Ironman California 70.3 Check-in

March 31st, 2011 by Patrik No comments »

At lunch today, I drove down to check-in for the Ironman California 70.3 race in Oceanside, CA that is being held Saturday April 2nd.

This is my first Ironman brand race, and only my second half iron distance race. They have registration and check in open on Thursday and Friday from 12-7pm. No check in race morning. I figured I’d go Thursday rather than Friday as it’s less likely to be busy (2500 expected racers at this sold out event). Plus I didn’t want to be walking around in the sun getting dehydrated on Friday. In fact, I don’t plan to do much of anything physical on Friday.

Upon arriving in Oceanside – it was a pretty much a zoo to find parking. Open registration, coupled with a 78 degree day had people flocking to the beach in droves. Drove around a bit and scored some free parking and headed down to the Expo area. I checked out the Nytro booth (bought some GU), the Specialized tent, the Ironman Expo store and a few other vendors here and there, I found my way to the check-in building.

Check-in was an interesting ordeal. Again – I haven’t done any Ironman brand races before, so registration as I’m used to it, is basically walk up to a smiling volunteer that has either a range of numbers or last names assigned to her, show your ID and grab your swim cap and race number. Not in Ironman. Registration was held in a building… much like a conference center. The first level of “authority” the Iron team (those not taking a cigarette break nearby), split us into two lines. Left for people who need a daily USAT license, right for people who already have a USAT license.

Once in your proper line, you need two fill out 2 waivers. Once basically stating you release Ironman from all liability, another staying you release the county of any liability. Initial, sign, sign. Proceed inside.

Inside the building I wait my turn and get greeted by 2 volunteers to check me in. They look at my USAT license, and ID, find me on their computer and hand me a yellow ticket with my race number (956). Now I can proceed into the conference room. Ok, onward I go. At the door, another volunteer checks my yellow ticket, allows me entry, and directs me to another volunteer with a crate of files labeled 750-1000. I’m in that range so I go there. He hands me a green form and a blue form. More waivers. Go to a table, verify all the information, add emergency contact information, local stay information. Sign, sign, and proceed to another table where I drop it off. At this point I think I’m done with the paperwork. I get directed to the packet pickup table. Again look for the volunteers servicing my range of numbers, and they had me my race packet, in which I find a blue swim cap, timing chip, various numbers, and 2 bibs. They also furnish me with a bracelet which I am to wear until after the race. Cool, now we are talking! Off to the next table!

At the next table I get my race swag. An Ironman Oceanside 70.3 bag with a shirt, and some various promotional flyers, a small box of Wheaties, and a few other things. Not bad, not great. Off to the next table.

At the next table I get ankle strap for my timing chip (that was easy), and I get directed to a briefing room where a video is playing in a loop talking about what to expect race day, where everything is, etc. Basically the same information found in the athlete guide. Which I read.

After 15 minutes (and this was with no lines!) I was checked in, had my race packet and was ready to go home.

Get one more day of rest, and do some last minute checks for race day!

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Last Minute Prep and Taper

March 30th, 2011 by Patrik No comments »

Oceanside 70.3 is here. Well, pretty much. Today is Wednesday. Race is Saturday. I’m nearing the end of a 10 day taper. My last hard workouts were last week, since then it’s been easy going. Prepping my bike and gear to make sure everything is all set.

So what’s the plan? Well I got some new Michelin Pro Race 3 tires from Probikekit.com (side note: they are a UK based bike shop with great prices, no tax and free delivery). They had a special where the 2 tires with 2 tubes were $65 delivered. As compared to $63 EACH at local bike shops. Of course, due to limited supply I got the beige ones, so my bike looks like it has old school white wall tires. But I’m going for the vintage look.

I also spent some time cleaning my bike, and cleaning and lubing the chain. There was a lot of sweat, salt and grime everywhere. After nearly 6 months of indoor riding. I also replaced my PowerTap hub batteries. Just in case. The head unit looks ok.

What’s left? I need to install my new 44oz Profile Design aero bottle, mix up some Infinit and we are good to go. I figure 44oz there and 24 oz on the downtube should provide enough nutrition (about 1000 calories) for the bike portion. Might throw in a few GU’s as well. I also need to install my rear wheel cover once it arrives (it’s currently on a plane from Boston with my parents…).

Tomorrow I plan to go down to the race site to register, get my race packet and soak in the tri vibe. The race season is here. I go off at 7:08am Pacific, #956. Follow my race online

My Oceanside specific training started Dec 1, 2010, and after 1406 bike miles, 306 run miles and 81,000 yards of swimming, it’s show time. Though when you look at it like that – doesn’t really seem like much.

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Nike Free 3.0 v2 Review

February 19th, 2011 by David 1 comment »


Figured I’d pass along a shoe review for the Nike Free 3.0 v2.  Over the past two years, I have run in a number of sneaks.  Most recently, I had been running in Newtons.  Honestly, I don’t really feel a difference between Newtons and a traditional running shoe.  For the record, I have a neutral gait and do not heel strike.

Anyhow, I purchased a pair of Nike Free 3.0 v2 last week.  My coach had recommended them.  At first I was apprehensive, because of my dislike toward Nike sneaks in the past as they didn’t quite fit me right.  Well, I got over that fast.  Here are a few take-aways from the first few runs in them.

  • They feel like slipper and are super light.
  • Enough support for me, not sure how this applies to everyone….
  • Feet don’t get as hot like other shoes I’ve run in.
  • No rubbing the back of my heel.
  • Tongue is molded in nicely so it stays in the right location.
  • The price point is decent at $85 a pair

I highly recommend these running shoes.  The only con I can think of is they will be tough to use in harsh winter conditions, because the material looks prone to water entry.  Not a big issue in my opinion.

I’m heading out for my first long run in then this weekend.  I will update this entry afterward.

Happy Training

David

Update 2.20.2011: Just got back from a long run in the Nike Free 3.0v2 sneaks.  Loved them.  No pain anywhere.  Felt very light.  Excellent grip on some icy sections too.  I think I’ve found my running shoe:)

Team Psycho ITT; ready, sweat, go!

February 17th, 2011 by Patrik 1 comment »

Dave and I participated in the Team Psycho, hosted by Fast Splits, indoor time trial last week. It was 9.3 mile (15km) ITT on Computrainers. Heats went every hour starting at 8am, consisting of 16 riders per heat. We both signed up for the 11am heat and arrived around 10am to watch that heat and start warming up.

Unlike other ITT’s this one wasn’t the best in preparation. Very casual… to say the least.

At 11 we got setup for our heat and when the timer counted down, we went off. We both had a plan from our coach to stay “easy” for the first 3 minutes (for me that meant 335w), then kick it up to the 15 minute mark (for me, go to 350w), then for the remainder hit your average to that point, which should have been about 345w. I started out to plan, but about 10 minutes in, I could no longer hold the 350w and started slowing down a bit. My HR was pegged at about 176 and I just couldn’t do it. Power started dropping drastically. At this point I was 2nd plance in the heat, and hanging about 300ft back of 1st, but couldn’t make any gains.

I ended up finishing with a time of 22:57.9 which was good for 12th on the day. I’ll take it. 334w average. Not great… but good enough. Local stud Ethan Brown took the top spot with a 21:27 @ 376 average watts. Crazy power for a 144 pound lanky kid. Hannah Freeman was top female with a 24:05, besting pro triathletes Karen Smyers, Dede Griesbauer, and Cait Snow.

Dave finished 20th overall with a 23:24 @ 304w. But believes his CT was off – and should have been closer to 265w. You never know.

Oh, and there was no beer post race at the event as promised – so we hit up Chipotle for some burritos and Dos XX‘s!

Let’s get to some outdoor racing!

Full Race Results

Does it still FIT?

February 12th, 2011 by Patrik No comments »

It’s been just about a year since I purchased my Honda FIT (well 11 months, but I have some time to sit and put some thoughts down right now).

With the odometer approaching 17,000 miles, I can say without hesitation that I love my little car. I have filled up 51 times and have achieved 33.6mpg over that time frame. A bit lower than I had hoped but in these winter months I’ve only been getting about 30-32 mpgs. A combination of more traffic due to snow, and 5-10 minutes of “letting the car warm up” each morning. I’ve also noticed that I do not try to achieve the highest possible mpgs as I did when the car was new – by accelerating slower, or coasting longer when safe. Still happy with the efficiency, and when on the highway I do get 35-40.

Aside from gas I’ve had 4 oil changes. That is all the maintenance performed thus far.

I haven’t changed anything from a trim standpoint from when I took delivery of the vehicle. I did install the floor mats I had ordered when I bought the car.

I find myself using the iPod connector basically every time I drive the car. Coupled with my iPhone 4 I listen to the iPod, or more often than, not stream Pandora, tunes from home via AudioGalaxy or lately tune into Howard Stern using the Sirius app. In fact, I have probably used terrestrial radio or the cd player a total of 10 times. Good thing I was grandfathered into AT&T’s unlimited data plan. Though somehow they can get away with calling a 5gb cap “unlimited” – but that’s a whole other blog post.

Back to the car. As a reminder I’m pushing 6’2″ but have never had any discomfort driving this car. The manual seat adjusts enough for me to have plenty of leg room, head room and reach. And still fit an adult behind me. But more often than not, it is my daughters booster seat there.

I use this car as much as I can. Because of the better gas mileage, unless we need the additional space for cargo or are traveling with more than 4 passengers, we will take the FIT over the Honda Pilot every time. It offers a quiet ride, iPod connection, ample room, speed and efficiency to take us anywhere. It is also great for going into the city as it is very easy to park almost anywhere. We have yet to take it on a really long drive (more than 80 miles or so). Mainly because we haven’t driven that far in a while, and if we do go that far, we are probably hauling more stuff.

So what’s the conclusion? I am more than happy with this car. I have no regrets at all. The price was great, and after a year of driving I am very satisfied with it’s comfort, styling, usability and efficiency. Would I buy another? Yes. But would likely wait for the hybrid or ev version!

VO2Max, Lactate Threshold and 9 weeks to go

January 18th, 2011 by Patrik No comments »

The winter is passing slowly, and today is yet another day where snow is falling from the sky. I awoke to a balmy 25 degrees and left the house to hit the pool for Masters Swim at 6:00am.

With just 9 weeks to go until race day (Oceanside 70.3 April 2nd), I have officially ended 4 weeks of VO2Max workouts and entered Lactate Threshold phase (also for 4 weeks). What does that mean? Well, VO2Max phase was hard. It was a lot of very difficult workouts consisting of short hard intervals. High wattage efforts on the bike (350w for three and a half minutes), and high speed intervals running (5:45 pace for 3:00). And repeat. And repeat and repeat.

The first week of the month has greeted me with a stomach bug, which basically had me in bed for 5 days straight. Basically on a liquid diet, fatigued and sleeping 12 hrs a day; but I watched about 8 hrs of 24 Season 3. Thank goodness for Netflix streaming. Unrelated to training, but it took it’s toll. As quickly as it set on, it was gone, and I got right back to race preperations.

This week marked the start of Lactate Threshold – which is all about slightly easier efforts, but longer durations… so biking at or above FTP for 10 or so minute intervals, and running mile repeats at or slightly faster than 5km race effort. So much to look forward to.

I have been stuck indoors for most of the workouts, bike and run intervals, long bike efforts on the computrainer; I do try to get out and do my long run outside (last week was a nice 26 degrees but apparently it felt like 9).

I also ordered a Thule 699 bicycle travel case to transport my bike to and from races via air. Full review coming – I expect delivery this week. I got a seemingly great deal on Amazon via a 3rd party retailier. $315 no tax/delivered (vs $342 from amazon, $379 retail). While I don’t trust the review on the Thule site (since the reviewers gripe is against airline fees, not the product itself…) I have heard good things about it on other sites and forums.

Also coming up this week is a race effort simulation of the CA70.3 course on the Computrainer. How does the CT stack up vs real life? We shall see. Hopefully real life will be as fast or faster than the CT effort. Stay tuned for the results of that….

IMCA70.3 – 18.5 weeks to go

November 24th, 2010 by Patrik No comments »

I figured I’d write some blog entries for my preparations for Oceanside 70.3. Technically I’m in week 3 of preperations, though I had about a 6 week hiatus, in which I did little more than run 7 times. I’ve been back at it for about 2.5 weeks, but my swimming pace is way off, my running and cycling paces are slightly off as well. But I can’t believe how badly I’m swimming. Hope that turns around soon. Right now I’m putting in about 9 hrs per week of easy swimming, biking and running, about 3 hrs each. I need to get back on track.

I am also trying to lose weight. at 6’1.5″, I’m not overweight at 190, but for a triathlete, it’s just not going to cut it. I’m targeting racing at 170-175lbs in April, so I’m focusing on that. I’ve been using myfitnesspal.com to track calories, and currently trying to go -1000 per day. Though, I rarely hit. After my hiatus, I tipped the scale at 191. Today, I’m down to 187 (2.5 weeks). I spent this season racing at 184-186, so not too far off that. We’ll see what happens in the next 18.5 weeks.

Glutton for Punishment

August 14th, 2010 by Patrik No comments »

I’ve gone and done it again. I signed up for another half ironman. This time it’s the Ironman Oceanside 70.3. April 2 2011. At least I have time to prepare! Keep you posted.

Update: So the more I think about it, the more excited I am for this race. While it’s way early in the season for a New Englander… I have a full five months to focus and prepare. Without being sidetracked with other races, summer vacations, BBQ’s and trips to the beach. Of course… 5 months of winter training in preperation for a 1/2 iron will be a test in will power. Me and the Computrainer will become even better friends than we already are (and Oceanside is available for download!). I generally only swim indoors, so that’s no problem, and I don’t mind running outdoors in the winter, and I do have a treadmill available if it’s raining/snowing (though the thought of a 2 hr treadmill run has me rethinking the endeavor). We shall see. I look forward to the training and the race.

Patriot Half Iron Triathlon Race Report

June 23rd, 2010 by Patrik 2 comments »

Last weekend, 6/19/2010, I raced the Patriot Triathlon. It was my first 1/2 Ironman (technically half iron distance, since Ironman is a brand name). Normally, a 1/2 is 70.3 miles. 1.2 miles swimming, followed by 56 miles biking, and then finally a 13.1 mile run. Patriot is a 72.3 – the bike portion is an extra 2 miles for a total of 58 miles.

I signed up about 3 weeks ago. Basically for 2 reasons. 1), I had a 3 hr bike planned for that Saturday, and Masters Swim / 70 minute run for the next day, Sunday. So I figured, why not put them back to back and do the race. And 2), I wanted to feel out this distance to see if I wanted to focus on it next year, and this race was the only one in the year that fit in the schedule without screwing up my “A” races…

I’ll start by saying, I was WAY undertrained. 90% of my training has been focused on short course; sprint and olympic. High intensity, short durations. But, you definitely need train for this distance. There’s no faking your way through (though I guess that is what I did…).

The 1.2 mile swim. Nice calm swim, it felt great for me. They say the swim was longer (they being other swimmers, but I have no sense of distance/time when swimming so I don’t know), I went freestyle non stop the whole way, which I’ve never done in any race of any distance. Just tried to stay smooth and steady and not rush. Very happy with the 37:44. Was hoping for 40 minutes or better, so there it was. Water was warm, calm, very nice. I zig zagged a little, so I’m sure I lost some time/energy there, but not too bad.

I came into transition feeling good. I didn’t rush, but I didn’t try to go slow either. I know it’s a long race, but damn it if I lose time in transition. Just under 2 minutes. Not great, but I put on socks too

The 58 mile bike. Bike was fast and flat. 2:30:58. 9th fastest overall and 4th fastest non-elite. After the race everyone kept telling me I rode too hard (hence the bad run). But the thing is… I didn’t. I stayed below my target HR. I didn’t feel like it was a hard effort (though after 40-45 miles I had enough… right around 2 hrs.). I just kept my cadence steady, geared right, HR just below the right zone. I didn’t feel I went too hard at all. In fact, I think I could have gone much harder. Ate 5 gu’s about 30 minutes apart, 48oz of Gatorade, 24oz of water. If I don’t eat another gu/gel for while I’ll be very happy.

Transition two (T2). Nothing exciting here… I got off the bike, and there was no way I could run through transition after 2 and a half hours of fast biking so I walked as fast as I could. Grabbed my running shoes, race belt, hat and was off. < 1:00.

The 13.1 mile run. Run was just bad. It started out good, though. First 3 miles were ok. 8:05, 7:57, 8:30. Felt good, thought I would settle into a nice pace. Had some water at each water station, had some clif bloks… Instead it got super hard. Every mile after that I walked at least a little. Started to get some 9:40′s, 10:00′s and 10:15′s, When I was running I was still moving around 8:30 I think… but I had to take more and more walk breaks. Every aid station and mile marker was like a desert oasis. I started the run and a volunteer told me I was 17th overall… not bad considering I was Wave 3 (Wave 1 started at 7:30am, Wave 2 at 7:35, Wave 3 at 7:40, etc). But then a freight train of 60 or 70 runners came rolling by. Also, not sure how the heat affected me (it was about 85-90 degrees), but it was hot. My run was a 2:02:47. I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon earlier in the year at 1:30:xx… so I thought I had something better than 2:02 in me, but being able to do something, and then being able to do it in a 1/2 triathlon are two completely different things.

Overall – I finished in 5:14:40… 20 seconds faster than my goal time. But I had anticipated a 40:00 swim, 2:40 bike, 1:50 run and transition time… not 38/2:30/2:00…. 51st overall, and 5th in my age group. I believe I was 2nd in my age group at the start of the run….

As much as I suffered and cursed it during the run. I would do it again. I can’t believe how much my legs twitched, spasmed and seized up as soon as the race was over – though during the race was OK. Immediately after the race was worst, but pretty much into the evening. The next morning was just sore. Legs sore, back sore, shoulders sore.

I guess for the next one I’ll have to really focus on training. Sprint training doesn’t translate well to this distance. Great job to everyone that raced. Takes a lot of guts to do this (and self loathing?). And thanks to the volunteers. It was great pick me up to see and hear everyone.

Plymouth to Provincetown

June 11th, 2010 by Patrik 3 comments »

Embarking on a solo ride of 65 miles from south Plymouth to Provincetown. I’ll try to post some pics along the way, and some comments if I have time.

My goal is to stay in the 151-155 bpm heart range, which on a good day should equate to about 20.5-21.5 MPH. We shall see. This is part of my regular triathlon training for this time of year, but falls in line with my attempt at the 1/2 iron distance Patriot Triathlon next week (6/19/2010).

There is a group of about 15 that will start about 90 minutes behind me. We plan to meet up at the finish. Hopefully I’ll be revived and soaking in the sun… and beer. They are riding 90 miles.

Update 8:25am. Heading out. A little late (goal is to make it by lunch at noon).

Update 11:35am. Made it to downtown Provincetown. Taking a seat… 64.25 miles, 3 hours 10 minutes. Not bad. Took the first 37 minutes easy to get over the bridge and get out of the traffic areas, then tried to cruise in my HR zone to the 3 hr mark. Had to stop at a couple of lights, 2 railroad crossings, and some road work. So I lost some time here and there. Overall I’m happy with my pace. Total ride was still over 20mph including all stops (didn’t stop for any other reason then listed). Portion where I pushed I was about 21.5 for over 2 hrs. Consumed 5 gels and 2 bottles of gatorade. Felt good.