It's Not Over 'Til You're Underground

Ironman USA Race Report

2008-08-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have a bone to pick with the National Weather Service. For several days leading up to Ironman Lake Placid, the forecast for the Lake Placid area was for highs in the low 70s and “scattered showers.” As the day drew nearer, the forecast changed a bit, but basically indicated scattered showers and periods of light rain. That’s not exactly what happened.

IM Lake Placid has been on my list for a while. In 2003 I went to support some teammates and signed up to race in 2004. For various reasons, I dropped out in ’04 and did not make the trip. In 2006 I went back as a coach, and spent much of the evening supporting out on the run course. It was a beatuful day and I enjoyed being out on the course so much, I decided that I would sign up. I was planning on taking 2007 off from Ironman, so 2008 was the year.

I had previously completed 5 Ironman races with finish times from 14:28 to 16:22. Lake Placid is a “slower” course than the others I’d completed, and based on that, and my relative fitness, I was guessing I’d do about 1:30 on the swim, 7:45 on the bike, and 6:30 on the run. Throw in 20 minutes for transitions, and I was guessing an even 16:00. The day could easily go 30 minutes in either direction, so I told my family to expect 15:30 to 16:30.

The few days leading up to an Ironman are very busy. Ann, Bindu, Shanti, Dan, Karen, Nick, Steve, and I left San Jose at 6:20 AM on Thursday and arrived in Lake Placid around 8PM after two flights, a ferry ride, and a drive on a country road. I slept in a bit on Friday morning, and missed a rainstorm that came and went pretty quickly. We gathered around 9:30 to register, shop, and pickup our bikes. Other than the lines for registration, this all went smoothly.

Around 2:00 we headed to the lake for a quick swim. It was hot and muggy as we pulled on our wetsuits. Sweating, while putting on a wetsuit is not very pleasant, so I was happy to jump in the cool water and start swimming. The course was set, and we planned to swim the first three buoys, across, and back… probably 500-600 yards.

Lake swimming is generally not like pool swimming. There are no lane-lines, and no black line on the bottom of the pool. You have to practice “sighting” on the buoys, or other landmaks to make sure you swim straight. At Lake Placid, there is a cable on the buoy line. It sits about 4-5 feet below the water and is like having that line on the pool bottom. If you can see the cable, you’re swimming straight. So I practiced looking for the cable, I moved around inside and outside the buoy line to get a sense of how far I could get and still see it.

At the first buoy I noticed it was sprinkling. No problem. I was already wet. By the second buoy, it was raining pretty hard, but I felt good and kept swimming. When I reached the third buoy, I stopped to look around. I could not really see the shore. The surface of the water was “alive” with droplets bouncing up and down all around. It was pretty fun to watch. We regrouped and headed across and back to shore. On the way back, it seemed the rain was even harder. Each breath I would feel the stinging rain on my cheek as I breathed. That struck me as odd, so I stopped and stuck my hand out. I watched as the little ice pellets bounced off my hand. It was hailing!
Back at the shore, most people had fled for cover. There was a river flowing from the drainage pipe into the lake. We rushed back to the car across the flooded streets. Towels were not useful. We soaked the car seats as we rode back towards the hotel. As the storm continued we saw folks waking the streets in their wetsuits!

Saturday was more to do. Pack the bags, check in the bike, TNT luncheon, and then rest. After dinner in the hotel, I tried to sleep as much as possible before my 4:00 AM wakeup.

I slept pretty well. I wasn’t too nervous. I knew it would be a long day, but I had enough training to finish, and should be not too close to any cutoffs. At 4:00 AM I ate a quick breakfast, packed up my special needs bags, and my food for the day and met my parents in the lobby.

The transition layout is different than other races I’ve done. There were a lot of steps, probably done in a better order than I did them but I… Put my food in my transition bags, put my food on my bike, pumped up my tires, stood in the porta-potty line, went out to get bodymarked, went back in to check my transition bags, walked the 1/4 mile to drop off my special needs bags, walked 1/4 mile back, chatted with Larry, Alex, and Renee, saw my parents, walked back into transition, put on my wetsuit to the waist, put my dry clothes bag on the rack, and walked out to the lake. Phew! I knew there was a reason I get to transition at 5:00 for a 7:00 start!

Around 6:30 it started to rain. It wasn’t very hard at first, just a sprinkle. I chatted with Larry and Alex. About 6:45, Hez and I decided to get in the water. We swam across to the far side of the lake. We could stand while we waited, and would be out of the fray when the start happened.

Around 6:55, a local school teacher, sang the national anthem for the 10th time (this was the 10th annual race). She missed the high note, also probably for the 10th time), and before we knew it the race was about to begin. I gave Hez a quick hug, wished her luck, and headed towards the start line. I treaded water for a few seconds and BOOM, the cannon went off.

I started about 50 yards out to the side of the buoy line, and I aimed for the 3rd buoy which was about 300 yards away. By my 7th –grade math, this meant I was swimming about 5 extra yards. A very good tradeoff for smooth water over a 4200 yard swim course. As Ironman swim starts go, this was pretty tame (I heard it was not so tame over at the buoy line). I was able to keep a pretty good rhythm, passing some folks, being passed by others. As we neared the magic cable, it got a bit more crowded, but after joining the pack, I stayed wide of the cable.

After the turn I was able to sneak closer to the cable. I came upon a Team in Training wetsuit, and realized that I was swimming next to Bindu. I stuck my hand in front of his face and waved hello. I found it was easier to swim on the inside of the buoy line. This is allowed as long as you go outside of the last buoy. As I approached the shore on the first lap, I noticed it was raining hard. The thousands of fans must have been getting soaked. I heard the crowd cheering, my hand hit the bottom, and I stood up. I crossed the mat and looked at the clock. It read 54 minutes! I couldn’t be swimming that slowly. As I jumped back in the water I realized (hopefully) that the clock was showing the time for the professional race (which started 10 minutes earlier). If that was true, I was right on schedule. If not, it was going to be the longest swim of my life.

The second loop was pretty uneventful. I could feel my general lack of swimming, so my shoulder started to get a bit tired. About 500 yards before the finish I got kicked square in the jaw. It didn’t hurt too much. But I think that was adrenaline, because a few minutes later, my jaw was getting sore. I counted down the buoys and started to think about the ride. I hit ground, stood up, and saw 1:30 on the clock – they had reset the clock to the main race time, and I was right on schedule.

Swim: 1:31:14

I ran down the carpet in the pouring rain, pulled my wetsuit to my waist, and found a pair of wetsuit strippers. They pointed to the ground, I hit the ground, and RIIIP, my suit was off. They pulled me up, handed me the suit, and I was on my way, running down the carpet in the pouring rain.

The transition tent was unlike any Ironman I’ve ever done. It was dark., the floor was a mud-pit, and chairs were few and far-between. I found a chair and dug through my bag. My feet were muddy, but I pulled on my socks, bike shorts, and jersey. I headed out into the rain.

T1: 12:26 (Total Time 1:43:40)

The bike starts with a downhill out of the school, and a quick right hand turn. The road was a river of water and my brakes were not working so well. Down the hill, and around the corner, I saw my parents. They were wearing plastic rain ponchos that we bought at the corner store the day before “just in case” and they had an umbrella, so at least they were sorta dry. I felt sorry for making them stand in the rain, but I figured it would stop soon…. They always say, “If you don’t like the Adirondak weather, wait 10 minutes.”

Just about everybody knows that Lake Placid’s bike course has a couple of “screaming downhills.” We can argue about where they are on the course, but they are definitely there. After a few miles of rollers, I started to see the signs for the hill. In a large bike race like the Ironman, big downhills are interesting. There are some who fly down, getting in their aerobars and approaching 50 mph! Others are a bit more cautious, riding their brakes and hanging on the side. I tend to fall in the middle somewhere. But with my brakes not working so well due to the wet rims, I was probably going to go a bit faster than normal.

All along the hill, there was water flowing on the road. Usually left to right, but sometimes straight downhill. Riders were going all speeds, passing on the left, kicking up a big spray behind them, one rider seemed like she was more or less stopped on the side. She was moving, but I have no idea how she moved so slowly. The biggest problem was that with so much rain and spray, my glasses were wet and foggy and I didn’t see her until I was right up behind her. I made a quick move to the left and avoided the collision!

Once I reached Keene, I was pretty happy. My hands were sore from “trying” to brake, but I knew that the scary part was done. There were lots of rollers and some climbs to come, but nothing too bad. And certainly by the next loop, the rain would stop. I would LOVE to go down those hills on dry roads!

Given that we’re already 4 pages in, and only about 20 miles into the bike course, I’ll skip ahead a little bit…. Here’s a summary….

Wet… Eat… Drink… Uphill… Downhill… Wet… Rain… Eat… Drink…. It’s Still Raining???… Slow Grind… Upper Jay… Wet… Rain… Wet… Rain… Lather… Rinse… Repeat.

I reached the out-and-back section. This was where I’d get to see everybody, and how they were doing. It was a madhouse. It’s a small country road, has a few twists and turns, ups and downs, and was currently covered with about 1500 riders on a 6-mile stretch. Volunteers on the side warned that we should not ride through the puddles. Turns out that some of them were actually potholes and might be a bit deeper than they looked!

I never saw Nick on the bike. That’s not surprising, given that he was probably already done with the first loop by now! I never saw Dan or Steve either, but I am sure I just missed them when I was trying not to ride into a hole. Ann looked to be moving fast when I saw the flames ride by. Then I saw Bindu. I checked my watch, when I reached the turnaround. Bindu was probably 4-5 minutes ahead of me. He left transition a bit before I did, so we were riding very similar pace. That was probably a good sign. A couple minutes after the turnaround I saw Hez, and knew she was doing well. Finally, as I reached the end of the out-and-back, I heard my name… looked up, there was Jenn Sussman! Yay! Another friendly face out in the rain!

Eat… Drink… Eat… Drink… Wet… Wet… Wet.

Anybody who has ever been coached by me has heard me say “Nothing new on race day” and honestly, I thought I was following that. They have also heard how pacing on an Ironman bike ride is one of the most important parts of the race, and how I have my pace dialed in, and always pace myself on heart-rate.

So… first of all, I have a new bike computer… now by “new” I mean it is over a month old. The odometer read over 400 miles on race morning. I also have race-wheels, which I have used for 5 years. But the “new” combination of the two just did not work. The sensor would not reach the magnet. I realized this on Friday before the race. I decided that rather than try to rig something up at the last minute, I would just deal with it. I ride with a Garmin GPS watch, and that would give me my current speed. Now, anybody who has used Garmins knows that they have battery-life issues. They will only run for 9-10 hours. This is long enough for about 99.3% of the country, but not long enough for an Ironman (at least not for me). I have enough friends who do this stuff that I can just borrow a second one…So I did. One for the bike, one for the run. So, imagine my surprise, when my borrowed Garmin works like a charm… except for the heartrate. Oops, guess I should have tried that combination too! So I’m down to pacing myself on “perceived exertion.” We’ll see how this goes!

The downside of “screaming downhills” is that all the elevation you lose, you need to make up. This means climbing. At Lake Placid, the climbs are not steep – really not at all – but they are long. So I hit the long gradual grind back up to the transition area. It was really not bad. Except for the rain. Oh yeah… still raining.

Spin… Eat… Drink… Spin… Rain… Stand…. Sit… Chat… Eat… Drink… Wet…The last hill on the course is a quick steep ride, and it’s lined with people. I’ve heard this referred to as the “Tour de France” moment. You ride through a pack of cheering fans, and it’s very tempting to stand up and sprint up the hill. The downside is that once you do that, you need to go ride another 56 miles on the bike. So I decided that I would take it easy, spin up in an easy gear and save my legs for loop number two.

A few more short rollers and I was at the “special needs” stop. Here I got a bag that I had packed earlier. I picked up my 2 bottles of Carbo-Pro, a bag of gummy bears I put in my pocket, and my turkey sandwich. I took a second to fix my breaks (they were rubbing for the last mile or so), shoved the sandwich in my mouth and headed back into town. The loop ends with a quick ride up the street by the Olympic center with all the flags. Lots of cheering fans, including Alex and Larry! I crossed the mat in 3:52:30. Almost exactly 50% of my estimate of 3:45 for the ride. That sounds great, except my estimate was based on be being about 15 minutes slower on the 2nd loop. Oh well, we’ll see how it goes. Maybe the rain will stop this time.

Back around the school, down the hill, into town, and down past the hotel. My folks were there on the road, along with Karen, Katie, and Shanti… Maybe more, I could not tell. At least they were close to home and could go inside for the next 3-4 hours while I rode the next loop.

The second loop was much like the first. The rain continued to pour. The downhills were still scary, but not as much as the first time. There were fewer riders, and I think I was just more comfortable with it. Early in the second loop I caught back up with Bindu. We rode together for a while and talked about how we and everybody else were doing. This was fun… I swam with Bindu, and biked with Bindu. I was very sure this would end, as he is a much faster runner than I am! Apparently he descends faster too, at least today he did. Once we hit the big downhill, he dropped me, and I didn’t see him again until the out-and-back.

Spin… Eat… Drink… Rain… Wet… Downhill… Cold… Spin… Wet… Climb… Warm up a bit… Eat… Drink… Out and Back… Potholes… Rivers looking like they will overflow…. There’s Dan, wearing his IMAZ jacket…. Bindu 5 minutes ahead… Hez 5 minutes behind…. Everybody looks good…. There’s Jenn again, cheering in the rain with her dog!… Spin… Eat… Drink… Rain… Big Long Slow Hill…

I truly find it entertaining to see how many people near the back of the pack with me were wearing aero helmets. It’s just silly. I mean, here we are trudging up a hill at 6 mph and they’ve got a wing on their head. Definitely something to pass the time. Around 4pm, the rain stopped. The old saying is true “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes” because it started raining again in less than that!

Finally, I reached the last climb. The crowd had thinned a bit, and I stood up just for the fun of it… Up over the top and down into town. Time to run. My last 2 Ironman races, I had foot problems which made the first few miles of the run extremely painful and slow. This time the feet felt good. Now we’d see what I could do. My second loop was 4:06:29. 14 minutes slower than loop 1. At least I got that one right! Just under 8 hours for the bike.

Bike: 7:58:59 (Total Time 9:42:39)

A volunteer took my bike. I grabbed my transition bag and immediately stepped in a big mud puddle. Most of the ground under the tent was a mud puddle. The volunteers pointed me to a section of the tent which had some chairs up on concrete. So instead of mud, they sat in a puddle. A volunteer said “it’s drier over there” so I headed to the edge of the tent. Of course there were no chairs over there, so I came back and sat down. I saw Bindu leaving T2. I yelled “go Bindu” but I don’t think he heard me.

I pulled off my cycling shorts and changed into my singlet. I joked with another guy about the folly of putting on dry socks for the run. But I did it anyway. I was afraid that running a marathon in wet socks would lead to blisters. I figured even if they were dry for just a few minutes, maybe it would make a difference. I saw a guy putting on a plastic bag. I asked if they were giving them out, but he brought is own. Oh well.

I walked out of the tent and straight into a puddle. So much for dry socks. I looked up at the clock, and it read 10:01. So 7 hours for the marathon. No problem. I would make the cutoff.

T2: 9:17 (Total Time 9:51:56)

You may notice that the time on that clock does not match my running total time. More on that later!

As I left the transition area, and on to the run course, there was a bit of sensory overload. I could hear the really fast folks finishing behind me. I could see lots of runners starting their second loop. I heard my name called, saw my parents, and some of the other TNT fans, and lots of general mayhem. The roads were lined with umbrellas, people in parkas, plastic bags, or whatever they could do to keep warm. I was a bit worried about being cold, but it wasn’t too bad.

Each run loop starts with a big downhill. It’s pretty nice because you get to run it. The downside is that you have to climb it on the way back. But that’s 11 miles ahead. For now, see how the legs feel. They actually felt pretty good. I was running more than I was walking, and other than the fact that it was still raining, had a pretty good outlook on running a marathon this evening.

I saw Rich, running like a man possessed. I saw Nick near the end of his first loop. As expected, he tore up the bike course. He said everybody was looking good, but he was having a long run. Back through town, past our hotel… oh so close… down past the ski jumps, and over the bridge. The legs felt good, it was time to get with the program.

From my time supporting the race a few years ago, I knew the run course pretty well. Once we made the turn after the bridge it was pretty flat. There were a few rollers, but basically, a nice flat course. I had trained all year using a 4:1 run/walk. Run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute. I carried a flask with several GUs in it, so I could take a little sip whenever I wanted. So to keep the energy up, I would take a small hit of GU on each of my 1 minute walks.

Run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute. Run 4, walk 1. Repeat. As I ran, I would occasionally look at my Garmin watch. I was running 10:15 mile pace when I was running, and 15-16 min mile pace while walking. My overall mile splits were in the 11-12 minute range. At this pace I would have no trouble making the cutoff. I just had to keep eating to keep the energy level up.

Around mile 4, I ran in to Steve coming the other way. He was grazing at a waterstop and wearing a plastic bag. We chatted for a few seconds. He told me Dan and Ann were just a bit behind him, and that Bindu was a little bit ahead of me and looking great. I knew there was no chance I’d catch Bindu, even with my feeling great. He’s just too fast a runner.

The run course out there is really beautiful. At least it is on a clear day. Bright green fields, a big red barn, the sun shining off the pond. I have pictures from 2006 if you’re interested. Today, everything was grey… oh yeah… still raining.

Still feeling good, I kept up my 4:1. I would modify as road conditions changed. I felt no need to run up hills. But I would also not waste a downhill by walking. I saw Ann and Dan. Both looked pretty good. Nobody looks great during the marathon of the Ironman… especially on a day like this. Then I saw Bindu. I think I saw his smile about a 1/2 mile away. He really did look great. Nothing was going to stop him, and he was gonna finish this thing. We high-fived as I headed out and he headed back.

Away from town it was much quieter. You could hear the swollen rivers flowing, the sound of rain through the trees, and the constant “squish, squish” of wet shoes on the pavement. Every mile or so the noise level would pickup. The aid stations were full of supporters standing out in the rain for hours on end. They wore parkas, plastic bags, or whatever, but they were wet. Just like us. The difference was they did not have exercise keeping them warm. Volunteers make races like this possible, and they put in a huge effort that day.

Around the turnaround I slowed to a walk, making sure my chip was read by the timing mat. BEEP… ok, back to run/walk. 4 minutes run, 1 minute walk… run… walk… oh, look, there’s Hez! Go Hez! Run… walk… eat… drink… still raining.. wait… it stopped. About 6:30 PM, it actually stopped raining. There were little cheers along the run course as we realized it might be done.

Of course, if you don’t like the weather in the Adirondaks, wait 10 minutes. It started raining again. It continued on and off for another couple hours, but this was the weather we were expecting. Scattered showers. No torrential downpours. On and off. So maybe the weather people were right. If only 12 hours late.

Run, walk, eat, drink, run, walk, eat, drink. I started taking pretzels at the water stops. I was still feeling good. As I approached our hotel, I saw my parents. They asked how I was feeling, and I said that I felt surprisingly good. I hoped to keep it up. I gave them a high-five and kept moving. Looking at my time, I realized I was on a pace to beat my marathon PR. I didn’t think it would actually happen, but it would be pretty amazing given that I did not run as much in training as I would have liked, and was racing about 8 lbs heavier than when I set that record (not including the 2 lbs of water that I was carrying in my socks and shoes). My 12 minute miles had slipped to 13s, but I was still making good time.

I got to the big hill and walked up. Made the turn into town and kept walking. Turned right up to the short out-and-back section and kept walking. I figured I would let my run muscles rest. So I walked about a mile to the turn around. Even with all that walking I kept a 16 minute pace. Just keep moving. It will all be over in 14 miles. I jogged down this hill and over the half-way timing mat. My first half marathon was 2:52. My PR is around 5:51, so I was just under PR pace. I knew it was not going to happen, but it was fun to think about.

Back down the big hill, I saw Katie and Shanti. Over by the hotel, I saw my parents. Down the hill, over the bridge… run… walk… run… walk… walk… walk… run… walk. My walk breaks were getting longer, my runs were getting shorter. I was not worried about cutoffs, and I didn’t really have a time “goal” just the estimate of 15:30-16:30. I knew I was in there. So I let myself slow down. I walked more than I ran, and just “walked with a purpose.”
Loop two is much quieter. The sun was going down, there were fewer runners, and there’s a lot more time alone with your thoughts. Walk with a purpose… run to that tree… eat… drink… keep moving forward… I knew I would make it. The only question was when.

Around mile 21 (which is 17 on the way out), they have the “Ford Inspiration Station.” They play loud music and cheer you on over a loudspeaker. You run over a timing mat and it puts your name on a big screen with a message. I guess you can leave personal messages for the athletes. Mine said “M Wasserman, you are doing great” which I am guessing was probably a random choice. They had a race clock there, and around mile 17 it was reading around 13:50. Doing some math in my head I figured I would come in around 11pm, or 16 hours. Sounded good to me.

It was pretty dark, I put on my long-sleeved IronTeam shirt that I picked up in special needs. It wasn’t too cold, but I was walking more than running, and was glad to have it. Out in the dark you’d see glow sticks bouncing up and down. Then about every mile there would be big bright lights and loud music at an aid station. Each station had a theme. I don’t remember all of them, but the 3:16 station blasted Christian rock and a supporter said he was praying for the safe completion of my race. I’ll take it.

Around the turn-around, I headed back, I started to drink Coke at the waterstops. Coke provides a quick burst of energy with simple sugar and caffeine. But as quickly as it comes, it goes away. So you have to keep drinking it. Every mile I’d hit a waterstop… .”Water, Gatorade??” the volunteers would ask… “COKE!” and they’d point me to whichever volunteer was handing it out.

I started to pick it up. I wasn’t quite at a 4:1, but I would pick up landmarks and run to them. I noticed at some point I was actually running a 10 minute pace. Wow, that Coke stuff really works.

At mile 21, I see the clock at the Ford thing. I have 5.2 miles to go. I Check my watch, and look at my pace. At this point it looks like a 6:05-6:10 marathon for me. Since I started at 5 PM (10 hours), that puts me in at 16:05-16:10. My stopwatch and the clock all verify this. I’m perfectly happy with that time.

My friend Laura offered to send me some good vibes on race day. I asked that they be sent at 10PM Eastern Time, since that was when I would need a little push. She said she would imagine me by the big red barn. Sure enough, when my watch said 5 hours running I was by the big red barn. Right on schedule. About 4 miles to go.

Back through town, I kept moving. I had no time pressure, and alternated between speeding up to just be done with it, and slowing down because I was tired, and saw no need to rush. I ran into Nick and Renee who were walking back to the hotel and I gave them my fuel belt. Good to get rid of that thing. Into town, spectators were saying “You’ll make it… good job… congratulations… almost there.” “Almost there” is almost always the wrong thing to say when cheering for an Ironman. But in this case, I think it was close enough.

I make the turn up the last out-and-back, doing a run-walk, not in any particular hurry. No time pressure, the nearest “hour mark” will be past, and I’ll finish around 16:10. Almost done. Walk, run, walk, run. Round the last turn and it’s basically all downhill. No more walking. I cruise down the hill enjoying the cheers of the crowds.

On the right, just before entering the oval, I see Larry. He says “if you pick it up, you can break 16.” What??? Wasn’t it like 16:08 already? Well, apparently not. Turns out that the transition clock and the clock on the course all had the “pro” time. The pros got a 10 minute head start. Would have been nice to know. But it didn’t matter. I heard the announcer say 16 hours, and I knew I wasn’t going to make it in time. Oh well. No big deal.

Down the hill and onto the speedskating oval. The last 1/8 mile or so is along the track. It makes sense that a track designed to be covered with ice would not drain so well. So as you might imagine it was wet. Who cares. I’m done. I saw my folks cheer as I head around the turn, into the finish chute. I slap hands. I see a flames jacket or two… Not sure who they were, but I keep going. I raise my arms, hit the tape, smile for the camera, and hear “Mike Wasserman… you are an Ironman!”

Done. Unfortunately the photographer was out to lunch, so this is my finish picture.

Run: 6:10:15 (Total Time 16:02:11)

Behind the finish line, I got my hat, medal, and t-shirt. Headed back to the athlete area and saw Dan, Ann, and Steve who had grabbed me some pizza. I took a quick picture with my parents, saw Jenn Sussman and took a pic with her. Ate some more pizza. We called Alex to see where Hez was. She was about 15 minutes out, running with Rich. So we all gathered behind the finish line to watch her cross.

All in all we had 10 athletes racing. All 10 finished. In retrospect the rain was a good thing. Sure it was miserable, but it kept the temperature down. Cool weather makes everything easier.

Big thanks to my parents for hanging around in the pouring rain all day. Thanks to all my friends and teammates for your support. And a special thanks to all those who donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We raised over $10,000 to cure cancer!

Seventy Five

2007-03-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend at Lake San Antonio was a great success. We had great weather and lots of fun with the Team conquering the Wildflower Long Course. I spent the whole day organizing and supporting. So this week, while the Team rested, I knew I had to get in some mileage. I'm not doing an Ironman, but Wildflower is only 6 weeks away.

Saturday morning I met up with "the girls" at Nargis' parents' house in Sunnyvale. Missy wanted 70 miles, and Nargis wanted hills. We decided to go for distance rather than hills and I suggested the Uvas ride.

The ride starts completely flat as we ride south and the house-prices go up... Sunnyvale... Cupertino... Saratoga... Los Gatos... A quick right turn ended the flat stage of the ride as we climbed up Shannon. The wildflowers are blooming and the deer are out all over, so there was plenty to look at. The ride through San Jose isn't too interesting, but soon enough we got to McKean road... and the wind.

From the moment we hit McKean there was a headwind. It was ridiculous. 14 miles of headwind with no letup. It's amazing to see the difference in terrain between the Calero area and the Uvas area. You come down the hill and the hills are covered with oak trees, green grass, and yellow and orange wildflowers.

At one point we talked about shortening the ride to 60, but we decided to ride to the lake... which was much further than I remembered. So once we got there, we just did the ride as planned. The lake was lower than I've ever seen it. About 15 feet lower than normal. The race there will be interesting.

When we swung around the south end of the lake the headwind became a tailwind. Around the Chesbro dam I remembered an old biker bar where I stopped once to get water on a hot day. There's not much left there... the place burned down and was nothing but charred wood and half a roof.

Back on McKean I was loving the tailwind. It's great to pull 31-32 mph on the flats, but the downside is that it ends quickly. Back through San Jose and over Shannon was getting a bit harder. Somewhere between Los Gatos and Saratoga, I cracked. My legs gave up. It didn't last too long, but for the last five miles, I was pretty spent. No surprise... my longest ride of the year so far was only 52 miles, so this was a big jump. 74.5 miles (we'll round to 75) with abou 3800 feet of climbing. Given the headwind, I feel like it was more like 6800... but GPS doesn't lie!

Earlier in the week I had a couple of good runs on the trail at work. Tuesday we headed out on a nice cool cloudy day. Down the trail a mile or so it started sprinkling. By the time we finished it was POURING down rain and we were soaking wet. Thursday's run was a bit longer, but hotter. I've joined the GPS gang and I find that running with a constant pace monitor seems to make me run faster. Whatever works!

A Good Week

2007-03-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted anything here... So much for keeping myself honest!

Anyway, this week's weather has been fantastic, so I've made extra-sure to get in as much training as I can.

I started the week with a spin class on Monday at lunch. This class is hard enough as it is, but add to the fact that I had just ridden Hwy 9 the day before. My legs were T - I - R - E - D. Monday finished off with the IronTeam dinner at the Coop... Including that cake - with the super-sugar-frosting-flowers. So much for the calories burned in spin class!

Tuesday was ~~my run-at-rancho day~~ uh... I mean my off day. When the alarm went off, snooze came several times. With an early meeting there would be no running. It's ok, my legs needed a break.

Wednesday was planned to be a spin day, followed by track in the evening. Around 11:30, Eric came by my cube and asked if I wanted to run. After looking outside at the shining sun, I ditched spin and went for a quick 3-miler with Eric and YuanYuan. The trail was crowded and we started off at a decent 10:30 pace according to Eric's Garmin. At the turn around I picked it up a bit, and with about 1/2 mile left I really pushed it. By the end my HR was over 185 and I was running about an 8:15 pace. Sometimes it just feels good. That evening, Dan took the lead on the track workout. I wasn't going to run, but then joined in the warmup - only about 1.5 miles. I could really feel my legs from the lunch run. After warmup, I joined in the strength training part of the workout - pushups, squats, crunches, planks, balance drills, plus those crazy stretch-cord things!

Bright and early Thursday morning, I hit Rancho. I was shooting for 7:00, but got there around 7:15 (only 2 snoozes). Still enough time to do the 5 miler to the hairpin and back. This was an LSD run, so I started pretty easy, my legs were a little tired. By the turnaround I was feeling pretty good (the downhill didn't hurt either). I ran the "back" 2 min/mile faster than the "out." Yes, for those keeping track, this was run #3 in 24 hours. But I wasn't done yet! Thursday night I joined the Wildflower team's track practice. I dropped the MVHS keys off for coach Steve and joined in on the run. Alternating hard/easy intervals. Total was about 3.5 miles. A good workout, and a chance to catch up with some friends from the run team as well as old friends from the way-back tri team.

To sum up Wed-Thurs, I ran 4 times for a total of about 13 miles including two high-intensity workouts. So I was dragging a bit this morning when I hit FIT for my weekly session with Jimmy. He took a little pity on me (he says he lightened the weight but I'm not so sure). Using 30 lb dumbells I did 5 sets of (8 Romanian Deadlifts, 8 cleans, 8 squats, and 8 push-presses). Then followed that with some situps, back extensions, and seated rows.

I thought I was done for the week. But then Eric says "you want to go to the gym at lunch?" I almost said no, but then I remembered Resolution #2. After digging around in my car to find some goggles, I went for my second pool swim since Coeur d'Alene (yes, that was June 25th). The good news is I still remember how to swim. The bad news is I've lost a LOT of endurance and speed. Guess I better do that more often.

Well, the week is over... all that's left is the weekend. I'm going to sleep in a bit on Saturday (since Sunday is an 8AM start at Gunderson which will feel like 7AM), but I have a "fun little ride" planned. Stay Tuned.

Sunrise

2007-02-12T07:18:00.000-08:00

This morning I took the first step on one of my 2007 resolutions. I rode to work. Steve had been telling me about his ride to work, and my new job is on the way to his, so we decided to ride together. Unfortunately, Steve has to be at work at 8:00 AM, so it was going to be an early day.

On Friday I brought a towel and toiletries to keep at work so I can shower there. Sunday night I set up my bike - blinky red light on the back, white light on the front, headlamp on the helmet. Packed my backpack with clothes for the day and attached my reflective vest. Then I tried to get to sleep.

At 5:55 AM I clipped in and headed over to Steve's place. It's about 5 miles to Steve's, and it was DARK and surprisingly cold. Most of the route is pretty well lighted with streetlights, except going through Atherton where, apparently, streetlights are frowned upon. I think I saw 2 cars in the 20 minutes it took to get there.

My light seemed to be working ok. I was able to see the road fairly well. That is until I saw the light Steve had. He was behind me and the light was lighting up the road in front of me. So the first thing I learned is that I need a better light.

We turned onto El Camino and crossed over to Alma. At this point the sky was starting to light up. Traffic was light and Steve and I chatted as we rode. My computer wasn't working so I don't know the speed, but I'm guessing we were doing 15-16. Also, as the morning went on, I noticed that we were picking up speed as it got lighter. By Mountain View it suddenly got very light.

At about 7:05 I pulled off of Central expressway into the parking lot and took a leisurely cool-down around the parking lot. I put my bike in a bike locker, and walked into the deserted building. I climbed 3 flights of stairs - clip, clop, clip, clop - in bike shoes. I got to my desk at 7:15 AM. I think I was the first person in the building! I looked out the window to see the red and orange sunrise over Mount Hamilton.

I got in a quick shower and breakfast and got in at least an hour of work before I saw another person. It's great to be done with the day's workout by 7:45 AM!

UPDATE:
Obviously I need to get home too. But riding home would take a bit too long. So I planned to ride to the Lawrence CalTrain station (about 10 minutes), then take the train to Menlo Park and ride home (another 20ish minutes). This is all a great plan. Of course, it started raining around 4:00. So I suited up and headed out into the rain. When I got home I was soaked but happy with my accomplishment. Total distance for the day was about 27 miles (19 to work, 2 to the station, 5 home).

Runnin' Down A Dream

2007-01-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

A week ago, I figured out my new workout plan. With a new job, a new commute, and a new gym, my regular schedule was all out of whack. So I sat down and worked out how to fit it all in. In my grand plan, Tuesday mornings are run days. And, since I'm headed down that way anyways, I plan to do my running at Rancho.

Of course, this all looks great on paper. But at 6:30 in the morning, as I drag myself out of bed and get in the car for the run, it's a little hard to do. I got to the parking lot at 7:15, just in time to see Mike, Dana, and Jill finishing their run... I don't know how they can do this at 6AM twice a week!

I hit the trail as the sun was peeking out behind the hills. My breath was very visible, and the ground was covered with a fine dusting of white frost. I had checked the weather before I left the house - 35 degrees. After all the trouble I've had with heat - between Coeur d'Alene and Honolulu, you'd think I would be thrilled to run in the cold. Nope. My legs were heavy and achy. I usually take a while to warm up, and in 35 degree weather, that was made even worse. Yesterday's strength workout didn't help either.

I ran my usual 4 miler, which goes to the pond and back along the Rogue Valley trail. The trail was dotted with iced-over puddles, and the normally soft dirt was hard... like it was frozen solid. So, as my legs warmed up, and my hands warmed up, and my ears stayed cold, I trudged past the farm. I tried to get a drink at the fountain, but it was frozen. So I kept going. My legs were tired, my lungs were tight, and I just wasn't having a great day. I know that it takes time, and my recent lack of running is going to make it worse, but I just wasn't having fun.

When I run by myself, I wear my iPod. The music keeps my mind off my legs, and sometimes the songs help. It's an iPod Shuffle. So the songs come in random order, out of the 250 songs on there, the right one comes up surprisingly often. So, when I got to that last hill before the pond, it was the right time... and the song came on.

It was a beautiful day. The sun beat down. I had the radio on. I was driving.

Tom Petty's Runnin' Down a Dream. I have discovered that this is THE perfect running song. It has a strong driving beat. The beat is almost exactly 90 beats per minute so that every beat of the snare drum corresponds with a foot striking the ground. This song always wakes me up and gets me running well. And, for whatever reason, it always comes up at exactly the time I need it.

I crested the hill, turned around, and bounded down the hill. My feet got lighter and my lungs opened up. The song is only 4 minutes long, but it kept me going for the rest of the run. I negative split by over 2 minutes - much more than can be explained by the elevation change. Sometimes the smallest thing can turn your day around.

The Resolution Post

2007-01-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

It being new years and all, it's time for bloggers everywhere to create their obligatory "resolution" post. I'm not sure if you can call me a blogger... considering I haven't posted much over the last few months... and considering I don't think anybody reads this, except maybe my parents.... Hi Mom & Dad!... Well, actually, that probably makes me like about 98% of the bloggers in the world. So... anyway...

Things are a bit different this year. For the first time in five years, I am NOT doing an Ironman. (That is, unless I tempt fate and enter the Hawaii Lottery... because I have good luck in lotteries... at least in those that make me pay money, not win it). Plus, I have a new job. Last time I had a new job, I had to drop out of my Ironman because I couldn't get the time off, and didn't find enough time to train.

So, yeah... resolutions.

1. Lose 10 lbs by Wildflower.
2. Start swimming again... when was the last time I was in a pool???
3. Take the train to work at least once a week.
4. Ride my bike to work at least twice a month.
5. Don't let the job take over life... don't skimp on the workouts!
6. Blog more... it keeps me honest.
7. Take life by the horns - think less, act more.

Also, I guess you couldn't really call these resolutions, but more like goals...
8. Beat my half-Ironman PR.
9. Beat my marathon PR (by more than 1 second!).

There are probably more, but that's more than enough for now. Blogging keeps me honest, but enough is enough!

Honolulu Marathon - Every Second Counts

2006-12-27T21:49:00.000-08:00

When I signed up to run the Honolulu Marathon, I knew I could do it. I had finished five Ironman races, so by extension, I had finished five marathons. So, while this was my "first" marathon, it really wasn't. So, barring injury, finishing wasn't the issue. The issue was how fast would I do it?

Throughout the season, I had been working on increasing my run speed. Five years of long-slow-distance had taught me how to run long and slow. At a heartrate of 150-155, I can go forever, as long as I can eat. So, throughout the season I had been doing some "tempo runs" - runs of 15ish minutes at higher than race-pace. I didn't get in nearly as many of those as I wanted. Although the run team and the IronTeam didn't overlap too much, I still found it difficult to get in all the workouts. Also, my right IT band gave me some grief through much of the training.

All that said, when I went to Monterey for the 20 miler, I figured it would be a good test of my fitness for race day. Rather than run with my friends, I decided to run strictly on my heartrate. I started out easy, keeping my HR under 150. After 3 miles, I picked it up to 155 to the turnaround. On the way back, I let my HR rise to 165-170. For the last 3 miles, I just ran. My lactate threshold is around 170, so I definitely finished above threshold. When I got to the finish, I had run the 20 miles with a barely negative split, in 3:45 - a pace of about 11:15 a mile. I felt good, my nutrition worked, my body held up, everything was good. That pace corresponded to a marathon time of 4:52. People often run faster on race day, so my guess was 5 hours plus-or-minus 15 minutes.

Fast-forward a few weeks. Sitting on the beach in Honolulu, it's warm, and windy. This is not a surprise. It's always warm there. The race starts at 5:00 AM, so you can spend as much time out of the sun as possible. So, on race morning, at 4:00 AM, I walked to the start line with some friends. We had discussed what to do if you needed to bring something to stay warm in the morning, but it wasn't necessary. It was 70+ degrees at 4 in the morning! Shorts, Singlet, Shoes... that's it.

At 5:00 AM, the fireworks went off, and the race started. We stood still. With 30,000 racers, it takes a while to get to the start... And we "cheated" and lined up by the sign that said 3:00-3:30 - which is WAY faster than I was going to run. After about 15 minutes of shuffling in the crowd, I crossed the start line.

I started with my race plan. Keep the heartrate around 150 for the first 3 miles or so. The first couple miles were more like an obstacle course. I was passing people left and right, and getting passed almost as often. I passed the 1 mile marker in about 12:45, but figured it was just the obstacle course. When I passed the 2nd mile marker, in about the same time, I realized it wasn't going to be a fast day.

My folks had said they'd be on the left side of the road around mile 4. So, when I got to mile 3, I moved over to the left. I hit mile 4, no parents. I kept looking, and when I approached mile 5, I thought I'd missed them. Then, suddenly, there they were... I said a quick "hi" and headed on up the hill.

As we climbed diamondhead, the road narrowed to one lane. Packed like sardines, we all trudged up the hill. I was still running, and feeling pretty good. Near the top, I looked to the right and saw a tiny sliver of orange peeking out from behind the blue water. The sun was rising. I had timed it perfectly to watch the sunrise. As I ran by, I admired the view, and watched hundreds of runners stop to take pictures!

Down the backside of diamondhead, I saw the lead runner. He was all alone, second place was nowhere to be seen. I think he had about 2 1/2 miles to go. I heard later that he had made his move about a mile earlier, leaving the 2nd place runner in the dust.

As the miles wore on, the sun got brighter, and it got warmer. Around mile 10, I looked at my watch and realized I had been running for two hours. At this point, I knew that my 5 hours wasn't going to happen. But I was happy to realize that I had run 2 hours continuously without much of a thought. I still felt great, and was having a good time. On the other hand, I was distressed to realize that I wasn't even half way there.

Around this time, I was going down a nice hill straight into the sun. I had to take off my sunglasses because they were so fogged up, and the rising sun was so bright I couldn't see a thing. I kept hearing this big voice behind me... "Thank you Mr. Newton... Mahalo Honolulu PD.... Thank You Newton" I had to think about it... The guy was thanking the volunteers, and Isaac Newton. We were going down a nice long hill, and when he passed me, I realized he was at least 6'6" and easily 260. On the downhill, gravity truly was his friend.

More miles... more miles... It was an interesting crowd. Over half of the racers, and probably over half the fans, were Japanese. So there was lots of cheering that I didn't understand. The Japanese runners all seemed to be carrying spray cans. Every once in a while they'd stop at the side of the road and spray their legs with something. I think it was a spray-on pain reliever of some kind. Later in the race the air was filled with the smell of this stuff. Lots of folks had their "expected" finish times on their back. I was running with folks with times expected of 4:00, and others expecting 7:30. They're way off. I saw people running with small children - like 8 year-olds. Then, there was the man who passed me running in wooden sandals, counting out his cadence as he ran.. "Ichi, Ni!, Ichi Ni!" (I understood that much Japanese).

Around 16, I had a few twinges in my right knee. This was the IT band that had been bugging me for a couple months. I walked for about half a mile and stretched a little. I had been slowing down a bit, and walking a bit more. The heat was getting to me. I had passed the turn-around point, and was starting to see friends who were still on the way out. Some looked great, others were having trouble. It was a tough day for all of us.

Around 18 or 19, I ran into Stacey from the team. She was doing great and keeping a good pace. I decided that I would try to run with her. At that point, she was going faster than I wanted to, but I had to keep up. So, she and her friend kept on talking, and every once in a while, I'd add a word or two... but not more. We walked the water-stops, but otherwise ran. I have no idea how fast we were running, but it sure felt fast. About 3 miles later, I couldn't hang, and decided to walk.

All along, I had in my mind that there's no way I can do a marathon and NOT beat my best marathon time. I mean, my previous best time was after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike. But, as the day wore on, I realized that it would probably happen. I might not beat my PR. My marathon PR had been set at Ironman Canada 2003. I didn't remember the exact time, but I remembered a time of 5:52. As I looked at my watch, I did some math and realized I wasn't going to make it. So, when I fell behind Stacey, I decided to walk.

After about a mile of walking, I ran into coach Jody. We talked a bit, and continued to walk. Eventually, we ran into coach Ken, and we continued to walk. Ken and I talked about the PR, and he offered to "pace" me in for the rest of the race (at this point, about 3 miles to go). I would have needed to do 3 10-minute miles at this point... And considering, I hadn't done one of them all day, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. So I walked some more. Coach Mark joined us and told some story about a friend who rented a house nearby, and I don't really remember the rest, it didn't seem to have much of a point, except to take your mind off the pain... but I guess that was the point.

So, back now at the top of diamondhead, I decided enough was enough, and I was going to get this thing over with. So I started running, planning to run the rest of the way home (2 miles or so). Thanking Isaac Newton, I headed down the hill. I ran into a few of my mentors who were there to cheer and take photos.

I made my way down the chute, seeing my parents on the side. I crossed the finish line in 5:57:20. I was about an hour slower than my expected time.

After the race, I sat in the TNT tent and compared stories with my teammates. We all had tough days. One friend who has run over 20 marathons said this was the slowest race she'd ever had. Clearly, it was a warm day. I spent a few more days in Hawaii, hanging out on the beach, and generally relaxing. When I got home, I looked in my log book. I wanted to see how much I'd missed my PR by. Then I got the surprise. My 2003 IM Canada run time was 5:57:21.

I had PR'd. By ONE SECOND. But, every second counts, and a PR is a PR. I can't imagine how annoyed I would have been if after all that walking, I had missed the PR by one second.

Clearly this wasn't the race I'd hoped for, but as I said that day, and continue to say... Any day you cross the finish line is a good day. And, if things go the way they usually do for me, I'll be doing another marathon. I don't know which one yet, or when... but I don't ever do something just once. I have to do better. I know I can beat my PR by more than just one more second. Maybe next time I'll pick a race where it's not so hot! So, we'll see what happens.

Thank you to all who donated to my fundraising effort. We raised over $4400 to fight blood cancers.

18ish miles

2006-11-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

This morning at just before 6AM, my alarm went off. I had been to bed at a reasonable hour, and had even slept well all week. But for whatever reason, I felt bad. I was a little dizzy, and light-headed, and my stomach was a little "off."

But. Today was the 18 miler at Capitola. I could go back to bed, but then I'd just have to do the run on my own. And besides, it was probably just an early -morning things, and it would get better by the time I got down there. Plus, I had a ride - so I could sleep while my mentor drove.

We arrive at Capitola just after 7. My head was still kind of iffy. Even at the start of the run, I wasn't sure I would do it. I committed (to myself) to run the first mile, and see how it went. Then make a decision to go on or turn back. I left with my wave 2 crowd (made 3x larger by the addition of the South-bay team). Very quickly, I was left behind. I was dragging, and not feeling great. I walked a bit, jogged a bit, stretched, watched the surfers, and kept going.

At some point, I said "I'll go to the first water-stop." A bit later I ran into some of my teammates, Jen, Stacey, and JF. They were stopped at a restroom. Stacey was having foot problems, and I was still feeling bad. JF decided we could not run together because we'd just bring each other down. (Well, he IS a psychologist).

So the four of us headed up the road. And pretty soon, we hit the first water stop. I was starting to feel a bit better, so I kept going. By mile 5ish, I was feeling normal again. I have no idea what was going on... but it seemed to have passed.

From mile 5 to the turnaround, I felt great. I think it was around then that I knew I would do do the whole run. It's a beautiful run along the coastline. I've ridden East Cliff road many times, and run on West Cliff road even more times. So it was all familiar territory. The weather was fantastic.

Along the way, however, I found that I was missing my Gu and Endurolytes. I guess in my stupor of the morning, I hadn't packed them (they were in my bag, in the car, but not in my running belt). So... improvise. The waterstops had gummy bears (they're kinda like gu) and pretzels (good and salty).

On the way back along West Cliff, Jen pulled ahead of me, I'm not sure if she sped up, or I slowed down... Probably both. So I trudged along on my own. Back at the "Vegas" waterstop, I dropped of my long-sleeved shirt, grabbed a couple of Gu packets and spent a minute to watch the dancing girls.

The last stretch of the run always seems long. Around the harbor, I started running with Kelly from the south-bay team. We kept a decent pace, chatted about the team, our races, goals, etc. It was good to have something to take my mind off my legs, which at this point were getting a bit sore.

We came into the parking lot in just over 4 hours. When I take out the time stopped at waterstops, I think it was about 3:50. This is slower than I wanted to run, but given the way I felt in the morning, I'm just glad I got out and did it. When I got home, I got out the trusty google mapper. I don't know the "exact" route... But I got most of it... It was 19 miles. So that makes me feel a bit better. Still slower than I would have liked... but I'll take it.

Like all TNT events. Breakfast followed. We headed down to the beach for some food. I took the opportunity to drag a couple of my teammates into the water for a good post-run soak. The water wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be (according to Capitola Weather, it was 60 degrees). I had planned to get in to just over waist-height to get my hips (and that pesky IT band) under water. Unfortunately, this was just in front of the breaking waves. Rather than get knocked over every minute or so, I waded out to chest-deep water and got a great ice bath... then came back for my "healthy" blackened chicken salad. 5 weeks to race-weight!

Scary Times

2006-11-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

Halloween is fun!

Finally, after a tough couple weeks, my IT band is getting better. My method? Roll, Ice, Advil, Massage, Repeat.

Chainsaw Dave was off for a couple weeks putting together his annual haunted house, so in the meantime, the massage part was played by Chris, the massage therapist who comes to our track workouts. He does good work, but it's usually a short massage since others are always waiting. So this week, Dave got back. OUCH! In an hour-long massage, he spent about 40 minutes on my right leg.

Training has been going fairly well. I went for a ride with the IronTeam last weekend. It was my first ride in many months, and boy could I tell. I'm definitely getting better with running, but my cycling has suffered. I might need to add a ride or two just to keep myself balanced.

In the last few months, with the hectic schedule of staring a new IronTeam, training for a marathon, and working full time - as well as the large amounts of junk food around at work, I've seen my weight creep in the wrong direction. It's not out of hand, but I had hoped to be a few pounds lighter for the marathon. So, for November, I'm going to work on getting that weight back down. At this weight, it's pretty easy for me to lose 5 lbs, by just watching what I eat and being consistent in my training. I've got just under 6 weeks to get to fighting weight... Oh yeah, in the middle there's this thing called Thanksgiving... Scary.

The Beat Goes On...

2006-10-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I wrote here. Two weeks ago, I had just run a "short" 14 miles and kicked off IronTeam 2007!

Following kickoff, I immediately came down with a cold. This seems to be the same cold that everybody got that week. Needless to say, my training suffered.

Some highlights from the last 2 weeks:

20% off night at Sports Basement brought 25+ athletes to the weekly spin (and gave me a chance to replace those shorts that chewed up my leg).

At our first track workout, I was called "F.U. Wass" within the first 5 minutes of the strength training workout.

The next day, I got my comeuppance for that strength workout.. Jimmy took me through a modified version of the "Fight Gone Bad" workout - 3 sets of 20 (Wall balls, High Pulls, Box Jumps, Push Press, and rowing). That took most of an hour!

Team workouts all around - swim, bike, and run. The Team looks good - a wide variety of skills and abilities, and lots of excitement and energy all around!

As for me, my cold held on, for what seemed like forever. Finally this week I got back into it. A few easy spins and runs, brought me to Woodside Town hall just before sunrise yesterday for our 16 mile run. The course sounded a bit longer than 16 to me... Basically, the full length of Canada road (about 15.5), plus a loop around Olive Hill, and another loop in Edgewood Park.

Canada Road is very familiar to me. I've ridden it more times than I can count, and at various points, I've run most of it, on the trail that runs along the road... All but the last 2 miles or so. As it turns out, those are the HILLIEST parts of the trail! Much hillier than the road itself.

It was a challenging run. I felt great for the first 13 or so. Around 14-15, I lost some steam through Edgewood Park. I think I was low on salt, and need to start using Endurolytes on my long runs. By the time I got back to Canada road, I could "smell the barn" and made my way home.

So, let's compare: The last run was "14 miles" and took 2:14. This week's run was "16 miles" and took 3:25! Both had hills. Rumor has it, the 14 was more like 12.5. I mapped out this week's run on Google and got 17.2. No wonder it felt so long!

For the most part, the body is holding up. I've been having some minor IT issues on my right side, but an ice bath and my roller seem to be helping.

The marathon is 7 weeks away!

Note to self...

2006-10-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

Don't get dressed in the dark!

Friday night's party was in full karaoke force when I left. I had an early morning - a 14 mile run in the hills of Portola Valley. So while the hits kept coming, I headed home.

Saturday came early - about 6:00 AM. I got up and pulled on a pair of tri-shorts and running shorts over those. I got to the start just before seven and warmed up. I took off with wave 2. Since I'd been dropped by wave 3, I figured I could move back a wave and have folks to run with.

We took off at 7:20 at a nice pace. Within about 5 minutes, I realized that my tri-shorts had a hole on the left inner thigh. That's gonna hurt. Guess I should have looked more closely when I got dressed.

The run was fantastic. I don't actually believe it was 14 miles - because I did the run in 2:14 and it was hilly. But it was a beautiful course, and I felt good all day (except for the chafing on my thigh). After a good breakfast at Buck's, I headed home to find a 4 inch patch of raw skin.

The next morning was IronTeam kickoff. 46 athletes, and 11 staff make the biggest South-Bay IronTeam ever! Lots of fun to come!

Go Team!

Gotta Love Thursdays

2006-09-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

On a good week, I'm working out six days a week. Typically, it's more like five. On a bad week, it's three. But I always work out on Thursdays. Usually twice. Thursday at noon I work with a trainer at FIT, and Thursday evening is our coached track workout. So there are two "appointments" that I don't like to miss.

So Thursday is usually a tough day, and today was no exception. Jimmy (my trainer) always has something up his sleeve. Today after my warmup he puts down a 50kg barbell. The workout is this... 20 deadlifts, then 500 meters on the rower. Then, 20 Romanian Deadlifts, and another 500 meters rowing. Next was 20 high-pulls... which was ridiculously hard. Followed by another 500 meters rowing. Things got a little easier with the next set of 20 squats. And yes... another 500 meters rowing. Finally, the last set came and we lowered the weight a little: 20 push-presses with a mere 40kg. Followed by a last 500 meters of rowing.

After work I went to the Stanford track for our team workout. Another hard workout. After a warmup, coach Mark gave us part of the workout. 800 meters... Hard but not too hard. I was aiming for 4:30, but I paced off of Sheba, and ran a 4:08. Then, he broke us into three groups based on our wave... I am in wave 3- which is the fastest wave.

Now, I guess I'm in wave 3 because of my 5k time trial. I ran a 28 minute 5k... but that makes me the slowest person in wave 3, and I get dropped on most of the long runs. And actually, I'm slower than some of the wave 2 folks, probably because they didn't push their 5k as fast as I did. So, Sheba (my pacer in the 800) is in wave 2. And she was heading off to that group, I made her come with me to wave 3 so we could "suffer and die together." I figure the good thing about a track workout, is they can't get too far ahead.

So we get to the next phase of the workout which is some unknown number of 200s. Faster than the 800. So I'm thinking I want to do 1 minute. But each time, it's more like 50 seconds. Some were as fast as 47. Even when I tried to run slower, it was 53. I think we did 8 or 10.

The workout ended with another 800 - the goal being to run the same pace as the first one. I started way too fast - probably at the 50 second/200 pace (which I now realize is a 6:40 pace!) One lap in, Sheba left me in the dust. I finished in 4:26- which is still faster than I was originally aiming for, but way slower than my 4:08.

Now to bed. I'm running an easy 3 in the morning. Assuming I can walk.

Update

2006-09-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've written an update. The IronTeam "off-season" is pretty full - lots of parties, planning, recruiting, meetings, etc. On top of all that, there's Run Team track workouts, buddy runs, long runs, parties, dinners, etc. So yeah... busy.

Some highlights...

1. Fundraising -- We hit $4,000. Thanks so much to everybody for their support!

2. 11-Mile Huddart Park Run -- OUCH! Lots and lots of hills. Over 2 1/2 hours to cover 11 miles?? You've got to be kidding!

3. Tempo Runs -- OUCH! I've been working on improving my speed. In order to do that, you hve to run faster... Duh... So I've been doing workouts like 3x12 minutes at Tempo pace - which for me is about 9:30 miles. I can do the repeats. It's just hard to stay motivated to keep pushing that hard for that long without somebody to chase.

4. Pac Grove Sprint -- FUN! Not my fastest outing, but fast enough to finish 19th of 29 in my age group. My run was 18:15 which would mean I ran 9:07 for the miles. I still think it was a bit short, but I'll take it. Definitely my fastest run on that course.
5. Ironman Canada -- FUN and INSPIRING. 59 of 61 athletes crossed the finish line. Hundreds of friends, family, and teammates provided support throughout the day and night.

Marathon Training: Week One Two

2006-08-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

Kickoff for the Fall Run season was about two weeks ago. Kickoff is always fun to feel the nervous energy in the room... Little did I know that so much of it would be coming from the run-team staff. We signed up at least 7 of the Peninsula staff to join the Ironteam in 2007!

The day after Kickoff, we (the Ironteam coaches) made an early-morning trip up to Santa Rosa to support the Team at the Half-Vineman. Dan showed up at 4:15 (15 minutes later than scheduled)... See what I mean about early?? Few hours of sleep, and sitting around in the sun all day don't lend itself to a great workout day... Guess I'll start tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and went. Tuesday I got in a quick spin with the Ironteam. Wednesday passed without much training. Thursday was the first track workout. I woke up that morning having not slept much, and feeling kinda "blah." I stayed home from work, but felt OK enough to catch the workout. Nice workout, we ran about 1/2 mile and did some core strength. Friday morning came like a ton of bricks. Sick. Sniffly, sore throat, slight fever. I went to the workout on Saturday morning because I thought it would make me feel better. Nope. Ran 2 miles and slept most of the next two days.

Just like that - week 1 of my Marathon training was gone. I ran about 2.5 miles.

Week two was much better.
Monday afternoon I went to the gym, got in a 30 min spin, and my "short" weight workout. I felt pretty strong, and kept my heartrate in a good zone.

Tuesday morning I hit Rancho. I didn't make it in time for the buddy run, but went for my own- The schedule called for 60-90 mins. I ran up Upper Wildcat, reaching the top in 45 mins - which is a little slow for me, but not too bad. I shortened the run a bit, coming down the front. I got a bit tired and walked most of the last mile - guess I'm not "totally" recovered from the cold. When I got to work, I looked at the schedule and it said 30-60 minutes! Oh well, I guess I'm an overachiever.

Wednesday was an "off" day for me - we had our last Ironteam track workout of the year, followed by our Sendoff/Logistics meeting. A late night with not much to eat. I'd pay for it the next day.

Thursday at lunch I had my weekly training session with Jimmy. He could tell I was feeling tired - so we did a fairly slow workout - but it still included five sets each of squats and deadlifts. Track was going to be interesting. As it turned out, I felt pretty good - legs not too tired, except during Mark's squat and lunge workout. Fatiguing muscles is a good thing!

No time to run on Friday morning, so at lunch I hit the gym. I decided to try the "video game" style stationary bike. It was actually really good. As you ride along, it shows you the scenery and other riders. Even the silly computer-generated terrain was enough to keep me interested. I even found myself wanting to stand up when I went up the hills!

Saturday's team run at Sawyer Camp felt great. Warmup, stretch, then a 6-miler. I trudged along at my LSD pace. I ran the last mile with Coach Mark and discussed pacing strategies. I'm hoping to break out of the pattern I've built with five years of Ironman training. He gave me some ideas, but first I need to come up with a goal pace for my marathon.

Hmmm... My best Marathon time was just under 6 hours, at Ironman Canada in 2003. I should be able to beat that... but by how much??

A Conversation...

2006-08-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Me: Guess what! I’ve joined Team In Training and am training for my first marathon: The Honolulu Marathon, on December 10th, 2006. I’ve committed to raising $4000 to fight blood cancers.

You: Wait a minute… I’ve heard this before. You’ve sent me TNT fundraising letters in the past. Haven’t you done an Ironman?

Me: Uh, yeah. Five actually.

You: And doesn’t an Ironman contain a marathon?

Me: Well, yeah. Ok, ok. I’m training for my first stand-alone marathon.

You: Well, after all that Ironman training, shouldn’t “just a marathon” be easy?

Me: Endurance training is never easy. Running has always been my weakest of the three sports, and this will let me focus on it. I expect to do a lot more running than in my Ironman training (and a lot less biking and swimming!)

You: Ok. I guess that it could still be a challenge. That’s good. But wait – aren’t you a coach? Why are you fundraising?

Me: Yes. I am still coaching the Ironman team, but I’ve decided to join the Run team as a participant. I’m fundraising because over 100,000 people every year are diagnosed with a blood cancer. Treatments have become much better, but there is still no cure. And, I’m training in memory of my friend and teammate, Louie Bonpua, who passed away from Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia in 2002.

You: Ok. Sounds like a good cause. How can I help?

Me: Join me in making a tax-deductible contribution to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can donate by credit card on my personal fundraising website:
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/MikeWasserman

You can follow my training at: http://blogs.tntironteam.org/author/mike/

Thank you for your support of this important cause,

Mike Wasserman

The Next Step

2006-07-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, Ironman number 5 is in the books. The question always comes up. "What are you doing next?" Well, I've made at least one decision. I joined the TNT run team, and am doing the Honolulu Marathon.

Why? Well, I've never run a marathon. Well, sort-of. I've never run "just a marathon." It's something I'd like to try. And what better way to do it, than through TNT. I haven't been a TNT participant in five years, so it's fun to go back and re-live the excitment of the first time.

What about Ironman? Well... My current plan is to take 2007 off from Ironman. Of course, I am still coaching Ironteam 2006 and 2007, and will be watching at least two Ironmans in the next few weeks. So it's entirely possible I'll get caught up in the excitement and sign up for number six.

Stay tuned :)

Chasing Louie

2006-07-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

The annual "Run with Louie" day for the Ironteam is always good for some inspiration. A good reminder of why we choose to train with the team, and to raise so much money. It got me thinking, and reflecting on the last time I saw Louie smile.

It was a cold early morning in January 2002. My friends and I made the trek up to San Francisco before sunrise. Louie was carrying the torch. He didn't have much time left. He had been given a couple months to live. There were lots of logistics involved in getting Louie from the hospital to Fort Point that morning, especially when he didn't have his doctors' permission. In a rather bizarre version of the "telephone" game, the story got wilder and wilder as it passed through the TNT grapevine. At one point it involved our TNT manager flirting with paramedics at Starbucks to get them to donate their time.

We had been talking, at the hospital, about who would push Louie in his wheelchair. Everybody wanted to do it, but we figured it would be Aggie. I think none of us knew what to expect that morning. I was expecting to stand on the side of the road, and watch Louie "ride" by in the wheelchair.

When the morning arrived, there were hundreds of spectators. TNT shirts everywhere. Old friends, Louie's relatives, everybody was on hand to watch the torch relay. The ambulance came and Louie was lowered down in his wheelchair. When the torch was near, Louie surprised us all and stood up. It was a quarter mile, and no matter how he hurt, and no matter how weak he was, he was going to walk it.

So who was going to push the wheelchair? Nobody. Who was going to walk with him? Everybody. In what must have been unique in the entire torch relay, it was one small, frail man carrying the torch... surrounded by hundreds of cheering supporters... walking en-masse towards Fort Point and the Golden-Gate Bridge.

There was no shortage of cheers or tears that day. It was amazing to know that just four months earlier, Louie had finished the Ironman. Just four days earlier, he had been diagnosed to be in the Blast Crisis, and given two to four months to live. Just hours earlier he expected to be pushed in his wheelchair. But when the time came, he stood up, smiled, and carried the torch held high.

After posing for what must have been hundreds of pictures, Louie went back into the ambulance and back to the hospital. The word went out that hospital visits would be limited to family only. Louie went to sleep that afternoon and never woke up. Over the next few days his bedside was visited by a steady stream of friends. We all came by to pay our respects to our fallen hero, and say one last goodbye. He passed away a few days later, in the middle of the night, with his father at his side.

My last picture with Louie (and Rain)... 1/19/2002

Get Off the Couch!

2006-07-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since CDA. In those two weeks, I can't remember how many times I've been asked, "How long does it take to recover from an Ironman?"

It's a complicated question.

The first recovery is at-rest. The swelling in my feet went down in a couple days. The muscle soreness was gone in about 2 days. By day 3, the small sunburn and chafing was all healed. Certainly within a week, I felt almost normal. Luckily, for the first week I was off work, since I was sleeping 9-10 hours a night!

The second recovery is while exercising. I've tried to do my active recovery on the bike. On July 4th, I went for an hour ride around the Portola Loop. I felt great, and my time was quite fast for me. Then, I realized that the wind was blowing me up the hills. I've done 2-3 other rides, either short, or slow (supporting runners). The legs feel ok. Ready to take the next step.

Monday I did my first run. I started easy - just two miles. It felt... ok. My heartrate was a bit high for the pace I was running, but that's to be expected. Legs were a little heavy, but it usually takes me three miles to feel normal anyway, so maybe that's a good sign.

The hardest recovery is mental, and it really comes in two parts. First, you need to have the mental desire to get back out there... to deal with the inevitable post-Ironman let-down. In that case, I'm doing fine. I have some goals for the off-season, and am starting to think about my goals for next season (we'll talk about that later). Second, I just need to do it. Get up... stop watching the Tour de France... Get out there... GET OFF THE COUCH!

CDA Race Report - the LOOONNGG version

2006-07-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

The Calm Before The Storm

In the weeks leading up to Ironman Coeur d’Alene, I would look at least once a day at the weather report. On the weekend before the race, it was mostly cloudy and 73: Ideal conditions for an Ironman. When race day (Sunday, June 25) came into the “long-term forecast,” the weather sites were predicting mid to high 70s. As best I can tell this is the “average” temperature for this week in Northern Idaho. I had high hopes that the weather sites were right. They weren’t.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon, the weather was beautiful, in the high 70s. According to the shuttle driver, they were predicting high 90s on race day. WHAT?? Yahoo only showed the mid 80s. As the gang arrived and we spent the next few days getting ready, every time I checked the forecast, it was rising. In the morning they forecast 88. After lunch it was 90. It was going to be a scorcher! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

By Friday morning, most of the crew had arrived. We spent the morning going through all the Ironman rituals: Registration… merchandise tent… checking out the transition area… merchandise tent…short swim… short bike… short run… visit to the ART tent to work out all the kinks in our bodies. In general, the stress level wasn’t too high, we had fun basking in the glow of all the Ironman experience.

In one tent at the expo, they were selling a super-fancy “Ironman” scale - $130 if you’re interested. Several of us tried it out. Two things that I have been saying for a long time are now scientifically proven to be true:

I am big-boned.
Mike Booth is a skinny-ass-punk.

After a fitful night’s sleep with some strange dreams, Saturday morning dawned. From our hotel parking lot, we could see one of those lighted message boards… “No Credit… Bad Credit… We can help!!…. 9:15 AM… 83 F”

Most of the gang went off to drive the course. Since I’d raced here last year, I decided to spend the morning packing my transition bags and getting ready to race. The demeanor of Ironman village was bit more somber on Saturday. Athletes were a little more serious and focused… The temperature was a little higher. I racked my bike and dropped my transition bags. I stopped by the Timex tent to replace my suddenly dead heart-rate-montior, and bought my last-minute supplies for the race.

We got the gang together for an early dinner… Really early… 4 PM. There were some folks there, but not too many. When we left at 4:45, the place was packed. Back to the room for final preparations… Dan and I watched the 2nd half of “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” Or at least I did… Dan was asleep by 7:30. I tried. I may have actually slept some… Then, in the middle of the night (about 9:45) I realized that I hadn’t cut up my Clif-Bars for the bike ride. Rather than gamble on remembering to do it in the morning, I got up and chopped four Clif-Bars into 8 pieces each. Per my race plan, I would eat one piece every 15 mins along with additional calories from Sustained Energy. This should give me plenty of food for over eight hours of riding… Much longer than I could imagine being out there.

In northern Idaho, two days after the Summer solstice, the sun rises about 4:40 AM. So when we made our way to the transition area it was already light outside. It was a pretty relaxed morning as Ironman Pre-Race days go. Body-marking went quickly, I pumped up my tires, put my food on my bike and made it to the porta-potty with plenty of time to spare. The Booths, the Rocks, and Dan, and I relaxed on the grass putting on body-glide and sunscreen.

The Swim

I jumped in the lake to get a warmup and was quickly told to get out of the water… There’d be plenty of time for swimming after 7AM. Ok. I turned around and looked up on the beach. “Wow – look at all those people.” It was really an amazing sight. Twenty-two hundred black wetsuited, capped, and goggled athletes of all shapes, sizes, and ages looking back at me. You could feel the nervous energy building… smiles, tears, hugs, jitters all around. After the national anthem, the PA system music started to build to a creschendo.. Fatboy-Slim: Right Here… Right Now… and BOOM. The cannon went off. As I waded into the water, I heard the announcer say “One of the most amazing sights in sports… An Ironman mass start.” He’s absolutely right.

Coeur d’Alene Lake is a beautiful clear body of water, usually quite calm. Not today. Two thousand swimmers can kick the water up a little. Ok. A lot. The term swimming in a washing machine was used by many, and I think that understates it a little but I can’t come up with a better metaphor. Dr. Steve, however with his 61 minute swim saw no problems – he had lots of clear water…I guess it pays to be really fast!

The beach start is about 200 yards wide and the first leg of the swim is about half a mile long. If you do the math you realize that even if you start all the way on the outside and aim for the turn-around, you will only swim about 20 extra yards (on top of over 4200). But people don’t like to do math. They’re smart enough to know not to aim for the first buoy. Instead, they all aim for the second buoy. So, just like last year, about 8 minutes into the swim, everybody comes to a complete stop right at the 2nd buoy.

The mass eventually cleared itself up and we got to swimming again. I got smacked in the head, the face, and the arms. I got pretty good at predicting swimmers, so I could avoid most of the arms. The only problems came when, in the middle of a pack, some idiot would start doing breaststroke. Smack! A kick in the ribs. Oh well. Just keep swimming! Around the buoy, left turn right into the sun, and another half mile back to the beach.

First loop done, hand touches the ground and I stand up. There was a huge crowd of cheering people. I heard my name, but I don’t remember if I saw anybody I recognized. A quick jog down the beach and back in the water.

The second loop wasn’t as bad as the first, but was still pretty busy. A few times I got boxed in between two swimmers who couldn’t swim straight. I took that opportunity to pick it up for a bit and swim over them. As usual things got bunched up at the turn buoy. I was on the inside with 30 swimmers bearing down on me. I used Coach Claire’s backstroke-around-the-buoy trick and turned into the home stretch.

The last leg was pretty smooth. As I got into the shore, the lake got shallow, and I started to be able to see the bottom. Suddenly, I saw a body on the bottom of the lake! I jumped, then realized it was a safety diver, just keeping an eye out for trouble. I hit the beach and stood up. 1:31… Right on schedule.

A quick jog to the wetsuit strippers… Rrrriiiip! Wetsuit off. The changing tent was packed. After a leisurely change, I jogged out and grabbed my bike.

The Bike

The course begins with a 15ish mile out and back, starting through downtown, with thousands of cheering fans. It was 8:30 in the morning, and I was still soaking wet, but I was warm… Not a good sign of things to come.

Along the lake, I started to see my teammates on their way back from the turn-around. They all looked great and were smiling. I made the turn and saw a few more behind me. Back up the hill, past the giant inflatable sun and the cheerleaders… Back down the hill, and into town. Turning right onto Northwest, I saw my parents who gave me a big cheer as I headed out onto the “hilly” portion of the course.

After crossing the Spokane River, the course turns uphill. It’s not a really steep hill, but it’s about 2 miles long. My legs felt pretty good, so I dropped into a good spinning gear and tried to keep 90 RPM. Dan came up behind me and we chatted for a bit. I expected him to be ahead of me, so I was surprised to hear of his troubles in the swim and T1. He passed me, but I kept him in sight for quite a while. It’s not a good sign when I can see Dan on a ride – either he’s having a bad day, or I’m pushing way too hard. Luckily, after a few more miles, he got his legs back and left me in the dust.

Each of the hills reward you with a downhill, but some are fairly technical, and you need to watch your speed on the tight turns. At this point, my bike computer was doing some really strange stuff. I was watching my cadence. I felt like I was moving pretty well, and I wanted to check my average speed. Based on my watch, I expected that I was averaging about 16 mph. But my computer said 12. What?? Then I looked at the distance. I had covered about 30 miles, but my computer said 21. Hmm, guess that magnet’s not in the right place. Oh well, at least my cadence works.

The hills end with a nice out-and-back across the Washington border into Liberty Lake. I was flying. I felt great, my nutrition was working, and I was well hydrated. The message sign in Liberty Lake read 81 degrees. Not bad at all.

As you might imagine, a town called Liberty Lake might have a bunch of flags up. In fact, there were hundreds of flags out. All blowing away from me. That’s right… I had been flying with a tailwind. This being an out-and-back meant that I would now do the rest of the bike ride into the wind.

On the plane on the way home, I met a guy who described this as riding your bike into a bunch of hairdryers. A good analogy. I was tucked down into the aerobars trying to minimize the effect of the wind. Through the industrial park, around the dog track, over the railroad tracks, through the neighborhood, and up a little hill. Finally, I turned right for an all-too-brief flirtation with a tailwind. Another left along a horrible logging road, and back down into town.

My folks were out in the sun, waiting, cheering, and looking forward to getting into the shade while I did my next out-and-back. I finished the first loop in about 3:30, which is right where I wanted to be.

Special needs is at the end of the out-and-back. I ran into Dan, Steve, and Scott. Steve was having a tough day. Four flats so far! He was searching for tubulars. I handed him my spare CO2. We chatted for a bit, reapplied some sunscreen, and I headed up the hill – fully expecting them all to pass me in the next few minutes.

When I hit the hills on the second loop, I knew the heat was up. Riding by the lake had kept it cool, but suddenly the hill was in the direct sunlight and there was no breeze and no shade. Welcome to loop number two. Scott caught up to me and we chatted for a while, and he took my picture from his disposable camera… I wonder how that one came out!

At Riverview drive, there’s a hard left, and a steep hill. I remember last year, I was convinced that they changed the course between loops because there was nothing this steep the first time around! True to form, it was steep and hot. I still felt ok, but my feet were starting to hurt.

On the flat before Liberty Lake, I heard “LEEEROOOYYY” which would only come from Dana. (It’s a long story, and this is too long already – actually, it’s not really that long, but if I explained it, it still wouldn’t make any sense)… Dana was on the side of the road sitting under a tree. Needless to say, I was surprised to see her there. I yelled “What happened?” She yelled something back that I couldn’t really hear. A volunteer who was putting her bike in the car said “She’s OK,” so I kept going.

On the out-and-back, I caught up with Scott again. We discussed the temperature. He guessed 95, but said it was probably 120 six inches off the road. His feet were hurting too. Sure enough, the sign in Liberty Lake said 95! I was excited to see that the flags were hanging pretty low. The wind had died down. This was going to be easier – or so I thought.

Just when I tried to pick it up, my feet gave out. Last year I had a similar problem. My feet just hurt. It was hard to pedal and I had to slow way down. I thought it was because my shoes were too tight. I got new shoes. Apparently that wasn’t the problem. It was worse this year. I stopped to take off my socks. That didn’t help. I poured water on my feet. That helped some, but basically there was nothing to do. I just had to gut it out. I couldn’t push down on the pedals, so I was working hard to push forward on every stroke.

So with the heat and my sore feet, I was down to about 10-12 mph on the last leg of the bike. I have never been so excited to get off my bike and start running. Because of the heat, my nutrition was down to Gatorade and a little Sustained Energy. No more solid food. My nutrition was fine. I’d be doing great if I could just pedal!

Because I’d been through this before, I knew I’d be able to run. Last year, I was expecting to walk the whole run and finish at 2AM, so this year, knowledge was power. As I rode into town and got off my bike, I knew I’d be able to finish… I just didn’t know when. My “glacial” second loop ended up being almost an hour longer than my first!

The Run

From experience I knew my feet would get better. I say this from experience, but really there isn’t too much. This has only happened once before, at this race last year, never in training or any other race. But I knew the feet would get better.

I walked the first mile where I saw Mike Booth and Lori both starting their second loops… so jealous. After mile 1, I started to run some. By mile 3 I was doing about 2 minute walk, 2 minute run. There I ran into the team.

Mike, Christy, Jeff, Dana, and a bunch of others were out on a corner cheering. Dana got up and walked with me. She told me about her problems on the bike, then immediately turned into my coach. “Ok. Are you getting enough salt? Have you eaten? How much are you drinking at the waterstops? Have you peed yet? How many times?” My feet were still killing me, and I was a bit choked up talking to her, but it really helped get me going. When she left me she asked, “Do you need anything?” I replied “Clouds.” Unfortunately, I guess she’s not that well connected… the sky remained completely clear for the rest of the night.

From about mile 4, I started my 5 minute run, 2 minute walk. The foot pain had reduced to a dull ache. It was still hot, but cooling off as the sun got lower in the sky. Early on I had hopes of finishing in daylight, but as the day wore on, I couldn’t wait for the sun to set. I was popping Endurolytes like candy, drinking Gatorade and water at all the waterstops, and pouring ice in my hat at every opportunity. I felt good. I was keeping my heartate up in the mid 150s and maintaining about 13 minute miles. I found my parents around mile 10. They had walked out to see what the course looked like and to see if I was going to make it. I told them not to worry, and that I was feeling good. Coming back into town I saw the team again… Big cheers and big smiles all around. Support is a great thing 13 hours into an Ironman.

For the most part, I really like the 2-loop course on the run (not so much on the bike). You get much more support, and you get to see your friends more often. The only part I don’t like is getting near the turn around and hearing the fans yell “Just 2 more miles!” when I’ve got 15 to go. Oh well, that’s just part of life – and next time I see them, they will be right!

I kept doing 5 and 2 for what seemed like an eternity. As the sun went down I started to look at the time. I thought it would be possible to come in under 16 hours, but I’d have to pick it up a bit. So for about 2 miles (between about 17 and 19), I stopped the run/walk, and just ran. It felt great to see that even 130+ miles into the day, I could run solid for 2 miles… now I’m sure I wasn’t running fast, or pretty, but I was running.

Around mile 22 the wheels came off. I hit the wall. My running was just about over. With 4 miles to go, and no worry about missing the cutoff, I walked most of the rest of the way. When I hit Sherman Ave, with 3/4 of a mile, I picked it up and tried to jog the rest of the way, but stopped after a few steps. I was walking until I got near the chute.

Then I heard my name. I looked up and saw the gang. Those who finished, those who dropped out, and those who came to watch were all on their feet cheering and giving high-fives. Ok. I guess I could run now! The last few blocks were downhill and thousands of cheering fans were there. To my right, I saw Mike Pickels running alongside me. Then I saw my folks on the side – no mistaken identity this time. Down the chute I slapped hands with the fans and pumped my fist as I crossed the line. Whew. I was glad to be done. 16:22:40. About 14 minutes longer than last year.

The Aftermath

My “catchers” handed me off to my parents. I quickly went to the porta-potty (well hydrated!) got some pizza, and got my name down for a massage. I’m not sure the massage did anything, as best I can tell, she just kinda put her hands on me and did very little massaging. By the time it was over, I was ready for bed. I waddled over to my folks’ car and got a ride back to the hotel. I took a quick shower and didn’t really sleep that much.

The next morning around 5AM I wandered out to the ice machine in my underwear and got a bucket full of ice. My feet were killing me and quite swollen. I made two ice packs, took four Advil and went back to bed. The rest of the day involved massage, finisher-gear-shopping, lunch, nap, and a great post-race dinner with teammates and family. We topped off the day at 10:55 PM with a trip for ice cream right before closing.

I saw a podiatrist when I got home, just to rule out major problems like stress fracture. He doesn’t know what’s going on either. But I was fitted for orthotics, so hopefully this will never happen again.

Chafed... Blistered... Sunburned... Happy

2006-06-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a day. Like any Ironman, it was a day filled with highs and lows, excitement and anxiety, and, as Dan likes to say, "some amount of discomfort." Oh yeah, and it was over 98 degrees out there.

I did it. Ironman number five is in the books. I crossed the line at Ironman Coeur d’Alene. It was tough… Not that these races are ever easy, and it’s hard to make comparisons, especially in the immediate aftermath… but this is probably the hardest race I’ve ever done.

Ironman is always a challenge. It's really the challenge that makes it so much fun. Not just the day of the race, but all the training leading up to it. I have an amazing group of friends and teammates. As always, it was wonderful to see the flames out in full force on the course.

There are lots of details and lots of stories. I’ll post some of them later. I’m sure it will be too long for most. For those who want the “Cliffs Notes” version… Here it is. You can watch my finish by clicking on the link below and watching a short deoderant commercial.. and then about 2 minutes of video.

NAME	MIKE WASSERMAN
BIB NUMBER	575
AGE	34
PROFESSION	ENGINEER
STATE/COUNTRY	REDWOOD CITY CA USA

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	POSITION
1:31:42	8:02:31	6:28:04	16:22:44	1835

RACE LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	POSITION
TOTAL SWIM	2.4 mi. (1:31:42)	2:24/100m	1920

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT	56 mi. (3:33:10)	15.76 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT	56 mi. (4:29:21)	12.47 mph
TOTAL BIKE	112 mi. (8:02:31)	13.93 mph	1978

TOTAL RUN	26.2 mi. (6:28:04)	14:48/mile	1835

TRANSITION			TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE			9:28
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN			10:59

PENALTY			TIME
TOTAL PENALTIES			--:--

T-minus 16 hours!

2006-06-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

Almost time to go. Bikes racked... transiton bags checked... off for a 4 pm pasta dinner!

Nothing new on race day... unless you have to.

I was in the lake yesterday for a quick swim, somebody asked "Is that a 510 on your wrist?" After a second, I realized he was asking about my heartrate monitor. Yes, I said, looking at my watch... my suddenly blank watch. I pushed a button or two and the screen came back, but really dim. By the time we got out of the lake, my battery was completely dead. Ok. I walked around the expo looking for a Polar tent to get a new battery. No luck. There's a Timex tent. I thought about getting a new battery at a drugstore and changing it myself, but then it might not be waterproof and that would be worse than a dead battery.

I am now the proud owner of a new Timex Ironman (TM) Heartrate Monitor (and a sporty new Timex hat). Yes, it's new, but it's less of a change than racing without a heartrate monitor.

Tonight should be an early one - we'll be back from dinner by 6, drinks mixed by 8, and probably in bed by 9.

My alarm is set for 3:50 AM. Gulp... Ready or not... here I come!

Race Plan

2006-06-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

With Ironman now less than 48 hours away, time to dust off the 'ol race plan, and make sure I've got the day figured out...

This is a plan I've used for my previous Ironmans and it seems to work pretty well for me... I had to make some modifications (more fluid, more salt, less food) for the weather, which is now predicted to have a high of 92 degrees.

Race Plan - IM Coeur d’Alene 2006

Pre Race

Wake up 4AM
Eat bagel w/ peanut butter and 1 clif bar
Leave for transition area by 5 AM
Drink 12 oz Gatorade 1 hour before

Swim

Line up about 2/3 of the way back, behind the fast people, but not all the way in the back.
Start to the right in about half way along the beach: Behind the fast folks, but not all the way on the beach.
Concentrate on front-quadrant swimming – stretch out the stroke and glide.
Draft – take advantage of the huge draft from 2000 swimmers.
Sight every 10 stroke cycles
Pick up the pace on final leg
Target time 1:30-1:40

Keep moving!
Take cup of Gatorade on way into tent.
Put on sunscreen – arms, legs, face.
Change into bike shorts
Put on cycle jersey, socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and gloves.
Get sunscreen on back from volunteer.
Jog to bike
Target time 10 mins
Bike
Enjoy the crowd!!
Spin, spin, spin – cadence over 90 rpm.
Watch heartrate – should be no higher than 155. May be a bit high on first few miles due to adrenaline. If HR is still high after 5 miles, SLOW DOWN!
Concentrate on spinning legs in full circles… Lead with the heel.
Maintain HR in range of 140-155
NEGATIVE SPLIT - Hold back on first loop.
EAT EAT EAT! – something every 10 minutes:
10,20,40,50 – sip sustained energy
00, 15, 30, 45 – 1 bites of clif bar (about 1/8 bar - precut), 1 endurolyte, (2 on 2nd loop)
DRINK! – constantly sip on Gatorade Endurance from Aero Bottle. Should be drinking at least 28 oz per hour. Above 28oz per hour, drink water + 1 endurolyte for every 8 oz.
Stay aero as much as possible.
Try to maintain HR of 140 flats.
Spin up the hills, pedal on the downhills
Keep moving in Special Needs: Stretch, Pee, Eat, Go.
Pack some of everything (because who knows what will taste good):
2 spare tubes
2 spare CO2
Turkey Sandwich
Pringles
Target time 7:15 – 7:45

Trade bike jersey for run singlet
Trade bike shorts for tri shorts
Change shoes.
Fuel belt/gu flask
Keep moving!
Get sunscreen on back from volunteers.
Target time 10 mins

Run

Start with run interval: run 5, walk 1
Keep HR under 155
Drink continuously – half flask gatorade per mile (4oz/mile - ~20 oz/hr)
Eat gu – one hit (about 1/3 packet) per mile (about 2 pkt/hr; ~200 cal/hr)
One endurolyte per mile (5-6 per hour)
First half goal ~12.5 min/mile
Special Needs:

Long sleeve shirt
Full gel flask

Second half goal ~13.5 min/mile
At some point – less Gatorade, more water, possibly soup.
If feeling bonky, go for flat coke, but only as last resort
Target time (average 13-14 min/mile) = 5:45-6:15

Totals:
Time: 14:35 - 15:45
Fluids:
Bike: 24-32 oz/hr
Run: 20-24 oz/hr
Calories:
Bike
Sustained Energy – 5 scoops + 100 cal hammer gel
~650 cal/7.5 hrs = ~85 cal/hr
Gatorade 50 cal/8oz 150 cal/hr
Clif Bar: 240 cal/bar, 1/2 bar per hour = 120 cal
About 350 cal/hr
Run
Gu: 200 cal/hr
Gatorade 120 cal/hr
Total ~320 cal/hr

Electrolytes
Gatorade Endurance: ~900 mg/hr
Endurolytes: 4/hr (200 mg) = 800 mg/hr
Total 1700 mg/hr

The Gang's All Here!

2006-06-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it. Whether by car, or plane, through Bend, Seattle, Reno, Boise, wherever. We're all here ready to go... Dan, Lori, Mike, Dana, Karen, Glenn, and me. Plus, IT 2005-ers Steve, Melina, Scott, and Doug. The flames will be showing in full-force on Sunday.

In the shuttle on the way from the airport, the driver was telling me that Ironman day was the hottest day of the year last year... Wow, I remember it being hot, but I had no idea it was that hot. So far, the weather here is beautiful. Temps have been in the 70s all week. But... true to form, the weather will get HOT this weekend. Good thing we're not racing on Monday!

We've got a busy day ahead of us. Short swim, bike, and run to work out all the kinks. Registration, schwag shopping, and general getting ready! Fun Fun Fun!

575!

2006-06-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

It's official.. We're really doing this. CDA race numbers were posted today.

You can track our progress on http://www.ironmanlive.com

575 Mike Wasserman
590 Mike Booth
1268 Glenn Rock
1699 Dan Russell
2005 Lori Pignati
2010 Karen (Jensen) Rock
2064 Dana Booth

Taper Blues

2006-06-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

One week into taper, I'm remembering how it feels.

I'm always tired. Some nights I can't fall alseep, others I wake up hours before sunrise, and have trouble getting back to sleep. This always happens to me whenever I quickly increase or decrease my training volume. While I haven't had any meltdowns this year, I have found myself a little moody... Like I wake up every morning on the wrong side of the bed. Finally, these days I'm hyper-aware of how my body feels.

So, this morning, I woke up after a night of restless sleep to head over to FIT for my weekly massage appointment with "Chainsaw Dave." After working on my legs and lower back, Dave said it seemed like my muscles were where in good shape - not too tight. Then he pushed his knuckle into my groin muscle. YEEOOOWWW! "Except that one," he said after he peeled me off the ceiling.

After work I headed over to Chain Reaction for the 90 minute ride. As we rode up Altamont, I started to notice a pain in the back of my right knee. Actually, it wasn't really a pain, more of an "awareness." At the top, Dan and Mike decided we'd be doing two loops of Taaffe road. So we dropped down Black Mountain and back up Taaffe. At this point, my left knee started to twitch. I forgot about the right knee, and climbed to the top. At the top I decided to skip the second loop. "We'll catch up to you on Foothill," Dan says.

Cruising down Foothill, I'm thinking, "There's no way they can catch me... What was he thinking." So I make it to the parking lot and put my bike on the car. Then I see Mike over by his car. What?? I knew he was fast, but?? I can see he's hurrying... something's wrong. Turns out that Matt crashed coming down Altamont. Mike got a ride and is going back to pick him up.

The gang finally made it back, and Mike and Ann took Matt to the hospital to get cleaned up. Hopefully it's just roadrash, and nothing deeper. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Funniest Thing I've Heard In a While

2006-06-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

In the break room at work, I was chatting with a co-worker who recently moved to the bay area from India.

"Mike, I noticed a lot of bicycle riders this weekend. Are they all training for the Ironman as well?"

"No, maybe some of them, but there are a lot of bike riders in the bay area, and when the weather's nice they all come out. Wait until the Tour de France starts. Then you'll really see a lot of riders."

"Oh? Do people around here ride in that?"

PR?

2006-06-08T14:59:00.003-07:00

At the gym today, my friend Thom (who was training an Ironeam Alum) kept saying "Mike Wasserman... you are a FIVE TIME Ironman." Not yet! "Visualize the finish," he says. Then, between sets of 40kg kettle-bell high-pulls, my trainer, Jimmy, says to me, "You're getting strong... You're going to PR this year!"

Uh.. PR? Ok, thanks for the confidence but... Well, it is possible.... And while I would never plan to PR, I shouldn't dismiss the idea. Plan to have a good day. And on a good day, it is possible. So, in an effort to delay the next set of high-pulls, Jimmy, Thom, and I talked numbers.

My Ironman PR was set at Ironman Canada in 2003.
Swim: 01:19:07
T1: 00:06:38
Bike: 07:00:44
T2: 00:04:33
Run: 05:57:21
-----------------------
Total: 14:28:21

So, to compare 2003 to now:

On the minus side:
Coaching means I get less training for myself
I am 12-15 lbs heavier than I was in 2003

On the plus side:
I'm much stronger - some of that weight is muscle
I have alot more experience
In 2003, I held back on the run because I was doing Kona in 8 weeks

A better comparison would be to compare last year's Coeur d'Alene. From a training perspective, I'm a lot closer to that than 2003, plus it will be the same course. I had a tough race last year - I bonked on the bike and had foot problems on the run.

Swim: 1:31:22
T1: 0:07:51
Bike: 7:48:32
T2: 0:08:08
Run: 6:32:49
-----------------------
Total: 16:08:41

Wow, where can I shave 100 minutes off this time??? That's a lot of time!

The bonk should be worth at least 30 mins on the bike, and the foot problems another 30 minutes on the run. I can probably save about 5 more in transition. That takes us to about 15 hours.

Planning for a good day... If I stay motivated, I should be able to shave a few minutes of the swim - call it 1:25. On a good day, I should be able to do a 7-hour bike - last year, before the bonk, I did the first loop in about 3:30. That leaves the run... Can I shave off another 15 minutes on the run? My wildflower run this year was a PR by about 8 minutes... so... mabye.

Here's how it rolls up:

Realistic Best-Case
--------------------------------------
Swim: 1:30:00 1:25:00
T1: 0:07:00 0:07:00
Bike: 7:20:00 7:00:00
T2: 0:05:00 0:05:00
Run: 6:00:00 5:45:00
-------------------------------------
Total: 15:02:00 14:22:00

Wow - kinda scary to see it listed out like that. As always, weather is the biggest factor. If it's hot, realistic goes out the window. Gotta follow that nutrition plan and watch the heartrate zones... then see what happens.

Gulp... 17 days

2nd Annual Ironteam Alumni Triathlon

2006-06-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

The main event of the clearlake weekend, was the 2nd annual Ironteam Alumni triathlon. This event is put on by Jeff Shaw at his home in Clearlake. It's a full-service event and comes with t-shirts, medals, awards, lodging, and food. Entry fees are donated to the LLS. It's a great event.

The event itself is roughly olympic distance. The swim's about 1 mile, the bike is 23 miles, and the run is 6 miles. But the wildcard is the seeded start. The first wave goes off at 9:00 AM, the last wave at 10:30. In between, athletes start at their assigned time. First across the finish line wins. Seedings are determined by negotiation, whining, and sandbagging at a pre-race meeting the night before. Jeff (the race director) reserves the right to change the seedings at his discretion.

I started right in the middle - 9:45 AM. My wave of three (myself, Tim Bleigh, and Kenny Herbas) headed into the lake right on time. The swim course is basically, go out past the dock and turn right. When you get to the second buoy, turn around and go back. We had water support and I chatted with the kayakers asking for directions... not much to sight on out there.

While in the water, I pondered my race strategy. I bonked pretty hard the day before, and I didn't know how my body would hold up. I decided to push hard on the bike, then see what happened. If I blew up on the bike, so be it... I'd improve my seeding for next year!

So, when I saw the giant water-trampoline, I made the left turn and headed for the beach. Out on the beach and straight to the wetsuit stripper (yes, this is a full-service race). Then through the passageway onto the lawn for the transition area.
A quick transition and I was on the bike, in the aerobars, spinning my legs and circles and trying to maintain 20+ mph on the flats. Well, that stopped when I hit the first hills. But overall, I felt great. I was able to keep a good pace and keep my heartrate in the right zone. For the full 23 miles, I never saw anybody else. None of my wave-mates passed me, and I didn't catch anybody from the previous wave.
As I approached the transition area, I could see people heading out onto the run. I tried to figure out how much time I'd need to make up to catch them. My main target was Iron Joe. Last year I caught him early on the bike, but this year he had an extra 15 minute head start. He was at least 1.5 miles ahead of me. It was going to be tough... and I had no idea how my legs would work. I was in and out of T2 in about 1:30, most of which was navigating the obstacle course of the homemade transition area.
So far, so good, the legs felt fine. I caught up to the walkers pretty quickly and slowed to chat with them for a minute or so. Then decided it was time to "go til you blow." I picked up the pace to just below my LT. I'm not sure how fast I was going, but it felt like I was moving. I saw the incoming riders. When I saw Kenny, I knew he had a good chance of winning.

A mile or so into the run, I saw Dana coming back on the bike. She'd be the one to beat in overall time, the only question was whehter she could catch up with those who started so far in front of her.

Still running well, I started to see folks coming back for the 2nd half of the run. Joan was in the lead and said "If you push hard, you can hold off Dana!" She picked it up a bit. Later, I told Dana that if she picked it up, she could catch Joan. (No, this isn't a competetive group!) Somehow Raf was ahead of me, though he started after me and didn't pass me on the bike. I think he may have been "creative" with the directions. Finally, I saw Joe. Still about a mile ahead of me. I felt good, but could I catch him? Probably not, but I'd give it a shot.

Got to the turn around for a refreshing Gatorade and water stop hosted by Coach Wayne and Sheila. Give a quick YEEEAAAAHHHH to the video camera, and headed back. Legs still feeling good. I picked it up even more - up above LT.

Again, I have no idea how fast I was running, but I caught a few people, then got caught by Dana and Dan. With my lungs and legs burning I saw Dana turn off the road into the driveway. Phew, the finish line was just ahead. I turned the corner towards the cheering masses and decided to have fun with my finish. I raised my arms and jumped over the finish line. Total time about 3:15. 5th place among male finishers.

Triple Double Brick - and Dogs Dogs Dogs!

2006-06-03T22:56:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Follow your nutrition plan!

Saturday morning began like any other morning. My alarm went off and I tried to open my eyes. It was then that I realized that this was no ordinary day. I was sleeping on the ground... on a mostly-flat air mattress... in a tipi. Ah yes... Clearlake! Saturday morning at Clearlake means triple-brick for those doing Coeur d'Alene.

So I gathered up my stuff and got ready for a long day. I mixed my drinks, pumped my tires, and talked with Jeff about where exactly we were going to go on these three loops. The group gathered for a quick picture and we were off on loop 1.
It was cold out there - not very clearlake-like. The loop is pretty fast, not very hilly and we were all fresh, so we took off at a decent pace. Before I knew it, it was over - we'd ridden about 23 miles and it was time to run... handn't eaten too much. I'd pay for that later.

The first run was good - my legs felt good, we ran through the lakeshore trailer park, out for 25 minutes, then turned around and back. Drank some gatorade, but ate nothing.

Back on the bike for loop 2. I took off with Iron Joe and Raf. We made the turn off of highway 20 in a loose paceline. I was in the back when I heard a loud barking. I looked back and saw this dog in a full sprint looking to take a bite out of my right calf. I took a quick picture (ok, not really), called "Dog Back!!" and sprinted past Joe and Raf. You don't have to outrun the dog...

We all sped up and the dog was left in the dust, though he chased Christy and Karen a bit later. I left Raf and Joe and took the longer route through Scott's Valley. It was beautiful and I took the chance to get into aero and really push the pace. It felt good, I kept eating, but probably not enough. I caught up to the rest of the gang. They went the other way around the loop and were telling their own dog story. They had been chased by this dog (doesn't seem too scary):

I rode back with them, getting some good anaerobic training as I drafted off Dr Steve to catch up to the pack. As we rode back through the trailer park, a dog jumped out in front of Steve and me. We slammed on the brakes and barely missed hitting the dog. Remembering the near-fatal-rooster-incident, I didn't have time to take a photo - so we only have this artist's interpretation.
As I went out on run number 2, I felt pretty tired. I realized that the fact that I wasn't eating much on the runs, and had shorted my nutrition on the first bike had basically left me in a hole - two and a half hours of under-nurishment. So I shortened the run to about 30 mins and went back and made a sandwich. That hit the spot.

Back on the bike for round number three. Now it was really windy. I was dropped by the pack after approximately 57 feet. The sandwich was too little, too late. I rode out to the first turn (about 3 miles) and decided to call it a day. I turned around and limped back into camp, totally bonked.

So I soaked my legs in the lake, got some lunch and kicked back while the rest of them finished loop 3. I felt bad, but knew that this workout wouldn't make or break me... besides we had an olympic-distance tri the next day.

A couple hours later, the rest of the gang came back from their third loop. Turns out there was yet another dog incident. This time, Dana was bitten. By this dog.

Note.. Dana insists it looked more like this:

On second thought, maybe using that bacon-flavored sunscreen was a bad idea.

Wet WET WET!!

2006-05-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

The day after riding 100 miles, I headed down to Morgan Hill for the Uvas South-Bay Triathlon. So once again, up at 5 AM. I opened the garage to find that it had started to rain. Wonderful.

It's a sprint tri... 3/4 mile swim, 16 mile bike, 5 mile run. Normally, it would be an opportunity to go as hard as possible... to quote Coach Wayne... "Go til you Blow!" But 100 miles in my legs, and wet roads, I figured this would be a nice slow day.

I saw Dana in the transition area, who asked if I wanted to skip the whole thing and get breakfast. Yes. But I guess I won't. Setting up in the transition area in the rain, I kept thinking "this is silly." My number showed up about 7:10 (somebody picked up my packet the day before). So I guess I had to race. Quick run over to get body marked (#849) and a hurry to pull on the wetsuit.

In true J&A fashion, the race start was a bit disorganized. They had published wave starts which had me starting at 7:40. Suddenly, I was in the 2nd wave, starting at 7:33. So, like everybody else, I'm rushing to the water's edge, trying to get my wetsuit zipped up. I got in the water with a couple minutes to spare... Not enough time to warm up, just enough to get out to the deep-water start line, when the gun goes off.

As the swim started I got into a groove fairly quickly. And each time I breath, I look up - there's Tom, swimming right next to me. I wondered if he saw me... and if he did, if Phil Liggett was running commentary in his head. We swam together around the first corner, and then I guess he passed me, because he was in the transition area when I got there.

After a quick transition (Tom was still there), I headed out on the bike. The first thing I noticed was... wow, my butt hurts from yesterday. I decided pretty early that I wasn't going to push it. In fact, not only would I not push, I'd take it easy and watch all the people go by. I spun easy and enjoyed it. Along the way I saw several Ironteam folks pass me, and a bunch of the Kain folks running the bike course. They're doing CDA too... 5 weeks! 35 days! Wayne blew past me on the back stretch. "Go til you blow!" he screamed. "Too late!" I called back.

I finished the bike in just over an hour, pretty sure that my heartrate never got above 140. Not that I was trying to keep it low - just riding easy. As a comparison, when I do an Ironman, I try to make sure my HR never goes below 140.

The run is always the hardest part of the race. 5 miles is relatively long, usually I've hammered the bike and my legs are gone. I continued my taking-it-easy plan. I ran, I walked, I chatted with folks on the course. I saw all the Ironteamers out there, and cheered them all on. Eventually, I decided I was sick of running, so I picked up the pace to get it over with.

I approached the finish line, and the team was out there cheering me on. I raised my arms, danced a little, and stopped off to chat, but they insisted that I finish the race. So I headed on down to the finish line.

A couple minutes after I finished, I went to pack my stuff up and it started pouring. What J&A lacks in race organization, they make up in food. So had to stick around to eat. I put on my damp clothes and got in line. Pretty decent food. Hung out with the team and caught up with some old friends.

Then, it's back to the car. In the pouring rain. Everything is wet. Time to go home and sleep!

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

2006-05-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

Today the team headed up to Santa Rosa to ride on the Vineman Loop. 50ish beautiful miles of rolling hills and vineyards. For the five of us doing Coeur d'Alene, the day called for two loops - 100 miles. Unfortunately, to ride 100 miles, starting in a parking lot 100 miles away, requires getting up around 5 AM.

The ride started uneventfully enough. The team rode as a pack for the first few miles, over the run course, and past the turnoff to the high school. We crested a hill and things started to smell a bit... Cows... everywhere. Big green pasture, littered with cows. It was here that Mike Booth claims to have seen "The tallest cow I've ever seen... It was like 7 feet tall!" I, however, don't remember seeing any Shaq-esque cows.

What I do remember is suddenly there was a cacophony of squawking, and feathers flying everywhere. A cockfight broke out on the side of the road, three or four roosters fighting, and one of them darted out in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, luckily able to stay upright. I narrowly missed him and he continued across the street. For the next few miles I was haunted by visions of flying feathers and what effect my fancy bladed-spoke wheels would have had on the rooster - and vice-versa.

The goal for this ride was to ride it as a Marker Set - ride at your own pace, don't draft, don't wait around too much, ride it like you'd ride it in the race. So, I spent most of the ride by myself... Good mental-toughness training. I'd see a teammate occasionally and we'd chat for a bit. Tom and I seemed to play leap-frog through most of the Alexander Valley. Every time we passed each other I'd hear commentary... in his best Phil Liggett voice: "Here's Wasserman, with his trademark relaxed look... Goff passes and breaks away, and the chase is on..." Apparently this commentary had been running for most of the day. I think Tom even thinks in that accent.

I think this was my 10th and 11th time riding this course, so I know it pretty well. Well, sort of. For several weeks in March, most of Sonoma county was underwater. So when we got to Geyserville, I wasn't too surprised to find that the road was washed out. So after asking "How do we get to 128 without riding on the freeway?" We got an alternate route, basically running down the opposite side of the valley. Amazingly, the distance was almost identical to the original course, but not as pretty.

Chalk hill was uneventful... I spun up the hill trying to read the messages that had been painted there over previous years. One said "Big Sexy says (and I couldn't read the rest." I really wonder who Big Sexy is... and what he/she had to say that was so important to spray paint it on the road. My favorite one from several years back had washed off... It used to read: "Note to self: Next year train harder." A few more miles of potholey roads (remember 23 days of rain in March??) and I was back at the parking lot.

Back in the parking lot I re-filled my four bottles, ate my turkey sandwich, and chatted with the team. Everybody seemed pretty happy with their rides. But I felt like I should be going... I still had another 50 to go. The rest of the CDA crew was chatting, but I took off, knowing they'd catch me soon.

Loop 2: Well, the stop at the parking lot had been long enough to cool down a bit, so starting up again was a challenge. I felt like I'd paced myself pretty well on the first loop, my energy level was good. The clouds never burned off, so it stayed nice and cool. The rest of the pack caught up to me right around the smelly-cow-pasture area. Here we discussed the existance of the Shaq-cow, but he was nowhere to be found. As we rounded the corner, I saw, near the side of the road, a dead rooster. I have no idea if it was the same one... but I guess the chicken crossed the road one too many times.

I rode with the group for another couple miles, but by the time we crossed the river onto Westside road, they had left me. I was back to my mental-toughness ride. I was asked the other day, "What do you think about during a 100 mile ride." My answer involved primarily chatting with other riders and looking at the scenery. Well, that was out. The other riders were gone, and I'd seen the scenery just 3 hours earlier. Not much had changed since then. So, I concentrated on eating every 10 minutes. Concentrated on spinning my feet in circles. Concentrated on why my right foot kept coming out of the pedal... I think I need new cleats.

Soon enough I was on the "new" part of the course, through Alexander Valley, riding into what had become a pretty strong headwind. Ok. Get in aero, keep spinning. Boy, this doesn't feel great - good thing I'm getting that bike-fit soon... too bad it wasn't last week. Spin, eat, drink, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

At the top of chalk hill (still no more insight as to Big Sexy's message), I reached my even-split time. That is, the first loop took me 3:18. On the 2nd loop, at 3:18 I wasn't quite done yet. I wasn't surprised. I had hoped to even-split, but with the extra wind, I figured I'd be a bit later than that.

When I rolled into the parking lot, my 2nd loop ended about 19 minutes longer than my first. I felt fine, though Dana noticed that I had broken out in hives on my neck and legs. In the bathroom I noticed my eye was pretty swollen. I'm allergic to something out there... Whatever it was, the reaction went away by the time I got home.

I did this same ride last year, the same weekend. This year's splits were 3:18 and 3:37. Last year's splits? 3:18, 3:36. Well, at least I'm consistent!

Rattlesnake on the Road

2006-04-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

Day two of my Ridgecrest training adventure began at 5:45 on Sunday morning. The previous night had been a retirement dinner/party for my Mom and two other teachers at the local college. It went to about 10:00 and I spent much of the time re-hydrating from my 90 miler that morning. During the presentation, a full pitcher of water was placed on the table. By the end, it was empty, and I’m fairly certain that I was the only one drinking.

Sunday was the “Over the Hill Track Club 10 Miler.” This is a 10 mile run that my mom has done most every year for the last 25 years. When I was growing up, I could never imagine running 10 whole miles. Today I was going to do 15. My idea was to start at mile 5 about an hour before the race, run to the starting line, then do the race. I wasn’t exactly rested, so I slept as late as possible. I got up at 5:45 and was out the door by 6:00. As my dad drove me out to mile 5 I asked him if there were porta-potties on this run. He said no, but there’d be one at the start line.

With the sun low in the sky and the temperature in the low 70s, I started up the hill. As it turns out, this race is point-to-point, all downhill. So my extra five - straight up hill into the sun. I practiced my 5:2 run/walk intervals. I felt ok, but definitely tired. The miles went by pretty slowly, but soon I ran into the walkers (they started at 6:30). Eventually I made it to the start line and got my number. The quote from my dad - “No porta-potties, but plenty of bushes.” Ok. This will be interesting.

It was much easier to go down the hill than climbing it. There was a slight headwind - just enough to make it cooler - relatively. This is a pretty small race- total of walkers and runner is probably about 50. So it spread out pretty quickly. With my Ironman-pace running, I was near the back pretty quickly. At mile 2.5 was the first water-stop. A nice woman offered me Gatorade and/or Water, then warned me to be careful. “There’s a rattlesnake on the road up there.” A few minutes later - there it was… A three-foot mojave green. I’m pretty sure it was dead.

I continued my run/walk. I was surprised at how slowly the miles were passing. I guess I wasn’t very recovered from the ride and the party, and frankly, I had to go to the bathroom. I trudged on for a while until it was just too much. This is 10 miles of road with literally nothing around it- no buildings, no gas stations, just rocks, scrub-brush, and, apparently, rattlesnakes.

So I thought… what would Dana do? I remembered a conversation - or maybe I just imagined it in her voice. Either way. I stopped, took off my right sock, and ran off the road. I climbed over a little rise in the desert and squatted behind a creosote bush. I saw a few lizards on the way, but luckily no snakes. With that done, I headed back to the road and towards the finish line.

I had about 4 miles to go, and I decided I just wanted to be done. I gave up on the run/walk and just ran. The good news is that I had energy, the run/walk left me plenty of energy to just run. I passed a few people and caught up to my mom about 1/2 mile before the finish, we ran in together.

I came in 2nd in my age group - my brother came in first, even though he finished at least 30 minutes before me. There was no third-place. As I look at my time, I realize that I was running slower than I did at any of the long runs over the past month - including the 13 miles on the Wildflower course. Once again, I’m pretty sure that heat is the main factor. I was able to finish without trouble, but it required me to slow down. Strangely, nobody noticed I finished wearing only one sock.

90 miles - 95 degrees!

2006-04-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend visiting my parents for my mom’s retirement party. Training doesn’t stop - so I brought my bike and run gear. My schedule called for a 90 mile ride on Saturday and a 15 mile run on Sunday. My parents live in Ridgecrest, CA which is in the middle of nowhere, (http://tinyurl.com/ob8wv) so there’s lots of land to bike and run. It’s also in the middle of the Mojave Desert, so it’s HOT.

Saturday morning I mixed my sustained energy packed my food and four bottles of gatorade onto my bike and headed out by 8 am. I started on the “Inyokern loop” which is a gradual climb of a few miles followed by a gradual descent for about 10 miles. I say gradual, because none of these are “hills” in the sense of the bay area. There’s not much but desert out there - the air was calm and warm, and I felt good. The first 25 miles was all road I’d ridden before, but at mile 25 I turned north on highway 395.

395 runs along the east side of the Sierras. I’ve driven it a million times, but never ridden it. As I headed north towards Coso Junction, I had 8000 foot mountains on my left and rocky desert on my right. I had a slight headwind but it wasn’t too bad. I felt a little tired but chalked it up to being jet-lagged from an all-night flight from Hawaii followed by a 6 hour drive the night before.

As the road wore on it got worse. I was weak and slow and my heartrate was way too high for the speed I was going. The wind was minor and I felt like I’d never get there. Finally I saw a sign - Coso Junction 5 miles. I looked ahead and could see some trees and a building or two but there was no way that was it, it was too close. Beyond that was another hill. Ugh. So I trudged on, fighting the urge to call my dad and ask for a pickup. The trees got bigger, and 5 miles later, I was at the Coso Junction rest-stop.

There’s not much there - a gas station and a rest stop. I pulled off my bike and walked into the gas station. I grabbed a bottle of water and drank half of it between the fridge and the counter. The lady looked at me kinda funny - “Did you come here on a bicycle??” Yup. I sat down on the porch in the shade and drank the bottle of water (about 32 oz). I had run out of gatorade, so I went back in and bought more. As I packed up the bike, I looked at the thermometer on the gas station. It was in the shade and read 95 degrees. Oh.. That explains it.

The ride back was better - mostly. It was into the wind - so much for that slight headwind on the way out… I must have imagined it. It was also downhill. The last 20 miles of the ride had been a very gradual climb, so gradual, that I didn’t really know I was going up. But I sure knew I was going downhill on the way back.

I decided to take a slightly different way back, spending more time on 395 rather than retracing my steps. My goal was the big downhill into town. It’s a fun long downhill, so if I stayed on the highway a bit longer, I’d get the downhill as a reward. It was a bad choice. The last few miles were much windier and hillier just to get to the top of that hill. And, when I turned down the hill, it was in the process of being re-paved. So it was rough and gravelly. I hurt more going down that hill than the previous 80 miles in the heat. Finally, down the hill, I stopped again to refuel and rode the last 10 miles home.

In retrospect, my whole ride was affected by the heat. It’s really insidious - since you’re riding and have a constant “wind” in your face, you don’t feel that hot - but it saps your energy. I couldn’t drink any more sugar- hot Gatorade is not tasty. More water, more endurolytes, less food. Ultimately, I had to slow down. I ended up eating only about 200 calories/hour instead of 300. Flexibility is the key to Ironman training.