Most of my readers know I've lost a substantial amount of weight since 2010 when I first entered Ironman Louisville. Unfortunately, it also came with a substantial loss in strength and my tone isn't great. Over the past couple winters, I've been promising to do some strength training. Well, it eventually got lost it seems. Whether it was preparing for the Dopey Challenge last January or doing an early season Ironman, I never quite got around to it.
The second problem was being completely out of my element when it comes to weights. Where do I start? What exercises should I do? How often? Can I use machines or would I need free weights? Like just about everything in 2015, I began by searching online for some tips or routines to try. But it was all too involved. I wanted simplicity. I wanted something I could easily track. But nothing seemed to meet that criteria.
As luck would have it, an Ironfriend from England was also trying to find the same thing and remembered a strength program from a book we both owned, "Be Iron Fit." Lo and behold, there was a list of strength exercises which also matched up nearly perfectly with the machines at my local gym. Perfect!
I've been doing the follow exercises twice a week for about a month. Takes me about 10-15 minutes so doesn't take too much time and it fits nicely into my normal routine.
Leg Press
Leg Extension
Leg Curl
Chest Press
Lat Pulldown
Bicep Curl
Tricep Curl
Given how quick it goes, I may try to keep it part of normal schedule once tri season rolls around again.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Ironman Louisville 2015 Race Report
On October 11, 2015, I participated in Ironman Louisville. This would be my 6th Ironman and second in two weeks after doing Ironman Chattanooga on September 27th. Not my brightest idea ever but as I've heard, you never know your limits until you reach them.
The first hurdle, after Chattanooga, was to make sure I was recovered enough but at the same time, not completely go into hibernation and be a slug for two weeks. The day after Chattanooga, after riding in a car for five hours to get home, I was incredibly stiff so in addition to my daily one mile run (still streaking) I went out for a 12 mile small ring only ride with the Louisville Bike Club. Amazing how much moving around helps, even the day after an Ironman. I then took a day off outside of my normal one mile run and went back into my normal Ironman taper routine including about a 30 mile ride and 10K run the weekend before.
Another interesting aspect of this Ironman Louisville was that it would be the first Ironman I'd do from home. That is, I wasn't staying at a hotel the night before down near the action. I was sleeping in my own bed and having my wife drop me off downtown at the start.
Finally, the last pre-race concern was the weather. Ironman Louisville had always been held in late August, meaning almost 100% certainty of hot and humid conditions. This was the first October IM Louisville so me and all my tri-club mates were watching the weather closely.
I won't bore you with the check-in/expo details as you've read those reports several times. Things went smoothly, I picked up the normal athlete name t-shirt and got ready for the big day. One perk of having so many club mates doing this event was being in a bike rack with Louisville Landsharks only. It was nice to see familiar bikes and familiar faces during bike check in and all that.
Louisville is like Chattanooga in that it's a time-trial start with people getting into the water essentially one a time on a first-come first-served basis. Also, due to the October date, sunrise was much later than August so we would be starting at 7:30 instead of the customary 7 AM IM start time. Furthermore, this meant a maximum 16.5 hour time limit which would be shortened by any delay getting in the water. Since I was confident in a 14ish finish, I decided to sleep as long as possible, get to transition to get my bike/nutrition set up, then have my wife drive me down to the swim start. When I arrived I was surprised how close I was to the docks and ended up hanging out with several Landsharks in the swim line. Always nice to be around people you know.
The Swim
Due to the October date, this IM Louisville would be wetsuit legal. I'd never done Louisville in a wetsuit. I had done a 1:28 in Chattanooga so with the wetsuit and some good coaching, I was hoping to do Louisville in 1:20. Nothing really eventful happened except I was surprised how fast I was in the water. Even though I hadn't hurried down to the start and slept in, I was in the water at 7:32. Swim time was 1:18:49, by far my fastest IM swim ever. I was thinking I might be in for a good day.
T1
Headed into transition for a full change. I wore normal swim jammers under my wetsuit so changed into my Landsharks tri kit. Since we had a cool October morning, in the low 50s, I was concerned about being cold but decided to suffer a bit for the first bit of the bike instead of overheating later.
I did have my first hiccup of the day in T1. Bikes are racked by hanging the nose of the seat on a bar. Most bikes are small enough to drop the seat off the bar and pull the bike through. This of course doesn't work so well when you're dealing with a huge bike like I ride due to my height. In a rush I rather yanked my bike under the bar, caught the seat, and my seat was now pointed down about 45 degrees. Not conducive to riding 112 miles!
Here I am looking quite shady in T1 but I was fixing my seat.
With the mishap, total time in T1 was 13:57. Not very good at all but good enough for a finish.
The Bike
Since I've ridden the IM Louisville literally dozens of times, I know every pothole and crack it seems. I also know what I can average safely without destroying myself. The only spot of difficulty was the temperature in about the first hour. Since I went with a normal tri kit with bare arms, I was indeed a little cold. Suffered through some goosebumps but soon warmed up. Again, nothing eventful and it was great to see so many Landsharks out there either racing or volunteering.
Here I am heading into T2 with a fellow Landshark, Geri, who I played leapfrog with for about the last 20 miles of the bike.
Total bike time: 6:21:02 or 17.64 mph.
T2
Another full change into running shorts and my Landsharks t-shirt as well as loads of Body Glide meant a T2 of 12:48. For my next Ironman, I'm contemplating staying in a tri kit for the run to see how much time I can save.
The Run
After a great swim and a good bike, I knew I had a PR in my sights if I could just keeping moving at a steady pace. I wasn't sure, however, how my body would react to another IM after just doing Chattanooga. My goal was to keep the miles in the 12s while walking through each aid station as I took salt, nutrition, and hydration. Keep this up at a good pace for the first 10K then I could hear a little whisper in my brain, "you have to be tired don't you? You have to be pooped from Chattanooga." Most of that is mental but since I wasn't going to be qualifying for Kona anyway, I did a bit more walking. Still had a decent marathon, finishing in 5:33:00 for a total of 13:39:36, a 30+ minute PR!
The Aftermath
Two Ironmans in 14 days and I was sore, but didn't feel completely wrecked. I did deal with a bit of a cold in the week after, which may have been the result of higher than normal algae levels in the river or perhaps from being in general run down and having a compromised immune system. But many have asked if it's doable and I'm living proof it is. I think the timing was also just about perfect. Not enough time between to lose fitness but enough time to recover and then do some short taper workouts.
The first hurdle, after Chattanooga, was to make sure I was recovered enough but at the same time, not completely go into hibernation and be a slug for two weeks. The day after Chattanooga, after riding in a car for five hours to get home, I was incredibly stiff so in addition to my daily one mile run (still streaking) I went out for a 12 mile small ring only ride with the Louisville Bike Club. Amazing how much moving around helps, even the day after an Ironman. I then took a day off outside of my normal one mile run and went back into my normal Ironman taper routine including about a 30 mile ride and 10K run the weekend before.
Another interesting aspect of this Ironman Louisville was that it would be the first Ironman I'd do from home. That is, I wasn't staying at a hotel the night before down near the action. I was sleeping in my own bed and having my wife drop me off downtown at the start.
Finally, the last pre-race concern was the weather. Ironman Louisville had always been held in late August, meaning almost 100% certainty of hot and humid conditions. This was the first October IM Louisville so me and all my tri-club mates were watching the weather closely.
I won't bore you with the check-in/expo details as you've read those reports several times. Things went smoothly, I picked up the normal athlete name t-shirt and got ready for the big day. One perk of having so many club mates doing this event was being in a bike rack with Louisville Landsharks only. It was nice to see familiar bikes and familiar faces during bike check in and all that.
Louisville is like Chattanooga in that it's a time-trial start with people getting into the water essentially one a time on a first-come first-served basis. Also, due to the October date, sunrise was much later than August so we would be starting at 7:30 instead of the customary 7 AM IM start time. Furthermore, this meant a maximum 16.5 hour time limit which would be shortened by any delay getting in the water. Since I was confident in a 14ish finish, I decided to sleep as long as possible, get to transition to get my bike/nutrition set up, then have my wife drive me down to the swim start. When I arrived I was surprised how close I was to the docks and ended up hanging out with several Landsharks in the swim line. Always nice to be around people you know.
The Swim
Due to the October date, this IM Louisville would be wetsuit legal. I'd never done Louisville in a wetsuit. I had done a 1:28 in Chattanooga so with the wetsuit and some good coaching, I was hoping to do Louisville in 1:20. Nothing really eventful happened except I was surprised how fast I was in the water. Even though I hadn't hurried down to the start and slept in, I was in the water at 7:32. Swim time was 1:18:49, by far my fastest IM swim ever. I was thinking I might be in for a good day.
T1
Headed into transition for a full change. I wore normal swim jammers under my wetsuit so changed into my Landsharks tri kit. Since we had a cool October morning, in the low 50s, I was concerned about being cold but decided to suffer a bit for the first bit of the bike instead of overheating later.
I did have my first hiccup of the day in T1. Bikes are racked by hanging the nose of the seat on a bar. Most bikes are small enough to drop the seat off the bar and pull the bike through. This of course doesn't work so well when you're dealing with a huge bike like I ride due to my height. In a rush I rather yanked my bike under the bar, caught the seat, and my seat was now pointed down about 45 degrees. Not conducive to riding 112 miles!
Here I am looking quite shady in T1 but I was fixing my seat.
With the mishap, total time in T1 was 13:57. Not very good at all but good enough for a finish.
The Bike
Since I've ridden the IM Louisville literally dozens of times, I know every pothole and crack it seems. I also know what I can average safely without destroying myself. The only spot of difficulty was the temperature in about the first hour. Since I went with a normal tri kit with bare arms, I was indeed a little cold. Suffered through some goosebumps but soon warmed up. Again, nothing eventful and it was great to see so many Landsharks out there either racing or volunteering.
Here I am heading into T2 with a fellow Landshark, Geri, who I played leapfrog with for about the last 20 miles of the bike.
Total bike time: 6:21:02 or 17.64 mph.
T2
Another full change into running shorts and my Landsharks t-shirt as well as loads of Body Glide meant a T2 of 12:48. For my next Ironman, I'm contemplating staying in a tri kit for the run to see how much time I can save.
The Run
After a great swim and a good bike, I knew I had a PR in my sights if I could just keeping moving at a steady pace. I wasn't sure, however, how my body would react to another IM after just doing Chattanooga. My goal was to keep the miles in the 12s while walking through each aid station as I took salt, nutrition, and hydration. Keep this up at a good pace for the first 10K then I could hear a little whisper in my brain, "you have to be tired don't you? You have to be pooped from Chattanooga." Most of that is mental but since I wasn't going to be qualifying for Kona anyway, I did a bit more walking. Still had a decent marathon, finishing in 5:33:00 for a total of 13:39:36, a 30+ minute PR!
The Aftermath
Two Ironmans in 14 days and I was sore, but didn't feel completely wrecked. I did deal with a bit of a cold in the week after, which may have been the result of higher than normal algae levels in the river or perhaps from being in general run down and having a compromised immune system. But many have asked if it's doable and I'm living proof it is. I think the timing was also just about perfect. Not enough time between to lose fitness but enough time to recover and then do some short taper workouts.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Ironman Chattanooga Race Report
(Photo courtesy of Carrie Kiefer)
First post in a very long time, but first official race in a long time...
I had previously signed up for Ironman Louisville, but when Ironman Chattanooga didn't sell out in five minutes as it had for the first edition of the event, I bowed to some peer pressure and yes that means I would be attempting two Ironmans over fourteen days.
About ten days before the event, I found myself with some pain in my groin area so ended up in an urgent care center with a urinary tract infection and some antibiotics. This may have had an impact later, but I'll get to that.
I drove down Friday morning with a fellow Louisville Landshark, right into a rainstorm. It rained for most of Friday and Saturday, which had us concerned for Sunday. It made for an interesting outdoor Ironman Village on the grass as we were a couple inches in mud during packet pick up and all that.
Did a little shopping, where I bought my usual event shirt with the participant names on the back. I didn't however, buy any other pre-event gear as I already have so many tech shirts, cycling jerseys, etc. and the design didn't blow me away. It takes something pretty spectacular to add to my collection.
The rest of Friday and Saturday was meeting up with a couple other Landsharks for some local dining, the underpants run, and a practice swim. Saturday's pre-race dinner was Fazoli's (Italian) for some carb loading and then off to bed about 9:30-9:45 for a 4 something AM alarm.
We had been uncertain on the wetsuit status for the swim but with cool, wet weather, we figured the temp would drop even more to give us a wetsuit legal swim. Well, we were all wrong, and the first news I got when I woke up was a wetsuit optional swim, which means going to the back of the swim line if you wear one. I decided to pass and swim in my jammers. The other uncertainty was the river current. In 2014, the current was very fast, meaning super fast swim times. The practice swim also had a heavy current so we were hoping for another fast day in the water.
Ate a Clif bar, had some Gatorade, and kept eating a little while I waited the hour or more in the swim line. Got in the water pretty quickly, and we were greeted with almost no current. Not entirely sure why, but we all had to deal with the same conditions. Felt ok in the swim, but admit I was a bit demoralized by the lack of current. Total swim time was 1:28:56. Had a decent haul to get to the changing tent, where I changed completely into tri shorts, tri top, fresh socks, etc. Stopped for a quick hit of sunscreen and was on my way in 13:18. Slow, but a full change with a wet body is never fast for me.
I had done one lap of the bike course several weeks ago so I knew what to expect. I never felt out of gas or like I was pushing it too much. The course seemed very flat to me, even though there is a decent amount of overall elevation gain, so I figured I was having a good day. The only downside to the Chattanooga bike course is the length. A typical Ironman bike is 112 miles but this one is 116 miles, which at my speed, adds another 14-15 minutes to the total time. Even though it was cool, I ate and drank regularly as well as took regular hits of Base Salt so I could keep the cramps away. Finished the bike in 6:34:16 or 17.65 mph. I knew I had more in me, but didn't want to destroy myself and have to walk the entire run.
T2 was another full change: running shorts, fresh socks, tech tee, etc. Not quite as slow as T1 but it included a bathroom stop. Total was 9:40.
My goal going into the day was trying to PR (my previous best was 14:12) and to possibly break 14 hours for the first time ever at this distance. The first bit of the run course is slightly uphill-ish then flattens out as you hit the turnaround. My plan was to run each mile, walk through aid stations, and repeat. I was pretty successful for the first 6 miles or so then I picked up an absolutely wicked stomach ache. I was forced to walk for most of the next 14 miles. It wasn't bathroom related as far as I could tell, but it had me completely drained. I think it might have been UTI related or the antibiotics but I wasn't sure. Another racer advised me to drink a lot of cola at each aid station to hopefully settle my stomach. Finally, after some Tums another racer gave me, along with loads of cola, chicken broth, and Gatorade, I felt well enough to try to run about mile 20. Unfortunately, it was on the second half of the loop, which is brutally hilly. I had previously decided to walk those hills as it was, so stuck to my plan. My first Ironman featured a 6+ hour "run" so even with all that walking, I finished the run with a 5:44:07.
I knew my chance at a sub-14 was gone, and probably a shot at a PR as well. But as I crossed the finish line and looked up my total time it was 14:10:17, nearly a 2 minute PR!
Friday, July 4, 2014
Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report
A bit over a year ago, a friend asked if I wanted to join him in Idaho for Ironman Coeur d'Alene (CDA). He was having second thoughts and by the time I had signed up the day registration opened, he had decided not to make the trip so I was on my own. This would be my fourth full iron distance triathlon but the first time I would be going alone without any friends nor family.
I originally had hotel reservations at a La Quinta about a mile from transition in a suite that included a full kitchen. I had also planned on going a few days early and visiting Glacier National Park. However, the weather at Glacier in the weeks leading up to the race had been cold and snow-filled. That meant many of the trails would be closed as well as putting the Going to the Sun road in jeopardy so I decided to save that visit for another time.
In the meantime, I had hooked up with a fellow on the CDA Facebook group to share my room. We were then able to hook up with some other people in a killer house about 5 miles from the race start/finish for about half the price. So with lodging sorted, we made our way out to CDA for the big weekend.
I arrived on Thursday evening and after checking out our house and grabbing a bite with my housemate Craig, we settled into our house but then my trouble began. I wasn't feeling great in the couple days before Thursday but it hit my hard after dinner. A serious migraine-type headache and a bit of vomiting so on Friday I started sipping on some Pedialyte to restore my fluids. I hoped it was just a bug but wouldn't know until Sunday what race day would bring.
Friday morning, we headed to get checked in and pick up our bikes from Tri Bike Transport. I can't say enough about how great TBT was in handing my bike and gear bag. I dropped the bike and bag off at a local bike shop instead of taking the bike apart and having to reassemble it in Idaho.
Once we got our swag, wristbands and all that, we did a little shopping at the Ironman store where I picked up a water bottle, and t-shirt with all the athletes names on the back. A funny moment happened while shopping as they had the actual finisher's medal displayed. Craig touched it so as a hockey fan, we made fun of him all weekend for essentially touching the Stanley Cup and jinxing himself.
We then went for a practice swim in what was forecast to be a very cold Lake Coeur d'Alene. It was cold, not unbearable but a little choppy. After changing into bike gear, we tested our bikes on the first seven miles of the bike course. The bike course goes seven miles one way away from town, back to town, then out twenty the other way, back to town, and is repeated twice. Took it nice and easy and felt good if that was the kind of terrain we would be facing on Sunday. Ironman CDA tried something a little different for your welcome meal in that they gave you $25 to spend at one of several local restaurants. We ended up at an asian place and enjoyed some egg rolls, sushi, and other asian fare. I really liked this idea as it gave you a lot more choices.
After getting cleaned up we headed back to the expo for the athlete welcome celebration. We saw the standard inspirational videos and such, and heard form several local politicians.
As part of this ceremony, Mike Reilly, the "voice of Ironman" typically goes through a biggest loser celebration. Things like, if you've lost 40 pounds training for Ironman, stand up, keep standing if you've lost 50, etc. I ended up on stage with four other guys, but the biggest loser was at 100 pounds lost. That kind of stuff is really inspiring but I never thought I'd end up on stage as one of the top five!
Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. We attended an athlete briefing, Craig went for another swim, and we checked our bikes and gear bags in as required. One neat thing that happened Saturday and throughout the weekend was Craig's appreciation of having me around and keeping him calm during his first Ironman weekend. That really surprised me as I'm usually wound pretty tight but unless you're trying to qualify for Kona, it really is just a really long training day so why get too worked up?
Race morning was a lot different than the Louisville Ironman. Since you're not lining up for a swim spot, you are in no rush to get to and through transition. We woke up about 4, had a couple eggs, bananas, and such and made our way down there. I pumped up my bike tires, loaded up nutrition and hydration and heading into the transition tent to get my wetsuit, booties, etc. ready for the swim. While doing that, I ran into what looked like a really familiar face. I couldn't place it but thought he was famous for something. More on this guy later.
We headed down to the water and immediately noticed the wind and chop in the lake. We found out later we were dealing with three foot swells/waves. CDA is one of the events that utilizes Ironman's "SwimSmart" initiative where you line up based on your expected swim times and they let you in the water in smaller groups instead of the giant mass start that's usually very rough and filled with flailing arms and such.
As I found my place, I had my Garmin's heart rate functionality turned on and if I needed any evidence of my new found calm over Ironman, I looked down to see my HR at 44. Yes, you read that correctly.
Swim was a little rough, quite choppy, and I'm not sure if it was some level of sea sickness or the bug I had been fighting, but ended up vomiting three times in the water during my 1:34 minute swim. The most disheartening part was on the second lap, approaching the first turn, and seeing the buoy floating away in the wind and waves. At the same time, the swells were large enough that it was almost impossible to see. Given those conditions, the vomiting, and matching my Ironman Louisville 2013 swim was pretty awesome. I was also one of the few who's second lap was faster than the first, even though conditions were worsening as we passed eight AM local time.
Had a pretty crap transition to the bike, but with taking off so much gear and trying to change tri kits while being wet, I wasn't really too upset. The temperature was a bit warmer than we expected so decided to head out in my normal Landsharks tri kit.
First seven miles out was uneventful but as we turned back toward town, the wind really kicked up. Found out later than the wind was a sustained 17-20 mph with up to 30 mph gusts. Coupled with that, the twenty miles away from town were effectively uphill. It was pretty much torture. The only saving grace was I knew exactly how far I had to go on lap two before I got to head back with a nice tail wind. The four trips through town, however, were awesome. The local support was great! Tons of people, tons of clapping and cheering. My 2013 Ironman Louisville bike was 6:24 and I was hoping for maybe a 6:40 in CDA. But the wind turned that into a 7:08. That included a 4-5 minute special needs stop/bathroom break as I knew this wasn't going to be a PR kind of day. But I wasn't alone. Pretty much everyone I came across was moaning about the terrible bike times and the locals had said they don't remember, in twelve years, this race having such a rough swim and high winds.
T2 was uneventful, as I changed into my running shorts, bright orange Landsharks shirt, and Blazeman Foundation for ALS visor. Stuck to a pretty regular walk/run pattern, while trying to keep all miles in the 12:xx range. I think 22 of the 26 miles were in the twelves and the four that weren't were the hills that you went up on each lap. We crossed a hill, went down a bit and went back up after we turned for a total of four decent hills. One new feature of Ironman was the availability of Red Bull on the run course. I wasn't sure how much I should use it so decided to get a 4-5 oz serving every 5 miles on the run. When I hit the turnaround for the last time, I came across the gentleman above. I wasn't sure how to ask so I went with, "You look familiar, are you famous?" Turns out he's an actor named Kevin Linehan and does a lot of supporting/commercial work so you've probably seen him on TV. We ran together for a couple miles and he's a regular Ironman racer. He said he hopes to score an NBC show in the future so they can feature him at Kona. Quite a nice guy.
The part of the run through town was great. Lots of partying and very supportive and friendly spectators. One house even had shots of Fireball available but there was no way I was doing that even though I saw several athletes take shots!
The finish straight is about .6 miles of barricaded street that is slightly down hill. Just perfect. Every bit of that .6 miles has people and as I much as I love the Ironman Louisville finish, this was pretty spectacular too. Heard Mike Reilly call me an Ironman and dropped for a Blazeman Roll as I finished. Total for the run was 5:30 and grand total for the day was 14:38. My 4 iron distance races so far have been 16:07, 14:23, 14:12, and 14:38 but I might be most satisfied with CDA. Very very tough conditions but those that finished definitely persevered.
Craig and I caught up with each other after the finish and stayed until midnight to enjoy the excitement. We saw Craig's tri-club pal finish along with one of our housemates. Great atmosphere.
Craig insisted on being at the Ironman Store the next morning for finisher gear when it opened so we were back up at 6:00 for some shopping and the celebratory breakfast. We both stuffed our faces after buying some finisher gear. I bought a jacket and visor along with a hoody for Sarah. We then headed to the airport and parted ways. I keep saying I'm going "Iron Free" in 2015 but my pal Ken keeps planting seeds....
I originally had hotel reservations at a La Quinta about a mile from transition in a suite that included a full kitchen. I had also planned on going a few days early and visiting Glacier National Park. However, the weather at Glacier in the weeks leading up to the race had been cold and snow-filled. That meant many of the trails would be closed as well as putting the Going to the Sun road in jeopardy so I decided to save that visit for another time.
In the meantime, I had hooked up with a fellow on the CDA Facebook group to share my room. We were then able to hook up with some other people in a killer house about 5 miles from the race start/finish for about half the price. So with lodging sorted, we made our way out to CDA for the big weekend.
I arrived on Thursday evening and after checking out our house and grabbing a bite with my housemate Craig, we settled into our house but then my trouble began. I wasn't feeling great in the couple days before Thursday but it hit my hard after dinner. A serious migraine-type headache and a bit of vomiting so on Friday I started sipping on some Pedialyte to restore my fluids. I hoped it was just a bug but wouldn't know until Sunday what race day would bring.
Friday morning, we headed to get checked in and pick up our bikes from Tri Bike Transport. I can't say enough about how great TBT was in handing my bike and gear bag. I dropped the bike and bag off at a local bike shop instead of taking the bike apart and having to reassemble it in Idaho.
Once we got our swag, wristbands and all that, we did a little shopping at the Ironman store where I picked up a water bottle, and t-shirt with all the athletes names on the back. A funny moment happened while shopping as they had the actual finisher's medal displayed. Craig touched it so as a hockey fan, we made fun of him all weekend for essentially touching the Stanley Cup and jinxing himself.
After getting cleaned up we headed back to the expo for the athlete welcome celebration. We saw the standard inspirational videos and such, and heard form several local politicians.
Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. We attended an athlete briefing, Craig went for another swim, and we checked our bikes and gear bags in as required. One neat thing that happened Saturday and throughout the weekend was Craig's appreciation of having me around and keeping him calm during his first Ironman weekend. That really surprised me as I'm usually wound pretty tight but unless you're trying to qualify for Kona, it really is just a really long training day so why get too worked up?
Race morning was a lot different than the Louisville Ironman. Since you're not lining up for a swim spot, you are in no rush to get to and through transition. We woke up about 4, had a couple eggs, bananas, and such and made our way down there. I pumped up my bike tires, loaded up nutrition and hydration and heading into the transition tent to get my wetsuit, booties, etc. ready for the swim. While doing that, I ran into what looked like a really familiar face. I couldn't place it but thought he was famous for something. More on this guy later.
As I found my place, I had my Garmin's heart rate functionality turned on and if I needed any evidence of my new found calm over Ironman, I looked down to see my HR at 44. Yes, you read that correctly.
Swim was a little rough, quite choppy, and I'm not sure if it was some level of sea sickness or the bug I had been fighting, but ended up vomiting three times in the water during my 1:34 minute swim. The most disheartening part was on the second lap, approaching the first turn, and seeing the buoy floating away in the wind and waves. At the same time, the swells were large enough that it was almost impossible to see. Given those conditions, the vomiting, and matching my Ironman Louisville 2013 swim was pretty awesome. I was also one of the few who's second lap was faster than the first, even though conditions were worsening as we passed eight AM local time.
Had a pretty crap transition to the bike, but with taking off so much gear and trying to change tri kits while being wet, I wasn't really too upset. The temperature was a bit warmer than we expected so decided to head out in my normal Landsharks tri kit.
First seven miles out was uneventful but as we turned back toward town, the wind really kicked up. Found out later than the wind was a sustained 17-20 mph with up to 30 mph gusts. Coupled with that, the twenty miles away from town were effectively uphill. It was pretty much torture. The only saving grace was I knew exactly how far I had to go on lap two before I got to head back with a nice tail wind. The four trips through town, however, were awesome. The local support was great! Tons of people, tons of clapping and cheering. My 2013 Ironman Louisville bike was 6:24 and I was hoping for maybe a 6:40 in CDA. But the wind turned that into a 7:08. That included a 4-5 minute special needs stop/bathroom break as I knew this wasn't going to be a PR kind of day. But I wasn't alone. Pretty much everyone I came across was moaning about the terrible bike times and the locals had said they don't remember, in twelve years, this race having such a rough swim and high winds.
T2 was uneventful, as I changed into my running shorts, bright orange Landsharks shirt, and Blazeman Foundation for ALS visor. Stuck to a pretty regular walk/run pattern, while trying to keep all miles in the 12:xx range. I think 22 of the 26 miles were in the twelves and the four that weren't were the hills that you went up on each lap. We crossed a hill, went down a bit and went back up after we turned for a total of four decent hills. One new feature of Ironman was the availability of Red Bull on the run course. I wasn't sure how much I should use it so decided to get a 4-5 oz serving every 5 miles on the run. When I hit the turnaround for the last time, I came across the gentleman above. I wasn't sure how to ask so I went with, "You look familiar, are you famous?" Turns out he's an actor named Kevin Linehan and does a lot of supporting/commercial work so you've probably seen him on TV. We ran together for a couple miles and he's a regular Ironman racer. He said he hopes to score an NBC show in the future so they can feature him at Kona. Quite a nice guy.
The part of the run through town was great. Lots of partying and very supportive and friendly spectators. One house even had shots of Fireball available but there was no way I was doing that even though I saw several athletes take shots!
The finish straight is about .6 miles of barricaded street that is slightly down hill. Just perfect. Every bit of that .6 miles has people and as I much as I love the Ironman Louisville finish, this was pretty spectacular too. Heard Mike Reilly call me an Ironman and dropped for a Blazeman Roll as I finished. Total for the run was 5:30 and grand total for the day was 14:38. My 4 iron distance races so far have been 16:07, 14:23, 14:12, and 14:38 but I might be most satisfied with CDA. Very very tough conditions but those that finished definitely persevered.
Craig and I caught up with each other after the finish and stayed until midnight to enjoy the excitement. We saw Craig's tri-club pal finish along with one of our housemates. Great atmosphere.
Craig insisted on being at the Ironman Store the next morning for finisher gear when it opened so we were back up at 6:00 for some shopping and the celebratory breakfast. We both stuffed our faces after buying some finisher gear. I bought a jacket and visor along with a hoody for Sarah. We then headed to the airport and parted ways. I keep saying I'm going "Iron Free" in 2015 but my pal Ken keeps planting seeds....
Monday, April 21, 2014
KDF Marathon Report
My donations have
essentially ceased, what's the deal? I'm not asking for millions here!
Please give. ANY amount will do, and I mean ANY!
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
The KDF marathon was on Saturday and it had been a challenging training schedule to say the least. The weather was horrid, like most of the country, over the winter, so that meant a lot of treadmill runs, icy runs, and so on. But a few weeks ago, I had done a very hilly Run the Bluegrass in 1:56 so I was feeling pretty good. I followed that up with an 18 mile long run the following weekend and then went into taper mode.
I had tossed around the idea of trying to go for a sub 4 hour marathon. I had previously done 2 stand alone marathons, both at this same race. The first was 5:15 and the second was 4:47. I was very confident I could beat that 4:47 but wasn't sure I could go under 4. But I figured it was worth a try and I would never know my limit if I didn't go beyond it, right?
I decided to join a pace group along with my friends Scott and Susan. A 4 hour marathon pace is 9:09/mile. I set my watch to show me how I was doing in relation to that pace and off we went. The first couple miles were a bit slow as we dealt with a big crowds but then we got into a groove. It was a fast pace, but I felt ok as we got closer to Churchill Downs and ran through the track and made the split as the marathon course splits off from the half-marathon course. I looked at my watch and we were about 50-60 seconds ahead of the 9:09 pace.
The first real challenge is the lower hilly loop of Iroquois Park. I looked at my watch as we entered the park and I was 58 seconds ahead of the 4 hours pace. My goal for the loop was to break even at about the same lead exciting the park. But even though I was personally right on target throughout the park, the pace group left me and got farther and farther ahead. My pal Scott told me that he stayed with the group and he averaged 8:45/mile in the park, which explains why I couldn't keep up. I'll admit that it demoralized me. I don't expect pacers to be perfect but over 3-4 miles that's a loss of a minute or more that I couldn't make up.
I did my best to stay on pace but about mile 19, I just didn't have it in me. Not that I slowed to say 15 minute miles but was in the 11 minute range for most of the last 8 miles. I also ran into some psychological games. Once I lost the 4 hour group, with my PR being 4:47, I knew that was in the bag, even if I had to walk a lot, so I lost the will to really push it toward the end.
Final time: 4:17. A 30 minute PR, but not what I wanted. I guess that means there's next year?
Oh a good note, I did get a nice treat at the end. Because I had done both the Run the Bluegrass and KDF races, I completed something called the "Kentucky Classic" and got an extra medal. It's the one in the middle.
The next event is a half-Ironman in mid-May. Thanks for reading and stay tuned...
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
The KDF marathon was on Saturday and it had been a challenging training schedule to say the least. The weather was horrid, like most of the country, over the winter, so that meant a lot of treadmill runs, icy runs, and so on. But a few weeks ago, I had done a very hilly Run the Bluegrass in 1:56 so I was feeling pretty good. I followed that up with an 18 mile long run the following weekend and then went into taper mode.
I had tossed around the idea of trying to go for a sub 4 hour marathon. I had previously done 2 stand alone marathons, both at this same race. The first was 5:15 and the second was 4:47. I was very confident I could beat that 4:47 but wasn't sure I could go under 4. But I figured it was worth a try and I would never know my limit if I didn't go beyond it, right?
I decided to join a pace group along with my friends Scott and Susan. A 4 hour marathon pace is 9:09/mile. I set my watch to show me how I was doing in relation to that pace and off we went. The first couple miles were a bit slow as we dealt with a big crowds but then we got into a groove. It was a fast pace, but I felt ok as we got closer to Churchill Downs and ran through the track and made the split as the marathon course splits off from the half-marathon course. I looked at my watch and we were about 50-60 seconds ahead of the 9:09 pace.
The first real challenge is the lower hilly loop of Iroquois Park. I looked at my watch as we entered the park and I was 58 seconds ahead of the 4 hours pace. My goal for the loop was to break even at about the same lead exciting the park. But even though I was personally right on target throughout the park, the pace group left me and got farther and farther ahead. My pal Scott told me that he stayed with the group and he averaged 8:45/mile in the park, which explains why I couldn't keep up. I'll admit that it demoralized me. I don't expect pacers to be perfect but over 3-4 miles that's a loss of a minute or more that I couldn't make up.
I did my best to stay on pace but about mile 19, I just didn't have it in me. Not that I slowed to say 15 minute miles but was in the 11 minute range for most of the last 8 miles. I also ran into some psychological games. Once I lost the 4 hour group, with my PR being 4:47, I knew that was in the bag, even if I had to walk a lot, so I lost the will to really push it toward the end.
Final time: 4:17. A 30 minute PR, but not what I wanted. I guess that means there's next year?
Oh a good note, I did get a nice treat at the end. Because I had done both the Run the Bluegrass and KDF races, I completed something called the "Kentucky Classic" and got an extra medal. It's the one in the middle.
The next event is a half-Ironman in mid-May. Thanks for reading and stay tuned...
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Run the Bluegrass Half Ironman Report
Saturday was the Run the Bluegrass half marathon at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington. I first did this race last year and was surprised by the amount of climbing we had to do and ended up with a 2:09. Not my best effort but I thought it was reasonable for the course. So my only goal this year was to beat that time with no other real expectations.
Friday night was the elite 8 of the NCAA basketball tournament and both my alma maters played late so the games ended a little past midnight. I figured that would only add to the torture of the race as I would be going on about five and a half hours sleep. Got up early and several tri club friends headed to Lexington with our new concern being the weather. We started the drive at about 50 degrees, but by race start, the temperature had dropped a bit and we were dealing with some drizzle. The radar indicated that we'd be in for certain rain by the end; it was just a matter of time.
I decided to go out with the 2 hour pace group and see how it goes. Here is a visual of the elevation:
You can see that there is hardly a flat spot on the course.
The pacers went out a bit fast, and our first few miles were: 8:46, 8:57, and 8:52 but I felt good so I was ok with building up a bit of cushion on the two hour mark. The next few miles were: 9:08, 8:39, 8:50, and 9:02. Miles eight and nine were both 8:55 and then the rain really started coming down. At one point, I think we had a bit of sleet to go with the sideways rain and wind.
Mile ten is the hardest mile in the race as you climb something called the "corkscrew," which is just as it sounds. It was 9:15, but I knew I had 2:09 beat and was in great shape for a sub-2. I also started wondering what my overall half marathon PR was. I thought it was somewhere near 1:58, but I wasn't sure.
The last few miles were 8:59, 8:40, and 8:44. With the wicked rain, wind and cold, I was ready to be done and thank goodness the finish was in sight. I ended up with a total of 1:56:39, and as it turns out, it was nearly a two minute PR.
My next big race is the KDF Marathon in a few weeks and if I can pull off a 1:56 in those hills, can a four hour marathon be possible? At this point, I know I can finish it, so I might well go for it, right?
Friday night was the elite 8 of the NCAA basketball tournament and both my alma maters played late so the games ended a little past midnight. I figured that would only add to the torture of the race as I would be going on about five and a half hours sleep. Got up early and several tri club friends headed to Lexington with our new concern being the weather. We started the drive at about 50 degrees, but by race start, the temperature had dropped a bit and we were dealing with some drizzle. The radar indicated that we'd be in for certain rain by the end; it was just a matter of time.
I decided to go out with the 2 hour pace group and see how it goes. Here is a visual of the elevation:
You can see that there is hardly a flat spot on the course.
The pacers went out a bit fast, and our first few miles were: 8:46, 8:57, and 8:52 but I felt good so I was ok with building up a bit of cushion on the two hour mark. The next few miles were: 9:08, 8:39, 8:50, and 9:02. Miles eight and nine were both 8:55 and then the rain really started coming down. At one point, I think we had a bit of sleet to go with the sideways rain and wind.
Mile ten is the hardest mile in the race as you climb something called the "corkscrew," which is just as it sounds. It was 9:15, but I knew I had 2:09 beat and was in great shape for a sub-2. I also started wondering what my overall half marathon PR was. I thought it was somewhere near 1:58, but I wasn't sure.
The last few miles were 8:59, 8:40, and 8:44. With the wicked rain, wind and cold, I was ready to be done and thank goodness the finish was in sight. I ended up with a total of 1:56:39, and as it turns out, it was nearly a two minute PR.
My next big race is the KDF Marathon in a few weeks and if I can pull off a 1:56 in those hills, can a four hour marathon be possible? At this point, I know I can finish it, so I might well go for it, right?
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Papa John's 10 Miler
Yesterday was the Papa John's 10 Miler, the 3rd leg in our local Triple Crown of Running. After a successful Rodes City 10K, in 51:19, my running partner Scott and I decided to give it a good go at coming in under 90 minutes. Last year, I tried for sub-90 but just missed it, in still a PR, at 1:30:19. So just like the Rodes, we set our watches for a good pace and went for it.
The race starts out nearly flat, with perhaps a very very slight uphill grade until you reach Iroquois Park where the hills begin. Then you go back to flat or very slightly downhill until you reach mile nine where there is a bridge then into the football stadium for a finish on the field turf. So essentially it's about 1/3, flat, 1/3 rolling, 1/4 flat, and then that last hilly mile over the bridge.
We were going to try to pace ourselves better with our watches set to 8:25 pace, or coming in at 1:25 for the whole thing. The first 3 miles were: 8:11; 8:11; and 8:30. Then we headed into the park for the rollers. As we entered the park, we decided to try to "break even," neither gaining or losing any time. Then we could see how we felt as we headed for the final four miles.
The in the park miles were: 8:20; 8:20; and 8:27--just perfect for our pacing goal and successfully breaking even. That left us with four miles and a nice cushion.
Miles seven through nine were: 8:06; 8:23; and 8:22. With our goal pace being 8:25, we knew we had it, even with the mile over the bridge still in our way. The final mile was 8:34, for a grand total of 1:24:33, or a PR by nearly six minutes.
One thing I've noticed as I've gotten faster over the last couple years, is that my HR data shows that my aerobic health has finally started to sync with my legs. In the past, I've found that my legs are moving about as fast as I can go but my HR was very low. I guess that's good in a way, as it shows my aerobic fitness. But now that I'm able to push my legs a lot harder, my HR isn't staying so low.
Saturday is a half-marathon I did last year. It's very hilly so not expecting a PR, but I am expecting to best my time from last year.
The race starts out nearly flat, with perhaps a very very slight uphill grade until you reach Iroquois Park where the hills begin. Then you go back to flat or very slightly downhill until you reach mile nine where there is a bridge then into the football stadium for a finish on the field turf. So essentially it's about 1/3, flat, 1/3 rolling, 1/4 flat, and then that last hilly mile over the bridge.
We were going to try to pace ourselves better with our watches set to 8:25 pace, or coming in at 1:25 for the whole thing. The first 3 miles were: 8:11; 8:11; and 8:30. Then we headed into the park for the rollers. As we entered the park, we decided to try to "break even," neither gaining or losing any time. Then we could see how we felt as we headed for the final four miles.
The in the park miles were: 8:20; 8:20; and 8:27--just perfect for our pacing goal and successfully breaking even. That left us with four miles and a nice cushion.
Miles seven through nine were: 8:06; 8:23; and 8:22. With our goal pace being 8:25, we knew we had it, even with the mile over the bridge still in our way. The final mile was 8:34, for a grand total of 1:24:33, or a PR by nearly six minutes.
One thing I've noticed as I've gotten faster over the last couple years, is that my HR data shows that my aerobic health has finally started to sync with my legs. In the past, I've found that my legs are moving about as fast as I can go but my HR was very low. I guess that's good in a way, as it shows my aerobic fitness. But now that I'm able to push my legs a lot harder, my HR isn't staying so low.
Saturday is a half-marathon I did last year. It's very hilly so not expecting a PR, but I am expecting to best my time from last year.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Rodes City Run 10K Report
Saturday was the Rodes City Run 10K, the second leg in Louisville's annual triple crown of running. I had wrestled with the idea of chasing a PR, but with a marathon looming and of course Ironman CDA in June, I wasn't sure if I should go for it. After consulting my PR spreadsheet, I was going to need about an 8:40/mile pace to have a secure shot at a PR. Since this wasn't much faster than I've been running over shorter distances anyway and a pretty flat course, I decided to go for it. I figured the worst that would happen is I wasn't feeling it, and I could take it easy if need be.
The weather was nearly perfect, about 40F or so with hardly any wind. I paired up with my pal Scott, I set my Garmin to my goal pace, and off we went.
(From the event, a double shirt and a little breeze made me look like a total fatty haha)
The first mile was flat or even slightly downhill, and we knocked it out in 8:25. A little fast but felt good. Mile 2 is slightly uphill and we were still cruising: another 8:25. Scott said it's the fastest he'd ever run that little uphill section. Mile 3 had the last and the biggest of the hills, but even faster, 8:09!
As Scott said, we know we had plenty of time "banked" so it was just a matter of holding a good pace until the end. Miles 4-6 were 8:20, 8:07, and 7:50. We were flying. Now it was just hanging on for the last stretch, knowing we had a PR secured. Off we went! We ran the last .2 at a 7:19 pace.
Final tally was a 51:19 (8:11 pace), a PR by nearly 3 minutes. I'd always assumed that Scott was faster but it was a PR for him as well. What a great day. We finished up by running the course backwards in order to get our long run finished for the week. Took that 6 miles nice and easy.
In addition to the 10K, I'm still keeping up with my Ironman training. Long rides are about 3 hours, long swims about 2500 meters, and of course the long runs are part of marathon training.
I can't end this post without a charity plug. My donations have essentially ceased, what's the deal? I'm not asking for millions here! Please give. ANY amount will do, and I mean ANY!
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
The weather was nearly perfect, about 40F or so with hardly any wind. I paired up with my pal Scott, I set my Garmin to my goal pace, and off we went.
(From the event, a double shirt and a little breeze made me look like a total fatty haha)
The first mile was flat or even slightly downhill, and we knocked it out in 8:25. A little fast but felt good. Mile 2 is slightly uphill and we were still cruising: another 8:25. Scott said it's the fastest he'd ever run that little uphill section. Mile 3 had the last and the biggest of the hills, but even faster, 8:09!
As Scott said, we know we had plenty of time "banked" so it was just a matter of holding a good pace until the end. Miles 4-6 were 8:20, 8:07, and 7:50. We were flying. Now it was just hanging on for the last stretch, knowing we had a PR secured. Off we went! We ran the last .2 at a 7:19 pace.
Final tally was a 51:19 (8:11 pace), a PR by nearly 3 minutes. I'd always assumed that Scott was faster but it was a PR for him as well. What a great day. We finished up by running the course backwards in order to get our long run finished for the week. Took that 6 miles nice and easy.
In addition to the 10K, I'm still keeping up with my Ironman training. Long rides are about 3 hours, long swims about 2500 meters, and of course the long runs are part of marathon training.
I can't end this post without a charity plug. My donations have essentially ceased, what's the deal? I'm not asking for millions here! Please give. ANY amount will do, and I mean ANY!
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Friday, February 7, 2014
Back into the Swing of Things
A couple people have asked about a new blog post and my response has been "not much to write about" and the suggestion was to write about my training. So here it goes...
In preparing for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, the biggest challenge has been winter training. I don't mind riding outdoors in the cold, but we've had an unusually harsh winter this year, making for generally icy/snowy road conditions. Not conducive to riding a tri bike with very narrow tires.
Luckily, within a couple miles of my house, a Planet Fitness opened, with a monthly fee of only $10. I knew I was going to have to do a fair amount of my training indoors and this was the perfect solution. I knew riding and running indoors was going to be challenging, mostly because of boredom, but it would allow me to get my training done. So since about Christmas, I've been doing my riding indoors, and running outdoors when I can, while using the treadmill if conditions dictated.
For example, this morning, due to work tomorrow, I spent 2.5 hours on a stationary bike, followed by a 15 minute dreadmill run. Not that I'm prepared to spend all my time riding indoors, but I can see the value of doing it, more so than before. I could keep and eye on power, which I don't normally really pay attention to and there is essentially no coasting. It's all pedal power all the time. I've also tried to select hilly built-in programs in order to better mimic the CDA bike course. I've alleviated the boredom by watching news, listening to music, etc. during the time on the bike and surprisingly the time passes pretty well.
For runs, I've also made a slight change to the training plan for the KDF marathon in April. I had been following a Hal Higdon plan, but as recently as a couple weeks ago, 3 months out from the marathon, it had me running 16 miles. That's just too much this early and I could feel burnout already creeping in and I'm still 5 months away from CDA. So I changed over to a different plan, put together by a tri-club pal, who's also the training leader for a local health company. His long run mileage seemed a lot more manageable and of course, I found last year that you don't need to run huge distances several times to have a good marathon. With the new plan, my current weekly long run is about 12 miles, which I can handle.
Finally, for swimming, I'm currently swimming twice a week, with the longest being about 2000 meters and that will ramp up as I get closer to the big day. I'm still not a fast swimmer by any means, but I find that I'm able to hold about a 1:20 IM pace, which would have me absolutely elated since my IM PR is 1:34.
I can't end this post without a charity plug. My donations have essentially ceased, what's the deal? I'm not asking for millions here! Please give. ANY amount will do, and I mean ANY!
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
In preparing for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, the biggest challenge has been winter training. I don't mind riding outdoors in the cold, but we've had an unusually harsh winter this year, making for generally icy/snowy road conditions. Not conducive to riding a tri bike with very narrow tires.
Luckily, within a couple miles of my house, a Planet Fitness opened, with a monthly fee of only $10. I knew I was going to have to do a fair amount of my training indoors and this was the perfect solution. I knew riding and running indoors was going to be challenging, mostly because of boredom, but it would allow me to get my training done. So since about Christmas, I've been doing my riding indoors, and running outdoors when I can, while using the treadmill if conditions dictated.
For example, this morning, due to work tomorrow, I spent 2.5 hours on a stationary bike, followed by a 15 minute dreadmill run. Not that I'm prepared to spend all my time riding indoors, but I can see the value of doing it, more so than before. I could keep and eye on power, which I don't normally really pay attention to and there is essentially no coasting. It's all pedal power all the time. I've also tried to select hilly built-in programs in order to better mimic the CDA bike course. I've alleviated the boredom by watching news, listening to music, etc. during the time on the bike and surprisingly the time passes pretty well.
For runs, I've also made a slight change to the training plan for the KDF marathon in April. I had been following a Hal Higdon plan, but as recently as a couple weeks ago, 3 months out from the marathon, it had me running 16 miles. That's just too much this early and I could feel burnout already creeping in and I'm still 5 months away from CDA. So I changed over to a different plan, put together by a tri-club pal, who's also the training leader for a local health company. His long run mileage seemed a lot more manageable and of course, I found last year that you don't need to run huge distances several times to have a good marathon. With the new plan, my current weekly long run is about 12 miles, which I can handle.
Finally, for swimming, I'm currently swimming twice a week, with the longest being about 2000 meters and that will ramp up as I get closer to the big day. I'm still not a fast swimmer by any means, but I find that I'm able to hold about a 1:20 IM pace, which would have me absolutely elated since my IM PR is 1:34.
I can't end this post without a charity plug. My donations have essentially ceased, what's the deal? I'm not asking for millions here! Please give. ANY amount will do, and I mean ANY!
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Monday, January 20, 2014
2014 Race Plan
I don't think I've given a list of the events I'll be doing in 2014, so here it goes...
But before I do that, it's time to plug my 2014 charity:
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
So far I've signed up and paid for four events in 2014. The first is the Run the Bluegrass half-marathon on March 29th in Lexington, KY, at Keeneland (horse) Race Course. I struggled on this extremely hilly course last year so I owe this one a beating!
Next is the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon on April 19th. I've been mainly training for that, but have also started doing some decent distance swims and bikes as I also ramp up toward my fourth Ironman. It's amazing to think about progress (I know this is a recurring theme in this blog) and no longer being afraid of things like marathons and iron-distance triathlons. I still respect the distances but I'm no longer afraid of them. I'm up to running about 11 miles for my long run in marathon prep and those runs have been in the 10:30/mile pace area. So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to shoot for a 4:30. My current marathon PR is 4:47 so it would be a significant improvement.
A nice bonus of doing both the KDF marathon and Run the Bluegrass is a special medal for completing both.
The third event I've entered is Rev3 Knoxville 70.3, a half-iron distance event in May. This one will serve entirely as an Ironman prep event. It will be about 6 weeks before my Ironman and the purpose of Knoxville will be to make sure my nutrition, etc. is in order. It's also not a flat, PR type course so there is no point in trying to kill myself in the name of a PR when it's meant to be a practice run. Some might say you should race every race regardless, but I'll be using it as described.
Finally, as you all know from reading this blog, I've signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene on June 29th. This will be my 4th go at the iron distance and I'm looking forward to trying for a PR. Yes, it's hilly, very similar to Ironman Louisville, but it should also be significantly cooler so that might set up well for a PR. More on that later.
There are other events between now and CDA that I'm considering, include some of the winter triathlons locally, depending on the weather, and possibly a race or two of the triple crown of running. I also hope to participate in the Bourbon Chase again in October.
That also begs another question. After IM CDA in June, what else should I do in 2014? Another half-Ironman? A fall marathon? What do you think?
But before I do that, it's time to plug my 2014 charity:
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
So far I've signed up and paid for four events in 2014. The first is the Run the Bluegrass half-marathon on March 29th in Lexington, KY, at Keeneland (horse) Race Course. I struggled on this extremely hilly course last year so I owe this one a beating!
Next is the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon on April 19th. I've been mainly training for that, but have also started doing some decent distance swims and bikes as I also ramp up toward my fourth Ironman. It's amazing to think about progress (I know this is a recurring theme in this blog) and no longer being afraid of things like marathons and iron-distance triathlons. I still respect the distances but I'm no longer afraid of them. I'm up to running about 11 miles for my long run in marathon prep and those runs have been in the 10:30/mile pace area. So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to shoot for a 4:30. My current marathon PR is 4:47 so it would be a significant improvement.
A nice bonus of doing both the KDF marathon and Run the Bluegrass is a special medal for completing both.
The third event I've entered is Rev3 Knoxville 70.3, a half-iron distance event in May. This one will serve entirely as an Ironman prep event. It will be about 6 weeks before my Ironman and the purpose of Knoxville will be to make sure my nutrition, etc. is in order. It's also not a flat, PR type course so there is no point in trying to kill myself in the name of a PR when it's meant to be a practice run. Some might say you should race every race regardless, but I'll be using it as described.
Finally, as you all know from reading this blog, I've signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene on June 29th. This will be my 4th go at the iron distance and I'm looking forward to trying for a PR. Yes, it's hilly, very similar to Ironman Louisville, but it should also be significantly cooler so that might set up well for a PR. More on that later.
There are other events between now and CDA that I'm considering, include some of the winter triathlons locally, depending on the weather, and possibly a race or two of the triple crown of running. I also hope to participate in the Bourbon Chase again in October.
That also begs another question. After IM CDA in June, what else should I do in 2014? Another half-Ironman? A fall marathon? What do you think?
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Nutrition 101
Why don't you show my pal Lewis some love on his blog? He's writing his first blog and chronicling his 2014
adventures including the London and Berlin marathons and Ironman
Kalmar. You can find it here.
Before I get to the new content, yeah, here is my plea again.
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Recently, there has been some chatter on my tri-club's Facebook page about race day nutrition, especially coming from people new to the sport. So I thought I'd write a post about it instead of trying to cram it into a Facebook comment.
When I first started, I rather overlooked nutrition as I figured there would be stuff on the course to eat and drink, so what was the big deal? However, I quickly learned (probably the hard way) why nutrition is often called "the fourth discipline."
The epiphany for me was on my first long training ride in 2011 on the actual Ironman Louisville course. I ended that ride in tears and frustration after about 50 miles, nearly 15 miles from my car, with a call to my wife to come rescue me. I was so dehydrated (I think I lost 10+ pounds that day) and had bonked so hard, I couldn't even pedal. I thought my Ironman dream was over. If I can't even manage a 60-70 mile ride, how am I going to manage 140.6 miles? It came down to nutrition and hydration.
So where do you start? The biggest mistake most newbies make is trying to replace calories. Let's say for your weight, you burn 1000 calories an hour on the bike. Should you try to then replace 1000 calories? Simple answer: NO! Your body cannot process that many calories. Most of the research I've read says your body can process about 300-350 calories at the top end per hour. So as a bigger guy, I personally shoot for 300-325 calories an hour while riding but you have to test and practice during your training. Your per hour caloric needs may be SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT so you must do some experimentation to figure this out for yourself.
How do you get those calories? I usually drink about 20-24 ounces of sports drink an hour during typical temperatures. That is about 160 calories. I may supplement with more water if it's a hot day. That leaves about 150 calories that you need to add. This can be nearly anything. It depends on what your stomach can handle and what you enjoy eating. Gels, fig newtons, nutrition bars, potatoes...I've seen it all. The one thing I've found is that over the length of a day, my body's ability to process food gets less and less. So on hour one of the bike, I might be able to have a Bonk Breaker bar, but by hour five, it has to be something more simple like Power Bar chews or a gel.
Once I hit the run, I'll admit I get less formal as I know my body will guide me. Each aid station, I grab a serving of Coke, yes Coca Cola, and water. A serving here is probably 4-5 ounces of each. I also add chicken broth to the mix when they bring it out, which is usually at dusk. For those wondering about chicken broth, it's like crack. A little warm, salty, made of easy to digest calories. Just about the perfect thing.
The last thing you might need to do, especially in hot weather, is supplement your electrolytes as you'll lose a ton of them while you sweat. I personally use Salt Stick but there are a lot of different products out there you can try.
To sum up a typical Ironman day for me (I also use a similar strategy for a half Ironman):
Pre-race breakfast: Bagel and peanut butter, oatmeal, something like that. Some water.
In the hour leading up to the start I sip on a bottle of sports drink.
10 minutes before the swim start: a gel. Pick your favorite flavor. I also take a pre-race dose of Salt Stick.
Immediately after the swim: another dose of Salt Stick and start my eating/drinking plan. I set my Garmin to honk at me every 15 minutes to remind me to drink and eat a bit. For example, if I know I need to eat one Bonk Breaker bar each hour, I try to eat about a fourth of one each time my watch beeps.
At the top of each hour: electrolytes.
On the run: Coke/water/chicken broth at each aid station, depending on what's grabbing you and what time of day it is. I also try to eat a little something every other aid station. No set plan here, just depends on my gut. Could be some crackers, pretzels, a gel, grapes, orange slices, peanut butter crackers, etc.
I hope all this helps!
Until next time...
Before I get to the new content, yeah, here is my plea again.
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Recently, there has been some chatter on my tri-club's Facebook page about race day nutrition, especially coming from people new to the sport. So I thought I'd write a post about it instead of trying to cram it into a Facebook comment.
When I first started, I rather overlooked nutrition as I figured there would be stuff on the course to eat and drink, so what was the big deal? However, I quickly learned (probably the hard way) why nutrition is often called "the fourth discipline."
The epiphany for me was on my first long training ride in 2011 on the actual Ironman Louisville course. I ended that ride in tears and frustration after about 50 miles, nearly 15 miles from my car, with a call to my wife to come rescue me. I was so dehydrated (I think I lost 10+ pounds that day) and had bonked so hard, I couldn't even pedal. I thought my Ironman dream was over. If I can't even manage a 60-70 mile ride, how am I going to manage 140.6 miles? It came down to nutrition and hydration.
So where do you start? The biggest mistake most newbies make is trying to replace calories. Let's say for your weight, you burn 1000 calories an hour on the bike. Should you try to then replace 1000 calories? Simple answer: NO! Your body cannot process that many calories. Most of the research I've read says your body can process about 300-350 calories at the top end per hour. So as a bigger guy, I personally shoot for 300-325 calories an hour while riding but you have to test and practice during your training. Your per hour caloric needs may be SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT so you must do some experimentation to figure this out for yourself.
How do you get those calories? I usually drink about 20-24 ounces of sports drink an hour during typical temperatures. That is about 160 calories. I may supplement with more water if it's a hot day. That leaves about 150 calories that you need to add. This can be nearly anything. It depends on what your stomach can handle and what you enjoy eating. Gels, fig newtons, nutrition bars, potatoes...I've seen it all. The one thing I've found is that over the length of a day, my body's ability to process food gets less and less. So on hour one of the bike, I might be able to have a Bonk Breaker bar, but by hour five, it has to be something more simple like Power Bar chews or a gel.
Once I hit the run, I'll admit I get less formal as I know my body will guide me. Each aid station, I grab a serving of Coke, yes Coca Cola, and water. A serving here is probably 4-5 ounces of each. I also add chicken broth to the mix when they bring it out, which is usually at dusk. For those wondering about chicken broth, it's like crack. A little warm, salty, made of easy to digest calories. Just about the perfect thing.
The last thing you might need to do, especially in hot weather, is supplement your electrolytes as you'll lose a ton of them while you sweat. I personally use Salt Stick but there are a lot of different products out there you can try.
To sum up a typical Ironman day for me (I also use a similar strategy for a half Ironman):
Pre-race breakfast: Bagel and peanut butter, oatmeal, something like that. Some water.
In the hour leading up to the start I sip on a bottle of sports drink.
10 minutes before the swim start: a gel. Pick your favorite flavor. I also take a pre-race dose of Salt Stick.
Immediately after the swim: another dose of Salt Stick and start my eating/drinking plan. I set my Garmin to honk at me every 15 minutes to remind me to drink and eat a bit. For example, if I know I need to eat one Bonk Breaker bar each hour, I try to eat about a fourth of one each time my watch beeps.
At the top of each hour: electrolytes.
On the run: Coke/water/chicken broth at each aid station, depending on what's grabbing you and what time of day it is. I also try to eat a little something every other aid station. No set plan here, just depends on my gut. Could be some crackers, pretzels, a gel, grapes, orange slices, peanut butter crackers, etc.
I hope all this helps!
Until next time...
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Looking Back and Pondering a Big Goal
Before I get to the new content, you know what's coming first!
I have a friend who's writing his first blog and chronicling his 2014 adventures including the London and Berlin marathons and Ironman Kalmar. You can find his blog here.
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Recently, a friend asked me to look for something in my Training Peaks account that I really don't use much. For those that don't use a website like Training Peaks, Garmin Connect, Strava, etc., they essentially do a lot of the same things. They store the data gathered by your GPS, like my watch, and give you all kinds of metrics to go with it, such as heart rate data, pace, calories burned, and so on. Before I got my Garmin watch I was using a Timex and Training Peaks was the place the watch data went. So for all of my first Ironman training, the data was stored there.
So on a lark, I decided to take a look and boy was I pleasantly surprised and a bit shocked at the numbers. A "good" run pace for me was probably 11:30/mile even over a relatively short distance but it wasn't uncommon to find runs at 12 or even 13 minute pace. In July, 2011, I ran a half marathon, albeit in scorching temperatures, in 3:28. This was only 6 (!!) weeks before my first Ironman. I recently did a 2 hour half was upset at the time. My oh my, how times have changed.
From a prior blog post, I recently did a 5 mile run with a seriously hilly first half in 7:59 pace so it got me thinking. If I focused solely on running for a season, could I achieve a Boston Marathon qualifying time? For my age, that would require a 7:49 pace. My pal Ryan, who is a phenomenal runner, even offered to coach me and said if I gave him 6 months and it was running only, we could do it. I'm not so convinced but my gains this year have me at least contemplating it.
Something to ponder....
Until next time.
I have a friend who's writing his first blog and chronicling his 2014 adventures including the London and Berlin marathons and Ironman Kalmar. You can find his blog here.
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Recently, a friend asked me to look for something in my Training Peaks account that I really don't use much. For those that don't use a website like Training Peaks, Garmin Connect, Strava, etc., they essentially do a lot of the same things. They store the data gathered by your GPS, like my watch, and give you all kinds of metrics to go with it, such as heart rate data, pace, calories burned, and so on. Before I got my Garmin watch I was using a Timex and Training Peaks was the place the watch data went. So for all of my first Ironman training, the data was stored there.
So on a lark, I decided to take a look and boy was I pleasantly surprised and a bit shocked at the numbers. A "good" run pace for me was probably 11:30/mile even over a relatively short distance but it wasn't uncommon to find runs at 12 or even 13 minute pace. In July, 2011, I ran a half marathon, albeit in scorching temperatures, in 3:28. This was only 6 (!!) weeks before my first Ironman. I recently did a 2 hour half was upset at the time. My oh my, how times have changed.
From a prior blog post, I recently did a 5 mile run with a seriously hilly first half in 7:59 pace so it got me thinking. If I focused solely on running for a season, could I achieve a Boston Marathon qualifying time? For my age, that would require a 7:49 pace. My pal Ryan, who is a phenomenal runner, even offered to coach me and said if I gave him 6 months and it was running only, we could do it. I'm not so convinced but my gains this year have me at least contemplating it.
Something to ponder....
Until next time.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Iroquois Hill Runners Thanksgiving Day Run Report
A couple of items to get to before you see the new content. The first is my continued plugging of my charity for the 2014 season:
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Also, a friend of mine from England has started a blog to document his big 2014 including 2 marathons, a half-Ironman, and a full Ironman. His blog can be found here.
Yesterday, for my international friends, was Thanksgiving Day in the United States so several friends and I got together for what has become a turkey day tradition: a five mile run at Iroquois Park in Louisville.
The run takes you up to the top of Iroquois Park, a short loop, then back down. My best ever time at this event, and my best ever five mile run, was 41:42, which I did last year. So I set a goal of 41 minutes or 8:12/mile and programmed my GPS watch to let me know how I was doing relative to that goal. It tells me how far ahead or behind I am in terms of both distance and time.
It was a 9 am start but still cold as heck, especially compared to last year. I think the temperature at the start was right about 22 F so I bundled up in long running tights, a long sleeve tech shirt, a running jacket, a beanie and gloves. My friend Scott, a college buddy, was running with me and we decided to stay together for the entire five miles. It certainly made the run easier and the distance seemed to fly by.
Since the first part of the run, probably two miles or so is uphill, getting worse as you approach the two mile mark, I was expecting to be behind a bit and then make it up but it was going very well. The first mile was 8:12, exactly on pace, while the second was 8:15. Again, wasn't worried, as I knew I was going to be coming back down the hill on the way back. The third mile is relatively flat, and that was 8:09, making up for the 8:15. Now all I had to do was hold an 8:12 or better pace on the way back down. Mile four was 7:42, while the last one was 7:37.
Total time was 40:01, which is the most frustrating part. Since I just had my pacer screen up, I didn't know I was that close to breaking 40 and would certainly have pushed a bit at the end to go sub-40 if I knew I was so close. But I guess that's why we do it, right? There's always a new limit, a new goal, and now I know my goal for the 2014 version!
I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
Also, a friend of mine from England has started a blog to document his big 2014 including 2 marathons, a half-Ironman, and a full Ironman. His blog can be found here.
Yesterday, for my international friends, was Thanksgiving Day in the United States so several friends and I got together for what has become a turkey day tradition: a five mile run at Iroquois Park in Louisville.
The run takes you up to the top of Iroquois Park, a short loop, then back down. My best ever time at this event, and my best ever five mile run, was 41:42, which I did last year. So I set a goal of 41 minutes or 8:12/mile and programmed my GPS watch to let me know how I was doing relative to that goal. It tells me how far ahead or behind I am in terms of both distance and time.
It was a 9 am start but still cold as heck, especially compared to last year. I think the temperature at the start was right about 22 F so I bundled up in long running tights, a long sleeve tech shirt, a running jacket, a beanie and gloves. My friend Scott, a college buddy, was running with me and we decided to stay together for the entire five miles. It certainly made the run easier and the distance seemed to fly by.
Since the first part of the run, probably two miles or so is uphill, getting worse as you approach the two mile mark, I was expecting to be behind a bit and then make it up but it was going very well. The first mile was 8:12, exactly on pace, while the second was 8:15. Again, wasn't worried, as I knew I was going to be coming back down the hill on the way back. The third mile is relatively flat, and that was 8:09, making up for the 8:15. Now all I had to do was hold an 8:12 or better pace on the way back down. Mile four was 7:42, while the last one was 7:37.
Total time was 40:01, which is the most frustrating part. Since I just had my pacer screen up, I didn't know I was that close to breaking 40 and would certainly have pushed a bit at the end to go sub-40 if I knew I was so close. But I guess that's why we do it, right? There's always a new limit, a new goal, and now I know my goal for the 2014 version!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
More Training Info
Before I begin, I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm
supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014. Yes, I'm going to keep asking until I reach my goal of $2500 :)
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
A couple posts ago, I talked about the last big weekend before I taper. For those unfamiliar with the term, a taper is when you decrease your training over a two or three week period leading up to a big event like an Ironman or marathon. So how do you lead up to that big weekend? What does a typical week look like?
Here is what I normally do in a given week during Ironman training. I vary it as necessary but for someone like me who typically tries to just finish in a decent time with a smile and has no shot at winning anything, I think there are 3 key workouts a week.
The first is a long swim. "Long" is a fuzzy term I know but as I'm ramping up toward Ironman, I usually work my way up from about 2000 meters in early part of the plan up to 3500-4000 meters as I hit peak volume. This is sometimes accomplished during a swim group.
The second key workout is a long run. Since tri training plans typically use time instead of distance, the first part of the training would be maybe a one hour run leading up to what I posted as my final big run, of perhaps 16-18 miles or about 3 hours at the most.
The last key workout is a long bike, which usually begins with a couple hour ride and finishing with a full 112 mile 6-6.5 hour ride at the end. During these key workouts you must be practicing your race day items such as nutrition. I usually do my long bike on Saturday, long run on Sunday and my long swim in the middle of the week.
Now I understand that my personal training plan is a bit light on swimming but it works for me. Here is what a typical week looks like:
Monday: Rest or some sort of active recovery. Perhaps yoga or a short spin on my bike with very little effort.
Tuesday: Swim set with some drills or harder efforts sprinkled throughout. Short run.
Wednesday: Bike/run brick. Perhaps 30-40 minutes on the bike, 15-20 minute run.
Thursday: Longer swim. This is more of a straight XX meters for me.
Friday: Another "fun" day for me usually. Swim if I'm feeling like it, perhaps an easy ride with the local bike club.
Saturday: Long bike, short brick run.
Sunday: Long run.
Also, as I've learned, missing a workout here and there or feeling the need to take a mental health day isn't a big deal. If you miss a couple weeks in a row, that's a problem but missing something for work or you're just not feeling it isn't going to ruin your big day. Also, being flexible within a week is A-OK. Don't worry if you have to moving things around a bit. For example, every so often, I have to work on Saturday and will move my long bike to Thursday or Friday as needed.
Finally, you have to have recovery weeks. Perhaps every 4th week, should be a serious cut back on volume to give your body a chance to recover. You might try to work these around major work events and such.
Until next time...
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
A couple posts ago, I talked about the last big weekend before I taper. For those unfamiliar with the term, a taper is when you decrease your training over a two or three week period leading up to a big event like an Ironman or marathon. So how do you lead up to that big weekend? What does a typical week look like?
Here is what I normally do in a given week during Ironman training. I vary it as necessary but for someone like me who typically tries to just finish in a decent time with a smile and has no shot at winning anything, I think there are 3 key workouts a week.
The first is a long swim. "Long" is a fuzzy term I know but as I'm ramping up toward Ironman, I usually work my way up from about 2000 meters in early part of the plan up to 3500-4000 meters as I hit peak volume. This is sometimes accomplished during a swim group.
The second key workout is a long run. Since tri training plans typically use time instead of distance, the first part of the training would be maybe a one hour run leading up to what I posted as my final big run, of perhaps 16-18 miles or about 3 hours at the most.
The last key workout is a long bike, which usually begins with a couple hour ride and finishing with a full 112 mile 6-6.5 hour ride at the end. During these key workouts you must be practicing your race day items such as nutrition. I usually do my long bike on Saturday, long run on Sunday and my long swim in the middle of the week.
Now I understand that my personal training plan is a bit light on swimming but it works for me. Here is what a typical week looks like:
Monday: Rest or some sort of active recovery. Perhaps yoga or a short spin on my bike with very little effort.
Tuesday: Swim set with some drills or harder efforts sprinkled throughout. Short run.
Wednesday: Bike/run brick. Perhaps 30-40 minutes on the bike, 15-20 minute run.
Thursday: Longer swim. This is more of a straight XX meters for me.
Friday: Another "fun" day for me usually. Swim if I'm feeling like it, perhaps an easy ride with the local bike club.
Saturday: Long bike, short brick run.
Sunday: Long run.
Also, as I've learned, missing a workout here and there or feeling the need to take a mental health day isn't a big deal. If you miss a couple weeks in a row, that's a problem but missing something for work or you're just not feeling it isn't going to ruin your big day. Also, being flexible within a week is A-OK. Don't worry if you have to moving things around a bit. For example, every so often, I have to work on Saturday and will move my long bike to Thursday or Friday as needed.
Finally, you have to have recovery weeks. Perhaps every 4th week, should be a serious cut back on volume to give your body a chance to recover. You might try to work these around major work events and such.
Until next time...
Friday, November 22, 2013
Ironman Louisville Event Report
I'll continue with my training advice next week but a few people have asked about my Ironman Louisville experience so here it goes...
Ironman Louisville 2013 would be my 3rd go at the full iron distance. I'd previously done IMLou in 2011, finishing in 15:55 and feeling like I could have gone all day so perhaps leaving something on the course, and Rev 3 Cedar Point full in 2012, finishing in 14:38 but with the pain of about 45 minutes lost due to a bike mechanical.
With those results in mind and with a good feel for the course and conditions under my belt, I was really thinking I might be able to pull off a sub-14 hour finish this time. Without boring you with the details, I was thinking in these general terms:
I see my first familiar faces, Kim, Jessie, Megan, Carlos and others who are body marking and doing a great job pepping up the 50+ tri club members we had doing the event. It was a welcome sight and then I was on my way over to the swim line. (Remember that Louisville is a time trial start instead of a mass swim like most events.) The rules are set up to prevent you from saving places, having family members hold spots, etc. but a spot in the line is important for a lot of people as the time in line counts against the 17 hour time limit. So as I started walking from the front of the line toward the end, I bump into several Landsharks and just happened to slide into line with them undetected. So instead of waiting until 7:10-7:15 to be in the water, I was swimming at 7:01 or something like that. It was nice to be in the water so quick.
Didn't have a great swim, partially because I have never been able to get a strong kick sorted, but I've really focused on that as I've worked with my swim coach over the last few months. I've also started doing some strength training, which I rather ignored during the last few years, so perhaps that's helping. Final time for the swim: 1:33:52. Not too terrible relative to my goal and faster than the 1:41 I had in 2011. I was a bit faster at Rev3, but I was wearing a wetsuit there.
Into T-1 I go, where I've decided to change into a tri-kit. I had worn my normal swim jammers on the swim. First crisis occurs when I can't find one of my socks. After me and the helpful volunteer searched frantically, we find it...in one of my cycling shoes. In my bike gear bag, it had somehow wound up in my shoe. So it was on with some anti-chafing cream, socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and gloves and I was on my way. Most of the time I don't wear gloves, but the "pads" of my hands have been sore recently on long rides so decided to wear gloves. Quick stop for some sunscreen and I was on the course. T1: 10:50, so a bit longer than goal.
With a goal of about 6:40, I was hoping to average about 17 mph. I don't know if it was a nice cool start to the day or perhaps going out a little fast but I was having the Ironman bike of my life. I did see a gnarly crash on the out and back, which we all know is dangerous on a normal day, let alone with 2500 riders, but beyond that the bike was rather uneventful. Saw many friends, my wife twice, while I was on the course. I felt like I kept my hydration good, my calories consistent, but probably went a bit fast. Grand total: 6:20:16. That compares to a 7:32 in 2011. I knew I was in better shape but wasn't expecting that.
Into T2 where things started to go a bit sideways. I don't know if it was the early morning cool weather and it was now heating up but I could tell I was a bit dehydrated. I was starting to get that "tunnel vision" and knew I was in a bit of trouble. It manifested itself when I was convinced in the changing tent that I had lost the GPS tracker I was using so my friends and family could track me. I probably wasted 4-5 minutes trying to find it. I finally gave up and heading out to the run after another complete change into running gear(more on the tracker later). T2: 13:04. Faster than 2011 but not what I wanted.
The first couple miles of the run were great but then the dehydration really got to me. On the advice of a pro, Chris McDonald, who spoke to our tri club a few days before the race, I started taking Coke as part of my regular hydration/calories from the start. But even with that, I was forced to walk. It probably took me nearly the entire first lap, or half marathon, to get enough hydration in me to feel better. Luckily, as you've read earlier, my walking pace is quite fast so I was able to keep up a good pace, even while walking. Somewhere in the middle of the marathon, I was trying to find something in my running shorts pocket and what do I discover? The lost tracker. It was on an elastic belt but had slipped down into my shorts. The dehydration I was suffering as I left the bike definitely had me losing my mind. The run was fun because I got to run with so many of my tri club buddies, many of them first timers, and experience the joy with them. The second lap was definitely more running than the first. Run total: 5:53:58 compared to 6:12 in 2011. The best part was that I got faster over the course of the marathon with my fastest segment coming as I finished. So even though I wasn't pleased with the total, overcoming my hydration issues and having negative splits made up for it.
Final total for the day: 14:12:00. Not quite my sub-14 goal, but still beat my prior IM Louisville by 1 hour 43 minutes and my Rev3 time by 26 minutes. I think a sub-14 is in my grasp if I keep at it!
Ironman Louisville 2013 would be my 3rd go at the full iron distance. I'd previously done IMLou in 2011, finishing in 15:55 and feeling like I could have gone all day so perhaps leaving something on the course, and Rev 3 Cedar Point full in 2012, finishing in 14:38 but with the pain of about 45 minutes lost due to a bike mechanical.
With those results in mind and with a good feel for the course and conditions under my belt, I was really thinking I might be able to pull off a sub-14 hour finish this time. Without boring you with the details, I was thinking in these general terms:
- 90 minute swim
- 6:40 hour bike
- 5:30 marathon
- 20 minutes in transitions
- Grand total: 14 hours
I see my first familiar faces, Kim, Jessie, Megan, Carlos and others who are body marking and doing a great job pepping up the 50+ tri club members we had doing the event. It was a welcome sight and then I was on my way over to the swim line. (Remember that Louisville is a time trial start instead of a mass swim like most events.) The rules are set up to prevent you from saving places, having family members hold spots, etc. but a spot in the line is important for a lot of people as the time in line counts against the 17 hour time limit. So as I started walking from the front of the line toward the end, I bump into several Landsharks and just happened to slide into line with them undetected. So instead of waiting until 7:10-7:15 to be in the water, I was swimming at 7:01 or something like that. It was nice to be in the water so quick.
Didn't have a great swim, partially because I have never been able to get a strong kick sorted, but I've really focused on that as I've worked with my swim coach over the last few months. I've also started doing some strength training, which I rather ignored during the last few years, so perhaps that's helping. Final time for the swim: 1:33:52. Not too terrible relative to my goal and faster than the 1:41 I had in 2011. I was a bit faster at Rev3, but I was wearing a wetsuit there.
Into T-1 I go, where I've decided to change into a tri-kit. I had worn my normal swim jammers on the swim. First crisis occurs when I can't find one of my socks. After me and the helpful volunteer searched frantically, we find it...in one of my cycling shoes. In my bike gear bag, it had somehow wound up in my shoe. So it was on with some anti-chafing cream, socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and gloves and I was on my way. Most of the time I don't wear gloves, but the "pads" of my hands have been sore recently on long rides so decided to wear gloves. Quick stop for some sunscreen and I was on the course. T1: 10:50, so a bit longer than goal.
With a goal of about 6:40, I was hoping to average about 17 mph. I don't know if it was a nice cool start to the day or perhaps going out a little fast but I was having the Ironman bike of my life. I did see a gnarly crash on the out and back, which we all know is dangerous on a normal day, let alone with 2500 riders, but beyond that the bike was rather uneventful. Saw many friends, my wife twice, while I was on the course. I felt like I kept my hydration good, my calories consistent, but probably went a bit fast. Grand total: 6:20:16. That compares to a 7:32 in 2011. I knew I was in better shape but wasn't expecting that.
Into T2 where things started to go a bit sideways. I don't know if it was the early morning cool weather and it was now heating up but I could tell I was a bit dehydrated. I was starting to get that "tunnel vision" and knew I was in a bit of trouble. It manifested itself when I was convinced in the changing tent that I had lost the GPS tracker I was using so my friends and family could track me. I probably wasted 4-5 minutes trying to find it. I finally gave up and heading out to the run after another complete change into running gear(more on the tracker later). T2: 13:04. Faster than 2011 but not what I wanted.
The first couple miles of the run were great but then the dehydration really got to me. On the advice of a pro, Chris McDonald, who spoke to our tri club a few days before the race, I started taking Coke as part of my regular hydration/calories from the start. But even with that, I was forced to walk. It probably took me nearly the entire first lap, or half marathon, to get enough hydration in me to feel better. Luckily, as you've read earlier, my walking pace is quite fast so I was able to keep up a good pace, even while walking. Somewhere in the middle of the marathon, I was trying to find something in my running shorts pocket and what do I discover? The lost tracker. It was on an elastic belt but had slipped down into my shorts. The dehydration I was suffering as I left the bike definitely had me losing my mind. The run was fun because I got to run with so many of my tri club buddies, many of them first timers, and experience the joy with them. The second lap was definitely more running than the first. Run total: 5:53:58 compared to 6:12 in 2011. The best part was that I got faster over the course of the marathon with my fastest segment coming as I finished. So even though I wasn't pleased with the total, overcoming my hydration issues and having negative splits made up for it.
Final total for the day: 14:12:00. Not quite my sub-14 goal, but still beat my prior IM Louisville by 1 hour 43 minutes and my Rev3 time by 26 minutes. I think a sub-14 is in my grasp if I keep at it!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Blog Refresh and Some Info on My Training
Yes, I've not written much on here in quite a long while. No, I didn't even write an Ironman Louisville re-cap. I promise to get to that, but I wanted to re-start this blog with something I often get asked about. How do you do it? I want to try an Ironman (and trust me, anyone can do it if I can do it), but where do I start? Trust me, this advice isn't for someone who is out to qualify for Kona. But it has worked for someone who's initial goal was to finish with a smile.
Before I begin, I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014.
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
I'll start with what NOT to do. You don't need a $10,000 tri bike. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on other gear. You do need a bike, running shoes, a helmet, etc. but that's it. I've seen people on basic roads bikes finish iron distance events and in some cases, in hilly terrain, a road bike might even be better suited for the task.
So where do you start? What does a typical week look like? I think it's best to start from the end. I can't remember the source, but when I first signed up for Ironman, I scoured training books and websites for information and something that really stuck with me was that at first you are doing the entire distance over say a month or six weeks, then over two weeks, then over a week, then over a weekend, finally doing it all in a single day.
I try to schedule a big weekend about three weeks before the event. Over this weekend, I like to swim the full 2.4 miles on Friday, ride a full 112 miles on Saturday (with a short brick run after), and then my longest run on Sunday. The Sunday run for me is usually 16-18 miles.
The big Saturday ride gives me a chance to give a final test to my nutrition plan and pacing. Now you might be thinking, what nutrition do you use? Each person is different, with a different palette and a different stomach sensitivity, so I hate to say that it depends, but it does.
For me personally, I shoot for about 300-325 calories per hour on the bike, along with about 20-24 ounces of hydration per hour. Don't forget to include the calories in your liquid as part of the total. I am one of the few that has no problem with a drink called Ironman Perform, which the official Ironman race serves on race day. That has about 160 calories per bottle so I try to get another 150-175 calories per hour from another source. I use Bonk Breaker bars, Clif Shot Blocks, Honey Stinger Waffles, etc. depending on what sounds good. I also set my watch to yell at me about every fifteen minutes to remind me to eat and drink. At the top of each hour, I also pop any supplements I'll be using such as additional electrolyte tablets. As you might expect, it's hard to keep track of all this so I keep my extra supplements in these little bags. They fit perfectly in a jersey pocket or in your bike's top tube bag.
The Sunday run has many of the same goals. I test nutrition, hydration, pacing etc. I usually carry a hand bottle and take a good long drink of sports drink after each mile. I also try to get some nutrition about every two miles. Nothing huge, but start eating a little bit each time. I'll talk more about my actual race day nutrition in a later post.
So that covers the last pre-taper weekend. You'll still be doing some training in the last 3 weeks but it really lessens in volume as you want to reach the big day refreshed.
In my next post, I'll cover what I do leading up to that last big weekend and what a typical week looks like for me.
Before I begin, I wanted to bring some attention to the charity I'm supporting as I ramp up to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2014.
I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
I'll start with what NOT to do. You don't need a $10,000 tri bike. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on other gear. You do need a bike, running shoes, a helmet, etc. but that's it. I've seen people on basic roads bikes finish iron distance events and in some cases, in hilly terrain, a road bike might even be better suited for the task.
So where do you start? What does a typical week look like? I think it's best to start from the end. I can't remember the source, but when I first signed up for Ironman, I scoured training books and websites for information and something that really stuck with me was that at first you are doing the entire distance over say a month or six weeks, then over two weeks, then over a week, then over a weekend, finally doing it all in a single day.
I try to schedule a big weekend about three weeks before the event. Over this weekend, I like to swim the full 2.4 miles on Friday, ride a full 112 miles on Saturday (with a short brick run after), and then my longest run on Sunday. The Sunday run for me is usually 16-18 miles.
The big Saturday ride gives me a chance to give a final test to my nutrition plan and pacing. Now you might be thinking, what nutrition do you use? Each person is different, with a different palette and a different stomach sensitivity, so I hate to say that it depends, but it does.
For me personally, I shoot for about 300-325 calories per hour on the bike, along with about 20-24 ounces of hydration per hour. Don't forget to include the calories in your liquid as part of the total. I am one of the few that has no problem with a drink called Ironman Perform, which the official Ironman race serves on race day. That has about 160 calories per bottle so I try to get another 150-175 calories per hour from another source. I use Bonk Breaker bars, Clif Shot Blocks, Honey Stinger Waffles, etc. depending on what sounds good. I also set my watch to yell at me about every fifteen minutes to remind me to eat and drink. At the top of each hour, I also pop any supplements I'll be using such as additional electrolyte tablets. As you might expect, it's hard to keep track of all this so I keep my extra supplements in these little bags. They fit perfectly in a jersey pocket or in your bike's top tube bag.
The Sunday run has many of the same goals. I test nutrition, hydration, pacing etc. I usually carry a hand bottle and take a good long drink of sports drink after each mile. I also try to get some nutrition about every two miles. Nothing huge, but start eating a little bit each time. I'll talk more about my actual race day nutrition in a later post.
So that covers the last pre-taper weekend. You'll still be doing some training in the last 3 weeks but it really lessens in volume as you want to reach the big day refreshed.
In my next post, I'll cover what I do leading up to that last big weekend and what a typical week looks like for me.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Ironman 70.3 Muncie Race Report
After last year's abbreviated Muncie 70.3 due to an extremely hot stretch, we were given a discount code to use for this year's race, so several of us decided to head back. This included a couple first timers. I think a total of 21 of my tri club members headed up for the event including Ken, Megan and Jessie (first timers at the 70.3 distance), Carlos, Bill, Scott, etc.
Since my first and only half Ironman went so horribly in 2011, I felt like I was almost guaranteed a PR. The weather appeared to also be cooperating including a likely wetsuit legal swim, something none of us expected. I really didn't have any set goals heading in as I was still pointing my season toward Ironman Louisville in late August. For reference, last year was a 1 mile swim, a 30 mile bike, and a 10K run. My splits were: 49:24, 20.33 mph, and 1:13:11. I figured the swim had to be better without the heat and a wetsuit, but I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace on the bike.
I decided to go in a sleeveless wetsuit in order to avoid any potential overheating but had to wait almost an hour after the first wave, as my age group was near the end. This did have one benefit, though. I was able to target some earlier wave folks to help motivate my swim. My swim time was 41:41, a huge improvement over a .2 mile longer distance. Super pleased with that. My T1 was 6:03, not great, but I did stop to pee and get slathered in sunscreen.
We knew from local reports that miles 20-35 on the bike were going to be very rough and we weren't disappointed. I've seen items thrown off bikes on rough roads but never full aero bottles, water bottles still in expensive carbon cages, etc. It was total carnage over that section and it really seemed to kill a lot of cycling speed. As I neared the two hour mark, I looked down at my Garmin and saw I was averaging 18.3 mph. After some quick math, I realized that 18.6 mph would put me at a sub-3 hour bike split. That's something I couldn't imagine pulling off. So as we got back on the smooth, slightly downhill part of the course, which also include a bit of a tailwind, I hit the gas to see if I could do it. Bike split was 2:59:03 meeting that sub-3 target. T2 was a bit better than T1 at 4:49. Also included more peeing and sun screen.
I was now on to the run and the temperature was starting to climb. I knew I was in for some rolling hills and with the heat, wasn't really sure what to expect. I also made a big mistake leaving T2 without electrolyte tabs and felt like that hurt me, especially after the run turnaround. I think the run splits show this. I did the first 6.6 miles in 1:09 but the second in 1:25, much slower. I also probably went out too fast and paid for that later in the run, which included a lot of walking toward the end. Total for the run: 2:35:14.
Grand total for the day: 6:26:50, a 2 hour PR! Obviously my other half-Ironman was total rubbish but I was certainly proud of myself and the improvements I've made.
Since my first and only half Ironman went so horribly in 2011, I felt like I was almost guaranteed a PR. The weather appeared to also be cooperating including a likely wetsuit legal swim, something none of us expected. I really didn't have any set goals heading in as I was still pointing my season toward Ironman Louisville in late August. For reference, last year was a 1 mile swim, a 30 mile bike, and a 10K run. My splits were: 49:24, 20.33 mph, and 1:13:11. I figured the swim had to be better without the heat and a wetsuit, but I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace on the bike.
I decided to go in a sleeveless wetsuit in order to avoid any potential overheating but had to wait almost an hour after the first wave, as my age group was near the end. This did have one benefit, though. I was able to target some earlier wave folks to help motivate my swim. My swim time was 41:41, a huge improvement over a .2 mile longer distance. Super pleased with that. My T1 was 6:03, not great, but I did stop to pee and get slathered in sunscreen.
We knew from local reports that miles 20-35 on the bike were going to be very rough and we weren't disappointed. I've seen items thrown off bikes on rough roads but never full aero bottles, water bottles still in expensive carbon cages, etc. It was total carnage over that section and it really seemed to kill a lot of cycling speed. As I neared the two hour mark, I looked down at my Garmin and saw I was averaging 18.3 mph. After some quick math, I realized that 18.6 mph would put me at a sub-3 hour bike split. That's something I couldn't imagine pulling off. So as we got back on the smooth, slightly downhill part of the course, which also include a bit of a tailwind, I hit the gas to see if I could do it. Bike split was 2:59:03 meeting that sub-3 target. T2 was a bit better than T1 at 4:49. Also included more peeing and sun screen.
I was now on to the run and the temperature was starting to climb. I knew I was in for some rolling hills and with the heat, wasn't really sure what to expect. I also made a big mistake leaving T2 without electrolyte tabs and felt like that hurt me, especially after the run turnaround. I think the run splits show this. I did the first 6.6 miles in 1:09 but the second in 1:25, much slower. I also probably went out too fast and paid for that later in the run, which included a lot of walking toward the end. Total for the run: 2:35:14.
Grand total for the day: 6:26:50, a 2 hour PR! Obviously my other half-Ironman was total rubbish but I was certainly proud of myself and the improvements I've made.
Friday, June 21, 2013
My First (and probably only) Podium Finish
Yes, it's been a long long time since I've posted. However, I find the same old training stuff boring so I'm sure reading about it would be even worse.
Before I get on with the podium story, I wanted to update everyone on a couple cool apps I've been using lately. The first is GymPact. You may have read about this app in the news media and I've been using it since mid-January. Essentially, you make a "pact" with yourself to work out a certain number of days per week. A workout could be using the GPS to check in at a gym or pool for at least 30 minutes, using something like RunKeeper to take a 30 minute walk, etc. If you miss a workout, you must pay a fee for each missed workout. I've set myself at five workouts per week with a stake of $5 per missed workout. If you complete your pact, you share in the spoils of all the charges for those who didn't complete their pacts. I think I'm nearing $50 earned. Not going to get rich but it helps pay for training supplies and such. It also integrates, with a little trickery, with my Garmin. If you'd like to give it a try, I can get you a referral code that will get you an extra $5 with your first completed pact.
The other app I've using since about mid-April is My Fitness Pal. I'm going to admit that I found myself, especially during heavy training, falling into a typical trap. Work out hard and you've earned the right to eat what you want. I'm not saying I would binge on fast food every day but I wouldn't really pay very close attention to my diet. Essentially, with MFP, you enter your starting weight, your goal weight and your desired loss per week. It then spits out a calorie guideline. I've set myself to a goal weight of 199, started at 217, and want to lose about 1 pound per week. I'm now down 12 pounds since I started using MFP and can almost taste being under 200 pounds for the first time I was probably 16 years old. My only fault with this app is that if you use the default exercise information, you will severely overestimate calories burned. I've been using the info generated from my Garmin for better estimates and obviously getting pretty good results.
To piggy back on that news, I've also seen amazing overall results over the 3-4 years I've gotten serious about fitness. I started in a XXL shirt, and recently bought medium. I used to wear size 40 pants, but recently purchased size 34. Finally, for suit jackets, I've gone from a 48 to a 42. Amazing!
Now to the real reason for this blog post. USA Triathlon (USAT) has a Clydesdale division for men and an Athena division for women. The men's standard is 200 pounds or more. At 204.5 pounds, when I signed up for the Motor City Olympic Tri in Detroit, I circled the Clydesdale category without really thinking about it.
Last year, I did this race in 2:52, a PR at the distance including a 31 minute swim, about a 1:12 bike, and a 1:07 run. I knew I wanted to beat that time so had set goals of about a 30 minute swim, a 1:10 bike, and a 1 hour run for a total of 2:45 with transitions included. I never even imagined I would compete in my division as I had finished 10th of 11 Clydesdales last year.
The night before, we were all watching the weather radar closely as there were 2 patches of severe storms headed our way and we were expecting lightning at race time and possibly even a delay or cancellation. When we woke up, the skies had cleared but it appeared to be quite windy and as we headed over the bridge one of my friends commented that the river looked quite rough. As we set up our transitions, we indeed noticed small white caps on the river, which turned out to be 1-2 foot waves. It was going to be my first rough-ish open water swim.
I had some trouble sighting the buoys and took on a few mouthfuls of water but otherwise had a great swim, ending with a 29 minute swim, by far a 1500 meter PR for me. I had a total crap T1, but then headed out for a VERY windy bike. Luckily, the headwind was only about 1/4th of a lap (total of 4 laps) so we got to ride with a tailwind a lot of the time. The headwind section did indeed stink but you at least knew you were heading for a nice tailwind in just a short time. I wanted to average 20 mph on the bike but ended at 19.8 or a time of about 1:08. Quite happy with that!
T2 was much better and then it was out for the run. The goal was sub-1 hour or about 9:40/mile. After getting settled on the run, I looked at my Garmin and noticed 8:30-8:35 pace, which was a little quick but I was feeling good. The last couple miles were slow as the fast pace finally caught up with me. The final average was 8:55 or a total of just over 54 minutes. This was also a 10K PR for me and a grand total of 2:37:23 or nearly a 15 minute PR. I couldn't believe how much I had improved, even in the less than optimal conditions!
As we were packing up, the race director was announcing the age group awards and such and then I heard my name. 2nd place in the Clydesdales! I couldn't believe it! I got a nice medal in addition to my finisher's medal and it really made my day. This race is my favorite already and this made it even more special!
Before I get on with the podium story, I wanted to update everyone on a couple cool apps I've been using lately. The first is GymPact. You may have read about this app in the news media and I've been using it since mid-January. Essentially, you make a "pact" with yourself to work out a certain number of days per week. A workout could be using the GPS to check in at a gym or pool for at least 30 minutes, using something like RunKeeper to take a 30 minute walk, etc. If you miss a workout, you must pay a fee for each missed workout. I've set myself at five workouts per week with a stake of $5 per missed workout. If you complete your pact, you share in the spoils of all the charges for those who didn't complete their pacts. I think I'm nearing $50 earned. Not going to get rich but it helps pay for training supplies and such. It also integrates, with a little trickery, with my Garmin. If you'd like to give it a try, I can get you a referral code that will get you an extra $5 with your first completed pact.
The other app I've using since about mid-April is My Fitness Pal. I'm going to admit that I found myself, especially during heavy training, falling into a typical trap. Work out hard and you've earned the right to eat what you want. I'm not saying I would binge on fast food every day but I wouldn't really pay very close attention to my diet. Essentially, with MFP, you enter your starting weight, your goal weight and your desired loss per week. It then spits out a calorie guideline. I've set myself to a goal weight of 199, started at 217, and want to lose about 1 pound per week. I'm now down 12 pounds since I started using MFP and can almost taste being under 200 pounds for the first time I was probably 16 years old. My only fault with this app is that if you use the default exercise information, you will severely overestimate calories burned. I've been using the info generated from my Garmin for better estimates and obviously getting pretty good results.
To piggy back on that news, I've also seen amazing overall results over the 3-4 years I've gotten serious about fitness. I started in a XXL shirt, and recently bought medium. I used to wear size 40 pants, but recently purchased size 34. Finally, for suit jackets, I've gone from a 48 to a 42. Amazing!
Now to the real reason for this blog post. USA Triathlon (USAT) has a Clydesdale division for men and an Athena division for women. The men's standard is 200 pounds or more. At 204.5 pounds, when I signed up for the Motor City Olympic Tri in Detroit, I circled the Clydesdale category without really thinking about it.
Last year, I did this race in 2:52, a PR at the distance including a 31 minute swim, about a 1:12 bike, and a 1:07 run. I knew I wanted to beat that time so had set goals of about a 30 minute swim, a 1:10 bike, and a 1 hour run for a total of 2:45 with transitions included. I never even imagined I would compete in my division as I had finished 10th of 11 Clydesdales last year.
The night before, we were all watching the weather radar closely as there were 2 patches of severe storms headed our way and we were expecting lightning at race time and possibly even a delay or cancellation. When we woke up, the skies had cleared but it appeared to be quite windy and as we headed over the bridge one of my friends commented that the river looked quite rough. As we set up our transitions, we indeed noticed small white caps on the river, which turned out to be 1-2 foot waves. It was going to be my first rough-ish open water swim.
I had some trouble sighting the buoys and took on a few mouthfuls of water but otherwise had a great swim, ending with a 29 minute swim, by far a 1500 meter PR for me. I had a total crap T1, but then headed out for a VERY windy bike. Luckily, the headwind was only about 1/4th of a lap (total of 4 laps) so we got to ride with a tailwind a lot of the time. The headwind section did indeed stink but you at least knew you were heading for a nice tailwind in just a short time. I wanted to average 20 mph on the bike but ended at 19.8 or a time of about 1:08. Quite happy with that!
T2 was much better and then it was out for the run. The goal was sub-1 hour or about 9:40/mile. After getting settled on the run, I looked at my Garmin and noticed 8:30-8:35 pace, which was a little quick but I was feeling good. The last couple miles were slow as the fast pace finally caught up with me. The final average was 8:55 or a total of just over 54 minutes. This was also a 10K PR for me and a grand total of 2:37:23 or nearly a 15 minute PR. I couldn't believe how much I had improved, even in the less than optimal conditions!
As we were packing up, the race director was announcing the age group awards and such and then I heard my name. 2nd place in the Clydesdales! I couldn't believe it! I got a nice medal in addition to my finisher's medal and it really made my day. This race is my favorite already and this made it even more special!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
March and April Update
In my last update, I detailed the second of the Shelbyville Winter Triathlon races. I was scheduled to do the third race on March 24th but came down with conjunctivitis (pink eye) a few days before the event. After being told not to swim for a week by the doctor, that put an end to doing that event. Can't say I was terribly disappointed as the weather was barely above freezing and raining.
The following weekend, I did an event called "One of America's Prettiest Half Marathons." I wouldn't disagree but I would prefer to call it "Beauty and the Beast." This half-marathon was held at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, KY and we were warned that it would be a very hilly course. I left bright and early from Louisville with 3 friends from the Louisville Landsharks in a very dense fog. We had all looked at the elevation profile but were completely unprepared for the amount of climbing even though the profile looked manageable. My friend Carlos and I went out with the two hour pace group but after a few miles, we knew the hills weren't going to be friendly to a sub-2 hour half. We did almost 1200 feet of climbing over the 13.1 miles and it felt like we climbed for 12 of the 13 miles. Nothing where walking was absolutely required but just constantly going up up up. Ended up with a 2:09:20, which I'll take, given the hills.
One of the nicest features of this race, beyond the very nice tech shirt, was the medal. This event designs its medals after famous race horses, perhaps not unexpected, given the location. This one is modeled after Genuine Risk.
The last of the Shelbyville Races was April 14th. I ended up beating last year's time by a bit over 3 minutes. The highlight was my fastest 400 yard swim ever, beating my prior 400 yard PR by about 20 seconds. I guess the swim work is paying off!
The big event of the last couple months was yesterday. A full marathon. Yes, you read that right, I did a full marathon, even though I hadn't planned on it. As you know, on April 15th, the running and sporting worlds were shocked by the Boston Marathon events. So as a tribute, a couple pals and I decided to upgrade from the Kentucky Derby Festival half-marathon to the full. Yes, the March 30th half was my longest training run. Yes, it was nearly a month ago. Yes, I was afraid. But my friend Carlos insisted that bike fitness is a good substitute for run fitness. He also promised to pace us to a sub-5 hour finish, which was my plan last year, but I suffered to a 5:17.
To add to the stress, I had been fighting with a blister issue, especially on my right foot. Ever since I had switched shoe sizes last fall, I had been dealing with hot spots and sometimes blisters on the balls of my feet. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but I think part of the problem was switching brands. I had been in Asics shoes for years, but last fall, I felt great in Nikes so switched to them. Early last week, I picked up some new socks that are guaranteed to prevent blisters. But even with the socks, during a short run on Tuesday I could feel the hot spots so off to the running shop for some Asics in the smaller size.
The weather on race day was just about perfect. Mid-50s with the threat of a few sprinkles. It stayed cool and cloudy until after the event when the skies opened with some heavy rain. Carlos, me, and several other Landsharks got started and tried to keep at or just under 11 minute miles. After a few miles, it was just Carlos and me and we did a good job keeping each other in check, mostly telling each other to slow down. What a difference a year makes. Last year, I obviously went out much much too fast and paid for it over the last 8-10 miles. This year, with much less running leading up to the marathon but keeping a good pace, we met our goal. 4:47, which shaved 30 minutes off my marathon PR. I'm also in much better physical shape relative to last year where I was wrecked for a good week. Of course, this also came with another sweet medal.
The next couple of months look like this.
May 18th/19th, Tri-Fest. A sprint and olympic tri on Saturday, half-ironman on Sunday.
June 16th, Motor City Tri, olympic distance.
Until next time....
It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up--Vince Lombardi.
The following weekend, I did an event called "One of America's Prettiest Half Marathons." I wouldn't disagree but I would prefer to call it "Beauty and the Beast." This half-marathon was held at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, KY and we were warned that it would be a very hilly course. I left bright and early from Louisville with 3 friends from the Louisville Landsharks in a very dense fog. We had all looked at the elevation profile but were completely unprepared for the amount of climbing even though the profile looked manageable. My friend Carlos and I went out with the two hour pace group but after a few miles, we knew the hills weren't going to be friendly to a sub-2 hour half. We did almost 1200 feet of climbing over the 13.1 miles and it felt like we climbed for 12 of the 13 miles. Nothing where walking was absolutely required but just constantly going up up up. Ended up with a 2:09:20, which I'll take, given the hills.
One of the nicest features of this race, beyond the very nice tech shirt, was the medal. This event designs its medals after famous race horses, perhaps not unexpected, given the location. This one is modeled after Genuine Risk.
The last of the Shelbyville Races was April 14th. I ended up beating last year's time by a bit over 3 minutes. The highlight was my fastest 400 yard swim ever, beating my prior 400 yard PR by about 20 seconds. I guess the swim work is paying off!
The big event of the last couple months was yesterday. A full marathon. Yes, you read that right, I did a full marathon, even though I hadn't planned on it. As you know, on April 15th, the running and sporting worlds were shocked by the Boston Marathon events. So as a tribute, a couple pals and I decided to upgrade from the Kentucky Derby Festival half-marathon to the full. Yes, the March 30th half was my longest training run. Yes, it was nearly a month ago. Yes, I was afraid. But my friend Carlos insisted that bike fitness is a good substitute for run fitness. He also promised to pace us to a sub-5 hour finish, which was my plan last year, but I suffered to a 5:17.
To add to the stress, I had been fighting with a blister issue, especially on my right foot. Ever since I had switched shoe sizes last fall, I had been dealing with hot spots and sometimes blisters on the balls of my feet. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but I think part of the problem was switching brands. I had been in Asics shoes for years, but last fall, I felt great in Nikes so switched to them. Early last week, I picked up some new socks that are guaranteed to prevent blisters. But even with the socks, during a short run on Tuesday I could feel the hot spots so off to the running shop for some Asics in the smaller size.
The weather on race day was just about perfect. Mid-50s with the threat of a few sprinkles. It stayed cool and cloudy until after the event when the skies opened with some heavy rain. Carlos, me, and several other Landsharks got started and tried to keep at or just under 11 minute miles. After a few miles, it was just Carlos and me and we did a good job keeping each other in check, mostly telling each other to slow down. What a difference a year makes. Last year, I obviously went out much much too fast and paid for it over the last 8-10 miles. This year, with much less running leading up to the marathon but keeping a good pace, we met our goal. 4:47, which shaved 30 minutes off my marathon PR. I'm also in much better physical shape relative to last year where I was wrecked for a good week. Of course, this also came with another sweet medal.
The next couple of months look like this.
May 18th/19th, Tri-Fest. A sprint and olympic tri on Saturday, half-ironman on Sunday.
June 16th, Motor City Tri, olympic distance.
Until next time....
It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up--Vince Lombardi.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Shelbyvill Tri Series #2 Recap
Yesterday marked the second of the winter tri series races in Shelbyville. It was a reverse order tri consisting of a 5K run, 12 mile bike, and a 400 yard swim. My prior PR for this specific distance was about 1:18 so I had designs on at least beating that but didn't really think about specific goals for each of the three legs.
The weather was originally forecast to be about 35-40 at race start but was actually a bit cooler, perhaps about 28-30 at the start. So I bundled up with tights, long sleeve under armor, running jacket, gloves, and a beanie. I was also wearing a balaclava around my neck that I planned to use on my head and face for the bike ride.
I knew my run speed had really come along so I decided to push it on the run. My 3 mile splits were 7:44, 8:23, and 8:57. Even though the run course in general goes downhill for the first half and then back up for the second, I need to work on my run pacing. I end up going out way too fast and then almost hanging out for dear life toward the end. I also noticed that with the sun out, the temperature was warming up pretty quickly so toward the end of the run, I peeled off my beanie and balaclava. Pleased with the overall run time of 25:36 which compared to 28:10 last year. Net gain of nearly 3 minutes.
T1 was a little faster than last year. 1:24 vs. 2:03. A net gain of about 40 seconds.
Bike was much more consistent than the run. Dumped the balaclava for fear of over heating and took off. The course has a couple slow grinding grades but then also a couple really nice fast sections. Total was 36:55 this year compared to 41:59 last year, a gain of over 5 minutes. Super pleased about that!
T2 was a little slower this year, losing about 30 seconds. 2:23 vs. 1:52. Not sure why exactly.
Swim was ok. Got caught behind a swim walker guy who in the deep end would doggie paddle then run in the shallow end so it took me a good 75 yards to finally get around him. Total this year was 8:39 compared to 9:06 last year. I know my swim is coming along and this just proves that the lessons are starting to pay off although I'm quite certain my kick was total crap yesterday.
Grand total: 1:15:00 this year compared to 1:23:11 last year.
So a year older and sliced 8 minutes off my time and PR'd by a bit over 3 minutes.
Until next time....
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.
The weather was originally forecast to be about 35-40 at race start but was actually a bit cooler, perhaps about 28-30 at the start. So I bundled up with tights, long sleeve under armor, running jacket, gloves, and a beanie. I was also wearing a balaclava around my neck that I planned to use on my head and face for the bike ride.
I knew my run speed had really come along so I decided to push it on the run. My 3 mile splits were 7:44, 8:23, and 8:57. Even though the run course in general goes downhill for the first half and then back up for the second, I need to work on my run pacing. I end up going out way too fast and then almost hanging out for dear life toward the end. I also noticed that with the sun out, the temperature was warming up pretty quickly so toward the end of the run, I peeled off my beanie and balaclava. Pleased with the overall run time of 25:36 which compared to 28:10 last year. Net gain of nearly 3 minutes.
T1 was a little faster than last year. 1:24 vs. 2:03. A net gain of about 40 seconds.
Bike was much more consistent than the run. Dumped the balaclava for fear of over heating and took off. The course has a couple slow grinding grades but then also a couple really nice fast sections. Total was 36:55 this year compared to 41:59 last year, a gain of over 5 minutes. Super pleased about that!
T2 was a little slower this year, losing about 30 seconds. 2:23 vs. 1:52. Not sure why exactly.
Swim was ok. Got caught behind a swim walker guy who in the deep end would doggie paddle then run in the shallow end so it took me a good 75 yards to finally get around him. Total this year was 8:39 compared to 9:06 last year. I know my swim is coming along and this just proves that the lessons are starting to pay off although I'm quite certain my kick was total crap yesterday.
Grand total: 1:15:00 this year compared to 1:23:11 last year.
So a year older and sliced 8 minutes off my time and PR'd by a bit over 3 minutes.
Until next time....
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.
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