Did you know that 7.56 mph = 7:56 minute/mile pace? Well now you do. I didn’t, until Tuesday, when I ran 7.56 miles and it took me exactly an hour. When I looked at my average pace it said 7:56. Not very interesting, but as it says in the title, random.

There’s a dog named Sam and a cat named Chico. They need somebody to look after them for a couple weeks in February. I am an animal lover after all.

I anticipate a little of this,

then some of this..

then more of this,

followed by some this,

and finishing up with a bit of this,

Of course this means scratching on 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo since the dates conflict, but I think I will survive.

Finally getting around to writing up Ironman Arizona. My race can only be described as a resounding success, especially being almost exactly 16 months post hip surgery and having basically started from zero on the run training 12 months ago. I had not run basically at all due to the hip issue since finishing Ironman Coeur d’ Alene in 2006, and post surgery started running early November of 2007. I only felt I had transitioned from “recovery” to actually run training mid summer. With that said, the biggest unknown going into the whole process is how the hip would hold up to the training, and how it would all come together on race day. Completed a roughly 13 week specific training build after a long spring/summer of ongoing base training. Did not know what to expect as this was really the first big race I have done that I did not have major training limitations. I got to do the training, and got to the race healthy, so when the canon went off it was like opening best present on Christmas morning. =)

What follows is the fairly detailed race report, most people will just want to look at the pictures but I put the detailed report here because invariably when preparing for the next race I will not remember some of this stuff so it is nice to have the records.

The day started off with a wake-up at 0430, coffee, ham n’ cheese bagel, ~ 10oz of chocolate soy milk for breakfast.

Got to transition about 0545 and put the bottles on the bike and made sure the tires still had air in em’. Got body marked and headed for spot to chill out for a bit.

It was chilly enough, so I started the wetsuit procedures about 0615. Unlike CDA in 2006 I managed to do this without tearing a hole in the calf of my wetsuit this time.

Headed over to the swim course, had a gel at 0630 and jumped in about 0645.

Pros went off at 0650 as usual, and Age groupers at 0700.

The swim was pretty darn aggressive for how wide it is and the deep water start. The really physical part seemed to taper off around 20 minutes in, but traffic was a problem throughout as I felt like I kept having to swim around people, and felt like I kept getting pushed off my line by people who weren’t swimming straight. Oh, and just personally, I find the idea of stopping to site, at least in the first 20 minutes of an Ironman swim, to be a bit of a bad idea as you pretty much instantly create a log-jam of bodies behind you.
Swim went well, just tried to focus on swimming as straight as possible and using long strokes with strong catch/pull/recovery.

T1 was slow, transition tent was packed and the wet footed run left lots of dirt/grass stuck to the feet which I tried to wipe off as best I could as I had no sock change planned before the run. T1 distances were long though, long way from the swim exit to the transition, then a long way to get the bike and exit.

Followed Hector’s plan on the bike and it went pretty much flawlessly. 3 loops with bit of a climb out to the turn around. Steady aerobic on the way out, take advantage of the fast return to make time and take the majority of the calories while the heartrate is low and absorption is good. Bike traffic was absurd all the way to the turn around on loop 1, then things started to get spread out. Wind picked up a bit on loop 2, so climbing out into the wind was slower. I was pretty conservative on that outbound as I have learned from riding in the wind here in NM it is way too easy to overcook it focusing on a speed and you pay later. Loop 3 had some wind on the way out, but it seemed to die about 5-6 miles from the turn around so the return on loop 3 didn’t have quite the tail wind benifit. Bike nutrition was 2 bottles of sustained energy with ~ 5 scoops each and 2 nuun tablets each. Water in the aero bottle (refilled each lap at the turn around), and a mini-snickers bar at the turn around each lap. About 20-30min from T2 took a gel and water.

T2 was good, no crowds and a relatively fuss-free tie the shoes and go.

Run started well, and I had to control an abundance of enthusiasm initially. It was good to have the Garmin for the run pacing as in the first couple miles I kept finding myself near 7:45 pace and having to throttle it back to at least ~ 8:25. As it was “the pain” started around mile 11 or so.

Loop 1 ~ mile 3:

Loop 1 ~ mile 8:

Loop 2: ~ mile 17, having a nice soak in the pain pool at the back of the pain cave:

Got some very minor blisters, with the pronation one on the right foot popping about mile 20, that stung for a little bit.

About 100m from the finish:

Nutrition on the run went to plan as well, started off alternating aid stations as water, water+gel, water+gatorade. Around mile 11 when “the pain” started I felt I was getting too long between calories so started alternating gel+water and gatorade+water each aid station. Side stitch would come and go a bit, but never really serious. Switched to coke+water around mile 21 and interestingly the stitch went away.

The finish was as sweet as ever.

Post race my stomach was trashed from all the raw sugar. I could eat a bit, but after a small amount of food would start to get a bit queasy. Took at least 24-36 hrs for food to start to sit normally. Quads and calves have also been absurdly sore, stepping down is nearly impossible and in some cases downright dangerous. Went to the chiropractor yesterday and got some stretching and adjustments, then came home and did a couple contrast baths: 5 min in ice tub followed by 10 min in the hot tub. Still sore today, but not nearly as bad. Last night was the first good night of sleep, Sunday night all the suger, caffiene, and adrenalin combined with over exertion yielded about 4 hours. Monday night I would wake up every time I tried to roll over due to the soreness.

Big thanks to Hector for the excellent training plan and race strategy, and loaner disc wheel!

Big thanks to Vanessa for going with me and helping out and taking some excellent pictures.

A very special thanks to High Desert Bicycles in Rio Rancho for the amazing hookups on lots of equipment, the Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet, Specialized S-works Tri shoes, Mavic Win-tek computer, nice new chainrings/chain/cassette, as well as a pile of consumables over the summer. Thanks John and Vince!!

The titanium King Cages worked great, and are superior to carbon fiber cages in every way, and my Sock Guy woolies lasted all day.

Also thanks to John and Randy at the ABQ Running Shop for all the help with shoe selections, the Mizuno Wave Elixer 3 was the perfect race day shoe for me.

Looking forward to next time already…

Bike and bags are checked in, nothing to do now but relax. Behold my quiescent super powers.

Drink up Tempe, it always goes down smooth..

Tough decisions!

A big thanks to the nice people who have set me up with fantastic race wheel options this weekend. Thanks Jon and Hector!

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

–Robert Frost

you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run…

Well, here it is, the obligatory Ironman taper post. Not much to say, taper is going just fine. Just about everything I did for the first 10 days of taper felt horrible, now I’m just about rested and things are starting to come around. So, overall, on track.
What with the short days and cold temps, there’s been far too much of this:

I’ll be heading for Tempe on Thursday, gametime 0700 Sunday 11/23.
You should be able to track me by going here, I will be number 271.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!
–Rudyard Kipling

This will be my one, and only, political blog of the 2008 election. =)

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Everything.

Just trying to do what it says on the underside of my beer bottle cap.

Been a long blogging drought, due in part to Ironman training and work pretty much consuming all available time. But, also due in part to being without a camera. The last part has been fixed. Got a Canon Rebel Xsi kit via Costco. And see, it works: