David Gillen's Group - FULL (Page 34)

Click Race Log at the top and then "Go To your Race log" button and then click add a race 

Not sure if anyone is there here but wanted to wish David good luck at his HIM in Austin, TX on Sunday.

 Also, I will be revisiting my first ever Tri from 1 year ago on 10/28.  It is a short sprint in a pool, 300m swim, 12 mile bike and 5K.  It will be 3rd time doing the course and the race company does 2 races a year on the course.

My first race was around 1:12 and the second (in april) was 1:11.  Did not get much faster but really did not train hard for either race.  Swim time was dramatically improved the second race (2min faster), bike was slightly slower but I wanted to save some legs and run was pretty much the same.

Goal is sub 1:10

Swim - 5:30
Bike -  38:00
Run - 23:00

That will leave me 3.5 minutes for transitions and since I plan on the shoes on bike trick (provided I get my new shoes in time to practice) I think this is doable.  All time are pretty aggressive since I have not biked much much and the run is about 1.5min faster than my tri 5K and :45 seconds slower than my stand alone 5K.

We will see.

Ken and Pene, Thanks for the remembering and the well wishes!  I haven't been swimming as much as I should and it'll be too warm for wetsuits, so I'm predicting my swim won't be as fast as the 39 mins at Timerbman.   The bike should go well as the the RD told me that he course isn't as tough as Timberman.  I should be over 20 mph again.  The run as usual will be the big question.  It's been 95 degrees down in Austin and if it's in the 90s around noon on Sunday running fast will difficult to say the least.   8:30s if I'm lucky, but probably more like 9 min miles.  I'd love to break my 5:20 PR at Timberman, but with the heat, lack of wetsuit and an extra 0.6 miles on the bike course 5:30 or 5:40 is probably more likely.

Ken, Good luck at the Monster tri.  I bet you'll beat your PR.  

Pene, Good luck at your half marathon.  

David,

 How was longhorn?

Are you planning on doing the rockledge rumble this year?  I think I might do the 15K since I have not been training the 50K is out this year.  I am still thowing the Grassland 50 miler around but have not decided yet.  I figure I will have to bike less and I really don't want to give that up to run all the time.

Longhorn was good.  I'll write up a full RR soon, but I went 5:34, 14 minutes off my PR, but the run course was really hilly and it was hot and humid so I only ran a 2:05.   I'm still happy with my performance given the heat and the other circumstances that I'll tell you about in the RR.  Lots of BT'ers were there. 

I'm not sure about the Rumble.  I toying around with doing a spring marathon and limiting myself to strict base training where I keep my HR in my aerobic zone 2 ALL THE TIME for about 12 weeks.  This is supposed to really help your fat burning abilities and help you become faster at your aerobic pace.  However, it requires patience and dedication to keep your HR low for everything you do.  Which means no races!

We'll see.

David,

Great job at Longhorn.

I need to start Z2 training more myself.  I did a LT test the other day and am going to start trying to train in those zones more religiously going forward no matter how slow I have to run. 

My update is that I am training probably half as much as I used to and thus have gained about 10 lbs.  Fortunately this does not hurt me much on my frame.

I am racing a sprint on Sunday (300m-12.5m-5K).  This is the site of the first tri I ever did 1 year ago.  Hoping to take at least 3 minutes off my time from last year.  Hopefully I can do more than that though.  I think I can do that with the swim and transitions alone.

I am still contiplating signing my 4yr old son up for the kids race the day before.  For him it is a 25m swim, 1mile bike and .33 mile run.  Kids can wear life jackets and use training wheels or he would not be able to do it.  The lady I spoke with said the swim is not even 25mtrs probably half of that and I can be in the water with him and run next to him on the bike/run.  It is more about participation than anything.  My concern is really the bike and whether I can get him in the water.  Plus the race starts at 7:30, WTF?? I would think noon with 4 year olds.

Anyways, I will update after the races.

Sorry for the delayed response.

My wife and I stayed on the Sun Valley Inn  in Weirs Beach.  It had a decent view of the mountains, and was about $100/night if you booked 5 nights.  This is probably about as cheap as you're going to find it during the summer.   Weirs Beach was a decent location, about 15 minutes from the race site.  The small town of Meredith is a little further from the race site, but is really nice.  If I go back, I'd probably look into staying there.  

This site is the best I found for finding places to stay.  

Thanks for cheering us on on Longhorn, Johnny.  I'm glad to hear that you're still working with a running coach and that you've signed up for some fun races.  

I guess Karen has a thing for nerds!  

Congrats on the weight loss.  I've never been able to consistently log anything (as you know), but I know that logging your eating works really well for a lot of people.  So good job.  Like Ken, most of us tend to pack on a few extra pounds over the winter/holidays.  This isn't all that bad, but if you can minimize it you'll be just that much ahead when the season starts next year and you want to start reaching optimal racing weight.   

I agree with Ken.  Running races in cold weather is great.  It really helps keep your HR down.  Ken's idea of using an "throw-away" long sleeve shirt is a good one.  You might also consider using a trash bag.  You've probably seen people do this when they poke their head and possibly arms through a plastic trash bag.  I've done this a couple of times and works pretty well by trapping the heat and shielding you from the wind.  I'll either throw it off right before the start or after 3-5 minutes of running.

Good luck at Monster, buddy. I'm sure you'll beat your time from last year.

I say go for it especially if you can run along side him. He'll love it.

Let us know how it goes.

My quick update:

Done racing for the year!   I'd love to a popular trail race called the Rockledge Rumble and/or the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon.  But, I've already decided that one of my A races for next year is the Austin Marathon on 2/17.   Thus, I've committed to doing strictly base training (Z1-Z2 only, run and bike) for 12 weeks solid.  This implies no racing for me, b/c I have a tough time racing "just for fun".

I've also registered for the California 70.3 race in Oceanside, CA on 3/29/2008.   My sister lives in San Diego and I can stay with her for the race.  Assuming her and the race site are not burned to the ground by then.  (J/K, she's fine)

Not intentionally, I've lost 5-10 pounds in the last few months.  I'm close to 170 lbs. these days and while that's great for running, I'm afraid that I might be losing muscle too.  Thus, I'm trying to increase my protein intake and want to get serious about lifting 2-3 times week in hopes of maintaining muscle mass while continuing to lose body fat.  My goal is to get to single digits next year.  I'm at about 12-13 % now.  We'll see. 

Keep posting everyone.  Sorry, I've been AWOL recently.  I'll try to post more!