Year End Totals

Less running, more swimming in 2008. Given a handful of sessions that did not make it into the log, pretty comparable low 500's total S-B-R hours over the last 2 yrs.

2009 - Mapping the Course

As 2008 closes, I'm...

Employed and nearly 100% physically. Carrying a decent base of fitness. The usual suspects on the winter work list: flexibility, overall and injury-prevention strength, lots of room for improvement re swim form and fitness, smaller form refinements in the dry sports.

Plans for '09...
Near term: See the usual suspects above. Work hard, and smart, on my swim. Stubborn (stupid?) sob that I am I believe I can get my swimming close to my run and bike level within my AG. Make strength and flexibility work a daily thing. Across the year, I'm baking a two-layered cake, and hope to top it off with tasty Boston Qualifier icing.

Layer One of the '09 cake is training and peaking for a Memorial Day event. Layer Two's flavor is yet to be determined. Some kind of fall target, likely Nation's Tri. Then, if all goes well, the BQ attempt to close the year. I'll indulge in a few no-taper training races along the way.

Currently mulling the best recipe for the months leading up to the Triple T on Mem Day. Whether, which, and how many races to use as training events. Big weekends, and semi-epic personal training events may be better bang for fitness buck, wiser than racing as training. Regardless there will be lots of hills, both running and biking.

I'm money-down for the Triple T and the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler. Another likely suspect is a Richmond Duathlon in late April. That's probably it for racing before TTT, altho one tri would be nice to have one tri under my belt before heading to OH.

THE CALENDAR

Spring possibles:
February 7 - Cross Country race (8K, 12K options, Derwood, MD)

March 1 - B&A Trail Half Mary (Balt)
March 29 - National Half Mary (DC)
April 5 - *Cherry Blossom 10 Miler* (DC) I'm registered.
April 19 - Half iron tri, Lake Anna, VA
April 27 - Duathlon, Richmond, Short Course Nationals (run 10K, bike 40K, run 5K). Qualifier for world's this Fall, in the US, in NC.
May 9 - Half Iron tri, VA

May 23-25 - *Triple T* (OH) TARGET RACE

Weekend of tri. Three days, four races. Signed up to tackle it in '08 but injuries forced me to bump my entry to '09. Not so much racing as pacing and recovery between races in order to survive this beast. As the races get longer, the courses get hillier.

Fri. PM - Sw 250m - Bike 5mi - Run 1mi;
Sat. AM - Sw 1500m - Bike 25mi - Run 6.5mi;
Sat. PM - Bike 25mi - Sw 1500m - Bike 5mi - Run 6.5mi;
Sun. AM - Sw 1.2mi - Bike 55.5mi - Run 13.1mi

2nd Half of '08

Wide open. Lots of A & B level race possibles.

Tri Possibles:

Diamond in Rough Oly 7-11-09
Musselman 7-19

Travel to San Fran?? - August 8 senior games 10K champs

Mograntown Half 8-9-09
Diamondman Half 9-13-09
Nation's Tri 9-13-09
Duathlon Worlds 9-26-09

Marathon Possibles:

Richmond Marathon 11-14-09

North Central Trail Marathon 11-28-09 (Sparks, MD, ~80min drive) This one has appeal. Race day driveable, would allow 8-10 weeks after a September tri, and is allegedly a top ten marathon for percentage of finishers qualifying for The Boston Marathon.

Goals for '09
Stay healthy. Healthy = happy.

Sportswise, Health = consistent training = improved fitness. Consistency trumps all!

• Sub 65mins at Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in April;
  
• top 10 in my AG at the duathlon short course nationals in Richmond and qualify for world's (Concord, NC);
  
• get my 500m TT swim in the 8:30 range by May 1;
  
• survive the training for the Triple T, toe start line healthy;
• top 5 AG at the Nation's Tri in September;
  
• run under 3:20:00 in a fall mary and qualify for Boston.

SWIM note - had a benchmarking swim workout this week: 500meter Time Trial (TT). Final session of the Tue. & Thur. 6a-7a group swim with coach Daniel Brafman I will miss these. Daniel has helped me a great deal.

12-30-08 500m TT- 9mins 22secs (500m) (1:52/100m pace). Not bad por moi, esp with recently limited training. First 100m was 1:44. Had hopes of 9min flat, 9:22 still fastest ever for me. Swimmers in the audience, stop laughing.

Chronology:
12/30/08 - 9:22 500m - (1:52/100m pace) (would be ~8:37 for 500yards)
2/14/08 - 9:08 500yds - (1:49-:50 100yd pace) (would be ~9:52 for 500m)
11/15/07 - 10:29 500yds - (2:06/100yds pace) (overswim 50yds?)

10/16/07 - 9:34 500yds - (1:53/100yds pace) (underswim 50yds?)
9/27/07 - 11:10 500m - (2:14/100m) *Day 1 with Daniel.

Tradition Season

Ah, holiday tradition time.
Food, family, viciously competitive board games, crisp air, relearning the art of layering clothing, holiday cards & family updates that put my slim toilings to shame... maybe some more food.

Not all traditions are good. Enter my annual Thanksgiving injury. Yeah, steering this blog back to tri.

[No Christmas post. Yet. Can't blog without pics. That's a rule. In short, it was good. Not white. Everyone is here and healthy. Gas around town is at $1.77 to $1.95 for the cheap stuff.]

Last year: a nasty chest and back strain suffered raking leaves on T-day. This year's fun is more mysterious and less serious. Not quite as debilitating and quicker to heal. Strained lower back and ab/oblique thing over the pre T-day weekend. Quadratus Lumborum ("QL"), a back muscle connecting my right pelvis to the bottom right rib.
Not sure how it happened. Almost 1 yr to the day from the '07 event. (*note to self - next year crawl into a bunker in an undisclosed location and take the last week of November '09 off. Can I rent a rascal for a week so I don't even have to walk?)

Crap timing, of course. Was swimming faster than ever and in a groove hitting my Tue. & Thur. 6-7a swim sessions. Had my weekend daylight fun run up to 1hr50ish, feeling good during and recovering well after.

After about 10 days of olympic level eating and almost no exercise, I dusted off the scale. Up 7-8lbs. Late night Clif bar and cereal binges in front of the TV, on top of usual massive quantities of food are excellent plumper-uppers. I've got nothing on this bloke.

Feel just a little better about yourself now?
Go ahead, have another cookie. If you don't nab it he will.

Chiro/ART and hard core myofascial release style massage on the back and upper glutes has really helped, supplemented with similar self massage via the roller at home. Gradually returned to running after 2+ weeks. Same for swimming. Over 4 weeks in now, run and swim are feeling 95% normal re the injury spot.

Fortunately, I could limit my fitness losses by ride the trainer (aka "fencepost"), which I could do with zero QL discomfort, resulting in an unplanned week of 200miles cycling, my biggest bike week in a loooong time. How could I not have had many, many 200mi+ bike weeks in '08? 200 ain't nothing. It's tougher to get in miles this time of year (go hamster boy, go!), but only a couple 200+ weeks all year?

Back to roughly 100% now, time to steer back on track for winter work. Standard stuff, off season = putting time into strength and flexibility work, aka injury prevention or "prehab," stuff that falls by the wayside the rest of the year. Round the body out a bit.

Every coach and therapist I've seen over the years has zeroed in on my core/pelvis/glutes as the epicenter of my issues. The planned routine involves 20-30mins of pre-run dynamic stretching and muscle activation style work. If I stick with it, this should make me a stronger, more efficient person and injury free runner.

This video is spot on for my purposes, and for any runner really. It hits strength and flexibility and balance for run specific muscles, and brain tranis for run specific postures and movements. I'm doing it before every run.

One visible consequence of my weak medial glutes (among other things) is a rocking pelvis. This teeter-totter effect is a bad bad thing, with ramifications for IT Band and knee trouble, not to mention performance. See below my pelvis/hips tilting like there is a drunken puppeteer up above, or I'm working some invisible hulahoop. Pics are from the Nation's Triathlon, 9/13/08. Coming at the end of a hard race effort, there is some significant muscular fatigue going on, nicely bringing out the hip dip effect.

Rocking the pelvis - and one fishbelly white middle aged midriff.

I hear pale is the new tan for '09.

Thanks for reading.
Merry Christmas!

Fall - where'd it go?

The leaves were just starting to change. Now they're long gone. Bare trees and freezing rain. Gray skies and darkness before 5pm. Ugh. Well, it's not feet of snow and downed power lines.

Thanksgiving was great. B made it down so we had the family foursome. Excellent batch of Yorkshire produced in the Devereaux kitchen. Two pies. NY blueberries in one. Killer crust. Really, not just sayin' that. Too late to kiss up for gift purposes anyway, eh?

All went out and watched Milk on Fri. after. Penn is great, better than his Spiccoli and Dead Man. Sold out theatre. Thanks to the other 3 for not body-checking me with cold shoulders when I arrived only 15mins before the movie. We only managed to get tickets thanks to their super early arrival. The whole world was out and about with the same idea. I brought snack offerings for all. Next time maybe I'll shock everyone and prepurchase tix online.

The chef has confirmed he qualified for the 2009 Summer Senior Games in the 10K road race to be held in San Fran in August. An unexpected and well earned achievement coming at the end of a long battle with the injury bug.

The 10K is the longest event in the games. No half or full mary. Quite a menu of other sports.

Hope all the snow-bound folks are staying warm and comfy as the devereaux cats.

Paper Chase

Quite an election night last week. OH? FL? NC? Cali, NM, Nevada… it was really happening. Everything glowing trippy with amazement, hope and possibility.

In Scottsdale, the old Mac was back. And Grant Park. Wow. President Obama. I soaked it all up with Lehrer, Shields & Brooks, Olbermann/Matthews and gang, a little Wolfie, along with On Politics blog and fivethirtyeight.com. Giddy to bed, looking forward to Wed. and drinking in all the morning after reactions.

Up and out to the pool for an early unscheduled bonus swim, topped off with some core work and weights. Vim and vigor. Jazzed. The sun brighter, the weights lighter. Ready to settle into a metro ride with my trusty Post, the staple of my morning routine, no doubt brimming with election content.

Not so fast. The paper boxes, all empty. Noooooo! 3 Post boxes, USAToday boxes, WSJ, NYT… all bare. F. Not even 8a yet. Must. Have. Paper. World, don't mess with my a.m. routine. Off to the 7-11 across the street. No luck. 2 corner boxes further past the sleven, bare. Rrraaaaargh. Gas station/convenience a block further, bare. 45mins later and another mile or two walked I'm boarding the train... paperless.

Later, word the Post was printing a second run of the front/news section to be available at 3p. Inky fingers on the home commute, woo-hoo! Well, no papers at 3. At 4 a line was forming. I grabbed some wallspace outside the CVS with like minded hopemongers. Chatted with a gal who canvassed for Obama in VA, celebrated late into election night outside the WH. Good stuff.

5 o'clock. Okay, screw an evening run. I'm pot committed. But only so much. Started to feel a little stupid the 15th time a passerby asks "why the line?" and I tell them for the Post. 6:15, I caved, headed home. Quick stop at a neighborhood store in the 'burbs. Nothing.

Still stoking some stubborn Thursday a.m., I rolled out a few mins earlier than usual for my swim group. Given the hours invested what's another few mins, eh? Bingo. The 2nd store I hit had a few special editions remaining. Notch a win for Team Stubborn. I bought a few, left some for fellow seekers.

If anyone would like one, let me know.

Or... get one from the Post directly (!) Yeah. Seems they have decided to print more and take orders. Hmmm, maybe move that W over to Team Stupid.

Anyway, I remain fired up, ready to go!

Crowie and Muppet; Brierman Half Lite RR

Crowie and Muppet

Ironman Hawaii (Kona), the annual championship for the Ironman triathlon took place earlier in October. IM distance - Swim 2.4mi, bike 112mi, run 26.2mi.

Chrissie "Muppet" Wellington won last year as a relative unknown and backed up that win with another this year. She came out of the water a few mins behind and shortly rode her way to the lead on the bike before spending 10mins on the roadside dealing with a mechanical and watching other women fly past. Once back on the road she powered back to the sharp end of the field then ran away with a 2:57 marathon. She has never lost an IM distance race. Perhaps the most impressive triathlete alive right now.

Wellington

Swim - 56:20 (11th Wpro)

Bike - 5:08:16 (21.8mph) (2nd WP);

Run - 2:57:44 (6:48) (1st WP, 22nd overall)

Australian Craig "Crowie" Alexander, long time dominator of the Half Iron and shorter distances took the men's win. He finished 2nd in Kona last year in his first visit. This year he executed smartly and moved up to the top of the podium. Stayed near the leaders out of the water, a strong bike but no gambling attempts to break away or catch the uber bikers riding to win it on the bike. He closed the gap to the leaders during the last portion of the bike, then ran through them, taking the lead mid-marathon and holding it.

Alexander

Swim - 51:43 (14);

Bike - 4:37:19 (24.2mph) (16);

Run - 2:45:01 (6:18) (1st pro, 5th overall)

Brierman Half Lite RR
Never too late for a race report, eh?

Brierman Half Lite Tri 10-12-08 - My Final Tri for the year.
.85mi swim; 40mi bike (two 20mi loops); 9.3mi run (out/back course)

As a first yr race the field was small. Under 100 entrants for the Half, maybe 200 for the Sprint distance tri.

Unending hills (course profiles below). Toughest run course of the year, likely ever, for me. Toughest bike course, next to Savageman. The body held up fairly well, for my 3rd race in 5 weeks. Competitively, middlin race results. Nevertheless, a satisfying challenge and a fun 4hr+ day, esp with the ideal weather. One of those spectacular early fall days. ~50F at the start, high of ~70F at noon, no wind, no clouds, no humidity. Scenic country views, which included more McPalin yard signs than I've seen anywhere else.

Def did not have my A game, physically or mentally. The well of race day adrenalin low at this point. Seems I successfully peaked physically and mentally for Nation's Tri back on 9/14. Could not "hold the peak" thereafter. Wouldn't be a "peak" then would it? Racing after Nation's was all gravy anyway. Pure enjoyment of simply being able to do it, racing against the course and myself more than the field.

Lake swim. Nice. No chop or currents to deal with. No chance to loosen the bike legs up, out of T1 it's straight into a steep climb out of the park. Hills all day thereafter on the bike and the esp the run.

The ruthless terrain had me craving a flat-to-rolling course tri with a lake swim. Something I can (comparatively) tear up when fit and fresh. Picture portly Homer Simpson, face plastered against the glass window of Mr. Donuts, drooling over the rows and rows of baked goodness, aaaaaaaaaghha, gaaaaagh. That's me, as I envision Diamondman Half in DE, flat and fast. Must have traced that course a few times over in my mind.

Brierman Details - Greenbrier State Park, MD, ~1hr drive north of DC.

Swim 30:30 (34th/67 overall) (51%)
T1 5:25 (64th out of 67) (96%)
Bike 2:19:18 (~17.2mph) (16th overall) (24%)
T2 2:20 (overall 53rd) (80%)
Run 1:10:35 (7:36) (7th overall) (11%)
Final 4:08:07

14th/67 overall (21%)
13th/54 male (26%)
5th/10 35-39 AG

Splits for the 35-39AG winner (age 39):
S: 26:26
B: 2:00:11
R: 1:14:42
T1+T2: 5:25
Finish - 3:44:11

All ten 35-39 AG finish times:
1. 3:44:11 (39)
2. 3:51:07 (37)
3. 3:53:34 (39)
4. 3:57:48 (37)
5. 4:08:07 (yours truly)
6. 4:26:22 (35)
7. 4:43:09 (39)
8. 4:50:09 (35)
9. 5:05:46 (36)
10. DNF

Run Course Profile

Bike Course Profile
Do this Loop 2x, Twice the Fun

Five and Alive

Glance back at '08. A very good season of racing. Five races + Healthy throughout + Best performance came at my target race = Success. Anything beyond that is bonus.

Breaking it down, the swim (still) sticks out.
Other eyes are generally drawn to the run and bike first, then, "dude, if you could just swim anywhere near that... ." Yeah. I'm working on it in my stubborn Irish way, and having fun. This stuff is my play time after all. The voice in my head just won't shut up - you can be a swimmer.

Like putting up Christmas decorations, it's never too early to start planning the fun for 2009. Entered the Triple T (three days, four races) for 5/08 then deferred to 5/09. Nothing else on my calendar so far, will plan around that monster.

Table Below: Quick Look at 2008 Race Result Numbers - Competitive Angle.



Election day is finally here. Girding for heartbreak, while hope burns bright. I'm not going to buy any Tue. night results.

Wednesday wake up will bring sunshine and roses and yes we can!, or, doom and gloom and mental trench warfare v cynicism and thoughts of Canada. Just hope the races are decided by Wed. morning.

Gas at $2.75 when I filled up this week.

Backyard Burn 10miler

Backyard Burn Trail Run race (10mi)
Wakefield Park, VA

25min drive. gas $3.16 for the cheap reg.

~48F & clear. 9am start.

Ventured into the not-so-red state for my first ever trail race. FUN. I understand why the 5 annual B-Burn trail races sell out.

True trail. Dirt, roots, rocks, forest, log jumps, single track, stream bed (dry) crossings.
One minor ankle roll, one stumble forward, arms flailing almost face-plant (had to be hilarious looking), and one honest to goodness forward sprawling splat with minor palm and knee scrape to prove it.

The 10miles flew. After the first .5mile of open road and wide trail allowing runners to unbunch from the mass start it was mostly single track, all up and down, winding twists and turns, trees whizzing past. All creating the sensation of running at ludicrous speed even when my effort was merely steady with some occassional frisky. Tough to pass on the narrow trails. Not really "racing" it so happy to wait a bit for a widening or to politely pass after a friendly "on your left."

Hung out in the sun after, watching awards and hoping to win some give away schwag (4 Ipods, no luck) before heading to work.

Top 3 in 30-39 AG ran 1hr 3min - 1 hr 6min. And finished 1 - 2 - 3 overall. Two of the three are DCTri studs. Sheeesh.

Me: 1hr 12mins.

one unkempt crispy critter, two captivating chiros

Drs. Anna and Kathy from Positively Chiro were on hand as sponsors and to work on runners post race. PC has been crucial to my health, and thereby my happiness this year. In March I was running just 10-15mins every other day. With their help I had a great season of racing and training, and generally enjoying to my heart's content all this tri stuff I've come to love. It's nice to be limited only by fitness, not injury.

Reconnecting

Another full weekend. Last week NYC with M&D and tour guide extraordinaire B. Oh, and Zoe. Tenement Museum, Candle Cafe, running in Central Park, Shea Stadium. Here for coverage of all the fun.

Out to Odenton Saturday afternoon for a gathering of the old gang and their growing families. Thanks A & S for hosting and providing tasty food.

Great to see everyone and catch up. The ladies look amazing and the fellas are holding up reasonably well. And still fun to hang out with. And, incredible kids, very well behaved. Having seen these fathers in their younger years, I'm giving credit to the women. Fellas, you married well.

Sunday was a quick trip up to Greenbrier State Park to scope out the Brierman Half Lite bike and run courses, might do that race 10/12. Big hills, ugh. The 12-21 gearing was not the way to go.

Earlier in the week a night out a Merriweather to see Phil & Friends and the Allman Bros. Thanks D for nudging the rest of us to join you. It was a good night despite rain for ~3omins. Umbrellas and rain coats came in handy. Seems there are still plenty of hippies, of all shapes, sizes and degrees. Far too many still chain smoke, even in an outdoor venue it was a brutal 2nd hand situation.

On to the pics... lots of pics. I think I managed to include everyone in attendance at least once. Who belongs to who should be self evident.

Merriweather crew.

Greenbrier State Park
Leaves starting to turn.

Savageman 2008

One of the many signs out on the hilly bike course.

EXECUTIVE SUM UP

Savageman Half Iron Triathlon - 9/21/08 - Deep Creek Lake, Western, Maryland

Swim 1.2mi, Bike 55.7mi (1 loop), Run 13.1 (2 loops)

Result - 6:12:37 (6:39:33 last yr)

Overall: 47th out of 223 starters (195 finishers)
Men: 39th out of 182 male starters (162 finishers) (chicked again x8)
AG: 8th out 39th starters; 36 finishers in 35-39AG

No injuries. Did not feel too bad just one week after Nation's Tri. No wind, no humidity, mostly sunny. Lots of aid stations. Shady run. Pretty ideal conditions. Faster (er, not as slow :) across the board in every element this year vs '07. 6hrs was the dream goal. Sub 3hrs 30mins on the bike was one goal hit.

** THE LONG READ **

Foggy swim again this yr. Tough to see buoys on swim course. There were more of them, which helped. Air was warmer in '08, no 38F with ice on the windshield, instead mid-hi 50's at start , hi for the day ~70. Water cooler this year, maybe 65-68F.

I had a weird start. Treaded and stroked around a little for 1-2min waiting for the start gun (~8:30a). But immed felt dizzy when started. Kind like the bedspins (zip it! :). Had to stop and tread, was a mental challenge to stay composed until it (hopefully, and yes) passed, not slip toward panic. Finding a fixed landmark to focus on seemed to help. Been years since I've had any swim start issues roughly like this, maybe since my first open water swim. Started up again slowly, gradually got into a steady rhythm. Never pushed it. Was okay from there on. 5-6 leaky goggle stops didn't help.

Just under 40mins flat when I stood up. 42:02 with run to T1. (47:30 last year)

Hellacious course thereafter. Never ending hills from the start of the bike to the end of the run. I suspect the race organizers would've made the swim uphill if possible. Even having ridden it in August, the ride was more punishing than remembered. Otherwise, fine on the B/R.


Spotted the Mayor an 11min lead before I got on the bike. Passed him around mile 45, got off the bike ~2mins ahead of him, finished 18mins ahead.

Locals and volunteers were more numerous than last year and really got into the spirit. Experienced one ugly bottle exchange (best to be said is I stayed up right), but also one particularly smooth bottle hand up. It' s something of an art to hand an object to cyclist moving at 15-25mph.

At the last bike aid station I shouted ahead my menu selection - "sports drink!" Immediately an arm shot up from the hive crewing the station, bike bottle in hand. I pointed right at him - we locked in as I neared. I kept my arm extended, doing my part, showed all my fingers, palm open. He didn't look too athletic this gent (more like a Korean war VFW happy hr regular, to generalize from appearance). But turned out he was a savvy pro. Started jogging ahead of me along the shoulder before I got to him, getting our relative speeds closer, bottle extended. I slowed almost not at all. He reached toward the road, but not too far in to my path, swinging his arm with me as I grabbed. Voila - smooth, rolling hand up. Had it been a cup of tea not a drop would've spilled. Perfect.

No sympathy.

DATA - 2007 & 2008 Numbers

2008 Savageman

6:12:37 (6:39:33 last yr)

47th out of 223 starters (top 21%); 195 finishers (24th%)
39th out of 182 male starters (22nd%); 162 finishers (24th%) (chicked again, x8)
8th out 39th starters in 35-39AG (21%); 36 finishers (22nd%)

Swim

2007 47:29 (19th in swim/20 AG) (bottom 95th%)

2008 42:02 (30th in swim/39 AG) (77th%) (138/182 men) (76th%)

T1

2007 11:26 (19/20 AG) (bottom 95th%)

2008 10:26 (38/39 in AG) (98th%) (172/182 men) (bottom 95th%)

Bike

2007 3:39:52 (10/20 AG) (15.4mph) (50th%)

2008 3:28:09 (16.1mph) (10/39 AG) (26th%) (44th/182 men) (25th%)

T2

2007 3:06 (16/20 AG) (80th%)

2008 2:43 (20/39 AG) (52%) (88/182 men) (49th%)

Run

2007 1:57:40 (8:59mi pace) (6/20 AG) (top 30th%)

2008 1:49:19 (8:20mi pace) (7/39 AG) (18th%) (23/182 men) (13th%)

Final

2007 6:39:33

2008 6:12:37

(AG -moved from 30th after swim to 16th after bike to 8th (after run))

(Men - from 172 among men after swim to 66th after bike to 39th (after run))

Savage Mtn Challenge

2007:
40:48 (10.29mph)
Overall - 26/158 (men, women, teams) (top 17th%)
Men - 24/133 (men and male teams) (18th%)

2008: (slightly longer climb)
41:07 (10.40mph)
Overall - 23/217 (11th%)
Men - *25/177 (15th%)
AG - 4/36 (12th%)
(teams not included in '08)
*listed as 21st, est'd 25th to include some fast folks among the 177 but who missed the timing mat

Power Geek Info.

Entire workout (176 watts):

Duration: 3:27:19 (3:28:24)

Work: 2188 kJ

TSS: 271.5 (intensity factor 0.887)

Norm Power: 204

VI: 1.16

Pw:HR: 10.86%

Pa:HR: 5.19%

Distance: 55.94 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 438 176 watts

Heart Rate: 101 195 147 bpm

Cadence: 22 114 77 rpm

Speed: 2.4 41.5 16.2 mph

FTP est'd: 225-230w (max 60min ALL out effort)

Peak 1min 362w

Peak 2min 322w

Peak 5min 285w

Peak 10min 275w

Peak 20min 235w

Peak 30min 221w

Peak 60min 213w

Smallwood Oly 6/29 - Peak 20min - 215; Peak 60min - 209w

Northeast Oly 8/17 - Peak 20min - 228; Peak 60min - 221w

Nation's Oly 9/14 - Peak 20min - 219; Peak 60min - 214w

Savageman Half 9/21 - Peak 20min - 235; Peak 60min - 213w

Nation's Tri - short report

Racked and tucked in on race day eve.

RACE Nation's Tri Sun. 9-14-08
Hot. Humid. Really hot and humid.

* 2,393 finishers
* 952 women
* 1,440 men
* avg time 3:10:35

Me - PR at the Oly distance. PR swim. PR bike.

Finish - 2:21:57

Swim 30:52 (66th/225 in AG; top 30%) (394/1440 men; 28%)
T1 2:45
Bike 1:05:03 (22.9mph avg) (13th/225 in AG; 5.6%) (72nd/1440 men; .5%)
T2 1:34
Run 41:45 (6:44) (2nd/225 in AG; 1%) (22/1440; .15%)

Men 35-39: 15/225 ( 7%)

All Men: 67/1440 ( 5%)

Overall: 72/2,388 ( 3%)

*******************

NOTES
70's and 90% humidity at 4:15a. Whoa. Shades of Blackwater 2007.

Swim - 7:20 start in 4th of 20+ waves, 77F water temp, wetsuits legal, generally calm waters, not smelly at all, swam mostly straight lines buoy to buoy, couple leaky goggle stops, 29:4x when climbed out of water.

T1 - loooong, gave up 1min+ here. Fought getting wetsuit off, getting race jersey on.

Bike - Awesome completely closed roads, at times multiple lanes each way closed. Riding the Whitehurst, Rock Crk Pkwy by Kennedy Cntr, Clara Barton, around the monuments, all super fun. Good effort, thinking was to ride with no regard for run. Stayed focused almost all the way, cadence reading wasn't working, probably rode a slightly lower cadence as a result, muscling one gear bigger than optimal... maybe. Guess ~86-88rpm avg. Pedaling at 90-92avg might have given me a bit better run, but tough to say as run was still very good compared to the competition. Flat course cassette, nice tight 12-21 (9 speed). Only 2 folks passed me, after I had caught them they passed me back before T2.

T2 - uneventful.

Run - hot like a Charlize Theron in The Valley. Sun had burned through the haze. Had to force the urgency in my effort, mentally peaked on the bike. Still pushed it pretty good. Was hoping for sub 40min to match my 39:xx effort in other races this yr. Coming out of T2 at 1:40:xx was gunning for 2:19:59 finish.
Passing folks like fence posts. No one passed me. Dude that I slooooowly caught over miles 4-5 turned out to be 38yr old in my AG. We dueled over mile 6. I could not match his surge in the last 200meters.
Didn't go close to sub 40min, but 41:45 was still a good time against the field, so chalk it up to the heat, suspect everyone lost 2 or (many) more mins to the oppressive conditions.

Oly Race 8-17-08

Last weekend I returned to North East, MD, the scene of my first road tri in 2001, then known as the Riverwatch Tri, a sprint distance race.

A few moments from '01 come to mind, in particular being extremely pumped up coming out of the water, (king of the world!) simply having finished the damn swim. Dropping my chain on an uphill. Feeling like I wasn't taking in oxygen on the run. It was warm, overcast and very humid. Rained a bit but the humidity didn't break just hung in the air like, yes, a wet blanket. Seemed like my shirt was superglued to my torso restricting my breathing, highly annoying. So annoying it was memorable. A guy running in a red sleeveless cycling jersey who would speed up every time I tried to pass, finally dropping me like a hot greasy bowling ball.

Post race, a nice meal courtesy of M&D at a seafood joint where a T-shirt and shorts were a bit out of place. (Shove off people, I'm a triathlete! I was thinking. Oy.) Physically, I recall being smoked for nearly a week. Smoked but stoked. Waaaaaaay too high on the whole thing. As soon as race pics were available I ordered three 8x10 shots. Like I had conquered Everest.

Today - more fitness, perhaps less ego. (Now, more about me racing... :).
Run by different folks, the race is now the North East Tri, with sprint and olympic distance options. It was the latter for me. Great weather this time around. No wind to speak of, no clouds, 70's. The brown water was 78F so no wetsuits - or, wear it but your result isn't official. No wetsuit for me.

No injury and 3rd out of 32 finishers in my AG, 25th out of 193 men, 27th out of 286 finishers overall.
Swim is still slower the Dubya doing a crossword, but I've crawled (ha) closer to the top half of the field from the bottom quarter. Happy with my bike, and happier yet with a sub 40min 10K. Not much run training, no speed work, and overall carrying some fatigue from the Savage weekend 7 days prior.

Data Highlights:
Stat of the day - I spotted my two AG betters 9 and 13 mins in the water. Ouch. One had the fastest swim in the entire field (23:45), the other 17th (27:00). Me? 186th.

• 8th fastest run overall, 1st of 32 in my AG.
• 16th fastest bike overall, 2nd in my AG And...
• 186th in the swim overall, 14th in my AG.
  

Full results here.

Swim 1500 36:31 (35:xx coming out of water)
T1 2:01
Bike 1:05:27
T2 1:11
Run 39:09 (6:19)

Total 2:24:19

Place by element:

Overall - Men - 35-39
Sw 140/286 103/193 14/32
T1 186 130 22
B 16 16 2
T2 112 76 11
R 8 8 1

Final 27th 25th 3rd

Bike Geek Data

Ride time pre-dismount:
Duration: 1:04:11
Work: 836 kJ
TSS: 104.9 (intensity factor 0.991)
Norm Power: 228
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 0.75%
Pa:HR: 1.11%
Distance: 23.009 mi

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 394 217 watts
Heart Rate: 133 188 156 bpm
Cadence: 34 111 86 rpm
Speed: 2.9 39.3 21.5 mph

Peak 1min 290w
Peak 2mins 267
Peak 5min 230
Peak 10min 234
Peak 20min 228
Peak 30min 224
Peak 60min 221

For phenomenal video of the Beijing Men's Triathlon, click here.
As good as it gets for tri spectating.

You'll be prompted to download a small bit of software and provide zipcode. There is no commentary just the sounds of the race. A little weird at first but, then, nice. Great camera work, esp for the swim. Camera at water level, water sounds of swimmers. Excellent angles to see how these guys line up to draft, the beauty of their long smooth strokes, how fast they're moving. The race finish (10K run) came down to a 4 man battle, undecided down to the final stretch. Again, as good as it gets for tri drama.

August. Good stuff.

Update for early August. A happily busy peak of summer season.

First, reunion weekend 8/3. So many people = great. So little time = not so great. No good deed goes unpunished: Eileen Pulls off a helluva reunion and then suffers an injury. Get well Eileen. Put that foot up and have some cold bev. Better coverage of the reunion here and here.

Then, a killer training weekend 9/10, now a race weekend 9/17. Followed by weekend races in September along with a weekend in NYC. Love it.

Note: If you've missed the pics from his trip out to California, it's well worth jumping over to the 5th kid's blog entry and photo show.

On to a not too geeky report on my jaunt out to Deep Creek 8/9-10. Rode the Savageman Half (9/21 race) course a couple times. Had long been looking fwd to it. Grateful to be healthy enough to do it. Drove 3hrs up Fri. afternoon, back Sun. afternoon.The weather cooperated. No rain, little wind, lows around 50, highs ~72F.

The weekend was bike focused. Lots of riding, lots riding uphill and generally flogging myself silly. A little optional swimming and running. Oh, and much eating (an underrated aspect of the tri life). My road bike with the triple ring was the machine of choice. I spent a lot of time in the granny gear.

They've added a nasty climb to the already evil race course, nasty and evil in a cyclist's heaven kind of way. Saw plenty of racers similarly scoping the course. DC groups, Baltimore folks, Morgantown people.

20mile cruise followed
by 35miles of
suffering

Sat.: Rode the course with some other DC area knuckleheads, Frequent stops and some social riding allowed me to eat plenty, recover some from climbs and enjoy the views. Post ride food, recovered and then hit the clear crisp lake water for a short swim with transition to a 35min easy run.

Total ride time: 4:49
Stoppage time: 46mins
Rolling: 4:03 (hill crest noodling included)

Sun.: Rode the course again with a different mix of folks. Less noodling, chatting. The last 10miles seemed a whole lot lumpier than Sat. Wooden legs. Wet, heavy, blocky, hardwood. Standing in the pedals for the final climbs, I feared I might go rubbery and crack all together. Transition straight into a 35-40min run. Tried to run with some purpose (tried). Clean up, stretch. Drive home.

Total ride time: 3:56
Stoppage time: 23mins

Rolling time: 3:33

Bike time for the 2007 Race - 3hrs 40 for the bike, including 4mins in pit stops.

2008 Race goal: 6hrs
Swim: :35mins
T1: :5mins
Bike: 3:30
T2: 3mins
Run: 1:47
Total - 6hrs

*Gas for $3.55 along 68 on the return drive.