Route 66 Sprint Tri 2009

I went back to the location of my first triathlon to do the 2009 edition of the Route 66 Sprint Tri.

This time I have a lot more confidence in the water (practice actually does work!) so I was hoping for a much better race. Since my first tri I have a couple more open water races and I have hit the lake a couple times. I was doing this race with a couple people from work too so that made it a little more interesting.



Last year my swim time was 16:21 so that was my main focus. Last year was mostly swimming on my back and weaving all over the place. This year I was out in 10:09. I felt so much better coming out of the water this year since I was able to swim freestyle and just use my arms, thus saving my legs for the bike and run.



The bike was much better because of my swim. Last year I did the ride in 41:54 and was dead. This year the weather was even better (ie not much wind) and I was able to push a little harder even into the wind. It was a pretty boring ride, not really much to tell. I passed a few people and a few passed me. I think biking is turning into my weakest leg now that I know how to swim. I finished this year in 38:32, almost 3 minutes faster.




The run was the run. It is never much fun to try to run hard right after riding. My legs always feel like jello and I feel like I am just plodding along. I was on the look out for people in front of me that had my age group on their leg but I never did see anyone. That was almost a blessing because I'm not sure how much I could have pushed myself. Last year I struggled through the run with a few cramps and came in at 25:35. This year I felt a lot stronger and finished in 23:31.




All in all this was a great race for me compared to last year. My time this year of 1:14:09 was almost 13 full minutes faster than last year. Biggest lesson learned is practice, practice, practice and you will get better.

OKC Half Marathon

It has been way too long since I last updated but I have been super busy with a new job, training and fence building.

The OKC Half Marathon was kind of in a weird spot for me. I handing really trained for in since I was in a post Houston Marathon recovery period for training and pre Half Ironman training. I don't think I ever did a run longer than 9 miles leading up to it. The weekend before the race was pretty nice, a little windy but not too bad. Unfortunatly race day wasn't like that at all. Lots of wind and hot. Probably the hottest day of the year up to that point.

I got VIP passes from work so I was able to park right next to the start area. I felt like I was running late but I was able to hit the restrooms and make my way up to the start corral to where my pace should be. Not long after the gun went off and we were moving. It was wind from the south so we would have it kind of at our backs for the first part of the race. I wish it would have been a straighter route so we would have it at our back more but we wound past the capitol building and through neighborhoods. About the time we were at mile 3 I knew I wasn't going to make my goal of 1:45. It was just too warm and I was laboring too much. I made it to the 10k in just over 52 minutes. Not too bad but off of what I wanted to hit.

Then came the fun part. About mile 8 we started turning south right into the wind. It was blowing about 20mph and felt like 50. The temps were up in the upper 70s and there wasn't much shade. I was so glad that I was only doing the half this year. The full would have killed me. I just kept moving along as fast as I could. I ended up finishing in a new best for me, 1:53:44. I may try again for a half marathon on 1:45 in Dallas in December.

Now it is triathlon training full time. It is almost a job in itself.

Lone Start Sprint Tri

The beginning of April took me down to Houston to visit family, go to Astros opening day and do a triathlon with my sister. We headed down to Galveston early Saturday morning with me, my sister, my mom and a family friend. I love driving in Houston at 5 am since there is no traffic at all. Once we got to the island it was easy to find the race site by following all of the other bikes on cars. We made it to packet pickup, got body marked and into transition just fine, although it was a little close on time. I showed Lindsay around transition area so she knew where to go. It was pretty big and could be confusing especially on your first race.

About 10 minutes before the race started (I was in the first wave) we got into our wetsuits and made our way down to the swim area.




We got into the water and it was COLD. We heard 62 degrees and it felt colder than that. Once I finally started moving my wetsuit started warming up a little. Before I knew it, it was time to go.

We were off and I was making decent progress with freestyle. I turned over to catch my breath a couple times and I noticed I was off course. I tried to correct but I was still all over the place. I finally slowed down a little and sighted a little more to get back going the right direction. I was making my way back now and mercifully made it to the last bouy. I was out of the water and on my way into transition in 13:14. Better than my last sprint, but slower than I would like because of all the extra yards I swam by going off course.



T1 went just fine. I got my wetsuit half way off on the run. It was really easy to find my bike and slipped my wet suit off. I put my shoes, helmet and GPS on and I was off. The bike was very short so I pretty much just pushed as hard as I could while leaving a little left in the tank for the run. I was passing quite a few people that killed me on the swim and that gave me a burst of energy. The wind wasn't too bad on the way out but coming back in on the sea wall there was quite a bit of crosswind. Not real bad, but I heard it got worse as the day went on (sorry sis). It was pretty fun when we got back into Moody Gardens because there were a lot of turns which made me feel like I was riding into town in the Tour de France for some reason. I finished the 12.5 mile bike in 36:22, fourth in my age group.



The next transition was super fast. I had my shoes on in no time and was off running. My legs felt pretyt good considering the hard ride.



The run was fairly flat, but there were lots of turns that messed with my stride a little. I was still moving pretty well and the miles went by without too much worry or pain. I was able to keep most of my age group competitors away but was passed by a couple. I did pass one on the last hill in the last half mile though. That felt good. I came around the final corner and could believe how many people were out there cheering us on. Pretty cool. I finished the run in 24:12 (the course was about .15 miles long) and a total time of 1:17:19. Just over my goal of 1:15. I was 11th in my age group (out of 68) and 102 over all (out of 973).

The lesson learned was to get more open water swimming in so I can cut down on the mistakes of swimming all over the place.

Lindsay started about a half hour after my wave went off so I had time to get some food, a massage and we found a good spot to watch. We saw Lindsay come in out of the bike transition and she looked good. Not too tired. I was pretty proud of her to make it through the tough swim and windy bike. We then saw her come back in on the run and cheered her in. She finished her first tri in just over 2 hours. Not too shabby for a cold swim and riding my road bike.

It was a great race and I think we have a new triathlete in the family.

March In Okarche Du 2009

Well it has been a while since I updated this thing again, so time to catch up.

A couple weeks ago I did the March in Okarche Duathlon (5k run, 18mi bike, 5k run). It was supposed to be on Saturday but a rare snowstorm blew through and the race was moved to Sunday. What a difference in days. Saturday was in the 30's no sun and miserable. Sunday started out nice and by race time it was in the 60's. The only bad thing about the day was the wind that really started picking up as the race started.

The start gun went off at 1:30 with about 200 people racing. The first part of the 5k was nice because we had the wind at our backs for most of the time and the course is generally downhill. I was running a comfortable ~7:30 pace. Then we turned around at the halfway point and were faced by the 20 MPH winds. The 2nd half was a struggle to keep the pace and I was worried that I was going to blow up and ruin the rest of the race. I finally got into transition at 22:31, very respectable.





I grabbed my bike and headed out for the bike. You could really tell the winds were picking up (30mph by now) but it was mainly a cross wind. This was OK, but it was a struggle to keep control of the bike at time. My neck, shoulders and arms were getting very tired from the
constant steering corrections I was making.



We made one turn north and got the wind at our backs for about half a mile and I was doing close to 30MPH without even trying. The bad part was turning around and going back into it. Oh well. I made it to the end of the bike course in just over an hour, not too bad considering.

The second run I could tell I was getting fatigued. I failed to take any nutrition on the bike other than gatorade, so I was missing some calories. I wanted to walk a couple times but I could feel some people catching up to me and I didn't want that to happen. I pushed though and caught up with a couple people and passed them. By now the wind was really a factor on the 2nd half of the run again and I guess I had more in the tank that the guys behind me because I pulled away from them. I finished the 2nd run in 24:52 for a grand total time of 1hr 50 min 3 sec. That was 6 seconds slower than last year, but much worse biking conditions.



Last year I was 64th overall, this year I pulled out 34th with pretty much the same time so vs the field I have improved quite a bit. If I could have had a little better time on the bike I might have been able to place in my age group since I was only a couple minutes out. I have something to focus on now.

Spring is here

Ahh, spring is here. Great weather, green grass and racing season is about to start. My first real race of the season is this Saturday. I look at the weather and what do I see? A low of 30, high of 43 and snow. Huh?


Rain / Snow Showers / Wind


It is going to be a fun day.

Bring on Pikes Peak

Yesterday I was minding my business at work when all of a sudden I get am email from a friend saying along the lines of "Hey you want to run up Pikes Peak?". I must have had a weak moment and after a few minutes I decided, yeah, that would be a good idea. So this August I will be making my way to Colorado Springs to run 13.1 miles up the tallest mountain in Colorado.

From the website

The Pikes Peak Ascent® and Pikes Peak Marathon® will redefine what you call running. Sure, they start out like a lot of races on Any Street, USA. But your first left turn will have you turning in the direction of up! During the next 10 miles, as you gain almost 6,000 vertical feet, your legs, lungs, heart and mind will be worn to a ragged nothingness. But it won’t be until your last three miles, with still over 2,000' of vertical to go, that you will realize where the Marathon got its moniker—America’s Ultimate Challenge.

There’s a reason trees don’t bother growing above 12,000' on Pikes Peak. They can’t! Makes one wonder if trees are smarter than runners. Above treeline most runners take 30 minutes or more, some much more, just to cover a mile. What little air remains can’t satisfy the endless stream of zombies hoping only to survive their next step—a death march right out of a scene from Dawn of the Dead. Adding insult to injury, it might start to snow!

What was I thinking?

Frigid 5

I just realized that it has been a while since I updated this thing. Not a whole lot going on around here, just the same old going to work, run, sleep, eat...

I did do a 5 mile race this Sat up in Edmond called the Frigid 5. All week it had been wonderful, temps in the 60's, lows in the 40's overnight. Then Friday night came and a nice cold front moved in. Woke up Sat morning and it was about 25 and windy. Great. I got to the race picked up my packet and started wish I had worn long pants. It wasn't real bad though since the crowd of runners started gathering around and blocked the wind. Before I knew it the gun when off and we were running. The race itself was pretty uneventful. I had hoped to break 40 minutes, and I finished at 38:55 and outkicked a guy that tried to sprint down and pass me in the last few meters. Ha. Overall I finished 94th overall out of ~950, so I am real pleased with that.

The other running thing I am working on is the 100 runs in 100 days challenge. I am at 61 days and have 55 runs in. I should be able to make those missing runs up and get back on track.