Good month--especially considering the week of down time I had post IMCA70.3:
Swim: 29,862 yards
Bike: 879 miles
Run: 128 miles
Time: 90:32
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Let's get it ON! Mano-a-mano on May 1
I'm very excited to lace 'em up and start my 3-month Short Course Race Overdose!
I'm racing the Bassman Sprint Triathlon this Sunday morning. Conditions look splendid. I love the venue. I've raced there four times before and have won my AG all four times. I feel good and ready to have at it--loving everything about my space coming into this race.
The RD (unfortunately) has changed the race from the old format: 0.5M swim/28M bike (!!!!!!)/4M run to a new (more user friendly) format: 0.35M swim/11M bike/5K run. This is not a welcome thing for me competitively (obviously) but more than that--one of the best things about Bass River was the awesome, and unusually long bike leg. Now, it's just like all the rest of the NJ sprints.
That said, there is still much to recommend about this race. Hands-down the best swim venue in the state. A great place to run. Quirky RD/team. I do like this race. Plus, did I mention I'm 4-0 here?
LOL.
Anyways, this Sunday's race could be an epic AG battle for me.
But first, my disclaimers. there are (currently) 13 people entered in my AG. I know a fair amount about 10 of them. the other 3 are unknown. That usually means that they will not be a factor--but this is not always so. Also, you never know who will show up at the last minute. Plus, a triathlete's fitness changes from year to year and you never know when a former slug will show up and dust your ass. So, the following assessment of the competitive profile for this race must be balanced by the real chance that someone I'm not expecting, shows up and crushes me.
That said, I don't think so. As I see it, the race this sunday morning has the potential to be a classic shootout with one of my longest-running (and most respected) AG competitors, the fabulous Mr. Tom Dillon. I think our race could literally come down to a desperate sprint to the finish line--and how cool would that be? Of course, it will most likely be far less dramatic than that--he'll beat me comfortably or visa-versa...but something about this set-up tells me otherwise....here's why:
So as best as I can tell, I've raced Tom 11 (out of my 101 triathlons) times through the years. The only person I've raced against more is the great Mickster (Mickey Syrop). To take nothing away from my battles with Mickey, my races with Tom have been very compelling through the years because we are so evenly matched. Here's my competitive analysis which is followed by how I see the race on Sunday:
Mano-a-Mano: Tom Dillon
An important thing to note in all of this is that Tom has had to manage and work around a long-term health challenge. He suffers from periodic bouts of vertigo which obviously limit his ability to train specifically and to race as much as he would like. So, his race performances tend to vary a fair amount depending on how well his body is acting. that said, when he gets to go at it as he would like, he is an outstanding triathlete. In my judgement, he is more inherently talented than I but is held back--in a sparadic fashion, by his ailment. when he is right and able to train--he is the man, and in my view, a better triathlete than I. In 2010 Tom was finally healthy for the year and crushed it. I didn't race him last year, but I am absolutely certain that if I had, he would have beaten me easily. So coming into this race, I wouldn't be surprised at all that Tom was a stronger triathlete than I and should be expected to be beat me--that's where the smart money is.
That said, the historical data does favor the home team:
In the 11 races we've contested, beginning with the 2002 Lum's Pong triathlon up through the 2009 Vincentown Triathlon, I've compiled a 9-2 record against Tom. 5 of these 11 races have been decided by less than a minute. Here is a more granular analysis of Tom and I, mano-a-mano:
The Swim
Tom is a fantastic swimmer. He owns me on the swim. He has been the faster swimmer in all 11 of our races. I came as close as 16 seconds once (2006 Stone Harbor) and was a full 4:14 slower at Sunset 2005, a few days after my grade 3 shoulder separation. If we exclude these two end-posts, Tom on average beats me by 70 seconds in the swim. 6 of these 11 swim contests have me coming in between 45 and 60 seconds behind him.
Transition One
We are very even in transitions. I tend to do a little better in T1 and Tom tends to do a little better in T2. I have data for 10 T1s and I've been faster for 6 of them. We've been within 10 seconds in 7 of these T1s. If we throw out the high and the low differences, I average a 4 second advantage over Tom in T1.
The Bike
So if Tom is a fantastic swimmer, I must be a fantastic biker (lol). I have out-split tom in all of our bike match-ups to date. He was only 22 seconds behind at Lenape 2004 but I put a full 7:58 on him at the Pine Barrens Olympic in 2003. throwing these out, I average a 98 second advantage over Tom on the bike and in all but one race, have been at least a minute faster.
Transition Two
Tom has bested me 7 of our 10 match-ups. 7 of the 10 times the delta has been less than 10 seconds. On average, he enjoys a 2 second advantage on me.
The Run
Amazingly, and not by a lot, I have out-run tom through the years. I've been faster 9 of the 11 races. That said, 7 of the 11 runs we contested have been less than 1 minute apart. I've averaged a 36 second advantage. Importantly, whoever has lead coming out of T2 has always won.
So let's reflect on this. Tom dominates in the Swim. I so in the Bike. Our transitions are neutral and in the run I've prevailed by a small margin, but Tom is certainly acendant, and running a lot faster than I in 2010 (even though we didn't race against each other).
In 2005, I raced against Tom (and Mickey) at the Marlton sprint race. We were both in good, late season shape. there were 376 people in the race and we finished RC (10th), Mick (11th), and Tom (12th). To me, this was a classic race that captures the essence of tom's and my battles through the years--and I hope is a foreshadowing of what might unfold on sunday:
In the swim Tom put 62 seconds on me. He was the 10th fastest swim OA (98th %-tile). My swim was very solid (given my swim skills then) and I was 88th %-tile.
I put 6 seconds on him in T1 (we were both in the top 10 %) and I left T1 56 seconds behind him.
Tom had an outstanding bike leg--he was 8th OA. but I was considerably faster and I caught him in the last mile and at the line, put 61 seconds into him on the bike. I entered T2 with a 5 second lead and left with a 4 second lead as Tom was marginally faster in T1.
On the run we stayed within 10 seconds for most of the 5k. Only in the last mile was I able to pull away, putting 20 seconds on tom to beat him by a total of 24 seconds.
I think this a very representative race for us and hopefully one the forshadows our race on sunday--even if I'm the one that loses (though that would be less good). the reason I think Tom has to be the favorite is this look at our Mid-Atlantic ratings over the last 7 years:
RC/Tom:
2004: 77.9/79.6
2005: 83.8/80.5
2006: 83.9/80.4
2007: 85.7/78.8
2008: 82.4/81.0
2009: 86.4/83.0
2010: 82.4/83.5
Tom's strength in 2010 is eveident in these numbers and is correlated with his All-american status in 2010 (which I did not achieve).
So on sunday--here's how I see it.
Swim: I need to try to stay 60 seconds (or less) behind. At 0.35 miles, it's a slightly longer swim than the majority of our prior races but I'm a much better swimmer now--even with my lack of training this year. I'd take a 60 second deficit right now.
Transitions: I need to keep these neutral. I'd love to gain a few seconds but if I could wave my wand, I'd take an even transition time with Tom.
The Bike: I need to make it happen here. I absolutely need to enter T2 in front of Tom. so I'd better be at leat 60 seconds faster! If I don't do this, I'm probably sunk and whining about my fitness on my post-race blog. Better than inching out Tom, I'd love to get my average advantage of 98 seconds on the bike---this would give me a very real tactical advantage entering the run.
I've outrun Tom 9 of the 11 times. The data says I'm a better runner. That said, he was healthy last year and he ran a lot faster than me. I think Tom is likely to be faster than me this sunday. If that is the case, I hope I'm leading by enough coming out of T2.
whatever happens, I'm psyched---should be a blast and it will certainly be a privilege to race and feel the (remaining) strength that my body posseses....If I win great! If tom wins, I'll celebrate his return to health with him. If someone else wins, we'll congratulate him and look forward to the following weekend. The weather is finally nice. I have a lot of races on the docket. I love this!!!!!
I'm racing the Bassman Sprint Triathlon this Sunday morning. Conditions look splendid. I love the venue. I've raced there four times before and have won my AG all four times. I feel good and ready to have at it--loving everything about my space coming into this race.
The RD (unfortunately) has changed the race from the old format: 0.5M swim/28M bike (!!!!!!)/4M run to a new (more user friendly) format: 0.35M swim/11M bike/5K run. This is not a welcome thing for me competitively (obviously) but more than that--one of the best things about Bass River was the awesome, and unusually long bike leg. Now, it's just like all the rest of the NJ sprints.
That said, there is still much to recommend about this race. Hands-down the best swim venue in the state. A great place to run. Quirky RD/team. I do like this race. Plus, did I mention I'm 4-0 here?
LOL.
Anyways, this Sunday's race could be an epic AG battle for me.
But first, my disclaimers. there are (currently) 13 people entered in my AG. I know a fair amount about 10 of them. the other 3 are unknown. That usually means that they will not be a factor--but this is not always so. Also, you never know who will show up at the last minute. Plus, a triathlete's fitness changes from year to year and you never know when a former slug will show up and dust your ass. So, the following assessment of the competitive profile for this race must be balanced by the real chance that someone I'm not expecting, shows up and crushes me.
That said, I don't think so. As I see it, the race this sunday morning has the potential to be a classic shootout with one of my longest-running (and most respected) AG competitors, the fabulous Mr. Tom Dillon. I think our race could literally come down to a desperate sprint to the finish line--and how cool would that be? Of course, it will most likely be far less dramatic than that--he'll beat me comfortably or visa-versa...but something about this set-up tells me otherwise....here's why:
So as best as I can tell, I've raced Tom 11 (out of my 101 triathlons) times through the years. The only person I've raced against more is the great Mickster (Mickey Syrop). To take nothing away from my battles with Mickey, my races with Tom have been very compelling through the years because we are so evenly matched. Here's my competitive analysis which is followed by how I see the race on Sunday:
Mano-a-Mano: Tom Dillon
An important thing to note in all of this is that Tom has had to manage and work around a long-term health challenge. He suffers from periodic bouts of vertigo which obviously limit his ability to train specifically and to race as much as he would like. So, his race performances tend to vary a fair amount depending on how well his body is acting. that said, when he gets to go at it as he would like, he is an outstanding triathlete. In my judgement, he is more inherently talented than I but is held back--in a sparadic fashion, by his ailment. when he is right and able to train--he is the man, and in my view, a better triathlete than I. In 2010 Tom was finally healthy for the year and crushed it. I didn't race him last year, but I am absolutely certain that if I had, he would have beaten me easily. So coming into this race, I wouldn't be surprised at all that Tom was a stronger triathlete than I and should be expected to be beat me--that's where the smart money is.
That said, the historical data does favor the home team:
In the 11 races we've contested, beginning with the 2002 Lum's Pong triathlon up through the 2009 Vincentown Triathlon, I've compiled a 9-2 record against Tom. 5 of these 11 races have been decided by less than a minute. Here is a more granular analysis of Tom and I, mano-a-mano:
The Swim
Tom is a fantastic swimmer. He owns me on the swim. He has been the faster swimmer in all 11 of our races. I came as close as 16 seconds once (2006 Stone Harbor) and was a full 4:14 slower at Sunset 2005, a few days after my grade 3 shoulder separation. If we exclude these two end-posts, Tom on average beats me by 70 seconds in the swim. 6 of these 11 swim contests have me coming in between 45 and 60 seconds behind him.
Transition One
We are very even in transitions. I tend to do a little better in T1 and Tom tends to do a little better in T2. I have data for 10 T1s and I've been faster for 6 of them. We've been within 10 seconds in 7 of these T1s. If we throw out the high and the low differences, I average a 4 second advantage over Tom in T1.
The Bike
So if Tom is a fantastic swimmer, I must be a fantastic biker (lol). I have out-split tom in all of our bike match-ups to date. He was only 22 seconds behind at Lenape 2004 but I put a full 7:58 on him at the Pine Barrens Olympic in 2003. throwing these out, I average a 98 second advantage over Tom on the bike and in all but one race, have been at least a minute faster.
Transition Two
Tom has bested me 7 of our 10 match-ups. 7 of the 10 times the delta has been less than 10 seconds. On average, he enjoys a 2 second advantage on me.
The Run
Amazingly, and not by a lot, I have out-run tom through the years. I've been faster 9 of the 11 races. That said, 7 of the 11 runs we contested have been less than 1 minute apart. I've averaged a 36 second advantage. Importantly, whoever has lead coming out of T2 has always won.
So let's reflect on this. Tom dominates in the Swim. I so in the Bike. Our transitions are neutral and in the run I've prevailed by a small margin, but Tom is certainly acendant, and running a lot faster than I in 2010 (even though we didn't race against each other).
In 2005, I raced against Tom (and Mickey) at the Marlton sprint race. We were both in good, late season shape. there were 376 people in the race and we finished RC (10th), Mick (11th), and Tom (12th). To me, this was a classic race that captures the essence of tom's and my battles through the years--and I hope is a foreshadowing of what might unfold on sunday:
In the swim Tom put 62 seconds on me. He was the 10th fastest swim OA (98th %-tile). My swim was very solid (given my swim skills then) and I was 88th %-tile.
I put 6 seconds on him in T1 (we were both in the top 10 %) and I left T1 56 seconds behind him.
Tom had an outstanding bike leg--he was 8th OA. but I was considerably faster and I caught him in the last mile and at the line, put 61 seconds into him on the bike. I entered T2 with a 5 second lead and left with a 4 second lead as Tom was marginally faster in T1.
On the run we stayed within 10 seconds for most of the 5k. Only in the last mile was I able to pull away, putting 20 seconds on tom to beat him by a total of 24 seconds.
I think this a very representative race for us and hopefully one the forshadows our race on sunday--even if I'm the one that loses (though that would be less good). the reason I think Tom has to be the favorite is this look at our Mid-Atlantic ratings over the last 7 years:
RC/Tom:
2004: 77.9/79.6
2005: 83.8/80.5
2006: 83.9/80.4
2007: 85.7/78.8
2008: 82.4/81.0
2009: 86.4/83.0
2010: 82.4/83.5
Tom's strength in 2010 is eveident in these numbers and is correlated with his All-american status in 2010 (which I did not achieve).
So on sunday--here's how I see it.
Swim: I need to try to stay 60 seconds (or less) behind. At 0.35 miles, it's a slightly longer swim than the majority of our prior races but I'm a much better swimmer now--even with my lack of training this year. I'd take a 60 second deficit right now.
Transitions: I need to keep these neutral. I'd love to gain a few seconds but if I could wave my wand, I'd take an even transition time with Tom.
The Bike: I need to make it happen here. I absolutely need to enter T2 in front of Tom. so I'd better be at leat 60 seconds faster! If I don't do this, I'm probably sunk and whining about my fitness on my post-race blog. Better than inching out Tom, I'd love to get my average advantage of 98 seconds on the bike---this would give me a very real tactical advantage entering the run.
I've outrun Tom 9 of the 11 times. The data says I'm a better runner. That said, he was healthy last year and he ran a lot faster than me. I think Tom is likely to be faster than me this sunday. If that is the case, I hope I'm leading by enough coming out of T2.
whatever happens, I'm psyched---should be a blast and it will certainly be a privilege to race and feel the (remaining) strength that my body posseses....If I win great! If tom wins, I'll celebrate his return to health with him. If someone else wins, we'll congratulate him and look forward to the following weekend. The weather is finally nice. I have a lot of races on the docket. I love this!!!!!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The May Test
As you may recall, my racing season in 2011 is basically set-up in two components:
Short Course: May 1-July 31
Long Course: August 1- Nov 20
Further I've aligned my training emphasis to support this approach. I've been focsing more on short course "speed" and plan to continue to do so out through July. Then over the last 16 weeks leading up to my "A" race, Ironman Arizona, I switch over and do "Ironman specific" training. The hope is that between now and August 1st I can development my top end speed and then over those final 16 weeks add the endurance training necessary to support my Ironman.
May will be a very useful in-season check-point for me to gauge if this is working (or if I should modify it to be more like my usual, lot's of volume approach). I plan to race 4 of the 5 weekends in May, starting this Sunday, May 1st at the Bassman Sprint (.35/11/3.1). Over the course of those four races I hope I can have at least one real strong race, a couple of solid ones, and if past experience is correlated with future performance, I can also expect a clunker in there as well.
I'm training through all of these races--they are "C" races but I hope to see clear signs of a strong top end developing. I'd like to see my swim pace down around 25-26 minutes/mile (or top 20%), my bike power up in the 250-270 watt range (top 5%), and my 5k speed around 23 minutes (top 30%). If I can do this I'll stay the course. If not, I may tinker with the plan a bit come June.
Looks like a very interesting "mano-a-mano" race shaping up for this weekend....more on that as we get closer to the race...
Short Course: May 1-July 31
Long Course: August 1- Nov 20
Further I've aligned my training emphasis to support this approach. I've been focsing more on short course "speed" and plan to continue to do so out through July. Then over the last 16 weeks leading up to my "A" race, Ironman Arizona, I switch over and do "Ironman specific" training. The hope is that between now and August 1st I can development my top end speed and then over those final 16 weeks add the endurance training necessary to support my Ironman.
May will be a very useful in-season check-point for me to gauge if this is working (or if I should modify it to be more like my usual, lot's of volume approach). I plan to race 4 of the 5 weekends in May, starting this Sunday, May 1st at the Bassman Sprint (.35/11/3.1). Over the course of those four races I hope I can have at least one real strong race, a couple of solid ones, and if past experience is correlated with future performance, I can also expect a clunker in there as well.
I'm training through all of these races--they are "C" races but I hope to see clear signs of a strong top end developing. I'd like to see my swim pace down around 25-26 minutes/mile (or top 20%), my bike power up in the 250-270 watt range (top 5%), and my 5k speed around 23 minutes (top 30%). If I can do this I'll stay the course. If not, I may tinker with the plan a bit come June.
Looks like a very interesting "mano-a-mano" race shaping up for this weekend....more on that as we get closer to the race...
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Worked hard this week
Easter/Good Friday took away a couple of swimming opportunities and Anders' stuff arriving on Saturday morning took away a 5k I wanted to do but besides that, I was able to get a very solid week of training in:
Swim: 7000 yds
Bike: 269 miles
Run: 40 miles
Time: 26:41
Both the bike and run had a good speed oreiented workout. I did several 50 mile rides on the bike where I pushed it pretty good for sections. I also had a couple of stretch/weight sessions as well--good solid week.
Looking ahead I plan to train pretty hard through thursday. Take a rest day on Friday and I'm racing this weekend in my first sprint of the year. May will be a very important test of whether my training plan is moving me along on my road to IMAZ or not. I plan on racing 4 times in May and perhaps as much as 6 of the next 7 weekends. If my results are not "there" then I may need to revamp my approach. I don't think this will be necessary but I will be looking closely at my race results in May to hopefully confirm I'm making the progress I need...
More on the May plan and the very exciting race I see for this Sunday as the week unfolds...
Swim: 7000 yds
Bike: 269 miles
Run: 40 miles
Time: 26:41
Both the bike and run had a good speed oreiented workout. I did several 50 mile rides on the bike where I pushed it pretty good for sections. I also had a couple of stretch/weight sessions as well--good solid week.
Looking ahead I plan to train pretty hard through thursday. Take a rest day on Friday and I'm racing this weekend in my first sprint of the year. May will be a very important test of whether my training plan is moving me along on my road to IMAZ or not. I plan on racing 4 times in May and perhaps as much as 6 of the next 7 weekends. If my results are not "there" then I may need to revamp my approach. I don't think this will be necessary but I will be looking closely at my race results in May to hopefully confirm I'm making the progress I need...
More on the May plan and the very exciting race I see for this Sunday as the week unfolds...
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Oceanside/Baldy Pics up
I've added pics/slideshows from IMCA70.3 and Mount Baldy to my website: http://web.mac.com/randychristofferson/Site/2011Photos.html.
Here are a couple of pics from Oceanside as teasers:
The XC gang on thursday night--I'm in the middle of Heather Fuhr and Michele Jones--sweet! Chris Leigh is to my right:
BP and I pre-race:
Smiling in T2:
Cooling down post-race:
Judy and my new pal, Jordan Rapp:
BP and I after the mission was accomplished:
Here are a couple of pics from Oceanside as teasers:
The XC gang on thursday night--I'm in the middle of Heather Fuhr and Michele Jones--sweet! Chris Leigh is to my right:
BP and I pre-race:
Smiling in T2:
Cooling down post-race:
Judy and my new pal, Jordan Rapp:
BP and I after the mission was accomplished:
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Oceanside Race Report--finally!
Sorry to take so long--a lot of factors conspired to slow me down, but here it is:
2011 Ironman California (Oceanside) 70.3
2011 Race Report #1: April 2nd
Background
My first triathlon of the 2011 season and my 101st in my career. This is my second shot at Oceanside, having raced it in 2010 and qualified for Kona 2010 there. I’m back racing Ironman XC but know that I will not qualify for Kona this year due to the XC rule changes (no over 50 slot this year). This is also my first triathlon since Kona some six months ago.
My principal competitive goal in 2011 is to race my best IM ever at Ironman Arizona in November and in the process re-qualify for Kona. Since, IMAZ is over 200 days after Oceanside, I am not in Long Course shape on this April morning. I will not start IM specific training until August 1st—16 weeks in front of my 2011 “A” race.
I’m here racing with my long-time friend, Bill Price, who is doing his first H-IM. His family and Judy and Anders have travelled to cheer us on. Pre-race festivities included dinner with Heather Fuhr, Michelle Jones and Chris Leigh plus a breakfast with Jordan Rapp and Lindsey Corbin.
Since my principal objective was to finish safely and perhaps beat my time from 2010, I had very little pre-race stress. I slept well and did all of my usual pre-race activities, which I won’t bore you with in this report.
Race morning dawns a comfortable 58 degrees with an overcast ski and modest winds. The water is a very comfortable 62 degrees.
The Swim
The Oceanside swim is in the protected waters of the Oceanside harbor. I think it’s a relatively fast H-IM swim. The salt-water is buoyant and the breakwater does a good job of keeping the waters calm. There is always a lot of pre-race discourse about the cold-water but at 62 degrees, I think it’s just about a perfect wetsuit-legal swim temperature. With over 2000 competitors in a relatively tight swimming space it does get crowded and being in the 12th wave I knew I would have to wend my way through multiple prior waves of slower swimmers.
Last year, I was in better swim shape at this point in the calendar. I swam 33:07 in 2010 with an average HR of 152 bpm. This was good enough for 86 %-tile in my AG and 77 %-tile OA. Fitness wise, I knew I was slower this year but without the need to focus on qualifying for Kona this year, I though I could go a bit harder than the admittedly “easy” effort last year.
When it was time for my wave to go I swam the 50 or so yards out to the swim start and positioned myself off to the right by the boats. I settled into place with just 45 seconds until the gun and started my watch a couple of seconds later. The gun went and I saw that my watch was 27 seconds in and knew that I would need to adjust my future time splits by that amount.
I felt good and had plenty of clear water out to the first turn buoy, which I’d guess was about 300 yards into the race. As we turned NW out towards the breakwater wall, I tried to find feet to slot in behind. This proved to be a generally unproductive activity as I could never find a set of feet that were strong, steady and straight.
As I approached the 2nd turn buoy I began to notice considerable chop—something that wasn’t there in 2010. It wasn’t bad by any means but something that had to be managed.
I made the 2nd turn and swam straight into the chop—this definitely slowed things down (in fact my analysis indicates that the overall swim was about 30-60 seconds slower this year for comparable efforts due to the chop). I turned back towards home around the 3rd turn buoy and things settled down quickly. I was way off to the right—off the buoy line—by the breakwater wall and swimming all by myself. It was much easier to see this year as the sky was very overcast.
As I cruised towards home, I felt very comfortable but had the nagging sense that I wasn’t “humping” it. I felt like I should push harder but rationalized the thought away by reflecting on my concept of this race being a “spring training” , warm-up race.
Near the final (and only RH) turn buoy, I looked over and saw my bud Bill go streaming by. Bill is an outstanding swimmer and he had started a full 7 minutes behind me. I yelled to him and he lifted his head and greeted me. I also noticed that he was right on the tail of Kim McDonald, a fantastic swimmer and the guy that always qualifies for Kona in this race. It looked like Bill was going to slow down to say a few words but I yelled at him to go. Go he did and in fact ended up posting the fastest swim time of any M55-59 with something in the 27s.
I cruised on in and hit the timing mat with an elapsed time of 35:33. My HR averaged 151 bpm. Here is how 2011 compared competitively to 2010:
2010 AG place: 25/161 (86th %-tile)
2011 AG place: 36/131 (73rd %-tile)
2010 OA place: 507/2171 (77th %-tile)
2011 OA place: 689/2192 (69th %-tile)
This is, of-course, mildly disappointing. I knew I wasn’t in as good swim shape but I had hoped to swim harder and get a time closer to 34 minutes and even perhaps close to my 2010 time. This was wishful thinking as my effort in this race is best characterized as relatively uninspired. My tactical mastery of the course was poor. While the cost was only a minute or two, I have to give myself a pretty low grade on this swim. That said, I do have reasonably decent swim fitness to build on in the many training weeks that await me in 2011.
Transition One
Pretty uneventful. I caught and passed my bud Bill who seemed to be intent on taking his time in T1. I took a total of 4:36 this year with an average HR of 157. This was good enough for 30th in my AG (78th %-tile). Last year I managed T1 in 4:19 with an average HR of 165. Not a big deal but my “dogging it” tone for 2011 seemed to be well established at this point in the race.
The Bike
Bike fitness wise, I entered this race considerably less prepared from a Long Course bike perspective. That said, last year I had ridden very conservative as I was pretty confident in my ability to snag a Kona slot with that approach. While I was definitely less LC bike fit this year, I have been working on my sub one hour bike ride speed and I thought if I went for it more this year that I might be able to replicate or even beat last year’s split.
I won’t go into a lot of detail on the course (see LY’s report for that) but over the first 24.5 mile-section it’s a lot of rollers and flats. A fair amount of turns. It’s a reasonably fast section of the course and I expected to average close to 23 mph during this section. Last year, with my conservative approach I had averaged 22.2 mph during this first section.
This year I immediately noticed considerably more wind. I kept looking at my SRM and thought that my power was looking good but my speed was low. I also felt “off”. I had a bad stomach and congestion for a few days before the race and I didn’t feel quite right. About 10 miles or so into the race we had a short out and back and I soon saw my bud Bill-just 30 sec or so back. This surprised me as I would have expected him to be 2 or minutes behind me. Either I was having a poor bike leg or he was over-cooking the early stages (or both as it turned out).
The wind continued and seemed to intensify and I hit the first timing point only averaging 20.52 mph—I was already almost 4 minutes behind last year at 24.5 miles in. I checked my average power and saw I was right on 200 watts—which puzzled me—I should have been going faster.
Next came the climbs and things steadily deteriorated. Going up the first big climb the winds were howling and I was reduced to crunching out a 6-mph grind. Some people were walking up the climb and it was clear to me that conditions were considerably tougher than last year.
I wended my way through the climbs and eventually started making my way along Basoline road. I felt out of it. I knew I was slow—really, really slow but for some reason it didn’t seem to matter. I saw a lot of draft packs and even that didn’t get me riled.
I was really focused on adequately hydrating on the bike—I think that will be a key for me at IMAZ—and I did a pretty good job as I peed at least 5 or 6 times during the ride. I might even have overdone it a bit.
Eventually I returned to the harbor and recorded a 2:57:33 split with an average HR of 146. In 2010 I had finished the bike with a 2:43:44 and an average HR of 148. Strangely enough, my average power last year was 174 watts and this year it averaged 202 watts. My cadence was 74 last year and 73 this year. Competitively I was 88th/80th %-tile (AG/OA) last year and this year I was a very disappointing 66th/64th %-tile.
What to make of this conflicting data? Here are my thoughts:
-Competitively this bike split was a disaster. Normally I’m in the top 5-10% of my AG and OA on the bike. Oceanside is not my kind of course with all of its climbing so I expect to do a bit worse than that but this year’s numbers were dramatically worse than last year. At the end of the day, from a competitive standpoint, I had a horrible bike split—probably the worse of my career.
-I analyzed competitors that rode in both 2010 and 2011 and discovered that most folks were 4-6 minutes slower (due to the wind I’m guessing). I was about 14 minutes slower so this explains only some of the time difference.
-My power was dramatically higher in 2011 than 2010. This is at first blush, satisfying as I had intended this to be so. However, this dramatically higher power raises the question of inaccurate power measurements comparing 2010 to 2011. This may be true but I have no way to know for sure.
-My guess is that the power measurements are in fact true. So why is my performance so much worse given the higher average power? I’m speculating here but my guess is that it’s a function of three things:
-I’m heavier this year than last year and this impacted my P/W ratio enough to kill me on the hills.
-My hip still bothered me this year forcing me to sit up and stretch quite a bit, and I was probably less aero on average (position wise) and this hurt me on the straights and descents. My highest speed this year was only 38.2 mph vs. 44.5 last year.
-I think I rode a very poor tactical race and squandered all the extra power I was producing—I just wasn’t into it this year. I also did not push any of the descents—I didn’t see the point of adding more risk to the ride.
So who knows for sure what really happened. All I know is that I probably rode close to the worse bike split of my career to date!
Transition Two
Not much to report here except that despite peeing as much as I did on the ride I still really needed to empty my bladder—one of my pre-race objectives to really hydrate on the bike was apparently met! I hit all four of the port-johns near the exit of transition—all were unlocked and occupied by other dudes of the same mind (or at least bladder).
I said the heck with it and exited T2 with a transition time of 2:36 and an average HR of 141bpm. I was 2:22 last year with an average HR of 151, which is another indication of the lack of stress I was applying in this race. I was 26th (81st %-tile in my AG). I was leaving T2 with my cumulative time already past 3:40 and knowing I was guaranteed a pretty unsatisfying final race time.
The Run
My principal focus as I exited T2 was on finding a place “to take a leak”. I finally found my relief shortly before the mile 1 mark in an unoccupied Porta-John. I spent a solid (and very satisfying) 30 seconds or so in there and then set back out on my way.
I clocked an 8:58 and an average HR of 150bpm. I decided that there wasn’t much point of running hard and that I would try to average 9 minutes or so as this is what I hope to be able to run at IMAZ in November. This pace felt pretty reasonable and my next two miles were: 8:59 (153) and 8:56 (154).
At the turnaround just past 3 miles I noticed that I had been running into a headwind and with the change of direction it felt easier to run. I decided that felt pretty decent and that I could probably pick it up a bit. I set an upper limit of 160 bpm on my HR and picked it up a bit. The next four miles were:
Mile 4: 8:40 (155)
Mile 5: 8:39 (158)
Mile 6: 8:47 (156)
Mile 7: 8:38 (155)
A couple of other notes about these 4 miles. I saw my bud Bill somewhere between 4 and 5 and he looked good and in good spirits—I was thrilled as it looked like he was going to make it, after just 3 months of training. Just past mile 6, and before crossing the bridge back towards the transition area, I saw Anders who had driven down from Manhattan Beach after his last day of work (and the associated festivities) the day before—he was operating on 2 hours of sleep. After the 1st lap turnaround, I saw him, Judy and the Prices again and they cheered me on. Anders asked how I felt and I said fine—I was just cruising 8:30-9:00 minute miles and I told him I’d probably do a 5:40 (yuch!). He offered encouragement and off I went to grind through the last 6 miles.
I was surprised to clock a 9:01 (154) in mile 8. It felt like I was still working as hard as before but I recognized that sign when your pace and HR begin to fall. My legs were suddenly very heavy and my left knee began to ache a great deal (time for more Syn-Visc injections—it’s been 8 months).
Despite this, I tried to pick it up in the 9th mile and was “rewarded” with a 9:29 (151). At that point, I realized my lack of Long Course training was now becoming evident and I set it on cruise control:
Mile 10: 9:45 (150)
Mile 11: 9:37 (150)
Mile 12: 9:43 (147)
Mile 13: 9:37 (152)
I jogged across the line with a run split of 1:59:50 (60th %-tile in my AG, 53rd %-tile OA). My total race time was 5:40:09. I was 45th in my AG (66th %-tile) and 801st OA (64th %-tile). It was my second slowest H-IM (out of 15)—only the suffer-fest of Eagleman 2008 was slower.
Judy was there to give me my finisher’s medal and she and Anders accompanied me into transition and then down to the harbor edge where I waded in to cool down my legs for 5-10 minutes. We all went back up in time to cheer Bill in just below his time goal of 6 hours—a great debut H-IM for him!
Post Race Observations
- This is a disappointing race ultimately. I knew I didn’t have the LC base training under my belt, but I still thought I would go faster—I thought maybe as fast as 5:10. Competitively, I was very mediocre as well.
- It’s been a while since I had a good H-IM. I haven’t been under 5 hours since 2007 and my 4:43 at White Lake that year seems like a distant memory. I really need to turn in another “fast” H-IM and I’ll be anxious to do so at Steelhead in August.
- I finished the race and had a great time. That is something I do really appreciate and don’t take for granted. I know there are a lot of people who can’t do what I did today so I’m thankful for the experience and all the support of my friends and family. A couple of days latter, Anders and I climbed Mt. Baldy together (6.5 hours, 4000 feet of vertical, 13 miles). I’m pretty sure I was “slow” there as well but no one was racing us and I took simple joy in an objective met and a job well done. I recognize that while I have definite competitive goals that I’m striving to hit, I have to just appreciate what I’m able to do on any given day—even if it is a lot slower than I would like.
- I didn’t pay tribute to my father as I crossed the line. This year I am dedicating my season to his memory and I felt like his memory deserved a better effort from me—which I will deliver in my next race.
- I do think I have a pretty decent fitness base despite my performance here. I was pretty sick for the next 10 days after Oceanside so this probably impacted my performance. I have a lot of work to do but I don’t see any reason why I can’t be pretty competitive this year—at least by the summer.
- I have some equipment stuff to take care of. I chose not to use my disc because it seemed to have a slow leak in the tubular tire on race morning. I probably need to be refit on my bike. I need to get my knee re-“lubed” and I’ll need to keep rehabbing my left hip.
Onward and Upward!
Life Me Up. Let Me Go.
2011 Ironman California (Oceanside) 70.3
2011 Race Report #1: April 2nd
Background
My first triathlon of the 2011 season and my 101st in my career. This is my second shot at Oceanside, having raced it in 2010 and qualified for Kona 2010 there. I’m back racing Ironman XC but know that I will not qualify for Kona this year due to the XC rule changes (no over 50 slot this year). This is also my first triathlon since Kona some six months ago.
My principal competitive goal in 2011 is to race my best IM ever at Ironman Arizona in November and in the process re-qualify for Kona. Since, IMAZ is over 200 days after Oceanside, I am not in Long Course shape on this April morning. I will not start IM specific training until August 1st—16 weeks in front of my 2011 “A” race.
I’m here racing with my long-time friend, Bill Price, who is doing his first H-IM. His family and Judy and Anders have travelled to cheer us on. Pre-race festivities included dinner with Heather Fuhr, Michelle Jones and Chris Leigh plus a breakfast with Jordan Rapp and Lindsey Corbin.
Since my principal objective was to finish safely and perhaps beat my time from 2010, I had very little pre-race stress. I slept well and did all of my usual pre-race activities, which I won’t bore you with in this report.
Race morning dawns a comfortable 58 degrees with an overcast ski and modest winds. The water is a very comfortable 62 degrees.
The Swim
The Oceanside swim is in the protected waters of the Oceanside harbor. I think it’s a relatively fast H-IM swim. The salt-water is buoyant and the breakwater does a good job of keeping the waters calm. There is always a lot of pre-race discourse about the cold-water but at 62 degrees, I think it’s just about a perfect wetsuit-legal swim temperature. With over 2000 competitors in a relatively tight swimming space it does get crowded and being in the 12th wave I knew I would have to wend my way through multiple prior waves of slower swimmers.
Last year, I was in better swim shape at this point in the calendar. I swam 33:07 in 2010 with an average HR of 152 bpm. This was good enough for 86 %-tile in my AG and 77 %-tile OA. Fitness wise, I knew I was slower this year but without the need to focus on qualifying for Kona this year, I though I could go a bit harder than the admittedly “easy” effort last year.
When it was time for my wave to go I swam the 50 or so yards out to the swim start and positioned myself off to the right by the boats. I settled into place with just 45 seconds until the gun and started my watch a couple of seconds later. The gun went and I saw that my watch was 27 seconds in and knew that I would need to adjust my future time splits by that amount.
I felt good and had plenty of clear water out to the first turn buoy, which I’d guess was about 300 yards into the race. As we turned NW out towards the breakwater wall, I tried to find feet to slot in behind. This proved to be a generally unproductive activity as I could never find a set of feet that were strong, steady and straight.
As I approached the 2nd turn buoy I began to notice considerable chop—something that wasn’t there in 2010. It wasn’t bad by any means but something that had to be managed.
I made the 2nd turn and swam straight into the chop—this definitely slowed things down (in fact my analysis indicates that the overall swim was about 30-60 seconds slower this year for comparable efforts due to the chop). I turned back towards home around the 3rd turn buoy and things settled down quickly. I was way off to the right—off the buoy line—by the breakwater wall and swimming all by myself. It was much easier to see this year as the sky was very overcast.
As I cruised towards home, I felt very comfortable but had the nagging sense that I wasn’t “humping” it. I felt like I should push harder but rationalized the thought away by reflecting on my concept of this race being a “spring training” , warm-up race.
Near the final (and only RH) turn buoy, I looked over and saw my bud Bill go streaming by. Bill is an outstanding swimmer and he had started a full 7 minutes behind me. I yelled to him and he lifted his head and greeted me. I also noticed that he was right on the tail of Kim McDonald, a fantastic swimmer and the guy that always qualifies for Kona in this race. It looked like Bill was going to slow down to say a few words but I yelled at him to go. Go he did and in fact ended up posting the fastest swim time of any M55-59 with something in the 27s.
I cruised on in and hit the timing mat with an elapsed time of 35:33. My HR averaged 151 bpm. Here is how 2011 compared competitively to 2010:
2010 AG place: 25/161 (86th %-tile)
2011 AG place: 36/131 (73rd %-tile)
2010 OA place: 507/2171 (77th %-tile)
2011 OA place: 689/2192 (69th %-tile)
This is, of-course, mildly disappointing. I knew I wasn’t in as good swim shape but I had hoped to swim harder and get a time closer to 34 minutes and even perhaps close to my 2010 time. This was wishful thinking as my effort in this race is best characterized as relatively uninspired. My tactical mastery of the course was poor. While the cost was only a minute or two, I have to give myself a pretty low grade on this swim. That said, I do have reasonably decent swim fitness to build on in the many training weeks that await me in 2011.
Transition One
Pretty uneventful. I caught and passed my bud Bill who seemed to be intent on taking his time in T1. I took a total of 4:36 this year with an average HR of 157. This was good enough for 30th in my AG (78th %-tile). Last year I managed T1 in 4:19 with an average HR of 165. Not a big deal but my “dogging it” tone for 2011 seemed to be well established at this point in the race.
The Bike
Bike fitness wise, I entered this race considerably less prepared from a Long Course bike perspective. That said, last year I had ridden very conservative as I was pretty confident in my ability to snag a Kona slot with that approach. While I was definitely less LC bike fit this year, I have been working on my sub one hour bike ride speed and I thought if I went for it more this year that I might be able to replicate or even beat last year’s split.
I won’t go into a lot of detail on the course (see LY’s report for that) but over the first 24.5 mile-section it’s a lot of rollers and flats. A fair amount of turns. It’s a reasonably fast section of the course and I expected to average close to 23 mph during this section. Last year, with my conservative approach I had averaged 22.2 mph during this first section.
This year I immediately noticed considerably more wind. I kept looking at my SRM and thought that my power was looking good but my speed was low. I also felt “off”. I had a bad stomach and congestion for a few days before the race and I didn’t feel quite right. About 10 miles or so into the race we had a short out and back and I soon saw my bud Bill-just 30 sec or so back. This surprised me as I would have expected him to be 2 or minutes behind me. Either I was having a poor bike leg or he was over-cooking the early stages (or both as it turned out).
The wind continued and seemed to intensify and I hit the first timing point only averaging 20.52 mph—I was already almost 4 minutes behind last year at 24.5 miles in. I checked my average power and saw I was right on 200 watts—which puzzled me—I should have been going faster.
Next came the climbs and things steadily deteriorated. Going up the first big climb the winds were howling and I was reduced to crunching out a 6-mph grind. Some people were walking up the climb and it was clear to me that conditions were considerably tougher than last year.
I wended my way through the climbs and eventually started making my way along Basoline road. I felt out of it. I knew I was slow—really, really slow but for some reason it didn’t seem to matter. I saw a lot of draft packs and even that didn’t get me riled.
I was really focused on adequately hydrating on the bike—I think that will be a key for me at IMAZ—and I did a pretty good job as I peed at least 5 or 6 times during the ride. I might even have overdone it a bit.
Eventually I returned to the harbor and recorded a 2:57:33 split with an average HR of 146. In 2010 I had finished the bike with a 2:43:44 and an average HR of 148. Strangely enough, my average power last year was 174 watts and this year it averaged 202 watts. My cadence was 74 last year and 73 this year. Competitively I was 88th/80th %-tile (AG/OA) last year and this year I was a very disappointing 66th/64th %-tile.
What to make of this conflicting data? Here are my thoughts:
-Competitively this bike split was a disaster. Normally I’m in the top 5-10% of my AG and OA on the bike. Oceanside is not my kind of course with all of its climbing so I expect to do a bit worse than that but this year’s numbers were dramatically worse than last year. At the end of the day, from a competitive standpoint, I had a horrible bike split—probably the worse of my career.
-I analyzed competitors that rode in both 2010 and 2011 and discovered that most folks were 4-6 minutes slower (due to the wind I’m guessing). I was about 14 minutes slower so this explains only some of the time difference.
-My power was dramatically higher in 2011 than 2010. This is at first blush, satisfying as I had intended this to be so. However, this dramatically higher power raises the question of inaccurate power measurements comparing 2010 to 2011. This may be true but I have no way to know for sure.
-My guess is that the power measurements are in fact true. So why is my performance so much worse given the higher average power? I’m speculating here but my guess is that it’s a function of three things:
-I’m heavier this year than last year and this impacted my P/W ratio enough to kill me on the hills.
-My hip still bothered me this year forcing me to sit up and stretch quite a bit, and I was probably less aero on average (position wise) and this hurt me on the straights and descents. My highest speed this year was only 38.2 mph vs. 44.5 last year.
-I think I rode a very poor tactical race and squandered all the extra power I was producing—I just wasn’t into it this year. I also did not push any of the descents—I didn’t see the point of adding more risk to the ride.
So who knows for sure what really happened. All I know is that I probably rode close to the worse bike split of my career to date!
Transition Two
Not much to report here except that despite peeing as much as I did on the ride I still really needed to empty my bladder—one of my pre-race objectives to really hydrate on the bike was apparently met! I hit all four of the port-johns near the exit of transition—all were unlocked and occupied by other dudes of the same mind (or at least bladder).
I said the heck with it and exited T2 with a transition time of 2:36 and an average HR of 141bpm. I was 2:22 last year with an average HR of 151, which is another indication of the lack of stress I was applying in this race. I was 26th (81st %-tile in my AG). I was leaving T2 with my cumulative time already past 3:40 and knowing I was guaranteed a pretty unsatisfying final race time.
The Run
My principal focus as I exited T2 was on finding a place “to take a leak”. I finally found my relief shortly before the mile 1 mark in an unoccupied Porta-John. I spent a solid (and very satisfying) 30 seconds or so in there and then set back out on my way.
I clocked an 8:58 and an average HR of 150bpm. I decided that there wasn’t much point of running hard and that I would try to average 9 minutes or so as this is what I hope to be able to run at IMAZ in November. This pace felt pretty reasonable and my next two miles were: 8:59 (153) and 8:56 (154).
At the turnaround just past 3 miles I noticed that I had been running into a headwind and with the change of direction it felt easier to run. I decided that felt pretty decent and that I could probably pick it up a bit. I set an upper limit of 160 bpm on my HR and picked it up a bit. The next four miles were:
Mile 4: 8:40 (155)
Mile 5: 8:39 (158)
Mile 6: 8:47 (156)
Mile 7: 8:38 (155)
A couple of other notes about these 4 miles. I saw my bud Bill somewhere between 4 and 5 and he looked good and in good spirits—I was thrilled as it looked like he was going to make it, after just 3 months of training. Just past mile 6, and before crossing the bridge back towards the transition area, I saw Anders who had driven down from Manhattan Beach after his last day of work (and the associated festivities) the day before—he was operating on 2 hours of sleep. After the 1st lap turnaround, I saw him, Judy and the Prices again and they cheered me on. Anders asked how I felt and I said fine—I was just cruising 8:30-9:00 minute miles and I told him I’d probably do a 5:40 (yuch!). He offered encouragement and off I went to grind through the last 6 miles.
I was surprised to clock a 9:01 (154) in mile 8. It felt like I was still working as hard as before but I recognized that sign when your pace and HR begin to fall. My legs were suddenly very heavy and my left knee began to ache a great deal (time for more Syn-Visc injections—it’s been 8 months).
Despite this, I tried to pick it up in the 9th mile and was “rewarded” with a 9:29 (151). At that point, I realized my lack of Long Course training was now becoming evident and I set it on cruise control:
Mile 10: 9:45 (150)
Mile 11: 9:37 (150)
Mile 12: 9:43 (147)
Mile 13: 9:37 (152)
I jogged across the line with a run split of 1:59:50 (60th %-tile in my AG, 53rd %-tile OA). My total race time was 5:40:09. I was 45th in my AG (66th %-tile) and 801st OA (64th %-tile). It was my second slowest H-IM (out of 15)—only the suffer-fest of Eagleman 2008 was slower.
Judy was there to give me my finisher’s medal and she and Anders accompanied me into transition and then down to the harbor edge where I waded in to cool down my legs for 5-10 minutes. We all went back up in time to cheer Bill in just below his time goal of 6 hours—a great debut H-IM for him!
Post Race Observations
- This is a disappointing race ultimately. I knew I didn’t have the LC base training under my belt, but I still thought I would go faster—I thought maybe as fast as 5:10. Competitively, I was very mediocre as well.
- It’s been a while since I had a good H-IM. I haven’t been under 5 hours since 2007 and my 4:43 at White Lake that year seems like a distant memory. I really need to turn in another “fast” H-IM and I’ll be anxious to do so at Steelhead in August.
- I finished the race and had a great time. That is something I do really appreciate and don’t take for granted. I know there are a lot of people who can’t do what I did today so I’m thankful for the experience and all the support of my friends and family. A couple of days latter, Anders and I climbed Mt. Baldy together (6.5 hours, 4000 feet of vertical, 13 miles). I’m pretty sure I was “slow” there as well but no one was racing us and I took simple joy in an objective met and a job well done. I recognize that while I have definite competitive goals that I’m striving to hit, I have to just appreciate what I’m able to do on any given day—even if it is a lot slower than I would like.
- I didn’t pay tribute to my father as I crossed the line. This year I am dedicating my season to his memory and I felt like his memory deserved a better effort from me—which I will deliver in my next race.
- I do think I have a pretty decent fitness base despite my performance here. I was pretty sick for the next 10 days after Oceanside so this probably impacted my performance. I have a lot of work to do but I don’t see any reason why I can’t be pretty competitive this year—at least by the summer.
- I have some equipment stuff to take care of. I chose not to use my disc because it seemed to have a slow leak in the tubular tire on race morning. I probably need to be refit on my bike. I need to get my knee re-“lubed” and I’ll need to keep rehabbing my left hip.
Onward and Upward!
Life Me Up. Let Me Go.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Short Course Time!
Bailed on Saturday's race due to weather concerns and they went ahead and had it anyways. Given the 62 tornados they had in North Carolina and the great time I had helping alex and friends get ready for their Prom I'll not lose any sleep over my decision.
Good bounce back week training wise. I had a couple of moderately high quality rides and two very good tempo runs on Friday and today. Back into the pool as well, which was great after a week off post Oceanside.
Stats for the week:
8,000 yards swimming
236 miles on the bike
33.5 miles running
21:42 total training time
With my next race scheduled for May 1st and no major work related trips on the schedule, I plan for next week to be a bang-up training week. I need to get fast. I have a need for speed!
Will post IMCA70.3 race report tomorrow....
Good bounce back week training wise. I had a couple of moderately high quality rides and two very good tempo runs on Friday and today. Back into the pool as well, which was great after a week off post Oceanside.
Stats for the week:
8,000 yards swimming
236 miles on the bike
33.5 miles running
21:42 total training time
With my next race scheduled for May 1st and no major work related trips on the schedule, I plan for next week to be a bang-up training week. I need to get fast. I have a need for speed!
Will post IMCA70.3 race report tomorrow....
Friday, April 15, 2011
Staying home tomorrow
Made the decision to not race tomorrow down in VA. Forecast calls for heavy (2+ inches of rain), 20-35 mph winds, thunderstorms, etc. The storm is warming up by dropping a bunch of funnel clouds on Mississippi as I write this. Race director says if there is thunder in the air, he'll delay by one hour and then go duathlon.
I decided it's not worth 8 hours of driving with a good chance (a 10 am scheduled start) that I wouldn't make it back in time for my son's pre-prom party at our house....not worth it.
Plus, I'm still congested so kinda took it easy today (just an easy 2.5 hour spin outside).
Current plan is to bang next week up above 20 hours with a big emphasis on a lot of outside miles....
Just received the official results from Oceanside so will get to work on my race report and publish in a couple of days...
I decided it's not worth 8 hours of driving with a good chance (a 10 am scheduled start) that I wouldn't make it back in time for my son's pre-prom party at our house....not worth it.
Plus, I'm still congested so kinda took it easy today (just an easy 2.5 hour spin outside).
Current plan is to bang next week up above 20 hours with a big emphasis on a lot of outside miles....
Just received the official results from Oceanside so will get to work on my race report and publish in a couple of days...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Race this weekend?
I'm supposed to head down to Fredericksburg, VA tomorrow for Saturday's Olympic race. I just received a notification from the race director that they are expecting thunderstorms and if that is so they plan to make it a duathlon.....long way to go for that. I have to watch the weather and may have to make a decision to bag this one...
Monday, April 11, 2011
Delay continues on the Oceanside Race Report
Sorry--I'm ready to go but since they still haven't published official race results--at least I can't find them so far--I have to wait.....
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Recovery Week
Still not fully recovered from the race/climb. Also still fighting my cold/virus. Legs feel achey but I seem to have reasonable power when I do workout. Here the stats for the week:
Swim: 0 (no pool access in LA)
Bike: 156 miles
Run: 13 miles
Climbing: 6.5 hours/13 miles
Time: 17:19
Training time was obviously inflated by the climb. Lots of slow spinning.
Looking ahead: I'll try to get in three solid days of training at the outset of next week and then it's time to get ready to race my Olympic distance race on Saturday.
I'm working on an Oceanside race report and an analysis of my competition this weekend.
Swim: 0 (no pool access in LA)
Bike: 156 miles
Run: 13 miles
Climbing: 6.5 hours/13 miles
Time: 17:19
Training time was obviously inflated by the climb. Lots of slow spinning.
Looking ahead: I'll try to get in three solid days of training at the outset of next week and then it's time to get ready to race my Olympic distance race on Saturday.
I'm working on an Oceanside race report and an analysis of my competition this weekend.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Quick Update
OK--feeling bad about not blogging here.
Post race/summit climb I'm a bit shelled physically
Also sick, I've definitely been fighting a virus for the past 10 days...it feels like I'm going to take it down over the next few days but I'm still very congested--stomach is returning to normal finally.
Finally slept in my own bed after 8 nights away last night.
Judy leaves tomorrow for 3 nights so I will get all caught up before she returns....
Promise
Post race/summit climb I'm a bit shelled physically
Also sick, I've definitely been fighting a virus for the past 10 days...it feels like I'm going to take it down over the next few days but I'm still very congested--stomach is returning to normal finally.
Finally slept in my own bed after 8 nights away last night.
Judy leaves tomorrow for 3 nights so I will get all caught up before she returns....
Promise
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Mount Saint Antonio Summit Climb
Still owe a race report from Oceanside. I've been basically 24X7 since the race. I've been up in Manhattan Beach helping Anders get ready for his impending move to Palo Alto.
Yesterday however, we took the morning and early afternoon to head about 70 miles East into the San Gabriels where we climbed Saint Antonio (aka Mount Baldy). Baldy is the highest mountain in the San Gabriels at 10068 feet. We climbed the standard route to the base of the SW face of the mountain and then went straight up a steep chute on some nice climbing snow to the Summit ridge. The face was probably 40-45% with about 1500 feet of exposure so we had to be careful. It was axe and crampons but we didn't feel the need to rope up.
My legs were still heavy from the race and I have a sore throat (the virus I've been fighting seems to be gaining ground). That said, the climb was a delight. I slowed Anders down a bit but we did the whole climb in about 6.5 hours. It was about 13 miles round trip with just under 4000 feet of vertical. Beautiful weather throughout. Here's a couple of pics:
Anders and i at the start of the climb--about 7 a.m.:
Here we are at the base of the face--you can see Anders up ahead of me and the snow chute up the face we were about to ascend:
Here you can see Anders above me on the lower part of the face:
Here I am nearing the the top of the chute. anders took this picture from the summit ridge, which he attained a few minutes before me:
On the summit shortly before 11 a.m.:
Yesterday however, we took the morning and early afternoon to head about 70 miles East into the San Gabriels where we climbed Saint Antonio (aka Mount Baldy). Baldy is the highest mountain in the San Gabriels at 10068 feet. We climbed the standard route to the base of the SW face of the mountain and then went straight up a steep chute on some nice climbing snow to the Summit ridge. The face was probably 40-45% with about 1500 feet of exposure so we had to be careful. It was axe and crampons but we didn't feel the need to rope up.
My legs were still heavy from the race and I have a sore throat (the virus I've been fighting seems to be gaining ground). That said, the climb was a delight. I slowed Anders down a bit but we did the whole climb in about 6.5 hours. It was about 13 miles round trip with just under 4000 feet of vertical. Beautiful weather throughout. Here's a couple of pics:
Anders and i at the start of the climb--about 7 a.m.:
Here we are at the base of the face--you can see Anders up ahead of me and the snow chute up the face we were about to ascend:
Here you can see Anders above me on the lower part of the face:
Here I am nearing the the top of the chute. anders took this picture from the summit ridge, which he attained a few minutes before me:
On the summit shortly before 11 a.m.:
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Quick Update
Long slow day ion the office. Swim was a slowish 35:20 or so--a couple of minutes slower than last year. Probably three reasons: I'm not as fit swim-wise right now as I was, there was a bit of a swell which made for a messy swim up on the west end of the course, and I didn't think I swam that good of a race tactically.
Bike--I waas 15 minutes slower this year even though my average watts were just over 200 this year vs. 174 this year. The wind was tough--still, I didn't bike that well from a competitive standpoint.
Just cruised through the run-basically the same as last year. ended up with a 5:40 vs 5:22 last year.
Is what it is.
I did manage to finish highest in my AG %-tile wise with the XC folks and qualified for the IM70.3 World championship in Vegas on 9/11/11--which I did accept.....
Not the best of races but it's not that surprising given my fitness. I did expect to go a bit faster though.....
full race report in a few days...
Bike--I waas 15 minutes slower this year even though my average watts were just over 200 this year vs. 174 this year. The wind was tough--still, I didn't bike that well from a competitive standpoint.
Just cruised through the run-basically the same as last year. ended up with a 5:40 vs 5:22 last year.
Is what it is.
I did manage to finish highest in my AG %-tile wise with the XC folks and qualified for the IM70.3 World championship in Vegas on 9/11/11--which I did accept.....
Not the best of races but it's not that surprising given my fitness. I did expect to go a bit faster though.....
full race report in a few days...
upon further review
Well went to pump up my tires and found my disc to be at 40 psi or so! Pumped it up and then thought better of it. Off goes the disc on goes the 404 rear. Well no more tubbie/clincher spare issues! Hate to give up the speed but rather avoid the risk of DNFing with a "known" pre-race problem.....after-all, it's only spring training!!!
LOL--off to do it!
LOL--off to do it!
4:20 am; Oceanside
Just finished one and a half PB&J bagels and am sipping my microwaved Starbucks. All locked and loaded, equipment wise.
Decided to go with my 404 Firecrest up front and the Sub-9 in the back. Don't like mixing tubbie and clincher but there ya go.
Weather-wise it's 60 degrees right now--it's about 18 degrees warmer this year than last. However, it's not supposed to change much throughout the race--mayber a high of 68. A little warmish for april but after Kona seems foolish to even mention it. Forecast calls for single digit wind speed--it did last year as well but when we climb up on Basoline road things could be different--we'll see. there seems to be a marine layer overhead or else thick, low clouds and it's supposed to be mostly cloudy throughout the race. That's nice, but we are also looking at 95% humidity so hydration will be key (newsflash I know).
In contrast to last year, I slept like a baby--not having to worry about Kona qualifying probably has something to do with that. Also having done the race before certainly helps. Maybe I'm getting a little more "mature" (probably not). I did struggle yesterday with an upset stomach. I had a couple of bouts this week so maybe I've had a low grade virus. I feel pretty good this morning although my stomach is making noises post the bagel. I hope it's not a factor but if it is I'll manage it as best as I can.
OK--time to pump the tires and head over to transition--about a 1.5 mile ride.
Talk to you latter!
Decided to go with my 404 Firecrest up front and the Sub-9 in the back. Don't like mixing tubbie and clincher but there ya go.
Weather-wise it's 60 degrees right now--it's about 18 degrees warmer this year than last. However, it's not supposed to change much throughout the race--mayber a high of 68. A little warmish for april but after Kona seems foolish to even mention it. Forecast calls for single digit wind speed--it did last year as well but when we climb up on Basoline road things could be different--we'll see. there seems to be a marine layer overhead or else thick, low clouds and it's supposed to be mostly cloudy throughout the race. That's nice, but we are also looking at 95% humidity so hydration will be key (newsflash I know).
In contrast to last year, I slept like a baby--not having to worry about Kona qualifying probably has something to do with that. Also having done the race before certainly helps. Maybe I'm getting a little more "mature" (probably not). I did struggle yesterday with an upset stomach. I had a couple of bouts this week so maybe I've had a low grade virus. I feel pretty good this morning although my stomach is making noises post the bagel. I hope it's not a factor but if it is I'll manage it as best as I can.
OK--time to pump the tires and head over to transition--about a 1.5 mile ride.
Talk to you latter!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Ready to go!
Hung out with my bud Bill price most of the day today. We rode the run course and did a swim--a little chilly but not so bad--I'd say about 58 degrees or so. Judy came mid-day and we all hung out by the pool this afternoon. heading out to dinner with Bill's family now. Oh, I also had breakfast with Jordan Rapp and Lindsay Corbin.
Here the final training stats for March:
Swim: 35,000 yards
Bike: 834 miles
Run: 149 miles
Time: 86 hours
Race day tomorrow!
Here the final training stats for March:
Swim: 35,000 yards
Bike: 834 miles
Run: 149 miles
Time: 86 hours
Race day tomorrow!
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