2012 Report Card

I had three goals for 2012 which were revised after injuring my knees.

 

Goal #1 - Go sub-6 at Door County Half Iron July 22nd.

Changed to take in enough nutrition to not visit the med tent. Success though I did throw up afterward. Grade = A.

 

Goal #2 - Go sub 1:45 at the RnR half marathon St. Louis October 21st.

- This one is a real stretch considering my PR is 1:55 and some change.

Changed to "don't get injured trying to be faster. Success, set a 5 minute PR without injury! Grade = A.

 

Goal #3 - Lose 10 pounds by May 20th (Carlyle Oly)

Total failure! I weighed the same on race day as I did January 1st. Grade = F.

 

That puts me at a D for the year (if I did my math right it's 67%) though I'm tempted to bump that to a C since I've traveled 10 weeks in a row and made it through Christmas and Thanksgiving only gaining two pounds and I weigh a couple pounds less than last year at this time.

 

I also managed a 5 minute PR at a Sprint tri, did an Olympic tri a week later and did a Sprint tri in Boston. I also set a distance PR by three miles at Patrick's 12 hour run.

Volume wise I was down from 2011 for swimming and biking and slightly up for running.

2011

Swim = 77,000 yards in 35 hours and 16 minutes

Bike = 2,500 miles in 167 hours

Run = 707 miles in 121 hours and 40 minutes

 

2012

Swim = 52,000 yards in 18 hours and 6 minutes (not as much volume, but way faster)

Bike = 1943 miles in 118 hours and 24 minutes

Run = 832 miles in 140 hours and 43 minutes

All in all it was another good year in the exercise and racing area. I'm not sure what 2013 is going to bring. I'm a planner and usually have most if not all of my races picked out. Things are busy at work and I expect heavy travel and lots of overtime, at least for the next couple of months. We'll see what happens after that.

Happy New Year!

 

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Product Review: Kiefer Mach 5 Goggles

Steven over at Kiefer sent me a note and asked if I would review one of their products. Kiefer makes performance swimwear, so it's obvious Steven hasn't looked up any of my swim times :-). I have a habit of leaving goggles in the shower! so I decided goggles would be the way to go.

The goggles came in a small plastic case with a couple spare nose connectors.

There were protective plastic pieces over each lense.

I tried them on before heading to the pool thinking I would need to adjust them a bit but they fit perfectly right out of the box.

Sporting some hat hair for a goofy picture.... No pool pics, sorry :-).

On to the pool. The goggles fit well again. They fit in the eye socket and the fit reminded me of Speedo Vanquishers. On the first lap I had some minor leakage on the nose side on the left and ear side on the right. A quick press on both goggles quickly corrected that. The goggles were comfortable and didn't fog at all. It wasn't long until I forgot I was even wearing goggles, which is always a good sign with gear.

Kiefer also has goggles with vision correction which would be nice for people that wear glasses. I wear my contacts in the pool, so they weren't for me. Kiefer also makes other swim gear like fins, buoys, paddles and flotation devices. If you are in the market for some swim gear, check them out.

(Disclaimer: I was given Kiefer goggles for free, courtesy of Kiefer. I did not pay for the goggles, receive payment for this review, or agree to give a positive review. Aside from information gleaned from the company website, the opinions are my own.)

 

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Simplify

Things have been very busy and a bit stressful lately. So much so, I've felt the need to simplify things. I've stopped playing hanging with friends and words with friends (sorry sis), I've stopped trying to get eight work outs in a week and stopped stressing about not getting up before work to run. I've stopped trying to fit in a ride after work and haven't attended one extreme fitness class for this session, even though I signed up. Instead, I've been focusing on the simplest of the three triathlon disciplines, running. It's so nice to come home after a long day, change into some running clothes and hit the trail. No tires to pump, water bottles to fill, gym back to grab, etc, just put on the run gear and go.

This trail is right across the street from my house and connects to many other trails offering miles and miles of running and cycling trails.

Training mojo update:

Swimming = none. I haven't been swimming since my half ironman almost two months ago.

Biking = none. I haven't been biking in over a week. I do miss it.

Running has been going quite well. I've been ramping up the mileage a little and would like to get it up to 30 miles per week and keep it there for a while and see what happens. I have a half marathon coming up the third weekend in October and if my running holds up, I'll be in a good position to PR it.

My bike mojo looks like my mtb tire :(

My bike mojo is like my mtb tire

 

Speaking of simple, here is a really simple way to make some veggies.

Wash and dice the veggies, add a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. You can also add basil, rosemary, and/or thyme.

 

Throw them in aluminum foil and toss on the grill for 30-40 minutes on indirect heat.

 

Then enjoy!

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Door County 70.3

This past weekend I completed my first sanctioned 70.3 in Door County, Wisconsin. I did a sanctioned 69.1 in New Orleans last year as well as an unsanctioned private HIM last year. Before I get to the race report, I have to say I love Northern Wisconsin. The people are friendly, it's beautiful, the air is clean, the water tastes great and I love the accents with the loooong oooo's :-). The Door County Triathlon is extremely well organized, with a beautiful race venue, amazing crowd support, and wonderful volunteers. Every aid station was well stocked and the volunteers didn't just hand out the stuff, they were paying attention, asked what every racer needed, and took care of us quickly and efficiently. If you are thinking of doing this race, do it, you won't be disappointed.

We arrived in Egg Harbor, WI Thursday afternoon after a long drive (made longer after I got a speeding ticket only an hour into the trip). Thursday night we grabbed some fantastic barbecue at Casey's BBQ in Egg Harbor and just walked around. Beautiful area for sure.

Friday morning we checked out the race site. The lake dropped 20 degrees overnight and was 56 degrees, brrr! Then we drove the run course. It seemed long after not having run a half marathon in over a year. That coupled with the predicted heat made me start getting a little anxious about the run. Friday night I hardly slept a wink. I don't know why, buy I saw just about every hour on the clock.

Swim course pre-buoy

beach at the swim start

Part of the run course

Another run course pic

 

Part of the run course is shaded

Most of the run course isn't shaded

Saturday we drove up to the Maritime Museum then drove through Penisula State Park in the morning then met up with fellow blogger and BT mentor Dave and his really nice family. It's always nice to meet up with online friends and this was no exception. Dave and I were able to talk triathlons and our families talked about who knows what :-). Dave has done a bunch of 70.3's as well as Ironman Wisconsin last year, so this is old hat to him :-). After lunch, Dave and I went to packet pickup then a little s/b/r. We put on our wetsuits and swam out to the first buoys. The water had warmed back up to 74 and was quite pleasant, though a little choppy. After the swim I commented that if the water is that choppy on Sunday, I'm going to have a slow swim, but oddly enough, I wasn't worried about it at all. After the swim, we went for a short 20 minute ride. Dave had some problems with his new Garmin 910xt but once he got that set, he dropped me handily :-). I was working a little harder than I wanted to the day before a race but in hindsight, it was probably the proper intensity. After the ride, we went for a short, "easy" one mile run in 8 minutes! Dave's easy pace, is my fast pace. Once again, probably the perfect pace. That evening I had pizza and beer for dinner then went to bed early. I slept like a brick since I slept so poorly the night before.

Sunday morning I woke up at four a.m., ate a banana and some yogurt, drank a cup of coffee, did my business then fell back into a dead, drooling sleep until my alarm went off at 5:30. Then more coffee, more business then headed to the race site at about six. Parked right next to Dave then headed over to the transition area and set up. Dave and I were in the same wave which didn't leave until 8:33, so we had plenty of time to chit chat about all kinds of stuff. It was really nice and helped keep me from getting nervous at all. This is the first race where I was more worried about the run than the swim, in fact, I wasn't worried about the swim at all even though it would be my first 1.2 mile swim in open water.

Race time was here before we knew it and we worked our way down to the water, sat in the water and did the prerequisite peeing in the wetsuit, got back out when our wave was called, walked through the timing mat, then waded out to the starting gate which was waist deep in the water. Once the horn went off, I started swimming, near the back of the wave and got into a decent grove pretty much right away. I wasn't nervous at all and just got to work. I sighted every other stroke while things were crowded then went to every five strokes after that. Contact was minimal and my sighting was the best yet! It helped they had buoys about every 100 yards. That was also nice because you could see you made progress every five strokes unlike races where the buoys are hundreds of yards apart where you can take 20 strokes and feel like you made no progress. On the long leg back, I could feel the swells in the lake and managed to get in sync with them which made it feel like a current pushing me along. I wondered if the bobbing up and down would be a problem when I stood up, but it wasn't. When I got out, I felt great. I wasn't tired at all and wasn't thinking about the next legs, just about the task at hand, get out of the water, let the strippers take off my wetsuit and head into transition.

 

Dave and I just before the race start

Headed to the swim start which was in waist deep water

 

Expected swim time 50 minutes, actual 43:05. Woohoo! Faster than my pool time for 1.2 miles.

The run up to the transition area was really short and the transition area is pretty compact, but not crowded. It made for fast transition times. Socks and shoes on, glasses and helmet and it was time to go. As you will see later, I could have used some sun screen, but if they had volunteers applying it, I missed it.

Expected T1 2-5 minutes, actual 2:01

 

T1

 

Time to bike. My goal on the bike was to take in a thousand calories and not go too hard. Every 15 minutes I took a drink of my home made energy drink, then a drink of water. I watched my cadence and tried to keep it about 90 and watched my breathing. Whenever I started breathing too hard, I backed off. I executed the plan, just about perfectly. Early on a woman passed me that was going the perfect pace, so I followed her ( about 5 bike lengths back so as not to draft). She coasted on the downhills and I pedaled so I passed her on the down hills, gave her a rabbit to chase, then when she passed me, I paced off her. It was win-win as far as I was concerned. We ended up chatting a bit then she blamed me for pushing her too hard and proceeded to drop me :-). The route was beautiful, along the lake on the way out, then through farm fields for the rest. I felt great the entire ride, no knee pain, not too hot, no real issues at all. That said, I was ready to get off my saddle by about mile 50, but that's to be expected. It's hard to describe, but it was like my mind and body were disconnected. My legs just kept turning while my mind thought about fueling, cooling, and bottle exchanges. The aid station volunteers were like pros. I pointed to the volunteer I wanted, slowed slightly, made the grab and they didn't let go until I grabbed it out of their hand, I thanked them, they told me the bottle was already open and away I went. I don't think I slowed down to much less than 15 mph which is a bit fast for an exchange for me.

Expected bike time 3:10, actual 3:00:07, woohoo! I thought I would have to hammer to be at 3 hours. Makes me want a TT bike even more :-).

Once back in transition, Dave passed me on the way in! That was pretty cool, I figured I wouldn't see him until after he had a couple beers after the race. Anyway, another quick transition and I was off.

Expected T1 2-5 minutes, actual 1:55


This is where things got interesting. I was starting the run at the 3 hour and 47 minute mark and my original goal was sub 6 hours, a 2:10 half marathon is "just" 10 minute miles, and I was feeling pretty good. The down side is that it was hot and humid and I was a bit bloated. I started the first mile thinking about going for the sub six instead of sticking with the plan. I ran the first mile in 8:30 and my heart rate was starting to red line. I was still thinking about hurting myself then saw a guy up ahead blowing chow on the side of the road and I thought to myself, I want to enjoy this race and the post race, I really don't want to be that guy. I wasn't up tight or anything before this point, but after I made that decision, the race became even more fun. By mile two I knew I was going to finish and I knew I wasn't going to go sub six, so I decided to have fun. I ran when I felt like it and walked when I was overheating, had skyrocketing hr, had side stitches, and was in an aid station. Yes, I walked a lot and had a great time. I high fiver lots of spectators, thanked all the volunteers and several spectators, experimented with keeping cool In warm temps, encouraged everyone that passed me and just enjoyed the long run.

This run took forever, yet oddly enough didn't seem that long. The volunteers were awesome again. Seriously, when I went to every aid station, I had a staff of people in a line offering me Gatorade, then water, then ice, then more water then more ice, oh and throw in some cold towels. Not only did they offer these things, they were fully engaged. They looked me in the eye ( may have been like looking into a deer's eyes at many points :-)), asked me what I needed and got it for me quickly. They worked their asses off in the heat and treated us like rock stars. Kudos to the volunteers!

As I mentioned, I experimented with keeping cool. At every aid station I took a couple cups of water, a cup or two of ice and a cup of Gatorade (at every other stop). I had never poured ice down my shorts before and thought I would give it a try since it was pretty hot out. First or second station, I poured a whole cup down my shorts and things got pretty cold, pretty fast. After a quick flashback to a Seinfeld episode where George had shrinkage due to being in the pool, I pulled one of the legs of my tri shorts open and let most of the ice fall to the ground :-). After that it was a third of a cup in the drawers, a third in the back of my shirt and a third down the front. Would it be wrong for a dude to wear a sports bra just for holding ice? I know Patrick did a dude band, maybe he could do a dude bra?

So while the run was longer than it should have been and hot, a couple funny moments pop into my mind while writing this. About mile eight I grabbed a couple cups of water, a cup of ice and a cup of Gatorade at an aid station. I came to a complete stop in the aid station trying to figure this out. The two water cups were in my left hand. The Gatorade and ice cups in my right hand. I stood just past the aid station table staring at my hands trying to figure out how to pour the ice in my right hand into the water in my left hand without spilling the Gatorade in my right hand. As I was standing there trying to solve this extremely hard problem, a wonderful volunteer came over and said "what do you need?". I said, "I have no idea, maybe I just need to be done with this race". He said "there is beer right over there in that cooler if you want one", I don't remember what I said but I solved my problem by setting my four cups down on a table and moving on. :-)

Not much long after that I was walking toward the big hill of the day and random people were cheering me on like I was a rock star, while I was walking. Since I was walking, they had plenty of time to cheer :-) and they kept cheering! Finally I said thanks then asked if I was winning the race :-). They said that they thought so and I said, just kidding, I'm getting my monies worth out of the course. We all had a good laugh and I trudged on.

Mile 9 has a nasty hill leading to the final 5k which had no shade and a nasty, steep downhill to the finish. I was pretty happy to be done but I was still feeling really good. My family commented thatbinlooked way better than I did after New Orleans and I actually felt great considering having just finished propelling myself 70.3 miles. I got my medal, then sat in the lake to cool off.

Cooling off in the lake

 

After cooling off, we met up with Dave and his family and rehashed the race and had a couple of beers. That evening, I had a hard time sleeping between a pretty bad sun burn and some significant pain in my left calf. I had a hard time rolling over and getting comfortable.

 

You can see where I sprayed one spot that ran :-)

 

All in all I'm very happy about this race, how my body felt, how my knees didn't hurt, and how I stuck to my plan. Overall time was 6:25:30 and I wasn't worried about time at all, I was focused on feeling good, thinking about what I needed to be doing at each moment, and having fun.

 

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Taper Time

My 70.3 is in a week and a half and it's taper time. I've only had a couple "real" tapers, a couple two week tapers for 70.3's and a couple one week tapers for half marathons. I can say there is a difference, at least for me. At the start of the two week taper, my legs are absolute toast and 3 mile runs feel like there is no way my legs can carry me 10 more miles, specially after already being on the race course for four hours. Then comes the niggles, aches, pains, and other injury type feelings in a bunch of new places all through my feet, ankles, calves, knees, quads, hamstrings, etc. you name it, and during taper it's going to develop a brief bout of feeling like a race ending injury just popped up. I think it is just the body repairing the cumulative damage that months of training has inflicted on my body, at least that is what I hope. Then there are the thoughts, "did I do enough?". Well, if I didn't, it is what it is. Some like to say the hay is in the barn. I'm feeling pretty good about my base training. A quick comparison against what I did for my first half Ironman shows ...

NOLA 2011

Door County 2012

My conclusion? First, It is tough to compare graphs of different scales. Second, don't look at your graphs a week and a half out from a race :-(. Seriously, it looks like my knee injury hurt my base building period significantly and joining an extreme fitness class hurt my already pathetic swim volume significantly. I guess comparing the graphs is valuable, even if you don't like what you learn.

So besides the taper madness, I've had some other issues leading to the need for taper and rest. After my last tri, I developed an extremely runny nose that I'm not sure if it was allergies or a cold (I'm still not sure). This lasted for 3-4 days then turned into an extremely gooey nose that as kind of thick and caused snot rockets to be gooey stringy messes like two year olds get. This lasted for 4-5 days. Then it moved into my chest where it currently resides. I think it's getting better and fear it's too late to do anything about it anyway. Besides the cold, I had some lower back pain for a couple weeks that seems to be on the mend. Besides the back pain, I've been extremely busy with travel, work, and house guests.all good stuff, but none very good for rest and recovery. Besides the business, I finally stopped denying I have athletes foot and started treating it. I've had peeling, cracking feet for a few months and wrote it off as being due to doing exercises on a rough pool deck with my wimpy feet. Well my skin started getting thicker and itching and burning. It finally reached a peak on Saturday and after some self diagnosis on the interwebs, came to the conclusion I have athletes feet. So I bought cream for my feet, a liquid for my toe nails, powder spray for my shoes and Epsom salts and started treatment.

Shoes after being sprayed with powder. I did take pictures of my feet, but spared you.

So in my research I found out that I violated every rule I could find about avoiding athletes foot. So, don't be like Mike and do the following:

- keep your feet clean and dry

- wash your feet with soap every day including between your toes

- completely dry your feet after they are wet including between your toes

- wear clean socks

- let your shoes dry out between each wearing

- always wear pool shoes or sandals at the pool and in the locker room.



I did none of these and went further by wearing dirty socks to work out, sometimes still wet. I figured when doing two a days, why not? Well now I know. I also use to wear cycling shorts multiple times until last weekend. Turns out the same grunge can end up in the nether regions. Who knew? The not re-using bike shirts was a precautionary change. No jock itch here :-).



I also did some research regarding peeing in the shower preventing athletes foot. Well, it doesn't, and I have proven it by peeing in the shower every day for at least a year (don't tell my wife :-)) and still getting athletes foot. Before you knock peeing in the shower, entire countries are recommending its citizens pee in the shower to save water. Plus, it saves time :-).



Ok, enough about that. Back to tapering......

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Product Review: Aqua Sphere Kaiman Goggles

The folks at AquaGear sent me a note asking if I wanted to review some gear of my choosing. That is a no brainer for me, I love trying out gear and sharing my experiences. So I went to their website https://www.aquagear.com/ and started poking around. They have quite a large selection Of items and I was having trouble choosing something. I thought about getting some paddles, then thought better of aggravating my shoulder injuries. I thought about getting some fins or kick board, but I just use the ones at my local YMCA. So after a drawn out, indecisive stretch by me, I went with something I already know and love, Aqua Sphere Kaiman goggles. I went through the painless Aquagear ordering process and within a couple days, I had my goggles in hand.

I ordered a pair of black goggles with smoked lenses since I already have a pair of blue with blue lenses for the pool and a pair of black with mirrored lenses for really sunny days. I've also lost several pair over the last couple years. Sometimes I leave them in the shower at the Y and sometimes I give them away. I gave a pair to a friend that just did Knoxville 70.3 and he loved them too ( and lost them in the race :-)).

nice big lenses

Easy adjustment clips adjust in seconds

When I first started swimming a couple years ago, I experimented with several different brands of goggles and once I tried these Kaiman's I knew I found the right ones. The adjustment is super easy to pull, yet they lock in place. They are wide for a good field of view and no "goggle eyes". I really haven't found anything I don't like about these goggles except that I keep leaving them at the Y :-).

Had to throw in a cheesy pic

If you are in the market for some new swim gear, check out Aquagear.

(Disclaimer: I was given Kaiman goggles for free, courtesy of Aquagear . I did not pay for the goggles, receive payment for this review, or agree to give a positive review. Aside from information gleaned from the company website, the opinions are my own.)

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Nutrition Testing

I started doing some testing with maltodextrin this weekend at the suggestion of fellow blogger Mike. Maltodextrin is a common food additive containing easily digestible carbohydrates, yet is cheaper than sports powders. It can be purchased online or at your local brewing supply store, since it is a common ingredient used to brew beer. My local brewing supply store is 40 minutes away, so I ordered a pound online so I could experiment. There was no calorie label on the package but doing a little googling, it looks like a cup contains about 360 calories.

I had a long brick work out scheduled for Saturday for which I planned on mixing a one hour bottle and a long ride Sunday for which I planned mixing a four hour bottle. My first attempt was one cup of maltodextrin, one scoop of Gatorade powder and one tablespoon of salt. I mixed that up, took a sip and promptly poured it out :-). The Gatorade flavor was way too strong as was the salt taste. My second attempt was one cup of maltodextrin, one Succeed S!CAP for electrolytes and a little lemonade flavored Crystal Light for flavoring. The taste was pretty good so I went with it for my first test.

On the plan for Saturday was a brick workout consisting of an hour swim, an hour ride, and an hour run. Unfortunately, lap swim didn't start until noon and the temperature was forecast to be in the mid 90's with the heat index being over 100. If nothing else, it would be a good nutrition test. If you can take in calories in the heat and keep it down, it should work in just about all conditions, right? The workout went fine, nutrition seemed to taste good and sit well but I did cut the run short due to the heat (5k instead of a 10k). Cutting it short had nothing to do with nutrition. I didn't want to hurt myself and risk missing the long ride Sunday.

With that success, I decided to make a four hour bottle for Sunday. I mixed three cups of maltodextrin, three S!CAPS, and lemonade flavored Crystal Light again. Maltodextrin is easier to mix hot, so i mixed the bottle Saturday night and put it in the fridge. Sunday was a little cooler than Saturday, but not much. I set off on a four and a half hour ride with ~1100 calories in one bottle and a second bottle of water only. My plan was to take a sip of calories every 15 minutes and drink water to thirst. This plan seemed to work ok. A couple times I skipped a calorie drink because I was feeling a little bloated. This worked out so I finished the bottle four hours in. I think finishing it in three hours would have been a little soon. I did notice a slight after taste a few times, but nothing stomach turning.

The last half hour of the ride wasn't pretty. I was exhausted and over heated and stopped at every water fountain to pour water over my head. Afterward I think I hopped in the shower too quick because when I got out, I started sweating, got the cold shakes, nausea, and really light headed. Let me tell you, its tough to shave when you are about to pass out (and probably not a good idea). I laid down for a while and felt better. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I weighed seven pounds less than when I started. I don't think it had anything to do with nutrition, I think it had to do with heat exhaustion. I guess when I do a full IM, I need to find a cool one.

With four and a half weeks until my 70.3, I'm running out of time to experiment. I did run to my local brewing supply store and buy some more maltodextrin and plan to try mixing some powdered Gatorade instead of Crystal Light for my next long session. Speaking of which, my next long ride is scheduled for Sunday, but I'll be in Cohasset, MA for a family visit and a little racing. The race should be challenging as it will be a cold ocean swim and ill be riding a borrowed bike. I'll try to fit in a long run while I'm there and a long ride when I return.

The goods :-)

 

2011 Report Card

I had a draft blog post about goals for 2011 and never finished it.  I didn't have many and I didn't review them at all.


Goals:
Swim - be able to swim without too much shoulder pain  ------------> not doing too good or bad here - B
Bike - Average 23 mph for a sprint and 22 mph for an oly bike leg --> D. no sprint, 20.4 mph at an Oly
Run - average 8 minute miles at a sprint, 8:30 at an Oly --------------> C. no sprint, 9:01 at an Oly

NOLA 70.3 Goal
swim - 2:30/100 = 53 minutes  ----> cancelled N/A
bike -16 mph (oly pace - 20%) ---> 19.4 mph  - A++++
run - 2:15 (hm pr + 20%) ---------> 2:15:06 at NOLA - A

NOLA Stretch Goal
swim - 2:20/100 --> cancelled N/A - I did 2:15 for, my private HIM but it was a pool swim
bike - 18 mph ----> 19.4 mph
run 2 hours -------> might have been possible if I biked slower and took in more nutrition


So my A race goals were met, while my general "get faster" goals were not.  This reminds me of the quote "A goal without a plan is just a dream".  I went looking for the author of that quote and didn't find it.  It may be a variation of this quote.

A goal without a plan is just a wish. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

I had a solid plan for NOLA and exceeded my goal despite my nutrition failure.  I'll follow the same plan for my HIM this summer.  I'm thinking about changing from Racine, WI 70.3 to the Door County, WI HIM one week later.  I think the course will be much prettier.

On an unrelated note, we had our first snow today.  Now Spring can arrive :-).

2012 race schedule

I started this post November 9th and have been so indecisive, I'm just now posting it (and I'm still not done......). I almost titled this post, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" since I can't find an early season 70.3 that really works for me. I also feel like a slug when I re-read my off season plans. Without a big race scheduled, I just don't have the motivation to get on the trainer (that is changing today!).  I have been running 18-20 miles a week, shy of my 30 mpw goal, but way better than being a couch potato.

I'm struggling to get my 2012 race season scheduled.  I would like to do a 70.3 or two and would really like to do a full Ironman.  My cousin Len is doing IMC in late August.  He has been a big inspiration for me getting in to triathlons, so it would be really cool to do IMC with him.  The hitch is it's 2000+ miles away and sold out except for foundation slots, read $1200 entry fee (I need a sponsor :-)).  There is another full Ironman that same day in Louisville Kentucky which is about 6 hours from my house.  It isn't sold out, but the downside is the heat and humidity (and it's not as beautiful as BC).  It's been in the mid-nineties many times making the marathon a death march.  Yet another choice is Rev3 in Sandusky, OH which is about 9 hours from my house.  I haven't given up on doing an IM this year yet.  I'll decide by January 1st.

So here is my 2012 Race schedule so far (updated 1/2/2012)

January 28th - virtual 5k - check out Adam's blog.  He's pretty funny.
April 15th - half marathon - St. Louis, MO - maybe ($80 seems steep for a hm)
May 5th - 52 mile ride - Mount Pleasant, MO - maybe ($85)
May 13th - Sprint - Effingham, IL - registered ($70)
May 20th - Oly - Carlyle, IL - registered ($65)
June 24th - Sprint - Cohassett, MA - registered ($90)
July 22th - Door County, WI HIM - registered ($190)
August - ??
September - ??
October 7th - Private HIM?
October 21st RnR half Marathon St. Louis - registered (half off 11/11/11 $55)

Time to start training......

Off Season

Before I get to my off season plans, here are a couple pics from my really nice mountain bike ride today.

I didn't see any other riders.

Someone had been through earlier though, I didn't run into any spider webs.

I'm making plans for the off season.  I was considering P90X, a weight program, Jorge's winter cycling plan, or nothing until my friend Doug pointed out I should really set my goals for next year and let them point me in the right direction for the off season.  I was hoping my goal for next year would be a full Ironman triathlon but after my two half triathlons, it's obvious I need to work on my nutrition before I attempt a full IM.  With that decided, I had no idea what my goals would be just a week ago until I read this thread.  I would love to run faster.  I get passed by people seemingly putting out much less effort than I am all the time.  So how am I going to run faster?  I'm going to build my running volume up to 30 miles per week and hold it there for a few months.  30 mpw means 5-6 runs per week, Ouch!.  My goal is to run a 5k in under 23 minutes.  I'm probably at about 26 minutes right now, so sub 23 will be a tough goal for me.  If When I reach that goal, I should be able to beat my half marathon PR by at least 5 minutes as well.  We'll see.

I have decided to do triathlons again next year.  This was not a given since racing is definitely outside my comfort zone, but it does make me feel alive (so maybe it was a given).  My cycling goal for next year is to hold 20+ mph in an Olympic distance race and 18.7 in a half Ironman (sub 3 hours). That means cycling 3x per week in the offseason.  My swimming goal is not to drown.  I'll need to hit the pool once a week to accomplish that :-).

So that is 9-10 workouts per week and if you follow me on BT you know I have trouble getting in more than 6.  I'm also not a morning person, so I'm trying to figure out how to get all these workouts in after work.  The only way I've come up with is to brick all my workouts, which wouldn't be ideal.  So if I do all my workouts in the evening my schedule would look like this.

Mon PM - short run (add a swim once MNF is over)
Tue PM - trainer ride followed by a medium run (medium = an hour)
Wed PM - swim followed by a short run (short = 1/2 hour)
Thur PM - trainer ride followed by a medium run
Friday PM - short run
Sat - long run
Sun - long trainer ride
  
An hour ride followed by an hour run after work would be tough. Alternatively, I could try to become a morning person.  The problem (besides not being a morning person) is that I need to be in the shower by 6:30 in order to drive my son to school then head to work.  That means I would need to get up at 5 am on medium run days and 5:30 on short run days.  Oh yeah, it will be dark and cold too.  Yuck!  If I try to become a morning person, my schedule could look like this.

Mon AM - short run
Mon PM - swim (once MNF is over for the year)
Tue AM - medium run
Tue PM - trainer ride
Wed AM - short run
Wed PM - swim
Thur AM - medium run
Thur PM - trainer ride
Friday AM - short run
Friday PM off
Sat - long run
Sun long trainer ride

Hmm, I'm getting tired just thinking about it :-). I'll massage this a bit more and get at it in November.  I'm enjoying a down month in October but keeping a run base to start from.

Is it worth it?

After missing two days of training because life is busy (and I was feeling a little lazy), I started wondering if all this training is worth it.  I skipped one swim, one bike, and one run the last two days and as a result I had time to eat dinner with my family one night, sleep in an extra hour one day, and volunteer one evening.  It was a nice change of pace. Don't get me wrong, I would still need to do something to keep the weight in check and the heart healthy, but I wouldn't need to do quite as much.

My volume so far this year is good for me.  I've averaged 6.7 hours of training per week over the first 34 weeks for a total of:

Bike:129h 13m 33s  - 2037.91 Mi

Run:70h 42m 38s  - 409.18 Mi

Swim:28h 42m 22s  - 60380.84 Yd


6.7 hours doesn't sound like much but if you include getting workout stuff together, cool down time, putting workout stuff away, showering, etc, that probably adds 30-45 minutes to every workout which adds 2-3 hours per week for a total of 9-10 hours.

My volume chart varies all over the place due to race, recovery and vacation schedules.

Funny, while typing this I was also going to mention my house is a mess and so is my yard so I would have time for both of those things.  Truth be told, if I back off on the exercise, I will fill the time in with something I enjoy and neither house work nor yard work fall into that category :-).

This is something I will be pondering over the next couple of months as I decide whether or not to do a full Ironman next year,  stick with HIMs, go back to Sprints and or Olys, go just to running, or whatever.  I'm still doing my private HIM October 2nd, then taking a week off.

Private HIM

Before I get started, check out this cool cloud pic I took when leaving church tonight.

The details are coming together for the half distance tri from my house October 2nd.  Lap swim at the Y starts at 11 am, so that will be the race start time.  If you plan to race, let me know and I'll get you a free one day pass.

The first leg of the race will be running to the Y from my house.  The Y is 0.5 miles away.

run to the Y

The Y pool is 25 yards so we'll do 42 laps (84 lengths).  You can do another half a length if you want to hit 2112 yards instead of 2100.  After the swim we'll run the 1/2 mile back to my house and hop on our bikes for two 26.6 mile loops.  

bike loop

You can do the loop in either direction.  From experience, I suggest counter clockwise if the wind is from the South or West and clockwise if it is from the North or East.  I can take pictures at all the turns if anyone besides me is going to race.  Let me know.  Two loops only ends up being 53.2 miles so we'll take on one 2.5 mile run loop to get up to 55.7.

The run course will be a 5 loop course so the aid station can be in my garage or front yard.  There is one steep hill so I recommend running clockwise so you run downhill on the steep part.  There is a sweet 11.4 mile loop from my house I can set you up with if you want to carry your own nutrition.  

run loop

So the total distance is

0.5 mile run

1.2 mile swim

0.5 mile run

55.7 mile bike

12.5 mile run

for a total of 70.4.  Perfect!

Dinner will be around 7 pm.  I figure the race will take me about 6 hours, maybe a little longer because I probably won't push as much as a normal race.  Right now I'm thinking bacon wrapped fillets and spiced red potatoes but I'm open for suggestions.

On an semi-related note, I won a blog contest a while back by predicting Kurt @ Becoming an Ironman's HIM race time within 8 seconds!  I predicted each leg within 2 minutes as well.  Kurt sent me an assortment of nutrition to try and it arrived this week.  This was very cool because I'm still pretty new to endurance racing/training and like to try different nutrition.  I've been wanting to try Gu Roctane, GU Brew and Cliff Shot Gel so thanks Kurt!

What's next?

funny bike sign from today's ride

No races planned for August.  We have our yearly beach vacation in early August then back to school time plus no good local races I know of.  I wouldn't mind a sprint or oly at the end of the month if it works out.  Any ideas?  September 10th I have a 5k run with my daughter which will be her first race.  I'm really excited about it!

My original plan for the second half of the season was to do the Last Chance Tri half distance tri at Rend Lake, IL on October 2nd.  After looking into the race a bit more, it looks like a nice course and the 1863 folks put on good races.  Then I looked at the results from last year and less than 60 people did the race.  That sounds like a lonely bike and a really lonely run.  Couple that with the $170 entry fee and a night or two at a hotel plus food and it's a $500 lonely race.  To take the place of that race, I'm toying with the idea of a private HIM starting from my house instead.  Kind of crazy idea, but when you go on long bike rides without tunes, these kind of crazy ideas happen :-).  I live across the street for an extensive trail system for the bike and run and two blocks from a YMCA with a pool.   T1, T2 and the aid stations would be in my front yard (meaning a lot of run loops).  Post race food would be grilled by me, once I finish.  Corn won't be in season, but I'll come up with something else good.

Dinner tonight, also had salmon and Mahi Mahi

Here are couple pics from the tentative bike course.

If you are interested, let me know (I'll need to limit the entries due to the cost of dinner).  I might even have some shirts made, or a shirt if I'm the only taker :-).  Oh, and I've become a fair weather racer, so if the weather sucks, you can race and I'll start the cookout early.