Tri-Shark Classic Triathlon 1:16:51.1

Note:  Since this is my second year doing Tri-Shark, I've put last years results in parenthesis for comparison.

Age Group Place: 11/36  (26/45)
Overall: 124/ (275/478)


Swim
The water was a warm 73.  The start was very crowded, and there was quite a bit of contact.  I was a bit slower than last year...I'm guessing because of the crowd, but also my Garmin showed that I swam over 700y, so the course may have been long or I could have just not been very straight on the course.

Distance: 600y
Time: 11:51.5 (11:30.2)
100y: 1:59 (1:55)


T1

Short course transitions are a weakness of mine.  I had to wear socks because of some blisters, that doesn't help.  I also don't do that flying mount thing.  I have lots of room for improvement here, and my time vs. my AG time shows it.  I can probably pick up one or two spots in my AG place by being faster in T1. 


Time: 2:46.1 (3:02.7)

Bike
Again, traffic.  I had a hard time getting up to speed and getting around people.  Perhaps I should have ridden more aggressive, but after my recent crash I'm a bit gun shy.  Overall, I had a good bike split, riding just a bit under my current FTP of 230W. 


Time: 35:02.8 (37:32.0)
Distance: 13 Miles
MPH: 22.3 (20.8)
Normalized Power: 223W

T2





My T2 went better than T1, but I have lots to improve on here as well.

Time: 1:18.8 (2:53.3)

Run

This was my biggest improvement from last year.  I ran about 3 minutes over my 5k PR, about 20 seconds / mi under my threshold pace.  I'm not trained for running over threshold right now as my focus has been running long and slow.  I'm pretty much OK with how my run went. 




Time: 25:51.9 (30.16.3)
Pace: 8:20

My AG is tough, no doubt, but I also have alot to improve on as an athlete.  In order to perform better in future sprints I'm going to have to get much better in transition, be a bit more aggressive, and do some VO2 work on my run.  

That being said, I was about 9 minutes faster this year over last.  That's pretty awesome for a short course race!  I've improved alot, and I can improve alot more next year...

Wiping Out - Bike Crash Report 5/18/2010

This post has been a long time coming...and so I apologize for it's "lateness."

Here is what happened:

I was taking part in my first 40K Time Trial on 5/18.  I was pushing fairly hard, while still trying to pace myself a bit.   Later powertap data would show I was at about 90% of my Critical Power/FTP.

This is the route I rode, along with my speed and power data if you are interested.

Entering the corner from 2250 to 750 the second time I swung out very wide and started my turn in.  I didn't stop peddling and didn't bleed off enough speed.  I was going approximately 22 Mph before the crash.  My wide line was made wider while adjusting for a  SSW wind at about 10 miles an hour.  Lastly my inside foot was down, keeping me from leaning correctly, when I did finally stop peddling. 

Anyway, the last thing I remember is my front wheel grabbing the gravel on the far side of 750 and thinking "well, this is going to suck."  I lost control and went forward over the handlebars.  The bike went with me, I pulled it over by my cleats.  The next thing I knew, I was laying down in a ditch full of water with a bike on top of me.  I had to pull my shoes off to get free of the bike.  At first I thought my legs were broken, but it turned out my calves were both just very very cramped from either the impact or pulling the bike over with me.  

I landed on my head and shoulder and immediately felt a good amount of pain in both.  My handlebars were bent completely forward at the stem, but that was an easy repair.  The rest of the bike appeared ridable.

A motorist stopped at the corner.  I was guessing he was going to check if I was ok.  I guessed wrong.  He pointed at me, laughed, and drove off.  What a douche...and in retrospect, kinda like Nelson from the Simpsons.  

I decided to make the repair to the bars and ride back the remaining 5 miles at an easy pace.

When I got back to the car Lana snapped these pictures on my iPhone:

So, I was a bit beat up.  My bike had a few scratches and dings, but nothing too serious.  I also decided to replace my helmet.  It look a huge amount of the impact and might have saved me from a much more serious injury.  Big thanks to Giro for their crash replacement program too, by the way.  A discount on a new lid after all this was very welcome.  The next day I was still running, but on Thursday I was seriously sore.  I was off swimming for about a week because of my shoulder pain but that was the only real impact to my training.  All in all however, I was very lucky.  It could have been pretty bad.

I still haven't gotten my nerve back in the corners, but I imagine it will come back in time.  Until then, I'm pretty much back to full speed on my training and feeling fine.

Swim, Bike, Run, Eat: Ultimate Banana French Toast

Ultimate Banana French Toast

I really love this recipe and make it just about every morning I don't have a workout planned.

1.  Soak 2 pieces of 7 grain sprouted bread in 3/4 of a cup of egg substitute (or eggs if you want...whatever is convenient).

2.  Cut a very ripe banana into 1/4 inch slices.

3.  Cook french toast in a nonstick pan lubed with a bit of non stick cooking spray. 

4.  Put half the banana slices between the two slices of bread and continue cooking the entire stack until the banana gets warm and melty.  Add some cinnamon to both slices of bread. 

5.  Put the remaining banana directly in the pan.  Keep it moving, caramelizing it, but don't let it burn.

6.  Pile the caramelized banana on top of the stack.  Use 1/2 tbsp of turbinado sugar to cover the French toast and another 1/2 tbsp between the slices. 

Calories:  420
Carbs: 77
Protein: 27.4
Fat:  1.7

Swim, Bike, Run, Eat: Chocolate Banana Brick Smoothie

This is one of my favorite smoothie recipes...


1 large banana
.25 cups uncooked old fashioned oats
1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (I like gold standard extreme milk chocolate)
1 cup skim milk
1 cup of ice
2 cups of spinach (you won't taste it.

Mix in smoothie like fashion and enjoy.  Depending on the workout, you may want to double up the oats (but probably not the honey...too sweet!) or add some peanut butter. 

Macros-
Calories:  470
Fat 3.15g
Carbs 78.76
Protein: 37.78
Fiber 6.9g
Sodium 228.4mg

Micros-

When you run a lot you have a lot of time to think about stuff to put in your recovery smoothies.   Here's what I think about this one. 

This is all about recovery!  In my very uneducated opinion, in addition to carbs and protein you should also try to recover with foods that will assist in balancing the various things that can get out of wack through big amounts of exercise.  That really comes down to sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium as I understand it.

You can hide a bit more NaCl in this if you want it, but there is a fair bit in it already.  The banana is going to help you on board potassium.  Together your body can use these to keep the sodium/potassium pumps in your cells pumping...

Calcium and magnesium are pretty important too.  Beyond just building strong bones, calcium helps your muscles fire and magnesium helps them relax.  Short on either one?  Cramps.  Milk is about the best source of calcium you can find.  Spinach and Oats are both a great source of magnesium. 

Spinach also gets you a ton of various vitamins and minerals, some iron, phytonutrients for those free radicals you just made, and all kinds of other good stuff! 

Failure...

Tonight was heart breaking. 

My training volume has been huge lately (for me anyway), my sleep has been low, and I haven't had time to eat enough.  Well, tonight that all caught up with me.

I set out on my long run, and was feeling flat right away.  About 4 miles in I was struggling to maintain my VDOT LSD pace and I was sweating buckets.  I considered bagging it at 6 miles but I drank 16 oz of water and felt better.  I did my 2 miles of VDOT race pace (which was stupid), but again I wasn't able to hold that pace as well. 

I did pretty well until about mile 6.55, my half way point where I stopped to drink and eat a gu.  My drink break was long, and I had a hard time getting going again.

At about 8 miles, I was suffering.  I stopped to refill my fuel belt for the second time. 

By mile 10, I had to stop and take my socks off.  My feet were so soaked with sweat that I couldn't stand them anymore.  Wicking tech socks == fail.  I had to sit down for a while and recover.  There was just literally nothing left.  I've experienced "I don't want to run anymore" plenty of times, but this wasn't that.  This was, "I physically cannot run...not a 10 minute mile, not a 12 minute mile..."  I took on even more water...I was at something like 64 oz in at this point.

I walked for about 5 minutes and then started back into a jog, only to have to stop again at around mile 12.  I was sick, dizzy, foggy...  I've been to that place before and it's never good.  I ran the last half mile home.

It sucks to fail.  It happens though...and it's a good reminder for me.  That's what it feels like to walk a half marathon.  It doesn't feel good.  I need to do what it takes to make sure that doesn't happen on race day. 

At this point that looks like:
Make sleep and recovery a priority
Don't push more training in than your body can absorb
Keep your calories up

If I can't then I have no business doing breakthrough workouts and I need to adapt appropriately.  I have big goals that require big doses of training, but big doses of training require big doses of recovery protocol. Being a triathlete is about a lifestyle...you can't just do the workouts.  You have to live around the workouts.  Even when you aren't training, you're recovering, fueling, and planning.  I need to do a little bit better on that, or I'm going to have more walking in my future.  Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to a bowl of pasta and a soft bed.

In The News

Well, this is pretty exciting!  My story was published in the local newspaper.  I really appricate the folks at the pantagraph, they did a really great job capturing my story and taking some really great pictures!

Here it is:  Pantagraph Article

AIDS Walk/Run for Life -22:49

I decided to run the Aids for Life 5k the night before as an opportunity to test and reassess where I am with my running.  It was a small, low key race on a perfect morning, near home.

There isn't much to say about 5ks for strategy.  I just run as fast as I can, and try to hold on when it starts to hurt.  For the most part I'd rather run 10 miles than a 3k.  I don't enjoy running at that level of intensity. 

Things went well though.  I got 2nd in 30-30M, 5th overall, (there were only 32 runners) a new PR, and my first trophy!  I improved on my previous PR by about a minute.  I'm of course really happy about my performance, but I'm not really a 5k racer.  I do use these numbers to set my VDOT scores for my pace training, so the data is important to my overall goals. 

After a brief cool down and some food I got a 2 hour zone 3 bike in.  It was a great training day all in all.