Timberman 2010

Timberman(Gilford, Tilton, Laconia??? New Hampshire) was my fifth Half Iron distance race. I’d done Eagleman twice and Kinetic twice with what I consider disappointing results. In fact, if you search the Eagleman 2010 results, you won’t see my name. I exceeded the swim cut-off time and was Disqualified(DQ). I didn’t know about the DQ until after I’d completed the entire course. I think I ended up five minutes faster than the debacle at Eagleman in 2008. And things had only gone marginally better at my Kinetic races. Those are stories for another day. The common denominator at all those races was that I had basically no ability to run after the ride. But, I’d also forgotten why I thought I could do HIM(and IM) with any sort of personal satisfaction while still having fun.

So with two months between Eman and Tman, I hired a coach(Denise Wood - Redhammerracing.com). All that futility at previous races was actually not totally a bad thing. It all got me to the point of understanding that I needed help and to the point of actually listening to that help.

I bet I have 5 pair of swim goggles in my car. So at the Tman expo, after a practice swim in Lake Winnipasaukee, I bought another pair. Standing at the start in my wetsuit, 10 minutes before the start I had both pair of goggles in my hand. I want to wear the new ones but *nothing new on race day* is a rule of triathlon racing. Five minutes before my wave goes off I decide on the new ones. So I tuck the old ones into my wetsuit, position myself to the outside rear of my swim wave and off we go. Swim was pretty uneventful, lots of zigzagging and there was some chop and big rolling waves on the leg farthest from shore. If I hadn’t had bay swimming experience that might have been somewhat (more) unnerving. Lake Winnipesaukee is really clean and clear and tastes good. A great place to swim. No problems with the new goggles but somewhere I lost my spare(older) pair. :-( They served me well! Swim time: 46:55. Slow but well under the swim cutoff time. The wetsuit strippers probably saved me at least a minute.

I’m always elated to be running out of the water, even if 5 later waves have passed me in the water. The thinking goes, I was expecting to die and I made it, so everything after this is a bonus. No different here but I don’t think I felt that good coming out of the water at any previous race. Coach Denise had basically been drilling it into my head, since our very first meeting, that I needed to fuel consistently on the bike to be able to have any chance of running strong later. The other major part of the plan was to ride conservatively. Don’t forget there’s a 13 mile run after the bike ride. Save something for that. After I got about half way, riding along, sipping “Sustained Energy”, singing a song and eating pretzels I started thinking, even though I’m being conservative I could still ride under 3 hours. It Started raining pretty heavily as I approached T2. Not quite under 3 hours but still well under the 3:10 I’d planning and feeling really good. Loved this bike course. It’s challenging with hills in the first and last 10 miles but relatively flat in the middle. It can potentially be ridden very fast. Lots of great support out on the bike course. Even the devil was there. Just like at the Tour. Still not quite sure why she was looking directly at me both times I passed her. I did see a couple of big packs go by me. That’s one way to ride it fast.

OK, raining pretty hard in T2, everythings wet but I’m feeling pretty good. This is what I’ve been waiting for. This is what triathlon is all about, in my mind. Who can run after swim and bike. How well can you run after swim and bike? How well can I run after swim and bike? And the answer without further delay is... quite well indeed! Long training runs had been to run the first half around 9 minute miles and then decrease from there down to around 8:20, 8:15. The race turned out similar. First 8 miles were between 8:58 and 8:42 and decreasing to a last mile of 8:03. I know those are not fast numbers for some of you but they’re pretty much exactly where I(we) had planned to be. And I felt great all the way. Have I repeated that enough? The two loop run course had a few hills but I loved being able to see and encourage other members of team Timberman. Maybe I’m getting use to this distance because the out and back didn’t seem anywhere near as long as the out and back at Kinetic. And definitely not the DNF inducer of Eagleman. Maybe that it didn’t seem so far is testament to how well my nutrition went and my state of mind because of it. Maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t 100 degrees and high humidity. Maybe it was my training and fitness level but this was the first time I’ve felt like I was actually racing in my short career in triathlon. I did carry a bottle of the same nutrition I use on the bike, through the first run loop. This allowed me to bypass all of the aid stations. But by the end of that first loop, I just couldn’t stand that stuff any more so I just took in water on the second loop. The run course was pretty crowded the whole way. Lots of relatively happy people. Unlike Kinetic and especially Eman. Run 1:55

Great Race!, Great Venue, Great people! As always I’m happy to be able to participate, much less meet a few of my goals. I can’t say enough good about Denise and Red Hammer Racing. I thought I’d hate having structured workouts. But I really enjoyed it. Thanks Denise! The whole experience was fun. The race AND the training. Also, thanks to Team Timberman. I love doing these races with a large group. Y’all are so awesome.

Also, cant forget my peeps, Krystal, Madia and my mom. Thanks for putting up with rain, heat and days worth of my slow driving and neurotic behavior.

Alleghany Gran Fondo

When I first heard about this event, I thought, hmmm, that’s a weird name. Alleghany Gran Fondo. I knew what Alleghany meant but who the heck is Fondo? Over the next few months I called it everything from Gran Frodo, Frito, Tito. The website said there were 88(gran fondo), 62 (medio fondo) and 30(piccolo fondo) mile options. The first two clearly delineated as *MOUNTAINOUS*. I figured I’d do the 62 miler as part of my preparation for The Timberman Half in August.

The ride was situated in and around two small towns in Alleghany county VA, Clifton Forge (start) and Covington (finish). This area is known as the Alleghany Highlands and is located at the opposite end of the Virginia section of I64 bordering West Virginia. Four and a half hours from Virginia Beach. Not as far as Mountains of Misery or Blood Sweat and Gears. The plan was to drive out on Friday night, do the ride on Saturday morning, and then return home Saturday afternoon so as to be ready and able to run long on Sunday morning. Also, a part of the plan was to park at the finish, the morning of the race and bike over to the start. A distance of 12 miles. There was some other vague option where you could stage your bike near the start and then, the morning of the ride, park at the finish and ride a shuttle bus to the start. I was never quite clear on how all that was supposed to work. Our plan changed slightly on ride morning. Since our hotel was between the start and the finish we’d leave the cars at the hotel, bike the 9 miles to the start, do the ride and then bike the 3 miles back to the cars, after the race. No problem right? Wrong! On the ride to the start our little group(Kevin Burns, Steve and Missy Patterson and myself) took a wrong turn somewhere and found ourselves climbing the steepest hill of the day, which went on for about 1/3 of a mile. As soon as we got to the top we realized our mistake and turned around. Point being that we’d already ridden 11 miles when we got to the start. Nice little warm up, if anybody needed that.

After a few delays, with the organizers giving instructions and a few thanks we were all headed down main street, as all 3 fondos started together and split off at various points. I have to admit that at the start I was a bit concerned about how well the course was marked. Didn’t want to end up doing the 88 miler. I hadn’t prepared mentally for that. The first few miles I was in with a little group, trying to decide if I wanted to paceline it or just do all the work myself. One guy was talking the whole time, to noone in particular he was giving directions, nice but seemed strange at the time. At about mile 15 we encounter our first big climb which goes on for about 3 or 4 miles and got pretty steep in some places. I rolled over this cat 3 climb pretty easily and started thinking that maybe I’ve been wasting my time with all this swimming and running. Maybe my real talent is in climbing... Of course climbing means descending and there was a really fun and long downhill after this climb that seemed to carry us all the way to a very nice little aid station at about mile 28. The downhill also came to a point where the 88 miler split off from the 62 miler and if you were not paying close attention it was easy to make the wrong turn. Leaving the aid station I got in with another group and we rolled on until around mile 33 where the road starts going unrelentingly uphill. Sure enough this is the start of the cat 1 climb. I was pretty confident, planning to just keep moving all the way to the top. Things were going well until at about 35 the road gets very bumpy... that’s what I initially thought, I realize quickly that it’s not the road it’s a flat rear tire. I jump off and fix the tire quickly as a few folks pass by offering assistance. None needed and after maybe 5 minutes it’s back to climbing. I pass almost everyone who passed me while I was fixing the flat and then it’s just me and the road uphill, which seems to go on forever. Every switchback has me thinking the top is right around the bend, only to discover that it just keeps going up and up. Speedometer says I’m moving at between 4 and 6 mph, quads are screaming, lungs are screaming, back is hurting... so much for having a talent for climbing. At some point I’m walking, pushing the bike uphill. Yes I admit it. Not riding the bike, pushing the bike, uphill... in bike shoes. Try it sometime, it’s not easy. At one point I was pushing the bike looking down at the road, I look up and a bear, a large bear runs across the road and down into the woods in front of me... As I see this, I look to my right and see what looks like a fox(or was that a mountain lion?) also run down into the woods. I’m sure there is some cosmic significance to this which is so far completely lost on me. I finally made it to the top and I’m not ashamed to say that I walked part of it. I also note that noone passed me while I was walking. :-)

As I look to start what is sure to be a fast descent, I notice that my back tire is low again. To make a long story short I’ll just say that I decided to use the rest of the CO2 from the previous tire change to pump up the tire and see if I could make it in. So I press on trying to just be easy on the tire and not kill myself on the downhill. At about mile 50 I stop to check the tire and my right cleat breaks. So for the rest of the ride every time I start spinning hard my right foot slips off the pedal. A pretty miserable existence those last 12 miles. I guess I learned a couple of lessons from all this. 1) replace the tube a second(or third) time if you have to. If you run out of tubes or co2 somebody will give you one. This ride actually had a support vehicle. 2) carry a spare cleat. Especially during mountain rides in which you may do some walking.

Through it all I did enjoy this ride. The scenery was beautiful, people were very nice and friendly(mostly) and the ride was a good way to challenge myself. I really loved the long fast descents. That cat 1 climb rivals, and might be more difficult than the final MoMis climb. There was some sort of festival right near the finish and showers are available at the public pool, down the street. So it’s possible to relax a while before driving back home. Oh and I didn’t have to ride the 3 miles back from the finish to my car, I got a ride from the man in the Final Kick Jersey, Mike Borza. Still not sure if the bear and fox(??) were real or were just figments of my imagination.


Garmin data

Just something I don't want to lose...

"I blame poor IM's on peoples swim all the time. People don't respect the fatigue a 2.4mile swim creates. If you over do the swim then you pay for it on the bike and it shows up on the run." -HR @ ST

I loved what this guy is saying. He's right on point!

"To me, it's all flavors of delightful to ponder these rifts and hiccups, these jumps and thrusts of time. Because the danger is, you can give up. You can become thoroughly stuck in your patterns, your tastes, how you think it's supposed to be. You can attach yourself and your identity early on to various ideas, styles, modes of being, and never budge as the world evolves and dances on, and you just grunt and scowl and wonder what happened to the good ol' days.

But if you remain open, you can circle back around and rediscover yourself in new and fascinating recombinations, as each generation comes forth, bearing startling new gifts. It's a simple truth, recast in a million variations: The delights and epiphanies, the loves and the gods, the deepenings and the awakenings? They find you when you are ready. And of course, vice-versa."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/04/notes120409.DTL#ixzz0bH90s2Qw">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/04/notes120409.DTL#ixzz0bH90s2Qw

Ted Kennedy

A liberal believed in social justice for the poor, immigrants and other marginalized groups, and believed government had a role in protecting them and ensuring their opportunities.

Limited but good definition of liberalism.

To Think!

A limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return. -Marcus Aurelius

IMLP Race Report

So much to say, so little time. My thoughts are so jumbled that this report may be incoherent at times. One thing is sure, I loved this race. Every second of it. Start to finish. I keep saying it, and I'll probably say it ten more times just in this paragraph. Team Placid was awesome. Without the team I could not have done this. Hard to see how I could do another IM without a big crowd of people to train with, commiserate with and learn from. And not just team Placid but the whole Final Kick family. The level of support has been tremendous. How does anyone do an IM without a Final Kicker or Family member standing on every corner cheering for you? That's only a slight exaggeration.

In the month before IMLP I had quite a few opportunities to swim in Mirror lake. First at the Fireman's Camp in June and then in the days preceding the race. It's a great place to swim. Clean, clear, calm and critter-free. But for some reason I was having little mini panic attacks at various points in the swim course. I'd get really warm and panicky. At first I thought maybe I was overheating in the full wetsuit or that my HRM strap was too tight. But swimming without the HRM strap and in the sleeveless wetsuit produced the same panic feeling. As race day drew near, this served to increase my already high anxiety. The farthest I'd ever swam was 3000 yards continuous in the pool and double sticks in the bay(2 miles?). And that was with stopping and chatting at each end. I was questioning every aspect of my swim training. I decided that when race day rolled around I was just going to have to push my anxiety aside and get it done. Somehow. The funny thing is that I was not questioning my bike or run training. I felt like, on those counts, I was ready. If I could just make it out of the water.

At IMLP(and probably all IM's) they give you 5 bags that need to be filled and staged at various places around the course. Coming in, I didn't really understand how this worked. There's a T1 bag, T2 bag, dry clothes bag, bike special needs bag, and run special needs bag. Each bag is handed to you by a volunteer at the appropriate time. Actually sometimes they just open the bag and hand you what you want out of it. The trick is to put the right things in the right bag and drop the bags off at the right locations and at the right times. Another big anxiety producer, for me, before the race. But maybe it was a good thing since it took my mind off the swim and it ensured that I didn't get out there having forgotten some critical piece of equipment. Which could easily happen in all the pre-race excitement.

Race day finally arrives and I'm excited but strangely calm. Resigned to my fate, I guess. Or maybe it was the calming influence of my family standing on the grass cheering me on. Walking around lake Placid in the days before the race, I felt like an honored guest, a rock star. Like people were looking at all the athletes, in awe. This feeling was heightened as I walked through the crowd and entered the swim start. I couldn't have said no to all that energy if I wanted to. It was going to carry me to a great day, no matter what obstacles appeared.

Swim:

The IMLP swim course is a long rectangle. Swim approx 900 meters, take a left turn, swim approx 100 meters, take another left turn, then 900 meters back to the beach. When the cannon went off to signal the start I was standing on the beach on the far right, smoking a cigarette... just kidding. Just standing, with a bunch of other tentative swimmers. This put me wide right of the combat zone and far from the underwater cable that runs under the buoys and is the most direct path around the course. First thing I did was to wait about 20 seconds. So, I'm not only wide right but behind the melee. Ask Marco about the melee. Totally, not appealing, to me. At that point I jumped out there and started swimming. Just as in other races, once I got out there and got comfortable, I had absolutely no problem. Maybe this is a first for an IM swim but I was barely touched the entire time. I think I was surrounded by other people who were looking to avoid contact and so if any of us touched someone else we'd immediately alter course so that wouldn't happen again. I swung wide around all turns. So much so that one of the kayakers was trying to tell me about the cable. Dude! If I even see that cable, I'm doing something real wrong. I probably ended up swimming 3 miles. But I loved it. I mean I was in a groove and felt fast and strong. End of the first loop, clock said 48, second loop it said 1:38, so "feeling fast" is not the same as fast. But it was exhilarating, so I'll take it. I'd been looking forward to the *peelers* and they did not disappoint. They popped the wetsuit off quickly and I was running down the runway toward T1 absolutely on cloud eighty nine thinking, it's ON now!

Bike:

Got my T1 bag and into the changing tent. To my surprise there's a volunteer assigned to each athlete in the changing tent. Thanks but I really don't need that. Quick transition with no problems and I'm off on the bike. I really like this bike course.Even more so when you don't have to worry about being run over by a car. In my mind there's a payoff for each of the painful points. The initial climb pays off in the Keene descent. The left turn climb in Jay pays with the rolling out and back. The last 11 miles of climbing payoff with a huge crowd cheering at the right turn back into town. I felt good through the full first loop and pretty good on the second loop. I thought I was flying when, on the second loop, I hit 47 mph on the Keene descent, only to find out later that some folks were over 50mph. I probably rode this course as well as I could. Pushing hard in some places and going conservative in others. I never did eat the honey bun or the turtles I had in my bike special needs bag. That might have helped me later. Then again it could have hurt later. The biggest problem I had was getting water into the nutrition bottles that I had stashed in the special needs bag. It's hard to pour water into a bottle while riding. I don't care who you are, this course starts to wear you down by the middle of the second loop. I saw a few people sitting or laying on the side of the road as I made my way back into town. It went well for me, but I was happy to make it to T2 and be off the bike. 6:54 I'm really not disappointed with that.

Run:

Really the point, in triathlon is: After all the preliminaries, who and how well can you run? This was really the thing that I hoped my training had prepared me to do. Started out well enough. I ran out of T2 feeling pretty good with a slight side stitch. That went away but that River road seemed to go on forever. I could feel myself wearing down through about mile 5, but couldn't figure out how to pick myself back up. I tried eating and drinking just about everything the aid stations had to offer. Cookies, oranges, pretzels. None of it seemed to help. The chicken broth was pure nastiness. Hammer gel, I might as well have been eating dirt. Water, coke, Gatorade. Nothing seemed to be stopping my descent into misery which I knew would be accompanied by incessant walking. And I didn't want to be walking, I wanted to be running. Just like I'd planned. But I just couldn't for any length of time. I wasn't having GI issues. It just felt like my guts were all twisted and knotted up. Somewhere about mile 8 Marco goes by, on his second lap and I latch on to him and run a while but that didn't last long. Around mile 10 Austin, whom I'd passed on the bike, comes alongside and offers me Endurolytes. Hmmm, maybe that's what I'm missing. He gives me a few and then sprints off. Yes, sprints is the correct word. They seemed to be working for him! Problem was that I had nothing to put the endurolytes in, so took 2 and carried the rest in my sweaty palm until I got to an aid station then transferred them to a cup. Mile 11, coming back through town and I'm really struggling to walk up that long hill. I feel myself starting to get that tunnel vision feeling that had me reeling in my first marathon. I pop another decomposing endurolyte as the crowd in town encourages me on. Open my mouth to say thanks and the only thing that comes out is white powder.

Folks in the crowd looked horrified. Like, damn, we've seen alot of things but this is a new way to die... Oh, I forgot, I had endurolytes and food in my run special needs bag. I had completely forgotten about that bag... Don't know whether it was the applesauce or the mandarin oranges or my kids cheering and walking with me for a while but I felt better starting the second loop. Second loop, up to about mile 18, I'm spending alot of time chatting with dude from Phoenix Tri Club. He was 60 years old. I hope I can be doing this at sixty. Then he asks if I saw the white wolf, down by the river on the first loop. Huh? White wolf? About this time Vernon passes by. I'd also passed him on the bike. He's cramping but doing a run walk, so I leave white wolf man and join him. Thing is, everytime he run's, he's running fast. I can hardly keep up. We saw a weasel running around in the bushes about mile 20. And I started thinking if Phoenix tri guy can see a white wolf, I can see a weasel! Also, saw batman in town, FYI. We run/walk through about mile 22 and then Vernon just picks it up. I'm hanging on for dear life. People are cheering and Vernon is thanking them. All I can do is blink and run. Finally just before the turn around on Mirror lake drive(~mile 25+) Vernon gets away from me and I'm left to make it the rest of the way on my own.

Ok, this has gotten way longer than I thought it would. And I probably haven't adequately conveyed the half of it. I made it to the finish and heard Mike Reilly say, Keith Alston, blah, blah, blah, Chesapeake, VA, YOU ARE AN IRONMAAANNNNNN. SHWEET!!!! Got covered with the thermal blanket, handed the cap and the shirt and of course the medal. 14:26:30... Not quite where I wanted to be but that's ok. Just means I'll be back for more. Heck it took me 7 marathons before I could run all the way. If I figured it all out now what would I do in my old age? I consider it a victory that I didn't have to go to the med tent afterward. I think next time, I need to do more long runs after long bikes. Get a better feel for how my body will react and how to deal with it.

Finally, I must thank my people. Madia, my sherpa and main support system. She acts like doing an IM is too much, but I know she loves it just as much as I do. My Kids, Nathan and Krystal, and Nephew Jordan, who rode the train from DC to Lake Placid and were on the course with signs and noise makers. Acting the fool everytime I came by. Thanks guys for putting up with this craziness! My mom and Aunt who made the logistical nightmare look easy and who acted like they knew for sure I was going to return out of Mirror Lake, alive. They're all already talking about IMCDA in 2011.