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

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.