Training through.....(old post from April of 2009)

After the excitement of last weekend's marathon I began this week off right joining the Big River Monday night run for a nice 7 miler where the after affects of the marathon were in evidence. Basically my legs were still sore though I was surprised how fast I was actually able to cover the 7 mile run--about 64 minutes. I have run that course in about 53--55 minutes when I felt great and was pushing the pace but I was ecstatic to run it in the ballpark of a respectable time the day after a marathon.

Go St. Louis Marathon

Earlier today I competed in the annual Go St. Louis marathon. While in terms of triathlon, my background is in running--marathons are actually something a bit beyond what I traditionally ran in terms of distance. So, completing one for me is not like Kara Goucher branching out from the 10,000 meters (6.2 miles) to run the marathon (26.2 miles) since my events were 800 and 1500 meters in college. Kara is basically quadrupling her race distance whereas I am actually running over twenty five times as far--not even close to a fair comparison. Incidentally, both Kara Goucher and Ryan Hall, two of America's premiere distance runners, are racing in the Boston Marathon tomorrow 4/20/09. I hope they both run smart and well and though there are prognosticators who expect(?)/predict an American win after a 25 year drought, I have my doubts on the likelihood of that occurring tomorrow.

My last race of this distance was the Honolulu marathon (12/15/08) which of course resulted in my squeaking in a personal record by about a minute in 417:36. Today I went into the race with the minimal goal of just setting a PR though I expected that I would be able to run closer to 4 hours if the weather cooperated. In Hawaii that was my goal too but a very heavy rain in the first hour and the packed course for the first 3 miles threw off my plans to run close to 4 hours in December. Too many slow runners started out close to the front of the pack and trying to navigate my way around them took lots of effort and slowed my time considerably for the first couple of miles. Of course here in St. Louis for the Go race the rains decided to descend upon me once again to attempt to thwart my personal record breaking effort. I think my new goal for the next marathon is to run in a race without rain--nothing would make me happier at this point.

To be fair, the rain in St. Louis today was not nearly as bad as the downpour in Hawaii--though the Honolulu rains only lasted for about an hour and then stopped. Today the rain was pretty much constant except for maybe 20 minutes in the middle of my race. Due to the rain, my temporary insanity, or the desire to do something bold, I opted not to try and run even or negative splits which is something I always advise people tackling the marathon. Instead, I decided to run this race like the Kenyans do--go out hard and try and hang on.

As a result, before the race I found the 3:50 pace group who planned to average 8:49 miles the whole way and planned to stay with them for as long as I could. I stuck with that group basically through the first 13.1 miles and then opted to let them go since the effort to stay with them was starting to cause me to work too hard. By way of explanation, my theory on running marathons is that the race should be divided into two parts, the first 20 miles, and the last 10k. For the first 20 miles the goal is to complete that section using as little energy and effort as possible to arrive at the start of the last 10k in a decent time so that you aren't too tired. In other words--you should feel at each moment of the first 20 miles like the pace is comfortable and relatively easy to maintain--that you could increase the pace at any point if you needed to do so. The last 10k is usually the gut check where things start getting hard on the body and the mental side of the race is sometimes more important than the physical side. Unfortunately, some people take that a little too far and think that no long distance running is necessary (crossfitters) and the mind can overcome glaring physical deficiencies. I think that is just absurd and reality has a habit of educating such individuals of their ignorance.

Anyway, for the first 13.1 I was still in cruise mode though I could tell that left to my own pace I wouldn't be nearly that fast. I came across the 13.1 marker in about 154:00 which is actually my second fastest half marathon ever--I have run several around 159-204 and my p.r. from the Clayton half marathon race is 145. While today's half marathon pace was not super fast--it was the fastest I have ever run half of a marathon before.

Also, there was a point on the course in Forest Park where they had us do a short out and back where I said hello to a runner I know from the triathlon club, Mary, who was probably about 2 minutes behind me. Mary was running in her first marathon, is a pretty good triathlete, and not carrying any excess weight like your truly so I figured that unless she blew up I was going to have to have to push it to keep Mary from leaving me behind on the rain soaked streets. Of course, Mary passing me would not be the end of the world, but I think there is an inherent desire in each runner to run their best race possible and finish ahead of runners they have trained with in the past.

The rain slowed the pace and my shoes were soaked within the first three miles or so. The good news is that there weren't nearly as many runners as in Honolulu or Chicago so I didn't have to fight to go past slow runners, and I was able to maintain that 8:49 pace for the first half of the race. After the halfway point I slowly backed off that pace averaging around 9:00 to 9:10 depending on how I felt, and of course the topography became more challenging in the second half of the race. For those not familiar with the course, it starts near City Hall, and proceeds to Broadway, down to AB, then up Chouteau. We cruise down Forest Park Parkway area for a bit and finally enter Forest Park, then Clayton and U-City. We cruise a couple of miles east on Delmar with some rolling hills and past Big Shark Bicycle before re-entering the park. At that point I reached mile 20 and the tough part of the race had begun.

Incidentally I ran 7 miles in 1 hour exactly, then 14 miles in 2 hours exactly. By the three hour mark I had slipped down to around 20 miles not the 21 miles I would have completed if I had maintained that 8:49 pace. After mile 20 my legs started to show the strain of the race thus far--it was harder to maintain a good pace and I dipped over 10 minutes per mile and sometimes eleven or even twelve minute miles up hills. I started trying to countdown the miles one at a time at that point just trying to run them under 10 minutes each since I knew breaking the 4 hour barrier was going to be a close call.

Unfortunately, the last few miles had some hills leaving Forest Park, on the Parkway ramp and on Market before Jefferson each of which slowed me down. By this point other runners were passing me and I expected Mary to come running by whenever I heard footsteps behind me. With 1.2 miles to go and just under 10 minutes to reach the finish before the 4 hour mark I tried to push the pace but my legs were just fried--nothing much was left in the tank.

I finished in 401:36 and not surprisingly, Mary finished two runners and only fifteen seconds behind me! Whew! that was a close call and I had no idea how close she was to me until I arrived home and checked the website for results.

After I went through the chute, I picked up my medal, walked through some very muddy terrain to get some water, banana, and pretzels and walked to my car. It was still raining and though I had some friends still out on the course, I opted to go home to try and recover rather than stay and deal with the rain to cheer them on. My legs were extremely sore and actually navigating my body into my car seat was painful, though of course I had experienced that type of soreness in previous marathons. Once I arrived at home I took a cold bath for a few minutes in an attempt to reduce swelling of my muscles and speed my recovery. I then took a long nap and woke up feeling slightly better but still moving slowly--think of the elderly Benjamin Button and you get the idea.

Overall, I am quite pleased with my finishing time; it was exactly 16 minutes faster than I ran in Honolulu which was only four months ago. Again, it is confirmation my self coaching on the run and bike portions of the triathlon are working for me so far. In terms of marathon--the only one I have signed up for is actually part of a full ironman I have planned to complete in Florida at the end of the season. However, I have been toying with the idea of signing up for the Chicago marathon since it is almost 100% flat and I should be able to set a new personal record there absent unusual circumstances. I really want to nab a sub four hour marathon now since I was so close this time. Also, my sister will be starting a job near Chicago late this summer so I could obviously spend some time with her. However, that race is only two weeks before my ironman. I will probably decide whether to run Chicago in the next few weeks.

Shakespeare's race report

Saturday morning I competed in the annual MaxTrax Duathlon in Columbia Missouri. As previously noted in my prior post I was basically looking forward to racing faster this year and had hoped to place well in the clydesdale division though there was no guarantee on how I would place since you never know who might show up. Anyway, I woke up around 4:30 a.m. and left the house around 5:00 a.m. I opted to take off my front tire and place my bike in the back seat rather than use my bike rack since I anticipated some Columbia shopping post-race and didn't want to worry about the safety of my tri-bike in the parking lot.


I arrived in Columbia around 6:45 a.m. and went to get my race packet. This was the first race I have needed to present my USAT card and it was nice to have remembered to bring it with me this time along with my ID. I picked up the packet along with my t-shirt for the race. I was kind of mystified when the girl handing out the packet said they had run out of xl shirts and she offered to mail me one or I could take a Large. I opted for the Large since I didn't want to wait, and I wouldn't mind a somewhat tighter shirt for my workouts since I have lost a bit of weight and some of my XL shirts hang off my body very loosely these days.



I racked my bike and was chatting with some friends until race time approached. The race organizers let the short course athletes start first and we waited about 15 minutes for the long course start. I was so busy talking to friends I almost missed getting closer to the front of the pack to start the race.



The gun went off and I basically tried to go out in a decent clip without pushing too hard. I looked down a few time at my Garmin 305 and my pace was usually between about 6:45 and 7:30 for the first mile and then I stopped looking. I quickly got into a rhythm and settled into a pace I could maintain. The first run was over before I knew it and I entered into the transition area at around 20 minutes. I opted to place my extra tubes, tire levels, and pump in the back of my cycling jersey which I wore for whole race. It took a few seconds to do so but I didn't mind since my rear seat back didn't fit on my tri bike (or I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to put it on without my legs hitting it on each pedal stroke).



I had racked my bike nearest to the bike out side of the transition area and had a short walk to jump on the bike and take off. I was out of the parking lot quickly and though I had forgotten to check my gearing (needed to downshift when I started). I picked off three riders almost immediately going up a major hill within the first 800 meters. The seat on the bike still felt off even without the bottle holder though it wasn't that big of a deal on such a short distance race and I now think it might be because it slants downward rather than the level type I am accustomed to.

Anyway, the bike course was two loops of a seven mile course. I felt pretty fast on the first loop since I was turning over the legs well and gradually gaining ground on cyclists ahead of me. I finished the first bike loop around 23 minutes and started the second and final loop on the bike course. The second loop I could tell my legs were tired and I just didn't have that zip I possessed on the first lap when going up a hill or trying to pass someone. Overall, my bike time was 48.33 or so (second loop 25 minutes) and that averaged out to 18.5 mph. I was pleased that my time improved dramatically over last year on the bike--I was over ten minutes faster this year though I would have preferred a more even bike split on the two loops. I ended up riding next to a guy (Dennis) on a very tricked out bike with aero disk rear wheels and we switched places on the course a couple of times on the second loop. I met him through a mutual friend post race so that was interesting because from outward appearances he spares no expense in his triathlon endeavors and I was able to keep up with him. Most guys last year on such bikes would blow by me without much effort, so this was proof positive that my cycling skills, though not great, are improving.

I racked my bike and pulled out all the stuff I took with me in my rear cycling jersey pockets and of course switched into running shoes. I took off on the run and surprisingly my legs didn't feel like jelly this year. Granted, I could tell they had been working and weren't fresh but they responded surprisingly well to my efforts to run around 8 minute mile pace. I just tried to maintain my pace and though some runners caught me in the final mile I was able to sprint in to the finish and ended up nabbing one or two runners (including Dennis) right before the chute. I was 46 seconds slower on my second 2.5 mile run (pretty good in my opinion) and finished that run in 20:26 with an overall time of 131:26.

In terms of placing with the clydesdale's I ended up in sixth place with the guys finishing in 3rd, 4th, and 5th all finishing in 129 something so while I would have preferred to be top 3, I am actually pretty close already, and a close 6th isn't bad at all in my mind. The first guy who finished as a clydesdale had a time of 119:04 which I find bizarrely fast....I would like some kind of proof he is actual 200 lbs or more since I think that time would place him as the 10th overall finisher on the men's side and I think the excess weight should have slowed him down more than it did.

After the race I grabbed a few slices of pizza and took some race photos with my camera after rehydrating a bit. I didn't do any kind of cooldown (bad!) but did check out the race results and drop off my entry for the Trizou race May 3rd with the race director. The organizers handed out awards and though I didn't win one officially they had some wine left over so they let anyone who finished the race take home a bottle until they were gone. Needless to say, I snagged myself one. I was quite pleased with a dramatic improvement from 145 to 131 in one years time. This race was confirmation that my self coaching is helping me progress and I did manage to best the average finishing time of 138 minutes quite handily.

Post race I of course had lunch at the Sub shop with my usual meatball sub, chips and a soda with multiple (3-4) refills on the drink. After lunch I drove by all the running, biking and triathlon related stores in town but didn't buy anything before jumping on the highway for the drive back home. I have some pictures from the race though they aren't with me at the moment, I will either edit this post or start a new one to include some.

shakespeare's duathlon

Well, the Shakespeare's duathlon is set for tomorrow, Saturday April 11, 2009 in Columbia, Missouri. I am looking forward to the race although current weather conditions in St. Louis of 50 degrees with rain coming down leave me worried about racing well in similar conditions tomorrow. The forecast for Saturday calls for 63 degree temperature but at race time (8:30 a.m.) will probably be in the 50's or maybe below. I competed in this race last year and recall it being cold and dreary so I guess maybe I should expect a repeat of those conditions.

However, the major difference between last year and this year would be the fact that last year I knew practically none of my fellow competitors whereas this year I will probably know upwards of twenty or more of those competing. So, out on the course I expect to either pass or be passed by athletes I have trained with. The good side of getting passed by those who you know is that you can gauge whether you are having a bad day or not. Plus it is nice to urge my friends to do well out on the course if I finish ahead of some of them.

I finally removed the rear bottle cage holder on my triathlon bike since I won't need it tomorrow and on the few rides on this bike I have been on, that holder has really bothered me since it tends to push my butt closer to the front of the seat than I would like. I guess the holder was designed for those with little to no fat in their rear which is certainly not me. I will post a picture of the bottle holder I removed since those not familar with triathlon training likely have no idea what I am talking about.

In terms of goals for the race I would just like to finish faster than I did last year and I will be happy. My final time last year was just under 1 hour and 45 minutes and unfortunately my splits were messed up for the final run leg though I know I ran my first leg at 8:14 mile pace and rode the bike at 15.5 mph pace. I think I am faster than last year so those averages should fall by the wayside in 2009. A secondary goal would be to place within the top 3 of the under 39 clydesdales and receive an award for doing so. This is sort of out of my control though since I have no idea who will show up to this year's race and how fast they might be though I did finish 5th out of 8th in 2008 with awards going to the top three clydesdales. Still, I will go out and do the best I can do and see what happens. If history is any guide, they will be giving out wine to the top three in each age/weight group so we will see.

The worst part of the race is having to get up at the crack of dawn (around 4:30 a.m.) to drive out to Columbia. I actually drove out to Columbia the night before last year but just didn't feel like doing that again this year. Plus, I think I ended up sleeping in and not taking the race seriously enough since I barely felt awake by the start time in 2008. So, this year I will probably have been awake for 3-4 hours by start time and ready to roll. Hopefully I have no mechanical issues and don't crash--knock on wood. So, expect a race report by the end of the weekend.

300k bike ride--crazy cyclists only.....

At the end of the triathlon season this year I will be competing in a full distance ironman race in Florida. For those of you not familiar with the distances involved, that includes a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and then a full 26.2 mile run. I am most concerned with finishing the swim at this point but a close second in concern has been the bike leg. One hundred and twelve miles is a long way to ride for me and in fact, prior to 2009 I had only completed one century ride (100 miles) last year that seemed incredibly far. The thought of trying to run a marathon after biking 100+ miles would have been laughable last season.

However, I have been working hard expanding the boundaries of what my body can accomplish so I have been going on longer runs and of course longer rides. There is a local series here (St. Louis brevet series) and across the United States that sponsors long distance riding and on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 I completed a 300k ride (187 miles) but there was a shorter 200k option too. These guys and gals are hardcore folks who habitually ride such distances though the rides themselves only attract about 20 or so cyclists. The course winds through the farm country of Illinois and most of the roads are flat with little to no traffic and perhaps a scheduled stop every 30-50 miles. Essentially we started riding at 6:00 a.m. and with a few stops to pick up snacks and water, gatorade etc and a 30 minute lunch we kept riding all day until 8:05 p.m. for this rider. By the way, these events are totally self supported with no truck or other help on the course if you get in trouble you are either on your own or at the mercy of strangers or whatever your fellow cyclists can do for you.

I was riding with another guy for the first 150 miles and we were flying. At the 145 mile mark I finally had to drop off his pace of 20-22 mph on the flats with wind at our backs because my legs just felt dead. We stopped at a gas station/convenience store at mile 150 and I bid him good luck and opted to sit down and rest for about 10 minutes. I just couldn't maintain that pace although I was sure I could finish the ride. Nevertheless, if someone offered me a ride back to my car I may have jumped at the offer. Just after I left the gas station I ran over a rock and my tire popped. Not a good sign. Changed the tire with CO2 for the first time. Easier than expected. My butt was hurting at this point so I tried to switch positions every few minutes or stood up on the bike to stretch the legs. I slowed down for about 20 miles but still probably averaged 15-16 mph on my own.

No one passed me but as the sun started setting around 7 p.m. I started worrying about riding in the dark. I had bought lights for the front and rear of my bike but somehow the clear plastic cover on the rear light fell off on the back of my car on the ride over and then one of the batteries fell out somewhere in the first 20 miles of the ride. You have to have batteries to start the ride according to the rules since we were starting before the sunrise and then in case you don't finish the ride before sundown too. Anyway, that meant I had no rear light and I was worried about getting hit and not being able to see obstacles on the road. I then picked up the pace for the last 25 miles and finally finished the ride just after 8 p.m (it was quite dark by that point). Throughout the ride there are a few checkpoints where you take a card given to you by the organizer to sign acknowledging you reached that point and also listing the time you arrived. Presumably this is to prevent cheating but I find it inconceivable that anyone would go to the trouble to cheat. Anyway, the last checkpoint down the street from where my car was parked was the police station in Edwardsville, Illinois. You actually sign your own card at the police station and drop it in a plastic box left at the waiting area of the station listing the finish time for the entire ride including all your stops and whether you would like to receive a finisher's medal. I think a lot of riders try to beat their time from previous rides since the 200k, 300k course stays the same for multiple events each season and I am guessing for several years too.

The guy I was riding with initially was trying to arrive before 7 p.m. to beat a previous personal record I think. He missed his goal and finished at 7:20 p.m. I completed the "short" distance 200k ride on March 14th in 9 hours 35 minutes and on this occasion April 4th completed the "long" 300k in 14 hours and 5 minutes. So, those are my personal records to beat for the next ride in the series. After finishing the 300k I vowed to myself never to ride that far again (or at least for quite some time) though the 200k seemed much easier. To be fair I ended up riding with a much faster guy on the 300k rather than a fellow rider who was not nearly so speedy on the 200k who I felt comfortable with pace wise. So, I may revisit my 300k ride again this season. However, I may need to find someone a little slower to ride with or maybe just get faster between now and the next ride in the series. So, that was my Saturday.

Sunday I woke up fairly early to go out to Chesterfield to run with the Ghisallo group--the group organizer had sent out an email asking everybody on their team to try and show up since someone from the local pbs affiliate was going to be doing a documentary piece on runners preparing for the Go St. Louis marathon in two weeks. So, I felt somewhat obligated to try and show up--I arrived about 5 minutes late and there was only one other runner present--a young lady named Jennifer who I am sure I had seen at events but had never met before. Anyway, she arrived only 1 minute late and said no one was there (only cars)--so we ended up running together for about 8 miles at 9:07 pace per mile. It was a good recovery run and a nice conversation with a fellow runner.

After the run, I drove over to St. Charles with the intention of meeting up with St. Louis triathlon club members to ride a Trailnet sponsored ride of 48 miles in the flats of St. Charles. Common sense might suggest to an outside observer that I am overtraining(weekend warrior come to mind?) but I think it is important to try and push my body to do more than normal to prepare for some of the long distance races I have on the race calendar later this season. Plus, usually some of the riders who show up aren't that fast and I figured if I implode on the ride I could just tuck in with the more normal riders who aren't out to push the pace. However, my mapquest directions were wrong and I drove to the middle of nowhere! Fortunately I had the race flyer which helped me locate the ride start 20 minutes late.

Bottom line is that I missed my friends start time so I ended up riding the 46 miles solo in 2:53. The wind on Saturday was moderately challenging but on Sunday it was downright punishing--I felt lucky to average 13-14 mph on the flats with a headwind kicking my butt 1/2 the time (with the wind at my back I averaged 18-22 mph). It was a good gauge of my fitness and gives me some indication of what my half ironman bike leg might look like at the Racine half ironman race in July which is allegedly flat too. The Sunday course was 46 miles I completed in 2 hours 53 minutes at a brisk but not fast pace with a headwind. So, I hope to ride around 3:15-3:20 for the 56 miles on the half ironman course--maybe faster if the weather cooperates but I have to make sure not to ride too fast and save something for the run.

Coming up this Saturday is the Shakespeare's duathlon--a 2.5 mile run, 15 mile bike and a 2.5 mile run. I completed this race last year and though it was tough I enjoyed it immensely. So, the time to beat from last year was 1 hour 44 minutes. Stay tuned for a race update after Saturday.