Just got back from our send off dinner.   This Saturday is the big race.  Luckily I have been so busy with work that I hardly have anytime to think about the race.  Glad we are in taper mode as I would not have be able to train much this past couple of weeks.   I was in Steinheim near Frankfurt, last week and was able to appreciate the countryside with a nice run and ride.

Right behind our Hotel was  a path along the Main river that would go for hours.  I was able to run along river for an pleasureable hour.  I was also able to borrow a bike (Kettler) and ride for a couple hours for roughly 50km.  I was able to see 1/2 dozen villages heading westward almost to Frankfurt.  Every village had a scenic church that I tried to grab a  picture of. Very scenic countryside that you just don’t see too often.  However, I was quite surprised to see a Nuclear Power plan in the middle of such a serene landscape.

Saturday was our last team practice with an easy 1 hr run.  However the highlight was a guest appearance at the local Team in Training Kick off event in Culver City.  There were about 500 or so people at this kickoff session.  Basically all the various Team in Training organizations in the greater LA area are getting the winter season teams together.  Their  goals were to do  various ½ marathons, marathons, triathalons, and century rides trying to raise $1million bucks. However our Ironteam was introduced as 28 people who were part of the elite team.  And even better to be acknowledged as having already raised over $250k.  We joined the meeting right after our run.  All sweaty, but all sporting our Ironteam gear.  We got such a warm welcome.  Most of the audience looked at us with amazement or at least thinking we are all nuts.  I never felt so proud  of being a part of any team.

No days off for 4^th of July weekend .  On Sat the 4^th, we cycled 100miles and on the 5^th we ran ~23 miles.

July 11^th was something else. This was a full mock race, where we had body markings, wave starts,  racks in the transition area, and sporting our TNT race uniforms.  We started the  5:3 brick mimicking the first transition coming from our swim, then to  5hours cycling,  then directly to 3hrs of running.  I ended up riding 77 miles and running ~13miles in 94 degree heat. This was our toughest practice yet.

I felt good cycling and thought I had a lot more left, and average 16mph through a moderately hilly course,  that would be hillier than Vineman’s coarse.  On the first loop (5.2miles), I felt good, but definitely lost quite a bit for the 2^nd and 3^rd loops.  Mentally I have to consider that we’ll have a 1hr 45 warm up swim then ride 2 hours longer then run 2 hrs more.  Hmmm.  Piece of cake, even though I was cashed after 10 miles running.

Coach Paul told me that our practice was harder than the real race. Definitely from a mental side as the race will have more distractions, fans, and hopefully adrenaline?  I rode and ran mostly by myself yesterday that took tons of mental focus.  I definitely lapsed quite a bit on the run.

Time to taper, ease up and let the body heal and recover.

T minus 19 days

This weekend we drove to Sonoma County to study and practice the Vineman Ironman course. Definitely the most grueling physical exertion of my life, in the most extreme conditions I’ve felt. (Definitely harder and hotter than the 2007 Chicago Marathon). On Saturday I rode the 112 mile bike course over 7hrs,54 min duration with a ride time of 7hrs, 4 mins in 104 ° heat. On Sunday I swam ~1 mile in the Russian River and then ran 17 miles of the coarse in a mere 94° in ~3hrs.

We knew it was going to be hot, but I had no idea what 104 ° would do in my longest ride yet. We rode two, 56 mile loops past hundreds of vineyards and dozens of wineries. The first loop was not too bad and I got to enjoy the scenery, however the second loop was really hard. I recall going through many peaks and valleys. Both literally on the road and in my mind. I am usually aware of my glycogen burn, along with my caloric and carb intake. I was pragmatic in my electrolyte and fluid replenishment as well. But, I was hurting and had to stop a few times before fainting. I remember thinking somewhere in the oven that this is nothing compared to what some children are facing during their cancer treatments. That helped me to pedal on. I remember seeing teammate Doom on the road. She also did not look happy. I heard that one of her friends lost their son, Pablo, during our ride. I got a note from her about a nice dedication from Lance Armstrong pedaling for Pablo in the Alps on Sunday.

Check it out :
click here LANCE ARMSTRONG DEDICATION

www.getwellpablo.blogspot.com

2 more long workout weekends before tapering…31days and counting..

Russian River view from Porch

our TreeHouse

Interval Training / Carb Loading night before – not the best idea

burning up and almost bonking — Fountain Savior

Training weekend was also rainbow blues fest. Actual race weekend will also bear fesitval. These shirtless boys in lycra sure got some attention.

Chemistry experiment. extract NaCl from body with extreme exertion

I was not too intimidated for this weekend’s 4:2 work out.  We’ve done them before and that a 4:2 is pretty easy nowadays.  4hrs riding then 2 hours running (tempo).  We started later in the day, at 8:30 and went inland this week.  The intention was to do more heat training away from the ocean.  Little did we know, it actually rained for first time in weeks and the temps were only in the 70’s.  The last several years have been in the 100’s at Vineman and we have not trained in high heat yet.   I am terrible in the heat.

Looks like someone forgot the glide. Ouch!

This weekend consisted of 4-5 loop ride around Griffith Park and along LA River.  (La zoo, Observatory, Hollywood sign).  However for me,  the best part of the day was that I helped rescue my first puppy.  On our 2^nd loop, I saw Sharon and Kelley stopped. They were looking down by the river since there were 3 stray puppies running around.   I kept going.  45 minutes later I still see Sharon there.   This time I stopped, and another lady asked if I can help.  I took off my cleats and walked down to the river embankment and tried to corner the dogs to a nearby draining valve.  Tried luring them with food.  No luck.  Smart dogs out flanked us.  I did not see this working,  so I gave up after 15-20 minutes.  I sat down and was putting on my cleats,  then the white pup came by me.  Probably 6 feet away and he  just sat there.  I slowly scooted next him and gave him some food.  I tried to pet him and he snarled.  He was shaking with fright.  Another lady came by on his other side, while another lady cam from above, who snatched him up after about 10 minutes.

Once I got home,  I found out that the lady rescues dogs all the time.  She keeps them till they find a good home.   Sharon also does this regularly and helped catch the 2^nd puppy.  In just a few hours the dogs are washed, fed, and got their shots at the vet.  Just need to find a home…we are all optimistic on the brother pups.

I heard about this weekend for months from the Ironteamates from last year.   Ride to San Diego on Saturday, spend the night and run the 20 miles the next day.  We started in the Amtrak station in Anaheim, rode though  a bike trail to the ocean.    We road though  Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, the tail end of Huntington Beach,  Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Leucacia, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, Torrey Pines up to UCSD and back down to Del Mar with a riding time of 6:13minutes.

Coach Paul gave an inspiring speech before our ride by reminding us why we are doing this.  Take it all in, and enjoy, and be thankful that we can do this and see some of the most beautiful ocean coast in the world.  Coach Paul was telling us that this was going to be an easy ride, down hill, and with wind.  However it sure seemed that I had wind going against me the whole way and I was doing pretty regular climbs. We rode through the cute little downtowns of Newport  Beach and Laguna Beach.  However, I kept on smelling bacon from the many breakfast eateries on the way.  A 100 yards from the finish Michele gets hit by a car.  Luckily, she was not hurt but her brand new Cervelo got smashed.

Finally to Hotel in San Diego where I met up with Pete from Chicago

Nice to ride with teamate , Air Force Captain Josh through military base

 

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote.   Funny it seems every time write I keep noting that I just finished the hardest workout ever.  The last two weeks hold up.  On Saturday May 30,  I rode 85miles  at ~16mph starting in Westlake Village  and hitting the Santa Monica mountains.   We did most rolling hills though a  familiar course, but with a couple added loops and a good series of climbs.  Carlos, Steve, Floyd, Aaron are usually way ahead, but I was riding with the small group of 5-6 people behind them.  (probably cheated  and drafted a bit).  In road cycling, drafting is allowed however not in triathlons.  The following day, I ran 10miles. In general a recovery run, however for me a pretty important run as I have not run for weeks.  My right knee has been aching, but with some Advil and mental focus I made it through.

I stayed in town this week, so I really made time to do the workouts.  And most importantly the swims on Tues, and the team practice swim on Thursday. I’ve missed the last 3 swim practices and have fallen off significantly on swims.  This week, I was able to do the 3000 yard swim (1.7miles) with the team.  However this was broken down to various sets of fast swimming, and sprints.

Last weekend, June 6th and 7th again another killer weekend.  Saturday we were back in Santa Monica.  I was a bit curious how we’d do a 6-7hr work out here.  We ended up doing a nice change of pace circuit training.  We would do a loop around Brentwood County club golf course then wraping to an Amalfi climb. Roughly a 13 mile loop then we would transition to a 1 mile run, transition back to do the loop again then back to the run.  All in all 5 loops and 5  runs for 65 mile ride (avg 16mph) and running 5 miles. An easy 6hr work out.   Check out Mentor Arkady taking a  nap sitting down from our workout or maybe he’s still tired from his  3:11:40 marathon the weekend before.  I do feel bad for him missing Boston qualifying by 40 seconds.

VIDEO
On Sunday the team planned on doing the longest run of the  year, 18 miles.   I knew that would be too much for my knee and I planned on doing 12-14 miles.  Luckily my knee felt ok , and I was able  to do 14 miles doing some intervals   ( run 7 minutes, then walking 1).

I’m looking forward to this weekend where we’ll ride to  San Diego (~110 miles) on Saturday then doing a 20 mile run on Sunday.

I was really looking forward to Memorial Weekend.  An extra day of rest…

Saturday we met in Santa Monica and we only had a 2 hr ride and 1 hr run.  Scary that I refer to this work out as “ONLY” 2 hr ride and 1 hr run.   However I did not know we were kind of doing a time trial ride.  Coach Paul, said we had to let it out this ride.  I was not sure what this meant as we have been doing longer rides.    We rode out easily for first 15-20 minutes around Santa Monica and Brentwood then we headed up some hills (Amalfi loop).  I remember this was one of our first hills months ago.  We look at them now as pretty easy hills.  We then headed to Mandeville Road off Sunset. This was a steady straight uphill for 5 miles or so.  I was thinking no problem, until we met Coach Paul on the road.  We had a small group 4-5 riding pretty comfortably.  Coach then yelled at Brian to get off his high gear and start pushing it up the hill, Brian listened.  Paul yelled at me to keep at his wheel.  Brian picked up from about ~12 mph to over 14  going up a steady grade We definitely left the pack way back.  I was going as hard as I could for about 15 minutes, then I got dropped.  Shortly later Bobby caught up to me  and said some smack.  Demoralized to do a break away and get caught.   I did not know how much further the hill would be.    Little did I know in less than a mile we would be at the turnaround.  I probably could have gutted it out if I knew how much further we had to go.  At turn around several team mate were resting and breathing hard.  I tuned around right away as I wanted to go down.  Funny going downhill felt longer than going up.  I guess I was really focused on the climb.  After 1:40 min and now back in Santa Monica Ocean front, we were suppose to ride another 20 minutes.  I was thinking of doing an easy flat cruise.  However I was now riding with Bobby and Sara.  Sara pushed hard and said we should do another Amalfi Hill climb.  I had to comply.

Got back to transition area, put running shoes on before our 60 min tempo run.  I know my knee was still hurting and I knew I was not going to run hard.  However after jogging 1/2 mile or so, I decided to stop and walk back.   I got back and talked to coached on my injury.  This is a bad time to be hurt as our running mileage starting to pick up, and I ‘m not going to be able to get in runng shape.   Coach Rad mentioned I should do intervals.  Run for while then walk.  But stop before any pain starts.  I heard many people do 5mn run then 1 min walk and still get under 10 min miles.  As of now, I need to start thinking of this option.

On Sunday or Memorial day we were supposed to run 16 miles.  Instead went to the beach on Sunday and on Monday I did a 3:2.  I watched the Giro D’Italia for 3hrs and I watched the LA Marathon for 2hrs.  🙂

The last 2 weeks have been a combination of recovering from Wildflower and just being to busy to work out much.   My knee has been acting up again and I needed to take it easy.  Luckily, no knee pain while cycling.    On Saturday we started at Zuma Beach, south to Pepperdine, then back North through Malibu till almost Oxnard, then back all the way South again.   This was my longest ride yet at 90 miles averaging 16+mph, for 5hr and 30 min.  Our team has shrunk now that only the Vineman Full Ironteamers are left.  We lost a third of our team training only for Wildflower.  I am now one slowest guys on the team.   I like the following picture as I’m actually tracking down the lead pack.  I definitely expended a significant amount of energy to catch-up.  And for the heck of it, I even led the team for a few miles.

I kept up with the lead pack for  ~50 miles.  I definitely took advantage of the  group by drafting.  The pack stopped at the SAG car to replenish their nutrition, and I decided to keep going.  I rode for about 5 -7 miles on my own.   This did not last too long, as the Peloton caught me in less than 20 min.  And of course, I did not have much energy to keep their pace so I was dropped quickly.   60 miles into the ride I ran out of Gatorade and had only one small 120 calorie, 20 carb bar left, and about 10 oz of water.   I started with 5 bars, 3 bottles (50 oz Gatorade Endurance  with 40 grams of carb powders, 25 oz of water).  I thought this was plenty, but I was running out.  I should have replenished with the SAG. Several miles on my own, spent legs, and minimal nourishment was not a good tactic.  I was getting a bit worried as I was beginning to Bonk.  10 miles later I see the parking lot, where I barely made it to the car where I got a couple more bottles of Gatorade.  I ate an an uncrustable (PBJ) and picked up  a couple more Cliff Bars.  Amazing how much better I felt within just a couple minutes.  I finish the remaining ~15 miles with all the energy I had left.  

feeling a bit spent.

I learned a lot from this ride.  Nutrition Nutrition Nutrition.  First of all I did not have enough carbs the days before.  Secondly, I did not pack enough.  Thirdly, don’t do an unnecessary breakaway in practice.   90 miles felt significantly harder than just 60miles. It’ s a bit sobering to think I need to ride 112 miles then a marathon afterward.   I need to take my nutrition, training and overall mental toughness to another level.

Only 2.5 months left, and I lost a lot of confidence after this ride.

click picture to zoom

I finished my first 1/2 Ironman on May 2, 2009.    I’m pretty happy, but much still to do for Vineman full Ironman in August.  However,  I have a better idea on what it’s going to take.  

Classic 70’s tent

The Woodstock of Triathalons

Team Heading to the start 6:30am

Preparing Transition Area

I’m in the Pink Wave start

Hardest hills after mile 40

Energizer Bunny Motivating up hardest climb called “Nasty Grade”

One my favorite views. Downhill after the toughest climbs. The slight uphill still seems downhill at this point 🙂

60% trails 40% paved

Early on the run (Mile ~2)

Final Stretch to Finish Line

IRONTEAM

Best part of the race was that everyone on the TNT team stayed at the finish line to cheer  teammates.  Some waiting more than 4 hrs.   LINK –> Aubrey, getting close to offical cutoff (<2min) , sprinting to end.

No workouts to write about this weekend. OK, I did run an easy 2 miles today, probably should not have. I got my first ear infection this week. I suspect from a recent pool swim, or possibly caught something on the airplane. I did have 9 flights in 9 days. I did not realize how painful, or how so many things can go wrong with your body based on an ear infection.  I’m barely functioning…but then it occurred to me, this pain I am feeling is nothing compared to all the people battling blood cancers.

This week our Ironteam honoree released a video. Please see Kyle’s 6 min video as he was my motivation (guilt trip) to sign up for the Ironman in the first place. I met and heard Kyle speak and decided I would help raise the most awareness and the most funds from doing an Ironman. I look forward to seeing Kyle on TV to compete in the Ironman championship in Kona Oct 10, 2009

Click on logo to watch video