Too Big To Fail

I got to sleep at a decent hour last night, around 9:00.  I had an alarm set for 4:00, but I woke up at 3:00, finally giving up and getting out of bed at around 3:30.  Breakfast was a bowl of Kashi, then I checked the air in my tires and loaded up the car.

It was Florida cold when I arrived, with a temperature in the mid 50’s.  I was actually there a bit too early, but I was the second person to get my number.  (A wonderful, programmer friendly 256.)  I was wishing I was wearing sweats, but by the time I got my bike racked and my transition area set up, I was acclimated.  I went for a short run to the start line as a warm up.  It was still dark, and I couldn’t even see the finish line across the lake from the start.  Still, I’ve been regularly swimming well double that distance in the pool, and I wasn’t really worried about the swim.

After jogging back to the transition area, finalizing my setup, and taking my bike for a fast test spin, I met up with my former co-worker and her husband and we headed for the start.  At this point, I’ve removed my shirt and left it in the transition area, and I’m not wearing shoes.  I was already starting to feel cold when they announced that the race start would be pushed back to wait for light.

The air was cold, but the water was 80 degrees.  They called for the first wave, Elite, Military and Male under 39.  I hadn’t registered as a Clydesdale, so I was starting with the first wave.  They put us all in the water for a few minutes leading up to the start, then we were off.  I tried to get into my normal rhythm, but when I tried to swim fast I would end up clawing the legs of the person ahead of me.  There really wasn’t anywhere to go to the right or left, so I tried to slow up a bit.

That’s really where the problems started.  Somehow, when I slowed down, I was having trouble keeping my head out of the water.  So less than 50 yards from the start, I breathe in a big mouthful of lake water.  It was probably just the fact that the water was choppy, but I really felt like I got a good amount into my throat, and I never really caught my breath the rest of the swim.  By the time I coughed up the water, the pack had thinned and moved away from me, so at least I wasn’t fighting with the other swimmers any more.

I did try to get back into my normal breath every four strokes routine, but I just wasn’t getting enough air to get through four strokes.  My swimming was very sloppy across the lake, but eventually I could see the finish and powered through.  Looking at my time, I’m amazed I finished in 11:17, pretty much right on my pool pace.  Maybe I was constantly out of breath because I was pushing harder than normal, and it averaged out to a normal time, but it was much better than I expected.

It’s hard to get socks on wet feet, but nothing particularly interesting to talk about in the first transition.  I was expecting to see a lot of guys trying running bike mounts, but I actually got by several guys fumbling to get on their bikes and get clipped in.  It wasn’t just cold, but also very windy.  The bike course was curvy, so it was a lot of riding hard into the wind followed by breaks with the wind at your back.  I was passed quite a bit by people who started in the wave behind, me, but I passed some riders as well.  I was trying to catch one guy for most of the second lap, but I never managed to get past him.  I finished the bike leg with a time of 37:53.

Racking my bike and changing shoes went pretty quickly, then I was running.  That’s definitely my worst sport.  I don’t have a problem staying in a jog, but my pace is pretty terrible. I normally run roughly 15 minute miles, so I’m happy to see I averaged 11:39 miles, but even that wasn’t even close to enough.  My 29:08 run time was only the 15th percentile overall and dead last in my age group.  One thing that definitely helped was a woman who encouraged me to keep up with her 9:00 mile pace for a while.  I kept up as long as I could, but lost it after probably about half a mile.

My overall time was 1:23:36, for 267th overall out of 334.  I’ll take it, given that four months ago I weighed 320 pounds and couldn’t swim a lap in the pool without stopping for air.  Miami is about two weeks ago.  Right after the event this morning I was saying I was going to defer my entry to next year, but I think I might still try to run that race.  I was honestly a bit scared during this morning’s swim, but I think if I relax and don’t try to push so hard early on I’ll be better off.

Full results for the event can be found here, and my individual results are here.  We’ll see about the Miami race.  Only five or six hours removed from this morning’s race and I’m already starting to consider it again.  And I’ll definitely be back for more next season.

Well, that was fun.

Feeling sick. It is (Florida’s version of) cold outside. It’s 4:22, I’m packed up and heading out.

No big progress, but things continue to move in the right direction.  Another better swim time of 11:21 for my sprint distance.  Still about 20 seconds slower than when I did my dry run a few weeks ago.  I’m wondering if the difference is that I was psyched about actually doing all three sports at once and was pushing a bit harder or if wearing my tri suit instead of board shorts makes that much of a difference.  Oy, I do not like wearing that thing.

My international distance time was a new best of 27:06.  That still puts me in the bottom percentiles for the swim during an event, but for the Miami event last year I definitely wouldn’t be the last person out of the water.

Less than two weeks until my sprint triathlon, and less than a month until the international distance event.  I’m regularly swimming the distances I need, I’m cycling almost double my long distance once a week.  As for running, I’m not quite there yet.

I came closest this morning.  I just got back from a 5.9 mile run, which I completed in 1:31.  Fifteen minute miles are not where I want to be, but I need to get comfortable with these distances before I start working my speed up.  I would be super pissed if I turned an ankle just before the race. My next run I’ll tack on that last bit and get up to the 6.6 miles I need for Miami.

My wife and I went to a 45 minutes spinning class yesterday.  I think that’s helpful. There really aren’t any hills in South Florida, so it’s nice to spend some time pedaling with more resistance.  I think I’ll get a swim in this evening, then I need to put in a long bike ride tomorrow.

Rode my bike to the gym bright and early this morning for a swim.  I think maybe that small amount of warmup made a big difference.  I didn’t feel like I was pushing hard, but I came close to my previous sprint time of 10:59 (set during my dry run last weekend) with an 11:28.  I beat my best .6 mile swim time by almost a minute, getting it down to 27:44.

The weekend included a bike ride with a former co-worker and her husband.  We covered 36.4 miles in 2:14, for an average speed of 16.2 mph.  That’s much better that my usual speed, which tends to creep down to 14 mph on longer rides.  I think having somebody to keep up with makes a big difference.  I wonder if this will get my times down on race day as well.

I’m also trying to get my running distances up.  I did a 3.9 mile run yesterday in 58 minutes.  That’s a pretty godawful pace, but I’m not going to start trying to improve my pace until I’m sure I can cover the 6.6 miles I need for Miami.  I think I’ll be there in a few weeks.  Four miles didn’t kill me, so I think I’ll tack on one more for tomorrow’s run.

I’ve been trying to simplify my bike commute lately.  I’m no longer riding with my heart rate monitor and bike computer on my way to and from work, so I’m no longer getting times for those rides.  It seems like I’ve been doing that commute in a pretty consistent 18 minutes anyway, and at about five miles each way it’s such a short distance I hardly consider it training.

Still, I have been riding my bike in to work every day since I got a new rear wheel for my commuter bike.  It’s held up very well so far and I’m sure it’ll give me a lot fewer problems than the wheel it replaced.  (It was bent badly once, so it never stayed true, and it finally broke a spoke the week before last, prompting its replacement.)

Last Saturday I was scheduled for a run, but looked at the calendar and realized I was only about four weeks away from my first event. I decided it was about time to try doing all my distances back to back.  My lovely wife drove me and my bike over to the YMCA.  I set out a makeshift transition area in a locker, and went to the pool.  Due to an unfortunately timed water aerobics class I had to do my laps in the over-chlorinated kiddie pool, but I just ran through the shower quickly before changing into shoes for the ride.

I dropped my bag off in my car, and rode my 10.5 mile route, ending back at my house.  I then ran a 2.5 mile run around my neighborhood to finish up.

The biggest problem I had was with temperature.  The Y doesn’t open until 8:00 on Saturdays, and I didn’t get in the pool until almost exactly 8:30.  By the time I was running, the sun had been out a while and it was very hot.  I ran very sluggishly, but I did run the whole distance, even if it wasn’t much faster than I could have walked it.

Times:

• Swim - 400m - 10:59
• T1 - 6:54 - (That’s with a fast shower)
• Bike - 10.6 miles - 41:00
• T2 - 5:00 - Estimated
• Run - 2.5 miles - 34:25
• Total Time:  1:38:18

Those times certainly aren’t competitive, and I would have been last place in my age group at the event I volunteered for earlier this month.  However, I would not have been last place overall, and I think my time will be significantly better when it is three weeks later in the year and an hour and a half earlier in the morning.

I don’t think I’ll try a dry run again for two weeks because my wife is out of town this weekend.  My next attempt in a few weeks will be my last before the race on 10/18.  Realizing I have just over a month until the International distance event on 11/8, I’m starting to push the distance on my runs.

I ran 3.2 miles this morning in about 46 minutes (with five minute warm-up/cool-down walks included).  I’ll push it to 4 on Thursday.

I had a nice lull when the YMCA was between classes, and I was able to swim pretty much whenever I wanted to.  Now, I have to check the schedule before I go in, and even that isn’t enough to ensure I don’t waste a trip to the gym.

Today, I made it in and got my laps started.  Concentrating on kicking and staying straight, but I’m still just having general problems getting enough oxygen when I kick vigorously.  Still, my 400m time was my best ever at 12:14.  Then around lap 20 of my intended 40, a crowd started gathering at the bleachers.  Looks like there was a rescue class that wasn’t on the pool schedule.  It made me a little mad (those selfish lifeguards!), but I decided I’d try to finish up my laps.  Nobody ever asked me to get out, and I think I finished up before they were ready to get started, but I still felt hurried.

That’s not always bad though.  My .6 mile time was my best ever by almost a minute and a half.  I did the 42 laps in 28:39.

I went on a swim this morning. I was concentrating on keeping myself flat in the water, and it really seemed to make a difference.  My times weren’t my best ever, but were much better than Sunday.  I swam the sprint distance in 12:48, and the international distance in 31:11.

When I got back from my swim I went on my run.  I covered 2.83 miles in 42 minutes, but my five minute cooldown didn’t get me all the way home, so there was more walking than usual.  I do feel like I kept the intensity up, and that’s the most ground I’ve covered on a run so far.

Starting on Friday I add another two minutes onto my run, so I’ll be up to 27 minutes.  Only two weeks left on Couch to 5K, then I need to start adding on extra miles.  I’m hoping to have run over four miles at the end of September.

Off to work now.  I’m tempted to ride my bike in, but it’s really too late in the morning for that.

The bike was loaded down with towels, the office’s bath mat and clothes for the week, but still made an OK average speed of 15.3 mph.

Went on my run this morning, today 25 minutes.  It was a bit warm, but I didn’t have any major pain, so I kept my lap times up fairly well.  One thing I am starting to realize is that music makes a huge difference for me.  I have heard runners talk about endorphin release and the physical sensation of that, and I’ve now experienced it a few times myself, but it is always when I’ve been on a run for about fifteen to twenty minutes and a really good song comes on my playlist.

I usually run the .241 mile laps around the lake near the office in about three minutes when fresh, slowing down to almost four minutes when it gets hot or I start to get tired.  Today I was just listening to an electronic music playlist I have set up on shuffle, and it was pretty uninspiring for the first 18 minutes or so of my run.  My second to last lap clocked at around 3:40.  Then on what was going to be my last lap, Rökysopp’s “Happy Up Here” came on, and I just kicked into high gear.  I got my pace up for the first half of the lap, and when the C25K app told me the run was over, I broke into as close to a sprint as I’m capable of and finished out the lap in 2:38, certainly my best time so far.

It has me a bit worried about my dependence on music for good running.  I don’t think I can use headphones during an event even if I want to.  Still, it’s helping me get a bit more out of my training runs, so I don’t think I’m going to start running in silence just yet.