2013: Aquathon

(Jeff May and I)

I did the Milwaukee aquathon with a few friends. It was a great evening of low key exercise. And yes, I managed to run good with a 18:08 5k. I redeemed my lackluster run time from last weekend. 

2013 Waupaca Triathlon

This was a great race and reminded me of Camp Whitcomb Mason, which no longer exist. They even had a lane line to swim next to. 

I took the swim out easy to see what the others around me would do. One guy took off so I followed him. He held up good for 200 meters before slowing down. I waited until 500 meters before attempting a pass but he wouldn't have it. So I just swam on his hip until the exit. 

At T2 the lead swimmer took off like a bolt; And to me looked like he was burning some matches to do so. 

About 7-8 minutes in the bike I passed him and enjoyed a good solid bike and the lead the rest of the way. 

The run was a nice stiff jog and I was happy to avoid any sort of side stitch. I think I need to work on my finishing speed next year. 6:20 pace for the end of a sprint triathlon is lousy. 

Next is IMWI. Hope to see everybody there. 

2013: Mighty Wolf Sprint

Mighty Wolf Sprint Triathlon
Winnecone, WI

There is fun, low-key triathlon in the Fox Valley area. We had a good time among friends.

1st OA
1:01

2013: Ironman 70.3 Kansas June

4:25

The last time I did a triathlon was Ironman Hawaii in 2011. My effort at Ironman 70.3 Kansas reflected my absence. I  made a number of mistakes and kind of forgot how tough these really are.

Swim -

At the time, I didn't know who Bill Bishop was, but I quickly found out.  Apparently, Mr Bishop was a hot shot swimmer with a big chip on his shoulder at University of Minnesota.  Since then he hasn't lost either the talent or the cockiness. When I lined up in the water I asked around to see if anybody was going to swim under a 30. Out of the blue Mr Bishop informs all of us in the front row that he's going to swim a 23. Whoaa, yipee, skippy, wow! Well, I did my best to poke fun of the guy for such a ludicrous proclamation but in the end I ate crow. He went out to did it although he DNF'ed on the run.

In the end, the swim went well.

Bike -

I got to work on riding with a power meter. I was struggling to balance various conflicts: drafting, passing people, longs downhills, sustaining power.  Result:  Ave 241 NP 233.  My goal was 250 Ave. The fitness was there but my riding style to make that happen wasn't.

Oh yea, 6 gels wasn't enough. I slightly bonked. I'm not a huge eater out on the race course and can handle slight bonks. Kansas became yet another on the list of other races where I kind of skimped on food intake. Things I need to remember:

- keep cadence at 90-94, not 82-86 even though helps the numbers appear more even
- remember to keep the zeros out of the calculation on the Joule for cadence
- for now it might be better to simply execute the bike as planned with NP and Ave power and not worry about penalties. At 250-270 NP/Ave power, nobody will get in the way; at 220-250 things do get messy with other riders catching up and slower guys that you're trying to pass attempting to block or retain their position
- eat 8-9 gels

Run -

Started the run under fueled - felt like I wanted to take a nap.  Tried to have the sports drink and cola turn me around but it didn't.  Felt tired and slugged out a 1:29 in hot temperatures.

Next race is Ironman Racine.

2013: Oshkosh Half Marathon

April 21, 2013

1:21:19

Ha, I have to chuckle in reflection. I view my outcome a lot like Javier Gomez's ITU race yesterday in San Diego.  A few things didn't go my way.

1.  I've been struggling with some really tight gluts from doing some different biking sets this year.  Add in some long car travel, things were tight.  I had some ART done the day before the race, but it wasn't enough. My right gluteus medius grew into a minor ache as the race progressed.  At miles 7-8, the gluts on both side started to cramp and suddenly other minor player muscles like vastus lateralius and IT Band had to compensate to keep going.  The effort felt the same, but the pace was much slower. 

2.  It was cold.  I dressed in shorts, short sleeve shirt, visor and running gloves.  I should have ran in running pants and a long sleeve shirt.  I felt warm for the first 2 miles, but got a little chilled from there on.

3.  Trick ankle flared up.  Yup, that's the old injury that occurred 15 years ago while playing soccer.  In cold temperature and/or rainy day it aches.  Today it was a problem.  To compensate, I ran more on the mid-foot compensate. 

Splits:
1 - 5:53
2 - 5:55
3 - 5:56
4 - 6:03 (into wind)
5 - 5:57 (into wind)
6 - 6:07 (into wind)
7 - 6:06
8 - 6:04
9 - 6:22
10 - 6:17
11 - 6:35
12 - 6:34
13 - 6:23
.1 - 6:04

I'm going to brush it off and have a better outcome next time.  Take home points:  skip the weekly hard bike ride and take a salt tablet at mile 5.

Matt

Moab MTB Trip

MOAB

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Moab, Utah for a three day mountain biking trip with Lane Brostrom and his brother Marc. The experience for me was no different than a midwest skier's first trip out west.  I was in for some scary stuff.

We rented bikes from Poison Spider Bicycle Shop located on Main Street.  My bike was the Niner RIP featuring dual suspension (a must have in my opinion) with 29 inch wheels (another must have).  Acoomodations were at the Best Western Canyonlands also on Main Street. 

Day One was Slickrock.  New riders to the Slickrock park are offerred the opportunity to ride a short practice loop to get accustom to the riding surface and the technical challenges of Moab's severe ups and downs.  We skipped that introductory loop and immediately launched ourselves into the most technical riding I'd ever faced. Frankly, I was scared and the hesitancy showed.  Lane and Marc weren't sure if I'd make it because I kept lagging behind.  After two hours, I managed to loosen up and ride with some confidence.  It was a great day of riding that lasted about four hours.  Afterwards we played frisbee in the parking lot before riding bikes back to town (fyi - we drove up to the park's entrance;  small fee to enter it).

Day Two was Gemini Bridges.  This was the easiest ride of the trip, but still very technical.  Bull Run>Great Escape>Little Cyn (Canyon)>Arth's>Portion of Getaway>Metal Masher Rd>trail head off Hwy 313. 

Day Three was the Whole Encilada (Burro Pass>USFS Road>Hassard County Road>Kokopelli Trail>UPS Road>LPS Road>Porcupine Rim).  This was an epic seven hour ride covering thirty six miles with the most technical riding I'd ever encountered.  We took a shuttle van that started at the bike shop ($25) that took us up a mountain where we climbed out into the cold.  I was glad to be wearing arm and leg warmers plus a light jacket.  From there we rode another thousand feet of elevation before making our long descent. 

The first two hours had numerous extreme downhill sections that made me fell like I was falling downward.  After a couple of creek crossings, we rode through a beautiful stretch of Ash trees.  From there we rode through some wide open stretches before working our way to the most technical section --a 4x4 road that looked like a road of splintered rock. That means if and when you fall, you land on rock not soft dirt.  All and all, I managed to stay upright until the 5 hour mark. Somewhere along the beginning portion of the Porcupine Rim I fell.  When my front wheel rode off a ledge, landing on a slight incline, my front wheel got stuck causing me to flip over the handlebars.  Upon landing, I placed my hands out and my left thumb took most of the weight.  Immediately I knew I sprained the thumb.  After picking myself up, I could tell it was a grade 2 sprain and that riding back was going to be painful. 

After a few minutes to regain my composure, we took off and I did my best to manage the pain.  Marc had some Advil along that I took and that started to kick in about 30 minutes later.

It was a long haul back.  We had another two hours in front of us and I was bonking.  Somehow I thought this was a 10 mile ride so I had only packed two Powerbars.  So for the next few hours I grimaced at the pain and tried to ignore the ache in my stomach.  The last thirty minutes of ride was not rideable so I walked bits and pieces of it. In many sections the trail led right to the cliff's end making any sort of mistake a fatal one.  Eventually, the end came and after catching my breath, I felt reinvigorated enough to ride hard back to town and give back my bike. 

It was great trip and something I look forward to doing again. 

PS Because my flight got delayed I spent another day in the area of Park City, Utah in a quaint town of Coalville. Because Marc has a decent motorcycle collection, we did a nice ride in the area in the early evening.

IM Wisconsin 2013

I signed up for Ironman Wisconsin 2013. 2012 was a fun year without a single triathlon. Without the burden of a weekly training regiment, I had a lot of free time. It allowed me to have a life as well as participate in a few non-athletic hobbies as well. Last year in the midst of traveling to Kona, we bought a mid century modern house in Fox Point. It has permitted me to grow my MCM furniture collection and abstract-modern art collection. At this point, I'm nearly at the end given the space requirements of the house so another endeavor needs to fill the time hence the return to Ironman.

Since I've had a number of good races under my belt and done Kona, I don't really care about how it turns out and remain focused on being the rabbit and Thomas Brunold being the tortoise, ie keeping Thomas Brunold staying behind me for as long as possible (or any others for that matter.) My guess is that it'll take:

Swim - 55
Bike - 5:10
Run - 3:02-05

Training Benchmarks become:
10x200 on 2:30 with 10 seconds rest
230 watts for 4 hrs
7:05 pace for most runs

Race Day
Swim - hard the first 100 yards, settle in
Bike - 220 watts; 260 hill cap
Run - 7:00 for first three miles then a bit faster

The funny thing for me is that my wife Adrienne is the biggest pusher of this. She is tried of me goofing off and thinks I need to do this race to achieve my "nearly perfect race" as most of the ones in the past were be marred by inexperience, flat tires, a penalty, and a busy work schedule. I can live with those hiccups, but she cannot. Secretly, I think she just wants me to be her training partner and do every workout with her rather than just a few like I did this year. See you out there training! Best Regards, Matt