Week #3 - Almost half way...

Ahh, the end of another big week of training. 4 weeks until Canada. Last week ended up being just over 20 hrs and 15 workouts. This week ended up being 22 hrs in 14 workouts. Lots off biking and running over the last two weeks with a total of 435 miles on the bike and 89 miles on in the running shoes. For the most part the workouts have been feeling good. This coming week is a bit lighter and will allow for a little fishing. Next weekend is the Blue Lake Olympic tri. I'm anxious to see where my fitness is for this race after a light week. This will be my last race before IMC.

Other then that not much new. The sabbatical life is a good one. It does have me contemplating what I want to do career wise. Realistically I will likely stick with Intel for a while, but I think I will start to monitor the Nike postings and see if anything interesting pops up. I guess it never hurts to look.

In other news Jen and I made it out to see a movie last week. We saw Step Brothers with Will Ferrell. I would suggest saving this one for a rental. It would be perfect for a rainy day trainer ride. I think that's it for now. I hope to have an update soon with some fishing pics. I have yet to catch a fish on a fly rode. This could be the week! Stay tuned...

Tales From Penticton

Well, I've been in Penticton BC since Thursday. We rode the course on Saturday at a blistering pace (105 miles in 5hrs) then ran a total of 2hrs and 50 mins today. And did I mention the swimming? This has to be one of the best places on earth to swim. This morning was perfect! The water is perfect temp, calm, and clear and there are no sharks! I have one last swim tomorrow before I head back home on Tuesday. Overall it's been a really good trip. I've met some very cool and very fit folks here. The number of elite triathlete's in this town is amazing. We watched a "local" Olympic distance race this morning. Wow, these guys and girls are fast! But they know how to put on a race here. Prize money for the top 3 finishers and a really good announcer. It was the same guy that is known as the "voice of IM Canada". Overall a much different experience then say, a race at Blue Lake or Hagg Lake. I guess that's all for now!

Sabbatical - Week 1 Done

What a week! It started with spending a few hours at my Mom's house for her birthday. On Wednesday my Hard Top hoist was delivered by the UPS guy. Within 2hrs the top was off the Jeep and hanging from the ceiling of the garage.

Friday was spent at the Portland International Raceway with Rob P. We went to watch the Historic Car Races. The highlight was getting to ride in the passenger seat of a brand new BMW M3 for two laps around the track. It was $20 that was in support of a local charity. On the back side of the lap we hit 108 mph. It was amazing how fast it could take the turns. Rob was the VW R32 in front of us. Here are a couple pictures.

After that it was Bud Light and classic stock cars. I've always wanted to check these races out. It was a good day. I felt very manly!

Saturday was spent spectating at the Hagg Lake Triathlon where as usual the Ironheads kicked ass. It was fun to be out on the course and cheer people on. Sunday was my fly fishing class on the Clackamas river. No pun intended here, but I think I'm hooked. I didn't actually catch anything, but I had a few strikes, and that's enough to keep my coming back for more. It's cool to go do something new like that and notice things going on that have always been there but I've never noticed. For example when we first got there we had to check out what the fish were feeding on. This required us to flip over some rocks in the river and see what types of bugs were developing. Also, we watched what types of bugs were flying around above the water. Then the key is matching up a fly in your fly box to what is in the water. It reminds me of 8th grade science class.

Mixed in all of these activities there were of course a few workouts. Not too many this week because of Lake Steven last weekend, but there were a few. I did a 12 mile run on Friday morning before the car races and was able to avg a 7:30 pace with my HR in zone 1. My fitness is good right now. Next week I head to Penticton to train with Coach Scott on the IMC race course. I'm really looking forward to that. So, back to business! two heavy training weeks coming up. It's to focus more on resting betweens workouts. Of course I'll need to sneak in some fishing now and then... Fortunately the rivers are cold so its good for soaking the tired legs.

Lake Steven's

Lake Steven's Half Ironman was this last Sunday. We drove up with Rob and Erin early Saturday morning. We hit the expo... the expo was a booth to buy parking passes and a booth selling bike jerseys, that's it. We attended the mandatory meeting and picked up our packets. From there we headed out to the lake to get in a 30 min spin and drop off the bikes. As Erin and I were out riding my bike started having issues. It kept skipping between gears and the rear cassette was rattling. I assumed it was loose. When we got back I headed over to the local bike shop and had them take a look. Apparently I wasn't the only person with bike issues. The shop was SLAMMED. Total chaos! So I dropped it off and we went to get some lunch. I came back an hour later and it was more crowded then when I dropped it off. Even Sister Madonna (the 78 year old nun) was there trying to get her tires glued up. Fortunately for me my bike was fixed and ready to go. I took it for one last spin up and down the street before checking it in.
Sunday morning came early. We were up at 4 and to the race site by 5. I got everything setup and was ready to go by race start at 6:38. The water was warm and pretty clear. The swim start was a little crowded. You had to jump off a dock and tread water, but we were packed into a pretty small area. When the gun went off it took a few strokes to get some space. Once out I found the underwater rope that runs the length of the course. This was nice because you didn't have to look up to sight much. The down side was I kept running into to slower folks from the wave that started in front of me. Overall the swim felt good. I felt like I was actually racing it for the first half rather then just getting through it. After making the last turn I started to get tired and lost focus for a couple minutes. This definitely cost me some time. Once I realized and snapped out of it I picked it up again to the finish.
Through T1 and on to the bike was smooth, no issues. Once I got going on the bike I noticed my heart rate was still pretty high as it usually is out of the swim. I decided to focus on my watts and not to worry about my HR. As expected after about 20 mins it started to come down. I had heard this course was hilly, but wasn't sure exactly what to expect. There were a lot of short steep hills with a couple longer sustained climbs. Scott had given me power ranges to stay in when hitting the hills and this was key on this race. It was frustrating on the first lap as people would fly by me on the hills, but I always caught them on the flats. Usually once I passed them back that was the last I saw of them. The entire ride I kept coming up on team mate Jason K. I would get within 50 yards of him then we would hit a hill and he would take off again. This happened up until about mile 52 when I finally caught him. He passed me back right away and that would be the last time I would see him until the out and backs on the run. Overall the bike went very good. I got in all of my nutrition and my pacing allowed me to run better then I have in the past.
Off the bike my feet were numb and they hurt as I tried to run through T2. Once out on the run they warmed up quickly. The run went by really fast on this course. I had a bit of a side cramp for the first 3 miles, but it went away after I backed off the amount of water I was taking through the aid stations. At about mile 6 another team mate, Jake, caught me and passed me easily. I knew he was coming and I knew he is a much faster runner then I am, so I accepted it and encouraged him as he went by. Right after that another guy in my age group passed me as well. This sent me into a mini pity party. I was in a funk for about 2 miles before I got my second wind. I think I was between miles 8 and 9 when I decided to push it for a while and see what happens. At this point in the race I had not met any of my goals. I had not broken 2:30 on the ride, I had not swam under 32 mins, and I was likely not going to break 4:40 over all. The only remaining goal was a PR. I knew I needed to pick it up if I was going to do this. The last 4 miles felt outstanding. I pushed my heart rate into zone 5 and my legs wanted more. In the last 5k I managed to catch back up to Jake. This gave me that little extra boost I needed to push the last hill. I came in at 4:43:33. This was a 1 minute PR over Hula man last year. I think this course was much tougher though. Overall the race went very well for me. Except for the couple of little things I am pretty happy with how I executed my plan. As always though I wanted to go faster...
Props to the entire Ironheads team! Congrats to Kaytee as the overall female age group winner. Also congrats to Jake B on his 45 min pr, and Heather R with her 56 min PR! Also, thanks to Jake and Jason K for keeping me motivated out there. These events are so much more fun when you have that comradery and friendly competition. I am so lucky to be part of such a great group of people.

Free at last, free at last...

Well, off I go. I just finished packing my office (It's moving to a different area of the building while I'm out). My email inbox is down to two messages, it's typically over 30. I guess it's almost time to take the victory walk out the door. It still hasn't totally hit me that I don't have to think about work at all for 8 weeks. I think Sunday afternoon it will set in. I'm pretty focused on Lake Stevens HIM right now. I really want to have a good race. I'm ready for one. No excuses this time. I'm recovered, well rested, and feeling good. My swimming "feels" better. I think watching the Olympic trials has helped. The visual images in my head when I'm swimming of Michael Phelps hauling ass definitely make me feel faster. I hope to use this on Sunday during the race. That guy is a machine! I love watching good swimmers, it makes me want to become a better swimmer. I guess the same goes with the running and biking. I can't wait for the Olympics!

Ok, I'm outta here. I'll post a race report next week. Have a fun 4th of July!

Sabbatical: So close I can smell it...

And it smells gooood! Less then 4 days to go. I realized today that this will be the first summer I've had completely off (no school, no work) since 9th grade. My sophomore year of high school I started my first job and have been working ever since. This weekend will be a good kickoff too. We head to Seattle Saturday morning and I am racing the Lake Stevens Half Ironman on Sunday. I am really looking forward to this race! My workouts have been feeling great over the last two weeks so I'm thinking a PR is possible (So yes, I believe :)). The conditions are looking favorable so we'll see what happens.
The build to Canada is coming along. This last week was the biggest since March I think. It was capped off by a great long ride on Saturday with Kaytee and Jennifer W. We rode from Troutdale up into the Mt. Hood area. We climbed most of the way up to Lolo pass. Total climbing for the ride was ~6k feet in 83 miles. Here is a picture from where we turned around:

















Sunday was an 18 mile run broken up between the waterfront and Forest Park. Totals for the week looked like this:
Swim: 12900 yrds - 4 workouts
Bike: 143 miles - 2 workouts
Run - 55 miles - 6 workouts
Total - 18hrs 20 mins

Hot off the press

Here is the article I mentioned in my last post:
http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/sports/story.php?story_id=121435270709437100. Most o the facts are accurate. Only a couple little things are off. Now that I'm famous maybe I should start looking for an agent?!?

Too many factors!

So last week was another solid week of training. On Saturday I had another big brick workout. My last one was two weeks ago and I had crapped out on the run. After chatting with Scott about it we narrowed it down to not enough calories on the bike and probably not enough water. So I upped my malto intake on the bike and added in some gu on the run to see if that helped. So Saturday started with a ~1800 yrd swim in Hagg Lake. Then I rode 60 miles in 3 hrs followed by a 2 hr run. The run was supposed to be 2hrs 15 min but I had to cut it short. Once again I felt like crap. It was different this time though. I started out the run feeling good, but within 3 miles my HR was through the roof. It was about 85 degrees and felt very humid. Last time I did this it was only 70. So that was probably a big factor. As I continued on my run I started wheezing and was struggling to breath. Fortunately for me Jen offered to meet me half way through the run with more water since it was so warm. At this point I was out in rural Hillsboro in the middle of the big grass fields. I turned around and started to head for home and continued to feel worse. Jen had stopped a couple times on my route home to make sure I was feeling ok. At about 10 miles I was ready to quit when I met her near Athlete's Lounge. I had a mini meltdown and acted like a big baby for a second then sucked it up and continued on. I made it 14 miles total before calling it a day. I was disappointed in how the run went, but I didn't feel like I was buying myself anything by pushing those last two miles. Once home I noticed I was broken out in hives. So I am blaming this week's defeat on the heat and allergies. I think the nutrition was much better since I never really felt sick or hungry. It was just the breathing and the super high heart rate that kicked my ass. Yesterday was some Mt. biking up at Brown's Camp with some very strong Mt. Bikers. Normally I like to be pushed, but my legs wouldn't have it yesterday. I cut it short and headed home to rest up for this week.

Totals for the week:
15hrs 21 mins
swim - 10600 yrds - 4 workouts
Bike - 150 miles - 4 workouts
Run - 27.6 miles - 3 workouts


In other news... I have an interview with a journalist from the Forest Grove News-Times paper about triathlons today. Apparently there are plans in the works for Ironman Oregon and the paper is doing an article about it. They also want to do a campanion article about someone that participates in Ironman events. So my name was offered up. Should be interesting, I've never been interviewed before... I hope I don't say something stupid!! I think the article is coming out on Wednesday or Thursday of this week? Not sure about that but will keep you posted. Other then that nothing much new to report on. Sabbatical is just a week and a half away. Only one more Monday to go after today!!

Things that bug me...

There's really no point to this post. Just one of many things that I think about when I'm on a long ride or a run. This is what happens when you have way too much time by yourself to think. It's just a list of things in no particular order that get under my skin a little. It's not meant to insult anyone or call anyone out. So if you do things that are on this list don't be mad at me or offended, just write it off as me being a freak:

1. Morman kids riding bikes in suits. Why do they make these kids wear suits? It's bad enough they have to knock on people's doors and get yelled at and insulted. At least let them do it in some thing that wicks moisture.

2. Car culture/decorations: These include "baby on board" signs, those family stickers with each member represented by a stick figure, stuffed animals are Kleenex boxes in the rear window, and CD's or Dream Catchers hanging from the rearview mirror. I don't get it.

3. People that throw their cigarette butts on the ground. The fact that your smoking in the first place is bad enough, then you just throw your crap on the ground. This is one of things that usually results in me yelling at the person and or honking my horn like a crazy person.

4. People that are not courteous. This encompasses a lot of areas, from driving manners to holding the door for the person behind you. I think this is my biggest beef in life. I tend to form my opinions of people pretty quickly based on their manners.

5. Advertising your religious beliefs on the back of your car. Why?

6. People who leave there shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot. Walk your lazy ass over to the cart coral. There are exceptions to this of course, mom's with multiple kids and no coral close. But most of time it is laziness I think. This really gets me when the cart is actually touching my car. I'm afraid of what I might do if I actually caught someone putting that cart against my car.

7. Strangers who want to chat in the locker room or the bathroom. there is an etiquette here that needs to be followed. If I am naked or pee'ing and you don't know me please do not strike up a conversation with me. Along with that, guys in the locker room at the gym with only a shirt on, it's cool to wear pants.

8. Bees, I hate bees!

9. Cyclists with rearview mirrors. I'm sure there is a safety side to this, but I haven't figured it out yet. If a car is about to hit me I would rather not know. At least I won't tense up as much. I tried the mirror thing once and I spent more time trying to adjust it so I could see. I think that was more dangerous then actually turning my head when I need to make a left hand turn.

10. People who don't pick up their dog's poop. Again there are exceptions, like way off in thick bushes or weeds were no one will ever see it or step in it. This would not include my front yard! Or the park by my house where I step in your dog's poop all of the time because it's dark when I take my dog to play there.

11. Chap stick that has SPF 15. Why only 15? Why not 50? I don't really want a tan on lips. (This one came to me during IMAZ while on the bike. Obviously I lost focus for a little bit...)


Again, no real point, and just my opinion. Now that I've got that out of my system I'll start thinking up a list of things that are more positive. Now that's a challenge, it's so much easier to complain about stuff!

Hilly Swim Course?

Sooo... this past weekend was the Blue Lake Olympic race here in PDX. It is probably one of the most competitive races in the Portland Metro area. There is typically a strong showing from places as far away as eastern Washington and Idaho. Although not as competitive as last year there were still 3 guys under 2 hrs. I went into this race with one goal, that was to break the Ironheads Olympic distance bike record (58:06). The only reason I really focused on this was because I know my swim fitness isn't great right now and my running is still coming back. The bike has been feeling really good though. So I figured I would push the bike as hard as I could and see what happens. I really didn't feel like I had anything to loose since I could count at least 10 names I new in the pre-registered list that were faster then me. So I thought it would be a fun and potentially painful experiment. The race overall went pretty good. My swim felt faster then it was (I think the swim was a false flat). I thought for sure I was going to be under 24 mins, but I ended up at 25 and change. On to the bike, it took me a good 6 miles to get my HR under control. I started out pushing as hard as I could. Towards the middle I started to chicken out a bit. I realized how painful the run might actually be if I don't back off a little. So after the last turn around I eased up a little and cruised for couple miles. With about 5 miles to go I started to get a second wind so I took some nutrition and decided to push it again. I managed to keep my mph over 26 for the last 4 miles until I reached the park and prepared to dismount. The run started out rough as it usually does in these early season races. My feet get so numb on the bike they feel like bricks for the first mile of the run. Once the blood started to flow again I was able to settle in and keep a pretty consistent pace. Mile 4 to 5 I started to get tired, but I was able to keep the wheels from falling off. Had it not been for the pack of IH team mates running me down I would have likely let up those last couple of miles. But I knew that Jason K, Ryan J, and Trevor were all right behind me and running faster then me. So running scared is a good thing I guess. Fortunately for me the run was only 6 miles otherwise I would have gotten run down. So compared to last year I didn't PR as much as I had hoped. I think I was less then 2 minutes faster this year. Since my swim and run were slower this year only the bike was faster. There may be a balance somewhere in there. If I backed off on the bike a little maybe I'd more for the run? Or do I play to my strengths and try to push the bike as hard as I can and hold on for the run? Who knows...