Las Vegas Triathlon 2010

Funny how friends and family influenced me to race today. I decided I would do a sprint. Of the 8 triathlons I have done, my second sprint. I wanted to get some speed work in on a brick anyway so why not add another discipline? So I raced. It was a blast. I didnt know how much fun sprints are. Pound, bing, bang, boom ya go home. Fun. I dont think a true race report is necessary but a breakdown is in order. The race was on a familiar course. RAGE, last years olympic at the same race, Silverman all share these highways. Why not do some speed on them? Thankfully there were really no climbs. The whole time I had a smile on my face that said "thank god I am not doing the olympic today, lol." This is the first race I am competing in my age group as opposed to clydesdale division. I cannot wait to see how I fared. All splits are unofficial according to my watch.

Swim: Goal 18 min, actual 19:45 mostly due to LOOONG run to transition. Nothing to report. Kept to my cues, no issues.

Bike: I didnt know what to expect so no goal time. Actual: 39:17. Ave 17 mph. I passed A LOT of people. I loved it. My bike is coming along. I cannot wait to see how this ranks among my peers.

Run: I wanted to be as close as I could to 25 min. I think that would have been possible except for the first 1/2 mile out of transition is steep. Actual 30:46.

Transition: No problems. T1 3:33, T2 2:47. Happy with those.

Overall: 1:35ish. We will see what the official results have. I know the winner in my division beat me by 20 min. WOW. Overall, healthy and happy about today. The swim entry/exit is very, very rocky. My bones in my feet are sore from that.

This next block will be a recovery block and then my last 2 big blocks prior to Silverman. I am happy with everything right now. I am not content though. I will continue to strive to be faster. Quote:

“Progress is not created by contented people”

Frank Tyger

Save the drama for your mama....

Im tired of the drama. I just want a goal for exercising with some logical outcomes. I cannot say i expected anything that happened today. Lets chalk it up to experience building. There arent many highlights but these are noteworthy, here we go:

awoke at 4:45 head out to the garage to load up the jeep. I decided to pump up my tires and promptly broke the stem in my tire. Bonehead does not have a spare. If I did I didnt have all day to change it. Note to self: Practice changing tire. Crashed Wal-mart-no intertubes there. Thankfully the race had some dudes out there changing tires.

Now wet suit or no wet suit for the swim? I went with the same wetsuit. BAD IDEA. It was incredible hot even by 7:10 and I was suffering some 500-750 meters in from the heat. Anyone ever swam with a wet suit half on? It defeats the aerodynamics of the situation. The cramping began ever so slightly during the swim.

I have done this bike course at least 10 times. Never have I walked it 3 times. My legs were so tired and crampy but I could not bring myself to quit. I wanted to, It was in my mouth, but I couldnt do it.

As I dismounted the bike I thought, "is this stupid?" I am very tired and crampy. After all it is approximately 110 degrees with NO SHADE, NO BREEZE. Straight up miserable. I am cramping all over the place, I am not proving to be any faster, What the ____ am I doing out here? And I am not sure if I can even run with this calf. Im gonna at least give it a go I say.

My run/walk plan is going according to plan. Very slow but getting it done. This trail run on rock and dirt is so hot. But NO CALF PAIN. In fact its the least of my worries. My quads are cramping with every step. My back, my shoulders, my quads, adductors, and abductors are all cramping. Did I mention its hot?

I finished. Slow, struggled A LOT. But finished. What did I learn? I can scrap, claw, and fight. I didnt cave in. I waaaaannted to so bad but I couldnt do it. Here is my chip? Not happening.

Where do I go from here? Pound the pavement. Train. Get ready for silverman.

“Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.”
Maurice Setter

It took a very hot, long run to find it but I did.

Can I do it?

Can i do it? Can I run? Am I going to be able to do this race? 2 weeks ago I was concerned about how much time I can take off and now I wondering if I can even do it. DNF I thought was not an option. Now I dont know what to think.

Monday-2000 meter swim. here are 250 meter splits. (5 laps.) 6:02, 6:06, 6:21, 6:27, 6:43, 6:33, 6:31, and 6:37. Ave 6:25. Total 51:25. My first long swim in a few weeks slow by about a minute or two. My calf felt great. No trouble.
Tuesday- Run 3-4 miles. Yeah didnt happen. I began the run wondering what was going down in my blog. I thought for the first 1/2 mile that the title would be "bodies are funny." Because one day pain and the next day felt great. HOWEVER, then 0.78 mile marker happened. Calf pain on. ITs funny because at 0.75 i looked at my watch and said HELL YEAH. I walked back. Just a small pull. Softball made it worse. We were short handed and I had to play.
Wednesday-Woke up in moderate calf pain. Since I know a thing or two about rehab on a pulled muscle I put myself to work. Can i bike with this? YES. 10.68 miles in 38 min or so. An average of 17 mph. I felt weird. It didnt feel like my legs. Sore from a leg workout and a week not on the bike felt weird. I was fast (for me) and pain free. I can do the bike.
Thursday (today)-I thought I would play it by ear. I worked my calf hard today. I am in training room mode. Can I get this athlete (me) back in the game? I challenged my calf and how I wake up will help me determine whether or not I can do this. I will work it again tomorrow and then rest on saturday. Hopefully I can run 6 miles. Can the swim/bike portion PR? Can I finish? Can I PR? I just going to keep swinging. QUOTE:

"We are like tea bags. We never know our own strength until we are in hot water." Sister Bousce

Its going to be a funny race report.

This week is going to plan so far...

My tendonitis problem seems to be resolving as I was able to run tonight with the least amount of pain in weeks. We will see what the morning brings. Here is my week so far:

Monday: 750 meter recovery swim. I LOVE recovery swims after a long run. I can feel the soreness disappear. I ditched the time so It is not available.

Tuesday: Recovery ride. 15 miles on my 15 mile loop. A bit slow but boy is getting easy. 1:01. Softball at night.

Wednesday: Swam 1750 with intervals. 3 lap stroke drill, 5 laps warm-up 6:03, 3 laps on/3 laps off X 3 on and 2 off. Times are 3:13, 4:11, 3:17, 4:30, 3:23, and cool down at 7:05 5 laps. 1 min faster than the last time I did this. Recovered faster and was tighter on my speed.

Thursday: Here is where it gets good. I havent been very fast for me on the long runs and I thought it was because I didnt get my speed work in. With running difficult should I do a speed workout? I ran 2 miles in the am and it felt good enough to continue but I thought if I push it may be a bad idea. The rest of the day it felt good, so I attempted to another run this evening. It went well. The 2 this morning in 9:22 pace, the 3 this evening 9:20 but the second mile was a 8:50. I havent gone that fast in a while. It felt great. We will know in the am whether or not it was a good idea. Rest day tomorrow, big brick on Saturday, 1250 swim open at the lake and 25 miles on the LV TRI course, which happens to be the same as RAGE. I want to use this Olympic distance tri as a tune-up for the half Ironman. Then 10 miles hopefully on Sunday. Can I shave 20-30 min off this Olympic distance race from April 18, 2009?


One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that’s the important half, for without discipline you wouldn’t know what to do with luck.

Carl Zuckmeyer