Mountain Man Half Ironman

Yesterday was try #2 at the Mountain Man Half here in Flagstaff, and it went better than I would have dared hope for.  I just got back on Saturday from driving back from Vermont... I was pretty confident / determined to make the cutoff this time (and then finish the race), but I wasn't sure how much of a struggle that would be.  

The swim:  like it seems is always the case, I haven't been doing that much swimming lately.  I feel like my swim is the strongest part of my race, so I tend to not really focus on it.  The lake was pretty nice, not too cold, but the water was very brown (I guess from all the rain we've had lately).  As usual it took me a little bit to get into a rhythm, but it seemed like it was faster than normal.  My goggles did fog up, but instead of messing with them I decided to just try to push through it, and eventually they did clear up on their own.  This was probably the most consistent and steady pace I've kept for a swim of this length, and in the end it was a new personal best for this distance, finishing in 42:32, a 2:12 / 100m pace.

The bike:
On the cross-country trip my bike got repeatedly rained on and then dried, and my chain was ridiculously rusty now.  I took it to Absolute Bikes on Saturday and got a new chain put on, and with the new chain it was so smooth.  The guy said I was in desperate need of a tune up too (which I knew), but even just replacing the chain made a huge difference.

After what happened at Wildflower, I came up with a new nutrition plan for the race.  I like the ClifBlocks, but I felt like it would be good to have more variety.  I put some Fritos in a bag, pretzels in another, and put some chunks of chocolate chip cookies in one (I froze this one to try to last longer).  I think this made a huge difference for me on the bike.

So, I took off on the bike after a pretty fast T1... I probably went a little too fast for the first mile or so, but then settled in to a good pace.  I had hit the wrong button on my watch during t1 (pausing the time rather than doing a new lap), so I decided that I would switch it forward to the bike lap right at the start of the nastiest hill (7 miles into the course).  I'm not sure what I did for the first 7 miles, but I managed the next hour at ~15 mph, which I thought was very promising considering it included 2 big uphills without the downhills that go with them.  I figured if I could get to 30 miles after 2 hours (not counting the first 7 miles), I would be in very good shape... I think I hit almost 32 miles by then.  Then my last estimate was to try to be at 48 miles after 3 hours, but instead I finished the whole thing (49 miles + the earlier 7) in 3:19.  This is 40 minutes faster than last year (which was a personal best), which is nuts.  I was way under the cutoff time this time, which was nice to not have to worry about it.

I felt pretty good going off on the run... knowing that I was way ahead of my goal pace helped a lot.  I hadn't thought that much about the run, but pretty soon I decided that I would run the first 1.5 miles fairly easy, then I planned to walk up the whole 1.5 mile hill to just take it easy and get my legs loose.  This seemed to work out pretty well, and I was happy with my pace so far.  I was trying to conserve energy for the end, but ended up basically getting slower and slower til the finish.  The slowest of us got poured on near the end of the run course, with bonus hail... it was nice to cool off, but I could do without the hail.  It seemed like this helped step up my pace, but then we got out of the rain and I was just out of gas pretty much.  I had to revert to my step counting tricks (run 200 steps, etc) just to make up ground.  For a time I thought I might be able to break 7 hours, but it got more and more clear that that wasn't going to happen the closer I got to the end.  My run time ended up being very slow at 3:08:33, but I got there eventually.

With the personal best in the swim and the bike (and considering how bad my only other 1/2 IM finish time was), I ended up improving my overall best by over an hour, finishing at 7:19:17.    I am very happy to have finished this race (after my last 2 dnfs)... but now I'm still left with the question of where to go from here.  I feel like the long races are probably the biggest challenge (moreso than just trying to do a shorter one faster), but they also require a lot more time in training.  I have an Xterra coming up, and now I'm thinking I might throw in an olympic race before the end of the year too (lake powell).

Mountain Man Plan week 11/13

Week of 7/23	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	--	:45	--	:30	--	1:00	--	2:15
	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	0
Bike	--	--	1:00	--	--	4:00	--	5:00
	--	--	--	1:00	--	--	4:00	5:00
Run		:30		:45			2:00	3:15
		:30		:45		1:45		3:00

Mountain Man Plan week 10/13

Week of 7/16	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00		1:00		2:45
						:30	:30	1:00
Bike			1:00			3:30		4:30
							2:00	2:00
Run				:30			2:00	2:30
			:45		1:00			1:45

Mountain Man Plan week 8/13

Week of 7/2	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00				1:45
		1800m
Bike					1:00	1:30		2:30
	:25	:35
Run			1:00			:45		1:45
			5.25mi

Mountain Man Plan week 7/13

Week of 6/25	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00		1:00		2:45
				1600m
Bike			1:00			3:15		4:15
		1:00
Run		:30		1:00			1:45	3:15
		:30			5mi

Mountain Man Plan week 6/13

Week of 6/18	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00		1:00		2:45
Bike			1:00			3:00		4:00
		1:00		west	canyon	hiking	trip
Run		:15		:45			1:30	2:30

Mountain Man Plan week 5/13

Week of 6/11	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		:30		1:00		2:15
Bike				1:00		2:30		3:30
					:50	2:30		3:20
Run							1:30	1:30
		:30		golf			1:00	1:30

Mountain Man Plan week 4/13

Week of 6/4	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		:45				1:30
						brick
Bike				:30	1:00	1:30		3:00
		:30	1:00	:30			1:20	3:20
Run		:30	:30			:30		1:30
				:30		3:00 hiking		3:30

Mountain Man Plan week 3/13

Week of 5/28	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00		1:00		2:45
						2:00 kayak		2:00
Bike			1:00		1:00	2:15		4:15
				:30	:30			1:00
Run		:45		1:00			1:15	3:00
		:20					2:00 hike	2:20

Mountain Man Plan week 2/13

Week of 5/21	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00		1:00		2:45
			1200m					:35
Bike			1:00		1:00	2:00		4:00
		1:00				:45		1:45
Run		:30		:45			1:15	2:30
			:30				1:22	1:52

Mountain Man Plan week 1/13

Week of 5/14	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45		1:00	1:00			2:45
Bike			1:00		:45	1:30		3:15
						sod!
Run		:30		:30			1:00	2:00
				:30			shoveling!

Mountain Man Plan... Yes, Already!

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Day off	S :45 R :30	B 1:00	S 1:00 R :30	S 1:00 B :45	B 1:30	R 1:00
2	Day off	S :45 R :30	B 1:00	S 1:00 R :45	B 1:00	S 1:00 B 2:00	R 1:15
3	Day off	S :45 R :45	B 1:00	S 1:00 R 1:00	B 1:00	S 1:00 B 2:15	R 1:15
4	Day off	S :45 R :30	R :30	S :45 B :30	B 1:00	Brick 1:30/:30	Day off
5	Day off	S :45	Day off	S :30 B 1:00	Day off	S 1:00 B 2:30	R 1:30
6	Day off	S :45 R :15	B 1:00	S 1:00 R :45	Day off	S 1:00 B 3:00	R 1:30
7	Day off	S :45 R :30	B 1:00	S 1:00 R 1:00	Day off	S 1:00 B 3:15	R 1:45
8	Day off	S :45	R 1:00	S 1:00	B 1:00	Brick 1:30/:45	Day off
9	Day off	S :45 B :30	R :15	Brick :30/:30	Day off	S 1:00 B 3:15	R 1:45
10	Day off	S :45	B 1:00	S 1:00 R :30	Day off	S 1:00 B 3:30	R 2:00
11	Day off	S :45 R :30	B 1:00	S :30 R :45	Day off	S 1:00 B 4:00	R 2:00
12	Day off	S :45	B 1:00	S 1:00	R 1:00	Brick 1:30/:30	B :45
13	Day off	S :30 R :30	Day off	B :45	Day off	Brick :20/:10	Race !!!

Wildflower Long Course Triathlon

Well, it has been just over a week since the race, so I better write it up before I forget about it.  The end result maybe is worth forgetting, but I have a lot to be happy about here even though it was a DNF overall.

We got to the race site on Friday after driving in from Barstow... first thing there we drove down and then back up the "Nasty Grade" on the bike course.  I had previously been confident about getting up this beast after my practice run on Snowbowl road, but now driving up it I was once again peeing my pants... and it turns out, rightly so :).  After this little bit of checking out the course, we just went into the park to pick up my race numbers and stuff, and pretty much that was about it.  We had a nice hotel down in Pismo Beach to get to :).

We drove back up to the course nice and early on Saturday, bringing only some Nilla Wafers, Brown Sugar Pop-Tarts, and a Nutri-Grain bar for breakfast.  In the end, I believe this was my downfall.  I got my transition area all set up (quite early), and started my usual nervous pacing / bathroom trips / etc to wait for the race to start. 

I was in the 7th group to start I believe, which made me happy that I would have quite a bit of time to finish (cut-offs are a certain time after the last wave, so I had a lot of waves behind me for a head start).  I hadn't been swimming that much in the last few weeks, but as usual I felt pretty good about my swim. When my wave started, I don't know if there were just a lot of people in it, or if I stayed with the leaders longer, but it seemed like much more of a dragged out washing machine than usual.  Somebody hit my leg (not uncommon at all) and almost swiped off my timing chip, which was irritating.  Also right now I don't have any goggles that I'm happy with... I decided to try the mask-type that I used for Alcatraz, but I didn't think to put any anti-fog stuff in them... they fit fairly well but kept fogging up on me.  At the half-way turnaround I checked my watch, feeling like I was actually making pretty good time... and I was... made it there after 22 minutes.  With the crazy start and the fidgeting with my chip and goggles, I figured I was actually well faster than my best pace for this distance (at least for the straight swimming time).  I decided I would go for a new swim PR to at least have that to hang onto if I didn't manage to finish the race... self fulfilling prophecy maybe, but I'm glad I at least got that.  I tried to keep up and improve the pace on the way back in.  I ended up finishing the swim in 43:49, which is a new record for me, beating out my Boise time by around :30. Not a bad T1 of 7:56 (except that I didn't reapply sunscreen, which I'm still paying for now), and I was off on the bike.

I knew that the bike would have a big hill in it around mile 40, but I seriously underestimated how bad it would be just to make it out to the main road.  This first big hill was a killer, and I nearly needed to stop and walk a bit after only a mile or two on the way out of the park.  After the first bunch of hills there, the northern part of the course was not too bad, pretty flat, smooth sailing.  I had 4 packs of ClifBlocks, intending to eat one an hour, did fairly well on that leading up to the big hill at mile 40.  But, by this time I was already pretty tired out even though I was trying to save up some energy.  I made my way up the hill, but I had to stop and rest a number of times.  I got a good amount of encouragement from other riders, and I just figured I would make it up the hill a bit at a time.  And I knew there was a big downhill section after the hill that I was looking forward to.  So, I made it up to the very top eventually, down the crazy fast curvy hill... but then there were some more smaller hills (but not nothing) that basically just broke me.  I think it was at mile 47 when I started stopping on almost flat ground... which is really not good.  I'll have to go back and look at my garmin data, but I was still in pretty good shape at this point, but I just had a very hard time mustering up anything to get up this hills after the big one.  I tried eating more blocks, but I just felt like I was completely out of gas.  I struggled to finish the last 9 miles of the bike, but had already pretty much resigned to stopping after that.  I ended up finishing the bike in 4:52:30, an 11.4 mph pace... which is not much worse than my Boise bike split, but way off what I was intending to do (thinking around 4:00). I got back in transition, and racked my bike... but didn't put on my running shoes.  I walked around a minute debating whether to try to finish but I had decided that it wasn't worth it.  I packed up my stuff and turned in my chip. 

I think some of the push that made me finish the half in Boise and the Ironman in Tempe is gone now that I did finish those races... I'm not sure.  I think the last DNF at the Mountain Man last year was about the same... I just felt exhausted at the end of the bike and didn't want to go on to the run... I think I probably could have muddled through it, but just decided not to each time. 

Anyway, I am still signed up for the Mountain Man half this August... and I intent to do it and to finish it.  I am going to spend more focus on losing weight between now and then (while still training)... I think that will be a great help.  Lately I've been just training and not working on my diet, and that is obviously not getting it done.  We'll see if Weight Watchers helps with that.

Week 13/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 4/30	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:30						:30
Bike			:45		:20			1:05
Run		:30			:10			:40

Week 12/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 4/23	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim				:45			1:00	1:45
Bike		:45			1:00	1:00		2:45
							1:00	1:00
Run			1:00			:30		1:30
							2:00(hike)	2:00

Week 11/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 4/16	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	1:00			:45			:30	2:15
				800m				:45
Bike	4:00				1:00			5:00
		1:00					55mi	5:00
Run		2:00		:30			:45	3:15
				:30				:30

Week 10/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 4/9	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	1:00			:45			1:00	2:45
						yard	work!
Bike	3:30				1:00			4:30
				1:00				1:00
Run		2:00					:30	2:30
		2:00						2:00

Week 9/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 4/2	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		:45			1:00			1:45
		1600m						:45
Bike	:30			:30		3:15		4:15
	:30			:30		3:00		4:00
Run	:30				:15		1:45	2:30
	:30							:30

Week 8/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 3/26	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim				:45			1:00	1:45
				1600m				:45
Bike	1:30		1:00					2:30
				1:00		1:35		2:35
Run	:45				1:00			1:45
						:45		:45

Week 7/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 3/19	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		1:00		:45			1:00	2:45
			2300m					1:00
Bike	3:15				1:00			4:15
		1:00				3:15		4:15
Run		1:45		:15			:40	3:00
				:35			1:53	2:30

Go Offroad Duathlon - Prescott

Yesterday was my first time running the GORD (Go OffRoad Duathlon) in Prescott.  I've had my eye on it for a couple years, but finally decided to do it.  It was pretty fun, if brutal at times.

The race is set up as a 1.5 mile trail run, then an 8.1 mile mountain bike, then a 2.2 mile trail run to the finish.  Whenever I start out running with a big group, I always seem to run too fast out of the gate... and this was no different.  About a half mile in to the run I had to start walking, I was super out of breath, and would basically stay that way for the rest of the day.

I finished the first run in a pretty quick time, around 11 minutes a mile.  The bike was fun but difficult... there were a few steep uphills that I had to walk up, and some fun downhills.  I almost ate it a few different times, mostly washing out in sandy turns, but at one point I was flying down this hill and got my shoelace  caught on my sprocket, and nearly went right off the side.

I struggled quite a bit throughout the race... a number of times thinking about just stopping.  About halfway through the second run I was just thinking about how in trouble I was going to be at Wildflower.  After thinking more about it, this wasn't really a good measuring stick for that.  Like I mentioned before, I started off too hot, and this had a lot to do with how I felt the rest of the race.  Overall, my time was 1:42:11, which I'm pretty happy with.

Week 6/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 3/5	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim		1:00		:45			1:00	2:45
		2000m			1600m		2000m	2:45
Bike	3:00				1:00			4:00
	2:00		1:00			1:00		4:00
Run		1:30					:45	2:15
		6.5mi				:45		2:15

Week 5/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 3/5	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	1:00			:45			:30	2:15
		:10						:10
Bike	2:30						1:00	3:30
			1:00			1:40		2:40
Run		1:30		:30				2:00
	:30							:30

Week 4/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 2/27	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim				:45			:45	1:30
				1800m		1700m		1:30
Bike	1:30(br)		1:00				:30	3:00
	1:30		1:00					2:30
Run	:30(br)			:30	:30			1:30
	:30					:30		1:00

Week 3/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 2/20	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	1:00			:45			1:00	2:45
				1400m				:45
Bike	2:15		1:00		1:00			4:15
	1:00		1:00			2:00		4:00
Run		1:15		:45			1:00	3:00
		1:15		:45				2:00

Week 2/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 2/13	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim	1:00			:45			1:00	2:45
	--		800m (:30)	1500m			--	1:15
Bike	2:00		1:00		1:00			4:00
	2:00		:45		1:00	skiing	skiing	3:45
Run		1:15		:30			:45	2:30
		--		:30			--	:30

Week 1/13 Wildflower Plan

Week of 2/6	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
Swim			1:00	:45			1:00	2:45
			--	--			--
Bike	1:30		:45		1:00			3:15
	1:30		--	:45	--			2:15
Run		1:00		:30			:30	2:00
		--	:45	--			--	:45

Not the greatest start to the training plan, but it was a great week in San Francisco.  Now I will just have to really get going in week 2.

Wildflower Training Plan

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1/23		weights
1/30	weights		weights				weights
2/6 (1/13)	b 1:30	r 1:00	s 1:00 b :45	s :45 r :30	b 1:00	off	s 1:00 r :30	8:00
2/13 (2/13)	s 1:00 b 2:00	r 1:15	b 1:00	s :45 r :30	b 1:00	off	s 1:00 r :45	9:15
2/20 (3/13)	s 1:00 b 2:15	r 1:15	b 1:00	s :45 r :45	b 1:00	off	s 1:00 r 1:00	10:00
2/27 (4/13)	brick: b 1:30 r :30	off	b 1:00	s :45 r :30	r :30	off	s :45 b :30	6:00
3/5 (5/13)	s 1:00 b 2:30	r 1:30	off	s :45 r :30	off	off	s :30 b 1:00	7:45
3/12 (6/13)	s 1:00 b 3:00	r 1:30	off	s :45	b 1:00	off	s 1:00 r :45	9:00
3/19 (7/13)	s 1:00 b 3:15	r 1:45	off	s :45 r :15	b 1:00	off	s 1:00 r 1:00	10:00
3/26 (8/13)	brick: b 1:30 r :45	off	b 1:00	s :45	r 1:00	off	s 1:00	6:00
4/2 (9/13)	s 1:00 b 3:15	r 1:45	off	s :45 b :30	r :15	off	brick: b :30 r :30	8:30
4/9 (10/13)	s 1:00 b 3:30	r 2:00	off	s :45	b 1:00	off	s 1:00 r :30	9:45
4/16 (11/13)	s 1:00 b 4:00	r 2:00	off	s :45 r :30	b 1:00	off	s :30 r :45	10:30
4/23 (12/13)	brick: b 1:00 r :30	b :45	r 1:00	s :45	b 1:00	off	s 1:00	6:00
4/30 (13/13)	off	s :30 r :30	b :45	off	brick: b :20 r :10	Race!!	--	2:15

2012 plans

My race season for 2012 is now coming into shape. Originally I was just planning on a peak in Aug/Sept/Oct... but I think that is too far off to be the first big goal. So, today, I signed up for one of those races that I've thought "someday I need to do that one"... Wildflower. This is a half Ironman distance race on May 5th (and a tough one at that). And then I will have a bit of a lull over the summer and then another peak for the August/September/October races. The August race is the Mountain Man half, in September I'm going to revisit my first ever race at Xterra Deuces Wild, and then in October I'm thinking my last big race will be the 70.3 in Austin. If I strike lightning there is also the Hawaii Ironman in October, but I'm pretty much assuming that will not happen.

So, from now to Wildflower is 16 weeks. I think I will redo the 13 weeks to a half-Ironman plan that I did for Boise in 2010. The next 3 weeks will be continuing my current weight training / general start-of-season warming up stuff.

Phoenix Rock n Roll Half Marathon

Went to Tempe this weekend for the RnR half marathon. 


First, on Saturday, Fox did his first ever race, running in the 1 mile "Kids Rock"... the course went from the finish of the full marathon to the finish of the half marathon in a little loop.  He was very excited about doing it, and had fun... afterward he said he wanted to do my race too.  I told him he would have to build up to that.  I didn't get an exact time on his run, but it seemed like it was right around 12 minutes, which is great. 

After that we spent most of the day at the pool (which was freezing, but the hot tub wasn't bad).  Later that night we went to the supercross at Chase Field... that was pretty fun (not something I thought I would ever go see).  Maybe not the best preparation for a race, but it was fun.

So, the race.  I went into it with a goal of beating 2:30... and an outside hope of a new PR (would need to beat 2:22).  I ended up doing 2:35, which I'm pretty happy with.  It is way better than Vegas' 3:00+, and I paced myself out pretty well I thought.  I had some tightness in my left hamstring starting around mile 6 or so... the usual gradual degradation of how my legs felt/functioned by the end.  But, I did manage to pick up some speed after the 10 mile mark, with my pace slowing from 11:06 at 5k, to 11:30 for 10k, to 11:55 at 10 miles, but back up to 11:52 for the overall.