Duathlon Short Course Nationals, Richmond

Short version:
It was HOT. I finished 27th out of 99 in my AG. Needed to finish top 12 to qualify for the World Short Course Duathlon Championship in North Carolina in Sept. The bothersome achilles did not explode. No injuries.

Long Version:

Mid-hi 80’sF, 90+ in pm, sunny. Ouch.9:30am start for meThis B race on paper turned into to an A race on the day thanks to standard race day adrenalin, the hard to stifle competitive instinct, and world champ qualifying slots on the block.

Heat was the story. High in the low 90's in Richmond, hi 80's before noon. In April! APRIL. Whoever is in charge of the weather got the dials and levers way out of wack.

Top 12 in each AG got a ticket to the World Champs in Sept. No ticket por moi. Another Rockville native took 12th, so someone will be representin'.100+ in my AG showed up, 99 finished. That is huge for a duathlon. Twenty is a big turnout for one AG. 100+ is off the charts. All AGs combined often don't total 100.

The 40-44 racers came from NY, PA, OH, CA, WA, SC, ME, many DE/VA/MDers. Credit the big turnout to a cheap price ($65), a good shot at World's (12 slots per AG is a lot), an impressive pile of race shwag (backpack, hat, shirt, bottle, yada), and shrewdly scheduled before tri season kicks in to avoid that conflict among the multisporters. Came in 27th out of the 99 finishers in the 40-44 Men, turned out to be the largest AG in the race. 136th out of 588 men, and 140th out of 885 overall. If my calculations are correct... Chicked, x 4.

After a 10min jog up and down a shady stretch of sidewalk and a little stretching I eased into the start coral a few mins before the 9:30 gun. Weaved my way up to a spot about 10 rows back. All manner of attire on display. From the gear guru with knee-high compression socks, a skin suit and a head wrap (why not a full body celophane wrap to really boil?), to the minimalists sporting only shoes and shorts (sockless, topless, hatless). Not a single Fuel Belt wearing Urkle, surprisingly.

A 30-something looking linebacker with 44 on his calf bulled his way to ~5th row, parked, looked around, "you guys going sixes?" Silence. Nods to himself: silence = affirmation. Lots of thought bubbles reading "6min pace, really? Go for it Urlacher."

And... we're off. Straight downhill for 3 steep blocks before it leveled out. I semi-faked the run fearing my ornery Achilles could flare. Its recent squawking scared me into running only 3x in the last 2 weeks, 4-5miles a pop. Not much. So, I went out at a "conservative" clip... relative to the 30 or 40 guys rapidly disappearing over the horizon in front of me. I reeled a few back in - including a fading Urlacher - but plenty of dudes put at least a few mins into me going into T1.

No idea of my mile splits. I screwed up my watch at the start. A clue of my mental dullness on the day. I basically lack mojo as I walk around and do my Cullen thing, but I really had no mojo on the bike. Zip, nada. Generally similar in this way to the truly brutally hot and humid Cambridge duathlon 2 yrs ago where my pedal turners were not even jello, well, maybe hot jello, ie watery weak. If Cambridge was a 10 on the heat hobbler index, this was merely 8.5.

Even had I brought my good bike legs, not likely it would have made much dif. Fought off waves calf cramps on the 3 loop bike course. Consumed most of a water bottle, most of another bottle of electrolytes, 3 salt caps. Feared the calves would lock up big time once I got running over the last 5K run. Fortunately, they felt fine once off the bike. WTH?

Angry at the bike, dug fairly deep to catch people on the run. Urlacher had passed me on the bike, turned out to be the last guy in my sights. I caught him just before the uphill finish chute. Rookie move, I passed him early, giving him time to muster a surge to pass me. Nuts.

Could have used another half mile that should have been there. Instead of 3.1mi the course was 2.6mi. No biggie, I would not have caught many more guys, certainly not enough to finish better than 13th.

Band, beer, bagels, bananas, fajitas, water, sports drinks, gels… all free post race festivities I opted to skip. Knowing I was well off the top 12, did not wait till 3p for award ceremonies, got headed back up I95 before 1p. Popped in to work for a couple hrs as I was passing nearby anyway.

Then home to eat, eat, laundry, and eat. Planned to put the feet up, strap on the feedbag and watch a recorded Caps v Rangers game 6 played earlier in the day, but I had, of course, mucked up the recording program. Arghh.

Onward to the Triple T in just 4 weeks. Yikes. A few days of easy recovery, couple weeks ramped back up, then taper and head for OH.
http://www.americantriple-t.com/ohio/ohio.html

Cherry B '09 - 10miles of Heaven

Haines Point, East Potomac Park.
Part of the new race course, roughly miles 7.5-9.5

Dream conditions for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler last Sunday. Almost zero wind, ~50F, sunny, blossoms in bloom, 10,000 friends along for the run past monuments. Good times. Who cares if Mayor Fenty nipped me? I have my excuses. Long johnny lines, no warmup, no stretching time, almost no running for 6 days prior.

Really good time for the winner - 45:56 (4:38).
Solid time for me - 1:03:35 (6:22) 230/6618 men; 24/861 40-44m
The Mayor - 1:02:59 (6:18).

My time matches almost to the second my finish time 2yrs ago, the last year I raced it.

Not a chatty group, my fellow '09 racers. Full of caffeine (it's good, another study says so) and race day joy, I tried. Instead of always being complimentary with my words, maybe trash talk would at least get a response, at risk of an elbow. Hmmm.

I enjoy the chance to observe the wide variety run styles at races. On this day, women stood out as having very good form, almost uniformly. Maybe the women running in the 6-7min pace range are likely to have run in college, had coaching, care about form, etc.

Had a very tight hamstring starting the morning after the race. Five days post race and it's still tight but better each day. Felt fine on day 4 till I tried running, had to abort after 25mins.

No problems biking or swimming tho. Phew. I'll call it a swim/bike block of training for a few days before I give running another go. No need to gamble with exacerbating a hammie.

Rested or Rusted, it's Race Time

Gotta love the cycling fans.
(pic from Feb. 2009 Tour of California)

April!? Those races entered months ago are now, gulp, here.

4/5 - Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
4/26 - Duathlon in Richmond
5/22-24 - Three days of Tri at the Triple T in OH

Just as training takes on some urgency - illness. Doh! Almost escaped the cold season untouched. Almost. Employing the unpleasant Do Nothing approach this week has successfully kept it in check and above my neck. No progression to the lungs.

I'm painting a silver lining on this sinus situation, calling it a taper for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler this Sunday. This was to be a pure, no taper, training race, a "C" race. Now it's a C race with an involuntary taper. Come Sunday the legs could be rested, or, rusted. Either way, it's a new course, so a PR is guaranteed.

Later this month: Duathlon Nationals on the 26th in Richmond, a "B/B+" level race. In a perfect world I'll manage a top 10 finish in my AG and nab a slot to the Duathlon World Champs this Fall in North Carolina. Mostly, it's a long intensity session (10K-38K-5K) going into the final prep for the Memorial Day weekend of racing the Triple T in Ohio.

The Triple T is absolutely daunting, and exciting. It's an "A "race, but it has nothing to do with a fast time or high AG placing. Simply managing the 4 races in three days and reaching the finish line Sunday afternoon is sufficient challenge.

It's been a long time since I've toed a start line unsure whether I'll make it to the finish. That's a helluva buzz. Just what I signed up for. I'm looking forward to it.

Triple T Schedule
Fri. 5/22 - 5pm - Prologue - 250meter swim; 5mi bike; 1mi run
Sat. 5/23 - 7:30a - Oly distance - 1500m swim; 24.8mi bike, 6.55mi run
Sat. 5/23 - 3pm - Oly disorder - 24.8mi bike; 1500m swim; 6.55mi run
Sun. 5/24 - 7am - Half Iron - 1.2mi swim; 55.5mi bike; 13.1mi run

Prior to the head bug hitting me this week, training has been pretty solid. A little slacking on the swim, which will change asap.

Weekly Training Time 2009
click to enlarge

My training is oh so bland compared to some. Did you catch this NYT spotlight of the young Canadian fella whose backwoods soul searcher old school ways landed him in the Beijing games and now on a pro cycling team bound for the TDF? At 18, he was riding across Canada on a $40 bike with a homemade trailer attached. In the trailer? Some camping gear and his 80lb. dog (!) named Bear. Balboa punching freezer beef and chasing chickens has nothing on Svein.

I'm going for a strong visual close here with more, um, nutty cycling fans. I like the two piece style, but the dudes...

The Borat Compression Sling.
Yeah, I ride like this. Draft me if you dare.

Dismaster

Is that Henry on the left, and Eli on the right?

40+ (whoa) makes me a "Master." I can compete in the Master's division in some races. Just a running thing. I think. Plain old 40-44 age group for duathlon, triathlon purposes.

For the first time since the Inauguration, I didn't work. It's President's Day, officially speaking it's a holiday. Really needed sleep. Got over 9hrs. Recorded my longest run in memory this afternoon. 2hrs 10mins, ~17+mi. Felt pretty darn good, relatively speaking. Maybe it was the Indian chicken whipped up at Devereaux Sat., and a few times after with what I brought home.

Starting to shift into slightly more focused training. Money down on 3 races. Two in April, and a big beast of a target race over Memorial Day weekend.

The training update:

Mon. 2-2

Glutes – Verstegen run prep 20mins

Run 45mins, 5.75mi easy-steady

Tue. 2-3-09

Swim 38mins MAC
~1400M total

Bike QR with 2 x (10mins as: 2mins over-2minsunder-2mins over-2minsunder-2mins over)

Duration: 1:15:18 (1:15:20)

Distance: 25.07 mi

Wed. 2-4-09

Swim 40mins MAC

Thur. 2-5-09

Swim 40mins

~1600M total

20mins Verstegen glutes prep

Run 52mins, ~7mi

Core/pushups 10mins

Fri. 2-6-09

Swim 43mins am, steady free, few 50 kicks

~1600M total

Bike QR easy-steady, just cadence focus 90+

Duration: 56:04 (59:15)

Distance: 18.9 mi

Sat. 2-7-09

Verstegen run prep 20mins glutes

Run 1hr49mins, ~14+mi, ~60F slight breeze, mostly sunny.

Sun. 2-8

Bike Fuji outdoor, mid 60;s. Solid wind from NW. Run after.

Duration: 2:39:51 (2:45:04)

Distance: 46.94 mi

Run 27:30 after 8-9min trans from ride, ~3.5mi

Mon. 2-9

Off, recover, feeling like maybe did not eat enough last night after solid day.

Tue. 2-10-09

Swim ~45mins MAC
~1800M

Bike QR trainer recvry ride

Duration: 1:00:44 (1:01:57)

Distance: 19.835 mi

Wed. 2-11-09
Swim 45mins
~1600m total

Core – 10mins crunches, etc and straight leg raises on deck after swim

Verstegen Run prep – 15mins glutes

Run 64mins, ~8.3mi, easy-steady, 70+F at 6p, windy.

Thur. 2-12-09

Bike

QR trainer, intervals - after warm up 4 x (4mins on/1min off), recover, some :30-:60 standing reps, cool, Intrval Focus was on steady state cadence above LT, stay at 90-91rpm

*dropped planned swim this morning

Duration: 1:05:21 (1:06:12)

Distance: 22.038 mi

Fri. 2-13

Swim 40min MAC
~1500 total

Core - 10mins on deck - 2 x (crunches, straight leg raises, pushups)

Run 42mins, ~5.75mi, frisky, felt quite good

Core – 10mins crunches, curls, pushups

Sat. 2-14

Verstegen run prep glutes 15mins

Run 42mins, semi frisky, ~5.75mi

~7min trans to Bike

Bike QR trainer steady

Duration: 1:05:24 (1:05:57)

Distance: 21.785 mi

Sun. 2-15-09

Bike Fuji outdr, Falls Rd etc., legs not too bad

Meat:

Duration: 2:04:14 (2:09:41)

Distance: 36.34 mi

Entire workout

Duration: 2:28:36 (2:36:36)

Distance: 43.141 mi

Mon. 2-16-09

Pres’s Day. Did not work. First day off in weeks.

Verstegen run prep glutes - 15mins

Run 2hr11mins, ~17.2mi, checked pace on a couple miles – 1 flat was 7:20, 1 rolling was 7:30. ~38F, clear, light winds.

Memory Lane, Dorothy Z.

Thanks to Ed for the great pics.

1989 at 413.

The hair. The glasses. The table and chairs on the porch?

Thoughts these days are with the family of Dorothy Z. - a much larger family than I knew.

I'm fortunate to have had many noble, kind, patient people of admirable character in my life. The folks that know right from wrong and walk the talk, and called me on it when I didn't. Dorothy was one. And a big reason I've not turned out to be too much of a jerk.

Many things come to mind when I think of her. Fuzzy visions and mental clips from my first decade. Complete with sounds and smells, and the emotional feel of the memory moment. Early memories are difficult to describe.

The warm gurgle and hum of the fish tank when visiting Roy & Dorothy. The soft chirp of the scanner. Roses and wood chips. Hummingbirds. Starter flowers. Tomato soup and peanut butter sandwiches. Graham crackers. Keebler crackers. And, of course, Red birthday cake.

She could shame me in a flash with a harsh tone and vigorous finger waving. A slap to the hand if some stubborn misbehaving was going on.

I remember her chuckling as she set me straight one day on something not to put in my mouth. I had to have been quite young, so it could have been anything. I don't think I was ever a booger muncher, so I'm gonna go with chewing gum that somehow escaped my mouth before being recaptured and popped back in. Dorothy was suddenly there. That's got germs, not good she instructed. I argued that they were my germs, so it was okay. (Some sort of blood type, germ type theory. Young Einstein, that was me.) But honey they're germs , she laughed, you don't want that!

Despite my carefree germ consumption, I'll move into my 5th decade this weekend. Party at Devereaux. There won’t be any desert, but the Red cake and baker will be there.

June, 1975

DCWW

I'm a DCWW.

Steely Toughness? None for me, thanks. I'll take a zero.

DC is full of Winter Wimps. President Obama has a point, kidding that this town could use some steely Chicago toughness. The area shuts down with barely measurable snow. But when sleet and freezing rain coat everything with a thick candy shell of ice, well, as with botched oaths, an abundance of caution is reasonable. AOC has been my training MO this winter.

Less daylight, cold temps, rain-sleet-snow… When snow and ice rolled in I simply said Nuh-uh. No run. For 6 days. Bike outdoors? Please. This DCWW hasn’t turned a pedal under natural light in months. Dame Devereaux has more outdoor miles than me.

Instead, I mustered the fortitude to exercise in comfy, climate controlled indoor world choosing the hampster wheel, riding indoors rather than risk a bum bruising slip and fall while running. Riding the trainer is like sitting on a fence post, sure, but with the remote and food and drink within reach.

Until this weekend. Yesterday back outdoors with a nice run in 32F. Today running topless in 61F and not a cloud in the sky.

The Cliff Notes training log:

Thur. 1-15-09
Swim 40mins
~1500m total
Core-pushups on deck- 15mins

Bike QR trainer recvry spin
Duration: 1:02:42
Work: 572 kJ
Distance: 20.217 mi

Fri. 1-16-09
Swim 37mins MAC
~1500M

Verstegen run prep 15mins
Run 42mins, ~15F, ~5.5mi, clear crisp, chance to wear some cold weather gear for first time this season

Sat. 1-17-09
Swim 25mins, ~800m
Bike QR trainer
Duration: 1:07:40 (1:07:43)
Work: 740 kJ
Distance: 23.408 mi

Sun. 1-18-09
Verstegen run prep 20mins
Run 68mins, ~9mi

Mon. 1-19-09
Swim 45mins, ~1600m, some steady free and uptempo 200’s with 5x50kick mixed between

Bike QR trainer tempo-ish ride
Duration: 1:33:50 (1:35:08)
Work: 993 kJ
Distance: 31.906 mi

Tue. 1-20-09
Inaug! Tears and joy. And celebratory exercise.

Run 62mins steady, ~8.25mi
Bike QR trainer after run
Duration: 1:01:02
Work: 606 kJ
Distance: 20.246 mi

Wed. 1-21
Swim 7:50-8:30
~1400m totalm

Thur. 1-22
Verstegen prep core 15mins
Run 42mins, ~5.5mi

Fri. 1-23-09
Swim 40mins at MAC
Total ~1600m

Run-bike p.m.
Run 38mins, ~5mi (guess)
QR Bike
Duration: 56:52
Work: 562 kJ
Distance: 18.811 mi

Sat. 1-24
Swim 35mins MAC
~1400yds total

Bike QR trainer with 3 x 12-13mins in 2-3mins off
Duration: 1:45:28 (1:47:08)
Work: 1138 kJ
Distance: 35.685 mi

Sun. 1-25
Core - Verstegen run prep 15mins
Run ~52mins

Mon. 1-26
Swim a.m. 40mins MAC
Total ~1600m

Bike QR trainer recvry ride
Duration: 57:53
Work: 523 kJ
Distance: 18.534 mi

Tue. 1-27
swim 35mins at MAC
~1400m total

Bike
QR trainer, intervals sufferfest, main set 15 x 1 min/1min off
Duration: 1:12:09
Work: 777 kJ
Distance: 24.375 mi

Wed. 1-28
ice, at least .25inch frozen solid layer coating entire car
Bike QR trainer
recvry spin,
Duration: 49:31 (49:50)
Work: 437 kJ
Distance: 15.805 mi

Thur. 1-29
Swim MAC
25mins steady free, couple 50kicks mixed in.
~1000m total

Bike QR trainer steady
Duration: 1:18:25
Work: 795 kJ
Distance: 26.076 mi

Fri. 1-30
Swim MAC 40mins
~1500m total
Bike QR trainer steady light
Duration: 1:11:16
Work: 727 kJ
Distance: 23.867 mi

Sat. 1-31-09 Swim 49mins MAC
~2000yds total
Verstegen run prep 20mins
Run steady 50mins, ~6,5mi, 6th day since last run, didn't feel smooth, but not bad
Bike QR trainer steady, ~8mins after run
Entire workout (169 watts):
Duration: 1:03:20
Work: 640 kJ
Distance: 21.139 mi

Sun. 2-1-09
20mins glutes/core Verstegen run prep
Run-Bike
60F! Run topless. Felt decent, maybe weather joy.
Run 81mins, ~10.5mi

Bike
QR trainer steady, ~6min trans from run.
Duration: 1:15:26
Work: 778 kJ
Distance: 25.387 mi

American. Musical Reset Button.

Moyers closed his show with this music video last week. A song commissioned by Norman Lear on the occasion of the inauguration,and presented as a video with various singers in recognizable venues across the country.




And the classic Rev. King speech. No doubt one of thousands of blogs posting it. (17mins) You may have to crank the volume.




Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

The full text is here.

Stretched holiday season

Christmas in January, why not?

2007 & 2008 - The tree grew.

Card of the Year, two years runnning.

Thanks to B for the pics below.




Love the framed pic. Guess the year if you can. Is that well dressed bear winking?





Sweet vest, but can the dude run like a Deere?



Tri Stuff

Thur. 1-1-09

Run 56mins, ~7.5mi, ~32F,

Bike QR trainer steady+ after run

Duration: 1:05:41

Fri. 1-2-09

Off

Sat. 1-3-09

Bike QR easy-steady, head cold

Duration: 1:28:12 (1:31:25)

Sun. 1-4-09

Swim 35mins

Core - Verstegen run prep 15mins

Run 44mins steady, not too bad, ~5.75mi

No QL-back issues at all last 4-5 days.

Mon. 1-5-09

Off

Tue. 1-6

Bike QR trainer easy

Duration: 1:00:51

Wed. 1-7-09

Bike QR trainer easy-steady. Duration: 55:59 (57:09)Aborted planned run, raining hard and 35F.

Thur. 1-8-09

Swim 45mins,

15mins – Verstegen run prep

Run pm steady 45mins, ~5.9mi

Fri. 1-9-09

Swim 43mins

Core – on pool deck after swim crunches and straight leg lifts, 15mins

Bike QR trainer

Duration: 1:01:34 (1:03:35)

Sat. 1-10-09

Verstegen core run prep 20mins

Run 68mins steady, ~9mi, ~41F, steady light rain, but most joyful run of '09.

Swim 40mins

Sun. 1-11-09

Verstegen run prep core 20mins

Run 41mins, ~5.4mi

Bike QR trainer easy steady, 7min trans from run

Duration: 1:46:41 (1:48:12)

Mon. 1-12-09
Swim 45mins

Tue. 1-13-09

Swim 40mins
Core on deck - 20mins - 3 x crunches-straight leg raises-pushups

Bike QR trainer intervals – 3x8mins, 2min recvry

Duration: 56:22

Wed. 1-14-09

Core – Verstegen run prep (glutes) 15mins

Run 51mins, ~7.8mi, steady +, 28F no wind

Seeing lots of $1.9X for gas.

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!