Its been a quiet few days but not lazy ones.  I’ve done another thousand yards, ten miles, golf, and the first NCSU football game of the year.  The half-Ironman is a week and a half away and keeps creeping closer.

This weekend the race season will officially reopen for me with the Friesen 5K Fun Run.  The event is organized by Pete Friesen who is the Carolina Hurricanes trainer.  It seems only natural that when hockey season starts in another month and the RBC Center officially becomes my second home again that I should start my race season there as well.  As a side note I have a $20 riding on the race with a friend.  Rod Brind’Amour is supposed to be running the race as well and I bet my friend Charlie that I could beat him.  Sure Rod is in a million times better shape than I am but I think I have a real shot.  First I know he doesn’t run as part of his legendary workouts because he said it was too rough on the knees.  Second, he doesn’t know we’re racing so he’ll probably be doing a nice relaxing run.  Sure its a long shot but why not right?

Yesterday I got back on the road for the first time since the Endurance Challenge Triathlon.  I did a quick run of four miles on one of my normal routes.  It turned out that I felt really good on the run, any residual soreness was completely gone.  I turned in an average pace of 7:59 a mile which was my fastest average pace yet.  I also turned in my fastest mile during this run so all in all it was a good day.

This morning also had Zack and I back out on the road cycling.  I haven’t had a chance to take Ron’s bike back to him yet so when I told Zack I was going for a ride today he was up for doing a ride.  So I got up about 5:30 am, loaded up the bikes, and headed over to Zack’s.  We got out to the park in Cary where I usually start my rides and mounted up.  I kept the pace slow and we averaged about 16.5 mph over 23 miles.  Zack kept up really well and at some points even overtook me.  There’s a lot to be said about a lighter bike, though I do think Zack’s probably better at cycling than he gives himself credit for.  I’m pretty sure he’ll be buying a bike of his own fairly shortly.  He also got to try out his new Garmin 305 which I have to admit I’m fairly jealous of.  It has GPS built in and does speed, elevation, heart rate, and maps the routes.  I definitely have to upgrade my Polar heart rate monitor.  Also the Garmin can be setup to track bike cadence as well.

I finished, I’m sore, finished strong, and I had a great time. Thats the crux of the report.

I didn’t get to bed as early as I hoped on Friday and ended up going to sleep probably around midnight with the plan to wake up at 4:45 am. I had to be up so early in order to get both Zack and my own bike on the car as well as get the last minute items together such as mixing up the Cytomax and getting dry socks from the drier. That and I always run late. I needed to be at Zack’s in Cary no later than six so that we could make it to the race site in Hillsborough in time to check in and set up our transition areas. Turns out I got really lucky Saturday morning because I was using Zack’s extra Yakima rack to hold my bike and I found out later that I didn’t hook my bike up correctly. It made it to Cary and the race with no issues which was no small miracle since I didn’t know there was a screw underneath to secure the bike and I hadn’t used it.

Zack was up and ready to go so we actually made it to Hillsborough right at 6:45 and got checked in with no issues. We went to our rack and began setting up the transition area. Zack had his up and ready to go quickly because he wasn’t going to have to deal with changing from bike shoes to running shoes since he was using toe clips. I on the other hand was checking and double checking my setup. I had my running shoes at the top corner of the towel with four pairs of socks, I double up on my socks because I keep ending up with blisters. Next to that were my cycling shoes with their own pair of socks. On a site I read that I should change socks after cycling and starting the run because your socks may still be moist and lead to blisters. I realize now he was probably referring to longer races. I had my helmet strapped to my bike with sunglasses and flat kit inside it with my jersey hanging on the seat loaded with a Hammer Gel and my car keys. Zack and I talked to the woman next to me to get some tips, such as clipping out of the bike at the turn into the lot and coasting downhill rather than waiting to the dismount line, drink early in the bike and stop about halfway through, etc.

The race was set to start at 8 but both Zack and I had an hour to go before we started. Because the swim was in a pool each person started 15 seconds apart. I was scheduled to go at 9:17 and Zack was at 9:35. I severely underestimated my swim time which put me a lot further back in the pack. I think I put in two minutes for 100 meters but I actually run about a minute and a half now that I had a chance to time it. We spent the time walking around and watching the swimmers and those already transitioning as well as some warm ups in the second pool. Eventually it was time for me to line up and I was talking to the woman we had talked to earlier since she was beside me in line. We realized that I had misjudged my swim time and she told me to pass away and not feel guilty. The course was 10 lanes where you swim two laps per lane. I was amazed to see people passing in the narrow margin between the swimmers going each way. It looked like there were collisions waiting to happen that never did. The woman wished me luck as I jumped in the pool, which was pretty cold and waited for the starter to count down from five and tell me to go.

I started off the swim pretty strong, the 15 second lag between swimmers actually gave a lot more room between swimmers than I expected. Even with the gap I was on the swimmer in front of me by the second lap of the first lane. The swim really is comparable to a washing machine because of the chop of all the swimmers and running into the legs of the swimmer in front of you. The first lap of the second lane the woman behind me had already caught up and she started passing so I jumped behind her and passed the guy in front of me too. While it looked like we’d hit the other swimmers from outside the pool there seemed to be a lot more room once swimming. I ended up passing about 4-5 people in the swim. There were several times I would catch up with someone and end up breast stroking or even stopping so that I could get enough room to start swimming again and/or pass. These stops, starts, and bursts to pass were extremely tiring and while I’ve been good to go in my training I found myself looking up only halfway through the 10 laps Saturday pretty beat and tired. I managed to slow myself down and get into a rhythm which helped me recover enough to pass two people on my last lap because I knew the end was near and I still had some gas left. My swim time was 11:51 with a pace of 2:22.

When I got to the transition I attempted to dry my feet off with the end of the towel and learned my first lesson. I need a separate hand towel or something because I couldn’t easily dry my feet before putting my socks on. I also tried to put my socks on while standing but couldnt keep my balance so had to sit down to get them on and then my cycling shoes. I got all geared up and headed out of the transition time with a pretty slow time of 2:31. Fairly pitiful but a worse transition was to come.

The bike was pretty good and I felt strong on it. I even felt frisky enough to move to the big chain ring for about a mile before I could feel the burn setting in so went back to the smaller. I probably should have used the big ring more on the downhills rather than coasting but ever since I blew my knee out using it last year at the MS 150 I’ve been fairly scared of using it too much. I passed more riders than passed me on the bike which sounds good but wasn’t a lot of people. I may have passed about 10 riders? but I wasn’t keeping count. I do know I was only passed by 4 other riders and none in my age group. The last two hills were fairly brutal on the course. Zack said when he came through later there were actually people pushing their bikes up the next to last hill. I had chosen to attack that hill but got to the top utterly exhausted so realized it was a mistake. I took the last hill in the smallest ring and used the remaining time to recover before the run. My bike time was 53:41 at an average speed of 17.9 mph.

The second transition was a disaster I found out later. I knew it took longer than I wanted but had no idea how much. I got into the transition and immediately sat down this time so I could do the socks and shoes easier. I got my shoes off but struggled to get both my socks on each foot fast enough. I got my helmet off and shoes on and then started to head out when I felt my flat kit pounding into my back. I had to run back to my spot to empty out my jersey before heading out again. Luckily I hadn’t crossed the timing pad because I don’t know how that would’ve been recorded. I crossed the exit to the second transition with a time of 3:03. While i knew I was slow I had no idea it was this bad. I definitely need to practice transitioning and figure out ways to tweak my times. From everything I have read everywhere the consensus is that transitions are where the most improvements are made over the course of triathloning.

In the beginning of the run my legs felt like jelly and not very sturdy. I also could feel the beginning twinges of cramping in my calves. I had the mental images of being stooped over cramped up any minute. After about the first 1/4 mile though my legs seemed to catch up to my body and I felt a lot stronger and sturdier, the cramping sensation went away. The heat had started to pick up and on the second lap of the run I walked through the water stop pouring water over my head. I got going again and at the next stop did the same plus had a cup to drink and walked a bit further. Ironically the run was my best performance as I passed a ton of people, it seemed like, and only had one person pass me. I rolled into the finish pretty burnt out but loved hearing the announcer calling out my name and where I was from as I finished my first triathlon. A volunteer got my timing chip off because I didn’t even want to attempt bending over. My run time was 26:26 at an average pace of 8:28 per mile. That time is only a few minutes more than my best 5K time when I run those as just a single race. I guess all the distance training is paying off on my run times.

I found Zack’s bike in the transition area so knew that he was out on the run course. I grabbed a water bottle and headed out to the course and found him finishing his first lap. I gave him some of my water and cheered him on through the start of his second lap and back to the finish. I saw him in the distance of the second lap stopping to stretch and knew he was cramping up. He pushed it out though and turned in some really impressive times. He hadn’t had a chance to swim or bike before Saturday yet still turned in a swim time of 18:17 and a bike time of 56:46. That bike time was within minutes of mine and I’ve been cycling for a few years now, it was pretty humbling. Zack told me that he used the big ring every chance he got which I’m sure gained him some time. I think he may have found a latent talent in cycling based on his time and how much he seems to have enjoyed every second on the bike. His run was also a good showing at 31:34, while he wasn’t happy at how much slower it was from his normal run pace I think it was a really good time based on the times he turned in on the two disciplines he hadn’t even trained for.

So my final time was one hour and 37 minutes and 22 seconds. That was good enough for 156 overall out of 318 which got me in the top 50% which was one of my goals. I was 20th in my age group and 120th for gender. Zack knocked out a one hour 50 minutes and 10 seconds for 252 overall, 30th in age, and 172nd for gender.

I feel that the Duke Liver Center Half Ironman is going to be even harder than I expected but I think I can pull it off, though it will be slow….very slow.

Click Here for the Endurance Challenge 2007 results

Zack will probably get his own report up on his blog, http://www.zackcook.com/blog, shortly.

A little late in posting but the report is that I bonked.  I attempted the half marathon distance Saturday afternoon to make sure I was ready for it.  Suffice it to say I think I’m not.  I’ve come to the realization that I may have spent too much time worried about my swimming since it was the absolute weakest of my disciplines when I started my training plan and in the end it’s cost my fitness in the others.  Now do I think Ill be able to finish the run, yes but I won’t enjoy it and it’ll beat the hell out of me.

I headed out about 6 on Saturday in perfect weather with the temperature hovering about 80 degrees.  I felt good and strong as I started out.  I made it from my house to the Reedy Creek Greenway which begins at Meredith College fairly quickly.   My normal run usually takes me to this greenway and across the pedestrian bridge that spans Raleigh’s beltline (I-440).  This time I crossed over into the NC Museum of Art which was a series of three consecutive steep uphills and downhills before leveling out near Blue Ridge Road where I decided to turn around.  The green way is closed at sunset and I didn’t want to risk being locked out of the trail on the wrong side of the highway.  The turnaround point was at the five mile mark and I was still feeling pretty good.

When I got back near my house I was at nine miles and still needed to put in 4 more.  At this point I was starting to feel the ache and burning in my legs.  My mind was constantly giving me this excuse and that excuse to stop or slow down.  I turned down the road to run my normal short run route and about mile 10 I just started falling apart.  My heart rate was good and in the aerobic zone but my legs were hurting from my toes to my hips.  I knew this was the point I’ve heard so often where you’re fighting a mental battle more than a physical one and training through this zone will help you realize you can get through it in a race.  At 10.6 though I couldn’t go any further, I felt weak, drained, and burned.  My mind finally won the battle to stop with the realization that if I push through to injury how will that help me for the Duke Liver Center Half Ironman or the Endurance Challenge Triathlon this Saturday.  Would I have pushed myself too far, probably not but damn if it didn’t feel good to walk even if I was so tired walking up the three floors to my condo was hard in itself.

My Nike+ system pumped out the stats and it turns out that I did my 10.6 in nine minute miles which was a lot faster than I expected.  It sounds good but remember that it is an average of the first mile to the last and looking at the graph I got progressively slower towards the finish but ended at a pace of 9:34 which is still good.  So if i can cut back my speed I should have no problem finishing up, that and the adrenalin of the race should help as well.

The cycling stress test is going to have to be pushed to this weekend because of scheduling issues and the need to not burn myself out before Saturday’s triathlon.  I’m hoping to knock it out Sunday and figure Saturday’s race will be a good burnout similar to if I had done the run and swim the days before.

So I should be finding out where I stand right now with my “Stress Tests”.  Its too bad that the weather doesn’t seem to care.  Each day in the morning its been raining which pretty much has put the kabosh on my tests.  In order for me to be able to do my workouts they either have to be in the mornings prior to work or late in the afternoons.  Almost everyone can agree that things always seem to pop up in the afternoons and thats when all the plans are made.  Hence its better to work out in the mornings which have been rained out.  Normally I’m able to do some training in the afternoons but yesterday and today have not been conducive at all due to prior obligations and the amount of time these efforts will take.

So tomorrow I’ll be doing my half-marathon running stress test and Sunday I’ll be doing my cycling.  This weekend is wide open and no matter what the weather does there should be a window of opportunity to get out on the road.  As a heads up its good to sometimes train in the rain, heat, etc. because you may encounter those conditions during the race.  If I were doing normal training routines I would’ve gone out anyway to get over the mental aspect of running/cycling in those conditions.  But these “tests” will be for major distances and I can’t risk getting blisters from wet socks, sick from exposure, etc.  I can’t risk blowing these last few weeks of training before the triathlon due to an avoidable injury.  I missed my first attempt at a triathlon due to a twisted ankle.

I have put in 18 miles on my trainer and a 5 mile run on these days so they’re not a total loss, just not the half-Ironman distances.