There is a good article on the event here.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Very disappointing vote in NY
The New York legislature voted down Gov. Patterson's same-sex marriage bill. Especially disappointing was the way it collapsed, given expectations it would pass.
2009 Season highlights
The TRIracers had their annual party just recently, and everyone got a chance to say something about their highlights for the last season. Made me think about it. I had a few, too. The ironman was obviously the dominant theme for the year, but there were lots of great things.
- Cynthia put up with me and the long days. It got to her, and she let me know when I was disappearing too long at times, but she supported me and I have to thank her. I love you.
- Bluff Creek Triathlon in May. This was the first race of the year, and I just took a couple of easy days before to "prepare" for it and its hilly bike course. The highlight was just how easy the run felt. Boy I felt good that day. Hoping for more days that feel like that.
- Ankeny kids Triathlon. My then-8 year old twins (boy and girl) both won first place. Can you believe? But the best part was when my daughter checked the results and exclaimed to him, "T, I got first place in boys and you got second place in boys!" without even blinking an eye. (I did mention to the scorekeeper that she was a girl a little while later.)
- Kansas 70.3. I had been kinda worried about this race. I thought I had a pretty good shot of going under 5:30 and did a fair amount of race planning. When we got there, the weather reports just looked awful. It didn't seem we had a shot at racing, but on the morning of the race, it was all good. This race just went spectacularly for me. Everything clicked. My first pass of the run course, I ran by the TRI racers tent and yelled "sub 5:30" or something to that effect. I was looking at my watch and feeling the run so easy. Second pass, the run got a little harder, but the math was inevitable. I was having a great day. 5:08 and I feel good. Could I get to sub 5:00 with a better swim???
- Hy Vee. I had a good race - maybe not super. (But what can you expect just a week or so after a 70.3?) But the venue was very cool, and it was a great race with Christopher. He had a breakthrough race of about 2:26, and immediately plotted his goal for the year: 2:20 at Big Creek.
- Big Creek Oly. This was the most fun race ever. I started in a wave 4 minutes in front of Christopher. He passed me in the swim and shouted at me as he went by. (And broke up my draft...). I caught him back pretty early in the bike, and thought maybe I had dusted him, which disappointed me a little; I had hoped he would be on for that 2:20. But when I got to T2 and had a little trouble, there he was coming in just as I was getting ready to go out. We ran together for a few miles. It was awesome. Eventually, I pulled ahead, to finish a minute before him. But I had a four minute head-start. So chalk one up for him: 2:20! My PR at that distance too, 2:23.
- Youth nationals. OK, I didn't race, but Christopher did. Great to watch him. He had a great day and finished in the middle of the pack. T&O both got altitude sickness, which was disappointing, but again, the experience overall was very cool.
- PigMan Half. There is no way to turn this into a highlight, except that it was, shall we say, exceptional. Pounding rain was off and on through the swim and bike, along with horrible winds. It rained so hard that it physically hurt when it hit your skin. I've never seen so many guys stopped on the side of the road as during that bike ride. By the end of the bike, though, the rain cleared and it started getting pretty warm...almost hot. In the end, my bike time still looked ok, but I had horrible GI problems on the run. At least 3 other people I know had the same pre-race meal and all had the same problem, but was it that or because I biked too hard? The highlight of the run for me was the porta potty at mile 9. I have stopped to use one exactly twice in my race career - once to pee at ironman, and once to use the facilities a little more exhaustively at this race...and that was going to have to happen whether there was a porta potty or not. Uggh.
- IM Wisconsin. What a great event! Our hotel was ridiculously overpriced, but the town area was otherwise very cool. Swim execution was perfect. (I was not quite prepared for how violent it would be, but at least it didn't seem long.) I had mentally broken it up in the two-lap sequence and this worked great. The bike felt awesome, and I had a great time without feeling excessively fatigued. (19.3 mph ave). I felt I would easily (?) get 11:30. Maybe even 11:15! But then my body blew up (temp, HR, as described in that race report) almost as soon as I started the run, which I still attribute to a virus, though I cannot rule out an overexuberant bike split. No nutrition issues. I did the best I could for the rest of the day, and I have no regrets. A little disappointment I will admit with my 12:06 finish, but I should not complain. It was a good first effort. It's just that the next one will be so long from now.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Bun-huggers
I haven't bought a pair of running shorts in at least 10 years. Well, until a week or two ago. I just seemed to have enough. Two or three do the trick, especially when I have a supply of tights and tri shorts. But my old standby shorts are losing their elasticity in the waist, and I'm running more frequently to prepare for Boston, so I wanted a new pair, and I bought a supposedly top end pair made by Asics. They are comfy enough, but...
I am definitely not the skinniest guy in the world, but I usually wear 31 or 32 pants, and I bought the 32-34 sized shorts, since the size down was definitely too small (28-30 I think). Thus the last thing I expected was a snug fit. Since when do runners have no butts? The liner in these things ... well, let's just say it's taking a little getting used to! Didn't know my cheeks needed that much support when I ran!
I will say that the (one) pocket in the shorts is well placed and seemingly well made. (But can't I have another??? Please???)
And finally, one request to all you running shorts manufacturers reading this: Please, please, please figure out a way to make shorts that don't have a big, nasty, scratchy seam on the inside of my thighs! I have enough to worry about already. Or is my conspiracy theory correct? That you and the makers of Body Glide are in on this together....
I am definitely not the skinniest guy in the world, but I usually wear 31 or 32 pants, and I bought the 32-34 sized shorts, since the size down was definitely too small (28-30 I think). Thus the last thing I expected was a snug fit. Since when do runners have no butts? The liner in these things ... well, let's just say it's taking a little getting used to! Didn't know my cheeks needed that much support when I ran!
I will say that the (one) pocket in the shorts is well placed and seemingly well made. (But can't I have another??? Please???)
And finally, one request to all you running shorts manufacturers reading this: Please, please, please figure out a way to make shorts that don't have a big, nasty, scratchy seam on the inside of my thighs! I have enough to worry about already. Or is my conspiracy theory correct? That you and the makers of Body Glide are in on this together....
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Off Off Analysis
Since this is an Off Off Year election, I offer a quick Off Off Analysis.
The first thing I think we all need to realize is that the situation for the Republicans was so awful in 2008 that there was little reason to think it could get much worse. It had to get better for them. In the stock market, they call it the Dead Cat Bounce. As in, even a dead cat bounces when dropped from high enough.
Thus, I think it's inevitable, but silly to over-interpret the victories by Republicans in narrowly held states like the Virginia governor race. Deeds was long thought to be not such a great candidate on the Democrats' side, and thus the "intensity" was higher on the Republicans' side. So the Republican wins. The New Jersey governor's race was, I think, more meaningful and encouraging to the Reps. But we could come back with counterexamples, such as the CA 10th district, where the Great Republican Upset just didn't come close to materializing. And, of course, there's NY 23, where Republican party dynamics have been shaken, but the result is the election of a Democrat in a seat that has been held by the Reps since the 1870s.
So, just like sports teams never are as good as they look when on a winning streak, nor as bad as they look on a losing streak, the Dems' advantage over the Reps that gave us the 60/40 senate and the current House is not as large as that "winning streak" - based largely on the bad economy and Bush-hatred - would imply.
The result in Maine on Question 1 is very disappointing of course. While there are no moral victories, the race is getting closer and closer. Same sex marriage has won. The only question is whether that win will come 2 years from now or 20. How many more years must we wait for generational change, or will enough people be actually persuaded to move that issue now? In Washington, where the question was not explicitly over same sex marriage, but in reality was, there was a narrow victory. (The Washington measure assured full state rights to unmarried domestic partners, obviously mainly targeted at same-sex couples.)
The first thing I think we all need to realize is that the situation for the Republicans was so awful in 2008 that there was little reason to think it could get much worse. It had to get better for them. In the stock market, they call it the Dead Cat Bounce. As in, even a dead cat bounces when dropped from high enough.
Thus, I think it's inevitable, but silly to over-interpret the victories by Republicans in narrowly held states like the Virginia governor race. Deeds was long thought to be not such a great candidate on the Democrats' side, and thus the "intensity" was higher on the Republicans' side. So the Republican wins. The New Jersey governor's race was, I think, more meaningful and encouraging to the Reps. But we could come back with counterexamples, such as the CA 10th district, where the Great Republican Upset just didn't come close to materializing. And, of course, there's NY 23, where Republican party dynamics have been shaken, but the result is the election of a Democrat in a seat that has been held by the Reps since the 1870s.
So, just like sports teams never are as good as they look when on a winning streak, nor as bad as they look on a losing streak, the Dems' advantage over the Reps that gave us the 60/40 senate and the current House is not as large as that "winning streak" - based largely on the bad economy and Bush-hatred - would imply.
The result in Maine on Question 1 is very disappointing of course. While there are no moral victories, the race is getting closer and closer. Same sex marriage has won. The only question is whether that win will come 2 years from now or 20. How many more years must we wait for generational change, or will enough people be actually persuaded to move that issue now? In Washington, where the question was not explicitly over same sex marriage, but in reality was, there was a narrow victory. (The Washington measure assured full state rights to unmarried domestic partners, obviously mainly targeted at same-sex couples.)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
NYC Marathon: map and memories
The NYTimes has a pretty cool interactive map of the New York Marathon course.
Of course, I'm not running it this year, but it made me think about the course and the race. Some memories:
The NY Times map is like a time lapse photo sequence taken from a car, except for the parts on the Central Park path. It can't do the course justice, because the course is about the people at least as much as the scenery, and it's just a business day in NYC. But this is still a cool link. Have a look.
Of course, I'm not running it this year, but it made me think about the course and the race. Some memories:
- The pre-race "infinite pee trough" in the holding pen that can be seen by the trains going by. (Or at least could be a long time ago...)
- The first mile up the bridge coming out of Staten Island. All uphill, but you never notice with all the people around you. It took me 3.5 minutes to get to the starting line in my first race, and there were no timing chips, so my 3:30 finish was only recorded on my watch...It was 3:33:30 or so in the books.
- The second mile down the bridge. Can you believe a bridge is 2 miles long? The crowd thinned for me here. Still crowded, but not nearly as bad.
- From right there at the bottom of the bridge - the crowds. As you move from neighborhood to neighborhood, how the crowds change - in level of noise, manner of dress, everything. Such an amazing city.
- The Queensboro Bridge. Carpeting over grates at about mile 17 or so. Not such a comfortable run at that point, but the crowds on the other side!
- Finally coming into Central Park with about 4 miles to go. Like coming home.
- WHY ARE THEY MAKING ME LEAVE THE PARK TO GO ON 59TH STREET! I KNOW IT'S ONLY AN EXTRA 50 YARDS OR SOMETHING BUT I DON'T WANT TO GO! I WANT TO TURN HERE AND STAY ON THE PATH!
- Gosh darn, I hate all this irregular pavement and stuff to get back on the Park path. WHY COULDN'T I HAVE JUST STAYED ON THE PARK PATH IN THE FIRST PLACE!
- Almost there, and then a great finish line.
The NY Times map is like a time lapse photo sequence taken from a car, except for the parts on the Central Park path. It can't do the course justice, because the course is about the people at least as much as the scenery, and it's just a business day in NYC. But this is still a cool link. Have a look.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sarah Palin's book deal
According to Politico, Sarah Palin only got $1.25 M for her book deal. I have to say this surprises me. I expected it would have been bigger.
'Nuther Newton Update and Boston
I am pretty excited. Today in the mail I received confirmation of my Boston marathon entry. It'll be the 114th running on April 19, 2010. This means that this winter, I will focus mainly on running. My secondary goal will be building bike power through shorter interval workouts, and swimming will take a bit of a back seat until spring.
By the time I write this, I've been running in the Newtons for the better part of 5 weeks. I have allowed my workload to climb up to the ~6 hour/week mark. No planning in particular yet, except for the general goal that by mid-December I want to be comfortably running 35-40 mi/week consistently and having a couple spins. This will set me up for a marathon buildup of about 16 weeks.
Lengthening my runs by about a mile at a time, I can now consistently run an hour in the Newtons without feeling muscular fatigue. I am no longer feeling pain in the soleus, and I have extended my long run up to about 11 miles in them. I've put almost 100 miles in them total. The pace of my running has been unexceptional - certainly I would not attribute any particular pace to the Newtons (other than it's still hard to run VERY slowly in them). The stride feels quite natural now.
Despite this progress, it seems that I am something of a slow adapter. There is no doubt in my mind that there are simply different muscles involved here and that I need to strengthen them. I am still sometimes getting some dull aches in my upper hamstrings the day after a longer run. It's not enough to be a problem, but enough that I notice when I'm sitting.
Another thing I really notice is that it makes a much bigger difference to me whether I stretch properly. For now, I believe that this simply has to do with the same need for strengthening that I feel otherwise. I called the folks at Newton, taking them up on their offer to chat, and I spoke to someone who seemed quite knowledgeable and reasonable. Except that she hadn't dealt with too many people with dull hamstring aches. Oh well.
At the very least, this has been a very interesting project/experiment to watch myself go through. I think it's going to turn out well.
By the time I write this, I've been running in the Newtons for the better part of 5 weeks. I have allowed my workload to climb up to the ~6 hour/week mark. No planning in particular yet, except for the general goal that by mid-December I want to be comfortably running 35-40 mi/week consistently and having a couple spins. This will set me up for a marathon buildup of about 16 weeks.
Lengthening my runs by about a mile at a time, I can now consistently run an hour in the Newtons without feeling muscular fatigue. I am no longer feeling pain in the soleus, and I have extended my long run up to about 11 miles in them. I've put almost 100 miles in them total. The pace of my running has been unexceptional - certainly I would not attribute any particular pace to the Newtons (other than it's still hard to run VERY slowly in them). The stride feels quite natural now.
Despite this progress, it seems that I am something of a slow adapter. There is no doubt in my mind that there are simply different muscles involved here and that I need to strengthen them. I am still sometimes getting some dull aches in my upper hamstrings the day after a longer run. It's not enough to be a problem, but enough that I notice when I'm sitting.
Another thing I really notice is that it makes a much bigger difference to me whether I stretch properly. For now, I believe that this simply has to do with the same need for strengthening that I feel otherwise. I called the folks at Newton, taking them up on their offer to chat, and I spoke to someone who seemed quite knowledgeable and reasonable. Except that she hadn't dealt with too many people with dull hamstring aches. Oh well.
At the very least, this has been a very interesting project/experiment to watch myself go through. I think it's going to turn out well.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Political Cynicism 101 - McCain/Palin
There's really nothing more I need to add to this, other than the remark that it shows to what lengths people will go to elect their guy.
I've been clear that I thought Palin was a disqualifying choice by McCain, who was probably not such a bad guy that would have had a better shot at winning in another year. But the fact that his campaign leader (Steve Schmidt) shares my opinion but still defends the choice.... Ouch.
I've been clear that I thought Palin was a disqualifying choice by McCain, who was probably not such a bad guy that would have had a better shot at winning in another year. But the fact that his campaign leader (Steve Schmidt) shares my opinion but still defends the choice.... Ouch.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Quick thoughts on the Nobel Prize
I didn't hear or read a lot of news yesterday, the day Barack Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize, but you didn't have to hear or read a lot to figure out that a lot of people generally disposed to like BHO were a bit mystified or surprised, and a lot of people who dislike BHO were very angry and thought it wasn't just a surprise, but completely undeserved.
I'm not going to argue that it was obvious BHO should get the Nobel Prize. I was surprised, and frankly, I was not sure that it was time yet. But I do have a thought on the right wing reaction.
As far as I can tell, the prize was given in large part for the transformation BHO has wrought on world opinion of the USA. We are relatively blind to that here, but the survey statistics are pretty dramatic.
However, the right wing, by and large, just doesn't care about world opinion of the USA. As a matter of political theory, they think that we should act in our own interest and not particularly care what anyone thinks (e.g., see invasion of Iraq). I say that not as a criticism, but simply as an observation, and many of them would candidly agree (surely Tony Blankley would say exactly this, wouldn't he?). Part of this has been accomplished by "not being Bush", but the transformation of the diplomatic outlook has certainly gone well beyond that.
As a matter of outlook then, if you don't care what the world or world leaders think, and if the major accomplishment of BHO has been to change something you don't care about, then he has accomplished nothing of worth....
I'm not going to argue that it was obvious BHO should get the Nobel Prize. I was surprised, and frankly, I was not sure that it was time yet. But I do have a thought on the right wing reaction.
As far as I can tell, the prize was given in large part for the transformation BHO has wrought on world opinion of the USA. We are relatively blind to that here, but the survey statistics are pretty dramatic.
However, the right wing, by and large, just doesn't care about world opinion of the USA. As a matter of political theory, they think that we should act in our own interest and not particularly care what anyone thinks (e.g., see invasion of Iraq). I say that not as a criticism, but simply as an observation, and many of them would candidly agree (surely Tony Blankley would say exactly this, wouldn't he?). Part of this has been accomplished by "not being Bush", but the transformation of the diplomatic outlook has certainly gone well beyond that.
As a matter of outlook then, if you don't care what the world or world leaders think, and if the major accomplishment of BHO has been to change something you don't care about, then he has accomplished nothing of worth....
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Miscellaneous Rants: The Post-Game soccer "treat"
I'm an official with the local soccer club, so various vendors send me advertisements and the like. One thing I get is offers for fundraisers, which are sometimes marketing devices for companies; and sometimes these marketing devices are win-win deals that are ok. But many of them are not good for the club, as far as I am concerned, and we do not pursue them all.
Today, I got an email from someone with a company that is marketing a food product as " [a] great post match nutrition source for the players, offering carbohydrates to refuel and key nutrients from whole grains, real fruit, and nuts." This product is probably reasonably healthful, but COME ON. Kids who play 2/3 of a 60 minute soccer match on a small field DO NOT NEED TO REFUEL!
Soccer should be about fitness and fun (and soccer). There is no resisting the "treat" mentality at the end of a game. I personally don't like it, and always bring fruit. But this kind of marketing is just disingenuous. Kids of the age that get post-game "treats" can't be spending more than 200-300 calories in their games and just don't need to "refuel". Please, if you want to give your kid a snack, fine...but don't rationalize that s/he needs to "refuel" just because of a little exercise. They aren't exactly running marathons out there! Exercise is not an excuse to eat unnecessarily.
Finally, I did get something great from my kids' swim team about this, published by the American Swimming Coaches Association. The newsletter is below. The part in italics was added by the local coach. Someone gets it.
Today, I got an email from someone with a company that is marketing a food product as " [a] great post match nutrition source for the players, offering carbohydrates to refuel and key nutrients from whole grains, real fruit, and nuts." This product is probably reasonably healthful, but COME ON. Kids who play 2/3 of a 60 minute soccer match on a small field DO NOT NEED TO REFUEL!
Soccer should be about fitness and fun (and soccer). There is no resisting the "treat" mentality at the end of a game. I personally don't like it, and always bring fruit. But this kind of marketing is just disingenuous. Kids of the age that get post-game "treats" can't be spending more than 200-300 calories in their games and just don't need to "refuel". Please, if you want to give your kid a snack, fine...but don't rationalize that s/he needs to "refuel" just because of a little exercise. They aren't exactly running marathons out there! Exercise is not an excuse to eat unnecessarily.
Finally, I did get something great from my kids' swim team about this, published by the American Swimming Coaches Association. The newsletter is below. The part in italics was added by the local coach. Someone gets it.
Carbohydrate Loading
By Keith B. Wheeler, Ph.D. And Angeline M. Cameron
Question: What exactly is carbohydrate loading? Is it appropriate for age group swimmers?
Answer: Carbohydrate loading refers to the process by which the carbohydrate (glycogen) stores in an athlete's active muscles are increased significantly above normal levels. This loading of carbohydrate in the muscles is accomplished through a combination of training and diet manipulation.
Specific techniques for carbohydrate loading have changed since the method was developed in Sweden. The original program consisted of 7 days of dietary management, beginning with exhaustive exercise bouts on the 1st day, followed by 3 days of extremely low carbohydrate consumption. The next 3 days consisted of an extremely high carbohydrate intake that caused the muscles to super increase their carbohydrate stores. In some people, this regimen produced nausea, fatigue, and diarrhea. Therefore, less drastic carbohydrate loading regimens were developed and are currently recommended.
Although, when done properly, it does increase muscle-glycogen stores above normal levels, carbohydrate loading is most useful for athletes who are preparing for endurance events such as triathons, marathons, cycling races, or open water long distance swimming. It should be done only a few times in a year. A nutritional concern that is more important to an age-group swimmer than carbohydrate loading is consuming enough carbohydrate on a daily basis. Age-group swimmers should get at least 60% of their daily calories from carbohydrate, which will maintain their muscle glycogen at levels that will support their training.
From a physiology point, as stated at the end of the newsletter, carbohydrate loading is helpful for endurance events lasting longer than 2 hours. With events lasting less than that, there is no need for it, since those are not long enough to deplete normal glycogen storages. In swimming events (from 50s to the mile), the loss of energy that a swimmer experiences is due to a decrease in the muscle cell pH, which takes place because of the accumulation of by-products of the muscle contraction. Therefore, unless you are going for a 10K swim, we would not recommend carbohydrate loading, neither for age-groupers or senior swimmers.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
More Newtons. About a week
The pain from last week's runs had me worried. I wrote to a friend, Rachelle, who uses them, and she scolded me something good for doing too much running in the first place after the IM. She also informed me that my sore spot was my soleus and told me in nice, but firm terms to back off, buddy, and take it easy. I hate that.
But she was probably right. If I weren't doing the Newton thing, I think I'd be running more/longer by now, because I've just run so long that I do believe in the easy aerobic recovery run, at least for me. But with the Newton thing, I needed to back off.
I have since done three more runs on them, two very short, and today back up to ~3.5 miles. So sad, given what I was doing! But I'll build up slowly but surely again, and my groin seems to think the bike isn't so bad any more. (Maybe that borrowed saddle?) I've also taken a couple pretty close to complete days off. They were almost required by scheduling of soccer tournaments and the like, but they were also probably good for me.
So today's report is that run 5 was 28 minutes indoors, and felt much better than either of the first two. I can feel a bit of soleus fatigue, but it's not bad. I did not push the distance past this because I didn't want to hurt myself again. Trying to work out in my mind whether high repetitions or time off followed by longer is better. I will probably try a combination: near-daily very short runs and extend one every few days a bit. No speed yet, and not for a while. It's all comfortable 8:00-8:15 type pace.
But she was probably right. If I weren't doing the Newton thing, I think I'd be running more/longer by now, because I've just run so long that I do believe in the easy aerobic recovery run, at least for me. But with the Newton thing, I needed to back off.
I have since done three more runs on them, two very short, and today back up to ~3.5 miles. So sad, given what I was doing! But I'll build up slowly but surely again, and my groin seems to think the bike isn't so bad any more. (Maybe that borrowed saddle?) I've also taken a couple pretty close to complete days off. They were almost required by scheduling of soccer tournaments and the like, but they were also probably good for me.
So today's report is that run 5 was 28 minutes indoors, and felt much better than either of the first two. I can feel a bit of soleus fatigue, but it's not bad. I did not push the distance past this because I didn't want to hurt myself again. Trying to work out in my mind whether high repetitions or time off followed by longer is better. I will probably try a combination: near-daily very short runs and extend one every few days a bit. No speed yet, and not for a while. It's all comfortable 8:00-8:15 type pace.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Newtons, post Day-2
Tuesday was the first (3-mile) run on the Newtons. Wednesday morning, my calves were sore, pretty much right in the middle of my leg, below the "meat" of the muscle and above the tendon junction.
Wednesday afternoon, I went for another 3 mile run. "Torture" would be strong, but it was relatively painful, exactly where the calves were hurting. Toward the end, I did have to focus to hold the form. This did not seem too good... Running more slowly would have been worse, so the pace held at a little over 8 minute miles. I'm not trying to go fast at all, but I have to be at some minimum speed right now for this to work.
The wear pattern on the shoe so far is on the front of the middle two lugs. Obviously there's not much wear at all, but that's basically the only place you can see much of anything.
Today, Thursday, it's raining. The first few steps this morning I still felt the calves, and walking downstairs was a bit of a challenge. By midday, the pain in the left one has more or less resolved, although that part of the muscle still feels fatigued. The right one still hurts a bit. No run today (swam instead). Gotta heal up a bit before giving it another go.
I must say that, while I wouldn't yet call this a long adjustment period, I'm surprised at the intensity of it.
Wednesday afternoon, I went for another 3 mile run. "Torture" would be strong, but it was relatively painful, exactly where the calves were hurting. Toward the end, I did have to focus to hold the form. This did not seem too good... Running more slowly would have been worse, so the pace held at a little over 8 minute miles. I'm not trying to go fast at all, but I have to be at some minimum speed right now for this to work.
The wear pattern on the shoe so far is on the front of the middle two lugs. Obviously there's not much wear at all, but that's basically the only place you can see much of anything.
Today, Thursday, it's raining. The first few steps this morning I still felt the calves, and walking downstairs was a bit of a challenge. By midday, the pain in the left one has more or less resolved, although that part of the muscle still feels fatigued. The right one still hurts a bit. No run today (swam instead). Gotta heal up a bit before giving it another go.
I must say that, while I wouldn't yet call this a long adjustment period, I'm surprised at the intensity of it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Going Newtonian
I've made a mental commitment to give Boston '10 the best shot I can.
As part of that, I decided to give the whole Newton running shoe thing a try. For the few of my readers who don't know, these are running shoes that have very little heel and a built up forefoot. They are designed to force you to be a forefoot/midfoot striker, and they (and others) have a full argument on why this is a better/faster way to run. But it requires a break-in period for most people as it's a change. Thus, there was no way I was going to do it during the IM buildup.
This easy recovery time seemed like a good time to give it a go. Got myself a pair, and gave them a first 3-mile run yesterday. (They suggest as short as 1 mile!)
The first mile was carried by just the novelty. Mile 2 felt odd and a little awkward while I tried to figure it out. Mile 3 felt a lot more natural.
If you asked me before, I would tell you that I midfoot strike when I'm enthusiastic, and heel strike when I'm tired or slow. That appeared to be confirmed by my experience yesterday. By the end, all was good.
However, today, the lower halves of my calves are sore. Not ridiculous, but definitely sore. We'll see how it goes. Going to go for another 3 mi today.
As part of that, I decided to give the whole Newton running shoe thing a try. For the few of my readers who don't know, these are running shoes that have very little heel and a built up forefoot. They are designed to force you to be a forefoot/midfoot striker, and they (and others) have a full argument on why this is a better/faster way to run. But it requires a break-in period for most people as it's a change. Thus, there was no way I was going to do it during the IM buildup.
This easy recovery time seemed like a good time to give it a go. Got myself a pair, and gave them a first 3-mile run yesterday. (They suggest as short as 1 mile!)
The first mile was carried by just the novelty. Mile 2 felt odd and a little awkward while I tried to figure it out. Mile 3 felt a lot more natural.
If you asked me before, I would tell you that I midfoot strike when I'm enthusiastic, and heel strike when I'm tired or slow. That appeared to be confirmed by my experience yesterday. By the end, all was good.
However, today, the lower halves of my calves are sore. Not ridiculous, but definitely sore. We'll see how it goes. Going to go for another 3 mi today.
Ironman recovery, part 2
As of this writing, I am 2 weeks and 3 days out from the IM race.
As I noted before, I took about a complete week totally off. Week two consisted of a few easy hour-long bikes, with one a little harder, and a few 45-minute (or so) easy runs, plus a swim. I felt good during this week, save that there was definitely an upper limit on how hard I felt like I could go. The level of fatigue felt a lot like being in the middle part of the race, i.e., tired, but not just waxed. There were safe upper limits that I didn't feel like exceeding anyway.
At the beginning of week 3, I got another wave of fatigue. I've been sleeping like a bear in winter (or at least wanting to) pretty consistently, but Monday, I just felt like I really needed the rest and took a total day off. Yesterday, Tuesday, I was unenthused, but as soon as I got out the door, I felt good.
I am still clearly not fully recovered. I want to do well in the spring, so I'm taking it easy until I'm ready to go. Hoping that's 4 weeks. We'll see.
As I noted before, I took about a complete week totally off. Week two consisted of a few easy hour-long bikes, with one a little harder, and a few 45-minute (or so) easy runs, plus a swim. I felt good during this week, save that there was definitely an upper limit on how hard I felt like I could go. The level of fatigue felt a lot like being in the middle part of the race, i.e., tired, but not just waxed. There were safe upper limits that I didn't feel like exceeding anyway.
At the beginning of week 3, I got another wave of fatigue. I've been sleeping like a bear in winter (or at least wanting to) pretty consistently, but Monday, I just felt like I really needed the rest and took a total day off. Yesterday, Tuesday, I was unenthused, but as soon as I got out the door, I felt good.
I am still clearly not fully recovered. I want to do well in the spring, so I'm taking it easy until I'm ready to go. Hoping that's 4 weeks. We'll see.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Season assessment
So what to make of this season?
The positives:
- IM KS 70.3 was a breakthrough race. My time of 5:08 was great, and I think I can/could do better. It made me think sub-5:00 is possible.
- I raced fairly well at my non-tapered Olympic and sprint races. Bike splits were up, and run splits were at least in line with last year.
- I recognized a bad swim problem early in the season and overcame it. My swims still weren't going to knock anyone's socks off, but I got them back at least where they should be.
- I learned that maybe I can deal with a little less nutrition than some people recommend. It's less that this is a good fact than that knowing it is a good fact. For Olympic distances, I will no longer worry about anything other than using gatorade (or whatever) on the bike and having a gel or two available for the start and halfway point of the run. For HIM, something like 700-800 bike calories ought to be more than sufficient, not 1000+. Fewer calories = less likely for tummy issues. For IM, again, just keeping it at the lean end of recommendations will work for me.
- I showed mental strength and discipline in my IM. I didn't reach my ultimate goal, but I coped well with what happened to me.
- I set a new Olympic PR of 2:23 at Big Creek.
The disappointments
- Once again, I got hit a bit hard by the Pigman, this time with GI issues that caused (or at least accompanied) a bonk. My result was disappointing. I owe that course something.
- My run blowup in the opening minutes of IM was a disappointment. I don't know how else to put that. I feel like I was in shape to do better, but that the virus and heat got the better of me. Other people had to deal with the heat and did. So I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed that I don't get to try to redeem myself, but I also know that taking the long view on that is the only way to do better.
- Despite working on my stroke in the winter, my swim didn't really improve much. I still need to work on how to balance effort and technique.
Overall, a very good year, and a fun one. Looking forward to the next.
Ironman recovery
I write this on the Tuesday 9 days after the Sunday Ironman.
If you read around, the "word" you get is that among marathon, ironman, and half-ironman, the recovery time is in that same order, i.e., an open marathon is the hardest to recover from.
Within limits, I am finding that to be true. I have done three half-ironmans now, and racing two weeks out from that may not find me at my peak, but it's completely possible. Racing one week out would require very careful attention.
I am now 9 days out from my ironman. From an "injury" point of view, I feel fine. My messed up toenails are now no longer bothering me. I have no significant muscle pain, and I don't have any trouble getting around, e.g., descending stairs.
Last year, I went on a 30 minute run on day 7 from my marathon and the HR was pretty high. On day 9, I went for an easy 7 mile run, and the legs complained the next day. I remember my quads being sore for a couple of weeks. In the third week, it looks like I had a couple brisk, if short runs. It was 5 weeks before I went 10 miles again.
Yesterday was my first activity after IM. A very easy 1 hour ride (ave power 120 W) showed me that, although I am pain-free, I still have a lot of underlying fatigue. To have pushed that any harder would have been difficult. In my head, I know my goal is to accelerate recovery, but my ego wants to keep or increase fitness.
If you read around, the "word" you get is that among marathon, ironman, and half-ironman, the recovery time is in that same order, i.e., an open marathon is the hardest to recover from.
Within limits, I am finding that to be true. I have done three half-ironmans now, and racing two weeks out from that may not find me at my peak, but it's completely possible. Racing one week out would require very careful attention.
I am now 9 days out from my ironman. From an "injury" point of view, I feel fine. My messed up toenails are now no longer bothering me. I have no significant muscle pain, and I don't have any trouble getting around, e.g., descending stairs.
Last year, I went on a 30 minute run on day 7 from my marathon and the HR was pretty high. On day 9, I went for an easy 7 mile run, and the legs complained the next day. I remember my quads being sore for a couple of weeks. In the third week, it looks like I had a couple brisk, if short runs. It was 5 weeks before I went 10 miles again.
Yesterday was my first activity after IM. A very easy 1 hour ride (ave power 120 W) showed me that, although I am pain-free, I still have a lot of underlying fatigue. To have pushed that any harder would have been difficult. In my head, I know my goal is to accelerate recovery, but my ego wants to keep or increase fitness.
My cold/virus/whatever still hangs on. It has been two weeks. I assume that IM has made it worse, but I do not know. I sure wish it would go away. I know it will, but just wish it had already.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Ironman - Race report
My ironman weekend began with a 5 hour drive to get to check-in on Friday afternoon. The process was smooth. I had forgotten that they do a weigh-in. (This is so the medics can pull you off the course if you are too dehydrated or over-hydrated.) I got my race materials and chuckled at the relatively small swag-content. There was not the usual pile of samples of this and that. Just some ads, the bag to carry it in, the race number stuff, and the drop-off bags. I had planned to drive the bike course on Friday, but it was too late. I saw some friends from the TRI-racers, but got separated, so I went to the banquet myself and sat through the prerace meeting. I learned more from just talking to people at the table than from the race directors, but that was ok.
On Saturday morning, I went out and checked out the swim venue, bringing my wetsuit and a backpack. It made the whole idea of the swim easier to realize that it was really just 4 sets of an 800 followed by a 200 because of the rectangular course shape. That's longer than I normally swim without stopping, but it made the whole thing a lot easier to swallow than just being told to swim 2.4 miles. Afterwards, I did a little bit of easy biking, then had my last big meal - a nice burrito, easy on the veggies and beans. In the early afternoon, I took care of a few last minute issues on the bike (numbers, etc), packed my transition bags, and brought them to check in. I found a grocery store to get some supplies. Finally, I had time to go out on the course by car.
I had ridden the course a couple of months ago, but it was refreshing to see it again. It consists of a ~15 mile "stick" out to a ~41 mile "loop", and you do the loop twice before coming back home on the stick again. In retrospect, the driving was more informative of the tight turns going downhill than it was for the uphill sections, but I am still very glad I did it.
By this time, Cynthia had arrived, having ridden up with Ingrid Guttin. We met, and I had a light dinner consisting mostly of soba noodles in the early evening. We met up with TRI-racers again and agreed to all meet in the morning to leave for the race at 5:00.
I got up at 2:00 a.m. to have "breakfast" consisting of 4 small containers of Ensure. Vile stuff. However, it was 1000 calories that was all liquid and reasonably balanced. I went back to sleep for 90 min or so, and we got up about 4:00.
I put on my lube and race gear, and Cynthia got some real breakfast at the hotel, which had specially gotten the breakfast out at 4:00 for the race. We met our TRI-racer friends and went out to deposit our special needs bags (stuff you can pick up halfway through the bike and/or run) and got to the site.
I had been nursing a low grade viral sore throat (etc) bug for at least half a week, but I felt pretty good. You don't get to put the race off for a week, so you just go with the hand you've got. After inflating my tires, I headed down to the swim start and dropped off my glasses at the special table for me and my fellow blind racers.
I chose to go out into the deep water for the start instead of hanging out at the beach. The beach was very rocky, and I was more concerned about possibly hurting my foot than spending the tiny amount of energy required to tread water wearing the wetsuit. In the last few minutes before the start, all the people around me were assuring one another how nice they were and that they had no intention of smashing each other in the head once the gun went off.
So much for intentions.
Actually, the swim didn't bother me much. I felt very comfortable and in control, but it was pretty darn rough pretty much the whole way. My final swim time was just barely faster than the 50th percentile (1:18), but I was passing a LOT of people who mis-seeded themselves. I had decided I didn't want to be That Guy who was too close to the front, but I clearly went too far with it. After one lap, I took a quick glance at my watch and was pleased to be on track. As I got to the last leg, I knew I'd be ok and I was ready to get on the bike.
After getting out of the water, I got my wetsuit taken off by the strippers and grabbed my glasses. Like everyone else, I "ran" up the helix, got my T1 bag and got ready to ride.
I had a very specific bike plan. I have a power meter on my bike, and I knew how many watts I planned to put out on the flats (of which there are not too many), and my cap for going uphill. I am not yet a super-strong biker, so those numbers were only 170-180 and 250. My goal was to keep it to 200 W on modest false-flats (e.g., 1-2% grade). My rolling hill tactics were to downshift to a low gear early, let people gap me going up, but be able to accelerate in the top part of the hill (when many people flag) and over the crest, so that I could put some watts into the top of the descent and then catch up and/or pass people while not doing any work. This seemed to work beautifully. I saw myself progressing through the field as the rolling hills wore on. Toward the end of the loop, there is a sequence of three hills that are not rolling so much like this. Just up, pause, up, pause, up. Those, I just gutted out in low gear to keep the watts in line. I lost some ground to my contemporaries on the first lap, but gained a bit on the second.
The way the splits were laid out on the bike course, they didn't show that my first half was somewhat faster than my second. I could feel some fatigue in the last quarter of the bike, but that seemed pretty reasonable. I was choosing to coast at somewhat lower speeds than I did on the first lap, but I still seemed to be generally progressing through the crowd and I wasn't concerned.
My nutrition on the bike consisted of an 1100 calorie bottle of Perpetuem for the first half, and another one at special needs, plus a couple of cut up Clif bars in my little bento bag for variety. I think I have learned that I need to go a little light on the nutrition compared to some people, so this was to have both margin (in case of some disaster) and variety (Drinking mocha-flavored pancake batter for 6 hours is dull...) I picked up water at the aid stations and poured it into my aerodrink each time. The volunteers were very skilled at hand-offs, which was fantastic.
I saw Cynthia and other people cheering for the TRI-racers along the route. We have a great club. I'd wager that we were in the top 10 clubs for the number of jerseys out on the field.
As I finished the bike in under 6 hours and still feeling very good (relatively speaking), I was optimistic I was going to have a very good day. I had some fatigue, but it seemed quite manageable The only problems I had on the bike were a nerve in my foot that occasionally makes it feel like it's on fire on long rides, but always goes away within a few minutes of getting off the bike (even when that means running), and the usual discomfort a long ride can put between the legs. But that, too, also goes away when you stop riding.
T2 seemed uneventful. After the fact, I realized that I had forgotten to take the bike shorts off that I was wearing over my running tights, but this was not that big a deal.
I went out on the run feeling very strong. I took out what seemed like a very moderate pace, knowing that no one can really "run" a strong marathon after that without the luxury of full time training.
Unfortunately, within 10-15 minutes, I had major problems. My heart rate was sky high, relative to how fast I was going. My usual lactate threshold for running is ~168. My max HR is near 185. It was getting pretty hot, and I suddenly felt quite uncomfortable and my HR was 175, even going this very modest pace. I wasn't thirsty. I was still sweating. My stomach was ok. So it wasn't dehydration or some other GI issue. I realized that I was overheating though. I believed that I had lost control of my core temperature.
At this point, I had to make a decision, because I wasn't more than a couple miles into the run, if that. I could try to keep up this pace and just see what happened, or I could try to get the HR under control. I feared that if I took the first choice that I would shortly end up in a very long death-march, but I also realized it was potentially faster than my more conservative option if that didn't happen.
I made what I hope was the wiser choice and started to walk to let the HR come down to my target (near 155). After what seemed like forever, it eventually came down, but it rose again very rapidly once I started running again. This happened for a few cycles. I hated to do it, but I got to the point where I would walk up hills and through aid stations (drinking COLD things). The idea of this was killing me, but I didn't know what else to do. After several cycles, I looked down at my watch again, and my HR was LOWER than my target (without me expecting that from how I felt). So I started to run again. Now I couldn't get my heart rate back UP, but I felt just as bad at the lower peak HR as before.
So there I was. I resolved just to continue on and do the best I could under this walk-run routine. I saw Cynthia about half-way through and told her I was going to do my best to keep it under 13 hours, because I didn't know how much more my condition would deteriorate.
For the good news then... although of course I tired, things did not get worse. My management strategy, while difficult, let me traverse the first ~22 miles at about the same pace overall. Of course, the splits don't show when I sped up and slowed down, because they are in several mile chunks. With about 5-6 miles left, I started to feel, if anything, better. Maybe this was psychological; maybe it was the temperature coming down; maybe it was my body getting control of itself again. I was able to "run" every step from mile 23 on. Finally, I finished, at 12:06:48.
As a precaution, I stopped at the medical tent because of the HR issue. They weighed me, and I was only down ~4% of body weight, so that was really ok. They watched me and my HR for a while, and let me go.
I had hoped to finish under 12 hours. I will admit to some disappointment that I didn't. But I also have no regrets. I swam as I planned, finishing as I expected - between 1:15 and 1:20. My nutrition on the bike and run both seemed fine. I had no GI issues (other than needing cooling!). I only had to stop once to pee the whole time. I still feel like I nailed the bike to the best of my particular current skill set, at least according to my plan. Perhaps, knowing I was slightly ill, I should have adjusted my power targets. Not doing that is something I have to live with, but I'm ok with that. I'll never know what would have happened if I had just carried on jogging the marathon without walking, but I don't think it would have been good. My choices were rational, and I worked hard to carry them out. Friends and Cynthia supported me and encouraged me and I worked hard in return for their cheers. I did my best on the day. I am an Ironman.
On Saturday morning, I went out and checked out the swim venue, bringing my wetsuit and a backpack. It made the whole idea of the swim easier to realize that it was really just 4 sets of an 800 followed by a 200 because of the rectangular course shape. That's longer than I normally swim without stopping, but it made the whole thing a lot easier to swallow than just being told to swim 2.4 miles. Afterwards, I did a little bit of easy biking, then had my last big meal - a nice burrito, easy on the veggies and beans. In the early afternoon, I took care of a few last minute issues on the bike (numbers, etc), packed my transition bags, and brought them to check in. I found a grocery store to get some supplies. Finally, I had time to go out on the course by car.
I had ridden the course a couple of months ago, but it was refreshing to see it again. It consists of a ~15 mile "stick" out to a ~41 mile "loop", and you do the loop twice before coming back home on the stick again. In retrospect, the driving was more informative of the tight turns going downhill than it was for the uphill sections, but I am still very glad I did it.
By this time, Cynthia had arrived, having ridden up with Ingrid Guttin. We met, and I had a light dinner consisting mostly of soba noodles in the early evening. We met up with TRI-racers again and agreed to all meet in the morning to leave for the race at 5:00.
I got up at 2:00 a.m. to have "breakfast" consisting of 4 small containers of Ensure. Vile stuff. However, it was 1000 calories that was all liquid and reasonably balanced. I went back to sleep for 90 min or so, and we got up about 4:00.
I put on my lube and race gear, and Cynthia got some real breakfast at the hotel, which had specially gotten the breakfast out at 4:00 for the race. We met our TRI-racer friends and went out to deposit our special needs bags (stuff you can pick up halfway through the bike and/or run) and got to the site.
I had been nursing a low grade viral sore throat (etc) bug for at least half a week, but I felt pretty good. You don't get to put the race off for a week, so you just go with the hand you've got. After inflating my tires, I headed down to the swim start and dropped off my glasses at the special table for me and my fellow blind racers.
I chose to go out into the deep water for the start instead of hanging out at the beach. The beach was very rocky, and I was more concerned about possibly hurting my foot than spending the tiny amount of energy required to tread water wearing the wetsuit. In the last few minutes before the start, all the people around me were assuring one another how nice they were and that they had no intention of smashing each other in the head once the gun went off.
So much for intentions.
Actually, the swim didn't bother me much. I felt very comfortable and in control, but it was pretty darn rough pretty much the whole way. My final swim time was just barely faster than the 50th percentile (1:18), but I was passing a LOT of people who mis-seeded themselves. I had decided I didn't want to be That Guy who was too close to the front, but I clearly went too far with it. After one lap, I took a quick glance at my watch and was pleased to be on track. As I got to the last leg, I knew I'd be ok and I was ready to get on the bike.
After getting out of the water, I got my wetsuit taken off by the strippers and grabbed my glasses. Like everyone else, I "ran" up the helix, got my T1 bag and got ready to ride.
I had a very specific bike plan. I have a power meter on my bike, and I knew how many watts I planned to put out on the flats (of which there are not too many), and my cap for going uphill. I am not yet a super-strong biker, so those numbers were only 170-180 and 250. My goal was to keep it to 200 W on modest false-flats (e.g., 1-2% grade). My rolling hill tactics were to downshift to a low gear early, let people gap me going up, but be able to accelerate in the top part of the hill (when many people flag) and over the crest, so that I could put some watts into the top of the descent and then catch up and/or pass people while not doing any work. This seemed to work beautifully. I saw myself progressing through the field as the rolling hills wore on. Toward the end of the loop, there is a sequence of three hills that are not rolling so much like this. Just up, pause, up, pause, up. Those, I just gutted out in low gear to keep the watts in line. I lost some ground to my contemporaries on the first lap, but gained a bit on the second.
The way the splits were laid out on the bike course, they didn't show that my first half was somewhat faster than my second. I could feel some fatigue in the last quarter of the bike, but that seemed pretty reasonable. I was choosing to coast at somewhat lower speeds than I did on the first lap, but I still seemed to be generally progressing through the crowd and I wasn't concerned.
My nutrition on the bike consisted of an 1100 calorie bottle of Perpetuem for the first half, and another one at special needs, plus a couple of cut up Clif bars in my little bento bag for variety. I think I have learned that I need to go a little light on the nutrition compared to some people, so this was to have both margin (in case of some disaster) and variety (Drinking mocha-flavored pancake batter for 6 hours is dull...) I picked up water at the aid stations and poured it into my aerodrink each time. The volunteers were very skilled at hand-offs, which was fantastic.
I saw Cynthia and other people cheering for the TRI-racers along the route. We have a great club. I'd wager that we were in the top 10 clubs for the number of jerseys out on the field.
As I finished the bike in under 6 hours and still feeling very good (relatively speaking), I was optimistic I was going to have a very good day. I had some fatigue, but it seemed quite manageable The only problems I had on the bike were a nerve in my foot that occasionally makes it feel like it's on fire on long rides, but always goes away within a few minutes of getting off the bike (even when that means running), and the usual discomfort a long ride can put between the legs. But that, too, also goes away when you stop riding.
T2 seemed uneventful. After the fact, I realized that I had forgotten to take the bike shorts off that I was wearing over my running tights, but this was not that big a deal.
I went out on the run feeling very strong. I took out what seemed like a very moderate pace, knowing that no one can really "run" a strong marathon after that without the luxury of full time training.
Unfortunately, within 10-15 minutes, I had major problems. My heart rate was sky high, relative to how fast I was going. My usual lactate threshold for running is ~168. My max HR is near 185. It was getting pretty hot, and I suddenly felt quite uncomfortable and my HR was 175, even going this very modest pace. I wasn't thirsty. I was still sweating. My stomach was ok. So it wasn't dehydration or some other GI issue. I realized that I was overheating though. I believed that I had lost control of my core temperature.
At this point, I had to make a decision, because I wasn't more than a couple miles into the run, if that. I could try to keep up this pace and just see what happened, or I could try to get the HR under control. I feared that if I took the first choice that I would shortly end up in a very long death-march, but I also realized it was potentially faster than my more conservative option if that didn't happen.
I made what I hope was the wiser choice and started to walk to let the HR come down to my target (near 155). After what seemed like forever, it eventually came down, but it rose again very rapidly once I started running again. This happened for a few cycles. I hated to do it, but I got to the point where I would walk up hills and through aid stations (drinking COLD things). The idea of this was killing me, but I didn't know what else to do. After several cycles, I looked down at my watch again, and my HR was LOWER than my target (without me expecting that from how I felt). So I started to run again. Now I couldn't get my heart rate back UP, but I felt just as bad at the lower peak HR as before.
So there I was. I resolved just to continue on and do the best I could under this walk-run routine. I saw Cynthia about half-way through and told her I was going to do my best to keep it under 13 hours, because I didn't know how much more my condition would deteriorate.
For the good news then... although of course I tired, things did not get worse. My management strategy, while difficult, let me traverse the first ~22 miles at about the same pace overall. Of course, the splits don't show when I sped up and slowed down, because they are in several mile chunks. With about 5-6 miles left, I started to feel, if anything, better. Maybe this was psychological; maybe it was the temperature coming down; maybe it was my body getting control of itself again. I was able to "run" every step from mile 23 on. Finally, I finished, at 12:06:48.
As a precaution, I stopped at the medical tent because of the HR issue. They weighed me, and I was only down ~4% of body weight, so that was really ok. They watched me and my HR for a while, and let me go.
I had hoped to finish under 12 hours. I will admit to some disappointment that I didn't. But I also have no regrets. I swam as I planned, finishing as I expected - between 1:15 and 1:20. My nutrition on the bike and run both seemed fine. I had no GI issues (other than needing cooling!). I only had to stop once to pee the whole time. I still feel like I nailed the bike to the best of my particular current skill set, at least according to my plan. Perhaps, knowing I was slightly ill, I should have adjusted my power targets. Not doing that is something I have to live with, but I'm ok with that. I'll never know what would have happened if I had just carried on jogging the marathon without walking, but I don't think it would have been good. My choices were rational, and I worked hard to carry them out. Friends and Cynthia supported me and encouraged me and I worked hard in return for their cheers. I did my best on the day. I am an Ironman.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Downs and Ups
I know it's supposed to be ups and downs, but that's not the way it went!
Pigman HIM was supposed to be my big last race rehearsal and give me big confidence for IMOO. Instead, the bike portion of the race was largely in a huge wind and rain storm, and then it dried out and got warm. I had GI problems (thank goodness for the portapotty on mile 9 of the run), and bonked on the run. Hard. I still finished in 5:26, but this was a big comedown from the 5:08 at KS, and my contemporaries had times that were much more comparable to their KS efforts. I had lots of potential excuses, but I don't really know...
For most of a week, this was a big problem for me. I kept wondering if all this work was going to happen, and then I still suck. Big confidence problem.
But last weekend made things a lot better again. All I did was ride an easy century (is that an oxymoron?) on Saturday, then run 16 mi (albeit pretty easy, about 8:30 pace) on Sunday. Nutrition was no problem on Saturday, and the run on Sunday went fine with nary a water or nutrition stop.
Oh, and I got to watch Christopher at the Hickory Grove Tri. He averaged 21 mph on the bike for the first time and came in 3rd among all competitors 24 and under, 1st among everyone 19 and under. 19th out of 420 overall. Not bad for a 14 year old. His friends/teammates came in pretty much right behind him. Awesome.
Now it's Tuesday, and the legs feel fresh again. Life is good. Onward.
The Best Race Ever
At least so far.
Sorry for taking this long to write about it!
Christopher and I raced in the Big Creek Olympic Triathlon a few weeks ago. He had done a 2:26 on a relatively slow HyVee course and had been plotting all summer how to get down to 2:20. I, of course, lost to him at HyVee, but had not tapered. Big Creek was going to be the same. The family had gotten me an aero helmet for my birthday, but I let Christopher wear it because it was his big race.
We got started with me in the penultimate wave and Christopher in the last, with a 4 minute gap. Well, he's going to dust me in the swim by more than 4 minutes I know, so the big question I had was would I ever see him!
I had found a good draft on the swim for the first ~1000 m. Shortly after the last turn going in, some guy blasts by and yells at me. Who is it? Of course it's Christopher letting me know who's boss. Passing me was fine, but it was downright rude of him to break up my draft!
In a way, I was a little disappointed to catch up to him on the bike. I thought maybe he would go out and absolutely tear it up. But catch him I did. I challenged him to keep up with me, which he misinterpreted as an invitation to draft, which he loudly dismissed. Good for him!
I thought I was putting on more time against him than I did. When I got into T2, I had a shoe mishap (coming off my bike) and ran around for a little while trying to find it. Surely less than a minute, but longer than I should have. By that time, he had caught up, and we ran out of T2 almost together, him actually a touch ahead.
Dad was running just a touch faster that day. This irritated Christopher who wanted me to come up right away, instead of taking a while to catch him. We ran together for a mile or more, which was just great. Eventually, I pulled slowly away and played catch as catch can with other guys. But as I finished, Christopher was only about a minute behind.
Times - Christopher 2:20, Me 2:23. PRs for both of us! I was so proud of him, and happy for myself.
The coincidence of the start time and everything may have been unique. But I'll remember this one for a long time.
Sorry for taking this long to write about it!
Christopher and I raced in the Big Creek Olympic Triathlon a few weeks ago. He had done a 2:26 on a relatively slow HyVee course and had been plotting all summer how to get down to 2:20. I, of course, lost to him at HyVee, but had not tapered. Big Creek was going to be the same. The family had gotten me an aero helmet for my birthday, but I let Christopher wear it because it was his big race.
We got started with me in the penultimate wave and Christopher in the last, with a 4 minute gap. Well, he's going to dust me in the swim by more than 4 minutes I know, so the big question I had was would I ever see him!
I had found a good draft on the swim for the first ~1000 m. Shortly after the last turn going in, some guy blasts by and yells at me. Who is it? Of course it's Christopher letting me know who's boss. Passing me was fine, but it was downright rude of him to break up my draft!
In a way, I was a little disappointed to catch up to him on the bike. I thought maybe he would go out and absolutely tear it up. But catch him I did. I challenged him to keep up with me, which he misinterpreted as an invitation to draft, which he loudly dismissed. Good for him!
I thought I was putting on more time against him than I did. When I got into T2, I had a shoe mishap (coming off my bike) and ran around for a little while trying to find it. Surely less than a minute, but longer than I should have. By that time, he had caught up, and we ran out of T2 almost together, him actually a touch ahead.
Dad was running just a touch faster that day. This irritated Christopher who wanted me to come up right away, instead of taking a while to catch him. We ran together for a mile or more, which was just great. Eventually, I pulled slowly away and played catch as catch can with other guys. But as I finished, Christopher was only about a minute behind.
Times - Christopher 2:20, Me 2:23. PRs for both of us! I was so proud of him, and happy for myself.
The coincidence of the start time and everything may have been unique. But I'll remember this one for a long time.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Not all long workouts are the same...
If you read the books, they tell you - especially for IM training - that running is the hardest thing on your body.
In previous years, at lower volumes, I haven't really faced this much.
But this year, 3-5 hour workouts are no big deal.
Except the 3 hour run. First of those just the other day.
Definitely the most wearing low-moderate intensity workout so far this year. Oddly, it seemed more so than just 15 minutes shorter. Now, I'm not completely wiped out or anything, but it was a lot more than just a 3 hour ride, or even a 2/1 brick that was taken pretty hard. It would get old if I were doing that every week, at least as long as I was doing all the other stuff, too.
In previous years, at lower volumes, I haven't really faced this much.
But this year, 3-5 hour workouts are no big deal.
Except the 3 hour run. First of those just the other day.
Definitely the most wearing low-moderate intensity workout so far this year. Oddly, it seemed more so than just 15 minutes shorter. Now, I'm not completely wiped out or anything, but it was a lot more than just a 3 hour ride, or even a 2/1 brick that was taken pretty hard. It would get old if I were doing that every week, at least as long as I was doing all the other stuff, too.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
T1
Christopher is a T1 Stud.
Dude gets in and out in a flash. He had the fastest T1 in the whole race at Cornman, and 3rd at Iowa Games. 19 seconds. My goodness!
Dude gets in and out in a flash. He had the fastest T1 in the whole race at Cornman, and 3rd at Iowa Games. 19 seconds. My goodness!
Sockless
Today I took the plunge.
I've never done a race without socks before. Now, with Christopher breathing down my back at every race, maybe I need those extra 30 seconds!
We did a "fun race" today - the Iowa Games sprint triathlon. Just a "train though" race, not even sanctioned by USAT. He got 2nd his age group; I got 4th. The only bad thing was that I took a spill on my bike. The transition area for this race is horrible, and I got a rock in my cleat. Right out of T1, there is a small but steep hill you have to climb, so as I clipped in (or so I thought), I had to power up. The rock disagreed, and down I went. Arrgh. Just a few minor scrapes and a sore hip to show, but the rest of my race went fine (though I missed the podium by under a minute....wouldn't have if I hadn't fallen; oh well).
But other than that, the T1 was great. In and out in 37 seconds!
No issues biking, no issues running. Made sure to grease up my feet and shoes with body lube, and everything was good.
I don't think I'll be doing any more sprint races this year, but now I'm not afraid. That's a Good Thing.
I've never done a race without socks before. Now, with Christopher breathing down my back at every race, maybe I need those extra 30 seconds!
We did a "fun race" today - the Iowa Games sprint triathlon. Just a "train though" race, not even sanctioned by USAT. He got 2nd his age group; I got 4th. The only bad thing was that I took a spill on my bike. The transition area for this race is horrible, and I got a rock in my cleat. Right out of T1, there is a small but steep hill you have to climb, so as I clipped in (or so I thought), I had to power up. The rock disagreed, and down I went. Arrgh. Just a few minor scrapes and a sore hip to show, but the rest of my race went fine (though I missed the podium by under a minute....wouldn't have if I hadn't fallen; oh well).
But other than that, the T1 was great. In and out in 37 seconds!
No issues biking, no issues running. Made sure to grease up my feet and shoes with body lube, and everything was good.
I don't think I'll be doing any more sprint races this year, but now I'm not afraid. That's a Good Thing.
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Curse of the Cornman
Yesterday was the Cornman Sprint triathlon. 500 m, 14 mi, 3.1 mi.
This was the third Cornman for me and Christopher. In 2007, we were both pretty much newbies, and just had fun on this pretty hard, hilly course.
But 2008 was The Year of The Flats. Christopher had a flat about 6 mi into the ride. After changing the tire, he had a second flat half a mile later. Grrr. But he was determined and actually ran his bike the rest of the way in (barefoot!) and then ran the 5K. Very courageous, I have to say.
So we should have been pre-disastered, right?
We followed the directions to the race that Google Maps provided, carrying our bikes on the back of the van with the nifty new carrier, and with Cynthia and the twins with us. Well, the road Google had us take was a "B grade" road after a point. Never heard of that? Neither had I.
Let me save you the trouble: never take a "B" road.
We did, and we ended up completely stuck in the mud. We did everything we could to get that van moving, and nothing helped. Nothing. Didn't move it more than 6 inches after we got stuck.
Cynthia was the hero and said that Christopher and I should go the rest of the way by ourselves to the race, and she would call someone to get help. One small thing: there was no cell service. Another small thing: we had to carry our bikes on our backs up a few hills in the mud until we could get to a paved road.
Well, we did. Christopher had left his bike shoes, but I spotted this and threw them in my bag. Fortunately, we were using backpack style bags. We eventually got to the hardtop and rode in the rest of the way - seemingly several miles - to the race. We got to packet pickup with about 42 seconds left and then dashed over to the transition area.
We were both wearing our running shoes and had thick clay mud up to our knees. Needless to say, two guys running into transition with bikes that looked like they just finished Xterra races and mud up to their knees drew a little attention.
But we got set up - barely, and ugly, but ready.
I had told Christopher there was no chance we'd be able to use wetsuits, but we couldn't have carried them anyway. But the water was only 70! Coldest it had ever been, they announced. Fortunately, it was fine to swim in, but we had a slight disadvantage.
Christopher was in the first wave and got out of the water fourth, within a few meters of the top 3. He even beat Patrick Davis onto the bike. Patrick and others began to pass him, as to be expected, but he was going fine. Until near the end - eeek! Crash!! Fortunately, it wasn't too bad, and he probably only lost a minute or so. His run was fine, and he turned in a decent time that turned out to be within 1 minute of the winner of his age group and me.
My race was fine. Well mostly. I intentionally thought I went out hard on the swim, trying to improve my lousy last couple of swims. But I had had to borrow Timothy's goggles, and it turned out they were so scratched that I actually had to take them off to see where the heck I was going! So my swim time stunk again. T1 was ok. I got out on the bike and felt good and started passing people. No one passed me and I liked my power numbers, considering it was the end of a hard week. About 20 W better than I was getting at HyVee. Felt good going up and down the hills. Ultimately, it wasn't a perfect ride or anything, but I was pleased. Got to see Christopher as he was heading back in from the turnaround (before his crash).
T2 was smooth, except for the lady who wanted to have an extended conversation about all the mud on my shoes. I tried to be polite and got out as quick as I could.
Again, the run started out feeling fine. Tami Ritchie passed me on The Big Hill, but there's no shame in that, considering she was first overall woman! Don't know how far she started behind me, but I was really pleased to be able to keep her in my sights the whole race. I finished with a 22:13 5K, so that was pretty successful, given the terrain. I kept wondering where the heck the guys were in my group. I only saw (and passed) one. The good news was that I must have passed most of them in the bike or something, because I came in second! Woo hoo!
And the guy that beat me did so by 7 minutes, so I didn't even feel guilty about not trying harder.
Anyway, I shortly met Christopher and heard his story. Eventually we got ahold of Cynthia again. They had gotten up to a portion of the race and had been talking with a sheriff during the race - and cheering as we went by. (No tow was available at the time.) Eventually, they got a tow, and met us up at the race by about 12:30 or so.
Finally Cynthia and the twins took off with Christopher out to his soccer camp in Omaha, and I began the long ride home. In the end, the race had taken more out of me than I might have thought, so the ride home was a moderately hard 75 mi, but it wasn't too bad. It didn't help that I was getting a cold, either, but hey....other than disasters, how bad a day could it be?
So now the only question is... do we dare go back next year?
This was the third Cornman for me and Christopher. In 2007, we were both pretty much newbies, and just had fun on this pretty hard, hilly course.
But 2008 was The Year of The Flats. Christopher had a flat about 6 mi into the ride. After changing the tire, he had a second flat half a mile later. Grrr. But he was determined and actually ran his bike the rest of the way in (barefoot!) and then ran the 5K. Very courageous, I have to say.
So we should have been pre-disastered, right?
We followed the directions to the race that Google Maps provided, carrying our bikes on the back of the van with the nifty new carrier, and with Cynthia and the twins with us. Well, the road Google had us take was a "B grade" road after a point. Never heard of that? Neither had I.
Let me save you the trouble: never take a "B" road.
We did, and we ended up completely stuck in the mud. We did everything we could to get that van moving, and nothing helped. Nothing. Didn't move it more than 6 inches after we got stuck.
Cynthia was the hero and said that Christopher and I should go the rest of the way by ourselves to the race, and she would call someone to get help. One small thing: there was no cell service. Another small thing: we had to carry our bikes on our backs up a few hills in the mud until we could get to a paved road.
Well, we did. Christopher had left his bike shoes, but I spotted this and threw them in my bag. Fortunately, we were using backpack style bags. We eventually got to the hardtop and rode in the rest of the way - seemingly several miles - to the race. We got to packet pickup with about 42 seconds left and then dashed over to the transition area.
We were both wearing our running shoes and had thick clay mud up to our knees. Needless to say, two guys running into transition with bikes that looked like they just finished Xterra races and mud up to their knees drew a little attention.
But we got set up - barely, and ugly, but ready.
I had told Christopher there was no chance we'd be able to use wetsuits, but we couldn't have carried them anyway. But the water was only 70! Coldest it had ever been, they announced. Fortunately, it was fine to swim in, but we had a slight disadvantage.
Christopher was in the first wave and got out of the water fourth, within a few meters of the top 3. He even beat Patrick Davis onto the bike. Patrick and others began to pass him, as to be expected, but he was going fine. Until near the end - eeek! Crash!! Fortunately, it wasn't too bad, and he probably only lost a minute or so. His run was fine, and he turned in a decent time that turned out to be within 1 minute of the winner of his age group and me.
My race was fine. Well mostly. I intentionally thought I went out hard on the swim, trying to improve my lousy last couple of swims. But I had had to borrow Timothy's goggles, and it turned out they were so scratched that I actually had to take them off to see where the heck I was going! So my swim time stunk again. T1 was ok. I got out on the bike and felt good and started passing people. No one passed me and I liked my power numbers, considering it was the end of a hard week. About 20 W better than I was getting at HyVee. Felt good going up and down the hills. Ultimately, it wasn't a perfect ride or anything, but I was pleased. Got to see Christopher as he was heading back in from the turnaround (before his crash).
T2 was smooth, except for the lady who wanted to have an extended conversation about all the mud on my shoes. I tried to be polite and got out as quick as I could.
Again, the run started out feeling fine. Tami Ritchie passed me on The Big Hill, but there's no shame in that, considering she was first overall woman! Don't know how far she started behind me, but I was really pleased to be able to keep her in my sights the whole race. I finished with a 22:13 5K, so that was pretty successful, given the terrain. I kept wondering where the heck the guys were in my group. I only saw (and passed) one. The good news was that I must have passed most of them in the bike or something, because I came in second! Woo hoo!
And the guy that beat me did so by 7 minutes, so I didn't even feel guilty about not trying harder.
Anyway, I shortly met Christopher and heard his story. Eventually we got ahold of Cynthia again. They had gotten up to a portion of the race and had been talking with a sheriff during the race - and cheering as we went by. (No tow was available at the time.) Eventually, they got a tow, and met us up at the race by about 12:30 or so.
Finally Cynthia and the twins took off with Christopher out to his soccer camp in Omaha, and I began the long ride home. In the end, the race had taken more out of me than I might have thought, so the ride home was a moderately hard 75 mi, but it wasn't too bad. It didn't help that I was getting a cold, either, but hey....other than disasters, how bad a day could it be?
So now the only question is... do we dare go back next year?
So long, Sarah
Ok, I admit I don't get it.
Sarah Palin's announcement that she was going to resign as governor seemed almost incoherent to me. Although I'm hardly the only one to think that, I'm also not her target audience.
I don't think she'll be able to be a commanding presence, even in the Republican primaries, from this position. Is the idea to get out and make some money? I just don't have any insight.
As always on this topic, I still think Andrew Sullivan has as good a perspective as any on SP.
Sarah Palin's announcement that she was going to resign as governor seemed almost incoherent to me. Although I'm hardly the only one to think that, I'm also not her target audience.
I don't think she'll be able to be a commanding presence, even in the Republican primaries, from this position. Is the idea to get out and make some money? I just don't have any insight.
As always on this topic, I still think Andrew Sullivan has as good a perspective as any on SP.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Who turned off the Air Conditioning?
Gosh, it's suddenly hot and humid.
The 85 degrees that it got up to during yesterday's run doesn't sound so bad, but the dew point was about 77. Got entirely soaked and kind of broken down by the end of the run. By the end of the run, it was more like "run" than run.
Here's hoping for some heat acclimatization and some relief.
The 85 degrees that it got up to during yesterday's run doesn't sound so bad, but the dew point was about 77. Got entirely soaked and kind of broken down by the end of the run. By the end of the run, it was more like "run" than run.
Here's hoping for some heat acclimatization and some relief.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
KS 70.3 - A Race Report
The KS 70.3 half-ironman was last weekend, June 14.
To make a long story short, I was very pleased with my race, and I finished in 5:08:19, a half-hour faster than my first effort at the distance last summer. My most important goal had been to get under 5:30, and 5:10 had been my fantasy time. That was based on 45 min for swim plus transitions, 2:45 on the bike (20 mph) and 1:40 on the run (about 7:30 pace).
The weekend started early. I was carpooling with 3 other guys and want to thank Rod Haws for driving. Left the house a little after 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to meet up with them. We then loaded my bike into Rod's truck and we were off. The drive down was fun - all of us talking with excitement and nervous energy.
We arrived at the site about noon and parked. We learned the hard way how far away we were from the site, walking up to check-in. The line was long, but not ridiculously slow. Met up with some other TRIracers and heard the pre-race talk while we got our packets. Then we had to hike back to the car to get our bikes for drop off at T1. I scored a few brownie points with Rod for remembering to bring electrical tape. Funny all the details to keep track of.
When we approached T1 for bike check in, we learned that they were doing body marking. I was wearing jeans. Fortunately, they were fairly loose, so I thought nothing of it. But then the guy decides he wants to mark my thigh, not my calves. My mother would be pleased to know that I was wearing reasonably clean underwear. I figured we lay it all out on race day, so what else was I going to do...
After returning to the hotel, I started obsessing over the weather. The reports were deteriorating and it looked like there would be rainstorms Sunday morning (race day). The other guys were all casual and drinking beers, and there I was doting over my iPhone, trying to figure out if we'd get to race. I guess we all react differently.
Eventually we met up with other TRIracers, (Nelson, Jass, et al.) and went for dinner at a nice little Italian place in the late afternoon. Nice conversation and a good time to relax. We stopped off at Walmart to get something to eat for breakfast, which was to be at something like 3:30 a.m. the next day.
I spent entirely too long "organizing" my bag back at the hotel, then hung around with TRIracers for a bit, before retiring early. I kept getting just to sleep when my son and wife started texting me. They had gone to Minneapolis for a race the next morning that he was going to do. I was using the iPhone for my alarm clock, so I couldn't turn the sound off. I kept waking up when they sent something and cursing before I replied. Eventually, I just said that I was going (back) to sleep, and so it was.
Race morning -
We got up early and I slapped on the first of 3 layers of sunscreen before getting dressed. I did NOT want to get burned again. I put water into my bottle of Perpetuem and ate the bagels and peanut butter I'd bought the night before. Out of the hotel and off to the race in the dark. We arrived a little before 5:00 a.m. and started the trek to T2. Rain still looked likely, so I left my shoes in a plastic bag. Then the hike in the sunrise to T1. When we got there, it was amazing how crowded the T1 area was. Narrow aisles and tight packing of the bikes. I again practiced getting to my bike from the swim area. Then a couple trips to the bathroom, a last layer of sunscreen and body glide in all the right spots. By this time, it was just a few minutes before the pro start at 6:30 and I was grateful to be nursing a bottle of gatorade I found.
The weather looked like it would hold out, at least for a while.
I was a little surprised by the start, where we waded out to deeper water and went from there. It wasn't a big deal, but I just hadn't been able to see well enough that this was what was happening.
And then we were off. I was very pleased by the simple course: ~900 m out, ~200 across, ~800 back. This made it easy for me to follow and know where I was in the race. I was surprised how physical the swim was. There was quite a bit of jostling, compared to what I'm used to. Aside from this, the swim was smooth for me. As I got out of the water, I glanced at my watch and saw 38 min. That was ok by me. A couple of weeks ago, I'd had a pretty bad swim at an Olympic race, so this "on par" time was ok.
T1 was not great. I knew what aisle my bike was, but I underestimated how far down, and I spent too long looking for it. Then, once I was ready to go, I heard Nelson's voice behind me, yelling me on. That encouragement was great, but it meant I had lost 8 minutes to him on the swim! Maybe my swim wasn't so ok after all, I was thinking. Then some guy stumbled or something in front of me, and I almost fell stopping while running down the narrow aisle with my bike...Nelson right behind me. Nelson started yelling some more - I thought he was yelling at me, but I learned later he was yelling at the other guy and trying to check on me. So much for me not being disoriented...
Finally, I cleared from the bike aisles. After all that mess, I decided to run well past the mount line before mounting. I did, and mounted cleanly. I could hear Nelson still behind me, so it must have been reasonably fast, too, since he was right behind me. The other advantage was that I got a great, smooth bike start.
I had resolved not to consume anything for about 10 minutes or pay much attention to my speed for that time, as well, just taking it a little easy. So when I finally did look down at my computer, I was glad to see I was on target, between 180 and 200 W, and over 20 mph on a little flat. There were guys zooming by, but I decided to stick to the plan: 180 W ave target and up to 190 if I felt really good. All the people passing was disturbing, especially since there were some it looked like I could keep up with, but I stuck with it. I started to consume my Perpetuem on 15 minute intervals.
My only unfortunate bad spot of the race was somewhere in that 30-50 min range into the bike. I didn't feel right, and the power seemed low. But soon enough it was over, and I started counting the miles until halfway. The rolling hills went up and down constantly. Shift, shift, shift, shift. Started coasting when I hit about 35 and sitting up out of aero when under 15 mph and needing 250 W for a hill. Anything to make those relatively high wattage efforts easier and take some pressure of the quads for the day. I tried to keep the max to about 260 W except for an incidental stroke or two.
Something happened for me psychologically at the half way point. Somewhere around there, we turned such that we were going into the wind, which was pretty strong - maybe 20 mph. Suddenly, the course seemed just like home, and I was in a zone. Just kept going. Felt strong but under control. I figured out that my "feeds" would cost me about 1 minute of modest discomfort each time, usually ending in a belch and then a good spot for a while. It was all good.
There was a great psychology as I started catching back a lot of people that had passed me early in the race while going into the wind. Surely, it wasn't all of them, but it was enough. I knew the wind was hurting my speed (like everyone), but it looked like I might bring in 20 mph. More good psychology that made it easy to ramp up the power just a little bit, maybe 10 W. Ran into David Jass along the way and cheered each other a bit. It was a good day.
In the end, the only thing that really bothered me during the bike was some annoyance over a lot of unnecessary drafting. This wasn't just packs from the course being crowded, but blatant drafting. There was a little bit of rain, but it ended and the roads stayed essentially dry.
Soon enough I was coming into T2 and wondering if the rest of the race could possibly stay this easy. I was in a great mood. I saw my watch, and that I had come in under my target time, and that gave me another boost.
I hadn't seen many TRIracers on the bike, partly from focus, partly from limited out and back sections. But I knew I'd start to see them now, because the run was a two loop course with lots of two way traffic.
I ripped the bike computer off (with GPS), and put it in my back pocket. I grabbed a gel to eat at mile 1. Just like the bike, I had resolved to run easy the first few miles and just see how it was before firming up plans. So I did that. Just ran easy and comfortable. Saw Chrissie Wellington, who just looked like she was on a run in the park. Unbelievable. After that, I focused back on myself and saw I was doing 7:30 pace. Incredible.
I did a little math and knew I was in for a sub-5:30 time unless I just crashed. I thought 5:20 was reasonable. I realized that being able to do math was a good sign. (I guess the picture proves I'm still an inveterate heel-striker.)
Started seeing TRIracers and sharing little cheers and high-fives. Tami passed me easily. Oh well! Saw Nelson again for the first time. Always fun - he's a great teammate. I ran by the TRIracer tents in the camp ground and yelled something stupid like "sub-5:30" as I went by. But it was what was on my mind.
The whole psychology was great. My mantra turned into "all day pace". As in I was running a pace I felt like I could run all day. Started ticking off the miles. Everything was good. I didn't stop once. Not for anything.
Right around mile 9.5 or so, the one killer run hill came up again, shortly after the sun had broken through and it had warmed up. That hill did hurt and I realized that the previously "all day pace" would be harder to keep up. Also, I was developing a painful blister under my left arch.
But I did some more math. If I could just keep it up anywhere near 8:00 miles, I was looking at 5:10! And so I did. Miles 11 and 12 were a bit tough, but I knew it was going to be over soon. When I could see the finish, I had enough left to sprint.
5:08:19! Wow!
I got my medal and some water. Eventually an ice bath, then started looking for friends. But that's the subject of another post. Great celebration. Lots of great times. Great day.
To make a long story short, I was very pleased with my race, and I finished in 5:08:19, a half-hour faster than my first effort at the distance last summer. My most important goal had been to get under 5:30, and 5:10 had been my fantasy time. That was based on 45 min for swim plus transitions, 2:45 on the bike (20 mph) and 1:40 on the run (about 7:30 pace).
The weekend started early. I was carpooling with 3 other guys and want to thank Rod Haws for driving. Left the house a little after 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to meet up with them. We then loaded my bike into Rod's truck and we were off. The drive down was fun - all of us talking with excitement and nervous energy.
We arrived at the site about noon and parked. We learned the hard way how far away we were from the site, walking up to check-in. The line was long, but not ridiculously slow. Met up with some other TRIracers and heard the pre-race talk while we got our packets. Then we had to hike back to the car to get our bikes for drop off at T1. I scored a few brownie points with Rod for remembering to bring electrical tape. Funny all the details to keep track of.
When we approached T1 for bike check in, we learned that they were doing body marking. I was wearing jeans. Fortunately, they were fairly loose, so I thought nothing of it. But then the guy decides he wants to mark my thigh, not my calves. My mother would be pleased to know that I was wearing reasonably clean underwear. I figured we lay it all out on race day, so what else was I going to do...
After returning to the hotel, I started obsessing over the weather. The reports were deteriorating and it looked like there would be rainstorms Sunday morning (race day). The other guys were all casual and drinking beers, and there I was doting over my iPhone, trying to figure out if we'd get to race. I guess we all react differently.
Eventually we met up with other TRIracers, (Nelson, Jass, et al.) and went for dinner at a nice little Italian place in the late afternoon. Nice conversation and a good time to relax. We stopped off at Walmart to get something to eat for breakfast, which was to be at something like 3:30 a.m. the next day.
I spent entirely too long "organizing" my bag back at the hotel, then hung around with TRIracers for a bit, before retiring early. I kept getting just to sleep when my son and wife started texting me. They had gone to Minneapolis for a race the next morning that he was going to do. I was using the iPhone for my alarm clock, so I couldn't turn the sound off. I kept waking up when they sent something and cursing before I replied. Eventually, I just said that I was going (back) to sleep, and so it was.
Race morning -
We got up early and I slapped on the first of 3 layers of sunscreen before getting dressed. I did NOT want to get burned again. I put water into my bottle of Perpetuem and ate the bagels and peanut butter I'd bought the night before. Out of the hotel and off to the race in the dark. We arrived a little before 5:00 a.m. and started the trek to T2. Rain still looked likely, so I left my shoes in a plastic bag. Then the hike in the sunrise to T1. When we got there, it was amazing how crowded the T1 area was. Narrow aisles and tight packing of the bikes. I again practiced getting to my bike from the swim area. Then a couple trips to the bathroom, a last layer of sunscreen and body glide in all the right spots. By this time, it was just a few minutes before the pro start at 6:30 and I was grateful to be nursing a bottle of gatorade I found.
The weather looked like it would hold out, at least for a while.
I was a little surprised by the start, where we waded out to deeper water and went from there. It wasn't a big deal, but I just hadn't been able to see well enough that this was what was happening.
And then we were off. I was very pleased by the simple course: ~900 m out, ~200 across, ~800 back. This made it easy for me to follow and know where I was in the race. I was surprised how physical the swim was. There was quite a bit of jostling, compared to what I'm used to. Aside from this, the swim was smooth for me. As I got out of the water, I glanced at my watch and saw 38 min. That was ok by me. A couple of weeks ago, I'd had a pretty bad swim at an Olympic race, so this "on par" time was ok.
T1 was not great. I knew what aisle my bike was, but I underestimated how far down, and I spent too long looking for it. Then, once I was ready to go, I heard Nelson's voice behind me, yelling me on. That encouragement was great, but it meant I had lost 8 minutes to him on the swim! Maybe my swim wasn't so ok after all, I was thinking. Then some guy stumbled or something in front of me, and I almost fell stopping while running down the narrow aisle with my bike...Nelson right behind me. Nelson started yelling some more - I thought he was yelling at me, but I learned later he was yelling at the other guy and trying to check on me. So much for me not being disoriented...
Finally, I cleared from the bike aisles. After all that mess, I decided to run well past the mount line before mounting. I did, and mounted cleanly. I could hear Nelson still behind me, so it must have been reasonably fast, too, since he was right behind me. The other advantage was that I got a great, smooth bike start.
I had resolved not to consume anything for about 10 minutes or pay much attention to my speed for that time, as well, just taking it a little easy. So when I finally did look down at my computer, I was glad to see I was on target, between 180 and 200 W, and over 20 mph on a little flat. There were guys zooming by, but I decided to stick to the plan: 180 W ave target and up to 190 if I felt really good. All the people passing was disturbing, especially since there were some it looked like I could keep up with, but I stuck with it. I started to consume my Perpetuem on 15 minute intervals.
My only unfortunate bad spot of the race was somewhere in that 30-50 min range into the bike. I didn't feel right, and the power seemed low. But soon enough it was over, and I started counting the miles until halfway. The rolling hills went up and down constantly. Shift, shift, shift, shift. Started coasting when I hit about 35 and sitting up out of aero when under 15 mph and needing 250 W for a hill. Anything to make those relatively high wattage efforts easier and take some pressure of the quads for the day. I tried to keep the max to about 260 W except for an incidental stroke or two.
Something happened for me psychologically at the half way point. Somewhere around there, we turned such that we were going into the wind, which was pretty strong - maybe 20 mph. Suddenly, the course seemed just like home, and I was in a zone. Just kept going. Felt strong but under control. I figured out that my "feeds" would cost me about 1 minute of modest discomfort each time, usually ending in a belch and then a good spot for a while. It was all good.
There was a great psychology as I started catching back a lot of people that had passed me early in the race while going into the wind. Surely, it wasn't all of them, but it was enough. I knew the wind was hurting my speed (like everyone), but it looked like I might bring in 20 mph. More good psychology that made it easy to ramp up the power just a little bit, maybe 10 W. Ran into David Jass along the way and cheered each other a bit. It was a good day.
In the end, the only thing that really bothered me during the bike was some annoyance over a lot of unnecessary drafting. This wasn't just packs from the course being crowded, but blatant drafting. There was a little bit of rain, but it ended and the roads stayed essentially dry.
Soon enough I was coming into T2 and wondering if the rest of the race could possibly stay this easy. I was in a great mood. I saw my watch, and that I had come in under my target time, and that gave me another boost.
I hadn't seen many TRIracers on the bike, partly from focus, partly from limited out and back sections. But I knew I'd start to see them now, because the run was a two loop course with lots of two way traffic.
I ripped the bike computer off (with GPS), and put it in my back pocket. I grabbed a gel to eat at mile 1. Just like the bike, I had resolved to run easy the first few miles and just see how it was before firming up plans. So I did that. Just ran easy and comfortable. Saw Chrissie Wellington, who just looked like she was on a run in the park. Unbelievable. After that, I focused back on myself and saw I was doing 7:30 pace. Incredible.
I did a little math and knew I was in for a sub-5:30 time unless I just crashed. I thought 5:20 was reasonable. I realized that being able to do math was a good sign. (I guess the picture proves I'm still an inveterate heel-striker.)
Started seeing TRIracers and sharing little cheers and high-fives. Tami passed me easily. Oh well! Saw Nelson again for the first time. Always fun - he's a great teammate. I ran by the TRIracer tents in the camp ground and yelled something stupid like "sub-5:30" as I went by. But it was what was on my mind.
The whole psychology was great. My mantra turned into "all day pace". As in I was running a pace I felt like I could run all day. Started ticking off the miles. Everything was good. I didn't stop once. Not for anything.
Right around mile 9.5 or so, the one killer run hill came up again, shortly after the sun had broken through and it had warmed up. That hill did hurt and I realized that the previously "all day pace" would be harder to keep up. Also, I was developing a painful blister under my left arch.
But I did some more math. If I could just keep it up anywhere near 8:00 miles, I was looking at 5:10! And so I did. Miles 11 and 12 were a bit tough, but I knew it was going to be over soon. When I could see the finish, I had enough left to sprint.
5:08:19! Wow!
I got my medal and some water. Eventually an ice bath, then started looking for friends. But that's the subject of another post. Great celebration. Lots of great times. Great day.
Friday, June 12, 2009
First A Race this weekend: KS 70.3
First A race is this weekend, the KS 70.3. I'm feeling fairly confident, but you always get a little nervous.
Two weeks before the race (May 31), I did a "C" race Olympic with a few good hills. The swim was disappointing for various reasons, but OK. I got on the bike, hoping to do 210-220 W. In the end, it was 206 normalized power. Just a touch disappointing. It was an unusual race in that you were really isolated on the bike. Passed a few people, only got passed once. Figured the latter was because I had a poor swim. Didn't see any of my usual friends on the race. But the run turned out great. I felt very strong and ran a 7:10 pace overall. Found my friends, who had been in front of me the whole time (because of my bad swim). Didn't collapse at the end. The time was 2:40. With a 2.5 mi extra-long bike, the nasty hills, and a couple of dopey transition things, I figured it was more-or-less equivalent to a 2:30 normal course time, right about on mid-season form.
So I'm feeling strong. Trying to shed just a little residual soreness in my quads. And already looking past it, i.e., to the ironman. Funny how I have trouble just focusing on the present.
Two weeks before the race (May 31), I did a "C" race Olympic with a few good hills. The swim was disappointing for various reasons, but OK. I got on the bike, hoping to do 210-220 W. In the end, it was 206 normalized power. Just a touch disappointing. It was an unusual race in that you were really isolated on the bike. Passed a few people, only got passed once. Figured the latter was because I had a poor swim. Didn't see any of my usual friends on the race. But the run turned out great. I felt very strong and ran a 7:10 pace overall. Found my friends, who had been in front of me the whole time (because of my bad swim). Didn't collapse at the end. The time was 2:40. With a 2.5 mi extra-long bike, the nasty hills, and a couple of dopey transition things, I figured it was more-or-less equivalent to a 2:30 normal course time, right about on mid-season form.
So I'm feeling strong. Trying to shed just a little residual soreness in my quads. And already looking past it, i.e., to the ironman. Funny how I have trouble just focusing on the present.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Prop 8 ruling
Today, the CA Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage, after it had been established by the the very same court.
As much as I'm in favor of same-sex marriage, this ruling strikes me as reasonable. The actual question being considered did not directly address same-sex marriage – instead it was a question about whether a too-significant change (a "revision") was being made to the CA constitution by the method of propositions. (Propositions are not allowed to make radical changes to the CA constitution, only minor amendments; the system is pretty obscure as as I can tell.) If the court had held that the change was too big, it could have invalidated the proposition.
I am not expert enough on the CA system to comment coherently on what constitues a too-radical amendment to their constitution to be passed via the standard proposition system, but this strikes me as a case where the political forces advocating either side of the argument are largely addressing the merits of Prop 8, not the actual legal question. Both sides have a result they want to achieve more than wanting to preserve the CA constitution.
So, I am disappointed with the result, but not surprised by it, nor do I view it as a setback to the same-sex marriage movement.
Instead, I take heart in the other part of the ruling. Some 17,000 couples or so were married during the short window. The court found no reason to invalidate those marriages, since the language of Prop 8 did not address retroactivity directly. After all, it was this same court, that ruled 4-3 that same-sex marriage should be available in CA.
Things are changing. Just not overnight.
As much as I'm in favor of same-sex marriage, this ruling strikes me as reasonable. The actual question being considered did not directly address same-sex marriage – instead it was a question about whether a too-significant change (a "revision") was being made to the CA constitution by the method of propositions. (Propositions are not allowed to make radical changes to the CA constitution, only minor amendments; the system is pretty obscure as as I can tell.) If the court had held that the change was too big, it could have invalidated the proposition.
I am not expert enough on the CA system to comment coherently on what constitues a too-radical amendment to their constitution to be passed via the standard proposition system, but this strikes me as a case where the political forces advocating either side of the argument are largely addressing the merits of Prop 8, not the actual legal question. Both sides have a result they want to achieve more than wanting to preserve the CA constitution.
So, I am disappointed with the result, but not surprised by it, nor do I view it as a setback to the same-sex marriage movement.
Instead, I take heart in the other part of the ruling. Some 17,000 couples or so were married during the short window. The court found no reason to invalidate those marriages, since the language of Prop 8 did not address retroactivity directly. After all, it was this same court, that ruled 4-3 that same-sex marriage should be available in CA.
Things are changing. Just not overnight.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
New England and marriage
New Hampshire is now in the marriage equality camp, joining Maine as states that passed it through legislative action. Terrific. Most of New England now. Even New York, where outside of the city, it's pretty conservative, is considering a legislative change for marriage equality. (Gov. Patterson is not especially popular, and I am not that optimistic that this will ultimately pass, but at least it's on the table.)
Is it a coincidence that these are the places that used to have moderate-to-liberal Republicans, and that most have been purged from the party? I think not. When Republicans are in the clear minority, and only appealing to their "base", then everyone else can choose not to worry about the "base" Republican position as much. This is an oversimplification, but I would not be surprised if it happens elsewhere in the country for a while if the Republicans continue their current "purification" trend.
The senators from Maine are an interesting exception. I wish I knew enough about the politics of Maine to know how they survive.
Is it a coincidence that these are the places that used to have moderate-to-liberal Republicans, and that most have been purged from the party? I think not. When Republicans are in the clear minority, and only appealing to their "base", then everyone else can choose not to worry about the "base" Republican position as much. This is an oversimplification, but I would not be surprised if it happens elsewhere in the country for a while if the Republicans continue their current "purification" trend.
The senators from Maine are an interesting exception. I wish I knew enough about the politics of Maine to know how they survive.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Power Meter
I bought a bicycle power meter a couple of weeks ago.
If you've already got one, tell me where you think I'm wrong or could use some advice. But for those that haven't ridden with one:
If you've already got one, tell me where you think I'm wrong or could use some advice. But for those that haven't ridden with one:
- Prepare to be humbled. At least I was. Nothing like cold, hard, wattage numbers to put a reality check on how things are going.
- When you aren't humbled the first time, be prepared to be humbled when you don't believe the first numbers you're getting. Think you're going to hold 20-30 more watts than your test shows for even a 20 minute interval? Good luck with that one.
- The power meter IS very satisfying for rides in varying conditions. One of my recent rides was in a 30 mph (+ gusts) wind at a slight diagonal, relative to my squarish route. As they say, a watt is a watt is a watt, regardless of wind and hills. And it turned out to be interesting that I could achieve a bit more than I thought into the wind, just by holding the watts.
- I have sure learned what I am or am not doing on downhills. I'm not sure I want to pedal hard when I'm already going 40 mph because of gravity, but it is interesting to see what's happening in less drastic conditions, like a 1-2% downhill grade.
- At least when fatigued, I was interested to learn that I don't put a heck of a lot more force on the pedals by standing up (unless of course, you yank on the bars). It's different, and "easier" in a way because the muscles are different, and more adapted to slower rpms, but I'm surprised it's not a lot more torque. Will keep an eye on this one.
- Intervals feel different. I tended previously to use even HR, and (presumably) somewhat falling speed/watts. Now trying to do them appropriately so that my power is constant. Sometimes that means the HR goes up when it's pretty aggressive. But that darn meter lets you know what you're doing.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Progress in New York
Paterson Unveils Same-Sex Marriage Bill
Another politician with a bit of courage on this. It's time for those who have played the "I don't want to discriminate but I'm not in favor of the world 'marriage'" game to get over it and stand up in favor of equality and civil rights for all. Can you hear me Barack?
Another politician with a bit of courage on this. It's time for those who have played the "I don't want to discriminate but I'm not in favor of the world 'marriage'" game to get over it and stand up in favor of equality and civil rights for all. Can you hear me Barack?
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Vermont, DC, a rock, and a hard place
A couple of days ago, the Vemont legislature overturned a veto of a same-sex marriage bill by their governor. That is, the legislature affirmatively passed a pro gay marriage law, saw it vetoed, and then raised a 2/3 majority to override the veto. This is a big deal, because it is the first time this has been done by vote of an elected group, rather than by the (common sense of the) courts.
Meanwhile, Washington DC's city council voted to recognize same-sex marriages that originate from the states. That's the closest they can do. (Hypothetically, congress can overturn this law. We'll see.)
This is all fantastic, but it starts to put some of our weak-kneed Democratic politicians in an awkward spot. Two among them are the governor of Iowa (Chet Culver) and our president (yeah, that one, Barack Obama). These guys have historically wimped out on the issue (much like some do with the death penalty) saying something like, "I personally think marriage is between a man and a woman, but I'm for civil unions" or something to that effect.
Personally, I think most of these guys have been disingenuous. I think they think there should be gay marriage, but can't be "out" in that position. Now, they are in an awkward position: I don't think any of them wants to be against same sex marriage, but they're being called out by the very people they tried to reassure with their public "opposition" to it.
Time to get on board. Full out. "I was wrong." Get right with the world and with common sense, people. Read the Iowa decision to get some clarity and join us out of the closet on this one.
Meanwhile, Washington DC's city council voted to recognize same-sex marriages that originate from the states. That's the closest they can do. (Hypothetically, congress can overturn this law. We'll see.)
This is all fantastic, but it starts to put some of our weak-kneed Democratic politicians in an awkward spot. Two among them are the governor of Iowa (Chet Culver) and our president (yeah, that one, Barack Obama). These guys have historically wimped out on the issue (much like some do with the death penalty) saying something like, "I personally think marriage is between a man and a woman, but I'm for civil unions" or something to that effect.
Personally, I think most of these guys have been disingenuous. I think they think there should be gay marriage, but can't be "out" in that position. Now, they are in an awkward position: I don't think any of them wants to be against same sex marriage, but they're being called out by the very people they tried to reassure with their public "opposition" to it.
Time to get on board. Full out. "I was wrong." Get right with the world and with common sense, people. Read the Iowa decision to get some clarity and join us out of the closet on this one.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Iowa Court Gets It Right
The Iowa Supreme Court today ruled that laws that ban same-sex marriage violate the Constitution. (Varnum v Brien)
They ruled unanimously.
And they wrote an excellent explanation piece.
After spending some time explaining about protected classes, strict scrutiny, and an intermediate level of scrutiny, they address the "defenses" of the ban one by one and dismiss them as easily as they should be. Here is a short excerpt:
Now we move on. The opponents of same-sex marriage will undoubtedly cry about legislation from the bench. There are even those who now argue that the court does not have the right to overturn laws (Marbury vs. Madison anyone?) But the more serious callenge will surely be some effort to change the constitution, e.g., Prop 8 in California. Let's hope a more serious resistance is put up.
They ruled unanimously.
And they wrote an excellent explanation piece.
After spending some time explaining about protected classes, strict scrutiny, and an intermediate level of scrutiny, they address the "defenses" of the ban one by one and dismiss them as easily as they should be. Here is a short excerpt:
Promotion of Procreation. Next, the court addressed the County’s argument
that endorsement of traditional civil marriage will result in more procreation. The
court concluded the County’s argument is flawed because it fails to address the
required analysis of the objective: whether exclusion of gay and lesbian
individuals from the institution of civil marriage will result in more procreation.
The court found no argument to support the conclusion that a goal of additional
procreation would be substantially furthered by the exclusion of gays and
lesbians from civil marriage.
They got it right. Congratulations.
Promoting Stability in Opposite-Sex Relationships. The County also
asserted that the statute promoted stability in opposite-sex relationships. The
court acknowledged that, while the institution of civil marriage likely encourages
stability in opposite-sex relationships, there was no evidence to support that
excluding gay and lesbian people from civil marriage makes opposite-sex
marriage more stable.
Now we move on. The opponents of same-sex marriage will undoubtedly cry about legislation from the bench. There are even those who now argue that the court does not have the right to overturn laws (Marbury vs. Madison anyone?) But the more serious callenge will surely be some effort to change the constitution, e.g., Prop 8 in California. Let's hope a more serious resistance is put up.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Not exactly ready for IM yet.
As I write this, the temperature is 72 degrees outside and it's perfectly clear.
Nine hours ago, at 7:00 a.m., as I waited for the sun to rise, it was just as well that I didn't look to see the temp, which was about 38 degrees. At least it wasn't windy when I set out for the first long outside ride for the day. (Except on my face and my cold toes!)
Today, I covered between 75 and 80 mi in about 4:15. Didn't have enough nutrition because I ran out of powder, but at least I had a chance for a big breakfast. Well, by the time that last hour came around, it was pretty clear there was no marathon left in the legs if I had gone the full 112. Actually, I don't think there was a marathon in the legs after 75. Kept up the base and kept down the HR, but...
"Ran" about 3 mi afterwards. Boy did that feel weirder than usual. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the Garmin data afterwards and saw it was under 8 min/mi pace. Sure felt weirder than that.
So, it's a good day because I was out there almost 5 hours, and I feel ok. It's an educational day because I know there's a lot left to do. And it's a good day, because there's still almost 6 months left.
Nine hours ago, at 7:00 a.m., as I waited for the sun to rise, it was just as well that I didn't look to see the temp, which was about 38 degrees. At least it wasn't windy when I set out for the first long outside ride for the day. (Except on my face and my cold toes!)
Today, I covered between 75 and 80 mi in about 4:15. Didn't have enough nutrition because I ran out of powder, but at least I had a chance for a big breakfast. Well, by the time that last hour came around, it was pretty clear there was no marathon left in the legs if I had gone the full 112. Actually, I don't think there was a marathon in the legs after 75. Kept up the base and kept down the HR, but...
"Ran" about 3 mi afterwards. Boy did that feel weirder than usual. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the Garmin data afterwards and saw it was under 8 min/mi pace. Sure felt weirder than that.
So, it's a good day because I was out there almost 5 hours, and I feel ok. It's an educational day because I know there's a lot left to do. And it's a good day, because there's still almost 6 months left.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Nose to the ground
The weather was really nice yesterday here, for the first time in ages. I went out for a real, live outdoor ride on my Cervelo.
So, the title of the post is what I meant - felt like my nose was on the ground! Anyone else feel this?
I think it's just a combination of having lowered the front end 5 mm toward the end of the season last year, and all those hours of indoor riding, where you're up higher on the trainer. But whatever it was, it sure seemed like I was a little short shrimp out there!
(But, not so bad...over 20 mph average over 90 min, mostly in Zone 2, despite 20-25 mph wind!)
So, the title of the post is what I meant - felt like my nose was on the ground! Anyone else feel this?
I think it's just a combination of having lowered the front end 5 mm toward the end of the season last year, and all those hours of indoor riding, where you're up higher on the trainer. But whatever it was, it sure seemed like I was a little short shrimp out there!
(But, not so bad...over 20 mph average over 90 min, mostly in Zone 2, despite 20-25 mph wind!)
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Long Aerobic Swim
The long aerobic swim is a bit dull. But I'm working on the assumption that it's a necessary evil. A long run, a long ride, and a long swim. Everything I read, that's pretty much Base Training for the Fe-man.
Last Saturday was another mini-Big Day: 1/2 hour swim, 3 hour indoor ride, 1 hour run with reverse split. (Under 8:00 pace! woo hoo!) That felt great. But Sunday, I was pretty wiped out. It was a scheduled easy day - just weights - but didn't know how today would go.
Long aerobic swim at lunchtime today: 90 minutes with only a total of about 30 sec break for a couple sips of water. Well, it went pretty good. Started out at 1:44 per 100 yd pace, and finished up at 1:48 per 100 yd pace. Started out at 10 right arm strokes per 25 yards, finised at 11. This was my second swim of 5000+ yds, and it was better.
As the weather warms up, hope to work in a couple days of bikes after that: the swim/bike brick. We'll see.
Last Saturday was another mini-Big Day: 1/2 hour swim, 3 hour indoor ride, 1 hour run with reverse split. (Under 8:00 pace! woo hoo!) That felt great. But Sunday, I was pretty wiped out. It was a scheduled easy day - just weights - but didn't know how today would go.
Long aerobic swim at lunchtime today: 90 minutes with only a total of about 30 sec break for a couple sips of water. Well, it went pretty good. Started out at 1:44 per 100 yd pace, and finished up at 1:48 per 100 yd pace. Started out at 10 right arm strokes per 25 yards, finised at 11. This was my second swim of 5000+ yds, and it was better.
As the weather warms up, hope to work in a couple days of bikes after that: the swim/bike brick. We'll see.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Gay marriage and Free Speech
I just heard a story on NPR regarding the backlash that donors to Prop 8 received in California. (Prop 8 passed; it overturned the legal right to marry.)
The opponents of Prop 8 ran a campaign that was widely acknowledged was poor, and were shocked when it passed, despite CA being a strong Democratic/Obama state. A well-funded and organized opposition ran a moderately disingenuous campaign, but apart from my strong feelings on the issue, it wasn't much worse than many political campaigns in terms of its scare tactics and half-truths. It was funded in large part by people with direct religious affiliation, including Catholic and Mormon groups. In the end Prop 8 won, fair and square. (There are current court cases about the merits of Prop 8, which is common in CA politics, but no one can dispute that the election itself was fairly won.)
But that's not where it ends.
To make a long story short, it's public record when you make certain kinds of political donations, and many opponents of Prop 8 got riled up AFTER they lost. They started publicly pointing out who had given money in favor of discrimination (i.e., Prop 8), including some tactics like boycotting business.
Not surprisingly, many of the people who were "victims" of this tactic felt picked on or intimidated. Some complained that their freedom of religion was being violated.
Nonsense.
The Supreme Court long ago settled the point that political donations are "speech". And, frankly, conservatives have benefited from this decision because it tends to make regulation of political donations of marginal legality. But the point is this: Free Speech (donating money to a political cause) is surely allowed and an important political freedom. Anonymity is not promised. In fact, it is, in this case, forbidden.
There is a reasonable question whether the opponents of Prop 8 went over the line in civility in their response to Free Speech with more Free Speech. But there is no question that this is - in general - the way that we are supposed to deal with what we feel is "objectionable speech": by adding MORE speech.
For better or worse, there are reasons that many celebrities and businesses don't get involved in political causes: they don't want to take the heat after the fact when they say/do something controversial. The opponents of Prop 8 took this up a notch on people that weren't prepared to take that heat.
I don't want to defend every last action taken by Prop 8 opponents. I am willing to believe that some may have crossed the line. But the simple fact is this: if you give money to groups that can reasonably be characterized as supporting discrimination, you should be willing to stand up for that position when called on it. To do so will make your position stronger. To run away from it and complain when your identity is pointed out makes it seem that you are ashamed of what you have done.
The opponents of Prop 8 ran a campaign that was widely acknowledged was poor, and were shocked when it passed, despite CA being a strong Democratic/Obama state. A well-funded and organized opposition ran a moderately disingenuous campaign, but apart from my strong feelings on the issue, it wasn't much worse than many political campaigns in terms of its scare tactics and half-truths. It was funded in large part by people with direct religious affiliation, including Catholic and Mormon groups. In the end Prop 8 won, fair and square. (There are current court cases about the merits of Prop 8, which is common in CA politics, but no one can dispute that the election itself was fairly won.)
But that's not where it ends.
To make a long story short, it's public record when you make certain kinds of political donations, and many opponents of Prop 8 got riled up AFTER they lost. They started publicly pointing out who had given money in favor of discrimination (i.e., Prop 8), including some tactics like boycotting business.
Not surprisingly, many of the people who were "victims" of this tactic felt picked on or intimidated. Some complained that their freedom of religion was being violated.
Nonsense.
The Supreme Court long ago settled the point that political donations are "speech". And, frankly, conservatives have benefited from this decision because it tends to make regulation of political donations of marginal legality. But the point is this: Free Speech (donating money to a political cause) is surely allowed and an important political freedom. Anonymity is not promised. In fact, it is, in this case, forbidden.
There is a reasonable question whether the opponents of Prop 8 went over the line in civility in their response to Free Speech with more Free Speech. But there is no question that this is - in general - the way that we are supposed to deal with what we feel is "objectionable speech": by adding MORE speech.
For better or worse, there are reasons that many celebrities and businesses don't get involved in political causes: they don't want to take the heat after the fact when they say/do something controversial. The opponents of Prop 8 took this up a notch on people that weren't prepared to take that heat.
I don't want to defend every last action taken by Prop 8 opponents. I am willing to believe that some may have crossed the line. But the simple fact is this: if you give money to groups that can reasonably be characterized as supporting discrimination, you should be willing to stand up for that position when called on it. To do so will make your position stronger. To run away from it and complain when your identity is pointed out makes it seem that you are ashamed of what you have done.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Long warmup
One of the offshoots of high volume training for me is a long warmup. I'm not certain if it's due to being "in shape" or being fatigued. But sometimes I don't feel warmed up for half an hour's run or ride.
Miscellaneous thought: it's amusing to know that when you're running indoors, it's literally true that when other people who started about the same time as you quit, you'll just be getting warmed up...
Miscellaneous thought: it's amusing to know that when you're running indoors, it's literally true that when other people who started about the same time as you quit, you'll just be getting warmed up...
In the Long Run
"There are no recovery runs if you're training for an Ironman."
So say Friel and Gordo in Going Long, even if those aren't the exact words. Since I started out at this whole thing as a runner (maybe a little above average, but surely nothing special), this is a hard concept for me. But I'm learning.
An easy 1-hour run when you're just running is like playtime. Or it has been for me. Just fun. You come back home refreshed and feeling good.
I am learning however, that F&G are probably right. With the increased volume of lots of cycling and weights, a one-hour run doesn't have to be hard, but it's more work and less recovery than it used to be. So, now I schedule my runs with more care.
Last night was this week's long run. Last week had been relatively heavy, about 13 hours. Because of circumstances with my schedule, Saturday had been a one-hour run, Sunday had been a three-hour ride, Monday included a one-hour run, and Tuesday had been my long run. Without the cycling, the two consecutive days of run wouldn't be anything to worry about. But my quads on Monday were letting me know that I should be worried. My pace Monday was slow, maybe 9 minute miles. I did some strides at the end, but had to really keep them under control.
Last night, though, showed that this long slow process is starting to pay off. Two hours running with a pace of about 8:15. My heart rate stayed just exactly where I wanted it, in the upper aerobic (after a long warmup). Sure, the last 15-20 minutes seemed like more work than they usually would in weeks where I haven't been working this hard, but Things Are Good. Today, my legs are tired, but tired is kind of the point.
So say Friel and Gordo in Going Long, even if those aren't the exact words. Since I started out at this whole thing as a runner (maybe a little above average, but surely nothing special), this is a hard concept for me. But I'm learning.
An easy 1-hour run when you're just running is like playtime. Or it has been for me. Just fun. You come back home refreshed and feeling good.
I am learning however, that F&G are probably right. With the increased volume of lots of cycling and weights, a one-hour run doesn't have to be hard, but it's more work and less recovery than it used to be. So, now I schedule my runs with more care.
Last night was this week's long run. Last week had been relatively heavy, about 13 hours. Because of circumstances with my schedule, Saturday had been a one-hour run, Sunday had been a three-hour ride, Monday included a one-hour run, and Tuesday had been my long run. Without the cycling, the two consecutive days of run wouldn't be anything to worry about. But my quads on Monday were letting me know that I should be worried. My pace Monday was slow, maybe 9 minute miles. I did some strides at the end, but had to really keep them under control.
Last night, though, showed that this long slow process is starting to pay off. Two hours running with a pace of about 8:15. My heart rate stayed just exactly where I wanted it, in the upper aerobic (after a long warmup). Sure, the last 15-20 minutes seemed like more work than they usually would in weeks where I haven't been working this hard, but Things Are Good. Today, my legs are tired, but tired is kind of the point.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Cycling Cadence
Indoors this winter I'm working a bit on pushing harder gears at lower cadence to build up some leg strength. But even when I'm not, I find it tough to get anywhere near 100 rpm on the bike. I use a fluid trainer, so maybe it's the steepness of the resistance curve. Maybe I just have to start at a really wimpy gear and then speed up, and it will get to the right level of difficulty. Maybe I'm just not reading how to use the trainer just right.
One semi-warm day a week ago, I took an hour outdoor ride. 110 rpm no problem. 95 minumum.
Got up on rollers for a few minutes for the first time yesterday. A bit wobbly and scary, but pretty cool.
One semi-warm day a week ago, I took an hour outdoor ride. 110 rpm no problem. 95 minumum.
Got up on rollers for a few minutes for the first time yesterday. A bit wobbly and scary, but pretty cool.
The Big Day
A week ago Saturday, it was pretty warm (for Iowa in the Winter), and I used the opportunity for a Big Day. 30 minute swim, 3-hour trainer rides with my friends at the YMCA, and then an hour run with a reverse split in the 8:30/mi range. Not too bad. Felt great, if tired, by the end.
Only a couple days days later did my quads let me know that this workout took a fair amount out of me. It was timed to be right before my recovery week, so I'm better by now, but that kind of feeling was a good reminder how I have to be careful in slowly cranking things up.
Yesterday was my long day of the recovery week. Mellowed out. 30 min swim, 2.5 hour ride, and 30 minutes on a treadmill, instead of outside. Still feel it a bit, but will be ready to go again next week.
Only a couple days days later did my quads let me know that this workout took a fair amount out of me. It was timed to be right before my recovery week, so I'm better by now, but that kind of feeling was a good reminder how I have to be careful in slowly cranking things up.
Yesterday was my long day of the recovery week. Mellowed out. 30 min swim, 2.5 hour ride, and 30 minutes on a treadmill, instead of outside. Still feel it a bit, but will be ready to go again next week.
Intellectual Honesty and the Stimulus
Wouldn't it be more straightforward and honest for the Republican talking points to be, "We know it's unpopular, but we just don't believe in Keynseyan stimulus. We don't think you should spend money on government programs just as a matter of principle. We think that makes you dependent on the government and That's Bad. We think it's just a bad idea to spend money without paying for it and we think taxes are too high as it is." I personally disagree, but at least that's a tenable position.
But then, the other side of this is the war of the last several years, which was...let's see...government spending without paying for it????
But then, the other side of this is the war of the last several years, which was...let's see...government spending without paying for it????
Thursday, January 29, 2009
SarahPac
Paid for by SarahPAC
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee
www.SarahPAC.com
So reads the disclaimer on the entry page of Sarah Palin's new PAC web site. I suppose this is true as a technicality: Sarah Palin is not an official candidate for anything right now. But this is a bit of a joke, isn't it?
Two points:
- As a strictly partisan matter, could the Democrats ask for a better candidate to contrast against Obama, assuming he manages to get through his four years remaining as thoughtful and calm as he has to this point? On the other hand, what does it say that she thinks she is viable among the Republican primary electorate? Ouch.
- This web site shows the horror of our political contribution laws. Sarah Palin is not doing anything a million other potential candidates haven't done. Completely legal and completely disingenuous. I don't blame her. But this silly facade that people have to put on is stupid. I tend to think that the first amendment arguments against restricting political donations are pretty strong, but either we should loosen some of these laws or tighten them. This is ridiculous.
Sarah Palin's Official PAC
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- SarahPAC believes America's best days are ahead. Our country, founded on conservative principles and the fight for freedom, must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Rest Week is Good
Hard couple of weeks of training ended last Sunday, about 14.5 hours, including riples on Thursday and Saturday. Took it easy this week, as planned, with only about 8 hours. Friel says that most beginning Ironman people are under-recovered. Could have worked harder the last few days, but now I feel really refreshed for the next mesocyle. This is good.
Bush: A Good No Surprise
It's been a few days now, but not too late to note that Bush didn't offer any high profile last-minute pardons. I'll give him credit: he's been consistent about being pretty stingy with those. No Scooter. No Dick. No Whole CIA. etc.
So, for once in his administration, the rule of law will stand.
So, for once in his administration, the rule of law will stand.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration Day, Part 5
43 Americans have taken the oath. One guy twice with an interruption (Grover Cleveland). Bad fact-checking!
Get that photographer dude out of the picture!
"The time has come to set aside childish things." How true.
I love the "quit screwing around" theme.
Love the reaction shot of Bush after BHO says that it's a false choice between freedom and security.
Nice touch to include "non-believers" in his list...
Not a perfect speech, but a perfect tone. Didn't shoot too high to be Lincoln, but he laid it out. It's good to have a real thinker back in the job.
Get that photographer dude out of the picture!
"The time has come to set aside childish things." How true.
I love the "quit screwing around" theme.
Love the reaction shot of Bush after BHO says that it's a false choice between freedom and security.
Nice touch to include "non-believers" in his list...
Not a perfect speech, but a perfect tone. Didn't shoot too high to be Lincoln, but he laid it out. It's good to have a real thinker back in the job.
Inauguration Day, Part 4
Rick Warren..... was that a prayer or a speech? At least it was constructive for the most part. Not that I'm against the Lord's Prayer, but these things usually avoid specific Christian references, which he had done up until then.
Sun is in Biden's Eyes. But he wants to say this fast and take that job now!
Someone pointed out during this musical interregnum that Biden is briefly Bush's Veep...
Barack knows the oath better than Roberts...or so it sounds. Have to see a replay to figure out who messed up.
Sun is in Biden's Eyes. But he wants to say this fast and take that job now!
Someone pointed out during this musical interregnum that Biden is briefly Bush's Veep...
Barack knows the oath better than Roberts...or so it sounds. Have to see a replay to figure out who messed up.
Inauguration Day, Part 3
A bit of "live blogging" here...
Bush walking down to the ceremony as they are doing the introductions looks terrible. Like he's sick or being arrested.
Cheney looks like he still has something evil up his sleeve.
Bush manages to smile as he's introduced.
Biden looks like he's going to burst but he's trying to keep it under control.
As usual, Laura Bush's lipstick contrasts way too much with the rest of her face. I've always thought that looked bizarre.
Is that a genuine laugh from Cheney???
Biden seriously wants a high five, but has to restrain himself to more decorous hugs.
Obama walking down the hall looks like he's got a million things on his mind, including excitement, and he's doing everything he can to control it. The expression changes so rapidly...
Man there's a lot of people there....
Now on the stage, BHO looks like he's got it under control again...
Bush walking down to the ceremony as they are doing the introductions looks terrible. Like he's sick or being arrested.
Cheney looks like he still has something evil up his sleeve.
Bush manages to smile as he's introduced.
Biden looks like he's going to burst but he's trying to keep it under control.
As usual, Laura Bush's lipstick contrasts way too much with the rest of her face. I've always thought that looked bizarre.
Is that a genuine laugh from Cheney???
Biden seriously wants a high five, but has to restrain himself to more decorous hugs.
Obama walking down the hall looks like he's got a million things on his mind, including excitement, and he's doing everything he can to control it. The expression changes so rapidly...
Man there's a lot of people there....
Now on the stage, BHO looks like he's got it under control again...
Inauguration Day, Part 2
I was born in 1964.
As I struggle to think about it, I know I don't have any specific memories of 1968, but somehow I feel like I remember the sense of tragedy around the assassinations of RFK and MLK.
Somehow, though, it makes a connection to today.
As I struggle to think about it, I know I don't have any specific memories of 1968, but somehow I feel like I remember the sense of tragedy around the assassinations of RFK and MLK.
Somehow, though, it makes a connection to today.
Inauguration Day, Part 1
All this reminds me...
What were people thinking in 2004? Voting for Bush in 2000 was reasonable. The country certainly (and reasonably) had Clinton-fatigue.
But by 2004, Bush was a known quantity. How could half of us have missed that?
Remember, it wasn't too long after that when the scales finally started to fall from our eyes. Maybe it was a testament to Rove, et al. that they held it together just long enough to get through Nov 2004.
What were people thinking in 2004? Voting for Bush in 2000 was reasonable. The country certainly (and reasonably) had Clinton-fatigue.
But by 2004, Bush was a known quantity. How could half of us have missed that?
Remember, it wasn't too long after that when the scales finally started to fall from our eyes. Maybe it was a testament to Rove, et al. that they held it together just long enough to get through Nov 2004.
Getting sore
Hit the end of another 3 week cycle, and just in time. Thursday included a very intense leg strength session on the bike. I attend a bike spinning class late Thursday nights held at a local cool bike shop (Bike World), which is inhabited mostly by real roadies. So it's all strength and intervals. Friday, unsurprisingly, was sore. Saturday was the big day for the week: 40 min swim, long ride, then 30 min run. Had been planning on only 2.5 hours on the bike, but a couple other guys wanted to stay for another half hour, so I did too. And then one of them, who knows what he is doing, pushed us to do some intervals. They probably weren't that hard if they hadn't been at the end of 3 hours, but they were pretty hard as it was. Sucked it up and made it through.
Despite the fatigue of those long trainer rides, I always find the run after to be a relief, almost a pleasure. It's almost just stretching out the other half of those leg muscles is a relief, at least for a while. For now, I've kept them to ~30 min. Longer than that would mean more nutritional needs, especially after all that riding.
Anyway, Sunday was just an easy hour's spin. Or at least it was supposed to be easy. Hurt a bit just to get to 90 rpm in low gear.
So now it's recovery week. Nothing too terribly long. Took yesterday off. Slept like a rock two days in a row. Feel a lot better today. I hope this is how it's supposed to work.
Despite the fatigue of those long trainer rides, I always find the run after to be a relief, almost a pleasure. It's almost just stretching out the other half of those leg muscles is a relief, at least for a while. For now, I've kept them to ~30 min. Longer than that would mean more nutritional needs, especially after all that riding.
Anyway, Sunday was just an easy hour's spin. Or at least it was supposed to be easy. Hurt a bit just to get to 90 rpm in low gear.
So now it's recovery week. Nothing too terribly long. Took yesterday off. Slept like a rock two days in a row. Feel a lot better today. I hope this is how it's supposed to work.
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