Third Quarter Results

Two thoughts at the 3/4 mark in Ironman training. 

1.  I can't believe I'm 3/4 of the way there. 

2.  I can't believe I still have to do this for three more months.

In reality, I enjoy the workouts about 90% of the time.  The other 10% include rainy days, swims, and any sort of interval training.  So here are the numbers for 9 months of training.

Swim:  94.80 miles, 61.21 hours. 
Bike:  2,398.35 miles, 143.81 hours. 
Run: 487.12 miles, 67.20 hours.
Weights:  39.22 hours.
Total Time:  311.43 hours.

I've been trying to follow The Bible's plan for intermediate peaks & troughs, subject to the demands of work, family, and church.  Note that the two deepest troughs are family vacations in December and June.  I look at this chart and wonder why I can't just meet the weekly workout goals.  But it's VERY hard to log 12 or 15 hours of training in one week.  That's like having a second job.  Only it doesn't pay anything and it makes me vomit sometimes.

If you're into charts, here are the monthly totals for the three disciplines:

 Yes, I slack off on swimming the month after a race.  I'm only human.

If it weren't for my bike commute to work, I don't know how I'd ever get in the bike miles.

Running is the easiest of the disciplines to maintain, even during work travel, because you only have to bring along your running shoes.  (No need to locate a pool or rent a bike.)  The downside is that I've run in some awful places (like Dallas), but I've managed to get the mileage in. 

Three more months to train for Ironman Florida.  I've been extremely lucky to avoid any major injuries thus far.  My race times have improved significantly, and I feel much more confident that I can make the full distances without flopping.  Time for the final peak ...

Words Cannot Express the Misery

Saturday's ride was awful.  There is simply no better way to describe it.  The weather forecast called for a 30% chance of rain, declining throughout the day.  Although it rained hard overnight, it appeared that the rain was stopping around 6am.  We thought a 100-mile ride up River Road to Poolesville, Point of Rocks, and back on the W&OD Trail would be a stretch, but with 6 riders, we could take turns pulling and give one another breaks.

We were wrong on many counts.  By the time we got into DC, it was pouring rain.  And just when we thought it couldn't rain harder, it did.  It's hard to form a paceline when the bike in front of you is spraying grimy water up your nose like a garden hose from Hades.  So although we rode near each other, we didn't get the benefit of a slipstream for the first 50 miles.  At 50, we stopped and half of the group took a shorter loop.  I needed to log some quality miles, and the rain appeared to be slowing again, so Seth Stewart, Ryan Taylor, and I decided to hit the full 100.  As soon as we took off, it rained harder than ever.  And to make matters worse, I got a flat tire at about 52.  Yes, that's the first flat I've ever had on the MacAttac -- over 4 years now.  Worse still, the brand new tube I installed was faulty and wouldn't hold air.  Worse still, I had used up both my CO2 canisters.  It came down to the last tube and last CO2 canister ... and my tire held the pressure.  Had anyone else lost pressure for the remaining 50, somebody's wife would have had to retrieve one of us ...

Shortly after the repair, I realized that I probably didn't have the legs for a 100-miler.  Well, shame on me, because I was about 50 miles from home.  At mile 75, Seth and Ryan had to leave me behind so that they could get home on schedule.  I was actually okay with this, because I couldn't tuck into their slipstreams anyway, and I needed to bonk in private.  So I swallowed some Grandma's cookies and the rest of the food I had in my pockets, and kicked it down to 16-18 mph for the remaining 30 or so miles.  In the old days, I would have completely bonked and someone would have had to pick me up off the road.  But in my old age, I've learned how to prolong the fall, and I prolonged it long enough to get myself home.

Here is Seth at about 72 miles.  He barely broke a sweat on this ride.  Phenomenal!  And you may not be able to see the thick layer of road grime on the MacAttac, but it took me a couple of hours to clean this bike after we finished.

And here is Ryan.  I owe him more than the $10 for the tube and the CO2.  He saved me from having to call my wife and explain where Poolesville was (and why it would be fun for her to drive the kids there in their pajamas).

And here I am about 10 miles from the finish.  There was barely anyone on the trail, so there was no pressure to kick up the pace beyond "survival" speed.  Yep, that face says it all.

All things considered, this was a ride I had to make.  It's hard to get over training plateaus, and I needed to start cracking the 100-mile mark sooner or later.  (IM Florida is 3 months away.)  I was reminded again why IM training is so difficult -- sitting out a ride or a run because the conditions aren't perfect just isn't an option.  That said, I might just wait for a day when there's a 0% chance of rain for my next century attempt ...



Race, er, Ride Report: High Adventure 2012

     Last week I had the opportunity to ride a mountain bike with the young men of our church from Williamsport, MD to the Washington, DC LDS Temple via the C&O Canal Towpath.  Every year, the event (called "high adventure") is an opportunity for the age 14-18 young men and the leaders to enjoy the outdoors and challenge themselves to, well, an adventure.  It wasn't a race in the traditional sense, though Brady Jones and I certainly contested the "intermediate sprints" along the way.  Lest you believe I took the whole week off Ironman training, here is a brief rundown of the adventure:

Day 1: Williamsport, MD to Antietam National Battlefield (30 miles)
     Our first ride was in the middle of a very hot day.  Although I had asked, "Do you guys all have enough water," and the answer was, "yes," I should have checked for myself.  A young man typically needs more than 8 ounces of water for a 3-hour mountain bike ride in the heat, but that's about all they brought.  Needless to say, I was emptying my camelback into their bottles until we could refill at one of the C&O pumps.  Just prior to that, at least one young man discovered just how refreshing a cool spring could be on a hot day.

Not far from Snyder's Landing (about halfway into the 30 miles), I saw a few chickens just off the towpath, and a sign that read, "Eggs for sale."  I couldn't ride by without asking.  So I dropped $3 and carried 24 farm-fresh eggs in my backpack the rest of the way to Antietam.

If the spring water didn't kill the young men, maybe these eggs would ...

In reality, the eggs were delicious, and we ate almost all of them the next morning.  Here is a snapshot of our incredible campsite.  We basically had the place to ourselves.  No mosquitoes, quiet and cool, and a couple of rope swings were a short walk away.  It doesn't get better than this!

Day 2: Antietam to Harper's Ferry (15 miles)
     Our second day we hauled logs around Antietam for a service project, then hit the road again.  The ride into Harper's Ferry was beautiful, though we had a couple of mechanical issues with the bikes.  One bike had front brake issues that led to a brakectomy, and another bike had a chain tangle so bad that two links were twisted to about a 30 degree-from-straight angle.  Adventure?  Yes!  Our final half mile into the campsite was a decent climb.  Just enough to wake up everyone's legs.

     I log plenty of miles on my bikes every year, but this week brought me back to my childhood when my only form of transportation was a bike.  I got a bit nostalgic when we rode our bikes to the service station in Antietam to buy sodas, like a gang of kids looking for trouble.

Did I mention there was a rope swing near our campsite?  The Ranger asked us if we wanted a free tour of the Battleground, but our young men just wanted to spend a couple more hours on the rope swing.  The adults were outvoted.

Day 3: Harper's Ferry

     I've heard more than my share of West Virginia jokes, and after camping at the WV KOA Kampground, I'm here to tell you that every one of them is true.  I love people-watching, and there is no better place on earth than a KOA -- especially in the heart of West Virginia.

     We ate well on this trip.  In addition to farm fresh eggs, we had dutch oven dinners three nights.  Shepherd's pie & peach cobbler, Creamy chicken with rice & blue cornbread & brownies, and chicken pot pie & brownies. 

 I've tried to replicate this cornbread in my oven at home, even using dutch ovens, and it's just not the same as cooking it outdoors.

We spent one whole day in Harper's Ferry doing a zipline/canopy tour and floating the river, and resting our bike muscles for the big day ...

Day 4: Harper's Ferry to Swain's Lock (50 miles)

     The Cycling Merit Badge requires a buildup of successively longer rides -- 10 miles, 10, 15, 15, 25, 25, then a 50-miler to finish it off.  Our 50 was a beautiful ride along the river and canal from Harper's Ferry to Swain's Lock, just a few miles north of the District of Columbia.  This photo was taken at the start of the ride -- nobody was smiling near as much 6 hours later when we rolled into Swain's Lock.

Everyone survived the ride, though our average pace slowed by about 25% every hour after hour 1.  We celebrated at the finish with Five Guys burgers and greasy fries. 

Day 5: Swain's Lock to Washington, DC Temple (20 miles)

     The next day we cooked breakfast in the rain and set out early toward the DC Temple.  It is amazing to me that DC has so many bike paths winding through the city that you can get from the canal all the way to Kensington (where the Temple is located) without riding on city streets for more than a block or two.  After the 50-miler, this ride was easy peasy.

     Although the high adventure trip was a deviation from the normal training routine, I was reminded of a few things:  1. I had forgotten how uncomfortable a mountain bike is compared to a roadie.  2. I had forgotten how much fun a rope swing can be on a hot afternoon.  3. I had forgotten just how refreshing an adventure could be when it doesn't involve a stopwatch or heart rate monitor. 

Sigh ... back to training!

IM Training Does Not Improve ALL Athletic Abilities

I never quite mastered the backflip.  And I'm comfortable with that.  (Now that the water has finally all drained out of my brain cavity.)

The Ride That Never Was ...

Friday night I went to bed "early" (10:20) to wake up at a "reasonable time" (5:00am) for a "longish" ride on the tri bike (75 miles).  Bike was ready, clothes were neatly crumpled in a smelly ball, and 8 GUs were ready for rapid consumption.  Just after I turned off the light, this happened:

(Our house is the one in the middle that's missing the top of the chimney.)  A huge wind storm / electrical storm hit the area and knocked out trees, electricity, phone, and even (gasp) the Internet!  While I still entertained the thought of riding anyway, and hopping over "a few" trees on the trail, I'm glad I didn't.  There were broken trees everywhere!  Plus, the thought of a ride in 100 degrees without an air-conditioned home for recovery sounded a little too extreme, even for this Iron Dad.  So instead, we enjoyed the day together as a family, consuming everything we could out of our fridge.

Only a boy scout can gain weight during a power outage ...

So when I have to lumberjack the tree in my backyard, does that count as a weights workout or cardio?