Finding the podium

  

Yesterday was the first time I've won my age group in triathlon.  Katie, Creighton, and I raced the Georgetown Super Sprint.  When looking at the results for the previous event up there, I knew there was a decent chance that we could do well, and I had an even better feeling that Katie could win her AG or get on the overall podium.  However, we all know it really comes down to who decides to show up.  Adding to that, we weren't doing ourselves any favors for this race, as we were throwing down some difficult training.  On Saturday, Katie and I did a four hour hill attack ride on Saturday (attack any hill, no matter how short), and then managed to stay up/out late due to a dinner party and some friends playing a show downtown.

On much too little sleep, we headed up for the race.  After setting up, we lined up at the pool.  I'm typically a slow swimmer, so I was shocked to see how many people were seeded behind me.  Once in the water, I had a little trouble settling into a rhythm.  This was actually the first time I've done a triathlon with a pool swim.  Stopping to turn at the walls really kept me from getting into a good rhythm and getting my heart rate down.  I ended up passing one person in the pool, and then made my way to the bike.  I took my time in T1, and then headed out on the bike.  I tried to keep the pace somewhat easy on the way out to get my heart rate down and settle in.  Once I felt smooth, I picked up the pace and kept it over 20 mph for the majority of the ride.  I passed quite a few people on the bike and no one passed me.  My quads felt completely dead on the ride, but I continued to crank.  There was one small uphill on the course, but it wasn't anything that took too much effort.  Just before the end of the bike route, there was a roundabout that I made a wrong turn on, as there were several directions to head out of it.  They were not all marked.  I lost a few seconds, but it wasn't that bad.

I took my time in T2, and then headed out on the run.  It was starting to get warm, but with only a 5K I figured it wouldn't be too terrible.  Mile one came up too quickly.  My watch read 6:15.  I knew I wasn't running that fast.  Of course mile two was at around 9 minutes, so it became obvious that the mile markers were off.  I got passed by one runner around the 2.75 mile point, but he wasn't in my age group so I didn't give much chase.  My legs were completely dead, and I was just trying to finish without looking like a total chump.

Katie finished not too long after me.  I was pretty sure she had done well, as I had only seen two women ahead of me, and one of them started the swim long before I did.  I suspected I was ahead of her (I was).  When they finally posted the unofficial results, we had both won our age groups.  I actually finished 9th overall, and the 8th male finisher.  Katie was the fourth female and 17th overall finisher.  Creighton also finished 3rd in his age group for his first podium finish in his second triathlon.  Not a bad morning!

Relentless Forward Progress: Review

I've written tips on ultra running on my humble blog, but I might as well save my "breath."  Just go buy this book.  I've read plenty of books about ultra running, but most of them are composed of stories of runners over-coming challenges in life or compilations of race reports.  Until now, I've not found a good "how to" book on ultra running that really gives great insight on getting started.  Bryon Powell has written a fantastic introduction to ultra running and provides a great book to use as reference.

To a veteran ultra runner, there's nothing ground-breaking in this book.  You already know it.  You've pieced it together the hard way: through trial-and-error, through racing, by reading race reports, and by talking to the runners who have already completed crazy distances.  However, this book is fantastic for someone looking to start running ultras or the person who has just started down the ultra path.  Powell even highlights some training plans.

This book is no substitute for experience.  Reading it a couple times and following the advice won't make you the next Scott Jurek, but it'll go a long, long way to making your entry into the ultra world enjoyable.  If you don't find something enjoyable about suffering through long miles, then you shouldn't be running ultras anyway.  Kudos to Powell for finally putting out a fairly comprehensive guide to the world of ultras.

If you are thinking of venturing into ultras, pick up this book.  See you guys on the trail!

Coming down the home stretch

We are down to 6 weeks.  We've got 3 more long runs and 4 more long rides before Ironman Wisconsin.  Its time to really focus and get some solid training in.  On Saturday, four of us went out to tackle a mock half IM.  We ended up bagging it after 5.5 miles due to the extreme heat, as I didn't see how I was going to benefit from a long slog of run-walking another 7+ miles.  It was smarter to cut it short, recover faster, and re-focus on training.  Even with the shortened event, I got out of it what I needed to know.  I need to really focus more on the bike.  I've not put in near as many miles as I did last year for IMTX, and I think it shows.  I'll have no problem finishing the race, but I'd like to have a respectable showing.

Pre-mock 1/2 Picture

I sat down and revised the final weeks of training last night, and it is going to be grueling. However, I think it'll pay off in the long run.  With the high temperatures we are training through, I'm hoping for a huge payoff with the weather on race day.

Katie and are are doing the Georgetown Super Sprint Tri on Sunday for a little extra transition practice.  It should be a fun little event.

Double Century

*note - this is unedited and likely riddled with grammatical errors*


This one was a number of years in the making.  I'd tried planning/riding a Double Century since 2007, but things never seemed to line up.  I decided to give it another try and open it up to some other riders.  In the end, everyone bailed due to injury or other obligations except Katie and me.  Luckily, the weather decided to cooperate, and predicted highs were in the low 90s instead of the low 100s of earlier in the week.  I made the decision to take my road bike for comfort, so I swapped out my wheel sets the night before.


Katie and I got up at 4, quickly got ready and ate some breakfast before heading out.  We jumped in the car and drove to the starting point in Pflugerville.  Lit up like Christmas trees, we were able to get rolling at about 5:15, which was about 15 minutes later than I was hoping.  As we left behind the lights of Pflugerville, the roads were quite dark, which required riding a slow pace to keep an eye out for road hazards.  The first ten miles was along county roads with little traffic.  We turned the wrong direction at one point, but it actually ended up saving us a little time.


As light grew on the horizon, we turned onto 290.  I was a little nervous about riding on the highway, but the shoulder was nice and wide, and the road surface was like butter.  The ten miles we were on 290 seemed to disappear with little effort.  We rolled into Elgin and made our first pit stop at a gas station on the edge of town.  I ate a chocolate chip granola bar and tried to drink a lot of water.  My plan was to stay on top of hydration and nutrition early on, as to not end up in a deficit.


In high spirits, we made our way through Elgin and headed out a Farm-to-Market road.  I had to stop and consult the directions a few times to ensure we were on the right road(s), as a few of the roads went by multiple names.  Along the way, we got chased by dogs a couple times, which freaked Katie out a little more than it did me.  She was riding behind, so she was the one the dogs were after.  As the road we were on went from Farm-to-Market to County Road to just a regular road, the surface got rougher.  I was on the lookout for a right turn where the ended, but instead the road went left.  I checked the directions again, and the road was definitely supposed to go right.  I pulled out my phone and consulted Google maps.  Sure enough, there was supposed to be a right going right, but it no longer existed.  Luckily, it was only a short work around to get back on track.


We turned onto another FM road that had a nice shoulder.  The should on the road would last for a few miles, disappear for a bit, and then reappear.  There were a few rolling hills, but nothing that required a crazy amount of work to get up.  We had another encounter with a dog, which resulted in the dog almost getting hit by a truck.  Katie claims the dog was foaming at the mouth, but it just looked like a normal dog to me.  When we hit the 40 mile mark, I asked Katie how she was doing.  We were still about 5 or 6 miles from Lexington, and we both agreed that we should just push on and take a break there.  We were both dreaming of kolaches.  We rode into Lexington and found a convenience store/grill.  Luckily, they had kolaches!


We each ate two kolaches and filled up on water before pushing off for the next segment.  It was still very humid and starting to warm up.  Luckily, there were patchwork clouds in the sky, so we were getting occasional shade on the run.  We continued on FM 696 for about another eight miles before turning onto CR 324, which turned out to be what might be the worst stretch of paved road in the entire state.  For eight miles we battled potholes, terrible chip seal, rock and tar mixture, and general terrible surface.  During this stretch, I went to shift gears and my pedals started spinning freely like I had dropped my chain, yet I could hear the chain turning.  It quickly caught on the middle chain ring (I have a triple on the road bike) and I chalked it up to needing a tune up.  When it happened again, I made a mental note to check things out on our next rest stop, however, when I glanced down, it appeared as if my middle chain ring was warped.  Over the next couple hundred yards, I studied it.  The chain slipped again, and I pulled over.  


When I hopped off my bike to inspect, I was shocked to see that I was missing 3 chain ring bolts!  When I swapped my wheels the night before, all five were there.  The two remaining bolts were loose and almost ready to fall off as well.  I grabbed my multi tool and tightened the two remaining bolts.  I tried to jiggle the middle and big rings, but they seemed firmly in place.  I shifted the bike into my granny gear, and prepared to make a "bail out" call.  We were only 65 miles into the ride, and I wasn't sure I could make it with only my small ring.  As I contemplated, I realized that it would not only take a while to be rescued, but it would be difficult to describe our location.  With that, I hopped back on the bike told Katie that I only had my small ring, so I couldn't ride very fast.  I'd have to monitor the bolts, but as long as I stayed in the small ring, I shouldn't have a problem, as the bolts had no effect on the small ring.


After a few more miles, we came out on Highway 21 and turned toward Caldwell.  The road had a wide should and a fairly smooth surface.  I was having to ride a higher cadence than I like, but in the back of my mind I thought this mechanical issue could be a blessing in disguise.  First, it was keeping my speed in check and keeping me from doing something stupid like hammering 20+.  The slower pace would hopefully pay dividends on the second half of the ride.  Secondly, it was forcing me to ride at a faster cadence, which is something that I've been trying to work on anyway.  


After a few miles on 21, we stopped at a gas station to take a short rest break.  I had a Tabasco Slim Jim, a Red Bull, and refilled my Gatorade.  Katie had the same, except her Slim Jim was regular flavor.  I checked my chain ring bolts and they were still tight, so I lowered my panic level a bit.  As we continued on 21, I could feel the wind had picked up and we were riding almost directly into it.  We turned off the highway and took a series of county roads, which took us into and then out of Caldwell.  I had to stop and consult the directions and Google maps a couple times on that stretch, as the roads didn't match up with the written directions.  I think we too a slightly longer way, as we ended up in Snook, but it allowed for another rest stop before the final push into College Station.


As we left Snook on FM 60, I started feeling the fatigue in my legs.  The headwind was becoming very annoying and the heat was starting to take its toll.  My general attitude was headed south very quickly.  I tried to push the negative thoughts out of my head, but I really started doubting that I could turn around and ride back to Austin.  We were already over 100 miles and we had not even arrived in College Station yet.  I was hoping a meal would re-energize me, but I wasn't convinced.  The original route included a loop through campus, but we cut that out to ride directly to Northgate, as we had already hit 105 miles.


We made our way into Fitzwilly's and ordered burgers, fries, beers, soft drinks, and water.  The staff at Fitz was super friendly (as always) and inquisitive about our ride.  We chatted with them and answered questions about how far the trip was, when we left, when we thought we'd get back, and other similar topics.  Katie and I both took down a cheeseburger and fries.  I added three glasses of Dr. Pepper and a ton of water to my lunch.  After the foot and some time off the bike, my spirits rose a bit.  I took a look at the map and found what I think was the original route back to Caldwell, so I told Katie we were going to follow that back, as I figured it might cut off a couple miles on the return.


We thanked the Fitz staff and got back on the bikes.  The wind was now at our backs as we headed out of town.  The temperature had dropped a bit and the wind felt cooler.  All around us in the distance were dark clouds and signs of rain.  As we turned off FM 60 to the county roads, I felt a few rain drops and Katie started noticing lighting off in the distance.  I was hoping that if a thunderstorm rolled through, we would be able find shelter somewhere.  We continue to ride through verdant farmland with very little traffic.  As we were about to crest a hill, Katie mentioned that she thought she had a flat tire.  We stopped at the top, and sure enough, her front tire was pretty low.  As we changed the tube, we heard thunder in the distance and spotted more lighting.


Tube replaced, we got back on the road.  It was getting a little uncomfortable sitting on the saddle, but I wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought I would be.  The ride back into Caldwell felt quick.  We made a stop at another gas station and picked up more water and Gatorade.  Katie spotted push-pops, so we snagged a couple of the orange delights and made our way over to a table to enjoy them.  There was one open table, with the rest of the tables occupied by locals, who were staring awkwardly at us.  One of the older men asked us how we were doing in a nice, but suspicious, manner.  As we sat and ate our treats, I tried to ignore the room full of eyes staring at us in our spandex.


I made another change to the route to try and cut a few more miles off, as we were on pace to go over 200.  We went straight through town and took 21 out instead of the country roads that would have dropped us on 21 outside of town.  With the smooth road and tail wind, we were back on the terrible stretch of road called CR 324 in what felt like no time.  The plan was to try and make it back to Lexington before taking another break.  The rough road was really rattling my hands and arms, but it was making sitting on the saddle uncomfortable.  After what felt like way too long, we finally made it back onto FM 696 and headed toward Lexington and regained the tail wind.


Just as we rolled into Lexington, we hit the 155 mile mark.  Katie had begun to get a little down on herself somewhere around mile 130 or so, but once we got over the 150 mile mark, she seemed to taste the possibility of actually pulling off the feat.  She was really, really uncomfortable in the saddle.  We had already covered 75 more miles than her longest ride ever.  We took a break at the same grill/store as we had eaten kolaches in that morning.  I'm sure they thought we were crazy coming back through, but we didn't really care and joked about it.  We split a cosmic brownie, which tasted absolutely out of this world (pun intended) and then reluctantly climbed back on our bikes.  I eased my butt back onto the saddle as the pain slowly returned.  The next stop was Elgin, and from there we would be in striking distance from the finish.


As we set out for Elgin, my legs were actually feeling strong.  If I had more gears, I could have easily picked up the pace, although Katie and I were in it together.  After 15 miles, we made a quick stop to take in a little fuel and get off the saddle for a short bit.  We split a pack of power gel chews and then started pedaling toward Elgin again.  The sun was getting close to the horizon, so I mentioned to Katie that we'd need to turn out lights back on when we made our next stop.  Once we turned onto 290, we had a nice headwind and that smooth, smooth road surface, which allowed us to ride at 18-20 mph.


We made our final rest stop at a gas station where we split a nutrigrain bar and each had a Red Bull to power us through the final 20 miles.  We were at 182 miles.  The only thing that could stop us would be a catastrophic mechanical issue, which I was praying wouldn't happen.  I tried my best to push those negative thoughts out of my head.  Tail lights on, we set back out on 290 and cruised along in high spirits.  We turned off 290 with 10 miles to go and the sun waning.  Headlights on, we worked our way north on the same county roads we had ridden in the dark that morning..  After starting in the dark, it was only fitting that we'd finish in the dark as well.  We had a quick celebratory yell at the 200 mile mark and pushed on toward the finish.


Seeing the car in the parking lot was a very welcome sight.  We pulled in with huge smiles on our faces and celebrated finishing 202.36 miles.  I had just logged 77 more miles than my longest ride ever.  Katie logged over 120 miles more than her longest ride ever!  I was both impressed and proud of her for getting through the challenge.  Doing a ride of this magnitude should be a huge confidence booster for her going into IMWI.  For me, it was finally checking off a challenge I'd been trying to accomplish for a number of years.  It felt good to finally knock this one out.


What's next?  Who knows.

Capt'n Karl's 30k Race Report

cross-posted on flotrail

Saturday night we drove out to Pedernales Falls to do the first of the Capt'n Karls series from Tejas Trails.  The races begin at 7 pm for the 60K, 7:15 for the 30K, and 7:30 pm for the 10K.  Katie ran the 10K and took fifth overall and three place female.  I signed up for the 30K, electing not to do the 60K, as we had a long ride on the schedule for Sunday.

I did very little prep work for this race.  I'd only run a handful of times since Comrades, and I didn't even look at the course description.  Luckily, about 5 minutes prior to the start I asked how many loops the race was.  One.  Oops...better go grab my headlamp and stock up on nutrition.

The temperature was in the upper 90s when we started, but luckily, there was a little bit of shade on the course.  I was expecting a pretty technical race, as much of the footing on trails around Austin is pretty gnarly.  Surprisingly, the vast majority of the course was very, very runnable.  The goal was to take it easy and just log the miles, which wasn't hard to do with the heat.  The first part of the race descended a down to a rocky creek bed and then turned into a long, gradual climb along the fence that marked the park boundary.  I really didn't feel that great for the first hour of the race.  My legs felt shaky, I felt low on energy, and pretty lethargic.  I walked the steepest of the inclines and jogged the easier ones.  Eventually the course wound back through the woods and followed some flats and downs.

Somewhere around the one hour mark, I started feeling really good and picked up the pace.  Uphill or downhill, it didn't matter.  After the first aid station, I looked to my left and saw an amazing sunset.  The sun was enormous and was a nice hue of orange.  I soaked in the fleeting moments of sunlight as I started bombing down a service road with some steep descents.  As I flew down, I tried to push thoughts out of my head of running back up.  After we turned off the wide service road, the course continued to slowly wind down on mostly smooth single track.

Eventually we started climbing again.  I walked the steep descents, turning on my headlamp as darkness was finally taking over.  Around the 2.5 hour mark, my energy was completely gone.  I slowed my pace considerably and concentrated on not falling.  Although the trail was still very runnable, the darkness provided the opportunity to easily trip over the few rocks out there.  Just as I was mentally getting exhausted and ready for the race to be over, I heard the commotion from the finish line.

Overall, the race was well-organized (as all of Joe's races are) and very runnable.  The biggest obstacle was the heat.  I got the feeling that I'm still not 100% recovered from Comrades.  The downs and flats felt fairly easy to run, but when I tried to run uphill, my legs felt heavy.

I highly suggest hitting up one of the other races if you have the opportunity.

Mule Shoe Bend 7/21
Colorado Bend 8/11
Reveille Ranch 9/1

Scott Jurek

I had the pleasure of running with Scott Jurek last night and then listening to him speak at Book People here in Austin.  I've been a huge fan of Scott for many years, so it was a pleasure to finally meet him.  If you don't know who Scott Jurek is, do a quick google search and you will likely be blown away by the things he has accomplished.  He's down-to-earth and a very personable guy, who is very accommodating with his fans.  He did a short reading and then answered questions for the large group of people.

Although, a fan of Scott, I was a little cautious going in, thinking that he might be a little preachy about plant-based diets.  While he did highlight what he believes are the advantages of a plant-based diet, it didn't come across as preachy or elitist.  Scott mentioned that he respects those who choose all different types of diets, and even mentioned some advantages to a paleo diet.  I left even more impressed with the man than I already was.  Most professional runners and triathletes are down-to-earth and likeable, but Scott Jurek is at the top of that list.  A complete class-act.  I only wish I had more time to pick his brain.

BCS Marathon + Half Training

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• 18 week training program
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• Access to other team workouts and cross training

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Back to Training

After two weeks of vacation and a week recovering from Comrades, I hit the lake last night for an OWS.  It was as if I'd forgotten how to swim.  My stroke was off, and my sighting was terrible.  I had expected tired shoulders, so at least that wasn't a surprise.  I toughed out 1500m, although I'm sure it was much more than that with all the zig-zagging I ended up doing.  Hopefully, I have my bearings, and I will swim a little more normal tomorrow night.

Comrades Tracking

The race isn't until June 3rd, but I leave on today, so you probably won't be seeing many posts until I return.

You can track the race here:

http://results.comrades.com/default.aspx

I'm bib 47580

I'm not doing this total unprepared, but I'll be gutting it out, at least in the latter miles. Due to nagging injuries earlier in the year, I didn't get in the type of training base I wanted. I've run an 18 and a 20, but nowhere near what I'd want for a 56 mile run. Luckily, I've been on the bike and in the pool a lot, so the cardio base is there. I've also toughed out some pretty brutal races in the past, so I'm prepared mentally. Add in the downhill year and cooler temps and I think I'll be ok, but I won't lie that I have a slight fear of not making the 12 hour cut-off.

The race starts at 5:30 am local time, which translates to 10:30 PM (June 2). In reality, I guess you can just check the results the next day, as I'll have to finish by 10:30 am Texas time.

Training "Camp" weekend

Yesterday we wrapped up a training camp weekend.  Katie had to work the majority of the weekend, but Ben drove down and we made the most of it.

Friday evening, we headed over to Pflugerville Lake for a splash and dash.  Somehow both of us left our goggles behind, so it ended up just being a dash.  And by dash, I mean slow 3 mile jog.

Saturday, the three of us headed out to tackle the Dam Loop (plus a little on Parmer) to cover 70 miles of wind, heat, and hills.  I felt ok until about the 60 mile mark.  We turned around on Parmer to head back, which was directly into a stiff wind.  I bonked.  I bonked hard.  I think it was a combination of not taking in enough calories, the heat, the wind, and the hills.  Additionally, I likely should have take in more water.  Regardless, we got in 71 miles, which turned out to be Katie's longest ride ever.

After Katie headed to work, Ben and I drove over to Pflugerville Lake (this time remembering goggles) for an open-water swim.  The wind had picked up, so the water was less than calm.  Not quite white caps, but rough enough to provide the occasional mouthful of water when trying to breathe.  I hadn't been out to Pflugerville in almost a year.  The lake seemed much less weedy than last year, and I was happily surprised by the addition of a couple buoys.  We only swam for a little over 20 minutes, but I think we were both still a little fatigued from the ride.

Based on dead legs, I re-mapped our Sunday run to remove a few hills.  I had 20 on the schedule and Ben had 18.  By mile 4 or so, I realized the flat version of the run was still pretty hilly.  The heat made the run pretty difficult, but we both toughed out our respective runs before head to to get Mexican food and some beer.

All-in-all, it was a great training weekend despite the heat and wind.  I'm looking forward to the next one in early August.