“Now lot of athletes feel they can bide their time and hide behind gadgets like power taps and heart rate monitors and fundamentally lose the notion pure hard work gets you to the finish line. I see it all the time. Athletes look for the easy way out. They buy expensive equipment aero helmets training gadgets - power taps, and constantly hold themselves back. They have notion that it is easier to do it that way. But the bottom line is this is a hard sport. You have to swim, bike and run and the combination makes for a physically grueling, tough sport. There is nothing like hard work.”  –Simon Lessing

While I think this holds true, the gadgets can help if you use them properly, but I do read race reports all of the time from people trying to hold back and lower their HR and their Watts, I go full out and races and I have always figured if I blow up, I messed up in training, not in racing.

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I am racing a 50mile Ultramarthon in April (10-12th) 2009, I would like to do Nutmegman 1/2 (September 20th, 2009). I am torn if I want to race IMKY or do Mooseman (1/2) in June and Beach to Battleship (1/2) in November 2009.

So choices are

1) Ultra, IMKY, maybe Nutmegman
2) Ultra, Mooseman, Nutmegman, and maybe B2B
3) ?

The conundrum is this, I honestly am not sure if I can get in enough long rides to truly be ready for IMKY. The distance really does not intimidate meet, as much as my lack of long bike rides. I also enjoy ocean swims, and like my wetsuit (DeSoto), so in that respect IMKY is a bit of a turnoff.

Advice?

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I was supposed to race Longhorn 70.3 down in Austin next month, however life changes, I backed out of the race. Waited a while debated what I was going to do and decided that Nutmegman was close enough to home. I trained on my home with my bike time being on a trainer 95% of the time. Swam once in awhile. I was under trained going into the race, but was confident.

Pre-race routine:
Woke up just after 3am, had coffee, took a quick shower and ate a bagel. On my way out I grabbed another 1/2 bagel. Drove the 80miles to the venue. Arrived in total darkness, put bike, bag and wetsuit in transition. I had to wait for it to get light to setup and use bathrooms. It was cold.

Event Warmup:
Swam maybe 25yards. Supposed to start at 7am, but the fog was so bad they delayed it 30min. Still real bad when we went in. I waited until the last minute to put my wetsuit on because it was cold. Once I got it on I was still cold and actually like most people there put clothes back on over it.

Swim:
My swim was good. The fog was peasoup. It was real thick and was even thicker the 2nd loop. They took out a ton of algae plants, but there was still a ton. Your arms definitely got slowed in them.

There were entire groups, not just individuals that were off course. I swam alone for awhile and would look back hoping someone was back there. I got off course a few times. It was very hard to see the buoys until you were very close. I had a great swim so I can not really complain.

Tons of life guards and police boat w/diver. Really as you got close to the turn around you looked for the police boat with its lights.

T1:
Fast. Broke my sunglasses, couldn’t ask for anything else except maybe to throw on a 2nd layer on top.

Bike:
The course was brutal. It was very cold. As a result of being so cold I did not consume enough electrolytes/sodium and my quads seized at mile 33, 4x, and 51, two other times they almost seized, but I was right at the top of a hill and was able to peddle out. I tried to make up for lost calories, just couldn’t do it. I had to stop and stretch, I definitely lost time. I always caught back up and people were very surprised when I would. I rode alone most of the ride.

I have never experienced really any sort of cramping let alone having your muscles seize up. It hurt, once it happened I was in pain the rest of the race. My neck and back were also very tight for the first 30miles or so while it was still cold.

Some people could not maintain momentum and fell, one guy I talked to showed me his shattered cleat at the end of the race. Even one of the female Pros fell.

It would have been beneficial to me to ride the course ahead of time, or just ride more hills by me.

T2:
Again fairly fast. I put socks and my Newtons on. Just felt more comfortable in them at this distance than my Pearl Izumi Streaks. The bike next to me had fallen over, and I asked a volunteer to rerack it. They did and I was able to rack and get out.

Run:
Decent enough run given that my quads were still in pain, I stretched numerous times, walked a few hills. They were just in real pain. I have read that some people said the run course was difficult, for sure no harder than my regular runs. I was slow but at ease aside from my quads. I am normally have a jack rabbit HR when I run I was almost 20bpm lower than normal because of how slow I was going.

Overall:
Awesome race. I plan on returning and dropping 30min off my time. Awesome post race massage. Disappointed in my time, but not in my effort level.

Total Time = 6h 20m 3s
Overall Rank = 43/83

Pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/endureitmultisports/

Results:

http://www.plattsys.com/results/res2008/nutiron.htm

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If Katie Holmes can run a marathon, Why can’t anyone? I got to talking with a friend about racing and we both came to the conclusion that if you are not at a minimum sore and tired at the end of a race, you didnt race or compete. All you did was go out and merely go through the motions. People have different motivations for entering a race, in the end whatever the reason is, the fact still remains that it is a RACE, not a funny happy take your time event. Have you ever watched someone truly compete?

So what if you ran a marathon or completed a triathlon. Now what? Are you all done? Back to your regularly scheduled programming? If you did one that’s great. Did you truly race it? or did you merely complete it? Do not get me wrong the level one person races at can be vastly different from another person, but to go out there and merely finish? So what. Almost anyone can go out there and do a 5 or 6 hour marathon, how are you now a better person?

What did you learn about yourself? For those that go out there to truly race, you learn nothing. You are out there, you are in pain with a single focus. Finishing. You may know that you will not win, but you still want to place at least one position better than the person next to you.

Those who enjoy racing, enjoy pain. Maybe it is how they prove to themselves that they are worthy, better, more fit, or alive. Maybe they have a desire to push their bodies to the absolute limit, it could be they truly enjoy the pain and use racing as a form of destruction.

How is training different? While most people understand that there are days when you go out easier, those days are simply there to allow yourself to go harder the next. Working out / training should not be easy.

When you see a bodybuilder or powerlifter in the gym and they are squatting 675lbs, and it looks easy, it is not. Like endurance athletes they train to exhaustion, breaking everything down to rebuild bigger, and stronger.

Racing and training to race, I truly believe is different than simply being happy while active. I love being active, and enjoy most outdoor activities.

So go out there, race, enjoy the pain.

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The first time I had a ice bath was two months ago, since then I have been using them on any bike rides 2+hours, and any runs over 7miles. The next day I always feel great. I ran 15miles recently, and felt good enough the day after to still train.

They help recovery time, by contracting your blood vessels and slowing blood flow. When you then warm up, blood quickly rushes back and helps ‘clean’ out waste by-products of the damage done by running, working out, riding hard. Anytime you work out you create micro-tears and essentially destroy your muscle. You then get bigger, stronger, faster during the recovery process.

I fill the tub, with cold water and then add ice. Sometimes if I dont have ice I just use cold water. I can easily stand the cold water only. The ice adds a good amount of extra chill, I enjoy the baths. Some people can not stand the cold as well, and dress warm up top. I choose not too, and will even eat a post-workout PB&J sandwich while I sit/lounge.

When I was in Hungary a few years ago, I went to a bath house, and then had a horse shoe shaped ice bath, that was designed for people to walk into and then quickly out. I loved staying in there, until I would almost black out and then going back into the saunas.

More Info:
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=8731

http://speedendurance.com/2008/05/11/ice-baths-for-workout-recovery/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4286038.stm

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Unfortunately the ‘official’ pictures that are linked from the event’s website are garbage. So no good pictures.

Results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/07/ct/Aug5_Nianti_set1.shtml
Event Website: http://www.hartfordmarathon.com/foundationnew/calendar/nianticbay.htm

Pre-race routine:

Woke up, showered, ate a bagel and had some coffee. Then got into my car and headed to the race. Parking was 1/2 mile away, maybe more. Good walk into the venue.

Event warmup:

I got into the water swam around a bit, floated, and then waited. I felt very comfortable in the water.

Swim

Comments:

I was some what timid. I tried to draft and was doing well, didnt sight for a bit looked and saw no one in front of me, up to this point I was in the middle of the pack, I had to swim back a considerable distance to get on course (150+yards?) and rejoin who I could. From this point on I was swimming neck and neck with some guy and we kept accidentally bumping.

Good swim in, I saw maybe a total of 3 jellyfish, all on the way in

What would you do differently?:

Sight better, not be so timid.

T1

Comments:

Long run from the beach, up a hill, across a field and then down into transition. Given the distance it was very quick. I love my wetsuit, it takes virtually no effort to remove.

What would you do differently?:

Take a few seconds to make sure my Garmin was all set.

 Bike

 Comments:

I was surprised by the course. I thought it would be flatter, but the hills apparently played to my strengths. On the second hill when I was passing people I thought that maybe I was pushing to hard and that they would pull me at the crest of the hill. It never happened. I would pass people on the hills and just drop them.

Until I dropped my chain. It was on the biggest downhill. I was switching to a harder gear and the chain popped off towards my shoe. I actually got tangled in it, and was unable to move my foot at first. I got my foot loose, but the crank was now jammed. I coasted for a very long time, and eventually stopped and worked on getting the chain back on. It was jammed on the derailurer, I got frustrated and kicked it, which did nothing. Somehow I got it back on. I think I lost about 2minutes.

I ended up repassing most of the people that passed me while I was fixing my bike.

What would you do differently?:

Not drop my chain.

T2

Comments:

Coming into T2, a guy wiped out in front of me. I was only half out at the time and went down as well so that I didnt run over his head. I was right back up and running. Cut my hand and ran with it bleeding. Honestly if the fall slowed me down it was for 10seconds.

What would you do differently?:

Not wipeout on the downhill dismount.

Run

Comments:

I thought I would blow up on the run and that I was going out to fast. Instead I ran one of my best runs ever. When I was checking my pace I always saw it between 7:15-7:45min/mile. I guess I didnt check to often. I hated the run on the beach, I got passed. I got passed at the start of the run by a few people, and then eventually was able to catch up to some others. I ran with Trigirl069, who took 7th overall female and 2nd in her AG.

What would you do differently?:

Push a bit more? I wasnt that tired afterwards.

Warm down:

Got a Popsicle, took off my shoes and went out into the water. Ocean felt awesome. Not sure what they had for food, I saw watermelon and some anti-pasta bean salad thing. I grabbed some watermelon.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Drinking on Friday? My chain falling off. Lack of OWS experience. Overall I did great.

Event comments:

Definitely racing again next year. I really really enjoyed myself today. There should have been more volunteers on the bike course. A few times I had no idea if I was supposed to turn or not. Apparently I stayed on course, it could have been better marked.

Honestly I did awesome and I am really happy with my performance. It was a good venue.

No idea what the actual distances were, I have heard 3.2-3.5miles for the run and 11-12miles for the bike, since my Garmin wasnt functioning properly, I have no idea what the actual distances were.

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I finally managed to get a new wetsuit. After much contemplation, pricing consideration and acting as a wetsuit stripper at Ironman 70.3 RI, I went with De Soto. I have always been ‘awkwardly’ sized. When I used to lift, I had a very large chest, back and arms for my height which made shirts difficult to fit right without modifications. Until recently I have had huge quads.

De Soto offered the best choices for sizing and the most customization. I choose the Firstwave Pullover and the Speedtube 5 pants. I opted to not get a bibjohn.  I can not believe how quick I can get the wetsuit off. It takes considerable work to fit myself into my top, once I am in and especially in the water I feel great. The wetsuit really does just slide right off.

On a different note, I got a De Soto Skin Cool Jersey which does not fit correct, while their singlet fits great. I have also been a huge fan of Pearl Izumi tri-shorts and cycing shorts. I have always had ust one problem with them, they have always been long. I feel like while they feel great, fit around my legs well that they are just long and I have to pull them up high.

I received a pair of the De Soto Carrera Low-Cut Tri Shorts I have not yet worn them on a run or on the bike, I did wear them underneath my wetsuit to swim, they dried very quickly afterwards and felt great. There are no seams in the front, they actually have an added soft mesh to the chamois. One thing to be aware of is the 8ft long waist strap. After I tie them, they the drawstring does really fall down more than halfway to my knees. Also because the top does not have the same elasticity that my PI shorts do, I feel like I can over-tighten.

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