Another Training Phase Begins

After the Chasing Chics Triathlon, I took it easy for several days. I did my normal Wednesday morning Pro K swim and on Thursday I got a strength workout in but I did not do any running or biking all week. I was resting up before starting the next phase of my training.

On Saturday, I did 2000 yards in the pool. I have started planning my pool workouts so we can maximize the time in the pool. Instead of a 300 yard warm-up, we have upped the yardage to 600 for our warm-up. Also, having the training session planned out causes us to spend less time on breaks between drills and therefore we get more mileage. I have to admit, I still cannot go too far in the pool without having to take a very quick, 2 to 5 second breather occasionally.

In fact, while I have made great gains in my swimming, I still have a long way to go. I do feel lucky though and I would like to explain why. First of all, here are some snippets from trinewbies.com which is one of the many web sites devoted to triathlon. In response to the question, "Do triathletes really need a swim coach?" Hazen Kent responds with the following:

"A good swimming instructor standing on the pool deck working with a group of adult swimmers is by far the best possible scenario for improving your overall swimming performance. Unfortunately there is a very real shortage of instructors out there and many of us are forced to fend for ourselves on a daily basis."

Hazen goes on to say, "Most will agree that having a swim coach on the pool deck monitoring your strokes and stroke technique is by far the best way to improve your overall swimming performance. Unfortunately, not all of us have access to a swim coach."

Hazen then goes on to outline the things that make a good swim coach.

"So what makes a good swim coach?", Hazen continues,

"Good question…let’s take a look:

• A good swim coach should have a good understanding of swimming and the strokes involved. This also includes the knowledge of effective stroke drills to help improve a swimmers stroke technique and overall speed.

• A good swim coach should be aware of all his/her swimmers, their level or performance and their needs.

• A good swim coach is always moving up and down the pool deck, correcting the swimmer’s strokes.

• A good swim coach is vocal, perhaps even loud!

• A good swim coach will be seen actively demonstrating drills, perhaps even getting in the water to do so.

But remember, we are not just looking for a good swim coach. We need a swim coach who understands the sport of triathlon and thus understands our needs."

The reason I feel lucky is that I have a really great swim coach who meets just about all of the above criteria for a good triathlon swim coach. Karen Holloway (http://www.karenholloway.com) not only understands swimming but she is an accomplished triathlete. In 2005, she won Ironman Canada with a time of 9:51:31. She has demonstrated her intimate knowledge about triathlon and is quite adept at passing that knowledge on to her athletes.

At our last practice, Karen gave me some corrections that I know will help me become a stronger and faster swimmer. If I can concentrate on implementing the corrections, that is. Sometimes all I can think about is "I need air!" or "Why is my heart beating in my ears?!" But I can take what she tells me and work on it. Karen gives instructions and corrections to all her swimmers. Even the ones that are twice as fast as me and seem to be fish in the water. They also get her watchful eye and feedback that will make them even better swimmers.

It will still take a long time for me to get faster and stronger. Honestly, I am not too worried about becoming super speedy. I just want to be more efficient and a better swimmer. The speed will eventually come. My goal is to eventually be able to do some long distance races so I am more interested in being able to relax and follow the advice of Dory from Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

After our Saturday pool session and lunch, I rode the bike trainer for 55 minutes. That was about all the time I had to workout on Saturday as we then went to the Picasso exhibit which was quite interesting. I don't go to art exhibits much but I could not miss this one. I am glad I went but don't want to talk about it too much as that could be an entire blog entry by itself.

On Sunday, my training partner and I did 1800 yards in the pool. After our swim, we pre-rode the PowerSprint Triathlon bike course which is about a 12 Mile loop. Following our ride, I ran a 5 miler.

Monday turned out to be a rest day of sorts. The lawn needed attention so I did some weeding and ran the lawnmower. I don't necessarily mind doing this kind of work but it is not my favorite thing to do. I would rather be riding my bike or running or lifting weights or doing core work. But it is something that has to be done.

On Tuesday, my training partner and I went to the track to do some speed work. Melissa did a warm-up and then a tempo run followed by a cool down. I did my 1 mile warm-up and then did 4X800 followed by cool down. I had planned to do 5X800 but as you can see from my splits below, I was starting to fade pretty fast. I probably started out too fast as usual.

Split	Time	Miles	Minutes per Mile Avg Pace
1	00:06:48	0.80	08:27
2	00:03:03	0.52	05:53
3	00:02:09	0.25	08:35
4	00:03:11	0.51	06:15
5	00:02:15	0.25	08:57
6	00:03:17	0.51	06:30
7	00:02:15	0.25	09:02
8	00:03:21	0.51	06:36
9	00:09:51	0.95	10:25

On Wednesday morning I had the usual Pro K swim class with Karen and her team. I was feeling pretty slow and tired during this workout. We did a lot of 100s. Since I am still pretty winded after a 100, I quickly started to fade. However, I still thought it was a great practice and despite the fact that I am most definitely not a morning person, I always feel great after swim class and am energized and ready to go. Of course then I go to work where I sit in front of computer screens all day but that is another story.

On Thursday, Melissa and I did a 30-mile bike ride. It was the longest ride we have done in a very long time. We found a route on the Richmond Area Bicycle Association's website and then tacked on some mileage so we could ride straight from our house. It was a easy-to-moderate ride for us. During the ride, we got passed by loads of bikers. These guys were really cooking and flew past us like we were standing still. I had to fight the urge to stomp on the pedals and get into their slipstream. Honestly, I probably could not have kept up though and we were not up for that kind of workout.

After the ride, Melissa ran a 3 miler and I ran a 5 miler. I was pretty jacked up from the ride. Melissa got out of the house before me so when I started I had a rabbit to catch. I think chasing her for the first part of my run, plus knowing that I was off Friday and going out of town for a holiday weekend with my family, really motivated me. I ran slightly faster than I had intended and ended up with a 7:31 min/mile pace for the 5 miles. I felt pretty darn good considering I was not really racing and did not really feel like I was laboring or anything.

So there you have it. You are now mostly up to date with my first week of training in this next training phase. Next time I will give you the Capon Springs Report which is where we spent the weekend with family. Of course there was some running and biking involved. Also I will update you on my race schedule which has changed.

Chasing Chics Follow Up

The results from the race are posted on the RichmondMultiSports.com website. As I mentioned before, I think, I came in 60th place. But there were only 86 finishers. I am not sure what happened to the rest of the field. I was the second slowest swimmer in my age group with 6:54. I was the slowest on the bike in my age group (44:51) and I was the second fastest on the run in my age group (22:10). Not bad overall but I need to work on getting the bike and swim times down as well as my transition time. My T1 time was 3:22 which is pretty long.

The guy who won did the swim in 4:01, had a T1 time of 1:07, did the bike in 31:08, and then did the run in 16.27. All I can say is WOW! He ended up beating the first woman by 9 seconds to win the cash. Again, WOW!

I am resting this week and rehabbing my knee. Saturday I have a monster bike ride planned and then a new phase of training begins on Sunday. I will be doing longer swims and longer bike rides as well as some interval work on the bike. Plus I will be doing long runs off the bike and continue with my track work. The next race will be here before you know it. Speaking of races, I decided a while back not to do the Duo this weekend. That would have been a little too much.

Thanks for reading.

Chasing Chics Triathlon - Race Report

Before I get into the details of the race, I want to describe something new I tried for this race. Recently, I have read a couple of different articles about race day nutrition that suggest eating 800 to 1000 calories 4 to 5 hours before the race. Most races start early in the morning making it difficult to eat that far in advance. However, a couple of coaches recommend waking up at 2:30AM, having a big smoothy, and then going back to bed. So I decided to give it a try. It worked out pretty well and I will probably start making this a race day practice. I lost 45 minutes of sleep which gave me a total of about 5 hours of sleep but I had extra time to digest my smoothy before my vigorous swim.

Triathlons are different than other races because of all the gear involved. The night before the race, I packed my race bag which includes the following items: knee braces, swim goggles, bike helmet, bike gloves, bike shades to keep bugs and sun out of the eyes, running shoes, socks, small towel, food, and extra water. Gathering all this gear and making sure it is all in the bag can be a bit nerve racking. I usually end up checking and rechecking my gear a few times before I feel comfortable going to bed.

The morning of the race, I put on my race suit, loaded up the gear, bike, and bike pump, and then had my morning toast with peanut butter and hot water with lemon. We got to the venue about 6:20AM which gave me plenty of time to rack my bike in the transition area, get my body marking done, and use the bathroom about 5 times. Let's just say I was very well hydrated for this race. Maybe a little too hydrated.

I ended up doing some practice laps in the pool as a warm up. It was a little intimidating to be next to some of the guys who were warming up next to me. The guy in the next lane over was Kyle Pawlaczyk who is a Pro Triathlete based out or Richmond who also coaches at Endorphin Fitness. Endorphin had a number of racers competing in the race.

Pool swims work as follows: Racers are seeded based on their predicted swim finishing time (self reported). Their start time in the pool is based on their seed. Once the race starts, the first swimmer starts by kicking off the wall and heading down one side of the lane. The next person waits 15 seconds and then kicks off the wall and is on his way. Racer number 3 kicks off after another 15 seconds, etc. After going up the lane, swimmers will kick of the wall and return down the same lane but on the other side of the lane line. Once the swimmer returns to the wall, he goes under the lane divider and continues down lane 2. After going up and back in lane 2, he again goes under the lane divider to go up and down lane 3, etc., etc., until finishing the 12 laps (this race venue only had 6 lanes).

For this particular race, 3 very fast women racers got a 9 minute head start on the rest of the field. These women each had their own lane and started at the same time. The idea was the all men field would be chasing them down (hence the name of the race). Whoever came across the finish line first got $500.

I was seeded 83 based on my 7 minute predicted swim time. Since I was so far back in the race, by the time it was my turn to swim, the race had been going on for about 30 minutes or more (each racer has his own clock time which is recorded when he starts the race). I waited patiently although I was nervous. Here are a few pictures of me waiting for my turn to swim. Actually the first picture is a picture Melissa snapped of me before we went inside to the pool. It was a bit chilly. I mostly wanted to show you this one so you knew what I was wearing so you could more easily pick me out in the other pictures. The lighting was not so good so some of the pictures are grainy.







Even though this was a controlled pool swim, it was still a bit nuts. The water was sloshing around and was a bit turbid. Once I got about half way through, the following thoughts went through my mind, "What am I doing? I don't belong here. This is crazy. I am signed up for 3 more of these things. What was I thinking." I kept going though. And according to Melissa, I maintained good form throughout. I did have to pull up a few times to avoid some collisions. Here are a few photos Melissa snapped of me swimming in the pool. In the first picture below, you can just make me out all the way up against the wall as I swim my first 25 meters. My head is right about next to the chair.



Below I am about in the center of the picture with my elbow up in the air.



Here is another one of me in lane five still looking pretty decent.



I was pretty darn winded when I pulled myself out of the pool and started the barefoot run out of the pool, up about 15 wooden stairs, and across the parking lot to the transition area. It did not take me long to get my wind back. By the time I got into the transition area my heart rate had gone down quite a bit.

Transition 1, or T1 as it is known, took me a little longer than some of the other guys. I had to put on my knee braces and I opted to put on a long sleeve shirt since I tend to get chilly on the bike. After donning my riding gear, I ran out of transition. It is against the rules to mount the bike in transition. In Triathlon, we have to run out of transition and beyond the mount line before we can get on the bike. Melissa snapped a few pictures of me running in my bike shoes out of transition. Running in bike shoes is actually kind of difficult.




The 13 mile bike was fun. It is nice to be able to go all out and not worry about the intersections. All of the major intersections were being controlled by the local police so we did not have to stop for traffic. I felt decent on the bike. Just a little gimpy but not too bad at all. I did get passed by about 3 or 4 bikers on serious Tri bikes. Everyone is so polite in Triathlon and always say encouraging words as they pass.

After the bike, I removed all my bike gear and my shirt and headed out on the 3.1 mile run. I passed another runner right away. After a few early turns, I set my sites on the next people I would pass. I saw a group of 3 guys running about the same pace. It was time to pick them off. Boom, three more guys who I would beat. I kept running hard and managed to pick off about 3 more people before nearing the finish line. As I made my way towards the finish, there was one more victim in front of me wearing a green shirt. The volunteer waving us towards the finish said, "catch green shirt." My reply? "Oh I got him." As soon as I passed him, I kicked it into high gear and had a very strong run finish. Here is picture of me running towards the finish. It is a bit blurry but I think you can see I was running well.



I must say I enjoyed myself a great deal despite the moments of doubt at the beginning in the pool. I don't know what all my splits were for each discipline but they had preliminary overall results posted. I was 60 out of about 105 racers with a time somewhere around 1:19:30. Not bad at all in my book. I do have to kick it up a notch if I want to compete well in future triathlons. But I think this was a good start.

Chasing Chics Triathlon

Tomorrow is the big day. I will don my new triathlon one piece racing suit and do my best not to be at the very back of the pack. I am a little less optimistic about this race than the 10K I ran last weekend. For one, I have not been biking enough to really compete on the bike. I have never been fast on the bike and while I enjoy it, the majority of bikers I bike with are faster and stronger than me. Also, I am a pretty slow swimmer. Certainly I have improved a great deal since I started taking classes with Pro K Swimming. But I am still the slowest in my class.

Another issue I will be facing is my knee injury. Strangely enough, it did not bother me when I ran last week but it bothered me in the days after the 10K. This time around I was experiencing a new kind of pain that was different from the other issues I have experienced in the past. This particular pain was exacerbated by sitting in a chair. I still had, and continue to have, the lingering knee pain I am used to but this was an added pain in a different place. The worst thing about this new pain was it flared up while riding my bike. In fact, last week when Melissa and I rode the bike course that I will be racing tomorrow, it more than just flared up. It down right hurt and I was moaning a bit towards the end of the ride. I took it easy for the rest of the week and tried to stretch and ice as much as possible and while it is feeling much better, I know that it will slow me down on the hills tomorrow.

No doubt, I am still looking forward to the race but I am a bit nervous about the whole thing. Triathletes in general are extremely fit and I have a feeling that most of the people signed up for this early season race will be on the high end of the curve. There are only about 100 people signed up for this inaugural race but there are 20 people in my age group (40-44). I figure if I have a great race, I could end up 15th in my age group. I don't really have any data to back this up but I have raced some duathlons here in the Richmond area and I was usually way at the back. I suppose anything is possible and I am definitely going to give it my all and leave it all out on the race course.

One other thing that will slow me down is the transition. After the pool swim, I will have to put on my knee braces, socks, bike shoes, helmet, gloves, riding glasses, and due to the coldish weather, I will likely put on a long sleeve shirt to wear over my racing suit. You might be thinking, "don't all the racers have to do the same thing?" Well, I will probably be the only one with knee braces to put on. Also, a lot of triathletes clip their shoes to their pedals before the race and then slip their sockless feet into them while moving on the bike. I am not that talented nor am I ready to bike with no socks. Someday maybe but I am not there yet. I will try to boogie through transition but I have been historically slow in T1 when compared to other racers.

In reading this post, you may get the impression that I am not feeling over optimistic about my performance tomorrow. I don't want to leave you with the wrong impression. I am very excited to be kicking of my triathlon season tomorrow. I am just nervous and concerned about my knee issue. Also after tomorrow, I will have a better idea about how I stack up against the locals. There are lots of unknowns going into this race. Will I be outclassed by super fit dudes with bulging triceps? Will the burning pain return to my knee on the bike? Will I be passed on the bike course? Will I choke on water during the swim? Or on the other end of the spectrum. Will I swim faster than the 7 minutes I put down for my time? Will I feel good on the bike? Will my 5K be super fast due to all my 10K training? One thing for sure. I will have a good time and come back here to write about it. Thanks for reading!

Race Report

Well, I have my first race of the season behind me and if my upcoming races turn out anything like this Saturday's 10K, I will be very happy. As you all know, I have been training hard for the Monument Avenue 10K with weekly long team runs and intense track workouts. I was pretty confident going into the race that I would PR. My previous best was 46.01 and based on my tempo runs, I was pretty sure I could beat that. In fact, I predicted that if I had a great race, I could end up running a 43.

On Friday night, our nephew Chad arrived from Lynchburg college and we all enjoyed a pleasant dinner together. Later that night Chad's parents arrived and we all got caught up on the latest news and goings on. Since we had a pretty early morning wake up, we tried to get to bed as early as possible.

Around 2:30 AM, I woke up. This happens quite often. I wake up, use the facilities, and then go right back to sleep. For some reason, I could not get back to sleep. At 3:30, I was amazed that I had not fallen back asleep. I tried reading for a little bit to see what would happen. I would start to get sleepy but then as soon as I put down my iPod, I was awake again. This went on until a little after 5 AM when I finally fell back asleep. Of course the alarm went off at 5:40AM. I calculated that I had about 3 hours of sleep when all was said and done.

We all got up and made our way down to the race venue. We were very early so we did not have to fight traffic which was nice. I decided to wear my running hat, gloves, long sleeve under armor, and black arm warmers. I also wore my gold VCU shirt that I bought just for the occasion. VCU was playing later that night in the Final Four and runners were encouraged to wear their gold and black to support the team. While I was running I got lots of "go RAMS!" cheers thrown my way. Right before the race started, I stripped off my arm warmers and hat and put them in my pocket. I had warmed up in the shade but as soon as I got into the starting corral in the sun, I knew it was too hot for arm warmers.

When the race started, I went out fast. Very fast! Too fast? Well maybe. I guess it depends on how you look at it. After all, I achieved my A+ race goal. I knew I would beat 46 and before the race when someone asked me what my goal was, I said 44. But I knew if I felt good, I could do better than that.

Honestly, during miles 3.5 to 4.5, I was not exactly feeling great. The lack of sleep was definitely a factor and I started negotiating with myself. Maybe 44 or even 45 would be an ok time. I even had some discomfort in my chest. I am sure the photos of me running will show the pain.

In the end I persevered. While I did slow down a bit during that second half of the race, I was able to maintain my pace just enough to cross the finish line in exactly 43 minutes! I was very happy although not immediately. All I was concerned about immediately following the race was oxygen and not throwing up. I walked it off and it did not take long at all for my heart rate to go down and to start feeling normal again.

It was a great race. Not only had I PR'd but so did Melissa. She crushed her previous time and finished in under an hour. Chad also PR'd with a sub 38 10K. All that hill running in Lynchburg really paid off. It was really satisfying to see all our hard work pay off in results!

The following day, Melissa and I did a half hour swim followed by a 1 hour bike ride. Unfortunately, my knee was bugging me really bad during the ride. I am hoping that I bounce back ok. As of right now, I am going to take it easy for the next couple of days. On Sunday I race my first Triathlon of the year. I can talk more about that next time. Thanks for reading. Below is the detailed data from my race.