride under 2:40, so with the 4-5 minutes I left on the course due to the penalty and wrong turn, I was still pretty much on target with my goal.

Run:

Got my shoes on, grabbed my Gu flask and visor and go! The out and back run course was flat for the first 1.5 miles and than is rolling out to the La Crema Winery turnaround.  I typically come out of T2 with guns blazing and in my two earlier 70.3 races this year, have blown up spectacularly on the run course. A repeat of those incidents was not in the game plan, so my strategy was to keep the effort level ‘easy’ the first 6 miles, than pick it up coming back from the turnaround. For fueling, I sipped on my Gu flask and took water at every aid station. I definitely remembered to pack the running legs for this race, because my first three miles was all under 6:45 and I was feeling very strong. Still, I held back…chatted a bit with a fellow athlete and held the 6:40-6:45 pace through the turnaround. At Mile 7, I started to feel the ever-so-slight hint of a muscle cramp in my left hamstring, so I start taking Coke along with water at the aid stations. The pure sugar/caffeine boost is like rocket fuel. The dreaded bonk never comes, I hit Mile 10 in 1:05:51 and run the last 5K in 20:06…certainly my strongest finish ever in a 70.3 distance event.  Final run split is 1:25:57 (17th fastest of the day, not including pros)

Final overall time is 4:44:37. 18th in my AG and 86th OA

I’m esctatic about the day…a beautiful course and perfect weather for racing. Despite leaving some time on the bike course with some dumb mistakes, in my third 70.3 this year, I finally nailed my nutrition and pacing and ran the run split that I’ve known I’ve been capable of.

Third time is a charm!

just roll with it

Last week was a lackluster training week…primarily due to the fact that it was kind of a crappy week at work. Nothing bad, specifically, just a ton on my plate and a crazy schedule that had me driving all over Southern California meeting with clients. A 70 hr work week does not jive with my triathlon training schedule! As a result, I had two zeros (Tuesday and Friday).

So the weekend plan was ride 30-40 miles Saturday morning, run 8-10 on Sunday, both at a hard effort. Pretty easy to fit that it, right?

Saturday morning dawns and Chloe’s (my 2 y/o daughter) eyelid is swollen. My wife takes her to urgent care (a 2-3 hr affair) just to be sure that its not an allergic reaction. Fortunately, it was just a sty…nothing major. So, I scrap the bike ride and try to make the best of it…I’ll go for a swim! So Caty (my 4 yr old) and I suit up and head to the Y so she can hang out at Childwatch (which she loves, btw) and I hit the pool (missed my swim workout on Wednesday). Show up, pool closed all day to a ‘potty’ accident. Damn. The third time this has happened this month….and the Y is the only pool around with free day care, or any day care for that matter. I spin on a stationary bike for a bit, lift some weights and do some stretching while my daughter plays for a while. After the Y, we head to Jamba Juice, grab smoothies and then get some good daddy-daughter time at the playground. Good stuff.

At around 4, I decide that I don’t have time for a ride so I’ll run instead. The plan: 8-10 miles, hard. Lace up the shoes, start the industrial/techno/metal playlist on my iPod and set my Garmin ‘training partner’ for 6:45 pace. Not sure what got into me, but I was feeling it….after a 6:47 uphill first mile, I ticked ‘em off in 6:31, 6:23, 6:24, 6:23, 6:29, 6:21, 6:24, 6:42 (hill), and 6:16. Felt great, i am pretty stoked about 1:04:47 for 10. Fastest 10 miles I’ve ever done in a non-race…I wish there was a 10 mile race around here…I’m pretty confident that with some run-specific prep, I could run 58-ish in a race situation, fully tapered.

Kelly had take care of some work stuff on Sunday, so after breakfast, the kids and I went to Legoland. My workout plan was to go for a ride when she returned home at 3. Unfortunately, she got stuck in the office and didn’t get home until 7…another ride scrapped. Decided to hit the trainer (again) after the kids went down. I tried to keep the boredom at bay. 5 min warmup, 10×2min hard/1 min easy, 4 x 15 min steady/5 min off, 5 min cooldown. The last 30 minutes c-r-a-w-l-e-d  b-y. After the workout, stayed up until 12:30 finishing up a presentation for work.

Another busy weekend in the books! I can’t wait until this weekend, a few days off up in wine country and….something else I need to do, I can’t recall…what was it again?..Oh yeah, Vineman!

good time to be a sports fan

US vs AUS -Womens Water Polo at Coronado HS

On Tuesday night I skipped track practice and the family and I went down to Coronado Island to check out the US Women’s Olympic Water Polo team take on the Australian national team. It was a blast. Based on the FINA rankings, they are #2 and #3 in the world at the moment…a chance to see world-class competition without having to fly all the way to Beijing!

The US team looked great..they dominated from the start and won handily, 12 to 6. Hopefully they can play well in China and bring home the gold.

Speaking of the Olympics, I’m still recovering from my overdose of Olympic trials coverage. Both the swimming and track had lots of fantastic moments…here are some of my favorites:

• 16 y/o Jordan Hasay sets HS record and qualifies for the final in the 1500 semi and the crowd chanting “Come to Oregon” afterwards.
• Amy Begley running an amazing last lap in the 10K to get under the Olympic ‘A’ standard and get a spot to Beijing
• Tyson Gay’s 9.68 in the 100. Fastest ever under any conditions. Amazing!
• Kara Goucher’s win in the 5K. Payback for getting beat in the 10K.
• Marshavet Hooker’s fall/stumble/dive across the line to get 3rd in the 200 after not making the team in the 100.
• Dara Torres’s win in the 100.
• Dara Torres’s win in the 50!
• Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte both go under the existing WR in the 400IM
• ….and Nick Symmonds and a Oregon 1-2-3 finish in the 800. An instant classic!

One last thing to share…I found this link on Jordan Rapp’s blog. It’s a great article from ESPN about American 1500m runner, Lopez Lomong. I’ll be pulling for him huge in Beijing.

Cheers. Time to go watch the Tour ‘day’ France.

6 month data

First six months of the year training data. Posting this a week late, but oh well.

• Swim total = 59,700m / 18 hrs
• Bike total = 1,681 miles / 90h 30m
• Run total = 783.8 miles / 96h 43m
• total time = 204h 43m

weekly averages

• Swim = 2,300 m/ 40m
• Bike = 64.6 miles / 3h 30m
• Run = 30.1 miles / 3h 43m
• total time = 7h 23m

kinda weak now that I look at it this way. hmm…

Monday July 6th

Vineman is less than 2 weeks away. I’m starting to get those little butterflies that I sometimes get prior to a big race….a combination of nervous energy and simple excitement. I can’t wait to get up there.

All the big workouts are in the books, from here on out its shorter stuff with a small amount of intensity thrown in to keep the muscles firing and get the body ready to go fast.

Recap on the week:

Monday – Run 6.8 miles, 49 minutes. Flat. Nice and easy, 7:17 pace at 145 avg HR. My Maffetone HR is 148 so I wanted to keep this run under that HR cap.

Tuesday – Track Workout. 4 x 1 mile (5:32, 5:31, 5:31, 5:32) w/3 min recoveries….this was most consistent mile repeat workout this year. Dropped under 5:40 before, but never been able to hold multiple repeats at that pace. Encouraging.

Wednesday - Slept in and skipped the morning ride. Stayed up too late watching Olympic Trials. Evening swim workout: 250 drills, followed by 4 x 500 steady pace with 30 seconds rest. Felt good.

Thursday – Bike Trainer – hard interval workout, 75 minutes. 8 x 2 minutes Zone 5, 4 x 8 min Zone 4. This was hard, but I felt pretty strong through the entire workout.

Friday - Run 8 miles, 8.1 miles, 61 minutes. 7:30 pace…worst workout of the week. It was hot out and I had a side stich that wouldn’t let up. HR was elevated, 157 avg…I am pretty sure I was dehydrated.

Saturday - Run 11.1 miles, 1:26, very easy. 7:46 pace at 143 avg HR. Ditto on the Maffetone HR limit. Made sure I was plenty hydrated all day after the poor run yesterday.

Sunday - Brick. Bike 42 miles, 2:15 (19.0 mph). Middle 20 miles at HIM race pace or better. Quick transition (4 min). Run 5.5 miles descend pace. 7:17, 7:25 (hill), 7:09, 7:06, 6:49….total run time 38:35 (7:08 pace)

Right now, I’m getting mentally ready for a very hot race day and a no-wetsuit swim. According to the race website, the water temp on July 4th was 78 which is the limit for a wetsuit-legal event. I am concerned with overheating since I only have a fullsuit. So unless the water temp drops dramatically, I’ll opt to go without a wetsuit and simply race in this.

Also, the guys at RaceDayWheels are hooking me up with some sweet wheels for this race…for this event, I’ll be rolling a Zipp 808 in the front and a 1080 in the rear.

13 days to go.

Monday June 30

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

Monday June 23

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…

moving along

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.