Vacation Training

I recently returned from vacation at the beach where I was able to take a break from my job and concentrate on some triathlon training. I was looking forward to training at the beach because the terrain would be exactly what I could expect at the ironman in November. The only downside for this trip compared to the upcoming race was the humidity. My long run for the week was supposed to be 14 miles, so I grabbed my ipod and a large bottle of gatorade and started running down the beach early in the morning. The plan was to go seven miles down the beach, turn around, and come back. Going out I was running into a headwind and the sun was at my back. The air was very muggy so I didn't mind the wind too much since it was helping me feel cooler. Within the first mile I was already soaked with sweat and the high humidity was not allowing very much evaporation to cool me down. By the time I got to the five mile point I had already drank more than half of the bottle I was carrying, and I knew if I kept going to seven miles before the turn around that I was going to be in trouble with staying hydrated. I decided to turn back at the five mile point and make my long run a ten miler instead. Once I turned around the wind was no longer blowing like a fan in my face and the sun was bearing down on me from the front. The last few miles were miserable as I could tell the humidity was taking its toll and I ran out of gatorade with a mile left. At least the bike rides that I went on didn't feel as humid as my runs. My long bike ride for the week was 60 miles. I mapped out my route and decided to stay on light to moderately traveled roads that were a little further inland from the beach. I was looking forward to seeing how well I could do on this ride because everything was flat just like the race will be. All my previous training rides back home had some hills, so there wouldn't be any opportunities to coast on the downhills this time. This would be constant pedaling and a lot of time in the aero bars. For the most part I think the ride went well, but I was surprised that my pace wasn't any faster than some of my previous rides that included hills. The one thing I did learn from this ride was that long rides with no hills require a lot more mental focus. The continuous stretches of flat road can really test your ability to fend off boredom from a lack of changing scenery. Doing my swim training was an even bigger battle against boredom. The condo we stayed at did have a pool for swimming laps, but it wasn't nearly as long as I would have liked it to be. I measured it the first day we got there so I would know how many laps I would need to do for each workout. It turned out to be 12 yards long which was less than half the distance I'm used to doing. Trying to swim a couple hundred laps without losing count was definitely a challenge, but it turned out to be less confusing than I thought it would be.

Tour de Furniture Report

• Distance: 100K (62 Miles) Ended up being 63.9 Miles
  
• Time: Approximately 3 hr 25 min, averaged 18.5 mph
  
• Weather: Sunny, 10-12 mph winds, air temps in the low to mid 80's

Going into this event I didn't know what to expect. After completing it, I'm pretty sure I won't do it again. There were maybe 75 people that chose to do the 100K distance like I did, and except for a few at the back, everyone rode off in a large draft pack to start the event. After having done several group rides in the past I was well aware of the energy saved by staying in a large group of riders, so I chose to go with the pack. There were police stopping traffic at all the intersections until we got outside the city limits. One motorcycle cop stayed with the lead pack and would ride ahead to block traffic at any intersection we were approaching. I wasn't really paying much attention to the pace, but instead concentrated on not colliding with anyone that was surrounding me on all sides. Everything was going relatively smooth until around the 20 mile mark. I could tell the pace was starting to pick up, and when we made a left hand turn I found myself getting dropped off the back of the pack. I looked at my speed and saw that I was going 23 mph while the pack was pulling away. For the ironman I'm hoping to average somewhere around 19 mph, so trying to catch up to the pack which was going several mph faster than that was not going to help me in the long run. I decided that I would let that lead pack go and I would continue the rest of the ride at the pace I was more comfortable with. I looked behind me to see how many people were in the same situation as me and was shocked to find that there was no one in sight. Apparently the few people that chose not to go with the lead pack at the beginning were now miles behind me and I was all by myself. The bad part about being dropped from the pack was that there were no more motorcycle escorts to stop traffic. I had to stop for all traffic which further increased the distance between me and the pack. I rode the next 12 miles thinking that I couldn't believe I paid to do a solo bike ride which I could have done for free. When I got to mile 32 I saw one rider up in front of me and I wasn't totally convinced he was even participating in the event. I just assumed it was some random guy out riding his bike. As I caught up to him I was able to determine that he was part of the event. He was apparently glad to see someone else because he wasn't familiar with the course and didn't have a map of which way to go. The two of us rode together for about 10 miles before we reached a designated event rest stop that I had planned to stop at. When we arrived there were several other riders there, but most appeared to be doing the 50 mile course instead of the one I was doing. I picked up some food and water and decided to head back out by myself after a brief stop. This part of the course was where most of the shorter distances were starting to come together and we would all be on the same route back to the finish. I was a little relieved that at least I would see a few people on the way back, and I was able to pass a lot of the slower riders from the shorter distances. I got back to the finish and "checked in". I was informed that since a lot of the riders from the shorter distances had already finished, the event organizers went ahead and gave away all of the door prizes so everyone wouldn't have to wait around. To make matters worse, I noticed that the event bike jersey which I purchased at packet pick-up the day before the event was now being sold for $25 less than I paid for it. I asked one of the Red Cross employees that was in charge of running the whole event why I was charged $25 more and I was told "you should see what we charge for them on Monday". One of the volunteers overheard the conversation and said "at least it's for a good cause". Apparently with that logic this volunteer would be ok if someone stole money from her as long as they used it for a good cause. I think next year and all future years for this event, I'll keep my money and ride my bike by myself for free.

Tour de Furniture Preview

The Tour de Furniture is a cycling event that benefits the American Red Cross. The organizers have scheduled at least four different distances to choose from for this event, and based on my training schedule I selected the 100K (62 Mile) distance which was the closest to what I need to do for this week. I have never done an event like this before so I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I was a little disappointed to find out that this event is not a timed "race". Instead everybody can ride the distance of their choice at what ever pace they feel comfortable. Basically this will be like the group rides I have done in the past except instead of 3 to 8 people there will be a couple hundred people. The added benefit will be that the major intersections will be policed to control the flow of traffic, and there will be several aid stations along the route. The event is so low key that I haven't been able to see an exact route that the 100K will cover. It seems to change slightly from year to year, but the general areas are some of the same as what I've done in previous group rides so I'm expecting the usual rolling terrain. The weather forecast looks to be warm with only a slight chance of rain. Overall, I think this event will make a 62 mile bike ride a little more enjoyable than it normally would be with a smaller group of riders.

100 Days To Go

There are now 100 days left before the start of my first Ironman triathlon and I feel like there is still a lot of work to be done. My training volume has started to pick back up again, and based on the latest reports of the oil spill it's looking more promising that Panama City Beach, FL will not be affected when the race starts in November. I lost my motivation to train a few weeks ago when the oil forecast looked like a worst-case scenario, but the dramatic improvements have renewed my drive to continue. With the countdown dropping below 100 days to go, there is a slight sense of urgency to train more than I should, but I know I need to be realistic with my goals so I don't cause myself any injuries.

Mission Man Triathlon Race Report

• Distance: 750 Meter Swim, 15 Mile Bike, 3.1 Mile Run
• Time: 1 hr 28 min 40 sec overall; 18:41 Swim, 1:31 T1, 43:38 Bike, 0:40 T2, 24:12 Run
• Place: 11 out of 35 in age group, 70 out of 248 men, 87 out of 373 overall
• Weather: Sunny, 6-8 mph winds, air temps in the mid 80's, heat index in the mid 90's, water temp of 89 degrees

I surprised myself a little bit in this race. I was able to beat my previous best time in this race by almost two minutes even though the heat index was in the 90's. If someone had told me before the race that I would be able to do that, I wouldn't have believed them. I went down to the water to warm up prior to the start and found out the water was almost 90 degrees. It actually was a nice change of pace from the previous cold water swims I did earlier in the year because the cold water always takes me longer to get my breathing controlled. I was scheduled to start in the second wave and was able to keep a pretty good line headed toward the first turn buoy. It wasn't until I turned toward the third buoy that the sun became a factor in my line of sight. Overall, I felt like my swim pace was comfortable and I expected my time to be pretty good. When I got out of the water the time on my watch was at least a minute slower than I felt the pace would be, but it could have been due to the course being slightly longer than it was suppose to be. My first transition was fairly fast since I didn't have to deal with a wetsuit. Once out on the bike course the first thing I noticed was that most of the roads had been paved since the last time I did this race two years ago. It definitely felt a lot smoother than I remember. About a third of the way through the course I could see up ahead there were several cars that were behind a group of slower riders, and the lead car didn't seem interested in going around them even with no cars coming from the other direction. There was one other cyclist just in front of me that was going the same pace as me. When we approached the group of cars it was obvious that we would have to slow down if we chose to wait for the cars to pass the slower riders. Instead of coasting behind these cars at 15 mph waiting for something to clear, I decided I was going around them. Right about that same time the other cyclist that was in front of me apparently decided the same thing, so we started to pass all five cars on their left hand side. The guy in front of me went wide left into the other lane while I decided to hug the middle line and pass the cars within arms length. Since there were no cars coming in the other direction and the cars in our lane saw what we were doing and moved over to the right a little bit, we were able to pass the whole group of cars and slow riders relatively quickly. The rest of the ride back to transition went well, and I could tell my bike time was looking pretty good. At this point I felt like I had a chance to break the 1 hour 30 minute mark if I could get back to transition and start the run by the 1 hour 5 minute mark. I was able to start the run at 1 hour 4 minutes so the only question I had then was whether the heat would affect my run pace too much. I was checking my watch constantly on the course but I wasn't able to get a feel for how fast I was going because they didn't have each mile marked. I finished the first lap of the run in about 12 and a half minutes so I knew I had to keep up a similar pace on the final lap if I was going to go sub 1:30:00. There were a lot of people on their first lap while I was doing my second, so the trail portion of the course was getting very crowded. I had to weave in and out of people to keep my pace up and I could tell the heat was starting to take its toll on me. I continued to keep an eye on my watch and as I got closer to the finish line I could tell that a sub 1:30:00 time was in my future. I crossed the line and couldn't believe I was able to complete the race in that time. I fully expected four or five minutes slower than I did based on my lower training volume recently. This race really helped me in the motivation department and I'm looking forward to the increased training ahead.

Mission Man Triathlon Preview

The Mission Man Triathlon located north of Burlington NC is a special race for me because it was the first triathlon I ever did. Looking back I'm amazed that I selected this race as my first because it's an open water swim and you are not allowed wetsuits - a combination that normally makes an inexperienced triathlete very nervous. In my case I was so inexperienced that I probably didn't know I was supposed to be nervous. This race will usually have several hundred participants with a nice mixture of beginners and experienced triathletes. The swim portion of this race will be done in a wave start format based on the age group categories, and the lake water is usually very warm.....think bath water. The one loop bike course has some rolling hills but nothing too difficult, and the two loop run course is a combination of paved road and wooded trail that has a short incline at the end of each loop. At this point it doesn't appear there will be any rain in the forecast, but it's suppose to be extremely hot with a high temperature approaching 100 degrees. Hopefully the worst of the heat won't be until mid afternoon when the race will already be over. I'd like to think that I have a chance of beating my best time for this race, but my lower training volume recently makes me think that I'll be lucky if I come close to that time.

Confessions of a Triathlete "In Training"

In the interest of full disclosure I have not been training nearly as much as I should be. I've been able to keep up with my schedule as it relates to my long bike rides and most of my long runs, but my shorter "maintenance" workouts have been non-existent and it has been weeks since I've gotten in the water to swim. Ever since the news of the oil spill in the gulf affecting Panama City Beach, I have not been able to motivate myself to train for a race that, at this point, I'm not sure is going to take place. The race company has said they are looking into possible contingency plans but have not gone into any details. One of the options that has been rumored was to cancel the swim portion and only have the bike and run. I would rather they cancel the race entirely than have it without the swim. I signed up to do the full ironman distance, and the idea of completing a race that doesn't include the swim would make me feel like it was an incomplete accomplishment. After spending the last few weeks feeling that my training efforts are a potential waste of time, I've decided to suck it up and continue on with the training. There are 18 weeks left before the race is supposed to start, and I need to stay focused and continue to follow my training schedule as much as possible if I'm going to be ready.