A weekend full of racing

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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Great weekend of racing and training. Earlier this past week, my legs felt pretty tired. After 14 on Monday, Tempo ride and 8 on the run Tuesday, followed up by 16 on the run in 100 degree dry heat on Wednesday, I wasn't quite for sure if I was going to even line up for Saturday's Boise Twiwlight Crit...especially the way I was feeling. I recovered as much as I could Thursday/Friday and basically laid around on all day Saturday until my race started at 4PM. One thing here in Boise, the hottest part of the day is between 2-4PM...and let me tell you, it was freakin' hot. Race temp at start time was 105 DEGREES!!!!!

Wasn't sure what to expect, my first worry was not getting spit out the back. I haven't done any high HR training over the past 3 months and to make myself worry a bit more, I have only been riding 3 days a week.


(I am on the far right of pic in white kit)

The course was your basic 1K, 4 corner crit. I lined up on the near the front, but on the outside. I wanted to to take the first wide so that I could respond to anything that was happening at "gun shot" just in case a break was able to form. The course was short enough that if the right guys got together, the field could be lapped. The first lap was pretty uneventful. They rang the prime bell for the 2nd lap and I was well positioned towards the front and was able to get through corner 2 with a lot of speed and I attacked. I got away on my own and was able to take the first prime. As I came through, they rang the bell again for another prime as the announcer said, "we gonna see who is thirsty out there." Well, since the peloton didn't chase after me, I figured "well hell, I got this small lead, might as well go for another prime." So I stomped on through the first and second turns, kept it steady and took the 2nd prime. Soooooo....here I am, the race is 45 minutes long, I have just blasted myself 3 laps into the race. I came back to the group to recover for my initial fear of becoming "OTB" (Off The Back). Was able to recover and another prime lap was rang, but this time it was after someone was already up the road.

I figured, what the hell, "I am feeling pretty good and recovered, go chase him down and get another." As I attacked after the 2nd turn, I turned around to see who....Jeff. He has caught my wheel and we reeled the guy back in for Jeff to take the prime. Good stuff. Back to the group once again for a little "R&R." To make a long story short, another prime came up and I attacked on my favorite 2nd corner and rang up another. So all in all, 4 primes between Jeff and I. Not a bad day of racing considering.

The Numbers:
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Temperature: 105
Avg. MPH: 25.1
Avg. HR: 173 bpm

Was able to catch both the Pro men and women's racing that evening. Kristin Armstrong, a fellow Boise resident, World Champion and 2008 Beijing Olympic Gold Medalist, was racing and won.

(Kristin Armstrong is in the all white kit)
The Men's race was very exciting. A sole rider went on his own with I think 8 laps to go and was caught by the Team Type 1's train with 1/2 lap to go. Team Type 1 ended up taking 1st and 2nd on the podium. It was pretty incredible watching the team tactics and then seeing TT1 bring all 6 of their guys up front and reel'em in.



Sunday I headed out for my long ride that I usually do on Saturday, but I rescheduled since I was going to race. It was pretty uneventful and I was feeling quite good. On the way home, I couldn't resist the temptation. The Idaho State Criterium Championships were being held in a small town called Hidden Springs and it happened to only be a few miles off my way back home...sooooooo....I made the little detour and decided I would race one more time this weekend.

I have to tell you, I felt really good after racing yesterday and a nice long ride earlier that day. As the race started, I attacked after the first lap and was able to splinter the pack and a total of 6 of us were able to break away. As the day went on, I was able to grab 3 primes. With about 4 or 5 laps to go, I attacked the group trying to get away and unfortunately got into a little "tangle" with one of the lapped riders. Luckily, I didn't hit the pavement. He hit it pretty hard. I stopped as I was a little "razzled." I ended up just calling it day at that point and riding home.

The Numbers:
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Temperature: 90
Avg. MPH: 25.0
Avg. HR: 131 bpm

All in all, had a great weekend of training and racing. I forgot how much I enjoyed bike racing. One day when I quit this triathlon stuff, I will definitely just bike race. Not sure why my average HR was so depressed on the 2nd day, assume it is the fatigue factor or temp, although was still able to put out the work and honestly felt much stronger the 2nd crit.

Until then...back at it. One more build week on the run before a rest week. Will run 60miles this week.

Racin',
J

PS: On my ride on Sunday, I couldn't pass up taking this picture of place called Banducci's.....a coffee shop and tanning salon in one. What a combo!!!!

Rest and Up Hill Runnin'

"Trust in yourself. Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe."



My training partner...brother...best friend...boss (only at work - haha)...motivation and occassional "pain in my ass" on the run today :-)
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Yesterday was crazy, haven't slept that much in a long time. I guess Saturday's ride/effort was much more "draining" than I thought. I basically slept from around 7PM on Saturday until about 7:45AM on Sunday, got up in bed and watched the tour until about 8:45 and fell back asleep until 11:45AM. I didn't leave the house at all on Sunday, much less left my bed.

Awoke this AM bright and early feeling well rested and hit the pool at 5AM for an early start to get in an extra K or so before the workout started. Got in almost 4500m before I had to dart off to the J-O-B. My swimming is coming around finally, still not quite as fit in the water as I have been, but close. I am really addicted to this "band only" swimming. It is really hard and difficult to maintain a good position in the water. It really exacerrbates any inadequicies that you have in your stroke.

Jeff and I have 2 main run workouts during the week. Our primary run focus is our long run on Wednesdays. We have begun to poker pace on the run for more specificity (If you haven't read the link, it is well worth it). Our second main run comes on Mondays. To specifically train for ö till ö, Jeff had decided we need to do some power running with some down hill portion.

So todays run we had 14 in the "books." We are very lucky here in Boise to have the endless trail system that we have. We took off and the plan was simple...run up 7 and back down 7. As always, photos never do beautiful views justice (Or I should say photos I take) The town that is far off in the picture is Boise. We are 7 miles from the city at about 5300 feet in elevation in the photo.



The Facts
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Total Climbing: 2,590 Feet
Total Miles: 14.5
Total Time: 2:16:00
Avg HR Ascending: 142bpm
Avg HR Descending: 146bpm

The run down hill "zapped" me. After about 3 miles , I was ready to be done. As you know, eccentric leg contractions for that long when you haven't trained them causes the usual added consequence of muscle soreness and pain from micro tears of muscle tissues from the "loading."

Will take things on the easier side tomorrow to prep for my long run on Wednesday. Will work on my poker pacing a bit.

Hittin' the sack early tonight,
J

The Grupetto and ride to Ola

"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
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The ride to Ola was a great one, but tough. Jeff, Casey, Erin, Kate and I took off at 8 this morning and having never done the ride, wasn't sure what to expect. Having driven to McCall once, I knew that we were in for some climbing in the beginning, but didn't really knonw how much.

It was a basic route, 50 miles out and 50 miles back. (You can see route on previous post) The grupetto started off "peppy" and it really didn't change for the rest of the ride.

The Facts
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Total Climbing: 5,921 Feet
Total Distance: 101 miles
Total Time: 5:09:02

Legs up for the rest of the day. Recovery day tomorrow and week number 2 of this running block starting Monday. Gonna be a tough week and really gotta plan as much recovery as possible if I don't want to get spit out the back of the peloton next Saturday at the Boise Twighlight Crit.

J

Below is Casey at our 65 miles re-fueling stop. :-)

MAF Test results

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”



This was my last treadmill test in Boulder before IM Canada 2007
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Did a MAF test today, a little disappointing with the amount of running I have done over the past 12 weeks. First 2 miles were at 150 and the last 3 miles were done at 155, my previous benchmark for MAF testing back in 2007.

July 2009
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Mile 1 (150HR) - 7:58
Mile 2 (150HR) - 8:06
Mile 3 (155HR) - 7:58
Mile 4 (155HR) - 7:56
Mile 5 (155HR) - 7:54

I looked at my last MAF test which was done in November 2007 which was right before my fastest open 1/2 marathon and it was quite a bit better. My training schedules were very different in comparison.

November 2007
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Mile 1 (155HR) - 7:10
Mile 2 (155HR) - 7:18
Mile 3 (155HR) - 7:24

Looking at the two, my spread (2009 only 4 seconds compared to 14 seconds in 2007) is much better this year than compared to 2007. I assume it has to do with the amount of base training I have this year versus 2007.

In any case, interesting, but frustrating.

Have 6 in the AM before our 100 miler to a small town north of Boise called Ola. I have never been, but I think there is a fair amount of climbing.



Runnin',
J

Race schedule.....

"The only limits we have are those we give ourselves"



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I know it has been a few months since last checking in. Life has been great, training on a consistent basis and work going well. Things are slowly getting a bit more comfortable, but still have a lot of learning to do.

I finally have a couple of races up on the calendar. Looking forward to racing again. It has been almost 2 years since I was “seriously training” to race. I did a couple of races last year after about 6-8 weeks of training, but well under my previous times.

I start off the summer with a bike race, Boise Twilight Criterium here in Boise on July 18th. I love bike racing and thought I should get my first dip back in with a crit. With the TDF on, I had to get in on a bike race. Plus, it is part of the NRC (National Race Calendar) which is the schedule all of the continental pro teams follow. The first tri of the year is an Olympic distance race here locally. It is called Emmett’s “Most Excellent” Tri . Gonna be a gut buster, will be a nice re-entry to racing.

The second race on the docket is the Utah Half held in Provo, UT. Race is August 15th. My last half ironman was September of 2006, my best half performance to date. Not sure how this race performance will pan out, but hoping to get a “grip” on this run thing and have a descent performance. My goal is to run my fastest half IM run split, we’ll see. I am only biking 3-4 days/week right now, so I am sure my run will depend on how disciplined I will be on race day on the bike.

The next race on the “sched” is a race in Sweden on September 6th called Ö till Ö. Ö till Ö is a unique race. Teams of two race together from island to island (Ö till Ö) and Jeff (my brother) is my teammate. The race takes place on the Stockholm archipeligos which consist of 19 small islands. The swim sections are between 100 and 1400 metres long. We will swim between the islands to get to the next one and then run across to the next swim. There are a total of 38 in and outs. The total distance is 64 kms which is comprised of 10 km of swimming and 38 km are running. There is one 16 km section of biking which will be done on a beach cruiser. Should be fun and interesting. We have begun working on the logistics of the race. We’ll see how it works out.

My run program has been very consistent. I have never ran this consistent since I started triathlon back in 2001. After 9 weeks of slow base training, Jeff and I sat down and ”mapped” out a run program that was going to address my run weakness to give us the best fighting chance at Ö till Ö to do well. We have been gradually building with this week totalling 54 miles of running and the last big week hitting 70 miles.

I have been swimming every morning M-F at Masters. Most squad practices usually are 3500 and on most days, I get in early and try to get the total to 4K. It is finally coming back and getting pretty comfortable in the water again.

Not sure what I am going to do after Ö till Ö. My plan is to finish the year off with a couple more half IM’s in October and November. We’ll see.....

Hope training is going well for everyone.
J