Sorry I could not post this earlier, but......
I will be appearing on Channel Nine (Denver, CO) during the 12:00-12:30 newscast today, Friday July 20th.
-Justin
Three Years to improve
A friend of mine sent me an email a few days ago.
In this email he asked as to whether or not I thought it was possible to make enough improvement over the course of three years to qualify for Kona in 2010.
My first IM in May 2001 was 12:55. My second in November 2003 was 9:20. In addition to his first question, he asked what it took for me to make that progression in the course of 2.5 years.
I responded with the following email.
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Justin writes:
Yo-
I'm not quite sure how to answer this question. I can give you the rundown on how I improved, but that might not be the answer as it relates to what will make you improve.
Some basic factors for Long course improvement (In my opinion) would include:
1. Bike Volume. It will need to be quite solid at some point in your life (and you need a good relationship with your bike). Long course athletes typically always make a big jump from this. I like to see all intensities addressed at some point each season; not limited to easy/steady. I prefer fartlek training based on terrain that can address all systems until you are in a specific race prep.
2. Proper run biomechanics coupled with frequent running. I also suggest being a sucker for soft surfaces. I run on soft surfaces all the time with the exception of some sessions specifically designed for eccentric overload (and these run a risk).
3. Adequate technique in the water that allows for conditioning. IOW, stroke can always be worked on; but it initially needs to be_good_enough for fitness improvements. I believe in drills and technique, but training/conditioning is specific to the muscles trained (there is general conditioning carryover from BRing, but not on site at the muscles).
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My IM in 2001 was mostly just an adventure for me. I likely trained about 8-12 hours/week, but I generally considered it as exercise/working out since it wasn't many more hours from my days of lifting and cardio w/os. I did about 3-4 rides over 2 hours (total) and I didn't run over 90 minutes from Feb-May (race was in May). I also swam about 2000-4000 yds/week at most and I don't think I swam more than once in May leading up to the race (needed the taper:)
My point is that I might have finished the event a little more quickly had I understood what the hell I was supposed to do. 12:55 may or may not have been an adequate assessment of my fitness at the time, but it was a starting point in any case.
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I made some good improvements from may 01 to may 02 and it primarily came from riding my bike.
I simply enjoyed riding 3-5 hours 2-4x/week (usually 10-12 hours/week with the occasional 15).
I didn't have major intentions of improving in my first couple years in triathlon (I just really liked to ride and the swimming and running were part of the gig).
It wasn't until a couple seasons had passed that I started to do what I 'needed' instea of what I wanted (and even that wasn't always addressed adequately because I lacked a consistently objective source).
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I don't know how much of my progression can be attributed to what makes-me-me, but I personally believe that the major gains came from my consistent willingness to train as well as my need for social interactions (my friends didn't train and I enjoyed their company. that meant time away from training). I always trained, but I never burned myself out.
I'm also not sure I can assume my path of improvement will work equally with anyone who plugs in the formula.
Frankly I'm sure could have done things "better" (or worse!) and if I were to help someone I would guide them differently that I guided myself. Nevertheless, adventures of self-discovery do have their place.
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In the end I would tell you this:
If you want to qualify for Hawaii in 2010 then you have to make sure that you_really_enjoy triathlon.
I'm not really talking about balance in your life (that's another discussion).
I'm talking about what you find to be fun within thise sport.. That does not mean you have to be indifferent to your results. It just means that the process of attaining results is what brings you joy (and not relying on the results themselves to make you happy).
If you can focus on doing fun events and training in the next three years then I imagine you will find yourself with the best level of improvement when Sept 2010 comes around. I don't know that it will be enough for Kona or not, but I imagine it will be your best given the time you have put in leading to that date.
You can work with a three year plan, but keep the focus within the year, month, week, and day.
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I will post some follow up as it comes.
-Justin
Giardia
I didn't know what giardia was until last Wednesday. The nice folks at the Boulder Med Center kindly informed me of the parasite that was hanging around and totally wrecking my system every 2-3 days.
I suppose that most onlookers would have encouraged me to go to the doctor as soon as I felt ill the second time (as opposed to the fourth). The problem was that I was having good training sessions once I recovered from every shalacking. That made me question actually having an illness (much like folks questioning if they are really overtrained). Given the diversity of GI problems in the population I thought that perhaps mine came from anxiety, dehydration, nerves; whatever.
Well all those justifications were clearly incorrect and I'm currently finishing off a prescription of meds to kill the sucker. I cannot guarantee the source, but I would imagine I received giardia from open water swim training in the Boulder Reservoir as I got sick for the first time shortly after swimming there.
Kind of amazing to think that I trained_and_raced with a parasite in me. No wonder everyone kept commently that I was thinning out. No nutrients were getting to me!
My training has been a bit up and down this week. I imagine that the meds, the illness, and the training-I-did-while-ill has buried me a bit.
7.5 weeks to IMC and I feel relatively confident about my fitness. Even with these setbacks it has been easy to make adjustments since I'm not spreading myself thin with races. That allows more time for patient progression.
no thoughts today, just updates.
cheers,
justin
montezuma, sprint, and faith
MONTEZUMA.
I cannot quite wrap my head around what has happened to me over the past week, but it has been peppered with ups and downs. All the training has been solid, but it has been coupled with wicked GI issues. I got sick to my stomache three different times within an eight day period and had to take as many full days off. Interestingly enough I had excellent training on the odd days.
Some folks around me have been getting the funk as well so perhaps Boulder county is dealing with the "summer camp shakes." (Thats what we called the contagious funk that always circled throughout the summer camp I worked for in my teens and early twenties).
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I raced last weekend.
Seriously.
I got my arse handed to do me a bit, but I definitely went as hard as I could.
Essentially the race consisted of a mediocre swim, a decent ride and a decent run. I'm not sure why I lost so much time in the swim, but I did. I started the ride with Michael Hagen (great Master athlete for ARMY) and we surged back and forth the whole way. It was great to have someone force me to keep it pinned the entire way. I had a feeling he would/could run away from me so I kept trying to hit him on the bike over and over again.
If it did tire him, it didn't tire him enough! I cruised the run at a good tempo and finished up a few minutes behind the overall leader. Once all the other waves came in I finished up in 15th place. 2nd-2oth were all within about 2 minutes of each other and sure would have been fun if we had all raced head to head.
Sometimes people are surprised when I don't knock out uber fast times in short course racing. A lot of folks assume that because I can cover big miles in modest times then I must be able to race short miles in fast times.
Trust me, there are plenty of people who are that way. Just not me.
Generally, my races are going to give you a good idea of my fitness. My ability to execute longer races better than some fitter athletes might be the case from time to time, but you should not assume that I am "faster" than them.
Most Athletes, from BOPers to top Pros, show their fitness in the first three hours of an IM instead of doing it all day. That's all.
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Faith.
Faith in what you do.
Faith in what you do when there is a lot of noise around you.
A lot of you are training right now. A lot of you are constantly being told what to do and what not to do by every chap with an email address and an opinion.
Here is an observation I shared with some friends today:
Every year (for me) is different. Sometimes I am actively trying to incorporate new training plans/ideas; while other times I know I NEED a different training plan. Some things work. Some things don't.
I know there is a risk that what I do might not be right, but I am willing to take those risks because I have faith in the plan I create.
Each year I:
Gather a team I trust. I generate questions and appreciate their input and criticisms. I thank them for their time.
Then I commit to what I know in my heart is going to work for me.
As the noise around me grows, I quiet myself and focus on what I believe in.
Happy Monday,
-justin
Quotes
12 days of heavier training are over and I've had enough thoughts to fill an entire notebook. Unfortunately many of those thoughts are going to cycle back into my subconscious where they are likely to rise again at hour five of a long ride (insetad of right now when I need them). Nevertheless, there did seem to be some consistency in my thinking pattern and perhaps it can be synthesized by a few quotes.
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"Its good to let everyone be strong at some point in the day."
Gordo relayed this quote to me from Molina. It carries a lot of weight with it and it really became relevant over the last twelve days since I trained with others daily.
Training groups are highly benificial, but it rides a mighty thin line between benefit and detriment. In order to really gain the benefits each individual needs to have faith in others around him. Athletes need to allow others to take the drivers seat without constantly challenging for that spot.
Last Spring in Florida we organized a group ride of about 4-5 riders and one rule persisted from start to finish: Everyone was allowed to pull until he decided to pull off. No one could come around.
Now this will not guarantee that the pulls will be civil, but it does mean that some sort of order will remain in tact throughout the session.
So what if someone is drilling it at the front? When you roll through should you smack him back?
Personally, I think not. The best thing you can do is make your pulls short and pull off the front forcing the peppy individual to retake the lead. Let your buddy be strong and just enjoy the ride.
And don't worry about folks who hammer in training....
"You should worry about the folks that_don't_have anything to prove in training."
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"I was always ok with my fitness..."
On Monday the Carolina Crew and I chatted generally about triathlon and specifically about my goals and progression.
Early in my 'career' I never particularly compared myself to athletes around me. Part of that had to do with the fact that there really weren't any triathletes in College Station to speak of so benchmarks were hard to come by. I simply concentrated on making gradual gains day after day and I knew my real potential was years away. My training consistency and mental/emotional sanity were more important to me than figuring out the next sexy workout.
And honestly, I had never worked_that_"hard" at anything else in my life. I wasn't great at lots of sports (but not bad either) and even if I had potential in some areas I never capitalized on it. So watching gradual progression in triathlon training/racing was always enough motivation to get me out the door. I didn't need the external variables to fire me up. It came internally.
I also never took issue with my race results so long as I working my way up the field. Instead of being irritated about someone beating me I would simply think "just think where I'll be in 5 or 10 years." Sometimes I would meet goals or fall short of them, but I almost always improved.
And I always tell my friends (and myself) to:
"Never be disappointed with progress"...
...even if that progress falls short of the goals you set for yourself. You still improved.
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Not as long as I wanted, but enough. I need to head out to make sure the race bike is in working order for tomorrow.
And its too damn nice to sit inside on a day like this,
justin
p.s. One more thought I had the other day that I told my buddy:
"I have spent a few years in this sport and have met some solid, stand-up individuals. I guess when it comes down to it the athleticism of these indivduals is usually the least impressive aspect about them."
Back Home
24 hours of travel later and I'm back in the States. Actually, that was Wednesday and now its Saturday morning as I type this. I do not know how to appropriately and repectfully talk about an overseas trip involving the passing of my grandfather: someone I knew and loved as a grandson should. So instead of speaking about the trip I thought I would speak about the man.
It was interesting to hear the thoughts and memories from everyone that knew him. My father had written a letter to the Holmen family that listed various memories that had struck him in the time he knew Sigurd. One such statement was: "I remember Sigurd never complaining."
Never complaining. He didn't.
He really did not complain; and interestingly enough, this is exactly what I had independently said about him before reading my father's note.
I cannot comment on how everyone in the world feels about folks that do not complain. This is probably because we do not really know many folks that don't. The majority of us often retract into a self-centered existence that necessitates the constant accomodation of the world around us. Obviously it never works perfectly as such and in the end most of us find it hard not to let everyone around us know about it.
But Sigurd carried on with his life without trying to find too much pity from the world.
I also remember my mother telling me about she and he brother, Anders, eating dessert as children. My mother never knew Sigurd loved dessert until she was off in college. My mother's family grew up with tight finances. Tight finances mean less food. When asked if he wanted any of the limited dessert, Sigurd would shy away stating that he never liked the stuff. And his children ate away, not knowing otherwise until many, many years later.
And many, many years later my mother would make sure Sigurd got all the cake and ice cream he ever wanted.
Sigurd was also a man of movement. He rode his bike_everywhere. Otherwise he walked. He learned to ski at 75. He would grip me with a hug whenever I saw him that often revealed his hidden strength. His quality of life rarely wavered for the first 85 years of life. And he always stands out in my mind as a healthy man as a result of his everyday lifestyle.
I did not fly over to SVE in any state of mourning, nor did I experience any noticeable sadness in the two weeks leading to the funeral. Yet as I stood there on the morning of May 29th I shed many tears in the hour that we said good bye. You could feel the emotions throughout the whole church that morning. No one stood by with a dry eye. That is the sign of the passing of a loved man.
Less than 24 hours later I was on a plane back to the states after spending two weeks in SVE. The trip honestly involved only a few moments of sadness. It was primarily filled with better times as my SVE and USA families enjoyed each other's company, despite the reason for it.
And so I fall back into my life. I will be heading out to SBR continuously once again, but now I have an advantage as someone on my side is helping me from above.
Cheers from Boulder,
Justin
I am sorry to go so long without an update. I have posted a recent email I sent below to explain:
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Family, Friends, and Sponsors:
I hope everyone receiving this message is doing well. Some of you already know, but for those who do not; My grandfather in Sweden passed away late last week. He was a great man that lived a full 89 years and he will be missed. I really appreciate all the kind emails and calls in the last few days.
I will be traveling to Sweden on Friday for two weeks to be with family and I have decided to pull out of Ironman CdA on June 24. I will put together a new race schedule after returning on May 30th. For now, I will be with my family.
Thank you all for your continued support.
Justin Daerr
Sponsors: EAS (www.eas.com), Training Bible(www.trainingbible.com), Descente(www.descenteathletic.com), Fuel Belt(www.fuelbelt.com), Javelin (www.javbike.com)
www.justindaerr.com
Muddy Mags
After taking a very easy Friday (70 minute spin) I was back on the training wagon for the weekend.
Dennis and I started our Saturday with a 5500 meter swim. Nothing particularly fancy with a pattern of:
5 x 500
4 x 400
3 x 300
2 x 200
1 x 100
The 500s and 400s were a moderate mix of intensities. The 300s were a descending set. The 200 finished with an IM round for time. 100 c/d.
After finishing I looked up at the not-so-inviting weather in the mountains and debated whether or not I should head up high to run Magnolia Road. The previous night/day had given us rain in the valley with snow up high. I hoped the warm morning sun would have dried the road out so a couple hours after swimming I found myself up at 8200 feet on my favorite road.
The road was immediately damp (its dirt), but it did not have that deep soak that creates heavy mud. A couple miles later was a different story. I was slipping and sliding and the cars that passed me were running me into the deeper goop. Nevertheless, I kept it rolling as some dry(well, drier) relief consistently showed itself. The other issuse at hand were the cold temps, the demoralizing headwind and the vey intimidating clouds that seemed to be on the horizon in every direction.
The weather was really becoming a concern to me because if it started downpouring I could be a serious candidate for hyopthermia. I seemed to be barely producing enough heat without the rain. Fortunately, as I made my way back down the road it appeared that the weather would hold out long enough for me to finish my session. And amazingly enough I had not been sprayed with mud by any passing cars.
Until I was 3 miles from finishing. Then a truck gave me an uber spray.
Awesome. I needed that. Without that, it would have just been another easy, uneventful day on Magz.
I finished up the 17 mile run and I felt pretty damn wiped out with the long swim, long run combo. I headed back down to Btown and managed a one hour recovery spin before the sky started falling again.
Sunday was much like Saturday; only colder. I rolled out around 10:00a.m. with two jerseys, base layer, wind vest, knee warmers, arm warmers, skull cap, and booties. I still felt like I could rock some more clothes without being hot.
I had hoped for a 6 hour ride when I originally planned the week, but the weather was looking to be pretty rough. It was only two hours into the session when I found myself time trialing back south to avoid those black clouds. I made it back to Boulder after 3:30 of riding and I thought I could knock out some extra climbing so I headed over to Lee hill and upped my ride time to 4.5 hours plus before calling it a day in the rain. The session was shorter than I wanted, but I ended up getting more quality than I had probably planned. I logged over 2 hours of steady-state riding and another 45 minutes of hard climbing.
So that concludes my ten day training block. It ended up just shy of 50 hours which is a good thing. I find it to be better to fall just shy of your training goals. It allows you to occassionally exceed your racing goals.
Train big, Train right
The principles of aerobic training remain the same from events that last a few minutes to those that last 4-17 hours (Half Ironman and Ironman races for our purposes here). In other words; going hard, hard, easy, long and short all have their place within a balanced triathlon (read: endurance) training program.
Today, we talk about volume. Long course zealots love to rant and rave about volume and they will be the first to point out that their training is lacking if the volume has not hit their ideal levels. Over the past seven years I have had to pleasure to get to know plenty of athletes. Some train huge miles. Some don't. The level of success never works linearly with training volume. I know many folks might wish it were such. Hard work is more honorable and justifiable when the returns are clearly realized.
However at some point training no longer becomes training. I was chatting with a friend once who proceeded to tell me about an athlete that put in 10 hours a day when training for an Ironman. My response?
"That's not training. That's touring."
Burning more calories in a day than anyone else is not going to make you any better than your competition.
Having said all that... ...putting in a solid aerobic overload with volume can be highly effective. However, even with high volume, intensity remains important. I have found high volume training to be the most effective when I spend the bulk of training within a steady-state intensity range. This means you need to find that best volume that allows you to not fall below zone 2/3 training ranges. In order to properly execute this type of training an athlete really needs to be smart about their nutrition, their training partners and the terrain they train on.
I have been stacking 6-7 hours days on top of one another for the past week with two more days to follow. In order to make sure I can get the most out of each day I....
1. Eat continuously throughout the day without stacking huge meals anywhere in there.
2. I include plenty of climbing on moderate grades to force more steady state riding and running, but I nix any steep climbs so that I can avoid (lots of) acidosis on these rides/runs. Swimming still includes all ranges of intensity.
3. I get training partners to come along (on some days, not every day) that will push me, but not try to beat me.
4. I rest when I plan to rest, even if I arrive at recovery days feeling like a million bucks. Recovery days are instituted for training absorption and recovery prevention. They are not a reactionary measure to offset exhaustion.
5. I swim, ride, and run solidly and steadily every day. Some workouts take longer to warm into, but I do my best. I also nix threshold to threshold-plus workouts so that I can train effectively without excessive fatigue throughout the whole allotted time frame (and therefore, the steeper climbs take a backseat).
6. I follow up each volume block with a short recovery period and then return to a more balanced program with high(er) intensity sessions. This way I avoid trying to create an overload with the same means over and over again. The body adapts, so mix it up.
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My roommate asked me how I fuel myself throughout these bigger training days. Here is how it has essentially worked for me:
Wake at 6:15 a.m. Eat about 1.5 cups of oatmeal with 1-2 pieces of chopped fruit and 1/4 cup of fat free cottage cheese. I take one gram of fish oil, one tablet of EAS' Athlete's Defense, and one serving of EAS HMB. I also take in plenty of water and coffee.
Run 10-12 miles at 8:00 a.m.
9:30 a.m. I drink a recovery drink with one scoop of Race Recovery and one scoop of Muscle Armour. I eat a bowl of quinoa.
Swim practice at 10:30 a.m. swimming 4-5000 meters. I consume a sports drink with about 150-200 calories during practice (usually 1-2 scoops of Endurathon with .5-1 scoop of catapult).
Come home and eat 1.5 cups of quinoa, 2-3 eggs and raisins
Start riding at 1:00-1:15 from Amantes in North Boulder. Ride 3.5-4.5 hours; mostly in the mountains. I take in 2-300 calories/hours of sports drink (same as swimming) and I consume 1/2-1 full energy bar (myoplex lite) for every climb I summit (lasting 45-60 minutes). Consuming a high calorie source of nutrition at the top of climbs is important because it helps you avoid any blood sugar drops on the longer descents. You might feel fine when a climb is done, but 20 minutes later you can be in a whole other (fuzzy) world.
Arrive home at 5:00-5:30 and immediately consume two different recovery drinks. The first is water mixed with one scoop of Muscle Armour and 1-2 scoops of Glutamine. Then I make a Myoplex deluxe shake with Rice Milk and 1-2 bananas.
Afterwards I shower and eat dinner around 7:00-7:30 which includes a solid protein source (steak, chicken or fish), starch (quinoa or rice), steamed vegetables, etc.
Probably some more fruit and nuts into the evening. Asleep between 9:30 and 10:00.
Rinse and repeat.
Another few days roll by
After an easy Monday (about 2 hours of recovery training) I laid out 19 hours of training in three days. The format was fairly straight forward each day and it stacked up as:
Tuesday:
Morning run on Magnolia Road (8000+ ft); 10 miles in the rolling hills; 74 minutes.
Swim at 10:30; 4800 meters; 90 minutes. Good swim.
Ride at 1:15; easy to steady out to carter lake and return via backside. about 3:40 ride time; probably 75 miles or so.
Wednesday:
Morning run from the condo. About 11+ miles in the front range hills. 81 minutes
Swim at 10:30; 3900 meters; faster set; 75 minutes
Ride @ 1:00. Climb 15 miles up lefthand canyon, descend back down, climb 8 miles to Jamestown, descend 3 miles to lefthand turnoff; climb 5 miles to mile 10 marker; descend to bottom of canyon and back to Boulder on 36. About 72 miles and 3:55 ride time.
Thursday:
Morning run at Switzerland Trail (around 8800 feet at start), little under 12 miles. About 84 minutes.
Swim @ 10:30; 3400 meter swim with main set of 10 x 250 as 100IM/150 free. More effort than I really care for today.
Ride @ 12:30; climb 8 miles to Jamestown, descend to lefthand turnoff and climb to mile 15 marker (about ten more miles), descend out of canyon and logged some easier riding in the flats. About 56 miles and 3:05 ride time.
Plenty of climbing in there; both in cycling and running. I have a lot of thoughts running through my mind and I want to share them, but I need a lighter day to get them down. Tomorrow is planned to be much more mellow so I'll knock out some of those thoughts; including my ideas about training volume and fueling oneself for higher volume.
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Before I go;
There is a lot of racing going on this weekend.
Be sure to check The Tour of the Gila (www.tourofthegila.com) to follow my roomies racing for Team Velonews. (Josh is Cat 3; KB and Dave are in the 4/5 race).
We have about half the city of Boulder racing Wildflower as well as Gordo racing some obscure race in the NoCal Wine Country (Napa Tri or something along those lines). G better be setting a course record there!
AND big dawg Chris is headed to the Tri 101 in Florida.
Good luck gents and lady,
JD
I managed to be recovered well enough from last weekend's race by this past Friday. I kicked off my ten day volume block with a ride out to Fort Collins and Back with Marilyn. It was right at 100 miles in 5 hours with some steady, and even hard, sections along the way (followed by a 4 mile run off the bike). I guess the highlight (read:lowlight) of the ride would be a gift shop store owner (on your right as you hit the T in the road in Masonville coming from the south) refusing to let Marilyn_BUY_some water from the faucet. Please, if you ride out in this area; take your refueling business elsewhere.
Saturday brought warm temperatures and another good day of training. It started at Elks' pool with Billy and Dennis swimming 4K+ with a main set of 2 x 1000. I was pretty tired from poor sleep, but I warmed into the set nicely. A couple hours after the swim Billy and I headed up to Magnolia Road for a long run. It was getting pretty warm with strong sunshine that feels much different at 8000+ feet that it does for our flatland friends. I wasn't carrying any water (forgot my fuelbelt) so I tried a different strategy by pounding 50+ ounces of water shortly before starting the run. I felt a bit ill on the way up, but it did seem to do the trick as I avoided any hardcore dehydration. The run felt a bit rough at times, but I still managed to better my time from two weeks ago. Magnolia Road is the only place that I have a lot of data from so its pretty cool to see the progression over the past few years. I've come a long way from when I started.
I finished Saturday with a short one hour spin in the flats. Two days down.
Four days
Four days of recovery. That is my self-proclaimed standard for post Half Ironman racing. As I sit here on Friday morning (4 days + 1) I certainly hope to see the signs of the recovery today because they have been hiding all week. After racing on Sunday I drove 2 hours to Wichita Falls and then another 11 hours on Monday to get back into Boulder. It was nice to get back so quickly, but I was pretty damn exhausted when it was all said and done.
I actually felt worse on Wednesday than Tuesday with sky-high heart rates on all of my easy sessions and mandatory 3+ hour naps. Thursday saw a bit of improvement, but I was nowhere near where I needed to be. Nevertheless, I have faith in my four day plan and I scheduled my training to reflect this.
In the past years I have had nearly 6-7 months of training (base and otherwise) before I begin my Ironman focus. This year I have about 3-4; with only 1.5 of solid aerobic base. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together in the next couple months as my Ironman push begins today. I will be stringing together around 50+ hours of training over the next 10 days.; two of those days will only have one hour of training so its more along the lines of 48-50 in 8 days. I will have a few days of recovery following this block before I begin a 16 day build period that focuses on dialing into my Ironman pacing while maximizing the progression of all aspects of my fitness.
I'm starting with a 5-6 hour ride today with a short T run to follow. Lets hope the body is nearly back to normal by now.
until later,
jd
Playtri
I copied and pasted this report from an email I sent out yesterday about the Playtri Triathlon in Dallas. It doesn't work very well when I do that so I apologize if there are some formatting errors below.
jd
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A little over a week ago I was flipping throughvarious issues of Inside Tri and Velonews (two of my roommates work for them) and I came across an AD forthe PLAYTRI Half Ironman: a Dallas area race directedby one of my friends, Ahmed Zaher. I decided to make a quick change to the schedule and 13.5 hours (in a car) later I was in North Texas.
Race morning did not bring any epic Texas heat, but it did bring some impressive wind. The swim was fairly protected, but the rest of the course would certainly force us to grind a bit. At the swim start I lined up behind Todd Gerlach of Austin, but that's about all the contact I had with him once the gun went off. Two or three other swimmers tried to make a run for his feet with me, but all of sudden it was as if we conceded and found our own groove. We had an exceptionally large pack that stayed mostly in tact throughout the swim and we all exited just shy of three minutes behind Todd. Ouch. Good swim Todd.
I hit the three loop bike course with hopes of minimizing any lead that Todd would continue to build on the bike. My plan was to keep things somewhat moderate in the first half and then start to lift the pace with the final lap being the hardest effort. After about 8-10 miles of the race I got a split of almost six minutes to Todd. Well, crap. I still decided to stick to my plan since I felt the wind might really favor an attack on the final loop. Attacking on the final loop did catapult me from fourth to second, but coming into T2 I heard my announcing over the intercom that I was six and a half minutes down on the leader. That is a lot to try and make up over a half marathon, but you never know until you try.
After 3 miles of running I got a split of 6:20. No good. After 6+ miles I got a split of 6:10. No good. I might have mellowed out a little bit at this point, but third place was only 90+ seconds back and he was not fading so I lifted the effort on the second loop. After 9+ miles I had taken two minutes out of Todd and that gave me a second wind. I had images of running him down in the final 100 meters so I kept running hard. I pushed all the way to the finish, but I came up two and a half minutes short of the victory.
Nevertheless I was happy to come in second with one of the faster runs on the day; not to mention taking home a paycheck. The inaugural Playtri Festival(www.playtri.com ) was definitely a well-run and successful event. You can be sure I will be heading back there in the years to come.
Thanks go out to my aunt and uncle for all their hospitaity over the weekend and to my sponsors: EAS, Trainingbible.com, Descente, Javelin, and Fuel Belt.
See you in Idaho in June,JD
Virginia Tech
Its hard to comprehend the tragedy that took place in Blacksburg this week. No matter how much information they find on the shooter it will never justify or rationalize such actions. My heart goes out to the families of the victims, to the witnesses, and to the students, faculty and community of Blacksburg. Its extraordinarily difficult to empathize with their pain and sadness. Few of us understand the immense injustices in the world. Most of us only understand the petty.
Hang in there Virginia Tech Nation. Here's to hoping you can all rise above this.
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Training since Monday has included:
Monday:
easy 10 x 200 meter swim; mix of everything. weights followed (and I saw the news on tv at this moment).
Nothing else on the day; Mondays and Fridays are almost always easy in Boulderworld.
Tuesday:
Morning run at the Res with 8 x 90 sec @ vV02 (building to 184 to 185 HR) on 2:30 recovery. Total run around 8+ miles.
Swim shortly after at Elks. 3K aerobic main set on moderate intervals. Little over 4K total. Felt ok. I could not lift the pace at the end, but I did not fade either.
Ride about an hour after swim with Dennis, Gordo, Michael and me. Rode 36, backside of Carter, and home via 75th. My climbing is starting to come around as I climbed the backsde competently this go round. About 70 miles in 3:30
Wednesday:
Morning run, very easy 45 minutes finishing just before the swim began
Swim with some faster work. About 3200 total with 1200-1300 of hard/fast swimming. Felt Ok, but tired at the end.
Afternoon ride with a 15 mile climb up lefthand canyon. Probably the highlight of the day as I kept a high zone 2/zone 3 tempo the whole way. I am not feeling beat up at the higher altitudes so accilmization is coming along nicely. About 2:25 ride time
Finished up and headed over to Sports Garage to pick up the serviced PT. My ergomo is whacked out so I might need to send that back in. Hopefully the issues with my backup PT will be alright.
-jd
Sunday, April 15
Ironman Arizona race day.
I got a late start on the day because I was following the IMAZ swim finish. Once I saw BB's result (nice improvement) I headed out to do a long ride.
I rolled out via 75th st in the flats and started riding steadily right away. The goal of today's ride was to log a lot of steady state intensity in the flats. I made one small modification because I wanted to get some climbing during the second half of the ride.
I rolled out to Carter Lake and climbed the frontside, then rode back to Boulder via 83rd, 75th, Lyons, 36. I got back to the house after 3:15 of ride time and quickly checked the race status. Afterwards I headed out and climbed the frontside of Lee Hill, Mile 10 of Lefthand, a little beyond Jamestown, and home via the backside of Olde Stage. That added about two hours of climbing (and descending)
Total ride time was around 5:15 or so with quality throughout the entire session. My acclimation is coming along and it could be readily noticed by my ability to competently climb the steeper grades (as opposed to merely surviving them). I still have a ways to go, but that relates more to my fitness, not my acclimization.
I was supposed to get a short run off the bike in, but I needed to get down to Denver to meet my dad for an early dinner. I got to check out a lot of downtown Denver that I had yet to see before. Pretty cool spot. Lots of bars, restaurants, lofts, etc. That's the way to do it if you have to be in a big city.
The total volume for the week was around 28 hours; the main highlights including the overall run volume (and quality), Sunday's ride, and every swim workout of the week.
-jd