Gray Guys/Girls Maturing Triathlete - Always OPEN (Page 27)

Sorry for my absence everyone.

I started having some minor pain in my left leg just behind the knee early last week.  The minor pain quickly became a good deal of pain and I finally went to the Emergency Room on Friday morning when I could barely walk.  I was diagnosed with a blot clot in my left leg just below the knee.  I have a history of DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and have been on blood thinners for years - which is why they hospitalized me - the doctors didn't understand how I could have developed a new blood clot while on blood thinners.  I'm home now but unfortunately, there won't be any serious training for at least a few months.  I've been told light exercise but no running or cycling until further notice.

The one thing I've learned - reluctantly and through not so good experience - is too listen to the doctors.  Sometimes it doesn't seem like they have your best interest at heart, certainly not your best athletic interests, but taking the larger view, the shortest road to recovery is the path the doctors put you on.

The good news is I'll be sitting here, reading the BT forums.  When I get done, I'll read them all again.  You can help keep me from being excessively bored by bringing on the questions!

Happy training everyone!

I did IM Boulder 70.3 over the weekend.  I intended to get a race report written before I returned to work but that didn't happen.  Overall I had a decent race.  I traveled to Winter Park, Colorado the week before the race for a family reunion with my parents and all of my siblings and their families.  The altitude didn't seem to slow me down at all in training at 9,000' elevation in Winter Park.  My breathing was in control and my lungs weren't burning.  I did have chapped lips and woke up in the middle of the night with calf cramps one night.  So I was worried about cramps int he race.  I hydrated the best I could and took my electrolyte pills the day before and morning of the race.  

The swim felt really good.  My form seemed to be right on.  I started in the back of the 33-37 minute wave and was constantly passing people without seeing anyone passing me.  I however added a lot of distance to the swim by swimming wide. I have done two clock wise swims and this was my second counter clockwise swim.  The only other counter clockwise swim I did I also swam way wide.  I must drift to the left.  I didn't feel any cramps come on until about 100 meters from the finish of the swim (If I hadn't added 200m to my swim I would have been in the clear).  As I stood up to exit the water my right calf cramped.  So instead of rushing through T1 I had to take things easy and baby the cramp.

I stared out a lot slower on the bike that I normally do. My target Heart Rate was 125-135 BPM and in race simulations earlier this summer my HR would be 150-155 coming out of the water and not come down on the bike to were I would be riding at 140-150 BPM even though in my Threshold bike rides I struggle to get over 130 BPM.   It took 5 miles to get my HR down to 130.  I road easy for another mile to get it down to 125 then had my target at 125-130 for the race.   There was a "no pass" zone for about 2 miles of the race where I think my HR dropped all the way to 99 BPM and my speed dropped from 21 MPH to 14.5 MPH.  I wasn't very happy to have no pass zones in a Race.  I know that Ben Hoffman wasn't stuck behind someone going 14.5 MPH on that stretch so the course really was not a level playing field.  The Transition area were not level either but that is another issue.  This race had the worst transition area I have seen in my 5-6 races.  I did get passed by 7-8 people in the no pass zone which I was also not happy about.  There was a race marshal that called out warnings to the people that apparently skipped the Mandatory athletes meeting and didn't know what the "no passing" signs on the course meant. The race marshal didn't card anyone though and I noticed that they kept passing people after the marshal yelled at them not to pass.  After the no pass zone I played leap for the next 10 miles with 2-3 of the guys that had passed me in the no pass zone.  Then we had a flat section that seemed like a good section to pass people on and I went to the pace that I wanted to ride at.  My HR climbed up to 138 and for about 4 miles and left all my leap frog friends int he dust.  I may have burned some matches but was happy to jump up from 21 MPH to 26 MPH for a few minutes.  I slowed back down to 130 BPM and 21 MPH to save myself for the run.  a few miles later the Velcro on the water bottle between my aero bars came undone.  I tried fixing it while riding but couldn't get it threaded back through the brackets.  So I held my water bottle with one hand and the aero bar with the other for the next 4-5 miles to the last aid station.  I stopped at the aid station to fix the water bottle and since I was inches from the port-a-potty decided to use the rest room too.  I didn't have an urgent need to use the restroom but it was amazing how much more comfortable I was after I was back on the bike.  I noticed that the 3-4 guys who I had played leap frog with for 10 miles but buried in the dust during my 138 BPM surge was right back with me after my rest break.  I stayed with them for the rest of the bike leg (another 12 miles or so).  I ran out of water with about 5 miles to go (combination of poor planning and having the lid on one of my water bottle pop off will I was refilling).  I started to get cramps in my quads with 3 miles to go.  With both quads cramping up I again was taking things slower than normal in the T2.

I took the first mile or so of the run really slow to get to the first add station.  I was disappointing to discover that they didn't have any electrolyte pills or pickle juice.  I had a few electrolyte pills with me but need a lot more.  To took in a lot of water and Gatorade (since the Gatorade was the only thing that was going to help with the cramps) and was on my way.  The legs were felling okay and after they got transitioned into the run they loosened up so I started to speed up to get back on track with the planned pace for the run.  I passed a guy at mile 4 that wasn't going too much slower than me.  He wanted to know if I was in his age group.  I told him I don't pay any attention to the number on the left calf of other people I meet on the course but he was still pretty concern  to have a faster runner over take him.  He was on mile 10 of the run so he eased up when I told him I was on mile 4.  I told him he could run with me but he said my pace was too fast for him.  He ran through all the rest stops and I stopped to get gator aid water and ice water (the ice water was to dump over my head) then walk through every rest stop so he caught me at every rest stop.  We stayed together for the rest of the first loop.  The second loop I needed to negative split.  I had had a nice first loop joking with other people on the course about the pace, the heat, the choices at the aid stations, where they were from, their race attire, their race team, etc.  Lap two was not going to be a jovial run.  It was business time.  At every point on the course I asked myself are you going faster on this section than I did on lap one.  If not I would pick up the pace.  I was stopping at every aid station and taking more and more fluids at every station (I stated with one cup of water but on lap two was doing about 4 cups of water).  I also started to hit the Coke on lap two. I took four GU on lap one but at the beginning of the 2nd lap when I started to speed up felt a little sluggish which I knew was from low glycogen.  The Coke must have done the trick.  After the first aid station on the second lap the sluggishness was gone. I was getting lots of ice water over me at ever aid station that was helping a lot with the heat and so I was able to keep trucking along on the run until about 10 miles in.  At that point I had the right hamstring cramp up on me.  It stopped me in my tracks.  I stepped off the road and massaged out the cramp and noticed I was about 150 feet from the next aid station.  So I limped to the aid station drank as much water and gator aid as I could, drenched myself again with ice water, then ventured out. A fast guy caught up with me as I left the aid station.  He stayed with me for a a little ways and I told him that all was going good until about 100 metes back where I got a cramp.  I told him I wasn't sure how the next 3 miles would go but as my legs loosened up again I pulled away from him and he never caught back up. I eased up just enough to keep my legs loose.  I was still asking myself if I was going faster at that point than I had gone on the first lap. One section I felt I was going slower (but didn't push to keep from cramping any more) but the rest of the time I felt like I was going faster than lap one.  Towards the end of the 2nd lap I saw the Red Bull arch 1/4 mile away and started to speed up to finish strong.  When I got the arch it wasn't the finish line.  I asked the spectators which way to the finish.  They said to keep going.  I did but was worried I was going to miss the turn and end up on a 3rd loop to the run.  I saw another arch 1/4 miles down the path.  This time an Ironman arch I surge on but when I got there that wasn't the finish either.  Again I wasn't sure where I was going and was told to keep going.  with the surges to what I thought were finishes my legs again became to cramp.  I didn't want to have to stop for another 1-2 minutes at that point to massage out cramps.  I was already at a positive split. So I kept going with a hunched over back and lifting my knees like a high knees drill to keep the legs moving.  I quickly came to the split to the finish and was happy to finally be off the running loop (and not be doomed to an endless loop). 

So cramping was an issue.  The calves cramped in the final yards of the swim, the quads cramped in the final minutes of the bike, and the hamstrings cramps with 5K to go on the run. I PR'd by 2 minutes but felt that on a different day with better execution I could have taken another 10+ minutes off.  If I could do it over I would have taken about 10 more electrolyte pill with me and wold have road the bike at 133-138 BPM rather than 125-130 BPM.  This was a learning race.  I guess one race a years isn't enough to keep progressing.  I am going to have to do the Redman 70.3 in Oklahoma City in two months after all to show all the progress I have made this year. 

Steve - good luck on your race!  Hope you have an enjoyable time this weekend.

Curtis - great race report.  Question for you - have you done Redman 70.3 before?  I'm wanting to do another 70.3 next fall and right now Redman is at the top of my short list.  I've heard good things about it and the timing works out well (assuming it's close to the same weekend next year).  

My training has been good and bad lately.  Up weeks and down weeks.  I've got one race left this year (a sprint in 4 weeks) so I'm just basically maintaining my swim and bike and trying to work on my run.  Already starting to think about next year and what my goals will be.  

Have a good weekend all - I'll be volunteering at a kid's tri on Sunday.  Those are always fun.  
Janet

Yes, I did Redman last September.  I liked it better than IM Boulder 70.3.  It is a smaller race.  I think there were only about 20 people in may age group vs the 200 people in my age group at IM Boulder, but it is well organized and run.  I sat next to Iron Deb in the Athletes meeting.  She was fun to talk to but I didn't know who she was until after the race.   I guess she is one of those super Triathletes that does like 10 full Ironman races a year.  She is is super competitive in the age group races.    So there were good people there and the race had a good feel to it.  With the smaller race there is not a lot of fanfare like you have at a larger race.  The course and race support is just as good as and big M-dot race though.  We all got the Race Tats instead of having people with first grade penmanship trying to write our race numbers and age on us.  I still have the tan line on my shoulder for the Redman logo from not getting enough sun screen on in T2.  The swim is fairly straight forward.  It is in a lake with no current.  The Half does one loop and the full does two loops.  The bike course last year was all down hill for the out bound leg of the 70.3 course and all uphill on the way back.  Most people averaged 6-8 MPH faster on the outbound than the inbound.  The bike course was fast (I PR'd by about 20 minutes over the very difficult HITS Marble Falls 70.3 and IM St. George Bike courses), but like most Oklahoma roads the route had tons of bumps and pot holes.  Every bump in the road was well marked with orange paint so I was able to avoid anything that would have been a real problem.  The run was an out and back with very little shade.  IM Boulder 70.3 was loops which are way better than out-and-backs in my book, but the aid station were much better at Redman than the IM Boulder race.  Redman had ice buckets with wet sponges, pickle juice, electrolyte pills, Frozen grapes, etc. none of which were offered at Boulder. :-)  If bumpy roads or small crowds at races are your pet peeves you won't like Redman, but if not you will like the Redman race (assuming that you can roll with what ever weather come on race day because it could be raining, windy, hot, etc which all play into how enjoyable races are).  

I did IM Boulder 70.3 over the weekend.  I intended to get a race report written before I returned to work but that didn't happen.  Overall I had a decent race.  I traveled to Winter Park, Colorado the week before the race for a family reunion with my parents and all of my siblings and their families.  The altitude didn't seem to slow me down at all in training at 9,000' elevation in Winter Park.  My breathing was in control and my lungs weren't burning.  I did have chapped lips and woke up in the middle of the night with calf cramps one night.  So I was worried about cramps int he race.  I hydrated the best I could and took my electrolyte pills the day before and morning of the race.  

The swim felt really good.  My form seemed to be right on.  I started in the back of the 33-37 minute wave and was constantly passing people without seeing anyone passing me.  I however added a lot of distance to the swim by swimming wide. I have done two clock wise swims and this was my second counter clockwise swim.  The only other counter clockwise swim I did I also swam way wide.  I must drift to the left.  I didn't feel any cramps come on until about 100 meters from the finish of the swim (If I hadn't added 200m to my swim I would have been in the clear).  As I stood up to exit the water my right calf cramped.  So instead of rushing through T1 I had to take things easy and baby the cramp.

I stared out a lot slower on the bike that I normally do. My target Heart Rate was 125-135 BPM and in race simulations earlier this summer my HR would be 150-155 coming out of the water and not come down on the bike to were I would be riding at 140-150 BPM even though in my Threshold bike rides I struggle to get over 130 BPM.   It took 5 miles to get my HR down to 130.  I road easy for another mile to get it down to 125 then had my target at 125-130 for the race.   There was a "no pass" zone for about 2 miles of the race where I think my HR dropped all the way to 99 BPM and my speed dropped from 21 MPH to 14.5 MPH.  I wasn't very happy to have no pass zones in a Race.  I know that Ben Hoffman wasn't stuck behind someone going 14.5 MPH on that stretch so the course really was not a level playing field.  The Transition area were not level either but that is another issue.  This race had the worst transition area I have seen in my 5-6 races.  I did get passed by 7-8 people in the no pass zone which I was also not happy about.  There was a race marshal that called out warnings to the people that apparently skipped the Mandatory athletes meeting and didn't know what the "no passing" signs on the course meant. The race marshal didn't card anyone though and I noticed that they kept passing people after the marshal yelled at them not to pass.  After the no pass zone I played leap for the next 10 miles with 2-3 of the guys that had passed me in the no pass zone.  Then we had a flat section that seemed like a good section to pass people on and I went to the pace that I wanted to ride at.  My HR climbed up to 138 and for about 4 miles and left all my leap frog friends int he dust.  I may have burned some matches but was happy to jump up from 21 MPH to 26 MPH for a few minutes.  I slowed back down to 130 BPM and 21 MPH to save myself for the run.  a few miles later the Velcro on the water bottle between my aero bars came undone.  I tried fixing it while riding but couldn't get it threaded back through the brackets.  So I held my water bottle with one hand and the aero bar with the other for the next 4-5 miles to the last aid station.  I stopped at the aid station to fix the water bottle and since I was inches from the port-a-potty decided to use the rest room too.  I didn't have an urgent need to use the restroom but it was amazing how much more comfortable I was after I was back on the bike.  I noticed that the 3-4 guys who I had played leap frog with for 10 miles but buried in the dust during my 138 BPM surge was right back with me after my rest break.  I stayed with them for the rest of the bike leg (another 12 miles or so).  I ran out of water with about 5 miles to go (combination of poor planning and having the lid on one of my water bottle pop off will I was refilling).  I started to get cramps in my quads with 3 miles to go.  With both quads cramping up I again was taking things slower than normal in the T2.

I took the first mile or so of the run really slow to get to the first add station.  I was disappointing to discover that they didn't have any electrolyte pills or pickle juice.  I had a few electrolyte pills with me but need a lot more.  To took in a lot of water and Gatorade (since the Gatorade was the only thing that was going to help with the cramps) and was on my way.  The legs were felling okay and after they got transitioned into the run they loosened up so I started to speed up to get back on track with the planned pace for the run.  I passed a guy at mile 4 that wasn't going too much slower than me.  He wanted to know if I was in his age group.  I told him I don't pay any attention to the number on the left calf of other people I meet on the course but he was still pretty concern  to have a faster runner over take him.  He was on mile 10 of the run so he eased up when I told him I was on mile 4.  I told him he could run with me but he said my pace was too fast for him.  He ran through all the rest stops and I stopped to get gator aid water and ice water (the ice water was to dump over my head) then walk through every rest stop so he caught me at every rest stop.  We stayed together for the rest of the first loop.  The second loop I needed to negative split.  I had had a nice first loop joking with other people on the course about the pace, the heat, the choices at the aid stations, where they were from, their race attire, their race team, etc.  Lap two was not going to be a jovial run.  It was business time.  At every point on the course I asked myself are you going faster on this section than I did on lap one.  If not I would pick up the pace.  I was stopping at every aid station and taking more and more fluids at every station (I stated with one cup of water but on lap two was doing about 4 cups of water).  I also started to hit the Coke on lap two. I took four GU on lap one but at the beginning of the 2nd lap when I started to speed up felt a little sluggish which I knew was from low glycogen.  The Coke must have done the trick.  After the first aid station on the second lap the sluggishness was gone. I was getting lots of ice water over me at ever aid station that was helping a lot with the heat and so I was able to keep trucking along on the run until about 10 miles in.  At that point I had the right hamstring cramp up on me.  It stopped me in my tracks.  I stepped off the road and massaged out the cramp and noticed I was about 150 feet from the next aid station.  So I limped to the aid station drank as much water and gator aid as I could, drenched myself again with ice water, then ventured out. A fast guy caught up with me as I left the aid station.  He stayed with me for a a little ways and I told him that all was going good until about 100 metes back where I got a cramp.  I told him I wasn't sure how the next 3 miles would go but as my legs loosened up again I pulled away from him and he never caught back up. I eased up just enough to keep my legs loose.  I was still asking myself if I was going faster at that point than I had gone on the first lap. One section I felt I was going slower (but didn't push to keep from cramping any more) but the rest of the time I felt like I was going faster than lap one.  Towards the end of the 2nd lap I saw the Red Bull arch 1/4 mile away and started to speed up to finish strong.  When I got the arch it wasn't the finish line.  I asked the spectators which way to the finish.  They said to keep going.  I did but was worried I was going to miss the turn and end up on a 3rd loop to the run.  I saw another arch 1/4 miles down the path.  This time an Ironman arch I surge on but when I got there that wasn't the finish either.  Again I wasn't sure where I was going and was told to keep going.  with the surges to what I thought were finishes my legs again became to cramp.  I didn't want to have to stop for another 1-2 minutes at that point to massage out cramps.  I was already at a positive split. So I kept going with a hunched over back and lifting my knees like a high knees drill to keep the legs moving.  I quickly came to the split to the finish and was happy to finally be off the running loop (and not be doomed to an endless loop). 

So cramping was an issue.  The calves cramped in the final yards of the swim, the quads cramped in the final minutes of the bike, and the hamstrings cramps with 5K to go on the run. I PR'd by 2 minutes but felt that on a different day with better execution I could have taken another 10+ minutes off.  If I could do it over I would have taken about 10 more electrolyte pill with me and wold have road the bike at 133-138 BPM rather than 125-130 BPM.  This was a learning race.  I guess one race a years isn't enough to keep progressing.  I am going to have to do the Redman 70.3 in Oklahoma City in two months after all to show all the progress I have made this year. 

Early in the year I was running long runs at a a pace about a min/mile faster than what my goal pace was for my race.  I thought I was going to crush the run but then summer kicked in and instead of running in 40-45 deg F every morning I was running in 80-85 deg in the morning and 100 degs. in the afternoon. I adjusted my practice pace off the bike back 15 sec/mi, then 30 sec/mi, then 45 sec/mi.  The pace that I could sustain in 100 deg F without my HR climbing is what I choose to go off the bike at the race.  It was about about a minute slower than what I had been doing for long runs early in the year but on race day was about perfect.  I figured it was better to start out too slow and negative split than to run an even split or positive split. Usually on the 2nd half of of the race  it is a struggle to keep going but at that race I felt better on the 2nd half of the run that I ever had before.

If you are going long - 70.3 or 140.6 - this is perhaps one of the best things you can do.  All too often athlete's go too hard on the bike so they're already behind the energy curve when they get to the run.  They, if you stood outside T2, you'd think that an incredibly high percentage of the field can run a sun 1:20 half-marathon or sub 2:45 marathon.  The very best thing you can do is, as Curtis suggests, start out too slow and negative split the run.

It's interesting to note that Curtis said he felt better on the 2nd half of this particular run than he ever had before.  Long course triathlon is about pacing.  Curtis was the beneficiary of proper pacing at this race.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of a jerk, it'd been a couple years since you'd repaired a flat - maybe it was karma allowing you to get some practice and again become highly  proficient at tire repairs before your race!

Better to shake the rust off at these smaller, local races than at Nationals!  Don't beat yourself up Steve, it's been a few days since you regularly raced.  It's gonna take some time to get back in the saddle.

It sounds to me like you had a good overall experience.  You identified a limiter that needs some work.  That's far more than many athletes are able to do.  Winter is just around the corner which will afford a great opportunity to do a focused cycling block and increase aerobic capacity as well as FTP.

Before you know it you'll be challenging new PR's and all of this will be a distant memory in the back of your mind.