Boston 2017 recap

Pre-race.

Qualified last year with a 3:11 time, but after that did mostly IM type of training with no real significant running volume. Started to get a bit more focused in the beginning of 2017, but for most part the volume was quite low – about 12 weeks at 43 miles per week average with a lot of bike workouts mixed in as I was also training for the Santa Rosa 70.3. As the result, my bike fitness got way better than what it normally is in Spring, but my run fitness was probably a bit less than optimal. Additionally, I started having some hip and hamstring tightness on the left side, and had a really hard time stretching it out. For the last 2 weeks before Boston I tapered off the run volume and replaced it with the swim volume feeling that it is the right move.

Day 1.

Got to Boston at around 4pm. Got super duper sore just sitting on the airplane. Dropped my stuff off at the hotel, hopped on the T and got to Hynes Center at around 5:30pm. It was crazy packed, the streets, the entrance, the expo – very busy as expected.

I’ve noticed that it was really really warm and humid that day. Not a good sign. Got my registration and my packet and shot right out of the building. Grabbed some groceries and then stopped by PF Chang’s in Cambridge for the fried rice combo.

Back in the hotel by 8pm and asleep by 10pm.

Day 2.

Woke up, ate a small breakfast with a sandwich and coffee. Next was my 2 miler shakeout run. Holy crap, was it hot and humid and windy at the same time! The temps were in the mid 80s and it felt sort of tropical. The first mile into the wind was pretty horribad, and the return was a bit better but not very encouraging. Was astonished to see a number of French speaking runners just powering into this muck the day before the race – and going HARD!
Got back to the hotel, showered, walked around Cambridge - which was almost completely shut down because of Easter Sunday. Took the train to Boylston to meet up with the member of my tri team also in Boston for the race. Ended up at a pretty generic Irish pub, had a sandwich and french fries. Back to the hotel at 4pm, lazed around for a bit. Got my gear set up for tomorrow, had plenty of fluids, and went to bed at 10pm. Did not sleep well at all.

Day 3.

Woke up at 5:30am, ate the usual PB and Banana sandwich with coffee. On the T by 6:30am. Dropped off my gear bag and headed for the bus with a bottle of Gatorade and 3 small Clif bars. Shared a bus seat with a gent from Oregon named Norm. Got to the athlete village 8am. Could have slept for another hour easily…
Hung around the tented area, ate a little, drank a little, chatted with a few runners. In the corral by 10:20am after a surprisingly long walk through the village – I was assigned to the Wave 2/Corral 1. It already felt warm – not as bad as the day before, but the sunshine was direct and definitely felt a few degrees warmer than the real temps. Humidity was also quite high. We kicked off right on time at 10:25am. My plan was to stick with the 7:14 min/mile pace for as long as I could until Newton, give up a couple of minutes there and then make it up from mile 23.
The first 2 miles were mostly downhill with one or 2 minor climbs. The crowd of the runners was very thick and we all moved in unison with very little space between the runners. The crowds were loud and insanely supportive. The entire stretch had almost no empty spaces where no one would be cheering. Held the pace quite well for the first 8 miles and was ahead of the schedule by 30 seconds. Decided to reward myself with a quick pee break. Started running again and was about 15 seconds behind at the next mile marker.
From the nutrition and hydration perspective, the strategy was simple. A cup of Gatorade every drink station unless I am taking a gel that mile, and small sip of water, with the remaining cup and a half of water dumped on the head, back and shoulders. I would eat a Clif gel every 6 miles and in case of cramps, I had salt tabs.
Started to feel a bit bad at mile 10 – the constant rollers were beginning to grind me down. I would lose 5-10 seconds on every uphill (and they were coming in all the time) and would not get all of them back on the downhill. Was trying not to get frustrated and kept my emotions in check. The mind was in a good place, and the tempo felt very very manageable. By mile 15 was about 68 seconds behind, and decided to take another pee break before we would get to the Newton hills.
I actually went through the major inclines without feeling fatigued or even noticing them very much. But the downhills were my undoing and I would give up 30-40 seconds per major hill. By mile 23 I accumulated about 5 minutes of debt and the legs were starting to give up the ghost a bit. I knew that I had enough in me to finish up at the pace about 30 seconds slower than the target, and I sort of let it go and started paying way more attention to the crowds and a few attractive female runners near me than to my watch. Lots of people were walking by then with cramps and heat exhaustion clearly visible. I had to get paramedics to check out a runner who was running figure 8’s in the lane next to me. I basically floated around for 20 minutes or so and once we turned to Boylston Street, I picked up the pace a bit to just finish strong. 3:16:54 was the finish time, enough to qualify me for 2018 if I want to go next year. Garmin file is here.
Walked to the gear tent, got my bag, changed, rode the T back to Cambridge, and hobbled over to the hotel room with a few other fellow crazy people from all over the world. Ate, showered, stretched and hopped back on the T for a dinner with Kevin and Carrie who wanted to celebrate. Lots of good food, probably more wine and desert than necessary – good times.

Day 4
Woke up, stretched a bit more, ate, Ubered to the airport – and off to the Big Apple!

Takeaways:

1. Boston requires a significant investment in training focused on running the rollers and downhills efficiently and fast.
2. The weather can be a huge factor. In Boston it is likely to be all over the place and can change significantly intra day.
3. A late starting marathon can throw your body a curve ball. It sure did throw mine off.
4. In Boston pace and hydration can be the difference between a great run and a walk for the last few miles. Think through your strategy and stick with it. If you are feeling good after the Heartbreak hill, make it a race.

Run To Remember 2017 recap

Started running again in January in order to build for Boston. A little sluggish in the first 2 weeks, but started to get into the rhythm of the training. The typical schedule is something like this:

• Mon - 6-8 miles running
• Tuesday - 6-8 miles running with some speedwork
• Wednesday - 4-5 miles easy running + 20-25 miles hard cycling
• Thursday - 6 miles medium effort running + 20-25 miles medium effort cycling
• Friday - long run
• Saturday - long bike + 4 miles running easy
• Sunday - off

So with that going on for a month, I thought it'd be a good idea to test the waters and see what I can do on a short course. At the end of January I ran a local half marathon in Griffith Park and did ok, basically matching where I was last year in January. I was encouraged by this development (even though I was sore as hell for 3-4 days), and so I signed for the Run to Remember half which is basically a collection of my lunch time running routes in Hollywood.

Did a little bit more work than I should have during my ride on Saturday the day prior, so the legs were not super fresh come Sunday morning when I rolled out of bed at 4:45am. Had my usual Clif Bar with a side of banana and cashews, plus coffee. Got to the Grove at around 5:45am, parked, picked up my bib, went back to the car... listened to the radio, peed in the bottle to avoid the stupid long lines and went downstairs again to take my space by the starting line.

The sub 7 min group was a little sparse so I had plenty of room of stretch and do some basic warming up. The weather was awesome - high 50s, plenty of sunshine, clear and cool. Kicked off at 7:01am, and the first 1/2 mile were a real struggle - I was trying to find some space to run, and it was a bit of an uphill, so the pace was really punishing. By the time we got to Melrose I settled into a good rhythm and was averaging 6:21 min/mile. We ran into the Paramount lot, where the water station was manned by my Tri team members. Grabbed a cup of water from Agnieszka and proceeded towards the Bronson gate. I know I look like I am being chased by cops in the picture below, but that's just how much of a savage I am.

There after a quick lot detour the 10k and the 1/2 marathon crowds split. I was able to see the field in front of me and by my estimation I was about 20th from the front.

I knew that the climb up Western and Hollywood blvd is coming up, so the rest of the run on Melrose was the effort to get as close to the group up front. For some reason I made it up Western with ease but once I was on Hollywood blvd I really started to hurt. The pace was still high, all the way to the turnaround on Vermont, but I was really struggling. Heart rate was in the mid 170s, no bueno. In my mind, I just needed to get past Normandie on the way back and then get my shit together on the downhill all the way back to Melrose.

I got to the turnaround and I was actually 21st there. The runners in front of me looked pretty young, so I thought that I had a decent shot at placing in my age group. The downhill back to Melrose was a nice relief for my quads and I was ready to take on the Melrose hill - TWICE! Climbed it quite gingerly, knowing how unpleasant it really is even on a training run.  Got back to the Bronson gate of Paramount and here we merged with the 10k crowds - or put differently, the walkers of the 10k crowd.

From here to La Brea it was mainly all about dodging the walkers, trying to not get jammed into the curb like it happened last year when a lady in front me decided to suddenly stop and bolt in a coffee shop. The average speed dropped to 6:34 min/mile. Finally got to La Brea and from here we had our own lane again. Suddenly I got dropped by a group of 3 runners. Chased them all the way to the 3rd street where a did our last turnaround, and were within a mile or so from the finish line. I caught all but one of them, but had him and one more running in my sight all the way to the finish line. Finish time was 1:25:54, official time 1:25;52, the Garmin goodness can be seen here in all of its glory.

Got my medals, picked up a few bananas and a Nesquick's protein drink and walked back to the car - slowly! Got home and actually discovered that I finished 23rd overall, and took the 1st in my age group. Yay me!

IM Los Cabos 2016 recap

Thursday

I fly in at around 2pm, get a car, shop for groceries at a local WalMart (lots of bread, strawberry jam and Jiffy Peanut Butter, along with Gatorade, beer and Pepsi) and head to the hotel. I am pretty beat from the travelling, but decide to go for a run at around 5pm. It is intensely hot and humid. I am sweating like crazy after 2 miles and cut my run way short.  The rest of the night is spent eating PB&J sandwiches and drinking beer while watching the Thursday night NFL suckfest.

Friday

I show up for the pre-swim at 7am at Palmilla.  The water is very calm and super warm with very little chop and no visible swells, but a bit of a current on the way back. Swim about 1000 yards and do not feel like swimming more would make any difference. In the afternoon I head into town to pick up my registration packet along with my bike from the TriBike Transport. The registration process is a bit chaotic, and then I find out that half of my numbers have the wrong name printed on them (I am not Nick). Without missing a beat, some industrious human working the “Problems?” window prints my name on a bunch of blank labels and just slaps them on top of my numbers. Along the way it turns out that the Mexican triathlon federation wants a onetime registration fee of $10, and even that is kind of comical – window 1 collects $10 without any receipt and sends you on the way to the next window that refuses to release your bib numbers without a receipt from window 1. Then window 1 and window 2 confer and decide that you are good to go.

Back at the hotel I put my bike together and go for a ride at around 1:30pm. It is on the Highway 1 with the shoulder randomly appearing and disappearing as construction trucks and buses zip by you at the speeds approaching 80 mphs. After 10 minutes I decide that my bike works fine and I do not feel like becoming roadkill, at least not just yet. I turn around dodging the traffic and go back. I have to cross the highway one more time to get back into my hotel which is a whole different level of scary (and stinky).

Then it is time to figure out how am I going to get to the race on Sunday. The host hotel (Hampton Inn) attempts to collect $15 USD for letting me use their race shuttle on Sunday, but then backs off. The concierge lady is nice but she is less than informed.

At around 4pm I go to the pre-race meeting and there is more chaos there. The 2 men wrecking crew running it consists of a super suave US expat along with an older Brit expat, but in a typical local fashion neither one is certain on the subjects of the course's vertical gain, the layout or the rules of what sort of gear will need bagged and dropped off on Saturday. At the same time both are insistent that no bikes will be allowed to be brought in on Sunday. And lastly, they flat out state that there will be no access to the bike gear bags in the morning. I leave slightly frustrated but not too worried.

Saturday

Gear bags and bike drop off at the T1 at 11am – again more chaos. Some teenager manning the entrance decides to body mark and let people into the T1 at the same time, creating a sizeable line. Then everyone is let in in and the event team kids run around and randomly body mark only 1 spot on your body (i.e. the right shoulder in my case). The bag drop takes place in a completely unmarked tent and no one working it knows for sure if the bike gear bag must contain shoes and helmet or neither or both. Everything seems to be improvised on the spot. It is 11:30am and it is already hot hot hot.  I leave the helmet, the shoes and the glasses in the gear bag and head to the T2 back in town (no address, just go by a drawing on the map!). I find it in a completely unmarked tent in downtown San Jose del Cabo situated in the middle of a busy road with just a couple of teenagers again manning the process. I leave my stuff there and hope that it works tomorrow. I am starting to get into the whole go with the flow thing that the locals use as an excuse for everything.

Sunday

I get on the shuttle at 5am (for free, yippee!), and the first thing I see is a bunch of people from my hotel bringing their bikes on the shuttle. I ask no questions at this point. We get dropped off at the top of the hill at Palmilla where I hear and sort of see (it is dark) the kids who are there to collect our special needs bags. They they just kind of stand there and wait for you to give them the bags. Then naturally I see more people zipping down the hill on their bikes in total darkness along with a whole bunch of bike gear bags brought in.  I get into the T1 and soon realize that I can access my bike gear bag and proceed to take the helmet, shoes, number belt and glasses out and set up a proper transition mat by my bike. No one says a word.

The 70.3 race kicks off at 6:15 with the male pros and the female pros leaving at 6:20 and the rest of the field leaving at 6:30am. The announcers are completely focused on the 70.3 field until about 7:15 when they remember to give some terse instructions for the full. The buoys are still being towed, and then we line up in what supposed to be self seeded corrals and head into the ocean at 7:30. It is already hot. It takes me about a minute to get into the water, and the swim is nice. No fighting for space and the water is warmer then the hotel pool. The course is kind of rectangular with 3 left turns to make. My watch goes off at the half point mark and – I see that only 31 minutes elapsed which is good for me in a non-wetsuit swim. We make the second turn and then the current suddenly picks up along with a sizable swell. It is now a fight, and after the 3^rd turning point the chop is bad enough that my goggles start to leak and I can’t really breathe to the left anymore. It takes me almost 50 minutes to complete the 2^nd leg which also turns out to be about 300 yards longer than expected. I get out of the water and can barely see from all the salt water in my eyes. 1:21 is my swim time.

T1 gets done quickly and I head out. Cannot not quite get all the sand off my feet but that is expected in a beach transition where the carpet does not really work very well. We head up the Pamilla hill and I am sweating like a pig. Nutrition wise the plan is to eat half a Clif bar (macadamia white chocolate, yummy!) and 6 Margarita shot bloks per hour long with 2 salt stick tabs giving me me about 325 kcals total with 850 mg of sodium. For the liquids I plan to take water only with an occasional bottle of Gatorade to mix things up.  The plan works very well as I have no issues with staying hydrated or fed.

The ride to Cabo San Lucas is unremarkable but the heat is unrelenting. I maintain about 170w of NP. The first big climb (there are 4 in total) is not bad and the ride down is definitely fun. I grab my first water bottle at a water station at the bottom of the hill and a little kid manning it holds on too it too tight and I almost get dropped. The ride back to San Jose is much harsher facing the wind and the fumes from the cars that are at a total standstill on the other side of the highway.  I make it to the turn around and the guy manning it is so confused and has no idea who needs to go where. The screwy thing with the course that you come to this turnaround, go up the hill and then if you are doing the half or finishing your 2^nd lap of the full you get to ride past the WalMart to the T2. But the airport hill needs to be done, and the amigo completely fails to communicate it. I head up the hill to the toll road and that 2^nd climb does not disappoint. I drop a good number of of people on the climb (still lots of slower 70.3 riders on the road), and then head down to the roundabout for the 2^nd loop and turn towards Cabo San Lucas. Pass the special needs and pick up the rest of my nutrition and a small Coke that really hits the spot at that point.

What the Mexican culture lacks in the areas like being organized or planning ahead, it more than makes up for that by displays of an enthusiastic attitude along with employing hordes of rules enforcement people. The Ironman is no exception to this modus operando. On the bike course there is no drafting at all because the officials on their scooters are out in force  looking sufficiently menacing. On the other hand, things like setting up water stations equidistant from each other are not something that the organizers would put too much effort into. Also, the volunteers working the stations are out in huge numbers and are going bananas for every rider passing through but the timing mats are way too few and missing on one of the 2 major climbs.

The ride back to Cabo San Lucas feels a lot harder now – the heat is just unrelenting, even more cars are at a complete standstill on the other side of the highway stinking up the air and there is a stretch of about 10 miles with no aid stations. I now make sure to stop at every station and either exchange the water bottles or just grab one and dump it all over my body. I do the climb at San Lucas (the 3^rd big one) and head down hurting a bit. The course is now pretty desolate with a rider seen maybe every minute or so.  My second salt stick dispenser jams and I cannot get any salt tabs out of it. I am very glad I grabbed a spare baggie of Salt Stick tabs out of my special needs. The rollers are getting harder and harder even though they did not get any taller or steeper compared to the 1^st lap. My NP slowly drifts towards 165w but my heart rate stays steady.

I catch myself starting to drift off a bit and now only concentrate on eating every 20 minutes and steadily riding the hills without spiking power. We get closer to San Jose and (it is roughly mile 91) I notice that my NP is now 192 and climbing and my TSS is nearing 287 with less than 20 miles to go. How did that happen? Then I notice that my 10 sec average power alternates between a cool zero even going up a hill and 800+. The P1 pedals are drifting and I am pretty sure that it is from the heat from the pavement that got to them.  I can stop and try to recalibrate but with only 1 major climb to go I decide to ride by my heart rate which is still steady. The last or the 4th climb to the airport road is just frustrating but I power through it and drop a couple more people in the process. I still have no idea where I stand scoreboard wise but it feels like I might be in the top 20% of the field right now. The poor soul manning the turnaround suggests that are 3 laps to do but I know better and just bomb down the WalMart street to the T2. Its pavement is so rough that I am afraid to reach down and unbuckle my shoes before the t2 bike catchers do their thing. My ride takes 6:02 to complete.

I grab my run gear bag and head into the changing tent. I sit down to only realize that I am completely baked.  It is a weird feeling – and I have to talk myself into going out of the tent. Running 26 miles just seems wrong at the moment, but I am that stupid sometimes. The first 2 miles along the hotel corridor are in same searing, tiring heat. It is literally punishing to the point that having a bucket full of water dumped over me only keeps me damp for 2-3 minutes. The upside to this is that worrying about having wet feet in this situation proves to be completely unfounded. I stop at every other station and drink a cup of Pepsi. Eventually I get jacked enough to find some running rhythm. It carries me through the first of 3 loops. I even start to notice things around me – like the totally enthusiastic kids manning the stations, and the strange practice of having race officials writing down bib numbers at turnarounds located literally a few yards after intermediate split timing mats. The heat is starting to subside and I run with a lot more ease.

I now notice how utterly boring the run course really is. It weaves around the hotel corridor and the marina and the city gardens replete with the cows, butterflies and barely covered ditches and then suddenly drops you into some backstreet behind the city hall only to make do a U-turn and make you back to the city hall passing the finish line within maybe 100 yards. I complete the second loop and it is now getting dark (the time just got rolled back 1 hour in the morning so what used to be 7pm is now 6pm).  I push through the hotel corridor one more time and it is hard to ignore the fact that for every runner there are now 10-12 people walking or weaving. Not good. The run over the bridge to the marina is in total darkness and I try to not get hit by some kid on the bike or an official riding a scooter.

Yet all good things must come to an end and I finally cross the marina bridge for the last time and come back to the city hall. The Ironman does this funny thing to me where it takes things that I normally love to do (Cycling! Running!) and subtly pushes them to the point where they are just not fun anymore, forcing me into this sort of mental game where I have to maintain focus or else things start to go bad. I cross the finish line at 3:59 looking dazed enough to have some helpful volunteer escort me all the way to the feeding station which serves pizza by slice, cookies and ramen noodles (!!!) along with water and Gatorade. Then it is time for a good massage from 2 very enthusiastic students of the local massage school and to head back to the T2 which is about 3 blocks away from the finish line. The entrance is of course right at the furthest end of the T2, but I am totally stoked to find my bike and bags intact and grab one last Clif bar for the night.

But would this really be a race in Mexico without more fun and games? As soon as I find my bike a gentleman comes up to me and starts asking for my helmet. I explain to him that I am not planning to ride my bike but he insists and it does not look like my Spanish is working. I finally pull the helmet out of my T2 bag, he checks the number on it and leaves me alone. I get dressed and head out, and one of the dozen or so kids manning the exit takes my timing chip.  I ask them where I can find a taxi and one of them tells that they are queuing up a block away on a fairly shabby looking street. This turns out to be totally true and I immediately secure a taxi van. As I am loading my bike and my bags into the van, one of the T2 kids runs up to me yelling “Chip! Chip!”. I tell him that it was just collected it and I don’t have it but he does not believe me and inquires if my heart rate monitor band, my 910xt and finally my cadence meter are all “Chip!”. I kind of get ready to fight him but the taxi driver gets in the middle and probably tells the chip collector to get away from his fare. $25 later I get back to my room… and then I realize that it is all over along with my 2016 season.  I go downstairs, order a cheeseburger and nachos along with 3 Heinekens and get back to my room to sleep a very brief sleep of death.

Ironman Arizona 2015 recap

Arrived in Phoenix Thursday night. Last race of the season, and it's been a fairly long season for me. My goal was to get as close to 10:30 as I can, and then re-evaluate. Also to have fun and enjoy the Arizona fall. Bib # 2487.

The forecast has called a rain to start after 6pm, so I figured that I'd be done well before that... how foolish of me. Did not pack anything warm at all.

Swim - was shooting for a 1:10 time. However I did not realize how packed would the starting queue be - by the time I got in line, best I could do was get to the dude holding the 1:15 sign. LOL. The steps were kinda funky, but I got in and started swimming. Lots of mutual pummeling, etc. After about 3 markers, I finally swam through the masses and had plenty of space. Some more traffic at the turnaround, but not too bad. Slowed down a bit for the last 0.5 miles - realized that my neck is getting horribly chafed as my wetsuit's collar somehow got twisted, probably during the starting fight for space. Got out, I guess that the timer was placed at the top of the steps - my Garmin showed 1:14, official time was 1:15:14.

T1 - got the wetsuit off, ran to the bike bags, found mine quick. Hands were cold - and given my lesson from 2 years ago, I wanted socks. Took a minute to get the strap to click and the socks to line up on my numb feet. Off to the bike course in 5:40.

Bike - oh boy. I knew that it'd take me 3-4 miles to start generating power. Was shooting for 183 NP... man was I in for a disappointment. Going out on the first loop I was at 175, by the time I was back in Tempe I was at 161. Somehow I just could not get warm at all, was peeing on the bike every hour. The winds on the way out of town were pretty mild, but I was just sucking. Nutrition wise I was doing great, taking on 100 kcals every 20, and an extra GU packet on the hour mark. I was barely sweating, and was mostly drinking water with a salt tab once in a while. The rain started after 11, and it was on and off for the rest of the ride. By the time I was finishing the visibility was nearly zero and I was shivering nonstop. Did a flying dismount and almost face planted - the carpet at the finish line was soaked. 5:35:08 - boo.

T2 - it was so warm inside the tent! Decided to stay inside for an extra minute and stretch in hopes of warming up. The rain was coming down extra HARD outside but it was time to poop or get off the pot. I got up. 3:35

Run - After the first mile I was so cold that I almost called it quits. Then paired up with a 50-54 dude who was cranking it out, and he pulled through the next 3 miles. The rain water turned the dirt path along the lake into an obstacle course, which made it fun. After 5 miles I was finally warm, feeling my toes, and decided to shoot for a 3:40-ish run. It was definitely on until the 19 mile mark, when I have realized that I was shivering again. Started walking the water stations until the mile 24. After that, brought it home without any more misadventures. 3:44:16.

Overall - 10:43:53. Went out with the family afterwards, and had a burger and some salad and a couple of beers, got home to watch the 'hawks crapping their collective bed... and fell asleep on the coach... and woke up in the middle of the night HUNGRY. Typing this up before I forget stuff.

Conclusion - a very middling outing. I got work to do, with the bike re-fit and probably some sort of coaching. I should also get better prepped for colder events - which is hard to do in SoCal, but now that I got burned twice (here and in NYC 2014)... 

Hansen Dam Olympic 2015 recap

Location - Hansen Dam Park near Pacoima, the Valley region of Los Angeles. My first tri of the 2015 season.

The weather is always a crapshoot here, and of course we got a mini-heat wave this weekend. The swim is in an urban lake, called Recreational lake, and the day prior to the race the temps were easily in the 90s. Oh well. Brought the sleeveless with me just in case, set up my transition, got body marked, had a banana and a Gatorade. The air was easily in the upper 70s, and when I went for a pre-swim - the water was easily 85.

Swim. The course was 3 laps around the lake, and about 1/3 of the loop you had some blazing sun in your face. I was in the second wave, which got going at around 6:48am. The course was merging with the incoming waves during the start of each loop, and of course I would run into the incoming swimmers EVERY time. The course was pretty loosely measured, and I swam at least 1700 yards. Out in 32:53. Meh, hate swimming in a muck.

T1. Nothing too eventful except that someone managed to rack their bike next to mine facing the same direction so that their bullhorns were tangled with my front brake cable. Took about 30 seconds to unscrew this, without dropping the other bike. 2:14

Bike. The course was 2 loops, claiming to be 22 miles. You climb on some rollers and false flats for about 5 miles, and then bomb down. I ended up with about 19.7 miles total distance on my bike. Anyhow, I was shooting for about 200w per loop. At the end of the first loop hit some nasty crack in the pavement, and heard a pop coming from the wheel. Slowed down a bit, the front wheel seemed to be intact. However, going up the second loop felt really hard for some reason. I was starting to get passed by chicks, people riding road bikes... more road bikes on the way down... wtf... avg power up to 214w. Dismounted in T2 and immediately saw that a spoke was broken. FML. Had to carry the bike in. 54:13.

T2. In and out quick. Was getting pretty hot, so poured about 1/2 bottle of water on the head and chest. 1:12.

Run. About 70% trails, . I knew that I was not going to be able to medal, so decided to just treat it as a tempo run for a marathon. It was a bit hilly, so 7:15 min/mile was about the right pace. The organizers did set up at least 8 or 9 drinking stations, so hydration was not an issue. The last 1/2 mile were a bit of work since we basically went down a dirt ditch and then up the said ditch. Was over before I knew it. 46:46, 2:17:19 total, 4th in my division, 17th overall.

Got a bagel, bananas and water and went home to cry to momma. The wheel turned out to be ok, just had the spoke replaced the next day. Silverman is next, and then IMAZ. 

OC Marathon 2015 recap

It's been 8 days since, so I'd better write up a recap. Memory is not my forte anyhow, so here it is.

I started to taper one week prior to the race week. Ran about 10 miles less than prescribed, and did not do strength work or tempo. Just eas-ish running instead. The right ankle was getting pretty stiff and sore, and I really felt that resting it up would be a good idea. The week of the race I did not run at all Wednesday through Friday and just rested and iced the ankle. Unfortunately by Friday I started develop a little bit of nasal congestion. Really, really hoped that it does not develop any further. Loaded up on Vitamin C and liquids.

The day before traveled to Newport Beach and checked into a hotel. There was some stupidness going on with the shuttle passes, but thanks to my friend Joanne we got the coveted wrist bands even though it cost an extra $10. Had a chicken sandwich with mashed pot at TGI Friday (it sucked and was drenched in Tabasco, ugh!).  Laid out my gear for tomorrow and went to bed at 9:30 and kinda sorta slept til 3am.

Woke up and had PB&J sandwich and a banana with coffee. The weird head cold thing was still there but it was sort of in the background. Wanted to see if I can cram an extra Clif bar and some Shot Bloks but was way too full. Got on the bus at 4:30, got dropped off at the race start. Had a bottle of Gatorade, hit the porta potty a couple of times, forced myself to have a gel at about 5:25am. The race got going at 5:41am. It was almost bright enough. The temps were in the high 50s. Perfect!

The first few miles were rollers through the town, and I kept pace pretty controlled. Then we got to Corona del Mar and the pace quickened a bit. I was at 7:10 and saw a few 7:08s. I knew that this was not going to be prudent, and really tried to keep the pace in check. We hit the first (and really the only) sizable hill on Dover Dr heading towards Castaways park. The pace was around 7:11 and it stayed that way til the half marathon split point.

I had to make an assessment there. My plan was to honestly ask myself if I was feeling strong - this was the logical place to bail if something was not firing right. I had another marathon scheduled 3 weeks out - and it'd been smart to avoid running the full 26.2in OC, to save the energy and fight another day. But I felt like a million bucks at that point. The ankle was a tiny bit achy but otherwise all was good. And so I popped a gel and it was on!

The course was pancake flat til mile 20. We ran past the Segestrom Pavillion, through the mall and through some fairly non-descript 'hoods. Had another gel - but I felt no signs of energy depletion. The pace was around 7:13 at mile 20, but I started to feel the miles a bit. I took one last gel and pitched the remaining 2 to reduce the weight. At around mile 22 after we got off the river bike path there was pretty small but sharp hill and it felt like I was running up the Trash Truck Hill in Griffiths Park. I also found that if I sharply turn my head, I get dizzy. Ugh again. I think that the temps were rising and my body started to lose electrolytes faster than I was able to replenish them.

So the pace was at about 7:15. Started popping salt tabs but still from mile 24.5 I was cramping a bit here and there. But I still was on track, just had to keep thinking good thoughts. At mile 25 or so some dude gave me mini bottle of ice cold water and yelled at me to pick it up as I was almost there. Right he was. Pushed harder but had to mind the crampy state of affairs at that point.

Got to the fairgrounds, it was kinda desolate there, but eventually reached the merger point with the half marathoners. Was very happy to hit the finish line and see the clock at 3:12. The official finish time was 3:12:43. I've done it! The full Strava thing can be found here.

Surf City Half marathon 2015 recap

Ran the Surf City half marathon yesterday. 2 other buddies came along, so we all carpooled. Took about an hour, and parking was relatively painless despite the horrors that I have read about in the reviews. We got there at 6:20 and it took no time to find parking in a structure ($12 though).

The pre-race went as expected. Line up at a portapotty, do the deed, mill around, hit the portapotty again, off to the starting line. This time I took a bit longer than usual and had to push through a densely packed crowd to get to the starting line.

So the plan was to run the first 7 miles or so at a 6:45 pace, and then slow it down for the last 6 miles, to end up with the average of about 7:15. The first 5 miles went great, but by the end of mile 5 I felt like I was developing major blisters on the balls of my feet. Both of them. I was running in my Saucony Guide shoes with about 230 miles on them, and I have been doing all of my speedwork in them... no real issues in training, logged 12 miles in them just last week... perplexing. By mile 6 I had to make a decision to slow down to get to the nearest aid station and get some Vaseline. Found it at the mile 8 or so. From there I ran the rest of the course very leisurely, stopped at a portapotty, since a bunch of time was wasted anyways.

Finished with the feet absolutely searing. Finish time was pretty irrelevant by that point (1:58). Had a couple of beers in the garden, waited for my friends to finish... enjoyed the sun and the chatter around me. Will need a few days to let the feet heal and maybe find another half to do in mid February to test the fitness. This said, week 5 is over just like that!