4 RP's and 1st Place!

I have this thing before a race where I get really nervous. I mean, I eat a lot of fiber so I'm used to going #2 a lot, but race mornings are out of control. My stomach gets nervous and I have to empty the gas tank often. This morning for the Dilloman triathlon, I have 4 RP's (race poos). My record is 5 before the Cap Tex triathlon, but 4 is a usual number.

So, today's race was interesting. I was expecting to finish in 5th-10th place compared to last year's results. I had a lot of stuff going against me. I didn't get much sleep the night before the race or even the entire week before the race since I was moving. I've been drinking beer and eating like crap all week. I was tired from moving and I hadn't worked out in a week. I've been injured and I'm currently running only 4 miles at a Zone 1 pace since I got hurt in April. I was out drinking the night before the race and I loaded up on fish and chips.

I won my age group.

It was awesome. I had a decent swim and I passed a lot of people. Whenever I sighted, I didn't see many people in front of me. I came out of the water and went into T1 at a fairly leisurely pace. I got on the bike and it wasn't pretty. It started sprinkling all morning and by the time I was 5 minutes into the bike, it was hard to see. I kept going and I was actually very kamikaze. I figured that the chances of me crashing riding cautiously were still pretty high, so I just went nuts. I was going fast but still staying careful. I kept my heart rate up as well. The roads were really wet, but they weren't that slick. The first lap had few people on the course, but the second lap had a lot more people. I was getting tired so I was slower plus I was slower with people in the way as well. I went into T2 feeling like I had a good bike. I went through T2 and I heard that there were only 8 men and 1 woman on the run leg already. I was the 9th man. I went out on the run and I felt like crap. The usual post bike feeling. It took me about 6-7 minutes before I started feeling better. I passed the 1 Mile marker and checked my time. I was on a 7:45 pace! I was shocked. Considering my fitness levels and my injury status, I was flying! I kept going and at Mile 2, I was still on the same pace. At one water station, the people said there were only 6 guys ahead of us. I was running with this one guy and we were going back and forth a bit, but he finally pulled ahead. That put me in 8th place. I walked a few times during the race. I just had to stop and get my heart rate down. At one point, I had to pee, but I didn't want to stop. There was no one around so I just whipped it out, kept walking, and peed. At Mile 3, I was still on pace for 7:45 miles. There was no one behind me and the people in front were too far away so I didn't have to battle for any spots at the moment. I went ahead and sprinted to the end. I crossed the line with a time of 1:19:06.

After that, I was pretty sure that I was the 8th person to finish. I kept looking around and all I kept seeing were guys in other age groups. There was no one else in my age group. That was when I realized that I might have won my age group. I grabbed a few beers and some food and talked to people. About 60 minutes later, the unofficial results were posted and I had come in first in my age group! I couldn't believe it. I stuck around to get my award which was a stuffed armadillo. The weather was nasty since it was at least sprinkling pretty much all day and it was almost an outright downpour a couple of times.

Now, I'm back at home and eating pizza as my reward. I'm tired and I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed.

Recent Update

Well, here is an update over the last few weeks. I'm not training nearly as much as I should. Life is getting in the way. Work is up and down. I just bought a house which is taking up a lot of time. I went to Atlanta this past weekend and travelling always throws off my schedule for a few days.

I rode yesterday and today. Yesterday was the first day that I rode in almost 2 weeks. I just got my bike back from my LBS and had a tuneup done on it. It was shifting like butter. It was great. Today, I dropped from my group to go water the bushes. After I finished, I got on my horse to catch up with my riding group. I was hammering with my head down when I hit something in the road. Nothing happened, but after about a minute, I heard a hiss. Damnit, I flatted. I pulled over and changed the flat. I had my bike upright resting on the end of the fork. Some cars drove by and blew my bike over. After I got the flat changed, I started riding and my derailleur was fucked up. Goddamnit. I've had a freshly tuned up bike for less than 2 days and now my derailleur is out of whack. Fuck.

I also jacked up my shoulder in my sleep the other night. We'll see how that is swimming tomorrow.

Swimming, peeing, and flatting

So, recently I perfected the art of peeing while swimming. Note, I didn't say peeing in the water, but actually peeing while taking strokes to propel myself through the water. It was weird because you have to relax and let go while still concentrating on not sinking. Difficult, but doable.

I went riding yesterday and towards the end of the ride, I had my first flat ever on a ride. Took me 10 months, but I had my first one. Luckily, it was a very, very slow leak and I was less than half a mile from the car so I just gingerly rode to the car. I still had some air left when I got to the car, but not much.

I'm back, kinda!

Last Thursday: My first day training again. I went on a slower ride that lasted about an hour. I got rained on towards the end, but it wasn't a bad ride. Slow and easy to ease back into training.

Last Friday: Swam about 2000 yds at Deep Eddy. The water was green and nasty and I was having major goggle malfunctions. I felt tired.

Saturday: I was still trying to ease back into training so I went out and did a 60 mile ride. Total time was about 3:25 which isn't bad. I wasn't trying to push myself, but I did spike my heart rate quite a few times because I was fairly out of shape. It was a good ride though. I went home and had Chinese food and ice cream.

Sunday: Did a 40min ride followed by 28min of aquajogging.

Monday: Did an early morning swim workout of about 2500 yds at Stacy Pool. It was my first time at Stacy and it is a decent pool. I started having sinus problems later in the day, though. I think I might have got something from either Barton Springs on Sunday or Stacy on Monday.

Tuesday: I did some intervals and hill stuff on the spin bike at the gym. It's such a good feeling to have ridden over 15 miles on the bike by 8am. It was about 45min total and it hurt. I'm having worse sinus problems today, but as long as it stays above my neck, I should be fine. Tomorrow is a rest day so I will try to get 9 hours of sleep tonight. I may do yoga today and do some more aquajogging, but we'll see how my schedule works out today.

I'm sick

I've been sick for awhile now. I've actually been resting on doctor's orders and I'm going for my first exercise session in over 2 weeks tonight. We'll see how I feel. I'm pissed that I have had to be off this long. I don't like taking time off from working out because I get fat and lazy. Well not anymore!

That's crap!

So, this weekend was crap for me. I did a great hard ride with Texas Iron on Thursday. After Thursday, I didn't do crap all weekend long and now I feel fat and lazy. This weekend was really, really hot and I had a lot of other stuff going on as well. I was suppose to get a couple of long workouts in and I didn't get anything done more than physical therapy. I volunteered for the Subaru Urban Assault Race which was fun, but it was hot as well.

I had a crappy training weekend so I thought that I would get a good swim in before work today. That didn't happen. I just couldn't get comfortable during the swim. My googles kept sucking in water and fogging up. It just wasn't fun so my 1.5 mile workout was cut down to 5/8 of a mile because I was having a crappy swim.

This is a good way to start off the week.

I'm an angel!

Today, I volunteered for the Danskin Triathlon which is an all-female triathlon series across the nation. I volunteered to be a "swim angel" which is someone who is out in the water with a noodle or two. If a race participant is having problems, I give them the noodle so they can rest or they can swim with it if they want to. I would much, much rather be doing this than being on the bike course or guarding the transition area. So, I was a swim angle.

Man, it was a blast, but it kicked my ass. The course was only 750m, but I ended up swimming it 3 times. The first time, I was beat. I had 4 people that I was watching and I kept swimming between them making sure that they were OK. Back and forth. Back and forth. After that lap, I went back to the start and did another lap. This time, it went much quicker and I wasn't as tired. One problem was that one of the turn buoys started to wander off so it made that leg of the swim a little longer before they captured the buoy again. The third leg was really tiring as well, but it was good. I enjoyed it.

Chris who is the husband of one of my TNT teammates was out there with me. Both of us didn't expend how hard this would be. We are both decent swimmers and are used to swimming fairly fast. We are not used to treading water for 2 and a half hours. Luckily, I wore my wetsuit so I had some buoyancy. If I got tired, I flipped on my back and stayed there for a bit. One thing I noticed though was how strong my kick is getting. It was good practicing Tarzan swimming and doing some sighting as well. It was really different being out there and not participating and encouraging others to do well. I should be much, much more calm when I race again.

So, I had a really good time today.

Also, my toenail is coming off so I will get some pictures of it soon and post those. They should be yummy.

That hurt and was a first!

I was swimming with my TNT team yesterday in the pool. I was in a lane by myself minding my own business. I felt something on the back of my head (I wasn't wearing a swim cap). It hurt worse. It got worse and worse. Now, it really freaking hurt. What the hell! I actually had to get out of the pool because it bothered me that much. Apparently, I was stung by a bee or wasp on the back of my freaking head while swimming. That sucked. Now, I have a small, itchy spot on the back of my head. Well, that's a first for me.

Shiner Bash Race Report Posted

I finally posted my race report from the Shiner Bash. Here it is:

http://erichollins.net/2005shiner_bash.php

It was a good ride and I felt good when I really pushed myself the last 20 miles or so. I will have my race report from the CapTexTri soon.

Today's ride

Well, I rode today. Not really. I got on a spin bike and went at it for about 70 minutes. It was shorter than my planned workout because I went out drinking last night, went to bed late, and got up late this morning. Oh well. I feel so much better throughout the day when I work out in the mornings. I have to start doing it more ofter. Screw coming into work early!

Race report

BTW, here is my race report from St. Anthony's.

Thanks.

St. Anthony's Race Report

I still can't describe how this event was for me.

Another 50+ mile ride & foot problems

Yesterday, I rode another 50+ mile ride. I was chaffed at the end. It sucked. I need to find some better cycling shorts because my tri shorts with the thin little pad are much more comfortable than my cycling shorts.

For my ride, I was hungover, sleepy, dehydrated, and malnurished. I still rode 52 miles. I was feeling pretty crappy at one point and Matt and I stopped at a gas station. We got some fluid and I got some calories in the form of a rice crispy treat and I felt a lot better afterwards. So, I need to bring more calories on longer rides and not drink the night before. The ride was fine. For the 3 hours that we rode, my heart rate averaged 129bpm. It wasn't a hard workout by any means; I just wanted to get some distance in.

I am having foot problems. I have an inflammed peroneus tendon in my foot and I can't run and I have to walk with a boot. This sucks since I have a race in 3 weeks. I have been trying to keep up with my training since St. Anthony's, but it's been tough. I have been pretty good with the swim and the bike, but on days when I'm suppose to run, I don't. I need to fix that and hopefully I will do that this week.

50+ miles and 50+ mph

Today was a good day. I rode for the first time since my triathlon last Sunday. There were two memorable things today. I rode over 50 miles. My cycling computer was acting funny and it didn't start working until we were about 50 minutes into the ride. After that, we had ridden about 40 miles. So, overall, we rode over 50 miles. Also, I send a new personal speed record. I hit 50.5mph going down a hill today. It was freaking scary as hell yet exhilarating at the same time. My last speed record was 43.2mph so this is quite a jump. I don't know if I ever want to do it again.

On a side note, I hurt my foot. I don't know whether it was from my triathlon with a time of 2:24:56 or the fact that I went drunken dancing for 7 hours that night, I hurt my foot. It appears that I have an inflamed peroneus tendon in my foot. I'm in a boot which won't be off for about 2 weeks. We will see if I can run for America's triathlon in 4 weeks.

2:24:56

My goal: 2:30:00
My official time: 2:24:56

Results:
Swim: 28:32 (42nd, 1:54min/100m pace)
T1: 1:54
Bike: 1:04:50 (17th, 23mph pace)
T2: 1:29
Run: 48:13 (55th, 7:47min/mile pace)

I finished 27th out of 134 in my age group and 346th overall out of about 3500 participants.

Overall, I had a great race. I freaked out during the swim, but I ended up not having that bad of a swim. I kicked ass on the bike and I did better than expected on the run. A full race report will be on my website shortly.

2 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes

I have that much time until my swim wave starts for my race, St. Anthony's Triathlon. I can't wait, except for the fact that I have had major sleep problems all week long. That's fun!

7 More Days

I have 7 days until my race. Actually, I have roughly 6 days, 12 hours, and 50 minutes from this posting before my swim wave starts. I'll just round up to 7.

I swam this morning at Barton Springs in my tri suit and wetsuit. It was my final wetsuit test before St. Anthony's. Man, my swimming has improved a lot recently. I was able to swim a mile in 28:27 today. My previous best was about 31:25. A 28:27 swim time will put in at about 26:30 for a 1500m swim, but we will see if I'm capable of going that fast in the ocean in a pack of people.

I went riding yesterday. My bike skills when cornering improved dramatically yesterday. I kept getting coaching about how to take my turns more aggressively. I was told to keep my inside arm straight and my outside arm bent and that my bike will be at a steep angle. Also, to keep pedaling through the turn. Well, I did all of this and I kept finding the cornering clearance of either my shoes or my pedals. So, I guess I was doing it right. On the ride, I averaged about 21mph for almost an hour. I was really slowed down because I had to slow and stop for traffic lights and stop signs. I also had a couple of hills which Florida doesn't have. I keep hearing that the race course at St. Anthony's is flat and fast, but has some turns. I am hoping to keep an average speed of 22-23mph. I like going fast, but let's see if I have legs to run afterwards.

I Will Post One Of These Someday

Now, this is an awesome race report. I hope to post one of these from an IM
distance event someday. Hopefully, more than one of them. I will be
posting my race report for St. Anthony's shortly after my race in 11 days.

7:40 & Yoga

My workout today was suppose to be 10M Z1, 45M race pace, and 5M Z1. I stuck to it pretty closely, except that I had an 8M cooldown instead of 5M. Well, I ended up pushing myself really hard. Over the course of 1:02:57, I ran 8.2 miles which is two loops around Town Lake. Over the entire distance, I averaged 7:40min/mile. For the first 4.1 miles, I averaged 7:25min/mile which is faster than my college best pace of 7:31min/mile. In college, my heart rate for that run was 180+ for the last 5 minutes. Now, my heart rate didn't get over 170 except for the hills. I am now running faster than I did in college and my heart rate is lower. I'm not fast compared to fast runners, but this is freaking fast for me. Hopefully I can pull out sub-8:00min/mile times for St. Anthony's.

After running today, I went to yoga. As usual, yoga rocked and I feel much, much more relaxed and loose now. But it had it's price. Doing yoga after running today was especially painful since I hurt from running. My knees were sore, but I feel better now.

Overall, I considered that I had a freaking great workout today.

Bricks hurt!

Went out for a 90min ride today with my TNT group. Then we did about a 20 minute brick (a brick is a workout where you ride a bike and then immediately start running) after that. It was fun, but it hurt. We did some good hills and I rode on virgin (to me) roads which is always cool. Great scenery. Great hills. I feel so freaking good after working out. Makes the rest of my day. I can't wait until after my triathlon so that I can start doing some 50+ mile bike rides.

Swimming in the abyss

So, yesterday I got up at 5am to be swimming in Barton Springs at 5:30am. It was totally dark at that time of the morning. I started swimming. It was weird swimming when it was dark. I would look up to site where I was going and I couldn't see anything. I would swim and look down and I couldn't see anything. It felt like I was swimming in the abyss of outer space. Really weird.

I rode on the spin bikes at the gym for a bit on Tuesday. My quads are always on fire when I start biking. I hate that feeling.

I went for a good run today. I thought I was running really fast, but I don't know for sure because I lost track of the laps. If I ran 5 laps, I ran an average of 7:05min/mile. If I ran 4 laps, I ran an average of 8:35min/mile. I think 7:05 might have been a little fast.