It was going great and then....

5430 Long Course. Half Iron distance. August 10, 2008 Race recap.

This was to be my big race for the year. Training wasn't as consistent as in the past but I was feeling good and strong. I was rested up pretty good even though I didn't sleep well on saturday night.

I did Master's Swim class this year - never in the past. My swimming was smoother, faster, and stronger. It showed because I PR'd my swim by my watch. I need to pay attention to where the timing mats are because the chip time in my various races have never matched very well with my watch times.

I finally must have figured out my transitions too. I checked my past 1/2 IM times and my T1 has been 3-3:30. I transitioned in 1:14 yesterday - now that's some serious improvement.
The bike went okay except I had ridden the course and had in my mind what speed I would ride certain sections. Its a great plan until your bike computer batteries die 2 miles into the ride. I had no idea how fast I was moving. I just went by RPE, which is fine if you have it planned that way. Kevin R passed me at the U-turn on the first lap. Which is fine since I knew I could run him down.

I came in to T2 nice and easy. Slipped out of my shoes, dismounted perfectly, ran right to my rack, and then just stared for a few seconds. It was like my brain shut off and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Shake it off Jonny. Did my quick switch and got out on the run. My old T2 times were 2:20-2:30. Chip times says I smoked out of there in 1:00!!

I settled into a nice quick turnover pace to start my run. Mile 1-4 averaged 8:40s. I love it! I was feeling good, nutrition was right on, running my race. Lap one was about 57 minutes. I caught Kevin as I expeced as we were got out to the road for lap 2. I just wanted to hold a pace of 9 minute miles or under and I would PR the run. And then...

Mile 8 gives you an uphill on the back side of the Res. I was moving up the road when I must have twisted just right and it felt like a knife got shoved up under my kneecap. I tried to run through it for a little bit and just had to back off and walk. I've felt this before but its been a long time.

5-6 years ago I had knee surgery to clean up the cartilage in my left knee. They took about 70% of it out. I was scared at first because I was just getting into shape (I went from 255 down to 210 over the past year and a half). It felt great after the surgery. I ran 4 miles about 3 weeks after and was able to build from there. All my triathlons, marathons, adventure racing, ironman have been done since then. I had very intermittent pain in my right knee and knew there was a little bit of damage floating around but its been manageable. Until now.

I was 5 mile from the finish and knew I wasn't making my goal time anymore. I walked the aid stations and tried to jog to the next one. That worked for one station. Then it was half and half.
Kevin got me back with a mile to go. At the last hill I wanted to look decent coming in so I blocked out the pain and settled in to a hobble jog to the end. 5:44:15.

I'll do the ice and ibuprofen for a day or so and try to find a doctor for an MRI. Got to get this fixed this fall so I can get back on that horse.

Taper Time sucks

So for a lot of us doing the Long Course, its taper time. Some people look forward to this. I did too until today. To put it bluntly, I'm bored off my ass. I feel fat from not working out and I've got the blahs. I feel like going down to Pearl Street and having a few beers on the Mall. Nope - gotta race on Sunday. Its cool and overcast and a prefect day to go explore some new mountan bike trails - nope gotta race on Sunday.

I have some friends driving through to do the Leadville 100 MTB race tomorrow. I'd love to go watch but I need to be back down here too early - remember, gotta race on sunday.

I just don't feel productive today at work either. Everyone else must have felt the same way because its like aghost town here. I bet over half the staff is off today. We'll see how long I make it today.

Foam Rollers are evil

Finally in the last week of training for the 5430 Long Course I'm going exactly, word for word, by my training plan. That means Monday off, Tuesday swim in the morning, ride at lunch, run after work. It also means stretching and rolling. Stretching I do (not often enough - see an older post) but the foam roller, that's another story.

I'll often sit on the roller and work my hamstrings as I watch TV late at night. Feels pretty good and seems to help. Then I remembered that I usually have the most pain when Katie (Katie Sandmeyer at Tri-Massage, you rock!!) works on my quads. So last night I rolled over and laid on top of the roller, slowly working it down my quads. Ouch! That hurts like hell! Inch by inch, control the breathing. You'd think I was in Le Mas class for child birth. Puff puff puff. Its tough to relax and when you do, most of the time you drop a knot right onto the roller.

As if that wasn't masochistic enough, I then worked the IT band. I don't care how loose, flexible, or relaxed you are - that hurts! Sometimes it feels like you knee is pulling apart. about 30 minutes (or half of House) of rolling and I felt like I just competed in the Peak Tri again.

Feel pretty good today. I think I may roll again tonight so I don't get too beat up by Katie on Thurday. Everything in moderation. Just be moderate on a regular basis - not once in a blue moon before a big race.

Taper Time

So maybe this should have started earlier but I'm going to take it real easy this week and try to catch up on sleep, stretching, relaxing, etc. The Long Course is next weekend and I do NOT feel as strong as I hoped. My original goal was to do a sub-5 hour 1/2 iron. I just don't see it happening. I'm a big fan of positive thought, but the math just isn't working for this.

I did the S&S on Thursday and even though the course was long, I took about 31 minutes to complete the swim. My typical 1.2m swim is around 38 minutes. I'd love to do 35. Saturday we rode the two loops of the Long Course. This includes finding the extra little turn around on 65th. But it was a hot day and we hit the second half of the first loop waaaaay too hard. After we came down St. Vrain, a couple roadies who weren't racing jumped in front and started hauling ass. We, of course, stupidly tried to hang on. Absolutely dead when we finally finished. Most people calling 'bonk' in the last few miles. Again - didn't eat enough (any). I am looking at around a 2:50 for the bike. I'd love to be under 2:40 - it'll depend on the heat and nutrician.

One unfortuneate incident was as we were coming down 75th. Barry Siff was on the side of the road talking on his phone. Deiter saw him and started to slow down to see if there was a problem. The whole group bunched up behind him not knowing why he was stopping and the group ended up being 3-4 across as it bubbled around him. On this particular ride, we had more BTC jersey's than not (which is great!). All Barry saw was a crowd of BTC taking up the whole road as we rode by and sent the Deiter an e-mail expressing his disapointment on our riding style. 50+ miles of single or double up max, and we have to look bad for a few hundred meters.

Sunday we organized a run around the Res to check out that loop. We did 8+ miles at around an 8 minute pace. Pretty good but probably a little hard for the weekend before an 'A' race. Again it was HOT. Not bad for the first half but then the clouds disapated and there was no wind. Brutal. I'd love to hold an 8-8:30 pace for the run. In the past I felt the run was pretty strong for me. I didn't train with a marathon group this year so its just no there like in the past. I'm faster but I don't think I have the same endurance. It'll be a total mental game at the end and it'll hurt. 35+2:45+1:45=5:05 and that's optomistic. (plus transition time)

The Avery Brewery party started my taper. It was a blast. Good food, friends, a lttle rain. Great end to the weekend.