T Time

Tomorrow is the day. Red Rock Half-Marathon here I come (for better or worse)

On the advice of Ryan, I’ve decided that this race is going to ROCK!

I’m fresh off a 3 month taper, I’m READY!

Bring on the ribbon! Bring on the awards! Bring in the ambulance!

Check out the profile of the run. Holy Crap! I’m going to need a rocket pack to get up that hill!!


OTN:

Following the shadow of Lucho (only I'm doing 1/20th of what he does), I've been running a lot of extra runs.

It’s WAY too late for me to start actually training for the event properly (Silly things like long runs and running the course, etc –BLAH! Long runs/bong runs), so instead I have been doubling up or tripling up my running.

Roughly stealing this from Lucho:

• By doubling/tripling the runs my body has time to recover from the damage inflicted on it, but I get ‘most’ of the benefits from the long runs.
  
• It’s the ONLY way I was going to be able to fit in anything that resembled marathon training with my existing triathlon training schedule.
  Lucho mentions a third benefit which is metabolism but the scale will testify that there I haven’t found that advantage yet (of course it was one week of training, what do you expect – miracles?)

So with the new plan in place I was able to bump my normal running mileage up from ~10 to 32.41!

Whew! 3 times the running.

So far the body feels good, but tomorrow is the day. Time will tell if this “training plan” worked for me or not.

Just hoping to finish. Getting better than last time would just be icing, but really have you looked at “them thar Hills?!”

Are you trying to tell me something??!!

It started off simple (doesn’t it always).

The plan: Ride Lake Mead for a fun 35 miles.

Problem: No one told my bike that it was supposed to be fun. Apparently, my bike still has not recovered from the Crank incident.

We decided to ride the Rage course, starting at the long up ramp. Did I mention that it’s long? As in freaking long uphill, right out of transition. What about the plan of keeping the heart rate low right after the swim? Out.the.window.

With my heart rate pegged from the very start, I was actually 'relieved' when I felt my crank falling off! It was like a prayer answered. I would have preferred it happened a little more than 300 feet from the start but... Yep that's correct. 300 feet. That should have been a sign.

Another 3 miles…Crank again!

Another 1.5 miles…the chain locks up on my honey

Another 8 miles…the crank falls off!

Another 300 feet…crank!

Another 100 feet…crank!

This is it! I’m done! It’s been 5 times, either the crank is stripped or broken or I’m cursed. JT has long since gone on (It’s hard to get a decent ride in with stopping every few minutes) and my honey is tired. Tired of stopping, tired of the bike, tired of pedaling - Tired!

I send her on her way with the keys.” Come pick my broke a$$ up! I’m done!”





Surrounded by the desert with nothing to look at but my junk bike and the lake, I take a breather.






One more chance, at the very least it’ll get me closer to the car. This time it manages to hold. All the way to the car (where a very bored JT is waiting for us – Mental note: Next time give the keys to the fast person in the group!). Then it falls off!

That’s right: 6 times the crank fell off. SIX times! SIX TIMES! Ughh!

The LBS (McGhie’s) later tells me that Specialized had a recall on this. Crap! Well, at least it’s not me!


The next day is supposed to be a brick - (10 mile ride with a 2 mile run) x 2.

With the road bike in the shop, I’m forced to use the MTB. The beast is huge; I ‘borrowed’ it from a friend, who probably got it from a garage sale! It weighs in well over 30 lbs, but this is the bike I rode for my very first tri. Getting on it now, I can't imagine riding this for a Tri. What a beast.

Plan: To ride the Lakes Las Vegas. – 2 loops for 10 miles. 2-3 times.

Problem:
Right of the bat, I have a problem; there’s no bottle holder on this bike, that means no water the entire ride.

Upon arrival, we start setting up. Place the shoes out, put the GPS on the car for sync up, and get the bikes pumped.

Damn! Her bike has a flat. Fixing the flat causes another flat!

No more tires!

Back to the LBS we go!

(While driving at 40 mph) “What was that?” “I don’t know but whatever it was is broken now”

CRAP!

The Garmin!

Yep, left on top of the car, it goes flying off at 40 mph's hits the road and bounces!

Please god! Please don’t let the 20+ cars behind me run over my watch!

I already have a bike broken; a flat to fix and the last thing I need to do is buy another Garmin!

Luckily, Garmin is still there; lying in the dirt. It’s beaten and abused, but it’s not broken.

It still works! Way to go Garmin, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

The LBS gets the tire fixed, it’s now dark. This workout was supposed to happen early morning.

The entire day wasted!

Still…got it done. On the trainer and running in the dark.

Triathlon gods, I hope you're listening. If that doesn’t count as overcoming obstacles, then I don’t know what does.

OTN:
Last week:
Monday – Rest (+2 easy runs – 4.31 miles)
Tuesday – Swim 2100 + Run 5.4 miles
Wednesday – Run – 4 + run 4.7 miles
Thursday – Rest + Run 1.6 miles
Friday – speed work (3.62 miles) +Run 4.61 miles
Saturday – Swim (Missed 2100) and Bike 30 miles (Crank from hell, did 28.68)
Sunday – Brick (Ride 10; Run 2) x2


This week:
Monday – Strength + Run 1.92 Miles
Tuesday – Swim 2100 + Run 3.03 miles
Wednesday – Run Speed work + Run 3.54 miles (so far)
Thursday – Bike 35 miles (negatively split w/ 2 hills and 3x 60” sprint)
Friday – Rest (Planned swim makeup day)
Saturday – Run - Red Rock Half Mary
Sunday – Swim Bike (2100; 40 miles)

Red Rock Half Marathon

Catch up number two!

Crap! God am I stooopid or what?

Yep! I went and did it again. I signed up for a half mary without a lick of training. The last ‘real’ run I had was the Las Vegas Half marathon. Since then, it’s been nothing past 6 miles max.

PLUS, this is Red Rock. Aka the hilliest place in America. I don’t think there’s a flat section anywhere.

But not to worry, I've got a WHOLE two weeks to prepare (make that one week now).

PR here I come!

Eternal Sunshine

Crap!

It’s tough getting back.

It looks like it’s been 2 weeks since I blogged last but it feels like a month has passed.

I was filled with false visions of coming back and painting the page with glamorous words that would make you ‘feel’ like you were there…But I think that ship has sailed and the best I could hope for is mediocrity.

So I’ll spare you. Write it off as too much water under the bridge and too much time passed.

I’ll give you the executive summary and then we’ll start anew. Like a quick session of a “spotless mind”.

First off: Hawaii!

It was a blast. Very relaxing. Thought about buying a place there to rent out then finally came to my senses and realized I’m just one step above a poor starving college student (Hint: I’m not in college).

Lest you be afraid that I stopped working out…I did. But I had a valid excuse. My coach said I could.

Mind you, I'm self coached so ‘I’ said I could slack off. It was listed as a ‘recovery week’ which basically I understood to mean:

“Spend time on the beach while sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas in them.”

I LIKE RECOVERY WEEK.

To be fair, I did get a leetle exercise in, I mean besides running from the beach to the room for more beer.

Honey and I hiked the Diamond Head trail. Basically it’s a nice hike that climbs 762 ft in 0.7 mile. Whew! What a climb. Then like a dumbass (reoccurring theme here) I decided that “hmm...that was fun. Let’s do it running the whole thing this time!”

So yes, I ran up the entire trail. All 0.7 miles including 271 stairs each way. On paper it looks like 1.5 miles and 542 stairs, but in reality it was a hell of a run. And my sore calves will vehemently attest to it.

Got in a leetle swim time too. While most of it was doing backstrokes in the margarita glass, I was actually able to find the sand and more importantly find the salty (and buoyant) ocean.

We practiced running into and out of the water. I'm quite sure that, with all of the running out of the water as fast as we could and then turning around and careening back in to the water like newborn sea turtles, the other beachcombers thought we were a bunch of weirdo’s (and their probably right, but who cares, besides they're most likely drunk anyways!).

Finally, we had to get a run in along the beach. Sounds cliché, but you ‘have to’ run along the beach. Everyone says so. What they don’t say is that your poor drunk dehydrated ass is from Las Vegas (humidity level 0.0) and now you're trying to run in Hawaii (humidity level 60-80%).

O.M.G.!!

Talk about running like $h1t! There was more sweat dripping off of me then there were ice cubes in my Cuba libre. And that’s saying something. After ~4 miles I was DONE.

KONA here I come! (Not) I mean seriously, I know that I took a few days off but you can’t loose fitness ‘that’ fast can you??

According to how that felt, if I was going to do Kona (Yeah right, in my nightmares), I’d have to be down there a month just to get acclimated (yeah right, in my dreams).

Upon my return to Las Vegas (I left kicking and screaming!), I promptly drown my sorrows in a bike ride through Lake Las Vegas.

Umm..hello…did you know that there are some serious hills there? They have this great ‘V’ shaped hill(s) where you get super speed up (30+ mph) and then slam into the other hill and watch your speed plummet to 6 mph. WOW! Like hitting a brick wall.

Good training; Great vacation.

The swim that wouldn’t die!

It started off so innocently.

I missed a swim on the 27 thanks to the crank incident. So I figured I’d roll into the next week.

Problem

I had a friend fly into town. The kind of friend that requires copious amounts of drinking when you should be sleeping.

Tuesday morning was one of the hardest swims of my life. I don’t know if it was because I felt like I was going to throw up every stroke, or that my head was going to explode with every breath or the fact that despite being surrounded by 200,000 gallons of water, my body was dehydrated.

I’d like to say I got it done…but that would be a partial lie.

I could only complete 850 before I had to give up. Apparently a 92 degree pool and a massive hangover don’t mix.

Not to be outdone, I came back that night (after an almost full recovery).

Got in a smooth 1300.

Unfortunately I missed another swim on Friday because…well…because it’s FRIDAY! You’ll have to speak to JohnnyTri (mention the password: “Happy hour”).

Finished the week with a solid 2,000 after having a smokin 5k race the hour before (more on that later).

HOLY COW! That means I got 4,150 yards in for the week! HOLY COW!


Started this week in the hole, so I needed to make up for the missed swim.

Finally snuck it in during lunch break to start the swim week off with 1300.

Looking at the rest of the week swim wise I have:

2000 yards

2100 yards

UGH! That will bring me up to 5400 yards! In two weeks combined I’ll have almost 10k in. I think that I’m going to grow gills.

OTN:

The week at a glance:
Monday – Weights
Tuesday - Rest (made up for the missed bike(1.5hrs); and the missed swim(1300))
Wednesday – Run - 4 miles + track work
Thursday – Swim - 2000 yards
Friday – Run 6 miles
Saturday – Swim -2100 yards; Bike 35 miles
Whew! I’m going to need a vacation - OH Good! There’s one now!

Sunday – Begin Vacation!

My own private sufferfest

Apparently right around the superbowl day, there is a group of riders who like to get up early and ride out to Red Rock; do the 13 mile (massively hilly) loop TWICE!; then ride out to B-F-E, come back ride the loop one more time (just for grins), then come back home in time to watch the game!

Sign me up!! [not]

It was decided that we should make our own private sufferfest. Actually the 30+ mph wind combined with the rain coming at us sideways decided that we should have a sufferfest.

After riding for 30 minutes; exhausting my energy; having my fingers/lips/eyes/nose-hairs/feet freeze; my thighs simultaneously numb and searing with pain; being blinded by the wind and having my clothes ripped off me; it was time to call it and head back inside.

Luckly I had made it to… the end of my driveway!

But I persisted. I needed a two hour bike ride and the adventure to the mailbox doesn’t count.

Hop on to the trainer.

Never mind, that this is the first time I have ever used a trainer and most wise people swear that anything more than an hour is reason for suicide.

No despite those very sound and logical reasons, I decide to ride for two hours watching the game. Two hours of football on the bike. With water bottles.

Not beer – the way Football was intended to be watched.

Two hours…two l.o.n.g. hours.

Can you say sore???

I can!