Fatbike Frozen Forty Race Report

I’m not usually big on writing race reports, but here goes. 

Finish Photo

It was cold.  I mean really cold!!!  Temperature at race start was -2 F with -25 F wind chill.  I have never raced in anything like this.  I was a little worried because of the temps and the fact that this would be my longest offroad/fatbike ride ever, 45 miles!!!

The Start

First ever fat bike mass start race.  It went pretty well, I just tried to stay out of trouble and ride clean lines through the first sections of road and into the single track.  There were a few multi bike pile ups with pass attempts and crashes in corners but I manage to stay clear of most of it.  

The Laps

Lap one had me pretty worried.  I could not get my Heart Rate down no matter how much I slowed down.  I knew it was not sustainable for 5 hours.  My legs really just didn’t have anything in the first few hills, I just felt dead.  Near the end of the first lap I started to get into a rhythm and feel more confident.  

Lap Two. In between laps I stopped quickly at my cooler to grab a new bottle and head back out.  By now the riders were pretty strung out so there weren’t any traffic issues. Towards the end to lap two my HR monitor stopped working so I just tried to ride steady and keep taking in my Infinit Nutrition mix to keep me going.  Lap two was pretty calm and felt good. 

Lap Three started with a near crash on a fast corner which kind of woke me up and got me to focus on my riding.  My legs were starting to feel the effort on all of the hills and flats where I was pushing a little.  I began to realize that I would be able to finish as long as I didn’t have a major crash or mechanical issue.  The cold started to settle into my feet a little by the end of lap three.

Lap four was not pleasant!  My lower back decided it didn’t want to be on the bike anymore.  Every pedal stroke began to hurt.  The cold was starting to get to me.  I still felt warm but I could tell my body was starting to struggle.  I tried to focus on each little stretch knowing that it was taking me closer to the finish line.  

The Finish

Crossed the line and wanted off the bike!!!  Went to the truck to get warm and put some dry clothes on.  There was a thick layer of ice on the inside of my soft shell and the inside of my outer tights.  As I started to warm up I started to shiver uncontrollably.  Got all the warm gear on and headed out to see how others were doing.  A friend greeted me with a beer that was so tasty!!! Hung around for awards and drawing with hopes of winning something, but nothing for me.  

Recovery

The rest of the day was spent on the couch hydrating and eating.  The following day I was really sore, pretty much everything hurt so not much was going on.  Monday I had a really painful massage at Body Rhythms.  It definitely loosened me up, but hurt at the same time.  Epsom salt bath that evening to try and further help the recovery process.  Tuesday morning greets me with a bit of soreness but a step in the right direction.  

Conclusion

This was a super hard race!  I think I will do it again, but I will train more appropriately for such a long cold event!!! 

Thanks to everyone who helped me out!  Thanks to Body Rhythms for taking care of my body!  

Angels...

The Sufferfest Angels is a harsh climbing experience! Brutal attacks standing, sitting just trying to hang on!!

Let's do this...

Super excited to have a new sponsor. Thank you Body Rhythms for helping me chase my Kona dream by providing massage therapy or as I call it, my body mechanic!!!  Check out the website at www.bodyrhythyms.web.com.

Better to have tried...

The Sufferfest Nine Hammers really is not pleasant.  I tried to ride true to my power numbers and it hammered me.  Hammer number seven cracked me.  Hammer number eight broke me.  Sure I could have backed off so I could say I finished the workout.  But that's not in me.  I rode my power until I couldn't do it anymore.

The Journey is the Reward!!!

So I am starting out this new Ironman journey by bringing back my old blog.  I'm a total dork, but it lets me share what I experience and learn along this journey.  Please join me and share in the adventure!

I love MN winters!!!

Here is a quick little chart to help you calculate windchills in your area. Just to give you an idea of what I am dealing with here, it was -15F with 20 MPH winds when I left for work this morning. That puts the windchill right around 42 degrees below freakin' zero. I can handle cold. I have spent many days at a time on winter camping is these conditions, but it's not as much fun when I only get to drive to work in it. My car just starts to feel a little bit warm when I get to work, and I have a forty minute drive!

All Outdoor Activities Cancelled!!!

Stay Warm, Drink Whiskey!!!

Large Base vs. Small Base + Speed

I am looking for some feed back on training. I am admittedly very stubborn and not really good at taking advice if I don't agree with it. But, there comes a time when even I have to admit that I don't know it all. So here is my question. I have been reading a lot about short and olympic course training and it seems there is a good debate about large base and build vs small base and increasing speed for the shorter events. What I need to know is if anyone out there has experience with the smaller base and more speed approach to training for short races.

Right now I am going with the faster approach and mainly focusing on my run, but the season is still a long way off, so there is time for a change if needed.

Here is an example of current training:

Saturday Jan 19th long run: 7 miles @ 8:08 pace
Sunday Jan 20th Off
Monday Jan 21st bike: wu 5min main 2x5min tempo 5min recovery, 5x30sec big gear drills, 30sec rest.
cd 5min easy spin
Tuesday Jan 22nd short run: 3 miles @ 7:28 pace
Wednesday Jan 23rd run/swim brick: Run 3 miles 6:40 pace Swim 1000 yards of Drills.
Thursday Jan 24th easy run: 4-6 miles at 8:00 pace.
Friday Jan 25th Off:

The general plan is to do a long run over the weekend followed by shorter runs of increasing intensity throughout the week, and ending with an easier mid distance run. I will be including 2 bikes and 2 swims starting next week. These will mostly focus on form in the pool and base on the bike.

Can this plan work?

Base Training Sucks!!!

Base training sucks!!! I'm just starting to do some real training now and this base stuff is really boring this year. Why can't I just go fast. Last year I had much more patience for this because I was training for an IM. Now, this year, all I am racing are short course events so long and slow is not fitting in with my mentality right now. I know I need to do it, but it's hard to go slow. I know, I know, have patience, fast workouts are just around the corner. Before I know it I will begging for mercy on the track, on the roads and in the pool. It just seems so far away right.

Kind of Returning.

So, I have not posted in about six months or so. I have been content lurking in the background, reading others blogs and being entertained. This post is just a short update on what's been going on in my life since Ironman Switzerland.

I pretty much shut down my training after Zurich and turned to riding and racing my mountain bike for fun. I didn't really train for it, I would just show up and ride. I crashed a lot and had a lot of fun in the process. The really big news is that we expecting a baby girl in May. We have been spending a lot of time getting the house ready and acquiring many of the things that we will need when she arrives. We have been remodeling the basement bedroom for our boy to move into. He is pretty excited to have the entire basement to himself. He is also a little bit scared of it at the same time. He is 10 now and a little tentative to actually make the move, but he will be really happy to have his own space in a few years.

That's really about all that's going on here. My wife is pregnant and healthy, I am fat and slow, and now the training must begin. I am looking forward to another fun year.

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.