Observations, heat, and plans for the weekend

Observations: the last couple of weeks have been crazy but I have still made time to get in some good training. I have been diligent in the pool with drills and I think it is paying off. I did 750 m repeats the other morning and negative split the sets. My long runs have been in the 6-8 mile range and have been fun. My tri season is heating up with Wrightsville Beach in 2 weeks and then the B2B 1/2 in November. Its going to be a good time.

Heat: I am tired of the heat. Several of my morning runs have been great due to the 64-68°F temps but the sun came back out this week and it sucks. I am ready for fall. I did 1000 m repeats last night in the heat and humidity - not my best night at all. I almost long for the marathon training weather - 35°F with sleet - well maybe not quite that extreme but I am looking forward to highs in the mid 60's and cool morning runs.

Plans: I am doing my first 100K ride tomorrow. My buddy Dave and I are starting about 8:30 (after we get the kids to school). I have a 30 mile out and back course so it should be fun. I have been planning my food and drink intake for several days - I hope it all works. We are planning 2 more 60 miler rides before B2B in November.
We are going to celebrate my Dads 75th birthday this weekend so I don't know about a Sat run but am hoping to get one in Sunday evening after the festivities are complete.

The weekend in review or How much I hate crawling under the house!

I had a fun weekend planned – long ride Saturday morning, long run Sunday, clean out car – I now have approximately 10 empty Gatoraide bottle along with empty water bottles, damp towel and empty Gu containers – and still get in some basic cleaning and some family time too.

I got in my long ride Saturday morning – I did 40 miles in 2:34 and only hit about 4 stoplights! I even got to ride with my local bike hero for a while. I started at Wrightsville Beach and did 15 miles waiting for the sun to come up enough to ride on the open road. I had seen Shawn earlier going the other direction and knew he would catch me at some point. Shawn pulled up a little later and we talked all the standard bike talk. He was excited for my 40 mile day, we talked about the wind, then he headed off. It is still amazing to me to be doing around 16 mph and have someone pull away like you are standing still! The rest of the ride was uneventful. I felt pretty strong after the finish, stopped to get coffee and then headed home.

Home plans were changed due no power in the master bedroom. I spent 6 hours Sat and 4 hours Sunday diagnosing, finding, and fixing the problem. I am happy to say that I did get if fixed but my knees and elbows are sore as hell from army crawling under the house! It turned out to be a loose/shorted wire in a junction box – as far as possible from the crawlspace door! Due to the lost time – under the house – and a rain shower Sunday afternoon, not much else got done off my list.

Due to no run on Sunday, I got up with the plan to do an easy run this morning – I ran 5.3 miles in an hour. I spent 2.5 miles of my run on the loop around Pine Valley Country Club – I got lapped by a lady on her tri-bike 5 times. She was really cooking this morning. She was down low and really pumping – hope she had a good workout!

Everybody have a good week.

Following the Butterfly

Sunday evening was me time as my wife and both kids were in Vacation Bible School (VBS). I got them safely off and then quickly changed and got my bike stuff together and then off to the beach.

It was a great night – traffic was not too bad and there was NO wind. All the flags were hanging straight down – no wind at all. I wanted to get at least 20 miles done and would have really liked to get 25. I did about 3 miles on the small ring and then changed into the big ring and was tooling along at around 17.5 miles/hour. I was feeling really good, my legs felt strong and my heart rate was right where I wanted it and then… she passed me…

I don’t know her but I love her. She was on a Giant road bike, she was blond, she was wearing black biking shorts and a green sports top, and had a butterfly tattoo right in the middle of her lower back. She actually apologized as she passed me! I quickly realized – this was my chance to draft a stronger biker! I put my wheel on hers, concentrated on not loosing the butterfly and oh my, what a ride. We were averaging just over 20 to the south end of the island, made the turn around and I stayed with her back to the stoplight (a total of about 4 miles). I lost her in traffic and could not make up the distance (I hate traffic lights) as we went to the north end of the island.

I tried to speak to her at the north end as we both were trying to re-hydrate but she took off before I could get a chance to say thanks for a great ride.

I ended up with 24 miles by the time I got back to my car and still managed to beat the family home from VBS.

Hills, those glorious hills!

Hills seem to be a reoccurring theme with my running workouts lately. Living in Wilmington – hills are not much of an issue unless you specifically seek them out. Well in the last three weeks – I have done 3 hard hill workouts.

I was in West Virginia/Pennsylvania for my wife’s family reunion and got in a great run. I wanted to do an easy 4 miler, should take right at 40-44 minutes at AC pace – maybe here in Wilmington but not there. My out and back course tackled 3 hills on the way out and then I had to run back. My time was just over 50 minutes – damn!! One of the hills, on the way back, was 0.5 miles long and I climbed what felt like Everest in terms of altitude.

I have started running with Tom in the morning – to get around the summer heat – so I have had a chance to run something other than the track workouts. Last week we did Summer Rest Road. It is a nice 1.5 mile loop with a 500 m portion with a nice steady climb then some gentle rollers before the last 400 m being flat. It was my first morning workout and I was a little dehydrated – my excuses because I sucked big wind during the run. I did a 1.5 mile warm up run and then we did 3 loops (tempo pace, charge hill easy loop, tempo pace). The first tempo run I was within 10 seconds of my pace (13 min/1.5 mile or 8:40/mile), the charge hill/easy loop was tough – I could not get my heart rate down and I felt like my legs were moving through water. The last tempo was to hold my first sets pace – no such luck this morning. The hill killed me – dead, done, I should have quite then – I had to walk after the crest of the hill and I slogged along to the finish. That was the most suffering I had done in a while.

This morning we did hills at Nunn Street. Tom has an 800 m loop that incorporates a solid hill, some downhill, and some flats. I did a 1.2 mile warm up before we started. My group was to do 6 sets on a 4:10 pace. Our instructions were to start out and build pace to the base of the hill (approx 150-200 m), carry the hill – not charge the hill, then use the down hill to get back to pace and carry the flats home. Tonya and I did our six sets and I really felt pretty good about the workout. Lap 1 was fast, 4:02, Laps 2, 3, and 4 were right on pace, lap 5 was 4:16 and lap 6 was 4:22. We finished with a 1.2 mile cool down and some strides. The workout was hard and I suffered the last hill but I recovered on the down hill and made up some time on the flats. Over all a good day!

My First Duathlon

I did my first Duathlon this weekend, the Duathlon at Brunswick Forest, a 5k run – 12 mile bike – 2 mile run. The short version is I had a blast and accomplished what I set out to do. If you are interested in the rest….

I got to the race site about 6:45 and was about the 10th person there. The race had around 180 person/teams signed up so transition was pretty small. I got really lucky in that my bike rack was in the first rack coming in from the run – no looking for which lane I was in – the bike was right in front of me. I got set up, found the bathroom (that was really nice in that the club house was open for us to use) and generally milled around until 7:20 or so. I did a 10 min warm up run and my dynamic stretches to get ready. I hit the bathroom one last time and went out to the start. I did a couple of strides to get my mind focused and then got in line. I saw several people I knew, said Hi and then we were off.

I had a very specific plan for the race. This was supposed to be a “C” race in that I was going to have fun while experimenting with how the bike ride would go since my bike fit. This was not to be an all out race. The 5K pace was to be 9:00 (my threshold pace at practice is 8:40/mile). I could hold this pace easily and be able to hit the bike hard. I really enjoyed the 5K. I kept my pace even, was breathing easily, and pushed a little the last half mile. I finished in 28:12 or a 8:48 pace. Yah – right on target.

Transition went fine – less than 1 min and I was out on the bike. The bike was where I wanted to see what would happen. Since I had the bike fit, I have not really had a chance to open things up and see how I felt (most of my training has been indoors on the trainer). I wanted to keep my cadence up around 95 and just keep moving. I also wanted to see how aero position was going to feel on the open road. My legs are a work in progress so I started on the small ring and had planned to keep it there for at least the first loop (3 loops total). My computer said I was riding about 17.5 to 18 mph for most of the first loop. This was better than I expected so I just left things as they were. I was riding well, staying in aero as much as possible and doing my best not to let the cadence slow down. I stayed on the small ring for the entire bike portion. I only had one weak moment coming into the last turn at mile 10.5. I slowed down but quickly dug in and got my speed back up to 18 and finished hard. Coming off the bike at transition is always tough for me and I almost fell. The volunteer had to jump out of the way as I stumbled. I saved it and started into T2. My bike time was 43:48 (16.4 mph but my garmin says I averaged 17.4 – it think it’s the to the mount point and stuff that makes the difference)

T2 went fine – just over 1 min. I need to figure out how to deal with my shoes. I ended up just shoving them on and doing the wiggle thing to get my heal in straight. I grabbed a quick drink and out I went on the 2 mile run. I knew from experience that my legs would feel like poo for a while but I was pleasantly surprised on how I felt. I shortened my stride, stayed light and glared at the person in front of me. She had on black shorts and a pink top – I wanted her – I wanted to crush her (OK I know its not an A race but the bike was over now – I can race now). My legs were feeling better and I really felt my stride come back by about 0.5 miles. I caught the lady in pink and began to pick of other runners one by one. I had a couple of people pass me but not many. There was water at the turnaround point and I grabbed a cup. I have learned the crush the top of the cup and drink out of the corner trick. I got in a quick drink and poured the rest on my head. The last mile was fine. I began to try and pick up my pace. I got passed by a couple with 0.5 miles to go. They were side by side and running in sink with each other. I tried to hold on to them but could not. I made the turn for the last 800 m and I did my best to really go hard to the end. I felt like I had a strong finish with a total time of 1:34:52.

The good, the bad, and the ugly: I had a great time with this race. I believe it is important not to race for a pr every time. Sometimes you just need to go out and have a good time. I was totally stoked about how my bike is coming. I have work to do but am beginning to see some progress. The bad – I was last in my age group. Not the worst thing in the world but I don’t like to be the last one listed. The ugly – not a thing. I had a great first Du, and am looking forward to another one soon.

New Tri Shorts

I got a 20% off coupon for my local Omega Sports and put it to good use. I got new shoes Asics 2150's and a new pair of tri shorts - Sugoi Piston Tri Pkt shorts.

I have only owned one pair of tri shorts for the past two seasons. They were a pair of Performance tri shorts that I got on line for about 20 bucks. They have served me well but I finally broke down and got a new pair. I had done my research and listened to several triathletes and went looking for a pair of Sugoi's. Omega had several different styles but I ended up with the Piston Tri Pkt Short (at least that is what the tag says).

I took them out for an easy AC pace run on Friday and I have to say I loved them. They fit different than my other pair in that the legs are nice and tight but I still need to pull the draw string tight to get a good waist fit (made it alot easier to put on). The run went great and the shorts were awesome. The legs did not ride up at all and the waist band did not move during an 80 min run. My old shorts tended to rub me in manly places on long runs but I had no discomfort at all. The chamois pad totally disappeared when I put the shorts on - nice not to feel like I have on a diaper. The shorts have two pockets on the back - I did not use them on the run but they appear large enough to hold gel packs securely during a race.

They have been washed and are now packed for tomorrows bike workout. If the bike goes as well as the run did - I have a new favorite pair of tri shorts. I will let you know how the bike workout goes. I am planning on wearing them for my race this weekend (Brunswick Forrest Duathlon).

Note: I paid for these shorts - they were not provided so I could write a review.

Why you should have a Bike Fit

I finally did it. I went to my LBS and scheduled a bike fit. Now I am mad at myself for not doing it earlier.

I am a back of the pack age grouper riding a Amazon.com bike and I am happy with that but I have really been handicapping myself with a bike that does not fit correctly. Not anymore.

I spent 2.5 HOURS with Charlie at BikeCycles and he looked at everything - twice! He changed the position of my aerobars, seat, peddle stroke, seat angle - he even moved the cleats on my shoes. After 1.5 hours of peddle for a few minutes - change something - peddle some more, we went for a ride. We did about 5 miles through a nice neighborhood and tried everything out. He adjusted my seat in somebodies driveway and then we rode some more.

The changes have taken some time to get used to but I am really enjoying my bike workouts now. I have noticed a definite increase in speed but even better is that my cadence has gone up without having to work any harder. I have had problems with my hands going numb, even on short rides, not now. I did a 1.5 hour ride (20 miles)with no gloves and had no problems. I also had some numbing in other manly places but since the fit - no problems there either.

My advice to you is - get a fit - it is totally worth the money.