Favorite spots

Just like anyone else who is into endurance type sports, I have my favorite places that I like to train. Today I visited one of those spots for a mountain bike ride. This particular place I have been going to for nearly a decade now. I've watched the mountain bike trails grow from not much at all to a great 13 mile loop - they are also a wonderful place to trail run. Fort Yargo State Park is only about 25 minutes from our house which really isn't to far to drive for what you get to enjoy! Often I go out to Yargo with the intention of busting out a serious hard workout, so today I figure I'd take a more relaxed approach in my ride around the park. I brought along my camera to snap a few shots of the more scenic spots along the trail. Pretty amazing what you can find so close to home :)

Here's to the off season...a time to "go mountain biking and drink a beer" as my friend Kat Tindol likes to say.

Kona Obsession

This weekend is the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. This is race is the super bowl of triathlon - it doesn't really get any bigger. This year I find myself particularly invested in the race. I've been following the top contenders all year and their race results from all the marquee races around the world. Sadly, this is not an event that I can watch on TV live. I'll have to settle for following the results on the day of the race and then waiting a few weeks until NBC shows it on tape - paired down to about an hour of coverage. I've decided the only way to really watch this race would be live. With that being said there may be a trip to Kona for Ironman week in sometime in my future.

There are a couple of websites that are giving great race week coverage. A lot of athlete interviews and reporting of the general goings on in Kona.

Everymantri.com

Triathlon.competitor.com

One of the great things about this sport is that there is really nothing differentiating the pro triathletes from the age groupers. Lets say you are a golf fan and just an average Joe golfer - could you go enter a tournament that Tiger woods was entering? Probably not. Triathlon, on the other hand, is much different. Craig Alexander, the two time Ironman world champion, raced a fair amount of half-iron distances in the U.S. this year. Any of these races I could have easily entered. Our bikes would have been in the same transition and we would run the same course. Chances are, if I really wanted to I could go up to him and shake his hand after the race. I could probably also have a conversation with Craig, just as if he were any other competitor. How cool is that? Pro's and Amateurs toeing the same line at the start and crossing the same line at the finish.

Lanier Sprint: race report

This was my last triathlon of the year, and it took place right in my back yard. I live near the race site and ride up to the islands about twice a week. I rode the bike course twice this week during training just to give myself every advantage. It was a massive field for a sprint – over 1,100 competitors. This being my last race of the year I made a decision going in to just race it like my hair was on fire. I figured if I blew up it couldn’t be that bad with only a 5k at the end.

I started off in the 3rd wave and had swim over, under, around, and through the racers in the waves in front of me. The 400m swim was over before it started and was followed by a 200 yard steep uphill sprint to T1.

The cool temps made for a bit of a chilly bike ride but it kept my HR uber low, I wasn’t anywhere near my normal sprint HR so I just let it all hang out. I rode the entire bike leg on the left side of the lane as I was constantly passing. It was good motivation to keep me red lining it for the ride. Hit T2 with a 31:25 split for the rolling 13 miles – 24.8mph. Fastest split on the day. Got off the bike just hoping I could still run after that!


Took off on the run with a high tempo and numb feet from the cold concrete in T1 and T2. Felt like balloons on the bottom of my feet but I just hammered on. That cool crisp fall air was treating me right today and felt strong to the end. Hit the line in 58:45 and an 18:45 run split. Good enough for 2nd overall on the day. The trophies for top 3 were these amazing blown glass sail boats made by Thom Lillie from Lillie Glassblowers – coolest Tri trophy I’ve ever seen! Great race by GA Multisports and props to Roswell Bicycles for the excellent bike support. SF had a good showing and I was pumped to end my year on a high note! See you in 2011 :)

Ride the Divide

Last night I stumbled upon something that was very entertaining - at least for me, and the best part was that it is free. It is a documentary that is currently showing free on you tube through midnight today.

"Ride the Divide" follows 15 cyclists as they attempt to finish the Continental Divide Trail race that runs from Bannf, Canada to the Mexican border. If you have any sense of adventure it will make you want to plan something big. If you have 80 minutes to spare today I highly suggest you check this out!

end of a long road

My triathlon season is drawing to a close. This weekend is my last Tri for the year - the Lake Lanier Islands Triathlon. It's just a little sprint that is about as close to home as a race can be. I ride the roads that this race takes place on at least twice a week.

I have never raced as much as I have this year, and it didn't all go down without it's challenges. I've had a pretty big year in the sport and a lot of good surprises along the way. I picked up a sponsorship and a coach. I also managed to check off all of my major goals for the year. Which included:

1. Finish my first full Ironman


2. Lower my half-Iron PR by 15 minutes


3. Break into the top 3 over-all in some local races



Towards the end of this run I've stumbled a bit and became unmotivated. I took a step back in training load and seriousness and made sure I was having fun doing this - and this seemed to make the biggest difference. This adjustment allowed to to relax and coincidentally I turned in some of my best results of the year. This also has really gotten me very excited for next year!

Back to the Lanier Islands race - I actually got to pre-ride the bike course yesterday. I'm psyched that I know it so well and will feel so comfortable on it during the race. I actually did this race 3 years ago and rode the bike course in 36 minutes. Yesterday I rode at a moderate pace about 15-18 BPM (talking HR here) under my race pace and it only took me around 33 minutes. There's something that puts me at ease about know exactly what is coming on a race course that also allows me to push myself very hard.

I'm hoping to close the year out with another over-all podium finish - and wouldn't it be nice to do it in my own backyard? While it is a sprint, it's a HUGE sprint with about 800 competitors - so you never know who is going to show up. Guess we'll find out on Sunday!

cankle and RICE

I'm talking about how yesterday I had a cankle. What is a cankle you might ask? It's when you don't have ankles. Your calf just goes right into your foot.

Urban dictionary definition:
The absence of a defined ankle on a person - whereby the calf of the leg merges directly into the foot. The calf appears to replace the ankle - hence the term "cankle".




I achieved this by running on a trail on Tuesday and rolling my right ankle. Around 9.5 miles into a planned 12 mile run I came down on a root or rock. This is always unsettling and is pretty painful. At first I tried to run it out but it became apparent after about 50 feet more of running that this wasn't going to be the case. Sometimes depending on the severity you can just run it out and it feels better. This was a bonefide ankle sprain I believe so I was forced to walk it back to the car a little more than a mile.

What was I going to do now? "I have a race this weekend" was my first thought. I received some great advice from my friend Daniel who's had more than his fair share of traumatic rolls and cankles, and also from my brother-in-law, Leo. They both said to "RICE the hell out of that thing." RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, elevation. An old remedy for well, anything that you injure - but amazingly this works particularly well for my cankle situation.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/rehab/a/rice.htm

I woke up Wednesday and my cankle was as big as a softball. I gave it an ice bath every so often, wrapped it up in between, and sat on the couch with my ankle 4 feet up. Toward the end of the day the swelling was about half of what it was and I was in a lot less pain. I'm not one who usually does a good job of taking care of myself recovery wise, but I guess the idea of not racing this Sunday was enough to get me motivated this time. I've got a lot less Cankle now and more ankle. Going to give it some more rice today and now I'm thinking I'll be good to go by Sunday.

Triathletes are gear heads.

So the Ironman World Championships are coming up in less than two weeks, so I've been all over the web checking out the media and race material on my favorite tri websites. One of my favorite things to do is take a look at the old results. One thing that always fascinates me is how more than 20 years ago, the winning times for Ironman are as fast as they have been in recent years.

Bike manufacturers would say "oh the conditions weren't as harsh on the big island back then". I say this is hogwash. Could it be that the athletes from the 80's and early 90's were just forced to be stronger due to equipment that was not as technologically advanced as what we have today - so therefor the current crop of athletes aren't as strong? With more technological advances in equipment, do we now have less physical resistance to overcome?

If you go to any triathlon, particularly of the half-iron distance or greater, you'll see thousands of bikes worth well in excess of $5,000. Not to mention all the fancy wetsuits ($600), aero helmets ($200), pricey tri clothes, shoes, etc. Below is a picture of Dave Scott from the 1989 "Budlite" Ironman World Championships. He's riding a basic tri bike. Note the lack of $2,500 set of Zipp wheels, $3000 SRM power meter, HRM (does he even have a computer on that thing?) and aero helmet. I'm not even sure if there's any carbon fiber in this picture anywhere? Do you see any compression socks on him? He took 2nd to Mark Allen who was riding an almost identical set up. Notice the downtube shifters as well. They went 8:09 and 8:10 respectively. Fast forward to 2009 and Craig Alexander won with an 8:20.


My guess is that we've all been duped. Tricked by the industry into thinking that you need all the aero carbon 11 speed $9,000 self floating wetsuit compression gear we can get. Notice that I say we - I'm guilty as charged! Do I think that all the new stuff is actually helpful - yes, I do. With that being said I do think the advantages in speed are marginal. If Scott and Allen can rip off times like that with the most basic equipment - maybe we just need to train harder!