Will the Normannator Repeat in Kona? Wed. - Fri. 10/12

Tomorrow is Super Saturday. The Big Kahuna. The Throwdown in Kona, Hawaii. It's the annual Ironman Triathlon World Championship. Hot, humid and usually windy. Swim 2.4mi in the ocean sans wetsuit, bike 112mi, run 26.2. It's hard to fathom anyone really racing over these distances, but they do. The pros start at 6:45, the 1500 or so age groupers at 7.

Cue the dramatic music and the Keith Jackson voice over...

Normann Stadler (German) is the reigning male champ, looking to nab his 3rd title. Michellie Jones (down undah) took her first crown last year. She won with an even race, strong across each discipline, took the lead in the bike and just kept cruising.

They say Normann wins it on the bike, can't run. In '06 he rode away from the field, building a 10+ min gap with a course record bike split of 4hr18mins (!), and capped it with a 2:55 run. In the IM world a sub 3hr marathon is downright fast. Sub 2:50 is amazing, and there may be a few of those. Sub 2:40 has never happened.

This year Normann and Michellie will be marked. Does any lady have the ability to stay in the same zipcode as MJ over the course of the day? The key strategy for the men will revolve around bike pacing. They are not likely to gamble that Normann will leave his run legs on the bike course, he's demonstrated the ability to back up even a crazy fast bike effort with a fast run.

Which is riskier - possibly trashing your legs on the bike to stick with him, or, holding back and hoping you'll have the better run legs sufficient to run down the rabbit? Might Normann blow up if riders stick with him and he goes harder than ever in order to create a cushion on the bike?
Will someone new assert themselves, have a dream day bubble up from within on the day of days?

Online streaming video coverage, ironmanlive.com. How'd ya like to be the color commentator tasked with filling roughly 10hrs?

Wed. 10-10
No exercise. Massage and chiro. Lara went hard on the spot by the knee corner and the achilles.

Thur. 10-11 S & B-R
Swim 6a-7a with Dan B
200 wup
Drills: Hip snap drill swimming with hands together stretched out front, zoomers on, snap hips 1/4 turn every few beats, go all the way around, change direction of snap roll every 25yds.
Stroke and glide - 100
Fist - 100yds
10x50 free on 1:30, alternate hard and moderate intensity (nondominant side breathing on mod efforts); hard efforts were :52-:49
100 Back stroke
Cool 100 free

Run-Bike in eve
Run steady 40mins, ~5.5 mi, relaxed 6min trans to bike.
Bike – QR trainer easy ride

Entire workout (165 watts):
Duration: 44:31
Work: 442 kJ
TSS: 41.5 (intensity factor 0.748)
Norm Power: 172
VI: 1.04
Distance: 14.585 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 243 165 watts
Heart rate: 93 152 139 bpm
Cadence: 32 93 85 rpm
Speed: 3 22.4 19.7 mph

Fri. 10-12 R & S
Run 56/60mins steady, ~7.5mi, 3-4min pause to assist an elder neighbor who was helpless to get a trunk full of groceries inside. Start and end run at MAC

Swim 40mins. Warmup free, Side swim, hip snap, fist, 3x100 on 2;45 (2:10, 2:05, 2:05), 3x50 on 1:30 (all ~:52); 150 kick board, cool free

Tooosday 10-9

DeSoto American Triple T ("TTT"), I'm officially in. Woohoo!
(Gulp.)

Weekend of May 23, 2008. Memorial Day I believe. It's filling fast. First time I've ever registered this far in advance. Plenty of time to get the knee into grade A condition. Feeling good about that, as I seem to be getting a handle on it.

No clue what else I'll treat myself to next year. Would kinda like to return to Savage Mountain at 100% next September. Geneva in July will remain on my radar. That would give me 7 weeks between. Not bad, we'll see. Thankfully, I can hold off till well into '08 before the other two threaten to fill.

I heard a phrase recently, one of those susceptible to broad application. I'll cast it over the notions of perspective and relativity. Roughly, "remember your ceiling is someone else's floor." Or is it "your floor is someone else's ceiling?" Either way. As far as endurance ability and hardassedness, re TTT, I'll be spending 3 days on the TTT course with folks whose athletic floor is my ceiling.

Swim of 45mins this evening. Mix of drills and mindful freestyle.

Weekend of 10-6-07

Haile Gebrselassie, 34 years old, Ethiopa
2:04:26 (4:45 mi avg!!)
A new Marathon World Record by 29seconds
9-30-07 Berlin Marathon

I think I might be a coffee wuss, re my recent post on my java luv.
The Wussification.

Gebrselassie pictured above is a welcome counter to the Marion Jones events. HG has dominated at shorter distances as well. 10K gold in Atlanta in 1996. World Champ as early as 1993. Plays himself in the 1999 film about his life Endurance. Known for his efficient, beautiful run form. This guy absolutely flies and looks effortless doing it. Also holds the current 20K world record.

A nice warm weekend of work and exercise for me. Best bike rides in weeks.
Registration opens today for the May, 2008 Desoto American Triple T weekend of racing in Shawnee State Park, Portsmouth, OH.
Limited to 300 it will fill rapidly. I'm oh soo close to hitting the register button on line. Three days of triathlon (droooool). Starts with short stuff Fri, ends with a Half IM distance Sun.

It's another one of those races on my All Time Must-Do list. Recall that the long distance duathlon American Zofingen was on that list but I opted out of it due to my knee. That will be held for the last time next weekend. Not happening in 2008. So, why not cross the DeSoto TTT off the list in '08? I'll mull it for another 24.

Fri. 10-5 Run & Swim
Run 47mins, ~6.3mi
Swim 43 mins, drills and free.

Sat. 10-6 Bike-Run-Swim
Worked a half day. Mid 80’s, pretty humid.
Bike – Yes! 2hr20min. Best ride since before Savageman. 2hrs before any knee noise, then it whispered “Hello mate, nothing urgent, but I’m still here” now and then over the remaining 20mins. Very happy about this. Longest ride I’ve attempted in weeks. Even did some up tempo but controlled time standing up on the hills.

~6min trans to run

Run ~37mins, ~5mi.
Swim very easy recovery swim, 25mins, low level effort, focus on form, easy drills and fre

Sun. 10-7 Run & Swim
Work half a day. Run 69mins, ~9.5mi, mi 8 in 6:42. Ran it fairly frisky throughout, pushed it intentionally for just a single mile. ~85F, bit of humidity.
30mins stretch and recovery and refuel.
Swim Swim 35mins mix of drills, some with zoomers, easyish free

Mon. 10-8 Bike
(Columbus Day) Worked a short day and got out on the bike for ~90mins.
Another exquisitely knee-free ride! Near 90F. Lovin' it.

Wed. 10-3 & Thur. 10-4

Zoomers

Wed. 10-3
Off, massage and chiro.

Thur. 10-4 Swim a.m.; Bike & Run p.m.
Swim 6a-7a
Dry work to start - yoga type - toe touches, reach for sky, downward dog moves to engage some of the swim muscles.
Into the pool. Lines set up for yards not meters, 25yd instead of 25meter lengths – probably worth at least a couple secs per length for me.

1. 200 easy free warm up
2. 5x50 kick, hands out front on kick board holy hip flexors!
   
3. 5 drills (below) (2x50 of each) (wearing Zoomers)
   
4. 5 x 50 free hard controlled efforts (:52 down to :48)
5. 100 easy free cool down

Kick work of any kind is all new to me. Setting aside the triathletes-don't-need-to-kick playbook. I need to go from one big sloppy inefficient and poor propulsion kick to a tight little flutter with floppy feet and loose ankles. At least that's the goal. I'm not flexible any where, esp not at the ankles, hazard of coming from a running background.

Drills:
Side kick: Kick with one arm extended straight ahead of shoulder, opposite arm by your side, breath opposite of the extended arm. Body position is suspended from the hips, the goal is to stay as high on the water as possible.

Single arm: Stroke with one arm only, with the non-stroking arm by your side, hold the extension phase of the stroke for a couple of seconds, breath to the non-stroking side, rotate from the hips evenly left and right.

Stroke and glide: Stroke with both arms, hold one arm by your side and the other arm extended for a couple of seconds before taking a stroke, breath on both sides.

Catch-up: Leave front arm extended until the recovery arm is extended then stroke (don’t touch hands), breath on your non-dominant side.

Fist: Full stroke, leave your hand clenched in a fist feel for the most resistance against the forearm during the pull (don’t rush the stroke)

The first 3 drills are kicking drills. Emphasis is on keeping the body high on the water. The hips are the hub for all movement. Hand entry should be just short of full extension, and at 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock.

Evening
Bike
QR trainer, short easy ride before run, no knee troubles.

Entire workout (153 watts):
Duration: 46:35
Work: 427 kJ
TSS: 37.4 (intensity factor 0.694)
Norm Power: 160
VI: 1.04
Distance: 14.784 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 209 153 watts
Heart rate: 72 143 130 bpm
Cadence: 38 94 87 rpm
Speed: 3 21 19.0 mph

Run

Run 30mins, ~4mi after 5mins trans from ride.

The Other Vitamin C

Coffee! Yeah for caffeine!

It's not evil. Really. A fairly recent article on the pro/cons. As vices go it may not be so bad.

If you're a coffee drinker you probably have a personal preference for your palate. Me? I'm no coffee connoisseur or java snob, but I do know what I like. I take my tasty rocket fuel cold processed and cold in hand.

1lb of coarsely ground fresh coffee. Choose your fave bean or brand.
Put it all in a big pitcher, add 10-12 cups of cold water. Stir a bit.
Stick it in the frig over night.
Filter the grounds as you pour it into another pitcher, and you're left with a sizable batch of potent delicioso. Condensed coffee. If you haven't killed it in a week or so, pour the remainder into an ice cube tray, and (what else) freeze it.

I pour a half a coffee cup (3-4oz) of the dark nectar into a BIG glass already chock full of ice. Add some soy or cow juice if you like. I use soy, and I add some water to further dilute the mix and top off the glass. I sweeten with a couple drops of liquid stevia extract, no need for sugar or any fake stuff.

The stevia, the lack of heat brewing, the soy milk - these all undermine the acidity that usually is carried with a standard cup of coffee.

Smoothies

The topic of smoothies has come up recently.

I like mine cold and thick, so I use a blender. I don't get too sports geeky with it, but if you're of that mind, 4:1 ratio of carbs:protein is the way to go.

My typical blend is something like:

• 1 sliced banana
• handful of ice cubes
• fruit juice (cran, rasp, red grape) or soy milk depending on mood (fruity or creamy)
• frozen berries (blue, black, rasp, cherries)
• other fruit I may have around (kiwi, frozen mango chunks)
• start blending, add a bit of water as needed
• add a scoop of protein powder as it churns, I use this
• maybe a scoop of Green stuff (I get it much cheaper locally)
• sometimes a teaspoon of Manuka Honey
  

For a few other recipes, click here.

Cousteau? Spitz? Non.

Local news coverage of The Nation's Tri here (2min nbc video). Hey, it's the duty of every tri triber to promote the sport. Just doing my bit. Mayor Fenty raced. The video includes some footage of him racing and a post race quote. Look, the fact of the matter is (TM, J. Biden) it's pretty cool to see a fit urban mayor coming out of the water in a triathlon.

That bargain buy Oregon Action Cam is indeed water proof. Engineered an under water mount and voila - je suis le Jacque Cousteau of the local pool.
















My swim technique, er, lack thereof, will hopefully be much improved come spring '08. I really did not think it was as bad as apparently is the case. Perception is most certainly not reality when it comes to what the body is doing when in water. I sure feel more straight and streamlined along the surface than the video shows. I've seen good swimming, this ain't it.

So, indulge my inner Cousteau (or Clouseau), and the wet vid test, edited down to 25secs starting and finishing a lap breathing to my right and then one breathing left.

Follow our camer-ahz into zee blue chlorine waht-airs in pursoot of zee elusive "finless pale flopp-aire," mannis nonswimmerrus, one of zee breath taking one-dares of the suburban aquatic atmose-fair.

Diz creature is deceptively slow moving despite the fervor of his movements, throwing his limbs about. It is an optical illusion of sorts, as he remains in nearly one spot despite all of this apparent effort. He iz too slow to catch food. How-eff-air, he survives quite adequately scavenging on land.

Once in zee watt-aire he would be easy prey for any predator, eh? Non! Like a drunk Republican ducking a minority audience, he dodges all potential predators. Savvy is this creature. Watch as he throws his feet about, twisting his torso haphazardly while he over shoots his hands to enhance the zigzag effect. Would be predators turn away in fear of contagion.


[annoying Clouseau mode off]

For the runners out there, a distance running highlight compilation. Careful, it just might produce goose bumps and the desire to head out for a feisty cruise.

Inspired on the Sidelines

Spent about 90mins observing runners over the last mile of The Nation's Triathlon (1500meter Potomac River swim, 25mi bike, 6.2mi run).

Worked till 10a, got to Pennsylvania Ave. at 10:30 to see the middle and back of the pack racers. Saw some folks really gutting it out, a handful particularly inspiring, esp a few military guys in wheelchair and below the knee amputees.

Great day for the race, all reports are it went well and may become an annual event. This was year 2, last year was run-bike-run due to swim permit issues.


Headed back to my desk for a little work then a run and swim.
Run 72 min, ~9.5+ mi, including a couple frisky 6:5x miles near the end.
Swim 25 min drills.

Wed. - Fri. 9-28

New Cycling event? "Tour of America"? Sorry sir, but yes, you are crazy.

I just hope you are crazy enough to pull it off. Good luck luring pro teams to a 27 stage 4000+ mile race late next summer. Do that math - some very (shudder) long days. That little 2200 mi tour the frenchies put on in July leaves many a rider abandoning, crawling onto the bus well before the final miles into Paris.

May head into work tomorrow and take a break to spectate at The Nations Triathlon for a bit.

Here's the training update...

Wed. 9-26
Off. Massage and chiro.
Massage - Deep work on the top glutes, fairly deep ITB and achilles. Good movement in the chiro adjustments

Thur. 9-27 Swim a.m., Run Easy & tiny Bike Easy p.m.
Made it to the swim 6a session at GP.
200m+ warmup
Drills focusing on turning from the hips and kick work. Start with swim with hands straight out in front, one on top of another, snap from the hips to turn a 1/4 turn at a time, turn every few kicks, get a rhythm going. Some with and without zoomers.

Next, a best effort 500M time trial - 11:10. My benchmark time to measure progress.

Vertical kick and rotate drill - treading water without using arms (hands at sides) and using a swim flutter kick, snap from hips and turn body a 1/4 turn every 15 secs. 3 x 90 secs. This was tough.

200m easy swim breathing to off side, less dominant side (my left).

Left outer upper knee corner area come-and-go achy before and after swim.

Total actual swim ~45mins, distance ~1200m

Run 44mins easy, ~5.75mi, no Achilles trouble, knee spot not really there either.

Bike very easy ~25 mins while mess around with action camera trying to get an angle to record pedal stroke video looking for horizontal knee movement, alignment issues. Knee spot maybe starting to come on a bit at end.

Also, cooked up a fresh set of the OTC heat moldable SOLE red cycling shoe inserts. 2 mins at 200F in the oven then pop ‘em in the tri shoes. Finally used the 2^nd set purchased in the 2-for-1 deal 2yrs ago.

Fri. 9-27 Swim-Run
Swim - 40mins p.m., catchup, drill: hands forward and rotate body snap side/up switch sides every length with zoomers, mix of catch up & then free to end. Really focused on starting the stroke from the hip, a snap of a rotation, be a turning pencil, stay long. Starting to get the feel for the zoomers and able to notice variances in kick technique.

Run - 45 mins after drive home from pool, ~6mi, felt pretty good kept effort steady, slightly above true easy, no friskiness. No Achilles at all. Knee slightly achey all day, same old story, no bother running, kick work in pool may stress it.

9-20-07 - 9-25-07

The latest experiments in the ongoing search for the perfect saddle.

Not doing much, filing the race season as done, making it 2-3 weeks essentially off but for some swimming and that will be minimal.

Fri. 9-20
Off

Nat's game with the Youngest Of Six. One of the last baseball games to be played at RFK Stadium, final game is Sun. Very nice night, pretty much perfect. Close to 80F, not very humid. Seats low down in the 500 level looking down on the first base line. Phillies win, 6-3. Hill gave up all 6 runs. Good thing about going to the ball game: if it's a tight game you can get into it, pay rapt attention, if not then it's perfect background for chatting.

Sat. 9-21
Run easy steady 62mins, ~8mi, Beach path.

Dinner at Devereaux with B in town. Another comfy night, dined on the VIP back patio. Excitement for the Ireland trip is building. Lodging reservations may be nailed down soon, esp with travel expert B on the job.

Sun. 9-22
Bike-Run easy
Fuji outdr, knee feeling it after ~50mins, built from there. Was just a flat Beach Dr. cruise, super easy effort, everything controlled. Regardless, no luck with the knee.

Entire workout (153 watts):
Duration: 1:34:17 (1:37:25)
Work: 865 kJ
TSS: 85.5 (intensity factor 0.738)
Norm Power: 170
VI: 1.11
Distance: 27.401 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 421 153 watts
Heart rate: 87 158 132 bpm
Cadence: 21 109 74 rpm
Speed: 2.8 29.8 17.5 mph

Run
Run after bike, knee okay running 50mins, ~6.75mi, mi 5 fast. Run was kind of a venting session, blowing off bike-knee frustration.

Mon. 9-23
Off, extended stretching and roller

Tue. 9-24
Run easy 45mins, ~6mi, left achilles barking at me now and then, not sharp bnut more than just "there", enough so I stopped to massage it twice.
Core 15mins

Recovery week of Mon. 9-17

Savage Mountain levels out. Finally.
Damn knee warmers just would not stay up.

Mon. 9-17 & Tue. 9-18
No exercise. Pretty sore and tight all over, only nasty spot is the left knee on the side, by the top outer corner of the knee and less so for a few inches up from there. Knee spot hurts sharply when stand up from low seated position.

Wed. 9-19
Right out of bed feeling much much better all over, even knee.
Run easy 35mins in eve.

Thur. 9-19
Start coached swim program. Tue. & Thur. 6a-7a. Starting next week would've been better, but the schedule is not under my control, and it's too perfect to pass up, held at a very convenient school pool (G'town Prep). Form drills, some with short swim fins "zoomers" first time I've ever used any fin. Then 4x100 descending, Started at 2min20secs, last one at about 2:17.
Can I get my daily dose of inner peace thru physical exhaustion thing via swimming? Hmmmm.

30min visit to the massage therapist. Worked fairly hard on trouble spots. Thinks could be irritated tendon, tendonitis. Tight connecting muscles/tissue chains (IT Band, thigh, hammies) pull on tendon, tendon resists, pulls back into itself, gets irritated when keeps getting pulled on as in lengthy bike ride. Bent knee is max pull situation. Address this with stretching and self massage (foam roller, etc.), ice, and TLC in general.

Geeky look back at more Savageman race data. I can do this for days, maybe even weeks.
Cals consumed on bike = ~950 = 260cals/hr avg during race

HammerGel: ~450cals
E-Gel: ~140cals
1 banana: ~120cals max
2 water bottles
Perpetuem drink mix: ~150cals
.4 clif bar: ~110 cals

Cals expended on the course.
swim - est'd 400
bike - 2140
Run - 1300
Total - ~3900

Bike Data

Entire workout (165 watts):
Duration: 3:36:15 (3:39:40)
Work: 2139 kJ
TSS: 262.1 (intensity factor 0.853)
Norm Power: 196
VI: 1.19
Distance: 56.357 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 421 165 watts
Heart rate: 84 228 144 bpm
Cadence: 26 102 70 rpm
Speed: 2.3 38.1 15.6 mph

Small moments. As I remember them.

Mature knitter sitting in her oh-so-comfy looking folding chair at the top of the park road hill, cheering in a relaxed fashion and knitting. Told her I expected that purple sweater to be ready for a fitting when I came around on lap 2. She let me down, clearly not a NYC knitter.

Realizing that 12th in my AG would've been 4th in the 30-34.

Tortuous signage along the Savage Mountain bike climb. Provoked some of the darker comments exchanged between bikers. Sour but funny even at the time. Bitter grinners.

Rider 1 struggling up the road, as rider 2 comes up on him - "Whew" (huff) whew (puff) "plenty of damn climbin' eh?,"
Rider 2 puffing, wheezing, bent over putting everything into every pedal stroke head shaking, spits out a single angry syllable "fark!" (or something).

Rider A to anyone in earshot, announcing he's not a fan of the handmade mile markers lovingly posted on the roadside along the climb. "Enough with the f%#@! signs, I don't want to know I've got 4miles to go to the summit at a mother f&%$!@ing 11% grade!"

Rider X - "I was hunched over the bars and sucking wind so hard up that thing I think my tongue about caught in the front spokes."

Me knocking out the 7.1mi climb in 40mins 48scs for a 10.3mph avg speed and 24th fastest ascent out of 158.

The pics are courtesy of a triathlete who puts his pro grade pics out free for personal use by racers (aaronpics.com). Enjoy.

Mile 5 of the bike. Cold!

One lap down, one to go.
That's my Clint Eastwood squint.

Savageman Tri & Another Home Media Experiment

Action Cam.
Hold it in hand, mount it on something stationary, or, moving. Watch out Scorcese.

Apologies if I am testing the download capabilities of your system and/or your patience. I don't really know what I'm doing at all, if you haven't picked up on that yet. Feedback on the content, the format or tech stuff, ways to make it less cumbersome on the user - all welcome and appreciated.

Nevertheless, for the investment of a little time and, so far, about $170 in equipment (voice recorder, action cam, batteries) I can now burden unsuspecting clickers with still pics, audio of my voice, and now... home video. It's aim and shoot with the vid cam, no viewfinder. A weak microphone. Not sure if I'll keep the thing.

The Half Iron distance race yesterday was at least as tough as I suspected. Rather sore all over today. The race was cold and hilly in a nutshell. Hilly enough that it may indeed be the hardest half iron distance tri in the world. According to tri veterans on hand "The World's Toughest Half" in Oregon may have been dethroned.

Hills, hills, hills and then a few more hills. Cold. Race day temp spread was hi 30's early and peaking in hi 50's. Made for some teeth chattering and shivering on the bike when I wasn't working hard on an uphill. Sunny most of the day, little wind. The most significant data of the day - water temp was pretty warm, maybe near 70, thankfully.

I'm about ready to divorce my left knee, drafting the papers as we speak. We argued ever more bitterly and loudly over the the final 2hrs of the 3hr40m I spent on the 56mi bike. I pleaded for peace, babied it, went easy, telling myself it'd leave more fuel in my tank for the run anyway. Once I got off the bike, I had no knee issues for the entire 1hr58mins of my 13.1mi run time.

Dif in water v air temp made for lake surface fog early in the morn on Sun. A pic of fog and no fog swim start area below.

Day before the race, the swim start area in the afternoon.

Lots of dour looks at the Sat. race info meeting when I took the pic above. It was mid 40's gray and windy at the time, sure kept the meeting moving along.

Race morning.
Swim start area ~90mins before the 8a.m. gun.
Those boats are bass fishermen, great timing for their tournament, eh?

It was an in-water start. Line between the orange buoys, one in the pic and one another 50 yards off shore, then swim to the upper left .6 mile, turn around and swim back. Fog was thick enough that I could not see more than 20 yards in any direction. Made sighting the buoys fun, er, impossible.

Took my time drying off and donning lots of layers before rolling out on the bike.

The choice end-of-the-rack transition set spot.
My bike and race gear pile, pre-race.

Mayor Fenty was #64, with me #63 we were rack neighbors. He beat me out of the water, no achievement there, ha. I caught him at mi 40 of the bike. Found out he dnf'd. Letting down the District, tsk, tsk. Not sure if he attempted any of the run. My guess is he packed it in after the bike.

He was not alone. Only 101 individual racers (non-relay team folks) finished. There were a lot of people forced to dismount and walk their bikes up the steep hills, others resorted to doing the paperboy weave back and forth across the road to slowly get to the top. Likewise, lots of walking going on during the run. Not to mention some dry heavers and full out chunk blowers on both courses as well. Makes you feel studly when you roll past vomit trails. As stories start to emerge, it seems many pros and elites really "raced" the course like a typical Half, and paid the price: dnf-ing, doing a finish line bonk - thanks, don't mind me, I'm just gonna curl up over here on this open patch of parking lot pavement.

There was a unique award for the quickest ascent of the 7.1mi Savage Mountain climb that gets the real bike fun started around 18miles into the course. I managed 24th out of 158 total riders who made it up the climb. 40min48secs, 10.29mph.

Otherwise, pretty middlin race in terms of placement.
37th out of 101 finishers.
31 out of 85 men (Note - I got chicked by 6 ladies!!)
12th out of 17 finishers in my 35-39yr old AG (21 started, 4 dnf)

Swim 47:29 (94th out of 101 finishers; 17th out of 17 in my AG)
T1 11:26
Bike 3:39:52 (10th out of 17 finishers in AG)
T2 3:06
Run 1:57:40 (20th overall of 101 solo racers; 17th among 85 men; 6th out of 17 in AG) (about a 9min mi pace)
Total - 6hr 39mins 33secs.

Meanwhile, back in Rock Creek Park near the beltway, Dublin-man threw down a 1:52 half mary (8:36 pace avg) in a prep race for the target marathon. Well done! Let's hope I got a few of those genes.

The audio below is 4mins 13 secs recorded on my drive home Sun.
The video experiment is roughly 30 secs, shows race start area including me stepping in and taking the above fog pic. No relationship btwn the audio and video.

Friday 9-14-07 Resting & Recording

Benny Vansteelant RIP

No workout today. Drive to Deep Creek tomorrow for Savageman this Sunday. Will do a short bike-run at race site tomorrow to verify bike is in good order and move the legs a bit.

Getting amped up, will be the most challenging course I've ever raced, and probably the longest day.
Along Savage River, over Savage Mtn. It's a savage course and it may come packaged with savage weather. Appropriate, eh? 40's at start, maybe up to 60 by the end. But no precip predicted.

The few lbs I've put on with decreased training over the last 3 weeks may come in handy as insulation. Knee complaints forced a more extreme taper than I would've preferred. Good chance I'll be DFL out of the water, as I'm in the last of 3 race start waves.

The tough course makes race planning simple. No point in heart rate zones and caps, bike power targets, or run pacing goals. Just eat and drink when possible, to the tune of at least 1000 cals while riding and a few hundred on the run.

Indulge a philosophical moment… from triathlon racing and training as a hobby/lifestyle, to blogging, to distractions of the inner - living an examined, introspective life, becoming "self aware" and similar mental gyrations… These all seem luxuries only possible when one is not consumed with surviving. Gift of birth - in the developed world to good parents.

One Last serious tangent, an amazing athlete is no longer.
Benny Vansteelant, Belgian duathlete extraordinaire died this week at age 30.
Tiger Woods has nothing on this guy.

• World Championship Duathlon (short distance):
• Winner (4): 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004
• World Championship Duathlon (long distance):
• Winner (4): 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006
• European Championship Duathlon:
• Winner (5): 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007

This audio below: me talking to to myself as I ride my bike, recorded in Rock Creek Park, mostly tri talk, a favorite topic for the immediate audience - me. Listen at your leisure and your own risk, it's 14+mins you'll never get back. High lights include a challenge to the Mayor and leaf blower rant. Surf the net, cook, clean, fold clothes, herd cats. Put it in the background and do something productive.

Wed. 9-12-07
Run-Swim-Run

Run 22mins to pool, ~2.7mi.
Swim 36mins steady start with catchup, then free, split laps breathing right side then left, final few laps all right side.
Run 22mins home, ~2.7mi

Thur. 9-13-07
Bike EZ & Swim EZ
Fuji outdoors in Rock Creek, talking to myself and pedaling easy. ~77, sunny, low humidity.

Entire workout (132 watts):
Duration: 1:18:58 (1:22:03)
Work: 626 kJ
TSS: 54.7 (intensity factor 0.645)
Norm Power: 148
VI: 1.12
Distance: 21.688 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 439 132 watts
Heart rate: 73 147 124 bpm
Cadence: 27 95 75 rpm
Speed: 2.5 26.5 16.5 mph

Swim 20mins easy.

Audio test

Below is a link to a fairly cheesy and boring test recording to see if I can put some audio on my blog. It's a little over 1 min.

Clicking on the icon below will take you to my just created public media account on twango.com, a media hosting web page, where you can click on a similar icon to play the recording. This will cause your pc to open it with whatever media software you have, such as QuickTime.

This is a TEST people, future audio content can only get better. Listen to this cheese if you wish, it may not be around long. Delete is a beautiful thing.

Yes, you may hear some low electronica tunes in the background - that's down home engineering for ya.

Tuesday Run-Bike short

Tue. 9-11 Run-Bike
Run steady, tad frisky, 40mins, ~5.4mi.
Hi 70's, gray almost foggy, humid, had rained earlier, no wind, nice run weather. Would be a good night to catch some night crawlers I bet.

Bike
QR trainer ride after ~4min trans from run.
Easy ride, stayed seated almost entire time, a few stretches of steady+ riding at 190-210w. Tired to generate some feeling of lactic acid and get the LA clearing process opened up and flowing.
No achilles noise. Knee itb quad spot pretty much silent as well.

Entire workout (169 watts):
Duration: 50:54
Work: 515 kJ
TSS: 49.5 (intensity factor 0.764)
Norm Power: 176
VI: 1.04
Distance: 16.722 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 286 169 watts
Heart rate: 96 156 137 bpm
Cadence: 25 94 87 rpm
Speed: 3.2 23.2 19.7 mph

Swimmin' with the fish

Mon. 9-10-07
Day off for the legs.
Swim 45mins, Core 10mins.
Catchup and steady free. Got a spot in one of 2 lanes available, other 10 lanes in use for swim team practice. Had to be 60-75 kids in there whipping up a small chop. That along with the 3 aging sharks sharing my lane (politely lapping me again and again) combined for a bit of an open water race day sim effect.

Weekend of 9-8 & 9-9

Saturday 9-8 Bike & Swim
Bike - Fuji outdr out to Seneca store and back via River. High 80’s, humid and sunny. Pretty comfortable on the bike tho, not feeling “hot.” Steady effort at most. Knee: bad but not terrible.

Good ride as a reminder to eat/drink more. MORE!! Dropped 3+lbs in only 2.5hrs. Didn’t feel bonky or anything, but, how many times must I relearn this lesson.
Chronic discrete amnesia. Sounds almost scientific.

Beneficial flipside of CDA? facilitate taking on tough physical challenges, maybe even essential for the killer events like marathons and mountain climbing, the stuff that typically hurts enough that you don't go back until the pain file is sufficiently deleted. Maybe elite athletes are super-amnesiacs, endure and forget. And on another level all together, any woman who goes through childbirth more than once. (!) Or, maybe it's all just selective deletion.

Entire workout (165 watts):
Duration: 2:30:52 (2:31:10)
Work: 1493 kJ
TSS: 159.1 (intensity factor 0.796)
Norm Power: 183
VI: 1.11
Distance: 45.978 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 369 165 watts
Heart rate: 81 165 140 bpm
Cadence: 27 100 75 rpm
Speed: 2.2 40.1 18.3 mph

Swim
Easy recovery swim ~1hr after bike.
Got out when arches started getting touchy, cramps coming on.

Sunday 9-9
Run - 1hr20mins, ~10.7mi, from home out and back on rock creek path along beach dr. High 80's, humid, no wind to speak of. Highish avg HR - attribute to warm conditions, up-tempo pace/effort for miles7-8-9.
No achilles noise. A little left knee/itb/quad area hum but background at most when it was there. Side of knee and lower spot was feeling funky, strained, tight, maybe out of wack, last night and a bit of same out of bed today but faded over day. Did not run until 4:30.

mi 7 - 7:03/157HR
mi 8 - 6:56/160HR
mi 9 - 6:44/161 (not sure this mi marker is accurate, mfelt more like 6:50-55 pace at best)

Opt out of swim after 6 consec days. Used the time to clean house, dishes, laundry, groceries, taking a feng shui run at shuffling some furniture around.

Friday 9-7-07 Run-Swim-Run

Fri. 9-7-07
Run-Swim-Run

Run 45mins steady to pool, ~6mi, no achilles noise, left itb/quad/knee area "there" now and then in the background. Hi 80's and humid. No oomph but not heavy legs either.

Swim 40mins after 5min trans from run.
Catchup 10-15mins; steady free with 4 x (50 hard/50 easy); 1x 100 hard.
50's were 1:07-1:13.

Five consec days of swimming. Keepin' it rolling.

Run 22mins home from pool after 5 min trans from swim, ~2.8mi.
Front of ankles full/tight after swim, not used to being stretched out like a fin/paddle as happens when swimming.

30sec clip of a gal giving it her all trying to get up the first steep pitch at the start of the 7+ mile climb on the Savageman bike course. This clip shows the final stretch of 5 blocks uphill through a hillside neighborhood in Westernport, MD. The top block is permanently closed to vehicles, known as the "Westernport Wall."

45sec clip of a successful attempt. There is hope! :)

This 25-30% grade stretch is a doozy of a way to start 45 mins of pedalling uphill. Neither of these vids really does it justice. I am looking forward to it and I'm not sure I want to know why.

Thursday 9-6-07 Bike-Swim

Thur. 9-6
Bike-Swim
Bike QR trainer, easy spin, no standing, all sitting up, just getting the legs moving and praying for no knee discomfort.
Fortune shined, left knee ITB/quad spot was just barely there at end of ride. No sharp chirps. Me happy.

Entire workout (157 watts):
Duration: 55:04
Work: 518 kJ
TSS: 45.9 (intensity factor 0.707)
Norm Power: 163
VI: 1.04
Distance: 17.615 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 218 157 watts
Heart rate: 76 138 126 bpm
Cadence: 34 94 85 rpm
Speed: 2.9 21.3 19.2 mph

Swim

Project Prune continues. Day 4.

~33mins easy-steady session after bike.
Catchup, free. Some sighting practice, high elbow focus.

Wednesday 9-5 Run-Swim-Run

More album/poster art.

Wed. 9-5

Swim binge day 3. Goal is at least ten swims before 9/15, no consecutive days without a swim, ideally no dry days at all.

Run 35 mins steady to pool, ~4.6mi, no zip in the legs, but not feeling weak or fatigued either. No left knee/ITB/quad spot noise. Left achilles "there" now and then toward end of run.

Swim 36mins, ~15mins catchup, 20mins free, just steady swim, nearly all right breathing, no groove happening yet. Trying to roll evenly, keep elbows high to surface and forward of palms. Not really succeeding on either front there.

Run 20mins, ~2.6mi home from pool, legs felt fine all over, lower legs a bit sluggish at first, ankles a bit wooden at first as well.

May try a short trainer bike tomorrow with a swim after. Fri. is probably a swim only day.