Getting ready to get ready

It's less than two weeks until the 2009 Ironman Arizona race in Tempe Arizona.

For those that don't know, an Ironman is a combination of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run - all completed in one day, in 17hrs or less.

I'll be heading out with the whole family on Friday November 20th. Volunteering at this years event on Sunday, November 22nd. Then signing up for next years event on Monday, November 23rd.

The goals for this years Arizona trip include:

• Sign up & pay for next year
• Volunteer - handing out gear bags during the T1 transition
• Book a hotel room near the event for 2010
• Ride one loop of the bike course
• Take a look at what food and drink is offered at the aid stations, and how efficiently the bike course hand-offs are made at aid stations and special needs
• Scout the course for the best spectator spots
• Figure out what athlete colors are easiest to spot on the bike and run course
• Figure out how to keep the kids occupied and entertained during the race
• Try to track an athlete using GPS to see how accurate it is

I've started to put together a loose annual plan. Roughly 4 -months of speed work, 4-months of distance work, then a much tighter schedule during the last 4-months specifically training for the 2010 Ironman Arizona event.

Strawberry Fields Triathlon: The Run

Transition #2

The run was pretty uneventful. It was a 2-loop course that was very flat, but there were a lot of turns and no mile markers so it was a little difficult to tell what my pace was until I finished the first loop and turned around for loop #2.

My overall time for the run was 50:06 for a 10k. Exactly 1 minute slower than my previous Olympic distance PR.

At the end of the day, my total time was 2:39:29. That was my fastest overall Olympic distance by 5:47.

My swim was 10:41 slower
T1 was 0:40 slower
Bike was 18:17 faster
T2 was 0:08 slower
Run was 1:00 slower

So the bike really carried the day. I've got my sights set on a new goal of sub 2:30 for an Olympic distance. All I really need to do is get my swim down to 30 minutes for a 1500 and keep my Bike and Run the same. Under the right conditions, I'm sure I can do it - I've done a 30 minute 1500 before.

On the 10k run

Strawberry Fields Triathlon: The Bike

This triathlon was my first real race on the new Felt B2 Pro bike. A combination of the training I've been doing to prepare for the double century, a super flat course, and the new bike allowed me to get an Olympic bike PR of 1:03:29. That's over 18 minutes faster than my previous Olympic bike PR!

It's the bike portion of this race that actually gave me the overall PR. EVERY other section of the race was slower for me, including the two transitions - but that 18 minute PR on the bike allowed me to get an overall PR for the race.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I launched my first bottle during this race. It was within just a couple miles of exiting the transition area. I had my Profile Aero drink bottle on the front, and one extra bottle of water on the back. I hit a dip in the road, and heard a 'clunk" behind me. I looked back and saw my full water bottle sitting in the gutter. I'm not sure if I had the bottle seated all the way down in the cage or what, but obviously this is something I'll have to test out over the next year as I prepare for IMAZ.

Strawberry Fields Triathlon: The Swim

I've always been a middle of the pack swimmer and this event was no exception. I came in 151st place on the swim, which was right smack in the middle of the pack (53%). Unfortunately my time was much worse than I expected. I went into the event predicting a swim time somewhere around 30 minutes, but my actual time was 40:77. That's over 10 minutes worse than my swim time at my previous Olympic distance event.

It's always hard for me to analyze why certain swims are better or worse than others. On the bike or run, it's usually easy to tell why a particular course is fast or slow (hills, wind, heat, etc) but some of the likely factors for my slow swim include:

• Less swim training time since I've been focusing on the bike this year.
• Course distance could have been wrong. The race director had the swim course reversed on the morning of the race because ocean currents changed direction, so maybe the markers were not placed exactly right when they moved them. (How do they measure that in the water anyway?)
• Ocean currents could have both slowed my forward progress and also moved me off course enough to make me swim a bit farther than intended. Since there's no good reference point out in the ocean, it's always hard for me to tell how bad the currents are. It's not like I can see the bottom of the pool and tell how fast (or slow) I'm moving.

The good news is I was able to get a new PR in spite of the fact that my swim time was 10 minutes slower than I expected it to be. That means I could realistically set a time goal of 2:30 for an Olympic distance race since I know I can finish a 1500m swim in under 30 under the right conditions.

Strawberry Fields Triathlon: Overview

On July 19, 2009 I raced in the Strawberry Fields Olympic Distance Triathlon.

I signed up for it several months ago when I found out my friend Ray was going to be flying in from Ecuador - visiting family & friends in California. He's a triathlete, and we keep in touch via email and social networking. It's been 6 years since the last time he was in LA, so when he said he was coming to town and he wanted to do a triathlon while he was here - we signed up.

This was the first time I've competed in this particular triathlon and I'd say the organizers put on a great event. The race consisted of a 1500m ocean swim, a 40k bike, and a 10k run. It's definitley a flat and fast course. I got a new PR of 2:39:29 in an Olympic distance tri.

My split times for the event were:

Swim: 40:77
T1: 2:59
Bike: 1:03:29
T2: 1:38
Run: 50:06

A pain in the neck

In addition to a new PR at the Strawberry Fields Olympic Triathlon, I also got a pretty good wetsuit hickey (picture below). I was careless the day before the Triathlon and got a slight sunburn on my neck. I assume starting the day with a sunburn was enough to let that wetsuit really dig in and rub my neck raw during the swim.

I will post my report sometime this week. I'm waiting for the event photos to be posted so I can add them to the report.

10 things I learned during my first Double Century

10. The LA Wheelmen's Grand Tour is a great event with very good support and awesome rest stops.

9. The lowland double century is the perfect first timers double

8. Hill training is a great way to prepare your legs for a double century

7. Hill training is not sufficient for training your butt to be in a saddle for over 11 hrs

6. "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette is NOT a good song to have stuck in your head for a double century

5. Ojai looks like a nice little town. I had never been there before, but now I want to take a walk around there some weekend

4. Riding along the ocean from Carpenteria to Malibu is really a treat

3. I can eat a bagel with peanut butter, a large glass of milk, 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a ham & cheese sandwich, a bean & cheese burrito, a bag of potato chips, 3 power gels, a bar, 2 chocolate chip cookies, 2000 calories worth of carbo pro, 3 12oz sodas, a bowl of chili with cheese, pasta salad, a cup o noodles soup, and lots of gatorade -- and still lose three (3) pounds by the end of the day

2. After 165 miles of bicycle riding, a warm "cup o noodles" soup tastes like food prepared by the goddess Hestia

1. Text messages and Facebook comments delivered to my phone are a GREAT motivator during a long day of exercise. Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement.

San Diego Century - Dos Picos 103

The San Diego "Dos Picos" 103 mile bike ride was last weekend. I went with my brother-in-law and two of his co-workers to ride in this event. One guy did the metric century, the other two guys were first time century riders.

We got started a little later than I would have liked, but by 7:30am we were on our way. We stayed together for the first 10 miles or so, and then the group splintered a bit and we rode separately until we got to the first rest-stop. The rest of the day we followed a very similar pattern. We would gather at the rest-stop, ride together for a short while, then break up until the next rest stop.

My average speed was a little faster than my speed during the Conejo ride the previous week. That might be partly due to the longer rest breaks I took while waiting to regroup. It was a good challenging ride and well supported. I'd definitely do it again.

Here's my gps log from the event

Cruising the Conejo

2009 is my Bike focus year, hopefully leading up to a 200 mile bike ride this Summer.

Last Saturday was the 25th annual Crusin' the Conejo Century ride. The Century ride was labeled as a 103 mile ride with 6,000 feet of climbing. According to my gps log, it was 100.8 miles with about 5400ft of climbing.

Either way, it was a challenging ride, and I felt really strong at the end. I started the ride just after 7am and finished in a little over 7hrs (including a few short rest-stop breaks).

The ride was really well done and well supported. Most rest stops were manned by Boy Scout troops who helped pour water, hold bikes, and prep food. I'll definitely consider doing it again next year because it's local, cheap, and well done.

I love doing organized rides, but it's always a bit of a bummer to have to stop at lights and stop signs. I guess I'm spoiled by Triathlon and Marathon running where the streets are closed down and traffic is controlled for the athletes. Then again, the Conejo Century was only $40, so it's hard to complain about traffic lights. I'm sure it would be 10x more expensive if they had to shut streets down.

Next Saturday is the San Diego Century

Double Century

I haven't posted anything new in months, but I have been training.  I've got a couple century rides I'm thinking about riding in May (Cruising the Conejo and the San Diego Century), and then maybe a double century (200 miles) towards the end of June.  2009 is my cycling focus year, so most of my events will be cycling events. 

I was doing my long training rides on Saturday, but I just found out this week that all of my son's T-Ball games are going to be on Saturday morning, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get long rides in on some other day.  If the June double doesn't work out, then I'll try to find a good long ride in the Fall.

I have signed up for the Strawberry Fields Olympic Triathlon in July, but that will probably be my only tri this year.

IMAZ video short

Here's the video I promised from the 2008 Ironman in Arizona. It's pretty generic, but it gives a little bit of the start, swim, bike, and finish line. The first finisher on the video is the winner of the race, and the last finisher was the final official finisher to cross the line before midnight.

IMAZ 2008

Yikes! It's been almost a month since I went to go watch six friends compete in Ironman Arizona.

I've got some pictures and video that I'll try to upload this week, but the long and short of it is we had a great time and all six of our friends finished the race.

We stayed and watched everything starting from the cannon that started the race, all the way until the last official finisher crossed the line just before midnight. In fact, we were still there when the first "non" finisher crossed just a minute or so past the cutoff. The volunteers were all clearing the area when the athlete turned the corner - so they quickly ran back and held up the tape for her. The whole experience was pretty awesome.

I'll definitely be going back next year to volunteer and then the plan is to sign up for the 2010 race.

The new bike!

Wow, it's been almost two months without a post. I guess that's because I haven't done much that's worthy of writing about. But this week I got a new bike and just HAD to post a picture of it.

2008 Felt B2 Pro

Mine has Zipp 404s instead of the 606s, and I had them put black tape on the bars instead of the white tape. When I get a chance, I'll take a picture of mine, but for now - the Felt marketing pic will have to do.

I drove all the way down to San Diego to get it because they had a great closeout sale on all of their remaining 2008 bikes. I rode several including a Scott, Kuota, and a Cervelo. The Felt was definitely the best fit and a great deal so I got it. I can't wait to take it out for a long ride this weekend!

5k Swim results

Well, I did it Sunday morning. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I got through it. I sort of compare it to the difficulty of a 1/2 Marathon for me. Roughly the same amount of time and fatigue.

My wife went with me to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, CA. and helped me keep track of my laps and my time which helped a lot.

I swam 100 lengths of the pool, which is 5,000 meters or 3.1 miles. My 1K split times were:

• 1k 19:54
• 2k 21:28
• 3k 22:16
• 4k 21:32
• 5k 21:02

Total -- 1:46:22
At 2.4 miles my time was about 1:19 (this is the Ironman Distance). This time would have put me around 1200 out of 2027 swimmers in the Arizona Ironman race earlier this year. Even my total time of 1:46:22 is well within the IM cutoff time (2:20:00) so that's a good confidence booster too.

I tried to take it nice and easy so I wouldn't burn out. On the second half of the swim I started doing a lot more breast stroke and side stroke to give my shoulders a break. I don't think that will be a great idea on race day because the breast stroke uses my legs a lot more and I don't want to burn out my legs before I get on the bike. I did the whole thing without taking a break for food or water and I didn't feel too hungry of thirsty afterwards, so I'm happy about that since I won't be able to eat or drink on the race course swim.

Overall it was a success and I don't feel sore at all today which is a good sign. I really makes me respect the 10 mile ocean swim my Master's coach is going to do later this month.

5k Swim

This weekend I'm going to try to finish a 5k (3.1 mile) swim.

I wanted to try an organized open water swim, but the majority of them are between 1 to 2 mile swims, and I've already done a 2 mile open water swim, so swimming another 1 or 2 mile open water swim does not fit my desire to push my limits out to the 3 mile mark.

I found a 5k swim down in Long Beach, CA. but they didn't allow wetsuits, and you need to provide your own kayak and paddler which I don't have.

So instead I'm just going to drag myself down to the local long-course (50m) Olympic pool and swim 100 laps (lengths? - I still don't know what to call it).