2 months to EagleMan

Today marks 2 months to go until my first long distance triathlon – the EagleMan 70.3. 

My preparation has not been ideal, but I am really looking forward to see how I can handle a longer race.  I am also excited to see that some top level pro’s like Craig Alexander and Mirinda Carfrae are competing too (go aussies!).

The organizers of the race have recently posted the swim wave times – I’ll be in the 2nd 40-44 wave starting at 7:26am.  This is great.  The pro men/women start at 6:45 & 6:47 then wave 1 is M55+, Women 50+, Para triathletes @ 6:50, Wave 2 M 50-54 @ 7:10, Wave 3 M 40-44 A-K @ 7:18.  Since the run leg is out-and-back I am hoping that I will get to see them while I am starting the run.  Most of the first 4.5 miles of the run is also on the bike course, so even if I am slower than expected, I should get to see some of the pro’s.  This is the first event I have entered that has a pro field, and the first Ironman branded event.

At the start of this year – I published some race goals – at the time I was hoping for somewhere between 5:30 and 6hrs to finish 70.3 miles. To finish in 5:30 I am going to have to do the following:

• Swim 0:37 (1:45/100y)
• Bike 2:50 (19.76 mph)
• Run 1:55 (8:47/mile)

This allows for 3:00 each in T1 and T2 and I’d be at 5:28 total time.  If I have a great day, I think I can go faster than that – at least for the individual sports.  What I don’t know is how putting all 3 together for the longer distance will change things, especially when including environmental factors such as the heat/wind that is a common occurrence at this venue  and of course whether it will be wetsuit legal.  For me, a wetsuit makes a huge difference.

Over the past year running has been the toughest for me.  I have finally managed to run consistently for the last 6 weeks.  The physical therapy seems to have really worked.  Last weekend I had my longest run of 1hr20mins, and need to get up to 2hrs in the next 6 weeks. 

I have 2 races planned before EagleMan – the Kinetic Sprint Triathlon  on May 15th and a open water swim in Reston on May 29th.  These races should give me a good indication of how ready I am going to be come race day.  My mindset is now not whether I can make the distance, but how much faster can I get between now and race day!

March Totals

Wow – the year is 1/4 over as far as the calendar goes.  January and February for me were focused on physical therapy, to fix the problems I had with my calf and the hip imbalance's that we found.

For march I was finally able to start running again, building up from 45 minutes to just over 1hr for the longer sessions.  Here’s a summary from training peaks.

Swim 17,350 yards   5.5 hours
Bike    229 miles         11.8 hrs
Run    89.6 miles        12.6 hrs
Mtb    14.9 miles          2.5 hrs
Other (stretching)     11 hrs
Days with no training - 3

Overall I am happy with that – I thought I had spend more time on the bike, but it has been hard with some of the traveling that I have been doing, including a 4 day weekend at the beach.  If I add the 2.5 hr mountain bike ride the bike total looks a little better.

April has started off quite a bit differently.  Since returning from California, I’ve managed to bring back a nasty flu that has meant no training for the last 4 days.  I am hoping that tomorrow I can at least get some light exercise for 30minutes.  I did have a flu shot last year, I guess that it has worn off by now.  I haven’t been as frustrated as I thought, since I really have been feeling off.  Today is the first day where I was feeling a little agitated.  I’ll take that as a sign that I am getting better.  All of the coughing that I have been doing has worked out the abs though!

MTB Ride in California

I often travel to my company’s headquarters in Redwood City, California.  Last week I managed to get in an afternoon mountain bike ride in Belmont, out of the Passion Trails Bikes shop.  they set me up with a sweet full suspension 29er (Pivot 429) and off I went with a friend from the office.  The people there are really great, and they had a bbq after their usual Wednesday evening ride along with a few beers, what more could you want!

We managed to squeeze in a 2.5 hr ride before the darkness set in.

I haven’t ridden an MTB for many years – it has got to be about 10.  The training over the winter in the basement seems to have paid off as I was easily able to keep up and power through the whole ride.  I thought my bike handling would be a but rusty, but after the first few descents I was ready to go.  The terrain there was really varied, a lot of narrow single track and many steep & technical sections.  There are a lot of trails that intersect and the view from the top of some was magnificent.

Here’s a few that I managed to snap off – they aren’t the best, I was focusing on riding and not playing tourist!

It was such a beautiful day, in the mid 70’s.

from near the top – you can see the bay close to Foster City.

this one is looking more towards redwood city – we rode the trails all over the valley in the foreground. 

this last picture is not one of mine – I grabbed it from the Passion Trail website.  I remember riding this section both up and down.  it is actually steeper than it looks.

I am really looking to getting back there again for my next trip – which is looking like it will be the end of April.

Running Progress

It has been almost 6 weeks since my last post – that was my first week of running since getting treatment for my calf issues.

Since then I have officially graduated from physical therapy!  I am now free to run! – but I am taking it slowly for the next month or two, so I don’t end up back there again.

Since starting out at 10 minutes per run, I have built up through 15, 20, 25, and 30 minutes at a time.  Last week I ran for 52 minutes, a couple of times.   It feels so good to be able to run without any pain or soreness, during of after each run.

So what am I doing differently now?

• warm-up/cool-down
  for the last few years I have paid very little attention to a sufficient warm-up or cool down.  I was always stretched for time, so I just started running at a pretty fast pace, and when I got home I stopped.  Seems simple enough, but this may be one of the leading factors for getting injured.  I now have at least a 5-10 minute warm-up – whether it be starting with a brisk walk and then increasing speed to get the blood flowing with a few stretches thrown in, or some time on the bike trainer. 
• stretching – lots of it
  a major part of the physical therapy was stretching – focusing on the calves (gastroc & soleus) hamstring and IT band.  I always tried to stretch after a run before, but it took 2-3 minutes max.  My first round of exercises during PT was 10 minutes of calf stretching alone (5x20sec gastroc stretch per leg then 5x20sec soleus stretch per leg), and 5x30sec hamstring stretch. 
  So now when I finish a run, I take 10-15 minutes to stretch properly – so far so good.  It does take a bit longer, but is definitely worth the effort.

With the progression I am making – I will have enough time to build up to running for 2hrs, that is in the ballpark for a 1/2 marathon by Eagleman (June), I hope in that time I can improve my speed too.

During my last visit to the PT – I asked about how I should structure my runs, she said I should not focus on speed, just let it come.  So now on the longer runs, I am trying not to maintain a pace, just going with what feels right – in the comfortable/comfortably hard area.   

For my 52 minute run last weekend, I averaged  and 8:00 minute mile – this is a lot faster than I had hoped for at this point.  My HR for that period was 143, if I can continue to improve on that, I am already ahead of last year’s running!