great week - great workouts

This past week at the farm has been the perfect mix of relaxing, mowing, projects, family time, alone time and....fun workouts. My favorite by far was today's Timberman Half bike course. Since Matt outlined the ride, I won't go into details except to say that I love riding my bike! While the course obviously was challenging, the long stretch on 106 was awesome. It felt great to have plenty of room on the birm, smooth pavement and miles upon miles to hammer away. I held on to Matt pretty well for the majority of the ride. He dropped me on the last long hill. I decided that I couldn't allow that to happen, so on the last mile+ I went into full sprint (about 23.5mph on the incline) to catch him as we made the turn to the park road. Whew! After today's ride, I think I'm going to feel cheated doing the Timberman sprint bike.....15 miles?? What's that all about??

We also got in everybody's favorite Mooseman course with a few extra miles added with a trip to Sculptured Rocks at the start on Monday and several of good swims at Newfound. How is it that I can get so excited about swimming in that lake? I need to figure out a way to channel those emotions when I am back at SVY next week! Although let me just say that vertical kicking in the lake sans wetsuit is tough.

My running took a back seat this week. I did get in 3miles on Wednesday night. We went to the walk/run trail in Bristol. I did my first mile at 8:30pace/ second mile at 8:50ishpace and third mile at 9:30pace. Hamstrings & gluts gave me major grief....sigh. I guess they were ready for Wednesday night track workout instead.

In my opinion, there never seems to be enough relaxing time at the beach. I'm hoping that the Monday after Timberman is sunny & beautiful so we can plop our chairs in the sand and just hang at the beach....all day and do nothing...well maybe a little recovery swim! ;-)

Here are some fun pics of the ice cream place we stopped at after Wednesday's bike. It was homemade and yummy, although we both agreed that the Jordan's homemade ice cream that we had post race at Mooseman was better. Luckily, they will be having Jordan's post Timberman. The actual ice cream place is on the bike course on 106. I told Matt that Amy, Fiona and I will be heading there while he & Shawn are racing!! :-P

Timberman Bike practice

So we went over to the Timberman Course for the 2nd time this week. Wednesday we didn't do enough homework to be able to ride the course without wrong turns. So we ended up doing all of the hills and none of the flat stuff (26 miles). Then we got back to the car and drove the course.

Today, it was less windy and we knew where we were going. I have to say I had my concerns. When we drove the course the other day it seemed like a long drive. How long will the bike ride feel like?
Well the good news is that we didn't make any wrong turns today. So we got to the long straight "flat" section about 30 minutes faster than we would have on Wednesday. (Note to Shawn the part on 107 on the way out is the toughest section).
Much of 106 is repaved and is a great ride. Genine was having a blast. She hung with me the whole way. (G=tough cookie). Really the only section where I think I dropped her was the uphill on the way back on 11A.
The worst road is 11B. That section my arms were taking a beating in the drops. The only smooth part is the center of the lane to the double line. Fortunately it's a short stretch.
When I got back to the lot, I figured I had better try to run a bit. So I pull on my running shoes and head up the road. My legs felt ridiculously huge, like each of them were the size of my torso. I didn't have my footpod on, so I don't know my pace. I don't think I ran more than a mile. Just enough to know that my legs will in fact be willing to run after that bike.

I had predicted awhile back that it would take me 3:15:00 do finish the bike. Today we finished in 3:17:31.
So I looked up some of our friends finishing times and found times from 2:53:00 to 3:13:00. I've got some work to do...

fun times in NH

We got a late start to our bike today. The nice thing was I got to see this because we were late.



At the very least I know Levi will appreciate this post.
Having fun up here. I just don't have time to keep the blog up to date.:-)

A little inspiration

Cooked out on the grill last night. Did deer steaks, corn & small potatoes cut in half. Excellent. That wasn't the inspiration, even though it could be.

Tamara took kids to Vacation bible school at 6:30. I went to my haircut at 6:30. I get back a little after 7 pm. I take Dinah to the neighbors who haven't seen her much since she was born. We visit. I get back to the house at 7:30. Put Dinah down for a mid evening nap. I get ready to run. Tamara says "You will be back to get the kids from VBS". "Sure", I say. 7:45 start run. I set timer for 15 mins to tell myself to turn around at this point no matter how far I am to assure I am back by 8:15 to pick kids up at 8:30.

I realize I can get to the top of the big hill in 15 mins, so I really go out hard, thinking I can always take it easy on the way back. 10 mins into run, Heh, here comes Missy Rose, Man, she is going early to pick up kids from VBS, maybe she wants to visit with someone.

Got to top of hill 14:37. Turn around, burning pretty good, I walk until the timer goes off. Start to jog again. Going pretty good. Car comes by full of kids. I think those kids are in VBS with my kids. White GMC, Missy Rose, coming towards me. AHHHHHHH Crap. Switch off Chrono to time, it is 8:07.

You guess it yet, VBS is over at 8:00 not 8:30. I start to haul. I didn't tell Tamara which way I was going, the baby is napping, I promised to be back. Run, Forest, Run. Another car full of kids I recognize. I am 1/2 mile from home, kids are 1.5 miles on the otherside.

Come hauling up the driveway, both our cars are still there. Run in door, no cooldown, reach for keys. I yell "I'm sorry". Tamara appears from other room. "I took care of it" She says she realized it ended at 8:00 around 7:59 and called the church and Rob was bring the kids home. Then she looked a little paniced and said "Are you OK, don't have a heart attack on me".

I was panting. Definately had the heart up to race speed for the last 1/2 mile. I actually felt it in my legs this morning. That was a little inspiration, Panic. I knew she would take care of it, I was glad that we both had thought through it the wrong way.

A couple more like that and speed workouts will be nothing.

Backed Out

Backed out of another race that I didn't sign up ahead of time. Makes it a lot easier. It was the five mile run last Friday. I knew I wasn't going to set the world on fire, but wanted to do it anyways.

Well, the long story is as usual, long. Short version is Geothermal heat pump quit cooling the house right before the 4th of July. Did not cause harmony in the house when your super wonderful 1.5 year old heating cooling system stops working. Good news is company I bought Ground Loop pump from stood behind the product and sent me a new pump, bad news is I had to put it in. Of course it took longer than anticipated and I was up late Thursday night. Good news, house was like a meat locker after new pump was installed (literally Eleanor had to put on a long sleeve shirt because she was so cold), Bad news I was beat, it was hot (outside) and Tamara really needed my help with the baby after she worked all day, so I decided late, real late Thursday night to not race Friday. That is the short version. Whew!

I still ran Friday night. Took the opportunity to do a fast run for two miles and a third slower. Right near 8 mins on first mile, a little slower on second, and much slower on third. Ran again Saturday. Lots of pushups and abs.

Other good news, may have found local dude with a pond big enough to open water swim only 4 miles from home. Neighbor guy who does tris wants to start putting in a couple swims a week.

More shuffling of kids anticipated over the next couple weeks for camp and Grandmas. Hope gas prices stay level.

Cut-off times?

I am just curious if anyone here has any record of the cut-off times for the Tango? It was my understanding that the cut-off for the first run was 10 AM which would be three hours. Where did I get that idea? It isn't on the website anywhere. I assume then that it was in the race packet, but I don't have that info anymore. It would be an unwelcome surprise to arrive at the race and discover that we are not going to be fast enough to make the first cut-off time. I am not worried about taking three hours, but it would be good to know what the outside limit is, in case things get hairier than Matt's back.

Logistics

Anybody interested in working out some logistics for the Tango? We might need to figure a few things out.

In the meantime, I took my new shoes outside for a real world run tonight. Did a 5K in reasonable time (for me). Shoes are good. I think these might work. I'm feeling surprisingly spry for my size right now. I really hope I can drop a few more pounds before the race so it will be even easier than the cakewalk I'm imagining now. I also took along my new Nathan hand-bottle with reflective strap (interesting brand name given the nature of this blog), and it seemed to be acceptable too. I was concerned that it might feel like doing 16 oz. curls for half an hour, but it was hardly noticable. Of course my arms are not the lightest things to start with, so I suppose it isn't much to add. I might have to end up going with one in each hand by the time of the Tango. This whole "no-aid-station" thing adds an interesting element of problem-solving to the race. I sweat a lot, so hydration, especially early in the race, is going to be very important. Anyone have any hints?

I tried on the 4-bottle fuel belt and that isn't going to work. I can explain in more detail later, but in a nutshell I would say the design flaw is that it can't handle a guy of my waist measurements, even though it fits. I swear I could start a company just making stuff like this. I can never find what I want. How hard is it? We could be the next Camelback.

Do you guys have your team figured out?

Shoes work

Took the new shoes for a test run tonight on the Y treadmill. Two miles and no troubles. I quit while I was ahead. Everything seems to be in order. No pain. No squishy crooked feet. I didn't want to run too far in a pair of shoes that were new to my feet. Mileage is going to go up quickly though.

I also lifted a few things, Matt inspired me to do a bunch of lunges, then I went swimming until the pool closed. Everything's looking good. I even lost a couple more pounds from last week.

Gotta go for another half pound a day for the next 21 days. I still won't be down to where I was last year, but I think I'll be faster.

Neither fantastic, nor damaging

I just thought I'd post since the boys seemed to be in the mood. Sounds like I should have been in Warren. Here is how things went for me lately:

On Wednesday last week, I ran 6.2 consecutive miles. I believe this is the longest uninterrupted run I have ever done. My goal was to run at whatever pace allowed that to happen. It worked. That was good.

On Thursday, I awoke to a sore foot. I decided to just walk a few miles to take it easy. By Thursday night, my foot had swollen up like I sprained my ankle or something, which I hadn't. The pain was on the top and outside of my foot.

On Friday, my family and I drove to DC for a short visit, and I ended up walking all over the place (in the same shoes that had allowed the injury to occur), getting steadily more painful as I went. By Saturday night, it was really unpleasant and swollen. I decided I better stop walking and probably needed to buy a new pair of shoes.

Sunday, I went on a 4-hour bike ride. I didn't map it, but it was probably around 50-55 miles. I was taking it easy, trying to do a level 1 or 2 ride. I have to take my camera out on these rides because they are so beautiful. The bike riding was perfectly comfortable. No foot issues or any other kind.

Monday I went swimming. Trying to avoid the weight-bearing stuff. I took the fins in an effort to develop the fin legs I need for the Tango. I love swimming with those. Again, no foot issues, and I rocketed through the water. Why can't we use those in triathlons? Later in the day I went to the local athletic shoe store where the guys are actually supposed to know what they are doing, and I tried on 5 pairs of shoes. I ended up buying Brooks Adreneline 9's. I have not tried running in them yet, but walking seemed very comfortable and level. I crush shoes, so I am looking for models that do not squish one way or the other. We'll see how these fare as I put them through the paces. I don't have a lot of time to change horses again, so I hope these feel as good down the road as they do know. Gotta run 17 miles in them less than 4 weeks from now.

Today I took it easy. Chores around the house, getting the kid where she was supposed to be, and then went to a swim meet all evening.

I am supposed to be ramping my running mileage up to 13, but I don't want to push this foot. The Tango could be quite an adventure indeed. My wife thinks I am going to permanantly cripple myself. I explained that I am rather durable. She wasn't buying it. Then again, I am over 40 now, so maybe I am toast.

Another fantastic weekend

Friday: We sleep in for a bit then load up our bikes for what will be our longest bike ride ever. We planned 46 miles. I took my GPS in the bento box just in case I get us completely lost or if we need to modify our ride for some reason.
I wanted to pace this ride similarly to how I might ride the Timberman course. Meaning I wanted to feel like I could run when we finished. I think I accomplished that goal. I would have run a 5k when we got done but we had to get home. Jerry and Michelle were going to be there soon.
That evening we took them downtown for the “Cruise in” and met up with Tiffany and Jimmy. He brought his cobra, that is an awesome car.


Saturday: Sleep in a bit, go for a short run, then drive down to Scott and Kryste’s for dinner. Nice to be able to just sit and catch up with everyone.

Sunday: Genine and Michelle go to the pool to swim. Jerry and I go to the weight room. I did better than I expected. Jerry kept the workout moving. It was as if I had a personal trainer. We did a bunch of lunges. I’ll admit I must have gone too heavy with the weight, I’m still really feeling the legs from that workout.

Monday: Evening Masters Swimming. I think I got about 3400m in. It was a good swim. I was really trying hard to hold form. I left feeling pretty good about the swim. My legs were super tight when I finished.

Tuesday: Morning run with Todd. I got a good stretch in before I left the house but my legs are still feeling sore from Sunday’s lunges. I felt super slow. I think my legs were trying to avoid any stress, so I was running tight.

Evening Bike: With Genine, Maija and Bob. I think this managed to work out some of the junk/soreness in my legs. I guess I’ll know for sure in the morning.

I think this would have been the perfect week for a massage. I just don’t see where that’s going to fit into the schedule. Maybe when we are in NH next week.

Almost Ruined it all

Almost ended my triathlon season Sunday. I was in Warren, sorry Jim didn't have much free time to run around, and the kids were jumping off the dock. "Come on dad, do it with us". All right here I come. Running down the deck, I decide to really plant it and fly out far. The deck is composite and at this time wet. Of course the dock is trimmed with a nice piece of aluminum.

Long story short, I slipped on the composite deck at plant time, lucky for me the slip ended when my foot rammed against the aluminum, instant pain. Of course this made me lean back instead of forward, fortunately my head missed the side of the deck by inches. I hit the water, my foot was screaming. All I could think was "Triathlon season over".

I have been able to walk without a limp, but the black and blue mark is nice and the swelling was less today. I had a five mile race planned for this coming Friday, we will see.

I plan to do the real test tonight on a run. I should be OK.

I did not do the bike course for the TANGO when I was in Warren, too much other stuff to take, but I did do an open water swim from the Marina to the Bridge, without the wetsuit, felt good. I did this after I hurt my foot, so my foot couldn't be too bad.

I was never so thankful that the water was cold five feet under the surface.

A guy at work already pointed out that I can still do these things in my thirties, but when I hit forty it is all over.

Swim Focus

As I've said many times before, I love swimming. I don't know why exactly, it's not like I get in the water and speed like I've got a motor. Maybe it's because I believe I can get much better than I am right now. So how do I make this happen?
I've felt my biggest improvements have occurred during/after my sessions with Coach Q. So I looked at my schedule and found 5 or 6 sessions between now and Timberman. So here I go. Another attempt to raise my game in the pool.

In my email to him, I said that I was only interested in working on freestyle for triathletes on a 1500m distance. I don't care about flip turns, open turns or anything else. Yes these things will help your time in a pool and maybe keep your flow. I'll worry about that when I finally have flow to keep.

Some of the things I'm thinking about going in.
1) How to build a kick. My kick is awful. In my opinion 50m is too far for me to kick drill as I just lock up and practice a horrible kick.

2) I think I'm trying to muscle the swim too much. (and quite possibly I'm not using the right muscles either). I don't think my pull is efficient and it's rushed. I feel like he did a good job helping me with this before. I'm looking forward to revisiting this.

3) I'm sure he will find plenty wrong in my swimming in just 25m. I'm going to make sure to have him watch me swim 200+, I'd like to hear what he thinks happens to my stroke once I fatigue. Do I get lazy and completely change something? Or do I really fatigue.

4) Speaking of fatigue. Weights for swimmers. I'm curious what exercises he suggests for dryland training.

Of course I have a million questions, I always do. I'm not expecting the lessons to be structured around these exact issues. Yet I'm hoping after 5 or 6 sessions, I'm no longer wondering where I am with these things.