SWIMfast

I spent a little time looking at the results of my two recent races, the Aquathon and the Lake Mills Triathlon and one thing stood out: I need help on the swim. I've come a long way, but I'm giving up way too much time on the swim and I can't do it all on my own.

Here are the Aquathon results. I out ran places 5-8, but couldn't catch them because I gave them too much time on the swim.


Again at Lake Mills, I gave up too much time in the water.




So tonight I started working with Mark at SWIMfast Madison. I'm skeptical of paying for coaching because I always think I can figure it out myself and that I'm going to pay a coach a lot of money and get little in return. That's not the case with Mark. Not at all.

Right now I'm doing 4 private swim lessons and I had my first one tonight. It was a 30 minute class and he gave me tons of good stuff to work on. I'm really glad I finally decided to start working with a coach on my swimming. I learned a ton. Here are some of my good points...

- I have good rotation
- I have a swimmer's body - tall, lean, long arms
- My right arm has a good catch/pull

Now for the stuff I need to work on...

- My left arm - I tend to pull in toward my body instead of out and then back in (like the number 9)
- My head is too low (when I started it was too high so I over-corrected) - I need to look forward slightly - I'm dropping my head and creating drag
- I start breathing too late in the stroke
- I breathe too often - every other stroke - it works against me
- I look back when I breathe - I should look to the side or slightly ahead
- I need to angle my palms slightly out
- I need to work on the timing of my stroke (front quadrant swimming) - I need to glide more
- I'm using my legs too much - wasting energy (maybe this is why my power was a little low on the bike)

And that's just lesson 1 (notice which list was longer?). Mark is going to send me some workouts, and I'll be doing a lot of one arm drills so I can fix the problems with my left arm - and this should fix the shoulder pain I've been having. I'm really pumped about this lesson. I've got some good stuff to work on and I think it's going to help get me to the next level with my swimming. Mark was great (and one of his clients was the first one out of the water at Lake Mills and he's worked with the overall winner - not too shabby). I can tell he's really into the local triathlon scene and he was really cool. I really enjoyed working with him.

So if you're struggling with your swimming, suck it up and pay a coach - I recommend Mark. You can only do so much on your own.

Cheri's working on getting her cycling legs back for the Danskin triathlon in July, so I took her out for a hard 20 mile ride last night. It was really windy, but luckily the route we had planned was an out and back that had us biking into the wind for the first 10 miles. It was tough, and kind of slow, but the way back was fast and really fun. For 19 miles Cheri hung on my wheel, and then I flicked my elbow and told her to take over and give it everything she has....and holy smokes....we averaged 24.2 mph for that last mile. Wow. Overall, we averaged 19.3 mph for the ride, which I wasn't sure she could do right now since she doesn't have that many miles in this year. I am thoroughly impressed. A few more hard rides and I think she's going to have a great bike leg at the Danskin. I gave her my old aerobars so those should help too.

Fixie update: Toby/Mark - you guys will be happy to know my Madison is still a fixie and I'm starting to like it. It's a great workout. But now I need to customize the Madison a bit. I'm thinking I'm going to flip my handlebars upside down and cut them off so they're bullhorns. Then I'll lose the rear brake and go with a front one only. Maybe some white bar wrap...chrome bottle cage...I'll post pictures...

Note to Charter: the bill came so I have a deal for you. Fix my Internet, and I'll pay my bill. Until then....

Race Report: Lake Mills Triathlon

What a beautiful day for the first triathlon of the year. Blue skies, little to no wind and highs in the upper 70s.

The race started at 7, so I set the alarm clock for 4 but woke up at 3 ready to go. I think I was a little nervous for this one. It's the first tri of the year, so I wanted to do well and show that all the hard work is paying off. Plus, Lake Mills gets a good turn out and plenty of tough competition. I have to give Cheri a lot of credit here. I told her I wanted to leave at 4:30 (not exactly the time she likes to get up on Sundays), and she was ready to go at exactly 4:30. I was ready at 4:32.

After signing in and going through body marking, I set up my transition area and headed out for a short bike warm up. Then it was time to get out the wetsuit and get in the water.


(Looks like someone needs to get some sun.)

I stayed in the water as long as I could to get used to the temp before heading over for the start - wave 4, men's 25-35.





The Swim: I started up front hoping to get a good draft off someone faster who could pull me to the finish. The plan worked great for the first 50 feet, and then I lost the draft and couldn't get back in line so I spent the whole time on the outside swimming on my own. It was a pretty good swim for me, and I came out of the water around the 6:40 mark I think. There's a long run from the lake to transition so my official swim time is...

Swim Time: 7:20

Swim Highlights: The wetsuit repair worked. The goggles are awesome (Aqua Sphere if you're wondering which brand). No panic attack. I wore earplugs to try and avoid vertigo and it worked. I was going to stuff the ear plugs in my pocket after the swim, but when I went to take them out I noticed one fell out when I took my cap off so I pulled the other one out and threw it...right at someone...sorry.



T1: 1:20

The Bike: The bike went really well, although they started my wave after the novices so I had a ton of bikes to pass...mountain bikes, comforts, you name it... Before the race I was afraid that might affect my bike time trying to pass a lot of riders but I don't think it did. Had I known they had an elite wave I would've signed up for that so I would've been in the first wave, but it all worked out in the end. I'm happy with my time and speed, but once again my power was lower than I thought it would be. I averaged 276 watts for an hour at the TT 2 weeks ago, but today I could only muster a 260 average. Not bad, but I would like to see a bigger number. Either way, I averaged 23.6 mph and set the 12th fastest bike time. I'm happy with it.

Bike Time: 38:07

T2: :41



Here I am giving Cheri a thumbs up as I come out of transition and start the run. "Thumbs up" for "I'm in a lot of pain, but I didn't die in the water."

Run: The run hurt, as it should. I felt like I was running slow until the first mile marker when I saw I ran a 6:20. At that point, I was hoping to hold that pace because I knew it would be a sub 20 5K, which was my goal.


Run Time: 19:43 (a 6:20 pace...how's that for consistent?)

Total Time: 1:07:09

Overall: 19/648
Age Group: 3/42

After the race I went back to transition to grab some of my stuff and discovered that my swim cap and new goggles fell out of the sleeve of my wetsuit when I was running from the water to transition. $20 on goggles for one swim. Such a waste. I really liked those goggles, easily the best ones I've ever owned.




After that, we checked the results, saw I had an award coming and then wandered over to the food table. On the way, guess what we saw...



What a great day! Great weather. Great race. I got my goggles back. I didn't die on the swim. I got a award. And to top it all off, Cheri and I are heading out for a bike ride in a few minutes. It doesn't get much better than this (although winning the lottery would easily top all that...maybe I should buy a ticket today).

Wetsuit Repair 101

I noticed at the aquathon Thursday that there's a small tear in my wetsuit, so I went to Endurance House today and bought a wetsuit repair kit so I could patch it before tomorrow's triathlon.






Here's the tear. It looks bigger in the picture than it actually is.



Step 1: Clean the wound.




Step 2: Apply the Aquaseal...




Step 3: Let dry.

Easy enough. We'll see if it holds tomorrow morning.

While I was at Endurance House, I picked up some new goggles....



Those suckers have more suction than a Dyson. I'm confident they won't leak, but they might suck my eyeballs right out of my head...or give me brain damage...or both.

Every spring I go out and buy a plant that I kill by the end of summer. This is last year's plant...




Here's the plant I'm going to kill this year...

Aquathon....Brrrrr....

Whew. What a day. It started with my first ride on a fixie. That's right. My new bike arrived, the Schwinn Madison.

If you've never ridden a fixie, it's quite an adventure. I almost got bucked off that thing a few times today. I don't have clipless pedals for it yet so I'm using the toe straps that came with it, and my left foot slipped out on the first hill and I tried to coast to get my foot back in and the bike bucked me up and almost threw me over the handlebars. Close call.

The second time was when I tried to coast over some gravel and it bucked me so hard it lifted me off the seat. I'm sure it was quite humorous to the cars driving by, but I didn't find it so amusing. Right now, I'm not really a fixie fan. I'm going to keep at it, but if I don't like it after a few more rides I'm going to flip the wheel and turn it into a single speed, which will lead to plenty of ridicule at work but that's okay.

After work was the first aquathon of the year....and my first open water swim of the season. If you're unfamiliar, an aquathon is a 1000 meter swim followed by a 5K run. I've never done one, so I didn't really have any expectations. I wanted to have a good swim (for me) and then take it easy on the run since I'm still sore from the half marathon (apparently, that half marathon was quite a beating on my quads because after an ice bath and 4 days of recovery they're still sore).

The weather wasn't looking good - high of 60 with a chance of severe thunderstorms. And the water temp was 58 degrees so it was a wetsuit mandatory event. I was kind of hoping for some serious storms to move in and wipe out the event so I wouldn't have to get in the water, but I also kind of wanted to go ahead with it because my first triathlon of the season is Sunday (Lake Mills) and I'm prone to panic attacks in open water so I wanted to get my first panic attack out of the way....and I did because the nasty weather held off and we got the race in. Just some light rain.

I expected the water to be really cold, but holy smokes was that cold. I went out for a short warm up (if you want to call it that) about 15 minutes before race time. It didn't bother me that much on my feet and legs. I guess the ice baths helped acclimate me to frigid water. And it wasn't as bad as I expected when it got to my chest. But putting my face in the water was when I felt the pain. It was really hard to breathe. I swam a bit and then went back to transition to put on a second swim cap hoping that might help keep me from losing too much body heat.

When the gun went off, I ran in and started swimming as soon as I could. The water was really shallow so a lot of people ran for quite a while, but I figured I came to swim so I might as well go for it. The water was super cold and I was having a tough time breathing...and then I had my first panic attack. I was really hoping I was over those, but obviously not. I swam side stroke for a bit to catch my breathe and then, more out of frustration than anything, decided I wasn't going to let open water get the best of me again and I started swimming. After a few minutes of being on the verge of another panic attack I finally settled down and found a decent rhythm, except I was getting a lot of pain in my left shoulder. That's been happening recently and I'm a little concerned about it. I don't know if it's an injury, overuse (doubtful since I haven't been swimming as much as I should lately), or poor form (likely).

Swim Time = 15:03

I came out of the water and into transition and experienced the other problem I have with swimming in open water - vertigo. I had my transition all set up so I could slip into my Zoots, grab my hat and go. I bent over to finish getting out of my wetsuit and...bam...I was on my butt. Everything was spinning. I pulled my wetsuit off and got into my shoes while sitting on the ground. Then I grabbed my hat and ran - a little sideways - out of transition.

Transition = 1:02

The run was interesting. I didn't realize my feet were numb until I started running. Wow, that's a really weird feeling. They felt like bricks. I wanted to take it easy and just have some fun on the run, and I did start a little on the easy side but as I started picking off runners I noticed my pace was gradually increasing. Eventually, I gained a little feeling in my feet and that's when I noticed the insole in my right shoe was bunched up under the arch of my foot so that was bothering until it slipped back into place at the 2 mile mark. I pushed pretty hard on the last mile and picked off a few more runners. Coming into the final 100 yards, I noticed the guy behind me was sprinting, trying to get me before the finish line. I thought, 'oh no you di'n't' (Cheri's favorite line) and I dropped the hammer. I held him off and even slipped past the guy in front of me one foot from the finish line. Everyone cheered, and he was so pissed he wouldn't even look at me after the race. Sorry, dude, but you gotta race all the way through the finish. Don't get mad at me because you backed off.

Run = 20:31

Total time = 36:34
Overall = 9th out of 72
Age Group = 3rd out of 12

I figured I would be a middle of the pack guy, especially since I planned to take it easy on the run, so I'm really happy to finish in the top 10. Now that I've done a competition that includes swimming, I have more motivation to get back to the pool and put some work in and improve. Motivation at the pool has been lacking lately, so this was a good thing. I'm pumped.

Race Report: Madison Half Marathon

I used to run quite a bit when I was younger. I didn't know what a tempo run was, or intervals, or even the distance of a marathon or half marathon...although I did know I would never run either because those are for "real" runners.

What I did know was that it was 1.1 miles around my parents subdivision and 5 laps seemed like a good distance to run. I ran about 5 days a week, not because I thought I needed 2 recovery days but because I never felt like running all 7. I never wore a watch, although I did check the clock from time to time to see how long it took, usually about 45 minutes. I never figured out what pace that was, although I suspected it was horribly slow. I didn't consider myself a runner. I was just a kid with a pair of running shoes from Kohls (which would be replaced years later when the stitching began to give way because I figured that's how you knew your running shoes had reached their limit) who liked how he felt after a good run, especially after running at night. I loved running at night, still do.

Now my running is dominated by my Garmin, pace zones, heart rate zones, tempo runs, striders, training logs... you name it. I replace my shoes after about 400 miles. And even though I ran my 3rd half marathon today, a distance I thought I would never be able to run, I still don't consider myself a runner. And sometimes I wish I could get over my obsession with tracking everything and just strap on running shoes and run, not because I need to get some miles in, but because I like the way I feel after a good run.

Today was the Madison Half Marathon, my 3rd, Cheri's first. And I made 2 mistakes, one of which I make every single time and it's the reason I've been thinking about how I sometimes miss the old days of running simply for the sake of running.

Mistake number 1 was thinking 30 minutes would be enough time to go to the bathroom and get to the starting line. They didn't have half the number of porta crappers they needed, and Cheri and I were still in line when they sounded the horn and sent the runners. We started about 7 minutes late, which meant we'd have a lot of runners to pass.

I ran like an asshole for about 9 miles, forcing my way through groups of runners, bumping elbows, running on the grass or sidewalk. I felt bad being so aggressive, but I didn't want to let missing the start ruin my race. I wasted a lot of energy searching for gaps to run through, and since I was running a different pace than everyone else I never had a chance to get any water at the water stations.

Mistake number 2...I do this every time...I forgot to turn off the auto-pause on my watch. I really wanted to run 7 minute miles, and thought that I might have an outside shot at cracking 1:30. I wore a 1:30 pace band so I could see how far off pace I was because I wanted to start out somewhat on the conservative side (if you consider 7 minute miles conservative, that is). I wanted to be about 60-80 seconds off a 1:30 pace at mile 10, and then try to run a hard 5K. I hit the 10 mile mark exactly 80 seconds off pace (or so I thought) and then dropped the hammer. I was running a 6:59 average at the time and I needed to drop that down to close to 6:30s to hit my goal. The hammer I dropped wasn't nearly big enough as I was only able to bring my current pace down to 6:45...and that really, really hurt.

The hills had gotten to me, and I quickly realized 1:30 was out of reach. But 1:31 wasn't so I ignored the horrible pain in my quads and kept pushing on. I finished in 1:31:06....according to my watch.

It turns out my watch was on auto-pause for about a minute, so my official time was 1:32:13, a 7:03 average pace. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy with that time. It's a PR by more than 20 minutes. But I'm a little frustrated that I thought I hit one of my goals when I didn't, and I think I would've paced myself differently in the middle had I known my actual pace. Garmins are great, but sometimes I think I should race without it. I've raced 2 5Ks without my Garmin, and both were PRs. Maybe a Timex and paceband is the way to go.

Technology...it's great, but sometimes all it does is make things difficult.

Cheri had a great race. I tried to get her to write a race report, but she said she'd rather nap on the couch. She wanted to run a sub 2:10, with a sub 2:00 being a pie-in-the-sky goal. She, too, had to work her way through a lot of runners (I'm sure she was more polite about it than I was) and came across the line in 2:01:06, a 9:15 pace. That's a killer time for a first half marathon, especially one as hilly as this was.




Notice the watch on Cheri's left wrist. That's her new Garmin 405, her b-day present from me. Maybe I should have gotten her a Timex and a paceband instead.

Here's a picture of Cheri with Tim, her boss when she worked in HR. He accidentally ran the half marathon today. He signed up for the quarter marathon, but followed the wrong route (notice...we found him hanging out around the medical tent...he was feeling a little rough).



Since we knew some people who ran this race, congratulations go out to the following people for a great race....

Marathon:
Steve K. - 3:58:34
Mike & Jen W. - 6:36:35

Half Marathon:
Ryan G. - 1:27:27
Jim T. - 1:39:49
Jason V. - 1: 56:29
Bob K. - 2:00:26
Al H. - 2:02:01
Jason K. - 2:04:46
Tim M. - ??? -no official time since he ran the wrong race


We saw this girl on our way to the expo Saturday. Check out the handlebars....

Double Bong 40K TT

It turns out the park is named after Richard Bong. I have no idea who that is, but at least the name makes sense to me now.

The race was a two hitter, if you will. Two laps around the park. Registration is at Brighton School, and the race starts down the road a little ways and is one big rectangle with 3 right turns. It's pretty flat and the roads are really nice with little traffic. It's a great TT route. Here's a picture from my warm up ride...



Don't be fooled. It wasn't that nice out. It was cold and really windy. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but clouds rolled in and we didn't see the sun too much once the racing started.

One thing about TTs: those guys are FAST. And serious. Lots of skinsuits, aero helmets, disc wheels...



I had two goals for this event: 1. Suffer 2. Under 1 hour.

I knew I could make myself suffer, but breaking an hour was a long shot. But it's like the 4 hour marathon, everyone wants to do a 40K TT in under an hour so I figured I might as well go for it. Since I knew it was a long shot, I wasn't going to be disappointed if I didn't make it.

I figured I could average around 275 watts, so I tried to hold back a bit in the beginning and pace myself. It's easy to ride well above threshold in the beginning, but you'll pay the price big time later on. The race started and ended with a tailwind, so you got a chance to start out with some decent speed.

Eight minutes into the ride, I looked down and I was averaging 26.5 mph and the guy who started one minute behind me passed me like I was tied to a pole. I told you those guys are fast. My average speed dropped as I turned into the wind. I watched my power closely the whole time and, after the first few miles, tried to make sure I kept it at 280 or higher. It was tough, but I finished the first lap in about 30 minutes with an average power of 279.

My goal was to suffer, and suffer I did. The second lap was painful. I was tired, the wind was brutal and I was really struggling to keep my power up. I told myself I would make the last few miles really, really hurt. I wanted to finish with nothing left.

I stepped it up a bit the last few miles and I was able to keep my power around 300, and it became a total sufferfest. My legs were aching, and I kept telling myself to 'make it hurt.'

Even with stepping it up a bit, I finished with an average power of 275 so my power dropped a bit on the second lap. And I didn't break an hour, but I came close so I'm really happy with my ride. Not satisfied, but happy (my high school football coach once told me it's okay to be happy with your performance, but never satisfied - or you're done improving - and it stuck with me). It was tough and I gave it everything I had and that's all you can do.

Time: 1:00:44

Only 44 seconds off my goal. Not bad. That's a 24 mph average (the course was 24.4 miles, a little short of a full 40K). Some guys finished in around 55 minutes, which comes to about a 27 mph average. That's crazy fast.

I haven't seen the final results yet so I don't know how I did in my category. Mid pack is my guess.

I was supposed to run tonight, but my legs are really sore and I don't think it's a good idea so I'm going to rest up. Only one week until the Madison Half Marathon.

Race Report: Beloit Biathlon

I haven't been able to update my blog much lately because I've been having a hard time getting online (Charter sucks). One of these days I'm going to call Charter and go off on them, but I've been in a good mood the past few days so I need to wait until I'm in a really bad mood because I'd hate to accidentally be nice to them and not stress what a rip off their service (or lack thereof) is at $110 a month.

I could go on forever about them, but instead...This morning I ran the Beloit Duathlon, I mean, Biathlon (they call it a biathlon). It was a 2 mile run, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run. This was my first ever multisport event last year, and I pushed so hard on the bike my average HR was 97% of max and I had to walk a little on the run because I thought I was going to die. So this year my goals were...1. No walking. 2. Top 10 overall.

Finally...a nice day. Warm, sunny, but really windy (I kind of like it that way since the bike course is so flat...makes it a little tougher).

Check out the transition area. That's my bike. I was the first one there. If you're wondering why I parked so far away in an empty parking lot...it's because that's the way I roll. Also, notice we finally have leaves on the trees. Spring is officially here. It's official like a referee with a whistle (btw, I heard that line on TV and Cheri hates is so much it's quickly becaming a favorite of mine).



I signed up for the 9am elite wave so I headed out for a good 45 minute warm-up about 7:50. I rode the bike course with a few hard intervals thrown in to get my legs used to the lactic acid. Then I made sure my transition area was ready to go, hit the porta-crapper and did a short run warm up. Then we had the pre-race meeting and we were off. For being the first one there, I didn't really have any time to waste.

Run #1 - The first run was fast. I wanted to run about a 6:30 pace, but I switched my Garmin to kilometers last weekend for my 20K run and I forgot to switch it back so I was getting my pace in mpk and it didn't mean much to me. I ended up running a 6:08 pace and I came into the first transition in 8th place. It worked out because a 6:30 pace would've been too conservative.

There was some construction on the run route so we had to run through gravel and up onto a new concrete road and eventually back down, through gravel and back on the road. Not ideal, but it wasn't that bad (except I did slip on loose gravel stepping down and almost fell on my face).




T1 - Fast. I had my bike shoes clipped in already, so I got out of my running shoes, put on my helmet and I was off.

Bike - I must say, I'm pretty proud of my ride today. I started the bike in 8th place and caught and passed the leaders with a few miles to go. I pulled a bit of a gap and then in the last mile my right calf cramped up really bad and second place caught me while I was trying to stretch it out a bit. We were side by side going into transition, but he forgot to get out of his shoes early enough and I passed him again so I was first into T2....and....the best part...I won the bike! They didn't do chip timing so it is possible someone in a different wave beat my bike time, but I'm confident enough that that didn't happen to say that I won the bike today (even if I didn't I was in first place for a few miles and first into T2 and that was really, really fun). My average speed was 23.6 mph.

Here's a shot of the bike course I took on my warm up...



T2 - The lead didn't last long. My calf locked up and I was limping pretty good going into T2 and lost the lead. I racked my bike, took off my helmet and put on my running shoes and hobbled to the transition exit where I lost goal #1. They had a water station at the end of the transition and I had to walk through it and massage my calf because I couldn't run. It was locked up really tight. What is it with this race? 2 years in a row I've had to walk... but this time it was only for a few feet.

Run #2 - It didn't take long for 3rd place to catch and pass me (he eventually ran down the leader and won). I hobbled along a bit and my calf finally loosened up about the half mile mark. I checked back to see where 4th was and luckily I had a decent gap so I hung on for 3rd overall. I screwed up my splits by not hitting the lap button in time, so I don't know my exact times but I do know my average pace on the second run was around 6:50.

I finished in about 53 minutes and took 3rd overall and 1st in the 30-39 age group. And although I lost some time with the cramp and almost fell in the construction zone, I had tons of fun today. They said they were thinking of calling it quits after 19 years of running this event, but they're planning at least one more year and I have to say I really hope they keep this going. It's a small, but really fun, well-run event and we need more events like this in the area.



After the race I hung out and cheered everyone on while I waited for the awards ceremony. Then I stopped by my parents house and my dad was heading out to watch my nephew take his karate test so I tagged along. My mom was at work and she works at the Beloit Clinic where the Duathlon was held. I wish I had told them I doing the event. Maybe she could've gotten out for a few minutes to watch.

Here's a picture of my nephew dominating the dojo. I wanted to get a shot of his hands covered in blood when his partner got a bloody nose (I thought that would be a better shot of "dominating the dojo") but I didn't get a chance.




Tomorrow...The Double Bong 40K TT. If you're curious, the name comes from the location - Bong State Park (who named that park, I wonder).