Oktoberfest Triathlon

I selected the Oktoberfest Triathlon a while back to be a fun, late-season race; which is exactly what it turned out to be. This was the first year for this race.

I planned to do this race pretty much all out and see where my training has gotten me this season. Fortunately a sprint triathlon (400 meter swim, 14 mile bike, 3 mile run) affords an athlete the opportunity to go full speed for the whole way.

The swim was a 400 meter point to point swim. I started out on a tight inside line with the marker buoys until I got to the first (and only) turn about 150 meters into the swim. After that I drifted off to the right a bit before correcting my course. My swim time was a bit slower than expected at 9:10 for the 400 meters. However, I was 6th in my age group for the swim, so I can't complain about it (perhaps their measurement of the distance was off). This is the best I've ever placed in a triathlon swim in my age group.

The bike was a 14 mile scheduled ride along local roads. It was actually somewhere between 14.7 and 14.9 miles based on the records of others I know doing the race. This was my first race on the new tri-bike and it did no disappoint me. I completed the bike in 41:09 (avg 21.65 mph over 14.85 miles as I recorded it). There were some issues with rocks and glass and narrow points on the course, however I think this is a good course that will be better next year as the races matures. I can see where I will continue to improve as I become more experienced with my new bike. My short-term assessment of the bike at this point can be summed up in one word---AWESOME!!!

The run was a 3 mile run (which I found to be accurate) through the local residential trails. My goal here was to run as hard as I could maintain and attempt to max out my effort at the end. I ran each mile progressively faster by a small bit, including running the last 2 miles at and under the 8 minute per mile pace. The time for the 3 mile run was 24:10, which completely surprised me--I was hoping to be under an 8:30 pace for this run and ended up much better than that.

The final result of my race was a finishing time of 1:16:39, good enough for 9th of 22 in my age group and 22nd of 269 overall. This became just the 3rd triathlon of the 15 that I have completed in which I finished in the top half of my age group (yes, the last 3 races in a row!). In addition, I have never come close to finishing in the top 10 percent overall.

Finally, as we know, one of the most important aspects of a triathlon is the post-race party. The Oktoberfest Triathlon had a very good post-race party for a first year event. My Fit Foods and the No Label Brewing Company provided food and drink following the race. My teammates and I had as much fun post-race as we did racing. I competed in this race with my OutRival Racing teammates Kelly, Tammie and Egin, all of whom won awards on this date!

My triathlon season ends in almost two weeks with the Oilman Triathlon (formerly know as Iron Star) in Conroe, Texas. I did this race last year and look forward to seeing how much I have improved for this year's race.

Ten for Texas 2011

The Ten for Texas is a local ten mile running race event in my community that is, generally, a fun and well run event. It seemed to me that this year's race management left a fair bit to be desired in several areas (T shirt sizes, aid station management), however it was still a fun and well-supported event.

This event is a very personal one to me, this was one of the earliest race events I did--and the first I did where I knew other runners from my local community. It is also the primary race that I use to judge how I have changed physically and how I have improved as a runner over these several years.

Ten for Texas 2007 - After coming off a winter and spring where I started running on my own, I joined a local fitness group (Woodlands Fit, a local group of USA Fit). It was during this period where I first did the Ten for Texas race and it was the first time a race was also a social event for me. I finished the race in 2:01:11. I was hoping to get under 2 hours but was still happy with my time. Here is a photo of me coming across the bridge after mile 9 of the race.

Ten for Texas 2008 - The local cleanup efforts following Hurricane Ike forced the 2008 race into the same week as Rock n Roll San Antonio, so I had to wait until 2009 to do this race again.

Ten for Texas 2009 - At race day on 2009 I was just coming off of a knee injury. I did put a solid effort forward, although I was not quite up to pushing my hardest for that distance. I finished in 1:57:54, and was a bit disappointed with that time as I had hoped to do a bit better. Here is a photo of me in practically the same spot as the previous time.

Ten for Texas 2010 - I sat out the 2010 race to concentrate on the half iron distance race a few weeks later, although I did go and watch the race and cheer on my friends.

Ten for Texas 2011 - I came into this year's race determined to give my best effort and see just what I could do. As I thought about my race goals in the days leading up to the race, I was thinking that beating 1:45:00 would be a good goal. After talking over with a friend in the coming days, that goals moved under 1:40:00. I later started thinking that I might even be able to get under 1:35:00 with a near-perfect day. Well, the day was not perfect. The recent weather had gone from cool and dry to warm and humid on race day, however I was not going to let that deter me from my goal. I started the race with a plan to try to run 9 minute miles and see if I could hold that pace long enough so that when my pace slowed it might be enough to still be under 1:35:00.
Mile 1 - this was one of the tougher miles due to the large race congestion. I had forgotten how many slower runners put themselves up front in a running event. Mile 1 goes by in 9:08.
Mile 2 - The field is starting to spread out a bit, although the aid station near the end is far too small and unprepared as runners largely went behind the table to grab their own water as there was almost none on the table or being handed out by volunteers. Mile 2 went by in 8:54.
Mile 3 - Now we are finally getting spread out enough that I hardly had to jostle my way by other runners. 9:02.
Mile 4 - We are starting to see solid signs of community support cheering runners on in areas, though my pace slowed a bit after I felt some soreness that subsided when I slowed a bit. 9:10.
Mile 5 - As I get to the halfway point, I know that I have slowed a bit but also know that I am feeling faster and stronger than expected. I am thinking that sub 1:35:00 seems pretty good if I keep holding up. 9:14.
Mile 6 - The course takes a northward turn as we begin the return half of our course. There is good crowd support and I see some friends cheering. I feel strong enough to pick up the pace a bit. 9:01.
Mile 7 - I have a strong mile as we head back up and see a couple more friends. I start thinking I might have a chance to get under 1:30:00 if I can hold the pace. 8:49.
Mile 8 - I can start to feel the fatigue, though I also know I just have a few miles to go and I slow a slight bit to be ready to concentrate on the last 2 miles, including the bridge at mile 9. 9:16.
Mile 9 - I push my pace and feel good, though I am also cautious to not push so hard that I can't maintain the pace. I try to be ready to smile for the photo op after the bridge. I know getting under 1:30:00 is going to take a good last 2 miles and I make the effort to try to do it. 8:49.
Here is my photo on the mile 9 bridge.

Mile 10 - I push myself, and as I get closer to the end I push harder still. Looking at my Garmin Forerunner 305 during the middle of the mile, it looks like I am going to fall a bit short of being sub-1:30:00 but I still go hard and finish with an all out pace over the last minute or two. Mile 10 goes by in 8:21.
Finishing time: 1:29:50 (I had 1:29:53 on my Garmin and was sure the official time could not be far off.) Yes, I had done it! I actually ran the race in under 90 minutes, under a 9 minute per mile average pace! Me....the guy who couldn't break 2 hours a few years back..... :-)


What made these differences? Lots of training and obviously losing some extra weight. My approximate weights at the time of each race:
2007 - 265 lbs
2009 - 220 lbs
2011 - 175 lbs
I didn't notice until I just wrote these that I had similar weight loss over each two year period during the last 4 years. I know it didn't really come off that evenly throughout this for year period.

All in all, I have to say that the Ten for Texas was an enjoyable and successful event for me this year.

Gear Upgrades

I've been working on upgrades of two pieces of training gear this week.

The first is upgrading my understanding of the Garmin Forerunner 305 unit that I have had for several years. In addition to learning to reprogram the run and bike screens to display in a way that I find preferable. In addition, I have added a speed and cadence sensor for my bike to supplement the Garmin's data.

The second upgrade is a bit more significant. I have added a new bike to my equipment list. Here is a photo of the bike leaning up against the back of my car:



I took it for a short jaunt around the block yesterday to check the pedal/shoe cleat connections and then for a 31 mile ride early this morning. It is going to take a bit to get used to a tri-bike as opposed to a road bike, but I can see that I am going to like this new bike. One thing is for certain, it sure can move down the road!

Becoming the Other Guy

The last week has held a few realizations for me, and probably only show my view of myself catching up to the image that others actually see of me.

When I started running in late 2006, and training for triathlons in the middle of 2008, I always envied the other guy. It seemed almost every other guy was in better shape, knew what they were doing and were confident about what they did. Of course just being around them made me even more likely to seem, or at least feel, overweight, slow and inept (or at least unfamiliar with what I was doing). Yet, I still kept with it because I had a dream in my mind that I wasn't letting anyone take from me.

That dream was that one day I would be better, faster, stronger and, most of all, healthier. All of these began to come true at excruciatingly slow paces, but they did happen. The other thing that happened is that I earned the respect of my fellow athletes. Often I thought them being more kind than truly respectful, but even that concern for my feelings (as I perceived it) was welcome.

In the last week several things happened in close order that got my attention. It's not that some of these things had not happened before, but those that did never quite resonated with me at those times. These recent events include another triathlete at last week's race coming up to me after the race and telling me that with under 2 miles to go on the run he saw me about two minutes behind him and because he said I was a better runner than him, he made it his goal to stay ahead of me through the end of the race (which he did, crossing the finish line about 30 seconds before me). [Fortunately, for me he was in an age group that started the race ahead of mine.] I have done this with other athletes before and took this as a huge compliment, especially since he came up to me and told this to me after the race. Another such instance was one of the faster runners I know telling me I needed to come run with their group more often. The slow runner does not get asked by such people to run with them, and I know I am not so slow any more, but I didn't really think anyone ever noticed me. Another thing is that I have had several of the newer athletes in my training group asking me questions about this race or about my opinion of this piece of equipment or some specific technique...... I had always been the guy with the questions and not the answers. I still have a lot of questions, but I have learned that I do know quite a few answers as well.

So, I am not the best athlete, and I am certainly far from the fastest athlete, but I never wanted to be those things. Somewhere in these last few years I did manage to become the athlete I wanted to be: I am in better shape, I can keep up with the groups (well, most of them) and I generally know what I am doing most of the time. I've also learned what it was like to be the guy I once was and to watch out for him (or her) and be able to help them when they need it now and then; and I have realized that maybe, just maybe, some of those "other guys" that helped me out before really did know what it was like to be me and really did respect me for the athlete that I was, regardless of how slow or far back I was.

Houston Triathlon - 2011

This year I did the Houston Olympic Distance Triathlon earlier today. An Olympic Distance Triathlon is a 1500 meter swim (.93 miles), a 40K bike (24.85 miles) and a 10K run (6.2 miles). I went into today's race determined to set a new PR for this distance (3:06:14 last April). I knew going into this race that I should have the ability to make these goals, at least on a good day, but the truth is that I was having a few doubts about my ability to put such a race together--however I wasn't about to let my doubts keep my from trying. Here is my report of the good and the bad from this race.

I went into this race day morning knowing the weather would not be at its best, and that was the way it turned out. A warm and muggy morning later became quite windy during the bike and run parts of the triathlon, and the run was under a hot and sunny late morning sky. All that said, it is one of those days that you can always have in south Texas and was not that far out of normal, even for early Fall. Race check-in went well. I arrived early since this race did not have assigned spots within the transition area, but rather assigned you to a general area for your whole swim wave starting group and you selected your specific spot. I was early enough to select a prime spot that was at the far end of the rack but as near to the bike exit and entry point as possible. After that I set up my area as I desired and left to meet at the OutRival Racing team tent with friends and then walked out to the swim start area.

Swim - Since the sprint races began first I had to wait for all of those swim waves to start and then they began to start with the Olympic swim waves, and mine was in the middle of those. Therefore, although the races began at 7:00 am, I waited almost an hour before my race started. There was a break between the sprint and Olympic swim waves starts, and I used that time to get in a short warmup swim. Unfortunately, I stepped on something under the water and felt sometthing hard under my foot and almost instantly remembered the Clear Lake Olympic Triathlon 2 years ago where I ended up with 2 slices into the sole of my foot before the race began. Fortunately, this did not feel that bad and I even forgot to check my foot after exiting the water. I did discover after the race that i had a large scratch mark and sever spots were slitly cut, but this never bothered me during the race and i never thought about afterwards during the race.The swim was a two loop swim where we exited the water and ran a few yards back near the swim start and swam a second loop. I had never done a race with this style of swim before and looked forward to trying it. Eventually my race started and I went off with my group. It was a fairly tight group for the first 100 meters or so before we started to spread out. I had a lot of jostling off and on for a good amount of the time but thought I was swimming pretty well and stayed generally on a pretty decent line with the course. I exited the first loop just under 18 minutes, when I was expecting in the 15-16 minute range. I told myself I would apply a bit more effort this loop and dove back in the water. I did concentrate on a stronger stroke this time around, although there was also a lot more traffic with other swimmers. I was seeing a lot of colored caps not matching my wave as all sorts of swim waves were now mixed together. In a way it was a mess or swimmers, but it was also a glorious mess in its own way. I exited the water and hit the timing mat at 36:24.2--several minutes more than the time I had hoped to have in the low 30 minute range or faster-- and began the long (quarter mile plus) run back to the transition area.

T1 - It was a good long run to the transition area and I used the time to wonder how I had such a slower than expected swim and griping how my sub-3:00 goal was likely gone but determined to stay on the goal of a new PR. I was surprised to see o many bikes still in the transition are near my bike and only then started to realize that even though my swim time was slower than I expected, i was still out ahead of most of the swim wave. I concentrated on being quick and deliberate in transition and moved fairly quickly about my business leaving in a slightly faster than expected 5:02.6, even if I was slowed by a minor issue with my bike shoes..

Bike - The bike was basically a big square roughly around the blocks that housed the community college hosting the event, with a separate long out and back along one side. The wind was fairly strong and my speed range from the mid to upper teens to the low to mid 20's depending on the wind and the direction I was heading. However, I also noticed as I went on I was getting stronger. I finished my front mounted bottle early in my second loop and was glad I had packed an extra bottle in the main bottle holder on the bike frame as I seemed to be thirstier and needing extra nutrition today, and I wonder if that might have been related to my pushing harder than normal or if it was due to the tougher than expected weather conditions. In any case I was prepared for it and as I pushed my pace a bit a also took in some extra food calories as I biked the last few miles with the wind. Finally, I came around the last turn and headed back to transition feeling strong and trying not to go too hard at the end. I finished the bike in 1:14:41.9, which was 19.3 mph over the distance. I was surprised by this strong ride and looked forward to keeping going.

T2 - I was back in and out of transition in 1:13.3, which really surprised me as fast given how far I had to run with the bike. As I left transition I noticed that if I could just improve slightly on my April 10K 1:03:21 run time (I later worked it out to a 43 second improvement needed) I still had a chance to get under 3 hours.

Run - I could feel the sun and could feel it getting hot as I ran, but I also committed to myself that I was going for broke to hit that goal today. I hit the ground running hard and ran that first mile around 8:35. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up that pace, but also knew that I didn't have to. I turned in a second mile around 9:15 and decided to try to hold that pace. I also started, at the Mile 2 aid station, walking a bit at the aid station. I walked 20-30 seconds at Mile 2 and then decided to walk a minute at each of the remaining aid stations. Mile 3 came and went, my body wanted a break and I told it to keep going. Miles 3 and 4 were tough as we left a residential area and ran towards the college football stadium. As we got to the stadium, we ran along one side of the field, then we ran up the ramps to the top of the stadium, then we crossed over to the other side through an internal passageway, then we ran back down the stadium ramps, and finally we ran along the other side of the field and back out the stadium. It might not have been easy to run through the stadium, but it was a bit of fun and was certainly different. Running away from the stadium brought us to Mile 5 and during that last walk break I gathered my mental strength to push myself forward to finish strong. I knew the last few miles had slowed me a bit with the walk breaks included but I also knew I was still looking as getting under 3 hours. Then I made that final push and it hurt, and I ran, and I wanted to slow down, and I ran, and I wanted a short break, and I ran, and I ran, and I ran. Finally I turned the corner and saw the finish line ahead of me. I really thought I was going as fast as I could move, though somehow as soon as I hit the start of the finish chute I found a new gear and sprinted out the end. I ran that last mile in just under 9 minutes. and finished the run in 1:00:50.2. I originally thought I had gotten the run under an hour but had unknowingly hit the lap button on my watch during the run and had "lost almost 2 minutes".

In any case, I knew my total time, and my watch quite clearly showed 2:58:12, and I later found out that the official finish time was 2:58:12.3. Yes, I had made my goal of getting under 3 hours!!

I am really proud of what I accomplished today, not because I broke a 3 hour time goal. Goals like that can sometimes depend on events beyond my control. I have more pride in things that may not be so evident as a finish time number. I put out a hard, sustained effort and kept with it and saw the results of it work out. I finished in the top half of my age group for only the second time, and more than that, I finished with each event finishing in the top half of the field (something I had not yet done)--out of the 48 in my age group, my swim ranked 18, Transition 1 ranked 20th, bike ranked 24th, transition 2 ranked 10th, and my run ranked 17th, for 20th in my age group. I also saw that my efforts and my struggles, while personal, can affect others in a positive way, and that sometimes they might even help be an example for those who I would never guess would ever take anything from it, sometimes even other athletes I know who are far more talented than I ever will be and sometimes for those who wish they were able to do some of the things that I have been blessed enough to be able to do.

Mid-September Update

I've been gone a few weeks from posting.....busy with work and life and stuff like that....

For the most part my September training schedule has been plugging along nicely, actually it has been going along better than just "nicely". It has been going very well with my longest weeks and workouts since my Ironman race in May. Each of the last 6 weeks are in the top 6 weeks of workout time since May (10:25:11, 11:10:30, 11:28:08, 8:44:07, 11:38:23, 11:29:23). I knew I was in a peaking phase of training, but I had not realized to what extent I was peaking--in this case even my last recovery week made the list. I finally got around to purchasing a bike trainer and brought it and my bike along and set up my bike on the trainer in the hotel room. Perhaps most surprising to me is that I maintained this while traveling for work last week. This streak is about to come to an end as I have a pre-race recovery week coming up for this next week.

Next Sunday I have the Houston Olympic Distance Triathlon. The Olympic Distance is a 1500 meter (0.93 miles) swim, 40K (24.85 miles) bike and 10K (6.2 miles) run. My main goal for this race is to go at my maximum effort and see how I perform. My PR at this distance came last May with a time of 3:06:14. I would certainly like to beat this time, and hopefully come in under 3 hours as well; however the course design has some quirks that may hinder those goals (like a half-mile+ run from the swim to the transition area). In any case, I am going to lay it all on the line effort-wise and see what happens.

For now, let me leave you with the video from last month's Bridgeland Triathlon where I am shown at 8:38 starting to stand up in a tub of ice water--which felt really good on that very warm morning.

August Numbers

Well, it seems that I have not posted a "totals" type of blog entry since the Ironman race. Now that things have gotten close to some vague semblance of....ahem....normal, I guess it is time to resume some logging of the totals, even if only for my own use.

Swim 29,265 yards (16.63 miles)
Bike 250.68 miles
Run 73.57 miles
Total 340.88 miles

Total Time of Workouts: 42:07

Weight Loss for the Month: 7.6 lbs (186.8 to 179.2 pounds) Truthfully, several of those pounds were an uptick at the end of July that dropped off real fast in early August.

I have been using the Training Peaks website for over a year to record my training and finally spent just a short bit of time this past month looking at some of the features that I have not been using. One of those tracks my estimated caloric expenditure. apparently my peak day was 4,952 calories (for reference it says that I expended 16587 calories during the Ironman Texas race, whew!). There seem to be a lot of good features that I might do well to learn.

The highlight of my month was a big improvement over last year at the Bridgeland Sprint Triathlon as I cut my time to 1:27:00 from 1:34:14, and they even added a little bit to the run course (0.15 miles was added).

Next up for me, race-wise, is the Houston Triathlon (Olympic distance) on September 25th. I am looking at making it under 3 hours as my race goal for this event.