Triman

Ironman Arizona 2009 Race Report

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:15:03 GMT

Since I get the feeling this will get long, and will include a number of pictures, I'll put most of it behind a LJ cut for Livejournal friends.

In summary, a good race plan almost perfectly executed. Time objective 13:20 or better, result 13:26:10.

Finished 3rd in the Ironman Executive Challenge 50+ category, so missed out on the IMH slot. In theory I should have won the best improver slot, but since the Longest Day wasn't a qualifying race, that I also didn't win. However, overall I'm very, very pleased with the race, and most importantly how I feel afterwards and my recovery.

I'm very grateful to all the support I got here, on Facebook, Twitter and most importantly at the race from Chris, Kevin, Tammy, Amit and all the other Austinites out there to race, volunteer and sign-up for next year, you are all stars! Thanks also to the guys at Jack and Adams who found and fitted a new fork for me in a day, so my bike was ready to be collected.

However, my biggest thanks go to Dr Z and The Wongstar. Dr Z aka AJ Zelinski, at Advanced Rehab and physio Brian(?). Back at the start of 2007 I was having real problems with my right ankle and they worked on it for me for nearly 3--months both breaking down the scar tissue and taking me through a series of exercises to strengthen my ankle. Since then, AJ has worked on my knees at regular intervals and also on my back recently.

Thanks also to mojojoey aka the Wongstar, who helped out earlier this year, fixing up the built up shoe I'd finally got back from RunTex. The first shoe I got from RunTex had me all optimistic that it would be a big help in my running, it did help somewhat, but since I was convinced by Bill Stone to only add 1.5-inches, my foot strike still feel natural or easy. I ran nearly 300-miles in those shoes. I started early this year to get a replacement set, and if you read back through the entries here, you'll get a sense of the frustration. When I finally got the shoes, nearly 200-miles later, they were a major disappointment. Jocelyn fixed them up for me, and on a run to test them out, we talked and she offered to make a shoe from scratch. You can read and entire blog entry Jocelyn wrote on our mutually beneficial relationship here.

Suffice to say, without both Jocelyn and AJ's work, I wouldn't have had the confidence to start, let alone the strength to finish!

Pre-Race: I drove to Tempe, AZ in my new car, and the bike was transported by Tri Bike Transport(TBT). I stayed at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel for 4-nights, both TBT and the hotel were included in the Ironman Executive Challenge(IMXC) entry fee. Turns out I literally had the closest hotel room to the race site. My room was on the 2nd floor and opposite my door was an Emergancy Exit door with steps that led down to the parking lot, just 2-blocks from the race site and expo.

I did a practice swim session on Friday morning. I walked down with two other IMXC competitors and once down there we changed into wetsuits etc. I was surprised when @Tammy found me, but was even more surprised to see @Jessica amongst a sea of wetsuits. We waited around for the official 10am start and got in. The water was a murky clay color and not clear at all. Drafting would be difficult, you could barely see your hand let alone someone elses bubbles. I tried drafting off Tammy since she is only slightly slower than me, but it never really worked. The water was 64f, swimmable but cold. After short 600m roundtrip I headed back to the steps and got out, dried my top half and changed, walked back to the hotel for the IMXC Breakfast with the pro's.

The breakfast was a fun affair with Heather Fuhr and Mike Lovato. Lovato was interesting and humorous. I've met Mike before at Jack and Adams, but never for more than a cursory discussion. After the breakfast I headed up the street to CVS for the required race essentials.

Race essentials included bottled water; this is no time to take a chance; also, two small cannisters of spray-on factor 50 sun block; one for the bike bag and one for the run bag. As good as the volunteers are at applying sun block, I didn't want to default to that, one because I'm a (former) redhead and burn easily and didn't want bits missed, and two because you don't want to be seen in all your race pictures smothered in white sun block! Other essentials included a small tube of Curel moisturizer.

When I got back to my hotel room, I looked at my legs, they were covered in a dry brown film, presumably from the water earlier. This was change of race plan #1 - I decided that despite my earlier assertion that I would swim/ride/run in the same shorts, I was going to change in T1.

After that I collected my bike from TBT and took it for an easy ride out and back to test out the handling with the new forks. It felt secure and strong, all that was really left was to drop everything off on Saturday and get the race on! Getting ready in T0, I managed to pull one of the pins out of the Garmin 310XT, things were not going my way with this watch, having broken the glass the week before. I managed to get it back in securely and set about trying to set up the various parameters on the refurbished model I'd got from Garmin tech support. Sadly I left auto-lap on 1-mile, which means I have a lot of manual work to do before I get real summary data from it. So I'll post a separate entry for that.

SWIM: For the swim start I'd decided not to decide where to start from. As always at big races, there are loads of opinions, everything from swimming outside the bouys, strictly speaking illegal, and to start by standing on a ledge on the wall. I got in as early as I could and swam over to the first bridge parapet in the water and waited, each time the space in front of me filled up, I moved left. About 5-mins before race start things had settled down, and there was still a big gap in front of me. This was to be the story of my swim, every time I looked up, there would be a gap to the left or right to swim into.

I did have people swimming into and banging into my legs, and for a short period, had a guy who was definitely zigzagging back and forward in front of me, I moved up alongside him for a few strokes and his arm struck the side of my head, nothing serious and as much my fault as his, I left him behind. At one stage I looked up and I was on the wrong side of one of the yellow bouys. If you look/click on the swim picture above, which is taken from "arizona" by Mike Stratton on Facebook, you can see that one of the bouys is about 50m off course. Which explained that, I moved over quickly and back on course for the first turn bouy which was almost 1.1 miles from the start.

I rounded both turn bouys without real problem, at the 2nd turn bouy there was definitely a bunch up, and I had to stop and pick a spot to swim for, I went quiet close to the bouy. Once heading back to the start, it was actually pretty scary to see how far the first bridge was. About half way to the bridge I realized I needed to pee, this was harder than I thought, by this time I was pretty tense from swimming non-stop for 45-mins, eventually just before the bridge, I relaxed enough and never broke my stroke. I made the last turn and was swimming into the steps. It took me two goes to get my left foot on the first step, meanwhile I was getting dragged up by a well meaning volunteer.

I ran up to the wetsuit strippers and dropped, the pulled the wetsuit off and I was back up and off to get my T1 bag.

SWIM Stats. Time 1:14:48 for 2.4-miles; 59th in the 50-54 Age group, 929th overall, fastest IMXC 50+

T1 Once I had my bag I sat on a chair in the mens change tent. Off with the wet shorts, then emptied out the contents of the bag in front of me. First up I grabbed the small travel tube of Curel moisturizer I'd bought at CVS and squirted in on the pad in my shorts; next up, on with the shorts, in my rush I stuck in left foot into the pad and ended up with curel on my foot, but still plenty on the pad; next up arm warmers; I'd pre-rolled these, but they were still pretty hard to get on, next helmet on, glasses in helmet, finally put all the remaining junk including wetsuit and swim hat back in the bag, pull the cord tight and run carrying bike shoes.

I sprayed my head, face, arms and legs with the sunblock I'd but in my T1 bag, I got a volunteer to do my shoulders, neck and the small of my back. I dropped off my bag and threw the sun block in the trash and was off.

T1 Stats. Time 9:17 and 78th in age group, shockingly slow. Still it was going to be a long day...

BIKE:

My plan for the mount had always been to run with the bike right out past the mount point and onto the road and to find somewhere to one side and put on my bike shoes there to save having to try to run with the Wongstar block. Turns out this was definitely the right choice. I flew past people struggling to run with the bike, then the carnage at the mount line and for about 25yds afterwards. However, things took an unexpected turn, I was sprinting down the chute holding my bike by the saddle when my glasses fell out of my helmet. I stopped to pick them up and decided that was the place to put my shoes on... Personally I wish I'd put my shoes in the pedals in transition and then run right out and done a running mount.

Once I was out on the bike I settled in easily, I was soon cruising down the street past the Sun Devil stadium at 22MPH; I was able to keep up this until Bee Line Highway with mile splits of 21.7, 21.7, 22.3, 22.3, 20.1, 19.8, 20.5, and onto Beeline at 21.1, 18.5, 18.3, 17.5 - you can see the trend. All this was done in the small chain ring. As Beeline started to head up hill with the wind in my face, I slowed fairly significantly. Although I felt good, I decided rather than power I worked on cadence and perceived effort. I managed to keep at around 17MPH until the hill just before the turn around where my speed dropped to 14.8, 13.8, and 14.7.

At the turnaround, it was volunteer, supporter, and aid station jamboree, so much noise and so many people, I stood and powered over the timing mat and powered up the slight incline, grabbing only water and a powergel. My mile splits from the 1st turnaround were 23.5, 30.8, 32.4, 32.1, 31.3, 28.1, 26.7, 29.2, 28.3, 29.6, and 25.2 and I was off Beeline. I passed probably more than a hundred cyclists, maybe more at this point. I can't tell you how exhilarating this felt, passing other triathletes, even fast ones, as if they were standing still. No matter how much I hated the wind in my face in later stages of the ride, I wouldn't have given this up for anything.

The ride back into town was more of the same 24.4, 25.5, 26.6, 23.7, 21.8, 21.9, 23.2, 21.8 and I was at the turnaround in 11-minutes ahead of schedule, I was going to have a hard time repeating this though, especially 20-miles averaged over 25MPH. Around 48-miles I stopped for "bio" break. A volunteer took my bike and I hopped from foot to foot waiting for the person already in the "break room". It seemed to take an age, but browsing the averages on the Garmin data, it seems that the whole stop only cost me 3-mins, including the wait. It did however account for my slowest half mile split of just 14.2MPH back on the bike, my mile splits settled down to about 3mph less per mile than the first lap.

What this meant was out on Beeline, heading into the wind I was working hard to go slower, typically 14-15MPH into the wind. It was about now I started noticing the bunches of riders. I have to admit to following a couple of guys that had passed me and then slowed, for maybe 100m or so. Then I remembered @mojojoeys blog from Florida and pushed on, passing them both and getting back to 16MPH splits. There did seem to be a lot of groups like this, it wasn't intentional drafting, it was definitely unintentional but still against the rules. On the way into town I'd ride into these groups shouting "move on or move over" - I never looked back to see what effect it had.

Back in town I was definitely starting to get tired. I was comfortable, my nutrition plan had been going to plan, no lost bottles, just traking water, bananas and an occaisional powerbar or powergel from volunteers. I did pretty well on my trash as well, I'd ride from aid station to aid station in the aero position, trash in hand and dump it in the next aid station trash can. You can see this above, with a banana skin firmly clamped, this would have been going down Beeline on the 2nd loop!

Heading out on the 3rd loop there was Chris, Tom and big group of Austinites cheering in the middle of the road, I gave them a big wave and pushed on. The 3rd loop not only was I tired but the wind had changed direction. That meant that going up Beeline wasn't so bad, but between my shoulders was very stiff, making sitting in the aero bars for long periods, painful. I managed to keep up an average 17MPH, but overall I had already lost all 11-minutes I'd gained on the first loop and some. The last 3-mile splits up to the turn around on Beeline were my slowest of the race 13.5, 13.4, and 13.8. I stopped for another "bio break" which didn't help, I also took the time to stretch out my back. I was back on the bike and headed into town for the final time. Mile splits were slow though 22.7, 24.2, 24.6, 22.6, 20.7, almost 10MPH down on the first loop but I pushed hard as I really wanted to get in under 6-hrs.

Back into town with the wind to my back and on the flat, I managed a reasonable average between 19.5 and 22.3MPH, as I came to the race center, I swung my right leg over the saddle, and just before the dismount line, dropped my left foot, handed the bike to a volunteer and ran.

Bike Stats: Time 5:53:01 for 112-miles, 8-minutes over my schedule. (Disappointing) 65th in Age Group and 994th overall, an even 19MPH average.
FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi. (3:09:05) 21.14 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi. (5:10:07) 18.34 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 38 mi. (7:17:05) 17.96 mph

My bike nutrition plan had worked perfectly, I used 2x 500ml bottles of half Gatorade and half water, with 4x scoops of carbo pro per bottle. I'd also taken 5x salt tabs, which I'd put in a small ziploc bag in my DeSoto shorts. The strange thing was that I'd hardly seen any of the Austin folks out on the bike. I caught a glimpse of Maggi, and someone else from T3, I got a shout from Lenny Glick as he passed me on the 3rd loop going up Beeline; no sight of Tammy, Rhonda, or Jennifer Walker. Hoping they were OK.

T2 I'd left my bike shoes on the pedals and ran to get my bag, again I passed a ton of people. In the tent I looked at my feet, they were filthy from a combination of the two barefoot runs, in a split I decided on race change #2, to wear both socks. First up I brushed all the grass off my feet, I then took a small tube of Aquaphor and liberally squirted it on the soles of my feet and the outside, both socks on, both shoes on and then another spray of sunblock, hat on, put another pack of salt tabs and one of Ibruprofin in my shorts along with the sunblock and and repack everything left over into the bag and go. It was only once I was out on the run course I realized I still had my bike arm warmers in to race top pocket.

T2 Stats: 4:32; about average for my age group; given my lack of problems during the run and after, time well spent.

RUN

I made two good decisions in T2 for the run. First, I'd put another 500ml bottle with just the 4x scoops of carbo pro in my T2 bag. Took this out on the run with me and at the first real aid station filled it with half water and gatorade. Instead of using cups on the run, I just refilled the bottle with water and gatorade and carried the bottle across the line.

Second, about 4-miles into the run, I could feel my left foot starting to rub between the toes. When we got to the bridge over the lake, I stopped, went to one side and sat down, removed my shoe and sock and put more Aquaphor between each toe. I also used the Aquaphor on my lips, and resprayed myself with sunblock and threw the sunblock away at the next aid station. This undoubtedly was a major contributor to my level of comfort both during and after the race. No sunburn, no chapped lips, no blisters.

I made slow progress on the run. I still struggle on reflection to work out why. I took 2x Ibruprofin each lap, which worked out about every 2-hours. My knees were never really painful, although in my mind they were stopping me from running. Looking at the Garmin data, my mile splits on the run were mostly in the 13-14-minute miles, with some at 16-minutes. At this pace I was struggling to get around in my target time.

My best run pace in the first half of the marathon was the 9-min 6-sec mile out of T2, but mostly the walk/jog strategy was killing my averages. I talked to a few people on the run, a couple of Brit's and finally on the way out on my second lap, one of the IMXC competitors ran past me and then stopped to a walk. I jogged up to him, we talked briefly and then he ran off, not realizing I guess he was a full lap ahead of me. Next up I was passed by Rhonda, we briefly talked, and she ran on. Shortly after I was caught by Jenn Walker, we walked and ran together for a while but eventually she ran off. Still no sign of Tammy and most of the other IMXC competitors.

As we passed the special needs bags on the way out for the final loop, I grabbed my longsleeve top and put it on. The sun had gone down and although it wasn't cold, I was feeling cold.. About mile 3 on the final loop, I walked alongside a woman whose race plan was to walk the whole marathon and she was walking at a fairly brisk pace. Certainly although I jogged from time to time, she kept up with me through about mile-25; it was then that my race started. I was looking at my watch thinking I wouldn';t make my 13:20 time, and worse still, I was going to be over 13:30 - that wouldn't do.

I managed to do a couple of miles at 10-min 30-sec pace and then along the river path for the last time I didn't feel I could keep it up. I stopped to a walk and took my longsleeve top off, rolled it up and stuck it down the back of my shorts, after all I didn't want to wear it for the finishers pictures, priorities. I looked at the watch one more time and decided if I really pushed I could make sub 13:30. I set off and did my fastest half mile of the whole run, 8-minute mile pace.

Run stats: 6:04:32, 130th in Age group; 2055 overall.
FIRST RUN SEGMENT 3.5 mi. (8:05:04) 12:25/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 8.6 mi. (10:06:35) 14:07/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 8.3 mi. (12:13:11) 15:15/mile
RUN FINISH 5.9 mi. (13:26:08) 12:21/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (6:04:32) 13:54/mile

I'm pretty frustrated with this even though it was a significant achievement considering I've never run more than a half marathon, and given how painful both my knees were after the Austin 3M Half marathon earlier this year, and all the problems I had with Plantar Warts . Somehow though I'm just unhappy about it. I know that I could have gone under 13-hours, and I can see how I could get to sub-12:30 and possibly sub-12.However, I resisted the urge to sign-up for 2010.

Post-Race: After crossing the finish line I could hear Amit shouting, and after having my finishers picture taken, saw Chris and Kevin. I have to say Chris and Kevin, in combination with TBT were great. I have not seen my bike since getting off it at the end of the ride. Apprently it arrived at @Jack and Adams yesterday, but I hav enot been down to collect it yet. Chris and Kevin collected all my bags and my bike, and dropped the bike off with TBT while I was out on the run. Total result, thanks Guys!! I walked with Chris and Kevin into the athletes care area, grabbed a slice of pizza and sat and talked, got out of my race gear into my dry clothes from the morning, and I have to say, felt fine. We went back over to the VIP tent right by the finish line and met up with Amit and Radhika and I sat for a while and had a beer. I checked the Ironman feed and it looked like Tammy was due in any minute, so Chris, Kevin and I went to the chute and waited, and yes, not long and Tammy came down the chute to the rapturous cheers from the stands. I went and congratulated her, took her back to get her finishers medal and t-shirt. Then after a quick chat, I was done. I walked back to the hotel with my bags alone.

Next morning, after a spot of early morning shopping for finishers gear, I went to the IMXC Awards breakfast, a few of the guys had done really well, I was though surprised to find I'd come 3rd in the 50+ and had the fastest swim. After another picture, I returned to my hotel room, packed and left.

Summary
Overall I'm very pleased with the result. LIke many triathletes and habitual ironmen, I'm not satisfied with the result. I have more than a nagging feeling I could have done better, who knows. I definitely raced to my plan and didn't make any bad decisions, or change anything without thinking it through. I also avoided signing up for 2010. This was strangley an easy decision at the time, but is starting to wear on me now, maybe I should have...

Thanks again to all those that supported me, but time to get on with the rest of my life now.

Next Up: I've entered the Ironman Hawaii Lottery for 2010, you never know. My next race will be the sprint and the Lonestar 70.3, after that the Rookie Sprint triathlon. Not sure what else for 2010 at this point, but for 2009 I'm going to have a go at my 5k PR again at the Life Fitness Reindeer Run on 12/5.

Tracking Arizona

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:52:22 GMT

First up, Arizona is Mountain time, that means we are 1-hour behind Austin and 7-hours behind the UK. So race start time is 8am Austin time and 2pm UK time.

Unlike most races, there are numerous ways to track and watch online. I'm told there will be video coverage on ironmanlive.com they will also have the official splits and results. I'm race number 73

This race are a few extra options.

TWITTER
The simplest way to track me will be through my twitter page. http://twitter.com/cathcam - updates will be automatically pulled from ironman and posted on my twitter page. You can access this through a web browser, PDA/iPhone without creating a twitter userid. If you have a twitter userid, you can even subscribe for txt message updates. You should see swim, bike loops and run loop times as well as a finish time.

MyAthlete Tracker
I'll be wearing a real time transmitter I got to use as part of the ironman executive challenge. It is not using ironmanlive and assuming it is working you should be able to see exactly where I am in real time. It doesn't work for the swim, so I'll put it on before I go out on the bike and it will show where I am, time and speed if you hover the mouse over the small squares.

There are two web pages: http://www.trackmyathlete.com/vemap.aspx?name=038500 - For web browsers and for PDA/iPhones, http://www.trackmyathlete.com/pda.aspx?name=038500

AUSTIN ATHLETES
You can track quite a few of the Austin athletes, including pro's Ritchie Cunningham and Terra Castro, as well as Tammy, Maggie, Rhonda and Jennifer Walker from this web page on ironplan.net. Thanks to Jane for pulling this together, also for the linking ironmanlive to my twitter account.

So thats that for me. I'm about as ready for an Ironman as I ever will be. I'm a little apprehensive about the mass start swim, who wouldn't be starting out a 2.5-mile swim with 2,500 others. I'm kinda hoping to find some clear water somewhere, and going for a swim exit around 1:15. I rode my bike yesterday for the first time with (yet)another set of forks. This time Cannondale Slice Ultra carbon but with an Aluminum stearer. I handles well and is fairly stiff on corners, so that should be ok and no chance of snapping during the race. So, assuming I don't have any mechanical problems, I'm aiming for steady 1:55 loops, which would give me a 5:45 time. Then for the run who knows. I've never, ever done anything like this distance, apart from the hobble through the Longest Day triathlon in 2006 for which they didn't get my time.

I'm figuring anything less than 13:20 will be a stellar 2-hour improvement over the Longest Day, in my heart though I desperately want to go sub-12, but frankly I can't see how to do this. I saw a great quote on the drive down, I can't remember where, it went something like "If you are prepared to lose, you'll never win!" - Well, I'm not prepared to lose!

I read mojojoey 's blog entry for Ironman Florida last night, now thats fighting spirit!

Age group win - Bizarro, a duathlon

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:20:06 GMT

On October 31st drove out to Smithville with hopes of placing in the Austin Duathletes Bizzaro Duathlon. It was supposed to be a 15-mile bike, 3-mile run, and another 15-mile bike. So there was every chance I'd do well as the bike would easily make up for what I lost on the run.I got there early, got a prime parking slot and went and paid my entry fee.

There were loads of people around from Austin I knew including mstoonceswho provided the attached pictures, thanks Toon! Along with Kevin Saunders who took the pro pictures which can be seen on Jake North photography; Derek Yorek who was the overall winner, Chris Garlington from T3 and a bunch of other good folks.

Anyway, come time for the pre-race briefing, much to my surprise and disappointment, the bike course had to be shortened to just under 10-miles on each leg. Not long after that it was start time, is was still a bit cold, so I decided on the Tri-Force bike jacket for a race for the 2nd time this year, underneath I had a base layer and my Ironman Executive Challenge tri top.

The race was started on the bike, rolling out over the timing mat in age group order. I went for it from the go, and by the time I made it out of town, less than 2-miles, I'd already passed the other guys from my age group. There was a short chicane off of a couple of short roads and we went over a bridge and onto a back country road, down about another mile; turn around and back. It wasn't flat but it might well have been. On the approach to transition I unclipped, dropped my rear foot and did the running dismount perfectly. 24:33 for the first bike, passed about 15-people, passed by no one. Fastest time in my age group by 2-mins.

In T1 I'd already decided it was off with the jacket and the gloves, but to keep the bike helmet on ala Dan Corner. T1 was 38-seconds, top-10. So here I am just out of transition, heading down Main St. Smithville. I managed to keep a good pace on the run and didn't get passed until about half way by James Griffis, #384, in the 55-59 age group, he'd been flying on the bike and was catching me. On the run I tried to keep up but after about 2-miles he was disappearing. After that I was passed by "Panther" aka Phil Carmichael the former Austin Duathletes President, dressed in a superman outfit, and I figure he'd put maybe 30-seconds between us. My run of 22:22 for 3-miles, was on 5k PR pace and gave me 2nd in the age group.

T2 was just 19-seconds, off with the shoes and a running bike mount, 2nd fastest overall. Out on the 2nd bike I knew what to expect and set off after both Phil and James. I was able to close and take Phil and put another 2-mins on him, but chasing James was fruitless, he was 45-seconds faster than my 25:30 2nd bike lap. I was very pleased with that considering I'd hammered the run in the middle, just under a minute slower than my first bike.

Finishing on the bike is a weird experience when there isn't a big finish line, and here it was especially so since there wasn't much of a run out behind the timing mat, so it wasn't a sprint to the line as you had to stop less than 20ft after it. I clocked in at 1:13:24. Pretty pleased. I was fairly sure I'd won my age group, but not Overall Masters since James was way faster, 1:10:10.40.

Turns out they had lots of timing problems. The overall results have holes all over them where peoples times are missing. James first bike leg is timed as 46-mins, which can't be right and doesn't total up. It also shows Graydon Thorne, #379 age 52 as Masters Winner, to be honest I can't recall seeing him on the course, but Kevins photos indicated by sequence he was in front on the first run and the bike.

Anyway, the mess up on the timing leaked through to the awards, with plenty of whoops moments. I'd guess a lot of this was people like me showing up at the last minute and registering. But that doesn't account for the gaps in the results and times like James which don't otherwise add up.

A small but important blot on an otherwise great fun and exhilarating race. He is me collecting my Age Group first place. Afterwards I hung around chatting to folks, visited a few of the "antique" stores in downtown Smithville and had a relaxed drive back to Austin. Great morning out! Next-up Ironman Arizona!

What's on your bed? - What a mess...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:26:35 GMT

So, when I moved into my NY apartment in 2005 it was all a bit of rush, I rented furniture, bought as little as I could as I didn't want it to become my permanent home. So when I moved to Austin I didn't have a bed or anything much in the way of bedding. I bought a king size platform bed, heck I had room for it, I live alone in a 3-bedroom house ;-)

For the first two years it was pretty hot right through the year and I wasn't used to such warm overnight temperatures, so didn't need much in the way of covers. I bought a king size Duvet cover and loaded it up with a blanket and I was good to go. However, these days I've been feeling the cold. This might be coz I've finally got used to the heat; I've dropped a few pounds and converted most of my fat to muscle; or just coz it's been cold already.

So, I started looking at options. I don't have and don't want a bedroom that looks like a "Whores palace"; I spend no more time in bed than is required. I don't watch TV, much, and I have no TV in the bedroom. So I wanted something to keep me warm and thats about all. It has to fit in with the modern design theme, it's a platform bed, which means they covers get tucked right in when you make it. The alternative is you keep hitting your legs on the platform...

And so heres where my general confusion turned into a major dilemma, which turned out to be another of those great American rip-offs. So I have a duvet cover. In fact the wood, paint and "dressing" around the room were picked to match the duvet cover. So simple solution, get a mid-weight duvet to put in the duvet cover.

Turns out, Macys, Marshalls, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Target don't sell Duvets. Although they all have hundreds of different Duvet sets and individual duvet covers. Go figure. Ikea does sell duvets but they use some abstract rating that they call "warmth rate" to give you some clue how thick/warm they are.

So I figured I'd head over to Bed Bath and Beyond just across the street from the office and work it out there. After all their website says: "A DUVET cover is just a fancy name for a comforter cover." This is not only wrong, but it's also misleading and selling stuff you don't need.

In Europe it's pretty straight forward. There are no such things as comforters, what kind of word is that anyway? There are Duvets and Duvet covers, and the UK they are sometimes but not always called (continental) quilts, and quilt covers. In the US, a quilt is something completely different. It was only today while writing this post that I found Wikipedia points out that Bed Bath and Beyond has it completely wrong.

Here's the problem. Bed Bath and Beyond, and everyone else duvet covers(and sets) the duvet cover is SMALLER than their comforters. Also, there duvets tend to have thread count related covers. So 400/500/600. These are essentially quality sheets that form one or both sides of the duvet itself. However, if the sole purpose of the duvet is to go inside the duvet cover, it really doesn't need any kind of fine cotton thread count cover of it's own.

And theres the rub, generally the comforters sold in US Retailers, even the plain white ones and much more expensive than their equivalent in Europe. Why, becuase you are buying a thread count cover you don't need. Fine if you are a hotel and can launder these thing frequently, but not so good for you and I.

Second, the comforters that the likes of Bed Bath and Beyond and their like are selling are generally too big for the Duvet covers they sell to put them in. How borked is that? Here is a fine example of what I wanted to buy yesterday. The King comforter measures 108" W x 98"; Sadly this is bigger than my existing duvet cover will take, so I started looking at theirs. Surprisingly, the same store doesn't sell covers that fit their own comforters.

When I asked the manager, he went through the whole thing with me, and finally conceded that I was right. You buy the wrong Duvet and you'll end up with bunched edges coz in generally, covers are standard sizes for single, twin, double, queen, king and California King. What he wouldn't agree was they'd go it wrong.

IKEA have it right, simple, solid, unfinished Duvets, in exactly the right size for my existing Duvet cover(86x102, or those sold by the major US retailers. The only puzzle is why are they so expensive ? Here in the US the king version is $149.99, the same Duvet, called a Quilt on their UK web site is just 58.99 UKP, or at an over generous 2-US Dollars to 1-UK pound, it's only $118, more realistically it should be priced around $70. Interestingly, the UK IKEA website uses the more conventional/standard tog rating as well as their own proprietary "warmth rate"

The only conclusion I can draw is the Bed Bath and Beyond are just stupid, along with Target, Marshalls, Macys, Kohl's etc. have jacked up the prices, and are in essence making you buy things you don't need or don't want, IKEA knows it, and are keeping their prices high to cash in on the confusion.

Finally, for information I tried to get online help from IKEA on their warmth rating, my conversation with "ASK ANNA" went like this, read and weep!

Welcome to IKEA. I'm Anna, IKEA USA's Automated Online Assistant. You can ask me about IKEA and our products and our services. How can I help you today?

ME: What is warmth rate as used to describe your duvets
ANNA: Here you will find the Quilts.
ME: what kind of answer is that ?
ANNA: I don't know the answer to that question yet, I am sorry. Please contact your local store for help on the issue.

ME: useless... you want me to call or drive and you can't handle a simple question online ??
ANNA: On this page you will find valuable information on handles. Would you like to browse through our range of handles in the product area?

http://193.108.42.79/ikea-us/cgi-bin/ikea-us.cgi

So, either I'm turning gay(I know not funny), my metro side has taken over, or I've become a bedding expert, go ahead and ask...

Ironman Executive Challenge at IM Arizona

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:29:58 GMT

So, aides from the regular age group competition, I'm racing in the IM Executive Challenge, in the 50+ category. We are racing for one Ironman Hawaii slot for 2010, there are five of us in that category, I'm the only one that doesn't have an official IM 140.6 time, the slowest is 16+ hours, and the other guys have 11:05, 11:25 and 12:09 - so realistically I have no chance, but hey it's Ironman, anything can happen.

Here is the bio that the IM Folks will put in the race pack. To be honest when they asked these questions I had not idea what it was for...

I'm a sock guy

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:38:04 GMT

Part of my prepartion for Ironman Arizona is not just to get the training in, part of being fit for the race is to be mentally prepared. As journaled previously, I'm pretty straight on my nutrition plan already, although I've got a couple more weeks of fine tuning. I was fortunate enough a few weeks back to get to spend the w/e with the Heathe rFuhr, Roch Frey(1), Paula Newby-Fraser, Matt, Jimmy and the rest of the multisports.com crew. Amongst the gems of wisdom gained was one from Heather, she said something to the effect that once you've done the training, you have to make friends with yourself, because of race day you going to be out there on your own for a long time.

Given I'm a habitual procrastinator, for IMAZ, I'm trying to finalize plans as early as I can. I've even started a packing pile in the guest room, even though the race is still 5-weeks away. First item, a small ziplopc bag with one sock in it. I'm trying to be the best friend I have.

At the recent Austin Marathon Relays, Tune and Terry asked me about race wear. They wanted to know if I wore different gear for the bike and the run. My initial, reaction was no. I'd thought I would just swim in my typically tri race gear, add helmet, etc. for the bike and then just change shoes for the run and add a run hat. Well thats what I did for the Longest Day.

They were interested in shorts mostly I think(right guys?). I definately won't wear swim trunks, change into bike shorts, then change into something for the run. Some will do, but not me. I can certainly understand though why women would want to, they certainly have more to benefit from a good pair of cycling shorts.

I've made another decision though, I'm going to do the run in one sock. I never normally wear socks for racing, even up to half ironman. Currently if I wear a pair of socks, my left foot on the outside front blisters. Thats mostly a result of my new toe-strike run and the fact that my left foot still takes more impact than my right. If I run with no socks, anything over about 9-miles, then the stitching on the inside right foot arch starts rubbing on my foot, and I get blisters.

So the decision is, run with a right sock. I'll put the left sock in a small baggie and put it in one of the De Soto Forza tri shorts pockets. I have three pairs of these now, and I have to say, they are the best piece of triathlon kit I own, bar none. So, thats shorts and sock sorted out, if it rains I'll have a dry sock available anytime. Sweet!

(1) Yes, Roch is the race director for IMAZ

I am a carbo pro

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:25:14 GMT

About 10-weeks ago I was on a multisports.com training call with Paula Newby Fraser and Roch Frey. Roch said something that confused me when talking about race nutrition, he said using carbo pro as a source of energy in a bike bottle, you need not to include it in your hydration plan. I wasn't sure I heard him right. When I attended the multisports camp a few w/e's back I asked him about it, and confirmed I'd heard right. I also talked to Patrick Evo who said much the same thing.

Well over the camp w/e I tried carbo pro, just mixing 2-scoops per bottle. Last w/e I moved up to 3x scoops per 500ml bottle and this past w/e I moved up to 4x scoops per bottle. I do half a bottle of water, half a bottle of gaterade and then add the carbo pro and shake.

Turns out this one bottle of 500ml is effectively the same in calories and carbs as 4x Powerbar gels. Only it's hugely more consumable than that number of gels and especially gatorade and gels. I've always felt that gatorade, what ever its benefits left after a few bottles and salty, thirst taste and never really been in good shape out on to the run. Now I admit that this may have a lot to do with my fitness, especially for long distance, but the carbo pro really has made a difference.

So my race day nutrition plan is to mix a couple of small bottles up as described about and stick them in my seat mounted bottle holders. To sip at these on the bike, and then just to take water from the aid stations and use that for hydration in my Profile Aero bottle, along with one Thermolyte capsule every 30-mins. The two carbo pro bottles + a couple of gels and maybe half a banana should see my through and strong out onto the run. Courtesy of the swag I got from the multisports training camp , I got 2x 3LB bags for free!!

Thats still likely to be slightly under the calories I need, but at least reading this, is about the most I'll be able to digest. I'm a CarboPro

Five years ago - Help me not overtrain

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:10:13 GMT

Well, this Livejournal entry makes fascinating ready. It is almost 5-years to the day since I made my 3rd trip to Austin, to take part in the Livestrong ride. Back in those days it was out in Eastin Austin, on the site that is now the home of the Longhorn 70.3 Expo and T2.

I never finished the ride. Dehydration, under training and poor planing meant that cramps forced me out less than a mile from the end. @Peggy can attest, at the Annual IBM Academy of Technology meeting the following week, I could barely walk. I said in that journal entry that I knew my legs couldn't take a marathon and I'd never consider an Ironman.

Fast forward 5-years. I find myself in the best condition of my life. For the 3rd w/e, I've done 100+ miles over many of the same roads as the Livestrong ride. This past w/e I did two loops of the Longhorn 70.3 half Ironman bike course, 7:30 with the guys, and 10:30 with the gals. I ran after the 114-miles on Saturday and although my knees were stiff when I started, and I was only slow, the only thing that stopped my running further was time. Sunday morning I was up early and out to lead the no-drop shop ride for the Jack and Adams, we had to call it a day early because of the rain and cold, but I still got another 20-miles in. Then yesterday afternoon, despite the cold and rain(for Austin), Lisa, Tammy and I went up to Pure Austin and swam 2400m.

Yesterday evening I went to the cinema and saw "We live in public" and never fell asleep, I came home, did chores, cooked, prepped lunches for this week, cleaned all my stainless steel in the kitchen and went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 4:30am today, feeling great.

So, why is it I'm worried I'm a). overtraining or b). peaking at the wrong time ? I'm more convinced than ever I can finish Ironman Arizona ion a respectable time, for me nothing less will do, yet at the same time, I can't believe in just 6-week it will all be over.

Two final thoughts. First up, best wishes to Jennifer Walker. Jennifer "t-boned"a SUV Saturday while training here in Austin for IM Arizona. Apparently she went over the top of the SUV, her week old race bike is totaled. She has no broken bones and only minor roadrash, probably because she was wrapped up from the cold. Here's hoping she doesn't stiffen up too much this week and see you on the finish line in Tempe.

Second, how do others cope with the taper, and manage not to over train in those final weeks?

JACK AND ADAMS SHOP RIDE SPECIAL: Longhorn 70.3 bike course

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:57:04 GMT

JACK AND ADAMS SHOP RIDE SPECIAL: Longhorn 70.3 bike course

WHEN: Saturday October 3rd, 10th 7:30am departure

WHERE: Start from the entrance to Walter E Long park.

This Saturday there will be an informal, unsupported, non-sagged ride around the Longhorn 70.3 bike course. The shop ride will leave from the shop on Sunday at 8:30am as normal.

This ride isn't suitable for beginners, I'll be there and will do my best to help out with any breakdowns but can't promise to help given the length of the course. This is NOT a no-drop ride. Please bring your own spare tubes, a tire boot and any tools you may need.

ROUTE: We will take the 2009 race route, except for the section that goes through the Expo center. Note the 2009 route starts and ends differently from previous years. You do not do the two hills that are normally at the end of triathlons out at Decker Lake! The official route map is here: http://www.ironmanlonghorn.com/longhornmap.html - I rode the route twice last weekend and spray painted yellow direction arrows in chalk. The rain this week is likely to have faded those, but they will still be visible.

I will bring some alternative maps which are a little easier to read, but to be sure, print your own copy from above.

Summer and the dry conditions hasn't been kind to the roads, especially Lidell which is the normal Triathlon race route behind the lake, and for a couple of sections of Littig. Close group riding in these areas is strongly DISCOURAGED, all cyclists are asked to signal road conditions and pay attention at all times. That said. This accounts for less than a couple of miles on a 56-mile course, but as always you ride at your own risk.

HYDRATION: Since the ride has no SAG support and there are NO corner stores or gas stations until the last 10-miles, please bring any hydration and energy needs.

PARKING: You can park just outside the gates of the park for free, or pay the $8 entry fee and park in the park. Running after the ride, or swimming is your own choice. I'll probably do both if we get back in time.

That’s all the serious stuff done, time for the fun stuff! See you outside the entrance to the lake for a prompt 7:30 start! I'll be doing 2x loops of the course on the 10th, so will be going at only a steady pace for the first loop, second loop will start around 10:30, if you want to come but can't make the 7:30 start time, maybe 10:30am works better, let me know if you want me to expect you!

Training update and Prairieman half outlook

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:28:53 GMT

So the lack of updates here on livejournal is mirrored by frequent and short rants on facebook. I still find it easier to create livejournal entries with useful formatting and have them show up in facebook as Notes. As far as I'm aware, the opposite isn't possible, having facebook Notes fed into Livejournal. And, of course as my LJ friends know, I can post friends-only entries there, that don't show up on facebook, where as everything on facebook is friends only, and doesn't show up on google or bing search.

Anyway, after AJ's bike crash and my bail a few weeks back, I've had some stiffness in my back and shoulders which affected my swimming, however DR Z aka AJ at Advanced Rehab has taken care of that; the good news is there seems to be no re-occurrence of my plantar warts and no pain from my feet; my knees are almost pain free since I've switched to toe strike and push-off with the Wongster shoes. My last run was with the Wongster recovered RunTex shoes and those seem to work just as well. I need to do a write-up on both pairs.

This week is my taper week leading up to Sundays Prairieman Half distance triathlon. The weather conditions look close to perfect for me, a high of 84f, overcast and there's a chance of thunderstorms, which hopefully will hold off for the swim and the bike. I'm back on the expectation trail. After the disaster that was Florida 70.3, I'm really hoping for a PR/PB at Prairieman, the course suits me, mostly flat. My FL 70.3 time from 2006 was 6:30:25, my cube neighbor Paul, who has two sons that do triathlon, wrote "6-hours or bust" on my whiteboard before this years FL 70.3 which I failed on. The plan for Sunday is to bust that wide-open, but I'll be happy with anything sub-6:30.

The problem with this is it requires me to run/jog the half marathon, something I have not done all year and never done in a triathlon as my knee swells up and impedes mobility . Hopefully if the weather holds, and even rains during the run, I should be good though, I'm ecited to see if I can toe strike the entire run and what the outcome is. I figure sub 40-mins swim, sub-2:45 bike and sub 2:15 half marathon, all eminently achievable and would give a sub-6.

I'll post some LJ and facebook updates and pictures over the weekend, Tammy and I are driving to Dallas Saturday lunchtime after we take Lauren and Jamie to the airport.

Run Far Time Trial - New PR 20:34

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:20:37 GMT

I've only had one attempt at the Run-Far Time Trial this year, after a w/e where I beat my legs up with two hard rides and a run. This week though I'm on my taper for the Prairieman Half Iron race in Dallas this Sunday, and so took it easy at the w/e with just a 10k run/45-mile bike/2-mile run.

So I came into the TT pretty fresh and with my Guru BR2 bike all prepped, cleaned and lubed for Sundays race. My prior PR/PB was set on August 26, 2008 with 21:01, 22.8MPH. My time earlier this year was July 13th with a 21:32, 22.4MPH.
After a short 4-mile warm-up I decided it was time to go for it. It was windy but was unlikely to get much better. On the way to the start I picked out a few guys who were headed to the start before me, and decided I should catch them. As I crossed the start line, I started the Garmin and went for it. I caught the first couple relatively early, and couldn't see anyone else ahead. I pushed on and just as I approached the straight before the turn-around spotted another guy and decided he had to be passed before the turn, and I did.

The turn around is the "highest" part of the course, only about 60ft higher than the start, but there are still a couple of deceptive drags for those on aero bars. At the half way point I was at 11-minutes, slower than what I'd like to have been, but ok.

Looking at my HR data above, you can clearly see towards the end of mile-2 through mile-3.5, I was slacking, I put in an additional effort to catch the other guy, just above the 83.1% in the and was able to sustain that for a half mile. The two rapid drop -offs in HR are almost certainly nothing other than lost contacts. My HR data then stays fairly constant until the final sprint at the end.

Speed data for 1-mile distances shows pretty much the same thing. My slowest mile was the mile of the turnaround, if you break it further into half miles, the first half was the slowest of the whole ride, and it picked up significantly once I spotted the guy in front.
The drop-off at the end is the start of the brick-run I did off the bike. What I think these two charts show is that my uphill speed has improved and is more in line with my flat speed, and is where I gained on my prior PR splits, seen below in miles 2/3/4 and 8. Seen below.

I would also say that the wind prevented me from reaching the same top-speeds after the turn around as I did in my prior PR. So overall I could possibly make a sub -20-minute time in the right conditions.

However, with only one TT left this year, that won't happen. I should be back in Austin but it will be after that upcoming half iron race, and after a grueling w/e multisports.com training camp and a long drive back from California.

What makes last night more frustrating is that Run Far had a rare timing problem and there are no official results. So here ladies and gentlemen of the jury is my Garmin 310XT readout for the ride. You decide, PR/PB or not? I say yes! Officially timed I think I'd have been 20:32 or similar, but at 20:34 that’s an improvement of 26-seconds and a speed of 23.4MPH.

You Beat The Odds! Congratulations (from the UK)

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:58:02 GMT

Robin Bloor posted this on his have mac will blog, blog. I read his stuff for professional reasons, but this one is so me, and obviously him. It's very UK specific, I've annoted some comments.

You Beat The Odds! Congratulations (from the UK)

The following is a virus mail that is doing the rounds. It’s UK specific, so if you want to circulate it in the US, you’ll need to edit a line here or there:

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF US WHO WERE BORN IN THE : 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. [MC Yep, all of the above, I got my love of Cheese from my Mum]
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking!!![MC Yep, about age 12, I rode some 20-miles into London to visit my cousin...]
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a Bakkie on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Steers, Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO-ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Chappies, Wilson ’s Toffees, Wicks Bubble Gum and some crackers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with raw sugar in, but we weren’t overweight because…… WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot to fit brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in river beds with matchbox cars. [MC I used to build bikes, I did two from scratch including one for my Mum that I was rather pleased with]
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on DSTV, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS! [MC I Did later have a portable cassette player]
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt. [MC don't recall doing the mud pie thing, did jump out of a tree a had the bottom of a broken bottle go completely through my ankle, just missing the achillies tendon. Walked home two miles with blood spurting out]
Only girls had pierced ears!
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…….no really!
We were given pellet guns and we carried the lead pellets under out tongue for hours at a time! We got catties (catapults) for our 10th birthdays! [MC don't recall who had the gun, but we used to shoot squirrels and given the dead ones to a farmer]
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment!!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT AND NOT DUE TO BLACKMAIL AND THREATS….. strange but true!
Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bully’s always ruled the playground at school. We lived with it, and by the way, it was fine. [MC Yep, remember to this day getting slippered by Mr Cotton at High School, and a teacher at Junior School]
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’. [MC most of my friends had names with 4-letters of less, Ian, Gary, Paul, Neil etc. there was Michael and a few other longer ones but mostly four or less]
We did not have child psychologists or mentors and we never missed them. We did not need Ritalin and ADD was not the reason for lively, active children. Children were lively and active.
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, entertainers and inventors ever! The past 60 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And, sadly, we will probably live longer lives than our children.[MC am hoping not. My kids are all doing well, I hope they'll live my complete satisfying lives, although the Boomers and to some degree my generation are going to leave them with big challenges]
If YOU are one of us: CONGRATULATIONS!

And you might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives “for our own good” and political correctness held sway. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Conforming - Swim clockwise please

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:40:28 GMT

Swimming has been going well, I've not swum in a pool since the middle of January, with the exception of a short swim session with Peggggggy in Morgan Hill one morning. My swim sessions are pretty much settling into Sunday easy swim, 2200m; Wednesday eve. long swim, 3500-4300m; and Friday morning early fast/hard swim 1500-2200m.

Swimming up at the Pure Austin North Quarry is really bliss. The water is warm but has cooled down considerably over the past month or so, so it's no longer like bath water, and it's perfectly clear. There's always a crowd on Sundays and we usually do dinner after, which is fun. However, I've become increasingly frustrated with Wednesday evenings and last Friday summed it all up. I arrived at 7:00am at the water, alone, there was no one else there. The lake was still, the sun just rising over the apartment complex to the east. Perfect. After a brief shoulder warm-up, I ran across the dock and dived in and went as hard as I could for my first lap, check. I got 2/3 around the 2nd lap and woah.... nearly bumped into a swimmer coming in the other direction.

Heck, this isn't Barton Springs, its a 750m lap, it's about an acre of open water. Increasingly people are swimming anti-clockwise, for one of the swim sessions the PAC instructor had even set the drills to swim between the bouys hard/easy alternates.

Whats wrong with these people? Didn't they see midnight express ?? Here's a recap, watch-out I'll be mad if you swim counter clockwise, thats anti-clockwise for my British readers! DON'T BE A BAD AMERICAN!

multipsorts.com training camp - Amtrak

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:40:35 GMT

So, I've signed up for the September multisports.com training camp out in Solana Beach in California. Last time I met Cassidys Mum, she had just got in from CA via Amtrak rather than flying., This actually sounded like a bit of an adventure, and so I went through the various options to see if I could just bike down to the Austin Amtrak station with a backpack and get onboard.

Well the timing wasn't perfect, and in the end it meant I had to only go as far as Palm Springs and rent a car and drive to Solana Beach, do the camp and then drive back to Palm Springs. Otherwise I'd have arrived late and left early. Not so good on a 3-day camp. But still worth the effort. Turns out the train from Austin also has a 6-hour stop over in San Antonio overnight as well, so I'd really be better suited driving down there for the 5:40am departure and driving back afterwards. But still worth the effort.

I called Amtrak reservations, booked a seat, upgraded to a sleeper roomette. Price $536 roundtrip, expensive, but worth it for the great vistas and the journey, the adeventure etc. So, can I make a reservation for my bike? Amtrak thoughtfully provide a whole page describing the options on their website. I was more than happy to pay for this.

No. You can't take a bike on a train journey that lasts almost 40-hours. TOTAL FAIL.
So Amtrak, care to actually respond, why on earth not ?

I guess I'll probably rent a car and drive... I'm so over flying with bikes...

What's a bike computer

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:50:50 GMT

This came up on facebook, here is my reply:

Karen Rohlfs

What is a bike computer?

10 minutes ago

Mark Cathcart

Karen, its kinda like an eco laptop. It has pedals and wheels and you cycle it to make the processor work, that in turn runs windows. Many people have special indoor attachments called "tubro trainers" which are like kids bike training wheels, they allow you to use the bike computer indoors, as we all know getting your computer wet isn't helpful to its innards. In this case its especially useful if your bike computer runs windows, coz then its just like riding outside...

about a minute ago ·

Training for this week going well, feeling pretty tired. Saturday 93-miles riding; Sunday 22-miles, 1.5-miles swim, 2-miles run; Monday day off; Tuesday 10k run cut short by 1-mile due to heat; Wednesday 2.8-mile swim; Thursday 10k run(all toe strike).

My morning commute

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:00:02 GMT

I left the gym late this morning, almost 9am. I was worried that the traffic would be heavy, since I'm mostly in by 8.30am

Shouldn't have worried, no busier than normal, 4-lanes of nothing, how I miss the M25, NOT!
Sent from my phone...

One for the ego

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:34:54 GMT

Ahh, so I'm up at the Quarry to swim early this morning with Lisa. On the way down to the lake some other guy walks down with us. When we get down to the dock, he says he's having motivation problems doing the training for the Redman IM Distance event, and wonders how others do it.

It was too early for me, I just grunted, said I'd been doing triathlon for 10-years and was pretty self motivated. Lisa talked to him about training, while I warmed up my arms, shoulders etc. and then did my usual run across the dock, dive and got do 3x laps.

After the swim we all got out around the same time, Lisa, then me, then him. He said it was hard getting out in theh morning, and at 38, was getting old for long distance triathlon. I just laughed and said "you are just a youngster" - he said, "you can only be 44", - ahh yes. I wish.

Back on my feet

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:53:17 GMT

Well we left the house at 6:35 this morning, 10k run planned. My longest run, excluding 2x Half Iron races since back in April due to the Plantar warts. I wasn't sure what to expect, last weeks Extended Marsh Repeats had ended badly with my left foot hurting.

On the way to the turn around on the Mopac footbridge, there was some numbness and tingling, but nothing I couldn't cope with; I stopped and waited for Tammy, who been distracted half way along the trail. Once we were running again, I couldn't believe how tired my legs felt. Some of that would have been the 37-mile spinfest on Parmer Lane last night with Patrick and Lisa, but mostly it showed just how much my running had regressed. I took my PowerGel just before the restart, but along the south side of the trail, Tammy was disappearing in front of me.

Two guys ran past in front of me, both perfectly toe trsiking. That reminded me that I'd found that much easier that the heal strike I'd grown accustomed to over the past 10-years, mostly due to the heal being the only part of my right leg that was even close to the correct length. So I set off in pursuit, it worked out fine and felt good. This is the stretch seen in the attached chart in darker red. My heart rate was up around 95% for that whole stretch. It was no surprise then to get back to South 1st Bridge and find I had nothing left in my legs, zilch.

However, thats encouraging. In the super new Wongster shoe, toe strike is much easier. I must work on that for the next 5-weeks if I'm going to have any chance of a PR at the Prairie Man half iron distance race on Sept 13. Yup, having said FL 70.3 was my last half iron, I'm back at it again. Also, assuming my knees hold up after IM AZ, it looks like it's time to go back to Wildflower Longcourse for unfinished business.

Training recap: Saturday - 80-miles bike, Sunday 28-miles bike, 2-mile run, 2200m swim; Monday day off; Tuesday 37-mile bike, Wednesday 6-mile run, 2-mile swim tonight... Yep, I'm training for an Ironman

Long Ride Saturdays - It's happenin'

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:26:31 GMT

I've been coordinating these through Facebook for about 8-weeks now, I forgot that my original Austin Tri friends were all here on Livejournal, and not all on Facebook, sorry for those that are duplicates.

Unlike the Sunday Rides that we do from J&A, these are keep up and regroup rides. We try to average 17MPH and usually go around 70-miles. This week its a steady ride, we go for lunch afterwards, so bring clothes to change into... If you want to come this week, leave a comment, email me or just show up Saturday... here's the FB message I just sent.

So, looks like we've got at least seven this week, despite Jacks Generic Triathlon on Sunday.

The consensus seems to be to do the Longhorn Triathlon course, it's a 12-mile ride out through east Austin to Decker Lake, which will be quite early; and then a 56-mile blast around the Longhorn 2008 bike course which will be mostly empty and mostly flat but has the Decker Lake hill right at the end; then its 12-miles back into town, making 80-miles.

I won't be doing cue sheets, the out and back is on the J&A website, the Longhorn course is on their website. However, the point is to do it as a group ride... I've not ridden for 2-weeks, Tammy wants to take it steady, and we should have a few new to the group, so steady it is for this week.

Once we get on the Longhorn Course there are only really two water stops. One is about 26-miles into the ride, the other about 50-miles in. So, bring what you need, we'll stop at both and make sure everyone has full bottles before we leave the first!

6:30 depart from Jack and Adams, park in Lee Barton Rd to leave the shop spaces open! See you in the morning!

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:14:21 GMT

heading for the Doc's, I'll be working at home later, looks like my foot is indeed in need of medical attention...

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:35:20 GMT

hmm thinking that my foot has gone sceptic, still could have been much worse, but I was wearing my helmet and it was still done up http://ping.fm/r8MKJ

Ironman and Dell

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:23:46 GMT

I've seen the "Powered by Dell" tagline on the Ironman.com website but never given it much thought. This year I missed out on a coveted Ironman Hawaii (World Championships) slot, but was fortunate enough to get a call from the ironman HQ at the World Triathlon Corporation and get a slot in the Ironman Executive Challenge at Ironman Arizona in November.

So it was with some interest that Laura sent me a link to this article which links Dell and the Ironman with some useful insight from the chief technology officer for the Ford Ironman World Championship. It ends with five Ways Creative Use of Technology Can Turn a Small Business Into an Ironman

Marble Falls Triathlon - acrobatics!

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:02:03 GMT

Well, it didn't quite go as expected, I'm kinda hoping a video will show up on YouTube, this was a a spectacular dismount coming in to T2 and deserves to be seen in full!

We got there a bit late, I walked into transition ready to race, found a clear slot on the second rack, put my stuff down and walked back out, less than 2-minutes setting up. I milled around on the grass waiting for Tammy, talked to Lisa and met her Mum. Pretty relaxed. Decided against a warm-up swim.

Watched the first three waves go out, it was obvious that the swim upstream was both hard work and a lot longer than it appeared in the race pack, and when my wave went off got a pretty good start. It was indeed hard work getting out to the first turn around bouy, but I was pretty well positioned in the top-10 of my wave and clear of much bumping. Half way down the main stretch, as we were with current we quickly started to catch the tail enders from the wave before. It was long before we did the lasty turn into the shore, at that point I was feeling pretty good and thinking I'd had a good swim, only to be overtaken by a white cap that I'm pretty sure started in the wave after me :-(

The swim exit went pretty well, run up the hill, into T1, Garmin on, helmet on and out, running mount went perfectly. Once out on 281 it was an immediate uphill, which was a struggle still out of breath from the swim. Out on 71 though I soon settled into my rythym and was pretty much flying.

I had a battle with #1150, who was in the clydesdale wave behind me and probably the white hat that passed me on the swim, it turns out he one the Clydesdales. We battled back and forth for the whole bike course, and it was only on the way back in I put 100yds between us, you can just see him in the background of the picture.

Sadly, although my dismount was going completely to plan, I was going way too fast as I approached the line. I was out of my shoes, standing on one pedal, glanced at my bike computer and knew that 20-miles an hour was simply too fast to drop my back leg.... I should have just over shot the line at this point, stupidly I pulled on the front brake, the bike went under me and flipped up in the air, I did a complete tumble. I quickly gathered myself and got back up, ran to my transition spot and still made it out in 1:06 - but I was hurting, mostly pride, but also right elbow, hip and knee which have decent road rash.

The run was 4.4-miles, I was ok for the first 2-miles but soon started to slow. I did a couple of brief walks, got passed by I figure 4-guys from my age group and figured that was it for prizes, but kept up jogging to the finish. As I rounded the last corner to find the finish line was at the top of a short steep hill, so I sucked it up and went up as fast I could.

Lisa Buckley and I had a bet before the race. I think the bet was fastest out of T2, Lisa is convinced it was fastest over the course. Lisa went off in the wave before me, I didn't see her for the whole course. I'm delighted to say she won the ultra-competitive Female 30-34 age group. It didn't really matter, she was 45-seconds faster out of T2, and 8-minutes faster on the run.

Kevin Saunders has posted some great pictures from the race, Tammy, Lisa and I can be see before the race in album-1, my dismount pictures are in album-2. Kevin also took the "dismount" picture above.

Some results from the race. This was my fastest ever triathlon bike, on what was considered a hard, hilly course. I finished in 22.87 average MPH. Thats much faster than I managed the 8-mile run far Time Trial earlier in the same week. The Wongstar shoes worked great, although my run time was slow, given what had happened with the dismount, I'm pretty pleased. I'm not sure though that I'll have the energy to do Tuesdays Splash and Dash.

STATS FROM THE RACE:
SWIM 1000M: 18:15, 6/22 in Age group,
T1: 56-seconds, 12-seconds faster than anyone in age group, easily top-20 overall
Bike 23-miles: 1:07:21, 7/22 in Age Group, fastest 57:51(which was faster than Paul Terranova, George Smitz and Jim Ryan from Austin that are all ultra-fast Austin triathletes, who says old guys can't bike?)
T2: 1:06 6/22 in Age group (even with the crash)
Run 4.4-miles: 44:49 15/22 in age group
Total: 2:12:27, 12/22 in age group, 153/373 overall

Pain free feet

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:40:32 GMT

Well it's been a very long, at times, very painful experience. Despite my knee problems, widely documented here, this year I've had serious foot issues. As best as I can recall, sometime mid-summer last year I started to get hard skin on the outside of both feet.

At first I was excited about this(d'uh), I thought how much less pain I'd have if my feet had hard skin when I went sprinting through triathlon transition, barefoot. Sadly after a couple of months I realised that the hard skin itself is painful even when wearing shoes and socks. I experimented with various creams, posted on the trigeeks livejournal forum mostly common sense replies, but nothing really helped.

Earlier this year, while I was on a drive tyo get a number of minor health related issues sorted out, and to get a specialist to look at my knee, I asked my family doctor about teh hard skin. He referred me to Dr Rick Warpula, Podiatrist at Austin Family Foot care. He quickly diagnosed Plantar warts in my feet, you couldn't easily see them becuase of the hard skin. What followed was 4-months of some oif the most painful treatment I've ever endured. It effected everything, even sitting in the office. On top of that, with the insurance co-pays, various creams etc. this has cost me over $400 USD.

Finally last Monday I went for a longish run, by this years standards, and I can honestly say I got around without any foot pain. So let this be a lesson tri folks, check your feet at least once every week; any sign of any small clusters of black/brown spots, either go straight to your family doctor for treatment or head to the pharmacy to buy an over-the-counter treatment, of which their are plenty. The earlier you spot this and start treatment, the easier, and thus less expensive and painful it is to treat.

The Mayo Clinic has a good write-up on Plantar warts with a picture that looked very similar to my feet. There does seem to be some truth to treating plantar warts by sticking duct tape on them, and even a scientific study to back it up. I'm thinking of trying this when I get them again. For ultimately, it seems like I will. Plantar warts are caused by HPV entering the skin through small cuts and breaks, especially around stale water. I've hopefully got my final appointment with Warpula on Monday. Don't let Plantar Warts ruin your season!

Running the London Bridges

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:47:39 GMT

I was back in the UK at the start of July for my son, Oli, 21st birthday. It was a short trip, I left Austin on Thursday, flew via Chicago, arrived in London early morning. By the time I found my way out of Heathrow on the Paddington Express and into a cab at Paddington Station, it was peak commuter time. The cab was a rip-off 28UKP or about $54, admittedly most of it wasn;t the drivers fault going from west to south east central London at peak times. The private limo back from the hotel to Paddington was 25UKP, but a new MERC E-Class, immaculatly new and waiting for me when I came down from my room.

Anyway, I got to the Hilton London Bridge, in Tooley St, at around 9:40a.m. After a unpacking, I wasted ages trying to get my 3 pre-paid SIM card working, and decided it was time to buy another, I'd decided to go run the bridges of London and see how I got on. The Hilton is ideally placed right by Tower Bridge, but I decided to go east first and head over London Bridge to the 3 store on Cannon Street. From there I headed down to Southwark Bridge, across that, along the river walk and over the "wobbly" bridge outside the Tate Modern, back north again I ran to the Blackfriars Bridge, from Blackfriars bridge, past my old IBM UK Office, past the National Theatre and across Waterloo bridge.

By this time my knees were hurting and I was feeling tired. Despite having blagged a free business class upgrade on American Airlines, I'd really only dozed for a few hours, and so it was I decided to cut short the run, crossed on the new Hungerford footbridge and ran back to the hotel on the South side of teh Thames. It was a fun idea, but the time I was heading back the footpaths were crowded with tourists and foreigners, as well as City workers out for lunch. I covered 5:43-miles. I didn't have any time for other exercise while I was in London, apart from plenty of sightseeing with my parents, sister, and my kids. I got to walk Tower Bridge just after midnight Saturday with my eldest daughter Ella, time for a nice chat! Monday at 4:45 I was in the limo and heading back to the airport and Austin.

Sadly, at least as of July 3rd, my feet were still hurting from the plantar warts and treatment. When will this ever end ??