Winter Challenge Training

It's three weeks until the Winter Challenge race day on Feb. 11th and I still don't have a plan (not that there's anything wrong with that).  Let's start with the off-road triathlon race description. "23 miles of pure racing bliss!" consisting of:

1. 07 mi. Run
2. 06 mi. Kayak
3. 10 mi. Bike

It's really neat to find this race format that replaces swimming with kayaking. I love kayaking. Its also February, so I can't imagine an open water swim in 30-40 degree temps. That, AND the fact that I don't swim well at all. I'm going to work in that. Here's a link to the pictures I took in 2009. What a great race. I can't wait to try it again 3 years later. Here are the results from 2009.


Breaking it down a little further, my exact times were:

• Run - 1hr 8min (~9:19 pace) [46th]
• Kayak - 1hr 10min [35th]
• Bike - 53min [22nd]
• Overall 3hr 17min [35th]

Here's a brief synopsis of what I wrote about the race in 2009:

• My goals were pretty simple: (1) Finish in 3hrs, and (2) No cramps. (I don't know why I didn't add "have fun" to the list. I clearly remember making that a priority) 
• The run went as expected. 
• ...my pre-race planning fell apart. For some reason, I felt the kayak segment would fall into place and I would net a time faster than the run. As it turned out, I was slower in the kayak at 1 mile less distance. 
• I crossed the finish line in 3:17 and considered it a success.

So, what are my goals for 2012? They are the same...

1. Finish in 3hrs
2. Have Fun

Making goal #1 happen will be tough. I know I'm generally in better shape this year, but I can't discount the kayaking difficulty like I did 3 years ago. I remember thinking "How hard can it be to kayak?". During the race, I was passed by nearly everything in a boat, and possibly some driftwood. I have a fairly nice kayak, that is supposed to be fast (at least i thought so). I hit rock bottom when a guy in a canoe swiftly passed me. Yeah, a CANOE!. I actually laughed. I don't expect much of an improvement in the boat, but it's still fun. 

On the running front, I haven't exactly pulled together a formal plan. This early in the season, it's hard to find the motivation, so I've opted for a "wing it" style plan. I did start hitting the pavement over Thanksgiving with a few runs at my parents place in Naples. Since then its been a off-and-on program of trying to motivate myself into some sort of regimen. Even without a formal plan, I have been improving slightly. My times have been pretty motivating since I haven't really run in about 2-3 years. During the past 2-3 years, I have been exclusively mountain biking (my passion) with the addition of road biking in the last year only. Nevertheless, I turned in a sub 8 minute 5k in December which hasn't happened in over a decade. While that boosted my ego, I fell into a winter coma and gained like 6 pounds. I'm not planning on hibernating. Why is there so much candy in the house? Santa is not kind to my training. Jerk.

After coming out of the coma, I've been steadily increasing my miles. Today, I turned in 10 miles on a 36 degree day. Brrr, it was cold, but I felt great. I haven't run a distance of ten miles since the late 90's. THE LATE 90's!!! Good grief.



I'm happy about this run for a number of reasons.

1. It was 10 miles in near freezing temps.
2. It's a nice setup for the Charlotte 10 Miler that I signed up for at the end of February!
3. It nearly fulfills a goal of running every street in my neighborhood. About 1 more mile and I will conquer that goal. **At about mile 6 today I realized that I forgot to include two separate sections of the neighborhood. Although depressing, I now have a new challenge. What a bummer. I've been trying to do this for 7 years and now I have to add mileage to this beast of a run.
4. My pace was just under 9 minutes. That's well below my PR of 7:10, but awesome for me personally since running has been on the back burner for many years. :-)

For the next 3 weeks, I'm going to work on shorter distance speed which should help me in the Winter Challenge.

For the biking, well, lets just say that I'm relying on the base miles from 2011 to pull me through. I just haven't wanted to bike in the cold weather and I'm still burnt out on the trainer. I'll start picking up the bike miles in Feb. 

2011 - The year in review.

Well, as they say in show business, "That's a wrap!" 

2011 was an interesting year. Professionally it was one of my worst.

I travelled to Taiwan and China more times this year than any previous for a project that was ultimately canceled. It mostly felt like wasted energy, but I guess it was a good learning experience. I'll sum it up with this quote. 

"Failure is the only opportunity to begin again more intelligently" 
- Henry Ford

Personally,  2011 was one of the best from a fitness standpoint. This time last year, I committed to another attempt at the Off Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell or ORAMM. I registered for the race in January just to make sure I wouldn't back out on the training. It was essentially my Tour de France. I did this race back in 2009 without much of a training base. I guess you could say that I didn't know what I was getting in to. I finished the race, but I felt terrible. I remember leaving the race in 2009 feeling like I had failed. I shouldn't have been so hard on myself. Just finishing this mountain bike race is a feat in itself. I guess I didn't want to leave that as my final performance because I knew I could do better.   Here are the results:

2011 Results

8 Hours 20 Seconds

222 out of 398 racers

2009 Results

10 Hours 20 Seconds

259 out of 302 racers 

I pulled 2 hours out of my time and couldn't be happier. I credit this performance to 3 things:

1. My fluid trainer, the Kinetic Road Machine

2. Spinervals - Coach Troy is the man, a sick man, but a virtual coach that delivers!

3. My wife - I spent a lot of time training for this race and she donated many hours to the cause. 

The crazy part is that I want to do this race again, just not in 2012. It's too much of a commitment to do this race every year. Maybe when the kiddos get a little older.

I also had another great time at the yearly Bear Rock Blitz (BRB) trip to Pisgah in October. I had delusions of riding 100 miles of Pisgah over two days. We called it BRB 50/50. It should have meant that you have a 50% chance of finishing the ride. I think we ended up with 40-45 miles total which was far short of the goal but still a totally awesome ride. That's the way it goes in Pisgah. The best part was hitting some trails that I hadn't been on before like Bennett.

After BRB I tried my first triathlon in late October. I was a little apprensive about this since I've never swam 1 inch competitively and I had only run twice in the past 2 years. Luckily, I was in shape for the bike portion and it contributes the most to your overall time.

Reflex Sprint Triathlon Results
17th place overall
200 yd Swim: 5:24 (28th)
16.2 mi. Bike: 56:31 (18th)
5k Run: 24:23 (22nd)

I was totally surprised by this result. Clearly my biking led me to a higher finish, but it gave me some motivation to improve on running and maybe learning how to swim. The swim portion was a total disaster, but I was expecting that for my first tri. I set low expectations and had fun despite the freeeezing conditions on the road ride. Brrr. Maybe in 2012 I can focus on my (lack of ) tri skills. We'll see.

Here's to a great 2011 on the bike. According to Garmin Connect, I destroyed my yearly mileage from 2010. Almost 1,500 miles on the bike and a BIG smile to go with all those miles. Wheeew, I'm tired.

Count:	81 Activities
Distance:	1,481.43 mi
Time:	125:39:24 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:	82,125 ft
Avg Speed:	11.8 mph
Avg HR:	156 bpm
Avg Run Cadence:	--
Avg Bike Cadence:	72 rpm
Calories:	83,587 C

Goodbye 2011.

I guess the good and bad is a perfect illustration of the Taijitu or the yin and yang concept. Here's to a great 2012. I guess I need to make a plan. :-)