Hurry up and wait

Friday, October 12 - Noon Hawai'i time.  It's 17 hours till the cannon blasts from Kona pier and a long day begins. Right now I'm sitting in my air conditioned room with Blue Crush on the little 20" TV.  I check my bike and gear bags in at 2:30pm.  After that there is nothing left to do but wait patiently for morning (actually, 4:30 AM doesn't qualify as morning as far as I'm concerned).  The heat and wind on the Queen K are no joke.  I rode about 25 miles on Wednesday and while it didn't feel all that hot when we were cruising at 20+ mph, you could tell how brutal it was when you stopped at an intersection - felt like an oven.  Well, nothing I can do but keep the pedals turning and try to enjoy the journey out to Hawi and back.  Then we run.

It's been a great week so far - Lava Java, Underpants Run, floating coffee bar, riding the Queen K, running Ali'i - taking in the entire experience.  I've been adding to a Facebook album each night but here are a few shots covering the week so far.

Traveling koozie meets Kona

Doesn't suck

Stay hydrated

Refueling with a Mai Tai

Finish line construction in progress

Riding the Queen K Highway

Dig Me Beach

Underpants Run with Mike Riley

Underpants run with hot chicks (built for speed)

Katie Bell in paradise

Katie meets the fastest female in the world

Getting ready to rock

Coffees of Hawai'i floating coffee bar

Relaxing at Lava Java

The Big Dance

I'm sitting on a plane somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, headed to the Big Island – Kona. I've been to Kona before, run down Ali'i Drive, put my feet in the sand at Dig Me Beach, and walked the asphalt on the Kona Pier. It was a sleepy time of year in the little town and nothing like what I'm about to experience this week. Kona becomes a circus for one week in October each year. Thousands of athletes, family and friends, and industry professionals converge for the Ironman World Championships. With a few exceptions you have to earn the right to subject yourself to the heat and winds of the lava fields for anywhere from 8 to 17 hours. It's a grueling day for sure but the suffering is something many triathletes dream of and few actually get to experience. And that's what this first trip to Kona on race week is all about for me – the experience.

If you've followed my blog this past year you've caught glimpses of my journey. I've worked hard and invested a lot of time, energy, and money with the goal of some day earning myself the right to swim, bike, and run 140.6 miles with 2000 of the best long course triathletes in the world. I qualified less than 60 days ago at the one-and-done Ironman US Championships in New York City. I knew I had a good shot at qualifying but wasn't prepared for the reality of it happening. The excitement of a podium finish and Kona slot was quickly replaced with the stress and anxiety of having to do it all over again in two months. Not just the training and racing but the expense of a week-long vacation to HI (which conveniently became a one-year anniversary present for my wife) and time away from work that I didn't have saved up. 2 weeks after IMNYC I forced myself back into some training but had ZERO motivation. I honestly dreaded getting out of bed every morning. On top of that I needed to work 50hr weeks to stockpile enough comp time to cover the week I'd be taking off. It was the toughest month or so I can remember having to deal with in a long time but I managed to pull through it with the support of my wife.

Eventually I was enjoying training again, although definitely on a minimalist schedule. I only needed to do enough to maintain basic endurance so I focused on a weekly long ride and long run. If I felt like getting anything else in that was a bonus. I had a couple of good long runs and a really strong 70 mile ride in Pensacola Beach during a road trip to DeLuna Fest a couple of weeks back. I also had a blast running 38 miles over 6 legs of the Colonial 200 Ultra Relay with Team 2 Boobs, 5 Dudes Sept 28-29. I averaged about 6:40/mile and we crushed the previous course record. I haven't run a step in the 10+ days since. Otherwise, I've done a couple of 25 mile group rides and had a couple ~30min open water swims in the past 2 weeks. That's the extent of my training and I feel completely at ease with it.

So if you are going to follow my progress online (I'm bib #1383) Oct 13 don't worry if I'm a little slow out of the water and my bike/run splits seem a bit off. I'm doing just fine – sitting back and enjoying the day. It's going to be a really nice cap to a great season and a fun week in that sleepy little town on the big Island. We're planning to take in the whole experience. We're staying in a condo apartment right on Ali'i behind the famous Lava Java within 5 blocks of the pier and all of the race week action. I'll be swimming out to the Coffees of Hawaii floating espresso bar, partaking in the infamous underpants run, attending both the welcome dinner and awards banquet, looking for glimpses of Macca and Crowie, meeting up with friends, and visiting the Kona Brewery on several occasions – need to stay hydrated. I don't have any specific race goals except to enjoy the day but I'm thinking a 10:30-11hr finish is reasonable – 1:15-1:20 swim, 5:30-5:45 ride, 3:30ish run.

Stay tuned through the week for a daily photo blog update.

View from below - Ironman World Championships

On-On Indeed

On August 11, 2012 I rolled out of my Hampton Inn bed at 3am and began a long day that included a ferry ride from New York City to New Jersey, swim in the Hudson River, bike tour of Palisades Parkway, and a jog over the George Washington Bridge back to NYC. It all totals up to 140.6 miles powered by nothing but my body and a lot of sugar and caffeine.  The cut-off to be an "official" finisher is 17hrs and some use every minute of that to reach the finish line.  The guys who make a living off doing this can make it under 8hrs.  I'm equally impressed by both extremes.  The natural talent, hard work, and dedication it takes to be an elite professional Ironman is difficult to comprehend.  Likewise, the determination it takes to show up race morning knowing that you will likely be out on the course for over two full work days is amazing. 

Back to my own personal quest, if I cover this 140.6 miles fast enough I earn the right to do it all over again in 2 months - be careful what you ask for.  The Ironman US Championships was my 3rd Ironman.  I raced IM Florida in 2007 and IM Coeur d'Alene in 2009.  Florida was a great first IM and I learned some things from my mistakes.  CdA also went fairly well and I had a particularly good run.  Still, even my 9:34 at IMFL fell short of earning me a slot to the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i.  Actually, it wasn't even close - 14th in my age group and 103 overall.  NYC is a much tougher course than IMFL and I figured it was going to take something in the 9:45 area to have a good chance at at Kona slot.  I didn't have a specific finish time goal but I felt confident that I was about as prepared as I could be.  You aren't just racing the clock in IM like qualifying for the Boston marathon.  There are limited amount of qualifying slots available at each event and you are competing against the rest of your age group to earn one.  So even the best race of your life - everything perfect - could leave you at home watching the live internet feed of the World Championships in October.

The day started decent enough with a quick swim down the Hudson.  We had a strong tidal current pulling us back to transition and just about everyone there must have had a PR swim.  I've gone 1:03-1:06 but this day it was a 44min swim - insane. Now it's time to get to work - 112 miles in the saddle.  I ran my bike out of T1, jumped on and then...disaster.  Every triathlete's worst nightmare is a flat tire in an important race and THAT - JUST - HAPPENED.  I'll never know what went wrong but somehow between setting up my gear at 6am and grabbing my bike at 8am my rear tire went mostly flat.  Long story short - I struggled through a miserably slow change while hundreds of people streamed out of transition past me but I finally go rolling and had no issues on the bike from there on.  The run was challenging and it got the best of me. I was feeling good through the first 16 miles or so but then the wheels started to fall off and I suffered through the rest of the marathon. Did I mention how challenging the course and conditions were?

My #1 athletic supporter and wife

In the end I crossed the finish line in 9:38:19.  Once everything shook out I ended up 5th out of 330 in the M35-39 age group and 45th overall, including pros.  I honestly never even dreamed of an IM podium finish and certainly didn't feel like things went well enough to be close today.  It was apparently a tough day for everyone and I managed to suffer better than most by just putting one foot in front of the other until I saw the finish line.  That run turned out to be the 33rd fastest on the day, including the pros. And guess what else that 5th place age group podium finish got me - KONA.  The next morning I was at the awards ceremony giving my AMEX a $795 workout with plenty more to come when I booked a week-long trip to Hawai'i. 

I've been working for this for years and finally pulled it off with a little bonus hardware for the trophy shelf at home. I need to thank my wife for understanding my need to be out every weekend riding my bike until noon and making dinner at 9pm most week days because I'm at the pool, or out running, or working on my bike, or logging my training online, or...shaving my legs.  It just so happens that we leave for Kona the day after our 1-year anniversary so she's getting a little reward for being such a great athletic supporter :)

If you have time and want to read the details you can check out my race report post on Slowtwitch. 

All the small things

I'm just over one week out from my single important race of the season - Ironman US Championships in New York.  I've race 2 IMs and can't complain about my preparation or performance at either but I've yet to nab the elusive IM Kona qualification slot.  It's tough because you can only control your race but the slots go based on finish position within your age group as opposed to something like qualifying for Boston Marathon where there is a set benchmark time - you hit the mark and you qualify.  So back to qualifying for Kona - you can have the race of your life, crush the course, drops PRs on swim, bike, and run - and not make the cut.  It all depends on who else shows up and how well they race.  So with so much out of your control how do you get an edge and bridge that gap from a good personal performance to a top age group performance?  For me in the M35-39 group this year we'll likely have the most slots allocated because it's one of the biggest groups - potentially 300+ of us, which means 7-10 slots.

Nailing the basic S/B/R training has never been a problem for me. Not to say that I don't have room to be more fit but the potential return within a season is relatively small and there is a limit to how much training you can fit in amongst the rest of your life.  This season I decided to make a point of doing a bunch of small things that might not have a measurable effect individually but I know collectively they have to make me a better, stronger triathlete on race day.  Over the past 2-3 months I've made a concerted effort to consistently get these "extras" into my routine.  With the exception of one, everything is small but making the time for an extra 10-15min here and there can be really challenging when you've already knocked out your primary workout or it's getting late and you're tired.  So what have I been doing?

1.  Run form drills - these are things like strides, butt kicks, skipping, and high knees.  The point is to develop neuromuscular coordination and improve efficiency with short duration quick movements.  I've been doing 2 sets of 3-4 different drills twice a week after my shorter run workouts.

Check out TrainingPeaks and Running Times for some running drill ideas.

2.  Plyometrics - these are similar in concept to the form drills but are more focused on maximizing muscle fiber recruitment and developing explosive power.  Research has shown that explosive plyometric movements benefit endurance athletes even though we rely predominantly on aerobic slow twitch fibers.  At some point in an endurance race those slow twitch fibers fatigue and fast twitch fibers begin to get recruited. So even though there may not be an explosive component to running a marathon, optimizing your entire suite of fiber types definitely has benefits. I focus on things like squat jumps, box jumps, single leg hops, bounding, and depth jumps - typically 2 sets of 3-4 different moves once a week.


Check out Plyos to Boost Your Bricks and Ultimate Plyo to learn more.

3. A coach for the coach - sure, I coach endurance athletes and even do swim stroke assessments but I still need some feedback on my swim stroke.  I know what I'm supposed to be doing and what it feels like I'm doing but unless you can watch yourself swim you don't know for sure if you have it right.  So I invested in a couple of sessions with a local coach who gave me some good feedback and some drills to work on. It took about 6 weeks but I got to the point where the changes are more or less natural - and hopefully will pay dividends when I race.

4.  Dryland stretch cord work - Swimming is so much about moving efficiently through the water and minimizing drag by being balanced and streamlined.  You simply can't power your way through the water with poor form without quickly becoming exhausted.  With that said, swimming still requires fitness and conditioning, particularly in the shoulders, lats, and arms. Basic strength work for swimming is pretty simple with a set of stretch cords.  A couple sets of 30-50 reps twice a week is a nice supplement to your regular pool workouts.

5. Recovery - Training creates muscle damage that is repaired when you sleep.  More sleep = better recovery.  I've never been good at getting to bed early or getting enough sleep.  My typical evening might be training until 7:30ish, dinner between 8 and 9, then somehow I find myself still up and wasting time on the computer or doing something else unnecessary for 2-3 hours before I finally get to bed.  Then of course I need to decompress for a while with the TV.  I'll usually get to sleep around midnight or later.  So for the past 2 months I've made a point of trying to get to bed even just 30min earlier.  I even managed to mostly stick to it through the Tour de France.  Unfortunately the Olympics have kept me up past midnight more often than not the past week.  I'm looking forward to a couple days of sleeping later this weekend.

6. Last but not least, I've invested heavily in optimizing my bike and position.  Aerodynamics make a huge difference in triathlon and your position on the bike and gear you choose can easily mean 10-15min difference in your bike split for the exact same effort.  I'll cover the details in another blog post but the quick version is that I took my bike out to FASTER in Scottsdale, AZ a couple months ago for a position assessment and to spend some time in their wind tunnel optimizing my gear.  It wasn't cheap but I'm completely satisfied with what I got out of it - I'm way more comfortable on the bike and found out that I can save about 8min over a 112 mile Ironman bike by switching to a different aero helmet.  I ended up with new shoes, insole inserts, new saddle, tweaked cockpit, new helmet, and I learned how adjusting my head position slightly makes a significant aero drag difference.  The pic below is the final product.

A trip to Scottsdale, AZ to visit the guys at FASTER and optimize my fit and position.

Go hard or go home

This is just a quick impromptu post inspired by my workout tonight.  I'm in the midst of a solid training block starting last week and extending through this Saturday.  Last Thursday I nailed an 18 mile long run averaging a comfortable 7:25/mile and feeling good start to finish.  Saturday I did the Ride to Montauk - 110 miles from Babylon, NY to Montauk point lighthouse.  It's a dead flat route aside from a few rollers at the very end but the wind was pretty stiff a lot of the day.  The first 20-30 miles have relentless stop signs, and intersections as it weaves through neighborhoods but eventually it opens up and I was able to settle into a steady effort and get some good cruising. I ended up with 5:45 total ride time @ .81 IF and had a 3.5hr block at .85 - solid work. Sunday was a day off to travel then a good 10 mile tempo run Monday (5 miles @ 6-6:10/mile).  Tuesday was hill sprints and plyometrics.

That brings me to today - a 42min max effort power test on the bike.  It was over 90 today but I don't think that impacted me much since I wasn't out riding until after 6pm.  This is an extremely challenging workout that is very tough to motivate for.  Basically, it hurts like hell and you may not like the results.  This one turned out to be pretty rewarding though and worth the suffering.  After a good warmup I got into the test - 2X20' with 2' rest between intervals.  The objective is to go as hard as you possibly can for that 40; with only a very short rest period.  The average power for the entire 42min sets your reference power for all workouts over the next 6 weeks or so.  I thought I was right about 270W for my threshold power but hadn't formally tested to confirm (I tend to put this test of at every opportunity).  I set my Garmin display to show me nothing but the timer and dropped the hammer.  For a test like this it's best not to have any feedback aside from the effort you feel.  Seeing your actual power in real time can lead to either chasing some number that you think you should be able to hit or maybe even getting discouraged and losing motivation if you aren't meeting preconceived expectations.  So I had no idea if I was near what I thought I could do or completely bombing it.  Either way 2X20 is always a very good workout, so I had that going for me.  I gave it everything I had, paced fairly well, and finished on the verge of tossing my afternoon snack all over Shore Drive.  Turns out I did 277W and 264W and logged 268W for the entire 42min - exactly on target with what I thought. 2 thumbs-up for going hard and proving whatcha got!

Here's the power file -  CLICK ME

On tap for the rest of the week - 2hr run tomorrow at 6am, 4hrs riding on Skyline Drive Friday, and 100 miles riding with Bike Virginia out of Berryville, VA.  Sunday is reserved for sitting on the beach with some cold beverages.

Time In The Saddle (TITS)

I mentioned in my last post that it's time to start my race preparation training for the Ironman US Championships in August. That means a typical training week will include 6-8hrs of riding on the weekend, a 2-3hr long run on Thursday, tempo or threshold interval run on Tuesday, threshold intervals on the bike Wednesday, 3 swims, and a couple of quick transition runs off the bike. I tend to log 15-18hrs or training each week for the 8-10 weeks leading up to my taper. This year I decided to start with a 4-day block of riding in the mountains to jump-start my cycling strength and get an immediate training volume boost. Over the 4 days preceding Memorial Day I spent 23 hours on my bike logging 377 miles with over 30,000ft of vertical climbing – and loved every minute of it.

May 24 – Skyline Drive (Afton to Front Royal), 106 miles, 8850ft climbing

Day 1 on Skyline Drive

I spent the first 2 days riding with some members of Endurance Nation as part of the Blue Ridge Parkway cycling camp. A small group of EN athletes got together last year and had their own informal camp. This year we made it official with organized SAG support and Coach P on hand to refill or bottles – straight off his AG win at Ironman Texas the previous week. Initially the thought of getting on a bike so soon after training and racing an IM disgusted him but I'm pretty sure he was itching to turn the pedals just a little after seeing how awesome the riding was out on Skyline Drive. The first day we rode Skyline end to end from Afton to Front Royal. The morning started with some dense fog but eventually got burned off and we had nice conditions for riding. The road quality on Skyline is probably the best I've every see on my bike. I don't think there was a single crack in the blacktop the entire 105 miles. Despite not having a lot of riding in me and only one ride over 60 miles so far this season I handles the climbing and time in the saddle well. After the initial 25 miles or so with a few others I mostly rode solo the rest of the day and just enjoyed the scenery and great conditions with extremely light traffic.

Day 1 data geek stats – 7:01 riding, 384 TSS, 198W NP, .76 IF, 1.09 VI

TrainingPeaks power file - HERE

May 25 – Skyline Drive (Front Royal to Afton), 105 miles, 9870ft climbing

Ready to roll out on Day 2

Day 2 was a repeat of Skyline Drive but in reverse from Front Royal back to Afton. At the end of day 1 I downloaded my Garmin Edge 500 and noticed that I had 8850ft of climbing but 10,030ft of descending. That only meant one thing for today – an extra 1200ft of climbing over the same distance. And to add insult to injury we started the day immediately (as in within 100m of getting on our bikes) with a 5.8 mile climb, followed by a 7.6 mile climb, followed by a 3 mile climb. All totaled I spent the first 2hrs covering just over 20 miles and climbing over 3500ft. That works out to a 9.6mph average and only 9min when I wasn't going up – and still 80+ miles left in the day. I had one more 4-mile climb in the first half of the day followed by a series of smaller ups and downs before hitting Big Meadows where we take a short break for lunch. It was another beautiful day for riding. The morning fog was sitting in some of the troughs between climbs and the traffic was still very light although it was going to get close to 90 degrees and holiday weekend traffic would start to infiltrate the park eventually. From Big Meadows on was net downhill but still with plenty of relentless shorter climbs along the way. I covered the last 54 miles in only 3hrs compared to 4hrs for the first 50 miles. I rode a lot of the day solo again and felt comfortable aside from a bit of heat toward the afternoon. I'd already ridden more in 2 days than any 2 weeks since last August but I still had a big challenge waiting for me on Sunday.

No idea what that look on my face is all about

 Day 2 data geek stats – 7:15 riding, 366 TSS, 189W NP, .73 IF, 1.08 VI

TrainingPeaks power file - HERE

May 26 – Wilderness Road Ride - 38 miles, 1890ft climbing

Ahhhhh – RECOVERY! Friday evening I departed the Charlottesville area and left my EN teammates to battle the Blue Ridge Parkway over the weekend. I relocated to a rental house on Claytor Lake in Hiwassee, about 45min from Blacksburg, and hooked up with my wife (that still sound strange) and some friends from VA Beach to tackle the Cycling Double Header. Although I had 2 really solid days of riding in me and was feeling pretty good I decided to make Saturday an easy spin and opted for one of the shorter routes on the Wilderness Road Ride out of Radford College. I knew I had a big day coming on Sunday and didn't need to beat myself down today with 58 or 78 miles. So I rode nice and easy with Shawn and Paul then took a quick 3-mile transition run along the river before we loaded up and headed to Cabo Fish Taco in Blacksburg for some lunch and a couple cold beers. Not surprisingly we ran into some more of the VA Beach crew that had already set up shop on the patio. They were carbo loading for Sunday as well. Our lake house is in the middle of BFE so we had to hunt down some beverages while we were still in civilization unless we wanted to drink Budweiser from the local bait and tackle shop all night. The waitress at Cabo directed us a couple blocks up the street to Vintage Cellar, which turned out to be a beer snob's dream. I grabbed some stouts and Abita Strawberry and everyone else made their selections. Then we headed back to the house for some quality time sitting on the dock and enjoying the quiet, as well as watching Paul swim across the lake and scale the cliff on the other side in his Speedo.

Day 3 data geek stats – 2:25 riding, 96 TSS, 164W NP, .63 IF, 1.08 VI

TrainingPeaks power file - HERE

This where the nice group photo of everyone getting ready to head out of Radford for our ride would go but Katie still hasn't learned how to use the camera on her phone and she deleted it.

 May 28 – Mountains of Misery - 127 miles, 12,100ft climbing

This is what we were here for – the Mountains of Misery double metric century. I've done the double metric once before as well as the standard century once so I knew what the day had in store – many hours of hard work with a sprinkling of fast descents and plenty of rolling country roads connecting it all together. There are 4 major climbs on the double metric route but the first 20 miles also gain 1800ft of elevation as a series of stair step climbs before the first really fun winding descent. This downhill was one of my favorite sections of the route this year. I'm not a confident descender but I was able to relaxe enough to carve through the switch-backs without smoking my brakes – something I wasn't able to manage last time. That fun was short-lived though as the first big climb comes shortly after. There are fairly long sections of mostly very mild rolling undulations connecting the major climbs so unlike my first 2 days of riding where I seemed to be climbing relentlessly up gradual grades, today I was grinding up steeper grades with lots of relatively easy riding between. Here are the first 3 climbs over about 66 miles:

Climb #1 – 42:36, 6.6 miles, 1800ft

Climb #2 – 26:50, 3.7 miles, 1200ft

Climb #3 – 1:15, 17.6 miles, 1900ft

The last climb of the day is brutal for several reasons. First, it's the last 7 miles of the ride, finishing at Mountain Lake. Second, it's the biggest with 2200ft of climbing averaging 5.6% grade with spots that exceed 15% (last 3 miles average 11.9%). And finally, perhaps the most sinister aspect of the entire day – you ride directly past the start (there's my car) only 10 miles before hitting the the base of the climb. With 110 miles already in the books it sure is tempting to call it a day right there. But my other favorite part of the route is in that 10 miles so I pushed on. After a shorter climb there is a section of narrow winding country road snaking along a small river with lots of shade from the dense tree cover. It's a very gradual net downhill and you can really get into a groove carrying good speed for relatively little power output. Riding the entire day solo aside from the first 10-15 miles I was really looking forward to cruising this section of road in peace. I zipped past an occasional slower solo or couple on the back end of the century route but otherwise the road was mine and I really enjoyed it. I knew that it was about to come to an end when I made the hard right under the bridge and crossed the train tracks. There is a shorter climb followed by a quick descent and then the big one. I spent 47min working that 7 miles to the finish line. For every person I passed on their bike I saw at least 3 walking. The road levels out a bit over the last couple 100m and I gave a final kick to the line. Mission accomplished. I felt strong start to finish, only spent 18min total at rest stops, rode probably 110 miles completely solo, and logged one hell of a training day.

Day 4 data geek stats – 8:03 riding, 528 TSS, 219W NP, .81 IF, 1.13 VI

TrainingPeaks power file - HERE

Mountains of Misery double Metric century elevation profile

I've spent most of the days since Sunday recovering aside from a couple of swims. By Tuesday I could really feel the fatigue in my quads and I decided to put off any bike/run training for a few more days. Right now I'm sitting on a flight to Phoenix, AZ tapping out this blog entry. I was hoping to get a longer run in later this afternoon but it is supposed to be 107 degrees there today so that might not happen but hopefully it will cool down enough in the early evening to get some easy running in. Tomorrow morning I'm on a flight back to VA Beach and have Blackwater Duathlon on my schedule for this weekend. It's the USAT National Championship and a World Championship qualifier.  Stay tuned for my next post to find out what I'm doing in Phoenix (Scottsdale actually). I'll give you one hint – FASTER.

Overtaken - 4:00

This past weekend I had my first triathlon of the season and it was an important reality check of my base fitness heading into the 12 weeks leading up to the Ironman U.S. Championships in early August.  That's my goal race this season and will be my 3rd IM.  I'm at the point where the workouts need to start more specific to the race - increased volume and more long moderate intensity, particularly on the weekends when I ride 7-8 hours between the two days.  Up until now I've mostly been doing tempo and threshold intensity work along with a occasional long run.  I think I've only gone over 50 miles on the bike twice since last summer and I only got back into the pool about 6 weeks ago after forgetting where it was since Sept.  I scheduled in a half iroman distance triathlon to test my fitness before I shifted gears and got serious into the race preparation block of training.  It was also just a good opportunity for a long training day.

Kinetic Half is held at Lake Anna State Park in Spotsylvania, VA.  I raced this event back in 2008 and finished 4th OA.  It's a single loop swim in the lake, then 2 loop bike on rolling hills (2400ft of climbing total), and finishes with a 3-loop run with 2 tough hills on each climb.  It's definitely a challenging run course but I tend to prefer that to a flat run because it plays to my strengths.  The weather was great aside from some fog that settled down on the lake and delayed the start by 15min.  Once the sun started climbing the fog burned away and we were off.  Swimming is my least developed sport at this point in the season.  I've been hitting the pool 2-3x per week and doing somewhere in the 1800-2400m range for each workout.  The swim at this race is just over 1900m.  I knew I had the basic endurance to not struggle but needed to keep the intensity in check and just accept that it wouldn't be one of my faster swims - my swim times are never impressive anyway.  No issues here and I clocked a 32:17 which was the slowest of the top 15 OA finishers in the race.

On to the bike where I can start to settle in and slowly pull back some time.  I'm on a new bike this season and I haven't had a lot of time on it yet to tweak my position but I think I just about have it dialed in.  Everything felt comfortable and spending 2+ hours in the aerobars didn't kill my neck or back too much.  I did however have a small issue on the ride that I didn't confirm for sure until after the race.  I spent most of the 56 miles playing cat and mouse with one other guy.  It wasn't intentional but we were constantly trading positions because of the type of bikes each of us were riding and our riding style.  He was on a road bike and I was on my tri bike.  The tri bike has more of an advantage the faster you are going because of the aerodynamics.  So on the rolling descents and flats I would tend to pass him but as soon as we get to the incline I'd back off the power and he'd end up passing me.  We probably traded positions 30-40 times.  In this kind of triathlon there are rules about how far you need to stay behind the person in front of you to avoid getting an advantage from riding in their draft.  You also have to drop back a certain distance when you are passed before you are allowed to pass them back.  The official apparently thought I didn't drop back far enough once and I got an "overtaken" penalty which tacked 4min onto my total time.  I don't care about the time but I was a bit pissed that they gave me a penalty when I know they weren't in a good position to judge the distance between us.  This is the first penalty I've ever got in 8 years of racing.  Anyway, I roll into T2 clocking a 2:25:25 bike split.

Check out my Garmin file from the bike on TrainingPeaks.

My new rocket ship for the season decked out in full race kit.  I'm heading out to FASTER in Scottsdale, AZ in 2 weeks to see if I can squeeze a little more speed out of it - stay tuned for a future blog on that experience.

Heading out of T2 on the run there is an immediate 130ft vertical climb up from the lake before heading out into the park and dropping down another hill back to about lake level before climbing out and looping around and eventually down a trail back to transition - then repeat 2 more times.  All total there are 6 climbs of about 130ft vertical and .6 miles each.  The profile is painfully obvious looking the my Garmin file.  I tend to pace pretty well and have a good strategy for dealing with hills but they still weren't fun.  My first lap was a little fast at 6:29/mile average, or I might have over-cooked the bike slightly and paid for it later in the run.  On a flat to rolling course I tend to run in the 1:23-1:25 range off the bike but today I had to settle for a 1:27:47 - 11th fastest of the day out of 350 male finishers.

Once the 4min penalty got tagged on my official time was 4:32:27.  I would have been 8th OA without the penalty.  I'm not thrilled with my times but not disappointed either.  I've barely been doing long enough workouts for this race distance so it was really my tempo and threshold work pulling me through.  That gives me a decent base to start layering on some volume.  Within about 8 weeks I'll be consistently riding 200 miles a week, running 35-40 miles, and getting 2-3 60-90min swims.  I don't have a particular time I'm shooting for at the IM. I prefer to approach races like that with goals based on executing my pacing and nutrition plans perfectly rather than chasing splits.  You show up with a certain amount of fitness and all you can do is use it wisely and see what that gets you.  My best guess is that it's going to take a sub-10hr finish to have any chance of grabbing a Kona Qualifier spot in my age group.

Ready to rock

I spent the past 6-8 weeks basically preparing to train for my primary goal race this season - Ironman  US Championship in New York City (actually it's mostly in New Jersey but who would sign up for Ironman New Jersey?).  Ironman is a long day even if you are relatively fast - I expect to be in the 9-10hour range but the pros can go sub-8hrs.  If you want to be at all competitive you need to do more than simply put in a lot of volume.  The race prep phase needs to include a good amount of high quality threshold and tempo work layered on top of the necessary volume and long sessions.  With about 12 weeks to go I need to already have the basic endurance and fitness so I can start turning up the heat.  Basically, I've been training to train the past couple months.  I did a lot of running and put in a lot of time on my bike trainer through the cold dark months.  It hasn't been too long that I've been getting outside for longer rides and I just got back to the pool 4 weeks ago after forgetting where it was since early September.

That brings me to today, the end of a solid 8-day training block that essentially ends my "getting ready to train" phase.  I really hit it hard and had some challenging workouts but managed to nail everything including most of the little things like doing my run form drills, plyometrics, and dry-land stretch cord exercises.  This last week was a sort of peak just before I take a few days break from training and get a little mental rest for the weekend down in 'Nawlins' taking in Jazz Fest (FOO FIGHTERS!!!).  When I get back on Monday I'll hit a couple quality sessions and then benchmark my fitness at the Kinetic Half.  I don't have any particular goals for the race except to execute well and see where I'm at. 

Here's a summery of the last week of training:

Thursday 4/26 - 90min tempo run with 3 miles @ 6:30, 2 miles @ 6:20, 1 mile @ 6:10.
Friday 4/27 - long endurance swim, easy run finish with drills and plyos
Saturday 4/28 - 4hr ride including 2X15' @ FT and 3X20'  @ 90% FT
Sunday 4/29 - 90min trainer ride with 3X25' (2') @ 85% FT
Monday 4/30 - easy run finish with drills and plyos, Tempo interval swim
Tuesday 5/1 - 60min run with 3X 1 mile @ 5:55
Wednesday 5/2 - 60min trainer ride with 10' @ FT, 20' @ 95%, 10' @ FT, moderate intensity endurance swim
Thursday 5/3 - 2.5 hour long run finishing with 3 miles of tempo.

Between the tempo run last Thurs and the long run today I really feel like I'm over the hump of a 2.5-3hr run needing to be all basic endurance pace.  After 15 miles of relatively easy running today I was feeling pretty good so I decided to drop a few miles in the 6-6:15 range then shut it down for a couple of easy cool down miles.  I could have racked up another 5+ miles at 7:30ish pace without struggling if I wanted to.  It was nice to finish a long run with some quality and not feel totally spent.  That's how I know it's time to start layering on that tempo and threshold work consistently through the week.  I'm looking forward to the next 12 weeks of specific race prep although I know I'll be happy when the early weekend mornings are over and I get to enjoy the second half of the summer with at bit more leisurely lifestyle.

Here's today's run

DNS vs DNF

I've never DNF'd a race and I don't enter races just to go through the motions.  I'm either testing my current fitness, have a specific training purpose, or I'm racing to push my limits and compete.  That's why I've only run a few marathons total and why I decided to DNS IM Arizona in 2010.  With few exceptions, simply covering the distance doesn't motivate me.

Boston Marathon 2006 with dad.

In early 2010 my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I spend a lot of time traveling back and forth to CO spending as much time with him as possible.  He passed away in late July that year and I just couldn't focus on the quantity and quality of training that's necessary to race IM well.  I certainly could have trained enough to finish without a problem but it still would have been a big investment for a marginal outcome.  So I decided to eat the $500 entry and change gears to something that I thought I could actually accomplish something with what was left of the 2010 season.  I found a regional half iroman race in late October, cut my training back to something I could stay focused on and actually enjoy, and ended up winning the race and setting a new PR.  From the moment I decided to pass on IMAZ I immediately knew it was the right decision and don't regret it for a second.  I still went out to Tempe and got to watch Chrissy Wellington set a new world record - smiling the entire time.

That brings me to April 2012 and my ultimate goal this season to race well at the inaugural IM US Championship in Aug.  I started he year running a lot, had a blast doing the Ragnar FLK relay, and set a World Record for a tethered team marathon at Shamrock - fun start to the season.  I also put the Virginia 24hr Run for Cancer on my schedule as both a challenge and something unique.  It happens to be a quick drive from VA Beach and a friendly format for ultra running - 3.75 mile loop on a flat dirt and gravel trail.  I ran JFK50 back in 2009 and did fairly well (34th overall) despite my pace bombing the last 10 miles or so.  I set my goal for the 24hr event at 100 miles but I've been training as a triathlete, not a runner.  That means only 2-3 runs for roughly 30-35 miles per week.  I fully realize that isn't optimal to run 100 miles but I still felt confident that I could do it - 24hrs gives a lot of buffer.  But the problem is that I basically consider anything less than 100 miles a DNF.  For whatever reason I don't see anything short of 100 miles as being any sort of milestone past the 50 I've already done.  So I had 2 options for the 24hr run - go for it and run myself into the ground to hit my goal, or DNS and spend my weekend training to be the best triathlete I can be this season. 

As I'm finishing this post I have several friends 15 hours into the run - I'm at home with sore legs from running 18 miles yesterday and riding 65 miles today.  I'm bummed that I'm not out there with them.  I wasn't raising money for a charity or anything but I was looking forward to "running for cancer" for my dad.  But I'm happy that I made the right decision - Ironman is 111 days away and it's time to get serious.  I wouldn't have been able to give my best at either event if I ran the 24hr this weekend.  Instead I'll swim/bike/run my ass off for the next 4 months and dedicate this IM to my dad.

Mission accomplished

There I was, standing in the starting corral with 4 other dudes tethered to my waist with a few feet of rope.  In a couple minutes we'd be off for a running tour of the Virginia Beach oceanfront complete with an excursion through Fort Story and stroll down the boardwalk.  I posted a while back about this Guinness World Record attempt.  We planned to run under 3hrs but unfortunately had a couple of injuries on the team and had to make some late substitutions but we were still in great shape for beating the current record (3:26).  We figured on being right around 3:03-3:05 so we set out to run 7:00 pace and nailed it up through mile 16.  I was feeling great and everyone else seemed to be holding steady.  Mile 16-18 is when a marathon starts to get serious and if you are running at your limit things get tough.

You might be able to tell who is on cruise control and who is working hard at this point.

We needed to back off our pace to 7:20-7:30 for the last 8 miles to keep the team on track but there was never any risk of missing the record.  The last mile was all about guts and I'm proud of everyone for hanging tough and kicking the pace back up for a 6:57 coming down the boardwalk to the finish.  Our official time was 3:06:04, crushing the previous record.

This wasn't my fastest marathon and it wasn't the fastest I could have run on this day - I figure I was good for a 2:48-2:50 - but it was tons of fun.  For the first 15 miles we had a pack of clingers just sitting on our heels.  Maybe they liked our 7:00/mile pace or maybe they just wanted to hang with the cool kids.  All the spectators gave us great support and it was a really nice day to run a marathon.  Maybe next year we'll come back and knock out that sub-3hr unfinished business.

6:50 or Bust

Actually, 7:49 would be sufficient to avoid a complete bust.  What the hell am I talking about?  6:49/mile is the average pace to finish a marathon in 2:59.  My PR is 2:53 and change so why does going just under 3 hours matter?  Well on Sunday, March 18th, I'll be part of a 5-man team attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the  fastest marathon by a linked team at the Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA.  The current record is 3:26:15 - just over 7:49/mile.  What would be better than breaking the record?  Going sub-3hrs of course.  A 3hr marathon is one of those benchmarks for serious recreational runners - an invisible line that many have on their radar.  Some can only dream of a 2:59:xx marathon, others train diligently for years hoping to crack the barrier just once, and even fewer are lucky enough to push themselves even faster.  In the bigger picture of marathon running it isn't all that fast.  After all, the world record is approaching 2hrs flat (currently 2:03:38) - an average pace for 26.2 miles that is faster than most people can run a single all-out mile.  But in terms of mere mortals it's still challenging and a very respectable time.

As I mentioned, our original goal was to break 3hrs and we had a team with the credentials to do it.  Unfortunately, running often involves dealing with injuries and we lost one of our teammates just last week which left us scrambling for a replacement.  Being only 3 weeks out from the race didn't leave many options because we obviously needed someone who was already in marathon shape, available, and willing to be tied to the rest of us for a few hours.  Luckily, we've got a good running store in the area with a few guys up to the task with only a couple weeks notice.  We may have to adjust our expectations slightly but I think we'll still be close to the 3hr mark.

In addition to myself, the other team members are Tommy Neeson, Drew Midland, Steve Speirs, and our newest running fool teammate Mark Manny.  We're coordinating with J&A Racing as well as the folks at Guinness World Records and we've decided to support a local charity - Preston's March for Energy.  So T-minus 18 days until we toe the line and run for a record.  Check out our Facebook page and keep an eye open for another blog post after the dust has settled.

Biffle Dinked!

Say what?  Yeah - Biffle Dinked.  I just returned from a short trip to Key West.  It's definitely a cool place to relax for a few days and punish your liver but this post is really about the journey to get there.  It all started Thursday when I arrived in Miami and met up with Jim, Tommy (Timmay), Bill, John, and August.  Collectively we make Team Biffle Dinked and we were running the 198 mile Ragnar Relay from Miami to Key West. I was the new (and young) guy on the team but I think I fit right in.  They put me in charge of the pre-race lodging in Miami so I promptly booked us rooms at the Embassy Suites...more on this later.  The basic concept of the relay was, well, a really long relay.  There were 36 legs mapped out varying from about 2 miles to just over 11.  Since we only had 6 runners we were considered an ultra team.  Most teams were 12 people but that's just weak sauce IMO.  And because everyone but me was old we were technically classified as sub-masters.  So you rent a big van, load it with Gatorade, water, peanut butter, and gels, then hop-scotch your way from one exchange zone to the next swapping out runners as you go, creeping ever closer to the finish at Duval St.