5430 Aftermath

So, I kind of ended my race summary with the finish line,
but there are a few more things I should add.

Firstly, my timing at the finish line was terrible. I got
there just as they were announcing the winner of the computrainer, which meant
my name didn’t get called over the loudspeaker as I came down the chute.
Not a big deal, just one of those things I wish I hadn’t missed out on.

They gave us some very cool pint glasses at the finish line,
much more useful than a finisher’s medal which you feel kind of pompous
wearing at any point after race day.

I sucked down have a bottle of Gatorade Endurance before I
even got out of the chute, then I started wandering around looking for my
mother and grandmother. This is a spot where having my name called on the
loudspeaker would have been very helpful. I went and stood in the shad behind
the stage and started to think of where they’d be. This was where I had
told them to meet me that morning, so seemed like a good place to start. I was
just starting to look around when I spotted my mother, who looked both
terrified and relieved to see me. All that motherly panic and stuff. I assured
her I was as good as could be in the situation. Just then I crossed paths with
one of the Team In Training girls I had been leapfrogging on the run, she
looked like she was in about as good a shape as I was.

I sat in the shade for a little while with my mother and
grandmother, then headed over for a free post-race massage (featuring a cute
masseuse, which always makes it that much nicer. If any cute, single
masseuse’s are reading this, feel free to email me!) During the massage,
my mother suggested I should go back to their hotel and use the hot tub! I looked
at the guy next to me and at the same time we both said “Ice bath!”
I also had a single bite of a piece of pizza, which just didn’t sit well
in my stomach.I practiced taking the suit off a few times as well while we waited for the race to start (delayed by 20 minutes) and believe me, it was a LOT easier when the suit was wet. No chafing problems and I hung it up to dry (inside out) once I got home. I’m glad I got the sleeveless suit, I think the full-sleeve would have been even tougher to take off and I liked feeling the water on my body.

I’m not freaking out yet, but I am definitely feeling kind of stressed and nervous. I’m not sure having my mother come out here for this race was a good idea since she isn’t exactly a calming influence. Oh well, too late to do anything about that.

3 days to go

3 days to go
The forecast for Sunday now is up to a high of 92 with a 10% chance of rain. Basically it’s going to be hot and dry as all get out. One of the TV stations is calling for a high close to 100, but I stick with Weather.com
I got my wetsuit today. I have the S&S tonight to try it out. I’m not going to do the run afterwards, just the swim and then cheer everyone home.
Today is when I’ve really started to get nervous. I’ve had people from the BTC (http://www.teambtc.org) wishing me luck as well as triscoopers (http://www.triscoop.com) and it’s really starting to hit home that this is a big deal. I’ve been so close to it for so many months I’ve kind of lost a sense of perspective on the whole thing and it’s like suddenly I’m stepping back and looking at the enormity of it and finding that it’s kind of imposing.Why do I always make my first steps such big ones?

4 days

Alright. It’s Wednesday. 4 days until the race.

I’m doing my best to take it easy. I’ll go out tonight for a short run, 20-30 minutes at OD effort. I haven’t been training on my bike this week because I spend so much time cycling around town anyway I’m not too concerned about keeping that in shape. Tonight will be the big bike cleanup.

I started packing my transition bag last night. I’ll do more tonight but won’t be able to really finish until Saturday.

I picked up a tri-suit the other day and I’m not sure whether I should wear it or not. It’s very comfortable, just slightly naked feeling. I’m also not sure I should switch to something I’m not as familiar with.

Minuses(-)

Haven’t trained with it as much

Indistinct, no BTC stuff

Plusses (+)

Comfy

No Sleeves

Easier/faster transition

Here’s a smart move. I decided to wear the tri-suit to work today. I wanted to see how comfortable I was in it and see if that comfort would last all day (followed by a short run this evening). Well, it has been comfortable. The catch is, any time I want to use the restroom I have to completely take off my collared shirt, unzip the tri-suit and pull it almost completely off so that I can do so.

Not my wisest decision.

Sandals (wear)

Running shoes

Bike shoes

Socks

Tri-suit

Hat

Glasses w/sunglasses & croakies (wear)

Helmet

Bike (duh!)

3 packs Clif Shot Blocks

2 packs Sharkies

2 Clif Shots (Apple Pie)

2 Accel Gels (chocolate)

2 CO2 Cannisters

1 Spare tube

1 Patch Kit

3 tire levers

1 multi-tool

Goggles (not Googles)

Anti-fog lens cleaner

Wetsuit

Watch

Footpod

HR Monitor

Some links for the fun of it…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LEaOkhWOZ1A

A great shot at the so-called “Alliance to Save Nantucket Sound” or, more appropriately, the Anti-Cape Wind campaign. Leave it to the Daily show to point out just how ridiculous these rich, self-absorbed so-and-so’s really are.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/08/study_faults_einstein_videos_for_infants/?p1=MEWell_Pos1

Imagine that, having your baby sit in front of a television DOESN’T make them smarter! In fact, it slows their development. Who’d have thought?

Race Prep, Base Planning an iPod training...

Final Race instructions,

http://www.5430sports.com/final.htm

So we have our final instructions and wave starts. The transition area will open at 5am and close at 6:20. The first wave, the Elites/Pros, will start at 6:30. My wave, M25-29 and M45-49, will begin at 6:55, with two more waves behind us at 7:00 and 7:05. based on those start times, I’ll probably finish around 2pm.

Race Day Weather (Sunday August 12^th, 2007)

High: 88 (That’d be a break!)

chance of precipitation: 20%

Relative Humidity High: 35%

Sunrise 6:10am

It looks like the BTC will be doing a Bike Aid station, Aid Station #1, which looks like it will be the same spot as our Aid Station for the Sprint. Since it’s a two loop course, I’ll pass them twice, which means twice the motivation and uplift. It didn’t look like there would be a BTC Aid, but now it seems there will be.

Base Training Plan

I’m still working on developing a base training plan for once school starts. My biggest weakness is certainly my swimming and I’d like to make sure I swim every day and at least get a full set of drills in, all freestyle.

Swim: Daily drills per Mike Ricci (http://www.d3multisports.com) with additional swim sessions per scheduled plan developed between Going Long and BCSM material.

Strength training: 2-3 strength training sessions per week plus additional core work.

Cycling: Much of my cycling will probably end up being done on the stationary bike at the Rec Center. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. The advantage is that it’s a controlled environment and I’ll have access to a power meter. The disadvantage is that it won’t be on an actual bicycle so the positioning won’t be correct and I won’t be able to do any bike handling.

Running: I’ll have more options when it comes to running. I can run outside in most weather and will also have access to the treadmills and indoor track at the Rec.

Periodization and Progress Testing: I’m going to work on four week periods with a little extra emphasis on each event in each of the first three weeks (i.e. swim wk 1, Bike wk 2, run wk 3) and week 4 as a rest week. I’ll do a standardized test from Going Long to test my progress during the rest week. After 12-16 weeks of Base Schedule I’ll move up to 4-8 weeks of Build, before returning to Base. I’m probably going to do the Cincinnati Flying pig Marathon next May so I’ll have to adjust my training plan to account for that as well.

iPods, Headphones and The Fools Who Race In Them…

The debate often arises among runners, and triathletes as well apparently,

Bike - First of all, in many areas, it's actually against the law to have headphones in while riding a bicycle. Much like it's illegal to wear them while operating a car, it's flat out dangerous and foolish and far too often foolish decisions result in other people getting injured, not just the person making the foolish decision.

Running - This is a conditional thing that should be a matter of common sense. if you're running on a road without a sidewalk or wide shoulder you're looking for an entry in the Darwin awards. If you're in a fairly isolated area on a trail, be my guest. If you're on a fairly heavily trafficked running or multi-use path, leave them at home. Especially on the multi-use path.

Swimming - *shrug* Go for it.

Racing - Most races ban them for insurance purposes, which should be reason enough to not wear them. Consideration for your fellow racers is another. I can't even count how many times I've been cut off or almost collided with fellow roadracers who were wearing headphones. This includes once during a Halloween costume race in the dark. Ok, you're racing in the dark, it had just rained, you're wearing a costume and HEADPHONES!?! I don’t know how I managed to keep my head after that guy tripped me up.

Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter. I used to post to the RunnersWorld forum a lot (before it changed) and this topic came up all the time and basically the attitude of people who do race with headphones is “It’s my race, I’ll run it how I want/have to”. That’s not necessarily all of them, but it was the predominant attitude and it’s not an attitude that is going to be open to the consideration or safety of others.

T-Minus One Week

This is when the butterflies start... 7 days until the race. Wow.
I was talking to my best friend this evening, he was probably the first or second person I told I was doing the 5430 Long Course. He was surprised to hear how soon it was and asked how long the race was (he had forgotten) and how long I thought it would take and he was speechless about it. I think sometimes I forget how insurmountable the distances seem to most peopl from spending so much time talking to people who have done Ironmen and just thinking about the race for so long.

Went out for a 60 minute OD run this evening. I also had a 2hour bike ride on Saturday along the course for the BTC No-Drop ride. Both are the longest training sessions for the respective events that I'll do remaining. Well, they're not remaining anymore, but you know what I mean.

Fueling Up

Went for a great run tonight.
90 minutes total
60 minutes at OD effort
30 minutes at Endurance effort
Avg HR=134
7.3 miles

I'm also breaking in a new pair of 767's, I got them a week ago, two weeks should be sufficient to break them in, it has been in the past.
Tomorrow I have the BTC group ride then I need to check my bike bag and stock that up. 5430 is going to post the wave start times by Sunday, so that will be one less thing on my mind. It also looks like there are just shy of 1100 competitors this year including a very impressive pro field.

Powered by ScribeFire.

S&S and More LC Prep

Another Stroke & Stride last night, although the weather did it’s best to interrupt things. I was set to do the 1500m swim and was plowing along on the first lap when I noticed there was absolutely no one on the beach. None of the swimmers finishing their first lap were heading for a second. There had been a warning about thunderstorms, but that seems to happen every week and I hadn’t given it a lot of thought.
Clearly the lifeguards had decided to shorten the race, although some of the faster 1500m swimmers got in a second lap, they crawled right over me.
Since my only real goal had been to do the 1500m swim and I hadn’t prepped for the transition properly I took it easy in transition and on the run.
Swim 18:36
Transition 2:06
Run 27:57
Total 48:35

Not my best race, by a long ways.

Long Course Prep
I brought my watch to Boulder Running Company and after some fidgeting and futzing they realized they couldn’t find or fix the problem. So, they gave me a new one! Now that’s great customer service, I was just hoping to send it out to Suunto and get it fixed for the race (though that would have been a long shot) or to buy a replacement HR strap but it seems that there was a problem with the actual watch as well. Today I need to head to Fleet Feet right after work to reserve a wetsuit for the S&S and the Long Course. I also want to get in about a 90 minute OD run this evening and see if the pool is open again (I hope so).

It's the FInal Countdown! Da da da Daaaaa...

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/08/01/russian_ships_reach_north_pole/?page=2
Our global addiction to oil has reached the point where we’re arguing about who owns the bottom of the ocean under massive sheets of Arctic ice.

---------------------------------

The countdown to the 5430 Long Course is ON! Today is August 2d and my race is on the 12th, 10 days to go! Holy Crap!
Stuff I need to do in the next couple days…
-Bring my bike to University Bikes http://ubikes.com for a tuneup.
-Book a wetsuit from Fleet Feet Sports http://fleetfeetboulder.com for the last Stroke & Stride and the Long Course
-Bring T6 to Boulder Running Company http://boulderrunningcompany.com to either get HR strap fixed or replaced

-------------------------------------

It’s important to note that those of us who worked the aid Station for the Boulder Peak received an email, via the club president, from the competitor who lost her temper at the Peak. She wrote us an apology that clearly and sincerely conveyed her regret and embarrassment about the situation. As someone who hasn’t always had the best control over his own temper, I can appreciate the difficulty of admitting such a mistake and making such an apology. I can speak only for myself, but her actions in the face of her mistake have earned her my respect and made a fan of me.

Now that that is said, I had a pretty quiet training weekend. I didn’t do any really organized training aside from a 3 hour, 30 mile ride Friday morning. I had company for 4 days and kept myself quite busy keeping up with them. I did a lot of biking and walking around town, some hiking and went mountain biking on Monday. While this wasn’t a training weekend, I don’t consider it a lost weekend by any means. I was worn out at the end of each day from running around all day long but I had a lot of fun.