Sometimes it's just not meant to be.....

After a tough work week featuring long days, cancelled flights and all manner of general hassles, I finally made it down to Nags Head to join SWMBO and the Junior Sassoons on Friday evening.

I was looking forward to my scheduled two hour ride on Saturday, but I guess it just wasn't to be.

Things didn't start well when I got my bike out....  flat rear tire.  Ugh.   I changed that one and started north on the beach road having used my only spare inner tube.  Bad idea.....    about six miles in I felt a judder in my rear wheel and, sure enough, another flat.....    Damn, damn, damn!    I was lucky that the spot where I flatted was only about half a mile south of Outer Banks Cycles, so I was able to walk m bike there.  I new tire and three spare tubes later I was on my way again, but by this time the off-shore cross winds were getting crazy and I was working hard to avoid getting blown into traffic.  Once the thunder and lightning started I knew that the ride was over and turned for home. 

Just a little over 18 miles - not at all what I had in mind, but at least I lived to fight another day!

Guest Blog Post - "The Bell Tolls for Thee"

Something new!    Writing this blog can sometimes get a bit old, so to change things up thi week we have a guest post!   Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Compass!    This was written after our ride together last Sunday.....

She cleans-up pretty well!

The Bell Tolls for Thee

I have never been one for waking up early.  In fact, after 36 years of life on this planet, I can proclaim with certainty that almost nothing good ever happens before noon.  Triathlon has become a pastime that I absolutely adore, yet still, when race day comes – I find that the hour of my alarm clock is nearly as daunting as the race itself!  So when my faithful cycling comrade (whom I refer to as “Vidal”) emailed me last week to say that he would like Saturday’s ride to start at 7 a.m., I nearly slammed my head against the keyboard.  I knew this might be the last time I would be able to ride with Vidal for weeks to come, but 7 A.M.???  Frantically, I emailed back – “7 a.m. riding or 7 a.m. ‘hair & makeup’?”  This is what Vidal has nicknamed the (admittedly) inordinate amount of time I spend messing with my bike shoes, my helmet and my 8 layers of clothing on every ride.  Thankfully, he conceded to my plea.  “7 a.m. hair & makeup”.  Phew! 

Saturday morning came, and I rolled into Vidal’s driveway at 7 a.m. on the dot.  I noticed immediately that The Slut was not parked outside as usual, and the garage door was closed.  There was no smell of coffee - no chirpy British voice harrying me to shake off the morning and stop scowling.  What could be going on here?

I pulled up Vidal’s facebook page and immediately got my answer.  Apparently, “One Direction” happened.  That’s right.  Zayn, Liam, Harry, Louis and (everyone’s favorite -) Niall.  The pictures told me all I needed to know.  In spite of the fact that Vidal wasn’t smiling in any of these concert photos, it was clear that he, SWMBO, and the little Sassoons had had one heck of an exciting Friday night.

After one text message and one unanswered phone call later, I could only assume that he had likely gone deaf from adolescent, female screaming.  A slight smirk appeared on my face.  In the few minutes that had passed, I had already come up with several good punch lines at Vidal’s expense.  Finally – after being the butt of so many (usually accurate) jokes, I would have my vengeance.

Just then, Vidal burst from the house and onto the footpath.  Well, “burst” may be a bit of an exaggeration.  He swung open the door wobbled through it, looking discombobulated.  He muttered something that sounded vaguely like, “I’ll be freddie in a few thin-mints.”  I stared in confusion at the once again closed door and wondered if he’d ever be coming back.  He returned shortly thereafter carrying coffee and looking pitiful.  I couldn’t even bring myself to use any of my well-formed punch lines.  Instead, I sat patiently beside my readied bike, residing myself to the hope that this would possibly buy me some future credit.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Vidal would have some credit owed to SWMBO as well.  Turns out that my earlier call had awoken him so abruptly that he leapt out of bed shouting “Get the phone! Get the phone!”  SWMBO responded sleepily to inform him that their bedroom phone was not ringing, which only escalated his frazzled ranting.  When she finally awakened to his satisfaction and held out the receiver (featuring only a dial tone), he acknowledged that it must be his cell . . . which was downstairs . . . oops.

Anyway, once the coffee (and the pillow lines on Vidal’s face) had dwindled, we finally did head out for our moderate 35-miler.  Having not ridden in any serious fashion since the Raleigh 70.3 three weeks earlier, I expected the hills to be a little rough. Turns out they felt brutal!  Clearly my legs must have sustained some sort of atrophy from sitting in Vidal’s driveway for so long.  This ride also included an impromptu pedal-for-our-lives interval, courtesy of a dog that looked like Lassie but did a fair impersonation of Kujo.  And the coups de gras of the morning occurred when traveling 32 mph downhill and having some newbie jogger step directly in front of my wheel.  Managed to avoid injury to either one of us, though I thought about pulling over and leaving him (and any of his potential offspring) with something to think about.

Having said all of that, I did enjoy this ride.  It was a great workout with great weather - and it is always nice to spend time with the Sassoons (especially after biking, when we can all exchange punch lines together!).  I look forward to my next weekend cycling adventure with Vidal – though I suspect it will not be at 7 a.m.

Note from me.....    I'm in a band!!    Awesome!    And I have by far the best hair!

So What's Next?

Almost two weeks have passed since Ironman 70.3 Raleigh; my legs feel back to normal and I have enjoyed some lighter workouts and (like George Washington, I cannot tell a lie) some junk food and a few extra glasses of wine.

But now it's time to get busy again.

So what's next?

As the Raleigh race was approaching I did think about taking a couple of months off over the summer to enjoy spending a bit of time at the coast and generally "de-tox" without feeling the need to keep to a rigorous and regular workout schedule.   Several things made me change my mind however:

• I know myself and "taking it a little easier" could quite easily become "laze around and drink too much beer"....    that's NOT what I want!
• SWMBO has been incredibly supportive and has encouraged me to keep training as long as it doesn't interfere significantly with family life.  (Thanks dear!)
• After Ironman 70.3 Raleigh, I really want to do another 70.3 this year!

Before rushing to any decisions I wanted to talk things over with the Coachman, so after the One Step Beyond Coaching group swim session at Triangle Aquatic Center on Tuesday morning we met for breakfast to go over what the rest of the season might look like and beyond.

First decision was that Beach-to-Battleship 70.3 in Wilmington, NC on October 26th (Set-Up Events) would be a good target race.  Objective (weather allowing) is to use the tide assisted swim and flat course to crush the 6 hour barrier. 

We had a good discussion about how training would look for the next couple of months, especially as I'm hoping to spend quite a bit of time at the coast.  I have also had some concerns about my knees having been a bit sore for the past month or so.  I was pleased with our decision to move to a bike and core focus for a while (with maintenance swim and run workouts) before moving back into a full build for the race.

I also decided that I am not going to do any other races between now and Beach-to-Battleship except, perhaps, Outer Banks Olympic for primarily social reasons.

Now this is where it gets a bit scary..........

I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I....   ummmm.....   sort of.......   broached the subject of possibly...... doing a full 140.6 mile Ironman event next fall....    there.....   yep.....    I said it!

Now I'm still a long way from being fully committed to this yet, but The Coachman saw no reason why I shouldn't do it.   My biggest concern is to get family buy in for the amount of training it will entail.  I was somewhat ecouraged by The Coachman saying that much of the training would be broadly similar to what I'm doing now, with the main difference being longer "long" bike and run workouts as the chosen event gets closer. 

Maybe it's time to start looking for a "destination" race to take SWMBO and the Junior Sassoons to?  Next years late season options seem to be:

Lake Tahoe (Sept.)
Kona (Oct.)    World Championships - OK, so maybe not!!
Florida (Nov.)
Arizona (Nov.)
Cozumel (Dec.)

Decisions, decisions.   Florida is a popular "first timers" race, but it sells out extremely quickly (as does Arizona).  I quite like the sound of Lake Tahoe, but there's plenty of time to worry about where!

Another thing that I would like to do if (and it's still a big IF!) I decide to do this, is to try to raise some money for charity.   I need to work on this.  There are several good causes that are close to our hearts and it will be nice to feel that I'm doing something for others as I indulge in this incredibly self-centered sport!

So there, I've said it in public.  I guess time will tell whether it comes to fruition or not!

And for those who may be wondering:  No, I will most certainly not be getting one of these if I happen to sign-up and actually finish....

Ironman 70.3 Raleigh Race Report

Phew!   That was a hot one!  [Health warning"  this is possibly the longest blog post ever!]


On Sunday June 2nd I completed my second "half" distance triathlon - the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Raleigh event - along with about 2,400 of my closest friends.   Well, maybe not, but as it was a local event I did know several dozen fellow lunatics who signed-up for this before they realised that they would be running in Dante's Inferno!

To cut to the chase, it was an incredibly well organized event; the support along the course was awesome (both at the aid stations and from people who lined the course to watch); it was brutally hot, but I ended up with a new personal best time for the 70.3 mile total distance by about fifteen minutes.  The City of Raleigh did us proud!   Here's how things played out......

Because the race course was "point-to-point" the logistics of the event were pretty complicated.  The 1.2 mile swim took place at Vista Point State Recreation Area on Jordan Lake; the bike course was 56 miles through rural Chatham and Wake counties from Vista Point to downtown Raleigh and then the run was an out-and-back course from the city center, past the NC State Univesity Campus, through Meredith College and then turn back after two loops of a very hilly section on the greenway through the North Carolina Museum of Art grounds.   Very scenic, but as we will see, also very tough!

I picked Compass up on Friday afternoon and we drove to the Raleigh Convention Center where we were to register and pick-up all of our race gear.  The registration process was smooth and efficient.  After signing our lives away on the numerous legal disclaimer forms and proving that our USAT memberships were up-to-date, we had our participant wrist bands firmly attached and then picked-up race numbers, timing chips, race shirts etc. before taking a look around "Ironman Village" and the various vendor displays.  Race number 345...   nice and easy to remember!  Ran into Jon Anderson, Julie Paddison, Rachael Houp, The Coachman, The Otter and others before finally finding "the dynamic duo" of Snort and Flipper Ass.   Chatted for a while before heading home to get my race numbers attached to The Slut, bike helmet etc. and finally starting to think about laying out all of my race gear.

On Saturday bikes had to be dropped at Vista Point between 10 am and 6 pm.   SWMBO and the Junior Sassoons agreed to take the 45 minute ride from home with me and to drive the bike course afterwards with a promise of a trip to the Farmer's Market and lunch!  



The Slut in position.



Clearly we were relatively early arrivals!   It would look very different the next morning!

Bike drop-off was very well organised and it just took a few minutes before we wondered over to take a look at the swim course - the buoys were still being put into position, but the triangular course was clearly visible.  I guess it comes with a little more experience of longer open water swims, but I had absolutely no jitters or nerves when thinking about the swim, in fact.....    I was positively looking forward to it!!  This is a pretty remarkable transition from where I was just a couple of short years ago, struggling to pull together even a few laps of freestyle in the pool without having to stop to gasp for breath!   I was positively looking forward to the swim even though, based on information provided by the race organisers, the water temperature was likely to be too warm for wet suits, so no added buoyancy was going to be available.   No problem - Compass and I had swum a liesurely 1.2 miles in Falls Lake the previous Thursday "sans wetsuit" and it felt good.  Wetsuit?  We don't need no stinkin' wetsuit!


Vista Point:  Swim start - the calm before the storm.   You can see the first yellow sighting buoys being put in place.  



The Junior Sassoons and SWMBO survey the swim exit.

 We were soon driving the course and following a guy with Pennsylvania plates who was clearly doing the same thing.  I think SWMBO (who named him "Big Daddy" for some obscure reason) freaked him out a little with her stalking and tail gating, as he eventually swerved violently into a strip mall, much to the amusement of the Junior Sassoons.  I already knew the course pretty well and had ridden much of it, but I have to say that it seemed like an awfully long way!

I tried to "rest up" for the rest of the day and watched the NHL playoff game before turning in relatively early.  Surprisingly, I didn't lie awake thinking about the next day's race like I usually do and I was out like a light!  This was just as well because......

       .....the freakin' alarm was set for 03:10 am!!   This was all Compass' fault.  She's apparently paranoid about getting to races "in plenty of time" and insisted that I pick her up at 04:00 am to make sure that we had sufficient time to leave our run gear bags in "T1" outside the Progress Energy Center for the Perfoming Arts in downtown Raleigh and to board a shuttle bus for the swim start.   It could have been worse I guess - on Friday she was suggesting that I pick her up at 03:30 am!   She is certifiably nuts! 

As usual I woke up a few minutes before the alarm was due to go off (how does this always seem to happen?) and was soon drinking coffee and eating a Breugger's bagel (onion with honey walnut cream cheese - yum!); banannas; and a bottle of Ensure - my standard race day breakfast.  I also took a Lava Salt capsule (as I had also done the evening before) because I knew it was going to be a hot one. 

After double checking that my three color coded gearbags were in the car [green for street clothes; blue for bike gear (and to receive wet swim gear) and red for run gear] and getting my three nutrition bottles out of the fridge (each with one scoop EFS; two scoops CarboPro and the contents of one Lava Salt capsule) I headed off to pick-up Compass.  I was surprised that her hubby Gerry was up at such an un-Godly hour to see her off and wish us luck - another good "Iron Spouse"!

It took us no time to find a parking spot and drop our run gear in the T1 transition area before heading over to where the shuttle busses were lined-up.   Well, what a surprise!  We seemed to be on the first of about fifty that were waiting to leave.  I could probably have had at least another 30 minutes (probably an hour?) in bed....  thanks Compass!  She clearly doesn't realise how much I need my beauty sleep.  Actually, now that I think about it - beauty sleep?  I need a coma!



On the bus.   Me snoozing.  Compass apparently delerious (or drunk again?)

 Once we arrived at Vista Point I got "body marked" with my race number and age and quickly got tires pumped and set out my bike gear - helmet, shades, shoes (not allowed to be clipped to the pedals for this event), socks and Garmin set on bike.  I did have my wetsuit packed in the blue bag just-in-case, but after the announcements of the previous day I was 99.9% sure that the water temperature would be greater than 76.1 F and that it would stay in the bag until I picked it up later in the day.  I was far from the only person who was surprised then, when the PA announcer informed us that the water temperature was 76.0 F and that the race would be wetsuit legal!   This prompted giddy excitement from many who had been dreading the swim and groans of despair from those who left their wet suits at home.  One of these was Snort, whose husband had driven her to the race start, but had left again with the wet suit because the aforementioned Snort was too lazy to carry it!   A few frantic calls later and "Awesome Iron Spouse III" returned and delivered Snort's rubbery saviour.



T1 was just a little bit busier than it was on Saturday morning!   Organized chaos!

 Because of my advancing years...   oops, I mean vast experience, I was due to start in the fourth swim wave (men 50-54 orange caps) at 07:10 behind only the male and female professionals and the men 55 and older groups.  Never-the-less, because of Compass' paranoia I now still had a couple of hours to wander around and chat with some friends and fellow athletes.   I ran into The Coachman and asked him whether he thought that I should wear my wet suit and we agreed that it made sense if only to save my legs some for the bike and run to follow.   Pretty soon I head a yell of "nice hair Vidal" and knew that the dynamic duo of Snort and Flipper Ass were some where among the 2,400+ lycra clad maniacs....

 

Flipper Ass smiling as usual.  She wore that sh#t eating grin even through the pain of the run from hell!



Snort - apparently applying sun block with a carrot....

 It was nice to also run into Casey Bombien, who would be successfully finishing her first 70.3 that day and Chris Roberts, who is one of the guys from the Outer Banks Tri Club who I had swapped messages with but never had the pleasure of meeting before.  Good as always to also see Rabbit and to chat with some of the One Step Beyond athletes like Angie McDonald.


Chris Roberts - photo blatantly stolen from his wife Kelly's facebook page - thanks Kelly!

 I even brushed fame at one point when I was interviewed by a local news crew.   It seems that they didn't understand the Queen's English, but Compass was obviously more eloquent/coherent because part of her interview made it to the local news!



Yours truly and the WRAL reporter guy, who is clearly trying to work out what the hell I am babbling on about!

 OK, so 07:00 - race start - was now starting to click closer.   Time to get serious!   At about 06:55 I pulled my wetsuit on half way and took my place alongside the other orange caps in my age group.  At this point the skies were overcast and the temperature pleasant...   how that would change later in the day!  Once the lady pros went off at 07:03 I pulled the wetsuit on the whole way and was soon waist deep in water waiting for my wave start at 07:10 and enjoying the usual good natured nervous banter that always seems to precede the starting gun.  It was nice to chat for a while to Mike McConeghy who was in the same wave.



Male pros lined-up for the start



The start of my "orange cap" wave....   I'm in there somewhere!

...and they are off!  

 [Photo credits for the above three pictures:  Jack Tarr.  WRAL News]

OK - enough of this preamble nonsense....   time to get on to the real race report!

Swim.  1.2 miles:  

00:39:46  (02:03 per 100M)
Division rank 55/179
Overall (male & female):  503/~2,400

Overall I was very pleased with this.   Clockwise triangular course with the second leg being the longest.  Being out of the water in around 40 minutes if the swim was wetsuit legal was my target and I managed things well.    I waited a few seconds for the "scrum" to subside at the start and pretty quickly found myself some clean water.  I took it easy on the first leg and just focused on "long and steady".  A few bumps along the way as usual, but I'm well used to this now and managed to take them all is stride (or should that be "in stroke"?).   Found feet to draft on a couple of times, but in both cases I seemed to be faster and so went around them.   Soon found myself catching some "red caps" from the previous wave, which is always a good confidence booster.  On the second (longest) leg the wind was in our face and it was significantly choppier, but again no issues.   I sighted well and passed adjacent to every buoy.   On the final leg there was a slight "surfing" effect from the wind driven chop.   Was happy to see the timing clock at the end and knew that I had managed a respectable swim (for me at least!)

Exiting the swim

Swim exit....  where's that damned zip?

Transition One:  03:00

My first experience with "wetsuit strippers".   As you exit the water there are a group of volunteers who yell at you to lie on the ground and then basically rip your wetsuit off you - awesome!   :-)

Smooth transition with no issues.  Steady mount on the bike.

Coming out of T1 and looking awkward running in bike cleats....

Bike.  56 Miles.  Rolling course.  Official elevation gain:  1,230 ft.  My Garmin elevation gain (corrected on Training Peaks): 1,933 ft.

02:58:51  (18.79 mph average)
Division Rank at end of bike:  51/179
Overall (male & female):  582/~2,400
 
I was again pleased with this - anything around three hours was my target.  Would definitely have taken a sub three hour bike at the start of the day.  Nice course - very scenic.  Long drag uphill out of transition and then "rolling" throughout.  As usual I had a pretty consistent flow of speedsters from later (and younger!) waves passing me throughout (including The Coachman, who flew by me very early in the bike and yelled that something was rubbing on my bike - luckily it was just a "click" that only manifested it self when I was in the small ring and the highest gear!).  I did manage to chase down and pass quite a few people myself though.  Kept aero and steady throughout and feel that I kept a good cadence and pace.   Drank/fueled regularly.  Had a little wind assistance in places, which helped.  The support through rural Chatham county and into Holly Springs was fantastic!   All sorts of banners, yelling and waving.  I did think that the giant cut outs of dog's heads was a bit weird....   I guess they meant something to someone!

On the by-pass in Holly Springs (I think...  maybe it's Route 64?).  Note that it was still overcast at this point.

Transition Two: 02:45

No issues.  Ate a gel and took some fluids before heading off on the run.  By this time the sun was blaring down and it was getting noticeably hotter!

Run.  13.1 miles.   "The Run From Hell"!   Official elevation gain:  226 ft (yeah right!).  My Garmin elevation gain (corrected on Training Peaks):  421 ft.  Some people measured as much as 800 ft.   Whatever it was, Ironman lied to us!!   :-)

Heat index:  98 F

02:23:07  (Slow as heck!  10:55/mile average)

Holy crap this was a tough one!   Coming off the bike I thought that I had a pretty good chance of smashing the six hour barrier, but it didn't take long to realise that this wasn't going to happen!

The course started downtown and the went out on Hillsborough Street (a steady incline) past the NCSU campus, into Meredith College and then onto the Raleigh Greenway for two laps around the gounds of the NC Museum of Art before returning along the same route to an awesome finish past the State Capital and down Fayetteville Street.  Very pretty in parts, but also MUCH hillier than advertised!   Coupled with the heat this made the run extremely difficult!   I pretty soon found myself having to walk up the steeper inclines and though every aid station to put ice down my shirt; take iced sponges; drink everything in sight (including some puky orange sports drink that didn't agree with my stomach - a mistake) and take on fuel.  The volunteers at these aid stations were nothing short of awesome!  So much help and encouragement.   I wasn't happy to be moving so slowly, but took some comfort in the fact that virtually everyone else seemed to be having to walk too.  After the race it was interesting to see even the pros talking about how tough the run course was (see the very end of this post).

Picture shamelessly stolen from Rabbit's facebook page showing the forced death march up one of the hills coming back out of the NCMA and into Meredith College.   There are some seriously fit people walking up that hill and that was far from beeing the longest/steepest!

Thanks (I think!) to Jen Bauldree for this picture of me in an hour of need.

Who thought it was a good idea to do a double loop featuring one of the steeper hills?   And why was the official elevation given by the organizers so far off?  Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger I guess!

Things got a little easier once I escaped from NCMA and Meredith College.  It was still hotter than hell, but at least it was mostly slightly downhill.  I still walked through the aid stations, but otherwise managed to keep up a plodding run to the finish.

The closing half mile down Fayetteville Street was absolutely fantastic!   Talk about a good boost to finish.  The sidewalks were packed with cheering supporters and the finishing chute was a zoo!   Great setting too, with the State Capital behind you and the Performing Arts Center ahead.  Raleigh turned out in force and put on a great show!

One of the pros heading down Fayetteville Street to the finish

Some annoyingly super fast guy in the finishing chute.

SWMBO and the Junior Sassons were cheering me on at the finish.  I looked for them but almost missed them.   Thankfully something made me turn my head and I caught sight of them out of the corner of my eye.   I added a few yard to my run as I turned around for kisses all round, but it was 15 or 20 seconds added to my race time that was very well spent!

Final stretch.

The exact moment that I realised that I had run past SWMBO and the Junior Sassoons



Oh there you are....   give me a kiss!

Last few yards!

Done!   Started 10 mins after the pros, so chip time was 06:07:29

What a relief to cross that finish line - definitely one of the most brutal runs I have ever done.  I'm guessing that there are a couple of thousand others out there who agree with me!   I'm obviously not going to beat myself up over it - difficult, difficult, difficult!

Overall:

Well what do you know?  Despite the Run from Hell I managed a personal best!   Overall I finished in 06:07:29 - a full 15 minutes faster than I did Rev.3 South Carolina last year.   Final placement was 55/179 in my division and 777/~2,400 (men & women) overall.  In the top third - I'll take it!  Very happy with this and what an absolutely fabulous race!   I will be back for more punishment next year.



Pleased to be done!



Hanging with the Junior Sassoons!

 

Got. To. Sit. Down!

I need to close this waaay too long post with a few thank yous.

Firstly, and most importantly, a huge thank you to SWMBO and the Junior Sassoons who were there to cheer me on and put up with my long hours of training and obsessive tracking of stats!  I love you all!

I LOVE the optimistic "you run like a lightning bolt"!   :-)

I seem to be doing back stroke!

Awesome M-Dot blueberry & vanilla pie that I was served fro dinner.  I'm a lucky guy!

Next shout out goes to the City of Raleigh and the absolutely phenomenal supporters and volunteers, police and emergency services throughout the course.  Words are not enough.  Proud of the city and great to see so many out-of-towners raving about what a great event it was.

Finally, thanks to The Coachman for his guidance and wisdom and to all of my training buddies and fellow members of the OSB team for their support and encouragement!

Here are a few more pictures "just because".....

A well deserved beer with super speedy OSB athlete Audrey Schipprack 

Bike collected and heading home

The Otter sporting her OSB kit and concentrating on the race to come... [Photo: WRAL]

As a kind of post script I though that I would add some quotes from Melanie McQuaid, who is a lady professional and finished third in the event.  Pleased to see that even the pros suffer sometimes!

"My race on Sunday was pretty darn good.  First off,  lets discuss how hard Ironman is for a second.  It was horribly humid and you need to keep moving for hours and hours.  I recognize it could have been hotter and the bike portion of the race was somewhat cool due to cloud cover but by the time we got to that bear of a run it was stinkin hot."     

 

"Out onto the run I was expecting something resembling the course profile.  Notsomuch.  Here are some of my thoughts:  Where the heck did all these mountains over by the art gallery come from?  Who turned up the heat?  Why is the whole way on the way out totally uphill when the profile says it is flat?  The run was really really hard.  When most of the pro men are in the 1:20s range you know it is hard.   I was spending the entire run trying not to do my classic southeastern chicken dance instead of finishing.  I walked aid stations, took 4 cups of ice cubes and generally went into meltdown protection mode." 

"I saw none of the beauty on the run course since I was blind with suffering but the bike was incredibly awesome.  So green, best roads in the world, most fans on the side of the road ever, best aid stations ever, most interesting point to point journey, you name it this race is awesome.  I loved it. Want to come back."

Keeping It Zen

So it has been a week since the epic triple brick workout and because of the stupid cold that I had I haven't done a single workout all week (unless you count the two failed attempts to run on the treadmill that both ended with me coughing my lungs up and sounding something like a cow in labor!  (and yes, I do know what that sounds like!)).

This forced break hasn't exactly come at a good time, as it's only a month now before Ironman Raleigh 70.3.  After reading The Coachman's (or is it Yoda's?) missive last week (see previous post) I have tried to "keep it zen" and not worry too much.  By-and-large I think that I suceeded, although it was probably stupid to try to get back on the treadmill before I was properly recovered!

If all had gone according to plan I should have run 12 miles yesterday and biked 3 hours today including hill repeats.   Under the category of "small victories" I did at least get out and managed to run an easy 4 miles on the Barton's Creek trails today without too much coughing.  On the plus side, my legs felt fresh - hopefully I'm back!

A random snap from last week's triple brick - just because!

Crap!

What is it with me and springtime colds?

Woke up yesterday feeling a little congested and with a scratchy throat, but was hoping that nothing would come of it.   Got up early today to join the group swim session, but there was no way.  Sweaty, sneezing, coughing - the whole package.  I think I did more than a dozen consecutive sneezes at one point today! Ugh!   A residual of Beaver Dam Olympic?   That ridiculous 5K I did in Chicago last week?   The triple brick this weekend?  Who knows?   All I know is that it completely and utterly sucks!

Why do these things always seem to happen when you are coming into a crucial training block for a big race (in this case Ironman Raleigh 70.3 in just over a month)?   

I have learned to remain (reasonably) calm and accept that "shit happens" in familiy life and at work and I generally stay pretty philosophical (and sometimes positively zen) when they cause me to miss a work out.   I stand by my family>work>training philosophy.  But when I get sick it annoys the crap out of me.   Should I rest?   Will trying to push through make things better or worse?

Rest for sure today and fingers crossed that this thing is short lived!

Addendum:   OK, freaky.......   Right after I finished writing this The Coachman published the One Step Beyond Newsletter that includes these words of wisdom....

Adjusting Expectations

Marty Gaal, CSCS

Part of any well-rounded athletic training program includes realistic goal setting.  Goal setting can be as simple as losing X amount of weight and 'getting into better shape,' or include targeting a specific time / performance goal at a specific event.  In the endurance athletic world the tendency is towards the latter although there is nothing wrong at all with the former.

As the season progresses, you should see measurable results via improved body composition, increased endurance, and increased speed at certain effort levels. These interim milestones allow you to adjust your future expectations upwards or downwards.

Interruptions and adjustments are a part of life.  Most adult triathletes have multiple commitments including family harmony and work-related stress like travel, deadlines, and unsupportive bosses.  Your initial goal of winning your age group in a big race may not be realistic after you had to spend two weeks visiting multiple job sites and working 15 hour days.  Or you may run into the cold hard reality that you are not, in fact, Superman or Superwoman and can only burn the candle at both ends for a few days at a time before you need time off of training to mentally rest and relax.

In an ideal world, you will successfully handle all of the above as well as the sort of training required to meet your goals.  You'll arrive at your goal race well-prepared to execute and meet or beat your personal goals.

However, that's not always the case.  Everything in sum may become overwhelming.  If this sounds like you, here are a few tips to keep yourself motivated and enjoying all the training you are able to complete.

Prioritize.  Make sure you understand what is most important to you and then work from there.  Most of us put more value into keeping our families happy and keeping our jobs. 

Adjust your time commitment and performance goals.  If your original Ironman season plan had your average hours set at 15 hours of training per week (for example), accept that this may be unrealistic for you. Slice a couple hours off and expect to be 5-10% slower than you would have been.  You can still have a great day and will be in terrific shape.

Make it social.  Endurance athletics is ultimately an individual sport where you excel through your personal work habits and individual ability. You can take some of the sting out of lowered expectations by expanding your worldview to value the social side of training with groups and friends.

Enjoy the little things. Rather than stress about not being able to repeat sub-6 minute miles (for example) on a running interval day, revel in the fact that you can do several miles at sub-6:30 pace and come back to train again the following day.

Take the long view. While this particular season or training cycle may not be the best you could have achieved had everything else in your life gone according to plan, doing the best you can with the time and energy you do have will set you up for future successes, when life outside of athletics may not be so challenging.

Success in endurance athletics is not built on one season of training and racing alone.  You may have heard of the 10,000 hour rule. This is the idea that it takes that many hours of practice to become truly skilled in an endeavor.  While it may not take quite that much time for each individual, it gives you some idea of the amount of work it takes to become really, really good.  Those superfast athletes you are hoping to mix it up with did not start out that way.  All of them have practiced consistently for years and years.  No one can jam that much practice into just one season!

When push comes to shove, your satisfaction in sport is based on simple factors: Accepting your current limitations and doing the best you can to challenge those limitations within the framework of the rest of your life. Do that, and you will have the mental capacity to repeat the athletic goal setting process for the rest of your life.   Rage against the machine and you will experience untimely burnout and frustration, which will negatively affect both your physical and mental well-being.

Marty Gaal, CSCS, is lead coach and co-founder of One Step Beyond. Marty and his wife Brianne work with endurance athletes around the globe.

No raging agaist the machine!

Another Brick in the Wall

Yestarday saw me participate in the much anticipated "triple brick" workout with several other lunatics athletes from the One Step Beyond Racing Team.

For the unititiated, a typical "brick" workout features a bike ride followed by a quick transition into a run, thus duplicating the second transition in a race.   You will occasionally also see a swim to bike brick or a reverse run to bike workout.  This one, however, was far more daunting and a new experience for me....   a triple brick.

Here's what it looked like on paper:

• An 18 mile bike ride
• A 30 minute run
• Another 18 mile bike ride
• A 25 minute run
• Yet another 18 mile bike ride
• A 20 minute run

Yes.  Nothing too it, right?   :-)

Yesterday morning was showery, but I was happy that we weren't scheduled to roll out of the White Oak entrance to the American Tobacco Trail until 9 am, so at least I managed to catch-up on a little sleep after a heavy week working in all Chicago last week (including a 5K race run in lab coats, but that's another story).

I was impressed by the turn out and it was great to meet a few more members of the One Step Beyond Team.   Also good to catch-up with Audrey Schipprack, who I haven't seen since a triathlon camp last year.  I also discovered that I'm not the only Brit in the team when I met Ann (Anne?) (McDonald?) - at least there will be someone who will understand my obsure curse words and sarcastic sense of humor!

Most of the gang before we started (photo credits:  The Coachman)

The first bike loop was pretty controlled.  No one wanted to burn out too soon and there was lots of jovial banter. Cory and Daniel weren't going to be limited to just 18 mile loops though and took off for something that I think was closer to 30 miles on each loop - Oh to be that young and fit!  I did manage to do my share of "pulling" on the front and felt good about that and soon we were back and ready to head out on the first 30 min out-and-back run on the trail.   The Coachman snapped another...

Does Audrey need the potty? 
Was it sloping ground?  I'm sure I'm not that much taller than everyone else!

 The first run was fine.  As always the faster guys left me behind, but I had company and chatted as we were going along.  No issues and I felt good getting back onto the bike.

When ride two started though, the pressure began to mount.  There are some seriously fast bikers out there.  Erin and Kerry went off the front while the rest of us stayed in a pack and pulled a pretty good pace.  I forgot my Garmin, so I don't have data, but it must have been comfortably 20 mph plus. I was very pleased to be able to hang on, but my legs were feeling it a bit when we got in and let's just say that I was significantly slower on my second run!

Ready for run number two

I knew that I wasn't going to be able to "hang with the big boys and girls" on the third bike lap and the speedsters left me after only a short distance into the loop.  Never-the-less I pulled up my big boy pants and set a nice cadence, determined to ride my best.  I was happy when Audrey showed-up and we paced each other in, never let up and ultimately put up what I think a very respectable performance.

The final run was an absolute slog and I was extremely happy when I reached the ten minute mark and was able to turn for home and complete an epic training session. 

(Most of) the survivors.  The Coachman made it into this shot (who wears shades when it's raining?). 
What the heck is Kerry doing?  And is Audrey desperate for a pee again?

Overall it was a horrible experience and I can't wait to do it again!  Even more exciting, there's a whole lot more fodder for blog nicknames in the above photos!  Look out people, I'm coming for you!

Post script:   Vidal lives....     at the end of the work out a couple of the ladies gave me crap about my hair and, as far as I know, this was completely unprompted by Compass, Snort or Flipper Ass.   I guess it must be true!   :-)