Ready To Race

  So the rain got to wreak it's havoc upon me one more time before it was finished. Wednesday morning looked like a good time to go for a bike ride. That is until the downpour began at around mile 4 of a 25 mile ride. Riding in the rain always reminds me of my bike messenger days back in NYC. I learned a ton about braking, turning and obstacles to avoid when the streets are wet. I had to. The ride went well but I was soaked and the bike was a mess when I finished. I used this as motivation to get my bike in the shop for a clean/tune up. I called Jack and Adams and they said I could bring it in right away. I loaded the bike in the Blazer and headed down to the store.
  The mechanic was a young guy who couldn't have even been old enough to drive. He helped me pick out a water bottle and a bracket that mounts in between the aero bars. I also grabbed some handle bar wraps that really stand out. They are the same wraps that are on my messenger bike and I love them. After an hour it was all done. He didn't charge me the full tune up price and he even fixed my bent rear derailer that I didn't know needed fixing. It was quite an awesome experience. If you have any bicycle maintenance needs GO TO JACK AND ADAMS!!! They rock.

  I got up early the next day for my 4 mile run with Oskar, Tony and Mandy. Tony is training for NYC marathon with Rogue and we were discussing the ridiculously hilly route that Rogue is running this weekend. The run is called "The Run From Hell," if that gives you any indication as to how hard it is. I believe the run includes part of Mesa and Ladera Norte. Luckily I have my race the next day so no "Run From Hell" for me.
  After the run I met Emily, Barton and Paula for a swim at a new location. Barton Springs is closed for cleaning on Thursdays and Deep Eddy is temporarily closed for unsafe water quality. The new pool is amazing. It is an Olympic distance pool that was virtually empty. Our group took up 2 of the 3 lanes and there was only one other lap swimmer the whole time. It is really easy for us to get there so until it closes at the end of the summer it will be the new lap pool. I hate to give it away but the name rhymes with Sabel Avis.
  Emily wanted to run after the swim and even though I had already ran my 4 miles that morning I figured I could use some more work. The second run of the day was a lot harder, hotter and humider (more humid).  It took about 2 miles in to get rid of my side stitch. But other than that it was fine.
  Friday was an off day for me so I took the dogs to Barking Springs. Oskar is now starting to dive his head completely underwater to pick up submerged stones. Lucy will get about half of her head in to pick up sticks. The dogs never cease to amaze me. On the way back to the car Oskar stepped in some gum right before jumping into the back of the Blazer. It freaked him out so he was jumping all over the back of the car leaving little hot bubble gum paw prints wherever he landed. Of course this got Lucy excited so she decided to roll around the back of the car literally following in the gummy paw steps of Oskar. The dogs never cease to amaze me.
  Saturday will be just a relaxing ride to Jack and Adams to pick up my race packet for Sundays race and then plenty of water and sleeping. Wish me luck!!!!

Stray Showers messing it up

  I missed my long run on Saturday. I could give a few good excuses but basically it was too early in the morning for me to go so I skipped it. I should have ran anyway on my own but I didn't. In the interest of full disclosure the 4 or 5 beers on Friday night probably had something to do with it.
  The next day was a hot midday ride out and around Decker Lake and back with Dale and Chase. This was my first time riding with either of them so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I am pleased to report that it went just fine. Chase is a pretty experienced cyclist who can easily keep up and push on ahead. Dale is just starting out with cycling and tri training in general but he did great. He didn't have any problems negotiating traffic, clipping in or riding fast with us.  Dale is competing in his first triathlon this Sunday out at the Texas Ski Ranch. That's right. It is race week again. Sunday morning will be my third triathlon when I suit up for Jack's Generic Tri. I can't wait.
  On Monday I got in a nice afternoon 4 mile run with good old Oskar. Although it was a little on the hot side he did pretty well with frequent dips into Town Lake. I tried to go swimming after that but that afternoon thunderstorm really hampered my plan. So I ended up at the movies.
  Tuesday was a complete wash training wise. I left my car overnight out at Barton Springs so when I went back to get it I took Oskar for a swim. As soon as I got home I spent the better part of the day working on my messenger bike. I changed a flat, cleaned the wheels, sprockets, brakes, chain and repacked the bearings in the front and back wheel. I love doing my own maintenance but I will leave my racing bike to the professionals. I  planned to ride to Barton Springs for a swim before work but after getting everything ready I took one pedal stroke in the direction of the pool and heard that old familiar sound that signifies that the pool is closed, thunder. When I was a lifeguard as a teenager the sound of thunder was a welcome break in the day. You got to clear the pool and play cards while still getting paid. Now I curse the sky for interrupting my training cycle.
  Today's plan is the same. Try to bike and or swim. I can always play cards if there is a thunderstorm I guess.

An Interesting Swimming Metaphor

  I am back from vacation and I am back on track in my training. Everything seems to be progressing, albeit slowly, but progressing just the same. I met my friends Tony and Mandy for our Thursday morning easy 4 mile recovery run. I needed some more miles when we were finished so I continued on for another 3 miles for a total of 7 miles. Immediately after that I went over to Deep Eddy Pool for some swim training with Barton. We have been doing most of our swimming in Barton Springs for the past month so he can't see exactly how my stroke technique is coming along. We spent a few laps working on form and body positioning. Basically Barton told me to, "Swim like a Stripper." Hahaha. I need to swim with both my chest and butt out. I didn't quite understand his analogy (wink wink) but I did comprehend the message. My legs sink when I swim and I always thought that was because I had a weak kick. It turns out it has more to do with my posture in the water, but I still do have a rather weak kick. If I can position my hips at the top of the water then that will be less drag then my arms will have to pull. Elongating my mid section will allow more oxygen in the lungs and help my glide. If I can get this stroke down then I have confidence that I can go from just finishing the swim to being competitive in the swim.
  Today I woke up for an 8 am long swim at Barton Springs with none other than Barton. He just got his wetsuit in the mail yesterday and wanted to try it out on a long swim. I have my old surfing wetsuit from when I lived in Northern California. It is a solid full 3/2 wetsuit that still is in pretty good condition. I am not sure if it will make for a good triathlon suit so today was the test run. On a side note I ran into the wonderful and talented Coach Amy on the way into the Springs and after chatting with her for about 10 minutes I realized that there is a slight possibility of talking her (Mark would have to go too) into doing the full Ironman Texas next Spring in Houston. More on that later. I got into the water with the wetsuit and was amazed at the buoyancy. I expected a little help from the suit but this seemed too easy. Also, gone was the frigid temperatures of Barton Springs. The trade off  seems to be range of motion. My arms got a reprieve from having to pull all of my weight but that plus was balanced out with having to overcome the restrictiveness of a full wetsuit. This will take some more exploring. My 1/4 mile time did improve by around an average of 45-60 seconds. I ended up only getting a 3/4 mile swim in before the guards kicked out the free swimmers. Time to rest before my 12 mile run tomorrow. For now I will repeat my new swimming mantra, "Swim Like A Stripper."

Time Off

  I just got back into town today after 3 1/2 days at a Beach house outside of Galveston. Oskar and Lucy were down there ahead of me so I packed up Sunday morning and drove the 4 1/2 hours down. Exercise wise it was kind of a lazy few days I am afraid. I got in a 4-5 mile trail run on Monday evening on a wet, muddy and marshy Galveston State Park trail. It was a nice and humid run that help me sweat out some of my vacation. Other than a little surfing which I guess I can put into the swim workout category there wasn't much else.
  However, my little friend Oskar on the other hand had quite the time in the water. My dog surfs. Yes, he surfs. here are a couple of pictures to prove it.

I wasn't so sure that he'd go for it. I just took him and the board out and as soon as it got to deep he swam right for the surfboard. It took a little getting used to but basically I just turned around, pushed off and the we were going. So fun. Now back to work.

End of Week Wrap Up

   I am realizing (over and over again) that when an opportunity to get a workout in appears, take it. If you put it off then the weather, work, Oskar, or life in general will intervene and ruin it. Case in point: My Thursday early morning run meet up with Tony got canceled because he had some work things come up. Instead of waking up and running anyways, I opted to sleep in. That decision would later haunt me because I was forced to wait around the house all day for the A/C repairman to come fix our air conditioning at the house. That wasn't a pleasant day for sure.
  Friday morning I woke up early for my long bike ride with Mark. From his house we do the Dam Loop which is about a 35 mile ride up and down some long sustained hills. It is one of my favorite long rides to do and when I ride with Mark I am thoroughly entertained with his stories and I often get some good training tips from him as well. For instance I am learning that opting to do hill repeats on the same hills I use for running (Mesa, Ladera Norte and Mt. Bonnell) are not necessarily the best choices for cycling. It is more beneficial to use a hill that I can stay in the saddle and sustain a longer climb. The strength progression I get when I tackle Mesa is fantastic but I can only do it once, maybe twice and that is it. If I find a longer and less steep hill then I can repeat it 5 or 6 times.
   The trip down to the Mansfield Dam was fun and I hit 42.6 mph and felt like I was flying. Right after that Mark was describing the rest of the route and he told me of a, "Pretty good downhill" that was coming up. He said he would feather his brakes but that I was more than welcome to fly down it if I wanted to. I had no idea he was referring to the downhill section of 2222. That drop is virtually straight down.

I ended up feathering my brakes as well but still managed to get up to 51.1 mph. That is probably as fast as I ever need to go.
  On Saturday I woke up early for my long run with Rogue. I partnered up with Scooby for the 10 mile trek. It was great running with Jim, G, Scott and Oscar (guy Oscar, not dog Oskar). They are a fun group. We ended up picking up another runner in our group named Jess (no relation) who had just finished competing in Ironman Couer D'Alene a few weeks prior. She was running just ahead of Scooby and I the whole time as we were discussing triathlons and nutrition for about 45 minutes. Oddly enough she is an Ironman athlete who is also a nutrition major at UT. Go figure. After the run, Rogue had set up a Cold Tub to soak in. It is a giant tub which is big enough to sit 5 or 6 people, but instead of hot water, champagne, cheesy romantic music and Tom Delay (Houstonians might pick up on the reference) it was cold water, sweat soaked athletes and recovery drinks. Rogue has done it right with the Cold Tub. That thing is so refreshing they could charge admission.
  Now I am heading down to Galveston for a little R&R. I will get in some open water swimming if I can avoid the tar balls. No cycling though. Galveston will be pretty stormy off and on for the next few days. I found out that the power at the beach house that Oskar, Emily and Lucy are staying in was out for a while last night. Emily informed me that Oskar loves chasing the flashlight almost as much as he did the laser pointer. That must have been a fun evening at the beach house, bumping into furniture, in the dark, with a crazed dog scrambling around to wherever you pointed the flashlight. Luckily the power came back on.

Back to Work after the Race

  I took Monday off after the race to rest and recover. Now it's time to keep preparing for the rest of racing season. The main goal of all of this is Ironman 70.3 Austin. I just found out recently they changed the name from Longhorn to Ironman Austin. It is a half-iron distance but at this stage in my triathlon experience a half-iron is plenty.
  Tuesday was a run day. I know it is time to start ramping up the distances for my training so now 7 miles is my easy run, which is what I ran yesterday around Town Lake. It was a little warm but it felt really good to go a couple of extra miles. I got home and tried to schedule some swim time in but cleaning the a/c coils and mowing the lawn took precedence. Also Oskar was heading down to the beach for a couple of weeks with Lucy so I needed to have some quality dog time before he left.
  Today was a good old fashioned hard bike ride. Nothing too fancy just a hilly 24 mile ride in North West Austin. I rode out Shoal Creek to Far West, down and up Mesa, then down and up Far West where it dead ends into Ladera Norte. I thought about doing a couple of trips up Mesa but I felt fortunate enough just getting up it once without stopping so I kept going up back to Far West. Once there I decided at the last moment to go down the Western slope for another hill repeat and began regretting this decision about halfway down. Far West is a tough ride especially after just climbing Mesa. But I was locked in and I either had to climb Ladera Norte (not interested in that) or go back up Far West. Here is the elevation profile from Mapmytri:

 I took the last 10 miles home easy to recover. Speaking of going home there is an absence of a little Oskar. I miss that little bastard. He and Lucy are down in Galveston at a beach house. Yep, my dog is on vacation but not me. So right now he is either                                                                                            

                                                 A: Swimming in the Gulf
                                                 B: Working on his tan
                                                 C: Diving and rolling in dead fish on the beach
                                             or D: All of the above

  I'll get down there next week to hang out too for a few days.

Couple's Tri Race Report

   It was a great day to be a triathlete at the Couple's Triathlon yesterday. It has been about 2 months since my last race, which was the Rookie, and the old nerves started to kick in before the start. Actually they started to kick in the night before the start. It took an hour of tossing and turning on the bed in the house with a failing air-conditioning. I ended up with a solid 6 hours of sleep though and even little Oskar let me sleep all through the night. My family was in town to watch the race. Mom and Dad were at a hotel up north, my brother Carl was sound asleep (hopefully) on the couch and my other brother Michael and Sharon were snoozing away in the bedroom. The 5 a.m alarm sounded and we were up.

  I had packed all of my race gear the night before, or so I had thought. I drank a little bit of coffee and I wanted to eat something substantial since I had about 3 1/2 hours until we started the race but the butterflies in my stomach would only allow a nice smoothie to enter. I packed a granola bar just in case. My brother Mike was my teammate for the Couple's Tri so we loaded the bikes and took his car to the race leaving our support crew behind to meet up with later. It only took us 15 minutes to get to the race so we had about an hour to set up our transition area before it closed at 7:30.

  After getting body marked with our bib numbers we entered the transition area to find a parking spot for our bikes. We circumnavigated the entire area looking for the bike rack for our division and then we finally stopped and asked for directions. Mike and I were classified in the "Sibling" division. A very nice race volunteer told us our bike rack was on the first row of the transition area and all the way at the end near the bike entrance/exit. I knew the location would be very easy to find during the race and we racked our bikes next to a brother/sister team who had tied a "Finding Nemo" balloon in between their bikes. At some point  during the time we got out of the car and parked our bikes I realized I had forgotten my water bottle. I had brought water and Gatorade but no bottle to put it in for the race. I called Emily since she was leading our support crew and she graciously turned the caravan around and headed back to the house to grab an extra bottle. Crisis averted....or was it?
  Em and the family showed up before we were kicked out of transition with the water bottle. The only problem was the bottle had the wrong lid. Oh well I could still make it work. We left transition and then had to wait an hour and 20 minutes for our wave to start. The sibling division was the last one to get the green light. They had a pre-race group yoga session to warm up. A lot of participants did this. My brother and I did not. Carl pointed to the yogis and said, "Those are the ones that are warming up," then pointed to those like my brother Mike and I and said, "Those are the ones that are going to cramp up." Haha I loved it. The National Anthem started and this is where I will insert my only "Real" complaint about the race itself. Whoever is the DJ for these events needs to turn OFF the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the singing of the National Anthem. I know my parents are very patriotic and I could feel my fathers blood pressure rising because of this. So if there are any race organizers out there please turn OFF the music for the National Anthem.
  After the music debacle the race started and continued without a hitch for all I knew. My friends Craig and Scooby were off in the first wave of Friends/Male division. I got to cheer for those two and see them exit the water. Craig looked happy as he trotted up to transition and Scooby looked happy....well let's just say he looked happy to get out of the water. That guy swam ONCE to train for this race.
Can you believe it? After they passed us we just waited around for about a half hour for our start. I hate waiting. My father came down and was chit chatting with me about the race and for some reason this is when I started to finally calm down. I guess he has a very soothing effect because I finally chilled out. Our wave was lining up so we got in line with all of the other siblings. My friend and swim coach Barton showed up just in time to wish us luck. I told him I was going to get into the water with a crashing Cannon Ball entrance but I chickened out at the last second. The starting horn sounded, I turned to Mike and told him Good Luck and then we were off.
   The swim was 800 meters. We started in the very middle of the group which turned out fine. I ran into the girl in front of me for a couple of strokes but other than that I cleared the main bulk of the wave with no problems. I felt very relaxed and didn't have a panic moment at all. Later Barton would tell me that he could tell I would do well in the race based on how relaxed my swim stroke looked. I definitely trust his assessment based on how long he has been swimming and coaching. When you are swimming it is hard to know just how good or bad you are doing compared to everyone else. I felt so relaxed I thought that I might be going too slow but Barton also told me that in our wave there were a handful of fast swimmers and then the main clump. I was at the head of the main clump. I am happy with that except that now that I think about it, all those slackers behind me were drafting off of me.

  I got out of the water, pulled off my swim cap, waved to my mom, and jogged up to transition. I felt really good at this point. I found my bike with no problems and proceeded to put on my shoes, socks, helmet, shirt and race bib with Amy's mantra repeating in my head, "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast." I grabbed my bike and jogged halfway to the exit before I realized I fogot my sunglasses. I turned around and went back for them while laughing at myself.  When I finally was leaving the transition area I accidentally picked up some sort of wire in my back wheel that took a few extra seconds to remove. I had it in my hands but didn't want to just throw it back on the ground where someone else could get caught up in it so I handed it to one of the volunteers. There was a definite pause of her looking at me wondering why was I giving her a piece of metal and me pleading with my eyes to please take it. She took it then I was gone in a flash. I mounted the bike  past the clusterbleep clump and quickly got out of there. As I was exiting the park a guy ahead of me was struggling to get into his pedals and kept veering to the left. I yelled, " On your left" a couple of times but it was the third time when I screamed, "ON YOUR LEFT!!!!" that really got his attention. As soon as I cleared him I grabbed the water bottle and tried to get a drink. This is where having the wrong lid really made the difference. I accidentally pulled the lid off with my teeth.  I lost about a third of my Gatorade/Water mix. I hope nobody slipped on it. I got the lid back on a figured out a method of still using the bottle while keeping the lid still on. After that it was time to haul ass on the bike. Nobody passed me and I ended being 4th fastest in my division on the bike. The hills weren't as hard as I thought they would be except for one short but steep one that is located directly after a 90 degree turn which breaks your momentum. I was a very courteous competitor and I told everybody I passed, "Good Job." Although someone (she who will not be named) has just pointed out that if they got passed and the person that was doing passing was also telling them "Good Job" they might be a little annoyed at that.
  When I was finishing the bike I heard my name and turned and saw my roommates father Dale, who had come out to watch the race. He is preparing for his first race and wanted to watch a triathlon and see how it went. Apparently he discovered my parents when he heard my mother yelling my name into the phone as she was talking to my father. Ha, what are the odds? I have known Dale for many years but for some reason I kept wanting to call him Steve. I don't know if it was because I was tired, or the heat or what but I decided that Steve was not his name (that's my roommates and his son's name) so I just said "HEY!" a couple of times. Speaking of the heat it was a least 90 degrees when I got off the bike to start my run. Transition went well with no further hitches. I ran out the transition area feeling good but also knowing the heat and humidity were going to kill my run. I accepted this early on in the run and tried to relax and not worry about it.
  The run course is off road and with the recent rains it made it very muddy in some places. I run in the Nike Free with zip laces. There were more than a couple of moments that I felt my shoe starting to slip into the clutches of the mud but luckily for me they stayed on my feet. I am not going to lie the run was hard. I have been doing a lot of brick workouts to combat the feeling of running after the bike but the heat just ruined it for me. I ended up with a 9 minute mile pace. That is 2 minutes per mile slower than the pace I have been using for training. I can blame the heat, humidity, hills, or mud if I want to but I won't. Okay maybe I will blame the conditions a little.
  A guy barely passed by me with about a 100 yards to go but he clearly didn't know that I have one helluva kick at the end of my runs. I hit the turbo button with about 40 yards to go, not quite the turbo I was expecting, and edged past him near the finish line. It was a good race and I had lots of fun. I stayed around and cheered on my brother who had a fun race too but like me he was ready for the free beer at the end.
  Knowing what I know now, if I could change yesterdays race I would have pushed the swim and bike a lot more. I definitely sandbagged the swim to make sure it went well and I know I could have cut a couple of minutes on the bike. The run couldn't have been helped. Thank You everybody who came out to help, cheer us on and those who are reading this. It is very appreciated. All of the kind words of support and encouragement really mean a lot so don't stop just yet. I still have 4 more races. Next race is Jack's Generic Tri on 8/01/10. 

Let's Go Racing!!!!

   All packed and ready to go! 8:50 am wave start. Family is all here. Bike is greased and ready. Oskar is fed and pooped. Come out to Decker and cheer us on!!!!!

Getting Closer to Race Day

    Only 3 more days until race day. Only 3 more nights of sleep until I get to wake up and go race. I have talked to some people who love to train for triathlons for the fitness but they don't race them for whatever reasons. I can understand that, but personally I love race day. I am getting goose bumps just thinking about tying on the goggles and cap and lining up for the start. I can almost feel the wind sweeping across my face as I pass people on the bike and I am almost throwing up just thinking about the hill at Decker Lake that I got to run up before the finish line. My family will be there cheering me on so I am even more excited about this race. This is the Couples Tri and my teammate is my brother Michael. I think that makes this event even more fun and unique that I get to compete with my brother.
  All week it has been easy runs, swims and bike rides. Nothing too hard but not too slow or short either. I think I have hit a good balance between recovering from the previous month of training and preparing for Sunday's race. I have had a couple of half mile swims, 2 four mile runs and a nice easy 20 mile ride on the trainer to keep the legs fresh. I am off work Friday and Saturday so I should get plenty of rest before the race.
  So if anyone out there is free this Sunday morning for a couple of hours come on out to Decker lake and cheer us on. Just now so loud when I am in transitions since I will be trying to concentrate. 

Rain Rain Go Away Please.

  I haven't been swimming all that much lately and it is starting to mess with my head. My next race is a week from tomorrow and although the swim distance is only 800 meters I would still like to get some swim time in before the race. The good news is that all of the lakes and rivers around here are filling up.
  Okay now the whining is over. Thursday was an nice and easy recovery run with Tony, Mandy and Oskar. We started at 7:30 in the a.m. and when we got back to the cars Mandy realized she had brought her house key with her in the run and not her car key. Afraid that she would be locked out of her car we walked over to see if we could figure a way in. Well the no good thieves that bashed in her passenger side window solved the problem for her. Fortunately her wallet, phone and car keys were miraculously still in the car. I think all they got was a near empty purse and hopefully a few lacerations from the broken glass.
  Friday was supposed to be a long swim day. I rode my bike down to Barton Springs and right before I got there the sky started dumping a ton of rain. I waited too long to swim and I missed out. Although it did feel like I was swimming by the time I rode all the way home in the monsoon.
  This morning was a 12 mile run with Rogue. It was another gross and muggy run. The humidity makes it so hard to breathe. I ran a little slower than 9 minute miles and was really dragging at the end. The hope here is that by the end of the summer, when the temperatures drop, so will all of my times. That is the hope at least. A little over half way through the run I was on riverside and was crossing over I-35. I noticed a car speeding by me on the right and I had a fleeting thought that I could make in time. I stopped dead (pardon the pun) in my tracks when I realized the car was a Hearse. Seriously? Hey Universe, message received.
  In dog news Oskar and Lucy are currently asleep under my feet. Oskar and I just got back from a bike ride. It was hot so we took a couple of water breaks for him. The ride ended up being a 3 mile round trip from my house to the coffee shop and back. Poor Lucy has arthritis in her knee and it has been acting up for the last couple of days so she can't do that kind of running. She has been limping around the house for the last couple of days and stirring up trouble with Oskar by goading him to play fight while she lies on the ground. Yep, Lucy has been the only instigator. Oskar just casually walks by but no, Lucy starts messing with him and forcing innocent Oskar into playing rough.

   Just another day in paradise.