May 1st, 2011 is a day I will always remember.
For it was on that day that I saw the fifth installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise, The Fast Five, and I have to say it was probably the best one. More importantly, they set it up for another sequel. Who knows - maybe they'll get to 10! And it reminded me of a situation I was in 10 years ago. It was July 13, 2011. I was leaving for Australia for 6 months on July 15, and TFATF had just come out. I went to see it. It was awesome. A few months later, America, and the world, would be shocked by the events of September 11th, which were credited to a tall, grisly dude with a heinous beard who liked caves. It was a tragic time, but once again I was greeted by the bad-assery of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, as TFATF arrived in Australia that November.
2 Fast 2 Furious came out 2 years later, and without Vin Diesel, and weak writing (and acting, courtesy of Tyrese), the only thing it gave us was a name for our second Hubs of Fury event in 2008. The third film, Tokyo Drift, was really bad. And I think everyone hoped it would just die there.
Fortunately for us, Fast and Furious came to the rescue. It did not disappoint; in fact, it revived the franchise. And then came The Fast Five. And in an interesting twist of fate, 10 years later, TFATF is once again connected to that September day, only this time, much like the BAMFs of the film, America came out on top. It wasn't more than a half hour after I got back from seeing the movie on Sunday when I received a text from a friend on the inside alerting me of the news, and until about midnight I absorbed as much of the coverage as I could. Yesterday and today I have been scouring the news for the details of this amazing mission. It is, without a doubt, the most awesome thing I've ever heard and I can't wait for the movie.
But back in a world that seems a million miles away, where covert black op missions include getting in and out of the pool without getting stuck talking to a million crazies, or figuring out which eating establishment will have the shortest line after TNT, life went on.
April turned out to be a really good month, both in volume and quality of work. Here's how I would grade myself:
Swimming - B. It's only half a letter grade better than March, and I feel better in the pool as of late, but I just took a look and saw that my volume (37,000m) was a grand less than March somehow. For some reason I thought I was only 34k for March. Either way, the volume is still pretty low, and while I still don't feel great, I'm starting to feel a little better. I saw improvement in my long swims, and am getting a little speed back.
Cycling - A. At 525 miles, my biggest April ever and steady improvement from March. More importantly, finally getting off the trainer (although did have a few rides on it early in the month) and some really good group rides. I'm riding less miles, usually on 3, sometimes 4 days of riding, but I'm getting after it again. Two trips to Frederick this month, including Sunday's trip out there (that's next). I feel better pedaling than I do walking these days.
Running - A. 167.5 miles this month is the most I've ever run in the month of April (keeping in mind these numbers only go back to 2004, college days don't count). And this was on an average of 4 runs per week. 7 of my 18 runs were 12+ miles. My foot has unfortunately been worse this month than any other, so that's been really frustrating, but I'm getting through it. My workouts on the track have gotten a little better, and if my foot DIDN'T hurt, I would feel great about running right now as my fitness really feels "there."
This past weekend was good, starting off Friday with a Friday evening long run with Brennan, Harvey and, of all people, Mike Prada. My foot was bad from the start, and only got worse, but we made it through at least 14 miles along Gwynns Falls Trail, past Coppin State/Mondawmin Mall and down through Reservoir Hill, etc. Saturday we timed a race in the morning, and then I headed out with Alyssa on bikes for a 3.5 hour ride. It was a) not as warm as I thought it was going to be and b) windy, as usual. Following the ride I joined her for her swim, which was, without a doubt, one of the hardest swims I've ever done. Lots of Band work, as the main set was basically all Band. Lots of 25s. My weak core was cooked by the end, but it was a great workout.
Sunday morning was another early day as I headed out to Frederick to meet OJ and Ben Ingram for the Frederick ride. This was my 4th trip out there this season, and each time has gotten faster. The last time I went out there 4 times in the winter/spring was 2008, when I ended up riding really well at Columbia. The temperature was borderline chilly, so arm and leg warmers were donned, and we got rolling. Rolling might not be the right word - barreling, perhaps? It was go-weapons-hot from the gun, as OJ was interested in attempting a CR (2:50, by his account. My fastest ride out here was a few weeks ago at 2:59). 15 minutes in, OJ needed to tap a kidney, so we let Ben ride up the road to hit the climb ahead of us. We started the climb about a minute down and I figured we'd wipe that out pretty quick, but as we were beyond halfway up and Ben still evaded our capture, I began to think: "is Ben going to ride faster than me at Columbia??" Holy shit, was he climbing well. For a guy who has ridden his bike probably 10 times outside, ever, and was tackling Frederick for just the second time (I remember all of my Frederick rides and it took me a long time to climb as well as he does now), he was killing it.
OJ, who has clawed his way into nasty bike fitness, created some space between himself and me, caught Ben, who then wisely sat on his wheel to the stop sign. OJ's time up Hamburg was around 18:50, Ben's was just under 20, I came through at 19:03. Yikes. I had to work on that one, this could be a long day. Along 40 we were moving at a rapid pace, and Wolfsville Rd came up incredibly quick (1h5m). Now it was time for Harp Hill, my least favorite of the climbs. I rode within myself as OJ gapped me and Ben. When it kicked up, I still felt okay and managed to bridge up to OJ right before the top. Apparently Ben's chain slipped and he had to put that back on, which is tough to start back up on that climb.
We flew along the flat part of Wolfsville, where Ben had to learn a lesson the hard way: don't mess with the rotation. This is a rare flat stretch of road on this ride and we like to ride it fast, each person doing their turn on the front. Ben decided he would move to the front, but he came from the back to do so. OJ got on his wheel, sat there for a while, and then blasted around him, to which I responded. We rolled Ben off for a little bit before slowing to let him get back on. He learned from his error.
Back on 40 and onto Greenbrier, OJ was mashing his monster gear and again put a little time into me at the top, and then we dropped into Boonsboro. Which is exactly when it started raining. OJ nearly lost it on a sharp left-hander, and at this point I knew that, despite our 7 minutes in the bank (putting our approximate finish under 2:50), we were going to be in for a tough ride home. We climbed South Mountain in the rain, and then descended. The rain was the coldest I've ever felt, and I was nervous about riding with the cars flying along as I don't like to ride anywhere near wet paint (shoulder lines). All of this cold rain I've ridden in has taught me that, no matter how good I was feeling before it, it saps my legs of all its energy and then I'm done. I made it up the last climb and was at 2:43 - the CR out of the question now with 5 miles to go, and I figure I'm not riding in the TdF so taking risks is not something I care to do.
On the descent, though, OJ must have gotten a flat and I couldn't hear him behind me, so I was confused when I waited for him at a light and he never came through. Ben came and told me about the flat. I sent Ben on his way and waited for OJ. His ride time for the day was around 2:52 to my 2:54 and some change. Pleased that it was able to be that fast despite the conditions in the last hour. I got back to Baltimore and ran 45 minutes with Ed and felt okay.
With all this time-dropping going on, it really makes me wonder how it all works. I mean, I have ridden 1:04:44 at Columbia before and it hasn't felt as hard as when I go for a ride out there and ride 1:19. I have ridden this Frederick ride in 2:54 now, but a normal ride used to be 3:10-3:15. I've also been out there for 3:30 before. So I'm hoping that my legs are ready to go in three weeks. Things I need to try and do before then include 1) get a new wetsuit and 2) get some wheels. Then I'll be ready to go. I have some times in my head of where I think I'm at right now, and should be able to do. I was going to look into doing the Terp Tri this weekend but opted against it because it's just too short. Instead I'll head out to Columbia and get in some good work on the bike and run course.
Now's the time to be careful because you can really overload yourself. Racing too much, too many hard workouts, not recovering well can all equal stale legs come race day. And then you get into a situation where I've been before, which is that you're overdrawing your account every week just to get to the line. On the one hand, you're super fit and you feel like you can go out and smash every day; on the other, you lack the killer punch when you need it. I always try different ways to get more out of myself - looking back on old logs I've noticed some years had a lot of days off. I probably felt more rested and could go hard every time I went out. Some years it's been high volume for a block and then nothing (particularly with cycling and swimming). Last year, as I got back into it, it became about the consistency of doing something every single day, and this meant high volume. As a result (and also because my body wasn't able to in some cases) I wasn't doing anything as fast, or even at a harder effort.
This year I've really tried to do my best and combine a few of these past seasons, with a focus on consistency, but lower volume; harder efforts on the days they should be hard, easier ones on the days I need them to be. And it seems to be working. I don't feel overextended, but I also haven't taken a complete day off since early February (96ish days now). If I don't feel like I'm going to swim well, I don't swim. If I miss a few days in the week of running, I don't sweat it. If weather is bad and I don't ride, I'm not worried. It feels good, because I know that come July, it's going to be a different story.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
It's....ALIVE
Sunday I christened my new bike, Frankenstein, by riding from my parents' house in Red Bank to my aunt and uncle's house in Toms River. The Parkway, of course, yields the shortest distance at around 40 miles, but taking the backroads, and a few scenic routes, bumped the ride to over 50. For the first time this year, it was legitimately warm, with temps in the upper, upper 80s and a powerful sun shining down. Frankenstein is a 2010 Cervelo P3, and I was very excited to take him home. I used what I could from my old bike - which wasn't much - hence the name, Frankenstein. I wish I could have made it all black, but maybe I'll add some skulls and crossbones at some point.
My last post was on Wednesday, following my string of a few good workouts, and last Thursday I kept the juice rolling. I wasn't sure how my legs would respond to the back-to-back Wednesday/Thursday hard group rides, but I felt pretty awesome and decided to give it a go at Thursday Night Ride. My 6th summer of riding with them now, and it's always fun to see them. Unfortunately, since my POS road bike is dying, I had to ride entirely in the big ring. This was particularly challenging up Piney Grove, and at the end going up Caves. But I had a great ride, really good group of us got rolling. We didn't do the summertime long version, for time considerations, but did the 35 mile route and it was a good one. A little chillier than I was hoping for, had to wear arm warmers, but at least it wasn't raining.
Friday I got into the pool, and again, thanks to The Band, had a better-than-good workout for myself. Did 800m of warmup, then jumped into a 2000m straight swim. I like to do this workout on Fridays, and this was the 3rd one I've done in the last month. The first week I swam a negative split 34:40, but started out pretty slow. The second week I swam a 33:15, which was also negative split, and I felt good about that. This week, I started out much quicker, but felt a little tired. I swam 1:40/100m for each hundred through the 1000, then "picked it up" to 1:39/100m for the next 500 (1500 = 24:55). I was looking for 1:35s or better on the last 500 but I was not feeling it, and finished with an 8:02 for 32:57 (31:20ish through 1.9km). I was still pretty pleased, as I swam about that in the fall (granted it was the second of 2x1900) and was in 29 minute half-iron swim shape.
Then it was off to NJ for the weekend. I got home and it was time to go to dinner, so I didn't run. It wasn't very nice out, so I didn't really care. I housed an obscene amount of food at dinner, including one of my mom's soft shell crabs. Never having eaten one before, I was a little curious about the whole "eating the shell and claws and stuff". It was alright, but afterwards I didn't feel so hot. Could have been that or just all of the food, who knows.
Saturday's plan was to ride, originally, but upon waking up to a downpour, it looked like Sunday's run was going to replace the bike. I called up Pat (it's totally awesome when one of the people you train with every day in Baltimore also happens to originate from your hometown) and he and his brother Tommy met me and my brother at Hartshorne. The goal was a 90 minute run, and we hit all the trails with maybe only a mile of repeats. The rain wasn't too bad in the woods, and the fog was epic. I haven't been on trails since January, and my foot held up pretty well. It just felt good to be back in there, as it's one of my favorite places to run in the world.
Run done, and I wasn't going to ride (even though later in the day, like after 4, it cleared up and the temp picked up) so I relished in not having to do anything for the rest of the day. Sunday I woke up and it was much nicer already. We were instructed we'd be going to breakfast at 7:30 so my sister could join us before going to work. The waitress was totally vapid and a few jokes went way over her head, but the food came out and all seemed good - until my sister let out a sigh of disgust. There was an enormous (dead) carpenter ant on her plate. Now, we don't have proof, but we think it may have been INSIDE her sausage and came out when she cut it open. Either way, it was totally gross. I felt bad for her; the rest of us could have brushed it off, but she doesn't deal very well with things like that.
Now it had turned out to be a nicer than nice day. My brother wanted to join for the journey down to Toms River, and I was okay with it, but needed to remind him of a few things: 1) this was only his third ride of the year, and at 50+ miles, a pretty long one; 2) it was really quite warm, and he is not fond of the heat; 3) I would be on an aerodynamic machine intended to be ridden fast. We went out via 520 through Marlboro, into the wind, and he was right on my wheel. We crossed 33 and found one of our roads was closed, so we had to detour slightly out of the way (in the end, about 3 miles). When we went right on 524 and then Sweetman's Lane, we hit a few rollers, and he began to fall off a little. I would ride up, then wait up. Ride up, wait up. We finally got onto 571, which would be our home for the last 22 miles or so, and came around with the wind a little bit. Combined with the flat roads, it was beautiful. We just don't have easy roads like that around Baltimore. It felt good to be on a time trial bike again, it had been too long. By a little over 40 miles my brother was about out of water and with nowhere to stop, I gave him mine (I had only consumed maybe a quarter of the bottle). As we got closer to the beach, the winds shifted and the temp dropped just slightly, and we ultimately came in at about 55 miles and just over 3 hours - a really solid ride for my brother. I was contemplating going for a short run real quick, but we were already late for eating so scrapped it. On the way home we put the bikes on my dad's car, and made it to within a mile of the house before the skies opened up and my bike got drenched. Go figure, I should have expected it would get wet the first day out.
For the week I ended up with just two swims (good ones, at least) and 3 really solid days on the bike (130 miles). Only ran 3 times for a total of just over 32 miles. But feeling good doing it, so that's a plus.
Yesterday I got back to Baltimore in time to run down to Fed Hill for the run. It was warm again, and it always takes a few runs in the heat to get the legs used to it. Pat and I ran down at a fairly reasonable pace, and the group run started off pretty chill, but heated up towards the end. We then had to run back. A long 12.5 miles, but the run did bring my total for the year up to 666 miles. Thought that was pretty interesting.
Now is the time of the year when you've got to be careful - there is finally some better weather, and the legs feel good so you go out every day and just want to crush. But, you pay for those efforts quickly enough. This week, I'm hitting up track tonight, and then tomorrow night will be an easy ride, and Thursday I think I'll head back up to TNR. Friday and Saturday will be light and then Sunday, back out to Frederick for trip #4 on the year.
I killed a spider in my house this morning, and within a very short while, ants sprang from virtually nowhere and began to pick apart it's body. It was kind of awesome to watch, so I almost felt bad when I had to kill them all.
My last post was on Wednesday, following my string of a few good workouts, and last Thursday I kept the juice rolling. I wasn't sure how my legs would respond to the back-to-back Wednesday/Thursday hard group rides, but I felt pretty awesome and decided to give it a go at Thursday Night Ride. My 6th summer of riding with them now, and it's always fun to see them. Unfortunately, since my POS road bike is dying, I had to ride entirely in the big ring. This was particularly challenging up Piney Grove, and at the end going up Caves. But I had a great ride, really good group of us got rolling. We didn't do the summertime long version, for time considerations, but did the 35 mile route and it was a good one. A little chillier than I was hoping for, had to wear arm warmers, but at least it wasn't raining.
Friday I got into the pool, and again, thanks to The Band, had a better-than-good workout for myself. Did 800m of warmup, then jumped into a 2000m straight swim. I like to do this workout on Fridays, and this was the 3rd one I've done in the last month. The first week I swam a negative split 34:40, but started out pretty slow. The second week I swam a 33:15, which was also negative split, and I felt good about that. This week, I started out much quicker, but felt a little tired. I swam 1:40/100m for each hundred through the 1000, then "picked it up" to 1:39/100m for the next 500 (1500 = 24:55). I was looking for 1:35s or better on the last 500 but I was not feeling it, and finished with an 8:02 for 32:57 (31:20ish through 1.9km). I was still pretty pleased, as I swam about that in the fall (granted it was the second of 2x1900) and was in 29 minute half-iron swim shape.
Then it was off to NJ for the weekend. I got home and it was time to go to dinner, so I didn't run. It wasn't very nice out, so I didn't really care. I housed an obscene amount of food at dinner, including one of my mom's soft shell crabs. Never having eaten one before, I was a little curious about the whole "eating the shell and claws and stuff". It was alright, but afterwards I didn't feel so hot. Could have been that or just all of the food, who knows.
Saturday's plan was to ride, originally, but upon waking up to a downpour, it looked like Sunday's run was going to replace the bike. I called up Pat (it's totally awesome when one of the people you train with every day in Baltimore also happens to originate from your hometown) and he and his brother Tommy met me and my brother at Hartshorne. The goal was a 90 minute run, and we hit all the trails with maybe only a mile of repeats. The rain wasn't too bad in the woods, and the fog was epic. I haven't been on trails since January, and my foot held up pretty well. It just felt good to be back in there, as it's one of my favorite places to run in the world.
Run done, and I wasn't going to ride (even though later in the day, like after 4, it cleared up and the temp picked up) so I relished in not having to do anything for the rest of the day. Sunday I woke up and it was much nicer already. We were instructed we'd be going to breakfast at 7:30 so my sister could join us before going to work. The waitress was totally vapid and a few jokes went way over her head, but the food came out and all seemed good - until my sister let out a sigh of disgust. There was an enormous (dead) carpenter ant on her plate. Now, we don't have proof, but we think it may have been INSIDE her sausage and came out when she cut it open. Either way, it was totally gross. I felt bad for her; the rest of us could have brushed it off, but she doesn't deal very well with things like that.
Now it had turned out to be a nicer than nice day. My brother wanted to join for the journey down to Toms River, and I was okay with it, but needed to remind him of a few things: 1) this was only his third ride of the year, and at 50+ miles, a pretty long one; 2) it was really quite warm, and he is not fond of the heat; 3) I would be on an aerodynamic machine intended to be ridden fast. We went out via 520 through Marlboro, into the wind, and he was right on my wheel. We crossed 33 and found one of our roads was closed, so we had to detour slightly out of the way (in the end, about 3 miles). When we went right on 524 and then Sweetman's Lane, we hit a few rollers, and he began to fall off a little. I would ride up, then wait up. Ride up, wait up. We finally got onto 571, which would be our home for the last 22 miles or so, and came around with the wind a little bit. Combined with the flat roads, it was beautiful. We just don't have easy roads like that around Baltimore. It felt good to be on a time trial bike again, it had been too long. By a little over 40 miles my brother was about out of water and with nowhere to stop, I gave him mine (I had only consumed maybe a quarter of the bottle). As we got closer to the beach, the winds shifted and the temp dropped just slightly, and we ultimately came in at about 55 miles and just over 3 hours - a really solid ride for my brother. I was contemplating going for a short run real quick, but we were already late for eating so scrapped it. On the way home we put the bikes on my dad's car, and made it to within a mile of the house before the skies opened up and my bike got drenched. Go figure, I should have expected it would get wet the first day out.
For the week I ended up with just two swims (good ones, at least) and 3 really solid days on the bike (130 miles). Only ran 3 times for a total of just over 32 miles. But feeling good doing it, so that's a plus.
Yesterday I got back to Baltimore in time to run down to Fed Hill for the run. It was warm again, and it always takes a few runs in the heat to get the legs used to it. Pat and I ran down at a fairly reasonable pace, and the group run started off pretty chill, but heated up towards the end. We then had to run back. A long 12.5 miles, but the run did bring my total for the year up to 666 miles. Thought that was pretty interesting.
Now is the time of the year when you've got to be careful - there is finally some better weather, and the legs feel good so you go out every day and just want to crush. But, you pay for those efforts quickly enough. This week, I'm hitting up track tonight, and then tomorrow night will be an easy ride, and Thursday I think I'll head back up to TNR. Friday and Saturday will be light and then Sunday, back out to Frederick for trip #4 on the year.
I killed a spider in my house this morning, and within a very short while, ants sprang from virtually nowhere and began to pick apart it's body. It was kind of awesome to watch, so I almost felt bad when I had to kill them all.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Changing Up the Stash
I don't normally post about individual workouts, or even back to back days, but today I felt like it was warranted.
I came off of Saturday's disappointing season-opener with a Sunday long run down at Pike's Peek, where everyone ran incredibly fast. I got in what I felt like was 12.5 for sure, maybe 13, but it was mostly pretty slow. It was real windy, and pretty cold, and following the early (for me) weekend mornings, I opted out of a Sunday ride. My stuff was still soaking wet from Saturday, and since I need to pick up a new pair of cycling shoes, I would have had to wear my tri shoes, which were real wet. I was glad to take the remainder of the day off. My foot was really bothering me.
Monday came and the weather was pretty nice, so Ed and I ran down to FHR (3ish miles). The run there is 6, and I was content with making that it - but that was counting on having a ride home. No such luck. Real small group, so I had to just suck it up and run home. This run was incredibly slow, and by the time I got home, my foot was in bad shape. Consecutive 12+ mile days plus the "race" on Saturday had me a little beat up.
My initial plan for Tuesday was to just get in the pool, but when I didn't, I figured I would just do an easy run up at the track. After taking an Aleve on Monday night (for those who don't know, I hate taking pain relievers. I still have basically all my oxy's from surgery - well, until I disposed of them), my foot felt good enough to make it through the workout. The workout was going to be 1600-1400-1200-1000-800 with 200m rolling jog (<90sec). My intention was to run around 85sec to start and work down to 81 by the end. With a smaller, evenly matched group of me, Brennan, Berardi and Elijah, and Pat slightly off the front, we came through the 1600 in 5:31. The effort wasn't too challenging, but my legs were not feeling too fresh. Since it was a little quicker than I was looking to run, I now had to make sure I didn't go any slower.
The 1400 was the same pace as the 1600, but before the 1200 my stomach was not great, so I ran inside to hit the bathroom real quick. I caught back on with them after 600m, and they were moving much quicker - 80sec pace now. So I ran the 600 in 2:01, and then was back on track with them. We ran a strong 1000 at 3:20, and then I was a little tired and fell off pace in the last 200 of the 800, running 2:42. I then ran another 600 to make up the distance, and ran 2:00. All in all, a pretty decent workout for me, as it's the longest one I've done this year and I am getting back to where I was towards the end of last season.
A good track workout, a bad Chipotle experience. Barely made it home before blowing up. Felt real bad all night.
Woke up today and felt a little better, and today was trying a new thing in the pool - The Band. This is courtesy of Alyssa, via her coach Hilary Biscay. I've seen people use this over my years in the pool, never understanding it. I try to avoid too many pool toys, usually opting for some pull work, not to exceed a third of my total swim volume for the day. But, in a few short weeks of swimming, Alyssa made some no joke improvements, and it's puzzled myself and Pat. It could be the fact that she's actually swimming for once, or just her overall gains in fitness and speed have translated to the pool. Either way, I'm getting frustrated with my own swimming, which has apparently hit the wall. So when that happens, it's time to change up the stash. Today marked day one of my swimming with the band. And, almost unbelievably, I saw improvements.
Now, because I am chronic disbeliever, I could chalk it up to the fact that I shaved my legs on Friday for the first time since January I think. Maybe since I haven't swam since Saturday I just felt good today (although every other time I've been out of the pool for 3+ days this year that hasn't been the case). But those things probably wouldn't amount to much time, and I was swimming considerably faster than I've been swimming. Note: this is still not very fast, but improvement is improvement. So it was a good 3500m in the pool, back to maybe where I was swimming last fall. It is just one workout, so only time will tell what the band's real impact will be.
Tonight I headed up to Oregon Ridge for the Wednesday Night Ride. I went two weeks ago and got shelled after about 25 minutes. My goal this week was to make it to at least York Road with the front guys. I met OJ at his crib and we rode the 20 minutes over. I felt like I had decent legs today, so I'd try and give it a go. There was a sizeable group (85 degrees, no duh), and the first couple miles there was a strong accordion effect going on. A lot of yo-yoing. After we got onto Falls Road, the pace ramped up, and once on Stringtown, it got real strung out. I was sitting in the back, and decided in order to not get dropped when we turn onto Yeoho, I moved up to the middle of the group (now down to maybe 12), and sat next to OJ. When we turned onto Yeoho, I was up in the front and all of a sudden found myself on the front of the group. Next thing I know, me and this other guy have a gap. Wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew there was a sprint point fairly soon, so I imagined everyone else was prepping for that. This one guy bridged up to us, and then he and the other guy rolled - I got left in the middle. I figured I would wait up for the others but to my dismay they blew right through me. Yikes.
As I was now 9th on the road, I was just trying to keep pace. When we made it to York, two of the guys in front of me popped and now I was 7th on the road, behind the front group of 3 (way up) and Gruppo OJ, consisting of Juice and two others, were a little up the road. I could see them, but I was never going to catch them. I turned the gas off a little, at the same time the roads came around into the wind. Tough ride home in a solo effort, but I rode pretty well today and I was pleased. The way home we had a tailwind, which was sweet, until we turned up the steep hill back to OJ's and, in the small chain ring, my gears were jumping all around and then the chain dropped. Thought I was going to go straight into traffic, but finally got it back onto the big ring and had to suffer up the hill in a big gear. Piece of shit bike, I don't know how much more it has in it, but I don't have the resources to get a new road bike right now.
Man, that was more words about my last swim/bike/run, and more positivity, than my race report. Obviously training is not racing, but it helped put me back in better spirits following the weekend, and confirmed to myself at least that it was just a bad day.
I came off of Saturday's disappointing season-opener with a Sunday long run down at Pike's Peek, where everyone ran incredibly fast. I got in what I felt like was 12.5 for sure, maybe 13, but it was mostly pretty slow. It was real windy, and pretty cold, and following the early (for me) weekend mornings, I opted out of a Sunday ride. My stuff was still soaking wet from Saturday, and since I need to pick up a new pair of cycling shoes, I would have had to wear my tri shoes, which were real wet. I was glad to take the remainder of the day off. My foot was really bothering me.
Monday came and the weather was pretty nice, so Ed and I ran down to FHR (3ish miles). The run there is 6, and I was content with making that it - but that was counting on having a ride home. No such luck. Real small group, so I had to just suck it up and run home. This run was incredibly slow, and by the time I got home, my foot was in bad shape. Consecutive 12+ mile days plus the "race" on Saturday had me a little beat up.
My initial plan for Tuesday was to just get in the pool, but when I didn't, I figured I would just do an easy run up at the track. After taking an Aleve on Monday night (for those who don't know, I hate taking pain relievers. I still have basically all my oxy's from surgery - well, until I disposed of them), my foot felt good enough to make it through the workout. The workout was going to be 1600-1400-1200-1000-800 with 200m rolling jog (<90sec). My intention was to run around 85sec to start and work down to 81 by the end. With a smaller, evenly matched group of me, Brennan, Berardi and Elijah, and Pat slightly off the front, we came through the 1600 in 5:31. The effort wasn't too challenging, but my legs were not feeling too fresh. Since it was a little quicker than I was looking to run, I now had to make sure I didn't go any slower.
The 1400 was the same pace as the 1600, but before the 1200 my stomach was not great, so I ran inside to hit the bathroom real quick. I caught back on with them after 600m, and they were moving much quicker - 80sec pace now. So I ran the 600 in 2:01, and then was back on track with them. We ran a strong 1000 at 3:20, and then I was a little tired and fell off pace in the last 200 of the 800, running 2:42. I then ran another 600 to make up the distance, and ran 2:00. All in all, a pretty decent workout for me, as it's the longest one I've done this year and I am getting back to where I was towards the end of last season.
A good track workout, a bad Chipotle experience. Barely made it home before blowing up. Felt real bad all night.
Woke up today and felt a little better, and today was trying a new thing in the pool - The Band. This is courtesy of Alyssa, via her coach Hilary Biscay. I've seen people use this over my years in the pool, never understanding it. I try to avoid too many pool toys, usually opting for some pull work, not to exceed a third of my total swim volume for the day. But, in a few short weeks of swimming, Alyssa made some no joke improvements, and it's puzzled myself and Pat. It could be the fact that she's actually swimming for once, or just her overall gains in fitness and speed have translated to the pool. Either way, I'm getting frustrated with my own swimming, which has apparently hit the wall. So when that happens, it's time to change up the stash. Today marked day one of my swimming with the band. And, almost unbelievably, I saw improvements.
Now, because I am chronic disbeliever, I could chalk it up to the fact that I shaved my legs on Friday for the first time since January I think. Maybe since I haven't swam since Saturday I just felt good today (although every other time I've been out of the pool for 3+ days this year that hasn't been the case). But those things probably wouldn't amount to much time, and I was swimming considerably faster than I've been swimming. Note: this is still not very fast, but improvement is improvement. So it was a good 3500m in the pool, back to maybe where I was swimming last fall. It is just one workout, so only time will tell what the band's real impact will be.
Tonight I headed up to Oregon Ridge for the Wednesday Night Ride. I went two weeks ago and got shelled after about 25 minutes. My goal this week was to make it to at least York Road with the front guys. I met OJ at his crib and we rode the 20 minutes over. I felt like I had decent legs today, so I'd try and give it a go. There was a sizeable group (85 degrees, no duh), and the first couple miles there was a strong accordion effect going on. A lot of yo-yoing. After we got onto Falls Road, the pace ramped up, and once on Stringtown, it got real strung out. I was sitting in the back, and decided in order to not get dropped when we turn onto Yeoho, I moved up to the middle of the group (now down to maybe 12), and sat next to OJ. When we turned onto Yeoho, I was up in the front and all of a sudden found myself on the front of the group. Next thing I know, me and this other guy have a gap. Wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew there was a sprint point fairly soon, so I imagined everyone else was prepping for that. This one guy bridged up to us, and then he and the other guy rolled - I got left in the middle. I figured I would wait up for the others but to my dismay they blew right through me. Yikes.
As I was now 9th on the road, I was just trying to keep pace. When we made it to York, two of the guys in front of me popped and now I was 7th on the road, behind the front group of 3 (way up) and Gruppo OJ, consisting of Juice and two others, were a little up the road. I could see them, but I was never going to catch them. I turned the gas off a little, at the same time the roads came around into the wind. Tough ride home in a solo effort, but I rode pretty well today and I was pleased. The way home we had a tailwind, which was sweet, until we turned up the steep hill back to OJ's and, in the small chain ring, my gears were jumping all around and then the chain dropped. Thought I was going to go straight into traffic, but finally got it back onto the big ring and had to suffer up the hill in a big gear. Piece of shit bike, I don't know how much more it has in it, but I don't have the resources to get a new road bike right now.
Man, that was more words about my last swim/bike/run, and more positivity, than my race report. Obviously training is not racing, but it helped put me back in better spirits following the weekend, and confirmed to myself at least that it was just a bad day.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Charlie Browned
Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest - Lucy
Warning: as negative as my posts generally are, this will by far, be one of the most negative. So keep that in mind if you choose to read this "race" report. It will then end in a scathing indictment of triathlon race organizations.
Saturday was the first stop in the triathlon season, with the Rumpus in Bumpass Triathlon down in Virginia. I had been following the anticipated weather reports throughout the week and knew that conditions looked pretty miserable. However, weather is weather, and everyone has to deal with it the same on race day. We had received an email saying the water temperature was 68 degrees (pretty nice) and I expected to have my new bike finished by Thursday before the race to ride on. With OJ having raced the year before, I had it on good authority that the swim was both potentially long, and quite rough. The bike course was a two loop format, pretty easy roads, as in only small rollers to contend with. The run was also two loops, not very difficult, not very interesting. Despite how bad my foot's been lately, I have been feeling okay racing so I figured I could have a decent run, and a pretty good ride.
Then it was time to get Charlie Browned.
Thursday I call the bike shop. The bike I was/am purchasing was built and ready to go, but I didn't like the aerobars so I wanted to swap them out. This was last Saturday. They were going to order the bars that day, expected them in by Wednesday, bike ready to go by Thursday. I am told on Thursday afternoon that it is on the list to be finished that night. Okay.
Friday I call the bike shop. The response I get was quite unexpected. They tell me that they put the order in Wednesday for one-day delivery, but due to a glitch [sic] the part didn't ship and now they don't expect bike to be finished until Monday.
I am pissed, but whatever. I can ride my road bike, even if it is on its last wheels. I've raced on it many times, and considering I am generally one of the only people that can ride as fast as I do that you will ever see racing a road bike, I really don't care. I do recognize that, off the bat, I will lose time on the bike. Simple fact: it is not as fast as a time trial bike/aero position. My main problem with the bike is how its been behaving lately. I've ridden the shit out of this thing over the 6 years I've had it, and it needs some serious work. It's not shifting cleanly, sometimes at all. This has caused me irritation on normal rides, and I knew it was going to frustrate me during the race. As a result I do not put on aero wheels, which I don't have anyway, and I wouldn't wear an aero helmet while on a road bike, because that would just look stupid.
Friday night I finally decide to do my taxes and find out I owe money. Quite a bit, actually. And it has me stressed. I don't sleep great, but thanks to the 10am start, at least I don't have to be up at 3am to get there.
I drive with Alyssa down to Lake Anna, and that was probably the highlight of the day. The rain starts, it's supremely dark even when it's supposed to be light, it's windy and it's cold. It evoked memories of April 2008 when OJ and I drove to the very same place for the Kinetic Sprint. It was a week later, and on the other side of the lake, but the conditions were identical. On that day, I was racing my brand new P2, and I rode it pretty well. I then had a good run, and finished well. I swore that I would not race in conditions like that again. It's not that I can't, it's that I don't want to. I have been racing triathlons for 10 years now. By some standards, far from an O.G., but for most people out there, it makes me a dinosaur. I have decided that I no longer enjoy some conditions, and I'm not going to pretend like I do. And considering that, three years ago I hadn't been seriously injured, my feelings are only stronger against it. There are a few reasons, including the danger of riding wet roads in a loop format when 98% of people can't properly handle a bicycle; roads that remain unclosed to traffic but cars couldn't care less; my knee locks up when it's cold and raining, and knocks me out of commission.
Of the last 4 triathlons I've done, now going back to Oct 2 of last year, the temperature has been below 55 degrees and it has rained. I just don't enjoy it.
Nevertheless, I'm already at the race site, and I've paid (oh, I've paid) for the race, so of course I'm going to do it. I do a short warmup before getting into the sweet new black kit I picked up. I go down to the start, and since my body is already wet, getting the wetsuit on is becoming a challenge. In order to facilitate getting it on, I put my right arm over my head and Riiiiipppppp - there it goes. I now have a hole in the armpit, and my motivation is flattened. I have never before wanted to just not start a race. I know this hole is going to bother me during the swim, as it will allow the water to fill up the suit, but the water is too cold to go without the suit. I don't believe it was 68. I would say maybe more like 64, and with the air temp and rain, it was miserable. The only thing keeping me in the water was that I heard Ke$ha's "Blow" blasting over the speakers.
The swim was eventfully uneventful. I did not want to be there, but I was committed to swimming at least some kind of effort. The start was fine, until we made the first turn, when we were faced with some chop. I didn't really care, but apparently it was a little too much for the slower swimmers of the first wave. I was having some difficulty making out the buoys, but was doing my best to swim good lines. I know I made a big error as we made the turn back towards shore, and had to correct myself. It was around this time that a swimmer from the wave behind overtook me, I felt like it was the form of perennially fast swimmer Chip Berry, so I thought maybe I wasn't swimming all that bad. Got out of the water finally, and walked it into T1.
While others rushed around me, I had no impetus for moving quickly. There was about 100m on grass that we had to run out to the road, and then another 100m before you could mount your bike. My feet, being cold especially, but with my left foot being unable to run barefoot, were in serious agony. I had clipped my shoes into my pedals, and as I tried to hop on my bike, my calves cramped. I could not get my feet into the shoes. I wound up having to get off the bike, unclip the shoes, put them on my feet, and then get back on. Now the wind was really out of my sails.
Onto the bike and I felt okay, I passed a few people, then a few people passed me. I brought no water bottles, I carried no food. I rode at an effort that wouldn't have been acceptable for a weeknight ride. The parts that I took pretty slow were the turns, as I've ridden enough to know that water + paint = fall. Other than that I was mostly sitting up, and keeping a consistent effort going. When I got back to the last 600m or so, I really sat up, stretched out my back a bit and then got off the bike, took OFF my shoes, and walked down the hill into T2.
I was pretty annoyed that my feet were as wet, cold and muddy as they were, so I slowly put on my socks (which were wet) and old flats (which were wet) and got on my way. Two dudes from that Team FeXY came out of transition with me, and started moving at a pretty good pace. I briefly gave consideration to running with them, but then thought, why bother? My day was over before it began, and now the goal was to run 10k as efficiently as possible so that I could at least salvage the weekend with a better day on Sunday.
I didn't wear a watch, which was one of the first times I've run a race without a watch. I didn't even want to know my mile splits. I passed a few people, think I got passed by one kid (a Terp Tri member, go Terps!) who had started in the wave before me. I was unimpressed by the course, which featured a 200m section of trail that was particularly muddy, at the end of the first loop and then at the end of the race. I walked across the line, grabbed a bottle of water, and went straight into a short cooldown, where I headed back up to the main road to see Alyssa come through.
When it was all said and done, my 2:19:17/39th place finish was the worst placed finish relative to the race (distance, field, etc) that I think I've ever had. I tend to only use the markers of the best of each discipline to measure my day, and they were all lackluster. The swim ended up being a shade over 27 minutes. I always expect to lose around 5 minutes to OJ, but this was like 6.5 minutes. That's really atrocious. On the bike, based on last year's results, I felt like I could have ridden under an hour. Given the conditions of the day, and the bike I had to ride, I knew this wouldn't happen, but between my slowness in getting my shoes on/off at the bike mount/dismount line, and the level of effort I put out, it just wasn't happening. I think it was a little over 1:08, and actually ranked worse relative to the field than my swim. Ouch. The run ended up being 40:28, 31st best for the day. That's one the slowest 10k's I've ever run off the bike, but considering how little effort I put in, about right.
Actually, I don't even feel all that bad about the run, because I know what kind of shape I'm in and that was as easy of a day as I've had in a while.
There were some things in my control, and some that were out, but in the end, I just didn't want to be there - and it showed. I won't make an excuse for my lack of effort. Conditions are conditions, and races are still races. The likelihood of having a shitty day at Columbia (cold, rainy) and Eagleman (hot, humid) is quite high, but those races are more important to me and I try to save my efforts for when they count more. If anything, I should apologize to my fellow competitors, who are guaranteed shitty weather anytime I touch the course.
Now, as promised, an open letter to organizers and directors of triathlons:
After racing at Saturday's Rumpus in Bumpass Triathlon (Setup Events), I feel even stronger than ever that the registration fees for these events is criminal. The trend over the past few years is races selling out and fields expanding, but the quality of races has not improved. As much as it kills me to spend $600 a year in advance to sign up for an Ironman, I have come to expect that one of their races will not only be run well, but you will at least feel like you've received what you paid for. Even a race like Columbia, which charges now $130, you expect great competition, a professional field and a well-organized race.
Rumpus cost $95 when I went to register some months ago. For this, I had the opportunity to do a race. At the end of the race, I got a bottle of water, a small pizza from Papa John's, and a couple of Cokes. There were over 700 people registered for the race on Saturday, and another similar size field registered for Sunday's sprint event. My best estimate is that in registration fees alone, the race cleared something like $125,000 for two days' worth of activities. I certainly don't expect people to go broke, in fact I expect race directors to make enough to get by, but I also think that fees should be reasonable. I know there are both fixed and variable costs, including things like permits, insurance, POLICE, t-shirts, food, portable toilets, lifeguards, EMTs, etc. This stuff all adds up. If it adds up to even half what they generate from registration, that's still a lot of money.
The reason they can charge it, though, is because they can. They say "well it's less expensive than races like Columbia." True, and it certainly doesn't dismiss the fact that, in 2001, I paid $65 to register for Columbia in February (race is in May). And, 10 years later, we still eat the same shitty pasta salad and fake Oreos at the end of that race, which are inevitably soggy because it rains every year. Everyone knows that triathlon is an expensive sport, and over the years has priced some people out. What the sport needs is people like Brad Jaeger, whose Triathlantic Association used to hold lowkey, fun races, that charged a minimal amount. Sidenote: Brad has gotten back into the business, and tried to hold a duathlon this weekend in Chesapeake. He had to cancel due to lack of interest.
People don't want to race those races. I don't know why. And I'll admit, I'm part of the problem. I'm going to do big, competitive races because that's my focus. I don't want to do a duathlon because, well, I don't want to race duathlons.
In the couple of years that Setup Events has gone from hosting a few races to now being the "nation's largest triathlon production company", they have put on great races and have always received positive feedback. I loved the Kinetic race (done it twice) and Luray (done that twice). But I say, with great power comes great responsibility (Peter Parker's uncle also said it, after I did). If you are going to be a premier event producer, act like it. You have 700 people registered for your race, and you are giving out towels to the winners? That is bush league. A towel with "Virginia Triathlon Series" printed on it not only cheapens the effort of those who have helped make your race a great, competitive race, but it also shows how cheap you are. I wager that towel, bought in bulk, costs less than $2. Probably less than a trophy.
Mark Coleman of Endurance Maryland gets it. He put up a prize purse for his St. Patrick's Day Duathlon. It was a small field, and that severely cut into his budget for the race (the race did, however, cost $95), but he still offered it. That was enough for me to go. And you know what, if he has the race next year, I'll probably go back.
For Setup to not offer a cash purse, or even free entry into another race of theirs, is absurd. But, they are able to act as a small monopoly because people will keep signing up for races regardless of the possibility of a payday. Very few of us are in this sport to become professional triathletes, earning minor ducats along the way. No, instead triathlon is a sport of opulence, for people who can afford to do it, and would do it anyway.
To be fair, while this is like the US Government (wasting time) trying to send Barry Bonds to jail for doing something everyone else does too, Setup Events is not the only culprit. All of them are. Columbia Triathlon Association is just as guilty. They have now begun their IronGirl race, and the Celebration Sprint. They just use the same course skeleton as Columbia. I know triathlons are limited by swimmable bodies of water, but to me that's just lazy. The worst is probably Piranha Sports, because they put on the same shitty race weekend after weekend, on the same flat, boring Delaware courses, and charge a ton for that privilege.
I am not saying I could do better, nor am I offering. I actually do not want to be a triathlon race organizer, mostly because I still want to race myself. I know that races struggle to make money, and a lot of them are trying to raise money for causes other than their own pocketbook. I just think that there need to be some changes, like if you're going to charge as much as you do, put some money on the line. There are plenty of running races that do it, and some of those fields are even smaller than triathlons. There are some race directors out there who are open to suggestions, and others who operate on the MYOB tip.
Of course, the only thing I can do is not go back. I'm not going to actively tell people to not do a race, or not support one association over the other. They wouldn't listen anyway. I can say, unequivocally, that I will not go back to Rumpus, but in all likelihood I will go back to Luray in August. I generally appreciate Setup Events and what they have done and continue to do for creating more races. I wouldn't have gone to Rumpus anyway had they not changed the date of Kinetic to the week before Columbia. I love how we can have plenty of Father's Day races but nobody dares F with Mother's Day.
Ultimately I have been having a bad couple of days, and it culminated with the bitterness of a race that I did not enjoy. It happens.
As far as my foot, I don't know how I'm going to deal with it. My knee was locked up all Saturday, and my foot has been unbearable. I'm going to see if a few days off from running will help out. I can't really run less than what I'm running right now. Oh and update on my bike - well there is none, as they still aren't done with it yet. I wonder if I'll even have it before Columbia at this point.
Warning: as negative as my posts generally are, this will by far, be one of the most negative. So keep that in mind if you choose to read this "race" report. It will then end in a scathing indictment of triathlon race organizations.
Saturday was the first stop in the triathlon season, with the Rumpus in Bumpass Triathlon down in Virginia. I had been following the anticipated weather reports throughout the week and knew that conditions looked pretty miserable. However, weather is weather, and everyone has to deal with it the same on race day. We had received an email saying the water temperature was 68 degrees (pretty nice) and I expected to have my new bike finished by Thursday before the race to ride on. With OJ having raced the year before, I had it on good authority that the swim was both potentially long, and quite rough. The bike course was a two loop format, pretty easy roads, as in only small rollers to contend with. The run was also two loops, not very difficult, not very interesting. Despite how bad my foot's been lately, I have been feeling okay racing so I figured I could have a decent run, and a pretty good ride.
Then it was time to get Charlie Browned.
Thursday I call the bike shop. The bike I was/am purchasing was built and ready to go, but I didn't like the aerobars so I wanted to swap them out. This was last Saturday. They were going to order the bars that day, expected them in by Wednesday, bike ready to go by Thursday. I am told on Thursday afternoon that it is on the list to be finished that night. Okay.
Friday I call the bike shop. The response I get was quite unexpected. They tell me that they put the order in Wednesday for one-day delivery, but due to a glitch [sic] the part didn't ship and now they don't expect bike to be finished until Monday.
I am pissed, but whatever. I can ride my road bike, even if it is on its last wheels. I've raced on it many times, and considering I am generally one of the only people that can ride as fast as I do that you will ever see racing a road bike, I really don't care. I do recognize that, off the bat, I will lose time on the bike. Simple fact: it is not as fast as a time trial bike/aero position. My main problem with the bike is how its been behaving lately. I've ridden the shit out of this thing over the 6 years I've had it, and it needs some serious work. It's not shifting cleanly, sometimes at all. This has caused me irritation on normal rides, and I knew it was going to frustrate me during the race. As a result I do not put on aero wheels, which I don't have anyway, and I wouldn't wear an aero helmet while on a road bike, because that would just look stupid.
Friday night I finally decide to do my taxes and find out I owe money. Quite a bit, actually. And it has me stressed. I don't sleep great, but thanks to the 10am start, at least I don't have to be up at 3am to get there.
I drive with Alyssa down to Lake Anna, and that was probably the highlight of the day. The rain starts, it's supremely dark even when it's supposed to be light, it's windy and it's cold. It evoked memories of April 2008 when OJ and I drove to the very same place for the Kinetic Sprint. It was a week later, and on the other side of the lake, but the conditions were identical. On that day, I was racing my brand new P2, and I rode it pretty well. I then had a good run, and finished well. I swore that I would not race in conditions like that again. It's not that I can't, it's that I don't want to. I have been racing triathlons for 10 years now. By some standards, far from an O.G., but for most people out there, it makes me a dinosaur. I have decided that I no longer enjoy some conditions, and I'm not going to pretend like I do. And considering that, three years ago I hadn't been seriously injured, my feelings are only stronger against it. There are a few reasons, including the danger of riding wet roads in a loop format when 98% of people can't properly handle a bicycle; roads that remain unclosed to traffic but cars couldn't care less; my knee locks up when it's cold and raining, and knocks me out of commission.
Of the last 4 triathlons I've done, now going back to Oct 2 of last year, the temperature has been below 55 degrees and it has rained. I just don't enjoy it.
Nevertheless, I'm already at the race site, and I've paid (oh, I've paid) for the race, so of course I'm going to do it. I do a short warmup before getting into the sweet new black kit I picked up. I go down to the start, and since my body is already wet, getting the wetsuit on is becoming a challenge. In order to facilitate getting it on, I put my right arm over my head and Riiiiipppppp - there it goes. I now have a hole in the armpit, and my motivation is flattened. I have never before wanted to just not start a race. I know this hole is going to bother me during the swim, as it will allow the water to fill up the suit, but the water is too cold to go without the suit. I don't believe it was 68. I would say maybe more like 64, and with the air temp and rain, it was miserable. The only thing keeping me in the water was that I heard Ke$ha's "Blow" blasting over the speakers.
The swim was eventfully uneventful. I did not want to be there, but I was committed to swimming at least some kind of effort. The start was fine, until we made the first turn, when we were faced with some chop. I didn't really care, but apparently it was a little too much for the slower swimmers of the first wave. I was having some difficulty making out the buoys, but was doing my best to swim good lines. I know I made a big error as we made the turn back towards shore, and had to correct myself. It was around this time that a swimmer from the wave behind overtook me, I felt like it was the form of perennially fast swimmer Chip Berry, so I thought maybe I wasn't swimming all that bad. Got out of the water finally, and walked it into T1.
While others rushed around me, I had no impetus for moving quickly. There was about 100m on grass that we had to run out to the road, and then another 100m before you could mount your bike. My feet, being cold especially, but with my left foot being unable to run barefoot, were in serious agony. I had clipped my shoes into my pedals, and as I tried to hop on my bike, my calves cramped. I could not get my feet into the shoes. I wound up having to get off the bike, unclip the shoes, put them on my feet, and then get back on. Now the wind was really out of my sails.
Onto the bike and I felt okay, I passed a few people, then a few people passed me. I brought no water bottles, I carried no food. I rode at an effort that wouldn't have been acceptable for a weeknight ride. The parts that I took pretty slow were the turns, as I've ridden enough to know that water + paint = fall. Other than that I was mostly sitting up, and keeping a consistent effort going. When I got back to the last 600m or so, I really sat up, stretched out my back a bit and then got off the bike, took OFF my shoes, and walked down the hill into T2.
I was pretty annoyed that my feet were as wet, cold and muddy as they were, so I slowly put on my socks (which were wet) and old flats (which were wet) and got on my way. Two dudes from that Team FeXY came out of transition with me, and started moving at a pretty good pace. I briefly gave consideration to running with them, but then thought, why bother? My day was over before it began, and now the goal was to run 10k as efficiently as possible so that I could at least salvage the weekend with a better day on Sunday.
I didn't wear a watch, which was one of the first times I've run a race without a watch. I didn't even want to know my mile splits. I passed a few people, think I got passed by one kid (a Terp Tri member, go Terps!) who had started in the wave before me. I was unimpressed by the course, which featured a 200m section of trail that was particularly muddy, at the end of the first loop and then at the end of the race. I walked across the line, grabbed a bottle of water, and went straight into a short cooldown, where I headed back up to the main road to see Alyssa come through.
When it was all said and done, my 2:19:17/39th place finish was the worst placed finish relative to the race (distance, field, etc) that I think I've ever had. I tend to only use the markers of the best of each discipline to measure my day, and they were all lackluster. The swim ended up being a shade over 27 minutes. I always expect to lose around 5 minutes to OJ, but this was like 6.5 minutes. That's really atrocious. On the bike, based on last year's results, I felt like I could have ridden under an hour. Given the conditions of the day, and the bike I had to ride, I knew this wouldn't happen, but between my slowness in getting my shoes on/off at the bike mount/dismount line, and the level of effort I put out, it just wasn't happening. I think it was a little over 1:08, and actually ranked worse relative to the field than my swim. Ouch. The run ended up being 40:28, 31st best for the day. That's one the slowest 10k's I've ever run off the bike, but considering how little effort I put in, about right.
Actually, I don't even feel all that bad about the run, because I know what kind of shape I'm in and that was as easy of a day as I've had in a while.
There were some things in my control, and some that were out, but in the end, I just didn't want to be there - and it showed. I won't make an excuse for my lack of effort. Conditions are conditions, and races are still races. The likelihood of having a shitty day at Columbia (cold, rainy) and Eagleman (hot, humid) is quite high, but those races are more important to me and I try to save my efforts for when they count more. If anything, I should apologize to my fellow competitors, who are guaranteed shitty weather anytime I touch the course.
Now, as promised, an open letter to organizers and directors of triathlons:
After racing at Saturday's Rumpus in Bumpass Triathlon (Setup Events), I feel even stronger than ever that the registration fees for these events is criminal. The trend over the past few years is races selling out and fields expanding, but the quality of races has not improved. As much as it kills me to spend $600 a year in advance to sign up for an Ironman, I have come to expect that one of their races will not only be run well, but you will at least feel like you've received what you paid for. Even a race like Columbia, which charges now $130, you expect great competition, a professional field and a well-organized race.
Rumpus cost $95 when I went to register some months ago. For this, I had the opportunity to do a race. At the end of the race, I got a bottle of water, a small pizza from Papa John's, and a couple of Cokes. There were over 700 people registered for the race on Saturday, and another similar size field registered for Sunday's sprint event. My best estimate is that in registration fees alone, the race cleared something like $125,000 for two days' worth of activities. I certainly don't expect people to go broke, in fact I expect race directors to make enough to get by, but I also think that fees should be reasonable. I know there are both fixed and variable costs, including things like permits, insurance, POLICE, t-shirts, food, portable toilets, lifeguards, EMTs, etc. This stuff all adds up. If it adds up to even half what they generate from registration, that's still a lot of money.
The reason they can charge it, though, is because they can. They say "well it's less expensive than races like Columbia." True, and it certainly doesn't dismiss the fact that, in 2001, I paid $65 to register for Columbia in February (race is in May). And, 10 years later, we still eat the same shitty pasta salad and fake Oreos at the end of that race, which are inevitably soggy because it rains every year. Everyone knows that triathlon is an expensive sport, and over the years has priced some people out. What the sport needs is people like Brad Jaeger, whose Triathlantic Association used to hold lowkey, fun races, that charged a minimal amount. Sidenote: Brad has gotten back into the business, and tried to hold a duathlon this weekend in Chesapeake. He had to cancel due to lack of interest.
People don't want to race those races. I don't know why. And I'll admit, I'm part of the problem. I'm going to do big, competitive races because that's my focus. I don't want to do a duathlon because, well, I don't want to race duathlons.
In the couple of years that Setup Events has gone from hosting a few races to now being the "nation's largest triathlon production company", they have put on great races and have always received positive feedback. I loved the Kinetic race (done it twice) and Luray (done that twice). But I say, with great power comes great responsibility (Peter Parker's uncle also said it, after I did). If you are going to be a premier event producer, act like it. You have 700 people registered for your race, and you are giving out towels to the winners? That is bush league. A towel with "Virginia Triathlon Series" printed on it not only cheapens the effort of those who have helped make your race a great, competitive race, but it also shows how cheap you are. I wager that towel, bought in bulk, costs less than $2. Probably less than a trophy.
Mark Coleman of Endurance Maryland gets it. He put up a prize purse for his St. Patrick's Day Duathlon. It was a small field, and that severely cut into his budget for the race (the race did, however, cost $95), but he still offered it. That was enough for me to go. And you know what, if he has the race next year, I'll probably go back.
For Setup to not offer a cash purse, or even free entry into another race of theirs, is absurd. But, they are able to act as a small monopoly because people will keep signing up for races regardless of the possibility of a payday. Very few of us are in this sport to become professional triathletes, earning minor ducats along the way. No, instead triathlon is a sport of opulence, for people who can afford to do it, and would do it anyway.
To be fair, while this is like the US Government (wasting time) trying to send Barry Bonds to jail for doing something everyone else does too, Setup Events is not the only culprit. All of them are. Columbia Triathlon Association is just as guilty. They have now begun their IronGirl race, and the Celebration Sprint. They just use the same course skeleton as Columbia. I know triathlons are limited by swimmable bodies of water, but to me that's just lazy. The worst is probably Piranha Sports, because they put on the same shitty race weekend after weekend, on the same flat, boring Delaware courses, and charge a ton for that privilege.
I am not saying I could do better, nor am I offering. I actually do not want to be a triathlon race organizer, mostly because I still want to race myself. I know that races struggle to make money, and a lot of them are trying to raise money for causes other than their own pocketbook. I just think that there need to be some changes, like if you're going to charge as much as you do, put some money on the line. There are plenty of running races that do it, and some of those fields are even smaller than triathlons. There are some race directors out there who are open to suggestions, and others who operate on the MYOB tip.
Of course, the only thing I can do is not go back. I'm not going to actively tell people to not do a race, or not support one association over the other. They wouldn't listen anyway. I can say, unequivocally, that I will not go back to Rumpus, but in all likelihood I will go back to Luray in August. I generally appreciate Setup Events and what they have done and continue to do for creating more races. I wouldn't have gone to Rumpus anyway had they not changed the date of Kinetic to the week before Columbia. I love how we can have plenty of Father's Day races but nobody dares F with Mother's Day.
Ultimately I have been having a bad couple of days, and it culminated with the bitterness of a race that I did not enjoy. It happens.
As far as my foot, I don't know how I'm going to deal with it. My knee was locked up all Saturday, and my foot has been unbearable. I'm going to see if a few days off from running will help out. I can't really run less than what I'm running right now. Oh and update on my bike - well there is none, as they still aren't done with it yet. I wonder if I'll even have it before Columbia at this point.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Perfect Mile
Last night was the Westminster Main Street Mile, the 30th edition of the downtown event, and the gang had decided to bum rush this race. We rolled 12 deep to Westminster, a town I'd never visited. The usual pre-race rigamarole was replaced with the affable feel of a summer youth race. There were literally hundreds of small children, behaving like small children, and then a handful of people who looked like they had come to do work. The Falls Road Dirty Dozen, as I'm calling us, warmed up and then changed into flats and trudged up the hill to the start. There were a few older guys who looked pretty serious, including, we came to find out, the course record holder (3:56); Luke Belford, a quasi-local guy who was 3rd in Sunday's Port to Fort; and a smattering of high school/college looking kids.
Based on the homework I'd done, I figured this course was up to 13 seconds faster than a flat mile. I figured right now I'm not in great shape, but maybe could run a 5:13 - so I felt like there was an outside shot at breaking 5 for me. When the whistle was blown to signify the start of the race, everyone tore down the hill, leaving me in their dust. Obviously, anyone who has seen me run downhill since my surgeries knows that a) I can't really do it and b) it hurts...a lot. Fortunately it was such a short race that I didn't have time to complain about it, and I passed through the quarter in 67. If I tried to run that on the track (which I don't think I could right now), I'd be so toast I would have had to walk the rest of the way.
At this point, I was still behind at least 3 girls. I knew I would not be able to beat Diane, I was actually handicapping myself at + :20 to her. Fortunately, I started to move up through the fading field, passing two of the girls and making my way through a few other guys. I hit the half in 2:22, and though that was pretty decent. If I could keep that pace, I would run under 5. The course flattened out from there, and then there was a slight rise before dropping again into the finish. I passed the 3/4 mark in 3:36, so breaking 5 was pretty sure now.
I passed one or two people right before the finish, and held off one hard-charging long haired guy at the line to finish 23rd in 4:50. Obviously it was super fast because of the downhill, but at + :13, that would be a 5:03 mile. Even if it was 20 seconds faster, that would be a 5:10. I would gladly take either of those. It sets me up well for a potential 5 minute mile at May 5th's Maryland Twilight Meet Alumni Mile.
Following the race I was pretty pumped. It isn't too often that I exceed my expectations, and I really didn't think I'd be able to run that fast. I didn't feel too wrecked, and my foot felt okay (does not feel great today, but I expected that). We cooled down by running back up the hill to the start, where Chrissie asked "how long have we been running" - to which we all replied "uhh...a mile". We headed over to McDaniel College, which is right near the finish line, and watched the DMR of Ed, Jordan, Arjun and Tristram (all of whom had raced the mile) run 10:48. Jordan pointed out that the last time he ran on a DMR, they ran 9:37. Yikes, that's fast.
The race was a lot of fun, and will definitely go on my calendar every year. It's a great subsitute for my workout for the week, and with the tri season opener on Saturday, I wasn't too pressed to run much more than that. Today and tomorrow will be pretty easy, and then Saturday race followed by Sunday long ride.
Oh, and I obviously didn't run the perfect mile. Ed came as close as possible, running 4:05 in a winning effort. Breaking 4 is clearly a possibility for one of our group in the next few years. The perfect mile, for me, would have been if the race course was reversed and we ran UP the hill.
Based on the homework I'd done, I figured this course was up to 13 seconds faster than a flat mile. I figured right now I'm not in great shape, but maybe could run a 5:13 - so I felt like there was an outside shot at breaking 5 for me. When the whistle was blown to signify the start of the race, everyone tore down the hill, leaving me in their dust. Obviously, anyone who has seen me run downhill since my surgeries knows that a) I can't really do it and b) it hurts...a lot. Fortunately it was such a short race that I didn't have time to complain about it, and I passed through the quarter in 67. If I tried to run that on the track (which I don't think I could right now), I'd be so toast I would have had to walk the rest of the way.
At this point, I was still behind at least 3 girls. I knew I would not be able to beat Diane, I was actually handicapping myself at + :20 to her. Fortunately, I started to move up through the fading field, passing two of the girls and making my way through a few other guys. I hit the half in 2:22, and though that was pretty decent. If I could keep that pace, I would run under 5. The course flattened out from there, and then there was a slight rise before dropping again into the finish. I passed the 3/4 mark in 3:36, so breaking 5 was pretty sure now.
I passed one or two people right before the finish, and held off one hard-charging long haired guy at the line to finish 23rd in 4:50. Obviously it was super fast because of the downhill, but at + :13, that would be a 5:03 mile. Even if it was 20 seconds faster, that would be a 5:10. I would gladly take either of those. It sets me up well for a potential 5 minute mile at May 5th's Maryland Twilight Meet Alumni Mile.
Following the race I was pretty pumped. It isn't too often that I exceed my expectations, and I really didn't think I'd be able to run that fast. I didn't feel too wrecked, and my foot felt okay (does not feel great today, but I expected that). We cooled down by running back up the hill to the start, where Chrissie asked "how long have we been running" - to which we all replied "uhh...a mile". We headed over to McDaniel College, which is right near the finish line, and watched the DMR of Ed, Jordan, Arjun and Tristram (all of whom had raced the mile) run 10:48. Jordan pointed out that the last time he ran on a DMR, they ran 9:37. Yikes, that's fast.
The race was a lot of fun, and will definitely go on my calendar every year. It's a great subsitute for my workout for the week, and with the tri season opener on Saturday, I wasn't too pressed to run much more than that. Today and tomorrow will be pretty easy, and then Saturday race followed by Sunday long ride.
Oh, and I obviously didn't run the perfect mile. Ed came as close as possible, running 4:05 in a winning effort. Breaking 4 is clearly a possibility for one of our group in the next few years. The perfect mile, for me, would have been if the race course was reversed and we ran UP the hill.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Riding Dirty
The first full week of April made me realize one thing:
I don't give a shit about May flowers, and what it takes to bring them to us.
I am seriously struggling with rain-onset depression right now, and last week was another tough week to make it through. It was not terrificly warm, and it rained a few full days, and just brought about that spring malaise I loathe so much. But, I turned lemons into lemonade and made the most of my workouts, featuring a fairly decent 4x(600-400-200) workout on the track on Tuesday, and my first Wednesday Night Ride out of Oregon Ridge of the year. I don't anticipate I'll go every week, 1) because it's the day after my track workouts and I no longer have the energy or brash stupidity of trying to do back-to-back workouts like that but 2) I like my Thursday Night Ride that I've been going to for now 6 summers. Unfortunately, Thursday Night Ride starts in Owings Mills at 5:30, and it's a pretty far drive just to ride 35-38 miles. In summers past I've driven to the running store and ridden from there, making it a little over 50, but I don't feel like riding that much right now. Riding from home, while heinous and meaning I have to ride on Route 40, is just easier. But, I also realize the value of the hard group rides, so my plan right now is to alternate which one I go to week-to-week.
Anyway, the Wednesday ride got hot pretty early, with a split occurring before it even got to Stringtown Rd. I was comfortable on Stringtown, but as soon as the group went up Yeoho I started to lose contact a bit, and spent a few miles desperately chasing. When I realized I was never going to catch back up, I just rode hard (by myself) for 45 minutes, then cooled out for a while. Later, I saw two guys a little ways back so waited for them to catch on, and then wound up largely pulling them to the finish.
After my usual 4 day hiatus, I got back in the pool Wednesday with a subpar workout. Thursday went a little better, and Friday was decent. Still need to be more consistent about it, especially because I hate getting in the pool on weekends, and if I don't get in on Mondays, I'm already three days out.
Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to, my third trip out to Frederick in the last 6 weeks and we had a big group coming - including OJ, Benda, David, Pat and Zero. We hit the first climb pretty hard, and at the top I had ridden it in 18:12. When I went out with OJ and David a month or so ago, I rode it in 19:16, so I was pleased with the improvement/personal best. On Harp, which is always the death of me, I rode solidly, and then on Wolfsville I called for a sprint point before the end of the looped road. The homefield advantage went to OJ and myself, who know the road better, but nevertheless we were lining up for a good sprint. OJ had pulled off, so it was David, Benda, me. Zero let a little gap form between us, so OJ slotted in right behind me. I knew this meant trouble, as I figured David would pull off, then Benda, and then I would be stuck leading out OJ. My only play, I felt, was to attack from third wheel and just try and go early. Unfortunately OJ was right on my wheel, and then I was burned up. OJ took it out from Benda.
Now my legs were feeling it, and the third climb back on 40 was going to be tough. OJ was grinding out a massive gear, charging up the hill in the big ring. I sat right on his wheel, content with letting him set the pace on this one. I felt awesome though, and was sitting in a small gear and riding comfortably. As we got closer to the top, I was plotting my move. The road flattens out a little, just enough to pop into a bigger gear and take off. My bike, which is falling apart in its old age, refused to go into the big ring when I needed it most. Finally I got it going and made me move, gapping OJ and Benda. The move was the death blow, or so I thought. My legs were burned up and I had to sit back down, I had gone too far into the red. The duo were coming back, fortunately not quickly enough, so I stayed ahead.
We dropped into Boonsboro and found that we were going to face a slight headwind on the way home. Coming up South Mountain, I knew what was going to happen - OJ was going to do to me what I had just done to him. That's how it goes out here, no mercy. I sat on the front, setting the tempo up the shorter climb. At one point, OJ and Benda went around me and I thought "sweet, this works out even better for me". I made one last effort, passed them both, and neither came around as we crested the hill. Rode it in 6:39 which is about as fast as I rode a few weeks ago (when I rode up in the big ring, today was small).
But now, my body was paying for the day's efforts. I was cooked. It's about 12 miles to go, mostly pretty easy on the way back but if you're not feeling great, even the little rollers feel like mountains. I had topped the first 4 climbs in first, but on the last climb of the day, the shortest one (Braddock Mountain) I had had enough. Rode up as easy as my body could, trying to regroup before the Fast and Furious 5 mile descent into the finish.
The ride ended up being the fastest I've gone out there, and the first time getting under 3 hours for the just-under-54 mile ride. We scrapped our post-ride 30 minute run and instead went to Wendy's, which was a great choice.
Sunday morning was the Port to Fort 6k, a race I've done once (2006) and a unique distance that attracts 2000 competitors (using that term loosely, a lot of corporate teams show up and basically walk). The idea was to run our long run and in the middle just try and open up the legs a bit (during the race part) and then continue with the long run. 3 of us had ridden the day before and 1 of us had gotten real ripped up at the bars, so needless to say, it was a tough one. Like the taints we are, we wore the race day t-shirt, which was cotton. Side note: I can't believe people actually do this. Generally you are picking up your shirt on race day, which means I presume you arrived at the race already wearing a shirt. Why would you wear two, or switch them? Seems crazy. I still abide by my 14 day rule. Anyway, we get in about 5 miles prior to the race, and then the race starts. My legs were trashed. Made it through the 3.72 mile run, just over 6 minute pace, and then ate a hot dog and glazed donut, and got back onto the run.
Got back at 11 (race didn't start until 9) so I only had 30 minutes to get myself together to leave for Columbia to ride. I was meeting a pretty large group down at the course, for a 40-50 mile ride. Well, a couple things didn't go right, and ended up just riding 30 miles, but that was fine by me as I was pretty cooked. And I will say this - the Beastman and Chicken Tender Runner are going to rock the bike, and the entire race, at Columbia, much to my ego's dismay. I'll have to see if I can compete on the bike at least!
It turned out to be a pretty good, and evenly distributed, training week. 9600m in the pool, 170 miles on the bike and 35 miles of running. Very efficient, not a wasted workout among the bunch.
The title of the post is also appropriate because, anyone who has ridden with me can attest, my bike is filthy. The Orbea Opal I acquired in 2005 is nearing the end of its life. Everything is original, and the crap has been ridden out of it. I think more things need to be fixed than work, and these days I sometimes wonder if it'll even make it through any given ride. Therefore, this will be its farewell season. By the fall/winter, I will need to find a suitable replacement. Usually if I need something fixed, I bribe OJ with McDonald's to help me with it (once, though, it was a Dura Ace cassette, chain, cranks and whatever else we stripped from the P2). But these things don't seem worth fixing.
However, on a more positive note, I did acquire a new bike to race on. I figured I can race on my road bike pretty well, but as I'm returning to my pre-accident level of fitness, that I need a proper time trial bike, or I'll just ride with a chip on my shoulder. I wound up getting a P3, should have it by Thursday, just in time to race Saturday. Pictures and epic story to come later.
I don't give a shit about May flowers, and what it takes to bring them to us.
I am seriously struggling with rain-onset depression right now, and last week was another tough week to make it through. It was not terrificly warm, and it rained a few full days, and just brought about that spring malaise I loathe so much. But, I turned lemons into lemonade and made the most of my workouts, featuring a fairly decent 4x(600-400-200) workout on the track on Tuesday, and my first Wednesday Night Ride out of Oregon Ridge of the year. I don't anticipate I'll go every week, 1) because it's the day after my track workouts and I no longer have the energy or brash stupidity of trying to do back-to-back workouts like that but 2) I like my Thursday Night Ride that I've been going to for now 6 summers. Unfortunately, Thursday Night Ride starts in Owings Mills at 5:30, and it's a pretty far drive just to ride 35-38 miles. In summers past I've driven to the running store and ridden from there, making it a little over 50, but I don't feel like riding that much right now. Riding from home, while heinous and meaning I have to ride on Route 40, is just easier. But, I also realize the value of the hard group rides, so my plan right now is to alternate which one I go to week-to-week.
Anyway, the Wednesday ride got hot pretty early, with a split occurring before it even got to Stringtown Rd. I was comfortable on Stringtown, but as soon as the group went up Yeoho I started to lose contact a bit, and spent a few miles desperately chasing. When I realized I was never going to catch back up, I just rode hard (by myself) for 45 minutes, then cooled out for a while. Later, I saw two guys a little ways back so waited for them to catch on, and then wound up largely pulling them to the finish.
After my usual 4 day hiatus, I got back in the pool Wednesday with a subpar workout. Thursday went a little better, and Friday was decent. Still need to be more consistent about it, especially because I hate getting in the pool on weekends, and if I don't get in on Mondays, I'm already three days out.
Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to, my third trip out to Frederick in the last 6 weeks and we had a big group coming - including OJ, Benda, David, Pat and Zero. We hit the first climb pretty hard, and at the top I had ridden it in 18:12. When I went out with OJ and David a month or so ago, I rode it in 19:16, so I was pleased with the improvement/personal best. On Harp, which is always the death of me, I rode solidly, and then on Wolfsville I called for a sprint point before the end of the looped road. The homefield advantage went to OJ and myself, who know the road better, but nevertheless we were lining up for a good sprint. OJ had pulled off, so it was David, Benda, me. Zero let a little gap form between us, so OJ slotted in right behind me. I knew this meant trouble, as I figured David would pull off, then Benda, and then I would be stuck leading out OJ. My only play, I felt, was to attack from third wheel and just try and go early. Unfortunately OJ was right on my wheel, and then I was burned up. OJ took it out from Benda.
Now my legs were feeling it, and the third climb back on 40 was going to be tough. OJ was grinding out a massive gear, charging up the hill in the big ring. I sat right on his wheel, content with letting him set the pace on this one. I felt awesome though, and was sitting in a small gear and riding comfortably. As we got closer to the top, I was plotting my move. The road flattens out a little, just enough to pop into a bigger gear and take off. My bike, which is falling apart in its old age, refused to go into the big ring when I needed it most. Finally I got it going and made me move, gapping OJ and Benda. The move was the death blow, or so I thought. My legs were burned up and I had to sit back down, I had gone too far into the red. The duo were coming back, fortunately not quickly enough, so I stayed ahead.
We dropped into Boonsboro and found that we were going to face a slight headwind on the way home. Coming up South Mountain, I knew what was going to happen - OJ was going to do to me what I had just done to him. That's how it goes out here, no mercy. I sat on the front, setting the tempo up the shorter climb. At one point, OJ and Benda went around me and I thought "sweet, this works out even better for me". I made one last effort, passed them both, and neither came around as we crested the hill. Rode it in 6:39 which is about as fast as I rode a few weeks ago (when I rode up in the big ring, today was small).
But now, my body was paying for the day's efforts. I was cooked. It's about 12 miles to go, mostly pretty easy on the way back but if you're not feeling great, even the little rollers feel like mountains. I had topped the first 4 climbs in first, but on the last climb of the day, the shortest one (Braddock Mountain) I had had enough. Rode up as easy as my body could, trying to regroup before the Fast and Furious 5 mile descent into the finish.
The ride ended up being the fastest I've gone out there, and the first time getting under 3 hours for the just-under-54 mile ride. We scrapped our post-ride 30 minute run and instead went to Wendy's, which was a great choice.
Sunday morning was the Port to Fort 6k, a race I've done once (2006) and a unique distance that attracts 2000 competitors (using that term loosely, a lot of corporate teams show up and basically walk). The idea was to run our long run and in the middle just try and open up the legs a bit (during the race part) and then continue with the long run. 3 of us had ridden the day before and 1 of us had gotten real ripped up at the bars, so needless to say, it was a tough one. Like the taints we are, we wore the race day t-shirt, which was cotton. Side note: I can't believe people actually do this. Generally you are picking up your shirt on race day, which means I presume you arrived at the race already wearing a shirt. Why would you wear two, or switch them? Seems crazy. I still abide by my 14 day rule. Anyway, we get in about 5 miles prior to the race, and then the race starts. My legs were trashed. Made it through the 3.72 mile run, just over 6 minute pace, and then ate a hot dog and glazed donut, and got back onto the run.
Got back at 11 (race didn't start until 9) so I only had 30 minutes to get myself together to leave for Columbia to ride. I was meeting a pretty large group down at the course, for a 40-50 mile ride. Well, a couple things didn't go right, and ended up just riding 30 miles, but that was fine by me as I was pretty cooked. And I will say this - the Beastman and Chicken Tender Runner are going to rock the bike, and the entire race, at Columbia, much to my ego's dismay. I'll have to see if I can compete on the bike at least!
It turned out to be a pretty good, and evenly distributed, training week. 9600m in the pool, 170 miles on the bike and 35 miles of running. Very efficient, not a wasted workout among the bunch.
The title of the post is also appropriate because, anyone who has ridden with me can attest, my bike is filthy. The Orbea Opal I acquired in 2005 is nearing the end of its life. Everything is original, and the crap has been ridden out of it. I think more things need to be fixed than work, and these days I sometimes wonder if it'll even make it through any given ride. Therefore, this will be its farewell season. By the fall/winter, I will need to find a suitable replacement. Usually if I need something fixed, I bribe OJ with McDonald's to help me with it (once, though, it was a Dura Ace cassette, chain, cranks and whatever else we stripped from the P2). But these things don't seem worth fixing.
However, on a more positive note, I did acquire a new bike to race on. I figured I can race on my road bike pretty well, but as I'm returning to my pre-accident level of fitness, that I need a proper time trial bike, or I'll just ride with a chip on my shoulder. I wound up getting a P3, should have it by Thursday, just in time to race Saturday. Pictures and epic story to come later.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Super GT Saturday
The weather this time of year, to me, is frightful. In December, if it's too cold, or it's raining or snowing, I am fine either taking the day off, or riding inside. Rides can be much shorter, as the "season" is a ways away. By the time you get to March and April, though, excuse time is running thin and you have to start getting outside no matter what. A 90 minute trainer ride just does not do what a 3+ hour ride on the roads will do. Of course, it's also the time of year when it rains (all the f***ing time) and is always super windy. And sometimes you luck out and it's warm but a lot of times it's not.
This was the case with Saturday, which became Super GT Saturday (Super Get Tough Saturday). The planned ride was the famed Lineboro ride. It was the first ride I did with OJ and Benda all those years ago (I guess 2006?) when I overestimated my abilities and got left in Glen Rock to ride 30 miles home by myself. From old Tri-Speed in Timonium, it's a 78 mile ride. From home, it's 115. I was up for something in the middle, so Pat and I met Ben W and Benda at Meadowbrook shortly after 8am on Saturday.
Rewinding for a minute, back in college, training with Tri Guy Tommy meant that you went out in all conditions. One day I remember was so bad that I wanted to scream bloody murder. 38 degrees, monsoon-like rain. I made it through 90 minutes or 2 hours or something and had to call it a day. From that day forward I was committed to not doing that again. Over time, OJ and I have developed our system. If it's below 50 and actively precipitating at the time we are supposed to ride, we call the ride off. If it is not raining at the start, but we think we will get rained on during the ride, we'll suck it up. Shoot, just riding below 40 degrees sometimes is a challenge, without rain.
Saturday morning when I woke up it was 32. When we got to Meadowbrook, it was maybe 34. And it looked like it was going to rain. As we were putting our stuff on, it started to rain. Shit. Get on the bikes, quick, I said. As we pedaled out of the parking lot and onto Falls Road, it was a steady rain. For 2 hours it rained. We went up and up and up, until finally we were in Hampstead. When we got to Lineboro Rd, we were pleased to finally have some respite. For at least 20 miles, it's generally flat to small rollers, and with the tailwind we had, it was pretty comfortable.
But riding in the rain is weird, and does strange things to you. You can be miserable, but totally fine, while it's raining, but then it stops and your legs lock up. It's happened to me before, and it happened to me on this day. I tend to not do well with stops, particularly extended ones, on cold days. The sun was not shining and even at 1pm the temperature was still not above 40, and the hours of rain enabled my body to get pretty cold. One minute I was riding well, we stopped in Glen Rock for a refueling break, and when we got going again, I had nothing.
As we got onto York Rd (22 miles from HV, at least 34 back to Meadowbrook), there was no power left in the engine room. It took everything I had to get up the grueling hills of Hereford. Ben, who is training for an IM in a few weeks, was riding stronger now and I told him to go home. Pat stayed back with me and I quickly crushed a Snickers, a glazed donut and drank a Coke from a (now) 7-11 on Mt. Carmel Rd. It seemed to get me back to a better place, and I was able to get home from there. As I don't ride with a computer, Ben's was malfunctioning and Pat forgot to start his for a few miles, the ride was somewhere between 96 and 97 miles. Easily the worst day I've ever tried to ride that long in my life, so even though I was brutalized by the end, I deposited that one into the fitness bank.
All plans to do anything else on Saturday were now erased, and efforts went toward recovering for Sunday's very early long run. I started running from College Park to DC in college, and for most of the last 12 years I've always done the run on the weekend of Cherry Blossom, timing it so I finish my run around the time of the finish of the race. Waking up at 5:30 on Sunday to accomplish this, this time, was tough for me, but we made it down just in time to see Zero get across the line. The run was probably not too slow, either. None of us seemed to have great legs, but we muddled through and put in an hour and fifty minutes, so we figured at least 15 miles.
The two days of long ride/run had taken their toll, and by the time I got home Sunday at noon, I was not much in the mood for getting out on the bike again. This was a good move, as I felt a little better on Monday morning. With Monday being Orioles Opening Day, and the mercury hitting 80 degrees, it was an opportune time to get out on the bike. Alyssa wanted to go down to the Columbia course, and since I haven't ridden it in two years, thought it would be a good idea as well. The forecast said it was going to be windy, and you know anytime they actually bother to say that, it's going to be SUPER windy, which it was. I hate riding in Columbia to begin with, and the wind just makes it worse.
I break that course into 3 parts - beginning (to the second traffic circle), middle (the lollipop section, back to the circle) and end (circle back home). It breaks pretty nicely almost into even thirds (by distance), with the beginning being somewhat hard, the middle being hard, and the end being somewhat easy. I don't often go out to Columbia, so when I do, I try to ride an honest effort (if I am just doing the course). In the first section, we got to the circle in 25:35. Three times over, that would be a 1:16ish ride. The middle was particularly tough on this day, because of the wind. That section took 29:18 so we were just under 55 minutes back at the circle. The way home was quite fast, at just over 21 minutes, and we finished up at just over 1:16. That's a pretty decent ride out there, particularly for Alyssa, who rode around 1:19 last time she raced there.
For me, though, I always get somewhat disheartened when I realize how much time I have to pull to ride what I need to ride. 12-16 minutes, where can I even find that time? I didn't feel like I was going all out, but I also just don't understand how I've ridden as fast as I have there. A time trial bike will certainly help a little, and full-on race effort. I guess that could be 10 minutes. So right now I'd give myself a 1:06. I need at least 2 minutes in the next 6 weeks. Considering how badly I'm going to get smoked in the water and on the run, I really need to make sure there's at least one shining moment come race day. Nevertheless, a ride like that goes a long way. From there it was Orioles time, where the O's won their Opening Day matchup against the Tigers to start the season 4-0 for the first time in a decade and a half.
I have been feeling pretty crappy for a while now, some days like I'm completely broken. Too bad I'm not better on a bike, maybe I'd just stop running and swimming.
Here are some of bike riding tips mentioned in today's post:
1) Besides being uncomfortable, and my hatred of being cold, the real reason I don't ride outside in the rain is safety. When faced with choices now I try to think safety first. Rain may be okay for us on our bikes, but with the talking/texting/asians/women/old people, etc, going on in cars, I don't trust them. I'd rather take the day off or ride inside.
2) A Coke and a Snickers can bring you back from the brink.
3) If you plan on riding your TT bike, plan on that day being windy. It's Murphy's Law, just the way it works.
This was the case with Saturday, which became Super GT Saturday (Super Get Tough Saturday). The planned ride was the famed Lineboro ride. It was the first ride I did with OJ and Benda all those years ago (I guess 2006?) when I overestimated my abilities and got left in Glen Rock to ride 30 miles home by myself. From old Tri-Speed in Timonium, it's a 78 mile ride. From home, it's 115. I was up for something in the middle, so Pat and I met Ben W and Benda at Meadowbrook shortly after 8am on Saturday.
Rewinding for a minute, back in college, training with Tri Guy Tommy meant that you went out in all conditions. One day I remember was so bad that I wanted to scream bloody murder. 38 degrees, monsoon-like rain. I made it through 90 minutes or 2 hours or something and had to call it a day. From that day forward I was committed to not doing that again. Over time, OJ and I have developed our system. If it's below 50 and actively precipitating at the time we are supposed to ride, we call the ride off. If it is not raining at the start, but we think we will get rained on during the ride, we'll suck it up. Shoot, just riding below 40 degrees sometimes is a challenge, without rain.
Saturday morning when I woke up it was 32. When we got to Meadowbrook, it was maybe 34. And it looked like it was going to rain. As we were putting our stuff on, it started to rain. Shit. Get on the bikes, quick, I said. As we pedaled out of the parking lot and onto Falls Road, it was a steady rain. For 2 hours it rained. We went up and up and up, until finally we were in Hampstead. When we got to Lineboro Rd, we were pleased to finally have some respite. For at least 20 miles, it's generally flat to small rollers, and with the tailwind we had, it was pretty comfortable.
But riding in the rain is weird, and does strange things to you. You can be miserable, but totally fine, while it's raining, but then it stops and your legs lock up. It's happened to me before, and it happened to me on this day. I tend to not do well with stops, particularly extended ones, on cold days. The sun was not shining and even at 1pm the temperature was still not above 40, and the hours of rain enabled my body to get pretty cold. One minute I was riding well, we stopped in Glen Rock for a refueling break, and when we got going again, I had nothing.
As we got onto York Rd (22 miles from HV, at least 34 back to Meadowbrook), there was no power left in the engine room. It took everything I had to get up the grueling hills of Hereford. Ben, who is training for an IM in a few weeks, was riding stronger now and I told him to go home. Pat stayed back with me and I quickly crushed a Snickers, a glazed donut and drank a Coke from a (now) 7-11 on Mt. Carmel Rd. It seemed to get me back to a better place, and I was able to get home from there. As I don't ride with a computer, Ben's was malfunctioning and Pat forgot to start his for a few miles, the ride was somewhere between 96 and 97 miles. Easily the worst day I've ever tried to ride that long in my life, so even though I was brutalized by the end, I deposited that one into the fitness bank.
All plans to do anything else on Saturday were now erased, and efforts went toward recovering for Sunday's very early long run. I started running from College Park to DC in college, and for most of the last 12 years I've always done the run on the weekend of Cherry Blossom, timing it so I finish my run around the time of the finish of the race. Waking up at 5:30 on Sunday to accomplish this, this time, was tough for me, but we made it down just in time to see Zero get across the line. The run was probably not too slow, either. None of us seemed to have great legs, but we muddled through and put in an hour and fifty minutes, so we figured at least 15 miles.
The two days of long ride/run had taken their toll, and by the time I got home Sunday at noon, I was not much in the mood for getting out on the bike again. This was a good move, as I felt a little better on Monday morning. With Monday being Orioles Opening Day, and the mercury hitting 80 degrees, it was an opportune time to get out on the bike. Alyssa wanted to go down to the Columbia course, and since I haven't ridden it in two years, thought it would be a good idea as well. The forecast said it was going to be windy, and you know anytime they actually bother to say that, it's going to be SUPER windy, which it was. I hate riding in Columbia to begin with, and the wind just makes it worse.
I break that course into 3 parts - beginning (to the second traffic circle), middle (the lollipop section, back to the circle) and end (circle back home). It breaks pretty nicely almost into even thirds (by distance), with the beginning being somewhat hard, the middle being hard, and the end being somewhat easy. I don't often go out to Columbia, so when I do, I try to ride an honest effort (if I am just doing the course). In the first section, we got to the circle in 25:35. Three times over, that would be a 1:16ish ride. The middle was particularly tough on this day, because of the wind. That section took 29:18 so we were just under 55 minutes back at the circle. The way home was quite fast, at just over 21 minutes, and we finished up at just over 1:16. That's a pretty decent ride out there, particularly for Alyssa, who rode around 1:19 last time she raced there.
For me, though, I always get somewhat disheartened when I realize how much time I have to pull to ride what I need to ride. 12-16 minutes, where can I even find that time? I didn't feel like I was going all out, but I also just don't understand how I've ridden as fast as I have there. A time trial bike will certainly help a little, and full-on race effort. I guess that could be 10 minutes. So right now I'd give myself a 1:06. I need at least 2 minutes in the next 6 weeks. Considering how badly I'm going to get smoked in the water and on the run, I really need to make sure there's at least one shining moment come race day. Nevertheless, a ride like that goes a long way. From there it was Orioles time, where the O's won their Opening Day matchup against the Tigers to start the season 4-0 for the first time in a decade and a half.
I have been feeling pretty crappy for a while now, some days like I'm completely broken. Too bad I'm not better on a bike, maybe I'd just stop running and swimming.
Here are some of bike riding tips mentioned in today's post:
1) Besides being uncomfortable, and my hatred of being cold, the real reason I don't ride outside in the rain is safety. When faced with choices now I try to think safety first. Rain may be okay for us on our bikes, but with the talking/texting/asians/women/old people, etc, going on in cars, I don't trust them. I'd rather take the day off or ride inside.
2) A Coke and a Snickers can bring you back from the brink.
3) If you plan on riding your TT bike, plan on that day being windy. It's Murphy's Law, just the way it works.
Friday, April 01, 2011
March
March is finally over (somebody tell the weather that) and I'm excited to move onto April. I really need the weather to improve, now more than ever. Days like the ones we've had this week kill me - cold, rain, dreary. I never feel good and generally don't enjoy getting out to train. My mechanical issues are still plaguing me, most notably the left foot problem (plantar?) and in turn everything that's affecting. Running has been limited still, moreso in comfort than in volume. Here's how I ended up in March:
Swimming - C+. Finally getting into the pool at least 3 days per week enabled me to swim 38,000 meters. This should really be a two week number, but it's at least 14,000 more than February. In the middle of the month I seemed to have some decent workouts, but this last week or so has been a struggle. I'm just not swimming very fast, and not feeling good doing it. Still, compared to March 2010 (4000m, one swim before surgery), it's an increase.
Cycling - B+. I know I gave myself an A last month, and I've actually done a fair bit of riding given the conditions this month, so this is more related to the weather and my outdoor ride capabilities. Two trips out to Frederick and a really gangster four day cycling binge helped me feel pretty good about my fitness. But then it got cold again and rained, so it put me inside for two weeks. The annoying thing right now is that I feel the best when I'm on my bike, but I haven't had as many opportunities as I'd like to get outside and feel good about it. This weekend looks to be super frustrating with temps just not quite where they should be still. I finished with 456 miles on the bike, my highest March total potentially ever but definitely in the last 8 years. And much more than the one hour trainer ride I did last March before surgery.
Running - B. Again, looking at the numbers and it's decent at 173 miles for the month. Consistent with the past two months, and much more than the 0 I put up for March 2010. 4 weeks of track workouts now and I've seen some improvement, but each effort has left my foot pretty wrecked. I got in two proper long runs and haven't "missed" any runs, so that's been positive. My race effort on 3/13 was also good.
April is going to be a fun month, kicking off this Sunday with my annual run from College Park to DC to see the Cherry Blossom race. Opening Day for the Orioles is Monday, and thanks to Brennan I am 100% ready for the Orioles this year. Then things get fun with Race Week 2k11 - where Ed and I will be trying to outrace one another. He has 4 races from Saturday 4/9 to Saturday 4/16, while I have potentially 4 races from Sunday 4/10 to Sunday 4/17. This includes a 6k, a road mile and the tri season opener. Then it's back to NJ for Easter weekend. As long as there is no rain, the temps are in the 70s and it's sunny every day, I don't think I'll have a problem.
Swimming - C+. Finally getting into the pool at least 3 days per week enabled me to swim 38,000 meters. This should really be a two week number, but it's at least 14,000 more than February. In the middle of the month I seemed to have some decent workouts, but this last week or so has been a struggle. I'm just not swimming very fast, and not feeling good doing it. Still, compared to March 2010 (4000m, one swim before surgery), it's an increase.
Cycling - B+. I know I gave myself an A last month, and I've actually done a fair bit of riding given the conditions this month, so this is more related to the weather and my outdoor ride capabilities. Two trips out to Frederick and a really gangster four day cycling binge helped me feel pretty good about my fitness. But then it got cold again and rained, so it put me inside for two weeks. The annoying thing right now is that I feel the best when I'm on my bike, but I haven't had as many opportunities as I'd like to get outside and feel good about it. This weekend looks to be super frustrating with temps just not quite where they should be still. I finished with 456 miles on the bike, my highest March total potentially ever but definitely in the last 8 years. And much more than the one hour trainer ride I did last March before surgery.
Running - B. Again, looking at the numbers and it's decent at 173 miles for the month. Consistent with the past two months, and much more than the 0 I put up for March 2010. 4 weeks of track workouts now and I've seen some improvement, but each effort has left my foot pretty wrecked. I got in two proper long runs and haven't "missed" any runs, so that's been positive. My race effort on 3/13 was also good.
April is going to be a fun month, kicking off this Sunday with my annual run from College Park to DC to see the Cherry Blossom race. Opening Day for the Orioles is Monday, and thanks to Brennan I am 100% ready for the Orioles this year. Then things get fun with Race Week 2k11 - where Ed and I will be trying to outrace one another. He has 4 races from Saturday 4/9 to Saturday 4/16, while I have potentially 4 races from Sunday 4/10 to Sunday 4/17. This includes a 6k, a road mile and the tri season opener. Then it's back to NJ for Easter weekend. As long as there is no rain, the temps are in the 70s and it's sunny every day, I don't think I'll have a problem.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Blossoms of Hoop
I say it every year, but I hate March. If it weren't for the NCAA Tournament, I would gladly tear the page off the calendar. This year was deja vu, all over again. There was a weekend where it was warm, teasing us with the promise of outside riding, and then it dropped back to unseasonably cold temperatures. This past Sunday I had to ride inside! I thought the days of trainer rides were over, but I was sadly mistaken. Additionally, now that I've moved to my spring/summer schedule of Tuesday Night Track and riding on Weds/Thurs, it continues to be cold and rain on W/Th, nixing my rides. But, March has provided some pretty memorable moments over the years, and they haven't been all bad.
March 14, 2009 - I finally made it to one of the Pub Runs. It was a lot of fun.
March 15, 2009 - Shamrock 5k. Didn't run as fast as I had the year before, but I still managed a 16:56.
March 21, 2009 - National Marathon. Went to spectate Brennan, Arjun and I tried to run with him for a few miles. He was ripping into the race so hard I could only keep up for 5 miles from 14-19. Arjun made it another 2 or 3.
March 13, 2010 - Pub Run again. I couldn't run, so I helped out. It rained. 150 people had a blast.
March 14, 2010 - Shamrock 5k. Couldn't run, but watched as everyone ran real quick.
March 15, 2010 - Surgery #2. I don't generally buy into the Ides of March stuff, but it seemed a little eerie this day.
March 20, 2010 - National Half Marathon. Probably was pushing it trying to drive just a few days after surgery, but wanted to get down to spectate the race again. And there I was, at mile 10, on crutches, as everyone ran by. And they ran super fast.
March 12, 2010 - Pub Run. This year, Ed and I put it on. Another awesome event.
March 13, 2010 - Shamrock 5k. Didn't sign up in time, so did another race instead, and won money for the first time.
March 15, 2010 - Strides of March. Track comes back with an appropriate theme.
You'll notice the trend, that sweet spot week of March. The Pub Run, Shamrock 5k, National (although it was a week later this year), March Madness, and this year it was truly mad. My bracket looked great on Thurs/Fri, was busted by Saturday. Then it came roaring back, only to fall flat again. I had an opportunity to win my pool, but VCU had to go all George Mason on that ass, and UNC couldn't get shit done. Now I'm disheartened because I don't think 3 of the 4 Final Four teams "deserve" to be there, so I have to root for UConn.
St. Patrick's Day, of course being one of my favorite holidays, is also another plus for March. So maybe March isn't all that bad.
As much pain as I've been in lately (foot), it beats where I was last year, which was, to say, coming off a second knee surgery and severely depressed. It is always better to be able to do something, than to not be able to do anything. Last March seems impossibly long ago. I took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Amsterdam, for one last visit with the Sgrizzis (they're back in Baltimore now), and by that point I had not swam, run or ridden in over a month. I would continue to not do anything through March, and even into April. I guess from that perspective, I'm automatically ahead of where I was this time last year. Unfortunately I don't feel very comfortable. My foot is going on over 3 months of pretty bad pain. My swimming is just not there. On the bike, I feel okay, but I haven't ridden as much as I'd like in the last two weeks.
One of the things I always appreciated about living near DC in the month of March was the Cherry Blossoms. There really is no better time to be down there (actually, it's the only time I enjoy going there). In college, I would drive or metro down during the week, when the visitors were few and the blossoms were generally in full bloom. I love how they have the Cherry Blossom Festival, of course it's got to be on the weekend, but it's almost always a week late. The fake warm days trigger the blossoms early, and then they wind up popping. It was great to be able to jump down there on the days you knew were going to be full bloom.
Saturday I headed down to DC for the National Marathon once again. I met Nina at Judiciary Square - she had already put in 7 and change and we were running by 6:50. We headed out on the course around mile 3. It's awesome when the wide avenues are completely shut down. Of course it didn't look much different than a normal Saturday at 7am down there. There are very few spectators, and, for this race, no mile markers. But it was a nice, calm morning down along the Mall, and we were enjoying the adoration of the few spectators, who thought we were in the lead. We made it around the course back to mile 16, and then I ran back to my car, which was parked at New York and N. Capitol. I figured for the 2h15m of running I probably got in just over 17 miles. Sunday, Pat and I were stuck inside in the morning for a 1h45m ride, chased with a 45min run.
This weekend looks to be cold still, and of course there's rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow, which may impact my riding. Sunday is another spring tradition, the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. With the exceptions of the years I've not been running, I've made it down there for the past 12 years. We started running down from College Park in college, and have kept that going. I did run the race one time, in 2009, and it was terrible and I don't anticipate doing it again, but I do like running down TO the race. Run down, metro back, Bagel Place afterwards, home before noon.
Go UConn!
March 14, 2009 - I finally made it to one of the Pub Runs. It was a lot of fun.
March 15, 2009 - Shamrock 5k. Didn't run as fast as I had the year before, but I still managed a 16:56.
March 21, 2009 - National Marathon. Went to spectate Brennan, Arjun and I tried to run with him for a few miles. He was ripping into the race so hard I could only keep up for 5 miles from 14-19. Arjun made it another 2 or 3.
March 13, 2010 - Pub Run again. I couldn't run, so I helped out. It rained. 150 people had a blast.
March 14, 2010 - Shamrock 5k. Couldn't run, but watched as everyone ran real quick.
March 15, 2010 - Surgery #2. I don't generally buy into the Ides of March stuff, but it seemed a little eerie this day.
March 20, 2010 - National Half Marathon. Probably was pushing it trying to drive just a few days after surgery, but wanted to get down to spectate the race again. And there I was, at mile 10, on crutches, as everyone ran by. And they ran super fast.
March 12, 2010 - Pub Run. This year, Ed and I put it on. Another awesome event.
March 13, 2010 - Shamrock 5k. Didn't sign up in time, so did another race instead, and won money for the first time.
March 15, 2010 - Strides of March. Track comes back with an appropriate theme.
You'll notice the trend, that sweet spot week of March. The Pub Run, Shamrock 5k, National (although it was a week later this year), March Madness, and this year it was truly mad. My bracket looked great on Thurs/Fri, was busted by Saturday. Then it came roaring back, only to fall flat again. I had an opportunity to win my pool, but VCU had to go all George Mason on that ass, and UNC couldn't get shit done. Now I'm disheartened because I don't think 3 of the 4 Final Four teams "deserve" to be there, so I have to root for UConn.
St. Patrick's Day, of course being one of my favorite holidays, is also another plus for March. So maybe March isn't all that bad.
As much pain as I've been in lately (foot), it beats where I was last year, which was, to say, coming off a second knee surgery and severely depressed. It is always better to be able to do something, than to not be able to do anything. Last March seems impossibly long ago. I took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Amsterdam, for one last visit with the Sgrizzis (they're back in Baltimore now), and by that point I had not swam, run or ridden in over a month. I would continue to not do anything through March, and even into April. I guess from that perspective, I'm automatically ahead of where I was this time last year. Unfortunately I don't feel very comfortable. My foot is going on over 3 months of pretty bad pain. My swimming is just not there. On the bike, I feel okay, but I haven't ridden as much as I'd like in the last two weeks.
One of the things I always appreciated about living near DC in the month of March was the Cherry Blossoms. There really is no better time to be down there (actually, it's the only time I enjoy going there). In college, I would drive or metro down during the week, when the visitors were few and the blossoms were generally in full bloom. I love how they have the Cherry Blossom Festival, of course it's got to be on the weekend, but it's almost always a week late. The fake warm days trigger the blossoms early, and then they wind up popping. It was great to be able to jump down there on the days you knew were going to be full bloom.
Saturday I headed down to DC for the National Marathon once again. I met Nina at Judiciary Square - she had already put in 7 and change and we were running by 6:50. We headed out on the course around mile 3. It's awesome when the wide avenues are completely shut down. Of course it didn't look much different than a normal Saturday at 7am down there. There are very few spectators, and, for this race, no mile markers. But it was a nice, calm morning down along the Mall, and we were enjoying the adoration of the few spectators, who thought we were in the lead. We made it around the course back to mile 16, and then I ran back to my car, which was parked at New York and N. Capitol. I figured for the 2h15m of running I probably got in just over 17 miles. Sunday, Pat and I were stuck inside in the morning for a 1h45m ride, chased with a 45min run.
This weekend looks to be cold still, and of course there's rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow, which may impact my riding. Sunday is another spring tradition, the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. With the exceptions of the years I've not been running, I've made it down there for the past 12 years. We started running down from College Park in college, and have kept that going. I did run the race one time, in 2009, and it was terrible and I don't anticipate doing it again, but I do like running down TO the race. Run down, metro back, Bagel Place afterwards, home before noon.
Go UConn!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Keep the Juice Rolling
One of my favorite card-playing movies starring Matt Damon is the film Rounders, and one of the central themes of the movie is owing money to loansharks. They refer to the interest as "juice," and this interest compounds seemingly hourly. The comparison I want to make is interest, and how it works in the science of sport. As it pertains to my own training, there have been times I've been in debt, and there are times I've lived off the interest. Across micro and macro cycles alike, we all start somewhat in debt. Do you remember your first run? I do. When a track program came to my grammar school (6th grade), I joined and was the fastest white boy since Jerry Seinfeld. 100m. 200m. Long Jump. 4x100m. Those were my events and I did not deviate. I may have run either a couple of 400s, maybe an 800m and possibly a 1600m at some point, but they were races and not runs.
No, my first run was when I was in 8th grade, and our coach instructed me to do 2.5 miles on the Count Basie track. 20 minutes sticks out in my head as the time, but looking back and I don't know if 8 minute miles is conceivable. I thought I was the most BAMF on the planet, running that far, in my white t-shirt and gray cotton shorts, and presumably my shitty Reeboks. When I went to high school later that year, I was in debt each and every day. Going for runs and getting dropped before we even got off school property, getting lost because I had never been to that part of Middletown, basically walking half of every run. The first time I ran the Freshman (2.1 mile) cross country course, I ran over 18 minutes. Two weeks later, I ran 14:51. By the end of that season, I had run a 13:50 or something. Each week I deposited my training pay check into the account, so that I had something to withdraw from on race day (twss).
Over the course of those 4 years I made improvements, but it wasn't until I really started running more miles that I saw truly signifcant benefits. When I transitioned over to triathlon in college, the 85 miles per week I was running dropped to 50, 55, and for the first time in my life, I was living off the interest. I had accrued such fitness that I was immediately competent at riding a bike, the running I was doing felt like a cakewalk and I was still one of the fastest triathletes, and my swimming was...well, it was.
I raced that way for a while. I didn't see much time improvement on the run, largely because I think I was running about as fast as I was going to in general. I rode and swam reasonable amounts, and kept pretty detailed training logs during college. When I shattered my ankle in August 2003, it was back to the drawing board, and once again, training in debt. This ebb and flow continued, and as any athlete can attest, there are times when it's your lungs that can't keep up with your legs, and times your legs can't keep up with your lungs. I began to find that, even though I had this injury, my fitness was still there, and could come back quickly. In other words, the juice was still rolling.
As the second half of the 2000s rolled around, and I moved to Baltimore, I watched as I once again started in debt. I was not in good running shape. I swam 3 times of the span of 3 years. I was getting hammered by the significantly tougher terrain of Baltimore on my bike. But just like that weak freshman in 1995, I kept going. And now I had 10 years of knowledge behind me. How hard can I go and finish this ride? How much can I run today and still be able to do something tomorrow? I've learned exactly what my body has in it for that day, week or month of training. By 2009, I was flush, living off the interest and making a killing. Every day I went out, I felt stronger and better than the day before. When that market crashed, I felt flat broke.
I described last year that when I was able to resume training in June, things came back quicker than I expected, which led to me feeling confident enough to race Arizona. It was weird though - like I was racing off the interest but training in debt. Then I discovered that it's entirely feasible. There are plenty of people I know who are able to race well, training at levels that would indicate they'd race much slower, and that comes from knowing how to get the most out of your body. For me, when I did Luray last August, I had done one or two runs over the distance of the race (10k) and I had only done a handful of "speed" workouts that were done at or just under 6 minute pace. Yet somehow, off the bike, on a rolling course, I managed to average 6:22/mi. Later, in October at the Red Bank Tri, I managed a 29:24 5 miler off the bike. I don't think if I had gone to run 5 miles that day I could have run that fast.
How was this happening? My knee never feels good, never feels fluid. I click and creak and crack whenever I take a step. My knee is sometimes so tight that I can't bend or straighten it at all (not that I have full range of motion with it anymore, anyway). My volume of training is good, my aerobic fitness is excellent, but my power, my speed and my anaerobic capacity are entirely limited. It's not secret that every person has a bottom-line capability, the "worst" they'll do on an given day. I think I had found mine. By setting the right expectations, and being smart, I was squeezing the juice for all it was worth.
And now, here we are in March, just a few weeks away from the beginning of 2011 tri season, and after this particular weekend, I feel good about the outlook. If I were selling futures, I would say that I'll be back to at least where I was in 2009. My body feels broken every day, but it's build Ford (Ironman) tough now, and I know that I have a ton of volume that I can live off of from last year. That's how I was able to do what I did this weekend, without any indication that my body should have allowed me to do it...
Friday - Took advantage of the 80 degree day and rode for 4 hours with OJ. Put in a few real hard sections, and came back feeling good. Ran 9 miles later in the day at a comfortable pace.
Saturday - Led the expedition to Frederick. Talk about living off the interest, Ben came out for what was to be his first group ride and also longest ride ever. As I've explained, Frederick is no joke. And Ben rode extremely well. But when you've been alive as long as he has, you don't just have interest, you've got a fully vested pension and 401k to draw from. Alyssa also rode real well, again using the interest she accrued from last summer and the work she's done this winter to keep the juice rolling. We ran 20 minutes off the bike, where Pat and I pushed the last 5 minutes. Got back to Baltimore, felt wiped but got in the pool for a Super GT Saturday.
Sunday - Knew it was going to be tough today. It's not often that I'll go 3 days in a row on the bike, and this was to be day #4 (rode easy 75min outside on Thursday). After 10 hours in 3 days on the bike, I wasn't sure how my body would go, but in honor of my late homey, Nate Dogg, I was determined to "rock it til the wheels come off." The nice temperatures were gone, and in their stead was cold air and cold, stiff wind. As a result, I waited until later in the day and rode once again with OJ. He defines "keeping the juice rolling" - because I call him Juice and because he was rolling. We departed Meadowbrook and headed north, dropping into Hunt Valley and splicing together a number of rides, hitting some of the nastier climbs in the county (Greenspring, Caves, a 4:14 trip up Bellemore). At just under 4 hours, this marked a 13 hour 4 day bike binge, and an approximate 200 miles.
You can go hard until your body tells you to stop. Then you recover. Then you repeat. That's what makes champions. Most of the time, I just get excited to see what my body is capable of doing. I think that's why we all do it.
For the week, on the strength of the bike volume, I was nearly at 20 hours. Hard to believe that I didn't drop below 20 for most of the 5 months I was training last year. I was going to run Sunday, as with only 3 miles on Saturday my week mileage was 35, but then I thought the better of it. If I was going to run 35-45 minutes just to get over 40 miles, there wouldn't have been much point. My legs were cooked and the riding was the focus of the weekend. The pool was 3 swims at 3k each for a total of 9000m.
Today is all about making deposits; in this case the deposit is the respite of a day of recovery. An easy swim, an easy run. It's a critical time of year now, where I'll start to transition away from slower, easier efforts to a few precise, harder ones. When you begin to introduce racing, plus the harder efforts, your body gets thrown for a loop and you can overdraw your account without knowing it, and then TD Bank will allegedly fix the problem but then they didn't tell you that you had to sign something, and then for some reason your mom is still on the account that you set up when you were like 5 years old and because TD Bank doesn't have a big presence here, they have to mail it to you and then you have to mail it back and then your mom has to go in and sign it, but that's neither here nor there.
Just remember every day that you do something, the juice will keep rolling.
No, my first run was when I was in 8th grade, and our coach instructed me to do 2.5 miles on the Count Basie track. 20 minutes sticks out in my head as the time, but looking back and I don't know if 8 minute miles is conceivable. I thought I was the most BAMF on the planet, running that far, in my white t-shirt and gray cotton shorts, and presumably my shitty Reeboks. When I went to high school later that year, I was in debt each and every day. Going for runs and getting dropped before we even got off school property, getting lost because I had never been to that part of Middletown, basically walking half of every run. The first time I ran the Freshman (2.1 mile) cross country course, I ran over 18 minutes. Two weeks later, I ran 14:51. By the end of that season, I had run a 13:50 or something. Each week I deposited my training pay check into the account, so that I had something to withdraw from on race day (twss).
Over the course of those 4 years I made improvements, but it wasn't until I really started running more miles that I saw truly signifcant benefits. When I transitioned over to triathlon in college, the 85 miles per week I was running dropped to 50, 55, and for the first time in my life, I was living off the interest. I had accrued such fitness that I was immediately competent at riding a bike, the running I was doing felt like a cakewalk and I was still one of the fastest triathletes, and my swimming was...well, it was.
I raced that way for a while. I didn't see much time improvement on the run, largely because I think I was running about as fast as I was going to in general. I rode and swam reasonable amounts, and kept pretty detailed training logs during college. When I shattered my ankle in August 2003, it was back to the drawing board, and once again, training in debt. This ebb and flow continued, and as any athlete can attest, there are times when it's your lungs that can't keep up with your legs, and times your legs can't keep up with your lungs. I began to find that, even though I had this injury, my fitness was still there, and could come back quickly. In other words, the juice was still rolling.
As the second half of the 2000s rolled around, and I moved to Baltimore, I watched as I once again started in debt. I was not in good running shape. I swam 3 times of the span of 3 years. I was getting hammered by the significantly tougher terrain of Baltimore on my bike. But just like that weak freshman in 1995, I kept going. And now I had 10 years of knowledge behind me. How hard can I go and finish this ride? How much can I run today and still be able to do something tomorrow? I've learned exactly what my body has in it for that day, week or month of training. By 2009, I was flush, living off the interest and making a killing. Every day I went out, I felt stronger and better than the day before. When that market crashed, I felt flat broke.
I described last year that when I was able to resume training in June, things came back quicker than I expected, which led to me feeling confident enough to race Arizona. It was weird though - like I was racing off the interest but training in debt. Then I discovered that it's entirely feasible. There are plenty of people I know who are able to race well, training at levels that would indicate they'd race much slower, and that comes from knowing how to get the most out of your body. For me, when I did Luray last August, I had done one or two runs over the distance of the race (10k) and I had only done a handful of "speed" workouts that were done at or just under 6 minute pace. Yet somehow, off the bike, on a rolling course, I managed to average 6:22/mi. Later, in October at the Red Bank Tri, I managed a 29:24 5 miler off the bike. I don't think if I had gone to run 5 miles that day I could have run that fast.
How was this happening? My knee never feels good, never feels fluid. I click and creak and crack whenever I take a step. My knee is sometimes so tight that I can't bend or straighten it at all (not that I have full range of motion with it anymore, anyway). My volume of training is good, my aerobic fitness is excellent, but my power, my speed and my anaerobic capacity are entirely limited. It's not secret that every person has a bottom-line capability, the "worst" they'll do on an given day. I think I had found mine. By setting the right expectations, and being smart, I was squeezing the juice for all it was worth.
And now, here we are in March, just a few weeks away from the beginning of 2011 tri season, and after this particular weekend, I feel good about the outlook. If I were selling futures, I would say that I'll be back to at least where I was in 2009. My body feels broken every day, but it's build Ford (Ironman) tough now, and I know that I have a ton of volume that I can live off of from last year. That's how I was able to do what I did this weekend, without any indication that my body should have allowed me to do it...
Friday - Took advantage of the 80 degree day and rode for 4 hours with OJ. Put in a few real hard sections, and came back feeling good. Ran 9 miles later in the day at a comfortable pace.
Saturday - Led the expedition to Frederick. Talk about living off the interest, Ben came out for what was to be his first group ride and also longest ride ever. As I've explained, Frederick is no joke. And Ben rode extremely well. But when you've been alive as long as he has, you don't just have interest, you've got a fully vested pension and 401k to draw from. Alyssa also rode real well, again using the interest she accrued from last summer and the work she's done this winter to keep the juice rolling. We ran 20 minutes off the bike, where Pat and I pushed the last 5 minutes. Got back to Baltimore, felt wiped but got in the pool for a Super GT Saturday.
Sunday - Knew it was going to be tough today. It's not often that I'll go 3 days in a row on the bike, and this was to be day #4 (rode easy 75min outside on Thursday). After 10 hours in 3 days on the bike, I wasn't sure how my body would go, but in honor of my late homey, Nate Dogg, I was determined to "rock it til the wheels come off." The nice temperatures were gone, and in their stead was cold air and cold, stiff wind. As a result, I waited until later in the day and rode once again with OJ. He defines "keeping the juice rolling" - because I call him Juice and because he was rolling. We departed Meadowbrook and headed north, dropping into Hunt Valley and splicing together a number of rides, hitting some of the nastier climbs in the county (Greenspring, Caves, a 4:14 trip up Bellemore). At just under 4 hours, this marked a 13 hour 4 day bike binge, and an approximate 200 miles.
You can go hard until your body tells you to stop. Then you recover. Then you repeat. That's what makes champions. Most of the time, I just get excited to see what my body is capable of doing. I think that's why we all do it.
For the week, on the strength of the bike volume, I was nearly at 20 hours. Hard to believe that I didn't drop below 20 for most of the 5 months I was training last year. I was going to run Sunday, as with only 3 miles on Saturday my week mileage was 35, but then I thought the better of it. If I was going to run 35-45 minutes just to get over 40 miles, there wouldn't have been much point. My legs were cooked and the riding was the focus of the weekend. The pool was 3 swims at 3k each for a total of 9000m.
Today is all about making deposits; in this case the deposit is the respite of a day of recovery. An easy swim, an easy run. It's a critical time of year now, where I'll start to transition away from slower, easier efforts to a few precise, harder ones. When you begin to introduce racing, plus the harder efforts, your body gets thrown for a loop and you can overdraw your account without knowing it, and then TD Bank will allegedly fix the problem but then they didn't tell you that you had to sign something, and then for some reason your mom is still on the account that you set up when you were like 5 years old and because TD Bank doesn't have a big presence here, they have to mail it to you and then you have to mail it back and then your mom has to go in and sign it, but that's neither here nor there.
Just remember every day that you do something, the juice will keep rolling.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Hammers and Nails
Lance Armstrong is generally pretty good for a sound byte. One-liner here, short quip there. He wasn't always this way, but after a few years Touring around France in the summer, he opened up to the media and has provided some great clips. One of my favorite lines was from last summer's Tour, when he rolled up to the finish line a broken man. He said, "some days you're the hammer, some days you're the nail. I've been the hammer before. Today I was the nail."
Now, of course it's impossible to compare the best day I've ever had to even the worst day Lance has ever had, it wouldn't even be a competition. I also am not trying to say that finishing 2nd place in a race, even if there are just 60 people, is the definition of being "the nail" - but yesterday's race for me was a reality check.
The last time I did a duathlon was in 2002, the LaPlata Duathlon, put on by Brad Jaeger's Triathlantic Association. It was in March. It was cold. It was windy. So it was with a certain sense of deja vu that, 9 years later, I was standing on the start line of a duathlon. In March. In the wind. Temps were pretty chilly. And there, on the sidelines, was Brad Jaeger. The only difference is that it wasn't his race. Oh, and instead of being the flatlands of Southern Maryland, it was the hilly hinterlands of Hampstead, Maryland.
I was not looking forward to many aspects of this race. It was early in the morning - a 7:30am start - on the day that we lose an hour of sleep. Which also means it was pretty darn dark on the way up. It was in Hampstead, which is 45 minutes away. 2.5mi run/14mi bike/2.5mi run, so pretty short. It was chilly, but not cold. What was the appropriate attire for the event? It was also a $95 race. That's hefty.
But, there were some things I was really looking forward to - namely the prize purse for top 3 plus the bike prime for fastest bike split of the day. While I am generally the first to want to be in the most competitive race, against the most competitive people, I'm also not generally in a position to win money. Ever. In fact, I've only ever won money one time, for my race win at the 2002 Terp Trot. It wasn't even real money, it was $75 that could only be used at the businesses on Route 1. So I took my friends to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins and then we went out and I paid the tab at Bentley's. When Alyssa alerted me about the race, I did my best to not tell anyone I felt would jump in the race and do it, potentially leaving me out of the money. I figured I would find out if anyone was going to do this race and so I waited to sign up until just a few days before the event.
I get to the race and sure enough boom - immediately see 4 people I know, including Double K, aka Kevin Kendro. One of the nicest dudes of all time and a really talented guy. I see Woody, who I know from the running circles in Baltimore, and I see this dude whose name we never quite seem to catch, but he runs with us at FHR and is generally pretty quick. Also spot a guy who looks familiar, like maybe I've seen him at the pool or something. So I quickly realize, this race is going to be on.
The field was small, and there was a 5k running simultaneously on the same course. 5k runners were supposed to follow the course, while duathletes were going to have some kind of turnaround at about 1.25 miles. From the whistle, 5 people jumped out front, with two appearing to be in the 5k, Double K, familiar guy and some other dude. If the mile mark was accurate, and I think it was because it was downhill, I came through in 5:36 and had moved up to 3rd. I sat in this position, not wanting to go into the red on this first run. I approached a water stop, and the two women there just watched me go by. Some seconds later, I hear Kevin yell up - apparently, despite no indication of any turnaround, the water stop was it. I correct my error, and quickly catch and re-pass everyone who was now in front of me, but one guy who was definitely in the duathlon continued on the 5k course and we couldn't get him back on track.
I finished the run in 16:13, with an added minute I felt like, maybe more. Kevin was 17 seconds back. I got out onto the bike, wearing my arm warmers, toe warmers and long-fingered gloves. I felt okay at this point, but there were times on the course that it got real cold. Kevin passed me fairly early in the race. I tried to keep him in sight, but soon he was gone. Later in the ride, another guy passed me, and then another. I kept those two in sight and around 38 minutes realized we were almost done. Kevin was a half mile into the run when I passed him on my bike, so I knew he was out of reach. The only thing I could do was run down the two guys in front of me.
I passed them in the first mile, but at the turnaround I saw the guy who had gone farther out of his way on the run, and he was running well. I managed to hold him off and ran it in to finish 2nd. My 2nd run time was 14:28, and the way it was run was a little shorter than the first one, so I figured my estimated minute loss was about right on the first run. Kevin finished two minutes up, probably having ridden more than 2 minutes faster than I did. The guy in third - Marc - had indeed run the entire 5k course, and started the bike two minutes after we did. Great ride for him.
I was pleased with the effort for the day, running two solid runs and putting together an okay bike split. While it was the type of course that, due to its hilly nature, one could have done okay on a road bike, I'm still giving up too much without a time trial bike. This won't cut it for the races coming up. Plus, while my road bike was top-end in 2005, it's now 6 years later and I've ridden the shit out of it. It's coming apart at the seams. I need to definitely have a solution in place by Columbia.
Back in the school - which was, incidently, the site of my first ever (and only) bike race in 2007 - I ate a cookie, drank a Coke and then the pizzas rolled in. 40, by my count, way too many for the number of people. Then they announced the awards and, as 2nd place, earned myself $100. The good news is that it means I only spent $2 on the race (after the Active fees it was over $100). So I felt better about at least getting to race for (basically) free.
In 2009, the last year I raced against Double K, I put some time into him on the bike. This year, he got me. I'm sure he's in very good shape, but, as alluded to in the beginning, I used to be the hammer. I used to be able to show up to any triathlon and put down a very solid bike split. Now I'm on the receiving end. I'm the nail. Some of this may change with a new bike, but I also need to race more and get in more hard efforts. As always, I'm now bound by the limits of my range of motion and my knee's ability to generate power, so I've got to find a way to bring that back. There are now 12 weeks until Columbia, and another 3 to Eagleman. That's a lot of time to find form, and more importantly, to hold it. Additionally, as always with goals, there are some that are more important than others. I never put a place goal for myself at Columbia, because it could be (actually, it is) seriously stacked and I might go faster than I've ever gone and finish in a lower position. Same with Eagleman. My goals are for later this year, and those are what I'm working toward.
For the week, it ended pretty well. A good trainer ride on Thursday for Pat's 30th birthday, and a decent ride on Saturday - so three days (albeit short ones) on the bike; 3 swims (2 weren't great, 1 was okay) and 4 days of running for 41 miles, including my return to the track (Tues) and the race (Sun). Just over 12 hours I think.
Now, of course it's impossible to compare the best day I've ever had to even the worst day Lance has ever had, it wouldn't even be a competition. I also am not trying to say that finishing 2nd place in a race, even if there are just 60 people, is the definition of being "the nail" - but yesterday's race for me was a reality check.
The last time I did a duathlon was in 2002, the LaPlata Duathlon, put on by Brad Jaeger's Triathlantic Association. It was in March. It was cold. It was windy. So it was with a certain sense of deja vu that, 9 years later, I was standing on the start line of a duathlon. In March. In the wind. Temps were pretty chilly. And there, on the sidelines, was Brad Jaeger. The only difference is that it wasn't his race. Oh, and instead of being the flatlands of Southern Maryland, it was the hilly hinterlands of Hampstead, Maryland.
I was not looking forward to many aspects of this race. It was early in the morning - a 7:30am start - on the day that we lose an hour of sleep. Which also means it was pretty darn dark on the way up. It was in Hampstead, which is 45 minutes away. 2.5mi run/14mi bike/2.5mi run, so pretty short. It was chilly, but not cold. What was the appropriate attire for the event? It was also a $95 race. That's hefty.
But, there were some things I was really looking forward to - namely the prize purse for top 3 plus the bike prime for fastest bike split of the day. While I am generally the first to want to be in the most competitive race, against the most competitive people, I'm also not generally in a position to win money. Ever. In fact, I've only ever won money one time, for my race win at the 2002 Terp Trot. It wasn't even real money, it was $75 that could only be used at the businesses on Route 1. So I took my friends to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins and then we went out and I paid the tab at Bentley's. When Alyssa alerted me about the race, I did my best to not tell anyone I felt would jump in the race and do it, potentially leaving me out of the money. I figured I would find out if anyone was going to do this race and so I waited to sign up until just a few days before the event.
I get to the race and sure enough boom - immediately see 4 people I know, including Double K, aka Kevin Kendro. One of the nicest dudes of all time and a really talented guy. I see Woody, who I know from the running circles in Baltimore, and I see this dude whose name we never quite seem to catch, but he runs with us at FHR and is generally pretty quick. Also spot a guy who looks familiar, like maybe I've seen him at the pool or something. So I quickly realize, this race is going to be on.
The field was small, and there was a 5k running simultaneously on the same course. 5k runners were supposed to follow the course, while duathletes were going to have some kind of turnaround at about 1.25 miles. From the whistle, 5 people jumped out front, with two appearing to be in the 5k, Double K, familiar guy and some other dude. If the mile mark was accurate, and I think it was because it was downhill, I came through in 5:36 and had moved up to 3rd. I sat in this position, not wanting to go into the red on this first run. I approached a water stop, and the two women there just watched me go by. Some seconds later, I hear Kevin yell up - apparently, despite no indication of any turnaround, the water stop was it. I correct my error, and quickly catch and re-pass everyone who was now in front of me, but one guy who was definitely in the duathlon continued on the 5k course and we couldn't get him back on track.
I finished the run in 16:13, with an added minute I felt like, maybe more. Kevin was 17 seconds back. I got out onto the bike, wearing my arm warmers, toe warmers and long-fingered gloves. I felt okay at this point, but there were times on the course that it got real cold. Kevin passed me fairly early in the race. I tried to keep him in sight, but soon he was gone. Later in the ride, another guy passed me, and then another. I kept those two in sight and around 38 minutes realized we were almost done. Kevin was a half mile into the run when I passed him on my bike, so I knew he was out of reach. The only thing I could do was run down the two guys in front of me.
I passed them in the first mile, but at the turnaround I saw the guy who had gone farther out of his way on the run, and he was running well. I managed to hold him off and ran it in to finish 2nd. My 2nd run time was 14:28, and the way it was run was a little shorter than the first one, so I figured my estimated minute loss was about right on the first run. Kevin finished two minutes up, probably having ridden more than 2 minutes faster than I did. The guy in third - Marc - had indeed run the entire 5k course, and started the bike two minutes after we did. Great ride for him.
I was pleased with the effort for the day, running two solid runs and putting together an okay bike split. While it was the type of course that, due to its hilly nature, one could have done okay on a road bike, I'm still giving up too much without a time trial bike. This won't cut it for the races coming up. Plus, while my road bike was top-end in 2005, it's now 6 years later and I've ridden the shit out of it. It's coming apart at the seams. I need to definitely have a solution in place by Columbia.
Back in the school - which was, incidently, the site of my first ever (and only) bike race in 2007 - I ate a cookie, drank a Coke and then the pizzas rolled in. 40, by my count, way too many for the number of people. Then they announced the awards and, as 2nd place, earned myself $100. The good news is that it means I only spent $2 on the race (after the Active fees it was over $100). So I felt better about at least getting to race for (basically) free.
In 2009, the last year I raced against Double K, I put some time into him on the bike. This year, he got me. I'm sure he's in very good shape, but, as alluded to in the beginning, I used to be the hammer. I used to be able to show up to any triathlon and put down a very solid bike split. Now I'm on the receiving end. I'm the nail. Some of this may change with a new bike, but I also need to race more and get in more hard efforts. As always, I'm now bound by the limits of my range of motion and my knee's ability to generate power, so I've got to find a way to bring that back. There are now 12 weeks until Columbia, and another 3 to Eagleman. That's a lot of time to find form, and more importantly, to hold it. Additionally, as always with goals, there are some that are more important than others. I never put a place goal for myself at Columbia, because it could be (actually, it is) seriously stacked and I might go faster than I've ever gone and finish in a lower position. Same with Eagleman. My goals are for later this year, and those are what I'm working toward.
For the week, it ended pretty well. A good trainer ride on Thursday for Pat's 30th birthday, and a decent ride on Saturday - so three days (albeit short ones) on the bike; 3 swims (2 weren't great, 1 was okay) and 4 days of running for 41 miles, including my return to the track (Tues) and the race (Sun). Just over 12 hours I think.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
The Game Changed
Nah, the game's the same, it just got fierce
March is a tough month. For the first half, it's still dark. The temperatures fake you out each day; sometimes they're quasi warm, sometimes they're cold. The wind is mean. The only thing that gets me through each and every March is, naturally, the NCAA Tournament. So much basketball you can't even handle it. And there are a few fun events, including Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day (which means Pub Run, and the actual day), and more very quick races. It is the gateway to spring.
I have a severe seasonal mood disorder. I truly struggle to make it through the winter, moreso every year. And a few years ago I began to develop what appeared to be little blisters all over my hands and feet. They show up in the winter, and usually disappear in the summer. I went to a dermatologist, who was almost surprised at what he called "chilblains", and referred to it as a condition present usually in cold, damp countries (like the Netherlands) where people are wearing gloves and, generally, sweating in them - like when they ride bikes. Makes sense then, that I should also suffer from this. I've always had poor circulation, a gift from my cold-blooded mother, and since I began riding more outside in the winter, it just developed. Basically the capillaries in my fingers burst or something, creating a blister-like condition that sometimes cripples my hands as bad as arthritis. I'll live, obviously, it just gets annoying. Winter. I hate it.
But March allows you to get a little excited. I made it out to Frederick for the first time this year on Saturday to ride. OJ and David Lee joined and we had a fun little ride. Conditions weren't the worst I've experienced out there, but they were far from the best. I rode very well for the first 45 miles, and then was not as psyched about the last 10. We faced a headwind as we rode back from Boonsboro to Frederick, through Middletown, and my lack of water bottle cages (seriously, I'm too lazy to put them back on my bike) meant that I was using a (borrowed) water bottle that I stored in my jersey pocket. Which, in turn meant that I didn't have enough water, and I was dehydrated before the ride. My bike is riding like garbage, and, I found out after the ride that somehow I knocked out 3 of the 4 screws in my right cleat. Don't know how I accomplished that.
I feel like this winter's trainer sessions are helping. Until last year I had avoided the trainer like the plague. I relied on getting outside for big rides whenever I could, which usually meant a 70, 80 or 90 miler on a warm-ish weekend day in January or February, followed by a week or two of no riding. This year I've been on a good schedule of riding on Tues/Thurs for 90min, and getting out the last few weekends now that the conditions are getting a little better. When I get outside, 3 hours is the minimum ride time. With ambitious goals (I only call them ambitious because I haven't raced in a while, otherwise they're exactly what I rode two years ago before I got hurt), I know I need to spend time on the bike, and focus on the principles of riding that helped me be successful in the first place.
Running-wise, I've followed the principle of "get out the door." My last four weeks have been (in order) 48, 50, 46 and 45. Generally this is on 4 runs, with one of the weeks running 5 times. I have been dealing with not only the knee issue, but now this foot problem, and I'm just trying to do what I can, when I can. I run on the days I know I'll have people to run with - so Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and one of the weekend days. On these days, I usually get out for 10-12, with Friday being an easy hour, and then I've actually been doing good on the long run tip, getting in 14+ in 9 of the 10 weeks of this year. I'm usually running pretty slow, other than the two races and two workouts on Club Challenge course, haven't done any "workouts" - until tonight.
We are starting our "official" TNT workouts next Tuesday (Strides of March, copyright Dustin Meeker), but I took the opportunity tonight to get up there for a little pre-workout workout. I believe it's the earliest I've done a track workout since college. A good sized group met to do varying numbers of 800s. I haven't felt very quick lately, and I got worked by just about everyone. My splits, with about 1:45 rest, were 2:47, 2:42, 2:43, 2:44. I heard the girls ran 2:44 on their 5th one. I did 4. Then I did 4x200, running 37.6, 36.4, 35.6, 35.6. I remember the days when I was able to run 10 of these in 2:30 or better and get a minute rest.
So, where to go from here? Well, for one, I always take a look at the goals of the year and really try to figure out what I value most. In this case, I have a very tri-heavy year, and most of these races I'll be running more than 10k. I have some of my tried and true favorites (Columbia, Eagleman) and a host of new races to look forward to. It's going to be a long season - the longest tri season I've ever attempted - and I know that my body only has so many efforts in it. I think I need to cut my running mileage a little bit, not that it's even all that high, but I think I need to get away from the 10+ mile runs and move more to a 6-8, and start running a little quicker, adding in some harder efforts. This may mean moving up to a 5th day of running to maintain at least 40mpw, which I don't want to drop below.
On the bike, I plan on heading out to Frederick two of the next 4 weekends. That ride is the truth. If you are having a bad day, it will be one of the worst days you'll ever have. But if you're riding well, you'll feel a confidence like no other. On the weekends in between, perhaps a trip to Columbia, or maybe a pass at the Lineboro ride.
Brennan ran 3 of my 4 runs with me last week, including our 11 mile Friday night run to "the stroll". Friday nights have become a very random run, and that's been helping me also get out the door. We have deviated from our normal routes, so we're only running for time. This run is also extremely easy, so easy that it led to us coining the term "Friday pace" for when we're really running slow. We've come to the conclusion that, for now, at least, we are just glad that we're doing something. When we're ready for harder efforts, we'll know. It's also been nice to explore parts of the city, although some of them are parts I wouldn't recommend exploring. That was the case for our Sunday long run where Ed, Harvey, Tom Stott and I ended up in some less-than-savory parts of Baltimore. In just 2 hours we canvassed all of East Baltimore, including a cemetary, Clifton Park, Lake Montebello, Waverly, Charles Village, Druid Hill Park, Reservoir Hill, Mt. Vernon and again to East, and ultimately Southeast Baltimore. We saw someone getting jumped (10am on a Sunday) on Preston St. We saw kids slinging rocks from the stoops. It was, much like my quote at the beginning of this post, straight out of The Wire.
For today, I'm glad I can do this again. This time last year I was getting ready to go under the knife again, and hadn't run since January, hadn't ridden or swam since early February. So if I look at it like that, I'm way ahead of where I was this time last year. The exciting thing about not knowing what you're doing is exactly that - not knowing what you're doing. You try something and see if it works. See how your body responds, and then make adjustments.
"It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to" ~ Bilbo Baggins
I'm just glad I can still get out the door.
March is a tough month. For the first half, it's still dark. The temperatures fake you out each day; sometimes they're quasi warm, sometimes they're cold. The wind is mean. The only thing that gets me through each and every March is, naturally, the NCAA Tournament. So much basketball you can't even handle it. And there are a few fun events, including Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day (which means Pub Run, and the actual day), and more very quick races. It is the gateway to spring.
I have a severe seasonal mood disorder. I truly struggle to make it through the winter, moreso every year. And a few years ago I began to develop what appeared to be little blisters all over my hands and feet. They show up in the winter, and usually disappear in the summer. I went to a dermatologist, who was almost surprised at what he called "chilblains", and referred to it as a condition present usually in cold, damp countries (like the Netherlands) where people are wearing gloves and, generally, sweating in them - like when they ride bikes. Makes sense then, that I should also suffer from this. I've always had poor circulation, a gift from my cold-blooded mother, and since I began riding more outside in the winter, it just developed. Basically the capillaries in my fingers burst or something, creating a blister-like condition that sometimes cripples my hands as bad as arthritis. I'll live, obviously, it just gets annoying. Winter. I hate it.
But March allows you to get a little excited. I made it out to Frederick for the first time this year on Saturday to ride. OJ and David Lee joined and we had a fun little ride. Conditions weren't the worst I've experienced out there, but they were far from the best. I rode very well for the first 45 miles, and then was not as psyched about the last 10. We faced a headwind as we rode back from Boonsboro to Frederick, through Middletown, and my lack of water bottle cages (seriously, I'm too lazy to put them back on my bike) meant that I was using a (borrowed) water bottle that I stored in my jersey pocket. Which, in turn meant that I didn't have enough water, and I was dehydrated before the ride. My bike is riding like garbage, and, I found out after the ride that somehow I knocked out 3 of the 4 screws in my right cleat. Don't know how I accomplished that.
I feel like this winter's trainer sessions are helping. Until last year I had avoided the trainer like the plague. I relied on getting outside for big rides whenever I could, which usually meant a 70, 80 or 90 miler on a warm-ish weekend day in January or February, followed by a week or two of no riding. This year I've been on a good schedule of riding on Tues/Thurs for 90min, and getting out the last few weekends now that the conditions are getting a little better. When I get outside, 3 hours is the minimum ride time. With ambitious goals (I only call them ambitious because I haven't raced in a while, otherwise they're exactly what I rode two years ago before I got hurt), I know I need to spend time on the bike, and focus on the principles of riding that helped me be successful in the first place.
Running-wise, I've followed the principle of "get out the door." My last four weeks have been (in order) 48, 50, 46 and 45. Generally this is on 4 runs, with one of the weeks running 5 times. I have been dealing with not only the knee issue, but now this foot problem, and I'm just trying to do what I can, when I can. I run on the days I know I'll have people to run with - so Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and one of the weekend days. On these days, I usually get out for 10-12, with Friday being an easy hour, and then I've actually been doing good on the long run tip, getting in 14+ in 9 of the 10 weeks of this year. I'm usually running pretty slow, other than the two races and two workouts on Club Challenge course, haven't done any "workouts" - until tonight.
We are starting our "official" TNT workouts next Tuesday (Strides of March, copyright Dustin Meeker), but I took the opportunity tonight to get up there for a little pre-workout workout. I believe it's the earliest I've done a track workout since college. A good sized group met to do varying numbers of 800s. I haven't felt very quick lately, and I got worked by just about everyone. My splits, with about 1:45 rest, were 2:47, 2:42, 2:43, 2:44. I heard the girls ran 2:44 on their 5th one. I did 4. Then I did 4x200, running 37.6, 36.4, 35.6, 35.6. I remember the days when I was able to run 10 of these in 2:30 or better and get a minute rest.
So, where to go from here? Well, for one, I always take a look at the goals of the year and really try to figure out what I value most. In this case, I have a very tri-heavy year, and most of these races I'll be running more than 10k. I have some of my tried and true favorites (Columbia, Eagleman) and a host of new races to look forward to. It's going to be a long season - the longest tri season I've ever attempted - and I know that my body only has so many efforts in it. I think I need to cut my running mileage a little bit, not that it's even all that high, but I think I need to get away from the 10+ mile runs and move more to a 6-8, and start running a little quicker, adding in some harder efforts. This may mean moving up to a 5th day of running to maintain at least 40mpw, which I don't want to drop below.
On the bike, I plan on heading out to Frederick two of the next 4 weekends. That ride is the truth. If you are having a bad day, it will be one of the worst days you'll ever have. But if you're riding well, you'll feel a confidence like no other. On the weekends in between, perhaps a trip to Columbia, or maybe a pass at the Lineboro ride.
Brennan ran 3 of my 4 runs with me last week, including our 11 mile Friday night run to "the stroll". Friday nights have become a very random run, and that's been helping me also get out the door. We have deviated from our normal routes, so we're only running for time. This run is also extremely easy, so easy that it led to us coining the term "Friday pace" for when we're really running slow. We've come to the conclusion that, for now, at least, we are just glad that we're doing something. When we're ready for harder efforts, we'll know. It's also been nice to explore parts of the city, although some of them are parts I wouldn't recommend exploring. That was the case for our Sunday long run where Ed, Harvey, Tom Stott and I ended up in some less-than-savory parts of Baltimore. In just 2 hours we canvassed all of East Baltimore, including a cemetary, Clifton Park, Lake Montebello, Waverly, Charles Village, Druid Hill Park, Reservoir Hill, Mt. Vernon and again to East, and ultimately Southeast Baltimore. We saw someone getting jumped (10am on a Sunday) on Preston St. We saw kids slinging rocks from the stoops. It was, much like my quote at the beginning of this post, straight out of The Wire.
For today, I'm glad I can do this again. This time last year I was getting ready to go under the knife again, and hadn't run since January, hadn't ridden or swam since early February. So if I look at it like that, I'm way ahead of where I was this time last year. The exciting thing about not knowing what you're doing is exactly that - not knowing what you're doing. You try something and see if it works. See how your body responds, and then make adjustments.
"It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to" ~ Bilbo Baggins
I'm just glad I can still get out the door.
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