IM C'dA 2008 - Here we go

It's Saturday night and the work has been done. Workouts completed. Nutrition dialed in. Bags and bikes to transition. Practice swims nailed. It's 630pm and dinner has been take care of. As of now we're T-minus eleven hours to the starting cannon and we're down to last minute prep. Think, night before any major workout. Mixing bottles and getting in a good nap.

This is my third trip to Idaho, and every year the town seems to grow a little bigger. Thankfully the race distance remains the same 140.6 miles. Weather tomorrow looks pretty good. The paper this morning projected that tomorrow would have a high of 75 degrees and not be raining. Not bad considering that it snowed here less than ten days ago.

The good news is that it felt like the lake was warmer today than it was yesterday. I have to say that I'm a little bummed that I'm not racing. For reasons that are all my own, it's good that I'm not, but that competitive part of my brain still objects; softly.

This is my first year as a spectator at an iron distance event and I expect it to be killer. I have the advantage of having completed the course twice so I know where everyone will be and where the best burgers are.

Just how far do we train here anyway?

One of the most significant collective stats that my friend Doron shared with me my after our first ironman was just how much distance we had covered in training. He used a number that I can barely fathom at this point, and wondered if we had been on the same training plan.

This year I want to see how far I end up traveling on my "trip" to ironman. To that end I've been logging my workouts in a personal workout log as well as the one that we are given access to through the teamintraining ironteam.

There's even a nifty map that shows how far I would have gone across the country.

Tri Saturdays - Just a ride in the park

I love Saturdays. Friends of mine sleep in or do brunch or even go skydiving. Me? Well me and mine go out for bike rides. Yup, you heard me bike rides. For the two races that the Los Angeles Chapter of Team in Training "IronteaminTraining" participants will have either seven or almost ten full months of training to tackle the Wildflower Long Course (a half iron distance triathlon) and/or Vineman (a full iron distance triathlon). Today's mission was simple, ride as a team for the first time. So with a little parking lot assessment of equipment, and bike handling ability the team set out on a short hour/hour-and-a-half~ish ride around Griffith Park from the Los Angeles Zoo.

After an easy five mile warm up the lead pack upped the ante and the group spread out over the 17-mile course.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1430246

If you were there this weekend it was great to see you. No worries about anything at all we have months (and I mean MONTHS) of training to go. If you weren't there you missed yet another opportunity to join us at Portos Bakery and my favorite part of almost any training day, lunch.

In the words of one of my coaches, it was a good practice; Nobody drowned. Next week it's off to Santa Monica for some Westside riding. See you then -dean

(link to this blog post - tri-saturdays-just-ride-in-park)

2007/2008 Ironteam - first practice

It's a new year, a new season, and a whole new race. This year Team in Training has decided to field a team of athletes for both the Wildflower long course, a half iron distance, as well as Vineman a full iron course, and have both groups train on the same team.

Wildflower (2008 link not posted at the time of writing) an annual favorite of triathletes is a race to aspire to. Just think, a lake swim, hilly ride, and an awesome run through beautiful central California (Lake San Antonio, CA just up from the 101 freeway from Paso Robles).


Vineman is a full iron distance race in beautiful Sonoma, California. (Think wine country, and you'll get the idea.

At the first practice we took to the pools and as always there's a great mix of people. Some who've been swimming for years with graceful effortless strokes and people who have just now taken up the sport. Have no fear however, my first year we had a guy (some of you out there know him) who couldn't swim a stroke, and still finished the swim well under the cut-off time just from coming to practice and hitting all of his workouts (and a little extra tutoring).

Tomorrow we will have our first team run. Should be fun. We're about 40 strong as a group and that'll give everyone someone else to run with as the season progresses.

On the whole we're a lucky group. We live in an area that affords us the ability to train year-round, have enough loony people to train with, have a group of great coaches, and will raise a significant amount of money to fight cancer and fund patient services. I feel proud to be here.

Thanks for reading, drop me a note if you feel so inclined.
-dean
(link to this blog post: 2007/2008 Ironteam - first practice)

New starts at odd times

Let's take a look at what's going on for me this year in the world of endurance sports. I'm probably not a beginner anymore, though there's still tons to learn. I've completed a handful of half marathons, a half iron distance triathlon, a couple olympic/international distance triathlons, two full iron distance triathlons, and there still seems to be room for more. In the world of triathlon we're coming to the end of the racing season with many locations having held or are nearing their championship event. For me and several friends of mine we're starting true base training in prepartion of another "going long" season.

For me this will be a focused year, trying to get the most out of training and the least amount of skating that I've done. And by skating I mean going through the motions without purpose. Laying this out there today, I'm not going to qualify for the big race in Hawaii, not this year, and probably not this decade. But this year is for reaching down and seeing what I'm capable of doing. Setting new PRs at all my distances and having fun while that happens.

I'm also helping out with Team in Training again this year as a mentor. We'll be going to Vineman in Sonoma, a full iron distance race as well has taking many to Wildflower for the long course, a half iron distance race. I look forward to introducing them to you as the season progresses.

I'm also working with the LA Tri Club to increase the club's presence at local races to support our member athletes from beginners to elites, and to recruit new members.

Oh yeah, then there's working, dating, and sleeping that has to get done between all the training, eating, and recovering that is already planned. So like I said last year, I send my apologies in advance.

-dean

Friends of mine in print

If you look at this month's issue of Triathlete Magazine you will see that Janus took out an ad that spans several pages in the magazine in order to recognize participants in their ironman fundraising program. If you look at the top you'll see my friend Doron who raised over $40,000. I'm equally impressed with each of my teammates who raised funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, all of whom trained with me this past year. Kudos all around.

Race Report : 2007 Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Bike

This year in Coeur d'Alene marked the first year of an all new bike course. There are a number of reasons that I have heard for this, but they don't really matter to me. The old course took riders out to the Idaho/Washington state line with a fair amount of climbing and had pieces of the ride that in retrospect felt like unnecessary filler. There was a long piece past mile 35/85 (or so) that followed the centenial trail along the highway and caused riders to hit a decent headwind.

The new course took us out of Coeur d'Alene and in to the town of Hayden. This year's course was quite a bit harder. Though in looking at my polar altitude data from last year and comparing it to this year, it seems like there 4300 feet of climbing (30 miles or so) and last years course had 4600 feet of climbing over the same distance. Though there was 300 fewer feet of climbing I'd say that this course was harder, if only in my mind. I'd say that last year had the climbing over a shorter distance forcing riders this year to climb for a longer period of time.

The biggest change was that the course was far prettier than last year. To the uninitiated this might sound petty, but over a seven hour period having great stuff to look at makes the time that much better. The rolling hills were beautiful, and the long line of riders looked like ants climbing over them.

For me I had the opportunity to talk to several people over the ride. (Most of them were passing me). It was by all accounts, despite being difficult perhaps, a great ride. The weather we had was wonderful, mid 60's to low 70's with a small headwind for most of the ride and a longer stronger headwind right near the end of the ride. If they keep the course the way that it was and you intend to ride this race next year, I'd recommend longer sustained climbing as a large part of your training.

End result, last year 7:50~ish, this year 7:20 (and that's with 12 minutes worth of bathroom stops because of the cold weather and hydration planned for a warmer day).

In the works

I'm working on my race report now. I'm just trying to work all the lactic acid out of my quads. More on this to come. In the meantime congrats to all my Ironteammates. You were awesome out there! I met some new friends on the road too. Congrats to everyone! You are all now IRONMEN (IRONWOMEN too). Much love goes out to Mike Riley, the voice of ironman, as well for once again for sending us out and calling us all in straight up to midnight.

Lights, camera, inaction

Yup... 430am... And the only light I can see of any kind is on the ceiling of the lobby at LAX. Almost saw a fight at the ticket counter. Some couple that was standing in the wrong line for check in.

Travel is stressful enough without packing for a vacation and a race. Translation: watch for the ring side perspectrive and commentary in a future post.

-dean

http://irondean.blogspot.com

AND WE'RE OFF!!

Here we go. It's a little before 4am and we're on our way to the airport. Usually I think anything this early is unholy. Who am I kidding? It is unholy. Next stop LAX.

http://irondean.blogspot.com

Technology check for Wildflower event weekend

Hello there. This is a test post for race day coverage. This post was sent from my trusty Palm Treo 700W. I'm looking forward to seeing my teammates take on this half iron distance course. Go Wildflower!! Go Team!!

http://irondean.blogspot.com

The 2007 Ironman California - 70.3

A tremendous season opener. The Ford Ironman California 70.3, a mouthful of syllables and no shortage of meaning. Ironman 70.3 races are distances formally known as "half ironman" races. Don't let the "half" fool you it's a race not to be taken lightly. For many present this was not only their first race of the season, but also their first at this distance.

In previous years this race was two weeks earlier and more often than not race day brought cold water, rainy weather, and slick asphalt. This year on March 31st the race was held to bright blue sunny skies, and a swim nearly five full degrees warmer than last year. For Southern Californians this is the closest race at any ironman distance.

Ahh the swim, a 1.2 mile loop through the boat bay. I'm usually pretty anxious to get in the water. Not so much because I like swimming, though I do, but more because I can't wait for it to be over. In most places I'm perfectly comfortable in the water, but in the open with that may people around me, the irrational part of my brain takes over and starts to freak me out. I say irrational because this year and last year I've trained at double this distance and am fine when I get out of the water. For the next race I need to know how hard and/or how fast I can go and still go out and have a good day. I was in the 18th wave, starting over an hour after the first group of professionals. Basically I watched the first pro, Andy Potts, finish his swim in 22:35 (according to the preliminary results), before I had gotten in to my wetsuit and staged in the starting chute.

Getting out of the water the charming water scenes of Oceanside, CA give way to Camp Pendleton and the hills that lay ahead. I've been on base once, and that was a much shorter ride. This ride had us riding on roads that had markings pointing out artillery ranges and signs that notified you not to proceed ahead of a particular point due to falling ordinance... The most striking notice was a crossing for, yes, tanks. A freakin' tank crossing sign. How was I NOT going to notice a 50-60 ton piece of fighting machine crossing the road?

A scant three hours and twenty minutes later it's on to the run. The run for me has always, and I mean always, been the hardest part of the day. There's nothing but road in front of you and only your legs to cover it. We ran on the strand in Oceanside from the Marina past the pier. If I haven't said it before I'll say it now, it was a beautiful day.

Final for me on the day was a 6:32. I dropped an equivalent six minutes on my swim from Ironman last year, and hopefully something equally significant on my bike and run. For me, keeping that pace for Ironman would be phenomenal. I know today that I benefit from a great training program, a year's worth of base training, the support of a fantastic team (Go Team), and the luck of having such a beautiful day on the course.

Special thanks go out to my Ironteammates, Matt (who had the fastest time on the course for our team at 5:50, go and donate to his team in training campaign if you can), Jen (who beat me by two minutes), Christy (whose persistence on the run continues to inspire and drive me), Karen (whose experience on the bike and run mirrored in many ways my '06 Ironman Coeur d'Alene experience), and to Kevin (whose experience in racing helped us all, and who went back on to the course after finishing the race himself, to find and run with Karen as she finished her race).

I was powered by Lemon-lime Motortabs, Vanilla Crisp Powerbars, Enduralytes by Hammer Nutrition, and despite a little cramping in my calves due to an overall lack of flexibility, had a fantastic day. Success is due in no small part to training, but equally to nutrition. I can't thank the fine people at Motortabs, Hammer Nutrition and Powerbar enough for bringing fine products to market and continuing to improve as endurance sports progressively evolve.

Ironman California 70.3 2007 : Off to the races

I'm signing off for the weekend. I'll be out at the Ironman California 70.3 doing my best not to die. That's right folks, a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run.

All kidding aside, it'll be a blast. Seven of my teammates from my team in training ironteam will be there and we'll be cheering each other on as we pass through transition and then on through the finishers chute and on to glory.

Stay tuned for a race report on Monday. Thanks for reading.
-dean

Tuesday Swims

I really do enjoy the Tuesday swims with the team. Sure my stomach complains when I get to workouts that it would much rather have my butt in a chair with a sandwich and a drink of some sort, but it is the one time during the work week when I can count on seeing most of my team. Here's what I like about my Team in Training Ironteam:
- Everyone is training for the same event.
- Everyone is raising money to fight cancer.
- Everyone is training to be ready for the same event.
- When the workout is all said and definitely done, we go eat.

Today was no different really. I showed up to practice and it was threatening to rain on us. But once you're there and dressed, there's really no other option than getting in and doing the workout. (There is another option but don't tell that to my grumbling stomach.)

Today we worked on active recovery, or resting in motion. Makes sense, the impulse after a difficult effort is to come to a stop, recover your breath, take in some fluid, and bring the heart rate down. This is what the body would like, trust me. Instead, following a hard effort we reduced pace kept moving. Very effective in making the body more efficient.

Love it.

Wave Starts

2007 Ford Ironman 70.3 California

Well it's upon us and the waves have been determined. I was hoping that I'd be in an earlier wave but it looks like I'm in the back. Yep, there's nothing like standing in line waiting to get in to the water at the end of winter. The professional athletes will be completely done with the swim and will have been done for close to 40 minutes before I get in the water to start my day.

------------

Wave Starts / Cap Colors

3-minutes between same age-groups and 4-minutes between differing age-groups

Wave No#	Time	Division	Color of cap
1	6:40	Pro M	Yellow
2	6:43	Pro W	Silver
3	6:50	M 40-44	Dark Blue
4	6:53	M 40-44	White
5	6:57	M 30-34	Purple
6	7:00	M 30-34	Neon Green
7	7:03	M 30-34	Red
8	7:07	M 35-39	Light Blue
9	7:10	M 35-39	Dark Green
10	7:13	M 35-39	Pink
11	7:17	M 18-24 / M 50-54	Dark Blue
12	7:21	M 55 + / W 40-44	White
13	7:25	W 18-24 / W 45+	Purple
14	7:29	W 25-29	Neon Green
15	7:33	W 35-39	Red
16	7:37	W 30-34	Light Blue
17	7:41	M 45-49	Dark Green
18	7:45	M 25-29	Pink
19	7:48	M 25-29	Dark Blue

Yep.... Oh well. See ya. -dean

Race Season : Can you feel it?

Well whether you like it or love it race season is upon us again. Personally I think the Pacific Shorline Marathon (rather the half) on Superbowl Sunday started off my season, but that's just me. Living in Southern California means having access to training weather almost twelve months out of the year. This year we've been hit with a little cold spell. And by cold, I mean there's no reason why a 7 am bike ride should start when it's 37 degrees and I'm standing in view of the Pacific Ocean this close to Mexico.

Kicking off my triathlon season with close to ten of my Team in Training Ironteam teammates will be the Ford Ironman California 70.3 (formally Ralphs California Half). I volunteered at this race last year and it was a tremendous day. A 1.2 mile swim in 54 degree water, a 56 mile bike ride that started off in a light drizzle and ended in sunshine, followed by a beautiful 13.1 mile run. I'm amazed every year by triathletes in general and by those who seek out Ironman or long course triathlons in particular. What can I say?

Our Ironteam had a list of "suggested races" put together by our coaches Paul Ruggiero and Kevin Bradshaw, Ford's Ironman California 70.3 race was/is one of them. I hope that my training comes through. Our Team in Training Ironteam will also be doing the 2007 Wildflower Long Course as a tune up race. Hope to see you out there as well. After that it's on to beautiful Coeur d'Alene Idaho for the Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene. And then it's just naptime. Trust me, it's called naptime.

More importantly this weekend is daylight savings day! I'm sure that's not really what it's called but you know what I mean. One more hour of daylight to train in as the days get longer anyway. Full speed ahead! Good luck to us all.

Out of the woods

After what must have been four weeks I'm finally almost clear of a nasty cough/cold/flu-like plague that took me down and out of training. (Read: WHOOOOOO HOOOOO!) And with that we're five real weeks away from the 2007 Ford California Ironman 70.3 Race, or for those of you who know it from way back, The Ralphs Half-Ironman. Whatever you might call it, it's going to be down in Oceanside on the 31st of March and she's-a-comin'.

A 70.3 race is (duh) half of an Ironman distance 140.6 mile race. It consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile (half marathon) run. It's fun in the sun and if you're interested in it at all you should come on down and race, volunteer, and/or watch as we take this course on.

Quite a few of our Team in Training team will be out in force that day. Look for a quite a few new personal records (PRs) being set and a modest number of first timers completing their first race at this distance. Go Team. Five good weeks of training and we'll be race ready, just watch.

Race Report : 2006 Ironman California

I went to the Ironman California 70.3 race in 2006, not as a participant, but as a volunteer. I remember feeling like I wasn't ready to race in a field like that. My brain just said no. Top that off with not wanting to pay the entry fee but wanting to learn something from racing and voila, what do you have a ready-made volunteer. Volunteering is a wonderful experience and at the very least yields some excellent race day karma. It also let me follow my ironteammates through their race day, from the swim start, through transition, and in to the finish. Oh, and a free t-shirt too.

All right, now let's get down to it.
The weekend. An educational experience. What did I learn on race day?

1. Be careful of where you’re standing before the start of the race. I actually saw a pro warming up by jumping up and down on top of one of the timing mats before they got in the water for the swim. (That’s just silly.)
2. That water, between 52-57 degrees (depending on who you talked to), really was cold enough for people passing through T1 to stop for warm blankets and to pull out of the day.
3. The biggest thing I saw over the course of the day was planning. Plan your day. It’s the one thing (other than training) that we can do for race day, before race day. Get in with time to set up and get in to your wetsuit. I saw a number of people that missed their wave in the chute because they got in late or weren’t paying attention. Plan your transition, I saw people digging through bags trying to find something, which isn’t a big deal but they were getting frustrated and stressed out because it was costing them time.
4. Keeping your bit of the transition area neat with a clear lane in the middle will prevent (for the most part) others from trampling your stuff as they come in and out, or having said stuff “moved”, without grace, to clear the lane.
5. Sometimes all it takes is your haircut to give off the impression that you're a marine. (go figure. oh well, semper fi.)
6. Lots of very expensive, pretty bikes everywhere!
7. From an efficiency standpoint, I saw a lot of people coming in to T2 with full water bottles on the frame. I hear that there was plenty of Gatorade endurance on the course which is great, but by taking that you’re probably not getting the mix of carbs that you’ve added to your drink (assuming carbopro/equivalent). It also means that you’re hauling something like 4-6 extra pounds (depending on the size of the bottles) of your planned nutrition around with you for nothing. Just my opinion. . .
8. Oceanside is a nice place for a race. Lots of really positive people everywhere, very inspiring.
9. There’s an entire volunteer group near the finish line who catch. Their job is to meet finishers after they’ve come in and keep ‘em moving through the finish area, pulling timing chips, gathering race bags, t-shirts, and medals. The most important part is assessing whether or not race finishers can still walk, and if not, catch them as they crumble to the ground and get them over to medical.
10. (Having said, and written, all these things I will invariably forget most of them. Can someone please slap me upside the head in June as a reminder, preferably before race day?)

Cool stuff to look at

I have some pictures to show you, I mean if you're in to that sort of thing. Really though, some good stuff from last year, and this year.

Stuff from my time at Ironman Coeur d'Alene last year (http://deanspace.smugmug.com/gallery/2341195)

A little about my team this year (http://deanspace.smugmug.com/gallery/2341292)

I'm just a wee bit of a photo geek. So with any luck at all there will be some more up here soon. Hope you're all having a great week. Enjoy the pics. -dean

Rest. 'nuff said? Not quite

"Respect the rest." That's what I heard at my first track workout. I hate track workouts, but respecting rest was something that I could really get behind. We'd run 400 meters, and practice a 1:2 work to rest ratio. Basically if it takes you 2 minutes to run around the track, you rest for 4 minutes. This was a concept that I could definitely get behind.

Triathlon is swimming, riding, and running. Ironman throws in nutrition and a complete loss of sanity (that's what my mom says anyway). Training is a completely different beast. The human body is one of the most adaptive things that we've come across. It responds to the stresses that we put upon it and consumes what we put in to it, hence my caffeine prob.. issue.. enjoyment. Most training programs for shorter distances have a standard build, you see the distances increase steadily over time then decrease just before race day.

See this 5K training plan:
Five little weeks then race day.

At longer distances, and for the day that we're training for we enter periodized training, where we ask nicely, rather force, our body and mind to take on a series of build weeks, where distance and intensity rise over the period, and then we recover. The body doesn't get stronger during the higher intensity training. That's where we're tearing small pieces of muscle, taxing our cardio systems, and getting in the mindset of being at this for the distance. It is in the recovery or rest week where our bodies do the repair work, fixing the pieces that we've broken, torn, taxed, and abused, and in doing so makes an effort to make it harder for us to do the same damage with the same amount of work. Adaptation. Without these periods of rest and recovery we'd be running on muscles desperately in need of repair, and just asking for injury.

There is no growth without challenge. Sometimes the biggest challenge for someone training is to stop or slow down for a little while. Rest. Recover. Grow. A marathon is no easy feat, nor is 100 miles of anything, much less bike riding. Build phases are relative to each other. They're timed to give you the greatest benefit over the time that we have. From week to week the results are hard to see but by completing marker sets, where you do a prescribed distance or other time trial you will see how far you've come.

Recovery is built in to most of what we do. We drink a recovery mix after workouts to prepare for the next workout even if the next workout is the fight I have with myself getting out of bed and going to work. I'd feel so much worse had I not had the drink or the sleep. After each period we rest and recover. After all the build phases we rest and recover, it's called tapering just before the race. After the race we recover, it's called a night out at the bar, and a few weeks of getting back to life. Get your sleep in. Respect the rest in the schedule it's worthwhile and necessary.