Vineman Full Aquabike RR

What was going to be my "big race" of the season became a "tune up" or "test" race once I got into Kona. I would be swimming 2.4 miles in the Russian River in Sonoma County, followed by a 112 bike ride through California Wine Country. Basically an Ironman without the run.

It was an early wakeup call (4:20 AM) as we were staying an hour (!) from the start. As we finally arrived I thanked Julia for putting up with these races and she promptly went back to bed (in the parked car.) I made my way to the transition area. It was strange not bringing my running gear!

I decided to swim sans wetsuit since the water was a pleasant 72 degrees - warmer than the air! Even though this would be a bit slower since the wetsuit makes you much faster with the added buoyancy, I wanted the experience of swimming this far in open water without one. The swim start was hectic as always - people spend way too much energy fighting. I was relaxed and let the field sort itself out a bit and tried my best to get into a groove. About halfway to the turnaround it was bizarre - the water level went down to about three feet - so people decided to start walking! Here I am swimming and there are people towering over walking at around the same speed. I decided against this tactic, as it was clearly swimmable and I wanted the full experience - and the training. After another loop I got out of the water to a 1:18 swim split - which I felt very happy about.

I got on my bike and set out on the bike course - which started off with a few technical turns. This was tough as there was almost no opportunity to pass other riders at this point. When I finally hit open road I was eager to put the hammer down. I really wanted to break 6 hours on the bike - which is holding an average speed of around 18.7 mph for 112 miles. The course was undulating with some rollers - a totally "aero" course. I had my crazy aero helmet on and was cruising at 20+. It was a little tough deciding who to pass since all of us age groupers "pulse" our speed - we go a little hard then back off, etc. But I felt pretty good overall about my pacing.

I've gotta say I had a bit of trouble getting comfortable after the first loop. 56 miles is a long way, and to ride right by the finish to do it again is not easy! By mile 80 or so I was feeling real miserable. My nutrition and hydration were good - as was my heart rate....but my back especially was really seizing up! I've been trying a new saddle to address some other problems, and I'm not sure if that was the issue. The last 20 miles I pretty much gave up. I just couldn't do aero anymore. It was really frustrating seeing my average speed drop from 19.4 to 19.3 to 19.2 and so forth. And my legs still had energy to burn! But my back really felt bad. I also didn't want to "bury" myself for a relatively unimportant race. Julia and I were on vacation - I couldn't be bed ridden! So I really pulled back, and finally finished at around 6:02. Oh well!

As I got off my bike I could feel how bad my back really was. I could barely walk! I basically collapsed in the first piece of shade I could find. Julia came and met me, and after a bit of rest I got a massage and was able to get it loose enough to start stretching. It's still tight and sore, but I think I averted a major crisis by not pushing through it another 30 miles. I'm glad a sat up, got out of aero and put my goal on the shelf.

I still came in at sub 7:30 (7:26 was my time) and that's what I was hoping to do. And barely having sore legs the next day...well that's a good sign! I'm in great shape for Kona. If it weren't for the spasms it woulda been a perfect day!

Wildflower Long Course Race Report

I'll make this one somewhat short.  Don't race when you're sick.  That's right after 3 months of decent training I was set to fly through the bike course, but unfortunately got sick early in the week.

After a sleepless night camping at Lake San Antonio coughing and blowing my nose (in my tent with the air bed that flatted) I woke up and took to the water for a shockingly decent swim (considering I've barely swam the last month.)  I mounted the bike and as soon as I hit the first little climb knew this was gonna be one long day.  Sheesh.  The moment I started to work the pedals I would start coughing uncontrollably.  The only way I was going to be able to continue was to go easy the whole way --- REALLY EASY.  It was endless, the wind was terrible and I got hot in my Aero helmet on my flashy bike watching people on cheap road bikes go by me.  Very humbling.  The only really happy moment on the bike was when I saw a bald eagle (yes!) perched in a tree right before the infamous climb, Nasty Grade.

I finally got of the bike and as if being sick wasn't enough my back seized up.  I was reduced to a measly shuffle, then walking, then coughing.  I ended up walking 80% of the run and it took forever.  I ended up crossing in about 90 minutes past my time goal, but alas it was not my day.  I am proud I finished as this one was likely the hardest race I've ever done given how I felt.  The big news is that with the finish under my belt I officially "validated" my entry into Kona!  Yes, if you haven't heard, I got in the Ironman Lottery and will be doing the World Championships in October!  The road to Kona begins in a week after several days of much needed rest!  For you, dad.  We're going back to the big island.  That was really the only thing that kept me from dropping out yesterday.

T-Minus 2 Months

It's been awhile since I updated the blog, and in a few days it'll be 2 months to my Ironman!  But honestly....I'm so fried.

This training has been intense and unrelenting.  I've been improving steadily though --- but at this point I just want to cross that finish line!

Without going into too many details my current "build" weeks have around 20 hours of training.  It's been quite the balancing act with my wife, work and friends.  But it has been going well and I'm sure I can endure a few more months of this mayhem.

I have a few events coming up.

5/1 Piru 40k Time Trial
5/8 Cruisin the Conejo Century
5/16 Bonelli Triathlon (kinda Oly Dist.)
6/1 Piru 40k Time Trial

Excited about all these in addition to the epic rides that I usually do on Saturdays.  Today I climbed Latigo, Piuma, Sheryn and Old Topanga.  Ugh!  Total ride time was 6 hr, 82 miles and about 6,300 feet of gain.  Then a quick transition run with Henry.

I've been soooo drowsy since and there's no way I'm doing any work today!

I should also mention I've started to work on my debut solo album.  I've got about 4 of the tracks with rough drafts and I hope to do more tracks in the coming months as long as the "real work" gives me time to!

More soon....we'll see if I can type after the Time Trial next weekend.

4 Months to Go

It's been awhile since my last blog update, and for good reason.  I've been busy, but also injured!  Thankfully I'm on the upside, but the IT Band issue never got better.  Despite still swimming and cycling through it, my run has suffered.  I've still been putting in light miles, but I started physical therapy, will get orthotics for my running shoes and will be back at 100% VERY soon.

The bike has improved drastically.  Two weeks ago I was in Santa Barbara for the week premiering my piece "The Remarkable Farkle McBride" for over 3,000 school kids.  It couldn't have gone better and we're looking at planning a family concert for the public in the fall.  With any luck it'll also go to other orchestras.  Exciting!  

The Orchestra

The Kids

During my stay I went on an EPIC ride.  I made it up the famed Gibraltar Road, despite having to catch my breath (and legs) 4 times.  I netted about 4,600 feet of gain in just 45 miles.  Killer.  The climbs have continued, as this last weekend I set a Latigo PR of about 57 minutes without standing up out of the seat.  Me and the crew added Piuma as well which was 5 miles of pure hell.  STEEP.  But I'm feeling more and more confident with my climbing - netted about 5,200 feet of gain in 75 miles.  France has 5,900 in 112 miles - so I'm very close!

Top of Gibraltar Road, Santa Barbara

Top of Latigo Canyon, stretching and waiting for my friends.

The bike fit I just got from Nate Loyal is phenomenal.  Great guy too - actually saw him randomly TWICE on my long ride.  Descending Las Flores (very steep) a motorcycle pulls up beside me and the dude says "How ya doing buddy?  It's Nate!"  Too funny.  He's asking me how the fit is, etc.  Awesome.

So I'm in PT, stretching a TON and getting better and stronger.  Can't complain.  Less than 4 months out, except for the run (which is coming back!) I'm feeling right on track.

*** If you'd like to hear a highlight reel of the orchestra piece drop me a line and I'll forward you the link! ***

Bike Mileage PR and IT Issues

Quick blog today.  I've been dealing with some IT band issues ever since my big build two weeks ago.  It's definitely getting better, but is definitely holding back my training a bit.  A few random items of note:

• My mom turned 60 today.  Yay Mom!
• My orchestra piece for the SB Symphony is complete.  Phew.
• Only 147 Days Until IM France, but who's counting?

Other than that, I took a great ride up PCH with my great friend Eric.  We made it all the way to Big Rock (about 40 miles North of Santa Monica) for a huge mileage PR - logging 83 miles in about 5 hours of riding.  My big complaint about Eric (I can him Ewik) is he's way too serious:

And we managed to get dropped (no surprise there) by the BMC Pro Team!  Eric and I both had the same idea of sprinting to try and keep up with them for a minute at what must be their recovery pace.  We both redlined and descended back into reality very quickly.  See how far away they are by the time I got the camera phone out?!  (That's their van following.)

Then we saw this:

A great day with another ride (climb) tomorrow since I'm sidelined from any running for another day or so.  But on the upside the swim is really coming along.  I did a 50 meter sprint in sub :40 the other day.  I'm told that's not too horrible.  At least I have a trace of natural ability in one of the three disciplines!  :)

Till next time!

LA 13.1 marks the end of my hardest training week.

Wow.  Ironman training is no joke.  I'm in a build month, so hard work almost every day.

This week included run intervals, a short tempo run, two swims and two bike trainer workouts (intervals.)  Not to mention a 90 minute "easy" run, two strength/core workouts and the biggy of the week - a 4.5 hour bike ride that included climbing Latigo Canyon.  Damn I'm exhausted typing this out!  And my "real" work has gone well on top of it - so I'm happy to say that the training is actually making me MORE productive (My concert piece for the SB Symphony is nearly complete!)  I need to be busy this time of year as January is hard for me.  (More on that later this week, it relates to the loss of my dad.)

Anyway, I woke up early to head out to the inaugural LA 13.1 race.  The plan was to do about 20 minutes of warming up, run miles 1-3 in upper zone 2 (easyish) miles 4-11 zone 3 (medium) and miles 11-13.1 in zone  (hard.)  I stuck to the plan and while it was tough on tired legs I have to say it was -slightly- easier than I thought it would be.

I saw a lot of my friends as it was an out and back (most were ahead of me!)  My friend Roxanne from the LA Tri Club caught me at mile 9 or so and we ran together for a bit.  She wanted to walk the water station so we said goodbye, and I slogged on.  She again caught me at about mile 11, when I was supposed to turn it up!  Man I was dreading it.  But it was just 2 miles, and I've gotta say I was pretty proud of myself for finding the rhythm.

We came through the finish line at around 1:59 - an effort I'm proud of.  I made my dad's "gorilla face" at the line - can't wait to see the photos.  About 13 months ago I ran the City of Angels Half and it took my absolute maximum to finish in 2:03.  And that was with rest.  Very happy with my progress.

After the race I ran into some more friends and then decided to go soak in the ocean for a bit.  The water was pretty cold, but after about 5 minutes up to my knees I realized "oh sh*t."  It was a tradition for my dad and I each winter to run into the ocean.  And here I was.  I didn't really have a choice, so I went for it.  I played in the waves while yelling "Ba-fute-sai" (it's a silly game we invented.)

All in all a good day - I'm looking forward to tomorrow (Day Off - of training that is!)

SB Marathon Weekend

So as I prob mentioned I planned to race SB way earlier this year, but then things changed with my Ironman aspirations. SO...instead of running the full 26.2 I decided I'd bike the marathon (twice - out and back) on Saturday and run half on Sunday as a relay (with my cool -- and fast -- cousin Josh.) And not to mention two screenings - which were to be honest a bit thrown together but really successful!

Drove up Friday night, crashed at mom's. Woke up at 6:45 and was off on the bike by 7:10. A bit of a tangent, but the bird watching is CRAZY this time of year. Saw white tailed kites, red tailed hawks, kestrels and even a northern harrier. Gotta stick in this shot that I took a few weeks back...

Anyway...the marathon start is just 1.5 miles from the house - and right across from Ellwood - my favorite place in the world and where my dad is now (ashes.) It was COLD (for me.) But the course is amazing. Goes by my favorite stretch of SB twice:



Made my way towards the waterfront, and encountered the nice hill (which I've tackeled before) at the 23 mark. Man, those poor runners tomorrow I was thinking! Met up with a cool local cyclist named John and chatted for awhile about tris, local climbs in SB (I'd love to do a fair amount of training up here.)

The way back was nice and easy - kept the heart rate pretty low and mellow. At my second time by the starting line I decided to test the many outhouses by relieving my bladder (did I mention I went through 4 full bottles of Perpetum?)



All in all 54 miles covered in about 3:30. Man would I kill to run ONE marathon in 3:30. Someday...maybe.

Off to the expo, where we screened the film to a nice audience and I did a little speaking. Then off to the Pasta Party where we killed time for a bit, and showed the film again! This was one of the nicer showings we've had. It was a captive audience, the lights were dimmed, very effective. And 3 veterinarians came up to me after and introduced themselves - all runners. We had a great chat (my dad was a vet.)

Early rise on Sunday (5 AM) battled traffic to the start since we had to go around.



Just made the gun, which was delayed due to the traffic. Off I went for the first half, my cousin, mom and her boyfriend to a few points around the course to cheer. What a gorgeous day. Started cold, but I felt like I had a nice rhythm, keeping the heartrate nice and low (in Zone 2) and easy 10 minute miles or so. Met some great people along the way including a marine in his 2nd marathon, a girl from Colorado doing her first and some Texans! Fun chatting with people, although I felt a bit guilty knowing my day would be over much sooner than theirs. Made it to the exchange:



My cousin took off! He's very motivated and is capable of being quite fast, I'd say. We caught him at a few spots and he was basically passing everybody in sight - running at about 8/mile where I had put him with the 10/mile crowd. Fun for him!

I waited patiently at the 26 mile mark and we sprinted to the finish together. Awesome. Note the contrasting expressions - he worked HARD!



Total time 3:54:xx. Wow. There's the sub-4 I'm dreaming of - but I only did 2:13 of it! Josh made up a ton of time. :)



Got to hang with the super cool race director June for a minute:




Had a great time cheering people on at the finish, etc. That's such a blast. Especially when you get above the 4:20 mark or so - that's my crowd. I'm all for being goal oriented, etc but a lot of the sub-4 crowd are all business. I'm in this for fun, personally. While time is often important to me, it's often those more mellow runs that are sometimes more fulfilling. It's great to watch those "age groupers." Love it. It doesn't get old seeing people delighted with the payoff of hard work. What an awesome weekend - and it was all for you, Dad.

A Month Down, 8 to go...and MEB!

It's been an interesting month. First of all, it's absolutely FLOWN by. (just like this year...NOVEMBER?!)

My training thus far has been largely unremarkable. I've been working on keeping my heart rate low. Real low. Supposed to go less than 145 running, 130 cycling. Easier said than done! But the trick is to get my body burning fat instead of carb. It seems to be working. I started off running at about 12+ minute pace. Yuck. Literally had an old man run beside me and ask me if I was "starting out." Now I'm no speed freak, but that was definitely humbling. That was earlier this month - I'm now able to do 10:30 or so at the same HR. Hopefully I'll just keep improving. Still, I find it very frustrating to keep the pace slow. Running used to be my outlet, but now it's definitely a burden! But it's for the best and I know long term the payoff will be huge.

Cycling has been a different story. I've been LOVING the new bike - the titanium goliath made by Serotta. It's a bike that would be way out of my league ($) had I not got it used from my dad's old doctor! I also find it easier to keep the heartrate down since you can coast, and it just feels like cruising. Nice.

Went on an epic ride up in San Luis last weekend - to Avilla Beach Pier, then inland to the wine country. AMAZING. I was the "manic cyclist" up there - always smiling! I can't imagine living there...probably some of the best cyling in SoCal.

Yesterday went another beautiful ride down here in LA with LA TriClub friends yesterday.

All and all, status quo and I look forward to Month #2 of "Base Training."

And WAY TO GO MEB! That was amazing seeing him win in NYC today. Huge for this ultra cool dude who my buddy Billy and I met in Houston. (He won that race too!)

And on a random note, here's by pup Henry dressed up as a Pumpkin!

Week 1 and Change...

Well it's been an interesting 10 days. Working with my new coach Rom Levitsky, he has me doing pretty low intensity stuff, all in the "fat burning zone." So low heart rate stuff. Less than 145 for running, 130 for biking....basically equalling about 12 minute miles on the run (!) and 14-15mph on the bike. Yikes....but it's for the greater good, so I'll stop complaining! I even had an old man (in his 80s?) ask me if I was just starting out the other day! (Yes, I looked that slow...)

To be continued...