A solid week amidst hectic business

Sometime life gets in the way of going fast. Whether or not the blocks are good or bad they can disrupt your normal phlow. I'd say my biggest victory of this week has been squeezing in some good workouts with work deadlines looming, a major construction project at my home, a pregnant wife and sleeping.

I was able to get in a quality workout each day this week, with the exception of Sunday which was spent digging holes in my back yard with my brother and dad. We broke two augers, a shovel, and a rake. It sucked. I'll count it as a strength workout.

A long run, two solid swims, a intense brick workout with hills, a solid effort on the track and building a deck in the evenings has me feeling pretty worn out but strong. I'm looking forward to resting tomorrow. A light swim, bike, run Saturday morning to get ready for Jack's Generic Triathlon this weekend.

My brother Robbie, buddy Reese, and I will be racing. I'm looking forward to it. After some rest tomorrow (well, deck building, which is kind of like rest), I'm confident in my training and think I put up a solid time Sunday.

Splash and Dash

Yesterday was July's installment of the Pure Austin Splash and Dash. I love this little event. It's super cheap ($11.20 after tax), competitive (some of Austin's best show up), and short (the whole thing lasts about an hour. Plus there is free food and drinks afterward.

I did all right yesterday: 750 m swim time was about 13:18. I've been trying to break 13' since I started these last year. Getting closer, which is good news. I felt really strong at the beginning then all of a sudden my strength left me and I felt completely dead in the water. About halfway through, my strength returned and I finished strong. Unfortunately, I ate WAY too much during the day and felt really full on the swim, burping a lot. Gross!

Transition was long because I am still nursing blisters on my left foot. I had to stop, sit, dry my foot, apply moleskin, put on socks and tie shoes. I'm slowly working back to the foot configuration that destroyed my feet (racing flats with no socks and speed laces).

Right away on the run, my full stomach made it clear that it was running the show. I could feel lunch just sitting there, threatening to come up. It was really annoying. I tried to ignore it and pushed thought. I gave it my best, tried to relax and ignore the usual side stitches I get during this run. Three laps done and I finished the run in 13:53. Not particularly good, but everyone was a bit slower than the early year races.

Swim 13:18 (1:46/100m)
Transition 1:21
Run 13:53 (6:56/mile)

Final time 28:32

One complaint I do have. Self seeding on the swim. These people don't get it. When Dan from High Five says "If you don't know if you can swim 750m in under 12', you can't.", he means it. Why then do guys think the need to start right behind the fast pack if they can't even make it to the first buoy without breast stroking? It is maddening. Are their ego's that big that they cannot fathom waiting 5-10 seconds after the horn so they are with the other breast stroking, low endurance swimmers? Come on guys, get over yourselves.

Lessons Learned

1. Start swim on the outside and in the front. Sprint to that fist buoy to avoid the knuckleheads who think they've go something to prove by starting in the front and crapping out in 75m.
2. Don't eat so much on "race day". Treat the meals a couple hours before Splash and Dash like a normal race.
3. Learn how to avoid side stitches. Not really a lesson learned but something to think about.
   

Long Weekend

This weekend had some pretty serious workouts from coach Amy. Long bike with a transition run and long hill run on Sunday.

Saturday morning I went out for the ATC ride. The first half at least. After chasing (and getting dropped by) that insane group of folks, I met up with my buddy at the Jack Brown Cleaners at Bee Caves and 71. Then we were off on the Dam Loop. Ride went well, although it was hot out and 47 miles of hilly riding is pretty much the limit my legs and neck can handle. I ended up consuming two gels, two bottles of water, a bottle of HEED and a bottle of orange Gatorade. Good lord.

Pedaled home and was off on a 25 minute transition run. It went fair. As good as it can at 11:30 in July in Texas after a ride like that. About 3 miles out and back at an easy pace.

Then I stood under the hose for about 10 minutes.

Sunday's run was pleasant, although I waited a little long to get out so it was hot. It was a 75 minute hill run but I kind of blew it by not getting to the real hills before having to turn back. My goal was a jaunt through Tarrytown on Pecos, but I wasn't able to get there fast enough to hit any of the good hills. I'll have to start closer next time as it took too long running straight from the house.

All and all, everything went well and after some good rest I'm ready for a solid week. Next up is Splash and Dash on Tuesday. I wonder if I'll be able to break my normal swim times and get out of the water closer to 13:00 than 14:00?

Couples Race Report

Sunday was Couples Triathlon at Decker Lake. The race went well, in fact my partner Reese and I got on the podium! We took 2nd int the 59 & Under Male Friends category. Not bad!

It was my first time racing this course. I had heard the course was a challenging one. I decided to take a drive Saturday evening to see what it was all about. This was the first time I had driven a bike course. There were indeed a number of pesky hills and two that looked like they would be quite difficult. Situated near the end of the bike course, they looked like they would take out anyone who wasn't ready or had not saved a little gas in the tank.

I was very glad I drove because I was ready for them. In fact, I think I am now addicted to driving bike courses. I loved going into the bike knowing exactly where the turns were and the relative sizes of all the hills.

Anyway, back to the race. The usual morning stuff, up at 5 am, food and water. Added Gatorade at Reese's suggestion. Good idea I think having those extra few calories helped. Got to race site, set up and decided no run warm up due to two massive blisters on the back of my left foot. More on that shortly. Reese did his thing and we met at the swim start after about a 200m swim warm up.

Swim felt fine. A little crowded early, but what's new. Finished the 800m in 17:03. Pretty crappy, but looking at other times, it looks like a lot of people were slow, so I don't feel too bad. I have been disappointed with my swim lately so hopefully I can make some sort of breakthrough there.

T1 was a long up hill run that felt like it too forever. I even got a cramp during it. No biggie. I did have to sit down and doctor my foot however. The moleskin had com off in the water and I needed to cover these things if I was going to have any chance at a good ride/run. So I did and was off on the bike after a relatively long T1. That proved to be an important minute in the end...

Bike went well. I knew what to expect and when to expect it. I feel like it made me go a little conservatively, knowing those last two hills were coming. Regardless, I was happy with my time of 34:22:50 and felt good getting off the bike to run.

T2 was slowish as well. I decided to be as comfortable as possible so I wore my lace up trainers. Again, had to sit down and tie shoes, costing about 30 seconds more than a normal T1 for me.

Off on the run. Felt crampy and sloshy most of the way but tried to relax. Wondering if I'm drinking too much on the bike? I'm only finishing half a bottle of HEED. Going to have to figure that out. Anyway, running... Mostly grass with some slight ups and downs early. Probably passed 40 people (well maybe 20, but it was steady an a lot!) One light climb about 0.75 miles in, no problem though. In and out of some trees and down a huge hill at 2 miles. Well you know what that means. If you go down, you got to go back up. Last half mile was all up hill. Steady climb, nice grade, with a steep last few hundred meters. I felt good and got after it. Passed a few more people. Coming out and around the bend for the last stretch to the finish. 1:17:02. Could have shaved a minute and a half off if not for blisters but so it goes (that 1:30 would have put us in first).

Lessons learned? Absolutely:

1. Drive the bike course. Make notes on your course map.
2. Don't do sockless track workouts four days before a race. You will get blisters and lose 1:30 in transitions fiddling around costing the top spot on the podium.
3. I like sprints. They are fun and I feel good afterward. You finish before it gets hot.

Up next is Jack's Generic. Another sprint. Yay!!

I'm back!

It's hot out.

Training has been tough. Lot's of ups and downs.

Taking a week off to go drink on a farm in Tennessee didn't help either.

This week felt much better today. Until today that is when I made a silly decision. I decided my race flats were a great choice for my last track workout before I race this weekend. Fifty minutes of track running and now my feet are two giant blisters. Great.

It does raise a couple points. One, follow this tried a true rule: don't do anything different right before a race. Two, why the hell are my race flats giving me blisters???

I guess I'll spend a little extra time in transition applying moleskin.