11 posts tagged “triathlon”

Oddly enough, I'm totally ambivalent about this right now.  I should be excited, but it's just, meh...  hopefully, I won't come to regret it in about 7 months, when I'll be neck deep in training in the middle of summer in balls hot Texas...

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:
 
Registration:2008 Ford Ironman Arizona (November)
Purchase Date:11/26/07
Category:Entry Fee
Event Date:11/23/08
Name: Paul xxxxx

 

There's 3 things about the IM Arizona course that I like:

1. The swim is in a small lake (really a river) - Tempe Town Lake.  No chance of 4ft swells or crazy choppy waters, ergo less chance of drowning for me.

2. The buoys will be on the LEFT!  Sadly, I can still only breathe on one side - my left.  This will make sighting a hell of a lot easier, although I'm sure I'll still swim in my trademarked zip-zag pattern.

3. Both the bike and run courses will be 3 loops.  I like the 3-loop setup, same as the Chicago 50K course.  Makes it much easier mentally, I think.  1st loop: "piece of cake",  2nd loop: "just one more after this", 3rd loop: "finish this and you're done!"

That should be an official Ironman race.

Christmas comes early this year, at least for those of us who are gluttons for physical punishment, as they just made the following announcement:

November 23, 2007

TEMPE, AZ -  North America Sports is pleased to announce the addition of a second Ford Ironman Arizona Race to their 2008 event schedule. The city of Tempe and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community will again partner with NA Sports to host a Ford Ironman Arizona event on November 23, 2008.

Perfect timing, for, as per my usual self, I'd been slacking off in deciding whether to sign up for an Ironman in 2008, and then which Ironman race to do, by which time all the IM races had been sold out.  My procrastination paid off cuz this is a race that I wanted to do, is late in the season, and will be drive-able from Austin.  For those not in the know, Ironman races (each with about 2000 slots) sell out in an INSANE amount of time, like <30 mins for the more popular destinations (like Lake Placid, Canada) and 1-2 hrs for the "less" popular ones.  Effing crazy if you think about it, because people are clamoring to shell out $500, a WHOLE YEAR in advance of the actual raceday, to sign up to willingly put themselves through 11, 12, 14, 15, or maybe all 17hrs of physical pain.  No wonder people think we're nuts.

So, having said that, who's in for the new IM 'Zona?!!  Registration opens Monday 11/26 @ 11am CT pronto!  I'll be there online.  Let the journey begin...

  In the words of Dr. Nick, "Hi, everybody!"  Contrary to what my long absence from Vox might suggest, I'm not dead.  Yet. 

Instead, I've just been, oh... what's the word... a lazy ass when it comes to blogging.  But I haven't been too lazy to train and race though!  What a great first tri season it's turned out to be so far.  2 Sundays ago, I completed my first ever Half Ironman (hence, the post title) -- the Spirit of Racine Half in Racine, WI -- and this Saturday up in Benton Harbor, MI, I'll be racing in the Steelhead 70.3, my 2nd Half Ironman just 2 weeks later.  I know, crazy!! 

I know I'm LONG overdue on my race reports and other stuff like how I like my Newtons (in a nutshell: they TOTALLY rock!!  highly recommended, even at the steep price), but on the eve of the eve my 2nd Half (uh, that is, race day is 2 days away), I'm just going to post a quick recap of my season so far, and more importantly, pics from race day!

So Far, So Good (First Tri Racing Season)

After Steelhead, I have the Accenture Chicago Triathlon (another Olympic) on 8/26/07, possibly the inaugural Austin Triathlon (Olympic) on 9/3/07 couldn't make it, then the Chicago Marathon to finish up my season.  That is, unless I decide to run my first ultra (yeah, baby!) as the season capper: the Chicago Lakefront 50K (yup, registered!).  That would be quite a year if I can make it through uninjured...

Okay, Some Racing Pics (in reverse chronological order)

1st Half Ironman (Spirit of Racine):

Bigfoot Triathlon:

Horribly Hilly Hundred (whose motto on the T-shirt was "Suffer Fest 07" -- they weren't effing kidding!!):


St. Anthony's Triathlon (my first ever triathlon.  The day couldn't have gone better!)

And finally, my Newton trainers (this is what you get in the box):

Oh yeah, finally, I earned my first ever medal racing!  It was given out to the top 25 finishers (I believe) of the Bat Run 5K (awesome event!), which had about 300 people.  My finish time was nothing to brag about, but man, I was on cloud nine after I found out I won a medal that wasn't given out to everybody just for finishing (which I had thought to be the case).  The icing on the cake: it's the coolest effing looking medal ever! 

[Obviously, you would be expecting a pic of said coolest-effing-medal ever, but of course, both my camera and camcorder (with camera function) are dead, so I can't take a pic right now.  I'll have to post a pic later, but it's basically got the cutout of a gold bat (like the Batman signal) with the word "Run" in black inside the bat on the edge.  Way cool.]

Wish me luck Saturday!  I'm going for a sub-5:30 or PR for a Half Iron, because I was sucking wind big time at Spirit of Racine, even though I met my time goal.   Amanda and Andrew - any chance you guys are coming to spectate?  I believe you aren't that far from Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, right?  Race starts at 7am and the run is a 2-loop through the Whirlpool Corp campus.  Fun fun fun!

Some people don't understand why we run, why we bike, why we swim, why we do endurance sports. 

Found these cool ads that explain perfectly why:

First tri in the books!  Yeah baby!  It went so much better than expected and I'm THRILLED with the results.  I had so much freaking fun out there, it was unbelievable.  I didn't drown (au contraire I felt like I was floating along) and didn't flat (my biggest worry since I forgot my tire lever) -- what more can you ask for?!  Full race report to come, but here are the official results:

St. Anthony's Triathlon - St. Petersburg, FL (1.5K Swim, 40K Bike, 10K Run)

Total Time: 2:50:31 (woohoo!)

Swim: 31:48 (Pace 2:08/100m)

T1: 6:55

Bike: 1:16:27 (Pace 19.5mph)

T2: 3:35

Run: 51:49 (Pace 8:21/mi)

Let's just say that I need to work on my transitions...

The journey of 140.6 miles begins with one stroke, pedal, and step.  Right?

After months of training, nervous deliberations (can I really do it? yes...no...yes!), and countless learnings, race week is finally here!  In 6 days, I will be toeing the line (or more accurately, wading in water) for my very first triathlon!  (St. Anthony's down in St. Pete, FL.  Olympic distance - 1.5K (0.93mi) swim, 40K (24.9mi) bike, 10K (6.2mi) run)

I can hardly believe it.  I never ever would've thunk that when I started running less than 18 months ago that I would actually be competing in a honest-to-goodness triathlon.  I didn't even know what triathlons were when I started training for my marathon.  There was also the fact that I didn't know how to swim.  At all.  As in, if you had thrown me in the middle of a lake, I would've drowned like a rat.  Now?  I just swam 2500yd straight last week as part of training.  I had never done cycling before either.  I knew how to ride a bike, but that's entirely different from actually cycling with clipless pedals & aerobars, wearing cycling shorts with pads, learning how to change tires, riding with traffic, and on and on.  It ain't like hopping on your bike and whizzing around the 'hood as a kid!  Now?  I completed a 45mi training ride a couple weeks ago and signed up for a Horribly Hilly Hundred 100K ride.  All of this is to say that if I can do it, so can anybody!  It's amazing what each of us is capable of physically, only if we take the initiative to get off our asses and push ourselves to the limit.  Anything is possible, indeed.

So, after slowly building up my base endurance after an agonizing 7-month layoff due to injuries, I started triathlon training in earnest about 7 weeks ago, kicking it up a notch. 

My totals (in miles) for the last 7 weeks:

- Swim in open water
- Swim in the ocean
- Swim in the ocean with potential pee-in-your-pants waves (like last year with 4ft swells)
- Swim with and amongst hundreds of other swimmers
- Swim with a wetsuit
- Bike in a race
- Bike in a non-draft race
- Eat on a bike
- Change a flat during a ride (hopefully I WON'T have to experience this!)
- Transition from swim to bike
- Transition from bike to run
- Run a 10K after swimming for 1.5K and biking for 40K

Wish me luck!  Hopefully, I'll have some good pictures to share.

So, I'm in the middle of doing a straight 40-lap / 2000yd swim (Oh, how far I've come...) at the local pool when all of a sudden, I get this toe cramp in my left foot.  And it's pretty bad.  I'm not sure why, but I get these from time to time out of the blue, where the 3rd and 4th toes on my left foot (or right, but mostly left) twist into each other and turn into a pretzel, causing excruciating pain.  Anybody else get this? 

Anyway, I tried shaking it off while swimming for a couple of strokes, but to no avail.  So, I had to stop, stand up, raise my foot, and massage it a little bit before it went away.   I then continued my laps and luckily, it didn't reoccur. 

Here's my question: how do you deal with a leg or toe cramp in the middle of, let's say a lake or ocean?  What then?  Are ya screwed?  I'm kinda sweating it happening during my first-ever open water swim in the Gulf in 4 weeks.

Besides the cramp, um, cramping my style for a few seconds there, I had an otherwise awesome swim - longest evah!  I'm improving by leaps and bounds I think in the swimming department, and I couldn't be more psyched.

[Okay, just as I was getting a little cocky here, I came across this story about last year's St. Anthony's Tri while googling for a pic of the swim to insert into the post.  Holy crap...]

Scary, but race went on

For two hours, Dr. Tim P. Carlson battled increasingly choppy waves in Tampa Bay to help triathletes who were struggling through a milelong swim.

Now he was worried about himself.

He paddled his kayak ashore, but soon was asked to care for a lifeless swimmer who had been pulled from the water.

"She was not breathing, her skin was blue and she was literally dropped in front of me,'' said Carlson, a volunteer at Sunday's St. Anthony's Triathlon. He gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and "we literally saved her life; she would have been dead,'' said Carlson, who credited the help of paramedics and other medical personnel. He called it "very, very harrowing.''

The annual St. Petersburg triathlon is supposed to be a grueling race, but for some participants this year it was more than that.

It was terrifying.

Let's leave this post on a happy note.  Swim stats for the night:

Today was another first in my triathlete life (ah... the trials & tribulations of a newbie) - it was the first time I trained all 3 sports in one day.  I didn't plan it this way, but after taking yesterday completely off because of some soreness in the shins (hope it's not the dreaded shin splints coming back) and thigh area, I needed to hit all 3 disciplines today.

I had planned on starting with the swim, but oh so predictably, after getting my ass up late AGAIN, I decided, what the hell, I'll do the sweaty sports first, because then I can swim and take a shower afterwards and be all done. 

So, I ended up doing the following training this morning:

Bike on trainer for 44 min. 14.0 miles with climb drills.

~30min break/transition to get ready to run outside

Run outside for 1:04 hr. 7.02mi @ 9:02 pace.

~2hr lunch break/following rule of not swimming for 1hr after eating

Swim at indoor pool for 45 min. 1500 yds total on interval drills.

Not too shabby a training day, eh?  I made it through alright without killing myself, although my shins and thighs are still a little sore...

On a related note, did you know that Ironman now has its own official channel on YouTube?  I'm dubbing it IronTube (TM).  Check it out, it's got some good videos.  Here's an inspirational one:

A quick post about my favorite tri discipline (not) -- swimming.  There's two things I've never done: 1) swim non-stop a whole mile and 2) swim any distance in ocean water.  These would be two things that are required at my first tri coming up in, oh, about 6 weeks now -- the St. Anthony's Tri (Olympic distance).

This morning, I took a big step towards meeting goal one.  After a 200yd warm-up, I knocked off a 1650yd swim (33 laps in 25yd pool), which is the longest I've ever swam to date.  I would've kept going to make it a full mile (1760yd, a little less than 36 laps) for sure, but I ran out of Lap Swim time!  It ends abruptly at 8AM, and since my ass is always getting up late, I didn't get to the pool til around 7:15AM.  So, I'll have to settle for my next long swim session to make it over the mile hump, which would be a HUGE milestone for me since learning how to swim just over a year ago.

But yeah, I know, swimming a mile in a pool, pushing off the wall each length (I haven't learned how to do flip turns yet...), is not the same as swimming a mile in open Gulf water fighting ocean currents and other swimmers.  My next task is to train for the swim start like below.  Anybody want to hit me with padded paddles?