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Half Ironman Race Simulation

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Today I did an epic workout. Not because it was ridiculously long or hard, but just because I tore my own legs off for five solid hours.

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…

Tags: BRick workout, runners diarrhea, self supported triathlon | Posted in Cycling, Nutrition, Running, Training Log, Triathlon, Videos | 2 Comments »

Found while trail running: Snapping Turtle

Monday, April 26th, 2010

If you spend enough time outside training, your eventually going to see some crazy/fun stuff. That is why I’ve gotten in the habit of bringing either my Flip video camera, iPhone or still camera on just about any training day other than my speed workouts at the local track.

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.

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

Happy Training!

Tags: snapping turtle, trail running | Posted in Running, Training Log, Videos | 3 Comments »

Spectating Boston Like A Champ

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Today’s training plan was simple.

Get out of bed whenever I felt like it, have breakfast, jump on my bike, point my wheels south towards the Boston Marathon course and go have fun.

I had finally recovered from a pretty wicked stomach bug that kicked my ass this weekend and I was eager to see how my legs really felt without fully committing to jumping back into my training plan.

I arrived at the Newton hills (around mile 20) just as the wheelchair athletes cam rolling through. I kept weaving in and out of the crowds and chasing the runners up the hills. Total Blast.

As more and more runners came in, I made my way closer and closer to the finish line. I even managed to spot two of my Trakkers teammates, Chris and Thor out of the entire mass of 25,000 runners. Because of my fantastic efforts, I have been given the best spectator of the race award by the Boston Athletic Association. That is how awesome my cheering skills were today. Granted if it wasn’t for the bright green Trakkers gear, it would have been a lot harder, but let’s not dilute the awesomeness of my skills here.

He isn’t a local and I hadn’t actually ever met Chris before, so just yelled out “TRAKKERS!” as he ran by at around mile 23. He flashed a huge smile and kept on flying. I tried to weave around the crowd on my bike to catch him later in the course, but he was too speedy for me. Stupid one way roads. Either way, you’ve gotta love mid-race team meetups.

Congrats to Chris, Thor and everyone else that raced today. Awesome event. Inspiring athletes. Great day out on the bike taking it easy.

Here are some video clips of some of the top Americans powering it up the hill at mile 20 (Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi). Totally impressive.

http://www.vimeo.com/11065443

Tags: boston marathon, meb keflezighi, ryan hall | Posted in Running, Videos | 2 Comments »

Trail Running Love

Monday, March 29th, 2010

One of my Trakkers teammates, Jessi, had a great short post about trail running and I couldn’t agree more. I first got hooked on running with my high school cross country team and we would hit the trails at least twice a week. I think if we didn’t get off the roads and into the mud as much as we did, I don’t think I would have stuck with it through high school, let alone through college and now into this strange phase of “adult” life.

Wow, just imaging if my mom didn’t force me to pick a sport each season in high school so I didn’t just come home and sit on the couch all afternoon, this whole “journey to ironman” thing might never have happened.

Scary.

I was back home in Connecticut this weekend visiting the family and decided to hit some of the same trails I ran in high school that got me hooked on running.

Trakkers Trail Run

Saturday I did a short run around two loops while Sam and my mom were hiking. I met back up with them half way through the second loop to hike the rest of the way back to the car and catch up on life.

Good Times.

Sunday I had big plans of waking up just before dawn and running to a steep overlook (the pinnacle) and watch the sunrise, until some serious clouds put a major damper on that idea. Oh well… Some other time I guess.

Instead I waited a few hours for it to warm up and keep it safe.

First way point: An old quartz mine with tons of bright green moss and icicles hanging everywhere. None of the spring leaves have sprouted yet, so the green moss against all the brown practically made the trail glow. It was really cool.

Next stop: The Pinnacle

Almost to the top…

Overlooking half of Connecticut.

The best part of the run was that while my quads and lungs were screaming from the hills and completely drained me, the scenery kept giving me tons of motivation to keep pushing so I felt stronger at the finish than when I started. (my legs still might tell a different story, but my head felt great…)