It's been a while......

It's been a while since I last wrote, over 9 months, which is an interesting observation since that is approximately the length of time it took my new son to arrive, but more on that later.

So what happened in the interim, well it went something like this.......

January

On the day of my last entry (January 4th, 2010 for those of you who forgot) I started the season by taking my first test, a 3 mile all out effort on the trainer. This is a test I use to get a general idea of my fitness. I was a little under the weather that day and turned in a pretty poor time (for me anyway). This was my first wake up call of the season. I knew I had a lot of work to do to get ready for my goal race in May, the Columbia Triathlon. Last year I did Columbia (a great race,you should try it!) in 3:02:29. I remember thinking after the race, that if I had known I was so close to breaking 3 hours I would have pushed a lot more on the run. So my goal for 2010 was to break 3 hours. Everything was going to be secondary to that until I found out my wife was pregnant!

When the good news arrived, I knew breaking 3 hours would be even more of a challenge. My goal was made even more challenging by the unseasonable cold weather we got this winter. I started January with a bit of a cold, but I managed to get in a fair amount of training. In particular, I added some strength training and yoga to my training regiment. After a few weeks I began to feel much stronger,particularly in the pool.

February

February arrived and so did huge amounts of snow and morning sickness! My wife was suffering through a bad bout of nausea and with the huge snow fall the trainer was my only sanctuary, until of course we lost power! This was a really challenge, no power, no way to leave home, and a wife swamped with nausea. Thank goodness for out next door neighbors who helped us through this tough time. Since the first week of February was lost to all the various impediments to training, I was looking forward to restarting my training when the roads were cleared. Once again I turned to my 3 mile time trial and knocked 16 seconds off my January time. More importantly I recorded a 7% increase in average power. This assured me that my training was progressing in the right direction. I spent most of February concentrating on swimming since it is definitely my weakness. I was looking for a swim coach but my work location made finding a convenient coach virtually impossible. I was resigned to getting better so I picked up a copy of "Total Immersion" and studied the book and tried to follow the suggestions as best I could.

One of the real challenges being a self trained swimmer, is that you can't see yourself! Unlike running or cycling where I can get on a trainer or treadmill to critique my technique and position, this is almost impossible to do while swimming. I did come across a pool once with mirrors on the bottom of the pool in one lane, but even then its hard to keep a good head position, while trying to see if you legs are dropping too much. Just one more reason to get a coach.

March

So March rolled around and it's time to take another test and get an idea of where my fitness is. I tackle my 3 mile TT test and knock another 21 seconds off my last test and my average power has increased another 9%! I also noticed my heart rate for the effort had dropped by 10 beats per minute, a sure sign that I was now more aerobically fit as well! Armed with these numbers I decide some racing was in order. When I first started cycling seriously, I used to race in the NYC Spring series, a series of cycling races in Brooklyn every weekend. So I signed up figuring this would push me. I had no intention of trying to win this race, I just wanted to hang with the field and get some tough miles in. I managed to hang on for about 1/2 the race before getting unceremoniously dropped on the only hill in the race. Still, the race provided a good hard effort much like I would need when doing the Columbia Triathlon (especially the last 10 miles of chasing alone! and no I didn't catch the field....).

April

April was my first big volume month as the weather was finally improving. I hadn't planned on doing any races this month, I just wanted to focus on training. One of my good friends, however, wanted to race a 13 hour mountain bike race but needed another team mate. Now I dabble in mountain biking, but strictly for fun. So when she approached me about racing off road, for 13 hours at that, I was a little apprehensive, especially since my mountain bike hadn't been off-road in the better part of 3 years. Not wanting to disappoint, I agreed to help out. This turned out to be the toughest workout all year. Almost 5 hours on a hard tail mountain bike over tough terrain was more than draining, but it a great experience, even if I never want to do it again..... The picture at the top is a look at my first (and last?) foray into competitive mountain biking. After taking a little bit of a recovery after the race, I decided now was a good time to re-test myself. My time dropped by 22 seconds and average power increased by a little over 11%! I am on a roll! At this point my power on the bike was about 5% above what it had been in 2009 right before I did the Columbia triathlon. I was feeling pretty good and I still had about a month of training left. So now it was time to fine tune my training.

May

With my goal race now in site, I started tapering, working on my transitions, and planning to ride the course, you know, all those little things that can screw up an otherwise good race. The one thing I didn't plan for was lack of parking and pouring rain the day of the race. When I arrived at the race site, traffic was backed up for a good mile and it was pouring. I dropped my buddy Mike at the entrance since he went off in an earlier wave then me, and then drove back to look for parking. I found a spot about a mile away and then made a mad dash to get to transition before it closed. The soggy conditions and bad weather just added to the mayhem that is race morning, and in a big race like Columbia it was compounded by all the people. I managed to get my transition area set up just as the transition area closed. Unfortunately in my rush, I forgot to use my Body glide to put on under my wetsuit. I was resigned to having a bad neck rash after the race, when I saw a woman spraying herself with Lemon PAM. I had always heard people used the stuff, but this was the first time I had ever witnessed it. I decided now was as good a time as ever to give it a shot, so I asked her if she could spare some. She gladly obliged and I was lemony fresh and relieved to not have to worry about having a sore neck for the next week. I ambled over to the swim start and waded into the water a few minutes before my wave was set to start. Getting into the water initially is always the worst part of a triathlon for me. It took me a good 3 minutes to get over the initial shock of the cold water and after exhaling under water a few times I started to feel better. The gun went off and I waited for most of the insanity that is a wave start to go out ahead of me and then I started my race. I remained cool and calm for most of the swimming, feeling OK, if not great. I just wanted to get out of the water and onto my bike. I went badly off course in the second part of the swim, which cost me some time, but I recovered and head for the swim exit. I had a brisk transition, and I was happy to notice the rain had stopped as I mounted my bike. Since, Columbia is a fairly hilly bike course, and the course was wet, I decided to forgo aero bars and just use my standard rode bike. I felt the extra comfort and better handling would make up for the lack of an aero advantage on certain parts of the course. I powered my way to a bike split that was 3 minutes better than the previous year. As I was leaving transition to start the run, I noted I had a little less than 1 hour if I wanted to break the 3 hour mark. I had fueled well on the bike and I planned to go with gels every 30 minutes on the run. I knew staying properly fueled would be a necessity if I was to break 3 hours. Columbia has a notoriously tough 10k run. I knew I would have to push a little in the first 5k to stay on my goal pace. At the 2 mile mark, I was concentrating hard when I heard a blood curdling scream! It was Shelly from my tri club at the water station cheering me on! I couldn't help but chuckle inside! That really bolstered my resolve to keep my pace up. I was well on my way to a good 10k time at the 4 mile mark which is where some of the toughest hills in the course come up. I managed to maintain a decent pace and when I hit the 5 mile mark I turned on the jets in the knowledge I had little more than 1 mile to go and a mostly downhill run to the finish. As I crossed the line I looked at my watch and thought Mission Accomplished! 2:58:06. My main goal of the year accomplished, I now decided to enjoy the good fitness that I had acquired over the previous 5 months.

June

In June I started my Thursday evening rides we call Thursday thunder! We try to hit just about every hill in Rock Creek Park. It a leg searing, gut busting hammer fest for most of the ride with breaks at the top of the tough climbs to let people catch back on. It's usually fun too and has most of the elements of a fast group ride. About this time my wife was finally starting to show, for the first 5 months, you could barely tell she was pregnant. So trips to the doctor were becoming more interesting, especially since we were adamant about not wanting to know the sex of the baby. I had but one race planned for June, my annual sprint triathlon, Tri to Win, which raises money for melanoma research. I hadn't trained specifically for this race, but I was confident since fitness had been sky high during the previous weeks. A number of my friends were also doing the race, and this made the event all the more fun. Since it was a sprint, my goal was to push as hard as I could for the duration of the race and see what I had in the tank. Who knows, maybe I could even snag an age group award. I pushed my way to a course PR and just missed an age group award coming in 5th. Oh well, maybe next year!

July

By the time July rolled around I was starting to feel pretty burnt out. My fitness was still high but I had come down noticeably from my peak. As a result, my training tapered off quite a bit from late June to early July. Some due to the impending birth of my child and some from lack of desire to train. Normally this would have been fine, except I had registered for the NYC Triathlon on July 18th! I was not really motivated to do this race but once I pay for a race I'm going to do it unless a meteor strikes. So I traveled to NYC, and was greeted by absolutely the worst humidity I had raced in in a while. One of the reasons I really wanted to do this race was the allure of swimming in the Hudson River (although allure might be the wrong term). Growing up as a kid in Brooklyn the Hudson was always maligned as too nasty, too dirty, too dangerous to swim in. I was also intrigued by the fact that the race director GUARANTEED everyone a swim PR! Well he could not have been more right. Watching the pros the morning of the race, it looked like they were hydroplaning in the water they were swimming so fast! I found out why when my wave started. The race director gave you the option of starting the race in the water, but he noted as soon as you jump in grab the rope attached to the dock. I jumped in and went under, immediately I could feel myself being pulled downstream! It felt like I had rocket propelled flippers on the current was so strong! A couple of guys who jumped in had to be grabbed before they were swept downstream by the current. Of course, the highlight of the race had to be the tire I spied floating by at the 600 meter mark! At least I didn't have to swim through it! Getting out of the water 15 minutes faster the usual was great! Then came the back course which was typical NYC, and by that I mean badly paved! It was so badly paved somewhere on the course I lost my trusty Garmin Forerunner, making this the most expensive triathlon I have ever done! By the time I got to the run it was blazing hot and the humidity was oppressive. I struggled through the run, but still posted my best ever triathlon time. Now I could schedule some down time for the season and get ready for the really tough stuff, having a child!

Hope to see all of you out there in the pool, on the road, and on the track......

Peace

Rob...

P.S. Part II of the season soon to follow.

Happy New Year! Now Let's Get Started!

Greetings to all! I hope the new year finds you happy, healthy and fit! I am looking forward to the upcoming season and I am hoping to make serious strides in each of the three disciplines we triathletes engage in. I also hope to re-acquire some skills in my first true love, basketball! More on that later.........

Improving each discipline

While I did well last year with my fastest ever Olympic distance race, a careful examination of my training, showed the need for improvement in each discipline. That's not all bad news however, since some of my necessary improvements just require missing fewer workouts. Taking a look at both your strong and weak disciplines can be very enlightening.

The Swim.

After last year's efforts I learned two things:

1. I'm a much faster swim
2. But not necessarily a much better swimmer.

How did I come to this conclusion? Well I posted a personal best of 35:45 at the Columbia triathlon knocking almost 6 minutes of my best swim time. Along with that however, I had quite a bit of shoulder and arm pain. After talking with my chiropractor it was determined to be due to my habit of only breathing on my left side. I was determined that by my next Olympic tri I would be a bilateral breather. It was so hard to change this habit that I learned some 30 years ago, I actually took 2 months off from swimming and when I went back to the pool I was determined to only swim by breathing on both sides. After about a month and many mouthfuls of water later I had become comfortable, if not proficient, at breathing every 3rd stroke. I should note that while I was making the transition I didn't focus on any other aspect of my swim. All I worked on was being able to breathe on both side comfortably. I didn't track my pace, worry particularly about body position (except how it affected rolling to my "other" side) or worry about stroke count. I was actually prepared to become a slower swimmer, with the idea that the better technique would suffice in the long run. When I was finally comfortable, I went back to one of my standard workouts, and lo and behold, I was actually faster! Without doing anything other than going to bilateral breathing, I had actually picked up between 10 and 15 seconds per 100! I attribute this to 2 things, I now breathe every third stroke which I believe enables me to keep a better body position throughout the course of my swim. Second, I believe my swim is more balanced, i.e. I swim on my side more as a consequence of having to roll to the other side to breathe. I have also noticed I swim straighter and I make fewer corrections to remain on a straight course. I was somewhat skeptical that bilateral breathing would have such a profound effect, but I never write anything off until I at least try it. In this case trying paid dividends, always a good feeling.

The Bike

In general I had a good year on the bike. While I did lament not having the opportunity to participate in any bike races, I felt I had a successful season. One area I found lacking was the amount of intervals I did over the course of the year. I was generally really good at the beginning of the year in preparation for early season races, but afterwards I was slacking a bit and allowing some fast group rides to substitute for interval sessions. This isn't always a bad idea but in general group rides don't always fit into the type of training you may need for an upcoming event. I resolve to be a bit more disciplined this year and hopefully I will be able to reap the benefits.

The Run

OK, let's be frank, I don't really like running all that much. Most workouts that I blow off are run workouts. I love cycling, I need swimming, but really I just tolerate the run. So this year I plan to make sure I don't miss any of those run workout (or at least not as many). I noticed that last year I really didn't do nearly enough speed work either. Speed work, for me anyway, is far more mentally taxing that physically taxing. Once I get out there I'm OK, but actually getting out there is the problem. I'm gonna work on that, but I think I need a partner (any takers????) .

Other stuff

I joined a tri club, Tri Unify which has been great. Meeting like minded people of color who also take an interest in a healthy life style is AWESOME! Check them out at Tri Unify.com

Among other things Tri Unify has open water swim practices, meet and greets, and a wealth of highly motivated people of all levels so no one has to feel intimidated or left out.

Every few months I get an uncontrollable urge to go back to the sport of my youth, namely basketball. One thing I like about triathlon is, no matter how hard the race it is essentially a non-contact sport. Not true of basketball! After just about every game, something is cut, scratched or bruised! The other thing about triathlon is essentially you are always going straight ahead, basketball is about going in 20 different directions, one right after the other, or even at the same time. This requires some specialized preparation since I rarely need to practice running backwards or side to side to prepare for a tri. Anyway, I have caught the bug again and I am about to play in a league or two this winter, I'll keep you posted and let you know how the body holds up.

The Season

I already have 3 races scheduled on my calendar and I am considering whether to step up to the half ironman distance in the second half of the year. A lot depends on how the first half goes, so I figured I would re-evaluate after my sprint triathlon on June 20th. Since we are being hit by unseasonable cold weather I see a lot of indoor training in my future (and yours too!). Don't let this ruin your season, hop on a bike trainer, treadmill or into a spin class somewhere. If this doesn't do it for you get in the pool more often and work on all those things you never work even though you know you should.

As some of you may know I am a personal trainer and I am applying for my USAT coaching license. I will be creating a 16 week training program for the Tri to Win sprint triathlon which is on June 20th. The program will include group training on the weekends and a training schedule for the entire 16 weeks leading up to the race. The training program will be aimed at first time triathletes and those with no experience following a training program. I will be hosting an information session later this month. The training program is schedule to start on March 1st. If you are interested please e-mail me at robert@clarencesoftware.com.

I hope to see all of you out there in the pool, on the road and on the track......

Peace

Rob

The Off-Season is here... Time to start training again????

The great thing about October, besides Halloween and Octoberfest, is it usually signals the start of the off-season. For athletes, this represents down time, or as some people refer to it non-specific training. Just go out there and have some fun, do whatever you want to do (or do nothing at all) , all with the goal of refreshing the mind , body and spirit for the the beginning of the next training cycle.

As I got older, however, I have seen my off-season get shorter and shorter mostly due to the increased amount of time it takes me to regain lost fitness. Once upon a time, in my younger days, I could easily take a month or a month and a half off, doing absolutely nothing and need only a short amount of time to get back into a reasonable amount of shape. Now a month of nothing would result in weight gain so large I would need Richard Simmons to have any possibility of being ready by spring. What I realized is I need to continue training almost year round, merely decreasing intensity during the off-season and increasing my base. I attribute my improvements in swimming last year as a result of just such a change.

The off-season is also the time to work on two important tasks for the season ahead:

1) Your race schedule (or goals if you are not competing) and

2) Your weaknesses.

I spent a fair amount of the last two off-seasons devoted to working on my swimming, which is my weakness, and managed to drop 10 minutes off my 1500 meter swim time. During the off-season there are generally no "A" races so there is less pressure to concentrate on speed and/or intensity and much more time to concentrate on form and technique, factors which will help in any sport. For instance, this off-season I am concentrating 100% on learning bilateral breathing for swimming. In the few session I have been working on it, I have already begun to see improvements in my swimming and have managed to avoid some of the neck and shoulder problems I encountered when I increased my pool time last season.

The off-season is also the time to commit to those races in which you want to do well. For some large races, you may only have a day to sign up (for some such as the NYC triathlon, you may only have an hour!). Making the commitment now, means your are committed to putting in the time and effort, but it also gives you the ability to accurately plan your season and the workouts necessary to make the season a success.

The off-season can also be a great time to experiment with new equipment and training techniques for the upcoming season. Want to adjust your bike position or try running barefoot? Well now is the time to try, if it works, great, you have a new tool for next year, if not, you gave it a try and can move on without jeopardizing race day.

One key to making the off-season enjoyable and rejuvenating is to not take it too seriously. Now is the time to make sacrifices for your friends and family that you may have abandoned during the season. Take the time to enjoy time with friends and family, enjoy the holidays, if you do any races make them more about camaraderie with your training partners than about PRs. Maybe even take up some alternative sports to break up the monotony. Enjoy the off-season, it will make the on-season that much more enjoyable.....

Peace and keep training (a little less tho)

Rob

The Race of Truth or The Truth Hurts!

In August I did a USCF 40k time trial. I hadn't done an officially sanctioned time trial in about 10 years. One reason, they are hard to find. Road races are hard enough to put on, imagine trying to manage a race where riders are starting at 1 minute intervals over the course of 4 or 5 hours.

I had been training fairly consistently since the start of the year for early season triathlons, and I felt I had enough miles on my legs to do a good ride. Since I had been primarily riding my road bike all year I opted to use that for the time trial. I have a nice pair of carbon aero bars which I use for flat to moderately hilly triathlons, and I decided these would be a definite plus for the time trial. Now 40k is not a lot for me to ride. I can pretty much do that in my sleep. However, how often do I actually ride 40k all out at 100%? Not very often. I now understand why guys who are great rode racers don't always make the best time trialists.

Time trialing is a mixture of great fitness, determination, incredible concentration, and an uncanny ability to suffer. I felt I possessed at least the first 2 qualities going into the race, and I figured the race itself would give me a good indication on where I stood on the last two.

The Race Itself

The course was pancake flat. That in and of itself was enough to make me want to compete. The road, for the most part, was in good condition and there were only 2 turns on the course. The one thing I had not taken into account was the wind! A strong headwind was waiting for me at about the 15k to go mark. I overheard an earlier rider advising a friend to save something for the last 10k. I should have listened!

The Start

The thing I always forget about is the "The HOLD". Unlike every other type of race where you just hop on your bike and go, the time trial starts with someone holding you clipped into your pedals. Needless to say, this can make for an embarrassing start if not executed correctly! Gear selection is critical for a good start, and I was careful to start in a reasonable gear to get up to speed quickly. Despite feeling like I was about to fall at any moment during "The HOLD", I managed to get away cleanly, settle in to the aero tuck, and get rolling without incident.

My goal was to finish in 1 hour 15 minutes. This works out to a 20 mph average. I knew I would need to be disciplined and not go out to fast. My first challenge came about 2 minutes in when another racer passed me going around 25 mph! Every instinct in my body tells me to go after him, but I know there is no way I can hold that kind of tempo for the remaining 38k. So I restrain myself and keep my pace at a nice steady 22 mph. It should have been obvious to me that if I wanted to make the 20 mph goal, that 22 mph was probably too fast of a start. Still, at the 10k mark, I felt pretty good. I still had my 1 minute man in my sights and I set a goal to catch him by the finish. 15k came and went and I started to get my first warning signs of impending trouble. The skin suit I had chosen was not doing a very good job protecting my nether regions and this was causing me to move around on the saddle. Normally I can compensate for this type of problem by sitting up occasionally, but by virtue of trying to stay in the aero position this was not to be an option. At the half way point I also noticed a numbness creeping up my left side, and down my arm. As I think about it, I realize I had never spent more than about 20 minutes straight in the areo tuck. I had, at the 20k mark, been in it for 45 minutes! After the 25k mark the numbness had gotten so bad I was forced out of the saddle every few minutes to relieve the tingling on the left side of my body. I was also starting to feel the effects of my effort, but I was still on pace for my 20 mph finish time.

I was encouraged by the fact my 1 minute man was still in my sights, albeit a bit further ahead in my sights. Right after the 25k mark is where I got my first taste of really rough road. Coupled with my bad skin suit problems I was really starting to suffer. I now noticed my minute man is getting smaller, i.e. farther away.... I also notice I am now slightly behind my goal pace, not by much, but just enough to force me out of the saddle to up my pace. Somewhere between the 25 and 30k mark you turn for home onto newly paved road (my nether regions sing the praises of the new pavement), unfortunately with the new pavement came a killer headwind! I was now all over my bike trying to maintain anything close to 20 mph. It was somewhere in the last 6k or so that I lost sight of my minute man and was passed by a few riders who had started after me. The real struggle at this point became staying focused on keeping my speed up. I would take mental breaks where my speed would dip and I would have to get out the saddle to accelerate back up to speed. When I finally saw the 1k to go sign I was so drained I couldn't lift my pace not one iota. I couldn't even muster a fake sprint when I got to the line. Final verdict 1:15:53.

Post Race

I may have neglected to mention that the start line of the race was about 5 miles from the registration and parking area. So I had a 5 mile cool down ride after the race. When I signed up the race I thought this was a great idea. In reality it turned out to be a death march back to my car. I could barely pedal and had absolutely no energy what so ever. I checked the result and was not surprised to see the guy who passed me 2 minutes or so into the race actually won the time trial! 58 minutes and change WOW! I was also pleased to see that my minute man finished only 30 seconds in front of me. I guess I hallucinated him out of sight. I'll be back next year, better skin suit, more time in the aero position and definitely more restraint in the first 20k. 20 mph here I come.........

Peace

Rob

Cascade Lake Duathlon Report

On May 31st I raced the Cascade Lake duathlon.  The race takes place in Hampstead, MD which is about 1.5 hours north of Washington D.C.  I was talked into this race by a couple of friends (although it rarely takes much to convince me to race) and I was using this race primarily as training for an upcoming triathlon.  The format of the race is a 1.86 mile run, a 15 mile bike and a 5k run.  There is also a triathlon that runs concurrently with the duathlon.  

The day started off poorly.  It was raining and quite a bit cooler than I had anticipated, and I didn't bring a sweatshirt to stay warm pre-race (one more reason not to trust the weather report and bring more than you need for a race).  The race starts in a private park which is normally a farm of some sort, as evidenced by the mounds of animal dung everywhere.  This I could handle, what was less than fun was the lack of bathroom facilities.  This race is definitely in need of some port-o-potties!  The start was a bit disorganized as the duathlon entrants had to move after we warmed up to make room for the parking of a few fire engines.  Once the race started everything pretty much went off without a hitch.  The first run is essentially flat with a tough climb to the transition/finish. 

The transition area could have used some work;  right outside of the transition area was a very rocky,  grassy, uneven surface where you mounted / dismounted your bike.  It wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't the best either.  The bike starts off with a fast decent for about a mile or so, after that the fun is over!  This is a very challenging 15 miles.  The hills are endless and challenging; while there are some fast descents, they were not nearly long enough to take the sting out of all that climbing.  If Hampstead wasn't so far away I would definitely consider going up there for more training rides. 

After the tough ride, you head back through the bumpy transition and then out onto the run for two loops of the run course.  The run finishes on a brutal uphill nicknamed Anaerobic ridge by the race organizer.  All in all not a bad race, but my plea is for the race organizer to add some bathrooms.

Miscellaneous race notes:

I finished 4th in my age group just missing out on a medal by about 5 minutes, that's still alot, so I won't let the near miss go to my head.  On a brighter note my good friend, Liz, whose idea this was anyway, won her age group which was very cool.  Congrats Liz!

A good friend of mine, who I encouraged to take up the sport of triathlon, chose Cascade Lake as his first triathlon.  This proved to be a questionable decision due to the severity of the bike course.  However, he managed to survive and finish his first race although he cramped badly near the end.  Congrats Cabha on completing your first race!  I hope you enjoy many more!

I have a 40K time trial and a sprint triathlon in the next two weeks and then I'm going to take a break before I start preparing for the end of the year.  I plan on switching over to a more run focused program including the Parks 1/2 marathon and the Baltimore marathon.  I'm looking forward to the challenge.  I hope to see you all there.

Peace and keep training..

Rob

Columbia Triathlon Results

If you read my last blog, I was proclaiming my return to the blogger sphere with increased fitness to boot. Well I can proudly say that after my first goal of the season, the Columbia triathlon, these were not mere words. Columbia was just my third Olympic distance triathlon, and by far the hardest. It also turned out to be my best performance by far. My swim time dropped from 41:36 at St. Anthony's last year, to 35:45. A reduction of almost 6 minutes and a better than 14% increase in performance! What a difference my 2009 swim focus made in my swimming progress! My race nutrition also improved as, despite the very hilly 10k run course, I did not bonk as happened last year during the St. Anthony triathlon. I also eclipsed my personal best at the Olympic distance by better than 4 minutes, despite a much more difficult bike course and crept with 2 minutes and 23 seconds of the elusive 3 hour mark.

The Race

Columbia is a superbly run race, the lake swim was a cool 70 degrees at the start. The swim is out and back,except the finish is actually at a different point than where you enter the water. It's a wet start, so you can get a short swim in before your wave gets underway.

Conditions for the race were good except for a light rain falling during the start of the bike leg. Luckily, the rain let up about half way into the bike course. The course starts out challenging with a number of tough climbs in the first 8 miles or so. Luckily I had ridden the course before hand so I knew what to expect. I took advantage of the very fast descents to overtake some of the more reluctant riders, who were cautious due to the wet roads. I also noticed a number of riders experienced flats and were forced to stop to repair them, luckily I avoided this fate. I pushed the pace on the bike until the last 2 miles or so when I geared down a bit and started to prepare my legs for the run. I had decided in training to trade some strength on the bike for greater run endurance. This decision paid huge dividends during the 10k run.

The run is one of the toughest 10Ks I have ever run. There are a number of hills that must be double digit grades. It made it very difficult to dial in your pace with the constant uphill / downhill changing of gears. I had prepared by running in my neighborhood which has quite a few hills, but I was truly not prepared for the severity of some of the hills. In the end, I ran just one second slower than the 10k I ran in my first Olympic distance triathlon 2 years ago. I consider this progress given the difficulty of the Columbia course.

This performance has given me enough confidence to try my first half Ironman next year. I may also do Columbia again, depending on life's demands. In the meantime I have 2 new goals on the horizon. My first USCF time trial in more than 10 years is on June 13th and the Tri-to-Win sprint triathlon is the following week. At Tri-to-Win, I am aiming for a new PR so I will spend the next few weeks ramping down the endurance rides and runs and adding doses of speed work. I'm looking forward to some of you guys joining me on those short, but painful days.

Til then.......

Keep training.....

Peace

Rob

I'm back..... and much fitter to boot!

I know..... I've been away. No excuses, but I do have REASONS! In February, I was abruptly transferred to a new project at work. My nice cushy, leave work at 5, became a , lucky to get home by 7:30! Despite this I have managed to stick very closely to my training schedule. The results have been, well, measurable. I started using my Real Axiom trainer pretty extensively earlier in the year when it was far too (fill in the blank with, cold, wet, cold & wet, you get the picture) crappy outside to ride. One of the real advantages of this trainer is the ability to get your power output. I created a couple of flat time trials of varying lengths late last year and used them as a baseline for comparison of my power output over those distances. About a week ago I took the tests again. My power was up a solid 5%! Not bad for 3 months of consistent solid training.

The constant training also brought with it one unexpected result, injury! Nothing serious, but for the first time in a long while I was experiencing pain directly related to the amount of training I was doing. The most exasperating, had to be the shoulder problems I began to experience with my increase in swimming. Since swimming is my weakest sport, I started my training with an increased focus in January. By March, I had a persistent soreness in my upper back, and a shooting pain down my back and arm when I tilted my head back. My arm would also go numb intermittently for no apparent reason. This made me realize I had some definite flaws in my stroke that needed some immediate attention. I started focusing on my arm NOT crossing over in front of my head during my entry and the pain has dissipated somewhat. I must also give credit to my excellent masseuse Chaye Wise and my chiropractor Dr. Roberson. Both have been instrumental in keeping me in one piece.

My singular focus to this point has been getting in enough training to be competitive at the Columbia triathlon . I rode the course a few weeks ago and it is tough. This makes Chris Lieto's course record of 56 minutes and change that much more amazing! Now that I feel I have enough fitness in the bank for Columbia, I have started to focus on the rest of the season. I am returning to the Tri-to-Win sprint triathlon again this year in an attempt at another PR. I am currently leading the fund raising for the event so if you want to donate to a great cause check out my fund raising page.

This also seems to be the year my training buddies have talked me into doing their races..... I have scheduled a duathlon, something I haven't done in at least 5 years, to support a friend, and my marathon crazed buddy Miquel, has finally talked me into doing a marathon (more on that in a future post).

On the purely cycling side of things I will undertake a USCF time trial for the first time in years in mid June. If memory servers me these are perhaps the hardest rides I have ever done, there really is no hiding in the race of truth.

Random thoughts....

I have put my rides, blogging, some resources etc., into one place, my website at www.clarencecycling.com. This lets people know what I'm up to, where I'm riding, and how to join me if they are so motivated. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think.

The Real Axion review.... it's coming after Columbia, I promise........

Mavic Tri Pro shoes... just got a pair..... review to follow.

Promotional note..... I have just met a triathlete from TriUnify, an organization dedicated to getting people and youth of color into the sport. Check out their website at www.triunify.com

Race season is upon us...... let's get fit out there....

Peace....

Rob