Building The Machine

Fourteen and a half weeks from tonight, I'll be on that dock in the Savannah River, ready to embark on another 70.3 mile journey. 

But to get there, I need to get ready. That means more laps in the pool, more miles on the road, and more intervals on the trainer. But this year I'm going in with a completely different mindset than I had last year. 

Last year this journey was foreign to me. I had never swam 1.2 miles in a wetsuit in open water. I'd never ridden more than 50 miles at once. And I'd never contemplated running a half-marathon after a 50+ mile bike ride. I hired a coach to write my training plan. I put my trust in his experience to get me to the finish line, and felt like for a first 70.3 I had a really good race. 

This year, I've opted to write my own plan. A friend of mine turned me on to "Run Less, Run Faster" and I've adapted a half-marathon plan from that book, combined with a bike training plan from Trainer Road and the Half-Ironman Swim Plan from Swim Smooth. My focus will be mainly on the bike where I feel I can pick up the most time from last year. 

To do so means the bulk of my bike training will be on a trainer while staring at a green line on my iPhone instead of riding outside. 2-2.5 intense trainer hours will be more beneficial than a 2 hour ride with traffic, road hazards, and distractions. It's not going to be fun but it will make me faster. Which is all that matters at this point. 

A friend of mine has referred to this point of training as "building the machine". And that's exactly what it feels like. Like I'm building a beastly diesel powered machine that can run all day long without breaking down or losing power. 

Now to make that engine run faster...

2015 Louisiana Tri - A Black Tie Affair

So... back to triathlons.

Finally... A decent pic of me on my bike.

In a fit of impulse prompted by a Facebook post by a friend, I registered for the Louisiana Triathlon which was held last weekend on May 9th.  Normally, I would have done the Big Easy Sprint or New Orleans Triathlon and Crawfishman, but extenuating circumstances prevented me from racing in any of those races...  Namely work for Big Easy/NOLA, and the fact that Crawfishman didn't happen this year.

And as a result of those races not happening, I decided that taking a couple months to lay low, not follow a training schedule, and handling some minor medical stuff that needed to be done would be a pretty good idea.  I had been training for an 'A' race pretty much non stop for about 2-2.5 years with Dopey, Crawfishman last year, Augusta 70.3, and RnR NOLA and needed a mental break.  Burnout was approaching, and it was time to recharge the batteries.

But with the mental break came some challenges.  Because I had focused so much on RnR NOLA, I had put my bikes away and hadn't ridden since the day of Augusta.  I also hadn't been in the water at all over the winter and early spring.  Clearly I wasn't in Triathlon shape.  I was still running a fair amount though, and even ran the third leg for a relay team at IM NOLA.  (That was miserable and hot... Lakeshore drive, no shade, 85 degrees, starting at noon.  I'd do it again.)

But the week after IM NOLA, I had to have a minor medical procedure done.  My doctor told me I could swim after about 3-4 days, and start running and riding again within a week.  So 4 days after, I was in the pool... And swimming 500 yards sucked.

Two days later, I swam 1000 though and it wasn't horrible.  The following Saturday I ran 5 miles on my treadmill without any pain as well.  I would have ridden Sunday, but the weather didn't cooperate and riding my trainer didn't sound fun.  The Sunday before the race, I bit the bullet and registered for the Louisiana Triathlon.

And then a couple days later I was on a plane to Houston for work.

My biggest concern for the race was the bike leg.  The distance wasn't daunting, but I could have had major issues if I wasn't fully recovered from my procedure.  I intended to test myself out beforehand, but never got an opportunity.  Race day would literally be the first time I'd be on my tri-bike since Augusta.

The Louisiana Triathlon is a sprint distance race (800M Swim/ 18.6 Mile Bike/5K Run) held in New Roads, LA on False River.  The swim was a triangle course in False River.  The bike was an out and back along False River, and the run was a loop on LA 1 and through a neighborhood.  The bike course was especially nice as the road along False River was recently resurfaced and it was a pretty area with views of the water, camps, and beautiful homes.

I originally intended to drive to Jackson, LA (about 20 miles from New Roads) with some friends and stay overnight, but I didn't land in NOLA from Houston until 5PM and didn't get home until after 7.  I ended up packing my transition bag, loading my car, and set out at 4AM on race day.

I arrived at the race site about 5:45, picked up my packet, got body marked, and checked into transition.  A few of my Tri-Dat teammates were close behind me, so we hung out until the officials opened the lake for a warmup swim.  Knowing the course was a triangle, I figured I'd swim to the turn buoy and back as a warmup and I'd be good.

After I did my warmup swim, they added a second buoy about another 100 yards from the one I turned around at.  Really?  Blah...

Finally at 7:38 my wave started.  We started in the water, so I hung back about 20 seconds to let the faster swimmers get out ahead of me so I could have some clear water to swim in.  I felt good for about the first 4-500 yards, but started fatiguing, probably because of a simple lack of swim fitness.  However, for a change, I wasn't the slowest swimmer in my AG.  I was close, but not the slowest.  I do remember checking my watch and seeing I still had about 200 yards (or so I thought) and being annoyed.  Turns out I probably swam 100 yards or so longer than the marked course because of my inability to swim a straight line.

My bike leg was better than expected.  I started out kind of cautiously because of the circumstances, but after about a mile and a half, I started getting comfortable being back on the bike and concentrated on staying tucked down in aero and focused on making steady power.  I averaged right at 19MPH for the bike leg... Which was about 1 MPH faster than last year's Crawfishman split, and right about where I was for Augusta.  Apparently I hadn't lost much bike fitness over the layoff... Just some endurance.  And best of all.. no pain.

Since I wasn't competitive due to the swim, I didn't push too hard on the run.  I wanted to stay under an 8:00/mile pace and catch the guy in my AG that passed me on the bike about mile 16.  And I did both, so I was satisfied with that.

Post race I hung out with the Tri-Dat crew and another club from Mandeville and enjoyed a post race beer and a bowl of jambalaya.

Considering all the extraneous circumstances going into this race, I'll consider it a good day.  I'd like to have been in better shape, especially for the swim, but compromises had to be made.  Now it's time to start getting ready for Augusta again, which means early Saturday swim classes, and the huge Sunday brick workouts.

Can't wait.

Marathons and Mud

It's been forever since I've posted anything here.  Somehow days turned into weeks and the holidays happened and training happened and this got neglected.  But now it's time for a HUGE update.

Last spring, I set out to determine what's harder, a marathon or a half-Ironman triathlon.  I did the Half-Ironman at the end of September in Augusta, GA.  After that it was time to prepare for another 26.2 miles of agony and misery, or a marathon.

I read several training plans and a couple books before deciding which plan to follow and eventually settled on Hal Higdon's Advanced 2 plan.  This was a 6 day a week plan, with 2-3 speed work sessions a week, and three 20 mile long runs followed by a 2 week taper into race week.  The meat of the plan was a fairly long Saturday pace run followed by a Sunday long run that doubled Saturday's mileage.  And some of those were TOUGH.

I also ran a couple other races leading up to the marathon, as well as something a little different as a 'recovery' race.  But more on that later.

Training started in earnest the first week of October, after I took a few days for recovery post-Augusta.  I was as fit as I'd ever be, and only had to worry about rebuilding run durability.  I jumped right into the plan that started off with a 10 mile Sunday long run, and a 4x800 track workout 2 days later.  Fun fun.

Higdon recommends racing often throughout training for a marathon, so I did that.  On Thanksgiving day, I ran a local 5K with my wife.  I won my age group, but the course was .3 miles short, so I can't claim a PR.  However, I did go under 20:00, for whatever that's worth.

3 weeks later, I ran the St. Tammany 10K.  This is a qualifier for the Crescent City Classic, so I was motivated to have a good race.  I've run the CCC10K twice, and both times started in the middle of the pack, and it's miserable.  There's just too many people more interested in walking and socializing to make it a race.  I've since decided that unless I can get a seeded slot, I'm just not all that interested in it.

Well, I had a GREAT race, and broke my 10K PR by 2 minutes.  Unfortunately it wasn't enough as I needed to go 13 seconds faster for the seeded slot.  I ran a 45:12.  I needed a 44:59.  Blah.  That said, I still felt great about my result, and saw that I was making progress towards my marathon goal.

The last race I ran pre-marathon was The Half at the Louisiana Marathon.  Higdon's plan called for a 4 mile Saturday run, and an 8 mile Sunday run, both easy.  I instead ran 2 Saturday and 13 Sunday.  But I deliberately didn't run the Half hard.

At least that was the mindset.  3 miles in and I started running sub-8:00 miles and made it a 3 mile warmup, 9 mile pace, 1 mile cool down.  It was a race.  The weather was nice.  And it was fun.

But finally it was time for the marathon.  400+ miles of training, 3 races, gallons of sweat, and gobs of Gu all led up to this day.  And what a day it was.  You couldn't have ordered better weather for a marathon.  Low 40's, dry, clear, it was perfect.

My goal was to go under 3:40, which would be a 15 minute PR and 25 minutes faster than my first marathon.  If everything was better than perfect, I was hoping to go under 3:30, but knew that was a bit of a pipe dream.

I started strong, running right at an 8:00-8:04 pace for the first 8 miles.  Around mile 9 my gut and my legs started having disagreements, and those had to be dealt with.  But once that was handled I was back on track and feeling good.  At mile 16 I was on pace for a 3:35 finish,  At mile 19 I was mentally preparing myself for the hardest 10K I'd ever run.  At mile 21.5 I made the turnaround on the lakefront...

And ran into a wall of wind.  And my legs hurt.  And running sucked.  And I had to fight this wind for 3.5 miles back into City Park.

And the worst part was the course went under I-610 on what used to be the cart path to the South Course, which meant an uphill at mile 25.8.

I finished at 3:38 and change, leaned on a barricade where my wife and daughter were waiting on me, and just said "that hurt".  But 20 minutes later I had a beer in my hand, feeling human again, and pretty happy that I hit my goal.

At the expo for the La. Marathon, there was a booth for Q50 races, a series of trail runs from 5 to 50 miles.  I got to talking to Cesar, and eventually decided to register for the half marathon, which was 5 weeks after Rock N Roll NOLA.  Recovery Race.  Yea.

Lemme tell ya... That ish was HARD.  The course was hilly, twisty, uneven, and somewhat hazardous in a couple spots.

It was also a blast!  Until the next morning when my calves were so sore I could barely walk.  So I'll do it again next year most likely.




Since then, I've been running and lifting a bit for the past month, and took this week off for a mental break.  In a couple weeks, I'll be starting a 6 month build to Ironman Augusta again.  And I'll actually blog a bit more about it than I have recently.






Oh yea... Marathons are harder.  But just to make sure, I'm registered again for RnR NOLA in 2016.. Shooting for a BQ time.

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. - Pre