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!

Why.

3 years ago today my hero and best friend, Dr. Eric Westheimer succumbed to his valiant fight with brain cancer.  It was a battle, one which had started nearly a year prior with a sudden and severe stroke.  That year I learned both more about my dad and more about myself than I ever thought possible.  Even though the rolls seemed reversed at the time (as I was caring for him) - his determination, humor and joy for life through it all will forever inspire and guide me.

As I look back to the last 3 years since I lost him, I see a pattern at first glance, then I quickly realize how spontaneous and non-linear bereavement is.  I was lucky enough to come upon running in 2007 - what I hope was the toughest year of my life.  My father's determination inspired me to dig deep within myself, take something completely foreign to me (training) and (pun intended) run with it.  Enough with the cheese.  I'm grateful for this, as running and triathlon continue to expand my soul and remind me constantly to love and embrace life.  In a way training has served to be a "surrogate father" of sorts.  There's nothing like a solitary run to look within and remember dad.

This may sound strange to some, but hawks and other raptors have come to have a very special place for me.  Shortly after my dad died my mom and I began seeing them (or noticing them!) all over.  My dad always liked them (and pointed them out as obnoxiously as I do now!) but there's something incredibly spiritual about the graceful way they fly.

I've gotta admit the last few weeks have been a little hard emotionally.  I made it through the holidays without much grief but then was quickly reminded a few days after the New Year of the looming anniversary.  Today.  And this is the first year I haven't been distracted by running in Houston!  So on a recovery run last week I was so tired.  It was hot.  I had to climb Latigo Canyon on the bike the next day.  I was so ready to quit 30 minutes in.  It wouldn't have effected my finishing the Ironman.  So I resorted to a special playlist entitled "Marathon Help."  What comes on?  "I'm on a Boat."  My dad would have loved that song!  (Our humors were essentially identical.)  I was smiling, and that was the burst of emotion I need to run through the next hour.  It turned out to be a great run and I really channeled my dad for the remainder.

The journey did not end two years ago when I ran my first ever marathon.  It began.  Knee deep into Ironman training I can tell you it's been tough!  And I'm (obviously) dedicating that to the man who continues to inspire me from above.  (My dad.)

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!)

2009 Wrap-up, LA 13.1

As 2009 draws to a close it's time to take a (quick) look back at my second year in the crazy world of endurance sports.

It's been a great 2nd year with many PRs, and new accomplishments. From 2 10ks, to 2 half marathons, 3 full marathons, 4 olympic distance tris, a sprint relay (swim, run) and one long course tri I don't think I could ask for much more. (Exhausted just thinking about all this...!)

Next year will be VERY different - it's really all about Ironman France in June. So far all I've got going is LA 13.1 on January 10th (more on that in a sec) and the Solvang Century Ride on 3/13. Not sure what else at this point, but all I can think about is 6/27! (Ironman!)

I'm pretty sure I just completed my longest training week ever in prep for my big race next year. I'll be having MANY 13 hour weeks in months to come, probably getting near (or over) 20 at some point....crazy. And thankfully I've finally figured out how to manage my time. It's actually increasing my productivity (work wise) to do two workouts a day.

Finally, in spirit of the holidays, I've got a free registration to the LA 13.1 race on 1/10.

http://www.131marathon.com/13_1_Los_Angeles.htm

It sounds like an awesome race. First comment gets dibs! :)

Thanks for reading, happy holidays and enjoy this little holiday card. (Click to enlarge)

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.

The Last Few Weeks Have Been...

Great! I battled a sinus infection a few weeks ago and unfortunately that really put the brakes on my "base training." Even with the infection (well at the tale end of it) I did my second ever stand alone (ie not w/in a Oly Tri) 10k. I had planned to do the "Race for Research" at Dockweiler Beach as a fitness test of sorts to determine my Max Heartrate as well as Lactate Threshold. (I won't get anymore technical than that!) The race also had personal relevance for me - being for Brain Tumor Research. Honestly I was kinda dreading it as I knew it'd be tough! It was like death for almost an hour...I ended up coming in around 52 minutes (+3 min from my PR, oh well) but averaged 190 and maxed 205! Crazy.

SO.....my new zones are much more forgiving meaning I can run and bike just a bit harder during this base period. That's great news as I've still been having a tough time with keeping slow. I'm just now starting to incorporate a little speed (like 5x1 minute hard, etc) but it's still mostly pretty easy. But I'm loving the nice relaxing paces of running and biking now. Just enough to get that oh so friendly endorphin rush post workout.

I've also been getting back in the pool lately and shockingly...enjoying that too. The only thing I'm struggling with is the strength workouts....Sheesh those suck. Can't win em all! :)

Breaking news is that we'll be screening "Running for my Father" at the Santa Barbara Marathon in a few weeks! I'll be doing the first half of the race with my cousin who's doing the second half. And being my hometown we're definitely dedicating this one to my dad. More soon.

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!