10k education....

well....not sure what to write, but figured I should update, regardless. Ran the Northland Hospice Run for your Life 10K on saturday. Wanted to PR the course....missed it by 18 seconds. Which isn't bad considering I was about 30 seconds back at the halfway point. Got caught in no man's land after the second mile. Tried to hold on through the third but kept slipping on pace. Heard a crowd behind me (about 4-5 guys) and decided to relax and let them overtake me since it was going to be inevitable. I relaxed, recovered a bit and grabbed their pace. I learned a lot about my running that day. Running alone is not my style. Running with people keeps my mind off how my own body is doing and continuing to play through strategy, and focusing on others breathing and how I can break their spirits. It bumped my own running. I went fro a 6:38 thrid mile, to a 6:23 4th, 6:14 5th and 6:02 final mile. We were able to work off each other and keep the pace honest. I knew I was able to stave off self doubt when my pace is quicker than expected after I ran the Tucson Half Marathon in 2008. My pace was much faster than I had ever run, but running with people helped to keep my mind off how my body felt. I ran into trouble the last few miles when I was in no man's land again. I had too much time to think about my own feelings. I just finally realized how much of an impact it had this last Saturday when the transition happened in the middle of the race. It was like a switch was flipped.

Anyway, nothing planned for a while. I am still training for the Disneyland half marathon. I have quite a ways to go before I get to my goal. But I figure if I keep training toward my goal time and the race happens before my training blocks are up, then I will just run with the fitness I have at the time. Does that make sense?

XTERRA Deuces Wild recap...

Oh wow. So much good stuff this weekend. I had signed up for the Deuces Wildacouple months back and have since (if you read the rest of my blog, you totally know) been injured a couple times. But, the weekend was full of tons of good things (and a few that could have been better).

My mom and I left Flagstaff at 3:30 friday afternoon. I was given the priviledge of sharing my sports testimony at the FCA Endurance Prayer/Worship Service that evening before the races kicked off on Saturday. We had a small turnout but I couldn't have been happier with who did show up. So blessed. We grabbed dinner at Sonic (I know, terrible) before heading back to the hotel. It is unusual that we spend a night in a hotel and it isn't race morning the next AM. But, my dad got a run in in the morning, I got to enjoy a hotel buffet breakfast (easily my favorite meal of the day) and we had a nice day visiting old friends in Pinetop. I was very glad that we were able to miss the large crowds of the Saturday races which consisted of an Olympic, a Half-Iron, an Aquabike and kids Duathlon. However, we did have to fight people at the raffle dinner. My one complaint of the weekend is that trisports.com really needs to organize that better. More seating, better sound system, more fluidity with serving dinner and handing out prizes. Honestly, I could have done better in my sleep. But, overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Saturday night rolled around and I got a better night's sleep than usual before a race. A good night sleep on race night is not close to what a normal good night would look like, don't mistake that. 4am was our wake-up call. I hopped in the shower, downed some water and oatmeal for breakfast and we were in the car by 5:10 heading to the race site. I knew it was going to be hot that day and was extra cautious of my fluids intake which accounted for the 6 trips to the toilet between 4 and 7am. The water was nice, I was still confused about the bike and run course but figured I would go along with whatever happened.

I came into this race expecting little. I had been injured, the pool had been closed for three weeks in May, my fitness wasn't at all where I wanted it to be. It took all day Saturday to finally prepare myself for a race that wasn't going to be my best. I just wanted to have fun and, as the saying goes, whatever happens, happens.

I personally thoughtthe swim course looked long, but I haven't done a swim that short (800m) in a couple of years. So, what did I know. Gun goes off. The usual flailing of body parts in front of me and the cliche washing machine routine commences as the Men's wave headed out to sea. The first of three bouys came up fast. I was stoked to know that we were flying through this course and as far as I could see, I was towards the front. Then the lack of training hits me and my arms feel dead with 500meters left to go. I gut it out and pump with the little left that I have for the dock. My wetsuit comes off mucch easier than in Vegas a month prior (check out that race recap for more detail into wetsuit conundrums). I utilized the wetsuit strippers for the first time in any race. I figured with all the issues I had in Vegas I might as well let someone else do the work for me. They were fabulous. My mom said I was the 20th out of the water and sure enough, the results say I had the 20th fastest swim. 15:20 for 800m, slower than I wanted.

My transition felt pretty ok. I wasn't really rushing because I was maxing already, I could feel it in my breathing and stomach. I was still out in 1:50 which I attribute to the long run out and up the incline to the road.The fastest T1 was 1:27 which isn't horribly fast either.

Out on the bike, I felt like I went out with a large crew. At least 3 or 4 other guys that I can remember. I was assuming because of the clumping of individuals that I was back in 20th or 30th place. Not the case. I started trucking and found my rythmn after a good 2-3 miles and locked onto one guy. I t was super rolly and mostly doubletrack trails which made it easy for passing and still interesting with sandy and rocky sections thrown in for good measure. Plus, we had about 5 logs that needed to be climbed over and a wooden fence. About 5 miles or so into the course comes the long, lung-busting climb. I passed 4(?) people on that climb because they were walking and I decided to granny gear (not quite, but almost) the whole way. One guy absolutely flew past me and I knew I would not see him again. I finally reached the top in time for some bombing downhills and more trees to climb over. The rest of the race favored the fast and smooth riders. I had latched on to the guy who I had earlier locked on to and one other guy riding a single speed. Everyone else had been dropped and we paced eachother most of teh rest of the way. We came to a fast fireroad and the single speed guy didn't have the gearing to keep up with myself and the other guy who had gears. I wanted to keep the pressure on because I knew that the guys behind me were trying to catch up and I was riding scared. We rolled into T2 in 9th and 10th place!!! Yeah I didn't know what place until after the big hill and I got a bit of renewed energy for the rest of the race knowing I could get that top-10 spot. I finished the bike with the 13th fastest split overall in 1:08.48

T2 was fast. I have always had some sort of innate ability at transition, especially T2. I hardly ever practice them but they always seem to go fast and this was no different. I rolled in and out in 54 seconds which ended up as the fastest T2 overall by 4 seconds!!!

The run was just survival as it always is. I rolled out of T2 in 9th place, 10th place was right behind me and 11th place was probably a minute down. The run course was less than spectacular but it did the job. It was super rolly and hot. The aid stations were life savers (Thanks volunteers!!) and I could see my competition as it was generally an out and back course with a 180degree turn around. 10th place guy overcame me at the 1st mile marker. He was gone and I wouldn't catch him. I was just focusing on giving everyone I saw some encouragement and hoping for the best. The best I could give was the 20th fastest run split overall in 39:57.

I finished the race in 10th place and second in my age group. I was shooting for 2:10 overall and ended up with 2:06.51. I was so blessed by God's work that day. My fitness levels did not have me finishing that fast. Good competition and favorable conditions gave me a boost and I could not be happier!

Looking up...

Alright, only a quick update. It is finally June and it is finally warm. If you follow this blog, you know that I complain about the weather more than anything. The wind has, generally, died off and the temps have risen. I have gotten a couple good rides in within the last week or so and the pools are finally back open, so my swim has recommenced. I am racing the XTERRA Deuces Wild on Sunday. I am already throwing this race away and hoping that maybe I can squeak a good performance out of it.
I know my training is no where close to where it should be and thats ok, because after this race I am not doing anymore triathlons til maybe august or later.
My knees are still giving me a hard time. I ordered patella tendon straps and boy are they awkward to run in. And I don't think they are doing much to begin with. We will have to wait and see after I get some good time on the roads with them on to decide if they really are making a difference.
Off to Show Low this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Quick update...

May has arrived and the wind hasn't stopped. I have been slowly getting my legs and lungs back into the running game after being gone from the venue for 4 weeks. I am slowly (and I mean slowly) rebuilding my run base, so that I don't run into any more issues and can be healthy for the Disneyland half marathon training that will commence in June.
The pool at NAU is closed for the next three weeks and I am still trying to figure out an alternative.
My IT band (of course, another issue) has been bugging me when I ride my bike. I am waiting on the local running store Run Flagstaff (runflagstaff.com) to get their new shipment of foam rollers before I do anymore biking. It doesn't seem as though I have been able to have a steady workout block with all three sports consecutively. But, what I can be thankful for is the fact that I am a three sport athlete and where one sport falls short I have two others to help me back up. It is continual cross training.

XTERRA West recap....

I want to start off by thanking everyone for their support this weekend. I know you didn't have to comment on my continuous barrage of status updates about my weekend, but I am going to take them all as genuine interest. I figured I would write this note in a "pro" and "con" form. In my mind, the positives and negatives are highlighted in my mind. But, before I start into this, I want to say that the whole weekend overall was a positive. I don't want to sound cynical for listing cons in this post (which I will try and even out with pro points).We'll start off with an obvious one:

Pro and Con:
Location- I think the Lake Las Vegas area is as close to as gorgeous as one can artificially make a desert. The palm lined streets, green space, expansive lake and mediterranean architecture all take away from the dirty, barren hills that encircle the whole area. As beautiful as it is, it all comes at a cost that I can't morally justify. After learning so much about water issues in the west (which is incredibly complex and interesting if you ever have the urge to read up on it), the whole of the area is counter intuitive to the natural desert landscape. It is a huge waste of water in a place where people should have been wiser never to live in in the first place. People were not meant to live on the desert. Our bodies are just not made for it and yet here is this virtual oasis. As far as the location is concerned as a race venue. Can't we pick better sites XTERRA?! I mean, come on! You hold the race in Temecula, CA before moving it to Las Vegas.Temecula, as far as I know, is just another hot, barren landscape. I understand that the West Championship race is early in the season and when you have only a few states to pick from, many of which are still waiting on trails to open from all the winter snow, your choices are limited. But, how about something on the coast of southern california? Not in the desert, not blazing hot, and generally prettier than the desert.

Con:
Weather- As stated above, it is a desert. And for anyone who has lived in or near the desert southwest, it gets pretty toasty early in the year. 85 degrees to many people is not an alarm for hiding inside with the A/C blasting in order to retain your sanity. But, from a person coming from a wildly prolonged winter and not a day peaking above the 67(?) degree mark and dealing with mountain bike races in his own home town being cancelled because of too much snow still, 85 degrees feels like the surface of the sun. That becomes even more apparent when there is no vegetation to shade the athlete, nor any vegetation at all except a few reeds anb bushes along the water's edge.

Pro:
Swim and Bike- I prerode the bike course yesterday and couldn't believe how difficult it was. There were three sections that I had to get off and walk my bike because it was truly, at my experience level, unrideable. Even the pros had to get off on probably two of the places and walk. I got back to the hotel after the preride and subsequently freaked out about that course for the rest of the night. I hadn't taken my watch along to time how long it took and that was another mistake. If I had timed the preride and said, "ok, it took me one hour going easy and stopping, I could easily do a lap in 45 minutes if I was really hammering." But I didn't take the watch. So I freaked out about how fast I really could go on that course. Turns out, I should not have been freaking out. I had an overall goal on the course of finishing in 2:45. Broken down, it would look like this 25 min swim, 1:30 bike, under 50minute run, 2:45 finish time. That was a very"best case scenario" time. I finished in 1:30.44 for the bike. Not a bad estimate!It still ended up only being the 5th fastest bike in my age groups, which is kind of a disappointment. Now to the swim. When I started swimming for triathlon, it was easily my weakest link. My first triathlon swim was comparable to the titanic sinking…yeah, that bad. I have worked tirelessly on my swim since. I have refined my stroke, worked on strength, drills, and speed, and it is finally paying off. Before I go any further I must vindicate myself from the official results that were posted from the race (a link to which will be posted at the end of this recap). The official race results say 26:32 for the swim portion. Those times include a 300m run to transition from the lake and the full Transition (T1). Times are going to look bloated for everyone. Mine look incredibly bloated because I could not, for the life of me, get my wetsuit off. I had some bunching in my elbow and it would not roll down passed it. I literally probably wasted 2 minutes trying to get the dang thing off! My whole transition at SOMA last year, including wetsuit, was 1:37 I think. With the run to the transition, this race, it cost me about 4 minutes. I know this because I thankfully timed myself during the swim. Previous to this race my best time for 1500m was 24:06, timed in the Natatorium on campus. When I ran out of the lake yesterday and took a look at my watch about 15m up the beach, I saw 22:04!!! I had swam 1500m under 22 min!!! It’s just too bad the results aren’t going to show it. And I fully blame my wetsuit for my loss of 3rd place.

Con:
Equipment- Generally everything worked great. My new bike was smooth and fast, my shoes did their job. My sunglasses kept the glare off and goggles kept the water out (except they fogged up which is to be expected, I guess). I had issue with two things that I fully blame for my loss of third place. I already mentioned my wetsuit. I won’t go into any greater detail. After looking at results I still had the 4th fastest swim in my age group and without the wetsuit mishap, easily the second best swim. Thumbs up for actual swim, thumbs down for wetsuit. Second equipment failure came about with my bike pump. I know all the cool people have CO2 cartridges and after yesterday, that is the way I am going. I didn’t really have a great place to put my pump on my bike. I couldn’t carry it on my person and my bike was ill equipped to handle it anywhere. In retrospect I should have taped it to my frame. Instead, I stuck it out of my under-seat tool bag. I figured it would be secure. I was wrong. The bumpy, rocky course kept shaking the tube out of the bag and almost dropping it on the ground. I had no other option and needed that to work. After fiddling with it for a short time and continuing to fiddle with it as it kept trying to escape from the bag, I deciding to take a gamble (this is Las Vegas) and tossed it to the side. I couldn’t risk losing 1st place (which was my overall goal and held a qualifying spot to Hawaii and the World Championships attached to it) over my stupid pump. Luckily I did not get a flat on the course and didn’t need it. Two equipment failures that would have easily made up for the 4 seconds that separated myself and 3rd place.

Pro:
My run. During the race, I would never have said that my run was a positive on the day. I was already slightly dehydrated from my bike effort and the sun was only hotter, the course was drier, and the hills on the course (1400+ ft of elevation gain over 6.2 miles) never gave up. Literally, the whole of the first mile and a half save for a quick short downhill section, was all uphill, and it was steep uphill! I have learned over the years to just keep moving forward. There is no sense in stopping, as long as you keep moving forward. That’s what I did. Albeit in a shuffle. My run was slow! I felt slow, I felt tired, I felt like the course was never going to end. I walked one steep hill on the first lap of the run course that most of the other competitors walked as well. Then you came downhill to a water station and did it all over again. I told myself that I needed to run every section that I ran on the previous lap. I couldn’t walk unless I had walked there on the first lap. In actuality, I ran more on my second lap than I did on my first. That big hill that everyone walk…I jogged it on my second lap. I began to feel good after that last ascent and it was downhill to the finish. I think I could sense the end was near, I had already conceded moving up any positions in my age group and was just going to finish as strong as possible. About 1200m from the finish I can feel a surge in my stride. Do I know why this surge didn’t happen earlier? Absolutely not. But, it was coming. I passed a gentleman who was walking and gave him some words of encouragement. He mentioned that the guy ahead of me in the gray shirt was in my age group. I looked up and saw the guy who had passed me early on the bike. We had traded positions a few times before he passed me for good. I had expected not to see him anymore. But, here is was. I decided to go for it. This last bit was going to be the deciding factor for a podium spot. We were about 800-1000m from the finish, he had about a 75-100m lead on me. I kicked it in, hoping that I would have enough energy to hold this kick until the finish. I was slowly making up ground on him and could feel the gap closing. He walked on the last short uphill sections of the course before glancing backward and seeing me closing in. He kicked it in for the last 200m, we round a corner onto the final street towards the finish line and I run out of real estate. He beat me by 4 seconds and collapsed on the ground. Another 100-200m and I would have caught him. I felt tired on the run, but not as bad as I thought after 4 weeks of no running. I don’t encourage anyone to run a race after coming off injury and with a total lack of training. But, I was pleasantly surprised with my result. Again, after looking at official results, I had the 3rd fastest run in my age group! It wasn’t fast at all! 53:30 for 10K and I was shooting for a 50min 10K, but I can’t believe it.

Despite all the issues and problems, my only weaknesses are things that can be easily fixed. I usually come out of these races disappointed because I set my fitness goals too high, and fail to reach them. I overestimate myself and underestimate my opponents. It leaves me highly disappointed for being undertrained and underprepared. That was not the case in this instance. I was shooting for a 2:45 finishing time, which, according to last year’s results would have won my age group. I finished in 2:50.46. I knew it was a long shot but I don’t race to fail to do my best. I was going to accomplish it by swimming 25 minutes, I swam 22min, and unfortunately my wetsuit negated that effort. I was going to ride 1:30, which I hit dead on and I wanted to run 50 minutes and I ran 53 which I am highly pleased with considering the difficulty of the course and my lack of any run training for 4 weeks. The depth of my age group was much higher this year over last as well and that has to factor into the overall standings. Overall it was a great weekend. My parents have become my biggest supporters and my cousin and her family came out to visit with us after the race as well. It couldn’t have been a better end to the weekend.

Official race results: http://www.jtltiming.com/results/x-veg.html

Pre XTERRA West...Lake Las Vegas...

I am currently sitting in the hotel room at the Loews Lake Las Vegas and have just pre-ridden the mountain bike course. Wow! It is going to be rough. The first 3 miles have an incredible amount of climbing and the downhills are quick, but loose. It is going to be about staying on my wheels and continuing forward movement. I just have to think that its only about 17 miles and climbing is a strength of mine. I only have one shot this year at a title and qualifying for the world championships in Hawaii in October. It has to start with a solid swim. I need to stay within my limits and keep the pressure on the whole time and not become stuck in cruise control. Then the bike is going to be about continuing the pressure, but at a reasonable pace. It is going to be really easy to burn out on the first lap and lose a lot of ground on the second. Everything I have left is going to be wasted on the run. The run is very hilly as well and the key is to hang tough the first lap and give it your all on the second. I am going to try not to push the uphills and hammer the down. We will have to see how my run fitness is because of being out for 4 weeks rehabing my stress fractures. Plus, I have never ran off a mountain bike before. It will be interesting to see how my legs handle the different bike position into a run.
Stay tuned for a race recap early this week...

Ups and Downs....

Lets start with a few ups of the past few weeks. The weather is peaking around the spring corner. Only peaking though. And spring in Flagstaff means wind anyway. So, I have been off my bike for the a few weeks. I got absolutely sick and tired of riding my trainer. I couldn't handle it anymore. Second, the wind and chilly temps most days have kept me off the road. I am kind of a pansy when it comes to weather. I am a self described good weather rider. The wind doesn't bother me if I can get out on the trails, but they are still covered in snow as far as I know. So, with one positive, the weather, comes a few hiccups.

Also, I don't remember if I posted that I was diagnosed with a couple stress fractures in my tibias. Yes, both tibias. So, I have been in the pool at least 3 days, trying for 5 days a week in the pool doing some aqua jogging. I have never done it before and I am not sure I like it, but its all I have right now. We shall see in a few weeks if the jogging has translated into running power.

Positives include increased fitness in the pool. The majority of days that I am in the pool are positive. I am hitting times in my workouts that I have never hit before. It is a hugely positive experience for me. Plus, I have been more consistent in the pool the last month and a half, averaging 8000-10000 meters in the pool each week. I am topping my build up in the pool this week at 10000m. I will taper a little next week before my race. But, I am mostly going to hold this fitness and work on some increased speed through May and into the Deuces Wild XTERRA on June 6th.

In other news, I had my first race of the season last Saturday and it ended in a less than positive way. I raced the Prescott Punisher Mountain Bike race in Prescott. It was a 15 mile, 3 loop course. I decided to ride my single speed because I truly love it and I finally built it into a reasonable racing bike. The most recent change was switching my SID World Cup fork from my old hardtail onto this bike. It makes an incredible difference on the viability of my hands. The course went downhill (no pun intended) when I accidently took the wrong loop. I followed the green arrow loop instead of the blue arrow which cut my loop by probably less than a mile (?). I couldn't really tell you how much was cut short by my shortcut but it was enough to put me into third place at the finish which was above my actual ability by maybe 3 places. I DQed myself. And to add injury to my insult, I crashed on my final lap. Totally not expecting a patch of loose dirt, my wheel was grabbed and thrown to the side and I went down. I hadn't raced in a short mountain bike race in probably 4 or 5 years and hadn't been on the trails since last fall. I was out of shape and out of the race. The next race comes home to Flagstaff in May and I hope to finish respectably and bring some praise on my hometown turf. Stay tuned for that update in a few weeks.