I imagine that the feeling is a little different for everyone, but for me the pain in my legs goes away, I get a huge smile, a burst of adrenaline and my entire body gets that “pins and needles” tingling. It doesn’t happen at every race, but when it does, I know it has been a great day.

At Timberman last year, the run course was a two loop out and back. At the half way point as I passed by the buzz of the finishing chute, I started to get “that feeling” and had to mentally calm myself down because I still had 6.6 miles to go and didn’t want to drain my adrenaline reserves with so much left in the race.

Yesterday, I did my longest training run so far for my first Ironman. 19 miles of running with only stops/walk breaks at “aid stations” that I set up to top off my fuel belt water reserves. At about mile 13, I started to get that “finish line feeling.”

It was the realization that all the pieces were coming in to place. My training is going smoothly. I am able to run farther than I ever have before with less effort. It was the ultimate “holy crap, I’m actually doing it! I’m going to be an Ironman!”-type of moment. But then I had to swallow it, calm down and knock out another 6 miles on my feet. There is still plenty of work to do between now and September before I can get that feeling again for real.

I’ve been dreaming of this day for at least 10 years and it is finally becoming reality.

I’ll be living the dream on September 12, 2010. Meet me in Sandusky, Ohio.

The biking routes are pretty sweet too. Just about all the country roads are framed with TONS of these blue and yellow wildflowers. I’ve gotta snap some good pics of some of the wildflower fields up here later this week to post here. I’ve been having too much fun riding to stop and take too many pictures, but there will be plenty of time for lollygagging later on.

See those mountains WAAAAAAAY off in the distance there? They are calling my name. I want to go ride over there later this week and conquer a few.

But enough rambling, lets get to the story behind the title to this blog post.

Yesterday a bunch of my friends I’m vacationing with went off to play 18 holes of golf, so I figured it was a perfect time to knock off one of my epic adventures for the week: head North to the Canadian border. I didn’t have my passport so I couldn’t go too far into Canada, but even if I could just roll across the border and turn around to head back home, I’d be a happy camper.

I loaded up my water bottles, pointed North and started pedaling. It was hot, but most of the route followed the lake shore so the breeze coming off the water was a huge gift.

Half way to the border. Stopped for 2L of water and inhaled a chocolate chip muffin at the Hero, VT general store.

As I started to get closer to the border, my phone started buzzing. I got a message from AT&T warning me about extra charges for international data rates, I knew I was close! I rolled past the “Vermont Welcome Center” building and there she was, the ultimate destination of the ride. Welcome to Canada: the land of maple syrup, hockey, God knows whatever else those crazy Canucks do up there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The border patrol was about a quarter mile past the border sign. I didn’t bother trying to go through since I didn’t have my passport and the map didn’t seem to show anything worthwhile across the border for at least another 10 or 15 miles. Not wanting to deal with over zealous border patrol or adding another 20-30 miles to an already 80- or 90 mile ride, I did an about face and headed home.

On my way back, I was riding along and kept hearing this crow squacking right over my head. I didn’t think anything of it until I realized he was following me. Actually, it was more like he was chasing after me and dive bombing me, as if he was trying to shoo me out of his territory. This went on for a solid mile or two, no joke. Once I realized that he wasn’t going to stop, I just yelled “SHUT UP BIRD!” and he disappeared off into the distance. Pretty bizarre. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?

And did I mention that it was hella hot?! This thermometer was in the SHADE at the VT welcome center. 90 degrees and barely any shade for the entire 88 miles. It was a really good test of my Rev3 Cedar Point hydration plan though. Nutritionally, everything went really well. I couldn’t have been happier.

Next up: exploring Burlington, running and whatever other adventures I can manage to think up while floating out in the lake and staring at the clouds…

By 5:45, me and about a dozen other endurance freaks gathered at the Boston Common, mounted our bikes, pointed South and started pedaling.

Destination: Provincetown. The very end of Cape Cod. 135 miles away.

We knew we had to get there by 7 pm or we’d miss the ferry bringing us back to Boston and we’d be stuck there for the night.

You’ve gotta love it when you can do such an epic ride with a group of awesome athletes and friends. Having great company for +8 hours in the saddle makes all the difference in the world.

The sun was out, my legs were feeling strong and the smiles just kept coming. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

At the half way point, we stopped at the Sagamore Friendly’s for some refeuling. They delivered my pancakes before I got my silverware. I was so starving that I just dug in and started tearing apart the pancakes and dipping them in strawberry syrup and eating it with my hands. Note to waitresses everywhere: don’t get between a triathlete and his food. Oh, and keep bringing over that big pitcher of water.

The P’Town Crew chowing down

Back on the road and we kept cranking along. We still had another 60ish miles to go.

Thankfully the second half had much nicer roads as we officially entered Cape Cod and rode up and down the dunes and through some gorgeous neighborhoods.

At about 70 miles in, I hear someone  yell out “TRAKKERS?!”

I didn’t recognize the voice as belonging to anyone in our group, and all of a sudden Trakkers Pro, Dede Griesbauer pulls up alongside and starts chatting. Too cool. We chatted about race plans, I oogled over her sick Shimano Di2 setup and before I know it she blew past our entire group and faded off into the distance. Gotta love surprise team meetups.

The biggest surprise of the ride came at around mile 90. I ended up leading the paceline for a solid 10 miles or so and felt really strong. We had some pretty fast riders with us and I kept expecting them to come up and make me either their dust. It never happened. I didn’t even realize that the tight paceline had formed right behind me until we stopped at the next major turn to make sure everyone had caught up to us and I got a few compliments about leading the group and keeping a fast even pace. Gotta love surprise compliments on skills I didn’t even know I had! Warms my heart. It also helps when we are at mile 90 and everyone’s legs are sufficiently drained and no one’s egos are threatened by sucking the wheels of slower riders.

Once I rolled through the 112 mile mark, I did a mental check. At this point at Rev3, I’d be getting off the bike and starting the marathon.

My legs? They actually didn’t feel too bad. The idea of running didn’t make me want to punch someone in the face, it actually seemed pretty pleasant after all day in the saddle! Could I run the whole 26.2 miles? Maybe only with a miracle, but I have two more months to squeeze out some extra run fitness. More than a training ride, this adventure was more of a confidence booster than anything else.

Nutritionally, I felt like I really nailed it too. While my effort level was way less than the bike course at Quassy and there won’t be a breakfast stop for strawberry pancakes, potato chips or beer at Cedar Point, I think I have a nutrition plan that I can trust. I started off the day drinking a TON (2 liters) of First Endurance EFS. Since it is less concentrated than liquid shot, starting with something that was easier on my stomach didn’t give me the GI issues that I had at Quassy. For the second half of the ride, I survived on straight water from my camelbak and a water bottle full of First Endurance liquid shot on my bike frame. I still have to work on the frequency of sipping on the liquid shot, but that detail shouldn’t be too hard to nail down and test.

Cruising down the Cape Cod bike trail

At around mile 120, we made our last stop of the day in Wellfleet. The Beachcomber.

Seriously, how could you ride past this place and NOT stop for a beer?

Pretty awesome views, right?

People were apparently very surprised to see a bunch of cyclists stroll up to the bar and grab a few beers and corn on the cob. I thought there was a good chance that because of the hot stink that we were laying down from 7 hours of sweating out in the sun, we would be ostracized.

Surprisingly, it was the exact opposite. Several groups of cute girls approached us and asked what the heck we were doing, how the hell we got there from Boston and were sufficiently impressed with our bad-assness. If I was a single guy, apparently strolling into a bar smelling like BO and wearing a cycling kit and leg stubble (I haven’t shaved since Rev3 Quassy) is apparently an AMAZING way to pick up chicks. Like fish in a barrel.

We stuck around for the last few minutes of the USA vs Ghana game. We lost. Got eliminated. The whole bar was silent, slowly dispersed and we jumped back in the saddle to finish the last 15 miles to Provincetown.

These were definitely the hardest miles of the whole route, probably simply because I knew we were getting close, but I wasn’t getting there nearly as fast as I wanted. I was eager to get off the bike, venture around P’town and toss back some ice cold beers. The last few miles were straight, flat and lined with beach cottage after beach cottage. The whole road smelled like beer, lighter fluid, charcoal and seaweed. It doesn’t sound like it would smell amazing, but it had me grinning from ear to ear.

Once we pulled up to the Provincetown pier, I rewarded myself with a pulled pork sandwich, onion rings and a root beer. EVERYTHING tastes better after 135 miles on the bike. My face was covered in ketchup and BBQ sauce like I was a 2 year old trying to eat spaghetti, but I didn’t care. I was just happy to have made the journey with an awesome crew.

The one last reward of the day, a bright orange sunset off the bow of the ferry as we ventured home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now I’ve gotta plan some more epic adventures. Time to get creative…

Following Sonja‘s orders, I headed down to the Blue Hills Reservation just south of Boston for a long day of hiking. I packed up  my Camelback full of goodies to keep me going for the whole day.

Side note: I LOVE my camelback for trail running. Maybe it is just because I have no hips and my fuel belt is just too big and won’t stay in place, but this thing is the best. It has little pockets for my wallet, FlipCam, Clif bars and my iPhone and is the most comfortable way with 2 liters of water strapped to my hump. Definitely one of the best gear purchases I’ve made lately.

But let’s continue…

Heading out into the woods and seeing rays of sunshine peek through the fog and tree leaves makes getting up early completely worth it.

Gorgeous.

Despite the name, I was a little unsure about just how hilly the “Blue Hills Reservation” actually was. I didn’t want to go out to attempt some epic hike only to be let down by some ill-named walking path. Thankfully, the blue hills did not disappoint. Within the first quarter mile I was walking up a steep rocky hill and was well into Z2. Happy boy. An epic day was had.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There were awesome views of the Boston skyline, tons of bounding between tree roots, sprinting down rocky descents and a helluva lotta sweat.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Four hours later and slightly embarrassed that I got a legitimate workout from hiking (which is just another name for a walk in the woods) I was done. My toes were pretty beat up from banging them into rocks. I may need to invest in some legit trail shoes instead of just my regular Saucony Hurricanes, but they did hold up pretty well. There was also a little beach and pond right at the end of the trail. Perfect for a little post-run soak. SCORE!

I managed to average 120 bpm for the whole day. Not too bad for endurance training? Right?! I’ll have to do this a few more times and bump up the time/distance each time.

Saturday night involved two games of bowling, an arm full of beers, a BBQ cheeseburger at midnight and a 1:30 am bedtime. Not ideal for an early morning Sunday ride, but definitely fun. Gotta have that triathlon-life balance!

5:30 am rolled around pretty fast and I felt like death. Thankfully I knew Kim was joining me, or I may not have made it out. Planning my weekend workouts early and sending some peer-pressure filled emails was definitely a good idea.

Fifty miles, lots groaning about my sore quads from yesterday’s hiking, staring at Kim and Mike’s butt’s, and plenty of poop and vagina jokes later, we rolled back into Concord High School and tossed back a few beers before calling it a morning and going our separate ways. Drinking at 11:30 on a Sunday morning in a high school parking lot? Gotta love it. Mike supplied the beer. It was the first time I’ve ever met or ridden with him, but he is definitely a keeper.

So I know what you are thinking. Epic hike is checked off the list. What is next?

Next weekend: one day. +120 miles. Boston to Provincetown.

Time to lube up the road bike!

Over the last three years I’ve managed to learn enough about racing and training to know what it takes to get myself to the finish line of a half ironman and that is what I did last week at Rev3 Quassy. Moving past that and keeping my momentum going towards a full 140.6 mile race is an entirely new animal. That is why I had this week marked in my calendar as my “re-evaluation” week. A time to sit back, look at the training plan I’ve been using, how well I’ve followed it, how my individual swim/bike/run strength is progressing and retooling my plan as needed so that I can nail the next three months and get myself to that finish line at Cedar Point.

Here is where it all stands:

• The “out of the box” training plan has been effective at getting me to a new course PR at Quassy, but is very bike heavy. My bike is definitely stronger than my run right now, so that focus needs to change.
• I’ve been doing regular track workouts and hill repeats, but am hugely lacking in long run workouts that go past that 13.1 mile mark at any pace.
• I have 100% NO CLUE (other than blindly following the generic plan that I’ve been using) how to address my running issues other than gently increasing my run volume and frequency up until the few weeks before race day.

I’m AMAZINGLY fortunate enough to have more super speedy athlete/coach friends than I’m able to count To help give some direction, I went to two of the speediest ladies that I raced with last weekend to get some tips on adjusting my training plan: Sonja and Meg. They have both been within reach of Kona spots at one point or another and have some sick run splits so I trust their advice. Plus, I know they read my training updates here more often than not so I trust that they won’t just be regurgitating what works for them, but will help to figure out what works best for slow ‘ol me.

Based on the non-existent ironman training experience that I’ve got, my original plan was to weed out one run and one swim workout on alternating weeks and add in another LSD or long-ish tempo run, with a good portion of them on trails to build strength and help keep a quick turnover. I wanted to avoid empty mileage at all costs and give each workout a specific focus since I think that was a major fault of the training plan that I followed last year.

At least that was my plan until Sonja smacked me around and set me straight. Hearing how few tempo/hill workouts she did was a big shocker.

While tempo and hill workouts are really common in high school cross country (the last time I could actually call myself a fast runner), Ironman is a different beast and I should take more of a “time on the feet” approach. Ultimately my goal is to do as little walking as possible on the marathon. In order to get to that point, I need MILEAGE. Instead of 10 hill repeats at the end of a 5 mile run around my ‘hood, I’d be much better served by a 5-6 hour hike with major hills. Even walking uphill for hours is apparently great IM training.

While focusing on long slow runs too much will just make me into a long slow runner, that won’t be bad. I’ve never actually ran 26.2 before, so running that distance at any speed after 112 on the bike would be a MAJOR accomplishment.

So here is the NEW plan based on a mix of Sonja and Meg’s tips:

• Focus on long SLOW (9-10 min/mile pace) at proper HR to build overall Ironman fitness
• Focus on outlasting, not speed
• Plan for some EPIC run adventures and start working towards them
• Adjust the runs of my training plan to look more like I was training just for a marathon
• Bump up run frequency to at 4-5 times per week with some two-a-days
• Keep track workouts really minimal – use speed work at the end of longer run workouts just to help break things up and keep it interesting
• Active recovery after big runs or hikes – short swim/bike/run

Now it is time to go plan for some epic run adventures. I’ve already got some exciting stuff in the works.

Can. Not. WAIT!

Last year I came unprepared and suffered. The short story is that while my training was pretty solid, I started off the race drained and with not nearly enough water in me. Starting a race already in the red is a great way to spend the day in a 70.3 mile suffer fest.

This year, everything is different. Ditched the coach, got a whole new ironman plan, a fancy new carbon bike, a whole new race nutrition setup and I have a whole mess of lessons learned from painful race mistakes to hopefully get me to the finish line a little faster and a whole lot happier on Sunday.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is the plan.

The Day Before:

• Bring my full Camelbak with me while I volunteer at the Oly run course aid station with two scoops of EFS. Slurp away slowly all day to have plenty of water in my system at all times.

Morning:

• Glass of juice
• Cereal
• Fruit
• Bottle of EFS when I wake up
• Bottle of EFS while hanging out in transition
• First Endurance MultiV
• First Endurance OptygenHP

Swim:

• Avoid getting kicked in the face and chomping on people’s toenails
• Suck down cup of water on my way to T1

Bike:

• Drink one bottle of Liquid Shot mixed with water in the first 40 minutes (400 Cal)
• Drink two more bottles of a weak EFS mix (~100 calories) every 40-45 minutes after that
• Continually suck from another 400 calorie Liquid Shot flask throughout the rest of the bike.
• Grab another water bottle from an aid station and polish that off 10-15 minutes before rolling in to T2

Run:

• Slurp down water at every aid station
• Mix it with a sip from a new EFS flask (400 Cal total)that I’ll pick up in T2

Post-Race:

• I’ll have a bottle with two scoops of cappuccino Ultragen recovery goodness waiting for me back at transition. I’m leaving it without water, so that I can just grab the bottle, fill it up with water somewhere at the expo and suck it down and hope that it helps me be able to walk normally on Monday morning. I love that stuff and it hasn’t let me down yet.

That is the plan that I’ve tested and seems to work pretty well in training. I’m pretty confident that it will work on race day, but there is only one way to find out.

Training wise? I think my bike is a LOT stronger than my run lately, but as long as I can get to mile 5 of the run feeling good, I should be able to bring it all home feeling good.

I want to get some final tweaks in my half iron nutrition/pacing/hydration before Rev3 Quassy next month. What better way to test out your fitness than to replicate a 56 mile bike and 13 mile run back to back?

If you like shaky videos with lots of wind noise, this explains my whole day.

If not, here is the quick synopsis.

The bike went great. I was rocking it. The best long bike ride of my life, then I cramped up at around mile 40. My legs still felt pretty good, but my stomach was all bloated and unhappy.

56 miles later, I rolled back to my car, downed some water in hopes that it would help reset my gut and jetted off on the first of five loops for the run.

I pushed it hard for the first 5 or 6 miles of the run. I got into a rhythm pretty quick and was feeling good, but then totally bonked. I kept on  pushing through, tossing water over my head and alternated sucking down EFS and straight water. Nothing was really doing the trick, but I eventually made it through.

Once I got home, I realized what the problem was on the run. All that water I sucked down went right through my system and didn’t get absorbed at all. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but at least it helped me figure out what was happening to me.

So here are the lessons from today’s epic race simulation.

I have a lot juice on the bike than I thought.

Sucking down tons of sports drink is great, but I’ve gotta mix that with plenty of water to keep things flowing.

“Emptying the tank” before a race and pre-hydrating is just as important as hydrating durring the race.

The more I learn about how my body works at race pace, the better I’ll be able to rock it once Ironman race day comes around. I’m slowly getting there…

I’m kicking off the 2010 tri season this weekend in Knoxville!

Friday morning, long before the sun rises, I’ll be in my car making the almost 1,000 mile journey down to the other side of the Mason Dixon line. Fifteen hours (God I hope it doesn’t actually take me that long) in the car with just my thoughts, my bike and my iPod. I hear Lady Gaga is good company.

Not only will I get to witness the Trakkers vs. Trek/KSwiss showdown play out in person, but I’ll get to hang out with a TON of my Trakkers, bloggy and twitter friends for the whole weekend. It is going to be tough focusing on actually racing instead of just hanging out with teammates all weekend, but it will be a fun challenge to try and balance. Plus, we issued a challenge to two other age group triathlon teams and it will be fun laying some hurtin’ on them.

I’ll be racing the Oly on Sunday morning. I’m not even going to bother making goals since I have NO clue what is going to happen. I feel like I’m the fittest I’ve been in a really long time, but it has all been ironman-focused. How well does that translate into olympic distance speed? I guess we will find out. All I’m going to say that I feel like a PR might be possible.

No matter what, if I’m driving that far to race, I’m leaving it ALL out on the course. I’ve got no reason to hold back.

I’ll try to blog a little bit over the weekend, but much more info will be up on my twitter account. Check that for all my Rev3 Knoxville adventure/road trip updates.

For most people, the triathlon racing season is just kicking off, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. For this guy whose main focus is on that big 140.6 mile race in September, the base training season is OVER.

Time to ratchet up the training volume and intensity to see exactly what my body can handle.

Besides just cranking out more hours and more hard intervals, I’ve got a bunch of other training goals that I’m trying to hit along the way.

Focus on recovery just as much as training.

Going hard one day isn’t worth much if you are so wasted that you can’t hit your workout targets for the next three days. I’ve been addicted to Ultragen after all of my hard workouts and I’ve been liking it a lot. I was big into chocolate milk as a recovery drink last year. Ultragen is obviously a little pricier than a glass of chocolate milk, but there is no sense doing all this training if I’m not fueling with some top quality stuff, so I think it is worth it so far. Plus, the cappuccino flavor is so freaking delicious it is something great to look forward to as a reward after beating up my body for a few hours on the weekend.

I’ve also been pretty awful about stretching, except when something starts to bother me. No excuses here. I just gotta make it a more regular part of my post-workout routine to keep me healthy and loose.

Anticipate raging food cravings so I can make responsible choices

The hunger is already coming. I feel like I have only seen the beginning of the ironman food cravings. The one major thing that I learned from my #i8this challenge is that the easiest way to eat healthy is to simply stock your fridge and pantry with healthy godies. If you have crap in the house, it will get eaten. Or even if you don’t have anything good in the house and need food fast, you are probably going to make some bad choices.

Start my experimentation with OptygenHP.

So far I’ve loved everything that I’ve tried from my new nutrition sponsor, First Endurance. Beyond killer race nutrition and recovery stuff, I really wanted to test out their OptygenHP supplement. All their stuff is based on tons of research, so I trust ‘em. They haven’t let me down yet. You can check out their site for details on it, but it has some special goodies in it that Tibetian sherpas use for climbing Everest and helps increase oxygen utilization, reduce lactic acid buildup and helps adapt to high levels of physical stress.

For the first two days, it did give me this strange tingling all over my body, especially on my face and ears. The site says that this is caused by one of the ingredients (Beta-Alanine)  activating some neurons or something like that. All this time they were just hitching a ride and not carrying their own weight?! Shenanigans! Their whole explanation is over here.

I’ve only been taking it for six days so far, so it is too early to tell how effective it is, but I’ll definitely report back if I feel that it helps me get through hard training days (and ultimately race day) any easier.

Get my legs smooth n’ race ready.

Nuff said. Soon it will be time to lather up and get these doggies race-day smooth!

Balance both my training and social calendars

Except for a few hiccups, I think I’ve been doing pretty good about keeping a relatively normal social life during my base training. Keeping Sam posted on when my long workouts will be, having a shared Google calendar and doing lots of pre-dawn workouts has helped to keep things pretty sane. It isn’t going to get any easier now that the weekly training hours will be jumping up, but definitely something I need to keep my attention on.

————-

I’m not going to lie. I was thinking about this blog post while doing hill repeats the other morning and was singing this song to myself (in my head).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy training kiddos. More training stories from the road to come.

I was snapping some landscape pics for a blog redesign that I’m working on (to go live sometime in the next few weeks) during a 2 hour trail run on Sunday and ran into a big ‘ol snapping turtle.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That is all. Just wanted to share this big honking turtle sighting.

Happy Training!

We immediately amended this with a 50 mile ride on Saturday morning. Besides just catching up on all the “life” that happens between each other’s blog posts, I did some major brain picking about tips for ironman training. She rocked a major PR at ironman at Cozumel last year and I absolutely respect her training dedication. I tried to act like a sponge as much as I could during the whole ride.

This is what we decided.

• I admitted that I NEVER pee on the bike during races, even half ironmans. Nver. This is apparently a problem. I know that I need to get better about my pre-race hydration, and if I’m not peeing on the bike, I still probably haven’t fixed it. The goal is to have to pee somewhere around mile 35-45. This needs some testing, but should give me a good idea of how hydrated I actually am so that I can adjust my intake on the fly and I can rock the run.
• Don’t spend the day before bumming around the expo without a bottle of fuel in my hand (and probably another in my back pack) to make sure I’m properly pre-hydrated.
• Keeping a semi-normal social life while rocking an ironman is possible. She is proof. Now I’ve just gotta repeat what she has proven.
• Pre-lubing with chamois cream is essential.
• Dropping some $$$ on swim stroke analysis will probably do me way more good than the same amount on coaching, V02 max testing or anything else. My swim stroke is almost definitely the low hanging fruit of places I can improve on to get my finishing times down.

We shot the shit about local triathlon club gossip, her latest boy stories and It also gave me a chance to show off my new Trakkers cycling kit that came in the mail this week. Gotta love some fresh threads.

Playing with my camera while Kim “takes care of business” off in the woods.

Here is to hoping that all these lessons learned transfer into some faster race times this year! I’m starting to feel a little more confident about making the potentially insane decision to coach myself to my first ironman.

**************************

Tonight’s workout:

1 mile warm up

8x200m all out with 200m jog between each

400m drills: scissors, high knees, kick butts

1.5 mile cool down

Time goal: 40 minutes