Some quick photos (Tri the Creek) June 13, 2007
Posted by Dave in : Tri Stuff , 1 comment so farThe long run from the lake:
Damn new shoes!
Coming out of T2
The final sprint!
That’s some clydesdale power!
Tri the Creek Sprint Triathlon June 9, 2007
Posted by Dave in : Tri Stuff , 1 comment so farTri the Creek - Cherry Creek Res, CO - Sprint distance
They said it was an 800m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run, but people were thinking the distances were a bit off. Some guy with a Forerunner thought the run was short and the bike was a bit long. People seemed to think the swim was a bit short as well. Who really knows?
I left the house at 5:15 this morning hoping to get a good spot in the transition area. It opened at 5:45 and I was one of the first 10 bikes in there. Got my spot nailed and all set up and was getting things ready for the swim when I realized I’d forgotten my goggles at home! So, I drove home to get them and made it back in about 20 minutes. Then, before getting all wetsuited up, I wanted to hit the can. Some genius decided it would be a grand idea to have four porto-potties for a crowd of 400+. Brilliant! By the time I get done in there, I have just enough time to get my BodyGlide on and hoof it down to the swim start with my wetsuit.
The swim had 5 waves starting 5 minutes apart. They pushed back the start from 7:00 to 7:05 or so when they realized that people were still waiting to pee. I was in the 4th (second fastest) wave. I had no time to warm up and I could feel it as the swim started. Got a few kicks to the shoulders and sides and kicked a few people myself. Then, my goggles fogged up. I’d forgotten to prep them! So I end up sighting every 10 strokes or so, but it takes me a good 10 seconds to figure out where the huge orange buoy is because I can’t see a thing. I had to take the goggles off at one point to see the turnaround buoy. Ended up with a 12:3x swim split and headed up to the beach with an HR of 180. 
The bike course was much better, although my transition sucked. I was averaging around 23-24 on the flats with the new bike and the Zipps. The course had a few short climbs, but nothing significant. It was CROWDED, though. There was absolutely no way to avoid drafting off of people. Also, the Bontrager rear bottle mount I installed last night SUCKED. It vibrated so much that it rotated downward and I lost both my water bottles and my microflate. I now have no way to hydrate and no fuel to get ready for the run. The final turn left no time to get the shoes off, so I came in with one shoe off and one unstrapped. Then a woman falls right in front of me as I’m dismounting. Doh! I made it around her, pulled my shoe off and headed out on the run. Bike split - 35:xx. Total time elapsed - 51:xx
The first mile was rough. I was still hammered from the bike and had no chance to refuel because of the lost bottles. Once I got past the first mile marker I started to settle in and relax. There was a water station just past the 2 mile marker and that helped immensely. Even so, lugging around a clyde body isn’t easy! I barely had anything left to make the final sprint home. Run split - 25:xx
My goal for the race was to break 1:20.
Overall finish - 1:16:55.15! Clydesdale POWAH!
Post race refreshments included more of that horrific Pickle Juice (which I avoided like the plague), some darn good NY-style pizza, loads of high-class bottled water, and this interesting drink called Gleukos that I really enjoyed. I’d actually recommend it if you can find it anywhere.
So there you go. Not enough toilets and a bit of a dirty course, but overall, I’m happy. With a better set of transitions and some hydration on the bike leg, I’m pretty sure I have a sub-1:15 in me. I’ll just have to find out next time.
Oh Zipp, why must you tempt me so? June 8, 2007
Posted by Dave in : Tri Stuff, Training, Cycling , 2 commentsFirst race of the season on Saturday and I decided to treat myself to a little extra speed. I’ve become the latest participant in the Zipp Demo program. For $40, I get 4 days with a set of 404s (that’s a lot of 4s). I took them for a quick spin tonight and HOLY CRAP they’re fast. They’re damp as hell too. No road vibration at all. It’s like riding on butter.
I hate you, Zipp, for making a product that I’ll need to save up and buy. I was happy in my blissful, aluminum-wheeled ignorance, but oh no. You just had to enlighten me! 4 days just won’t be enough. Dave needs a sponsor.
It’s starting to come together April 17, 2007
Posted by Dave in : Training, Road to IMWI , 1 comment so farI’m finally starting to see some serious results from my training and it’s inspiring me to work both harder and smarter.
When I started off, I would go out for a long run of 3 miles and keep around a 10-minute pace. My swimming pace was around 2:00/100yds. I was slow!
Fast forward to yesterday, on my long run for the weekend. I was scheduled for 90 minutes and ended up running for 92 and some change just to get back to my car. In that time, I ran 11.2 miles…That’s 8:16 a mile! I can’t believe I’ve already come so far.
So, I’m going to finally turn in my diet tracking to my friend of a friend, who is a nutritionist of sorts. I’m going to dial in my diet and keep with the program for the next 5 months.
So far, I haven’t been losing weight, which is a bit surprising. It looks like I’ll probably still be a clyde in September. My goal, then, is to be a badass clyde! I’m hoping to pull some clyde wins in local sprints and olys over the summer. I think I have a 2:15 oly in me, but I’ve never done a sprint before, so I have no idea how that’ll go.
Reading all of the IMAZ stories, especially Bryan’s (Red5), have really inspired me. I can’t wait for Madison!
Hooooray Bike! April 4, 2007
Posted by Dave in : Cycling , 2 commentsI got my first tri-bike today!!!
I went and talked to the manager of Bicycle Village in Aurora on Monday. He put me on a medium ‘07 Specialized Transition Expert just to size me up, but it was too small. So he stuck me on a large Pro. It was juuuuust right…except the price! So they shipped a large Expert over from another store. It came in this morning. I took it for a 30 minute test ride over some nice varied terrain. They messed with the fit a little bit (haven’t had it “officially” fitted, yet) and got it nice and comfy. Turns out it’s tough to fit me on a bike because I have short legs and a looooooong torso. The guy said short of doing a custom frame, this is just about the only bike that’ll fit me. It has a 50cm ST (C-T) 44cm ST (C-C) and 54.8cm TT (C-C), 76° ST angle, 72° headtube angle.
Good lawd! This thing is fast! Rear DA, front Ultegra, Ultegra brakes, DA shifters, FSA SL-K cranks, Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels, Profile Cobra s-bends. Honestly, except the base-bar, I can’t really thing of anything I have to swap out. The wheels are fine for training, but I’ll be saving up for some race wheels. I’m also going to have to get a seat-mounted water bottle setup. It’s rocking my Keo Carbons off the road bike for now.
I’m going out for an hour ride this afternoon to get used to it and give it a nice introduction to the road.
And more improvement! April 1, 2007
Posted by Dave in : Training, Cycling , add a commentI must have forgotten about this whole blog thing!
I was out for about 3 weeks with bronchitis or something in January, so I didn’t train at all. But, now things are better and I’m doing well. Very well, in fact.
I went for a long run today (if you can call 80 minutes long) and covered 9.2 miles. (<a href=”http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=823687″>the route</a>) This is the first time I’ve done a long run and maintained a pace under 9:00. I figured, with the amount of time I spent waiting at stoplights, I probably was running around 8:35 or so the whole way. That’s HUGE! I’ve been pacing around 9:45 until this weekend. Couldn’t tell you what the difference was today…
I followed that up with a short, 40-minute, easy bike ride and ran into a guy who did the Bike Tour of Colorado last summer with me. We shot the shit for a while, did a few laps of Wash Park, and then he headed home.
On and entirely different note, I went up to Boulder this evening to test-ride a 2006 Felt B2. It was my first time on a real tri/TT bike and it felt very weird. I had this irrational fear that I was going to fall over the front end of the bike because the whole thing seemed so front-heavy. I’ve been looking at pictures of people on tri-bikes to assess the whole positioning thing. The line through the steerer tube hit me at around mid to lower sternum. I’m going to head to a bike shop tomorrow and see what they put me on so I can see how it’s supposed to feel. Then, if it turns out I just have no idea how a tri-bike is supposed to feel and the B2 actually fits me, I’m going to think about picking it up. It won’t come with wheels, which is ok. I’ll end up with a full DA setup (with FSA TT chainrings and some other kind of brake calipers) on a Felt B2 frame for (I’m hoping) around $1700. Then, I have to get wheels! That’ll be a fun shopping experience.
That’s all for now. And blog, I promise to write in you more often. I’m sure, as an inanimate object comprised soley of digital data, your feelings have been hurt by my neglect.
Signs of Improvement November 8, 2006
Posted by Dave in : Training, Running, Swimming, Road to IMWI , add a commentJust two small things…
First, my roommate and I went on a run together that we haven’t done in at least four months. I commented that I felt like we were going slower. She told me we weren’t, but I was in much better shape. On its own, this wouldn’t mean much except for part two…
I am now swimming a half mile in the pool, wearing only a tri-suit, faster than I was swimming in a wetsuit in open water. I think that’s good, right?
Obnoxious respiratory ailments October 12, 2006
Posted by Dave in : Swimming, Life in General , add a commentIt’s been almost two weeks now and I’m STILL coughing. It’s been interfering with my sleep, messing with my schedule, making morning classes nearly impossible. All I want is for this thing to go away so I can start moving efficiently again. Hopefully, after a nice weekend of going out and watching all my friends party their asses off while staying relatively sober, I’ll be back at 100% on Monday.
I tried swimming last week and spent most of the session coughing up slimey stuff in the gutters. I did discover just how amazing wetsuits can be. I’m usually a 16-17 spl swimmer. With the wetsuit on, I could pull 12-13 without much trouble at all. Between the bouyancy and the hydrophilia, I was flying. My usual 1:40 pace dropped below 1:30/100. Only thing that was missing from the session? The freakin pool schedule said the freakin pool was going to be set up freakin long course and it was actually set up freakin short course. Freakin hell! I want my freakin long course training.
My dog ate my HRM October 1, 2006
Posted by Dave in : Tri Stuff , 1 comment so farNow, really, I’m serious. I woke up from a nap on the couch and tracked him down. He was sleeping peacefully on my bed. And, next to my bed…chunks of black plastic. So I follow the trail of chunks to what’s left of my chest strap. Wow, did he do a number on it. So, one of these days, when I can drop another $90, I’ll get a new one. Until then, I’ll just be training naked, because that’s how I feel without it. Think REI takes exchanges for doggie damage?
I don’t know…I’ve never run this far… September 12, 2006
Posted by Dave in : Running , add a commentI ran a LOT farther than I planned today, but I was feeling good, so why stop? Unfortunate side effects of not planning a long run: I didn’t have any carbs with me, nor did I bring any water. I stopped about 15 minutes in at the gym to do some core work and then completed the run, so I had some water there, as well as at the turn-around point and one other drinking fountain along the way. I honestly can’t believe how well I ran all things considered. I’m going to go out and buy a fuel belt for next time. I spent the second half of the run watching my heartrate go up for the same effort as my body ran out of fuel and got dehydrated. If nothing else, it was a personal distance record and an interesting experiment
Pertinent data:
Total distance - 15.6 miles
Total time - 2:47
Ave HR - 154 (I was trying to keep it low)
Ave 1st half - 150bpm
Ave 2nd half - 160bpm
Here’s the route map…