October 16, 2012

Farmdale Trail Run

Melissa and I ran the 30 mile Farmdale Trail Run on Saturday near East Peoria, IL. We heard about this race just a couple weeks ago from our friend Chris, and since Melissa's parents live nearby they were able to watch Will while she and I spent hours in the woods.

All the pieces had fallen into place for me. My training in the weeks leading up to the race was top notch. I had run personal best times on two of my favorite trails in the Saint Louis area without trying very hard. My heart rate was lower than ever for the pace I was running. I was running up hills with ease, thanks to the time spent on the Stairmaster. I was finally fully recovered from Howl at the Moon and I felt my fitness had even improved since then.

I had never run the trail before, so I didn't know exactly how fast I would be able to go, but I made some educated guesses. As long as the trail wasn't too hilly or technical I thought I had a realistic chance to average 8 minute miles to finish in 4 hours. And based on previous results, that should put me near the top of the field. It was a bit of an audacious goal for me, but, for the first time ever in a race of this distance on this sort of terrain, I felt I could back it up.

Farmdale

The rain began to fall lightly just minutes before the start of the race. The 30 mile race and the 10 mile race started together, while the 50 mile race had started 3 hours earlier. With the faster 10 mile runners and the slower 50 mile runners all on the trail together there was a bit of confusion as to what my place was at any given time. I started with a pack of 10 milers and by 4 miles in I had passed and left them all behind. The early miles were effortless. Despite the light rain the trail was in terrific condition. I finished the first 10 mile loop in 1:20, exactly on my desired 8 minute pace. Only 3 of the 113 10-mile runners were ahead of me. Old Rob (which was actually the young Rob) would have crashed and burned late in the race after pulling a stunt like this. But not today, I felt great.

I picked up some food and water and set back out. The rain was picking up and the trail was getting a bit muddy. Now that the 10 milers were off the course I asked a few 50 milers as I passed them if there were any 30 milers ahead of me. Most of them were just as confused as I was, but I had a strong suspicion there weren't. I just hoped/assumed I was in the lead, but pretended I wasn't.

Around 14 miles in I had to take off my (prescription) sunglasses because the sky was so dark. I simply wasn't able to see the trail. And without my glasses everything was blurry, but this effect wore off a bit as I continued on. By this point it was absolutely pouring. I had to slow down around all the (numerous) turns to avoid sliding right off the trail. Then on the second half of the loop there were about 3 miles of trail that were covered in standing water, which slowed me down even more. I still felt great, but it was obvious I had no chance of making my time goal. With the trail in this condition I couldn't have run a lap at that pace if it was the only lap I had to run all day.

I completed the second lap in 1:28, almost a full minute per mile slower than the first lap. And the trail kept getting worse from there. I picked up my headphones and listened to music for the third lap to try to keep me motivated. I started to get a little tired, but I still had plenty left in the tank. It was just all I could do to keep from falling over on the turns, or sliding on my ass down the frequent ravine traversals. I had slowed down a lot by now. With 2-3 miles left I picked up the pace and finished really strong.

I had been passing 50 milers the whole race and on my third lap I was passing 30 milers as well. I hadn't seen Melissa yet, but I thought she probably wasn't too far ahead. She's not a highly experienced trail runner and she picked a hell of a day to gain experience. I exited the woods into the open field to head to the finish line and I saw her just ahead. I caught up and finished my third lap at the exact same moment she finished her second lap, 4 hours and 27 minutes after we began. She was in good spirits and was preparing to gut out one more lap on the trail in horrendous conditions (it just kept getting worse and worse all day).

A major award

As I was chatting with Melissa the race timer informed me I was the first 30 mile finisher. Huzzah. It was a long, hard, nasty (at times) race, but I felt really great and I ran well. Melissa went back out and did what needed to be done. It was not pleasant for her, but she showed some serious guts. In the meantime I changed into dry clothes and ate and drank everything in sight. I chatted for a while with a few old friends and made some new ones. Melissa finished a few hours later, happy the race was finally over.

Melissa finishes

She was worried that she would finish dead last, but she was right in the middle, 24th of 47 overall and 4th female. Pretty good for her first trail ultra.

October 15, 2012

Blowing It

A little over a week ago I raced the Veldrijden Columbia cyclocross race. My friend and teammate, Mark, did an excellent job organizing the event. I was in the Cat 4 (newb) race. Warming up before the start I got a pretty good idea what was in store for me… I was out of breath and I had to get off my bike to walk up a hill that was so muddy my tires just spun and I started to slide backwards when I tried to ride up it.

A last minute bathroom trip left me at the back of the pack of 30 or so riders for the start. Which is exactly where I didn't want to be. The start of a cyclocross race is so important to one's chances of success. I took off like crazy, passing several people, to get up into 12th or so place by the first turn. Then there was a fast section where I moved up a few more places before we hit the challenging parts of the course.

I handled my bike well and I remained patient. I would seize any opening I could find to pass somebody and move up a bit. There was one guy way off the front and nobody had a chance of catching up to him. By about halfway through the race, though, I had caught up with the chase group. My teammate Mike was in 2nd, some other guy was in 3rd, and I had moved up into 4th. It took a while, but I eventually passed the guy to move into 3rd. Then Mike and I opened up a bit of a gap. I passed Mike, he passed me back, then I passed him back. The longer the race went on the stronger I felt and the more I could see the other riders fading.

41384367 VEL 1165

With one lap to go in the 35 minute race I was in 2nd place and I started to pull away from Mike a bit. I took a few unnecessary risks and got away with them. Then I blew it. On a fast, muddy downhill section I lost control of my front wheel and went down hard, smacking my (helmet-protected) head on the ground. I slid to a stop and quickly moved my bike out of the way so Mike didn't go over top of me. My first reaction (as is the case any time I've crashed on a bike) was that I was seriously injured. My head was killing me. My next reaction was damn, I just crashed out of the race with half a lap to go when I was in 2nd place. After wallowing in self pity for a few moments it occurred to me that nobody besides Mike had passed me yet--I was still in 3rd place. I was still in podium position. Was I really injured? Could I actually get back on my bike and ride half a lap?

I decided to try, just as I saw two more guys coming down the hill. I jumped on my bike to get out in front of them only to discover my chain had fallen off. Crap. I pulled over to the side to let them pass as I put the chain back on, then I took off behind them, but I was unable to catch back up. I held on to finish 5th place. My head hurt, but I wasn't injured. My body was fine. My bike was fine.

Looking on the bright side, I had a really good race. I moved up from a long way back up into 2nd place. I stayed strong throughout the whole race while other riders were slowing down. I have the fitness. I just need to learn to ride my bike.

October 11, 2012

September 2012

Running

Forest Park XC Festival

I continued doing a lot of shorter runs throughout September (if 8+ miles per run can be considered short). More importantly I got back on track of running 3-4 times per week. I raced the Forest Park Cross Country Festival, my first race after the epic Howl. Later in the month I gradually started ramping my mileage up in preparation for The Next Ultra in October.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January78.06 Mile98.67333 Mile
February75.2586 Mile98.36206 Mile
March126.15 Mile149.01071 Mile
April146.28 Mile169.1425 Mile
May166.75 Mile189.26389 Mile
June54.83 Mile77.83286 Mile
July115.76 Mile912.8622 Mile
August91.81 Mile910.2011 Mile
September123.61 Mile158.24067 Mile
Total978.509 Mile1069.23121 Mile

Running 2012 9


Cycling

MVI_1289

Unfortunately, I missed out on Gateway Cup this year. My knee just wasn't ready for bike racing yet. I took a few more weeks off before starting to get back into the swing of bike racing at Gateway Cross Cup.

BikeDistance# RidesAvg per Ride
Bianchi16.65 Mile28.325 Mile
Pocket Rocket17.2 Mile53.44 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird11.61 Mile111.61 Mile
Total45.46 Mile85.6825 Mile

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January25.33 Mile212.665 Mile
February40.08 Mile313.36 Mile
March213.43 Mile2010.6715 Mile
April253.27 Mile2311.0117 Mile
May322.147 Mile2413.4228 Mile
June282.57 Mile1321.7362 Mile
July260.12 Mile1616.2575 Mile
August81.87 Mile810.2338 Mile
September45.46 Mile85.6825 Mile
Total1524.28 Mile11713.028 Mile

Cycling 2012 9


Walking/Hiking

Walking home

I found walking and hiking to be the best thing for helping my knee recover. I could stretch out my legs and get blood flowing to the problem areas with no impact and little risk of further injury.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January51.53 Mile163.22063 Mile
February42.92 Mile182.38444 Mile
March41.15 Mile142.93929 Mile
April31.89 Mile122.6575 Mile
May37.5107 Mile132.88544 Mile
June39.4 Mile182.18889 Mile
July2 Mile2Mile
August64.99 Mile252.5996 Mile
September85.88 Mile253.4352 Mile
Total397.271 Mile1432.77812 Mile

Walking 2012 9


Stairmaster

And now for something completely different. I found a reasonably priced, high quality, used StairMaster stepper machine on Craigslist and bought it. I have wanted one of these for years. I first started using a machine nearly identical to this during the winters at the UIUC gyms a few years back. I wanted to do it more, but going to the gym was a bit of a hassle. Here in STL I don't have a gym to go to, and going would still be a hassle. With this machine at home I can use it whenever I want. I've mentioned repeatedly how I don't run on consecutive days as a rule. With this stepper I can get a comparable workout with zero impact on my knees. As a side effect, I've already noticed (after less than 20 miles of stepping) that my hill running has dramatically improved. I might just have a chance on the slopes of Volcan Maderas next year…

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January000
February000
March000
April000
May000
June000
July000
August000
September13.85 Mile43.4625 Mile
Total13.85 Mile43.4625 Mile

Stairmaster 2012 9

October 10, 2012

Gateway Cross Cup

Cyclocross

Gateway Cross Cup snuck up on me this year. I was out of town at a conference in Chicago the weekend before the race. The Cat 4 race was 40 minutes. I hadn't ridden a bike for 40 minutes in several weeks, let alone raced. But, whatever.

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I took the afternoon off work and went over to Heman Park. It had rained heavily the entire day before the race and the course was ridiculously muddy. I was the last person to register for the race and was unfortunately placed at the very back of the pack for the start (last year I was in the front row). This made things difficult. I spent the entire race going slower than I needed to and trying to find the right place to pass people. I steadily moved up the whole time. I caught up with my teammate Mike with about a lap to go and passed him with half a lap to go. We finished 14th and 15th. I moved up through more than half the field, but I just started too far back to have a chance at a good result.

Cross Country

A couple hours after the bike race was the "5K" cross country run. This year it was only a half mile longer than advertised (last year it was a full mile longer). The turnout was even smaller than last year with just 9 starters. From the gun one guy took off and would never be seen again. I hung back in a small pack but broke free about a mile into the run. I ran the last 2.5 miles alone and finished in 2nd place. Just like last year. There was a payout for finishing 2nd that exactly covered my entry fees for both races, so I broke even on the day. Just like last year. I also received a bottle of Michelob Ultra, which I gave to Melissa.

More Cyclocross

I stuck around for the Men's Open race, the Women's Pro race, and the Men's Pro race. It was a lot of fun to watch really good riders on the extremely sloppy course. Here's a bunch of photos.

Quantum Mesa Cycles in the open race:

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Pro race:

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October 3, 2012

Forest Park Cross Country Festival

Back on September 8 I ran the Forest Park XC festival open race for the 3rd year in a row. This was the first race I ran after we moved to St. Louis. I improved a little bit over my first outing last year and I was hoping to improve a little bit more this year.

Forest Park XC Festival

The race is short and fast. It's 4km in length (about 2.5 miles). This was the first race I ran after Howl at the Moon and it was quite a shock to the system to go from racing 8 hours to racing 14 minutes. I was totally unprepared. I took it easy for 3 weeks following Howl, then I did one moderately hard training run before this race. Somehow my Howl fitness carried me through. I finished in 6th place, but I ran the same course 17 seconds faster than last year (when I felt better prepared).

I'll take it.

September 9, 2012

August 2012

Running

Howl at the Moon

August was consumed by tapering for Howl at the Moon, running Howl at the Moon, and recovering from Howl at the Moon. Over half of my miles in August came in that one day. The rest of my runs were very short, but the average distance per run was heavily skewed by Howl. My knees took a real beating during the last 10 miles of that race, so I've been super cautious with my recovery to ensure I don't have any long-lasting injuries as a result.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January78.06 Mile98.67333 Mile
February75.2586 Mile98.36206 Mile
March126.15 Mile149.01071 Mile
April146.28 Mile169.1425 Mile
May166.75 Mile189.26389 Mile
June54.83 Mile77.83286 Mile
July115.76 Mile912.8622 Mile
August91.81 Mile910.2011 Mile
Total854.899 Mile919.39449 Mile

Running 2012 8


Cycling

Team & race volunteers

The weird thing about my knee pains is that while I have recovered reasonably well with respect to running, I can't say the same about cycling. 10 days after Howl I went to my regular Tuesday night practice race and by the end my knee was killing me. I took another week off of cycling. The next week I intended to go back but I didn't make it 2 miles from home before my knee started to hurt. I took 2 more weeks off of cycling. At this point I've only done one serious ride in the past 6 weeks, and that one didn't go well at all. Now that road racing season is over I can just wait this thing out and make sure it's gone before starting up in earnest again. I'd like to do some cyclocross racing this fall, so hopefully I'm back to 100% soon.

BikeDistance# RidesAvg per Ride
Pocket Rocket18.7 Mile53.74 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird63.17 Mile321.0567 Mile
Total81.87 Mile810.2338 Mile

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January25.33 Mile212.665 Mile
February40.08 Mile313.36 Mile
March213.43 Mile2010.6715 Mile
April253.27 Mile2311.0117 Mile
May322.147 Mile2413.4228 Mile
June282.57 Mile1321.7362 Mile
July260.12 Mile1616.2575 Mile
August81.87 Mile810.2338 Mile
Total1478.82 Mile10913.5671 Mile

Cycling 2012 8


Walking/Hiking

In the pack

I made up for the lack of cycling with a bunch of walking and hiking. This doesn't hurt my knee at all, and I'm more convinced than ever that walking/hiking is actually remarkable effective training for long/ultra distance running. It allows you to put in a lot of time on your feet, working your legs, without the impact of running.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January51.53 Mile163.22063 Mile
February42.92 Mile182.38444 Mile
March41.15 Mile142.93929 Mile
April31.89 Mile122.6575 Mile
May37.5107 Mile132.88544 Mile
June39.4 Mile182.18889 Mile
July2 Mile2Mile
August64.99 Mile252.5996 Mile
Total311.391 Mile1182.6389 Mile

Walking 2012 8


Swimming

It's both fortunate and unfortunate that I don't have to swim much to maintain my fitness for swimming. I just have little motivation to spend time in the pool, when I could be doing any number of things that are even more enjoyable. There's a chance I might to one more triathlon this year, but that depends on whether my knee feels well enough to bike.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January000
February000
March000
April1750. Yard2875. Yard
May8050. Yard71150. Yard
June4100. Yard31366.67 Yard
July2993.61 Yard3997.871 Yard
August2150. Yard3716.667 Yard
Total19043.6 Yard181057.98 Yard

Swimming 2012 8

August 16, 2012

Digging Deep

Saturday was the big day. My "A" race for the summer, Howl at the Moon, an 8 Hour ultramarathon, took place just outside of my hometown of Danville, IL. Most races have a fixed distance and the fastest competitor wins. This is a timed race with a fixed duration and the competitor who covers the greatest distance wins. My wife Melissa and I registered for Howl immediately after the University City 10K and we've both been looking forward to it for months.

Bags packed

My training went well. I knew full well that temperatures regularly soared into the 90's at Howl. So I trained for hours in the 100's. I acclimated to the heat so much better than any previous summer it was almost a shame we had unseasonably cool weather on race day (60˚F at the start, low 80's at the end). Almost a shame.

I didn't sleep the night before the race. And by that I don't mean "I didn't sleep well," I mean "I didn't sleep at all." The combination of a crying and kicking toddler, frequent trips to the bathroom, and good old fashioned nerves really did a number on me. My alarm went off before I had fallen asleep. Fuck it, let's go run for 8 hours.

The course is a 3.29 mile loop with 3 aid stations. Each loop was about 40% grass trail, 40% gravel road, and 20% asphalt road. There was no rugged single-track trail. It was so cool and I was so fresh I opted to run the first lap without my water bottle… or food… or anything else. I wore shoes, socks, shorts, visor and carried nothing. After numerous long training runs carrying my phone, headphones, and all the food and water I could ingest, it was incredibly liberating to start the race with the bare essentials on a cool breezy morning.

I started very easy and just concentrated on relaxing into a comfortable pace. I'm going to be out here all day, I would think to myself. 8:30 for the first mile. Not absolutely fast, though perhaps a bit on the fast side for such a long run. Soon after the first mile I caught up with Don & Tim, two friends I used to run with in Champaign-Urbana. They're both highly experienced, each a perennial top finisher in this race. I decided to stick with them for a while. Towards the end of the first lap we reached a short, somewhat steep hill (the only uphill section on the course). Many ultrarunners swear by walking up hills. I had been debating what to do about this, but since I was with two very experienced runners I decided to cue off them. They both walked, and therefore so did I.

At the end of the first lap I stopped at my tent to pick up my water bottle and take an electrolyte pill. I checked in at the scorer's table and set off on lap number two. Don took a bit more time between laps than me and Tim took a bit less. I caught back up with Tim and ran the second lap with him before becoming separated again. Around this time I also met Travis Redden from the STL area. We recognized each other's names from the SLUG email list, but we'd never met before. It was good to chat with him, but before long I was alone again, just enjoying the run.

5 laps in I saw Melissa for the first time. She was running with Eric, a friend we used to run with in Champaign-Urbana. They were just finishing their 4th lap.

I felt fantastic for the first 25 miles. Running was easy. I was probably still going a bit too fast, but the way I felt I'm not sure I would have saved any energy by slowing. I strolled past the marathon mark at 3h45m, the fastest marathon split I've ever had in an ultra, and this was to be my longest race yet. Just after the marathon point I caught up with two more friends from Champaign-Urbana. This was strange, I hadn't seen them yet. And with good reason. They decided to sleep in and they were on their first lap. I was starting to labor a bit, but I kept the pace high for a little while longer while I chatted with them. I passed the 50K point around 4h25m. To put that in perspective, my last 50K race (on an admittedly much more difficult course) took 7h55m.

After 10 laps I knew something had to change. I wasn't dead yet, but I was going downhill rapidly. My pace was just too fast and I still had too much time to go. I stopped at my tent for a full 5-6 minutes. I applied a fresh coat of sunscreen, I drank, I ate, I grabbed an ice-filled bandana to put around my neck to help me cool down. Finally, I grabbed my phone and headphones and started listening to music (for the first time ever in a race). I was in race mode up until that point, but if I was going to survive I needed to completely reset. The music (Jonathan Coulton) kept me relaxed and put a smile on my face. I slowed way down from 8:30 pace to 9:45 pace. I started over and pretended I was just stepping out the door to do a long training run.

Howl at the Moon

Coming into this race I had no idea how far I could go. I thought I would get 40 miles for sure and I would be quite happy to get 45 miles. My super secret goal was 50 miles. I knew that would be a tall order. 50 miles in 8 hours is one of those magic separating lines in running, like a 5 minute mile or a 3 hour marathon or a 24 hour 100 mile. Sure, elite runners will go much faster, but these lines separate great runners from good runners. I wasn't cocky enough to count on accomplishing such an audacious goal on my first attempt, but I didn't discount the possibility either.

The miles continued to pass. The running was no longer easy. I kept waiting to bonk or to cramp up, but those maladies never came. I was staying on top of my electrolyte pills to avoid the cramping and I was eating well at the aid stations to keep my energy up (surprisingly, grapes were my food of choice at the aid stations). Once I slowed down to my long training run pace I thought my chance to make it to 50 miles was gone. But I kept doing the math in my head and with each lap that passed it seemed more and more plausible. As long as I didn't slow down. And that was the struggle. I was exhausted and the truly difficult part was was the mental aspect of forcing myself to keep running in that state. I could have stopped at any point. I could have walked. But the closer I got to my pie-in-the-sky goal of 50 miles, the more I wanted it… the more I could taste it… and the deeper I was able to dig to keep going.

After 12 laps I switched my playlist to something more uptempo (Less than Jake) and almost immediately I was back down to 8:30 miles. I didn't want this to come down to the wire. Aside from the aid station breaks and walking up the hill, I was able to maintain that pace for three more laps. With one lap to go I didn't even bother stopping at my tent to refuel. I was ready to get this over with. I finished 15 laps (49.35 miles) with 15 minutes to spare. Now it was time to run as many 0.5 mile out-and-backs as I could before the time ran out. I quickly added 0.75 miles, which put me over 50. After that I completely lost the will to keep going. And in the blink of an eye I was done. I walked the last 0.25 miles back to the finish line. I still had 5 minutes left, during which time I could have run another 0.5 miles, but I didn't have it in me. It was over. 50.35 miles. Mission accomplished.

I sat on a park bench and guzzled water. Multiple people asked if I needed help, indicating to me I didn't look so great. I walked back over to my tent and flopped onto the ground. Melissa (who finished with an amazing 40.48 miles in her first ultra) was there chatting with friends. Rather suddenly I started to get cold and shiver. Melissa said my face was pale and my lips were turning blue. Shit. They called the medics over to our tent and they started probing me while I laid down. I was actually feeling fine (well, aside from the shivering and being really damned tired). They covered me with some ice packs and strapped an oxygen mask onto my face for a few minutes. Meanwhile, people were started to gather around the tent to get a good look. They suggested IV fluids or maybe even a trip to the hospital. I really didn't think that was necessary, I've been in much worse condition before. But I knew enough that if I was really as bad off as they seemed to think I was I probably didn't have the best judgment. After a brief debate we decided against it and before long I was sitting up, shivers gone, crisis averted. I was back to normal within minutes.

My distance was good enough to tie for 9th place with… Tim. I hadn't seen him since the first hour, but apparently he was clipping at my heals the entire race. And just as I was calling it quits I saw him go out for one more loop, which allowed him to match my distance. Ha!

Anyway, Melissa & I both had an incredible time at the race. I'm super glad we did it. This was my first timed race, and I have to say I liked the format. Knowing I was going to be out there running all day regardless of how fast I ran helped put me into the right frame of mind. I set a goal and pushed through previously-unimagined-to-me exhaustion to reach it (though, to be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have reached 50 miles in significantly hotter weather). The only downside is now that it's over I have to decide where to go from here.

August 7, 2012

July 2012

Running

Tired legs

The slight knee pain that started in June effectively disappeared in July. I took it easy by only running twice per week, but I made my runs really count. With the Howl at the Moon 8-hour ultra coming up in August I did a lot of long runs. The first week of July I ran a total of 8 hours in 100˚F+ temperatures, and I didn't back off from there.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January78.06 Mile98.67333 Mile
February75.2586 Mile98.36206 Mile
March126.15 Mile149.01071 Mile
April146.28 Mile169.1425 Mile
May166.75 Mile189.26389 Mile
June54.83 Mile77.83286 Mile
July115.76 Mile912.8622 Mile
Total763.089 Mile829.30596 Mile

Running 2012 7


Cycling

Aero

I didn't ride that frequently, but I had some good quality training and racing. I did several practice crits and time trials in 95˚F-105˚F temps. I had a strong race at the New Town Triathlon. I finished 2nd in the Great Egyptian Omnium TT and 1st in the masters 30+ 4/5 crit. This may be the first month ever I've ridden my TT bike more frequently than my road bike.

BikeDistance# RidesAvg per Ride
Lynskey98.13 Mile714.0186 Mile
Pocket Rocket14.5 Mile43.625 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird147.49 Mile529.498 Mile
Total260.12 Mile1616.2575 Mile

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January25.33 Mile212.665 Mile
February40.08 Mile313.36 Mile
March213.43 Mile2010.6715 Mile
April253.27 Mile2311.0117 Mile
May322.147 Mile2413.4228 Mile
June282.57 Mile1321.7362 Mile
July260.12 Mile1616.2575 Mile
Total1396.95 Mile10113.8312 Mile

Cycling 2012 7


Swimming

Despite a race with a decent swim performance, swimming is kind of in maintenance mode right now. I just don't have the time to devote to really improve.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January000
February000
March000
April1750. Yard2875. Yard
May8050. Yard71150. Yard
June4100. Yard31366.67 Yard
July2993.61 Yard3997.871 Yard
Total16893.6 Yard151126.24 Yard

Swimming 2012 7

August 5, 2012

Gravois Kiwanis XC 5K

Last weekend I returned to the Gravois Kiwanis cross country 5K race at Jefferson Barracks County Park in south Saint Louis. You may recall I won this race last year. I won't lie, I did have it in the back of my mind that I could win the race again. Despite my previous first place finish, I didn't actually run that fast last year. And I think I'm in better shape now (even though I'm currently focusing on longer distances). So things looked good for me.

What worried me a bit last year was the large number of high school runners (which makes sense for a cross country race). The same was true this year. Though at the starting line I saw one runner who looked fast and overheard him say he was in college. Hmm.

I started a bit too slow and wound up at the back of a large pack of high schoolers (who typically start way too fast and slow down pretty quickly). I made my way around the pack only to find two runners off the front who were moving much faster. I settled into a swift pace and tried to work back up to them. Well, they continued to pull away. I had a reasonably good run and finished 3rd overall in 18:58, 40 seconds faster than last year. The college kid won and a high schooler finished 2nd. The two of them had a combined total age equal to mine.

And that was just the start. This race was two weeks out from Howl at the Moon and I needed to get one more long run in. So once I rehydrated after the race I continued running. I paused briefly for the awards ceremony, but I got going again after that. I finished the day with 20 miles. Now the taper can begin.

July 30, 2012

Race to your strengths

Or: The Great Egyptian Omnium

My cat 4 teammate Jason and I rode the Great Egyptian Omnium in southern Illinois last weekend. It was a good event that both of us enjoyed.

Road Race

We started the rolling 20 mile loop into a headwind, so it was pretty slow. Nobody wanted to be at the front. There were mostly teams of 1-3, except for one team with like 7-8. A few miles in the leaders finally started looking organized with a rolling pace line. I pulled when it was my turn and… nobody pulled through after me (I was at the end of the line). So much for organization.

When we turned back into the tailwind the pace picked up and the race split a few times, but nobody was willing to push the speed to take advantage of the splits. There were omnium points available at the end of the end of the first loop, but I didn't go for it. I was hoping to save everything for the end of the race.

The second loop was much like the first, though the pack had thinned out a bit. There was a bit more cooperation and we were able to ride a bit harder into the wind. I was staying well hydrated. I had eaten reasonably well. I even took a few S!CAPS. I was feeling great when we turned to head back to the finish. A 40 mile road race with an uphill finish should suit me about as well as I could hope. Unfortunately reality hit me on the 3rd to last uphill section where I stood up to pedal and my quads cramped up really badly. Crap. I recovered over the next few miles. On the 2nd to last hill I stayed seated in the hope of avoiding cramping up, which worked. I lost my good positioning though. We quickly reached the final hill. I was able to stand and pedal. I passed a few people, but I started way to far back to have a good result. I finished 15th, with no omnium points.

Time Trial

We had a few hours to kill between the road race and the Time Trial. We ate some lunch, sat around in the shade (it was over 100˚F by this point), and prepared our bikes. When my start time approached I did a short warmup, which sucked. My quads were completely trashed from the road race. A semi-hilly time trial is normally my cup of tea, but I wasn't looking forward to this.

The start was uphill. By the time I reached the top my quads were screaming. This is going to suck. Then the first downhill I hit 41 mph, which is a record on my TT bike. Suddenly everything was okay and I was flying. The rollers weren't slowing me down. Before I knew it I turned into a cross-tailwind and I sped up even more. Finally, I turned onto the highway back into town and I was doing 37 mph on flat sections. I worked the uphills. It was so fast. I finished at the top of the hill in 18m55s for the 7.5 mile loop, which was good enough for 2nd place. I almost caught my 1-minute man, but I did catch the riders who started 2, 3, and 4 minutes ahead of me.

I misread the race information and I thought I would only get 2 omnium points for my 2nd place finish, so I thought I was completely out of contention for the overall win. Actually I received 12 points and I was in 4th place. I didn't figure this out until after the crit the next day, at which point it no longer mattered.

Crit

The next morning I drove back to southern Illinois for the crit. I had to work on my bike before the race, after which I only had a few minutes to warmup. Oh well. The race was challenging, but not super-hard. I was able to move up and back through the field fairly easily. There were a couple of breakaways that never gained more than 5-10 seconds before the race would come back together. I was in pretty good position with half a lap to go, but I waited just a bit to long to sprint. I passed a bunch of people and finished 6th place, my highest placing yet in a cat 4 crit. I didn't end up in the top 3 for the omnium.

A couple of my teammates who were racing later in the day came out early to watch me and we chatted a bit after the race. The race didn't take that much out of me, and there were two more races I was eligible to ride, so (after some egging-on by my teammates) I registered for the Masters 30+ 4-5 race a couple hours later.

Crit #2

As soon as I came back to the team tent after registering for the second crit we began to talk strategy. It was a very interesting conversation that went something like this:

Me: I registered for the Masters/4/5 race.

BJ & Nick: So how are you going to win this race?

Me: Hmm, good question.

Them: But you are going to win, right?

At this point I'm thinking this is a bit absurd. I don't win bike races. Running, sure. Triathlon, sure. Cycling, I'm just not as good. And a flat criterium is the type of race I am worst at.

Me: I suppose it depends who else is in the race.

Them: No, it doesn't. Race to your strengths, not to your opponents weaknesses. What are your strengths? Can you sprint?

Me: Nope.

Them: But you can ride a good TT. You finished 2nd in the TT yesterday. There you go.

Me: Alright.

Them: Here's what you're going to do. You're going to jump at two laps to go and you're going to ride all out by yourself for the last two laps and you're going to win. But you have to fully commit… so much so that if you get caught you can't even finish with the group. Just leave it all out on the course.

I've never tried something like this before, so I was game to give it a go. I didn't actually think it was going to work, but these guys know a lot more about bike racing than I do and, what the hell, what can it hurt to try. I already did the race I came here for, this is just a bonus.

The race was easy and I just sat safely in the pack the whole time. With 3 laps to go I started dropping back in the field. With two laps to go I jumped hard from the back of the field. By the time I passed the guys at the front I was going 10 mph faster than they were and they weren't able to grab my wheel. I settled into TT mode and rode as hard as I could for 2.5 miles. I took all the corners so much faster by myself than I was able to in the big group. A few times I looked back. There were a couple half-hearted attempts to chase me down, but nobody wanted to ride at the front of the group. And by the time the realized they need to shut down my attack it was already too late.

As I rounded the final corner my teammates were going crazy. As soon as I heard one of them say "enjoy it" I knew I had won the race. I took a quick look behind and saw nobody. I sat up and pedaled across the finish line with my arms in the air. I never thought I'd win a bike race.

After my 2nd crit I stayed around to watch my teammates in the cat 3 race where my teammate Keith won from a long (8 laps) solo attack. Mike & Nick finished 3rd and 4th from the main field. Then was the 1/2/3 race where Mark finished 2nd in a field sprint. So we all had a good day.

Keith wins

Keith wins the cat 3 race

Photo finish

Mike & Nick finish 3rd & 4th in a photo finish

Mike and BJ leading the race

Mike & BJ lead the 1/2/3 race

Mark goes for the sprint

Mark narrowly finishes 2nd

July 23, 2012

New Town Triathlon

Early in the season I found the New Town Triathlon outside of St. Charles and thought it would be a good race to try. Then I took a break from racing and completely forgot about it. A friend at the weekly Wednesday night TT reminded me of it a few days beforehand, and I thought, what the heck… I'll do it.

Last Sunday morning I arrived with plenty of time to setup my stuff. I did a very brief warmup on the bike, running, then swimming before they cleared the water to start the race. The (longish) 1000m swim had a staggered start, with competitors beginning the race every 3 seconds. Unfortunately, since I was one of the last people to register for the race, I started near the very end and I had a long time to wait for the 600 people in front of me.

When it was time the line moved very fast and I was in the water before I knew it. A few minutes in I realized that with all the commotion I forgot to start my watch, so I hit the button and kept going. I was very concerned that the swim would be a complete clustercuss, but it was actually the most pleasant open water swim I've ever done. Sure I was passing a lot of slower people (and a handful passed me as well), but we weren't running into each other at all. There was plenty of room for everyone to get by. 17-18 minutes later I exited the water. It was a good hard effort, but I didn't kill myself.

Aero

I had an awful first transition. Something went wrong with my bike helmet straps and I couldn't get the dang thing on my head. I must have wasted 30 seconds fumbling with it. Then I left the transition with my bike only to get caught in a traffic jam at the bike mount line. I couldn't get around the slower people so I just had to stop and wait before I could get on my bike. Once mounted, I ripped the hell out of there, a bit pissed off. I started too fast, but things settled down quickly enough. About halfway through the 20 mile effort I started experiencing severe, um, discomfort in my saddle area. Something wasn't right and I was in quite a bit of pain for the last 10 miles. It slowed me down, as I had to frequently stop pedaling when my legs felt fine just to readjust things in an attempt to relieve the discomfort. I was disappointed my bike wasn't as fast as I wanted, but I was incredibly relieved to get off the bike.

My second transition was better and I was out on the run quickly. This is usually where I excel, and this would be no different. Having started at the back, I had been passing people the whole race, but now it was a steady stream. Speaking of streams, several residents along the course pointed their sprinklers and garden hoses out into the course so competitors could cool down. It was well into the 90's at this point and most of the people seemed to enjoy it. Not me. I tried to avoid it like the plague, but the sprinklers covered the entire course in many places and some people actually sprayed me with their hoses after I did my best to ask them not to. The result of this is that my shoes were soaking wet for about 3 of the 4 miles during the run and I developed horrible blisters that made running very painful. My legs felt fine and I wasn't having trouble breathing, but with the intense effort the heat was starting to get to me and my stomach was feeling a bit queasy, so I couldn't really go any faster.

After the finish I gulped as much water as I could. It was brutally hot. I hobbled around for a while trying to find some shade. Once the race started to thin out a bit I was able to get back into the transition area and pack up my stuff and take it back to my car. It didn't take long to get results (since I started near the end) and I was quite surprised that, despite feeling like crap for much of the race, I actually had a pretty decent result. I finished 30th overall (including the elites, 14th not including them) out of over 600 participants, 3rd in my age group. I averaged 1:35/100 in the swim (about what I expected), 22.9 mph on the bike (a tad bit slower than I hoped), and 6:04/mile (the course was short, my actual pace was closer to 6:28/mile) on the run.

So it turned out to be a good race.

July 9, 2012

June 2012

Running

Will, Daddy, & Grandma

As I explained in the previous post, I intentionally stepped my training way back for the month of June. The good news is that I'm feeling good again now, so July should look much better. I still somehow managed to run my fastest mile since I was 18.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January78.06 Mile98.67333 Mile
February75.2586 Mile98.36206 Mile
March126.15 Mile149.01071 Mile
April146.28 Mile169.1425 Mile
May166.75 Mile189.26389 Mile
June54.83 Mile77.83286 Mile
Total647.329 Mile738.86751 Mile

Running 2012 6


Cycling

Headlands

Marin Headlands

I was able to get three good rides in on our trip to San Francisco, which really made the month. Two of the rides were just in the Marin Headlands, but I felt really good climbing some really big hills for a change. After the conference ended I went over to the East Bay and rode Mt. Diablo. I felt much stronger on that big ass climb than I did last time (three years ago). The heat was brutal though. It was 68˚F when I left downtown San Francisco and it was 98˚F on the unshaded slopes of Mt. Diablo. I drained both of my water bottles by the time I was halfway up the mountain. Luckily I found a place to refill them so I could continue on up. I flew past a number of riders closer to the top, which is always motivating.

Diablo

Summit of Mount Diablo (4000 ft, 98˚F)

After returning home I did a couple of the Tuesday night crits, finishing one of them in 7th place, my highest finish yet. I also rode the Wednesday night TT for the first time and did by far the fastest TT of my life, averaging 25.3 mph for the 9 mile course (with my chain rubbing the derailleur the whole time). I think I only hit 24 mph twice on the old Seymour 10 mile course. I'm definitely getting more and more accustomed to my (relatively) new TT bike.

BikeDistance# RidesAvg per Ride
Lynskey14.44 Mile114.44 Mile
Pocket Rocket102.31 Mile812.7888 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird165.82 Mile441.455 Mile
Total282.57 Mile1321.7362 Mile

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January25.33 Mile212.665 Mile
February40.08 Mile313.36 Mile
March213.43 Mile2010.6715 Mile
April253.27 Mile2311.0117 Mile
May322.147 Mile2413.4228 Mile
June282.57 Mile1321.7362 Mile
Total1136.83 Mile8513.3744 Mile

Cycling 2012 6


Swimming

I made it to the pool a few times before taking several weeks off. The good news is when I started back again I picked up right where I left off. I love that about swimming. Maybe it's harder to do if you're actually any good though. I'll probably never find out.

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January000
February000
March000
April1750. Yard2875. Yard
May8050. Yard71150. Yard
June4100. Yard31366.67 Yard
Total13900. Yard121158.33 Yard

Swimming 2012 6


Walking

MonthDistance# WorkoutsAvg per Workout
January51.53 Mile163.22063 Mile
February42.92 Mile182.38444 Mile
March41.15 Mile142.93929 Mile
April31.89 Mile122.6575 Mile
May37.5107 Mile132.88544 Mile
June39.4 Mile182.18889 Mile
Total244.401 Mile912.68572 Mile

Walking 2012 6