We basically went over race goals, both time and placement and he thought the idea of me concentrating on shorter distance races was a good idea. In my coaching package, I get to train in thier cycling training center which consists of being set up on a trainer  to do various types of 1 hour intense workouts. During these workouts, I’ll have my power wattage, heart rate, speed, cadence, etc all measured for every workout. I will do this twice a week with other people next to me which I hope will involve some racing!

The road to Kona probably looks something like this

He also thinks I should race some of the local time trials in Philadelphia on the weekends. This would be a new experience for me as I’ve never raced in that format before. I will get my workouts either daily or weekly. I forgot. Either way, he knows where I want to go, how ambitious I am, but he doesn’t want me to aim too high this year, but to just “improve.”

We spoke about what races I planned to do for 2010. Besides the Death Valley Marathon in February, and the Philly Triathlon in late June, I haven’t signed up for anything. I would like to do a Olympic triathlon per month, and maybe do three half-irons over the course of the year. I WOULD HAVE liked to culminate my season by doing 70.3 Miami but I found out last night it’s already sold out 10 months prior to the race! My family has never seen me race, and since they live in West Palm Beach, I’ll try to look for other races in the area. My main thing is limiting how much I want to pay for expensive races this year. Ironman UK was insanely expensive with flights, hotels, rent-a-car, and so forth. I would like to do a official 70.3 this year, but it’s not that imperative to me.

We’re over. You lied to me. Or maybe I lied to myself. Regardless, I think our relationship is over.

We first met at the corner, as I was looking for a light snack to quell my Ironman training hungers. I’d have you with a bottled Ice Coffee (Mocha). I must admit, you were really good when warmed up in the microwave.

But alas, you were fake. At least Ice Coffee (Mocha) has it’s nutritional value typed onto the bottle (180 calories).  Not sure what I was thinking, but I thought you were around the same calorie content. Maybe I should have listened to what my mother taught me: “All that glitters is not gold”. And now I must tell everyone what you are really made of

Your ex,

We are sooo not together anymore

Ken

1 sliceCalories: 430

Total fat: 22g

Carbs: 52g

Protein:6g

Ironman UK

My fantasy of my first Ironman included scenes of a clear crystal morning, a nice sunrise with the sun beating upon the water as I enter to begin the swim portion. Very majestic like. My actual first Ironman experience was nothing of that sort. If I had two choose two words to sum up the conditions, it would be mud and cold.

My flight 7 hour from Philadelphia was rather smooth. I was worried about the $100 bike fee to bring it aboard the plane, but apparently, this only applies to domestic flights. On international flights, bikes go on free. That was great news. Could it possible be an omen of things to come?

I arrive at Heathrow and have about a 5 hour layover with my connection with BMI airlines. I change $100 and get only 51 pounds back. I order a hamburger and fries, er chips for 10 pounds to hold me over till I get to Manchester. 10 pounds? That’s a 20 dollar burger! And it wasn’t even that good.

The BMI flight leaves on time and I arrive at Manchester airport where Berit, my former Japan colleague/all around bad ass German chick/super linguist and Ken’s official Ironman UK administrative assistant/film crew/chauffeur was waiting for me. When we walked out of the airport, it was cold, windy, grey, and rainy. This isn’t how I pictured it. After checking into the hotel, we planned the next day’s schedule which consisted of bike check-in, practice swim, the official race meeting, and the official pasta party.

I made it!!

The morning before the race was cold and damp. As I previously stated, my idea of Ironman all had the sun involved. With that in mind, I didn’t bring any warm clothes at all. The first thing I think what surprised everyone when they arrived to the bike check-in was the mud. It was everywhere. Apparently, Bolton and most of Europe had gone through a pretty wet summer this year. There were a lot of problems I had with the Ironman UK organizers, but I doubt they could have expected this. The rain was so bad people were getting stuck in the car park which was in a grass field. SO bad, they had to get tractors to pull people out of the mud.  Check out the mud situation directly below

The pasta party was really nice. I met a really nice woman by the name of Kate. She is a 4-time Ironman UK finisher and has dreams of her own of getting to Kona.

I’ll go ahead and skip to the race. The rest of the day became logistical nightmare as the mud slowed everyone down. The organizers decided that people should show up at the Reebok stadium and then get buses to the race course instead of driving to the muddy car park. This made it very difficult for friends and family to see the swim start.

Race Morning

3:00am comes early. It comes especially early when you know you have such a long day ahead of you. It’s 30 minute or so drive from Bolton (we were staying right outside Manchester) to the Reebok Stadium. Since Transition opened at 4:15, I wanted to get there as early as I could to set up. The transition area was muddy as hell. I was planning on keeping my shoes locked into the pedals, but did I really want to get my socks muddy on my way to the bike start? I decided that walking through the mud with the cycling shoes on wasn’t that big of a deal, and besides, my race number being 88 meant I was right by the bike exit; so I wouldn’t haven’t to trot that far anyway.

SWIM (2.4 miles)

After stretching I put on my wet suit, put my post race gear in my bag and proceed down to the race start with the other 1400. The time is about 5:30. We waited on this concrete path for about 10 minutes and there wasn’t much talking going on. As I stood there in silence, Berit was there taking photos of me. I tried to make a smile but I was way in another world at this moment: part excitement; part fear; add a little bit of self doubt and you have your typical first time Ironman triathlete. It just begs the question, am I ready? I think I was. As I entered the water, I seated my self in the middle rear. Not in the middle, not in the rear, just in between. Swim goal was 1 hour 20 but I could live with a 1 hour 30.

Am I ready?

Here is where the first confusion and poor planning I felt occurred during Ironman UK took place. When you look at this video below at the swim start, you see something rather odd. Not everyone is starting swimming at the same time. Why? Because most people didn’t hear the swim start. Only the people in the front. As I sat in the water people next to me are asking each other:

“Why are they swimming?”

“I don’t know, did you hear the start command?”

“No, did you?”

“No, but I guess we better start swimming!”

And we did. For it being a reservoir, I felt there was a strong current; or perhaps there was a slight headwind. Regardless, I knew we were swimming into the wind/current at the beginning. When this happens, strong swimmers really move out ahead while the average people stick together. At the first turn around, we would be swimming with the current/tailwind. This meant I knew it would be difficult good grab of water so I had to make sure my elbows were to get all of the tail wind I could.

I was hitting feet and people were hitting mine, and I got shoved out of people’s way. Because it was dawn, with the sun barely out, it was a little hard to sight and see the turn-around. I just followed the arm ahead of me and rarely sighted. On the first turn around, as I expected, the field opened up a bit and I felt I was swimming alone for awhile.

The day before the race, I did a practice swim to gage the water temperature. Right away, I knew I would get a cramp on race day. Perhaps it’s because I rarely kick, or perhaps I don’t let my foot flex, but on my 2^nd loop, the cramp in my calf came. Since I already has experience with this at JerseyMan, I knew how to handle it: just try to move your feet to an 90 degree and angle a few times and it’ll take care of itself.

My goal for the swim was 1:20. BUT, there is huge consensus on the Ironman UK chat boards after the race that the swim was measured incorrectly. It was actually longer. The swim was measured from the start line to start line, not where we exited the water. So there was about 200 meters extra. If that is correct, that’s another 8-10 minutes. Anyone who did the race, I would love to get some comments on this issue.

Swim Time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Transition 1

It seemed like an eternity to get to the changing area. As I came out of the swim, a guy next to me said, “Hey Mate, maybe they’ll add this part to the marathon”. Seemed fair to me. I’ve been talking about my pain in the ass wetsuit for months now and this race was no different. I could not get my wetsuit off my ankles. I was getting really upset while I saw people come in after me and leave before me. Another athlete saw how frustrated I was getting and assisted me in pulling it off. I thanked him, ran through the mud, put on my socks and shoes, fastened my helmet and I was off.

Below is a video I found on youtube. There are two things I want you to take from this video. First, around 1:15 the person films the swim start. You can see here what I just wrote about: people were NOT ready or did not hear the swim start. Very disorganized. Second, at minutes 3:35, the person who filmed this actually filmed ME on the bike, although for just a quick second. I thought that was pretty wild when I first saw it.

Bike (112 Miles)

I thought I had packed everything when I came to England. I double and triple checked everything. I did forget one thing: my magnet for my speed meter. Since I rented wheels from Echappe, I forgot to switch it over so that meant I had no speed odometer for the race.

About 5 minutes into the bike course, you climb “the hill” the organizers has been said is the staple of the course. I had a small stomach ache from probably swallowing too much water but right into it you start climbing. It’s about 2.5 miles of pure climbing and it’s pretty unforgiving. What’s worse is the wind. If you look at this video here, it’s a bike course preview. You can see from the top how far you have to go up. You can tell from the video and its poor audio how windy is it.

After the climb, you pretty much fly downhill for about 10 minutes at speeds up to 60 mph. I remember tear drops coming out of my eyes with even sun glasses on.

Getting low and aero

To be honest, the rest of the course was rather boring. Besides the climbing section, there weren’t many locals or fans. The bike course could be summed up like this: Tough climb, go downhill really fast, lots of headwind, repeat x3. I’ve mentioned some of the poor organization of this race. The next point where I was very dissatisfied was on the third bike loop. At the top of “the hill”, there is an aid station which gives fluids, power bars, and gels. On the third loop when I arrived, they RAN OUT OF FLUIDS.  I had half bottle of Enervit left over so I wasn’t in dire need, but I saw triathletes stopping on the side of the road searching through empty bottles in hopes for finding one with some Gatorade. I thought this was a pretty sad display.

Just to put in perspective on how difficult this hill was,  on my last go around, as I got towards the end of the hardest section, I saw a guy really struggling to get up to the top. It was so difficult for him that he fell off his bike because he couldn’t enough propulsion from his legs to go forward!! A few spectators who were there rushed to him to help him on his feet. As I passed him, I looked back and saw that he was pushing his bike up the hill. Hey, I thought about it, so I don’t blame him.

It was at this time that I caught up with Kate. Kate told me she’s a good swimmer, and if took me till the third lap to catch her, she must have been a great biker as well.

“Ken, is that you?”

“Huh? Oh HEY!!”

“I reckon our 13 hour goal is pretty much finished.”

“Ha! Yea, I think I gave up on that about an hour ago!”

I know it may sound weird, but while I was on the bike, I was already thinking about the finish line. How would I feel? Would I cry? Would I be jumping for joy? Focus. One leg at a time. The fist loop of the bike I did in 2 hours. I thought, “Ok, no problem, I can hold that the rest of the way. I’ll do this in about 6:15. 6:30 max! However, without a speed display, all I could go off was perceived effort. I clocked myself each lap with the 2^nd lap  in 2 hours 30 minutes. “Uh oh” I thought. When I got to the end of the 3^rd lap, I couldn’t believe I was just at under 7 hours. 7 hours?! How did that happen? I pretty much knew about the middle of the 3^rd lap that my 13 hour goal was pretty much toast. But I really wasn’t down about it. I was enjoying the day the best I could, I’d been riding with the same people for about 6 hours, having conversations, and looking to see if I could see Berit somewhere on the course. I saw her on the first, but that’s about it.

Bike time: 7 hours, 9 minutes

What I learned on the bike:

On the second lap, I saw Phillip Graves and Stephen Bayliss (The pros who finished first and second, respectively) pass me (they were on the third lap at that point). I didn’t see them long, but I did notice one specific thing: they weren’t pushing small gears. In fact, their cadence was much slower than mine. Amateur triathletes are taught to have a high cadence so not to tire your legs out for the run. Pros simply grind it out. Intriguing. While I was climbing a hill, some other pros past me. While most of us were trying to spin or legs fast as possible, pros simply get out of the saddle and put their entire weight into every stroke. Amateurs survive hills, pros attack hills. On my third lap, I tried attacking a few hills as they did, and you know what, it actually works. You get a little winded, but you recover.

Transition 2

One of the cool things about an actual Ironman event is that you don’t have to rack your bike. There are volunteers that take your bike and do it for you. This lets you take your run bag and quickly get to the run. I have to admit, the weather at this point was really nice. The sun came out and it was a nice mid 60’s weather. I was in and out rather quickly. I put on my Zoot shoes and my Energy Belt, and I was off.

RUN (26.2 Miles)

I felt really good coming out. My first mile I ran was a 8:38 mile, and the second at 8:28. I took this to caution and slowed down a bit as I knew I couldn’t hold this place for long. My goal was to run the marathon in 4 hours 30 minutes which is about a 10:30 pace. Running into Bolton was exciting but not for long. Another problem I had with the organization was that there were only 4 aid stations. 4 aid stations for a marathon!!! Is this normal for an Ironman?? Don’t regular marathons have more than this?

The run course took us into the city along a looonnngggg road. After about 7 miles you take a right turn and then run about 3-4 miles in this very constrictive canal. After this, you run into a park in which you have 2 small turns but because of these turns you lose sight on how long you ran in there. Very mentally challenging. While you are in this park, you come to a man at a timing mat and he says,

“First time or second time?”

The winner, finished his marathon before I even got off the bike

“Uh, first time I guess” I said.

“Ok, this is the turn around, go back to the first aid station”

I almost lost it. “Are you *#$*&@ kidding me?” is what I thought. That first aid station seemed like an eternity ago. In fact, it was 12.5 miles ago. Back through the park, along the canal, and back up that llllooooonnnnggg street.

On the way back, I ran into my friend Kate again. She had a much better swim, but I had passed her on the way back through the bike by the 3^rd lap. By mile say 15, she had caught me on the run. We ran around the first pub aid station together and ran for a bit. But by this time, I was really starting to feel the pain. EVERYTHING HURT. My shoulders, my hands, my fingernails, my ears, my teeth, and the bottom of my feet. Funny, the thing that didn’t hurt were my quads. I had been wearing these Zoot shoes since the Philadelphia Triathlon. They are great quick/light shoes that keep your turnover really quick. They are however, not with much support or cushioning. What made me keep stopping was that it hurt the bottom of my feet running on that pavement. I think the Zoots are good if you are running a 3, or 3 and a half marathon, but not a 5 hour marathon. It’s too much time. It was also around this time where I felt a strain in my right shin (more on that later).

I heard a saying about Ironman races in some youtube video: “Race numbers have names. Names have souls, and souls can be broken” On the way back to the park, I saw some random girl I spoke with at the swim start. As I was heading back into the canal, she was just about to enter back to the long road to the first aid station. She was absolutely shattered in tears. Her hands on her knees, a friend was consoling her that she could do it. I had to think she just figured out how far she had to go.

At the last aid station where the park begins, the volunteer said I had less than 2 miles to go. I saw Kate about a whole loop ahead of me so I knew I wouldn’t catch her. I had to walk nevertheless; my feet were on fire, and my right shin was in pain. When I got back to the guy at the timing mat, he asked me again,

“First time or….”

“Second!!” holding up two fingers.

“Ok, go on, the finish line is .8 of mile ahead of you.”

It was still daylight, so there were no light at the end of the tunnel. But it got louder. People were saying, “Well done, well done, the finish is right around the corner mate!”

I wasn’t happy. I was more relieved and I wanted it to be over, but I wanted it to last.  I wanted to revel in this experience, but I wanted to sit down and make the pain go away. It started to get cold about an hour ago. Thank god for the arm warmers.

Run Time: 4 hours, 58 minutes.

I wasn’t getting emotional. No tears, no amazement, just grateful, and appreciative. This was just the first, but as my friend Kjell (look at my favorite athletes) told me once, “You always remember the first.

Hardware

I had a nice welcome to the finish line, mostly because there wasn’t anyone around me. They gave me my medal and took my time piece. Kate was there. She gave me a hug, and I went upstairs to sit down and get some food. Crossing the line, I would have to say… felt like being reborn. They say triathlon is a drug; that once you do it, you’ll want to do it again: Ironman is the drug. I would have to agree with this because soon after I finished, I was already thinking about the next one. My favorite part of any triathlon bar none is immediately after when everyone is sitting on the grass or sitting in the room talking about the race. Strangers talk to each other, compare notes. People you biked with or ran with give you a handshake. Doesn’t matter where you are from, you went through the same experience together, but you did it on your own, and no one can take that away from you. A Spanish guy I spoke with the day before the race told me congratulations and said I should come to Ironman Lanzarote (that’s in Spain).

I stayed up there for awhile.  Again, another sticking point was the food. I’m all for local food, but after an Ironman, I expect a little more than muffins and hash browns. The only warm thing was the Powerbar hot recovery drink.

I wanted to go down to the spectator area where Berit was waiting for me, but I just couldn’t move that quickly. I eventually did after about 20 min of eating a bit and getting some warm fluids inside me.

At this moment I have to take a moment to publicly embarrass Berit.

Berit, Ken's Ironman MVP

B, thank you so much for flying all the way from Dresden, Germany  to support me. Heck, I don’t even have people in my own country come visit me,  let alone fly internationally! I have absolutely no idea how I would have done this without you. You were my right hand gal. With all the logistic changes, you had me, and everything under control. Thank you for renting the car, the hotel, and picking me up from the airport and just being patient. I can’t say enough how much your friendship means to me, and I hope I can pay you back sometime in the near future.

As we walked back to the car, the evening took a slight downturn. Someone smashed the window to the rental car in an attempt to steal what we figured was the GPS/SATNAV. Berit had the unit on her person but we think they might have saw the cord and figured it was in the car. Thank god for insurance! I stayed by the car while Berit went to the police station and listened to other people being called in at the finish line.

We decided it would be best to pick up the transition bags that night instead of waiting till the morning. Walking through the transition area of a triathlon is like walking amongst zombies in the night; so many athletes limping, struggling, trying to get their stuff.

When we got back to the hotel, I took the best shower known to man. I rinsed off my wetsuit, and thanked Berit again for all she had done. I went to bed excited, but exhausted. I might have even slept with my medal on that night. Not sure. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day: pack, fly back to London for the day to stay with another Japan colleague who had done Ironman New Zealand, and then the day after, fly to Romania to visit old friends from my days in the Peace Corps…

Overall time: 14 hours, 3 minutes

172/254 in Mens 30-34 age group

910/1379 Overall

Training this past week has gone pretty well. I’m been swimming better, even in the extremely slow pool that I practice in. It’s been a rainy week here in Philadelphia.  On Saturday, when I had a 95 mile (150km) ride planned, I decided that inclement weather was no longer and excuse not to train. I spent nearly 6 hours getting rained on, drying off, then getting rained on again. Frankly, I found it rather nice and cleansing. The 4 mile run after the run was sort of difficult.

There is a tendency for me to run harder than I think I need to in order to keep the pace that I want. The first 2 miles were both under 8 minutes which was way to fast for me evidence by the 160 heart rate. I did my best to slow my pace and get things under control but it will be something that I will continue to work on.  Having heavy shoes doesn’t help either. Maybe I should get a pair of those Zoot triathlon shoes? I heard they are good.

Paul Fritzsche

I’m currently trying to rent Zipps for Ironman UK.  Instead of renting them here (and taking them over there), I’m looking to rent them in England. If I can get a hold of those, that means I don’t have to hash out $100 bucks for a new cassette.

The Philly Tri should be fun. I’m volunteering for the Sprint race the day before my race. However, I’m just looking at it as another day of training as my Ironman just seems to be getting closer than I realize. This week I’ll be doing lots of core work as my lower back still needs to be stronger in the later portion of the bike.

Hope everyone has a good week!

I flew back to my home state to visit family for the weekend. Seems like whenever I have a long scheduled workout on a weekend something always comes up…such as family. It was actually a celebratory event as my mother was getting ordained as a pastor in the Methodist Church.

Ok, for all those who don’t live in Florida, here’s something you might know: Florida is HOT. Just walking down the street you perspire like crazy. Another thing about Florida which you might not have known: there are pools everywhere. I figured since I was going to be in town for a few days I would seek out a pool, and maybe even a swim coach.

I went to swimmersguide.com and found that the Daytona Beach Community College pool was less than 1 mile away. I picked up the phone and called them to inquire about their hours and a swimming lesson. After speaking with the coach about my triathlon swimming woes she agreed to meet with me for two lessons that weekend.

The things I learned:

While most people have head level issues, they tend to be because their head level is too high. However in my case, my head level was too low. Since I taught myself how to swim out of a book, I had learned that you should be looking directly down at the line; which to me meant that your chin should be touching your clavicle. Apparently, this is wrong. She used this torture device that was a snorkel-type of thing which only lets you breathe if your head is at the correct head level.

When my head level was fixed, all sorts of other things started happen. I could breathe easier on my left side without a problem even though I was still uncomfortable. I felt I had more effectiveness in my kick, and for the first time, I actually felt a certain kinetic range of movements that all connected with each other.

The first workout we mostly did drill work and also doing 50 yds on the minute with using technique in order to go faster. Lots of reaching drills, head position drills, and so forth. I performed a time trial of 500 meters at the end of the workout. Usually it takes me a little over/under or over 10 minutes. I did 8 min 32 seconds.

The next day, I did the time trial first thing when I jumped in the pool and swam a 9:08. I definitely hit it too hard in the beginning of that set. I then did a 1000m piece where I coasted for 500 and then went race pace for 500 just to teach me about shifting to a different “gear”; 21 minutes.

I know these aren’t Michael Phelps times, but for me, these were drastic improvements which actually has me excited going to the pool this week. The fact that I can go under 20 for 1000 meters and under 30 min for a 1500 meters, makes me believe I could go under 1:20 for Ironman UK. To think, I might actually get to T1 with a lot more bikes present.

So if you happen to be Daytona Beach, Florida and you need a pool or a coach please give the Daytona Beach Community College pool a call at (386) 506-4386 and ask for Coach Rebecca Thompson. You can also e-mail her a aquatic@DaytonaState.edu.

First things first, I have to thank Cory and Mike from Couchsurfing.com who let me crash at their place. Mike did the sprint race and came in an impressive 20th place overall and 3rd in his age group! I think Mike will do quite well when he decides to move up to longer distances.

Unlike my last race where I was flustered by arriving in the 15 minutes before the transition closed. CGI sporting events required check-in the day before. Having someplace to stay really made the trip much more enjoyable and relaxed. Mike and I had a great pasta dinner and watched Invincible and cut out early for a 4AM wake up.

SWIM

The swim actually went pretty well considering all things. I seeded myself in the back of the floating start still not confident after my JerseyMan performance. At the sound of the horn I got the normal depressing feeling that occurs when you see everyone pull away from you but I was fortunate enough to settle in the slow pack. Again, I was designated silver caps which weren’t that easy to sight from. Lucky, there was a guy in front of me who had some pasty white arms which did the trick.:-)

On a sympathy note, I felt bad while I was swimming as I passed a girl in the last sprint wave who was panicking and crying as people started to pass her. It had to be her first time race. She was wailing around and it took a concentrated effort to get around her.I saw some officials on paddle boats racing towards here.

I navigated the course rather well. I did get too close on the last buoy where my arm got tangled but overall I came out of the water pretty satisfied. I felt relaxed and felt I went out at the right pace. When I swim, time just seems to pass by so slow so you never know how fast or slow I”m going.

42:51

BIKE

I should have had a road bike.

The course was absolutely unforgiving. There was only maybe 5 percent of the course where getting into the aero-position was actually beneficial; and those we mostly on going down hills. Up, down, up down. There were parts of the race where I was going only 2 miles an hour up hills then 60 kph a second later.

I was doing some research on bike pacing before the race. The plan was to go less than race pace perceived effort on the first loop and then take it harder the 2nd lap. This would allow me pass the people who were going out too hard and set myself up well on run. As expected, people passed me and I expected this but I knew I would pass them later. I don’t really mind 40 year old men passing me. I don’t really mind 55 year old women passing me. It’s fine really. It didn’t matter. The course was so brutal that there wasn’t many opportunities to “take it easy”. It just took it’s toll on me, especially as a heavier rider. At one point climbing a hill, I got out of the saddle to climb and my inner thigh almost “caved in”. It’s difficult to describe, the best way to explain it would be that my inner thigh decided not to flex. It was weird and I felt that all the way through the run.  I should have had a road bike. For me at least, the geomatry of the bike would have made the climbs a little more tolerable. You live and learn.

BlackBear Medal

These hills taught me lesson however: I need a different cassette than what I currently have. I have the typical 12-25 cassette but I noticed some athletes really spinning on the hills much more than the poor souls who were grinding it out (i.e. me). Perhaps one with a 29 sprocket. I personally saw two chains break while climbing some of these hills. There was a point where I was thinking, “You know, I could totally just jump off my bike and just push it up this hill…no one would know. And if they did, they would totally understand.” I didn’t do it, but if someone else did, I would totally have understood.

It didn’t help that my bike computer broke on the first lap when my water bottle apparently was fastened and emptied my HEED all over it. It started to function again after the second lap. I wish I could have compared my first lap to the second lap. When I was coming in, looking at my elapsed watch, I thought I was coming in at around 3:10, so after the race, I was a bit surprised my the time I posted.

3:40:21

RUN

I’ll have to admit. I didn’t like the run course at all. It was pretty much an Xterra type of course that included trails, rocks, gravel, dirt, grass, with a little bit of pavement. For me at least, it was hard to gather a rhythm from the get go. That’s not an excuse, just a new experience that was awkward. To say I blew up on the run would be an understatement.

I met a nice guy on the race course and we ran for a good 5 miles together. I believe he was one of the four black athletes out of the over 1000 there (Yes, I do count.) He dropped me in the last mile, so I finished 3rd out of the 4 other black triathlets.

2:24:56

Struck a pose at the finish line

Summary

So, what did I learn?

1. I need a different cassette. I think with my weight and the hills in IronmanUK, it would be the smart thing to do.
2. Doing two Half IM’s in a 3 week period was the dumbest thing possible…but good racing experience.
3. I need to lose weight. Dragging my fat ass up those hills on the bike was no fun at all. I’ll be blogging on this very soon.

Overall, I wasn’t happy with my time. But May has been a learning process. I’ve gained respect for the 70.3 distance as it takes much more time to recover than I thought. See, when your first triathlon is a 3km swim, 155km bike, and 24.2 mile run, it’s difficult to put everything else into perspective regarding race pace, speed, nutrition; the whole gambit. I raced these races with an Ironman distance mentality and perhaps this is a mistake. With 2 months to go to IMUK, I will put an emphasis on my diet, increasing my ride distances, swimming technique, and core strength.

Overall time: 6:53:39

This is how I feel right about now

I’ve officially run myself into the ground. Friday’s run was tough. Much harder than last week, but that was expected. Probably wasn’t good that I pushed it a little hard around mile 8 of 2-hour run (in the blazing heat no less).

Saturday, my goal was to do 2-hours of high intensity cycling on the trainer: ladders, supersets, race simulations, etc. It was beautiful outside, but I didn’t want any junk miles, so I decided to concentrate on some intense training indoors. The session was supposed to last 2 hours…but lasted about 45 minutes.

I guess I should have seen this coming. Immediately into the first few intervals, my legs were burning. They felt very heavy; evidence by not being able to get my cadence over 90rpms. So I’m there, in my living room, collapsed over my aero bars. I just know my heart rate is over 180+ beats per minute. I look down on my watch and it reads 147.

“147? WTF?! How is this possible”?

If I’m in my aerobic zone then why does it feel so hard? I went on for 40 more minutes and called it a day. I simply had enough. I hopped off my bike and Googled “Can’t get my heart rate up”.  Diagnosis: overtraining. I’m “heart tired” as they say.

Considering how I felt on Friday, and the hill training I’ve been did early in the week; the 1-hour tempo runs; running stairs; and ultimately, not taking enough time off from JerseyMan…it all makes since. Taking from Coach Joe Friel’s blog, symptoms of overtraining are:

+ Fatigue which doesn’t go away with 48 hours of low workload or even time off from training. The legs feel tired or there is general body weariness that lingers even after taking it easy for two days.

+ Little control of emotions – evidence of anger, feeling sorry for yourself, moodiness, depression, grumpiness. In short, you are hard to live with. A spouse or roommate may be the first to recognize this.

+ Performance declines. For example, you are slower at a given heart rate, or for any given speed, heart rate is higher than usual.

+ Self-confidence declines. This may be the best marker, but it’s hard to assess. One way to do it may be in the athlete trying to visualize accomplishing a very high workout or race goal. If it seems out of reach and farfetched, self-confidence may be low.

After reading these symptoms, it’s all coming full circle:

This week I had of such a heated argument with a friend of the most trivial thing. I simply lashed out and I don’t even know where it came from.

While it is comforting to come to a conclusion for the way I’ve been feeling, I’m a little worried about the next two months of training before Ironman UK.

After BlackBear this weekend, I’ll take a week off. From that point, I have only 7 weeks left. I have a race on one of those weekends (albeit it’s only an Olympic distance). After that race it will be month to Ironman UK. I also have to fly home to Florida for a weekend. Basically, I have only 3 weekends left for long bike rides

According to Mark Allen, the perfect taper beings a month in from race day.  I’m not sure if I’ll be ready but it almost feels as if while summer is beginning, it’s almost ending as well. Sub 13 hours is the goal. I feel my run will be ready, but there are still lingering doubts about a 1:10-1:15 swim time (which could possibly be answered soon).

With the lack of time till August 2^nd, my personal family commitments, improperly scheduled races, recovery time, are starting to get to me, but I least now I can formulate a plan of action. If I’ve learned anything from this season so far, is that you shouldn’t schedule 2 half Ironmans in a 3 week period.  Just plain stupid.

From Joe Average to top age grouper, this blog will document my attempt to qualify for the Ironman World Championships by 2011.

How ironic that the month I decide to begin my blog, Triathlete Magazine does an article titled “Qualify For Kona, in the next 5 months”. Obviously, this article is geared for those who are right on the cusp of qualifying…which I am not. I did however; take two things from this article:

Interesting article in the May edition of Triathlon Magazine

1. I’ll have to finish in less than 10 hours.

For all the races listed in the North America, the average times were all under 10 hours. This is quite a feat for someone who until recently, always dreamed of running under a 4 hour marathon. So how do I break it down?

-I’ll have to swim  1:10 or so.

-The bike, around 5 hours 30 minutes? 5:15?

- A sub 4 hour marathon,  probably around a 3:30-3:45.

Those target times hover the 10 hours mark excluding transition time. But to break it down further for Joe Average (i.e. me) running a 3:45 is basically a 7:45 min mile…after a 112 mile bike. I would have initially balked at this discovery; however at my first road race of the season, I hit an amazing PR of 1″36 for a 20k. The year before at the same race, I ran it in 1″58.  I was on fire, mostly because my heart rate never went over 153. Needless to say, my new training methods are paying off. So according to Mcmillion running, I should be able to run a 3:30 marathon with fresh legs.  I recognize I won’t be able to hold that pace after a run (at least for now), but it gives me confidence that my base work is reaping the benefits.

2. Sacrifices have to be made.

I’m currently put my self back on the dating market. And anyone who does triathlon even casually knows it is hard to balance work and training, let alone a relationship. Do I have to cut out drinking?

I will try to qualify at various Ironman course around the world and 70.3 events as well. The first official attempt being Ironman UK on August 2nd. However for the first year, I will make the rounds at popular local races in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. In the spirit of putting myself out there, my goal is to Ironman UK finish under 13 hours. Keeping myself modest…:-)

I see a few things already as being obstacles.

1. Food.

I’m from the South, and that means I love my sweets. I don’t over eat on actual food like I use to. I just LOVE sweets. Chocolate, cakes, Coke, you get the idea.

2. Sleep.

I train twice a day Tuesday through Friday and once on Saturday and Sunday for my long bike and long run respectively. However, during my base period, I missed a few workouts (OK, more than a few) cause I couldn’t go to bed on time. I have to get to bed before 10:30 in order for me to function the next morning and have enough energy to sustain in the afternoon. This has proven to be a challenge.

I hope you find this blog interesting and inspiring. I want this blog to be interactive so please leave comments and suggestions.

I’m ready for the journey, it begins today.

-ken