That Was Such an Epic Fail

Upset.  Embarrassed.  Annoyed.  Frustrated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Infinite Sadness

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Morning After

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sun Also Rises

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Traveling Somewhere

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

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

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

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

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

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

Save Maryland Athletics!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#saveumdxcandtrack

We've Only Just Begun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Vision in Neon Yellow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Sexy and I Know It

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

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

My initial options were:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Survival of the Shawangunks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Our Own

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

Why did I sign up for a late November race?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"ryan mcgrath asshole"

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

She's Gone From Suck to Blow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isn't it Ironic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 Whole Years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Swim - 31:30, 4th

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

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

T1 - 2:37

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

Bike - 2:30:42, 2nd

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

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

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

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

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

T2 - 1:18

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

Run - 1:31:03, 4th

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

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

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

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

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

187 on a motherfu**ing race

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

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

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

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

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

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