Race analysis

I won't go into my detailed blow by blow analysis as I generally do. Suffice it to say that I am very happy with the swim - this is my best time for what felt like a "true" distance. I initially felt that the swim was long and heard other athletes say the same thing after the race, but based on my time and the time of others, I would say it that the distance was probably accurate. No HR information on this, but I swam at what I would call a TEMPO pace. I felt good in the water and went with it. Swam a little wide, but not as bad as I have in the past.

The bike - I thought it took me a long time to get my HR under control on the bike. That is the adreneline distorting reality during the race. I actually got my HR under control fairly quick and ended up averaging somewhere around 138 bpm on the bike. Avg speed was 20.4 vs. 21 last year. Last year my HR monitor crapped out on me during the bike so I very well may have overcooked it. This year I would say I rode it perfectly.

Run - I tried to keep my HR around 145 for the first two miles, but it kept creeping up on me. After two miles I just ran at a relaxed pace which was somewhere around 150bpm. I did not push, but did not hold back either. I got to mile eight and still felt o.k. so I started to stretch it out a little. I wonder if I pushed a little too hard at this point - may have wanted to wait another mile or two as the last mile was very painful (or maybe that is how it is supposed to feel). Finished in 2:05 which is a good half marathon for me. My best training comparison is about 2:03for 13 miles even, So I was really close to my pace. I was shooting for 2:00 even, but I knew that was an aggressive goal.

So I finished the whole thing in about 5:33. My goal was 5:30 and my obnoxious goal was 5:20. It is hard to complain about this.

Other notes - last year I had a fueling issue on the run at this race. This year I raced with my fuel belt and fueled with Ironman Perform in a concentrated form. Just had water at the aid stations. I did not take any salt as between the gels and IM Perform there was plenty of sodium. I believe that I did well on my nutrition at this race, but need to concentrate a little more on run fueling for the IM distance.

Patriot race results

Overall time 5:33:36. Swim was about 37 minutes, bike was 2:44:38 and run was 2:05. Very happy with these results - have not analyzed the splits and HR data yet, but I believe I could have done even better if I paced it differently (or perhaps not - need to analyze data). The big news is that I cut 18 minutes off my run from last year. My overall and age group placings improved dramatically. It feels good to be 46 years old and still improving.

Crash update

It's been an interesting week of healing. I stayed out of the pool due to the open wounds. Most of them could have been covered, but the gash in my hand was uncoverable. It is pretty much closed up now so I should be able to get back in the swing of things this week.

I ran Tuesday and felt o.k. doing so. Wed was a bike day and although my ankle hurt, I was able to ride o.k. Thursday my ankle was inflamed and swollen. The wound looked clean, but it was red all around it and it hurt to the touch. It was also warm to the touch. My wife saw it and started freaking out telling me that I needed to call the doctor. I told her I thought it was just part of the healing process. So, I biked again Thursday as running was out of the question. Thursday's bike was real good - pumped out some good wattage. Friday came along and ankle felt better in the morning, but as the day went on it became swollen and inflamed just like the day before. I tried to run on it when I got home and it was way too painful - I made it about 200 feet and quit. I was bummed because Shamrock is Sunday and it is the first race of the season for me and I really did not want to miss it. So Saturday comes around and I call the Doctor. Explained what it looked like and how it felt and she agreed with me that it part of the healing process; however, she prescribed an antibiotic just in case.

Oh the difference a day makes. The ankle felt much better Saturday and I rode 30 and ran 6.5 on it with no problem.

Sunday (today) I did the Shamrock Du. I would not say that it was my finest race but it was pretty damn good considering the week I had. My time was slightly slower than last year, but the bike course was slightly altered due to road construction - don't know if that added anything or not. They made it sound like the distance was the same. I was also more tentative cornering due to my recent crash. I'm waiting for the official results to get posted as I am curious as to my splits and how they compare to last year.

As an aside - I practiced leaving my pedals on the bike and putting my feet in the shoes while riding. Practice conditions and race conditions - two totally different things. I failed miserably and lost some time with this - twenty to thirty seconds easy. I'm sticking to running with my bike shoes on. I admit getting out of transition was very fast, but getting going on the bike took longer - there was no time savings for me, quite the contrary.

Crashed hard!

Riding a 25 mile route Sunday - a route I've ridden a hundred times. Crossing railroad tracks and hit them just right (wrong actually) and went down hard. Bruised and battered all the way up my right side. Good gash in the palm of my hand as well. Believe it or not I was going to finish my ride, but I was having trouble gripping the bars and did not want to bleed all over my bike so I went home. After I cleaned up and assessed the damage I decided to bag the run I had planned as well. It is two days later and I am very sore - nothing serious, just lots of road rash and couple of bruises, but it definitely slows you down.

Going to attempt to run tonight. Sometimes getting active again helps and some times it aggravates - I'm hoping for helps because I don't want to be a bystander.

modified diet, training going o.k.

As well as getting my training back on track I tackled the diet as well. The fastest way I know to get fit is to tackle all three legs of the stool - training, rest and nutrition. I try to stay Paleo as much as possible; however, when on the run it is not always easy to put a Paleo meal together. I stray to the Zone as needed. I definitely feel better when I am 100% Paleo, but Zone is not a bad alternative. I try not to cheat and never plan a cheat meal as enough opportunities come along that planning is not needed.

Swimming and biking are coming along nicely. Did hill repeats on the bike Wed - can't say it was wonderful, but there is still some power there. Bike should come back quickly. Swimming is coming back quicker than I expected as that is the first discipline I let go when I got busy. The run, well, what can I say about the run. It has always been my nemesis. Yesterday's run felt much better than Tuesday's run so it seems that it is coming back, just slower than I would like. I kept the run going the longest so it is a little baffling that it is taking the longest to come back.

I haven't updated my race schedule yet - not racing as much this year. Focusing on a few key events. Doing Shamrock Du in May, Patriot in June, a local sprint in July, Litchfield Hills Olympic in August and IM AZ in November. I may slide a couple of others in there if it fits in with the training, but my focus this year is Patriot and IM AZ.

Happy training!

Tax season sucks!

Well, this was the worst tax season ever. I worked over 100 more than I did last year (and I worked a lot last year). We had employees sick and on disability, deaths in the family and other issues. I saw the writing on the wall and picked up my hours in early February. Well, guess where the time comes from? You got that right - training.

I kept with it as long as I could - swimming got dropped first, then biking and then running got cut back to just twice a week and then nothing during the last week.

Well, I'm back at it. I just had a good week - struggled being tight and cardio definately suffered, but damn! it feels good being active again.

Joined a masters swim group and managed two over 3,000 yard swims last week - 3300 the first session and 3600 the second. No power in my stroke right now, but I'm damn happy with the yardage considering how long it's been since I swam.

Computrainer part II

I won a Computrainer on Ebay. It's not exactly new, but it works just fine. Did my first workout on it yesterday and it definately helps make the time go by faster. I wish I had one earlier in the winter, but with my work hours I will be riding inside for a while anyway.