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!