Race Calendar 2012

Well next year is an Olympic year, but since (for some obscure reason) the British Olympic Committee seem to have favored Alistair Brownlee over me, I had to decide on some slighlty more local events!

    

I will write up my feelings about the 2011 season and my broader objectives for 2012 soon, but in the mean time, here's my provisional race calendar.   Things look a little different this year as I have had a rush of the blood to the head and decided that I would like to run a full 26.2 mile marathon next fall.   This means that I will focus on shorter (sprint and Olympic distance) triathlons earlier in the season before switching to a run focus later in the year.

March 18th.            Tobacco Road Half Marathon

April 7th.                Cary Duathlon (short course)

May 6th.                White Lake Sprint Triathlon (revenge for last year's debacle!)

June.                      Continue to look for a sprint tri.   
                              100 mile organised bike event.  Possibly Habitat for Humanity ride

July 14th.                Triangle Sprint Triathlon

August 4th.             Stumpy Point Olympic Triathlon

September 22nd.    Outer Banks Sprint Triathon

November 11th      Outer Banks Marathon

These races will, no doubt, be supplemented with various road races as dictated by The Puppeteer!

I'm looking forward to a great year and, with The Puppeteer's help, to continuing to improve my performances in 2012.  Target top 25% age group every event!

The Gobbler 5K 2011

Thanksgiving morning found us in Nags Head on the Outer Banks, which could mean only one thing....  time for the family to run the OBX Gobbler 5K, put on by the Outer Banks Running Club! 

I knew based on how the house was shaking overnight that it was going to be windy, but holy crap it was blowing hard!  The air temp was low 50s, but the wind chill made it feel much colder, so everyone layered-up and grabbed hats and gloves and delivered a large quantity of good natured whining about how they could have stayed in bed!   We met up with a bunch of friends at 7:30 am and headed over to the start area for an 8:00 am start. 

The Gobbler is in it's third year (we've managed to be at every one so far) and is very much a family friendly event that encourages walkers etc.   Timed race, but no timing chips - just a fun family morning with lots of coffee, hot chocolate, sausage biscuits and pumpkin bread!.  Never-the-less there are always some super fast people running in the 15 min range, and this year was no exception.   The field has grown to 600 and this year the race sold out about a month in advance.

Some of our assembled crew....   The Dominatrix and family also ran, but she was too fond of her bed and didn't make it to the start in time for the photo!

The race started pretty promptly at 8:00 am - no inflatable starting arch this year, as it would pretty soon have been heading out over the Atlantic somewhere!   I was going to run with my girls, but we had people running and walking at all sorts of paces, so after running with some of the gang at a very easy pace for the first half mile or so I deceided that I could stretch out a bit.   The course is essentially an "out and back" and was "with the wind" on the way out, but straight into a headwind on the way back.   I felt surprisingly good (I guess the two week training hiatus played a part!) and after running and chatting with Wolfgang (another triathlete) for a while I ran in alone at a nice comfortable pace.  I was very surprised, given that I had gone very slowly at the start and chatted along the way, that I crossed the line in 24:02.

They even had finishers medals this year!

We stayed a while afterwards for the raffle and some goodies before heading home to get ready for what we termed our "redneck waifs and strays turkey day dinner at the beach"....   five families and more food than you can imagine.  I say we earned it...   yum!

Ahhhh..... Rest!

I'm in the middle of a two week "time out" from training after my end-of-season half marathon last weekend and, I have to say, I'm enjoying re-charging my batteries a little before the madness starts again!

The Puppeteer preparing me for another season....

I met with The Puppeteer yesterday to go over race plans and objectives for mext year; off-season training and so on.  We are going to ramp-up the intensity a bit - great session and more on this later when plans are finalised.

So...   another week off ahead of me and it ties in nicely with the Thanksgiving Holiday.   I'm going to run the Nags Head Gobbler 5k on Thanksgiving morning, but will be doing it with the kids, so no stress there.  Will also hopefully go for a nice long (but leisurely) bike ride on the coast this week.

Hope I don't look like this when December first rolls around....

Race Report - Outer Banks Half Marathon

This was the race that got me back into "getting fit" a couple of years ago and, therefore, is indirectly responsible for getting me into this ridiculous triathlon thing!   Two years ago, when it was the first half marathon I had done for well over 20 years, I was happy to just finish in 2:19:39 - or 10:39 pace.  
Last year I finished in 2:11:33 - or 10:02 pace (I was coming off a pretty nasty cold for this one, and wasn't feeling my best)

Things have changed and I'm happy with my progression and that my aging legs are still up to the task....

This year my objective was to break the 2 hour mark (having run 2:02:xx at the Tobacco Trail Half Marathon back in March) and I'm pleased to be able to report that I ran a new personal best (at least, the best since I was in my twenties!) of 1:57:37 - or 8:59 pace.   I'm very happy!

At this rate if I keep running for another ten years I'll be running olympic qualifying times...  OK, maybe not!  :-)

SWMBO and the kids were tied-up this weekend with all sorts of "stuff" this weekend, so I drove to the coast on my own on Saturday morning and headed straight to the expo. and packet pick-up (I'm a bit paranoid about this stuff).  After spending an hour or so looking around and chatting I headed to some friends' house to watch some football and chill out for the afternoon.   Despite a nice offer to join them for a dinner out, I opted to stay in and cook for myself and was happy to be in bed and reading my book by around 9:30 pm.  I slept well!

The alarm went off at 4:10 am and, after getting dressed (remembered the Body Glide this time!) and gathering my stuff together, I had my now traditional race morning breakfast of 2 coffees; bagel with cream cheese; banana and one bottle of Ensure.   This seems to work, so I'm not changing it.

The OBX course is point-to-point and I elected to leave my car at the finish and catch the shuttle to the start.  I was soon parked at Manteo high school and enjoyed the sun rise over the ocean as we drove back over the causeway and in to Nags Head.

It was a mild morning (perhaps 50 degrees?) so I quickly dropped my gear bag off (to be collected at the finish); did some dynamic warm-ups and then went for an easy jog up and down the beach road to get loosened up.  Sometimes this feels like a bit of a chore, but this time I felt very good - no creaks!

I ran into my friends Liz and Michelle and chatted a while and also into Jon, an ex-collegue, and his wife.   Lots of pre-race banter!  OBX is a staggered start and, based on estimated finishig time provided when I registered I was placed in corral B, along with Jon and Liz.   The A corral went off promptly at 7:00 and two minutes later we were underway.

My race plan was to try to run even splits of around 8:45 to 9:00 pace and not to worry if the first mile was a bit slow based on the scrum at the start and getting my legs under me.   As it happened, I shouldn't have worried as my legs felt good and there was plenty of room.   I ran the first two miles with Liz (who was going to race using Jeff Galloway type run/walk intervals) and the splits were:   8:24    8:32

Definitely a little too fast, but I felt good that I had already got a minute or so "in the bank". 

Liz slowed to do her intervals and Jon joined me for about a mile and we deliberately slowed the pace before he left me at around mile 3.5.  The next three splits were:  8:43   8:47   8:47

Much better and nicely "on pace".

Form here on out I didn't run with or see anyone I knew.   I felt good as we ran through the Village at Nags Head and knew that I was still holding a sub 9 minute pace (you need to average 9:10 to break two hours).  I glanced at my Garmin occasionally but tried not to worry about it too much and to just enjoy myself.  the next three splits were:  8:56   8:51   8:59 - again, nicely even and within the target zone.   Took a gel at  mile five and would take another at mile ten.

Around mile nine I could feel myself tiring a bit and this is the point at which you cross the causeway and bridge on to Roanoke Island.  There was a reasonable wind from the SW, but it wasn't too much of an issue.  When I hit the bridge (the only significant hill on the course) I focused on keeping a fast cadence and was soon enjoying the view from the top.  The splits here were (as would be expected) a bit slower:  9:05  9:07  9:08, but I knew now that if I could keep the pace at sub 10:00 for the last few miles that I would break two hours.  Legs were tired by now, but I still felt good.  The last two full miles into the town of Manteo were 9:11 and 9:05 and I pushed a little of course at the finish line to 8:42.

Yeah!  I did it.   My Garmin said 01:57:37 and this was confirmed to the second in the official race results that were published later.   8:59 average pace for the race.

After chugging a Gatorade and some water and eating a protein bar, I enjoyed the finish line festivities and spent a while hanging out with Casey, Liz, Michelle and a bunch of other ladies while enjoying the free beer.   It was great to see downtown Manteo looking so good after it was hit so hard by Hurricane Irene recently.  A special shout out to Liz, who also broke the 2:00 barrier and to Meg, who rocked a 1:45 to finish third in her age group.  

Celebrating with Casey and Meg at the finish....   (Meg on beer seven out of about thirty!)

A fun day and a really well organised race as always.  A shout out to Jim Snyder and the guys at Outer Banks Sporting Events and a big thanks to the many volunteers.

....and a couple more photos (thanks Casey!)

Hanging with the Raleigh ladies

With Liz, Casey and Meg

Bike Fit!

I finally got some new Speedplay pedals for "The Slut" last weekend (that's the name SWMBO has given to my new Cannondale Slice 3 Ultegra for the many of you who probably don't read my drivel on a regular basis....) so now it was time to get properly fitted.

I called Matt Lodder - the Cary Cycle Surgeon http://carycyclesurgeon.com/Home.shtml and made an appointment for today.  Matt did a great job fitting me for my road bike back in February and is a wealth of knowledge about "all things Bikes".  I had absolutely no hesitation going back again for this one.

Fitting for a tri or time trial bike, where you (in theory at least) spend all of your time in a more aggressive "aero" position is a little different to being fitted for a road bike with a completely different frame geometry (this is 58 cm frame), but one thing that hasn't changed much this year though, is me!  I may have lost a few pounds and, hopefully, gained a little flexibility, but my "vital statistics" are basically the same, so this gave Matt a good head start over my last fitting, where he started by taking all sorts of body measurements and making me do all sorts of exercises on the floor!

After reviewing my (loose) goals and objectives for next year we got to work.  Here's The Slut set-up on the trainer in Matt's workshop and ready to go, with Matt about to make some starting adjustments.

First thing to look at was saddle height.   I knew that we had to take a litttle off the length of the seatpost based on a few quick test rides that I have taken.  Carbon framed tri bikes don't have "round" tubes, so there isn't limitless ability to simply slide the seat post up and down.   Soon enough I was holding my breath a little as Matt was cutting the seat post with a hacksaw blade specifically designed to cut carbon.

I'll spare you all of the details, but to cut a long story short, we spent the next 90 minutes playing with all sorts of adjustments and fine tuning until we had things right.   The seat was moved back on the seat post so as to create the correct relationship between my knee and the bottom bracket;  as a result the handlebar stem was shortened slightly (we might add back to this a little over time);  the aerobars were adjusted and so on.

Here's the result...    as you can see, I don't have the flexibility to ride in a very "flat back" position - I'm quite "rounded"  (OK, OK, I'm a freakin' hunchback!), but then again, so was Lance Armstrong relatively speaking and he seemed to manage OK!  There's a 6 cm drop from saddle to bars, which I guess is "respectable" for an old geezer like me.

Please note that that isn't my gut - it's a baggy tee shirt!

I can't wait to get The Slut out on the road and put her through her paces!  

Quarantine!

Ugh!  There are just five days to go before the Outer Banks Half Marathon and my oldest daughter is home from school with a sore throat and horrible cough.   I can only describe it as sounding like an elephant seal being assaulted with an iron bar!

Not sure how much I can do to protect myself in this crazy household, but I guess that I'll just try to quarantine myself as much as possible and keep my fingers crossed!

My New Mistress.....

I was excited to see the FedEx truck pull up the driveway today, because I knew that inside was the new love of my life.....    no, not the delivery driver (although she was pretty cute!), my new Cannondale Slice 3 Ultegra!

She was very neatly packed.....

But I soon had her ready for assembly.....

Shimano Ultegra components, except for the carbon cranks.

Vision aerobars

Fiz'ik saddle

I soon had her "roughly" assembled (I need to go and see Matt - the Cycle Surgeon for a fitting ASAP) but I can't wait to ride her, but have to wait until I get some new pedals - You can be sure that I'll be heading out to get some tomorrow!

SWMBO has already realised that she has competition for my affections and has named her.....  "The Slut!"  :-)

Phew!

The OBX Half Marathon is getting closer.....

On Wednesday The Pupeteer had me scheduled for a track workout, including some 1000 M intervals "for time" (I'm not really sure what she does with my times once I've submitted them too her - she probably just sits back and has a good laugh!).

Track work is, I'll freely admit, not excatly my favorite, but at lunchtime I headed down to the local school track to try to do as I was instructed:   Warm-up; 8 x 400 M splits; a mile at Half Marathon pace;  3 x 1,000 M splits.   Quel horreur!  The track was closed for some sort of maintenance.  I don't know of any other tracks local enough to get to for a lunchtime session so (secretly smiling to myself) I headed home to at least try to replicate the planned session on some local flat roads.  This is where the trouble started....

As soon as I started warming-up in my driveway I could feel some sort of tightness under my left knee cap.  My concerns were amplified when I started a gentle warm-up run.  Uh oh....  on every left foot strike I could feel my left knee.  I wouldn't describe it as pain - more a discomforting pressure/"tweak".   With the race less than two weeks away I didn't want to push my luck, so I walked home (still feeling the knee) and abandoned the workout.



At this point I'm a bit concerned and sent The Puppeteer a message to let her know.   We agreed that I would try a 45 minute aerobic session on the bike trainer that evening, and I felt a little better when I finished that without any difficulties or discomfort.

Yesterday I had a seven mile run with intervals scheduled.  I woke up without any discomfort in my knee but it was, never-the-less, with some trepidation that I set out.   I walked 0.75 miles before I started and threw in every warm-up move that I could think of...  high steps, lunges, twists, jumps, strides, backwards etc.   I went very "gingerly" (~10 min/mile pace) for the first mile to test things out...   nothing!   Yipee!  Pushed the pace from there and was happy to finish the seven miles without ever feeling my knee.  Color me happy.

I am increasingly realising that this type of incident is probably something that you just have to live with as an "older" triathlete.   I have absolutely no clue what the problem with my knee was and I likely never will.  The Puppeteer has me working on all sorts of things to improve core strength and flexibility - this sort of incident just reinforces to me how important this stuff is!

This is a great site for anyone who's interested:  http://www.coreperformance.com/

Two hour run scheduled tomorrow...  fingers crossed!

Halloween - A Survivor's Story...

Well it's November 1st and another Halloween is in the books and I'm pleased to see the back of it.

Don't get me wrong - I love the costumes, the decorations, the pumpkins and, of course, the traditional jaunt around the neighborhood trick or treating with the kids, but why?  oh why?  does the appearance of mountains of candy have to coincide with when I'm trying to lose a few pounds in advance of the OBX Half Marathon?

I think that the rainy conditions here in Raleigh last night seem to have provided an absolute bonanza for the kids that were hardy enough to venture out.....   my guys ended-up with truck loads of Twix; rivers of Reeses; armfulls of Almond Joy and...    well.....   mounds of Mounds.

Thankfully I don't have a tremendously sweet tooth, and I didn't indulge in the candy fest last night, but it is going to take some good willpower not to levy what my neighbor calls "the Daddy tax" and help myself to the occasional goody from the candy jar.

I think that I can resist though, which is more than I can say for a food (I use the term very loosely) that really is a horror show and should be known as "the Devil's food".......

                          




I am addicted to the sour cream and onion ones - I only eat the low fat ones, but even so, they are sooooo bad for you.   What do they put in those things?  crack?

I can't possibly eat just one - I eat them two at a time and once the first two hit my taste buds, some sort of ravenous neuro-sensory part of my brain demands that I stop everything and immediately start to consume the entire tube in as short a period of time as possible - if furniture needs to be smashed or small children or pets trampled in order for me to get my fix, then so be it!

The only way I can resist is to insist that we don't have them in the house.  I went to the grocery store the other day and made the mistake of buying "just" one tube....   they were almost gone by the time I got back to the house.   These things are truly evil and the FDA needs to mandate some sort of health warning and do something about that smug little guy with the moustache and bow tie!   I hate that little bastard!   :-)