Holiday Weekend Bike Rides

I took the opportunity on this long holiday weekend to put in a lot of miles on the bike. With the exception of the races that I have done this year, my bike miles have been exclusively indoors on the trainer. Since the weather was relatively nice and I was able to ride with several other people on some group rides, I couldn't pass up the chance to finally get outdoors on the bike. The two group rides I went on were both in the 40 mile range. Most of the areas around here have more hills than I will experience in Florida, but it never hurts to gain the extra endurance by training on them. One of the people I rode with on the first day made a comment to me about my seat appearing too low. I had noticed before that I thought it might be lower than it used to be but never gave it too much thought. After the ride I decided to raise it, and during the second day's ride I could tell a big difference. My legs didn't seem as fatigued and I felt like I was moving at a slightly higher speed. Seeing the benefit from the adjustment, I wish I had done it a lot sooner.

Greensboro Triathlon Race Report

• Distance: 750 Meter Swim, 15 Mile Bike, 3.1 Mile Run
• Time: 1 hr 30 min 31 sec overall; 14:53 Swim, 2:32 T1, 47:52 Bike, 0:42 T2, 24:35 Run
  
• Place: 9 out of 17 in age group, 45 out of 133 men, 51 out of 195 overall
  
• Weather: Mostly cloudy, less than 5 mph winds, air temps in the upper 60's, water temp of 75 degrees

A line of thunderstorms moved through the area a couple of hours before the race was scheduled to begin. The result was a soggy, muddy course and lots of humidity to go around. I was assigned to the first of three waves to start the race. They split the waves so the men were in the first, the women in the second, and any men or women in the novice category in the final wave. The first wave was by far the largest having over 100 of the 200 total participants. The swim course was a triangular out and back shape that narrowed substantially into a cove at the furthest point. Knowing that the course was narrow I was a little concerned about how many people were in my swim wave, but I thought it would be good to experience swimming close together to prepare me for the chaos that will take place in the ironman. It took me a long time to get into a comfortable rhythm. There's something about colder water that makes me take irregular breaths. When I reached the turn around point I experienced something I have never experienced in all of my open water races.....the bottom. The cove at the further point was so narrow that the water was only about 2 to 3 feet deep and everyone was having to walk around the turn buoy. Once I made the turn I could still walk for at least another 10 to 15 yards. Between the breathing issues and the walking, it wasn't until the swim was almost over that I finally felt like my swim stroke was normal. I exited the water and had a lengthy jog to reach the transition area. My wetsuit came off without any issues and I started the bike course. The roads were still very wet from the earlier thunderstorms, and I saw several people that either wrecked on the slick roads or hit pot holes that were full of water. I was surprised that I was able to keep my average mph above 18 considering the hills on the course and taking the turns cautiously due to the wetness. When I returned to transition and started the run the trails were just as wet as the roads but not nearly as muddy as I thought they would be. I was able to pass several people and felt fairly comfortable with my pace. Just before the two mile mark I was passed by a guy that was in my age group and I knew I had to stay with him if I had any chance of passing him back at the end. I was able to stay within 10 to 15 yards of him the rest of the way and as we approached the final turn I wasn't sure if I could catch him. As we made the last turn there was a 100 yard straight shot to the finish line. My plan was to sprint this last distance and hope that he didn't have any kick left. As I started my sprint I was able to make up a lot of the ground on him because he continued to run the same pace he had been doing. I thought to myself that as soon as I got close to him he would hear me coming and start his sprint as well. I got within a few feet of him and realized he wasn't going to run any faster than he had been, and I was able to pass him just before the finish line. I felt energized as I crossed the line knowing that I had improved my place in the age group category. In the end it turned out to be a moral victory because the top three in my age group had finished in the top ten overall. So much for thinking I had a chance to place in my age group. Oh well, on to the next workout on the schedule.

Greensboro Triathlon Preview

This will be the first year for the Greensboro Triathlon at Hagan Stone Park. Although the park isn't extremely large, it does have a small lake and excellent running trails. The one advantage I have in this race is that I'm very familiar with the bike and run courses. The bike course is exactly the same as the duathlon race I have participated in the last several years, and the run course incorporates part of that same duathlon as well. Based on that knowledge I can expect some challenging hills on the bike and shaded trails on the run. The swim part is a little bit of an unknown. I'm expecting the swim to be wetsuit legal with the water temp being warmer than my last race. I don't anticipate the water being too choppy, but the swim will start in groups. Also, there appears to be a longer jog to transition than I'm used to experiencing. An early weather forecast shows a 30% chance of rain and a high of 80. I think the rain will probably hold off until after the race is over, and the temps should feel pretty comfortable early in the morning. When I last checked there were around 200 people already registered and 15 were in my age group. I'm really looking to have a good performance in this race because of the training I've done. I don't know how good a lot of the people are in my age group, but my goal is to finish in the top third of the group.

Pre Race Preparation

The triathlon I have next week held a swim clinic at the race site for people to become familiar with the course. In addition to the swim clinic the Triad Triathlon Team held their annual picnic at the same park where we were able to run the 5K course of the triathlon as well. Although I didn't participate in the swim clinic, I did want to be there to get a first hand look at the lake and I was interested in what the water temperature would be. The swim clinic had a huge turnout with a surprising number of beginners wanting to practice open water swimming before the race next week. I didn't hear an exact degree amount for the water temperature, but based on comments I heard from some of the swimmers the water was quite warm near the shore and got increasingly cooler the further out you went. I've been contemplating doing this race without a wetsuit because I don't think the water will be very cold, and it will save me time not having to take it off in the first transition. However, the extra speed from wearing it would probably make up for any time saved by not having to take it off. With the large number of beginners doing this race the race director will make sure wetsuits are allowed, so I will probably end up wearing mine just to take advantage of the extra speed. Being able to run the 5K course for the race ahead of time was also an advantage. I was familiar with parts of the run course which is mostly trails, but there were other sections that were new to me. I'm very anxious to do this race because it's been several weeks since my last race and I'm expecting good things to come from all of the hard work I've done recently.

Gulf Coast Oil Spill

I've been following the developments with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the last couple of weeks very closely. I know it's still early but I'm worried that it might have an impact on the race in November. There was a half ironman race in Panama City Beach this past weekend which issued a contingency plan leading up to the race in case the oil came to that location. They basically decided that, if necessary, they would eliminate the swim portion of the race and turn it into a duathlon. I know the company that produces that race is not the same one that produces the ironman in November, but I have to think that the same decision could be possible. The thought of putting this much time and effort into preparing for the race only to find out they will change the distance into less of an achievement doesn't make me feel very happy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that somebody will figure out how to stop the oil very soon so that the environment, gulf coast residents, wildlife, and the race will not be affected any more than they already have. However, most of the recent reports have not shown a reason to be confident.

Another Week Closer

I could tell a difference this week in my stamina. I never got to the point where I felt physically tired during the late week workouts like I did the past two weeks. The one minor setback I had was on my run Saturday morning. I began to feel a little bit of pain in my left hip that was nothing bad enough to stop, but it did remain sore the rest of the day. As a precaution I decided to skip my second workout on Saturday and both on Sunday. I probably could have done the Sunday workouts but wanted to play it safe. Mondays are normally my rest day, so the two days off should be enough to recover from whatever my hip was complaining about. I just wanted to make sure that I take care of it early so it doesn't become a lingering issue for weeks to come. This next week is my last base-building week before the distances start to increase, and I'm really looking forward to my next race in two weeks so I can tell how much these last few weeks have helped me improve.

Incremental Improvement

My second week of 12 workouts is in the books. I feel pretty proud of myself being able to go through the last two weeks without missing a single workout due to lack of motivation. For the most part I tried to mirror the same workouts as last week so I could gauge my level of improvement. I noticed a little bit of fatigue start to set in toward the end of the week which was the same as last week. The difference this time was that even though my times slowed, they didn't slow to the same level as last week. As long as I can continue to see small improvements in my times each week, I will be encouraged to keep taking my training to the next level.