Federal Way Escape

I arrived at the race site 90 minutes before the start. It was plenty of time to pick up my packet, set up my gear, warm-up, and have a few minutes to chill. I put on XTERRA VENDETTA and headed to the water.

SWIM - 5:24 watch (5:32 including run up to mat)
I ran into a swimmer, who was on a few of the all-star teams I coached, before the start while warming-up. I lined up for a straight shot to the first buoy. At the start there were a few people in front of me and around me. I tried to build the effort to the first buoy and then keep it strong the rest of the race. I turned right at the second/last buoy. I tried to sight with no avail. I was completely blinded. I thought it was my time and was heading to the light. I tried to make a line back to shore. I saw 2 swimmers going way left. I wasn't sure if I picked the wrong line or them. It ended up being them. I was still unsure, so I started swimming toward them until I could see the exit. I ran out and saw the 2 guys ahead of me. I grabbed my LYNSKEY and passed one before I left transition.

BIKE - 31.12
I saw the guy who was in first just ahead of me. I tried to keep him in sight, but couldn't. I was having trouble getting my breathing under control. It took a full loop before I felt better. There was a guy who would pass me on the hills and I would pass back on the flats. He ended up being a former swimmer on the club I use to coach. I entered transition in second. I quickly racked the green machine and put on my NEWTONS.

RUN - 20:08
I started the run with a stitch on my right side. I was passed by a guy in the first mile. It took me 2 miles to get rid of the stitch. I finished 3rd overall.

16 weeks to Arizona

Weird chest pain

I didn't do much of anything outside of work Monday. I didn't sleep well Monday night and felt very tired on Tuesday, so I took the day off from work.

I woke up to weird chest pain Wednesday morning. It lasted from 5-11am. It felt like my heart was working hard and I was doing nothing. My pulse seemed to stay the same. I went to the doctor and he said the EKG was normal. He sent me for some blood work. The lady had no luck in my right arm. She managed to get blood out of my left arm. I didn't feel anything the rest of the day.

Thursday, I felt like I had worked out on Wednesday even though I didn't. Another day of no work.

I went back to work this morning. I felt okay. I got a weird feeling as the day progressed, so I went home early.

Strange week.

YOU'VE GOT A PROBLEM!!!

I was up at 3:15AM and out the door 20 minutes later. UGH!!! I headed up to Seafair with Lisa and Karen. We were nearing Federal Way when a cop flashed his lights behind me. I assumed he was after someone because I wasn't doing anything wrong. Nope, it was me. I pull over. He walks up to the car and said, YOU'VE GOT A PROBLEM!!! WE GOT YOU ON CAMERA!!!" I had no idea what I did wrong. He told me to step out of the car. He takes me to the back of the vehicle and tells me my lights are being hidden by the bikes. I apologize and he proceeds to tell me that is unacceptable. I am thinking wow. He evens asks the question, "How is a car going to know you are in front of them?" I figured they should have their headlights on, but did not want to take a chance. I kept my mouth shut. He let me go. Crazy, right?

We arrived with plenty of time to get a good parking spot. All three of us got the first pick on the racks. After setting up all of gear, we walked back to the car to chill until the race started. The Olympic race started at 6:30AM and my race was scheduled to start at 7:30AM. Everything was delayed by 10 minutes. Lisa and I watched Karen start the Olympic race. There was guy who was swimming pretty fast out there as he put 50 meters on them in the first lap. He was the eventual winner. Some guy ran across the swim mats after only 1 loop. He was signed up for the sprint. I am not sure how he didn't hear them announce multiple times which race was occurring. The funny thing is it happened twice. The second guy was smart enough to figure out he had done something wrong. The race officials told him, "That will count as your warm-up." I think he swam again later because I saw him at the finish line later. Karen had a great swim, she was 3rd out of the water and first female. Nate had a great swim as well because he came out right behind her.

Lisa and I were getting cold, so we put on our wetsuits to stay warm. The XTERRA VENDETTA is not only a super-fast wetsuit, but it also kept me from getting too cold while I waited to start my swim.

SWIM - 10:26
I started on the left side. I noticed one familiar face, a former college swimmer, to my right. The air-horn sounded and we were off.  A few guys took off. I tried to get into their draft, but the pace was a little out of my comfort zone. I let them go. I felt strong on the entire swim.

BIKE - 30:39
I quickly stripped off the XTERRA, put on my SPIUK aero helmet, grabbed my green machine LYNSKEY, and headed out of transition. It took a couple miles to get my breathing under control. I passed several people including the swimmer within the first few miles. There was a guy just in front of me in this stretch. I forgot how steep the hill was getting onto I-90. I was slowly reeling the guy in and passed him just after the turn-around. I saw a shadow close by. I assumed he was drafting off me. He re-passed me after the steep downhill. I passed him and Lisa at the same time. My intent this time was to make sure he wasn't going to get any more easy riding. It worked. I never saw him again.

RUN - 19:03
I re-racked the green machine. I put on my NEWTONS and grabbed my visor. I felt good at the start. I felt like my pace was nice and steady. They put a nice hill right in the middle of the run. I wish there would have been people to race around me.

I won my age group and was 3rd overall. I competed at Seafair in 2009. My swim was much faster while the bike & run were a few seconds slower. Overall I was 16 seconds faster this year. I still have lots of work to do.

Nice weather the last few days

Friday morning I went to the pool for 3.6k. I swam a lot of 25s. Forty to be exact. The send-off was 45 seconds. It was broken up into 2 sets. I felt strong on the workout. After work, I went out for a short easy run with the furkids. I think it was a little too hot for Fina. She ended up with blisters.

Saturday morning, I swam an easy 700 meters and biked easy for 20 minutes. After the workouts, I headed up to Seattle to pick up the race packet. It was fairly uneventful.

hamburger knee

My core was a little tender today after three consecutive days of sitting in the kayak. It could also be the cumulative of the tough bike, swim, and run workouts.

I wasn't planning on taking a nap after work today. I was laying on the couch watching highlights from the Tour de France. I ended up falling asleep. My body must have needed a little recovery. I jumped on my bike and headed out for a few intervals. The main set was 4x (1'@ very hard effort + 1' cruise + 6'@ Olympic + 3' cruise). I felt pretty good out there even though the wind was blowing hard if not harder then Tuesday. I ran into Ellina after my 3rd interval. We chatted for a bit and then I took off to finish the last one. I knew it was going to be tough to finish the last interval without having to turn around. I cut the last 6' interval short. Instead of riding easy for a couple of seconds to the gate, I chose to take a hard left into gravel. Not smart. I had to over correct and went down. My knee absorbed most of the fall. My knee looked like hamburger.

Fast efforts with short rest

The theme of the day was fast efforts with short rest. The day started with 3.2k in the pool. The main set was 20x100 on 1:30. During warm-up it felt like I was going to average 1:23s, but somehow managed to average 1:20.6. It was hard. I love it when a guy swims next to you and he is doing 50s with lots of rest.

It was back to the kayak for rest of the morning. I heard a great line from a Sergeant Major. "You're about as sorry as a TV dinner on Thanksgiving." After work, I decided a nap was in order. Ninety minutes later it was time to hit the track.

I grabbed the dogs and ran them during my warm-up. I dropped them off and headed to the track. The main set was 24x200 on 1 minute. I felt good at the beginning of the set until number fifteen. My left quad started tightening up. After that it was survival mode for the next nine. I cleaned up, ate dinner, and went over to watch my niece play soccer.

Consistency

It was a very busy day between kayaking in the morning and sitting in a long meeting at work. After work, I was a little tired. I laid down on the couch for 5 minutes and decompressed from the long day. I wasn't sure what to expect in the workout.

The winds were blowing today. I knew there was going to be stiff head winds and big tail winds. The main set was 10 minutes at Olympic effort then 4 minutes cruise, 4 times through. I chose not to look at my watch on the first set until the end of the interval. Needless to say I was very surprised. I then proceeded to keep my power within a few watts of each other. My average was 4 watts higher than the last time I completed this workout.

The most important thing I have learned over the last five years of triathlon is consistency in training. Some days the workouts will feel easy. Some days they will feel hard. Some days you will hit your target in the workouts. Some days you don't even come close.

No juice today

I had no juice for my swim today. I felt okay, just didn't have speed. The main set was 2x (3x400 on 6:00 + 4x50 cruise on 1:05). I finished up with 3800 meters in under 62 minutes.

After work I took the dogs on a short sunny run. My legs felt a little sore from the run yesterday. The dogs are still panting and we finished almost and hour ago. It was only 3.7 miles at just over 8 minute miles.

swim then run in rain

I was up at 5:30AM this morning. I ate breakfast and headed to the lake for 2 miles of open water swimming. I felt okay. I worked on increasing my stroke rate. After the swim I took the dogs out for some running. It was Fina's first run in a few weeks, so I only let her run 24 minutes. I dropped both dogs off and conitnued to run for another 30 minutes. I picked up Kona to finish off the run. I ended up with 10.7 miles.

Pity Party Over

I was down in the dumps early in the week. I was very frustrated with the fact that I haven't raced well this season. If you were to look at the training log, you would expect otherwise.

I swam an easy 1k on Monday. I rode easy for 1 hour on Tuesday. Nothing on Wednesday.

Thursday morning, I ran an easy 30 minutes before work. I felt okay. Kona looked happy to be running early. After work, I headed out for some interval work on the bike. The Quarq died 5 minutes into the ride, so no power numbers for the day. I based everything on effort. The workout was 1 minute at a very hard effort with 30 seconds of recovery then 6 minutes at Olympic pace with 2.5 minutes of recovery, eight times through. I know speed is not an indication of the difficulty of the workout, but I managed to average 22.4mph for 90 minutes.

Friday morning, I swam 3.55k. The focus of the workout was quality, 50s & 100s very fast with lots of recovery. I averaged 31s for the 50s and 1:09s for the 100s. After work, I got lucky and managed to sneak in a dry run. The workout was 8 minutes at half-iron pace with 3 minutes recovery, four times through. I felt ok on the run. It was a little humid and I was completely soaked at the end.

I worked the triathlon Saturday morning. I was planning on riding, but did not feel great. I was going to take a short nap and then head out. Two hours later, I decided it would be best to skip the workout and let my body rest.

Rev 3 Portland - Recap

Raced Rev3 Portland. I had an ok swim. Stripped off wetsuit grabbed running shoes and ran to T1 (0.4 miles). I start having trouble getting air. I stop to try to catch my breath. I start feeling dizzy, so I sit down. I was also feeling nauseous. It took a couple minutes, but I finally get my breathing under control. I get up and attempt to jog again. I am forced to walk most of the way to transition.


Something is not right. I get into T1 and contemplate pulling out. I decide to see what happened.
As for the rest of the race, when I tried to put any effort into the bike & run my heart wanted to jump out of my chest. My bike numbers were low. My average power was equivalent to an easy ride.

So far it has been a miserable season!

2 short workouts today

I felt much better in the water this morning. It was only 1.2k. A few fast 25s was all I needed to get my stroke back in sync. After work I went out for a quick run, 3.26 miles. No dogs to chase Kona into the woods.

change in weather

Yesterday it was sunny and mid 80's. This morning I woke to mist and fog. After work, the clouds started to clear as the winds picked up. I went out for a short ride. I had a few short intervals dialing in my power for the upcoming race. I felt good.

Still missing...

Yesterday I jumped on the bike after work. The main set was 5'@ Olympic + 3' recovery, four times through. I felt okay. I looked at my numbers after the workout and noticed I need to do a better job of pacing. I am working too hard in the first couple of minutes. My numbers were a more consistent as the workout progressed.

I took a lunch break and headed to the pool for 2.1k. The water was nice, 74 degrees. I am still missing something. I swam 9x100 on 1:35 descending every 3. I didn't have the feel in the water that I normally have. After work, I took Kona on a 30 minute easy run. The temp was in the low 80's. Kona was dragging after the first few minutes, so I let her run off leash to my left. She was pretty good about listening. That was until we ran into a couple of dogs (German Short-haired Pointer & unknown). She ran into the woods and hid. I coaxed her out after 5 minutes. We finished up and she was very tired. Heat may be her kryptonite.

Zapped

I headed out at 8AM on Saturday to do some pace work for the half coming up. The main set was 5'@ olympic effort then right into 25'@ half effort with 15' of recovery three times through. I was consistent all the way through the workout. I had a weird cramp along the groin. After a short stop to stretch out the leg, I was good to go. Now that the summer is here, I will start carrying SUCCEED Salt tabs during training. I averaged 21.7mph for the 66 mile ride. I drank some coke before heading out for a short run. I did not feel great on the run. I had to walk a few times. At one point, I stumbled and almost fell over. I was completely zapped at the end.

I took Sunday off. Yesterday, I headed to the pool for 4000+ yards of swimming. I felt okay.

Who put the brick wall there?

It was a very busy morning at work yesterday. I had several projects due. I finished them all. I snuck away at lunch time for a swim. I tried to get around a vehicle parked in the middle of the road. I pulled forward and knew I couldn't make it. I started to reverse and hear scraping. My bumper is being pulled off by a brick wall. Who put the brick wall there? I really thought I had more room. UGH!!! I decided to go off road to get around the vehicle.

I was glad the pool was on the cold side, upper 70s. I needed to get out some frustration out. I finished with 3.2k and averaged 1:26.99999 on the 2000. I grabbed a few zip ties and fixed the bumper so it was drivable. Thanks Karen and Lisa!

After work, I grabbed Kona for some tempo work. The temperature was in the mid 70's. I adjusted my route, so Kona could run off-leash. I ended up running 30 minutes at sub 6:45. It felt really easy. I finished with just under 7 miles (6.99).