Lazy Blogger

Finally back.  I've been a lazy blogger, and a bit of a lazy worker-outer, as well.  Had basketball officiating camp the end of last week through the weekend, and then have been busy with work the last few days.

Officiating camp was lots of fun, and provided a good workout every day.  If nothing else, officiating is a good interval/speed workout, and I was calling 3 games a day.  Good times.

Back at it this week with an easy 4-mile run on Tuesday, and my long bike today.  I decided to move my Sunday long bike to today, and move my long run from today to Sunday, because we're heading to Myrtle Beach for the weekend.

So, two hours and 33 miles on the bike today.  Great workout, though I faded toward the end.  I went out with the goal to keep my heart rate under 150 except when climbing.  That worked for about the first half, and then it just kept increasing and I was constantly above 150 for the last half of the ride.  I just have to keep getting endurance rides in to move that heart rate down.  I also have to work on keeping my effort easy and not falling into the trap of pushing hard early on.

My pace was just below 17 mph for the 2 hours.  I was at 18.2 at the hour mark, so obviously my pace fell off quite a bit in the second hour.  Some of that was due to the layout of my ride - some pretty serious climbs in the second half today, and I was beat.

Have to keep working on my nutrition as well - I wasn't anywhere near where I need to be with what I ate this morning (breakfast burritos, come on!) and the lack of eating anything while on the ride.  On the ride, I had only most of a Gatorade G2 and a quick stop for a cup of lemonade from a road-side stand.  At least the lemonade was great. :)

Long Bike Ride

I decided to do my long ride lat this morning rather than waiting for tomorrow.  Today was supposed to be my off day, but since I ran the 5k, that wasn't going to happen, so I figured I'd hit the bike today for 90 minutes, and then rest tomorrow - maybe do a 30 minute easy ride to stretch the muscles, but nothing to speak of tomorrow.

So, off I went on yet-to-be-named bike wearing real live biking shorts and my tri top (both of which were part of the purchase package at Carolina Triathlon).  There is no room for modesty in bike shorts and a tri top, by the way.

It was hot and I had a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade, plus a Clif bar, to keep me happy.

This is a shot of my route:

More importantly this is the elevation chart:

As you can see, there is one long descent between miles 7ish and 12.  And then the fun starts.  Or lack of fun, depending on your perspective.  The real challenge with this ride was trying to take advantage of the descents, as the road was not very good and I found myself fighting it a lot rather than enjoying the ride.  And then really battling some tough climbs.

It was a really good lesson in gearing, and I used them all today.

Needless to say, I finished in under 90 minutes, averaging just over 17 mph.  It was a hot, tough ride after a tough run this morning, and was pretty satisfying.

I was definitely ready to be done when it was over, though...

Festival of Flowers Fun Run Race Report

I hit the Greenwood Festival of Flowers 5k fun run this morning.  Great turnout, with a solid crew of high school/college cross country types.  I stayed well back of them at the starting line.

I was by myself as Hil had to work.  The course was a true cross country course, with just a little bit of paved running, and a lot of tree running which presented the challenges of running over and around roots, holes, etc.  It actually brought back some pretty good high school memories.

With no starting gun, we were to go on a blast from a bugler.

Unfortunately, rather than a trumpeting bugle, it came out as more of a "phhtttt..."  So people started, and then they called us back.  And then they did it again, with a more pronounced "phhtttt...." and we just ran.  Sweet.

I was out in a first mile of 7:40.  I was both excited and terrified.  That's a pretty fast mile for me at this point, but I knew I'd probably pay for it.  And I did.  Big time.

We didn't have another split at any point through the race, but I knew I was struggling to keep my pace.  I had originally wanted to try to maintain an 8:00 pace, but couldn't after going out that fast, and I was passed by a few people.  

With about a quarter mile to go, I knew my 25:00 goal was out the window when we hit the only major hill on the course - and straight up we went.  The nice part was nobody else was ready for the hill, and I was able to pass several of those who had passed me earlier.  Then with about 250 yards to go I was able to stride it out and finish strong in 26:30.

Not a great time, but good effort and lots of fun.  I'm definitely glad I went and it gave me a good feel for where my speed level is right now - slow, but not as slow as a month ago.

Quick recap of the week

This week was kind of strange...kind of a mish-mash of workouts with a little traveling and an addition to the triathlon training gear.

First of all, had a pretty decent week of workouts after my long ride Monday.  Only in the pool once, but it was a very good 1200 yards.  My runs were strong - not necessarily fast, but strong.  I just felt good when I was out this week, even on my long run (6 miles in 60 minutes) on Thursday.

On Wednesday I was in Greenville, and made the big purchase - I upgraded to a road bike.  Bessie the Bike just isn't going to cut it for any sort of real training, and a good week of work led me to feel it was time to take the plunge.

I have mentioned bessie before, but this is a stock photo of a bike like Bessie:

She's a great mountain bike.  As much as I'd ever need, and she's a blast to ride on the trails in the forests and hills of South Carolina.  I look forward to many, many more years of great fun riding over rocks, around trees and through creeks.

That said, it's time to introduce the new addition to the triathlon training family, the as yet unnamed Felt z100:

Just a stock photo, but you get the idea

My new bike is very "entry-level."  In a sport where you could spend $5-10,000 on a rocket ship of a triathlon bike, I wanted to spend less than a tenth of that and get myself a reasonable road bike.  So, after doing some research I visited the excellent Carolina Triathlon store in Greenville and made the purchase.  

It's been great.

After you've spent all your training mashing the pedals on a 400 pound mountain bike, getting on a true, quality road bike has been like moving from a 1996 Bronco to a 2008 Toyota Camry.  Maybe someday we'll talk about upgrading to the Porsche equivalent, but that's a long ways - and quite a few triathlons - off.

So, my bike workouts have gotten much, much better in the last couple days.  Yippee!!!

Long Bike Ride

Pushed my Sunday long-bike back to Monday, so Hilary and I got up early Monday morning to head out.  90 minutes is by no means an exceptionally difficult distance from a muscle fatigue point of view, but from a butt-fatigue point of view, it's where I get pretty uncomfortable.

Anyway, we rode on the back roads up to Hodges, then turned around and came back by home.  It was about an hour ride round-trip, just short of 15 miles.  I peeled off and rode another 8.5 miles in 30 minutes and completed my ride.  It was around 8:00 when I was back, and it was getting hot.  Gonna be that way this summer, I think.

Very good ride - steady effort, and I'm really getting better at gearing and being smart in how I climb and how I ride the few consistent level areas around here.  It was a nice, easy pace and allowed me simply to work on pedal efficiency and form.  Good day!

FIJI 5k Race Report

The race was a blast.  First actual race of any kind I'd entered since high school, and Hilary's first race EVER.  Combined with the fact that it was to be my off day for training, it was a fun way to run a charity 5k together on our 5 year wedding anniversary in Savannah.  Savannah is, by the way, one of the greatest coastal cities to visit I've ever seen.  Go there sometime.  Seriously.

Anyway, we headed out from our hotel just a shade after 7:00 for the 8:00 race.  It took about 20 minutes to get out to the race site, which was a community recreation center on Wilmington Island.  It was quite marshy.  Not a hint of breeze, temperatures at 7:30 already above 80, and I'd guess humidity in the same range.  I was sweaty.  Dripping off my fingertips sweaty.

Before the Race.  I'm already glistening.

We did a little jogging warmup and got ready to run.  Per Hilary's wishes (and plain good sense) we started in the "middle back" of the pack.  Somewhere behind the fit-looking people, but ahead of those with strollers.  Hilary seemed a bit nervous, but holding it together.  She just didn't want to finish last.

I shared some wisdom - mainly don't go out in a sprint for the first 1/2 mile and don't elbow your way past anyone under 12 years old.  We took off and right away I could tell we were at a good place in the pack, especially for Hilary's first race.  After the initial shake-out, we started picking people off bit by bit.  There were some Clydesdales and some oxen who went out a little strong, and they were being decimated after the first 1/2 mile by the Woo Crew's slow-but-steady pace.

First mile came in at 9:15, and also turned us away from the sun, which was nice.  We hit the aid station at half-way, and slowed down just enough to grab a shot of water and get back on pace.  During this second mile, we started picking out people for Hilary to tail and then pass.  First the woman in pink.  She was passed.  Then the woman in brown who was the only one to pass us after the first quarter mile - she got passed back.

We hit the second mile marker in about 19:00, which wasn't great - we were slow in the middle, though I'm not sure how accurate the mile markers actually were.  I wanted to make sure we maintained a sub 10:00 pace to get Hilary in under her 30:00 goal.

A bit later, we passed a guy walking, who then started running with us.  Very nice guy, and he had a Garmin heart rate monitor/pace watch.  It knew we'd gone 2.4 miles.  It also knew he'd fallen way off his 9:00 goal pace and was beeping at him incessantly.  This went right along with Hilary's heart rate monitor beeping at her that her heart rate was too high.  It was a chorus of beeps.

At that point, we identified the last person for Hilary to focus on - the girl ahead who had on three layers of shorts and had been walking as we neared her, but now was running again.  She was still 25ish yards ahead, but I thought Hilary could catch her if we just stayed steady.

As we made the last turn and had about 100 yards into the finish, I told her to stride it out and catch that girl.  Our new friend started pushing her to catch her, too!  Between the two of us, Hil had little choice but to turn it on and pick up the pace.  Unfortunately, weird shorts girl noticed, and also turned it up.  So there they were:  two girls racing hard to beat each other to the finish line at a charity 5k fun run in under 30:00.  The crowd loved it, even though shorts girl held Hilary off.

So, official time of 29:26 and 29:27 for us, smack in the middle of the pack.

Post-race.  More sweaty.

Very proud of #16.

Blah workout today

I need to get in the pool today, but I'm just not sure that's going to happen.

I did my 45 minute bike ride this morning.  Beautiful morning, though it got pretty warm by 8:00 when I was finishing up.  It wasn't to be an incredibly difficult ride - if I had a trainer that would have been preferable, just for consistency - but it was to be a start slow with a ramp up to "middle effort" with intervals of light effort, and then a cool down the last 7-10 minutes.  That's easy to do on a trainer - hard to do on the hills of South Carolina.

So, I had no consistency at all in my effort, but it wasn't a bad workout.  Just a little "Blah."  

Plus, I stopped three times to work on my rear brake.  I just replaced the pads, and for some reason the left pad was rubbing off and on after the first 5-10 minutes or so.  Riding up and down hills is hard enough without having to pedal through intermittent soft braking.  So that slowed me down quite a big - I did finally get the rubbing stopped, but something still isn't right when I brake.  I may need different pads than I got...I need to get to the bike shop in Greenville next time I'm there.

We're off to Savannah for the weekend - Hilary's birthday today, our anniversary tomorrow.  And we're running a 5k there tomorrow morning - first actual race for me since high school cross country!

By the way...

Just to let you know, my official weigh in this morning (as I do every "normal" morning when I'm home) had me at 203.4.  Just in the last couple weeks the weight is moving again.  Very nice.

It puts me at a cool place - 1.4 pounds from hitting the 50 pound mark since Thanksgiving, and officially beyond 40 pounds since I started tracking closely in late December.

Woohoo!

How my plan works

My training plan is pretty straightforward.  As you may have noticed from my posts, the running and biking workouts (at least for now) aren't given as particular distances, but rather durations, to prepare my body for endurance.  The whole idea with this plan is to get me in shape to finish in well under the 8 hour time limit.  But nothing more fancy than that, and frankly, I'm fine with 7:59:59 if that's what happens.  Hell, even if I don't make that I'll have reason to be proud - disappointed but not crushed - as long as I make it to the starting line.

The swimming is in distance, if only to give a realistic awareness of how far I will have to swim and to provide some structure to the workouts.  A lot of it is done in interval workouts.

By July I hope to have a handle on whether the Half is a do-able distance for me.  I very much want to do that, but I need to be realistic, too.  Six months ago, getting off the couch to walk to the ice cream store across the street was a lot to ask.  If it's just going to be too aggressive, there are half-Ironmans next year and the Olympic this October that is definitely within my abilities.

Until then...just keep plugging!

Hot...Very, Very Hot

So...people have said that South Carolina is hot.  I tell them it doesn't seem any hotter than Kansas.  "I mean, have you ever been in a hair dryer?" I ask.  "That's Kansas."

Apparently, though, they were telling the truth.  South Carolina is less like a hair dryer and more like a steamer.  Gross.  I find myself just wishing for a breeze.  This is the first week it's been pretty hot.  The heat index will top 100 this afternoon.  I feel sorry for the people participating in the Greenwood Festival of Flowers Olympic Distance Triathlon this weekend.  It will be scorching.

Hilary and I, meanwhile, will be sweating it up at 8 am in Savannah running the FIJI 5k with projected high of a spring-like 93.

I just can't wait until it gets REALLY hot.

Anyway, I had a 60-minute run on my training plan today.  My goal was to simply go out and run at an easy pace, hydrating as often as needed, walking early as needed to ward off being completely wiped at the end, and to enjoy myself.  And that's pretty much what happened.  I walked a couple times to drink some Gatorade and get my heart rate back down to a manageable level.  Climbing the hills around here really drives my heart rate up to unsustainable levels, and I'm still building the kind of fitness that will allow me to get it back under control while running.

So, I didn't quite make my goal of 6 miles, but 5.5 will have to do for today.  For my first long run of the year, combined with the heat and a pretty tough route, I'm not at all disappointed.  Just aware that I have much to do.

And thank God for air conditioning.

Glug-a-glug-glug...

I knew it would be this way, but that doesn't make it any less unpleasant.  Swimming is going to be my limiter.  However far I can go in the swim will dictate the distance of triathlon I can compete in.  At least, that's how it feels today.

Had my first ever dedicated swim workout today.  I've always been a decent-to-good swimmer.  I was fast in the water as a kid - probably not the fastest my age but always above average.  Good swimming lessons as a kid from the fabulous Money sisters I'm sure is where the credit lies.

So today was pretty straightforward, but long for a guy who doesn't have a swimming base to speak of:  after a warmup, swim 1000 meters.  I broke the 1000 up by swimming 1 x 300, 1 x 200, and then 5 x 100 with a brief rest in between.  

This was hard for me.  Not because of muscle fatigue, nor did my heart rate get too elevated and push my body into an anaerobic state.  On the contrary, my heart rate never got close to the top end of my aerobic range (up to about 165 bpm for me).

It was hard because I am bad at the breathing part, apparently.  I found myself really struggling to maintain any sort of rhythm and breathing a lot of water early on.  This shouldn't have been this hard, but when you realize that you've never tried to swim for any period of time while breathing hard, it makes sense.  

Aqualung describes me.

I worked hard to focus on my form, and tried to implement what little I know about the "Total Immersion" method of the freestyle stroke that seems all the rage among triathletes.  About 600 meters in I started to figure a few things out, and it got a bit easier.  It turns out that I was not completely clearing my lungs under water, meaning I had to both finish my exhale and inhale when I came up.  Not very efficient.  My stroke pace was also too fast, so when I slowed down and tried to glide through the water, taking plenty of time to roll and breathe, things got a TON easier.

Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do here.  However, my progress should be fairly rapid early on as I get used to working out in the water and become more and more efficient.

Oh, and I've got to get a better pair of goggles.  Leaky, leaky, leaky...

What's Training Like?

I'm going to do my best to keep you up to date on my training. As you can imagine, it's a lot of work to prepare for a triathlon of any significant distance, and training in all three disciplines is extra challenging. Fortunately, I've enjoyed getting back to running, and I absolutely love getting on Bessie the Bike for a ride.

By the way, I just named Bessie today, and there will be more on her in a future post.

The challenge for me is definitely going to be the swim. Not because I don't like swimming - I love the pool and the lake and enjoy swimming, it's just not something I've ever done competitively. I think I've swum laps once in my life. So it will be an extra focus of my training. Of course, the 11-meter laps I can swim in the pool here at our apt. complex limits my ability to be extra effective, so I'll be at the YMCA some (though I think we're going to cancel our membership there soon), and also will try to get in a few swims at the lake just to experience open-water swims.

As you can see, 3000 meters would require a lot of turning around.

I'm still in the base-building phase of my workout, and today's focus was the bike and the run. Pretty simply, just a 60-minute bike ride followed by a 30-minute run. Both were to be at a very easy pace, where I'd be able to keep conversation if I had someone to talk to.

I rode approximately 17.5 miles on Bessie. At an easy pace, that's pretty good for me. For those of you without calculators, riding 17.5 miles in 60 minutes means I rode at 17.5 mph. When you get a good look at Bessie you'll understand why 17.5 mph is a good time!

I then carried Bessie upstairs to our apartment and changed my shoes. I don't have special bike shoes - but I do prefer one pair of my running shoes for the bike (my Izumi Pearls) and felt like changing into my Brooks Addictions to go for the run. I also grabbed Ike, as he makes a good running partner and is less of a pain all day if I get him out. This made for about a 12 minute rest.

Yes, this is a picture from when he was a puppy.  So cute.  

The only adult pictures I have of him are when my wife and 

sister-in-law dressed him as a fairy.  I wouldn't shame him by 

including those here...

This is where it got challenging. You see, this was my first ever "Brick" workout. A Brick is where you train two events back-to-back. Amazingly enough, you use quite different muscles for biking and running. I wasn't very tired at all when getting off the bike, but just getting my body to use its legs correctly to run took a 1/2 mile or so. Very interesting.

So, with waiting for traffic once - I hit rush hour in Greenwood at the cross-walk up the hill from our house, which means 7 cars came down the road all at once - and once for Ike to do his business (why can't he take care of that before or after? I hate carrying a poop bag on runs, but fortunately he went in the woods so I didn't bother picking it up), I ran about 3.4 miles in 32 minutes. SLOW. But, I got it done, and that was the whole point.

Tomorrow is a swim workout, so we'll see how that goes...

What is a Triathlon?

Just for the purpose of information, I figure it may be helpful to some to understand a bit about triathlons. In simplest terms, it is a 3-event race. The standard events, in order, are a swim:


Followed by a bike race:


Followed by a run:



Distances vary based on the type of triathlon entered. There are several common, standard categories, though local events may make some modifications to these distances:

1. Sprint Distance Triathlon
First of all, what a bunch of crap that name is. "Sprint" isn't in the vocabulary for me. This is the shortest of the common triathlons and is often where first-time triathletes get their start. It is a 750 meter (~0.5 mile) swim, a 20 km (12.4 mile) bike, and a 5 km (3.1 mile) run.

2. Olympic (or International) Distance Triathlon
1.5 km (0.93 miles) swim, 40 km (24.8 mile) bike, and 10 km (6.2 mile) run.

3. Half-Ironman Triathlon
1.9 km (1.2 mile) swim, 90 km (56 mile) bike, and 21.09 km (13.1 mile) run. It is exactly what the name implies - half the distance of the full Ironman.

4. Ironman
3.8 km (2.4 mile) swim, 180 km (112 mile) bike, and 42.2 km (26.2 mile - yes that's a full marathon) run. This is the end-all, be-all of triathlons. The goal for 99% of participants is simply finishing in the allowed 17 hours. That's right - the race itself takes longer than some people are awake for a day.

Needless to say, there's a lot to choose from. Especially when you take into consideration that there are a ton of local variations of these races. There are indoor triathlons, super-sprint triathlons, even a beach-bum triathlon on Hilton Head where everything takes place on the beach - including the bike and run.

So, what am I going to do? Well, it's still a bit up in the air at the moment, but I've recently started a program designed for 1/2 Ironman training. Nothing like jumping in head first!



The South Carolina Half is at Greenwood Lake the last week of September, and if I hit all the training targets as specified, I have just enough time to get ready. So, that is my tentative plan, though I've got a lot of work to do - especially in the swim - and may have to revise. There is also an Olympic Distance Tri at nearby Hickory Knob State Park in October, so that may be an alternative if the training is too aggressive.

I'd also like to hit a sprint later in the summer if I can, just to get the experience of the transitions and the entire race day under my belt.

I Can't Be Serious....Can I?!?

So...there come points in life when you do stupid things. It might be, at four years old, shifting granddad's tractor into neutral when it's sitting on top of a hill. Or running through the front screen door window at seven. Maybe it's deciding that sunscreen is optional on a four-hour snorkeling excursion in the Dominican Republic.

Or it could be really stupid - like deciding you are a no-good, lazy bum and it's time to get off your fat butt and become a triathlete. Yep, that's right, I said it out loud. "The Woo is going to train to be a triathlete."

Stop laughing.  Okay, laugh a little, but I'm serious.

Great pic of one of my friends back home after reading this.

Seriously.

I'm not kidding.  Promise.

Some of you know that's I've found my fitness a bit again in the last 6 months. I'm running (without being chased) for the first time in over 11 years. Eleven Years. I swore I'd never run for any reason ever again after high school cross country. It just seemed so silly. And hard.

Then I was stupid enough to get on the scale at Hilary's boss's house where she was kind enough to invite us over for Thanksgiving. Granted, I was wearing jeans, a shirt, and shoes, but it was before dinner. And the readout was clear - though I swore it must be broken:

252.0 lbs

Yep. I'd broken the quarter century mark. Two-and-a-half bills. Two-fitty. An eighth of a ton. It was time for a change...of course, not until after Thanksgiving dinner.

I started officiating basketball right after Thanksgiving, and lost a few pounds, but then after Christmas got serious. This is what's happened since then:



So, as of today, I'm down to 206.6. Down 45 1/2 lbs since Thanksgiving and 38 lbs. since I started tracking on December 28. My goal is to get a 1 in that first number, but weight has become secondary to *gasp* fitness.

So anyway, that gets us to where we are today. I have built a base level of fitness, and now it's time to do something with it - so triathlon training it is. Hopefully this blog proves entertaining for you - and helps hold me accountable - as we see what's to come!