Pics, Pics, Pics

Okay, so here are some various pictures from the past week or so. The first is our bikes sitting outside the hospital as we were waiting for Wendy's x-rays to see what was wrong...

Second photo is Chinaman's Hat. An island off the East/Northeast coast of Oahu. The roads are amazing and so are the views. It's one of my favorite areas to ride, but very, very windy!!

Last photo is my bike all polished and ready for the Half Ironman this Saturday. It's a great bike!!

Last Hundred Done and Endurance Base Complete!!!

My bike and I have become really, really good friends over the last two weeks as we have ridden multiple Century (100-milers) rides which take around 6 hours each. It's been a long two weeks, but feel very confident that I can complete the Ironman race distance right now. I also mixed in a couple of 2.5 - 3 hour runs during those weeks, so it was alot of time and effort on my legs....I'm a little beat up from the training, so laying off on running till the Half Ironman race this Saturday (June 4th), but very happy with where I'm at. Weight wise, I'm right where I want to be and my nutrition is "Spot On" as I had plenty of energy at the ends of those long rides. I also felt that I could run a marathon distance on some of those long-runs, so I'm ready.

Looking forward to the Half Ironman this Saturday. You can track my progress on Ironman.com. The race is the Hawaii 70.3 and starts at 7 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (1 p.m. EST). I plan to race the swim/bike and cruise the run. Basically, I'll see how my left leg feels on the run and determine how hard I want to push it then....

I'll post some training pics when they come through on email....

The Perils of IM Training

Well, I learned a valuable lesson the other day about how dangerous cycling can be. My coaches' wife, and training partner, Wendy, was hit by a car about 30 miles into our ride last Wednesday. I was really thinking the worst when we got the call as we were ahead of her by a few minutes. We both turned around and rode quickly to get back up to where she was. Fortunately, she was sitting up when I got there and coherent. There is alot of traffic on this main road and some smaller neighborhoods where cars come out onto the main road. Sometimes they shoot through gaps and can be hard to see. She caught the truck at the last minute and tried to swerve, hitting her left side into the truck and actually dented it. She had a sore shoulder and arm. We followed her to the hospital down the street for an X-ray. Good news is that she is alright and it could've been much worse. Bad news is that she broke her arm. She ended up having surgery on Friday to put in a titanium plate and is still looking at doing the Ironman in 4 weeks. She is as tough as they come and a true IRONWOMAN. I can't believe how calm she was about her arm being sore and it was broken!!!

I'm just thankful that she came out with just a broken arm and honored to train with someone that has so much resolve and toughness. I hope that I can show some of her mental and physical toughness come Ironman day!!

Wind, the Great Equalizer...

Another EPIC 100-mile ride took place yesterday. I arrived at the park early and noticed the wind howling when I stepped out of the car. We had 15 - 25 mph trade winds with much higher gusts. I was dreading the ride at this point because I know how significant those winds can be along the coastline, which happens to be most of our ride...

The winds weren't too bad heading out as we had a big group of 25+ cyclists pulling us out for the first 15 miles or so. We also had a nice tailwind heading out to our turnaround at about mile 50; however, the wind was blowing hard from the water and our bikes were constantly being thrown back and forth from the crosswind. I enjoyed that part of the ride and it was good training for the Half IM that is coming up in 2 weeks. The winds over in Kona can be pretty brutal, so it's good to get some training days in those types of conditions.

As I expected, we hit the headwinds immediately on the return trip and it started to pour buckets on us. The traffic was pretty heavy on this 2-lane road as it was Saturday morning, so we eventually decided to pull off at a store and just hang out for a few minutes in hopes it would blow over. It was pretty brutal trying to keep the bike straight in that wind with the traffic and rain!! Good character building I guess. We were able to wait it out and return to what turned out to be a pretty good day overall!! My legs were tired early in the ride, but felt better at mile 50 and I never really hit my down point. Usually that happens around 4 hours, but I just kept going and felt pretty good overall.

We were talking about how the Half Ironman ride is going to seem much shorter then in year's past due to all the mileage we are riding now. I'm really curious to see how I feel on the bike in that race in 2 weeks.

Off to do a 20-mile run, then a Monday recover day!!

An Ironman Style Ride

After recovering from my Olympic Triathlon race, Sunday, I took 2 days of active recovery and then saddled up for a long, long day on the road. Our plan Wednesday was to pedal the 1st of 3 Century (100 mile) distance rides in 10-days in an effort to toughen our legs and provide the stamina & confidence to pull off an Ironman distance race. '

It was a beautiful day with little to no wind and some good cloud cover as we pulled out onto the road around 6:15 a.m. The first 30 miles of the ride went by fast as we covered the same roads that I've ridden what seems like a million times since the beginning of the year. After mile 30, we start to hit some bumpy roads that jog along the ocean. It's not too scenic, but you do get some nice shots of Kaneohe bay in between some of the houses right on the bay. We pushed through mile 40 and headed out onto some really sweet, smooth roads that ride along the ocean out to Swanzy beach park. Swanzy is where the Honolulu Century ride turns around, so I'm somewhat familiar with it; especially after our 100 miler last Wednesday. We stopped at Swanzy (my coach Eric, his wife Wendy, and myself) to hit the bathrooms and refill water, then decided to push out another 5 miles as the roads and scenery were so nice. It is really beautiful out there and I catch myself "window shopping" when I should be paying more attention to the road....

We hit our turnaround at mile 55 or so and then headed back towards Kaneohe town. I've noticed, on my last 2 Century distance rides, that I tend to get tired somewhere near the 4 hour mark. I think I'm just tired of being on the bike as this point and everything seems to ache. What I've found is that just pushing through it and continuing on makes it go away eventually. Could be boredom as that is a long, long time to be out on the roads!! Anyway, we made our way back into Kaneohe after a few tough climbs and then onto Kailua. Once I hit Kailua, it signals to me that we are within 1.5 hours to go and I start to feel better. We stopped to get some much needed cold water, gatorade, etc.. We had logged about 85 miles at this point in the ride. There is one last section that can be somewhat tough due to winds and a climb called Waimanalo. The climb hit us around mile 95, so it can be tough just due to being tired and on the bike for upwards of 5 hours at that point. I know that once we get over that climb, then I'm home free as we pick up a nice tailwind as we head back towards our starting point. The top of the climb signals about 15 miles left in the ride and I was feeling really good again. It tells me that my nutrition is spot on for this distance!!! Nutrition can be one of the toughest things to figure out but I seem to have a good plan for my body and the distance....I guess we will see!!

I decided that since I was feeling good that I wanted to log at least 112 miles just to know mentally that I've conquered that distance. I pulled into the beach park right at 112 and felt really good getting off the bike. To start the day, I wasn't sure how my legs would respond after the race on Sunday, but I was pretty impressed with how well I bounced back and how good I was feeling that day!!!

So, that's 1 Century down and 2 more to go. I've also got 2 - 20 mile runs to finish in the next 10 days as well, so these 2 weeks are the Epic Ironman Training weeks that I've so often heard about. I'm very fortunate to have the time to recover properly during the day and looking forward to knocking off those distances this weekend.

5 Weeks till race day and really starting to look forward to it!!

Honolulu Triathlon 2011 in the books....

I had a very interesting, but great race overall. The Honolulu Triathlon is an Olympic Distance event that is notoriously crowded (about 1500 racers) as there are 6 different events going on at once. The Olympic Distance is 1500m swimming, 40K (25 miles) bike, 10K (6.2 miles) run. This year, I persuaded Ann to get up at 3:30 in the morning to come out and experience what this crazy thing called "Triathlon" is all about....I also wanted her to see that I wasn't the only crazy person training hard for these events, that even people from Japan come all the way over here to do this!!!

We woke up early and I had my usual training breakfast. It's hard to get up and eat right away, but my system is getting used to it after so many early mornings. I'm getting up between 4 and 5 about 3 - 4 days per week given the longer training days. Anyhow, the event was buzzing when we got there with music blasting and the transition area busy with everyone getting their areas setup and ready to race. I had some trouble getting air into my tires, but after getting help from a mechanic, I was off to get body marked (they paste your number on both arms and your calf with black marker/paste) and get my timing chip. I found Ann and we went to the water so that I could get in a quick warmup and try to get my heart rate up once before the gun went off.

The first wave of racers went off at 6:00 am sharp. I was in the 4th wave (ages 40 - 49), so I got to watch a few starts and thought I picked the correct starting position. Boy was I wrong!! This event starts on the beach, so you run into the shallow water for the first 50 meters or so. It's hard to run in water, so you kinda have to dive in, then jump forward, and keep doing that till it gets deep enough to swim. I picked the inside (closest to the markers) because I thought this is where the faster swimmers would be and I would have more room and maybe a good draft from them. I lined up about 3 deep from the start and said good-luck to a few friends. The race director sent us off and I went sprinting into the water and was at the front!!! So, I thought that I was doing pretty good till I got a look out to my right and somehow the group was way ahead. I guess it stays shallow longer on the outside and they were able to run longer. Oh well, at least I had room to swim and didn't get kicked or punched (a huge plus for me!!). The swim was pretty crowded as we caught some of the slower swimmers from the first 3 waves, so a lot of zigging/zagging. I had a little trouble getting full breaths at the beginning, but once I got into a rhythm I felt pretty good. I rounded the last buoy and then headed for home. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any feet to draft off of as noone seemed to be swimming my pace (either much faster or much slower). I exited the water and ran out onto the beach with a 27 minute swim. For reference, that was about 1 - 1:30 faster then 2008, the last time I did this race. I was really happy with that swim time considering the poor starting line and lack of drafting options!!

Onto the bike....I went into T1 and threw on my cycling shoes, helmet, glasses, and then off to the mounting line. This race has speed bumps and steel plates on the roads at the beginning, so you have to be very careful starting off....I pedaled for a little while and noticed that my left cleat wouldn't clip into the pedal correctly. I ended stopping and after a few minutes was able to get it to clip in. However, my shoe was angled so that my heel was clipping the crank, so I had to kinda push my foot out while I pedaled. Oh well, nothing I could do about it then, so I just pedaled on after losing a few minutes getting it clipped in. The bike was tough as I haven't had to push that hard over that distance (about an hour time total) in a long time. You have to figure out how to push hard but pace yourself so that you have enough energy left coming back. The bike course is very flat and the winds were down, so it was prime for fast times!! I ran into the usual suspects of beginner triathletes riding on the left side (you're supposed to stay right unless passing) and there were a few dicey moments including a guy who was swerving all over the course and decided to re-pass me every time I passed him. It was like a cat & mouse game till I pulled back and let him cause other people problems. I even complained to the official who penalized him, but never told him to stay on the right....it was crazy dangerous at 20+ mph, but that is triathlon. So, because of my endurance conditioning, I was able to push the final 5K and pass some of the riders that were staying with me. I dismounted (and watched the guy that was swerving fall during the dismount....karma maybe??) and ran to my transition area to drop off the bike and grab the run shoes, hat, and my race belt.

I ran out and took the first turn and there was Ann jumping up and down cheering me on and that gave me energy to push a good pace. I reached the first mile in 6:39 and felt really good. I knew that I was running fast as I passed a bunch of runners in the first mile. The course got a little hilly around mile 3 so I just tried to temper my effort for the final 3 miles. It's a cool course because you run by the ocean several times and get to see alot of the athletes. There was great encouragement from my competitors regarding my run pace and I shot back alot of good job, good effort, good pace comments myself. I pushed hard after I reached mile 4. My goal was to try and run a 40-minute 10K, so I stopped looking at my watched, put my head down and charged forward. I knew that I was picking up speed, but didn't want to stress, so kept going. I dedicated my last mile to my buddy Jason, who is undergoing a stem cell transplant. I knew that I had to push hard and caught my friend & coach Stefan with about half a mile to go. I sprinted at the final chute and finished my run in 38:30 and overall 2 hours 14 minutes.

The 2:14 was a 4 minute PR (personal record) from the 2008 race even though I lost about 3 minutes on the bike due to the cleat issue. I also ran a 38:30 10K (or about 6:15 avg pace) which completely blew me away. I had run that pace in some 5K's at the end of a Sprint Triathlon, but didn't know I could run that in a 10K. I was really excited at my result and it was great to have Ann there. All of my training partners had PR's as well, so my coach was proud of our efforts!!! I looked at the results posted and I was 4th in my Age Group by 12 seconds (shoot, I have never been close to placing in the Top 3 and almost did it)....However, as the results were posted online this morning, it turns out that I did place 3rd in my Age Group!!! Wooohooo!!! And, they announced that during the awards ceremony (to which we had already left!!). I also finished 42nd overall for a great, great race!!!

I can see for Miles & Miles...

The miles are really starting to pile up as I crested the 20 hour training mark last week. We put in a 102 mile ride this week Wednesday, the day after an 18-mile run. All in all, I'm holding up well and feeling pretty good given the increase in training hours.

IM Cda is in 7 weeks and I've got 2 other races in between:

Honolulu Triathlon - Olympic Distance Sunday, May 15th

Honu Half Ironman - 70.3 miles, Saturday, June 4th

We've got 3 more 100+ mile bike rides, and a couple of 3 hour runs left, so just going to buck up and push hard down the stretch. Looking forward to the race on Sunday to see how I'm progressing...Will post the results here...

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

We've had some really challenging weather to train in. I can't remember a wetter, windier, more humid training season!! In the past week, we cancelled a swim and a long ride due to lightning and just plain nasty weather!!

While it's been difficult training conditions, I'm a firm believer that it builds character and will come into play during the race as the "mental" piece comes into play. Inevitably, something doesn't go according to play that is totally out of control and you just have to deal with it on race day!! I'm also hoping that this means we will have nice weather for the Half and Full IM in June!!

More to come as the next few weeks heat up!!

Kids....great spirit and inspiration

I was headed to my Friday 3K swim this morning and it was raining. I was kinda dreading getting into the water as I was still cold from my 2K swim yesterday....When I arrived at Ala Moana park, I was greeted by 100's of High School kids wearing swim caps and also running around the park. They had parents and teachers cheering them on as I wondered what was going on. I thought it was odd that there was an organized event on a Friday. As I got closer to the water, I watched a few groups of students run out of the water, change, and then go for their run. Lots of cheering and encouragement! It made it so easy for me to get into the water and just swim. I stopped a bunch of times to cheer and watch the kids swimming towards their goal. I'm still not sure, but I think it's a PE type test for HS kids here in Hawaii. I asked and some of the kids had to swim a 3K and then run. That is not easy at all and it gave me tons of energy watching the last few struggle to make it in. What a great day and inspiration those kids were, who I don't even know, on a cold, damp Friday in Hawaii!!! Inspiration is everywhere, sometimes it's right in front of you....I'm really glad I didn't bag the swim!!!