The leader of the pack...

The funny thing about leading a No-Drop bike ride, is you lead from the back. You ride towards the back of the pack to make sure no one gets dropped. I led my first group ride today. It was fine, though a smallish group since there is a triathlon this morning in Loveland.

For me, it was a very successful ride, I felt good the entire time, didn't ride too hard and ad plenty of energy when it was all over.

I'll have the first time IM info up soon...

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Another day, another swim

Another 1500+m in the pool...
I need to start going to the pool Every. Single. Day. and work on those drills. Every day. I got better at running when i first started out by going almost daily (it's tougher on the joints) so that's what I ought to do with my swimming. Frequency and repetition. I read or heard that somewhere, who knows where exactly. Some voice in the back of my head is saying Coach Mike Ricci, so Coach Mike Ricci is going to get the credit. For some reason i like saying Coach Mike Ricci more than Coach mike, or Coach Ricci or Mike or whatever. Kind of like how someone who kills a president gets their full name immortalized...
Ok, that was kind of a weird tangent...

Tomorrow I'm leading the group ride for the BTC. I got an under-the-seat bag for my repair kit so I can carry two full hydration bottles. I'll toss both in the freezer tonight so they'll be cold for the whole ride (I hope).

I'll also post a summary tomorrow of the first time IM feedback I've gotten. Exciting times!

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Holy. Cow.

Two Minutes.  I took another two minutes (and 8 seconds) off my time from last week.
S&S 1: 49:01 S: 18:52 T: 3:45 R: 26:25
S&S 2: 45:38 S: 18:02 T: 1:55 R: 25:42
S&S 3: 43:30 S: 16:43 T: 1:44 R: 25:05

I finally got the two minutes off my swim time from the first week (though I was shocked to see it) and the full two minutes off my transition time from the first week but the first week, i was very pleased with my run time.  When i took almost a full minute off that I was surprised, but pleased, that I've taken even more time off that is even better. I have to wonder how much better I can get it...
next week, the 1500!

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Been a couple days...

I did a swim workout Monday but it didn’t go quite
as I would have liked.  I had a little stiffness in my knee after about
1800m and when it didn’t loosen up I stopped after 2000m. That’s
one major drawback of the breast stroke, the kick is tough on your knees, and
as a runner I don’t need the added stress on that particular joint. Just
one more reason to get freestyle figured out.

On the plus side though, it was a strong, steady swim for
the most part. I want to start working more on the freestyle drills, but with
the 54430 coming up in less than seven weeks, I don’t have a ton of extra
time in my training schedule. It may end up becoming something I work on more
after the 5430 is done. Admitting that is difficult because a part of me was
hoping I could pick up freestyle well enough and quickly enough to incorporate
some of it into my swim, but I really ought to know better than to get that far
ahead of myself.

Speaking of getting ahead of myself, I’ve started asking
around on Triscoop and on the BTC board about what Ironman folks would
recommend for a first time IM event. I’ve only gotten two replies so far
but they’ve been helpful. Once I get some more meat to the responses I’ll
share the replies and work on making a decision.

I’m not going to TNT tuesday. It’s a ~10 mile
ride each way to the site tonight and there is supposed to be thundershowers
all evening. No thanks. I did a run near home instead.

Wednesday I got a Bike/Swim brick in and I have to say it was one of the best bike workouts I've had. I stuck with the HR monitor readings, kept it in Zone 2 (121-131 for me) and it felt real good. The swim I did mostly drills with a little dash of frustration tossed in.

Stroke & Stride #3 tonight... the swim felt good, the transition seemed smooth and I pushed the run nicely. Still waiting on my official times but I think I beat last week's overall time by as much as a minute... mostly as a result of a better run (I think), though I think i cut some time off my transition and hpe to have pushed my swim under 18:00 flat.
To recap my past results...
S&S 1: 49:01 S: 18:52 T: 3:45 R: 26:25
S&S 2: 45:38 S: 18:02 T: 1:55 R: 25:42

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Whitewater Rafting & Tough Sunday Workout

Ever have one of those days where it feels like some force
is conspiring to keep you from being productive? That’s my day today.

It was an interesting and very busy weekend. A group of us
from work went whitewater rafting and in spite of my initial objections and
trepidations, I had a lot of fun. It was a 3 hour tour aboard the S.S. Minnow
down the Cache la Poudre river.  I am, of
course, kidding about the S.S. Minnow. We rode with and our guide was Kelly, who
happened to be a fellow marathoner (and cute enough that it seemed everyone in
the boat was trying to impress her)!

None of us ended up swimming but we all got nicely soaked by
the 54 degree water. It felt pretty good since it was in the 90’s that
day.

Sunday was a brute of a day. I had a 30’/120’/30’
swim/bike/run workout scheduled. The swim went off fine and I got 1200m in feeling
very strong. That would put me on pace for a 48’ swim in the 5430, which
is actually a slightly slower pace than my open water swims for the Stroke
& Stride have been. The ride, on the other hand, was really, really tough.
I decided to do a loop of the 5430 Long Course and it took about 20 minutes to
get there from my starting point. Once I did, the storm that had been gathering
over the mountains finally decided to break. There were two or three flashes of
lightning and a little bit of rain (my only thought connected to either of them
was that I hoped my running shoes didn’t get wet as I had left them out
in the open back at home). The problem was the wind. I couldn’t get into
the aerobars during the first 10-12 miles of the course because the wind was
coming so hard from my left I was afraid I’d be blown over or, even
worse, overcompensate for the wind and end up getting hit by a car. Once I
turned onto St. Vrain I was able to drop down and put out some easy speed for a
while, but then once I turned onto 75^th and started going south, it
got worse again. Much worse.

How bad is much worse? How about what must have been a 40mph
headwind that made it tough to top even 10mph on the downhills? It didn’t
help that much of that portion of the ride is a slight (or worse) uphill but my
pace dropped off drastically and the wind really gave me a beating. Still, I
eventually finished the ride and looking back later I did the long course loop
in ~108’, which I should definitely be able to improve on in better
weather conditions so a 3:30 bike doesn’t seem unreasonable.

The 30’ run was a nightmare. I decided, foolishly, to
do the hill by my house. It’s a steady climb of ~430ft over just under a
mile (.8 miles I believe). It was hot, I was tired and I only got in two miles
in just under the allotted 30 minutes but by then I didn’t care. I had
overexerted myself on the bike and run out of fluid (stupid mistake) and was
then foolish enough to throw myself at that &@#% hill, which I won’t
face anything like that in the 5430.

Tonight I have a long swim ahead of me (just shy of 3000m)
and I need to work in the freestyle drills Mike Ricci laid out for me. I’ll
wait until 6:30 or 7:00 to head out for it so the swim coaches will be done and
I’ll get back before my roommate gets home from her flight.

Peace Out!

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Sleep and Stroke and Stride #2!

It’s been a looooooooong week.
First of all, let me tell you a little something about sleep. Sleep is good. Sleep is very good. Sleep is one of those things that if you don’t get enough of, it’s going to screw up every aspect of your training. As you can guess, I didn’t get enough sleep this week, the result of which is that I was cranky, tired and stressed. I didn’t train enough and when I did train it wasn’t quality training, it was more like “I have to spend 30 minutes on the bike so here’s your 30 minutes on the bike.” Not good. It also effected my diet. I’ve been bringing lunch and snacks to work for a while but because I didn’t have time to get my food ready in the morning, or have breakfast, because my body was trying to catch up on sleep, I ended up eating more junk at work. I was also drinking more junky soda to try to get caffeine and ‘energy’ in order to wake myself up.
These are all very bad things.
When I was in classes I could get away with less sleep since I was doing much less physically. Not now. Now I need at least 7 quality hours of sleep, preferably 8 (or more!). I need my healthy lunch, my yogurt (blech) and other healthy snacks.
I did my second Stroke and Stride last night. I went in hoping to cut off 4 minutes from my previous time (two minutes from the swim and two minutes from the transition. I didn’t quite meet those goals, but I’m pretty happy with what I got.
The Swim: - 18:02 Much better. I still had one or two patches where I lost or struggled with my stroke but overall it was much, much better. I only took 50 seconds off my time but I came out of the water much more comfortably and feeling much more confident.
The Transition: - 1:55 I didn’t quite take a full two minutes off my transition, but I got it under 2:00 and if I hadn’t had some trouble with my bib, I’d have done even better. I knew exactly where I was going when I came out of the water and what I was going to do in what order (I reviewed it mentally the last 100m of the swim). I left the transition feeling great for the run.
The Run: - 25:42 I was very pleased with my run last week and wasn’t worried about trying to take any time off of last week’s mark. However, I think my confidence from the swim and from the fast transition really helped me out and I managed to knock 0:43 off my run time, good for an 8:17 pace. It was a hot run and I might have done a little better if I had a singlet instead of running in my bike jersey, but I don’t really mind as I’m trying to get used to running in the bike jersey more, though that may be something I should reconsider. I saw a lot of people I knew on the run, Kevin the BTC president, Meg whom I’ve been talking to all week and finally met last night, as well as several other BTCers, Mike, Klaus and Chris as well as Mike Ricci. I finished very strong, with some encouragement from Kevin and when I approached the finish line I knew I had come close to my goal.
There was Subway and drinks (water and soda) after the race finish and I hung out with Meg and some of the other BTCers. Joining the BTC is the single best decision I’ve made since I came out here. They’re really great people and I’ve learned a lot from them.
I finished 39th out of 100 people in the 750M swim/5k run. I’m going to do one more week of the 750m and then bump it up to 1500m for the rest of the series.
I’ve got a long swim tonight (for a total close to 4000m). Saturday is my ‘off’ day though I’m going white water rafting, then Sunday I have a 30’/120’/30’ warm-up tri. Then it’s 7 weeks to the 5430!

Catching my breath

I can't say it hasn't been a busy week.

First of all, i had the Stroke N Stride Thursday night. 750M swim and a 5k run... THAT was an interesting experience. There were about 300 people and I had some minor trouble registering (summary: I'm an idiot). We headed down to the beach on Boulder Reservoir and the 1500m swim group started off at 0600. Five minutes later, we were plunging into the cool water.

There were three factors that seemed like they could be major issues in this first swim.

The first is the 'Open' part of the open water swim. Some people, being very accustomed to pools, get kind of freaked out or uncomfortable (or bored without all the laps) swimming in open water. I didn't think this would be a problem since I grew up swimming in lakes and ponds and I don't think it was an issue.

The second possible issue is the so-called 'washing machine' or 'blender' of swimming in a large group. This was one I was fairly concerned about, but I started at the back of the group and I was very slow, so it ended up being a pretty minor factor.

The third thing I saw as a potential issue was the cold water. Again, I grew up swimming in cold ponds and lakes, but I think of any of the three factors was a real issue, it was probably this one. I think a combination of the cold and excitement made it very difficult for me to get a rhythm down for probably the first 500m. I couldn't get my breathing or stroke down until I rounded the second buoy and headed back for the beach. My breathing got straightened out, my nerves calmed and the rest of the swim was easy. Still slow, but not as slow as the first part of the swim.

Once I was out of the water, the transition was pretty quick, although it would have been quicker if I had brought a proper towel and didn't need to put a band-aid on my right heel.

The run was great. It took a little while for my legs to warm up, but I felt like I put out a good, consistently hard effort and i was very pleased with it.

The Numbers

I really had no idea what my swim time was or my transition but now I have the official numbers.

Swim 18:52 - Considering the trouble I had for most of the swim, no complaints at all. I know I can improve. I think i can get this to about 17:00 doing the breast stroke.

Transition 3:45 - This REALLY should have been faster. Two minutes, tops.

Run 26:25 - That's about an 8:30 mile, whick I really can't argue about. Still pleased.

Total 49:01

Turns out, I took FOURTH in my age group (Men 25-29). Ok, granted, there were only 6 men in the age group... but still! Of the three guys from my group who were ahead of me, two of them were within 2:40 of my time. If my transition time gets down and I can have a stronger swim, which i should, then i could reasonably take second in my age group. In fact, the guy who took second in the age group got out of the water one second ahead of me! He beat me in transition (by 1:21) and on the run (by 1:17). The other guy beat me on the swim and transition, but I got him on the run.



Friday morning I had my swim lesson with Mike Ricci. 0730 AM I was getting into the pool and showing Mike what I could (or rather, couldn't) do. he put me through some drills to see what I could do and then some others to teach me how to do things more correctly. My main problem, which is fairly significant, is my breathing and the way I'm picking up my head to do so. I'm holding my breath when my head is underwater rather than exhaling slowly the whole time. Then I'm lifting too much of my head out of the water to breath, rather than turning my head, pulling my chin back to my shoulder and keeping one goggle in the water. Mike observed that my stroke technique was good and I took the corrections he asked for well, but when I started getting caught up in the breathing problems, I tensed up and my stroke technique went to hell.

After the hour long lesson, I was completely exhausted (which was probably a factor in the pool as well) and Mike said he would email me with some drills, tips and suggestions.

Overall, it was very encouraging and good to know I'm not a complete mess. I knew the breathing was an issue, but at least now I have some ideas of what to look for and some drills for correcting it.



Today, I went to yoga (I needed some loosening up) and relaxing. The last couple days were pretty tiring, especially for what's supposed to be a recovery week. Tomorrow I'm volunteering at the 5430 Sprint and going to the BTC barbecue. In between I'm going to go for a swim and a long, easy run.

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Swimming and.... swimming

I had a great swim tonight.  I've heard it recommended that a great way to improve my swim time is to start with 10 x 100m with a 30 second rest after each repeat and steadily reduce the rest period. So I did the repeats tonight and most were in the 2:07-2:12 range and finished it in 26:52, so 21:52 without the rests.  The last repeat I made a concerted effort to do the 100m with the best form I could and got it done in under 2:00, which, honestly, I didn't think I was capable of. Next time I'll have to see if I can carry that through all the sets.



In related news, i have a swim session set up with Mike Ricci for Friday morning at 7:30am. It should be an interesting experience.

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Summary & Goals

So how is my training going overall?

Nutrition: I'm eating better than I had been. MUCH better than when I was in school. I'm eating more fruits and veggies and less junk food and prepared foods. I'm trying to stick to something closer to a Paleo diet. When I say diet I mean method of eating, not method of losing weight. Eating healthier is something I see as an important lifestyle issue.  I'm also drinking less soda and juice; instead having water, tea (one sugar) and fat-free milk (with some occasional sugar-free Hershey's syrup).

Training: Physically it's been going pretty well, though the spill I took on my bike (while going to the grocery store, not training) the other day has slowed me down some.  I wnated to swim tonight but the pool was very crowded. Since this is a recovery week, I didn't sweat it.

Mental: The training hasn't worn me down mentally.  I think the variety of running, swimming and biking has helped a lot. The Saturday group bike rides and Tuesday Night Track Workouts have helped a lot as well. Having a community to relate to has been very helpful as well.

Positive Thought of the Day: “If you believe you can do something or believe you
can’t, you’re probably right.” – Henry Ford

Roger Bannister, breaker of the 4:00 mile,
would certainly agree. 

I’ve been thinking about my Half-IM
goal… certainly, my first goal is to finish and finish in good health. But what do I think I can do for a finish time? I’ve been thinking
a lot about this and I’ve got a couple thoughts on the matter. 

The Swim – 1.2miles: I know I can
finish in under an hour. I know, not an auspicious time, but I’ll be
breast-stroking most if not the whole swim. While a 45 minute time isn’t
out of the question, I’m not going to count on it. If it happens,
that’s time in the bank for later. 

The Run – 13.1miles: I feel
confident I can do this in less than 2 hours, this is based on past half
marathon times and my pace on brick runs after long bike rides. 

The Transitions: The first transition is
something of a mystery because I haven’t worn a wetsuit before and I won’t
know what to expect until I get a chance to practice with that. Transition 2 should be fast. I’ll be running in the same jersey and
shorts, it will just be a matter of getting my shoes changed and I know I can
get out of my bike shoes quick. 

The Bike – 56miles: The big
question is the bike. Four hours is certainly attainable. Three hours
would probably be pushing it.  3.5 is probably what I’ll be looking
at… there’s a temptation to push it and shoot for 3… and I
would if there wasn’t the small matter of running a half-marathon after I
finish the bike. That said, if my training progresses and it looks like a
3 hour bike is doable… ~6 hours for my first Half-IM is, to me, a
heck of an exciting start. Even 7 hours is no bad thing.

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It's a Brick... HOUSE!

I've heard it said that the House of the Ironman is built of bricks (brick's being back to back workouts, i.e. Swim/Bike or Bike/Run with a quick transition in between). Personally, I prefer, the path to the Ironman is paved with bricks. The metaphor of a road or path just seems to make more sense for training to me than the house one.



Anyhow, today was the BTC group bike ride. We did the 28 mile 5430 Long Course loop. That, plus the ride to the Res and back made for about a 43 mile ride. It was a gorgeous day and a great ride. I talked to several more members, and even saw that two other members had the same bike as me, although theirs had different paint jobs, one was the standard silver, the other was a very nice blue. I actually like the blue more than the black on mine. one of the guys I met, Klaus, is doing Kona this fall, he got in on the lottery after 25 years of Triathlon... that's a long time.

I'm not sure how long the ride took, it was another No-Drop ride so it would be pretty hard to gauge the speed, especially since I took a long break when we got back to the Res, chatting and listening to the other members.



When I got back, I went out for a run, an easy 6.6 miles (half the Long Course run distance) in just over an hour. Tomorrow I have another long bike ride, but I'll follow that with another, much shorter, run, probably finishing at 30 minutes.



I'm really enjoying the training so far, though I think I need to get more sleep.  I'll start doing weekly summaries on Sundays to summarize and evaluate my training

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Stroke 'N Stride...

I was supposed to do a Stroke 'N Stride tonight at 6, a 750m open water swim in Boulder Reservoir followed by a 5k run. It took me 40 minutes to bike up there, only to find out the event had been canceled due to... high winds?

I thought that was hilarious, but there it is. So, I got to bike right back back for another 40 minutes. When I got back I did a quick and very easy 20 minute run and tossed in a couple 100m sprints for good measure.



I took yesterday off, my roommate had a very tough day and I really needed the break so I spent the afternoon and evening with her.



Back to the hard stuff tomorrow though!

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A Long Ride and a Group Run

Monday night I had kickball at 8 and wanted to squeeze in a ride around the long Course loops which ended up taking 2 hours even (34 miles total). It gave me a great chance to practice my bike to run transition since Paula was waiting by the car when I got back at 7:48, I was changed and on the road at 7:50. The
course looks pretty good, some not so fun hills at the start but not nearly as bad as the killer hill on Saturday. I spent a lot of the ride in the aerobars and while they really scared the bejesus out of me at some points early in the ride, I got much more comfortable in them. I managed to nudge up close to the 40mph mark a couple times (peaking at 39.2) and practiced eating and drinking in the saddle at reasonable speeds. Overall it was a great ride and while it left me generally tired, I wasn’t sore. I had a good swim workout that morning as well.

Ran with the BTC tonight and the Tuesday night Track workouts with Mike Ricci... what a workout. A nasty hilly (I hate hills) trail 5x4:00 at LT+ (that's above Lactic Threshold) with the jog down to rest. The elevation change was about 130ft over the 4 minutes. After the intervals we did a longer climb of about 400'. All told we did close to 7 miles including warmup and cooldown. I hate hills.

I got the chance to talk to several of the members as well as Mike Ricci. I've heard Mike was a great coach, but I hadn't expected him to be such an engaging and personable person, though I suppose I probably should have.

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The New Ride, TeamBTC, running and a swim coach

First of all, I got the new bike. A Specialized Transition Comp

Aluminum Specialized E5 AEROTEC frame

Carbon FACT aero Fork

Spec. Carbon aero seat post

Profile Designs T2 Cobra aero bars (UBER adjustable!)

Shimano 105 53:39 crankset

Shimano 105 front derailleur

Shimano 105 10-speed 12-27 Cassette

Shimano Ultegra 10-speed rear derailleurs

Shimano 105 Dura-Ace 10 speed bar end shifters

Crank bros Quattro pedals

And a partridge in a pear tree

I got a rough fit when I picked the bike up on Friday, the seat post needed to be trimmed, and I have an appointment for a full fit on Tuesday with University Bicycles' resident triathlete, Thea.





I was tempted to join the Boulder Triathlon Club for their Saturday morning no-drop ride, but decided that I didn't want my first ride on the new bike to be a 2 hour ride.  It just didn't seem wise. I decided instead to swing by where they were meeting up at 9am, say hello, see what the group was like, then go for my own much shorter ride.

Not surprisingly, that isn't what happened. I arrived and was so excited to meet people and to have a ride on my new bike that I ended up going anyhow. The course was the 5430 Boulder Peak course and there was a brutal hill in the first portion. I forget what they called the hill but after meeting up at the top, we came down through Left Hand Canyon and it was all fairly downhill and easy from there.

Overall it was a 26 mile route, very leisurely and took us about 2 hours. I met the club president, Tim Sells, who seemed like a very cool guy. I also met a few other members, namely Chris who just moved here from the Santa Barbara area recently but is a native of Newton, MA; as well as Kelly who is from upstate NY but went to school in Connecticut. I also met a very nice couple at the start of the ride but they fell back and told us not to wait up, they'd finish at their own pace.

Next Saturday, we're doing one loop of the 5430 Long Course, I'll be sure to get in on that ride!



After the ride I went for a 30 minute easy run. This was partly as a recovery technique and partly to acclimate my body to running after riding. Then today I went for another easy run (HR around 150, my easy HR is 136-156) and managed to polish off 9 miles in 90 minutes, which I was pretty pleased with for an easy run.



As I have mentioned before, I have been able to swim practically as long as I have been able to walk, but I don't know how to swim freestyle, I primarily do the breast stroke (and a decent job of it I do, if I do say so myself). However, in order to do my best in a triathlon, I need to learn to swim freestyle.  To that end, I've been looking for a swimming coach.  I emailed one potential coach who was, unfortunately, booked solid.  She referred me to another coach Mike Ricci from D3 Multisport. Mike is the running coach for the BTC's Tuesday Night Track workouts and comes about as highly recommended as is humanly possible. He is the coach for the Race Athlete team that Brett from Zen and the Art of Triathlon belongs to.  Mike finally emailed me saying he had time to work with me and I sent him an email about arranging for a lesson so we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to learn from him.

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