Bike

I bought another bike today. It's called the Roubaix, named after the destination city of the Paris-Roubaix race in France.

It has character. It has style. And riding a bike like this is better than chocolate, as well as 99% of the coffee I've ever drunk in my time. It's a weird thing to discover that a bike can fit like a glove; it's a measure of my reaction when, when asked how my trial ride was, I had to spend a minute to come up with "it was perfect."

Don't get me wrong: I still love running. But this biking this... I think it may open up whole new worlds. Centuries. Iron Men. Cool stuff like that. :)

Cold showers: It's not just a cure for concupiscence

Like I just said, speedwork is tough.

Right now, my right thigh is hurting like I overused it; thankfully, it feels only like a muscle issue, which heals with the proper doses of rest, massage, and occasionally anti-inflammatory type drugs.

But the best thing I've found to keep this from happening is the first cousin to the ice bath- the cold shower. Aimed directly at the right place for a long enough time, it really keeps inflammation from becoming a problem, even hours after the workout.

Not days, though. Not doing it after speedwork on Tuesday was a mistake; enjoying a long, hot shower compounded the issue.

*sigh* after all I've been though, you'd like I'd have learned by now, ya'know? :P

Tuesday Speedwork

I'm getting fast. Not speed demon fast, mind you; I have friends who can run my mile PR and still hold a conversation. But a combo of speed work, months of hill training, cross training, and a great group of friends all work to help me get my time down.

How much? Well... I'll get to that in a minute.

Strangely enough, I took yesterday off- with rain, triathlon recovery, and a general feeling of malaise being the leading reasons why. Oh, and I think I forgot to drink coffee till afternoon.

Today I went in to work early, did the work thing, and had 2.5 hours to kill before speed work. After an hour of pouring over the tri results, I went to warm up. About Seven and a quarter miles of warm up. :) Every so often I had to tell myself to hold back; run at about 40%, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Kept me at a 9:15 average, with occasional forays into the 8 min/mile land.

Got to the track and heard todays workout: Mile sprint, quarter rest; 2 mile run (clockwise; interesting twist), 800M rest interval, then two 800s with a 400 rest between them.

Tough stuff. But I did well! My first mile was at a nice 6:09, knocking 25 seconds off my previous mile PR set at the Angela Hospice Run a week ago. If I keep up at this rate, I might see sub-6 in October. Um... yeah. wow.

The two mile pace was 6:42; not that far off my mile PR before today. The quarters were 3:14 and 3:02 respectively. The home stretch of my last half- maybe 50-100 meters, was definitely sub-5, perhaps even hitting sub-4 for a few feet.

Let me be honest: I never, every thought I'd be fast. Less than a year ago I was pretty happy running at a 10-11 min/mile pace, and would do my long runs at 12:30 and feel well satisfied. Running at 9 min/mile was fast for me, and averaging 8 min pace for anything over a half mile was something other people did.

But I'm getting faster. And ya'know- it feels kind of nice. :)
/brag

First Tri!

The Swim

'Twas a tad cold, air temperature-wise. Most of us stood shivering as the race announcer did the announcing thing; I borrowed a page from marathon racing and wore a disposable sweat shirt.

Thankfully, water temperature-wise things were much better. The water was significantly more comfortable then standing about in the air, but this led to something even more scary... wisps of fog making it hard to see much of anything. Buoys, kayaks, other swimmers... everything (at least, from my myopic vision) was pretty well obscured. I found myself swimming off in kind of random directions, as much as 90 degrees from where I should have.

Of course, this happened to me in practice, too, so I shouldn't have been taken too off guard. :P

I did have a scary moment when I caught a lung full of water, and as I coughed, gasped, and tried to suppress my gag reflex, I felt long tendrils of seaweed grasping at my feet. Gross! But worse, it also messed with my kick. Scary! And then, I realized, it was a really shallow part of the lake, and I could stand up, cough to my heart's content without fear of drowning, and even take a bit of a rest. Whew!

I don't know if it saved my life, but it was like that unexpectedly awesome meal when your starving, or a cup of amazing coffee when going through withdrawal. It'd be wonderful under normal conditions; in extremis I makes me wonder if there really might be a benevolent God watching out for me through no fault of my own.

Anyway, I finished in pretty good time (for me) and without swallowing too much water. And my first words when hitting the transition area to the other people around me were: "Whew. I'm glad that's over!"

The Bike

The second leg had us zooming around a subdivision, going through two loops of tight corners, puddles, and the occasional resident who I'm sure will never vote for a triathlon to happen near their place again. Rain pelted us pretty constantly through the whole ride, and the intersection between those starting, those halfway done, and those who were finishing left about a single bike width for each of the above, and an awful lot of congestion.

It was especially scary because it was coming down a hill, and braking was a bit nerve wracking...

But other than that, the bike was nice, relatively flat, well marked and the race volunteers were troopers! The definitely had it harder than we did, standing out in the cold, dreary weather rather than riding through it.

The Run

Strangely enough, the run was my favorite part of the tri. :) The course was about 2/3rds asphalt roads, 1/3 trail. The trail was a wood chip forest thing. There was just something so cool about running through it in the rain- a sort of rain forest type feel that was absolutely flipping awesome!

It was also nice to be able to encourage my friends as I saw them pass by during the run- it's a lot easier to tell if someone is a friend or not at a run speed then at bike speed, especially with rain-fogged glasses.

General thoughts:

I love my friends! They are the coolest people evar! They also all got AG prizes, so they are cool and awesome athletes!
I'm extra, extra glad that I put everything into my car the night before.
I'm also happy that I was smart enough to put my keys and wallet into my jacket; I just wish I had also done so with my camera.
Rain isn't so bad, so long as you're a paranoid person like myself and have the garbage bags, extra set of dry clothes, and the courage to change in front of everyone. :) I did have to use the race t-shirt as a towel, tho...
Need to do more early morning swim practices, as well as more swim practices in general.
I just might be addicted to triathons, now... *sigh* Like I need another addiction. :)

Results:
Half mile Swim: 25:54
T1: 3:54 min
12 mile Bike: 35:23 min (Garmin- 11 miles)
T2: 1:18
3 mile Run: 21:06 (Garmin- 2.9 miles)

Anyway, Yay! :) And I feel even better after a nap! :)

Still was in the cellar of my AG; 14/14. Though I was last in swimming by a good five minutes, I was eighth in biking and second in running! Cool, eh? And I'm pretty sure I can only improve on the other two events- and transitions, especially!

Training update

#1 "It's a little spooky, actually..."

I have a Garmin which, in theory, tells me almost exactly how far I've run. I note it all down in an excel spreadsheet which keeps track of me, and I'm pretty relaxed about trying to get exactly ten miles or whatever. If I hit 9.1, I'm happy with 9.1, and I don't feel any need to run an extra .4 miles or whatever. If I hit 9.96, I may run an extra .04, but that's less than an extra minute.

The excel spreadsheet is crude; everything is broken up into four week segments, which any regard to actual months. I just concluded a four week segment and came up with a total mileage of 173.93. I looked at last periods total mileage. It was 173.96.

I find that a little weird.

#2 "miles per week"

Hit 60 miles this week; the most miles I've ever run in a week. How do I feel? Hm... I feel like I could really use a nap. :)

#3 "unintentional PRs"

Did it again today: for a race which I wanted to do "easy", I ran a PR. Not by much, mind you: 46:13 rather than 46:57. But my first mile was also a PR of 6:36, which qualifies at way too bloody fast. My pace did almost drop to 8:00 during mile five, but I picked it up for the last bit to my race average of 7:30. All this after doing an 18 miles yesterday. *sigh*

#4 "Age group"

Last week I won my age group by virtue of being the only one in it. This time, I came in second of six, so I got a silver colored medal and got to stand to the accolades of my dear friends. One, with whom I was honored enough to run the first mile and half, went on to win over all the other females running. And many of the others did well in their age groups, also.

It was a good week, and a great race. Hopefully, I didn't do anything for which I'll be in too much pain this week....

Training tip #2

What not to do on a 93 degree day, especially during the hottest part of it...

run a 6 mile warm up
do 6 sets of 800 meters at mile PR pace with a 200 meter jog interval
then finally, to wrap it all up, plyometrics

My legs did a 17 mile long run last week without complaining half so much. :P

Store 5K competition

New thing number one: Cross Country running.

It means grass, rolling hills, and the odd root and rock that the typical road runner seldom comes across. Add a dash of rain to make things slippery and interesting.

New thing number two: a small field.

Twelve runners came together from the three different Running Fits in the Northville area; well actually there were thirteen of us, and one was the owner-boss-guy, so I'm not sure I should count him.

Many were college runners- meaning after the first minute I didn't see them again. Most of the race I was completely alone, which suits me okay; it was a lot like a training run that way.

New thing number three: a steamy finish.

... and no, not in as fun a way as it sounds. But I had wisps of steam coming from off my body after the run, like my skin was smoking or something.

Last new thing: 5K PR.

Last February I ran my first (and up till today, only) 5K in a respectable 25:16, which was my first foray into a race pace of 8-9 min/mile. I haven't run one since, concentrating on longer distances, trail running, and speed work. Yet all that training has seemed to have helped a bit! :) I knocked almost three minutes off my time, coming it at 22:27.

And my first mile (6:50) was only about nine seconds off my mile PR set Tuesday! I was pretty amazed, really. :)

Mark Mellon Memorial Duathlon

The Mark Mellon Memorial Triathlon/Duathlon/Relay takes place in the greater Gaylord/Otsego Lake area, home to D~ my second eldest brother. He and I have run a number of races together, though neither of us have done a Duathlon.

Something I love about doing a new event- no matter how you do, it'll be a PR. No pressure to meet expectations. :)

A few images I'll take from the event:

Getting marked with the euphoria-inducing marker on each calf, thigh and upper arm. It made me wonder: am I going to be able to wear shorts to work next week?

Setting up my transition area, thinking: Thank God I don't have to swim. Air temp is like 50 degrees!

Looking at the tires of my brother's road bike and thinking: I knew I should have asked him if they were inflated enough! They weren't. Made for a difficult run for him at the end- his quads kept on cramping...

Being asked by that same brother to be best man at his wedding, just as we were passing by his house where is fiancee and kids were waiting to cheer us on. Of course, I said "yes!"

Starting the run thinking- I don't think there's anyone behind us...

Run walking through the last four miles. Like I mentioned earlier, constant quad cramping makes makes for a difficult run. On the plus side it was a absolutely beautiful day, sunny and in the 70s- significantly cooler than earlier in the week, and I was able to enjoy it much more than any part of Heart of the Hills.

Finishing last. I've met people who are deathly afraid of this- they'll go so far as to not go to races for fear of... what? I'm not exactly sure. But I can now honestly say that I've done it, and it isn't that bad. Runners are (for the most part) a kindly bunch, and will cheer on anyone working through the same sort of difficulties they too have fought through. For something that can be so competitive, it's awfully supportive.

Winning a pair of tri shorts. It's something I'd been thinking about buying for a little while now, but put it off because I'd have to order it online, they're too expensive, and I'm not sure I'm committed enough. *sigh* Now I don't have an excuse!

Winning my age group. Even if you come in dead last, you can still win your age group if no one else is in it, and I guess none of the other 22 duathlon participants were in the 30-34 male age bracket. Color me so surprised I almost thought they were joking!

Perhaps sooner or later I'll go on at length about the virtues and vices of a "fun run" vs "race" mentality, and how I try to do both. But for now, I'll relate that I found quite a bit of joy in the race today, in the rewards of sticking with friends and family, and enjoying the whole process of a race, rather than just achieving somewhat arbitrary goals.

Though I gotta tell you, I enjoy that, too. :)

Training Tip #1

... when doing speed work, don't forget which lap your on. The consequences can be sort of... interesting.

Tuesday is speedwork day, where I and many of my running friends run around in circles as a grand metaphor of life. Faster and faster without getting anywhere, but improving by leaps and bounds- at least, that's how I try to rationalize it when it feels like people have been beating me with sticks.

Oh, and the sun was pretty intense today, too. :)

So anyway, the plan was to do two 1200 meter runs with 400 rest intervals, and then four 800 meter runs with a 200 meter rest interval. tough stuff.

Except I can't seem to count. My first 1200 was fine- 3 laps around and a few minutes rest to have my heart rate come down to something sane. The second... for some reason I thought my second lap was my first, and so I went on to do four. If I had been smart enough to check my GPS, I would've known better. If my brain hadn't been baked out of my head, I might've been able to count to three properly.

But as it was, I set a new mile PR of 6:41, down from 6:52 set at the Huntington Woods race. Oops. :)

So, let this be a lesson to you; Sometimes being absent minded can have some rather pleasant consequences!

Racing. It's a learning process.

So... the grand strategy I laid out a few days ago went bye-bye in the first 30 seconds of Heart of the Hills. Oops. Yes, I did the complete newbie mistake of going out too fast. Yes, I paid for it a little. And though I'm not a race newbie, I am really new to the ins and outs of racing races, rather than running them.

If that makes sense.

Anyway, let's talk about goals. I usually have three: A manageable one if I have a mediocre race; a achievable with a good effort and circumstance, and "pie-in-the-sky" if things go really really well through no fault of my own. My Huntington Woods 3M experience was of the latter variety. If you had asked me two minutes before the race if I thought I could average a 7:07 pace, when my mile PR was 7:30, I would have probably laughed and said "Not a chance." So it can happen. Hopefully more than once. :)

My goals for this race were simple- Primary goal of 10K PR at sub 53. Secondary goal of sub 50. And "OMG" goal of sub 46. I wanted negative splits. I wanted no shin splints. Oh, and to not get passed by a girl. (just kidding!)

Of the three time goals, I beat two, and was 58 seconds off for the third, coming in at a very happy 46:57, or a 7:34 pace. Saying I'm pleased is a nice understatement, and I'll leave it at that for now.

As for the details of the race:
My pacing (after the first mile) was good. Even though the course was quite hilly, (and to be fair to me, the first mile is the flattest of the six) I maintained pretty even splits. How even? Well... you be the judge... 7:09, 7:39, 7:34, 7:35, 7:31, 7:26 and my last .2 was at a 6:13 pace or so. I confess I sped up when I could hear the announcer calling out names and the crowd cheering.

Take off the first mile, and I did have negative splits. I didn't feel even a twinge of shin splints. And I remember being passed by two women; one I lost sight of around mile three, the other I passed about a mile and change from the end. I think it does my ego good to both catch up and to be blown away. Weird, eh?

I placed fifth in my age group, but there was less than a minute and a half between me and number two, while there was six minutes between number two and number one. If I was in the 25-29 AG I would have been first place by over a minute; if I were in the 35-39 I'd have been 10th.

So I'd better get faster before I get older. :)

And yes, I barely remember a thing about the scenery. That's one of the sad casualties of racing rather than running races- everything sort of passes as a blur.

Heart of the Hills was a splendid race, and for a race I'd been looking forward to for quite some time, it lived up to my expectations!

(pre) Raceday Strategies 2

So, I've got a 10K I'd really like to do well in tomorrow.

Is it counter intuitive that I'm drinking Riesling and eating cheese poofs tonight? One of my best training runs was done hung over... and I'm a big believer in never do on race day what you haven't done in training!

"Ah ha" moments: Swimming

It's happened a few times with running, a few times in school, and strangely enough, this last Monday with swimming.

I'm not a natural in the water; sure, during summers when I was a kid I loved to spend time splashing around. But when I was twelve I discovered books, and that was that. It's been a good twenty years since I've been in the water with any sort of regularity, and I've never done it to actually get somewhere.

Anyway, with the triathlon training, I've spent time treading water trying to figure out how to use my arms. How to keep my legs from cramping. when to spot. And most importantly- when to breathe.

It's important, breathing. With running it's easy: just time taking a breath for every second, or fourth, or sixth left foot fall, and after a while it becomes relatively natural. Sometimes I'll be gasping; other times I'll be focusing on using my abs rather than my chest to get air into my lungs. I'll never really worry about drowning while running unless I have a particularly poorly timed drink.

With swimming, as I'm sure the observant reader can tell, it's a little different.

When my muscles got a little bit better at moving in such harmony to let me breathe, it let me focus on getting more air into my lungs, rather than blowing out a half-mouthful of water and then trying to get some air. I was able to relax a lot more, which goes a long way toward energy conservation. And my speed improved because I spent a lot less time treading water or backstroke gasping for breath.

Still, it's just the first baby step to actually feeling comfortable in the water. But it does feel kind of nice to have some improvement, ya'know?

Training...

So, I should probably relate how training is going for my fall marathon(s). On the surface- it's going well! No injuries, no burn-out- I did a 15.5 mile run yesterday and felt great! I felt a bit fatigued afterward, but it is just as likely that the fact that I didn't have breakfast or lunch (I had to rush to go to work) is as probable a reason for the cause.

I also did an 8 mile recovery run this morning, and it went fine. 10:25 pace around a hilly course, and my heart rate average was 135. Essentially, I followed the path of the Heart of the Hills race, which I'm going to try to run my best this Saturday.

I have a race strategy. I'd really like to run the first third of the race in the eight to 8:15 min/mile pace, the second third in the high sevens, and the last third as fast as I can. Hopefully the mid to low sevens, but that's just a hope. Maintaining sub-eight really is what I'm after; hopefully enough to have my average pace below eight min/mile.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Beyond that, my weekly milage has been pretty good. I did 51 last week, while only doing 41 this week. I skipped my mid-week long run, probably because I came home from work a bit too fatigued to convince myself to get out the door. I did go biking a couple of times, so that was nice. I even went swimming for about 10 minutes. *sigh* Baby steps.... a lot like when I first started running.

On the flip side, my average pace is pretty slow. Running with my 501 training class keeps me in the 10:30-11:30 pace. I do make it up during my speedwork. But I really need to add in my Thursday tempo runs. I guess that'll be my goal for next week... this week, I'll take it somewhat easy for the race saturday. I hope.

Speed intervals didn't quite go as planned.

First, instead of doing mile repeats, it was a reverse ladder. We started off with 1200 meters, and then decreased by 200 until we did a 200 sprint.

So much for concentrating on breath. I mean, I had to, but I couldn't compare apples to apples or anything. Mostly I just tried to finish each lap at a good pace, and most of the time I averaged 90 seconds per lap, or a 6 min/mile pace. It'd be more impressive if I could say I did it for longer than 4:30, but I didn't.

Whether I did a 400 or a 1200, I was only a second or two off a 6 min pace.

Except for the 200 sprint. I don't know if it was because it was the last lap and I stopped pacing myself, or if I broke through a mental block, or what, but I did it in 30 seconds, or a 4:00 min/mile pace.

Which, I have to say, isn't half bad. :)

Triathlon Training

Running is my passion; it has a lot to do with how I spend my free time, my work, and my intellectual stimulus. It's fun, it's an escape, and it keeps my body healthy when it isn't breaking it down.

That being said, mondays are a cross training day for me, and a group of my friends decided to make it into a triathlon training day. Swimming- I'm taking a while to get into the habit. It's tough- but so too was running when I started. It'll take work.

Biking however- today, biking was fun. In a crazy, OMGWTF Imgonnadie! sort of way. Picture being on a road bike riding seriously for the first time evar. Going down hill. In the rain. 30 miles per hour.

I was breaking the Kensington metropark speed limit on a bike. The ground contact on a good road bike is about the size of two postage stamps. And the rain was pelting me like little pebbles.

It's the first time I ever thought that I might possibly enjoy biking more than running! That darned element of danger...

Breath

I've been thinking a lot about breathing.

It's kind of weird, considering how long I've been doing it, but there are certain muscles I can choose to use, a certain depth, regularity, and timing which all can play a big role in how and how well I run.

The hardest thing, I think, is focus and concentration. If I'm able practice for 30 seconds before I get distracted by something I'm usually pretty surprised. And I really don't know if actively expanding my abs is really helping my speed. But I do know I go from wheezing to heavy breathing when I do it. Of course, it could also be explained by a subsequent drop in my pace.

I'm supposed to be running 1600 intervals on Tuesday, I think. It would be a great place to try to figure it out, if I could compare two intervals breathing "normally" and two focused on ab breathing. If I could keep myself focused on ab breathing for more than half a minute. And if there aren't confounding factors. :P

Goals...

So, I guess I didn't know that I had 1000 miles as a goal for the year; it just hit me how happy I was when I achieved it that I achieved it.

But I have been thinking of other goals, more or less seriously-
Run 2000 miles in a year.
Run a sub-50 minute 10K
Run a half marathon sub-1:45
Run a sub-4 marathon.
Run an ultra, either a 50K or 50 mile.

Those are short term goals which I think I could do in the next six months to a year. I may even be able to do now, if I have a good day- though at a risk of injury. I haven't logged long enough long runs lately to feel comfortable saying a sub-4 marathon is in my grasp.

"I'd like to eventually" type goals:
Qualify for Boston
Run the distance of the circumference of the earth, that is: 24,900 miles (roughly)

Lot of factors play in, but that's where I am right now. :)
Cheers!

Milestone brag!

According to my records, today I passed 1000 miles for 2007! If I don't get injured or sick for more than a week or so, I may be able to reach 2000 this year!

Yay me! :)

Raceday Strategies 1

I'm going to have to come up with a pic in the style of indexed, but till then I share a tidbit to warm you-

If you're on your way to an early race, and you really need to wake up, skip drinking coffee. Just spill it on your lap; it's far more effective.

The screaming can be a bit disconserting for the other drivers, tho...

Hungry Duck half

Yum! Sounds tasty, eh?

Anyway, after a pretty tough five days of training, I knew I wasn't going to race this one. If I broke it down by time, I did two hard hours on Friday, hour and half easy on Saturday, hour and a half hard Sunday, three hours moderate on Monday, and about a half hour of hard intervals (speedwork) on Tuesday. By miles it's 38 running, 30 biking, and .25 swimming.

Not the best way to prepare for a half marathon, but if I wanted a supported long run with friends on my day off, it's a pretty good way to go. I maintained form, listened to my body, and relaxed through much of the race. I actually enjoyed scenery. I also had good conversation with W~, with whom I ran the race.

It was a inaugural, so everyone got a course PR. :) The course itself was well marshaled, except for a snafu where a anther W friend of mine ran down the wrong street for about a minute and a half. The volunteers jumped into a car to chase him down, but the damage was done: he dropped from sixth to ninth overall.

It was also quite hilly, but lots of trees and meadows and stuff as nice scenery. Though I gotta say I still prefer my trails. Trails rock!

Many of my friends did quite well- winning or placing in age groups, though the course was such that I don't believe anyone got a new half marathon PR. I finished dead last in my age group, but even if I ran my half PR, I still would have been three minutes behind second to last.

Not that I feel defensive, 'natch. :P Anyway, pics I took are here:
Hungry Duck run Pics!

Cheers!