Kemah International Distance Triathlon

This past weekend was the Kemah International Distance Triathlon (formerly known as the Gateway to the Bay Triathlon). I went into the race primarily as a practice tune-up for Ironman Texas in 7 weeks, but also hoping to set a new PR while following a heart rate goal. My personal goals for the race were to use my planned Ironman nutrition strategies and to finish between 3:00:00 and 3:10:00.

I spent the night at the local Holiday Inn and was less than 2 blocks from the transition area. After getting ready in the evening I had trouble sleeping for no specific reason. Right before midnight I suddenly think that I did not get my swim goggles out and realize that I do not have them. Apparently I left them at the gym during a final warm up swim that morning. Fortunately, I have a backup pair in my swim bag in my car. These were a pair I tested a few weeks back that work okay, but sometimes didn't quite seal perfectly. In the end they are better than nothing.

I wake up early--as usual on race day with 3 alarms--though the first one is enough. I make it out to the transition area just after it opens and get set up pretty quickly. After it nears transition closing time I walk over to the big paddleboat that they are going to use to take us out to the swim start. This start is one where they take us straight offshore.

Once the race started I had about 30 minutes until my wave went off and then I stayed farther back in my wave to take my time. Overall, I felt I did pretty well. The water was choppy and there was a bit of cross-current, but I kept a pretty straight line all the way to shore. I posted a time of 33:06, which is a few minutes slower than I had hoped, however it was still about 30 seconds faster than last September's Austin Triathlon time which was under much easier swim conditions. However, comparative swim times for most people were several minutes slower for Kemah compared to Austin for most so I must be showing personal improvement to buck that trend and have a faster time.

As I moved on to the bike I noticed that the wind had definitely picked up, I estimate around 15 mph for much of my time on the bike. This led to slow times into the wind and fast times with the wind. Overall I posted a time about 1 minute slower than in Austin, which did disappoint me slightly, but considering the wind that may have been the best I could do that day and stay within my heart rate guidelines. I did have one mishap on the bike, which was fortunately not a problem with me.
As I was mounting my bike and before I clipped into the pedals I got pushed from behind by a guy not watching and had to find the pedals before I fell over as I moved slowly forward. Fortunately, I kept control and was fine, however from this photo you can see the guy standing sideways across the path as he tried to reposition himself and was blocking the way of others.

Coming into the run I knew that my two good transitions were the difference in my time being slightly under Austin's previous time. However, I was still on my plan and I felt as good as I have in any triathlon at this point. As I set out on the run I try to move smoothly and not push too hard. It turns out that I push through Mile 1 in about 9:30, which was a pleasant surprise. Then around the 1.5 mile mark I had a chance conversation with a fellow runner coming up from behind and realize that it is someone I know. Ingrid and I spend a mile or so together chatting before she pulls ahead of me. Anyway, as Mile 2 rolls by I realize that is another 9:30 mile. By this time I am running by the Kemah Boardwalk area with the roller coaster and the Bay around me. Miles 3 and 4 get a bit tougher but go by around 10:00 each. Finally, comes the last part of the run which takes us over the BIG bridge linking Kemah and Seabrook across the Bay. This is one tall bridge to run over--and I do run over it. I am able to pass quite a few runners who are humbled by this bridge, which pleases me to no end. I love this photo where I had just blown by this guy from Bay Area Multisport (aka BAM!) who was suffering as I was smiling for the photo! Finally, after going up the hill, down the hill, looping around and back up and down again.....I am about 2/10 of a mile from the end. I try to pick up my pace a bit and head on through the finish in 1:03:21, which actually represents a 10K PR time for me as well.
In the end I finish in 3:06:14, over a 12 minute PR time for the distance (powered mostly by a 10 minute run improvement!).

March Totals

Here is my very brief recap for a very tiring month of March (as I look forward to an even more tiring month of April!).

Total Swim Distance 32,800 yards (18.64 miles)
Total Bike Distance 359.15 miles (including spin bike sessions)
Total Run Distance 111.11 miles
Total Training Distance 488.90 miles (wow!)

Next month's schedule includes increasingly long training runs and a bike ride of the complete Ironman Texas course, plus a lot of swimming as well. If I am fortunate enough to survive the month of April, it will be just about time to start the pre-race taper period.....

Victory!

Four years ago today (i.e. April 1, 2007--quite appropriately on April Fool's Day) I ran my first half marathon with my brother, since that time I have finished nearly 50 running and triathlon events. It is only recently that I figured out that I have achieved victory over the lofty goals I set for myself, and then I just kept on moving forward even more--all with the support of my family and the many friends I have picked up along the way.

Back in my first blog post for this blog (way back in September 2007) I was at a major transition point in my life and hoped that, among the many other things that I hoped to accomplish, I could "lose the 80 or so extra pounds I have gained over quite a few years".

I have had good and bad training sessions and good and bad events, and have no idea how many miles I have covered--although I could eventually figure this out as I have them logged! Many of these times I was driven mostly by the desire to try to regain my life from the nearly 270 lbs (or maybe more since I rarely stepped near--much less on--a scale) I weighed at one time.

I started out hoping the long held and deeply repressed dream of running a marathon one day could be enough leverage to get me beyond the initial training events of my first few months (a 5K, a 10K and a half marathon in the first 13 weeks). What happened was that a wonderful world of new friends opened up that was always right in front of me, but yet I had always failed to notice. I am not fast, but I am no longer slow; I can equally look forward to a 3 or a 13 mile run with friends; I often enjoy the socializing more than the actual training I do with friends.....but most of all, I really have found that the friends I have met along the way are some of the most wonderful people in the world and that much of what I have been able to do would have been impossible to do without their support.

My dreams have moved on; these days I dream of Ironman and multiple marathon events, and laughingly think of this coming weekend's Olympic Distance triathlon as a training race, but rest assured that I understand that I know I move forward buoyed by the support of my friends and family--even if many of them don't truly understand how much I appreciate their support and how important it has been to me over these years.

For what it's worth, my old adversary the bathroom scale now seems a bit more friendly as I regard him with less importance. I choose instead to gauge myself by fitness than by weight--and I could certainly afford to about 10 lbs more from my midsection. However, after years of trying, and sometimes not believing I would succeed, I have gotten under 185 lbs and am wearing the same size pants I wore as a Marine over 20 years ago.

My friends, there has always been at least one of you there to share my running ups and downs, from helping me up from injury or holding me in my tears as I was unable to run after experiencing the loss of someone close and in the successes of completing tough events and setting new race PRs; and for these things I am most grateful! Thank you one and all!

IMTX Training - Week 12

This past week was Week 12 of Ironman Texas Training. This end of this week was a start to cutting back for recovery/taper before the Kemah International Triathlon the following weekend.

Here is how this past week of training breaks down:

Swim - 5,100 yards, 2:02:32
Bike - 73.55 miles on trainer and roads, 4:36:05
Run - 24.82 miles, 5:11:26
Other - stretching specific or other training workout, 0:15:00

Overall training time 12:05:03

I started this week feeling strong but was also tiring as the week went on. This week would have normally been a recovery week. However with a taper scheduled for the following week, Week 12 stayed a regular training week at the front and started a recovery/taper period with the end of the week.

As last week ended I was feeling some discomfort in my left calf and I made a point to enter my first run of the week on Tuesday very carefully. In the end I felt no continuation of that discomfort and had an easy, but very good, training run. By the time Friday rolled around I could really feel the fatigue setting in. I woke up early Friday morning to swim and could not get myself to get up and out to the gym. I went to the gym later on after work to get in my swim. While I was scanning through my email before going in I dozed off in a light sleep and woke up when my cell phone rang. Finally, when I did get going on that swim, I felt so tired after warming up that I canceled the workout due to the tiredness I was feeling--to which my coach replied that I was ready for my taper week. Apparently the simple act of resting instead of swimming, added to a decent night's sleep, allowed me to put together a solid run the next morning where I stayed in my heart rate zone target and kept up a faster pace than I had in a few weeks for a run of over 6 miles. My bike ride on Sunday was similarly successful as my Saturday run. Just two days into the taper period and I am already starting to feel much better!

Next weekend brings with it the Kemah Olympic Distance Triathlon which follows what should be an unusually easy week at work for me. I am coming off of an extended period of long hours and deadlines, most of which reach their end point this coming week and follow a very difficult, though very successful last week.

While I am looking very much forward to doing the Kemah race next weekend, both as a distraction from Ironman Texas on the horizon and to see how much improvement I show. However, I also know that I do not expect this to be at true race level effort as I am still training with a higher priority in mind, and that higher priority race does not go off until May 21st.

65 days until Ironman Texas.....

IMTX Training - Week 11

This past week was Week 10 of Ironman Texas Training. This week was a continuation of my current build phase, as modified to allow for a taper before the Kemah International Triathlon in 2 weeks.

Here is how this past week of training breaks down:

Swim - 8,500 yards, 3:25:43
Bike - 104.3 miles on trainer and roads, 6:43:34
Run - 29.05 miles, 6:15:52
Other - stretching specific or other training workout, 0:30:00

Overall training time 16:55:10

This week pushes into the second half of my training cycle of my training program. The highlights of this week included an increase in my running mileage (including my longest run so far of this training plan--13.6 miles) and completing a 70 mile bike/3.25 mile run brick workout. The low point of the week is that I shortened my planned 90 mile ride/3 mile run brick workout earlier today due to some calf soreness (shortened to the previously mentioned managed 70 mile bike/3.25 mile run brick workout). I had first felt the calf soreness during the 13.6 mile run on Thursday and then again in Saturday's 6 mile run. Fortunately, it did not seem to be a factor during my brick run following the bike ride today. If I had gotten in the full ride distance, I would have had my first 18 hour week of training, however I still think it was the right decision to shorten the ride as a potential injury concern. During the last week I have often felt generally weary and tired, but I was able to take advantage of some extra sleep on Saturday to feel a bit more rested at the end of the training week.

I also had a big moral victory this weekend. I cleaned out my closet of any old clothes that did not fit. As I got farther back I could see hoe the sizes changed. I could see how much difference there was in the biggest clothes (wow!) and found a few that remained from years gone by (um, like since 1992/1993) that fit now. It looks like a local charity is about to get a large clothing donation soon. I took the time to buy a few items that fit properly, and I am thrilled to be at the same waist size I had when I was back in the Marines (although I still need to get rid of this extra stomach area weight I am currently carrying!).

62 days until Ironman Texas.....

Texas Independence Relay

A couple of weekends back I participated in the Texas Independence Relay (TIR). The TIR is a 203.2 mile relay race from Gonzales, TX to the San Jacinto Monument. The course covers 203.2 miles in remembrance of the Texas fight for independence from Mexico in 1836.

The TIR is a challenging and wonderful event where you spend much time time in close contact with your team as you work to pursue your race goals. Most of my running was done in fairly secluded Texas country, often with only the cows and horses on nearby land as my company. My first leg was on isolated dirt roads where the support vehicles were not allowed to travel. In this area it was just myself and the the countryside, although I happily enjoyed an almost all downhill run with the wind at my back! I think my favorite leg came around 2:25 in the early morning as I ran down an empty stretch of Texas highway mostly alone, able to enjoy the stars and the sounds of the owls in the night. For the most part the only signs of other runners were the faint signs of scattered blinking lights strapped to runners in the distance ahead of me and the occasional support van driving by. The best view during this dark run had to be while crossing the Brazos River and I could see almost nothing but dark countryside and a star-filled sky in almost every direction. In the span of this relay leg I only crossed the paths of 2 or 3 runners in the 45 minutes inspect running, and I enjoyed every minute of this nighttime run! I thoroughly enjoyed TIR. While it is not easy, it is a very rewarding effort. I was surprised by how many runners I knew on the various teams and by how easy it is to make new friends as you interact with all the other teams around you. I often run events for enjoyment rather than speed, and I have to say that this was the most fun I have ever had at a running event.

One commonality shared by most of the teams is a desire to have fun and a strong feeling of camaraderie runs through the teams. In addition, it seems the desire to have fun is also a shared trait as shown in particular (almost to an extreme) by some teams. A friend of mine ran for Team TAGND (The Athletic Girls Next Door) and wore matching Catholic schoolgirl type costumes. Another Team named The Mullets has created their own Facebook page which also lists themselves as professional athletes, and they certainly displayed their unique hairstyle during the event. Other teams had names such as Wolverine Express (a member of this team serenaded a member of my team at a relay exchange point while they were waiting for their team's runners to come in), Most Likely to Secede, and 2 Slow 2 Win 2 Dumb 2 Quit give you an idea into the state of mind of some of the competing teams.

For anyone desiring to put together a relay team for this (or a similar) event, my best advice is to understand the logistics needed to move runners ahead on the course to be in the right place at the right time. However, the trouble is well worth going through for such an incredible experience.

In this photo I am at the base of the San Jacinto Monument with several of my teammates just following our successful completion of the event in 31:24:59.

IMTX Training - Week 10

This past week was Week 10 of Ironman Texas Training. This week was a chance to settle back into my training plan. This week had me getting back into the build phase of my training cycle.

Here is how this past week of training breaks down:

Swim - 9600 yards, 4:10:46
Bike - 127.2 miles on trainer, 8:23:07
Run - 18.0 miles, 3:48:07
Other - stretching specific or other training workout, 0:45:00

Overall training time 17:07:50

This week marks the halfway point of my training cycle as I completed Week 10 of a 20 week training program and the busiest (in terms of workout time) week yet. The highlight of this week was completing a planned 110 mile bike ride, which I extended a bit to 112.2 miles. It was a long and hard ride with a lot of riding into a headwind, but I managed to complete the long training ride in 7:22:12. An additional highlight for the week was getting the lab data back from last week's annual physical, which was filled with good news. It was good to see the rewards for living a healthier lifestyle. The low point of the week is that I managed to gain a few pounds during and following last week's relay, so I will need to concentrate on my diet plan a bit better going forward. On the schedule for next week are several slight increases, except my long bike ride becomes a 90 mile ride/3 mile run brick workout. While I end this training week a bit stiff from the 112 mile ride earlier today, I also end it feeling better from the injury perspective--a bit of soreness here and there during the week, but no injuries!

69 days until Ironman Texas.....