The blogs been kinda slack because I’m being slack this week.  This week I’m tapering off for the Duke Liver Center Half-Ironman on Sunday.  Tapering is basically gradually decreasing your workouts and workload so that you’ll be fresh and ready to go come race time.  Today I did a short 13 mile session on the cycling trainer and Monday I did a four mile run and soccer game.  I’m planning on doing an easy 40 minute swim tomorrow and that will be the end of my workouts until the race Sunday.  I’ve seen it run both ways on the proper way to taper.  One friend told me he took a week off, another site I read said to take days off early in the week and ramp up towards the race slowly to that day.  I’m doing the middle ground and doing easy workouts and then two days off.

I’m still up in the air about how the race will turnout, most of me knows I’ll finish but there’s still some doubt out there.  After all a half-Ironman is no walk in the park.

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.

Tonight I met Zack out at Dick’s Sporting Goods so that he could pick up a pair of goggles for the Endurance Challenge Triathlon we’re doing Saturday morning.  From there we headed over to Ron’s house to pick up a bike that Ron generously offered to let Zack ride in for the triathlon.  Zack doesn’t have a road bike and has never ridden one.  One of the many firsts he’s in for with this triathlon.  Anyway we got over to Ron’s where Ron proceeded to go through an entire tune up for “Big Red”, his old trusty Red Kestrel bike.  The same bike that several years ago I did my first ever ride on as Ron showed me the ropes.  He cleaned the chain, the bike, put on a new cassette (gears) for the back wheel, and lubed everything up.

Next we put the bike up on Ron’s trainer so that we could make sure that Zack’s saddle height and position were correct for the race.  It wasn’t a perfect fit but it was close enough.  With that Ron gave Zack a quick run through on how to work the gears and sent him off on a loop around the neighborhood.  Zack came back with a huge grin and it was easy to tell he was hooked.  It reminded me of when I first road that same bike and how I thought it was way to small, light, and would tip over at any moment.  Then the amazement at how fast you could get up to in such a short amount of time with such little effort and how sturdy the ride actually was.  I’m sure these were the same things Zack was thinking as he took the first ride, we’ve all probably been there as cyclists.  He said several times that he’s looking forward to getting out of the pool so that he can ride the bike again.  Maybe this is the beginnings of having a new cycling partner if he does get addicted and picks up the road bike.

I also spent today putting my car racks on my new Subaru and making sure everything was good to go transporting my bike and Zack’s to the triathlon Saturday.  Tomorrow I’ll head out to pick up a set of toe-clip pedals for Zack since he doesn’t have cycling shoes and I figure it will be a good idea to have a set around just in case.   Also I’ll be picking up a spare flat kit for Zack to carry because Ron was telling us that we’ll be responsible for any repairs on the course and receiving help will be grounds for an immediate disqualification.  On the ride to Hillsborough, where the triathlon is being held, Ill go over how to change a tire with Zack and bike ettiquete with announcing passing, hazards, etc.

One day to my first ever tri.

It’s time to see how I shape up with my preparation for the Duke Liver Center Half Ironman in a months time.  Basically I need to know if I can pull off the distances required.  While I’m not going to do a practice race in it’s entirety for sheer practicality I am going to o each of the disciplines for their respective distance.  That means the 1.2 mile swim one day, 56 mile bike ride the next, and ending with a half-marathon on the third day.  I figure if I do this now with a month to go I’ll know how much more I need to build up or if I am on track to being able to complete the race, winning has never been a goal.

So today was the 1.2 mile swim which equates to about 84.5 laps in the pool.  I did 86 laps because if you end on an odd lap it puts you on the wrong side of the pool.  The results were that Im in really good shape for the swim.  I can tell Ill be sore tomorrow as I already feel stiff in the shoulders this afternoon.  I completed the laps in about an hour, I have to estimate because the Optimist Park pool doesn’t have all the clocks around the edge like Pullen Park does.  The cutoff for the swim in the triathlon is one hour and 15 minutes so I should be well inside that discipline.  I did like swimming in the new pool because its outdoors which was a nice change, and maybe will alleviate the farmers tan from my bike shorts and jersey.

I’m not fast by any means but I did feel like I kept a good pace going.  There was another swimmer there who I could tell was a triathalete by his gear and swim cap for Inside-Out sports.  He constantly was smoking me in the swim doing about two laps for each of my one and a third.  It was kind of disheartening till later when I saw him pulling off swim fins and sticking them on the edge of the pool.  I imagine he was doing some type of drills but it made me feel better to know he was “cheating”.  I also saw him drinking some Gatorade from a water bottle on the edge of the pool which made me realize that I had forgotten to have a breakfast bar and was swimming on an empty stomach.  That did little to help my energy and my mind grasped on to that as an excuse to try and slow down and talk myself into quitting, which I didn’t succumb to.

In the end I feel good about the swim portion of the upcoming race.  I do know now that I get bored towards the end in the pool but know that the race adrenalin will take care of that.

I’m running another Triathlon on August 25th, its the Endurance Challenge Triathlon in Hillsborough.  It’s about 30 minutes from Raleigh so it’ll be an early morning for me.  Zack is also going to take on this triathlon also, so it’ll be a first for both of us.  It’s a short spring triathlon consisting of a 500 meter swim, 16 mile bike ride, and a 5K run.  I guess you can’t really say any triathlon will be short or easy but this will be a good break-in before the Half-Ironman three weeks later.  Brad, from Booty, already told me it was ballsy to try to take on the Half-Ironman cold but as I told him I’m good at making myself suffer.

I’m looking forward to this triathlon as a springboard to the big event.  It will definitely be a good gauge of where I am in relation to what I’m about to take on.