Race Week

Race week yet again. Saturday kicks of the triathlon racing season as I toe the line for the Rumpus in Bumpass International Triathlon. It will be my 3rd race of the season but my first triathlon. Last year was my first year in triathlon and I did 6 races. As I start my second season, it will be interesting to see how I stack up against other racers as compared to last year. Last year I did 2 open water races but not with a wetsuit. Saturday's race will be my first wetsuit race.

My plan for this race is to go out and see what I can do. While I do plan to leave it all out on the course, I don't necessarily have any specific expectations or time goals. Mostly, I will be gauging my overall fitness and ability compared to last year. I have made gains in my swimming technique and fitness but I still tire during long swims and likely will have to take some breathers here and there throughout the swim portion of the race. I have also made gains in my biking technique and fitness. During my last couple of training rides, I was able to keep my cadence up and travel a higher average speed. My goal for the swim is to try to find a nice draft and not stop as much as possible. On the bike my goal is to keep my cadence up, push the biggest gear I can stay on top of (as Craig from RCC would say), and take in some nutrition. Finally for the run, I plan to just run as fast as possible, trying to negative split the 10K which is going to be the biggest challenge of the whole race for me.

Training with people who are faster and stronger has definitely pushed me and makes me work harder. Just like when I played soccer with my older brothers and their friends when I was young, training with stronger athletes is a definite plus. Just today I read an article about Lance Armstrong and his training plan for Ironman. Turns out he is going to ride with some current pro cyclists who train harder and faster than most triathletes. While I am not training with pros, I am training with multiple Ironman finishers who know how to kill it on the bike. And it has been great fun.

I still have a few workouts left to complete this week before I wake up before the sun and head out for my race. Overall, I am feeling pretty confident and hopeful. I am looking forward to the race. Not only do I want to do well for myself but I also want to do well for my coach. I want to show her that I appreciate her guidance and planning. It is also fun to feel like I am racing for on a team. Even though there will be no team tactics in this race, I sill feel like I am representing Pro K Racing.

Monument Ave 10K Race Report

Another Monument Avenue 10K is in the books. This year was my sixth race and I was hoping it would be my fastest yet. Last year I ran 43 minutes on the dot and I thought perhaps this year, I could beat that time. While I have not been running as much this year as last year, I have been doing some intense cycling workouts at RCC two times a week since November as well as more consistent swimming workouts. I thought that all that training plus the Saturday rides, Sunday long runs, and Tuesday evening track workouts could lead me to another PR.

As the race day approached, my coach thought I could easily beat my 43. At least that is the impression I got from her. She set a goal pace of 6:40 per mile for me. I decided that I would do my best to not go out too fast. Running the first mile at 7 minute pace seemed like something to strive for. That way, I would not tax my system too much and I could gradually pick up the pace as the race unfolded.

The Monument Ave 10K has 40+ waves that help minimize congestion. I started in wave B. When I was making my way in to wave B corral I saw my coworker's daughter and friend who run high school cross country and track. I knew that Erin's goal, as dictated by her coach, was to run the first mile at a 7 minute pace and then to pick it up and finish sub 42 minutes. When I saw her in the corral, she said hello and I wished her luck and then made my way closer to the front of our corral. More on her later.

Usually at this point in my race report, I would say something like, "when the gun went off" to designate the beginning of the race. But at this race, it was simply a man who said, "GO!" And we were off. I was able to hold back more so then in previous years and ended up with a 6:47 minute per mile for the first mile. This is faster than I had intended but not too crazy fast.

The next mile I ran a 6:47 followed by a 6:46. From there, I faded. I am not sure why exactly. My legs felt good and my knees were only slightly gimpy. But I just could not kick it up a notch. The gears were just not there. My next mile pace was 6:58 followed by a 7:04. My next mile was the slowest at 7:20. I did manage to pick it up a little for a 7:06 pace followed by the final .2 miles which I did at a 6:46 pace. My paces as reported her are from my Garmin so they are as accurate as they are going to get. My final time for the race according to both my Garmin and the text message I received from the race was 43:38. As you may recall, this time is 38 seconds slower than last year's 10K time.

Before reflecting on my race, I have to mention Erin. During the first part of the race, Erin and her teammate caught me. I guess I was already fading pretty fast at that point. Erin pointed at me and laughed as she ran by. I told her they were looking good but on the inside I was a little miffed by her laughter. This picture is what it reminded me of.


Looking back at my performance, I was a little bummed but at the same time, I think this is a great learning experience. Last year at this time, I was doing significantly more track work. That is to say the volume was a lot higher. At one point I did 13X400 repeats with a 400 recovery in between in each repeat. I was also doing more 800s followed by 400s and other combinations of 1200s, 800s, and 400s. It seems like this lead me to faster times in the 10K but I have to wonder how such a training regimen affected my early season triathlon times. This year, I focused more on the bike and the swim-my two weaknesses. My run at the 10K seems to have suffered slightly because of that. But I can only imagine and hope that my new training regimen will be more conducive to better triathlon times. Triathlon is my focus right now although I enjoy running 10Ks and other races especially trail races.

After my 3rd race of the season, I think I have tuned into my body and its abilities pretty well. If I want to focus on a 5K or 10K, I know what I need to do-more running. We will see how the triathlon season unfolds. In two weeks, I will race my first tri of the season, the Rumpus in Bumpass International (1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run). I think my work on the bike at the RCC and my swimming workouts will help me go a little faster throughout the race. I am looking forward to it. Although those few minutes before the crazy open water swim start are always nerve racking.

Thanks for reading.

Rainy Saturday

What are you favorite things to do on a rainy Saturday? Do you sleep in and listen to the rain? Drink coffee and read the morning paper? Play games with your kids and post silly pictures of them on Facebook. Read a book or magazine while lying around in your pajamas. Or maybe you like to run on the treadmill or maybe do some strength training. Running out in the rain is always an option too. I have to admit, all of these things sound like a pretty good way to spend a rainy Saturday, but for me, I could not think of too much that is better than what I did this morning.

This morning, I participated in a Pro K Racing team workout. The general plan was to meet at a nearby church and then bike 30 miles to Lake Anna and then swim 1+ miles in the lake to practice open water swimming. As Saturday approached, it seemed like rain could be in the forecast. Karen, our coach, said that if it was raining, we would still meet at the church but then drive to Lake Anna and swim in the rain.

When I awoke on Saturday, it was not raining. But one glance of the radar showed it was on its way. I was not sure what to do. I inspected various weather websites and tried to calculate the speed of the storm. In the end, I decided I could beat the rain to the meeting point. From there, if we drove to the lake, at least I would have gotten in some riding.

It is about 9+ miles from my house to the meeting spot. When I left out of my driveway at about 7:40 AM, it was dry. It was a peaceful morning and there were not many people out and about yet. I started out slow so I could warm up and not tax my system right out of the gate. After about 10 minutes, I started to pick up the pace. It felt good to be out on the bike early in the morning. Riding solo can be kind of peaceful especially when there is not much traffic. And there was not.

I arrived at the meeting spot about 8:15 and to my surprise, everyone was arriving and getting their bikes ready. Some had rain gear so I knew that we were going to give it a go. It was determined and explicitly stated that, YES, we were going to get wet. It was warm enough that the rain would not be too big a deal. It would require extra caution on the road and we would have to me especially mindful of each other. But at least we would not be cold. To me, cold rain is never fun.

When we took off out of the parking lot there were about 6 to 8 of us towards the front of the pack. After a few minutes of riding, I noticed that coach Karen and one other Pro K rider were riding off the front. There was a small gap that had developed between them and the pack I was in. I decided to kick it up a notch and close the gap. It was fun. I had not rode with a group of people that I knew in so long. I could tell the day was going to be fun.

As the rain started to fall, there was a shout from the back of our pack. We were going a little too fast and there were one or two people falling off the back. To me, "falling of the back" is a cycling term that seems slightly nicer than the other term you often here. It was this other term that was uttered. "Someone is getting dropped." We stopped to regroup and once we had everyone together again, we started out on the road again. The rain started picking up and it was at this point in the ride when Karen said that she was going to fall to the back of the pack to ride with the slower people and she asked me to lead.

This was not exactly what I had in mind. The pack I was riding with included several very strong men and women. We are talking about multiple Ironman finishers. I felt like there was pressure on my rear wheel so I did all I could to put the hammer down. Looking at my heart rate data afterwards, I can see exactly when I was given the task of leading the ride. My HR climbed into zone 5 at about 160 beats per minute. I was able to hold on for a while. I attribute being able to hold on for as long as I did to the good people at Richmond Cycling Corporation who have elevated my cycling ability to a new high. At one point during the ride, I heard one woman say, "Here's a hill, let's see what you got Rosen." Of course that put the pressure on even more. I was giving it my all, breathing hard, heart racing, and doing my best.

After a while, someone came up and took the lead and I was able to slide back into the draft. While riding in the draft, I felt like I could ride all day. It felt so good to be riding with a team. There is something special about it and it is hard to explain. I would never have been able to go as fast I did when riding behind the men and women who I rode with today. Not only did I get the physical draft, I got the mental and emotional lift from riding with these exceptional people. Plus it was raining, so there was that added level of adventure.

As we continued to ride, we increased the gab between the lead pack and the slightly slower group behind us. In fact, for me, this was a hammerfest. I was able to hang but I was definitely pushing it. For the rest of the riders, I think they felt pretty darn comfortable while I was slightly out of my comfort zone. But then again, that is what made the ride so great. It was like when I was kid and always played soccer with my older brothers and their friends. The immersion automatically makes one improve. At least in my book.

At some point, one of our guys got a flat and we all stopped while he fixed his flat. Some people took the opportunity to use the facility that is the great outdoors. I took the opportunity to suck down some Hammer Gel and water. After about 10 minutes or so, the other riders caught up to us. We had put a pretty good gap on them but now they had caught up. They decided to keep going while we waited for our guy to finish fixing his flat.

When we got mobile again, my legs felt like they had stiffened up a bit. It would have been nice to ease back into the ride but my fellow teammates had other ideas. Hammer Down! And we were off. My legs complained a little but my heart rate did not spike quite as high. Before you knew it, we had caught up to the other group and passed them. We were in the lead again. And while it was not a race, it was fun to chase, close the gap, draft, fall of the back and climb back to the front, etc, etc.

After about 30 miles of fairly hard riding (for me), we arrived at the lake. Melissa was driving our car as a team support car and followed the riders to the lake. She also had the wetsuits and our other gear. We changed into our wetsuits, donned our swim caps and goggles and waded into the lake. The water was great. It was still raining but the water temperature was actually higher than it is at the pool where we swim.

After a brief float in the water, I started the swim. The water was calm and we all went out at our own pace. There were several kayakers out on the water to support us which was really nice. Swimming in open water is probably my biggest weakness at this point. There are no lane lines and more importantly for me, there is no wall every 25 meters. In the pool, I get the one second break at the 25 meter turn around and the kick off the wall. No walls in the lake. I find that after a while, I am very out of breath and have to take a little break. I continue to kick like a frog and crawl my way forward a bit when I take these breathers so I am making forward progress but it is pretty slow progress and other swimmers pull away from me at this point. I had several breaks along the swim. It was quite peaceful and quiet out there. When I did stop swimming and my breathing slowed down a bit, it seemed so calm and relaxing. Just floating in the lake with the light rain coming down all around me, it was nice.

I am not sure how long it took me to swim the mile. It was pretty long relatively speaking I think. What fun though. I got my first wet suit swim in before my upcoming triathlon in the same lake I will be racing in. This is going to help me immensely. I got to practice sighting and I got to swim a bit with Melissa and watch her swim. She has better form than me for sure. Both the ride and the swim were really great and I can't thank Karen enough for putting the whole training event together.

The Heat is On

The heat has arrived in Richmond just in time for the 10K. Actually while it is quite warm, it is not quite hot. But the humidity is so high that when exercising, the body has trouble regulating its temperature. Typically when a human sweats, the sweat evaporates and takes the heat away from the body. But in Richmond, the sweat just pours off the body into little puddles. No evaporation, no cooling.

Luckily this summer-like weather has come a week or two before the 10K so we can all get slightly acclimated before the big race. I have done one hard workout in the heat and one easy run in the heat. The temperature makes a big difference in performance when exercising and it was evident in my workouts. When it is very hot, the body diverts more blood to surface areas of the body to assist with cooling. That means there is less blood flow to the muscles. Less blood flow to the muscles means less fuel being delivered to the muscles. The heart has to work harder and the muscles have to work with less.

Who knows what the weather will be like on race day. Right now, they are calling for a high of around 70 with an over night low around 50. Starting the race at 50+ degrees would be perfect for me. I won't need a hat, gloves, or arm warmers. I will likely need something warm and dry to change into after the race. I typically get cold once I cool down after a hard effort. We will be hanging around the finish for quite some time as we meet up with our family and friends and I want to be comfortable. Luckily, I can either check a bag at the bag check or go back to the car real quick after the race and pick up a dry shirt.

I am very much looking forward to the race and hope to PR. Last year I ran a 43. My training has been much different this year. I have been swimming and biking more and my track work this year has been very different from last year. As long as I pace myself well, I should be able to beat 43. Of course, this year will be warmer than last year which could affect my time. Plus both knees are a little gimpy at this point.

I am hoping to write one more blog post before the race but if not, I will certainly return here to give you my race report.

Snow Day

Ah, the joy of the snow day. One of the perks of working for a school system is the occasional surprise school closing. This morning, I got up at my normal 4:45 AM for my early morning swim practice with ProK Racing. There was no snow in sight and everything was open at this point. I drove to the Y and walked in at the same time as my coach. We even got to chat a bit before practice about some of my race goals and my training progress. More on that later.

When I pulled myself out of the water at 6:30AM after an hour of nubby arm kicking (kicking with arms down at your sides and rotating the body left and right as you slowly make your way down the lane), sighting drills (swimming with your eyes closed and only opening them when you lift your head out of the water), swimming with fists, and other various drills, a teammate who was getting ready for the 6:30 class said that the school systems had all decided to go two hours late because it was snowing. I simply smiled and nodded my approval.

I was delighted to hear the news because that meant I would have about 2 and a half hours to myself before I would have to leave for work. I could relax, make a good breakfast and lunch, drink some hot water with lemon and read the news, etc.

When I got home from class, I was home for about 15 minutes when the phone rang. I recognized the number as Henrico County Public Schools. Alas, they had changed their mind and decided to call off school all together. Now, I am not going to complain about a free day off but it seemed odd since there was no snow on the roads at all. Even as I write this at 1:00PM, the snow is still falling but has yet to accumulate on the roads and has only just now started accumulating on the parked cars. In fact, I can still see the grass in my front yard.

So far, I have accomplished a few things on this free day off. I put in some time on our bathroom renovation, took a nap, and had lunch with Melissa which is something we rarely get to do. And now, I have the rest of the day to work on some other projects. My plans include writing my blog, cleaning the house, working the foam roller and doing some other PT exercises. If I get the gumption, I may even continue working on the bathroom renovation. Mostly, I am just going to dilly dally my way through the day. It is nice to have the extra day. Instead of rapidly refocusing in front of a few computers at work, I will just do what I want to do and get some extra relaxation. Like I said, the joys of a snow day.

And now a quick training update. Last week at track practice, I improved my 1 mile time by 2 seconds. I felt pretty good about that and after talking with my coach this morning, she believes that I can PR at Monument and make the Kinetic Half Triathlon my A race. She has faith in me which is reassuring. Since, I have not nailed all my pace runs, I am not sure about hitting the 40 minute 10K mark that I discussed earlier. Right now, I am going to continue to work hard and shoot for beating my last year's time at the very least. As we get closer to the race, I will have a better idea if 40 minutes is really doable.

Well, I got another item on my mental checklist completed. Now I have to work on some PT. I will never reach my race goals if I don't continue to work on my knees. With the extra time today, I should be able to make some good healing progress. That is all for now. Thanks for reading.

Track Report

My knees are responding well to my treatment of stretching, leg lifts, foam roller and ice. I am still not without some discomfort especially after sitting at work for hours but I am turning the corner. In fact, last Sunday I ran 9 miles and felt pretty good overall. And then on Tuesday, I went to track practice which I had not been to in two weeks due to my knee issues.

Track was great. We ran our 1 mile warm up and then we ran a 1200 followed by a faster 800 followed by a broken 800 (200 fast, 200 recovery, 200 fast, 200 recovery). Then when we were done with that, the coach said that we would be doing 1 mile as fast as we could. For me, she said she wanted me to run a 6 minute mile.

I am sure I have never done a 6 minute mile. I have gotten up to that speed for very short distances but never for a full mile. I was skeptical that I would be able to manage that pace for 4 laps around the track but I said I would try. After 2 laps, I was on track to reach the goal but my breathing was extremely labored and I was struggling to maintain my pace. At around 1000 meters I started thinking about throwing in the towel and just jogging the rest. I often feel this way in races. Despite all my training and my fitness, I start to wonder why I am trying so hard and doubt my abilities. But I can usually push through these moments and at the end of the race, I am super stoked that I gave it my all.

After my brief lapse into doubt, I started to catch up to some of my other teammates who were running slightly slower than me. For me, passing people on the track is a great motivator. As I passed people, I was able to pick things up and know that I could go hard until the end. And after that, I had one more lap to go. I was still struggling and sucking wind. I think I must have sounded like an hyena and I sort of wondered what my teammates must have thought. I gave it my all and in the end was very close to meeting my goal. I had managed a 6:05. I was pretty happy about that.

After everyone finished up and I ran a cool down lap, I told my coach what I had accomplished at last year's Monument Avenue 10K and how I had trained. She told me that if she could run a 40 minute 10K that I could beat 40 minutes. My initial thoughts were "no way." After all, she is an accomplished pro triathlete who won Ironman Canada in 2005. My experience is soccer, not road racing.

I put the idea in the back of my mind but after getting home, I started thinking, "could I really run a 40?" That would be 3 minutes faster than my last year's PR. That is a significant difference in a 10K race. I am going to have to follow up with coach K and see if she really thinks I can pull that off and what it is going to take to get there. For now, I am excited about the possibility and it has given me new motivation to fix my knees.

Vegan Pancakes

It has been quite some time since I have sat down to write. And there is a reason. If fact, I can sum it up in one word: depression. Yes, I have been slightly depressed about an injury I sustained. Basically, I over did it which makes it even more depressing. It could have easily been avoided but I was feeling so great and not really paying attention to my training plan. In hindsight, I made a very big mistake.

On January 31st, we had a hard session on the bikes in the AM and then a particularly hard session on the track in the PM. The following day, I woke up early to do a tempo run. So I ended up doing 2 back to back hard running workouts with only about 10 hours rest in between. On my last repeat that Wednesday morning, my left knee started bothering me. Ack! What a bummer. I had been doing so well and feeling so great but now I would have to slow down and skip some workouts.

I continued cycling and swimming as my knee seemed to fare pretty well during these activities. And I started doing more stretching and strength training. In particular, I started doing some leg lifts that a previous PT had told me to do. These exercises immediately paid off and with some rest and lots of foam roller, I was able to travel to run the Virginia is for Lovers 14k with Melissa on February 11th. During the first part of the race, my knee was a little gimpy but as the race went on, the pain went away and I was pain free for most of the race. Granted, I was taking it easy during this race.

I am still gimpy and need to continue to take it easy on the running. Also, long sessions in the saddle tend to aggravate the knee a bit. At this point in my training, I don't think I will be able to beat my last years time in the upcoming Monument Avenue 10K. I am not giving up hope entirely but this race may just have to be a fun race for me. Since I am doing a triathlon two weeks later which will entail a 1500 meter lake swim, a 24 mile bike ride, and a 10K run, I am not too worried about the Monument Avenue race. However, I am still a little down about the whole knee thing.

I thought I was past it but alas, it appears I am not. Worst of all, I know what needs to be done to fix myself up and prevent future occurrences. But more stretching, more warmup, more cool down, more foam roller, more yoga - these are the less than glamorous parts of triathlon training and racing and it is hard to get excited about more injury prevention activities and less actual running. I just don't have the time to do all the necessary injury prevention exercises and put in the volume I would like to put in. That said, I can still compete. My run leg during races is just going to suffer slightly. I will have to walk more and my times will not be as good.

So there you have it. I am still here training but I am also dealing with an injury. So you might not see as many blog postings from me this month. It is just a little depressing. Of course, things could be so much worse and I want to make sure that readers understand where I am coming from. I am blessed by so many things in my life, I really can't complain too much about a gimpy knee. Yes, it brings me down but at the same time, life is good to me. I need not list all the reasons why but here are some: Melissa, Love, Family, Health, Friends, Good Job w/Good Pay, Freedom, Security and of course, Vegan Pancakes.