triman

Swimming is going well, getting back to pre-US move speeds; I guess pool swimming works after all; todays lane tip, while my tumble turns are improving and becoming more consistent, I learned today that I need to allow about an extra 2ft when tumble turning while doing drills with flippers. This morning I bashed my back against the wall 5x while turning. Extra speed from swimming with flippers?

Oh yeah, I bust another Team GB Silicone swim hat. I bought these back in 2004 for the ETU Champs team to give out, I'm down to the last ten now.

Brett Sutton, coach of World and Ironman champions, Team TBB has been making waves again by proposing in blog posts to celebrate his 5,000th tweet, that "we" should take the WTC aka World Triathlon Corporation private for the benefit of the sport and the athletes. [Part 1, Part 2]

I'm somewhat confused by Doc's motivation, although the idea is an interesting one. In reality, unless someone is prepared to invest serious money though, it's a complete non-starter. The history of the WTC is somewhat complex, it is, as is the way these days, the result of many mergers and acquisitions. Wikipedia has a good history of the current WTC and how it came into being. The WTC is currently owned by VC company Providence Equity Partners.

In response to Suttons proposal I wrote the following comment. I've received no contact, so I can only assume Doc was flying a very big kite, or has some back channel process going on to look at the reality.

"So, I would be willing to put up stake money to start a real investigation into the costs of doing this. It's very likely though it would be in the 10's of millions, perhaps $50-million or more to buy the WTC.Acquisitions normally work on a P/E ratio of between 3-5x earnings. There is a simple explanation here http://www.angelblog.net/Business_Valuation_-_What_will_your_company_sell_for.html

Since the WTC accounts are not publically available; figure entry fees, advertising, sponsorship, revenue from other programs, call it a minimum of $10-million per year What then, how would you get even a stretch of your money back?

We would be better off for a start for teams, like Team TBB, but not exclusively, to stop racing WTC races, period. Put all the pro's into alternative races, to fund those alternative races, focus on the positive aspects of long course races, funding pro's, marketing etc. In effect, a highline boycott of the WTC. If we then funded the growth of those same series, the advertising revenue and age groupers would follow; where the age groupers go, so go the sponsors. No company cares if a couple of hundred pro's use their kit, want they want is millions of age groupers to see a few pros race in kit.

This would have at least three results if effective.
1. The WTC overtime would become a 2nd class citizen.
2. As a result of 1. the amount spent on races would fall, and in order to gain the pro field back they'd have to restructure prize money, home stays, travel, expenses etc.
3. It would boost the awareness of the alternative races; as you say many of the others are just as good, or better. This raised awareness, and especially a non-American focus should draw additional advertising and money into the sport.

However, you'd have to write off, or take on the US market in a big way. The only way you'd convince the bulk of US age groupers to race something other than WTC, is to take on the whole of US Culture. Hero worship, the right to boast, and self aggrandisement are legion here. The ability to "finish" an ironman is a right of passage. You'd be battling 30-years of NBC Ironman Hawaii broadcasts to change that.

If you had a plan, a race series, or organizers that would be a place start. You could then offer either sponsorship plans, reward system offering race entries etc. in response to donating, sponsoring or offering prize money or somesuch. Without it, where do we start, US or elsewhere?

++Mark. (Wongstars travel sponsor)."

I signed up for the HITS race full distance(Ironman distance) aquabike, it was to get a full distance swim and bike in, both to give me an idea of where I was with my training, and as a supported ride.

Every half or full distance race I've done, as far as I can remember, you've always had to check your bike in the day before, and often bags with your varius kit and race stage kit in as well.. I showed up for the HITS race some 50-mins before race start, as I was doing the full distance, I was sent to a separate parking area, not far from transition. I parked the car, walked into the building, picked up my packet without a line, walked back to the car, setup my bike numbers, pumped up the tires, walked over and dropped it off in transition along with a bag that included the stuff I'd need for the bike(gels, full bib shorts, cycling jersey).

Back at the car I was putting on my wetsuit when my Mum called, we talked for 10-mins, I realized I had less than 10-mins to start time, told my Mum I loved her and scuttled off the 250yds to the start. I got Leary Walker to zip me up, stood at the side of the lake and worked out which way to swim, dived in, treaded water for maybe 1-min and the gun went off.

Swim
I had a pretty decent swim overall. Not too rough, although the 2nd lap was a bit of a shock when you look up to sight, and realize that 90% of the competitors, doing the half, were either out of the water or behind you. My first swim lap was 36:02 and the 2nd lap 39:05. The official results have my swim at 1:16:10, just off my IM Arizona 1:14:48.

T1
When I got into transition, I realised the disconnect that I'd missed when I showed up at the last minute. I'd have to run almost the entire length of the transition to get to the changing tent, either with my bike, and then change, or all the way up, change, and then run back. Heck with it, I just put my bike bib shorts on over my speedos. In the heat, this would turn out to be a dumb idea, and I should have known better. T1 time a shocking 6:27 watch-time, officially 4:03, so I guess I mustn't have pushed lap until out on the bike. Again, compared to 9:01 at IMAZ where I removed my speedos and put on plenty of sun block. Another mistake today.

BIKE
Having raced out at Marble Falls before, on the epic dismount crash, so I knew it was an undulating course. I'd just forgotten how much. To be honest there really isn't a flat section. On the first loop I felt good, knocked out a balanced 3:25, about 10-miles into the 2nd 56-mile loop, my legs were just feeling weird. In hindsight I'd put this down to the course of anti-biotics that I'd started only a couple of days earlier. My aerobars  had come lose on lap-1, half way up FM962 I spotted the J&A Mechanic and got him to tighten them up. At the turnaround, I actually took a few mins to get myself together and felt pretty tired. A couple of miles on there was a woman at the side of the road who was clearly having problems getting a tire off, I thought about it, and stopped. Back on the bike and I was finally heading into Marble Falls, and then I spotted another competitor struggling with a wheel, I slowed down and shouted, "do you have everything you need?" She answered "I'm not sure, its the first time I've done it". I stopped and helped her change her talcum powder covered all carbon clincher tire/wheel. When I was done with bike, my bike time was a really crappy 7:42, almost as slow as IM Cozumel.

Total time: 9:02:29 - Good job I didn't have to run a marathon afterwards... 20/21 in Age Group;

If I'd have been in for the full race, swim+bike+run, and had finished, I'd have won my age group as there wasn't anyone else competing.
Still a good training day, and a reminder of some key lessons. And yeah, I still find all these modern races, check-in the day before the race a pain. Retro racing' is where its at.

I got my latest shoe build-up from Mark at INDEPENDENCE P&O. The shoe is another great build-up done quickly and at a great price. I wanted to get this one built up as the color matches my Tempo Multisport race kit, and I can get more shoes at a great price from the ironmanstore and the trick was to see if the shoe was easy to modify. Previously the two pairs of Zoot Energy that Mark and Jocelyn did for me were, but the Zoot before that wasn't. It had a metal spine which made the sole difficult to cut.

The shoe fits great, the build-up is pretty good. I took them out for 4-miles, barefoot as always with a new pair, it's a great way to find out where they rub. Overall the shoe came in at 510g meaning the build-up cost me 135g over the basic unaltered shoe. This is a bit heavier than the lightest build-up at 490, but lighter than the heaviest at 520g.

I talked to the founder at Independence yesterday, and he is willing to offer the same service to other people that need running shoes built up. You will need a prescription from your Dr.

My advice is as well that you need to move to a built up shoe gradually, to get to the correct height, maybe even over two or three shoes. If you arrived here from a search engine and would like to contact me for advice and guidance, my email address is in my livejournal banner, please use that.

[By coincidence I just noticed that I got my first built up shoe back on April 22, in 2008. Interestingly it included a comment from mojojoey aka @wongstar. Funny how far things have come!]

After yesterdays race report I got a couple of emails asking about race plans for the rest of the year. I'm currently in San Fransico at the Linux Summit, heading to Redmond for Microsoft later in the week and then Saturday back into full training, race prep' mode.

I've sent a new shoe to Mark, who has taken over from the Wongstar as my magic running shoe builder, I'm not sure what's changed but my feet have been rubbing more around my toes lately even though my current shoe, Zoot Mens Energy 2.0 is identical model and size. I've sent Mark a pair of K-Swiss K-Ona S Mens, they have a much wider front. Getting the first pair of shoes heavily modified is always difficult since every shoe is constructed differently. The new shoe is on its way back I'll cover that in an upcoming blog. You can see my current built-up shoe in this picture(click to enlarge) taken by John Chung as I "ran" in on the last lap at Corpus.

So, for races and big training sessions at the moment my outlook is:

• 4/27 HITS Marble Falls race; full ironman distance, but only the swim and the bike, maybe a short run.


• 5/4 Shiner Century Ride


• 7/14 Challenge Roth


• 8/4 Jacks GenericTriathlon


• 9/14 Volunteering at the ITU Triathlon World Series final


• 9/28-29, Sprint and the half distance at Kerrville Triathlon Festival


• 10/23 Livestrong Challenge Century


• 11/10 ITU World Long Course series race, Phuket, Thailand

I'm sure I'll be doing other rides and runs, but with my A-races sensibly spaced out, it makes for another season of long training, after which I'm done with long course for at least the next couple of years. I've already declared an interest in doing the whole Texas Tri Series in 2014, with, of course, a view to a win. Here's to great health, and a long tri season. ILML.

My season is going well, after the somewhat disappointing Austin Marathon, which in retrospect is a relatively hard course, I had a reasonable CAP10k on April 7th, and had a full week of training this week, I'd consulted with Brandon via email and we agreed ROTT Half was a good structed, supported workout.

Come race morning it was obvious it was a small field. Given the first wave was the Open Division, all age group men, and the relays, it was a small field on deck for the start. Transition setup had been ideal for long course, a long run to the bike, and a long run from bike dismount. I favor these as they give you time to get used to your legs again and mentally prep for what you have to do.

Swim: 40:32, 14th Overall, 1st Age group
The course was consisted of a 2-lap, 1.2-mile swim; 3-lap 56-mile bike; 2-lap 13.1-mile run. I'd checked the course maps, but yet again, failed to really understand what I had to do on the swim. It was a deep water start, I dived in and lined up where I thought I was clear from the field, and before we knew it we were off, I was literally at the back of the field. Once I worked out where to go, I picked my way through the field, after maybe 3-4 mins, I got swam into by a woman in a yellow cap who was flying, I assume this was Jen Rinehart from the times. I had a few problems with goggles/hat combinations and stopped a couple of times to correct; I was also concerned that I'd followed the crowd and they were wrong, but apparently not. I actually spent most of the swim with no-one to really sight off, the fast swimmers were gone and everyone else was behind me.

T1: 2:18, 4th overall, 1st Age group
Straight out of the water to the wetsuit strippers, no problems, I'd also not had any noticeable problems with wetsuit rash, I heard Logan do his usual "international superstar" description of me, but also say I'd had a good swim; I heade towards the bike, jammed my wetsuit and goggles in the back and really didn't have any trouble. A short run out to the mount line and I was on my bike with a smooth running mount. About 50-yards down the street I had to stop, I'd left my number belt hanging from the aero bottle cage. D'oh.

Bike: 2:41:08, 13th overall, 2nd Age group
I was back into T2 in first, and to be honest had only been troubled by Dave Smith the winner of the 50-54 age group. The first two loops of the bike were not noticeably windy, and again, because of my position from the swim, I was largely staring at an empty road ahead. I did get passed by one woman, and a younger guy, and then there was David, we went back and forward on the final lap, although he ended with a faster time, I beat him in T2 by quite a bit, only to be passed shortly afterwards. The 2nd lap was much busier with the sprint and intermediate out on the same course. The third lap was definitely windier heading out of town, and I noticed my ability to keep a 19MPH average was harder, and I was struggling. Coming back into town I was marginally faster, but trying not to hammer the last part of the bike, and save my legs a bit. The road I thought was pretty bumpy, I hadn't remembered it being as bad last year. Feet out shoes, stopped on the dismount line and ran to my transition spot. Jim Counce, who would eventually beat me for the age group, came in 2:10-mins faster for the bike, but still behind on the course.

T2: 1:42, 11th overall, 1st Age group
Running to my spot in T2 had its problems, you came in on the north west corner, my bike was racked on the south east corner near run out. I had to yell at some women "coming through", I'm not clear what they were doing, possibly sprint or intermediate finishers, as I zig-zagged through six-eight racks of bikes. I'd already decided on socks and lube, and the simple way was to take my shoes and stuff and run out. So my time is deceptive, as the first thing I did was sit on a post and lube my feet and put my socks and shoes on.

Run: 2:44, 31st overall, 2nd Age group
Given my PR for the half marathon is just 2:04, I'm never going to be fast. My plan was to try and run the whole course. I struggled in a couple of places, on the 2nd lap, I had to walk from the last aid station to the turnaround point; and then back up to the aid station from the footpath that ran along the water. Probably about 400yds or so. Other than that I mostly jogged it. I stopped on the last aid station before the start of the 2nd lap, found a medic who helped treat an impending blister on

One of my favorite runs in Austin is both one of the most dangerous, and one of the most calming. I run to the end of my street, down to West 7th St and follow it down to the entrance to the West Bouldin Creek Green belt. I can either then head east for a trail run, or direct west and up onto the railroad tracks, for a track workout with a difference.

Last week, right after the clocks "sprang forward" I headed down the railroad track. It's almost 2-miles straight down the track towards downtown. There really isn't anywhere to go when you get on the bridge, and the sun was setting. Looking back, south, you can easily see if there is a train coming, towards downtown or north, not so much. The building work and lights make it confusing.

However, one of the best things about being on the track, are the memories from my childhood. Just behind the neighbors garden fence was the Nickey Line. It was only used by freight steam trains by the time we moved into Saturn Way, taking ash from coal power plants to be made into Cinder blocks and from the kilns used to bake bricks for the construction of Hemel Hempstead new town. We used to cross the line to escpae from the neighborhood into open fields; later when they were building we'd escape over to the building sites to climb on the half finished buildings; I can remember vividly the first time I used the banks of the railway line to get all the way home from Junior school.

The cut through we created to get down onto, and across the Nickey Line, is now marked on the plan as an official entrance to what is now Hemel Hempsteads' equivalent of a hike-and-bike trail. There is a website with some great pictures that includes the history of the line and its subsequent conversion to a trail.

So running down the track, albeit in Austin Texas still has a special place in my heart. Crossing the bridge as the sun went down to the west, was special, everything had a warm orange glow. It's not an easy run though, you have to focus on the track, and crossing the bridge requires a step up in pace, I wouldn't want to get caught on the bridge as one of the CSX, Union Pacific mile long trains pass.

It's not an introspective race report; I thought I'd have a good race, hoped to set a PR in what will likely be my last (and only 2nd) full Marathon. Leading up to the race I'd done 2x 12-mile runs, 13-mile, 15-mile, 18-mile runs and while they were slow, they were mostly solid.

My only prior stand-alone marathon had been the Chosen Marathon, which I finished off not too much training, in 5:06:39, so expecting a sub 5-hour marathon should have been realistic. I was doing well until around mile-14; for a while I even thought I might negative split, that didn't last long. Around 22.5-miles, the wheels really came off the bus. I was simply too tired to run.

Surprisingly I didn't suffer too much pain from my knees, a combination of ibuprofen, and pain killers, along with forefoot strike worked pretty well. Disappointingly I eventually rounded the corner to the finish line on Congress and finished in 5:24:23

If you want to see the details, click these graphics for the mile by mile breakdown and a pace chart. At this point, there is a more than 50% chance I might have a go at the Chosen Marathon again this year as it fits my current race schedule.



What is interesting from the data is my Max HR limit. The data was captured using a Garmin 310XT, so it shouldn't suffer too much from cross or interference, so I'm at a loss to explain how I ran over my max HR from mile-9 and until the finish. Thoughts?

I admit it, I went back to Stacy tonight. Wet, warm and waiting...

Having ended my Pure relationship, I spent a few weeks hanging out with Clay Madsen, and when I first signed up with this years Mystery coach, I figured I'd try for two training sessions per day, and try and get them both done in the morning, isn't going to happen. So I did my bike, trainer session this morning, and got over to Big Stacy pool around 6:20pm.

One of my earliest, and possibly first swims in Stacy is over here on Livejournal. 5th January, 2007. Just a few weeks later, I came my first breakup with Stacy and we've been on and off ever since. Reading back over some of those earlier entries, I have a very, very long road to go, I was swimming 27-minutes then, tonight took me just short of 42 for the same set.

I'm back at the conference for the 3rd year, I wonder if Corbitt read my blog entry.