Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Ironman Distance and Oldham County
No, I have not done anything the length of an ironman, at least not at one time. No I am happy though to have seen that upon completing my bike ride yesterday morning the odometer read 112! I think it took 6 rides and close to 8 hours to reach that point, but it was fun for me to see, especially knowing that one day I will do that in a single ride. On a bright note, training has been moving, albeit slow, but I have seen improvement. My bike average speed is already up from 13.3 to 15-15.5. Riding a couple times a week I noticed has helped my endurance with running, and at a faster pace as well. I'm now running just under 9 minute miles avg over 2-3 mile runs. Considering my time at the lame duck averaged around 12 minutes I'm happy! The Y finally filled the lane pool back up and I am hoping to get in there to start swimming more. Hopefully I will have a swim coach here quick too to improve my technique. I did get to register for the Oldham County mini tri coming up on the 11th. 400m pool, 10 mi bike, 1.8 mi cc run. With that only a few weeks to go I really need to get into the pool! Luckily, school is light so far and finding time is not a problem. Speaking of which, off to class I go, then if I'm lucky maybe I'll sneak in a swim...
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Lame Duck
So race day started out with a terrible night's sleep (I had more anxiety for this race than for doing injections at school for the first time) and by getting out the door 1/2 hour later than I wanted to. My intentions were to get to the transition area as early as possible to get help in setting up. Instead we had a .8 mile walk to transition and had to look around to see what everyone else was doing.
After setting up to the best of my ability, skill, knowledge, or copying, I felt more relaxed and ready to go. At 730 I got in line for the nice pontoon boat ride across the lake to the swim start. They let us in the water a little after 830 and we all were treading water for the start. It didn't take long before I was on my back stroking my way across the lake, wondering what I got myself into. I don't know if they were concerned for me or if I was just lucky to have a boat and kayak near my side the whole swim. Didn't need them as I finished the .54 in a wonderful 28 minutes.
It felt good to finish the swim and see Meagan and the kids on the dock to cheer me on!
Transition was easy for me since most people were already on the course I didn't have to fight the crowds and was able to get out for my most prepared event, the bike. The course starts out with a solid climb but I managed to push hard up it and really boost my confidence. It took until the sixth mile to finally get a stretch of flat and it felt good to be pedaling at a nice 21.5.
Coming back to transition I ended up behind an ambulance and took the last .5 mile downhill slow to not hit the vehicle, turning in a 41 minute ride over 9.1 miles. Getting off the bike my right calf cramped and I knew I was in for it on the run. The run starts up the same hill as the bike and I did my best to try to run up the hill with cramped legs. Once again my fan club was there to cheer me on and it really motivated me to keep going.
It took walking and light jogging over most of the first mile to stretch out my calves to where I was ready to run my pace and the next .8 I moved at my anticipated speed. Once I passed where we parked our car I knew there wasn't much left and I looked at my watch to see how close to my goal of 2 hours I was. I couldn't tell as the watch resets the chrono every 30 minutes and the race start time I was uncertain on. I knew though that I could finish before 1030 and did my best to push hard through the last .8 miles. I crossed the finish line at 1:46.59 and excited to see my family there to greet me. Turns out my run was a horrible 31 minutes, but for never having run after biking or swimming and not training to run those hills I was happy to turn in 13 and change under my goal time, and I finished, which was what I really set out to do.
Thank you to the Lame Duck for the awesome experience. There were volunteers everywhere to keep us safe on the technical course and overall the race experience was one to remember. Thank you to Meagan for her support in my albeit minimal training and for her and the kids cheering me through every bit of the race. Having a personal support crew rocks! I can't wait for the next race I will be doing, hopefully a September 11th sprint in preparation for an October 2nd intermediate distance. Keep pushing, keep working and have fun!
After setting up to the best of my ability, skill, knowledge, or copying, I felt more relaxed and ready to go. At 730 I got in line for the nice pontoon boat ride across the lake to the swim start. They let us in the water a little after 830 and we all were treading water for the start. It didn't take long before I was on my back stroking my way across the lake, wondering what I got myself into. I don't know if they were concerned for me or if I was just lucky to have a boat and kayak near my side the whole swim. Didn't need them as I finished the .54 in a wonderful 28 minutes.
It felt good to finish the swim and see Meagan and the kids on the dock to cheer me on!
Transition was easy for me since most people were already on the course I didn't have to fight the crowds and was able to get out for my most prepared event, the bike. The course starts out with a solid climb but I managed to push hard up it and really boost my confidence. It took until the sixth mile to finally get a stretch of flat and it felt good to be pedaling at a nice 21.5.
Coming back to transition I ended up behind an ambulance and took the last .5 mile downhill slow to not hit the vehicle, turning in a 41 minute ride over 9.1 miles. Getting off the bike my right calf cramped and I knew I was in for it on the run. The run starts up the same hill as the bike and I did my best to try to run up the hill with cramped legs. Once again my fan club was there to cheer me on and it really motivated me to keep going.
It took walking and light jogging over most of the first mile to stretch out my calves to where I was ready to run my pace and the next .8 I moved at my anticipated speed. Once I passed where we parked our car I knew there wasn't much left and I looked at my watch to see how close to my goal of 2 hours I was. I couldn't tell as the watch resets the chrono every 30 minutes and the race start time I was uncertain on. I knew though that I could finish before 1030 and did my best to push hard through the last .8 miles. I crossed the finish line at 1:46.59 and excited to see my family there to greet me. Turns out my run was a horrible 31 minutes, but for never having run after biking or swimming and not training to run those hills I was happy to turn in 13 and change under my goal time, and I finished, which was what I really set out to do.
Thank you to the Lame Duck for the awesome experience. There were volunteers everywhere to keep us safe on the technical course and overall the race experience was one to remember. Thank you to Meagan for her support in my albeit minimal training and for her and the kids cheering me through every bit of the race. Having a personal support crew rocks! I can't wait for the next race I will be doing, hopefully a September 11th sprint in preparation for an October 2nd intermediate distance. Keep pushing, keep working and have fun!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Preparing to be a Lame Ducker
So after reading some blogs of friends and fellow racers I decided to write my own blog, to remember for myself the journey I have started and hope to travel in the world of triathlons.
Meagan has for a time talked about one day doing a triathlon as she grew up in a very active family who has always been involved in Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I didnt know much about triathlons other than it involved running, which I never liked outside of organized sports like baseball or football. Last year I had some friends run the Ironman and I learned a lot about the sport, but starting dental school and having a family I figured I wouldn't have time to get involved, and I still hated running, until this year.
At a friend's daughter's birthday party in June a buddy of mine suggested doing a sprint tri somewhere around August. Sounded great, so I said I was in, and only days later we headed to Idaho to be with the in-laws for a month. For most people that would be hard, but my in-laws rock so it was a great trip. I also had to start "training".
The first step to training was to watch IM CDA, which was awesome. One of my buddies from high school qualified for KONA so that was just awesome. Then came my running. The first run I did I figured just go till it hurts, which was a mile. The next two runs though were 1.8 and the last run I made was a good 3.3. The run was going well, and my in-laws made sure to get me on a road bike to practice for that portion of my race. My first ride was almost 13 miles through the hills of Hayden on a bike much too large for me. Since I survived that ride they decided I was ready to ride 25 miles around Hayden lake....trial by fire. Lucky for me I was able to make the ride twice before leaving Idaho.
We made it back to Kentucky with 2 1/2 weeks to prepare for the Lame Duck sprint that I signed up for. I ordered a new bike, the Tommaso Coltello, through Giantnerd.com. I must say this bike is awesome and I couldn't have got a better bike. Giantnerd is an awesome store and Tommaso puts together some sweet rides for an affordable price. I was able to ride some 50 miles in the two weeks I have had the bike for a total of 120ish miles in preparation for my tri, The only hiccup with the bike was that it had a bent deraileur hanger, but the shop took care of that no problem. I'm excited to race the bike!
Swim training has been the hardest for me. I love to swim, but my technique is designed for floating on surfboards and playing with the kids. I went to UK's pool and the first day swam 300m before having to call it quits. Two days later I went back to the pool, hit 200m freestyle and the other 650m needed for the race were done with a modified back stroke. I was able to put it together for a 24 minute time to do just over a half mile. I hope to reproduce that, but training in the pool was over because the pool was shut down till September for annual maintenance.
With three days to go to the Lame duck I'm running 2.6 in 25min, biking the 9.1 in 40ish, and swimming in 24. I have yet to do any block training, but with the race and the start of school only days away, it is what it is. My goal, to finish, better yet to finish under 2 hours, and if I can put everything together in training time it should be close to 1:30. Time will tell!
Meagan has for a time talked about one day doing a triathlon as she grew up in a very active family who has always been involved in Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I didnt know much about triathlons other than it involved running, which I never liked outside of organized sports like baseball or football. Last year I had some friends run the Ironman and I learned a lot about the sport, but starting dental school and having a family I figured I wouldn't have time to get involved, and I still hated running, until this year.
At a friend's daughter's birthday party in June a buddy of mine suggested doing a sprint tri somewhere around August. Sounded great, so I said I was in, and only days later we headed to Idaho to be with the in-laws for a month. For most people that would be hard, but my in-laws rock so it was a great trip. I also had to start "training".
The first step to training was to watch IM CDA, which was awesome. One of my buddies from high school qualified for KONA so that was just awesome. Then came my running. The first run I did I figured just go till it hurts, which was a mile. The next two runs though were 1.8 and the last run I made was a good 3.3. The run was going well, and my in-laws made sure to get me on a road bike to practice for that portion of my race. My first ride was almost 13 miles through the hills of Hayden on a bike much too large for me. Since I survived that ride they decided I was ready to ride 25 miles around Hayden lake....trial by fire. Lucky for me I was able to make the ride twice before leaving Idaho.
We made it back to Kentucky with 2 1/2 weeks to prepare for the Lame Duck sprint that I signed up for. I ordered a new bike, the Tommaso Coltello, through Giantnerd.com. I must say this bike is awesome and I couldn't have got a better bike. Giantnerd is an awesome store and Tommaso puts together some sweet rides for an affordable price. I was able to ride some 50 miles in the two weeks I have had the bike for a total of 120ish miles in preparation for my tri, The only hiccup with the bike was that it had a bent deraileur hanger, but the shop took care of that no problem. I'm excited to race the bike!
Swim training has been the hardest for me. I love to swim, but my technique is designed for floating on surfboards and playing with the kids. I went to UK's pool and the first day swam 300m before having to call it quits. Two days later I went back to the pool, hit 200m freestyle and the other 650m needed for the race were done with a modified back stroke. I was able to put it together for a 24 minute time to do just over a half mile. I hope to reproduce that, but training in the pool was over because the pool was shut down till September for annual maintenance.
With three days to go to the Lame duck I'm running 2.6 in 25min, biking the 9.1 in 40ish, and swimming in 24. I have yet to do any block training, but with the race and the start of school only days away, it is what it is. My goal, to finish, better yet to finish under 2 hours, and if I can put everything together in training time it should be close to 1:30. Time will tell!
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