Ironman Canada

I'm enjoying a relaxing Sunday morning (post run) and thought I'd check up on our BTCers in the great white north...

Mark Van Akkeren Swim 46:11 (current leader at the 100km bike mark with a ~8 minute lead, shockingly was THIRD out of the water)

Michael Stone Swim 1:11:41

Pam Schuckies Swim 1:44:58

Warren Schuckies Swim 1:04:16

Philip Mazza Swim 1:06:17

Klaus Stadtler Swim 1:22:49

No Water for You!

I got an email today from the organizers of the Mayflower Triathlon that I was going to do next weekend (my brother’s bachelor party has eliminated it as an option). The email was last minute information about the race. Included in this information is the odd little fact that no regular water will be offered during the bike course. Participants will have a choice of Gatorade or Glaceau “Smart Water” which has electrolytes in it.

Maybe I’m just picky, but that wouldn’t fly with me. I don’t train with “Smart Water” (which I usually refer to as “stupid water”, see the movie Idiocracy for reasons why), I train with water and get my electrolytes from other sources such as gels, shot blocks or NUUN. I train with water because I know any race out there is going to have water available and I don’t have to worry about the possibility of being stuck with something new on race day. That’s got to be rule number one of racing, whether it’s running, biking, triathlon, whatever… never, EVER do anything new on race day. I don’t want to have to think about how the addition of extra electrolytes is going to affect my nutrition plan.

I replied via email to the RD and his response was that it tastes the same (regardless of the fact that it ISN’T the same) and that if I feel like I’d need water during the race then I should put it in my special needs bag.
WATER ISN’T A SPECIAL NEED!

If this decision remains in place, there’s no way I’m doing the IDT next year. I don’t want my options on the bike to be sports drink or sports drink.

A Cold and Food

I started feeling a little tickle in my throat early yesterday. I didn’t think much of it but by the end of the evening I was achy, had a sore throat and a headache. No congestion or dripping, just achiness. I opted not to do my swim yesterday evening since I usually feel worse after a swim if I have a cold, but I still got in an easy spin on my trainer just because I felt like I had to exercise, even a little.

On the plus side, I went with Kat and her sister to a great little restaurant called Sherpas that serves Indian and Nepali food. Great food, reasonable prices, nice size servings… I’ll definitely head back there again soon. I had the salmon tiikalla or something like that, I forget the name, but it was absolutely delicious.

What does it take to get your license as an architect?

This is a question that many of us, when we first enter school to become architects, really have little or no grasp of the true answer. For some of the people reading (assuming anyone is reading) what this entails may be painfully familiar. For the rest of the universe, I’ll lay out what exactly is involved to get your license as an architect.
1. A degree from an NAAB (National Architectural Accrediting Board) accredited school.
2. Completion of the IDP (Intern Development Program)
3. Passing grades on the 7 sections of the ARE (Architect Registration Exam)
There are some exceptions to these rules depending on the state you are getting your license in or when you first got your license, but those are the three basic criteria for a new architect in most states today. But what do they mean?

*Please note that this is my understanding of the rules as they currently exist. If you, dear reader, see something that might be off, please let me know, I would like my information to be as accurate as possible.

Getting an NAAB degree (http://www.naab.org/)
The NAAB certifies schools and programs as meeting certain standards for architectural education in order to grant what is considered a professional degree. While the NAAB grants accreditation to both undergraduate and graduate programs, there has been a shift putting preference on graduate degrees and the NAAB is no longer accepting undergraduate programs for consideration. A full list of schools accredited by the NAAB (140 total) can be found here (http://www.naab.org/schools/search.aspx?searchType=A).

If you don’t have a degree (B.Arch or M.Arch) from a NAAB professionally certified program, getting your license will be very, very difficult. In many places, it will be impossible.

My own education began at Massachusetts College of Art (www.massart.edu). After four years at MassArt I graduated with a BFA in Environmental Design with a concentration in Architectural Design. While this education gave me a very sound foundation in multiple facets of architectural design (design, structures, systems design, history, etc.) it was unaccredited by the NAAB. So while I could go and work for a firm, I could not get my license. With the NAAB’s move towards emphasizing graduate education, this was not something I saw as a problem or deterrent, I had always intended to get my Masters degree.
After MassArt, I attended the University of Cincinnati for three years and graduated with my M.Arch degree this past June.
One thing I should mention, as I was finishing up my undergraduate degree at MassArt, the department heads were beginning the long process of developing a curriculum for establishing an NAAB certified graduate program. They were approved for candidacy in January 2007 and will begin classes this September. I couldn’t be happier for the school and the fantastic staff who work there, they had a great program going when I was there and from what I’ve seen of the new program, it’s going to be really fantastic.

The Intern Development Program (IDP)
49 American jurisdictions currently require IDP participation for licensure. The only exceptions are Arizona, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Unless you live in one of those three jurisdictions, you will have to complete IDP in order to achieve initial licensure.
IDP is the program established by NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Confused by the acronyms yet?) for tracking professional development after school. Basically, you track your time spent working in 16 sub-disciplines within architectural practice and must meet particular minimums in each section.
Each hour of work is valued as 1/8th of a Unit with no section requiring any less than 10 units (80 hours) for registration.
Just doing the minimum for each section won’t get you through the program though. The sum of the 16 minimums is 350 units (2800 hours) but IDP requires 700 total units. Some of those additional units have to be earned within certain groups (i.e. group A requires 350 units on its own, but only dictates where 275 of them must come from, the rest can be anywhere in the 10 sections in the A group) while others can come from anywhere at all. Confused yet? I certainly was at first. This chart (http://www.ncarb.org/IDP/idptraining.html) does a good job of explaining how the hours have to be divided up. There is a lot of ‘free time’, 235 units worth, that can be earned anywhere from developing construction documents to volunteer hours.
In order to get those units though, you have to be working under a licensed architect in good standing, you must have completed your architectural education to a certain minimum level. From the IDP website:
three years in an NAAB- or CACB-accredited professional degree program.
the third year of a four-year pre-professional degree program in architecture accepted for direct entry to a two-year NAAB-accredited professional master's degree program;
one year in an NAAB- or CACB-accredited Master of Architecture degree program for interns with undergraduate degrees in another discipline;
96 semester credit hours as evaluated by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) in accordance with NCARB's Education Requirement, of which no more than 60 hours can be in the general education subject area.
Prior to meeting the above criteria, any work done in an architectural office will not count towards IDP.
Once you do meet the criteria though, you have to begin documenting your progress and believe me, it’s as much fun as it sounds like it is!
Due to the Cooperative Education component of my graduate program, I was able to graduate with approximately 210 training units completed. That’s 30% of my IDP units already completed or just under a year’s worth of work, leaving me with 490 units (~1.9 years) to complete. Most of my completed hours are in SD, DD and CD’s… not surprising for a young architect who is going to spend most of his time drafting.

Taking the ARE
The ARE was recently updated from version 3.1 to version 4.0. It used to be that ‘back in the day’ you went into a testing center for 3 straight days of testing, including a day long hand drafted design portion. The ARE exam has been described by some as more rigorous than the bar or medical licensure. Why? Well, three solid days of testing is a pretty good reason. Because if you screw up as an architect, then someone is going to end up seeking out a professional who has taken one of those other two exams. An architect’s first responsibility is to the health, safety and welfare of the people who use the spaces we design. It’s not to our client, not to our design aesthetic or some complex conceptual/mathematical exploration (Yes, I’m thinking of you Mister Eisenman)… health, safety and welfare of the users. This is what we are tested on, this is our first duty. If we fail in that, then we fail as architects.
The ARE today is a 7 part exam with each section able to be taken separately. It’s administered on a computer, including the design portion which is done on a custom CAD program. There are no points for style, aesthetics or conceptual innovation, which isn’t to say such things aren’t important, simply that they take a back seat to our first responsibilities as architects. New to ARE 4.0 are ‘design vignettes’ for each section of the exam, so that your design skills are tested within each portion of the exam.
Some of the sections of the ARE get into details that many architects will never use. Much of the structural information is far more detailed than any calculation that I will ever have to perform at the firm I currently work for, but that’s because we have engineers doing that work, along with other sub-consultants. The ARE tests to show that you would be prepared to work as a sole practitioner (i.e. a one-person office) with minimal support from sub-consultants.
Some jurisdictions now allow you to take portions of the ARE once you have accumulated enough hours in particular sections of IDP, but this is the exception rather than the rule. In most states you have to complete the entire IDP program before taking any portion of the ARE although it was recently decided to make this rule flexible, dependant on the decision of individual states, so we can expect more states to soon not require this.

5430 Long Course - The Rematch

Last year I did my first half-Ironman race at the 5430 Long Course. To sum up the race report, I finished in 7:21:55, well off my goal as a result of a combination of factors, not knowing what to accurately set for a goal, going a little too hard on the bike and then making that worse by getting off my run plan and pushing WAY too hard on the first loop of the run. I was in pretty rough shape after the race.

I vowed that this year would be different.

It certainly was.

Pre-Race:

To start with, I was up at 4:30 am to head to the race. Transition was scheduled to open at 5 and I wanted to get there fairly early. I wasn't worried about sitting in traffic at the Res since I had a VIP pass... Well, ok, I didn't, but I was biking to the race (yeah, I'm Hardcore), which meant that instead of sitting in a line of cars, I cruised right on past all of them into the main gate of the Res and right up to body marking. Take THAT SUV drivers!

I got body marked, got my chip and headed into transition to set up. I managed to get a spot that I knew I could pick out well coming out of the swim without my glasses (an important feature). I hit the port-o-john, walked the transition routes, hit the p-o-j again, triple checked my set-up and headed over to the BTC tent to chill. I hung out with Dieter, Klaus, Richard, Alex, John and a few others, then at about 6:55, headed down to the beach for my wave.

The Swim:

There isn't a whole ton to say about the swim. Last year I did the breaststroke the whole way. This year, I actually knew how to swim freestyle. The swim is something that I feel like you kind of just 'do'. Or at least that's how I approach it. There's no scenery, there isn't a lot of interesting interaction with other athletes aside from the occasional kick or someone trying to swim over you and I don't have the sensitivity of effort that I do on the bike or run.

I did get off course a couple times, which was a little frustrating, but that's just part of the race.

I felt strong at the finish and got out in just under 45 minutes, just a hair faster than last year. more importantly, I got out of the water feeling fresher. The breast stroke involves a lot of kicking and isn't entirely kind to your knees because of the lateral torque involved. Swimming freestyle in my wetsuit, I barely had to kick at all.

T: 46:28 (the timing mat is at the entrance to transition, not the exit from water) / 2007 T: 47:11

Transition 1:

T1 was fast and easy. Strip the wetsuit… Helmet… glasses… bike shoes… go! My time was actually top 10 among my age group (Huzzah!) but really, it was just a transition. Still, small victories.

T: 1:22 / 2007 T:

The Bike:

It felt really good to get out on the bike. There was nice cloud cover for the entire ride, the BTC was manning Aid Station 1/4 and there were women in bikinis at Aid Station 3/6. I had been having trouble with my front dérailleur, basically, it didn't work, for most of the time since I had been in Colorado so I was stuck in the small chainring and did a LOT of high cadence spinning and even just outright coasting on the downhills. I finally got this fixed (really fixed) earlier in the week. After talking with Mark the night before, we agreed that I wouldn't use the larger ring at all unless I simply couldn't keep up in the small ring. I knew straight away that there were places this would happen, and where they were. When 36 turns north there's a big downhill that I had to coast previously, as well as some rollers later on 36, the big St Vrain downhill and one or two rollers heading south on 75.

As far as nutrition, I was sticking with Cliff Blocks on the bike and was taking mostly water from the aid stations. I started out with two bottles of water with NUUN as well.

So I felt good starting the bike. I got passed a lot, but I knew that was going to happen. I was in a fast wave, I'm not particularly fast myself and I intended to take it easy on my first loop and felt confident I would catch some of the people passing me on the next loop or the run. I got to the BTC aid station and sure enough, a swarthy crew of pirates was manning it. I hit the hockey net with my empty water bottle (GOOOOOAAL!) and picked up a new one from Meg and was on my way. The rest of 36 was pretty uneventful, aside from getting passed by pros as if I was standing still. St Vrain is one of my favorite parts of the course, you can just go bombing down the first hill and the momentum carries pretty well the rest of the way. The only catch is there is now a spur with a U-turn on 65th that really slows you down. Fortunately, no one seemed to be trying to take that turn too fast and getting through was uneventful. The rest of the loop was pretty uneventful aside from having to answer a call of nature which I was unsure how to address. Ultimately I decided not to stop and instead be grateful for the holes in the soles of my cycling shoes and my spare bottle of water.

When I passed the Res Road, which marked the end of loop 1, I checked my watch, did some quick math and realized I was on target for a 3:15 bike, which was what I had been hoping for. Per Mark's instructions I picked up the pace slightly for the second loop. Once again the BTCers were a great uplift, though the girls in bikinis at bike aid 3 might have had them beat (sorry mateys!). I was checking my watch every 5 miles and getting splits and comparing them to what I thought I recalled from the first loop and they seemed pretty dead on, if not a little faster, which was what I had been hoping for. Down 75th and the Diagonal I played leapfrog with another guy from my age group, I think we were both intent on beating each other, but we also were trying to stay within our race and not burn ourselves out to do it. I ended up passing him for good on Reservoir Road and dismounted at the line feeling really good, getting a little cheer from Andrew Halperin at the line.

Overall I was really pleased with the ride and felt great coming into transition, almost exactly 4 hours into the race.

T: 3:12:30 Avg Spd: 17.5 mph / 2007 T: 3:28:55 Avg Spd: 16 mph

Transition 2:

Racked the bike, kicked off the bike shoes, pulled on socks and sneakers, then ran out with my hat, bib and gels in my hand. I hesitated a bit before I left thinking "Is that everything?" but it was so off I went. Last year I had made an extended pit stop in the p-o-j during T2, but it wasn't necessary this year.

T: 2:10 / 2007 T: 4:30

The Run:

I started out on the run and thought "Ok, this is it. This is where the race starts. This is where I lost my head last year and blew my race, time to be honest with yourself." I spent the first hundred yards or so just trying to get a genuine assessment of how I felt. I felt great coming off the bike, but I felt great coming off the bike last year so that didn't necessarily mean anything. My legs were good, as they were last year. I wasn't breathing too hard and I didn't feel like my heart was pounding or racing which was a big change. In short, I felt exactly like I would hope to feel at this point in the race.

I got Mr Bleep Bleep up and running and went over my plan in my head. First loop, nice and easy, don't do anything stupid like push too hard on the hills, but don't walk them either, I knew from experience that none of them were really steep. Just get through it and conserve energy for the second loop which should be a little bit faster. Second lop, reassess how I feel. Ideally I'd feel like I could pick it up a little bit.

I had a couple packets of gel and one of sport beans with me. The plan was to alternate taking a gel and water or a cup of Gatorade at each mile marker. I bonked hard last year and didn't want to do that again.

I have to take a minute to give some props to Mark and Mr Bleep Bleep right here. This little gadget drives me bonkers, but it's almost impossible to allow yourself to stop and walk at any point with the little bugger beeping at you incessantly. I wasn't always able to stay on rhythm, but it definitely helped me keep going.

So, the run. I settled into a groove pretty easily and the first few miles really flew by. I got passed by my leapfrog buddy from the bike around mile 3 and ended up not seeing him again. I picked up a sponge from the third or fourth aid station, stuck it under my hat and there it stayed for the whole run. I also returned to my trick from last year of taking the ice from my water or Gatorade and sticking it in the pockets on my back. That felt SO good…

Before I knew it, the first lap was almost done. I passed the BTC tent and while I didn't see anyone at first, I got a cheer from Meg as I was starting to pull away. When I hit the halfway point I checked my watch. I was on pace for a 2:20 run. I took some Gatorade and water at the aid station, shook myself out a bit and gave myself a once over. I still felt really good, the sun had gone in and out a few times, but it was mostly overcast, realistically, I felt as good as I could have hoped just over 5 hours into a half IM. I was tempted to up the pace just a little bit right then, but decided to hold off. I didn't want to blow the race now. Instead I told myself to wait until mile 8, then make a call.

When I got to mile 8, I felt like I was still putting in the same amount of effort, but my mile splits were slowing slightly. Do I push it to

Somewhere around mile 9 my knees started to ache. There was no twinge or pain, just a persistent dull ache, like my knees were trying to say "Hey, remember us? We'd appreciate it if you stopped soon." My muscles were certainly getting tired, but I thought back to a year ago and how I felt at the same point then. I remembered how hot, tired and completely worn down I felt, then thought about how I felt where I was now and was reinvigorated. I was going to crush my '07 run. Crush.

When I hit mile 10 I thought "Just 5k to go. It's a stroke n Stride!" I picked up the pace a little bit more.

When I reached the turnaround point for the SnS run I grinned to myself and turned off Mr Bleep Bleep and picked up the pace again, knowing I had just over a mile and a half to go.

As I got closer, the finish line area in sight, I saw I had 2 minutes until I hit 2:20 for the run. "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" I took off. I started passing other racers and spectators cheered, "Way to finish strong!" I pounded toward the chute, feeling nothing, thinking nothing.

With the chute near, I took one last peak at my watch, wondering how much time I had… Fifteen seconds to get across the line! I didn't consider picking up the pace, I didn't think about it for half a second, it simply happened and I took off like a shot… gotta get there… gotta get there… I flew around the last corner (or at least I felt like it) heard "Here comes Brendan Dillon of Cincinnati with a strong finish!" and dashed up the hill and across the line, almost knocking over the little kids handing out water and finisher's medals.

I looked down at my watch, 2:20:09! I was so close! I wanted those 9 seconds dammit! After 6 hours 22 minutes and 55 seconds and 70.3 miles, I wanted those 9 seconds!

As it turns out, it wasn't really 9 seconds. My official run time was 2:20:27. I had forgotten that I had started my watch a while after I crossed the starting mat. Oops. First loop was done in 1:10:20 so second loop was 1:10:07... just barely a negative split.

T: 2:20:27 10:44 pace / 2007 T: 2:59:07 13:40 pace

Post Race:

My final time was 6:22:55, which means I take just a hair under an hour off my time of 7:21:50 from the previous year. And to say I felt better at the finish would be a vast understatement. I always feel a little bit lost at the finish to long races, even this year at the Flying Pig half-marathon and I felt the same after the 5430 this year "What should I do now?" I got my 'medal' a pretty cool keychain/bottle opener that combined with the pint glass from last year has convinced me Barry is trying to turn us all into drunks. Then I wandered around for a couple minutes, drinking water and Gatorade and trying to decide what to do next. I ended up heading to the rest room for a pit stop then ducked my head under the shower to get the salt off my face.

Kat was working the massage tent so I swung by and said 'Hello', grabbed some food and headed over to the BTC tent for some shade and a comfy chair. Dieter and a few others were in residence and congratulated me on taking almost an hour off of last year's time. While there were one or two moments as I ate when I wondered if my food might come back up, for the most part I felt really good considering what I had just done.

After relaxing a bit, I headed to the massage tent for a massage from Kat which felt REALLY good. Once that was finished, I was pretty much ready to go. I headed over to the transition area, packed up my stuff and cruised home on my bike (yup, I'm Hardcore).

Home involved an ice bath, chocolate milk (the ultimate recovery drink), a little unpacking, some more water, Gatorade and food then passing out on the couch cuddled up with a bag of chocolate chip cookies (I only had 3, I swear!)

Recovery:
Things are going well. The achiness in my knees ended with the race and there was never anything I'd describe as 'pain'. Monday my legs were sore and tired and walking around, while not difficult, was definitely something I thought twice about. Tuesday was a lot better, the soreness was gone but they were still tired and today, I feel great. Mark has had me doing short recovery swims and spin sessions on the bike, and I feel today like I could tackle a short run.

Final Assessment:

So how do I think I did? I think given the training I did and having the big interruption I did with grad school, I couldn't have raced much better than I did on Sunday. Could I have raced 27 seconds or a minute five faster? Maybe, but I think I executed the plan and the race about as well as I could have. I still have a lot of things to work on, but looking back, I know I've come a very, very long way since last year.
I look forward to taking off another hour next year ;-)

Random Thoughts

Two days until the race and I feel pretty good. I’m sleeping well, no muscle or joint achiness or tenderness and I’m pretty relaxed about the race. I am certainly eager to start and to see how I do, but it’s more like a child’s “I wonder what’s inside that present?” than a freaking out “Oh god, how am I going to do???”

If you were born with webbed fingers, would that be an unfair advantage in the swim of a triathlon? At a swim meet? Could you still place/medal? What about gills? Flippers for feet? What if you were Aquaman? Or the Flash?

The Beijing Olympics start today. I LOVE the Olympics, it’s one of the great athletic treats. This year however, I won’t be watching the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony or anything in between. Not triathlon, the marathon, Michael Phelps or USA Basketball. I’ll even be avoiding stories about them. To give the hosting honors for the Olympics to a nation as oppressive as China is nothing short of abominable. This isn’t about politics, it’s about basic human rights and that China get’s most favored nation status while Cuba, which is certainly no worse than China, is embargoed, tells you exactly where the government’s real priorities are.

Looks like the forecast for race day is going to have a high in the low to mid 80’s. To some people, this may seem hot. For us here in Boulder, after more than 3 weeks of 90+ degree weather and after finishing last year’s race in 100 degree heat, it’s going to be positively chilly. I might need to pack my windbreaker ;-)

There are a few things that are guaranteed to elicit expressions of admiration from fellow triathletes during a group ride. A new bike is one, a Kona slot is another. Also on the list apparently is telling your ride mates you’re dating a massage therapist (or massage therapy student).

I had a conversation with Mark about “What next” the other day. I think I’m going to sign up for a sprint in September (I forget which) and maybe do the Boulder Backroads half marathon. Beyond that I said I’m probably done racing for the year and just wanted to focus on getting faster (he liked hearing that). I also said I’d like to do some 1 on 1 swim sessions to try and make some headway into cleaning up my stroke. He liked that suggestion even more (not surprising, I suspect he’s half-porpoise). We also talked very fleetingly about races for next year, including my thoughts on IMAZ (which I’m signed up to volunteer at this year) v. The IDT @ Plymouth Rock.

Stroke n Stride

After last week's Stroke n Stride I wrote "Next time, I’m breaking 25:00 on the run." Damn right. I didn't break it by much, but 24:54 is definitely sub-25. It's also a new SnS 5k PR (formerly 25:05 after a 750) and took almost a minute off my previous best after a 1500 (25:45). My swim wasn't quite as good as last week's but it seemed like there was a LOT of wake-related chop on the water. I also got well off course a couple times.
Still, I felt good coming out of the water and just as I went to stand up,wham!, charlie horse in my right calf. Not happy. I limped a bit coming out of the water and fortunately it seemed to loosen up really fast. I took my time in transition (0:21 slower than last week) though largely because I had trouble getting my wetsuit off, and booked it out onto the run with good old Mr Bleep Bleep.

Side Story: a couple weeks ago, mark had a bunch of his athletes meet him at a trail to go over running form and cadence. I think I mentioned it briefly here, but I'm pretty sure I didn't mention Mr Bleep Bleep. Mr Bleep Bleep is what I call the tempo trainer that Mark has had us use for cadence (180 strides per minute). Mark called it Mr Beep Beep, but when you've got this thing beeping at you 3 times a second, every second... you eventually end up cursing it. Especially if you carry it on a long run. It certainly helps with the cadence, but it really drives you batty.

So I hit the run and was able to find a comfortable stride and pace pretty quickly. I got the first mile done in 8:08 and the second in 8:09. The last mile was brutal, especially the little uphill from the levee to the boats, ugh, and as the finish line came in sight, I saw I had 0:35 to get there under my 25:00 goal. my spirits dipped a bit briefly as I figured I wasn't going to be able to cross the needed distance in 35 seconds... but then i told myself "Well, I sure as hell won't make it if I don't try!" grit my teeth and went for it. I didn't think I was going to make it as I approached the line, but sometimes that whole feeling of time slowing down can actually work in your favor and when I checked my watch, sure enough, sub 25.

My overall time was 1:02:54 and I'd love to shave those 3 minutes off to get under an hour for the whole race, but that's a lot of time to trim with just one race left and it being the Thursday before the 5430 Long Course. I don't know what Mark will have me doing that day, but I have a suspicion I won't be trying to close the gap on a 1 hour SnS.