Ryan McGrath

A Home Run

2012-01-30T17:22:00.000-05:00

Usually when I head home to NJ, I end up running by myself. Which, incidentally, I don't mind, because I like to go out when I feel like going, and hit the parks and the routes I used to run back in the day. But now when I go home I check in with Jason Gers to see what he's got going on. I've known Jason for a while, but had never done any training sessions with him until I was home over Christmas. At this point he's a little faster than I am running, but in general, we're pretty closely matched.

He said he aws going to do a 14 mile run on Saturday morning, with the first 10 easy, then 3 up tempo, then a mile easy. I met him at 8am at the beach in Sea Bright, where it was atypically very calm. No wind whatsoever, the ocean was totally flat. Temp was in the mid 30s. Also joining us were three of his usual training comrades: twins Jay and Dave McGovern, and Bob Horn. I'd never met these guys before, but I've known their names for years. The McGoverns were a few years older in high school (and at a different school) and while they were good then, they're much faster now. All three of those guys are mainstays of the local NJ running scene, you'll always see their names high up in the results.

The planned route was from Sea Bright towards Red Bank (so basically I could have just met them at the turnaround), through Rumson, Little Silver, and Fair Haven. A nice little run. Mostly flat, a few gentle inclines and declines, all road. The first couple of miles were chill in the 7:15 range, and then dropped to 7:00-7:10 for the rest of the first 10 miles. When we hit 10, we picked it up to <6:30 pace (6:29, 6:25, 6:20). Since I am in pretty decent shape, despite this being just my 4th run in the last two weeks, the effort wasn't going to kill me. It was more the running 14 miles that was wearing me out. But I got through it, and felt good.

Saturday night I headed up to beautiful Newark, NJ, with my dad to see Seton Hall take on Louisville. We had awesome seats, and the game was great. It started off bad for The Hall, who were down 15 early, and looked like they were going to go down with a wimper. But in the 2nd half they summoned the courage of lions and came back! Of course, both sides were playing pretty poor basketball, it was as if neither side wanted to win. Seton Hall ended up losing, but it was still a fun game as always.

On the professional running circuit, pretty bad ass weekend. At the Dubai Marathon, 9 of the top 10 were Ethiopian, with the winner setting a course record (2:04:23) in his marathon DEBUT. The guy is allegedly 21 years old. And, he negative split it. Shattered Gebrselassie's previous CR, in fact the top 4 were under 2:05, and there were 13 runners under 2:08. Insane. Even the women's race was fast, with 3 under 2:20 and the top 10 all under 2:26.

We were also treated to some indoor track from the World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. It wasn't the Millrose Games, though, which moved from MSG to the NYC Armory, but based on the broadcast you wouldn't have known that, as they were still basically calling it Millrose. This weekend's broadcast is the New Balance Indoor Games from Boston. AND the Superbowl. It's a great Sunday of sport!

One Moment in Time

2012-01-27T12:20:00.000-05:00

Behold, the Magic of College Park!

On Wednesday I was given the opportunity to attend the biggest sporting event of the year in College Park: Maryland vs Duke. This is always a big game, and although the Terps have not been as successful over the past few years, you just never know what's going to happen. This year was an even bigger occasion, as they dedicated the court to Gary Williams prior to the game. When my old tri buddy Larry "The Slug" Rutledge offered me this seat a few months ago, I was so psyched and could obviously not pass it up. It was so loud in the Comcast Center that you couldn't even hear the tribute video, but it didn't matter, because the place got quiet QUICK when Gary took the mic. Known for rarely cracking a smile, it was a rare chance to see GW legitimately choked up as he addressed the crowd and gave on final fist pump. Gary was the maestro behind the Terps' rebirth in the 80s, following the death of Len Bias and the subsequent NCAA sanctions, and led them to Sweet 16s, a Final Four, and, a year later, an NCAA Championship. I had the rarest of rare opportunities that year, to actually be in attendance at the Georgia Dome as my college won its first National Championship. There are few moments in my entire life that can even come close to that night 10 years ago.

The game itself was up and down. The Terps built a little lead, but went into the half down by a basket. In the 2nd half, they kept it close for a while, but lost the momentum, and couldn't close. Duke is, unfortunately, just a much better team. At least the Terps put up a fight.

It's always a trip down memory lane when I'm in CP, and on this particular Wednesday, I also had the chance to swim in the pool that I learned to swim in all those years ago. Larry got me into the gym and we headed down to the pool, and, unlike the Merritt, it is:

1) an enormous pool
2) super deep
3) very well lit
4) not chock full o'chemicals
5) NOT CROWDED

The 50m pool was cut up into a 25y section, which I swam in, while the deeper end/diving well was being utilized by the soon-to-be-cut water polo team and diving team. There are 10 lanes when they do it this way, and 5 were being used for a Masters' team, but 5 were open to circle swim. When I arrived, I had to share a lane, but pretty soon I was the only one in the pool.

I'm always talking about how somehow I used to be able to swim much faster than I do now, and that I don't believe it because I still race about the same speed. And yes, obviously meters are longer than yards, but even with a typical conversion, I still come nowhere close to what I used to do in CP.

I had already swam Wednesday morning, but wasn't going to pass up the chance to swim in the big pool, so I gleefully hopped in and started swimming. It felt so good, such a massive volume of water, I love it. The way the water spills into a little causeway, it's just so fast! And with a nice, visible digital clock, I could easily see my splits. The difference a pool makes. The one thing I did notice was that it was a warmer temp than they used to keep it. It was comfortable, but I was looking forward to the colder water.

I did a 500 warmup, then 3x100 and then 4x50, before going into a main set of 3x(200-100-50) on 3:00, 1:30 and then 50y easy in between sets. First one: 2:50, 1:23, :38. Comfortable. Even with a conversion of 8-9sec/100, that still was faster than I would normally swim in the meter pool. Second set: 2:45, 1:19, :37. Nice! Last set: 2:39, 1:17, :36. It was awesome to have a reminder of previous swimming "glory." I've never been a particularly good, or a fast, swimmer, but I remember being able to do 200s in the 2:40s, and 100s in the 1:12 range and able to do them on 1:20. My swim workouts were all set up by Tri Guy Tommy back then, and they were so different than what I do now. 3x a week, 4000-5500y, with a 500 w/u, 5x100 drill-swim, then up to 800 of kicking (with fins). Main sets would be in the 2000-2500 range.

I decided to see what I could do for a couple of hundreds, so I went hard for one (1:15) and waited til 2:00 to go again. Another 1:14/15. Then 2x50 on :60 (:35, :34). Not too bad. I think part of it was, when my knee was better, I could really do a strong dolphin kick and I'd take a minimal amount of strokes per length, and I was doing a lot more "speed" in the pool.

What's most sad perhaps is the fact that, as of July 1, the pool will have no swim/dive team or water polo team inhabiting it, when the school cuts 8 sports teams (including those, and men's xc/track)

I was really pleased with the workout, and just excited to get to be in College Park for the night. I decided to not swim on Thursday, instead opting for my first attempt at riding in almost 2 months. Just an easy 45 minutes on the trainer. Predictably, I hated it. This morning it was back to the pool and I felt terrible. Such is life.

The other initiative is getting back in the weight room. When weight training was part of my regular routine, I was almost never hurt, I felt stronger, and had more energy. With typical IM training predicating high volume, it's hard to find the energy or desire to be in the gym. But, when you look at the improvement Craig Alexander made this year, and see that he was putting in the gym time, it's hard to deny the correlation. Of course I'm not talking about meathead-style training, but strength and balance. My body is so broken down, it's the least I can do. 3 days in the gym this week, focusing on building smart, core, stretching, foam rolling - the little things I generally avoid. Seems to be working.

Heading up to NJ shortly as this week is college hoops week for me. Seton Hall vs Louisville tomorrow night at The Rock in Newark.

My Band

2012-01-24T13:27:00.001-05:00

Time is a weird concept.

The sun rises, the sun sets. We wake up, we go to sleep. Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking. Into the future. I think I tend to notice time more following a bigger race. For instance, 10 days ago I ran a marathon. It feels like a lifetime has passed since then. In the days following the marathon, I didn't run, I didn't ride my bike. I took Sunday and Monday completely off, and then tried to get in the pool on Tuesday. I felt terrible. I actually got out of the pool after getting through just 1000m, something I hadn't done in a long time. Wednesday I was able to swim a little more, 3000m. I finally ran again on Thursday, an easy 6 miles with Kris. It did not feel good. Mostly it was just muscle soreness and tight hamstring/piriformis, but I was surprised at how beat up I was.

The weekend weather forecast looked less-than-stellar, which was good, because I committed to spending an inordinate amount of time in the pool. Alyssa had 4 swims scheduled between Friday and Sunday, and, due to a tired Thursday morning, Coach Hill said "just do Thursday's workout on Saturday morning, and Saturday's workout in the afternoon." The swims looked like this:

Fri: 3000m/2500m
Sat: 3100m/4700m
Sun: 3700m

17,000 meters in three days across five swims. I swam 15,000 meters ALL of last January. Alyssa's workouts are very specific, while for me, as long as I'm in the pool, physically touching the water, I think that's good enough. She tends to have a lot of pulling, and a lot of work with the band. I don't like to do either of these things. Actually, I will rephrase. I like pulling, but I've always been of the "keep it to less than a third of your total swim volume." The Saturday afternoon swim called for 500-1000-1500 main set with paddles, pull buoy, band (PBB). I PBB'd the 500 and 1500, but just swam the 1000.

Perhaps most notable was how I felt better on Friday and Saturday afternoon than their respective morning counterpart. And, even more surprising, was how awesome I felt on Sunday. To quote Drake, I was "on one." Too bad that many, many hundreds of meters were with the dreaded Band. In fairness, it was a lot easier since I didn't do anything other than swim all weekend, but still, it was a lot for me.

Needless to say, my body was pretty displeased with me on Monday. I convinced myself to run again, and ended up muddling through 70 minutes just barely under 7:30 pace. I kept thinking, "you better check yourself, before you wreck yourself." And, when this morning's 6am swim came 'round, it was another exercise in futility. Not only did I get smoked by Alyssa, I barely made our pretty generous time interval on our 10x200 main set. I then decided to lift and stretch a bit. I now have a new 2012 goal:

BE ABLE TO TOUCH MY TOES

Seriously, when did I become this inflexible? Once upon a time I did actually go to yoga class on Wednesdays at the gym, and wasn't this bad. After the meager lift/stretch session, I was feeling plucky and thought man, I should ball. You know, pick up the rock and hoop it up. 15 shots and one made basket later, I was walking back into the locker room after jamming my thumb hard enough to make it bleed. Playing basketball. By myself.

With a light workout load over the weekend, I took the opportunity to engage in some fun activities:

1. Went to the Baltimore Comedy Factory (www.baltimorecomedy.com) to see one of my favorite comics, Iliza Schlesinger. She won the last Last Comic Standing season, and until now had never had the opportunity to see her live. It was hilarious, and a great start to the weekend.

2. Went to the University of Maryland Indoor Invite on Saturday to watch some of my TWSS teammates run, and ran into some familiar faces along the way. The "Save UMD XC and Track" campaign is still alive, but with $4.2 million to raise by July 1, it's still a big task.

3. Went to see The Artist with Alyssa on Saturday night. When I heard about this black and white, silent film a few months ago, I was really excited. This 90 minute journey back to a better time of film making was well worth the trip to Arundel Mills on a Saturday night (I hate going there). Jean Dujardin was incredible, and was nominated this morning for Best Actor, and Berenice Bejo was an absolute star (she's nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role). The film is up for Best Picture, and the screenplay got a nod for Best Original Screenplay. If you have the opportunity to see this, do it!

This week it's all about college hoops, as I am going to the Maryland vs Duke game on Wednesday (thanks to Larry!) and then Seton Hall vs Pitt on Saturday in NJ with my dad. Remember to keep the balance!

I Have a Dream

2012-01-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

That someday, I will run a good marathon.

This weekend was not one of them. Fortunately, I did start my 2012 campaign by accomplishing one of my goals: qualify for Boston 2013.

With the Boston Marathon changing its qualification requirements (chopping 5 minutes off previous qualifying times per age group), and me not having run an open marathon since Boston 2009, I was going to have to run at least one marathon this year. And, with a new registration process, I knew I'd have to run it before September. While I am planning on running NYC Marathon later this year, it would be too late for next year's Boston.

That left me a couple of options: look to something like VA Beach's Shamrock Marathon or DC's National Marathon in March, or try to get it done in Charleston. The races in March were appealing because of their proximity to Baltimore, field size and support, and it would give me plenty of time to train. Charleston was appealing because it was a place I'd never been, an "easy" course and a Saturday event. But it was also just 7 weeks after Ironman Arizona, and after the long 2011, I needed a break.

Immediately following the Ironman, I was still undecided about what race to target, and figured I needed a good month of running before I could commit. I ran 6 miles post-Ironman week, and then weeks of 30, 44, 53. I decided I felt good enough to be able to get through the marathon in Charleston. I felt like 7 minute pace was a good goal, which would be a 3:03, and give me a comfortable cushion for the Boston registration process later this year.

I ran a few workouts during December, but was not going to try and cram workouts and long runs in. The two longest runs I did were 17, one on Christmas day and one on New Year's Day. 17 miles is not even close to what I should have been doing, but I didn't have time to worry about it by the time January hit. It then became "rest up enough so you're feeling good on race day."

Alyssa and I flew down to Charleston on Friday morning, leaving a cold, windy Baltimore and arriving to a cold, windy South Carolina. We ate a great bbq lunch at Nick's BBQ on King St, and then tried to drive the course. The maps provided by the race did not include road names, just colored lines and approximated turns, so needless to say we got lost. After running the race, we wouldn't have been able to follow the course anyway. This was the first sign that this race was not going to be well-organized. We then stopped off at the "expo" to pick up our stuff, and scooped up Andy, Ed and Conrad from the airport. The four guys went for a dangerously dark shakeout run, which was Conrad pace (quicker than I would have liked). We were all hoping the wind would die down, because we knew the temperature was not going to magically rise.

Race morning came and the wind had calmed down a bit, but not much. And it was cold. 34 degrees is what the thermometer read. Conrad and I got dropped off at the marathon start at 7:15 and stood around until 7:40 when we went to warm up for a few minutes. Since it was so cold, I was going to start the race with my singlet, and two light/longsleeve tech shirts, and was wearing shorts and gloves. In my haste to get out of the car, I forgot to grab my little EFS liquid flask. Oops. I would see the others around mile 9.5, so I could grab it from them then.

The race starts on East Bay Avenue, and runs a mile and a quarter south to the end of the peninsula. I made sure to not get caught up in the race and go out comfortably, but I could tell we were still moving quick. 6:23 at the mile confirmed that. I told Conrad I was going to back off, and as we headed north it was obvious we were going to be going into the wind for most of the day. Mile 2 was 6:29. Still too fast. Tried to ease into the slowing rather than just stop dead, so mile 3 was finally more in line at 6:37 and mile 4 was 6:40.

About the course: the first 3 miles were in the downtown area, which is nice. It quickly becomes more like Baltimore (see also: pretty hood) and for miles you are just running on some boring deserted road that parallels the overhead highway and a train track. It's very unattractive, and super quiet. I didn't expect any crowd support, so I was able to deal with that, but it was just so boring. Very flat, but the wind was negating any of that benefit. Every so often Conrad, who was using the marathon as a long run, would turn around and jog back towards me, run with me for a minute, and then take off again.

Miles 5-8 were: 6:32, 6:43, 6:28, 7:16. I think 5 and 7 were a tad short, and that 8 was a bit long, because I felt pretty locked into 6:40-6:45 at that point, and we were running in a straight line. Until Mile 8, when there was a little bridge to run up and over, but we had the downhill so I figured it zeroed out.

I guess it was around 8 or so that we sharply doubled back on ourselves, and as we headed south for a few hundred feet, it became so quiet and you felt, for the first time, what it was like to not fight the wind. That disappeared when we Zorro'd our way onto another road headed north. This was around 9.5 and I could see, and hear, Ed, Alyssa and Andy. They had all run the 5k, which started/finished at the marathon finish. Ed and Alyssa each won, and Andy had run with Alyssa to help pace her to her first sub 20 5k! The Shrimp and Grits 5k, as it was called, was 3 miles, but with a 15:12 for Ed and 19:05 for Alyssa, we put their time estimates for the right distance at 15:45 and 19:45.

I passed off my top layer shirt and grabbed an EFS flask and continued on my way. The half marathoners were about to split off, and all of a sudden it went from a couple dozen people around to 3. Seriously, there was nobody around. It was dead quiet. The road also stopped being pancake flat and began to roll a little bit. It was also at this point that I realized, since Mile 8, we hadn't had a water stop in a while. It was over 3 miles without a water stop, and the volunteers were poorly executing their distribution strategies. Of course, it's always on the athlete, but as I would approach a water station, I would point to a person and a cup, and say "water" or "gatorade" - and without fail, each one would literally pull their arm back towards them at the last second. Of course the teenaged volunteers always think this is pretty funny, but I assure you, it's not. They were also holding the cups in a really stupid way, so I was barely getting any water at each stop.

Miles 9-13: 13:33 (9 + 10), 6:42, 6:45, 6:50. Half split est: 1:27:45

I felt good about that, it was right where I thought I should be. I figured 1:28-1:30 would be where I needed to be to buffer a slower second half, but, if I felt good, and could double it, would put me in a place to break 3 hours. But a few things were starting to worry me.

1. Since the start, I had been more than aware of my hamstring and piriformis. It is never good in the cold, and there were a few times when it would lock up mid-stride.

2. I had to go to the bathroom. I thought I could maybe make quick pit stop and relieve myself, but I was worried about starting up again, and how much time it would take.

So I forged on. And now the course was just getting ridiculous. It was a lot of running around circles, figure 8s, and running on little walking paths behind schools and through neighborhoods. As each mile passed, I was sure that my pace had to have slowed to over 7s because of all the turns. I remember one point, behind a school somewhere in the 14th mile, that I turned around the building and just got blasted in the face by the wind. Yet somehow that mile was still 6:50.

I had come through 10 miles at 1:06:42, and thought if I could hit 20 miles around 2:15, that would put me in a good place for a 3 hour race. I was feeling very full, and was having trouble eating anything. Miles 14-18 were annoying, but got through them in 6:50, 6:47, 6:51, 6:53, 6:53.

By that point, I've now run longer (excluding IMAZ, where I didn't really run) than any run since the end of October. 2.5 months without a run over 18 miles is a long time! It was around this point in the race that we also merged back up with the half marathoners. So now I'm stuck behind 2:30 half marathoners as we entered this ridiculous little neighborhood, and I can pinpoint the exact moment where I lost my momentum. It was when I got to a water table, and the volunteers were not holding the water, it was just sitting on the tables. I had to get water, but had to zoom around a few half runners and try to grab whatever I could. It was ineffective.

On the path, I got stuck behind a group of people taking up the width of the path. They were running and carrying something. I could see a body, and these guys all had the same shirt on that said something I couldn't read. I thought maybe it was a disabled person or wounded soldier, and was touched by the display. Until I made my way around them and saw it was a CPR dummy, and they were EMTs. Now I was pretty annoyed that they rudely took up the entire path when they didn't need to. It was as if the race organizers didn't bother to inform the slower half marathoners that they were going to be caught.

Miles 19 and 20: 7:11, 7:13 (2:15:40)

Holy crap. I still have a 10k to run, and have now gone right by the finish line for the 2nd time in this race. Doing the quick math, I realized at 7 minute pace I would run a 43:30 10k, and that would be good enough to get me under 3. Only problem was, I wasn't running under 7 minute pace. I knew I needed to keep the carnage under 7:30/mi to make sure I achieved my only goal. Around 21, I saw the gang again, who encouraged me to keep going. I had an out and back 5 miles. Out with the wind, back into it to finish the race. Uh-oh.

I've been through this before, it's an all too familiar feeling. I just can't go any longer. But I had to keep my head in it. I did not want to miss by a few seconds, or get it, but have it be barely under 3:05 and then still not get in. I watched as the few runners ahead of me were heading back into the finish, and they all looked terrible. Except for the girl and her two pacers that had passed me at 20 like I was standing still. They put 5 minutes into me in 5 miles. Ouch.

Miles 21-Finish were not pretty: 7:24, 7:20, 7:34, 7:43, 8:00, 8:17, 1:45

I realized I was going to run under 3:05, but I knew if I tried to press it at all, it could seriously shut me down, and I just had to keep moving forward. I allowed my body to slow down and, like the Winter Warlock, just tried to put one foot in front of the other.

I crossed the line in 3:03:43, which is a full 7 minute PR (sadly) from my first marathon in NYC. Not happy about the super positive splitting, but all things considered, it's what I should have expected. I was 15th overall, and the winning time was a "slow" 2:45. Much slower than last year. After the finish line, despite the temp barely clipping 44 degrees, no mylar blankets! I could definitely have used one to keep whatever heat was in me, in me. I was freezing.

The gang came over and we went into the tent, where I sat down and shivered. There were a few angels though, like the lady who was a massage therapist and came over to help get the cramping out of my legs, and the guy who handed me a dry shirt to wear, and the lady who kept trying to feed me this allegedly magic water. The Shrimp and Grits were, as advertised, delicious. And since we were all winners in some capacity, we all took home some hardware. It always reminds me of moon rocks, particularly in Apollo 13 when they were confused why the plane was coming in off trajectory, and it was because they weighed less than expected - since they expected them to be carrying moon rocks.

Conrad was a great help out there, as he probably ended up running 28 miles at least during his 3:00:01 run. And the cheering and support from the others was also great. We then got to watch the Olympic Trials on Saturday afternoon at the restaurant we ate at for lunch. They were a little confused as to why we wanted to watch Running, but we excitedly watched all 2 hours while eating bbq.

Ultimately, I'm pleased with a PR to start the year, but wish I had prepared better and run a little faster. I'll have NYC later this year to redeem myself maybe, but I still sit as one of the fastest half marathoners with the slowest marathon times that I know! Even though I liked Charleston, and would return (perhaps for Cooper River Bridge 10k), but would not go back for this race. I hope they can make the changes necessary to grow their event, but it wasn't my favorite race.

I'm also really glad I didn't stop to go to the bathroom. 3:05 minue 3:03:43 = 1:17. It could have made the difference.

A New Year, A New You

2012-01-09T11:52:00.001-05:00

When I see Jennifer Hudson on these Weight Watchers commercials, my first thought is:

DAMN. She looks fine.

But, it also got me to thinking, what is about a new year that makes people think "cool, I'm going to make lifestyle changes that will last forever. Effective 1/1/12." The #1 resolution has got to be "get in shape." But "get in shape" isn't a measurable goal. What is "in shape?" Round, after all, is a shape*. Goals need to be measurable, as it's these metrics that determine our success, or failure, in achieving them.

Sometimes you're hungry. Sometimes you're really hungry. And sometimes, when you're really hungry, you're faced with an opportunity to eat a 36oz (post-cooked) burger, topped with a couple of tomatos, many slices of cheese, mayonnaise, an over-sized pickle, and a ton of lettuce. Not to mention the bun. Oh, and the plate of fries. Then the waitress tells you that if you eat the whole thing, by yourself, it's free and you get your picture on the wall. THEN she tells you that if you eat it in the fastest recorded time (30 minutes), they name it after you.

Coincidentally, I faced this very situation 7 years ago. It was a burger joint in Chicago, and while I didn't go in with the goal of eating this behemoth burger, once I was presented the challenge, I heartily accepted. I knew not how to approach eating the thing, so I cut it into more manageable quarters. The first quarter I consumed in 3 minutes. The 2nd, another 3 minutes. I was halfway done at just 6 minutes into the ordeal. But my eyes were much larger than my stomach. 3rd quarter, 10 minutes. Slowing down, but I still had 14 minutes to eat the last quarter (and the fries). The meat was cold and rubbery, barely cooked. My hand was shaking as I scooped up the little bits of beef. I had the meat sweats. Ultimately, I finished, but it was painful, and it had taken me 35 minutes. I had lost 10 years of my life by consuming the burger, but I did it.

How is there a correlation between eating a grossly oversized burger and my personal athletic goals? It's actually pretty simple. Sometimes I dream too big. With the burger, I was lured by the fact I could have my name live on in glory if I ate it the fastest, and perhaps overestimated my eating abilities. I looked at the pictures of the people on the wall, previous burger-eaters, and they were all morbidly obese Chicagoans. And, with the exception of the guy who had eaten it in an inhuman 30 minutes, all the others were over an hour. I had eaten it in the 2nd fastest time ever, but I felt like I had failed because my goal had been set so high.

With running, and triathlon, I have always felt I could achieve more. No matter the distance, I always felt like I should be able to go faster. Under 2:40 for the marathon, under 2:00 for a legitimate Olympic distance Triathlon, under 9:00 for an Ironman. While they were reaches, and I knew how hard I'd have to work, I felt that if I worked hard enough, I could definitely achieve them. Ambitious goals are partly to blame for my most disappointing results: NYC Marathon 2008, Boston Marathon 2009, any and all Eaglemans, 2012 Ironman campaign. What makes it even more frustrating is that since getting hit in 2009, I've even scaled my goals back to more realistic ones, and have still missed the mark.

Since I don't want to dwell on my past disappointments, I'm going to realign my goals, and how I measure success, for 2012. To say I want to run a number of miles is really arbitrary, even though it can be measured. I can say I want to run 2500 miles (50mpw) but the reality is that I probably won't hit that. And whether I do or don't, if the total number of miles run doesn't result in certain time objectives, I won't have reached my goals. Here is what I aim to accomplish in 2012:

1. Race LESS
2. Race SHORTER
3. Race FASTER

Broken down, it's really that simple. I raced 30 times last year. Too many. I, like many, get excited when it's time to race, but I want to make them count more this year. My target for this year is 16. And instead of a season that includes two iron-distance triathlons, this year will include none. I have two marathons on the schedule, but outside of that, my longest events will be Eagleman and Survival of the Shawangunks. And despite what I know about my limits, I believe I can still turn the old legs over, so I want to target certain events and distances that I believe I can run Post-Collegiate PRs in. Here's a list:

Mile - 5:00.11 (Maryland Alumni Mile, 2011). Aiming for 4:40 at downhill mile, 4:50 on the track
5k - 16:48 (Shamrock, 2008). I will be running Shamrock again this year
10k - 35:26 (Pike's Peek, 2007). Running this one again this year. Home to my 34:08 PR (2003)
Club Challenge 10 mile - 58:55 (2009).
Half - 1:18:38 (PDR, 2011).
Marathon - 3:10:51 (NYC, 2008). Running this one again.

I'm not sure if I'll get to run a flat 10 miler, but if I do, I'll be aiming for my 58:12 (Broad Street, 2008) PR. They are challenging for me, but all attainable, particularly if I back off triathlon a little bit. My actual time goals include getting under 35 minutes for 10k at Pike's Peek, and running under 2:50 at NYC.

Since I do have a few triathlons on the schedule, I'd be remiss if I didn't post some goals for them. But I really am not sure yet, since I haven't ridden my bike in 6 weeks, if I'm going to start again. Those will have to wait.

The main thing for me is being resolute, in preparation for and execution of my goals. It's painful to realize that you may not achieve what you believe you can, but we still get out there every day and pursue the dream. I have to take a step back, come up with a plan for whatever it is I want to get out of athletics, and stick to it. "Just finishing" was never a thought for me with the burger, just as it is never a thought for me with Ironman. I want to do more than just finish, but right now, maybe it's not in the cards.

For now, it was a good first week of 2012. With my 17 mile run on New Year's Day, I realized that I ran 17 mile long runs on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day. I feel like that's pretty good, because on those two days in particular, it's almost always easier to NOT run. After a lot of Bowl-watching (including the OTs and the late nights!) I managed to get into the pool to the tune of 13,200 meters, including yesterday's 4200m day. I feel good about that, as it's almost as much as I swam all of last January. I also ran 40 miles, and it was a weird week. Tuesday was SO cold - 22 degrees, with a much colder windchill, and we were on the track. I didn't enjoy the cold, and felt uncomfortable running hard in it. But then it warmed back up, and by Friday, I was running without a shirt again. Saturday morning was a chill, but hilly, 10 miles, and I felt my legs coming around. I decided to not run yesterday and this week is going to be pretty light. Running a marathon in mid-January is a weird way to start the year! Firmness of purpose.

Headed to Charleston on Friday, just in time for the temperature to dip a little here in Baltimore. And, even though my race is run concurrently, I'm excited for my friend Chrissie Ramsey, who is running Saturday's Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston!

Before

Almost...done

11 Moments of 2011

2012-01-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

My name is Ryan McGrath, and I have an addiction. I am addicted to racing. Often I do it very poorly.

It's true, I really do have a problem. I competed in 30 races this year. Not every one of them was designed to be a real "race," as some were efforts of convenience. But, I donned a number and crossed a start/finish line 30 times this year. If I did a recap of the entire year, it would be really, really long. And all 6 of you would NOT want to read it. So instead, I'm going to go through my 11 highlights, or lowlights, of the year. I'll just call them the 11 Moments That Stand Out (in no particular order):

1. Starting the year on the wrong feet. Alyssa was going to do this PHUNT Run, a no-frills, no-cost trail race, on Sunday, January 2nd, so the four idiots (Pat, Zero, Ed, myself) and Meg D/Pete decided we'd crash the party. We figured the 20k (12.4 miles) shouldn't take us more than 1h45m, because honestly, how hard could trails be? Finding ourselves on the wrong route less than a quarter mile into the race, apparently it was pretty hard. The thickest, sloppiest mud I've ever seen, combined with getting lost a few more times, snow, ice cold water, and hunger, resulted in the worst 2h25m of running I'd ever done. For us, it was at least 16 miles we ended up running. Alyssa somehow stuck it out for the 50k.

2. Party in the City Where the Heat is On. Lebron was man enough to take his talents to South Beach, and so were we, for the third annual trip to the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon. This time it was a small crew, consisting of me, Zero, Barf, Dustin, and my brother. I wasn't sure what to expect from the race, as it was just two months after the IM, and following PHUNT I'd had a lot of knee and foot problems. Somehow I pulled out a 1:21:49, which was faster than I ran there in 2009, when I was in shape to run much faster. My goal had been to run under 1:23:00 so I'd have a guaranteed entry into NYC Marathon if I wanted it. Considering this race was still relatively early in my comeback trail, looking back, it was one of my best of the year.

3. We're getting the band back together. Club Challenge is one of my favorite events, least favorite races, and a rite of passage if you plan on running in Baltimore. The first year I raced (2006), I ran like garbage, going out too hard and coming back in a crawl to run 1:04 something. The next year I was ready for it, but snow canceled the event. 2008 I was running pretty well, and managed to go 59:25. 2009 I was running even better, and went 58:55. Not sure how my body would fare on the knee-jarring downhills on the hilly course, I only thought in my head that I could run close to 6 minute pace. When I actually did it (1:00:12), I was pretty surprised. Somehow I managed to run back-to-back 5 milers faster than any of my actual 5 mile race this year. Go figure.

4. The Race of Truth. 2011 was the year of the Mile for me. I raced this distance more than any other, running 3 road miles and 3 track miles. I had a great (downhill) mile at Westminster Main St Mile in April, running 4:50, and a couple of weeks later I ran 5:00.11 on the track at the Maryland Alumni Mile. I'm still positive it was under 5, but whatever. Then, on Memorial Day, despite 3 days of brutal, monster training, I still managed a 5:07 at the Loudoun St Mile in VA. Then it was downhill, and the effects of IM training seeped in. 5:16 on the track, 5:19 on the track, 5:30 on the road. Ouch. Not a pretty end, but I vow to be back in 2012.

5. Back to the Track. #4 was a good segue into this one, which was a return to track racing. I'm slow as shit, and really have no business being on a track, but I love it. I raced quite a bit on the track this year, even "competing" in the 4x100m relay at one of the BRRC meets. I did two 5000m races (17:46 each) and a 2 mile (11:10). There really is nothing more fun in the summer than to go out to a low key track meet and just see what you can do against some high school kids.

6. Y'all Come Back Now. I love to travel, particularly when I can go with friends, and even moreso when I can find a race that fits in. This year was a perfect storm of activity, as the Peachtree 10k (see also: 60,000 people running down Peachtree Street in Atlanta) fell in line with an Orioles weekend series against the Braves. Alyssa, Arjun, Melissa, Brennan, Ed and I hopped in the ol' family truckster and tackled the 714 mile drive to ATL down Tobacco Rd, stopping along the way in Blacksburg, VA, and Raleigh, NC (on the way home). Brennan got us hooked up with game tickets, and come Monday (July 4, race day), we were toeing the line with the likes of Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman, to run one of the worst races I could have imagined. It was so humid, and after an initial flat/downhill, it was just up, up, up for the back half. Very hard. Even harder was having to run BACK to the hotel. An awesome experience though, I recommend you run the race if you have the opportunity.

7. Always a bridesmaid. The brothers McLoughlin and I headed home to NJ in July to race in our friend's sprint (Randolph Lake). Now, the three of us knows each other quite well, and based on the layout of the race (short swim, longer/harder bike, 5k run) I felt I had my best opportunity to bring my head-to-head record against them up. Our friend Mike was the RD, and it was at his half iron last October that I finished 2nd. Was it finally time to win a race? When we saw Doug Clark show up in the morning, the answer was a resounding: NO. Doug is awesome. My best effort was to make sure he didn't eat up my 4 minute head start. I managed to cross the line first, but he made up all by :30 of the gap, and was the overall winner. Oh well. It was still a good race for me.

8. Luray is for Lovers. The VA Power Couple of Triathlon, the Mighty Palavecinos, owned this year's event. Matias stomped errbody in Saturday's Olympic, and then came back to win again Sunday's sprint (fortunately Mighty Matias has gone "pro" for 2012 from what I hear). KGD, now KGDP, won the Olympic, and took 2nd in the sprint. CTR, Zero, and Pat could only watch as Matias ripped into us, but Alyssa gave KGD a run for her money, as she finished 2nd in the Olympic. Meanwhile I had the most frustrating race I've ever had and just tried to make sure Ben didn't catch me. Luray is one of the highlights of our year, and this year was even more fun as the 6 of us (CTR, Z, Pat, Ben, Alyssa, me) rented a cabin atop some absurd dirt road that only Alyssa's car could get to. Then we rode a very challenging Skyline Drive ride the next day. I'm eyeing this one for a great battle in 2012.

9. A PR at PDR. With my hindered abilities, PRs at this point, while not impossible, are certainly not expected. Particularly not when I decided to race a half marathon just three weeks after IM Louisville. But Philly Distance Run is my jam; it's one of my favorite races on the planet, and I couldn't pass it up. It also happened to be the day before my 30th birthday, and I really just wanted to go out on top, rather than with the sour taste of IM Louisville still lingering. It was a gamble, because it honestly could have gone really poorly. Fortunately for me, it didn't, and I was rewarded with a 4 second PR in what had to have been the best-run race I've ever had. I was also fortunate to have Ed and Pat running near me for a little bit, but before the halfway point, I was on my own, and I was glad. I worked hard, stayed tough, and took a little time out of my best time there.

10. Ironman Failures. A year ago if you had asked me if my 10:40:00 would still be my PR at the end of this year I would have said absolutely not. I thought that was the best I could have done on that day, but I also thought it was the worst I would do. A 3:57 marathon off a 5:32 bike, I was going to wreck that this year. More time to train, more hours, more strength and overall fitness DO NOT MEAN YOU DO BETTER. Louisville I could accept as a fluke. I just got really, really sick at the really, really worst time. If you take my swim into account, it was absolutely the best swim I've had this year, and likely the best swim of my life. This, coming after a summer where I was swimming like shit. Then, even on the bike, despite literally soft pedaling the entire second half, I still managed to split a 5:14. And, even when I felt super duper sick, I managed to run just a little over 7 minute pace, for a few miles at least. Arizona was just sad. I don't know what happened, I don't know why I get sick when I travel to these races, I don't know why I didn't have it that day. It's the most frustrating thing in the world to me, and in order to keep what little sanity I have left, I have no choice but to give up on this distance.

11. A win is a win. I wouldn't end it on a bad note, so the moment I'll remember most from this year is my first triathlon win at the Waterman's Half. Everything was so clutch about this day. I was able to sign up for the race ON race day. C'mon, how great is that? It was in MD, so I didn't have to go far. It was a Saturday race. I mostly did it because it fit into my schedule and I wanted to do another longer distance race before IMAZ, but it worked out that everyone else in the triathlon world must have taken that weekend off. I cruised in the water, coming out in 3rd and onto the bike in 2nd, and made quick work on the bike to assume the lead. After I got passed, I made a wise decision to keep my effort steady and not worry about the guy in front, and just be confident in my run. It was the right move, because within 3 miles on the run, I ate up the 3 minute lead he had, and cruised in for the win. It was a very cool moment, and it was nice to have Alyssa there to see it.

12. WE GOT HIM (bonus moment)

Of course, these are all quite selfish moments, and none of us would be anything without the crews that support us. 2011 was the year of the marathon, and it was awesome to see Ed run 2:36:45 at Chicago. He averaged 10 miles per day (3652 for the year) and raced a zillion times, from the mile to the marathon and everything in between, setting numerous PRs and always working his schedule around others to run. Then Pat ran his first marathon, and to be on hand for that was great. Nothing beats running in your city, especially when your super pregnant wife and baby Megatron can waddle out of the house and walk a block and see you go by. Pat's 2:50:43 at BALTIMORE has to be one of the best marathon debuts I've ever seen. Zero, who will always mystify us as to how he can race so well on seemingly no training, put down massive PRs in the 5k, 10k, 10mi, half, Olympic tri and IRONMAN, where he went 9:49 at Louisville. Incredible. Brennan came off his tough 2010 to renew his passion for running, taking a different approach to racing and training, and helping others get to where they wanted to go. Arjun ran the fastest 5k he's run since he's lived here, and Melissa got herself into some of the best shape I've ever seen her. Ben got lucky and didn't have to swim at his first half iron, and signed up for his first IM this year. Kris took a huge chunk out of his marathon PR at Richmond, training mostly on his own to do it. My tri partners in crime, OJ/Benda/David Lee, helped so much in the first half of the year, and now that we're committed to S.O.S., I'll get to see them more through the spring and summer. CTR exposed himself to the tri community and has become a valuable asset in the fight against crime. My mom and dad made it out to Arizona to check out an unfortunately shitty race, good thing they think that crossing the line is a big accomplishment. And really, not enough can be said about the amazing year Alyssa had - running a hundred mile trail race in Hawaii in January, and then qualifying for Hawaii later in the year. How many people have done that? Or do a 100k trail race 3 weeks after an Ironman? Or do a 100 miler, 2 Ironmans, a 100k, two one mile races, a half marathon, a cross country 5k, PR in most things from the beer mile to Olympic distance, qualify for Hawaii ALL in the same year? Not anybody I know.

So while 2011, all in all, was not my best year, it was for my friends, and I'll take that as a win. And then just cross my fingers that maybe 2012 is a little better for me.

1968

2012-01-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

This was the year that my good friend Ben Ingram finished up his PhD...

It's also the number of miles I ran this year, which is the most I've run since I started keeping track in 2005 (I wonder how many I was running during college, when my average weeks through the year were more like 80 instead of 40...)

I capped off the month of December with 216 miles, also the most I've run since March of 2009 (two months before getting hit). My last four weeks have been: 30, 44, 53, 60 and with yesterday's long run, this week was 61. It feels mostly pretty good to be running slightly higher mileage right now, of course, I have not touched my bike this month. That wasn't by design, rather by laziness. And just the fact that I only have so much energy, and on a whim I signed up for the Charleston Marathon (Jan 14) so I figured I'd be better off not riding and instead focusing on running a little more. I've gotten more comfortable again running in the 70-90 minute range, and I've even done a few workouts, like this little gem on Tuesday:

4800m: 17:50 (5:55, 5:58, 5:57)
1:30 rest
3200m: 11:48 (5:54, 5:54)
2:45 rest (to wait for Dustin to come around)
1600m: 5:40

The 6 minute pace or just under felt okay, I certainly don't feel as comfortable running that as I used to, but the fact I can still do it is pretty cool.

The pool this month was weird. I felt great in the beginning of the month, still somewhat fresh after AZ, but as the weeks went on, and the running mileage went up, I was no longer feeling as good. I ended the month with 30,000m of swimming, which was well up from the 17k I swam last December. However, the 0 miles on the bike was well below the monster 40 miles I rode last December. So it evened out.

If I were going to grade myself for the month of December, it would look like:

Swimming - A. 30k in the pool in my "off" month is pretty good, and I actually did a few things like a) attempted to swim more strokes, including butterfly and even attending my first ever swim practice. (7 people in my lane!)

Cycling - F. Ha. I mean, I can't justify any better grade for that considering I put up a goose egg. Would you get a grade if you didn't go to class and didn't turn in any assignments? Well, depending on your major. I suppose my friend Greg still did at least earn a 0.42 GPA that first semester of college...

Running - A+. 216 miles for the month, a 7 day stretch of 68 miles, workouts, feeling good. That's a very positive end to the year for me. I don't think I've had to do any runs completely by myself, we've had an awesome group lately, so I'm very thankful for that. The friendly weather for December certainly helped, as I haven't been cold yet. Even my chilblains haven't showed up in full effect, so that's been good.

My long run yesterday KO'd me. 17 miles in Mt. Washington area with Dustin, Nate, Conrad, and Seth. After getting back to Gilman, I hopped on the track for two miles at 6:50, 6:45, and that effort felt much easier than most of the rest of the run. I'm hopeful it's enough to get me to the line in Charleston in good shape. Not ideal, but then again, neither was this abbreviated training cycle. I didn't go out on NYE, didn't have anything to drink, so I could be ready for Sunday's run, and afterwards I felt like I had been out until 6 in the morning. I kept my New Year's Day tradition of Chinese food following the run, with Alyssa, and basically sat on the couch all day and watched episodes of ABC's Once Upon a Time.

I'm going to do something a little different for my end of the year wrap-up this year, but I'll get to that this week. For now, I'll do my final overall grades for the year:

Swimming - B+. You can study and study and study, but if you don't do well on tests, what would your teachers have to grade you on? This year I took a slightly different approach to swimming, and it offered mixed results. In my shorter distance races, I did not feel like I performed very well, but in 3 of my 4 longer races (half IM and up) I felt like I did pretty well. I had a poor swim at Columbia, and while I thought I did well at Eagleman, I still lost a lot of time. Part of this was, due to the very warm spring and summer, water temps prohibited wetsuits, and I didn't pick up a speedsuit until August. NJ Tri was probably my worst swim of the year, but then I had a great day at IM Louisville, Waterman's Half, and a good result at IM Arizona. I swam 443,500m (275 miles) this year, which was way down from 2010 (I think something like 550k), but in the end, had better IM swims. I'll be changing it up again for 2012 to try and improve on my weak areas.

Cycling - B. Good rides at Columbia and Eagleman were overshadowed by a summer of incredible bad luck. Flats were the trend for me this year, and the most frustrating episode came when I rode the Luray course with my rear wheel completely jammed up against the chainstay. I felt like I made progress to get back to where I had been, especially at the races that I could compare previous performances, but then I had lackluster days at some, including the big two (IMLou, IMAZ). I rode 5569 miles this year, and at least I enjoyed most of my rides. Need to figure out what I'm doing for 2012, which will feature fewer triathlons, so it may feature less riding overall.

Running - A. Hard to not at least pat myself on the back a little bit for some of my performances. Two 17:46 5k track races within a month of each other, on either end of an Ironman, and a half marathon PR of 1:18:38 just three weeks after the IM were pretty good results for me. I would say my best triathlon run of the year was at Waterman's, when I was comfortably able to go 1:33:03 on a challenging course, or the 5k at Randolph Lake Sprint. Every other race was a worthless piece of garbage on the run for me. I did also manage a 1:00:12 at Club Challenge, which was, looking back, a great race for me, and the 1:21:49 half in January was a big result, especially considering when it was. I ran 1968 miles, as I mentioned, which was a lot for me. Average of 37/week, next year's goal is going to be around 40/week for the year, which I suspect may be a little higher as I focus on running for more of the year.

I'll Be

2011-12-22T11:34:00.001-05:00

Someone googled:

"I'll be your nasty black mother" and got to my blog.

I just thought it was funny, and wanted to share.

30 for 30

2011-12-19T14:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday I ran my last race of the year - #30. I never intended to run that number, but it's funny how that fell on my the year of my 30th birthday. I certainly won't be going for 31 next year.

This weekend was the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler, a favorite of mine, and just about everyone else in the Baltimore/MD/DC/VA/PA areas, as 3500 people were registered for this hilly, cold, December 5 miler. In the 7 years I've lived here, I have run this race every year except for 2009, when I wasn't running. I've had good races, I've had okay races, but I've never had a bad race here, and I wasn't planning on a bad day on Saturday. The course had changed, and was now slightly harder, so I figured if I could just run around 30 minutes, I'd be very happy with that.

In the past two weeks, I've tried to bring up my running mileage and see if I can get more comfortable running again. I had a really good run on Thursday night with Ed, when it was 60 degrees and we didn't have to wear shirts. But by Friday, the mercury dipped, and by Saturday morning, it was pretty cold. I ran 10 miles with Brennan, Zero and Chrissie on Friday night, and was a little worse for the wear on Saturday morning. My morning duties included riding around on a school bus that was shuttling runners back and forth to the start line. I finished that up at 8:20, dropped off my stuff and tried to run for a minute or two to warm up. Once again, I donned one of the best running outfits of the day - Under Armour camo spandex, my red and black striped gloves, and my bright orange Adidas Bostons.

Despite the race being so huge, it's not at all a fight for the start line. And, considering literally everyone in the top 50 or so runs with us or are other locals, it's a pretty friendly start. Got going up the hill, and when I hit the first mile in 5:40 I knew the mark was clearly off. I heard a GPS watch beep about 20 seconds later, which seemed more correct. Mile 2 was 6:14, which probably made up for the short first mile, and then mile 3 was 6:03. Seemed pretty good. I was running mostly by myself, with the exception of a dude, also named Ryan, wearing pirate pants and Vibrams, who was just ahead, and responded to all my friends on course cheering for me.

As we hit the lake, I just tried to keep the legs turning over. Mile 4 was a slow 6:17, so I wasn't sure if I was actually running that slow, or if it was long again. Either way, with 600m to go, we turned downhill to the finish, and my knee was just not letting me open up. I saw my watch tick just over 30, and I crossed at 30:07. Not a bad day, a little faster than last year, on a little bit harder of a course, so I'm pleased with it.

Sunday morning it was time for a long run, and I met up with some of the guys at Gilman to head out on a 13 mile run. It was a difficult route conceived by Nate and Ed, a lot of climbing, a lot of downhills. We held 7s for the run, probably starting a little slower and picking it up to the 6:50 realm by the end. I then hopped on the track for a mile to see what we were running: 1:40 (6:40/mi-ish). I felt that was about right for how we had finished the run. Then I picked it up a little, going 1:37, 1:33, 1:29 for a 6:20 last mile. I felt good about the day, but my knee is in bad shape.

I'm not sure why, the 53 mile week, while one of the biggest I've had in a while, is not the biggest week I've had - and I wasn't really doing much else to wear on the knee. I think it's just the cold. Knee is very stiff, very tight. I hope it can loosen up or I'm going to be in trouble this winter!

Race Report: A Race I Didn't Do

2011-12-13T13:23:00.000-05:00

I didn't race this weekend, but the amount of effort I put in made it feel like I did!

Friday afternoon I met Alyssa and Carly for a 4pm rollout of Baltimore, headed for Nowheresville, VA. I was originally led to believe that this trip was 3.5 hours, and I figured we'd hit some traffic. A little bit on 70 and then some near Frederick, but for the most part, it was a smooth trip to Winchester. Where I then found out we were still 2.5 hours away. Oh my God. Part of my concern is that I'm too big for Alyssa's car, and my knee starts to swell as I drive. But I can do it, I'm a big boy. We stopped for a meal at Wendy's somewhere in VA. I go to order a #6 - Spicy Chicken Sandwich, my go-to. I ask for no mayo, as always, and the kid is confused for a second but then goes "do you mean you want a Spicy Chicken Sandwich?" Yeah, that's exactly right. "Well that's a #7 now." WHAT?! Apparently their new burger, the W, is a #6. How are you just going to change on me like that. And to top it off, they put mayo on it. Dammit Wendy's.

Our car trip was peppered with some high quality banter, including the prerequisite "What If" scenarios, like what would you do if a chimpanzee ripped off your partner's face - would you stay with that person? You know, the usual. We also got some great games of 20 Questions going. I think the girls were a little annoyed at mine, which more often than not including dead historical figures. Whatever, it took them all 20 questions to guess Miley Cyrus on the first one, so I figured they couldn't do any worse.

Finally we arrived at Camp Bethel. It looked like a great place for a cult to gather. Alyssa registered while Carly tried to guess who would be fast based on appearance. This is actually quite more challenging at ultras than it is at road races. The start time is a cruel 12:01am, and the start is about 15-20 minute drive from the camp, so we caravaned out to the start and prepared for the LONGEST DAY EVER.

It was a pretty neat sight to see all 130 or so people turn on their headlamps and start running through the woods, and as that would be the last we'd see of them for 5 hours, Carly and I headed to the first aid station we could go to, #4, about 21 miles in for the runners. We got there by 1 and tried to catch some sleep. Neither of us were prepared for just how cold it would get sleeping in the car, and my light resting was interrupted around 2am when we were asked to rearrange the cars on the road. We "slept" until 5 (I figured I probably slept for about 2, 2.5 hours) and the alarm went off. I had heard runners going by for a little while, and we expected Alyssa around 5:30. As we were preparing her stuff, a runner was approaching the car and Carly goes "that doesn't look like Alyssa," but then the runner stopped at the car and looked in. It WAS Alyssa, at 5:10am. Shit, we are NOT ready. We send her ahead to the aid station so she can eat while Carly tries to swap the batteries in her headlamp. I can't see anything, it's so dark while it's not a difficult trail, I keep tripping on rocks. We get to the aid station (maybe quarter mile from the car) and then send her on her way. This is 5 hours into the race.

During this time I wondered how long 5 hours is when you're running in the dark woods of Virginia by yourself. I also wondered how much longer I could have made it in that car, I was so cold.

We then drove to the next aid station. Driving, by the way, on those unlit mountain roads, was insane. Could not see anything. But the drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway was cool. We kept missing our turns because they would be literally "drive 9.6 miles and then make a right onto dirt road" - none of the things were labeled, and it looked like little driveways. Incredible. Got out of the car and heard what sounded like a roaring river, but couldn't see it. We could only see the lights of headlamps bobbing along a ridge high above us, and watch as they zig-zagged down the switchbacks of a long descent.

At the next aid station, we could finally start to see the sun. It was calm in the woods, and a beautiful morning. Alyssa pulled into the aid station and looked good, and was ready to do a quick change into some different clothes. Onto the next station.

This one was gross. I don't know what was going on, but it was clearly a body dump for hunters. This little kid goes "daddy a deer head" and I run over with my camera to grab some shots. It was disgusting, just a decapitated deer head. And a couple of rotting, picked apart carcasses. Some in plastic bags, presumably what the hunters used to drag their kill out of the woods. Then came the BEAR. It was a bear head, partially skinned, it looked so peaceful, but so sad. Its spinal column was still attached, with the white, fatty meat of its interior. Really gross, really sad, really disrespectful.

It was now just after 10am, and they were at 42ish miles. Carly was set to jump in with Alyssa, after pounding 2 Red Bulls and eating some food. Alyssa was doing pretty well, and I'm sure it was nice to have company for the remainder of the race. For me, it meant I was now the solo one, and had to find my way to the other aid stations by myself. It also allowed me to roll the windows down and enjoy the brisk air (the girls do not like the windows down). It was a beautiful drive along the BRP again, and I found the next aid station - #8 at mile 49 - and hung out there for a while. It was starting to get windy, and the temp felt like it was dropping, and it was only 11:30.

Alyssa and Carly came powering up the path, looking better than any of the racers in before them (that I saw). Most significantly, Alyssa was making up time on the woman ahead of her, a known rival. Another important note in ultras is that the stated distance is never the actual distance. If they say 7 miles to the next aid station, it's probably 8. If they say it's 100k (62.4 miles) it's actually 66.6 (hence Hellgate 100k).

The girls trotted off to enjoy some downhill running, while I packed up and had to start hauling to get to the next station. The distance for the runners may have been 7 miles, but for drivers it was much farther. I still knew I had at least 80 minutes to get there before them, so I wasn't in a supreme hurry. During this entire time I was consuming very little. I had a pop-tart and a couple small slices of pizza, and a Gatorade. I resisted the urge to drink Coke so that I wasn't going to waste the effects of caffeine early in the day. This would be critical on the drive home.

Aid station #9: the last one. Nestled in the woods, 7 miles to go for the racers. 3.5 up, 3.5 down to the finish. The 4th place lady was 5 minutes ahead of Alyssa as she exited transition, but she was walking up the hill. Alyssa and Carly came flying in like BAMFs. I gave them the time gap and they did serious work. I had a 40 minute drive to the finish and I figured it would take them 60-75 minutes to get to the end, so I just rolled. At the finish, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was counting on them getting in around 14:45, so imagine my surprise when I see the two of them coming in at 14:32 with NO ONE around them. It was like that scene in Troop Beverly Hills, I just didn't expect them. AND they were ahead of the 4th place lady, which meant Alyssa was 4th. They had covered their last 3 miles (albeit downhill) in 8:15, 8:05 and under 8. In a 100k trail race, that is insane.

It was a great race, and maybe a mildly unexpected result, for Alyssa, who has now shut her last two races down in the closing miles. Forget that lady that's married to Kevin Bacon, Alyssa should be The Closer. Mariano Rivera could learn some lessons from her. It has been a long, but prosperous season for her and hopefully now she'll chill out for a bit. Mostly because I will not be going to anymore ultras in the winter. Ha.

Then it was time to drive home, and we didn't get on the road until about 3:30, which meant 90 minutes of daylight. Carly passed out right away and Alyssa couldn't be expected to drive, so it was on me. And I was...sleepy. I had to resort to a Red Bull - something I've only had when it accompanies a clear adult beverage, and it makes my heart race. In just a few sips, I was ready to drive again. We stopped at James Madison for dinner, where I continued my great eating (chicken and waffles!) and then back on the road. It was a "quick" drive but still took us a long time to get home. We stopped for snacks at a Sonic in Winchester and made it home around 9:30pm.

Then Sunday was our annual Awards Night, which is a fun end of year party we have at the running store to celebrate the great year. This year was probably the best as we enjoyed some great food: alligator bits, turducken, pizza, desserts - it was awesome. Reminds me why our group is the best one around, because we do awesome stuff.

For my own personal week, it was a pretty quiet one. I only made it into the pool twice, and didn't ride. I did manage to run 44 miles on 5 runs, which was good. I did not feel good through Friday's run, but by Sunday I felt a little better, and even hit the trails myself for the first time in a while.

Finally Coming Down...Off the Ledge

2011-12-05T15:34:00.000-05:00

Just a little play on words if you read one of Alyssa's recent blog posts.

It's now December, and Arizona feels like a lifetime ago. But don't worry, my feelings haven't changed. I've just been able to process it, and have a little laugh. My dad said to me over Thanksgiving, that I didn't fail, because finishing isn't failing, I just didn't meet my goal.

And of course I had to remind him: that IS failing. I had a goal, I failed. But that's neither here nor there, because I then told him that I know when to fold 'em, and that time is now. So while I'm sure there will be a disappointed 6 readers who won't get to see depressing race reports any more, it will take the frustration out of sucking.

The highlights of my last two weeks have been a combined 11 hours of training, including a little attempt at the Born to Run 5 Miler over Thanksgiving. Held the day after Thanksgiving, this annual race in Freehold (where Bruce Springsteen was born) has certainly changed over the years. I used to go to it, know some of the people, see some friends. Now they seem to have all disappeared. It was a little sad this year as I showed up, signed up, did the race, and then just...left.

The race is not super competitive, last year I was 9th or 10th with a time just over 30 minutes. That was also just a few days after IMAZ, so I figured this year I should be able to do at least that, maybe go faster. My legs actually felt much better this year, and I went into it feeling like I could run 5:50s. I was content with not going out hard, so I stuck behind some little kids and a couple of girls at the start. After 600m, 4 guys went off, and so I decided I'd rather keep them in sight than sit back. It felt supremely easy, and I was sure I was running 6:15 pace. First mile coming up...5:42. Ooof. Not good.

Who ever knows if miles are totally accurate, but that was way too quick. The next mile is mostly downhill, and I ran 6:01. I felt like if I could keep the miles between 6 and 6:10, that would be good. I was getting passed by a few people, including the first girl, but I didn't really care. The middle miles are in this little park, some trail, some gravel, but generally not fast terrain, and a few turns, BUT the 6:35 I ran for mile 3 was a shock. So then I realized I had virtually no shot and running "well" and just kept the effort there. Back uphill, 6:45. Ha! Finished with a 6:30 and came across the line in whatever, like 13th or 14th I guess at 31:35.

After the race, there was a small Spanish guy who I recognized from races up there, and he tells me (in his accent that I can do if I'm telling the story live) that I probably would have finished top three had I not gone out so hard, yada yada. I said I wasn't too concerned, that I did an Ironman the other day, and he and this other guy just went "ohhh..."

I took Mon and Tues off after AZ, and then swam a little on Wednesday. Thanksgiving I took off, and Friday ran about 6 miles and then rode 22 miles with Jason Gers at the beach. Good ride. I then used the good weather (temps in the low to mid 60s!) and motivation to get on my bike on Saturday for about 18 miles - the same route I rode the day I got hit 2 years ago. Made sure to go slowly by that spot. I came back to Baltimore on Saturday and got in the pool Sunday.

Ran pretty easy all last week, running 7 on Monday, 8 on Wednesday, 7 on Friday and another 8 on Sunday for 30 miles. I didn't ride at all, but I got in the pool 4 times for 8700 meters. I actually feel pretty good in the water right now, but not great running.

With 11 months down, here is how I'm grading myself for November:

Swimming - B+. 1:01:27 at Arizona is the best I've swam there in the three years, and basically confirms that, unless I stop swimming altogether, would not swim worse than a 1:05. As I've always said, 1:05 was the time I used to think that I would be stoked to swim. But, I still feel like I should have been under an hour. No big deal. For the month, ended up with 37,500 meters, a pretty standard month.

Cycling - C. I only have my performance at the race to judge this on, and that was...subpar. 437 miles for the month, which is about what I did last November. At this point I'm going to really have to take a look at what's going on for me on the bike, because it's at travesty that my swim keeps outsplitting my bike and run at this distance.

Running - B. I was running pretty well in November, and obviously the only real race I had was AZ, but I still don't even think it was my running legs fault, something else was going on. I feel like if you're running 30 miles a week after an IM, you're doing okay. 130 miles for the month.

One cool byproduct of the running mileage is that I eclipsed my 2007 mileage (1751) with my run on Wednesday, the last day of November. I now sit at 1767 with 26 days to go. My highest mileage (keeping in mind that I didn't keep track of things during college so I'm sure those were all much, much higher) came from 2008, when I ran 1874. I won't crack 2000 this year, but I'll probably get to 1950 or so.

As I began this post with a little jab at my own self-worth, things have been going well for Alyssa, as she was selected to the Rev3 Tri team for 2012. Pretty cool, as Rev3 really does put on great races from what we've heard, so I'm sure I'll get to see some of them.

In other news, Under Armour just partnered up with Tough Mudder for 2012. I think Tough Mudder is a joke, and it makes me cringe to think of the money that they print for their dumb races. Haters gotta hate, I suppose, I'm sure if I was the one making that money for not doing shit I'd be happy too, but still. Maybe UA should focus on sponsoring REAL running events (Baltimore Marathon excluded) and making real running apparel and shoes...just my two cents. After that Hot Chocolate race debacle in DC this weekend, and Annapolis Half Marathon a few weeks ago, I've got to suspect that these RDs have dollar signs in their eyes as they think they can just start a race and have 10,000 or more people. These races are just TOO big. You're not the NYC Marathon!

That Was Such an Epic Fail

2011-11-22T23:54:00.000-05:00

Upset. Embarrassed. Annoyed. Frustrated.

These are just a couple of words I would use to describe how I felt before, during, and after the race this weekend. So if you are expecting words of encouragement or hope, or an "I'll be back to get 'em again" - you can probably stop reading.

But, since I do try to keep some balance, I will say that at least one of us had a great day. GREAT day. Alyssa swam 1:05 and some change, just a few ticks slower than what she swam at Louisville, and then rode a 5:45 - which included ten minutes on the side of the road when she flatted on lap 2! She was 6th in her 25-29 age group out of the water, and still in 6th off the bike. She then did what can only be summed up as some SERIOUS work on the run. FASTEST run split in her age group, 3:47. While I (and she would concur) would say her open marathon PR is "soft" at 3:31, to run that close to your open time off the bike like that is insane. It helped her finish at 10:45:51, which was a 50 minute PR over her Wisco 2010 time.

MORE significantly, she finished 2nd in the age group, which means she qualified for KONA. And, even cooler than that - she ran third place down HARD in the last mile to do it. If that's not a champion, I don't know what is. She was still many minutes down with 10k to go, but just kept hunting, and was 20 seconds down inside the last mile. Boom. Awesome. So that meant yesterday morning we got to walk down so she could pay $775 to get to go to Hawaii next year. She also got some really cool news this morning while we were in the shuttle back to the airport, but she'll tell you that in a couple of days...

I will also take the opportunity to thank a few people for their efforts:

My parents made the trip out. My dad came out last year, and had so much fun that he just had to come back. He managed to drag my mom out, as she's never seen an IM. As I've always said, if you've ever met my dad, you know that there is not a human being in the world as enthusiastic and energetic to cheer - not just for me, but for everyone on the course, people he doesn't know. They even came back for the midnight finish, and when a few people were straggling in after midnight, and therefore not "official" finishers, he was the one encouraging people in the stands to cheer them in.

Mike Zero came out, even though he wasn't racing. Now, in fairness, I would probably go out to Tempe for this race every year myself. Particularly when ASU is playing Arizona and you have tickets. But, like the friend he is, he made himself available for assistance all weekend, and was hugely supportive on the course - running around from place to place faster than I was (which wasn't hard).

Clairebear came down from Flagstaff to watch, which was nice of her. She did it last year, and obviously Mike did it two years ago, so we have a nice little history of IMAZ in our little family. Claire is a tough little cookie, and I really appreciated her coming down for basically the day just to watch and cheer.

My cousin Matt came out again. Matt came out last year after my dad mentioned we were going to be out there (he lives there) and even though I hadn't seen him in, like twenty years, he was such a great fan. It was great to see him again, and he was on top of shit after the race, picking up my gear bags and bike and bringing them back to the hotel. Thanks Matt!

My buddy Eric Marenburg (a proud and loyal Terp) drove out on Saturday from San Diego with his buddy Tom (who I've run with before while out in SD). Their friend John was competing as well, and they took the 6 hour journey on Saturday just to watch, and then split after the race on Sunday. Tom got some great pics, which I'll put up at some point. They were great out on course though, and were tremendously helpful when I was not feeling it.

And of course all the people back here that were following, and sent supportive messages before/after the race. That doesn't mean that all of them were smart, like asking if I was "happy with the result" (ha, sorry OJ), but I guess we all struggle to find the right thing to say to someone when they've had a shitty day.

The Race

Quick 2010 recap: I swam 1:02:21, rode 5:32, ran 3:57 = 10:40. Again, cool at the time, first one, trained for a few months after the two knee surgeries, neat. I have been riding well this year and felt like 5-5:10 was going to be a good target, and 3:20-3:30 a good target for the run. Cutting 40 minutes off my time would get me under 10, that would have been cool. 9:45 should have been a realistic target. Here's what actually happened:

Swim: 1:01:27. During the swim, I was pretty proud of myself. When we got to the start, the crowd to get into the water was insane, and I was worried that at the pace the group was moving, we wouldn't get in the water by the time the cannon went off. We ran through the bikes and came in from the side. I don't think most of the people realize that you have to swim about 100m to the actual start "line". The water, which had felt so cold the day before, was not as bad. It really must have to do with the air temp, because that has been the case each year I've done this swim: freezing on Saturday, not bad on Sunday. Water temp was 61, by the way. I get in the water, pee in the wetsuit, get to the start, and within two minutes, the cannon goes off.

In the last two years I've had some trouble with spiking HR, fogged goggles, and it's cost me some time. This year I was much more calm, and my goggs were not a prob, although I did get pushed out to the right a bit and scraped my hand along the bottom of one of the boat ramps in the first quarter mile. The start was very aggressive, I was getting pretty annoyed. I swam a little out to the right so I avoided it, but I also didn't have any feet to draft off of, so I was doing the work on my own. I felt comfortable, and had a good rhythm going. But geez if it doesn't feel like the longest swim ever. Finally got to the turnaround and headed back in, and it seemed quite choppy. I guess it was some surface chop from the wind, but everytime I breathed to my right I was getting a mouthful of that disgusting water.

There were two or three instances where I would swim up on someone and then it was like they tried to match my pace, but were swimming RIGHT next to me and hitting me - for absolutely no reason. Like, move over man. I think it may have been the same guy in two of the instances, separated by about 15 or 20 minutes of the swim, which would be real weird. But wouldn't surprise me. I noticed fewer and fewer caps on the way in, and felt good about where I was coming out. Then I looked at my watch and my first thought was "really??" I'll take the improvement from last year, but all things considered, with no stops to clear goggles, it's probably a push. Still, it had me out of the water in 186th (as opposed to 226th last year maybe?) and 20th in the age group.

T1 - 3:45. This is an improvement from last year, but only by about 40 seconds. I guess over such a short time, that's pretty decent. I certainly don't think I could have ran any faster - I was blazing through to get my bag. Despite them yelling my number, the volunteer was just standing there in my row, so I found my bag myself. Cool, thanks. Ran over to the tent, where again nobody helped. So I got my jersey on, put on the helmet, glasses, and shoes, and was on my way.

Suggestion for IM: acquire bike racks that are taller. All of the dudes on my rack have large bikes. The racks are small. They wound up racking my bike handlebars first, and it was basically locked in between other bikes. Took a second or two to get it free, and then was out onto the bike.

Bike: 5:19:25. And this is where my day started going wrong. There weren't many people around, I passed a few people, started taking my calories. Which, for those counting at home, consisted of: 600 calorie bottle of CarboPro in the aerobars, and an 800 calorie concoction of EFS liquid shot Vanilla (600cal worth) + 2 scoops of EFS Orange (200cal) and water. That was 1400. I figured with a 5 hour ride I would have 2000 or so calories available to me, so I brought 3 Honey Stinger Waffles as comfort food (160cal each, so 1980 total). Note: these calories, except for the Waffles, are vile to me. I seriously think I'm struggling with the sugars. At the first water stop, a few miles in, I took a water bottle and threw it in the middle pocket of my jersey. Boom. Felt good about the setup.

As we headed up toward the mountains on the Beeline Hwy, we had a bit of a headwind. Seeing the pros flying down the road on their first return confirmed, so as soon as we hit the turnaround, PACHEWW (as Alyssa might say). Flying. With no computer, I have no idea how fast we were going, but it was fast. There were a couple of bigger guys around me at this point, and it was getting very frustrating. On the way out, they had sat behind me, in what I'm sure was a not-quite-legal distance. At some points they would try to pass, but they would slow down so much going up the hills, that I would pass them back. On the downhill, the one guy just flew by. Towards the end of the first lap I ate one of the Waffles, and decided it was not a great snack for the day. Just a little too dry for me. It also didn't help that my little sickness that I picked up was making swallowing a challenge.

First lap was 1:38. Think that averages out to be 22.8 or something miles per hour, and I thought about it putting me around 4:55 pace. Perfect. If the winds stayed that way, I could count on a headwind out and then a nice tailwind back, and I felt like I would slow down a little bit from that, so come in around 5. Excellent.

But then something happened. There was simply no more power in the engine room. I didn't feel bad, I just could no longer generate power. The headwind started to shift to a crosswind, and by the time we turned around on the second loop, it was a headwind. Not cool. That lap was predictably slower, around 1:44 or 1:45 or something. Alright, not too bad, if I can just keep that pace, I'll still finish up okay, it'll be just under 5:10. Not a great day, but fine.

Z and Claire were hanging out on Rio Salado, but out from the crowds, and I just shook my head as I went by. It was not my day. I turned around, completely unexcited to have another loop to do, and tried to brace for another 37ish miles. The winds were really picking up now, and it's the worst feeling when you are riding like shit and you are out of the saddle pedaling downhill and going nowhere. I was hydrated (I had peed 5 times on the bike, a serious amount of urine was in my left shoe) and wasn't cramping up like I had at Louisville, but I just couldn't ride any faster.

Dejected, I crawled into T2 after a 1:56 third loop. Sure, I had ridden 13 minutes faster than I did last year at AZ, but it was still 5 minutes slower than what I thought was my worst possible day at Louisville. Fuck. I am not looking forward to this marathon.

T2 - 3:36. Again, a little bit faster than last year, I went to the bathroom real quick and did a full costume change into running shorts and a singlet. Again, a botched bag handoff. They didn't hear my number right, so I had to get it myself.

Run: 4:23:doesitevenmatter. You know you're in for a long day when...your first mile is 7:26. Last year I ran 6:45s for the first three. That was too quick, I learned that, but on Sunday, that 7:26 was my fastest mile, and it was as fast as I could move my legs. I kept thinking I would start feeling better, and that this was a good thing, that I wasn't going out fast. I had left transition so I thought if I can just run 8s, I'll get under 10 hours. Even if I just run 9s, I'll go faster than I did last year. But I couldn't even do that.

I'm running over 8 minute pace in the first few miles, can't eat anything, can't move my legs. What can you even do at that point? I got real excited just before mile 3 when the Ford Motivation Station was playing LMFAO "I'm Sexy and I Know it" - I wished I had been racing in the neon green speedo at that point. I saw everyone on the bridge and just said I was going to be out there for a while. I kept moving forward, and then I decided I would try to go to the bathroom just prior to the Curry Rd hill. It seemed to help my stomach, but not my legs. I still was "running", but I wasn't going fast.

I even tried to mix it up, where I'd see if I could run fast, but I was just moving in slow motion. I was more than bummed, but I wasn't in a bad place like I was at Louisville. I literally just could not go any faster. My day got really sad as Alyssa FLEW by me, after we crested the Curry Rd hill for the third time. I wished I could have just run it in with her, but I had nothing in me, and obviously she was on good legs and just had to go.

It's a really hard thing to see people run by you all day. I mean, EVERYONE was going by me. Old people, chubby girls, didn't matter. Someone posted a picture of me on FB and I commented that I am the fastest-looking 6 hour marathoner in the world.

I finally made it to the finish, it was dark. Alyssa had been done for a few minutes, and was in the med tent. That's where champions go. People like me stroll across the line (actually, I did the Snake Hill Bandit move) in 10:51:45. We take our mylar blanket, don't allow the volunteer to put the medal over our head, instead opting to take it in our hands and walk off. Grab our shirt and hat, and then go into the tent where the food is. We eat a couple slices of pizza, drink some chocolate milk, and sit down and wonder what the fuck just happened.

Most people show improvement when they do these things. Most people get faster when they work harder. Apparently, I operate differently, because I've managed to disimprove by 11 minutes over the course of the year. The two biggest races I've had this year have been the two biggest failures. At least I can do that right. Go big or go home, no?

The Infinite Sadness

I started to cringe when I thought about how much time, money, and energy I've wasted this year to have these performances. If I want to be an 11 hour ironman, I may as well not even train. If you were to ask me if it was worth it, all the sacrifices, the time, the weekends, losing the summer, being so absent that people forget you even exist, I would say: Absolutely not. I wonder, why do I keep doing it? I haven't been enjoying it, and I'm not good at it. Normally, even after a bad performance, you still can feel like you came away with something. I came away with a $2000 weekend in Tempe, Arizona.

I also don't understand why my body hates me so much that I get sick upon arriving in these Ironman towns. I didn't feel as bad as I did at Louisville, but my legs didn't get the memo. Even there I managed a 5:14 bike split even after my dehydrated body started seizing up. And, I ran low 7s for the first few miles. Something was obviously not right on Sunday, and I'll probably never know what it was.

With so many question marks, I'll never pinpoint the one thing, shoot, it's actually probably a lot more than one thing, that I'm doing wrong. I really thought I had it down this time, but once again, someone somewhere is laughing an evil laugh at my demise.

I wish I could just be happy with finishing these things, and I do realize that finishing isn't always a given: Jordan Rapp DNFd early, and a few other pros dropped. But Eneko Llanos one-upped Ronnie Schildknecht's IMFL time from a few weeks ago, setting the fastest NA IM time ever. 3 women broke 9 hours. Tim O'Donnell ran a 3:45 marathon. People suffer in these things. What I wouldn't give to suffer and go fast.

What's worse, I don't even feel like I was out there Sunday. We got back today. My feet feel fine, my legs feel fine. I still feel sick, but my body generally doesn't have the effects that accompany doing a big race. That's probably because I walk my marathons. Last year I was in pain for a week. I happily avoided signing up for next year's race. I'm all for streaks, and I would even still contemplate going out there, but I can't do it again. I need a break from the course, I need a break from ironmans. Maybe even a break from triathlons for a while. Maybe even all racing.

What I felt the worst about was being the rain on Alyssa's parade. She had the best day of her life and probably all she wanted to do was celebrate, and I was just a Gloomy Gus. The situation was magnified by just how great her day was and just how terrible mine was. Had I had just a normal bad day, I don't think it would have been so bad, but mine was a colossal, epic, mountainous failure.

The Morning After

Ironman people love lines. I think it's a very white thing. There was a HUGE line to buy official Ironman shit. There was an even HUGER line for registration. Seriously, huge. I bet there were only 100 slots left to hit Active later in the day, because the race sold out in ten minutes online for 2012.

We went to Awards, obviously, as Alyssa picked up 2nd place and her Kona slot. Awards was alright, I liked Louisville's setup, and food, better. I was pretty amazed to see the results of my age group, 30-34 once again proving it's quite challenging. I thought on a best day scenario I could go 9:30. Last year, I think 6th was 9:35 and I think there were 6 slots to Kona. This year's top 5:

9:00, 9:02, 9:02, 9:06, 9:15.

Holy shit. Only 5 slots, our age group was relatively small this year (there were 9 in either 40-44 or 45-49, those groups were huge).

This year there were 65 slots to Kona. Next year, just 50. Yep. Since they keep adding races, but the number of people they're logistically able to allow into Kona remains the same, they are going to just cut slots from the races. That sucks. Looks like my next best shot is in about 10 years, maybe. It's going to be the trend for races from now on.

So I've got some things to ponder and contemplate, and figure out what I want to do down the road.

Just as I was feeling sorry for myself after the race, we went back to the finish line just after 11pm. This is my favorite part of the day, and even though we were quite tired, we were committed to being there until the last person crossed. With 12 minutes left, they announced that the last finisher was abuot a half mile out, so we thought we'd only be seeing one or two more people - but then this wave of folks came through. It was incredible. One particularly banged up old guy was literally being carried by two other competitors. I've never seen anything like it.

Now it's 16:58 and more people are coming...we couldn't believe it. And then more! 16:59. One minute to go. One person is coming in and it looks for sure like they are the last one. But then, around the corner, a person is coming, but they are struggling. Mike Reilly sprints over, and while I'm sure it's not really kosher, it's 16:59:40 and you know what, this lady is doing it, so he grabs her, and starts to briskly escort her towards the finish. She crosses at 16:59:59 - I shit you not. I started to well up, I thought for sure I was going to start bawling. That's what it's all about. The will to do it. I will always take for granted my ability to do things, but it was just a year and a half ago that I was lying on the road outside Shadow Lake Village all sorts of fucked up, and thought there was no way I'd be able to do it again.

We arrived back in Baltimore today to a deluge. Fitting. Hard to believe it's Thanksgiving week. My sense of time is a little skewed from just a few days out in Mountain Time. I'll post later about the rest of the trip, and our time in Tempe - it was actually a nice little visit. Just wasn't a good race.

I've got the beat, I just need the words.

The Sun Also Rises

2011-11-19T09:26:00.000-05:00

Well, after a night's sleep, I can say that I feel a little better. I feel less achy, and my throat is less sore. I was able to breathe through one nostril a little better, although as I've been up for about a half hour now, it's start to close back up. I'm going to give the practice swim a go in a couple of hours, get in a short run, and then chill out hard the rest of the day.

The other day I was clicking around and came across a few articles of interest.

Man Sails Around World to Decrease Awareness It's an Onion article, I just found it funny because it's what we joke about all the time.

Then of course, since it's still on my mind, Save MD Men's Track! There has been an outpouring of support from across the country, from teams to professionals, everybody's signing the petition to help save Maryland Athletics. Did you know that the track team is actually self-sustaining? In other words, it doesn't lose money, unlike some other sports we know...

Here is a good article from the Washington Examiner (ha, yeah) about the legacy of Maryland Men's Track and Field.

And, in case you wanted to read the president's report on the issue at hand...

But, onto more important things, specifically now, the race at hand. I like reading race reports, and particularly appreciate when they are honest, or I find them applicable. Pete Jacobs, recently 2nd place at Kona, provided some great insight into how he races. As we all know by now, I am not very technological. Don't know much about bikes, don't use HRM, don't use power, haven't even had a computer on either of my bikes in at least 3 years. I simply wear a watch to have an idea of where I am timewise, to help remind myself to eat or drink, and maybe get an idea of how fast I'm going. But in the end, you can only go as fast as you can go.

There is always a point, especially during an ironman, but potentially in any distance race, where you think all is lost and you may as well quit. I imagine that for pros, this is an even tougher reality, because this is their livelihood. If they don't place, they don't win money. If they drop out, maybe they can save it for another day. If you look at tomorrow's pro field here at Ironman Arizona, it's one of the top fields of any IM race this year, and the pattern is the same: "I didn't have a great race at Kona, so I decided to salvage my season/capitalize on fitness/earn some points by racing AZ." And why not? The 6 weeks or so in between the two is enough for a professional to break it down and build it back up, and what else are they going to race, right?

Anyway, Pete Jacobs once again ran the fastest split of the day on the Big Island, and I was surprised to read that he doesn't wear a watch. I would like to get to that point, but for now I think I need to at least wear a watch on the bike and run, so that I can put a time with an effort.

My final article is from Jorge Torres, former CU Buff and pro runner, who, along with his twin brother used to rip it up. Jorge was hit by a car while in Ireland for a race, and got pretty mangled - not bad enough to cause him life-threatening injuries, but bad enough to keep him out of the 2012 Olympic Trials (marathon). He vows to come back. Sounds familiar! I wish him the best on his journey, and I'll draw some inspiration from it myself.

Might check back in later, but if not, I'll try to get some words up following the race!

Traveling Somewhere

2011-11-18T16:39:00.000-05:00

Could be anywhere....(but it's not, it's Phoenix)

Well, there was a little coldness in the air yesterday as we flew out of Baltimore, but upon our arrival in Tempe, even as the sun was setting, we were greeted by nice, warm, dry air. And of course, I started to feel sick. I honestly don't know what my problem is, but it's like Louisville all over again. It's something about airplane air or hotel rooms or something that makes my body revolt. Midway through the 5 hour flight I started feeling the sinuses blocking up. I got off the plane and after we made it to the hotel, went for a 4ish mile run around the Lake. It was pretty awesome, it's so well lit, it made me wish for a second that I could be out there running when it was dark on Sunday, but then I realized that would mean I'd have to be out there a really long time, and decided I would rather just finish.

I felt kind of achy, achey, however you would spell that word, but not too bad. Made it through the run and as our hotel is super duper close to the action, walked through the parking lot to Z'Tejas and chomped up a delicious meal. We also noticed a higher volume of students than in previous years, and for good reason: tomorrow the ASU Sun Devils take on the Wildcats of Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium. Normally we've seen the number of students be pretty low, as we suspect they take off early for Thanksgiving. After all, they DO got to Arizona State...

Anyway there was apparently some sort of joint UA-ASU bar crawl, which meant a lot of kids going out and getting to have fun. Of course, we were asleep before 9 (11pm out time). When Zero arrived after 10, I didn't even hear it. I did not sleep well, the Claritin I took really dried me up. My throat hurt, my nose was stuffy, I had a headache. Not good. I'm just hoping that I have enough time to kick it before Sunday morning, because I'd rather not have to take any more medicine tomorrow.

Today we walked through campus and hit up an IHOP. It was funny to see all the kids on campus, how small they were, texting while skateboarding. We almost sat in on a class, but then decided to check in and hit the expo instead. That was done pretty quick, and then we picked up some things. I lost my watch a week or two ago, so I picked up a watch at the Timex booth, and Zero got some sweet new K-SWISS kicks (two paiirrrr). Then it was time for lunch: CHRONIC TACO. This is seriously the highlight of the entire trip, and probably 90% of the reason Zero came out to watch. My parents had just arrived so they joined (thanks dad for lunch!) and now I'm sitting here debating whether I should try to ride or not. Originally my intention was to do one of the loops, but at 37 miles and close to 2 hours on the bike altogether, I don't think my body is up for it right now. I'll probably just do an hour.

Tonight I'll eat a little less for dinner I think, and maybe not gravitate towards Mexican again, and hopefully by tomorrow can feel a bit better. The plan will be to get in the water briefly for the practice swim and then a short run, and then off the feet for the rest of the day. It's ashame you have to be so boring when you go visit these places sometime!

Save Maryland Athletics!

2011-11-16T00:08:00.000-05:00

I had something else in mind for today's post, but since this news popped up today, it's really been all I've been able to focus on. Yesterday the announcement was made that 8 sports teams were expected to be cut from Maryland's athletic department, including men's cross country, and men's track and field (indoor/outdoor). Being an alum of the program, it's beyond sad for me to see this happen. Here's the Reader's Digest version of the story:

1. Maryland's athletic department is required to be self-sustaining, meaning that, unlike many other schools, the only money it has to operate with must be generated by itself.

2. Due to poor budgeting, and some poor financial moves, the athletic department currently faces a $57 million deficit, and expects it to grow significantly unless drastic measures are taken.

3. Maryland currently has 27 sports teams. Football and basketball, like at any school, are generally expected to be the bread-winners, and also generally support the other teams. However, football also loses money on an annual basis, and women's basketball bleeds it.

4. Over the past decade, Maryland has won National Championships in men's basketball, women's basketball, women's lacrosse (many times), women's field hockey (a couple of times), men's soccer (a couple of times), and has sent numerous individuals to national championships.

5. A board was commissioned with the task of making recommendations on how to stop the bleeding, so to speak. They came up with their decision, which was primarily focused at first on cutting some teams. The 8 teams they have recommended cutting are of course men's xc, men's track and field, men's tennis, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, women's water polo, and women's acrobatics and tumbling (had never heard of that one).

So basically, 160 or so athletes are impacted by this decision, which, although it's not final (yet), it looks like it's a done deal. These teams would be eliminated as of July 2012. At least, for any of those teams that happen to give scholarships, the school will honor those through graduation, and will honor the coaching staff's contracts through their terms.

I can't say it's a surprise, I always figured Title IX would get the track team at some point, but to go down like this is terrible. A lot of the blame can be placed on an administration who is no longer there: an athletic director from the era of overspending who thought that building suites and adding seats to a football stadium that already struggled to sell out was a good idea. Who then thought it would be a good idea to hire a football coach for a lot of money, who produced great results at first but then fizzled out. And then, after that AD rolled out for a "better" position, the new administration decided they were not satisfied with said football coach, and decided it was easier to buy his contract out and hire a new coach. So currently, Maryland pays two coaches, only one of whom actually coaches (if you can even call it that, I'm pretty sure I could instruct players on how to lose 8 or 9 games a season).

For now, it's not about which sport deserves to stay over another, or who is to blame, but rather about how a school needs to fix itself before it doesn't carry enough teams to be considered a Division I program. The ones who are losing here are each one of the athletes, most of whom are not on scholarship, and are just out there because they have a desire to compete and represent their school. It's a matter of pride. Your first ACC Championship event is just something special, even if you finish 2nd to last in the race and your team is DFL (me, XC 1999).

The stark reality is that a school which has the ACC record for most championship titles in track and field, both indoor and outdoor, is about to disappear. A school with a storied tradition of great athletes, fading into obscurity. Olympians, World Record holders, heck, even the 2012 US Olympic team head coach (current MD track coach, Andrew Valmon) have passed through College Park. And it's all about to go away.

And yes, I realize that this is not a new situation, and that Maryland is not the first who has had to make some cuts. Delaware, Towson, James Madison, to name a few, have all had their track teams stripped in recent years amid public outcries. But with due respect to each of these schools, Maryland is a school in the ACC - a BCS school and full eligible member of Division I sports.

In the years since I've been involved with Maryland Athletics, it's not often that we've fielded truly competitive teams. Every so often someone will make it to NCAAs in cross country or track and field, but for the most part, we're all "going professional in something else." For me, I knew my capabilities were never going to put me at the top of the conference, or even at the top of the team. I was just proud to be able to have that chance to compete. Had the team been any more competitive, I probably wouldn't have been able to run. As it was, I ran for two years and then went off to become a triathlete, a weird sport at the time for a college kid to get into. But not once have I forgotten my time on the team. My days there provided me with some of my fondest college memories, and some of my best friends. As I approach ten years since I graduated (well, it's still a little ways off, 2013), I still have "Go Terps!" in my email autosignature, and have to explain it at least once a month.

Maryland Cross Country and Track and Field provided me the platform to reach for higher goals. I still compete, and at a high level. It's in my blood now. When you're around winners, whether they were on soccer, basketball, lacrosse, whatever, it's contagious. You want to be a part of it. If you were an athlete at Maryland in the early part of the decade, it was a feeling that is hard to describe in words.

It also comes as no surprise that student-athletes are also among the highest academic achievers, track and cross country in particular. Every year they are in contention for, and often do, record the highest average GPA as a team. Strive for excellence, every day, in all things, right? I, for one, earned All-ACC Academic honors my freshman year. And while classes were definitely not that hard that year, I would wager some of that had to do with our required study hours each week. They provide you the tools to be successful, that's for sure. I know that swimming and diving, and I would also have to wager that tennis, also produce high GPA averages. With a basketball graduation rate at 0% (yes, 0%), how are you going to tell the students keeping the legitimacy in the "student"-athlete to take a hike? If I were in charge, I would want those kids around.

I know that words are only words, and that, in this case, what the athletics department needs is money. Unfortunately, I'm not going to make an impact there. From what I understand, men's track/xc needs about $200,000 to operate annually. What is it going to cost to allow these kids to still compete, at the minimum? All they need are some uniforms and entry fees to events. I hope whatever happens to these teams, they all still keep training and competing, because it's a part of who they are. I'd even volunteer to help organize them into a cohesive club if they needed it. Go out and be the baddest club around.

But, all we can do is keep spreading the word, and hope that someone out there is listening. Taking these teams away hurts the kids, hurts the coaches, and hurts the school. It alienates them from feeling like valued members of the alumni community. It discourages them from striving to be their best. It tells them that we are doomed, that everything we hear about the economy, and big business, is true. More than anything, it leaves us all feeling not as proud to be a Terp.

Good luck, Maryland Athletics, I hope to see you on the other side.

#saveumdxcandtrack

We've Only Just Begun

2011-11-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

It's only the beginning of race week and already I'm trying to wrap my head around the things I have to do before leaving on Thursday. And with my brain not functioning, I'm having to write things down and leave myself little voice recorded notes.

I didn't really take much of a look at the big picture, but despite me feeling like my volume had been low since September, my last couple of weeks have been quite consistent, and also big enough to explain why I've felt so tired: (end of September to now) 21, 17.25, 12 (week after the half iron), 20.75, 21.75, 20.5. So last week I made sure to bring it down.

Following the Marathon weekend, I ran an up-tempo 6 on Monday, and then decided to get in my last long run on Tuesday. I targeted it because it was going to be far enough out that I could recover, but also because the weather looked like it was going to be great - and it was. Temperature was over 70 degrees on the day, which was a little closer to what the temp will be this weekend, but, after a few weeks of cooler temps, it was a bit of a shock. I set out for my Gwynns Falls Trail 17 miler, which is a nice run that goes gradually uphill, then more uphill, then some rolling, then into the hills of Druid Hill Park (very hard) before shooting downhill for 4 miles to the end. I've done this run a handful of times this year, most recently with Brennan and Joel, when I felt awesome and we ran just a few ticks under 2 hours. On this day, I didn't feel as good, I was a little worried that I had "wasted" my good feeling on the previous night's run. I started off and knew I was running pretty quick, but I could also tell hydration was going to be a factor later in the run. Specifically, lack of hydration as there is nowhere to get water along the way, and I didn't carry any. I brought two ClifShot gels at least.

I made it out of the GFT a little quicker than last time, and then up to Dru Hill with about the same advantage. Last time, Brennan and I blazed the hills in the park. This time, I didn't have it in me. I was starting to really feel the tightening of muscles, and my HR seemed high. With the 4 miles downhill remaining, my hips and knee were none too pleased. I ended up finishing about a minute slower than last time, which means I lost something like 2.5 minutes over the last 50. Yikes!

I bounced back, and made sure to keep efforts relaxed over the next few days. I got back in the pool on Wednesday night and had a good swim, which involved 4x800 as the main set, alternating swim, pull. I kept each interval the same as the previous one, and left the pool 4200m richer. Thursday was another chill day, with just an easy 6 with Ed. I had misplaced my watch, I'm pretty sure I dropped it at the gym, so that's gone, which sucks. Mostly because I need to go buy another one now, but also because I had grown to like it. Our run was uneventful until, back on Fleet, in Fells Point, I hit a parking meter with my right hand. It hurt bad. My brain was just not working, there was no reason I should have hit that meter. Or lost my watch.

My hand continued to hurt, swelling up and turning black and blue pretty fast. On Friday, I hit the pool for what I was hoping to be a good 2x1900m workout, and in the short warmup I could feel my hand. My middle finger was numb, and my hand did not feel good. It didn't impede my workout, fortunately, but the broken clock and no watch annoyed me. So I just went on feel, and whatever, in the end that's all that counts anyway (more on this in a minute).

I had to drive up to NJ on Friday night again, which I wasn't super psyched to have to do after just having gone up to NY last weekend, but my sister was participating in one of those Tough Mudder ~~races~~ events, on Sunday. I headed over to Holmdel Park again on Saturday to watch some of the NJ Group Meet, which was pretty entertaining. Those kids are just so fast these days. NJ has a rich xc history, and this meet showcases that. Following the meet, it was pretty warm, but very windy, and I still had to get out on the bike. I wanted to get in at least 3 hours and it was already 2pm, which meant I was going to be pushing the limits of daylight. I had once again brought home the TT bike, which further proves my theory that the weather knows when I'm planning on riding it, and decides to make it very windy. But I felt good, much better than last week, and had a decent ride down to, and around, Manasquan Reservoir.

Got back and it was dark, and looked at the clock inside - 4:59! How was it so dark? Sucks.

Sunday morning was the Tough Mudder race, and I'll leave my opinion about this, and events like it, for another time, but suffice to say I was on my feet for quite a while. It was after 2 that I got home, and still had to drive back to MD so I could get in the pool. Pool closes at 6:30, I got back at 5:45. I was originally hoping to do a longer straight swim, but with the time constraints, settled for 2000m. I felt good again, and now I feel like I'm set up for a good swim.

After the swim, it was warm and I headed out for a 6 mile run and boom, the day was done. 10.5 hours on the week, my legs feel like they've returned, and I head into race week a little fresher. It was 35 miles of running, just the one day of 50 miles on the bike, and 10.5km in the pool.

Today it's insanely warm and I am going to resist the urge to do anything and take the day completely off. It's been a while since I took a day off, and I feel like I'd rather do it early in the week than later. We fly out Thursday, so I'll swim Thursday morning and run a few when we get there. Friday will be a lap of the bike course. Saturday hop in the water briefly for the practice swim, then another short run. Which leaves me Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll swim and run a little tomorrow, and ride some Wednesday. Weather looks like rain and dropping temps over the next few days.

I'll also have to get myself a new watch. We have all our nutrition things, thanks to Brian Shea at Personal Best Nutrition. Other than that, most of the other packing I do is on auto. Brain will start to kick in and just put things in a bag. I try to bring as little as I can. You're going to Tempe, not Africa, and it's the Ironman - they have everything there.

In the slightly annoying news department, my chilblains are back. Those are the terrible little blisters I get on my hands and feet when the temperatures start to drop. They are back with a vengeance this year, showing up earlier, despite the relatively mild temperatures, and they are hurting more than ever before. Fortunately nothing that gets in the way, it's just annoying to have to write, open anything up, etc. More posting this week!

A Vision in Neon Yellow

2011-11-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, hundreds of people were running through Central Park, seemingly unaware of the tens of thousands who would be running there later. While the scores of Baltimore supporters were scattered about the five boroughs, Alyssa and I ran around the Park. I had a vision, premonition, whatever, that Ryan Hall was going to pop up around a corner at any second. Nearly an hour into the run, it hadn't happened, and I began to lose hope, as we headed back to where we started.

Just then, a tall runner, a flash in neon yellow, with blonde hair, appeared, running so fast and light it was like he was running on clouds. It was Ryan Hall. I pointed my finger in the air to acknowledge him, or maybe, subconsciously to let him know that "we got him," and he silently did the same. It was the coolest thing ever. Not because it was Ryan Hall, but because I believed it would happen, and then it did.

I also realized that it's one of the reasons that the New York City Marathon is the best race on the planet (I'm sure any triathlete readers of this will disagree). It matters to EVERYONE. Everyone is there. There are two races that most Americans know: Boston, and New York. Most runners will be more impressed if you ran Boston, because they realize that means you qualified for it, but a lot of people don't get that. The race has been around for what, 115 years? New York's been around for 40. Boston's limit is 25ish thousand. Does New York even have one? (There are talks of expanding NYC to a two day event, with a race on Saturday and another on Sunday, to allow for up to 100,000 competitors. This I actually don't agree with). Boston is significant to Americans. New York is an international race in an international city.

Enough about the merits, I just love the NYC Marathon. And it's only my opinion.

Anyway it was a terrific day for a number of my little teammates, and a tough day for others. No matter what happened, it was great to be able to see them in a few spots, and support them on their 26.2 mile journey through the boroughs. And by boroughs, I mostly mean Manhattan because I wasn't going to try to get to any other spots. We got to mile 17-ish right as the men's lead pack was going by - they were flying. Waited there for all of our friends, then ran back up to the Park and saw with a mile and a half to go.

For me, it was another exhausting weekend. Last week I took a look at the weather and it was determined that Thursday was going to be the best day of the week, so I took advantage of the kinder weather and got out for a longer ride. I set out to do my Lineboro ride (115) but I was just not feeling it, and the light situation was not going to allow it. But I made it up to Lineboro and thanks to last minute map adjustments from Alyssa (phone), I was able to re-route and cut off a bunch of miles. At least an hour's worth. I was disappointed it didn't end up being longer, but at 96 miles it would have to do. I got back into city limits and it was pretty dark, and still had to run. Fortunately, Ed and Pat were going to run just then, so the timing was perfect. 6 miles off the bike, day done.

Friday wasn't as nice, and on my 9 mile run I was not feeling tremendously comfortable running 6:25/mi. We also had three straight days of tough swims, starting with Wednesday's 30x100. I have now done this workout a few times with Alyssa, and I made it on the intervals fine, but it wasn't as easy as I felt it should have been. Thursday was rough, Friday was a little better.

Friday evening we headed up to NJ, getting to my parents' around 10:30. An after-midnight bedtime meant I was tired waking up Saturday as we headed over to Holmdel Park - site of NJ Meet of Champs - to do a little cross country race. My best time there in high school was a paltry 18:20 or something. It's a hard course. I never raced there after that until a few years ago when I was coming off the 2003 injury. I ran 18:52 basically two years in a row, and at that point I was running under 17 on the road. Ha! Cross country racing is just so different, and in order to really do well, you need to race a whole season on the grass.

This year I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew my sister's old high school teammate, and my new nemesis, Erin Lunny, would be running, and I didn't feel like getting beat if I could avoid it. But, I have just felt so slow lately, and I also had a 4+ hour ride after the race. I went out pretty chill, running the first mile in an awful 6:32. Yikes. It goes uphill on grass for 400m before kicking up for another 100m, steeper, and on rocks. Then you roll for another 500m, and then still head slightly uphill to the mile mark. The 2nd mile is the "Bowl Mile", which features a quarter mile on flat dirt road, quarter mile downhill, then straight up for 200m, and rolls again to the 2 mile. That was 6:18. Back in the day I could have gone 6 minutes for the last 1.1, which is flat and then downhill, but I didn't have the turnover. And that darn E-Lun was like 10 seconds ahead of me the whole time. I finished up at 19:15, decent enough for what it was, and recovered almost instantly. Alyssa ran awesome - a 21:00 would be good enough to be on most girls' varsity teams, and was a minute 5k PR (granted she hasn't run many).

Then it was bike time. I have a 74 mile ride that goes out past Great Adventure, and into Allentown. The roads at home are much easier than they are here, but there is just so much traffic due to the high number of guidos that drive around in their obscenely huge cars and SUVs. That's NJ for you. I used to be able to crush this ride, on my road bike, so I figured riding my TT bike I should be alright. It was super cold and super windy, and I was not feeling it. I had to wear my jacket, I was that cold. I was uncomfortable in the aero bars so I literally rode maybe 5 miles total in the bars. What a waste of bringing that bike up! It already messes me up enough to ride that bike, since the position kills my knee. It took us a shade over 4 hours to do the ride.

Then it was time to drive to NYC. Got there just before 8, ate dinner, crashed out. I was just too tired. Fortunately, we got an extra hour, which felt great and I felt a lot better Sunday, but was still beat from Saturday. I decided I would run with Alyssa for 75-80 minutes of her 2 hour run. I had alotted 10-12 miles of running for myself, and knew that I would have to run some again to watch the race. Alyssa has been getting faster, but obviously our paces are not the same, so we tried to meet in the middle a little. It meant that she was going to have to run a bit faster than normal. We had a good 85 minutes of running, so at least 10.5 miles I'd guess, and then I ran probably another 2+ during the race. But watching those races is tiring, you're on your feet ALL day. And then you have to drive back to Baltimore. A very long day.

So today I am taking it easy, I'm inside of two weeks now and I just need to get to the line a little refreshed!

I'm Sexy and I Know It

2011-11-02T00:08:00.000-04:00

So as many of the 6 of you know, I love Halloween. I think it's a great holiday and I think, even though it's one of the bigger ones, it is still not getting the credit it deserves. Young and old, black and white, this holiday is for anyone and everyone. Even with a root in religion, you obviously can (or should be) able to celebrate no matter your creed or belief system. All you need is some imagination.

And, as it so happens every year, I wait until the last minute to make a costume, and then try and do something that nobody else is going to be. In the past I've been Kanye "White" (I held a sign that said "George Bush Hates White People"), the "Don't Taze Me, Bro" kid from Florida, Siegfried (of Siegfried and Roy, with Zero, and Brennan as our White Tiger), and Ace of Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo (with Zero). I try to figure things out on the fly, and spend as little as I can get away with. This year, I went to run at Fed Hill where we all "dressed up" as bandits. At least 6 or 7 of us were wearing race medals on the run, which was pretty funny after an episode from the weekend. After the run, it was after 8pm and I had to get a real costume. Ed and I traveled to the Eastpoint Mall, one of the shittiest malls on the planet, and hit up the stores to see what we could come up with for me.

My initial options were:

1. Chuck, from the TV show "Chuck"
2. Steve Carrell from The 40 Year Old Virgin
3. A character from LOST
4. Wilfred, the dog from the TV show "Wilfred"
5. Jennifer Garner's "Sidney Bristow" from Alias

I'm proud to say that I'm one of the 8 people that watches Chuck. I don't think anyone would have gotten the costume, and despite being the easiest on paper to do, I couldn't find the necessary stuff at this ghetto mall. Steve Carrell was going to require me to wax or shave my chest into a man-o'lantern, I just didn't want to do it. Nobody would have gotten the Lost character. Wilfred was my favorite summer show, but I didn't know how to make it.

So my options were now "Hanging Chad" from HIMYM, Ted's costume back in the 2005 episode "The Slutty Pumpkin", or Jennifer Garner.

I found a pink wig at Party City, 5 minutes before they closed, and went with Jennifer Garner. Of course, I haven't shaved in a while, and didn't have time, so I looked like this:

As you can see, not quite as feminine as Jennifer Garner, although probably not far off - she was, after all, pretty jacked in that show. The dress was actually from college, when I wore it for another costume, so this thing is 9 or 10 years old now. I bought it for $1.98 at Valu City in Greenbelt. I hiked up the skirt a bit when I got to Fells Point, and I was immediately accosted by women and men alike. I guess I was asking for it. A lot of pictures were taken with me. I told people I was Jennifer Garner's male stunt double, but I could also have been an undercover transvestite police officer/prostitute, which we actually have here in Baltimore up on The Stroll.

Fells Point is normally the jump-off for Halloween, even when the night falls oddly on a Monday, but this year was really, really quiet. Awkwardly so. I didn't mind, I didn't want to be out late as I had to be home before midnight to sign up for this:

Survival of the Shawangunks

I have wanted to do this race for many years now, and there was momentum when OJ and Benda said they would be in for next year's race. The race is an 8 leg triathlon, consisting of an initial 30 mile bike ride, followed by alternating run-swim-run-swim-run-swim-run. The total amount of running is 18.7 miles and swimming is 2.1, but the kicker is you have to swim across lakes WITH your running shoes. Doesn't matter how you do it, whether you swim with them on, carry them, or shove them in your shorts - you just have to get them across the water. I'm looking forward to this unique event. The date of the race coincides with 70.3 WCs, however, so if I were in a position to earn a spot to that, I'd have a decision to make (although since I'm not a fan of spending money to not do races, it would probably be a no-go on Las Vegas!).

The other thing about SOS is that they have a midnight registration, so we had to be at our computers right at midnight, as the race sells out in a matter of minutes. The field is capped at something small, like 300, and in order to compete you must have completed a half iron in the past 18 months. This year's race was shortened due to the damage from the Hurricane, so no telling if it will even be patched up by next year, but it'll be fun no matter what.

So that started framing out my 2012 season. Obviously, because I'm a bitch, I signed up for Columbia and Eagleman again. My tentative plan is to do Philly Tri at the end of June, and then call it a season. I raced too much this summer, so I don't want to do that again. Philly Tri just looked cool because everyone went so fast there, aided by a downstream swim and a perfect day.

Prior to Columbia, I have a couple of races on the radar but most will focus on running. I will not be going back to Rumpus, that's for sure. Then next fall it will be NYC Marathon. I'm excited to get to watch my friends race there this weekend, and I hope to make next year a much better experience for myself than when I did it in 2008.

Since October is now finished, I'll do my typical grading:

Swimming - A+. I have been really rolling since Louisville. I finished with 52,000m in the pool this month, with some really great workouts. I don't think I had gone above 39k any month this year, so it felt good to get back in for a decent amount. Like I said in my previous post, I feel pretty locked in for swimming well at Arizona. I have swam 1:02:20 basically the past two years, and that's been with a few pussy moments at the beginning that have undoubtedly slowed me down, not to mention my prior inability to breathe bi-laterally in open water. Now that I've changed that, I feel much better and more comfortable. I'd like to think I can actually go under an hour, but anything up to 1:02 will be acceptable.

Cycling - A. Coming along. 715 miles in October, the most of any month this year, but still far below what I was hoping to get in. I initially thought I'd be close to 350 for the last week, which would have put me in the 850 range, and if my first two weeks hadn't been light, I should have been over 900. Mileage isn't the end all-be all, but for me, I've found that if I'm keeping on top of volume, I'm riding well. I didn't have any one great ride that stands out, but I didn't have really any bad rides. I got in three 80+ milers but none above 90, and had a decent race at Waterman's. My goal for Louisville was to ride 5 hours, that was well within reason, and I was on pace for 60 miles before my day went a little south. Arizona is a friendlier course, although it is horribly boring, and I feel like even if I'm not in as good of shape, I should still ride about what I would have in August. So 5 hours is the goal, but again I'm more concerned with feeling good to go off the bike, so I'll accept up to a 5:10.

Running - A. With 190 miles, it's the most I've run since the month before I got hurt in 2009, and Sunday's 21 miler is the most I've run since Boston Marathon 2009 (I will not include either Ironman as I did not really run those). It was a great confidence boost, but also a reality check. Going out at 6:45 pace just can't be tolerated. My first three miles last year at AZ were 6:47, 6:47, 6:45. Just too fast. I backed off from there to 7min for the next two, but then it turned quickly. I'm a firm believer in getting that money in the bank, because nobody can honestly say they expect to negative split an Ironman marathon, so if I go out at 7:30 pace hoping to average 7:30 pace, I'm probably going to slow down no matter what. I think 7:15 pace = 3:10, 7:27 = 3:15, 7:38 = 3:20. I am not going to say I'm going into this race expecting a 3:10, or even 3:15, but there is absolutely no reason I can't run 3:20. At that pace, it's not like you even need to be fast - it's just about attrition and energy management. My 1:18 half marathon doesn't mean shit come IM day. Either you can run it, or you can't. Maybe if I go out a bit slower, like 7:10-7:20, I can actually hold that and run that for longer before slowing down. My biggest concern is always how the time trial bike leaves my knee feeling, which ultimately gets tight on the run and starts to really give me pain. Lately, with the weather getting colder, it's already showing me signs of not wanting to cooperate. But I deal.

October was a good month, but it was a trying one. The weather was definitely not as kind as it was October of last year, and I have felt a lot more nagging stuff than I have all year. My right piriformis/sciatic, in particular, is giving me discomfort. As long as I can get through the end of this week, I think I have some time to work those things out, and I'll be glad to rest up a little before race day.

On Our Own

2011-10-31T17:15:00.000-04:00

It's cold. It's raining. It's snowing. And that's when it hits you:

Why did I sign up for a late November race?

It always sounds like a good idea at the time, signing up for that late November race. You'll have plenty of time to train, and the weather is generally decent enough through October. But then a day like Saturday comes, and reminds you that this is closer to WINTER than it is to SUMMER.

With four weeks until Ironman Arizona, I thought last week would be a good time to put in some higher volume. My initial goal was to spend an honest amount of time on the bike, here's how that went:

Monday - I hit a squirrel. Yep, while riding through Hopkins' campus, a squirrel dashed out in front of me and did that squirrel scramble, and went right through my rear wheel or something. It was messed up. I stopped, turned around, and went to see if I could offer it help, but a car decided to not pay attention and partially ran it over. The squirrel flopped somehow to the side of the road, and somewhat scampered off. I'm sure it's dead now. I felt really bad.

Tuesday - It was a pretty nice day, so what better way to spend it than getting another flat on the side of White Marsh Blvd. Alyssa was with me, and had to endure an expletive-riddled tirade.

Wednesday - It rained. It wasn't supposed to, but it did. I went out anyway. 5.5 miles in, on Route 40, flat. Shit. I fixed it, and was pretty cold, and decided I no longer trust this bike, and I would head back home. A half mile later, it went flat again. The tire was definitely to blame, I should have obviously changed it before going out on the bike today, but I was stubborn and thought I could press it one more day. But after 4 flats in three days (including Sunday, the day it all went wrong in the first place) I caved on Thursday and got a new tire.

Thursday - I calculated my ride distances at 30, 34, and 11 for the past three days. Thursday was supposed to rain all day, and it did. I was clearly not going outside on this day. Late in the evening I made the decision to actually ride my trainer. It was pretty late, so I only did 30 minutes to spin out the legs, but I still got on.

Friday - This day had been set aside as a long ride as it was all-but-written that Saturday was going to be seriously shitty. Alyssa's workout was 4hr ride + 2hr run off the bike. I decided I would ride with for a little over 3 of those hours and then do another hour, and therefore make it about 80 miles for me. It was super windy, and quite chilly. I ran 8 miles off the bike just under 6:30 pace, and it was okay. I could feel the need for calories about halfway through the run, I think the cold was keeping me hungry.

Saturday - I couldn't do it. We were timing a 5k in the morning (in the SNOW) and being outside for 2.5 hours was too much for me. It took all the strenf I had to get into the pool for my 3000m straight swim, and then later in the evening put in a little 4 mile shakeout run ahead of Sunday.

Sunday - It was sunny, but really cold, as we headed to DC to run and support some friends at the Marine Corps Marathon. After putting in 21 miles, and not getting home until after 1pm, I didn't have it to go outside to ride, and instead opted for a very nice shakeout swim.

So the week was kind of a bust on the bike. What had the promise to be a big week on the bike, turned out to be less-than-normal. I was at least able to get in my third 5 hour ride in two weeks. But, I'm lacking confidence right now for my bike.

The week itself was pretty great though, a balanced 22 hours of training, with 57 miles of running (one of my biggest weeks of the year) and 16km in the pool, and just the 160 miles or so of riding.

I feel pretty locked into my swimming, which is a complete reversal from where I was at this point out from Louisville. I haven't really had any bad swims, and have been doing well to keep on top of my weekly long swims.

My running has been pretty solid as well. Tuesday I got onto the track and did a 2.5 mile (4000m) run at tempo effort. For as busted as my legs felt, I felt warmed up after 4 miles and started off at 6min pace. I was able to pick it up from there, splitting 5:50 at the 1600 and running a 5:49 second 1600. I went 86/83 for my last two laps, so it was a 14:29 effort, I was pleased to see that, despite very few workouts lately, I was able to run fairly close to the 5k pace I ran in September.

The big run workout of the week was Sunday's long run, at Marine Corps Marathon. MCM is one of my favorite events, I've been going to it since 1999 when I was just a wee lad in College Park. The course has changed a lot over the years, so this year I ran from Metro Center over to Georgetown, and ran until I hit 31 minutes (~4.5 miles). From there, I jumped in at mile 5 and ran with one of my little teammates, who boasted a 3:01 marathon PR. She was killing it, running super strong. Our mile splits were really even, and I picked up Team CYB teammate Andy Chicken Tender Sovonick. Andy offered to run with me on my long run, a super kind gesture of him, as he generally doesn't do super long runs and his season is mostly locked into training for some shorter races. CTR will also be a key training compadre for the 2012 season as he and I have a very similar schedule.

Anyway, we're running with Emily, and clicking miles in the 6:40-6:45 range, all the way down Haines Point, and back onto the Mall, and all the way to Mile 20. For me, that was 19.5 miles, all well under 7 minute pace, and that was enough. I did a mile and a half easy around the Mall before calling it a day. I peeled off at 20, but Andy, who had jumped in just before 9, kept running with Emily until mile 26! A great act of kindness, and it helped her out a lot.

The Fall is really tough from a training perspective. One by one, people finish their season and move into recovery mode. Each week, fewer and fewer training partners remain. Besides Alyssa, I haven't ridden with anyone else in weeks. On my runs, there are more days by myself, particularly Mondays, when it seems as if I have become too slow to run with! It got me thinking about the great Bobby Brown song from Ghostbusters II - "On Our Own." There are definitely times when I, like many, feel like I'm out there doing it on my own. Workouts become a chore. You want the season to be done. The race seems like it's forever away, which is a curse, because you think you still need to do more to get ready.

But then you realize that you're not out there on your own, you have a big support network of people who are willing to help you get through workouts, or even just to talk you into doing them. It would be nice if they could also then do the race for you. Psyche, obviously not.

My keys over the next few weeks are simple: do enough to get by, but nothing that won't positively affect you in three weeks. With my swimming on point, that means I will swim a little less now. With my running going well, it means maybe another long-ish run, maybe a couple of runs at a quicker clip, but mileage not to exceed 40 in any week. With the bike, I still feel like I have an opportunity to make some gains. I can typically ride myself into real shape just by riding a strong couple of days. I believe I can get that in this week/end, and then I've just got to get my legs back under me before November 20th.

My favorite google search that has brought ONE person to my blog:

"ryan mcgrath asshole"

These days I am surprised it was only ONE google search for that phrase.

She's Gone From Suck to Blow

2011-10-25T23:59:00.000-04:00

Following last Sunday's long ride plus short run off the bike in the land of dehydration, I felt terrible - allergies were kicking up, that weird thing with my ankle was really bothering me. I wasn't in a good spot for a minute, but fortunately, I stopped being a pussy and sucked it UP. Like my best friend Barney Stinson says, "Whenever I get sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead. True story."

I hadn't been in the pool since Friday, so Tuesday's swim was just to shake the cobwebs out before a much better swim on Wednesday. Thursday's weather was pretty shitty so once again the week was almost gone before I had ridden my bike. I ran Monday and Thursday for 9 miles each time, and my ankle wasn't great. It seemed to be okay in the pool, and actually feel a little better after swimming, so that was keeping me going. Then Friday came, and it was time to get in a big little weekend.

Friday morning: 6:15am, Gilman track. Alyssa's workout was 8x400 on 2:00 (you can tell a swimmer wrote that workout). I ran them with her, we were running +/- 1:30, so roughly :30 rest for each one. I was then going to ride straight from there, but I had forgotten arm warmers and it was only in the upper 40s, so I had asked her to loan me hers. I go to put them on and wouldn't you know it, they were her compression socks. Shoot. I just did not have an arm warmer-less ride in me, so I texted OJ, who was home, and stopped by his house to borrow his. LIFESAVER. Made it through about 3h45m of riding before getting home. Later that evening I hit the pool for a 3500m workout, of which 3000m was continuous. I like doing longer swims like this, it makes me feel like I'm doing a long run. Just over 50 minutes for the swim, which was really comfortable and I feel good about my swim right now.

Saturday morning: 6:50am, Canton Merritt pool. The pool opens at 7 now, which is sweet, but it's because the kids swim team gets in from 8-9:30 and then masters are in from 9:30-11:30/12. They literally take up the entire pool, which is why I generally don't swim on Saturdays. Anyway, Alyssa's workout for the day was a tough one: 4000m swim (27x100 main set) followed by 5 hour ride. I had felt awesome swimming on Friday night, but 12 hours later was not as excited to be in the water. I also struggle in the fall when it's not light out at that hour, and it's getting cold, because I enjoy neither of those things. Either way, get through the swim, and it's now time to get dolled up to ride, and Zero joins us for the first 90 minutes. It was windy, and not very warm. It took what felt like forever to get to the gas station out of Rocks, where we finally picked up a little bit of a tailwind for 13 miles, before getting blasted in the face again. It was just not a pretty sight. I felt tired and my legs were dead. After the ride it seemed to get nicer, of course, and I ate over a pound of ground beef that I turned into a meat sauce. How that would impact me on Sunday was TBD.

Sunday morning: I got the opportunity to run with my friend Pat Reaves, a Terp who is unfortunately pursuing higher higher education at Duke. He was in Baltimore for the weekend visiting friends, so we made plans to run Sunday morning for 10-12 miles. Since he had gone out, I was able to get a late start, which was nice, but I was still up before 7 anyway. We rolled from Riverside Park at 9:30, headed out onto Shady 7, and about 25 minutes in is where my bowels could not contain the 80% lean ground beef any longer. With no leaves to wipe with, it was a gross situation. I found a leaf that did enough of the trick and we were off again. It was beautiful out, clearly headed for nicest day in October rating, and we headed out to Fort McHenry. When we got there, it was bathroom time again. Fortunately this time I had toilet paper. Along the way we picked up Chrissie for a mile or so, and I finished up with about 12 miles. I took the nice day as a sign to get out on my bike, so around 2pm I made it out and it was...awesome. My thought was "so THIS is what no wind feels like." It was so still, it felt great. I was cruising along Route 40, to White Marsh, and there was little traffic as it often is on Sundays during NFL season. I made it out to Route 1 near Gunpowder and as I was heading up to Mt. Vista Rd, I hear psssfftttt. Shit. I check out my rear tire and there is a gash in it.

This is the 5th fucking tire I've shredded this year.

I burned up one on the trainer earlier this winter, then got another one that didn't last long, then got this one. On my TT bike, I blew through both the very expensive tires very quickly, which begged the question, how shitty were those tires? I used those ones two times before they shredded and died. Fuck you, tire manufacturers. Anyway, I didn't bring my phone, of course, so I use the empty packaging of my Clif Shot gel to line the casing of the tire, which should at least get me home. The hole was so big, it wasn't hard to find. The gel pack is jutting out of the tire, so I'm not confident it's going to last long. The change took just a few minutes, but it felt like it got a lot darker in that time, so I got going again. Legs felt good, which was a good sign, and I made it through a busy Loch Raven and out through Towson and home in just about 3 hours.

The unfortunate part about Sunday was having to run again. Alyssa's Sunday schedule is morning long run, easy shakeout swim, then 5 mile run in the evening. I've done this second run with her a few times. Once or twice it has served as my only run of the day, and once before it was also my 2nd run. Especially since getting hurt, my body doesn't not like running twice in the same day. But today I felt alright, and we started off and I noticed we were running significantly quicker than she's done the run in the past. After an altercation with a local white trash community member, we were headed into the home stretch with a new Sunday evening CR - I was impressed she had run as fast as we did!

My ass was pretty sore after that, I think the combo of 17 miles of running that day plus about 190 miles of riding in the three days just did me in. But, with just a month to go until Arizona, it's as good a time as any to get in days/weekend blocks like that.

Like many, I struggle this time of year to get the training in. It's partially the cumulative fatigue of the season and the year, and how that affects my motivation, and a lot of it is weather-related. I can find all sorts of excuses not to get out to ride (running I'm usually okay). Too windy, too cold, too cloudy, too wet, I just don't want to. I found that, in 2008, when I was training for NYC Marathon, that I just didn't have the drive in October and November like I did earlier in the season. And NYC is two weeks prior to Arizona! So last year, when preparing for Arizona, I found it even harder. I managed to get in some good work last year, however, largely because I was motivated by coming back and just trying to get to the start line.

Obviously I enjoy racing, and I don't often let my fitness slip away, but when I signed up for IM Louisville earlier this year, I wasn't sure how I'd respond after August to get ready for another one. There are some who can do multiple IM events in a year. I don't think I'm there yet. Two is probably my limit. I believe in time off, mentally and physically, and allowing yourself to build towards one event and have that be your premier event.

As my previous posts would indicate, I was able to find my legs pretty quickly after Louisville and so while I have been going through waves of feeling good and not-so-good about Arizona, in general I feel ready to go. I knew that I wouldn't need to do as much to prepare for this one, relatively, because I would have a solid base of fitness from training for Louisville. When I say I "tricked" myself, I mean that I approached Louisville more as an ironman that I was going to do off of my summer fitness, and still had Arizona as the bigger goal. Note: while not originally intended, this also helped ease the frustration of having a bad day at Louisville.

I also knew one of the tough things was going to be doing too much. When the summer temperatures and humidity blow out, and the weather is a lot nicer, it's easier to want to pile it on. Fortunately, in the fall, the daylight limits you a little bit and it's easier to keep things in check. But I didn't want to get too ambitious and try and put in super huge days or weeks through September and October because I knew I wouldn't hold up. I felt like I could handle a small block around this time, up to about two weeks out from the race, and then shut it down. So that's what I'm doing.

As of right now, I'm feeling good about my swimming - much better than I felt going into Louisville. I'm starting to feel a little bit better about the bike again, after not feeling so confident for a while. Running has been going well and it's been nice to notch a PR this fall (half marathon) and have some other good runs. I still feel like I need one or two more long runs, but I've got time for that.

I'll probably post again at the end of the week with this week's outcome, which, two days in, has already been going well. But, as the title of this post indicates, not everything was all rainbows and lollipops - so the next post will talk about my frustrations so far this week!

Isn't it Ironic

2011-10-17T22:17:00.000-04:00

It's like eating cereal and milk your entire life...
And then becoming lactose intolerant

That is an excerpt from the lost verse of Alanis Morrisette's song, "Ironic," which I found recently. It was particularly applicable because that's apparently what has happened to me over time.

I suppose the signs have always been there. I have always been a big cereal eater, and with it, gallons upon gallons of milk. I prefer skim milk, mostly because the heavier stuff, even 1%, never sat well with me. Skim milk is basically white water. In college, I lived off of cereal. Most people knew it, too. So great was my desire for Lucky Charms that people would present me with gifts of boxes as birthday or Christmas presents.

But somewhere along the line, it must have begun to wreak havoc on my GI system, because I was not handling it as well. Eat a few bowls, have to go to the bathroom in a hurry. I played it off for a while, denying myself the truth. Over the years people have suggested I try different types of milk, like soy, or rice, or almond, or Lactaid. Fuck that shit. First of all, they are disgusting. Second, and more importantly, they are super expensive. The amount of cereal that I eat makes it impossible for me to afford $3.00/oz milks.

This year I've really attempted to eat less cereal, and, in turn, consume less milk. And I notice that my stomach isn't as bad. Until I have to go on a binge and eat cereal, like today, and then my stomach is not good. It sucks. I don't know what I'm going to do. I genuinely just LIKE eating cereal.

Enough about my lactose intolerance, I've felt like my body is falling apart the past few days. Once again I've succumbed to a lack of riding - did not ride my bike once from the race last weekend until Sunday of this week. Yeah, I know. The weather has been far from pleasant, but I also just don't want to ride my trainer yet. I also took it super easy running last week, recording just 23 miles for the week. I ran 6 easy on Monday, 6 easy on Tuesday, 6 easy on Friday, 5 easy off the bike on Sunday. In the water, I did okay, getting 9500m in, but having some real good workouts along the way. This was in spite of the cold, as the pool is still mostly outdoors. I say mostly because the roof is on, just the sides aren't. It's a vortex of wind and since the sun never hits it, it gets cold in there.

Saturday was the Baltimore Marathon and Running Festival, one of my favorite days of the year here. I have never run in any of the events here, and probably never will. For me, it's a day that I get to watch as literally hundreds of people I know run the races. This year was particularly exciting. My Team CYB teammate Pat was running his first ever marathon, and how many marathons do you get to do that go right in front of your house? Not many, I suspect. Anybody not racing, and even those who were (Arjun, Ed) were out in full force to support Pat along the way and he crushed it, running a 2:50 debut marathon in some absurd wind on one of the hardest marathon courses around.

Also in the race was my friend Dave Berdan, who is a super fast guy now, but wasn't always that way. In high school, the guy didn't break 10 minutes for 2 miles, and now sports a 14:0x 5000m PR, a 29:30 10k PR and just recently ran a 1:05:53 half marathon, missing the OTQ by 54 seconds. His plan for Baltimore was to go for it: 2:18:59 or bust. This is the Olympic Trials Qualifying time for the marathon, and even though Baltimore is probably not the place to do it, he was confident in his shape and went for it, leading the race through 9 miles before getting swept up. He lasted a while longer with the pack but in the decisive few miles he lost the pace and finished up at 2:21:19. It was still a major PR for him (2:23:40 previous best) and on just his 4th try, I know at some point soon he's going to get into the right race and get it done.

It's been a very successful fall for the people I run with, and there are still a few more marathons to come. I'm excited to see how they turn out, and makes me thankful I have so many people to run with.

I pedaled around on Saturday morning to watch the race, and I noticed a little soreness in my left ankle on Sunday. I think the 25-30 miles I rode around with my sneakers on my Speedplays messed me up a bit. On Sunday's 80 mile ride with Alyssa, it was not feeling great. Also not feeling great was me in general, as I started the ride dehydrated and probably a little too hungry, and we had a tailwind out 40, which meant we were going to be taking it in the face on the way home. For one hour and five minutes we barely had to pedal. Then for another hour it wasn't bad. We got to the gas station in Nowheresville and as we rolled out, FACE. That meant 16 miles with a cross/headwind that was one of the worst I've ever seen. The entire way home we were just eating it, and I was not psyched.

By the time we made it up Bellemore, I was wobbly. My legs were actually okay, but I was severely dehydrated. One water bottle that I refilled 2 hours in was not enough for the 5 hours on this day. Oops. And I'm so sick of gels and Gu and stuff, I just didn't want to eat any of it, so I didn't. Needless to say, by the end of just a short 5 miler off the bike, I was ready to be done. My knee hurt - which means that it's getting cold again - and my ankle thing was not good. I got to Alyssa's on Sunday evening and was not in a good place. I reluctantly took a Claritin from Carly and that seemed to help, which also confirmed that the allergies got the better of me, too. I felt like garbage all day today and on my more-than-9-not-quite-10 mile run tonight, my ankle was in bad shape, and got worse throughout the run.

I'll see how it feels tomorrow, but it might be a few days of no running for me. If I can ride without a problem, I'll try and do that, but unfortunately this may actually relegated me to the trainer.

All in all I don't feel terrible, but I can tell that I'm ready for the season to be done. I still have some work to do, with a couple of big rides and runs left, but it's again about striking that balance. I still have about 3 weeks to do things that will count, so if I can get in 4-5 good rides, and 2-3 more solid runs, I'll feel good about that. As always, keeping on target with what I believe I can do at Arizona, is the goal.

10 Whole Years

2011-10-11T14:17:00.000-04:00

It took me 10 (and a half) years, but on Saturday I finally earned something I'd been working for years to achieve - a triathlon win. I'd been close on a few occasions, but it always seemed that one of my disciplines was not functioning properly and I'd come up short. But this weekend I managed to put together a very even performance and notch a victory at the Waterman's Half Iron race in southern MD.

Interestingly, it was this same weekend a year ago that I came closest to winning, as I raced in the Hunterdon Half Iron race in NJ. The conditions were nearly identical - cool, crisp morning; a small field; a challenging course. In that race, I had a great swim, out of the water side by side with Arland, the Filipino pro. Since it was cold (35 degrees at the start, 10/10/10) he put on quite a bit of clothing and I headed out on the bike about 3 minutes ahead of him. I was on my road bike, and stayed away the whole race. With almost no one on course, I was never really sure if I was even on the course, but I ultimately ended up back at transition, and heard the cheers for Arland behind me. He had just bridged the gap and thanks to a quick transition, he and I were side by side as we headed out onto the run.

Ironman World Championships had been the previous day, and as we ran side by side for 8 miles, he remarked that it was like the battle between Chris McCormack and Andreas Raelert. In the end, my knee's discontent for running down hills, combined with the fact I had only run 13 miles once in the previous year, did me in, and I finished 2nd, just a couple minutes behind Arland. Bummed, I plotted my revenge on the Hunterdon race for 2011.

Due to the Ironman 70.3 Poconos race (10/2/11) and the bullying that the race organization does to other local races, Hunterdon was going to be moved to September 10th. I obviously had IM Louisville just two weeks prior, but I was going to do Hunterdon no matter what - I just hoped my legs would respond and maybe put me in a position to do okay.

But sometime during July it became apparent that the Hunterdon race just wasn't going to happen, due to lagging participation numbers. It's sad to see that smaller races are disappearing because of the money train that is WTC. I can understand for the people that want to earn spots to one of the World Championship events, you have to go to their events - but it's amazing how reluctant people are to going to local races of the same distance. A half is a half. I couldn't do anything about it, but now I was down a race, and, importantly, a longer race, between ironman efforts.

Fortune smiled upon me and now that Set Up Events has invaded Maryland, they were staging a half and a sprint on 10/8-9 at General Smallwood State Park in southern Maryland. The half was a Saturday race (a huge plus) and fit well into where I was at with my training. I waited too long to sign up online, so when Alyssa told me it was closed I was temporarily annoyed, until we were informed that you could sign up on race day! Now that's awesome. I had put in a pretty routine week last week, including my Tuesday Track workout (1600-3200-1600 - didn't feel great) and some pretty good swims. Wednesday's swim, in particular, was great for me, and on Friday morning I put in another 3200 of work so I was interested to see how I'd respond on Saturday morning.

The weather late last week was perfect - temperatures were crisp in the morning but would warm up through the day, the sun was out, no rain. Saturday's race conditions were going to be perfect for a long race. With a 90 minute drive in the morning, Alyssa and I arrived at 6:30 so I could sign up, and the race was scheduled to start at 8. The water temperature had been recorded at 65, which is definitely chilly, but after getting in (with my wetsuit, finally) it didn't feel that bad. It has been months since I've worn that thing and man, it felt great. I was just sitting on top of the water. The start line was non-existent, I think we were supposed to stay close to the dock we had jumped in from, but people kept moving up and out towards the course. It was a super aggressive start, lots of kicking and hitting, which I think is funny considering how slow most of them swam.

Swim - 31:30, 4th

It was a two loop, rectangular course, and after the 2nd loop we would swim past where we started and around another buoy, and in from there. I felt really, really comfortable, like I wasn't even swimming. After the first 200m or so, the small-ish field of just over 100 men spread out and I was just out there. I've still been having problems with my goggles filling with water, so for a while I just swam with my eyes closed and I was swimming the straightest lines I've ever swam. I stopped about midway through the first lap and emptied them, then resumed swimming. Around the 2nd buoy we ran into the thickest patch of seagrass I've ever swam in. I kept my strokes shallow, basically sculling along the water and kicking a bit harder to get through it. It seemed to work, but I felt bad for the poorer swimmers - that's the type of tangling sea plants that drown people, I know that much (I said something to the RD after the race about it). On the second loop I started to pass people still on their first lap and picked it up a little bit in the last couple of minutes. I caught another guy that had started with me, we inadvertently swam past the finish, and had to turn around, and came out of the water together.

His girlfriend told us (him) that he was in 2nd (I thought that's what she said) so I was pretty surprised to hear that. We ran up together to the transition area, which was about 175m of running to the bike, where I then took the time to put on my socks (my long cycling ones) and my SICK new LG jersey. This one was a gift from cousin Emily and Bryan for my birthday, it's super light, full zip, awesome. As I did at Louisville, and plan to do at Arizona, I will be racing with a jersey from now on to a) allow me to keep my stuff in my pockets and b) keep my arms and lower back from getting burned.

T1 - 2:37

As I looked at results later, it appears as if there was one kid up ahead pretty far (28:58) and then another guy slotted in between 1st and me and the other guy (30:47). If that's the case, I must have passed that 2nd guy in transition because when I got out onto the bike, I only had one person ahead of me.

Bike - 2:30:42, 2nd

I've only ever been to southern MD one time, when I did Triathlantic's LaPlata Duathlon in 2002. I remember literally nothing of that race, not even how I got there with my bike (because I was in college, and my car didn't have a bike rack, and I honestly forget how I used to fit it in the small car). Actually, I remember it was cold, because it was in March. But as far as the terrain, I just figured it was like the Eastern Shore - flat. I could not have been more wrong.

The initial climb out of the park was a tough 3/4 of a mile hill, then you made a right onto some Native American-named road (where the run would be later) and it was just down and up, and up and down. The climbs were long. The first few miles were harder than I anticipated them to be, and it was pretty chilly (temp was in the mid 50s, but a lot of shade as we rolled through more state parks). I could see the flashing lights of a police car ahead and figured that must be the lead vehicle, so I targeted that and made quick work of picking him up. It took nearly 28 minutes to go just 10 miles, which should give some indication of how challenging this course is as at Eagleman I would blow through 10 miles in 24 minutes no problem.

I was hoping that the road would flatten out, but it never did. At points it was actually annoying because the uphills were steep enough that you either needed to stand and power over them, or you were going to shred your legs in the 53x so I'd have to hop down to the 39x. Constant up and down. Around mile 17 I think I finally got passed, by what appeared to be (and later confirmed) quite a strong cyclist. I welcomed the sight of company, and was content with letting him set the pace for a while. He had a ton of weight on me, and I didn't expect that he'd be too quick on his feet later. I kept him at a manageable distance for a while, and at one point during another series of hills, had nearly caught back up to him, but when the road flattened out his power was too much for me to attempt to match without going into the red. I let him go and when I saw Alyssa at mile 45, she said he had +1:15 on me.

I was doing a good job getting in my calories, opting for some Clif Shot gels. 3x Vanilla ones in the first half, 3x Chocolate ones in the back half. I don't think I like them that much. Actually, I don't think I like eating anything. I'd rather just eat hot dogs and Snickers bars. Gu-type products just have too much sugar for me. But, I had to eat, so I was doing it every 22 minutes or so. And I was only drinking water, which seemed to be a good plan. Question for anyone who has this problem: I now have one of the water bottle cages that goes in between the aero bars and since the stupid Deer Park bottles are contoured like Coke bottles now, they are not sitting in the cage well. I'm not sure if I need a different cage, or just have to not use those Deer Park bottles (kind of tough when that's what they hand out).

When I got into transition and saw that it had taken me over 2:30 to ride that course, which is an average speed of under 22.5mph, I couldn't believe it. In my few half iron races, I've ridden 2:28 (EM08, when I got off my bike for a few minutes to alleviate seizing legs), 2:23 (Prov08, on what wasn't a super fast course), 2:18 (EM09), 2:46 (Hunterdon10, on my road bike, challenging course but also wasn't in the same kind of shape), 2:16 (EM11). I made sure to not over-exert myself in this race, because that wasn't my plan on this day, but still, I was very surprised to have ridden that slow. The guy who passed me rode 2:25/6 he said, and he rode 2:13 at EM this year.

T2 - 1:18

I rode into transition and the leader had just started the run. I racked the bike, took off the jersey and put on my shoes. Since I'm still trying a few new things, I did the same as I did at Louisville and put on my Adidas Bostons and tied them up (I'm not sure that I'm feeling elastic laces right now). I grabbed my number belt, put that on, and then grabbed this white singlet I was going to run in and threw that on as I was running. They gave me a time deficit of 3 minutes but also made note of my better looking running form and so the chase was on.

Run - 1:31:03, 4th

The run began the same way the bike had, with a climb up and out of the park. It was hard, and I didn't want to be breathing hard that early. Unfortunately, with hills, you don't have much choice I suppose. I made it to the top and hit the mile in 6:35. I was disappointed it was that slow, but in hindsight it was definitely a hard mile. Alyssa was waiting at the top and I could see the leader in the distance, and I was gobbling up his lead like Ed gobbles C's (side note: Ed, my roommate, ran a 2:36:45 at Chicago Marathon on Sunday in his first marathon, so our house had a good weekend). Mile 2 was a 6:32 and as I could see his lead evaporating, I picked it up a little bit to catch him right after the mile 3 mark (6:20). The mile markers seemed fairly accurate, although there were a couple that seemed a few seconds longer or shorter than I thought they would be - but it all evened out.

I was running a minute per mile faster than he was and as I hit the turnaround at around 3.4ish miles, I was already 40 seconds clear in the lead. I knew he wasn't going to be able to come back from that, and I counted 8 minutes back to third. Holy shit. I looked at how that guy was running, and it wasn't fast enough to catch me. Another couple minutes to the next set of folks, so this race was, barring unforeseen circumstance, in the bag. I kept the effort even in that first lap, running up and down and feeling strong still. As we approached the entrance to the park again, we made a left onto a single track trail for about 3/4 of a mile which was a nice diversion - except for the kid on the lead bike, which sounded like it was going to fall apart on the rocks.

There was a very steep downhill back into the park, which my knee was not fond of. I hobbled down that and made it around for the end of my first loop, and then had to climb back up and out. This was tougher the second time around. I wouldn't say it was as steep as the nasty climb in Providence, but it was as long. I got back out on the road and at this point my ass was hurting - like the top of the hamstring/piriformis on both sides. It wasn't not very comfortable, and I figured it was from riding the TT bike, which I hadn't touched since Louisville (6 weeks?).

The water stops were spaced out a little too far. There was one at mile 1, then at mile 3, which you then hit a half mile later again, and then not again until that one at mile 1, then there was one at the beginning of the loop. As the temperature had begun to creep up into the mid/upper 70s, I could have probably used a little more water, especially when the volunteers were just young kids and I wasn't always getting a cup. So I made sure I kept the effort relaxed and didn't blow up. I counted a pretty big lead over 2nd and 3rd, so the last two miles were pretty fun. I got to chill out, stroll into the win. I've obviously never been in that position, particularly with such a big lead, so as I approached the finish line all I could do really was smile a little bit.

It was pretty cool. I crossed the line and felt fine, unlike every other half I've ever done where I'm pretty much wasted and can't move. I was able to eat and drink (COKE) right away, and besides some soreness from racing, didn't feel any worse than I would after any other race. I was psyched. 10 minutes later, the 2nd place guy came across, and a few minutes after that, 3rd. The first place woman came blazing through and it turns out she had a pretty awesome race, running a 1:31:30 or something half marathon split.

187 on a motherfu**ing race

In all my years racing, I've had some good bib numbers. My favorite is 13. Another favorite would be 69, as our friend Mike Nusbaum would agree. When I registered on Saturday morning, since I was one of the last ones to do so, I was 187. 187! Alyssa didn't really understand the significance at first, but, being a gangster rapper myself, I appreciated the number. Game recognize game. Ha. Anyway there were just about that many competitors on the day, with a shade over 100 of them being men. So not an enormous field, but certainly larger than the 60 person Hunterdon race I did last year.

But, as everyone out there knows, and as Vin Diesel says in The Fast and The Furious, "it doesn't matter whether you win by an inch or a mile, a win is a win."

The frustrating part of the day came when it was time for awards. I had finished at 12:40pm, and hours later they said awards would be at 2:30. Then it was ten more minutes, ten more minutes. We needed to get back. It was getting pretty hot and uncomfortable in the sun, and anybody who was going to be receiving awards was finished. Finally, around 3:30, they got it going. For my effort I was rewarded with a Maryland Tri Series visor and a pair of socks, and a plaque that is actually kind of neat. For my $200 supported training day, essentially, I'll take it!

When we arrived back in Baltimore, it was time to turn on the computer to watch the Kona coverage. Boy, what a race. It's hard to pick against those who have won the event before, so it probably came as no surprise that Alexander and Wellington re-earned their titles from 2009, but I still felt like it was a pretty open race this year, on both men's and women's sides. We even came up with a Fantasy game that myself, Z, Pat, Alyssa, Chicken Tender and David Lee played. If you want me to send you the scoring, let me know. It looked like a BLAZING fast day on the bike, as evidenced by Lieto missing the CR by 8 seconds and Julie Dibens rocking Karin Thuerig's time from last year by 4 minutes (Theurig was just 5 seconds slower than Dibens, too). Top AG bike split was an absurd 4:30. Then on the run, lots of moving and shaking. I've never seen someone run as fast as Mirinda Carfrae was in her last couple of miles. She and CW were so far down off the bike, but when you have 2:52 wheels in you, it almost never matters. The pair ran almost identical marathon splits, so Chrissie held her off - but you wouldn't have known that based on how Mirinda was SPRINTING down Ali'i Drive. End result: Course Record for Alexander, Chrissie a little off but apparently was swimming with a torn pectoral or something. Geez.

On the age group side, I knew quite a few people competing out there, and they all seemed to have banner days. PR bike splits, great runs in the heat, and great overall finishes. When I saw how each of them finished in the age group (30-34), I couldn't believe it. Alyssa goes, "sounds like about 20 dudes (the ones that finished faster than these guys) need to go pro." My thoughts on going pro are going to be finally written down this coming week I think.

For me, one day I hope to be there but who knows if and when that day will come. But I feel pretty good about the weekend it falls on, maybe I've channeled the spirit of Kona these past two years, but with a 2nd place finish last year on this weekend and a win this year, perhaps when I can get to the big island, it will work out pretty well.

When September Ends

2011-10-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

I intended on writing this post, like, two weeks ago, then I figured I would just wait until after the end of the month, then all of a sudden it's today and I'm just getting to it.

Following the race in Philly, I took a super chill week. Didn't ride much, didn't run much, didn't swim much. That weekend (9/24-25) I went down with Alyssa to East BF, Virginia, to help out at the Ultra Race of Champions. Her friends from Charlottesville Running Company put this race on every year, formerly under the name of Great Eastern Endurance Run (GEER). This 100k event is hard, although I suppose by definition an ultra marathon is not supposed to be easy. For this year's event, Gil and Francesca were taking it up a notch, re-labeling the race the "Ultra Race of Champions" (UROC), securing a fantastic field by virtue of a great prize purse.

We arrived at the Wintergreen Ski Resort, the staging area for the event, on Friday night, and after helping with some last minute preparations, didn't get to bed until 1:30. Needless to say, 4:30 came pretty quick, and our 21 hour day had begun. The race started amidst foggy conditions, and somehow it only got foggier throughout the day. As Yukon Cornelius would have remarked, it was as "thick as pea soup." It seriously never lifted. And these climbs the runners had to go up and down - geez. They were serious. Mixed with the fog, it was epic. Reminded me of LA's win atop Sestriere all those years ago, or Andy Schleck's win on Ventoux more recently.

After the start, Alyssa and I headed to our home for the morning and early afternoon, the Lake. I forget what it was called, Shoshana, Fofana, Yitchiyitchiyayadada, Okeechobie, Winnepesaukee, Champlain, Titicaca, I don't remember. It was in the woods (George Washington State Forest) and it was pretty sweet. The location was approximately the 17.6 mile mark, and then runners would do a loop around this lake and come back, hit the stop again at 18.5 miles. This made for some interesting moments as you're trying to help people as they come in, send them on their way (the right way), watch for runners coming back in, and send them out on their way (the right way) and do it all simultaneously. At times it was busy, and it was amazing how, even at just 17.5 miles in, people were somewhat incoherent. I think if you're in that kind of trouble that early into a 62 mile race, you may want to reconsider your choice of sport. It was also interesting to see how bad a job at listening some of them were doing when we explained which way to go around the lake.

The final runners finally made their way through, which concluded our day at the aid station. We received a number of compliments on our aid station skills, ranging from being the most fun, to the most helpful, to the most efficient. All of these things were unequivocally true. We had an obvious advantage over other aid stations, since we are runners (and Alyssa has done, and won, this race before), so we know what people want (or need) to hear, not to mention what they want (or need) to have at the aid station.

It was early afternoon and we headed back, up, up, up to the top of one mountain, then down the steep 15% gradient that almost burned up Alyssa's brakes, then back up the steep grade up to the top of Wintergreen. We were able to watch the leaders finish (including the indefatigible Mike Wardian, who, due to a wrong turn made in the trails, lost a big chunk of time, and the win). Following that incident, we had to go back out onto the trail and mark it up so there was no more confusion. It was eerily calm on the trail, the fog was still up in the higher parts of the mountains, and for a brief second even I had the urge to run along the single track. We headed back to the finish, handed out some medals and buckles for a while, and then, when it turned to dark, went back out on the course to drop glowsticks out on the road.

Something happened, though, when I went to take the glowsticks out of the bag. My fingers felt real greasy, and I noticed an awful smell. In the dark, I couldn't tell what had happened, but I figured it out - a glowstick must have exploded in the bag, and leaked all over the other glowsticks. My hand started getting this tingling, not-very-good feeling, and I really, really wanted to get back to wash my hands. I thought I was going to have to lose the hand for a minute, but my 27 minute ordeal was soon over.

Our food sources were limited to Stouffer's lasagna and mac&cheese, which, after a while, was sitting really heavy. We handed out more medals and buckles to the now trickling-in-ever-so-slowly finishers, and soon enough, it was 11pm. Now, initially it was supposed to be a 17 hour cut-off, but they were going to make it 19 hours this year. Midnight comes. We finally change the XM station that was going over the PA to a more contemporary one, and when I needed it most, Justin Bieber's "Baby" came on. It got me through to 1am, when the cut-off was supposed to be, but there were a few more people out on course and they were going to let them finish. At one point, sitting in the fog, facing the finish line (from beyond it), a person walked up from behind us. Joking around, I thought he had already finished, so I didn't get up. But apparently he was just finishing, and had come in from the wrong way. Oops. We made it to 1:15, then I had to pull the plug. I was in serious pain and needed to sleep. We drove back to the crib and slept.

It was a truly challenging adventure, and I didn't even compete. I almost think it would have been easier on my body for me to have just run the thing. But, it was a cool event to see, and help out at, and I feel like I made a difference in the lives of other people, because I am such a great person.

For a couple of days after UROC, I felt terrible. Had a slow run on Monday, and my track workout Tuesday did not go well. I finally got back out on my bike on Weds and Thurs, and Thursday I finally felt a little better so I put in a few short efforts on the bike, and then had a really solid swim. Friday was going to be an afternoon long run with Brennan and Joel - 17 miles through Gwynns Falls Trail, Druid Hill Park, and some of the less savory parts of our little city.

I went out ahead of the run and dropped water and some nutrition in two spots - where we would get into Druid Hill Park around 1:12 and then after the hills behind the zoo (about 25 minutes later). Brennan and Joel had already put in 7 and 8 miles, respectively, and after a quick refueling at Brennan's, we rolled out just after 4pm. The first few miles felt slow, but by the time we made it out of the GFT (55ish minutes) I realized that was as fast as I've ever come out of there. Brennan and I worked the hills, and man is he in shape. It definitely helps that he carries 30 pounds less than I do (at least, I'd wager), but I felt like I was keeping up okay. The nutrition stops were clutch, and with water in me and some food, I was having a great run. We came out of the hills and with just 30 minutes left, mostly downhill back into the city, we were moving. Joel departed us, having completed his 24 miles, and Brennan and I were left to blaze right through Camden Yards and back to his house. Finished in just a few ticks under 2 hours, which was three minutes faster than I've run that before. So I felt good.

What didn't feel good was getting into the pool after. Or not getting to bed until after 1. Or waking up at 6:10, realizing I overslept, and having to haul up to Newark, DE, to do this silly road mile. For just a brief moment, after waking up, I thought dude, don't go - it doesn't matter. But, I had to go up to NJ anyway, and I wanted to get there earlier than later. So I did it. And man, it did not go well. I wanted to run about 7 miles for the day, but due to time constraints only had time for about 2.5 on the warmup. I felt awful. I kept waiting for my legs to respond, but they were obviously not going to fire this morning. Got to the line and it was a much different scene from last year. The race started and I went out slow. By design, I didn't want to go out too fast this year because last year - oof - I went out just a little too hard and then faded super hard in the back half. Additionally, this is the worst road mile, it's generally uphill (not steep, just up most of the way) and it's a prevailing IYF wind.

I looked at my watch at the quarter mile and yikes, 80.3? I was a step or two behind the first girl. We then ran an 81.3 second quarter. Well, at least it wasn't much slower. I passed the young lady and put a few meters in between us, but we clipped 3/4 of a mile in an 89??? How was that even possible. There was no way. I let it get into my head, and felt like if I'm running 6 minute pace now, I may as well just stop running. The girl passed me, I let her go, and then finished at 5:30 - a 79 last quarter. Not sure what happened, I guess the 3/4 mark was probably misplaced. Either way, it was not a good time, and it was a pretty miserable race. I felt okay, but clearly the 17 miles the evening before had just taken its toll. I felt fine right away, and went into a 3.5 mile cooldown around UDel's campus, before heading up to the Jerz.

That afternoon I made it out on my bike for a decent 3h45m ride, 2 hours of which was with a kid I went to high school with. I noticed this summer that he had gotten into cycling so I let him know I was going to be home in case he wanted to ride. I think it must have been the first time he'd ever ridden with someone else because his etiquette was...lacking. He was riding all over the road before I finally figured out that he did not like to unclip! In one case he wanted to go left at a light. First, he went right, looked behind him, swung a U. Then that traffic light had turned red, so he pulled another right/U/right combo to do what could have been accomplished more safely by unclipping at the light.

Later in the ride, he goes up the right side of some cars at another traffic light. I noticed a sewer grate with the grates being long-ways, and it was mad wet (it had rained). I told him not to go that way, he didn't listen, wheel gets stuck in the grate, starts to fall. Holds himself up by falling into a truck stopped at the light. Ha. Fortunately there were no more incidents and he made it back in one piece.

Sunday morning was the reason I had gone up to NJ in the first place. My dad had been involved with organizing an event with the Red Bank YMCA and the Livestrong Foundation, to put on a 2 hour indoor cycling ride (essentially a spin class, minus the "jumps" and other acoutrements of a workout, and the BPM music). Instead, we rode to the 2001 TdF while I narrated. It was essentially a celebration of Mr. Armstrong, who, 15 years ago, on 10/2/96, had been diagnosed with cancer. It was the first time since the spring I'd ridden my trainer, and it sucked just as much as it did then. 2 hours inside, then another 2 outside, in a mean, mean wind out of the south. Nice tailwind as I headed north along the beach, brutal headwind on the way back. At least it was clear, which offered a great view of Manhattan and the new Freedom Tower.

Another short run at Tatum Park that evening gave me a great week - 10,500m in the pool; 210 miles on the bike; 45 miles of running. A 21 hour week, way above my last 4 weeks of 10/avg.

Friday's run also had capped off the month of September, and while I normally cherish my birth month, I was excited to see this one go. It had been lowlighted by terrible weather, including abnormally high humidity and LOTS of rain. Again, by design, I had intended to take it a little bit easier so I could recover from the effects of the ironman, and since I dotted the fall season with the RM Classic 5k and then PDR, I needed to keep other efforts to a minimum. Here's my grades:

Swimming - A+. I was a swim session away from hitting 40k for the month, instead finishing with 36,500m. So it was about the same I've been swimming each month this year, but I had some really positive workouts in there, including getting back to swimming intervals I should have been swimming all year. Additionally, I feel better swimming now. Maybe I just struggle in the heat and humidity of the summer. Whatever the case, I feel much more confident in my swim again and feel like swimming around or maybe under an hour at Arizona will be pretty comfortable.

Cycling - C+. With the exception of the ride on my birthday out in Frederick, I really didn't have any notably good rides. None were notably bad, either, but I just didn't get out that much. My intention was to not ride a ton, so I could run a little more and have the legs to run well, but at just about 300 miles for the month, that's like a Memorial Day weekend worth of riding. I'll need to ride quite a bit more over the next 7 weeks, for sure.

Running - A+. Let's see, I recovered well from Louisville and as such was able to run a decent track 5k just 14 days after, and then ran a 4 second lifetime best in the half marathon a week after that. I had weeks of 45, 45, 26 and 45 for a total of 161 miles, which is the most I've put in during the month of September since college (narrowly eclipsing my 159 from last September, although that month also featured nearly 900 miles on the bike and 75k in the pool). I had some decent runs but did balance it out with some not-so-decent runs. All told, though, I feel good at where my running is right now and think that I should be able to keep it up. This week is headed towards upwards of 55 miles.

My least favorite thing of this week has been swimming, not because I don't want to swim, but because the pool is in bad shape. I've never experienced chemicals so bad. It's supposed to be a salt-based chemical, but whatever it is leaves me feeling awful. My mouth literally goes numb. My skin is so cracked that my index finger just started bleeding the other night. My body smells like chemicals no matter how many showers I take. I don't know how the Merritt keeps constantly fucking up so bad, but it's awful. It's because they emptied it and refilled it, and to make matters worse, it's supposed to be back indoors but somehow they ordered the wrong size cover for the steel structure (that makes it indoors) so the back ends are open (there is a roof at least covering the top). This makes for some chilly morning swims.

This weekend I am heading to a half iron race in southern MD somewhere, looking to get in a very expensive supported long training effort. Then Sunday it will be my annual trek from College Park to DC to spectate the Army Ten Miler. After some chilly weather, it's supposed to be picking back up to highs in the low 80s. My favorite time of year - crisp mornings, low humidity and warm temps. Coupled with no clouds in sight and it should be a great weekend. And to my roommate Cheese - crush butts at Chicago this weekend!

30 for 30

2011-09-20T17:50:00.000-04:00

On Sunday I ran perhaps what may have been the best race of my life.

Wait...what? A race report that is positive? Actually being pleased with a performance? No way, not here. As rare as hen's teeth, or packs of Marlboro menthols, that's exactly what is about to happen.

I love the Philly Distance Run, even if it did sell out to the evil Competitor Group and become a Rock n Roll event. I love the course, I love the weekend, I love racing in that city - something about Philadelphia is just phast. I first ran the race in 2006, running alongside Chima as he ran his first ever half (and potentially one of his first road races, I don't think he had run in the years following his collegiate running). We ran 1:30:xx. I thought the race was just awesome, and I signed up for it the next year (for something like $50). That was the year that we were blessed with Arjun and Melissa, so the two of them joined myself, Ben and Hollywood (and Terence) for the 2007 edition. I ran terrible, I had been having some issues with my piriformis and sciatic nerve and after 10k just completely broke down. I was in pain from early on, but the pace was fine - 29:49 through 5 miles and then after 6 I had to stop and stretch, and then go to the bathroom. I was in agonizing pain after 9 miles and walked a lot of the rest of the way, ultimately finishing at 1:35:36. Not indicative of my fitness, I was disappointed and frustrated with how it had gone.

I came back again in 2008, and once again was a little dinged up. But, I was fitter, and felt like I could still have a good race. My goal had been to run something in the 1:16 range, which seemed reasonable. I ran most of the first 10k with or just behind Arjun, but then the mile splits started creeping up and up. I held it together as best I could, but by mile 10 I couldn't keep it up and faded to 6:18 miles 12 and 13, and ultimately finished at 1:18:42.

And that's where my half marathon PR has stood, and it's the last PR I had recorded, as that following summer I was knocked out of commission. I still went to PDR in 2009, on crutches, and hobbled around the course as much as I could. It was exhausting. In 2010, unsure whether I could run that far or not, I decided to not sign up, and instead bandited to a 1:28 and change. When it came to running this year, I wasn't sure what I would do. On one hand, it was just three weeks after the Ironman and I didn't want to put the pressure of racing on myself, but on the other hand it's one of my favorite events and I could just do it to run 13 miles that day. Ultimately I decided to just sign up - for the outrageous cost of $95 - and plans were set. Making it even more significant, it was the day before my 30th birthday, so it was going to be the last race as a 20-something for me.

Having run a 1:21:49 at Miami Half earlier this year, and the just-over-an-hour Club Challenge 10 miler in February, I felt like 1:20 was a reasonable goal. I feel like I'm in at least that good of shape, but I just didn't know how my legs would respond to the effort. Additionally, I'd raced a 5k the Sunday prior (17:47) and then ran a medium-hard 13 miles on Monday, and then broke my legs even further doing my favorite track workout - 10x1000 with a minute rest - on Tuesday. That workout boosted the confidence a little bit. I ran all of my 1000s in between 3:29 and 3:25, with most between 3:26 and 3:28. Generally, under 5:35/mi for 10k of intervals with short rest. I felt good about it, but I was also cooked. I took it easy on Wednesday, and on Thursday I attempted to ride up to Oregon Ridge to ride with Alyssa. 20 miles, uphill, into a storm that was ripping me to shreds. It was a terrible decision, and when I got there, Alyssa and I decided to bail on the ride and just go home. Friday morning was rough, I felt sluggish on our 7 miler through the hood, and then my parents and brother came down later in the day for a little birthday celebration.

Alyssa's dad had given her his tickets for the Orioles game, and in turn she gave them to us to use, so we went to the game. It was a great night for it and they appreciated it a lot. Saturday was a bit cool and drizzly, and I didn't have a chance to run before we headed up to Philly. Traffic in the city kept us from getting to the expo until 15 minutes before it was set to close, and I was too tired to run at that point. Ed, Alyssa and I hit up my favorite PDR pre-race dinner spot, Continental Midtown, and then called it a night. Unfortunately, thanks to the Penn State game in town that day, all hotels were booked or absurdly expensive, so we had to stay 15 minutes outside the city, near the airport.

Morning came and we drove in, dropping off Ed as soon as we could. Ed was running his 23 miler, so he had done 6 miles at the hotel, and then hopped in the car for the short 15 minute drive, and then continued on to run another 9.5 before the start of the race. Alyssa took care of parking the car while I went to jog over to the start. It was cool - the first time in a while I've had pants and a long sleeve on. I found Pat, and dropped off my stuff at his car, and then continued warming up. Along the way I spotted friends Dave Berdan and Jake Klim, and chatted briefly with them. At 7:45 I hopped into my corral, and was surprised with how few people were trying to barge their way to the front. I took a reasonable spot and as the National Anthem was being sung, I heard a loud "O!" - looked to my right and sure enough it was my main cholo, Ed. Frank Shorter shot off what I guess was supposed to be a gun, although it sounded like a cap gun, and we took off. In other years I've really had to be aggressive in the first half mile, pushing my way and weaving through the masses, but this year was pretty easy, and pretty soon we were in the clear.

My goal of 1:20 predicated an average pace per mile of 6:06, but I was really not confident in running that fast. I was hoping to run under 6:10 for the first mile, 6:15 at the slowest, and go from there. As we pass what may have been about a half mile, Ed said he felt like we were running slower than 6:15. I disagreed, and said if it is that slow, so be it - I'll adjust from there. Sure enough, the mile comes up and I realize we are going to be way fast - 5:57. Surprised, but not shocked. I must have let up a little in the second mile, as we came through in 6:02, and this was where the day's booty highlight came in. Straight from a wet t-shirt contest at Senor Frogs, this girl did not look like she should be running this far up, but she was, and I commended her effort. She was racing in navy blue bunhugger/bikini bottoms, and was wearing a white Michelob Ultra singlet type thing that she had then tied up so her abdomen and back were both exposed. It was cool. I passed her, and then passed the mile 3 mark in 5:56.

5k - 18:32

I was running comfortably, but when the pace was upped in miles 4 and 5 (5:53, 5:54; 29:43 at 5), I was a little concerned that the pace was slightly suicidal. We had gone back over the start line and were now careening down the north side of the Skully-kill River (thanks Alyssa for that gem). Mile 6 was tough for me, and was my slowest to that point at 6:02.75.

10k - 37:01 (18:29)

I was now sure that I was going to see the times creep up, like they normally did for me at this point of the race. As fast of a course as this is, I don't like running the same stride the whole time. Ed peaced out at 10k, so I was now on my own. And literally, on my own, as I seem to find myself running solo in the middle of a 17,000 person race where I am literally running within a second or two of the same 6 minute miles each mile. But then something happened - mile 7 was just under 6:00. Whoa, really? It was a mental boost, and just as I was finishing a little Gu Chomp, a group of bandits ran by me, super easily, out on their Sunday run. I felt like it would be prudent to run with them for as long as I could hang. Which wasn't tremendously long, but long enough to come through mile 8 in 5:54. I was focused on making it to the bridge, as I knew mile 9 was going to be on the other side. The bridge has always been tough for me, and since I couldn't see the clock, I thought it was going to be a slow split. Fortunately, the clock was really just on the other side, on a little downhill, and I came through in 6:03.

15k - 55:33 (18:32)

Now I've strung three even 5k's together, and have 4 miles left. I'm all alone, with nobody passing me and nobody to pass except the odd fast chick who is now slowing down. At this point, I'm focusing on one mile at a time, each little 6 minute section by each little 6 minute section. I had eaten another Gu Chomp, and decided I really don't like trying to eat them while running. I made it to 10 in 59:43 (5:58) which meant a 30 minute 2nd 5 miles. 5k to go, 5k to go. I had made a conscious effort to surge in this mile, which lasted just a few minutes and then I was pretty tired. Now the shade was starting to disappear and we were going full on into the sun. I still had two Gu Chomps left in my little bag, which I was just holding in my hand, and I ate the last one around 11 (6:08). Shoot, 6:08? Was this the end for me? I knew that I was going to be under 1:20, barring a major meltdown, but now I could see the real light: the possibility of a PR. I ditched my last little Gu Chomp so that I could have free hands, and passed mile 12 in 6:08, which meant I was at 1:12:00 with 1.1 miles to go. I've go to basically run a 6 minute mile and then sprint 160 meters (I also mistakenly though my PR was 1:18:40, which probably helped).

I am working hard, and now it's like the wind wants to blow hard in our face just to ruin my day. I can now see the art museum, and with every foot strike I get closer and closer to what could be an awesome moral victory. I see my friends on the side of the road - Alyssa, Klim, Ed and a half sober Z - who are yelling at me to push. I click my watch - 6:00 for mile 13 - so I am right on 1:18:00 and have just a tenth of a mile to run...uphill. Normally not a problem, except when you're trying to run as fast as you can and you've been in the same stride pattern for miles. I got across the line and stopped the watch - 1:18:38. I was full of emotion, not even for the time, but for what the small 4 second PR represented. I didn't expect to run this well, and "for all intents and purposes" I shouldn't have. I ran even splits, and when I was slowing down, I managed to limit my loss. I was even able to pick it back up to the pace I had been running in the last mile. Even in other races I've run that were much faster, I've never been able to do this. I had run a smart race, and I was finally rewarded.

Maybe it was from all the suffering I've done, I can just endure it a little better than I once could, or maybe it was because I was turning 30 the next day. Either way, I needed that one. I needed it for so many reasons, but it helped me realize that maybe my time isn't over just yet. On that day, I ran as fast as I could have. I could not have squeezed and extra second from anywhere. There is no me, saying that if I had run smarter, maybe I could have run faster. I could not have. If I had actually run 6:10 for the first mile, I think I would have just run slower. I had to go out at that exact pace and keep the pressure on.

Needless to say, I'm really pumped.

After the race, I caught up with everyone else. Ed had ended the day with 24.5 miles and said he felt great, which is awesome. Berdan ran a 1:05:53 - a PR but short of his goal of sub 1:05. A few other people we know had great races too. The fastest times for a half marathon by both genders were achieved, with Matthew Kisorio running a 58:46 (1 second ahead of runner up) and Kim Smith of NZ running a 1:07:10. It was just the day to run fast, I guess.

We rolled out of Philly, cleaned up at the hotel and headed to Newark, DE, for breakfast/lunch. Then it was back to Baltimore, where I rewarded myself with the rest of the day off.

I woke up on Monday, officially a 30 year old, and was determined to make it a great day. Originally I had thought about riding my bike TO Frederick, doing my ride out there and riding back, but the prospect of 130+ miles on tired legs seemed a little much. Instead, I decided to drive to Frederick and do the ride. It was cool, 66 degrees maybe, and overcast. I had ambitions of a course record, but understood that I was a) doing it solo and b) tired. I made good time to Hamburg, and made decent time up (19:38). I think this is within 40 seconds of what I rode in early May there. I blazed to Harp, and that was hard. I didn't think I was going to make it. I descended into Boonsboro, greeted now by a headwind for the 17 miles home. That was going to make it even tougher. I climbed South Mountain in a respectable time, and tried to go as fast as I could, but knew that it was likely out of reach. As I crested the day's final climb and dropped into Frederick, I saw the time go by, but rode hard to make sure I got under 3 hours (2:58:07) which is pretty fast.

I zoomed back to Baltimore, and had just enough time to get into the pool for a splash (1500m). Then it was over to Fed Hill Runners for our Monday night jog, and I felt surprisingly decent, although my legs did feel like bricks. 40 minutes for 6 miles there, and the day was done. We got back home and I was going to go to eat with Alyssa and Ed, and when we got to the place, I was surprised by some of my other friends, who had come out to celebrate (thanks guys!). It was really nice of them to come out, and it was a fun night. Alyssa and I then went and I SHUT IT DOWN at karaoke. It was a really great day, and an excellent weekend. I now feel a lot more confident in my running for this fall, and am excited to see how training goes from here on out.

The Ridiculous Rising Cost of Racing

2011-09-14T16:12:00.000-04:00

I've always said that I would keep doing my sport until my body gave out.

Or the price became too high.

The second one is rapidly approaching.

Eagleman 2012 opened a few weeks ago, and after conferring with my CYB teammates, the decision was that we weren't racing. Benda said no way, never again. David Lee said nope, not next year. Pat was a no. Alyssa was a no. Zero was a no. OJ didn't respond, because I don't think he knows how to read or write. So there I was, no Eagleman. Weeks went by. I didn't think twice. It was time for some new races anyway. After racing 9 times in July and August, from track meets to triathlons, time trials to 10k's, I figure next year I need to take the summer to just chill out.

Then I found out that CTR had signed up for Eagleman, his first attempt at the distance. Still, I resisted the urge to sign up.

Pat said I should sign up for Bay Swim, the 4.4 mile race crossing the span of the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis. Benda and OJ have done this race many times before, with Brian having won 4 or 5 times in a row (and in the process, narrowly edging out OJ). As my proclivity towards distance swimming seemingly supercedes my other endurance skills, it wasn't a bad idea. But the race entry process is a lottery, and let's be honest, I probably wouldn't get in because it would require me winning something. Additionally, it's almost as expensive as Eagleman. That's because it raises money for charity.

I continued to hem and haw, before I finally gave in and said screw it, let's fill it up and do it again. Unfortunately, it's a big race, and it's close so I don't have to really travel. I went onto The CTA website to register and went to the page. $290 with processing fees. Alright, that's a little more than it was last year, but within reason. I recall in 2008 it cost me $225, so maybe a little over $230 with processing. That's $60 over 4 years. I began to question, why such a considerable increase?

Then my friends started emailing me about Columbia's registration, which opened last week. I went to look at it. $150. Holy shit. Who the fuck do you think you are? When I did that race in 2001 it cost $65. Every year the price goes up and up, way beyond the scale of what is reasonable. Last year I think it was $135. What, praytell, are they changing that makes it cost that much more?

I'd like to do a breakdown of what I get out of the race. First, I go to the expo, where I get my generally hideous shirt and, this year, a satchel of some kind and a hat. I then have a handful of glossy index cards promoting other races that I have to recycle. I go over to the park and I rack my bike, where overnight security guards care for them. In the morning, I don my timing chip and my little swim cap, and get in the water. I come out of the water and volunteers are there offering me water. I go on the bike. Now, in fairness, this is the only Olympic distance race I've ever seen that has a water bottle exchange. I've never taken a bottle, because it's a fucking Olympic distance race, who needs an extra water bottle. Along the way, cops man the intersection leaving the park, and the two intersections on 108 where there are traffic lights. They are also at the two traffic circles, and at the three left hand turns you make along the route. They are generally not paying attention and have to do very little work.

I come back into transition and I head out on the run. I am offered water and Gatorade on course at 6 locations, two of which are the same, so it's really only 4. I finish the race and am handed a medal that I will inevitably throw out (although now I simply refuse them, I don't need more shit in my house) and potentially a mylar blanket, although I then realize that it's not a marathon in November, and I am not dying so I don't take that either. I look around for some poorly mixed Gatorade, I drink some, and then I go up to the top of the hill to get some food. The cookies are those fake Oreos, and the food selection is pretty terrible. It is the same disgusting pasta salad that they think everyone loves for the 10 years I've been doing this race. And, since it rains 98% of the time at Columbia, everything is soggy.

The awards are pretty nice; I will never win one of course unless I race in my age group at some point. Then you leave and realize that the parking volunteers jammed the cars in too close and now you can't even leave. It's like New Year's Eve: a whole lot of buildup and then a ton of disappointment.

It all begs the question: where does the money go? I understand that costs go up, and if it followed inflation, that would even be acceptable. But to go up as much as it does, year after year, I have got to question. It makes me want to yell, from the top of my lungs: Enough is enough! I am sick and tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane! And then it dawns on me. This race gets most of its shit paid for through sponsors, after all, it is a pretty high profile event. The race director pays himself, and quite well, but he puts on good races and has even earned that right. It's going to charity. Fucking charities.

Now, 99.9% of people in the world will think I am in insensitive human for saying that. But please - don't misconstrue. I have nothing wrong with charities. In fact, there are plenty of charities I think are more than worthwhile, and I have donated money over the years to them. My issue is with the association of racing to charities. Why do races automatically have to be for charity? Why is it that when people hear that I'm doing a particular race, they ask if I'm "doing it for charity"? Why can't we just race...to race? It's like Ivan Drago says in Rocky IV, "I fight to win...for me!" Similarly, I just want to race to race.

But I think the over-charitization of running and triathlon has come to a dangerous point. More people are doing more races every year, but they are less prepared than ever. If you go to any triathlon right now, the number of overweight - even obese - participants is staggering. And I am sure to say participants rather than competitors because that's exactly what they are. Yeah, I'm an elitist asshole, but it's got to be said. They are slow and dangerous in the water, which is where, if you noticed, most people who are underprepared are dying. Heart attacks can happen to anyone, but when you are dangerously overweight and frighteningly unprepared for swimming in open water, your odds of a problem increase exponentially. Then, they are slow and even more dangerous on a bike. If I ride 25 miles per hour for 56 miles, it means I am putting together one of the 30 fastest bike splits in the race of nearly 2000 athletes. I clearly know how to ride a bike. Why is it, then, that I am scared to fucking death when I'm on that course? Could it be because not a single person out there can ride in a straight line? Or knows to stay to the right? Or can pick up a water bottle while riding and not fall off?

People: LEARN HOW TO RIDE YOUR FUCKING BIKES.

For that, I blame these organizations, for not teaching simple safety principles and basic knowledge and rules of the road. Triathlon isn't hard, it really isn't. You swim, you bike, you run. If you can't do these three things, you can't (or shouldn't) be doing triathlons.

Now, as terrible as I may sound, I would never discredit the reasons why someone is out there racing. As I've said, I race to race, but I know that not everyone is trying to do that. Some people are out there to change perceptions, to honor a loved one, or just to show they can. The only thing I care about is getting through a race safely, and as I would respect someone else's reasons for racing, I would expect they too would respect mine and not try to crash me out.

How does this tie in with the cost of racing? Well, direct cost is insurance premiums. I'm sure these races are getting dinged right now to the tune of a pretty penny for insurance. A 59 year old competitor died of an apparent heart attack at this past weekend's Nation's "Triathlon", which had canceled its swim so it became merely a 40k bike and 10k run. He had a problem within 5 miles on the bike. Situations like this inevitably mean that race directors have to pay out the yang to insure that they are not going to be sued when participants get hurt or worse.

I've noticed, too, that RDs have become lazier and lazier. Races have taken for granted that people are so enthralled by the notion of doing a triathlon that they put together shitty races and charge whatever they feel like charging, and people will pay it. I will probably be blacklisted if anyone ever reads this, but who cares. Piranha Sports is probably the worst. They have uninspired courses at the same venue all summer long, just repackaging the race under slightly different distances and calling it a different name. Shit by any other name is still shit. For a sprint in Delaware to cost over $100 is appalling. I already voice my opinions on SetUp Events' Rumpus in Bumpass, and in general I actually like SetUp races. I have always enjoyed Kinetic, and I love Luray. But again, Kinetic is virtually the same race as Rumpus, is the same race as Acorn or whatever they hold there in the fall. Luray is on pretty quiet roads with a total of literally 4 cops out there on the bike course, no on course support, and I just don't understand how they charge so much for these races.

CGI, CTA, they're all the same. Honestly, I don't even have a problem with paying $600 or more to WTC for an official Ironman race, because at least I know what I'm getting, and they generally have their shit together. 1.4 volunteers at IM Louisville for every 1 competitor.

Alyssa tweeted something the other day at Columbia Triathlon Association, about the registration fees being ridiculous, and they tweeted back something about how it goes to their ongoing support of charities.

I haven't signed up for Columbia yet, but if I do it will be $450 to race two races for next year. I have raced 21 times this year so far. Some have been lower or no cost, but I did do Eagleman, Columbia, IM Louisville and have IM AZ coming up - totaling some $1600 in race entry fees alone.

So here's what I feel needs to happen - of course nobody reads this so nobody will ever see this:

1. If it's permit fees and police costs that are driving the rate increases, RDs should really do a better job tallying information of how much money these races bring in for the community. Look at Louisville. Nobody is from there, everyone is staying at a hotel. We stayed 4 nights. We ate all our meals out in the town. Multiply that by 2000.

2. Make the "swag" better, or cut it altogether. I don't know about you, but I don't give a shit about receiving a medal to commemorate my Olympic distance race, particularly when that medal is a piece of shit. Or, in the case of my friend Mike's races, a recycled trophy with a new sticker on it to acknowledge my 2nd place finish. Don't even spend the money. Everyone has 10,000 t-shirts at home, so unless it's going to be particularly unique, maybe make it a separate option. The nice thing about signing up a year in advance for races is you have plenty of time to order the shirts. So how about you make that an option on registration, CTA, whether or not I want a shirt. And the hats they gave us at Columbia and Eagleman, great idea, terrible execution. If you've worn yours, you know what I'm talking about.

3. Make competitors feel like they're getting their money's worth. I have yet to do a Rev3 but I am going to make sure I do one next year. I hear people are treated like relative royalty. Columbia, don't be cheap, it's not pretty. CGI, don't think that you're in Columbia's league and expect $140 for your terrible NJ State Triathlon is a fair price.

4. Do something about the terrible state of participant fitness. Have physicals or something, I don't know. If you've never done a triathlon, maybe they should all be in their own wave - the last one. In other words, be more selective about who you're letting in to your races, if you would consider them a risk if YOU were selling them insurance, then you should consider that before you let them into your race.

5. On the same note, there needs to be more "expert" or "open" divisions. Columbia has an open wave, as did NJ Tri. Luray used to. I understand why it would be tough to do at a race like Eagleman, but they really should flip it around so that men between 25 and 44 are going relatively early. They are the fastest ones, and more significantly, the fastest ones on bikes. I probably wouldn't do Columbia in an age group, I'd honestly be too scared of riding past everyone on the bike course. I don't trust anyone.

Pros don't have the same concerns, generally, as they get to start a few minutes (or many minutes) early. But races need to acknowledge the existence of semi-pros, people who legitimately are fast and can and will finish high on the overall. I have separate ideas on this, maybe another post. Additionally, if you are fast enough to be a pro, and have qualified as such, you really need to stop sandbagging and just fucking do it. It used to be what everyone was working towards, and now people seem content to be considered an amateur, despite going to Colorado Springs to train with professionals for the whole summer, then coming back to be #1 amateur and 4th overall at Ironmans.

Triathlon, don't worry, it's not just you, it's running, too. Boston Marathon opened the other day. That went up in price. NYC Marathon is now well over $200. And that's a race that draws 45,000 people, with a quarter of the field filling from outside of the country, all descending upon New York to spend money. I just paid $95 for the race formerly known as Philly Distance Run. Granted, I signed up just the other day, but I think it was at least $75 when it was early registration time. Rock 'n Roll/Competitor Group is the absolute worst, whores among whores for money. They make money hand over foot and put on really annoying races. Unfortunately for me, PDR is the fastest race I can run. They are steadily taking over all marathons. Does anyone really care about the number of loud, shitty bands on the course? Or all the moms and their friends who buy all the matching clothes they can get their hands on?

Racers of the world need to unite, and remember that the only thing necessary for great races is a distance and a clock, and perhaps a great field. That's the spirit of the RM Classic. We'll start our own races.

It's just so odd to me, how racing is at an all-time high yet the economic climate could not be worse. Maybe it's because races seem so much less expensive than doing other things? I don't know, but to a person that spends $2000+ each year just on race entry fees, it's looking like it might push me out of the sport sooner than I thought. What will the breaking point be for a race like Columbia - $200? $250? I hope I'm not here to find out.

And yes, I wholeheartedly realize that I am complaining a lot when there is a simple solution: don't race so much. I choose my races, I make the conscious decision to spend that much money on these races, so I shouldn't complain. What I'm really asking for is an explanation. I just want to know, where does the money go? If you give me a breakdown, I'll be satisfied. I can do other races, I can do no races. But racing is in my blood, and I'll keep doing it until I can't, and will likely just keep paying.

Never Forget

2011-09-12T23:33:00.000-04:00

I will never forget where I was two years ago.

Fresh off my ACL surgery following getting mauled by a Ford Taurus over the summer, I had my dad drive me from our home in NJ back down to Baltimore in order to put on the RM Memorial 5k. We had assembled a very competitive field, with a couple of guys coming up from DC, and pound for pound it became the fastest 5k in the area. It was a Saturday morning, September 12th, 2009. We held the race at Goucher College amidst cool but overcast conditions. I marshaled the race from my crutches, and as soon as the race was done I had no energy left and had to head back up to NJ to continue my recovery.

A year later there didn't seem to be a convenient time to host this race, so on an whim we held it on a Tuesday in mid November. The conditions were quite good for a nighttime track 5000m, and again the results were pretty good for being essentially a time trial on the track. We held this version at Gilman, the site of our normal Tuesday Night Track Workouts, and we changed the name from RM Memorial to RM Classic.

The 2011 version worked out in a way that enabled us to host the race on 9/11, our own version of a Remembrance Run. The gun went off at 7pm, so it was a true twilight race. The air was rife with moisture, and it had just rained so the track was quite slippery. This year I was finally able to compete in my own race, so after we sang the National Anthem, 12 of us hit the track for what turned out to be an extremely competitive race. At least 5 track 5k PRs, and one all-time 5k personal best, were recorded. The average time for our 11 men was 16:58, and we had everyone (including female winner Meg McNew) under 19:30. Meg had run a 1:27 half marathon that morning, so the 5k time was even more impressive.

For me, I had originally hoped that today's post would have been a glorious celebration of my great triathlon result from Saturday, but alas, the weather had other plans. The days of hard rain and flooding caused the cancellation of the Lancaster Family YMCA Triathlon, and I was pretty pissed. Obviously there's not much they can do about the conditions, and safety first, but I'm allowed to be bummed. It's a race I love to compete at on a course I love to do. The bike course is hard, the run course is hard. It's a nice place to race and has always been one of my favorites, but unfortunately, I think I'm probably done with it. Next year I have alternative fall plans that will not include it, and I have been let down by this race now two straight years.

But, all wasn't lost, as I had a pretty good week last week nevertheless. My feeling good finally ran out, about mid-week, so I returned to the reality that was soreness and tiredness. Could be that I don't really sleep well anymore, or could have been that I ran 45 miles - one of the higher weeks I've had this year, and just a week after ironman. I probably overextended myself a bit by doing the Tuesday workout, which I did 4x1600 with just over a minute rest. I started off conservative, hitting 5:56 on my first and second, and then picked it up to 5:51, and then a 5:35. That made me a little tired, but some of the girls were still running (doing 5, 6 or 7 repeats) so I jumped in the second 800 of each, running about 2:50-2:53 and getting about 4 minutes rest. I was tired by the end, but 5.5 miles of intervals was more than I was originally looking to do, and I was pleased I could do it at all.

With the comical amount of rain we were having, that prevented me from getting outside on the bike, and I refuse to hit the trainer just yet (plus it is still living at Pat's house from last winter) so I didn't get outside until Thursday, when I managed a mere 21 miles after the roads dried up a little. I made it into the pool 3 times for 7k, and felt decent, but also got kicked out one day after 200m due to thunder and another day just didn't bother going because it was thundering all day.

When I found out the race was canceled on Friday (courtesy of Ed), I decided to change around my weekend plans a little. I ran up to the running store on Friday afternoon, which took a surprising 85 minutes (I think it's at least 11 miles). The humidity really shut my body down, and I was not psyched running uphill for that long. I got to the store, pretty depleted, and hung out there while the Brooks Cavalcade was doing their thing. It ended up being a later night than I've had in a while, so I was not up tremendously early on Saturday. Then, I wasn't real motivated to do much on Saturday, so I finally got into the pool in the afternoon and then ran with Ben for 35 minutes when he got to town.

Sunday, following the actual Run to Remember 5k (where Ben finished 2nd and Carly won!), I rode just under 60 miles with Ben on my sunflower loop - only there were no sunflowers. Just dead, brown sticks. It was just my third or fourth ride I guess since the race, and the others were just short rides, so I was actually a little tired by the end, and still had to race that night.

We headed up to the track and were immediately greeted by a level of humidity not often seen. It was misting like we were in the jungle or something, the air was thick and after warming up, I was already dripping. The track was pretty wet, too, from the rain. We lined up and got going, and immediately I found myself in 9th place. Dustin, Tristram, Conrad and Ed were out quick, all gunning for sub 16 minute efforts, and Arjun and Seth were looking to be under 16:40. Caught in between were Berardi and then Zero, and then myself. My first 1600 splits were 84, 84, 82, 84 for a 5:35. I had bridged up to Z and we ran together for the 2nd mile. On lap 5 I was just a little slow (86) so I decided to back off (visions of BRRC meet flashed through my head) and regrouped. The 3200 was split in 11:23 so a 5:48 1600, and then I felt a little better and was able to pick it back up slightly to a 5:46 last 1600, and then brought it home with a 37 second last 200 to finish in - 17:47.0. Mike and I literally tied, totally not on purpose.

The takeaway is that, two weeks after the ironman, I was able to run the same time for a 5k as I was just 10 days prior to it. So over the course of less than a month, I managed two 17:46/7 5k's and an ironman - not too bad.

The disappointing realization is that, in 2008, before I got hurt, I split 17:50 for the first 5k at PDR, and came through 10k in 36:05 and it was very easy. I don't expect to run that fast this weekend, but if I can keep it to low 6's, and ultimately run a little faster than I did at Miami, I'll be pleased. In my favor is that the weather should be pretty good, and I generally run pretty well at Philly, so I'd like to be under 1:20 (1:21:49 at Miami). I wasn't going to do it, I figured I didn't need to do it just to do it, but then I sadly realized it will be my last race as a 29 year old and I haven't missed it since I started going in 2006, so I'd like to keep that going for now.

The cancellation of Lancaster knocks me down a little bit from my attempt at 11 tri's for 2011. With it, I was only going to be at 10 anyway, so I was going to have to look for another one to do in the next few weeks. Now without it, I'm at 9, so I have to decide if I can feasibly do it or not. I just saw that there is a small race in NJ the first weekend of October, when I was planning on going home, so I may jump into that. With the next two weekends out of commission, and October 8th already going to be a race, it doesn't leave me with many options - so I may crap out just one short. Oh well. I've raced a lot anyway, and if I can get to 10, that's pretty sweet too. Maybe I'll actually be able to do good in one of them...

In other news, I am having a chuckle at some of the Google search words that have landed people at my blog this week:

dave chappelle jesus juice
drowning death of ryan mcgrath
erin feldhausen ironman wisconsin (brennan's sister)
mumra
old bud lite commercial antibiotics taste loss
rathbones ryan mcgrath
rumpus in bumpass triathlon virginia registration fees
ryan mcgrath umd

The internet is funny.

College Park, Where They Flip Them Birds

2011-09-05T23:18:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, I feel pretty awesome this week.

I say unfortunately because I would not have expected, or hoped, to feel very good a few days after an ironman. But when you get sick and don't end up running a marathon (opting to walk and just take longer), you tend to recover much quicker. That was the case last week, as I got back into the (reduced) swing of things:

Monday - OFF.

Tuesday - 1 mile, easy.

Wednesday - 1000m swim/7 mile run. I intended on swimming a little bit more, and when I got into the pool I felt awesome. But it was really cold, and I got a really bad headache so I just got out. Found out later that the pool's heater had been broken for 3 weeks. My run was a little longer than I anticipated, but I didn't want to make Ed and Pat amend their run too much so I just sucked it up. Just about 50 minutes, I was ready to be done by the end.

Thursday - 2 hour ride. I felt pretty good, I don't think I could have put in any kind of real effort, my left quad in particular was still a bit sore, but I was also generally surprised I felt at all good. It was a month before I got on the bike after Arizona, although more of that was related to it being cold, and having to ride the trainer when I started back up.

Friday - 6 mile run/3000m swim. I ran early with Pat and Ed, and I was tired, probably more from it being 5:30 in the morning than anything. It was so dark, and it was really humid. When I got in the pool later in the day, I felt awesome again. I ended up doing 3x200, 6x100, 10x50 and then 600 pull as my main set, and just felt really comfortable. The heater had been fixed so it was much better.

Saturday - 2000m swim. I had to drive to Connecticut today so I knew I'd only have time to get in one thing, and I also didn't really care if I took the day off. But, it worked out that I was able to get in the pool so I swam, and felt good again. Whodathunk that the week after IM I would feel better in the pool than I did all summer.

Sunday - 7 miles at Hartshorne Woods. This is one of my favorite places to run at home (NJ) but also a spot of great peril, as I broke my ankle in there back in 2003. The Hurricane last week had messed it up pretty good, but it was runnable, so I took Alyssa in there and put her through the wringer. She had a workout of 20min w/u, then short fartlek intervals of 15sec-30-30-45-60-75-90 and back down with 1:1 rest, then 20min c/d. This is a really hard place to run, so it wasn't ideal for that type of workout, but I think she had to run a bit faster overall on the run than she would have on her own so it all worked out.

For the week, that meant 6000m in the pool, 21 miles of running and 34 miles on the bike for just under 6 hours. I feel like that's a pretty good post-ironman week, not too much but not so little that I wasn't doing anything. Tonight (Monday) I ran 9 miles in the hardest rain I've ever run in, courtesy of Tropical Storm Lee. I'm racing again this coming Saturday at the Lancaster Family YMCA Triathlon, one of my favorite races of the year. It's every bit as challenging as Columbia (course-wise) but a lot more low-key, and it's a great time of year to race. I was disappointed to hear my buddy Andrew Yoder wasn't going to be there this year, but it's also kind of nice that someone else will get the opportunity to win!

With August firmly in the rearview mirror, I'll take a minute to grade myself:

Swimming - A. Had Louisville not gone as well as it did, I would probably be giving myself a D right now, but because it went well, I'm in a better mood. I swam like absolute dog shit at Luray, and every day I dragged myself into the pool was terrible. I was so unmotivated and so unhappy about the state of my swimming, but apparently it wasn't as bad as I thought, or I cut the course. Either way, getting under an hour was a big deal for me and I feel much more confident now, and that's even begun to show just this week in the pool. I was close to getting to 40k in the water for the month, but ended up with just 34,000 meters. Very little by anyone's standards.

Cycling - B+. By August I had mostly stopped going to Wednesday Night Ride, and instead opted for the slightly easier Thursday Night Ride instead. I tried to keep my miles per ride high, but I think I rode less times per week. I finished up the month with 572 miles. I was going to try to ride Tuesday or Wednesday of last week to get to an even 600 but I didn't really care. If I were grading myself on my races, I would probably give myself a lower grade. Luray went bad, but it was more a problem with the bike. I had a good race at that Pine Grove TT, but still had bike troubles. I finally got it settled for Louisville, and then getting sick removed the chance of having the ride I expected. But, I still rode 18 minutes faster than I did for the distance last year, and I know that over the next few months I can tweak a few things and should be able to be closer to that 5 hour mark.

Running - B. Again, looking at the races and I had a so-so run at Luray (compared to some it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't great), I had a decent track race (17:46 5000m following a 5:19 warmup mile) and then a stupefying 5:52 marathon that included more sitting than running. But, I know that one was a little out of my hands, and, just based on how I've been running this week, I don't feel bad at all about my fitness. I ran 142 miles for the month, which was a little less than last August, but of course I was trying to get my mileage up that month in order to be able TO race the ironman in November.

This summer has been one of the most sports-filled summers I can remember, with so much being televised. It also helped that in early August we were gifted with Universal Sports - it finally came to DirecTV! For me, that has meant I've been able to watch the Vuelta, Diamond League Meets and every event of the World Track and Field Championships. The US had a great meet, with some truly great performances. The Vuelta stands as the most boring of the Grand Tours, only because the roads are so shitty and the scenery is so heinous, but the race has actually been quite exciting. Tom Boonen broke his hand the other day as he crashed out of the Vuelta, and now is unsure of his ability to start the WC race later this month. But I was laughing when I read that it had been painful for him to ride as it was because of an open wound on his perineum. AKA his Taint. I know your pain, bro.

Then, the news filtered through that LeoPard Trek might be folding/joining forces with Team RadioShack, and it was confirmed - only it's RadioShack that is folding! RadioShack and Nissan will become sponsors of the LeoPard team, which holds the UCI license, so the new team will be something like RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. The roster is sick. Between that and Omega-Pharma-Lotto-QuickStep it's a battle for the super team. I don't know if it's good for cycling, but at the very least it will be interesting.

At Track Worlds, I felt bad for my girl Allyson Felix, who despite earning 4 medals (becoming only the 4th person in history to do so) did not win either of her individual events, and I'm sure it was a result of having to run the 400 heats and then the 200 heats. I think she'll be better off focusing on one for next year. She needs that Olympic Gold in the 200! Maggie Vessey ran three solid 800s, and Jenny Barringer Simpson had a great win in the 1500. For the guys, Matt Centrowitz (a native Marylander) won his semi-final heat with gusto, the kid seriously ran like an old pro as he fought and maintained his position, and went into a stacked final where he picked up an unbelievable bronze medal. Our field events, minus the shot putters, were really good - including our Jumpers (triple, long and high - all gold). There is one more Diamond League meet on this weekend and then track disappears for a while, but Cycling WCs is soon and it's also marathon season, so there will be plenty to watch during the fall. INCLUDING Ironman Louisville, end of September on Universal Sports.

Around here you can tell that marathon season is approaching, as everyone has been getting in their long runs and there seem to be many tired legs. The first one up is Chicago Marathon (Ed) and then Baltimore Marathon (Pat). After that it's Marine Corps, then NYC (Brennan, Joel, Carly, Nina, Suzanne and Diane), Richmond (Kris) and Philadelphia. Of course, I have my own marathon to run, again after the bike, in November, so I'll probably try and get in a few longer runs over the next two months. This Sunday, we will once again host the RM Classic 5k, a race that started after I got hurt in 2009. We run it on the track and it usually sees some pretty fast times.

I'm just pretty pleased that I've recovered this well. I remember back to last year when I felt terrible for a while. More than feeling beat up, I was definitely not feeling training for anything serious. Now, it's a different time and it's still early in the season, but I am really ready to go again. I have been gradually getting over this sickness, although I still have a lot of gross stuff in my nose, which is annoying. Alyssa and I went to my friends Jay and Mona's wedding in Greenwich CT over the weekend, which was a lot of fun, and got to spend a little bit of time at home and check in with a McGrath family function on Sunday at one of my uncle's.

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that the World Champion Green Bay Packers kick off the NFL season on Thursday night against the Saints, in Green Bay, where Brennan will be a communicant of the holiness that is Packer football.

But for now, I can sleep easy as the TERPS just beat The U in their first trip ever to College Park. A sign of changing times in Terpville? The uniforms are crazy, the helmets are crazy, but a win is a win. Even if 9 players on Miami were not allowed to play tonight!

Hold On (For One More Day)

2011-08-31T15:29:00.000-04:00

As I sat down on the side of the road on Sunday, contemplating whether I should, or even could, finish the race, the only thing I could focus on was:

I want my fucking t-shirt and medal.

When Ironman Louisville started up however many years ago, I never understood why anyone would do it. It almost always produced obscene temperatures and humidity, and just didn't seem fun. But when I traveled there in 2009 with Brennan to watch Alyssa compete in her first IM, I thought "hey, this isn't so bad." It was mid 70s, absolutely beautiful. Never before had I seen better weather at any race. With the help of Brennan's friend P.K., a local, we got from the airport to mile 90 of the bike course just ahead of Alyssa coming through. After coming to the rescue of a mechanical (broken pedal), we zoomed back to town and got ready to pedal to various spots of the run course to watch Alyssa. The course seemed so nice, and it seemed like there were tons of spectators the entire way. The finish line on 4th Street Live! is among the best in the sport, and the medal Alyssa earned was awesome - it was a little horseshoe.

While racing on Sunday, I thought "man, this race was a lot more fun in 2009."

Since the 6 or 7 people that read this probably know how I did already, I'm sure you're also wondering WTF happened? To answer that, I'll go back to the beginning of last week.

Tuesday - I went to the track workout with plans of running just a couple of easy miles, but I felt good and I wanted to stretch out the legs a bit, so I ran with Melissa's group through part of the workout (1200-400-1200, 1000-400-1000, 800-400-800). I felt really comfortable on the first one, running just under 5:40 pace, and then pulled out a 71 on the 400. I was going to call it after the 2nd 1200, but I felt alright and continued on the with the 1000 set, and ran a little bit quicker. After the 2nd 1000, I was done, and felt good about the light workout.

Wednesday - I sucked it up and got in the pool, but didn't feel very good and was really down after the workout, frustrated with my swimming. I rode an easy 90 minutes in the evening, and it was pretty windy - which reminded me of my Wednesday ride before Arizona last November.

Thursday - Early morning swim before driving out to Louisville, Alyssa and I swam a short 1600m and I felt slightly better than Wednesday, but at this point I've resigned myself to a 1:10 swim on Sunday.

Health-wise, I was feeling pretty good this week, with the exception of a canker sore. I will get these from time to time, usually related to periods of overtraining, stress, or, just general sickness. I wasn't really going to sweat it, though, because it came early in the week and I figured it should be good by the weekend.

My memory of Louisville was admittedly a bit hazy, as Brennan and I had taken a 6:20am flight on Sunday, following the wedding of Arjun and Melissa in Chicago. With fewer than 2 hours of sleep and much liquor consumed, we were somewhat out of it when we got picked up at the airport around 9am. That, and we were whisked away to wherever P.K.'s girlfriend lived to pick up bikes, then somehow we found a McDonald's (and saw a dead deer right on the road!) and found the bike course. I remember the bike course being crowded with cars and cyclists having to ride through them. I don't remember how we got back into the city, but we parked and then were zipping back and forth on the course for the next 4 hours. It was 7pm when we were done, we ate dinner and then went to P.K.'s apartment to crash for a few hours before an early flight back to Baltimore.

This year I had decided on driving out there, and Alyssa was up for it so we left Thursday around 7:30. Following the earthquake on Tuesday, Baltimore was bracing for the potential wrath of Hurricane Irene. I don't know if we drove through it, or some other weather system, but for five hours of our drive we were in a torrential downpour. While it made the drive a little tough, it actually helped time pass a little quicker, and before we knew it we were in Charleston, WV, eating surprisingly good pizza in an otherwise unsurprising town.

We had made fairly good time when we got to Lexington, and since it seemed lke UK's campus wasn't far off the highway, I wanted to go have a look. This unfortunately added an hour to our drive, as the traffic was terrible and campus was super busy. I like to run a lap on the track at campuses I visit, so I was disappointed when we found their track and it was gone - just dirt! They were clearly renovating the entire complex. My disappointment was abated by the UK women's cross country team that ran by us though. To keep the spirit of Title IX alive, the men's team was out there too, for Alyssa.

Back on the road and we were in Louisville by 7:30, and we checked into the hotel - some 300 feet from the finish line. We headed out for a shakeout run and there was a commotion a block up. Apparently someone had climbed to the top of a construction crane, drunk as a skunk, and was threatening to jump. I've never seen anything like it. Nor have I seen anything like the people on the ground, all the les miserables of Louisville, filming with their phones. When I caught a glimpse of the man on the scaffolding, who eventually came down, I swear to you that I recognized him. I am 99% sure that this guy was driving in a car that was stopped at a light when we got into town, and he was throwing up in his car. The timeline and level of inebriation was right, so I'm pretty sure it was.

Crisis averted, it was time for dinner, then bed. Friday morning we got up and headed over to the Galt House for registration. Pretty easy process, and then Mike and I headed out for a little ride. We just went out and did the first 12 miles of the course, enough to see the way out of transition (very flat, but road surface not great at times) and then we saw a hill that we didn't expect, so we went up that before turning around. When we got back, I started getting a little stuffed up. I thought maybe it was just allergies, as I tend to not do great with new environments this time of year (e.g., lots of trees) and occasionally have trouble in hotels. I brushed it off and we went about our day, but by dinner it was a lot worse, and I caved and got a Claritin and some throat lozenges. I still struggled to sleep on Friday night. Part of that was definitely the obnoxious level of noise bouncing up from 4th Street right into our 10th floor, 4th Street-facing room. I would have expected live concerts to have to finish by 10 or 11pm, but apparently they can keep going until 1am. In case you are in the same situation, ask for a non-4th Street-facing room!

Saturday morning I woke up and it was not good. Mike and I walked down to the practice swim, and we did about 20 minutes in the water. The current wasn't as friendly as I thought it might be, but you could obviously notice it. The water was warm, and it was dirty. It definitely did not help me get better. After the swim, Mike and I went for a 25 minute run and my body was starting to feel pretty achy. We ate lunch, and then got our stuff to transition. To avoid another mile walk, Mike and Alyssa rolled down on their bikes while I transported mine, along with our bags, in the car. Then, we drove the bike course, to find out that it was much hillier than we thought! The three of us certainly didn't mind, as the topography was pretty similar to Baltimore County, and most of our rides. The out and back section looked tough, with a fairly fast, twisty descent into a long climb up to the turnaround, then back out onto the loop. The last 20 miles or so looked like they could be pretty quick.

All the while, I was not able to breathe. We had even acquired a Neti Pot and I tried that to no avail - my nasal passage was so blocked that the water wouldn't go through. I felt like I was coming down with a little fever, and I finally took DayQuil around 4pm. We went to dinner that night as I called friend and triathlon confidant, Brian Shea, to ask if he had any suggestions for how I could get through the race. I was not positive I could make it through the race, but since I could obviously wait until morning to decide, I took a NyQuil at 9pm and tried to go to sleep.

I woke up Sunday and could breathe a little better, not much, and I was really, really dehydrated. We went down to transition, and then over to the swim start, where apparently 6am was too late to get there and have a decent position in line. Holy shit. I was not going to sit in line from 4am on, that was for sure. We were pretty close to the end of the snaking line, and just sat there as we heard the cannon boom for the pros (6:50am) and then age group (7:00am). We eventually got moving and finally made it onto the ramp when they stopped athletes from getting in the water. A few minutes went by and then all of a sudden paramedics were racing down to the water, where they had just pulled someone out. He was a big guy, probably 250 pounds or more, and he was completely blue. I have never seen anything like it. They were doing chest compressions and racing him to the hospital, but you knew. You just knew. There was no way he was going to make it, and unfortunately, that was confirmed after the race. It was upsetting, and the IM staff then had to regroup and try and pump everyone back up to get into the water. And that's where my day started.

Swim - 59:42 (138th overall, 21st 30-34)

I did three things different in this race that I could possibly attribute this great swim (for me) to:

1. Shaved my legs
2. Wore my watch
3. Breathed to my right

I normally shave my legs, but this year I got real lazy. I hadn't shaved since prior to Eagleman. And really, it doesn't matter, it's not like that was making me swim terrible all summer. As far as the watch, I didn't even turn it on, I had just forgotten to put it into my T1 bag so I had to wear it. But the breathing to the right may actually have helped. Normally I have trouble doing that and going in a straight line, so I just breathe to my left. Which then means that I'm breathing basically every other stroke, and that seems to tire me out a little bit more. My left arm will be more tired and my head/neck gets tired.

Alyssa jumped into the water first, then me, then Mike. I saw Mike just take off, but didn't see where Alyssa went, and it was just a sea of green and pink caps. The swim starts off with a little shelter from Towhead Island, swimming upstream, before turning around and then coming back with the current to the finish. On the map it looks like the first third is up and the second 2/3 is back, so if the current is friendly, most athletes can see a time close to what they would swim with a wetsuit. I felt much more comfortable in this swim, and I think part of it is the time trial start. Despite having to swim around many people, it allowed me to warm up and then get rolling, as opposed to a mass start where I feel compelled to go hard at the start, then have to recover a bit.

As I steamrolled people, I thought "I have never felt so fast" - so thanks to all the slow swimmers for making me feel good about something on Sunday! I rounded the far buoy and was able to sight the buildings for the way home. The morning was also somewhat overcast, and even if the sun had been out, it would have been behind us on the way home, so I felt like I could just put my head down and go. At some point, though, I looked and I was really far to the right of the buoys. I corrected myself, and a few minutes later was really far to the left. I don't know how that happened. Either way, I felt like I was swimming forever, and while I was comfortable, I was also ready to be done. Imagine my surprise when I exit the water and see 1:33:xx on the clock - that meant I had swam about an hour! I couldn't believe it. Then I started thinking that the water was probably super friendly and people probably swam under 45s because there was no way I swam that fast. Either way, I wasn't going to complain. I made it under an hour, which meant 2:39 faster than I went at Arizona last year, and it would be great if I could swim about the same time even at AZ this year.

T1 - 4:12

It was maybe 100 or 150m to run up the concrete to the transition area, where we picked up our bags. I went a row past my bag's row, and the ground was really wet and muddy and my legs went out from underneath me as I tried to correct to my row. I stayed upright, fortunately, grabbed my bag and went into the tent. I had the top half of the speedsuit already off, stripped the rest and put on my jersey (yep, wore a jersey on the bike, best decision of the day). I carried my socks and shoes with me to my bike so I didn't have to run on the mud in my Speedplay cleats, which tend to pick up mud quick.

Bike - 5:14:21 (76th overall, 14th 30-34, 21.38mph)

I rode 5:32 last year at Arizona. The effort was not hard, but I got really tired after the wind, rain and the boring course. Now with months of hard riding back under my belt, and a new bike, I felt like <5:10 was going to be pretty easy, and my goal was 5 hours. As I don't ride with a computer, I rely on my watch to give me 10 mile splits so I can keep track and have some idea of how fast I'm going, but really I just go on perceived effort. Can't ride faster than you can ride.

In the first few miles I wanted to establish a rhythm but also had to be careful, since my late start meant I still had to pass hundreds of people. I was pretty much hugging the yellow line, as the hordes of novice cyclists rudely and inappropriately rode all over the road. I barely trust people I know to handle bikes properly, so I certainly don't trust people I don't know - especially not Ironpeople. I passed through 10 miles around 26 low so I knew I was riding pretty well, and headed up the hill. That was a cluster. I slipped into the small chain ring and just cruised on by, and at the top it began to open up a little. It was shortly after the top that I passed Mike. But, I was so out of it that I didn't know what happened, and thought he was coming up on me. He goes "you must have swam pretty well" and then I was just confused, I thought he meant I came out of the water ahead of him, which then made me think I must have somehow swam less, because I wasn't sure how I hadn't seen him as I came up on him. I finally figured it out and continued onto the out and back.

That was pretty harrowing. People of varying skills and stones meant there were people zooming down the hill on the left, there were water bottles rolling down the hill, bumps at the bottom, really dodgy. I felt good though and rode up the hills really well. My only concern was that, at an hour in, I haven't gone to the bathroom since the early morning. The medicine had dried me up and despite my best attempts at rehydrating, I wasn't going to be able to make up the deficit. And eating was very tough still as I couldn't breathe through my nose so I had to chew and breathe at the same time. Otherwise, I felt okay.

Onto the loop, and as we headed into the town of La Grange, we were going into a stiff headwind. This was not fun. Coupled with a number of false flats, it felt like I was going nowhere. But it's deceptive because I'm flying past people and nobody is going by me, so it's hard to say how I'm actually doing. I had been riding pretty consistent 10 mile splits but then around mile 60, with a tailwind, my quads seized up. They had just not been lubricated enough, and there was simply no way I was going to be able to get enough water to them.

I backed off a little to let them relax, and then found my rhythm again and kept going. The same thing happened on the second loop though, in basically the same place (mile 90). At that point I was thinking shit, I have 22 miles to go, another hour of riding and I'm at 4:12 or something. This is not the day I thought I'd be having, and more importantly, how am I going to run??

When we left the people going onto their second loop you finally had an idea of just how few people were in front of you. I exchanged positions a few times on the way back in with a couple of people and the last 10 miles were particularly annoying as we were treated to a cross/headwind. I came into T2 at 5:14:21, which is an improvement on my soft time from November, but I wasn't real psyched. I was, however, psyched that it was so easy aerobically. I really do feel good about that distance and riding it pretty quick, so I expect to ride fast in November.

A few other notes from the bike:

1. I think I will always wear a regular jersey on the ride at these races. Since I don't wear a one piece for the race, I can race in tri shorts and no top. Then, just leave the jersey in my bag, packed with my food, thus eliminating the need for a Bento box or anything like that. The less on my bike, the happier I am. After the bike, I just take that off and put on a running singlet anyway.

2. I had acquired one of the little setups to put a water bottle cage in between the aerobars. I don't like the idea of having them behind my seat, so I decided the front would be good. In general, I liked it, but the cage did not embrace the Deer Park 20oz sport bottles very well, in fact at all. So I either have to find a different cage or figure out something else.

3. Besides it tasting terrible, Powerbar's Perform drink is annoying. When you tried to twist the top of the cap to drink, the entire top would come off. Very annoying, very sticky. Powerbar should do something about this.

T2 - 4:59

I took my time here, I ended up taking off my tri shorts and put on my running shorts, and changed into my singlet.

Run - 5:52:08 (1136th overall, may as well have been DFL, 13:25/mi)

I can actually break this down to what I was thinking every step of the way.

Miles 1-3 (7:23, 7:00, 7:14): Surprised. My legs actually felt okay. I was concerned about going out too fast, so I made sure it felt like I was walking. 7:23 up and over the bridge, 7:00 down. Super comfortable. Hey, there's Mike, how did he get in front of me? (note: he had virtually caught back up to me by the end of the bike and then passed me in transition tent) I feel okay, I can do this. Don't think about being sick.

Miles 4-6 (8:13, 8:13, 9:13): Ugh. I stopped in the bathroom in mile 4 to try and pee. It actually hurt coming out, it was so dark. Without that stop it would have been a 7:35. Then I just had to slow down. I was carrying a flask of orange Gu, and could not get it down. At the aid stations, I could not take anything other than water.

Miles 7-10 (9:43, 10:55, 12:14, 16:28): Uh-oh. I was walking a lot more now, and by mile 10 I had come to a complete halt. I realized that there was nothing I could have done, I was just too sick to have competed. I was sad for a minute, but kept on.

Miles 11-13 (13:13, 16:50, 29:56): Dammit. Why? All the time. Can't catch a break. It was here that I literally sat on the sidewalk for a really long time. People were asking me if I was okay. Then two cops came and made sure they didn't need to call medical. I said I was fine, I just didn't want to do it.

Miles 14-15 (54:14): Yep, just sitting here, hanging out. I looked pretty casual at this point, as I was just wearing running shorts and a white singlet. My number was somewhat obscured by the singlet, which was covering it, and if I hadn't been wearing a chip, I don't know if anyone would have thought I was racing. Here I was hanging out near the hotel, but not at it, because I didn't want to see it. I waited for Alyssa, who had swam and ridden the shit out of the course (1:05, 5:43, was in 3rd in her AG off the bike, had the 28th fastest bike split of the day) but was struggling on the run. Her coach, Hillary Biscay, was racing too and had passed her, and told her she had to finish. And so it will be, I said. I'll go with you.

At this point I was feeling very ill. I hadn't eaten anything in 3 hours, because I couldn't, not because I wasn't hungry (I was starving). I actually contemplated grabbing money from Alyssa's dad and walking over to Qdoba and getting a burrito. The course also seemed very quiet, much quieter than 2009. I remember riding our bikes on the sidewalk and actively having to avoid crashing into people, and the special needs volunteers were so loud, and the aid stations were loud. I remember the Ford Inspiration Station kicking, and the Louisville U. aid station being awesome. They were all physically there this year, but they were just quiet, and there were fewer overall spectators. I also realized that, at 20 minutes per mile, I'm covering 3 miles per hour and that's going to be 4 more hours. I had to at least do 15 minute miles so I could make it in a reasonable time.

As we headed out onto the second loop, the two of us silently shuffled along the road. I was able to run for a few minutes, then I'd have to walk, then I could run to an aid station, then walk. The process was arduous, but the rhythm had us splitting miles of 12:24, 13:41, 12:05, 11:42, 11:40, 12:32. It was the most I could do. I couldn't breathe, and I was really struggling, but I was getting there. Alyssa seemed to be doing a little better, but not much. After we hit the turnaround and were on our way back, I felt worse but was buoyed by the fact that we were at least on our way back in. Almost amazingly we split the next three miles at 13:30, 13:30 and 13:32. I didn't plan it, that's just how fast you go when you walk for a few minutes each mile.

At one of the final aid stations, it was probably the best thing I'd heard all day - Justin Bieber's "Baby" came on, and suddenly it was all good again. Not that I physically any better, but I just felt better. We hit mile 25 in 12:58 and then we could finally see the end. We crossed the finish line together in 12 hours, 15 minutes and 20/21 seconds.

What I said at the beginning, about all I want is my t-shirt and medal, I wasn't joking. During my hours of quiet time with myself, enduring yet another beyond terrible day, I realized that I don't train for races to not finish. I don't start races to not finish. I work entirely too hard to go to these things and call it a day because it didn't work out in my favor. On this day, I got sick. I just needed my body to hold on for one more day and things probably would have gone my way. But it didn't. I could look back and say "hey great job doing as well as you did in the swim and bike being sick, and then finishing when it was really tough" but I really don't care. I finished because I wanted my t-shirt and medal. It could have been a 5k, it could have been a marathon - if it's a race, I will finish it.

I got through the finishing chute as the sun was behind the buildings, so it was just starting to get dark at 7:45pm, and walked over to get some food. It was freezing in this building, so the trip inside was brief. I happily ate three slices of pizza, and then walked back over to the hotel to take a shower. What started as a shower turned into a bath, where I then fell asleep for a few minutes, before going back down to meet the gang at Red Star. Around 11pm we drove down to transition to get our stuff, and then headed up top of 4th Street to watch the last half hour of finishers come through. While there, we took the opportunity to get some frozen beverages from Wet Willie's, our favorite Miami post-race spot (so it's cool that Louisville has one). Since the race had been held up 10 minutes to evacuate the downed competitor, they let the official race finish go until 17:10:00. We watched the last people come through and headed back to the hotel, ready to sleep.

We woke up the next day and headed to Panera for some breakfast, and then over to Galt House for the rolldown allocation. Mike ended up with a great day - 9:49 for 44th/13th with a 58:01 swim, 5:16 bike and 3:26 run, but as our competitive age group only had 6 slots, he was out. Strangely, in W25-29, one of the two spots went unclaimed and since 3rd place had already earned her slot, it went to 4th. But 4th wasn't there. Neither was 5th. Or 6th. Holy shit. Despite a terrible day, Alyssa's 17th place was not looking out of reason to earn the slot. It finally stopped on 12, and the girl freaked out and gladly accepted. Oh well.

Then it was over to Awards Banquet, which I did not go to in Arizona. This was pretty fun. The food was great, and they do a really good job. And, Hillary and her friend, another pro from Australia, chilled out with us and we had some good chuckles. After awards it was time to hit the road, and Alyssa and I made our way out of Louisville with some great weather to drive in. I stopped a few times to stretch, and I unfortunately had another fairly severe case of hiccups (note: if anyone knows why this happens to me and only me following these events, I would love to chat). We were going to stop in Morgantown, WV, for the night, and got there just in time to get some sushi from a place that closed at 10. It magically stopped my hiccups, so that was cool. Went to bed, woke up the next day and made the rest of the trip (after running a lap on WVU's shitty blue track), stopping in Cumberland, MD, for lunch. The weirdest part of the day was for as nasty as it was on Thursday, it was beautiful on Tuesday, and we heard the SAME songs in the SAME places as we did on our way out. Not strange if it's top 40, but these were some definite random jams from back in the day that you would almost never hear with frequency. It was very strange, as if we were caught in some Bermuda Triangle wormhole. I half expected to get back and the race never happened, like we were heading there this weekend or something.

Last November I was able to finish the Ironman, finally accomplishing that goal, and moreso capping the tumultuous year and change since the accident. This year was a lot different. Louisville was a race I signed up for largely because Alyssa and Mike were going to do it, and I figured I'd be in shape for it so why not. I also wanted another opportunity to get the distance in. Last year, it was Thanksgiving week, and I was tired, and I came back and it was cold, and I was ready to be done with training and racing. This year, I still have a fall schedule of races and a return to Arizona. And I'm more excited for it than I thought - I legitimately had concerns that I would finish the race on Sunday and be complacent and not want to do anything. Maybe that's the benefit of having a bad day.

The only thing I can say is that most people I know have not had bad days like that. Most haven't suffered like that. I wonder what would happen if they did? Would they quit? Would they continue, even though the marathon took them nearly 6 hours? To put it in perspective, my 12:15 race was 711th out of 2439. That's a lot of people finishing after that time. A 12 hour race is faster than a lot of people could ever imagine going, so it would be disrespectful to drop out just because I'm going to be out there for a real long time. I guess, if I had to, I would have completely walked the entire thing (I actually don't think it would have been much slower considering how long I stopped on the side of the road).

For now, a small break this week to let the legs rebound, and then next week will be light too as I head into the Lancaster Triathlon on Saturday, 9/10.

Oh, and the medal this year? It sucked. No horseshoe. Just some lame rectangle thing. I was so mad.

Age Old Adage

2011-08-23T12:42:00.000-04:00

What's that old saying that seems particularly applicable to me?

If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any [luck].

While I do always have a chip on my shoulder, feeling like things just never seem to work out in my favor, this summer has been particularly oppressive. Take this past weekend, for example. Following the debacle of my rear wheel at Luray just the previous weekend, I decided I wanted one problem-free ride on Frankenstein before Louisville. Just one. The obvious choice was to go to Church Creek out on the Eastern Shore for their 40km TT on Saturday. It's essentially the Eagleman course, in reverse. Flat, fast. 3 years ago in my first time trial, I rode 58:55. I didn't feel it was my best day, my legs seemed really stale that month, but it was a good result. I figured I could go out there and do at least that again, but regardless of how fast or slow I went, I just wanted a good ride on my time trial machine.

It must have been on Thursday that Alyssa brought to my attention that the registration had closed for Church Creek and that there would be no race day registration. Shoot. But, fortune smiled upon me, as Alyssa then found another race, on Sunday in PA, that was about the same distance from Baltimore and seemed pretty decent. Done. Before I registered, I emailed the director to make sure it was going to take place even if the field was small (there were just 5 signed up by Friday morning). He said yes, so I signed up. The race was in Gardners, which was 18 miles past Gettysburg. The drive on Sunday was pretty easy at 6am, and since I haven't been to Gettysburg in a really long time, it was cool to see it again.

Backtracking for a moment, last week's training was super light. After the track meet on Wednesday, I actually took Thursday off completely. More and more I've been feeling really just low and my motivation to train is non-existent. The weather last week didn't help, with a lot of afternoon/evening thunderstorms of great intensity. Following the Thursday day off, I ran with Brennan and Ed early on Friday morning. Brennan was aiming to get in his weekend long run (20) and Ed was looking to do his Friday run (9) so there was a big spread. I wanted to run 12 or 13, basically 90 minutes. We crafted a route that would have been a lot more hood if it was run in the afternoon, but at 5:45am it was quiet. It was also uphill for the first 35ish minutes, before we started coming back down towards the city. I felt okay, still sore from Wednesday's track effort, but got through 90 minutes by 7:15 and was pleased. I went to swim later in the day, but found that the pool was closed for a private event, and then I would have gotten kicked out anyway as another storm popped up.

Saturday morning Alyssa, Z and I rolled out early for an easy 2.5 hour ride, which Mike and I chased with a 4 mile easy run. My legs were a little tired but more concerning was my heart rate, which just seemed way higher than it should have been. I hadn't ridden since Sunday though, so I figured maybe it was just that. I had wanted to get into the pool later, but a few friends randomly descended upon Baltimore so we spent the rest of the day with them.

Now it's Sunday morning, and I wasn't totally psyched to have to get up real early to go race again. But I got up and went. Alyssa came with me, and was going to do her hour run when we got there. We arrive at this place after 95 minutes of driving, and it is assembling in a parking lot for some kind of fast food shack, Swirly Top, on the side of PA Route 94 (Carlisle Rd). It was the entrance to this state park, Pine Grove Furnace or something, where the AT crosses through. There were a few cars in the small parking lot, so it looked like it was going to be a pretty small event. I went to warmup, looking to get in at least 40 minutes. The race director kept telling us how flat it was, and that there were just a few rollers in the middle. As I rode my warmup all I could think was "You ain't got to lie Craaaaaaiiiigg" because this thing was only going up. Every so often you'd go up something steeper that would enable you to then go down a little bit, but the route was clearly going up.

I went out about 20 minutes and came back and since it was a little faster, I wanted to keep warming up until 10min before my start time (9:03). I turn around and I noticed that someone was on my wheel - which is weird, especially on a warmup. I saw a little patch of gravel and didn't want to ride over it, but as this person just showed up, I didn't know if he was sitting there, if he was going to pass, whatever, so I just went over it and then PSSSFFFTTT. Rear wheel flat. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Now I'm about a half mile away from the start/finish, and while I had stuff on me to fix the tire, I just didn't even feel like it. I had just 10 minutes, and it was not going well. I couldn't get the valve extender off, it was glued on too tight. Fortunately, some other guy was warming up still and saw me, so he went back to the start, got his van, drove back and picked me up, and then lent me his training wheel to ride. But, for some reason it did not want to cooperate and I was having trouble getting it on.

I was super frustrated - scratch that - really angry, and didn't want to ride anymore. Alyssa was tremendously helpful in trying to get the wheel situated, because I was out of it. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I just drove an hour and forty to come to this stupid race, to have ONE day where shit doesn't go wrong, but clearly that isn't possible. And yeah, I realize it's just a flat, and that they happen and whatever, but this is the second flat in 7 days I've gotten on this bike. The other one came last weekend following the race, driving home. How does a tire explode when you're not even riding it? So, here is me officially telling Vittoria that this tire you make is complete shit. I've never had problems with a bike before like this one.

Whatever. I get the wheel on and am ready to go. The guy who loaned me the wheel started, and :30 later, I went. We were last by many, many minutes. Off the line, this guy got after it. That probably helped me because otherwise I think if I didn't see anybody right away, I would have just phoned it in. I was using him as my carrot, and for the first mile or 2 he stayed about :30 up it seemed, I certainly didn't appear to be making any headway into his head start. Then the first bigger hill came, and I started bringing it back. On the second one, it was all over. Since I had ridden it in my warmup, I knew I wasn't going to be stupid and try and get up in my big ring, so I dropped down and was able to spin up. I passed him, and two other people, real fast. Then I just got rolling. I wouldn't say there were false flats, as you knew you were riding uphill, but they were at a small enough grade that you could still push in the big ring and stay in the aerobars, but it was hard. My HR was really high, I was working. I managed to pass a few people and then saw a couple more ahead. I tried not to stand too much, saving my legs a bit. I had a watch going and would check my 5k splits, and I felt like I was going to hit the turnaround around 32 and change.

It's 31 minutes now and I see people coming back at me. Cool, maybe I'm riding really, really well, and picking these people up! But where's the turnaround? It should be here...Nope. Turnaround was still another couple minutes away, because from mile 9 to 12.4 it was seriously difficult. I finally get to the turnaround, and now you can see what you just went up. I don't think I even pedaled for 3 miles on the way down, I was spinning out and I felt like I may as well just tuck in a little bit. There was nobody in front of me at this point that I could see, and I just focused on keeping an honest effort so that none of the poor climbers behind caught me on the descent.

For as hard as I was working on the way up, it was really difficult to work on the way down. My HR dropped, and for the first half of the way back I seriously didn't pedal that much. With a few miles left, I saw one person ahead of me, who I could tell was a girl, and I passed her inside the last mile. It had flattened back out and I was pushing hard, but the finish was not coming quickly enough. I crossed the line in 1:02:04 and thought holy shit, that is not fast. I recovered pretty quick and while my original intention had been to ride another hour, I didn't want to have to ride on this dude's wheel so when he came through I asked if he wanted to go cooldown. He said he wasn't going to ride, but he was thinking of running, so I said sure, I'll do that. We just went out a mile and came back, kept it chill, but I felt really good.

Got back and they were finalizing results, and here's how it shook out:

1. Scruffy college kid, 58:43 (!!!)
2. Some other guy, 59:35
3. Some really, really old looking dude, 1:00:02
4. Another pretty old dude, 1:00:45
5. Moi, 1:02:04

My initial reaction was, I can't believe I got TIME put into me by these old guys, how does that even make sense? But then I realized I'm a week out from an Ironman, they appear to be cyclists, no big deal. The kid that won went to Franklin Marshall College, and as he rolled out I noticed he got into a minivan with Colorado tags. Makes more sense now.

It took me 34:36 to ride 20km to the turnaround, an average speed of 21.55mph. On the way down, I rode 27:28, or 27.15mph. For the entire effort it was an average speed of 24.03mph. For my effort, I was rewarded with an amazing certificate (something I would have made on my Gateway Computer when we first got Microsoft Publisher or something) and a check for $15. Time trials are way better than triathlon. I paid $30 for the race. I won back half of that. I put in a really hard effort, and was able to run off the bike. I think next year I may just find TTs to do, and run off the bike. It will save me hundreds of dollars each year and make me less angry because I won't be around triathletes. And, since swimming sucks anyway, I can just do that when I get back home.

Oh, and the elevation profile? 692 feet at the start. 1453 at the turnaround. That's 760 feet over 12.4 miles, with 400 of those feet coming from mile 9 to the turnaround. I don't know how to post a picture so I'll just link to the graph: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5027179

The temperature was around 70 when we got there, and had worked up closer to 80 by the end, and it was really humid. The pads on my bars were soaked. We left and headed back towards Gettysburg, and stopped there for lunch. I realize that Gettysburg is quite the tourist destination but I think it must have been moving day for the college because there seemed to be a lot of college age kids and families. It started raining, then stopped, and then as we got back into Maryland we could see the storms to the south. Since I now had to get a(nother) new tire, I stopped at Race Pace in Owings Mills to get that done. I should have just saved myself $160 from the get-go and not bought the tires I had. I am hoping these new ones will not fail me. Coming back into the city and it was one of the more insane storms I've seen in a long time. Fells was already flooded and not long after I got home, a tree on my street (I know, rare in the city anyway) came crashing down on top of a car, totaling it. My roommate's car was behind the one that got totaled, fortunately his was okay. His car had gotten totaled in front of out old house earlier this year when a drunk driver crashed into it in the middle of the night. The highlight of the day was Fox45 coming to check out the scene and since Ed and I were the only ones on the street, we were interviewed and got on the news.

For the week, it was less than 10 hours. I rode just twice for a whopping 75ish miles, and ran 32 miles. Just one swim for 3k. At this point I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot, other than confidence. I swam yesterday and felt alright.

In other news, the Vuelta a Espana began over the weekend. It's cycling's third and final Grand Tour of the season, and unfortunately, the most boring. I wonder if it was always as boring as it's been for the decade or so that I've been following. Most of the race seems to take place through the desert. There is very little variation in scenery, and while it does offer up some really, really tough climbs (among the steepest in cycling), it is just so boring it's hard to watch. Most of the sprinters use it for prep for the World Championship race (late September) so they do a few stages then drop out. Very few legitimate guys treat it as serious, and they are usually the ones who crashed out of the Tour. And they seem to ride a lot of miles on highways. Meanwhile, in Colorado, the US Pro Cycling Challenge is concurrently taking place, and it seems like a one week race was more enticing, and they probably have a lot of money because EVERYONE is there. For us viewers it just means more cycling to watch, and then World Track Championships start this weekend. I won't be able to watch much over the weekend, which is too bad. I'll post again before I leave.

Dimensia, What a Beautiful Name

2011-08-19T19:06:00.000-04:00

"It means 'insanity'"

I am definitely losing it right now. I just walked into 7-11 and stared at the drinks for about ten minutes before selecting what I was probably going to choose anyway - a Coke. I am becoming increasingly incoherent, and my body really seems to be failing me. I seriously just sat there and hemmed and hawed over what I wanted to drink following a failed attempt at getting in the pool.

With IM Louisville now in real sight (9 days away), I do realize that there's nothing I can do to increase my fitness above where it is. I do understand that rest is best. But, I still feel like I'm not doing enough. I ran our 7 mile run on Monday, and Tuesday got in the pool for 3k pretty easy. Wednesday I elected to head to the final BRRC Summer Track Meet, which would feature a mile and a 5000m. It's almost embarrassing how far I've slipped in my "speed" since May. Looking back, I was on the track more then than I was now, and doing some shorter, faster workouts, but the 5:20 I ran on Wednesday felt just as hard as the 5:00 I ran in May. Crazy.

I went into the meet with a goal in mind for the 5k, and the mile was serving more as a warmup. I honestly intended on just running 5:30, and trying to negative split it and run comfortably. The first lap (409m) I was behind the two Megs as we crossed in 83 seconds. It was comfortable. Then I ran 80. Still okay. Next was a 79. Not too bad. But at this point I realized I could run under 5:20 and thought that was worth trying for, so I attempted to pick it up. I ran a 76 last lap, which is obviously not great, and the last 100 I was tying up. I'll see what their "official" times have me at, but I had 5:19.7 on my watch.

Yes, I finally got a watch. I didn't want to have to get a Timex Ironman one, but I didn't want to buy another Polar as I never use the HRM feature and I still have faith that my old one will show up again.

Following the mile, I tried to keep loose as we waited for the 5k. It finally arrived and there was a big field - 31 people toed the line. It was crazy. With nearly half the field comprised of people from my squad, it looked like a TNT workout, and was just as competitive. My goal going into the race was to run under 17:30. 17:15 was going to be a stretch, but I thought if I felt good, I would go for it. That meant splitting 5:30-5:35 for each 1600. The first "mile" was spot on - 5:32. I still felt reasonably comfortable, but something happened in the next 200. I just...slowed down. I had been running 41 for each 200 and then all of a sudden it was a flush 42, which meant 2 seconds slower for that lap. Shit. I went from 5:32 pace to 5:40 pace in an instant. And, because I'm not a dummy, I realized that if I go into the well for a 5k ten days out from an Ironman, I am an idiot, I just reeled in the effort. I figured slowing down was smarter. I relaxed a bit, and came through 3200m in 11:21 (5:50ish 2nd mile), and hoped I'd have recovered enough to pick it back up from there. I was, but only slightly, as my next 1600 was 5:46. With a :39 last 200, I managed to run 17:46.

While it was a little off my goal, in retrospect it wasn't that bad of a performance. For one, it was on a Wednesday night, in the middle of summer, when I haven't run under 6 minute pace except maybe a handful of times since June. And, despite being in "better shape" in 2008, it's faster than I ran the last time I did a 5k on the track in August (17:54). Finally, while it may only be the 2nd 5k I've run since I got hurt two years ago, it is the fastest I've run. So, I'll take it.

Unfortunately the meet wasn't over until late, which meant eating late, and then I was wired, so I really struggled on Thursday waking up and did not swim. Then, later in the day, the weather was real bad so I did not get out on the bike nor did I make it into the pool. I was running early today, so I just took the day off.

Woke up this morning and was tired and the delayed onset of 4 miles of track "racing" fatigue had settled in. Brennan arrived at our place at 5:45 and off we went. Brennan was doing 20, Ed was looking for 9 and I was hoping to get in 90 minutes for my last "long" run. It was pitch black as we headed north through the hood, and then through hood park (Clifton Park) and finally on hood drive (33rd) the light started picking up. 35 minutes uphill, then we got to come back down. It was a comfortable temperature but very humid. I had told Ed that the run we planned would likely be more than 9, and sure enough it was (75 minutes back to the house). He can obviously handle that, and it was cool because it meant I had less to run once we got back. Brennan and I did a quick Brewer's Hill loop and then he continued on his way back home, done with his 20 miles by 7:30.

I wanted to get in the pool this afternoon, but when I got there, there was a private event going on outside so pool was closed. My only other option was to drive down to Locust Point, but I didn't want to go down that way with the Ravens playing the Redskins tonight in pre-season football, so I just went home. It worked out anyway as I would not have even made it to the other pool before getting kicked out for another thunderstorm.

As I've said, I realize there is nothing I can do about my swimming immediately for next weekend, but I always feel better when I'm getting in the pool. I have really struggled this summer with making it into the pool consistently, and I'm paying the price. It's like I just don't have the energy, and I definitely don't have the motivation. I just hope I can keep it inside of 1:10 next weekend.

I also went and got my bike looked at to make sure it's functioning properly. It seems to be okay now, and I had to get a new tire for the front (300 miles and the Vittoria one just falls apart at the seams? That doesn't seem right). I also had them take a look at my position and since there were no glaring imbalances, the only conclusion is that my knee is just not cut out for the time trial position anymore. This is probably pretty accurate, as the angle is pretty steep and my knee doesn't bend as well. Especially when I'm trying to squeeze every drop of power out of it, it's just going to happen. I may have to go back to racing on a road bike. I'm going to do this time trial in PA somewhere on Sunday just to make sure it's cool, again I won't be going into the red to do it, just want to get the legs ticking over.

This little block of ironman training has really taken it out of me. I would wager that other external factors are causing my fatigue and my general malaise, and maybe if I can get those straightened out I'll feel better and more optimistic. I need to focus on those life things a little more after Louisville so I don't have the same problem before Arizona. It really has caused me to go a little insane, or at least become imbalanced, which is weird because I have done less this summer than last summer, and should not have a problem handling the training.

You know that saying that all bosses always tell you: "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results"? Well it makes me wonder, what does it make you if you do the same thing and expect the same results? I would truly be happy if I could just run the same as I used to, or swim like I used to, or ride as comfortably as I used to. That would be cool for me right now.

We Won't Get Fooled Again

2011-08-17T11:04:00.000-04:00

Or, the story of my weekend in Luray.

Last week I was feeling pretty beat, and in general haven't been handling things very well lately. I am beyond tired, I'm annoyed at my fitness, disappointed in my results and more than anything, really, really banged up. Not that I would wish my injuries on anyone, but I sometimes wish everyone could experience a week's worth of these workouts with my worthless knee. As a result of all these things, I didn't do much last week. Very light week in the pool, only getting in twice for very short workouts, and only running two days during the week for a miniscule 7 miles each time. On the bike, it was also fairly short, with the highlight coming from Wednesday's longer ride (50+) riding up from my house to Oregon Ridge (20ish) to meet Alyssa, then riding the Wednesday Night Ride route. In all, it was quite a dissimilar week from last year as I led up to Luray, when it was my first race in 13 months. I remember going into that week excited, albeit nervous, to race again, and then got a scare when on Wednesday of that week my PT jacked my knee so hard that I didn't think I'd be able to race. That time, I managed to miraculously feel better on race morning, and had one of my better races, relative to my fitness, of the past few years. I had swam a 25:52 in the non-wetsuit swim, rode a 1:14:12 on my road bike and ran 39:49 for the 10k on just 6 weeks of running and riding.

This year my ambitions were slightly higher, expecting to ride at least 6 minutes faster (I've ridden 1:08:12 on the course before) and I figured I would, at worst, swim and run about the same. If I took out 6 minutes, that would have put me around 2:16 and I felt like that would be good enough for a top 10 finish, and with two weeks to go before IM Louisville, I'd be pleased with that.

Friday: Alyssa and I roll out from Baltimore around 4:30 and make it to Luray around 3 hours later. The highlight of the trip was drinking a huge thing of Arizona Green Tea, then hitting some minor traffic near Harper's Ferry and having to squirm and wiggle in the car to hold in my bladder until we could get to a bathroom. The lowlight was on Route 340, when we approached a vehicular accident, which I guessed was a motorcycle going over the rail on a curvy descent, before we got there. I was right, unfortunately, and as we saw the mangled bike and the officer wheeling out some distance, I figured he must have perished. This was confirmed later by Pat, who had gone through right after it happened and the M.E. was placing the white sheet over the deceased. This was supposed to be the road we were going to be riding on on Sunday's ride, which we immediately nixed.

The cabin we were staying in was a different one from last year, and the owner of the house was really harping on making sure we had 4WD to get up to the crib. Thinking that it was probably just a steep, dirt driveway we didn't think much of it, until the other guys (Andy aka Chicken Tender Runner, Ben, Zero and Pat were already there) confirmed that it was, in fact, non-passable for their cars. Alyssa has 4WD on the Tracker, so we felt fortunate we did not have to walk the half mile up the super steep climb as the other guys did. They managed to get halfway up the road or so, but had to walk the rest. Dinner was a pretty tasty yet simple pasta with meat sauce made by yours truly, and then we hit the sack pretty early (after seeing a little black bear waltz through our backyard). The view from the cabin was insane, and in general the cabin was quite nice.

Saturday: Arrive at transition and start getting ourselves together. My bike has been throwing some tantrums lately and it did not feel like accepting air into the tires, so I brought it over to Race Day Tech. He helped out, and I got myself situated in transition. Over the years I have gotten the amount of stuff I bring down to quite a small level for these distance races. Bike, helmet, sunglasses (both on the bike); flats on the ground with race number; shoes clipped into bike. That's it. The water had cooled down but it was still non-wetsuit, so all of us put on our pretty little speedsuits again and got into the 78ish degree water. The swim course had changed slightly from years' past and looked really stupid. As the gun sounded for our wave (the first one), we got out predictably quick. Not really much jostling, but something felt off as I swam towards the first buoy. My HR skyrocketed and I started thinking too much, about everything - life, why am I swimming so terrible, I should just stop - and then I wanted to stop swimming at the buoy and just breast stroke for a minute. I decided against it, slowed down for a second and lengthened my stroke, and took a few deep breaths and seemed to calm down.

I seemed to be, at the very least, steadily moving up through the field, giving me the false impression of swimming decent. I thought I took the right line at one point but I think it lost me a few seconds, and then we got to the far end of the swamp and turned back into the middle of it. I still felt okay, but didn't really feel like swimming much anymore, so I was glad to be done. Only towards the end did someone from the next wave (3min back) catch up to me, so I felt like I had done at least a little better than the last couple of swims. Later, this was confirmed to not be true, as I swam 26:28. This is the same time I swam at NJ a few weeks ago, which was in 90 degree water on a 90 degree day, where I was swimming into a blinding sun and generally felt like death. Comparing a few of the other swims would lead me to believe the course was at least a little bit long, and I wouldn't normally say that but I think it was this time. I was a staggering 3:50 back to Pat (last year I had at least kept it to 1:40, but this year he is swimming much better) and 2:45 to Z, and about 2:30 back of CTR. I'm disappointed with my swimming still, but it's too late to fix it before next weekend, so I just have to deal.

In transition I ran along the beach, on the grass and up the dangerous steps into the bike area, and ran out with my bike. Nothing special in T1, but I got onto the bike and people were immediately glad to see me because I was once again racing in the NEON GREEN SPEEDO and no shirt. I was quickly dubbed "Speedo Guy" by the announcer and received considerable applause.

Onto the bike. The bike course is flat for a quarter mile but then you turn left up a fairly steep, quarter mile+ long hill. I felt strong riding up it, passing one or two dudes immediately, but something was wrong with my bike. It was making an awful scratching noise and I felt like I was pedaling through molasses. I rolled down the other side of the hill and pulled over to check out the problem. Aha. The rear brake was rubbing against the rim, someone had closed the little thing - I always leave it open because for some reason it is not able to be closed and spin freely. I figured maybe the race day tech guy had done it when he was helping with the wheels. No big deal, I'll get on my way and be fine. Only it wasn't. Not even close. The sound was still just as bad, and I was going NOWHERE. I don't get passed by people on the bike. I especially don't get passed by people who are older than 40 (generally, there are a few dudes I know who are pretty sweet at riding bikes and will pass me). Now I'm real mad. I stop again at the top of this other steep little hill around 5 miles in and notice that the wheel is just not spinning at all. In fact, it's not even centered properly. I honestly don't know how I hadn't crashed out. So I think I fix it, but in reality, I hadn't done anything. For 26.2 miles I rode on this non-functioning bike and got passed all the way. Somehow I still managed to pass people going uphill, but I was getting burned on downhills. And the sound was real bad. I finally pull into T2, again to raucous applause, but had ridden a beyond disappointing 1:15:36. I was so angry I wanted to throw my piece of shit brand new bike into the lake. Never in my life have I had a mechanical that has prevented me from riding, especially not one that just appeared out of nowhere. Andy had passed me on the bike, making up the 6 minute head start I had, and I was just like fuck it.

T2 at this point was of no consequence, so I went out onto the run and decided I'd rather just keep the effort even. Truly my only motivation now was to make sure that Ben didn't pass me, which was a real threat. I had no watch again (getting old) and just ran. The course was different this year, instead of two loops on the shitty rolling road it was one loop (out and back). Half of it was paved - the first 1.5 and last 1.5 - and the middle part was on gravel, dirt and rocks. Not very comfortable in the flats, but I managed. Here is where I first glimpsed Mighty Matias, some 6 minutes ahead of second place, and Z was in 5th on the road, followed shortly by Pat. They appeared to be having good races. CTR was next up, making up his 6 minute stagger. At the turnaround I was rolling the slower dudes ahead, but then as I trudged up the rocky hill, I saw Ben, FLYING. Yikes. With no clue how fast or slow I was running, but guessing that Ben was running in the 5:40 range, I realized I better be running at least a minute per mile faster than he is or I'm going to be caught.

I decided to not look back at all, until .2 to go, when I gave a quick glimpse and made sure he wasn't there. I strided across the line in 2:24:36 - like 2 minutes slower than last year - for 24th place. My run time was 39:56, which, all things considered, wasn't too bad. It was the 15th fastest run of the day and only 7 seconds slower than last year, when I felt like I was going very fast. And, compared to some of the other runs, was pretty decent. It was also, sadly, my fastest 10k off the bike this year, with probably the least amount of effort (other than Rumpus, where I was literally jogging).

Andy had ended up finishing 7th, a few seconds ahead of Z who was 8th, and Pat was 9th. A great day for our little gang of buttcrushers. Ben was 30th, on the heels of an admittedly weak swim, a solid bike and a great run (4th, 36:50). Page County is no joke man. Then it was Alyssa's turn, who probably turned out her best performance ever, finishing 2nd to Katie Gage Davison-soon-to-be-Palavecino. Alyssa swam 2 minutes faster than last year, ran 2 minutes faster than last year and rode a mind-blowing 10 minutes faster. Her bike split was better than mine, and was 2nd among women. Insane. At least everyone else did well.

When we got into transition and examined my bike, we saw that I had completely fucked up my wheel. Brand new Zipp 808s. They look like they are structurally okay, which I will confirm tomorrow at the bike shop, but they look messed up now. I was a sad boy. More disturbing was how they got that way, and that was in fact a non-centered wheel which was rubbing (or whatever gerundive is worse than rubbing) against the chainstay. The wheel barely moved at all, which is no wonder why I didn't move at all. When you've had the 3rd best split of the day at this race before and then you have the 63rd best, something clearly is wrong. Aerobically I didn't feel too bad off the bike, which is why I think I ran "okay" but my legs were shredded from pushing pedals and going nowhere. Then I started thinking, how long has it been a problem and I haven't noticed? I put the wheels on at Eagleman, and I had trouble with them that day. It was fine at Eagleman though, I know that. I then didn't ride the bike again until Randolph last month, and it seemed fine that day, but I remember thinking at NJ that something didn't feel right and I wonder if it got knocked out of sorts around that time. Either way, it didn't make the sound it did on Saturday, so I just didn't notice it I guess if it was a problem.

Ben and I were the only ones who didn't get awards, which was sad, but we went and got lunch and made the best of our day. We got back to the cabin and had to haul a ton of groceries up the hill - foolish Ben was concerned about the watermelon (which we did not even eat) and the beer, so he was pretty wiped by the time he got up to the top. We then feasted on red meat while watching Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Dinner For Schmucks. Classic Luray weekend. Zero also helped figure out my wheel situation so I could at least ride on Sunday morning.

Sunday: After going to bed pretty early Saturday night we were up early to ride on Sunday. The weather was iffy at best, and looked like we might get rained out of our planned Skyline Drive ride. But, it seemed okay, so we went. We drove down to town and started there with 5 miles steadily uphill before the 4 mile serious climb to Skyline Drive. It was epic. Fog, drops of rain, and with my wheel markedly improved, I felt awesome. I set a furious tempo to the top and felt great doing it, even though I hate riding that bike. I no longer trust that bike, and more than anything it hurts my knee, which makes me think my position is not solid on there because I feel cramped. I hate climbing on it too. We get to Skyline and have to pay $8 to ride on it, and the woman was definitely trying to dissuade us from riding there due to the fog. Fortunately, the fog cleared up after a few more miles of uphill and we enjoyed some scenic views from many thousand feet above sea level.

Andy and Pat were riding a little less and then running off the bike, so they turned around at 20 miles. Ben was hellbent on getting to 80 on the day (never having ridden more than 70 miles I felt this was ambitious, particularly the day after a race and being on Skyline Drive), and me, Zero and Alyssa were staggered along the road. We had Alyssa turn around a few minutes before Z and I did, and then we got right back into the climbs. Ben had gone a little further out on his own, taking off, and then somehow got back in front of us, so he acted as my carrot up the climbs. By the 3 mile climb back up to our day's high point at 3385ft, I knew I would catch him. I got him with a mile to go and rode up to the top super comfortably. I was loving it. Those are definitely my types of climbs. From there, it was actually a nice little trip back downhill into Luray, so it was pretty quick, and we needed to add a little time. By the end of the 4 hours I was no longer wishing to ride my bike, and then we chomped on some McDonald's. After that it was time to get back to the cabin and make our way home.

It was one of those weekends, a disappointing race but a fun weekend overall. It was great to hang out with CTR, who we have never really hung out with much before, and always great to see Ben, even though he has to endure my old man jokes. We were pretty tired upon returning to Baltimore, and yesterday I took pretty easy with just a 7 mile run. Today was just a little bit of a swim. Tomorrow heading to the track to race a 5000m, and as long as I can get my bike squared away with its necessary fixes, I'm going to do the Church Creek 40k TT on Saturday out near the Eagleman course. I wasn't going to do it, but this weekend left a bad taste of no confidence in my mouth, and I want to ride that bike again well before heading to Louisville next week. For the week it was pretty light at just 24 miles on 3 runs, something minimal like 6500 in the water and then maybe 130 miles on the bike. This week will be just a little more than that and then next week slightly more chill.

Race day is almost here, and I'm hoping for weather like we've been having. The high today here was 86 degrees I think, and it felt almost cool. As long as it isn't above that next Sunday I think I'll be alright.

In summation, things I won't get fooled again by:

1. When someone down there says you need 4WD to get there, they probably mean it, and we're probably going to be walking up and down some gnarly hills.

2. My bike. It better not fool me again into thinking that it operates properly when it CLEARLY does not.

3. Skyline Drive is hard. Especially on tri bikes, the day after a race. I like Luray, and the Luray weekend. Maybe next year it will be Saturday race followed by spelunking or something non-training related.

Great job to my Team CYB teammates this weekend!

Are You Ready to Rumble?

2011-08-09T13:50:00.000-04:00

The answer was a resounding no. Riley's Rumble Half Marathon, in Germantown, was the hardest 13.1 miles I've run on roads...ever. But there was a lot more to the weekend than just this one run, so I'll start at the beginning.

Following the previous weekend/end of July, I needed a few days to get my legs back under me. I ran an easy 4 miles on Monday night, and decided for Tuesday I would warm up and see how my legs felt in the workout on the track. After a half mile (the workout was 6x1600m) I called it a day. Just didn't have the legs for it. I made it a mile and a half total for the day. Wednesday morning I got into the pool for Alyssa's workout of 800 pull, 8x100, 600 pull, 6x100, 400 pull, 4x100. It went much better than when we attempted it two weeks earlier, and it was the first quasi-decent swim workout I've had in a while, so I was happy with it. Took the evening off and then didn't do anything again until an easy 2 hour ride on Thursday night. I started off not feeling great, but by the end I had warmed up and the legs felt pretty good. Just in time for a little three day block of training!

Friday morning, Mike and I headed out for a 3 hour ride to be chased with a 5 mile run off the bike. I tried to keep the ride pretty chill, as the phrase of the weekend was energy management. I've found that, over the years, I have been able to churn out considerable volume, and intensity, during the summer. In my head, I rationalize it as "I'm not really racing, the fall is the season" blah blah blah. But really, triathlon's season IS summer. Sure, we have races as early as April around here and go into October, but summer is the season. The likelihood of really cold weather (a la Rumpass or Columbia, most years) is reduced, and the water is usually warm. In our case, this year, in particular, the water is really warm, as I have not and probably will not wear a wetsuit again until Arizona. The proof is in the proverbial pudding, as IMLP a few weeks ago had a water temp of 77 degrees, meaning suits were allowable for those not interested in AG awards or Kona slots, otherwise no wetsuits. Anyway, I've sidetracked a bit, but what I was getting at is that a typical year for me goes something like this:

Jan-Mar: Goal is to be consistent. Do something every day. Focus is generally more on running (easier to run in bad weather than ride in it!) and efforts are kept more in the middle - so things are never too hard, but never too easy.

Apr-Jun: Goal is to get sharp. Workouts start, and they get progressively harder. Races begin, the earlier ones are used as rustbusters, before the usual Columbia-Eagleman show.

Jun-Aug: Goal is to keep fitness, bring volume up, usually reduce intensity.

Sep-Dec: Goal is to race my final few races and then take some time off.

It's that summer period that I think I've not managed well in the past. Following Eagleman, or any big race in mid-June, I think it's important to take a few weeks of down time as that is the end of the spring season. I did a better job at that this year, but it's a challenge because all of a sudden the weather is good every day (at least good enough to go outside and do something) so you want to go out, and you have great fitness so you want to go crush. Then I get caught up in doing some races in July, which not only cuts into my ability to record higher volume, but it also means I'm spending more energy. Races take energy. Not just to race, but getting there, doing the pre-race stuff, waking up super early weekend after weekend, recovering. It's not easy. And, sometimes unfortunately for me, I love to race.

When I step back, and usually only in retrospect, I realize just how much energy I spend each summer doing these things. Every weekend it's something else, there's never just a chill weekend. This July alone it was a trip to ATL for the Peachtree race, followed by a trip up to NJ for a sprint tri, then it was Rockville 8k (fortunately I was able to force myself to NOT run this one, but I still went down there) and then another trip up to NJ for a tri. The only "free" weekends were the past two, and the bulk of each was focused on getting in some decent volume ahead of Louisville. Now, looking ahead, it's going to be a whole weekend in Luray, followed by maybe one chill weekend, prior to the ironman. Racing, I've concluded, is just social for me. Most of the time I don't care how I do, and, more often than not these days I use the races AS my workouts (see: BRRC meet from two weeks ago).

One thing I know I'm doing better now than I did a few years ago is to realize and understand my limits and capabilities. I can go out and crush, but what effect will that have on tomorrow, the next day, the following week? When I look at my race results from past summers, I see just how tired I must have been. Since the last summer I truly raced before this one was 2008, I looked at those results and workouts from back then. I had lackluster results at both NJ State Tri (did that this year too) and Luray (this weekend, hopefully that goes better!) and I also raced the Church Creek Time Trial (40k) in a disappointing 58:57. I remember going out the day after Luray to Frederick and crushing our ride out there with Dean. I was in great shape and could go hard seemingly every day, but lacked pop when it came to racing, and my patience was non-existent. I definitely was not ready for ironman back then, even if I claimed I was. For sure I was faster, and didn't have a reconstructed knee, but I lacked smarts.

Back to Friday, which could be the name of the 4th installment of the Friday film franchise (Smokey's going to be back! and all I could focus on was my energy expenditure. I felt okay and certainly if I needed to, I could have worked harder on the ride, but what good would have come of that? I knew exactly what I was trying to accomplish over the weekend, and my brain has worked out a really good deal with my body. When I tell my brain how much I'm doing, it tells my body how much energy it's going to require. And I don't get a minute more than that from it, usually. Friday's ride, other than seeing the most insane caterpillar of all time, was fairly uneventful, and the run off the bike was solid. Other than recent races, I can't remember the last time I actually ran off the bike. It was warm, and the sun was strong. We headed out on the Wednesday Night Run loop, so along the water. The pace was honest, and as we turned to come back up Fleet Street and Snake Hill, our speed had increased even more. A solid 5 miles in, it was time for a quick bite to eat and then get in the pool. The pool was gross, due to the high volume of filthy people and the pool temp hovering at or above 90 for most of the summer, there was a considerable film of algae on the bottom of the pool. In order to remedy, they were shocking it with chlorine. I could feel it burning me. But I had a goal in mind, and there was nothing I could do, so I went on with it. I haven't done a long continuous swim in a while, so I went in with the plan of swimming 3000m straight. I felt pretty decent, got it done, 4k for the day, and it was time to rest up for Saturday.

Saturday's objective was the Lineboro ride, our 115 mile odyssey up through Hampstead and into PA, before returning via York Rd. It's a long, hard ride. Starting from the city means the first hour is slow, and really it's a good 2.5 hours before you are no longer going uphill. It was super humid, and in order to avoid a bad day, I stayed really on top of my hydration. 2 bottles an hour, and kept on top of my eating as well. My legs started waking up and I was feeling good by the time we hit Lineboro. As we started to come back around into the wind, heading south, the ride was clearly taking its toll, but I still felt good. I made sure to keep my sugar intake low at our pit stop in Glen Rock PA, so I didn't crash (like I sometimes do), and it was a good move. We turned onto York Rd and the wind was full on now, but I felt great. I was climbing well, and feeling better than I normally would at this point in the ride. Of course, what goes up must come down, eventually, and I began to feel the effects of hours in the saddle by the time we got into Hunt Valley. With 20ish miles remaining, I was just trying to conserve enough legs to run a few miles off the bike again, and was keeping Sunday's run in consideration as well.

Finally home off the bike and it was time for an easy 4 miles, which was definitely slower than yesterday's run, and then time to consume mass quantities. In the few hours that I had between the end of the run and going to sleep, I tried to get in as many calories as I could, because I knew Sunday was another long day.

Long, and early. Originally it was just Ed who was going to go down to do this Riley's Rumble race. Then a few more of us joined the guest list, and all of a sudden it was a Falls Road party. But, with an hour drive and a 7am start, plus the need to register and run a few miles beforehand equated to a 4:55am departure from Zero's. And, because I was so wired and tired from Saturday, I woke up at 3:36am and just stayed up. Bleh. It's one thing to do this for an ironman; a completely other thing to do this for some rinky dink half marathon you're not even "racing."

It was about 80 degrees and 94% humidity, among the grossest conditions I've ever felt, at 6am. We ran 3 miles before and I was soaked. I also felt the past two days pretty significantly in my legs. Mike and I originally talked about running something in the 7:30 range to start the run, and then pick it up throughout the race, then run another 3 afterwards. We went out slow from the gun, but it didn't exactly feel comfortable, and I was a unpleasantly surprised to know that our first mile was 7 minutes then. I'm still without a watch so we went on Mike's, and it seemed like we were holding 7 pretty steady for the first 5 miles, it just never felt super comfortable. The roads were brutal, either going up or down the whole time. I actually felt good on the uphills, just the downhills were killing my knee. We also noticed that the last two miles of the race were going to be mostly uphill.

Somewhere around mile 6 and 7 we must have picked it up a bit, as we clicked a 6:40 or two, and then went into the third out and back section. It wasn't pretty. We saw GRC guys Karl and Sam way out front, killing it (they ran 1:16:30) and then Ed and some other dude were a few minutes back of them. The rest of the race was pretty strung out, except for me, Mike and our running buddy for the day Thaddeus. We were steadily moving up through the field, and aerobically I was cool, I just couldn't move my legs much faster. Around 9 is where my legs dropped out, finally succumbing to the long weekend. With 4 interminably long miles remaining, I went into conserve mode, which was well over 8 minute pace now, and may have even crept up toward 9 as I went uphill. Based on Mike's watch, I thought we were on pace for a 1:31:xx, maybe 1:32, and I finished up at 1:34:41 (7:14/mi). It was the hardest I've ever had to work to run that slow I think. But, it actually went better than last weekend's run in Greenbelt, so I wasn't disappointed. It just hurt. And after the race I only had enough in my legs to do a half mile easy cooldown. I didn't really care, what good was it going to be to shuffle through another 3 miles real slow?

Alas, even after that, the day was far from done. Still had to get into the pool when we got back, and that felt good. It was a little kinder than it was on Friday, and cooler than it's been. I left the pool with fresher legs than I went in with, and that allowed me to run an easy 5 miles on Sunday night with Alyssa and Mike. We probably made Alyssa run a bit harder than she needed to, but she handled it and we ran just over 8 minute pace. I felt way better than I thought I would, and it was cool to be able to get in such a big block over the three days.

Energy Management. That's what it all comes down to. For Louisville, my concern isn't the course, or the distance, it's the conditions, and how I anticipate being affected by them. Right now I could be swimming more, but I don't think it's going to help. If I swam 5 or 6 days a week, I'd be that much more tired. 3 to 4, for now, seems more in line with my capabilities right now. Whatever I swim is what I swim. On the bike, I'm plenty fast, I just need to find a reasonable medium and sit there for 5 hours, eating and drinking plenty along the way. On the run, I've got to stay cool, and run at an effort level I can realistically maintain for the distance.

I also am playing my chances a little bit. I decided to do Louisville because a) it was still open in February and b) Alyssa signed up, and then Mike, I would have gone to watch regardless, and I would have been in shape from the summer anyway so I figured I may as well just do it too. It will be a good chance to see if I can actually figure out how to handle the conditions, and another opportunity to get through the distance. Ultimately, I still have another one down the road a bit at Arizona. So I need to keep enough energy in the tank to get through Louisville, recover, and then make it to November 20th.

Into the Shadow Realm

2011-08-02T16:06:00.000-04:00

August. Bleh. I remember posting last year about how much I despise August, and I probably posted the year before, and the year before. The story is always the same. August is a gross month to me, the Sunday of the monthly calendar. It finds a way to bring you to your knees, it's as if the heat of July is trapped and at no point is it comfortable. The days are hot and humid, and the sun is always that burnt orange color. Not to mention that August 1st (yesterday) marked 8 years since obliterating my ankle in Hartshorne Woods up in NJ. God, 8 years. Insane. There were a few years where I made sure to take serious time off in August, taking opportunities to travel or just chill. There weren't any key races, and I needed to make it to, and through, the fall season in one piece.

Boy how times have changed. Ironman Louisville represents the earliest in the fall that I've ever had a BIG race. And, along the way, I'll get to do an August favorite - Luray - as well as the possibility of returning to Church Creek for a 40k time trial.

But first, last week. Last week was...not good. In fact, it was bad. I might go so far as to say that it was the worst week ever. Saturday, in the terms of singular bad days, may have been the worst training day I've ever had. Following last weekend's dismal race effort, I took it pretty easy on Monday. On Tuesday, I had my first ever massage, thanks to Alyssa, who took care of everything for me. I know a lot of people who swear by massages, and after how wrecked I've been feeling lately, I thought it would be a great idea. I went down to Silo Point and met up with the masseur and she more or less crushed me. I left the massage feeling a little more beat up than when I went in, which I was told to expect. I took Tuesday off completely.

Wednesday morning, the pool felt hard. The attempted 30x100 did not go swimmingly, and I felt busted. I didn't let that stop me from going to the 2nd BRRC Track Meet. You know what did nearly stop me? The 50 minutes it took to drive about 11 miles to get to Goucher. I seriously should have ridden my bike! Ed and I arrived at 6:28. The meet started promptly at 6:30, with the race we were planning on running - the mile. I had to sign in still, and put on my flats. I literally ran 100 meters as a warmup. And just those 100m did not feel good. I knew this mile was going to be tough. Having raced the distance three times this year already (2 road, 1 track) with the slowest being 5:07, I was hoping to run something reasonable. Maybe it wouldn't be close to 5 flat, but at least under 5:10, right? As the race started and I took off, both of my hamstrings felt like they were going to pop. Maybe not even my hamstrings as much as the whole glute/piriformis/whoevenknows. The first 409m was covered in a blistering 78 seconds and I knew my race was not going to turn out the way I'd hoped. From there I actually managed to hold 79s and finished at 5:16 - for absolutely no warmup and for as bad as I felt, I actually wasn't too displeased. After the race, Ed and I went for a belated warmup and got ready for the 2 Mile.

My original hope for that event was to run around 80s if I could, but considering that was difficult enough in the mile, I realized that wasn't going to happen. I figured I'd try and start around 5:40 pace and, if possible, work down from there. I settled into a good rhythm, and came through the mile in 5:35. I was holding pace, but I couldn't lift, so my 2nd mile was 5:35 and I finished up at 11:10. Not a great showing but it's about what I would have done at track the day before (had I gone). To top off the meet, since there were four of us, we decided to run the 4x100m relay. Ed led off and handed off to me. I was moving so slow, it was embarrassing. Little girls sprinted past me and an old man kept pace. I ran 15.0 for my split - yikes. I probably shouldn't have messed with it but now at least I'll be able to say I raced from the 100m to the Ironman this year.

Thursday I felt even worse. I was just so sore, now a mixture of the massage as well as the track meet. I made it up to the Thursday Night Ride, and although I didn't have a bad ride, I figured I should have ridden a little better since I hadn't ridden since Sunday. Friday morning came pretty early, and as I stepped outside for a 7 miler with Ed, I was greeted by a swift kick in the face from my old foe, humidity. My legs were now super tired, and whatever slow pace we were running felt a lot harder than it should have.

Onto Saturday. I have been running pretty consistent "long" runs of 14 miles for a while now, but I really hadn't gone above that since sometime during the colder months. And, outside of the IM marathon, hadn't run more than 17 since November. I figured maybe it would be a good idea to get in a longer run or two before Louisville. I didn't want to do it on the roads, and I felt like I was just asking for trouble if I did it at Patapsco, so I settled on Greenbelt Park. This park features a just under 6 mile loop that is shaded the whole time, and it's rolling, but not so technical that I feared going down. I had managed to talk Brennan, Zero and Arjun into the run, and when we got there around 7:15 we saw Conrad was going to join us. We jogged the half mile into the trail where the loop starts, and dropped water and food and bowel movements and got it going. I was hoping to negative split each loop, starting out at a reasonable pace. First loop was comfortable and while I know we were not running super fast, it didn't seem terribly slow. On the second loop, we were warmed up and picked it up slightly. I had us on pace to run about a minute faster over the course of that loop, when Conrad moved by me somewhere later in the loop. He picked it up about 15 seconds over the course of the last few minutes, to the point where I felt like I was working a little harder than I wanted to.

We stopped briefly for salt and water, but I was starting to not feel great. I was sweating so much, and starting to feel lightheaded. I told them that I'd set the pace for the first 10 minutes and then they were FTF. In the course of those first 10 minutes, which are uphill, I was getting more than a little dizzy and was losing my feet from under me. I had to stop, and told the guys to just keep going. Zero stopped, despite my reasoning with him to keep going. I would obviously make it, I just needed to reel the effort back in and stop if I needed to. I figure I'm going to wind up walking a lot at Louisville and I could very likely be in that bad of shape, so I need to just deal with it. A few minutes later, Zero had missed a turn so he waited up for me and then ran (slash that, basically walked) it in with me. I had gone into a really dark place, the one I now just refer to as the shadow realm. It's well beyond going into the red, because I feel like the red is when you're working very hard. I wasn't working very hard on this run, my body just no longer wished to be outside doing things.

This place reminds me of when Frodo gets stabbed by one of the Nasgul, and then Aragorn realizes he needs elvish medicine to fix him. I became extremely negative, and while I wasn't in pain, my body had just given up. I had stopped sweating, and just needed to get back. We finally did, albeit about two minutes slower than our first loop, and regrouped with the others back at the car. A big shout to Z for sticking with me when it was painfully slow and through my negativity-laced tirade - thanks!. Since we started a couple of minutes late, and I ran a little slower, we were now pressed for time. We had to get Mike back to his house so he could go to a wedding, and I had told Alyssa I would ride the last 50 miles of her 110 mile ride with her.

Not thinking that I would have been that shredded from the run, I originally told her to plan to get there around noon, which would give me enough time to prepare but not so much time to get tired and not do it. She had texted me to let me know how far out she was, and it was going to be around 12:45 by the time she got there. I was...so tired. I couldn't eat anything so I just tried to get as many calories via Gatorade and iced tea as I could. That made me feel even sicker. I brought my body temp down with a cold shower, but it was going to be brutal on the bike. The temp was now kicking it near the 100 mark again, and there was a hot wind blowing from the northwest it looked. That's what happens when the humidity is lower, it's always super windy.

We roll out. I'm still being super negative thinking super negative things. Like, why is this town such a dump and full of such terrible people? Why are there so many traffic lights and stop signs? Why have we not had a beneficial wind one time this summer? When the wind is blowing the way it was, it means we have a cross on the way out 40, and then go right into it for the hardest part of the ride. I didn't pick up anything I would have deemed favorable until the very end, which was wack. Since our loops are not true circles, we don't necessarily even have to get a nice wind.

Since I am now without a watch, I had no long how anything was taking, but I knew I was not riding quick. I don't think Alyssa minded, as her ride was quite long in the tooth at this point. We made it through the furnace of Glen Arm and Manor, and into Loch Raven. We made it up Providence, and then Bellemore. I strangely felt better on the bike than I did running, even though I was completely cooked. I was quite happy when the ride was done, the day had been long and tiring.

But, as this was one of the few weekends with no excuse but to get shit done, so the decision was in my hands for Sunday: do I either a) sleep in, probably not ride at all, maybe get in the pool, and then run a few easy miles? or b) suck it up, get up early and go meet some dudes for what was probably going to be a very, very hard 100 miles? I went to bed on Saturday around 10pm, and figured I would wake up and see how I felt, then make the call. I woke up a bunch throughout the night on Saturday, hot and uncomfortable, and afraid I would oversleep. I got up at 5:30, walked downstairs and ate, and decided "DBAP". I packed up the car and drove the 35 minutes up to Clark's house in Reisterstown. It was 79 degrees in Baltimore, the first time I'd seen it below 80 in a while, but up in Reisterstown it was an almost chilly 68.

There were just 7 of us for the ride - Clark, Marc, Mark, Howard, Sue and Jim - and very quickly the pace was set at rapide. While I typically like to ease into my rides, especially when they leave that early, they got it going from the start. After a mile or two of downhill, it seemed like we were going steadily up for the next 10. I had no idea where we were, I didn't recognize any of the road names and it didn't even seem like we were in Maryland anymore. Maybe we weren't. We could have been somewhere else and I would have believed it. The conditions were pretty superb though, and I felt much better than I expected to. But still, this pace was unforgiving. I couldn't figure out how they were all going so fast, for at least two or three of them, this was faster than they are able to ride on our Thursday night ride. Most of the work early was being done by CM2 (Clark, Marc and Mark) and I was doing my turns as well. But, having ridden many rides of that length, and also knowing what I had done the day before, I was not in the mood to explode and have to ride it in solo, especially as I did not know the route.

We made it to Thurmont, which is a tiny little town near Frederick, and that's where this "brutal climb" started up to Camp David. They made it out to sound impossibly difficult. I just wanted to know how long it would take so I could measure my effort accordingly. They said about 20 minutes, and that Mark had the best time up it at 19 minutes. I figured Hamburg (in Frederick) is 20 minutes, and that's the hardest climb I've ever done. I hope it's not as hard as that. It wasn't. Not even close. It was actually way easier than I expected, and I rode up pretty comfortably in 20:57 (Marc was a few seconds back and provided the timing). When we got to the top, we stopped and waited, but a truck came out of nowhere with a secret service guy asking us, dickly, "can't you read the sign?" The sign said no stopping, apparently we aren't even allowed to chill at the top and wait for our friends for a minute. Crazy! Maybe they should put Camp David somewhere they don't want people to go at all.

On the descent, I normally just freewheel down, but apparently they had other plans as they just zoomed right off. Nice. I had just lit them up on the climb and now they're going to drop me on the descent? I got to the bottom and around one bend couldn't see anyone, but I saw a road that Marc had mentioned by name, so I thought I should turn there. This was a terrible decision. If it had been a Choose Your Own Adventure book, I definitely would have ended up dead in the snake pit. The road was loose dirt, rocks, gravel. It was also straight up. I couldn't stand, because my rear wheel would spin out. It was impossibly difficult to ride up this hill. I also didn't see anyone, and there was no way they were going to outclimb me, so I decided I was not right and should turn around. Going back down was even worse. I got back on the road and rode toward Thurmont. I saw them, a few miles up, at a Sheetz. Thanks for dropping me guys!

From there, it had started to warm up a bit. We resumed our inconceivable pace, and with 45 miles left, I knew there was no way I could sustain it. I finally cracked as we got onto some awful highway-ish road. There was very little traffic, but the road was flat, exposed, re-paved and just very hot. I was squarely off the back, and Marc dropped back for me. I could not match their power on these flats, and I just asked how much longer until we stopped - because I was completely out of water. 4 miles, he replied, so I just sat up and pedaled for a few more minutes. After the stop I was much cooler, and the road also tilted back up. With the climbs, I felt better. CM2 and I put a few minutes into the others and waited for them at a light, and I now knew where I was again. 10 miles to go, mostly downhill or flat until the last mile and a half uphill back to Clark's. It was good that I knew where I was, because I got dropped again and didn't feel like chasing. I finished up and was glad to be done. 108 miles. Ouch.

So that ended July for me, and I was glad to see it go.

Swim: C. 42,500m, considerably less than I swam in June (to the tune of 17.5k) and I don't know if I had one good swim that I was pleased with. Last week was particularly disappointing, with how I felt following the massage and then only swimming on Weds/Thurs. I should have put in at least 50k.

Bike: A. 800 miles this month, which was pretty good. I had a couple of decent rides. Hard to remember back to earlier this month, I think I may have only gone to 2 WNRs but I did make it to a couple of TNRs as well. I had some solid long rides, and at least one good race (Randolph).

Run: B+. At 170 miles, it was the most I've run in a July in a while. I didn't have a great run at Peachtree, but I had pretty decent runs at both Randolph and NJ. I did one workout on the track and had some decent other runs. I had weeks of 35, 35, 40 and 46. Just got crippled by the heat a few times.

I've still been scratching my head as to why I've been seemingly more tired than I was last summer. When I looked at July 2010, I wound up putting in 101,000m in the pool, 930 miles on the bike and 95 miles of running. Obviously I have to keep in mind that a few things are different than last year, so they could explain it. Since I had virtually no riding or running in my legs, they were fresh (albeit weaker). I had been swimming enough to handle that much volume, so I felt good in the pool just about every day, and my rides were definitely easier. I was only running a handful of miles each week, and I didn't race until August.

Following July of last year, I stepped down the swimming a bit as I bumped up my running, and I also brought my cycling down a notch (partially due to having a bad reaction to a PT session that prevented me from riding basically for a week). August wound up being 60k in the pool, 583 miles on the bike and 153 miles of running. I feel like that's about what it will be this month, considering the IM in that equation.

It's been a weird year so far for me, I'm like Goldilocks. Can't have it too cold, which was what it was for me basically until end of April. Then I can't have it too hot, which is how it's been most of the rest of the time. I hate it. I have a four week period throughout the year where it's "just right" - maybe I should only race then.

They're in the Landscaping Program

2011-07-26T14:36:00.000-04:00

While I am no sport scientist, I do have an appreciation and understanding of the greatest bike race on earth, and as it dominated the discussion on our Monday night run, I am going to share a few more thoughts from the 2011 edition of the race. If you are one of the 6 people that reads this daily (average), feel free to share any thoughts you have in the comments!

1) How did Thor Hushovd do that (win Stage 13 in the mountains) without drugs?

Thanks Ben, for that great question. Sprinters attacking in the mountains is not entirely uncommon, although it is not often very successful. Sometimes they'll do it just to have a little head start on the climbs, so they can make it inside of the hors delai, or time cut, of the day's stage. In the twilight of Erik Zabel's career, he knew his chances for winning straight-up sprints were diminished (particularly without PEDs), so he had to climb better than the other sprinters in hopes of winning some of the intermediate sprints, and possibly get over the easier mountains with the GC guys and only have to outsprint them to the line. Back then there were usually 2 to 3 intermediate sprint points, with 6, 4 and 2 points on the line. Zabel also had an appreciation and respect for the Tour, and the Maillot Vert, so he always enjoyed showing that he was worthy of the honor by getting through the mountains better than the other sprinters. As we know, the Tour is mostly a race of attrition, and he knew if he established a lead early, some of the other sprinters would call it quits in the mountains.

As for Thor, we are looking at the reigning World Champion, and a strongman of the Spring Classics races. These are grueling, one day, 250km+ sufferfests that only the best of the best can win. Much like Zabel did, Thor has realized that he no longer packs the punch to compete with a Mark Cavendish type sprinter, so his only chance for stage wins, or the Green Jersey, is to outfox everyone, as we saw in both Stage 13, and later in Stage 16. Since those stages were hard, but not Stage 18 or 19 hard, he knew he could suffer just enough to win the stage, and also that nobody would bother him as he was not a GC threat.

Keep in mind, too, that the riders in those breakaways were not necessarily "climbers" - but rather guys who were instructed by their Directeur Sportif to get in the day's breakaway. Each day teams try to fulfill different objectives, and sometimes it's just about being in the break for some TV time. Certainly, none of them was a World Champ like Thor, so it wasn't like he was attacking Cadel Evans or Andy Schleck. In Stage 13, he outlasted FdJ's Jeremy Roy, who had been in almost every breakaway since the Tour began. The guy's legs must have been stripped. In Stage 16, he was able to bridge to his own teammate, Ryder Hesjedal, as the two sandwiched Sky's Edvald Boassen Hagen in the last kilometer. Hesjedal, playing the role of teammate and leadout rider, realized he could not outsprint either of the two, so sacrificed his own chance for the win to enable Thor to win for the second time. A win for Thor is a win for the team, and that's why Garmin-Cervelo had such a successful Tour.

2) Contador looked untouchable in the Giro, and Andy Schleck looked terrible in the Tour de Suisse. What happened?

The Giro is almost always a harder race than the Tour, at least on paper. The race takes place in May, a time of year when the weather is still pretty fickle throughout most of Europe. This year's Giro was exceptionally difficult, perhaps the hardest Grand Tour of all time, and Alberto Contador owned everyone and made it look real easy. His form looked so incredible that he was the odds-on favorite to win the Tour, pending his trial (today, another delay was approved, so who knows when this thing will ever happen). Meanwhile, just a few weeks out from the Tour, Andy Schleck rode the Tour de Suisse. He looked lackluster, to say the least, be it climbing or in the time trial. We all know the brothers Schleck do not like the discipline against the clock, and it appeared as if neither had made any improvements in the months since last year's Tour.

But another thing we know is what every Tour hopeful knows, and that is you do not want to come to the Tour on 100% of your form. The Tour is three weeks long, and it gets progressively more difficult all the way to Paris. Ideally one will race themself into shape by the time the stages get harder, and you saw that with most of this year's real contenders. Andy Schleck was clearly using the TdS to prepare for the Tour, while Contador had chosen the much harder Grand Tour to prepare. Schleck's legs were building into form while Contador was already pretty tired.

Contador, meanwhile, suffered from a severe lack of paying attention in the first week of the Tour. He was involved in a number of crashes, and he and the team manager, former Tour winner/admitted PED user Bjarne Riis, kept the actual impact of his injured knee close to their chest. Contador seemed to be riding in the middle to the back of the peloton on most days, and it never looked like he had any teammates near him. He seemed to be out of it from the start, and lost some time - almost insurmountable time - on stage 1, and again in the 2nd week.

I will say this: I've never liked Contador. I didn't like him in 2007 when he won his first Tour. Because of the problems with his team, he was not allowed to defend his title in 2008, but came back and won in 2009 and again in 2010. The infighting on Team Astana in 2009 as Lance tried to ride for the win again was petty, and the creation of RadioShack split the team for the 2010 Tour. Each year he's ridden the Tour, I feel like he's looked worse. He was vulnerable last year and perhaps had it not been for Andy Schleck's chain slipping at a critical moment in the race, maybe he wouldn't have won. When he popped positive for clenbuterol, a banned substance, following last year's Tour, it cast a shadow of doubt on his entire career. For a guy who so easily won the Tour, the Giro and the Vuelta in succession, this stained his reputation and possibly his legacy as one of the greatest stage racers of all time. But, he handled adversity this year like a champion. He could have dropped out after losing time, and blamed it on his knee. He could have said my knee hurt and that's why I couldn't keep up. Instead, he just said he didn't have the legs, he didn't know what happened. Having been there (a lot) I know what he's talking about, and it's refreshing to know that even someone like Contador has bad days. And even when the chips were really down, he still went on the attack just 10km into Friday's super hard Stage 19. He didn't even win the stage, and you could tell he was hurting. He then rode Saturday's time trial as if he were going for the win. I respect that, and seeing as I feel like he was clean this year, I will now give him a little more respect.

3) How did Thomas Voeckler keep yellow for so long, isn't he not very good?

In 2004, a 25 year old Thomas Voeckler earned the yellow jersey by getting into a good break. Those were in the days of long breakaways that Lance and his Postal squad would allow (like Stuart O'Grady gaining a 35 minute advantage in 2001). Wearing the yellow jersey means pressure; pressure for the rider, pressure for the team to defend, especially when the rider, and the team, are French. Back then, nobody expected Voeckler to hold onto the jersey very long, so when he did, for 10 days, it was a coup. When Lance finally took it back, he took it hard. Voeckler cracked, finally ceding that he couldn't climb well enough to entertain thoughts of winning.

Over the years he has been one of the most animated riders in the peloton, and is always a threat for a good breakaway stage win, and the possibility of wearing yellow. Compared to some of his French generational compatriots, such as Sandy Casar, and Sylvain Chavanel, Voeckler has always been the runt of the litter, carrying less pedigree, but riding with much more heart, than almost anyone. He's been having a great 2011, and it was no surprise to anyone that in the first week of riding he was itching for opportunities for either a stage win, the yellow jersey, or both. He finally got that opportunity, and mixed with a little bit of good fortune (avoiding getting hit by a car in the break combined with a cautious peloton) he was able to snag the yellow jersey. He knew it would be short-lived, honestly believing he couldn't carry it beyond a day or two, but he steadfastly vowed to defend it.

What happened next flumoxed most people involved in the Tour - media, riders, viewers alike. Thomas Voeckler somehow found the legs to match pace with the best in the mountains. And it wasn't like they were riding easy enough for everyone to be there, toward the end of each stage it was a very select group, usually just the top 7-10 guys on GC. One would attack, and Voeckler would aggressively move to cover it. He appeared to be climbing better than Schleck or Contador on some occasions. Always near was his faithful domestique, the best young rider Pierre Rolland, who I did actually say would win a stage by the end of the Tour when the race first hit the mountains. He looked extremely comfortable in the high mountains and Stage 19 atop Alpe d'Huez he earned a great win. But back to Voeckler, when he was asked by the media whether he felt the fact he was able to defend his jersey was a sign of a cleaner Tour, he said absolutely.

Now, whether that's the case or not, I think he benefitted from historical precedence. Thomas Voeckler has never been a climber, and I suspect that, after this year, probably won't be again. The real contenders never seemed to care if he did anything, they were too busy marking each other. Until, with 3 stages to go, he still had a lead. Even then, it seemed impossible that this guy, from Team Europcar, was still clinging to the lead over the best in the world. This will go down as one of the most remarkable stories in Tour history, and if he wasn't already, Voeckler will be a folk hero in French cycling lore.

But, he will never be allowed in a breakaway again, so I hope he enjoyed it.

4) Was this Tour cleaner?

I think it was. First, you saw a tremendous level of parity when it came to the final climbs. If Tom Danielson, at age 33 and in his first Tour ever, is able to keep up with the likes of the Schlecks, Evans and Contador, you know something's up. Second, you really could see the fatigue on the riders, moreso than in the past. People have been quick to point out that they climbed slower than the last decade or so, and that could be something, or it could be nothing. To me, it looked like the climbs were slower, because the pace TO the climbs had been so rapid, that the teammates of the GC guys were dropped earlier than in the past. When Lance had the full force of Postal behind him, they ran it more efficiently than the real Postal Service. Lance was a real boss, a patron of the peloton. He was feared, and respected. Every day his team was on the front, and they would set the tempo up the climbs, peeling off one by one until it was Lance, maybe one or two rivals, and a teammate of Lance's. There was nothing like that this year. LeoPard Trek was riding so hard in between climbs that they were all gone by the time the climbs started. BMC didn't have the firepower, neither did SaxoBank. Maybe that is the sign of cleaner riding, that the domestiques lost their climbing legs. But to say it was cleaner solely because the climbs were slower, well I don't think that means much, at least not yet.

What changed from Tours of the past to this one? Last year Mark Cavendish won a bunch of stages. This year, he won a bunch of stages. He was untouchable in most sprints. So, let's assume last year they were all doping, and this year they weren't. He's still better. Almost everyone finished where they were supposed to finish. The green jersey went to the best sprinter. The polka dot jersey went to a climber (maybe not THE best, but it hardly ever does). The yellow jersey went to the best rider in the race. The race was exciting from start to finish.

5) Was Cadel really the best? And will Andy Schleck ever win a Tour?

First answer - yes. Second - I don't think so. Cadel is a World Champion, and has proven his worth as a cyclist time and time again. He came from a champion mountain bike background, like many others, but has catapulted himself to the top of the road cycling ranks, which is not something that the others can say. He has poured his heart into winning this race, and this year he looked sharp from the beginning. Crashes and bad luck are part of the sport. You can't control what happens around you, unfortunately, and in some of his other attempts, he really just has suffered bad luck. You can feel bad for that. Bad form, you can't.

I've always pointed out that Lance Armstrong didn't win 7 Tours in a row (SEVEN) because he was the best. I honestly don't think he was. And, speculations of PEDs aside, Lance won for a few simple reasons: he prepared the best, he wanted to win more than the others, he had the best/most prepared team around him, and he rarely suffered from bad luck. Lance was only ever focused on the Tour, and was fortunate to have a team (and, importantly, sponsors) who backed that pursuit. They were allowed to focus on that. They were not required to win stages, put guys in the break, win other jerseys. It was all about yellow. Other contemporary teams, including Jan Ullrich's Deutsche Telekom team, still had to satisfy sponsors with dual objectives: win stages. That meant at the end of each stage, some of the team's 9 riders were told to work hard to get Erik Zabel in position to win the stage.

In this day, I think it is almost impossible for a team to satisfy both objectives. You can either go for stage wins, or you can win the Tour. Of the top 10, only three won stages during the Tour (Cadel, Andy, Sanchez), and just two of the others (Voeckler, Danielson, we'll discount Frank Schleck) even had stage winners come from their team. Not one of those teams had a sprinter they worked for.

For Cadel, BMC was fully committed to the cause. I actually believe it helps being an American team with American sponsors, because here in America, we only know about yellow. We don't care about the other classifications, or TV time for sponsors, or stage wins, like the European-based teams might. LeoPard Trek was the same way. SaxoBank, same. Cadel benefitted from his great skill in the time trial, so he really never had to attack. I was personally disappointed to see him not light it up in the mountains, but even if he had been able to, I don't know that it would have been beneficial in his attempt to win yellow. Instead, he did what he had to do to win. I can get behind that. He rode sensibly, near the front at all times, he did dig it out for that sprint to win that early stage, stayed out of trouble with the crashes, mechanicals, had teammates around. He just rode smart. And then he knew even if the TT was only 42km that he could take out probably 2 minutes on Anyone But Contador so he didn't have to do anything other than work to bridge some time on Stages 18 and 19.

As far as Andy Schleck, I think last year was his shot. Yeah, I know he's young, but Contador has already stated emphatically that he will "never ride the Giro again" and will focus solely on winning more Tours. This may not work out if his court case turns out unfavorably, but he seems adamant that he will be back and in the hunt next year. Cadel I'm sure will come back to defend. Who knows who else could be in the mix. Andy Schleck has proven that he can climb, nobody doubts that, but until he works on his time trial, he cannot be a champion. His team needs a better strategy, and Frank needs to be used better. The one thing Schleck has going for him, as Arjun and I discussed last night, is that he seems to get the idea that you build your season around just racing the Tour, and build the team that can support that plan. If he doesn't win next year, or the year after, will he still be hungry enough to win the Tour? One can only get second so many times, just ask Raymond Poulidor.

But I Finished? I Don't Understand

2011-07-25T14:47:00.000-04:00

Chris Horner mumbled those words following his crash early in the Tour. Somehow he had managed to get back on his bike and pedal 25km to the finish, before being taken away in an ambulance. The broken bones were the least of his concerns, his coherence was non-existent. He had no recollection of the crash, of finishing, of anything, really. All he was concerned about was that he finished.

That's kind of how I felt about, well, anything I did this past week. The conditions were brutal, even by Summer standards. I feel that my unathletic DNA is the cause of my struggles with heat and humidity. I can't imagine there was much of that in Ireland, Scotland, Germany or Sweden when the people who helped create my family tree got together. The only thing I know is that, due to the Irish part of me comprising at least 50% of my genetic makeup, I am able to suffer better than most.

I went to the Wednesday Night Ride last week. There were a meager 12 people, and the temperature was still in the mid 90s. I rode there from Falls Road, which added at least 8 miles in each direction to my trip, so the ride was going to be in the realm of 2h30m. Because one of my water bottle cages broke (a while ago) I have been riding mostly with one bottle. I will occasionally, on really hot days, carry a smaller one in my jersey pocket. I did that for this ride, and was already through the small bottle by the time I got to Oregon Ridge. My HR was through the roof, it was disconcerting. Normally the ride starts AT 6pm, sometimes earlier. On this day, nobody seemed keen on pedaling, so it was at least 6:08 by the time we rolled out. I figured it may, on account of the conditions, be chill. Nope. Someone went off the front from the start, and while it was kept in check, another attack on Stringtown blew up the ride. In reality, without knowing the speed, it could have been not that hard. I'll concede that I felt terrible and it could have just been me. But, with only 12 people, if I got dropped, it was going to be a long, boring ride. I was able to put in one effort to bridge the gap, but then resumed sitting on the back of the line. I made it to Glencoe Rd with the group, before getting dropped after another attack just prior to York Rd. I'd guess this is 7 or 8 miles from the finish, so probably 22-23 miles into the ride. I sat up and soft pedaled home. I still had to go up Jerome Jay to get back to Falls Road. And I had approximately two swigs of water left. I was going to save them for the right time, so I waited until I had crested JJ and drank the remainder of the water, and then just freewheeled downhill until I had to pedal again.

Thursday was potentially a worse day. It was hard to tell. At some point, hot is just hot. Alyssa, Pat and I rolled out from Snake Hill around 6:30pm to do our 2hr Gunpowder Loop. I felt much better than I had on Wednesday, which was somewhat consoling.

Friday morning the decision was made to run early. I felt that if I swam early, and had to wait until later in the day to run, that the run would be bad, or I wouldn't do it. 5:45am and Pat was at our door, and he/Ed/myself rolled out for basically WNR loop. It was already 87 degrees. I didn't feel too bad, whatever pace we were running was actually okay (it was not fast, I know that) and I didn't feel like I absolutely needed water. We made it around the Harbor to the Rusty Scupper, and began our way back the way we had come. We took a detour up to Patterson Park, and I ran a few more minutes to call it 11 on the day. It was just after 7am, 91 degrees with a heat index of 100. I swam later in the day, and the pool was seriously on fire. I thought I was in Cleveland for a second. I tried on my new speedsuit, the Tyr Torque, and I felt the difference. I was excited to swim in it on Sunday.

In order to get the workout out of the way, and to be able to watch the TT/get on the road to NJ earlier, Zero and I rode at 6:30am on Saturday. The temp was not bad, but not much different than it had been at the same time on Friday morning. We did a shortened version of our normal Loch Raven loop, and while my legs didn't feel good, they warmed up by the end. I watched the Tour, impressed by Cadel Evans' ride, and Alyssa/Z/myself headed out around 2 to get to NJ. It was 4:30 when we got to the race site, and the field it's in felt like the surface of Mercury. I had planned on running a few miles, but that idea evaporated as quickly as my water.

Saturday night we were staying at a hotel on Route 1 near Princeton, so we took the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places: Princeton University. I've been going there since I was in high school for races, running camps, etc, but haven't been there in a few years. Also I was too dumb to get in. But we had a great meal at Triumph Brewery, while we quasi-eavesdropped on a date between two older people. The guy was digging his own grave; we heard him explaining the Tour/cycling to her for a long time, and at one point he took off his Road I.D. to show her. I was like yo, if she goes home with you tonight, mad respect.

Sunday morning we awoke to temperatures already near 90. I did the inaugural New Jersey State Triathlon in 2006, and was able to race again in 2007 and 2008. In each of those three years, I had terrible swims, decent bikes and reasonable runs. They changed the bike course by a little bit every year. It was only 23.5 miles for a while but apparently last year they figured out a way to make it 25.5. Always rather it be a little over than a little under. I've never swam well there, and the only thing I can reason is that the water is just too warm. I prefer cold water swimming (who doesn't) and the 88 degrees it was on Sunday was just too much for me. In the other years, it was maybe 82, 80, something reasonable. But this was just too hot. And the course goes out with the sun at your back before turning directly into it on the way in. I struggled with sighting, and as a result I probably would not be a good spokesperson for speedsuits because I swam abysmally slow.

I came out of the water and looked to my left and saw Alyssa. In normal cases, I would expect to be 60-90 seconds up on Alyssa, and 2.5-3min down on Tommy, and fairly close to Mike but over that distance probably still a minute back. I had swam 26:29 (probably 10-15sec to run out of the water to the mat). That was 5 minutes back to Tommy, 3:15 back to Z and Alyssa outsplit me to the mat by 4 seconds. And there went my day.

Overheated and disappointed, the wind had been taken from my sails. My foot hurt really bad running on the jagged asphalt of the transition area, and I got to my bike and had no motivation to ride. I passed one dude early, in the first half mile, and then didn't see anyone for a while, before I got passed. This is the first time I've been passed this year! I looked at the guy's cadence and thought man, I should have no problem riding that. I just...didn't want to. I could see really far up the road and just didn't see anyone. Normally I would expect to pull Tommy back in, but I didn't see him. Oh well. I rode as easy as I felt I could get away with, it actually felt much easier than even Thursday's ride. At this point, I just wanted to see how I felt getting off the bike, because with only one water bottle on the bike, and no salt, I was sure I'd cramp up and be walking.

As a heads up, I will include a picture below, but I wore my neon green Speedo. This is still the best thing I've ever raced in. I wore it in the first ever tri I did, and for that whole season. I thought that's just how triathlon was supposed to be. In the years to come, now it seems like everyone is on a team and has some kind of kit. I am proud to be unsponsored for 10 years now, and I know I warm everyone's heart when I wear this green bikini bottom.

So I come in off the bike, and I calmly go onto the run. My goal was now to run pretty easy, make sure my HR doesn't spike, and then that way I'll still have legs at the finish. With as much as I anticipated getting wet on this run, I wasn't sure if the no-socks plan was a good one, but I didn't want to have really wet socks, either. I made my way onto the terrible run course, and it was a just a few minutes before I saw Mike on his way back from the first turnaround. He was having a phenomenal race and looked really strong running. He led a big group of people, including Tommy, and then I saw the first placed girl. I felt like I was pretty far back and it may not be possible to catch her. At the first turnaround, well beyond the 1 mile mark, was our first opportunity to get a water stop. They really needed one as you left transition or something. I took an ice cold towel (that was clutch) and tried to keep myself as cool as possible. There weren't a ton of people ahead, but I went by a few very comfortably.

I lost my watch two weeks ago when I was in NJ, so I was racing without a watch. I felt like that was beneficial on this day as inevitably my splits would have been annoying. Around mile 2 1/4, the fire department had opened a hydrant and water was blasting out of it. It was actually kind of annoying to run through, as it just soaked you. I now had real sloshy feet. There's another turnaround, and I could tell I was making up ground on some, but not others. As we came by transition at 5k, I got a shoutout from the announcer, for my cool outfit. My parents were also there cheering, and if you know my dad, you know he is probably the best cheerer in the world. You can literally hear him from outer space.

I felt pretty good at this point, and while I know I wasn't running fast, I was running comfortably. Hit mile 4, where the animated gentleman at the water stop said something that really hit home: "if you can see them, you can catch them." Of course, that goes for those behind you, but I realized that anybody I still had in sight, I could reasonably catch. So, much like the driving peloton figures out how to dose their effort out to catch the day's breakaway, I measured my effort to catch those that I could who were ahead of me. This really meant the girl and the dude wearing the Duke kit. There was another turnaround at mile 4 3/4, and another hydrant blasting you in the face. The water was real deep, too, flooding the road. It was just around mile 5/the same mile 4 water stop that I passed the girl and the guy, and still had two people I believed I could catch. They were pretty far up, but you could tell by their form they were hurting.

With a half mile to go, I upped the tempo enough so that I wouldn't redline, but that I could make the catch inside of the last 0.2, that way I would limit their ability to try and kick. I moved by the one guy (45 y/o, some accomplishment there RM) and had another younger guy just ahead now. He had begun to kick a little early and looked like he was coming back, but we were less than 150 from the finish. My dad started cheering for me, the kid looked behind, and took off. I took off after him, but realized I was not catching him. I shuffled in over the line at 2:13:58, a truly weak time to match a feeble effort.

The bike course was 2 miles longer than in 2008, so I'll consider that about 5.5 minutes at the speed I was going, so even then it is still off my time of 2:05:10. I felt like I was in shape to go 2:03 on the old course, so maybe 2:08 something this year. With a bike course of 25.5 miles, I should have been able to ride that in 60-61 minutes, based even just on my EM effort. Instead, I rode 1:04:50. I've ridden a faster average there on my road bike. They didn't have my run split (or Zero's, interestingly) but my T2 + run was 41:16. Assuming a minute for transition, maybe just over, that would be a run of 40:15. Normally that's pretty discouraging, but considering the winner (who blazed in 2:00:xx) only ran a 38:35 for fastest run of the day (and I know he's normally a mid 34 guy) I wasn't displeased with that. Overall I finished 9th, but the kid that had just narrowly held me off got a drafting penalty and so I finished 8th.

The only takeaway I have from the day is that I managed 2.5 mile w/u, and then ran 5 miles after the race, and felt really comfortable doing that (13.5ish on the day). When we got back to Baltimore, Alyssa had an additional 2 hour ride on tap, so we went out just after 6pm for a Gunpowder Loop. I felt pretty good riding and would have been fine riding 2 hours, but Alyssa jinxed the ride by saying she didn't have stuff to fix a flat. So, ten miles out, she got a flat. And while I had a spare tube and CO2, I didn't have the stupid thing through which CO2 is conducted. I then had to ride back to the house, get a car and get Alyssa, who sat on the side of Route 40 in Skankville MD, where only one car stopped to see if she was alright.

So for the week, I managed 14km in the pool, 165 miles on the bike and 40 miles of running. I was, at 19 hours, somewhat expectedly tired going into the race, and that's okay. The 40 miles of running is the most I've done since the last week of April. I don't know what was going on, but I had a lot of weeks in the 29-32 range, with one week even coming in at 21. Then I was at 35 for the last four weeks. 40 is by no means a lot, but on just 4 runs, and one of those being a small 1.5 mile run off the bike one day, I'll take it.

In spite of the conditions, that's a good week. The lowlight of it was really just the race. Originally, Alyssa, Z and I were going to go up to NY to do this other race, the American Zofingen Triathlon, which was to be 1.5mi/69mi/15mi and would have been a lot more useful en route to next month's IM, but it was canceled due to lack of interest. I was content with not racing this weekend, as at this point, a weekend of longer training efforts is more productive for me, but we decided to do this race. In the end, it was whatever. I was okay with racing, but I would have also been okay with not racing. I certainly didn't need another race, particularly an Olympic distance one, but it's still more opportunity to spend (in theory) riding hard on my TT bike and running off the bike, and for this one, a chance to try out the speedsuit.

Mostly I think I need to start going to these races that everyone else seems to be able to find with downhill swims and friendly courses. How I magically come across races that have unnecessarily hot swims in non-current bodies of water (or, the Choptank), and stupid run courses is beyond me.

Today I feel okay, but my knee is really stiff. It's hard to explain unless you have the same problem, but it's not sore like "man you just did a hard effort," it's not able to bend or straighten without searing pain. This has been a constant source of frustration, as everyone knows, because I just never feel good, and don't think I ever will. I certainly don't wish it on anyone but it would be nice if someone else I knew had a similar problem so I could discuss it! I think it comes from the position on the TT bike, because I don't have the same level of stiffness after equally hard efforts on the road bike. Might just have to race a road bike down the road. Considering this past weekend, might not really make a difference!

My Team CYB teammates all had good days though yesterday, with Mike having his best race ever, finishing 2nd overall and having a great bike split. Tommy had a good swim and decent bike before a tough run, and technically finished 5th but got hit with another drafting penalty and finished 7th instead. Alyssa was just shy of her OD PR and was 8th overall. Considering the week of training she put in, that was pretty awesome. After the race we went to Varsity Pizza in Lawrenceville, which was delicious as usual and a great tradition I've kept.

For this week I think I'll be taking it easy today and tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday, before picking it back up for the weekend. I think I need to start bringing down the efforts like Weds Night Ride. One thing I've done in the last two weeks is recovery rides in the small chain ring. I really feel like it's been helping flush my legs and keeping the effort really chill when I need it to be. A few weeks until Luray, so these next two weekends are critical for longer efforts, and then I'll try and rest up for Luray so as not to get embarrassed there.

As a corollary to my LOTR/TdF post from last week, I realized that the Nasgul, the Ring Wraiths, were also 9 in number, as if they are a team of their own and represent the evil that tries to take away the yellow jersey from the Fellowship. Of course, Andy Schleck had virtually no shot at the win, and with the lightest amount of TT miles possible, that does not bode well for his future of winning the Tour. Just 42km of individual time trialing, normally the last one is at least 50-55km and there is generally another one (and a prologue!) so I don't see him winning anytime soon. Contador has already stated he will never ride the Giro again and is solely focused on winning more Tours (that is, if he gets cleared over the Clenbuterol) and I'm sure Cadel will be back in full effect to win again next year. In any event, it was a great Tour to watch, particularly the last couple of days.

LOTR = TdF

2011-07-22T09:39:00.000-04:00

J.R.R. Tolkien was a fan of the Tour de France. How do I know? The parallels between the epic saga of cycling's biggest race and that of Frodo Baggins and his journey to Mordor are uncanny. In particular, the team of LeoPard Trek is pretty much based on the Fellowship of the Ring.

Think about it, there were 9 members of the Fellowship. There are 9 members of a TdF cycling squad. Both have embarked on a terrifying journey through beautiful landscapes, treacherous mountains and uncharted territories, toward one goal. In the Lord of the Rings, the adventurers are trying to destroy the one thing that all others covet, to the point that almost destroys them. The one ring causes a weight so heavy they almost buckle under the pressure. It's a similar ideal in the Tour, only the riders seek a maillot jaune as their goal, and use their Fellowship to help them get it. Along the way they encounter obstacles that may set them back, and, omnipresent evil in the form of rivals who will do anything in their power to prevent them from achieving their goal.

But if that's not enough proof for you, let's take a deeper look into the cast of characters:

Andy Schleck as Frodo Baggins. Frodo was the main dude, the get shit done guy. He says this is my burden to bear, don't worry boys, I'll take it to the end. There are times that he looks vulnerable and falters a bit, but always has his posse to look out for him and fill in the gaps. That's Andy in a nutshell. He wants the jersey, he craves it. Sometimes, like on descents, he looks vulnerable, but then he's got his boys to help bridge the gap and take him to the top.

Frank Schleck as Sam Gamgee. Sam was Frodo's right hand man, #2, the faithful lieutenant. So devoted to Frodo was Sam that he never left his side. In fact, it's Sam at the end who really helps get the job done. Sam could have done it himself but realized that it was Frodo's mission. Frank could win the Tour himself, but is devoted to seeing his brother do it, and would sacrifice his own chance in order to make it happen.

Jens Voigt as Gandalf. Sure, Gandalf was old as shit, much like Jens Voigt, but that didn't stop him from being a BAMF. Like the magical wizard, Jens Voigt always had a trick up his sleeve, and, also like Gandalf, who disappears in Fellowship, presumed to be dead, Jens will be off the back and presumed dead and then POOF magically resurfaces again, at the front, to set some inhumane tempo. He is also always good for a sound byte, just like Gandalf. "Fly, you fools."

Stuart O'Grady as Aragorn. Aragorn was the captain, much like Stuey. He leads the group in a quiet but boss-like way, which is what Stuart has always tried to do. Stuey's been a pro for a long time, and has even led the TdF himself back in the day (a long breakaway with a 35 minute gap allowed by Lance in 2001). It's as if he's gotten better with age, as he leads the pack into the mountains now (when he was formerly a scratch sprinter, in it for stage wins and the green jersey). And, just like Aragorn told Frodo "I would have gone with you to the end," you get the feeling that, if he could, he would have gone with Andy to the end.

Fabian Cancellara as Legolas. Legolas had crazy skills, one of which was the ability to cover great distances at breakneck speeds, much like Monsieur Cancellara. Renowned as a great man against the clock, he is the reigning World Champion at the Individual Time Trial discipline, and is always a threat to win any TT he's in. He's won prologues of the Tour and worn yellow. He can attack a rushing peloton from over a kilometer out and hold them off. He is one of the best spring Classics riders in the world and doesn't seem to have many flaws. Legolas would have been a great time trial rider and just seemed to enjoy the endless pursuit.

Joost Posthuma as Gimli. True, Gimli may have been a short, stout dwarf, but you can't let that cloud your judgment. What Gimli lacked in physical stature he more than made up for with grit, and was quite well-rounded. Gimli claimed to be a sprinter, was strong and able to do a multitude of functions to serve his team. Joost is considered a rouleur, or a super domestique. They do what it takes for their leader to win, and are considered fair all-rounders.

Jakob Fuglsang as Boromir. Boromir was human, and was somewhat of a dissenter amongst the Fellowship. He felt that the Ring could be used for their purposes, to rule - but that idea was shot down, mostly by Aragorn, citing they needed to rid the world of the Ring for good by destroying it. Boromir didn't really like that idea, and on a few occasions tried to take it himself. But, he realized the error of his ways, and at the end of Fellowship he came up big, ultimately giving his life to take on a legion of evil to try and help protect the Hobbits and the Ring. Alright, so, this one was a bit of a stretch. I wouldn't exactly call Jakob Fuglsang "Boromir", but he is a very good rider, having finished in the top 10 of last year's Tour. No doubt that he is a rider for the future, but, for now, at least, he seems content with just sacrificing his own chances to help Andy.

Maxime Monfort as Pippin. The Hobbit support system is set up so that they always have each other's backs, even if they aren't with each other. As we watched Stage 18 of this year, we saw Maxime in the day's early break, just waiting for Andy to bridge up to him, you realized he had done his job separately but it was ultimately going to help the cause. Hobbits were really proficient at a couple of things: jumping and throwing rocks. They also loved to drink, smoke weed and, appropriately eat. I can't comment on Monfort's propensity for any of these things, but I'm sure he at least eats a lot.

Linus Gerdemann as Merry. Linus Gerdemann is another long term prospect, having won a stage of the Tour before and coming from a Milram team where he was clearly headed for its leadership role. Coming across to LeoPard Trek, his opportunity for being a Tour leader decreased, but he hasn't seemed to mind, as he again plays faithful Hobbit friend to Andy. His contribution will seem small in the end, but when you look deeper, you'll see just how much of a role he played, fetching water bottles, sharing food, blocking wind. All for the greater good.

I would go even further and make comparisons between the team director and Elron, who put the Fellowship together, and had gotten down and dirty himself back in the day, and some of the evil forces as they relate to some of the competitors. But that might be overkill.

So yeah, I'm a dork for taking the time to make this connection, but whatever. I love LOTR and the Tour. And, because I don't know how to read, I have never actually read the books.

Stage 18 to the Galibier was a great example of a champion going for the win. I felt that the only play for Schleck was to have a guy or two in the break, so that if he were able to launch an attack and bridge up to them, they could do some work before letting him fly. I can't recall if I've ever seen it so far out, from a potential Tour winner, but it was amazing and perfectly executed. The only other time in the TdF I've seen someone do anything like that was in 2006 when eventually-declared-cheater Floyd Landis had lost 17 minutes on one really bad day, and went on a solo attack from the gun, picking up something like 15 minutes at the end. And then he won the Tour. And then it was taken from him. I also seem to recall in the Vuelta one year Floyd being in the break and waiting for Roberto Heras (another cheater) to bridge the gap on a climb, and then Floyd did a 40km TT with Heras in tow as it catapulted Heras closer to the lead. Then they had an individual TT on some absurd climb, possibly the Angliru, where Heras took insane time out of the leader and went on to win. And then get banned from the sport.

But to see Schleck go out, 60km from the finish, by himself, then bridge to Monfort, who then did a Herculean effort as he pulled a small group along the valley leading up to the Galibier, it was awesome. In the end he gained just 2 minutes, and for that much work it left many wondering if it was worth it. Whether it was worth it or not, that will be determined this weekend, but it was the ride of a champion.

Stage 19 to my favorite place to sleep, Alpe d'Huez, is underway and it's already gotten hot, but I'll leave my remarks until after the stage so I don't blow up anybody's spot!

There's Always Someone Faster

2011-07-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

Following the race-heavy week, I was keen to press on last week. Realizing that time is rapidly vanishing until Louisville, and that I still have two race weekends in between, I had to finally get out on the bike this past weekend. Following Monday's tough evening run, I went to the track Tuesday with my sights set on doing my first workout in what felt like months. The temp was around 95 again, and the workout was 5x2000m @ tempo pace with just 1:30 in between efforts. I figured if the conditions had been reasonable, my anticipated 1600m split would have been in the 5:50 realm, but given the heat, I thought the better of it and decided I'd like to get through 10k and still be alive, so I went out real slow. When we (my little group) came through at 92 for the first 400m, I was pretty surprised, but rather than freak out and speed up, we gradually picked up the pace so that we came through in 3:03, 4:03, 6:02 and finished at 7:32. Still able to talk throughout this effort, I was fine with keeping it right around 6 minute pace.

We would yo-yo between 88 and 89 seconds for our first lap from there, and then settle into a pace usually around 89-90, for the first three intervals (7:29, 7:28), and then on the 4th we started off the same but by 1200m had come through a little quicker, and split 5:53 for the 1600m. At this point, mudbutt was rearing its ugly head, and I peeled off the track to head toward the bathroom, only to be DENIED. The building was locked, and so too would have to stay my cheeks. I got back on for the 5th and final interval, and now it was just myself and Seth. Excited, we hit 85 on the first lap, before bringing it back to 89, and then checking off 87, 86 (5:47), 85 to finish at 4:12. I was pleased with the day, as it's not often that I'll do 10k worth of intervals at TNT. In fact, over the 6 years of our little Tuesday group, I can say there's only been a handful of times we've run that much. One of those workouts is our annual 10x1000m w/:60 rest, a favorite of mine that I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this year.

On Wednesday I felt the effort, and took the opportunity to get out for a small chain ring ride with Pat. If you've ridden with OJ, you know that the mantra is "big ring all the time" - which is all good for certain rides, but there is a time and a place for it, and Wednesday was not one of them. Pat and I waited out a brief storm before rolling out, and due to the late start we were going to cut short the normally 2 hour ride to a 75 minute one (although our speed was slow, so it took longer). I had gotten a flat on our Rocks ride a few weeks ago - the first I'd gotten in a few years - and it must have had a slow leak because I would fill it up, and overnight it would be flat. On this day, the tube had had enough, and it went. I look at the tire, which was only a few months old, and looks like there was a pretty severe cut in it, so I had to get a new one on Thursday.

Thursday's ride was up in Owings Mills, and it was the return of Il Principe, Marc. Peter was there, Clark was there, Howard was there - it was like a little reunion. I did not feel great, but put in a few good sections and as usual, was climbing pretty well. But man, something is up with me because I just seem so tired all the time. And when I thought about it, I realized my volume is actually lower than this time last year. So what gives?

Saturday had been on tap for a while as the Lineboro ride. Everyone knows this ride, it's the first big one I did with OJ and Benda some 5 years ago, and when we used to leave from old TriSpeed, it was 78 miles. Then we pushed it back to Meadowbrook, making it like 96 or 97. Then I had the great idea once to ride from the city, clocking it around 115-116 miles. Following Wednesday's storm, the weather had actually cooled off considerably, and Saturday was going to be a pretty nice day. The crew for the ride was going to be myself, Z and Alyssa, with OJ joining for a little while. I left Alyssa's to ride home in the morning, changed and got on the road to meet Z. On our way up, we saw this little gem. Met the gang and started slow, headed up, up and up toward Hampstead. Our speed was by no means high, and the wind seemed to be steadily gaining strength, making it a tough ride. We made it to our favorite stop, Leone Spring, around 3 hours, and at this point knew we'd be picking up a nice tailwind as we crossed east through Pennsylvania, to Glen Rock. At GR, we stopped at the gas station for our afternoon refueling, before continuing up to York Rd.

It was here that we were given confirmation that the wind would be directly in our face as we headed back to Baltimore - some 40 miles or so. The sun was strong, and the temp was rising. As we hit the hills of York Rd, the day grew long. I hadn't felt great from the start, and I really had hoped to get better as the day went on. I wasn't suffering like I did on that cold, rainy day back in March, but I was not enjoying the trip late in the day. At mile 104 we still had to climb up Bellemore, which was no fun, and then the day was basically done. If I added the ride over to my house this morning, I would have been just under 120 for the day. Somehow this is only the 4th ride over 60 for me this year I think. All notions of a post-ride run went out the window, and I pulled myself together to get ready to spectate Rockville Twilight.

Rockville is a great summer race, an 8k held at 8:45pm on a Saturday in July, and everyone comes out ready to race this one. Usually it's pretty uncomfortable, but this year runners were treated to great weather, which resulted in some pretty good times. Unfortunately, by the time you leave the race area, and then get dinner (Silver Diner on Rockville Pike), and drive the hour home, it's 2am. Needless to say, I needed a little bit of sleep on Sunday.

Pat and I rolled out around 10am on Sunday for a 3 hour ride, and once again it featured me, in the small chain ring, the entire time. I just tried to flush out the gunk from yesterday. It was much warmer today, and following the ride I still had to do a swim (pathetic) and run. I was in definite caloric debt from yesterday, and nothing I did today felt good.

Onto Monday, and again it was time for the Monday Night Long Run. This week it was warm, but maybe a little less so than last Monday, and I felt considerably better. The run was probably a little slower, but I didn't mind, I just needed to get through it. I was seriously tired as shit after this one, and yesterday evening's swim with today's early morning swim were not pretty.

And then I realized why I'm more tired than I was last year: while my overall volume was greater, my effort was less. Sure, I was swimming a lot (101km in the pool in July) but I had also been swimming consistently for a while, and without running or riding for a year, my legs had the ability to get through workouts. My average run week was about 10 miles less per week, and I wasn't doing 14 mile runs. I was going to TNT, but I wasn't doing the whole workouts, and while 6min pace was hard for my body, it wasn't that hard aerobically, so I was able to recover quick. I also wasn't racing. At this point last year, I had not raced for 13 months. Now I've raced 14 times this year. My Wednesday rides were with Alyssa from Oregon Ridge, which was challenging for me but I'm riding nearly 20 minutes faster for the same 30 mile loop with the WNR. I wasn't going to Thursday Night Ride as much, and when I did, I wasn't adding 14 miles by riding there from Falls Road. I was getting in long rides, but the effort wasn't as big. So no wonder I'm tired. I certainly need to pay attention to some better recovery as I lead up to IM because if it were tomorrow, I don't think I'd make it through!

As I lead up to the New Jersey State Triathlon on Sunday, I am not going to amend the rest of the week's workouts to rest up for it. I realize that's in direct contradiction with what I just said about resting, but obviously there are races we focus on and take serious, and some that are for training. This one is for training. I did this race the first three years of its existence, before being hurt in 2009 and not able to race. I'm excited to go back, although there really isn't anything spectacular about this race. Warm water = no wetsuit; flat, two-loop bike course; flat, hot run. At least the bike is 25.5 miles now as opposed to 23.5, so another 5 minutes on the bike. I'll be racing with Team CYB teammates Alyssa, Tommy and Zero.

If you've been following the Tour, it's been totally crazy. Tomorrow and Friday are going to be two incredibly hard stages and I'm sure we'll see a change in the overall, but through 17 stages, Thomas Voeckler has been indignant in his defense of the yellow jersey, as if he's saying F you to the pre-race favorites. Never again will he be allowed in a breakaway, that's for sure! But it also brings up the point of confidence. While he maintains that he has "0% chance at winning" when the race comes to Paris, I'm sure secretly he believes he can win. So far, he's marked almost every move and has climbed extraordinarily well. He is racing confidently, and is having great success.

On the other extreme, there is cockiness, and it's when you hear people saying dick things like "unless you're faster than me, your opinion doesn't count" that you get really annoyed. I don't claim to be the fastest, I don't even claim to be good. I have had moderate success in my years in the sport, and enjoy racing, but I realize that a) it represents only a portion of our lives and b) it only matters to us. Have you ever tried to talk to someone who doesn't do triathlons, about triathlons? They don't give a shit. In fact, when most people who do them talk to me about them, I don't give a shit. It's really not that cool. I'm just too much of a sucker to quit, and I like competing.

The most important thing to remember is that there is always someone faster than you. I don't care who you are, there is always someone faster. Even Chrissie Wellington will find that out at some point. Respect your competitors, respect anyone who does the sport. Because we all have our day, the day where we are being huge pussies and quit a ride, or get out of the pool, or walk home from a run. Just because you're faster than someone does not mean that you know more than they do, and if you feel the need to point out that because you are faster their opinion doesn't matter, then you are, by definition, a wanksta.