Tim Swanson

First outdoor ride of the year!

2009-03-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend the weather finally warmed up enough so that I, the biggest cold weenie in the world, ventured out onto the roads. Having suffered enough on early Spring rides, I had learned my lesson...so, here I am (in the middle) safely clad in darn near every stitch of cycling clothing I own.

(l to r) Dave, Tiffany, Jen, Me, Kathy, Steve, Josh. Not pictured: Jessi and Roger

Roger took pity on me the first half of the ride by not pushing the pace on his sweet new ride, and I actually felt pretty good for the first hour. I have been tweaking with my position recently, in an effort to get more aero and hide my chest from the wind. My latest "tweak" actually turned out to be a major drop in my handlebars, and while on the trainer I "looked" really aero, I was curious to see what riding outside would feel like. It took some getting used to and some pushing through the discomfort in my arms/shoulders/neck, but all in all it wasn't too bad. Steve even said at one point that he could tell I looked better. But the first downhill while in this new aero was, uh, a bit scary and unstable. I was hanging on for dear life! After that little wake up call, I decided that I needed to pay more attention to my handling. I also spent some time playing games with myself to see how long I could stay down in aero, just to try and speed up the adjustment period. My 5 min goal was easily met, so then it was on to 10, 15, and then even 20! Yipee!

As we left Riverside, I knew the inevitable "drop" was coming, and somehow, being mentally prepared for it seemed to make it easier to take. I didn't get into a negative space when I did get dropped, I just put my head down and continued to ride my own ride. Felt pretty good! I also knew that we were going into a bit of a headwind and climbing somewhat, so I just tried to make it up to the turnaround.

After a brief CHOMPS stop at the turn, I set a silent goal to hang with the group no matter what until we hit Riverside. Once off, the hammer went down and we were flying! It was tough, but I made it into Riverside without losing a wheel, and it brought back all the awesome memories of pace-lining and working my butt off with my awesome training partners.

Leaving Riverside again, I let the group go and settled in for what I knew was going to be a long, hard hour-ish of solo suffering. I think I would have probably made it, but it definitely would not have been pretty or fun. Fortunately, Dave also decided to take pity on me and wait to ride in with me. We shared the work and pulled eachother in over the last 10 miles, which really would have sucked solo. So thanks to Dave! Fun ridin' with ya, and looking forward to the next time where we will stay on the wheels just a bit longer.

Came in feeling tired and ready to get outta the saddle, but overall, pretty darn happy with my effort. First ride outside and I got close to 47 miles! Nice!! I'll take that any day. Oh yeah, and while it did sprinkle a few times, the weather was pretty darn nice. And the roads were mostly clear, but SOMEHOW, all of my wheel-sucking resulted in a pretty muddy bike and Tim.

Not as bad as in the past, but still a look of "I was out doing some good, hard work"

Now THAT is some sweet mud!! No wonder I thought I felt like something was rubbing my tire! Ha ha ha ha!

My new "paint job" :)

That's what you get for sitting on!

Unfortunately I didn't finish my ride so far behind the group to allow them time enough to go out and do their transition run.....so, I was talked into a short run. Ugh. Just like old times, Steve dragged my slow butt through the first 2.5 miles before he decided he'd had enough of slow running and took off.

All in all, it was an awesome day. My first real brick in who knows how long. And, yes, I still remember how to ride a bike! Woo hoo!

So.......I decided I deserved a nice reward once I got home. Ahhhhhhh, a bit of my own concoction, in the IM glass, of course!

Its (baby) game time!

2009-03-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well, the days remaining until our due date are rapidly dwindling, and things are starting to happen. We can see very clearly from looking at Andy that Elise has "dropped", and Andy is starting to feel some new things that indicate that labor is most likely imminent.

Elise's room is pretty much ready to go, with all the essentials in place. Andy has done a great job over the last few weeks doing lots of laundry and organizing things in preparation for our baby's first trip home. We have said a number of times lately that we are ready to go, and all we need now is a baby!

We had a doctor appointment yesterday, and have another one in a week. As we were leaving yesterday, we said "ok, see you in a week". To which the doctor said "or tomorrow...she could decide to come any time now." Yikes!!

So.....with all that said, its time for all of you to get the competitive juices flowing and start thinking about your guesses as to when we will get to meet Baby Elise! We have set up an online game (see link below), where you can go to enter your guesses (birthday, length, weight), or you can just post a comment to this blog post. We are all pretty confident that she's a girl, but hey, if you are feeling daring and want to try and outfox the competition to earn some extra points, I suppose you are free to guess that she's actually gonna be a "he" :) Please note, however, that if you go this route, you will send Andy and I into a nervous fit which may take years to recover from, so choose carefully! :)

Wanna know what you're playing for? Cause really, what would a good game be without prizes!! The winner of this awesome game will receive a) bragging rights throughout the entire world, b) a $25 gift certificate to the ice cream joint of your choice, and c) the first invitation to view a special, private on-line photo album where we will post the first pictures of Elise! Worth playing for?

Okie dokie, let the games begin! Good luck to all! Especially us!! :)

http://www.expectnet.com/games/Elise_Swanson

Shifting priorities

2009-02-03T16:26:00.001-08:00

Hmmm, 2 months, no blogging. Guess I've been a bit preoccupied. Between the holidays (8 people in our house), the feet and feet of snow (I think I actually developed a mild case of wrist tendinitis from all the shoveling), and the little freight train bearing down on our lives (56 days to go as of this writing), blogging has dropped way off the to-do list.

I had a fairly successful string of December workouts, getting in a few 2hr + rides in the sweaty, smelly Thompson basement, and a few decent long swims. Running hasn't been all that consistent, which I find odd because running has always been "my thing" that I always go back to.

Still having fun.... :)

As predicted, once 2009 hit, the impending arrival of our baby girl quickly assumed a position in the forefront of my conscience. I find it funny how one day (Dec 31) it can seem so far off by saying "next year", and mere hours later its like I'm in full-on crisis mode. Waaaaaaa!!!! Baby arriving THIS YEAR!!!

After a few weeks of trying to balance my weekly schedule of workouts with baby preparations, I finally had had enough. On Jan 15, as I stood in my daughter's nursery, I was paralyzed with feelings of dread and being overwhemed and underprepared. It literally looked like a cyclone had ripped thru the room, the result of random attempts to try and organize it. Lets just say that it was in no shape to be a first home to a newborn. I think it looked kind of like a college freshman's dorm room.

As a result, I made the tough, but right, decision to pull back significantly from my group workouts and focus on the home front. Taking my bike out of its cozy home in the Thompson's basement was difficult and a bit sad, but I knew that I needed it. While I sorely miss my training partners and the many great memories made while sweating for hours on end, the progress we have made at home on the nursery and house in general have been awesome. I feel so much better prepared to bring this kid home, and it has lifted an enormous weight off of my shoulders.

Of course, I still get the occasional good-natured "where you at's???" from my crew, but I think (hope) they understand. I feel much more grounded and at peace by making good decisions on which workouts to get to, and which to skip. I am thankful for the workouts I can make, and I have finally learned to stop dwelling on and regretting the ones I don't make. I knew that this triathlon year would be different for me with no Ironman, and now I'm finally in the execution stage of this "change". It has been hard, and I know that the next 8 months will be harder, but I continue to be super-excited to get to this next great adventure!
Still working out....just maybe not as much.

What will tomorrow hold? Who knows.....but I bet it will be pink! :)

That's what friends are for...

2008-12-10T10:44:00.001-08:00

....friends know you well enough to give you space when you need it, and push you to do things that you know you should be doing, even when you don't really feel like it.

I am fortunate enough to have 3 of these kinds of people in my life:

Jessi

Steve

Tiffany

Now, I know the last time I was in the water, but it was so long ago, I am too embarrased to say. Needless to say, my team had noticed my extended absence from the pool, and finally got fed up with hearing my myriad excuses (trip to Europe, tattoo, lazy, fat, slow, etc). So, they staged a sort of "triathlete's intervention". Rather than saying "hey lets all get together to swim!", it was more of "hey, the 4 of us are swimming this week....you tell us when". No escape this time!

Uh, what exactly is this mysterious blue thing???

We decided on Wednesday morning at 5:30. Ugh. Fear kept me from asking if we were going to do a formal workout. You see, while I have been spending many glorious months forgetting how to swim (an actual fear I have had), all three of my psychologists have been working their butts off in the pool and getting wicked fast. I don't have any verifiable evidence of this fact (probably because I forgot just where the pool is located), but knowing these 3, I am sure they are.

Fortunately, they took some pity on me and we mostly played around and laughed our butts off trying to get Tiffany's sweet new underwater camera to work. Highlights were the 4 x person synchronized breaststroke (we are damn good) and Steve trying to talk his way out of being beaten by a girl! And was I in any mood to stop the fun and games?? HECK NO!! In true hard core A+ style, Jessi did make us do a small pyramid. Probably just to teach me the hard lesson of why I shouldn't have taken so much time off. I struggled to get thru one freaking 150. Not good! But, I guess when you are at rock bottom in the pool, ya gotta start somewhere, right?!

So, why do I love my team??
- Because sometimes it is nice to be missed.
- Because it really says something when they will get up damn early on a Wednesday to come swim with me, even when I know good and well that they would rather be sleeping.
- Because they know just the right ways to motivate me.
- Because they give me just the right amount of guilt for missing a workout (or 100 workouts).
- Because without them, I would be nowhere near the athlete and person I am today.

The best team ever! Thanks for the push guys! :)

Struggling to keep it going

2008-11-26T12:40:00.001-08:00

After a weekend of two zeros (but one damn fun party!), I spent Monday in a negative funk and was resigned to a lazy, pissed off, early to bed with no workout kind of night.

Fortunately, my team once again came to my rescue. Jessi and Natalie were scheduled to do a 90 min ride, and I was motivated just enough to go. Then Steve-o joined in, and voila! Instant weekday ride! With my crappy Monday, I was sort of expecting a blah ride, but I was hoping that maybe a good sweat session might snap me out of the funk. Not sure if it solved all my ills, but I did end up having a great ride. That's big for me, cause usually trainer rides aren't all that productive. I even succeeded in working up to a Zone 3 average heart rate, so that was a bonus. I suspect it was the presence of 3 awesome training buddies. So, thanks guys! I am glad I came.

Me, vertigo-less Jessi, headband rockin' Steve, and basketball goddess Natalie pound out the miles in the basement.

So, with an anti-zero Monday, it was off to the gym Tuesday night for another butt kicking by Steve. It made it easier to go when Andy agreed to go and do some cardio, so off into the night we went. Imagine my suprise and delight when Natalie came back for another hour of pain. And then, Trish stepped up and joined the party! Nice!! We did an intense 40 min of arm pounding, during which I quickly became frustrated at how I seem to be getting weaker with every strength training session. Uh, isn't strength training supposed to make me capable of doing more pushups rather than less??? Anyway, I made it thru ok, though my body didn't seem to have much to throw at this workout. Oh well. Something is better than nothing, right? Then we all went to get ice cream. Sweet! At least there was one good thing from the workout. :)

Fast forward a mere 8.25 hours, and I am up again, headed to the gym for more "pain with Steve". Hmmmmm, how many catchy names can I come up with for these workouts? :)
The weird thing this morning though, is that I am not really all that sore in specific places from yesterday. Rather, its just a general lack of energy throughout my body.

In fact, I feel kind of like this:

A big pile of useless bricks

My only hope is that I am somehow moving thru the stages of strength training, and I will soon arrive at the "feel awesome, feel stronger, can actually see muscles getting more defined" stage. Faith. Patience. I know that's what it will take to get to this stage. Two things I don't have alot of when it comes to this kind of stuff. Which makes Steve's job that much harder. If he can somehow convince me to keep doing this, I will count that as a major victory for him. Good luck, buddy! :) Right now the count is at 4 sessions. Which is 3 more than any other strength training routine I have ever embarked on. So far, so good. I just hope it pays off next season. And actually "seeing" some results would be nice too.

This changes everything....

2008-11-19T13:46:00.001-08:00

Well, we had our first ultrasound yesterday, and here she is!

Yes, the first time I heard our baby's heartbeat, it was cool and it helped make the pregancy a little more "real". But yesterday took the cake. I guess maybe I am a visual learner, but seeing our baby on the screen, in real time, moving around, well, that somehow :) changed everything. For the good.

In the short span of about 20 minutes, a few major, life changing things happened:

1. I became a big, sappy, softy of a (almost) parent.
2. I have a new favorite song: John Mayer's "Daughters".
3. I think I could very easily cry tears of joy at any moment. In the past, it took me 140.3 miles of racing to get to that point.
4. I believe that an unborn hand can be wrapped firmly around my finger.
5. I understand the term "Daddy's little girl".
6. I am having visions. Like visions of some of this kid's major life events. Like first steps, first word, first run, walking her down the aisle, etc.

And yeah, we only have 10 or so pictures of this kid, but I already have a favorite:

Our little daughter is tired in this picture. How do I know? You might think it could be because during the entire ultrasound she was moving around and doing flips like crazy (uh, a product of 2 very active people maybe???). But no, you'd be wrong. If you have ever seen ME when I get tired, I rub my eyes. Whoa, this little one really is her daddy's girl! :)

Damn. This is all pretty cool!

And finally a shout out to the other third of our little (but growing) family. Andy is doing a great job keeping our baby warm, and fed, and safe. Considering that she's never done this before, and her body undergoing some pretty major changes, she is doing amazingly well. And I wouldn't want anyone else in the world to hang out with my baby than Andy. Love you, AP! :)

OUCH!

2008-11-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

So, the tattoo thing turned out to be the easiest, least painful part of my weekend.

After watching the Beavs beat the snot out of the poor Cal Bears on Saturday...

...I stupidly coordinated with Steve to being my journey to strength training nirvana on Sunday morning. And I thought the tattoo was uncomfortable!

I had seen these things around the gym before, but every time I approached them, I got scared and ran away....

But Steve offered to kick my butt sufficiently so that I would look like this by the end of the winter. Cause that is supposed to make me go faster in races?

In reality, I knew that some sort of winter strength training regimen probably wouldn't be all that bad, and might indeed improve my speed next season.

Steve proceeded to spend almost 90 minutes with this, beating me senseless.

We did more stuff than I care to remember, and when I woke up on Monday morning, I felt like this:

Uh, the CAR, not the tank, by the way.

I was sore in places I never have been sore before. I am writing this on Tuesday. And I am still way sore. We are supposed to lift again tomorrow. Fear and dread fills my body. I hope that maybe we can back it off just a tad for awhile, to give my body a chance to adjust to this new crap.

To quote Dire Straits: "Sometimes you're the Louisville Slugger, sometimes you're the ball."

Today, I am the ball.

I just hope that Steve has enough motivational power to keep me going. That will no doubt be HIS toughest test this off season. :)

Tat-ing up!

2008-11-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well, after talking about it for 3 years, I finally took the plunge and got my one and only tattoo.

BEFORE:

Still a chance to turn back...

But not now! Brent the artist at work

It is done! And I am still alive!!
AFTER:

While it wasn't completely painless, it really wasn't all that bad. It was uncomfortable, and kind of annoying. Lets just say it was uncomfortable enough that I probably won't be getting another one any time soon. Or ever, really, cause this is the only one I ever wanted.

I AM AN IRONMAN!

Starting over

2008-11-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

So, this is how I have been feeling lately...

And yes, I know everyone will say "Whatever!", but, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too is laziness and Jabba-the-Hut-ness. So, if I have been feeling like a fat slug/Star Wars alien mobster lately, then I have become a fat slug. Not good.

Although I have been forbidden from using excuses since my A+ team discovered Rule 76, I have been struggling with trying to find an explanation for my recent blah-ness. Uh, recent, if you count 13 weeks as "recent". Bascially since the epic race Steve and I had in CDA way back in August, I have been feeling "off". Some of the top candidates for explaining this are:

1. Our 2 weeks of galavanting all around Europe. The jet lag, Dutch cheese, French crepes, and Swiss chocolate must have scrambled my diet sufficiently to require 3+ months of recovery.

2. My loss to Steve at CDA Olympic. This must have done something to the deep inner workings of my psyche that caused my inherent lazy-gene to become dominant. Clearly, if this is the explanation, then we must never let this happen again. In fact, I believe that to solve this problem, Steve and I need to race again ASAP and I need to win. This could work out well....Steve just finished the 70.3 World Championships, so he's tired. And he's still maybe a bit injured. So, we are going to race a marathon, which gives me a pretty good chance at winning. Sweet.

3. I am going to be a father. Soon. Now that I have been forced into coming to grips with this fact, and because I have had to take care of an occasionally sick, diet-limited wife, I have been rendered totally incapable of working out. Clearly. But seriously, this thing called couvade is real, my friends! Google it! And I must have it bad....

4. Some combination of all of the above. :)

Whatever the explanation, I am in the doldrums, and I need to snap out of it. There are seriously days or workouts when I am feel so sluggish and fat that I find it incomprehensible that I have actually done 3 Ironmans, including one pretty fast (for me) a mere 144 days ago. Or that I did a sub-3:30 marathon 39 days ago! To quote one of my favorite Bruce Hornsby songs: "What the hell happened to me?"

I don't know, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of this current version of "me". So, I am officially starting over.

Day one was yesterday, a rare mid-week day off from work (thanks, fellow Veterans, for all of your sacrifices, by the way). I could have very very easily slept in, did a bunch of crap around the house, and be lazy. The stars were perfectly aligned for such a day. But I decided NO! I said to myself "You have been a slacker, and so, you must be punished by way of an ass-kicking morning of workouts".

Ass kicking #1: Out of bed shortly after 4am. And on the road to the gym shortly thereafter.

Here's the proof:

What is this foreign place???

Ass kicking #2: My old standby twice a week workout, the 60/30 brick. The 5:00am spin class followed by a transition to a 30 min treadmill run. Back in 2006, in the lead-up to my first Ironman, I did this workout consistently, and I give it credit to my love of "running off the bike".

Supposedly they call this a "spin bike". Hmmmm...interesting

Getting set up for the class felt very weird. Maybe because I hadn't done it in...uh...well, I can't remember. But I remembered my towel! And water bottle!

And cycling shoes! And running shoes!! Am I really going to do this workout???

The spin class was, as expected, tough, although knowing where I was fitness-wise, I tried (and mostly succeeded) at taking it a bit easy. It felt weird being back on a spin bike after such a long hiatus, but I managed the hour pretty well.

Then it was off to the treadmill for 30 min. I settled into 8:30s, and they felt ok. Not super-tough, but I was working. I passed the time (forgot my iPod...oops) by working on flattening out my foot strike, which for me constitutes a major shift in my running form. I decided to use the controlled environment of the treadmill to focus on this, and what better time than the cold, dark winter! I would count out 100 flat foot strikes on the left, 100 on the right, and then 200 on both. While it felt a bit weird and my lower leg/ankle muscles hurt a bit, I did feel like had I been going faster I might have felt a positive difference. After my run, my body was energized, but tired. Always a good feeling.

Why have I been such a slacker? It makes me feel like this......

To reward myself for actually getting my butt out of bed at 4:15am on a holiday, I went to Starbucks. Boo yeah.
Then I went home to rest up and recover before my next workout. Even so, pretty cool to be home before 8am and have a solid workout under my belt.

Part 1 done!

In the time it took to get my drink at SBUX, the rain started. By the time I had arrived at the sight of my next workout 3 hours later, it was a downpour.

Thank goodness I enjoy running in the rain!

Ass kicking #3:

Why I agreed to do a 10k trail run with Josh and Michael B, I still have no idea. These guys are 2 of the faster runners in the area. So, why in the hell do I seem to have this knack of replying "Yes" to crazy workouts posted on the forum by crazy fast athletes??? Must be more of that punishment thing. Thank goodness Bryan Rowe showed up, so I wasn't left too alone and lost out there on the trails. Uh, until he decided to drop my butt too. Oh well.

And it is cold out there too....

This run was fast, hilly, muddy, wet, painful, a suffer-fest, and....damn fun. Hosh and Michael took off into the forest like a pair of fleet-footed wilderness dwellers and managed to find more than a few "trails" that veered off directly up the steepest part of a hill. I realized that I was in over my head when the following exchange occurred 5 min into the run:

Hosh: Did any of you look at the elevation profile on the route map?

Us: Nope.

Hosh: Good. (then speeds away at a sub-7 pace looking like he's out for a Sunday stroll)

Me (to myself): I hate Hosh. And I hate me for replying "Yes"

Within a mile I was cooked and my heart rate was in the stratosphere. I knew we had gained some major elevation when I found myself running in the clouds. Every now and then Hosh and Michael would appear around a corner doubling back, pretending that they had gotten lost. While this did serve to keep us all closer together now and then, I think they were just toying with Bryan and I. Or maybe they were just looking to get a few more miles in.

In the end, I did survive, and Hosh gave me some props for making it thru the run after doing a workout earlier that morning. It was fun watching Hosh and Michael push each other ala Steve and I, except that it was happening way faster. And it was really fun getting in my car and turning on the seat warmers to high. And then going home.

Whew! I was home by 11:30am, my self-inflicted punishment complete. I only hope that I can SOMEHOW maintain this momentum and find my spark again soon. Cause if I don't, I may indeed end up being cast to play Jabba the Hut in the next Star Wars movie.

The times they are a'changing...

2008-10-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

So, why did I end the last post by stating "Who knows what next year will look like" as far as my triathlon/racing life goes?

Because just about the time the 2009 season gets going, I WILL BE A DAD!!!

Andy and I are super excited, and super freaked out for the next great adventure of our lives. Off we go into the great unknown of parenthood. About the only thing we know for sure right now is that our lives are for sure about to be turned upside down.

We have had one appointment already, where we got to hear the heartbeat...that was pretty cool. The nurse reported that the little a+ had a pulse of 156. And of course in true obsessive triathlete form, I immediately thought "Perfect! Clicking right along in Zone 3, nice aerobic workout, kid" Ha ha ha.

So, when will my next race be? Who knows! When will I train/eat/sleep? Who knows! But I do know that I can't wait to cross an Ironman finish line with this as yet unidentified child. That'll be pretty awesome.

Not sure what else to say, since I really don't know what is about to happen. But I am totally psyched, and can't wait to see this kid!!

Portland Marathon race report

2008-10-10T16:43:00.001-07:00

PORTLAND MARATHON 2008

Portland was my first marathon way back 9 years ago. Even though I bonked hard at Mile 18, that race has always been one of the highlights of my running career, because I got to do the race with my dad. That bonk, though, left a bad taste in my mouth, and I always knew that one day I would get back there and do this race right. So the stars finally aligned in 2008. My training was pretty good after our trip to Europe, and I felt very confident that I could set a PR and go sub 3:30.

We left Spokane at 5am on Saturday, and picked up Andy's sister Megan at the train station in Portland, then we headed off to packet pickup and the expo. We ran into fellow Tri Fusion-ers Dave and Tasha Gordon in the parking garage below the hotel, which was actually the lower level of the expo. Weird... But cool to see some familiar faces in the crowd. I had a nice "9 years later" nostalgia moment walking into the hotel; I was momentarily taken back to that very first marathon...pretty cool. After a quick cruise thru the expo, we headed for my parents place out west, and chilled out for the rest of the afteroon.

After a restless night of sleep (why the heck was I nervous???) the 3 of us got ready and headed for downtown. It was cloudy out, but not raining. Yet. In 37 years of this race (in rainy Portland, Oregon, mind you) it had never rained on race day. That's pretty shocking if you know anything about Stumptown or if you grew up in P-town. Well, today, the Portland Marathon's luck had run out. It started raining shortly after the start and would not quit until well after the race had ended for most. I was psyched about this turn of events, because I love running in the rain, and it kept the temps down in the "perfect" range for running marathons.

In the days leading up to the race I wrestled with how to tactically approach my race, trying to balance my confidence with my recent race performances. I decided to take advantage of the pacing services offered by Portland's Team Red Lizard running team and run with the 3:30 pace group, for a number of reasons. First, my Disneyland Half experience reinforced the lesson to go out slow, especially in a marathon. Second, 3:30 equates to 8:00 pace, which is way easier for me to remember and calculate splits from than 3:20 pace (which is 7:38 pace....boo non-round numbers!) Lastly, I thought that, on the off chance that I felt really really really good at Mile 19 or 20, it would be better to try and chase down the 3:20 group than to try and hold off the 3:30 pace group as I died the last 6 miles.

The first mile or so of any big race is always crowded, and I'm used to being boxed in and having to fight to find clear running room. No difference here, but the one thing I failed to think about was the effect that staying with a pace group would have. Apparantly 3:30 is a very popular time goal, and so this group was at least 100 strong thru the first half of the race. I kept expecting things to thin out as they always do in big races, but it doesn't happen when you are in such a big pace group. Oh well. No worries. I contented myself to yo-yo'ing off the back of the group, a) in an effort to conserve energy, and b) to get some clearer running room. Looking back, this was one of my best moves of the day.

I remember looking around at Mile 10 at this huge group and wondering "how many of you people feel as good as I do right now? How many of you will be left at Mile 24?" I knew I would still be there, cause at this point, I felt incredibly good. In fact, at every aid station where the group inevitably slowed up some, I always found myself zooming up to the front of the group with seemingly zero effort.

I'm super-glad that I put some semi-serious thought and course recon in before the race, because I had decided that I would not move ahead of the 3:30 pace group until Mile 19, no matter how good I felt. I won't lie, it was hard, but I ended up playing a game with myself to see how close I could get to the pacer without going in front of him.

We hit the half in 1:43, just a shade under pace, but these Red Lizard guys knew what they were doing, banking a bit of time for the big climb up to the St. John's Bridge that hit at Mile 16.

Portland's version of "Doomsday"

Everyone always freaks out about the hill up to and over the bridge, and with good reason. Its not really all that steep, but the fact that it comes at Mile 17 makes it tough. But, I had run over this bridge plenty of times in college, and when we got there, it felt like I was back on my home turf. Doesn't hurt that I love to run up hills! I zoomed up the hill with no problem, staying right on the shoulder of the pacer.

This picture must be from last year....cause I don't see the rivers of water flowing down the back side of the bridge :)

I did the ceremonial "spit off the middle of the bridge" at the top, then freaked out as the group pulled a Steve-o and tried to lose me on the downhill. Aaaakkk! I managed to stay with them this time, then we settled back into what still felt like an easy pace. Off thru the neighborhoods of North Portland and then we arrived back "home" at the University of Portland. I stupidly looked for some familiar faces up on the Bluff, then realized that I had not lived there in over 10 years. Ugh. I'm old!

Mile 20, and it was decision time. Ironically, this is the point 9 years ago where I was in full bonk mode. My my, how far I've come! I couldn't hold back any longer. I finally moved ahead of the pacer, said my silent goodbyes to the friendly lizard on a stick, and set off in search of my PR.

I think its kind of funny how warped your brain can get during a long race. Once I moved ahead of the 3:30 pace group, I was feeling great and flying by a ton of people, thinking, hey, that was me 9 years ago. At least at the time it felt like I was flying by them. Because of these sensations, my brain tricked itself into thinking that within a measly span of 1 mile, I must have put at least 3 minutes on the pace group. Ha ha ha. After they caught me at Mile 25, I came to the realization that I probably never got more than a minute in front of them. Just funny how brains work after 3+ hours of running.

Anyway, I didn't walk until almost Mile 24, which, even though I've done 11 marathons, is the farthest I have ever run non-stop. It was just a 10 second break to get my last GU Roctane down. Then I was off again, still thinking that I had at least a few minutes on the pace group. Up the hill to the Broadway Bridge with no problem, then my legs said ouch as I descended the hill to the last aid station. Just like in CDA with Steve, that last downhill did me in, and I was forced to walk again at the bottom. What got me running again was the shock and surprise of seeing that damn lizard on a stick go by me. No way I'm gonna let that thing beat me! Turns out, in a wonderful twist of irony, that the Red Lizard guy who paced the 3:30 group thru the second half of the race was named, of course, STEVE. It was fate. Meant to be. Of course I was going to beat him! :) Well, either that, or he'd run my ass into the ground over the last half mile. I responded to the pass and somehow managed to get back to the lizard, just about the time I started to try and count the number of blocks I had left. Looking at my watch, and it was gonna be close. Stay with the lizard, and I wouldn't make it. Beat him, and I might just get my sub-3:30. As I predicted way back at Mile 10, at Mile 25 all that remained of our once-powerful group was Pacer Steve, me, and 6 others. It felt great to be one of the proud "survivors".

Huge thanks to the Team Red Lizard pacers, Jacob and Steve!

I made my last "lizard pass" with 15 blocks to go and gave it all I had. Kendra Edlin, another Tri Fusion-er screamed at me and told me I looked great. I was thankful for the many great moments I have had this season, because I needed every one of them. I thought of Jessi talking me into racing Onionman with my road rash. I thought of my A+ team willing me to a sub-12 Ironman in June. I thought of Steve pushing me at Tiger and kicking my butt at CDA. And I suddenly found the strength to fight for what I wanted. 6 blocks to go, one last look at my watch...I hope I can run a block in less than 30 seconds! :) The last 3 blocks were a slight uphill (where you at now, Steve????) but I couldn't feel it. I saw my brother and mom and dad yelling for me at the last corner, and took one last look at my watch. 3:29:15 with less than a block to go. YES!!! Victory in the rain! 3:29:34!! I wanted it, I fought for it, and I got it. So satisfying!

Sure...now it stops raining, after we are all done!

Always good to be back home...only wish the weather looked like this for race weekend!

It was a great way to end my season. And now I'm happy to be done for awhile. I am sure my body needs a break.

Who knows what next year will look like...but 2008 was definitely a success! (read on to the next post) :)

Disneyland Half Marathon

2008-10-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

Not sure how smart it was, but a mere 5 days after flying home from Paris, we hopped on another plane and headed to SoCal to run the Disneyland Half Marathon. This is the 3rd running of this race, and we've done them all, so we just had to keep the streak going.

The day before we left for Anaheim, I started feeling the onset of a cold, and by the time we got to the hotel, my sinuses were "fully engaged". Even though I had done one semi-hard run on Thursday with Steve, my body was still feeling the after effects of jet lag. Adding a cold on top of that was not a good sign.

I tried to tell myself that my goals were still achievable, mainly hoping that I could tough out 90 minutes and then let my body fall apart. This race is huge (over 10,000) but it is super anti-competitive. Most people run it for the scenery and chance to run through the Disneyland theme parks, and the last 2 years I have placed pretty high. Last year, I was 10th in my age group, so this year my goal was to try and get in the top 5 so I could get an award. I was a bit suspect of my training (or lack thereof) in Europe, and when I started feeling sick, the quiet voice in the back of my head saying "don't count on a top 5 this year" started getting louder.

Even so, I decided I would try and go out fast and try and hold on for as long as I could. Uh, bad move. Turns out that after a 6:40 first mile (which, assuming I was in good shape would have been my goal pace), it was all downhill after that. Or maybe that's uphill. Whatever is harder. I knew by mile 4 that I was in trouble and had no shot to break 1:30, so I began to ease off and not fall apart too fast. It was very frustrating watching runner after runner fly by me, but I knew that it just wasn't going to happen. Didn't matter how "tough" I tried to be. Sometimes, it just isn't there.

By Mile 9, I started to feel a little better, maybe because of the few aid stations that I walked thru. In the last half of the race, there were a ton of groups of boy/girl scouts, cheerleaders, bands, etc out cheering, and that gave me a nice boost to keep plugging along. As we went around Angel Stadium, I found that I was actually keeping up with and, *gasp* gaining on a few other runners. Maybe they went out too fast too, and just died a little later than I did. I'm not sure how many people were stupid enough to go out so fast that they died 4 miles into a half marathon. I know of at least one! :) I did end up passing a few folks, which buoyed my spirits somewhat, and by Mile 11 I decided maybe I should try and pick it up for the last 2 miles. Not really sure how much I actually picked it up, but it felt like I was running faster. At least there's that! Coming into the park for the last time, there were cast members and characters out cheering, and all I could do was give a little "oh well, that sucked" shrug of the shoulders. I think I may have even said that to a few people.

In the end, I somehow (ha ha ha) managed to run a 1:41:32, which considering how darn sick I was isn't too bad. Just way slower than I had hoped to run. Oh well. I was 333rd overall out of 10,000+ and 37th in my age group. I still think its kind of weird to be disappointed in finishing that high, but it is definitely my worst performance at this race. I managed to get over it pretty quick though, mainly because the 3 days after the race I couldn't get out of bed. Yeah, guess I was pretty freaking sick. And maybe still a bit jet lagged too :) Here's hoping for a better race next year!

The best run EVER!

2008-10-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons we took our trip over to Europe in August was to be the witnesses for our friends Lisa and Peter's wedding in Switzerland. When they lived in Spokane, Peter and I used to run together, so I was excited to try and get in a run with him during our stay in the Swiss Alps.

Running in Amsterdam and London was cool (got to run with my friend Eric thru St James' Park, which was awesome), but getting out of the big cities and into the clean, crisp air of Switzerland was, literally, a wonderful breath of fresh air. The Interlaken/Grindelwald area is a hotbed of outdoor sports, so I was psyched to do a run and soak in at least some of the energy.

On the morning of the wedding, Peter and I got up early and headed up the valley to the small town of Lauterbrunnen. All of the towns around Interlaken look like they are right out of the movies...exactly what you would picture of a Swiss Alpine village, and Lauterbrunnen had its fair share of chalets.

We took off up the main road at a crazy pace thanks to Peter, and after about 5 min my legs and lungs were screaming for some more oxygen. But the sights that I had all around totally took away any pain my body was feeling. After leaving town, we set out up a narrow road with small farms and chalets on either side, jammed up against the sides of the sheer gorge walls. I am not kidding when I say the gorge we were in must have been 1000 feet deep. Made the Columbia River Gorge look like a small drainage ditch. Every now and then, we passed a thin veil of water cascading down the walls of the gorge, and within a mile, we found ourselves running beside a raging glacier-fed river. I couldn't decide whether to stare at the strangely emerald-green water (due to the minerals in the glaciers) or up at the glaciers themselves, which were on all sides. We came around a bend and were treated to an amazing view of the Jungfrau, one of the most famous peaks in the Swiss Alps.

Thankfully, as we continued to climb, Peter slowed the pace, but the scenery just would not stop. 3 miles in, and we decided to head back down the valley. As we made our way back to town, we watched para-gliders and parachutists who had jumped off the top of the cliffs, and were buzzed by helicopters ferrying tourists up to the glaciers.

It was about this time that I started noticing that there were kilometer markers out on the road leading back to town, and people were out putting up sponsor banners on bridges and houses. Hmmmm, could a race be in town?? As it turns out, later that weekend was the Inferno Triathlon. Peter guessed that it was "a big dose of hell in this little part of heaven" After checking out their website, he could not have been more right. Something like a 2 mile swim in a glacier-fed lake, a 90 mile road ride up (and I do mean UP) to Grindelwald, a 19 mile mountain bike thru the mountains, and finishing up with a 15 mile run from Lauterbrunnen UP to the top of the gorge. One of these days, I am so doing this race!!! Check it out: http://www.inferno.ch/

Anyway, we got back into town and Peter promptly dropped me with a devastating downhill kick (I think that he and Steve must have conferred before we came over), and I totally flailed down the hill to the car. We mapped it out later, and it was a good solid 10k. My legs hurt like hell, but I desparately wished it could have been 100k. Amazing scenery, clean mountain air, running with a buddy who I haven't run with in forever....I have run thousands of miles in lots of different places, but this one was without a doubt the best run I have ever had. I just wish we had thought to bring a camera. Damn! But, these picts capture some of the scenery...

And to top off the day, Lisa and Peter got married! Overall, it was a pretty great day.

A+ .... Paris style!

2008-09-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

In honor of my awesome A+ team, I decided to bring a little bit of the A+ mojo to Paris.

Try #1.... not bad, sporting the Tri Fusion look, but it must be better!

Try #2.... getting better, but not true A+ quality

And there it is...the money shot!!!

Special thanks to Andy, who put up with many, many versions. This whole photo shoot took about a half hour, and we certainly looked like the typical American tourists doing dumb things in Europe. But oh, if they only knew of the A+ love!!

Playing catch up -- Troika and CDA Olympic

2008-09-16T11:23:00.001-07:00

Well, its been way too long since I blogged, and a ton has happened since my last post. So, in an attempt to get back on track, I'll do an all-in-one summary of my last 2 tri's of the season.

First up was Troika, a local 1/2 Ironman that I did for the first time last year. That race didn't go so well, mainly because that was the race where my plantar faciitis started. Foot pain aside, I really didn't have a good race in 07, so this year my goal was to do a more consistent, smarter effort. Other than that, I didn't have any time or placing goals in mind...this race was going to be purely a race against myself.

2 other things weighed on my mind going into Troika: one, I absolutely despise this distance, because I have never figured out if I should try and go fast (like an olympic) or go slower and enjoy the day (like Ironman). My 2 previous 1/2's have been miserable. In fact, I think they were both tougher on me than any of my 3 Ironmans. Second, I was still getting used to my new, more aggressive bike position, and I was a bit worried how my body would hold up over 56 miles.

All things considered, however, I felt great race morning: rested, confident in my training, and ready for a good day. We got to Medical Lake very early, to secure a primo transition spot, and I spent a good hour trying to stay warm before the sun came up.

Feeling relaxed, ready for a good day.

Hmmmm, these arms look a bit wimpy...no wonder I get killed in the swim

Speaking of the swim, it was ok, but nothing to write home about. My effort was nice and even, and I felt like I stayed on course pretty well. By this point in the season, I know that I am going to be way down coming out of the water, and I've learned to not get stressed or bummed about it. So mentally, it was a good swim. Got some good cheers from my Tri Fusion friends on the way up to T1 and was out of my wetsuit and on to the bike in no time! I am really happy with how my T1's have improved this year...I'll attribute it to my awesome B70 wetsuit (way easier to get out of) and clipping my shoes onto my bike before the race.

Off I go!

This year, I held myself back on the first 15 miles of the bike, and it really paid off. I still passed a bunch of people, but I didn't feel like I was pushing.

Me and my new, more aero bike position. I like the looks of this waaaaayyyy better than in the past...much less upper torso exposure to the wind.

Hmmmm, still looking a little upright, but could be the fact that I'm 40 miles in....still smiling at least!

My bike time was 2:33, almost 5 min faster than last year, and coming off the bike I felt amazingly fresh.

My "steady/consistent effort" goal went right out the window when I started the run...I blazed out of T2 at close to 7:00 pace (aka way too fast for me in a half). The good news was that I caught up to a guy who seemed to be running my pace, and I settled in next to him. Imagine my good fortune when I asked his name. Steve! It just would not do to be racing with anyone whose name was anything other than Steve. Again, more awesome cheers from the gang, including Trish on the mega-fusion, kept me clicking along nicely. I still have not yet gotten used to the idea of hearing my name before I can even see the cheer squad :) In fact, Troika Steve even commented once on how many people out there seemed to know me. I told him I was famous. Ok, not really, but still, its pretty freaking cool to have a ton of support out there. I was doing fine until I hit Mile 8, and then I had to struggle to get home in one piece. After leaving Troika Steve in the dust, "local Steve" and Team Thompson found me and were nice enough to yell some encouraging words out the car window. Something like "it hurts the same whether you are going fast or slow, so you might as well go fast". Ha. Whatever. Their presence, although annoying because it meant I couldn't walk, was awesome, and I'm sure was the main reason I was able to get to the line in under 5 hours. Barely. My finish time was 4:57:50. All in all, a darn good day. I still don't like 1/2's, but this one was the best one of the 3 I have done.

The next week, it was time for the long-awaited rematch between Steve and I, and there was quite a bit of friendly trash talking in the days leading up to the race. It sounded like there were going to be quite a few Tri Fusion folks out either racing or watching, so there was a little added pressure.

My mom-in-law Jennifer and my sis-in-law Megan happened to be coming thru town on their way to moving Megan to Seattle from Connecticut, and they were nice enough to get up at some crazy hour to come out and cheer me on. The weather was a bit dicey as we arrived at the race, with intermittent rain showers coming thru. Apparantly my cheer crew got caught in the middle of one......

At least they had their Starbucks to keep them warm :)

Phaedra tries to keep the peace between the combatants pre race.....

The start was the usual thrash, and even though Steve and I started sort of near eachother on the beach, I knew he was going to be outta sight in a hurry. So, imagine my suprise when, about 100m in, I caught up to him as he was treading water trying to fix his goggles. He got going again just as I was passing him (not sure if he knew it was me next to him at the time), and soon enough he was pulling away. For a moment I had a notion of trying to get on his feet and let him pull me thru, but a moment of hesitation and that good idea was no more. Oh well...I was prepared to give up some major time to him on the swim, cause he's been swimming like a maniac at the master's swims. Overall, I was happy with my swim (including the heavy downpour that went over us...kind of a cool feeling), and I just caught a glimpse of Steve-o heading to the mount line with his bike as I was getting to my transition spot. Ok, so at least he's within reach.

Once out on the bike, I put the hammer down to catch him as soon as possible. As another testament to how damn well we know eachother, Steve said his goal was to hold me off on the bike until we hit the hill on Yellowstone. Anyone care to guess the precise moment when I caught him? Yep, just as we turned onto the hill. I went by him pretty quick, and I heard him say something choice, but I couldn't respond because I was in major O2 debt. He responded very well and we pretty much stayed together for the rest of the ride. I'm betting that I only ever got 15-20 seconds ahead of him. After he passed me going down the last big hill (the road was wet, and its a scary descent when its dry, so I was too wussy to push it), I went back by him on the flats and was a whopping 4 seconds up on him going into T2. About 0.75 min later, we had both exited T2, with Steve dropping the top T2 time of the 669 racers, and me having the second fastest T2. Sweet! He took 2 seconds off of my lead, so it was about as close as it could be heading to the run. This run was going to prove to be a barn-burner, super fun to watch, and intense to be part of.

I ran my butt off out of the park, wondering if I could put any time on Steve-o early. Turns out I did (about 15-20 sec thru 3 miles), but not because of my "amazing" running speed. He had to stop and, uh, use the facilities somewhere around mile 2. Of course I didn't know it at the time. I just thought it might be my day. Ha ha ha. Even though I never once turned around to see where he was, I could just somehow :) feel that I was putting time on him. At mile 2, I decided to see how far I could get until he caught me, thinking that if I could hold him off until mile 4, I might have a shot, that maybe I would have run his kick out of his legs making him chase me. A few other folks passed me, and every time one did, I had a moment of terror that it was Steve-o, and then the glorious relief that it wasn't him! Until mile 3.5, that is. The gap erased, it was now him in control, and me hanging on for dear life. In another example of how split second decisions can make all the difference, when he went by me, I had to put in a surge to get to his shoulder, and if I hadn't, I am convinced that I would have faded fast and he would have beaten me by about 15 min. But, I survived the 10 sec of pain to stay with him, and then we settled into the closing acts of the battle royale. Stride for stride we went, with teammates going the other way cheering us on, and one guy even saying "hey look, twins!" as we went by. Mile 4, still together. Mile 5, shoulder to shoulder. I was hurting, but it was so much fun, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I felt like we were rock star pros out there, battling it out for the overall win. I had a quick flashback to fight-to-the-death high school cross country races, and I was loving it!

Into the final mile, Steve started testing me by putting in a few well-timed surges. I managed to cover them all, but it was painful every time. Had I remembered my old cross country tactics, I should have put in a re-surge once I caught him, but it was really all I could do just to get back to his shoulder. Coming into the final 800m, I knew there was a short downhill, and I sensed my doom was approaching fast. Steve can run down hills fast....I can't. Game, set, match. He surged at precisely the right moment, I couldn't cover, and just like that it was all over. I'd like to think that if the last elevation change on the course had been UP rather than DOWN, the outcome would have been different, but it doesn't matter. Today, Steve-o was 17 seconds better than me, and he deserves every bit of glory he wants to take. The great thing about training and racing with him, though, is the only glory he chose to take was a few lighthearted jokes. As soon as it was over, we were back to the friendly teammates we've always been. Awesome. It was a hell of a battle, and we were both trying to drive eachother into the ground, and as soon as we hit the tape, it was over.

So, now Steve has his victory, and its all tied up 1-1. Can't wait for the next one!!

En route to Maggie Moos, after an A+ day!!

P.S. Other than "beat Steve", my only other goal for this race was to finish anywhere OTHER than 4th in my age group. The last 2 years, I have been 4th, and it sucks. Once place away from the medal stand. Even though I know it really comes down to who shows up, finishing 4th for some reason pisses me off. So this year, I would have been happy with 5th, 6th, heck, 12th. Just not 4th!!! Please!

Because I couldn't bring myself to see it for myself, Steve was gentle as he broke the bad news to me...4th again! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! 3 freaking years in a row?!?! You cannot be serious! The only thing that softened the blow was that I would have had to go 4 min faster to get 3rd, which I know is impossible. Oh well, maybe if this keeps up, in like 15 years they'll give me something for consistently being "oh so close" :)

Tiger Tri Race Report

2008-07-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

Only one thing to say about this race . . . . .

Near miss......

2008-07-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

I'll start this post by espousing my new theory on the cost of bike tires:

The distance you can skid a bike tire before it wears all the way through is roughly 10-20% more than the cost of said tire. For example, if you buy a $50 tire, you can expect that it will hold up for somewhere between 55 and 65 feet of a skid before you wear through it.

And now, the reason why I will never ever hesitate to buy an expensive tire......

Last evening, we hosted the weekly club BLT ride from our house. My plan was to do 2 loops and then do a quick 4 mile run, since I rarely can get home in time for both loops. So at 5, I set off for loop #1 with Kirk, Johnny B, Craig and Eric. Just past Death Hill 1, there is a nice descent which, when the street is dry and not full of gravel, I usually like to hammer down in aero. Its always been a fun descent for me, and even though it technically is on a road that is open to cars, we very rarely see any cars. Nevertheless, before I hit the speed, I always check to see if any cars are behind me, and of course I stay well to the right to keep clear of any cars coming up the hill. The descent is a bit curvy, and it is a bit tough to see very far ahead, but I never worry about it because I'm well positioned on the right.

Yesterday, as I came around the last corner at the bottom, I saw a car parked on the other side of the road. About 2 milliseconds later, I saw this car take a hard left directly into my path, presumably attempting to do a U-turn. Things happened pretty quickly thereafter, but it is safe to say that the lady driving didn't bother to look and thus had absolutely no clue that there were 5 cyclists coming down the hill at rapid speed. I was in front, so the guys behind had a few more milliseconds to react. I hit the brakes as hard as I could and prayed that SOMEHOW I could slow down enough before I got to her. I was going 37.9mph at the moment I hit the brakes. Takes a long time to slow up from a speed like that....

Since I was purely reactionary at this point, I went right. In hindsight, this was a very bad move, because she was also going left to right. So she was essentially pinching me off to the right side of the road, which was quickly evaporating. Fortunately, the guys behind had the time to make the better decision and go left, which meant they could clear her back bumper no problem. Me, I just kept seeing her car get closer and closer, faster and faster. I got to maybe within six inches of her right rear quarter panel, then I ran out of road and took a slight detour into the dirt/gravel. Crap. I was sure at this point that I was going down. I have no idea how I managed to avoid hitting her car, and what is even more amazing is that thru all of it, I did not go down. Whoa.

I think it was just about the time that I passed her that she realized what was going on. Hmmmm, maybe the fact that there were cyclists passing her quickly on all sides? Or maybe it was the fact that we were all screaming our heads off at her? Regardless, once we all got stopped, Craig pointed out that my back tire was flat, and it was then that I discovered the gaping hole in my tire. So, apparantly I had locked up my back wheel and skidded. Yet again, amazing that I didn't go down, since I'm betting that I was fish-tailing a bit while skidding.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, Johnny went back and gave the idiot driver a piece of his mind, in a rather loud voice :) Something about "look where you are going, you almost killed that guy, etc" It took me awhile before I could even get my wheel off, because I had so much adrenaline pounding through my veins, I was literally shaking. Craig offered me a patch kit to get me back home (since of course this all happened about as far away from my house as you can get on the loop), but we decided it was too tore up to try and fix. That, and the patch needed to be about the size of Rhode Island, and really, who carries patches that big? :)

So, Kirk got on the cell and called his wife Susan, to come and get me. Meanwhile, Johnny was so impressed with my awesome bike handling skills (aka AMAZING LUCK) in not laying it down, that he wanted to know how far I had skidded. He paced it off at roughly 70 feet. Eric, who was right behind me, had also skidded, and it was interesting to see our skids and where we diverged. He went left (good call), I went right (bad call). I hope to get back out there soon and try and get some pictures of our awesome skid marks.

With Susan on the way, the group headed out to finish up their loop, and I walked up to the road to wait. Susan and I got the bike and my sad-looking wheel loaded up and headed back home. I really can't thank her enough for coming out to rescue me, because that would have been a long-ass walk back home :)

We got back home just as everyone was finishing up their first loops, and as I got out of the car, I said "Whew, that was a good ride, really worked hard the last half...ha ha ha" :) Kirk had let Andy know what happened and that I was alive, and had already gotten my race wheel ready to go for loop 2. Thank goodness that I had that spare wheel! A quick wheel change, and I was ready to go, albeit an easier, slower loop :) The second loop proceeded without incident, although I did take it easy going down the now infamous hill. I checked out my skid mark, and it was sweet!

So, my brush with death is over, and I probably don't really know just how lucky I was, or how close I really came with a nasty accident. Fine. I'm actually not sure I ever want to know :)

And my advice to the rest of my triathlon family is this: don't skimp on tires. More expensive is better. Because you never know when you will need that extra 25 bucks worth of tire!!

P.S. I hope to get some pictures up soon, at the very least a picture of the awesome hole I shredded into my tire

Ironman Coeur d'Alene race report

2008-06-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

At long last....the (maybe) much-awaited Ironman race report! My apologies for the lateness of this report. The past week or so, my body and brain have been wasted...for the reason why, keep reading! :)

My day began darn early, but I was so keyed up that I had no problem getting right out of bed at 2:45am. After a quick wake-up shower and breakfast, it was time to hit the road. But not before a very touching surprise was discovered...

The sight that greeted me when I went outside at 3:30am. I feel truly loved and blessed by my friends!

I wondered later how they got this sign up. I even thought they may have borrowed my ladder...

Or not....please don't drop Tiffany, Steve!

No problem for Team A+!!! The absolutely hilarious thing about this picture is, and what poor Steve and Tiff don't know, is that my extension ladder happens to be sitting along the side of the house, mere feet to Steve and Tiff's right. I am just glad no one got hurt!

Jessi adds some Tri Fusion love to my tree :)

Even though I didn't really get much solid sleep Saturday night, I never heard a thing from what was going on outside. Apparantly Steve even popped a balloon right in our driveway and I didn't hear anything!

We picked up Kirk at 3:45am and hit the road for CDA. After a stop for gas and our ritual stop at the last rest stop before CDA, we snagged a primo parking spot right in front of Oz Fitness. Mercifully, the winds were not blowing like a hurricane like last year. Yes! The first good sign of the day!!

Got my tires pumped up and bike loaded with food/fluids in short order, and headed back to the car to drop off my pump. Selfishly, I only had to deny one other athlete the use of my pump, because I didn't want to get stuck like last year waiting around for my pump to be freed up. Karma lesson #1: be nice to your fellow athletes. If you don't, it will come back on you. Keep reading for the "teaching" of this lesson.

After Kirk and I parted ways, Andy and I found a nice, quiet spot on Independence Point to get sunscreened and tattooed up. Gazing out at the water, there was very little wind and hardly any chop. Second good sign of the day!! Then I headed back into transition, and my legs unconsciously led me back to my bike. Not sure why I felt the need to check over my bike one last time, but I'm damn glad I did. I checked my front tire and it was completely flat. S*#t!!! One hour to race time, and my bike pump karma comes back to bite me in the ass. After 15 seconds of scrambling around and seeing how long the tech support line is, I realize that I have everything I need to solve this problem right here on my bike. With some calming words from my friends Joe and Matt, I succeed in changing my flat in about 2 minutes. Definitely a record. Amazing what adrenaline will do for you. The only problem was, now I only had 1 spare tube on my bike. Best not to tempt fate and dwell on this fact...so I somehow shut this episode out of my mind. I headed over to the Tri Fusion swim prep corner and proceeded to get ready. Once the flat episode adrenaline wore off, I returned to a sense of calm, as I was still in great shape time-wise.

Getting suited up and ready to go. Is it possible to be nervous and calm at the same time? The calmness I will attribute to Andy, Tiff, Jessi, Steve and the rest of the Tri Fusion supporters who were watching over us like super-protective parents.

I headed down to the beach with about 35 min to go, and made it thru the timing mat bottleneck relatively quickly. Another good sign! I found Andy and the rest of Team A+ and had a nice few minutes to chill out.

Emma taunts me pre-race with her pumpkin scone. For some strange reason, the sight of Emma eating this tasty treat calms me down. It is our shared obsession, but she is smart enough to know that I shouldn't have a bite before my big race!

Me and "The Worlds Best Iron-Sherpa", pre-warm up (I think we both look nervous here)

What a great day for racing!!

After a quick warm up swim and a last "warm up" it was time to wait for the cannon.

Boom!! And we are off... look at those amazing water conditions!!

Well, everyone else is off...I'm still waiting :)

Now its my turn....off I go!

Moments later, the rest of Team A+ critiques my swim stroke. Jessi: "See, he's totally moving a ton of water with this stroke!" Tiffany: "That's awesome! He'll be out of the water in just a few minutes!" Emma: "I'm glad he didn't get any of my pumpkin scone!" Andy: "Oh boy, hope this swim is better than last year!"

Swim: Compared to last year, my swim was AWESOME! My time wasn't what I was hoping for, but I still felt great coming out of the water. Water temp at race time was 59.5, which felt darn near balmy compared to Thursday's 54. I am so glad that I toughed out that Thursday workout...I'm convinced that it paid off on race day. As planned, I stayed way out of trouble and very far to the right side of the course. Because it is a counter-clockwise swim, this meant that I probably swam a few tenths extra, but it didn't matter much to me. I stayed calm and confident the entire swim, which set up the rest of my day very nicely. I even managed to find some good drafts on occasion!

Swim time: 1:18:23 (10:13 faster than 2007)

Don't I look happy? :)

T1: No problem getting my wetsuit and swim socks off, thanks to 2 of the 1000's of wonderful volunteers. Found my bag without too much trouble, and then it was into the chaos of the change tent. Fortunately, I was ready for this, and proceeded quickly past the 2 naked guys (come on guys, really?!?) and down to the far end of the tent. This is where I knew there would be open seats, and I set to work drying off and getting my jersey, arm warmers, socks, etc on. I knew from last year that taking the time to put arm warmers on a wet body would be frustratingly slow, but I would rather take a few extra minutes here to be comfortable on the first part of the bike. I ended up sitting next to Brian (who had a smokin' fast swim) and across from Frank, so it was nice to see some familiar faces in the craziness of the T1 tent. Out of the tent, I took a cup of Gatorade from the ever-inspiring Jay and Michelle from Tri Fusion. More friendly faces!

T1 time: 7:35 (1:21 faster than 2007)

Bike: What can I say...I had a PHENOMENAL bike, for me. I pretty much rode on feel, not trying to push too hard. But at the same time, I could feel almost from the first mile that I was moving along much better than the last 2 years. As usual, I passed a ton of people early on, and just felt great. I never even had the nagging "when is this going to go south?" doubts creep into my mind. I ditched my gloves early on (thanks to Kevin Best for catching them) and tossed my arm warmers to Steve at mile 40. There were even times during the first loop where I felt like I could have gone faster, but I had alot of good "self talk" and made myself take it easy and, most of all, keep a solid, consistent effort. Somewhere early on, while telling myself to take it easy, I ended up with the Tom Petty song "American Girl" in my head, particularly the line "take it easy, baby, make it last all night." Funny how an Ironman brain works, me thinks :)

At about the 30 mile mark, I saw the sight I had secretly been waiting for: the Tri Fusion "IronFan" crew. I didn't know what was in store for us, but it was, as promised, above and beyond. The highlight (which would morph into the "TF signature") was the bull horn. On the bike, I always feel bad for people who stand around for hours and wait for certain athletes to come by, because the athletes are gone in a flash. And so other than a moment of screaming and clapping, there's really not much you can do. It sort of is the same deal for the athlete: you get a quick boost when you see someone you know, but then, pretty quickly, its back to suffering in the saddle. Well, leave it to A+ to solve that one! With the bull horn amplifying their already crazy-mad cheering voices, I was serenaded to many extended well wishes, "keep pushings", "A+ you freaking rock(s)", etc from Jessi and Tiffany. It was, in a word, AMAZING!!! I literally couldn't wait to get back to the corner they were at, just so I could soak up the rock star feeling some more!

As you can see, the presense of the IronFan van made me VERY happy! :)

Here's part of the awesome crew: Steve, Tiffany, Andy, Roger

More of the crew!

More happiness coming thru the Tri Fusion "Miracle Corner". I'll note the presence of my friend Angie in this picture....she and I went back and forth MANY times on the bike, and it became a running (or would that be cycling?) joke whenever one of us would go by the other. It was a great mental break that kept my perspective in the right place.

Coming into town for the last time, I knew that I was going to come in under 6 hours, which had been one of my "ultimate" goals. So, lemme tell you, that last 5 miles of the bike was a major celebration, as I soaked up and reveled in my effort.

Bike time: 5:53:00 (13:08 faster than 2007, average mph = 19.0....WHAT?!?!?)

T2: I always love the second time I get to the transition tent at Ironman, because its always less crowded than T1, and there is an air of "we can do this" floating around. I had a very kind volunteer helping me with my stuff, asking if he could get me anything. I somehow remembered to ask for some Vaseline for my eyes, since I always seem to chafe right at the corners of my eyes, so I knew that my mind wasn't totally gone (yet). I did have the mental focus to say out loud to this volunteer "well, now we'll see how much I have left in my legs" This question would prove to be quite prophetic. My buddy Joe sped by me in the tent with a few words of encouragement, and I remember thinking "good, he passed me in here where no one could see...now he'll kick my ass by an hour at least" :) I asked for some sunscreen and was promptly attacked by 5 more amazing volunteers who did their best to save my white skin. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

T2 time: 4:14 (3 whole seconds faster than 2007...gotta love consistency!)

Run: The first half of the run went by incredibly well. Almost too good, in retrospect. I stayed with my plan of walking thru each aid station, but in between, I roughly estimated that I was running in the low 9s, with maybe even a few high 8s in the beginning. Again, I was going on feel. I did try to get a split around mile 4, but I wasn't able to do the math. Timmmaaayy!!! :) I think it was around 9:15, including the walk break at the aid station.

Heading up Lakeside for the first time....

Somewhere out along the lake, I was rewarded for my efforts up to this point by again entering the range of the Tri Fusion bull horn. I think the crazed voice on the other end saw me before I saw them, actually. Since running is a significantly slower deal than cycling, this trip thru the Miracle Mile was much more intense for me. But intense in a good way. When I saw Andy, I tried to stop and chat with her for a bit, but my (loving?) teammates wouldn't have any of that. SOMEHOW I found myself running again rather quickly. It was freaking awesome, and I couldn't wait to get back to them. I remember thinking "good positioning on their part, cause the turnaround isn't too much farther....I'll be back in no time....Woo hoo!!!!"

I am smiling and have enough mental awareness to throw down our A+ sign...must be loop 1 :)

High fives from the A+ crew...heading back to town for the first time. I love this picture of Tiffany...I think she is doing some crazy new dance :) But her enthusiasm for little ole me is pretty cool

By the time I returned to the comfort of the Miracle Mile some 10 miles later, things got tough. I don't remember where it really started going down hill, but somewhere around mile 15 or 16, I noticed that wonderful "sloshing" feeling in my tummy. Was it possible to be overhydrated? I tried eating some pretzels and a cookie or two, but they sort of gave me some stomach cramps, so I gave up on that idea. Over time, Gatorade no longer tasted good (too sweet, I think) and I was forced to go on a water-only diet, with small bits of flat Coke thrown in for the sugar that I knew I needed to get down. Looking back, I wish I would have found the mental strength to get down a Gu or two, but in the heat of the battle, I just couldn't do it. Lesson for next time....

Also by this time, I was into the serious math phase. In other words, I was doing constant math trying to figure out how fast I needed to go to get under 12 hours. Somewhere along here, this sub-12 goal really came into focus, and every step forward made achieving this goal more and more of an absolute requirement. At the halfway point, I told myself I needed to do 10 minute miles. No problem, can do. In fact, I kept trying to put as much time in the bank as possible, knowing that I would need all those minutes later on. Mile 17, 9 to go, and I had just under 2 hours to that magical 12 hour mark. OK, 4 and a half miles an hour. I can do that. The clock was moving in the right direction, even if I might not have been......

My aid station walks got longer and longer the farther I went, and by the time I got to the bull horn again, I was desperately seeking out walking opportunities. In true teammate form, Steve walked a good ways with me, giving me encouraging words and damn near forcing me into running again. I think he ended up running over a mile with me, almost to the top of the hill. I sort of knew that technically he wasn't supposed to be doing this, but it was so nice to have someone familiar (and someone who I had suffered with many times over the course of the season) that I didn't protest or try and get him away from me. It took an official to do that :) Steve played the "dumb/sorry, I didn't know" card perfectly, so I didn't get a penalty. Sheer genius!!!

Walking with Steve...so we know it must be loop 2. This picture sums up my last 10 miles perfectly: lots of walking and lots of relying on my team

When I got back to the crew for the last time, I was in full-on crisis mode. Andy walked with me a little ways, until another official came up and told her to get away from me. I vaguely remember hearing the word "disqualification" and it actually sounded kind of good. I thought "really, if she like, touches me right now, you'll DQ me?!? sweet!! touch me right now, Andy!!!" I stopped to stretch for a bit, and then there was the most amazing ground-swell of energy and support I have ever experienced. As I started off again, the crew that had endured standing on the side of roads for the last 11 hours started yelling and going crazy for me. It was like I was Pre and they were "Pre's People" from Hayward Field, willing him/me to get to that finish line. Truly an amazing moment, one that I wish I could bottle up and experience again.

The IronFan Van then tracked alongside me with insane red and white clad people screaming at me for a few miles, until I hit mile 23. It was at this point that I knew I had it. Sub 12. It was going to be mine. Just a matter of somehow getting to Sherman Ave as quickly as possible, so I could soak in the glory.

Getting ready to turn off of Lake CDA Drive, heading for home.....

After not looking down Sherman Ave for at least 6 months, I took a brief moment to take it all in once I hit that corner. One last look at my watch, and I knew that I still had enough time in the bank to not have to sprint to the line. I tried to acknowledge as many congratulations as I could through eyes wanting to cry but just too tired.

Finally, a block from the finish, I saw Jessi and Tiffany jumping up and down screaming their heads off, and I let myself celebrate for the first time all day. I felt like I had done A+ proud.

Amazing how a big inflatable arch can seem like a gateway to heaven after 11+ hours....

Run time: 4:23:49 (6:27 slower than last year)

Total time: 11:46:59!!! 18:16 FASTER than last year!!!

As soon as I crossed the line, I was quickly attended to by a very nice volunteer in an Active Release Therapy (ART) shirt, who I will forver refer to as "The ART Guy" :) I have no idea if he was a volunteer, medical guy, or just some Ironman vendor/supporter, but I really didn't care, because he took a very keen interest in taking care of me. Thinking about it now, I'm betting that I looked a bit worse off at that moment than my previous two Ironmans, because this guy was pretty attentive and was asking me a bunch of questions, which has never happened before.

The ART Guy made sure I didn't fall down, and when I said I felt a bit cold (a bad sign), he rushed off to get me a space blanket. Then he asked me a very curious question. He wanted to know when was the last time I had gone to the bathroom. Again, in hindsight, this is a very logical question, but at the time it seemed weird. I had to think about it for a while (another bad sign, apparantly) and finally remembered that I had not gone since bike special needs. What??? I just did almost 12 hours of racing and had gone to the bathroom ONCE? Uh oh...definitely not a good sign. ART Guy quickly got me 3 more cups of fluid, since it was pretty likely that I was dehydrated.

He also made sure that someone I knew was coming to take care of me, and wouldn't leave until Andy and the rest of the IronFan crew fought thru the crowds to get to me. Once I was safely in the care of my fans, The ART Guy felt comfortable in leaving me. I really regret not getting his name or thanking him properly. He probably saved me from more long-term distress by taking care of me in those critical few minutes after I finished.

As I was coming down from my "Sherman Ave high", the gravity of what I had just done started hitting me. It was about the same time that Andy and Team A+ were giving me congratulatory hugs, and that's when the tears began flowing. Even though I didn't look too good, I can confirm that those tears were most certainly tears of joy, relief, and accomplishment. Somewhere out on the course, breaking the 12 hour barrier had become an all-consuming goal, and I had done it.

Unfortunately, this was the only celebration I could muster at this point....

After a few minutes of celebrating, sitting down started to sound really appealing, so Andy, the super IronSherpa led my weary body over to the recovery area.

I think this picture captures Andy's amazing support for me perfectly.

I sat in the recovery area for quite awhile, and managed to get my RecoverEase and chocolate milk down. After a half hour or so, I tried to make my way over to get my massage, but my body wasn't ready. I got really cold in a hurry, so I wandered over near the medical tent to get a few more space blankets. More very nice volunteers noticed my distress and took care of me for another half hour, until I decided that maybe it would be best if I got some dry clothes on. Duh! Andy and Steve were nice enough to go get my bags and bike out of transition, and Jessi and Emma took me over to the grass to sit in the sun to try and warm up. It was so nice of them to stay with me, and I even got my own little super fan, Emma to help keep me warm!

From pumpkin scone to "human baked potato" in just over 12 hours! :)

OK, time to put a bow on my day.....Was my Ironman 2008 a success? HECK YEAH!!! I am still over the moon with excitement about how my day went. I really don't think I could have gone much faster, and I am so happy that I achieved my goal. I think that when you achieve a goal, it is much sweeter when you really have to work to get it. And that would certainly qualify with my Ironman this year. I don't think I have ever fought harder in my life for something. I really wanted a sub-12, and so I went out there and took it. The last 10 miles of the run were super-tough, but I just couldn't let myself give in. And every time I wanted to, my team made sure I wouldn't. I guess its a good thing that I can say I really did leave everything I had out on the course (which would explain why I crashed so hard and fast once I finished, and why it took me almost a full week to finally feel back to 100%)

I'll wrap up this epic tale with some "thank yous".

First, to Andy, my inspiration, my biggest fan, best supporter, champion IronSherpa, and all-around awesome wife. Thank you for putting up with everything that goes along with this Ironman thing. I couldn't have done it without you, and I thought about how fortunate I am to have you alot while I was out there on the course. Even though we didn't get to run across the line together this year (and even though I totally missed you in the stands), you really were right there next to me when I hit the tape.

To my incredible A+ Team, Jessi and Tiffany: I tried to say something like this on the beach, but I was too nervous to form a coherent sentence :) I really owe you two a ton for the shape I was in on race day, both physically and mentally. More than you will ever know and more than I could ever say. You two have pushed me in so many ways that have taken me to heights I never thought I could achieve, and I am so grateful. What started with some weekly suffering in the pool turned out to be way more support and motivation than I deserve. You both have shown me what it means to be TOUGH (like an entire day on your feet cheering with a nasty injury, Jessi?!?), and I relied on that fact to get me one step further many times during the day.

To Steve, my training partner: Man, I'm really glad that we connected up to train so much together this year. When I train alone, I totally mail it in, but you would never let me slack off, and it means alot to me. My only regret is that our race schedules are off by a year! Cause it'd be so much fun to race with you. Thanks for the competitiveness, the respect, and the healthy perspective.

To Roger: Thanks for the text message on race morning. Your words were exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. I relied on that advice many times during the day, and it really helped me have a great "overall" day.

To the Tri Fusion family: I felt blessed (as I do each day) to be part of such a great team of supporters and athletes today. It was amazing to see so many red shirts out there, and every cheer helped me along the way. Even if I wasn't able to return your enthusiasm in kind, your words definitely made a difference.

To everyone else who sent well wishes, texts, e-mails, positive thoughts: THANKS a million! I value your support more than you will ever know.

So now, I get a year off from Ironman. I am really looking forward to the mental and physical break, and I am happy that I get to enjoy it in peace, having gotten what I wanted!

Blue Lake race report

2008-06-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

This may be a slightly shorter than normal and more random race report, since I have some other, more pressing issues occupying my thoughts these days (Ironman).

Suffice it to say, however, that the Blue Lake weekend was an absolute blast. We carpooled with Steve, and had the Pilot loaded up with 4 Cervelos, since Tiffany's bike needed a ride down to Portland. It was an awesome sight...I think that people probably thought that we were like some professionals, official reps of Cervelo.

Saturday, we picked up Steve, who wasn't racing, at 5:15am. After a rather lengthy night, he stepped up big time to come support Andy and I at our races, all at some insane hour of the day. We did have to stop once on the way so Steve could get some water and something to eat, which turned into the longest stop at a convenience store at 5:45am EVER. We think the employees were convinced we were casing the joint, but really, it would have been much better for everyone if they had just done their job. Anyway, I digress.

Race setup went pretty smooth for me, and Steve graciously helped out Andy get set up and calmed her down during some pre-race crazy moments. I answered a bunch of "newbie" questions in transition, which is one of the aspects of the Saturday sprint race that I love so much. The feel is very laid back, and alot of folks use this race as their first-ever triathlon. I really get a kick out of seeing the transition from pre-race nervousness to post-race excitement from so many people. Once I got into the water, I was totally stoked that the water felt warm! Maybe it is a benefit from living (and swimming) in the cold northland. The race start was delayed a bit, but since I was in the 2nd wave, I didn't have to wait too long.

My swim went pretty good overall, and for once I didn't feel like I was getting left behind. I also was able to get on some feet and get some good drafting in, although I think one guy I was drafting wasn't too happy about it. Oh well. I had quite a suprise as I rounded the last buoy when I saw 2 red caps (from the elite wave that went off 1 min ahead of us). Sweet! Normally, in wave start races, I have to struggle to hold off the faster swimmers from later waves, so this was a nice confidence booster.

I had what felt like a pretty quick and calm T1, and as I was running to the mount line, Steve was there telling me that I was maybe 2 or 3 minutes down on the leaders. Whoa! I had another good bike mount, with my shoes on the bike again, which was nice, because at this race last year, I "crashed" at the mount line. I felt great on the bike, quickly passing people and moving up nicely. When I got to the turnaround, I was 11th on the road. Wow. Maybe Steve was being honest and not just trying to make me feel better! I saw Andy out on the bike as I was heading in, and she was smiling like a crazy person, just loving life and her new bike. It warmed my heart up to see that she was finally having fun on the bike. I passed 2 more riders on the way back in, and succeeded in holding off the few guys behind me who looked like they were riding strong. Coming off the bike, I was totally over the moon, because I knew that I had a good ride.

Now, time for my strong point...T2. Its really the only thing I can do well in triathlon, and I totally rocked it. In fact, out of 532 athletes, I had the fastest T2 of anyone. OK, so its cheesy, but, hey, I gotta win something, right?!? :)

Going out on the run, my feet were like blocks of ice, but I just suffered thru until the feeling came back. I didn't want to get passed, but there was nobody in sight for me to chase down, so my entire run was a "running scared" effort. At the run turnaround, I was 8th on the road, and I could tell that I was not going to catch any of the guys in front of me. So I focused on trying to not get passed. However, right after I turned around, there were 3 or 4 guys right there. Yikes. Thank goodness that it was only a mile and a half that I had to suffer thru. I could see that one guy was looking better than I was feeling, but I also knew that he wasn't in my age group so it didn't worry me too much. I held him off until we had a half mile to go. Then, as we entered the park and the final quarter mile or so, I could feel that there was another guy right behind me. I started my kick a bit early, and was in full on freak-out running mode. I didn't know at this point if he was in my age group or not, but I convinced myself that he was, and that I was fighting for an age group placing. Every time I could feel him back there, I would lift my pace, and try and run his kick out of him. The gauntlet was thrown down about 400 meters from the finish (thank goodness I knew the course very well), when a friend of his who was spectating said to him "Go pass that guy (me)". Ok, so he's close enough that I could still hear what his friend said. And what he said did not sit well with me. I said to myself "I'll be dammed if you pass me now. No way in hell that's going to happen. You can try, buy you'll die trying." Up the last hill and into the finish chute, I was running for my life, but I did hold him off! Yes!! In the end, I found out that he had started with the elite wave, so he had a minute head start on me anyway, but it felt good nonetheless to be able to hold him off.

After basking in my own post-race glow and waiting for Andy to finish her race, it was fun to hang out with some Tri Fusion folks that had come out to cheer for us. So nice!! Andy came in smiling from ear to ear, and in general had a kick ass race. I was so happy for her that she finally had a good experience at a multisport race. I think that bike was one of the best things we have bought for her.

Then it was time to check results. SHOCK time. I finished 12th overall (out of 532) and 2nd in my age group (out of 48). WHOA!!!! Far and away my best finish in a race ever. As a bonus, Andy also placed 2nd in her age group! I am so proud of her!! She was nervous about doing her first race on her new bike, and she just totally went out there an dominated.

So, it was a good day for Team Swanson :)

Sunday, we again got up early and paid back Steve for his early Saturday wake up call. But, not before the required Starbucks stop. Nice to have my race done for the weekend!

It was a total blast watching all of our Tri Fusion teammates put in some amazing performances. I can't remember the last time I actually got to watch a race, and it was a ton of fun. I got some good perspective on T1 technique by standing near the bike mount line, and I had some fun taking pictures of all of our team out on the course.

I even had time to work on my skywalking abilities. Isn't this picture cool? It totally looks like I'm 5 feet above the ground. Sweet perspective!

Overall, our team did awesome. I really enjoyed seeing everyone step up and overcome some adversity to help out the team. Notable performances were Michelle who walked alone and still came across the finish line, Tiffany totally rocking her first Olympic distance race, Kirk fighting through leg pain to finish, Heather and Virginia never saying die, and Jessi, who totally sucked it up and would not let a pain in the butt to beat her :)

Part of the Tri Fusion team

As always, my amazing A+ team showed what they are made of: toughness with a smile!

After a stop at McMenamins for lunch (a bit longer than planned) and a stop to retrieve Tiffany's missing pillow from the hotel, Andy, Steve and I set off for home. The drive back was an absolute laugh-fest. Mostly, it was Steve and I cracking ourselves up, but we had fun texting back and forth with Tiffany and Trish. The following is one short highlight of the hysterics:

Tim: "We just went past the scene of the crime. Mile post 146. Where are you guys?"

Trish: "Almost to Connell. Where is mile post 146?"

Tim: "It is about one mile west of mile post 147. Duh!"

Tiffany's pillow certainly had an adventurous trip back home....but that's another story for another day :)

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic weekend!!! And now....*sigh* here we go.....

Andy's new bike!!!

2008-06-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

After a torturous week of waiting, Andy finally got her new bike today. She was a bit nervous, but mostly excited to get fit to her new ride and take it out for its maiden voyage. Unfortunately, mother nature didn't cooperate, as it rained pretty much all day :( Andy was bummed out, big time. In fact, she was so determined to ride today that before I left on my afternoon 12 mile run, we set up her bike on the trainer. As expected, when I got back from my run, there was Andy, riding away on the trainer! :)

We ventured out to Fitness Fanatics, the best damn triathlon store ever, and met up with John, the pro bike fit guy.

Getting started on the fit....

Check out those sweet shoes! For the record, Andy had never, ever had cycling shoes or used true cycling pedals. But she was clipping in and out of her pedals like a pro in the span of about 5 minutes. I think it took me about 5 years to figure it out.

Doesn't she look fast?!? :)
Andy practicing the "stop your feet at 12 and 6" drill. She also had this wired in mere seconds.
Final adjustments, and its off to ride!

Special thanks to John from Fitness Fanatics for being so helpful and patient while doing Andy's bike fit.

And to my dear wife...I am so proud of you for making the jump, and I'm excited for you to share even more of this sport that I have tortured you with for the past 3 years. I can't wait to get out there and watch you ride! I know you will kick butt!!!

Lastly, Andy is now taking recommendations for a name for her new ride. I guess this is a requirement for new bikes....So put those thinking caps on and hook a girl up! :)

The World Famous Mule Chase!

2008-06-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday, I was privileged to race at the world famous (at least around these parts) Reardan Mule Chase with Steve and Trish. Dude, with a name like that, how could I not do this race?!?! Steve is somewhat of a local celebrity in Reardan, so all morning, I felt like I was walking around with the town's own version of Forrest Gump. Except for the fact that in Reardan, Steve is known as Keith. Trish and I tried keeping a tally of the number of "Hey Keith's" we heard, but we lost count very quickly. It was pretty darn fun, actually :)

The "race" was actually a fun run held in conjunction with the town's summer festival, with both a 5k and 10k offered. Trish was doing the 5k (we later found out that this would be her first "official" running race...nice!!) and Steve and I planned on doing the 10k as a hard tempo run. Even though it was nearing mid-June, the temperature was just slightly above that of liquid nitrogen (uh, 35 degrees at race time), and the typical "West Plains Winds" were obligingly blowing for us. I'd say there were about 50 or 60 hard core athletes that decided to brave the conditions.

With all the pomp and circumstance that a fire engine's siren can provide as a starting gun, we set off into the plains. The first mile was downhill and we had a nice tailwind, so when we hit the first marker at 6:07, I was amazed I was feeling so good. I was also amazed that at this point, there was only one guy in front of us. Hmmmm, another strange feeling of being at the "pointy end of the field". Shortly after mile 1, a guy went by us into second, and those top 2 guys would keep slowly pulling away from us for the rest of the race. Still, it was kind of cool to be in 3rd/4th. Steve and I ran shoulder-to-shoulder, stride-for-stride over the remaining 5 miles, and it was awesome to have someone to run with who is so closely matched to me. We have been doing alot of training together recently, and our run paces are so close, its almost scary. Add to that our about equal amount of competitiveness and respect, and it has worked out great. We push each other just enough to make us both faster, all with a healthy dose of friendly competition. Sometimes I win, sometimes Steve does, but regardless, neither of us really cares.

Once we turned into the wind and started heading back towards Reardan, our pace started dropping. As Steve called out each of our mile splits, I just had to laugh and tried not to think back to that "easy" 6:07 first mile. Then, of course, since I was running with Steve, the rains came. And it wasn't one of these nice, warm summer rains. This was the cold, wind blown, stinging type. Ugh. By the time we turned onto the highway for the last mile, it was a bona-fide downpour, and I was having a hard time seeing. About a half mile from the finish, Steve put a surge on that I couldn't cover. While he never got much of a gap on me, I decided that a) I would try and save some of my legs for my afternoon 12 miler, and b) that I would probably be run out of town forever by an angry mob if I put in some crazy kick and was "that jerk from Spokane who passed Keith 15 meters from the finish". Although I must admit, the thought of going down in Reardan history forever kind of sounded cool, I just didn't want it to be that kind of history. :)

In the end, I finished just a few steps behind Steve, in 40:40, averaging a crazy fast 6:33 per mile. Trish also totally rocked her race, finishing so fast that she was already dried off, changed, and ready to go shopping by the time we got back to the car. The torrential downpour and freezing cold motivated us to get back in the car and get going, although I felt a bit bad for being the guy who quickly stole away Keith, Reardan's most famous runner, from his many moments of town-wide glory that were sure to follow. He assured me that he would get his due later that evening at the Beer Garden, which is apparantly so famous in Reardan that you don't even have to say "Mule Days Beer Garden". You just say "Beer Garden" and everyone knows what you are talking about.

All sarcasm aside (sorry, Keith!), it was a super-fun morning hanging out with friends, a totally kick-ass workout, and definitely a race I would do again. But I wonder if it would be too much to ask if next year they could actually hold this race in the summer-time? My one and only regret from the race is that I never actually saw a Mule, and, thus, I never had a chance to chase one. Oh well....maybe next year :)

Later on in the afternoon, I somehow motivated myself to get my butt out the door for yet another run, this time 12 miles. I wanted to get one 18-20 mile day under my belt before Ironman, just for a confidence builder, and this weekend was my last chance. As expected, and since I was running without Steve, the late-afternoon weather was spectacular....the morning of rain and wind seemed a distant memory. I just ran on feel, knowing that it was coming on the heels of a hard tempo run and would by my longest mileage day of the year. The first 10 were great, and went by without a hitch. The last 2 totally sucked, and the fact that my iPod died with about a mile and a half to go didn't help matters. I yet again found a nice surprise at the end, when I discovered that I had averaged under 8 min pace, even with my near-walking last 2 miles. Definitely a great way to end an awesome day of running! Now I finally feel ready for the run portion of Ironman.....

Friday swim/ride

2008-06-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well, another workout with Steve, and another day of rain :) Of course we all know he has nothing to do with it, but there is a curious correlation between working out with Steve and getting rained on....

What started out as me and a few of the EWU Tri Club kids going to Medical Lake to swim Friday afternoon turned into a super-fun workout with the EWU guys and a good group of Tri Fusion-ites. Steve, Tiffany, Sheena, Matt, Jessie, Brian, Cary and Phil all came out to brave the chilly waters, and Ali graciously volunteered to kayak alongside us and take pictures...What a treat!

Ali, our awesome photographer!

The weather looked nasty all afternoon, with the winds consistenly blowing some pretty awesome downpour cells through the area. Just as I was getting to the lake, a nice gully-washer came through, which really got me excited to get out of my car, into my wetsuit, and into the water. Uh, yeah, really excited. Not. Fortunately, the rains stopped just as everyone else arrived, and after many WTF discussions, we all got our wetsuits on and headed for the water.

Brian and Phil...not sure Phil is too sure about this triathlon thing....

Cary, Brian and Phil. Cary looks excited (ignorance is bliss, apparantly). Brian knows what is coming. Phil wishes he hadn't agreed to join these other 2 crazy guys....

2/3 of Team A+...we were missin' Jessi for sure! We are both wondering what the hell we have gotten ourselves into.

Of course there was the requisite 10 minutes of everyone just standing on the beach, looking at the water and silently wondering if we really were going to do this crazy swim.

Never a good sign when you have to strain your eyes to see where we are swimming to....

But actually, once we got in and got going, it wasn't all that bad. And this is coming from the guy who absolutely hates being cold. So if I was a bit cold but doing ok, it was probably like bath water to the rest of the group.

Getting started...no turning back now!

I didn't get to draft off anyone going out, maybe because the cold water deleted the recollection of my swimming ability from the brains of Tiffany, Steve and Brian. Anyway, the 4 of us made it out to the aerator, which we figured was about a half mile out, and decided that heading back in sounded really appealing.

Tiffany is excited about turning around. I am too cold to manage more than a weak smile. Steve did survive, although it looks like he's going under here.....

Hey, anyone wanna race back to the beach?!?

Go!!!

The first few minutes after we turned around, the wind was up a bit, so there was a small chop on the water. It took some getting used to, but it was a good refresher on how to deal with swimming in tougher conditions than a pool. Going back, I tried drafting off of Steve, but it quickly became apparant that I had forgotten all of my open water drafting skills over the winter. Drafting off of Tiffany was also out the window, as she proceeded to kick our asses back to the beach. In fact, by the time I made it back, she had already showered up and was roasting marshmallows over the campfire she had made.

Tiffany says: "Screw you guys. You are too slow. I'm outta here. See you on the beach!"

Shockingly, once we were all back, I decided it would be fun to try some beach starts and show off my awesome "dolphin-ing" abilities. Hmmmm, guy who hates being cold volunteers to go BACK into the cold water? Clearly, the water must have frozen my common sense brain cells. I did one or two really bad beach starts, but it was fun embarassing myself anyway.

Everyone made it back, even Phil. Though I'm still not sure if he's totally sold on this triathlon thing. Maybe if he had a full wetsuit, he might feel differently? :)Next up was a painful walk thru the parking lot, because I think it actually hurts more walking on asphalt with frozen feet than with thawed out feet. Those of us who were crazy enough to bring our bikes then set out for a quick 10 mile loop around Clear Lake.

This is going to be cold...

All I can say is thank goodness we were only going 10 miles, because anything more than that would have been sheer misery. Mercifully, the ride ended just as the next batch of rain came, and Steve and I packed up and hit the road. But, not before Steve came up with the greatest use of a bungee cord I have ever seen. String it across the ceiling in the back of my Honda Pilot, and...voila! Instant clothes line!!! I tell ya, that thing is never coming down!

Notwithstanding the dicey weather, it was a fun workout, and *sigh* "somehow", I don't think I regret doing it :) I am glad I got another open water swim in, and happy that I survived some mid-50 degree water without too much trouble. Thanks to everyone who showed up...there is definitely no way I would have done that workout solo. And a special thanks to Ali for kayaking along with us!!

More rainy training

2008-06-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

After struggling somewhat with how to finish off my big volume training period before my long-awaited taper, I decided to do a short brick on Thursday. The weather was looking sort of ok as I was heading home on the bus, so I was looking forward to a good workout. While still on the bus, I talked/texted Steve into joining me, which was nice, because the only part of the workout I wasn't looking forward to was having to push through it solo.

As I left the park and ride headed for home, the first drops of wind-blown rain hit my windshield. Crap. Looking west, it was looking pretty dark and ominous. Double crap. For a moment, I regretted talking Steve into joining me, because if it had just been a solo effort, then it would have been so much easier to wuss out and stay warm inside. The news did not get any better when I got home and turned on the weather. The radar showed a huge blob of green and yellow was headed our way, along with increasing wind speeds. Tom Sherry said it would be upon us in the "next 20 to 30 minutes". This was at 6:10pm. Steve and I had planned to get started at 6:30pm. I'll let you do the math. I nevertheless got dressed to ride and set out my run gear in the garage. Andy got back from her run just as the rain started, and she and I waited in the garage for Steve to arrive. Every 5 minutes, I had to run inside and get another layer on, so that by the time Steve did get there, I was outfitted as if it was a March ride.

Apparantly, Steve is the source of the bad weather luck, because this was going to be his 4th workout in a row that would take place in the rain.

WTF is going on here??? ITS JUNE, for goodness sakes!!! Don't we look excited to go?!?

Well, now that Steve had arrived, there was nothing I could do to wuss out. So....off we went!

Proof that we actually did get on our bikes....

While we did get wet on the ride, it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, especially after looking at the radar. We didn't push the pace too hard, and it ended up being quite a nice ride.

Once we got back, we changed into our running gear and headed out for an easy 4 mile run. Steve's achilles was still bothering him a bit after Boise, so about a mile in, he wisely stopped to stretch and not do any more long-term damage. So I set out to finish up by myself. I was feeling pretty good, but not wanting to push the pace. Just after I turned around, it was a nice surprise to see that Steve had continued on the run, so I ended up having company for most of my run as well. We ran in and chatted, and, of course, by the time we were done, the rain had gone away and it turned into a nice evening.

All in all, it was a great workout!

Iron Eagle race report

2008-06-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

Today we ventured out to Eastern for the Iron Eagle sprint tri, which would be Andy's first tri of the year, and second ever. Needless to day, she was pretty nervous Sunday morning, and I could see the tension building on her face as we got closer to the race site. It probably didn't help her spirits much that the rain was coming down pretty good...

Other than working on trying to speed up my transitions, I didn't do much thinking about how I wanted to approach this race, because I wanted to be focused on helping Andy have a good day. We set up our transition areas, and chatted with the rest of the Tri Fusion crew that was racing...I was particularly excited that my A+ team would finally be racing all together for the first time this season. I got to be on tattoo duty, and between that and talking, I sort of lost time. Suddenly, a race official called everyone to the pool deck for the pre-race meeting, and I had to leave my transition area in a total unorganized mess. I took a quick glance at Andy's setup, and was glad to see that she was right on top of things.

Check out them tats!!

Andy was in the 8:50am (first) heat, and I thankfully wasn't scheduled to start until 9:25am, so I knew that after she was out of the pool, I would have some time to finish getting set up. I played IronSherpa and collected Andy's pre-race clothes while she got warmed up, and then I tried to give her some last few words of encouragement.

I counted laps while Andy did her swim, and even though I could tell she was having a tough swim, I was super proud that she kept on toughing it out. I tried to give her more words of encouragement between her 50s, but I gotta admit, I was pretty nervous for her at this point. I think most of all I wanted her to have a good experience, and seeing her struggle was tough. She was keeping up with a girl in the lane next to her, which was nice, because I knew that she woulnd't be the last one in the pool. But, with one 50 to go, the other girl decided she'd had enough and got out...WHAT!?!? Uh oh, now Andy was on her own to fight thru that last 50. And fight thru it she did, like a true champion. I could see the relief on her face as she got out of the pool, and my nerves calmed considerably. After I caught up to her at her bike, I talked her thru her transition, then set her off into the rain. Time to think about my race now.....

Finished with my transition setup, I headed back to the pool to warm up for my heat. Because I felt like I was behind schedule and was hurrying to get everything together, I only had time to do one quick lap in the diving well. Oh well, no worries, since I didn't really have any time goals in mind for the race anyway. There was one nice advantage about the race being at the same place I work and train during the week. While I was hurrying to get to my warmup, I totally ripped my Tri Fusion swim cap in half. Boo hiss! :( Fortunately, I have a locker with a complete set of swim stuff that I use during the week, including an extra swim cap. Whew!!

The heat I was in was the "fast" heat, and I was very happy to be able to swim with Jessi and Tiffany...in fact, we all got in the same lane, and it was just like old times when Team A+ would pound out the laps on Sunday mornings! Woo hoo!!! Amanda Berquist also joined us, and quickly proceeded to swim away from us. But Team A+ kept it together and had a nice "pace line" going, although I felt a little bad for being a slacker and just drafting on Jessi. Even though there were tons of unfamiliar faces around, once I got in the water, it literally felt like a January Mornings with Martin swim, which totally made me feel great.

Team A+ going for it!!

Once out of the pool, the three of us again met up in transition, and I felt like I had a better T1 than last week, although Jessi still beat me out onto the bike :) The one good thing was, for the first time, I successfully got thru T1 with my shoes clipped to my bike, and got going pretty quickly. Off into the rain, I set out chasing down Jessi. My glasses were fogging up pretty good, and I just laughed as I had to wipe off the insides of my lenses. Real aero, there! Oh well.... I finally caught Jessi just before the turn around, and felt like I was moving ok, despite the less than ideal conditions. I also saw Andy heading back into town, still fighting thru the conditions on her mountain bike. I gave her a quick wave, and I think I caught a smile out of her. Tough tough tough!!!

Hmmmm, think Jessi and I are on the same team?!? :)

At the turnaround, I continued my weird obsession with counting how many riders are in front of me (as if I have a chance of catching them....), and I guessed that within my heat, I was in third spot. Whoa! I have never been this close to the "pointy end of the field" (said with an Aussie accent, ala Macca), and it was a very strange feeling.

Here's me heading back into town. Ugh, not a big fan of my bike position here...while I may be "comfy", I think I could stand to get a bit more aero. I think I'll work on that after Ironman maybe....

I got back to campus and had a really good T2, despite more numb feet. Off onto the run, my calves cramped up a bit, but I just decided to run harder to try and get rid of them. Amazingly, that seemed to work. Weird. As I crested the first, muddy hill out of transition, I could actually see the 2 leaders up ahead. Again, totally unfamiliar territory. Since my run is my strength, I continued to run hard, and who knows, maybe I could catch these guys. Silly dreams of a race win began to creep into my head. Ha ha ha. I sort of closed on them as we were going up another small hill, but I knew there was a pretty good downhill coming up, so I knew that there was no way I would actually catch them. In fact, it looked like they were maybe racing eachother, so they certainly weren't going to give me any openings. As it turned out, I ran out all of my speed in the first mile, so after the turn around, I just had to hang on for dear life and maintain my position. In the end, I was only about 1 minute behind the top two guys, which, considering how much thought I put into this race (zero), was a pretty good result. The highest finish I've ever had in a race, so that was cool.

Heading out on the run......

Heading back in....ouch!

I did pass Andy with about a mile to go on the run, and seeing her out there gave me a nice boost of energy and pride.

She finished shortly after me, and seeing her come down that finish chute, it seemed like her tough swim was ages ago. I really saw her get stronger during the course of the race, and I was immensely proud of her effort.

After Jessi finished, she showed off her nasty sliced up leg from her bike crash. OUCH!!! The fact that she toughed out the run and still managed to be the first woman overall, well, lets just say that I'll be handing over my A+ captain status to her. That was one hard core effort! She even had enough left over to drag me back out onto the course to run in Tiffany and Trish.

Here are the highlights of my day:

1. Seeing Andy get to the finish line, smiling

2. Watching Andy fight thru her struggles in the pool, and come out stronger on the other side

3. Finally racing as a complete A+ Team, and re-uniting with A+ in the pool

4. Running in with Tiffany and Trish, who both had amazing days

5. Seeing Jessi's toughness while blood was flowing

6. The PITA PIT Payoff after the race :)

7. And lastly, the fact that when we got home, Andy had rallied enough to want to head right out to Fitness Fanatics to look at bikes. WHAT?!?! We've only been kicking around this topic for a year or so, and I've been trying not to pressure her into making the leap before she's ready. So, that Andy wanted to go for it mere hours after a tough race, well, that just made my so happy I could hardly stand it!!! She looked so freaking cool testing out the bikes, and after an hour or so, she had pretty much decided that she would join "Team Cervelo". Woo hoo!!!

Andy's new ride....

What a great way to end a great day!!

Onionman Race Report

2008-05-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Considering the events of yesterday, my first race of the season certainly promised to be an interesting one. Onionman has been the kick-off to my racing the past 2 years, and based on my training this year, I was really looking forward to seeing what I could do down in Walla Walla in '08. But yesterday's crash threw all that up in the air.

It is sort of a tradition to make this race a one-day affair, which means that the day begins darn early. Like 3am early. I made it out of bed pretty quickly (for me) and felt ready to go. A quick check of my hands and legs, and they looked not so bad...maybe this IS do-able!

Time for breakfast.......whew!
Loading the car....Andy is smiling now, but very soon, she'd be back asleep :)
We picked up Kirk at precisely 3:45am, which was exactly on schedule. Then it was off to pick up Virginia, who wasn't racing, but is such a great supporter she agreed to the early drive down. Oh yeah, and she braved the rain to cheer us on. Nice!!
As we pulled onto Virginia's street, we were greeted by a HUGE American flag. It was amazing. Apparently one of her neighbors hangs this flag by hand on Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc to honor America. A very inspiring sight to see, especially at 4am, and a great reminder of the many sacrifices from our nation's heros. Thanks to Virginia's neighbor and to all of my fellow service men and women, past, current, and future.
As we headed down to meet up with Johnny B, we were a bit ahead of schedule, which for guys like Kirk and me, is always good news. Once we had Johnny's stuff loaded, it was on to Walla Walla! As the sun came up, the weather was looking good, and the temps slowly rising thru the 50's and approaching 60. Good news. I was feeling confident, ready to tough out my injuries and race.

30 miles north of Walla Walla, it all changed. The rains came, and only got heavier as we kept getting closer to the race site. Ugh. We stopped at a gas station for our last pit stops at 7:15am in a driving rain storm, and I had a decision to make. I was very worried about racing in these conditions, most especially about the bike. If I raced and took another spill, I would never forgive myself. For some reason, the thought of racing very conservatively never entered my mind, maybe because I know how my competitive juices get going when I have a race number on. I decided that if it was still raining at 8am (1 hour prior to race start) I would back out. It just wouldn't be worth the risk, with Ironman coming up in a month. I felt comfortable that it was the right call.

We get to the race sight, still raining. Hard. I decide to get my race packet and get body marked, just in case, although I am now telling people that I probably won't race. Its about this time that I start showing off my hands and legs to prove to people that I'm not just wussing out. :)
I showed my A+ teammate Jessi my awesome wounds, and tell her that I don't think I'm going to risk it and race today. She smiles, says "yes you are", and then leaves me with my thoughts. At this point, I think "yeah right, you don't know me. Once I've made up my mind, its over. I'm out" The rain lets up a bit, and a few more Tri Fusion folks give me the same message: wow, that looks bad...you better get your transition set up. My thinking gradually changes from "crap, maybe I won't be able to back out of this after all" to "hmmm, maybe I actually CAN do this"

So, I go get my bike and transition bag and go start setting up, still in the "just in case mode". Jessi asked me a few more times if I was going for it, and I say "I think maybe I'll give it a go", but she isn't convinced just yet, because I used the words "I think".

Here's me "thinking" it over :) "It looks like I'm going to do this, but am I crazy???"
30 minutes to go, and the rain mercifully stops, even though I have now set up my entire transition in a steady rain. That was fun. I walk by Jessi, she gives me an inquiring look, and I scream out "LETS DO THIS THING!!!" Its on. I am committed. Oh boy.......

Jessi is probably now feeling victorious at this point, having beaten me at my own game. I think it was her recommendation that I just give it a shot and go really easy and conservatively on the bike that put me over the top. Yeah, I can live with that.

Rick Phillips was also working on me throughout this half hour, but maybe a bit less subtly. Instead of curious glances my way, its more along the lines of "You big wimp, put your freaking wetsuit on" With friends like this.... :) Thanks, buddy.

Wetsuit is on....no turning back now. But still, a shred of doubt lingers.....
The first genuine smile of the day. I am ready!

My warmup went pretty well, and the water wasn't terribly cold. The first few minutes of submerged hands were fairly painful, but I tried to block it out and get down to business.

Once the gun sounded, I stayed back and way out to the left, trying to stay out of trouble and avoid any contact with anyone. I only hit one set of feet, and it was painful enough to force me even farther out to the left. The visibility was absolutely zero, but I was pretty pleased with my sighting and managed to not swim too much extra. Overall, my swim was a good, steady, easy effort, and I attribute alot of that to my new wetsuit. It was awesome!!! I was a little nervous about the fact that this would be my second swim ever in it, but it felt great from the first stroke. My beat up hands made it thru the swim ok, and I proceeded to jog slowly up to transition. Still in easy race mode.....

My T1 was surprisingly calm and collected, and may have even been one of my best in recent memory. Even my time wasn't all that slow, even though I didn't feel like I was moving all that fast. Once out on the bike, I took it really easy the first mile, since its uphill on a twisty, bumpy road complete with some awesome speed bumps. I really felt all the bumps in my hands, since I wasn't in aero yet, and it was tough. I took it super-easy around all the corners, and let the other folks I was riding with take all the risks. Once we got out onto the highway, though, I settled into a nice rhythm, and I started picking riders off pretty quickly. It was kind of weird. I purposely didn't have my watch on (thinking this would keep me from trying to "race"), and I felt I was going easy, but I was moving past these people pretty quickly. Hmmm... The road was wet, but I tried to block out my negative thoughts of crashing again and just focused on riding a good cadence. Just before the turn, I caught up to Jessi and for the first time all day, I realized that maybe I was doing ok. I've seen Jessi swim and bike, so to be up there with her was a real confidence boost. Not to mention seeing a friendly face and rocking it A+ style!! Once I hit the turn around, I kicked it up to the big chainring and powered away. No more thoughts of going easy....I was in true race mode now!! A few miles from the transition, Jessi and Rick caught up to me and provided good motivation not to slack off. We ended up coming into transition together, even though the last mile was sheer torture. I couldn't be in aero much, but the bumps totally killed my right arm/hand. I even had to ride one-handed a few times, just to get a break. Ugh.

I had a really good T2 (my one and only strength in triathlon) and sailed off on the run.

Headin' out on the run....

My poor feet were totally numb for the first 2 miles of the run, but I pushed through it pretty well. The first mile of the run was also very muddy, which made for some interesting footing. The combo of numb feet, mud caked on the bottom of my shoes, and the trail condition was tough to deal with. But I just powered through it as best I could, and even closed on and passed some people. Once I got to the paved trail, I settled into a more steady effort, not pushing too hard, but not laying back either. Without a watch on, I was forced into just running on feel, which I think helped me over the long haul. I was shocked to see my run time after I finished..."somehow" I was able to run 43 and change, which averaged to sub-7s. Whoa! Considering where my day started, I'll certainly take that!!

Adrenaline wearing off after the race....wow, I feel pretty beat up! But still happy with my performance.After a stop in the Tri Cities for a milkshake, I started feeling better....

One of the best parts of this annual road trip with Johnny B: the signs tempting us to go visit Kahlotus! We are not really sure what a Kahlotus is, but we bet its pretty interesting.....

Me and my biggest supporter. Always a good day when Andy is there at the finish!

All in all, it really was a good day. Certainly a roller coaster of emotions and decisions, but super-fun. And that is always my bottom line goal for any race: to have fun! Thanks to everyone who helped me get thru the day, Andy, Kirk, Johnny, Virginia, Jessi, Rick, and the rest of the Tri Fusion team. Now, its off to heal up and get ready for the next race!!

CRASH!!!

2008-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, now I know why I don't train the day before a race. Ok, ok, I know that a crash can happen any time, but this was probably my worst bike crash. And, yes, it happened exactly one day before my first tri of the season. The bottom line is, I am an idiot.

Here's the great (but long) story: After riding with Andy while she did her 7m run, I was going to do a quick, easy BLT loop on the bike, just to spin out the legs and get everything all warmed up. As I exited our neighborhood and approached the semi-sharp right hand turn to get up onto AL White Parkway, I checked to see if any traffic was coming up behind me. I do this at every corner, but especially this one, because it is a tricky, uphill corner that always is very full of gravel from the winter. I saw there was a big truck pulling a camper coming up behind me, so I kept my speed up a bit more than normal, trying to stay ahead of him. Mistake #1. Because I knew he was back there, I didn't want to go wide around the corner and cut him off, lest I contribute to any cyclist vs. auto anger. So, even though I was slowing down, I headed straight into the gravel. Mistake #2. Not really sure what happened next, but it doesn't really matter, because WHAM suddenly the right side of my body met the road in a very dramatic looking and sounding flurry of gravel, dust and bike. I didn't even have time to unclip, although I did have time to think "hey, it would be a good idea if I took my hands off the bike right now and give the road a high five".

As I lay there making sure that nothing was broken (bike first, then bones), friendly Mr. Guy-in-Truck pulls up to the stop sign. He sits there for awhile, staring at me, probably wishing I'd get up and get out of the road so he can get off to claim his awesome camping spot. Doesn't get out, doesn't roll down the window to ask if I'm ok. Nope. Just sits there. Could he maybe have not seen me go down, I wonder? Perhaps, but if that were the case, then that was the longest stop at a stop sign in history. Fortunately, a gentleman and his daughter who were out on their tandem bike came over to help me up and make sure I was going to be ok. Right about the time I start spraying massive amounts of water on my now bloody hands, the truck and camper pull away....uh, bye, thanks for the help, buddy. I chatted with the friendly cyclist for a bit, he asks if I can make it home. I say, yes, thank goodness I live a half mile from here. He says he's glad I appear to be ok, and I thank him for checking on me and not making me feel too much like an idiot. Then I say something like "ugh, this is going to make this race I'm doing tomorrow pretty interesting". He says something like "yeah, buddy, have fun with that". Then we go our separate ways.

I made it home ok, and surprised Andy who doesn't expect to see me for a little while yet. Then she went into full-on crisis support mode when she saw the blood, and started grabbing towels and the hydrogen peroxide. I scrubbed and scrubbed at my various scrapes, knowing that getting them cleaned up was priority number one if there was any hope for me racing the next day. Amazingly, I was pretty calm throughout all this, a fact that Andy pointed out numerous times. Normally, with something like this, I'd be going crazy with frustration, embarassment, and anger. Turns out, I may have been in "a bit" of shock still at this point. Anyway, as more and more clothes came off, we discovered more and more road rash, which required more and more scrubbing. Yipee!! After about 20 minutes, I decided it was time to get the rest of me cleaned up, so I headed for the shower. It was, as expected, painful, but I managed to gut through it ok. The weird thing is, I was feeling so ok at this point, I was already thinking about getting the blog post written soon after I got out of the shower. In fact, I had Andy take some pictures, to "spice up" the blog.

Next stop was the bathroom to get things bandaged up and get on with the day. Hmmmm....not so much. After pouring some hydrogen peroxide directly on my hands and leg, we started getting the bandages on. That's about the time when I said "Uh, Andy, I think I need to sit down". Next thing I know, I'm sitting on the toilet seat and my head is spinning and feeling very weird. Yep, passed out. Niiiiicccceee!!! Poor Andy then went into freak out mode, after slapping me back to the real world, and advised me to put my head between my legs. I followed orders, and then the sweating began. Whoa. Not feeling too hot now. Maybe I'll wait on that blog thing. I made it to a lying down position on the bathroom floor, and ever so slowly began to feel better. Meanwhile, Andy called Kirk for a consult, and true to form, he sped over to assess the situation. Immediately after seeing me on the floor, he mentioned that he wasn't sure how it was possible, but that I looked whiter than normal. Thanks, buddy. Then he asked how the bike was. I told him I thought is was ok, so we proceeded to more mundane things like maybe getting some sugar/calories in my system. A glass of Gatorade, one of lemonade, a handful of pretzels, and a PowerBar Triple Threat bar later, I was able to sit up slowly. Kirk did an amazing job of calming both me and Andy down, and not making me feel like an idiot (although I did...its hard not to when you are laying on the bathroom floor). Once we were all convinced that I was going to live and didn't need to go to urgent care or anything, we discussed plans for the race the next day. I of course really wanted to race, but knew that it might not happen. At the end of the night, we decided to make the call in the morning. I did a wetsuit test, just to see if I could get it on and off without too much trouble. It went well, which buoyed my spirits a bit, but I knew that alot would depend on how I felt when I woke up the next morning.

I find it amazing how fast your brain moves when you are in crisis mode, and more so when you are in pain/passed out. I am also very thankful that I had a good support team who rallied to my aid when I needed it. Andy was amazingly calm (or at least she appeared to be) and her concern for me was very sweet. She was probably pretty beat after her hard 7 mile run, but she totally put all of that aside to take care of me. And Kirk again stepped up as only a good friend who's "been there" could, and helped take care of both me and Andy.

As I went to bed, I was feeling pretty good, but also pretty dumb too. It was probably a much more dramatic few hours than it needed to be, and it really shouldn't have even happened anyway. Well, I guess you live and learn. Tomorrow should certainly be interesting......that story is next up! :)

Although there were many more pictures, this is the best "suitable for public display" one. Those should work really well in the swim tomorrow, eh? :D

Catching up...."weekend" training

2008-05-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

How wonderful would it be if our weekends actually ran from Thursday through Tuesday?

Even if that's just wishful thinking, for some reason, my Thurs-Tues stretch sort of felt like a long weekend of workouts.

Thursday was one of those damn tough workout days that I am confident I will be going back to mentally during races to give me a little bit of inner motivation. At least my psyche was helped by the fact that the weather was gorgeous, sunny and in the 80s with very little wind. After work, a few of the EWU Tri Club guys showed me thru the bike course for the upcoming EWU IronEagle sprint race, and we knocked out 10m at a nice 21.4mph average. I then headed out solo onto the Troika bike course bound for home. I was interested in seeing if I could keep my average from dropping too much over the next 44 miles, but decided to focus on my effort level rather than obsessing over the numbers. When I arrived home, a quick check of my bike computer showed that my overall average for 54.5 miles was still 20.2...woo hoo! My legs felt surprisingly fresh as I went out for a 10k brick run, and again, I decided against looking at my watch and just tried to run an even effort. When all was said and done, "somehow" (shout out to Tiffany :) I averaged sub-8s on my run. I won't lie and say it was easy, but I managed to get through it ok. It was when I stopped that I started to fall apart. For the rest of the night, I was totally wasted. It was all I could do to eat a bean and turkey burrito, and then find my way to bed. It was an exhausting day, but looking back, it was definitely a confidence booster.

After a glorious off day Friday, on Saturday I woke up early and met (crazy) Joe for a long run. We tried to get out early, because the forecast for the day was highs near 90. Now that's what I'm talking about!! Lets get a few more weeks of heat! Andy was nice enough to get up early and head out on her bike with us, to be our mobile aid station. We ran the reverse of the BLT loop, thinking that since its easier that way on the bike, it must make for an "easier" run. Uh, not so much. I worked a bit on some downhill running techniques that Joe and Steve have been showing me, but I still felt like I was painfully slow on the descents. My legs really started to feel it with about 4 miles to go, and by the time we hit the last 3, the heat was on and I was toast. It was a major-league struggle to not walk during that last 5k, but fortunately Joe (he, of the sub-48 Bloomsday) took pity on me and didn't dust me too badly. I suspect that he was waiting for me, but it was nice motivation not to slack off and finish the run. Afterward, I knew that an ice bath would seriouly help my recovery and aid my legs in getting through my planned ride the next day. They are never fun, but I am a big believer in ice baths. This one was no different....brrrrrr and no fun at all!

Saturday afternoon, Andy and I cleaned the house in anticipation of our friend Lisa's arrival, who was visiting us for a few days from Germany. We hadn't seen Lisa since she left Spokane last July, and it promised to be a crazy fun weekend of catching up. Saturday night, we hosted a fun BBQ dinner with Lisa, her sister and Zach and Jen. Way fun!!

Sunday morning, I again got up early and picked up Kirk and Joe just after 8am, and we headed out to CDA to do a long bike workout on the course. My plan was to do about 80-90m, and get in the Higgens Point section in for the first time this year. After a nice warmup, Kirk left Joe and I in the dust (as planned) as we hit the northern/hilly part of the course. I was feeling surprisingly good through the first 40 miles, especially considering my hard run yesterday. We stopped at a gas station in Hayden so Joe could get some more water, then we spun around and headed out to hit the northern part of the loop again. Literally within the span of 5 miles, POOF!! My legs went totally dead. Later, Joe commented how he saw it all happen and how surprising it was to watch. I don't ever recall a feeling like that, having it all come apart so fast. It was very strange. After I slowed the pace way down, I decided I really needed to tackle the 2 big hills for a second time, so I gutted it out for a few more miles. At the next opportunity, however, we cut the loop short and headed back to CDA. The last 10 miles, we were heading into a fairly good headwind, so I pretty much just pedaled really easy and cruised it on in. The weird thing about the last part of the ride was this: in the past, in this situation, I would have become very frustrated and angry at the state of things. But today, I just sort of let it go, and decided, hey, it just isn't going to happen today. Incredibly, the headwind didn't even get to me! Now, while I won't call this a breakthrough, it was a good opportunity for me to practice staying positive (or, rather, not get negative) on the bike. Because, who knows, I may have very similar conditions on race day. So what would have been a frustrating day, actually turned into a good day. So what if I didn't get my 90 miles in? Actually, when I mapped it out, I realized that I had made it 70, which made me feel even better! We ended up finishing before Kirk, and he graciously postponed his planned run so we could hit the road and get home. But not before we made a stop at Paul Bunyan's for milkshakes. I got a large....or, more like a GALLON!!! It was damn good though :)

Sunday evening, I headed up to Deer Lake w/ the Tri Fusion Kids Race crew to plan and scout the course. It was a super-fun time, and we made a ton of great progress toward pulling off what I truly believe will be an awesome event. The highlight for me was when we took over one corner of the World Famous Clayton Burger and spread out all of our papers to talk and plan more while we ate. We definitely got some funny looks from the "locals", because we were all totally engrossed in "talking tri". I am fairly certain that it sounded like we were speaking a totally different language. We were definitely "in the zone" :)

Monday was supposed to be an off day, but Steve has somehow figured out that it is pretty easy for him to talk me into a run no matter what my schedule says. What is more, this time he crafted this sneaky little 6m, kick-me-in-the-ass workout. Now, of course I had every opportunity to back out and just do a 10k recovery run, but, come on...would I ever do that?!? :) No way!! So, I suffered through Steve's hard-ass tempo run, and only got beat by about 1 mile. Not bad, considering what I had done the past few days. Seriously, though, it was a freaking awesome workout, and I'm really glad that I didn't bow to the inner voice begging me to wuss out. Later in the evening, we rewarded ourselves by consuming massive amounts of Coldstone, all in record time.

Tuesday I finally allowed my body some recovery, as I decided just to do an easy swim. I did a descending mile with the EWU Tri guys, and as predicted, my time wasn't anything to shout about. But I was (again) totally ok with it, all things considered.

I am really looking forward to this weekend, as it is my first race of the season, OnionMan Olympic down in Walla Walla. I'm curious to see how my body responds to the higher volume of training I've been doing, and I think it will be interesting to see if I still remember how to put on a wetsuit. I think the last time I had it on (and, curiously, the last time I swam in open water) was last August....uh oh :) Either way, it should be a fun time.

The Blah's

2008-05-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Since my awesome, but intense Bloomsday weekend, I have felt sort of blah about my training. I could tell after Bloomsday that my body needed a bit of a rest, but its been hard to get back into it full force.

I think it may have started last Wednesday. Kirk and I had planned on doing another afternoon CDA workout, but the weather was crappy and Kirk had to back out at the last minute. Because I had already put in for time off, I decided to leave at 10:30 anyway and headed home to ride on the trainer. I did get 40m in on the trainer in the afternoon, but I think the combination of it being May 7th and a Wednesday afternoon, it just felt weird. I planned it out to finish my ride about the time Andy got home so we could run together, so before my ride, I did some stuff around the house. Nothing like cleaning bathrooms at noon on a Wednesday to scramble your circadian rhythm!!

Then, over the weekend, Andy and I went down to Disneyland in search of warmth and better weather...and because we seriously needed a Disney fix! I decided not to bring any workout gear down, thinking that an "off weekend" would be just what my body needed. What I stupidly failed to remember, however, is how we can't do Disneyland "easy", and how many good things there are to eat there. We are go go go, all the time...hmmm, the park is open until midnight? Better stay until it closes!! Oooh, a churro stand and ice cream? Better get some of that!! Oh, we only have 3 days? Better get the latest flight possible out of LA so we can maximize our time!! Anyway, the trip was a ton of fun, and both Saturday and Sunday afternoons were beautiful and sunny. We didn't get home until after midnight on Sunday, and we were so tired on the plane that we both did something sort of resembling sleep the whole way. We must have looked so silly trying to find semi-comfortable sleeping positions!! Eventually, we both ended up with our heads down on the tray tables :)

Well, so much for an "off weekend"!!

Since we have been back, I've done a few workouts, but they have felt very sluggish. Monday, I somehow made it through an 8m run with Steve...fortunately he wasn't pushing the pace, otherwise, I'd have been toast. Tuesday's ride was rainy and chilly, but I'm glad I went. I found it a bit ironic that the guy who always complains about only riding in ideal conditions (me) rode in the rain...breakthrough! Well, maybe not. :) Yesterday, my grand plan to ride home from work fell apart at about 6:45am, as I found myself unable to figure out the logistics. So I just threw up my hands and said "screw it!". I did manage to get in a 4m run after work, even though I felt like crap. Andy had a hard run too, and we decided that our bodies must not be fully recovered from Disneyland. Either that, or our brains are still sad about leaving Disneyland :)

The weather the first half of the week has also been crappy, which I think is also keeping me down. Fortunately, today is gorgeous, and this weekend its supposed to be up in the 80s. Already I can feel myself being more energized and ready to get some good quality workouts in.

Today I am test-riding the IronEagle sprint tri bike course w/ the EWU Tri guys, and then riding home. I am really looking forward to getting out there and hopefully sweating out some of this negative-ness and blahs....... I also have a big weekend of long workouts planned, with some more awesome weather. Sweet!! And we get to hang out with our friend Lisa, who is visiting Spokane from Germany....yipee!!!

Bloomsday Weekend

2008-05-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well, as promised, the weather turned around this weekend for the annual rite of spring in the Inland Northwest, Bloomsday. My spirits were buoyed when, for the first time this year, I noticed a flowering cherry tree in full bloom while I was on the bus home Friday afternoon. It was definitely a welcome sight.

Saturday, I decided against driving all the way out to CDA to ride the course, because we had to meet up with Jessi, Emma and Steve in the afternoon to pick up Bloomsday numbers. So, I headed out on the road for a solo 75 mile bike. I knew it would be a tough effort, because I always find it hard to motivate myself and stay positive when I'm riding by myself. But, I knew that it had to be done! I rode the reverse of the Troika course out to Medical Lake, then took a quick spin around Clear Lake before heading home. The first half was tough, because it was mostly uphill, so I decided not to look at my speed and just focus on keeping a good, high cadence. As always, the Coulee Hite section was the hardest on me mentally, but I felt like I handled the hills pretty good. Out in Medical Lake, I saw Amanda Berquist who was just finishing up her ride, and we chatted for a bit...always nice to see some friendly faces out on the road when you feel like you are a million miles from home. After a quick stop at the lake to refuel, I looked at my average, just to see how much I could bump it up on the inward half. I was only at 17.3mph at this point. The next time I looked, 3 miles from home, my average was up to 18.1mph. Excellent. I tried pushing the second half a bit harder, and it was nice to see the payoff. After just over 4 hours in the saddle and 75 miles, I felt amazingly fresh. Usually, efforts like this would have sent me straight to the couch for the rest of the day. So I was pretty happy that I felt energized and ready to go after a quick shower and my trusty can of FRS. It was a good day on the bike...almost too good? :) We'll see.....

Andy and I headed out to pick up Jessi, Emma and Steve, then we headed down to the Bloomsday trade show to pick up our numbers (yellow for all!!!) We had a really fun afternoon trying on sunglasses, having breath holding competitions (warning: do not enter one of these competitions with Emma...she knows a secret and will beat you soundly :), and a well-deserved pre-race meal at Pita Pit. The trade show was kind of weird, with alot of non-running-related booths, but oh well, Bloomsday isn't about the trade show for me. Saturday night ended early, after setting out my gear for the morning. It was kind of nice and weird at the same time to just get running stuff together.

Sunday morning dawned sunny, but cool: perfect racing weather. We picked up Steve at 7:15am and headed downtown. I felt very relaxed, since I really didn't have a goal time I was going for, and I knew I had a second loop to look forward to. After finding a parking spot, we grabbed our pre-race FRS's for an energy boost, then set off for Starbucks to meet up with Zach.

After finding Zach and waiting for the first of Steve's many bathroom breaks, we found our spot in the corral. About an hour later, we started our slow walk to the line and the bedlam began. Steve was shooting for a sub-52, and our plan was for me to pace him. Having seen him run, I knew that plan wouldn't last long, and it didn't, as he was off like a bullet once we hit the starting line. My first mile felt a bit sluggish, and I knew early on that the race was going to be more of a struggle than the last 2 years. I hit Mile 1 at 6:33, with Steve still in sight, but just barely. I actually thought that if I could keep up that pace, I'd have a chance to beat my time from last year...funny what a race will do to rational thought! After tearing down the hill to Latah Creek with Zach and Cameron in tow, I attempted to settle into a comfortable pace, and felt relatively good going up the first hill. I got a nice boost of energy from Jessi who still had the energy to scream some words of encouragement to me...I could only glance back and smile weakly. Probably not a good sign. Just before the first water stop, Steve suddenly appeared at my shoulder, and I guessed correctly that he had relented and made the pit stop he had been begging for back in the corral. We ran together up Cemetary Hill, and then Steve put on a surge down the slight incline that I didn't have the legs to cover. Game over, at Mile 3. Up past the college, Steve was still within striking distance, but my mind wandered backward and forward: backward to my 75 miles on the bike yesterday, and forward to the second loop that I had stupidly agreed to. So I decided not to push the pace. Well, actually, it was my quads that made that decision :) As I watched Steve set off in search of Eric as he glided down the hill to TJ Meenach Bridge, I tried to let gravity do its thing. Fortunately the hill was short, so my weakness wasn't exposed too much. Unfortunately, Doomsday loomed ahead. I struggled up Doomsday much more this year than the past 2 years, but I was still able to pass quite a few people. However, when I got to the top, I didn't have the energy in my legs to drop my pace to the finish, so I just tried to keep my pace even and wait until the last few blocks to start my kick. When I looked at my watch at 10k, I knew that sub-52 was out the window, but I wasn't really concerned. Somehow, though, when I made the last turn to the finish, I was still under 52, and if I had really kicked all out those last 2 blocks, I might have made it. But, since I wasn't really concerned about it, I cruised in to finish in 52:12.

After meeting up with Steve and Jessi, we waited to say hi to some of our other Tri-Fusion friends, and recount our awesome days. Like Jessi's 6 min PR. And like Tiffany's 11 min PR!!! Andy came in shortly after, having another great day, and we then set off to gather our coveted finishers shirts (red this year...not too bad). We met up with Joe, and after a quick stop at the car to refuel, Joe and I set off for our second loop.

We didn't catch the end of the field until about Mile 2, and then the re-energizing comments began from behind us as we passed people. Like "Oh my goodness, I think they are doing it again!" The crowd this year was much more spread out, and we were able to pretty much run full-stride the whole way. From Doomsday on, though we were forced to run on the sidewalks, and had to do a bit of weaving, but we still finished in a respectable time (1:06:00). Joe practically dragged me in the last 2 miles, but I was very pleased with my effort and how my body managed the second loop. Perhaps it was the Guinness that was waiting for me at the bar....it has now become tradition to meet up at O'Doherty's after a second loop for a beer. Nice recovery drink!! It took me a while to get thru the beer though, because I was spent. A hard weekend had finally caught up with me. Joe and Meredith kindly gave me a ride home, and then I discovered a wonderful treat Andy had for me in the freezer...it seems that she and Steve didn't forget about me while they were at Maggie Moo's and I was out still running. A HUGE shake awaited me, and it was damn good.

Later that afternoon, we picked up Steve and headed up to the Gallagher's for a nice, relaxing BBQ and a recovery soak in their hot tub. It felt really good to just sit around and do nothing. It was the perfect end to a really productive and super fun weekend! Congrats to everyone on their awesome races, and thanks to Andy, Steve, Jessi, Emma, Greg, and Natalie for lots of laughs, fun and friendship!

Thursday triathlon

2008-05-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Happy May Day! The weather may (ha ha ha, no pun intended :) have finally turned the corner, as today was a sunny, warm day. And this weekend, being Bloomsday, temps are supposed to approach 70. Whoa!!!

Today's workouts started out with a swim at lunch. After doing 10 x 50s for a warmup, I believe that a pool-gnome secretly began moving the wall in my lane back toward the parking lot, because my 10 x 150s took forever! Sometimes 200s seem to zoom by as if they were 25s, and sometimes 50s feel like 500s. Today's swim was definitely in the latter category. But, I'm glad I toughed it out mentally and got my 2000m in. Maybe it was because I was so looking forward to my evening workouts.....

....which began with a fun group meeting up at Thompson's house. Jessi and I had coordinated ahead of time to do a brick/transition practice, so I was excited to see just how much about T2 I had forgotten since last year :) Turns out, it was ALOT. I was also excited that Andy decided to join the group and do her last 5m run before Bloomsday while we were out on the bikes. She didn't know this before she committed, but every direction from Thompson's house includes a hill, so I was proud of her for tackling those hills and toughing out her 5 miles. My other 2 pieces of excitement were a) the arrival of my speedy new aero helmet, and b) the reuniting of Team A+ and the long-awaited A+ photo shoot.

After getting changed and ready to go, our cycling group hit the road for an hour ride. As we turned the first corner, I found myself second wheel, which could only mean one thing: I was stuck and bascially forced into keeping up with Roger. Yikes. Of course I suppose I could have always pulled out of line and hung back, but, come on, really, would I ever let myself do that? :) So it was Roger, me, Jessi, Steve and Eric and we quickly approached warp speed as we tore across Hwy 2 and out toward the Peone loop. By the time I dared take my eyes off Roger's wheel, it was just us two and Jessi, who almost got taken out by a wonderful Spokane driver. The hammer never came up, and before I knew what hit me, we were heading back and I had somehow survived. I even somehow ended up in front as we went past Mead HS on our way in, and I'm sure that Roger and Jessi appreciated the easy pace I was doing :) As I was gasping for breath and screaming down the hill toward the house, it was time to start thinking about T2, so I got out of my shoes ok and hit my "transition area" (aka, a towel, running shoes and visor in the garage). Of course Jessi smoked me in transition, and she absolutely tore out onto the "run course" so I just had to chase her down. :) Super, lets just get anaerobic right out of the gate and get it over with. I finally caught her and we proceeded to scream down the hill towards St Georges, convinced that my legs would fall off at any moment. Fortunately for me, the road finally pitched up and I was able to test out my uphill running legs. Amazingly, they were there, and I actually felt better going up the hills than down. But in reality, that happens alot. I even think that "Tim" is Latin for "can go uphill great, can't go downhill for crap". Anyway, after a leg- and lung-searing mile or so, I turned around and headed back. I tried to keep the pace high, and it was a struggle, but fortunately it wasn't too far back to the house. The overall damage for the brick was as follows:

Bike: 20.6m in 57:15, 21.6mph average (!)

T2: painfully slow

Run: 2.35m in 15:53, 6:45 pace

Here's Jessi before the brick. This smile means "I'm going to beat Tim like a drum and the poor sucker has no idea....he he he he"

After I retreived my legs and lungs from the side of the road, we all hung around for an awesome meal and then the real fun began. I will direct you to the blogs of my A+ teammates for their perspective, but here's my take: thank goodness I got to be the '+' and just got to lay on the floor with my arms out. In reality, it was alot like many of my post-workout sessions: lay on the floor for awhile and try to recover.

The main difference was that we were laughing our butts off while everyone else was standing around either a) taking thousands of pictures or b) wondering why they chose to hang out with such crazy people. In the end (yes, pun intended, A+) we did get a good shot. I'm happy we finally got our symbol on film, though I must admit that the process wore me out. Again, good thing all I had to do was lay on the floor!! :)

It was a wonderful evening of workouts, friends, laughing and food. Definitely the kind of night that makes me glad to be a triathlete.

Lilac Century

2008-04-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

The weekend started with a nice Saturday of sleeping in and running some errands with Andy, bracketed around a 3000yd swim, and ending with a fun wine party at the Flowers'. My swim went very well, even though I was all alone :( I made it thru the whole workout in under 55 min, including breaks, which I felt very good about. I was even doing my 100s on the 1:40 and my 150s on the 2:30. I think I was more motivated to get the workout over than to get some extra rest, so I constantly heard Roger's voice in my head saying "READY??....OK, HERE WE GO" After looking at the Sunday swim workout that some crazy person put together, maybe it was best for me to do my own thing! :) Really, I did miss my Sunday swimming-mates, especially when I saw their handstand contest! But they did put together a super-nice tribute to me...its nice to be thought of and missed. You guys are awesome!!

After probably a bit too much wine the evening prior, Sunday dawned with a beautiful sunrise at about 5:30am while I was eating breakfast and getting my gear together. Kirk picked me up at precisely 6:28am, and we were off to SFCC for the Lilac Century 100 mile ride. It was a bit chilly waiting around for the start, but I handled it ok leading up to the 7:30am start. The first 20 miles were, for me, damn cold. But fortunately I had some Tri-Fusion teammates, Kathi, Katie, Matt, Dave, Tasha to chat with and take my mind off my frozen fingers. My plan was to ride conservatively thru the first 2 rest stops, hoping to save my legs for the mentally tough last 30 miles and my post-ride run, and I think I managed to do just that. I linked up with a few different riders and groups occasionally, but I really felt like I was riding my own ride. At the first rest stop, Matt Cusack and I joined up and rode most of the remainder of the ride together, and it was nice to have someone to ride and chat with, especially as the miles wore on and the pack thinned out. It can get quite lonely out there, unlike the 112 miles of the Ironman. We found Dave Lawrence at the bottom of the hill to Reardan, and the 3 of us powered our way up, up, up until we pulled into Reardan. The last 2 years, this section has been a struggle for me, so it was a very nice feeling to have lots of energy under me and feel like I was really moving well up the hill. Except for the guy who was climbing this long hill in the big chainring (!), I don't think we got passed by anyone.

After Reardan, it was into the headwinds, although mercifully they weren't too stiff. Matt dropped back a bit, so I was left to fight out the last 30 miles solo, which, even though it meant I wouldn't be able to get any drafting help, turned out to be a good test of my mental strength. I am not a cyclist by nature, so any long efforts usually turn into a test of my mind as much as my legs. Today, I felt great the whole way, never really got frustrated or "down", and didn't let my pace slack off. Of course my butt and shoulders and neck and legs were feeling worn down when I rolled into the finish line, but nowhere near as bad as the last 2 years. It was a good day in the saddle, to be sure. Total damage: 101.67 miles, 5:49:14 in the saddle, avg 17.4mph. I was not concerned about going fast today, and it showed :) Oh well, this ride was all about time on the bike, so...mission accomplished! I also did some nutritional experimenting during this ride, and was happy to find a good PowerBar option that seemed to set well in my system.

After I got back to SFCC, I roused Kirk from his post-ride and potato nap, and grabbed my running stuff from the truck. Secretly, I was hoping that since he had been done with his ride and run for about 6 hours (ok, maybe 2, but sheesh he's fast!) he would tell me that he really needed to get back home, which would've meant I didn't need to run. But, really, would Kirk ever let me get out of a workout? Ha! So, off I went for what I hoped was 2 of the 5k loops the ride organizers had generously marked out. It appears that a baked potato and salsa are really good for brick recovery, because Kirk quickly finished his potato and joined me on my first loop. So, lets see...Kirk does 100+ miles on the bike at over 20mph average, then runs 10k, then has a potato, and still wants to run 5k more with me??? Are you kidding me? As I watched him run away from me quickly up the hills, I was reminded once again how freaking hard core this guy is. But I am really thankful for all the workouts he's dragged me thru over the past 3 years, because I know they have made me so much stronger. I limped in to the finish of my first loop, and this time actually begged Kirk to please, please, please tell me that he really did have to get going and couldn't wait around any longer for me to finish my workout. As I descended the hill away from the college, I realized how silly this request was. I darn near crawled up the steepest parts of the hills, but absolutely refused to walk. I'm not sure why, since if this was in any way an IM prep day, I would have been walking at every aid station, but I kept my legs moving at just slightly above walking speed. In hindsight, I am happy that I didn't give in...I think I may be recalling those 2 miles at some point in time while I'm out on the IM course. :) I finished up my run and was absolutely spent. Kirk and a few others stood around watching me get changed and packed up "very quickly" (a.k.a. "Geez, Tim, could you move any slower???") Then I looked at my watch and realized why I was moving so darn slow. I had somehow managed to run 10k in 8:07 pace. Damn. After riding 100 miles. I think my watch may have been on someone else's wrist, but if it really was me, I'll take that any day!!! I certainly don't think I'll be anywhere close to that at Ironman, but I secretly think this may bode well for things to come in, oh, say, 55 days? :)

Andy and I ended the day with what has become sort of a tradition for me after a long workout or race, a burger and beer at The Onion. Matt, Jessie and Steve joined us, and we had fun recapping our day. And in yet another testament to why she is the worlds greatest IronSherpa, Andy again wonderfully put up with me and my tri friends going on and on endlessly about triathlons. All in all...a good day!!!

BLT and swimming and running and....

2008-04-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, that kind of sounds like a triathlon...thank goodness I did all those things over the span of 3 days. Wonder what it would be like to do them all in the same day? :)
I have been wanting to do a long time trial in the pool for a few weeks now, since I am cautiously optimistic that all this swimming I've been doing has or will pay off. So, Tuesday, I talked some of the EWU tri club athletes to agree to count laps while I swam a 1950m time trial (because I knew there was no way I could count to 39) The swim went really well, and I was pleased with my pacing and how I doled out my effort. I could have probably gone a bit faster, but I sort of wanted to use it as a dress rehersal for IM. My time was 34:10, which was right about where I thought I'd be. Simply doubling that works out to a sub-1:10:00 IM swim, which would make me exceptionally happy. I know that there are many other factors, both good and bad, that will come into play (drafting, wetsuit, water conditions, race day adrenaline, etc), but after my swim I felt very good about where I'm at in the water.
Tuesday after work, I linked up with the BLT group for the second loop, and quickly joined in on the fast-paced fun. The pace picked up a bit earlier than the last few weeks, but I was able to hang on ok. I even led the pace line for a bit, which felt good, until my 30 seconds were up :) Toward the end, I could feel the soreness from Sunday's race creeping back into my legs, but I'm glad I got out there and hopefully flushed some of the lactic acid out. It wasn't my best ride ever, but hey, 20 miles is better than nothing!
Wednesday, while I was on the bus home, I really didn't feel like getting out for a run. But, fortunately Andy was there when I got home to guilt me into it. For some reason, its easier to run when someone you know is also out there on the same course...and when its your wife, hey, bonus!! It was another sub-8 run, but only 4+ miles, and it was a struggle. My running legs had most certainly not recovered 100% from Sunday. I'm supposed to run 6 tonight with Steve...wonder how that'll go?? My only hope is that he had a hard speedwork session on Wed, and is looking for an easy, recovery run.
Today I was tight on my lunch timeframe to get a swim in, so I hit the water precisely at the stroke of noon, did a quick 50 warmup, then proceeded right into my descending mile. I would have liked to have gone farther, but with limited time, I decided to just do my "fall-back" workout that I know I can get done in about 30 min. I felt great the whole way, pushing the pace, but not so much that I was gasping for air. Previously, my total time including rest for this workout was in the mid- to low-29s, so it was a pleasant surprise to see 27:52 on my watch when I hit the wall for the last time! Keats and I shared a lane, and it was great to have someone pushing me. Except for the fact that I was barely keeping up with a guy who has a broken rib and who has done like zero training over the past month or so. Damn. But, I guess that's why he's been to Kona, and I'm still stuck trying to find Kona on the map :) Now, I just need to not get too overconfident that I'm going easily to rip off a 1:10:00 IM swim....maybe I'll just focus on a PR.....
The weather is still crappy. Cold, windy, cloudy. Fortunately I only have to run tonight, so I can manage the weather. This weekend looks nice, which is good for me, since I've got the Lilac Century ride on tap. Longest ride of the year, followed by (hopefully) a 6m run. I'm tired already after just typing that!

Spokane River Run

2008-04-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my first race since the Snake River 1/2 Marathon in early March, and I was very interested to see how my running fitness has responded since I've been running more consistently over the past few weeks.
To warm up, I was supposed to do a long swim and long-ish bike on Saturday, which (as expected :) turned into just a long swim. Oh well. After my big bike week last week and a century coming up this next weekend, I wasn't too concerned about getting a ride in this weekend. And I knew that the race on Sunday would beat up my legs pretty good. Thinking back, I was pretty happy with myself that I actually got into the pool and did a long workout by myself. Last year, this never would have happened. But I did get 3500 in, which included, just for fun, a 500yd time trial.
Sunday the weather forecast called for possible snow and cold temps. Uh, its April. Come on. Really? Well, at least I'm not as much of a weather wimp on the run as I am on the bike. I actually kind of enjoy running in inclement weather. It was cold at the start, but I was confident I would warm up nicely (I did). For those that have never done the Spokane River Run, I will describe it: trail race, very few flat sections, some very challenging rocky footing sections, some scary steep descents, and some hands-pushing-on-knees steep climbs. Or, TOUGH! They had 4 distances to choose from: 50k (next year, maybe), 25k, 10k, 5k. For the third year in a row, I opted for the 25k, with the only goal this year being to not get lost. My plan was to run conservatively, since I knew the difficulty of the course start to finish, and since I knew my run fitness was a bit behind last year. I ran most of the race w/ Brian right on my heels, which served to keep the pace honest, even though we went out a tick fast, at 7:30s. But I wasn't concerned so much about the pace, since I knew the hills would slow me up. I basically just wanted to run on "feel" and see what happened. About 3 miles in, the snow started, and while it wasn't sticking to the trail, it was flying pretty good...enough to make you have to squint to see where you were going. Fortunately at this point I was with a pack of other runners, so I wasn't forced to watch the course signs as closely. I made it thru 10 miles feeling pretty good, and then the gorgeous blue skies and sun came out, and it actually started feeling a bit warm. Wait, this IS the same race that it was snowing at, right??? This is how you know that a) you are doing a long race, or b) you are racing in Spokane, the capital of micro-climates. Over the last 5 miles, I didn't really feel like I let my pace drop that much, except when I was forced to slow up. That would be when we caught up to the back of the 10k pack. It was a bit frustrating, since I don't recall this happening in other years, but we 25k'ers were definitely running faster than the 10k'ers. Normally not a problem, except we were on very narrow, rocky trails right next to the river. Hmmm, so I had to bide my time for a bit behind some folks, take some risks getting around them, and try to ask as politely as possible if I could pass some others. Fortunately, I knew we were almost to the finish, so it was really only about the last 2 miles that I had to fight this. One positive benefit of this race planning snafu was that for those last 2 miles, I always had people ahead to key off of and run down. As the trail opened up onto the finishing section, I opened it up as much as I could and pushed for the tape, refusing to look at my time or HR :) My legs, as predicted and expected were dead once I finished, but thank goodness the kind folks from FRS were on hand to supply me with their liquid gold: Low Cal Peach Mango!! My official time was 2:04:44, which was a PR by almost 8:00. Whoa!! I am truly shocked that I was able to average 8:02's on that course, so that made me very happy. Overall, I finished 21st out of 168, and I finished 4th in my age group out of 18, which is sort of a bummer, but they were 10 year age groups, and I really wasn't expecting anything anyway, so, oh well. But....I'm not sure how many more 4th place age group finishes I can reasonably expected to handle :) Ok, probably alot more, as long as I'm having fun! However, I did not come away empty handed, as in the random number drawing, I won a pair of cool sandles/boat shoes/Teva-like things. Kind of on the weird side, but, hey, maybe they'll help me break out of my shell a bit! :)
It was a good day all in all, and I'm glad to have gotten another long run under my belt. Because of the difficulty of the course, I consider this to be more than a 15.5 mile day...probably closer to 18 on a normal, road run.
Overall, I am very happy with where my training is right now, especially since I felt like I lost alot of time because of my foot injury. This weekend started my string of 7 races in 10 weeks leading up to Ironman, and I must say, I am very happy to get into the part of my season where I get to pin some numbers on my chest. I love racing, love the nervous excitement while waiting for the gun to go off, love rehashing the race and reveling in the post-race glory with Andy, friends and teammates, love that "good hurt" feeling in my body that tells me I had a good effort. Because, really, at the end of the day, those are the things I really race for, not an age group medal........

Big ole brick

2008-04-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

After much negotiations and work schedule tweaking, Kirk and I met up for our inaugural Wednesday IM-prep brick in CDA. I haven't trained much with Kirk this year, but last year I am convinced that all the miles I put in with (or more acurately 'near') him really helped make me faster. He never lets me slack off, but also never makes me feel bad for holding him up.

So we met up at 11am, and the weather for the afternoon looked cool, but dry. The wind was up a bit, and I was somewhat apprehensive about how I would handle it, since I knew I'd be riding most of the day on my own. We set out from CDA Oz on the same 42 mile loop I had ridden on Saturday, and settled into a nice pace (thank you, tailwinds!) It took awhile for my legs to come around, but once we started the climbing, I amazingly felt pretty good. As I hit the first big hill of the course, I decided to do a little test to see if yesterday's Death Hill round 2 experiences were a fluke or not. I successfully made it up that first big hill seated, which was a big-time confidence booster. I specifically remember last year at IM how I was passing people on this hill pretty easily on both loops, and how that really made me feel good about my day. Knowing that we were only doing 1 loop, I felt ok about pushing the hills a little harder, and I was very happy that I made most of the course seated. The only times I really got out of the saddle was for a break....I think I could have easily made the whole loop seated if I had to. Coming back into town, I got caught up by a few lights/intersections, so Kirk dropped me pretty good. But it was a good chance for me to test out my mental strength as I was left to battle the headwinds solo. Compared to past rides, I felt pretty good with how I managed the conditions. Maybe a positive sign for things to come?? We'll see......

Once we got back to Oz, we changed into our running gear, refueled a bit and headed out to run one modified loop of the course. I'm not sure what I was thinking at this point, but I was assuming that by cutting out the City Park/NIC out-and-back section, that our run would end up being somewhere in the 9 mile range. Fortunately, fear kept me from looking at my watch for distance or pace during the run, and its a good thing I did not, because we ended up logging 11.2 miles. Whoa!! Kirk and I ran together out to the turnaround, and then, as I knew he would, Kirk slowly pulled away until I could no longer see him around the corners. The pace felt fairly steady thru 6, but there was no way I could have gone any faster without totally blowing up. The last 4 were a big-time struggle, and it felt like I was crawling. In hindsight, it was probably a good dress rehearsal for managing the discomfort and mental hurdles I know I'm going to face on race day. But, I'm happy to say that I did not stop and walk, even though I was sorely tempted to on a number of occasions. I was sure that I was averaging somewhere in the mid- to high-9:00s, so I was absolutely shocked and ecstatic when I saw my pace was 8:31! Maybe there is hope for a fast IM marathon after all!! I can't wait until our next Wed brick, to see if there is any improvement.

It was a great day, and the end of the longest, toughest stretch I've had so far this year. And my body knew it. I ended up doing an easy 2000 meter pull-buoy swim on Thursday just to keep my body moving, but after that, my body was screaming for a break. So this weekend, I'm going to do an easy 2.5hr ride and then try and run a conservative race at the Spokane River Run. Oh yeah, and its supposed to snow this weekend. Nice. Its April. Late April. Oh well...

BLT #2

2008-04-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Today was our second Bike Loop Tuesdays, and we hosted this one...which really came down to offering up our street for parking :) A really good group turned out, and I was happy to see some new faces (Kim, Jeff, Trevor) and some faces I hadn't seen in awhile (Kathi). I think there were about 16 or so of us out there. I always wonder what other people on the roads are thinking when they come around a corner and see 15-20 cyclists spinning down the road...what the heck, is the Tour de France in town or something??? Secretly, I always feel pretty darn cool being part of a group that gets weird or envious looks :)
The first 2/3 of the loops we took pretty easy, just chatting and (for me) spinning the legs out. I got a bit farther up Death Hill 1 in the saddle, which was nice because I always use my ability to climb Death Hills 1 and 2 seated vs. standing as a barometer of my overall fitness. Last week, my first time on them, I was up almost immediately after they started. This week...a little better! Once we hit AL White Parkway, the hammer dropped and I found myself hanging on for dear life to the back of the paceline. I made it, and while there was no way in heck I was going to be able to move up to do any pulling, it was still fun to be bombing along the road at those speeds.
After a quick rest stop back at the house, we headed out for loop 2. I was praying that we'd keep the pace easy again, knowing what was coming for tomorrow, and the group nicely obliged. Steve and I challenged eachother to see if we could make it up Death Hill 1 seated, and while it was a struggle, I made it. That made me pretty happy...second loop of the day, which means I should not be as fresh, but I did better that round 1. Just goes to show you what a little motivation does! As a side note, Steve again put me in my place, as he did the hill IN AERO!!! Damn...I've never been able to do that...ever. Death Hill 2 came around and here we went again...2 for 2 seated on the second loop! Sweet!! The hammer dropped again as we hit the golf course, and I managed it ok. I even pulled out to lead for a bit, but that extra effort meant I was unable to pull the group up to the lead 3. I almost got there, but one moment of hesitation, and it was all over. Still, once the rest of us got linked up, we didn't let them get too far away. I'm really enjoying riding in pacelines, and I can feel my confidence with tight-quarters riding increasing. Overall, it was a fun 32 miles.
After, Steve and I hung around for awhile deciding what post-ride food reward we had earned, and we decided on some ice cream at Maggie Moo's. Poor Steve had to ride up the hill home, so I scarfed down some quick dinner, then headed out to meet up w/ him. Andy joined us as I was finishing up a kick-ass milkshake, then it was crash-city when my head hit the pillow. All in all, a pretty darn good day!!

Beautiful weekend!

2008-04-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend was phenomenal, weather-wise, and I took full advantage.
Saturday, I woke up early, packed up my cycling gear and headed for my first ride on the IM CDA course since last year. My plan was to do 2x 40 mile loops, and fortunately I was able to coordinate with enough people so I wouldn't be out there suffering alone. Jen and Zach joined me for the first loop, and I felt really good. A little chilly (and snowy!) still in some spots, but the sun was out and I was lovin' it! I struggled a bit up some of the steeper pitches, but I'm used to that feeling in the early season, and I'm confident my climbing will come around pretty quick. I also felt pretty good with re-gaining my gearing edge on the course, which I consider to be a big-time advantage when race day hits, since this course is pretty technical.
I had planned to meet up with Steve at noon for a second loop, and Brian and Cary from EWU joined us, as did Matt Cusak. I only made it back 15 min late, and then hustled thru shedding a few layers since it was warming up nicely. Then the 5 of us set out again. Since I was the only one who had ever been on the course, I thought I had an advantage and they'd have to ride my pace :) Ha, how wrong I was!! I gave Steve and Matt the directions for the first 10 miles, and then they proceeded to drop the hammer. It felt pretty easy, probably because it was the easy (flat) part of the course! Once we hit the hills, I got dropped damn fast. But no worries, they all had to wait for me when they got to intersections. So, here comes Tim, huffing and puffing up the hills, while they all enjoy a picnic in the sun. All in all, I managed to hang in there pretty well, and I think my overall average actually went up over the second half of the ride. Having 83.75 miles under my belt is a great feeling, even if the speed wasn't where I'd like it to be.
Afterwards, we all had burgers and beers at the CDA Brewing Co., the thought of which pulled me up a few of the last hills on loop 2 :) It was a great day, except for the crazy idea we had of doing an ice bath by going down to the lake. Uh, yeah, I am praying that the water warms up significantly in the next 70 days!!! Thanks to all who rode with me, and huge props to Jen and Zach, who went out and did an unplanned second loop.
I was debating whether or not to get up early and do the first Spring Thaw Duathlon on Sunday, and since my legs were a little tired from Saturday, I decided that a long run would be more beneficial than trying to gut out a short, speed effort. So, we slept in a bit, then went up to cheer on the Tri-Fusion crew at the Du. Of course, we totally rocked the race. Steve had a great day, shaving something like 6 min off his time from last year. I'm kind of glad I didn't race, because it would have been another case of "Steve takes Tim out behind the woodshed and kicks his ass" days.
Andy graciously volunteered to get on her bike and ride with me while I attempted to do a 10 mile run, which I think we did at about the "hottest" part of the day. I put quotes around that word, because, well, mid-70s shouldn't really qualify as hot, but with the long winter we've had, it actually did feel pretty warm. I even had to put sunscreen on!!! Anyway, I knew it was going to be a tough run from the first mile, because my legs felt dead. If Andy hadn't been out there, there is no way I would have gone the whole 10. She's a great motivator, and an awesome mobile aid station! :) I felt like I was running so slow, and I felt every little upward pitch of the road. Reminded me alot of the IM run. In fact, I wasn't 2 miles in, and I was thinking, ok, this will be a perfect practice for IM. Just slog thru a bunch of slow miles, but just keep going. Well, I made it thru, and my watch said I averaged 8:30s. Whoa! It felt so much slower than that, but hey, I'll take it. I then proceeded to suffer thru my first ice bath of the season...ouch, but good.
So, even though I didn't race, and missed being able to swim with the club (racing season is here!), I'm pretty happy w/ 84 on the bike and 10 foot-pain-free miles running. 9 weeks to go.....

Finally.....a solid, solo run!

2008-04-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Even though I got home a bit late today, I managed to get back out the door pretty quick for a run. I wanted to go 6m, but looking at the fading daylight, I knew it would be tight. I went out at a semi-hard pace, and planned to see how I felt and how much daylight there was left when I got to the 4 and 5 mile turnarounds. Both times, I was feeing good, so I decided to turn up the pace and go for 6. What a great decision! I knew I was running fast, based on what song was on my iPod when I hit the turnaround. I didn't want to let up on the way back in, so I see if I really was getting faster over the past few weeks, so I kept pushing. Even though my HR was slightly elevated, overall I felt great, almost like I was just floating up the hills. I love it when I feel like that, and I usually don't want the run to end. I came in at 44:44 for 10k, which is more like it!
So, it was a great effort, and I'm getting closer to being happy with where I am running-wise. This weekend, I'm really looking forward to some nice weather and to getting out on the IM CDA bike course on Saturday. Sunday, I'm 90% sure I'm going to do the first Spring Thaw Duathlon, and my plan is to use it to see where I am speed-wise. I'm cautiously optimistic....I guess we'll see if this sub-45 10k is the real deal, or a fluke! :)

Le BLT

2008-04-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

That's French for "The BLT". Today was our first Bike Loop Tuesday ride, something that paid big-time dividends for me last year. So, needless to say, I was pumped about this ride.

A huge crew showed up at Kirk's house, and after an easy first 3 miles chatting with folks, I linked up with Steve, Vicki and Steve Rupe for a hammer-dropping, pace-lining, super-fun, fast ride. I didn't do a ton of leading, but I gained some confidence by the fact that I was able to pull through a few times and (hopefully) didn't slow our group down too much.

Just as we got back into Kirk's neighborhood, the rain and hail started. We took shelter in Kirk's garage, thinking it was just one of those quick, Spring showers, hoping to get out for a second loop. Uh, not so much. Once the rain came, it didn't stop for awhile. We snacked on some great granola from Team Huskinson while hoping that the rest of the group was managing the weather.

One by one, they all came in. Some still had smiles on their faces, some did not, but all toughed it out. Except for Martin....he didn't come in. We were worried about him, because last year, we always came back to the house to check in before heading out for a second loop. Many theories were developed as to what happened to him; was he crashed in a ditch? Was he drinking coffee at Starbucks? Was he riding to Seattle? Eventually, Kirk got home, went back out and found him....he had braved the weather and done a second loop!!! What a crazy stud! Must be the new bike....

Once we all stopped our watches and gave up on the second loop, we decided to go to Red Robin for dinner. Bummer. So I rode back home, threw some clothes on and dragged Andy and Jen up to dinner. Steve and I threw down some killer Rookie Oreo shakes. As you can see, I was pretty excited about the shake.

Even though it wasn't the workout that I had planned on, it was still a fun evening. Standing in a garage shivering, waiting for the rains to stop....ahhhh, those are the times of your life!!!

Happy Birthday Andy!!!

2008-04-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight I took Andy out to Anthony's overlooking the Spokane River falls to celebrate her birthday. It was a fun time, just the two of us recapping the year and all of our memories. Andy is my biggest supporter, my #1 IronSherpa, my best friend and the love of my life. She puts up with alot out of me, with most of it stemming from my obsession with triathlon. She is always understanding when I vanish for hours at a time only to come back to a nap on the couch. And I am so grateful for this past year, when Andy and I shared two of my most cherished moments in triathlon. The first was when she joined me for the final (tearful, joyous) run down the chute to the finish at IM CDA 07, and the second was when I saw her cross her first triathlon finish line. I always love seeing Andy out on the course cheering me on...it gives me such a lift, even though sometimes it doesn't look like it :) And its only afterwords that I realize how many sacrifices she makes for me and my racing.
So, to my wonderful wife, thanks, and Happy Birthday, AP! I love you!!

Kick-butt weekend training

2008-04-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

After doing some solo training last weekend, I was pumped to get back after it with my Tri-Fusion buddies, and boy did they come thru!

The weekend started on Friday night with a run up at the Gallaghers. Notice that nobody had headlamps, and Roger even had shorts on...which means, more daylight and warmer temps! Woo hoo!

My new training buddy Steve and I headed out for an "easy" 5 or so. I've training and racing with Steve quite a bit this year, and our paces both on the bike and run have been very close. Well, tonight I discovered another thing we have in common....I think we are both a bit on the competitive side and don't mind pushing the pace. Our "easy 5" turned into a great tempo run, and the last 2 miles we were averaging high 6s and low 7s. Part of that was because it started raining and hailing pretty good, so we wanted to get back quick, but I suspect it was the competitive juices flowing! All in all, it was probably my best run of the year...thanks Steve!

Saturday dawned with snow in the air and on the ground. So much for my long ride that I had planned, right? Uh, how about not! After a few text messages back and forth with Steve, I found out the ride was still on, and not wanting to look like a wimp, there I was, ready to ride. Chalk it up to the club folks yet again getting my butt out the door for a workout. And of course, once it was over, I was so glad I got out there.
Here is the crew pre-ride....notice the wet streets, cloudy skies, and all of us bundled up, but clean....
Once we got out on the rural roads, Rog and Jessi dropped the hammer, and amazingly I was able to keep up. Part of me was scared about getting dropped so early, and since I was 3rd wheel, I assumed that the rest of the group was right behind me. At the first stop, I pulled up breathless, but buoyed by the fact that it was just the three of us. I actually felt pretty good at this point...oh, if I had only known what was coming! :) We cruised back toward Highway 2, and then north until we hit Riverside. Uh, as in, the road over to Deer Park. What?!?! I'm riding all the way to Deer Park??? Whoa. Amazingly, I was still feeling pretty good, but I let Rog and Jessi go, and was very thankful when Steve and Jeff caught up and I had a wheel to get on. Speaking of being on wheels, remember those wet roads? Uh, yeah, lets just say that I was reveling in getting dirty. Bike, face, helmet, jacket. Everything was wicked dirty! Pretty fun, though. Anyway, the hill out of Riverside pretty much sapped me, and from Deer Park back to Wandermere, I was in full-on suffer mode. Steve dropped me like a rock, but I actually felt good about how I managed the mental side of the solo, tough riding. As I rounded the corner and caught sight of Twigs, my heart leapt out in joy! 45 miles in 2:21, averaging over 19mph. Totally psyched to see that at this point in the season. 19 is my goal average for IM CDA, so the more long rides I can do at that pace, the better!
Here's me and two of my 2008 training saviors.....a little grit for your teeth anyone?!?

The crew....notice how clean Roger's jersey is!

After I limped in, I saw Jessi putting on her running gear, and mindlessly followed suit. Whoa again! Matt Cusack joined Jessi and I as we took off running, for what was supposed to be an easy 3m loop. After the first mile, my legs finally loosened up and I was able to find my stride. Amazingly, the middle part of the run didn't feel too bad. That is, until I crested the last hill. After that, my legs were dead. Jessi went zooming by me and pretty much pulled me in the last half mile. Overall, I felt good about getting in a long workout, but I realized that I have a long way to go to get into the shape I want for IM CDA. I think its my speed that needs some help. That, and smarter expending of effort. Or, stop going out so darn fast!! Other than that, I learned today that Jessi and Steve are in amazing shape right now, and they are going to have awesome seasons. Roger and Jeff...well, we all know they are on different levels anyway, and boy did they show it today!

Sunday meant back to our club swim, which I was nervous about, since I hadn't swum since my wonderful Bellevue swim a week prior. The layoff held me back a bit, but I made it thru pretty well. Looking back, I probably could have held on and made it thru the entire workout as written, but because our lane was so crowded, a few of us at the back decided to sit out a few 50s, which I certainly didn't complain about. After, Steve guilted me into swimming one last 200 to make up for the stuff we sat out...so I ended up getting in the whole 3500yds.

After the swim, I changed into my running gear and, after waiting for it to start raining, headed out with Steve, Rog, Jessi and Vicki for a 90 min run. It was a great run, as Rog lead us all over Mead. The rain quickly ended, and we even had a few peeks of sunshine. My legs started dying as we approached the Mill Rd hill, and I hung on for dear life up to the top, where Jessi and I shared some tired, but well-earned high-fives. From then, it was survival the last 15 min, but I made it in one piece. The damage: 9.8miles in 1:26. At the tail end of a long, hard weekend of workouts, I'll take it!!

Many thanks to Steve and Jessi, for encouraging me to get out there and push the pace. I definitely wouldn't have done it without you!!

Disconnected

2008-04-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

I always feel a little off for a few days after I get back from a road trip, but today I really felt a profound sense of disconnected-ness. Not only is the house still trashed from unpacking the car after the weekend, but today I read thru some of my friends' blogs recapping their weekend of training and racing. As much fun as the wedding was and being able to hang out with Andy's family, I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel a little sad at missing out on the weekend here in Spokane and Lewiston. There was a huge group from the club that braved the snowstorm and went down to do the first tri of the season in Lewiston, and even though the weather wasn't ideal, it looked like they had a ton of fun. I wished I was there, except for the weather :) My A+ teammates Jessi and Tiffany both had amazing races!

Then Sunday, it looked like it was another great club swim. The fact that I had such a crappy weekend swim on Saturday made missing my regular Sunday swim even harder to take. And then I saw that Jessi, Tiffany and Steve (aka the "flip turn crew") got together for an indoor ride Sunday afternoon. It looked like a ton of fun, and one of those workouts that was right up my alley.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, but a hard one because I had my two families pulling me in different directions. Of course my sister-in-law's wedding had to win out, but I am now really motivated to re-connect with my training buddies soon and get back into the swing of things.

To help the process, tonight after work I went out for an easy 10k outside. With no headlamp. And shorts on! A very significant event, as I had enough daylight to make it 6 miles. After work. Outside. Sweet!!! My goal was to go easy, and not push my foot too much, and I accomplished an easy RPE workout and still managed to average 7:35s. Seeing how my running has been so sporadic this winter, it sort of turned in to a mini "breakout" workout. I felt good, my HR was way down, and I still was way under 8s. Now I am hoping against hope that the weather continues to improve quickly, so I don't even have to think about it and plan around it when I'm scheduling my workouts.

82 days and counting until IM CDA......

Wild, wet, windy, wedding weekend

2008-03-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

How's that for some alliteration? :)
This weekend, Andy and I headed over to Redmond for Andy's sister's wedding. It promised to be a busy but fun weekend, and Jess and Jeff didn't disappoint. I spent last week closely monitoring the weather and trying to figure out what kinds of workouts I could get in. Wednesday night I made the decision to not bother trying to ride outside, since the forecast looked, in a word, crappy. Thursday, I was supposed to get up early and get a swim in before we hit the road, but sleeping in a bit came way too easy, so it turned into an off day. Had I known what was in my swimming future, I would have gotten this workout in....you'll see why in a minute.

Friday, my only scheduled event was the rehearsal at 5:30pm, so my plan was to get a long brick in mid-day. So, I set up my trainer in the hotel room, hooked up the PS2 so I could watch my IM DVDs (thanks, Andy!!) and pedaled away. Despite the unusual setting and a sort of weird pre-workout breakfast, the ride was awesome! 2 solid hours, mostly tempo, and I did a few harder 10 and 15 min intervals. While I was riding, the sun was out and it looked dry, so for awhile I was sort of regretting not getting outside. Uh, yeah, my decision to ride inside was confirmed as a good one as soon as I stepped out the front door of the hotel for my run. Lets just say that it was about 38, spitting rain, and windy out. I actually saw some people on bikes out on the trail...must be from Seattle. Wackos. Anyway, I did what turned out to be a hard effort 10k, and managed to hold on and average sub-8s again, which I'm really happy with. I was spent pretty good after, but it was my longest and hardest brick of the season so far. My foot was again somewhat uncomfortable on the run, but I managed it ok, and every run I'm learning to deal with it better. The thing I'm most pleased with about the brick was that my average HR was down at 138, which for 3 hours is right on where I hoped to be at this point. And that's after a month of very sporadic training.

Saturday was wedding day, so I knew in advance that I wouldn't be able to get a long workout in. So my plan was to just do my standard 3000 swim workout and call it good for the day. Prior to leaving, I had done some research on-line and found a 24 Hr Fitness in Bellevue that had a pool, so I figured I was good to go. I knew that the Marriott pool wouldn't cut it, cause, well, its a hotel pool. Since the gyms here in Spokane all used to be 24 Hr Fitness facilities, and I've swum in all their pools, I assumed that "24 Hr Fitness + Pool" would equal a standard, lap pool. Note my use of the word assume here. So, as the girls all went off to do their girl wedding day thing (a great mystery of life), I headed off in a semi-excited state to the gym for what I was feeling would be a great swim. Successfully navigate to gym: check. Confirm one last time they have a pool: check. Pay my $15 day pass: check. Get changed in locker room: check. Shower, walk out on pool deck: shock and disappointment. The pool at this major, nationwide fitness facility is not much better than the one I had just left behind at my hotel. The pros of this pool are these: water, 3 x lane lines on bottom of pool. That's it, that's the list. There were a few people splashing about doing something akin to water aerobics, and then there were these 3 guys who were literally standing by the wall having a very animated conversation. It was like they were at a bar talking, but no, they were standing in a pool. At a gym. And when I walked on deck with my swim cap, goggles, and water bottle, appearing ready for a workout, they looked at me like I had 3 heads. This would be a trend for the next hour. Every person who walked out on the deck and everyone in the sauna literally stared at me like I was a crazy person as I was doing laps. Well, sort of laps. The pool had no lane lines, and was very murky. When you add the murky water to the fact that there were none of the normal black "Ts" on the walls, you end up with some smashed fingertips. I never gave much thought those black Ts, but its kind of like your thumb...you never know how much you need it until you smash it with a hammer. Anyway, the other fun thing about this pool was the design. Uh, not 25 yards, and not square. The hot tub jutted out in a circular fashion and there were some wide-ass stairs, so that on one end, there was about 18 inches of flat wall to attempt to make a turn. So, after giving up hope of doing a 3000, I decided to just swim for 45 min straight. Other than the fact that I had to swim in a semi-diagonal direction to get to my "turning area" and the fact that I could go down and back in about 20 seconds, it wasn't too bad. I did manage 45 min, but had to dodge many other pool entrants who were so shocked to see me doing more than talking or splashing that they pretended I wasn't there. Wow, totally not the workout I was hoping for. But, I suppose better than nothing. If anything, it made me miss terribly my Sunday swims with the club and Team A+. And my lesson learned from all of this: when a fitness center says they have a pool, well, know that not all pools are created equal.

Saturday night was enough fun that I forgot about the swim...maybe because the wedding and reception were at a winery??? :) Damn good wine, damn good party, and, oh yeah, did I mention the wine?

Speaking of the wine, Sunday morning, when I got up, it was about the time that the club was meeting back in Spokane to swim. Lets just say that swimming was the farthest thing from my mind...although I did feel a little sad that I was missing it. Not like I was in any shape to swim, but, well, you know. :)

So that was my weekend. All in all, one good workout, one so-so workout. But the fact that I went away on a mini-vacation and got any workouts in is a big deal, so I felt good about that.

Liquid magic

2008-03-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, on the recommendation from my friend Kirk, I started experimenting with a fairly new energy drink called FRS. We first tried it at IM CDA last year, and it was ok, but at the time, I was wary of adding new things to my training diet. I recently found a few different flavors at a local grocery store, and hit upon one that suited my palate, Peach Mango. Then, low and behold, at our most recent Tri Fusion meeting, Julie from FRS came to talk about their product and hand out some samples. Talk about great timing! Although I didn't get a chance to talk to Julie in person, I did use the opportunity to do some more research on this product, and I'm now hooked. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. Check out more info at http://www.frs.com/ I've been testing out having some before and after workouts, as well as mid-afternoon at work, when I'm usually dragging. So far, this stuff has been absolute magic! I had a can yesterday about 20 min before my run, and it turned out to be a great run. While I won't give all the credit to the FRS, I am convinced that it helped. Today, I did a quick 1 mile swim at lunch, and had a can right after I got back to my office. That was about 2 1/2 hours ago, and I'm still going strong, not feeling tired like I usually do.

See, I really like this stuff! :)

Speaking of my run yesterday, it felt so good to be able to get out after work and run outside. It seems like its been forever since I've been able to do that, between the seasons and my injury. It was just like old times! I only did 4 miles, but still managed to go sub-8s, which for right now is pretty good for me. My foot didn't hurt, but it was still a little sore/tired. But I'm learning that I just need to deal with it, be careful, and get thru it, because I just need to log some serious running miles. I've actually found that by making slight adjustments in my gait every now and then, I can reduce the discomfort during the run, so that's encouraging. I guess you could say that I'm learning to be comfortable with the discomfort.

My swim today was also awesome. I did a descending mile, which sort of turned into a time trial, and my time seemed to be pretty quick. I'm curious to see how much I improve over the next few months, so I think I'm going to do this workout every few weeks. Taking out the rest I took, I estimated that I swam the mile in about 27:30 today. I'll take that any day!!

Easter swimming

2008-03-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

OK, so now I know that less writing on the workout board, does not equate to an easier workout.

See...4 sets, one of which is a semi-warmup...should be no problem, right?

HA!!! Today's swim was an arm-burner. I made it thru the first 1000 ok, then the 250's took it out of me. So the last 10 100's were absolute torture....but, I made it, and didn't have to sit out any 50's, so, here's to small victories.

I have to give some big-time kudos to my buddy, Steve. He swam with us in the A Lane today, and only had to sit out 200 total. Out of 3750. This is the guy who was not thinking he would be able to move up to our lane for another 2 or 3 weeks. And he's only sitting out 200 of 3750 with Roger leading??? And then, after we finished up, Steve decides that he owes somebody those 200, so he proceeds to knock out a 200, immediately after the 10 gut-busting 100's! Damn....

And of course, to my A+ teammate Jessi....thanks for pulling me thru today :) Uh, and yesterday, on the bike :) Lastly, to my other A+ teammate, Tiffany: We missed you today! It was only 2/3 of the fun we normally have.

For proof that the workout didn't totally kill me, this is after, and I'm still smiling (albeit weakly) The 4 guys on my left and right totally kicked my butt today.....

W-w-w-workout with a c-c-c-clock

2008-03-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

And that's what happens when you try and type with frozen fingers. Which is how my Saturday started. I got up early and bundled up for a short ride over to the site of this year's Tri-Fusion Workout with a Clock. I never knew just how cold your hands can get in only 4 miles of riding, but by the time I arrived, they were just about frozen. Even though it was clear and sunny, I don't think it was above 30 degrees. Yikes. But, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting out there and doing this "race", because anyone that knows me knows how much I dislike being cold.

Anyway, after waiting for it to warm up and to see how many people would be man enough to show up, it turned out that there were only 7 of us crazy enough to do it.

The start.....from L: Steve, me, Jessi, Tracie, Jim, Eric, Roger

I actually got fairly warmed up on the first run, which was good because after my bike over to the start, I was worried about being cold on the bike. But the bike turned out to be an awesome ride. After a fairly successful T1 (no falling, and I tried out my shoes on bike trick for the first time...good, but still needs work), I was quickly caught by Steve and Jessi. I got on their wheels and we had a good little pace line going, because, hey, the race director didn't say anything about drafting! :) I did a little of the pulling, but not as much as I should have.... Then we caught Eric, so we ended up having a nice, quick bike. I think we averaged about 20mph, which I'm pretty happy with at this point in the year. My T2 was decent, considering I had gloves and many many layers on. The second run felt surprisingly OK, except for the fact that I still haven't figured out how to run downhill. I put some time into Steve on the uphill out to the turnaround, then watched him pull away and smoke me on the downhill....nice work, dude!!!

Even so, I was still smiling at the finish, and had managed to even lose one of my 18 layers!

It was a great day, and I also have to give out some big-time thanks to Matt who volunteered to hold my bike in T1 and catch it in T2...thanks buddy!!! And also to Mark and the wonderful volunteers who froze their butts off so that we could get a workout in. You guys are awesome!!!

Later in the afternoon, I was supposed to meet up with Jen and Zach to do a brick out in CDA, but that plan fell apart, which in the grand scheme of things probably wasn't a bad thing. One hard effort per day is probably sufficient at this point.......And then I looked at the Scates' pictures of their ride out there, and they looked cold while they were trying to navigate the snow on the roads! :) Oh well, I guess my first ride on the IM course will have to wait.......

Thursday workouts

2008-03-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time in awhile that I did 2 workouts, and it felt great. Since I'm getting ready for Ironman #3, I know that doing one workout per day just won't cut it, so lately I've been feeling like a slacker. But I also realize that I'm still in recovery mode from last week, so I just have to trust that my training will come around eventually, and that I need to be healthy for that to happen.

At lunch, I made it down to the pool and got a 45 min swim workout in, which is significant only because I did it all by myself...no one else to get me to the workout, no one to motivate me to do it. However, it turned out to be a tough swim. I knew I'd only have time to get in about 2000m, and the last 1000 felt like I was swimming in molasses! Oh well, the important thing was to get that second mid-week swim in, and I did it!

After work, I went up to the Gallagher's for the non-headlamp headlamp run. Thank goodness for daylight savings time!

Here's the crew sans lights.....

I was super happy that Andy decided to come along and run with the group, knowing that she was probably nervous about running with the triathletes and being too slow to run with us. But she did it, found some great company to run with, and had an awesome time. See, she's smiling!!

I am very proud of Andy for taking a leap and getting out there!

My run was darn tough, but a good one to kind of shock my system back into running. I ran with Jessi, Steve Rupe and Jeff Blackwell. When we started, Jessi said she was going to do a 45 min steady run, which, eventually resembled our Sunday swims....I was hanging on for dear life. Meanwhile, Jeff, Jessi and Steve were chatting as if they were hanging out at Starbucks. But, really, I'm so glad I decided to hang with them, because I absolutely love running with faster people and putting in some solid miles. It was also a good barometer of my running fitness, which, duh, sucks right now. So, now I know what I need to work on!

Even after the gut-buster, I did manage a smile or two.... :)

The best workout partner in the world.....thanks AP for coming!!!

Back to the pool!

2008-03-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished up a pool workout with the EWU Tri kids, and it turned out to be a really good swim. After Sunday, I was worried that I had maybe lost some of that precious "swim fitness" that I have worked so hard to gain, but for now, it appears that I am bouncing back pretty well. I did 400m/100m repeats, and I was totally psyched that the 400s seemed to just fly by. Now I can't wait to get to Sunday and see how I'm doing in relation to the Mornings with Martin crew. Today's workout was also significant because this week is the first I've had since January without my scheduled swim class. So I am now totally on my own to get my butt to the pool mid-week, which in the past has been a major hurdle. OK, so its only one swim, but I'm really hoping that I can keep my momentum going by getting in 2 swims during the week.

For the rest of the week, I'm still going to take it easy and get back into it full steam slowly. Check out Roger's blog for more on this subject...he summed it up way better than I can, but I am totally relating to his struggles lately. I am really looking forward to reconnecting with the group tomorrow night at the club meeting, and then on Thursday for the "Headlamp" run.

In other exciting news, I'm happy to report that we are getting close to restarting the club's weekly "BLT" (bike loop Tuesday) rides, possibly as early as April. And, Kirk, Dave and I are working hard on putting together a long, mid-May "Workout with a Clock"....stay tuned for more on this one!!

Oh yeah, and for those keeping track, today's NY Times crossword time was 10:45. A bit slower, but hey, its Tuesday, so, its a bit tougher. Nice.

Weekend un-training

2008-03-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

Well, another Monday, and another new NY Times crossword record! 7:55, which is now solidly faster than most of my IM transition times :) I'm going to keep that in mind this year when I'm slacking off in the transition tent!

This weekend was, as predicted, tough on my mind. To (hopefully) rid my body of any remaining nasty bugs from the previous week, I purposely did not do my planned workouts, except for an abbreviated swim Sunday morning with the club. In essence, my weekend was: LAZY. Which on the surface sounds nice, but in practice was very tough for me. Laziness begets laziness, and even though there were plenty of non-athletic things to do, once I got started down the path, I found it very hard to pull myself up out of it. As a result, it wasn't really the greatest of weekends. And as much as I love all of my training partners and hearing/reading about all their great adventures in HR elevation (races, group rides, bricks), I gotta tell you, it was kind of tough to know that I was forcing myself out of the game.

So now, I enter another tough stretch. That of being super-revved up to make up for lost time balanced with a smart, gradual return to life as an Ironman preparer. Physically, I'm feeling fine, but maybe a little tired overall, but now its the kind of tired you get when you aren't doing workouts, rather than the kind you get when you have done too many hard workouts. In hindsight, the shorter swim I did on Sunday may have worked to my advantage. I hung on in the fast lane again, and it was hard, hard, hard! Like, harder than I think it should have been. Analyzing it later, I attributed the difficulty to the fact that I'd taken a whole week off + the fact that I'd been sicker than I had been in a long time + lingering effects of said sickness + no fueling/hydrating/sleeping preparation. So, on the positive side, I think it may have killed any thoughts of jumping back into it full force. Which means that this week will be a slow progression back to it, with the hopes of having a solid, semi-intense weekend.

Tonight, I may allow myself a Guinness or two, cause, sheesh, St Paddy's Day only comes around once a year! So, here's to a happy Guinness day to all!!

Wiped out

2008-03-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

Whew, that's about how I feel these days. Yesterday was (hopefully) the worst. For someone who likes to think he's pretty active, not getting out of bed until noon is not how I like to spend my Tuesdays. But alas, that's what happened. It has been a long time since I've felt as bad as I did yesterday morning, but I'm back at work today, and cautiously optimistic that I'm on the road to recovery. The big-time bummer is I've pretty much been forced into shelving my training until I really feel 100%. And of course, this happens just when daylight savings time has kicked in (haven't even felt like enjoying the extra hour of daylight...boo hiss!) and when I really feel like my training is coming around. So, that is going to make it even harder to keep myself down until I'm all the way back. I was planning on going down to Lewiston this weekend to race a duathlon, but I've already given up that one. Even if I was feeling ok by Saturday morning, I suspect that doing a hard effort at this point would not be beneficial. So, here's looking forward to a weekend of massive rest and (maybe) low-intensity workouts!

The sickness

2008-03-10T12:32:00.001-07:00

Whatever it is that is going around Spokane has invaded the Swanson household and put down some serious roots. Andy has been sick since last Thursday, and today, I am so stuffed up I can hardly stand it. My head feels like its somewhere around 20,000 ft and lost in a cloud bank. So far, I'm not as bad off as my dear wife, who really has taken the brunt of it. Watching someone you love be miserable is, well, miserable, because you really want to do anything and everything for them to make them feel better. And yet, often times, the best medicine for them is to just leave 'em alone, which sucks just the same, because I really want to help her out!

I felt ok during my ride yesterday, but now I'm regretting it, thinking that being out in the cold may not have been the best call. I am also suspicious that I may still be suffering from whatever it was I had about 3 weeks ago, because since then, I've been hovering around the 80-90% range. Which sucks, because its not bad enough to stop me from putting in some hard efforts, but still something that might take some serious downtime to fully beat. For now, I'm going to take it day-by-day, and see how it goes.

On a positive note, this being Monday, really one of the few things I actually look forward to Mondays for is the easy crossword puzzles. I was pretty happy that I knocked out the NY Times puzzle for today in just over 10 minutes. Sweet! Hmmm, what would it say if I ever was able to do a puzzle faster than my IM swim-to-bike transition times? :)

For now, its off to the medicine cabinet then to bed. Ugh

Sunday ride

2008-03-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

So, what started out as "I'm going to ride Sunday by myself" somehow turned into a really cool group ride. Jenn, Brian, Phaedra, Steve and a sick Roger (on his sick, new ride) all showed up at my house and we headed out for what we hoped was a sunny, warm ride. While it did warm up while I was climbing the big hill on Coulee Hite Rd, after that, I was teetering on the edge of being miserably cold, but I managed it ok. Roger, Phaedra and Steve turned around at the 1 hr point, so after we bade them farewell, Jenn, Brian and I pressed on shooting for the 25m mark. We hit the turnaround right at the 90 min mark, which I felt pretty good with, considering that it was mostly uphill going out, and this was only my second ride outside this year.

While it was great to be outside again riding, I didn't have my best ride ever. I always have a hard time fueling and hydrating properly when its cold out, and that hurt me today. Never a good sign to get hunger pangs while out on the bike. My gearing/shifting is also one area that has definitely suffered during the winter trainer-riding season, and I noticed it big-time today. I just wasn't very smooth on my shifting going up and down the hills. However, with all that said, I continue to be very happy with my overall bike fitness. I have really focused on putting in some serious time on the bike this winter, and I'm very excited to get into the racing season to see if/how it pays off.

** A little side note on the two IM rookies I'm working with this year, Jenn and Brian**
First, Jenn. She's tough as nails, and always impresses me with how she guts it out through some crazy workouts. There have been times when she's been maybe in over her head a bit, but she NEVER EVER backs down, always sucks it up, and goes for it. She is the true embodiment of an Ironman: she will never give up. I know that she is scared out of her mind at this whole IM thing, but I am so confident that she will have an awesome day. The training I have seen her put in has resulted in an absolutely phenomenal transformation. This time last year, if I had said, hey, lets go out and do 50 on the bike, she would have sent me straight to the nut house. But yesterday, she was the one who said, "Nope, 47 ain't good enough. Lets go somewhere that we can get a solid 50 in" Go Jenn Go!!!
And Brian. Wow, this kid really impressed me yesterday too. Ah, to have youth on your side! And he's taking full advantage of it. He smoked that bike, even keeping up with Roger the first part, and the best part was, he didn't fade down the stretch. If he keeps doing what he's doing, he's going to have an amazing IM debut as well.
Not that I consider myself a "coach" to these 2, but I will feel so proud to see them out there on June 22nd having great days!

Sunday swim

2008-03-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up feeling refreshed and pretty darn good, which for anyone who knows me, is a major coup. The first 10 min after I get out of bed are usually the worst for me, so if I can pop out of bed and feel pretty good, that's darn near cause for "breaking news" on the local stations. So anyway, I was cautiously optimistic that my long swim would be a good one. And, yep, what do you know, it was an awesome workout for me! We did some longer reps, which took some getting used to, but overall I felt super strong. One of my barometers for my workouts, but for swimming in particular, is how far I can get into a workout before my body gives up and my form falls apart. Well, today, I never really felt like I was pushing to the point where my form went out the window. And that was after 3500. Wow! That is absoultely huge for me, and I can now say with confidence that all the swimming I've been doing this winter is starting to pay off. To that end, I must give big-time credit to my fellow Team A+'ers Jessi and Tiffany. On many a Sunday, knowing that they would be at the pool (and might wonder where I was) was the one and only thing that got me out of bed. I still remember the first few workouts where I felt overwhelmed and out of my league, and having 2 stud swimmers to pull me along and encourage me without judging, well, that has been one of the real treats of this long winter. Team A1 seems like such a distant memory! Its all A+, all the time!!

We're legit now....what's next, tats? :)

Team A+: Let me tell you, these chicks ROCK!!

After the main swim set, Jessi, Tiffany, Steve and I hung around to practice our flip turns. It was a ton of fun! Except for the fact that when Jessi said we all needed to do them while swimming in a line, I decided to put my idiot hat on. For some reason, I thought we were back doing a main set, so I started out waaaay too close to Jessi's feet. Well, since I was so focused on getting my turn right, I totally forgot about where Jessi was, and as a result, we had a fantastic collision! I felt really bad about ripping Jessi's nail clean off...ouch! So, I think I'll forget about flip turns for awhile. I guess we are now "blood teammates" :) But, seriously, sorry Jessi.

Its the end of the week as I know it...

2008-03-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

...and I feel sort of fine.

Today is my first day since Monday of not being in the pool. Yesterday, I spend about 45 min in the pool with the EWU Triathlon club teaching them about drafting techniques and doing a few single-lane super sprints. It was fun to see them progress and get more comfortable swimming in close proximity to other people. Even though I didn't swim very far or hard, it was a good easy workout anyhow.

This morning, I decided to do my long run, since tomorrow looks better for a ride weather-wise. I still don't like the fact that 6 miles is considered a "long run" but I just need to be patient and hope that it will come around soon. The best news was that my foot didn't hurt much at all, and I didn't feel the need to ice it after the run. It was a semi-tough run, but mainly because of my severe lack of run fitness. I'm struggling to maintain 8:00 pace, which for me is very frustrating. When your body remembers when 7:00's felt easy, having to work so hard to run slower is tough. All in all, though, it was a good effort, and I'm happy that I can do anything at all.

Tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to the club swim and hopefully a good, solid long outdoor ride.

Swimming!

2008-03-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night I went to the club Headlamp Run. It was a nice, easy run in and around Manito Park, and a great opportunity to run with some new people and in a new area. My foot felt decent....not 100% by any stretch, but not so bad that it was painful or changed my gait. I'm slowly coming to the realization that without some significant time off (ie. more than 6 months???), this will just be a nagging discomfort that I'll have to deal with. In one sense, there is comfort in that, even though it is frustrating.

Last night after dinner, Andy and I went to Oz to do some swimming. I was so proud of Andy's courage to work on her swimming, because I know that it is a big-time struggle for her. Even though she is still a bit uncomfortable in the water environment, once she got going, she went right to work on some drills that I showed her, and by the end, she was doing so much better!! I'm excited to see her progress through this journey, and my hope is that I can be supportive so that she doesn't get overwhelmed or frustrated, and eventually gains the confidence to get out there and do another race! Good job, Andy! :)

Back to bloggin'

2008-03-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

New year, new entry. Let's hope this isn't a once-a-year thing.
This weekend, while Andy was away in Seattle, I had my biggest training weekend so far this year. Saturday I ran the Snake River Canyon 1/2 Marathon, against my PTs orders, I am sure, but it has become a tradition. Never mind that it was only 7 miles farther than I've run since last September......overall, I was happy w/ my result. However, its been a long time since my legs have been this sore this long after an event. We decided not to ride after, since it was so windy (uh, gusts to 35mph? yeah, nice riding weather) and we used up our legs on the run fighting that same wind. It was a fun day on the whole, road-tripping with Kirk, Mia and Johnny B and seeing a good number of Tri-Fusion buddies. But perhaps the best news of the day was that my foot didn't really bother me all that much. In fact, in the few days since that long effort, dare I even say, its been feeling much better overall!
Saturday night Joe O and I met up to reconnect over a few beers. It was great to see him and do some serious catching up!
Sunday turned out to be a great day. I hit the usual swim session with the club in the morning and did a solid 3700. I moved down a lane and led most of the distance, which was a new experience, but also a great confidence builder. I usually feel like I'm the slowest slug in the middle lane, so it was nice to be out front and trying to motivate some of our other awesome athletes to push themselves harder.
In the afternoon, I headed out east to Zach and Jen's for a ride. Zach just got home from the desert, so it was awesome to see him safe and back in the states after 7 months. Jen and I bundled up and met up with Martin, who shepherded us thru an awesome 40m ride out to CDA. It felt soooooo good to hit that first hill and just be outside on the bike in general. While all the trainer riding was good for the base miles, you just can't replicate the feelings of hills and corners and wind. Oh yeah, even though Jen wasn't able to always keep up with Martin and me, she totally rocked! I know she is still way nervous about her first IM, but she always impresses me with her toughness. I cannot wait to see her cross that finish line....it will be awesome!!
Yesterday I was feeling pretty run down, so I just tried to recover as best as I could. Probably pushed it a bit far this weekend, but I don't regret it. Today is an easy swim day at EWU, then I'm looking forward to a fun Headlamp Run tonight with the club.....wonder how my legs will feel?

Happy Halloween...have some carpet

2007-11-01T12:43:00.001-07:00

Even though I got home late last night, it was still a productive evening. While Andy got rid of the candy, I got to work ripping out carpet. Of course I realized too late that giving out little pieces of the carpet and pad to the trick-or-treaters would have solved our disposal dilemma.....but the kids probably wouldn't have come back to our house next year. I have some momentum going now on the destruction, so I'm actually excited for the weekend when I can have some serious time to destroy the carpet and prepare for the new floors!

Here's some pictures of the disaster that is our main floor......no going back now!

As an added bonus, Alyssa, Makenna, Jason and Robert stopped by for candy last night (just as we were closing up the Halloween shop) and we promptly put the strong men to work. In about 5 minutes they had solved our china cabinet moving dilemma and cleared the way for total destruction! Thanks for the help guys!!!

This morning I went to see my friend Kathi Best from Tri-Fusion to start working out some of the kinks from a long racing season. I have always been a big proponent of massage, but have been very sporadic finding the time, money and motivation to get into a serious routine. Kathi is an amazing person, triathlete, friend and massage therapist, and I hope this is a start of a long, productive endeavour. Not only did we make some progress on my tight muscles, but we had some good conversation about racing and open-water swimming. Thanks Kathi...you are awesome!!!

Beaver tailgating weekend

2007-10-30T12:21:00.001-07:00

Had a great time this past weekend as I made my annual trek down to OSU with my dad to see the Beavs in action. The weather was pretty darn good, no rain and it was actually fairly warm in the stadium. The tailgating was good, and we even got a freebie from the "bike bar guys" next to us.... The game wasn't the most exciting game ever, but the Beavs won, so I can't complain too much. And I succeeded in talking my dad into coming up in November to see the Beavs in Pullman vs. WSU. Praying for good weather, a win and some awesome tailgating!!!

On the triathlon front, I'm still enjoying the off season, partly because I don't have a reason to train right now, and partly because my foot just won't seem to get any better. I am very excited about the next 2 weeks, though, because I'm finally getting off my butt and starting a long overdue massage therapy regimen with Kathi. And I'm set up to go see Matt at Rockwood Physical Therapy next week...here's hoping that he can magically fix my foot like he did with my shoulder earlier this year.

Since I'm not training, I'll be spending most of the next 2 weeks tearing out carpet, tile and linoleum upstairs, as we are getting hardwood floors installed in November. I'm really looking forward to having new floors, but I'm a bit worried about the actual demolition that I agreed to do.....I just keep telling myself it'll all be worth it when its done!