Iron Clan part 2

A couple of weeks ago, Ironman Arizona took place.  From the looks of things, it was a perfect day for both the athletes and the spectators.  I was down there most of the weekend, volunteering, handing out Marathon Bars, and cheering on the athletes (my favorite part each year is the midnight finish.  This year, a girl finished in 16:59:53!).  This year, however, there were some bigger plans in the works.  This year, we were trying to make sure that we could set ourselves up for another event like we had at Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

In Coeur d'Alene, we raced at the "Iron Clan", because there was 6 of us racing (Captain, you would have made it 7!).  It was such an awesome time.  We had 2 people that finished their first Ironman, with one of them actually finishing his first triathlon ever!  And that is why he is now the Rockstar.  In fact, it was so inspiring, that we are attempting to do it again!  But we have added to our little group.  And this time we have another first-timer!  Everyone came down to Ironman Arizona this year to volunteer so we would be able to sign up all 9 of us.  Crazy!  Here's the roster:

The Rockstar

Old Wise One
Queen Bee (her first Ironman!)

The Captain

Pappy

Shred

IronWife

IronHusband

and myself

Amazingly enough, we all ended up getting registered, and now the only thing left to do is to figure out a new training plan!  I'm going to have high hopes for this one, first of all that it is a successful day for everyone, and secondly that I set a new PR.  Coming off the end of a pretty good year for myself (new PR's each time I raced!), I can only hope to build on that momentum and have another exciting day at next years Ironman Arizona!

But, until then, there's this Boston Marathon qualifying business I need to take care of...

And sorry if any of you "Iron Clan" peeps don't like your names...I'll accept small bribes to change them!

An interesting 18-miler

Last night I went to bed planning on waking up at about 5 am to get ready for a 6 am run.  On tap for the day was to be an 18-miler, with a average pace of 7:37/mile (per my training plan).  Well, as is usual with a 2 month old baby, I woke up at some point in the night.  And when I did, I had a very weird pain in my right knee.  Nothing major, but it was something I took note of.  Well, 5 am came up quickly, and I decided to hit that snooze button and made plans to *maybe* go for a shorter run once my daughter was off to school.

When she came and woke me up at 7 am, however, I didn't have that knee pain any more.  Huh?  Well, we got her all ready for school and my wife informed me that she was going to do some shopping all morning, so I could still do my long run if I wanted.  Well, I suppose I should...

I headed out the door and everything felt pretty well.  On these longer runs, I usually start out a little slower than my goal pace and speed up over the coarse of 3 miles, then on the fourth mile run slightly faster than race pace before I settle into my groove.  Then, to make up for the slow running at the front end, I usually try and push the pace for the last few miles.  Well, I ended up doing my first mile in 7:30, and didn't really feel like I was pushing, so I just held that pace.  Now I should mention that I did great for the first couple weeks of marathon training, then took about a week off.  So this was the first long run I've done, at this pace, in a while.

I felt wonderful up until mile 12.  By then I could tell that my legs were getting tired.  I also didn't really prepare for this run very well, so it very well could have been my lack on morning nutrition.  Either way, I was starting to hurt.  I was able to hold onto my goal pace until I hit mile 14.  I had run every mile in 7:30 or faster, and mile 14 I ran in 7:37.  My goal pace, right on the nose.  And it was tough.  As soon as I saw that, I broke mentally.  I decided to walk for 90 seconds.  I took in a ton of fluids, and when that 90 seconds was up, I felt a little better.

But my pace was much slower.  Miles 15 and 16 were both in the 8:30 range.  When I hit the end of mile 16, I had made peace with the fact that I was able to do 14 miles at or below my pace, and then had 2 crappy miles, but probably still averaged to be near my goal pace.  I had now decided that I was going to jog in the last 2 miles, nice and easy.  That was until I almost got hit by a car!

I was running across a driveway when a guy in a big truck came rolling up as he was looking down in his lap (probably texting).  Now, I've been running for a few years now, so I've learned to always look for cars coming out of the drive way (think about when you drive, you always roll all the way up to the corner, not usually stopping prior to where the sidewalk would be), so I had spotted this guy.  He saw me with about 10 feet left and slammed on his brakes, causing them to squeal.  I may have let him know what I was thinking at that particular time.  The positive of this whole thing was that it gave me a boost of energy!  I looked down at my watch and realized that I could possibly have enough time to finish exactly at my goal pace!

And then I got to the very next intersection.  I've had issues at this particular intersection before, with people coming up from behind and trying to turn right, with me in front of them.  So, again, I have learned to look for this exact scenario.  And of course, it happened.  I turned to look for cars about 10 feet before I entered the crosswalk and saw a silver SUV coming in the outer right-hand turn lane.  I enter the crosswalk cautiously, and turned to look directly at her.  She began turning and heading straight for me, so I threw my hands in the air to catch her attention.  She then slammed on her brakes, but was not concerned enough to get off of her cell phone.  It must have been a very important call!  And again, another boost of energy!

When I finished mile 17, I looked down at my watch to realize that I had right around 7 minutes to finish this last mile, and I would come in with a 7:37 average.  So I gave it all I had.  And as soon as mile 18 beeped on my watch, I stopped the time, began to walk, and checked out the average.  7:37/mile!  Woo hoo!

All of this is great, except for the fact that I am not going to be running again for another week at the earliest.  Oh well.  As long as I can continue to hit the target paces during the long runs, I will keep my hopes up for the late February marathon, when I am hoping to qualify for Boston!

2012 SOMA Triathlon recap

Well, this recap is a bit overdue...almost a month actually.  Like I wrote in my previous post (also a while ago), my life has become pretty busy as of late.  Anyway, no excuses.  Here's the recap!

I was a bit nervous for this race.  Well, maybe nervous isn't the right word.  Let's just say that my training had taken a back seat to some other important things (like the birth of my son!), so I felt as if I was going into this race very under prepared.  The nice part of the whole thing was that I really had no expectations because I knew that life had happened, and there wasn't a lot I could do about it.  I was just hoping to go out and have fun and do the best I could.

The race started at 6:30 am for the pros, and then my wave was supposed to start at 6:35.  I had a very relaxed pre-race routine, not really having expectations and all.  By the time I jumped in the water, I was feeling pretty ready to go, and was actually getting excited to see how the day would unfold.

The Rock Star and me before the swim...looking nervous due to my lack of training

SWIM

The swim started and I just went ahead and started near the back.  I really had done virtually no swimming (like maybe one swim workout per week) for the last couple months, so I was doing my best to not get in the way of the other people who had really put in the time.  I seemed to get in a pretty comfortable groove quite quickly, and just kept to myself and motored my way through the one loop swim course.  My final swim time was 40:33 for the 1.2 mile swim, which is pretty bad, even for me.  I've never been a fast swimmer, but I'm usually a bit faster than this.  However, I achieved my goal of getting through the swim without drowning, and actually felt really good when I exited the water.

T1

I exited the water and made my way to my bike.  I quickly changed and hopped on my bike to get the rest of this show on the road!  I had decided that since I hadn't really trained, and had no real goals, I was going to push pretty hard on the bike and just see what happened.  The beauty was that if I blew up, it was no big deal because I didn't have any goals!

cruisin' on the bike

BIKE

This bike course is not the greatest.  There's about a TON of turns, and a number of U-turns, making it pretty hard to get into a rhythm.  There's virtually no straight aways, which means not a lot of holding that aero position for long periods of time.  Oh well.  I kept on pushing, avoided having any flats (last time I did this race I had 2!), and ended up with a pretty decent bike split.  My time for the 56 mile bike course was 2:43:31, for an average of 20.55 mile per hour.  I actually felt great when I got off the bike, and was ready to get on to the run, which is usually my stronger of the events.  I hopped off my bike and ran over to switch my battle garb from biking to running.

T2

I got off my bike and hustled on over to re-rack it, and quickly changed my shoes.  This was probably one of the fastest transition times I've had.  The time on my Garmin said 2:05, but I know it was actually a little quicker than that because I hit the "lap" button before I got off my bike, and forgot to hit it right when I left the transition area.  Oh well.  Off to the run!

RUN

By this point, I could tell that I was going to be pretty close to setting a new PR, which is totally not what I expected for the day.  However, I knew that my run would have to pretty better than I was expecting.  On the plus side, I was still feeling pretty good!  I started the run and made a conscious decision to stop and walk for about 15 seconds at the first aid station.  My game-plan was to run at a solid effort to each aid station and then walk for anywhere between 10-30 seconds at each aid station, giving me time to get in my nutrition and give my legs a bit of a breather.  This was a 2-lap run, and I actually felt great until about mile 10.  It was at this point that I could feel my lack of training, and really had to work to try and hold a pace.

Thumbs up for feeling great so far!

The beginning of the second lap, and still feeling great

Throwing out some love to my support crew!

By the time I finished up the second lap, I was definitely spent.  I was way under-trained for this race, but I was still able to put up a decent enough effort to set a new PR!  My fun ended up being 1:45:22 for the 13.1 miles, which was 8:02/mile.

I finished with a time of 5:13:55.  This was good enough for 14th in my AG, 77th in the male category, and 93rd out of 666 total finishers!  I was very happy with my effort, and couldn't have asked for a better day under the given circumstances.

After the race, however, I felt like crap.  This is when I paid for the effort I put out, without being trained well enough.  I was pretty nauseous, and couldn't really eat or drink anything.  I occasionally get migraines, and I actually got one during the second lap of the run.  Luckily, it didn't effect my run much, but the aftermath really intensified the nauseous feeling that I was having.  But I'm proud to say that I still have a streak of no throwing up after a race!  I'm sure that streak will end some day though...

Now it's time to get ready for by Boston Qualifying attempt!  More details to come...

What just happened?

Just a short couple of months ago, I was getting ready for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, trying to keep my wife as comfortable as possible as she was incubating he newest member of our family, and trying to make sure I didn't neglect all the other aspects of my life.  I woke up today and all of the sudden, Ironman Coeur d'Alene is over, I have a new baby boy living in my house, and time seems to be a little more scarce to come by these days.  Ever since our little trip up to Idaho, time has really flown by!

A lot has happened in my life since that race, and it's actually very nice to be taking some time off of work to be at home with my family while we adjust to having this new little human to take care of.  He decided to make his grand entrance about two weeks ago, and record time.  My wife must have spectated too many triathlons while she was pregnant, because he is already working on moving as fast as possible!

And now that it's October, I have realized a couple things.  First, I apparently have a half-iron distance triathlon coming up in about two weeks.  I'm not even going to begin to pretend that I have trained appropriately for this race.  After the Ironman, I had every intention of keeping that fitness and seeing what I could really do at a shorter race.  Unfortunately, my body and mind had other plans.  I really needed a mental break, and because of this, I have not been as motivated to wake up at 5 am to work out.  All I can say is, hopefully I don't die in two weeks!  The other thing I've realized is that my next major goal will become a very real challenge at the end of this month.  Starting in the last week of this month, I will be embarking on another lofty marathon goal.  This time, I aim to qualify for Boston again.  However, the rules are a little different this time.

Because of the new qualification system, the time for my age group is now 3:05:00.  There is no longer the fifty-nine second grace period.  Also, runners are actually given slots based on how much they beat their required time by.  So, if I just squeak out a 3:04:59, I am likely to not actually get into the race.  To try and prevent this, I will be setting my sights a little higher.  And maybe too high.  I am aiming to run a 3 hour marathon.  For a lot of people, that's no big deal.  For me?  That's huge!

So that's that.  My plan is to again follow the Run Less Run Faster plan, because it served me so well last time.  Come the end of February/beginning of March, we will know the results!

Never get a flat again?

Think about it.  You go out for all of your bike rides, not really ever worrying about getting a flat.  And even better, you get yourself all set up for race day, extremely confident that one issue you won't have on race day is a flat tire.  How is this possible?  You ride solid rubber tires!  That's how!  But that wouldn't be comfortable, or fun, or smart, or any other positive word you can think of.  However, there may be a product that is very, very close to this dream...

A couple of days ago, I was talking to a coworker, and fellow cyclist.  He made a passing comment about "no tubes".  I initially assumed he just meant tubeless.  When I said that I still use tubes, he elaborated on his "no tubes" comment.  He said that this guy created some tubeless tire goo that instantly prevents any punctures from giving you a flat tire.  I replied that I already knew about "slime" and he said, "no, this stuff is waaaaaaay better...and actually works!"  Now, in Slime's defense, I haven't used it, so I can't actually speak as to it's effectiveness.  This coworker told me to just look it up on YouTube and my mind would be blown away.  So I did, and this is what I found...

If you couldn't see the video, go here to watch it.

I will admit, I'm pretty impressed.  Unfortunately, I don't have tubeless wheels, so I can't just go and buy this stuff to stick in my tires.  There is a conversion kit available, which would allow me to convert my clinchers to tubeless wheels, but it would be really nice to try it out, or even talk to a few more people who have used this product before shelling out the $200 for the conversion kit.

It seems as if this product has been around for a while, seeing as this YouTube video was posted back in 2008.  I tried to do some Googling for reviews, and the majority of people seem to be happy.  A few customers noted that the liquid evaporates over time, so there is a need to periodically refill the tires with more sealant.  The other issue that was brought up was that the liquid, over a longer period of time, might lead to oxidization of the wheel.  This could be a problem, as it could lead to the wheel becoming less stable.  However, Stan's claims that this is not an issue with their product.  

For me, I think it would be a great product to have in your training wheels, that you use almost daily.  You would be putting in so many miles without having to worry about a flat.  The question then becomes, is Stan's better than using the thorn resistant tires/tubes?  I don't know!  I guess my main concern is, if it's so great, why hasn't it gained more popularity?

What do you think?  Have you heard of Stan's, or even tried it out before?  Is it something you'd like to try?

Thanks for reading!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Recap - The Aftermath

I absolutely loved this race.  It was only my second triathlon outside of Arizona, and my first Ironman outside of Arizona (and obviously first Ironman that wasn't Ironman Arizona).  It was so much fun to be able to share this experience with a large group of people, all of whom support us athletes in our endeavors.  Even more exciting was that I got to be a part of Old Wise One's and The Music Man's first Ironman experience!  And even more impressive was that it was The Music Man's first triathlon ever!  Holy crap!  And on that note, I would just like to say how impressed I am with those guys.  They both came out and dominated their first Ironman race.  I'm thinking about changing their names from Old Wise One to Yoda, since he is now the Old Wise, and experienced, One, and from The Music Man to The Rockstar.

I ended up placing 35th in my age group, which really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.  What matters is how I feel I performed.  My swim was slow, and it is what it is.  I originally thought that my CdA swim was way slower that any of my other Ironmans, but I was wrong.  In fact, I swam a 1:19 at Ironman Arizona last year.  The difference was that I didn't have a 14:00 T1 at any of my other races.  I was very happy with my bike performance.  I may have pushed a little too hard on the first lap, but I laid off on the second lap to sort of make up for it.

As I hinted at yesterday, my goal has always been to run a 4 hour marathon in an Ironman.  Well, my run time was 4:00:21.  Not under 4, but soooo stinkin' close that I'll take it.  I'm absolutely happy with this run time.  I feel that I may have even been able to give just a little more during the second half, once I got over that mental wall, but oh well.  I missed my goal time by less that 1 second per mile.  I'm not sure I could have cut it much closer!

Thank you so much to everyone who supported me along the way, especially The Wife.  She's probably excited to have me not thinking about triathlons for a few weeks!  This was truly an experience of a lifetime, and I can't wait to race Ironman again in Arizona in 2013!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Recap - Run

I have mixed feelings about the run during an Ironman.  Running is probably my strongest individual sport (not that I actually have a strength in it!), but for some reason I can never put together a great run in an Ironman.  My goal is always a 4 hour marathon, and I am yet to accomplish that goal.  I have gotten better each time, but still haven't figured out the formula for a great run.  I was hoping that Ironman Coeur d'Alene would be different.

I finished up the bike feeling great, got off and jogged through transition.  My T2 time was 4:09, which is much better than the 14:00 that I had in T1.  My total race time at the start of the run was 7:26:01.  My goal was to start the marathon by 7:30:00, so I was now 3:59 ahead of my goal.  My plan for the run, which I was actually going to follow this time, was to run each mile, and walk for 45 seconds through each aid station.  We were told that there would be aid stations at "about every mile", so I trained walking at every mile.

I came cruising out of transition and ran my first mile in 7:49.  My goal pace for the marathon was 9:09/mile, so I had already put 80 seconds in the bank, but I knew that was way too fast of a pace.  I walked through the first aid station for my planned 45 seconds, and then continued my run at about an 8:30/mile pace.  Mile 2 ended up being in 8:23, which was much closer to my goal.  It was a pretty casual pace, and one that I felt I could keep up.  I had passed The Music Man and Old Wise One on the bike, so I knew I would be seeing them at some point after the turnaround on the run, which occurred at about mile 7.  I still had no idea where the rest of the group was though.

I made the turnaround, and was feeling pretty good all the way back into town.  I saw The Music Man, Old Wise One, Iron Husband, and Iron Wife on my way back into town, and they all were looking great!  I was at about the halfway point (13ish miles), and getting ready for the end of lap one, and beginning of lap two, and already starting to rely pretty heavily on the aid stations.  I reached the special needs bag area and kept on running, since I hadn't packed a special needs bag for the run.  It was somewhere around miles 12 to 14 (12.3 to 14.3 according to my Garmin) that I was in dire need of an aid station, and there were none to be found.  Yeah, there was no aid station for mile 13.  Let me tell you how much THAT sucked.  Had I known there would be a 2 mile gap in the middle of the marathon where there was no aid station, I would have grabbed an extra cup of water at the mile 12 aid station and carried it with me until mile 13.  But, there was nothing I could do.

I kept on chuggin' along, hoping to see an aid station around every corner, until I realized where I was on the course again and knew that the closest aid station was still a long way away.  It was at this point that the wind in my sails died down a little.  I could tell that missing that aid station had taken it's toll, and it was time to re-evaluate my plan.  I had stuck with my nutritional plan and pacing plan pretty perfectly up until this point, which was to drink water and Ironman Perform at every aid station, and a Power gel at every 4th aid station.  I decided to continue this plan through mile 16, and then I would remove the Power gel, and start using the Coke.  At mile 16, I took my final gel (and almost puked).  At mile 17 I added the Coke, and tried an orange (and almost puked).  At mile 18 I stuck with just the Coke, water, and Perform.  I ended up sticking with the liquids for the rest of the marathon.  I could tell that I was definitely getting tired, but I was on the home stretch. 

During one of my planned walks through an aid station, I decided to re-evaluate my time goal.  I was able to conclude that I could average 12:00/mile for the remainder of the race, and still set an Ironman PR.  So, I decided to walk for an extra fifteen seconds at each aid station.  Doing this seemed to help mentally, but I'm not sure that it did much for me physically.

I came around the last turn and saw the finish line down the road.  The beautiful thing about the Ironman Coeur d'Alene finish line is that it is downhill for the entire last straight away, allowing you to really put on a show (like you were running strong the whole run...ha!).  I turned that corner and immediately forgot about any pain that I was feeling and really opened up my stride.  Coming down that last straight away, I got my pace down to 7:05/mile!  I looked over my shoulder a few times to make sure another athlete wasn't going to pass me in the last few hundred yards, and slowed down so I didn't overtake the person in front of me right at the finish.  I was able to spot my family in the stands and veered over to them to give my daughter a high five on the way in.  I came across the finish line in a time of 11:26:22, which was a new PR by about 13 minutes.

Now that I've talked way too much about the run, here's another visual assault, only this time it is on the run!

Feeling great on the first lap!

Lap 1

Running by my family on lap 1

Old Wise One on lap 1

The Music Man, happy to be off the bike and running strong!

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

Iron Wife

Coming in at the end of lap 1, feeling great!

High fives for Team IronClan!

Feeling good!

It's always good to smile during the Ironman

And another high five!

Team IronClan!

And back to the race...

Coming around for lap 2!

Feeling good, but not as good after not having an aid station in mile 13...

The Music Man finishing up lap 1

The Music Man!

High five!

The Music Man passing by his mom

It's a bird...it's a plane...

It's Old Wise One!

Feeling great after 1 lap on the run!

Stopping by to check in with Team IronClan

Nothing but smiles for Old Wise One

And back to the task at hand

One lap down, one lap to go!

Starting lap 2!

Still excited after 13 miles!

The classic "thumbs up"

A random competitor with an M-dot shaved into his head!  Awesome.

 And tomorrow, the final portion of my recap...the aftermath!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Recap - Bike

After an embarrassing swim, it was time to get into my race.  I have never been a good swimmer, and I have accepted that fact.  My plan is usually to make it through the swim without wasting too much energy, and then make up time on the bike and run.  This bike portion, however, was going to be different than Ironman Arizona.  This bike portion had some serious hills in it.

I jumped on the bike and immediately got going.  I had no idea where my fellow IronClanners were, but I figured they were all ahead of me.  The bike is basically 4 out and backs.  There's a small one, followed by a long one (which contains the climbs), which equals 56 miles, and 2500 feet of climbing per lap.  Yikes!

Rather than write a ton about it, I'll just give you a visual assault of the bike, courtesy of The Wife:

Iron Husband Mark

Pappy

Pappy (it was colder during the first lap, so he had a jacket on)

Pappy

Pappy

Pappy

Pappy

Pappy

Iron Wife Beth

Iron Wife Beth

Me

Me

Me

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Me

Me

Me

Me

Me

Me

Me

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man (and Sean sporting the Team IronClan Uniform!)

Pappy

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

Me

Me

The Music Man

The Music Man

Me

Me

Me

Me

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Old Wise One

Iron Husband Mark

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man

Me

Me

Me

Me

The first lap on the bike was pretty awesome.  I averaged 20.3 mph, which was maybe just a little much, but I was feeling pretty good.  I was nailing my nutrition plan, and things seemed to be going great.  I had caught up to The Music Man at about the half way point of the first lap (the start of the first big climb), and saw that Old Wise One was just a couple miles ahead of me at the turnaround.  I hadn't seen anyone else out on the course, so I had no clue how they were doing.

During the second lap, the wind came out.  Nothing major, but just enough of a head wind that it made climbing up the hills even tougher, and we weren't able to really capitalize on the downhills following the climbs.  After the turnaround, though, it was pretty nice.  My top speed for the bike ride was actually on the very last downhill, and was 42.9 mph.  I ended up with an average speed of 19.32 mph and a time of 5:47:50.  The best part of the ride was that I started the bike in 89th in my AG, and ended up in 43rd in my AG after the bike was over, so I passed 46 guys in my AG on the bike!  Not too bad.

My only gripe with the bike course was the "no pass zones".  I don't mind that they existed, but rather how they were described at the athlete meeting.  In the meeting, the bike course director simply said "on the last downhill", which made everyone think it was the entire downhill, when in fact it was a very, very short section on the downhill.  There were signs on the course that I thought were very clear, but others did not see them.  So, on the entire downhill, other athletes felt that it was alright to no longer ride on the right, but rather ride on the left because they wouldn't be passed.  I actually had to repeatedly yell at a group of goofballs to move over, and ended up getting the middle finger flung my way.  It would have been much better if the bike course director was precise about the no-pass location, and what would be even better would be if it was described someone in the printed material!  Nowhere in the athlete guide did it mention any "no-pass" zones.  A map of the bike course could very easily highlight where these zones are.  Ok.  Enough of my ranting.

I think I did pretty well on this course.  My average cadence was 74, which is much slower than I wanted (more around 80), but oh well.  My heart rate average was 128 bpm, which is great for me!  Based on that heart rate, I may have even been able to push a little harder, but I was specifically trying to make sure I didn't kill myself for the run.

The aid stations were great, and the support was great.  Unlike Arizona, I didn't have to pee constantly (only once.  I know, TMI...), so that was a success.  And we had the great support of the rest of the IronClan group!

The Greats

My daughter, being a trooper on the early morning

My daughter with The Greats

Some of the homemade signage

The Greats, Grandma Ronda, and Auntie Rachel

Sean (Old Wise One's son) taking a power nap

Next up...the run!