The sun is
slowly peaking its head, my birthday is just around the corner, and race season
is sneaking up. Life has had some
changes and still has more approaching; some
I like and some I don’t. Training is
crawling along. I have lost any and all
ability to mentally handle swimming in a pool.
I’ve been spending far more time this year training with others. I have one solid running partner that’s
better at waking up early than I am, but has helped me get some runs in when I
didn’t have the mentality. I have one
solid biking partner that has helped me get out on some greatly beneficial long
rides. Once the sun hits my running
partner’s training will be different than mine, and my biking partner may
transition into a thing of the past. I
could be on my own, and I’m a little worried.
My diet is, for short of a better term, chaotic. Work leads me to forget to eat, and then I’m
starving and I gorge on whatever I can get my hands on.
I had one
race today. The next few races are a 30k
trail run in southern Oregon near the end of April, the Newport marathon at the
end of May, and Ironman Coeur D’Alene at the end of June. The trail run will be fun and fast paced, but
may get competitive. The Newport
marathon is for moral support and should be a fun time. The Ironman will be the big fish and, even
though it’s only my second, it will likely be my last Ironman. I think next year I will focus on speed. Ironman races are fun but are a bit of a
financial pit. The races are expensive
and hotels gouge during those times because they fill the whole town.
As far as
the training goes this year’s training has varied drastically from last
year. Since I can’t handle swimming in a
pool I bought a season pass to Hagg Lake.
I hope to spend a lot more time in the lake this year to prepare for my races. I can swim pretty well in open water; I’m long,
the wet suit helps keep me straight, and I can glide pretty well. My weakest area is gauging my level of
exertion in the water. I need to get a
feeling of the hardest effort I can maintain for an hour or two. I tend to back off on swim pace to avoid over
exerting myself.
Cycling is
probably my weakest area; as strong as I am I just don’t think I have the quad muscle
to use my heart rate to my advantage; I can’t hold a solid pace very well in
the upper heart rate range. This will be
all right for the Ironman, but for the Portland Olympic Triathlon it’ll be a
huge disadvantage. I’m worried about my mentality
and my ability to keep up the long rides in the next few months. I finally have my bike straightened out. I’ve actually cleaned the chain thanks to my
biking partner and I’ve fixed my rims to limit flats.
Running is
my strongest leg. I’ve gotten faster and
I can hold a solid pace for a long time.
This year I need to work on speed.
I want to average a 7-minute mile for my marathon in early August. I don’t know if I can do it, but I’m going to
push everything to see if I can.
I bought a
large lunch box and I’m going to start loading it at night for the following
day. I need to have better food at an
arm’s reach so I don’t eat terrible things or just not eat anything for hours
and hours. It’s not really a diet, but
more of keeping things accessible. In
the evening I’ll still be good ol’ gluttonous Justin, it’s just through the day
I need to keep the food train chugging.
Now for the
story of the day. I did this duathlon
today. It was rough, like really
rough. 5.x miles of trail running
followed by a 14 mile trail ride around Hagg Lake. Out of the gate everything was alright. I could tell my heart rate was a tad high
from some poor day before diet choices, but it was pretty good. I kept hold in single digit place and dropped
back to about 15th before getting to the bikes. I transitioned like a pro, maybe 15 seconds,
and I took off on my mountain bike. That’s
when things got ugly… and I mean ugly.
There was so much mud, SO MUCH. Things
went alright for a while, had to walk
the bike a few spots. The first ugly
spot was coming down a muddy hill into a huge puddle (think small brown
lake). I sped through the never ending
lake and sent water all over me and to both sides. I giggled like a school girl at how much fun
it was. Then my tire got caught and my
bike STOPPED in the puddle and send my ‘goods’ crushing into my seat. Yeah, that was a new experience. I continued on! I had to bail off the bike to walk it
probably 35+ times. I stopped to lower
my seat because I was coming close to pulling my calf muscles from trying to
kick out and throw my foot down to not fall over when my tires would spin in
the mud. My knees felt the lowered seat
height and standing up on the bike was near impossible due to tire spin.
There’s very
low clearance between my bike frame and my rear tire. I got mud caked so thick it looked like a
beaver dam and I’d have to stop and get a stick to dig it out. When I’d walk the bike it was like pushing a
boulder from the mud caught in my tire, sometimes the wheel wouldn’t spin. Mud was caked so thick in the tire lugs that
it was like riding with slicks. Sticks
would get caught up and jamb my sprocket.
My chain fell off twice. I
wrecked once, sent my bike end over end.
I was able to click out and pretty much step forward as the handle bars
rotated to the ground, kind of like stepping off an escalator. I wish I had that on video, but next time I’m
sure it’ll be my face in the ground. I
just kept on chugging along and so did everyone else. At the end some guy I had talked to on the
course nodded me over and open his personal stash, he told me I biked too hard
to be drinking a Hamm’s. There was one
guy who finished after they had closed down the finish, removed the path cones,
and packed up the clock. It was an
awesome time once I was done, but I think that’ll be my only experience with
mountain bike racing. With how things
went I’m certain next time I’ll shatter some bones. But in the end I’m really glad I went out and
did it, it was a really fun experience. From
now on my bikes stay on the road.