Counting Down to EagleMan

3 days to go!  I am feeling as ready as I can be, and eagerly awaiting the weekend.

I’ve done a lot of research on this race, the weather is usually very hot, and has a lot of wind, especially for the last 10-15 miles of the bike leg. 

So far the weather forecast is looking pretty typical for this time of year

I’m not so sure about the scattered thunderstorms, although some rain might provide some relief from the heat.  Yesterday the temperature was close to 100. I’m happy to see that it might be a lot cooler on Sunday.

My family are also going to be there at the finish line now.  I ‘m excited about this!  Originally I was doing this race solo, and had booked a hotel and planned to be away from the family for most of the weekend.  But it turns out that some good friends have access to a house for Friday/Saturday nights only minutes away from where my hotel was booked (and now cancelled).  So now I get to go up there on Friday and spend more time with the family for the whole weekend, and they’ll be there at the finish line.  So now I have an extra incentive to finish strong.

The water temperature for today (Thursday) was 80.1 at the time of race start, so definitely a non-wetsuit swim, which I had expected.  It means I’ll be a little slower than I had expected, it’s not problem really – everyone else is in the same position.

My current thinking on finish time is:-

Start	7:26am
Swim	40 minutes
T1	3 minutes
Bike	2:40 to 2:50
T2	3 minutes
Run	1:50-1:55
Total	5:16-5:31
Possible Finish Time	12:42-12:57

Of course there are a lot of things that could change these times above.  I based the estimate on having a great day and not having any problems. Since this is my first long course race my main goals are:-

• finish
• enjoy the experience
• find out if my nutrition strategy/plan worked
• use my experience from this race to help plan a strategy for my next 70.3 (Beach to Battleship, in October)

There are a number of firsts for me for this race, First Ironman branded event, first event with a pro field (hoping to see crowie/terenzo/mirinda out on the run as I am finishing the bike/starting the run), first 70.3 or anything longer than the 1 Olympic race I’ve completed.

It may take me a few days to put together a race report, since I have to be on a flight at 6am the next morning for a business trip to Chicago.  That is not going to be the best for recovery, but at least it is better than having a week away the before the race.

Bike Progress

Last weekend I chose to do a 34 mile hard ride, followed by a 30 minute brick run.  Since it was 1 week out from race day (EagleMan) I wanted to complete one last race style test before starting to taper for the race.

I made a few changes to the bike in preparation for the race:-

• added a water bottle holder for between the aero-bars, for carrying nutrition (most likely EFS liquid shot)
• fitted 2 new tires with latex tubes
  I purchased 2 Specialized S-Works Turbo 700/23c competition tires, and ordered some Michelin A1 AirComp latex tubes – 700x18c-20c.  These tires have 220tpi casings and are a much lower rolling resistance than the standard Bontrager R1Plus that came with my bike

The course that I chose was a challenging out/back with a lot of hills, for the 33.3 miles there is a total of 2,400 feet of climbing, see the elevation profile below.

I have completed this ride twice now – here’s the statistics for each.

Date	Total Time	Avg Speed	Avg HR	Max HR	Max Speed
22-May	1:45:09	20.1mph	141	160	36.8
5-Jun	1:39:39	18.9mph	140	158	38.3

This is a huge difference/improvement.  Only 2 weeks apart and a 5:30 faster time and a 1.2 mph increase in average speed.  The lower rolling resistance of the new tires/tubes seem to have made a large difference.  My fitness is probably better too, but that should only account for a 1-2 minute advantage.  I am really happy with this result, especially with EagleMan within a week now.

If I look back to just 1 year ago, I was about to head into my 2nd knee surgery of the year, and had not been on my bike since October of the year before.  Before then I struggled to average 18mph for any ride, even flat courses.  To have come so far in a short time is really amazing, and something I need to remember if I ever get down about a performance.

I am still aiming for a minimum 20mph bike leg at EagleMan – it is likely that I will go faster, but this is my first long-course race and I want to be able to run strong.

2011 Jim McDonnell 1mile Open Water Swim

Last weekend I completed my first ever swim-only event – the Jim McDonnell a 1 mile open water swim in Reston VA.

I registered for the wetsuit division, thinking that I would be using use my wetsuit for EagleMan – but I’ve since found out that that water temp at EagleMan is likely to be in the 80’s.

When you register you are required to submit your estimated finish time so they can put waves together with people of similar abilities.  I think I was a bit over optimistic when I registered with 29 minutes, not sure what I was thinking.  Realistically I think I could finish in around 30 minutes.

My final time was 31:15 – decent but not a great effort.  Here’s how it unfolded.

The race started at 8:00am.  Check-in for the 1mile race closed at 7:15, so I aimed to get there around 7am.  What I didn’t realize was how many people would be there – as I was approaching the site, there were a lot of cars lining the streets.

I managed to get there in time and pick up the timing chip, swim cap, t-shirt and a nice gear bag too.  I found the Warrenton Masters tent and said hi to the Kathleen, Mike, Kami, Charlie (he did the race butterfly, amazing!) and the others doing the race.  The briefing was pretty simple, start in waves, swim to the outside of the buoys.

Course course map

My goal was not to go all-out, but approach it like I will the 1.2 mile swim leg for EagleMan only 2 weeks after this race. 

The swim waves were small, only 25 people – this was very different to a triathlon start.  Once we got under way I felt ok but was a little flat.  I was also feeling quite warm in the wetsuit  The water was around 77 degrees, just under the limit for wetsuits.  At the first turn mark (the one at the very top of the map above), I had to stop briefly and adjust the neck of my wetsuit because it was rubbing a bit.  I struggled to get into a rhythm, but felt I was swimming ok.  I stayed with some in my start wave for a while, but didn’t get to do much in the way of drafting..  I must have been doing ok, because there wasn’t a lot of people passing me.  The buoys were small and at times I had a little trouble sighting.  This was good practice in navigation/sighting.  I tried to keep a straight line, and I think I did ok, only occasionally drifting a little of course, or adjusting to swim around some people in front of me.

At the 2nd of the main turn-around markers (bottom left of the map above), I glanced at my watch – it was around 18:20 – a few quick calculations and I thought it might struggle to finish in 30 minutes.  It was a long way from there back to the finish, and sighting into the sun was a little difficult.  This last part of the race was good, I felt comfortable and had a decent rhythm.  I did manage to pass quite a few people during this time, which I don’t often do in a swim race.

As I got to the finish line I was feeling pretty good, but was a little disappointed to see 31:13 on my watch (31:15 official time).  My average heart rate was 155bpm max and 177bpm at the finish line.  I’m happy with this, it shows that I didn’t exert myself too hard, this is right where I wanted to be (sub 160).

My preparation for the race wasn’t idea, but it wasn’t an ‘A’ race, so it didn’t matter too much.  The day before the race was a busy one, finished off with a birthday dinner with friends at home.  I had more to eat/drink than I usually would, which I think contributed to not really feeling ‘on’ for this race.

Based on this result – I think I have to reset my expectations for the EagleMan swim leg.  Originally I thought could finish 1.2 miles in 35-37 minutes.  If I add 20% to this race, I get 37:30, and that is with a wetsuit.  So I am thinking that I might be in the 38-40 minute range without the wetsuit.  Of course I should be more rested by EagleMan, so I may be a little faster, but I don’t want to go out too hard and ruin the rest of the bike/run legs.  A few extra minutes swimming over a 5.5 hour race is fine.

Overall it was a good event.  Well organized, and great post-race food/drinks.  It was also nice to be finished and home by 10:00am.  Next year I think I’ll try both the 1mile and 2 mile swims – in preparation for the 2.4 mile swim at Ironman Lake Placid.

Other pictures
approaching the start/finish area.  the concrete structure is the last turn before the finish.

the start/finish area below, the kayak and the shore was the start line, heading up and to the left.

A run across the Golden Gate Bridge

I often travel to the Bay Area of San Francisco – visiting my company’s headquarters in Redwood City.  I’ve been to the downtown area of San Francisco many times for both business and pleasure.  During that time I’ve made a few trips over the Golden Gate bridge to visit places like Sausalito & the redwood forest, but never on foot.

During my last trip, I had a few hours to kill between finishing up work at 6pm on Friday afternoon and my 11pm red-eye flight back to the D.C area.

I wanted to get a run in before I flew home, so I decided to run across the Golden Gate bridge.

I drove over towards Crissy Field, and here’s the view only a few feet away from my car.
By the time I got changed and ready to run, it was about 7:15 – enough time to run up/over/back and still have time to stretch and get some food before the long flight home.

Here’s the route that I took

I started along the flat section toward the bridge along the bay, to get warmed up before climbing up the stairs to the bridge itself. 

Since it was getting close to sunset, I took the path under the bridge to the western side, hoping to get a nice picture, but I couldn’t really get wide enough for a good view.  This is the best I could get.  It came out pretty well, especially from a phone.

 

 

 

From here I re-traced my steps to the eastern side of the bridge.
and then over to the other side.  The view was amazing.This the view towards Alcatraz above, some day I’ll do the escape from Alcatraz triathlon and swim from there to the city.
this was taken from the visitor’s center on the northern side of the bridge.

It was so nice to have a scenic place to run, the time just flew by.  On the way back the sun was setting.
the trail, heading back down towards the car

In the end I ran close to 7 miles in just over an hour – it was a really great experience, one that I would do again in a heartbeat.