Weekend Wrap-Up

Thursday Oct 26th

Today was a short, 2 hour, spin to Forest Park for some off-road cross-like stuff. Today was nothing hard, just "base" stuff. I was that word base loosely because it is hard to go easy while practicing for cross. Everything just seems to speed up. Climbed up Saltzman again and down Firelane 5. Took longer than normal, since I was by myself, didn't want to crash and have to walk out with out help...that's all folks.

Friday Oct 27th

More of the same. This time with friends. Took 11 seconds off my Firelane 5 decsent. Down to 3:39 now. Hammered with friends on the way off to shake of the cobwebs...good times.

Saturday Oct 28th

This is the or one of the greatest days in Beaver Nation history. Today the Oregon State Beavers knocked off #3 USC!!! Unbelievable. My father was there, it was fathers day weekend @ OSU, but he has no more kids there anymore. My little brother graduated earlier this year. Anyway, great day to be a Beaver!!!

Today was also the First Annual Beer Crit. Same rules as the Beer Mile (beermile.com) but on bikes and off-road, cross style! Oh yeah! Here's how stupid or whatever you want to call me I am. Last night I poured a can and a bottle out to see which empties faster. Then I pound one of each to see which I could pound faster. Nothing like drinking, pounding beer, alone. At any rate, the 12oz can of beer won. That's what i used today. Miller High Life was the beer. Felt F1x is the bike... There were 5 Ironheads and 3 Guiness Cycling guys there for the race on Powell Butte. I was nearly last from the start, 18 seconds to "pound" a beer is not good or fast. I caught the lead pack coming in for beer #2, once again, fell off the pace and never gained ground. As for the Guiness cat 1/2 riders, i beat them all! Wankers drink slower than I do! One guy might of won, but he threw-up after beer #3, thus DQ'd, well penalized with an additional beer, but he chose not to. I ended fourth, behind 3 other Ironman triathletes, what does that say...?

Sunday Oct 29th - Cross Crusade Halloween @ Flying M Ranch
Most people were in costume and most were drinking allday. With my warm-up drink and bike real hard yesterday, I felt a pre-race beer was a good idea today. Shit, it can't get worse than 39th this week, can it? It didn't. I don't have offical results yet, but i should be in the 20's if not teens and maybe score some points! Two races left, my top 5 overall is all but slipped away. It about being a spoiler now! With two fast courses coming, I should be a good spoiler.

The race course was a little "dumbed down" from last week. Most likely to prevent injuries since we life flighted a guy last week. He's okay, nothing broken. Meaning the course was fast, with one long climb, that killed me. Bastards! The coffin barrier and short run-up was the best part, I felt I nailed it everytime. The twisty sections were fun and fast, that's were i would catch the fools who passed me on the climb.

My costume...Stewie from Family Guy ($20 @ Target) complete with head and big plastic ass. Chics dug the huge ass. I ditched the head att eh start of the race, too big and would have been problems. So, those who didn't see me in complete costume prior to the race called me Mario, as in Super Mario. I had on red/yellow clothes...anyway. Lots of compliments on the ass. Still searching for good photos from the photags.

The only free pic I could find...

October 25th - No Running, Cross Instead

Since I didn't commute home, there was no commuting to this morning. I packed all my shit, again, up to commute and/or ride at lunch today. I rode at lunch. I won't get in a run, which means Thursday and Friday I will need to run.

Cross ride today @ Willamette Park (in Wilsonville). 60 minutes ride. Good stuff. I rode down there and found a bunch of dirt trails to ride. It was fun. Then I roamed around the asphault for barriers and gravel pile run-ups. Good times! Good workout. I'm missing Cross Skills practice tonight at the other Willamette Park (John Landing area) for Ed Viesturs book signing @ the Baghdad.

NO SHORTCUTS TO THE TOP: CLIMBING THE WORLD'S 14 HIGHEST PEAKS is the extraordinary memoir of Ed Viesturs, a giant in the world of mountain climbing and the only American to have reached the summit of all fourteen of the world’s highest mountains—all without the aid of bottled oxygen. Now he shares his triumphant journey with us in a riveting, inspirational and psychologically revealing account of his tireless pursuit of an awe-inspiring and groundbreaking feat.

October 24th - Run Some More

Another run, this time 5 miles! I know, crazy huh? HR still in 145 range.

There's a 10k on November 4th I'm thinking about doing for a benchmark. There is also a Beaver game that day I have tickets to. We'll see how this works out. It's a Champoeg, so at least it is on the way to Corvallis.

I had the intent to commute home by bike today, but dumbass forgot his shoes. I had everything packed up, running hear for tomorrow, clothes everything! Now it's been two days and no cycling. Not good.

October 23rd - Run, Run and Run

Today marks the beginning of my Run Forest Run campaign. As I go into the off-season, my running needs to improve in order to get to Kona. I will be running 5-6days a week. Short stuff, pushing it sometimes, with some stairs thrown in there for Cross.

4 mile run, too long, 4 sets of 50 stairs, HR 140ish.

Bored at Work, So I Update

October 19th
Thursday...what did I do...I got my hair cut, well trimmed up. I may or may not have ran afterwards. Pretty sure I didn't ride.

October 20th
Friday I did ride with Veloshop speedsters. Met @ Downtown Stumptown for a spin through Forest Park. Rumors had it that they hammer eachother to the top of Saltzman, rumors were right. I hung on until I made an attempt to get off the front. I made it off, didn't expect a gap, but the hill was long and blew up. Slowly spinning at the top, it wasn't long until I was caught and couldn't stay on their wheels...damn it. Made it to the to of Saltzman. From here we head down, as fast as we can, Firelane 5. Record before this night was 3:42, Tommy was down in 3:25ish, me in 3:50. It's getting dark, so we hammer out Leif, and I split off to home. Good ride, hard ride. 2 hours.

October 21st
Surf report was hot! 8-10 footers, 12-13 seconds periods, offshore winds, golden right? Nope. Seaside Cove was terrible, two guys way out not catching anything and another one the inside riding the rocks, no way! Drove to Cannon to check out Guanos, etc. No dice, no one out. Too big to be out by myself. Busted, drove home to go make fresh applesauce with the Fam. Went to bed early, for there was cross the next day...

I tuned into Kona as well. Three Ironheads were there. All three had good days. Ann ran a 3:28 marathon - wicked fast! Gant has a super solid bike and Dave, battled and won with his hamstring to finish with his wife (the both started together as well). Next year!

October 22nd - Cross Crusade #3 - Hornings Hideout
Going into this, I don't think my head was straight, rather I had already defeated myself. I knew the course was hard, meaning lots of little hills requiring lots of short bursts of climbing - NOT my forte! The technical stuff, the downhill, the flats, everything else is fine. It had a brutal run up, walk up by the second lap. A wicked downhill section after that with a slippery righthader were everyone was falling. I had a sweet sideways skid coming into the corner, saw flashes, but I haven't found the photo yet. Anyway, I slipped from top ten (had a sweet start) to 39th - SUCK!

There are three more races, best of four races count. So I better make the next three golden if I want a chance at an overall top 5 finish in B's. Flying M this weekend, still have no costume, maybe need to get one...

That's it for last week!

Hump Day

Yesterday I rode up to Forest Park for a little cross ride. Spun up Saltzman and descended Firelane 5, newly opened to bikes. Before we just poached, there was never anyone on it, over grown. It's faster now that the rain has helped smooth it out. Pretty technical and now that it; faster, the hair pins are a bit more work.

10.17.06
90 minute ride
No HR, its was high
1500' ascent

Bottom bracket issues are finally solved this time, after three trips back to Demetri. I put the Michelin Muds on, great tires. 55psi is too soft still for the rear and 50psi to hard for the front. Tonight I will go with 46-47 up front and 60 in the rear. I'm still looking to get into some Stans No Tube set-up, but its spendy!

There's cyclocross practice at Willamette Park tonight, should be fun. I'm also going to run and/or lift today.

Damn Smokey!

October 16th will go down in history as one of the worst runs I have ever had. I set out to do my typical loop around the waterfront (4.1 miles). Started fine, then got a sideache that never went away. That's not true, it went away while I did stairs...WTF? I did 4 sets of stairs, single step, double, triple then single again. Only about 50 stairs in each set. That's about half of what I normally do (stairs off of Terwilliger). They felt fine, I'm doing them for cross. Sideache came back after that and never went away. Brutal run, HR was high, left watch and HRM at home, on purpose. I dont' plan to run with it for awhile. I need to start running daily. This "off-season" is all about running frequency. Offical training won't start until December, I think. I'll need to check with Blue Moose.

I've taken plenty of time off since IMC. Too much in my opinion. My bike and run fitness is shot. I'm thinking it will come back just fine. It did last year after even more time off.

I've signed up, well hopefully, with Breakaway Training to do a once a week sign class taught by Julie Browning. It's a great way to get on the trainer and have a good workout. Trainer workouts are tough to right. Plus, it's a great way to focus on the basics again - pedal stroke, cadence, etc... It'll help for cross as well. Four weeks of cross left. I need to place well in each one to have a shot at an overall placing. I started well in Hood River with a 3rd...then a DNF...

I need to spice up this blog a little...before i start in for IMB training.

What I'm Doing Now

After been super sick last week, it's time to start riding and running, with the goal on running. I'm maintaining easy miles, to keep some fitness and not get wasted at the weekend cyclocross races. Running is going to be 5/6 times a week, short, nothing really long, just frequent.

I had a good start to cyclocross in Hood River. I raced B's up from C's last year and took 3rd. The next week was the Cross Crusade Opener @ Alpenrose. I started front row this time, but now I kept crashing (twice, once pretty hard) and then pinch flatted. No pit wheels. I will have them next time. Next race is October 22nd @ Horning Hideout - new venue, should be fun. Hopefully some rain by then so it's a little more cross then road. I'm missing this weeks 2nd CrossCrusade race.

Starting yoga again too. That will only help me. I'm also retaining Scott of Blue Moose as my coach. Oh and the gym will be my friend for a few months as well.

Been out For Awhile

I finished up my taper and competed in Canada. I had a stellar race. Here's the report

IMC 2006

By the numbers:

Total: 10:25:11 OA: 110/2300+ AG: 21/239
Swim: 58:10 (1:31/100m) - (93rd fastest)
T1: 2:50
Bike: 5:21:43 (20.9mph) – (149th fastest)
T2: 2:33
Run: 3:59:55 (9:09/mile) – (195th fastest)
Run Splits: 1:57:12 (8:57/mile)
2:02:38 (9:21/mile)

I have no idea where to start this race report. How about the fact that I took over 2 hours off my time from last year! That’s a good start eh?

The alarm went off @ 4am, no need to snooze, I got right out of bed. I needed some 700 calories three hours before so I got busy eating. A couple waffles, back to my favorite pre-race meal, with peanut butter and syrup. A Gatorade, cup of coffee and I think that was it. Probably not 700 calories…

Got busy with the sunscreen, I applied generous layers of Himaya 45 SPF, the bomb sunscreen. I reapplied after body marking as well. Finished dressing and drinking some water, careful not to pound water. Rolled out the door and got to transition @ 5am. Checked bike, placed fuel bottles, ran for 20 minutes and hung out stretching. Hit the john again, I was early enough, there was no line yet, sweet! Bored and nervous I went over to the Race Café at the expo for a double shot espresso, lucked out and got three for the price of two and a Gatorade. Done drinking by 6:30, donned my new Blue Seventy wetsuit and headed to the water.

Standing at the edge of the lake, watching the pros warm up then go, was relaxing. I warmed up for a few, then took my place at the front row, left side. I figured there were at least 100 people on the front row, which is about how many will finish ahead of me on the swim. Nothing to lose starting in the front, I can handle being crawled over, just not feet in the face. Cannon goes off, I swim…

I had pretty much free sailing for the first 500m or so, which is about when I realize that those on the inside (between me and the bouys) were going faster. I thought about jumping on Rob’s feet, about 5m ahead, but decided to venture inside instead. I jumped to a group and settled in, hanging out on the very inside now. Nothing exciting until the way back where the bouys are angled to the right, which I had trouble following, I always veered left, more like straight, but still off course.

I swam as far as I could before reaching bottom, stripped half the suit and went to the strippers. Took longer than it should have, but they got it off and I got my T1 bag. The transition volunteers, while great, just weren’t as aggressive as I remember from CDA. Anyway, my T1 and T2 times were good.
I carried my shoes to my bike since there was a long section of asphalt I didn’t want to run on with my cleats, which I just replaced. I was in 95th place currently.

On the bike and headed out of town. There was great crowd support out of town. My legs weren’t feeling 100%, so I did a few spin ups, didn’t really help. Remembering other races, my legs never felt 100% until I have 40ish miles on them or some good hills. Not worried. Hit the first hill, easy spin, low HR. After that I settled in on a HR of somewhere between 130-140. My target was anything under 140. I haven’t poured over my bike data yet, but I took 10 mile splits and if I was under 30 minutes for each, I was happy. Most said 28 and change. Before I knew it I was at Ritcher Pass, 11km climb. I let the HR get to 155 and stay. Easy spin up, warming up the legs. Didn’t fly by anyone and no one flew by me either. Descent was sweet, barely pedaling, even with 54x11, just tucked.

I hit the rollers, never hammering them, just getting over with he least amount of energy. I was out of the saddle a few times for a couple smaller ones. I was with a group of five or six, that included a MPRO, confidence booster. We all hung together, passing and re-passing, which for me meant passing on the downhill, coasting, and them passing me on the flats catching their legal draft…

Somewhere along the out and back to special needs I lost it. Focus was hard, people were passing me, back hurt, etc, etc. I got it back somewhere around mile 80. Then I realized it was only 13ish miles to Yellow Lake, then I was home free! This also when my low back and right hamstring (none of which ever bothered me before, nor were they the arts getting physical therapy leading to the race) started really hurting. I alleviated my hamstring by focusing on a smooth pedal stroke and not hammering, but the back was only good out of aero. Since the Yellow Lake series is a gradual uphill anyway, out of aero wasn’t hurting me that much. I was reeling a few people in anyway by this time.

By the last Yellow Lake climb I was feeling good, finally warmed up I guess. After that I felt great and really felt strong for the remaining downhills and false flats into town. However, the little uphill bit into town was rough. Cresting the hill, I just spun into town, gearing up for the run.

As I mentioned earlier, the volunteers were less aggressive than expected. They wanted me to walk into transition, weird and then I stood there waiting for someone to get my bike…I said screw it and I think E-40 said it best, “Ghost ride the whip.” So, I did, they caught it. Got my run bag and headed to the tent. I asked where the sunscreen was, but I still didn’t see them anywhere as I headed out of T2. Oh well. It’s two days later and no burn, so I think the Himaya stuff is definitely the shit! Now I was in 92nd place…

They say, and I agree, it’s all about the run. My mantra for this race was to be a runner. Much to my dismay, I wasn’t the runner I wanted to be. I still had a great run and PR’d the run by over a half hour. I set out to slow down to 8:20/8:30 pace, well I struggled to keep that pace from the start. I had no GI issues, when the stomach hurt, I’d just fart, all better (sorry ladies). Every two miles I would take a swig of malto with water. Every aide station was ice in the pockets and sponges on the shoulders. I relegated myself to a 10:30 finish early, which still meant a 9min pace. That was even tough at times with the gnarly headwind. I heard to got to 90, but I never felt overheated, I’ll chalk that one to proper nutrition and hydration. I just think the legs weren’t there.

By the turn around, I had blisters, so I stopped and wrapped them with stuff from special needs bag I put in last minute. Now it was getting tough and I was a little worried about overheating with the wind at the back, no cooling effect. Began alternating cola, water, and nutrition for the remainder. Still icing and sponges, that kept me cool enough, tailwind was not an issue, nor help. I began to stumble by a few women pros and men not having a good day. Lost focus again, so I removed my sunglasses to wake up, cola not doing the trick. I am happy to say that my hip flexor was not an issue, I had ART on it two days prior. Remembering a friends trouble, I had them go easy… By now (22) I was really wanting to walk, so calculating splits, I walked for a few meters every now and then until mile 24ish when the crowds pick up.

I hit the final out and back on Lakeshore, second best feeling than actually crossing the finish line. I crossed, under 10 and half, I was happy. Slower than my goal of 10:10, but oh well. Just means that I have at least two more Ironman to do! There was a lot of carnage, the handlers remarked how well I looked, didn’t feel well, but thanks! Nutrition and hydration were solid. Definitely couldn’t have performed that well if it wasn’t spot on. Off to soak in the lake!!!

A Kona slot wasn’t in the cards on this day. The roll-down went to 11th place @ 10:03, another fast year. Plus, we only had 7 slots, down 2 from last year.

What’s my biggest accomplishment at this race? Peeing on the bike! I finally did it. I’ve been trying all year in races.
Next up…IM Brazil…May 27, 2007