Libertyman 70.3

Today I completed the first of three planned half iron training races. Dr. Nitrous volunteered his community pool for the base which is in Liberty Park, thus the Libertyman name. So, the idea was to treat this as any other race with a continuously running clock, transitions, and such. My purpose was use race this at my planned Ironman pace. I wanted to see how it felt and if I could do it.

If I could do it was the big question. As I mentioned before, my planned IM pace is 53 seconds per 50, 19.5 mph avg on the bike, and a 9:00 mile pace for the run. With typical transition times, this would put me finishing Libertyman in 5:30 which equals my best Half IM time (of the 2 I've done). Now, back to "If I could do it." My swim times are notoriously slow. I both races, my official times were around 43 minutes. My bike times were in the 20-20.5 range, and my runs were all death marches at 2:18 for the first and 1:58 for the second. Neither were at or below a 9:00 pace so I didn't know if I could keep that pace after the first two sports, but today I was going to give it a shot.

The forecast could not have been better. Low humidity and high of 85. Our race started at 6:00 so we'd finish early enough to beat the heat and keep the wives happy. So here goes:

1.2 Mile swim - The community pool did have black lines on the bottom to follow, but lacked ropes between the lanes. I discovered today that those ropes have two functions. The first is obvious, but the second is to keep the waves down. With three of us in the pool, it felt like an open water swim with all of the waves. As for the actual swim, no problems here. My weekly hour endurance swims paid off. I knocked out the swim in 35:07 with plenty of arm strength to spare. Not a bad start.

T1 - Admittedly I took my time here. 3:30. Not ideal, but I wasn't trying to be fast.

56 Mile Ride - The course was an out and back along a rolling course. I wore my intended race outfit and aero helmet for the ride. Both felt great. No issues with keeping myself in aero. Overall it felt great, but I was a bit bored honestly. I found myself, just wanting to get the ride over with. I didn't have a problem keeping pace and my nutrition was spot on. One half cliff bar ever 30 minutes. I rolled into transition in 2:46, an avg pace of 20.2.

T2 - A little faster here. I did take full advantage of no USAT rules for this race and grabbed my ipod. I had some Ironman Talk podcasts to work through.

13.1 mile - Legs felt great coming out of T2. I couldn't seem to run slower than a 7:30 pace for the first two miles without it feeling like I was crawling. I slowed my pace down because I knew there was no way I could maintain it and would only end up blowing up. The miles started knocking off pretty easily. Legs felt good, energy level was good, and stomach felt fine. Around mile 11 the miles started taking effect. I started noticing that my hip flexors were weakening and any size hill was starting to prove difficult to get over. The last mile was torture. I was ready to be finished, but physically I found it hard to lay the hammer down and finish strong. I crossed the line in 1:50.

So the total time for the 1st Annual Libertyman 70.3 was 5 hours and 16 minutes. A PR by 14 minutes. I'm pretty stoked about that. It's a real confidence booster that my training is going well. All those long slow endurance exercises are paying off. Now that I know my weaknesses, I can tweak my workouts to address them and hopefully make them stronger. Off to recover and gear up for next time.
Tail winds....

Back At It

Alright, wow, I've been a lousy blogger as of late. Not much to report about due to a rest week last week. It was a little boring, but I was able to put in some good easy training in. I did notice that I picked up a few pounds along the way. Probably not a bad thing right now. I definitely don't need to lose any weight so no worries.

This past weekend, my wife and I made it down to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. The weather cooperated well and we had a wonderful time. Now, I'm back at it again and ready to start back on my next training block.

This weekend is the first of 3 scheduled 70.3 training races. It'll be a pool swim which blows, but you have to play the hand you're dealt sometimes. All paces will be done at IM pace. It'll be good to practice patience on the bike above all. I'm a bit of a hammerhead on the bike, but I need to learn to save it for the run. I will also be nailing down my nutrition. It'll be interesting to see how I do going from solid foods on the bike to gels on the run. We'll see if that system works.

Overall, I will probably go into this race a bit tired. This week is pretty heavy, but tapering before Saturday is not an option since it's just training and not a race. Otherwise, I'm pretty stoked about putting the hours in and again reliving what it's like to suffer for 4 and a 1/2 hours. Just kidding, I'm shooting for 5:30.

One last thing, I've been caught in the rain several times in the past week on the bike and while running. No amount of airing out of my shoes has helped get this stank off of them. Washing running shoes really cuts down on the life of your shoes, so any body have any anti-stink cures?

Tail winds

Ironman Training Week 4

Well, looking ahead to my 4th week of IM training, and I see that I've finally hit a rest week. It's not something that I'm totally dreading which surprises me a bit. I've really enjoyed every minute of the training so far, but I think I could use the extra sleep. More on that in a bit, let's talk about this weekend.

I didn't know how my legs would hold up for the scheduled 3.5 hour ride on Saturday. I'd logged 24 miles of running during the week and some pretty hard days in the saddle including speed drills and intervals. As is typical fashion for me, the first few miles of the ride my legs feel tight and weak. The thought always goes through my head, "oh man, I'm not going to be able to finish this. It's going to suck." But, as the ride went on my legs fell into form and I started feeling stronger and ready to roll. This week's route is called the Prison Loop as it takes you past St. Claire County's own Correctional Facility. The route rolls through some really pretty farm land out in some of the more rural areas of town. I know you're probably thinking "Are there areas in Alabama that aren't rural?" There are one or two places, I promise. I was happy to find that my legs held strong throughout the ride. I'm getting a little more confident that I might actually be able to ride 112 miles. Mentally 3.5 hours is tough. What's 6 hours going to feel like?

For this ride, I tried eating 1/2 of a Cliff Bar every thirty minutes instead of a full bar every hour. This enabled me to keep my blood sugar up throughout the ride and at the same time kept me from dumping a bunch of food on my stomach all at once. The only foul up I had nutrition wise was losing an energy gel I'd attached to my saddle bag by a little strap. This would leave me a little lean on calories going into transition, but thankfully I found it had no effect on me. Once I made it back to the car, I downed a gel and headed out for a quick 30 minute run. Again the legs held and I was able to negative split the run. I was pretty pumped to see that my avg HR for the ride was on 135 on only 152 for the run. Given the pace I was holding, it's a sign that I'm gaining endurance.

Today I logged a 2 hour and 15 minute run. I kept with the game plan and stayed around a 9:00 per mile pace. It's terribly slow, but I sticking with it. My avg HR for the run was stupid low at 143. Wow. The 2:15 run flew by today despite the rainy conditions. I'm still making my way through the first year of Ironman Talk podcasts. I love those guys. Listening to these guys has been a huge boost for me mentally.

Now this week is where I rebuild and reload. It's my first rest week, so I'm going to try and make the most of it. I'm going to sleep in a bit more and will try and eat breakfast with my wife more. I've really missed that. At the end of the week I find myself going to the beach yet again. I'm really getting spoiled here. Next weekend is Memorial Day, so we're meeting my wife's family at the beach for the weekend. I'll be taking the bike of course, but I'll will also be taking my golf clubs and a lot of balls. My golf game has declined a bit since all my spare time is spent training. That's all for now. Tailwinds.

The Real Speed of a Bumble Bee

Tuesday afternoon, my buddy Dr. Nitrous and I head out for a ride. The good doctor showed up in a bright yellow jersey and a pair of grey and yellow tri shorts. He was looking like quite the fruit cake. I didn't give him too much of a hard time as we've all been there for those mid week rides where we're just trying to piece together exercise clothes between washings.
So we headed out and after a mile or so Dr. Nitrous was on the front with me staying on his back wheel getting full benefit of the draft. I looked between us and there was a bumble bee baring down on Dr. Nitrous. He was keeping pace too. I looked down and we were going 24 mph. Wow. That bee can move! I watched for a little while believing that the bee had to think that the big yellow blob in front of him was a big flower. He had to be thinking that he was going to make a big score. I yelled to the front to let the doctor know that there was a bee bearing down on him. He pushed the pace a little harder and the bee popped. I guess the Lactic Acid must have built up in his tiny wings and he could no longer keep pace. 26 mph did him in.

Being so impressed with the bee's speed led me to google "How fast can a bumble bee fly?". This is what I found. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_fast_can_a_bumble_bee_fly

This site states that the maximum speed of a bee is 20 mph. Ladies and gentlemen I provide you with proof that bees are much faster than stated. Either that or I have found the Usain Bolt of the bumble bee world. Here's the take home lesson: Whether it's 20 mph or 24 mph, you can't out run a bumble bee. Oh yeah, and don't dress like a flower you weirdo.

Ironman Training Week #3

Somewhere along the way I totally ditched writing about week two, but it was there I promise. Week #2 was partially spent out of town and partially spent at home trying to get the work in. Thursday, I learned a valuable lesson in intervals. I'd set out to do 4 repeats of an all out TT on a 4.5 mile road. Well, I made it through two of them before crying uncle. 4.5 miles is too long. At least for now it is. I need to shorten my intervals so that I can increase the amount of work I'm getting in.
This weekend I booked my longest ride ever. I set out with a my friend Tony and put in just under 75 miles in. I was stoked with the distance, but man I was toast.
This week it's more of the same. Monday, was an hour long endurance swim. The aftermath left me with a really sore right arm. I noticed it this morning while running as I was having trouble straightening it out fully. I think it's from touching the side of the pool when I make my turns. Admittedly, I don't know how to do flip turns. I've only started noticing the sore arms after my long swims. I will either have to learn to do flip turns which scare the crap out of me or I'll have to start touching the wall with my left hand which will only result in a sore left arm. Sounds like I just need to learn how to do flip turns.
This morning, I completed 8 miles of speed work. Loved it, but now I'm exhausted. I'm currently forcing food down my throat to refuel for this afternoons ride.
I have two days of speed work to do in the pool and two long endurance runs to do as well as my shortened interval session on the bike. As long as the weather holds up, I'm back in the saddle again for another long ride on Saturday. Should be 75 miles again, but will be on the Tri bike this weekend instead of the roadie. Sunday brings in my first 15 mile run. Nutrition is still a work in progress, but I like what I've done so far. Things are going well, and except for the sore arm the body is holding up. More later. Tailwinds...

Beach Training Day # 3

Alright so this post is a few days late, but I couldn't let the last day go without writing about it. Not that the day was spectacular, but just for record's sake.

Sunday was to be the last day at the beach which is always a sad event. The schedule called for a 2 hour easy run. As I mentioned before, all of my long runs will be at IM pace, 9 minute miles. I was dreading this run for no reason other than I thought that it would be mind numbingly boring. I left my ipod in Birmingham so I wouldn't be able to pass the time by listening to past podcasts from Ironman talk. Quick note: Ironman Talk is a great podcast put on by two Kiwi's with tons of experience. Both are great athletes in their own right, but one is a trainer and the other is a current top age group/semi pro competitor. Their "coach's corner" and "top 5" segments provide tons of useful information for the first timer.
Alright so back to the run. Nothing too crazy here. I only managed to hit a 9 minute average twice. The rest of the time I was fighting to slow down. Running slow really blows. I will say that at this pace, I've had no GI problems. Everything is working fine down there. My last two long runs have included potty stops. Thank God for clean restrooms at gas stations. I'm dreading the day that I'm forced to find a port-a-john at a construction site.
So I finished the run with just under 14 miles. Everything felt great. No foot, knee, hip, or back worries. The body is in good shape.
That afternoon, I flew to Atlanta for a few days with clients. This put me on a mandatory two days of rest, but now I'm back in town, rested up, and ready to go.

Beach Training Day 2

Scheduled for today was a 2.5 hour ride followed by a 15 minute run. The plan was to leave out around 6:00am to beat the heat, but a flat tire held me back a bit. After changing the tire, I made sure that my wife had her cell phone close by just in case. That was my only spare and it's no fun walking home in bike shoes.

The plan was to keep the mph close to 20. I didn't want to push it too hard. Time in the saddle was the goal. I was able to get access to the Naval Base in Pensacola. The guys at the guard shack had to figure that even though I looked weird in my aero helmet, there probably weren't too many places I could hide a dirty bomb in my spandex.

Along the back stretch, I rode past an old civil war fort which was really sweet, but the coolest thing had to be their cemetery. Across maybe 20 acres there were rows upon rows of white tombstones. A sobering reminder of just how many soldiers have lost their lives fighting for our country.

I made it back to the condo just as the sun was starting to burn through the clouds. 50 miles in the bag, and 15 minutes of running to go. The plan calls for an easy run, but I was feeling good so I took off at an aggressive pace. I managed to avg. 6:38 over the course and felt ready for more. I ended the run by jumping in the pool to cool off. Wow. What I wouldn't give to do this every day. For now, it's time to refuel and relax.

Beach Training Day 1

I discovered this morning that the pool our condo association rebuilt after Hurricane Ivan is almost 25 yards long from end to end. So while I usually have to give up swimming while at the beach, I was able to put in a good effort this morning before the pool was taken over by floats and screaming kids. While getting up at 6:00 am insured that there wouldn't be anyone watching me from their balcony, I did have one spectator in the form of a sand crab that had somehow found his way into the pool. I tried to get the poor guy out, but he took me only as a threat to his new found world and raised his pinchers to send a message.

After the swim, I took off for what was described in my training plan as an hour and 15 minute "recovery run". I really had no idea what that was supposed to look like. I'm already doing my long runs at an extremely slow pace, so should I run this slower? Well, I decided to just get the time in and not push it too hard. The run went well. I was glad to have started early because the sun was beginning to slip higher into the sky and warm up the day.

I made it back to the condo before my wife woke up which enabled me to get shower and get breakfast started. Today is her birthday so it was time to celebrate.

The rest of the day was spent either by the pool or on the beach. I finally finished reading Angels and Demons for the second time. Stoked about the upcoming movie. Now it's on to Pat Conroy's "The Water is Wide." Long ride tomorrow. It's time for bed.