Las Vegas Rock and Roll Half Marathon

Well, I finished the race, despite being sick for the most of this past week.  I had resigned to a slow time, but I still wanted to try to make it something reasonable... I was hoping for 2:30 or something around there. 

The race was insanely crowded.  They claimed that there were 44,000 people running.  For some reason, after the first few start corrals moved out, the rest of them were just all started at once it seemed.  Once we turned the corner to head north they just said walk up and go.  This I think added to everyone's issues with the race.

Pretty much the entire race was like playing football or something.  I generally run/walk, so I wasn't angry at the people walking... but they didn't have to walk 4 side-by-side or things like that.  Each time I ran (for the whole race), I had to dodge and weave between people.  I thought it was actually kind of fun doing this (at least when it opened up a bit more later)... but I guess a lot of people hated it.  I do feel bad for people running the full marathon who had to START weaving through people after completing the first half of their race.

The water stations were not always that great.  And I didn't know that the water was coming from a fire hydrant until later (I didn't get sick).  The porta-potties were pretty sparse.  I had to stop at one around mile 6 and the lines were huge. 

Overall, I'm glad I did it... it was pretty neat to run on the strip... but I don't think I would do this race again.  The organization was just poor all around.  And the dangerous situation in the hallway between bag check and the Mandalay Bay was the worst fire hazard I've seen.  We were packed in like cattle for what seemed like 45 minutes, then got to a point where there was another herd coming from the other side, and had to turn back.  I saw a number of people getting sick and moving off to the side... I was trying to not have a panic attack myself.

Anyway, glad it is over, glad I did it and finished.  My time was a crazy slow 3:07... but it was good to end the year on a successful race (rather than the DNF at the Flag half-ironman).  I think I will need to pick out a schedule for next year pretty soon, and an overall plan for what I want to do (tris/runs/other).  This year was far too lax exercise wise, and I need to get it going back in the right direction.

8 week half marathon plan

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	2mi		2mi	:30xt		4mi		8mi
	:27		:25			:50		1:47
2			2.5mi	2.5mi			5mi	10mi
			:30	:28			:58	1:56
3		3mi		3 mi		6mi		12mi
		:41		:39		1:25		2:45
4	:30xt	3.5mi		3.5mi		7mi		14mi
		:44		:44		1:33		3:01
5		4mi				8mi		12mi
		:51				1:42		2:33
6		4.5mi				4.5mi	9mi	18mi
		:57				:55	2:04	3:56
7				5mi			3mi	8mi
				1:05			:50	1:55
8		rest	rest	2mi	rest	rest	13.1mi	17.1mi

So, feeling like the full was too much, I switched my registration to the half marathon in Vegas. Now I have 8 weeks for that, I feel it is feasible, so I'm doing a real 8 week plan for this starting NOW.

Mileage tracker for Marathon Training... 12 weeks to Rock and Roll Las Vegas

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1		1.8		3.2		3.4		8.4
2		2.5		b :30		b 1:40	b :20	2.5
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Just running, so, simpler training plan for now.... just going to track/plan out my mileage.

Mountain Man Half Ironman

So, looks like I never posted about this race... better do it now before I forget more about it. 

My training up to the race was very much lacking... all year it's been lacking due to different priorities.  I'm not sure at this point whether I will continue to do triathlons or not... I think I probably should, but maybe not as intensely. 

So, the race.  Going in I thought it would be tough for me to make the cutoff for the run.  I had something like 4:45 to do it, but my previous best for the swim and bike at that distance (my only 1/2) was 5:30 or something like that... I basically had to swim and bike in the time it took me just to bike in Boise.  I nearly made it, but came up a little bit short... and I had already resigned myself to not going on to the run, so I think somewhat I made myself miss the cutoff so I wouldn't "have" to.

My swim time was 48:32, which is slower than Boise, but not too bad.  The bike time was 3:57, which was way faster than Boise, 14.2 mph vs. 11-something.  Overall I came into the second transition at 4:52, missing the cutoff by about 7 minutes.  I don't really know if they would have stopped me from going on to the run either... didn't seem like it, but I was just done. 

So, I took my second DNF in a triathlon, but I don't feel bad about it.  I made a big improvement in my bike time, had I made the cutoff and struggled my way through the run, I would have probably improved my overall 1/2 pr by about an hour. 

Week 11/13 to Mountain Man Half

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	:30
	900m
Bike		:30
		trainer
Run			:46
			4 miles
DQS
Notes	229.2 31.7%

Week 10/13 to Mountain Man Half

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim
Bike				:30			:50
							10 mi
Run			:40		:40	:45
			3 mi		3 mi	2 mi hike
DQS
Notes						231 30.7%

So, I've been pretty busy and traveling, etc... but now it is down to the wire on my training for this race (and I'm way behind).  Just going to leave this blank and fill in what I do I think... rather than try to plan too much out.  I think I need to try to do some type of workout every day at this point, to be anywhere close to being able to finish the half, forget about improving any of my times.

Week 5/13 to Mountain Man Half

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		:30		1:00		2:15
		1850m		(75-25)x8 sprints
Bike				1:00		2:30		3:30
Run		:30					1:30	2:00
		2.5mi
DQS	+19	+10	+14	+10
Notes	232.4 (31.2%)

Week 4/13 to Mountain Man Half

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		:45				1:30
			:30 (1000m)
Bike				:30	1:00	1:30		3:00
Run		:30	:30			:30		1:30
		2.5 mi			3.2 mi
DQS	29	23	15	26	19
Notes	234.0 (28.4%)			1:00 w		1:00 w

Deuces Wild Olympic Triathlon

Well... this race was just plain ugly.  I felt pretty strong on the swim... for a while... then I realized that the second turn buoy was hiding behing the float, and seemingly way far away.  Then after turning at it, the wind and waves were right in my face it seems... so I think it was pretty slow going that last segment.  At first I thought they made the swim course too long, but now I just think I was slow... and the fact that I couldn't see the second turn (which I think was poor design on their part) made it seem extra long.

Already a bit disheartened by the swim I had a pretty slow transition, and it was off on the bike.  Felt really slow getting out of the parking lot/driveway... but then once we got around the corner it was a nice fun downhill... I would pay dearly for this later.  The downhill was pretty smooth, then started to get a bit windy right around where we turned off that road.  The little out and back hill on the crappiest road around was next... I didn't really enjoy that.  After that it was pretty good going on the Dam Road.  I thought I was making pretty good time (I probably was)... until I got back to the 160.  Now this part was a giant hill, with a stiff headwind... no fun.  Seemed like this went on forever.  Finally got back into town, fighting the wind the whole way until we could turn back onto the road to the lake.  After the bike I could tell I would be hard pressed to beat 4 hours, let alone get anywhere near my 3:28 best.

Off on the run... started off pretty well, but I didn't have enough water on the bike apparently.  After just a couple minutes I was feeling super dehydrated, and I needed to make it to after the 1 mile mark before there was another water stop.  I stopped here for a bit, think I had 3 full cups of water, then started back out.  Feeling quite a bit better I tried to get into my planned .1mile walk, .15mile run pattern... but this seemed a little too taxing (yeah, I'm weak).  So, I ended up settling for .1/.1... I was able to stick to this pretty well the whole rest of the run... mostly walking at the aid stations to drink.  Made my way back in, and yep, finished in 4:09... worst Olympic time yet, but with the conditions, I'm not sure where to really put it effort-wise.  

Week 3/13 to Mountain Man Half (Deuces Wild taper)

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45						:45
						:40
Bike			:45		:20			1:05
					:18	1:49
Run		:45			:10			:55
			:51 (4.2 mi)		:14	1:34
Other
	MO	MO	235 (30.2 %)				4:00 (kayak)

Week 2/13 to Mountain Man Half

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00		1:00		2:45
Bike			1:00		1:00	2:00		4:00
Run		:30		:45			1:15	2:30
	:30 (2.5 mi)						:50 (3.5 mi)
Weights								9:15
	235.0 (30.8%)			ABQ	MO	MO	MO

Week 1/13 to Mountain Man Half

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00	1:00			2:45
		:30 (1000m)		:35 (1200m)				1:05
Bike			1:00		:45	1:30		3:15
						:35		:35
Run		:30		:30			1:00	2:00
				:30				:30
Weights								8:00
	234.2 (29.1%)							2:10

Tempe International Triathlon 2011

This year I did the Olympic length of the Tempe Tri.  My original goal was to break 3:00 in either this race, or the Deuces Wild race coming up in 3 weeks.  Given the lower priority I've given my training lately, I'll be very happy if I come close to a PR on the Show Low race.  Entering the race yesterday, I had 3 goals in mind really:  1) break my swim pr for this distance (thought that should be pretty easy), 2) break my overall pr (thought that would be tough, but possible), 3) break 3 hours total (this was pie in the sky).  At least I met one goal :)

Right after they closed transition, they announced that the start of the race was delayed... the barricade people had someone quit on them, so they didn't put up a whole truck's worth of barricades.  It seemed like it was about an hour late by the time my wave came up.  My race age this year is 35, so I'm in a new age group now... not sure if that is good or bad (35-39 always seems pretty competitive too). 

When the swim started, I came out way too fast.  There were a lot of people around, so I was trying to keep up / find some open space, which are opposing ideas.  After the usual getting hit/kicked/cut off/pincer moved... I slowed down a bit and things started to open up.  I noticed right away that my upper arms did not feel right... felt like I had a brick taped to them or something.  I just kept going though.  After making the turn to the south and rounding the buoy to go back west, I checked my watch (first time using my new waterproof Garmin).  It showed 16 minutes, which was right where I thought I should be.  As usual, my form seemed to improve as I went (taking more strokes per breath, head down more of the time).  Got out of the water and ran up the beach and stairs to transition.  My time was reported as 33:22, but that counts some of that transition, so it was really a minute or so faster.  Even at 33:22, that is 6 minutes improvement over my previous best, so I'm very happy with that.  That would be about the last thing I was happy with :).

Well, really that's not true.  My bike leg was actually pretty decent.  The course seems pretty flat, but it really isn't.  Basically everywhere was up or downhill a bit.  There was only one real "hill" (part on Curry that I had to go up 4 times total), but a lot of little grades that were big enough to slow me down quite a bit (doesn't take much).  I felt good for about the first quarter of the bike, but then hit some slower sections and my drive took a bit of a hit.  Overall though it wasn't too bad.  I averaged 16 mph flat, and my previous best was 16.3 mph.  I only really gave back 3 minutes or so of the gain I made in the swim, but for some reason it seemed a lot worse at the time. 

When I started running, I did some guesstimations and for some reason I thought I would need to run a 1:10 10k in order to break my pr.  That was wrong.  I ran 1:33:43 (most of that after basically giving up)... and I was only 16 minutes off of my best overall Olympic time.  I could have run a 1:17 and beaten it, which is worse than both of my other Olympic runs.  I was immediately hurting though (my left foot was not pleased)...and it didn't take long for me to just quit on it.  I didn't just plain stop, but I didn't have very much run in me, so I walked a ton.  As usual I kept making calculations in my head of what I'd need to run to get there by x, etc... but mostly it seemed like I was just waiting until I could safely say "well I can't do that, so might as well just walk it".  So, the run was my big disappointment.  1:33:43 is over 15:00 mile pace, which is absurdly slow. 

Overall, I'm glad I did the event.  I managed a goal, and really should've broken my pr if I hadn't given up on myself.  This was just my first race though, and I haven't been on my game as far as training, so I'm not going to beat myself up too much about it.  I have 3 weeks now to get ready for the Show Low race, and I can take another shot at the pr there.  I've already somewhat written off these races (which is probably part of the problem)... so if I struggle again there I'm thinking I will go do the Lake Powell Olympic race in October.  I should be in a better position to do well there after the half-ironman in August. 

Week 7/7 to Tempe

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		15x50m
							:33
Bike				:45		:20(brick)
	:50	:20				:15	1:32
Run			:20			:10
							1:33
Weights

Week 6/7 to Tempe

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		18x50m			10x100m 10x50m
Bike				:45		:30(brick)	2:30-3:00
Run			:30			:45-1:00
Weights

Well, last week was a bad week for training (but good for other stuff).  Between being super busy with work, and Fox's birthday on Tuesday, chaperoning Fox's class to a baseball game on Wednesday, Fox's birthday party on Friday, and being sick all weekend (just today starting to get out of that)... I didn't do a single workout.  So... now I'm making a couple of adjustments.  First, I'm just making this week 6 instead of upping the times like I had planned.  Second, I just realized that to properly train for the Mountain Man half-Ironman, that needs to start right after Tempe.  So, instead of week 6/10 to Tempe AND Show Low, this is now week 6/7 to Tempe.  After the race, it will be week 1/13 to the Mountain Man.  (with the Show Low race being just a workout).  I have come to accept that I haven't been putting in as much time on this right now... my priorities are elsewhere.  I may not be able to break 3:00 at this rate, but I think I should at least be able to set an Olympic PR at one of these races.

Week 4/10 to Tempe and Show Low

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		16x50m					10x100m 8x50m
		:19					:34	:53
Bike						:45	:30(brick)	2:30-3:00
						:30	:30	1:00
Run			:30				:30-:45
			2.5mi				:30	1:00
Weights
								3:00

Week 3/10 to Tempe and Show Low

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		14x50m		8x100m 8x50m
		:17		:28				:45
Bike					:45	:30(brick)	2:00-2:30
	1:00				:45		1:00	2:45
Run			:30			:30-:45
			2.5mi					:30
Weights

Week 2/10 to Tempe and Show Low

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim			12x50m		6x100m 6x50m
			:14		:22			:36
Bike		:45				:15(brick)	1:30-2:00
		:45				:15		1:00
Run				:30		:15-:30
				2.2mi		:27		:57
Weights

Week 1/10 to Tempe and Show Low

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		10x50m			4x100m 6x50m
		:12			:17			:30
Bike				:45		:15(brick)	1:00-1:30
Run			:30			:15-:30
				2.5 mi				:30
Weights

Time to get "serious".  Just to get on something...anything, I am starting the '6 weeks to an Olympic tri with limited time' plan.  Hopefully after I get into it I will be soon surpassing the work, but I should be able to at least do the minimums here.  The Tempe tri is 7 weeks out, and Show Low is 10, so I'll just extend from there.

I'll take weight training as a worthy substitute for any workout, but hopefully will just be adding those on.

And my goal is to set a new PR that is under 3:00 in these races.  I think Tempe might be easier (not sure, but Show Low may be hilly).  I feel like that should be easy now... but I don't know why.  Just looking at my PRs for different distances, the Olympic ones seem out of whack.

Week 0.1

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim
Bike	1:45
	18 miles
Run
Weights
			:35

Notes:  did an 18+ mile ride in Durango with some wicked wind.
This is the last non-week week..  really

week 0

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim
Bike
	1:00		1:00				:45	2:45
Run
Weights
						1:00		1:00

Notes:

So what now NOW?

Well, not much has changed since my last post, except for the march of time. I haven't been training (did 1:00 on the bike at the gym on Saturday, first exercise in quite a while). I think this effectively rules out the marathons in February. Maybe I can do the duathlon on the 20th, I think that is only Olympic length (minus the swim), so that is a possibility. I think I'm going to shoot for the Texas Marathon on April 10th. That gives me 11 weeks or so to get ready, that's not too bad. I'm not sure it will be possible, but I will be shooting for a sub 4 hour race. If I can pull that off (ever), I think I would be satisfied with that (and not say, need to shoot for 3:30 or something).

I did enter the Kona Ironman Lottery. Most likely just a waste of $40, but maybe I'll get lucky. If I did win I would have to probably go for a couple halfs or a half and a full Ironman before October. The lottery winners aren't announced until April 15th.

So now, I think I need to formalize a training plan here... or else I won't stick to anything. I think I will look at some marathon-specific plans and see what I can do in the 11 weeks.