Marathoning with Willis

2009 Triathlon Year-End Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:25:00 +0000

YEAR END REVIEW

My overall impression of 2009 is that it has been a good, albeit unspectacular, year of training for me. My overall fitness level compared to my peak marathon training was certainly significantly lower, but my triathlon-specific knowledge and particularly, swim ability, went further than I had expected at the outset of the year. There have been ups and downs, but overall more up than down.

BECOMING A "REAL" TRIATHLETE IN 2009 - ALL ABOUT THE SWIM

I started my triathlon journey in late 2008 after stress fracturing my left foot, which forced me temporarily out of marathoning. I knew literally nothing about triathlon, other than that running came at the end. I was also expecting to jump right in and immediately start doing well in races, as I had trained pretty hard for marathons, and expected that fitness to completely carry over into triathlon.

Unfortunately, I had completely underestimated the difficulty of swimming. In particular, I had completely underestimated how difficult it would be to acquire swim fitness. The all-important freestyle swim technique that everyone in triathlon harps about was difficult to acquire, but expectedly so, and after about 7-8 months of solid practice, I really developed respectable form that should not be killing my performance in the water. The technique improvement certainly did not come naturally for me - I had to diligently study and even obsess over technique for a long period of time before it gradually clicked in. I had no instant speed increases over the past year; every technical improvement took weeks to ingrain into my form. Perhaps the single most valuable tool I utilized during my time as an intro-level swimmer was the foam pull buoy, which is a figure-8 shaped small foam flotation device that you stick between your legs while swimming. It helps to give you good body position in the water and forces you to eliminate the extra rotation in your stroke. It took me a good 6 weeks to re-learn my stroke with the pull buoy, but it was well worth it, as I began to swim like a "real" swimmer. My form has since been evaluated by 3 separate coaches, all of whom have given me the seal of approval for interval work.

While swim technique acquisition was challenging, swim fitness has seemed impossibly difficult, even for an experienced endurance athlete such as myself. I have found that my lack of arm/back/shoulder endurance as well as small lung capacity has limited my ability to go fast and long in the water. I had expected to do swim intervals much as I do running intervals - hard as heck, and until I'm near dead, but strangely, I become just like any other rank beginner in the water, and often find myself feeling sorry for myself and ending workouts early! I've definitely had to HTFU more for swimming than cycling or running, and by a large margin. In retrospect, it's understandable - for running and cycling, I had a strong background in youth soccer, basketball, and even starting running in junior high school. Thus, my legs already had years of a mix of endurance and strength already built-in. My arms/back, however, have had no endurance training. I'm fortunately pretty strong thanks to over 2 decades of serious weightlifting, but it doesn't really translate that well to swim pulls. So I'm just as rookie as the next new swimmer out there, and due to my limited technique, I can't tap into my strength or endurance to get me ahead.

I didn't give up though, and despite my complete suckdom at swimming, I kept at it. After a disastrous first-ever open water swim during a race where I finished 2nd to last in my entire age group and barely made it out of the water alive, I got a new wetsuit, practiced like crazy in surf, and pulled into the front of the back of the pack in my first Olympic distance triathlon, easily completing the 1500m swim with plenty of gas to go. I also survived a brutal surf at the LA triathlon, where many good swimmers altogether quit in the first 200 yards, and ended up having a great race. Other noteable accomplishments have been doing my first masters-style training session with LA Tri Club and being a solid MOP swimmer there, as well as learning flip turns, early backstroke, and finally getting fast enough to outpace my good but nonracing swimming buddies. I think I'm on my way to becoming a "real" swimmer, but it's definitely going to take at least another year, if not two to get good. I think I'm up for the challenge, though!

ROCKING THE BIKE

When I started triathlon, while swimming was far and away the #1 anxiety source, cycling wasn't too far off as #2. I had no idea how good / bad I would be at cycling, but I did suspect I should be pretty good from the get-go since I figured "good runner = good cyclist" since there should be significant crossover from the leg action.

Before I dived in, I did some research on the triathlon forums, and was surprised to see that this wasn't the case. Lots of good, even REALLY good runners, weren't so spectacular on the bike. They were never quite as bad on the bike as they would be as a new swimmer, but certainly they weren't just jumping on the bike and throwing down great splits. In fact, one of the biggest questions/challenges people faced was how they could translate their running ability to a better bike split.

I started out in late 2008 with a brand-new top of the line Cervelo P2C tribike. My first road bike or tribike ever. As expected, I had a lot of anxiety about being not fast enough for the bike, especially since I was new. Turns out my fears were largely unfounded. From the first moment I hopped onto that bike, I was fast. Not insanely fast as would be expected from a truly gifted cyclist, but for sure, really fast for a triathlete, and respectably fast even for a racing road cyclist.

On my very first long group ride with the intermediate LA tri club, I was easily the fastest one there. I had to hold myself back the entire way to stop dropping everyone cold. On a separate more casual ride with mixed with the LA tri women, after a set of fast straightaway sprints, a few women asked if I was an elite with a team affiliation. And this was with less than a month of real time on the bike!

Despite my cycling gifts, I've still put some real work into it. It's been almost entirely enjoyable, and while swimming has been the bane of my triathlon existence, cycling has been nothing but a joy. My long 50-80 mile weekend rides are akin to scenic vacations, where I explore some of the most beautiful coastal mountain areas of Malibu and the Santa Monica mountains, areas which are uncommonly accessed by the vast majority of LA natives. The climbs can be rather brutal, but it's always worth it, and since I'm naturally good at climbing, it's quite satisfying for me. My typical workouts have been a 3-5 hour weekend ride, and 1, perhaps 2 weekday rides either on the trainer or early with a road cycling crew. Not much at all, and certainly no structured work. And almost no intervals/sprints to develop power or speed.

My cycling race results have been remarkably good. In my first sprint tri, even without the long weekend rides, I was equal to my run split, and top 5% on the bike. This carried on into the big olympic distance races, where I was top 8% on both run and bike, with my bike placement actually exceeding my run placement by a few notches. My speed has ranged from 22.5 mph for 40k on a net uphill course such as LA, to 23.8-24mph on a flat course in Ventura. That's pretty respectable pacing even for a racing road cyclist. It actually looks somewhat ridiculous on the course, since I start the bike leg so far behind due to my lousy swimming, but then come roaring through on the bike. In every race I've done, I've passed hordes and hordes of cyclists, and usually have to spend almost the entire bike leg in the passing lane. It's not uncommon for me to blow past other cyclists at nearly twice the speed on uphills - I was able to keep pace with the elite men on the climbs at the LA triathlon, and I easily dropped 2 elite women whom I caught midway through the bike split. Not bad for not taking my cycling training seriously, and likewise strange to even think that I might possibly be a bit gifted in a sport!

I hope in the upcoming season to not take my cycling gifts for granted, and to spend some real structured time getting more volume and speedwork. I'm starting to use a HRM, which should help with pacing as well.

RUNNING - NOT BAD BUT NOWHERE NEAR PEAK

Running used to be my clear strength, and likely still would be if I trained seriously on it. As a triathlete though, I haven't been able to dedicate the requisite time or effort to really getting back to my prior marathon form, and I doubt I'll ever able to be that fast while doing 3 sports. I can only dream of throwing down a 1:25 half marathon nowadays, and it would actually be a good day for me if I ran a 10k at that same pace! That's what you get from dropping from 80-90 miles per week down to 15-20 as a triathlete.

Still, make no mistake - the ONLY reason that I'm a good triathlete today (consistently top 15-20% age group even with a back of the pack swim split) is that I was a solid marathon runner beforehand. The endurance, discipline, and mental stamina I developed while training seriously for marathon, are keys to continued success in triathlon. The run split is absolutely critical for a good race in triathlons, and most of the biggest time gaps are seen in the run segment, especially since lots of folks fade in the final miles of the race. I'm one of the few who can barrel through an Olympic race at full tilt, actually accelerating significantly in the final 2-3 miles of the run. My runs have been between top 3-8% depending on the size of the race, and I've been managing to throw down some solid 10k times of 41-42 minutes on a measly 20-30 miles per week of running, if not less. Not too far off my standalone 10k PRs of 39:40. But make no mistake - there would be NO way that I could run a marathon in my triathlon form. I simply don't have the leg endurance, since I never run more than 12 miles at at time. I tried a 14 miler this past weekend and it was shockingly hard at the end. Hopefully, I'll ramp up the distance this year and at least get back into marathon-ready range in case I need it.

On the good side, I have had no running injuries since my stress fracture. The 3-sport training has been very good for avoiding overuse injuries while maintaining fitness. I'm finding that running speedwork is much more important at my low volume running, and unfortunately, also much more physically difficult for me to do, since I don't have as good a base mileage. Intervals and LT runs hurt more than ever! Makes me long for the days where I was doing 80mpw, and intervals felt routine, even the really fast ones.

TRIATHLON KNOWLEDGE

After a year of experimenting, participating in online triathlon and road bike forums, I've gained an incredible fund of knowledge. One of my posted responses to a question about cycling the other day was completely natural to me, but as pointed out by another forumite, was likely completely alienese to a noncyclist. Check out a sample -

"I find that riding a fast 40k TT on an aerobike requires both use of aerobars as well as good LT pacing, which is best achieved through real-world testing. Ironically, when I use an intro-level Giant road bike , I'm equally fast on it compared to my Cervelo TT bike sans aerobars. An the Giant spec is Sora/2200 components, whereas the Cervelo is top-of-the line DA. That's over 5 levels of component difference, with no performance difference. I also TT without an aero helmet or use of race wheels, so the only aerodynamic advantage I really have is the bike frame."

If you said I'd spontaneously write something like this last year, I would have said, WTF!?!

I can likewise spew endlessly about wetsuits, swim technique, running shoes, race transitions, and on and on. It's fun to be a triathlete!

GOALS FOR NEXT YEAR

As for the upcoming year, I have signed up for m "A" race, which will be the challenging Wildflower half-ironman in May. It's a hilly race, and will be the longest triathlon I will have done by a large margin. I am expecting a finish time in the range of 5:15-5:45hrs, and hopefully will be in the top 15-20% of my AG, if not higher. I wish I could say that I could definitely go all-out with training, but I am still completing the final year of my radiology residency, and the next 6 months are marked with hours and hours of mandatory board reviews, often 3 hours a day on top of a regular workday. Which means I won't even get to start training until 7:30 or 8PM. It's going to be a busy year, but I think I'm up to the challenge.

LAST WORDS

If there's one thing I did miss about this year, it was the feeling of "flying." I know, it sounds incredibly hokey, but it's true. When I was running to my max, I really felt that I was pushing my fitness and abilities to the max. Every run, even the recovery training runs, was an adventure full of possibility - how fast would I get? I was performing better than I had ever imagined possible, and it was a joy to re-experience the fruits of that labor day in and day out. It really felt like flying - both during the run, and in life outside of the run, as if I was in a body that was better than I expected or deserved.

I unfortunately can't say the same about my triathlon ability. My swimming is too lousy to feel inspired about (despite my vast improvements), and I have no benchmark of experience to gauge my cycling progress. For sure, I haven't "earned" the results I've been getting in cycling, at least in the way I definitely earned my running results. I think it will take me a few years of getting to know my bike/swim better before I can start feeling similarly about my overall fitness as I did about running. Don't get me wrong, I've improved tremendously in triathlon, and even more than I expected for most of it, but my overall fitness and the overall challenges I've experienced in the past year have not been the equal of those faced during my marathon training years.

Hopefully with the experience of the past year and the challenge of a half ironman, I'll find that elusive groove and get back to where I think I should be in terms of training intensity, results, and fitness.

Flip Turns, Shoulder Pain, and Running

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:39:00 +0000

WILDFLOWER TRIATHLON!

I decided to finally go for it, and I registered for the Wildflower Half Ironman Triathlon in May. I'm pretty sure it's a good, hard race for me to go for - it's a very hilly race known for burning people out on the course. I love hills though, so if I can pace it right, it should be to my advantage to have hills. I don't know whether to be scared or confident for this one - I've had no problems hammering the Olympic distance tris, but this is a whole different beast. Although I'm still fairly certain that these are nowhere near as physically abusive as racing full marathons. We shall see!

FLIP TURNS

I finally decided to bite the bullet and learn how to do flip turns in the pool. They look cool, add speed to your swim, make your swimming more continuous, arguably give you better breath control since you have to hold your breath longer at the wall. The counterargument is that triathletes don't use flip turns at all on race day. No walls in open water swims! Regardless, this is an ongoing debate as to whether it's useful for triathletes to learn these, but as I feel like I've developed a solid stroke, I felt it was time to be more like a real swimmer and just learn the dang things.

In and of themselves, they're not hard to do at all - pretty much any swimmer can pull them off after less than 5 minutes of practice in the pool. The catch, however, is to be able to pull them off while doing hard interval work, where you barely have enough breath on every stroke, let alone holding it for the duration of the entire flip. The feeling of hypoxia becomes pretty imminent on each flip for us beginner flippers - it's quite distressing, actually, but not altogether different from the distressing feeling I felt when I started swimming more than 2 laps at a time.

As usual, I tend to go "hardcore" when I decide to learn something. I read everything I could about it, watched a bunch of instructional videos on the web, posted some questions on BeginnerTriathlete.com forums, and then went to work. I got a lot of funny looks in the pool when I stood by the wall and just did flip after flip after flip. Then I did flips in the middle of swimming, and then finally moved into doing true flips. I'm still far from good at it, and I still get very distressed at my lack of oxygen on each flip, but it's gradually improving.

Do they work? Apparently, so! I experimentally tried a few hard 200 meter intervals (actually, they're likely 220 meters, but close enough) to compare before and after flip turns. I tried to swim with the same intensity on each set, and I did two of each to verify.

Before flip turns: 4:10

With flip turns: 4:02

That's a pretty big difference, and shows how effective flip turns are, even for the inexperienced. I expect that my interval times will drop by a couple few more seconds as I actually get comfortable with them.

BACKING OFF SWIMMING FOR A BIT

While I have been trying to increase my swimming volume, I haven't been so good about it. I've been swimming only 3-4x/wk, as compared to 5-7x/wk that I wanted to, but to my credit, I've kept up running and cycling more than I expected to in my swim-centered phase.

Despite my relatively low swim volume, I managed to strain my right shoulder again. It seems that whenever I do near-all out short intervals, I get this type of pain. Thus, I'm going to have to reduce volume and avoid sprinting for awhile (not that I've been doing much of that - I rarely do pool sprints.)

I have to admit that I haven't been too happy about my swim progress. I expected it to improve the fastest, as it's my worst activity, and thus has by far, the hugest margin for improvement, but I'm finding that it's slow going. REALLY slow going - I've barely improved my paces from 2 months ago. I suspect that it will take years (as it did for my running) to get to a "good" level, and I'm uncertain whether I'll be dedicated enough to keep swimming enough to improve this much. We shall see, but for now, I'm going to keep at it.

GETTING BACK INTO RUNNING

I've been running some super-low miles in the past 6 weeks. Like 10-15 miles per week, if even that! As a result, my ankles, which are chronically weak, have been bothering me on my runs. I had some problems in the past few weeks when I tried to train at a true aerobic training HR pace, and strained my achilles tendon. But with swimming a bit limited for a few weeks at least, I'm going to crank up the running volume. I've done 2 solid 10 milers this week, and they went well. I'm still far, far away from my marathon-race form, but I think once my ankles get stronger, I'll get back up to speed surprisingly quickly.

I've still been putting off my HRmax or threshold HR pace testing, because I'm afraid of injuring myself on those hard all-out efforts. Those tests will have to be done sooner rather than later, though. More on HR training in a later post - suffice to say, that I'm giving it a go and SportTracks + Garmin 305 have been a great tool so far.

Riding with FAST roadies

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Old LaHonda Road - it was a FAST one

I had part of the last week off to go up to NorCal where I got to have some downtime as well as do some cycling. I haven't been training seriously on the bike at all, instead doing minimal maintenance type mileage and riding 1-2x per week more for enjoyment sake that dedicated training. I've been doing a similar thing with running, as well.

I joined a fast group ride with the AltoVelo road racing bike club in Northern california this past weekend. I found out about this racing club online, and thought it would be a better match for me than the more casual non-racing Western Wheelers bicycle club that I have done longer rides with when I get to visit for more than a day.

My first outing with this club was their famous "Noon Ride." It's a fast loop ride around Palo Alto and surrounding communities, with several hammerfest sprint sections and lots of riders. At least 30 guys and a few girls showed up for this ride, and as expected, it was a fast one. Most of the members were older (45+), but that certainly didn't slow them down any as we maintained well over 22mph on flat pacelines and hammered away on hills. I was working plenty hard to stay in the back of the pack, but I wasn't in any danger of getting dropped, which was good considering how little riding I've been doing. However, I misjudged the final 3-4 miles, thinking that the group was slowing for an easy recovery pace back to the start. I slowed to adjust a loose shoe velcro strap, and in seconds, the peloton accelerated back to race pace leaving me hanging solo in the breeze. I figured that I'd be strong enough to hammer back up to the group, but I was mistaken - without the benefit of drafting (which is estimated to be as much as a 30% reduction in energy!) I had no chance of catching the fast group. It was pretty depressing to see ALL the riders pull away from me at a surprisingly fast rate, leaving me high and dry within 2 minutes.

I did another ride the following morning with the club. This was their Saturday "B" Ride, which was a longer 60 mile ride with several big mountain climbs en route. The website noted that this would be a good ride for new folks to try riding with the club, as the "A" ride was the faster group. I figured that I could use this ride as an opportunity for some good slower-paced distance riding to get some miles in. I showed up at the meeting point, and a good 15 riders were there, half of which were over age 50. This was also a good sign for me, as I knew I'd have less chance of being dropped the older the group was.

The ride started, and BAM - 24 mile per hour paceline. Holy crap this was fast! I was able to ride off the back, but it was definitely challenging just to stay with the group. And EVERYONE was keeping up - I was the last guy hanging off the back, trying to take advantage of the maximum draft effect to save energy for the climbs. I asked the 50+ year old guy next to me, "Do these guys slow down?" to which he responded, "actually, they speed up!" And this is the B ride?! WTF?!

After a half hour of some fast riding, we got to the base of Old La Honda road, which I've climbed many times. En route, we overtook 2 cycling clubs, including the Stanford collegiate cycling team, which had just started the climb as we did. To my horror, the entire front half of our peloton blasted up the climb at race pace, clearly outpacing the collegiate cyclists, who were in full Stanford racing kit. Next thing I know, I'm desperately trying to not get completely dropped, and I'm hammering away pretty much all-out, surrounded by the Stanford cycling team. I hung with them for halfway up the climb, but I started to run out of gas, and they gradually gapped me leaving me riding solo. I even got "chicked" by a woman from the AltoVelo cycling club whom I had passed near the base, but picked it up to pass me back near the top. By the time I got to the top, I was totally toasted, and eager to look for the regroup. Guess what - no regroup up there! Everyone who had made it up had immediately blasted down the ensuing downhill without taking any rest. Yikes! I opted to wait and see how many folks were actually behind me, and it wasn't many - perhaps 5-6 of the club members. I followed them downhill to the regroup, where I decided that alas, I wouldn't be able to keep up. These guys were simply too strong for me. It's been a REALLY LONG time since that's happened to me - in fact, I thought that as of late I was getting strong enough to hang even with good roadie group rides even with my limited maintenance training.

The pack took off again at their 24mph paceline, and I limped the 8 miles home, which also wasn't a small feat considering that the final 3 miles are at a 4% incline, and the final 0.7 mile is almost entirely a whopping 18-20% incline. Not easy after you've just hammered for an hour and a half!

All in all, it was a very fun time, albeit completely humbling, to ride with such strong riders. I'm really looking forward to moving up to the locale in June so I can use them as my rabbit for getting faster on the bike. In the meanwhile, back to the pool for me!

OFFSEASON TRAINING

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:46:00 +0000

I've been lazy in the most critical aspect of my training - the overall plan. I still have not yet picked a race, made a plan, or set any goals. This is not good, even in the off-season, as it limits my focus. I really have no excuse other than laziness, as work hasn't been too crazy as of late. Ironically, I have been good about working out regularly, particularly with swimming, which is my current focus. I'm just going to have to get it together and write up a good training plan in the upcoming days/weeks to optmize my training.

RUNNING TOO FEW MILES AND A MINOR ACHILLES STRAIN

Well, I knew I was at risk for running injuries due to my recent low mileage (10-15 miles per week!) and sure enough, got a minor training injury. Turns out that my running legs are strong enough now that they can hold a surprisingly fast pace on downhills if I maintain a 143 "aerobic" heart rate. Unfortunately, downhills come with a lot of wear and tear on the legs, and if your tendons/ligaments aren't properly buffed up with a good dose of base mileage, you're asking for a strain by hammering the downhills fast. And that's what ended up happening, as I was hitting 6:40-6:20/mile on some descents with HR 143. (My flat pace is about 7:50/mi @ HR143 now in the middle of a long run.) I managed to strain my right achilles. It's a very minor injury, and I can do easy runs no problem, but I did have problems walking for a day or two after the run, and I'm still having some mild twinges back there, so I'm definitely keeping it low-key on the running so I don't exacerbate it and cause a substantially more debilitating tendon injury.

SWIMMING PROGRESS AND PERSPECTIVES

My swim focus has been coming along, slowly but surely. I'm just beginning to get to the point where I can tap into my cardiovascular ability, but for sure, I'm still predominantly limited by the circulation and power in my arms.

Swimming has really given me a new perspective on what most "slower" folks in running are probably going through. I've always wondered why I seem to work substantially harder than everyone else when I'm doing a track workout with a club. Most of the club folks are usually fairly new to running intervals, and it always puzzled me that I could run myself into the ground, while most of them were cruising in at what seemed way too easy a pace, sometimes barely out of breath, even though they insisted they couldn't go any faster. This also seemed to be the case in races when folks said that was the fastest they could go, yet they weren't really huffing too hard. Well, my experience with swimming has shown me that if you don't have the proper conditioning in your arms (legs for running), you are constrained by your limiting factor, which is the weak arms. The only way to improve it is by lots of regular training, and it can be a slow process. I still am unable to really crank up my HR in the pool during interval sets, as my arms/back can't pull hard enough to keep my HR up over that sustained a period. It's very frustrating for me to feel like I'm working hard, but have a HR in the 130s in the pool, and I suspect that's what a lot of new runners experience as their legs are simply unable to crank up to 8,7,or 6 minutes/mile for intervals, and thus it looks like they aren't working as hard (even though they are). Ironically, I suspect that during my peak marathon training, when I would do the fast local group runs and finish either 1st/2nd, I wasn't even running as hard as many of the folks in the back, since my legs were so conditioned that 7min/mile was a 145ish heart rate. Gives me a whole new appreciation for the back of the pack!

SWALL SWIMMING MILESTONE

I also did my longest (and fastest) swim interval set today. It's pretty measly compared to my big-time 3+hr runs or 5+ hr bike rides I do, but it was still satisfying to get to a new level of distance on the swim. I put up 14 x 200m intervals with 10-20sec rest, for 2800m total, in an hour of swimming. Still on the low side compared to a FOP (front of pack) swimmer, but big for me, considering 10 x 200m is my typical interval set.

I FINALLY BEAT "POOL GUY"

I also beat "pool guy" today. My Ballys pool has very few serious swimmers, and no competitive swimmers. Lots of old folks and floaters, so you tend to notice anyone who does a real swim workout. There's a middle-aged gentleman who tends to swim continuous laps at around the same time that I swim, so we see each other a lot. I call him "pool guy", since we've never really spoken to each other. He pretty much jumps in, and swims a continuous 30-40 minute set for his workout, and then jumps out. All business. Pool guy has seen me from the first days of my swimming, when I spent months doing floating drills down the lane, and swam at ridiculously slow paces. Of course, he was substantially faster than I was for most of this year and would blow by me time and again. But, I did notice that pool guy's swim form definitely has a few significant flaws that decrease his efficiency, and which he unfortunately has never addressed. As I have gradually but steadily improved my form and my swim fitness, I've been creeping up on him, and even starting to pass him at times on my intervals. I do notice that if I ever pass him in an adjacent lane, he throws on the afterburners to get himself back in front of me for the rest of my workout. It gets somewhat comical as I see him doing what looks like a slow cooldown pace, then abruptly transition to a mad windmilling stroke the moment I creep past him. I honestly have never tried to race/pace with him, as he was usually so much faster than me, and also because I always do short intervals with rest breaks, and not continuous swimming like he does. Well, today was the day that I finally and decisively "beat" pool guy. He jumped into the pool on my 4th set, and pulled away while he was fresh for 2 sets, but by the 6th one, I had pulled even again, and then I began to pull farther and farther away, until I was over 2 pool lengths ahead by lap 14, even with a 15-20 second rest gap at the wall between sets. It actually made me a bit sad, as his swim pace is definitely being limited by his technique errors, and it's a downer to see a dedicated swimmer who is in the pool 5, if not 6-7 days a week, not reach his potential because of some readily fixable technique errors. I'd love to offer him a pointer or two, but I think it would be presumptuous of me to do so at the current time since I'm really not much faster than him. Plus, he doesn't seem like the talkative. Still, if I get an opening, I'll definitely offer some useful pointers, as I'm nearly positive that they'll substantively improve his swimming.

SportTracks, Garmin 305, HRM and getting serious about logging

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:25:00 +0000

I'm in the process of getting the plans for the rest of my year together, both from a work/academic perspective, and also for races. It will probably crystallize in the next few weeks, but in the meanwhile, I'm getting my training logs and data tracking optimized before the real training starts.

Triathlon has presented a particular challenge in tracking progress and statistics. Between running, swimming, and biking, it's been challenging to keep track of things in a succint, logical manner. I have always subscribed to the theory that for amateur athletes, the act of getting out train is far more important than the need to keep track of what you have done. I still subscribe to this theory, but when you are aiming to break through a plateau of performance, or significantly ramp up training, keeping a log can be helpful in identifying overtraining (or more likely for most, undertraining.)

I have been using the website RunningAhead.com to log my stats in the past year, but this was mainly because of convenience. I've missed a bunch of days, and never kept track of paces or intervals, opting to keep it as simple as possible. This was likely appropriate for me in the past year given my noobness at swimming and triathlon; the mere act of getting out and into the pool or bike was the most important thing. Now though, I'm ready to start building on my good swim and bike base, and for that, I will need a plan and a good loggin system to track progress.

HEART RATE TRAINING

After reading a lot about triathlon over the past year, I've decided to give the heart rate training method a serious try. I already have the Garmin 305 with HRM, so I didn't need to upgrade harware, but I've never found it useful in the past while on Pfitz training schedules, where mileage was the dominant theme. Now with 3 sports though, I think heart rate will become a much better way to track my fitness and performance both during and after workouts. I've given it an initial trial in the past week, and it has gone extremely well. I still have yet to find my true max HR (which is critical for correct training), but in terms of running at approximately my theoretical aerobic-fast pace, I've found that I need to scale back a lot when running uphills, but pick it up a lot on the downhills. I'm excited to see whether this new tool will help me become more consistent with my running efforts, but even if it doesn't, it's giving me a new incentive to get back on the roads seriously.

SPORT-TRACKS + GARMIN 305 = PRO-LEVEL TRACKING

My software of choice to sync with my GPS-enabled Garmin 305 is "SportTracks", which is a free PC download. It's awesome - far better than the Garmin Training Center software which comes with the device. Frankly, I think the combination of SportTracks + Garmin305 equal pro-level athlete tracking. It provides maps, graphs, splits, splits correlated WITH map data, elevation correction, pretty much the works. Of course, what to actually do with the data is a big challenge, but I already have some big plans that will be very useful, including:

- Determination of MaxHR

- Determination of optimal HR training zones (based on MaxHR)

- Time trials with HR correlation to gauge race paces

- Optimizing correct hill pacing for steady HR

- Creating optimal pace/HR correction curves

Perhaps one of the best aspects of this hardware/software is that it's incredibly easy to use. You simply plug in your Garmin via USB, select "import", and it all gets sucked in for your viewing pleasure. I've already analyzed my last 2 runs in extensive detail and have learned things about my performance/pacing on hills that I didn't know I did previously. I have also learned that I've been slacking (!!) on my triathlon-season runs, running wayyy under what would be considered a good training pace given my HR adaptations to running.

COACH OR NO COACH?

I'm also seriously toying with the idea of hiring a coach to help interpret the plan in the upcoming 6 months if I train seriously. Still, I have my own personal reasons for not doing so. Cost is definitely an issue - at $150 per month for the cheapest qualified triathlon coach who contacts you only by email/phone, it's pricey for my paltry resident salary. But even if I can afford it, I personally have found that a large part of my enjoyment of the sport includes the satisfaction of self-training. I'm fully aware that it's an inferior approach to the coached method, as a 2nd perspective is invariably better than self-analysis, but part of my enjoyment of the sport involves the satisfaction and fulfillment of learning as much as I can to self-coach, and then looking back on my own results. I've got nothing against coaches though - it's just the way I am with my own training. (Not that I'd turn down free coaching if it was sent my way!) So for now, it is likely going to be self-training from here.

IMMEDIATE PLANS

Stay posted - I should have results from a maxHR run and/or bike test in the upcoming weeks!

Doing the swim thing in the offseason

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:34:00 +0000

"TourDeValley" with the Valley La TrClub

Map by SportTracks

It's now officially off-season for me, with no races planned through the winter, as I don't have a running race lined up, and there are no triathlons during the winter. Now is a good a time as any to really work on my big weakness in triathlon - swimming.

I've been hitting the pool 3-4x per week for some solid swim sessions, most of which involve a good set of intervals. Swim intervals are different from run intervals, in that the recovery time is much shorter, which makes it very difficult to keep up. Especially if you're not a good swimmer, such as myself. Nevertheless, I have been making definite progress on the swim front, and can now definitely do the "bilateral breathing" technique in which you breath on both the left and right sides, which no major speed penalty on my left side.

I also took this past week to jump into a coached masters-style swim session at the Sherman Oaks pool coached by "Valleycoach" team. It was my first coached group swim session, and I was excited to see how it would go. I opted for the 6AM session, which was sparsely attended - me and two other swimmers, which meant more personal time and coaching for us. The session went as I had expected, with a lot of good technique work as well as a good mix of intervals and distance. I was gratified to see that my technique really has gotten as good as my other one-time lesson coach said it was; I had no major flaws in my form, and the coach rapidly progressed me through all the drills once he saw that I could do them all well, and took me straight to swim intervals. (In contrast, the girl next to me had some problems with some of the drills and probaby spent most of her time fixing those technical problems.) The pool was an officially measured 25yard pool, which is different from my unofficial Ballys who-knows-how-far pool, so I got a good timed 100yard interval time, which clocked in at 1:45 at a fast pace and 1:41 at my near-fastest pace. For me, this is easily the fastest I have ever swam, so I am clearly still improving - although I've got a long way to go, as good swimmers go faster than these paces for their "easy" pace!

My run/bike have both been taking a pretty big hit due to my pool priority. I've hit some real lows in terms of run mileage, with a paltry 10 miles per week this week and last week, both done in one single run. To make it worse, my legs were actually sore after each run, as I've been so inconsistent with running. Pretty sad. Cycling hasn't been as bad of a dropoff, but mainly because everyone else is in off-season mode, including the fast LaGrange cyclists, so I'm able to keep up. I think part of the whole triathlete mentality is being able to let go of your strengths to work on your weaknesses during the off-season, and I'm striving to be successful in this approach while not completely giving up my run and bike.

Also on a somewhat related and funny note, I rode for the first time with the "Valley" group of the LA triathlon club cyclists. I just felt that it was time for me to mixup my pace and rides, as I was riding the same routes over and over again and wanted to try something new. Turns out that this group was much slower and more beginner-friendly than the group I usually ride with, so it was no problem keeping up (route shown in pic above.) The funny comment was that when I told them that I usually ride with the "Westside" triclub group, they said "oh - I heard that was a CRAZY fast group", and one guy even said "I heard there was some really fast Asian guy with them who climbs like a maniac." I'm pretty sure that meant ME, as I'm the only regular Asian rider in the group! (I didn't take credit in person, though.)

Still no official races planned in the near future yet, but I hope to plan them soon. The big Germany trip I have may throw a wrench in things if it happens in February, which is likely. We'll see how things go. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try and do even more swimming and put in some respectable biking and running to stay in decent form.

Also, as a final note - I'm going to try and get a bit more organized and serious about my triathlon training as a whole. Planning tri training isn't easy, due to the 3 sports nature. There are really no pre-cut plans like the Pfitzinger 18/70 plan in running, mainly because every athlete has different demands for each sport. I am going to get my Garmin and heart rate monitor back into the game after being nearly electronic-free for a year, and start to see if I can get into the correct HR training zones to improve performance. This will likely be a long-term self-educational project, but one that I suspect will pay big dividends down the road. There are a few books I have in mind, one of which is the Triathlete's Training Guide/Bible.

Good to be getting back

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:31:00 +0000

We are now officially in triathlon and roadbiking's "off-season", where races are sparse, and most racers go into semi-hibernation, with long easy rides and runs with little hard speedwork. I admit that I've never been a fan of such an off-season, as I feel that consistency with training is crucial. The longer and harder I can train throughout the year, the better I tend to do, although I will admit that after a dedicated 70+mpw marathon training program, there's no way around some down-time to rejuvenate the mind and body.

My priority this winter will have to be swimming, as it's absolutely killing my placement in all my triathlons. I'm making every effort to get in 4, if not 5 solid swims per week of 45-90 minutes each. The good thing is that I think I'm finally making peace with swimming. I've gotten to the point where it's not incredibly frustrating to swim, and I am now good enough that I can actually get quality cardio workouts from my swimming. I was surprised to actually be looking forward to my swim workouts for the first time, as I'm eager to see the benefits that I can accrue when putting in some real workout time on the swim. Already in the past 2 weeks back, I have adopted a more balanced dual-sided breathing approach such that it feels comfortable on both sides, and have also incorporated 200 meter repeats into my interval repertoire. My swim pace hasn't changed much, but on the bright side, I'm easily passing guys in my pool (no fast swimmers in my Ballys!) who were at my speed or faster just a few months ago. This is mostly due to technique, as I've spent almost an entire year now continuously refining my stroke and body position so that it works smoothly.

I've also accepted the reality that in terms of talent for swimming or cross-over from my other aerobic abilities, it's pretty much zero. I haven't made any rapid gains as would be expected from a talented person, and even with coach-approved good fundamental technique, I'm still swimming slowly for a triathlete. I suspect it may take another years for me to get my swim ability to middle of the pack, but I'm hopeful that it will all come together as it did for running. That said, it's definitely exciting to have a whole new discipline of sport that isn't near "maxxed out" like my running is.

Cycling, on the other hand, is something that I definitely have both talent and x-over benefits from. Ever since I got on my Cervelo for the first time, I was a FOP (front-of-pack) triathlon rider. My large glutes and quads allow me to power up hills and sprints with the strong guys, and my aerobic fitness gained from marathon running allows me to outlast the competition. My rides in the past 2 weeks were no exception, as I promptly threw down 2 weekend 5-hour hillfest rides, and even being notably out of shape from nearly 3 weeks completely off the bike, was still easily in front with the intermediate triathlon group. It's nice to be strong at the bike, but the drawback is also that I end up taking the ability for granted. I have had no inclination or desire to formulate a dedicated, incremental training plan (a la Pfitzinger's 70+mpw marathon plan) for cycling, mainly because I'm pretty satisfied with my cycling results. To break myself out of this "rut", I am planning to join the local pure roadies for their fast "Simi Valley Ride" this winter, which amasses all the fastest local riders, over 200 of them, and hammers along a 70 mile route through the Santa Monica mountains. That should humble me very quickly into getting my act together!

I know that at least a few friends who still follow my sports exploits have been encouraging me to get back into marathon as well. For sure, I've relegated running to the backburner in the past year, doing enough to maintain a good speed, but definitely sliding back in terms of performance. Well, it's still very tentative, but I am actually considering running the LA Marathon on 3/21/09! The key words here are CONSIDERING and RUNNING - not RACING, which for me, is a very big difference. I would be using this race to get somewhat back to my running roots, and to enjoy the new marathon course which runs from Dodger Stadium downtown LA to the beach (finally!) in Santa Monica. That sounds like a lot of fun! I will definitely not be racing this one for a PR or BQ time, however, as I am certain I won't be able to do a proper buildup given a big trip in February and my swim-focused training this winter-spring. Still, I would train seriously for it if I signed up, and put up a 3:30ish pace if at all possible. It's certainly on my radar.

Overall though, it's good to be back and training. I really missed it while I was away from it, and I really felt that I was getting back to being me by putting in some good honest hours on the run/bike/swim since I've been back.

I hate mechanicals on the bike

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:27:00 +0000

I've had a rash of "mechanical" errors on the bike in the past 2 months. Most of them were due to a rear tire issue because I had broken one of the screws on the frame, but on my weekend ride, I had a flat tire, which required some careful navigation and stopping on a screaming descent with cars to not wipe out. Fortunately, I made it through that entire 70 mile ride without any further mishap, and since changing my frame screws, my rear wheel is working great.

Fast forward to this morning. I got onto my bike and out the door at 6AM to join the LaGrange bike hill sprints this morning at 6:30AM. Keep in mind it's pitch black right now at 6-6:30AM, so I've got a headlight, rear blinkers, and am not really enjoying myself at all yet because I absolutely hate riding my bike in the dark due to safety issues.

The ride got started fair enough, and less than 1 mile into the ride, "BAM!" I hear a huge sound like a big balloon popping, and my front tire immediately goes limp. This was at first just a minor setback for me, as I figured I could change the tire quickly and rejoin the group on their 2nd-4th loops. However, as I pulled off the tire, I noticed one of the edges had run ragged. I suspect that I improperly mounted the tire on my last flat episode, and then my brake pad probably wore it down until it popped. Major bummer - there goes a fairly new $40 tire and a $3 inner tube.

So as of now, I seem to be "cursed" whenever I join the LaGrange ride, as I've managed to complete zero of the last THREE outings I had with them on weekday mornings. I don't know whether to be sad or glad, as I most of these mechanicals have been significant ones that immediately ended my ride, and these weekday rides have meant I've been close to home or my car. On today's mechanical, the torn tire meant that I lost complete use of the front brake since the front tire was bulging, and thus I limped home on the rear brake alone, which is much inferior on road bikes and definitely not something you want to do for more than 15minutes. If I had suffered similar mishaps during my long weekend 70+ mile, 5 hr rides, there could have been some serious problems along they way. But so far, no major problems on the big rides.

I think I'll be able to solve this problem quickly once I get a new tire and inspect the wheel a final time, but lesson learned for me - after a road flat, be very careful about remounting the new inner tube and tire, and then recheck the mount a second time at home in a more controlled environment.

2 weeks off and feelin' it

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:27:00 +0000

I just took the last 2 weeks completely off any sort of athletic activity, right after finishing the LA triathlon. I partly planned it this way, and part of it was due to life, which tends to get in the way, but it was worth the time off - I ran off and got married in New York last week! I'm not going to expound upon it here as I don't like to get my personal life all out in my triathlon/run blog, but suffice to say it was a wonderful ceremony with great weather (for upstate New York, that is!) and a lovely honeymoon in Kauai, Hawaii, which was my first time there.

I don't have any races or events planned for the upcoming future, so part of the plan in this down/off season for me is to get a schedule in place to keep my motivation up. I would ordinarily plan for something big, like an Ironman or another BQ attempt, but spring of 2010 will be a very busy time for me, as I will likely be in Germany for 4 weeks followed up immediately by radiology board examination preparations. Believe it or not, the 4 weeks in Germany (and NOT the radiology board preparations) is the thing holding me back from a big spring-summer race, as I doubt I will be able to train to a satisfactory level for myself while out there.

I did a mellow 5 mile run yesterday, and my quads are already sore. It's amazing how rapidly you decondition after doing absolutely nothing. On the bright side, I've found that ability tends to come back very quickly, so I'm expecting to be back in some sort of decent shape in 3-4 weeks. I'm hoping to figure out some sort of serious swimming strategy for the winter season when light is short, so I can fill that hole in my triathlon repertoire.

2009 LA Triathlon Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:37:00 +0000

LA Triathlon 10-4-09 Sunday

Olympic Distance

Willis Huang M30-34

2:35:02, AG 26/133, Overall 160/802

Swim (1500m): 40:53 (2:43/100m), 102/133AG

T1: 1:55, 12/133 AG

Bike (40k/24.8mi): 1:07:28, 8/133AG

T2: 2:12, 5/133AG

Run (10k/6.2mi): 42:35, 9/133AG

I participated in the Los Angeles Olympic distance triathlon this Sunday. Originally, I had planned this race to be my "A" race of the year, but my training mellowed out 3 weeks ago after the Malibu triathlon. Regardless, I did train enough to at least maintain my level of fitness and made a few tweaks to see if I could do slightly better this time around.

There were three main themes in today's race that were different from my other races this year:

1. TOUGH open water swim. Pounding waves

2. No mechanicals on the bike

3. Awesome transitions

Race pic posted online of one of the many having a rough time

The first one was out of my control, but I'm taking full credit for changes #2 and #3, both of which were significant improvements on race day. I completely solved my Cervelo rear wheel rub problem in the past 2 weeks, by both ordering specialty rear limiter screws as well as the more crucial step of switching back to my Shimano skewer and tightening it to the max before riding. Hence, no more rear wheel slippage. (Which cost me 6 minutes of downtime at the Malibu triathlon.)

My transitions also improved dramatically this time around. This was the direct result of a one-day self-practice session lasting about 90 minutes, during which I pretty much mastered all aspects of transition while riding up and down my block. (See last post for the details.) As a result, I went from a huge fear of the transition areas to loving it and going through them safely yet aggressively. If I could only get my swim to this level!

PRERACE

I rode my bike down to the Venice Beach start at 4:45AM, in the darkness. I have recently been bike commuting both at day and night, so I was well armed with reflective jacket and high-powered flashlights to ensure safety and visibility. This worked very well, as the finish line was 25 miles from the start line, and my neighbor (also a triathlete) was to pick me up at the finish. By now, everything at the prerace start is familiar, including the incessant runs to the bathroom, likely due to the efffect of cold temps on the bladder. I made 4 separate bathroom runs within a 2 hour period despite taking no additional hydration the morning of, which has become routine on race day for me. Air temps were actually a bit chilly, at 60F.

THE SWIM - BIG WAVES!

Actual photo of race surf today right after my wave

It took one look at the surf to realize that it was going to be a long day on the swim. BIG waves, and a lot of them, with no moments of calm. I made sure to get a good long warmup in the water by standing and swimming in the battery of waves to make sure I didn't panic. It didn't seem too bad in the warmup, but it was substantially more difficult once I was swimming. The race directors fortunately also let us know that there was a big north-south current. As a result, they recommended that although the first buoy was directly ahead of the swim entry, we should run 200meters north in the WRONG direction (we would swim south!) to take advantage of the current. I followed this advice, and it was spot-on correct. It looked very strange for us men to exit the swim chute on shore, and run up the beach away from the buoy - I ran so far north that I passed almost all the spectators and people warming up in the surf, as I knew as a weaker swimmer that I'd have particular problems with the current. My decision proved correct, as I swam straight out for the buoy, and landed right spot at the right time, catching up with a horde of swimmers who were clearly stronger than I was but didn't plan as well. (They left me on the straightaway.)

The real action, though, was the big surf that rolled in today. The lifeguards make the decision of whether to allow the race to continue or not, and they decided the water wasn't "dangerous", which I agree with, as there was no riptide or undercurrent. Still, this was the 2nd largest and roughest conditions I have ever faced in open water, and it was a scary swim to the first buoy and beyond. I got pounded every 15-20 seconds by wavesets. There was no break to make a dash for clear water. It also becomes very hard to hold your breath for more than 10 seconds when you're fighting the surf, so getting hit with triple wave sets becomes frightening. I very seriously nearly DNF'd at two moments in the first 100 meters, thinking "this is crazy!" I'm glad I didn't, but I certainly switched from racing to purely surviving the swim. It took me well over 8 minutes to swim the first 100 meters! (I normally do it in 2:00).

Things got marginally better for the remainder of the swim, but no question, it was a tough swim with bumpy water. Furthermore, I lost touch with the main pack in my age group about halfway through, which made it much more difficult to sight, as the weaker swimmers surrounding me were generally unreliable. Fortunately, I made it out in one piece, and didn't get destroyed by the surf on the way out. My swim time was "horrendously slow" by any stretch, but still a respectable showing for myself, as I still managed to beat 25% of my AG out of the water. God I suck at swimming!

T1 (transition 1)

I normally completely omit detailed description of the transitions in my race report, as they're short and pale in significance to the race segments. Today, though, I will expound in detail about how well this went for me, because if there is any one thing that I will remember and be proud of with today's race, it is my transitions.

As per my last post, I practiced these transitions for nearly 2 hours yesterday. That's really not saying much at all, to invest 2 hours in something as important as a transition, but that's 2 hours more than I've ever spent on them! Transitions have also been the next weak spot in my repertoire, as weak as my swim segment. In all my races to date, I've approached the transition areas with great anxiety, as I knew all the people around me would go blazing by while I clunked to a stop while not trying to fall over, all the while with the referees yelling at me to slow and dismount before reaching the line.

Today, though, was a totally different ballgame. I feel like I hit the transitions like a rock star, and my transition timing results reflect this. I left my shoes clipped to my bike this time, and had practiced running around holding the bike. I got good enough to turn both left and right at full running speed with only one hand on the saddle, with confidence. At the race, I got out of the swim, peeled off the wetsuit on the run, and got to the bike racks in time to be surrounded by 5-10 guys in my AG. I was SO glad that everyone hadn't already left me behind after that hellacious swim. I was, however, late to the party, and everyone was well ahead of me in the stripdown. I was no slouch, though, and got my wetsuit off very quickly (sleeveless suit helps a LOT) and stuffed it into a garbage bag inside my backpack, as the LA tri personnel would be ferrying our bags to the finish line - meaning that anything left unpacked would be left behind. I lost most of my time here stuffing my wetsuit into my backpack. However, once I got my bike off the rack, I was on the money. I outraced every single person whom had arrived before me and was still at the rack in the run to the mount line, mainly because I could run fairly fast with the bike in hand. I then jumped on carefully, and took off racing, gradually putting my feet into the shoes while riding at 20+mph.

As a result, my T1 was 12/133 in my AG - a FOP result. And I've always been a BOP transition guy up to now. Nice.

THE BIKE

Not much for me to say on the bike, which played out more or less as I'd expected. I honestly expected to go faster than my 1:07 split, but the slight inclines/declines as well as 2 loops requiring big slowdowns on the bike course were enough to throw off my pacing. As well, I've admittedly slacked on my bike training in the last 3 weeks, and haven't done anything particularly hardcore for training, so a supraphysiologic hammer was unreasonable. Still, it did go well, and I'm happy with the result. As with all my other races, the bike leg was the Willis-express-train where I passed hordes of cyclists continuously from start to finish. I did get passed by 2 elites on their second loop who had started before me, but on the mild uphill sections of the course, I was their equal. I'm definitely a mountain goat on the bike now - unfortunately, this course was mostly flat, so I couldn't draw upon my climbing power as I'd hoped. My overall placement result was 8/133, which actually exceeded my run placement result, so my suspicions that my bike training was improving at a rapid pace was indeed correct, and I am likely a similarly good cyclist as I am a runner.

Continuing the theme of rockin' the transitions, I felt like a true rock star on T2. Nailed it on the money as planned! The bike to run transition has always been problematic for me in the past, as I've always gotten to the dismount line too fast, nearly keeled over at the abrupt stop, and then felt like an oaf as I ran through the transition area in my bike cleats.

This time, I did it like the pros, and pulled it off flawlessly. I monitored my race time carefully, and predicted when the final bike mile was coming up, and thus got my feet out of my shoes and on top of them well in advance of the bike finish. This was a critically good move, as the bike dismount happened very quickly and unexpectedly in this race, as you made a sharp right turn, then only rode 150m to a parking structure ramp with the dismount line at the top of the ramp. Nearly everybody I talked to after the race misjudged the distance after the turn, and ended up not being able to get out of their shoes in time for the ramp. I, however, was out of my shoes on time, and thus could hammer up the ramp at speed. I passed 3 cyclists like they were standing still on the ramp, and actually was going so fast that a volunteer in front of me misjuged my fast speed and didn't cross the road fast enough, causing me to nearly hit him. Fortunately, I was careful and avoided him, but I could hear him getting a verbal beatdown from the other volunteers as he'd literally walked right into my way as I was going at least 15 mph. I hit the transition line, and did an ultra-fast dismount on the uphill, and then was running at nearly full tilt through the T2 looking for my rack. My skills in bike maneuvering were key here, as I rounded two corners simply by leaning my bike from the seat, and didn't lose any speed at all. Found my spot, put my shoes and hat on, and was gone in a blink.

It really was a smokin' T2. 5th/133rd. Consdering I'm usually in the bottom 30% in T2 timing in prior races, this is a rock-star result for me!

THE RUN

I had an "ok" day on the run. No killer instinct for sure, as I couldn't tell whom I was racing against, as all the sprint triathletes were spilling onto the shared course. This course is marked by two loops up a horrifically big hill leading to the Disney Concert Hall, with an estimated 18-20% grade. Fortunately, I'm a mountain goat when it comes to running as well, so I did a ton of passing on these inclines. Noteably, there was a runner who blew by me on the flat stretches of the 2nd loop, and I expected him to increase the gap. However, we hit the hill, and within seconds, I was pulling ahead of him. I didn't seem him again until after the race, where I found out he was a relay runner and simply got stopped cold by the hill. Other highlights of the run included seeing my neighbor Jon spectating which was a treat. My run result was completely in line with my other 3 tris this year, which is a respectably fast time, but definitely "meh" when you compare it with what I normally run when I am in pure marathon racing form. 9th/133rd.

OVERALL

2:35:02 today. Slower than my Malibu triathlon result, where I suffered a 6-minute mechanical, but significantly faster than my Strawberry fields triathlon, which had a extra long swim course. I've learned that triathlon courses are remarkably variable in terms of timing, distances, and conditions. Even the transition area differences are significant between races, with some taking 5 minutes to breeze through, and some taking 10.

I was very happy with my performance today, even though I didn't break any speed records for myself. I'm proud of myself (pat self on back!) for not giving up on the swim, even though it got pretty scary out there, and I'm also taking full credit for putting the legwork into mastering my transitions and getting them into FOP territory. Today was the first triathlon in my entire tri-racing career, in which I felt that I was a legitimate, full-out participant (and not just a runner faking it as a triathlete) in the sport, with the necessary specialized skills to finish a challenging race. As a closer to this triathlon season, it was a great finish, and one that I felt captured my accrued fitness and performance from the past year.

My hot bike, my new DeSoto racing suit, and my fellow triathlete neighbor

On last note, I also decided to finally look the part of a real triathlete this time around, after seeing how disappointingly bland I've looked in my previous race pictures. I took advantage of a sale on tri-racing suits online at DeSoto, and acquired a yellow-white racing suit that I haven't seen many other athletes using. I really like it - it fits great, looks sharp, and has some well placed and useful compact pockets. I've got to say that feeling like you're looking good out there definitely helps! Here's to hoping that my race pics come out better this time around!

Post-race salt stains. Almost everybody thought it was from the ocean

Transition Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:44:00 +0000

I can't believe it's almost race time again. I had originally signed up for the LA triathlon to be my "A" race, with the previous Malibu tri 3 weeks ago as my practice race. However, in the aftermath of Malibu (which went ok), I've been slacking a bit on training, as both the desire to not overdo it in the few weeks prerace as well as life activities have gotten in the way. Next thing I know, the LA triathlon is literally tomorrow. Yikes!

There actually was one single thing I could do to significantly improve both my performance and comfort level on the course in one day.

TRANSITIONS.

These are the oft-neglected segments leading from swim to bike, and then from bike to run, which take place in staging areas. There are two transitions: T1, and T2, which I will describe below. These transition areas are huge, as 1000+ competitors are the norm nowadays. Before the race even starts, you will have racked your bike on a long metal A-frame rack in a designated spot corresponding to your race number.

T1: Out of the swim (which comes first), and onto the bike

There is usually a 200-400m run from the waterfront/shoreline to the transition area, with a timing mat at the entry to the transition area. You immediately begin stripping off your wetsuit at the upper body level as you exit the water, then run up to your bike. Actually, most people walk or jog to their bike, and in the Malibu triathlon, I picked up 60-90 seconds alone on most people by running to my bike, which is how the pros do it. It's legal, and you all know that running is my thing, so I intend to fully maximize that! At your spot, you strip off the rest of your wetsuit, throw on your helmet & goggles. Now, the experts grab their bikes and run it to the "mount line" at the exit of the transition area - their shoes are already clipped onto their bike, and they waste no time putting their shoes on. Rookies like me usually put on our shoes while we're still standing up, then walk our bikes to the start line (it's hard to run in bicycle cleats) and then clip in and go. I intend to change this for this upcoming race!

T2: Off the bike and onto the run

The pros/experts get their feet out of their cycling shoes even before they finish the bike leg. They ride with their feet on top of their shoes for the last half mile or so, and then do a speedy dismount at the transition entry line. Rookies like me have been riding all the way to the line, then dismounting with bike shoes on, and then running through the transition area with bike cleats, which isn't as fast. You then throw your running gear on (easy) and go.

Practice makes Perfect

How important are these transition, anyway? If the average competitor takes 3 hours to finish a triathlon, these transition usually comprise 6-12 minutes of race time. I do the race in about 2hrs 30minutes, with 4-8 minutes of transition time. This doesn't seem like a lot, and indeed, for most folks who are there to either just finish the course or to test their ability on the bike/run/swim, you can neglect the transition without significantly harming your overall time.

However, even at my nonexpert level, it is extremely hard for me to cut off one lousy minute off my run or bike. I would have to train at a whole different level just to knock that minute off the race segment, whereas in transition, since I'm a beginner level there, I can knock of 1-2, if not more minutes with no additional physical conditioning.

So, today, the day before my triathlon, was transition cramming morning. I just got back from spending an entire hour riding up and down my block, mounting, dismounting, strapping in, strapping out - the works. It's not as hard as it looks, and I already feel MUCH better about the whole affair. A few tips for myself that I did learn en route that I'd like to not forget:

1) When running with the bike in hand, it's crucial to keep the pedals horizontal. Once you've got the pedals horizontal, you can run like crazy with the bike.

2) Running with your hand on the seat works better than on the handlebars

Seems totally counterintuitive, but it's true in practice - but it does take a little bit of practice to get it to work. When you run with the bike holding the seat, the pedals are out of the way of your legs, and you also have good maneuverability by leaning the bike. When you hold it by the handlebars, the pedals run smack into your legs, and you need big motions up front to steer the bike left and right. Considering that most transition areas involve at least one corner turn, it's good to practice turns while on the run. I can now do relatively small circles with full control of my bike while just holding the seat. It's really a coordination thing with your hand balancing the bike, as I can't do it at all with my unpracticed left hand.

3) Be CAREFUL on the mount if your pedals are clipped on the bike

I got good enough at the bike transitions to do most of it at race pace, but there is one area where I've learned that I absolutely must be careful and go slow and easily - the bike mount. With shoes clipped on the bike, you have to get both feet on both shoes simultaneously before pedaling. If you "miss" one of the shoes, it will flop upside down, and then get caught on the ground, which can lead to a lost unclipped shoe (happened twice to me in practice) or a total wipeout. This is the most critical thing for me tomorrow, as the bike exit is down a parking lot ramp, and if I miss the shoe entry on the downhill, I'm totally toast. Very tricky, and not at all a place for me to rush things.

4) Scoot your butt back on the seat as far as possible to manipulate the shoes on the bike

It's really hard to reach down and manipulate the straps on the shoes while cranked forward in the aero seat position. It helps a lot to scoot back as far as possible until all the way at the back of the seat to get more room to reach down.

5) The rear loop on the shoes is key for getting in/out on the bike

I never knew what that rear loop on triathlon shoes was for until I watched a youtube video that showed that it was the "key" to not having your shoes flop down the wrong way (while at speed, no less). It takes some practice to coast with one hand while reaching down and holding the rear shoe loop, but it works great and after 5 minutes, I was comfortable doing it. After an hour, I think I do it as well as the pros.

6) I still cannot even begin to do a flying dismount!

The flying dismount is the term given to dismounting the bike while it's still moving slowly by swinging one leg over the back wheel and coasting with your weight on one pedal while standing. I can't do it at all. Part of the problem is definitely my rear hydration rack which requires some serious acrobatic leg raising to get over it, but it's also pretty tough coordination wise for me. I will have to start easy by practicing on my mountain bike with regular shoes before I attempt the real thing - I felt really unstable riding with all my weight on one foot which wasn't even in the shoe.

I'll throw in another practice session later this afternoon, and hopefully I'll be good to go for the race. Not hoping for a huge PR tomorrow - just a respectable swim, no transition wipeouts, and no bike mechanicals. Although a sub 2:30PR would be nice. =)

Bike mechanical problems

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:17:00 +0000

Unfortunately, I think my bike has suffered a temporary mechanical failure. It's not straightforward to explain, but basically, one of the limit screws which control how far my back tire approaches my bike frame is totally loose, and thus keeps sliding all the way into the frame despite the threads on the screw. As a result, my rear tire gets pushed right into the bike frame, and jams.

This is the same exact problem I had on triathlon day, and I suffered it again on today's attempted early morning LaGrange hammerfest bike sprints. Didn't work so well, as the moment I threw down the hammer, the tire locked. To add insult to injury, as I was descending a moderate hill to try and fix it, I popped a rear flat. And on top of the flat, the rear derailleur cable got sucked into the wheel and got totally shredded. So now I couldn't even shift, and was stuck in a fairly large gear.

I changed the rear flat out, repositioned the limit screw, but found that no matter what I did, it immediately slid right back into the frame the moment I began pedaling. In fact, it got so bad that I nearly had to walk my bike the whole way home (4 miles) in bicycle cleats. Fortunately, I got it to roll a bit by loosening the back quick release, and I rode home at basically walking pace.

I think all the rush hour traffic drivers were probably laughing as they saw me with my aerodynamic hot racing bike, riding slower than some of the runners on the path!

Bike's in the shop as we speak, and hopefully I'll hear about the damage tomorrow. I hope they can solve the limit screw problem - that was the main offender. I'm actually glad now that my road bike in NorCal doesn't have a rear-wheel cutout so I won't have to deal with these issues on it!

Addendum 9-19-09: Fortunately, my bike woes were only temporary and minor. The LBS (local bike shop) just swapped out my limiter screws for longer ones - one of the screws had failed completely. The new ones look good though, and the tire is centered. Another $20 to "true" the wheel, and another $20 for a complete cable change for the rear derailleur and I'm back to golden on the bike for under $45. Not bad!

My rear tire did suffer some damage from the rubbing though, and I had to replace it, as the sidewall had been punctured in one area (hence causing the flat I experienced.) All in all, not much damage for what could have potentially been a really ugly repair. I'm pretty happy about it and excited to get back on my wheels!

Malibu Nautica Olympic Distance Triathlon

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:00:00 +0000

I just completed the Malibu Nautica Olympic Distance Triathlon today. It was a very fun race, and one that I felt prepared for, although I did no special rampup in volume or intensity, and thus only a minimal taper.

The race takes place in the Pacific Ocean shores just off Zuma Beach in Malibu. A beautiful locale. It is a 1500 yard ocean swim, 40k bike ride (24.8 miles), and then a 10k run (6.2 miles), which is the standard Olympic triathlon distance.

This is a popular race, with many locals in attendance. It sells out two months before the race (even earlier for the sprint). If you do triathlons in LA, virtually everyone will have done this one at least once. I decided to jump into this one as a "training" run for my goal race, the LA triathlon in another few weeks.

MY GOAL FOR TODAY

My single biggest goal in this race was to not finish DFL (dead f****in last) on the swim again. (Or 2nd to last, which is where I ended up in my last 2 tris!) For the last 6-8 weeks, I completely overhauled my swim workouts, taking advice from the beginnertriathlete.com forums which recommended doing intervals after intervals to increase swim pace and endurance, which is a very different approach compared to running, where you run a lot of easy miles. Although my goal was to spend half of my training time swimming, I found that I couldnt' ramp up volume easily as I would get tendinitis in my shoulders. Also, I simply love cycling too much to slack on it, so my swim hours really haven't changed much from my less-serious swim days. For sure though, the intensity has gone WAY up, and every pool session is a hard one for me, 2-3x per week. My typical workouts started at 12 x 100yards at 1:50-1:55 pace with 15 sec rest between sets, and peaked at 22 x 100 yards at 1:45-1:50 pace. So definitely improvement on speed and endurance in training. In terms of OWS (open water swims), I've done less, but I had a fair amount of experience in the months before that, so I stayed with the intense pool workouts. My total swim hours are still in the "pathetic" range compared to real swimmers - I'm lucky if I hit 3 hrs per week of swimming, when I really should be at least 5-6 for real improvement.

Ramping up swimming to do intervals every session, 3x / wk, was hard. Much harder than I expected. When I started up with the 12 x 100s, I wanted to give up after the 2nd one and go back to my mellow easy swimming pace. I really suffered through the rest of them, and only made it due to sheer determination. It's strange, as when it comes to running, I'm well known for my relentless training - I usually will do intervals in a group track workout well after everyone else quits, and even run additional 4-10 miles on top of any workout that they do. On swimming though, there was little x-over, and I was shocked at how "non-hardcore" I was in training. Feeling like quitting after the 2nd set? Unbelievable. I now have more respect for new runners doing intervals for the first time - it's really hard for them!

THE START & THE SWIM

I got to the race at an ungodly 4:30AM, having awoken at 2:45AM and leaving for Zuma at 3:45AM. That wasn't too early though, as there were plenty of people doing a similar thing. It's also good to get bike rack space early, as it gets very crowded near race start.

The swim is a parallel 1500yards to the shoreline, and I have done it before in practice with the LA tri club, so I definitely was not intimidated by the open water (a first for me.) Also, the water was on the warm side today, so I felt extra comfortable warming up in the waves. Mentally, I felt very prepared for this swim, unlike all prior races where I was extremely anxious. Experience helps a lot.

I was in the 2nd wave after the elite start and the men 14-29 age groupers, which I wasn't sure I would like, as in prior races I got smoked by waves start behind me. Regardless, I had to go, so I lined up with the other 60-70 guys in my age group and before we knew it, the race was on.

This time around, I had no intention of walking and waiting in the surf for everyone to gap me. I knew now that I should theoretically be strong enough to keep pack with others in my group, and that helps a LOT for sighting. When you are all by yourself, you end up wasting a lot of time trying to find the buoy rather than following the pack. I ran into the surf with everyone else and it was a mad rush to the first offshore buoy. There was no avoiding the churn of bodies - there was simply no space to maneuver as the lifeguard boat was situated only 30-40 yards off the buoy, leaving a small gap for all of us to squeeze through. After getting kicked in the head twice, swam over twice, and banging my way through and over other bodies, I was around the buoy and into more open space.

Now I started to swim in earnest, hoping (praying!) that I could stay with at least the rear pack. It is usually at this point that everybody drops me, so I picked up my pace. Next thing I know - I'm with the pack! (Probably the rear pack, but that's better than no pack!) Bodies everywhere around me, and I'm keeping pace. It was a new experience for me, and corny as it sounds, exhilarating to know that I was holding my own out there. In fact, after 10-15 minutes, guys around me started to tire, and I actually began passing people in my wave. I couldn't believe it, but there I was, moving up the chain!

20 or so minutes into the swim, most of us in my wave had settled into our final finishing positions, but we actually started to catch the red-capped 19-29 year old slowsters ahead of us. I probably caught 10 of them, to my utter amazement. As well, I didn't see any caps from the wave behind me go flying by. I'm sure they did, but there were sufficiently few that I wasn't surrounded by them (unlike my last tri.)

The swim still felt like it took longer than I expected, but we soon made the final turn and headed for the swim exit. Lots of accelerations around me, and I had a hard time keeping up, as my top speed is still pretty lousy. I did manage to catch a good wave in, and made up a bunch of time by bodysurfing the wave nearly to the shore. I ran out of the surf, and then launched the next important part of my plan, which was to cut down on my transition time hugely by running the entire way from the shore to my bike - fast. It felt like cheating since everyone around me was walking or jogging, but heck, running is my strength, so I should maximize it if I can.

Unfortunately, I didn't click "stop" on my watch to get my split, so I'll have to wait for the race results, but I'm guessing about a 33-35ish minute swim. That should correspond to somewhere in the front of the BOP (back of the pack) - it's not a good time for triathletes, but for me, it's a GREAT time!

As I got to my bike, I was gratified to see that there were many bikes still racked. For sure, over 30% of them, if not 40-50%. Wow! That's orders of magnitude better than the 1 or no bikes I've been seeing at my last two tris. In a great mood, I got my bike gear on and set out to hammer it down.

THE BIKE - A NEAR DISASTER

Immediately after gently pedaling out of the first chute, I cranked up my gearing to aggressive, and prepared to do some serious damage on the bike. Unfortunately, the moment I cranked down hard, my rear wheel locked! WTF?! I thought my chain had dropped or caught, but it was fine. Shifting around didn't help - my rear wheel was barely turning.

After a loud curse, I dismounted, and realized quickly that the limit screws for my back tire which I had adjusted a few days ago probably moved as I cranked down hard, thus locking the tire against the frame. So to add insult to injury, the mechanical was definitely a result of my tweaking my bike a few days ago. And I was carrying NO tools to fix it. I stood there like an idiot, really frustrated for nearly two minutes, removing the rear wheel and being unable to adjust it. Fortunately, a friendly asian girl spectator saw me struggling and she happened to have a multi-tool in her purse! (Likely for the person she was cheering on.) With a huge thank-you, I adjusted the screws - it took 3 separate adjustments before it was no longer stuck. I had lost nearly 6 minutes on this mechanical, and I saw my good friend Ken take off, as well as some other guys I've seen from the triclub. Still, 6 minutes is a salvageable loss, given my good swim, so I took off and planned to race hard to the finish.

The bike went well, as expected. Probably not as well as I'd hoped, but I tend to overestimate my biking abilities on race day. Flattish course with a couple of significant rollers but no really big hills. Held a 23-25mph pace on the flats and stayed in the big ring on almost all the climbs. I got passed only by relay racers who only were doing the bike leg (they were marked "R" on their calves) and one strong triguy in my age group, but otherwise, it was the Willis bike express train, passing people nonstop, sometimes at nearly double their speed. I went pretty hard on the bike this time, and was a bit disappointed that I couldn't keep up with the relay guys who passed me, as I kept catching up and even passing them on the inclines (my strength is hill climbing), but they definitely pulled away on downhills and flats. I actually suspect a lot of this has to do with their superior aerodynamic wheels and helmets, which gives a bigger speed benefit at high speeds and not slower hill climbs.

I did try the trick of removing your feet from your cycling shoes while still on the bike this time, and had no problems coming into the transition. (I still need to learn a flying dismount though.) Definitely saved me some time there.

THE RUN

Not much for me to say here except it was hard but not hellaciously hard, and I finished only a smidgen faster than my last triathlon, in 41:20. Running is still my strength, and I passed people continuously from start to finish. I was surprised at how long it took me to catch my friend Ken, who was running solid 8 minutes/mile, but I guess that's expected as I was only doing about 6:55/mile. After an expected wobbly legged start off the bike, I got progressively stronger with each mile and easily put down the hammer on 3 other guys in my AG in the final chute. I'd call this a 98% effort for me - for sure, I could have gone faster in the final mile.

OVERALL

The final results still aren't in yet, but even with the mechanical, I clocked in overall time at about 2hrs 32mins, which is a respectable time. Nothing great, and probably barely front of the middle of the pack, but a big improvement from my last race. Most important though is my dramatic swim improvements - that alone would have made my day even if I DNF'd the bike and run.

I've got the LA Triathlon in a few weeks, and I'm hoping to maintain my bike and run as is, but make a further dent in the swim portion, and also the transitions, which I plan on practicing in the next few weekends.

I do miss being in the top group of overall finishers, though. In pure running, I usually finish in the top 10%, if not the top 5%. In triathlon though, I'll be lucky if I'm even top 33%. (<- Correction 9/13/09 - woops, I guess I'm actually top 11% as of this race, even with the mechanical. Not bad!)

Results Addendum 9/13/09:

Willis Huang

2:32:27.5

35th/321 in 30-34 Age Group (11th%)

Swim ( 0:34:46.0 ) 85/120 (29%)

T1 ( 0:02:35.4 )

Bike ( 1:11:59.5 ) 44/120 (63%)

Lost 6 minutes (at least) due to a mechanical on the bike

T2 ( 0:01:50.2 )

Run ( 0:41:16.2 ) 15/120 (88%)

In retrospect, my friend Ken who is a similar cyclist (I am slightly faster on the bike) finished the bike in 1:07, so an assumed a finish of 1:06:xx on the bike for me would have translated to 13-15/120 on the bike, or exactly the same percent (88%) in my age group. So, I am likely equally strong on the bike and the run as of now. Swimming's got a LONG way to go...but I'm not DFL anymore!

Also, I strongly suspect that my slow swim pace has to a lot do with veering a bit off course, as I highly doubt that I was swimming at the computed lowly pace of 2:32/100yds, considering that 2:00/100yds feels VERY easy for me. I did notice this during the swim, as I would find myself alternating between swimming alone (off course) and then with a lot of guys (on course). I will strive to improve this by the LA triathlon - I suspect I can knock off 2 minutes off my swim time with this alone.

"Legit" on the bike

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:16:00 +0000

The Famous Mandeville Canyon

One of the most popular local bike routes in Santa Monica

6 miles of climbing with few stop signs

I took a ride with the LaGrange bike club this morning. LaGrange is one of LA's premiere racing clubs, and they host daily 6:30AM hammerfest rides every day of the week. I don't get to ride with them often due to being at work by 7AM, but as I'm on vacation this week, I got to get out and mix it up with them this morning.

Today is their Mandeville Canyon ride. Stays in the posh Santa Monica suburbs, and takes a route up a steady 6 mile climb up Mandeville Canyon road, which starts off really mellow, but cranks up to a painful 14% incline right in the final 400 meters when you're hurting for air.

The last time I did this ride was probably over 4 months ago. Back then, even though I was in pretty good bike form, I was dropped very quickly by the main pack, and ended up riding solo most of the way until I dragged myself back to the stragglers who had fell off the back. I also recall one older guy, "Bruce" who is a 50ish year old big guy and is thus hard to miss, and usually finishes right behind me as I tend to just catch him in the final stretches. I think I've seen him at virtually every LaGrange ride I've done.

Today, I was feeling good when we set out to Mandeville Canyon in a pack of 30 strong riders. This is a pure racing group, and there are no "slow" riders in the bunch. Everyone can hold 22+ mph in a pack no problem, and the leaders are hellaciously fast. The 5 mile ride to Mandeville is mellow, and as per the normal routine, I start out in the middle of the big pack but end up in the very back within a few minutes, as most riders take one look at the aerobars on my bike and think that I'd be sloppy bike handler. At least that's what I assume, since roadies tend to be fairly snobby about triathletes on bikes, although I do agree that in general, bike handling skills in a tight pack with heavy drafting is far superior with the pure roadies compared to triathletes.

Once we hit Mandeville, the pace picks up. Gradually at first, but after the first stop sign, it's a full-out hammerfest. Due to my awareness that other roadies won't want to draft off me unless they absolutely have to, I start in the back and work my way up by dropping anybody who can't keep up. In the past, I usually drop the back third of the group and then settle into a solo groove at that point. Today though, was different. We set off at a brisk but manageable pace, and within 5 minutes, the group had split into two, with me hanging off the back of the front pack. The pace ratched up again, and started burning off riders 2-3 at a time. Unfortunately, it's a narrow road with car traffic so passing can be a bit tricky, so I definitely lost a bunch of time as I sometimes had to wait to pass slowing riders, and then had to sprint to catch the pack. I noticed that I dropped "Bruce" like a rock within the first 10 minutes of riding, and that for the first time, I had the leaders of the ride in full view. I had grand aspirations of pulling myself into the top 5 riders, but they lead 7 guys were definitely too strong for me - which was no surprise, and as a pack, they accelerated away as the biggest final hill started up. I ended up riding the final half mile in solo, but I caught the 7th guy en route, and actually saw the leaders pulling up the steep climb to the finish just ahead of me. Climbing the final 14% incline really hurt, but I definitely have particularly good leg power on hills, and I was able to maintain an aggressive pace all the way up. It was quite satisfying for me to pull in right behind the leaders, and see their surprise of "who the heck is that?" as they saw me roll in right behind them, as usually the front 10 guys who finish are all known entities.

After a mass regroup, I had no idea what was next in store, but we were still riding. Apparently, the group goes down and then rides back up the hill a SECOND time. I'm glad I didn't know this, as I probably would have held something back the first go-around! The second repeat was much less aggressive, with front half of the pack holding firm at a solidly uncomfortable pace until the base of the final climb, where everyone peeled away for the hill sprint. Again, my results were similarly excellent, as I promptly pulled out of the rear position, and swept up 10-12 riders in a single push. In fact, my hill acceleration was as fast as the leaders on the 2nd climb, as they didn't pull away from me this time. It's a good group of guys though, and I got a lot of "great climbing!" from the guys that I pulled past. I like doing the same when I get dropped from the rear.

I followed the lead 4 riders up the final climb, which is a very steep 18% hill but shorter, at about a mile and a half, with peak incline for only the last half mile. All the other riders bailed at this point, leaving me with 4 very strong riders. Fortunately, we were in mellow mode until the final half mile, so I got to catch my breath. These guys were really out of my league - I'm amazed that I could even keep them in sight today. One guy just rode the Leadville 100 mountain bike race that Lance Armstrong just won, and this guy finished 25th out of 1300 riders. Including a lot of pro mountain bikers. The other guy was training for the "Everest" challenge, which involves climbing 35,000 feet over 2 days. To put this in perspective, my longest, hilliest rides involve 5 hours of riding with 6,000 feet of climbing. I'd have to triple that in a single day in that race. Yikes!

Today's bike ride was a nice affirmation that the long and hilly bike rides that I've been doing most weekends with the triguys have indeed made me stronger. Significantly stronger, judging from my results today. I really enjoy riding with stronger riders - I definitely pushed myself harder than I could have alone while desperately trying to hang with the front pack. I'm hoping that this winter, I'll get the chance to put in some serious bike miles and take my cycling to another level, but I'll have to prioritize running/swimming before figuring that out.

I think I'm finally "legit" on the bike - I don't think I have to worry about being a "poseur" on my racing bike anymore!

2 weeks until the Malibu Olympic Triathlon

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:56:00 +0000

I haven't been on a rigorous training plan of any sort for the past year. The main reason for this is that between work and training 3 different disciplines, I simply didn't know where or when I could fit in workouts. When I was strictly running, that was easy - I could throw on my shoes and crank out miles any time, any where. However, when you start doing long bike rides, pool swims, and open water swims, things get complicated fast. I think it took most of the last 6 months to get myself into a semblance of a routine that would at least maintain, if not slightly improve my ability at each discipline.

Almost before I know it, the Malibu Olympic distance triathlon is right around the corner - 2 weeks! Ordinarily in marathon season, I'd be peaking and thus would be very aware of the race date, but in triathlon land, I haven't done a rampup and thus was pretty clueless about the race date except for the fact I'd signed up for the race months ago. This race is supposed to be a "tuneup" for my real goal race, which is the LA Triathlon in September, but I suspect that my performance at both races will be essentially identical.

The big question on race day will be how well I perform on the swim. Cycling and running will go well no matter what, and I expect the running to hurt much more than the cycling, since I'm fast enough to really burn off all my energy in the end of the race. Still, it won't matter how fast I run or bike if I have another disastrous swim.

Swim intervals have been going very well. I've been ramping up swim volume, and have gone from 12 x 100yd intervals at 1:52-1:55 to today's peak at 22 x 100yd at 1:46-1:48/100yds. The speed increase is likely technique related, and not just strength, as I've been experimenting with small changes that seem to make a significant difference. The two subtle improvements that lopped a good 7 sec/100 off my time in the past 2 weeks:

- Closing the space between my outstretched arm and my head - 3 sec/100

- Pointing my toes maximally throughout the swim - 4 sec/100

The toe pointing thing really surprised me. Runners are known to not have flexible ankles, and I definitely fall into the "stiff ankle" category. I never really thought much about my toes before, as the emphasis was clearly on more important things such as body position and rotation. However, I think I'm getting to the point where these differences are becoming significant. When I tried the toe-point aggressively last week, I couldn't hold it for the workout, as my feet started to cramp! It takes me a fair amount of effort to keep them maximally pointed, and I really need to work on my flexibility down there. However, the payoff is real - 4sec/100 is a substantial improvement, and I didn't even believe that this phenomena was real until I cranked out all 22 sets today in record-pace, which I attribute entirely to the two technical changes above, as there's no way I would have been able to exert supramaximal speed for me for all 22 sets, as I normally do 16-18. Bottom line - little things can make a real difference for me at this point, and I've got to go discover the rest of them. The next thing I really am going to focus on is my keeping my fingers together on the pull. I suspect this will not give me a real speed increase, but I've got to try it out, as I never guessed that toes would have made such a big difference as well.

One annoying thing that I'm dealing with now that hasn't bothered me since last year is pain in my left shoulder, or swimmer's shoulder. I got this pain in a debilitating manner last year when I started swimming earnestly, but it went away with rest and moderation. It is almost definitely due to my recent rampup in swim paces and volume, including a hard sprint set last week which seemed to tip everything off. I'm going to have to watch this one carefully, but on the bright side, I'll be away at a wedding for at least 4 days this week so the absence of swimming for this period will actually be welcomed.

I've still got my doubts though as to race-day performance. I was 95% as fast on intervals (albeit I could do fewer of them) as I was now when I did my last triathlon, and I finished near DFL (dead f*** last) in my AG then, so I'm being realistic and just shooting to be in the bottom quarter of my AG as oppposed to the bottom 2-5%. I think the biggest difference on race day will be that this time around, I'm going to go close to all-out on the swim, as I know I've trained the distance. At my last triathlon, I was very conservative due to the waves and my inexperience, and I swam at only 60% of my ability. I'm going to crank it up to 85-90% this time around and see how I fare. I'm hoping for a 2:05-2:10/100m pace in open water if all goes well - this is consistent with my 1:46/100yard pace in the pool, with allowances for slowing due to sighting.

Last interesting swim factoids I picked up recently:

Swim volumes per week:

- Back of Pack triathlon swimmer (aka ME): 6000-8000 yards / week. (3-4 miles)

- Front of Pack triathlon swimmer : 10,000 - 20,000 yards / week (5-10 miles)

- Michael Phelps world champion pro swimmer: 80,000 yards / week (50 miles!!)

Road bike - Giant Defy 3

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:00:00 +0000

My new road bike that I can only ride every few weeks

Giant Defy 3

Sora/2200 Groupset

Aluminum Frame - XSmall

I visit the Palo Alto area every 3-4 weeks to visit my fiance, and it's always a pleasure to spend time with her as well as the lovely locale of Northern California. In the past, I've always done a lot of running every time I've visited, but now that I'm a triathlete, it's important that I maintain my cycling ability as well.

To facilitate this, I purchased my first true road bike this weekend, the Giant Defy 3. (Actually, my fiance purchased it for me!) It's considered a low-end or introductory sport-fitness bike, and is not spec'd out for high level competition racing. Its price also reflects this, as I purchased the bike for $695 at the local bike store. Compare this with the $3k that my carbon Cervelo P2C time-trial racing bike cost.

One would think that a bike which costs 1/5th my racing bike would yield dramatically inferior results, but that simply is not the case. My initial impressions of the Giant Defy3 is that it's a fully raceable, competition-grade bike, whose only conceivable weakness is the lower-grade shifter component set that it comes with. And even that is a doubtful weakness; the Shimano 2200 shifter set in its current incarnation performs excellently, and exceeds pro-level shifters from a decade ago. The frame on the Defy3 is remarakable given its price. Light, responsive, and attractive. A far cry from the bikes of this class just a few years ago.

The reality is that bike performance is 98+% rider and less than 2% hardware once you start comparing road bikes in the current generation. (Mountain bikes are significantly slower than road bikes.) I didn't know this when I purchased my triathlon bike, and though I have no regrets riding that hot racing bike, I doubt I would have spend so much on that bike in retrospect, knowing that performance is nearly all rider.

The main difference between this pure road bike and my triathlon (time trial, or "TT" bike) is that the shifting mechanisms are dramatically different. My TT bike shifters are out up front on the tips of the aerobars, meaning that you can't reach the brakes at all while you're shifting, and that you're in the "aero" position. In contrast, on my road bike, the shifters are integrated with the brakes, so you can shift and brake from the same hand position. And obviously, there are no aerobars on the Giant road bike. I still need practice in getting the shifters to where I want on the road bike, but it's not a problem.

Training in general has been pretty solid in the past 2 weeks. I have been cutting back on volume slightly but replacing it with a lot more intensity. Running in particular, seems to have benefited from this. I have only been running 20-25 miles per week, but half of those miles are hard VO2 or lactate threshold runs. I finally reclaimed my spot as the lead runner in the Wednesday group run, which I had relinquished for the past month, but this week I went out hard and held the aggressive 6:40ish pace for the full 10k distance, leaving the next closest runner a good minute behind me. Feels good to get the legs moving fast again.

Swimming is gradually improving. I've dropped my 100m repeat pace from 1:54-1:56 to 1:48-1:50, and increased the number of repeats I do up to 20 x 100m with very little slowdown. I still have yet to translate this speed and endurance to open water performance, but I'm optimistic that I'll do much better in the upcoming Malibu triathlon.

Cycling is still my favorite of the 3 disciplines now, and I've been very fortunate to have a good number of 3.5-5 hour rides under my belt for most weekends now. I've added high-intensity bike sprints to my weekday routine on the stationary bike, and those are definitely very hard and not much fun. I'm hoping that the combo of short-distance bike power and long-distance weekend rides will give me improved performance at the 26 mile distance on race day.

Swimming progress - a little

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:58:00 +0000

I haven't been swimming quite as much as I had hoped in terms of volume, but I have been putting in the quality as of the past 3-4 weeks. After asking a lot of questions on the beginner triathlete forums, it became clear that swimming requires a very different approach to training than running.

Most of the strong swimmers recommended doing ONLY swim intervals, and short ones with short rest, at that. Meaning that long swims (like long runs) were not a cornerstone of the training. This is in stark opposition to running, in which I feel that the long easy run is absolutely fundamental for continued improvement. As surprised as I am by this revelation, my experience would have to bear this out thus far, as my slow distance swimming has not yielded any substantive improvements in my race placements.

The only catch is that intervals are HARD. A typical workout for me in the pool is a warmup followed by 12-16 x 100m sets (they take me about 1:50ish each), with only 10-15 seconds rest between them. And I go hard enough to get myself out of breath after the first set. Doing this type of workout once is bad enough, but when you have to do it every time you show up at the pool, you start to dread going there altogether! Fortunately, I've been also swimming an open water swim on Sunday that is one mile, and I use that swim as a platform to gauge my swimming improvement from my tortured swim intervals.

Thus far, things seem to be looking up. In the open water, I'm no longer afraid to go fairly hard (for me) from the get-go, which is making a huge difference in my speed. I'm still far from fast, and likely still BOP, but this past weekend, I swam with my friend who is a clear MOP swimmer, and I was a fair ways ahead of him by the end. So that's encouraging.

I've got to say though, that I really dislike swimming. I'm so much worse than it than I ever imagined possible for someone of my aerobic ability. I don't know if I'll ever "love" it, but I'm going to stay determined for now at least, to get it under my control.

On a funny note, I was about to take off for my swim today, when I noticed that my swimsuit had a 3-inch tear right down the back. I have no idea how long it's been there, but odds are good that I both swam for nearly an hour AND ran for 3 miles on a treadmill with plenty of people laughing hysterically at my exposed backside! (I didn't notice during my last workout, though!)

I'm hoping that I didn't shine too many family jewels through this rip!

I just bought a new set of "jammers" today, and I'll also rant about how I feel that sports stores mislead new swimmers into buying the wrong set of swim trunks. For training, the only way to go is with 100% polyester shorts. The polyester is completely chlorine-resistant, and any suit you get made of this costs marginally more, yet lasts over 5x as long as a lycra racing suit. Yet when I went to two separate sports stores today, 99% of the suits were lycra. You had to dig like crazy to find the polyester ones, and even those were polyester blends, so they are unlikely to last as long in the pool. And for all you doubters who think lycra holds up fine in the pool, consider than my first swim jammers ($55 Nike racing lycra jammers) lasted me a grand total of 5 weeks before nearly disintegrating due to the chlorine. These sports stores should clearly be carrying mostly 100% polyester products for all the training-type swimmers out there, but because they wish to profit, they carry all "racing" type gear, which means that you'll be buying 8-12 suits per year if that's what you use (at $40+ each!)

Wading through mediocrity

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Jack of all trades, master of none. That's the cliche that goes around when you try and put too much on your plate at once. Ironically, in triathlon, jack of all trades almost always outperforms master of one, in that a balanced triathlete who is equally skillful at all 3 disciplines will almost always beat a one or even two-sport specialist who has a glaring weakness in the 3rd.

As of late, I've been personally struggling with the concept of mediocrity in my athletic endeavors. Granted, I've never ever come close to even being able to hold my own against collegiate athletes of any level, but during my time as a pure marathoner, I trained similarly to what semiprofessional runners did, and got fast enough to blow the barn doors off at most local races and definitely all the local club runs. Now as a triathlete with a glaring swim weakness, I've been forced do try and get into the pool as much as possible, at the cost of bike/run.

The unfortunate reality is that I've never had prodigious talent in sports. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to say I had "any" sports talent! This is the truth - I was always the smallest, slowest, and weakest kid all the way through junior high school, and really had a hard time doing anything sports-related. It was until I got very serious at an early age about both strength training and running before I got myself not only up to par for sports, but actually in the range of what would be considered a good athlete. When it comes to triathlon, I believe that talent counts for a lot. When you're competing in 3 different sports, you simply don't have the time to do high-volume training for any of them. Even professional triathletes rarely run over 40 miles per week. That volume of running is so low for a pure marathoner that it would be typical for me, a complete amateur, to run that many miles in just over 2.5 training days!

As I've dramatically cut back my running and biking, I'm definitely noticing the slowdown and loss of endurance. I rejoined the local Santa Monica club run every Wednesday, which is 10k training run that is hosted by a local running store. As a pure marathoner, I rarely did this one, as it got pretty boring to leave every runner so far behind that I couldn't see them within 3 minutes, and that was including a 4-5 mile pre-run "warmup run" and a 3-4 mile post-run "cooldown" on top. Nowadays though, I'm clearly not the fastest runner at the group run, and there are at least 4-5 guys who are kicking my butt up and down the block. To add insult to injury, the frontrunner of these guys in the past week was a runner who has never ever passed me during my marathon years, and who I've never even seen behind me after the first 3 minutes of running. Now though, I'm gasping for air just to keep him in sight up ahead! Very humbling, and even somewhat depressing.

My bike performance hasn't suffered quite as much (yet), probably because I've never been a pure cyclist at any point, so I've never come close to my cycling potential. I wish I could say that I've been putting in tons of hours in the pool and getting great gains, but the monotony of the indoor pool really gets to me, and I find myself rarely swimming for over an hour at a time. So my swimming training volume is definitely too low, and I'm not making huge gains in my swim ability. I'm definitely better than I was 2 weeks ago at swimming, but certainly not enough to jump from 2nd to last pace in a race to middle of the pack.

My responsibilities with work as well as my chief resident role have also been quite busy as of late, which has also made it somewhat challenging to maintain fairly high-intensity workouts of 90-120 minutes per day. However, it's still too early to start slacking off, as the LA and Malibu triathlons are right around the corner in less than 8 weeks. Yikes!

My only goal for these upcoming triathlons is to put up a respectable swim. Respectable meaning bottom 20%. This is a big jump, considering right now, I'm bottom 2%, but I think I can do it. My run will almost certainly take a big hit from the upper 10% to the upper 30%, and my bike will similarly likely drop from upper 25% to upper 35-40%. That's ok though, as this is a long-term endeavor that I plan to maintain from here on out.

I hate being mediocre. At anything. Even if it means I'll be a better triathlete for it. But I'll take it if it's a stepping stone to greater gains down the road. Dang it.

My first "real" swim lesson - good, but no free speed for me

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:38:00 +0000

As you know, swimming is the bane of my triathlon existence. Despite working on it over the past 8 months, I'm still BBBBOP (b-b-b-back of the pack) in my age group in triathlons, and am fresh off a recent 2nd to last place 52 minute 1-mile open water swim fiasco in my last triathlon 3 weeks ago.

At this point, the smartest thing to do would probably be to just quit swimming altogether and take up pure running/biking, or even duathlon. I'm however, a stubborn one, when it comes to challenges, and the bigger the challenge, the harder I'll attack it.

Most swimmers will tell you "it's all technique." This is largely true - the huge resistance of moving through water means that you will gain far more in speed by reducing drag in the water than expending more energy to overpower the resistance. So naturally, it's expected that I should have some serious flaws in my swim stroke that are causing me to swim so slowly. I have taken technique very seriously in the past 4-5 months, and have read large amounts swimming advice on the web, as well as watched virtually every online video of instructional swimming as well as competitive freestyle swimming. I think I have the entire 2 minute youtube clip of Grant Hackett swimming the 1500m at world-record pace memorized frame-by-frame!

Clearly, though, my self-instruction has hit a roadblock. Thus, I signed up for a private swim lesson through the regional aquatic organization. My coach would be a woman open water swim champion with triathlon experience - more than good enough to analyze my meagre technique. For sure, this would be better than the cheesy YMCA lesson I took while I was at Washington DC earlier this year, which I learned absolutely nothing from because the instructor attached so many flotation devices to me that I could barely move.

The lesson took place at Loyola Marymount college in Marina Del Rey. It's a lovely campus situated on a hill overlooking the entire beach towns. It's idyllic and serene, which was quite a contrast to the typical LA frenzy. I really enjoyed just driving through the small campus, and wish I could have stayed there longer.

I met up with the instructor, warned her about my horrific swim performances, and then set out on my typical fast (for me) swim pace that I usually hold for 14 x 100m repeats. When I finished, she had a very puzzled look on her face, and asked me, "is that your all-out pace?" Apparently, she expected me to much slower, as she said, "that was actually pretty fast!" While a pat on the back is always nice, I was immediately worried that she wouldn't be able to offer me any tips to improve, since I clearly am NOT a fast swimmer.

Fortunately, she slowed me down and analyzed my stroke, giving me some very helpful tips that I am sure will significantly improve my speed. These were:

1. A more "compact" stroke recovery. I was swinging my arm way out to the side when I pulled it out of the water. This was a big change in my technique that I could feel immediately.

2. Pulling my hand out of the water at an earlier point, by my hip rather than my thigh. This greatly assists #1 above, and is non-intuitive, as I had guessed that a longer stroke was always better. This was also a big change in my technique.

3. Extending my reach further before plunging the hand into the water

4. Keeping a straight wrist.

5. Improving my "catch" of the water by not letting the elbow sink.

6. Streamlining my breathing. I'm taking too long to return my head to forward position after the breath.

I have experimented with almost all of these fairly extensively due to my self-training, and thus I was able to at least demonstrate an essentially corrected stroke nearly instantly for all of them as the motions were not completely foreign. My instructor was pleasantly surprised, and told me that I'm lucky because I must be a "natural" in the water, as I look very smooth and picked up her suggestions instantaneously. I quickly corrected her in this statement, telling her that I'm anything BUT a natural in the water, and that I did a lot of work in the past few months cleaning up my technique just to get to this point. I'm always amused with how easy it is to confuse dedicated work with natural talent if you're not aware of how much training someone has done to get to that point.

By the end of the swim lesson, I felt that I had made some real progress with my stroke, and most importantly, had several good technique-related improvements to change in the next few weeks. I felt that the coach's analysis was dead-on, and was well worth the $70 (pricey, I know) fee. I expect to be swimming at a slower overall pace until I lock these changes into my natural swim stroke, but once they're incorporated, I'll be ready for some faster swimming.

Another important benefit of this swim was that I got the green light from the coach to be doing interval and endurance swim training. My base technique is apparently largely correct, with no serious flaws, and thus there is no problem with increasing intensity in workouts. (With poor technique, you would just be reinforcing bad technique.) She strongly encouraged me to swim in a masters group to be around faster swimmers, and I will try and get myself into a local one if my schedule permits.

The only downside of this swim lesson, was that there was no magic correction that would instantly give me a lot of speed. I was hoping that there would be a big flaw that once fixed, would give me a chance at instantly jumping up several notches in race placement, but it seems that my weak swimming probably has less to do with erroneous technique and much more to do with lack of hours in the pool and lack of high-intensity training. That's something I intend to fix,, and I've been in the pool 5 days per week for the past 2 weeks, and will be planning on maintaining this regimen through the LA Triathlon in September, if not longer.

To conclude, I'll share some "pat-myself on the back" comments I received from the swim coach today during the lesson. None of these change the reality that I am indeed a terrible swimmer placing 2nd to last in my AG in my last 2 triathlons, but it's nice to see that maybe in the pool, I'm not as bad as I am in open water:

After seeing my first 100meters: "Ok, there are things that we can fix, but let me tell you, that is NOT slow. You're actually pretty fast."

On my crappy race placements: "That doesn't make any sense to me. I train a good number of triathletes, and honestly, you're the fastest one I've ever had take a lesson. And a lot of these people do pretty well on the swim portion of the triathlon. Are you racing in the PRO division?" (That one made me laugh out loud - she asked it with a straight face, I kid you not!)

On my base technique: "You actually have a really good basic stroke. Your balance is really good, your body rotation is exactly right, and your pull is good. If you took another lesson, we'd be fine tuning things, but no big changes for sure."

After the lesson: "I wish I had more experienced athletes come for swim lessons. It's so much more enjoyable when people actually pick up the advice you're giving them and don't just keep doing the same mistakes over and over. I'd do this all the time if that were the case."

Back into the pool and on the diet

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:27:00 +0000

After last week's debacle on the swim, I'm back in the pool and working hard. Trouble is, swimming is HARD for me. I'm signed up for a pricey private swim lesson hosted by SCAQ (Southern California Aquatics) and I'm hoping for some miracle form breakthrough that will suddenly drop my paces a good 10sec/100m, but honestly, I doubt that's going to happen.

I suspect a major part of my problem on the swim is actually less my technique, but my lack of swim power. This sounded strange to me, as my lats and back muscles were always very strong on weightlifting in my prior athletic life, but for sure, when it comes to the swim motion, I'm very weak compared to experienced swimmers.

For swimming, it seems that you can do interval after interval without risking injury due to the no-impact nature of the activity. A lot of folks on the triathlon forums recommend this, with sets of 100s through 400s at higher speed versus the running method of lower speed with intermittent speedwork. I have now adopted this style of training, and will see if it yields any benefit. I hope it will, as currently, I can cover the distance of 1+ miles no problem, but my swim pace is ungodly slow.

As for technical corrections, I'm sure I have several, but I doubt they are glaring anymore. I'm honestly having a hard time correcting any parts of my stroke now, which means that I've fixed all the obvious errors and thus will need a coach to fine-tune the stroke. I do find it easy to hold form at low relaxed paces, but my form degenerates somewhat at higher speeds, which requires more practice.

For the upcoming LA Olympic triathlon in September, which is my next goal race, I am hoping to maintain my bike ability as is, and I will willingly take a hit on my running speeds to improve much more on the swim. I will be willing to drop my 10k from my recent 42:50 to 44 or even 45 minutes in exchange for 5+ minutes improvement on the swim, or getting at least into the bottom third as opposed to the bottom quarter. This is in line with the triathlon mantra, "work on your weakness, but race your strength."

A few changes to my workout schedule will also be made. I'm not sure this will yield great results, and I suspect it may even slow me down a little, but I'm hoping it will be more bang for the buck in terms of time and intensity for Olympic distance races. I'm aiming to increase overall intensity with at least one run interval day, one run short-sprint day, and 1-2 bike interval days, coupled with 2-3 swim interval days. That's a lot of hard days, but I think with the x-training effect, it won't be too bad after the first week or two of suffering. This will hopefully increase my leg speed and leg power to perform optimally in the shorter-course races, which require somewhat different ability than the marathon training I used to do. Still, I'm a believer in high-volume training, and although I don't have the time to do it right now, I wish I could still maintain high running, swimming, and cycling mileage for optimal performance.

Finally, yes, it sounds strange, but I'm on a diet. I guess it would be hard to call it a real "diet", as I'm still eating more than would be recommended for a person my size, but I've decided to get my weight back down to my marathon racing weight or as close to it by the LA triathlon in September. 2 weeks ago, I weighed 151 in the morning, which is what I've been at for the past 6 months post stress-fx. However, at my peak speed last year, I was 141 (!!) without any crazy dieting. I'm not carrying much fat, but for sure, there's some extra fat hiding somewhere on my frame that can be shaved off for performance, as I've been eating probably 2-3x more than a typical person would eat. The past 2 weeks has been somewhat of a challenge to reduce portion sizes to at most 1.5x a typical one (instead of 2-4x typical, my norm) without detracting from my endurance training, but it's all coming together, and not too painfully at that. I'm now for sure down 2 lbs since 2 weeks ago, and I'm hoping it'll continue until I'm at my svelte racing weight come September.

Strawberry Fields Olympic Distance Tri 7-19-09

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:34:00 +0000

Updated race results:

Overall: 126th/286 (middle of pack)

Swim: 252th, 53:00 / 1500m / 2:55 pace. <- Long course for sure - top swimmers were 2:00+

T1: 2:55 (middle of pack)

Bike: 72th, 1:03:10, 23.6 mph

T2: 1:22 (middle of pack)

Run: 38th, 42:50, 6:53/mi

Today I completed my first ever Olympic distance triathlon. I entered this race only 2 weeks ago, as I felt that I needed some race experience to fine tune my training, so I did no special race preparation for this race. Unfortunately, my lack of preparation showed in spades today, as things didn't turn out anywhere near as well as I had hoped, but on the bright side, I now know what things I really need to prioritize in training to improve.

Cody Westheimer, friends and myself. Before they both smoked me in the water

This was an exceptionally organized race held in Oxnard, Ventura right on beachside. It is the same beach where you can catch boats out to the Channel Islands, so I've been here before. I left Santa Monica at the ungodly hour of 4AM for a 7AM race start, and that was actually the perfect amount of time for preparation, as I arrived at the locale at 5AM. Registration pickup was a breeze, with computer validation of entry, a tightly run transition area with your own rack area with your race number affixed to your area, and great race support all along the course. A very well run, professionally done race, in my opinion. I would definitely do this one again in the future.

THE SWIM - I'M STILL TERRIBLE

If there's one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb on all my tris so far, it's undoubtedly my horrendous swim performances. I was hoping that this time around, with my improved stroke, new wetsuit, and open water training experience, that I would have a real shot at a MOP (middle of pack) swim finish, but once again, I was proven wrong with yet another BOP (back of pack) finish.

I'm so far back already that I'm not even in the picture

The swim course was likely long today, as everyone in my age group finished 10+ minutes slower than their usual swim time. This was extremely disheartening for me, when I looked at my watch halfway through the swim and realized that I was already exceeding the time I was hoping to finish the entire swim by. Regardless of the distance, I'm still a truly lousy swimmer, as I was completely unable to keep pace with the pack of swimmers in my age group, and I was rapidly caught by waves of swimmers behind me. I never struggled at any point in the swim, but I had a very difficult time sighting the buoys amongst the waves and the people, and for sure, this slowed my pace down substantially. My final time for an alleged 1500m swim was 52+ minutes (!!) - I was definitely not this spectacularly slow, as I never needed to pause or rest en route, but I was flat out back-of-pack for sure in my AG. It was another disappointing transition to the bikes as I noticed that nearly all the bikes were again gone by the time I arrived. I estimate that I lost nearly 15-20 minutes to a MOP swimmer in my age category, which pretty much destroyed any chance I had of having a decent showing in the race.

Update: To put it in hard results of how spectacularly badly I'm swimming, I finished 21st/22nd in my AG in this race. Even WORSE than my first race where my wetsuit didn't fit properly and I had to backfloat for part of the race. What the heck happened out there? I know the obvious answer is that I have a glaring deficiency in my stroke, but I can't identify it at all. Swim coach, here I come...

THE BIKE - 2 BATHROOM BREAKS. WTF!?

If I look like I'm struggling, it's only because I needed a bathroom break - badly!

I was honestly expecting my bike split to be the strongest of my splits in this race, as the bulk of my training has been on the bike, including 6 hour long hellaciously hilly rides and sprints with the local bike club. This wasn't my day, however. The moment I mounted my bike, I really had to go the the bathroom. As well, I was really mentally disheartened by my terrible swim. After riding for about 10 minutes, I simply had to stop to relieve myself on the side of the road. I jumped back on the bike, hoping to make up some time, and I was averaging 22-23 miles per hour at a not-too-hard pace with comfortable breathing on a dead-flat course. Yet 30 minutes later, I had to go to the bathroom AGAIN. Unbelievable. This never happens to me in training; I suspect that a combination of the cold ocean water plus some ingested salt water on the swim led me to have some strange bladder issues. After two complete bathroom breaks requiring full unclipping, I was in no mood to hammer the bike. I kept it comfortable (but not easy), while maintaining a speed of 21ish miles per hour, which was enough to continue passing lots of people but not anywhere near what I would consider a strong effort for me on the bike. I also noted that my strength is definitely climbing hills now; on the 2 small roller hills on the course, I disproportionately passed lots of riders. Granted, I crank up the effort when a hill presents itself, but for sure, I feel more comfortable hammering on a hill incline than I do in aero position on a flat course. This is something I will have to address on my midweek rides, which may have to be geared at developing a fast cadence and power on a flat, steady course.

THE RUN - NOT BAD

I was dreading the run at this point, as my bike didn't feel right at all, and my runs as of late have been ridiculously slow and plodding. I had another ungainly transition, with race officials yelling at me to roll to a complete stop, which I fully did, but apparently I didn't slow enough, as they were all up in arms right before I came to a stop right at the line that they indicated. I was in full control and knew I could stop, but I guess my technique is unconventional, so I need to change it for the future.

For some reason I look a lot more comfortable running...

I started the run intending to just finish the race decently, and not hammer it. My legs felt surprisingly lousy off the bike, and without my Garmin to tell me my pace, I had no idea how fast I was running, but it felt reall slow. Almost immediately, I was passed by 2 guys near in my age group, and I felt that they were moving fast enough that they'd drop me within 200 meters with no return. I was in a pretty bad mood at this point - nothing was working out as I had planned. The run was a 2-loop flat course, and fortunately, I felt better and better as the run progressed. I went through the first 5k in 22:00ish, which is actually on target with my expected pace. I gradually accelerated through the second 5k as I felt better and better, and got it up to race pace by mile 5, which was near 7 minutes/mile. By then, I was in full passing mode, and nobody on the course was remotely close to keeping up with me this far back from the front. I also managed to catch the 2 guys who passed me from the get-go, and dropped them for good in the final half mile. I actually had a good amount of gas at the end for a hard pickup, likely accumulated from my relatively mellower bike. I timed myself through the 10k at about 43 minutes, which is pretty much exactly what I thought I would run on a good day. At least something turned out right. Whew.

FUTURE PLANS

I now have about 2 and a half months prior to my real target triathlons, the LA Olympic distance and the Malibu Olympic distance triathlons. I am making some big changes to my weekday workout routines, which will cut back on running/cycling volume and replace it with swim workouts, which will hopefully become my new #1 priority. Until I can manage a MOP swim, no amount of performance on the bike or run will allow for a reasonably fast finish for me. With luck, I'm hoping for 4 swims per week, with speedwork on at least 2 of those sessions. No pain, no gain. I admit that I dislike swim training, but that is more of a function of the suboptimal pool that I train in which is a short 20meter pool in Ballys, which makes distance swimming difficult. It's also not a pretty place to swim. Regardless, it's time for me to HTFU on the swim, and get serious about it.

Cycling and running will have at least one weekly speedwork session, like it or not. I have been neglecting speed in both, and it showed on a short race such as today's race. I will be back on the gym bike once per week to hammer on the wattage to make sure I can ride as hard and as fast on flats as I do on the hills. I also will be doing a weekly tempo run with a local running group to increase my leg speed.

I admit that I'm somewhat disappointed in this race, mainly because of my still-horrendous swim. I could have been lousy on the bike/run, but if the swim went even half-decent, I would have considered today a successful race day. I guess you live and learn though, and I've now got a true Olympic distance triathlon under my belt, and I know for sure that I can swim the mile in open water without drowning, stopping, or undue distress. This race is a good kick in the rear for me though, and expect some serious changes in my workouts to get ready for the next race.

All base - no speed, and my big BMI

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:18:00 +0000

I've spent the past 3 weeks building up my base, particularly in cycling, but also in running. This means, lots of long SLOWWW runs, and building up on long bikes. Particularly long bikes, as I was experiencing some serious bonks last month at rides over 60 miles, with tremendous dropoffs in pace and speed.

Since then, I've really focused on cycling, and in particular, improving the length of my long ride. In the past 4 weeks, I've gone 70, 75, 80, and then this week, pullback week of 63. These are pretty long rides, mainly because at least half of those miles are on serious paved mountain roads with steep inclines averaging 7-8%, and reaching 12-15% in the steepest sections. This is pretty steep; in fact, this type of incline would be considered "beyond category" in sections compared to hills on the Tour De France. (Granted, those guys ride these hills over twice the speed that I do!)

These long bikes have been challenging, but extremely rewarding. In particular, I've come to really enjoy the vacation-like scenery of these gorgeous bike rides. Trail runs impart a similar experience, but since you can cover so much more ground on a bike, it really is a more scenic experience for me. I have to admit that at least half of the attraction of the bike for me now is the gorgeous mountain locales with waterfront views that I get to experience in Malibu and nearby. If you took that away from me, and stuck me in a featureless gym, I would never be able last longer than 90 minutes on the stationary bike. In contrast, I've run 20+ miles on a treadmill without too much difficulty, probably because for me, running was nearly all about performance and not about the enjoying the outdoors when I was pushing hard for a PR/BQ.

Lately, I have been trying to strike a better balance between performance and enjoyment. This means in general, more enjoyment and less performance compared to my prior training - it's a bit of a hard sacrifice for me to make, but I think it's important for my long-term success in triathlon or marathon. Running in particular, has taken a big back seat for the first time, and I'm ok with it for now. I've lost a LOT of speed, as I've done very little speedwork for the last 2 months, and I definitely notice on my long runs, which have slowed to ridiculously slow paces of 10-11 minutes per mile. In fact, I cranked out a fast 10k run with a local running group today, going at nearly race pace, and I could barely survive for 5 miles at near my half marathon pace before fading hard. Ugly, but that's what I get for neglecting my runs.

Ok, I'm not this overweight, but I'm at a record-high body weight now for sure!

Another issue that is actually bothering me is my body weight. For sure, I'm not carrying much extra visible fat, but I am now heavier than I have ever been in my entire life, with a weight of 151 lbs and a BMI of 25.9, which is in the overweight category (25-30 BMI). Of course, the BMI calculators do not take into account extra muscle mass, which probably comprises the bulk of my weight, but carrying around record-weight for me is certainly adversely affecting my running , and I definitely feel the extra poundage on my runs. (I race my last marathon about a year ago at 141lbs, or 10 lbs lighter.) Probably 5 lbs of the weight is necessary due to the power needed for cycling as well as swimming, but for sure, I could stand to eat less and shed 5 lbs prior to my goal race in September.

I'm due this weekend for my first Olympic distance triathlon, the Strawberry Fields triathlon in Ventura county, CA. It has an ocean swim of 1500meters (approx 32 minutes for me), a 23.6 mile bike (about 1hr10 minutes with transitions), and a 10k run (about 45-46 minutes - yuk.) After my terrible 10k run today, I'm going in with very low expectations on the run; 8 minute miles are very likely given my lack of leg speed and mileage. I'm hoping that I will excel on the bike, as that is where most of my training has been going, but my #1 goal is not not be DFL (aka Dead-F****** last) on the swim, as I pretty much was on my first triathlon. With my new wetsuit, ample open water experience, and new and improved stroke, I think I have a very good chance to place in the back of the middle pack on the swim. If I could accomplish that, I will consider this race a success, as I know I can dramatically improve my run in the next 8 weeks with more mileage and speedwork.

Love the LA Weather - and progress

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:12:00 +0000

June weather has been simply spectacular for training in Los Angeles. Now that I've returned for a good stretch from my incessant traveling in the past 4 months, I'm really appreciating the mild temps, beachside scenes, lovely endless sun, and long daylight hours of LA. It feels like a neverending good dream to train out here, where I can have my choice of hours and environments to train and improve while enjoying the spectacular outdoor scenery.

I cranked up the volume of running and biking over the past 2 weeks, which gave me a real beatdown. I was running 10-11 minutes/mile for a lot of long runs of up to 16 miles, and doing some really slow cycling at big volumes as well. I've been here before though, and I'm well familiar now with the payoff after hanging in through such a beatdown. A lot of less experienced or motivated folks would probably give up or pull back training at this point, thinking that they simply can't hack it, but I know that these moments of beat-down are the moments of true improvement as long as you don't give up.

Sure enough, after a small 2 day pullback in volume, my legs are starting to come back to me. My running is picking up in pace, and I cranked out a solid 18 hilly miler this week with no problems, which was the longest run I've done since my stress fracture 10 months ago. For sure, the marathon option is now fair game again should I decide to go that route in the near future. Cycling long distances is still challenging after the 4-hr mark, but I am definitely improving. I can outpace the entire intermediate Saturday group in the LA Tri Club, and end up riding solo for the last 2 hours since everyone bails out on the last major push, but it has definitely yielded real benefits. I still have a ways to go before I can confidently hang with the 100+ mile riding advanced group of 5-6 riders, but for sure, I'm close.

A nice field test of my current fitness is a weekly brick workout that the LA triclub now hosts at Beverly Hills High on Wednesdays. It's a hard bike interval session (on bike trainers) followed by a 25 minute hard run. I hammered on this workout, and got my run down to 6:30-6:40/mile for the entire run, even after going all-out on the bike. With luck and continued training, I'm hoping for 7min/mile over 10k for my upcoming triathlon, which would be the fastest I've run in a triathlon to date. (I did 7:10s over 4 miles in a sprint in November.)

Nutrition has been going really well as well with my maltodextrin liquid mixes and salt caps. I've had no problems or hangups with it, and it has been fueling my long rides and runs extremely well. Gone is the shaking hunger that I sometimes got after 4+ hrs on the bike, and gone are the postworkout headaches I got from dehydration. I'm not sure if the salt caps are making a difference on the ride, but I do believe that they're important for maintaining blood volume on long rides, as simple fluid replacement will be ineffective if there is insufficient extracellular salt to osmotically retain the fluids. I used to get ringing headaches during the day after big workouts, similar to a hangover, but those have been eliminated after addition of salt caps + liberal hydration.

I signed up for the Strawberry Fields triathlon on a whim - it's in 2 weeks (!) This is by far the shortest signup interval I've done for a significant race (meaning longer than a 10k), so I'm not expecting to throw down anything amazing that day. It will, however, be a big test of whether I can survive a true triathlon Olympic-distance mile swim, which is the single biggest impediment to my participation and success in triathlon. I have now done over 10 successful open water swims of a mile or less, but it will still be interesting to see on race day whether I can complete the distance with gas to spare as well as not falling too far behind the entire field.

I'm going to attempt to spend more time in the pool in the next 2 weeks to get myself as close to swim-race shape as I can. It's a real time challenge, as my run & bike require so much time even to maintain fitness let alone improve, that swim time is very limited. I'm also hesitant to spend a large amount of time on swim improvement until I take a private lesson with video analysis to fix the remaining big flaws in my form. This is high on my priority list, and hopefully I can get this done in the next few weeks.

I'm off to a gorgeous mountain run up Westridge road and the neighboring trails!

3 miles per hour all out - on the bike!

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Now that the daylight hours are getting longer, I'm getting serious about my triathlon training. I admit that I lost a lot of motivation over the winter/spring season, as I was way off running form even with a half marathon thrown in there, and I was working a lot on my incredibly terrible swimming. Now however, the season is fully here to maximize outdoor training, and I'm ready.

A lot of the motivation undoubtedly came from a long group cycling ride I did 2 weeks ago with LATriClub. I've become very complacent about my cycling ability, as I found that I became one of the fastest, if not the fastest person on a semi-regular basis in the intermediate cycling group that rides from 35-60 hilly miles on the weekend. However, on a friend's advice, I stepped it up to the advanced group, which actually only has about 5-6 regular riders. I hesitated to join this group not because of my fear of matching their top speed (I'm pretty fast on a bike), but rather, the insanely long distances they ride. A typical ride for this group is nearly double hills and distance of the intermediate group, and at an overall significantly faster pace. Needless to say, I was duly humbled (as expected) on my first ride out with them, and had to drop off the back after 65 hilly miles, as I had no more gas left. (This was pre-maltodextrin fueling as well.)

With the exception of group swims, I haven't been humbled so badly on the run or bike in quite awhile. And I'm supposed to be good at running and biking! This defeat was more than enough to get my competitive juices flowing, and it feels really good to get back to training for some PRs again. I really feel like I was just spinning my wheels for past 3 months, but now I'm back on the attack.

Since that week, I've put up some good running and cycling numbers. I've ratched up my runs to 15 hilly milers, and will shoot for 18-19 in a few weeks. My cycling is just starting to ratchet up, but last week's 75 miler went great (the maltodextrin fueling definitely helped.) I've got a new set of insanely expensive Assos bike-bib shorts to ensure that my butt can take the distance on these long rides, and now I've got the fuel to match. I'm looking forward to having a rematch with the advanced cycling group after a few more weeks of solid training.

Today I rode part of the "Ring of Fire" loop in Palo Alto. It's named such because it's got some hellacious hills - my fiance's house is actually situated on the peak of one of the nastiest of them. Interestingly, I've never ridden all the way up to her house because it's so steep. So today was the day. I threw down a surprisingly fast climb on a nearby climb known as "Old La Honda Road" which I paced out at 25 minutes on a fastish long distance pace (not all out). Apparently, according to the Western Wheelers cycling club, that sort of pace is fast enough to put me into a fast cycling category. According to their non-racing grading system for their group rides:

Old La Honda Climb:

B(40–60 minutes), C(30–40), D(25–30), E(20–25), F(<20)

I don't think I can quite muster an "F" speed on that climb, but for sure, I'd be close if I raced it. Not bad for cycling less than a year.

The killer part today though wasn't this climb. It was the final climb to my fiance's house, which is on the "Ring of Fire." It's the steepest hill of the Ring, and wow, it's a killer. I knew it would be extraordinarily difficult because my gearing on my bike is not set up for hills (standard non-compact gearing), so I'd have to really push hard. Sure enough, the climb started, and it was really, really hard. I was going all-out, with heart rate near 170-180, and my Garmin noted that I was averaging 3 miles per hour on the entire climb. I bet I could walk faster than that! Still, I managed to stay alive and got all the way to the top without a dismount. Felt great to get to the top - but I'm not sure I'll be trying this one too often in the future - it's a killer!

Maltodextrin - my new cheap and effective fuel of choice

noreply@blogger.com (Willis) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Now that I'm working up to 4+ hour bike rides routinely, nutrition is becoming a critical part of training. I never worried much about nutrition while marathon training, and I still wouldn't now, as training runs are invariably under 3.5 hours max, which means you can get by with only a handful of extra calories as long as you've eaten well the day before.

For 4+ hr workouts though, you are well past your body's glycogen stores. Without fuel on these workouts, I become increasingly hungry from hours 2-3, and then after 3 hours, I will suffer a "bonk" if I don't add calories. This is a feeling of completely energy drainage, and goes hand in hand with a ravenous, desperate hunger. It's a very different bonk that the marathon race day late-race cramps, which I believe is mainly a function of training and not nutrition.

After experiencing a few fuel-bonks in the past few weeks, I've decided to get serious about my fueling strategy. My PB&J sandwiches were simply too clunky and messy to stop and eat, and I was bringing 3 of them on each ride as of late. A real pain.

I've been researching cheaper alternatives for liquid fueling on the bike, and I've found one that's dirt-cheap, easy to use, and effective. It's definitely not a novel product, and is used by numerous world-class athletes in all disciplines, so there's nothing really new I'm introducing here, and that's a good thing.

In looking for liquid fuels, I mainly looked initially at commercial products. Hammer's "Perpetuem" fits the bill - provides 250ish calories per serving, and dissolves in a bottle. Unfortunately, it costs $45 for 32 servings. To put it in perspective, I would have used 6-10 servings of this on my ride today, or $9-12 of Perpetuem for this single ride. Ouch.

The main ingredient in Perpetuem, and actually nearly all sports calorie products (gels, etc.) is maltodextrin. I ordered 50 lbs for $57 including shipping from Honeyville Grain online. It arrived in TWO days via UPS, and I didn't even ask for any special handling. Impressive. It comes it a big brown box, and the malto is in a big brown bag about 2 x 3 feet in dimensions.

The texture of malto is like flour, and it's not really sweet at all. Dissolves fairly well, but to make thick goopy gels, you have to heat it. (I tried that.)

I kept it really simple on my 80 mile bike ride today:
- 3 x 22 oz bottles, each with water + 1 cup of maltodextrin (roughly 300-400 calories per the web, similar to Hammer's Perpetuem.) I combined the water/malto in a pot, and added 1 packet of Sweet n Low just to give it some sweetness. Dissolves pretty easily (stirring required), stays clear and is not messy/viscous.

I took in no solids on this ride. Only used the bottles for hydration + calories. It worked very well, in my opinion. Not a single hiccup. I am normally famished after a 4+ hr bike ride, even with a CLIF bar or sandwich on route, but with the malto, I felt no hunger at all after the ride. I think I got lucky with the amount of calories per bottle I need. I think it's an overall hypotonic solution, so I didn't need any extra pure water to quench thirst. Just drank it as I would water, and I felt fueled for the entire 4+ hr ride.

I don't want to make it sound like a magic bullet (it's not); it won't make you ride any faster unless you're bonking out at the end of your rides. It probably will help you ride longer though, by preventing the bonk. I've only got one test ride so far, but I definitely felt stronger today at the end of the ride than I ever have before - and I just bonked out on a 55 miler last week. I even cranked out an extra 5 mile hill sprint loop at the end just for kicks, and I was averaging 22+ mph on flats in the final 10 miles per my Garmin. (My entire ride was mountain roads in Socal - this was not a dead-flat easy 70 mile course.)

Best part, is that I'm home now, it's lunch time, and I'm not even hungry or dizzy. I actually feel, well, pretty normal. First time that's happened to me after a 4+hr workout.

I do have to add electrolytes, though - I think all that salt loss would become an issue later on, as my homebrewed malto has zero electrolytes added right now.