« February 2006 | Main | April 2006 »
March 25, 2006
WHAT'S NEXT???
Training for me must have a purpose. If I do not have a goal, a race, or some other factor motivating me, I find that my training consistency, as well as my training intensity suffers. With that in mind, I have three events that I’m planning on racing over the next couple of months.
The first is the North Forebay Triathlon. This is a really fun race that I’ll probably do as a relay with some people from work. It’s a sprint distance, with a 3-mile run, 1 mile Kayak, and a 10-mile mountain bike ride. I most likely will be doing the run leg, since we do not have many runners at my work. It is scheduled for April 29, 2006. See all the details here: http://www.theschedule.com/EventInfo.cfm?EventID=14429
My next event, and the one I will really have to push the training envelope for, is the Chico Wildflower Bike Ride http://www.chicovelo.org/wildflower.html
As luck would have it, this event is the day after the North Forebay Triathlon. Chico Velo (our local bike club) puts this event on, and they offer multiple venues, with mileages ranging from the childflower (15 miles) to the Wildflower, which is 100 miles, and about 4,300 vertical feet of elevation gain. If I can get ready that quickly, I am going to try to do the 100-mile ride. Of course, with only 6 weeks to prepare, I may not be able to ramp up that quickly – a lot depends upon how much of my bike fitness from last summer that I have retained over the marathon training program.
My wife and me last year at the "Childflower" - a 15 mile scenic trip from Chico to Durham and back.
My next event, just 2 weeks after the Wildflower, is the race I have been building up for all year – the Lake Oroville Triathlon
http://www.lakeoroville.net/triathlon
This is also a "Sprint" distance event, extremely well organized, and just a lot of fun to do. The ½ mile swim is usually colder than hell (last year the water was around 62 degrees), then the 15 mile bike ride is good, with a couple of pretty challenging uphill sections, and the 3.1 mile run has lots of hills to get your heart rate up. We hope to have at least one relay team from work racing, as well as myself as an individual. We have thrown out a challenge to the Police and Fire Department at work – telling them that us City Hall desk jockeys can smoke them to the finish line. It remains to be seen if any of them show up on race day…..
For training this week, I started off with a twenty-five mile bike ride, from my house in to Chico, and then around Bidwell Park. It was a good ride, and gave me confidence that I haven’t lost too much of my previous bike fitness. Tuesday evening I did thirty minutes on the Life Cycle (they moved my usual spin bike out of the main workout area, into the spin room), and the about 30 minutes of swimming. The gym was an absolute zoo, I remember now why I go in at 4:30 in the morning. Afternoons are hell!!!! Thursday evening I did a 1.5-mile track run at Chico State with a coach I am working with from Butte College. I did the run in 10 minutes and 50 seconds, at a maximum heart rate of 185. This equates to a pace of seven minutes and 13 seconds per mile. My time was just a little slower than my previous run several months ago. I actually expected that my time would have slipped farther, with the lack of speed work and the stress and strain put on my body by the marathon.
Friday evening I did 30 laps (1500 yards) swimming, with a total time of 37 minutes, 46 seconds. While this was certainly not my fastest time, it left me fairly confident that I have not lost too much of my swimming capabilities.
Sunday I rode my bike to the Chico State Track for a 5k run with my coach. I tried to run this a little smarter than my Friday run, and not go out too fast. My goal was even splits (holding the same pace across the 3.1 miles) of seven minutes and 30 seconds per mile. with a total time of 23 minutes and 15 seconds. I actually turned out a little slower than my goal, with a time of 23 minutes and 28 seconds - but I was able to keep almost perfect "splits" of around 1 minute and 53 seconds per lap.
I turned this into kinda a backwards “brick� workout by doing a 40-mile bike ride afterwards. This was my first ride of the year with a hill workout, so I started out with Humbolt Road, which is only about 800 vertical feet. It still really gets your heart-rate up, but it is not as extreme as Honeyrun Road. I met up with three friends in Chico and we did the Humboldt ride together. Coming down Highway 32, I hit a maximum speed of 31.2 miles per hour - that is freaking scary, on a skinny tire racing bike, especially with the cross-wind we had. Everyone made it down ok, and we laughed about our "death grip" on the handlebars experiance.
All in all a good week, I got some speed work in, did a couple of good swims and met my goals for bike mileage and hills. Best part, three weeks after my marathon, I've been able to not gain any weight!!! It has taken a little bit of effort to control my appetite, and keep from eating the 3-4,000 calories a day I was eating at the peak of my training.
Posted by Dennis at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2006
AFTER THE MARATHON
The first couple of days after the race were painfull, to say the least. While I could still walk, anything that involved bending my knees or using my quads was nearly impossible. Stairs in particular were a challenge, as I had to help myself down using my upper body, rather that just “walking down�. I have a much greater appreciation for handicap ramps and such, as even stepping down off a curb was incredibly painful.
I had taken Monday and Tuesday after the race off from work which ended up being a smart move. Monday I spend most the day resting, and writing up my race report (and blogging it). Tuesday I went in to the office for a few hours, but found that towards the afternoon I could not keep my eyes open. Finally, Wednesday, I was able to put in a full day, as I was starting to feel almost “normal�.
Friday of the first week I went to the gym – just a little swimming, and 10 minutes on the spinning bike. That proved to be a mistake, as my hamstrings started protesting immediately after I got off the bike, and continued for several days later. I scrubbed all workouts until 10 days after the race – when I did my first run since the race – a whopping 1 mile, along with 10 laps swimming and an 8 mile bike ride
Friday after work I put in a “real run� of 4.5 miles. Everything felt OK (not good, just OK) so it looks like I’m ready to start ramping up. Saturday was 25 laps in the pool, and a 30 minutes on the spinning bike at the gym. Monday, I will start training in earnest for the upcoming triathlon racing season.
Posted by Dennis at 11:56 AM | Comments (2)
March 06, 2006
WEEK 22 (RACE DAY)
Reason No. 1 for Running a Marathon – The number one reason for running a marathon is to experience all that a marathon entails. From new training milestones, to the excitement at the race expo, to the pre-race jitters the night before, to the unbelievable electricity in the air at the starting line, and the tremendous rush of emotions as you finally cross that elusive finish line and they place the finishers medal around your neck.
The Race Experience
We left for Napa on Saturday morning, after having breakfast and getting my family packed up. The trip was fairly uneventful, and we arrived around 12:00 PM. We found the Napa Marriott, and went through the registration process. All marathoners received a nifty backpack, with the Napa Valley logo on it, which was very cool. The Expo had lots of vendors hawking their products, the best seller of the day was rain ponchos (due to the nasty weather predicted for race day). We then headed north, to Calistoga, to find lunch and our hotel. Stopped for lunch at a neat little brewery/restaurant, and had a great meal. We then continued on to Calistoga, and our hotel.
We had made reservations at the Comfort Inn, which is at the far northeast side of Calistoga (and only about a ¼ mile from the starting line). We got checked in, and then hooked up with my brother’s family, and took a drive along the race route (my first time seeing where we would be running). The race website had a profile of the course, but the vertical scale on the map didn’t really do the hills justice. None of the hills were incredibly long or steep, but just about the entire course was “rolling�. Made a mental note to myself that tomorrow might be a long, long day.
For our pre-race dinner, we made reservations at a small Italian restaurant in Calistoga called Bosco’s. The Manager was very gracious, and accommodated us even though the expected size of our group changed several times during the course of the day. As can be expected, every restaurant that served pasta within 50 miles was packed with runners and their families. We had a great dinner, and I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in Calistoga.
Race day (Sunday) started out really early for me. Due to snow issues at work, I was up at 1:00 AM both nights previous. Of course, this had reset my internal clock, and I woke up at 2:00 AM and absolutely could not get back to sleep. I finally just got up, packed up a bag full of goodies, and drove the course to stash it at mile 20. In the bag I put everything I felt I possibly could need – Tylenol, GU’s, a Power bar, Vaseline (for chafing issues), an additional bottle of Accelerade, and a can of Red Bull. I drove out to mile 20, and stashed the bag along the roadway.
Got back into town around 5:00 AM, and stopped at the only place open (little gas station on the west side of town) and bought a cup of coffee and a newspaper.
By 6:30 AM, we were out walking towards the starting line. I had my fuel belt, with GU’s, my bottle of Accelerade, some fig Newton’s, and some gummy bears in my belt. I had a three-dollar poncho trying to keep the rain off, and my sweats over my running clothes. . My clothing for the day consisted of a sleeveless Nike dri-fit compression running top, and second dri-fit long-sleeved running shirt, and my Race Ready compression shorts. For gloves I just had a simple pair of cotton gloves, and socks I used a pair of Bolga socks, which I liberally powdered up before putting them on. My shoes were Nike Air Pegasus, again which I dumped lots of power in. To hopefully ward off blisters (especially with the rain) I carefully body glided up the sides on my feet.
We got to the starting line, and wow, what an incredible site. There was a line of yellow School Buses that must have been 15 or 20 long, and literally hundreds of runners milling about. They had a line of about 20 or 25 port-a-potties lined up, each with a line of 10 or 15 people waiting. There was an announcer, trying to talk to the group, but he was virtually unintelligible over the roar of the crowd, the rain and the wind.
After taking a few “before� pictures with my brother, I stripped off my sweats and we were ready to go. The announcer and the race sponsor droned on and on about something that no one in the crowd could hear. All of a sudden, the race started and the crowd started moving. We purposely put ourselves towards the front of the pack – knowing that without chip timing, we could lose a minute or two being in the rear of the pack. Being in the front of a crowd of 2000 amped up runners is pretty incredible. You definitely did not want to trip, fall down or have to stop for any reason!!!
My brother and I started out together, and ran the first mile or two together. About the end of the first mile, I started to warm up, and I got tired of hearing the poncho rattling in the wind so I ditched it. I completed the first mile in 9 minutes, 45 seconds, and everything felt really good. The pace felt sustainable, and my breathing was perfect. About the second mile my brother pulled in front of me (as I expected him to) and within 10 minutes he was out of sight. Good, I thought to myself, now I can just run my race, and if he blows up at the end fine, I’ll outsprint him to the finish. If not, at least I do not have to worry about him coming up behind me.
Miles 2 through 13 were perfect. I held my 10 minute pace plus or minus 15 seconds per mile, took a gel about every 40 minutes or so, snuck in a fig Newton or a gummy bear every once in a while, with sips of accelerade in between. The rest stations had Gatorade and water, and I tried to alternate between the two or mix them if I had both available. At the half way point, I remember looking at my watch and my time was 2 hours, 6 minutes. I remember thinking, wow, I’m four minutes ahead of my goal time. This is going to be easy!!!
About mile 13.1, I hit an uphill section. I struggled a little bit going up this, and walked just a bit at the crest to keep my heart rate in check. By mile 14 I had lost a minute of my “banked time�. Every mile after that, it seems that I lost about 30 seconds or so (my mile times increased to about 10 minutes, 30 seconds).
Mile 18 was a short but fairly steep uphill. About this point is when I realized that this was not going to be quite as easy as I had earlier thought. This is when I met up with a nice Irish gentleman, from San Francisco. We ran together for a couple of miles, and it was nice having a little conversation to distract ourselves from the wind, rain, and all the small little leg and ankle issues that were starting to become more significant.
At mile 20, I picked up my bag that I had stashed. I wolfed down the banana, and starting working on the Red Bull. About mile 20.5, the course begin a long, fairly steep downhill. This is when things started to get difficult, and I remember trying to take small, careful steps to keep from hurting myself going downhill.
I went through an aid station somewhere around mile 21. Lots of little kids handing out drinks, which I politely declined. One of the kids, about 12 years old said “he doesn’t need this stuff, he has a Red Bull, and Red Bull Gives You Wings!!!�. Who says marketing doesn’t work on kids????
About mile 22 the course flattened out, but the damage was already done. My legs felt like lead, and pretty much everything hurt – from the bottoms of my feet, to my ankles, to my knees, to my quads and hips. I remember thinking to myself “going slower will not make this route any shorter� and trying to encourage my feet to turnover faster (to no avail).
I was now trying to run in between the mile markers, and then walk for a minute or so at each marker to try to recover a little bit. God, it seems that those miles took a long time to click off.
At mile 24, I knew that nothing short of being run over by a bus was going to keep me from finishing, which was a great mental boost. I remember thinking, this is only two miles, you can do that in less than 16 minutes. That “boost� lasted for about 5 minutes, when I found myself walking again. About that point, I remember thinking, Hmmm, I have this cotton-mouth thing going on. Is that a sign of dehydration, or a sign of too much water (hyponatremia). I couldn’t remember which malady it was a symptom for, but it gave me something different to think about for a mile or two.
Mile 25, I remember thinking, OK, only 1.2 miles left, let’s run the entire distance. Again, that lasted about 5 minutes, when my legs and my mind gave in to the walking demons. Finally, I could start to hear the announcer and the crowds at the finish line, and I told myself that you will not walk until you get to the finish line. I sucked it up, concentrated on just putting one foot in front of the other, and tried to block out the other issues. My left ankle was now on fire with every step, and every joint from my hips down was screaming at me to stop. I reached the 26-mile point, and finally knew that I could run the rest of the way. While I did not even pretend to sprint the finish, I did try to regain a little bit of composure, and try to look like I was not in as much pain as I was. Just before the chute, I saw my wife and son, which was a great uplift, and then into the chute. A nice lady took my arm, and walked with me for 20 or 30 feet, asking me lots of questions. I guess she was a “catcher� to make sure that the runners were OK before releasing them. I seemed to have confused her a little when she asked me where I was from – I told her Chico, because no one knows where Durham is. Of course, my race number said Durham. After a quizzical look, I guess she figured that I was geographically challenged, but capable of not falling down so she led me over the medal girls. They put the medal around my neck, wrapped me up in a space blanket, and headed me down the chute, to the waiting family, bathrooms, showers and food.
I met up with my wife and son, she was in tears, and I was pretty close to it. I really couldn’t talk – I was very choked up with emotions at what I (and the other 1400 runners) had just accomplished. Seeing all the race supporters, yelling support for total strangers, seeing runners using every ounce of reserve strength they owned to cross that finish line, was absolutely incredible. I ended up crossing the finish line with an official time of 4 hours 38 minutes, and 3 seconds. I was the 1,023th runner to cross the finish line, out of approximatly 2,000 runners that signed up. My finish time was roughly 19 minutes behind my brother, whom I had been training with and attempting to beat.
The school campus where we were at was a surreal sight – literally hundreds of beat-up, wet and exhausted runners with silver space blankets wandering around in an almost zombie-like state, with that unmistakable “I have just run a marathon and can not move my legs� shuffle. I did my own shuffle over to the cafeteria, and picked up some soup and a roll. I met up with my Irish friend, and congratulated each other on finishing. I found an empty picnic table and I attempted to sit down so I could stretch – and found that I could not sit down. I finally had to have my son move next to me, so that I could hold on to his shoulder, and let myself down with my arms, rather than my quads (which were done for the day). After some stretching, a second cup of soup and a shower we headed back to the car. That 100 yard walk to the car seem like an eternity, but eventually I got there – and wrestled myself in using my upper body.
The trip home was pretty uneventful. Our first stop was a Jamba Juice, where we had smoothies and sourdough pretzels (yummy). Then we stopped again in Williams, for a Subway Sandwich. We made it home by about 3:00 or so, I took a short nap, then my wife made us a wonderful steak dinner. By 8:00 or so it was lights out, and I slept better than I have slept in a long, long time.
Now, I am looking forward to resting for a few days, and then gradually starting some easy workouts – as I build up for the summer racing season. My next adventure will likely be some variation of the Chico Wildflower (Bike Ride), and then the Lake Oroville Triathlon coming up on May 13th.
Posted by Dennis at 03:01 PM | Comments (5)
March 03, 2006
WEEK NO. 21
Reason No. 2 for Running a Marathon – Reason No. 2 for running a marathon is that running a marathon is the “cool down� portion of an IronMan. Someday, I would like to finish an Ironman.
Ah, at last the taper. The chance to ease up on the mileage, and enjoy that week before the race when your body gets to heal everything that was in misery during training. On Sunday I did 1.7 miles with my wife to warm up, and then did a faster pace run over the same 1.7 miles (one loop around my house). Wednesday was an easy 4 miles around Durham. Friday I had intended a short 2 mile run or so, but snow issues at work pretty much put me out of commission. So, I end the week (not counting the race) with a distance of 7.7 miles. Of course, adding in the run on Sunday brings my total for the week to 33.9 miles.
It is incredible to me how short a 4 mile run is now days. It’s almost like you are not even warmed up and the run is over. Amazing how your perspective changes after 450 miles of running in 20 weeks
Stay tuned next week for the race report from Napa!!!
Posted by Dennis at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)