Race Season Planning

It's that time of year again. At the end of the year, Melissa and I sit down to plan our race schedule for the upcoming race season. Most of the races have price bumps at the end of the year and we like to take advantage of the lower prices. This year, by registering before the January 1 price increases, we saved a total of $70.

And now we are committed. Our calendars for 2013 have started to fill up. It is nice to be organized so that when other events come up, we know if we are free or not. To stay on top of things, we have a white board for general notes and for a workspace for planning. Then we have 3 months displayed with all of our events listed as well as any other significant things that might pop up. Finally, we have the whole year's calendar printed up that also includes holidays. This is what it all looks like although the middle set of calendars has not been filled in yet. However, the yearly calendar has all our events listed. I must give credit to Melissa for her excellent organizational skills.

 

And now (drum roll). Here is my race schedule so far for the 2013 race season.

Smithfield Sprint 2013 *Melissa also doing this race

TIME: 10:00 AM
DATE: Saturday, April 06, 2013
PLACE: Smithfield, VA
DISTANCE:
300 Meter Swim
10 Mile Bike
5K Run

Richmond Tri Club Sprint Presented by 3Sports 2013

TIME: 8:00 AM
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 2013
PLACE: Greater Richmond Aquatic Partnership - Chesterfield, VA
DISTANCE:
400 Meter Swim
20K Bike
5K Run  

Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon *Melissa also doing this race-her first Olympic
Sunday, May 5, 2013

9:10am - Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon - .9mi Swim, 24mi Bike, 6.2mi Run

PLACE: Lake Monticello, VA 22963

Cap to Cap- SyCom Century (100 Mile Ride-not a race) *Melissa doing the 50 mile option

Saturday, May 11, 2013

IRONMAN 70.3 Raleigh *Melissa also doing this race-her first 70.3

June 2nd 2013 --Raleigh, North Carolina




Half Ironman - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run


IRONMAN Lake Placid

July 28th 2013 -- Lake Placid, NY




Ironman - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run.

Self Inflicted Injury

It has been roughly two months since I completed the Beach to Battleship full iron distance triathlon. As you may recall, I struggled through the run with some pretty intense knee pain. Since the race I have been dealing with the repercussions of my knee issue.

A week after the race, I went on an easy bike ride with Melissa. We did about 30 miles. I was fine up until about mile 20 when my knee started bothering me again. I had to take it real easy for the rest of the ride and I did my best to draft off Melissa. I did too much too soon after the race. I spent the next several days icing and taking it easy.

After a few days of healing, I started doing some physical therapy (PT) exercises that I had learned from past injuries. Unfortunately, I was not seeing much progress. I ended up getting an evaluation from a PT friend who pretty much agreed with my diagnosis of IT Band syndrome and told me some good exercises to do.

I continued to do those exercises and started seeing mild improvement. Heading into Thanksgiving, I decided I would see how it felt on Thanksgiving day. For Thanksgiving, we have some traditions that include running a hilly 5K up in the Philadelphia area. On the morning of Thanksgiving, I suited up for the race and did some warmup laps on the track to see how the knee would behave. It was not great but it was not too bad either. I decided I would start the race and if my knee started to become a problem, I would bail out.

Of course, once the race gun went off, I took off with the rest of the pack and never looked back. I ended up running a 21:15 which was not too shabby for me on this course. I did pay the price later though. Not only did I have to ice my knees for the rest of the day but since I ran in my minimalist shoes that I don't usually run in, I put the hurtin on my calves. In fact the next day, I was hobbling around like an old man. I had pretty much wrecked my calves. The knee felt better after a day of icing but my calf pain remained for an entire week.

I probably should not have run the 5K. When I got back home, I decided I better take it easy and really focus on my PT exercises. I also went to see Sara at Hands-On Wellness MT.  I decided I should go to my doctor to get an examination and perhaps a prescription for PT. I was able to get an appointment right away and, as usual, when I got to my appointment I was seen right away and did not have to wait long at all. The doctor examined my knee thoroughly and agreed that I was most likely suffering from typical IT Band Syndrome. He said there could be some meniscus damage but wanted me to do PT for three weeks and see how things went.

When I went to my first PT appointment, the therapist became the third PT to tell me that my IT Band was the worst they have ever seen. I could play "Ballad of Jed Clampett" on that thing.  Ellen got me going with some heat and then an ultrasound. Then I did some stretches that they prescribed followed by some strength exercises. I am highly motivated once I have some direction and a concrete plan and was glad to have some structure.

I have done one full week of structured PT  and I am seeing big improvements. My IT band is not as tight and does not hurt constantly. Not only did I have knee pain associated with the rubbing of the IT band, but my IT band itself ached all the time, especially when sitting. That pain has dissipated. I still have some issues below my knee cap that may or may not respond to the PT. I will continue to do my exercises as religiously as possible. I have continued to swim but I am not running or biking. I figure that I have to be ready to start training again by the end of January at the latest. I would rather get started sooner than that but I will have to see how things go. Wish me luck.

Beach to Battleship Race Report

Imagine having 24 surgeries by the time you are 12 years old. And I am not talking about minor surgeries. No, I am talking about open heart surgery, open head surgery, removing muscles from one part of the body and reattaching to other parts of the body, re-positioning bones and then using pins to fuse them together, and surgery on the eyes. I am talking about surgeries that result in full body casts. Surgeries that last many hours.

Now imagine the pain that someone must feel after these surgeries. My younger brother John was born with Spina Bifida or as we used to say when we were kids, my brother was born with an open spine. I remember after one of John's major surgeries, he was in a body cast in a special bed my Dad put together for him in the dining room. I asked him if it hurt. His response was "yes, but it will go away." I never forgot his attitude towards pain and his subsequent high tolerance for pain. I took this with me into my adult life and used his attitude to help me make it through tough times in my life. Mostly my pain was self inflicted. But remembering John's situation has always helped me through difficult tasks. Like doing an Ironman for instance.

For this year's Beach to Battleship triathlon, the weather could not have been better. It was warm enough not to need any special clothing on the bike but cool enough not to have to worry about bonking due to dehydration. I have mostly been pretty lucky when it comes to weather on race day and I encourage others to race the races I am signed up for. Of course now that I put that out there, I have probably jinxed myself.

We arrived in Wilmington on Thursday evening around dinner time. Originally, I had planned to leave Friday morning but a wise teammate of mine, whose advice I often take, suggested that I do whatever I could to go down on Thursday. Luckily, I was able to make the necessary hotel and work arrangements to make a Thursday afternoon departure possible. Melissa had an afternoon meeting but she does most of her meetings on the phone anyway so she was good to go for the Thursday departure and would attend the meeting from the car. You gotta love modern technology.

Thursday night was a very chill night. We got some food at a local seafood place within walking distance of our hotel and then just relaxed and watched some TV. I did manage to knock out some foam roller in the hotel room. My tight hips and IT band had been acting up and I needed every little bit of therapy I could sneak in.

On Friday we had a nice leisurely morning before heading to packet pickup. Since this race was a point to point race, I had to get my gear bags, go back to the hotel, and then pack some of the bags. I must say it was a little nerve-racking trying to decide what to put in the bags and what to leave out. After packing my 'run special needs' bag, my 'bike special needs' bag, and my 'bike to run' bag, we returned to the convention center to turn in all these bags. With each bag I turned in, I felt a little relief, as that was something I no longer needed to worry about. After turning in the bags, we went to the pre-race meeting to get all the details that I needed to have a successful race.

After the meeting, we went back to the hotel, grabbed my bike and 'swim to bike' bag and drove from downtown Wilmington to T1 at Wrightsville Beach. We took a little pit stop at Whole Foods for lunch which was a nice surprise. Once we got to Wrightsville Beach, I racked my bike at T1 and put my 'swim to bike' bag in the proper place and then went to check out the swim finish at the marina. It was nice to see where we would be coming out of the water and where we would have to run to get back to T1.

With all the preparation work done, it was time to head back to the hotel to chill. We ended up walking to dinner again. We found a nice Italian place where I got pasta, salad, and garlic bread. It was decent enough. During dinner my coach called to give me a last minute pep talk and to discuss race strategy. It was a very nice surprise to hear from her and I was glad she called.

Finally it was time to get to bed. While I did not sleep all that great, I did manage to get some sleep, maybe about 5 or 6 hours tops. The alarms all went off about 4:30AM and we were up and at 'em. I had my pre-race smoothie that I had brought from home as well as a banana and some water. And then we were off to drive back to T1. I quickly checked the bike, put my water bottles on the bike, used the facilities, and then got on the trolley that would take athletes to the swim start. I was on the first trolley as I was anxious to get this party started. On the trolley I met a few people and we chatted a bit while I had some more nutrition. Once we got to the swim start, we dilly dallied a little before everyone started to don their wet suits.

Once the sun came up, we started walking down the beach to the swim start. The sand was pretty cold on my bare feet. At the swim start, I dilly dallied some more before finally jumping in to take a few strokes, mostly to make sure my goggles were on good and were not leaking. The water was not really that cold which was a nice relief.

Before you knew it, the race organizers called everyone out of the water. We had the national anthem of course and then the Eminem music started. As people were bobbing their head to the song, the announcer said that we were going to have a quick word from the race director. But then before he got on the mic, the horn sounded and we were off. I was up near the front on the beach. I made my way into the water and started my first ever 2.4 mile swim. This was a downhill swim so I was not too worried about it. If the current showed up as advertised, it would be the easiest 2.4 mile swim one could do, I think.

Overall I did well on the swim. I stayed in the middle of the channel where the water was moving the fastest. I sighted enough to make sure I was somewhere in the middle of the channel and where I could see racers splashing about in front of me. A couple of times I must have swam through some pools of diesel fuel which was gross. It was odd to be able to smell the fuel even though my head was under water mostly. Kind of disgusting but I guess when you swim in a channel, that is what you are going to get.

After a while, there was a turn and I kept on trucking. It seemed like there was a large group of swimmers way off to the right near all the anchored boats and houses. I am not sure why there were so many swimmers hugging the side of the channel but it made my lane pretty luxurious. Soon, I started seeing a big wiggly man on the horizon which I knew was the swim finish. When I got closer to the finish, I started to aim for the temporary ladders they had built just for the race. I also started to kick hard for that last 25 yards. Up until this time, I knew there was current but I could not really feel it. As I floated past the first couple of ladders, I realized how strong the current really was. I pulled myself out and was really pretty amazed at how easy the swim was. I had finished the swim in just under 1 hour.

Once out of the water, I had help removing my wetsuit from a wetsuit stripper. She yanked my Xterra wetsuit off of me and then threw it on me to carry back to T1. The run from the swim finish to T1 was about 400 yards on sidewalk and pavement. As I ran with my wetsuit, I had a big smile on my face. All the preparation had paid off. I felt great running barefoot on the pavement towards T1. As I approached T1, I had my first of many Melissa sightings. There she was among the crowd cheering me on. She was in a perfect spot really and I took the opportunity to throw her my wetsuit. I had seen other people doing it so I figured why not. Like a good sherpa, she scooped it up for me and continued to cheer. It is always great to see Melissa on the course.

Once in T1, I grabbed my bag and headed for the changing tents. Inside, there were loads of triathletes in various states of undress. Some people simply wore their tri kit underneath their wetsuits so they had less to deal with. Some people stripped totally naked. I chose to wear just my bike shorts underneath my wetsuit. So when I got into the tent, I put on my cycling jersey, my socks and shoes, my body glide and IT band strap and then loaded up my jersey with all my solid nutrition - Honey Stinger Waffles, Cliff Shot Bloks, and Vanilla Hammer Gel.

Once I was ready to ride, I ran to my bike, put on my helmet, gloves, and sunglasses and then made my way out on the bike. My plan was to spin easy for the first several miles of the bike. I wanted to play it conservatively. After all, I had 112 miles to ride and I could hammer later if I wanted. I pretty much stuck to my strategy. The wind was not really blowing much and I was able to keep a decent pace as we headed over the drawbridge and out of town. Once I got grooving on the bike, I started my nutrition plan which was to eat and drink as much as possible as often as possible.

Unfortunately, my nutrition was just too sugar-rich. At about mile 10, I started getting a sugar headache. I don't normally eat sugary things in my everyday diet. All the sweet things I had put into my body started to takes its toll. My head pretty much ached through the first half of the bike leg of the race.

The bike course had several aid stations stocked with food and drink and included Porta Potties. I had to stop at the first aid station to use the Porta Potty. Some people just open the flood gates on their bikes. I was not ready to do that. Since it was not hot and I was not sweating that much, I ended up having to stop at several aid stations to use the Porta Potty. Sometimes there was a line, sometimes not.

Despite the headache, I was cruising along pretty well and was on target to make my 6 hour 30 minute bike goal. On target until the wind picked up that is. Around mile 45, we made a turn and suddenly I hit a wall of wind. It would be windy for the next 45+ miles. That really slowed me down. But, I was not hurting at all and I still felt pretty good overall. At the half way point, I stopped and got my special needs bag. I mixed up a weaker mixture of nutrition and then carried the nutrition powder with me. By about mile 60, my headache went away which was a relief.

Another thing that helped my headache was instead of relying on synthetic sugary foods, I started to eat bananas at all the aid stations. The natural goodness of the banana really made me feel better. From now on I know that bananas will be a part of my nutrition strategy.

Around mile 80, my butt really started to hurt. I had done two 100-mile training rides before the race. During these training rides, I was plenty comfortable for the entire ride but on race day, my butt suffered some serious discomfort. In fact, it got to be such a pain that I stopped at the remaining aid stations just to get a break. I did not stop for long. Just enough time to use the facilities and eat a banana.

Finally, I saw the end of the road. I had made it back to town and the cheering throngs helped guide me into T2 where I dumped my bike, grabbed my 'bike to run' bag and headed for the changing rooms. In the end, my total bike time was 7 hours and 18 minutes. My total ride time was 7 hours which meant I spent a total of 18 minutes stopped at aid stations. Not too terrible but I think I can do better.

After doing a full change into fresh running gear and using the bathroom, I headed out on the run course. I felt awesome. And it was then that I had my second Melissa sighting. I stopped and gave her a big hug. She had a big smile on her face to match mine. It was very uplifting to see her. Many have said it and it might sound cliche but she is the wind beneath my wings.

As I made my way through the first mile, I tried my best to slow down. I was pretty jacked up from the bike and my first mile was pretty fast. Soon, I would not have that problem. Around mile 3, I felt a twinge in my knee. That's not good I thought. I kept running. My twinge slowly turned into pain. It was only mile 4 of the marathon and my knee pain decided to flair up. I knew it was going to be a long, long run if my knee was going to complain the whole time. And complain it did. I slowed down, I walked, I nearly cried at times.

As the sun went down, I started doubting myself. I started making calculations in my head. Would I make the cutoff? When I started seeing my mile splits of 15 minute miles, I was really worried. I would walk for a while and then start to shuffle. I would shuffle along as long as I could before my knee pain would be too unbearable. It did not hurt at all when I walked so I knew that I could probably finish but my brain was not working too well and I was not convinced. This was not the way I wanted this to go. It was at this point in the race when I started to think about my brother. I pictured these two pictures of him and thought, "John would keep going." Despite any pain, John just kept going. The pain would be temporary. It would go away eventually. That was John's attitude and that's what kept me going. I just kept plugging along, grunting, groaning, shuffling, walking, and running.

 My brother John's first steps on his own

 at Children's Hospital in Washington DC

 John with his usual smile

Around mile 15, I started with the coke and water. That was a great boost. The sugar and caffeine helped keep me positive. Since caffeine is not part of my regular diet, I truly did get a nice boost from it. Despite the pain, I was still having fun with volunteers and other racers on the course. I had wanted to run a much faster marathon but I would have to be content with a much longer run than I know I am capable of. Also, I got to see Melissa on the run course which always makes me feel great.

Finally after all the bananas, coke and water, Endurolytes, porta potty stops, grunting and groaning, I was on the home stretch. While I was running and walking the course in the dark, I was thinking about how I would finish. Would I yell? Would I raise my arms up to the sky? What would I do? In the end, I just ran-- fast. With about half a mile left, I put the hammer down. Interestingly enough, my knee did not bother me once I started to run fast. And I did run fast. I blew through the last 400 meters as if I was on the track running intervals. And before you knew it, I was across the finish line and I had completed my first Ironman. I felt pretty darn good about the whole thing despite the grueling 5:12 marathon. I had completed the whole race in 13:49. Not bad for my first Ironman.

After the race, Melissa took some pictures of me with my finisher medal and post-race space blanket. We wandered around a bit and then went back to the hotel. After getting cleaned up with a hot shower, we walked back to downtown and got some fish tacos. I was hungry but not starving. After eating, we went and retrieved my two special needs bags and headed back to the room. Melissa had already collected all my other gear including my bike. She is an A+ sherpa! Sorry folks, she is not available to rent or buy.

It took me a long time to wind down. I texted my teammates, family, friends, and coach. I looked at the pictures that Melissa had taken, watched some tv and finally started to feel sleepy about 2AM. It was a good day overall despite my knee problems. It will take some time to recover but I am well on my way to recover and start training again. It will be another week or two before I start doing any training again. I have done a few swims and a bike ride but I will need time off to heal. I have started a physical therapy regimen and have started doing Yoga again. I need to heal up for the next event and of course for next year's Ironman events.

Finally, I would like to thank all the wonderful people that contributed to my success. First and foremost, I have to thank Melissa. Melissa is extremely supportive of everything I do and does so many things to help me train, fuel, and recover. She puts up with my endless discussion about my training schedule and all other things triathlon-related. It was she who really got me into the whole triathlon thing in the first place by doing one herself. Thank you Melissa.

Big thanks also goes out to coach Karen at ProK Racing. Karen took me from barely being able to swim 25 yards to where I am at today. I still have lots of room for improvement and I look forward to continuing my triathlon journey under her watchful eye.

And of course I have to thank all my Pro K training partners.  Thanks for letting me tag along. Riding with you fast people has been great training and has really catapulted me up from where I was a year ago! Thanks to Jon and Meredith for their sage advice in regards to training, gear, preparation, nutrition and PT. Thanks to Gerdie and Millie for all those long runs. Thanks to Sara at Hands-On Wellness MT for keeping this old body in the game. Thanks to Craig and Richmond Cycling Corporation and Richmond Bicycle Studio.

I also have to give a quick shout out to my new bosses at work. We are extremely busy at work but I could not really ask for better supervisors. Sometimes getting new people at work can be stressful but on the contrary, R&R are the best. They are both smart, dedicated workers who look out for me and always ask about my races. Thanks guys.

And thank you for reading. I appreciate you taking the time. And now on to the pictures.

T1 Before heading to swim start on the trolley

There's me running from the swim finish to T1

Getting ready to head out on the bike

Walking across the timing mats to head out for the 112 mile bike ride

Mile 1 on the run right before I gave Melissa a big hug!

Triumphant and smiling at the finish

And finally, for my PT friends. This is what I did to my foam roller earlier tonight.

Live Athlete Tracking

Today I leave for Wilmington for my first Iron Distance Triathlon.  I just wanted to post a short update with a link to the Live Tracking website where you can track me during the race using my bib number of 422.

http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=live_timing&eventID=2094

Countdown to Race Day

Today I received my Beach2Battleship athlete event information booklet. The booklet details all of the important details surrounding the race. This particular race is a point to point race and will be different in some respects to all the other triathlons I have done. Instead of one transition area that we use two times (once for swim to bike, once for bike to swim), there are two geographically separate transition areas. Because of this format, there are extra gear bags that need to be checked in the day before the race. On Friday, I will drive up in the morning, attend the race briefing and check in the following gear bags along with my bike.

1. Swim to Bike Gear Bag (this bag will contain all of my biking clothing, gear and nutrition)
2. Special Needs Bike Bag (this will be a bag that will be waiting for me at the half way point of the bike leg. I plan to have extra nutrition in this bag as well as some extra lube)
3. Bike to Run Bag (this bag will have my running shoes and running gear as well as nutrition that I want on the run)
4. Special Needs Run Bag (likely I will simply have some more nutrition and more lube in this bag and maybe some biofreeze)
5. Optional Post Event Bag. Since my number 1 fan will be there at the end to cheer me on, I will likely not use the Post Event Bag. Instead, I will ask Melissa to have a sweatshirt and maybe a banana for me.

After checking in all my gear, I will likely examine the swim start and T1 area. Mostly I want to see Melissa's options for race morning. We plan for her to drive me from the hotel at O Dark Thirty to Transition 1 where I will pump up the tires on my bike and put my race bottles on my bike along with any other last minute things which will probably include my helmet.

My plan is then to go back to the hotel for a spot of overpriced seafood at the Hilton were we are staying and then try to relax and get a good night sleep. I will also probably try to hit the foam roller in the hotel room before bed.

I still have lots of planning to do but I have all my gear and nutrition purchased and ready to go. I have one more swim, bike, run weekend coming up tomorrow along with a massage with Hands On Wellness MT.  Then I have a couple more swim workouts before I head to Wilmington on Friday. It is fair to say I am pretty psyched about this race.

As far as goals go, I have one major goal-to finish. Honestly, barring any major mechanical on the bike, I am pretty sure I can make all the cut-off times. If the current delivers as advertised, I am looking at about an hour for the swim. My bike time really depends on the wind but I am going to ballpark it around 6.5 to 7 hours.  For the run, I really don't want to say but I guess I will.  I have only done one 3 hour run in my training and lately I have been having some issues with my hip that have unfortunately flared up in the last week. That may slow me down and I may have to do some stretching at some points on the run course. My goal is a 4:30 marathon but it really depends on my hip and how windy the bike leg ends up being.

I am looking forward to this race. If you are interested in tracking my progress during the race, I will be posting a link to the live athlete tracking website where you can register to track me via email or text message updates. Usually these event trackers send out updates at various points in the race. For instance, when I finish the swim, an alert will be generated. As I go through the bike course there might be several alerts that track my progress. And then again during the run and of course at the finish. Wish me luck.

Journal for the Day

Wow. August flew by and I did not get a chance to sit down and write at all. With all the long summer work hours and the long hours of training, I found myself with little time or energy to blog although I often thought about it. Today I would like to address something I have been meaning to do for a long time.

How many calories to you eat in a day? How do you know? Do you carefully read all the labels on your store bought food? Do you weigh your produce and other foods so you can calculate the calories using one of the many free online tools? If you go out to eat, do you count the calories? Do you keep a food journal so you can write down everything you eat in a day? If you don't do these things then you can't really honestly say how many calories you eat in a day. Studies have shown that most people are way off when told to estimate how many calories a particular meal may contain. There is really no way to be accurate without taking some extra time to write down everything that you eat and then look up the calories for each item and tally them up. 

One day last week, I did exactly that. Before work, I weighed all my fruit and calculated the calories with a special scale we have. The scale has a number pad and an accompanying code book that lets you figure out just how many calories an apple has or just about any other food. I also wrote down the calories for everything I ate and drank that day. At the end of the day, I counted it all up and came up with a number that sort of surprised me. Before I get to that number, here is what I had to eat that day.

Breakfast at my desk at work

Banana, Orange, Red Grapes, Lara Bar-all organic of course

10AM Snack

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread-Again, all organic

Lunch

Martin's Garden Veggie Sandwich and 1 helping of Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips. Not all organic this time.

Afternoon Snack

Banana, Lara Bar- Organic

Drive Home Snack

Apple-Organic

Pre-workout snack

Banana, Honey Stinger Waffle, two servings of Vanilla Hammer Gel-Not all organic

My workout was 1 hour of hill repeats with Pro K Racing.

Dinner

Roasted Vegetables over Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Tomato sauce and Mixed Greens - All organic

After Dinner Snack

Large Glass of Organic Apple Juice not from concentrate. Just apples, no chemicals.

So when I added up all the calories for my day, I came up with 2750.  I was surprised because I did not think I was taking in that many calories. The Hammer Gels and Honey Stinger Waffle account for over 300 calories and the apple juice is also high in calories. One thing that was interesting is that I weighed all the vegetables that I cut up before I roasted them. We roast quite a bit of roasted vegetables when we have spaghetti. When I tallied them up, they only came to about 100 calories. There is one thing I did not account for that would have pushed up the calorie count just slightly. I drizzle organic extra virgin olive oil on the veggies before baking them. It is really not much but is one detail I left out of my journal.

I am happy with the results of my experiment. It was a light workout day compared to a long day on the bike so it was easy to account for everything. I am not sure what the magic number is for optimal performance but I think overall, I am doing well with fueling my body. I tend to think of food as fuel rather than a treat or reward. And I have been pretty steady on the scale, holding at 137 lbs. I do want to pick another day and see how one of our other typical meals compares to :Tuesday night Pro K racing and spaghetti night." Hopefully I will get a chance to do that in the near future.

Thanks for reading, comments appreciated.

And the Beat goes On

It has been quite some time since I have had a chance to sit down and chronicle my ongoing journey. In fact, I almost went the entire month of July without a single blog post. Let's just say I have been busy. Here is the quick summary of what I have been up to. Since I am so far behind, I will not go into too many narrative details.

On June 24th, both Melissa and I participated in the "I Love the Tavern" sprint triathlon here in Richmond. The race consisted of a 650 meter open water river swim, an 18 mile bike, and a 5K run. The river was very warm on race day. I tried my best not to think about the bacteria soup and just concentrate on swimming. I felt good on the swim and was surprised how fast it seemed to go by. I managed the swim in 11:47. Not the speediest but definitely a lot faster than 2 years ago before I knew how to swim. For the 18 mile bike, I squeaked in under 1 hour at 59:54. Finally, for the 5K run which was mostly on trails, I ended up with a 23:17 and my overall place was 148 out of 372. Not too shabby. I even managed to finish a few seconds faster than one of my ProK teammates. He crushed me on the bike but I managed a better swim and a slightly faster run. Not that I was competing with him but beating someone who I know is a very talented triathlete and 15 years younger does make me feel good about training and how I have progressed from last year. Training with Jon has been great for my development and I look forward to continuing to chase his fitness.

After the triathlon, we went to the Outer Banks for a week with my family and some friends. We had a great time. Of course, I did a lot of training including some long, hot bike rides and a couple of grueling runs. It was very hot and humid and there was a massive head wind on all my rides. I enjoyed the trip very much. I even got to watch some Olympic Trials and some of the Tour de France which was also fun. It was good to spend some time with my family.

When I got back from the beach, it was time for the Cul-de-sac 5Ks. The Richmond Road Runners Club puts on an annual series of 5Ks. For three Mondays in a row, I went out to the West End to run the 5Ks. During the first race, I hung back a bit at the start and ended up having a pretty good race. I ran a 21:19 which is pretty good for me.

For the second race, it was super hot. Before the race, the announcer warned us all to run slower than normal because of the hot conditions. I had forgotten my watch and when the gun went off, I went out way too fast. At mile marker 1, the times were being called out and when I heard my time, I knew I was in trouble. When the guy said 6:27, I let out a gasp. Sure enough, I started fading. My fellow ProK teammate caught me and ran off ahead of me. I had nothing in the tank. Of course I had done a 4 hour, 70 mile bike ride the day before but still, I could have run a better race. I ended up with a 22:11 which was nearly a minute slower than the first race.

For the last race, I managed much better. Another teammate who is much faster than me said he would pace myself and Jon. When the gun went off though, they still went out pretty fast. Too fast I think. I hung back and just kept them in site. At mile 1, they were about 20 yards in front of me. By mile 2, their lead may have stretched to 30 yards. But I had a strategy. After we turned onto a street that is a bit busier and requires runners to run in single file, I started to pick up the pace. I would push up to someone in front of me, hang for a few moments and then pass them. Once I passed someone, I would have to keep pushing because it would be rude to pass someone and then slow down. I could see Jon and Bryan coming back towards me and knew I would catch up to them. I passed Jon and then Bryan who then caught back up to me. He was pacing us, trying to help us break 21 minutes. I started to falter a bit but he encouraged me to stick with it. Towards the end, he said, "it's yours if you want it Jim. Now is the time." He was referring to the 21 minute mark. As I made my way around the last turn, I could see the race clock. It said 20:45. I snapped into overdrive because I knew I could beat 21. I passed a few people in that last 20 yards and managed to get in under 21. My official time was 20:53 which is a 6:43 min/mile average pace. My time was good enough for 3rd place in my age group. I was quite happy and grateful to Bryan and Jon for pacing me and helping me PR.

In addition to these races, I have been training a lot. I have been doing lots of swimming, biking, and running. When I am not at work or exercising, I am eating, buying groceries and nutrition, washing my workout gear, cleaning my bike, preparing for the next day's workout and sleeping. It is quite a commitment I have made. Luckily, Melissa is very supportive and helps me out a great deal including doing swim workouts with me. She is an excellent swimmer.

Finally, while I have not completed my first Iron Distance triathlon, nor even ridden 100 miles on my bike in one day, I have already signed up for another Ironman. Next July 28th, I will be racing in Lake Placid, NY at Ironman Lake Placid otherwise known as IMLP. There is a good size group of us doing the race. It will be fun to train with a group for the same race. Plus it is supposed to be a beautiful area and very scenic course. I am not sure if I will enjoy the scenery or not. Take a look at the elevation profile for the bike and run. Looks like fun right?

Nutrition-Bonk-Rebound

I want to talk briefly about nutrition. Recently my coach has emphasized the importance of my nutrition and hydration during training and racing. She said my biggest challenge will be working out a nutrition plan that works for me and sticking to it. I am a good listener and generally do what she tells me to do. She said I should shoot for at least 250 calories an hour on the bike. Last weekend, we did a 2+ hour ride and I managed almost 1000 calories and felt pretty good. I have a few things still to experiment with but I am getting it dialed in. So far, I am working with Vanilla Hammer Gels, Clif Shot Bloks, Honey Stinger Waffles, Hammer Endurolytes, and HEED. I may add some different things as my training progresses. Of course, I am still keen on the preride smoothy of bananas, frozen berries, almond milk, Udos Oil, Jarrow plant based protein powder and the magic of chia seeds.

As I am learning what works for me, I also know what does not work. After our Saturday ride, I did about 40 minutes in the pool. I was pretty pooped. I think more bananas would have helped. The next day, Melissa and I rode the "I Love the Tavern" triathlon bike course. It was an organized group ride to allow racers the chance to get to know the course. I awoke on Sunday under-bananaed. I had one banana and a HS Waffle and some Shot Bloks. It was not enough. I was hungry for all 18 miles of the ride. After the ride, we dilly dallied a bit and then went to lunch. Lunch was good but as I would later find out, did not fuel me well for my afternoon 1.5 hour run I had planned. At 3:30 I set out to run the downtown trails. My poor nutrition plus the intense heat and humidity lead me to bonk. I ran for about 30 minutes and then walked the rest back to my car.

The bonk really wiped me out. The bonk headache I got lasted through Monday. After work Monday, I skipped my biking interval workout and tried to rest up. When things like this happen, I always worry that I am getting behind on my training. This creates a little anxiety as I worry a bit that I might not be up to the task.

Tuesday after work, we had a team practice as usual. At lunch before practice, I decided to go ahead and eat a lunch of Drunken Noodles with shrimp so that I would have plenty of fuel in my body. It is risky eating a heavy, spicy meal before a hard workout but I have done it in the past and avoided puking although sometimes my stomach was not happy with me. But it never kept me from having a successful workout.

On this particular Tuesday, we were running hills. We had done hill workouts before but this time the hills were longer and it was hot and there was 90 percent humidity. Without going into all the details, I felt like I had a great workout. We ended up with 6 miles total with about 4 miles of hills bookmarked between the warm-up and cool down. I was drenched afterwards but felt great. Sure I almost puked but overall I felt like I had an extremely successful workout. As a bonus, my anxiety about being under trained went away and I feel like I am on track. Bouncing back from a bonk always feels good.

Now I have done it!

A lot has happened since my last blog post. Melissa and I had a wonderful trip to the beach where we relaxed, trained, ate lots of fresh fish, and really enjoyed being on vacation. We did race a 5K while were down there. I just could not resist and Melissa is such a good sport, she joined in. It was hot but fun.

After our beach trip to the Outer Banks, we went to Philadelphia for the Pro Cycling Tour. We worked registration on Saturday and then rode in the technical directors car during the multi-lap pro cycling race on Sunday. It was a great experience to be behind the scenes and see all the players from Motos and UCI officials to feed station workers to the racers themselves. We saw it all.

Finally, perhaps the most significant thing that I have done since last writing involves a race I signed up for. I signed up for an Ironman. Yes, I will be racing the "Beach to Battleship" in Willmington, North Carolina on October 21st. From what I read, the 2.4 mile swim for this race will be the "easiest" one might find in the Ironman distance. The race is not a Ford Ironman branded race but it is a big race with lots of support that comes close to a Ford Ironman. I heard the 112 mile bike course is relatively flat although wind can play a big factor. The 26.2 mile run course is also mostly flat.

So now the real training begins. Fortunately, many of the folks I am training with are doing Ironman Florida which is roughly the same time of year so I have people with which to train.  I have a good base and as long as I stay healthy, I should be successful at the race. Since the race was so expensive, I will not be doing any more races leading up to this one. Although I would not rule out the 2 mile sand dune race in the Outer Banks on the 4th of July.

Needless to say, I am going to be busy. I hope to keep blogging about my training although fitting in all the training, plus work, all the various chores, not to mention the extra rest I will need may find me with less time to write. But I will try to make shorter updates so I can chronicle my training.

So stay tuned for my saga. Thanks for reading.

Kinetic Follow up and Dominion Riverrock

Forty six out of sixty six. That was my age group standings for the Kinetic Half Triathlon. I probably could have gone slightly harder on the run but the person in 45th place was 10 minutes faster than me so it would not have done any good as far as standings go. I am very happy with my performance despite all those folks finishing ahead of me. I feel like I am making progress and learning what I can do with my body.

After the race, it was back to training. Pool workout Monday, hill workout Tuesday, rain out Wednesday, rest Thursday and Friday, and then onto Saturday morning's 50 mile bike ride in 3 hours followed by a 20 minute t-run. Afterwards, I refueled, had a little nap and then went downtown for the Dominion Riverrock 10K Trail Race. I was going to take it easy but found myself at the beginning of my wave when the gun went off so I felt obligated to run off the front.

The scramble is not like most 10Ks. It is my no means flat and includes stairs, the "Mayan Ruins," and lots of trails with roots, rocks, mud, etc. During the first 2 to 3 miles, I rolled my right ankle pretty hard. The guy behind me yelped and said, "ouch!" I just kept running. I knew if I stopped, it would stiffen up and that would be the end of the race. I had to run a little more carefully and could not make the wild leaps down embankments that I had been doing up until that point.

At one point I looked at much watch and I had already gone 4+ miles. Dang, I was almost done. From the beginning of my wave, the two guys that started out with me ran away from me. Besides them, I was passed by only one person. Trail running seems to be my thing. In the end, I ran a 48:49 over a challenging course. I ended up 25th in my age group out of 130 and 156th out of 858 overall. Not too bad especially considering the 50 mile bike ride from earlier in the day.

My ankle is doing pretty well. I manged a Monday ride/t-run and completed Tuesday track practice without too much difficulty. My years of soccer have taught me how to tape up my ankles when necessary. In high school, it seemed like I was taping both ankles nearly every game. After track, I iced and kept my foot elevated but really I had very little pain or swelling.

So now the question is, "What's next?" Besides a sprint triathlon at the end of June, I have not signed up for any more races. I am toying with the Beach to Battleship Full at the end of October and if I do that race, I will likely have to throw in a B Half leading up to the full.  Doing a full ironman distance race is a big commitment and right now, I am not sure if I want to make the leap. There is a sprint triathlon at VA Beach in September that also might be fun. For now, I am going to keep training as if I am doing the B2B and will likely decide next month.

Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.

Kinetic Half Race Report

I have always wanted to have an active birthday. In the past, I have envisioned a gathering of fit friends to engage in a day of biking, running, soccer, and other outdoor activities. Alas, I don't really have too many friends who would commit to this type of thing. There are a few that would find a day of outdoor physical activity fun but getting them all on the same page would be like herding feral cats.


At the end of last year, when I was planning out my race schedule for 2012, I noticed that the Kinetic Half Triathlon fell on May 12th which as many of you know is my birthday. I could not think of a more fitting activity to engage in on my birthday. Doing a Half Iron Distance triathlon seemed like a great way to celebrate and really was a no brainer. I had to do it.

For those who need a quick reminder, a Half refers to the Half Iron Distance triathlon. The race starts with a 1.2 mile swim, and then moves on to a 56 mile bicycle ride, and finishes with at 13.1 mile run. Last year, I did 6 triathlons in total including 3 sprints, 2 internationals, and a half at the end of the season. Since last year, I have come a long way in my training which has including hiring a full time coach, training with a team, and training more consistently. I have found it a lot easier to train with other like minded individuals than going at it all alone. Triathlon is an individual sport but training with a team is the way to go.

The Kinetic takes place in Lake Anna on the warm side of the lake. Why do they call it the warm side of the lake? Lake Anna was built by Dominion Power to provide cool, clean water to cool the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station. The water is taken from the lake, cools the reactors, and then is put back into the lake. Hopefully swimming in the lake won't cause me to end up like this famous Simpsons fish.

Melissa and I took off on Friday afternoon to drive up to Lake Anna to pick up my race packet and setup our campsite. The start time for the race was 7AM so camping at the venue would prove to be quite convenient. We had a nice big campsite for our large tent which you can see in the pictures below.

After packet pickup we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I had looked at the menu before leaving Richmond and even called to confirm some things on the menu. The dinner ended up being pretty decent. I had a big spinach salad with apples and walnuts, some coconut shrimp as an appetizer, and a garden veggie burger. It was all pretty decent.

After dinner we drove back to the camp site and settled in for the night. Around 10 PM, I was starting to get worried that it was going to be one of those sleepless nights. The campers a couple of sites down had some pretty loud and annoying young children carrying on. We heard the parents tell them they had to keep it down because people were starting to go to sleep but the kids did not listen and the parents did not do anything about it. In fact, they gave them smores. Now I know that camping is fun for little kids and they get to do things they normally would not do at home. But so much sugar after 10PM? I was sure they would be up all night. But they finally quieted down and I think I was asleep by 10:30 or 11:00. I had a fitful sleep, dreaming odd dreams about waking up late and missing the start of the race. All in all, I did not do too bad and I woke up at 5AM feeling pretty good. I downed my smoothie, had a banana and a Lara Bar, did my other morning things, and then we walked to the race venue about .25 to .5 miles from the campsite.

While setting up transition, I heard the announcer say that since there was fog on the lake, they would delay the start 15 minutes. That extra 15 minutes gave me time to ease into things and take my time getting my wet suit on. Here are a few pictures of me before the race.

 Getting body marked. I was number 316, a good biblical number

 Here I am in transition

 Here I am after my warmup swim

I am not sure why I am making this gesture. 

There were about 66 finishers in my age group M40-44. We had our own wave, blue swim caps, and went off in wave 3. I took it easy at the beginning and eased my way into the swim. At first I had problems with my goggles and was getting some serious leakage. I shut my left eye and swam like that for a while before I decided to stop and try to correct my goggles. After a few starts and stops, I finally got them to stop leaking and then tried to get into the grove. I felt much better on this swim than I did during the Rumpus. I was still breathing every stroke but my breathing was more calm and smooth and I did manage to thrown in a few breaths here and there to my non-favorite left side. I concentrated on my stroke, trying to apply all the things I have been learning and I think it paid off. After rounding the first turn buoy, it seemed like no time at all before I was at the second and final turn buoy. As I sighted and swam towards the beach, I felt like I was really getting into the groove and I pushed hard to finish strong.

When I got to the beach, I made my way out of the water and started the run towards transition. Typically racers will start to take off their wetsuits during the run from the beach to transition. The idea is to multitask so you don't have as much to do once you get to your bike. Below is an example of a racer pealing off the top half of the wetsuit while running. This is not a picture of me although I have the same wet suit and this was someone in my wave. I too peeled my wetsuit down to my waist before getting to transition. Melissa was on the course cheering me on and told me my swim split. She yelled "41 minutes." Wow. For me, that was really good. I was pretty psyched. So far the race was going quite well.

Once I got to transition, I got the rest of my wetsuit off and put on my bike shoes, helmet, riding glasses, gloves, bike jersey, and Garmin. I stuffed my pockets with some Gel flasks, Clif Shot Blocks, and a Lara bar and then started the run out of transition with my bike. It is illegal to mount the bike in transition and can only be done once you have cleared the mount/dismount line. Here are a couple of pictures of me in transition changing for the bike ride and then running my bike out of transition. 

 

Once I got on the bike, it did not take long for me to get in the groove. After about 5 minutes of riding, I started my nutrition plan. My plan was to eat something about every 20 minutes. Mostly I ate vanilla Hammer Gel, Clif Shot Blocks, and a Lara Bar. I also had two big water bottles with HEED Sports Drink (High Electrolyte Energy Drink). My HEED was fortified with Endurolytes (Electrolyte Replacement Capsules) that I had opened up and poured into my HEED for extra replenishment. As it turned out, it was not really that hot so I ended up not drinking that much HEED. Instead, I really only drank water when I was washing down my other nutrition. I had one bottle of water in addition to the HEED and there was a water bottle hand off on the course every 15 miles or so. Since I was not drinking much HEED, I took more Endurolytes which I carried in my pocket in a Mentos container. The Mentos container worked out quite well.

I was able to keep up my goal pace of 18 miles an hour for the first half of the course. By the last third of the race, I was starting to fade slightly. I was still riding pretty well, but I had definitely slowed. With 10 miles to go, I checked my watch and pace and realized I would not meet my bike time goal of 3 hours and 10 minutes. When it was all said and done, my bike split ended up 3:18 for the 56 miles of biking. I was a lot faster than last year's Patriots Half bike split so I am pleased over all with that time. I felt like I knew what I was doing better than last year and I also did well with my nutrition which could help setup a successful run.

After the bike, I just had to hammer out a 13.1 mile run. I set my PR for the half marathon back in 2007 at the Shamrock Half Marathon. I did not really know what I was doing back then but I did manage my fastest ever Half Marathon time at 1:47.  My goal for the Kinetic run was to beat 2 hours. I would have to average better than 9:10 minute miles to beat the arbitrary 2 hours I had set. After I got off the bike, I felt pretty good and felt that my goal was well within my reach.

The Kinetic bike course is a three loop course with 3 sizable hills right out of the transition area. Below you can see the elevation profile for 1 loop. So you can image the profile by stringing the picture together for 3 loops. You can see that the course is by no means flat.

I felt good on the run. My stomach was a little full so I was not able to take in any additional nutrition and stuck to water at the aid stations. I took a few Endurolytes on the course but otherwise I was done with gels and shot blocks. After the first loop, I ditched my gel flask. Here is a picture Melissa took after my first lap. You can see me reaching into my pocket to grab my flask which I then threw to Melissa who scooped it up for me.

After my second lap, I still felt pretty strong. I was pacing well and not hurting at all. I was passing people and having a really good time. The pictures below show me finishing up my second lap.  I ended up catching number 380 in this picture.

Once I got to my third lap, I started to realize that my goal was totally attainable. I felt good and felt like there was no stopping me. I had worked my nutrition well, kept my pace up and now just had to hammer out the last few miles. I ended up running my last 1.1 miles at a 7:34 pace. My run split ended up being 1:54 - 6 minutes under my goal! I was very happy.

The birthday race was a huge success and a stellar idea. I am totally pumped after this race. My thanks to Melissa for always supporting me in my training and racing. She makes it very easy for me. And she took all these great pictures, cheered me on at every stage of the race, broke down the tent while I was on the bike and really made me feel like a champion.

So what is next? We shall see. Tune in next time for that topic. Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.

Kinetic Half Race Week

Race week is here and I am just now getting a chance to sit down and write.  Last week, Melissa went to England for a week. Before she left, a few people had asked me what I would do while she was gone. I informed these inquisitive folks that I would be swimming, biking, running, and doing Yoga. Same as always. But I also thought I might get some more rest and have the opportunity to post to my blog. Looking back to last week, while I did get all my swimming, biking, running, and Yoga in, I did not really get lots of rest. In fact, I found myself up late, unable to fall asleep at a decent hour. There are probably many factors that lead to these later nights. Usually we share some of the chores of cooking and cleaning for instance. Doing these things solo is slightly more time consuming. Mostly though, I found it difficult to wind down with Melissa gone. She has been gone before for work trips but for some reason, I felt a little lonely without her this time around. We stayed in touch via text message and email but not speaking to her on a regular basis was something very different.

In addition to Melissa being in England, on Monday I got a text message from my brother Erik that my Dad had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. It turns out he had a very bad bladder infection and had to be admitted to the hospital where he was given intravenous antibiotics. It was a scary moment for me when I received the text message. After talking to Erik on the phone however, I was slightly less anxious about it because it sounded like he was going to be ok. They were keeping him overnight in the hospital but thought he would be able to leave the next day. As it turns out, he had to stay another night.

On Wednesday, I took off from work and went to see him in the hospital. Of course, I got my workout in first before I left. In fact, I swam 1.8 miles in the pool, rode 1 hour on the bike, and did a 20-minute run. Once I got up to Fairfax hospital, I was just in time to help him get checked out and drive him home. He looked pretty good although maybe a little tired and the unshaven look does not really work for my Dad. It made him look a little run down. But he was walking around pretty well.

After we got to my parents' house, I went to drop off a prescription for Dad and stopped by Whole Foods. I had decided that I would prepare dinner for everyone so my Mom could take it easy but also so they could get a healthy home cooked meal. I cooked up some catfish, quinoa and vegetables, and some soup. Everyone enjoyed it and my dad seemed back to his normal self. After dinner, I helped clean up and hung out for a while. There was a hockey game on so Dad and John were glued to the TV. I got a chance to chat with my brother Tom and had a few minutes to give my mom a much deserved foot massage. My dad was looking even better by the time I left. A shave, shower, and a home cooked meal can work wonders.

So last week, I made the trip from Richmond to Northern Virginia 3 times. Once to drop off Melissa at Dulles airport, once to visit my family, and then again to pick up Melissa from Dulles Airport. With all that driving, I still managed to get all my workouts in. However, I am paying for it this week I think. I am a little tired. I think that ultimately, I will be just fine but I could use a little more shuteye.

I am very excited about the race. It is going to be a hard race for me but I am looking forward to giving it my all. My goals for this race are as follows:

1. Swim the 1.2 miles with less stopping than I did in the Rumpus in Bumpass. There are nearly 100 people in my age group so it will be a very chaotic start. I plan to hang back about 5 or 10 seconds and then just try to go out nice and easy. It will be hard not to get caught up in the frenzy but I will be much better off if I can swim my own pace. If I can control my breathing and stay relaxed, I think I can do the swim in under 45 minutes.
2. Improve on my bike split from last year's Patriots Half. I know my body and my bike much better this time around and feel like I can make huge improvements. It is a different course but both the Patriots and Kinetic course are mostly flat. My time goal is to finish under 3:10:00.
3. Run the 13.1 miles under 2 hours-even if it is 1:59:59. I will have to take it easy at the beginning and be sure to take in plenty of nutrition. 
4. Have fun of course!

I guess that wraps it up for now. I have 2 more workouts before heading to the race on Friday where we will camp out. Of course I will report back here sometime over the weekend or early next week. Thanks for reading.

Rumpus in Bumpass Roundup

My heart was racing and I was sucking air something fierce. I had just pulled my head up out of the water during the first 10 minutes of the swim leg of the Rumpus in Bumpass International Triathlon for a little breather and to get my bearings. I had not been swimming for that long really. Perhaps I went out too fast, perhaps I am used to swimming 25 meters and then hitting the wall for the turn around. Perhaps both.

In an open water swim, there are no lane lines and no walls. I am used to swimming in the pool with lane lines, lane dividers, clear water, and kicking off the wall every 25 meters. More importantly I think, I am used to the 1-second breather I get when I hit the wall and turn around. This 1-second recovery actually adds up and makes swimming longer and faster much easier. When I reach the end of the lane, I grab the wall, take a breath, and then push off going the other way. Unfortunately, while swimming this way does improve technique and increase my swim fitness, my overall swim fitness suffers slightly when I swim this way in the pool. This translates into taking breaks while out there in the open water and makes it hard to get in the groove.

After taking my first breather, my heart rate calmed a little and I was able to start swimming at a more even pace. I was still mostly breathing to one side and taking a breath on every stroke. Ultimately that was slowing me down. My form has a lot to be desired but it has improved, especially when I breathe to both sides every third stroke. Later in the race, I did get into the three stroke breathing groove and I noticed a huge difference. My hips started to rotate better and I noticeably sped up and starting to run into people in front of me. But before all that, I was struggling.

While taking another breather and coughing up some of the yummy lake water that I had inadvertently swallowed, I starting thinking something that I always seem to think about during the swim leg. "What was I thinking? I have no business being out here." I also think about some of my long-term goals to do a full Iron Distance race someday and I think, "No way could I do it! I can hardly make it through this 1500 meters!" But I pushed my doubt aside and kept on trucking. I knew it would eventually be over and I could move onto the next leg where I could breathe whenever I wanted to and I would not have people kicking me, swimming over me, etc.

After rounding the last yellow turn buoy and heading to shore, I knew I was almost done and that my swim time would be acceptable. Not great but not terrible. At the end of the swim, there were 4 0r 5 steps to climb to get out of the lake. I was a little wobbly climbing the stairs. As soon as I got across the timing mat, I started to work on getting out of my wetsuit. Now you might think that running through the grass towards transition while unlatching the back of the wetsuit and grabbing the zipper pull to start unzipping the suit would be a fairly easy task. I have seen many people do it. However, my body was having nothing of it. So I decided to just raise my goggles and run for a bit and fiddle with the wetsuit later. Finally, the land stopped moving from side to side, and I was able to start unzipping the wetsuit as I ran to my bike.

When I got to the bike, I took a queue from another racer and mimicked the way she took off her wetsuit. She stood on the wetsuit and then yanked her foot out. I did the same thing and after a couple of attempts, I was free. As quick as I could, I put on my cycling gear, unracked my bike and ran out of transition to the road. I quickly mounted my bike, started my watch, and started pumping my legs. While other riders were fiddling with their shoes or settling in, I was on my way in a low gear with a very high cadence to get engine going and to climb the hill. Starting on a hill seems to be a theme at some triathlons. Always fun.

It seems that I could possibly be a climber. I passed a number of riders on this first small hill. Some of them eventually passed me once they got cruising. Also, later in the race, when we hit some turns followed by hills, I passed more people. Again, most of these people would eventually pass me. The hills were short lived. I am not convinced I am a climber but I do need to investigate that possibility.

I still have long way to go with my bike training but I have also made great strides over the winter in improving my technique, understanding my body, and getting my cadence up. As we all know, Force x Velocity = Power and sustained power is what matters in a cycling race. I was able to push it harder on the bike than in past races. Also I discovered another technique that seemed to work very well for me. And I discovered it by accident.

As I made my way across the causeway on the first loop of the two-lap bike course, the wind really hit me. I noticed that the riders on time trial bikes who were down in the aero position did not seem to be as affected by the wind. Taking a queue from these racers, I settled into my drop bars. Up until this point, during training and racing, I had not really rode much at all in my drops. I instantly went faster. I could feel the difference. Luckily we had done one leg drills in our drops at RCC and I think that helped. I was able to maintain my power plus get the advantage of a more aerodynamic position. I raced the rest of the race in the drops. And since I have a road bike with SRAM Rival shifters, I was able to shift gears without moving out of position. Finally, while riding in the drops, I felt more like a bike racer rather than someone out for a casual ride.

Thankfully there is not too much to report about the bike portion. I had no mechanicals, was able to take on about three servings of Vanilla Hammer Gel with water and about 16 ounces of HEED, and most importantly, I had a blast. At two different points in the bike portion of the race, I was passed by some Pro K racers. Of course that pumped me up and make me ride faster to try to keep them in my sights. I ended up finishing the bike leg just behind Jill. I said hello and then ran down the driveway towards transition.

My T2 time was much shorter than T1. In just under 2 minutes, I ran to my bike rack, secured my bike, changed shoes, put on my knee brace and run visor, reset my watch for running and headed out the back of the transition area.

The first part of the run was down a gravel hill. I passed a number of people who were probably not used to running on gravel. My trail running experience helped me here I think. I was able to go flying by a number of people. At the bottom of the hill, I took a short Porta John break. What a relief. And then I was off, climbing back up the gravel hill. I passed some people who were walking up the hill and a few slightly slower runners before cresting the hill and taking on some water at the first water stop.

It was starting to get hot so I decided that at each water stop, I would take some water. Mostly I wanted it to help cool me down. I would take one small gulp and then either pour the rest on my head or down my pants. Yes, down my pants. I saw Mirinda Carfrae doing this during the Ironman Championship and thought I would try it. It really worked great to help cool my core temperature. The cooler the core, the greater the performance. It is all about blood flow. If the core is hot, more blood gets diverted to cooling processes and less blood and fuel goes to the muscles needed to run.

I felt great on the run. Much of the run was on gravel road with a few hills. I flew down the hills, passing many people on the way. I had overheard several people before the race saying that they had never run on gravel. My trail running was paying off big time. There was only one guy who passed me on the run towards the end and I was not able to catch him. What a blast!

In the end, my times were not super great compared to my peers but I am happy with my performance. My swim time was 33:46 for the 1500-meter lake swim. For the bike, I did the 23 miles in 1:17:57. Finally my 10K (6.2 miles) time was 49:07. Throw that together with a 4:25 T1 and a 1:48 T2 and I ended up with a total time of 02:47:02. Not too shabby for my first Triathlon of the season. I placed 324th out of 511 men. My age group results have not been posted. Once they are posted, I will let you all know how I stacked up against men age 40-44.

And finally, here is some fun stuff. The pictures. Thanks to Melissa for taking the pictures, cheering me on and all the great support she gave me. Another great day on the farm.

Transition Area on the Boxley's Farm

My Specialized Tarmac 2 next to another white Specialized bike

Doing some Stretching-Helps the knees
Final Preparations Mostly Complete in Transition
Making Sure it is all Good to Go!
The Swim - Can you make out the first yellow turn buoys off in the distance?
Wetsuit On!

Post Warmup Contemplations
Green Swim Caps Away!

Running the Bike out of Transition