After Week 17

This week included a course preview weekend in Tempe.  Redoing all three loops of the bike course and did one lap of the run course.  I had the misfortune of trying to do my course preview on the same weekend as the Soma Triathlon in the same place.  Much of their course overlapped the IMAZ course.  Arizona is still a very hot place.

The long bike ride was very educational for two reasons: (1) the course and its elevation changes are
now hammered into my brain.  There will be no surprises come race day.  (2) I learned I need more nutrition than I had been planning.  Previous rides capped out at one hundred miles, and even then I was a bit nutrition-starved.  This time, I bonked at mile 100 but still had an additional twelve to go.  The problem, I surmised, is that at the beginning of the ride/run, I have the benefit of the calories from breakfast.  But I burn through those as I'm taking down 150-200 calories per hour during the training session.  Then a few hours later, I'm out of breakfast calories but still need more than the 150-200 calories I'm taking in.  So while that amount of hourly intake works (with breakfast) for the first few hours, my caloric intake needs to be increased by at least another 100 per hour towards the middle and end of the training session.

On the way out of Arizona, we stopped by the new Tri Sports brick 'n mortar shop in Tempe, where I was very tempted to buy a new Cervelo TT bike, since the 2011 models are on heavy discount.  Luckily (or not so luckily, depending on how you see it), they didn't have my size.  But, we did get to stop by Rebel BBQ for some delicious BBQ goodness.

Bike: 112 miles + 110 minutes on trainer

Run: 19.0 miles

Swim: 3650 meters (2.26 miles)

Total Time: 14 hours

Gear! Because a Little More Carbon is Always Good

Recently, I purchased a new pair of running shoes.  The running store folks told me to go a half size up, because the front of my toes were rubbing the front of the shoes, which may have attributed to knee pains.

Similarly, my cycling shoes are also snug around the front of my feet.  This past weekend, I did a 112 bike ride that left a few of my toenails quite tender, likely because I'm pushing up with them on the shoe. My toes also are snug to the front of the cycling shoes.  Although I'm not sure if it is related, the muscles at the back of my right knee seems to be very tight.  I figured similarly to my running shoes, I may need to upsize my cycling shoes.

My current cycling shoes are "normal cycling" shoes, with three velcro straps.  This time around, I'm buying "triathlon" cycling shoes - made to be easier to take on and off during transition and while moving on the bicycle.

For the Louis Garneau Tri-Lite triathlon cycling shoe, that means one fat velcro strap.  Going a half size up will also provide extra room for my toes.  Another reason I chose this shoe was for extra ventilation.  Most of the top of the shoe is mesh material, unlike my current shoe which, when compared to this shoe, has limited ventilation.  Can't wait to try these on the bike.

Sherpa Reversal & Doing a Mary

Being an Iron Sherpa is hard work.  There's the food, the support, the training, and a whole host of other stuff too that takes up an enormous amount of effort and time.

So I try to lighten the load and help out a bit.  With the rather large amounts of food I eat every day now, Costco is the grocery shopping destination.  Usually Costco-sized bulk items are too much for any one person (or two) to finish before things start going bad.  But apparently I eat enough to get through Costco-sized items.

One day, I offered to hit Costco on my way home from work.  On that particular day, I had no evening training session planned so it worked out well.  Plus I wanted to get gas too.  I asked Iron Sherpa to send me a shopping list - I absolutely need lists because even if there were only two items, I'd probably forget one if I didn't have a list.  Iron Sherpa, having memorized Costco's layout, sent me the following list, probably because she knew I'd get lost and be completely unable to find the most basic of items:

At first, I thought, "hey, I can find these things just fine!" But then, once I got there... I must admit that the counterclockwise directions were hugely helpful.  Guess she's right to have no faith in my domestic skills.

Then, after some discussion of 2013 plans (read: post-Ironman) , Iron Sherpa decided she would like to train for and run a half-marathon and a full marathon in 2013 (and do a half-Ironman as well).  In triathlon talk (and maybe running circles too), that's doing a half-mary and doing a mary (and a HIM).  Iron Sherpa asked that I don't go around telling people she wants to do a mary, but instead I should say a "marathon."  Iron Sherpa doing a mary, I like the sound of that. I will help her!

Of course, this means I get to play the role of Sherpa (and coach).  First thing to do: set up a training calendar.  Using Google Calendar, I set up a weeks' worth of schedule for Iron Sherpa - what will be her first week of scheduled, regimented training, and shared the calendar with her.  Then I noticed an unauthorized addition to her calendar!



Unauthorized entry! Not a part of the plan!

 Sherp sherp.

The Magic Number is 341

341

Remember that number.  It will be my bib number for Ironman Arizona.  As with all Ironman events, they will provide live athlete tracking service on www.ironman.com during the race day.  All you need is my bib number.  I imagine you can also track by the athlete's name.

341.  Not a bad number to be racing with.  3 + 4 + 1 = 8.  Lucky number for Chinese people.

Gear! Where the Rubber Meets the Road

I've been long overdue for new shoes, and finally decided to go get a pair.  It's a good idea to go to a dedicated running store as the employees there always seem much more knowledgeable than the general sports stores, such as Big 5 or Sports Authority.

The employee who helped me used to run marathons fairly regularly and claimed to do upwards of one hundred miles a week.  A thin, wiry man, it seemed completely plausible and he definitely knew what he was talking about.  As it turns out, my shoes were probably too small, causing my toes to rub the front end of my shoe, which may have been the cause of my knee pains on longer runs.

Beyond that, shoes, I am told, should be replaced very three to four months, as the soles wear down and the shoes generally lose a lot of their support when the materials start getting soft.  Of course, that might advice from someone just trying to make a sale.  So I looked it up - and the advice ranges. However, all of the articles seem to agree on two things: when to replace a show (1) depending on a number of factors including running style and weight, and (2) ask five different people and you'll get five different responses.  One article stated 400-600 miles on a shoe, another put it at 300-500 miles.

Both articles say "listen to your body."  My knee pains should have been an indicator that new shoes were in order. 

brightly colored cartoon shoes

I've had these shoes for approximately a month now, and the knee pain has disappeared.  My toes aren't rubbing anymore, so no skin blisters.  All this from new shoes and going a half size up.  The new shoes are Brooks PureCadence, dark gray with lime green highlights.  I think a lot of the new shoes with multiple highlighter colors makes the running shoes look like they belong on a cartoon.  These are nice and subdued looking but with highlights for visibility, which I like.

Cartoon shoes do look nice though, but I feel like they draw a good bit of attention, and since I'm not a super fast runner, I'm not so sure I want to be drawing that much attention to myself while running!

Back to the new shoes.  They are fairly lightweight and in the totem pole of Brooks shoes, are on the lower end of support/weight.  I have tried their lightest shoes, partly because minimalist/barefoot running is so in vogue right now and I wanted to try it for myself, but never got used to it and don't think I'll be getting into that.  The first time I tried them on, I also tried on a pair of Asics.  The Asics felt like a normal shoe, whereas the Brooks felt like it was a cocoon for my foot.  I was sold.  Now that I've put in a good number of miles in them, they're broken in and feel great.  The lightness helps with cadence but still the shoe offers enough support for my feet so there are no random aches and pains.

30 Days

Only thirty days until Ironman Arizona.  Exactly one month away.

What a scary thought.  Luckily, I have a recording of Kona 2011 still ready to be watched on my TV in case I need an extra boost or a bit of inspiration.  It doesn't look like Kona 2012 will be aired on TV until December, so I won't be able to watch the most recent Kona Ironman until after my own Ironman.

Heading to Arizona this weekend to do a "course preview" which will help come race day.  Knowing the bike course during the Bonellie Olympic Distance Triathlon proved helpful, both mentally and physically.  I've already ridden the Arizona bike course back in March, and will do it again on Saturday.  Sunday will be a run on the course.

As scary as having the Ironman only one month away is... I have to admit, I browsed the Ironman website a bit this morning, and noticed a few Ironman races in very interesting locations that still have open registration: the most interesting being Los Cabos, Mexico on March 17, 2013 or Nice, France on June 23, 2013, though Nice would conflict with dragon boating.  Or what about Whistler, British Columbia, on August 25, 2013?  Can I seriously be considering another Ironman?  Would Iron Sherpa kill me?

More on Nutrition... Eating "Athletically"

There are many articles and much research done extolling the benefits of eating a number of small, light meals rather than one big heavy meal.  I've taken that idea to heart.  My "lunch" starts off with snacking at 11:00am, and, depending on whether or not I have an evening swim session scheduled, I may continue eating right up to 7:00pm.  Even with no extra food for swim session, I may not stop eating until 4:00pm.

Most of the food, as discussed in my previous post, is healthy fare.  But when you want to splurge a little bit on snacks, and a little bit of splurging is not a bad thing, then you should do so in an "athletic" sort of way.

My snack today, athletic hello pandas!

Race Report: Bonelli Park Olympic Distance Triathlon



Bonelli Park Triathlon course: swim in the lake, bike three loops
of the the outer red ring, run one loop of the inner ring.

Local races are nice because there is no extensive travel or lumpy hotel beds.  But unless the race is literally in your backyard, it also means a super-early morning.  Bonelli Park, while local, was still a good half hour drive away. With the season starting off with the Alcatraz Challenge and a good showing in Santa Barbara, this would be my last tune-up race before Ironman Arizona in November. 



The Bonelli Park Olympic Triathlon runs the standard lengths: 1.5km (0.9 miles) swim, 40km (25 miles) bike, and 10km (6.2 miles) run.  Unfortunately, the timing chip the organizers gave me malfunctioned.  It only logged my swim time but failed to log me for the rest of the race.  Usually, the organizers would pull a racer aside to check the timing chip once they notice a malfunction, but I ran by the timing stations without anyone saying anything.  Luckily I had my Garmin logging all of my data, although I may not have switched from one discipline to the next right on the timing mats.  For my purposes, however, the Garmin data would do just fine.



Results via Garmin



To read the Garmin results, each split is a separate portion of the triathlon:

Split 1: swim

Split 2: transition 1

Split 3: bike

Split 4: transition 2

Split 5: run

Closer inspection of the Garmin data shows inaccuracies the end of Split 1/beginning of Split 2 and the run time.  On the race course, after coming out of the water, you come through a gate at the water's edge marking the swim finish.  Actual swim time should be near 36 minutes, with T1 being around 3 minutes - it appears to have taken approximately two minutes to run up from the water's edge to the entrance of the transition area, where the T1 timing actually starts.  This does not affect the total time, just the allocation of time. However, the run time was extended accidentally because I did not turn off the timer on the Garmin until nearly 5 minutes after I had crossed the finish.  This became apparent after looking at the Garmin map, showing exactly where I crossed the line and then hooked a sharp right turn to get out of the way of other finishers (and on to refreshments for myself).

Red dot marks finish. Extended line shows continued (accidental) timing.



So my actual run time should be cut by approximately 5 minutes.  Thus the final results would actually read:

Pretty happy with these results.  The day itself was rather hot - up to 92 degrees, but an otherwise perfect day for a triathlon.  These times are fairly consistent with my Santa Barbara times.

Swim.  Nearly spot-on with the Santa Barbara time, which I was pretty happy with.  I was in the first wave, which included the elite men, so I took it easy entering the water, figuring the ultra-competitive can go ahead and I can avoid some punching and kicking.  Even then, I think adrenaline got the best of me and I probably pushed a bit too much right out of the gate.  Arms/shoulders were a bit tired towards the end, and had a bit of side cramp, which never got too bad and I was able to swim it off.  My left shoulder has been bothering me all week though, which could have added to the tiredness.  The left shoulder I think was tired just from dealing with the road rash, since I've been careful not to touch the rash on anything all week (mostly while sitting position at work - can't use arm rest, and sleeping awkwardly to avoid the road rash area touching anything).  Luckily, my lovely nurse was on hand to help me wrap my arm in gauze and tape for the swim.

T1. Transition times are a little harder to compare than swim times, since the size of transition areas can greatly affect the times.  At Santa Barbara, I hoped to be sub-2 minutes.  A similar time would have been great here.  Even at 3 minutes, the transition time may have been a little slow.  Something to continue working on.

Bike.  Very happy with this time, it averages to just under 19 miles per hour.  The course was fairly hilly, with fast downhills and slow, ever-increasingly-difficult hills to climb.  A faster pace than Santa Barbara, and that course was nothing to sneeze at either, though the wetness of Santa Barbara surely slowed me down a bit.  Familiarity with the course helped as well, having done one loop of the bike course a few weeks ago during a training ride prior to registering for the event.  Always room for improvement, but still my favorite and strongest discipline.

T2. Sub-2 minutes here, very happy.  T2 will always be faster than T1, since there is no stripping of wetsuits, just dropping off the bike and putting on running shoes.  Some of the transition tips I've received over the course of the year has helped with decreasing transition times though, making them not only faster but also stress-free.

Run.  By the time the run started, the sun was blazing hot.  Some of the course was shaded, which felt very nice, but much of it was not.  I don't think anyone passed me during the run, but I passed a number of people.  There was some stiffness coming off of the bike but nothing I was not familiar with.  Easy pace to start, with very short strides to help get the legs loosened up.  As usual, I walked through each of the water stations.  With the heat, I drank only half of the water and dumped the remainder on my head to help cool me off.  Starting Mile 4 I tried to pick up the pace a bit, then again at Mile 5, and sprint for the last 100-200 yards. 

Overall, it was a good day and a very good sign for Ironman Arizona! Training is certainly paying off big dividends!

A final note to congratulate Iron Sherpa/Iron Nurse on completing her first Olympic triathlon!  Hooray!

After Week 16

This week led up to my final tune-up triathlon.  An olympic distance at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, the triathlon is marketed as part of the world's oldest triathlon series. It made for a fun Sunday.

During the week leading up to the triathlon, I was still nursing lots of road rash.  While the injuries were scabbing over and felt much better, it still stung in the water and I couldn't get full movement in my elbow without a stretching, almost Indian-burn sensation on my skin, probably due to all of the scabbing. 


Tricep area healing up nicely.  Or is this Curiosity's
newest picture from Mars?



While during the weekend I left the wound out in the open air to heal, during the workday I had to bandage it up so it wouldn't bleed onto my shirts.  This meant pulling off the bandage at the end of the day - which always meant a little extra bloodiness as the bandage stuck to some scab or raw meat.

As far as training schedule, this week was a light week, in order to keep the body fresh for the race.  A long 16 mile run was originally scheduled, but when I tried running, the bruises on my legs started feeling like they were jiggling about.  After 2 miles, I decided it was getting worse and there was no point in aggravating my pre-existing injuries on a training run.  Better to save myself for the race. I also ended up skipping two swim sessions in favor of letting the arm heal, in case the super-chlorinated pool adversely affects the injuries.

Next week, there should be no more excuses.  No event until November 3 (century ride in San Diego) and then it'll be time for Ironman Arizona.

Scary to think.. Ironman is just a few days over a month away now. 

Bike: 32 miles + 45 minutes on trainer

Run: 15.2 miles
Swim: 1770 meters (1.1 miles)

Total Time: 6:17



After Week 15

What a week!  Of the three disciplines, I was only able to complete all of my cycling sessions.  I also did my functional strength (core workout) sessions, but I couldn't complete the swim and run portions of my training schedule due to a spill on the bike.  A swim/run session was scheduled for the next day, which I could not do in my injured state.

Even without the last swim session, this was an increase in total swim distance per week.  The last swim would have added an additional 2 miles (3219.7 meters) to the total. 

The bike spillage (and resulting injuries) will affect my training schedule for at least the next week.  By then hopefully I'll be healed enough to get back into full training mode again.  Even with the pain and injury, I can't say I didn't enjoy a little time off though.

Nothin much else to report, except looking forward to the Bonelli Park olympic distance triathlon in the next weekend.

Bike: 109.0 miles + 110 minutes on trainer
Run: 12.0 miles
Swim: 5800 meters (3.6 miles)
Total Time: 11:30

A Setback

I suppose it would be a bit unrealistic to think the entire training season would go off without a hitch.  I had a minor setback way back in June when I got the sniffles and was too sick to do my full scheduled training sessions.


A scene similar to the scene of the accident.

This time, the setback is a little more painful.  Riding along the San Gabriel River bike bath, on one side is a rather steep concrete wall down to the actual river itself (see picture).  On Saturday, near mile 40 of my century training ride, I may have went a bit too close to the edge and hit some loose dirt or gravel at 18 mph or so.  I'm told my rear wheel fish-tailed, and within a split-second, I knew I was going down.  Rather than tumbling down to the river, I knew it'd be better to fall onto the path (and hope nobody runs me over).  That's pretty much as close to figuring out what happened as I can get.  In the aftermath, my rear brake cable was a bit loose and my right-hand levers (brakes and shifter) were out of alignment.  I couldn't use my rear brakes for the remainder of the ride, but I still managed to finish the ride as scheduled.

The bike was taken for a full mechanical tune-up after the ride, which was already overdue and now absolutely needed.

  

Beyond the bike, the spill gave me some lovely road rash on my left forearm and tricep, left outer thigh and bruising on both my right and left legs.  My bib has a bit of rash on it, though it didn't rip. My jersey has a few extra holes in it now (which I thought odd, wouldn't it rip, not just get holes?), and surprisingly, my helmet seems completely unscathed.  This may be because I instinctively threw up my arms to cover my head when I knew I was going down.



The day after: damage assessment



This is a bit of a setback.  I did not go on my scheduled Sunday open water swim because of the open wound.  Monday's long run was also cut short because the bruises on my legs were bothering me too much - with every step, my legs reminded me I am bruised up.  In a race situation, I would have kept on running but thought better of it for training purposes.

This coming weekend will be my last Olympic triathlon before the Ironman.  The arm and legs should be healed up after a week and the bike will be back from the shop, good as new.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some light training in during the week.



Many thanks to my Iron Sherpa, who is also now my own Florence Nightingale (and the person who was kind enough not to run me over).

After Week 14

In 2009, I ran the Nike+ Human Race, 10k run near USC held at midnight, with a group of friends.  At that time, it was the longest run I ever attempted.  I was talked into it the night before, and so I did not train for it in the slightest.  I had only just recently started working out regularly at that time, and running was certainly not a part of my repetoire.  I was in incredible pain following those 6.2 miles - my knees were screaming bloody murder.  At that time, even after completing the run, 6.2 miles seemed like an impossible length.

On Wednesday, I completed a 15 mile run, the longest training run to date.  Since 2009, I've also completed a half-marathon and a full marathon, and a handful of triathlons (of varying distances, with runs as short as 3 miles and as long as 10 miles).

I've come a long way since 2009. I guess when you're running for over two hours with no headphones and start getting tired of thinking "left foot. right foot. left foot. right foot..." over and over again, your mind really wanders.

Also, I learned that you should wash yourself immediately after a swim in the gym's super-chlorinated pool.  Often times, after my evening swim, I am incredibly hungry and all I want to do is throw on some clothes, get home and get my grub on.  Well, a few times of doing exactly that and everyone is asking if I recently dyed my hair since it went from black to light brown.  At least I'm told it looks like an expensive dye job!

Finally went and bought new shoes too. Running store said I need to go a half size up, which may be the reason my pinky toe has been rubbing and getting a super-hard callous at the tip and causing my knee pains too.  That plus the supports on my shoes are a bit worn, I already knew I was overdue for new shoes.  This new pair should last me well through IMAZ.

Bike: 85.42 miles + 60 minutes on trainer
Run: 19.9 miles
Swim: 5716 meters (3.55 miles)

Total Time: 12:20