1. Don't ride the bike more than 75 miles at one time. I made many a promise to my butt on those long rides this year and promises made to your butt are ones that really shouldn't be broken.
2. Have Fun. Normally this is number one, but a promise is a promise. I plan to do more short fun races with friends this year to make up for missing so many last year.
3. Get Faster. Especially on the bike, I feel I lost a ton of speed focusing on the long rides for ironman so 2011 will be all about hills and sprints on the bike.
4. Get out of the clydesdale division. I was 8lbs away this year, and then the ironman build up started, and then the ironman was over and now I'm 18 away. In the past I didn't think it was possible, but now is the time to rethink what possible means.
So there they are, only 4, but they are 4 I can do and enjoy doing. After 2010 I am in much need of a break and to just let go and have fun. so 2011 is now officially going to be called "The Year of Fun"
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
B2B training stats
Here is the overall totals for the training leading up to and including the Beach to Battleship Ironman.
Sport____Time(Hours)___Miles____Calories
* Swimming --- 60.43 ------ 123.16 ------ 36,000
* Biking ----- 183.20 ------ 3018.6 ------ 190,000
* Running ---- 150.63 ------ 890.08 ------ 147,000
* Core/Other - 34.50
* Totals ----- 428.76 ------ 4031.84 ----- 373,000
so about 430 hours and 4030 miles of training / racing. I am still amazed that I did all that. I have to say consistency was my greatest asset during the year. and now just for fun, a closer look into the numbers.
Average per month
swimming - 5.5 hours and 11.5 miles
Biking - 17 hours and 283 miles
Running - 14 hours and 84 miles
total 37 hours and 380 miles
over the last 3 months ( Aug,Sept,Oct), the averages were a bit higher.
swimming - 7.3 hours and 14.5 miles
biking - 23 hours and 385 miles
running - 19.5 hours and 113 miles
total 50 hours and 512 miles
Biggest Months
overall was October with 55.5 hours and 584 miles
Swim was September with 8.5 hours and 13 miles
bike and run were October with 27 biking hours and 23 running hours, 440 biking miles and 130 running miles
lets just say October was a bitch and leave it at that.
Biggest week
overall was 9/27 with 18 hours and 210.5 miles ( ouch! )
swim was 7/19 with 3 hours and 5 miles ( that's not that much ).
bike was 9/27 with 11 hours and 176 miles ( beach ride, mucho pain-o).
run was 10/18 with 6.25 hours and 37 miles
lbs of fat burned
the calorie burn is the best estimate I could find on the web if you divide that by 3500 calories to burn 1 lb of fat you get 106.5, but really I lost 15 lbs during the initial 5 months and then gained back 5 during the big build up over the last 3 months. It was just too hard to exercise that much and not eat everything in site, so my recommendation is to lose as much as you can during that first few months because it won't be as psychologically defeating when you gain some back. Worked for me, and that's all that really matters :-).
Sport____Time(Hours)___Miles____Calories
* Swimming --- 60.43 ------ 123.16 ------ 36,000
* Biking ----- 183.20 ------ 3018.6 ------ 190,000
* Running ---- 150.63 ------ 890.08 ------ 147,000
* Core/Other - 34.50
* Totals ----- 428.76 ------ 4031.84 ----- 373,000
so about 430 hours and 4030 miles of training / racing. I am still amazed that I did all that. I have to say consistency was my greatest asset during the year. and now just for fun, a closer look into the numbers.
Average per month
swimming - 5.5 hours and 11.5 miles
Biking - 17 hours and 283 miles
Running - 14 hours and 84 miles
total 37 hours and 380 miles
over the last 3 months ( Aug,Sept,Oct), the averages were a bit higher.
swimming - 7.3 hours and 14.5 miles
biking - 23 hours and 385 miles
running - 19.5 hours and 113 miles
total 50 hours and 512 miles
Biggest Months
overall was October with 55.5 hours and 584 miles
Swim was September with 8.5 hours and 13 miles
bike and run were October with 27 biking hours and 23 running hours, 440 biking miles and 130 running miles
lets just say October was a bitch and leave it at that.
Biggest week
overall was 9/27 with 18 hours and 210.5 miles ( ouch! )
swim was 7/19 with 3 hours and 5 miles ( that's not that much ).
bike was 9/27 with 11 hours and 176 miles ( beach ride, mucho pain-o).
run was 10/18 with 6.25 hours and 37 miles
lbs of fat burned
the calorie burn is the best estimate I could find on the web if you divide that by 3500 calories to burn 1 lb of fat you get 106.5, but really I lost 15 lbs during the initial 5 months and then gained back 5 during the big build up over the last 3 months. It was just too hard to exercise that much and not eat everything in site, so my recommendation is to lose as much as you can during that first few months because it won't be as psychologically defeating when you gain some back. Worked for me, and that's all that really matters :-).
Saturday, November 20, 2010
B2B - the nutrition episode
As I was writing up my race report I was adding information about what I was eating and drinking and realized that it was adding nothing to the story. I thought about it some more and decided to take it out all together but I wanted to detail what it is I did since having nutrition not be a part of the day meant I must have done it right. Let me also say this was my first ironman so I am not by any means claiming to be an expert. Let me also say that the one thing I have learned in my 10+ years of triathlon is that everyone is different so what worked for me may or may not work for you. The best thing to do is to try different products and find the ones to work and don't work for you so in a pinch you know what you can and cannot consume.
Race Morning:
I ate my standard breakfast of grapenuts with skim milk and dried cranberries, but also added half a banana and a piece of bread. about 700 calories
prerace:
I ate nothing, but I had a 8oz bottle of water with my first packet of Hornet juice that I drank at 6:30.
Swim:
Accidentally swallowed plenty of salt water but while I did see a jelly fish it was too early in the swim to be tempted to grab it and eat it.
Bike:
started off with 20 oz of Ultima Lemonade in my aero bottle which had packet #2 of hornet juice in it. Consumed my first cliff bar right after the bridge to make up for no food on the swim, but the plan was going to be eat small amounts every 15 minutes instead of 100-200 calories on the hour marks. The only thing I would have changed about the bike nutrition would be to use 20 oz bottles in the rear instead of the 24 oz bottles, I had plenty fluid left over and having to raise my leg that extra 4 inches to get over the taller bottles was harder than you would think after biking for a 100 miles.
all in all I ate
1 cliff bar
3 power bar triple threat bars
6 fig newtons
1 pack of peanut butter and honey crackers
1 espresso love gu
1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich at special needs stop
and I drank
20 oz ultima
48 oz gatorade
48 oz water
plus two packs of hornet juice
Run:
When I started running I felt like absolute crap. It was mostly energy and attitude from being warn down from the wind for 7 hours on the bike. I took a gel immediately and then made the decision to eat only when I was hungry. This ended up working wonderfully and I ate whatever I felt like at the time. But once again it was only a little at a time. I had all my gels squeezed out into a gel flask so I didn't have to take the whole thing at once or waste half if I didn't want the whole thing. I was also wearing my tri-shorts with the two pockets on the sides so I could store bars and crackers if I wanted those as well. The only thing that I would change about my nutrition here would have been to bring more of my own endurolytes and to take the ones provided on the course first before then ran out then I would have my own stash to get me through the end. Luckily that didn't have any adverse effects as I had all of them on the first half of the marathon and ended up not needed them for the second.
Consumed on the run
4 gu roctane vanilla orange gels
1 power bar triple threat bar
1 pack peanut butter and honey crackers
1 100 grand candy bar ( my favorite )
15 endurolytes ( all in the first half )
Fluids:
4 orange slices
24 oz gatorade
at least 20 oz water
2 packs hornet juice
Post race:
cliff bar protein builder
cheese burger and fries
grande mocha
All in all I burned about 14,000 calories during the race and consumed about 3500, that's about 10,000 deficit, this really got me to thinking. One pound of fat is about 3500 so that would be only 2 pounds of fat and we know that not all of those calories came from fat but from stored glycogen reserves, muscles and what I was eating throughout the day. Even with all the science we have today there is so much misinformation out there and the fact that everyone seems to be different in the way they store and burn fat it's no wonder losing weight is so hard. One of my goals next year is to get out of the Clydesdale division, I have about 15 lbs to go and thanksgiving and christmas to get past. If I can even get close to 200 lbs next year I'll count that as a victory.
Race Morning:
I ate my standard breakfast of grapenuts with skim milk and dried cranberries, but also added half a banana and a piece of bread. about 700 calories
prerace:
I ate nothing, but I had a 8oz bottle of water with my first packet of Hornet juice that I drank at 6:30.
Swim:
Accidentally swallowed plenty of salt water but while I did see a jelly fish it was too early in the swim to be tempted to grab it and eat it.
Bike:
started off with 20 oz of Ultima Lemonade in my aero bottle which had packet #2 of hornet juice in it. Consumed my first cliff bar right after the bridge to make up for no food on the swim, but the plan was going to be eat small amounts every 15 minutes instead of 100-200 calories on the hour marks. The only thing I would have changed about the bike nutrition would be to use 20 oz bottles in the rear instead of the 24 oz bottles, I had plenty fluid left over and having to raise my leg that extra 4 inches to get over the taller bottles was harder than you would think after biking for a 100 miles.
all in all I ate
1 cliff bar
3 power bar triple threat bars
6 fig newtons
1 pack of peanut butter and honey crackers
1 espresso love gu
1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich at special needs stop
and I drank
20 oz ultima
48 oz gatorade
48 oz water
plus two packs of hornet juice
Run:
When I started running I felt like absolute crap. It was mostly energy and attitude from being warn down from the wind for 7 hours on the bike. I took a gel immediately and then made the decision to eat only when I was hungry. This ended up working wonderfully and I ate whatever I felt like at the time. But once again it was only a little at a time. I had all my gels squeezed out into a gel flask so I didn't have to take the whole thing at once or waste half if I didn't want the whole thing. I was also wearing my tri-shorts with the two pockets on the sides so I could store bars and crackers if I wanted those as well. The only thing that I would change about my nutrition here would have been to bring more of my own endurolytes and to take the ones provided on the course first before then ran out then I would have my own stash to get me through the end. Luckily that didn't have any adverse effects as I had all of them on the first half of the marathon and ended up not needed them for the second.
Consumed on the run
4 gu roctane vanilla orange gels
1 power bar triple threat bar
1 pack peanut butter and honey crackers
1 100 grand candy bar ( my favorite )
15 endurolytes ( all in the first half )
Fluids:
4 orange slices
24 oz gatorade
at least 20 oz water
2 packs hornet juice
Post race:
cliff bar protein builder
cheese burger and fries
grande mocha
All in all I burned about 14,000 calories during the race and consumed about 3500, that's about 10,000 deficit, this really got me to thinking. One pound of fat is about 3500 so that would be only 2 pounds of fat and we know that not all of those calories came from fat but from stored glycogen reserves, muscles and what I was eating throughout the day. Even with all the science we have today there is so much misinformation out there and the fact that everyone seems to be different in the way they store and burn fat it's no wonder losing weight is so hard. One of my goals next year is to get out of the Clydesdale division, I have about 15 lbs to go and thanksgiving and christmas to get past. If I can even get close to 200 lbs next year I'll count that as a victory.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Beach To Battleship Iron Distance Tri Race Report
Warning, this is going to be long, very long. For those with short attention spans you might want to print this out and take it in short bursts. What do you expect? I trained for 10 months and it took me almost 14 hours to complete, of course it's going to be a long race report.
First the numbers:
Calories burned - 13742 or 981 / hour
Calories consumed - 3560 or 254 / hour
Endurolytes consumed - 15
hornet juice - 5 packets
rank Men / Master Clydesdales
Swim 1:17:44 113 / 2
T1 10:57
Bike 7:00:37 358 / 10
T2 9:44
Run 5:17:35 237 / 3
Total 13:56:34 272 / 5
Nutrition:
I've decided to do a separate blog entry entirely devoted to nutrition so you won't see much in here about it unless it directly relates to the situation at hand.
The Lead up:
For 10 months and two weeks I trained for this event. The first 6 were mostly fun just stay in shape and get ready for the last 4 months of hell. Truthfully it was really only the last month that was hell. I was faithful to my schedule, stayed healthy, rested when my body needed it, and pushed through when I was supposed to. I did 3 rides of 100+ miles, and 2 runs of 20+ miles so I was ready. I injured my knee on the 145 mile ride to the beach but have been on anti-inflammatories and they have been working great, I did a 100 mile ride and 20 mile run weekend on them so I wasn't worried about it. Then of course the Monday before the race I get a cold. I took the week off from exercise, I rested, I took Zircon and was hoping it would get better in time. The day before I did an easy 10 mile ride and 1 mile run just to see how I would feel and I felt great, even with the lingering symptoms from the cold so I gained some confidence for race day.
Pre-race:
Actually slept fairly well until midnight and then it was toss and turn until 3:30 when I got up to eat breakfast. Got dressed and packed my special needs bags up and headed to the bus. The hard part about this race is the logistics so staying at the host hotel where the buses ran to and from and which is right on the run course was really the smartest thing to do for me. The wife and girl could just hang out downtown and shop, they went to the kids museum, 10 min walk, and then rest at the hotel and wait for me to get to miles 2,9,16 of the run and then take a water taxi, which my daughter loved, to the finish. Really recommend the Hilton for those with families.
Times below will be from my watch and not the same as official as I didn't hit lap when going over the mats, but rather when I felt the leg was ending/starting. They are fairly close though.
Swim: 1:15:48
The swim was advertised that it would be with a strong current. They did warn us at the pre-race meeting that the low tide was scheduled for 6:50 and it would end up being a slack tide. I am thinking I might do some analysis to compare the times from this year with last but that would only be if I have the time. Let's just say the fastest time from last year was 41:16 and slowest was 1:45 this year the fastest was 54:35 and slowest was 2:19. When we lined up to swim I could see the stand up paddle boarders where actively working to not be pushed out to sea, so the tide was still against us at the start. The First buoy was only about 50 yards out, so I waited one minute until the majority of people had started and then picked a line that would take me wide left of the buoy to avoid the huge log jam that would be forming. It was still crowded when I got there and I got my first kick in the chest from a breast stroker, it wasn't that bad and I just kept on going. I'm more of a right side breather so the plan was to move to the left so I could see the mass while breathing and thus avoid having to sight as often. This ended up being a bad decision as we were swimming north and the sun was just peeking over the hotels that we were swimming by so when I would take a breath on the right it was all glare. I didn't panic, instead I just altered to breath every third stroke and as fortune would have it there were boats and stand up boarders following us the whole way so I could stay just to the left of the mix and still sight well. There was a water tower that I was advised by Dave on the bus that would be good to sight off of so I picked it up and used it well. I quickly got into a comfortable pace and started passing people. Every so often a "left drifter" would start to push me out so I would have to speed up and get in front of them, or in the case with on particularly stubborn guy who really wanted to go off course, slow down and swim over their back to stay straight. One guy punched me in the mouth, I'm sure by accident, and probably got a bloody knuckle from it. There were a few spots on course where the water got rough and I actually got dizzy from it, but my experience with the bay bridge 4.4 mile swim saved me and I knew if I just kept going it would be ok. Finally we got to the left turn that was just passed half way. Now we would be doing the same course as the Wilmington sprint tri and I went back and read my race report from them to remind me how to navigate best to the marina where we would be getting out. The trick is to swim in the middle and not get too close to the turns since it is similar to an S curve getting there. Once again I saw a ton of people cutting corners which actually adds distance so I was happy I did my homework. When we got close I started using my legs in hopes to warm them up and get some blood into them. I hit the dock and tried to get up the ladder, but the legs were useless. Fortunately there were two volunteers helping people get out. When I finally got on the dock and stood up straight I got a big case of the dizzies and started wobbling towards the strippers. Wetsuit strippers that is. They were wonderful, at this point better than actual strippers as they undid my zipper and then pulled it down, instructed me to lay on my back and ripped it off, all in less than 15 seconds. I then hit the fresh water warm shower to get some salt off before starting towards T1. I guess it took about 2 minutes to hit the timing mat as my watch said 1:15 but official was 1:17. I heard a ton of people in the changing tent, and after the race complaining about the swim but I thought it was great.
T1: 12:37
having to jog 400 yards to the changing tent with numb toes was not fun. Luckily I had on the wetsuit booties to keep my feet warm but even with them on my toes were still cold. Finally made it to the tent and got my bag to change. Tried to dry off as best I could and change, after I got off my booties my toes really started to freeze, because I was so cold I probably put on too much. I had an undershirt/long sleeve cycling jersey and a vest on top, just shorts on the bottom and gloves. Then jogged over to the bike where my socks and shoes awaited.
Bike: 7:01:36
My bike computer says 6:40:38, so all the stops you get to read about took about 20 minutes off my time. Average speed while riding was 16.8, including the stops it was 16 mph which is exactly what I thought it would be. This leg was the toughest for me, mentally and physically. As mentioned above I injured my knee on a 145 mile ride to the beach but ironically it wasn't my knee that bothered me during the race. I hate the bike, ok I don't actually hate the bike, but after 3 hours I am not happy. Looking back at it I think I was in that mindset from at least August on. If I could pinpoint one thing I would have changed it would be my mental attitude towards the long bike rides. The bike started off ok. The wind was out of the North at about 10 mph and by the beach there isn't much to break it up so if you are going north you get a head wind so we started off going north into the headwind that would suck they life out of me for the next 80 miles. We did get one break when we hit the section that went on I140. That was actually quite nice to be just riding with a cross wind. It was cool to enter on the interstate on the bike, the cops had traffic stopped while you went from the on-ramp and over to the far left lane. When there was a break in the bike line they would let the cars go and they had to stay in the right lane. There was a line of cones to the left of the line separator so we had some room between us and the cars doing 70+ mph just 4 feet away. At one point I was riding two feet from the cones with at least 5 feet to my left before the painted line when I heard someone yell "on your left", I looked to my left and saw there was plenty of room for him to pass so I just nodded my head and said come on by, but the dufus yells "on your left" again. Whatever bonehead there's plenty of room for you to go by I ain't moving over any closer to those crazy pissed off bastards in their death machines who were late getting home to watch all their recorded shows. Finally he went by and made a point of shaking his head like I did something wrong, yeah one if every crowd. After the fun on the interstate we turned onto hwy 421 and started going North again, right into the wind. It was relentless, not gusting, but a constant break applied to your forward progress. Finally we got to turn off and it eased a bit, but then around mile 45 we turned onto 210 and started going, you guessed it, FUCKING NORTH. Luckily the special needs hand-off was at mile 51 so we got a break. I got off, stretched, bathroom break, filled my water bottles found an angel to let me borrow some Shammy butter and started back into the wind again. As I was heading out of transition I saw I guy going out without his helmet. I yelled up ahead, stop that guy without the helmet! some of the volunteers looked at me so I yelled it again, they just turned around and kept handing out the water and heed. luckily another biker heard me and alerted the guy who stopped and went back. Luckily the bike ref was not there or he would have been DQ'd. So back into the wind I went. I kept telling myself that when we turned off 210 we would get a tailwind and everything would be alright. Alas this was not come true for another 20 miles. Somewhere around mile 70, I just lost it. I was swearing up a storm and saying I wanted off this bike and was ready to call my wife to tell her to come pick me up I was quitting. I pulled out my phone in a last ditch effort to call her to get some support and I looked at it and it said "no service". I can't tell you how long the list of swear words was that I had for AT&T at that moment because it was just too long. I did notice that I had received 2 txt msg's while I had service so I went to look at them. The first one from my wife saved my race, it read "please let me know you are ok. Text me whenever you can. I LOVE YOU very much". Well that was just what I needed to hear, I mean how could I possible quit now? After all the sacrifices she had to make all hear to help me get here, it wasn't just about me anymore. I typed out a message to her "Honey that was exactly what I needed to hear right now. you saved me. I LOVE YOU" hit send. but "no service" mother fucking AT&T you suck. Anyway I told her later, and I know you are not supposed to txt and cycle, but that was not going to stop me. Finally we turned out of the wind and into a strong tailwind. It felt so much better and then I saw the 80 mile marker and just stopped. I had to get off, use the facilities, tree, and stretch out my back, neck, it bands, and mostly my hip flexors. After about a 5 minute break I got back on and felt refreshed. I decided I would stop at the next 10 mile markers and do the same. It really helped my mental attitude and I think it definitely helped set up my run. At the mile 100 marker I was relieving myself, tree again, and I hear someone yell out "Bill Reid". It was Karyn, my partner in crime for all these long months of training. I was beginning to wonder what happened to her as I expected her to pass me much sooner on the bike so I was happy it was this late in the race as I wouldn't have to run so fast to catch her on the run. The next 12 miles went by too quickly and soon I was approaching the traffic and two bridges that needed to be climbed to get to the battleship. It actually felt good to get out of the saddle so I stood and climbed both. I rolled into T2 still not feeling great, but determined to at least run to the Hilton at mile 2.5 so I could see the family. I just have to say this one more time. I HATE THE BIKE
T2: 8:43
Pulling into T2 someone grabbed my bike and helmet and pointed me towards the changing tent. There weren't a lot of volunteers here and I was a bit confused at this point so it took me a while to find my bag and get into the tent. Both the mens and ladies tents were small and didn't have doors that could close so while they were covered, they didn't provide much cover, but at this point who really cared. I got those stupid ass bike shorts off and put on my tri running shorts with a ton of shammy butter and then applied some body glide to the nipples and around the waist were my race belt sits to avoid chaffing. Changed my shirt and shoes and headed on out. I had to txt the wife to let her know I was 25 minutes away and then tried to find some water to fill up the bottles on my race belt, but no luck. Karyn said the ladies tent had them stacked up on the table, but the mens side was out. But it wasn't long till I got to an aid station so it wasn't too bad, but at the time it was the end of the world. Finally time for the run.
Run: 5:17:43
I crossed the timing mat and said out loud and now I start my second marathon ever. Those first two miles sucked bad, after a short jog I came upon my favorite bridge, it was steep and long, I still felt like crap so once again out loud I said "I am making an executive decision that I will be walking this bridge both times", you can just assume from now on that when ever I say "I said" or "said to myself" that is was out loud, I was in my own little world. So my first mile was 12:35, not good, but not bad either and my legs were not adverse to running so the downhill felt fine but then bridge number two appeared. Holy shit do I have to do this again on the second lap? Yes you do dumb-ass, I said to myself, in face you have to do over those bridges 4 times. On the second half of the first bridge I started imagining that if I pretend to trip I could just all off right here and then I wouldn't have to run the other 24.5 miles and I wouldn't have to deal with having quit. But the easy way out did not win over and I kept going. Mile two was 11:20, hey, I picked it up! woo hoo! those two miles are the only two splits I remember, in fact I have no clue about any other mile splits and I don't care to know. Good lord has anyone else noticed this race report is really long? and I still have 24 miles to go... I made the right hand turn at mile two and everything was about to change. I saw my coach, Brennan Liming, and she came up and asked how I was doing, I gave her the not so good, but I'm still moving forward answer and she said, "ok, just keep going" not much help there, but seconds later I here "GO BILL" and she keeps yelling that for the next 300 yards, that put a huge smile on my face and just then I hear the volunteer up ahead say to the lady in front of me at the turn "Good job number 202" wait, Karyn is 202, could that possible be her? and just like that she turns around and sees me 20 yards behind.
she slowed a bit and I caught her and we would end up running together until the 13.1 mark. On top of that good news it was now only 300 yards until I got to see the family. I came up and saw the wife and girl with camera ready, posed for a couple pics,
tried to get a hug from the kid who wisely declined, then got a big kiss from the old lady and sprinted, sprint being relative, off to catch back up to Karyn. The crowds on the Riverwalk were awesome full of energy and cowbells and I was running with my training buddy and on top of world. We still took our scheduled walk breaks to eat/drink and at the steep sections, but mostly we were running our normal talk capable training pace. In fact when we got to the 1/4 mark at 6.5 miles we were 1:11, I did the math and if we kept that pace we could do a 4:44, of course both of us knew that wasn't going to happen, but 5 hours was in reach. The bridges would have the final say in that and since you already saw the final run time you know that didn't happen. The lake greenfield section was my favorite, slow steady ups and downs, just like the tobacco trail we had done our long runs on so I was really happy at this point and sent a txt to the wife at a walk break that we were 20 minutes away. Once again when we went by the hotel I got a high five from the girl and some more pics taken. Saw the coach and Karyn's husband and got pumped up from the crowds. Of course the bridges took some out of us and Karyn's stomach started to bug her so she told me at the special needs hand-off that she was taking a longer break and for me to just go on. I didn't want to leave her, but I also wanted her to be able to do what she had to do with feeling guilty about slowing me down and then not be able to take care of herself, so I got my crackers, arm warmers and head lamp out of my special needs bag and headed off solo. I think at this point I was at 2:25 for the run, so we slowed but not by much. Running solo for me is no big deal, especially 13.1 miles and with the volunteers, crowds, my family and coach to see again I was still feeling great. Such a difference from the bike. I did walk both the bridges again as an executive decision is an executive decision after all. I cruised by the family for the last time and told them I would finish in about an hour forty five, but then I looked at my watch and thought that would put me in under 5 hours for the marathon and there was no way that was going to happen so I turned to my daughter who was running with me on the sidewalk and said, "tell mommy I meant 2 hours" she said ok and went back to tell her. I love her. Then I saw my coach and told her I felt better starting this lap then the first one, she said great, keep going. Sage advise... After a few more "GO BILL" 's I was on my way to the final turn around. This lap was definitely harder, I had to force myself to keep going at points and to take advantage of downhill sections even when it was time to walk because I really felt breaking 14 was in reach but I needed to put some time in the bank for that last bridge. I have no idea what the time was at the 3/4 turn around this time, but I did see Karyn who was about I would guess 3-4 minutes behind me at this point and was looking good. A quick high five and passing and back to the grind. When I got to mile 20 I took a picture of the sign and posted to twitter/facebook with the caption "and then there were six" Yes, I am insane.
This time passing the Hilton there was no family, but coach B was there and she ran with me for about a mile and kept me company and focused. We parted just before the first of the bridges with just under 2 miles to go and 27 minutes to make it under 14 hours. I didn't know at the time but Karyn was only about 400 yards behind me at this point and would get even closer by the finish. The second bridge took it out of me, even walking up it was hard at this point, but at the top there was less than a mile to go, 15 minutes to break 14 hours and nothing was going to make me walk again until the finish. After getting passed by hundreds of people on the bike, I was steadily passing walkers and joggers the whole run. But for some reason in the final mile I got passed by 3 people. I had nothing left, no sprint, could not pick up the pace, just kept running. I didn't care that they passed me I was just amazed that they could pick it up like that after so long. They obviously didn't go hard enough during the race. I did txt the wife while walking up that I would be done in 10-15 minutes so they were there and ready for me when I came in. I came upon the mile 26 sign and still didn't see the finish shoot. what the hell is this? some cruel joke? I mean I can hear the announcer and crowds, but can't see a thing. One guy assured me it was just ahead after that turn, but I wasn't believing anyone I just needed to see it. and then finally there it was, I made the turn, heard my name, but nothing else that the announcer said, gave some high fives to the spectators and crossed the line with a big ass smile on my face. Just then all the tired hit and every muscle in my face went limp and I could feel the exhausted expression take over and POOF there goes the finish line picture. can't wait to see that one... So there ya have it, I'll try to get a couple more out with post race thoughts and of course the nutrition blog, but I think this one is long enough as is. If you made it this far, thanks for coming by and reading, please leave a comment so I know you were here. This one really meant a lot.
First the numbers:
Calories burned - 13742 or 981 / hour
Calories consumed - 3560 or 254 / hour
Endurolytes consumed - 15
hornet juice - 5 packets
rank Men / Master Clydesdales
Swim 1:17:44 113 / 2
T1 10:57
Bike 7:00:37 358 / 10
T2 9:44
Run 5:17:35 237 / 3
Total 13:56:34 272 / 5
Nutrition:
I've decided to do a separate blog entry entirely devoted to nutrition so you won't see much in here about it unless it directly relates to the situation at hand.
The Lead up:
For 10 months and two weeks I trained for this event. The first 6 were mostly fun just stay in shape and get ready for the last 4 months of hell. Truthfully it was really only the last month that was hell. I was faithful to my schedule, stayed healthy, rested when my body needed it, and pushed through when I was supposed to. I did 3 rides of 100+ miles, and 2 runs of 20+ miles so I was ready. I injured my knee on the 145 mile ride to the beach but have been on anti-inflammatories and they have been working great, I did a 100 mile ride and 20 mile run weekend on them so I wasn't worried about it. Then of course the Monday before the race I get a cold. I took the week off from exercise, I rested, I took Zircon and was hoping it would get better in time. The day before I did an easy 10 mile ride and 1 mile run just to see how I would feel and I felt great, even with the lingering symptoms from the cold so I gained some confidence for race day.
Pre-race:
Actually slept fairly well until midnight and then it was toss and turn until 3:30 when I got up to eat breakfast. Got dressed and packed my special needs bags up and headed to the bus. The hard part about this race is the logistics so staying at the host hotel where the buses ran to and from and which is right on the run course was really the smartest thing to do for me. The wife and girl could just hang out downtown and shop, they went to the kids museum, 10 min walk, and then rest at the hotel and wait for me to get to miles 2,9,16 of the run and then take a water taxi, which my daughter loved, to the finish. Really recommend the Hilton for those with families.
Times below will be from my watch and not the same as official as I didn't hit lap when going over the mats, but rather when I felt the leg was ending/starting. They are fairly close though.
Swim: 1:15:48
The swim was advertised that it would be with a strong current. They did warn us at the pre-race meeting that the low tide was scheduled for 6:50 and it would end up being a slack tide. I am thinking I might do some analysis to compare the times from this year with last but that would only be if I have the time. Let's just say the fastest time from last year was 41:16 and slowest was 1:45 this year the fastest was 54:35 and slowest was 2:19. When we lined up to swim I could see the stand up paddle boarders where actively working to not be pushed out to sea, so the tide was still against us at the start. The First buoy was only about 50 yards out, so I waited one minute until the majority of people had started and then picked a line that would take me wide left of the buoy to avoid the huge log jam that would be forming. It was still crowded when I got there and I got my first kick in the chest from a breast stroker, it wasn't that bad and I just kept on going. I'm more of a right side breather so the plan was to move to the left so I could see the mass while breathing and thus avoid having to sight as often. This ended up being a bad decision as we were swimming north and the sun was just peeking over the hotels that we were swimming by so when I would take a breath on the right it was all glare. I didn't panic, instead I just altered to breath every third stroke and as fortune would have it there were boats and stand up boarders following us the whole way so I could stay just to the left of the mix and still sight well. There was a water tower that I was advised by Dave on the bus that would be good to sight off of so I picked it up and used it well. I quickly got into a comfortable pace and started passing people. Every so often a "left drifter" would start to push me out so I would have to speed up and get in front of them, or in the case with on particularly stubborn guy who really wanted to go off course, slow down and swim over their back to stay straight. One guy punched me in the mouth, I'm sure by accident, and probably got a bloody knuckle from it. There were a few spots on course where the water got rough and I actually got dizzy from it, but my experience with the bay bridge 4.4 mile swim saved me and I knew if I just kept going it would be ok. Finally we got to the left turn that was just passed half way. Now we would be doing the same course as the Wilmington sprint tri and I went back and read my race report from them to remind me how to navigate best to the marina where we would be getting out. The trick is to swim in the middle and not get too close to the turns since it is similar to an S curve getting there. Once again I saw a ton of people cutting corners which actually adds distance so I was happy I did my homework. When we got close I started using my legs in hopes to warm them up and get some blood into them. I hit the dock and tried to get up the ladder, but the legs were useless. Fortunately there were two volunteers helping people get out. When I finally got on the dock and stood up straight I got a big case of the dizzies and started wobbling towards the strippers. Wetsuit strippers that is. They were wonderful, at this point better than actual strippers as they undid my zipper and then pulled it down, instructed me to lay on my back and ripped it off, all in less than 15 seconds. I then hit the fresh water warm shower to get some salt off before starting towards T1. I guess it took about 2 minutes to hit the timing mat as my watch said 1:15 but official was 1:17. I heard a ton of people in the changing tent, and after the race complaining about the swim but I thought it was great.
T1: 12:37
having to jog 400 yards to the changing tent with numb toes was not fun. Luckily I had on the wetsuit booties to keep my feet warm but even with them on my toes were still cold. Finally made it to the tent and got my bag to change. Tried to dry off as best I could and change, after I got off my booties my toes really started to freeze, because I was so cold I probably put on too much. I had an undershirt/long sleeve cycling jersey and a vest on top, just shorts on the bottom and gloves. Then jogged over to the bike where my socks and shoes awaited.
Bike: 7:01:36
My bike computer says 6:40:38, so all the stops you get to read about took about 20 minutes off my time. Average speed while riding was 16.8, including the stops it was 16 mph which is exactly what I thought it would be. This leg was the toughest for me, mentally and physically. As mentioned above I injured my knee on a 145 mile ride to the beach but ironically it wasn't my knee that bothered me during the race. I hate the bike, ok I don't actually hate the bike, but after 3 hours I am not happy. Looking back at it I think I was in that mindset from at least August on. If I could pinpoint one thing I would have changed it would be my mental attitude towards the long bike rides. The bike started off ok. The wind was out of the North at about 10 mph and by the beach there isn't much to break it up so if you are going north you get a head wind so we started off going north into the headwind that would suck they life out of me for the next 80 miles. We did get one break when we hit the section that went on I140. That was actually quite nice to be just riding with a cross wind. It was cool to enter on the interstate on the bike, the cops had traffic stopped while you went from the on-ramp and over to the far left lane. When there was a break in the bike line they would let the cars go and they had to stay in the right lane. There was a line of cones to the left of the line separator so we had some room between us and the cars doing 70+ mph just 4 feet away. At one point I was riding two feet from the cones with at least 5 feet to my left before the painted line when I heard someone yell "on your left", I looked to my left and saw there was plenty of room for him to pass so I just nodded my head and said come on by, but the dufus yells "on your left" again. Whatever bonehead there's plenty of room for you to go by I ain't moving over any closer to those crazy pissed off bastards in their death machines who were late getting home to watch all their recorded shows. Finally he went by and made a point of shaking his head like I did something wrong, yeah one if every crowd. After the fun on the interstate we turned onto hwy 421 and started going North again, right into the wind. It was relentless, not gusting, but a constant break applied to your forward progress. Finally we got to turn off and it eased a bit, but then around mile 45 we turned onto 210 and started going, you guessed it, FUCKING NORTH. Luckily the special needs hand-off was at mile 51 so we got a break. I got off, stretched, bathroom break, filled my water bottles found an angel to let me borrow some Shammy butter and started back into the wind again. As I was heading out of transition I saw I guy going out without his helmet. I yelled up ahead, stop that guy without the helmet! some of the volunteers looked at me so I yelled it again, they just turned around and kept handing out the water and heed. luckily another biker heard me and alerted the guy who stopped and went back. Luckily the bike ref was not there or he would have been DQ'd. So back into the wind I went. I kept telling myself that when we turned off 210 we would get a tailwind and everything would be alright. Alas this was not come true for another 20 miles. Somewhere around mile 70, I just lost it. I was swearing up a storm and saying I wanted off this bike and was ready to call my wife to tell her to come pick me up I was quitting. I pulled out my phone in a last ditch effort to call her to get some support and I looked at it and it said "no service". I can't tell you how long the list of swear words was that I had for AT&T at that moment because it was just too long. I did notice that I had received 2 txt msg's while I had service so I went to look at them. The first one from my wife saved my race, it read "please let me know you are ok. Text me whenever you can. I LOVE YOU very much". Well that was just what I needed to hear, I mean how could I possible quit now? After all the sacrifices she had to make all hear to help me get here, it wasn't just about me anymore. I typed out a message to her "Honey that was exactly what I needed to hear right now. you saved me. I LOVE YOU" hit send. but "no service" mother fucking AT&T you suck. Anyway I told her later, and I know you are not supposed to txt and cycle, but that was not going to stop me. Finally we turned out of the wind and into a strong tailwind. It felt so much better and then I saw the 80 mile marker and just stopped. I had to get off, use the facilities, tree, and stretch out my back, neck, it bands, and mostly my hip flexors. After about a 5 minute break I got back on and felt refreshed. I decided I would stop at the next 10 mile markers and do the same. It really helped my mental attitude and I think it definitely helped set up my run. At the mile 100 marker I was relieving myself, tree again, and I hear someone yell out "Bill Reid". It was Karyn, my partner in crime for all these long months of training. I was beginning to wonder what happened to her as I expected her to pass me much sooner on the bike so I was happy it was this late in the race as I wouldn't have to run so fast to catch her on the run. The next 12 miles went by too quickly and soon I was approaching the traffic and two bridges that needed to be climbed to get to the battleship. It actually felt good to get out of the saddle so I stood and climbed both. I rolled into T2 still not feeling great, but determined to at least run to the Hilton at mile 2.5 so I could see the family. I just have to say this one more time. I HATE THE BIKE
T2: 8:43
Pulling into T2 someone grabbed my bike and helmet and pointed me towards the changing tent. There weren't a lot of volunteers here and I was a bit confused at this point so it took me a while to find my bag and get into the tent. Both the mens and ladies tents were small and didn't have doors that could close so while they were covered, they didn't provide much cover, but at this point who really cared. I got those stupid ass bike shorts off and put on my tri running shorts with a ton of shammy butter and then applied some body glide to the nipples and around the waist were my race belt sits to avoid chaffing. Changed my shirt and shoes and headed on out. I had to txt the wife to let her know I was 25 minutes away and then tried to find some water to fill up the bottles on my race belt, but no luck. Karyn said the ladies tent had them stacked up on the table, but the mens side was out. But it wasn't long till I got to an aid station so it wasn't too bad, but at the time it was the end of the world. Finally time for the run.
Run: 5:17:43
I crossed the timing mat and said out loud and now I start my second marathon ever. Those first two miles sucked bad, after a short jog I came upon my favorite bridge, it was steep and long, I still felt like crap so once again out loud I said "I am making an executive decision that I will be walking this bridge both times", you can just assume from now on that when ever I say "I said" or "said to myself" that is was out loud, I was in my own little world. So my first mile was 12:35, not good, but not bad either and my legs were not adverse to running so the downhill felt fine but then bridge number two appeared. Holy shit do I have to do this again on the second lap? Yes you do dumb-ass, I said to myself, in face you have to do over those bridges 4 times. On the second half of the first bridge I started imagining that if I pretend to trip I could just all off right here and then I wouldn't have to run the other 24.5 miles and I wouldn't have to deal with having quit. But the easy way out did not win over and I kept going. Mile two was 11:20, hey, I picked it up! woo hoo! those two miles are the only two splits I remember, in fact I have no clue about any other mile splits and I don't care to know. Good lord has anyone else noticed this race report is really long? and I still have 24 miles to go... I made the right hand turn at mile two and everything was about to change. I saw my coach, Brennan Liming, and she came up and asked how I was doing, I gave her the not so good, but I'm still moving forward answer and she said, "ok, just keep going" not much help there, but seconds later I here "GO BILL" and she keeps yelling that for the next 300 yards, that put a huge smile on my face and just then I hear the volunteer up ahead say to the lady in front of me at the turn "Good job number 202" wait, Karyn is 202, could that possible be her? and just like that she turns around and sees me 20 yards behind.
she slowed a bit and I caught her and we would end up running together until the 13.1 mark. On top of that good news it was now only 300 yards until I got to see the family. I came up and saw the wife and girl with camera ready, posed for a couple pics,
tried to get a hug from the kid who wisely declined, then got a big kiss from the old lady and sprinted, sprint being relative, off to catch back up to Karyn. The crowds on the Riverwalk were awesome full of energy and cowbells and I was running with my training buddy and on top of world. We still took our scheduled walk breaks to eat/drink and at the steep sections, but mostly we were running our normal talk capable training pace. In fact when we got to the 1/4 mark at 6.5 miles we were 1:11, I did the math and if we kept that pace we could do a 4:44, of course both of us knew that wasn't going to happen, but 5 hours was in reach. The bridges would have the final say in that and since you already saw the final run time you know that didn't happen. The lake greenfield section was my favorite, slow steady ups and downs, just like the tobacco trail we had done our long runs on so I was really happy at this point and sent a txt to the wife at a walk break that we were 20 minutes away. Once again when we went by the hotel I got a high five from the girl and some more pics taken. Saw the coach and Karyn's husband and got pumped up from the crowds. Of course the bridges took some out of us and Karyn's stomach started to bug her so she told me at the special needs hand-off that she was taking a longer break and for me to just go on. I didn't want to leave her, but I also wanted her to be able to do what she had to do with feeling guilty about slowing me down and then not be able to take care of herself, so I got my crackers, arm warmers and head lamp out of my special needs bag and headed off solo. I think at this point I was at 2:25 for the run, so we slowed but not by much. Running solo for me is no big deal, especially 13.1 miles and with the volunteers, crowds, my family and coach to see again I was still feeling great. Such a difference from the bike. I did walk both the bridges again as an executive decision is an executive decision after all. I cruised by the family for the last time and told them I would finish in about an hour forty five, but then I looked at my watch and thought that would put me in under 5 hours for the marathon and there was no way that was going to happen so I turned to my daughter who was running with me on the sidewalk and said, "tell mommy I meant 2 hours" she said ok and went back to tell her. I love her. Then I saw my coach and told her I felt better starting this lap then the first one, she said great, keep going. Sage advise... After a few more "GO BILL" 's I was on my way to the final turn around. This lap was definitely harder, I had to force myself to keep going at points and to take advantage of downhill sections even when it was time to walk because I really felt breaking 14 was in reach but I needed to put some time in the bank for that last bridge. I have no idea what the time was at the 3/4 turn around this time, but I did see Karyn who was about I would guess 3-4 minutes behind me at this point and was looking good. A quick high five and passing and back to the grind. When I got to mile 20 I took a picture of the sign and posted to twitter/facebook with the caption "and then there were six" Yes, I am insane.
This time passing the Hilton there was no family, but coach B was there and she ran with me for about a mile and kept me company and focused. We parted just before the first of the bridges with just under 2 miles to go and 27 minutes to make it under 14 hours. I didn't know at the time but Karyn was only about 400 yards behind me at this point and would get even closer by the finish. The second bridge took it out of me, even walking up it was hard at this point, but at the top there was less than a mile to go, 15 minutes to break 14 hours and nothing was going to make me walk again until the finish. After getting passed by hundreds of people on the bike, I was steadily passing walkers and joggers the whole run. But for some reason in the final mile I got passed by 3 people. I had nothing left, no sprint, could not pick up the pace, just kept running. I didn't care that they passed me I was just amazed that they could pick it up like that after so long. They obviously didn't go hard enough during the race. I did txt the wife while walking up that I would be done in 10-15 minutes so they were there and ready for me when I came in. I came upon the mile 26 sign and still didn't see the finish shoot. what the hell is this? some cruel joke? I mean I can hear the announcer and crowds, but can't see a thing. One guy assured me it was just ahead after that turn, but I wasn't believing anyone I just needed to see it. and then finally there it was, I made the turn, heard my name, but nothing else that the announcer said, gave some high fives to the spectators and crossed the line with a big ass smile on my face. Just then all the tired hit and every muscle in my face went limp and I could feel the exhausted expression take over and POOF there goes the finish line picture. can't wait to see that one... So there ya have it, I'll try to get a couple more out with post race thoughts and of course the nutrition blog, but I think this one is long enough as is. If you made it this far, thanks for coming by and reading, please leave a comment so I know you were here. This one really meant a lot.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Anna's Angels 10 mile race report
I guess I'm a bit behind on this one, but time is something I don't have and probably won't have much of until taper begins in 4 weeks time.
I wasn't actually planning to run the race this year but at the last minute my coach was like why don't you do the race, it's on your recovery week so just go do it. That was enough. Last year I had a great race and remember the course fondly so I was excited. Well, until the morning off anyway.
Woke up not feeling all that great and the weather was a bit warmer than predicted so driving to the race I was not that thrilled. My plan was to do a 1.5 mile warm up then race at tempo pace and 1.5 mile cool down. My coach told me not to kill myself since I needed to be ready for the next week of ironman training so since I did 1:28 last year my goal was to be in the 1:27. I read last year's race report so I had an idea what to expect on the course. Miles 1, 6, 9 were hard, 2 and 10 easy and the rest rolling, at least that is what I wrote in last years report.
I had the Garmin on this year and wanted to go out with 9 min miles and pick it up as I started feeling better. I lined up just in front of the 9 min pace flag and when the gun went off I just tried to run comfortable without looking at my watch and ease into it. Well I was feeling really comfortable running up the hill that runs from .5 to 1 so I looked at my pace and I was doing 8:20. Oops, well it doesn't hurt and I'm in the rhythm so why not? I decided to keep my pace and ease up at the top of the hill. Mile 1 was 8:27, mile 2 is mostly downhill with a slight up at the end so I eased up and just did an 8:34, it felt a lot easier after the 8:27 up so I was happy, but still a bit nervous about running 10 seconds per mile faster than my goal so I backed off even more for mile 3. I met and passed "Hairy Man" on this mile. He was ahead of me the first 2.5 miles and I was gradually catching him, but for some reason he was running just outside the cones and of course cutting every corner. At one point a cop yelled at him and told him to stay within the cones and after that he did. A lady passed me at this point and said "hey there's hairy man" she said he does that at every race. So that's how he got his name. Mile 3 8:50. Felt good and recovered so it was time to pick it up and just in time for the rolling to really get started. I didn't remember mile 4 being that hard but Frank had said it looked hard on the elevation chart so that might have influenced my thinking, but still 8:42 felt good. I knew mile 6 was going to be hard so I eased up on mile 5 which ended up being mostly downhill to flat and did a 8:39, people were going by me but I somehow managed to control myself and not give chase. I would catch most of them on mile 9 anyway. Mile 6 starts with a long uphill, then a short break of flat/down before ending with another uphill section. slowest split of the day at 8:52. Mile 7 and 8 were just plain wonderful, flat and/or down so I was able to recover, get some water and gu in me and prepare for mile 9. miles 7 and 8, 8:33 and 8:32. Mile 9 is long slog up to the interstate overpass and then a bit more up and since I read last years report I knew to get into the climbing rhythm right away and it paid off, about half way through I was passing all those people that passed me from miles 5 - 8, some where walking and others just hanging on. I just said "good job" and kept my pace and focus on myself and before I knew it I was at the start of the last mile. Mile 9 8:31. That 8:31 gave me serious confidence for the last mile and while I was at mile 9 at 1:20 last year, this year I was at 1:17:58. Last year I hauled ass down the hill only to suffer and slow on the last .3 rolling to an uphill finish, so this year I sped up, but kept it in check and when I hit the rolling section I was able to pick up the pace and finish strong. Mile 10 - 8:06. Total time was 1:26:04. I beat last years time by 2:04 and I didn't even kill myself. Just goes to show you never know what kind of race you'll have until you have it.
Probably could have done an 8:30 pace for this race so next year I'll be back to kill myself and see what I can do, but I think an 8:30 paced half marathon is in my future also, can't wait for next year so I can use all these miles I am putting on to add some extra speed.
I wasn't actually planning to run the race this year but at the last minute my coach was like why don't you do the race, it's on your recovery week so just go do it. That was enough. Last year I had a great race and remember the course fondly so I was excited. Well, until the morning off anyway.
Woke up not feeling all that great and the weather was a bit warmer than predicted so driving to the race I was not that thrilled. My plan was to do a 1.5 mile warm up then race at tempo pace and 1.5 mile cool down. My coach told me not to kill myself since I needed to be ready for the next week of ironman training so since I did 1:28 last year my goal was to be in the 1:27. I read last year's race report so I had an idea what to expect on the course. Miles 1, 6, 9 were hard, 2 and 10 easy and the rest rolling, at least that is what I wrote in last years report.
I had the Garmin on this year and wanted to go out with 9 min miles and pick it up as I started feeling better. I lined up just in front of the 9 min pace flag and when the gun went off I just tried to run comfortable without looking at my watch and ease into it. Well I was feeling really comfortable running up the hill that runs from .5 to 1 so I looked at my pace and I was doing 8:20. Oops, well it doesn't hurt and I'm in the rhythm so why not? I decided to keep my pace and ease up at the top of the hill. Mile 1 was 8:27, mile 2 is mostly downhill with a slight up at the end so I eased up and just did an 8:34, it felt a lot easier after the 8:27 up so I was happy, but still a bit nervous about running 10 seconds per mile faster than my goal so I backed off even more for mile 3. I met and passed "Hairy Man" on this mile. He was ahead of me the first 2.5 miles and I was gradually catching him, but for some reason he was running just outside the cones and of course cutting every corner. At one point a cop yelled at him and told him to stay within the cones and after that he did. A lady passed me at this point and said "hey there's hairy man" she said he does that at every race. So that's how he got his name. Mile 3 8:50. Felt good and recovered so it was time to pick it up and just in time for the rolling to really get started. I didn't remember mile 4 being that hard but Frank had said it looked hard on the elevation chart so that might have influenced my thinking, but still 8:42 felt good. I knew mile 6 was going to be hard so I eased up on mile 5 which ended up being mostly downhill to flat and did a 8:39, people were going by me but I somehow managed to control myself and not give chase. I would catch most of them on mile 9 anyway. Mile 6 starts with a long uphill, then a short break of flat/down before ending with another uphill section. slowest split of the day at 8:52. Mile 7 and 8 were just plain wonderful, flat and/or down so I was able to recover, get some water and gu in me and prepare for mile 9. miles 7 and 8, 8:33 and 8:32. Mile 9 is long slog up to the interstate overpass and then a bit more up and since I read last years report I knew to get into the climbing rhythm right away and it paid off, about half way through I was passing all those people that passed me from miles 5 - 8, some where walking and others just hanging on. I just said "good job" and kept my pace and focus on myself and before I knew it I was at the start of the last mile. Mile 9 8:31. That 8:31 gave me serious confidence for the last mile and while I was at mile 9 at 1:20 last year, this year I was at 1:17:58. Last year I hauled ass down the hill only to suffer and slow on the last .3 rolling to an uphill finish, so this year I sped up, but kept it in check and when I hit the rolling section I was able to pick up the pace and finish strong. Mile 10 - 8:06. Total time was 1:26:04. I beat last years time by 2:04 and I didn't even kill myself. Just goes to show you never know what kind of race you'll have until you have it.
Probably could have done an 8:30 pace for this race so next year I'll be back to kill myself and see what I can do, but I think an 8:30 paced half marathon is in my future also, can't wait for next year so I can use all these miles I am putting on to add some extra speed.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Patriot's Half IronMan - long version
What follows could get very long and full of details. My thoughts are rolling through my head and I want to get them down in hopes of piecing together what if anything I may have been able to do differently. You have been warned.
The Friday before I took the day off from work to finish packing and prep the house and cats for a weekend alone. We picked the girl up from school after lunch and headed up to Williamsburg. It's a 4 hour drive and traffic as not bad. Checked into the Great Wolf Lodge and headed to the race site for package pickup. Picked up the package with no issues and even bought two pairs of sock guy socks for $5. Then we headed to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. I had a chicken Parm and a sangria. Everything seemed to be going great. I felt a slight twinge in my lower back from the drive and probably should have stretched it out a bit before bed. Back at the lodge, the girls went to the arcade and I spent some time getting everything ready for the morning. Mixing drinks, putting stickers on, getting out clothes and so on. Hit the bed at 9PM right on time with a wake up scheduled for 4AM.
Race Morning woke up at 4, ate my normal breakfast of grapenuts with dried cranberries 16 oz of water and added half a banana. Packed up the car and headed out right on time at 5. Once at the race site and in transition I had everything setup and ready with 30 minutes to spare. I put on the wetsuit, chugged 8 oz of hornet juice and ate a gel. Headed down to the swim start and got in a nice easy warmup in the bay. The water temp was announced as 74 degrees. I heard a bunch of people saying 74 was generous and how did they come up with that? As if they had some internal thermometer. The air temp was still in the 50's so of course the water felt warm. But no one was complaining about getting to wear their wetsuit. I saw one girl close to shore squatting in the shallows with a strange smile on her face, obviously taking a pee break. Can you make it a little less obvious? I mean walk out 10 more feet and you don't even have to squat. anyway onto the race...
times below are the official times from the race results, I race in the master's Clydesdale division and there were 18 total in that division.
Swim: 39:11 - 6/18
the swim was actually quite nice. They have a nice wide open area to warmup in and to start so the pack was spread out wide and I had no issues of getting kicked at all. The first turn buoy was a long way out which meant the pack was lined up and once again no issues making the first turn. We swam with the current after the first turn, but the sun had just started coming up and it was bright so finding that second buoy was tough. Once I found it, it was smooth sailing to it but then after the second turn we were heading to shore but now we were swimming directly into the sun. I couldn't find the exit for about half the swim until I stopped in the water and shaded the sun with my hand and located. Luckily the exit was right at a perfect spot to sight and I cruised in. Now getting out of the water was tough. It was so shallow we had to walk about 50 yards through the water to get to shore, took me about a minute and my quads were not happy.
T1: 3:19 3/18
T1 was hike from the swim exit so most people's times were in the 3 minute plus time. I didn't mess around, ran to transition, stripped off the wetsuit and got the bike ready to go. no muss no fuss.
Bike: 2:54:34 7/18
As I was heading out of transition, I hit some strange combination of keys on my bike computer and just like that it stopped working. I played around with it for the first mile trying to get it to work, but was unsuccessful so I just had to let it go. I told myself just go by feel and off I went. The only indication of how fast I was going would be at the 5 mile markers where I could do some math and try to figure out my speed over the last 5 miles. The first 5 miles went by and I was at 15 minutes. oops that means 20 mph, a bit too fast, but my legs were feeling good, so I wasn't too concerned. I consciencely slowed and let some people go. Yelled at few people who were insisting on drafting, and some were very obvious about it. Next up was mile 10 and I was under 30 minutes, so my attempt to slow did not work, but I would find out later it was due to the wind being at my back on the out part and of course that meant it would be in my face on the way back, but I wouldn't find that out for another 30 miles or so. I pulled out my power bar and started eating. It wasn't easy and as I was chewing, @andresduquepc12 from twitter went by me. I tried to yell at him, but my mouth was full and I don't think he heard me. He started 9 minutes ahead of me, but swimming is not his strong suit. ok, some more slowing and drinking and eating and the next thing I know I'm at mile 20 in 1:01 and still feeling good. Now the rolling part starts. I still haven't shifted out of the big ring, but I did stand a couple times so I could give my legs a break. It was rolling from 20 - 40 with some rough spots on the roads, but overall a nice ride. I picked up a water bottle at mile 36 and refilled my aero bottle. So far I've had 20 oz of ultima, 24 oz of gatorade and 16 oz of water. Over the next 17 miles I still have another 24 oz of gatorade to go. so all told I had 98 oz of fluid over the 3 hours. Also during 20-40 I had my fig newtons. I had slowed a bit now and I think at mile 40 I was at 2:03, so still a very good time and ahead of my planned pace, but the last 17 miles would be into the wind and slow me down a bit. There was a problem with traffic in this section and I had to slow to avoid cars several times, but the roads where once again really nice. I was now starting to catch some of the people that went flying by me in the beginning. With 5 miles togo I decided to go with the gel instead of the last powerbar as I wasn't really hungry, but I did want some more calories. So a Gu Roctane went in. the last few miles were torture on my butt. I really just wanted it to end but I still hadn't shifted out of the big ring, so I guess the claim that you wouldn't need to shift out was true. I was hoping to get a 2:50, but since the course was really 57 I didn't feel too bad about the 2:54 and I was very happy to get off the bike. As I was pulling into transition I heard the announcer call out that @andresduquepc12 was headed out for his run, so I guess he finished the bike about 2 minutes ahead of me.
T2: 2:54 12/18
This was my lowest ranking and due to the fact that I had to stop to use the port a john. Considering that 2:54 was not bad. At my last half my T2 was over 5 minutes so this was a big improvement. I just noticed that my T2 was 2:54 and my bike was 2:54, of course the bike was 2 hours and 54 minutes but still...
Run: 2:17:19 8/18
started off the run feeling good, the first part we had to run next to the path that the bikes were going out and coming in on so we were on the grass. after about a half mile we hit the real running trail and my ankles were much happier. Got to mile 1 and I looked down thinking I was going to be around 9:30 and my watch said 8:50, ok, slow down and just go easy. Mile two comes up just as we turn onto an offroad section. the path is nice packed dirt and completely shaded. My watch said 17:50, I was a little concerned because I didn't want to be going that fast, but my legs felt good, so I didn't think too much about it. I was cruising along thinking I should start drinking my gatorade when boom! my right hamstring cramps up out of nowhere. Normally when my legs cramp, I can feel it coming on slowly until it happens, not this time. I had to stop and stretch it out. After about a minute I straightnd up and started to walk. I walked through the rest area and got some water and orange slices, and then started to run again. I'm not sure what caused the cramp, but it did not come back again, so I'm going to chalk that one up as a freak occurance. The thing that was really starting to worry me was that my stomach was not being receptive to food or drink. I hit mile three and was still at 29 minutes, considering the long stop and walk I was quite happy. when I got to mile 4 the plan was to run to the mile marker and then walk until I hit the 10 min pace. So I got to mile 4 at 38:30 so I walked 1:30, forced in a couple sips of gatorade and then started to run again. Mile 5 came on in 48 minutes so I was really running well, but the no food thing was really wearing on me, so after a 2 minute walk and some more forced gatorade it was time to run again. There were plenty of rest stops and I was able to get some orange slices down, but after the rest stop at mile 6, no more solid food would go down. I couldn't even think about a gel. At mile 7 I was still doing well, I think I was at 68 minutes when I got to the marker and rest area, so I tried taking a long 3 minute walk in hopes that my stomach might come around after a long break, but nothing doing, all I could manage was some more gatorade. I had managed over the first half to get down 12 oz of gatorade and I just hoped it would get me through. After that long walk I decided to run the next two miles straight through and started repeating my mantra of "Kick ass - don't cry" that I got from my buddy dr. dre ( AndreaDuke15 on twitter ), this worked great but on the trail part, around the spot I got my cramp, I passed a guy who was just hurling like mad, this did not do my stomach well at all but I got to mile 9 at 87 minutes. That's when it all came apart. I walked a minute and took some gatorade, but now my stomach was not liking that either, so no more gatorade for the last 4 miles either. I started back running and after about 3 minutes my legs just said no more, we are done. I had to walk for about 5 minutes before I was able to jog again. Gone now was the run to the mile marker plan and all I could do was jog as long as I could, then walk till I recovered. I was lightheaded and a bit nausous, but I didn't feel dehydrated or over heated which is normally my problem so I just kept moving forward. When I got to mile 11 I had 26 minutes to get back and still break 6 hours. This gave me some hope and was able to put together a long run stretch of about 6 minutes before it was back to jog/walk again. Finally got to the half mile to go and still had 8 minutes to go so I ran through the water stop and dumped a bunch of water on my head and then walked until I thought I could run to the finish and that's what I did. They was a photographer at the finish line and asked if I wanted to take a picture with my medal. I was like not right now, and he looked at me like I was crazy. I just wanted to get some water and head down to the river to soak.
Total Time: 5:57:15 7/18
At the time I was very disappointed because I thought I could have broken 5:50, but in retrospect I'm very pleased. My initial goal was 6 hours and I beat that by 2:45. I've been putting a lot of thought into what I did wrong to not be able to eat or drink like I should on the run and all I can come up with is I drank too much and went too hard on the bike. With the lower temps and humidity I suspect I was not sweating nearly as much as I usually do, in fact I remember seeing other people with salt all over their shorts and looking at mine and not seeing it. I had about 33 oz per hour and I think 20 is about my norm in training so I should have been a bit more careful. I'm just not used to being in that position, especially after this summer from heel. Also I've been average just about 17 mph for my long rides, so the 19+ was probably more that I was ready for. If I could have taken 6 extra minutes over the last 5 miles I probably could have finished my run in 2:05. My legs were functioning well and besides the one cramp issue, I had no muscle issues, just energy and dizzyness. This definetly gives me some things to work on in training over the next two months leading up to the ironman. I hope to have at least 2 more long bricks to test out some theories and get some nutrition practise in.
The Friday before I took the day off from work to finish packing and prep the house and cats for a weekend alone. We picked the girl up from school after lunch and headed up to Williamsburg. It's a 4 hour drive and traffic as not bad. Checked into the Great Wolf Lodge and headed to the race site for package pickup. Picked up the package with no issues and even bought two pairs of sock guy socks for $5. Then we headed to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. I had a chicken Parm and a sangria. Everything seemed to be going great. I felt a slight twinge in my lower back from the drive and probably should have stretched it out a bit before bed. Back at the lodge, the girls went to the arcade and I spent some time getting everything ready for the morning. Mixing drinks, putting stickers on, getting out clothes and so on. Hit the bed at 9PM right on time with a wake up scheduled for 4AM.
Race Morning woke up at 4, ate my normal breakfast of grapenuts with dried cranberries 16 oz of water and added half a banana. Packed up the car and headed out right on time at 5. Once at the race site and in transition I had everything setup and ready with 30 minutes to spare. I put on the wetsuit, chugged 8 oz of hornet juice and ate a gel. Headed down to the swim start and got in a nice easy warmup in the bay. The water temp was announced as 74 degrees. I heard a bunch of people saying 74 was generous and how did they come up with that? As if they had some internal thermometer. The air temp was still in the 50's so of course the water felt warm. But no one was complaining about getting to wear their wetsuit. I saw one girl close to shore squatting in the shallows with a strange smile on her face, obviously taking a pee break. Can you make it a little less obvious? I mean walk out 10 more feet and you don't even have to squat. anyway onto the race...
times below are the official times from the race results, I race in the master's Clydesdale division and there were 18 total in that division.
Swim: 39:11 - 6/18
the swim was actually quite nice. They have a nice wide open area to warmup in and to start so the pack was spread out wide and I had no issues of getting kicked at all. The first turn buoy was a long way out which meant the pack was lined up and once again no issues making the first turn. We swam with the current after the first turn, but the sun had just started coming up and it was bright so finding that second buoy was tough. Once I found it, it was smooth sailing to it but then after the second turn we were heading to shore but now we were swimming directly into the sun. I couldn't find the exit for about half the swim until I stopped in the water and shaded the sun with my hand and located. Luckily the exit was right at a perfect spot to sight and I cruised in. Now getting out of the water was tough. It was so shallow we had to walk about 50 yards through the water to get to shore, took me about a minute and my quads were not happy.
T1: 3:19 3/18
T1 was hike from the swim exit so most people's times were in the 3 minute plus time. I didn't mess around, ran to transition, stripped off the wetsuit and got the bike ready to go. no muss no fuss.
Bike: 2:54:34 7/18
As I was heading out of transition, I hit some strange combination of keys on my bike computer and just like that it stopped working. I played around with it for the first mile trying to get it to work, but was unsuccessful so I just had to let it go. I told myself just go by feel and off I went. The only indication of how fast I was going would be at the 5 mile markers where I could do some math and try to figure out my speed over the last 5 miles. The first 5 miles went by and I was at 15 minutes. oops that means 20 mph, a bit too fast, but my legs were feeling good, so I wasn't too concerned. I consciencely slowed and let some people go. Yelled at few people who were insisting on drafting, and some were very obvious about it. Next up was mile 10 and I was under 30 minutes, so my attempt to slow did not work, but I would find out later it was due to the wind being at my back on the out part and of course that meant it would be in my face on the way back, but I wouldn't find that out for another 30 miles or so. I pulled out my power bar and started eating. It wasn't easy and as I was chewing, @andresduquepc12 from twitter went by me. I tried to yell at him, but my mouth was full and I don't think he heard me. He started 9 minutes ahead of me, but swimming is not his strong suit. ok, some more slowing and drinking and eating and the next thing I know I'm at mile 20 in 1:01 and still feeling good. Now the rolling part starts. I still haven't shifted out of the big ring, but I did stand a couple times so I could give my legs a break. It was rolling from 20 - 40 with some rough spots on the roads, but overall a nice ride. I picked up a water bottle at mile 36 and refilled my aero bottle. So far I've had 20 oz of ultima, 24 oz of gatorade and 16 oz of water. Over the next 17 miles I still have another 24 oz of gatorade to go. so all told I had 98 oz of fluid over the 3 hours. Also during 20-40 I had my fig newtons. I had slowed a bit now and I think at mile 40 I was at 2:03, so still a very good time and ahead of my planned pace, but the last 17 miles would be into the wind and slow me down a bit. There was a problem with traffic in this section and I had to slow to avoid cars several times, but the roads where once again really nice. I was now starting to catch some of the people that went flying by me in the beginning. With 5 miles togo I decided to go with the gel instead of the last powerbar as I wasn't really hungry, but I did want some more calories. So a Gu Roctane went in. the last few miles were torture on my butt. I really just wanted it to end but I still hadn't shifted out of the big ring, so I guess the claim that you wouldn't need to shift out was true. I was hoping to get a 2:50, but since the course was really 57 I didn't feel too bad about the 2:54 and I was very happy to get off the bike. As I was pulling into transition I heard the announcer call out that @andresduquepc12 was headed out for his run, so I guess he finished the bike about 2 minutes ahead of me.
T2: 2:54 12/18
This was my lowest ranking and due to the fact that I had to stop to use the port a john. Considering that 2:54 was not bad. At my last half my T2 was over 5 minutes so this was a big improvement. I just noticed that my T2 was 2:54 and my bike was 2:54, of course the bike was 2 hours and 54 minutes but still...
Run: 2:17:19 8/18
started off the run feeling good, the first part we had to run next to the path that the bikes were going out and coming in on so we were on the grass. after about a half mile we hit the real running trail and my ankles were much happier. Got to mile 1 and I looked down thinking I was going to be around 9:30 and my watch said 8:50, ok, slow down and just go easy. Mile two comes up just as we turn onto an offroad section. the path is nice packed dirt and completely shaded. My watch said 17:50, I was a little concerned because I didn't want to be going that fast, but my legs felt good, so I didn't think too much about it. I was cruising along thinking I should start drinking my gatorade when boom! my right hamstring cramps up out of nowhere. Normally when my legs cramp, I can feel it coming on slowly until it happens, not this time. I had to stop and stretch it out. After about a minute I straightnd up and started to walk. I walked through the rest area and got some water and orange slices, and then started to run again. I'm not sure what caused the cramp, but it did not come back again, so I'm going to chalk that one up as a freak occurance. The thing that was really starting to worry me was that my stomach was not being receptive to food or drink. I hit mile three and was still at 29 minutes, considering the long stop and walk I was quite happy. when I got to mile 4 the plan was to run to the mile marker and then walk until I hit the 10 min pace. So I got to mile 4 at 38:30 so I walked 1:30, forced in a couple sips of gatorade and then started to run again. Mile 5 came on in 48 minutes so I was really running well, but the no food thing was really wearing on me, so after a 2 minute walk and some more forced gatorade it was time to run again. There were plenty of rest stops and I was able to get some orange slices down, but after the rest stop at mile 6, no more solid food would go down. I couldn't even think about a gel. At mile 7 I was still doing well, I think I was at 68 minutes when I got to the marker and rest area, so I tried taking a long 3 minute walk in hopes that my stomach might come around after a long break, but nothing doing, all I could manage was some more gatorade. I had managed over the first half to get down 12 oz of gatorade and I just hoped it would get me through. After that long walk I decided to run the next two miles straight through and started repeating my mantra of "Kick ass - don't cry" that I got from my buddy dr. dre ( AndreaDuke15 on twitter ), this worked great but on the trail part, around the spot I got my cramp, I passed a guy who was just hurling like mad, this did not do my stomach well at all but I got to mile 9 at 87 minutes. That's when it all came apart. I walked a minute and took some gatorade, but now my stomach was not liking that either, so no more gatorade for the last 4 miles either. I started back running and after about 3 minutes my legs just said no more, we are done. I had to walk for about 5 minutes before I was able to jog again. Gone now was the run to the mile marker plan and all I could do was jog as long as I could, then walk till I recovered. I was lightheaded and a bit nausous, but I didn't feel dehydrated or over heated which is normally my problem so I just kept moving forward. When I got to mile 11 I had 26 minutes to get back and still break 6 hours. This gave me some hope and was able to put together a long run stretch of about 6 minutes before it was back to jog/walk again. Finally got to the half mile to go and still had 8 minutes to go so I ran through the water stop and dumped a bunch of water on my head and then walked until I thought I could run to the finish and that's what I did. They was a photographer at the finish line and asked if I wanted to take a picture with my medal. I was like not right now, and he looked at me like I was crazy. I just wanted to get some water and head down to the river to soak.
Total Time: 5:57:15 7/18
At the time I was very disappointed because I thought I could have broken 5:50, but in retrospect I'm very pleased. My initial goal was 6 hours and I beat that by 2:45. I've been putting a lot of thought into what I did wrong to not be able to eat or drink like I should on the run and all I can come up with is I drank too much and went too hard on the bike. With the lower temps and humidity I suspect I was not sweating nearly as much as I usually do, in fact I remember seeing other people with salt all over their shorts and looking at mine and not seeing it. I had about 33 oz per hour and I think 20 is about my norm in training so I should have been a bit more careful. I'm just not used to being in that position, especially after this summer from heel. Also I've been average just about 17 mph for my long rides, so the 19+ was probably more that I was ready for. If I could have taken 6 extra minutes over the last 5 miles I probably could have finished my run in 2:05. My legs were functioning well and besides the one cramp issue, I had no muscle issues, just energy and dizzyness. This definetly gives me some things to work on in training over the next two months leading up to the ironman. I hope to have at least 2 more long bricks to test out some theories and get some nutrition practise in.
Patriots half IM race report - short version
welcome to the short version, the long version containing the many thoughts that have been going through my head will take a bit longer to put out and hopefully won't be as disorganized as I think it will be.
first off let me say I would recommend this race to everyone. It has something for everyone, it was wetsuit legal, a relatively flat bike course with some nice rollers and a totally flat well stocked and fairly well shaded run course.
The times that follow are unofficial and basically what showed up on my watch...
Swim: 39:05 - the swim was actually quite nice. They have a nice wide open area to warmup in and to start so the pack was spread out wide and I had no issues of getting kicked at all.
T1: 3:15 - let's just say it was a long run back to transition, and I had to remove the wetsuit, so 3:15 was actually quite good.
Bike: 2:54:18
The bike was really nice. A mostly flat course billed as you won't have to shift out of your big ring, and I didn't. Felt great on the bike, the last few miles were tough and it measured out as 57+ miles instead of 56, but overall I liked it.
T2: 3:03
This included a quick Port o potty stop so not bad considering my last half IM I had a 5 minute T2.
Run: 2:17:28
The run is where it all fell apart for me and to go into details would take way too long, for the short version I'll just say my nutrition plan needs to be adjusted. Was on pace for a 2:05 half IM at mile 9 and then boom, 2:17. So while I am thrilled I broke 6 hours it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that I could have done much better.
total time: 5:57:10
Just under my 6 hour goal, but I really felt like 5:50 was possible. I really need to get a handle on my nutrition if I am going to be able to finish the Iron-man in November.
I bet you can't wait for the long version...
first off let me say I would recommend this race to everyone. It has something for everyone, it was wetsuit legal, a relatively flat bike course with some nice rollers and a totally flat well stocked and fairly well shaded run course.
The times that follow are unofficial and basically what showed up on my watch...
Swim: 39:05 - the swim was actually quite nice. They have a nice wide open area to warmup in and to start so the pack was spread out wide and I had no issues of getting kicked at all.
T1: 3:15 - let's just say it was a long run back to transition, and I had to remove the wetsuit, so 3:15 was actually quite good.
Bike: 2:54:18
The bike was really nice. A mostly flat course billed as you won't have to shift out of your big ring, and I didn't. Felt great on the bike, the last few miles were tough and it measured out as 57+ miles instead of 56, but overall I liked it.
T2: 3:03
This included a quick Port o potty stop so not bad considering my last half IM I had a 5 minute T2.
Run: 2:17:28
The run is where it all fell apart for me and to go into details would take way too long, for the short version I'll just say my nutrition plan needs to be adjusted. Was on pace for a 2:05 half IM at mile 9 and then boom, 2:17. So while I am thrilled I broke 6 hours it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that I could have done much better.
total time: 5:57:10
Just under my 6 hour goal, but I really felt like 5:50 was possible. I really need to get a handle on my nutrition if I am going to be able to finish the Iron-man in November.
I bet you can't wait for the long version...
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