Ironman Muncie 70.3 - Muncie, IN - 7/11/15

Wow, what a weekend! It was a fantastic time to celebrate with friends and family, and the tri club got to see a huge number of PRs set! Let's start with the week leading up, and we'll get to race day soon enough.

I had a few workouts during the week leading up to the race; nothing crazy tough but some good workouts that I'll likely want to repeat in the off season. I tried to take good care of my body, get plenty of sleep, and watch my diet to protect both my weight and my digestive system. I took it easy at work most of the week, and even went to a spaghetti dinner that the club hosted.

We were really fortunate with the weather leading up to the race, and got exactly the break we needed to have a gorgeous race day. For the couple of days leading up there was some heavy rain, tapering off at the end of the week and leaving Friday mostly overcast and temps in the mid 60's. On Saturday the sun decided to come out, but the humidity stayed relatively low for most of the day and temps only got into the lower 80's.

On Friday I had volunteered to run the BASE Performance booth at the expo, selling salt and generally hanging out with athletes from all over the world. It was a great time to meet some of my fellow ambassadors, as well as meet competitors and get comfortable with the surroundings for the race. 

Last year when I attended the athlete briefing on Friday, I was incredibly nervous. I was hyper aware and trying to make sure I didn't miss anything important. This year I got to hear the athlete briefing three different times, and I really wasn't nervous at all. It was a nice change of pace, because it meant that I got a great night's sleep, even though N and I were staying at a hotel. 

On Saturday I had alarms set for 4:30, but was up closer to 4. I had a quick breakfast of a Clif bar and a Bolthouse Farms shake, and set about getting things packed up to check out and head off to the race. Once we were checked out, we headed to the race with coffee in hand. We even left about 5 minutes earlier than we had hoped for!

Once we arrived at the race, I immediately went to get transition set up. I ran into a few friends along the way, and had enough time to chit chat since my age group was one of the last swim waves to go out. Once transition was set up, I took off for a quick warm up run. I got about a mile or so away from the race site and had a little bit of peace and quiet to stretch, clear my head, and whisper a few quick prayers before heading back to the transition area.

Once back in transition, I grabbed the necessary items for the swim, finished the last little bits of setting transition up, and headed out to our group tent to get a picture and get off my feet for a while. At this point I still had an hour before my swim wave left, so I wanted to stay as calm and relaxed as possible. I knew the nerves would come soon enough.

I hung out at the tent, we took a group picture, and I got to see my family for the first time that morning. My mom, dad, and sisters had all come up to see me race my biggest race of the season, and it was awesome getting to see how excited they were before I took off. We discovered that the race had been postponed by 15 minutes due to late arrivals, so I suddenly had a bit more time before my wave left.

I headed down to the public beach to get a quick warm up swim in. I had put my wetsuit on, thinking that I could use the buoyancy to my advantage. I tried swimming maybe 50 yards in the wetsuit before deciding to ditch it. I wasn't comfortable in it, I got overheated, it was restricting my movement and rubbing my neck every time I breathed. It was not worth the hassle, and the water was still over 72. 

I ditched the wetsuit with N, said a prayer with my family, and said "See you later!" and headed down to the beach for the swim start. I met up with a buddy from Florida to hang with for the swim start, and I'm glad I did. I was nervous and shaking anyway, but I think it would have been much worse without a friendly face near by.

The horn sounded and off we went! The plan was to stay to the right of the yellow buoys, since they had arced out and created extra distance between the start and the turn buoy. Since I was so far to the right, I didn't really have to battle with anyone for position, though I did manage to run into a few folks on the way by. The first turn buoy came and went, and as I turned the corner I had already gone into swimmers at least two waves in front of me.

Since I was now part of a much larger pack, things got a little dicier. There was one gentleman in particular who was swimming pretty heavy handed, and didn't seem to be particularly inclined to stop slamming into me. I put on some pace to try to pull away from him, and managed to get out and away before the second turn buoy. 

At the second turn buoy, things got dicey quick. We turned and headed back to shore, straight into the sun. There was no reliable way to tell where to go, all you could do was to find and follow the splashing ahead of you. Easier said than done, I was able to continuously find someone in front of me, even as I continued to move through swimmers ahead of me coming into the chute. Since it was so difficult to find where I was going, I found my pace lagging, but didn't want to waste energy swimming hard in the wrong direction. I waited until I could more easily spot a buoy, and really poured it on when I could.

I'm very happy to report that this swim time is 2:41 faster than last year's time, but I know it could still be better.

Swim time: 35:20 Minutes/100y: 1:40.4 

Transition went very smoothly. There's always a load of people you have to run past in the transition chute, with all the wetsuit pulling and people walking there's a lot of traffic. I made it a pretty quick transition with a time of 2:48, and I'm really happy with that. I didn't forget anything, and I was able to catch my breath a bit before heading out for the bike leg. I could go faster if I needed to, but I knew this race wasn't about place so much as pace.

The bike went very well this year. While I was about 5 minutes slower on the bike over last year, that was the plan. In fact, the plan allowed for me to be up to 20 minutes slower this year on the bike, in order to save myself for the run.

I'm pretty sure I said it last year, and I'll say it again this year, this bike course is begging you to go fast. It's a smooth ride, straight ahead, with a few small rollers. The only rough pavement is on the country roads on the way in and out, so the majority of the road is very smooth. Although, the rough parts of the country roads were VERY rough this year. The road was littered with spare kits, nutrition, bottles, and tools that had fallen off of peoples' bikes as they rode over the rough pavement. 

I knew my buddy from Florida would be catching me on the bike, but I wasn't sure where, and sure enough he caught me on the second time out to the turnaround. We exchanged a few words, wished each other well, and I told him I'd see him on the run.

Two things I want to say about the bike: 1. I have no idea how people manage to lose entire spare kits and bottle cages on the bike. If you haven't taken the two minutes to look over your bolts and straps to make sure you're not going to lose anything, you probably deserve to lose it. I saw at least three separate spare kits, and two separate cages with bottles intact along the road during this race. Unbelievable. 2. I also have no idea how people race anywhere without the ability to bike handle. I saw one lady lose it on the turnaround because she couldn't figure out where to shift her weight to make the U-turn, and I witnessed countless others unclipping their inside foot to take the turn. Most races I've been to have a U-turn for the bike leg, in fact there's only one I've ever raced that didn't have a U-turn (Cicero). 

Overall, even though I was slower this year, I'm still very pleased with the bike. Nutrition went to plan, speed went to plan, and I stayed happy the whole way through the bike. No mechanical failures this year, and a solid ride!

Bike time: 3:00:17 Average speed: 18.6 MPH 

The run, while it didn't go completely to plan, went very, very well. I had a really good transition despite having problems getting my left shoe on, taking only 1:43 in the transition area. As I came out onto the road and was adjusting my race belt, something snapped and flew off of it, leaving me a little confused as to what exactly happened. Even in going over pictures and looking at the belt itself, I still can't figure out what happened to it. All I know is, it won't stay tightly cinched around my waist.

The plan was to run 8:00 miles until the turnaround, and then reassess as to whether I should push the pace or just hang on. I kind of blew that up in the first mile, running a 7:00 mile. I immediately pulled that back and found 8:00 miles for miles two and three. I had skipped the line for the port-a-potty in transition, as well as at the first aid station, and finally came up on someone just leaving the toilet at the second aid station and I jumped right in to take advantage. It turns out I had quite a bit to release, and lost about :60 to the forces of nature. 

The first couple of miles my stomach was somewhat sloshy as a result of only taking in liquids on the bike. I had been warned that that may be the case before the race, but I didn't want to change the plan the day before the race. That phrase, "nothing new on race day" really has been ingrained into me, and I didn't plan on trying anything new.

Just before going into the toilet I had found my buddy, but peeled off before I could get to him. After coming out of the toilet feeling refreshed, I settled back into 8:00 miles and picked my way through the crowds on my way to the turnaround. I finally caught up with him around mile 4 or 5, exchanged a few words, a fist bump, and then was on my way again. 

Due to the out-and-back nature of the run course, I saw a lot of team mates along the way, and was able to give encouragement and high fives to as many as I could. Some looked like they needed it, some looked like they were feeling really good. 

At the turnaround I was starting to feel a little bit tired, and after a short reassessment I decided that I would wait until the next mile marker and see my pace, then decide whether to pick it up or not. That mile marker was seven, and I quickly discovered that I would just need to hang on the rest of the way home.

At mile eight I really started to fade, but made it my mission to get to mile nine. At mile nine was an aid station, so I decided that I would walk the aid stations from there on. I could feel blisters on my feet, my head was starting to overheat, and I needed to continue taking in water and salt if I was going to avoid cramping.

Well, walking the aid stations turned into walking the hills, and before I knew it my pace had slipped below 9:00 miles. Coming off the bike I knew I had a chance of going sub-5:30, which was my goal, but by mile ten I knew that wasn't going to happen. I would have had to run 7:30 miles the rest of the way in, and I was in no shape to do that. I decided to take things five minutes at a time, and get in as soon as I could.

Starting at about mile eleven I was feeling better. I had taken in a bit of sugar, had finally gotten the slosh in my stomach to dissipate, and was mentally ready to be done. I pushed myself through the last couple of miles, taking on the big hill at the end with a little bit of gusto. There was a competitor in my age group right with me on the hill, and we both wanted to beat the other. I came past him at the base of the final hill, but he picked up his pace to keep up. As we came up the hill, he got past me at the crest, and I went to speed up to try to get him into the chute. As I went to speed up, my right quad twitched and grabbed like it wanted to cramp, and I made the decision to pull back and avoid the cramp instead of gunning for a sprint finish.

Run time: 1:56:23 Average pace per mile: 8:53.1 

Total Time: 5:36:31 Overall rank: 588 Gender rank: 459 Age group rank: 35

Total Competitors: 1979 Gender Competitors: 1303 Age group Competitors: 90

Ironman does their rankings per event based on your position following that event, so you don't really know how each individual event time stacks up, but I'm absolutely thrilled with my time. 

Even after a bit of a struggle on the run, a bit of a slower bike, and feeling slow at times on the swim, I set a massive PR on this event. My run was over 40 minutes faster this year than last year, and my overall time dropped by 41:43 over last year! I'm super proud of all of the work I've done to get to this point, and super excited for the future as I continue training and improving. I don't know if I'll see gains like this ever again, but I don't plan to stop here. It was an amazing day, plus I didn't have to visit the medical tent for IV fluids this year...

Next up is Cicero, rescheduled from June to August 1. I had originally planned on doing Tri Indy this year, but since it falls on August 2, I will not be participating. I have high hopes for Cicero, both in terms of my time and in terms of my place, so it's back to the road for me. I've got more training to do, and more miles to go. I'll provide a training update next week, and a race preview for Cicero as we get closer. Later on...

Winona Lake Optimist Club Triathlon - Winona Lake, IN - 6/27/15

I really meant to do this on Monday, I promise...

What a weekend, though! It was rainy, windy, and just generally gross, but it was still a great time and a great race!

My initial reaction was that I had smashed my previous PR, I thought by 13 minutes. It turns out that while I still smashed my previous PR, it was only by 5 minutes. Potato, tomato, right?

Let's start at the very beginning. I got up around 3:15 am to have breakfast: Plain oatmeal with some nuts and berries mixed in. Let's just say we need to work on that. I got it down, but not without a little hesitation and grumbling about it. Fortunately, that's a pretty easy thing to work on. After I got that finished up, it was back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep.

My next alarm went off at 5:30, but I apparently turned it off and slept until about 5:50. We planned on leaving at 6, so I was behind already. Fortunately, I didn't have much to do to get ready and we were off around 6:15, coffee in hand.

We got a little lost, got turned around, got back on track, and arrived at the race site around 7:00, and I still needed to pick up my packet. The weather was rainy and a little on the chilly side, so the organizers had decided to forego body marking for the day. I got my packet picked up, and headed to set up transition and get my warm-ups in.

After getting transition set up and my bike warm-up in, the organizer started to call for the pre-race meeting. I had still hoped to get a run and swim warm-up in, but realized very quickly that I would have to forego those today and just get to racing.

Water temp was 72, which actually felt very nice compared to the air temp of 56. Add a little drizzle and a stiff breeze, and we were all ready to be in the water. The first age group to depart was the 18-24 men, and we (25-29 men) were next up. Fortunately we got about 2 minutes in the water before they started us, so I took the time to acclimate as much of my body as possible to the water.

At the horn I dove in and was off. Being a windy day, the wind had pushed the boat holding the divider over to our left, creating a half-circle instead of a straight line. I tried to stay as far to the left as possible, but it was a challenging task to see where I was going. The boat eventually was pushed back to the right, creating an "S" shape with the divider, causing all kinds of problems.

On top of the boat being pushed, the water was unbelievably choppy. I'm a strong swimmer, and my times usually reflect that. With the boat moving, water chopping, and a competitive group of swimmers at the front, I settled into the back of a pack and followed feet to avoid getting sick. I took a lot of water in, got kicked quite a few times, and I'm pretty sure I pissed off a guy in a wetsuit who didn't understand that he shouldn't keep moving the same direction I'm moving to avoid him. While it was faster than last year, it was only faster by a slim margin (4 seconds). In short, the swim was rough.

Swim time: 8:10 Minutes/100m: 2:02 Overall swim rank: 28

Transition was a good distance from the beach. Not as far as it will be at Muncie, but still a good jog. As you can see in the picture, I look like I'm feeling better this year than I was last year. I also look a little slimmer...

Wet feet on wet pavement means trouble when you're trying to put on socks, and indeed I had trouble. It took me too long to get both socks on, but I still managed to be one second faster in T1 than I was last year.

Off I went on the bike. I knew at this point that everyone had struggled with the swim, but I had no idea where I was in terms of my age group. I couldn't tell if I was in transition with other guys in my age group, or if I was there with guys from the age group that left first. Either way, the bike starts off with an uphill climb through some tight turns in a nice neighborhood to get out to a decent state road for an out and back course.

In my warm-up, I had ridden a couple miles and turned around in a church parking lot to head back. As it turns out, I should have ridden just a little bit farther to assess the wind, because past the church was a curve, and past the curve was the wind. The majority of the ride was with a heavy crosswind, and on the way out it was a slight tail wind as well. Going out I felt strong, but probably should have taken my nutrition on sooner as I started to peter out around mile 5. I made the turn and quickly inhaled a gel and some salt, and got back on the horse, but the damage was done. I had made two passes on the way out, and they quickly returned the favor as we headed back in to the same heavy crosswind, now complicated with a slight headwind.

I held my position for the last 6 miles, not allowing any passes and catching a few of the slower cyclists from the group ahead. I felt bad for some of the guys who were riding discs out there, but when you make a choice like that and don't bring backup options, you get what you get.

Unfortunately there was a wreck on the course. There are 3 consecutive 90-degree turns that require a drop in speed to navigate safely. This is also where I'll mention that due to the rain, I had lowered my tire pressure from my normal 115 to 100 in order to boost my grip on the slick roads. A guy in my age group had not slowed down enough in advance, and instead tried to slam on his brakes coming downhill into the turn, leading to a wipe-out. Everything seemed okay, in fact he started running with his bike in tow trying to keep up.

Last year I had taken my feet out of my shoes way too early, and didn't want to be caught in that same trap again this year. I rode and rehearsed in advance, and it paid off. I think I still pulled early, but I still made nice speed into transition and was able to do a great flying dismount at the line. Again, the bike was better this year, but only marginally. I'll somewhat attribute it to wet conditions, but it was mostly my absent-mindedness in my nutrition and effort that lead to only a 17-second improvement.

Bike time: 42:23 Average speed: 19.6 MPH Overall bike rank: 64

T2 was fast, but could likely still be faster. I need to do some research and see where I'm losing time compared to other runners. Shoes on, hat on, belt on, and gone. I felt good coming off the bike, but still had no idea where I was in my age group. With no body marking, I didn't know if I was even close to anyone else in my age group or not, but assumed that I was and went with it.

The run felt great. There's a nice, long, wooded section on this course that leads into a residential area, and it's got a few small rollers that can really kill you if you don't know what to do. I made some quick passes out of T2, and settled in around mile 1.5 to a comfortable pace. I knew I was close to a couple guys in my age group (or at least I had assumed), so I needed to make the run a good one.

I felt strong almost all the way in, but about a mile from the finish I ran into a big hill that I hadn't remembered being there. I chugged my way up the hill, but I had already used a lot of energy keeping my pace up before I got there. As I was climbing, a guy came up on me who I was fairly certain was in my age group, so I paced with him up the hill but didn't stand a chance as we reached the top. I needed to recover a bit, and his long legs carried him away from me slightly.

I was prepared for the steep downhill that immediately followed the uphill, and was able to take advantage of it to gain some ground on a couple of guys. Down the hill and onto the main stretch with about .3-4 remaining to the finish, and I just didn't have the gas to keep up. I came into the line strong, knowing that I had PR'd on the day no matter where I finished.

Run time: 24:25 Average pace per mile: 6:37 Overall run rank: 16

Total time: 1:17:17 Overall rank: 23 Age group rank: 6

I ran in an extremely competitive age group, with only 2:34 separating 1st and 6th, and only :14 between 4th and 6th. The age group was also larger this year, increasing from 24 guys to 32, making my 6th place finish this year much more impressive than my 8th place finish last year, not to mention placing 23rd overall out of a group of 336 finishers.

Additionally, every single leg of my race was faster, transitions included, even if only marginally. My biggest improvement came in my run, where I dropped the majority of my time to get to my PR. Last year's time was 1:22:34, making my time dropped 4:17.

This week is a "rest" weekend, so no races, but Muncie looms just around the corner on the following weekend. Preparation is winding down, and excitement is building! I'll be posting next week with some thoughts as the race approaches, and some details about where you can catch me if you're in the area. Later on...

Tri Insanity - Danville, IN - 6/20/2015

I know, I know, this wasn't the planned race. Here's how it happened:

We've been getting a lot of rain over the last week or so. A LOT of rain. As in, 15-24" of rain in some areas of the state over the last 7 days. A lot of rain. This has led to a lot of debris falling on roads, dirt and gravel piling up on the roads where water pools, formation and expansion of potholes, erosion of some country roads, and muddy/murky lake water with lots of debris as well.

All of these factors led to the decision of Heartland Endurance Sports on Friday to postpone the Cicero Triathlon weekend to August 1st/2nd.

A semi-quick note about cancellations approximately 24 hours before the race: For many people, this postponement was probably not that big a deal. Sure, it maybe caused a hiccup in their weekend plans, but I would imagine for most that it simply allowed them more free time early in the summer. For me, this postponement had the chance to completely destroy my weekend. As I have mentioned before, I live with a host of mental illnesses, and triathlon training and racing are my medication. I take prep for races pretty seriously, including mental preparation, which begins about 48 hours out from the race for me. On Friday morning when that email came in saying that the race was postponed, my brain went into a depressive mode, as all the mental energy I was using to focus on race prep now had no direction.

I understand the responsibility of Heartland Endurance Sports completely, and I appreciate that they took the physical safety of the participating athletes into consideration when making this difficult call. I'm sure it was not easy or cheap to make different arrangements for this race, and I commend them for making this tough decision. However, it is increasingly common for athletes to be using triathlon training and competition as a medication, and there needs to be some consideration of this when making these decisions. There were other races that Heartland was putting on that day, including a 5k race. With no refunds or transfers being offered for the triathlon (a COMPLETELY ridiculous policy, by the way), why were we not offered participation in one or more of the 5k races? Why hasn't the "no refunds/transfers" policy been amended for special circumstances such as this (especially since registration is being re-opened, and the make-up date is the same weekend as Tri Indy)? Why hasn't there been an email offering a discount on another Heartland race?

If the opportunity I received from Racemaker hadn't surfaced, this would have been a very different weekend, and the way my brain works, it could have ended very poorly. To further my frustration, I think Heartland has handled the aftermath extremely poorly, and has shown no effort to consider the repercussions this postponement may have that haven't been realized yet.

Anyway, back to some positivity here: I was able to race this weekend!

I was fortunate enough to be offered a bib at another local race this weekend with Racemaker Productions. If you've never raced with Racemaker, you should seriously consider signing up for one of their races. They do an amazing job of taking care of their athletes and volunteers, and they're fantastic members of the community as well. Their races are always top-notch, plus they serve beer at the end of most of them! Seriously, if you can't find a race with Racemaker, you're not interested in racing.

Tri Insanity was held in Danville, Indiana, and offered a Super Sprint (250 meter swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run) and a Long Sprint (500 meter swim, 20 mile bike, 4 mile run). I opted for the longer option, due mostly to the length of the swim and run being a little short for me in the Super Sprint.

I arrived extra early to the race, since I had to confirm my registration on site as a last minute entry. I got my body markings done, timing chip on, and headed to transition to get things set up. The Thursday before, I spent some time talking to my coach about warming up for races, at the time I was asking about warming up for Cicero, a much shorter race.

I ended up doing a 10-minute warm up ride on my bike first, as suggested. I rode out of the park where we were set up, and down the road a bit to find a small hill. I did a couple of pick ups, from some fast spinning to slow spinning, then eased it back in to transition. After that, I put my running shoes on and went for a quick jog. Maybe a mile total, enough to stretch out my legs, find my stride for the day, and do a few short
sprints.

After that, I set up transition the way I like it and took my cap and goggles with me as I left transition. I used the portajohn before I went to get a quick swim warm up in, same idea as the other warm ups: nothing too crazy long, just enough to get limber and do a couple of quick sprints. I climbed out of the water and right into the race meeting. I ate some Honey Stinger energy chews during the race meeting, and got amped up for the start.

The start was a mass start, which is pretty interesting on a slick boat ramp. I positioned myself at the front of the pack, as I knew a couple of the other swimmers up front and my speed in relation to them. We swam out through a pair of buoys and made a 90-degree turn to the left. My plan was to sprint/keep up with coach to the first big turn buoy, and that was about 100 yards ahead after the first turn. We reached the 180-degree turn at the big buoy, and that's when things got dicey with the water.

Being out in front of the swim is awesome, you don't have to worry about overly-choppy water, there are fewer people to hit and kick, and your sighting line is wide open. When it's not awesome, is when you are swimming a race where there are two 180-degree turns in the course, and you end up with all the chop of the swimmers behind you catching you off guard. As happened to me. I took a couple mouthfuls of lake water before I got out of it, but it definitely sank in my stomach a bit. Coach swam away from me and I settled in to my pace, all the way through the second 180-degree turn (took in a little more lake water, but better this time), and made my way back toward the "gate" to make the 90-degree turn back to shore.

It was at this point that the two female leaders behind me decided they had drafter long enough and wanted to make their break for the shore. The problem was, they decided that the best way to do this was by running over my lower half and kicking me in the face. Now, I don't have a problem with body contact while swimming in a race. I've been through it before, I've been on the giving and receiving end, and I know the unwritten rules both ways. I checked my line, and I was swimming the most direct route to the buoy possible. The first female to swim over me bumped me pretty good on my side at first, generally a good way to know someone is there and gauge how affected they'll be if/when you have to swim over them. She proceeded to not look up to check the line, and swim straight over my legs. Over my legs, not a big deal. Over my legs and kick me in the face, bigger deal. This is the story of the second female to swim over my legs. She also failed to check the line, and ended up kicking me in the face just before the turn. I was pretty nice and didn't decide to kick harder to punish them for swimming directly over the top of me, but I won't be so nice next time. Be warned.

Swim time: 6:42.60 Minutes/100m: 1:20.52 Overall swim rank: 4 Age group swim rank: 1

Transition was somewhat uneventful, aside from the fact that I stuffed my pockets with my nutrition. I pulled my socks and shoes on (new shoes!), sunglasses, helmet, nutrition, and off I went! It took me a minute to get on the bike once outside of transition, but once I was on I was off and spinning. In fact, I was out of transition before one of the girls who ran me over. Take that!

The bike went uneventfully. I got passed by a few people as expected, but I took back a couple of spots as well. Nutrition went as planned, a gel every 20 minutes (Clif gel, of course), and two licks of salt every 30. I had to squeeze the last licks of salt in, as I came in just under an hour on the bike. I'm really pleased with my bike performance, I didn't over cook it but I also pushed it to keep a decent pace.

Bike time: 59:43.80 Average speed: 20.1 MPH Overall bike rank: 19 Age group bike rank: 1

T2 went very well. The dismount line was a touch confusing, as there were two different "lines" at which to dismount. To avoid a DQ, I opted for the first line and ran a little further into transition. I did have to lift my front wheel in order to avoid losing control of my bike as I went into transition, but I was at the front rack so it wasn't that big a deal. I racked by my bars/brakes, dumped my helmet, slid on my shoes, put on my hat, and left for the run... without taking my watch off of my bike bars.

I realized pretty much as soon as I left transition that I forgot my watch, and cussed myself out a bit. I quickly realized that I needed to just move on, dump the strap and go by feel. Mile 1 was the usual "get used to running again" mile, and by the time I hit mile 2 I had picked up the other female in front of me as well as a couple of guys who passed me during the bike. Miles 2 and 3 were probably the worst of the day, as we ran in a place where the wind was blocked and it was a particularly muggy morning.

Mile 4 was back up the hill we went down in Mile 1, and a turn into the park and the finish chute. My parents were able to make it out to the race, and were there to cheer me on to the finish!

Run time: 27:11.70 Average pace per mile: 6:48 Overall run rank: 4 Age group run rank: 1

Total time: 1:35:09.05 Overall place: 8 Age group place: 1

Not a bad outing for the first tri of the year, especially considering I was racing, not racing, then racing again within a 24 hour span, plus I ended up doing a longer race than originally planned. A HUGE "Thank you" to Lee and Jamie O'Connor for allowing me to race on short notice, you guys saved my weekend, big time.

Next up is Winona Lake, I'll post another novel in mental preparation for that later this week.

Later on...

Opening Week

Here it is, opening week of tri season!

For some, the season has already started with cold swims and chilly runs, but this is the first weekend of the year where it's really going down. Summer is just around the corner, the water is getting warmer, it's sure humid enough outside, and those brick workouts are getting better and better.

This post is going to cover a few things: 1.) Cicero preview 2.) Park2Park relay race recap (surprise!) 3.) Training update

Cicero Preview:

FINALLY the new swim map has been released. I have been waiting and looking for it for several weeks, and it was finally updated a couple of weeks ago. In years past, this was a swim across the lake, starting at the boat docks on one side and swimming to the ramp on the other. Now, it appears we are starting at a beach/ramp and swimming an out-and-around pattern to transition. Only slightly longer than years past, it comes in at 500 meters.

The bike leg is pretty flat, with one short climb around a blind corner in the country. I fell off pace at that corner last year, I'm mentally preparing to handle it better this year. I'm also (after some discussions with my coach) planning on taking the bike a touch slower this year in an effort to not blow up on the run. A relatively short and very flat 10 miles should be easy enough.

The run is pretty interesting on this course. You wind through a neighborhood right out of transition, and if there's any humidity in the air, you'll feel it. There's not much room for a breeze through here, so the first mile and last mile are pretty isolated. The middle section is down a large hill and around a corner, looping on a cul-de-sac and back up the large hill. Run past Santa Claus and back toward transition for a downhill finish.

The goal: 1 hour or less. I was really close last year, but had an awful T1 and blew up on the run, averaging 7:25/mile thanks to some effort in the last mile and a half. Going for glory this year, I feel good already.

Park2Park Recap:

Surprise! I raced on Saturday morning! A few guys in the group had been talking about putting together a team for a few weeks, though we didn't really set any firm plans until a couple days before the race. The event was a relay, with each runner completing 5.4 miles total. Each runner would start by running one mile, then a leg of 3.4, then a final mile into the finish.

First mile went by pretty well, I was aiming to keep it low but reasonable. I came across the line right around 6 minutes, pretty good for the heat and humidity we were already experiencing at 7:30 AM. By the time 8:00 rolled around, we were already well over the 80 degree mark, and the humidity was on the rise. There was no cloud cover in sight, and the breeze was leaving us hanging. All this to say, it was HOT.

The second leg was the killer. I was our 2nd runner, and when I left from the timing chip handoff, we were behind a group of high school runners by about 25 seconds. I wanted to let the kid in front of me run his jitters off a little bit before making too big a push to try to catch him, so I let him lead out at that distance for about a mile. Once we got into the woods where there was no one around, he started fading a bit and I pounced. I caught him just before the turn around, and proceeded to extend the lead over him to about seconds, making up 50 on them over the course of the 3.4 mile leg.

The team ran really well, and coming into our last miles we had a pretty good lead. Their lead runner really hammered the first mile, and brought the gap down to where she and our runner came across to hand off the chip almost simultaneously. With experience comes advantages, and we had a better chip handoff, allowing me to get out ahead a bit from the transition. I knew the kid had legs, so it was important for me to keep my turnover high and focus on breathing and form. By the time I had a half mile done, I had put a bit of distance on him but could still see him around corners and over my shoulder. I put my head down and powered through the last half mile, and was able to earn quite a bit of space between he and I.

Our next runner ran strong, while theirs seemed to lose some steam and the gap widened to about 1:40 between us. Our final runner paced himself on the first half mile, making sure to leave some in the tank for the finish. Their final runner came out like a shot, picking up lost time the whole way. As our final runner came down the chute, there was only about a :05 gap between us, but we held on for the win. A pretty fun day, but definitely a lot more difficult than it sounds. Running a quick mile, then waiting for 35-40 minutes and running 3.4, then waiting for another 50+ minutes to run another mile is a taxing task, and made for a unique challenge.

On the day, my average was 6:34/mile, which I'm extremely pleased with considering the heat and humidity. I was able to try some Clif shots again, and confirmed that they just don't work very well for my stomach. They taste good, the consistency is nice, but they're just a little too heavy and I start to slosh.

Training Update:

Training is, well, training. I've been working hard at getting my cleats in my pedals and my tush on the saddle, and I've been doing much better. My speed work is coming along nicely, and I'm starting to feel confident about my ability to complete Muncie with some strength this year. I'm not going to kill myself for these two races before Muncie, but I want to do well at them too. They're good opportunities to practice my nutrition, feel out transitions and to get comfortable with the nerves that I'll have on race day.

Yesterday I completed my longest ride of the season at 3-1/2 hours. I was scheduled for 4, but with the clock reading 11 PM, it was time to get off and go to bed. That alarm clock seems to buzz earlier and earlier anymore... I was able to ride on the road for a good portion of that, but had to complete the rest of it on the trainer in the garage due to weather and darkness. It was humid and gross in the garage, and I'm convinced that the trainer sucks power. I went from averaging over 16 MPH on the road to under 14 MPH on the trainer. I did get 52 miles in though, and it was a fantastic opportunity to test my nutrition plan.

About 25-30 minutes into the ride, I encountered a pretty gnarly rainstorm. Heavy rain, which I thought had turned to hail at one point, and heavy headwinds made the going pretty tough, especially uphill. Once the rain cleared it got easier, and I started to dry out as I pedaled on. I stopped at a Dollar General in a small town to the west (Stilesville) and picked up some sandwich bags to keep my phone protected in case I encountered more rain on the way home. Heading back east I was riding with the wind, and managed to keep a nice high average pace without exerting myself more than I was before. I rode pretty much right up until it was too dark to ride, at which point I retired to the garage.

I consumed mostly gels on the ride, although I did eat some Honey Stinger gummies to break up the monotony. I think if I'm going to do that again though, I need to have a bento box. Trying to eat the gummies with one hand and ride with the other lead to slowing down and some near crashes. The gels were no problem, rip, spit and eat. I definitely figured out which ones I don't want to get anymore (Powerbar Kona Punch... blech!) and which ones I do (Clif Razz & Lemon Lime), as well as some good back up options. I've got to dig through my garbage today and figure out exactly which ones before I go back for more though, I went through quite a few.

In order to get my 300-350 calories per hour in, I made sure to eat 3 gels per hour, or 2 gels and one packet of gummies. The gels I had ranged between 100-115 calories each, and the gummies were 110 per packet. In addition to this, I took two 24 oz. water bottles, which each equal about 1-1/2 "regular" bottles, and I was trying to get through one of those per hour. In addition, I took my BASE Performance Electrolyte Salt with me, and I took two dips of that every half hour.

The short story on this: It worked like a dream.

Every time I felt like I needed a boost of energy, it was time for another gel or a lick of salt. I kept hydrated drinking every five minutes or so, and was able to keep a nice high cadence the whole time. By the end of hour number 2, I was still ready to go harder. Once I got into the garage and on the trainer it got considerably more difficult, but even then I stuck to the plan and was able to push through.

Earlier this last week I was able to get my first open water swim of the season. I was invited to swim at a local private lake, and was happy to get 1.1 miles of swimming in just under 40 minutes. We did some confidence training, sighting practice, and general training around the perimeter of the lake. I was even able to practice wearing a cap... I hate those stupid things.

All told, training is going well. I'm feeling more and more confident as time goes by, and I'm extremely happy with the quality of the miles I'm putting in. Time will tell if I'm as fit as I think, and the first test is right around the corner.

I'm really excited to see how the season shapes up, starting with this Saturday at Cicero. I probably won't post until next week, as I really hone in and get my mind right for Saturday and as training continues to ramp up. Later on...

Crunch Time

Here we are at the end of May, and I've been falling behind on my workouts. Again.

I still get out to keep myself in shape, but I'm recommitting to the process right now. I'm forcing myself back on track, and making time for my workouts. I think I'm at a point where I need to make a decision on my priorities and commit to saying "No," to things that don't fit inside those priorities.

That's what I'm finding to be the hardest part about being 26. There are so many things that I could do, so many things I want to do, a few things I really should do, a lot of things I told myself I would do when I was younger, and only time to do a couple of these things. I'm seeing older guys than me around me who seem to have their priorities sorted out, like it's no big deal. I'm sure they went through a similar period of paring things down, but it doesn't necessarily make it easier.

Compound that with impending large scale life changes, and you can see where I might miss a workout or two. No more. Because...

With just over a month until my A race (Muncie), it's really getting into crunch time. I'm seeing my workout times increasing through the week, and I'm really pleased with how my fitness is coming along. I've started experimenting with my nutrition to make sure I've got that dialed in for the bike and run, I've started searching for missing pieces of equipment to add to my arsenal (can anyone say feed bag?!) and I've been working on my mental focus as I'm training.

While Muncie is over a month away, Cicero is just under a month away. I had a great brick workout this last Saturday, and after running some quick numbers I'm really excited to see how my time shapes up. N won't be around to see the race, but I will be providing her with a full race report when I pick her up from the airport that evening!

I'm now officially signed up for Winona Lake, and I'm reexamining the course in my mind. My fitness is up to snuff for these two races, so I'm going to work on my focus and nutrition in these two races. They're just long enough that I'll need some additional carbs in order to make it through strong, plus it will give me an opportunity to see what I like and what I don't.

I just bought a grab bag of nutrition items at The Runner's Forum in Avon, Indiana last week, I'll provide a picture and some thoughts as I go through and try each individual item.

Over the weekend I used a Clif energy gu to supplement my brick, as well as some BASE Performance electrolyte salt to help me stay hydrated. If you've never used the BASE salt, I would absolutely 100% recommend it. If you're doing an Ironman branded race, it'll be there for you on the course. If you're coming to Muncie, I'll be in the BASE tent, come by and see me and I'll hook you up with a sample tube.

The salt tasted, well, like salt. For whatever reason it surprised me at first that it was so salty, I thought it was my sweat that was influencing the taste, but I realized I was eating salt, and that it should taste salty. Duh. I noticed the effects within minutes, my legs began to feel more energetic, my sweat level increased slightly and I felt cooler overall. I kept sucking in water and I felt great! I was only out for 2 hours, and I used one finger dip of the salt, and that felt about right to me. I'll review the serving recommendations and see if I need to adjust, but that felt pretty good.

The Clif gu I used was a Lemon Lime flavored gu. I've used their Razz gu before, and liked the taste and consistency, and the story was no different here. It's got enough sugar in it to provide that initial burst of energy, and the carbs to provide a longer lasting kick as you progress through your workout. The taste is exactly what you would expect from Lemon Lime, a great citrus flavor that is neither overpoweringly sour nor underwhelmingly weak. So many times the problem with a Lemon Lime flavor is that it's too weak, not the case here. Consistency is on point. I felt like I didn't need to chew the gu up to get it to go down, but I prefer to chew it a little bit just to make sure I'm not guzzling the whole thing down. It didn't dry my mouth out or make it so sticky that I needed a drink of water to wash it down like other brands have, which is great on the run course where you may or may not have water with you.

I've got plenty more single serve items waiting for me to try, and I'm sure I'll have an update next week as I get back to the road and to prioritizing training. I've got some new gear on the way, including a BASE Performance tri kit, and a Rudy Project transition bag! New gear will be acquired, tested, and reviewed here, so keep looking for updates!

Later on...

Whirlwind!

Another whirlwind couple of weeks here in tattooedtri-land!

First and foremost, I want to give some shoutouts to some friends who were racing this weekend! A BIG congratulations goes out to Levi for finishing his first Ironman in Texas, where he also raced with Dylan, another first time Ironman! Chuck was out doing a 70.3 in Knoxville, and Robert and Jim both set PRs for 70.3 distance in Chattanooga! Craig set a PR in a 13.1 this weekend as well, blazing fast at around 1:32. Congrats to all!

Anyone who does endurance or distance events knows the importance of cross training. Some of us choose to lift weights, some choose yoga, others might even choose boxing or other endurance-based impact sports. For a while before I started doing tris, I played rugby. I was sort of forced to stop after breaking my hand in Louisville, the week after witnessing a pretty horrific broken leg in Cincinnati. N decided enough was enough, and that I needed to find a new way to stay fit. Anyway.

So while many of us get to choose our ideal cross training activity, some of us are "lucky" enough for their job to qualify as cross training. Being the Audio Visual Director at a relatively small downtown hotel, I am in the unique situation of cross training nearly every day before I get home to do my regular workouts. This past week (which went by without a blog post... apologies) was a fine example of how it's possible for me to not do my tri workouts for an entire week, and still manage to not only maintain my fitness but even make forward strides.

We had our largest show in a couple of years last week, which meant I was tasked with setting up (with a lot of help from a few other people) lots of very heavy AV equipment, and running my tail end off making sure everything went as well as possible. It's very easy to estimate that I walked in excess of 5 miles every day of this show, and some days more, over the course of 12+ hour days. Not only that, but in the evenings N, myself and our family were preparing for a garage sale this past weekend. I was in "go" mode from 7 am - 11 pm every day, and sometimes later.

Yes, I'm kind of complaining. Yes, this was kind of a good thing. And yes, I am still kind of complaining. This is my blog, dammit, I'll do what I want!


Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago a couple of my buddies started up Club 5280, a fun and semi-competitive get-together on the first and third Sundays of each month to run a mile to track our improvements. The first week we did group starts by estimated times, what an interesting experiment that was. Being a group of distance runners, everyone seeded themselves based on their average mile times on distance runs. This lead to some serious underestimations of speed, and made it interesting.

The first week I ran a 5:41. I was thrilled. I haven't run a mile just to see how fast I could run a mile in years. So, coming into this week, even though I felt a bit under-prepared, I was expecting an improvement. I had rested up on Saturday, and even got to sleep in a bit that morning, so I was well rested, though not thoroughly.

We took an interesting approach this week, doing a reverse start. This meant that the slowest timed runner started first, and we all started at the interval we were in front of the next finisher the week before. If I finished 10 seconds ahead of the next runner last time, I now started 10 seconds behind them. This was supposed to lead to an exciting group finish, but we got a little more spread out that planned. All in all it was certainly a fun way to do it, and I even improved my time to an estimated 5:31. I forgot to reset my watch, but after looking at my time the previous week and estimating based on the people around me and my warm-up pace, that's what I came up with.

I paid for that quick mile yesterday. My quads were pretty sore most of the day yesterday, but after some water and stretching they loosened up. I missed that soreness, and I got a much-needed mood boost from the endorphins.

More importantly, we are about 30 days out from my first tri of the year: Cicero. N won't be able to attend this year, but I will have some friends running as well, and possibly in attendance. I'm kicking into a training binge, as work is slowing down a bit for the summer and other commitments are as well. I'm still too far out to look too closely at goal times, but I think it's safe to say I'm looking at sub-1:00 this year.

Summer means heat and humidity in Indiana, so I'm getting prepared by stocking up on BASE salt. This stuff saved people in Texas this weekend, and I'm sure Robert and Jim both can sing it's praises after Chatt this weekend. If you're curious what it is, what it does, and why I use it, contact me! I've posted a good deal of my race schedule, so come and find me at a race, comment here, send a telegram... do something to get a hold of me! I may even send you a tube to try out!

As always, I'll try to keep up on posting these. As race season kicks up and training ramps up as well, it will become more sparse, but I'll try to at least post pre- and post-race reports to keep you all in the loop. This is usually where I promise to post more, and maybe even do a product review, but let's be honest: I ain't got no time for that. I'm lucky to get one of these out per week, so you're going to have to just be happy with that. I love you for reading this, and you should love yourself by getting outside and being active! With weather this nice, don't stay inside!

Later on...

Indy Mini Recap & Update

May is already shaping up to be a great month! Training is ramping up, the weather is getting nice, and races are just around the corner.

This last weekend I ran the Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon with my wife! It was her first half marathon, and she had been training to run it for a few months. She put in a lot of hard work, and she finally got to show it all off by completing the run.

We picked up our packets complete with bibs, shirts, papers and all kinds of other goodies the night before. The Mini also does an expo with the race, where different local retailers and other companies can come out and show off their products, sell their products, and generally be a support. It's a really neat experience, and it's open to the public, not just the runners. If you're in the area around this time, I highly recommend checking it out if you can.

This is my one gripe with the Mini, and I'll make it brief: I didn't get the correct size shirt that was marked on my paperwork. I had a Medium marked down, but we discovered that I was given a Large after we got back to the hotel, which is way too big. If I would have known they didn't have Mediums left, I would have gone for a Small. Very minor gripe, but still frustrating, because I don't really have a use for a Large shirt.

We were able to get a great rate at a hotel downtown, so we stayed very close to the action. We had a good dinner and went to bed early to get some rest. Morning came early, but we had laid everything out and packed up the night before, so we had plenty of time for some granola, bananas and coffee in the morning before heading down to the start line.

Over 35,000 people participated last weekend, making it the largest half marathon in the country (at least that's what they told us over the loudspeakers). I believe it, as it was pretty tough to get around once you got down near the start area. We found our corral, and N stayed there while I headed over to the UPS trucks to check my car keys and our phones so we knew where they were when we finished.

I used that time to warm up a bit, and ran into a few friends! There was limited open space in which to actually jog to warm up, and I ended up bouncing between quite a few people, but got warm and found my way back to the corral where N was waiting.

We were in Wave 3, and had decided that we were going to run it together. We heard the Elite runners go, then Wave 1 and Wave 2, and suddenly we were moving toward the start line! As we got closer, the crowd started to move a little faster, and eventually we were jogging over the start line. We started our watches and waved to the cameras!

Miles 1-3 we did at a good pace, but I found that all the water and coffee we drank that morning had run right through me and I needed to use a port-a-potty. I told N to go on ahead and I would catch up to her. That was not my best idea.

I finished my business and took off to find N. We had been running around a 10-11 minute mile pace, so I figured that if I took off at a 7 minute mile pace, I would catch up to her pretty quickly. Well, I didn't realize how long it had taken me at the john, and before long I thought I had gone too far. Keep in mind, the people around me are all running around probably 11-13 minute miles right now, and I'm whizzing by at a 7 minute pace.

So I get up the road a ways, and think I've gone too far. I decide to turn around and jog back toward the johns to see if I can maybe spot N that way. I am now running backwards on the course, past all of the people I just passed. The looks I was catching were not the nicest, but semi-understanding at this point. It was pretty clear that I was looking for someone, but I could still feel some heat.

I got all the way back to the toilets, and realized I hadn't gone far enough forward to catch N. So, realizing that I needed to go a lot farther forward, I took off again at a 7 minute pace, going with traffic. Passing all those people that I had already passed twice now, including once in the wrong direction. Make that the 3rd time I've passed them.

I came up on someone I knew in a suburb and figured that I had maybe gone far enough this time to catch N, so I decided to stand and chat and see if maybe N would run past me. We stand and talk, and cheer on the runners, congratulate friends that we see run by. I'm standing there for about 10 minutes or so, and I start to realize that I'm catching some really nasty looks, and then I realize that the people that are running past are now watching me for the 4th time, except I'm standing and cheering them on this time.

After about 10 minutes, I decide that I didn't go far enough forward again, and that I need to just push forward and see if I can find N that way. So, now that these people have watched me run past them going forward, backward, forward again, then run past me standing and cheering them on, I am now going to be running past them one more time. This time, they did not hold back their displeasure.

"Here comes THAT guy again," "Hey, your shoe is untied!" "Ugh, what an asshole." I got all of the above and probably a few more as I once again ran by these folks at about a 7 minute mile pace. Keep in mind, this is at the 6 or 7 mile marker of the race, so we are well into the dread zone here.

After a couple of miles, I finally caught up with N on the Speedway. For those who are unfamiliar, the Mini goes around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even crossing the famous bricks. I was really glad that we were able to cross the bricks together, and we continued on from there.

N definitely got grumpy with me as I was running with her, and understandably so. I danced and sang at times, which I'm sure felt like taunting to the other runners around me, so I cooled it around mile 11 to keep the hatred to a minimum. I think I had already pissed off enough people earlier that day, I didn't want to make any more enemies.

We crossed the line together, happy to have taken the journey together! N was amazingly strong, and I could not be more proud of her and her journey. She has provided a lot more inspiration than she probably realizes, and her support of me has helped lift my performance to heights I didn't think I could achieve. I'm sure she's going to be running more soon, but for now she's taking a very well-deserved break from pounding the pavement.

As far as the rest of my training goes, I'm happy to report that it's going well! I participated in a very fun event with Club 5280 on Sunday night, and posted a mile time of 5:41. I'm back in the pool and feeling strong, with the best feeling form I've had in years, and I'm back on the bike and getting things straightened out to hopefully buy some time there too. My run is coming along quite nicely, and I'm really starting to feel good about this season and the races I've selected. I'm already thinking about new challenges in 2016, but that will be another post.

In other news, I've signed up for Ironman Muncie 70.3 and Cicero, so I've got 2 races on the books officially. I'm signing up for Winona Lake later this month, and maybe a couple of surprise bookings coming up as well. I've got to verify dates and cost, and I'll be making moves on those soon.

I did get to try a few new and special things at the Mini expo, and there will likely be a post later this week about one of my new favorite BASE Performance products. Later on...

Ready, Set...

Woah... did you miss me?

I think it's been about a month since I last updated you guys on my training, and that's mostly because that's the last time I actually trained...

I posted a couple of things like, "life gets in the way," and "it's okay to take some time off." Well, now I'm done taking time off, and I can actually tell you a little bit about what was going on and keeping me away!

There's this little thing that happens in late March/early April called "March Madness." In other states it's a good excuse to take a longer lunch break, have the guys over for a couple early-evening beers before calling it quits at your normal bedtime. But, you see, I live in Indiana. And not only is Indiana very proudly basketball crazy, this year we hosted the Final Four in Indianapolis.

You may or may not know (I can't remember if I've mentioned it here), but I work as the Director of Audio Visual Services at a downtown Indy hotel. Since the tournament was hosted in Indy, our hotel was selected to host a team. We were fortunate enough to have the Duke University Bluedevils in house, and you may or may not remember, but they won the tournament. The whole hotel was in go-mode for 24 hours a day leading up to and during the tournament, which means 80+ hour weeks for all involved.

In addition to the team being here, I had a little problem with sitting down. I won't go into too much detail here, but I saw the doctor, the doctor did the wrong thing and made it worse, so even if I had time to bike or run, I wouldn't have been able to due to the pain. Fortunately I'm all healed up, although I have admittedly not been on a bike since before I saw the doc.

Immediately after the Final Four was in town we had a HUGE group of academic advisers visit our hotel. Over 700 of them, in fact. In the midst of all of this my available help dropped, so I was again putting in a load of extra time to make sure things were going well.

After all of that settled down, N and I made the journey to Charleston, South Carolina for a couple of our good friends' wedding! It was a fantastic opportunity to relax after a full month of craziness, and more craziness to come at the end of this week and into May.

Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of the free time I had (N didn't have much, as she was the matron of honor in the wedding) and happened to get a couple of runs in. I took my wetsuit with me, but the height of the surf was enough to make me wary, especially with so few people around. On Saturday I took a 9.5 mile run on the beach, and got a very nice sun burn in return. I will gladly take it, as I need the color before my tri tan lines show up!

A photo posted by Natalie Macy (@nemacy) on Apr 19, 2015 at 7:41am PDT

Monday I was able to get back to training as we were busy driving back, and boy am I feeling that month off. My swim was a little slower than I had hoped for, but I haven't slid back to the point I started from. My runs are definitely a little slower, and my heart rate a little higher, but it's coming back together quite nicely. I think by the end of this week I'll be back in form, and maybe even ahead of where I was when I took my break.

It's truly amazing, the effects of stress on the body. Everyone's body deals with it differently. My body tends to deal with stress by eating itself, so I lose my appetite and start to lose weight. When I started taking off days of training because I didn't have time (and was very stressed out), I weighed about 160. By the time I started running again early last week (as a way to cope with the stress), I weighed in around 155. I'm hoping to stay close to that, but I'm sure my body will want to put some of that back on.

It's also amazing how rejuvenating just a couple of vacation days can be. Don't get me wrong, we were busy when we were in South Carolina, but it was a different kind of busy. The things we were doing were much more joyful, and lower stress. We weren't in as big a hurry, and were able to relax in the evenings, just the two of us. I'm happy to be back to training now, where two weeks ago I think I looked at it as just another chore.

We are just under two weeks until N's first half marathon, the Indy Mini! She's been training hard, and I'm excited to get to run with her as she completes a goal that she never thought was possible. No matter what, we are crossing that finish line together, so be on the lookout for pictures!

This will begin to get more regular now, as work has slowed down a little for the moment and training has resumed. Some exciting registrations are coming up, I'll keep you posted as they happen!

Later on!

Busy Schedules & Training

(Warning, brutal honesty ahead)

Guys, let's be honest: life gets really busy sometimes.

Sometimes, you are working 60 hour weeks at a physical job with barely enough time to grab some dinner once you get home before you're whisked away to another commitment, whether that's church, a second job, or otherwise. Sometimes you can get a workout in that week, on the night you don't have an additional commitment, and sometimes you're so exhausted by the time you get home, that just the though of putting on workout clothes is enough to make your head spin.

Sometimes you feel bad about not getting the workouts in that are scheduled for you. Sometimes, it stresses you out even more to think about getting that 90 minute bike ride in after you've already put in 12 hours at work and driven home through crazy traffic trying to drink enough coffee to convince yourself that yes, it really is worth getting the bike put back on the trainer and ride it. Sometimes you even get so stressed out about getting all your workouts in that you cause a relapse into an illness that is the very reason you do these workouts to begin with.

This week I had to tell myself, "No." No, I won't feel bad about missing workouts after working six 12 hour days in a row. No, I won't beat myself up while driving home for thinking that it might be better to just sit on the couch for an hour before I go to bed. No, I won't be stressed out all day trying to find a way to squeeze an hour run into a schedule that doesn't have 15 minutes to spare. No, I won't feel bad that my only workout this week wasn't my personal record, even though I gave it everything I had that day.

More importantly, this week I told myself, "Yes." Yes, it is ok for you to relax and do nothing right now, because that's what you need. Yes, you have permission to rest your body and your mind after a stressful day. Yes, you will have a better week next week.

Life is tough, and there are weeks that sometimes happen back to back (to back, to back, to back...) where you think there is no way on earth you will live to see the next month. I had one of those weeks this week, complete with an evening of anxiety attacks as I was trying to go to sleep. I spent an hour of already precious and scarce rest time with my body writhing and contorting, only to get up and go to work the next morning. I didn't workout that evening. I didn't work out the next evening. By the time I got home, I had enough time to eat dinner and go to bed. Other days I got home in time to clean up the house, get dinner around, and then rush off to a group event. I didn't work out that evening.

Last night, I had some down time for the first time all week. Do you know what I did? I drank a beer, watched a movie, and went to bed. I sat my butt on the couch all night, did absolutely nothing, and enjoyed being stationary for a couple of hours. That was probably the most therapeutic thing I had done all week.

What I'm saying, is that we will all have weeks like this at some point, where life gets in the way of working out. It's ok. It's ok to take the time for yourself to breathe for a moment. It's ok to take an evening or two and relax to recover your sanity.

Admittedly, it's been a couple of weeks in a row for me like this. I've gotten a workout in here or there, but I have been struggling with telling myself its ok. It's easy for me to say the words to someone else and proclaim, "Rest! You deserve it!" But when it comes to actually believing that that's true for me, I don't do so well. I'm good at taking the time off, but I'm even better at feeling guilty about it, and being stressed out about what I'm not doing, or what I should be doing.

This week should allow for more training time, but it's hard to say. Work is in busy season, personal commitments continue, and I'm not perfect. I'm still tired, and trying to rest my body and mind to come into this next week refreshed and renewed. I'll still get upset with myself for missing workouts if that happens, but I'll also praise myself when I complete a workout, knowing that I was exactly where I needed to be.

If you've had a time like this, how did you get through it or over it? I know I could use the help, and I'm sure there are others out there who could use it as well. Later on...

I'm a BASEIPLE!

It's the wonderful time of year where manufacturers and brands start finding ambassadors for the upcoming race season. Applications, updates, and responses are flying about the interwebs congratulating some and consoling others.

I am extremely happy to announce that I've been chosen by BASE Performance to be a BASE ambassador (BASEIPLE) for the 2015 race season! I've already been fortunate enough to have used a couple of their products, and I'll be providing more information about those as well as some new products to me and new products from them in the future!

Ready for the coolest part? I can help you try their products out at reduced cost! The supplements are mostly aimed at endurance athletes, but are suitable for all athletes of any discipline. Bodybuilders, cowboys, rugby players alike, there's a product for you.

Head over to their website and check out their offerings, then let me know what questions you have, what you're interested in, and what you're getting!

In the next couple weeks, along with my regularly scheduled training updates/musings, I'll be trying to incorporate some reviews of products (starting of course with BASE Performance products) and possibly a second post per week. I often find myself having long thought conversations with myself during training, wishing I would blog about it, and then totally forgetting to blog about it.

SO! Until next week, later on...

No Luck Run Race Report

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and I have unintentionally left you guys out of the loop!

So last week I ran my very first half marathon, the No Luck Run. It was a somewhat rainy evening before during packet pickup, but they had put up a tent in front of the host restaurant and put heaters in strategic places to keep it warm. It worked! It was comfortable, warm and dry despite the drizzle and chilly temps.
                                      
I laid out everything I thought I would need the night before, including some alternate apparel in case of weather changes or comfort challenges. I had two hats ready to go, a base layer, long sleeve shirt, shell, clear lense sunglasses, regular sunglasses, and a race belt with my number attached. I had a good dinner, but got to bed a little later than I anticipated.

In the morning, I grabbed my gear and hit the road. Since this race was so close by, I arrived in plenty of time and was able to meet up with some friends who were also running. It was still raining a bit on the way there, but by the time I arrived it had slowed to a drizzle, and stopped about 10 minutes later.

I ran a small warm up with a couple of buddies, and by the time we got back to the start line I felt ready to go. I discussed a race plan that I had formulated with a couple of people including my coach, and at the onset of the race my plan was to start out around 8-8:15 miles and reassess at the mile 7 turnaround. One of the guys I ran the warmup with, D, said he had a very similar plan, but was starting out at 7:50 miles and reassessing at mile 6 before the turnaround.

The event had a mile race to kick it off, followed by the start of the half and then the 5k. As the mile runners were coming in, it was pretty clear that they were moving on to other runs to collect all the green beer they could for the day, and they cleared out pretty quickly.

We got off to a start about 10-15 minutes later than anticipated, but the mile had started a little later due to the rain in the morning. As usual, the first mile is pretty quick by everyone due to the adrenaline and anticipation. D and I came off the line together, and fell into the same pace as we were exiting the first loop to go out on the longer portion of the course. He was sticking to his plan and I decided to tag along as long as it felt comfortable and see how I felt.

Running with someone makes it 10x easier. If you haven't found a running partner in a race, try it sometime. It makes the miles tick off faster, and the pace seem easier. D and I both confirmed this after the race.

N was going to classes at the Rec Center that morning, and fortunately the route passed right by there so she was able to arrive a little early and wait for me to run past a couple times. D and I went past, said we were feeling good, but that we would be reassessing at the end of the trail where we hit the 7 mile turnaround. The trail out to the turnaround is a false flat, with about a .7% incline for a little over a mile. We saw the lead runner coming back at us on the way out, he was absolutely flying. We saw some other friends coming back as well, looking strong as they were pacing to qualify for Boston. We only hit probably 3/4 of a mile on that, and hit the turnaround feeling good. We had averaged just under 7:50 for the first 7 miles, and we were now on the back stretch.

Coming back we took advantage of the slight downhill, pushing the pace to 7:30. We agreed that after we got to the turnaround, it was every man for himself. After mile 10, there would be no talking as it was race time. We utilized our knowledge of the terrain to our advantage, knowing that in a couple of miles there was a big uphill just before we hit mile 10. We went past N again, and headed for the last 4 miles.

Coach was riding around and evaluating performances, as well as giving encouragement and cheering us on. He found us at the bottom of the hill that N had been waiting on, and held up a sign while taking our picture: Suck it up Buttercup!! So we sucked it up and pressed on.

At this point we saw a lot of the people who were behind us, many walkers and slow joggers, almost all looking cheerful and happy despite the grey sky and somewhat chilly breeze. They were nearing halfway, and there was a great sense of comradery amongst all the runners!

We came to the bottom of the hill at mile 10, and agreed that we would run the hill together, recover and then split depending on how we felt. D and I got to the top of the hill and I got dropped. I needed a little more recovery than he did, so I fell off by about 5 seconds per mile. I kept him in my sights, and as I recovered I felt stronger. We rounded a corner and were off to the last 3 miles.

I began building a head of steam, thinking about the finish and the podium. I knew approximately where we were in the lineup of finishers, and I wasn't clear if I would make the podium for my age group or not. I comfortably pushed my pace up to 7:15, and caught D and was on my way to a strong finish.

There was a yellow jacket in front of me, but I couldn't tell if it was a man, woman, or even someone in my age group. D shouted to "go get 'em!" And that's what I did. I passed her around mile 12, coming into an aid station. She looked like she was struggling, but I didn't have the breath to wish her well as I was on my way to the finish.

Around mile 12.5 I had to pull the pace back. The sun came out and I heated up a little bit, and needed a moment to collect myself before I headed to the finish. I dropped the pace to 7:30 and continued on my way. There was no one immediately in front of me to chase, and no way I was going to catch anyone else, so I turned my focus to maintaining a pace and not being passed.

I came down the chute and was very excited to see a finishing time of 1:40:44! I finished 3rd in my age group, and 16th overall. I had been catching 14th and 15th place, who was 2nd in my age group, but didn't have enough time or space to get them. D finished close behind me, and we stuck around to see many of our other runners come in as well.

It was a great day to run, and a great day for our multisport club, as we had 4 podium finishers and a slew of PRs. Being my first half marathon, I was incredibly thrilled with the time. I collected my green beer, my finishers medal and podium prize (a sweet pint glass with "Podium Baby" printed on it) and headed home for a brief nap and a recovery spin. No rest for the wicked I suppose!

Spring is springing!

So I fell off the wagon again, but now I'm back! I know it's a few days late, but I have a good excuse. This last weekend was an open house event at my future law school, as well as the annual Gala for N's job, and my attendance was required. It was a fantastic day of learning about law school and all it will entail, as well as a wonderful evening of great food, great music, great drinks and great people. That said, all these endeavors left me with no time to get on the bike on Saturday, but I made up for it on Sunday, I promise.

Last week was a week of getting back after my workouts. I had a period of time where I was skipping workouts due to time constraints, feeling badly or just generally being lazy. Two weeks ago I had an honest excuse, as I was actually sick. But this past week was focused on getting my mojo back and hitting my workouts.

Gradual results are difficult to see. Everyone knows that. It's tough to see how far you've come unless you turn around and look.

Here's what I know: My training has given me results already in the pool and with my running. I haven't necessarily seen any results in my cycling yet, but that doesn't mean they're not there. I'm already faster than last year, I'm already lighter than last year, I'm already thinner than last year, and I'm more prepared than last year.

Now, into a little of the nitty gritty and the statistics that tell me I'm faster.

First and foremost, I'm down between 5-7 pounds over last year. Race weight last year was 165. This year, I'm shooting to be closer to 155 for race days. The heaviest piece of equipment at any point during your tri, is you. The leaner you are, the faster you can potentially be. The key word is lean. Don't be a rail, sickly, or unhealthy with this. Don't drop weight just to drop weight. Drop fat and build long, lean muscle. That's where it's at.

My swim times are coming down consistently. The first time I did a 10x100 best average time set, I was swimming at 1:45/100. That was my best average time. I did a 20x100 best average time set last week, and kept everything at 1:30/100 and below (1:25-1:30). Not particularly pro status, but I'm excited by the improvement. I'm hoping by race time I'm seeing averages well below 1:20/100 in training, below 1:10 or more in races, sprints especially.

My running is easily showing the most improvement. Last season, I was thrilled to see a training run dip into the 7s for an average time. At this point that's routine. Right now I'm averaging between 7:30-7:50/mile on all my runs. I'm seeing best mile times hitting 5:15 (in short bursts, these aren't maintained times), and routinely below 6. My race times last year all ended up below 8:00/mile. Some by more than others, but all above 7:45/mile. I truly think this year I may see low 7s/mile, possibly below 7 on some shorter sprints. I may be a little hopeful in that, but time will tell.

My cycling is improving. I don't have as much hard data to prove this, but I can feel it in my legs and my chest. I've done a better job of late of getting on the bike and doing the workouts I need to. I'm hitting speeds I haven't before in short bursts, getting my heart rate higher than I have before on the bike, and I'm riding for longer periods than I have before in the winter. While I don't see the data now, I believe the work I've put in this winter will show up on the road.

I'm looking forward to this season even more than I was before, and my excitement continues to grow as the weather starts to warm up. With the snow melting and the sun shining later into the day (thanks, daylight savings time... I guess.), all signs are pointing towards spring. We in Indiana are just a couple of weeks and a big rain away from taking bikes off the trainers and getting them tuned up to go on the road.

More updates to come in the next couple of weeks, taking my training on the road in the next couple of months, and building into a fun and busy summer! Until then...

Later on!