Finally, the day has come. The Y got their act together and got the pool fixed for good, hopefully. Got up at 5ish and headed to the Y. Only soul there to swim. Air temp was around 45 and water temp was around 82-84. I can't stand it when I get in the pool in the winter and it feels hot. If you don't feel a little chill when you first get in, then it is definitely too warm. Couldn't shed any heat during the swim, so it got hot quick. Put in a medium effort for the 2,000 yards. Workout was the following:
300 warm-up
5x200 on 3:40
4x50 on :55
1x300 on 5:45
300 cool down
Finished somewhere around 38:30, can't remember exactly. Came home and got the kids ready for school after getting the wife a cinnamon dolce latte from FourBucks. If a coffee has three words in the name, then it ain't coffee. Then $3.72 for a "tall" (small in common sense descriptions of size) is freakin' ridiculous.
Had to go to a meeting in St. Francisville, so I got to go play golf at The Bluffs. A couple of weeks ago at a golf tournament up there, I won the grand prize drawing for a six month membership. Today was my first round and the start of the 6 months. It was great. Quiet and relaxing to play by yourself with hardly anyone around. Shot a 99, which isn't bad considering I have only played 3-4 times a year for the last 3 years. I only have time for one hobby and triathlon is it. Was glad to get out and hit the old sticks again though. It is nice to be away from the hustle and bustle for a while. Just me, my thoughts and screaming at myself for all of the bad shots. Hopefully, I can get some of my old stroke back from when I used to play at least once a month before the kids came along. Would like to get back into the high 80's/low 90's on a regular basis. Feels so good when you get in a groove, kind of like when you are swimming or biking and just get that feeling that everything is going right.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
No Workout Again
The freakin' YMCA is killing me. The pool that I normally swim in was shut down for like a month because the heaters were broken. So I had to swim at another Y that had an indoor pool, but it was 23.5 yd long. Made it fun calculating splits...Anyway my regular Y finally fixed the heaters last week. I was going to finally go train after my 3 days off from Ironstar. Just called them to make sure the pool was open. "Sorry sir, there was a gas leak and Entergy hasn't made it out to fix it yet. The pool is currently closed." Freakin' Y, that pool is closed more than it is open. I wish Baton Rouge had some public pools like other big cities. No I remember, we screwed that up way back with the whole segregation thing. Bunch of morons.
Day 4 of no training down in the books. 17 more days and this becomes a habit...
Day 4 of no training down in the books. 17 more days and this becomes a habit...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Ironstar Half Iron Race Report
Nobody reads this anymore since I haven't posted since the beginning of time, but I am going to try to bring it back. No promises, but we will see.
Once again, I decided to do this late season 1/2 to keep my training going late into the year. It was a good plan if only it had worked. My bike and swim training stayed fairly consistent, but my run training has been down all year including in the run up to the race.
My wife decided to go this year, so that I would have someone to cheer for me this year. Last year I drove up by my lonesome, stayed with a friend, did the race and drove home. Made for a long two days. We stayed at the Ramada Inn in Conroe, which was 30 minutes from the race site. We drove to the race site and picked up my packet and then headed to the hotel to watch the LSU game. So after that disappointment, we headed to dinner at Pandera Bread. Wish we had one in Baton Rouge. Ate a good dinner, got everything ready and hit the pillow early.
Got up just before 5 am, loaded up and headed to the race site. Got there around 6 am, got set-up in transition, hit the port-o-let and it was time to walk to the beach for the start. Got in a little 200 m warm-up after getting the suit on. They had women 30-34 and athena as the first wave, which was kind of different. Men 30-39 and clydes were in the second wave. It was a running beach start. Didn't go too crazy on the run, dove in and started the swim. Got punched and swam into a couple of times at the start as the first part of the swim was in a little marina cove for the resort which was fairly tight for 75 to 80 swimmers. After getting out of the cove, it opened up into the main part of Lake Conroe. There was a light chop that was in our face for the first few hundred meters as we were headed out. Not that big of a deal, but altered my stroke just a little. The swim was point to point and the middle portion was with the chop so stroke got a little better. About midway through, I came upon a big pack (12-15) of ladies from the prior wave. Picked a poor line and it took me a while to get through them. After that, it was clear sailing to the swim exit. Swim took 37:41 which was a little slower than I anticipated, but decent enough and better than last year. Some have said it was long, but who ever knows when it is open water. The wetsuit strippers were very close to the exit, so it was a rush to get the top down and then jump on the ground to have them pull it off.
Transition was in a grass field, so it made the run over easy. However, they had just cut the grass so I got grass all over my feet. Had to wipe some of it off before getting my shoes on so that wasted 15 seconds. I may not swim, bike or run that fast, but I pride myself on transitions. Fairly quick T1 considering the grass.
The bike is fairly hilly. Just about like St. Francisville, but there aren't really any flat portions. It is all up and down, but nothing too big. Plan was to keep the HR in the low to mid 150's for the first 35-40 and then pick it up at the end. Had a tough time on the uphills keeping it that low, but for the most part it stayed low enough. Knew it wouldn't be fast, but wanted to pace myself for the run. Looking back, I should have just freakin' hammered it since I had no run fitness anyway. After mile 40 it was mostly downhill so I was able to let it fly and pick up some time. Dropped my chain about mile 35 at the bottom of a hill and had to grind up. The bike course for the most part is out in the country. The leaves were changing colors and it was a very nice ride. Rode into T2 just a few minutes past were I wanted to be. After a 0:48 T2, at least I'm fast at something, I was out on the run at 3:44. All I had to do was average 10 min miles and I had my sub-6.
Wasn't meant to be. The first 4 miles were fairly flat, with just a few rollers thrown in. It was uphill on the way out, but not that steep. Felt good for the first 5. There was a loop that had to be run twice starting at about mile 4.5. The loop had two fairly steep hills, at least for my flat course running self. The end of the second loop and the first portion of the way back to the finish was between mile 8 and 9. I had held about 10 min miles up until about mile 8 even with walking the aid stations. However, the hills between 8 and 9 killed me. After that, it turned into a death march. Run as much as possible (2-3 min) and then walk for a minute. Wasn't helping. Got to mile 10 and had 29 minutes left to the 6:00 mark. My mind was like, "Dude, you have run 22 minute 5k's, you've got this..." My body had different plans. Couldn't get it in gear. Ran the last 0.5 mile for pride and crossed in just under 6:09. Of course, Guillory and Primeaux had been finished for over an hour, so they were there to wave me in as was my lovely wife. Ended up second clyde, so I got my first and probably last hardware for a while. I don't plan to be over 200 for much longer and those AG guys are just too fast.
Brandon, Mark and the LSU guys all had great races. They all looked like they were flying the whole time and they were. Haven't been running more than 12-15 miles per week all year, and that killed my run. Going to make that a priority in the off season. This race is a great venue and is very low key. The race is at a resort which makes it nice for the spectators. Plenty of restaurants and nice grounds to hang out. My wife says it was the best spectating experience she has had. I don't like huge races, and with only around 300 racers this is perfect. May be back next year, we'll see.
Once again, I decided to do this late season 1/2 to keep my training going late into the year. It was a good plan if only it had worked. My bike and swim training stayed fairly consistent, but my run training has been down all year including in the run up to the race.
My wife decided to go this year, so that I would have someone to cheer for me this year. Last year I drove up by my lonesome, stayed with a friend, did the race and drove home. Made for a long two days. We stayed at the Ramada Inn in Conroe, which was 30 minutes from the race site. We drove to the race site and picked up my packet and then headed to the hotel to watch the LSU game. So after that disappointment, we headed to dinner at Pandera Bread. Wish we had one in Baton Rouge. Ate a good dinner, got everything ready and hit the pillow early.
Got up just before 5 am, loaded up and headed to the race site. Got there around 6 am, got set-up in transition, hit the port-o-let and it was time to walk to the beach for the start. Got in a little 200 m warm-up after getting the suit on. They had women 30-34 and athena as the first wave, which was kind of different. Men 30-39 and clydes were in the second wave. It was a running beach start. Didn't go too crazy on the run, dove in and started the swim. Got punched and swam into a couple of times at the start as the first part of the swim was in a little marina cove for the resort which was fairly tight for 75 to 80 swimmers. After getting out of the cove, it opened up into the main part of Lake Conroe. There was a light chop that was in our face for the first few hundred meters as we were headed out. Not that big of a deal, but altered my stroke just a little. The swim was point to point and the middle portion was with the chop so stroke got a little better. About midway through, I came upon a big pack (12-15) of ladies from the prior wave. Picked a poor line and it took me a while to get through them. After that, it was clear sailing to the swim exit. Swim took 37:41 which was a little slower than I anticipated, but decent enough and better than last year. Some have said it was long, but who ever knows when it is open water. The wetsuit strippers were very close to the exit, so it was a rush to get the top down and then jump on the ground to have them pull it off.
Transition was in a grass field, so it made the run over easy. However, they had just cut the grass so I got grass all over my feet. Had to wipe some of it off before getting my shoes on so that wasted 15 seconds. I may not swim, bike or run that fast, but I pride myself on transitions. Fairly quick T1 considering the grass.
The bike is fairly hilly. Just about like St. Francisville, but there aren't really any flat portions. It is all up and down, but nothing too big. Plan was to keep the HR in the low to mid 150's for the first 35-40 and then pick it up at the end. Had a tough time on the uphills keeping it that low, but for the most part it stayed low enough. Knew it wouldn't be fast, but wanted to pace myself for the run. Looking back, I should have just freakin' hammered it since I had no run fitness anyway. After mile 40 it was mostly downhill so I was able to let it fly and pick up some time. Dropped my chain about mile 35 at the bottom of a hill and had to grind up. The bike course for the most part is out in the country. The leaves were changing colors and it was a very nice ride. Rode into T2 just a few minutes past were I wanted to be. After a 0:48 T2, at least I'm fast at something, I was out on the run at 3:44. All I had to do was average 10 min miles and I had my sub-6.
Wasn't meant to be. The first 4 miles were fairly flat, with just a few rollers thrown in. It was uphill on the way out, but not that steep. Felt good for the first 5. There was a loop that had to be run twice starting at about mile 4.5. The loop had two fairly steep hills, at least for my flat course running self. The end of the second loop and the first portion of the way back to the finish was between mile 8 and 9. I had held about 10 min miles up until about mile 8 even with walking the aid stations. However, the hills between 8 and 9 killed me. After that, it turned into a death march. Run as much as possible (2-3 min) and then walk for a minute. Wasn't helping. Got to mile 10 and had 29 minutes left to the 6:00 mark. My mind was like, "Dude, you have run 22 minute 5k's, you've got this..." My body had different plans. Couldn't get it in gear. Ran the last 0.5 mile for pride and crossed in just under 6:09. Of course, Guillory and Primeaux had been finished for over an hour, so they were there to wave me in as was my lovely wife. Ended up second clyde, so I got my first and probably last hardware for a while. I don't plan to be over 200 for much longer and those AG guys are just too fast.
Brandon, Mark and the LSU guys all had great races. They all looked like they were flying the whole time and they were. Haven't been running more than 12-15 miles per week all year, and that killed my run. Going to make that a priority in the off season. This race is a great venue and is very low key. The race is at a resort which makes it nice for the spectators. Plenty of restaurants and nice grounds to hang out. My wife says it was the best spectating experience she has had. I don't like huge races, and with only around 300 racers this is perfect. May be back next year, we'll see.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Week in Review
Monday: 2 mile recovery run at 6 am
Tuesday: 19.5 mile "speed" workout on bike at 5:30 am. After warm-up, did my 13.5 mile loop in 21 mph. Cool down on the way home.
Wednesday: 2750 yard swim which was a struggle. Ran 4 miles with a one mile tempo thrown in at the end at 7:50 pace.
Thursday: Half recovery, half moderate ride with riding partner at 5:30 am. Went 19.5 miles. Then rode that afternoon with my wife around the 13.5 mile loop. Ran a 2 mile brick run with her after the ride. I locked our keys in the truck and had to ride home to get them, so got in another 3 mile ride.
Friday: Cut the grass
Saturday: 47 mile ride at 6 am. Did the first 15 solo and then picked up with the BR Tri crew and rode peleton for the next 20 miles. Finished the final 12 solo. Did a 2 mile brick run to finish it off.
Sunday: 800m open water swim in a friends 40m pond. Half training/half fun with the kids. Got in 8.35 miles of running at my parents house. First 2 was with my wife and remainder solo. Went 10:30 pace with the wife and finished it off with 9:00 pace for the remainder of the run.
This week is an easier run week, so going to try to concentrate on swimming and biking. hope to get to 115 miles on the bike this week. Training is focused on getting in enough base for concentrated effort on Ironstar. About 13 weeks out from Ironstar, but getting ready in about 5 weeks to go all out for it. Meat pie tri is in there about 7 weeks out. Have a challenge from a fellow BR Tri buddy, so trying to do some short fast stuff to kinda be ready for the pain of a sprint. We'll see how that works out. Main goal is to get to sub 6 at Ironstar.
Tuesday: 19.5 mile "speed" workout on bike at 5:30 am. After warm-up, did my 13.5 mile loop in 21 mph. Cool down on the way home.
Wednesday: 2750 yard swim which was a struggle. Ran 4 miles with a one mile tempo thrown in at the end at 7:50 pace.
Thursday: Half recovery, half moderate ride with riding partner at 5:30 am. Went 19.5 miles. Then rode that afternoon with my wife around the 13.5 mile loop. Ran a 2 mile brick run with her after the ride. I locked our keys in the truck and had to ride home to get them, so got in another 3 mile ride.
Friday: Cut the grass
Saturday: 47 mile ride at 6 am. Did the first 15 solo and then picked up with the BR Tri crew and rode peleton for the next 20 miles. Finished the final 12 solo. Did a 2 mile brick run to finish it off.
Sunday: 800m open water swim in a friends 40m pond. Half training/half fun with the kids. Got in 8.35 miles of running at my parents house. First 2 was with my wife and remainder solo. Went 10:30 pace with the wife and finished it off with 9:00 pace for the remainder of the run.
This week is an easier run week, so going to try to concentrate on swimming and biking. hope to get to 115 miles on the bike this week. Training is focused on getting in enough base for concentrated effort on Ironstar. About 13 weeks out from Ironstar, but getting ready in about 5 weeks to go all out for it. Meat pie tri is in there about 7 weeks out. Have a challenge from a fellow BR Tri buddy, so trying to do some short fast stuff to kinda be ready for the pain of a sprint. We'll see how that works out. Main goal is to get to sub 6 at Ironstar.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Where have the miles gone?
Won't bore you with the details of the past however long it has been since I posted. My two readers are probably long gone by now. Just been steadily working my way through the grind. Slowly increasing my run mileage back up and so far, no heel problems. Did speed work yesterday for the first time in at least 4 months and had no ill effects this morning. Heading out to do a 6 miler in the morning. Will be my longest run since New Orleans Half Ironman. Of course, I don't know if I actually ran 6 that day either...
Have really been enjoying my swimming. Not getting faster mind you, but still enjoying it. I have been trying to get out of the pool and get some more open water in. Did an open water a few weeks back with BR Tri. It was more like a beginners clinic, but they opened it up to whoever in the club wanted to come swim at a nice lake in BR. It was in the neighborhood of one of the members. It was exactly 800 m long, so it made it nice. I biked from my house, swam around 2400 m and then biked home. Made for a great training day. Then one morning, I went over to a friend's house. He has a small pond in his front yard that is 40 m long. It's not very long, but it beats swimming in the pool everyday. Especially with how hot the pool is these days.
This past Sunday morning, I got up early and met a group in St. Francisville. We went 50 miles in the hills. Need to do some more of that before my showdown with my buddy Jeff at Meat Pie. This is his second year of tri and my third. I beat him consistently by a minute or two and he is getting kind of sick of it. It used to be that I would get him in transition time, but he has recently gotten better at the fourth tri discipline. So Meat Pie in September is going to be the showdown. Need to keep the pressure on. Got up this morning and biked from the house for 37 miles. Left the house at 4:40 am and it was pitch black. My headlight decided to go out (batteries) about 5 miles in. Was really fun after that until the sun came up. Had to get in a long bike before the weekend because I am going fishing off the coast for the weekend. Couldn't miss a long bike ride, so had to at least get close to 40 in even if it isn't my normal 50 to 60. Going to be swimming and running in the morning.
Have really been enjoying my swimming. Not getting faster mind you, but still enjoying it. I have been trying to get out of the pool and get some more open water in. Did an open water a few weeks back with BR Tri. It was more like a beginners clinic, but they opened it up to whoever in the club wanted to come swim at a nice lake in BR. It was in the neighborhood of one of the members. It was exactly 800 m long, so it made it nice. I biked from my house, swam around 2400 m and then biked home. Made for a great training day. Then one morning, I went over to a friend's house. He has a small pond in his front yard that is 40 m long. It's not very long, but it beats swimming in the pool everyday. Especially with how hot the pool is these days.
This past Sunday morning, I got up early and met a group in St. Francisville. We went 50 miles in the hills. Need to do some more of that before my showdown with my buddy Jeff at Meat Pie. This is his second year of tri and my third. I beat him consistently by a minute or two and he is getting kind of sick of it. It used to be that I would get him in transition time, but he has recently gotten better at the fourth tri discipline. So Meat Pie in September is going to be the showdown. Need to keep the pressure on. Got up this morning and biked from the house for 37 miles. Left the house at 4:40 am and it was pitch black. My headlight decided to go out (batteries) about 5 miles in. Was really fun after that until the sun came up. Had to get in a long bike before the weekend because I am going fishing off the coast for the weekend. Couldn't miss a long bike ride, so had to at least get close to 40 in even if it isn't my normal 50 to 60. Going to be swimming and running in the morning.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Hot Ride
Can it freakin get any hotter? Rode yesterday afternoon at 6:15. Temp was 98 and heat index was 104, brutal! Got in 20 miles at around 19.5. Did some intervals in the middle with an average just over 20 for the middle 13.5. Swam and ran this morning. Water was in the upper 80's and the run was miserable. Tell me again why I do this crap in the middle of the summer. Hopefully, I can lose this 10 pounds I have gained since November. My weight is headed in the wrong direction. Going to go for a short 45 minute ride in the morning and then swim/run on Friday.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Heatwave Race Report
Pre-Race:
I am in there somewhere...
Convinced my buddy Luke to give in and do the race, so we rode up together. He has friends who live about 20 minutes from the race, so we went to their place after packet pick-up. They cooked ribeyes, pasta, and grilled vegetables for dinner. Not sure that ribeye is the best pre-race meal, but it was delicious. Watched the end of the LSU baseball game and hit the hay around 10:30 pm. Sleep comes easy, so pre-race jitters aren't a problem for me. Was out in a few minutes and slept till my alarm went off at 5:10 am.
Got dressed and got our stuff loaded up. Had a bowl of runny oatmeal since I added too much milk and didn't have time to cook it off. Hit the door since we were running a little late. Race start was 7 am. Made it to the parking lot at 6:30. Hurried up and got set up, since we were literally the last people to arrive. Was in the first wave, so quickly got my chip and got in a quick warm-up in the water. Got around the middle of the pack and got ready for the start. Weather was awesome with a race time start temp of 60. About 10 degrees below normal for this time of year.
Swim (800 m):
Swim was supposed to be 800 m, but turned out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 to 950. Last year's race was short, with the fastest swimmers out in about 9 min. This year's fastest time was around 12:30. Pretty uneventful swim except for getting swam over once and swimming over two guys myself. Also took a little detour between the two buoys that were out at the farthest point out on the swim. Swim was U shaped and for some reason, I went way wide on the part between the two legs of the U. Came out of the water at 18:59, which was 6th in Clydesdales.
I am in there somewhere...T1:
Fairly smooth, but a little long for me. Time was 1:29, which could have been due to the fact that I was way at the end right up next to the fence due to the fact that we were late to set-up.
Bike(24.8 miles):
Bike was nice with it being on the Natchez Trace. No wind to speak of with rolling hills. Tried to keep my hear trate down, but it just wasn't meant to be. Couldn't get it below 160-162 the entire ride. It was up in the 170 range for a good portion. They had three large packs of 15-20 drafting peletons. Stayed out of them and made sure to ride a clean race. Tailed another BRTri member about 200yd back for the entire race. I would get closer on the uphills and he would lengthen his lead on the downhills. Finally took him with about 2 miles to go. He passed me in the first mile on the run though. Ended up biking 19.7 based on the official length of the race with my time. Bike computer had 19.5 since the course was a few tenths short. Hit T2 with a bike time of 1:15:31.
I'll let you decide if there was drafting or not...
T2:
Back down to my spot by the fence at the end of the row. Time of 1:18 which was disappointing. Anything over 1 min in T2 is unacceptable. Did put on socks though since I haven't been running and knew that my feet would not hold up on the 10k. Even with socks though, I can usually make it out in under 1 min.
Run(6.2 miles):
Settled in for a long run and was just hoping to come in under 1 hour. My run training since N.O. Half has totaled 24 miles. That is 8 weeks at a 3 mile average per week. Needless to say, I didn't expect much from my run. Run was nice, with only the first and last miles being in the sun. The middle 4 were on an asphalt running trail through the woods. Run was a little hilly. From around mile 2 to the turn-around was all uphill. Made it nice on the way down though. Got to see lots of BRTri folk and give some high fives. Beating another BRTri member, Jeff Crow, kept me going even though I didn't feel like it. With about 0.5 mile to go, Stephen Hollinger passed me and let me know that Jeff was gaining. Had just enough kick to keep him at bay and beat him by about 40 seconds. Run time was 58:27 for a 9:35 average. Not good, but not terrible for the lack of run training I have done. 2:35:42 which was good enough for 12th in Clydesdales out of 35. Missed my goal of top 50% though, but this race field is always fast.
View of my rear. I am the one in the middle with no shirt on.
My nemesis, Jeff (left), and Stephen.
It is something about the "Olympic" (swim wasn't Olympic distance) distance that brings out the fast people. Don't really know why. Always finish top 50% in sprints and both halfs I have done. However, haven't been close in the two Olympics I've done. Maybe it is too long for the beginner types, but not the allure of a big accomplishment to beginners as the Half distance. I know this, all you beginners need to put Olympic distance races on your calendars so I can finish top 50%...
Heatwave is a great race and one I will certainly do again. Also, Deanna Favre was out there racing and I missed it. Don't know if Brett was out in disguise on the course, but if so, then I missed it. Didn't realize until after the race that a Hall of Famer's wife, who is a cancer survivor, was out on the course. Bet she has the best bike and some nice gear though.
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