10-Miler on Sat., Oh yeah, that!

At some point in January, a wise man convinced me to sign up for the first ever Charlotte 10 Miler. Today, that man became a fool thinking that my motivation level is still high enough to accept the 10 mile challenge with open arms. The adrenaline rush I had when clicking the register button is a far cry from the rush I am experiencing this week.

I put a lot more effort into the Winter Challenge (WC) than I realized. In the week following the race, my mind said GO, but the body said NO. That's usually a sign that I've ramped up too quickly. Particularly on the running front. Without a lot of miles under my belt, I pushed through three 10+ mile runs leading into the WC. In my excitement, I forgot to listen to my body and everything else that I learned many years ago. There is a general rule NOT TO EXCEED your weekly mileage by more than 10%. Anybody in any kind of formal or informal running/training program will tell you that. A simple Google search ("how to increase running mileage without injury") will tell you the same EXACT thing. I even told my wife of the RULE a few weeks ago, but did I follow my own advice? NO. Rules don't apply to me, but fortunately rules do apply to my ailing body and it's telling me to slow down. So, that's exactly what I did last week.

After a few dismal runs (one outside, one inside) I knew that I needed to back off a little in order to survive the upcoming 10-Miler. I just don't want to suffer during the race. I don't mind suffering in training. I love it , in fact. While I wanted to push it in the Winter Challenge, I'm going to have to adopt a more conservative strategy in the 10-Miler. So, as usual, I have a few goals. for the 10 Miler, they are:

1. Finish in 1hr 30min - This is a pretty realistic finish time based on my prior training runs. This is what I love about my data. I know that if I try to run any faster I'll blow up, so that leads me to goal #2
2. Pace myself - I really need to stay on 8:30 miles to make goal #1 a reality. Road races tend to make you go out like you've been shot out of a cannon. I've made that mistake so many times. That's why I always wear my Garmin. It doesn't lie and keeps me from making a fool out of myself by running 7:30's with people who "look" like they should be slower than me. 

The weather this week has been great with one exception...the mornings have been cold. This Saturday, umm, well yeah 29degF. With a potential sub30 start, it's going to be a factor in this race. 

I'm a little disappointed that I'm not 100% for this race, but that's reality. I'm tapering this week for moderate greatness on Saturday. If by tapering you mean pigging out in Charleston and sampling many delicious micro-brews, then YES. Tapering.

By the way, I love Coach Troy of Spinervals. Here's a sampling of his motivation over the past several weeks.

"While you were sleeping in, I was working out."

"When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on FIRE."

"Either you run the day or the day runs you". -Jim Rohn

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory" - Mahatma Gandhi

Rock on Coach Troy!

If you want to seriously improve your performance, buy some of his training videos. I didn't know what I was capable of until I followed a few of his plans.

Winter Challenge by the Numbers (Geek Content)

I'm a data geek. Yup!  I started recording all my workouts in 2005 with my very first Garmin. It's rare that I go out without it and when I do, I feel a little sense of panic. My Forerunner has catapulted off the bike twice. Once in the woods and once on the road; both times recovered by a tenacious search party. It was blown apart and glued back together in its most recent episode. It just won't die and that is good for me. More data.

Did you watch any of Lance Armstrong's  post race interviews after his 2nd place Panama Ironman 70.3 this weekend? No, well, whether you like Lance or not, you can't argue the fact the he, and those he surrounds himself with, are brilliant planners. He revolutionized the way teams train and prepare for the Tour de France. The guy knows how to train and use data to improve performance. Every second counts. Roll to 1:27 in the video. DATA. Yeah, that's me.







Now for the Winter Challenge data... I mentioned yesterday that the official results were off as compared to my Garmin data. The professionals must have figured it out before I had time to file a protest since the online results were fixed sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning. The corrected official results were:

• 14th place overall (no change)
• 1:03 Run (18th, no change)
• 1:11 Kayak (21st, up from 23rd)
• 0:55 Bike (13th, no change)
• 3:12 Overall

Comparing my efforts from 2009 and 2012:

...and against the winners times:

This data is helpful as I plan for next year. It's obvious that I need to work on paddling. I'm convinced a lot of it is technique related. I feel like I'm horribly inefficient in my paddle stroke and fumbling with hydration was a sore spot with me. If I continue running throughout the year and keep up some bike trainer miles over the holidays, then I think a 3hr finish is within reach next Feb. 

Now for some interesting race data.

• The average age of all the participants was 46. That's a little hard to believe, but really cool. I really hope I can compete in something like this in my 50's. How motivating is that?
• The oldest participant was 60 and the youngest 25.
• AVE RUN TIME = 1:04:49 (1:03 in '09)
• AVE PADDLE TIME = 1:09:49 (1:09 in '09)
• AVE BIKE TIME = 1:03:35 (0:58 in '09)
• AVE OVERALL TIME = 3:20:39 (3:12 in '09)
• The male winner of the 2012 Winter Challenge is the current South Carolina State Marathon record holder. Remember when I said the race was competitive? Here's proof.

Finally, thanks to Google fusion tables, you can see the distribution of participants across NC/SC. This has no real useful value to me other than I think it's kind of neat.

Winter Challenge Race Report

Ok, so the results are in. Let's start with the data.

14th place overall
1:18 Run (18th)
1:11 Kayak (23rd)
0:55 Bike (13th)
3:27 Overall

I'm not quite sure what's going on the with the official timing as I thought my Garmin indicated a 3:12 finish. I'll have to look at that tomorrow. Overall, I'm happy. It wasn't quite the 3hr finish I wanted, but for the race conditions, this was good. Now for the details:

The Run: Since I've been fixated on running since Nov., I knew what to expect here as long as I didn't blow up in the first two miles. Pacing is the most important thing in any race and I'm generally terrible at it. In endurance races, the last thing you want to do it use up your reserves early in the race. Luckily, experience helps here. Experience = failing many times before. I felt like I started too fast, but the first mile clocked in at 8:30 which was exactly where I wanted to be. Perfect. Nobody was passing me and I had picked off two people by around mile 6. Then something unexpected happened. The group chasing the leaders shows up running towards me. They (and I) had missed the turn off. The funny part was that the group included the race director. Luckily, for me, it was maybe a quarter of a mile off course. At this point 8-10 of us regrouped and finished within about 30 seconds of each other. The total distance ended up being about 7.5 miles which was a little longer than expected, but that's what I love about this race. You never quite know what to expect. I got tangled up in some briars half way through and drew first blood. Overall, I averaged around 8:21 on some overgrown trails. Success.

The Kayak: Oh boy, what to say here.  Definitely better than 2009, but just plain hard. Paddling for time is not something I EVER do except at this race. This part of the race is more about survival than competition. I fumbled with my water bottle the whole time in the kayak. I debated whether or not to use my Camelbak bladder for this which would have allowed me to drink while still paddling. As I was fumbling with my bottle a guy passed me drinking from his Camelbak hose with ease. FAIL. The wind was so bad that if you stopped paddling, the wind would carry you off track in seconds. Even more problematic when trying to take a sip of water. I don't really remember much of this part except for the bottle shenanigans. I'll fix that next time I do this race. Oh, go ladies. The top 2 female finishers passed me in the kayak. Yes, I tried to keep up.

The Bike: I certainly feel the most comfortable on the bike, but I took a risk in this race. I decided to bring my cyclocross bike to this race thinking it would make me faster. With some more cx skills, maybe, but I would have crushed it on my mountain bike. Instead of attacking the downhills and jumping all of the logs, I babied my cx bike throughout the course. The course added a lot more single track from 2009 which is normally a good thing. I struggled more than I needed to, but part of it was mental. I've never pushed myself that hard on the cx bike. I kept thinking that I was going to flat at any moment. Good thing I aired up to 70psi before this race. I normally run 60, so that was a good move as I surely would have pinch flatted with anything less. I should have been able to pull a top 10 performance on the bike, so that was a little disappointing. Nevertheless, it was still my best leg of the race.

Overall: Well, I was exactly mid-pack with my 14th place. Nothing to get over excited about or depressed about. It was a solid finish for me this early in the season, so I'm happy about that. The run will be a good lead in for the Charlotte 10 miler in a few weeks, then I think I'll get back to cycling specific workouts as I've mentally committed to a 40 mile mtb race in April. More on that later.


Of all the races I've done, the Winter Challenge is the most unique. Great atmosphere, unique adventure race format, family atmosphere, casual (yet competitive if you want to be), and great food as well. If you don't have fun at this race you might need some type of intervention.

Recovery time. I'm still hurtling a litte from this race.

It's Go Time

Earlier in the week I made my stop at REI to pick up some essentials for the race on Sat. Tube, CO2 cartridges, an some fuel from honey stinger. I love REI. The energy food market has exploded in the past several years. It's almost mind boggling with the amount of product to choose from. GU is usually my go to choice, but Honey Stinger has some great options as well. I decided to try their energy gel for the Winter Challenge.

As usual, I left everything to the 11th hour to get ready. I found myself packing up the TDI late on Thursday night. Did I remember everything, YES. Was it organized, NO. Nevertheless, I drove down to Springfield after work on Friday.

Before leaving the office, I checked the weather one last time. Rain for camping on Friday night and windy on race day, huh? More on that in my next post.

I've already posted my photos to Facebook, so go check those out. I'll post the full race report on Monday, but here's a teaser. Did I meet my goal of 3 hours? Almost. Unofficially, I crossed the line in 3hrs 12min.

Mission Accomplished

The past several weeks have led to today, which became a significant milestone for me. The significance is, well, not all that significant in reality, but its something that didn't come easy for me. Seven years ago when we moved into our house I was still running occasionally. Occasionally I would venture out into the neighborhood streets for a quick run. Occasionally, I would feel like a hero and try to push myself further. I pretty much always just felt like this guy...Rusty.

At some point along the way, I decided to set a goal to "run the neighborhood". This meant that I would run all the streets (including the side streets) from my driveway returning to the exact same spot at some point in the future. It turned out to be one of the hardest goals I set and it took seven years to check it off the list. I will admit that I didn't try all that hard to conquer this goal, but anytime I felt that I was "in shape", I would lace up and hit the pavement. More often than not, my hopes were dashed as I succumbed to the rolling hills that is Piper Glen. I tried many times. My best attempt came in March of 2009 where I laid down 8.9 miles in 1:25. That was the closest I ever got until a few weeks ago. While training for the WC a couple of weeks ago, I hit 10 miles which was about a mile short of the goal. 

Today was supposed to be THE DAY. I felt like crap most of the day yesterday and wasn't motivated to do this run at all. I was trying to lay down my last long run before the race next weekend. With the iPod sync'd and the Garmin charged, I set out to take down my neighborhood on foot. Here's how it went down:

Pre-Run: 54 degrees, wet roads, overcast. I really didn't want to go out, so I spent the morning pumping myself up.

Mile 1: Went out way to fast (as usual), slowed down a bit after that.

Miles 2-3: felt ok, but the legs weren't turning over that good.

Miles 4-6: the hills were really hurting at this point.

Mile 7: since this is the distance for the race next weekend, I really wanted to quit. Craving for cream soda  begins. I always crave some reward food during my long runs. I'm probably not alone on this one.

Mile 8-10: mostly on autopilot, really suffering at mile 10

Mile 11: Physically dead, finished on will power alone. I could barely walk up the driveway.

Post run: I was a zombie. Wife had to open my cream soda for me. Sheesh. Man did that taste good.

DONE and DONE!

That was hard!  Really hard. I'm glad to say that I finished that goal. As I indicated in my last post, there are three additional sections on my neighborhood that I forgot to factor into the run. The jury is still out on whether or not those are "legally" part of the neighborhood. 

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. :-)