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Archive for July, 2008

Countdown to Rhode Island 70.3

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

I dropped off my gear down in Rhode Island this afternoon. T2 is in Providence, and T1 is about 30 miles south, down in Naragansett, so it was kind of a pain to organize everything. Check in was pretty much a disaster, waiting in line for almost 2 hours to pick up my t-shirt, chip, sign my life away on the regular waivers and otherwise do stuff that should take only a few minutes. I guess I can’t expect TOO much from a first time event, right?

I saw Chris while I was hanging out in line, and he gave me some shit for dragging a chair with me all the way through the line, but I wasn’t going to stand for 2 hours like a chump and let my already beat up legs work any harder than they have to before the big race!

Here is me in line, taken by Chris with his snazzy new iPhone, with a big doofy smile.

Speaking of beat up legs, my knee/IT band isn’t doing much better. I went for a short run earlier this week and the first mile was fine. I went super slow and my legs felt a little heavy from not using them much lately, but almost thought I was fixed and all of the soaking/stretching/foam rolling had actually helped…. until I hit that dreaded one mile mark and it all went to shit. It immediately started hurting and I ended up limping pretty bad and walking back home. It sucks, but what can ya do?

It is a little late to back out of the race now, but at least I know my swimming/biking will be pretty good. I’m just going to go along with the race as scheduled and hope that 56 miles on the bike will help loosen things up and will let me have a pretty pain free run. The day will completely depend on how mile 2 of the run goes, but either way I’m pretty determined to finish as long as it doesn’t involve completely destroying my body. I’m not above limping/walking 12 miles.

Spirits are high, standards are low. Either way I’m totally psyched for what should be a really awesome race.

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In Transit Duo – Interview

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

A few weeks ago, the stellar triathlon podcasters Cara and Elizabeth interviewed me and Cara and I gave our Mooseman race reports. The final show was just published and while I am not a big fan hearing my own voice, it was pretty cool to be on their show.

Check out the episode and subscribe here.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/usDD

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Contemplation of Risk and Reward

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Despite pumping out a pain-free +120 miles on the bike this weekend, the IT band still isn’t in great shape. It isn’t even in good shape. Biking and swimming are fine, and I can run a mile pretty comfortably, but it goes down hill pretty quickly after that and I turn into a big limping pile of pain. It is too bad that the run for the Rhode Island 70.3 is 13 miles, not ONE.

Now with just 11 days until my first half ironman, I’ve had to sit down, do some deep thinking and settle on the idea that I need to make some serious changes to my training schedule.

My original plan was to finish off my peak phase with a hardcore running focused week. While I’d love to get one more seriously hard run week in, there is no way I’m going to get my IT band back in shape AND do some hardcore long runs, AND be fully tapered in a week and a half. I’ve gotten plenty of 8-10 mile runs in this year so far, but nothing close to 13 yet. On my longest runs, I’ve never felt like I was getting close to the upper limit of my distance range so I’m confident (if my knee doesn’t act up) that I can pull off the half marathon, but I really wish that I could just do 13 miles ONCE for that extra confidence boost.

Possible rewards of hardcore run week:

  • Added confidence in the half marathon
  • Added speed/run strength, 1-2 minutes?

Possible risks  of a hardcore run week:

  • My leg falls off
  • I limp and cry like a bitch for the whole 13.1 miles

I’m not that great at gambling, but I’m going to have to say that few minutes (max) benefit that this late running boost would give me just isn’t worth it, for both my speed and my overall fun level during the race. This next week and a half is going to be full of just biking and swimming and a daily stretch-a-thon session. I’m going to completely forget about running… for now.

I’m sorry. I’m getting a little whiny, but I’m just frustrated that my swimming and especially my biking are so solid but injuries keep holding my running back. I think I’m going to have to focus on that hardcore this fall so that it can catch up to my swimming and biking.

In other news:

My bike, Angela, is in the shop and just got hooked up with a shiny new casette and chain and is all prepped up for Rhode Island! I’m picking her up tomorrow to give the new setup a nice and make sure everything is good to go for my A race. I’m totally psyched!

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