Asleep in the chair.....

Well, Christmas has come and gone (and a great Christmas it was too!) but my off-season work has been, well....    work!   I have to admit that I have struggled to stick to my off-season plans and that I have been a bit of a vegetable for the last couple of weeks.   All too often my days seem to have finished up like this...

Santa certainly earned his rest, but I have just been (to use an English term) "knackered" all the time.  Not quite sure why, but I guess that it doesn't hurt to get my body some real rest and chill for a while.  I'm also still finding myself coughing a little, so maybe that's a contributing factor?

Anyway, time's up and I need to get busy!   I have managed to swim most weeks and have managed the odd long ride and some mountain biking, but running has been almost non-existent, so it's time to get busy down at the coast over the New Year break.   

Sadly I can feel my calves this morning after playing "Just Dance 4" on XBox Kinect yesterday, but I have to say that it is an awesome workout!   Best of all, SWMBO and the two junior misses hate that they can't touch me dancing to "Call Me Maybe"....   this Old Fart still has a few moves!  :-)



Bring on the 2013 season!

Vidal....

OK, so it's time to come clean....    I have been annointed by my esteemed training buddies Compass and Rabbit with a nickname that seems to have some staying power.   No point in fighting it.....

For kicks last week I changed my facebook profile picture to this one:

Since then I have had numerous puzzled enquiries, including two people who seemed to think this is a picture of Bob Barker from The Price Is Right!   No people, this isn't Bob, this is Vidal Sassoon, the famed hairstylist and 60s style guru.  Apparently there is a certain amount of fascination with my hair......

I've always had plenty of thick hair and certain individuals are apparently marveling that it sort of looks the same after I come out of the water from a swim; take my bike helmet off after a 50 mile ride or come in sweaty from a long run.   I really don't think this is true, but who am I to argue with the ladies?  

So yes, my new monniker appears to be....   "Vidal".   What can one do?   I would certainly have preferred "Sparticus" or "Thor", but it's better than "Baldy" I guess.   One thing's for sure, my current "uber blonde" color much  more closely resembles the now departed Mr. Sassoon in this picture from later in life!

What's with this strange fascination with my freakin' follicles?   I have had people previously say that I have hair like this guy:

....and this guy:

...and my lovely wife, SWMBO, has previously compared my hair to this guy's:

So, in closing, I'll quote Jack Donaghy from 40 Rock....   "It dries like this.....".   Get over it ladies!

A blast from the past....

While my "triathlon swim" has only really taken good shape over this past season, I learned to swim at a very young age and have always enjoyed being in the water.

This picture surfaced recently....

This picture was taken circa 1968 and that splashing mess in the pool is apparently me!   The occasion was the opening of the new, outdoor, unheated pool at Parkfield County Primary School in Taunton, Somerset, UK.   I was selected as one of the first kids to get in and swim a couple of laps.   As you can see in the picture, it was a rainy day and I vividly remember the water being FREAKIN' COLD!!!

The pool was covered a couple of years later, but when I left to go to "the big school" in 1971 it still wasn't heated.   I also very clearly remember the Edwardian era municipal town pool in which I learned to swim......    the ugly brick building, the tiled pool, the stench of chlorine and the antiquated changing facilities were enough to put any kid off swimming for life!   Thankfully the town opened a new pool complex in the mid 70s, but believe it or not the original pool is still in use!   I found this photo on the web....

How I remember our neighbors' Dad taking us swimming every Wednesday night and going through that door.   I wonder if the fish and chip shop up the road is still open?

Why My 11 Year Old Daughter Will Soon "Chick" Me On The Run

As posted previously, we did our annual family fun run at the Outer Banks Gobbler 5K in Nags Head, NC on Thanksgiving morning.  I mentioned then that it's much easier now that our two girls can race the whole thing independently.

Thankfully I appear to still be the fastest family member over 3.1 miles, but I have a feeling that this may change soon based on some photos posted to facebook this morning by the race organizers.

Before I go on, I should probably also refer you to posts that I have made here recently about "running like a cart horse" and my need to improve my forward leg lift; strengthen my toe-off and lengthen my stride finish so as to increase my stride length slightly and decrease my contact time with the ground.

Now look at these two pictures....

 In this one, look at the great leg lift on the forward stride of the left leg.   She seems to have a really nice forward lean too and, as far as I can tell, good arm movement!

And in this one, look at the awesome finish with the left leg....  her left heel is almost kicking her own butt!

Finally, in both pictures, look at that awsome smile as she finishes the 5K in just a little over 30 minutes!

I'm completely and utterly inspired by her...   love!   :-)

Cough, splutter, wheeze.....

Cough, splutter, wheeze......     this doesn't only describe the way I have sounded until fairly recently because of the nasty bug that has been going around (and which is really difficult to shake off!) but it also fairly accurately describes my attempts to get back into some sort of rhythm with my off-season training.   I manage a day or two and then something seems to come-up that gets in the way....   sick wife; work travel; construction going on at the house; general holiday season stuff; visiting in-laws....    the list goes on!

Still trying to get in my core strength and flexibility routines; have managed the occasional run; one decent bike ride with Fratboy and Compass and no swimming at all!  Yeah, I know, suck it up buttercup, HTFU and get your ass in gear! 

I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself - I do need some rest and now is the time to get it in, but somehow I feel as if I am being forced into it instead of planning and controlling it.   I will need to step it up in December or by the time "real" training starts again in the New Year I am going to be a complete mess.

There are a few positives though.....  

I have (for a change) been able to stay on top of "fall tidy-up" in the yard.   Those long hours of raking, hoeing (sp?), mowing, blowing, tilling and digging must count for something, right?



As you can see in the picture of me mowing above, my weight has actually dropped a little. despite the fact that I am burning fewer calories.

And finally, we did the Outer Banks Gobbler 5k on Thanksgiving morning in Nags Head, NC.  As usual we did it as a family event and had a good time - we haven't missed one yet since the event started!  A fun, if chilly, race and it's great (and a lot less work!) to watch the girls growing-up and able to run the event instead of being carried or pulled in a wagon! 


Go team!

 At least neither of them can quite beat me....      yet!

Running AND arithmatic.... it sounds as if this will be an ugly post!

As posted previously my swim has improved considerably and I think I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to continue to improve my technique during the off-season.   A popular addage for improving bike times is "TITS" (time-in-the-saddle - basically, if you want to get stronger, ride more!) - I can do that!  But what about running?.....

Yeah, right!

There's something to be said for the running equivalent of "TITS" - just get out and run more!  That will certainly pay dividends if I start ramping-up mileage again in the new year, but during the off season I need to give my legs some rest.  Not only that, but I know that my run technique is pretty poor.  I am probably well described as a "plodder" - a carthorse!.  I can churn out the miles, but I never look the same as those annoyingly effortless, lythe runners who simply glide gracefully around the planet seemingly flying and barely making contact with terra firma.  What the heck do they have that I don't?

Well, one thing is almost most certainly less weight, and I'm going to address that during the off-season, but it's more than that.  There are guys who weigh the same as me who are much smoother and faster runners and also smaller guys who seem to "plod" like I do.

The next popular issue for discussion at the moment is foot strike.  In addition to being more likely to avoid injury, mid foot strikers are apparently also likely to be faster than rear foot strikers (or "heel strikers") for the simple reason that they spend less time in contact with the ground, where resistance slows you down, and more time "flying".  Joe Friel talks a little about it here http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2007/12/more-on-footstrike-in-running.html and it will only take about two nanoseconds on google to be completely overwhelmed with articles on barefoot and natural running; low profile running shoes; foot striking and so on.  Now, as it happens, several coaches and the guys at Bull City Running have analyzed my foot strike and, by pure luck I guess, I tend to be a fairly neutral (not much over- or under- pronation) and relatively mid foot striker.   Could I be better - of course! - but heel striking isn't the fundamental cause of my plodding.   So what else is there?

I think that it basically comes down to technique and mechanics.  The Pupetter has told me many times that my running is "stiff" or that I "run like a plank" and I have been doing a lot of rotational stretching exercises to try to improve my "contralateral rotation" - basically have my left shoulder work better in tandem with my right leg and vice versa.  I know that I need to "toe off" more and, in particular, to "finish" each stride.  I also need a slightly higher leg lift on the fore stride.  Basically this all adds-up (in my mind at least) to a more fluid "circular" leg rotation.  That's all great in theory, but trust me, it's a lot to think about and I have found it very difficult to put into practice.  Now that I'm in the off-season, however, and not particularly worried about distance or time, I'm going to try to focus every run session on technique and incorporate as many drills as I can think of - high steps; strides; cross-overs; butt kicks etc into every session.  Hopefully the strength and, in particular, flexibility work that I am doing will also help.

The two primary reasons for doing all of this of course are to avoid injury and, in particular, to get faster.  My enthusiasm for the off-season mission was brought home to me when I started thinking about running the Outer Banks Half Marathon (which I didn't end up actually running because of illness).  I think that for the first time it really dawned on me that run speed is a pretty simple combination of stride length and cadence (number of strides per minute).  It's really a pretty simple equation - if you take more strides of the same length in a given time, you will travel further.   Equally, if you take the same number of strides in a given time, but each one is longer, you will also travel further.  If you can take more strides and each one is also longer, you will travel even further! (gee get this guy on the phone!)

"That Roger guy is a freakin'genius!"

Now clearly, trying to achieve the stride length of Wilt Chamberlain over night while running like Roadrunner is a recipe for injury and disaster....

I must increase my cadence!

....but just for fun I started to do some simple arithmatic based around a half marathon.   I'm a bit faster than this, but let's say for the sake of arguement that with my current technique I run a half marathon in two hours. 

How many strides do I take?   Well, I have no idea, and it obviously depends on my leg length, technique, flexibility, muscle mass and various other factors.   I'm 6 ft tall and, as noted above, I'm a plodder, so I'm going to assume that I take more total strides than "good" runners.   A quick internet search gave quite a variety of answers for number of strides in a full 26.2 mile marathon, ranging from 41,280 to 55,334.  For a half marathon-specific search I quickly found 26,218 and 30,240.   Given my plodding and for simplicity's sake, let's call it 30,000 strides in a half marathon.  

There are 63,360 inches in a mile, so in a 13.1 mile half marathon there are 830,016 inches.

If I were to take 30,000 strides, that would make my stride length approx. 830,000/30,000 = 27.66 inches.   I do not have a remote idea if this is correct, but it seemed at first to "pass the sniff test".   A quick look at the Livestrong website gives a formula for determining approx. stride length (in men) as height in inches multiplied by 0.415   I am 72" tall, and 72 x 0.415 gives an approximate stride length of 29.88 inches....    but that's a walking stride length.   

Given that we are talking about a half marathon being run towards the end by a tired old fat guy, we'll take the 27.66 inches as our approximation for this exercise.

What about cadence?   This I have a better idea of, as The Puppeteer has had me measure this many times during workouts.  In general, my cadence isn't too bad.  When I concentrate over shorter distances I can relatively easily maintain a cadence of 88 to 90 "right foot plants" in a minute, but we're talking about a half marathon here, so let's re-assess and sanity check:

A 2 hour (120 minute) half marathon requiring 30,000 strides would require 30,000/120 = 250 strides per minute.   We must remember that cadence is the number of "left right cycles" i.e. count every right foot strike or every left foot strike, not every foot strike) so we must divide by two.....   125?  No, somethings clearly wrong here.

Pretty sure that it's that damned stride length.....

OK, so let's put down a slightly more "real" half marathon time of 01:55 (115 minutes) and look at it another way.....   if I maintain a "real" run cadence of 80 per minute for 115 minutes, over 830,000 inches - what's my stride length?   

80 x 2 strides per cycle x 115 minutes =  18,400 strides.       830,000/18,400 = 45.1 inches

So the stide length divided by the square root of the hypotenuse......

Damn, my head is going to explode!   Could I really have a 45 plus inch stride length?    The simple answer, it turns out, is yes.   Sprinters have a stride length of well over 6 feet, so a "plodding" stride length of 45.1 inches over a long distance isn't that unrealistic.  Certainly good enough for this exercise!

So, what the heck is the point of all of this I hear you ask?  It's quite simple really, I was quite interested to see what even small changes to my stride length or cadence would do to my "theoretical" half marathon time and use it as motivation to work on flexibility, core strength and run technique (in my book, all three have to be there before I can speed up!)

Being the data geek that I am I whipped-up a simple Microsoft Excel formula and soon had this 3D surface graph plotted to show the relationship between stride length and run cadence on my theoretical (and I stress, theoretical!) half marathon time...

I have to say that the results are pretty stunning and provide a great deal of motivation for me to improve my run technique!

First thing to say is that it would not be sensible to deliberately try to "force" a longer stride - in fact it would almost certainly be counter productive, but it's interesting to see that if improved toe-off, finish and flexibility gave me an increased stride length that was increased by just one inch (that's about 0.5%) then if I maintained the same cadence my theoretical half marathon time would drop from 01:55:15 to 01:52:45.

Where it gets really interesting (and achievable!) is when you look at what happens if you keep the same stride length and increase cadence.   Increasing cadence from 80 to 85 takes you from 01:55:15 to 01:48:30.   If you run all 13.1 miles at a cadence of 90 while maintaining stride length, you would run a theoretical 01:42:30!

So what's realistic for me?  I certainly think that with training and effort I could maintain a cadence of 85 and get that 0.5% increase in stride length.   That combination would have my theoretical finish time at around 01:46 - a pretty impressive improvement!   If there happened to be a 1% increase in stride length (it doesn't sound like a lot, does it? roughly two and a half more theoretical minutes would dissolve from the clock.  I am stoked by this!   Looking at things this way (for me at least) makes a 01:45 half marathon seem much more like an achievable goal.  It will take a lot of work, and no one said that it would be easy or that there is a "magic cure for plodding", but somehow I can visualise it!

Now what happens if I loose another 10 lbs?..........
OK, I'll save that for another post!

Maybe I won't have to become an honorary member after all!

Welcome to the Pain Cave. Off season blues and short-term objectives.

Yesterday should officially have been the first day of my "off season", but because of illness and my inability to run the Outer Banks Half Marathon on Sunday, I have essentially been in a forced off-season since I competed in Rev.3 SC on October 14th.

I had visions of putting my feet up a little, having a few beers and enjoying the Autumn weather, but instead I have been fighting off a nasty bug; dealing with contractors trying to put our house back together after we had water damage from a blown boiler and generally having a lot of "real" work to do as well.  Ah well, so much for a leisurely few weeks off!  At least my legs should be rested as, other than one eight mile run, a couple of shorter runs and some spinning on the trainer, I have done very little over the past month.

Anyway, it's time to get back on the horse (or, perhaps more accurately, the bike) and start my off-season program.  It's amazing how different I feel when I don't get to do my workouts - definitely a kind of "funk"!  I am going to be self-coached for a while (more on this and my plans for the 2013 season later) and so need to get my act together and plan what I will be doing between now and the New Year.   Conventional wisdom says that "a change is as good as a rest" and that it's good to stay active, but to change things up a little from the daily grind of an intensive training program. Mountain biking instead of the tri bike;  trail running or hiking instead of road work and so on.  While I subscribe to this and intend to keep-up my swim, bike and run or a slightly more casual basis than usual, I also have plans to address two of my key limiters:  core strength and flexibility.

Yes folks, it will be of little surprise to many of you (especially those of you in my age bracket - you know who you are!) but I am not exactly this person.....


...or this one:



...but I intend to do something about it before "real" training starts for next season.  OK, so I'm realistic enough to realise that I'm never going to be able to bend over backwards like that or turn the ladies' heads on the beach, but I sure as heck can try to get myself in better shape and "training ready" to start the 2013 season.  

Along with this, I am determined to lose a little more weight and break the 190 lb barrier (I think that somewhere around 185 is probably a good early season race weight for me).   For some reason I have been able to get down to around 190 (and to generally maintain things there or thereabouts) but I can never quite break through into the 180s.   Now's the time!

So, how am I going to go about things in the off season?   Firstly, and importantly, I will still swim, bike and run, just on a somewhat reduced schedule and with less intensity.  Hopefully I will still be going on my Sunday morning adventures into the NC counytryside with Compass and Fratboy (and, hopefully, Snort?).  I'll still be doing lots of drills at the pool and still running the hills around home.  The big change, however, is that I am going to start a serious program of strength and flexibility work.   For six days a week between now and the New Year I will alternate between a flexibility session and a strength session based primarily on Mark Verstegen's Core Performance series, but with a good measure of TRX and yoga thrown in!  Lots of low weight, high repetition work to start out.

Now I suck at going to the gym and, quite frankly, don't really enjoy the "vibe" at a lot of local establishments, so over the weekend it was time to dust off some of the equipment that I have had in storage and to set-up the "Pain Cave" in my workshop!   Not the prettiest surroundings, but it now looks something like this:

Free weights, weight bench, TRX, Swiss ball and Concept 2 ergometer.   That should do it!

Reflections

So, as posted yesterday, my race season has come to a somewhat inglorious end as I languish at home feeling unwell when I should be heading down to the Outer Banks to run the Half Marathon this weekend as my last race of the season.  Ah well....

Looking back I can say that this has been a really good triathlon season for me and I have greatly enjoyed it.  It's not that I'm winning races (or even sniffing the podium!) but I continue to learn, get faster and to take on longer distances.  If I had to list some of the more notable achievements I would say:

• Really improving my swim - both technique and endurance (and, of course, they are related).  I attribute this to great coaching by the Puppeteer and my willingness to finally put in the time at the pool - I actually started looking forward to my swim sessions! 

and, because of that:

• Finishing my first Olympic distance race (White Lake)
• Finishing my first Half Iron (70.3 mile) distance race (Rev.3 South Carolina)

and, best of all:

• Encouraging my friend and colleague Crawford to come over from the UK to compete in his first triathlon (Outer Banks) - he's hooked!
• Finding some wonderful new friends and speedy training partners (hi Compass, Snort, Fratboy and the rest of the gang!).   It has been great not only hanging out and training with you guys, but also watching so many of you race so fast and reach so many milestones.  I'm in awe of how talented so many of you are!

What a fun year it has been!   I'm now looking forward to a little rest and preparing to come back stronger and faster next year (although I guess that I do actually have one more race - the annual "Gobbler 5k" in Nags Head on Thanksgiving morning with the girls).  I haven't planned my season yet, but I know that at the very least I am signed-up for Ironman 70.3 Raleigh and that will be one of my "A" races.  I will post my off-season plans soon.

Finally, I thought that it would be fun to go to www.trainingpeaks.com to look at my training totals for this year to date.   If anything these numbers are a slight under-estimate, as not everything made it on to Training Peaks, but here they are:

Bike:     2,389 miles
Swim:   158,393 yards
Run:      488 miles

Plus walking, strength work, flex/stretch etc. 

I'm off for a nap to start prepping to up these next year!

Finishing Rev3 SC

Crawford "bringing it home" on the Outer Banks

So that's it then....

....another season is in the books and it has ended somewhat on a down note....

I was supposed to be running the Outer Banks Half Marathon this weekend, but I have had to pull out and stay home.  Lots of good reasons, but I'm disappointed as it was to be a chance for a "fun run" and to hang out with friends, drink some beers and celebrate the end of what has, otherwise, been a very good season.  It will also break my string of successive runs in this event. 

Anyway, not much I can do.  Not only can I not shake this nasty bug (aches, breathing trouble, cough - yuck!), but SWMBO is even worse than me and there's really no way that I can leave her for the weekend with our marauding daughters!  On top of that, because of being unwell, I have done next to no workouts recently.   Oh well......

Good luck to all of my friends running this weekend - have fun and tip a few beers for me!  

I Didn't Die.... So I'm Calling That a Success!

I went out and ran eight miles this morning - the first "real" workout that I have managed since Rev.3 SC 70.3.  It certainly wasn't fast; my breathing is still a bit labored and I was a bit tight here and there, but at least I managed to get out there.  

I'm condident that with another week to recover from this nasty bug I will be able to run the Outer Banks Half Marathon next weekend, but at this point it will definitely be just a "fun run".  Anything around two hours will be fine with me considering how bad I felt just a couple of days ago.

In another sucess, I wore my new Brooks Racer ST5s this morning, with their neat new color scheme....


I love this shoe!  Very light and with a nice wide toe box for my big ol' flipper feet.  My old pair were showing signs of wear and these new ones have been sitting at home un-used for the past two weeks.  Pleased that I can wear them in a bit before next weekend.  They felt like slippers this morning!

OBX Half Marathon - Deja Vu

Ugh....   it has happened again!   What is it about this time of year?

My last race of the season is the Outer Banks Half Marathon on November 11th.   I'm treating it as an end-of-season jaunt but, never-the-less, thought that I probably had a personal best in me after my training for the 70.3 triathlon (which I still need to write a race report for!).

Not sure that will be possible now as I just did a light spin on the bike trainer - my first workout for a week - and I feel as if I have just pedaled up Alp d'Huez!  

Just like last year at about this time, I seem to have picked-up some sort of bug (or, more likely, a virus).  It started with our eldest daughter and then She Who Must Be Obeyed was knocked out by it over Fall Break.  Trouble breathing, the chills, aches, a cough and it seems to be a tough one to shake - I know several others suffering the same malaise locally.   The really annoying thing is that it's enough to make you feel like crap (and stop working out), but it's not quite enough to stop you working (at home), so for the past week I feel as if I have been fighting it, but getting nowhere, while still having to take calls, attend conference calls, review legal agreements and deal with other people's crap (as usual!).

Fingers crossed that I can get out for a few runs next week, otherwise November 11th may be ugly!

"come on, we can finish this in under six hours!"

Laxative for the Brain!

¹lax·a·tive     adj.     \ˈlak-sə-tiv\

Definition: having a tendency to loosen or relax; specifically : producing bowel movements and relieving constipation

Origin:  Middle English laxatif, from Medieval Latin laxativus, from Latin laxatus, past participle of laxare to loosen, from laxus.   First Known Use: 14th century

"To loosen or relax".......   yes, my brain really needed a little loosening and relaxing earlier today.  As detailed in my previous post, it has already been a week from hell.  Our house looks like a bomb site:  holes in walls and ceilings; torn-up carpet; bathroom vanity ripped out; doors of hinges - just a mess!   We have had contractors in and out all day (on top of a contractor who was already scheduled to do some tiling in our sun room!); insurance adjusters; remediation guys.   Phone is ringing off-the-hook.   Work is crazy (6 am call with Europe; legal negotiations).  And, on top of all of this, our eldest daughter (whose 11th birthday is tomorrow) is off school with a horrible cough and fever!

Make it stop!   My brain is full and is going to explode!



I guess the only potential blessing is that I certainly haven't had the opportunity to worry too much about my 70.3 race this coming weekend.

Today The Puppeteer had scheduled a six mile run with the pace increasing every two miles.  Really the only time I had to fit it in (I had a swim scheduled as well!) was late morning into lunch time.   I had to rush to get ready and was a bit flustered when I headed out into a cold misty rain and turned into the countryside of eastern Durham county.   Nice and easy for the first two miles....    left, right, left, right....   ah, that's a nice rhythm up the first hill....   seem to be moving well....   I wonder if the wild turkey will be on Kemp Road today?.....      Before I knew it I was in cruise control and my troubles seemed to just fall away.  The rain felt good; I noticed honeysuckle bloosoms (is that normal for October?); a horse ran in the field beside me; I watched a crow chasing off a hawk; damn it I felt good!   I duly finished the run as prescribed, with the final mile a nice steady and controlled 8:03 pace.   I needed that!

I hope that I can capture that feeling during my 13.1 miles of running on Sunday.   Yes, it's amazing how running really can be a laxative for the brain!

Why Now?

My first "half ironman" 70.3 mile triathlon - the Rev3 event in Anderson, South Carolina http://rev3tri.com/anderson/anderson-news/ is now just a little over a week away and, as would be expected, The Puppeteer has been ramping-up both distance and intensity of my workouts to get me ready (or, at least, as ready as possible) for the big day.   Double runs, long rides, four and a half hour brick workouts, lots of laps in the pool....   this week's training time will comfortably exceed 12 hours and, of course, I have to fit it in around family life and work.

Why? Oh why? does it seem that everytime I have an intense workout week work goes crazy and all sorts of other sh#t hits the fan?   This week has been no exception - my work load seems to have suddenly doubled (including all sorts of early and late calls), but worst of all the hot water heater in our attic chose this week to basically explode and pour water down through the walls of my daughters' bathroom and into the kitchen below!   Nightmare!  The house is full of all sorts of fans, blowers and tubing as we remediate the damp and there has been a constant stream of plumbers, other contractors and insurance adjusters calling and coming and going.  Still no hot water either!

With all of this craziness going on I was pretty proud of myself yesterday as I managed to get in two runs (8 miles at lunchtime and 4 miles on the treadmill in the evening) and an open water swim at Falls Lake early evening!   It has been a struggle, but apart from a slightly shortened bike ride earlier in the week I have still managed to hit all of my workouts and maintain a modicum of sanity without getting fired or having the family walk out on me!  Just one more day to the weekend!

Not quite over-the-edge.....  yet!

Small Victories.......

The pool that I usually swim at (Optimist, Raleigh) is closed for maintenance until mid October. so today I headed to the nearby Millbrook Exchange pool for a straightforward 2800 yard "recovery swim".  Maybe it was the time of day; maybe it was because Optimist was closed or maybe it was because Millbrook High School had a load of lanes blocked off, but whatever the reason, it was unusually busy today.....

I have never particularly enjoyed sharing a swim lane, primarily because I am usually concerned about being slow or getting in someone's way.  It has been quite a while since I have had to but today was different....

When I arrived at the pool I was fortunate that a lady was just finishing her swim, so I took her lane.   Within just a couple of minutes, however, a guy asked if he could join me.   "Of course"...      To be honest, he wasn't much of a swimmer and, because I was doing a lot of drills, we agreed to keep to our own side of the lane rather than "cycle".   No big deal and the guy didn't last long.

As soon as he left, however, a very fit looking lady asked if she could share the lane.  Again, "of course"...

This time the lady was putting-in some pretty good freestyle  and churning out the laps, but......   what the heck...     I was the one constantly swimming up on her!   She was apologizing to me for swimming slowly!  Yeah!   Maybe I'm not so slow after all!

Not exactly qualifying for Kona, but it made me happy!

Could have been worse I guess!

Characters.....

OK, so there are a couple of characters who are starting to appear pretty regularly on this blog who have not yet been anointed with an official nickname and it's time for that to change....

For those of you who might not read this nonsense regularly (and who could blame you!) the regular characters all have nicknames.  These are allocated by me (although I take suggestions) and are not meant to be insulting, but are also certainly not meant to be exactly kind either!   They often arise from some stupid activity, an idiosyncracy (did I spell that correctly?) or character quirk.    By way of example, Coach Stacey is "The Puppeteer"; my lovely wife is "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (or SWMBO) and we have numerous others such as Compass, Snitch, The Dominatirx, The Rabbit, The Beast etc....

So  now it's time to announce names for Brian and Beth....

First up in Brian.  Man this was a hard one.  How do you come up with a nickname for Mr. Wonderful? :-)   (actually, maybe it should have been "Mr. Wonderful"!).   He's a great guy; a speedy fast triathlete (and getting faster by the day); he's a good looking single dude (have you ever seen him and Tom Brady in the same room?), my kids love him (he spent hours helping my eldest to surf earlier this year)....     God I hate him!

The nickname suggestions have poured-in for Brian, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to bring-up his personal grooming habits (thanks for the laughs though Compass!) or base his nickname on his Adonis-like chiseled body (thanks to the rest of the swooning ladies), so instead this one is based on his relative youth compared to the rest of us; his single guy lifestyle and the fact that he probaly only changes his underwear once a week (surely he must have some faults?).    Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you...

Fratboy!

Fratboy in his natural element.....

....and slaying the Mahi Mahi!

Now it's on to Beth.    What can you say?   She looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but she has a wickedly dry sense of humor and a great "potty mouth" while pounding the pedals for 50 miles.   Part Southern bell, part Texas redneck!   :-)   I probably shouldn't say too much as she's much fitter than me and will probably kick my tail next time we get to train together!

Beth was, for a while, under the grave misapprehension that she could lobby for he own nickname....   "Fashionstar"?...   yeah, like that'sgoing to happen!

So what to call a fast, coffee-loving, salmon burger pounding, funny, potty-mouthed lawyer?

It all became clear the evening before the White Lake International race a few weeks back as everyone was sitting around the grill telling stories.....

....  I felt for sure that we were being invaded by a herd of wild pigs or that, perhaps, White Lake was hosting an international cocaine sniffing convention, but no.....   that weird noise permeating the still lakeside air was Beth laughing, so, ladies and gentlemen, I give you....

Snort!

Snort Esq. in her natural environment.

OBX Sprint Triathlon Race Report

This past weekend saw the Outer Banks triathlon weekend, put on so wonderfully by Outer Banks Sporting Events (http://www.obxmarathon.org/site3.aspx), come around again.   This event is special to me bacause it was my first ever triathlon a couple of years back (http://rogersroadrash.blogspot.com/2010/09/im-triathlete.html) and, of course, because of my love of the area and the local community down there.

While I should probably have signed-up for the Olympic distance race on Saturday as I prepare for Rev.3 Anderson, SC 70.3 in a few weeks, I instead decided to compete in the sprint distance on Sunday as a colleague and friend from the UK, Crawford Brown, was visiting the US on business last week and chose this event as his first ever triathlon.

Crawford taking it all in....

Having spent the week working in Salt Lake City (where we managed to get in a couple of great trail runs right out of the city center - very cool!) Crawford and I headed down to the Outer Banks on Friday afternoon to meet up with Brian Lambert, who would be racing the Half Ironman 70.3 mile event on Saturday.   Needless to say Brian wanted to get to bed early and Crawford and I were still a bit tired from the travel, so after a nice dinner at the Outer Banks Brewing Station we turned-in early.

Early Saturday saw us watching the sun rise over the Atlantic and heading over to the Old Swimming Hole in Manteo to watch the swim legs of the 70.3 and Olympic distance events and to cheer on Brian and lots of "tri buddies" from the OBX Tri Group including Nemo Branch, Rachel Johnson, Terry Donahue, Laura Cortez, Laurie Graham, Jessica Lehman and others too numerous to mention.  This was also an oppotunity to meet another TriStacey athlete, Cindy Bohlin, who I have communicated with via email dozens of times but never actually met face-to-face!

Nemo, Laura and Terry with scenic Porta Potty backdrop!

Rachel "hamming it"

Crawford was soon getting into the thick of things and starting to understand what he had let himself in for!  He was clearly enjoying the "race atmosphere" though and  was soon right at home and chatting away with the locals!

Crawford testing the water temperature and contemplating tomorrow's race.....

Soon it was 07:00 and time for the start of the 70.3 Half Ironman swim.   Brian was in the second wave and soon on his way to a strong 35 minute swim for the 1.2 miles in the choppy sound water.

The second 70.3 swim wave waiting to start.  the thing that looks a bit like a large mosquito hovering over the pilings is a cool multi-rotored remote controlled flying camera platform that was shooting video!

...and they're off!

Next up were the athletes for the Olympic distance and they too were soon underway for their 1500 M swm.

Brian leaving the water as an Olympic start wave waits in the background to start their race

Rachel - wet, but moving quickly!

I tried to get a snap of Cindy leaving the water, but that lady is too damned fast! (she won her age group - congrats Cindy!)

As the athletes headed out from their first transition for their 56 mile or 25 mile bike rides, Crawford and I headed into Manteo for a quick breakfast at Poor Richard's and a quick stroll along the waterfornt before heading back to watch Brian come in on the bike.  He seemed to be in good shape (I had lent him my race wheels and was relieved to see that he hadn't flatted!) and was soon heading out for his half marathon run.

Brian, literally "flying" into T2 with the Slut's Sister

In transition (and proving that I don't only take pictures of female rear ends!).  The Zipp 808s are looking good!

Looking pretty damned happy considering that he still has 13.1 miles to go!

Now it was time to wait and, after picking up race packets for the next day's sprint race, we enjoyed watching the Olympic athletes coming down the finishing chute - happy or hurting, smiling or grimacing, but all pleased to be finished!

Soon the winner of the 70.3 mile Half Ironman came home in an impressive time of around 04:37.   Not so very long after Brian came home to take third in his age group in 05:24, including a rocking swim of just 34.5 minutes for the 1.2 miles (and in choppy conditions!).   Congrats buddy!  Hopefully this was a great warm-up for Brian's full 140.6 Ironman in Florida in a few weeks.

Brian still looking strong as he approaches the finish line after 70.3 miles.

After a well deserved dinner that evening at Old Nags Head Cafe, we all started to fall a sleep in the chair watching college football like a bunch of pensioners!   I guess that even watching a triathlon is exhausting!   Before finally turning-in I checked the weather forecast for the race the next morning and (surprise, surprise) it had changed.....    still forecast to be sunny, but instead of 6-9 mph winds it was now calling for 17-20 mph sustained winds out of the N or NE.   When the wind is from the N the water in the Old Swimming Hole tends to be less choppy but have longer swells (could be good or bad), but more importantly, it would almost certainly play havoc with the bike leg when crossing the Umstead Bridge over the sound!   I made the decision to wait to put my race wheels on the bike until I saw what conditions were like next morning...

Sunday morning saw the alarm go off at 05:00 and we were soon tucking into breakfast of coffee, English muffins, bannanas and Ensure.   The bikes were already loaded, so we were soon on our way over to Roanoke Island, with Brian coming along to support us and Crawford, understandably, showing his first signs of apprehension!

After going to body marking to have our race numbers and advanced ages tattooed all over our bodies we picked-up our timing chips (with neoprene straps - nice touch!) and went back to prepare our transition areas and head out for a short warm-up.   It felt pretty humid, and pretty soon the wind was very obviously starting to pick-up.

Start time for the first wave was 07:30 am.  We were in the fourth wave (orange caps) and so had time for a swim warm-up.  The water temp. was somewhere around 73 F, so wetsuits were legal, but not really needed.  I decided to wear mine as practice for my upcoming 70.3 race in October.

Dr. Brown and Dr. Lias discussing swim tactics after their warm-up!  

Before we knew it we were on the beach waiting to be called-up for our start.....

We're in there somewhere....

OK, so before I go on to my personal race report, I need to give a big shout out to Crawford, who finished his first triathlon with a huge smile on his face in a creditable 01:47:25 in difficult conditions and riding an unfamiliar bike (my Cannondale CAAD9-5 roadie).   I obviously couldn't see him leave the water, but Brian said that he was by far the happiest racer!  Judging by his post-race comments and general enthusiasm for the whole weekend, I think he has caught the bug!    We discussed doing a race somewhere in Europe next year to coincide with one of my frequent trans-Atlantic work trips - I hope we can make that happen!


Crawford "bringing it home" in front of his legions of adoring fans!

.....and crossing the line.  He can fly!

I also need to give a shout out to Angie Wilson, wife of my friend Mark, who also completed her first triathlon last Sunday and was all smiles afterwards - well done Angie!

Angie's a triathlete!

OK, so now on to my race report:

Swim (750M):   00:15:27.   Hmmm....   This short swim in the sound has to go down as one of the strangest I have ever done and, frankly, I was surprised to see that I had finished in 15 minutes!   The first leg of the triangular course is very shallow, so it is possible to stand-up all the way to the first turn buoy.   Much to my surprise, many people did and essentially walked/ran all the way to the turn!   I had positioned myself to the right of the relatively large wave start based on the fact that there was a clear southerly drift in the earlier waves.   It was a relatively chaotic start (which I don't particularly enjoy - see White Lake Sprint report from 2011) but what really threw me was swimming and being able to see people walking right next to me when I breathed both to my left and to my right - weird!   Somehow it just threw me off my stroke and rhythm.   The first turn was chaotic (again with people standing up!) but thankfully things got deeper right after the turn and people were forced to actually swim!   At this point, to add insult to injury, I had my goggles kicked off my face and took a nice mouthful of sound water - it wasn't a huge deal and I was soon underway again, but for a while I felt that now familiar "constricted feeling" in my wetsuit and side stroked for a while as the waves were directly in our faces on the second leg until I got things back under control.   Thankfully the waves were somewhat behind us on the third leg and I managed a half-decent freestyle to the beach.    Overall not particularly pleased with this one.   I need more open water wet suit practice before Rev.3 SC 70.3!

Leaving the water and not feeling too happy!

My best Hulk impression

Transition 1:    00:02:33.   This race features a relatively long run to the transition area, which I like as it gives the opportunity to start peeling off the wetsuit and to get the legs going ready for the bike leg.  No issues here.  Wetsuit off easily.  Had a good rack position close to the bike exit.  Shoes on pedals and a clean exit.

Bike:   The official results list my bike time as twenty one hours and one minute and I'm pretty sure that I wasn't that slow!    :-)   My Garmin shows around 45 minutes.  Overall I was happy with the bike.   The out and back course goes over the long Umstead Bridge connecting the north end of Roanoke Island to Manns Harbor on the main land.  I have experienced strong winds on this bridge many times (see my "Wrestling with theSlut" post) and knew that today would not be easy on the return leg.  I had wisely decided no to use race wheels which can act as a sail!  After hitting a pot hole and almost biting the dust as I turned onto Rt. 64 from Airport Road, sure enough I flew over the bridge with a strong tail wind on the way out.   Of course this equates to a strong head wind on the way back and, sure enough, after the turn at Mashoes Road, things got much tougher.    Nothing to do but to keep it in aero and use the gears effectively.  At times I was struggling to hold 13 mph but I was still managing to overtake a large number of folks from earlier waves and enjoyed the ride.   As always a few speed demons flew past me too, but overall I was satisfied.  Annoyingly one of these guys was blatantly drafting me for about 5 minutes coming back over the bridge and I couldn't shake him until he exploded past me once we reached the cover of the trees back on the island.  Where's a referree when you need one?   At least he wasn't in my age group!

Transition 2:   00:00:49  Completely uneventful.  Took a quick drink; put on my race belt exiting and was on my way.

Run:   5K   00:26:49   Windy through the part trail and part paved run.   I actually felt pretty good.  Not super fast, but I'm OK with this at the back end of a race.

Done!

Overall:    01:30:34    7th in age group (and, as usual, there were some fast guys - one guy finished top ten overall in 01:17:48) and 56th of 304 overall age group finishers.   Not a fast time, but the conditions were clearly not conducive to fast times.  [I think this makes my official bike time 00:45:04]

Overall I was happy and I certainly very much enjoyed the weekend!  Highlights for me of course were seeing Crawford (and Angie) complete their first races with big smiles on their faces and seeing Brian rock a comfortably sub 05:30 Half Ironman.  And I also finally met the very famous Cindy Bohlin!  :-)

Time for a beer!

 Finally a big shout out to Jim Snyder and the guys at Outer Banks Sporting Events and all of the volunteers.   This is a really well organized event and is fast becoming a "must race" on the NC race calendar.   Thanks guys!