Ironman Zurich

Wow, it has been a long time since I have writen on this page. So much has happened. Where to start? Oh, I finished Ironman Zurich. What an amazing adventure that was. I'll write a more detailed report later, but here is an overview.

I got to meet a lot of really cool people, and hang out with the Gear West crew. I got to meet TriJack and hang out with him before and after the race. And, I got to spend some quality time with my wife. It seems that hasn't happened since I started training for this race.

Anyways, here is the race breakdown.

Swim Start:
Efing Nuts!!! 1:11


Bike:
Ride the flats fast, climb the hills slow. Feel like a tour rider climbing Heartbreak hill. 5:45

Run:
Don't really know what to say about the run. After the bike I didn't think I had any legs left. I was very surprised. 4:04

Finish Time: 11:04:53

Injuries...

Well, I made it through my first multi sport race of the year. It hurt. The lack of speed work in the Ironman prep really showed as my legs burned throughout the entire race. It did feel good to try and go fast.

So the race went pretty well for me. I got to meet the Tri-Dummy in person, and chat with some other local bloggers, such as Tac Boy, TriMama, and Iron Jenny. Afterwards, however, pretty much sucked. I had just pulled on some pants and a jacket when I saw my son hoping around on a pogo stick. Next thing I knew I was standing over him and he was on his knees screaming and there was a large pool of blood under him. Great! So, we cleaned him up a little and headed off to the weekend clinic. What a mess. Luckily it was a nice clean cut so the doc could use Dermabond instead of stitches. It will still leave a pretty nice scar but it is better than stitches.

I guess if you have to pick a place to get hurt, a race is a good one. We instantly had athletes, volunteers, and the Gear West owner, Kevin O'Conner helping us out. It was really cool to have that many people jump to the rescue. Kevin even took care of my bike for me so that we could head to the doc and didn't have to worry about loading everything into the car with us. Later in the day Kevin even called my home phone to check up on us to make sure things were OK.

After all the help we got at the race I am proud to call Gear West "my shop". They are truely a class act operation.

So, here are some images of the pogo stick accident post glueing.

Now he will have some battle scars to tell stories about. Chicks dig scars right? Even if it's from a pogo stick?

So, There I Was...

...waiting for work folks to go for a group ride yesterday. I, being the sharp witted person that I am, locked my keys, phone, wallet, and work badge in my trunk. To make the situation worse, I ran into one of the other riders as he was leaving the parking lot to go home. What? "Oh", he says, "I just sent out an email to cancel the ride because it looks like it is going to rain." WTF!!! So now I have to either ride all the way home to get a spare key or I take a chance that my parents are home and head that way. Well the wind is howling out of the west, anyone want to guess which way it is to either destination. Yep, to the west. I struggled to my parents at a massive speed of 17 mph. Which was as fast as I could go in my tired, POed state of mind. Luckily my mom was home and was will to drive me the half an hour to my house and drive me back forty minutes to my car. My mom rules!!!

So, now I have my car back and it is about 7:15 PM. I still have a forty minute drive to the pool to do 4000 yards. Oh no, I was really wondering if I would be able to get through the swim in my mental state. But, to my surprise, I got there at rocked it. One of the best swim sessions I have had all year. But, to add a little insult to my mentally challenging day, I smashed my knee while exiting the pool. I looked down and there is a nice little gash from the pool wall on my knee with a line of blood down my leg. Arrggghhh.

What will the next day bring?

Sleep Has Arrived...

Finally, after over a week without a goods nights sleep. Last night I actually got 7 hours of sleep. Granted, it was not continuos, but it's a start. I think that my body was just so worn out that it finally gave in to sleep.

Training has been going pretty good. My swim is feeling really weak right now, but I'll get there. I did my first swim, bike, run session of the year yesterday. It felt really good. 30min swim, 21 miles on the bike, and about a 5 mile run. Nothing really hard or really long, but it was a solid endurance session without causing too much stress on the body to effect the rest of the weeks sessions.

The next few weeks are going to be hard. I am hitting peak training hours, and I have a couple of short races coming up. I am really torn on what to do over Memorial Day weekend. I really want to head off and go back packing with my wife dogs, but it is also the last weekend to get in really big hours before Ironman Zurich. So, do I leave the bike behind and celebrate my 30th on the hiking trail? I can take my running shoes and get in some killer trail runs. Or do I stick to my plan and stay home so I can hit the bike hard?

What to do, What to do...

Sleep Please

The long hours are really starting to catch me. The training is going well, and my body is holding out pretty good, but I haven't been able to sleep worth a shit for about a week now. I am just stumbling through my mornings, missing morning workouts because I can only sleep for like 4 hours a night. I really need sleep. The long hours are going to lead to an injury if I can't get some good rest. I lay down to sleep and my body just won't shut down. I start to notice every little sore spot and muscle twitch and just can't seem to relax. Is it pre-Ironman anxiety, or am I just losing it?

This Weeks Training Tip
Do not attempt to break in a new saddle on you first century ride of the year. Bad. Bad. Bad Idea.

Bouncing Back

Things are begining to come together. After nearly three weeks of inconsistent training, antibiotics and painkillers, I think I am finally bouncing back.

The first big test was the Trail Mix 25K last weekend. I had planned to just show up and run and see what would happen. I wanted to keep my average pace under 9:30/mile, which seemed realistic being that I had not done a run over 45 minutes in three weeks. Well the gun went off and away we went. Iron Jenny, TriMama, and Taconite Boy were among the many racers out that day. I went out a little hard the first mile or so and backed off to a smooth pace. The course was great, lots of hills and all on soft trails. I cruised at a steady effort for the first 5 miles. The miles were not marked except for at the aid stations, so at mile five I was able to get my first split. 40mins... What? Was I really rolling at 8:00 pace? After that shock I decided to not look at my splits anymore, and just focus on staying smooth and keeping my HR under control. The rest of the race felt great, I never hit a wall, and I finished feeling like I could have held that pace for a long time. Finish time: 25K 2:03 7:58/mile. I really didn't think I had put in the time yet for that kind of pace. It was a great confidence boost!!!

I think that my run is on pace with where I want to be at Ironman Zurich. Not real sure about my bike though. I need to put in a lot more time in the saddle.

However, saddle time is coming this weekend. The Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride is this Sunday. That will be the first century for me this year and a real test off where my bike fitness is at. Are there any local Bloggers heading out for the ride? They have great hot dogs!!!

Planning a Return.

The tooth ordeal has begun. Phase 1 is complete, the tooth has been removed, all the bad bone cut out, and a bone graft placed. I am still deciding if I chould post the pictures or not, they are pretty graphic. So, today is my first day back at work, and my first day without good painkillers. I Love Vicodin!!! Not in a drug addict way, but without it, I'm pretty sure my wife and dogs would have left me this weekend. I was hard enough to deal with with the good drugs, when they would wear off, I could feel a lot of pain and any sense of patience that I did have went right out the window.

So, on to my training. I have been more or less shut down for about three weeks now. I got in some good swimming and two solid days of running, but other than that I have been shut down. What does that mean for Ironman Zurich? Well, I need to bust some serious ass for the next few weeks. I need a lot of miles on foot and on bike. The problem is I am supposed to take all this week off to let my mouth heal. I can't wait that long. I will try a nice easy ride today and see how I feel. I am planning on racing the Trail Mix 25k at Highland Park this weekend, so I need to do something before then. Also, I am just going insane from all of the sitting around. Going form 15 hours of training to zero is really hard.

Also, I would like to thank everyone for the positive comments and emails. It's pretty cool that people you don't even know and never have met are sending positive vibes. They really do help. Thanks!!!

Bad News!

So last week I got some rather bad news. I was having some mild tooth pain early in the week that turned into wicked pain by mid week. So, I broke down and went to the dentist. After a quick xray and and exam the dentist gives me the news. The tooth needs to come out. No big deal right. People have teeth pulled everyday. Well, not exactly. This tooth has a fracture above the gumline, so its not going to come out in one piece. Also the fractured root has caused major bone loss in the area around the tooth. So what this means for me is that I now have to go to an oral surgeon to have my face ripped apart.

It will start with extracting the tooth. Which will suck. Next, they will peel back my upper gums and drill, chisel and scrape away the bad bone in the area. Then, hopefully they will put my face back together for a while. Well, not really, I will have a gaping hole where the tooth and bone used to be, not to mention that the gum line will hike up after surgery and even with a temporary fake tooth I will look pretty funny. So, that's step one. I will have to walk around with this fake tooth and a massive hole in my face for any where from 3 to nine months depending on how it heals.

Next, after the three months or so, I go back to have a bone graft done to fill in the gaping hole in my face. This will really suck. They will harvest bone form the back part of my jaw and screw it in place the fill the opening where my tooth used to be. Now that will have to heal for about three months or so.

Now, about six months after the initial extraction they may be able to install the titanium screw that will be teh support for my soon to be new tooth. After this is in place it also needs to heal for up to three months. Then, nine to twelve months later, they can begin building my new tooth around the screw.

So, the bigger issue here is training. I am pretty scared that this is going to derail my Ironman tarining for Zurich. I won't know until after the surgery next week what my recovery time will be, and what the expected scheduel for the rest of the procedures will be. After talking to the dentist, he thinks that the recovery is going to suck, many days of not eating solid foods, with no activity, with lots of pain killers. So, I am in the process of coming up with an alternative plan for my training. It may be that I will only be trying to finish my first ironman rather than having a time to shoot for. I really don't like that at all. I wanted to go there feeling ready to race, not just wondering if I will have done enough to finish.

Things I Learn Along the Way...

I learned something new this morning. I can not eat bananas before a moring swim session. However, if I do I get an uplanned transition run from the pool to the bathroom. So, needless to say I ate bananas for breakfast this morning and had to cut my swim short, ending it with a transition run, of sorts. A lesson well learned!

In other training news, I was able to ride two hours outside last night. It was really wet and very dirty, but really fun. I looked like the pros when they cruise the paves in the Paris-Rubaix. Head to toe mud. My road bike, which was white when I started, ended up looking like I had tried to burry it in the mud. Oh well, nothing a little water and chain lube won't take care of right?

Training is going pretty well so far. I've been having some issues with my ankle, nothing that is stopping me right now, but there has been some swelling and range of motion issues that I am a little concerned with. I am hoping that next weeks recovery week will allow me some time to heal up and get things worked out. I am hoping to meet up with Taconite Boy and TriMama for a ride this weekend. I am really sick of riding the trainer and I am ready to ride with the local tri beasts.

Bring on the warm weather.

Outside at Last...

Yee Haw. Finally got out on the bike again. I was able to do a 2 hour ride outside on Saturday. There were a few complications however. I made it about 5 miles before my cadence sensor stopped working. OK, I can deal. I made 7 miles before my speed sensor stopped working. Alright, kinda sucks but I'll just ride by my heart rate monitor. I made it to the turn around spot for the defuel/refuel stop feeling pretty good. Remounted the bike to find that the beautiful windless day had changed in a matter of minutes to what was now going to be a head wind battle all the way home. Now I'm Pissed.

Good news is I made it home and felt really good for the entire ride. Outside of a little anger at my electronic devices. Going off my time and the fact that I ride this route a lot, my average speed came out just over 18 for 38 miles. Not too bad for my first real outside ride of the year. I gotta say that my new bike just feels fast. Before the speed sensor went out I was rolling at 20 with zero effort. The head wind kind of bucked me a litte on the way home. I definately need more saddle time, my neck was feeling the efffects of the areo position for that long this ealry on.

As for electronics, does anyone have a suggestion for a good wireless speed and candence sensor that is actually reliable, or do they not exist?

Son of a...

So today I was feeling really lazy after not getting in much of a ride yesterday, so I decided to crank out a tough speed session on the treadmill. The plan was to do a minimum of 8x400 with 90 secs active recovery. Well I made it through 12. I had a really bad buring on the sides of my big toes for the last couple of intervals. When I took my shoes off I was shocked to see the biggest blood blisters I've ever had on my feet. I mean these things are over an inch long on both of my big toes, and they are currently sticking out damn near a quarter of an inch. Oops. I guess thats what I get for trying to do a hard speed workout, in my Nike Free's, without shocks, when I haven't done any fast workouts in them for a long time. My only hope now is that the pressure will go down and they won't explode. Hopefully it will not hinder any of my training. If it does I can chalk this one up to my own stupidity.

Work out detail:
5 min warmup @ 10:00 pace.
12x400 @ 6:00 pace w/ 90 secs active recovery @ 10:00 pace.
5 min cool down.
Total dist. 5.5 miles.
Average pace was about 7:50.
No HR data.

I think I cut the cool down a little short due to the wicked buring going on in my shoes. Other than that it was a hard workout, but I felt pretty comfortable all the way through.

If my toes explode I'll post some pictures.

Training Update

Wow, this training thing is hard. So far training has been going really well. I am getting used to the sore and tired muscels and the two a day workouts. I am really trying to adjust to getting out of bed in the morning to get in early workouts. That part is not going so good. I Really Hate Morning Time!!! I drug myself to the pool last week in the morning and it was terrible. I was a cat in a bathtub. It was so bad that I gave up and went back after work to show myself I could do the workout. I think that if I get up early enough to get some form of caffine in me I can usually function on a some what normal level.

On the bright side, I am adjusting to the new bike and new riding position pretty well. I actually suffered through my longest continuous trainer ride on Sunday. A whole two hours! I know, I know that's not very long at all, but when I'm indoors my attention span for riding by my self is about five minutes tops. Then the mind starts to wander. I see my guitar sitting in its case and I can hear it calling me. Or, I just get bored and think of anything that I would rather be doing and go do it. Need to work on that!

Got to watch a little cycling the other day. The Tour of California is on the VS channel this week. Got to see Levi crash in the circuits of the first road stage. That sucks, he put in a great TT only to lose the yellow jersey and something like a minute due to the crash. I hope that I can catch a stage tonight, I forgot to DVR it.

Todays plan: Easy Spin, I may try to sneek outside for this, because it's like 40 degrees here. After that I have a tough pool workout, 3500 of fast intervals or something stupid like that.

Zurich, Zurich, Zurich!!!

The winners is...

Drum roll please...

And the tag goes to...

Clot Buster
T J
Taconite Boy

The above bloggers have been tagged with the following mission. Answer the six questions listed below and tag three other bloggers with them.

Here are the questions to answer:

1. Describe a memory of your first triathlon.
2. Describe a memory from your most recent triathlon.
3. What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you in a tri?
4. What's the most thrilling thing that's happened to you in a tri?
5. What is something you discovered about yourself by doing triathlons?
6. What is THE BIG GOAL that you're working towards?

Ouch, I've been tagged!!!

I kept my head low for a while, but I've been tagged. Triboomer got me with the following questions. The only question that remains is who gets it next?

1. Describe a memory of your first triathlon.
My first race was a sprint. The thing that stands out most was the swim. I am far from a competent swimmer. The air horn sounded for my wave and off I went. Plunging into the cold and murky water. I made it about 200 yards or so before I felt like I could not get any air. Either side I would breathe on I was taking on water. So I rolled over onto my back only to see a helicpoter circling above the swim course making the already turbulant water much worse. I swam the last 200 or so with my head out of the water gasping for air.

2. Describe a memory from your most recent triathlon.
My most recent tri was a 70.3 race in MI. Again, this memory is of the swim, but this time it was positive. We got to jump off of a pier for the swim start, it was pretty cool. I just tried to swim nice and relaxed. I lifted my head to sight, thinking I was about half way, when I realized that I was about to round the final buoy and head for sure. Cool!!!

3. What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you in a tri?
I don't know if most people would consider it embarassing, but it also comes from my first ever tri. I came cruising into T2 and misjudged the distance to the dismount line. I was only able to get one foot out of my shoe before getting of the bike. I had to hobble through the transition area with one shoe on and one shoe hanging on my bike. I don't know, I felt stupid!

4. What's the most thrilling thing that's happened to you in a tri?
So far, all of my races have been thrilling. But, the most thrilling moment may have been when I hit the pay button for Ironman Zurich 2007. I was kind of in a daze for a while.

5. What is something you discovered about yourself by doing triathlons?
I have discovered that I have not discovered my personal limits.

6. What is THE BIG GOAL that you're working towards?
Ironman Zurich, Baby!!!

Super Bowl Spin!

The first annual Super Bowl Sunday Spin is in the books. We had a pretty good turn out considering the temperature never went above zero. It was actually pretty tolerable. It may have been the beer in hand action that helped defeat the cold, but you always have to stay hydrated right? Tac Boy and Iron Jenny were filming some video, so be sure to stop by their sites soon. Here are a few of the great images that were captured.

Yours truely staying hydrated

Dia's sweet ride.

Tac Boy impersonating Koach Kris.

Never went above zero!!!

Well, for what ever reason, my photos and captions are not working right. They don't want to line up all nice for me. Operator error???

It Just Looks Fast!!!

Here's a look at the new speed machine. 2006 QR Seduza with Zipp 999 wheels. Just picked it up yesterday. I upgraded the FSA cranks to Ultegra and added the new Serfas wireless speed and cadance computer. It will take me a while to get used to it. It feels so much different from my road bike that was set up like a tri bike. I can get aero without feeling cramped and without my knees hitting my elbows. Can't wait to get it outside.

It does need a name though. Any suggestions?

Miracle on Ice?

So during the tough, double spin session last night at Iron Jenny's someone came up with a wonderful idea. Let's set up our trainers on a frozen lake and film a spin session. Seemed like a fun idea, but will it really happen? Well, as I hobble into work this morning, trying to find my legs after last nights workouts, I check some email. Yah! The plans are in the making for what may possible be the first ever frozen spin session. The plan is to shovel off a section of frozen lake and set up our trainers and film a spin session. Why? Not. Really. Sure. But I'm in! Looks like this miracle on ice will take place on Super Bowl Sunday. Refreshments will be served in the spectators area (hot tub) which will be kept warm by TriNick. I'll try and post updates on times and head count. Let's see if we can set a winter spin record. If there is such a thing.

Spin to Win.

Iron Jenny, Laura, Dia, TriNick, and Bob in for the kitchen spin.

So, I finally made it to another one of Iron Jenny's wonderful spin seesions. Even though I had to cut it short it was still a great workout. I am realizing that even though my legs are feeling pretty strong I still have an extremely long ways to go on my cardio. I was trying to follow along with the spinerval video, which was supposed to focus on aerobic conditioning, but my heart rate just continued to climb. I had to back off a lot to keep my heart rate aerobic. It's kind of frustrating, but I have to remeber that it is early and these are the workouts that will help increase my aerobic ability. I just have to have patience and focus on my plan, it will all come together.

I managed to squeez in a weight session at lunch today with a short run for a cooldown. I am planning an hour run for after work followed by a relaxing swim session. I have really been enjoying my swim sessions so far. All I have been doing is easy swimming and stroke work. It's nice to go to the pool and not suffer through a tough speed work out. But, those are just around the corner.

What is going on?

So I will finally have some free time this weekend, so I decided to check ice climbing conditions in MN. I found out that you now have to buy a $25. permit to climb in the St. Paul parks. What??? Cyclist, walkers, and joggers don't need a permit to use the park, but I am supposed to pay for one to use a city park along side a winter walker that is there for free. I don't get it. So, I guess I won't be climbing in St. Paul this year. It looks like climbing will have to wait a couple weeks until I can get up the the North Shore and climb for free.

Anyways, my training is slowly starting to build now. I made it through another hour run last week and it felt really good. I have about three weeks until my actual training program starts, so I am just slowly increasing times to prepare for that. I am really not looking forward to spending long hours on my bike on the trainer. I just get really bored after about an hour or so. The three+ hour rides that I will have to do before spring are really going to suck. A Lot!!! I can't wait to get outside for a ride. I am trying to use my mountain bike for some short rides this winter, but it really isn't the same.

Oh well, it's off to the gym tonight for a good weight session followed by a pool workout. It is really crazy how crowded the gyn is after New Years. Some people may stick with it, but my guess is that by mid Feb. it will be back to normal, whick means no more waiting for a machine or treadmill. YEE HAW!!!

It turns out, that like most things, my musical preferences are cyclical. I am reverting to listening to a lot of the music I grew up with as a teenager. I have added a lot of punk rock, heavy metal, and other hard music to my work out playlists and driving cd's. Here is a little sample of my musical past coming back. "Homebrew" by 311.

Almost done...

So, we are almost done with Christmas celebrations. Four down and two to go. Yee Haw. I really love all of my family, but stretching out Christmas for a month is a bit much.

Anyways, I havn't been posting much lately due to the fact that I havn't been doing much lately. I have been help up with a terrible cold for over a week now and training has been minimal. I made it into the pool last night with my wife. It was her birthday so I surprised her with a new pair of goggles all wrapped up and stuffed in her gear bag. She actually liked them and they fit her face well. So now I can reclaim my other goggles that she had been "borrowing". I managed to swim a nice easy mile. I alternated some pull sets in the first 800 with paddles to try and work my for and gain a little strength in my stroke.

After the swim we went out to a local bar/grill and had a nice dinner, followed by a movie at home. She has been fighting the same cold that I have, so we were in bed pretty early. Not exaclty a wild birthday party.

Ironman Zurich seems like a long ways off, but it's actually right on top of us already, or so it seems. We are trying to finalize our travel plans this week, or at least buy our airline tickets. We are yet to decide where we are going and what we are doing for the days after the race, so it's hard to decide if we are flying back from Zurich or somewhere else. I will have tickets lined up by Thursday, so it's time to decide, I hope.