Ironman World Championships 70.3 - This ain't your momma's triathlon!

This is a special race. Everyone is fit. Everyone is fast. And EVERYONE can run. I know I’m not a strong swimmer. But my cycling has come a long ways the past couple of seasons. And running has always been my bread and butter. In most races, if I can stay close enough on the swim, I can usually make up some ground on the bike, and then attack the run. Not in Clearwater. Not at the World Championships. Dropped in the swim? Guess what. GAME OVER! Enjoy your next 3+ hours of racing. Because you have no chance.

Not that I had a bad swim (for me anyway). But this course, and everyone’s ability to run well under a 1:30 for the half marathon, sets up to really punish the weaker swimmers of the bunch. You have to be balanced to do well at this race. And by balanced I mean, you can’t have any weaknesses. Lesson learned. You want to play with the best? You’d better bring something more than a strong run.

The swim started out fine. They moved it to the causeway water due to the conditions in the ocean from Hurricane Ida. That changed the start to a time trial instead of waves. Basically, you walked across the timing mat, and your race started. It got very crowded and people were fighting to get in the water once they crossed that mat. I got a great feel for how international the race is while waiting in the starting chute. Two German guys were confused as to how to get into the water. It was only about one foot deep, so the officials announced that you would be disqualified for diving in. The German guys didn’t get the distinction between jumping in the water and “diving” head first. “Everyone is diving, no?” Nein. Don’t go head first. “AHHHH!!! Danke.” No problem, dude. Have a good race.

FOCUS on the swim. The time trial start was both good and bad. It was less crowded than most wave starts are. But the faster swimmers would run right up on you and you would do the same thing to the slower swimmers in front of you. I got kicked in the head a few times. All in all, I would prefer a mass wave start. I’m sure the guy that took second place in my age group would agree, since he lost by one second. Four hours and two minutes of racing, and this guy loses by one second—probably with no idea that it was that close because of the time trial start. Unbelievable.

About 400 meters into the swim, I was starting to settle in and find a good stroke when I noticed that we were swimming through a bunch of seaweed. The water was so shallow that my hands were hitting the sea bottom. I tried to swim shallow to not touch bottom, but I ended up cutting my middle finger on something. Of course, my first thought was “I’m bleeding in the ocean. Great.” It hurt, but there wasn’t much I could do about it so I just kept swimming. I had trouble finding the turn buoy because we were swimming directly into the sun. I just followed the others and eventually saw a red buoy—time to make hard left turn. 800 meters into the swim, and I stood up and walked around the buoy in water that didn’t even come up to my waste.

The only other trouble on the swim was the exit. It was very difficult to see where to go. With no practice on this course the days leading up to the race, I had no idea what to look for as I was swimming in. I kept having to stop and look around to get my bearings. Finally, I exited the water and headed to the transition—35 minutes after I started.

CONCEDE on the bike. This bike course was all that was advertised. Flat, fast, fairly windy, and lots of big groups of cyclists. About 15 minutes into the ride, Michael Dawdy went by me. That man is a beast on a bike! And he had EIGHT guys sitting right on his wheel. They were lined up like he was leading them on a breakaway. I’ve never seen guys ride that close in a triathlon before.

Not much else to say about the bike. I stayed aero, followed the race plan, stayed within my power zones, kept up with my nutrition, ignored all the guys that were passing me, and finished with plenty of legs to run on (or so I thought at the time). One of the most uneventful, near perfect bike splits of any long course race I’ve been in. The most interesting thing that happened was looking down at my hands and noticing that I was still bleeding from the swim. My new, white Fizik bar wrap is now stained with blood (as are my new white shoelaces. I don’t think I stopped bleeding until I stopped racing.).

I averaged 24.4 mph for the bike and finished in 2:17.

STAMPEDE on the run. That was the plan anyway. In almost every long course race, my lower quads cramp in the first mile of the run. This race was no different. About 4 minutes in, the cramping started. I usually just have to slow down a little until my legs realize that we are now running, not pedaling, and the cramping will subside. Sure enough, just as I started up the causeway, the cramping stopped and I was able to run strong. Not as strong as I had hoped, but close.

Speaking of the causeway . . . that thing is steep! I knew we had a “bridge” to run across four times, but I failed to consider the size of the ships that have to pass under that bridge. The first trip over it wasn’t too bad. I found my legs pretty quickly and ran the first 5 miles in just over 35 minutes. The second trip over the causeway took a little bit out of me. I slowed a little during that sixth mile. It didn’t last too long and soon, I was running strong again. I think the best I felt all day was during the second half of the seventh mile. I felt as strong as I have ever felt in a half Ironman.

Then I went over the causeway for a third time.

I had been taking Gatorade at every aid station up to that point. Gatorade will often upset my stomach, so I try to stick with gels. But when I’m working that hard, it’s almost impossible to eat a gel and keep up the pace. So I was taking one drink of Gatorade, followed by a drink of water, at every aid station. Just after the eighth mile, I was coming off the causeway, feeling strong, with only five miles to go, and I decided to skip one aid station. I don’t know if it was the day, the lack of focused training the past two months, skipping the Gatorade, the causeway, running too hard when I started feeling good, or a combination of all of these, but at that ninth mile, someone flipped a switch, and I entered a really low spot. Every step was a fight.

I did everything I could to keep my pace up, but to no avail. And when I cracked, I cracked! I slowed by about a minute a mile for the next two miles. I started taking Gatorade again, and managed to pull myself together for the last two miles. But by that point, it was too late. The damage was done.

I had run the first half in 46 minutes (only one minute off my goal pace). The second half took me 51 minutes. And that was mostly due to the last four miles. My total run time was 1:37.

Overall impressions. My total time was 4:37, which is my fastest time at this distance. I can look back now and see where I could have easily gone several minutes faster (for one thing, my transitions were pathetic!). But even looking at where I lost time, I think the best I could have done that day was possibly still not good enough to crack the top half in my age group.

This is very humbling (humiliating?) for me. I never thought I would go there and win. At least not this year. But I didn’t think I would be 100th place out of 137. I don’t think I really appreciated just how fast everyone there was going to be. Now I know. And next time, I’ll be ready for that. That race is all business. One thing’s for certain . . . it made me want to experience Kona even more. There’s just something about competing with the best that appeals to me. And I can’t wait to do it again. I will be back. But not until I am ready to actually compete.

Right now, I’m just not fast enough. And if I learned one thing, it's that just because you're fast enough to get there, doesn't mean you're fast enough to compete there.

Final Race of the Year - 70.3 World Championships

This Saturday is the last race of the year for me. The one that I have had on the calendar for more than a year now. Although work threw a wrench into my training this past month, I still feel as ready as I ever have for a half Ironman. And I better be! The competition at this race is going to be unlike any I have ever faced. A PR is not going to be good enough to crack the top third in my age group. I'm finally racing with the big dogs. Does that make me a big dog? Because for some reason, I don't quite feel like one yet.

Ryan (who will be making the trip to Clearwater to watch!) told me before Coeur d'Alene this year to "Race like you belong, because you do." I made the mistake of not truly believing that last June when I had all the problems at Coeur d'Alene. I'm still not fully convinced. Sometimes the only way to truly believe that you belong with the big dogs is to get out there and run with them. That way you at least find out one way or the other. And that's what I'm going to do.

You can watch the coverage of the race at here. Just find the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, click on "athlete tracker," and you can follow me throughout the morning (I apologize for not having a link directly to it, but it wasn't up when I wrote this. It should be easy to find on Saturday.).

Thank you to everyone for their support this year. I will post a full report when I get back to Texas next week.

Coming Up For Air

Yes, I'm still alive. I've been crazy busy at work lately (two days off out of the last 30, and stayed at the office past 10:00 most nights). But that case has now settled, so . . . I'm coming up for air! With a demanding career, a two year old boy, a wife I love, and my athletic goals, this blog (unfortunately) has to take a back seat to everything else when I get swamped. But I'm back! And I promise I'll catch up on all the fun things I've been meaning to write about. As soon as I get back from Clearwater!

That's right, next weekend is the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. This will be my first trip to a World Championship. I'm very excited and honored to be a part of it. And if I'm not humbled, I'm sure I will be next weekend. I wonder how many of my competitors have spent the last month neck deep in a lawsuit?

I ran a solid race at the U.S. Open a few weeks back. It was a typical short course triathlon for me. Awful swim, first place on the bike, and a 38:22 10K for third place in my age-group. I missed the win by about a minute. But the two guys that beat me were about 5 minutes ahead of me out of the water. Ridiculous. If I could just keep up, I would win by several minutes.

As soon as I get back from Clearwater, swimming will be a VERY high priority in my life. Over the next few months you may notice a strong smell of chlorine whenever I'm around. Please excuse it. If you don't smell it, you have my permission to send me back to the pool. I've got lots of work to do!

Ironman at Law: Sensored for Content

Well, the poor attempt at humor in my last post has apparently gotten my little blog banned in at least two offices. And since blogs are way more fun when they're read at work, I have given in to "the Man" and have sensored my own writing. From now on, no more references to [SENSORED] or [SENSORED]. And no matter what, I will definitely not refer to [SENSORED]!

By the way, the new bike is not yet ready. It arrived yesterday, and I should be able to pick it up tonight. The maiden voyage will likely occur on Thursday morning.

Bike [SENSORED] - Specialized S-Works Tarmac

What a beautiful bike! (Click on the picture for the "centerfold" sized version!). Yes, I am sick. But if this stripped down frame doesn't get your blood pumping, then you have no soul.

I am no longer coveting my neighbor's bike. I finally ordered this frame yesterday. And if all goes well, I will be riding it this weekend. I can't wait! I will report back on Monday with my thoughts.

Stay tuned!

Injury Prevention – Part 1 – Consistency is Key

This is a re-post (sort of) of a blog I wrote almost a year ago for the Tri-Prosoap.com team site. I never finished what I started, so I decided to try again. I've updated it to reflect my thoughts/experiences in the past year. But for the most part, it's the same. Here goes . . .

When Billy asked me to share my thoughts on injury prevention, my first thought was “But I’m injured all the time!” In fact, I had skipped my run the morning he asked because of lingering pains in my feet since the Longhorn 70.3. But here I am, just a few weeks later, with little or no foot pain, back to a somewhat normal training schedule, and realizing that I really haven’t had to take any significant time off from training in several years. I think this is due to the numerous lessons I learned after the even more numerous mistakes I made when I first started in this sport more than seven years ago. So maybe I am qualified to give advice on the subject. Or to at least tell you all what has (and especially what hasn’t) worked for me.

But first, let me start off by saying that I am not a doctor. I am not a physiologist. Or a chiropractor. Or physical therapist. In fact, unless it is engineering or law related, I have had absolutely no formal training whatsoever as it relates to anything that I will write about on this blog. This is all based on my own reading and personal experiences (which, truth be told, I have probably done more studying of this subject than I ever did as an engineering student! Sorry, Dad.). It’s basically going to be “Here’s what I do and why.”

Ok, on with the show . . .

It’s important to note from the start that we are talking about the so-called “overuse injuries” not injuries that you get from traumatic experiences such as twisting a knee or crashing a bike. So why do we get overuse injuries? Put simply, we do more than our bodies are ready to handle at the time that we do it. Breaking it down even further, we do more than certain parts of our bodies can handle at the time that we do it. We’ve all heard this, but it bares repeating . . . Doing too much too soon, or going too hard too often, will eventually lead to injury.

I had an engineering professor that used to say that “In a perfect engineering world, all the parts to your car’s engine would completely fail at the same time.” His theory was that if our cars were perfectly engineered, then one day you would be driving along and every part of your car would break at the same time. In his mind, we don’t live in a perfect engineering world because certain parts wear out faster or at different rates than others.

Or more appropriate for this analogy, certain parts of the engine can handle stresses that other parts can’t handle. If you always drive 100 miles an hour, there are parts to your engine that will be able to handle the stress, but others that won't. Unfortunately, because the bigger, more powerful parts of the engine can handle those stresses, you won’t know that the smaller, more delicate parts, can’t handle it until it's too late and they fail.

This is a good analogy to our bodies, and I think describes overuse injuries in an easily understood way. Anyone who has had an extended lay off from training (and especially weight lifting) and then goes too hard or lifts too much their first trip back to the gym understands this phenomenon all too well. Sticking with the weightlifting example, if you haven’t lifted in a while, your bigger muscles will allow you to lift A LOT more than the smaller, more delicate, connective tissues are able to handle. This is why the days after your first weight training session, you generally feel like you've done some MAJOR damage to your muscles. You did too much too soon, but your body didn’t tell you until it was too late. Remember this feeling!

Breakthrough workouts are how we get stronger, faster, and build more endurance. But just because your body will allow you to run 15 miles when your longest run in the past 6 months was only 5 miles, doesn't mean you can pull it off without injuring yourself. It may not happen at first, but don't be fooled. You are setting yourself up for disaster.

I finish almost every workout feeling like I could have done more. There are obvious exceptions, but for the most part, you should not be pushing yourself to the brink of failure a majority of the time. There is a time and a place for this type of training. But not until you are ready for it, and even then, not too often. If you do, there will be muscles that can take it, and you may be able to train this way for a while. But eventually, this type of overload will lead to injury.

So how do we make sure we aren’t overdoing it? Patience and Consistency. Patience to wait until the time is right to tackle that Ironman/Marathon you've always dreamed of. And consistency to gradually build up your body to the point that it can handle the training and intensity necessary for tackling such an event. I'm talking about years, not weeks or even months. The more consistent you are with your workouts, the more consistent you are with your recovery, and the more consistent you are with your nutrition, the less likely you will get overuse injuries, as long as you are also paying attention to your body. And as long as you are patient.

It took me 5 years before I was finally able to attempt an Ironman. I signed up for one just one year after I got into this sport. But injuries kept me from doing it. I was injured more in the first few years of my involvement in this sport than I have been in the last 5. I now train harder, longer, and have raced more and more every year since. Be patient! I'm not saying you can't complete an Ironman or marathon your first year in the sport. But I am saying you will definitely be faster, stronger, and enjoy this sport a lot longer if you are patient and don't rush into racing longer than you are ready for.

Some people say that there is no such thing as "overuse." They argue that in reality, you are under trained for the training/racing you are doing. It's really just semantics, but the point is, you have to train in order to train more and/or at higher intensities. I can handle the 20 hour weeks at the intensities that I put in because I have been consistent for years. The pros put in 30+ hour weeks at even higher intensities because they have been even more consistent for even longer. If I were to go out and put in 30 hour weeks for the next month, I would injure myself (if I could even last a month!). I could handle 30+ hour weeks only if I were to slowly increase my training (and quit my job so that I could spend time recovering properly!). Know your current limits.

As for the here and now, don’t take extended lay off periods (I hate the term "off season" because it tends to make people think they shouldn't be doing anything). Try to do something (even if it’s just a 20 minute easy run) 5-6 days a week (AND ALWAYS TAKE ONE FULL RECOVERY DAY no matter what time of year it is – but more on this in a later post!). Don't try to bite off more than you can chew. You'll get there. It just takes time.

Don't overestimate what you can do in the short term. But more importantly, don't underestimate what you can do in the long term if you are patient and consistent.

Consistency is key. You’ll see this theme throughout my thoughts on this subject. That’s all I’m going to write today. The rest of the posts will be themed around what I do at different times. So I think I’ll do a post on how I prepare for a workout/race; things I do during a workout/race; things I do immediately after a workout/race; and then just recovery in general since that’s all the rest of the times of the day. Of course, like any good training plan, this could all change as we go along, especially if you ask questions, like I’m hoping you will. If what I write doesn’t make sense, please tell me using the comments section, or shoot me an email and I’ll be sure to respond.

Big Agra Strikes Again!: Dangers of Soy

If you eat or drink soy products--and especially if you feed them to your children!--the link below is a must read. But first, a little background on the soybean . . .

In a nutshell, soy was originally used to help put nitrogen back into the soils that were depleted from the less than sustainable practices of modern American agriculture. The soybean plant is very good at enriching soils with nitrogen, which is necessary to have a healthy soil. That led to the soy being the second most abundant "crop" in America (behind corn, which is NOT A VEGETABLE, people. It's a grain. Yes, that matters, but that's for another post!).

So what do you do when you're Big Agra and, by necessity, you have a lot of soy? Well, apparently, you market it as a healthy alternative to meat. Those folks at Big Agra are geniuses. But if the following is true . . . they are Evil Geniuses.

Dangers of Soy

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