No race? No problem.

This was my first weekend since mid-July without a race or double. I welcomed it as I had started to feel pretty fatigued and possibly overtrained! I originally planned to race in the Church Creek 40k time trial, but decided against it when Todd assigned a 40mi/3mi hard brick for Saturday. I thought I'd be better served to get in a longer ride and quality brick workout, especially since I've recently become concerned about my run, which seems to have weakened a bit as I've focused more on my cycling. I took Thursday OFF save for a 30min ride, and Friday I only swam, forgoing the 45min run I had planned. I think that helped me greatly as Saturday AM I felt strong again!

First part of Saturday's brick was a 40mi ride with tempo. I chose to ride a 20mi out/back on Rt. 28. Another goal of this ride was to practice hydration/nutrition, as my inability to properly do either reared it's uuuuugly head at Luray. Ride went well, although it felt awfully hot/steamy outside. I was sweating buckets, must've been really humid or something. My aerobar armpads were caked with sweaty foam. Yuck. Avg'ed around 220w for the ride, which is just about a low-tempo wattage, and I threw in several high-tempo efforts throughout the ride. However, I don't think I drank enough. I had 2 bottles but I only drank about one and a third of them... For 40mi on a humid day I should be polishing off both 16 oz. bottles. Oops...

The run started off well enough, hitting 5:40 for the first mile that was slightly downhill. I wanted to make the first mile a fast one, but that was a little slower than I wanted. Then I turned around and the uphill 2nd mile started to hurt. I wasn't cramping for once, thanks to the EFS shot I took (thanks to my man Matias who recommended it), but I felt pretty dehydrated. I definitely didn't take in enough water for the heat (it was up to 90 at this point). Mile 2 clocked in at 6:20. Oof. Should've been closer to 6:00. Mile 3 was half up and half down... and a way too slow U-turn in between. I took this mile a little easier as I didn't want to knock myself back out like earlier in the week, so I jogged in a 6:30. I was a little more tired than expected by the 40mi tempo and didn't hydrate properly, but I'll accept a 6:14/mile effort for training. Good workout, but I still have work to do with properly hydrating myself.

Sunday "just" featured a run, an 8mi build, starting easy and finishing hard. I wanted to do part of it with my GRC teammates, but they run too fast for my easy pace, so I ran the first 4 with PMurph from Old Anglers Inn (the eventual finish destination for the main GRC group) with the intention of meeting GRCers at the 4mi mark and finishing with them. We ran smooth, building from a 7:30 mile to a 6:58 by mile 4. After waiting a couple minutes I saw Texabama Paul screaming down the towpath, announcing his 5:50 pace to me and Patrick. I decided to jump in with him and we bombed (well, that's how it felt to me) down the canal. The next 4 miles went by quick, and we hit all 4 miles between 5:50 and 6:00. It wasn't easy, as running fast on the towpath never is, but my HR was stable, maintaining a comfortable tempo. I started falling off a bit in the last half mile but I pushed myself back up as I felt slightly ashamed.... This guy Paul has been running this pace for nearly 18 miles!! Surely I can do it for a measly 4.5!! Christ! Ok, he's a potential US Olympic Trials qualifier, but still! But I finished the run strong and didn't kill myself to do so. After being unsure of my run strength a few days ago, I'm feeling much better about it now.

That was a good and hard weekend. An even tougher week (this one) lies in wait, starting tonight at Masters practice. It's only a couple weeks until Nation's!

Luray International Triathlon race report: The bike breaks through

On May 23 I wasn't really looking forward to this race. I had just come off an incredibly disappointing bike split at the Columbia Triathlon and Luray was only hillier and longer. The only reason I decided to do it was because it fell on a good calendar date and was several weeks out from Nations, a good tuneup. Then I visited the Czech Republic, biked, thought lot about my biking and once I got back to the USA, I paid a visit to Elite Bicycles in Philadelphia, and that would change, well, a lot of things. Several bike races and a solid race at Culpeper later, I was pumped for Luray. My bike legs had, overnight seemingly, realized the training they did over the winter and spring and were strong and much faster than before, and I felt pretty confident going into the race I challenged a couple years ago (the sprint, that time)... of course the legs were always strong, it was the bike fit that was holding me back. No more, thanks to Max at Elite.

Pre-race -- This was pretty important. The group of people I was staying with rented a cabin on a mountain, which required a nearly half-mile walk up a steep dirt road that 2-wheel drive cars could not get up (my hardy 2-door Civic, for as many bikes as it can carry in it's innards, cannot tread anything but road). I had to walk up this mountain road twice on Friday evening. We were all sweating and tired after each walk up, so I considered this my Friday run, but it was too much.

SWIM (1500m) -- 24:03, 14th. This went fine, I was slowed a bit by the 2 waves in front of me (3 and 6min ahead). Within the first 200m i caught up to 40-49 men and by halfway I was catching and going by 30-39 men. This wasn't helpful in keeping a good draft or a straight line as I had to dodge or give up drafts in order to move out of the way. This kind of sucked, but my time didn't suffer by all that much. Managed to keep a good tempo without crushing myself, stayed calm. Came out of the water feeling pretty good. Judging by time vs. effort, the swim may have been a little long, as Matias swam only 22min.

T1 -- 1:55, 80th. I totally blew this. It was going ok until I was about to leave transition when my aero bottle popped loose from its bracket. I panicked and stopped to fix it in transition. Should have just got on the bike and tried to fix it while moving. After fumbling around with it, I still wasn't able to fix it, so I just wasted all that time. Also took too long to take off speed suit. Need to really nail that down, lost 40sec to Eric Sorensen and a couple other guys I wanted to beat.

BIKE (42.1km) -- 1:09:13, 7th. This went great. I was picking off people and really using my power on the steep hills. Was able to stay in aero the whole time thanks to the new fit, which is a major help. I put myself in a good strong tempo and just focused on that effort. First time I felt really in control on the bike during a 40k and without a doubt my best bike split rank in a competitive race. It's clear the training is finally being put to good use thanks to the bike fit. Rode the same time as Columbia, except this was over 1km longer and a slower (read: much hillier) course. Beat Sorensen's split and just behind Mike Harlow's, which are good benchmarks for me. Only problem... I didn't drink nearly enough. I was scrambling for water from my aero bottle after I drained it (which was loose the entire ride, had to hold it in place with wrists), and was empty 4mi from transition. I should've put on a second small bottle on the frame. Dumb mistake that I'd pay for on the run.

T2 -- 1:00, 51st. This doesn't look good either. Not sure what went wrong here, I think I racked my bike and then it slid off so that wasted a few more precious seconds, I forget.

RUN (10km) -- 39:03, 10th. First 2 miles were just fine, good pace and turnover. Then I hit the gravel/loose rocks for the middle half and it just progressively got worse. My flats didn't do too well on the gravel and around mile 4 I started feeling my calves cramp up. I know this was a combination of not enough water on the ride (and being unable to drink properly/enough while running), and the climbing I did Friday night. I had to slow up within the last 2 miles or so at points to shake out and prevent cramps, and this led to a pretty slow final mile... Not happy with the time, but I am glad I avoided calf cramps... need to hydrate better and avoid excess work the day before a race. This run should have been much better. It cost me at least 2 placements, compared to what I can run on a course like Luray's.

2:15:13, 7th overall. Happy with the time and overall placement, another good result in a race I wasn't rested or taperedfor. This would've ranked me higher in previous years but it was a more competitive race this particular year. Really pleased with my bike and cool with the swim. Very disappointed in my lame transitions and how I set myself up for failure on the run. Nevertheless, this instills a good deal of confidence in myself. I know I can now bike with the better cyclists. I just need to make sure I'm setting myself up well for the kind of run I am capable of. Zero and Pat finished 8th and 9th, so it was cool to line up with them in the results. Alyssa was 2nd in the ladies race and Ryan shook off a frustrating bike mechanical to finish respectably, although he'll disagree. Triathlon rookie Ben had a fine race too.

The next day we went out to Skyline Drive... Pat and I rode for 2 hours and then followed with a solid 45min run, with the pace picking up considerably for the last 10-15min. What a weekend!!

Big shout out to MATIAS and his fiancee Katie, who went first and first overall in the olympic, and 1-2 in the sprint the next day. What better wedding gift can two triathletes ask for?

Culpeper Sprint Triathlon race report

This is a little late, but I got lazy. Culpeper Sprint in... Culpeper, VA... was to be my first triathlon since Columbia, and despite it being really just a training opportunity as I was in no way rested or tapered (not after 2 straight weekends of race doubles and the typical weekly training schedule), I was quite hungry to perform well. Especially on the bike... now that I have a perfect bike fit there are no more excuses for me! Matias was racing as well as his fiancee Katie, so a Snapple podium sweep was possible, but I would have to hold up my end of the bargain (something I didn't do in Fallston earlier this year with Dirk!).

750m swim, 16.8mi bike, 5km run.

The swim was pretty uneventful. I got out ahead of the crowd quickly and after 250m or so I settled behind two pairs of feet swimming side-by-side. I felt the pace was little easy, but that's probably a benefit of the mega-draft I found myself in. I stayed on the feet until about 100m to go when one of the guys appeared to pick up the pace. I stayed relaxed and left the water in 6th place, 11:26. Was surprised how calm I felt, my HR was low but I was pumped up!

I had a slow transition thanks to once again being unable to quickly find my bike. The rows all looked the same and I didn't have the concentration to focus on the aisle signs. Finally found 002 and ripped off my speedsuit and got on the bike. One of the guys who came out before me was leaving transition next to me and his dad or some guy said to him "Good job! Only a few guys ahead of you, you will quickly catch up to them and win!" Wrong thing to say around competition! I got on 002 and pretty quickly got ahead of him and 5th place. 2 more people to catch! I found myself moving quickly on the bike through a VERY hilly course. No flats, as opposed to what was advertised, which was a good thing! Just up and down. Within the next couple miles I passed #3 and around mile 6 passed #2. Only Matias ahead, but I knew I wouldn't see him until we pass each other on the run. Fine. I just focused on building a gap and keeping that tempo effort, which I did. Came back to transition feeling pretty good still in 2nd place (3rd overall bike split, 44:52, 22.6mph).

Hit the run and kept looking back toward transition to see where #3 was... I got about .3 miles out of transition until I saw him just pulling in. So it wasn't going to be a very close race. I settled into a good pace and went through the first mile. A race volunteer mentioned to me that "there's only one guy ahead of you, and he's wearing your jersey." I said "Cool, I know." Coming back past the mile 1 marker I finally saw #3... looked to be at least 2min behind me at this point. A little past this point Matias and I almost ran into each other (on his way to the finish of course). Knowing he was about 4:30 ahead of me, I didn't have much motivation to hammer the run. I settled into tempo pace and held it, all the while opening the gap further on #3 (3rd overall run split, 17:42) I cruised into the finish 2nd overall, 1:16:09. Matias won handily and Katie D. was the 2nd overall woman (11th overall in the race if I'm not mistaken). That made the result quite a bit cooler.

Despite what I consider largely slow splits, I am very happy with this race, especially with how tired I was coming in. The swim had to have been long, since Matias was about 90sec slower than last year's top swimmer... that's not realistic. And I was a good minute slower than what I am capable of swimming (and have swum) for 750m. The bike split I am actually very pleased with. It was hillier and slower than Columbia, yet I averaged quite a bit faster and had the 3rd best split, which is the first time I have had as good a bike rank as run rank. Compared to splits from previous years, I rank near or better than guys who I have considered superior cyclists, so that's cool. Granted, I didn't take the run very hard, but it shows the Elite fitting is finally letting me use the power I've developed since the winter months. In all I feel this race was great practice, I didn't have to dig deep or crush my legs, and the result built my confidence a good bit.

And I got a sandwich

Hell of a weekend

That's what it was, or perhaps a weekend of hell? It was darn hot, but I had lots to do. Another race double and a long run Sunday.

It wasn't an easy week leading up into the weekend. Wednesday's track workout was my worst of the year, I felt lethargic and was unable to get in the whole workout, which may have been the smart thing to do anyway since it was so humid and I was just coming off that previous weekend's double. Instead of a 5-4-3-2-1 of around 5:00/mile pace, I ended up doing 5-3-2-2-1, which is better than nothing, but I wasn't pleased with how I felt. Swimming went well despite swimming in water of at least 86 degrees. No major bike workouts, just some recovery rides.

Saturday started with the Lost River Classic bike race, in the mountains of West Virginia. Weather was actually decent, mid-80s and some cloud cover. Bart and Matias had given me ample advice on how to approach this race... be near the front for the first climb as it was sure to blow up the field. They were right. Into the first climb people quickly dropped back when we hit the first of two steep pitches near the top. I nearly got caught behind as a larger fellow who was directly in front of me came to a virtual stop, but I was able to swerve around him and quickly bridge the gap that he allowed to form between him and the front 5 or so guys. 2 others followed up the hill and just like that we had a 8-man break from the rest of the field. This group worked perfectly together and 10mi into our break we were 1:30 up on the rest of the field. We each had a role, I set the tempo/pace on uphills, a few guys took longer pulls on the 2 long flat sections, and another couple charged on the descents, which helped us increase our advantage.

I attacked a bit too late on the final sprint climb, about 50m too late... I should've started my sprint 200m out but I waited until 150m, and that was a huge blunder. It cost me podium for sure, but I ended up 5th as our little pack finished together. We all must have ended up at least 3min ahead of the rest of the field, which is a pretty big gap! It was a lot of fun and I felt like my legs got in a very solid workout.

Here is my Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101254543

That evening was the Crystal City 5km. I was sort of looking forward to it until I warmed up and realized just how yucky the weather was. So humid and hot!!! Absolutely miserable. I discarded my time goals and decided to just go by feel and try to beat the people around me. It was pretty awful, hard to breathe and I was just drenched in my own sweat, but I ended up racing well. The time wasn't good, 16:58, but I was able to start a little more conservative than normal and ended up picking off no less than 7 high schoolers who started out ahead of me, and exact revenge on Tezeta Dengersa, the mighty Ethiopian lady who beat me at Rockville Rotary 8km last week (part of another bike/run race double). She's really good... I can beat her fresh no problem, but she's good competition when I have a bike race in my legs. Nearly beat Edmund Burke as well, who I am sure ran long that morning... that guy is competition when I'm fresh. In all this was another good race/workout. I wouldn't have run that hard on my own in brutal heat, so this was great training!

The next morning I met my big brother Jordan at the Capital Crescent head to jump on a GRC train headed by Karl, Matias and Max, with Dirk riding along providing much-needed life-support (hydration). We trotted 10 miles to Matias' apartment in Alexandria at around 7min pace, and surprisingly it felt ok. It was definitely still too warm out and I was feeling Saturday's double in my heavy legs, but after a couple miles my legs loosened up and I enjoyed the run.

That made 3 hard or long workouts within 24 hours. Probably the hottest and hardest 24 hours of my life! But waking up Monday morning I felt fine, which is odd considering last Monday I felt terrible. I guess Todd was right, this kind of training is indeed making me stronger.

2x Race Saturday

This past Saturday I jumped back into racing (and starting a 5-week race binge) in a daunting way: 2 races in one day. I've never done that before, but it was more manageable/sane because it was a bike race and running race. Giro di Coppi road race (cycling) in the afternoon, Rockville Twilight Runfest 8km (running) in the evening. Todd agreed this was an excellent workout opportunity and I wanted to get the most out of both races while at the same time not embarrass myself at the 8k late in the day.

The cat 5 wave of GdC set off around 1:05pm, which was quite a bit later than I would've liked with an evening running race looming. I sat in for the first of three laps with the mindset that I wanted to improve on my 3rd place finish in 2010 with a win this year. However, sitting in meant that I would do very little work until the last 200m to go. I got a bit frustrated once we finished lap 1 because I felt I was doing no work. I made up my mind at that point that I would make the race harder for me and potentially sacrifice an easier chance victory by moving to the front and leading or pulling for multiple stretches... and that's what I did. I pulled for about 3 miles of lap 2 and led a short break on lap 3 before taking the lead 2 more times, choosing the hilliest portions for my leads. I felt like I was working a lot more. However, it left me a bit drained for the final sprint climb, and once we hit the 200m to go mark, I was quickly passed by most of the 15-or-so man pack that broke away, ending up 12th overall when I crossed the line. The placement was a bit of a disappointment, but I just had no pop for that short sprint. I was very satisfied with the effort and work I put in, and Todd agreed that was the takeaway from this race. I did try to win, but did so the hard way and I think that was more beneficial to me and my triathlon training than simply sitting in and working for only 200m.

I relaxed a bit and ate some Honey Stinger waffles (my new go-to energy snack) in the few hours before the 8k, discussing race strategy with Paul Zwama. We correctly locked the door to Dirk's apartment and made our way to the race. We met up with Texas Paul at the invited athlete room (where I felt rather insignificant, surrounded by Ethiopians, a Dutchman, a Texman/Alabaman and other area legends) and warmed up for a sweaty 2 miles. I was drenched before the start. It was so humid. But I was quite surprised how good my legs felt. I figured, as long as there are no hills, I'll be just fine. So I was quite disappointed to look to my right about .25mi from the start and see a hill as part of the course. My quads quivered at the thought. O well, it's time to race.

The 8k begins and people blast off from the start. I tried my darndest to go slow and conservative, but there were too many people practically sprinting toward the first turn, so I found myself caught in the crowd. PMurph and I joined forces and made our way through a short mile 1 in under 5:10... too fast for me. I eased up a bit and took it slow up the hills. Yes, there were plenty of those... taking it slow up them was the only solution if I wanted to live through the entirety of the race! We hit mile 2 in around 10:30, so my pace did indeed slow, which was fine, but I was starting to feel really hot. Only 3 miles to go... geez, I was already looking forward to finishing. My pace slowed between 3 and 4 and the gap I had opened on PMurph had closed a bit, but I ignored the clock at this point... just finish strong. The last mile was a desperate effort to get to the finish. I was passed by a couple people, and heard footsteps catching up, but finally crossed the line in 27:39. Not a great time, but a 40-second PR nonetheless, and not terrible considering I raced beforehand... around a 34min 10k equivalent, which I'll take after a ride! And I ranked quite bit closer to my usual race rivals and I expected.

Apparently I was moving slow enough to make the camera blur out of boredom.

So that was one heck of a day and a great workout overall. I'm doing it again this coming Saturday, with Lost River Classic in the late morning and Crystal City 5k in the evening. I'll aim to run a bit smarter in the 5k and sit in a little bit more at the bike race. I would like to show up a little fresher for the 5k than I did for the 8k as it should be a flatter and faster course.

Prague, week 2, o the hills

I didn't really have any chances to post while I was in Prague (I am back in USA now), but plenty happened last week.

First off of course the riding. I rode a lot. It was absolutely perfect weather for the first 4 days of the week and I took advantage of each day. An 80k on Monday, a tempo 38.2k on Tuesday, a solid brick on Wednesday and a recovery ride Thursday. The 80k was pretty hilly, with a 5mile climb thrown in... the scenery was majestic, as I rode along a glistening river with houses and churches placed atop hills on the other side. It was sunny and the sky was blue and it was quite pretty. I am not a scenery person when I train, but I really enjoyed it on this ride. The tempo ride was solid, totally unplanned but 15 seconds into the ride I felt really good, so I just rode hard, hitting around 22mph average, which I feel is pretty decent for a rolling course on road bike and no aerobars. There was a neat cobblestone section in the middle I had to go over twice which slowed things down but most importantly it jarred my water bottle loose before the halfway point and I had to ride in thirst. I think that actually made me ride faster as I really wanted something to drink.

The brick is a segue into running for the week. As I touched on last post I had been running a little more than planned and that carried over into this week. I ran an hour after the Tuesday tempo ride and Wednesday had a brick run, a fast run right off the bike. The ride wasn't hard, a 200w effort over 75min, but the run was tough. 2mi at a hard effort, final 20min settle and build pace. I ran the first two miles in 5:30, 5:19, and settled into the 20min build, going 7:09, 6:26, 5:50. It felt great! Especially the first two hard miles. My goal for Nation's is to run a 34:30 10k off the bike, and being able to comfortably hit 5:30 right off the bike and then get faster will go a long way toward helping me realize that goal.

I had a bit of a failed tempo run on Thursday, but I chalk that up to 5 hard workouts in 3 days... I suppose I was due to have a bad one. I put in several tempo miles but 2 less than I wanted. Still put in 7.5mi for the workout. A 70min run Friday to shake out the legs ended my training in Prague. Total for the week including today will end up being around 40mi, which is the most for me in a while. Best part is I feel like I am getting into really good running shape, which I didn't expect so early into the summer. The 2 weeks of training at 1100 feet and all those hills and hitting nearly 40mi both weeks really boosted my run fitness.

Swimming of course was not great as I only got in two swims this week. It is just tough to get motivated to swim so many laps in a tiny pool. Only notable swim was the end of Tuesday's workout, when I swam 800m in 11:16, which is just slightly slower than I was at Columbia. I made sure to make my wall turns slow and gentle, so it couldn't have added much of anything to my time. It is an encouraging time as it shows that I can swim a little less and still maintain my fitness. My goal for the summer is to maintain my swim speed, I will try to advance after the Fall season.

Well, that was a great 2 weeks of training. I ride 6 times next week, so I look forward to that. I also decided to add a couple running races to my schedule, the twilight races (8k and 5k) in July, but not as goals, but workouts after cycling races the same day. It worked for the 10k last week so these should also be good workouts.

Prague, week 1, cycling, racing, 10m swimming

One week in Prague has gone by, and I wish I could be here longer. The cycling is amazing, few cars and lots of open road. No suburbs or secondary cities like Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Arlington, etc. Once you leave Prague, it's just a smattering of small villages that comprise of some houses and a few keystone buildings like the church, post office, grocery, etc. So the rides I have been on have been two of the best. I am looking forward to more rides next week. I have been on 3 so far since Monday. The weather is fine here, the temperatures stay between the mid-60s and high-70s, which is great, but it can rain often. CZ is not far from a permanent high over the Atlantic which just tosses rain clouds over Europe, and it is fairly active now. Unlike DC, it is hard to predict rain as it only takes a few hours for weather to travel this way, so only by looking at the sky can one make a reasonable weather prediction. Still, I will take the occasional albeit unpredictable rain shower over the humidity and heat of DC any day.

Here are two of my rides... the third was more of a test spin to make sure my bike worked properly. Speeds are a bit low as I have been riding with a guide who isn't in top shape at the moment, but I am still able to break away and get some good power in. But check out those climbs... it is no wonder the best cyclists come from or train in Europe. Today is a day off but tomorrow is another long one.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94470077
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94080699

Running is good as well. I have a great place to run, Hvezda park, a building shaped like a star, that has several trails and dirt paths that can total over 12km if one is to cover the entire park, plus the trails and roads to and from.

I even participated in a race. If you may recall, I raced twice when I was in CZ two years ago and won both, earning a banana in one and wine in the other. I guess I have a reputation to uphold? Well, it wasn't upheld well this time. I raced in a 10k just hours after finishing a 2 hour hilly ride and the weather was humid at that time of day (6pm). I was glad to see some competition there, as they would help me make the race into a good workout, as I could feel this was not going to be much of a race, for me at least. I ended up 6th, with a time somewhere in the mid 34's. Nothing remarkable, but after a long hill ride, this was a great workout. I would love to run that fast after the bike leg at Nation's. The course was similar, relatively flat, but half on dirt.

Best part of all was that the race cost about 2 dollars.

Swimming hasn't been great as all I have is a 10m pool at my disposal, but I've taken advantage of it for one swim, putting in a 400m warmup, 2x (6x50 drill). 1000 hard, to total 2000m. 200 laps is about all I can stand. I'll get in some more swims, but it isn't too important. I can do some extra when I get back to the states after next week.