Ironman Training: Weeks 3 and 4

It's been a while since I've posted! Lots of workouts to track:

Week 3
11/26: 2200m swim (400 warm-up, 6x100, 10x80, 10x40)
11/27: 7 mile tempo run
11/28: 2400m swim (400 warm-up, 5x200, 10x100). First time doing sets of 200, I was pleased I could do them. Weights in the afternoon (Squat: 3x12x100, Incline Press: 3x12x75, Deadlift: 3x5x155)
11/29: 8 mile run. Wanted to do more but my left knee was feeling weird by the end.
11/30: 2400m swim (400 warm-up, 10x200). No problem with doing all sets of 200. Weights in the afternoon (Bench Press: 3x12x105, Pull-ups: 20)
12/01: 31.83 mile bike, followed by 40:00 of running. I've started counting
12/02: This was supposed to be my long run day, but my stomach wasn't feeling too good so I called it quits after 4 miles. This ended up being the right decision because I felt bleh for the rest of the day.

Swim: 7000m (3 hours 9 minutes)
Bike: 31.83 miles (1 hour 52 minutes)
Run: 23.1 miles (3 hours 51 minutes)
Strength: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total: 10 hours 7 minutes

Week 4
12/03: 3000m swim (400 warm-up, 2x500, 8x200). The first 500 was easy, but the second was much harder. Weights that afternoon (Deadlift: 3x5x165, Incline Press: 3x12x80, Curls: 3x13x20)
12/04: 8 mile tempo run (middle 5 miles were fast, plus 1 warm-up mile and 2 cool-down miles)
12/05: 2000m swim (400 warm-up, 5x200, 6x100). My arms were extra sore from Monday's long workout. Weights in the afternoon (Squat: 3x5x115, Bench: 3x12x110, Pull-ups: 20)
12/06: 10 mile run. It was supposed to be all slow, but I picked up the pace for the last 4 miles, finishing with an 8:00 mile at the end.
12/07: REST DAY! First one since the Richmond Marathon.
12/08: 10 mile run, similar to Thursday: last 4 miles at a faster pace. I was time constrained so I couldn't do a full 13 miles like I had planned.
12/09: 20.57 mile bike, followed by a 3 mile run. The bike was supposed to be 35 miles, but things weren't right this morning: I didn't have a water bottle I could take with me, and it was warm, so I was sweaty and thirsty and had to go back home to get water halfway through. I also barely ate anything before I went out, so I was tired pretty easily. The run felt crappy as well.


Swim: 5000m (2 hours 15 minutes)
Bike: 20.57 miles (1 hour 8 minutes)
Run: 31 miles (4 hours 57 minutes)
Strength: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total: 9 hours 50 minutes

Something weird happened after my brick yesterday: I laid down on the couch to watch football, and when I got up a few hours later the muscle near my right shoulder blade was hurting a lot, so much so that it hurts to take a full breath. I stretched it out and took some pain killers and it didn't really go away, and the next morning when I woke up to swim it was still bothering me, causing me to skip my workout. It's not as bad as it was, but it's a little frustrating.

Ironman Training: Week 2

Another busy week of training!

Monday: Swam 2000m in the morning: 400 warm-up, 6x100, 10x60, 10x40. Lifted weights in the afternoon:

• Squat: 3x12x85
• Incline: 3x12x70
• Deadlift: 1x5x145

Tuesday: A 6.22 mile tempo run: 1 mile slow warm-up, then each mile faster than the previous one. I really enjoy these, especially when it's freezing outside.

Wednesday: Swam 2000m in the morning: 400 warm-up, 6x100, 5x80, 10x60. Right shoulder was a bit stiff at first. Lifted weights in the afternoon:

• Squat: 3x12x95
• Bench: 3x12x100
• Pull-up: 8, 6, 6

Thursday: An early-morning easy 7.00 mile run to make room for turkey.

Friday: More morning swimming: 2000m total: 400 warm-up, then 16x100. Despite pigging out the day before I felt great during these. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to do sets of 200m. 

Saturday: Brick! 23.34 mile bike ride, with 3 hill repeats in between, followed by a 4.10 mile run. The ride wasn't very enjoyable: it was brutally cold, the wind was strong, and there were a lot of tourists blocking the road with their cars. Several times I had to slow down while going 30mph downhill because an SUV was in the way.

Sunday: Slow 13.12 mile run. Last week my long run was a struggle, but this one was relatively easy. 

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 6000 meters (2 hours 59 minutes)

Bike: 23.34 miles (1 hour 26 minutes)

Run: 30.40 miles (5 hours 1 minute)

Strength: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total: 10 hours 56 minutes

Swimming before work has become pretty routine; it's no longer difficult to force myself to wake up at 4:15. Having said that, I've trained for 14 straight days without a rest day since recovering from the Richmond marathon, and I'm starting to crave afternoon naps. I may need to rearrange my schedule a bit to allow for a rest day every now and then on Fridays. 

Ironman Training: Week 1

Now that the Richmond Marathon is over, my official focus is the Ironman. It's 50 weeks away, and I have a lot of training to do, but it all begins with the first step.

Monday: Rest day, still recovering from the race.

Tuesday: We just signed up for a membership at One Life Fitness, so I woke up and went to the gym at 5:00am to swim. The pool is only 20m long, but it's salt water instead of chlorine and is heated too, which easily makes up for it. I swam 1640m total (1 mile): 300m warm-up, 5x100, 21x40. There were a few military guys farting around in the lanes when I got there, but they left when they saw that I was there to swim laps.

That afternoon I ran a light 3.11 mile recovery run. Legs were a bit sore, but it felt good to get the flood flowing to them.

Wednesday: Lifted some weights:

• Deadlift: 1x5x135
• Incline Press: 3x12x65
• T-Bar Rows: 3x12x135

I tried doing squats, and in fact got all the warm-up sets in. But right before doing the main sets I went downstairs and my legs cramped up really badly; apparently my quads are still too fried from the race to do squats. Deadlifts were no problem though.

Thursday: 7 mile run in the afternoon. No problems here, and picked up the pace for the second half.

Friday: Woke up early again and swam 2000m: 380m warm-up, 5x100, 10x60, 10x40, 6x20. Had the entire pool to myself.

Lifted some more weights when I got home. Did a few low-weight squats and decided not to risk it just yet.

Bench Press: 3x12x95
Pull-ups: 8, 6, 4

Saturday: 20 mile bike ride at Yorktown. I did the battlefield loop once, followed by 5 hill repeats. It felt FANTASTIC to get back out there on the bike. After a 5 minute breather I threw on my running shoes and ran 4 miles. My legs (specifically my left knee) were a bit achy though.

Sunday: 13 mile run down by the Mariner's Museum. Stomach was a bit off, and the last 3 miles were painful, but I kept a pretty good pace.

Weekly Totals:

Swim:  3640 meters (2 hours 7 minutes)
Bike: 20.4 miles (1 hour 14 minutes)
Run: 27.2 miles (4 hours 32 minutes)
Strength: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total: 9 hours 8 minute

Richmond Marathon - Race Report

This was a tale of two races. But I'll get to that shortly.

I woke up at 3:30, walked the dogs and had some peanut butter on toast. Left the house at 5:30, got parked by 6:30, and was at the starting line to watch the 8K race begin at 7:00.

The 8K about to start

The half marathon started at 7:30.

A non-Kenyan is winning after 100 feet!

I headed over to the full marathon start and settled in near the 4 hour pace group. The pacer was a Vibrams wearer too!

The National Anthem played, I gulped down a gel pack, and then we were off! Here's the race broken down in 3-mile increments:

Miles 1-3: 26:58 (8:59/mile)
The beginning of the race was hectic but not terrible; there was some good separation among the runners, and I found some room to run on the outside. I was looking for Wiley so I could toss him my jacket (he was about a quarter of a mile down the route), and after I gave him my jacket I realized that I had lost the 4:00 pace group: I didn't know if they were ahead of me or behind me. I decided that my quick pace for the first mile (8:48) made it unlikely that they were ahead of me, so I resolved to keep trucking at my goal pace and see if they caught up to me.

Miles 4-6: 27:08 (9:03/mile)
The pace group caught up to me around mile 4, which was a relief. I fell in with the pack of about 50 people and breezed along for these miles, enjoying the sights in a nicer part of Richmond. I took another gel pack somewhere between mile 4 and 5.

Miles 7-9: 27:03 (9:01/mile)
This section had a long downhill followed by a long uphill because of the Huguenot Bridge crossing the James River. On the bridge I saw two guys in front of me wearing these shirts:

"Ironman Florida 2012 Finisher"

That's right: these guys finished Ironman Florida last weekend, and followed it up with the Richmond Marathon on Saturday. "Oh yeah, you know just a light recovery run" they joked when I asked them about it. I told them I signed up for 2013 and we chatted a bit about the race. Apparently it was 82 degrees on race day this year, which made for a hot run portion.

Miles 10-12: 27:24 (9:08/mile)
My time was a bit slow in this section because of a few very steep hills that really sapped my legs. There was a water stop at the top of one of them which gave me a nice opportunity to walk for 15 seconds (I walk through all water stops to make sure I can drink easily).

Mile 13: 9:16.
This is where the splits stop. I finished the first half of the course in 1:58:50 according to my GPS (2:01:32 according to the official results). Then my GPS started wigging out: it says my next 3 miles were 5:04, 4:30, and 6:36. Yikes. I turned it off since it was now giving me useless data.

But that was the least of my problems. Around this time I somehow smashed my toe, so I walked for a minute or two before running again (in pain). After that everything fell apart. My legs started cramping, which meant more walking. The pace group slowly got farther out of sight, and with them slipped away my hopes for a 4 hour marathon.

I pushed through the pain until mile 17, which is when I started feeling nauseous and out of breath. I started running less and walking more, and the pain in my toe was throbbing. I was worried that I would injure it severely if I kept going, and seriously considered dropping out. It didn't help that mile 17 was only a few hundred feet from the finish line, where my wife was probably finished with her race and drinking a beer! I was mentally defeated and in a very dark place.

I somehow talked myself into continuing to mile 18, deciding that it was close enough to the finish that I could still drop out there if I wanted to. I settled into a groove of running for as long as I could, then walking for 2 minutes. Mile 18 came and went, and I talked myself into continuing. "Only 8 miles left, you could walk it and still get a PR". I drank extra liquid at the water stops. Other stuff was being handed out at this point in the race too: orange slices, gummy bears, flat coke. I took it all; if you were handing it out, I was grabbing it. Anything to try and breathe life into my legs.

Nothing worked particularly well, but I continued on with my walk/run plan. The 4:15 pace group passed me. I had to walk more than I ran in mile 23, but I kept going. At the mile 25 marker I picked myself up and forced my legs to run the remainder of the race which was all downhill to the river. By the time I got to mile 26 the pain was gone from my legs and I was flying, easily at a 7:00/mile pace (this was mostly due to the downhill slope). I finished the race far from my goal time, but it was still a PR by 21 minutes.

Finish Time: 4:38:58
3043 out of 4716 (Overall)
1867 out of 2540 (Men)
232 out of 298 (25-29 Age Group)

Briana and I after the race

I learned several things from this race:

1. Just because I can run a half marathon at a 9:00/mile pace doesn't mean I can run a full marathon at that speed. This was definitely too ambitious of a goal, and if I had chugged along at a 10:00/mile pace I would have been much better off. 
2. It's not the end of the world if things don't go according to plan. I really wanted to quit the race because I was struggling, but because I continued on I was able to PR by 21 minutes. 
3. Despite getting in a 20 mile long run two weeks ago, I was physically unprepared for this race. For the last 5 months I've been focusing on swimming/biking for my triathlon, and only had a few weeks to concentrate on running before the race. Next time I'll make sure I have adequate time between races.
4. TMI alert: I really need to do something about my nipples. Originally I was planning on wearing underarmor during this race (which would have eliminated any chafing), but it was too warm for that so I wore just a dry-fit shirt. I had to take my shirt off around mile 22 because my nipples were literally bleeding. There were some shocked people at the last few water stops. It's 4 days later and they're still extremely sensitive.

Past the Point of No Return

At 1:00pm on Sunday I sat at my desk nervously hitting F5 (refresh) over and over on the Ironman Florida registration page. Registration opened, and five minutes later:

It's official: I'm registered for Ironman Florida 2013! And apparently sitting at the computer constantly refreshing the page was not unreasonable, because the registration sold-out in less than a minute. Hopefully this is a sign that they need to add more races on the east coast.

Tapering is going well. On Monday I biked 6.78 miles in the neighborhood, stopping only because it was too dark to continue. I did some weight lifting after that to make up for it:

• Bench Press: 3x12x95
• Curls: 3x14x20
• Pull-ups: 15 (over 3 sets)

Wednesday I ran a short run 5K, and didn't feel good at all. I wanted to start out slowly but the first mile ended up being too fast (9:16), so maybe the lack of proper warm-up did it. 

Stay tuned for my "race predictions" post tomorrow!

Confidence: Reacquired.

When I posted last week my confidence for the Richmond Marathon was waning. A week later and my entire attitude has changed!

Sunday: I was stuck inside (thanks to the hurricane) so I did some weight-lifting for the first time in several months:

Bench Press: 3x12x105 (3 sets of 12 reps at 105 lbs)
Dumbbell Curls: 3x12x20
Pull-ups: 6

My arms were absolutely destroyed after doing the bench and curls, so I tried two sets of pull-ups and gave up. Oh well, it's a start, and I'll be able to focus more on them after the marathon next week.

Monday: Rest (hurricane was still out in force)

Tuesday: 10K tempo run: 1 mile warm-up, 5 miles at faster-than-race-pace, and then the remaining 0.22 miles as cool-down. When I got home I described it to my wife as "the best run I've ever had". Not only did I PR by 13 seconds, but it was mostly effortless. I felt great the entire run and could have run for another hour. I've missed running in the cold.

Wednesday: Short 10 mile bike ride. It was my first ride in cold weather, and I wore my long-sleeved underarmor. I had no problem staying warm even though it was 48 degrees and windy. Having said that, my heart rate was a bit higher than I would have liked, and I struggled to get into a "groove" on this ride. 5:00 of LT work near the end of the ride.

Thursday: Short, easy run, with a sprint for the last 1/3 mile. It was 45 degrees but sunny so I didn't wear any underarmor (choosing to run only in shorts and a T-shirt). I felt fine temperature-wise, but my heart rate was higher than normal.

Friday: More weights:

Incline Press: 3x12x65
T-Bar Rows: 3x12x135
Dumbbell Curls: 3x13x20

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Another 10K tempo run: 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles at race-pace, 6th mile very fast (7:59), then a short cool-down. I didn't feel invincible like I did on Tuesday, but I still finished feeling great.

The two tempo runs seriously boosted my confidence for the marathon this Saturday. I'll post more about my strategy for the race later in the week, but right now I have my sights set on the 4:00:00 mark! 

ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE

This was a very lazy week, at least until the weekend.

I was feeling a bit fatigued so I took a rest day on Monday. On Tuesday I went for a 5 mile tempo run: warm-up mile, 3 miles at race pace, then a cool-down mile. IT band didn't hurt, but it wasn't at 100%.

Wednesday was a 10 mile recovery bike ride, with the last 3:30 at LT. My quads were aching at the beginning, but eventually loosened up. That weekend ride really trashed my legs.

Thursday and Friday I did nothing. My legs still weren't feeling fantastic and I wanted to make sure they were well-rested for the weekend. I pigged-out, played videogames and sat on the couch. It was great.

Saturday was the big 20 mile run. The hurricane hadn't hit us yet, but there was still a lot of wind and a sprinkling of rain. Here's the breakdown of how I felt:

• Miles 1-5: Achy joints, tired legs.
• Miles 6-14: Felt amazing, wanted to run 26 miles.
• Miles 15-17: No longer wanted to run 26 miles.
• Miles 18-20: Everything felt "tight", but no real pain.

I swung by my car to refill water at miles 8 and 17, and it took a lot of willpower to go back out for the final 3 miles. My heart rate creep was also very high: the first 8 miles stayed in the 140s, but slipped into the 150s in the second loop and was in the 160s for the last 5 miles. And this was at a slow 11:00/mile pace.

I'm excited about setting a huge PR at the Richmond Marathon in 12 days, but my confidence for going sub 4 hours is waning. Already my mind is doing the math on "settling" for a slower race:

09:00/mile: 3:55:48

09:15/mile: 4:02:20

09:30/mile: 4:08:54

09:45/mile: 4:15:27

10:00/mile: 4:22:00

10:15/mile: 4:28:33

10:30/mile: 4:35:06

Regardless, I still plan on going out at a 9:00 pace and seeing if I have it in me. The weather dropping into the 40s later this week gives me hope that the race will be nice and cold. 

Here's a happy thought for this stormy Monday:

Too Much Biking

What does too much biking get you? Legs too tired to run. Here's how the week went:

Monday: 13 mile bike ride. Nice and slow, except for the last 3:30 which was at LT.

Tuesday: Rest day.

Wednesday: Another bike race against Uri, this time in my road bike. I was a bit slower than on my tri bike last week (19.7 mph vs 20.2 mph), but I felt like I pushed much harder. Uri and I stayed close for the first few miles, but at the 4.40 mile mark there's about half a mile of uphill terrain, and I kicked it up a gear and sprinted uphill the whole way, gaining some separation. Uri stayed close though; every time I looked behind me he was right there, only 50 feet back. By the end I was close to throwing up. Afterwards I ran an easy mile to cool off. While resting after the bike race we were passed by some tourists that asked if we were in the Coast Guard. Nice!

Thursday: I had the day off so I went to Yorktown to do 25 miles of biking. I also found an area that has a nice uphill section, and did a few repeats over there. It was definitely a great workout for my legs. Afterwards I did three fast 1-mile intervals: the first mile in 7:47, the second in 8:05, and the third in 8:28. I like this approach to bricks, doing some fast 1-mile intervals off the bike instead of steady-state running.

Friday: Another rest day after Thursday's tough workout.

Saturday: I biked from Yorktown to my grandma's house in Jamestown on the colonial parkway. The first trip took me 1 hour and 18 minutes, and the return trip was 1 hour and 21 minutes (but was a longer distance due to me taking a wrong turn). The parkway has a LOT of hills, so I would fly down one side and then slowly trudge up the other side. On the return trip my legs were gassed, and I'm surprised my average speed was about the same for both. This is probably the best place to do hill training in the area (3200 total climbing feet over 46 miles!), and after Saturday it's obvious I need the work. The only downside was that the road was bumpy, and my wrists are still sore from absorbing that much force for so long.

Colonial Williamsburg is peaceful at 8:00am

Sunday: I was originally planning on running 20 miles, but my legs were still too fatigued from Saturday's ride so I played it easy and ran an easy 10 miles, with the last mile fast in 8:22. Looking back it was really dumb of me to have so much hard bike riding when I should be focusing on running.

I have one more week to do a long run before I begin tapering for the Richmond marathon, so I'll aim for at least 20 miles on Saturday. Right now I feel pretty confident about starting off the race at a 9:00 pace, but we'll see if my confidence is still there after my last long run. I'll take it easy on the bike this week, do some running speed work on Tuesday and Thursday, and tackle my long run on the weekend.

Susan G. Komen 5K - Race Report

Some coworkers and I ran in the Susan G. Komen 5K this weekend in Virginia Beach. It was the first time running in a 5K since last November, and I was excited to see how I would do this time. I ran the last one in 29:30, but a lot has changed since then.

We were running late all morning, but got to the starting line with about 5 minutes to spare (thanks to parking at Jen's parents' timeshare. We snapped a quick photo before jumping in line:

Me, Jen and Uri.

There was a lot of room at the front of the line, so that's where we positioned ourselves. It was strange being within 10 feet of the start, with a few thousand people behind us.

The gun fired and off we went. My goal was to go out around an 8:00/mile pace and see how I felt, so I went out hard... and found myself with a 7:07 time for the first mile! I was starting to hurt pretty badly so I slowed up a bit and did the second mile in 7:51. The final stretch of the run was on the boardwalk adjacent to the beach, and there was a strong crosswind, so my time for the third mile was 8:05. The wind died down for the final 0.11 miles, which I did at a 5:48 pace.

Final stretch. I'm not heel-striking, I swear!

I finished in 23:41, which beats my previous PR of 25:39 by almost 2 minutes! It's also almost 6 minutes faster than my last 5K race. I was also 97th out of 548 men (they didn't have age groups). Granted a lot of people walked, but I'm still very happy with this. I've improved quite a bit in the past year. Who knows where I'll be next year... sub 20:00?

Here are some other pictures from the race:

The winner, right before crossing the finish line.

A bunch of guys wore pink bras during the race. I want to do this next year!

Her sign says "Of course they're FAKE, the real ones try to kill you!"

Briana and I in front of the Neptune statue. Is that a Livestrong bracelet on his wrist?

Busy Week

It was a busy week last week!

Monday: I took a rest day Monday because I was still ridiculously sore from the race. It helped that it was raining all day.

Tuesday: This started off as an easy recovery ride, but I felt so good after the first loop that I kept going faster. First loop was in heart rate Z1, second was Z2, third was Z3/Z4, and fourth was cool-down. 19.77 mph average.

Wednesday: Uri and I decided to race at the battlefield trail to see who is faster. We traded places a few times for the first 4 miles but after that I pulled away for good. I averaged 20.23 mph (very good for such a hilly route), and beat Uri by about 25 seconds. There were several times where I would have slowed down if I were by myself, but knowing that Uri was behind me pushed me harder.

Thursday: I did a 3.80 mile tempo run: first mile warm-up, then a mile at 7:50, then a slow cool-down for the rest. With the Komen 5K on Saturday I wanted to see how my body would feel at a faster pace.

Friday: I was let off work an hour early, so I took the opportunity to jump on the bike and go for an easy 10 mile ride. I kept it at a slow pace, but my legs felt pretty tired. 

Saturday: Susan G Komen 5K race. Race report coming.

Sunday: 17 mile long run. I wasn't sure how my legs would feel since this was my first long run since July, so this was a test run to see if I could even do the Richmond Marathon next month. My legs felt great though, and I did two full loops, stopping at my car once to refill my water bottle. The weather was absolutely perfect: high 50s, zero humidity. Five of the miles were under 10:00 (and the last one was 9:14). My right ankle bothered me a bit at mile 14, and I suffered from heart rate drift in the last 3 miles, but it was a very encouraging run nonetheless. It also gave me a chance to nail down my nutrition. I had some sports beans before the run, and a gel pack at 0:40, 1:20 and 2:00. It seemed to work great, and I didn't feel "starving" after the run like I sometimes do. Next week I'll go for 19-20 miles.

I love this fall weather, and hope it stays like this for as long as possible. Running is so much easier and more enjoyable when I'm not sweating my ass off the entire time. 

Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon - Race Report

What a great race! It rained near the end, and we didn't get to enjoy the post-race activities, but it was a wonderful time nonetheless.

We got to the race around 7:00. It wasn't as cold as we expected (about 55 degrees at race start), but the wind was strong. We waited inside the convention center with Casey and some of her friends before heading out to the start.

I was supposed to be in Corral 1, but the 1:52 pace group was in Corral 2 and the 2:00 pace group was in Corral 3, so I positioned myself between them. We watched Corral 1 begin, waited at the starting line, and then took off.

You can see the 1:52 pace group just ahead of me.

Here's how the race went, mile-by-mile.

Mile 1 - 8:27. "DAVID YOU DUMB SHIT, THIS IS TOO FAST." My heart rate immediately shot up into the 170s, and I was hoping to keep it in the 150s for the first mile. I felt great, but knew going out too hard would be a bad idea. It was tough to slow down though because of all the people crammed together.

Mile 2 - 9:04. Much better pace. My heart rate was still in the high 170s though, and I didn't want to slow down any further, so at the first water station I dumped cold water down my back (but I didn't stop to walk). The water helped bring me down a bit, but not enough. It stayed in the 170s for the entire race (until the end).

Mile 3 - 9:02. This pace felt perfect and natural. I didn't look at my Runkeeper the entire mile.

Mile 4 - 9:09. I slowed down and walked for about 8 seconds in the water station to drink some gatorade, but the time was still where I wanted it to be. The inner part of my left thigh was feeling a little strange, but not enough to bother me.

Mile 5 - 8:46. This part of the course went through downtown Hampton, and I was "that guy" who ran along the sides and high-fived all the spectators that were watching. You can't just slowly jog by and high-five someone either; your body naturally speeds up in excitement. So I blame that for the speedy pace. I took my first gel pack before one of the water stops during this mile.

Mile 6 - 9:02. Back on track. It was nice to have a few fast miles banked away in case I cramped or had to stop to pee. Shortly after this I hit the 10K sign, and snapped a photo of my watch:

Heart rate at 174.

I also hit the halfway mark at 58:30. Knowing I had a 90 second cushion took a lot of the pressure off.

Mile 7 - 8:57. This part of the course was in some Hampton neighborhoods, and a lot of people were sitting outside their houses watching the runners. Around this time the inside of my left thigh started bothering me again... not really pain, but just some discomfort.

Mile 8 - 9:02. This was the first of two miles along the James river, and I was terrified that the wind would be strong, but there was less wind here than in downtown Hampton. Beautiful view along the way too. It was easy to comfortably cruise along.

Mile 9 - 9:17. "Okay, let's not get TOO comfortable with our cushion." I guess my only explanation for this was that I took some extra time walking through the water station to eat my second gel pack, which was a nasty "Jet Blackberry" flavor that tasted horribly. It still hadn't rained yet so I dumped more water down my back to keep my heart rate from drifting up.

At this part of the race I heard a funny conversation from two guys ahead of me:

Guy 1: "What's your goal for this again, Bob?"
Bob: "I'm just aiming for about 2 hours, since this is part of my taper for Ironman."
Guy 1: "I fucking hate you, Bob."

They laughed and seemed to speed away from me, so I didn't have a chance to run up and ask Bob which Ironman he was doing, but based on the Calendar it's either Kona next weekend or Florida next month.

Mile 10 - 9:06. Still feeling good. In the space of a few minutes the temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees and the wind picked up, signaling that the storm was almost here. I had originally planned on picking up the pace at this point to finish the last 5K strong, but I was feeling too conservative to kick it up a notch. I had a 2 hour half marathon in the bag, and I didn't want to screw that up. Also, my feet were starting to hurt a bit, something that has never happened to me on long runs.

Mile 11 - 9:14. This mile was tough: running into the wind most of the way, and my feet were starting to ache pretty badly. It was obvious that picking up the pace wasn't an option, and I would have to "settle" for a time just under 2 hours. I was fine with that.

Mile 12 - 9:11. The end of this mile was uphill on the overpass above I-64, and it started POURING right before then. My entire body, especially my shoes and socks, were completely soaked after only 30 seconds of rain. To top it off, the Mile 12 marker didn't match up with what my GPS said; I thought I still had at least one minute of cushion, but my time at the mile marker made it more like 15 seconds. Oh shit.

Mile 13 - 9:01. I'm surprised this mile wasn't faster. I sped up after passing the Mile 12 marker, and ran most of this with a heart rate in the 180s, topping out at 195 near the end. I was soaked but felt great, and cruised into the finish at a near sprint.

1:59:28 Final Time
9:07 average pace

741 out of 2270 overall
479 out of 968 males
72 out of 112 in the M25-29 age group

Much closer than I originally thought, but I played it pretty conservative for the second half and still made my goal time. 20 seconds after I finished my right calf and foot seized up in horrible cramps, so I limped over to a cement boulder to sit on.

I met up with Wiley and we went inside the convention center to warm up. I told Wiley that we had maybe 20-30 minutes before Bre finished, but I pulled out my iPhone and used the Find My Friends app to see Bre's exact location. She was already in the last mile! We quickly ran back to the finish line and saw her finish a few minutes later.

She got a 2:49:30, which crushed her PR by over 21 minutes! Overall it was a pretty good race day for the Kirby household, though the rain kept us from enjoying the free post race beer and food.

We ran home, took a hot shower (Bre) and bath (me), and ate pizza while watching football for the rest of the day. I'll post some of the official race photos when they're available online.

Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon - Race Predictions

Well it's the day before Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon, and it's time to discuss what I think I can get out of my body. Here's what the weather forecast is:

Oh boy. I was hoping for the cold weather, but throw in the 70% chance of rain and I'm not sure whether or not to wear a jacket. My Vibrams are extra thin, so any amount of rain means I'll be running with wet feet. With that in mind, here are my predictions:

Great Day: 1:55:00 (8:47/mile)

This is significantly faster than my 2 hour goal, but I really have no idea how my body will react to the cold weather. A 1:55:00 time means running at a 9:00/mile pace for the first 7 miles, and then kicking it up to 8:30/mile for the remainder. 

Good Day: 2:00:00 (9:09/mile)

This is my true goal, so it feels strange to say that's achieving it would only be a "good" day. This is what I've trained for in the last month, so anything slower would feel like a failure.

Bad Day: 2:05:00 (9:32/mile)

A few months ago this would have been a great day for me, but I've improved significantly and would be disappointed to see this time. Something would have to go wrong (cramps, foot pain, GI issues) for this to happen. 

Since this is a new race, the packet pick-up expo was pretty small. Maybe 15 vendors, nothing very interesting. There was a Livestrong stand selling bracelets for $1. My old one broke, and Bre has meant to buy one, so I asked if they took credit card (I had no cash on me) and they laughed at the idea of charging a credit card for only $2 and gave them to me for free. Livestrong organization: you guys are classy.

As you can see in the photo above, I'm in Corral 1, up at the front. How intimidating! I may move back and start in Corral 2, just so I'm not getting passed by people for the first few miles.

Here's hoping the rain/wind isn't horrible!

Taper Taper Taper

Tuesday was one of the worst runs I've ever had. It was a 5K at race pace (9:00/mile), which should have kept my heart rate in Z3 (158-165 bpm) for most of the time. However, the weather was hot and muggy. My body felt "off" from the start, and my heart rate was in the 170s before I was done with the first mile. I slowed my pace down a bit for the second mile but my heart rate continued to rise, and by the final mile it was in the high 180s. Once I finished running it took 9 minutes to get back down into the 120s. This was supposed to be a "confidence booster" run for the race on Sunday, and it sure had the opposite effect.

Right now the weather for race day is predicted to be the complete opposite: low of 44, with a 40% chance of rain. As a prolific sweater I do great in colder weather, but this has a chance of being downright hypothermic. I might get a chance to wear my Shamrock Marathon long-sleeved dry-fit shirt for the first time.

I took Wednesday off and did an easy 10 mile bike ride on Thursday. I wanted to keep my heart rate in the 130s, but that didn't happen. I really struggle to go super slow on my new bike; my legs always want to hammer it on the bike, especially if I know I'm doing a shorter ride. I guess that's a good thing? My body refuses to go at a speed lower than "Awesome".

This morning I bit the bullet and signed up for three 2013 races:

• Shamrock Half Marathon: March 17
• Monticelloman 70.3 Triathlon: May 5
• Williamsburg 70.3 Triathlon: June 23

$500 blown in a 10 minute period, but I was scared that some of them would sell out, especially the Monticelloman which has a limit of 500 athletes. I also decided to not do the Shamrock Full Marathon, since it would interfere with about 3 weeks of training for the Monticelloman, which is my top race priority currently. So I'll just treat the Shamrock like a normal long-run training day.

Slow Recovery Rides: Now Without the "Slow"

On Mondays I typically do a slow bike ride to recover from the weekend. I keep an eye only on my heart rate, making sure it stays below 150, which usually means an average speed between 16-17 mph. Not very fast, but that's what a recovery ride is supposed to be like.

Well since getting my new tri bike, "slow" isn't in my vocabulary. I did a 20 mile recovery ride yesterday, averaging 18.22 mph while keeping my heart rate at 148. Not only that, but most of my mile splits were incredibly consistent: all but a few were between 3:07 - 3:19 (the outliers were due to hitting stop lights). 

I haven't had a chance to do a proper speed test on the bike, and won't get the opportunity for at least a week, but boy am I anxious to now. 

Time to Taper

Thursday afternoon I was feeling pretty lethargic, so Bre went out for her run and I stayed inside and took a nap. By the time I woke up I was feeling better so I threw on the new Vibrams and went out to do some fartlek work: 9x1:00 intervals, with a warm-up and cool-down. 4 miles total. The most intervals I had done previously was 5, but I felt surprisingly great while I was out there.

Friday I rode my bike to work for the first time. It's about 4 miles away, and there's a sidewalk the entire way, so it wasn't very dangerous. I took my road bike since I didn't feel comfortable taking my tri bike to a not-so-nice part of town. Taking my road bike also meant I wouldn't have to worry about clipping-out at each intersection.

Saturday was wet and rainy, but I took it as the perfect opportunity to HTFU and rode 20 miles anyways. I kept my heart rate in Z2 the entire time, except for the last 5:00 which was at Lactate Threshold, and still managed a speedy 18.50 mph average speed. By the time I was done my shoes, pants and jersey were all soaked. I threw on some warm clothes and did an easy 5K off the bike, with the last 4:00 at LT. I felt AMAZING the entire time, so much so that I could have ran for another hour. I think I really nailed my nutrition on the bike: I had a cliff bar before the bike, gatorade and sports beans every 10:00, and a gel pack at the 45:00 mark. That gives me a good starting point for when my long rides get even longer.

Sunday my stomach was feeling weird, but I still went out and did an easy 10K run in Z1, again with the last 4:00 at LT. The timing worked out perfectly because there was a fast runner gaining on me near the end of the run, so I pretended that he was a fellow racer chasing me at the end of a race and used that as motivation to push myself. I've mentioned it before, but I need to practice getting in the race mentality.

The Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon is this Sunday, so that means tapering this weekend. It's tough to do since I have a fancy new tri bike and my legs have felt great, but this is my 'A' race and I need to store up some energy if I have any chance of breaking the 2 hour mark. Ride now the plan is to do a 5K at race pace on Wednesday, and spend the rest of the week doing some super easy biking. Friday and Saturday will both be rest days. After the Crawlin' Crab I have 5 weeks to prepare for the Richmond Full Marathon... but that's a problem for Future David, so I'll let that guy worry about it.

2011 Trek Speed Concept 2.5

On Monday my legs were still sore from my half-marathon, so I did a super easy 10.37 mile recovery ride. 

Then on Tuesday I bought this:

SHIT JUST GOT REAL.

My local bike shop Bike Beat had a 2011 Speed Concept 2.5 on closeout, so I went in and checked it out. For those of you who don't know, triathlon bikes differ from standard road bikes in several ways. They're usually lighter, and the frame is more aerodynamic. On the front are aero bars (the two bars pointing forward on the front that my grandma says look like machine guns), which allow you to lean forward on your elbows and ride in a perfectly aerodynamic position. When you sit up on a road bike your body acts like a sail and slows you down significantly, so leaning forward with your back parallel to the ground reduces this drag. The tri bike I bought also runs all of the cables through the frame, instead of attached to the outside.

Riding in the aero position is also far more comfortable, which is crucial on longer rides. The bike portion of the Ironman is 112 miles, and it's extremely important to be as comfortable as possible before getting off and running a marathon.

They fitted the bike to me, which involves making a lot of minor tweaks: saddle height, saddle tilt, horizontal saddle position, handlebar stem length, aero bar width, aero bar angle, etc.. You wouldn't think these minor adjustments would make a big difference, but they absolutely do. It was sort of like getting an eye test at the optometrist: he would make an adjustment, then ask me whether it felt better or worse, and then make another adjustment. It took over an hour, and in the end the bike felt completely different than it did at the beginning. 

By the time I left there was just enough time to take it for a quick ride. It was only two loops around the neighborhood instead of three, but I set a PR for average speed: 7.03 miles at 19.5 mph. And it would have been faster if not for a slow first mile leaving my subdivision: after that my mile splits were 2:55, 2:45, 3:08, 2:50, 2:49, 2:55. More importantly the ride felt great, though riding on aero bars is going to take some getting used to.

On Wednesday I did a bike-to-run brick, and had a little tougher time. My legs felt sluggish and my stomach was bothering me, and I managed to hit almost every red light. My time wasn't as fast as the day before but I was still flying, averaging 18.9 mph over 10.31 miles. I zoomed past a pair of men on road bikes so fast that it seemed like they were standing still. 

I finally received my replacement Vibrams (the previous pair was too small), so after the bike I threw these on for the run. I felt nauseous for the first mile of the run, and couldn't keep my heart rate below 160, but things eventually settled down and the remainder of the 3 mile run was fine. One thing of note: the new shoes felt a little too snug with socks on, so I went barefoot in them. I can't decide if I like that more than with socks, but one of my left toes did feel like it was snagging on the inside fabric a little bit. I'll have to experiment with these some more to see how I feel. 

Full Ironman 2013

My original goals when starting triathlon training in June were to do a half-Ironman in 2013 and a full Ironman in 2014. These were specific enough that I had something to work towards, but vague enough that I could choose at a later date which races I wanted to do. It's now a few months later, and based on my current skill level I believe that doing a full Ironman in 2013 is absolutely feasible, depending on race schedules.

The half-Ironman distance has plenty of races nearby to choose from. There's the Monticello Man triathlon in Charlottesville in May, a new Rev3 triathlon in Williamsburg in June, the Eagleman triathlon in Maryland also in June, and the Patriot Triathlon in Williamsburg in September. All of these are only a few hours away--and the two races in Williamsburg are only 30 minutes away! Plenty of options to choose from.

Doing a full Ironman is a little trickier. The nearest two 140.6 triathlons are in Maryland and North Carolina, but neither of them are official Ironman races (which is what I want for my first one). So out of the 13 official Ironman races in North America, these are the closest:

1. Ironman Louisville (August) - 630 miles (10 hour drive)
2. Ironman Lake Placid (July) - 654 miles (12 hour drive)
3. Ironman Florida (November) - 882 miles (14.5 hour drive)
4. Ironman Wisconsin (September) - 988 miles (17 hour drive)
5. Ironman Texas (May) - 1408 miles (2-day drive)

None of the races are ideal. Louisville is the closest, but I don't think I could handle the heat in August. Texas is where my parents live, but a race in May doesn't give me as much time to train, and I would have to ship my gear. Wisconsin and Lake Placid are very popular races, but both are already sold out. There was talk about bringing a new Ironman race to Virginia for 2013, but those talks are on hold and now it wouldn't happen until 2014 at the earliest.

Ironman Florida seems to be my best bet: November weather in Florida should be perfect racing conditions, it gives me the most time to train, and it's just close enough to drive to. The average temperature in Panama City in November is 81 degrees, so we could spend the week after the race relaxing on the beach. This offers more of a vacation than any of the other races would. 

Registration for Ironman Florida opens on Nov 4 (and sells out quickly), so I have a few weeks to mull it over. 

More PRs?

Busy week!

Wednesday I did a quick brick: 7.26 miles on the bike followed by a fast 1.00 mile run. The last 7:00 on the bike were at LT. The workout would have been longer but it was getting late and I was starving.

On Thursday we were meeting Bre's family in Richmond for dinner, so I squeezed in a quick 10.37 mile ride, with 3x4:00 intervals mixed-in.

Friday I took the day off, and on Saturday I did a better brick workout: 20.18 miles easy biking followed by a 3.11 mile run. During the run I wanted to keep my pace around 10:00/mile, but my legs refused to go that slow. I don't know what has happened in the last month but I'm suddenly much faster than I used to be. No complaints here!

On Sunday I did my half-marathon run. The first 6 miles were at an easy pace, with the remaining 7.1 miles at my goal race pace (9:00/mile). I felt fantastic for most of the run, but around mile 10 I started to bonk: my stomach was cramping up a bit, and my legs were really fatigued. My heart rate kept randomly spiking up into the 180s and I felt like I would have to stop and walk at any moment. I somehow held on, and had an extra speedy 8:36 mile at the end. Not only is 2:02:54 is a new half-marathon PR (previous record: 2:05:07), but the final 10K was also a record for me at 55:41, beating my previous record of 57:08 from last Monday! PRs everywhere.

I also finally ponied up the money for some cycling shoes and clip-in pedals on Wednesday. The pedals look like this:

The shoes have clips on the bottom that snap into the pedal, so your legs pull as well as push the pedals:

It's a little tricky to remember to clip out of them before you come to a complete stop (I almost fell over at the stop light on my Thursday ride), but it just takes some practice. On Friday I came home for lunch and found the shoes like this:

The shoes have a latch buckle which makes it easy to tighten: you just click the latch and it tightens it up one notch. On the right shoe Hans had chewed up the buckle JUST ENOUGH TO BREAK IT. He didn't touch the clips on the bottom, which can be replaced for $2. He didn't chew up the shoe itself, which would have just been aesthetic. He chewed up the only part of the shoe that is required for it to function. I took the shoes back to the store to see if there was anything they could do, and thankfully they can order me a replacement buckle for $30. I expected to have to buy a completely new shoe, so I'm happy with only paying $30. In the mean time I used some zip ties to wrap around my shoe and keep it on tight for my Saturday ride. Worked like a charm. Here's Hans looking guilty afterwards:

Rule 5

After setting a new PR for the 5K last week I decided to see if I could PR my 10K on Monday. My best was 58:47 back in April (a 9:22 pace), so I went out aiming to keep a consistent pace just above 9:00. This would also be a good trial run for the pace I would need to run a sub 2-hour half-marathon. My legs were still achy from the previous week.

Mile 1: 9:06. My pace was about where I wanted it to be, but my calves felt really tight. My heart rate was up in the 160s, which was about right for this pace.
Mile 2: 9:12. Slightly slower than the first mile, but still good. Legs were finally loosening up, but my heart rate was now up in the 170s.
Mile 3: 9:13. Same pace as mile 2, awesome. My heart rate dropped back into the 160s though.
Mile 4: 9:26. This is where things started to get tough. My legs were aching and I had a slight stitch in my side. I also had to run past my neighborhood, and the temptation to call it quits after 5K was high. Mentally it was difficult to keep going past the 3.11 mile mark.
Mile 5: 9:14. Back to the pace I wanted to be at, though it was still painful. I felt like my legs were going to run out of gas at any moment.
Mile 6: 8:55. Got my second wind and cruised to an easy finish. The final 0.22 miles was at a 9:00 pace.

Final time: 57:08! A new PR by a minute and a half, and on exhausted legs no less. I should have planned my nutrition a little better (I didn't bring any gels or water with me), so I'll focus on that next time.

On Tuesday there was a huge storm going up and down the east coast, but when I got home there was a lull in the rain so I hopped on the bike to see how much of it I could squeeze in. I was able to bike 10.43 miles before it rained, with the last 4 minutes a sprint. However, the wind was very high, and it felt like biking with a tether attached to my bike. It was a good opportunity to practice The Velominati's Rule 5 and Harden The Fuck Up (HTFU):

I need to get "Harden The Fuck Up" printed on my handlebars.

Ramping Things Back Up

I was still fatigued on Friday so I decided to listen to my body and take another day off. Cooked an entire skillet of hashbrowns and mixed in 5 eggs, and stuffed my face with all the calories. It seemed to work because the next morning I woke up and didn't feel fatigued for the first time all week.

About 1200 glorious calories. There's more bacon hidden underneath that pile.

Saturday I went to the beach with Liz. I wanted to practice my open water swimming, but the water was far too choppy so I ran a nice 5K barefoot on the beach instead. I felt fantastic for the first half, and when I turned around I realized why: I had been running with the wind. The second half of the run was against the wind and much tougher.

I felt good during the run, but afterwards I noticed my right IT band was a little uncomfortable. It wasn't sore, I was just aware that it was there, if that makes any sense. I woke up feeling the same way on Sunday, so instead of doing a bike-to-run brick I just did the bike, 23.50 miles easy spinning, with the last 4:00 at race pace. Worked on my long ride nutrition: water every 5 minutes, pretzels every 15, and a gel pack at the 45:00 mark.

As of yesterday the Crawlin' Crab half-marathon is three weeks away, and with the pool closed and no more triathlons scheduled until the spring I'm anxious to focus on running/biking. Here's the plan for the week, assuming my IT band doesn't bother me more:

Mon: Run 6.22 miles
Tue: Bike 10.00 miles
Wed: Run 3.11 miles (intervals)
Thu: Bike 10.00 miles (intervals) followed by 3.11 mile run
Fri: Rest
Sat: Bike: 20.00 miles
Sun: Run: 13.11 miles

This would ramp my running up to 25+ miles this week, after only doing 6 both last week and the week before. I'm a little worried about that but will play it by ear. If my legs don't feel up to the half-marathon on Sunday then I'll do something shorter. Either way I want the pace to be moderate, close to 9:00/mile. I would hate to break the 2-hour half-marathon barrier on a training run though, so I might do the first half at a 10:00 pace, and the remainder at a 9:00 pace. That would still be a PR at 2:04:24.

New 5K PR. No Big Deal.

I went for an "easy" 5K yesterday to see how my legs felt, and ended up setting a new PR in 25:39 (previous best was 26:20). I went out hard in the first mile (7:43) and held an 8:30/mile pace for the remainder.

I have nothing more to say, so here are a bunch of reaction gifs to sum up how I feel:

Exhausted.

How my body has felt this week:

When I ran the Shamrock Marathon back in March, it took me just over a day to recover. I ran the race on Sunday, took a rest day on Monday, and was out running again on Tuesday. Well my first triathlon has left me far more exhausted than that. My legs (and calves especially) were dead on Monday and Tuesday, and I took naps when I got home from work both days. I went out yesterday and biked an easy 10.39 miles and legs didn't stop aching until 10 minutes into the ride.

I think I can chalk it up to my heart rate being red-lined almost the entire race. 198 bmp coming out of the water, 180 average on the bike, 183 average on the run. What really shocks me is that I was able to survive with it that high for 1 hour and 38 minutes without collapsing. Normally when my heart rate gets up to 180 my throat starts closing up and I can't breathe, but that didn't happen during the race (presumably because of all the adrenaline).

It makes me wonder what I'm capable of if I really push myself in a half-marathon. I went ahead and signed up for the Crawlin Crab, and when it asked for my predicted finish time I entered 1:45:00. That's a pace of 8:01/mile! I still haven't run a 2:00:00 marathon, so a goal of 1:45:00 is RETARDED, but I hope starting off in a faster group will give me the push I need.

I'm going to attempt to run an easy 5K after work today, but I'm not sure how cooperative my legs will be.

Patriot Sprint Triathlon - Final Thoughts

Before the race I posted some time predictions/goals. Let's take a look at those, with the average pace marked next to each time:

Great Day:

• Swim: 16:00 (2:08/100m)
• Bike: 36:00 (3:00/mile)
• Run: 26:20 (8:28/mile)
• Total: 1:25:20

Good Day: 

• Swim: 17:00 (2:16/100m)
• Bike: 38:00 (3:10/mile)
• Run: 28:00 (9:00/mile)
• Total: 1:30:00

Bad Day:

• Swim: 18:00 (2:24/100m)
• Bike: 40:00 (3:20/mile)
• Run: 29:30 (9:30/mile)
• Total: 1:34:30

Since the swim (1000m) and bike (12.79 miles) were both longer than advertised, I'll compare paces instead of total time.

Swim: 20:43 (2:04/100m)

-How it went: I'm very pleased with the swim; I never felt out of breath or exhausted, though I sure as hell was when I popped out of the water and started running. My strokes were strong and smooth, and I felt like I had my breathing under control. My pace was better than I ever could have hoped. 

-How I can improve: when lining up for the swim, next time I will start in the front instead of the back. I was stuck behind some slow people for the first couple of minutes of the swim and need to be more aggressive and confident in the future. Also, I need to learn to sight better in the water: there were one or two times on the second half of the swim when I realized I was veering off-course a bit and had to adjust. 

Bike: 41:14 (3:13/mile)

-How it went: my pace was between my Good and Bad predictions, but I had not taken into consideration the logistics of racing with other people. During training I'm able to keep a constant pace, but in a race you're constantly passing other people and having to adjust your speed. I pushed very hard on the bike, and am extremely happy with my performance, even if my time doesn't reflect it.

-How I can improve: DON'T SPRINT RIGHT BEFORE TRANSITION! Seeing the crowd pumped me up and I sprinted the last 30 seconds to the transition area, which completely trashed my legs for the beginning of the run. I knew that I needed to slow down for the final minute on the bike and I made a stupid mistake in the heat of the moment. I also want to be more aggressive when passing people in the future; there were a few times where I passed someone and then relaxed for a minute before pushing past the next person. 

Run: 30:01 (9:37/mile)

-How it went: I pushed my body to its limit and left nothing in the tank, so I'm happy with the result of the run even though my time was in the "bad day" category. The first mile was pretty terrible: calves felt on the brink of cramping, quads ached, and I had a stitch in my side. The second mile I "found my running legs", and was able to coast pretty effortlessly. The third mile I felt great and had an 8:30/mile pace, and finished strong. 

-How I can improve: The swim and bike portions felt like races, and I was constantly focusing on catching up to and passing whoever was in front of me. I didn't have this feeling during the run. It's excusable for the first mile while I was hurting badly, but once I found my legs I should have started picking people off one at a time. I need to practice getting into the "race" mentality during individual runs in the future.

Other thoughts

Since I've been focusing on long distance running over the last year, which means going slow and pacing myself, I really wanted to go all out for this race. I didn't want to finish the race thinking "I should have pushed harder". I gave it my all, was near the top of my heart rate the entire time, and had nothing left in the tank when I finished. My legs are evidence of that: they were incredibly sore on Monday, and today they still ache more than they did after I ran the Shamrock Marathon! 

In the 87 days since I decided to do this race I trained 107 times. I bought my first road bike. I started swimming for the first time in 15 years. I woke up sore every morning, went to bed exhausted every night. One year ago the word "triathlete" conjured up images of super-human athletes in a category I could never hope to reach. I proved to myself that with hard work and dedication I can accomplish anything, and I'm proud to now call myself a triathlete. 

Patriot Sprint Triathlon - Race Report!

There were a lot of "firsts" for me in this race:

• First open water swim
• First swim race
• First time swimming in jammers and a swim cap
• First bike race
• First swim-to-bike transition
• First triathlon

The race report is very long, so here's the important stuff for those of you who don't want to read everything. FYI I was in the Novice group, so the number in parenthesis is my rank in that group (out of 38):

Swim: 20:43 (7)
T1: 5:24 (21)
Bike: 41:14 (12)
T2: 0:57 (2)
Run: 30:01 (28)
Total: 1:38:17 (9)

And if I had to sum up how I felt after the race in one .gif:

Starting at the beginning: I picked up my race packet on Saturday and scoped out the course. The transition area is a LONG way away from the beach (1/4 mile, to be exact). Here's the route from the beach:

From there you go up a small hill and head towards the transition area (you can see the tents in the distance):

No worries, I thought, it will just be a nice cool-down jog after the swim. More on that later.

When I went to bed that night it was raining, and when I woke up at 3:30 it was still coming down. I slowly had some coffee and peanut butter toast and the rain stopped sometime around 4:30. I packed the rest of my gear, threw it in the car and drove the 30 minutes to Williamsburg. I was one of the first people there at 5:30, so I had first pick of the bike rack:

Since I had time to spare I spent about 10 minutes over-analyzing my transition space and the most efficient way to place everything. I also went over everything I would need to do in transition in my head. I had body-markers write my race number on my arms after that, and then hit up the porta-potties, and here's what I wrote on Facebook about that:

So I go to use the bathroom before the race, and I see that the handicapped porta-potty (extra large) is available. I think to myself "Excellent, I shall poop like a King!" There are no lights so after sitting down I pull out my iPhone and use the Flashlight app to look around, and see that there's a huge spider in the corner directly above me, and now I'm sitting here wondering why bad things happen to good people.

My wonderful wife Briana arrived shortly after that with her sister Tara and father Wiley. After meeting with our friend Kate (whose dad Will was racing), we headed down to the beach and snapped some pre-race photos:

Can you tell I'm terrified?

Wiley is in the background photobombing me

The race was divided into 6 starting waves that launch 2 minutes apart, and I was in the 6th one, reserved for Novice Men and Women, and Relay teams. This had me a bit worried because I knew I was a weak swimmer and didn't want to be one of the last out of the water. The first wave went off with the airhorn:

All the other waves ahead of me came and went 2 minutes apart, and before I knew it it was time to get in the water and await the starting horn.

Me in the back warming up my arms

I positioned myself in the center in the back to allow everyone to get ahead and give me some room to swim. Suddenly the horn went off and my first triathlon had begun.

A lot of people walked in the shallow water for the first minute, but I immediately went horizontal and started swimming. The first hundred yards or so were uncoordinated because I was afraid of hitting the person in front of me, so I was awkwardly stroking while keeping my head above water to keep an eye on where I was going. Slowly the swimmers spread out and I had enough room to feel comfortable, and I settled into my normal long, slow strokes, switching to breaststroke every couple of minutes. I swam too close behind someone at one point and got kicked in the face, but it wasn't very hard and my goggles didn't become dislodged so I kept on swimming.

In the first few minutes I found myself passing several other people, and I didn't think much of it. But as I neared the turn-around buoy I started passing people wearing purple caps (from Wave 5). Shortly after that I was passing grey caps (Wave 4) as well, who had a 4 minute head start on me. I was a little winded but this energized me, so my swim strokes went from "slow and steady" to more like this:

Half-way back to shore I saw a swimmer floating on her back, and my abs were very sore at this point so I stopped and made sure she was okay. "Yep, just catching my breath" she said, and I swam on. Someone died at Ironman NYC last month and I didn't want to find out later that the same thing had happened here and I did nothing. The karma I felt pushed me the rest of the way until I was suddenly planting my feet in sand and erupting out of the water.

Swim: 20:43. We would later learn that the swim was actually about 1000m, not 750m, so this comes out to an average of 2:04/100m pace.

Bre almost didn't see me at first; she was looking farther out in the river and didn't expect me to finish so quickly until I popped out of the water. I was a little dizzy as I ran up the beach, but I noticed that there was only one other person from my wave nearby, and everyone else was from Wave 5 and 4. Holy shit, I might be near the front of my group, I thought as I sprinted up the beach (I would later learn that I came out of the water in 7th place for the Novices, and that the 6th and 5th place guys were only 15 seconds ahead of me). I forgot to start the timer on my watch when our swim started, so I tried doing quick math based on the current time but my head seemed cloudy and it was tough to think, so I just kept running towards transition.

I got into transition, spotted my bike and ran down one row... only to realize it wasn't my bike, and I was in the wrong place. I stood there confused for a moment before finding the correct spot. It truly is amazing how difficult it is to think when your brain is deprived of oxygen. Once I got to my bike I saw that my previous suspicions were correct: most of the bikes around me were still racked, so I was near the front of the group.

"Where the hell is my bike?"

Since it had rained all night the ground was wet and muddy, so transitioning was a bit tough. I squirted water on my feet and dried them off as best as I could, but putting on my toe-socks was still a challenge. I'm not sure what I'll do in the future, but Vibrams definitely aren't ideal for triathlons. 

My mind was still cloudy, but I managed to put on my heart rate monitor, helmet and sunglasses and head out on the bike. Before I got on my bike my heart rate was 198! No wonder I was so dizzy and confused: that heart rate is on the verge of me passing out. I guess I need to jog instead of sprint next time. Before the race I was debating whether or not to use my heart rate monitor, and I'm really glad I did.

Transition 1: 5:24. I was pretty pleased with this, since at least half of it was spent running to the transition area. When I get real bike shoes this will be a bit faster as well. I forgot to grab my shot-bloc chews, but they weren't crucial.

I took it easy for the first few minutes on the bike to allow my heart rate to get back down into the 170s. Most of the bike course was surrounded by woods, so there was never much wind except at the turn-around. There was one slight downhill in the first couple of miles, and aside from that it was pancake flat. It was a very easy course.

I've been in a lot of running races, and I've always felt like I was racing the distance rather than the other runners. This was nothing like that. I don't know if it was because I was near the front in my group, or because it was my first bike race, but the competitiveness in me kicked-in and I started hammering it. I immediately started picking off bikers one at a time: coast up behind them, pass on the left, then move back over to the right. There's a 2:00 penalty for taking more than 15 seconds to pass someone, so I couldn't just stay to the left and fly by everyone. Over the entire bike course I was only passed once (by Kate's dad Will, who I re-passed near the end), and I passed over 35 people. 

I was ignoring my speedometer and just focusing on the next person in front of me. I kept an eye on my heart rate, which was still a bit higher than I'm used to, but I felt good and kept hammering away. I had one bottle of gatorade with me and drank from that every 5 minutes. I got into a good rhythm passing one person after another, and the bike course seemed to go very quickly as a result. 

One thing that was challenging was traffic. They didn't fully close the bike course to cars, so there were several times where we had to weave in and out of traffic. Near the half-way mark there was a truck towing a boat, and as I passed him on the left he drifted a bit and almost hit me! At a few of the turns there were cars stopped waiting for the traffic cop to let them go, and one driver started to open his car door right as I flew by at 20mph, which gave me a bit of a scare. All of these cars caused the bikers to bunch up a bit too, which slowed everything down several times.

When I got near the end I slowed down a bit to keep my heart rate low for transition, but then I saw Wiley taking photos so I climbed out of my saddle and sprinted for the last 30 seconds.

Bike: 41:14. The bike course was long too (12.79 miles according to google maps), so this averages out to a 3:13/mile pace. Not what I had hoped, but I hadn't considered the logistics of traffic and having to pass people individually.

I had practiced the bike-to-run transition several times during training, but I hadn't considered having to run 100 yards from the dismount spot to the bike rack. When I got off the bike my legs felt like jelly, and it was a bit hard to run the bike back to the transition area. I quickly racked my bike, took off my helmet, and ran out of transition.

Transition 2: 0:57. Second fastest transition in my group, and the top person was only one second faster (0:56). Very pleased with this, though I had a nagging feeling I was forgetting something...

Here are the mile breakdowns for the run, and how I felt for each one.

• Mile 1: 10:30. "WHY DO MY LEGS HATE ME SO MUCH?"
• Mile 2: 10:09. "Okay, feeling a little better, but I'm still afraid to push it."
• Mile 3: 9:22. "FLASH, AHHHHHH, SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE"

The run was painful from the start: my heart rate was in the 190s again, my quads hurt, and my calves felt like they were on the brink of cramping. It was immediately obvious that a 5K PR was out of the question. I quickly changed my goal to try to run without walking at all, which I failed when I walked for 15 seconds through the water station at the Mile 1 marker. That short walk helped a lot though, and I felt a bit invigorated as I started running again.

Shortly after that a middle-aged black man with an Ironman tattoo on the back of his leg passed me. "Go Ironman!" I yelled, and he flashed me a thumbs-up. I chatted him up after the race and learned that he was in the 1983 Ironman Championships in Kona, Hawaii. 

I coasted along tentatively on my legs for a while, before suddenly realizing what I forgot in transition: my running bib. I had pre-attached them to a pair of running shorts (you can see them in the transition photo I took before the race) so all I needed to do was throw them on over my triathlon shorts, but I completely forgot. That's a 2 minute penalty, and it meant that they might not be able to identify me in some of the photos that the professionals took along the course. Damn! Every time I passed a race official I nervously hoped they wouldn't notice. 

When I passed the second mile marker I felt like I had finally "found my running legs", so I leaned forward and sped up. In training whenever I ran too hard my throat would start to close up and it would become difficult to breathe, and I ran as hard as I could without reaching that point. As we rounded the corner onto Jamestown road for the final half-mile the adrenaline kicked-in and I ran even faster. One spectator saw me running behind two women and yelled: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON'T LET THOSE GIRLS BEAT YOU, PASS THEM!" I laughed and obliged him, saying "I'm sorry, he told me to!" as I passed the girls, but they weren't offended at all. I'm just glad Bre and Tara weren't there to hear him yell that!

I passed several more people in the final stretch, and finally felt good enough to enjoy myself. I ran down the victory chute feeling amazing.

Run: 30:01. Painful, but I'm happy with my effort. And I wasn't penalized for forgetting my bib!

Finishing Time: 1:38:17. 

I'll post more thoughts tomorrow, but overall I'm very pleased with myself. I finished 9th out of 38 in the Novice Men group, and 208th out of 314 total men. You can see the full results here.

Tara, Wiley, and Bre, gracious enough to ignore how bad I probably smell.