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May 25, 2006
Am I Crazy - Or Just Ahead of the Curve
Lots of people (including my wife) ask me how I stay motivated to train for these endurance events, and why do I continue to do them. I’m sure most of my friends and co-workers figured that this just a mid-life crisis, and soon I would be “back to my senses�, and again be laying around on the couch, watching old movies, and football games like the rest of them.
This past couple of week gave two good examples of why I do this. The first, was coming home from the Oroville Triathlon. Myself, and about 200 other people had just finished doing a ½ mile swim, a 12-mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run. Not a single one of us needed medical attention at that race (except for the guy that hit the tree on his bicycle, but that’s another story).
Anyway, while on the 30 minute drive home, I hear three different medical calls come across my radio, for HEAT RELATED ILLNESS, for people that are in Oroville WATCHING THE PARADE.
It was 81 degrees, and the people were standing still, watching a parade, and falling over from “overexertion�. God help us if we ever have a real emergency, and the average citizen needs to actually move to keep themselves alive.
The second situation occurred yesterday, at our annual luncheon for the Paradise Community Foundation. An acquaintance I had met several years ago (and had spoken to, but not seen again for quite a while) saw each other – I recognized him, and he appeared to hesitate when he saw me. Later, we spoke and shook hands, and he apologized for not saying hi to me earlier in the day. He said that I looked so different, he didn’t recognize me. He then very delicately asked me if everything was all-right. Apparently with the weight that I have lost, he was afraid that I perhaps had some medical issues. I laughed, and said no, a marathon, a 100 mile bike ride, a couple of triathlons and all the training that goes along with that will do that to you.
Posted by Dennis at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2006
CITY OF GOLD TRIATHLON REPORT
This is the third time I have participated in this event. The first year I did the running portion only, as we did it as a relay with some co-workers. Last year I did all three legs, and really enjoyed it. The course is beautiful, and the race organizers do a great job of making sure everyone has fun.
My pre-race routine consisted of staying up way too late again (this seems to be getting to be a habit), getting up at around 4:30 AM, and getting my gear together. Normally I have all my stuff together the night before, but that didn’t happen due to other social engagements.
A cup of coffee, a bagel with peanut butter, and a banana and I was pretty much ready to go. I arrived in Oroville about 6:00 AM, and drove the bike course, to make sure I knew where any hazards were. Going 40 miles an hour down a hill is no time to discover a new pothole in the Road!!!
Arrived at the race site about 6:30, got all my gear together, and set up my transition area. Checked out my bike, made sure I was in the correct gear for the hill we had to immediately climb, and mentally went through the transition process several times to make sure there would be no mishaps.
At around 7:30, got ready to put my wetsuit on. If you’ve never watched a triathlete get ready to swim, it’s pretty darned funny. First, we spend about an hour staring at all of our stuff, trying to mentally figure out the sequence of every step of our transitions, to make sure we do everything in the correct order. Then, when we get ready to put on the wetsuit we use a product called “body-glide�, which coats the skin with a slippery surface, to prevent chafing. Next, we pull out a can of spray PAM (yes, the non-stick cooking stuff) and apply that liberally to our necks, legs and arms. This helps keep the wetsuit from getting stuck when we are trying to get it off in a hurry.
Once the wetsuit was on, then I grabbed my goggles and swim cap, and headed down the ramp. I did a couple of 100 yards swims to warm up, and get acclimated to the water. The water felt to be in the high 60’s this year, which was much warmer than my previous experiences. The water felt good, and with my new wetsuit I was not cold at all.
The first wave was the men under 30, and then my group was second. Once the horn sounded, we were off in a pack. I started a little closer to the front this time than I normally do, but didn’t have any real problems with other swimmers crashing into me. Started off at a pretty quick pace, but after a few hundred yards the pack lengthened out, and I just set into a good swimming pace.
It always seems that the first buoy is the hardest – once I reached it, I knew that I was a third of the way there (and still swimming strong). I kept a good pace to the second buoy, and then headed back to the ramp. For some reason the last leg I had a real problem with staying on course, and veered into the shoreline a couple of times.
I got out of the water, headed up the ramp, the officials pulled of my tag with my race number and I headed up the ramp. I was able to get the top part of the wetsuit down while running up the ramp, found my bike in the transition area and started my first transition (T-1) just as I had practiced. Everything went really well here, and within probably less than 2 minutes I had my wetsuit off, my feet washed, socks, bike shoes, and helmet and sunglasses on.
Grabbed my bike and took off running towards the bike course – again, no problems mounting or getting up the hills. I realized once I headed up the hill that I had forgot to put a gel into my jersey. I told myself that I would just have to consume more accelerade then to make up for the lack of calories.
The bike ride went very well. I am still a little weak on the hills, and I had a couple of people pass me on some of the steeper ones – but as soon as we leveled off, I was able to retake them. I figure I probably passed about 15 people on the bike – which was a really incredible feeling, especially knowing that many of those were from the under 30-age bracket. The downhill stuff was incredible – I am now comfortable enough on my bike that speed does not scare me – and I was able to tuck into the aero position and let gravity pull me past the other riders.
The second transition (T-2) went just as well. They have not put up the split times on the changeofpace.com website yet, but I would be surprised if my time was more than about a minute and a half to change from biking to running.
I pushed really hard on the bike – I told myself early on that I wanted to push my limits a little this race. Once I got off the bike and started running, I was a little concerned that I may have pushed too hard. I had to do a lot of walking on the initial steep uphill portions, to try to keep my heart rate in check. This strategy worked, because I was able to recover pretty well, and once the course flattened out I was able to crank up the speed again. Overall, this was a pretty hard run for me – I had a combination of a side stitch (I haven’t had one of those in years) and an upset stomach (again, from a pretty hard bike ride I assume). I was able to pass probably 5 or 6 runners on the run, and was only passed by two people. Made it through the finish chute without incident, and they took my race number and gave me a finisher’s medal to add to my collection.
My finish time was one hour, 36 minutes. The overall winner finished in one hour, eight minutes, the last person came in at 3 hours and 4 minutes. I was the 98th person to cross the finish line, out of 204 finishers. I was able to cut 3 minutes off my time from last year, which I attribute most to my new wetsuit.
After the race, they had a great selection of food and drinks, and then a series of raffle prizes. One of my co-workers won a $50 gift certificate to Sierra Nevada, and I won a huge (4.6 lbs) bottle of Endurox Recovery Drink.
Posted by Dennis at 03:52 PM | Comments (2)
May 08, 2006
THE WEEK AFTER THE WILDFLOWER
This was a pretty easy training week. Monday and Tuesday were rest days, to recover from the Wildflower. While I never had the extreme muscle soreness that you get from running a marathon, the 100 mile ride did still beat me up pretty well. The first couple of days my legs were just “tired�, and it was all I could do to get up the incline into my office from the parking lot. Every trip to the printer, or down the hall to talk with another employee was a struggle. By Wednesday, everything was starting to feel better.
Wednesday I went into the gym early, did about 500 yards of swimming, and some run/walk stuff on the treadmill hill program. I started out running, but my quads didn’t feel right, so I slowed everything down and took it easy.
Thursday I did a quick little time trial on my bike around the block at my house – it is about 1.7 miles, and I have timed myself numerous time around this course. My time this trip was 15 seconds slower that my previous best – so I guess my legs are not up to 100% yet. I know that the rest of my parts are not yet ready to get back on the bike, as that bike seat did not feel very good yet.
Friday I went to the gym after work – did 40 laps swimming (2000 yards) in 46 minutes, 21 seconds. This works out to 2 minutes, 19 seconds per 100 yards, which is by far my best time ever on a 1-mile plus swim. The best part is that I was not even tired – other than a minor cramp in my left foot, I felt like I could have done another mile.
After the swim, I put my running stuff on and went for a run from the gym out to Bidwell Park – it was a beautiful day, and I needed to get a few miles in. Ended up running about 5 miles – again my quads started out pretty stiff, but by the end everything felt good.
Saturday was a “rest� day – if you consider manual labor around the house “rest�.
Sunday was a 5 mile run in the heat of the afternoon – to make sure I’m ready for the triathlon on Saturday. It was a good run, and it felt good to get a good sweat going. Later in the evening, I did a short mountain bike ride, played some tennis, and then tried a couple of 100 yard dashes on a new course I set up in my back yard. I’m going to try to increase my speed work over the next 6 months, to see if I can break that elusive 6 minute mile (that I have never been able to do in my life).
Posted by Dennis at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)