Getting back to the run...

Okay – it’s been two weeks since the big race. I am just about recovered – I still don’t have a top end but everything else seems to be firing. So, now it is time to stop flapping in the breeze and start to lay down the ground work for next season. First I need to solidify my goals. They seem to be run dominate right now which is a good thing – I would really like for my run to come around like my bike and swim (don’t get me wrong – I need the bike and swim to continue to improve but the run needs a kick start). I got literally chased down on a couple of runs this year in triathlons. I watched Mike and Robin pull away from me in the Heat Wave and if the Sunfish would have been a 2 mile run and not a 5k I would have had Robin.

So the big goals are a sub-19 minute 5K sometime early next year – the races that are easiest to PR are the ones on the Longleaf Trace in February and March (Run for Love and St Patrick’s Irish Italian Festival) – I think I was 19:19 and 19:09 respectively last year). Also the Mardi Gras Marathon is in, obviously, February. I checked the Run less Run Faster book out and damn the runs are challenging from week one.

I don’t remember exactly but the first set of intervals are mile repeats at just over 6:00 minutes per mile, the first tempo is around 2 miles at 12:30 and the first long run is 8:00 minute miles for 13 or 14 miles. Talk about jumping head first into the training plan. Last Friday I ran 4 miles for breakfast and 4 miles for lunch – all at between 7:30 and 8:00 minutes per mile. They were comfortably challenging.

On Saturday I jumped on the early group ride and got 25 miles. I did not want the full 40 miles that they were getting. It was not a no holds barred ride but I was working hard to not get dropped. That would not have happened pre-Ironman – still recovering I guess. On Sunday I suited up for the afternoon group ride but as soon as I got outside the sky opened up and filled my eyes and ears with lightning and thunder – I 86’ed the ride to say the least.

This morning I did get in a 5 miler with about 100 percent humidity. I really tried to keep the exertion level low – my heart rate has been too high for the last few runs – the pace has not been fast but the heart rate has been high. I kept it low and disregarded the pace. I am slowly recovering. It is not like I am down and out I just still don’t have my snap. I’m not sure if it would be better to take a couple of days of complete rest or to continue with the active recovery – I just know that I am ready mentally to jump back into a serious training plan but do not think that my body is ready for sustained hard efforts.

On a side note, at beer club last night, I think I have a taker for the milk challenge (you have an hour to drink a gallon of milk and then you must keep said gallon down for 1 hour) – The poor sap thinks it will be easy – he says he loves milk – wow. That is a set up for disaster. I still think that I can be successful – I have been so close once before – within about 10 minutes of ‘keeping it down’. We will make a go of it again real soon.

DragonFly Race Report

It was a rough start to the DragonFly. There had been some interesting weather up near Memphis. Apparently much of the area was without power. As we got closer to the Greater Sardis area the wind picked up and these clouds were moving east at a rapid pace.

We arrived at the cabin – really more like a house – located at Lake Enid. There were trees downed and debris was all over the place. The cabin was without power. The storm had lowered the air temperature dramatically. As night neared we all sat on the screened in front porch and had a beer or two. Later it was noticed that we did not have power or water. The water for the area is pump driven. Not the best preparation for a race with no water or Gatorade or anything. We would manage.

Thankfully the temperature was nice because it could have been miserable without power. Early the next morning I was waken by thunder and lightning. There was no way that this race was going to take place.

We still prepped our bikes and took of towards the race site. There was less debris as we drove north. We arrived at the race site and it was a go even though there was no power in this area also. They also anounced that the race would be wet suit legal. With the Heat Wave the previous week I was would not be burned again - I had brought my wetsuit.

I lubed my ankles with body glide to help me exit my wet suit. I had another good swim! The wet suit helped. I swam my won race and just – not sure how to describe it – but swan without any of the panic or over heating issues – the wet suit helped. The swim was a horseshoe shape and I took one of the buoys pretty wide. I felt like I was way out in the lake. I finished the ½ mile swim in 13:34 (about 4 minutes faster than the Heat Wave swim last weekend – the Heat Wave swim was a little long and I did not have my wet suit). My swim was 5th in my age group of 31 - I never rank that high!

I had to sit down in the grass to get the wet suit off of my ankles – even with the body glide. T1 took 1:26. Everything still went smooth in the transition. Off on the bike I was pushing pretty hard. I had my heart rate monitor on but the heart rate portion of the watch was taped over (I would peak a few times during the race). I was slowly picking off riders and no one was passing me. I did get passed by two riders at about mile 5 – they looked like they were working as a team. I’m sure that they were in a legal draft some of time but other times it looked pretty bad. Just before the turnaround is where you hit the two hills – the only hills on the course. They were daunting – not long but steep . I dropped into my lowest crank and my lowest gear – I was not going to take any chances. I spun up the hills and I did get passed by one person. It took me two minutes to crest both hills.

After the turn around I was flying on the decents and passed the one person that had passed going up the hills. I was still pushing a hard effort and managed to slowly pass a few more people. I clocked a 49:55 for the bike with an average of 21.9 for the 18.x miles. I am sure that the hills factored into the slower MPH. I pulled into transition and grabbed my running gear. T2 was just under a minute at 59 seconds.

Off to the run. I got passed by someone shortly out of T2. I was already running at a hard effort. This is where I was going to really try and step it up. We ran out of T2 along a paved road – the same road that we biked out of. I was running at a hard effort and I took a peak at my heart rate monitor to prove it – my heart rate was where it needed to be. There was a water stop at the 1 mile mark and even though I did not want to I slowed to a walk and took a drink – it was only a few steps but it cost me time. The run then turned off of the road onto the trail. It was wet and slick. The trail was like single track straight up muddy hills. On several occasions I thought that I would fall. It was a precarious run. I was running hard but careful up the hills and I was not able to fully exploit the downhills for fear of falling – and losing lots of time. Back off of the trail in this out and back run I pushed the intensity on the pavement. I clocked the 4ish mile run in 30:55 with an indicated 7:21 pace. That was faster than the Heat Wave the previous week with a much more challenging run. I would have liked for it to be faster but I was pleased with the effort. In addition I knew that I had pushed harder because I was sore that night and the next day.

On Sunday I did get a long slow easy run – well, everything except the easy part. As soon as I started to run my legs were aching. I just started slow and kept it slow – there was no going fast. My heart rate was in a recovery zone and I just SLOWLY churned out the miles. I ran 7 miles out and had to walk a little bit after mile 10. It was HOT. I did the 14 miles in 2:14 – much slower than normal!

I had a good friend in for Sunday and we wandered around the Pine Belt looking for geo caches – it was a lot of fun and the Beer Club met that evening. It was a full weekend.

Looking for a plan

Without a training plan I always tend to wing it - and wing it with MORE. Yesterday I was going to go for a short run - it turned into 12 miles. I still wanted to go on the Sunday group ride to swap race stories - I did that, but, only for 30 miles and none of my race buddies showed up.

My body feels pretty good. My cardio system is in check. Nothing hurts. I'm just a little tired - hard to get out of bed. My top speed is not where it used to be.

Anyway, back to the run - everything felt pretty good. I hit the trace with just head phones on - no watch, no heart rate monitor, no GPS. I did not even look at the clock when I left the4 house. That is hard for me. The run felt good - I was not pushing the pace and just running next to the trace in the pine straw. It was not fast (faster than that 1/2 ironman run - but not fast).

After about 10 miles I queued up some C & C music factory - yeah, old school dance music. I only have two songs but they are remixes and worth about 2 hours of music. So 'I've got the power' filled my ears and I just took off. I took off fast - too fast - I don't know how fast but my lungs were starting to fill it for the first time in what seems like forever. It felt great. I ran about half a mile at this pace and then just did striders and farklets all the way home. The run finished on a high.

I set the VCR to tape the 70.3 Ironman Championships on TV and met up with the group ride. I was hoping to swap some race stories but none of the New Orleans racers made it to the ride. There was a storm brewing and we only got 30 miles in - it felt like we were racing the rain. I made it home with time to spare - the thunderstorms did not hit until much later.

The second Sunday of the Month is the Beer Club. At Jodie's suggestion we had a mystery beer competition. The beers were concealed and you got points for guessing the type (ale, lager), style (pilsner, IPA, wheat, barley wine, etc) and brewery. I came in 5th place! It was a good time.

A non-traditional Easter but I'll take it.

NOLA 70.3 - T-minus 2 days

I went to the Keg and Barrel last night for the unveiling of a new brew - a Smokey Porter. I know Sam (different Sam - not local fast guy Sam but brew meister Sam). It really was dark and smokey. Very smooth but definitely the kind of beer that I can only drink one of. They also had an all you can get Bar-B-Que spread. Pork and beef and corn and all the fix'ns. Good stuff.

The fecal count of Lake Pontchartrain has gone through the roof in the last few days due to heavy rains. The beach where I will be swimming has gone from 24 to 350 MPN (mean probable numbers of colonies per 100 milliliters - or turds per square inch). They advise that swimmers use caution at anything about 200 MPN - not sure how to use caution while swimming - avoid the dark spots I guess. LINK

On a side note, someone sent me a funny onion article yesterday and then I saw this in the store and thought that life truly does follow art (I guess it is art). LINK


The market? Listen, we make the market. All we have to do is put her out there with a little jingle. It's as easy as, "Hey, shaving with anything less than five blades is like scraping your beard off with a dull hatchet." Or "You'll be so smooth, I could snort lines off of your chin." Try "Your neck is going to be so friggin' soft, someone's gonna walk up and tie a goddamn Cub Scout kerchief under it."


That's right 5 + 1 baby!

Sharks and bears - oh my!

A torrential downpour occurred yesterday as we were walking to the gym at lunch. When I say torrential I mean it! We were all soaked to the core even though we had umbrellas. Since I was already wet I decided to go for a swim. I hung my clothes up the best that I could so that they could dry and jumped in the pool. This taper thing is hard. It is making me tired. I seem like I have lost my energy.

In the pool I just started and did 1 x 1500 yards – no warm up – no cool down. I just did it to get it done. I did not take a stop watch with me but my time was within a minute of my best. It was no big deal.

I did a small amount of leg strength training after the swim. Because of the rain and storms the softball game was cancelled. I had ridden to work with Jodie (she teaches a Wednesday night class) so I had some time to kill.

I hung around after work for a little while and then decided to walk to the Keg and Barrel – normally I would have gone to the gym. I ran into Rob at the bar. He had stopped for a Guinness on his bike ride home. I see Rob at the gym almost every day – his locker is right by mine and he is in the pool a lot.

It was a nice chat – he lives in St Petersburg, FL and we talked a lot about ocean swimming. When you talk about such thing the topic of sharks always comes up. I think the fear is from being consumed – same fear with bears (remember with bears – I don’t have to run faster than the bear – I just have to run faster than you!). Then Jodie came by to pick me up and she had a pint also.

My tolerance has gone to nothing and I feel the beer this morning. Oh well.

There is a fast and furious Duathlon this weekend (2M - 10M - 2M). This will be a good shakedown for NO70.3!

Unscheduled off day and kittens revisited.

The company holiday party threw a wrench in the training plan. Wednesday was supposed to be my off day (the first in about 12 days). The volume has been high and after a so-so run on Saturday and a bike that I probably pushed too hard on Sunday I just went with the flow. Had a good time, played 'Dirty Santa', and ate too much. Fortunately I did not eat 'Way Too Much' like I can do at these events. It is pretty hard for my body to adjust from 6 small meals a day to 2 large gut busting meals. Since last Friday my weight is up just about 10 pounds - that's about 7 percent. I know that it is not real weight but I do feel the bloat.

No holiday party today but snacks abound. We will, however, have another holiday party (departmental) tomorrow.

The good news is that with the holiday break I can get some real volume in training wise (in between the travelling) of course. I should only be gone for 4 or 5 days have have another 14 or so days at home. Too bad the pool is closed.

I almost forgot. When we found the kittens a few weeks ago I had to rush home for a bag. Its seems that every other race gives you a nylon bag to hold the race numbers and swag. I grabbed one of these bags off of the shelf and rode back for Jodie to put the kittens in something. If you look in this picture there is a card in the bag. I am sure I would have never seen this card had we not found the kittens. It is possibly the best swag that I have ever received. The business card is from a great local tavern (and now ultra-micro brew pub)the Keg and Barrel. And on the back of this business card -