Marc's Musings

Bike to work week

I guess that I'm a week late. Granted, I didn't even know that bike to work week was last week until after I got in via manual powered, two wheeled transportation this morning, but it's the thought that counts, right?

I'm going to try to make this a weekly occurrence, especially since it coincides nicely with my Wednesday training schedule--I normally have a 25-30 mile ride on Wednesdays, but nothing else. The distance from home to the office is about 17.5 miles. I know the round trip distance is a bit longer, but I do have a few hour (like 8) break in the middle there.

My goal is to do this for as long as the weather is nice--even after the training is done for the season.

And done.

Whew. What a great race!

Long story short... Improved on my swim (cut almost 5min off), a little on the bike (1:30 faster), and about 2:30 off the transitions.

This concludes my 2007 triathlon season with 1. Too much other stuff going on this summer. Next year I will probably do 2 international distance and 2 or 3 sprint distance, but may not do the Chicago race next year.

It's early

4am.

What's the "O" stand for?

If you want to track my progress, Accenture has a tracking site.

I have to be ready to go before 5:45 (everything in transition), but my wave (#48 out of 53, I think) doesn't go until 9:29. It's almost like a hospital--hurry up and wait.

See you on the dark side of the moon.

Swimming in August

I belong to the Mount Prospect park district fitness center. They have a nice facility with a pool, weight room, standard exercise machines (treadmill, elliptical, etc.), an indoor track, and a few other things. Their membership prices are very reasonable, and include discounts on any classes. During the year, I will use just about everything that they have--I'll run indoors in the winter, lift weights (not as much as I should), and swim in the pool.

So why am I boring you with these details? Every year, for about 2 weeks in August, they drain the pool, clean it out, and repair any broken equipment. This year they are closed for the entire month of August as they are replacing all of the pump equipment (or so I have been told). This has caused more confusion as they had to temporarily switch the men's and women's locker rooms (there is some equipment in the ceiling of the women's locker room). The nice thing about this is that the outdoor pool that is about 5 blocks away from my house opens up in the mornings for lap swim during this time. The water is a little cold, but it's fine once you get moving, and it's actually pretty neat swimming in an outdoor pool.

Wait, did I say outdoor pool? Has anyone seen the storms that have been hitting in the mornings the last two weeks? Outdoor pools aren't generally open when there is lightning, and even if the storm is done by 6, there usually isn't anyone there until later in the day (and certainly not for lap swim). Because of this I have only been able to swim two out of the six times I am supposed to swim. Unfortunately, this happened to me last year, too. Maybe they should reconsider doing it at a different time of the year when either a.) I don't need to use the pool, or b.) when there is less of a likelyhood of storms.

It's a good thing I'm beginning a taper and am on week 17 of the program...

Adrenaline Gear

For the last year and a half I have been under the impression that my bike was an 18 speed bike--2 chain rings in the front and a 9 speed cassette in the back. Here's the story of how I found the hidden 19th gear.

I decided to do my Sunday ride from my parents' house in beautiful Mokena, IL. I dropped the wife and dog off at the pool and proceeded to do a loop that included parts of the Old Plank Road Trail along with some of the backroads between there and eekaknaK.

What the bike map I had didn't tell me is that most of the backroads are gravel--not terribly comfortable on a road bike (skinny tires). C'est la vie. Somewhere around mile 19 on the loop map above, riding around 20mph, I hear a growling coming from a yard that I'm passing. I don't think a whole lot of this as this happens often--I'll hear a dog in a yard and they may bark and slam themselves into the fence trying to annoy me or something (dunno, my dog doesn't really bark).

Then out of the corner of my eye, I see this dog snarling and growling, tearing down the driveway and into the street. Now he's got a decent angle, but I'm going at a decent clip. I decide to up the speed to around 22 and leave him behind. Except there's one problem. He's fast--and he doesn't look like he wants to make friends. He's running off my wheel at 22 mph. I bump it up to 23-24 and he speeds up a little bit, but he's starting to falter. I think at this point that he'll probably still catch me if he wants to.

This is where I kick it into adrenaline gear. I really don't feel like being an angry dog's lunch. I'm already on my large chain ring up front, so I drop it into the smallest cog on the back and start hammering. Uphill. My heart rate monitor is beep at me like crazy (it does this when I'm out of a training zone that I set for myself). I get to the top of the hill and finally look back and it appears that the dog is gone.

It takes me about 10 mins or so to settle back down, but unfortunately I'm spent for the rest of the ride. I bonk about 5 miles out and am miserable the rest of the way. When I get back I look at my HRM. I got my heart rate up to 187 (I'm guessing that this is my max--or pretty darn close to it), and my max speed was 30.2. Not bad for uphill.

Setting Goals

Last year I completed my first season of triathlons with one sprint distance (.5mi swim, 12.5 mi bike, 4.2mi run) and one olympic distance (1mi/25mi bike, 6.2mi run) race. This past week I started training for this year. I am planning on doing the same two races this year, and I may add a third sprint in late June--I still haven't decided.

When I finished the Chicago Triathlon last year I set 1 major goal with 3 sub-goals for this season. The first is to lose weight. When I started training last year, I was a plump 238 pounds. I got that from working far too much and eating far too poorly. I'm surprised I didn't break my chair at the office (well I did, but not because of being fat). I raced in August at 218, a 20# drop. I'm starting my training at 214 this year, and my goal is to drop another 20 before August. I think I can do it as long as I don't drink too much beer :)

Secondly I stated that I want to swim faster, and swim the whole mile freestyle. Last year I never could get in a rhythm doing free, so I swam most of it breast stroke. It's slower, and a lot more taxing on your legs (important for the bike and the run). While training I had a hard time doing more than a 1/2mi straight free (even at the end of the season). I started my swimming this past week, and did most of the 1/2mi free. I'm happy with that, and I think I will be able to push that further as the season goes on.

Finally, I need to run faster. I picked up a book on run training and have started to change my running style. In this book, Ken Mierke--a triathlon coach, and developer of the "evolution" style of running--talks about how to run faster by doing less work. I've started doing some of the techniques, and feel faster, but my endurance is less right now. I know that by the time the races come around I'll be better, but it's gonna be a slow process. I did lose a lot of my run endurance, but I'm not sure if that is due to the new style or due to being a lazy bum for 3 months.

If I can hit my goal of doing it in under 3 hrs, and under 1hr on the run, I plan on expanding my races in 2008. Eventually I'll make it to Hawaii. It may not be for another 15 years, but I will get there.

I have a new Personal Best

Although, I suppose that it's pretty easy to get a personal best time when you have no pre-existing personal best time.

I ran, and finished the Chicago Triathlon, doing the International/Olympic race in 3h 15m 01s. For those that are not familiar with the different triathlon distances, the International distance race is a 1.5K swim, followed by a 40K bike, followed by a 10K run (in US terms that's ~1mi/24.8mi/6.2mi). That time also includes transitions between the different sports.

That time is on the slower side of things, and puts me at 2526/3708 overall for the international distance, 1972/2568 for all men and 418/506 for men 25-29. Part of that is due to being fat, and part of that is to a small misfortune I had at the beginning of the bike. I could have registered in the Clydesdale group (men 200+) and done well amongst that group, but I didn't. I also didn't come in at the end (good for her for finishing) with a time nearing 5.5 hrs. The winner of the "age groupers" came in around 2h. The top male pro came in around 1h 50m--he gets $10,000 and a r/t airline ticket for that finish.

In a race like this, there are always things to improve on (like over an hour's worth), so here are my goals for next year, in no particular order (except the first).

1. Lose weight. This one will have the most benefit. If I don't have to carry around the extra pounds, I can move faster, etc.

2. Swim faster. I need to work my endurance up in the freestyle. I'm good for about 1/2 mi continous right now. I want to do the whole thing free next year--that will help my swim time (almost 40min, including 1/4mi run to transition area, good for 2285/3708).

3. Run. Faster. I know that I'm slow on my run. Before I started training for this tri, I couldn't run a mile. Now I can run 6, if that's all I'm doing. I'd like to be able to last a bit longer (see #1). I also created a nice little injury for myself during the bike.

I wouldn't mind riding the bike a bit faster, but my 19.7mph was good enough to be at 1498/3708 (upper half), so that's the least of my worries at this point. I think that will come together with my 3 goals above. I'm also ok with my transition times. It's not the 30s times that the pros can get, but I don't need to preattach my shoes to my bike, etc.

About that little bike injury (that still hurts). As I was clipping into my pedals, I don't know if I had the pedal upside down, or just misaligned, but my foot slipped as I put some weight onto it. I think I was a little excited because in this case some was most of my weight and so I came down really hard onto my saddle. This gave me a bruise and/or a charlie horse in my Gluteus Maximus (yes, my butt) that made it very difficult to run on. I ran 11:30 minute miles, that's a bit slower than my normal 9:30-10 minute miles. Even if it wasn't, I chalk that up to the pain.

So yes, I plan on doing this again next year. It was fun. I already am feeling a bit odd because I didn't have any training to do. I will probably keep up some workouts over the winter so that I can't start at a higher level of endurance at the beginning of my training program. I'm also doing a 5K with TK as soon as he figures out which one (probably a turkey trot or something in late october/november), so I will need to keep my running up lest I pass out and die.

My goal for next year is under 3h. That will put me in the upper 50% of the race. There, I said it, and now friends, it is your job to help push me along to that goal (gently please--I'm still a little sore).

What's the "oh" stand for?

Oh my God it's early.

It's the final countdown

I've done my last training run, swim, and bike for the Chicago Triathlon this weekend.

Yesterday morning's run was about 4 miles or so and felt pretty good. I still suck at running. At least I can run a mile (and then some) now. Still slow at it, but I think if/when I lose these extra 40 lbs I'm carrying it will be easier. I don't really get out of breath when I run, my legs just get really sore and feel like they have cinder blocks attached to them.

I swam this morning in the outdoor pool by my house. Water was a little chilly, but that's what I can expect Sunday, so that's fine.

My last bike ride this evening was my "normal" 23 mile ride that I do through the Busse Woods forest preserve. I think the events that happend culminate my summer of training:

1. Some punk kid yelled out "Go Lance Arrrrrrmstroooong" as I rode past leaving my neighborhood. I'm surprised that this has only happened twice during the whole summer. Maybe it's because Lance doesn't race the tour anymore, I dunno.

2. I went to pass someone on the bike trail, but unfortunately he decided that it was time to violently clear the saliva from his mouth. I got a big loogey all over my hand. Whee.

3. About half way around the loop, I passed a guy that just got onto the trail from the parking lot. 1/4 of a mile or so later he rides up next to me and says "it's puke time"--I was riding about 23mph at the time--so I tell him to hop on and proceed to pull him for about 2 miles or so. Just before we hit the cross at Higgins Rd, he drops off. That was a lot of fun, and a bit of an adrenaline rush. It's too bad that the tri is a no draft race.

4. On the way back from the woods, the temp drops about 10 degrees and the wind starts blowing viciously. I love cold fronts, now bring us the storms.

A lot of people have been asking if I'm ready or not. I think I'm as ready as I will be this year. Will I finish? I should. Will I have a great time? Doubtful. The weather looks cool, but possible thunderstorms. Based on what my cow-orker tells me, it may be a duathlon (if there's lightning, they cancel the swim portion, but do the rest). That would be a bit of a bummer, but still fun.

I may post before Sunday, but I probably won't. If any of the pictures are good, I'll post them. Don't count on it--I looked pretty fat in the ones from the Waukegan tri.

Trifecta

Pretty sunrise this morning over Lake Michigan. The water in the lake was a balmy 66°F, the air about the same--at least at the start. 1000 crazy people lining the beach in Waukegan. Wait, why are so many people there at 6am? It was the running of the 2006 Harbor Lights Triathlon. That's right folks, Marc has completed his first ever triathlon. For those of you that scoffed last winter when I said I would complete one, take that.

And guess what, I had fun :). If you want to know how I did, I'll tell you that I finished, and I wasn't last in my wave. My unofficial time was about 1h45m. The official results should be online tomorrow--look if you want to, I don't care.

The overall winner ran it in a blazing 1h3m and change. Wow. He was out of the 1/2 mile swim in about 7m--before the 3rd wave went off. That's hauling, my friends. I think that would be pro pace, if there were pros at this event.

Some day I'll be that guy. Maybe in the 80 and over category when I'm the only 80 yr old. Doubtful.

The amazing body

I just got back from a 5 mile run. If you asked me six months ago if I would be able to run for 5 miles without stopping, I would have thought you were nuts. I couldn't even run for a mile without stopping--I never have been able to. In high school, I was always "that" guy that would run for about 200m on the track and walk the rest of the mile. I could actually keep up with everyone for that 200m, and even sometimes be in the lead. I think I have started a conversion from fast twitch, sprinting muscles, to slow twitch, endurance muscles.

To me it's odd to feel good after a run.

Up next in my training, short 1000yd "recovery" swim today and a 45 mile bike ride tomorrow.

Ever feel like a gerbil?

Last night I had a realization when I was on the treadmill...

As part of my training program, I have been doing long runs and bikes on the weekends, and shorter "recovery" runs/bikes during the week. I like to do the shorter runs on the treadmill because I have a problem pacing myself (favoring the sprint and then burning out early). It's also convienent that I do my swimming during the week at the same health club as said treadmill.

Last night it hit me that when I run on the treadmill I know what a gerbil feels like. I think I need to get out of the cage a little more.

As a side note, I missed the online registration deadline for the Chicago Triathlon, but they are still accepting mail in entries. This seems backwards to me. Wouldn't you close mail in entries earlier especially since you have a more accurate, up to date count with the online registrations? I'll be nervous that I actually made it in until I see that the check was cashed. I suppose that's what I get for slacking on it. Worst case there are a few shorter (sprint) distance tris in the area that still have plenty of room that I could race.

Up this weekend: 4 mile run and a 30 mile bike.

Another Boring Game

WARNING: This post is a bunch of disjointed thoughts....

I admit, I stayed up to watch the NCAA men's basketball national championship game last night, but mostly to see one shining moment--more on that in a moment.

Early on in the game, it seemed as though the refs, once again, wanted control of the game and missed a lot of major fouls, yet called a lot of ticky-tack. This had an effect on both teams. Florida realized that they had to be more sly about their fouls, and were successful at doing that. UCLA on the other hand couldn't adapt to a game that wasn't called like they were used to. They play a more bruising (some liken it to Big Ten or Big East style) game of basketball, where contact is expected, and seldom called within the league.

Perhaps I'm slightly biased (see the 2005 final, and the 2nd round Illinois/Washington game from 2006), but it seems that the officiating between conferences is so different during the regular season. When it comes tourney time, some teams have a difficult time adapting to a "less bruising" style of play when they are used to getting calls a certain way all season. Perhaps it is the way in which officials are selected for the tourneys--often crews are made of officials from different leagues--that causes the odd calls and non-calls.

I don't want to take anything away from Florida as played their hearts out and deserved the win. However, I do think that the game should have been (and could have been) a lot closer if the officiating was more consistent. You could see the effect the early foul trouble had on a very young UCLA team.

I'm not sure what to do about the officiating, but something needs to change. I don't like seeing good teams made to look silly mainly because the refs took over the game. That's not what college ball is about.

</soapbox>

Did anyone notice that this year's one shining moment didn't seem to include much of the final game at all? I remember much more of the final in years past than this years. The shot of Dee walking off the court dejected from the loss to Washington pretty much summed up a disappointing finish to a great career.