San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon 2012 recap

This was my first marathon, and I had only 3 weeks to train specifically for it. I had built a pretty good base though, and the run is my strongest discipline. However, on my first attempt at a long run I hurt my right foot, and had to train on the track for the rest of the 2 weeks to let it heal.

However, the foot healed up and I was showing a pretty steady improvement on the track. I felt that I can probably maintain 8:30 min/mile without any issues. Then my team mate/co-worker Dave challenged me to beat his old 3:39 time from 12 years ago. I looked it up and felt that I could do that. My strategy was simple - find a 3:40 pacer, run the pace until mile 23, then hammer out 7:30 min miles til the end of the race.

Carb loaded the previous night - pasta torpedo and 2 beers! Got up at 4am, showered, ate a PB&J sandwich and a banana. Stretched and was out of the door to catch a ride to the shuttle area. Walked a little more before the gun went off, stretched, took some photos and joined my corral.

The race started and I ran somewhat slower for the first 2 miles to get the legs going. Then I sped up and started looking for the 3:40 pacer. Caught him at mile 4 and ran behind him. Then we started climbing the freeway, and at mile 8 or so I really needed to go potty. I was running in a super compact group, and for some reason I got squeamish about peeing on the run. Saw an open portapotty and jumped in. When I got out, I had to again speed up to catch my pacer. Caught him at mile 11. From there, the group started to fall apart, and by mile 18 it was just 5 of us running with him. My body felt great, with just some minor twinges in the right hammy. However, I kept taking a GU every 5 miles, and 2 Endurolytes every 5 miles starting from mile 12.5. I also drank at every station - both water and gatorade, so I was plenty hydrated.

Now at mile 19 I started doing calculations in my head, and it really started to look like we would be coming in at more like 3:45. I asked the pacer, and he confirmed that we would be looking at 3:46 or so. I was really pissed. I had to 7 miles to go, and now had to hammer out 7:25 miles to hit my goal. Nothing to do, but get at it at that point.

By now, we were running the bike/rollerskate path, and I actually ran 7:19 miles until we hit Fiesta island. For some reason, from there I could only squeeze out 8:00 min/mile run, and by the end of the island I was closer to 8:10. I was thoroughly disgusted with myself. Coming off the island, I sped up again and saw my cousin yelling at me to sprint to the finish. However, by then it was too late and I was just trying not to let it creep into the 3:43 territory.

I should have ran my own pace! 3:40 pace was too easy, and I should have aborted the plan, and run 8:15 miles from mile 10. It was totally doable, and with any kind of marathon experience I would have adjusted accordingly. Oh well - next time! Walked around, ate free grub, drank water and G2, enjoyed the eye candy around me. Met my cousin, changed out of my sweaty/stinky clothes and went back to the hotel. Hit an In'N'Out on the way back - it was nice!

Lack of experience showed. I think that I can break 3:30 next time, and perhaps even push further.

Wildflower 70.3 2012 recap

Got up, ate a PB&J sandwich and a Clif bar with a double espresso. Rolled on a foam roller and was out of the door. Was one of the first few to get into the transition area. Setup, stretched and ran a little bit around the area. It got really crowded quickly, and so I sat down and enjoyed the glorious morning.

I actually improved from my last 1/2 IM swim last year. I wanted to swim my pace but try to draft more consistently. I could not find anyone to draft off for the first 2/3s of the swim - I passed the slow swimmers, and then caught some from the previous wave only to get passed by fast swimmers from the following wave. They were too fast for me to draft off. Finally, with about 700 yards to go, I caught someone from my wave who started good, but slowed down to my speed. The rest of the swim was a breeze. I was disappointed when I saw me going over the 41 min mark, as I was hoping for a 39 min swim time. I guess that I gave up too much time early on trying to stick to the back of the wave. Still a good 1 min improvement from last year.

I spent a little bit more time in t1 for 2 reasons - I had to pee bad coming out of the water (peed while changing but still took time:)), and I wanted to re-apply sunscreen as the sun was already getting hot. The exit of T1 got crowded when I got there and I had to let a couple of folks out. I should make sure to pee in the water before exiting, doh!

Gotta say that coming out of the water the first hill really f..cks with your heart rate. I believe that it set me back in terms of pace for the next 10 miles or so. I recovered after we got out to the Interlake road. The wind really picked up there and it alternated between headwind and crosswind with appreciable gusts. Then 2 mishaps occurred.

I wanted to refill my Gatorade section of the aero bottle and overfilled it. The smaller bottle popped out on the next downhill and flew out. I had to turn and pick it up/set it back up. That took a good chunk of time. After that the course got boring as we rode the back roads. The rest of the course was uneventful, the hills were fairly mild, except for a scene of a nasty crash near mile 50 or so. Some poor dude went down hard and the ambulances were streaming in. The last downhill was super steep and I really rode the breaks down to the lake. Lesson learned about the way aero bottles work. I also am now thinking that the cadence was a little bit low - perhaps I could benefit from a compact crankset as opposed to 53/39 upfront? Bike time 3:25.

In T2,  re-applied sunscreen a bit, and was trying to find a clif bar, but one of the folks who racked next to me pushed under a towel. I had to grab gu drops to go, which I did not plan on. Is there a brand of sunscreen that's not nasty smelling, can be sprayed on, won't eat through the swimsuit and will stay effective for 5hrs+? Google search does not reveal much. Open to suggestions here.

Coming off the bike, I felt great and immediately started hammering 8:10 miles. All was well until I hit the nasty grade and suddenly 2 things happened. My heart rate shot up to 210, and my right calf started to literally pulsate. I was half way up, and had to stop, pee, and walk the next mile and a half. The HR went back to 160, and the calf felt ok. By that time I was thoroughly cooked, as it always happened when allow yourself to walk. Best I could was 9:30 miles, and the last hill after the loop I had to walk a bit too. I ran down to the lake, but the calf started to protest again, and I had to throttle it back.

I underestimated the impact of Nasty grade. I did a few bricks, but I did not do any combo bike climb/hill runs. That was a costly mistake - I was really trying to keep it under 6 hrs (yes, mentally I was subtracting the flat/bottle incident from my bike time:)). Oh well, lesson learned - I will be back next year, and will know how to train. Run time 2:10. Ouch.

After the finish, sat down, drank Gatorade and water and ate munchies/fruit. Thought about race, felt that for training you need to do combo climbing bricks to be successful on this course. It helps to know the course too - I read/discussed it, but you must ran it to appreciate the challenging landscape.

Overall - a great race. Everyone was super nice, and volunteers were exceptional. The only thing I wished for was for the setup when leaving the race site to be different. I get the fact that we were encouraged to to stay at the festival area and the organizers not want to let the tired peepz walk the beach hill back while the runners are still coming in. However, making us wait 45 mins for the bus to come and take us a mile up the hill is just dumb. I could have walked/rode the hill in 1/3 of the time. Please consider opening the back trails to those of us who do not want to drink $10 wine glasses after the race.

Desert International Olympic Triathlon 2012 recap

Got up, ate my PB&J sandwich, had some coffee and a banana and headed out. Got to the event parking, grabbed my gear and setup in the transition area. Stretched, ran for 2-3 mins, stretched a bit more. Went into the water and swam for a few mins.

As usual, swimming is my weakest discipline. I actually felt pretty good during the swim, but when I got passed by quite a few women from the wave behind me I knew that I did not clear 22 mins as I hoped. As you can tell, not a fan of swimming. It shows :) Swim time 26:09.

I got completely shafted with the bike rack position. I had to run through the entire transition to the exit - prolly a good 0.15 mile.  This was my race on my newly purchased bike, with deep dish wheels and tubular tires. I did not ride with the tubulars that much, and I kinda got overexcited with inflating them to 140 psi. Cornering was tricky to say the least. This course happened to have a sh..tload of cornering. So I had to slow down. On the other hand, I only got passed by 6 riders, all but 1 with a disk wheel. The road was a little rough, and the no-drafting thing was enforced sparingly. On the way back, I got blocked by a group that was 5 deep and 3 wide. And then on the last hill I somehow dropped the chain. That cost me 2 mins. This was a second hand bike, and perhaps the chain needs to be changed. I think that I will probably stick with the clinchers from now on. Tubulars make me nervous :) Bike time 1:06.

I've decided to take it easy on the run, since I did quite a few running events this winter and the left knee was starting to get a chrono flare up again. Wanted to keep under 7:30, but not push it. I did just that for 5 miles. Somehow managed to get shoelaces come untied after the 2st mile, so there goes 30 seconds of time. Then after the last mile I started acting like  an alcoholic that in attempts to quit drinking starts taking little sips - and just downs the remaining half a glass. The knee was getting a little tender from crappy surfaces. Drinking stations were set up at mile 1 and mile 2.7 of the run. Not entirely logical, but it was enough for me. Some people really suffered as they would have benefited from drinking every mile. Needed to rest the knew before the slew of events in April and May. Run time 44:22.

In the finisher section, stretched, ate some grub, drank a bottle of water, and then went and dipped in the lake in lieu of ice bath. That was awesome! Chatted with some folks and headed to the transition area. Packed my stuff and back to the car.

Overall -  I liked the race  - a nice chill event, unexpectedly competitive. I will be back next year, and this time I ain't running no 7:30 miles :)

Vineman 70.3 2011 recap

My first 1/2 Ironman!  Got to Guerneville Friday afternoon, and hung out with the River Ranch crew at the house. 4 of us were participating. Friday night we had some pasta and chicken, and the night before the race we settled for pizza and veggies. I took some Enduralytes and Vitamin B pills. Drank 1/2 gallon of Gatorade.

The night before did not sleep much, as one of the folks had an early start and they woke me up at 5am. I put my stuff in the bag, and ran 1/2 mile, varying speeds. Then Brad and I rode down to the beach, since we were in one of the last waves.

We were in the last wave and it was already getting a little warm. The wave was big, lotsa folks chomping at the bit. I stuck out in the middle for the first 300 meters or so, and then the wave broke up into what seemed like 3 groups. I was in the middle until the end of the first wave and then I kind of started cruising. The water was very shallow around the middle of the swim and everyone was running around the marker. I swam around it. The rest was easy and I started bumping into the slower swimmers from the wave before. I was hoping for a sub-40 swim time, but I was not navigating well, and easily lost a minute or so adjusting my course. At the end, I felt like I could have swam a little harder, but still this was a decent showing for me.

In T1, the wet suit got stuck on the chip, and it took me 30 seconds to pull it off. I kind of spent a little extra time on putting on extra sunscreen and putting on my bike jersey.

The bike leg started out good, averaging 21 mile/hr. Saw someone get really hurt near the turn off by the Sunset beach, with the ambulance picking them up. The surface around the Westside Road was quite bad, and every half a mile I saw someone changing a tire. So I slowed down, and did not start hammering until I got to Geyserville. By then, I was passing by people from the previous waves. Some dude kept trying to overtake me, and we ended up chasing each other pretty much til Windsor where I decided to shift into an easier gear to get me going for the run. Chalk Hill was not bad at all, especially if you climb regularly. Oh yeah, the road quality is crap there too. The volunteers were doing a GREAT job handing out waters and nutrition. These guys rock! Lotsa local public support with people cheering and just generally being nice to you. After having ridden on a road bike with no aerobars, I decided to invest in a time trial bike now.

In T2  was not feeling great...  I think I overdid it with Endurolytes during the last 10 miles of the bike portion of the race, and I felt like I was going to hurl soon. So I spent a minute at a porta potty and took care of the nausea issue preemptively. Came out and saw Brad finishing up. Stopped and chatted with him - at a cost of an extra 45 seconds :) - but who cares since he essentially coached for me the race.

Decided to run with 1 bottle on my fuel belt, which worked out very well. Started too strong (7 min/mile). Settled into my normal 8:15 min/mile pace for the next 6 miles. It was already hot, and the La Crema portion was not particularly smooth surface wise. I probably landed my left foot awkwardly somewhere, and the left side started to ache. I came out of La Crema, saw Brad entering. Ran out of the winery and decided to drop the hammer. Ran the next 3 miles close to 8 min/mile. People were moving VERY slow, and I was passing someone every 5-6 seconds. By the end of the 9th mile the heat started getting to me. I slowed down quite a bit and caught up with Josh, and was relieved to see him in good spirits, albeit not moving very fast. The last drink station I walked through, as I was getting a little nauseous again. Then I really hammered it again after I got back to Windsor Blvd, and ran all the way through.  What would I do differently - pace myself from the get go. No need to run 5k pace. Mix Gatorade with water, or just skip a station or two.

After the race - walked around like a zombie for a minute, had some water, and then saw Brad's wife. It took me a few minutes to regain the ability to talk. Josh finished up soon, and we sat down for some food. The events folks served chicken, pasta, burgers, fruit, etc. I could barely taste anything after 6 hours of drinking Gatorade, taking Endurolytes and eating GU :)

Mainly, I was gauging myself, this being my first 1/2 IM. A 5:30 is very doable, and even a sub 5:15 is probably achievable with the right combination of nutrition and people and perhaps a better performance on the bike. Overall, a very cool race. Sonoma county could re-pave some roads, but nonetheless this is like a Woodstock of triathlons.