Thursday, October 27, 2005
188.5
So, that's my weight as of 3 minutes ago: 188.5. I want to be under 180 by Thanksgiving (impossible) and I want a permanent weight of about 170. I think the best case scenario is that I get below 180 by Christmas. I'll keep trying though. I'm about to drastically cut back no my alcohol even more than I've done right now and that should help.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
IronStar Race Report: DNF
My first triathlon was the St. Anthony's Triathlon back in April. During my training, my coach, Matt, thought that I had made enough progress and that I could be ready for a half Ironman with the right training by the end of the year. Well, this got my thinking that I could actually do this. Matt has a coaching program on the side so after St. Anthony's, I decided to join Matt's coaching program for the half Ironman.
Then, there was a problem. After St. A's, I developed peroneal tendonitis in my right leg. Not fun. Because of the tendonitis, I had my first DNF at the CapTexTri in Austin in May. I did the swim, did the bike, came out of T2, and turned in my chip. It wasn't worth trying to run on it since every time I ran, it started to hurt. I started physical therapy in June for my tendonitis and kept at it until last week.
I started running again and I did the Dilloman sprint tri here in Austin and I actually won my age group with minimal running. My PT had correct a lot of stuff in my running form and I was much more efficient and faster with little training.
About the time that I started my PT was also about the time that I started my HIM training. It was going well, except for the fact that I couldn't run. If I'm healthy, I follow a training regiment pretty strictly, but since I was hurt, I half assed a lot of the training. I also had other things come up in my life. Work picked up and I was working 60 hours a week for a few weeks. I bought a house and moved into it. I got sick 4 times in 4 weeks. I travelled a lot and had people visit me in Austin. All of this happened between June when I started training and October when my race was going to happen. Between all of this, I had minimal training. I averaged working out 3 times a week over the last 4 months. Pathetic. Towards the last 3-4 weeks before the race, I got serious about training again and just did some LSD to keep my aerobic base up. Training had gone out the window, so I was in a mode to just do anything to get ready for the race. The longest that I had run since I was injured was 6 miles and the longest bike ride was about 30. Swimming was at most 2000 yards.
Right before the race, I wasn't worried about the swim or the bike. I've done that kind of mileage before and it wasn't an issue. However, I had never run 13.1 miles before, especially after being injured for so long. I had enough of an aerobic base to attempt the race without any problems, except for the run.
I went to the race with a bunch of my friends who've started a small training group called the Austin Tri Chicks. They are basically a bunch of TNT alumna that still are friends and compete in triathlons together. Most of them were doing relays this weekend, but I was going to attempt the full race and so was an ATC chick. All weekend, it was me and 7 girls. It was interesting. They were getting worried about saying stuff that would embarrass me because I know these girls pretty well and they can get pretty vulgar. Most guys would be freaked out and looking for a manly place like a sports bar when they hear comments like "How come my period always knows when I'm about to race","These shorts chafe my cooter", and "Hey, I can see your areola through your tri top!" For some reason, I prefer being around outspoken and vulgar chicks so this stuff didn't phase me at all.
I was really relaxed for this race. I hadn't been training for it well and I had no expectations for it. I was just going to do it and see what happened. I still carb loaded like a mofo though. I hate carb loading. I like to eat, but eating 5000 calories a day of healthy good is just ridiculous. I was sick of eating. And carb loading upsets my stomach a bit since my body has to process so much food. I was hydrating well except for the night before the race. We went to a friend's parents house to have pasta dinner and I ended up having almost an entire bottle of wine by myself. Yep, that is how seriously I was taking this race.
The morning of the race I wasn't that nervous, but my stomach was. I had 4 RP's that morning which is typical. I could never been without line of sight of a portapotty because of my stomach. It would just hit me and then I would have to run over uncomfortably and do my business. The problem with race morning was that it was cold. Freaking cold. I wore my race shoes that morning to the transition area and once the T-area closed, I had about 30 minutes before my wave went off. It was cold, the grass was wet, and I didn't bring a wetsuit; I was kinda freezing.
I was in the last wave of 4 that morning. I watched the first 2 waves go off and then I went into the water. It was warmer than the air outside and I didn't want to get out. I peed and then reluctantly got out to get ready for my wave. I saw some of the Austin Tri Chicks and they were loud and obnoxious cheering on everyone they knew. Those girls are awesome. I got in the back of my wave because I was just going to go slow and pace myself. The gun went off and I was so glad to be back into the warm water. I just swam my race. Nothing special. I swallowed a lot of water, but I just took it nice and easy. The swim wasn't that rough and I've come a long way since the near panic attack that I had at St. Anthony's. I averaged about 1:50/100m which isn't bad since I didn't have a wetsuit and and it was slightly faster than my pace at St. Anthony's. I'm capable of a lot better (only a 35:38 on race day), but training sucked. The only funny thing was the water level was really low and at one point in the middle of the lake, you could get up, stand, and actually run through the water. I did that for a needed rest.
Came out of the water and sprinted to T1. A lot of other people take a leisurely pace through the transition areas. Not me. I passed several people on the run from the beach to the T-area. Since I didn't have a wetsuit, no need in taking one off so my T1 time was really fast. About 1:23. My goal this weekend was to have some really fast transition times. For T1, I had the second fastest time out of 35 in my age group. I'm happy. I could shave even more time off if I could do the rubber band pedal trick and if I didn't have to shove a water bottle and Gu's into my tritop pockets. Also, if I race, I always wear my tritop with or without a wetsuit. That way, I don't have to worry about putting on a jersey on a wet body which saves a ton of time. Came out of T1 with my bike and once again, I passed a couple of people.
I got on the bike and this was my favorite part of the event: the bike. I love the bike. Running is a bigger stress relief for me, but cycling is much, much more fun. Mainly because I'm better at it and I like going fast. Problem this time was that I was wet and the air temp was maybe 60 degrees. I froze for the first 45 minutes of the bike. At one point, I offered a girl to trade a Gu for her arm warmers. She said no. I got on the bike and was going pretty fast. Most of the pavement on the first half of the bike was nice, smooth, and fast. I was moving at a pretty good pace. My heart rate was really high, but once I settled in, it lowered after about 15 minutes. My goal was to keep my heart rate on the flats in the 145-150 range which is Zone 1 for me. I did it most of the way, too. The scenery was great. We went through a national forest so it was shaded, not windy, and very pretty. I saw Kerri first and talked to her a bit and then kept going. I was pushing a cadence of around 95 at first which was using some muscles from my legs, but I felt good. I really tried to not push myself so hard since I knew and still had 50ish miles to go and an attempt at a 13.1 mile run.
The bike ride was fun. I was talking to people. I was thanking the volunteers. The scenery was awesome. A great ride. I was tucked away in my aero position. Gu eating and Gatorade drinking were going as roughly planned. I was feeling good except for my hip flexors and my left back muscles. I had to stretch out my hip flexors and my back every 20-30 minutes because they were hurting. I have never had my hip flexors hurt that much before. Weird. About 1:20 into my ride, I caught up to Christina. We chatted a bit and then we went through the first bottle exchange together. Now, here is one thing I wish this race and all races would do. They give you about 200 yard warning for the bottle exchange. I really, really wish they gave about a 1 mile warning so that you had time to finish up what's left in your aero bottle, empty your normal water bottle into your aero bottle, and do all that other stuff and be ready to toss the empties and collect new bottles. Just a note to all the race directors out there.
I left Christina once I got her singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Lepperd and continued my race. About 10 minutes later, I ran into Helen and talked to her for a bit as well. Both of her computers weren't working so she had no clue as to how far she had gone or how fast her pace was. I left her and kept going. At this point, I was starting to get tired. The course was a bunch of rolling hills and I like rollers. I like flats and rollers with short hills. This course was the latter. I usually attack hills, but since I'm a bigger guy, if I attack a long hill, it can destroy me. These hills were long enough so that I could feel satisfied by attacking hills, but they wouldn't wipe me out. There were a few hills that wiped me out, but not many. I was keeping an eye on my cadence and my heart rate very closely and I was regulating them well. I would actually rest my legs by going faster on the downhills by putting my bike in a very large gear and drop my cadence to about 80. I would be going faster, but resting my legs since I didn't have such a high cadence. It came to a point though that my legs were getting tired, though. To account for this, I had to up my cadence and not hammer on the pedals so much. I upped my cadence to over 100 and I was in the small chainring a lot of times. I still would attack on the hills, mainly to stretch out my hip flexors and to get out of the saddle, but I would do it in the small chainring. Even doing this, I was still flying by people. I finally caught up to Michael and Chris and I chatted with both of them for a bit.
I was nearing the end of the bike course and I had to take an assessment of how I felt. I felt fine. Well, mostly fine. Maybe I pushed myself a little too hard on the bike (2:48:16), but I knew my run was shot whether I took the bike slow or fast so I took it fast. My left hamstring, both my hip flexors, my left back, and my right knee were bothering me at this point. My knee concerned me the most because I've had a minor, but nagging injury in that knee for over 1.5 years now. I came into the resort and got my feet out of my shoes. I cruised into T2 and had another quick transition. This time, I was 3rd fastest, but I don't think I could have done much better. The most amount of time was spent putting my socks and shoes on. Not much I could change there. I was out of T2 in 1:13 and on the run course.
I felt fine, but I decided to walk a bit to calm down and really assess how I felt. Walking was fine and none of the problems on the bike were hurting now. However, my right calf was hurting. Guess what, it was my peroneal muscles. I walked a bit and tried running. As I ran, my calf got tighter and tighter. I stopped and stretched. Walked. Stretched. Ran. Calf tightens. Walked. Stretched. You get the picture. I was debating on what I should do. I wanted to run next week and this was going to be really, really tough for me to attempt 13.1 with so little run training. I made it about a mile and a half doing the stretch/walk/run/tighten thing over and over before I decided to end my race. I turned around and walked the 20 minutes back to the transition area. I saw Tiffany, Michael, Alexis, and Helen running out as I was walking in and I wished each of them good luck and to run for me since I couldn't run. I'll usually cheer people on, but I didn't say much to anyone walking back. I was extremely disappointed that I had to drop out. I knew it was the right decision considering my peroneals were hurting and I knew how much trouble I went through not being able to run before, but I wanted to run today. Luckily, I could look further than today, but it doesn't make it any easier.
I went back and hung out with a bunch of the Austin Tri Chicks and told them my story. I was really grumpy and didn't say much. It took me a couple of hours (and a few beers) before I was feeling chipper again. Then, I started looking on the bright side. Everyone else had a great race and Helen actually completed the entire thing. Christina, my semi-regular training partner, had an awesome bike and I knew she would do great, but she was really concerned about it. She was afraid Tiffany was going to kill her after Christina pulls in with a 4+ hour bike ride, but that team actually got 3rd place for the women's relay. Christina and I have been training together for a few months now and I've noticed that she has gotten a lot stronger on the bike during those months. She did great. Tiffany had a great run. Chris and Michael both said they had bad days, but they actually got to finish the race. My highlights were pretty good. I had a comfortable swim and a great bike considering how little that I trained for this. I kicked ass at transitions, 2nd and 3rd for T1 and T2 respectively, and I've come a long way on my transitions lately. I had fun all weekend and I enjoyed being out in the sun all day long.
Now that I'm writing this the next day, I'm not feeling that sore. I had some new and interesting and painful chafing in my crotch area, but that is expected. My peroneal tendonitis was throbbing this morning, but not bad. I think it should be fine. I'm still disappointed that I had to DNF my first half Ironman-distance race, but it was the smart decision. This just makes me that much more focused for Ironman Florida in 2006. I have 1 year and 2 weeks to get ready. In that time, I have to manange work, a new house, PT prereqs, and hopefully dating while starting a new training program that will probably take up 20+ hours of my time per week. It's crazy, but not everyone is willing to do crazy things and expects to succeed.
Then, there was a problem. After St. A's, I developed peroneal tendonitis in my right leg. Not fun. Because of the tendonitis, I had my first DNF at the CapTexTri in Austin in May. I did the swim, did the bike, came out of T2, and turned in my chip. It wasn't worth trying to run on it since every time I ran, it started to hurt. I started physical therapy in June for my tendonitis and kept at it until last week.
I started running again and I did the Dilloman sprint tri here in Austin and I actually won my age group with minimal running. My PT had correct a lot of stuff in my running form and I was much more efficient and faster with little training.
About the time that I started my PT was also about the time that I started my HIM training. It was going well, except for the fact that I couldn't run. If I'm healthy, I follow a training regiment pretty strictly, but since I was hurt, I half assed a lot of the training. I also had other things come up in my life. Work picked up and I was working 60 hours a week for a few weeks. I bought a house and moved into it. I got sick 4 times in 4 weeks. I travelled a lot and had people visit me in Austin. All of this happened between June when I started training and October when my race was going to happen. Between all of this, I had minimal training. I averaged working out 3 times a week over the last 4 months. Pathetic. Towards the last 3-4 weeks before the race, I got serious about training again and just did some LSD to keep my aerobic base up. Training had gone out the window, so I was in a mode to just do anything to get ready for the race. The longest that I had run since I was injured was 6 miles and the longest bike ride was about 30. Swimming was at most 2000 yards.
Right before the race, I wasn't worried about the swim or the bike. I've done that kind of mileage before and it wasn't an issue. However, I had never run 13.1 miles before, especially after being injured for so long. I had enough of an aerobic base to attempt the race without any problems, except for the run.
I went to the race with a bunch of my friends who've started a small training group called the Austin Tri Chicks. They are basically a bunch of TNT alumna that still are friends and compete in triathlons together. Most of them were doing relays this weekend, but I was going to attempt the full race and so was an ATC chick. All weekend, it was me and 7 girls. It was interesting. They were getting worried about saying stuff that would embarrass me because I know these girls pretty well and they can get pretty vulgar. Most guys would be freaked out and looking for a manly place like a sports bar when they hear comments like "How come my period always knows when I'm about to race","These shorts chafe my cooter", and "Hey, I can see your areola through your tri top!" For some reason, I prefer being around outspoken and vulgar chicks so this stuff didn't phase me at all.
I was really relaxed for this race. I hadn't been training for it well and I had no expectations for it. I was just going to do it and see what happened. I still carb loaded like a mofo though. I hate carb loading. I like to eat, but eating 5000 calories a day of healthy good is just ridiculous. I was sick of eating. And carb loading upsets my stomach a bit since my body has to process so much food. I was hydrating well except for the night before the race. We went to a friend's parents house to have pasta dinner and I ended up having almost an entire bottle of wine by myself. Yep, that is how seriously I was taking this race.
The morning of the race I wasn't that nervous, but my stomach was. I had 4 RP's that morning which is typical. I could never been without line of sight of a portapotty because of my stomach. It would just hit me and then I would have to run over uncomfortably and do my business. The problem with race morning was that it was cold. Freaking cold. I wore my race shoes that morning to the transition area and once the T-area closed, I had about 30 minutes before my wave went off. It was cold, the grass was wet, and I didn't bring a wetsuit; I was kinda freezing.
I was in the last wave of 4 that morning. I watched the first 2 waves go off and then I went into the water. It was warmer than the air outside and I didn't want to get out. I peed and then reluctantly got out to get ready for my wave. I saw some of the Austin Tri Chicks and they were loud and obnoxious cheering on everyone they knew. Those girls are awesome. I got in the back of my wave because I was just going to go slow and pace myself. The gun went off and I was so glad to be back into the warm water. I just swam my race. Nothing special. I swallowed a lot of water, but I just took it nice and easy. The swim wasn't that rough and I've come a long way since the near panic attack that I had at St. Anthony's. I averaged about 1:50/100m which isn't bad since I didn't have a wetsuit and and it was slightly faster than my pace at St. Anthony's. I'm capable of a lot better (only a 35:38 on race day), but training sucked. The only funny thing was the water level was really low and at one point in the middle of the lake, you could get up, stand, and actually run through the water. I did that for a needed rest.
Came out of the water and sprinted to T1. A lot of other people take a leisurely pace through the transition areas. Not me. I passed several people on the run from the beach to the T-area. Since I didn't have a wetsuit, no need in taking one off so my T1 time was really fast. About 1:23. My goal this weekend was to have some really fast transition times. For T1, I had the second fastest time out of 35 in my age group. I'm happy. I could shave even more time off if I could do the rubber band pedal trick and if I didn't have to shove a water bottle and Gu's into my tritop pockets. Also, if I race, I always wear my tritop with or without a wetsuit. That way, I don't have to worry about putting on a jersey on a wet body which saves a ton of time. Came out of T1 with my bike and once again, I passed a couple of people.
I got on the bike and this was my favorite part of the event: the bike. I love the bike. Running is a bigger stress relief for me, but cycling is much, much more fun. Mainly because I'm better at it and I like going fast. Problem this time was that I was wet and the air temp was maybe 60 degrees. I froze for the first 45 minutes of the bike. At one point, I offered a girl to trade a Gu for her arm warmers. She said no. I got on the bike and was going pretty fast. Most of the pavement on the first half of the bike was nice, smooth, and fast. I was moving at a pretty good pace. My heart rate was really high, but once I settled in, it lowered after about 15 minutes. My goal was to keep my heart rate on the flats in the 145-150 range which is Zone 1 for me. I did it most of the way, too. The scenery was great. We went through a national forest so it was shaded, not windy, and very pretty. I saw Kerri first and talked to her a bit and then kept going. I was pushing a cadence of around 95 at first which was using some muscles from my legs, but I felt good. I really tried to not push myself so hard since I knew and still had 50ish miles to go and an attempt at a 13.1 mile run.
The bike ride was fun. I was talking to people. I was thanking the volunteers. The scenery was awesome. A great ride. I was tucked away in my aero position. Gu eating and Gatorade drinking were going as roughly planned. I was feeling good except for my hip flexors and my left back muscles. I had to stretch out my hip flexors and my back every 20-30 minutes because they were hurting. I have never had my hip flexors hurt that much before. Weird. About 1:20 into my ride, I caught up to Christina. We chatted a bit and then we went through the first bottle exchange together. Now, here is one thing I wish this race and all races would do. They give you about 200 yard warning for the bottle exchange. I really, really wish they gave about a 1 mile warning so that you had time to finish up what's left in your aero bottle, empty your normal water bottle into your aero bottle, and do all that other stuff and be ready to toss the empties and collect new bottles. Just a note to all the race directors out there.
I left Christina once I got her singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Lepperd and continued my race. About 10 minutes later, I ran into Helen and talked to her for a bit as well. Both of her computers weren't working so she had no clue as to how far she had gone or how fast her pace was. I left her and kept going. At this point, I was starting to get tired. The course was a bunch of rolling hills and I like rollers. I like flats and rollers with short hills. This course was the latter. I usually attack hills, but since I'm a bigger guy, if I attack a long hill, it can destroy me. These hills were long enough so that I could feel satisfied by attacking hills, but they wouldn't wipe me out. There were a few hills that wiped me out, but not many. I was keeping an eye on my cadence and my heart rate very closely and I was regulating them well. I would actually rest my legs by going faster on the downhills by putting my bike in a very large gear and drop my cadence to about 80. I would be going faster, but resting my legs since I didn't have such a high cadence. It came to a point though that my legs were getting tired, though. To account for this, I had to up my cadence and not hammer on the pedals so much. I upped my cadence to over 100 and I was in the small chainring a lot of times. I still would attack on the hills, mainly to stretch out my hip flexors and to get out of the saddle, but I would do it in the small chainring. Even doing this, I was still flying by people. I finally caught up to Michael and Chris and I chatted with both of them for a bit.
I was nearing the end of the bike course and I had to take an assessment of how I felt. I felt fine. Well, mostly fine. Maybe I pushed myself a little too hard on the bike (2:48:16), but I knew my run was shot whether I took the bike slow or fast so I took it fast. My left hamstring, both my hip flexors, my left back, and my right knee were bothering me at this point. My knee concerned me the most because I've had a minor, but nagging injury in that knee for over 1.5 years now. I came into the resort and got my feet out of my shoes. I cruised into T2 and had another quick transition. This time, I was 3rd fastest, but I don't think I could have done much better. The most amount of time was spent putting my socks and shoes on. Not much I could change there. I was out of T2 in 1:13 and on the run course.
I felt fine, but I decided to walk a bit to calm down and really assess how I felt. Walking was fine and none of the problems on the bike were hurting now. However, my right calf was hurting. Guess what, it was my peroneal muscles. I walked a bit and tried running. As I ran, my calf got tighter and tighter. I stopped and stretched. Walked. Stretched. Ran. Calf tightens. Walked. Stretched. You get the picture. I was debating on what I should do. I wanted to run next week and this was going to be really, really tough for me to attempt 13.1 with so little run training. I made it about a mile and a half doing the stretch/walk/run/tighten thing over and over before I decided to end my race. I turned around and walked the 20 minutes back to the transition area. I saw Tiffany, Michael, Alexis, and Helen running out as I was walking in and I wished each of them good luck and to run for me since I couldn't run. I'll usually cheer people on, but I didn't say much to anyone walking back. I was extremely disappointed that I had to drop out. I knew it was the right decision considering my peroneals were hurting and I knew how much trouble I went through not being able to run before, but I wanted to run today. Luckily, I could look further than today, but it doesn't make it any easier.
I went back and hung out with a bunch of the Austin Tri Chicks and told them my story. I was really grumpy and didn't say much. It took me a couple of hours (and a few beers) before I was feeling chipper again. Then, I started looking on the bright side. Everyone else had a great race and Helen actually completed the entire thing. Christina, my semi-regular training partner, had an awesome bike and I knew she would do great, but she was really concerned about it. She was afraid Tiffany was going to kill her after Christina pulls in with a 4+ hour bike ride, but that team actually got 3rd place for the women's relay. Christina and I have been training together for a few months now and I've noticed that she has gotten a lot stronger on the bike during those months. She did great. Tiffany had a great run. Chris and Michael both said they had bad days, but they actually got to finish the race. My highlights were pretty good. I had a comfortable swim and a great bike considering how little that I trained for this. I kicked ass at transitions, 2nd and 3rd for T1 and T2 respectively, and I've come a long way on my transitions lately. I had fun all weekend and I enjoyed being out in the sun all day long.
Now that I'm writing this the next day, I'm not feeling that sore. I had some new and interesting and painful chafing in my crotch area, but that is expected. My peroneal tendonitis was throbbing this morning, but not bad. I think it should be fine. I'm still disappointed that I had to DNF my first half Ironman-distance race, but it was the smart decision. This just makes me that much more focused for Ironman Florida in 2006. I have 1 year and 2 weeks to get ready. In that time, I have to manange work, a new house, PT prereqs, and hopefully dating while starting a new training program that will probably take up 20+ hours of my time per week. It's crazy, but not everyone is willing to do crazy things and expects to succeed.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
My bike is 1 year old!
One year ago, I bought my beautiful 2004 Cervelo Dual. This bke has done me well. I've put only 2000 miles on it in a year, but I like it. I do a lot of my training on spin bikes which makes the logistics of a bike workout much, much easier to deal with. Now that I'm in shape and I have a decent base, hopefully I can put in some longer rides on the weekends to rack up that mileage even more.
Also, I ran for about 49 minutes yesterday. At the pace I was going at, I was somewhere in the 5.5-6 mile range. That is the longest that I've run since I did St. Anthony's. Wow. I felt good though. It was at an easy pace and I wasn't pushing myself too hard. Hopefully this half Ironman in 13 days won't kill me.
Also, I ran for about 49 minutes yesterday. At the pace I was going at, I was somewhere in the 5.5-6 mile range. That is the longest that I've run since I did St. Anthony's. Wow. I felt good though. It was at an easy pace and I wasn't pushing myself too hard. Hopefully this half Ironman in 13 days won't kill me.
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