Giving It A Tri

Bicycle Law Blog

2010-05-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

I did a ride over the weekend and was riding two abreast in places so I could chat with some of the other riders. I was curious what the rules where for riding two abreast on a bike and came across with this post on the bicycle law blog. It's a great blog by the way and my first stop when researching bicycles and the law.

Shark sighting in Santa Monica Bay

2009-10-08T14:40:00.001-07:00

I used to swim here about once a week, just about all last year. I've seen lots of dolphins, but never a shark.

Shark sighting in Santa Monica Bay has surfers buzzing -- latimes.com

More info is available here.

Another Day, Another Hill

2009-07-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Cycling has been in my thoughts lately. That's partly because I've
been a bit frustrated with my running lately for several reasons that
I don't have time to go into right now, and also because the Tour has
been going on. I'm supposed to be tapering for the San Francisco
Marathon, but the mountains where calling me. I haven't done any
climbing for several months so this really hurt, but it was so worth
it. I was a bit discouraged at first at how hard it felt, but then I
realized that I didn't have my climbing cassette installed. My largest
cog was a 25. While that may be a climbing cassette for some people,
there is no way I could have done Angeles Crest with only a 25 even
just a year ago.

Excited about the Giro

2009-05-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

The Giro d'Italia (a bike stage race through Italy, second only to the Tour de France in stature) starts in just a few days, and I am getting very excited. It looks like there will be some very interesting stages this year. In keeping with the theme here are some videos of two of the best Giro riders ever. The first is of the legendary Fausto "Il Campionissimo" Coppi.

The second is of Marco "Al Pirata" Pantani.

Both riders were great climbers, both road for Bianchi and both died young. Actually my Bianchi road bike is in a way named for them. It is called the "9-2-8" which stands for the three years in which Bianchi riders won both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. Coppi won in '49 and '52 and Pantani in '98.

Progress

2009-04-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I would give a little progress report on my my marathon training. I have been biking and swimming as well, but only as additional time allows. For the last two months I have prioritized running, and here is what I have to show for it.

Weight

My most significant limiter when it comes to running and so I set out an ambitious goal to lose nearly 35 lbs before the marathon in July. I admit that this goal is pretty extreme, and a severe diet is not conducive to retaining your muscle strength, but I tried haphazardly to lose weight over winter and I just wasn't successful. Now that the pressure of the marathon is here I am hoping that it will provide that extra motivation that I need. Also, I don't need to worry too much about losing weight too quickly as the higher your body fat percentage the more you can loose without having bad side effects. I was starting out with a body fat percentage of 29% so I have plenty to lose. Here is a chart of my progress so far. The data has been smoothed by taking the rolling three day average.

As you can see, I started out losing a bit faster than expected and I got my hopes up a bit, but things have stabilized and pretty much I am losing weight on track to my goal. So that is the good news. I started out at 247.8lbs @29% body fat and was 235.6lbs this morning @26% body fat. So that means I have lost 10.6 lbs of fat and 1.6lbs of lean tissue. The small amount of lean lost was a happy surprise as I expected that I would lose more in what has been a pretty extreme diet.

Performance

So what effect has this had on my running. I certainly feel much faster and a very easy pace for me is an 11 minute mile rather than a 12 minute mile, and my tempo pace has gone from 10:30 to 9:50. I have also notice that my heart rate is generally lower for the type of run. This has forced me to readjust my perceived effort levels of exactly what hard is. So I am pushing myself a bit more, and going by pace in my workouts rather than heart rate. Many times I only look at the heart rate data after the run is over and I am actually surprised that my heart rate was lower than I thought because the run felt hard. This is all a sign of my threshold pace increasing which is all good.

My goal for San Francisco is to go 4:30. It still sounds a bit out of reach but there are a few signs that are making this goal more realistic. First, my training plan proscribes training paces based on "Planned Marathon Pace" and I can finally actually do these paces now where before I could not. That is the first great sign.

Second I did some Yasso 800s today and average 4 minutes and 24 seconds for 6 repetitions. Supposedly if you can hold a pace for 10 repetitions that pace is a reasonable estimate of what you can do in a marathon if you change the minutes to hours. So basically if I could have held that 4:24 pace for 10 full repetitions that would predict a 4:24 marathon. I probably couldn't have done 10, but I think I could have done 8, so I am getting there.

Lastly, I have been tracking my Polar running index. This index is calculated by my heart rate monitor by comparing my heart rate to my pace. It is a good predictor of VO2max and also running performance at various distances. Here is a chart showing the upward trend in my Polar running index.

It appears I am at about 45 right now. According to Polar that is on the cusp of "Average" and would predict a 4:15 marathon. That seems much too fast to me, but in any case it is another sign that at least I am going in the right direction.

Oh, to be Average

2009-02-18T21:41:00.001-08:00

I recently read this blog post by Matt Fitzgerald, a writer on running and triathlon training. He talks about the "running index" function on Polar heart rate monitors. Basically, the monitor takes some basic information, such as your heart rate and running pace and puts it together to get a number, and this number can be used to compare your run against other runs that you have done, or even against other people. The index is somewhat correlated to VO2max so it can track fitness over time and also can be used to predict performances at various distances similar to Jack Daniels VDOT pace tables. I have a Polar device and noticed the number, but up to this point I hadn't paid any attention to it. After reading the article, I wondered what my numbers were.

This is a chart of my running index numbers since January first. You can see that they slowly moved up to a 50 on 1/31/09. It was pretty consistent too, except for the poor run on 1/18/09 where I got a 32. That run was a trail run on an unfamiliar trail and I did a little bushwhacking, so it is to be expected that the run wasn't very good. You can also see that there is a big gap after 1/31 where I missed quite a few runs, and now my score is back down again. I can feel the fitness lost and here you can see it one the chart. Actually its pretty amazing. This running index thing might be more interesting than I originally thought.

In the user manual for my Polar device there is a chart that rates he running index number. 50 is in the "average" range. Wow, I have a hard time believing that I could be average at running. I think that is pretty incredible in itself. To think that I could be average at my worst sport. It also estimates a 4hr marathon time for someone who can average a 50 running index over time. That just happens to be my stretch goal for the San Francisco marathon, so that is great news. I just have to work on getting the running index number right back up there.

First PIG Session

2009-01-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would be increasing the intensity on my bike rides in an attempt to increase my sustained power output. This is harder than it sounds. Usually I just head down to the trainer in my garage and pop in a DVD, start riding. The DVD makes the trainer ride bearable, but also distracts me from what I am trying to accomplish in my workout.

I think to get the full benefit of these shorter workouts I really need to dial in my wattage targets, so what I really need is a plan that specifies particular wattage intervals and times and gives me a clear target. The problem is that it takes a lot of time to come up with a good plan, particularly coming up with specific wattage numbers. If you're lucky you have a coach who can create that for you, but that is something I can't afford.

But I think I have come up with the next best thing. The Computrainer PIG training plan. PIG stands for Performance Improvement Guarantee. Basically they guarantee that if you buy their product and follow their free program you will improve your functional threshold wattage by 10% (or something like that. I don't plan on buying a Computrainer.) However, you don't need a Computrainer to follow the program. You just need any type of powermeter. Theoretically you could even use speed so long as your trainer has a consistent speed/resistance curve that would allow you to translate power numbers into MPH.

The best part of the plan (other than that it is completely free) is that it downloads as an Excel file. You simply input you CP30 wattage (the highest wattage you can sustain for 30 minutes) and it calculates all your workouts with power targets for the next 5 weeks. Then you retest your CP30 and do it all over again.

I did a 30min time trial last Saturday and held an average of 195 watts over the 30 minutes. I think perhaps that is a little low because I felt I probably could have went a little harder, but it works as a starting point. My first session was today with a Tempo workout with 15 minutes of warmup and 45minutes at 166 watts. I definitely worked harder than normal, so I think this is going to work.

Ramping Up the Training

2009-01-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

I've been back on the training bandwagon for a full four weeks now and thought I would supply an update. I wanted to start slow and build steadily, and that is indeed what I have done. In fact, this has been the most consistent training I have done in many, many months. I think cutting back on the hours has actually allowed me to train more, because I am more willing to do a workout even if I don't have available the full time alotted. Before I would try to fit in these hour and a half trainer rides and then ditch it if my life only allowed 30 minutes. That's real growth as an athlete, people. Here is a nice chart showing the build over the last few weeks.

Last week was bit more hours than expected because I was able to go on a four hour ride with a friend due to the MLK holiday. I expect my swimming hours and time on the bike to stabilize where they are, but my average weekly run time will increase. I just added a fourth run day this past week, and will maintain that for a couple more weeks. After that I will add one more for a total of five runs a week. This much running is very new to me. Even in my marathon training last year I never did more than three runs a week, but I am hoping the increased volume will lead to some big gains and also help take off some weight.

I had a fantastic run yesterday in Hahamonga Watershed Park. I did two laps around the park (around 6.7 miles) without having to stop for a walk break once. Even on the hills. Yeah!

Total Immersion Swimming

2009-01-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

After attending a Triathletix swim clinic late last year, and seeing how helpful it was in improving my technique, I purchased the latest Total Immersion DVD titled Easy Freestyle. I made the purchase with the idea that it would help me perfect the drills necessary to fully ingrain proper swimming technique. I purchased the TI book a few years ago when I first took up swimming, but frankly it is really hard to understand the drills and how they are supposed to be done from a book, even a book full of drawings. Video is much better. Although I have to say that the video might be difficult for a novice. There were several things that were discussed in the video that I don't think I would have even understood except for the fact that I attended the swim clinic.

Here is a video taken off of the TI blog, featuring the author Terry Laughlin. The thing to notice is how little splash he makes as he swims. There is almost zero movement of the water. Incredible.

Training Lessons from 2008, Goals for 2009

2009-01-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

Planning my 2009 has to start with a look back at 2008. What was a success, and what was not. First the successes:

Increased threshold power on the bike by 10% over winter.
Finished my first marathon.
Completed my first 100 mile bike ride (with 11,000 feet of climbing no less).
Did more races/events than ever before.

Then the failures:
Did not complete training for marathon due to sickness.
Swim training never really got off the ground causing me to bail out on the Dwight Crum Pier to Pier Swim.
DNF the Grand Tour Double Metric by not being prepared (co2 is not enough on a century ride -- you need a pump, not just one tube and lots of patches).
Actually lost some threshold power on the bike training for the double metric century.

Looking back I think I tried to do too much. At the end of last year I realized that my triathlon training was unsustainable. I wanted to do longer and more challenging events, but could not realisticlly train for them with the time I have and still succeed in the other other areas of my life that are important to me. So instead I planned on doing single sport events so that I could focus on one sport at a time and let the others become crosstraining. Not a bad plan, but running a marathon turned into doing a marathon, a two mile swim and then a crazy long ride. Lots of people can do all these events, but apparently I am not one of them.

So my only stretch endurance event will be a marathon. Probably the SF Marathon. An because it will be my main endurance event for the year, it makes sense that I do it later in the year. I really would like to shoot for under 4.5 hours. I'm not really tested on the running front because last year's run training was devestated by a six week double occurance of the flu, but I think if I am to reach this goal, I need to really up the volume and frequency. So I am going to aim for 4-5 runs a week. That means more mixing in running with swimming and biking.

But I still want to do some other events. I think that I was able to significantly increase my power on the bike over the winter because I was doing short intense trainer rides and longer slower paced runs. Looking back I think that this mixture was effective because on the bike you can really build the muscle with intensity without your joints getting to beat up (unlike doing track repeats) and the long runs develop a metabolic endurance that passes over to your cycling. So I think that will be a combination that I will pursue again this year. No long rides over two hours. Just short, intense rides to boost power. My goal is to raise my threshold power on the bike to 250 watts.

I think that the fact that my swimming never really got off the ground was mostly due to frustration with not improving. To improve, I really need to focus on technique rather than volume. The clinic I went to late last year was a good start, but I need to drill, baby drill. As a result I don't plan on doing any swimming events this year. I will just do short swims where I can drill and maintain quality throughout the session. I plan on doing that 'til the marathon, at which point I will add in a bit of volume to prepare for a late season Olympic distance triathlon. I would like to get my thresold pace down to 2:00 per hundred meters.

Interesting Article on Recovery Sports Drinks

2009-01-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about nutrition lately. I am cutting calories to lose weight, but in my experience you also have to be careful in what you eat and the timing of the intake to get the full benefits of training and to minimize some of the negative effects of dieting. A good source of straight facts on nutrition and dieting, without the hype, is Lyle McDonald. Here is an interesting article from his site objectively comparing a commercially available recovery drink to chocolate milk.

An Objective Comparison of Chocolate Milk and Surge Recovery | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald

Right now I happen to make my own recovery beverage out of whey protein powder, powdered Gatorade and some supplemental glutamine and branched chain amino acids. But my training secret is that sometimes I just substitute a caffe mocha from the local coffee bar. A caffe mocha has anti-oxidants from cocoa and coffee, sugar for glycogen replacement, both whey and casein proteins and a good dose of caffeine for heightened insulin sensitivity. It may be the best recovery drink out there.

New Year -- New Goals

2009-01-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, for a while I thought this blog was dead too. You see, here are the priorities -- spending time with the family, work, training and then at the very bottom of the list is blogging. But here's the deal. When I don't blog about my training most of it doesn't happen.

So here's to a new year, with new goals. Right now I am planning on doing the San Francisco Marathon in July. It's a beautiful city, and I usually visit relatives in the Bay Area in July anyways. The timing seems good for me as well in the sense that spring events (i.e. the LA Marathon or the Big Sur Marathon that one of my friends is doing) are usually foiled by winter illness, and training for a fall event means doing lots of running in the hot, hot August. So there you go. A summer marathon with a few short tri's thrown in for fun. I'm also thinking of doing a time trial series. I have to justify having my TT bike, right?

So the first order of business for me in training for a marathon is dropping some weight. I had some great success a few years ago with DietPower (a calorie counting software), going from 280 to 235. Since then I have fallen off the wagon, and even with lots and lots of training over the last two seasons my weight has hovered around 245-250. Right now it is 240 (I have lost 5 lbs eating junk over the holidays. Go figure.) So I'm back to calorie counting.

Currently I'm at 240 pounds with a body fat percentage around 30%. I want to get that down to a healthy range of around 15%. If I can retain the lean mass that would mean a total body weight of just under 200lbs. So that is my goal, hopefully with lots of run training I can do it before a July marathon.

Now I won't do just calorie counting, I also will focus on eating more Paleo (more meat, veggies and fruit) and less starchy carbs. I have found in the past that I feel better and have less binges when I eat Paleo, but I need the reality check and honesty of the numbers that DietPower provides.

I'll keep you posted.

Really.

I Can Finally See Myself Swim

2008-09-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

After three seasons of swimming I have stopped making any gains. I decided to seek out professional help and recently took a swim clinic offered by Triathletix. They also offer a swim DVD. While the DVD has the same drills and teaches the same techniques, I wouldn't recommend it. It is too short, has rather low production values and simply isn't worth the price. I think that the clinic on the other hand is definitely worth it. There just is no substitute for someone looking at you and pointing out what you need to work on. Also, it is very difficult to master the drills (and lets face it, the drills are useless unless you master them) if someone doesn't watch you and point out what you are doing wrong.

I think the most important thing I learned in the class was how to time the catch with the rotation of the hips. The Total Immersion books that I first learned from talk about this, but without someone actually demonstrating it, it is really hard to get. I still have a lot of work to do on this aspect, but at least I feel like I have the tools to get there.

On the last day of the clinic, we did some underwater filming so that we could see how we are implementing the techniques. Below is the result.

As a result of the clinic, I swim with more relaxation and ease but also go farther with each stroke. Before the clinic it took me 20 strokes to go 25 meters and after the clinic that was reduced to 16 strokes.

Gladstone Swim

2008-06-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about my tri club is large number of organized open water swims during the week. My two favorites are the "Speed Circuit" swim on Wednesday mornings in Ocean Park and the "Gladstone" swim on Friday mornings in Pacific Palisades. Last year I alternated between the two every other week. I'm going to be entering into a swim focus segment of my training so I probably will go back to doing that or maybe attend both every week. I think doing two open water swims would be fine so long as I do at least two pool sets during the week were I can do drills and intervals.

Last Friday was my first time at the Gladstone swim for the year. It's called Gladstone because we all meet in the parking lot next to the Gladstones For Fish restaurant. It is smaller group of people and more low key than the masses that show up for the Wednesday swim, but these guys are all really talented. It's actually pretty intimidating because I'm so slow compared to all these guys. Most of these guys regularly podium, in fact one of the guys I met at this particular swim was the silver medalist in his age group at ITU worlds. Pretty impressive.

Last year we would just jump in one side of the small "bay" and swim across to the other side, regroup and then swim back. At least that's what everyone else would do. I usually only made it halfway before I could see them coming back and so I would quickly turn around so that I could finish my swim in a reasonable time. This time was different. The workout leaders are trying to be more inclusive of differing abilities and also people who wish to train for different distances, so they set up buoys at various distances and we could do various courses depending on our goals. I went with the "Olympic Distance" group. Here is a Google Earth picture of the two loops we did.
The first loop is in red. We went out to the first buoy, around to the second buoy, swam back to the beach and then ran back to the start. The second time we went out around the two buoys and then back to the first and then in. You can see that the first loop I overshot the buoys and was farther out. The second time I was in the middle of the pack and was in a better position.

These tracks were recorded in an i-gotU GPS data logger. I have been playing with this thing for a while and enjoying the cool bike course profiles in can create, but it really shines when tracking open water swimming. The device is really tiny and light so it can easily fit under your swim cap. It has a one button operation so you can turn it on and off while it is under your cap and it is sealed and water proof. As far as I know it is the only way to get a good handle of your speed and distance while swimming in open water.

Tools, Toys and Trash: Scott Hand Wipes

2008-06-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

I want to start a new regular feature on this blog. I will review products that I think could be useful for a triathlete or other endurance athletes. Now I know that lots of blogs review products, and I'm not sure that we need another review of a tri bike, powermeter or the latest nutrition supplement. Perhaps I will review some of these types of items, but what I am really interested in are items that are not designed to serve the triathlete, and that these athletes might not know about, but still could be useful.

First off I want to say that unless otherwise stated I have not received any promotional consideration for any of the items I review unless I specifically state as such. I have purchased these items off the shelf just like anyone else.

My rating system will work like this. Every item is either ranked as a tool, toy or trash. Tools are useful items that help you get your workout done, help you get fitter, faster or more comfortable. These are the must have items.

The next rating is toy. These are the items that are fun, may have a motivational component and probably are all geeked up, but they won't get you across the finish line any faster.

The last rating is trash. This stuff is just no good or at least is not worth the price.

Ok. Simple enough. So what is the first item I am going to review . . . Scott Hand Wipes. What?! Hand wipes. Yes, hand wipes. These things rock!

If you work on your bike (and you should) you will get your hands greasy. It is just the reality of the triathlete's life that you are going to drop a chain or adjust that brake or derailer and get your hands covered in grease. Bike grease is usually horribly difficult to remove. With lots of scrubbing and ten minutes later you might get it all off in the sink. But Scotts Hand Wipes will take that grease off in seconds. It is amazing! These wipes are made for shop use and you can get them at your local hardware store in a tub of 30 pieces. Basically they are cloth wipes impregnated with what appears to be a citrus degreaser. It is mild on your hands but cuts through the grease immediately.

Another great use for these wipes is cleaning your handlebar tape. If you drop a chain during a ride or have to change a flat you probably will get grease on your hands and then get that grease onto your bar tape. If you have black tape you probably can't see it, but if you have a light colored bar tape like me then they don't stay light and quickly turn black. I have tried Simple Green and other degreasers on the bar tape and it works a bit, but not very well. The Scott Hand Wipes however takes it right off just like that.

Less time cleaning, more time riding. Definitely going to make you faster.

Scott Hand Wipes -- Rating: Tool

Epic Ride #1: Calabasas to Pacific Coast Highway via Mulholland

2008-06-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

So I have been preparing for the LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Double Metric Century Challenge and have been doing some incredible rides. I don't have time to do a very long ride every weekend, but I have been able to negotiate with my wife to get some long days in. I probably have done about 6 rides over 4 hours and feel pretty comfortable with doing the 200k next week.
Most of these rides were LA Wheelmen trainer rides, which they start in the spring with a new one each week. These ride slips are a great resource because I have really wanted to expand my list of available rides from the usual trek up Angeles Crest. Sometimes I am able to go on the regularly scheduled day, but usually I just print out the route slip from the webpage and go on my own.
The first ride I did with the LA Wheelman was a ride from Calabasas to the Pacific Coast through the Santa Monica Mountains. It was only my second chance to through these mountains. If you look at the profile of the route below, you'll see that the ride starts with a very steep but short climb in the very beginning. The climb is not very tough when you are fresh, but on the way back I was dreading that climb the entire way.

The first quarter of the ride was just beautiful. It was pleasantly cool with penty of shade through rolling hills with farms and ranches along the route. The next quarter of the ride started to get tougher. You had to climb up over the mountains to get to the ocean. I got a flat because there was slash in the sidewall of my tire. I felt pretty stupid about it because I had gotten a flat in the last ride I did and forgot to check the tire. I first tried to patch the tube, but it didn't hold. Then I felt really stupid because I should have just replaced the tube since I had one with me and now I only had one C02 cartridge to do it. It seemed like it took me forever, but I finally got it fixed by putting some cardboard separating the inside the tire and tube and replacing the tube. Now I had no CO2 left so I just crossed my fingers that I would make it through the rest of the ride with no more flats.

The climb was beautiful and there was still cool temperatures, but descending down to the ocean was just fantastic. It was incredible. You had to be careful to avoid stones in the road, but the views were spectacular.

Down along PCH the group stopped at a fish and chips joint for lunch, but I decided to press on back. First, it was only 10am and too early for me to eat lunch, but also I am slow and I figured I really needed that time to get back over the mountains, so I gobbled down a Balance bar and some Clif Shot Bloks and was off.

The way back was rough. First, it really started to heat up. It was probably around 85 degrees and I was pouring out sweat. Secondly, my bike keep ghost shifting out of my 29 cog onto my 27 cog. It was incredibly annoying. The route slip showed a different route on the way back. It was very steep, but incredibly beautiful. I wish I had my camera, as there was some incredible red rock formations and wildflowers out there.

The last fourth of the ride was just terribly painful. The ride had an assigned stop at the Rock Shop, and I should have stopped, but I was too concerned about making it home in the time I had told my wife I would be back. So I just pressed on. I guess I just took off more than I could chew with this one. I was stopping under every shade tree I could find. There was another rider that looked to be about 80 riding a hybrid and wearing sandals and I was doing everything I could just to try and keep up with him. It was so hot, and I ran out of water. I thought I was going to die so I stopped at a house, and when no one answered the door I just used their hose. I think I drank a whole bottle's worth of water right there.

I keep grinding slowly on, just dreading that last final climb. I don't know how many times I just thought of throwing in the towel and calling my wife to come pick my ass up. I knew that damn climb was coming up, and I just dreaded it. But I didn't call for the SAG wagon because I knew it would take forever for her to come get me, and I didn't want to wake up my four year old daughter from her afternoon nap. So I just pushed on.

Pretty soon I ached all over. My feet hurt. My hamstrings ached. My quads burned. My hands and shoulders were numb. But then something happened. I realized that I was at the peak of that very first climb. I was there and I didn't even know I was doing that last climb. I was so shocked and happy that I just powered down the last descent to my car with just a huge grin on my face. Sixty-four and a half miles done (GPS battery died on me so the profile above has the last few miles cut off), but how in the world was I going to finish 126 miles? I had a lot of work ahead.

Next time. . . the Terrible Tujungas!

2008 Redondo Beach Triathlon

2008-06-13T15:22:00.001-07:00

So I finally did my first triathlon for the year. There aren't too many early season races in Southern California. So unless you are doing the California Half-Iron, June is about as early as it gets, and it is about time. I enjoyed the Redondo Beach Triathlon last year and so I was looking forward to doing it again. But I didn't really train for it, because I have been training for the upcoming LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Double Metric Century Challenge. But it was a sprint race and a C race on my race schedule, so I figured putting my run and swim training on maintenance would be ok.

The good news is that I finished higher in the rankings than last year, but the bad news is that I was nearly two minutes slower this year, which to be frank was disappointing. In the end the difference nearly all came down to the run, and reveals that my run needs alot of work.

The Swim

At 1000 meters, the swim is a little long for a sprint triathlon, so the event favors good swimmers. I'm not a good swimmer, but pathetically enough it is my fastest sport of the three. Last year I had a problem moving too far the the left and then swinging wide as I went around the final buoy. This caused me to get caught in some kind of rip current near the pier, and I made very slow progress in the final exit from the water. So this year I was determined to stay close to the buoy's even if it meant going through the inevitable crush zones where all the athletes are vieing for the same inside lane around the buoy.

I was feeling comfortable and confident and I was really surprised that I basically found a group of guys and stuck with them for the entire swim course. This has never actually happened to me before. I did swing a little too wide in the first half of the swim, but got back on course for the second half. The water was very calm so getting out was like a breeze.

My time was just a few seconds slower than last year at 22:57 for the 1000 meters. That is about a 2:18/100meters (not including the run up the beach) which seems pretty fast for me. I rarely go that fast in the pool, but maybe the course was measured short or my wetsuit made me faster. What I think is most likely is that I was probably swimming slightly slower than last year, but I swam a shorter course by staying closer to the buoys. My swim definitely needs lots of work, but it was about what I expected.

T1

Going up that hill from the beach to the transition area is murder, and I had to walk at least half of it. The only problem I had in transition was getting my wetsuit off. I had a little difficulty, but did not sit down so I probably did better than last year at 1 minute and 56 seconds, but I really should be able to get that down to around a minute to a minute and a quarter. That will be a goal for me for my upcoming events.

The Bike

I put on my bike shoes during the bike leg. I did that last year and had issues because another guy closed my bike shoes. Why didn't I learn?! I closed them this year. I thought I was closing them in such a way that they would be wide open, but no such luck. I must have taken at least two minutes to finally get those damn shoes on. I probably should have practiced more, as I haven't practiced since last year.

After getting my shoes on I kept the bike at around 220 watts for nearly the entire course. My lactate threshold is around 190 so I figured for such a short course 220 would be a good pace. People were staying to the right more than last year, but there still were alot of kids, and they had a tendency to weave back and forth right in front of you.

The best part of the course is a fast downhill loop followed by a short but steep hill. I did my best to pass as many people as possible on that downhill because I know they were going to get some distance from me on that uphill. Actually I had an advantage in my road bike on that downhill because I could stay aero in the drops and still maintain good control going around the loop, whereas alot of the people on tri-bikes had to get up on the hoods and slowdown to maintain control.

I had no problem getting out of my tri shoes as I was coming into T2. Now if only I could do a flying dismount. . .

So I did the six miles in 20 minutes and 42 seconds, which averages out to about 17.4 miles per hour. With all the bike training I have been doing I was hoping for better. I guess this just goes to show that specificity is the name of the game. I have been doing lots of bike training, but it has nearly all been long distance endurance training. I need to do those intervals!

T2

T2 was pretty fast at 1 minute and 24 seconds. I put on my running shoes without socks, which made it a bit easier. I was risking blisters, but I figured how could I possibly get blisters over only two miles. I also put on body Glide on my feed earlier, but I have no idea how much remained after the swim and running up the beach in bare feet. But it worked out ok, as I didn't get any blisters.

The Run

Here is where it gets ugly. My legs felt like lead. I haven't done a brick in several months. Boy, did it show. I was really working hard, but I was barely moving. My Polar RS800 was telling me that I was doing about a 12:30 pace. Ugh!

My legs started to feel a little better about a third of the way into the run, but by then my heart rate was really high. I'm not sure how high it was because my HRM lost the signal during the swim and so I didn't have any heart rate readings for the first half of the run. I finally remembered how to get it to find the signal later, but by that time the race was nearly over. I kinda miss my my S625x for races for this reason. It could keep the signal in the swim and I would have a heart rate for the entire event.

For the final hill I dug deep and ran the whole way with a final strong sprint at the end. I finished the two miles in 22 minutes and 7 seconds. That would be around an 11 minutes per miles pace, but probably the course was short. That was still nearly two minutes longer than last year, so my run has really slipped up.

My running has been really inconsistent since the LA Marathon. That's partly because I have been focused on my bike training, but also because I tend to want to run long and don't do much speed work or tempo running. This just trains you to run slow. So now I definitely know that I need to focus on short, fast running for the next few months.

My overall time was 1 hour, 9 minutes and 6 seconds placing 9th (out of 22) in the Clydesdale division (last year I was 22nd out of 41) so that was definitely an improvement.

How to destroy your bike

2008-05-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

I've been riding quite a bit lately. I'm building up for a the LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Double Metric Century Challenge (whew, that's a mouthful!) in late June. So that means lots of long epic rides and mostly in the mountains. I have gone farther than I have ever imagined and still the longest ride I have done has been only about 75 miles, which is still a long ways off from reaching at least a century ride before the double metric century (about 126 miles.)

So I have a long ways to go, but I have a sprint triathlon coming up next week so I thought I would get a little more experience in the flats on my triathlon bike. Yesterday I took my Raleigh out for a spin along the San Gabriel River Trail. I started in Duarte and the idea was to go hard and fast to the ocean and back. Instead I destroyed my bike. Ok, maybe that is an overstatement, but I completely ripped the rear derailer off. The rear hub may be damaged, the cassette may be toast and the front big chainring may be bent as well.

So what happened? To understand how this could happen I have to explain about rear derailer cage capacity. The cage is the arm that hangs down from the derailer and holds the two pullys that the chain runs through. The job of the cage is to direct the chain onto the proper cog, but also it functions to take up the slack in the chain. The longer the cage the more slack it can take up and the more "capacity" it has. For the drivetrain to run properly the chain needs to be long enough to wrap around the two largest gears (the big chainring in front and the largest cog in back) and also have a cage that can take up the slack while the chain is in the two smallest gears (small chainring, small cog). The larger the difference between the rings in either the font or the back will increase the difference in chain lengths required in these two positions and thus will require a greater cage capacity. Campy rear derailers come in either short, medium or long cage. The longer the cage, the greater capacity, but also the greater weight and slightly slower shifting response. Generally people who are concerned with performance go with the lowest cage length required.

On my road bike I have a compact crank which requires an increased capacity and also I tend to run a 13-29 cassette for climbing, which also requires a greater capacity, so on my road bike I have a medium cage rear derailer. A medium cage will handle just about anything short of a triple crank with no problems. I wanted to get a medium cage for my tri bike as well, but when I ordered my parts I forgot to specify that I wanted a medium cage and was instead sent the more common short cage. The short cage will work for a standard crank and any cassette with the lagest cog of up to 27 teeth. I didn't want to do through the hassle of sending the thing back and I have a standard crank on the bike and don't plan on using it for climbing so I figured a shart cage would be fine.

Generally it is fine, unless I use my climbing 13-29 cassette. When I use that cassette the chain will jam when I am in the big chain ring in front and the large cog in back (every other combination shifts fine), but since I wasn't planning on using the tri bike for climbing why would I need to use that cassette. And if I did use that cassette then I just need to stay out of the big/big combo. I'm not supposed to shift into that combo anyways because it is cross chaining and bad for wear and tear on your bike anyways. So every time I ride the bike I either put on a 12-25 cassette or just be careful to not shift into the big/big combo.

So now it should be obvious what happened. I was too lazy to swap cassettes when I moved my powertap wheel from my road bike to my tri bike. Then about an hour into my ride I was powering along on the flats in my big chain ring when I can across a short steap hill. I didn't shift soon enough because I thought my momentum would carry me up most of the hill, but I misjudged how steep it was. Then I had to quickly downshift and while I was specifically trying to avoid shifting it into the largest cog I accidently shifted it one gear too many. There was his horrible metal crushing sound and the bike stopped instantly. I was fortunately able to clip out in time, but the bike was really messed up. The rear derailer hanger had been torn in two and my beautiful carbon chorus derailer was bent and mangled and jammed on top of the cassette. I was able to remove the rear wheel and pull the mangled bits out, but that was the end of that ride.

It looked like I was going to have to walk over 15 miles bake to my car barefoot, but fortunately my wonderful wife was able to pick up my sorry ass on her way to work. Looks like I'm riding my road bike in the triathlon next weekend.

Great White Shark Attack!

2008-04-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

When you swim in the ocean you never can totally get the possibility of a shark attack out of your mind. A few times I have been totally freaked out in the water when I saw a nearby Seal or Dolphin. Last week some friends of mine saw a humpback whale. I don't think I'll be swimming in the ocean for a few weeks.

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. - A shark believed to be a great white killed a 66-year-old swimmer with a single, giant bite across both legs Friday as the man trained with a group of triathletes, authorities and witnesses said.

Dave Martin, a retired veterinarian from Solana Beach, was attacked at San Diego County's Tide Beach around 7 a.m., authorities and family friend Rob Hill said.

Martin was taken to a lifeguard station for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement on the Solana Beach city Web site. His injuries crossed both thighs, San Diego County sheriff's Sgt. Randy Webb said in a news release.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography shark expert Richard Rosenblatt says the shark was probably a great white between 12 and 17 feet long.

"It looks like the shark came up, bit him, and swam away," said Dismas Abelman, the Solana Beach deputy fire chief.

There was a single bite across both of Martin's legs, Abelman said.

The attack took place about 150 yards offshore. Several swimmers wearing wetsuits were in a group when the shark attacked, lifeguard Craig Miller said. Two swimmers were about 20 yards ahead of the man when they heard him scream for help. They turned around and dragged him back to shore.

For more of this article click here.

Fortunately Shark attacks are rare in Southern California. The last attack in So. Cal. dates back to 2004. Most Shark attacks in California are in Northern California where there are plenty of seals and sea lions to snack on.

Conquering the Big Tujunga Loop

2008-04-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was up before dawn on my way to Angeles Crest for an epic ride. I road with the LA Tri Club up Angeles Crest to Clear Creak. Then we went north down Angeles Forest Highway. This is the route along which the final stage of the Tour of California took place this year (going in the opposite direction). There is a dark tunnel along the route and I am glad I had my blinkers, because it would be really easy to be taken out by a car in the dark. I heard that in the Tour there was a serious bike crash in this tunnel.

Then we turned onto Upper Big Tujunga. This was the best part of the route. There was some beautiful rollers along a pleasant forested stream. It was nice to have the rollers because when you ride in this area it is usually just up, up, up. There were two serious climbs though. They were not too long, but very steep. I was putting out 250 watts and it seemed like I was barely moving. Here is a elevation profile of the route.

On the way down I got a flat on my rear wheel. This is my second flat on the Angeles Crest Highway, were I never had a flat all last year. It seems that there is more rocks and gravel on the sides of the roads, perhaps because of the recent rains. It took me a while to fix the flat because it has been so long since I last used my CO2 inflator that I forgot how to use it. I finally figured out how to get it to work, but I could not inflate the tire to full pressure because I had used some of the CO2 to just get the tube partially inflated so I could install it. I had another CO2 cartridge, but I always like to have one in reserve in case I get another flat. I guess it would be smart to have small a backup pump for the time where you run out of CO2. Either that, or just hope you can beg a Co2 cartridge off another ride zipping by.

The total distance for the ride was just over 47 miles with over 5000 feet of vertical climbing. It took almost 5 hours to complete. Here is a Google Earth map.

Strangely enough I'm not that sore yet today.

King of the Mountain

2008-03-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

At least that is how I feel. This morning I met up with a few members of my tri club to go for a bike ride up Angeles Crest. I went up many time last year, each time getting a little farther and farther. My goal was to eventually reach the top of Mt. Wilson. Here is what the profile looks like.

It is just up and up and up. I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go up this morning because this is only the third ride I have done outdoors this year. I basically spent all winter on the trainer and let the bike really slide in favor of my marathon training. I had allocated a three hour ride for today on my training plan, and frankly I wasn't sure if I could go for that long on these hills.

It was still dark when we started out a 6:15am. I don't usually ride in the dark, but there is very little traffic on highway two that early in the morning and I was with a group so I felt ok about it. I also brought along a high visibility jacket, red blinkers and a high intensity blinking LED headlight. Some of the others had no blinkers, no reflectors, no nothing -- and to make it worse they were riding in the middle of the road. Let's give ourselves a fighting chance here people!

Around 7:00am the sun finally came out and I started to sweat so I took my jacket off. Getting the right mix of clothing when cycling in cold weather has taken my a while and I still have alot to learn. I was wearing a Craft Windstopper base layer which I really like. It keeps you warm, but I never feel hot in it, and the windstopper material is great for the descents when it gets really, really cold. I was also wearing a pair of Castelli Primo bib knicker shorts. They have a fleece interior which really helps keep in warmth, but they are not full length so when the sun does come out you are not roasting. Other than that it was just a team jersey and armwarmers.

As I went farther up though it got colder and colder. There is actually snow up there. In fact, I was just up there last week for snow play with the family. We did some sledging and built a snowman. So it is definitely cold, at least in the shade. You went from being quit comfortable in the sun and then once you moved into shadow there would be this chill that just crept down into you bones. I quickly put my jacket back on. It helped, but it would make me sweat when I was in the sun.

This is a photo taken about an hour and a half in. You can see the road where I came up and in the distance you can make out the Los Angeles basin. At this point I was doing betting than expected, and so I decided that I would go for another hour and turn around, which would allow me to finish up in about 3.2 hours. I passed Clear Creek which is where I usually turn around and I felt really strong. A thought passed into my mind that maybe I could make it all the way to Mt. Wilson today.

Here is the view at about 2.25 hours. That is the way I came up. It is pretty spectacular in person. I decided that I was going to just keep going and see if I could make it to Mt. Wilson. I was not pressed for time which is unusual. This was because I had left extra early, and because I was not expected back until noon. So I thought why not. Let's go for it. I finally got to Mt. Wilson road and became very excited. It looked like it was going to happen. Mt. Wilson road is a little different than highway two. It is steeper in parts, but then has a few downhills and flat sections mixed in rather than just straight up.

This is the view about two miles from the top. There was lots of snow everywhere and it was getting colder and colder the higher I got. I finally got to the top at exactly three hours. That's 19.7 miles and over 5,200 feet of vertical climbing. Unfortunately the observatory pavilion was closed so I didn't get to see the view of the entire San Gabriel and Los Angeles valleys. It opens in April first so I guess I'll have to go back. But I do have proof that I made it to the top.

The way down was painful. Painful for my face and fingers. It was very cold and I was going about 30-35 mph. I had to keep my mouth closed or felt like my teeth were going to freeze and pop out. Every so often I had to stop and rub my hands vigorously to get some feeling back. I was pretty stupid to not bring my wind gloves. But I made it back. I got a flat a couple miles from my car. I was just thinking about how I had been up here many times and that I had never gotten a flat even with all the gravel. If you ever have those thoughts, stop! Here is a view of the path I took courtesy of Google Earth.

Details, Details!

2008-03-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

My modus operandi is to get up early, pack my gym bag with my work clothes and then head to the gym wearing my workout clothes. This inevitably will lead to problems. Once I forgot my dress socks. Another time I forgot my belt. I have forgotten my underwear. I thought that I had done just about everything, and each time I learned an important lesson to be more careful and not make that mistake again. It has been a while, but today I broke new ground.

I guess that on my way out of the house I grabbed two dress shoes that don't match. In my defense, they look pretty similar from the back and are a similar color. At least I also was successful in getting a left and right shoe. So what to do? Wear my workout footwear to work? Flip-flops don't go with my suit too well.

Oh well, live and learn.

Precious Daylight

2008-03-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to spring when I could ditch the trainer and ride outdoors. Here in sunny California weather is not usually an issue so what keeps me on the trainer is the amount of daylight. Due to my schedule I usually can only fit in a ride early in the morning, and I refuse to ride in the dark. I just don't think it is safe to share the road with groggy morning commuters in the dark.

So I was very excited to be out and about this Spring, but this year's earlier daylight savings time has put a serious kink into my plans. Looks like there's going to be another month of trainer rides at least.

This morning I did something a little different. I made my usual trip to the gym near my work, but took my bike. Instead of running, swimming, or using a spin bike at the gym I just got in a ride, and because I put my commute before my ride instead of after it I could ride just as the sun was coming up. It was alot of hassle getting all my bike gear packed up, and I always worry about someone breaking into my car and stealing my bike, so I don't know how often I will do this, but I really enjoyed it this morning.

Today I also decided to take the opportunity to do an outdoor Lactate Threshold test on the Ballona Creek bike path. It was the longest time I have ever spent in the drops. I think I may have spent perhaps a maximum if five minutes in the drops before, but this time I spent the entire 30 minutes of the test in the drops!

I never know how much credence to put into the results, but here they are. My new LT is 194 watts (a big jump up from 174). That actually seems about right to me just based on 30 min power historical bests I have recorded in the last few months, but the LT heart rate seems way too high at 164bpm. That is up from 146 and ten beats higher than my last running LT test. I'm skeptical of that number, but if it holds up that is an amazing increase.

Pasadena Triathlon

2008-03-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

I didn't do this event, because I it was only a week after the LA Marathon, but it is a local race for me. I had actually forgotten about it this year, but on my usual Saturday ride to the Rose Bowl on my way to Angeles Crest I came across the start.

This triathlon is interesting in that it is in reverse order. There is a running start then a transition to the bike and then a final swim finish in the nearby Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Looks like alot of fun. Maybe I'll try it next year.

New Sidebar Links

2008-03-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

I want to point out a couple new sidebar links on the right under my profile. The first is my Training Peaks training log. I'm going to be using Training Peaks this season, and it generates a nice little summary of weekly and year to date workout summaries. You can also explore deeper and see the actual workouts. I suspect few people actually care about my actual workouts so I'll spare people the details in my blog and leave that in separate place. If you don't use Training Peaks and are curious about what it can do, click on the link and you can get an example of the "public training log" it can generate.

The other link is to my profile on Athlinks. Athlinks is a social networking site similar to myspace, friendster or facebook, but it is for athletes. It collects the race results of thousands of races all over the world. If you collect your races you can have a really nice summary of your race results. You can also classify others as friends or rivals. Its fun. Check it out and put me down as a friend!