Miserable Mountains, Gimmicky Gadgetry, and Hellish Heatwaves,

Well, it's been a while since we last blogged together. Not to worry, I have been thinking about you and I have many things to tell you. When last we spoke I was preparing to tackle the Mountains of Misery. A 101 mile ride with 10,000+ feet of climbing. This eventful ride takes place in Southwestern Virginia very close to Virginia Tech. Before I get into the gory details of the ride let me first give thanks to the people who made the ride possible. First and foremost, my wife for being understanding during those long weekend hours I spent on the road and in the gym. She was quite helpful, being very supportive of my training and I can't thank her enough. I also want to thank my buddies, Jeff and Chris, who did the ride with me and made a long day in the saddle not only tolerable but enjoyable. All these accolades beg the question, "How miserable was it?" Surprisingly, not nearly as miserable as I had anticipated.

The day started out ... COLD! Evidently its cold early in the morning in the mountains. I was decked out in my King of the Mountains climbing outfit for the day and the only thing that kept me from freezing my gonads off was the, imagine this, constant climbing. We went barely 200 yards before the first climbing started. As we were climbing for the first hour I saw an old guy (not me or my buddies) weaving up one of the easier climbs. Since we were less than 20 miles into the ride I couldn't help thinking, this guys is in for a BAD day.

After climbing more or less steadily for the first 20-25 miles we hit what is probably the highlight of the ride, in terms of fun, a 7 or 8 miles switchback descent. It reminded me of being in France and swooping down the Alpine descents. At the bottom was one of the friendly rest stops stocked to the brim with everything a hungry century rider could want. Fruit, PB and J, water, Gatorade, all kinds of stuff. This was also the point where you had a fateful decision to make, 101 or 124 miles. I looked incredulously at some of the riders who followed the 125 mile sign and set off in the other direction. The next 30 miles or so were rolling hills but very manageable. This despite the fact that my riding partners were by this time cursing me out for convincing them to do this ride. I would have felt worse for them, except that I DID NOT convince them to carry enough gear to sustain a small army. Granted my jersey pockets were stuffed with food but I think Chris had a KFC restaurant in his back pack (more on that later...).

At mile 55 or so you hit the last rest stop before the first BIG climb. Now I have done some big climbs in my day so I should have remembered that some of the worst climbs start with the what seems relatively easy slopes. So when I began cruising up this first BIG climb I should have been suspicious. NOPE, I just kept going at a good pace oblivious to what might wait ahead. The slope curved slightly to the left and into the trees, still cruising, up ahead I started to see people walking hmmm... Slope now turns slight right OUCCCCCHHHHHHH! in what seemed like 2" the slope went from 4-5% to 12-15%. Talk about leg burning! I saw (no lie) in the 10 feet in front of me, about 10 people walking, 2 people fall from the sudden slope increase, and a carbon fiber recumbent rider stuck in the middle of the rode unable to get started again. So now I'm dying, trying to avoid the mayhem in front of me (did I mention I only had a 39x27) and then this guys comes cranking by me, hits the now STEEPER part, gets a cramp and rides right off the rode! No he wasn't hurt, but it gives you an idea of how hard this particular section of the climb was. Luckily there was a rest stop right over the top. This was the only rest (other than the finish) that I REALLY REALLY needed. About a minute of 2 later Jeff and Chris roll over the top cursing me for the next, oh, 10 minutes or so.

Luckily for us the next 10 miles or so are downhill or mostly downhill and it also took us back past the start line. Chris who by now has been complaining about feeling dead decides to put the rucksack he was carrying on his back in the car. Feeling 10 pounds lighter he began to feel better (imagine that...). This was the very deceptive / demoralizing part of the ride. From mile 80 to about mile 90, some of the steepest climbs in the entire ride reside. These would have been bad enough in a 40 or 60 mile ride but at mile 80 they really sap your strength. I felt proud that I got over all of them but I would pay later.


Mile 90 to 95 is kinda cool. Mostly downhill, you would think this is good except for the fact it makes you climb the last 5 miles out of the hole you just descended into. The first mile or so, not so bad..... the next 2 miles, uh tough, but manageable. The last 2 miles, I think I have blocked them out like any bad experience. It took me 30 minutes to go the last 2 miles. It was also the only climb I really had to stop and rest on. I really needed out about another 30 gear inches or so. What the made the entire experience worthwhile was

1) Getting my shirt
2) Getting a massage at the finish.... (the food was pretty good too)

What sucked...

1) Some guy did it in a bit over 5 hours ( 8.5 hours ride time for me).
2) Jeff and Chris couldn't get shirts to fit them (somebody copped em first)

Would I do it again? Ask me in a year.....

Gadgets......

I love gadgets. I am a geek I confess. Bike gadgets are some of my favorite gadgets but I must confess they have a history of letting me down. So it was with some trepidation that I purchased the Garmin Forerunner 305 (on sale at REI). The forerunner is a GPS enable running / bike computer. It will tell you how far, how fast, your pace, your heart rate, your elevation gain/descent while running or cycling (you can also get cadence with an accessory). It also comes with some cool software to let you download all the information onto your computer. So here is my impression so far.

The Good

1) Its much smaller than the previous Garmin GPS running computers. Still a bit bulky, but significantly better than previous models.

2) The software works really well. Downloads are easy and the information can be viewed graphically to impress your friends!

3) The GPS mileage is much more accurate than guessing how many miles you ran.

4) One option allows you to pace yourself or race against yourself, very helpful for speed work and tempo runs.

5) There a bunch of other features I haven't even tried yet but they look promising, such as creating workouts with the software and uploading them into the watch for use when you train.

6) The battery seemed to last much longer with the newer model.

7) You can now record a brick workout with 1 device!!!! YEAH!

8) Moving the watch from the bike to the my arm for the run is easy with Garmin's multi-sport accessory.

The Bad (minor stuff mostly)

1) Heart rate is VERY VERY small and hard to read making it practically useless when running.

2) With so many functions it can be tough to remember the correct sequence of buttons to press to do something.

3) If you forget to switch sports on the watch your run can end up looking like a REALLY slow bike ride (which I did once by accident).

Even with those minor problems I think the Forerunner is worth the investment.

Another gadget I've been playing with is training peaks software which is supposed to give you all kinds of revolutionary information about how your training is progressing. I will give a complete report once I have used up the 14 day free trial.....


The HEAT IS ON!!!!!!

During the mountains of misery ride we were blessed with near perfect weather. However, the last few days have been anything but! I went running Saturday and didn't stop sweating until almost Sunday! Sunday, as luck would have it, I was doing the Bicycle Place ride so at least the ride was done by 10:30 AM. With less than a week until my last scheduled triathlon of the season I plan on waiting out the heat even to the point of getting on the treadmill if necessary. This next race is somewhat special since this race was the first triathlon I ever did. I hope to better my course time, at least in the swim, since that is by far my weakest link in the sport and the one I have the best chance of improving on. I'm just hoping the weather cooperates.

Until we get some relief from this heat.....

Stay frosty......

Peace & Luv,

Rob

The year ahead.....

With my biggest race of the year behind me, I had to decide what to do with the rest of the year. Being a personal trainer I often have too convince my clients not to try to do too many things so they can maximize their goals. So of course, what do I do? I try to train simultaneously for a 101 mile century with 10,000 feet of climbing and a sprint triathlon. I knew this would be tough since trying to do enough climbing and endurance work would ultimately blunt my speed and make speed work on the track more difficult. So taking my own advice, I decided to make my sprint triathlon a lower priority and concentrate on the century. If I can't practice what I preach, I might as well stop preaching.

The ride I'm doing is called the Mountains of Misery. I haven't done a century in quiet some time and this is a tough one. It ends with a 5 mile climb. Check out the link for all the gory details.

My training has been going pretty well. I have been feeling strong on the bike and the last few weekends I have done upwards of 50 miles each day with lots of climbing and felt pretty good at the end of the ride. For those of you familiar with the climbs along Beach Drive, I have even started going up Forsythe Ave. on my way home just to try to get an idea of how to suffer at the end of a tough ride (for those not familiar with Forsythe Ave, it is about a 20% grade with speed bumps!, Ouch!).

I plan to take a short break after my June 15th Sprint triathlon and then start preparing for my first 1/2 marathon. I realize that my weakness in triathlon lately has been my run ( I know my swim is my weakest event, but I have been steadily improving in that event). My running seems to have been deteriorating a bit so I decided to focus on it for a while in an attempt to finish strongly in any other tri's I decide to do (either this year or next).

I have been trying to include more and more of my friends on my weekend rides so if I don't have your e-mail address, drop me a line and I will include you on my weekly e-mail ride list.

Hope to see you all soon.

Peace and keep training.....

Rob

The Day After.....

Well my first big event of the year has come and gone and like most of life there was were some good things and some not so good things. Let's start with the good stuff.....

The Triathlon....

2 big thumbs up, WAY UP! For an event that has 4000 + participants, this is one of the best events I have ever entered. I fully intend to enter this event next year. Every thing was well organized, every thing went off on time and the event and sport expo was great even if I didn't buy anything.

The Competition

Every once in a while a pro or top level amateur shows up at an event I do, well there were at least 3 whole waves of both at St. Anthonys! When I arrived at the transition area on Saturday I came across Faris Al-Sultan. For those of you not familiar with Faris he is the 2005(?) Hawaii ironman world champion. I also noted that Faris' bike was probably in excess of 10 grand (hell his handlebar assembly looked to be around 2 or 3 grand. There is nothing like riding with the big boys to get the adrenaline pumping. U.S. Olympian Matthew Reed ended up winning in the ridiculous time of 1 hour 46 minutes and change. Andy Potts who finished second completed the swim in a ridiculous 18:21! When I entered the swim - bike transition I heard the race announcer say the Greg Bennett was chasing the two leaders (mentioned above) while running at a 5 minute per mile pace! So make no mistake, there were some amazing athletes present.

The Course

The swim was in a bay so that was a good thing. The day prior to the race I saw a dolphin jumping around so that was kind of cool as well. The water temperature was a comfy 74 degrees. So what could go wrong you ask? The waves were a bit high so it made getting a good rhythm going tough, and when we turned for shore the tide was constantly pushing me away from the swim exit. I actually ended up swiming perpendicular to the swim exit to compensate and I ended up getting out of the water in 41:38 about 3 and a half minutes better than my previous best. So I was happy about that.

The Bike.

Rumoured to be completely flat, the bike was MOSTLY flat. There were some stretches of false flat but you really couldn't ask for much flatter. The one downside to the bike course was the number of turns which made it a bit hard to keep your speed up. All in all, a very doable course, I was slightly off my projected bike time, but only by about 1 or 2 %. Coming so early in my season I really can't complain about that.

The Transitions

When you do a race with more than 4000 participants the transition area is HUGE! Most of my bike - run transition was just getting out of the transition area! I will say that the speed laces I purchased must have knocked a good 30 - 60 seconds off my transition, so I highly recommend them. I will also highly recommend Body Glide for the swim - bike transition. For one thing it prevented the nasty neck rash that I developed the last time I did an olympic distance tri, a result of the wetsuit rubbing as a turned my head to breathe. It also made getting the wetsuit off immensely easier.

The Run

OK the run is on a nice out and back course, it is also under the BLAZING Florida heat! When I got off the bike I was right on schedule to break the 3 hour mark (my goal for the race). I needed to run a 9 minute mile for the 10k, something I normally can do, no problem. Somewhere during the run (by my recollection about mile 1.5), someone cut off the power and I struggled to a 1:03 10K. Arrgh! I missed my mark by about 6 minutes! that was the minute per mile that I lost in the 10K. My last Olympic tri I ran 56 minutes for the 10k so I guess I have to focus on the run for next year.

The Miscellaneous

We found a good English pub before the race and I had the best mixed drink I've had in years. It's called a dark and story (Dark rum and ginger beer very invigorating). They also made excellent black and tans (they received a 1999 perfect pour award from Guiness), top that off with the Guiness burger (beef marinated in Guiness and onions) and you everything a hungry triathlete needs post race.

Random thoughts...

2 days prior to the race there was a report of a triathlete attacked by a shark in San Diego. This seemed like a bad omen, but the sharks evidently were alarmed by having 4000 people in the water and they left us alone.

Use tri bike transport.... I used the service this year which allows you to drop off your bike locally and pick it up at the race. As someone who has traveled frequently with my bike, I must say, this saved alot of time and effort. On top of that it's only $25 more than the airlines charge and it's a whole lot more reliable, plus there's no need to assemble / disassemble your bike, a nice perk.

Pre-Race neurosis....

A race buddy of mine, who shall remain nameless, evidently was a bit perturbed that the hotel they were staying at had the nerve to book a wedding reception the night before the big race. After verbally abusing the hotel staff my buddy managed to compose themselves enough to actually try and get some sleep. Alas, all the water my buddy drank to hydrate for the race, undermined their effort by forcing them to wake up every hour on the hour. Moral of the story: Be nice to others or the race Gods will get you.......

Things to icky to comtemplate....

What do you do at the 750 meter mark in the swim if you have to pee???? Well if you ask most guys they will say just pee..... If you ask most women, apparently, the thought of having their own urine in their wetsuits with them makes them say "I'll just hold it..." We did find one woman who admitted to peeing in her wetsuit and we noticed no one was willing to carry her wetsuit for her. The moral of this story: If you're a girl just lie about it.....

In conclusion.....

Well it was an EXPERIENCE....... I look forward to it again next year (after I get over the soreness). Now I move onto to my next goal, a century in four weeks time (more on that later). Till then keep safe and keep training.....

Peace

Rob

28 #&@!!#^ degrees.....

Sorry about the blogging delay, but with my first big event of the season coming up (not to mention taxes and family) I have been a bit preoccupied. So what does the title of this months entry mean? Well that was the temperature at start time of my first race of the season, the Central Park Duathlon (March 30th). Yeah it was that cold! Luckily (if you can call it that) I had brought clothes to change into after the race and I was able to use those to stay warm in the race itself! I had hoped to better my time from last October when I did this same race. The weather, however, had other plans. In addition, I found out one of my tri buddies, Eric, was injured and would have to miss both this race and the St Anthony's tri in April. I felt bad for Eric knowing how hard he was training. At least he can defer the St. Anthony's race until next year. I did however, have his sister Melissa for company and she soldiered on with me in the brutal conditions. What amazed me more than anything about the race was the insane racers in SHORTS! Yes, people we racing as if the temperature was in the 60's not the 20's! I managed to finish in a respectable 1:19 for the 2m run, 12m bike, 2m run. My bike time was almost identical from last year, but my runs were substantially slower (it was really hard to get and stay warm). Anyway I tried out my reconfigured Kestrel (replaced the drop bars with cowhorns and aero bars) and the new setup worked OK. I say only OK because, the bars were slipping just a bit and I still think I am a bit too stretched out. I may go to a shorter stem for a bit more comfort.

Other than the trials and tribulations of racing, training seems to be rolling along well. I took 5 days and jetted off to St. John with the wife for a relaxing vacation. Nothing like splashing around the Carribean to take the edge off. This was a recovery week in a big way. I came back feeling refreshed and rested and my first time back on the bike the legs felt great. I am looking forward to renewed vigor for the remaining weeks of training. Hope to see you all in Tampa.

Peace

Rob

Unremarkably consistent...

As a personal trainer, I always tell my clients that the one thing that will benefit them, above all, is consistency. Well I have been unremarkably consistent for the last 3 months and I have seen the benefits in a few different ways.

1) I have dropped about 5 pounds from my high of 183 pounds.
2) I have increased my continuous swim length to 800 yards (about 1/2 my projected swim).
3) I have steadily increased my intensity.

So while my training hours have stayed more or less constant, I have started to push the pace a bit. Of course I would have done well to remember the old driving safety commercial, "Speed kills". Ignoring this has caused me to experience all manner of small aches and pains. A sore back here, tired arms there, sore Achilles etc... U get the picture. Some of this was due to the sheer enthusiasm I have experienced at being able to go and actually ride my bike OUTSIDE!!!! While I am enjoying my new trainer, there is no substitute for the great outdoors. I went out on one of my favorite (hilly) rides this weekend and felt great... until about 5 hours later when my back began to acknowledge the stress of riding up and down actual grades. Still it was worth it to experience that "wind in your face feeling...".

I am planning to really push the next few weeks racing both this weekend and the next. I will be attempting my first USCF race in 2 years followed by an easy run. Then the following weekend I head to NYC for a duathlon. These races are just a way of seeing where I am in my preparation. In fact, the duathlon is approximately 1/2 of the St. Anthony's tri so it will give me some perspective on my race legs, even if there is no feeling quite like the second run in a duathlon.

After pushing myself for the next 2 weekends I plan to jet off to St. John in the Caribbean and take a much needed rest. This will be the start of my taper for Tampa. I feel fairly good about my progress, but now I need to get serious about my nutrition to make sure I have the fuel necessary to make the most of my training. Here's hoping everyone is doing the same.

Peace,

and good training....

Rob

No time for.. blogging.....

I must confess I have been deficient in my blogging, but for good reason; I have been training! I have been able to get very consistent with my training and now with a little over 8 weeks to go, I am starting to feel good about my fitness. My weight has dropped (I'm down 6 and a half pounds since early January), my running has gotten stronger and even my abysmal swimming seems to be improving. Make no mistake however, I am still dreading that mile swim.

I have started my 2-a-days (meaning two workouts in one day) and I have begun to feel some of the fatigue I anticipate in Tampa in April. This is good though, because at least I'll be prepared for it. Last night in my swim class, my legs were dead from running and it really showed, my 600 yard time was a minute and a half slower than my previous best. I have been gradually increasing my long swims until eventually, I'll be up to 1650 yards in the pool. Hopefully by then I'll start to feel confident.

The weather in Maryland has started to cooperate and I am now able to do my runs outside; stationary training is VERY, VERY boring as I'm sure anyone training during this part of the year must know. I was speaking with another triathlete at the gym who does Ironman distance races and he told me he does 2 to 3 hours on the treadmill to prepare for early season Ironmans (Ironmen????). I would have to be committed to even run 45 minutes on one of those things.

On the bike I have been keeping my spin classes going and also using my new indoor trainer, the Travel Trac by Real Axiom. I promise a full review in an upcoming blog. The trainer has actually kept me working really hard on the bike and I feel I have my best January fitness in years. I even took the radical step or renewing my USCF (United States Cycling Federation) license and planning some road races to get the competitive juices flowing. I am looking forward to a strong start to the season.

Good luck to everyone out there and....

keep training :-)

Rob

Chaffing, Kickboards, and other training gremlins...

I know it's been a while, and ironically enough it hasn't been because I've been TOO busy. Actually quite the contrary, I have gotten in some quality time training the last few weeks. I have gotten some helpful training aids (more on that later) and I have had mostly productive training sessions. Despite all the good fortune, there is always a training gremlin (like those buggers in Bugs Bunny or the Progressive commercials) lurking, ready to pounce. Mine caught up to me last Sunday on my first run over an hour. It was a little chilly and I threw on the first pair of tights I could find. Bad idea. They were kind of old and a bit tight, I ignored it. About halfway through my run I felt a sharp stinging in my groin area. Not really pain, just kind pin pricks so I ignored them like all guys do..... Another bad idea. I got home to find my base layer blood soaked and my skin chafed to the bone (ok not quite but it certainly felt that way!). To make matters worse I had swim class the next day and of course we started out just kicking. Nothing like a tight swimsuit and constant kicking to give the raw groin area some stimulation!

OK but enough of my problems, outside of that bad one two punch I have started to feel pretty good with my progress. My hundreds in the pool have started to fall, and my running is certainly stronger. My only laggard at the moment is my cycling which is traditionally my strongest discipline. Mostly due to the weather, I haven't spent much time on the bike. It has been my intention all winter to get a CompuTrainer. This highly recommended training aid however, was somewhat out of my budget at almost $1700. So I decided to get a cheaper alternative. The Performance Travel Trac Real Axiom trainer. This trainer has alot of the same features that the Computrainer has, but with the 20% discount Perfomace was throwing in it turned out to be about a third of the price. So far I have only played with it, but my initial impression so far is favorable. I plan to do a full review in a future tri-ing Times blog.

Notes:

A blog or two ago I was chatting up Polar's personal trainer FREE web site. So far I still approve, but recently the website has been unavailable for no apparent reason. Being in the IT field I know this happens but I was still surprised at the frequency it was happening to polar's site.

A number of my tri buddies have been sick lately so I'm sending out my best wishes... Get well everyone and get back to training!

I made a couple of new tri buddies in swim class so hopefully I will have some new riding partners when the good weather finally rolls around.

Peace and keep training......

Rob