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Ironman 70.3 Haines City Course Preview

April 30, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

I ended up riding long on Friday night because I had a schedule conflict on Sunday (Disney Princesses eat breakfast on a very tight schedule), but I went over on Saturday and checked out some of the course by car and on foot. Here’s what I’ve got…

Swim

The lake level is down…we’re in a drought here. I guess that’s the reason for the recent swim course change. I read on the site that it’s clear water, but it didn’t look especially clear to me. I didn’t get in, but I’d guess visibility of a few feet at the most. I’ve done a bunch of lake swim races in TN, so it’s about what I’d expect for a shallow lake swim. The beach for entry/exit looks pretty nice.

I didn’t see a single alligator if you’re someone who’s concerned about that. 🙂

Oh, and swim wave times are posted now.

Bike

My original plan was to go ride the course alone, but I’m glad I didn’t do that. I’d definitely recommend going with a group if you’re planning on getting a ride in before the race. It’s not the condition of the roads that is a problem, but the sections I saw were relatively narrow and in rural areas, so I’m not sure how safe I’d feel riding them alone. Admittedly, I’m a lot more cautious about when and where I’ll ride my bike than most people are.

The worst road conditions are on Masterpiece stretch, but I read that they are patching it before the race and repaving for next year. As long as the holes are patched and it’s clean, shouldn’t be a problem. Still, flat changing skills are never a bad thing to have.

There’s a really quick downhill and uphill right out of transition, which is something to be prepared for if you transition barefoot with with your shoes already in the pedals since that will probably be a higher traffic area. I’m a little torn between rushing to get my feet strapped in while in traffic to get up the hill quickly or waiting until I’m on a straight flat section with less traffic and dealing with it then. Right now, I’m thinking better safe than sorry, so I’ll probably just mash up the hill and wait until N. 30th street to deal with my feet where the course looks like it may open up a little.

The turn from Ledwidth onto 14th street at the beginning of the course is a little rough too…again, only really matters because it’s a higher traffic area and right in a turn. I’m not really expecting to get up to speed until after this section.

One concern I’ve had is winds. Here on the coast they are relentless, but the air in Haines City was pretty calm, at least on this day–small sample set.

Run

I didn’t check out the whole run course either, but the section that is in the park is a really nice, wide path. It’s concrete, not asphalt. Not a lot of shade, and it was pretty hot already at ~11:00 am, as expected. If you are expecting a “Florida flat” course, this isn’t it. But, again, by East TN standards it is far from hilly.

Transition

It looks like the Library parking lot is the transition area, and it’s set up with wide and easy to find entry and exits naturally. It is a terraced lot, and I’m not sure if they’ll only use the top, bottom, or both. If you’re on the bottom terrace I’d think it’s a little disadvantage because there’s slightly more hill to deal with and a longer course to cover.

Misc

For folks with kids, this is a great location. There’s a very nice park with a couple of playgrounds, splash pad, etc. They’ve marketed it that way, but it lives up to advertising. My kids had a blast playing while I was checking things out. Parking may be a bit of an issue for your supporters unless they get there early. This was a very happening spot with the locals…parking lots were pretty full. Also, I’m not sure how they’ll handle access to the majority of the parking spots at the park itself since the course cuts off access to that. More than likely, athletes arriving for the race will take those spots pretty early. With three kids under 5, the Missus is going to have a helper come with her to transport them around because there may be some hiking involved for them.

Feel free to post any questions in the comments and I’ll answer them if I can!

Tweeking 70.3 Training Three Weeks Out

April 27, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

I’m three weeks away from my big (for me) race, and am having to make some pretty major training changes. Realistically, I know anything that happens from here out is going to have very little affect on what happens race day, provided I’m rested. “10% under trained is better than 1% over trained”.

Oh, and injuries could make a difference too. That’s the reason for the training tweek.

I pulled up with a cramp in my calf at the end of my brick on Sunday. I’d dug a nutrition/hydration hole I couldn’t get out of, and I thought that was the main cause. It was still a little tender on Tuesday, so I bailed on the run scheduled for that day and gave it a shot again for a quality run on Thursday. Pain was almost instantaneous, so I guess it wasn’t just a cramp. I’m self-diagnosing as a Grade 1.5 strain. And I’m self-treating it by taking a solid week off of running. That means I’ll miss one long run. No biggie. I still will have one more. If I have problems on that run I’m not going to push it…I’ll stop running entirely until a day or two before the race, just to test it out.

That means last night’s swim, which is one I usually take very easy, was a hard one. I really pushed to see what I could handle for a race pace, and the good news is I’ll probably be about three minutes faster than I was last time I did this distance. Shooting for 35:45.

It also means I’ll be spending a lot more time on the bike. I think I can bike enough that I won’t lose any run fitness, even if I don’t get another long one in before the race.

If all goes well, I’ll be pain free going into the race and can just manage my pace on the run to keep this from cropping back up again. Even if it becomes an issue, once I’m in the race I’ll be able to fight through it.

If this persists, well, that’s when it will get fun. If I’m going to the start line with any kind of pain at all, the race strategy will change completely for me. I will push the swim a little harder, and I will bike like the race is 57.2 miles long. Drop the hammer. Empty the tank. I’ll assume my run is already bonked and go for broke on the bike, getting every second out of it I can.

Why Some Twitter Threats Can’t Be Taken Seriously

April 24, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Lots of the threats documented here seem to come from people who think when a defendant makes bail means a case is closed. I’d bet the majority of these folks fall into one of the following categories.

They’ve never been charged in the criminal justice system. If they had, they’d have a lot better understanding of how it works. So they probably aren’t the “violent criminal” type, despite what they try to portray themselves as on Twitter. Eazy E said it best, “I never met an OG who never did shit wrong”.
They were too lazy to get a free education when it was placed in front of them on a silver platter. If you’re too lazy to do that, you’re probably too lazy to get off the computer long enough to engage in any sort of physical altercation with someone. This is in line with my theory that you are perfectly safe running in the dark in the early mornings, when criminals who are too lazy to work for a living probably aren’t awake.

Carry on.

April 23, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Her: You know that trainer at the gym…super fit, dark hair?

Me: Does she live at the bottom of the pool? Then no, haven’t seen her.

Grinding Out Swims

April 20, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Four weeks out from Ironman 70.3 in Haines City, and my training (at least parts of it) has fallen into it’s normal pattern. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

What’s happening is I’m falling into my normal M/O with the swim. Forget doing a bunch of laps kicking (which I hate), and forget drills. It’s time to get mentally prepared to do the distance comfortably. The best way for me to do that in the pool is to jump in knowing I have a lot of laps in front of me and decide that I’m going to just keep swimming until I’m done.

That still doesn’t really get me as ready as I want to be. There’s still a HUGE difference between getting in the pool and knowing I’m about to swim 100 lengths and looking out at the open water course on race day and knowing I have to do one BIG lap. Big swim courses intimidate me in a way the thought of lots of laps staring at the bottom of the pool doesn’t. Even open water swims can’t remedy this for me because I don’t go out and look at a course that’s laid out; I can’t see exactly how far it is I’m going to be swimming…I just see a lot of water.

It’s almost like the reverse of what happens on the bike. I like to train with multiple 5-7 mile laps for my bike rides. It is very boring. And it builds all kinds of mental toughness for race day. On race day, you only have to do 1 or maybe 2 laps. It doesn’t matter how long those laps are. At least you aren’t looking at the exact same thing 10-12 times over. And it’s not the same thing you saw yesterday and in every ride you’ve done for the past 2 months.

And unlike the swim, you can’t actually see how long the bike race course is when you start out. It’s just a road in front of you.

So I feel like the best way I can prepare is to show up at the pool knowing I’m going to finish the entire length of the swim with no stopping to rest between sprints and no drills to mentally break it up. Just grind. I’ll vary my speed for 250 yards here and there and breathe every two strokes, and sometimes I’ll do a few laps where I practice spotting looking forward and keeping my eyes closed underwater so I can’t follow the line on the bottom.I know I’m probably giving up a whole minute or two by bailing on the drills and kicking.

Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll be saving my legs for the bike where I can gain real ground.

April 19, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

In The Best Shape Of My Life (Again)

April 18, 2012 / Scott / 3 Comments

I’m thinking that on May 20th, barring any unforeseen injuries or mishaps, I’m going to start the Ironman 70.3 race in Haines City in the best shape of my life. At least, it will be a new version of “best shape of my life”.

Being in shape is a very relative thing.

I’ve been (much) stronger than I am now in the weight room.

I’ve been able to run faster at every distance from 100 meters to marathon at one point or another than I can now.

I’ve probably been able to do a 40k time trial on the bike faster than I can now.

I’ve definitely been able to get knocked down and get back up faster and more times…rugby has a fitness nothing else can emulate.

As far as triathlon goes, I’ve probably been in better “sprint” shape than I am right now too. My best 5k fitness level probably correlates with that.

But I’m definitely approaching a new level of fitness for triathlon distances Oly and up. Not that I’m anywhere close to fit enough for 140.6 right now…I know my place in the hierarchy. But it doesn’t seem like an insane distance now. Definitely seems matter-of-fact-doable.

May 21st, or maybe a day or two after that, I’m going to have some thinking to do. I’ll worry about it then, but it seems like a shame to miss the opportunity to start at this point and build into something bigger.

Pushing Through A Swim

April 16, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

I posted this on DailyMile, but I thought it worthy of a repost here because I think it may be my finest attempt to date of piecing together words to capture a feeling:

Did you ever accidentally stay in Vegas an extra day because there are no clocks and you hadn’t been to your room in 26 hours anyway and forgot what day it was, then you finally got to the airport and found out your only way home had two connecting flights, then you missed your connection in Atlanta so you decided to try and take a nap in the floor, but you had to get up so the guy could clean that part of the floor, and you were still a little drunk (but not good drunk) so you really didn’t enjoy the walk to the next empty spot in the floor?

That’s how I felt leaving the gym this morning.

Real Life “Weeds” In Knoxville

April 16, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Thanks to @brad3948 for pointing this one out.

Jeffery Simpson was using the shop as a front to mask his drug-dealing profits. It’s not clear how the FBI discovered that, but, in 2006, agents began engineering and documenting a series of buys of cocaine and crack from Simpson, according to a plea agreement filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Stone.

My guess is an agent went in there and thought the same thing we did when we went…”Nobody in their right mind would ever spend this much money on baby clothes. They must be laundering money here or something.”

Side note: This newspaper story is way more interesting and funny than the latest season of the show “Weeds”.

Spotify Play…Also Spotify Playlists

April 11, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Spotify launched a Play Button that let’s you embed a song right in a web page. I’ve tested, and it works like a champ.

Now the really cool part…

You can do this with playlists too, not just songs.

For example, here’s a 90’s-ish running/cycling playlist I’ve been building up. Previously I’d linked to it so people could subscribe on Spotify, but now I have it embedded right into the page, so people can listen right there on my web site.

Nice!

April 11, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Trusting the Training Plan

April 5, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Right now I’m about 6 weeks out from Haines City 70.3, and almost everything is pointing to a much better performance than the last time I did this distance. I credit this to sticking to the training plan much more strictly and actually listening to people who get paid to spout information about endurance training. I’m not saying I haven’t missed workouts…I have. Two separate sinus infections hurt me pretty bad. But I haven’t missed a single long workout, and I’ve done a much better job prioritizing workouts. For instance, most of what I’ve missed have been swims. If I’m going to miss something, I want it to be a swim.

I’ve also been reviewing my logged workouts from my last 70.3 as I go, and I’ve noticed a few differences. First of all, I never trained on heart rate before…I just did the distances. Also, it looks like my training was much more sporadic than I remember. This hurt me pretty badly last time around. In fact, I distinctly remember treading water right before the gun went off hoping the race would be cancelled because of lightning and wondering if I could really pull off that distance. I ended up having a pretty good race and hitting my goals, but I had no confidence going in. This time around, I know covering the distance isn’t a problem, even if I had to do it tomorrow.

So I’m expecting a PR this time. I do have a couple of doubts, but I’ve done my best to rationalize them away.

1.2 Mile Swim

This is no problem. An afterthought. I did a 40 minute swim last time, and I expect to go no slower than that this time. There’s a good chance I’ll go faster, but if I do it will only be by a couple of minutes…no real difference. I’ve done enough 1500+ meter open water swims since 2006 that I won’t be intimidated looking at the course itself. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.

I’m not sure I’ll be any faster here, but I doubt I’ll be much slower. No wetsuit to remove like last time, so that should save me 3 or 4 seconds. I will have to apply some sunscreen, so it’s probably a wash.

56 Mile Bike

Here’s where I feel confident in gaining the most time. Last time around I trained at around 18 mph on hilly courses and raced at 19 mph on a hilly course. These days, I’m training at ~ 20 mph in windy conditions on flat courses and will be racing on a flat (hopefully less windy) course; being 50 miles inland should help with the winds a little, right? Also, looking at my logs from 2006, it’s safe to say I was reasonably rested every time I went out on my bike, which wasn’t often. This time I’m already tired before I even get on the bike. My weight will be about 18 pounds below what it was last time as well.

I’m hoping for 21.5 mph. I have some test data here to back up my projection. Two years ago I did an Olympic distance race where I trained at just below 20 mph and raced at 22 mph. And this was on the coast, so winds were a factor. My weight was about where it will be on race day in May, but conditions weren’t as hot as I expect they will be then. Heat will be the big X factor here. If all goes well, I hope to pick up ~20 minutes here.

I can guarantee an improvement here. I don’t plan on actually sitting down and eating a sandwich this time. I’m going to go ahead and get back out on the course. I should pick up at least 2 minutes here.

13.1 Mile Run

I really have no idea what’s going to happen on the run, but I’m trying to convince myself it will go great. And this is where I have to trust the program. Last time around, my training paces were waaaaaaay faster–sub 9:00 miles. I expected to go under 2 hours, but I ended up running a 2:14. That tells me that, again, I was running rested during training and was not really prepared to run 13.1 tired. This time around I’m training on heart rate, much slower pace, but I’m hurting pretty bad at the end of my long runs. Last week I did 100 minutes (10.25 miles) and was really struggling at the end.

The difference is that, just like on the bike, I’m running tired all the time now. The paces I’m running at are much closer to my training paces for my first marathon. That’s encouraging, because I raced at a pace 45 seconds faster than I trained for that race. If I can even get 35 seconds faster per mile on race day, I’ll be at 9:10/mile, and that will bring me home at 2 hours.

I’m working on a strategy to handle all possible situations for this run. I’m breaking it down into two five milers and a 5k.

First five miles at 9:30/mile
Second five miles at 9:15/mile
5k at 8:30/mile

Starting off at 9:30 shouldn’t be a problem. If I don’t have 9:15 in me for the second 5 miles, it will take some pressure off because there’s no way I’d be able to accelerate to 8:30s for the final 5k. I can back it down to the 9;30 pace and still make it under 2:05. That’s still a 9 minute improvement. Not optimal, but not bad either.

If I can make it through the second 5 miles according to the plan, I’m pretty sure I will be able to mentally push myself for that last 5k.

Goals–Good, Better, Best

I don’t see any way I’ll be over 5:44:59 if I actually finish. Anything can happen on race day (flat tires, temps over 95), and a DNF isn’t ever out of the realm of possibility for anything over 10k. But I can’t plan on things like that. If I beat 5:45:00 I’ll consider that to be “Good”. It’s still a PR.

I’d really like to hit 5:29:59. If I can pull a 2hr run and 20 mph on the bike it will come down to those couple of minutes on the swim and fast transitions. I’ll even give myself some buffer here….I’d be really happy with anything under 5:35:00. This is my “Better” goal.

If everything goes perfectly equipment wise, I have no serious injuries between now and then, weather cooperates, and my run really pans out, I think I have 5:14:59 in me. This would be “Best”.

Pretty cool photo of a “plus-sized” swimmer George Blagden courtesy of UIC Digital Collections