Fall is in the air

                 It's the end of September and fall is in the air. The days are still warm (low 80's high 70's), but the nights are getting chilly, running into the 40's. This means that the early morning runs are getting colder. I haven't had to bust out the long sleeve Zoot top yet, but I've had to switch to my Adidas running pants and a base layer shirt under a t-shirt. The other morning it was maybe low 50's when I got out on the run. A little chilly to start the 10k, but I quickly warmed up. Then during the run, it started to rain and cooled me off. Not a down pour, but just a light rain. I wouldn't have even noticed it if it wasn't for the smell of wet asphalt or the occasional puddle that showed the rain drops.
                   But with the season starting to change, the colors are also starting to turn to fall. Leaves haven't really started to fall yet, but the colors are starting to change and it's beautiful. It's funny the things that you notice while you're running. I didn't notice that the trees were starting to change colors before the run, but when I'm not zipping past those trees at 35+ while behind the wheel you start to notice the little things like that. It's the same way on the bike too. I've noticed different smells while being outside. The smell of the mint fields or onion fields as I ride past. The smell of the cows, or of the freshly cut hay. The smells that you don't normally notice while in the car. You also notice temperature and humidity changes as well. You don't realize how much cooler the air can be in the shade until you are roasting in the sun and hit a shady spot to go through. The humidity of a freshly watered corn field totally through me for a loop the first time I rode through it. All of a sudden, the humidity hit me like a while. I've experienced humidity while running when someone has their sprinkler's on, but the corn field was another thickness all together.
                   With the fall, the days are getting shorter, and that means that I'll have less and less of a chance to get out and ride. Even if I can get a ride or run in outside, the smells will be gone while old man winter comes resting his big cold butt over my corner of the world.

                     I've continued to get at least one, if not 2 swims in a week. I'm still just working on keeping good form, and building the muscle memory to allow it to be natural for me. It's frustrating at times, because I want to just dive in and do a 500 or 800 and call it good. But I know that doing that won't be beneficial for me at this time. I need to be patient and continue on my 50yd repeats and occasional 100yds. Instead of focusing on the long stuff, I need to worry about the right stuff. Swimming is such a technical sport where form is crucial and speed comes from strength and form. I have a friend who was a collegiate swimmer and former SEAL. He describes the proper swim form as the sensation of swimming down hill. I didn't know what he was talking about until the other day. The other day something clicked for just a couple of the repeats and I felt like I was swimming down hill. I felt effortless and speedy. Like I said, it only happened for a couple of the repeats, but it was awesome! Now I'm trying to get that feeling back. This morning in the pool there was a guy in the next lane over who looked painful. You could tell that he was working very hard, but not moving very fast. His hips were dragging below the water with his legs sinking down, he had very little rotation and pulled his head up to breath, with his arms constantly crossing over the midline. I didn't get a chance to talk to him much, but all I know is that he was swimming just for health and not for competition. He left before I could even offer some friendly advice.
                   All my cycling lately has been on the trainer, and all of that trainer time is at work. I've still been doing lots of Spinervals videos just to keep me entertained and doing something creative instead of the steady state rides for an hour. I've been averaging 3 rides a week with 2 of them just cardio/base rides, and the other a strength ride. Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of having my bike, and while I haven't checked the numbers yet, I'm pretty sure I've logged over 1500miles in this first year. Not too bad I don't think for my first year of actual cycling. But that's nothing compared to my Capt who will have logged 6000miles before the end of November. I'm still reading the Time Crunched Cyclist book. I'm now at the chapter that actually talks about the programming and what it entails, but I think that I'll give it a go in January (maybe) and use that as my base for the cycling training.
Running is still about a twice a week occurrence for me right now. I'm trying to get a long run (10k) and some intervals done each week. Nothing too hard or pushing the limits right now, but enough to keep the blood flowing and the muscles reminded of what to do. I'm also trying to keep the strength and conditioning up, but there are good days and bad days of getting that accomplished. Ideally, I'd like to get 3 of the S&C days a week in, but that's pushing it I know.
                  Tomorrow is the REI garage sale, and I'm hoping to score some good stuff. Last year when I went, I got my Cycleops trainer for $52 and the Yakima luggage pod for $150. I hope to get some other great deals, but at the same time we don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on the deals. The big thing that I'm hoping to score is a Garmin GPS. I've been using my buddy Gabe's and it's worked ok, but I'd like to get one of my own and give his back to him. Ideally, I've I could score a Garmin 310, then I'd be stoked! It's a mutlisport GPS that can read a heart rate monitor and a cadence sensor for use on the bike

Back to training

               It's been a month since my last triathlon and it's time to get back into some sort of training routine. I haven't been lazy and not worked out at all, but I have been un-structured and just doing whatever. Last week I went for the group ride with some guys from work and it was awesome. We had 9 guys total join the ride. Everything from super serious guys like my captain, to guys just getting into riding. Guys on $4k bikes, and one guy on an old steel Schwinn bike. Just riding with the guys was great. We went on the loop known as Cartright loop and it's almost a 20mi loop with 3 good hills to climb. The first hill was long, but not terribly steep. It forced me into my small chain ring and large cog (25) but I was able to keep my cadence over 80 for the entire hill. So while I was winded at the end, it wasn't terrible. The last two hills though, were brutal! Very steep and a huge nut buster. I knew that we had the one hill, but was completely unprepared for the second hill. Both had inclines greater than 12%, and rocked me. I struggled in the same gearing as the earlier hill, having to get out of my saddle and mash the gears. I never looked at my cadence sensor through the misery, but I'd guess that I was in the 60's maybe. Maybe. After the ride we stopped for lunch and beers and hung out for a little bit before going our separate ways.

           The following day I got up early and did a 10k. I took the Garmin with me just to monitor my pace, but wasn't going to push it. I was mostly out on the road just enjoying myself and trying to not get hit by any cars that were making there way to work. I took a different route than I normally do, and must say that the new route wasn't very pleasant. No real shoulder to run on, and the spots that had the shoulder were up against some farm land and there were decent size rocks that I had to watch out for. My pace was decent, with my only goal was to stay below an 8min/mile. I kept a 7:40 pace for the first 4 miles, and then I hit my stride and busted out 7:05 miles for the last 2 miles. I got into a groove, and it didn't even feel like I was working any harder to get that speed. It was a beautiful morning, and I made sure that I wave a hi and thank you to those drivers who were paying attention and moved over for me.

               I finally got back into the water too. I say finally because I was missing the swim, although I wasn't missing the early mornings needed to get the swims in before work. My swimming now is consisting of pure form work. I'm not worrying about speed, only my form. Keeping a good high elbow catch and pull through the water is all I'm concerned about right now. I am starting with a kick board drill designed to encourage that kind of pull. After a few laps with the board I then move onto swimming at an easy pace with the focus being the stroke portion. Again, not worrying about my speed, or about my total distance in the pool. Next month I plan on buying a swim halo and that will further encourage the high elbow catch and pull and help build and reinforce the muscle memory that I will need to continue the good form through the water. I did end up timing my only 100yd swim at the end of my first form session just to get an idea of where I was speed wise. I did the 100yd at roughly the same easy pace that I was feeling throughout the morning. Nothing hard, just a steady pace that was moving through the water with my form being the most important part. If I had to guess my pace, I'd of guessed that I finished in the mid 1:50's range, that's how slow I felt and how little effort I thought that I was really putting out. Instead my watch revealed a much different story. To my surprise, I finished at a 1:31. This, I felt was huge. My cruising 100yd earlier this year, before the Boise Ironman was a 1:43, and here I did a 1:31 and it felt slower. I'm very encouraged about how it went. Here's a video of the kick board drill that I was talking about. The drill starts at the 3:05 mark and then the coach talks and shows the high elbow catch and pull that I'm trying to describe.

                Lastly, I was given a cycling book to read by my Capt, GT. It's called the Time Crunched Cyclist, and it's written by Lance Armstrong's cycling coach, Chris Carmichael. So far it's pretty good, and I think that I'm going to use it as the base of my cycling training leading up to the season next year. I've already started to spit ball my training, but this program will consist of 6hrs/week on the bike in high intensity intervals designed to build strength and power for rides up to 3hrs. A 56 mile bike for a half Iron should by right at that 3hr mark or less depending on how good my speed is. If I decide to go with this as my cycling program, I will then program my running around it, and try to keep the running <25% of the cycling volume (that 25% seems fairly standard for endurance training). The swim will be probably 2x week, with a third day on the swim halo. Then there will be 3x week of Crossfit with the emphasis being on strength and conditioning. That's the basis of where I'm at in the planning stages for next years training. But for now, I'm just trying to have some fun and work on some of the basics while I have the time.

11 years later

11 years ago the twin towers fell. I can still remember where I was that day. I woke up to my step-mom yelling at me to wake up from sleeping in the loft of their house. I stumbled down stairs and saw the towers fall. I grabbed my pager from work, and sure enough, there was a ton of pages asking everyone to come in and man the ambulances just in case. I decided not to go into work that day. I lived in the Los Angeles area and worked in San Bernardino county. My thinking was that if anything else was going to happen, it'd be in the city and not out where I worked. I had friends in LA City fire and Burbank fire, and thought that I could probably jump on with one of them if it really got bad.
11 years later and we are still remembering. I will continue to remember. My helmet has a sticker on the back that has the Fighting 343 for the 343 FDNY firefighters that were killed that day. We must not forget the fact that we still have troops on the ground fighting and dying to help prevent another Sept 11th. So long as there are those that are "down range" we must never forget them. We can not forget the sacrifices that their brother's in arms have made either. Thank you to those who have fought, and continue to fight for our freedom. Freedom is never free, and we will never forget you!

Happy birthday buddy

Happy Birthday! Not to me, but to my oldest boy, the one that I refer to as boy #1. The big man turned 6 yesterday and had a pretty good day. It was a day filled with a mini-mm's covered doughnut for breakfast. Happy meal lunch, and his dinner of choice, BBQ hot dogs and brats. Normally I would never feed him that much crap in one day, but it was his birthday and I let him get after it and enjoy it. The only thing he didn't have a choice in was going to church. After church we hit up McDonald's for him, boy #2 and their friend who was along for the birthday ride. After lunch was the family fun center where they played in the indoor climber, video games and then some mini-golf, followed by more climbing before heading home. Family came over for cake and ice cream after dinner and we had a nice night. Obviously no training was done yesterday, and I was totally fine with that. I'll update you more on the training in another post, but I wanted this one to be just all about him. Happy birthday buddy, mommy and daddy love you soo much!!!

End of season numero uno

                       With the Emmett triathlon over, my season seems to be pretty much behind me now. I had a blast doing the triathlons, and am already looking forward to the next season. So the question then begs, what will next season look like for me? To start off, I don't have a clue. Most races haven't posted anything for what the next year will possibly look like, and probably won't until closer to January. That is, off course unless you consider Ironman events, which open almost a full year out and fill up shortly there after. I do have a few things on the agenda of what I'd like to see happen next year, so I guess I can start there. I'd like to do the Spudman and Emmett Triathlons again next year. Spudman is 2+ hours away, but the venue was fairly family friendly so the kids would enjoy the time out there. Emmett is close, and was a fairly well organized race. Plus with the kids tri that they put on the day before, I know that the boys will want to do that one too! If the Boise 70.3 Ironman comes back to town, I'd really like to do that one again and hope that next year has better weather and we can actually get the full 70.3 distance done. As of right now, there is no word on it coming back to town. This year was the last year of the initial 5 year contract, so hopefully it will come back. I also hope to do the Rev 3 olympic distance race in Portland. They had one this year, and I'm hoping that they will have another one for 2013. I am choosing Portland because we have friends that live in the area, and anytime you can possibly save money on the travel fees with staying at someone's house, then it makes it more enticing. My focus for next year will be more of the olympic distance, with a goal of crushing 2:30 for any of the events. I was soo close to doing that in Emmett, and know that it's obtainable on a flat course like that for me next year.

Training for this next season is going to be structured around the Crossfit Endurance model, but probably not following their site. I might follow the Crossfit main site for some of the workouts, but I think that with what my goals are for improving, I'd be better served doing my own programming. The main emphasis is going to be on the bike, and then the swim. My running is what I already consider my strength, and will take a back seat to the other two disciplines. I will still run, but I will probably only have one key run session a week, with the rest of the time being filled by the bike and swim. The interesting thing about training for the next season is how to get it all done. Starting in October, work is changing schedules. No longer will I be doing a 24hr shift, with a day off in between for 3 shifts before I get 4 days off. Now, I will be doing a 48hr shift, and then getting 4 days off. This will be different in soo many different ways, I can't even imagine or describe all of them.

                    In the triathlon training world, it means less water time. Why? because I would usually hit the pool on my way to work 2x week. But now with the schedule change, my water time doesn't have to be reduced, but it'll be harder to hit the water all the time because of family commitments. My plan? My plan is to buy the swim halo training system. I'll get a full review once I've bought the system and had a chance to try it out. It's basically an indoor training device for swimming that helps to build strength, endurance, pacing and most importantly muscle memory on what a good high elbow catch is for the water. My intention is to use that while at work and at home to get some muscle memory of a good catch and pull phase of my stroke, something that I know I'm lacking in. Hopefully this will then translate into faster swim times in the water.

                For the bike portion, I'm super fortunate to have a very serious cyclist as my captain. One who likes to race as well. I've already talked with him about his thoughts on my ability to build speed over this off season, and we will have a plan in place to get it done. The nice thing, is that we will be doing the same basic speed building plan together, getting ready for the next season. So I will have an experienced athlete/coach to not only hold me accountable to getting faster, but to push me harder. Right now, it seems that my average speed is around 19 for most of my rides. The Emmett tri I pushed out over 20, but it was mostly a flat course, vs the rolling hills that I normally ride. On the bike, I really want to have a solid 20+ mph average, and the closer I can get to 21mph for the course of 56 miles the better. The ultimate goal is to do a full Ironman distance, and that is 112 miles. But the Ironman dream is still a few years down the road. For now, I want to build some more speed and endurance at the olympic distance and dabble in the 70.3 world. I know that it's early to say still being so new to the sport, but I think that 2013 will be mostly the olympic distance, and then 2014 will start to have more 70.3's. I will continue to do the Boise 70.3 since it is a local race and I have no excuse not to do it.

                Running will, like I said, take more of a back seat. I will try to get at minimum, one key run session a week of a long distance (10k+) and then a second run session of longer distance intervals, 1/2mile - 1 mile intervals. The goals for the run is to push my times lower. The goal is to push myself into the sub 7 min/miles (6:45-6:50) for the 10k, and then extend that into a full 13.1 mile (21k). This should be obtainable with the fact that I can push and do pretty close to a 7min/miles now for a 10k. The biggest issue is just to stay focused during the run and not slack off. Embrace the pain and discomfort as it comes, and push through it. I had my quarterly fitness evaluation 2 days ago, and I crushed the run! It's a mile and a half, and I've had maybe two run sessions since Emmett, but nothing super serious. On Tuesday, I got a new PR for the run at 8:23. My previous PR was 8:28, and that was a couple of years ago. Over the last year, I've had an 8:30-something, and a couple of 8:40's. Tuesday had me do a mile in ~5:25. Granted, I can't keep that pace for a 5k, but it shows that I have the ability to be fast, and now I just need to translate that into fast over an extended distance.

         The rest of my training as of late, has been lifting and some Crossfit stuff. Getting back to my roots, as I'd like to say. I haven't done any swimming since Emmett. It's not that I don't want to swim, in fact I actually miss it a little bit. But the big thing is that I just don't feel like getting up at 5am to hit the pool before work. I've been enjoying the extra hour of sleep in the am. Now, If I could only get to bed earlier, that would be even better! I've done a few rides on the bike, and interval based one, and then an outside ride, but I've been enjoying just getting out on the road and not worrying about my speed. Next week, a bunch of us from work are going to get together for a ride, and I'm super stoked about that ride.

Race report, Emmett Olympic Tri

             Wow, it's been 2+ weeks since I've sat down to write anything out, and since then I've done what will probably be my last triathlon of the season. Before we get into the nitty gritty details of the race, lets talk about the last 2 weeks. I had a 2 week break from the Spudman Tri to Emmett's Most Excellent Tri. Those 2 weeks were filled with some more training, but not a ton. Ever since California, I've had little motivation to really get after it on the training side. Fatigue was starting to set in, I didn't get a ton of chances to train while in California, and I had the injury to my right leg that made me have to take running off the schedule. In the 2 weeks between races, I think I did one pool session, and no open water swims. I got a few cycling sessions done, one run interval done and a bike/run brick a couple of days before Emmett. The cycling was good, I was still pushing myself on the bike a bit, and although I told myself to go easy on the bike for the brick, I did start to push myself there too. I've been getting faster on the bike, and I think that a lot of it is mental. I've just decided to suck it up and push through. When it starts to get hard in that gear, I just push it out and work through it (assuming I'm not climbing of course) trying to continue to build the endurance and speed. My average speed has gone from the mid 18's into the mid 19's, and on the last 6 mile brick ride I was into the 20's, which was awesome! I really want to be able to consistently push out 22+ for 60 miles or more. That would cover the 56mi bike for a 70.3 distance race. Also during the 2 week break I still didn't run much because of my hip. The previous pain in my leg was down low, by my ankle; but the new pain was in the hip right where the IT band connects. I've never had hip pain before, and this wasn't so much a pain, as just a dull ache that was there. My lower leg feels great, but the hip soreness was a little worrisome so I decided to continue to take it easy with the run training. So the little motivation, and the potential for an injury coupled with the fatigue made getting any training done a little difficult. So onto the race weekend!!! It really was almost a full weekend of racing for the family. You see, boy #1 has been talking about doing a kids triathlon if they ever have one. I told him that Emmett does have a kids triathlon the day before my race, but that training wheels were not allowed. I only said the training wheels part to encourage him to get on his bike more and get off the training wheels. Unfortunately it didn't work and he is still on the training wheels. But we did sign him up for the race. For all the kids, there is a "swimmer" and a "non-swimmer" category. My son has been working on his swimming lately, but he would not have been able to do the 25yds across the length of the pool without a kick board, and that didn't seem to be an option. So he was registered in the non-swimmer division which meant that they had to wade through the kiddie pool and touch all 4 corners before getting out. Well my boy wanted to swim, and simply wading through waist high water was not good enough for him. He got into the pool, would wade a few steps and then dive under the water and swim. When it came time for a breath, he'd get up, get a breath or 2 while wading and then go back down into the water. I was impressed, and he was the only kid in his non-swimmer division to even attempt to actually swim. I met him at the bike and helped get his socks on, shoes tied, shirt on and helmet on. Then off he went for his 3/4 mile bike ride. When he came back into the transition area off came the helmet and we ran the 1/2 loop of the run course. He did great! We had to walk at one point during the run, but then he found his second wind and kept going. He had a strong finish at the end, and ended up taking 2nd place in his division.

Getting ready for the swim

Coming back from the bike

On the run

                 On Sat is was race day for me. I went to bed a little later than I wanted to, 11pm, and was up at 5:15. I had some left over white rice from the night before with a couple of fried eggs for breakfast with my coffee. I wasn't worried to much about how much I was going to eat for breakfast as we had a 9am start. At 6:15 my buddy Todd who did Spudman with me picked me up and off we went to Emmett. We got to T1 with tons of time to set up our bikes and make it back down the hill to T2 to get the shoes ready. Afterwards we took the bus back up to T1 and got ready to race. Before the race, I had a zone bar, a 5 hr energy and then 2 Gu gels along with a product called Sport Legs. Sport Legs are amazing! It is a Lactic Acid buffer that helps prevent the burning sensation when you workout/race. I was going to use this race as a base race to see where I'm at fitness wise for the season. I couldn't do that with Spudman because I had the river current on the swim and then got into that peleton on the bike. I really wanted an olympic distance race that didn't have any "assistance" so I had a base to judge on how I do next season compared with this season, and this race was going to be it.

                 Swim: The swim went really well. The water was borderline warm enough to not need a wetsuit, but with the chilly morning air still lingering around and the buoyancy that the suit provides I decided to wear the suit. I got in the water and was ready to go. I was actually really calm. I knew what I wanted to do, and that was just have a good race and go fast. I knew that the swim is the worse of the 3 disciplines, and the bouy that was out there to mark the turn around point seemed to be barely there it was so far out. But I know that I can swim the distance, the biggest thing is to just relax and try to get into a rhythm (something that I couldn't do at the Spudman). Emmett has a civil war re-enactor shoot a canon off for the start of the race, and with the blast of the canon we were off! I was in the middle of the pack to start, but the hands and feet weren't too bad. A few pulls and slaps here and there, but since I was toward the outside and not directly in the middle I missed most of the fighting in the water. I had the intention to find some feet and try to draft off of someone, but that didn't work out for me. The feet that I tried to follow were either slower than me, or faster and I just gave up. Instead I just stayed relaxed and tried to get into a rhythm. I found a rhythm and it just started to flow. I know that I wasn't moving super fast as the majority of the pack was up in front of me, but I was still moving forward. Everytime I stopped to sight and catch a breath I just enjoyed the view of the mountains and trees and the ability to do what I was doing. After about 30 min I was out of the water and into T1.

            T1 is still a little slow for me. I tend to walk the first little bit out of the water, trying to catch my bearings and not fall over. Coming into a standing position from being supine swimming for so long, and trying to run I get a little dizzy, so I walk at first and once I get the cob webbs cleared then I start to jog toward the bikes. Once at the bikes, it's strip the rest of the wetsuit off and stick it in the bag, wipe my face off real quick, put my race belt on, garmin on, sunglasses and helmet. Grab my bike and I'm off.

            Bike: I jumped on the bike and started off. There was a little uphil section getting out of the park before you got on the road and into a slight down hill. Once on the road and into the down hill I got my feet into my shoes and really started going. The course had some rolling hills to start off before turning flat. Road conditions weren't horrible, but weren't great either. With the chip sealing that they do in Idaho to keep the roads maintained it can get a little bumpy and rough being on a bike. I felt like I struggled for a while to find something that felt smooth. They asked us to stay to the right as much as possible while on the bike, but when the smoothest part of the road is where the car tires constantly travel, that's the part of the road you choose to try and stay on. I felt really good on the bike. My legs felt strong and full of power. There were very few occasions where I was thinking about my effort and if I was going to be able to sustain my pace. I was just feeling really good on the bike. We had one more decent size hill on the course which actually required me to drop into my smaller chain ring, but I still powered right up the hill at over 14mph and passed another cyclist going up the hill. The Roctane in my Torhans was really working as I felt great! I was going between the Roctane and a water bottle that I had behind my seat. I was concerned that I might be starting to take on too much fluid while on the bike, but the weather was heating up and it was going to be a hot one on the run course, so I decided to try to not worry about it, and if I felt like water I would drink water. Coming back into town, I had gotten out of my shoes with less than a mile left of the bike course, and finished the last of the Roctane as well.

The smile on my face says it all. I was very happy with how I felt and how I rode on my bike

T2 saw me coming in hot and feeling really good. I had no pain in the crotch like I did at Spudman. I was jogging through T2 and saw the family standing and cheering for me. I ran past them getting high 5's from the kids on the way to dropping the bike off. Socks on, shoes on, visor on and grab my Camelbak Delaney pack and I was off!

Heading off on the run, delaney pack in hand.

               Run: I decided to try and run with my Delaney pack for the race. I wear it on all my longer (10K and up)runs outside anyways, so it wasn't like it would be new territory for me. But at least now I wasn't hindered by the aid station. I hate the aid stations for one reason. They slow me down! If I don't walk through the aid station, I don't really get any water. You get a 4oz cup and then 1/2 of it spills when you grab the cup. Then you have ~25 feet to time your breathing, running and water intake before the trash can. If you mess up, you're choking and have to slow down because now you can't breath. So I would walk through to get the water. But not this time! Oh no, this time, the aid stations were for one thing and one thing only. Keeping me cool. With the temperatures rising, I was only grabbing water just to dump it on my head and cool me off. It didn't matter if 1/2 of the water spilled out, it was going on my head. My Delaney pack holds a single water bottle in a slanted position and is very easy for me to get in and out of the pack. So the water bottle had Roctane for the energy and electrolytes to finish the race. Once I started the run, I took another dose of the Sport Legs, and almost half way through the run I took some electrolyte pills just to be safe of the cramping. The first 1-1.5 miles is always brutal. I didn't get the jelly legs, but rather the cramps and stiffness in the shins, calves and spot cramps here and there in the quads. It's just one of those things that you just have to work through and keep going. Eventually they subside and then you can get into a good rhythm and pace. The run felt good for me, and although I didn't feel like I was really pushing it, my time was still almost a full 2 min faster than Spudman. I tried to push it on the second lap, but my legs did start to feel heavy and tired, so I backed off the gas a little bit but continued to plug along and pass the people that I saw in front of me.

The final sprint

Overall, I was stoked with the race. I had a ton of fun, and was very happy with my overall performance. I was shooting for a time between 2:30-2:45, and I got a 2:33:22. Swim: 29:28 T1: 2:22 Bike: 1:13:44 (ave 20.3mph!) T2: 0:54 Run: 46:53 This gave me a 12th in age group and 74 overall. It's interesting to note that my bike split was almost the same from Spudman, but with no peleton this time around, and then the run was almost 2 full min faster. My transition times were also faster this time around too.

A family affair. The best support a guy could ask for!

Spudman Tri race report

Yesterday was the Spudman Triathlon in Burley Idaho. My first olympic distance triathlon, and one that was "helped" with the swim being in a river down stream. Shawna and I got into Burley with enough time the night before to get checked in and rack my bike at T1. With the set up for the race, T1 was down stream, with the start, T2 and the finish all being at the same location. After squeezing my bike onto the rack, we went to the hotel to check in and grab a bite to eat (Subway). After a very late dinner we went to my friend Todd's room so we could discuss the schedule for the next day. Todd and I had to figure out when to leave the hotel to get to T1 to drop off our nutrition stuff while Todd's wife and Shawna had to figure when they would leave the hotel to watch us. Once the details were figured out, shawna and I went back to our room to get ready for bed.
         Once in my room, I got all my stuff out and together for the next day. It was at this point that I realized that my nutrition bag was not as I had packed it. I was missing about half of the nutrition that I had packed. The problem was that the kids had found the bag in the pantry earlier that day (while I was at work) and took my box of Gu gels out, and my Tub of Roctane powder. Needless to say, I freaked out! The only saving grace was the fact that there was one Roctane powder single serving pack still in the bag, and that at the last minute I decided to grab my Gu gels from my food locker at work. So I had some nutrition stuff, just not everything that I was anticipating having.  With that "crisis" adverted, it was time to try and get some sleep.
       I slept fairly well once I got to sleep. I tossed and turned until about 145, and then slept until 530 when I woke up. Our start time was 720, and I was going to head out at 610 to get to T1 with getting to the start before 7. But then I couldn't find the swim cap and that pushed the departure time back. Once at T1, it was a mad house with people everywhere. Not a big deal except for the fact that the traffic to get out from T1 to the start was horrible. I ended up parking down the road and walking in. As Todd and I were getting close to the start we heard the announcer say that wave 2 was going to start in one minute. This gave us 11 minutes to get down to T2, prep our shoes, get into our wetsuits and get down to the water. So our warm up was the jogging in flip flops that we had to do just so we could make it in time. At T2, I got my shoes out and the socks in place; placed my Gu gels in position and took my watch off. I grabbed my wet suit and threw it on up to my waist. I quickly stretched out my calfs and hips and made my way toward the water. While jogging to the water I pulled up the rest of my wet suit. Unfortunately, in the haste of getting my suit on while on the move and dodging people, I didn't grab the thicker part of my wet suit and tore a huge hole in my right arm near the elbow. CRAP!!! Well, there was nothing that I could do about that now. I didn't have time to do anything about it. So instead I just griped about it and made my way toward the water. When I hit the water, I was even more frustrated as the water was warm. Very warm. Like so warm that I prob wouldn't have worn my wet suit if I knew how warm the water was. Oh well, it's time to race so lets get this thing on!

The Swim:   Like I said earlier, the swim was downstream in the river. Although there was the current, I really didn't find it to be helpful. With the rush of the morning, I definately didn't get a chance to warm up or stretch like I would have liked. This made the swim a little tougher when my shoulders stiffened up on me about 3-400 yds in. I am still struggling in the open water with sighting and drifting. Once again, I was all over the place in the water. When we started, I was right in the middle up front. A little fight here and there with the other swimmers, but nothing too horrible. I quickly was on the far right of the field and needed to come back to the left. Then I soon found myself so far left I was swimming into the bank of the river! I seriously couldn't win. I also couldn't really get myself into a good rythm. The swim was otherwse uneventful. I don't have any of the split times because they haven't posted them on line, but I'll update it when I get the info.

T1:  T1 went well. I got a little slowed down when I had to go back to where I had left my wet suit bag. I forgot to take it with me and drop it off with the volunteers on my way out. Otherwise the transition went fairly smooth. It's a little slow with having to get the Garmin on my wrist, but otherwise smooth. There was a little hiccup with trying to get out of transition though. There wasn't a huge space to get out onto the road, and then you add all the people who simply stop to click into their pedals and you have a traffic jam. This doens't boad well for me who keeps his shoes clipped in and straps in while on the road.

Bike:   I was curious to see what kind of speed I could put out on the bike with this course being labeled as a fast, flat course. Once I was finally on the road things started to move. It as a little chilly at first, but I dried off quickly. The bike took me a little bit to get into a workable rhythm, and I just tried to not over do it off the start. I got into a rhythm just as the head wind picked up a bit, but I kept my head down and tried to just keep my cadence up high. The one Gu pack that I had taped on my bike started to slip off and I ended up having to hold onto the pack during the ride. There were several people that kept up around me, and eventually we some how turned into a peleton. Drafting was supossed to be prohibitted, but with the lack of race officials on the course the peleton formed. I slipped into the peleton and went for prob about 8 miles or so with the pack. It was the first "group" ride that I had been a part of, and I was amazed at how fast we were moving with the little effort that we were putting out. I had trailed off the back of the peleton right before another turn. It was after the turn that we hit another head wind, and it slowed me down to where I couldn't catch up with the group. I had less than 8 miles to go on the ride at that point and just kept on trucking. With about 5 miles to go, I caught up with Todd, although he didn't know it. Todd is the stronger cyclist between the 2 of us, and once I found him, I kept with in 100yds behind him. It was also around this point that I got a wierd pain developing on the left side of my crotch. It was brutally painful at times, and reminded me of when I went on my ride after Antonio adjusted my seat. There was really nothing that I could do about the pain, moving around on the saddle didn't prove to make it go away. There wasn't much left of the race so I just sucked it up. Coming up toward T2, I wasn't sure how the run was going to go with having the pain down there. As I made the final straight away toward T2, I got out of my shoes and prepped for the dismount. The cramps in my legs started to come on while I was working on getting out of my shoes.

T2:    Heading into T2, the pain was still there and I had a little fumble when I dropped my sunglasses while making my way toward the racks. I racked my bike, threw my socks on and then slipped into my shoes. I also took a few swigs of my electrolyte drink and took some Hammer electrolyte pills as well. I grabbed my Gu gels and stuffed them into the legs of my tri suit while I was heading out of T2. My tri suit has 2 pockets in the back, but they are dead center and very hard to get anything into or out of. I have opted to not use the pockets unless absolutely neccesary. I did stuff a tube into the pocket that had some extra electrolyte pills just in case I started to cramp.

Run:    I was nervous going into this event about the run. My leg was feeling good, but I hadn't run on it in 3 weeks. Even then, I did only 2 short training times (15-20 min ea) on the eliptical at work. Leaving T2, I was feeling like crap. My legs were cramping up on me all over. Little spots here and there, and nothing debilitating, but enough to feel it and know that it sucked. I thought that the 10k was going to be horrible, and it would have been if the cramps stayed. I just stuck to my guns and never stopped. Yeah the cramps slowed me down, but it wasn't going to let them win. About a mile into the run, the cramps had pretty much worked their way out and I started getting into a good rhythm. I never pushed myself to the brink on the run, instead I was just focusing on keeping good form and having a good mid foot strike. My only complaint on the run was the lack of aid stations. They had a station right out of T2, at mile 1, mile 3 and mile 5. The upside was that there were many places to cool off. Burley fire had 2 seperate brush rigs with water spraying into the street to run through. There was also several houses that had turned a garden hose on with a sprinkler for you to run through as well. This was a nice relief from the climbing heat as the day wore on. The Garmin said that my ave pace was 7:40-ish, and I was happy about that. I felt good and strong on the run, like I could have gone forever at that pace. I had a Gu gel just before the mile 3 marker, so I was able to get some water to rinse it down. I stopped to a walk at every aid station to get the fluid and thank the volunteers. One cup of water for my mouth, and one on my head. Then off to the run I would go. Im seriously considering taking my Camelbak Delaney pack on the runs with me for fluids. This would make me faster as I wouldn't have to stop for the water. I'm used to taking it with me on the long runs outside of the races, and there is no reason why I couldn't take it with me during the race. The 10 extra seconds that it would take to put it on would easily out weigh the time savings from the aid stations. At the mile 5 mark, I took the last of the electrolyte pills just to be safe. I was feeling good and didn't want that last mile and a quater to be a suck-fest. I feel that the run is my strength between the 3 disciplines, and it shows. During the run, there was only 7 people that passed me, guys who were in the next older age group and were putting out a really good pace. This is oppossed to the ton of people that I passed while on the run. While running, it was just one after the other that was being passed.
           With about 3/4 mile to go, I passed a runner who had to stop because his shoe became untied. That sucks! For him at least; but it also enforced the reason why I spent the $15 for the Xtenex laces for my shoes. The last 200m had a semi steep down hill on grass and it did make me a little nervous with my leg. Up to that point, my leg had been feeling great, and I didn't want to take a spill or get injured in the last 200m of the race. Fortunatly I came through without incident and made it out to the flat land of the finish and crossed over the line in 2:27.  I got my medal, greeted Shawna and got some pics. About 10 min or so later, Todd crossed the line to finish his first Olympic distance triathlon too.

I still don't have the splits, or what my final placing was, but it was a great race, and a great intro into the Olympic distance triathlon. I am now looking forward to the Emmett Olympic distance race in 2 weeks. I'm anticipating a slightly slower bike for that course with no peleton to help me out, and I'm hoping to be able to find a better rhythm on the swim. The run will be faster as I intend to push myself harder on that run than on the Spudman.