Becoming triathlete

ChesapeakeMan AquaVelo - longest swim and ride of my life

2009-09-29T23:44:00.001-04:00

This past weekend I took my family down to Cambridge Maryland to be with me when I raced the AquaVelo race during the ChesapeakeMan festival of races. Along side the full Ironman distance race there is an option to swim 2.4 mile (the aqua option) or swim and bike (aqua velo option - the race I was doing). This was actually very first attempt at swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles. The longest ride leading up to this race was about 80 miles on the rolling hills around my house and the longest swim I ever did was the 1.2 miles in half iron races. But I had no doubt going into this race that if I paced the event well I will finish in good position.

We left the house on Friday morning to make it down to the race venue in time to pickup the packet, check-in the bike, get groceries, and get some sleep before the long day.

We got to Cambridge around little after the time when the transition opened and after picking up the race packet we made our way to the transition. I checked the bike, made sure the new batteries in power meter work and took the bike for short spin up and down the road. Ian made sure my pedals worked so I can get through the whole 112 miles on the bike. Then I just dropped off the bike at my rack.

Ian had a blast with Dasa and Lada and he even went with me to check out the swim buoys that were already in the water ready for the morning swim. The swim did not look all that long - I guess I got used to the idea of longer swims. My only concern was the wind for both the swim and bike.

Then it was time to check out the swim to bike transition rack where we will put our bike gear. Ian actually tested my bike helmet and got very aero before we went to the hotel to get some late lunch.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful - trip to the hotel, lunch and pre-race meeting where we heard a bit about the course and how the day is planned out to unfold. Then it was time to mix my drinks for next day and get to bed. Surprisingly I slept well and got pretty solid 5.5 hours of sleep. Which is always good.

Next morning Dasa drove me to Cambridge to the race start, I setup my bike and got ready for the start. Wind picked up quite a bit from the day before which meant that both swim and bike will be interesting. Still I did not mind it at all - I did swim in this area before and was ready for pretty bad conditions. This seemed like a mild version of what I was expecting. Around 6 Dasa took off to catch some more ZZZs and make sure Ian is OK. I just went through my pre-race routine - walk the transition, take care of my business and suit up for the swim. I met with few friends from my local races, said hello and wished good luck in the long day ahead of us. Erica and Craig arrived as well as did my buddies Chris and Herb. Erica and Craig were doing the full iron distance race (Erica as part of relay with her sister Katie) and both Chris and Herb raced AquaVelo with me.

Shortly before 7am we were directed to the water which was very nice and generally warmer than the air outside - especially in the wetsuit. Few seconds after 7am the gun went off and we were under way. I took Erica's advice and made sure to start at the pace I expected to swim through the whole race. No sprinting from the crowd - I left that to other people. The swim is two loops of triangular course. First leg was easy as we swam with the current and wind, only towards the end of the leg the waves started to pick-up. They were more significant after turn buoy and even more significant on the way back. But I just found the right rhythm and kept sighting. It was pretty hard at times and I found myself swimming to the start buoy instead of the turn buoy. Luckily one of the kayakers yelled at me and I corrected my direction. I probably lost few minutes with this, but that made me sight even more on the second loop which was almost perfect. I swam the out leg pushing little more and had someone draft of off me - I did not mind someone drafting, but I was not happy with him touching my feet with every stroke. That was just not cool. I decided not to pay attention to it - since I'll probably shake him after the turn buoy - which actually happened. On the way back I kept sighting little more and swam to the right buoy before returning back to the water exit. I exited the water at 1:08:55 which is pretty good swim time for the conditions we were facing. I'm not sure what my place was after the swim, but by the first turnaround (10 miles) on the bike I was in 22nd place. But let's not get too much ahead.

Transition was pretty good - I ran on the wrong side of the rack, but did not lose much time with that. Then I was in changing tent taking off my wetsuit and putting on my helmet. I stuck my wetsuit to my transition bag, ran to my bike rack and was on my way. The transition was about 2:20, but I do not know for sure as my watch switched off about 3 minutes into the swim - I probably hit someone with my hand and stopped the watch. I did not really mind it as race takes the splits from the chip (luckily my chip did not die on the swim, but did on the bike).

I started my bike computer before crossing the mat to have proper time for the bike leg. I was aiming to complete the 112 miles in 5 hours and 15 minutes which meant about 21.5 - 21.7 mph through out. The course is pancake flat so this is very doable if the wind is not too strong. The plan was to take the first 20 miles easy as a warm-up to settle into the position, then bump up the power output a little and hold it for the first whole loop (up to about 64 miles) and then increase the effort and keep pushing to the finish. I did not have to run (well at least not in the race) so I could afford to push higher wattage than in the full race.

Even on my warm-up out and back 20 miles I moved-up few positions and at the turnaround I was about 10-12 minutes down on the leaders and in about 22nd place which was a good position this early in the race. On the way out we were really moving - with little power output we were all doing comfortable 26 mph - it was after turnaround that we had to fight the wind and the speed immediately dropped to 21 mph with higher power output - even in perfect aero position. Poor guys that were already tired at that point and were stretching out or rode upright like sails. I did not know where I was relative to the AquaVelo folks and while my goal was to finish in the top 10 I knew the best way to reach that goal is to stick to the race plan. And I did. I had no interest in chasing people or fighting for position. I got into the few packs - well we all rode legally, but you have 2-4 guys constantly trading places and pacing off of each other. That makes the miles fly by like nothing. The wind seemed quite OK on the first 20-30 miles, but when we turned to the marshes it seemed to beat at us from all directions. At times I had to come out of aero to grab my handlebars to keep the bike from running off the road. According to some people there were wind gusts of 20 mph at times and pretty constant wind of 10mph. I was actually very happy to be done with the first loop and I was not disappointed missing to see my family as I finished the loop about 10 minutes faster than planned.

As I started the second loop of the remaining 48 miles things started to get uncomfortable - it was tough to find comfortable position on the seat, aero was not comfortable either. But I knew if I wanted to be fast I had to stay aero as much as possible so I forced myself stick in aero position and only stretched from time to time. The worst part of the second loop were miles 70-80 - that is the gray area of the race. You are not close to finish to start counting down the miles and mind can play games with you. I was determined to keep pushing especially after being passed by fellow AquaVelo competitor that probably stopped for special needs bag (I did not as I treated special needs bag as bag for case something went wrong on loop 1 - I was good after loop 1 so I just blew by the special needs area). Shortly after being passed I saw that there was another AquaVelo competitor ahead. So I stuck close to the guy that passed me and we caught up to Herb. It was good to see fellow EnMu athlete and we exchanged few pleasantries as we traded places. We pushed each other quite nicely for the next about 7-10 miles and completely lost contact with the man that brought us together. I kept my pace going and after few miles I checked if Herb is still behind me and found he was falling back a little. I just stuck to my plan and as I was getting close to mile 90 I opened up the pace even more. Now the goal was to break 5 hours mark. It was entirely possible to do it since I still had time to get to the finish with about 30-40 seconds to spare. So I concentrated on pushing hard, staying aero and keeping my back relaxed with regular stretching every few miles. I blew past few competitors that were finishing their first loop and encouraged most of them to keep pushing to the finish. The cutoff was still some 4 hours away so they had plenty of time to finish the bike leg. I rolled past the last aid station, took water and kept pushing. It was only few miles to the finish. I was almost like in a dream - you may know the out of body experience when everything just seems going well and you do not even notice the effort you are putting out on the bike - fluid state. This stuck with me all the way to the finish. I was actually little sad that the day is done for me. I did indeed get my sub-5 hours bike split - with about 25 seconds to spare (not sure of the exact time from the chip as it died on me, but my bike computer shows clearly that I stopped moving my bike before 5 hours were over on the bike.

After I finished I was greeted by my family and the race director who handed me 5th overall award for the AquaVelo - great I like being 5th more than being 10th. It will have prominent place in my library next to all the other AG and overall awards from the past few years of racing. I was genuinely pleased with the result.

And well then it was time to tie on my shoes and go for a nice jog with new found friends - David who finished before me and his wife who were doing transition run as well.

The run did not go all that well - first mile was fine, then I got some GI issues and then my head started to spin - I seriously did not fuel for run after bike and it was time to get back to the finish line and get some food before collapsing. Pizza did me good and I was ready to go for some serious meal. We packed my stuff and headed over to next town over to get some pasta and meat - carbs and protein is always good after races. I felt like a pig - I ate everything I saw. No wonder I burned some 4500 - 5000 calories in the race so I needed to refuel. Since then I kind of toned down my eating, but I seem to be in this pig out mode since the weekend.

It was great to spend the afternoon with my family, have quite dinner and then just chill in our hotel room. My legs were hurting like hell on the day of the race, but they got better on Sunday and I had almost no residual soreness on Monday. I love AquaVelo races - I was less beat up than after half iron race. And as usual here are few pictures showing the blast Ian had at the race - he was so happy the whole weekend. It was great watching him - and he actually slept from 4pm on Sunday all the way to 8am on Monday. So in a way he had his race as well.

Quakerman 70.3 - rainy day at the lake with great finale

2009-09-18T21:56:00.001-04:00

About a week before the race it looked like we will have some light sunshine and pleasant 70's for the run. It was not to be - the weather forecast changed from partly cloudy to cloudy and then to rainy over the 2-3 days before the race. Oh well I thought - another wet one which seems to be the rule this season. I was hoping this will not turn into duathlon and at least that prayer was heard and we did have a full tri.

I'll spare you all the details about my waking time and eating habits. After I got on site I got quickly body marked - only on my hand which I did not like much. I prefer knowing who just passed me especially if I can not see if they are in my race or the olympic race. Oh well I guess they did not have enough volunteers to do proper body marking. After that I went back to my car to get my stuff and setup transition. I picked spot close to bike exit right next to Lenny and across the aisle from Chris - my EnMu buddies. While we were getting setup we were being checked by the USAT referee - well our helmets that is. Funny is that the same referee gave Chris hard time during Steelman and we were joking about it just before she showed up. It all turned up to be good fun and she actually came back once again to tell me jokingly that she needs to check the helmet again just as we were getting ready for practice swim.

I got into my wetsuit, stuck extra ear plug into the wetsuit in case I lose the ones I have in my ears - last OWS was a big learning - I got such motion sickness without ear plug that I almost passed out in calm lake after I lost one of my ear plugs. The water was cold for my taste, but after 400m warm-up it got better. I was ready to go. Just before the start I said hi to Leah and Garen who were doing the Olympic distance and came to check out our start. Then it was time to rock - went to the water, lined up up front and took the inside line. After the horn I went ahead and pushed quite a bit to get out of the pack. Well that lasted a little while, but once we got to the first buoy I got in the middle of few people and had to speed up again. Then I got caught in between two guys and could not go through or around them. At that point my HR was too high so I decided to let it settle by swimming on my back for about 30-60 seconds. Once I regrouped I continued freestyle only little more paced. At the second turn we turned back against the wind and pretty good chop. I had to stop once or twice to check where we are swimming as sighting was not easy in these conditions. But I remembered the Chesapeake mile swim and the chop was not all that bad. Well it was washing over my head and I swallowed some water before I got into the rhythm. On the second lap it was much calmer - less people to fight with and I was able to settle into my pace and just keep going without any breaks. I exited the water about 2 minutes slower than I planned, but given conditions it was an OK swim. Based on results I had 11th swim out of the 90 finishers. Not bad. Definitely an improvement from last year where I was further back even though I had great swim. I guess the hours in the pool are showing some results. I still have to have a stellar swim though.

After fairly fast transition - slower than usual as I was getting my arm warmers for the bike - I was biking out of the park and pacing myself up the hill. Poor guy I passed on that hill he was clearly struggling on the incline I wonder how he did on all the other hills especially on the RT313 climb that can be a bitch especially the third time around. Unfortunately my bike prep was not stellar for this race and I forgot to check my power meter - it did not work. Oh well what can I do I'll just go by feel. I have done enough riding on these hills to know when I'm pushing over threshold and when I'm slacking off. So I went. The race loops three times around lake Nockamixon which is rolling hills course with few good climbs. I wanted to do the first loop little more conservatively, then second loop little harder and third loop little bit harder than second. But not too hard to kill my legs before the run. Tough balance to keep on these climbs even with power meter. I was hoping for 21.5 - 21.8 average speed on the course in dry conditions. Wet roads make for slightly slower bike as I do not risk as much on the bike since the last year wipe out during JerseyMan that put me out of training for few weeks. It is not worth it. I ended-up averaging 20.8 over the 56 miles which is about mile per hour slower than I wanted, but it still gave me 3rd fastest bike split of the day. There was some wind and rain so people were not as fast as in dry conditions. Plus there was a lot of debree on the roads from the rain storms we had few days before the race. Also quite a few people ended up with flat tire (one poor guy actually had two flats and still finished in top 10 - great run for him - his legs got a good break waiting for the sag wagon with technician). After the race I noticed that I was about 1 mm away from flat myself. I got a sharp rock stuck in my tire and it went all the way to casing of the tubular - yeah big luck for me.

Transition two was fast - just got my socks, shoes and off I went. After the experience during Patriot's tri I will not do any run longer than 10k sock-less. That Patriot's run was the most stupid idea of this season resulting in blisters that took about week to heal. My goal for the run was to keep pace between 7:50 and 8:00 minute mile. First half a mile was a huge struggle as my quads were hurting from the bike and the left one was really bad. Luckily as I was closing on second mile most of the pain went away and I was able to run solid pace even on the uphills. I focused on good form, breathing and pacing myself - it is a long run and as I learned during the BlackBear you will only hurt yourself if you try to go out too fast. Even on downhills I was sure not to go much faster than 7 minute mile. Surprisingly I felt great after the first 3.25 miles (first turnaround).

I was in second place (well technically third, but the girl running in front of me was part of relay). I felt great the half of the second loop and only stated to fade after the turnaround - well time to get the boost - I took three salt tables and chewed them - yuk it was nasty, but helped a bit. I washed them down with gel water mix and in about 2 minutes I was back in the game. Unfortunately just at that point when I was starting mile 12 the guy behind me made his move and passed me. He was going much too fast for me to sustain the pace for 2 miles (we still had about 2 miles to the finish at this point). So I just kept my pace and focused on my race. After aid station where I got last cup of water I saw him about 50 meters in front of me and kept him in my sight for next mile. Then I lost contact completely. But that was OK I was running my race at that point and I knew I had only one more mile to go - so I opened it up and ran what seemed like 7 minute mile - all the way to the finish. If anything I was picking up speed and not slowing thanks to friend of mine who was cooling down on the race course and ran in front of me - his cool down is 6 minute mile I guess. He is really fast (and placed real well in the Olympic race).

And there it was finish line - I almost took down one poor lady in the finish shoot as I passed her (she was in the Oly race). After I crossed the finish line I simply collapsed to the ground to give my legs a break. I was not exhausted I just needed to sit down and that was the fastest way to sit. I returned the chip, git back up and grabbed some food.

Then I re-united with my family and shared the moment with my son and wife. They are my greatest supporters. Later I met with Leah, then Chris crossed the finish line and we shared a moment.

Then it was time to change to something dry and collect my stuff from transition. After that I checked the results and there it was - I was third overall male finisher. That is the first time placing in top three for me and it feels great. This is certainly thanks to the great support and training guidance I'm getting from my coaches Erica and Craig. I'm looking forward to my next race which is the Chesapeake Man Aqua Velo - which is 2.4mi swim and 112mi bike race (so Ironman distances with no marathon). After that I'll be training for Philly marathon with goal to break the 3:30 mark that escaped me last year with few stupid first timer mistakes I plan to avoid this year.

Quakerman 70.3 - quick update

2009-09-14T00:27:00.001-04:00

This is just a short update after few weeks of silence. I have been busy training and at work. This past Saturday I competed in 70.3 race around lake Nockamixon. It was cold and rainy day which was not all that bad - I take it rather than the 95 degrees humid day we had 2 years ago. I did very well during this one and placed third overall in field shy of 100 people. Proper race report with pictures will follow. Sunday was family day and tomorrow back to work. I'm sure I'll find some time to post more details some day this week.

Patriots triathlon turned duathlon

2009-08-04T22:14:00.001-04:00

This Sunday was another race day, nothing big just another B-race to keep me on my toes. I had busy work week so I did not have much time to worry about the race preparation until Friday evening when I got home totally exhausted. Saturday was devoted to packing and relaxation with the family to regain at least some composure before the race. During the week I sporadically checked the weather forecast and it looked like we will have some rain, but no storms were expected in the area until about 2 ours after the start - that is late bike and early run in this race. So I was pretty relaxed about it. Well until I got up on Sunday morning to pouring rain and thunder. Well let's hope it passes. I took few extra large ziploc bags for my shoes, socks and other run stuff and left the house.

I got to the race venue as second or third car - for some reason directions predicted 50 minutes ride, but that turned to be about 35 minutes in morning no traffic conditions. Great I have some time to get setup which is good, because I did not really do any prep during the week - I actually planned my nutrition as I mixed it on Saturday evening. Not ideal. After I got setup and the rain was still on and off I noticed a flash. Oh someone just took picture I thought - until I heard thunder. Well this does not look like we will be swimming at all I thought. After another 20-30 minutes of thundering and rain the race director announced that we will do a duathlon. The sprint race was to start with 1 mile run and out half lite race with 2 miles run. Great I just lost the advantage of my stronger swim. I did get a big trash bag and put all the stuff I will not need into it and left it next to my bike. Packed socks and visor in separate bag not to get them wet from wet shoes from the first run and cleared separate bag for my running shoes so they do not get more wet during the bike. After that I met Leah and saw Erica and Craig pull in to spectate and cheer us on. I did not know at that time that Pete from EnMu squad is racing as well. Only realized that on the run when I saw him for brief moment (so brief I could not even say Hi, but we met after the race and had a good chat). After that Leah and I went for warm-up run and as we were heading back Erica and Craig rushed us to the starting line. Apparently the plan changed and the race was starting 15 minutes earlier. OK we had about 30 seconds to get ready - which meant for me to sprint to the front. Then I heard 10 seconds, 5 seconds, GO!!!. All right this is the best timed warm-up in any race I ever had. I was little disappointed with the weather, but soon forgot about it and kept focused on running hard, but not too hard. The run was mixed road and packed gravel road. The pace in the first 200 meters was too fast and I consciously slowed down to about 6:20-6:30 minute miles on the flats and about 7:15 on the slight uphills. Overall I'm happy with the run although it felt like being in a dream not completely conscious.

I ran into the T1, found my rack, took off my shoes and shoved them into the bag, then I grabbed my bike only to realize I need a helmet, well only to realize I still have my hat on. I tossed it to the ground and put on my helmet. Then ran off with my bike. The whole T1 was little over 50 seconds, but it felt very long for my standard. Need to put this on my practice brick workouts in case I have another duathlon.

Bike was also interesting. In the first curve I noticed that one of the breaks is not fully engaging - not all that good in rainy conditions. Being disoriented I thought it is the read, so I checked the quick release, which was fine, then I tightened the brake cable while riding. I let few people pass me knowing I'll get them later in the bike leg anyways. Only about 4 miles into the bike I realized the front break is the issue and fixed it - the quick release was off from me changing the wheel before the race - good lesson for next time (left brake font - as if I'm on the bike the first time). The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful. The race is done on 13 miles big loop that is scaled down to about 10 miles smaller loop that the half lite riders complete 2 more times. I took the first loop easy to test the waters and see how fast I can go to the curves and downhill. The next two loops I rode more aggressively, but still stayed on the cautions side. No need to have another gash in my thigh and be out of commission for few weeks. During the first loop I basically gained few positions I lost on the first 2-3 miles and kept the position through the whole 2nd loop. I closed the gap a little to the pack of 3 riders, but only passed them through the 3rd loop as people started to experience fatigue. It seemed to me that many riders took the first loop too hard and paid for it later. When I rolled into the T2 Craig yelled to me that I'm in 15th place. Not bad for this race format I thought. As I ran to the transition through the mud and puddles of muddy water the mud kept splashing all over my bike and body. When I racked the bike I was still standing in big pool of muddy water and had a decision to make - socks or no socks. Well it is only 7 miles and my feet are anyways going to have blisters. So no socks. I cleaned my feet in the muddy water and grass and put on my shoes. Grabbed my visor, gel flask and off I was - some 50 seconds again.

That brings us to the run which is pretty deceiving. The first mile and a half is downhill and then you go another 2 miles on rolling terrain that is mostly downhill. I kept my pace just around 7:00-7:15 and felt good. I was not redlining on the run and took time to sip gel just before aid station and took water while walking for 20-30 seconds (not all aid stations - only 3 of them). I knew there is 14 guys in front of me and kept looking for them. The first one appeared fairly soon, but the second one already had about 6 minutes gap on the leader, third and fourth guy were together and the rest were pretty much 10-15 seconds from each other. On the run I did not keep count, but I passed few people and on the way back in the last 1.5 miles I got passed by two guys. Overall I did not gain or lose position, but I was not all that happy with it. When I hit the last mile I thought HTFU and kept going. I checked few times how much gap there was to the guys behind me and did not see anyone. Last time I checked I was some 500m from the finish and there were two guys pretty close. My thought - I did not work hard to get passed in the last stretch and I opened it up from 7:30 mile to 6:30 mile and then on the finishing stretch which was ankle deep in mud and water ran 5 minute mile. They did not pass me and I have no idea if they really attempted. Well here is the only photo I have from this race and as few people said it summarized the day very well. It is me crossing the finish line after sprinting in the mud. Enjoy.

For the numbers inclined crowd, here is the breakdown:
Overall place: 15
Age group place: 4
Run (2mi): 13:24
T1: 0:00:54
Bike (38mi): 1:43:04
T2: 0:00:50
Run (7mi): 0:50:54
Total: 2:49:05

After the race I hang around with Craig and Pete and we cheered on Leah as she finished. Then we chatted little more in the rain an waited for the awards ceremony. Results were not posted due to broken printer. During the ceremony we learned that Leah placed 3rd in her age group (Congrats Leah on job well done in your first long race) and Pete won his age group - well done Pete and great confidence builder for your IM later in the season. Overall despite the rain the race was good. Although I was disappointed not being on the podium I had a great race and ran my heart out. It reconfirmed that the training is taking me in the right direction and that my fitness is definitely where it should be. Looking forward to next race in September. By the way today I signed up for Eagleman 70.3 for June 2010. It is almost local race so I should do it.

Now only if the blisters and chaffed feet would heal fast so I can get back to running. Biking and swimming are OK as I tested yesterday and today.

Anthracite Triathlon 2009 - Olympic distance

2009-07-20T00:45:00.001-04:00

OK I need to admit it up front I am excited. This was a great race and it shaped up very nicely for me. I'm all tapered for my A-race that I have not been able to start last weekend due to some issues that prevented me from traveling away from PA. I was looking forward to this race to see how my fitness progressed over the past year. And I was literally blown away. But let's not get ahead of the report.

I'll not start with the wake-up call and coffee, because all the stuff that happens before the wave start while important is not as interesting. So let's start with the swim. I knew from DC that I need to push right out of the gate to get out of the mess of mass start. I lined up little to the right of the group and way in front as far as I could stand. When the horn sounded I just jumped in and started pushing pretty hard for about 100 meters. Then I settled into my pace and kept sighting. I swam this part as a warmup earlier and since then wind picked up and there was a light chop that was washing over my head. Other times I would freak out, but this was nothing compared to Chesapeake Bay swim so I just kept going. Key was sighting as all the rescue kayaks had same colors as buoys. At one time I was not sure which was which and needed to take second peak on few strokes to keep on track to turn buoy. Funny part - until I hit the first turn buoy which was about 700m away I was swimming alone. After the turn I was trading places with two other guys and that placement stayed until the end of the swim. The swim back was very easy and only after the turn we had to fight a little bit of current that was pushing me away from the course. But nothing major. I exited the water at 24:24 which is huge improvement over last years 36:56. Last year was no wetsuit swim, this year we were allowed to use wetsuit.

There is a long run up the hill to transition that I paced myself on. I did not want to raise my HR even more than it already was. In transition I put on my helmet grabbed my bike and went on my merry way. When I got out of the park few people yelled at me that I'm in 3rd place which is pretty much where I stayed through out the bike. I passed the 2nd guy for a while just before the long climb and kept my position on the climb, but he got ahead of me after the climb and rode away over the next 10 miles. I kept seeing him on the long straights, but was not able and willing to push harder that I did. The bike course is very hard by any other tri standard - I would compare it to Black Bear Tri with few hills stacked on top of each other. There are few major climbs, the worst one is the first hill about 2-3 miles into the ride. You really need to get your biking legs for that one and pace it. The second hard hill is after the half way point when you enter Jim Thorpe and have to climb pretty steep hill that turns right into a wall. After more climbing there is some more climbing and rolling climbing back to the Lentz Trail and that one is rolling road where you can pick-up some speed. Speaking of speed - the course has some really nice hills where you can pick-up some serious speed. I did not break my speed record from last year, but got pretty close - 47.9mph on the first downhill. And this year no police or volunteers were in harms way (read last years report if you want to learn what almost happened there). The bike then goes beyond the park entrance to the bottom of the first major hill to turnaround and back to the park. I timed my gap on the 1st and 2nd guys and I was about 6 minutes behind #1 and about 3 minutes behind #2. Soon there was park entrance and time to get running. I do not have exact bike split, but my split after T2 was 1:10:45 which is by itself improvement over last year by few minutes.

I knew what I was up to in the run. The run course starts with 2.5 miles nice trail rolling run which is mostly slightly downhill. After that you make sharp right hand turn and climb steep hill to turn point which is about 0.75 miles up the hill. I figured I'll go by feel. In the past few races I was running on what I call edge of side stitch - you can feel it coming, but if you keep the same pace it does not hinder your run. That was around 7 minute pace on the downhill and about 8:00 - 8:30 on the uphill. About 3/4 way up the hill I got passed by two guys that were clearly faster runners. I decided to run my own race and make sure I have enough energy to finish the whole run strong. After the turnaround I was ripping it up down the hill and keeping the one in my sights. That was the case for remainder of the slight uphill back towards the transition area. I did have few rough patches where the bad Jan was telling me to stop and walk. I did not listen to him much and just kept going. On the run I was running on fumes - especially on the way back to the park. I had gel flask with me, but knew that if I took a sip I may trigger some cookie tossing and I knew I can sustain the final two miles on what I took on the bike and before the swim (about 280kcal on bike and same amount about 30 minutes before the swim). I did not even take any water, just kept pushing back to the finish. When I saw last mile marker I knew I'll make it and the challenge was to gain some time on that last mile. I went to overdrive and picked-up the pace. I felt it right away, body rebelled but I did not let it slow down. I knew that the last part of the run is downhill and flat so I can let the gravity take care of the final sprint. Still need to look over the mile splits on that run, but my last mile is most likely the fastest one. When I had the finish line in sight I unleashed the overdrive mode and spent last reserves. I crossed finish line, slowed down, took down my chip and collapsed next to my son. I was done. After few minutes resting I sipped all my gels I had for run, ate banana and drank some water.

Can you say "I had enough"

Refueling and sharing the moment

Handshake with Craig shortly after he crossed the line

Then we waited around to see my coach and other EnMu athletes finish. First to cross the line was Jes who also took the top overall women. She is very fast. After a minute or so Craig was crossing the line. We chatted a bit at the finish line and then Ian, Dasa and Veronika decided it was time for beach. I went to transition to pack my stuff and put it to the car while they went to the beak where I joined them. The award ceremony at this race does not start until the last person crosses the finish line so we had some time to swim and have fun. The beach time was great and we all enjoyed it a lot.

Getting ready for the water

Fun with Veronika

Look daddy I'll show you something

You see... Yeah he smashed my face in the water - all in good spirits of playing

Look mommy how I can kick the water

Then it was time for the awards ceremony and I already knew that while I crossed the line fifth I gave up two more spots due to the waves start. I was in the first wave and two people had better finish time and passed me in the overall ranking - well guess what the first one is Jes and the second one is Craig - I was not even upset about it. In the final tally I finished first in my age group which is a first one ever. So I'm enjoying the moment while my legs are hurting like hell. But that will get better over the next few days.

Receiving the age group award with Ian

Erica, Craig and me posing with our new rocks

One last note - all this was possible thanks to the help I received from my coaches Erica and Craig at the Endurance Multisport. They are just great. Well you can judge by the results - there were three people from EnMu in this race and all three placed first in their AG or overall. The best change to my training I did from last year was to work with professional coaches.

Dextro Energy Sprint Tri Washigton DC

2009-06-25T23:27:00.001-04:00

WARNING: This post is little longer that usual.

This past weekend I was in Washington DC to spectate the Dextro Energy ITU World Championship Series which is a new series of ITU draft legal races. Original plan was to drive to DC and watch the pro triathletes on the ITU circuit battle it out. But few weeks before the race itself I realized that I could actually do the sprint age group race and still make the pro race. Another thing that was interesting was the fact that parts of the course was shared between the age group and pro races - in particular the swim portion (the ITU pontoon), parts of bike and finish line on the run. Where else can you finish your race sprinting on the blue carpet and cross the same finish line that later in the day will be used by pro triathletes some of which competed in Olympic games and actually won (yes Jan Frodeno was in attendance).

Without boring you with the details of the 3 hours drive to DC here are few interesting things about the race. It was organized in downtown DC, the registration was in Grand Hyatt and transition area by the Potomac river on Ohio Dr. That presented a slight logistical challenge for me as out of towner, but organizers had bus service from the hotel to transition. So after attending the mandatory 30 minutes race briefing to learn about the intricacies of the course, that besides swim in muddy Potomac featured ride on major highway in opposite direction than regular traffic (the road was closed to traffic during the race), I was off to the bus with my bike. We needed to leave the bikes in the transition over night which greatly simplified logistics on race morning. After checking in my bike I walked back to the hotel which may not have been the best idea as it was pretty hot and the walk was good two miles or maybe even longer. When I got to the hotel I was hungry, but did not have any interest to wonder about town to find food. Luckily the hotel had restaurant where I got good dinner and then I walked across the street to CVS to buy something for breakfast. The race start was at 6am for olympic distance and 6:30 for sprint. Which is pretty early for any race. I had until about 3:30 to get some sleep and then it was time to get to race.

Funny part about the race starting at this early hour is that when I was leaving the hotel also some hookers were just walking out. I met few more on the way to the Grand Hyatt where the bus departed for the transition. Talk about unusual sights on race morning. Bus took us around the town about 3/4 miles from transition and we walked the rest. Setup was very quick - it was a sprint so I had one bottle with 150 kcal mix of Heed on the bike, one bottle for drinking prior to race, goggles, ear plugs, wetsuit, helmet, sunglasses, shoes, visor, race belt and gel. Sounds like a lot, but my transition space was very neat and felt empty compared to longer races.

After setup I went for short warmup run as we were not allowed to swim prior to the start (bummer). After warmup it was time to leave transition and go to the race start ceremony where major of DC (who raced in the olympic distance race and was in the first wave) spoke few words. And soon the first olympic race wave was off. After a while I started to make my way to the swim corral to secure solid place for the swim. I lined up in the front towards the right side of the river where the current was supposed to be slower. First part of the swim was against the current, then turn for about 30 meters swim and turn back with the current, then swim behind the pontoon take another two turns and go back to the pontoon. Pretty straightforward swim of 750 meters with only 4 buoys all turn buoys for my wave. I started in 8th wave of the day. The plan for the day was to step on the gas at the start and keep going until the finish line. Very easy plan to follow - Craig remarked that this is the only way to find out if and where I blow up. After all this was B-priority race. So I did. Soon after starting we caught up with the slow swimmers from previous wave and I had to swim around them. The first turn was there fast, second even faster. On the swim back with the current I noticed that the current was pulling me away from my direction towards the middle of the river and instead of actually being helped by the current I needed to fight it even on the way back. Somewhere at that point I had to take a breather (started too fast). Turned on my back and kicked for about 30 seconds. Then turned back and kept going. At that point the swim was very difficult - lots of people on the course as we had both the sprint and oly (the very slow swimmers) in the way. I had to swim around many people. Got into few position battles - and while I did not get kicked I had to show few folks that I was serious about keeping my line (not sure really if they fought over the line or just were trying to survive). I was out of water slower than I expected, but I knew that I needed to focus on getting fast through T1.

After about 150m run from the swim exit to transition I stripped out of my wetsuit, put on my helmet, grabbed bike and off I went. I had shoes and glasses on the bike and I put them on after I got rolling. When getting on my bike I forgot I had installed a new flat wing and tore my race suit a little - I do not seem to have much luck with these things :-). Anyways right from start I put the hammer down and just kept going between two gears - hard and harder. The course was almost flat with few short and fairly easy climbs. The bike can be summed up as me being in aero position the whole way while yelling "On your right" the whole 20 km of the bike. I was not passed by even a single rider and must have passed what seemed like 200 people. I'm always amazed at these events why some folks invest so much money in their aero bike and then sit up and hold the bullhorns the whole way. I even saw few newbies sporting new helmets with visor and being in aero position. Well we all started somehow, but it made me chuckle in the middle of getting back to the transition. Even without knowing the course I got out of my shoes in time and made a smooth dismount (I recall someone yelling at me to get off before the line which I did and told them not to worry - I know that is a penalty :-). The T2 was as smooth as T1 - just took off the helmet, put on my shoes (no socks for the 5 k run), grabbed my visor, race belt and off I went. I knew that after the hard bike my run will be somewhat painful and it was. I decided to go as fast as my legs and body will allow. In the first few miles about 3 or maybe 4 people passed me which did not please me, but they were running much to fast for me to try to stick with them. After a mile I slowed down to take a cup of water from the aid station and then kept plugging. As I went to mile 2 I was able to start building the pace and I kept increasing the pace through out the rest of the run. It all went pretty fast - I mean it was 5k after all. at mile 2 I heard steps behind me and someone passed me - darn my AG. I pushed little harder to stay with him, but after about 400 meters I just could not match his pace and I let him go. Which seems slowed him down a little as he did not hear my steps. I kept in the same distance to him through the rest of the run, but in the last mile could not bridge the gap. I finished measly 12 seconds behind him. It was a great race. Funny part was that when I finished there were just few people that finished and the staff was just getting our bags out of the car, the food was just being delivered. So I took time to get my bag, changed to fresh clothes, stretched a little and walked to my hotel. I took shower, packed my stuff, checked out and went back to the race finish line with my camera. When I got back the results were posted - I looked at the order of finish and found my name on line 25 (wow I thought 25th overall is not bad and to my surprise I was 3rd in my age group). Sweet. So I not only waited to spectate the pro event, but also waited for the awards ceremony to collect my award. It was just amazing feeling to finish so well in such a big race. I was hoping for good finish, but this really blew me away. Only few days later when the final results were announced I realized that I finished 13th overall since the order of finish did not account for wave start. Even sweeter. So if this event is back in DC next year I'm pretty sure I'll make the trip down again. Great race with PR course - flat as a pancake with slightly difficult swim where you need to fight current (but not all that bad).

After the race I made a stop at the Suunto exposition and rewarded my great performance with a new watch (guess which one) and I also got a pair of compression socks from Skins for the 3 hours car ride back home. I knew that without them I would suffer the next few days. They actually work very well and I used them even today after my track workout.

If you want to check out the race venue on video you can watch the ITU race recap/highlights on the ITU site. It clearly shows the swim portion (only we started in water and did just one loop) and the finish line which was just a great experience. Especially for folks that were finishing during the ITU pro race.

And for the numbers people here are my splits from the sprint race:
Swim: 14:00
T1: 1:28 (8th best)
Bike: 30:43 (5th best)
T2: 0:44(3rd best)
Run: 22:19
Time: 1:09:12
And how that compares with my plan? Well I had about 3 minutes slower swim than I expected, T1 fasted than expected by about 1:30, bike faster by 3 minutes than expected, T2 about minute faster that expected, run slower by 1:20 than expected. Still beat my projected time by about a minute. So next time - swim harder, ease little bit on the bike and push harder on the run. So I can get my 12 seconds for that 2nd spot in my AG :-). I am still ecstatic about the result.

Chesapeake Bay 1 mile swim challenge

2009-06-18T22:53:00.001-04:00

This past weekend I had a fun race planned - open water swim in the Chesapeake Bay. The key objective in this race was to test the waters literally. I have never done open water swim in the ocean and the 1 mile swim race presented a unique opportunity to test out how the swim will feel in my A-race.

I have decided to head down to Stevensville, MD on race day morning as the race was planned to start at 10am which gave me more than enough time to get down to MD. I would probably not do something like this again - the 3 hours drive to MD was OK, but the 3 hours drive back after the race was something I can do without.

But back to the race - after checking in and setting-up on the beach I observed Lin-Mark team setting-up the course for the swim. It was very simple triangle course - swim by five buoys on the way out, sharp turn right swim by two buoys, hard turn back to the shore with one buoy and then the finish line. You can probably make up the course from the picture below if you go to Flickr and look at the full size picture. To the right is route 50 bridge that my coach Erica swam by during her 4.4 mile swim - and she placed well in her race (11th women overall and 1st in her AG way to go Erica.).

The water did not look all that bad from the shore (what a mistake it was to think that). After a short wait I hooked up with Leah and Lori (fellow EnMu athletes) we attended a short pre-race meeting, suited up and lined-up for the swim. Leah was in 3rd wave and me with Lori were in the last 'pink' wave.

Before the start I lined up to second row expecting to have solid swim and not wanting to swim through large packs during the start of the swim. Few seconds after lining up we were off. The way out was relatively easy - I was by the first buoys and felt pretty good. I did not overdo the start and felt I can pick it up a little. So I did. At the same time waves started to get little bigger and I was having troubles getting my breaths in between being slammed. I panicked a little and that raised my HR. After few minutes of struggle I decided to relax and take few breast strokes to clean my googles that in the meantime fogged (we were not allowed to do practice swim and I put googles under my cap so there was no way to dip them before the start). After that I decided to just take it with cold head and relax. From that point on I just swam with relaxed body while still pushing the pace a bit. I lost some time with the goggles cleaning and calming down, but I was now passing a lot of people that just started out too fast. After the fifth buoys I made a turn only to be kicked into a shoulder by fellow swimmer who obviously struggled by that point. My thought while hearing muffled "Sorry man" was - at least it was not my face. And I kept going. I had few more minor collisions with few people, but no more kicks or slams. After the turn back to shore I had troubles sighting buoys - they used one that is blue, yellow and orange which was just not possible to see. But after few meters I could see it in the distance and I corrected my direction to pass it without risking DQ. On the way back to the shore the waves got much better and I was able to pick the pace up even more. I swam all the way to the point where I touched the bottom and then ran up to the timing mat - it is a race after all. And then it was over - I was like "Hell where is my bike to hop onto." But yeah that was it.

I grabbed bottle of water and waited for Lori and Leah to come out of the water. They were out in few minutes and we grabbed some food, got out t-shirt from organizers, took shower with bunch of other people and headed back to our stuff.

I did post time that is not all that glamorous - 33:18 for the mile swim, but it was a good result given the conditions. The winner had time little over 23 minutes which is very comparable to my swim result from Black Bear where the water was little choppy, but not as bad as during this race. I'm happy with the result and feel ready to tackle the ocean swim in my A-race.

I stuck around for a bit after the race, but then excused myself and headed back home as Dasa was leaving town and I had to resume my primary duty to take care of Ian. Before I left Chesapeake Bay I made a stop on the way from the beach in local crab shack and had a plate of fried shrimp which was just amazing. Then it was time to drive back home.

Next up is sprint triathlon in DC this coming weekend. After that I'll stay around to spectate the ITU race - I plan to stick around for the men race, not sure if I'll wait for the ladies. I'm looking forward to both the AG race and the Pro event as well even with rain forecast for most of Sunday it will be fun.

Black Bear Half Ironman Race Report

2009-06-02T23:37:00.001-04:00

Black Bear Triathlon is the most difficult race I ever participated in. It is situated in beautiful area of Pocono Mountains in PA. The race venue is near Lehighton in Beltzville state park. The event offers a sprint and half ironman distances. Last year I did the sprint and was very impressed with the CGI who puts up the race as well as the venue. This year I decided to upgrade to the half ironman distance which I like best of all distances I tried so far.

I'll spare you details of when I woke up and what I ate. I got on site just before the cars started to queue up at the park entrance. This year the setup was different and it in my opinion better than last year. The transition area was moved further down from the parking, but it was much close to run exit - no longer need to run 0.5 mile to get to your bike. The bike exit was little longer run, but it was much easier to manage than run uphill over roots and pavement barefoot. If CGI reads this - guys please keep the 2009 setup for next year if possible. The bike splits are little slower due to the extra run with the bike, but the transition setup this way is much better than 2008 event. When I was setting up in transition Garen stopped by and we chatted for a bit and I finally gave him his hardware from Quakerman HIM where he placed 3rd in my AG. After I got setup I went back to my car to drop off my bag. It was good to get walking. On the way out of transition I ran into Herb and we walked together while chatting away. Killing time before the start which was more than hour away for the HIM.

Then I came back to transition and started to look for Fred and Kristine to say hi and wish them good luck in Kristine's first triathlon and Fred's first half ironman. They are brave couple - both finished standing up and braved the difficulties of the course. I'm sure they will be back next year to conquer the Bear again.

Soon after that I started making my way to the beach for the practice swim. It was brisk morning so I spent only about 10 minutes in the water - I did some sculling practice and pick-ups while trying to avoid other people that practiced in the small roped off area. At that time the sprint was getting ready to start so I went back to the beach and cheered on the athletes that had much shorter day ahead of them. Time passed quickly and the HIM was getting ready to start. I looked for Erica, Craig and other EnMu athletes, but the beach was very busy. I only caught Erica as she was heading to the water for her part of the half iron relay. We wished each other luck and off she went. My wave was next so I got my goggle setup, swim cap and went to prepare for swim start. The start is in water and knowing my swim improvements I lined-up in the second row expecting to finish between 32 and 34 minutes. The swim started as usual with lots of jockeying for position, kicking, etc. But I made sure to avoid all the legs and big packs and just settled into my pace. This was first race I used sleeveless wetsuit and it is amazing. I can feel the water, do not need to lift hands against the rubber and get overall better feel for water. It is also fast. Swim went well until about 500 meters when my googles started to fog-up. Damn - I swam on my back kicking and cleaning my goggles. This repeated once again and after that I just decided to swim with mildly fogged googles which worked out pretty well. Everything was very smooth until the turn back where we caught up with the slow swimmers from previous wave and also the speedsters from the next wave caught us. I had to swim around a guy that seemed to perform slalom. No mater which side I tried to pass him on he always ended up blocking my way - swimming to the left, then right oh boy. So I kicked harder and swam very close around him. The rest of the swim was uneventful and I exited the water in 32:30 which is not bad for twice cleaning my googles.

Transition to bike was smooth. I took off my wetsuit, put on my helmet, grabbed my bike and off I went. The run uphill was pretty hard after the swim, but I knew I'll get my HR down eventually on the first part of the bike. I took the first 7 miles fairly easy to settle into my groove and did use easy gear on the uphills while still spinning hard gear on the downhills. Worked quite well and I soon found my pace. The course is best described as very hilly - total elevation gain over the 56 miles is about 1200 meters and there is no single part of the course that is flat. Either up or downhill which makes the course hard for taking in nutrition. When we were passing the sprint newbies on the hardest hills I encouraged them, but kept focused on me not expending too much energy on the first loop. I was done with the first loop just around the 1:23-25 mark which was just on pace to have good bike. On second loop I noticed I kept passing guy on red Trek TT bike and after looking at his legs I recognized them from previous weekend ride with EnMu athletes - it was Herb. We practically paced off of each other (legally) the rest of the course and finished the bike side by side - you can see Herb and me above on the way to T2. That was also time when Dasa, Ian and Ivana got to the park to cheer me on and spectate the race. Thus pictures start at the end of bike.

T2 was smooth and I was feeling well even considering the grueling hills we just finished riding. I took off on the run with my fuel belt and kept plugging at what looked like a relaxed 7:40 pace. Only at mile 1 I noticed that it was more like 7:00 pace which was way too hard of a start. It showed on mile 2 where I got a huge side stitch that I had to work for the next few miles. It left me at about mile 5. I was able to run even with the stitch, but I could only go about 8:30 or slower otherwise it was just unbearable. I kept my fuel and salt intake and by mile 6 I was back running, but then my knee started to act up. Well I guess that is what you get when you do not run for a month before a race because of injury. The good thing is that I was able to run the whole 13.1 miles and I only walked aid stations and parts of the course where the side stitch just got too much to bear.

On second loop I caught up with Fred who was having hard time due to nutrition deficit. I said hi the first time we passed each other and then when I caught up with Fred on the dam we chatted a little, I gave him the rest of my nutrition (no ned for me to keep them as the finish was only about 2 miles for me) and then another runner suggested to Fred not to run with us and instead to take it easy. I stuck with the older runner for the next mile and a half and then our ways split. He was heading to second loop and I was heading to finish. It was funny as just before heading down to the finish line Jim (another EnMu athlete from our relay caught up with me and passed me).

It was good because I had someone to pace me to the finish. After the last turn there was the finish line about 200 meters ahead of us. At that time I heard Erica yell "Jan go for it, go, go!!!" so I mobilized what I have left and closed the gap to Jim and passed him about 10 or maybe 20 meters before the finish line - thanks to Craig's signature tempo workouts with pickups I'm able to do this. I hope no hard feelings Jim. It was not personal I really needed the few seconds I gained by this otherwise I would have been few places lower. Thank for pulling me across to the finish line. By the way you handily beat me in the run time. My run time was pretty pathetic due to the side stitch and knee issues. But I'll take this result. It was hard race and I left everything on the course on Sunday. Finished 40th overall and 6th in my AG. Not quite hardware position, but good placement. This race also shows me and Craig what we need to work on for my A race in July. Oh by the way Craig also raced and placed 15th overall which is great in this strong field. I was aiming for better finish than 5:24 - about 10-15 minutes faster to be honest. So I'm little disappointed with my run. On the other hand I'm happy that my ankles and heel are back to normal after 2 weeks of absolutely no running and painful walking. No signs of pain after the race which is really good - I look forward to my first long run this weekend and most likely some serious tempo work next week.

The race would not be as much fun if Dasa, Ian and Ivana were not there. Thanks for coming to cheer me on it was very helpful especially seeing you as I was getting back from first loop and heading out on the second one. They gave me the energy to run and smile at the same time. And it looks like they had pretty good time as well.

Leah and other EnMu athletes also raced this weekend and everyone did very well. You can read all about their relay race on Leah's blog.

Ian's first triathlon

2009-05-28T11:44:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we had two races on our family schedule. I did not participate in any one of them besides spectating. First one was a 5k in our town where both Dasa and Ivana ran a good time even in fairly hot and humid day. The other one was the first triathlon Ian did in the Swim in Zone pool in Center Valley. The coaches at Swim in Zone put together a great event for kid ages 3 and up. The course was the same for all ages only the distances were little different. Ian's age group had to swim one full lap in the 25yd pool (and they were allowed to use flotation devices and have parents as support), then bike 1/8th of a mile on the road and then run 2 laps around the parking lot which I estimate was about 75 meters (or maybe 100m run). We got Ian's transition setup early and then headed to the pool where we prepared for change of clothes after the swim and then went to the pool to watch the other age groups race.

At around 1pm they were ready to start Ian's age group. We lined up, Ian got into the noodle and swam the whole lap while Dasa, Zuzana and Ethan cheered us from the side of the pool. After the swim we ran to the changing room to dress for the bike. Once Ian got dressed (I did not change for the run not to hold him back) we headed to his transition area, grabbed helmet, bike and off we went on one loop course on the bike. First half is downhill so it was easy and Ian cruised at pretty good speed. The second half he needed to push a little as it was uphill. Then we dropped off the bike and went on two loop run course around the parking lot. During the first lap Ian's friend Ethan joined us and ran with us the rest of the race. Ian wanted to beat everyone so he pushed real hard on first loop and was running out of energy before the final straightaway to the finish. But then he re-grouped and sprinted to the finish.

Great race. After the race and sip of water Ian wanted to go back to the bike course so we did it again to cool down :-). It was a great event and if they do another one in the future we will be sure to participate. Ian was talking about the race for next 2 days.

Which HRM to chose? Little help narrowing the list.

2009-05-28T10:35:00.001-04:00

As you all know I have owned good share of the HRMs over the past 3 years. I do not even want to count them. I often ended-up using the top of the line HRM from Polar, Suunto or Garmin. Recently I was involved in discussions with other users that were planning to buy a new HRM and were struggling to decide between the Suunto T6c, Polar RS800cx or Garmin ForeRunner 405 or Forerunner 310xt (soon to be released). Following 10 questions while not giving single answer (because there is no single answer) they should be helpful to narrow down the list for you. It considers the above listed models for the three companies. I did not look at the fitness level models or cycling computers. When I refer to Suunto I mean Suunto T6c, for Polar I mean RS800cx and for Garmin I refer to Forerunner 405 and Forerunner 310xt (for the 310xt the info is based on available information on the web. I have not used the HRM in training and do not even plan to).

Do you want mapping of your routes and review the routes later on PC? If yes look at Garmin and Polar.
Do you want EPOC/TE capability? If yes look at Suunto or Polar. Suunto has the EPOC/TE built into the watch and software. With Polar the EPOC/TE is available post exercise in FirstBeat Athlete software.
Do you want guided workouts - e.g. sessions that guide you through training routine? If yes do you expect more complex sessions than warm-up / interval 1 / interval 2 and cool down? If yes look at Polar and Garmin that offer more granular definition for each workout phase. Polar has an edge in this arena as it supports greatest detail in definition of the phases and respective limits (pace, HR, HR zone, cadence, etc.).
Do you want to swim with your HRM? If yes look at Polar, Suunto. With Garmin only the new 310xt is rated for swimming.
Do you want HR during the swim? Look at Suunto with Memory belt (you will get the HR post swim, but the output is pretty bad in the pool, better in open water swim with race suit or tri suit); or look at lower end Polar with 5kHZ technology that transmits under water (RS300x, S625X, S725X, RS400, etc.).
Do you prefer GPS integrated in the HRM? Only Garmin offers this.
Do you want to use the HRM as regular watch? Look at Suunto or Polar. Garmin only the 405, the 310xt will only win you price for the dorkiest guy in the office.
Do you need separate HR zones per sport? Only Polar supports this in their software. No watch has more than one set of HR zones. Polar is the best choice at this time as you can use the HR to define your guided exercise to stay in specific zone and review the data in the software.
Do you need watch with automatic switch between sensors? Look at Suunto T6c. Other units require user intervention to switch between for example bike and run.
Do you need run cadence? Look at Polar or Garmin - both with foot pod. If you need stride length only Polar does that at this time.

The list above is not complete, but should help narrow the choices. There is no one ideal watch that does it all. It is about making the choice that satisfies your needs. All the watches will do good job in capturing basic information about your training like training time, lap splits, HR, pace, altitude, speed and cadence on bike, etc. Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions.

RS800cx Pro Team Edition hands on

2009-05-13T17:45:00.001-04:00

I reported earlier that Polar is releasing new version of the RS800cx to the market geared towards cycling community. The RS800cx Pro Team Edition has identical functionality as the RS800cx model already released last year. The major changes are in the design of the watch and packaging.

Let's start with the design - while the standard RS800cx body is made from gray plastic with silver face and silver bars on the watch band the Pro Team Edition watch body is black with polished metal on the watch face and the bars on the band. It looks stunning and the look changes with changing light conditions which is great. At first I was not 100% sure I like it, but wearing it for last 24 hours changed my view. It is almost like having multiple watches on your wrist during the day.

The second change is in the packaging. The watch comes with the CS speed WIND and CS cadence WIND sensors, black version of the IR USB stick for data transfer, Polar Pro Trainer 5, watch band extension, USB cable extension and manuals.

The retail price is set at 449 USD, but you can get one with discount at the dealer I used and if you search a little you can find additional 5 or 10% discount that they will gladly accept. I was amazed how quickly the watch arrived - I placed the order on Monday at 4pm and the watch was at my door on Tuesday late afternoon. I did one bike ride with it so far and like it a lot - well I love the RS800cx to start with.

Here are few pictures of the box, watch itself and comparison of the original RS800cx and the new Pro Team Edition.

By the way if you are interested in slightly used RS800cx in absolutely mint condition with ZAGG screen protector on the face I have one for very reasonable price. Drop me a note on Twitter or in comments. I'm keeping the Pro Team Edition and do not really need two RS800cx.

Updated May 18th 2009

Giving good example

2009-05-12T09:16:00.001-04:00

This is just a short one.

The other day Ian was watching one of his favorite episode of Backyardigans - Race around the world that has really catchy songs and is about the friends racing each other in a long race (more like adventure race). After the show he notice my HR monitor laying on the counter. He grabbed it, then I heard few beeps as he started it up (and it complained about no HR and foot pod). Then he said "I'm racer daddy" and started to run circles between kitchen, living room and dining room. Each lap he pressed the lap button and after about 7 laps he said he had won and wanted a medal. I went to my office and grabbed one of my half marathon medals and gave it to him. He was so proud that he took the medal with him to bed that night. Moments like this reinforce my conviction that the training I do is not only for my own benefit... I always love to see him genuinely excited about sports.

Lehigh Valley Half race review

2009-05-08T14:20:00.001-04:00

This is not a full and detailed analysis of the race, just a recount of the race mile by mile and discussion of the pacing during each race segment. I do think I may have run it little differently if I was not hit by the GI issues, but overall I ran as good I could on the day. I do not have splits for every mile as I missed few mile markers along the way, but the available splits provide sufficient picture to understand how things unfolded. If you plan to run Lehigh Valley Half next year this may be helpful for your race planning.

Mile	Average pace
1	7:10
2-3	7:06
4-5	7:16
6	7:14
7-8	7:23
9-10	7:25
11	7:28
12	7:20
13.1	7:00

From the splits it is apparent that I did not quite run negative split race. But even without negative split I ran pretty even race considering the course and conditions (mostly mine).

The course is downhill for the entire first mile. I was able to restrain myself from going too fast in that section. That is mainly because the 6:30 pace group leader also chose slower pace on the first few miles and I was staying with that group for first mile or two. Mile 2-3 are mostly flat or slightly downhill. In this section I was still adjusting my pace to settle into what seemed like a comfortable pace. Little faster than the planned 7:10 - 7:15 pace. At the end of the mile 3 I got the $#%*& gel. The slight rolling starts around the end of mile 3 and goes on for the next 2 miles. My pace slightly dropped in this section I guess due to the fact that I walked the aid station to get enough water. I picked-up the pace slightly on mile 6 and was within the range. From mile 7 the race moves from road to trail where you can expect slight drop in pace. But mine dropped more than planned due to the GI issues. The rough patch in this race for me was between the miles 9 and 10. That is where there are not many spectators with exception of the covered bridge and aid stations. It is nice area and I love to run there for training run, but in race it is probably the hardest part of the course to deal with. Mile 11 was the slowest due to two things - walked the aid station and it has two biggest climbs of the course. First one is right at mile 10 marker and the second is just about 500 meters further down the road. The course then turns back to road. On mile 12 there are two slight uphills after the aid station as the course turns back towards the starting line (you basically run the second mile here in the opposite direction). I was working quite hard on mile 12, but I guess the climbs took their toll. I did not take in any more water or nutrition at this point. When I hit the mile 12 marker I just unleashed all I had left and ran my heart out. I build up the pace towards the stadium - saving energy a little on climbs and then picking-up the pace on flats (no more downhills here). Once I had the climb to the stadium behind me I just ran as fast as I could manage. The average pace on that stretch is sub 6 minute mile, but it is only 3/4 of a track so it is just about 300 meters.

So there you have it blow by blow. Few days after the race I'm really happy with how I ran it. There are few things that I could have done better, but all in all it was a well executed race and surprisingly I did not suffer in it as much as in other half marathons. The tempo and progression long runs make all the difference. Thanks Craig for helping me come this far. It is 20 minutes improvement over my very first attempt at this distance only 2 years ago.

And if you want to look at the course altitude profile (filled area), pace (blue lines) and HR (red line) see the log below.

Polar Pro Trainer 5 on YouTube

2009-05-07T18:13:00.001-04:00

Just came across this great overview of PPT5. It highlights the key benefits of the software and shows the granularity to which you can plan training and analyze workout data. Polar is still the best for this from what I have seen and used.

New look and feel for Polar RS800cx, T6c, T3c and Suunto foot pods

2009-05-07T09:13:00.001-04:00

Both Polar and Suunto are adding new look and feel to the top of the line HR monitors this summer. Both companies announced new version of their watches.

Polar is introducing RS800cx Pro Team Edition package at the beginning of the cycling season. Its functionality is identical to the RS800cx and the package (at least in the US) will contain cycling speed sensor and cycling cadence sensor. You can add running S3 sensor and G3 GPS sensor to the watch as accessories. The watch has functionality just like the RS800cx only different case design. The package will contain the YSB IR stick and the Polar Pro Trainer 5 software for planning and evaluation of your training. I had chat with one of the dealers of Polar watches and they should have the watch in stock in the next few days. Polar announced that several pro cycling teams including Quick Step, Rabobank, and Caisse d'Eparge will use the Pro Team Edition in training and racing.

Suunto is also introducing a new look of two HRMs and foot pod. If you always wanted to have a watch that Matty Reed, Andy Potts, Javier Gomez, Jan Frodeno and other Suunto ambassadors use you will have your chance in late May or early June (depends on locality - US dealers should have watch in stock in mid May [updated following conversation with dealer in the US]). The T6c Red Arrow will be available for purchase to mark Suunto's collaboration with ITU and timing the Dextro Energy World Championship Series. The watch has just different color, otherwise is identical with the regular T6c that is currently offered as either Black (more like greenish black) or Fusion (combination of red and greenish black). I confirmed with Suunto dealer that the watch will be offered as standalone with no sensors. No specific packages have been announced yet, but that may come later (just like with T6c the triathlon package was announced few weeks after official release of the watch).

In addition to the T6c Red Arrow Suunto will be offering new design of T3c - Black Arrow that will have identical functions to T3c and should be available in the same timeframe as the T6c Red Arrow. In addition to the new HRMs Suunto will also introduce red and yellow version of their foot pod in case you wanted to draw attention to your foot pod. The black version of the foot pod will continue to be offered. From materials that are available on Suunto site it does not seem there were any changes in the Foot pod or the HRMs other than new colors.

Lehigh Valley Half Marathon and other fun

2009-05-04T23:45:00.001-04:00

Just like last two years I have been preparing to race on Sunday with group of like minded people in the half marathon in Lehigh Valley. Only this year we were taking Ian on Saturday to do the kids run. We went out little earlier to pick-up the race packet before the kids race and walk through the expo. I have not found anything extremely interesting other than a fuel belt that seems to be more comfortable and better suited for racing than my 4 bottle belt. This one is Fuel Belt Helium with two bottles holders, small pocket for keys, salt tablets and a like and holder for gel flask. I took it with me to the race which was good thing. But let's talk about the kids race first.

We signed-up Ian on-line well ahead of the race so we did not need to fill out a form on site. The beauty of the kids race is that practically any kid that shows up can run for free. All kids get a large number 1 bib and t-shirt along with instructions. Each bib has a kid claim number (just like on race bibs you have the bag claim number) that you need to tear off to get your kid back at the end of the race - I found that little funny.

About fifteen minutes before the race they lined us up into age groups and walked us slowly to the cordoned street for the run. Ian ran with the 3-4 years old crowd that is the only group that lets parents in the run with the kids (but only in the back).

They walked us the 200 meters to the start of the run, lined up the kids and off we went.

It was fun to see all the kids running.

Ian initially wanted to run, but I guess all the noise around us was little too much for him so he decided to walk it.

So we walked the 200 meters and passed the finish. Just as in the big race they handed kids bottles of water and finisher medals. He was little overwhelmed by all the noise, but I'm glad we went out and did the run. I plan to take him out to the LVRR weekend kids runs in the parkway. I'm sure there will be less music and noise and it may be even smaller event which we both prefer :-). Don;t get me wrong it was a nice event, but at times the noise level was much even for me. We had a lot of fun doing it. My feet actually hurt pretty badly after spending good three hours in the streets. But that is why we do it - to have fun. After all the Sunday run was a fitness test and while I was hoping for PR I would not be too upset if I did not get it. So here is the finished with the medal and us proud parents.

I guess now a little bit about the Sunday race. It will be real short and maybe even little funny if you like the race reports that "Steve in speedo?! Gross!" publishes on his side (if you do not read his blog you should it is fun). This race report is very close to his well established standard. So here we go...

We got to the race site just in time to do proper warm-up. I ran about 2 miles on the race course and warmed up real well. Finished the warm-up as the 5k racers were lining up. I wished them well and we sent them off with clapping. Another 10 minutes later we were to run. I lined up close to the 1:30 pace group as I was unable to see the 1:40 group. And I noticed that few meters to my right was Amby Burfoot which made me really proud of running in this race. Before I enjoyed the moment we were off and running the first mile downhill. I noticed that my foot pod calibration was off as the watch was showing me running around 7:15 - 7:20 pace while the clock showed 7:08. I adjusted my pace not to over blow it, but I still kept the 1:30 group in my sights.

It was good weather and I decided to take in first sip from gel flask at mile 3. I did so and washed it down with water. At mile 4 I walked the aid station to get in enough water - I usually choke when I try to drink and run. Everything looked so well until little after mile 6 when huge urge to go to the bathroom came. Well here we go my stomach was on water and I still had more than half of the race ahead of me. I assessed the situation - I really wanted good time and there are not many toilets on the course. Plus mile six is after the turnaround and crowds already formed. Decision was made - I'll stick with it and see if I end up as this guy (warning if you have light stomach do not click). I'll spare you the grueling details of my stomach misbehaving between this time and mile 10. It is sufficient to say that it was not the best experience I had in a race - thought between the toilet seat, pace and fueling - tough balance to keep. At mile 10 marker I said to myself "If you can hold it this long you will hold it to the finish line!". Then all of a sudden there was mile 11 and I knew it is only a short distance to the last 300 meters around the track. I also forgot all about the stomach issues and focused on pushing the pace. It was also easier back on the road with all the major climbs behind me. I joined two other guys who were pushing around 7 minute mile. I slowed a little on the uphills and let them pass me only to catch-up with them on the flats or downhills. In no time I was climbing the last short steep hill to the stadium for the finishing sprint around the track. I was doing sub 6:00 minute pace at that time, but I could not close the gap to two guys ahead of me. But it did not matter as I was locked on the clock. It was very close to 1:35 and I so wanted to get under that time.

Dasa took many photos of me sprinting. I crossed the line just 4 seconds under and posted - 1:34:56 chip time.

All my stomach issues were gone at that point - well until I got massage, changed to clean clothes and had two bananas and water. Then it was time to get home quick. My afternoon was not as much fun - all I remember is our bathroom and its frequent visits. When I reviewed what I ate that could have caused this I discovered that the gels I used were expired. So one lesson learned - not only nothing new on a race day, also nothing expired. Unless you want to experience as much fun as I did. Now I'm left to wonder if the stomach issues were blessing that kept me from blowing-up on mile 11 or 12 or if I could have run little faster. Only next year will tell. Finally here is another photo of Ian as he was waiting together with Dasa and Ivana for me to finish in the rain. He is going to do lots of racing this summer - mostly runs, but also a triathlon on May 24th in the Swim-in-Zone pool where he is taking swim lessons. I'm so proud of him.

Suunto GPS pod end of relationship

2009-05-04T08:20:00.001-04:00

Well yeah I had done one more run with the Suunto GPS pod and decided that it is not any good for pacing. During a run it would show constantly pace around 9:30 - 10:30 per mile while based on my perceived effort I was running more in 8:00 - 8:30 range. When I loaded data to my computer it was indeed the 8:00 - 8:30 range. The GPS pod is great for overall distance tracking and probably does well on mile long splits. But it is of no use in regular road running. I'll stick with the foot pod that provides much better results. So the GPS pod went back to Amazon and I expect refund in the next few days...

Suunto GPS pod second try

2009-04-13T18:33:00.001-04:00

I have posted about my unpleasant experience with Suunto GPS pod on Suunto Discussions and asked for help from other users. It was recommended to me to give the GPS pod little longer to get better satellite lock and put the GPS pod on the same arm as the watch. I did all this prior to my long run this Sunday and the results were much better this time. As you can see from this picture.

While the pacing info is not as good as from calibrated foot pod it is certainly much better than what I have seen in my first attempt. I have not lost connection between the watch and the GPS pod in the whole 2 hours of the exercise which is good. But what really bothered me was that the pace on the display of the watch was pretty much unusable. But I'm getting little ahead of myself. Let me start with this - I had a long run scheduled for Easter Sunday and I put it off until afternoon. I figured that there will be quite a bit of traffic on the roads I usually run so I took the running to Lehigh Valley Parkway. It is a nice park with great trails on rolling terrain. I thought it will be better for my knees and ankles than the roads. I wanted to test the GPS pod, but I also had second watch RS800cx with S3 foot pod to validate the pace. Well that was the plan anyways. When I was getting ready for the run the RS800cx would not link up with the foot pod (turned out to be a dead battery). Well great I thought, now I'll need to pace based on this GPS unit that I do not really know all that well. After about a mile of glancing at the pace it was clear to me that pacing with this GPS pod will not work. Instead I relied on the perceived exertion and my heart rate. Main reason for that was that the immediate pace in the park was jumping between 9 minute mile and 12 minute mile on my steady pace effort that I would estimate was more around 8:30 per mile. I was not that far off with my estimate - the pace was actually 8:20 which I figured out when I got home. The funny part is that while the pace jumps all over the place the distance gets recorded accurately so you can validate the pacing after the run. This is actually good exercise in listening to your body. I noticed that I often get too hung up on what the watch tells me and listen to my body less than I should.

After all the workout turned out to be a great success - not only did I do the work. I also validated that my perceived exertion is pretty much spot on - I had to run 60 minutes at 8:10 - 9:10 per mile which turned out to be about 8:20 based on the distance. Then the plan called for me to pick up the pace to 7:15 - 7:30 for 30 minutes - which turned out to be 7:33 and then I had 6 pickups to faster than 5k pace with 2 minute recoveries and 5 minutes cool down. After I got home I found out that I did quite well even without the watch telling me how fast I ran. And to some degree it was much better workout - I kept listening to my body and pushed through the rough spots during the session. You know, like when you feel the muscle fatigue that slows you down and you push through it and 100 meters later it feels ok again. I'm thinking about using the GPS pod for this type of workout again to see how my sense of pace improves over time.

What looked like a messed-up workout in the beginning turned out to be a great session. It was excellent practice in pacing without the feedback from the watch. "If life gives you lemons make lemonade," and as Ron White said on radio when I was heading over to the Lehigh Valley Parkway "make sure to find someone with vodka to have a party!".

Brandywine Duathlon course profile

2009-04-09T23:19:00.001-04:00

In case you wanted to do this duathlon next year this post shows the race course including the elevation profile.

The first picture shows the GoogleEarth map of the entire race course. The run course is on the right side of the map with all the lap markers. The bike course is the big loop around the run course. The different colors show my HR zones, and should give you a pretty good idea about the hills. The climbs are where my HR went up (yellow, gray) and descends are where I got back to green.

Second picture shows the detail of the run course. Don't get confused with all the lines there - I ran the course twice and since the course is a big reverse T there are quite a few lines. The details of the run course are included below.

The elevation profile below shows the entire course. The run course is on the first about 22 minutes which took me to run the 5k and get through T1. The next 43-44 minutes show the bike course and the rest is the repeat of the run course on the second run. As my speed/distance unit gave out on the second run I can not show you the course profile over distance, but only over time which may distort some of the hills. But here are some figures that will make the course little easier to read.

The ascent on the bike course is about 300 meters (980 ft), the biggest climb is approximately 100m (330 ft) over the 2.7 km (1.7 mi). But you can see that there is hardly a flat section on this course where you could just fly. Well on those this year there was pretty strong wind (we were lucky that the race was not on Saturday when we had much stronger winds in the area).

The run course has ascent of about 70 meters. The course is basically either downhill or uphill. There is no real flat section on the run course that I noticed. What is really challenging on this course is the sequence of the rolling hills - you start downhill and turn right onto a trail road with plenty of little stones that make the footing pretty challenging. Then run few uphill and dowhill segments, loop around the campground and head back. When you get back to the road you head to the other side of the park on the road. This is downhill followed by a slight uphill and then false flat section to the entrance to the pack. Turn around the cone and head back to the start line. Which means climbing all the way up (notice the climb on both parts of the run.

Suunto GPS pod - first run - not so good

2009-04-09T22:51:00.001-04:00

Few days ago I saw a good deal on Suunto GPS pod on Amazon and decided to test it out. It arrived last week on Friday, but I did not get to test it until today. Well I could have tested it during the Brandywine Duathlon, but I did not want to use new equipment for the first time in the race. Probably good I decided not to do it.

I actually did a pseudo test with the Suunto T6c + GPS pod and Polar RS800cx + G3 on the day I received the GPS pod. But it was not a real training test. What I did was to put both GPS units in my car and then measure the distance from my house to meeting place with few friends. The result was pretty good - the distance came to about 0.08 difference over 26 miles. Not bad. What I did not look at was the speed reported by the unit during the drive - I had to pay attention to where I was driving.

Today was the first real test of the GPS pod with T6c in an easy recovery run. Plan was to run at 8:30 - 9:40 pace for about 20-25 minutes. Easy enough to pay attention to what the GPS unit does and how well it reports the instantaneous pace. I started the GPS pod inside the house and set it by the window until it acquired the signal and then I walked out of the door. The GPS pod blinked like mad so I assumed it lost connection and I stopped for about 30 second and let it get satellite lock again. When the blinking slowed down I started moving again. The pace was all over the place and quite often I lost connection and the pace was showing -:--/min which is not very useful. On top of this the first 4 minutes the comfort belt rebelled and locked my HR at 180 beats which is quite impossible for me since my max is about 8 beats lower. After the run I looked at the exercise file and was not surprised to see this:

The top graph is HR, middle line is EPOC and the third line is the pace. It is really a sad picture. I looks like the GPS pod was either losing connection to the satellites or to the watch. I do not really know what was happening, but most of the time my pace was showing -:--/min which does not really tell you whether the satellite lock is gone or the connection to the watch.

If there is a GPS pod user out there that has working GPS pod I would want to know how you use it. E.g. how long do you want before you start moving? Are you wearing the pod on your arm? Same arm as watch or it does not matter? Any other hints will be appreciated. If I can not sort this out over the next few days I'll just pack the unit and send it back to Amazon for refund.

Fighting through rough patches in the race

2009-04-08T11:01:00.001-04:00

This post is not about me. This post is about importance of fighting your way through the rough patches in races. I just read about Matty Reed race in California 70.3 this past weekend. If you have not heard the story - here is condensed version. Matty was first kicked in the face during the swim and later had asthma attack (still in the water). That is one rough start of a race. But he fought through this rough patch. During the bike he moved up to third place and on the run moved all the way up to the front. He crossed the finish line with 2 minutes lead on Andy Potts. That is definitely way to fight trough adversity.

Way to go Matty and great start of the season with securing second win in second race - no less than first attempt at 70.3. I wonder whether we will see Matty in Kona later this year. Many ITU athletes are making this move.

Suunto what is it up your sleeve?

2009-04-07T22:19:00.001-04:00

Suunto launched a new tease campaign today - they will be launching a new device that will be announced on May 26th. The teaser site is live, but does not reveal much. From the looks of it the unit will have most likely GPS built in and if I would have my way it would be a cross-breed of X10 and T6c. But we will see what is really coming out. You can check the site by clicking on the picture below.

Suunto will also be selecting few people to let them play with the device before the official release and report about them on the web. Well I sent my entry in and will see if I get lucky and get my hands on one. That would be cool especially if the device helps with training and can be worn during races. You know me - gadget freak all the way. Stay tuned to this site and also keep checking the Suunto site for more news.

Mad rush called duathlon - Brandywine Duathlon race report

2009-04-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

This morning I completed my first ever duathlon and as Craig said these things hurt. They actually hurt like hell. If you think triathlons are hard I have a surprise for you - duathlons are harder. But they are a lot of fun as well. In case you never raced duathlon or even did not hear about the format. It is almost like triathlon only the initial swim is a run. Actually some triathlons may be turned into duathlon if the conditions for the swim are not optimal and race director decides that it is unsafe to swim. But back to the duathlons.

The race I did - Brandywine Duathlon - is 5k run, 13.2mi bike and 3.1mi run. The course for this race is quite hilly both on the run and bike. The run is on mix of road, train and packed gravel (which I don't like too much). First half a mile is nice paved road that then turns to trail with bunch of stones and path without stones. At about 1.75 miles you are back on road running all the way to the transition area. The run is kind of interesting - the loop is T-shaped so it is pretty hard to gauge where you are in the second half of the race (not that it would make much difference this time).

The bike is 13.2 mi loop around the lake with mix of long gradual hill climbs, few flats and many steep descends. Great course to test what you can really do on the bike and how well you can climb. It is hard course to race especially if you pace the bike incorrectly your run will suffer quite a bit. The descends are good to get your HR down and I reached peak speed of about 40 mph on one section so it is comparable to Anthracite Tri. Only on Anthracite Tri there is one or two climbs and the rest is pretty bearable. This course seems like always uphill with few short steep descends. Very nice course.

The second run is on the same course as the initial run with finish line just slightly below the transition on downhill slope so if you still have some energy left you can finish strong by just keeping your legs turning.

The duathlon is totally different animal than triathlon mainly due to the fact that you need to be careful to pace your first run to get to the bike and still be able to ride.

Craig suggested changes to my original (overly optimistic plan) and I was to go out at 7 minute mile for the first 1.5 or 2 miles and if I felt strong or there were enough downhills to pickup the pace to 6:50 before the end. The run course was pretty much up and down all the time. Not many long downhills to pickup speed. I passed the second mile marker at 14 minutes and was quite happy with pacing. I probably lost few seconds on the last mile as there was much more climbing than on the first part. I finished the run at 22:40 which is slightly off pace, but good.

My T1 was just OK. It took me a little time to get my helmet and shoes on which gave me 1:06.

The bike starts on flat and downhill soon turns to steep climb to a curve after which the climb continues into downhill, and so on. Basically all you need to know about the bike is that there are very few flat sections and we had the pleasure of riding into the wind on those sections. I passed quite a few people on the bike, but I did not count them as I would on little easier course. Also I had to pay more attention to drafting violations as the course speeds-up and slows down everyone pretty equally and at times it was on the edge to keep the distance between the bikes. Two or three times I just pushed the pedals little more to pass the folks before the climb to prevent any penalties. The worst part of the bike ride came at around mile 4 or 5 on the flats when I got cramp to my left calf shortly followed by cramp to right calf. I had to pull to the side, slow down and stretch it out. The cramps came and went away in waves for another 3-4 miles and were quite annoying. Not too bad to prevent me from going, but bad enough to slow me down. I guess if you do duathlons it is good idea to do some reverse bricks to get used to this type of stress. One other thing I did on the bike was to try to follow the power zones plan as closely as possible - stay under 265 for most of the ride and not go much over 300 on climbs. Which on this course means sitting on the climbs and spinning them. I was riding granny gear on all longer climbs and interestingly enough was riding as fast as folks that stood up on their bikes. I got passed by about 3 folks on the bike that looked really strong. One guy that passed me on the longest climb had a jersey that read 'US National Duathlon Champion'. I kept up with him pretty well on the climb and noticed that he stayed in his aerobars and was in easy gear. So there is something about keeping the gearing easy on the bike leg and spinning it up to save legs for the run. The bike leg was relatively short and the 13.2 miles were over soon. I got to the bike dismount and braked with my front brake little to harshly after I jumped off the bike. The bike was in the air, but I just lifted it and kept running to T2. T2 was fast and I was on the run course in no time. Well in 43:31 of biking and 40 seconds in T2.

The second run plan was to keep at 7 minute mile for the first half and then pickup the pace if I can. The first half a mile was fairly good although my legs felt like jelly - the usual bike to run transition. I was also running close to red line. At the aid station I tried to get a sip of water - that was a mistake. I had to slow down to about 20 seconds walk to keep it down. Then I gradually picked up the pace and at that point my watch stopped to show my pace. Earlier in racing I would freak out, but not these days. I just decided to run the redline - basically run as fast as you can without throwing up (sounds gross, but that is pretty much where most people race). I got passed by 4 or 5 people in the next 2 miles and passed 2 or 3 folks - you lose some you gain some. Just shortly after the last turnaround on the road back to the finish (about 750 meters before the finish) the last of the 3 guys passed me. I decided to keep him in my sights and if I had enough in the tank before the finish to sneak-up on him. I was getting closer to him and closed the gap he built to about 10 meters before the descend to the finish line. I started sprinting, but he also had enough fuel left so I ended-up finishing behind him by one second.

It was a great race. It is definitely a mad rush as the HR gets pretty high up on the first run and stays elevated during the entire event. I had mine drop to 129 on downhills on the bike, but most of the time I was pretty high and the sprint to finish line on the downhill I was 4 beats away from my max. And yes the event hurt as well as the rest of the day (and also today). I guess that means that I gave it all I had. I'm very happy with the results. You can check out my time and few official photos on the Piranha Sports website. By the way I did not grow gut between the first bike and end of the race - the gut is actually my gloves and hat that I stuffed under my shirt during the run as I was getting warm. I have the great photos in this post thanks to Ivana who accompanied me to the race as the cheerleader and official photographer. Thanks Ivana for the support.

Random items

2009-03-29T00:03:00.001-04:00

I haven't been keeping up with this blog lately. It has various reasons that can be summarized as family, work and training keeping me crazy busy. I decided to post a summary of random items and thoughts related to training and other mostly sport activities I did or plan to do in the near future.

Let's start with training

Training has been going real well. Craig and Erica keep me on my toes and I must say that the training makes me feel like I'm building a solid engine to carry me through this season. I may have mentioned it here before, this year I focus on longer races and will be doing quite a few 70.3 races. Actually 70.3 is my focus for this year and I plan to do a long course aqua-velo race in late September as preparation for full Ironman in 2010.

Weather has been turning nicer in PA and running outside is going well. Today was my first day on the bike outside and it was a blast. I did little under 3 hours ride in the neighborhood and enjoyed every bit of it - even the climb to South Mountain. It was a fartlek ride so I did some fast climbs, easy riding, fast descends, long steady segments - had it all on this ride. Tomorrow is long run and I wonder how well my legs will carry me in steady state run with 20 minutes tempo and pick-ups to 5k race pace thrown at the end. Should be fun. Next week is my very first duathlon on Sunday. Still need to sit down and think through the race plan. I seem to do better when I have solid plan preferably with backup going into the new race format.

Quakertown 10 miler

Few weeks ago Dasa and I ran races in Quakertown. Dasa did the 4 mile run and I did the 10 miler. If you are not familiar with the area where I live let me describe it to you - fairly hilly. Locals call it PA rolling terrain. People from flat lands would probably call it bloody hilly. In any case the 10 miler was on fairly hilly terrain and it is one of the races that tests your pacing strategy. Dasa did very well in her 4 miler even though she was not happy with the hills and had to walk parts of the course. I did quite OK in the 10 miler and recorded a new PR - well I kind of expected it as last time I ran 10 mile race was 10 mi South Mountain race and that is just one hill - all the way up and back down. This Quakertown 10 miler is little easier and sports more varied terrain (not climbing up for 3.5 miles and then running back for 3.5 miles as on South Mountain). In case you want to check the terrain and my race log you can look at the Training Peaks for details.

New products from Polar

I have not been checking the Polar product pages over the past few weeks, but I remembered seeing a new add in Triathlon magazine - something about 3D training. The watch in the add looked new so the other day I browsed through the Polar running and multisport computers and noticed few new things. The S625X seems to be phased out from the product line (at least it no longer appear on the polar.fi pages. The S725X is still being offered and effectively can be used instead of S625X if you add the foot pod.

But more interesting is the new watch for recreational athletes - RS300X. It looks like a replacement of the RS200 watch, but it adds the ability to work with G1 GPS sensor for speed and distance. It seems to be geared to runners, but I assume that it can be used for cycling, walking and other activities if you use the G1 GPS sensor to record speed/distance. Looks like a nice basic no frills watch for people that want to keep their training simple and still get the benefit of speed/distance and heart rate. Polar sells the watch in few packages - base watch without any speed/distance sensor, second is bundled with S1 foot pod and third option comes with the G1 sensor. Each package contains the HR Wearlink+ belt with T31 HR transmitter. The watch comes in black or orange color (just like the RS200 used to be offered in black and red). The pricing in the US is very reasonable 170 USD for the base watch and 250 USD for one of the packages with either S1 or G1. You can actually get them for about 20 bucks under MSRP from most dealers. I hope I can get my hands on one to provide more details.

Another big news that I have not touched on is the availability of the CS600X which is an upgrade of the CS600 bike computer that enables GPS location recording (just like the RS800cx does). I have not seen the unit yet, but expect that it provides the same capabilities as CS600. From the manuals it looks like it has larger memory and few minor differences. But the core functionality is very close to CS600. Just like CS600 Polar offers the CS600X in two boxes - one without power and one with power. If you already own CS600 with power you can simply swap the CS600 head unit for CS600X (and sell the used CS600 on eBay). All sensors should work fine with the CS600X as they also use the W.I.N.D. technology. I do not believe there is an upgrade program offered by Polar in any country.

Suunto X10 and Geocaching

I have got the Suunto X10 ABC watch few weeks ago and really love it. I do not use it for running or biking (well I may take it on some bike rides or runs when I plan to get lost and use the track back home function). But I started to get my feet wet with geocaching. I'm just getting started and attempted to find only two caches. One successfully one was hidden very well so maybe next time. It is an interesting way to explore the neighborhood - I never knew there are about 20 caches in 20 miles radius around my house. What I like even better is that Ian likes it too and seems to be interested in finding the caches. We have yet to find one where we can take something (and put something of similar value back). It seems like a good fun and great way to get out of the house for a walk in the park. If you never heard about geocaching you can find more info on the geocaching.com site

Scuba diving thoughts

Few years ago when we went to Dominican Republic for vacation I got certified in open water diving by PADI. I have dived on subsequent trips to Caribbean and enjoyed it a lot. But in the past few years I have not done any diving. Last year when Erica and Craig organized open water swim in Dutch Springs I envied the groups of divers getting ready to go under. I'm thinking about taking refresher course this year and doing some diving on weekends when weather gets warmer. I'm sure I can enjoy the diving even in the colder water of PA. Obviously trip to Caribbean would be nice, but I do not believe it will happen any time soon... Any triathletes out there that also do diving? Any tips for getting started again?

Mac support for Garmin Forerunner 50 and 405 released

2009-02-20T07:28:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I received announcement from Garmin that the Forerunner 50 and 405 are now supported on Mac. Little later during the day there was a post on Garmin Blogs that explains little more about the level of support in this first release. As you may suspect there are some limitations. The current version supports upload of the workout results to Garmin Connect site. But it does not yet support updates of firmware from the PC to the watch and does not allow uploads of courses from computer to the watch. So the Mac support is there, but compared to PC users the 405 owners with Mac will still lack some critical features. The Forerunner 50 users will be happy with this release as the 50 does not have firmware updates or courses. Here is copy of the official announcement I received earlier:

Forerunner® 405 is now Mac-compatible

If you're a Forerunner 405 owner with a Mac, you'll be glad to know they are now in sync and you can transfer your workout data from the 405 to your Mac. The data transfer happens automatically via the wireless USB ANT Stick™.

Before the USB ANT Stick can start talking to your Mac, you'll need to download new software. Visit our "getting started" pages for the Forerunner 405, which will step you through the process.

Once you've completed the setup, your workout data will automatically transfer to your Mac and to Garmin Connect. On this site, you can store, analyze and share workouts with a community of fitness enthusiasts.