2010: Pigman HIM

Cook my eggs over easy, please!

This was the hottest race I've ever done. Because of fog on the lake and roads, the race was delayed 45 minutes. Hence, we all got to feel the heat of Iowa and let me tell you, it was hot!

The swim was uneventful. A lead group of ten or so swam hard and I let me them go. I ended up swimming with the lead women (Lauren Jensen, Cyndi Bannik, Jackie Arendt).

The bike was an adventure. At mile 3, Jason Maurice went past me with David Cohen. At that point, I knew who my riding buddies would be to help me get a fast bike split. The three of us rode together for ten miles until Cohen eventually pulled away (and subsequently blewup on the run). Maurice was a good carrot stick and I decided to ride behind him for most of the race. I did put in one big surge for 30 minutes in the first quarter of the race to catch Scott Bowe that probably wasn't in my best interest. Given the speed I was already travelling at, it was a needless waste of carbohydrates. In the move, I dropped Maurice who eventually caught me 15 miles later.

Given my only goal for the day was a PR bike split, I accomplished it. 2:19 and change was a decent time considering the heat. Uber biker David Thompson rode slower intentionally because of the conditions. It was a good lesson for all of us.

I expected the run to be tough. Right out of transition the legs felt tired, I had stomach cramping, and wierdly enough, some right knee pain. Add in sensations of overheating, I thought I was fully cooked. DNF was on my mind, but when I reached mile one I was right at 7:00 pace. That kept me going, at least for another 1.5 miles. Knowing that I seeking a good workout this weekend and not a bottom of the well, PR type of experience, I proceeded cautiously. It was a good move. I ended up walking to cool down my body. From there on out, I walked all the aid stations, and ran very slowly just to get the race over with. I stopped and thanked the volunteers, cheered on others, and simply enjoyed the rest of the day. It was a lot of fun.

In summary, I had a great time despite the lack-luster time. A lot of us blewup from biking hard. On a cool overcast day, the results would have been very different.

Things to Remember:
- When my shoes get wet, especially the left one, the sole slips. Use double sided carpet tape to tape the shoe soles down.
- In hot conditions (85 degrees and +), slow it down on the bike and run.
- Use a visor, not a hat when above 75 degrees.

2010: Bike Crash, Training, and Planet X Bikes

When I did my 2 hr bike ride on Thursday night, I got a late start so the last few minutes of my ride were in the dark (yes, I did have lights on). In doing so, I missed seeing a huge pothole that my front wheel fell into. I was sent flying to the pavement landing on my left shoulder. I got mild road rash on the left shoulder, left forearm, and left knee. Nothing too serious that a few days and some tegaderm couldn't heal. As a result, I took Friday off to recover.

On Saturday night I resumed training by doing my 13 mile MAF-10bpm test on the track. It went well and I averaged 7:06 pace and held even within a few seconds from start to finish. The drift upward at the end was from it being so dark I couldn't see my watch, hence I pushed a little strong:

1- 7:08 146bpm 2- 7:13 146 3- 7:08 146 4- 7:03 146
5- 7:03 147 6- 7:03 147 7- 7:12 146 8- 7:09 146
9- 7:08 146 10- 7:04 148 11- 7:02 148 12- 7:01 150
13- 7:05 149

On another note, Adrienne finally got her new bike. She ended up replacing her Planet X Exocet with the Planet X Stealth Pro. Our local bike shop mechanic Ryan, at Emery's, spent some time shortening the cables for us and checking everything over. He's our go-to guy for bike repair here in Milwaukee:


Our basement is full of Planet X bikes, plus we have another white one on the way. Brian Ray at Planet X USA and Brent Emery at Emery's Bike Shop have been great through the whole process of getting Adrienne a new bike since her bike crash.

2010: Build for IM

In review, I polished off my third week of Base 3 with the hard 100 mile ride with Joe and Thomas in Madison mentioned in my previous blog post.

The recovery week was not much different: a solid 3 hr ride on Tuesday, a solid 2.75 hr run on Wednesday at 7:52 pace with neighbor John Lancanster, and again, a hard ride with the guys. Although, this time I got two flat tires reducing my ride a few miles to catch up. I drafted a bunch, unlike last time, allowing me to keep up. Joe held 271 watts for 3:53. I ran 40 minutes afterwards around 7:00 pace. It wasn't all that bad. I swam three times: 3K, 2K, 4K. Plus, I added in the track workout of 4 x 5:00 at 6:20 pace with 2:00 minute recover instead of past week's 6 x 5:00.

Weeks 1-3 are the my build weeks followed by a two week taper. The mainstays are the hard 90 mile bike rides, shortening up the long run, doing some 800s on the track, and adding some more mileage to the swimming. Nothing fancy.

2010: Late Season Training

I was kind of like the picture above for four hours last week Saturday: a facial expression of Oh, God! and hanging on for dear life.

Rumor has it that we rode 260 watts for three hours, at least until I had to ease up the fourth hour. I rode a total of 100 miles, but timed only 94 miles of it at 4:14. That's a new land speed record for me.

I learned a few things riding with Wisconsin's IM rockstars Joe K and Thomas B. First, they mash the pedals more than I thought possible. I mean they crank it at 70-80 rpm to keep the watts high. Second, the hills were no different than the flats. Ride them strong and stiff. Third, a quality 100 mile ride means no stops. Carry what you need and, if possible, never slow down. Fourth, riding behind someone even 25 to 35 yards offers some draft. It's common to see a 5-10 watt difference when behind someone at this distance when riding really, really fast. Finally, a powermeter is a wonderful tool for keeping it real. I don't have one but these guys did and they kept the effort steady. Certainly something to think about for 2011 for optimizing training.

Last year, I did German Rides that were similiar to what I did with Joe and Thomas this past weekend. In retrospect, my German Rides had too many granny gear hills, stop signs, and turns. Thomas's route was a great blend of everything making it for a very humbling ride. Pushing the pedals for four hours without stopping is really hard, especially when riding with guys like them.

While it was a humbling experience, I noticed that when I rode hard a few days later, I could feel the benefit of the past weekend's ride. Pushing hard and steady for hours and hours is a learned skill and one that I "thought" I mastered, but was mistaken. I look forward to another dose of reality this coming weekend.

Overall, I've backed down the training volume to about 15hrs/week the last two to three weeks. The quality workouts of long bike, long run, shorter-harder bike, shorter-harder run are all getting done. The nice thing is that I'm not feeling like burnt toast all the time like in years' past. The other positive thing to mention is that Adrienne is back racing. She did a great job at a local olympic distance race taking second, plus she ran a 41 minute 10km. She thinks she can catch me. I'm starting to wonder that myself.

2010: Door County HIM

Door County HIM
Egg Harbor, WI
7-18-2010

Matt Amman
7th Overall 4:22 S-28 B-2:30 R-1:21

I went into the race stressed. I started a new job, Adrienne got hit by a car while training on the Ironman WI bike course, and I was travelling a lot. Training was happening, but at irregular spurts.

Regardless, I wanted to do something VERY different for this race. I wanted to check my run fitness to gain some solid data applicable to upcoming Ironman Wisconsin (which is eight weeks away). My goal was to swim at IM effort, bike at IM effort, and then run to my potential--very Gordo'esque.

It worked! I swam easy and by doing so, I wasn't all that far behind the leaders. Yes, it was two minutes but it wasn't five. Given that I swam a 28, a 56-58 swim at IM is in the cards with little strain. Swim HR ave 157

The bike was surprising uneventful. I had about a dozen and a half people pass me. I did my best to have the HR be 145 bpm and at the end of the day I averaged 147. Not too bad.

Riding with the MOPers was a blast from the past for me. Three years ago I was right there huffing and puffing, taking the corners slow, having erractic speed changes, and weaving all over the road. Most the guys I rode with were pushing well beyond their fitness levels and either blew up in the last 15 miles of the bike or did so on the run. It pays to be in super duber bike shape. Bike HR Ave 147.

I left T2 with one other guy who wanted, I assume, to show off for the crowd (plus his family). For the first 100 yds, he was running at 5:30 pace until he suddenly stopped, ripped off his HR monitor for some inexplicable reason, and gave it to his family. Then he resumed top speed again for another 200 yards before blowing up. Kaboom! I cruised the first 200 yards with him and asked him if he planned on running the whole race at 6 minutes pace. He didn't say anything...must of been busy planning his sudden meltdown.

I ran hard and fast to see what my "run potential" should be. In the past, I usually rip the swim and bike and hang-on during the run. Usually that's good for a 4:2X. This year, it's probably good for a 4:1X. Who knows. Here's my mile splits:

1-5:52 (163bpm)
2-6:05 (164)
3-5:59 (164)
4-5:48 (165)
5-6:12 (164)
6-6:10 (164)
7-6:21 (163)
8-6:26 (little hill) (161)
9-6:11 (160)
10-7:14 (killer hill) (162)
11-6:08 (163)
12-6:17 (163)
13-5:55 (162)
.1-31 (163)

Total 1:21 (6:12 ave)

I was hoping to have the fastest run split of the day, but superstars Jeff Tarkowski put up a 1:18 and Mark Harms went 1:20. All things considered, I proved to myself that I can do it. Lesson learned: bike conservatively to optimize the run.

If wanted to "attempt" to win this race, I would have swam with the leaders, biked with the leaders regardless of the pace, and ran with the leaders hoping to out-survive them. Given that Tarkowski and Harms both went 4:00, there really is no other way to do it. In that scenario, expecting me (or anybody else) to run a 1:14 is not realistic. Even so, they biked fast enough that even a 2:20 bike split is not fast enough to win overall. However, if the winning time was expected to be a 4:1X, I'd swim with the leaders, do my own plan for the bike, and then run to my potential. In the future (2011), I'll be toying with it.

I also switched up my nutrition. I used First Endurance EFS - carried two bottles and drank both. I also used First Endurance Liquid Shot - carried two flasks using all of one of them and 3/4 or the other equalling 6-7 gels. I had nothing on the run. I also did lots of excentuated left footed exhales to minimize any side-stitches. I had inklings of them, but nothing that got out of control. My legs felt a little crampy on the bike, so I should consider using a few salt tablets in the future. Breakfast was two Powerbars and an EFS bottle with PreRace mixed in.

Today, Monday, I took completely off. I was sore. The long drive back home didn't help. Either did today's six hour drive for work. But hey, the pain was worth it.

Race Hard, Race Smart!

2010: Adrienne Hit by Car!

(Picture from Pleasant Prairie Triathlon a few weeks before the accident)

On Sunday July 11th, 2010, Adrienne was involved in a hit and run accident while training on the Ironman Wisconsin bike course. A car struck her from behind launching her from her bike. A few hours later they captured the suspect.

The biggest thing is that Adrienne is alive!

The exact details are being sorted out by the Dane County Sheriff department.

Adrienne will likely post something on her blog about it in the future. Currently, she is trying to regrow skin as fast as she can.

Thanks to all of our friends, family, and fellow triathletes who have helped us through this trying event.

2010: Raising FTP

Yea, that's how it's done. I found this photo when browsing through my old picture files.

Mountain bike racing is a really fun way to raise FTP although a little dangerous--tree branches that reach out and grab you, roots that snare the tires, loose mud to coat the chain and gravel to throw you sideways. In 2006, I did a stint of WORS (Wisconsin Off Road Race Series) racing to raise my FTP and it worked marvelously. I highly recommend it.