Heres a funny video that fun at finman and the recent Issue with drafting at Ironman Florida
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Time to Bring It!
The last week was real quiet. I didnt do much. Laid around, caught up on blogs and played lots of PSP. Well break time is over. The good news is that at least my weight is exactly what it was the week before Ironman.
I attempted an easy run from my house on Sunday. I had no expectations other then see how my legs felt and judge it from there. After a quarter mile, I knew my legs needed more time away from running. I had some pain in the ball of my left foot, which is almost gone now and a little pain in my right knee. I figure I will wait till after Thanksgiving to attempt running again.
In the mean time, I have begun P90X. This week, I am doing a preview week. I wont do my measurements and photos until this weekend and will officially begin week one on Monday. P90X has three defined plans: Classic, Lean, and Double. The Lean has one less day of strength training and skips plyometrics. I was really back and forth about which plan to do. Last night made my decision much easier.
Based on the schedule for week one of the classic version I did Chest and Back. Chest and back is essentially pull ups (or simulated pull ups using bands for us big boys) and push ups. After the second set of push ups, I knew this would be uber tough. I did my best to make it through the program. By the time I was done, I could barely lift my arms above my head. Today I feel sore in lots of places:shoulders, triceps, chest, and abs. The lean program does not include the chest & back routine until week 9, so this gives me some time to build some strength and lose some weight before attempting this again. Another benefit of the Lean program is that it is more open to adding some riding/running into the plan because of the extra cardio days. I am definitely going to replace the Cardio-X with riding/running and I may likely replace the Kenpo-X with riding running as well. Kenpo X is like a karate/kickboxing class, which is interesting, but I would rather get my cardio through triathlon specific training.
Since today would have been either plyometrics or cardio depending on the plan, I decided instead today to get on the bike. I picked up several spinerval videos to help get me through the winter. Tonight, I did Spinervals 4 - Muscle breakdown. It was an interesting workout with a variety of short intervals that mix up both speed and resistance. It was 45 minutes long, which was good enough to break a serious sweat and work the legs pretty good, but not too long to be boring or to overwork my legs. I really enjoyed this one and it definitely will become a staple of my off-season training and has potential for in season as one of several workouts on the bike during the week. I could definitely see myself getting alot stronger on the bike with these, and intervals are also great for burning calories.
Tomorrow is shoulders & arms which should be more doable then chest & back. If today is any indication, I should be super sore on Thursday night. I will try to update my progress as I go forward and will definitely post the measurements and other info next week.
I attempted an easy run from my house on Sunday. I had no expectations other then see how my legs felt and judge it from there. After a quarter mile, I knew my legs needed more time away from running. I had some pain in the ball of my left foot, which is almost gone now and a little pain in my right knee. I figure I will wait till after Thanksgiving to attempt running again.
In the mean time, I have begun P90X. This week, I am doing a preview week. I wont do my measurements and photos until this weekend and will officially begin week one on Monday. P90X has three defined plans: Classic, Lean, and Double. The Lean has one less day of strength training and skips plyometrics. I was really back and forth about which plan to do. Last night made my decision much easier.
Based on the schedule for week one of the classic version I did Chest and Back. Chest and back is essentially pull ups (or simulated pull ups using bands for us big boys) and push ups. After the second set of push ups, I knew this would be uber tough. I did my best to make it through the program. By the time I was done, I could barely lift my arms above my head. Today I feel sore in lots of places:shoulders, triceps, chest, and abs. The lean program does not include the chest & back routine until week 9, so this gives me some time to build some strength and lose some weight before attempting this again. Another benefit of the Lean program is that it is more open to adding some riding/running into the plan because of the extra cardio days. I am definitely going to replace the Cardio-X with riding/running and I may likely replace the Kenpo-X with riding running as well. Kenpo X is like a karate/kickboxing class, which is interesting, but I would rather get my cardio through triathlon specific training.
Since today would have been either plyometrics or cardio depending on the plan, I decided instead today to get on the bike. I picked up several spinerval videos to help get me through the winter. Tonight, I did Spinervals 4 - Muscle breakdown. It was an interesting workout with a variety of short intervals that mix up both speed and resistance. It was 45 minutes long, which was good enough to break a serious sweat and work the legs pretty good, but not too long to be boring or to overwork my legs. I really enjoyed this one and it definitely will become a staple of my off-season training and has potential for in season as one of several workouts on the bike during the week. I could definitely see myself getting alot stronger on the bike with these, and intervals are also great for burning calories.
Tomorrow is shoulders & arms which should be more doable then chest & back. If today is any indication, I should be super sore on Thursday night. I will try to update my progress as I go forward and will definitely post the measurements and other info next week.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Anatomy of a DNF Part II
The Bike
I headed out on the bike, I was feeling pretty good about things. There wasnt much of a wind and I was keeping my speed around where I thought it should be. I was surprised how well I was able to keep my heart rate down after about 20 minutes of taking it easy. Once we hit the turnoff for the full, it was a pretty lonely ride. I was pretty far in the back and only saw maybe 10 to 15 riders that day. The peanut butter filled pretzels I put in my special needs bags were a motivation to push from mile 50 to mile 65. They tasted amazing when I got to them. The bag would actually last into the first mile of the run.
I felt great up until about the 70 mile mark. Once I turned on to hwy 421, I was hit in the face by a nasty headwind that did not seem to let up at all. This slowed me down majorly and probably added at least 30 minutes to my bike time. I finished the bike in 7 hrs 53 min. My average for the first half was around 16mph, while my average for the second half was only 13 (This includes potty breaks at every rest stop, including bottle refills and an extended stop at special needs).
My nutrition on the bike was right on. After coming off the bike nauseous at Augusta, I was leery of using the perpeteum. I decided to use a similar plan to what worked for me last year at the South Carolina Half. I used all solid food with nuun for electrolytes. My plan had me at around 400 calories per hour, which my body seemed to have no problem with. Every hour I would eat a Lara bar and at 20/40 minutes I would consume either a bag of sport beans or half a package of cliff shot blocks. I went through about 2-3 bottles of water per aid station which kept me having to use the porto-john at every stop, but at least I wasnt risking dehydration. The only problem I had with my nutrition was that almost everything I was consuming was acidic/sour (nuun, cherry lara, cranberry shot bluk, sport beans) so after about 8 hours I was really tired of the acidic taste in my mouth. Luckily I didnt havee too much further to go at this point and I had one lara bar that was not cherry. Here is a pic of all the nutrition I used on the bike. I think I had one lara bar, one pack of shot blocks, and one pack of sport beans that I did not use.
T2
As I rolled into the end of the bike, there were volunteers there to take my bike. I grabbed my bag and headed into the changing tent. I decided on taking my arm warmers with me, but left the wind breaker behind. The only issue I had was that as I was changing, I accidently hit the lap button on my garmin so it switched to run and my run splits were all off. I ran out of the tent and through T2 and out on the run course feeling amazingly well.
The Run
I ran out onto the run with the plan to immediately start a 4/1 run/walk plan. Unfortunately, my timer was off and after about a quarter to half a mile you hit the first of two bridges. This course is a two loop out and back course so you would have to run over each of these bridges 4 times during the run. I knew I was going to walk up the bridges and run back down them. I was feeling good, but I could never get into a specific run/walk pattern. I really wish I had my timex watch with me so I could have set up intervals to help me do this. I was afraid to change the garmin settings mid run. At some point in training I will have to test this out.
When I started the run, I was shocked that not only was my stomach ok, but I had no back pain and my legs felt decent. I couldnt run for more then maybe a quarter to half mile, but I felt good when I was running and was keeping a halfway decent walking pace. I have to wonder how much of this was mental, which is something I need to work on. My nutrition plan on the run was to use what was provided rather then having to carry anything. At each aid station, I took a half a hammer bar, a cup of heed, and a cup of water. This would work well for me until about mile nine. At this point I switched to alternating heed or broth and chasing it with water. Occasionally I could stand to eat a peanut butter cracker or a piece of bagel with peanut butter. My only complaint with the aid stations is that on the second loop, they ran out of broth and coke for awhile. At mile 4, we ran through a park over various paths and bridges. I found myself walking often in here, because it was really poorly lit. If I was to do this race again, I would absolutely wear a headlamp out on the run after dark. After the race I heard several reports of people either falling or hurting themselves in this park because you really could not see. The route also went past the hotel we were staying at. At about the nine mile marker, I ran into Cathy and told her I should still be able to finish sometime between 11 and midnight. Looking back, this may have been wishful thinking, or my math may have been off.
I made it back into the park at the turnaround point with around 3 hours left. I had put a change of socks and some gloves in my special needs bag, but I decided only to grab the gloves as I knew I would need them and I didnt have the time to change my socks. I knew I had to pick it up and I tried to run more often then I had during the first loop. This worked about until about the time I got into the park where I had no choice but to walk at times. I picked up my pace on the run as well, but when I saw my split at mile 19, I did the math and knew I couldnt run any faster then I was and at my current pace I would never make it to the finish before the midnight cutoff. I ran a little further and my legs just had nothing left. I hobbled to the aid station at mile 20 and told the volunteers I wanted to drop out.
I caught a van ride to the finish. I checked to see if Cathy was there and if she had gotten my bike. She had grabbed my bike and bags, but was back at the hotel by this point. I ran into Ryan who was picking up his helmet. I told Ryan I was heading to the medical tent because I felt I may be dehydrated and was nauseous and just slightly light headed. Ryan was awesome enough to hang out with me until we caught the boat back to our hotels. In the medical tent, they checked my pulse, temp, and BP. Apparently everything was ok. The made me stay there for about 45 minutes and drank three bottle of water before they cleared me to leave. I got back to the hotel and crashed after eating most of the burger Cathy ordered me from room service.
I look at my run splits and they averaged around 17 minutes. I really needed to be closer to 15 minutes in order to finish on time. The interesting thing is that now as I look at the graph of my splits, they were fairly close from start to finish. The first 10 miles averaged 16:46 and the last 10 averaged 17:52. The last five miles were only 30 seconds slower then the first five. This either means I paced myself well or I didnt give enough effort and tried to play catch up at the end.
Looking Back
I already knew before I started this race that there were two key factors that were going to hinder my performance on race day. After I sprained my ankle last year, I put on 30 extra pounds and could never seem to take it off. The other issue was that I got burned out about halfway through my training and the wheel just completely fell off and I missed way too much training. These two things combined made me almost decide not to even do the race. I really thought I could at least get through by midnight, but unfortunately that didnt even happen.
Before I attempt a full iron distance race again, I need to loose at least 50 pounds. This will help me on my second thing I need to do which is to get stronger on the bike. I also need to regain my running speed and endurance that I had a few years ago. It will probably be 2011 before I attempt another ironman. Will I do B2B again? Very possibly considering it is almost half the price of a Ironman branded race.
I havent really planned out specific races for 2010 yet. I know I want to focus much more on my running. I also would like to ride outside more, especially some of the local group rides with enough hills to help build strength. I would like to do at least one sprint and one oly during the first part of the season. Depending on how things go, I would really like to do another 70.3 race in the early fall. It would likely end up being Augusta as I could drive in on Saturday and race and drive home on Sunday.
In a couple weeks I will likely start running again and see where I am before I decide on the possibility of any spring full/half marathons. I have also picked up P90X and plan on integrating it in. I may initially do their 90 day weight loss plan and replacing the cardio days with running. Once I make it through 90 days, I may likely do 2-3 days of p90x along with running and biking. For now, I am just going to let my body recover.
I headed out on the bike, I was feeling pretty good about things. There wasnt much of a wind and I was keeping my speed around where I thought it should be. I was surprised how well I was able to keep my heart rate down after about 20 minutes of taking it easy. Once we hit the turnoff for the full, it was a pretty lonely ride. I was pretty far in the back and only saw maybe 10 to 15 riders that day. The peanut butter filled pretzels I put in my special needs bags were a motivation to push from mile 50 to mile 65. They tasted amazing when I got to them. The bag would actually last into the first mile of the run.
I felt great up until about the 70 mile mark. Once I turned on to hwy 421, I was hit in the face by a nasty headwind that did not seem to let up at all. This slowed me down majorly and probably added at least 30 minutes to my bike time. I finished the bike in 7 hrs 53 min. My average for the first half was around 16mph, while my average for the second half was only 13 (This includes potty breaks at every rest stop, including bottle refills and an extended stop at special needs).
My nutrition on the bike was right on. After coming off the bike nauseous at Augusta, I was leery of using the perpeteum. I decided to use a similar plan to what worked for me last year at the South Carolina Half. I used all solid food with nuun for electrolytes. My plan had me at around 400 calories per hour, which my body seemed to have no problem with. Every hour I would eat a Lara bar and at 20/40 minutes I would consume either a bag of sport beans or half a package of cliff shot blocks. I went through about 2-3 bottles of water per aid station which kept me having to use the porto-john at every stop, but at least I wasnt risking dehydration. The only problem I had with my nutrition was that almost everything I was consuming was acidic/sour (nuun, cherry lara, cranberry shot bluk, sport beans) so after about 8 hours I was really tired of the acidic taste in my mouth. Luckily I didnt havee too much further to go at this point and I had one lara bar that was not cherry. Here is a pic of all the nutrition I used on the bike. I think I had one lara bar, one pack of shot blocks, and one pack of sport beans that I did not use.
T2
As I rolled into the end of the bike, there were volunteers there to take my bike. I grabbed my bag and headed into the changing tent. I decided on taking my arm warmers with me, but left the wind breaker behind. The only issue I had was that as I was changing, I accidently hit the lap button on my garmin so it switched to run and my run splits were all off. I ran out of the tent and through T2 and out on the run course feeling amazingly well.
The Run
I ran out onto the run with the plan to immediately start a 4/1 run/walk plan. Unfortunately, my timer was off and after about a quarter to half a mile you hit the first of two bridges. This course is a two loop out and back course so you would have to run over each of these bridges 4 times during the run. I knew I was going to walk up the bridges and run back down them. I was feeling good, but I could never get into a specific run/walk pattern. I really wish I had my timex watch with me so I could have set up intervals to help me do this. I was afraid to change the garmin settings mid run. At some point in training I will have to test this out.
When I started the run, I was shocked that not only was my stomach ok, but I had no back pain and my legs felt decent. I couldnt run for more then maybe a quarter to half mile, but I felt good when I was running and was keeping a halfway decent walking pace. I have to wonder how much of this was mental, which is something I need to work on. My nutrition plan on the run was to use what was provided rather then having to carry anything. At each aid station, I took a half a hammer bar, a cup of heed, and a cup of water. This would work well for me until about mile nine. At this point I switched to alternating heed or broth and chasing it with water. Occasionally I could stand to eat a peanut butter cracker or a piece of bagel with peanut butter. My only complaint with the aid stations is that on the second loop, they ran out of broth and coke for awhile. At mile 4, we ran through a park over various paths and bridges. I found myself walking often in here, because it was really poorly lit. If I was to do this race again, I would absolutely wear a headlamp out on the run after dark. After the race I heard several reports of people either falling or hurting themselves in this park because you really could not see. The route also went past the hotel we were staying at. At about the nine mile marker, I ran into Cathy and told her I should still be able to finish sometime between 11 and midnight. Looking back, this may have been wishful thinking, or my math may have been off.
I made it back into the park at the turnaround point with around 3 hours left. I had put a change of socks and some gloves in my special needs bag, but I decided only to grab the gloves as I knew I would need them and I didnt have the time to change my socks. I knew I had to pick it up and I tried to run more often then I had during the first loop. This worked about until about the time I got into the park where I had no choice but to walk at times. I picked up my pace on the run as well, but when I saw my split at mile 19, I did the math and knew I couldnt run any faster then I was and at my current pace I would never make it to the finish before the midnight cutoff. I ran a little further and my legs just had nothing left. I hobbled to the aid station at mile 20 and told the volunteers I wanted to drop out.
I caught a van ride to the finish. I checked to see if Cathy was there and if she had gotten my bike. She had grabbed my bike and bags, but was back at the hotel by this point. I ran into Ryan who was picking up his helmet. I told Ryan I was heading to the medical tent because I felt I may be dehydrated and was nauseous and just slightly light headed. Ryan was awesome enough to hang out with me until we caught the boat back to our hotels. In the medical tent, they checked my pulse, temp, and BP. Apparently everything was ok. The made me stay there for about 45 minutes and drank three bottle of water before they cleared me to leave. I got back to the hotel and crashed after eating most of the burger Cathy ordered me from room service.
I look at my run splits and they averaged around 17 minutes. I really needed to be closer to 15 minutes in order to finish on time. The interesting thing is that now as I look at the graph of my splits, they were fairly close from start to finish. The first 10 miles averaged 16:46 and the last 10 averaged 17:52. The last five miles were only 30 seconds slower then the first five. This either means I paced myself well or I didnt give enough effort and tried to play catch up at the end.
Looking Back
I already knew before I started this race that there were two key factors that were going to hinder my performance on race day. After I sprained my ankle last year, I put on 30 extra pounds and could never seem to take it off. The other issue was that I got burned out about halfway through my training and the wheel just completely fell off and I missed way too much training. These two things combined made me almost decide not to even do the race. I really thought I could at least get through by midnight, but unfortunately that didnt even happen.
Before I attempt a full iron distance race again, I need to loose at least 50 pounds. This will help me on my second thing I need to do which is to get stronger on the bike. I also need to regain my running speed and endurance that I had a few years ago. It will probably be 2011 before I attempt another ironman. Will I do B2B again? Very possibly considering it is almost half the price of a Ironman branded race.
I havent really planned out specific races for 2010 yet. I know I want to focus much more on my running. I also would like to ride outside more, especially some of the local group rides with enough hills to help build strength. I would like to do at least one sprint and one oly during the first part of the season. Depending on how things go, I would really like to do another 70.3 race in the early fall. It would likely end up being Augusta as I could drive in on Saturday and race and drive home on Sunday.
In a couple weeks I will likely start running again and see where I am before I decide on the possibility of any spring full/half marathons. I have also picked up P90X and plan on integrating it in. I may initially do their 90 day weight loss plan and replacing the cardio days with running. Once I make it through 90 days, I may likely do 2-3 days of p90x along with running and biking. For now, I am just going to let my body recover.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Anatomy of a DNF (Part I)
10K, 6.2 miles. Normally a piece of cake to run in an hour or less. But for me, running 6.2 miles in less then 90 minutes after having swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and ran 20 miles was just not going to be possible. At 10:30 PM, at the aid station just before mile 20, I decided to pull out of the race. I decided it was better to pull out then to attempt it and fail. I simply had nothing left in my legs.
Pre Race
I decided to take off from the Wednesday prior to the race through the Tuesday after it so I would have plenty of time to prep before the race as well as recover post race. On Wednesday I prepped my bike and packed all my bags. We headed out Thursday after Cathy got off of work. In order to save some money and not have to drive all the way into Wilmington NC in one night, we decided to stay in Myrtle Beach where we were able to get a room for much less then in Wilmington. We spent the night in Myrtle Beach and headed into Wilmington on Friday morning.
We were able to check in to the Hilton earlier then expected and then headed over to the expo. I picked up my packet which included a nice long sleeved tech shirt, socks, and a duffle bag. Based on some reports on Beginner Triathlete, I decided to search for a pair of Neoprene booties for the swim. Turns out both tri shop exhibitors were sold out as was the local tri shops. Since this was a beach town, I did have a few other options.
The "mandatory" meetings were held at Noon,2, and 4. We arrived too later for the noon meeting, but I knew several bloggers would be there so we decided to hang out till the meeting let out to see who we could run into. When the meeting let out, we ran into some of our local friends. Steph and her husband Doug. We also ran into Brian who we knew from swimming at LA Fitness. Doug and Brian were racing the full (both their first full)and Steph was there to support Doug. Based on my discussion with them, I decided it really wasnt necessary to go to the meeting since I already had the packet and pretty much everything was covered in the race booklet. Since it looked like everyone had left, we decided to head back to the hotel. As it turns out, the bloggers had decided to meet up inside the meeting space. As we were heading back to the hotel, we ran into Calyx, Donna, and John. We talked for a while and then it was time to go drop off the bike
We went back to the hotel and drove over to T1 to drop off the bike. At some point between Wednesday night and Thursday evening, my rear tire went flat. Luckily, a LBS was providing support at transition that day and was able to fix it for me for free. While he was fixing my tire, I asked him about surf/dive shops. He gave me a few options. We stopped first at the local surf shop, but they only had their winter ones which were too big and thick to swim in. We then headed to a dive shop where we were able to find a pair of neoprene dive booties that not only would keep my feet warm, but had treads on the bottom which would be prefect for the quarter mile hike to T1. By that point it was mid afternoon and we hadnt eaten since our late breakfast. We stopped at subway for lunch and then we found a neat little cupcake shop that made all sorts of small cupcakes. We picked up several cupcakes for post race and I splurged on a lighter angel food cupcake then that was delicious. We then headed back to the hotel to relax.
It seems like this year we have had bad luck with pre-race dinners (Augusta, never called us, lost our name??). For dinner, we decided to order delivery from a local Italian restaurant that I knew others had planned on eating at. Based on when we had lunch and the fact that I kinda wanted to just be in my own space, I thought it better to order delivery. They said it would be 45 minutes for delivery. No big deal I thought. An hour later we called only to find out they attempted to deliver to the wrong hotel. I mean, how hard is it to find the Hilton on the river that is only a few blocks away???? We finally ate after 8PM which I was a little disappointed with, but I scarfed my dinner down and tried to relax. I was able to fall asleep a little after 9PM.
Race Day
I set my alarm for 3:30 AM. I wanted to eat before 4AM so my stomach would be mostly empty by race time at 7 AM. I had a PB&J sandwich and a bottle of gatorade. I headed downstairs with all my garbage bags (transition/special needs) about 4:45 to catch the bus to T1 at 5AM. I checked on my bike to make sure the tires were still ok and drop off all my bags. While in transition I ran into Brian and Neal, another member of our Tri club who was doing his first full. I went to get body marked. I knew Steph would be there so I sought her out and had her mark me. I then waited for a second bus that takes us to the swim start. B2B is a spread out course. The swim is a point to point that starts upstream from T1 in Wrightsville Beach. T1 was in Wrightsville beach. The bike course heads North through rural parts of eastern NC and then heads back south and finishes at T2 next to the battleship in Wilmington. The run is then a two loop out and back course that goes 6.5 miles out through Wilmington and back to the battleship.
Swim
I arrived at the swim start about 6:15 AM. I decided to walk the five minutes down the beach to the actual start to check it out and then headed back to where the busses dropped us off. I made one last stop at the porto-john and then decided to get into my wetsuit. Luckily, it wanst too cold outside so I was ok in my sleeveless. I ran into Neal and Doug and chatted with them until it was time to walk down to the start. I dipped my feet into the water and thought it wasnt too cold. I didnt want to get all the way in because I knew I would be too cold if I had to stand out in the cold while fully soaked.
They played the national anthem and then we were off. This was my first mass start as well as my first saltwater swim. Overall, it started off ok. When I hit the water, I was definitely out of breath due to the cold, but that passed quickly. It was definitely crowded, especially up to the one turn buoy, but I made out ok. The only issue I initially had was that I nearly loosed my new neoprene booties in the initial skirmish of the swim start. The first half of the swim went by pretty well. I could tell when I passed the halfway point because I could hear those waiting for the 8AM start of the Half cheering us on. I think I hit this point around 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately, a little after this, things fell apart on the swim. Because of my extra weight, my wetsuit was slightly tight. I neglected to put any body glide on my neck and it rubbed my neck raw. That combined with the amount of salt water I that entered my mouth caused me to doggy paddle more then swim freestyle. It was easier on my neck and I didnt care for any more salt water in my mouth. I ended up finishing in around 1:13 which is an OK time, but I could have done much better.
T1
As you finish up a the swim, you climb up a ladder and there is assistance if necessary. you then come to the wetsuit strippers who have you sit on a bench as they pull your wetsuit up. I ran up off the dock and showered off and ran most of the way to the changing tent. I grabbed my bag and changed into my bike outfit.I wore my arm warmers and decided to grap my lightweight throwaway poncho in case I needed it. I applied my bag balm to my chafing-prone areas as well as a little to my neck where I had rubbed it raw. It seemed like I was really swollen because it took forever to get my socks and arm warmers on because they felt so tight. I made sure to dry off as best as I could and headed out to my bike.
I will finish the rest in Part II including my thoughts on why I failed and my plans for 2010 and beyond
Pre Race
I decided to take off from the Wednesday prior to the race through the Tuesday after it so I would have plenty of time to prep before the race as well as recover post race. On Wednesday I prepped my bike and packed all my bags. We headed out Thursday after Cathy got off of work. In order to save some money and not have to drive all the way into Wilmington NC in one night, we decided to stay in Myrtle Beach where we were able to get a room for much less then in Wilmington. We spent the night in Myrtle Beach and headed into Wilmington on Friday morning.
We were able to check in to the Hilton earlier then expected and then headed over to the expo. I picked up my packet which included a nice long sleeved tech shirt, socks, and a duffle bag. Based on some reports on Beginner Triathlete, I decided to search for a pair of Neoprene booties for the swim. Turns out both tri shop exhibitors were sold out as was the local tri shops. Since this was a beach town, I did have a few other options.
The "mandatory" meetings were held at Noon,2, and 4. We arrived too later for the noon meeting, but I knew several bloggers would be there so we decided to hang out till the meeting let out to see who we could run into. When the meeting let out, we ran into some of our local friends. Steph and her husband Doug. We also ran into Brian who we knew from swimming at LA Fitness. Doug and Brian were racing the full (both their first full)and Steph was there to support Doug. Based on my discussion with them, I decided it really wasnt necessary to go to the meeting since I already had the packet and pretty much everything was covered in the race booklet. Since it looked like everyone had left, we decided to head back to the hotel. As it turns out, the bloggers had decided to meet up inside the meeting space. As we were heading back to the hotel, we ran into Calyx, Donna, and John. We talked for a while and then it was time to go drop off the bike
We went back to the hotel and drove over to T1 to drop off the bike. At some point between Wednesday night and Thursday evening, my rear tire went flat. Luckily, a LBS was providing support at transition that day and was able to fix it for me for free. While he was fixing my tire, I asked him about surf/dive shops. He gave me a few options. We stopped first at the local surf shop, but they only had their winter ones which were too big and thick to swim in. We then headed to a dive shop where we were able to find a pair of neoprene dive booties that not only would keep my feet warm, but had treads on the bottom which would be prefect for the quarter mile hike to T1. By that point it was mid afternoon and we hadnt eaten since our late breakfast. We stopped at subway for lunch and then we found a neat little cupcake shop that made all sorts of small cupcakes. We picked up several cupcakes for post race and I splurged on a lighter angel food cupcake then that was delicious. We then headed back to the hotel to relax.
It seems like this year we have had bad luck with pre-race dinners (Augusta, never called us, lost our name??). For dinner, we decided to order delivery from a local Italian restaurant that I knew others had planned on eating at. Based on when we had lunch and the fact that I kinda wanted to just be in my own space, I thought it better to order delivery. They said it would be 45 minutes for delivery. No big deal I thought. An hour later we called only to find out they attempted to deliver to the wrong hotel. I mean, how hard is it to find the Hilton on the river that is only a few blocks away???? We finally ate after 8PM which I was a little disappointed with, but I scarfed my dinner down and tried to relax. I was able to fall asleep a little after 9PM.
Race Day
I set my alarm for 3:30 AM. I wanted to eat before 4AM so my stomach would be mostly empty by race time at 7 AM. I had a PB&J sandwich and a bottle of gatorade. I headed downstairs with all my garbage bags (transition/special needs) about 4:45 to catch the bus to T1 at 5AM. I checked on my bike to make sure the tires were still ok and drop off all my bags. While in transition I ran into Brian and Neal, another member of our Tri club who was doing his first full. I went to get body marked. I knew Steph would be there so I sought her out and had her mark me. I then waited for a second bus that takes us to the swim start. B2B is a spread out course. The swim is a point to point that starts upstream from T1 in Wrightsville Beach. T1 was in Wrightsville beach. The bike course heads North through rural parts of eastern NC and then heads back south and finishes at T2 next to the battleship in Wilmington. The run is then a two loop out and back course that goes 6.5 miles out through Wilmington and back to the battleship.
Swim
I arrived at the swim start about 6:15 AM. I decided to walk the five minutes down the beach to the actual start to check it out and then headed back to where the busses dropped us off. I made one last stop at the porto-john and then decided to get into my wetsuit. Luckily, it wanst too cold outside so I was ok in my sleeveless. I ran into Neal and Doug and chatted with them until it was time to walk down to the start. I dipped my feet into the water and thought it wasnt too cold. I didnt want to get all the way in because I knew I would be too cold if I had to stand out in the cold while fully soaked.
They played the national anthem and then we were off. This was my first mass start as well as my first saltwater swim. Overall, it started off ok. When I hit the water, I was definitely out of breath due to the cold, but that passed quickly. It was definitely crowded, especially up to the one turn buoy, but I made out ok. The only issue I initially had was that I nearly loosed my new neoprene booties in the initial skirmish of the swim start. The first half of the swim went by pretty well. I could tell when I passed the halfway point because I could hear those waiting for the 8AM start of the Half cheering us on. I think I hit this point around 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately, a little after this, things fell apart on the swim. Because of my extra weight, my wetsuit was slightly tight. I neglected to put any body glide on my neck and it rubbed my neck raw. That combined with the amount of salt water I that entered my mouth caused me to doggy paddle more then swim freestyle. It was easier on my neck and I didnt care for any more salt water in my mouth. I ended up finishing in around 1:13 which is an OK time, but I could have done much better.
T1
As you finish up a the swim, you climb up a ladder and there is assistance if necessary. you then come to the wetsuit strippers who have you sit on a bench as they pull your wetsuit up. I ran up off the dock and showered off and ran most of the way to the changing tent. I grabbed my bag and changed into my bike outfit.I wore my arm warmers and decided to grap my lightweight throwaway poncho in case I needed it. I applied my bag balm to my chafing-prone areas as well as a little to my neck where I had rubbed it raw. It seemed like I was really swollen because it took forever to get my socks and arm warmers on because they felt so tight. I made sure to dry off as best as I could and headed out to my bike.
I will finish the rest in Part II including my thoughts on why I failed and my plans for 2010 and beyond
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The curse of the tight hips
Last week I saw the Chiropractor that was at the Augusta 70.3 who does Active Release. My hope is to find some relief for my excessively tight hips. My hips have caused me issues for a long time. I have almost zero ability to rotate my legs internally at the hips. This causes all sorts of issues, especially for the knees.
The first part of the appointment was a thorough examination. Beyond my hip problems, I also have really tight calves. While he didnt come out and say it, I think I was probably one of his worst cases. He told me he thought he could fix me up before B2B in about 6-8 visits. In order to help loosen my hips up some, he had me lay on my side under this thing that creates heat in the muscle. What was interesting was that it got my legs really hot, but it wanst hot to the touch. After that, he took me into the treatment room and along with his assistant, stretched the heck out of me. At times it really hurt, but I could tell it was definitely helping. Once he was done, he repeated some of the initial tests and there was definite improvement. Unfortunately, when I checked out, I found out while my insurance covers chiropractic, it does not cover ART. DOH! At 90$ a visit, there was no way I could continue.
Instead of getting down about it, I decided I was going to figure out how to fix this myself. I have my trigger point kit, foam roller, and the stick. Working at a hospital gives me access to a load of electronic databases of medical journal's. I have been spending my lunch hours doing lots of research on stretching and trigger points and tightness in specific muscle groups. I have discovered I was using my trigger point kit slightly incorrectly and have adjusted my technique accordingly.
My #1 suspect is the piriformis. I actually found a video done by Texafornia (Brett) of the Zen and The Art of Triathlon podcast that shows a technique that he says has helped him with piriformis. I am going to begin doing this as well as specific exercises to strengthen my internal rotators while loosening up my external rotators.
I think I am finally beginning to understand the causes of all my trouble. Now I just need to put the techniques into practice that will help me fix my problems. I have already seen some improvement, and I hope to be fixed up by B2B
The first part of the appointment was a thorough examination. Beyond my hip problems, I also have really tight calves. While he didnt come out and say it, I think I was probably one of his worst cases. He told me he thought he could fix me up before B2B in about 6-8 visits. In order to help loosen my hips up some, he had me lay on my side under this thing that creates heat in the muscle. What was interesting was that it got my legs really hot, but it wanst hot to the touch. After that, he took me into the treatment room and along with his assistant, stretched the heck out of me. At times it really hurt, but I could tell it was definitely helping. Once he was done, he repeated some of the initial tests and there was definite improvement. Unfortunately, when I checked out, I found out while my insurance covers chiropractic, it does not cover ART. DOH! At 90$ a visit, there was no way I could continue.
Instead of getting down about it, I decided I was going to figure out how to fix this myself. I have my trigger point kit, foam roller, and the stick. Working at a hospital gives me access to a load of electronic databases of medical journal's. I have been spending my lunch hours doing lots of research on stretching and trigger points and tightness in specific muscle groups. I have discovered I was using my trigger point kit slightly incorrectly and have adjusted my technique accordingly.
My #1 suspect is the piriformis. I actually found a video done by Texafornia (Brett) of the Zen and The Art of Triathlon podcast that shows a technique that he says has helped him with piriformis. I am going to begin doing this as well as specific exercises to strengthen my internal rotators while loosening up my external rotators.
I think I am finally beginning to understand the causes of all my trouble. Now I just need to put the techniques into practice that will help me fix my problems. I have already seen some improvement, and I hope to be fixed up by B2B
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