Wet Again

It was good to get back in the pool after a week off. Today's work out was a lot of speed of work. The main set was 10 x 50 with 15 second rest, followed by 2 x 100 of active recovery, and finished off with 8 x 25 sprint with 20 second rest. It was hard to get the body moving this morning, but once we hit the main set, I was feeling pretty good. I was happy to be doing 45-50 second 50s (with out flip turns). Another 5 weeks until Columbia.

Tonight is the Tri Club Monthly Board meeting. These are typically entertaining with lots of strong personalities.

Me elected to something?

I was recently elected to the DC Triathlon Club's Board of Directors. Thank you for everyone that voted me and believe I will represent the club in a positive manner. I will do my best.

Please understand, I enjoy the training and the competing. However, triathlon is not a lifestyle for me. I am not out swimming, biking, or running like a lot of the members of the club. 3000 yds of swimming, 45 miles on the bike, or 10 miles running are all long workouts for me. We have club members who do that for a warm up. So I was surprised when some of the members asked me to run.

Run I did, was elected and on Saturday I became the treasurer. This is rather big organization. We have over 700 members with a core group of 100-150 who are really active. The club was started about 7 years ago and has really grown. It is time to start running the club more like a business than just a social club with an athletic problem. I really hope that this year we see growth in the activities, the training, and in some community service. Triathlon is a great sport than a kid can take with him/her their whole lives. Last year DC Achieve started the DC Kids Triathlon. I really want to push to have the club take a more active role in this endeavor and hopefully get it pushed out to other cities. I know that USAT and the Mid-Atlantic hope so too.

There will be more to follow as I know more.

The Celtic Solstice 5 Miler

The Celtic Solstice 5 miler has become a Baltimore tradition in a very short period of time. It it held in the Druid Hill Park in Baltimore. This year instead of a T-Shirt we received a very nice jacket. It was a great perk since today turned out rather chilly.

My friend Zina called me yesterday and claimed to be directionally retarded and needed a ride. So she showed up at the house this morning at 620 am so that we could make the trek north. Driving in the DC/Baltimore area can be somewhat time consuming. So even though the race was about 50 miles away I was taking no chances that we would make it there for the 830 start. We made it in a little over an hour, find a good place to park, got on the bus and finally hit the starting area. Packet pickup was efficient and soon we were ready to race--with 30 minutes left until start time. So we chatted with some other DC-Tri Clubbers and finally the race started.

The first mile of the race was uphill with a total elevation gain of 150 feet in the first 1.25 miles. I started off pretty well and was passing quite a few people until my left shoe started to come untied. I stopped to tie it back and my hands where so cold it must have taken 30 seconds or so. Then I tried to play catch up, but I decided just to just find a nice rhythm and run. Not more than 3 mintues later it start to come untied again. So my wooden fingers slowly retied my shoes and off I went.

The run was uneventful at this point, and we hit the aid station at (I am guessing) mile 2.5. I did not take any water and I kept on trucking. Not a 1/2 mile after the aid station my RIGHT shoe came untied. I really had to tie it--my car key was laced on it. That wasted another 30 seconds or so and finally I was off again.

Miles 3-4 were around the lake and I ran into my friend Brooke, who I haven't seen since July. We chatted a little and the chatting gave me some energy to pick up the pace. She said she could not keep up that pace as we hit mile 4 and I convinced her to keep running--it was only another mile. We finished the loop around the lake, made a right turn and started down the hill we had run up earlier. This allowed me to really pick up the pace and I ran the last mile just under 8 minutes sprinting the last 200 yds or so. It felt really good. The offical results haven't been posted yet, but according to my Garmin, my total time was 44:44 and my "moving time" (the subtracted for tying my shoes) was 43:36. So all in all I was happy.

Brooke and I met back up after we removed our chips and headed to the tent for the post race spread. We were both looking forward to the the hot spiced wine that was in there. Unfortunately, they were limited in the amount they could serve and she got the last 1/4 of a cup. I tracked Zina down after the race and we loaded up for the drive back to DC.

Now it is time to get ready for the big company Christmas party. That is always a lot of fun with good food and plenty to drink.

Today's Workout: Morning Run!!

This mornings run a 6 mile jaunt through Old Towne Alexandria. The last couple of weeks we had only been running 35 minutes and with the Nation’s Tri coming up for me and the Army 10 Miler for Janelle, we decided on a longer run. We ended up running about 55 minutes. Starting at our runs at 0530 it is still dark, but the cooler weather is GREAT. The picture is one of the neighborhood as I was running home!!! Tomorrow back to the pool and then a DC Tri Club Happy Hour.

A pretty good week of training

I swam easy on Thursday and just did not run on Friday. The heat and humidity in DC have caused the air quality here to be AWFUL. Joe and I ran hills on Wednesday and did not stay out for more than 40 minutes. When I returned I checked the temp and it was 82 and felt like 90 at 6 am. Thats just not healthy.


Saturday was much cooler and I participated in a DC Tri Club ride. The ride was moderate hilly and was a scheduled no drop ride. I did the 32 mile loop and attacked the hills pretty hard and did an all out sprint the last 5 flat miles. I felt that would be a good workout in preparation for Chicago in two weeks.



I was suppose to run a 20K today out in Leesburg, VA. However my stomach decided that was not a good idea about 1 am. I did not sleep much from 1 am to about 6. I finally got back to sleep and slept in until 8ish. I was feeling better and decided to get in a shorter run before it got too hot.

I ended up doing about 5.5 miles in 55:20. I felt weak and sluggish in the beginning but I was able to get my legs going after about 3 miles. I took my camera with me on the run and I found lost DC Tri Club Water bottle that had been washed up on Four Mile Run.




I did throw it away after I snapped the picture. I ran on the Mt Vernon Trail and passed Potomac Landing and had a great shot of the sail boats.




I finished up the run and felt ok. There is no way that my stomach would have let me run 20K today. Some days you just have to listen to your body.

Uphill Both Ways

I had always been told that the Columbia Triathlon was the toughest International Distance Race in the area. That is until I tacked the Charlottesville International Tri. My intent for this race was not so much to race it, but to use it as a long training day and get a gauge of where I stand for Chicago. The bike course was listed as moderately hilly. For a flat lander in the DC area I felt like I was climbing the Pyrenees. I also don’t do much trail running. The run course at Walnut Creek Park is a single track mountain bike course that is used for the XTERRA run course. This course is good for the body—but not for the clock!!

Prerace – Donna and I arrived a little after 0600 and I was able to get a nice spot for my bike at the end of a rack. I found the body marking area which what right next to transition. However, I could not find the chip pickup—only a long line for race day packet pickup. I finally realized that there were actually two lines, one for packet pickup and one for chip pickup. I got my chip and headed to the bathroom. ONE STALL was working (Need I say more).

Back in transition a little more talking with the DC Tri-Clubbers. It was good to see Hugh, Tamera, Stuart, and at right before transition closed my buddy Jeff showed up. I was glad he made it.

SWIM – The swim was an in water start at the left side of the beach, a lap and three-quarters and exiting at the right side of the beach. It was very nice to be in such a small group. This was not full contact swimming as I have experience in the past. I got into a decent rhythm and made the turn at the first buoy. About 100m past the first buoy I was viciously attacked by some sort of aquatic plant. Luckily I was not the only one. After I freed myself, I swam on to the next buoy. I sited ahead and thought to myself—“Wow, you swimming pretty fast. That’s the turn buoy.” Guess what? It wasn’t. However there were people on both their first and second loops that did turn at this point. Looking at the final times I can assume which one did that. I did the second lap with out running into the ferocious aquatic plant. I came out of the water, looked at my watch was very disappointed. I was hoping for a 28min swim and my watch had me at over 32min.

Prior to the race I debated to wear my wetsuit. But I opted not to wear it and see how my time differed from Columbia. I think a three minute saving on the swim is worth a wetsuit. I could tell on the swim I was working harder than I had in Columbia. So if the race is wet suit legal—it will be used.

BIKE – T1 was a short run up a hill to my bike. I dried my feet, put on some socks, biking shoes and I was off. The ride out of the park is UPHILL. I still had not regulated my breathing from the swim and here I was peddling up a very good hill. I peddled and peddled and peddled. So I shifted down to my granny gear and guess what?—the chain came off. The few seconds it took put my chain back on was exactly what I needed to get my breathing and heart rate back under control. Out of the park and turning left I was on the main part of the course. I was happy to hit my first down hill and take some of the pressure off my legs. As I stated above, the course was hilly. I was going up and down hill all morning. I had hoped for about 1:20 ride, but with these hill finishing was a laudable goal for me.

At about the 12.5 mile mark I saw a box turtle in the road. Its head was stretched out and he was taking his sweet time to cross the road. My comment to myself as I passed his the turtle was, “At least there is something out here slower than I am today”. Another couple of miles on the bike and I was climbing a fairly steep hill, I shifted to my granny gear and guess what?—it happened again. After fixing that problem I was off again and I finally made it back to the park.

RUN -- T2 was a short sweet affair and I waddled out on to the run course. The first thing you hit when you get to the single track is a steep and rocky downhill section. Since my legs were not yet working, I walked down the little incline and run up to the aid station at the dam, poured water on my head and drank a little Gatorade. Then it was into the woods. Running in the woods was nice since there was enough shade to keep the heat down. I still could not get my legs to work. They were just heavy and sluggish. I finally hit the 1 mile mark on the trail and thought that was longest *#$%& mile of my life. My first 3 miles took me over 40 minutes to complete. Somewhere after mile three, I really found my legs. The second lap (the final 3 miles) I ran about 4-5 minutes faster. As I was finishing up the first lap, Donna was yelling encouragement and she shouted “You still have another lap to go”. My comment to her, which the cheering section found absolutely hilarious, was “I am well aware of that”.

I finally did finish the run—much slower than I expected.

Overall—Charlottesville International is a small challenging course. Other than lack of bathrooms and a not so well marked swim course, the race is a good small local race. If you are looking to push your body at the Oly distance or what something an Oly/Xterra hybrid I would race it. If you want a PR—don’t even think about it.