This Past Week

Finally got back to a good week of workouts.  It's been a good month since I consistently got up before work to get in a workout.  That's key because doing triathlon training often requires two-a-day sessions.  With work and KC Corporate Challenge, my evenings have been hard to even get one session in.  This past week I've felt like my old self as the last four weeks I have not.

My focus this past week has been swimming as I'm signed up for the swim event this coming week!  200 yard freestyle and 50 yard freestyle.  I threw my name in that hat for the Freestyle Relay as well. Along with more practice jumping off the blocks, I started doing flip turns.  It's not graceful but I'm starting to get the hang of it.  I'm not sure if I will incorporate it on the 200 yard freestyle on Monday because (1) I still have a chance of ending up in the next lane post flip, (b) because it's new, it is still wearing me out a bit doing it, (iii) still not confident doing them.

So I will be reporting back next week about the swim meet and, frankly, all Corporate Challenge events I've participated in.

I mentioned in my last post that I wished the Johnson County Parks and Rec would give a little discount to the KC Corporate Challenge Triathlon/Duathlon participants a little discount to Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon.  Ask you and you shall receive!  They sent an email out this week with a $10 discount code.  Nice!  I wish I could participate but going to be in Boston on vacation that weekend.... so don't wish I could that bad!

I went to the gym on Saturday for my threshold run.  Decided to do it on the treadmill to focus on form a bit more.  Our YMCA just completed a 1.5 year renovation that added a lot more space and cardio equipment.  I was running on one of these fancy new treadmills at 6 minute pace, when 2.25 miles into my fast pace and it shut off.  I then hopped on a second fancy treadmill and .5 miles into it it shut off.  It's kind of hard to keep the heart rate up if you keep having to go to the front desk to tell them their treadmills suck tripped the circuit breaker.  I finished the fast pace portion of the run on the 1/9th mile indoor track.


Photo of the Week

This seems to be the permanent residence of my cycling shoes.  Since I've started mounting the bike with the shoes attached and then dismounting with them attached as well, they only time I remove them from the pedals is mid-ride at a traffic stop.

Week In Review

Last week saw a return to structured training, mostly.  With the end of Corporate Challenge Track, I was able to focus back on my training plan.  Because I was going to miss Masters Swim class Monday, I hit up the brand spanking new lap lane only pool at the YMCA.  It was awesome.  It was the perfect temp.  The old lap lane pool (which is still in use) is used for aerobics for those with arthritis, so they keep it a bit warmer than a normal lap lane pool.  I just did 2,500 yard long swim and it was great.  The deep end goes down 12 feet as that end has a diving board.

Tuesday I ended up with a rest day because of a concert I was attending (Ben Folds and the KC Symphony... quite awesome).  Since I had Wednesday off from work to take my nephew to the Royals game, I decided to make up for the missed day.  All before 9:30am I managed to go here:

and then here

Fancy new pool has flags and stuff

As I mentioned in my post from two years ago, my luck with track workouts hasn't been the best.  This theme continued.  As soon as I took that photo, I turned around and 60 high schoolers streamed out of the school.  BLERG!  Last time this happened, I scurried away but this time I asked the coach if I could hang for a bit and he obliged.  I really wanted to do this workout on a track instead of English Landing Park.  Technically, the intervals weren't by distance (they were timed) but I wanted to enjoy the track.  Fortunately I was done by the time the track team really started their workouts.

My pool workout went really really well too.  I was hitting some consistent paces that I never saw last year.

Watching the Royals sweep the Cleveland Indians!

After the Royals game, TKB and I went to Shawnee Mission Park so I could get some hill work in on the bike.  I did 5 loops of the park loop with an average over 20 mph for the 1 hour and 6 minutes.  Felt like I was in great shape for the upcoming KC Corporate Challenge Triathlon.

Thursday night was back at Masters Swim class.  Everything was going "swimmingly" until nearly the last of the final set.  I pushed off the wall and my left calf went rock hard.  I had to stop immediately, which was unfortunate as I was leading the lane.  Ducked out of peoples way and kept pulling on my foot to ease the cramp.  It took over a minute for it to relax.  I was done swimming. It was good timing because Coach Doug was pulling the cover off a diving block.  I hopped out and took a shot at diving off the block.  It went really really well.  No red chested beast look after about 5 practice dives.

Not bad considering my calf was still sore.  In fact, that cramp was so bad that it still hurts today, albeit slightly, but it still hurts.  I have never had it cramp up the bad before.  I was concerned it ripped a tendon!  Because of that, I took Friday off from any training to give it a chance to heal up.  I did have a triathlon on Sunday!

Saturday - Short Brick?
As I mentioned a few weeks ago (I think?), I got new cycling shoes.  These are more triathlon specific as they have one strap instead of 3 complicated ones.  I finally gave a shot at doing a "flying mount" on my bike.  I was unsure of how steady I would be with this.

To do this you have your shoes on your pedals and then, using rubber bands, tie them to your frame so they stay in place and level.  My left shoe/pedal would be in the 9 o'clock position and the right shoe/pedal in the 3 o'clock position (or 9 o'clock depending on if you are looking straight on).  You run your bike to the mount line and then step on the left pedal and coast a bit while flinging your right foot over the bike seat and placing it on the right shoe/pedal.  I attempted this briefly earlier in the week and felt very unstable with my left foot solely on the pedal.

To prepare, wearing my running shoes, I stood on the left pedal and rode my bike for about 30 feet.  I did this a couple times before attempting to fling my foot over the seat.  This helped give me a feel for the mount.  I then tried it barefoot with my shoes attached and it was so much more steady. I didn't put my feet in the shoes yet.  I just kept trying over and over.

Finally, I did it one last time but put my feet in my shoes and did a quick 5 mile ride... or so I thought!  With about 3/4 of a mile to go, I ran over something that blew my front tube.  Ugh.  While changing it, I blew my only spare tube airing it up with the CO2 cartridges.  Crap.  Fortunately another cyclist stopped by and offered a spare.  I graciously took it and managed to fix my front.  I then realized that whatever popped my front tire also got my rear tube.  I ended up just walking my bike the 3/4 of a mile home.

That cyclist had given me a tube in a box, which contained a receipt to a local bike shop.  So I went to the shop later that day and paid for a tube on his account.

KC Corporate Challenge Triathlon....
Cancelled due to weather.  It looked gloomy on the 10 day forecast and never changed.  Storms arrived in KC around 4:30am and it was called at 4:45am.  Poo.  The storms really weren't that bad but they made the right call.  If it was possible to delay the race by 2 hours, it would have been perfect but that wasn't in the cards considering all the permits and scheduling that went into it.

I'm not bitter about it.  I wasn't bitter about KC Triathlon being cancelled in 2013 (and I paid money out of my pocket for that).  I just feel bad for my Tri/Du team that had been training for it and couldn't race.  Many of them plan to sign up for SMP Triathlon in July.  It'd be nice if Parks and Rec gave them a little discount!  As of now, I don't plan to race SMP Tri.

Well, this was a bit more of a play-by-play than I usually do for my weekly review but had a lot of things going on that I felt were noteworthy.  This week I hope to stick with the plan a bit more.  The last month I've felt "off" from my training.  I'm finally getting back into the groove.

Weekly update...

A short update....

Within 15 minutes of publishing my last post, I had this text message conversation with our Track Corporate Challenge Coordinator, Rainy......

So I made a third trip out to Shawnee Mission North High School track to run the first leg of the distance medley, which was 800 meters for me (then 400, 400, 1200).  I joked around that I was doing a 700 meter run with a 100 meter baton throw.

Checkin deadline was 5:20pm so I was hoping we'd do our relay and I could immediately take off for Shawnee Mission Park to meet up with my Corporate Challenge Triathlon/Duathlon team for a swim, bike, run workout, which started at 6pm.  Unfortunately, we didn't start our heat until 6pm, so I missed half of the session.  Argh!  Well, I did my part and we ended up with 8th place earning a couple more points.

I had been suffering from weird stomach issues all week and they still hadn't subside.   I did manage pushing myself hard enough but not too hard, if you know what I mean.

On Saturday we did another High Five Station for Hospital Hill Run, which was a blast... a very, very wet blast.  Then after a very long nap (too long, actually), I managed a 7.5 mile run.  This morning I work up with sore and worn out legs.  This seemed odd to me since my 7.5 mile run, while a good pace, wasn't hard.  I felt like my post-High Five Station nap should have given them time to recover from standing around all morning.  My workout was a hard 1.5 hour bike then a hard 30 minute run (hard being bike intervals and 20 minutes of running in Heart Rate Zone 4... which is basically redlining).  While I felt like I was pushing hard, my heart rate barely hit Zone 3.  Legs just couldn't push hard enough, which was extremely frustrating.

I'm hoping the issue is they are still wiped from 3 nights at the track but at least the stomach issues are gone.  Speaking of issues, I installed my SPD-SL pedals on Wednesday and have been riding them.  I'm not going to call them a success yet but my neuroma discomfort has not bothered me as near much as before.  We'll see tomorrow when I wake up after my hard cycle session.

Well, the yard needs to be mowed before the sun disappears....  talk to you later!

Busy Couple Weeks

Here's a few photos of what I've been up to the last week and a half...

KC Corporate Challenge Bike Race

I got a nice PR for the 3 miles this year at the Kansas Speedway.  Thanks for the photo JoeVI.  Looks like I could be a bit tighter on the track but I had just passed someone so hadn't quite moved over yet.

KC Corporate Challenge Track - 1 Mile and 400 meters

Stepped up my game and did the 1 mile and 400 meter this year.  This was the first  400 meter for me.  They needed someone in my age group so I volunteered.  Good thing because I got an extra point for the team in the 400 meter but just missed any extra points on the mile.

I'll be writing up a blog post for all the corporate challenge events.  I may even try my hand at the swim meet this year.

Spectating at Gladstone Community Center Kids Triathlon

HOLY CRAP THIS WAS AWESOME!!!  Shane texted me Friday night to say that his son signed up for the kids triathlon the next day.  My masters class was at 7am before the triathlon at the facility. I usually don't attend because I usually do my long bike or run that morning.  I made the effort this day to watch Luke after.  It was absolutely amazing watching these kids ages 6 to 14.  Luke had to do 50 yard swim, 1.5 mile bike, and .25 mile run.  He did it like a pro!

Other Stuff
With Corporate Challenge going on, my evenings have been pretty jam packed.  I'm done for the week at track even tho they have two more nights. Tomorrow I'm organizing a Triathlon/Duathlon team workout at Shawnee Mission Park.  Along with a few late nights working, I was having some trouble sleeping last week.  Needless to say, my regularly structured training has taken some hits.

In addition to this, my foot neuroma is back.  I think this is tied to my increased cycling mileage.  I adjusted my cycling cleats back in January.  That didn't seem to work, so now I'm going back to the SPD-SL pedals I used previously to see if that helps.  I'm going with the Speedplays causing the issue.  I installed the pedals tonight (I bought a second pair for my triathlon bike and reinstalled the old ones on my road bike).

High Five Station

Last April after the Boston Marathon bombings, TKB and I were talking about doing something to support the running community.  The upcoming weekend was the Garmin Marathon and we decided to go out and cheer on the runners.  We put out some feelers on Facebook and Karie and Dane showed up with us at 8am that Saturday morning.  It was a complete blast and the "KC High Five Station" was born!

The rest of 2013 did not see the High Five Station reassembled.  I was ramping up my ironman training; in addition, May and June turned out to be heavy race months.

This past April we re-ignited the flame.  We set out the same plan.  We met at the Frontier Park around mile 9 of the half and 15 & 22 of the full around 8am.  This time Kristen joined us for the High Five action!  I learned from last year that our music setup rather sucked.  I just played some tunes from my cell phone in my pocket.  This year I purchased a BIG Jambox.  It doesn't blow people away,  but considering we were in a residential area, that's probably a good thing.

Once all the crew had arrived, we were High Fiving liking there was no tomorrow.  Not too much longer, storms started to roll in.  This was the Garmin Marathon: In The Land Of Oz.  So it would only make sense for them to have thunderstorms rolling in for the event.  It started to mist, then sprinkle, then a full on downpour.  If runners were out there, then so were we.  We didn't experience it in our location, but this storm produced hail!

Downpour!

After about three hours, we threw in the towel for the day.  It was a blast being out there giving back.

We couldn't wait to do this again.  So much so that we met up the next day at mile 3 of The Trolley Run!  This day's crew was Karie, Dane, Ryann, TKB, and me.  It wasn't as long of a day (4 mile race versus a full marathon) but we probably gave out more high fives in that short amount of time.  We held out until the very last runner passed!

Team High Five

Even the little ones get and give some High Five action!

We decided to make an effort to do this at least once a month.  In May we met up again and cheered on runners at the Kansas City Corporate Challenge Half Marathon.  I had some co-workers running, so why not give them a nice cheering section!

Kristen slappin' skin during the KC Corporate "Olympics"

We seem to be perfecting this, so we are all set to cheer on runners at the Hospital Hill Run Half Marathon and 10k on June 7.

If you aren't running, come on out and help us serve up some High Fives!  To know more, keep an eye on our Facebook Page!

This Week...

A relatively easy week due to recovery from KC Triathlon last Sunday.

Swim: 2,800 yards / 48:28
Bike: 97.25 / 5:54
Run: 15.42 / 2:03
Weights: 1:10

Total: 114.26 miles / 9:56

Yesterday I took off for my 25 mile bike ride (followed by 30 minutes running).  I realized after a little bit that I left my flat repair kit at home.  I decided to chance it.  I just knew I was jinxing myself.

On my way into Parkville, there is a nice downhill section on Highway 9.  I was moving about 35 miles per hour and the car in front of me slowed to turn into a cafe.  I slowed down and then noticed that another car going the other direction was making the turn in as well.  This was about 40 feet in front of me and I was still moving around 20 miles per hour.  I gripped my brakes.

I still had my carbon fiber deep dish rims on (this was my first ride on my TT bike since KC Tri and I have another race on Wednesday).  With these rims, braking is more difficult because the carbon fiber rims flex under braking pressure.

I yelled "HEEEEEEEEY!" as loud as I could and the driver stopped which gave me JUST enough time/space to swerve in front of his bumper and around in the rough patch on the side of the road.  Wheels locked, knuckles white, adrenaline rushing.  The driver did say "Sorry, partner" as I managed to regain purchase on life as I continued by.

Whew!

The adrenaline stayed with me for the next 20 minutes as I flew down Highway FF/River Road.

Don't think my flat repair kit would have saved me there.

I continued for another 20 miles and returned back to that block of Parkville.  I was now faced with going up that hill that I was previously flying down.  As I was starting to gear down and head up the hill, I heard my chain get cranky and then really cranky.  I looked down and it had snapped.  Luckily I was able to unclip in time to save myself from falling in front of an old lady and her Yappy-McYaperson dog.

There's your problem!

Flat repair kit wouldn't have saved me here.  Fortunately, my phone did.  TKB soon came to my rescue.

I dropped the bike off at the Local Bike Shop (LBS) to have them install a new chain.  I'd be willing to do it myself, but this week I have a ...

Time Trial Race!
I'm returning to Kansas Speedway on Wednesday to do two laps (3 miles) in the Corporate Challenge Bike Race.

I want the LBS to make sure it is installed OK because I didn't want to have chain issues at high torque during the race

I did this race last year and it was a blast.  Now that I am a bit more experienced with Time Trials (I did two so far this year organized by Coach Ken), I think I'll do better.  I will also be using my race wheels, which should help.  Again, the concern is the weather.  The forecast is scattered thunderstorms but very little wind!  Last year it was crazy windy.  I hope that this all adds up to a sub-7 minute three miles.

2014 Kansas City Triathlon Race Report

The weather outlook was looking fabulous, compared to last year.  No thunderstorms on the radar.  The only minor concern was hopping into the car with the thermometer reading 39 degrees.

We arrived at the race site around 5:30.  I purchased the VIP pass this year, so there was no need to arrive this early for the purpose good parking.  The purpose was to get the $200 worth of credit to Ultramax and Elite Cycling.  The post-race grub and other swag was nice for the VIP people tho. Speaking of swag, this race gives you a ton of it VIP or not with 2 race shirts, headphones, hand towel, water bottle, trainer bike blanket, and probably more.  I'd be just fine if they would cut down on the swag to make the race cheaper.  Anyway...

I had my transition area mostly setup by 6:15 after chatting with tons of friends from work, twitter, MTC, and all over.  Quite different than when I did this the first time and really knew no one racing that day.

Transition area.  Getting smaller and less congested.  I promise.

At 6:30 I started to put on my wetsuit.  The temps were chilly but as soon as I did that, I never noticed any chill until after the race.

Once transition closed at 7:00, it was time to head over to the beach.

Erik, the blind, Kevin waiting for the race to start amongst the superhero convention. (Joke credit: TKB)

My wave was set to leave around 7:36.  Since I elected to not warm up in the water, I wasn't exactly sure what was waiting for me.  I swam Wednesday night at the lake, so I knew it was going to be a bit on the cold side but manageable.

Swim - 1,500 meters
I was lined up about 4 rows back.  I felt my swimming had improved enough to earn the right to stand with the bigger boys (but maybe not the BIG boys).  Once the horn blew, the rush to the water began.  I ran until I got about mid-thigh and dove in.  Taking a cue from something I read, I made sure to blow out as my face entered the water to lessen the cold shock to the face and it worked.  I got into a groove pretty quickly and didn't have to fight too much.

The sun was in my face and I struggled a little to site the buoys until the first turn.  I kept people on the left and right, so felt I was OK to stay in my current line.  I was concerned more about my goggles.  They were new but I did about 4 swims with them prior.  They would always leak at some point until I adjusted them into the sweet spot.  I ended up not having any issues at all, so that was comforting.

I focused on my form as we've been learning in masters swim class lately and kept pulling myself through the water.  I felt like I was passing a lot of people in my wave, then wave #2, and then the first wave.

In the final 1/3 of the swim I started thinking through my transition... and then my bike.  I remembered something that I had forgotten.  My bento box.... which had my bike nutrition.  For as well as I plan my packing, I couldn't believe I'd miss something this simple.  In my over preparation, I remember putting Gu and a cliff bar in my transition bag, which is right next to the bike.  I would just grab that on my way out of transition.

Soon my fingertips scrapped the sand and I stood up and started running to the shore (next time I may swim a little further though before getting up).

I'm actually taking off my watch right here.  It's just easier to get the suit off and plenty of time to do so.

Looks like walking, feels like walking. #XterraTrampStamp

Time: 25:55 / 1:44 per 100 meters pace
Age Group: 11 out of 68

I missed my goal by 55 seconds but I'm still happy with that pace.  My form felt great throughout.

Transition - Swim to Bike
This turned out to be way too long for what I would want it to be.  The wetsuit added to it, sure, but dealing with my shoes is not something I want to be doing in the transition area.  The buckles are too complicated to deal with on the bike.  New bike shoes will be in my future... someday.

I need a photo blanket of all my "Poop" race faces.

On Thursday Coach Ken gave tips on mounting your bike out of T1.  He said to practice "driving" your bike from the seat.  Guess I need to heed that advice and didn't realize it...

I elected not to put on the arm warmers that I had laid out.  Turns out to be a smart move.

Time: 3:36

Bike - 40k
Two loops that included some good hills and six 180 degree turns total.  Knowing that, I still hoped for a 22.5 mph average. I saw Coach Ken on the first 180 degree turn.  He gave a little encouragement as in "this is a race, get moving!".  Maybe he didn't appreciated me posing for this photo:

As JoeVI said, the most metal on that bike was my left hand...

I found myself pushing to pass people, which there were a lot of them.  I did get passed by a few people who were absolutely rolling.  With the uphills, I took advantage of the flats as much as possible. In the longest stretch, I hit nearly a 25 mph average over a 5 mile split.  The other splits weren't so fast but kept me close to my goal.

There were a couple scary points where someone wiped out in front of me on the bike near a rough patch around the bridge following a HUGE downhill.  I didn't see him fall, but was just far out enough to avoid him.  Be safe people.

I came into the finish with a flying dismount right at the line.

Time: 1:06:07 / 22.5 mph
Age Group: 5 out of 68

Nailed the goal and happy with the placement within the age group.  I guess my cycling is doing better than I thought it would, at least compared to others in my age group.

Transition - Bike to Run
As I was running my bike to my rack, I heard the dismount line monitor yelling to the race official.  I thought maybe I had gotten a little too close and incurred a penalty!  Eek!

Again, this needs to be faster. I had some issues with my right shoe putting it on.  Probably added an extra 5 - 10 seconds.  Argh.

Time: 1:33

Run - 10k
Let's do this.  This is where I was hoping to shine.  I knew my legs wanted to run but how bad did I beat them up during the bike?

Starting the first or second lap.  #PoopFace

I felt like a sloth coming out of T2 but my watch was registering sub-7 pace going up the hill out of the transition.  One thing I noticed was the temp was starting to rise.  I was not cold at all on the bike, so very happy with my decision to leave the arm sleeves on the ground during T1.

The first loop was relatively quiet in terms of athletes on the course.  A few people passed me and I overtook quite a few.  Couldn't remember the exact number.  On lap two it was full of people, mostly from the sprint race.  It was great because it provided a steady stream of fish to hook and pass.

My pace was feeling good and almost always under 7.  I remember back in 2011 during the Jackson County Triathlon at the same location hoping to hit my last mile as 7 minute pace.  I was hitting all of these under 7. My run fitness has come a long way.

My right foot was bugging me a bit but it was related to the issues I was having with my shoe in transition.  It wasn't bugging me enough to slow me down though.

I turned the corner and was happy to take the route into the finish line this time.  I heard cheers from TKB and pushed it to the end!

Heading towards the finish!  #PoopFace #ChickenWings

Time: 41:41 / 6:44 pace
Age Group: 8 out of 68

Nice!  Beat my goal pace by 1 second per mile pace!

Overall

Love this photo.

For one, no #PoopFace by default.
Second, my stride does not indicate my right foot flailing off to the side.

Time: 2:18:49
Age Group: 6 out of 68
Overall: 32 out of 298

I hit my top 10 finish but also top 10%!  This is also a 21 minute PR!

After talking with MTC Team members for a bit, TKB noticed Kristen was coming down the finish chute!  She was completed her first triathlon today and did an amazing job!  Sounds like she might have caught the bug!  Not too much longer and Erik crossed the finish finishing his first triathlon!  Erik is doing Chicago Triathlon with us.  I suggested he considering doing a local one first before that massive triathlon and within 30 minutes he had registered for KC Tri.  Glad he had a great time out there!

Kevin from work completed his first Olympic distance triathlon today in preparation for Chicago Triathlon.  He had a strong finish today as well!  Looks like we've got a great team for Chicago!

Congrats to all the MTC'ers out there!  I never realized how many of them were out there until I dawned the team jersey too.

A couple notes.

• I did not get a penalty at the dismount line but the fact that they actually had USAT officials on the race course was pretty awesome.  
• I did take a couple Gu gels with me on the bike but apparently when taking one I dropped my second one.  I don't think it hurt me in the end but I would have taken the second one near the end of my bike.  I made sure to drink some extra calories tho.
• My stomach bothered me a little on the run but apparently not enough to remember how bad.
• Post-race had water, oranges, bananas and near-beer.  There was probably an electrolyte drink as well but it was likely in 5 gallon jugs.  Consider the price, they could have had some more options.  We did partake in the Zarda BBQ as part of the VIP "experience" which also had some bagels.
• I better go ahead and post this now so I can go to bed.... GOOD NIGHT!  Thanks for reading!

Proof

Race Prep.  Bento box is by the bike shoes... *sigh*

Just a few of the MTC'ers out there.

You know, hanging out with a World Triathlon Champion Kelly Dippold on my right.  Her son is racing on my Corporate Challenge Triathlon team. #FamilyNameDropped

Hanging out with Erik pre-race.

Hanging out with Erik and Kristen post-race.

Please don't look at Kristen's bib.  I said DON'T look at her bib. 

Chatting with a  bunch of Tri-peeps.

Love Erik's smile!

Does he ever stop smiling?  Not when he is levitating....

Kristen in the red cap on the left stripping for all to see....