On Your Knees Boy! Week-4

Firstly, congratulations to Marty, Kelly, Sam, Jenn, and everyone else on the SCE team that ran the Oakland Marathon. Some great runs and great results. I ran with Kelly last Sunday at the tail end of her 70 mile week and she inspired me to run longer and faster. She'd put in a recent 20 miler and I thought to myself, I'd love to be able to do that, what a great goal for me.... without injury or needing 3 days recovery that is.

The Good News

So yesterday I put in 14 miles. Definitely my longest run since the summer after high school when I suffered through my one and only marathon. I've blocked out most of that memory but I had managed something close to 3 hours without proper training, and I paid a heavy price. But Sundays run was 14.12 @ a comfortable 7:48/mi pace. I was happy and functional the rest of the day and feel awesome today. My unofficial half marathon (13.1) PR is now 1:41:53! :)

The Bon Jovi News

At the beginning of the run, a car passed me and they were blasting Bon Jovi, "You Give Love a Bad Name".. It stuck in my head, for the entire 14 mile run. So I changed the chorus to "14 miles on a bad knee" and made up my own lyrics as I ran...

This weeks tally is 36 miles on the run, with a couple of swims and a couple of rides on the trainer. The rain was brutal so I biked in the living room.

The Bad news

I was thinking I'd run the Santa Cruz half coming up in a couple of weeks but I found out this week that I need to have a torn meniscus in my left knee repaired. Actually the torn part removed. (See the image on the left.) I'd had an MRI and saw the doctor on Thursday. I go in on Friday the 8th for Arthroscopic surgery, then I'm on crutches or the couch for the weekend. According to the Doc, I should be back at it in a month if that's all that's wrong in there. I could wait until fall and after the season to have this done, but that could cause some permanent damage to the cartilage resulting in a lifetime of pain. I can take the time off now and still be ok for later in the season.

I'll hone my swim skills while on the comeback. :) I have a great run and cycling base now and if I can get a few rides in on the trainer or jog on the track after a couple of weeks, I'll be good to go come May 1st. Wildflower is probably out of the question but that still leaves me 3+ months to get ready for a mid August shot at the old-guy triathlon National championship.

The big goals this year remain a sub 2 minute 800m and winning my age group at Triathlon Nationals in late August. I'm feeling really good about things, although worried about the upcoming recovery. For the first time I feel like I have a head start on the season, I'm ahead of any injuries and my base fitness is the best it's ever been. Last year I started out with an ankle problem and the year before I had surgery on my left foot. Maybe next year I'll start with no injuries whatsoever....

Thanks for reading and please send something to Japan. They still need your help.

A Wet Week-3

All in all not a bad week. 30 plus miles running again, a couple of good pool swims and I managed to get a lunchtime bike ride in between storms. Still all about droppin' lbs and running.

I did buzz through a 12 miler yesterday with some teammates. And at a good clip. All felt great and I had energy for the rest of the day. I actually feel really good today, but it's a rest day for me. I'll probably do a light swim tomorrow, drills and such. Or maybe just sit in the hot tub and then partake in either a good long tempo or the track... We'll see how I feel because two ays after something big always hurst the most for em.

Coach Marty the Smarty was quick to point out that was my longest run ever. Not true but in the last gazillion years there have been 3 12 milers and one excruciating 13 mile day. So I'm going to push the weekly Sunday run to 12 or more now and with 3 more mid week runs at 7+ miles I'll bump from 30 to 35 miles per week with plenty of recovery. We'll see how it goes but my goal is to be solid at 35-40 and then add the bike and swim on top.

I'm noticing this year how much more recovery I needed the last two seasons. I really pushed things right out of the gate and didn't build a good base. I have a feeling I won't perform as well early on, especially with the swim, but we'll see what happens in May.

My main numero uno goal is Nationals in late August, so no rush.

I'm considering doing the Santa Cruz Half Marathon now in mid April. It's right here in town and fairly laid back. I usually do my long run on Sunday morning anyway and what's another 1.1 miles? Maybe I'll push the little man (pictured below) in the BOB. Although he usually sleeps until 10 am. And I'm not sure he could take two hours in the stroller. Or that my knees could take two hours pushing the stroller. :) Either way YOU should join me!

Thanks for reading!

Is this loud enough for you or should I turn it up?

The Unweek- Week-2

Well as good as week one was, week 2 was as bad. Monday morning I woke up feeling a little "funky". By 4 pm I was done for. Tuesday and Wednesday I pretty much surfed the couch. But if there's a silver lining it's that I ate nothing but oranges, a couple of bananas, an occasional oatmeal cookie and tea. Talk about a crash diet, I dropped a solid 5 pounds this week. But not worth it. I hate being sick.

Thursday I managed to work for a few hours which included a trip to the Holy Land (Apple Inc. in Cupertino), which pretty much wore me out. But Friday I managed to eek out a painful 2 miles with Tori and Pauline from work. Combine that with Today's solid 8 at a good pace and I managed 10 miles. Better than nothing.

So 10 miles on the run this week, no swim, no bike, no wine no women, I think I'm turning Japanese.... Let's hope week 3 is a good one because WildFlower is looming.

Speaking of the massive "super sumo keep up with the Jones's equipment fest", I was contacted by Terry from tricalifornia events and was informed that 29" wheels would be allowed in the off-road race but preclude the rider from any awards. I guess they feel it gives some riders an advantage? While I'm not sure I agree, he did get back to me right away which was awesome and well appreciated. So I'll be rolling my Cannondale (pictured) which I was given by Bike Station Aptos in exchange for a whole bunch of work.(<--shameless plug)

So the only other thing this week is that I bought one of those orange rollers called "The grid" that's been advertised all to hell. I've used it twice and it's ok. Don't believe the marketing hype.

It's a foam roller and doesn't feel any different than the other two that were already taking up closet space. It's just mini-me'd. So $40 for half size, as opposed to the $12 I spent on the full length hunk of environmental disaster that I've been using for a couple of years now. But this week has been all about the orange.

Stay happy and healthy. Cheers!

The not Saturday 7 at 7. Week-1

This weeks post begs the question; Is it better to shove a whole cake down your face in one sitting, or eat a piece each day for eight days?

Before I tell you why I'm asking, I must say that the first week back was great. Five runs totaling 36 miles, two great swims and a single ride that was actually really good. Aside from a slightly sore achilles I'm in good shape. I've got like six weeks to get ready for Wildflower so it's definitely on.

There was one minor setback this week. Due to beer, really bad pseudo mexican food, my planned Saturday morning 7 mile run at an attempted 7min/mi pace turned into Sunday 8 miler at a leisurely 8.5. I've been wearing some Kinvaras, which are nice and light with plenty of support. They felt good off the pavement today, even with some mud and gravel.

Food Me!

The biggest issue will be keeping my fat ass out of the pantry. I likes to eat. I mean I don't just like it, I really like it! If there's something sweet around such as Girl Scout cookies, they belong to me no matter who says different and I will devour them until they are no more. Instead of tiger blood, I have K-9 blood. Just like a dog, It's not possible for me to stop at one box if there are three boxes on the shelf. So I must remove all temptation. In theory I'm all about organic whole foods and if that's all that is around, that's what I'll eat. So the goal of 12lbs dropped in the next six weeks will be a tough one for me and depend on shopping habits and schedule. But I'm confident I'll drop 10. Especially since I powered through all the GS cookies in one sitting. Hence the question about cake. Think of cake as a metaphor for cookies and you're with me.

Swim Stuff....

I'm thinking I might go back to Masters swim this week, we'll see. In past years I thought it cool to tell people I swim twice a week at 6am rain, snow, or shine. Even in January. OUTDOORS. People would ooh and ahh and say things, like "Dude you're hard core..." or "are you nuts?". I loved it. This year, I am pretty much over it, and the need for the oohing. No showing up to a dark icy pool deck on a January morning. That WAS nuts.

Oh also the Friday night swim around the warf has started up again. Really looking forward to doing that weekly and if you're local you should come out. I couldn't make it this past Friday due to work. Check the link if interested. No one swims alone and all abilities are welcomed. Provided you actually have the ability to swim.

Thanks for reading!

The Long Road, Kicking off the season!

Better, Stronger, Faster, .... And Older

In my own little world, in which I fully rule in every way, my season officially starts on Monday. Not sure what that means exactly but I have some events lined up and need to start my fat ass a trainin' on Monday. Fer reals.

In this my 3rd season of Holy Triathlon Wonderment, I'm focusing a solid run and swim base and will gradually add the bike in over the next 3 months. No coach Marty until maybe late March or April due to finances. But the bulk of events are late summer so we should be good. The first year I was with him we started in April and it worked out pretty well. The first time I met him, he looked at me like some fat dork who was never going to get anywhere in tri. That worked out well also as I'm always mucho inspired to prove people wrong.

I'm starting with WildFlower and the bulk of the SVE TT series. Just for fun.... or maybe not. I say that knowing I always have fun, but if I'm still fat and slow, it's a great excuse for early season embarrassments. :)

Surgery Anyone?

So as you may know we had a baby. He's just over three months old now and about two weeks after he was born, I woke up with a swollen left knee. It cost me a good 6 weeks of training, which I didn't have time for anyway. On top of that I needed to have minor surgery on both legs. One three weeks ago and one last Tuesday. So I've been laid up for a while but in between those two procedures I managed to put in a 30 mile week with a good speed workout where I hit 4 consecutive sub :60 400's. The entire week felt like I was at 110%. The time off has really done wonders for me physically and mentally and I'm ready to roll back into training. I'm not sure my wife and son are so I'm trying minimize it and give the utmost attention.

So what shall I do with my time?

Notice the big tree to the right-->

On most of my morning runs in Henry Cowell I run around this monster. I can go in front or around, I always run around out of respect. That thing was 500 years old before the baby Jesus hit the manger. So I do it our of respect. I guess if you live in Santa Cruz long enough, some of that hippy juice sticks to you.

So yeah lots of trail runs and hopefully lots of group runs. My last was a month or so ago at Nissene Marks. Saw probably 15 friends out there. Rich, Aimee, Martin, Aaron, and the list goes on....

It ended up being about 10 miles (9.67 per the Garmin Gods) at a good clip. I ended up at about a 7:20 pace which wasn't at all what I'd expected to do. I'd been doing a lot of faster 5 to 6 milers prior and just didn't think I had it in me at that point. The first half was a nice pace

with a lot of talking. A good warmup for the old ratchet knee.

but after the turnaround, I hammered it home in the rain and it felt great. There's just nothing like a good fast run in the rain and slop to clear you head, and your lungs. It just puts nature into perspective. I did think to myself, "what the hell am I doing out here in the rain at 9am on Sunday morning?" Most people are sleeping or at church, but that is my Church.

The long road....

SO it looks like a nice long road back to where I was last season, let alone being better and faster. I need to lose about 12 lbs, run a sub 0:2:00 800m, and cut a good 2 minutes of of my 5k pr. No problem.

Better, Stronger, Faster, and Older.

Saturday Race Report

THANK YOU to everyone that's been following and posting comments. And of course my amazing wife for her support. I have enjoyed every minute of this experience and never felt like I was alone here in Budapest. To represent the U.S.A. on September 11th (or anytme) and have people come to me from other countries like the UK and Brazil and mention that they were thinking about it, was an unbelievable experience.

Wow what an experience! These guys were so fast it was crazy. No offense to anyone racing in California but for me this was like going from AAA to the Major Leagues. I was the top U.S. finisher in my wave but ended up 31st out of 84. I was 16th fastest from team USA among male and female of all ages.(Excluding Pros). No females were faster but one older male 45-49 was faster. I'm really happy about that as I had some of my fastest splits ever and there's just nothing more I could have done. I picked up 6 places on the bike and then lost 6 places on the run. My run just isn't back yet but that's ok. I've really only had a couple of weeks of training and I'm looking at a cross country season to help with that. That's the condensed version.

And now I eat. The Budweiser is good, the Wafelinis were great and I now have the largest soft

pretzel that I have ever seen. It has pumpkin seeds baked into it.

Then I'm going to watch Snooker on Eurosport and dry out all of my shoes and socks with the hairdryer. Everything got soaked and muddy today. The bike, clothes, wallet, phone.

So here are the results.

And here's the play by play. It's a long read and probably a bit c

hoppy since I'm exhausted, but I wanted to document everything before I forgot it. Sorry not much in the way of pics or video.

The swim.

The wave before us went off at 7:40 and about a minute later they walked us down to the platform. They lined us up and told us that if we got in the water they

would disqualify us. About 2 minutes before we went off, they allowed us to sit at the edge and splash water on our faces. I'd swam th

e course a few days earlier and it was like swimming in icy chocolate milk but with a crap taste instead of chocolate. However with three days of rain the water had warmed up considerably and was slightly less murky. I was told it was 63 degrees.

I left the platform and hit it pretty hard in an effort to get out in front of the main pack. I managed to do that but was behind a handf

ul of real swimmers. I stayed out well but when we hit the first set of buoys I started to feel guys passing me. By the second set a good group had broken away and by the time I got to the third set, they were getting out of the

water. Some of them a good two minutes ahead of me. I hit the beach

at probably 12:10 as it was a good 20 second run up to the timing mat and my official split was 12:30. I'll have to check but there were probably 20 guys that did it at around 10:00 or so and a handful around 11:00. At home I can usually make up for the slower swim time on the bike, but not here.

Transition (T1) and the Yellow card.

I had an absolutely flawless T1. As good as anyone. However my fingers were cold and it was extremely wet so I wasn't sure if my helmet buckle had clicked. As I ne

ared the exit of the transition area, I reached up and fiddled with it just to make sure. ITU rules state you must have your helmet on buckled before you touch your bike. Unfortunately I double checked it right in front of

the official stationed at the end of T1. She blew her whistle and flashed the yellow and screamed "1847 15 seconds". She thought I was buckling it. My first inclination was to argue with her but she had a demeanor like someone had taken her doll when she was 5 and she never forgot it so I realized it would be faster just to bend over and take it. The penalty box was right there and I wasn't on the bike yet so I got lucky. All in all it probably cost me 20-25 seconds in T1.

The bike was gnarly.

It was wet and rainy and tons of peopl

e. I was in the 11th wave so there were plenty of slower people to get in the way on the turns. Given the conditions this was probably my fastest bike split ever. I averaged over 25 at Treasure Island but that was dry and with plenty of room to pass and corner. Had it been dry here I felt like I could have easily pulled 26 or 27. It was that fast. Right out of the transition I tucked in with a German named Peterson and a pack of Britts. (All of whom passed me on the run.) I had to make the decision to play it safe or ride in the draft. Just as I decided to play it safe, another option came about. We came into the second turn and I was off the back left. Prime penalty position since the officials were primarily towards the center divide(which was always on the left of the riders). We went through the turn pretty hot and as we came out of it, I just brought it. I figured I usually own the bike and if any of these guys could hang with me t

hey'd have to pay for it. We hit 34mph on t

he straight

away before I glanced back and realized every one of them was right there and we'd picked up a couple of younger guys who were on there second lap. So I moved right and dropped to the back. I figured I'd hide off the back there and let someone else do all the work. Well, the whole bunch slowed up. Soon after, we hit the turn around which required us to almost stop. So I hammered it again. I stood up out of that turn and shot off the front harder than I've ever done before. That time I dropped 4 or 5 but the German and a couple of the Britts were able to hang on. This time slightly uphill and into a very light headwind so I only ever

say 29mph on the Garmin.

That was only lap one. I just ke

pt thinking to myself that the Brits seemed organized and there to win. Unlike most others they were racing as a team. By lap two we'd chatted a bit and pretty much decided to work together and spread out just enough to evade any penalties. Drafting was rampant and not really enforced but we did get a couple warnings and one of the Brits mentioned we might be pushing it if we came through a second time in the same manner. It was fine with me as I needed to recover for the run and the course was slick. I figured I'd used up all of my luck on that first lap and it was time to race safe and legal. In the end my bike split was 30:14 or 24.6 mph/avg which was great for the crowded roads and gnarly wet turns. And I managed to pick up 6 places on the bike.

Transition(T2)

I came into T2 with Peterson(Germany) and a couple of the Brits. I can't remember their names. But we were already talking about what an epic ride we'd just had. Age groupers never get to draft and it's just a whole different way of riding. We moved really fast into T2 to rack the bikes but towards the end of it, I got stuck behind some congestion which cost valuable time and a place. After I racked and got into my shoes, I took it a bit easier getting out of transition to recover a little bit and keep my footing. Other than that I again had a great transition. Nothing I could do about the crowds. The ground was soaked and muddy and my yellow shoes we're brown and sloppy in maybe 10 steps.

Run Course was long.

Over the last few days, I'd been questioning whether or not I'd have the stamina on the run I'd had before. I did some mile repeats a week or so ago and the last one I did with coach Marty at 5:54 and it hurt. Real bad. I need more of that. But I felt so good on the swim and bike that I decided I was going to go out fast and see if I could hold it. My goal was 6min/mile. I carried my Garmin (GPS), it's like a big wristwatch. I ran a total of 3.41 mi fr

om transition exit to finish and my first mile split was 5:48. Probably a bit too fast but still a lot of adrenaline pumping from the crazy bike ride. And I figure all or nothing at this point. I was going to stay under 6 minutes

as long as I could even if it meant I'd bonk and have to walk it home. But it's Worlds, one shot. My second mile split slowed quite a bit as I hit a bit of a wall, but the third and the kick were respectable. I ended up at about a 6:14 pace on a flat course in good running conditions. It had stopped raining and was wet but not slippery at all and no major standing water. Looking back I might have had a little more over the length of the course had I eased into it, but not much. I still lost 6 places on the run but again a 21:15 over that distance made me happy after the short training time. My goal however lofty is to eventually knock a a good 45 seconds off of that pace.

What next.

So I'm going to skip Nationals in Alabama and going to Beijing. I don't really have an interest in going to Beijing anyways, and with a little one on the way, it's not

in the cards. I will be on the SCE mixed relay team for the Santa Cruz Triathlon on the 26th and that will probably be it for this tri season. We're defending our title so hopefully the season will end with a win. Then it's full on cross-country season and I honestly can't wait to focus just on the run. I'll still hit the pool and ride but SCE is going to domin

ate the 2010 PA XC Grand Prix!

Friday Rain

Live Finish coverage of my race is at:

http://live.triathlon.org/2010_dextro_energy_triathlon_-_itu_triathlon_world_championship_grand_final/

I expect you all to have popcorn. I hope to get through by 8:50am Budapest time. That's 11:50 Pacific.

Man what an absolutely miserable day weather wise. Cold and rain all day. So a more serious post. Night before the race time to suck it up and pay attention. The ITU has a ridiculous amount of rules and is about as organized as the DMV. Actually checking the bikes in today was a bit like going to the DMV only with rain and cranky europeans. My favorite rule is that if you have a zipper on the front of your uniform and it comes down at all, even by accident, it's a red card. Yes the ITU wants to be professional football (soccer for you yanks) so they have red and yellow cards and a penalty box that you go sit in during the race to serve your penalty. The kicker, showing a little belly or chest hair is an immediate DQ, where drafting on the bike is a 1 minute penalty. Have you ever seen German television? And they say Americans are uptight about nudity.

A few of us rode over from the hotel and then stood in the poring rain for 45 minutes to check in. Yep the bike made it yesterday. Here's what it looks like. It's kind of an odd looking thing, but I love it. And I get lots of compliments on it. I think the ratio is 1 Wilier to every 8.5 million Cervelos.

So the DMV checked our bikes, inspected our uniforms and helmets, and asked us if we understood all of the rules. (When will the rest of the world learn that most Americans only speak English. And not very well. )

After that fiasco, we racked the bikes and headed for the bus, but I decided that I was soaked already and went through the transition as best I could even though it was still raining. The transition area is grass and and average of two inches of water. If you listen closely to the video you can hear my feet squishing.

It's still absolutely miserable out right now but I'm hoping it clears up by morning. I have a 7:45 start and it looks like a 30% chance of rain for but either way it will be wet. The course is really fast and narrow with 3 turns on each lap. Fortunately two are 180 degree turn-arounds and not something someone should miss and crash on. I'm just worried about being in the eleventh wave on a two lap course. It will most likely get congested especially when it's wet. I'm told in these amateur ITU races that drafting is illegal but somewhat tolerated so you either ride with a pack and draft, risking the aforementioned yellow card, or forget the podium. We'll see how it goes and I tend to be a draft kind of guy but it will be wet and my recent medical issues may come into play.

My typical race happens like this. I lay low on the swim and see if I can stay within a minute of the leaders, then hammer them on the bike course and hope to either get a bit lead or fight people off on the run. I have a feeling that's not gonna work. :) This will be the fastest race I've ever done and the best competition.

I look OK by the rankings, but It's hard to tell because although the bike and run are consistent distances for these races, the swim is often anything from 400-800m in varying conditions. And of course you could be comparing a flat bike course with wind and hills. They take your pace and calculate what you would do on this course based on the qualifying performance. So it's fun to look at but just about worthless.

So off to bed and my next post will be post race. With the inability to really train until two weeks ago, I'm not expecting or hoping for anything other than a solid well run race but I still feel I have as good a chance as anyone in my age group.

Good night! Here are some extra clips: