Second Ride Outside

Saturday was my second time riding outside this year. Last year it warmed up earlier so it made training much easier. My first ride outside was Friday 3/15. It was a brisk 50 degrees outside but we're cycling and going downhill. When running in the cold they say to dress like it's 20 degrees warmer. In cycling I think the opposite applies...dress like it's 20 degrees colder. I always have a difficult time since I break into a decent sweat during climbs no matter what the temperature. Then, I'll freeze on the descents due to my moist clothes.

Anyway, we had a fairly large group given the weather. The ride started about 40 minutes from my house. There aren't really any "hills" close to me so some driving is required if I'm going to make it through Triple-T. I had everything ready to go the night before, so I could easily get out the door, except for one thing...my cycling shoes.

I came to this realization while I was sitting at a light waiting to turn into the parking lot where everyone was meeting. If you were in the car next to me at this point in time and looked over I'm sure you were frightened, possibly amused. There was yelling, cursing, arms flailing, hat throwing, pounding on my arm rest and a punch or two thrown at the passenger seat. I don't think I've ever been so mad before a workout. My mind was racing to find a solution...maybe I didn't really forget them and I'm only imagining it...no, I really forgot them...there's a bike shop a mile down the road, I'll just go buy some new shoes and cleats...crap, that'll take 30 minutes at least...maybe someone will have an extra pair of shoes...year right, how many people wear size 13 and have Look pedals? (Someone did have 12.5 MTB shoes but I have road pedals)

I tried to remain calm and pulled into the parking lot. First thing when I get out of my car, "Hey Brian, how are you?" Me: "Pretty crappy, I forgot my shoes." I stood around for a minute and thought about going home and just riding from there. Then I realized if I went home, I would just be pissed the whole ride and not in the mood to do anything. I figured my pedals have a decent platform so, I'll ride in these beauties...

My running shoes which were retired 3 years ago that I probably shouldn't even be walking around in but still do.

Perfect cycling shoes right?

Good thing we're riding hills...

I'd post my Garmin data but I can't get it to upload.

Strangely, riding in these shoes was not bad once I figured out what I needed to do. I was waiting for my feet to slip when I had to stand up to pedal but they didn't. The worst parts were actually the descents when I was going to fast too have any resistance on the chain. The first time I tried to pedal my feet flew off the pedals and I thought I was about to experience my first high speed crash.

I made it without any major problems and I think everyone else was just as shocked as I was about how well I was able to ride. Here are some things people said to me while riding (only 2 or 3 people knew, or noticed, at the start of the ride that I was riding in running shoes)...

Do you have cleats in those? (No.) Why are you doing that!? (I forgot my shoes.)

I can't believe you're riding in those.

How do your feet feel? (Not too bad...ask me again tomorrow)

You need like a hard plastic plate in your shoe.


The only positive was that running shoes make it easy to walk around the gas station at a pit stop.

Moral of the story: Don't forget your cycling shoes. 

Indoor Training with Turbo Trainer

Everyone knows how boring riding indoors on a trainer can get, especially during the winter when the weather makes it difficult to ride outside. I've discovered two ways to make training indoors more bearable. The first is Computrainer classes...at $20 a pop or free if I joined the store's Tri Club, I decided to add a 3rd Tri Club membership. Now I just need to decide which uniform I like best and weigh that with which club I'll have more friends in. I'd really love to buy my own Computrainer but at $1500, I can't justify the purchase (especially after having just bought a new bike) since it would definitely lead to more electronics so I can wirelessly display my computer on my flat screen. Not to mention all the course videos available. I don't really trust buying one on Ebay.

The second way, I discovered last week, is Turbo Training. It's a UK based website that allows you to create interval sessions for riding on your trainer. It also lets you use workouts created by other users. The only downside is that you need to be able to see your computer screen from your trainer. I just set my laptop on a hightop chair right in front of my bike. Another thing you may want to watch out for is the screen saver. I forgot to turn my off and it popped up every 5 minutes so I had to reach over and hit the touchpad.

There are a lot of workouts on there and I think the max time is 60 minutes. Some of them are more detailed than others and you can rate the workout after you do it. The better workouts have a suggested cadence, heart rate, gear and/or power (if you have a power meter). To use the sessions you have to create a profile and you can enter a resting heart rate and max heart rate. The website then determines you BPM for each interval of the workout. It works sort of like a Tabata timer as you can see in the picture below. When you click "start" it gives you about 5 seconds to get on the bike and then starts. The big blue timer is the overall time completed. A small green timer will countdown the seconds left in each interval right above the blue timer. The interval you're in will enlarge and you'll hear a beeping sound a few seconds before the next interval is starting. I did the Pyramid workout below.

When you're done, it gives you the option to enter all the workout info from your bike computer and creates an activity record.

I'm not quite sure about all the details but, it seems as though you're only allowed to use 3 different workouts a month (as many times as you'd like) and create 1 workout a month. The Premium version is £12 a year.

It worked great for my first time using it and the hour went by fairly quickly vs. just pedaling for an hour.

New Year of Training and Races!

I can’t wait to start working out in the new year…
and the crowded gyms with all the resolutioners. Hopefully they stick with it.

I’m pretty excited that I’m not planning on doing any running specific races. I would have loved to try a half-iron last year but I wanted to focus on the MCM since I didn’t know triathlons were going to be that exciting. I haven’t set a race schedule yet other than Rev 3 Knoxville but here is the projected plan for this year.
Tri-Poison: 5k run, 20k bike, 1k swim, then a Sprint Tri
Rumpass in Bumpass – Oly (April)
Rev 3 Knoxville – Half (May)
DC Tri – Sprint (June)
New Town Triathlon - Almost an Oly (July)
Maybe another Half iron in the fall depending on how Knoxville goes.
As many weekly cycling races as I can enter…there are a ton in St. Louis. I’m excited to do a TT on a TT bike.
If things go well maybe I’ll be allowed to buy a cyclocross bike and hit up those races in the fall…we’ll see.
Even though I’m not married I think the following formulas still apply.
x = (n+1)
n = number of bikes currently owned, x = ideal number of bikes owned

y = (n+1)
n = number of bikes currently owned, y= number of bikes that will result in a divorce

CAL U Hilton Head Triathlon...Finally

This weekend, as you can tell from my last blog, I did my third sprint Tri in three weeks. At first I was addicted to running but, I've become addicted to triathlons very quickly. I finally bought an Xterra Vortex 3 Fullsuit Wetsuit and couldn't be happier with it. I had a sleeveless rental wetsuit for the first two tris and wasn't very happy with it. I might even go as far as saying that the lack of arms made it difficult to swim since my arms, along with the rest of my upper body, are very large and I didn't have enough buoyancy in my upperbody with the sleeveless wetsuit.

This triathlon was the result of a vacation I took with my girlfriend to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Like any dedicated runner or triathlete, I decided to look to see if there were any races going on while we were there...and there was one :-) It was a 500m swim, 20K bike and 5K run. I figured racing while at the beach would be perfect. I could get in an ocean swim the day before the triathlon and be comfortable in the water.

All the courses were very straight forward and the bike and run course were pancake flat. The swim course was 500m with the current.
















The bike and run course were around the same loop. The bike route was 4 loops and the run was one.










We got to Hilton Head on Thursday, went to the beach for a bit on Friday and rented beach cruiser bikes for the week. We rode these to packet pick up and I tried to talk my girlfriend into doing the tri with the beach cruiser since she didn't have her bike. She has never done a triathlon but she taught me how to swim and she also bikes and runs. It's probably a good thing she didn't go the beach cruiser route since they were one gear and running after riding one for 12 miles would more than likely suck. Strangely enough there were 2 girls who rode beach cruiser rental bikes in the race. Packet Pick Up was very small, no bag for my number or swim cap. Since it was a mass start they let everyone pick their own swim cap colors. I considered going with hot pink but decided against it and went with blue. This turned out to be a great decision since not many of the women went with hot pink...or maybe that would have been a plus. Maybe someday I'll have a pink swim cap in my collection and it won't be by choice.

The race started at 7 on Saturday and I decided to wake up at 5:20 or so and the g/f slept in. Our condo couldn't have been in a better place for getting to the race. We were a block away. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of the bike route you can see a traffic circle. The condo is right on the opposite side of the circle...beach front of course. I got to transition right around 6 and picked up my chip as soon as I got there. I bought a new timing chip band since the first one I bought didn't have a slot on the padded strap for the chip to rest in so it's not directly touching your skin. I'm not sure if this made a difference since I doubt I noticed it during the previous races. Either way it helped me mentally before the race and I didn't have to think about it. I took the picture below as soon as I racked my bike.

The gentleman in the left of the picture did not seem very happy that I was taking a picture of (I'm assuming) him and his wife. His fault, he wasn't racing so he shouldn't have been in the transition area. On that note, I've been very displeased with the lack of security at the transition areas during the last two races. The first race had stellar security I saw them stop a few people to make sure they were racing. The second and third let anyone in...strollers, dogs, little kids...probably not the ideal place to let your kids run around in. I don't think anything was stolen and I didn't see anyone get hurt.


I set up my transition area with my new wetsuit and headed down to check out the water and

the path from the beach...It was a long walk. To get there I had to walk out of the transition area, down a mat across some pine needles and through some trees, across a 4 lane road, at least 100 yards down a parking before I got to the beach. I realize some races have much longer runs from the beach to transition but, this one was across a lot of rough pavement in bare feet.




Not a bad set up, it would get smaller since I hadn't attached my shoes to my bike yet. Notice the blue Gatorade frost trend.




This picture is about 10 feet from the edge of the parking lot we must run across. I'd guess the beach is about 150 yards since the tide is out. Notice the small person and yellow buoy in the distance. He hadn't reached the water at this point.







I walked back to transition to see if my girlfriend had moseyed out of bed yet and down to the action...she hadn't. I can't really blame her, who wants to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and stand around while people place their shoes and put on wetsuit. At this point I had no idea what to do. I should have been tying my shoes in place with dental floss but I wasn't thinking. I spent some time chatting and watching other people. I'm not much of a conversationalist but, I'll talk to you if you talk to me. The race director, or someone, kept announcing what time it was and finally said the water temperature was 74 degrees...time to wetsuit up! Oddly, the water temp was 74 every morning while we were there but one day it felt like bath water.

It was extremely humid and not many people were wearing wetsuits. I had mine half on and some guy noticed I broke a sweat. He said "are you sure you want to wear that, you're not supposed to be that sweaty until after the race." "You're telling me...you should have seen me the time this guy at the store told me I would wear a large wetsuit. (I wear and XXL) It's half way on so I might as well wear it" I replied. Then I walked down to the beach and over to the start. The girlfriend found me right after I stepped on the beach. She zipped me up and wished me luck.

We walked down shore and I was wondering how the mass swim start would go. I didn't come up with a strategy since the last two times didn't work out at all and decided to wing it. Strangely, I was not comfortable in the water during my warm up swim and was worried I was going to have a three peat. I stood on the shore and waited for the mass start. I didn't have a swim plan per se, other than not running out with the lead group. The horn went off and I hung back and slowly made my way into the water. Using my amazing logic abilities...I decided I was going to quickly move farther into the ocean and wait until almost everyone in front of me started swimming. Right before I started swimming I decided I was going to breaststroke out to the first buoy since it would be easier and not as tiring to get through the ocean waves this way. I made it to the first turn buoy and had to tread water since there was a ton of bunching. After the turn I pointed myself where I wanted to go and freestyled. I swam along with a decent amount of room at a comfortable pace and just waited for my breathing to get out of control. IT NEVER HAPPENED! I just cruised along stopping to breaststroke a few strokes every minute or so to see if I veered off course since I was passing some people and didn't trust their (or my own) open water navigational skills. The rest of the swim was as smooth as I could have hoped for, I managed to roll with the swells in the ocean and control my breathing. When I made the last turn it became very crowded and I had to stand up sooner than I wanted to. I got about thigh deep and decided it was time to unzip so I didn't overheat on the run to transition. I had a minor problem. A while ago I watched a very nicely done transition video on Youtube. The person in the video suggested unzipping your wetsuit while running out of the water then taking off your goggles and swim cap. Next you're supposed to take the wetsuit top off while holding the items in one hand and letting them get caught in the arm of your wetsuit so you don't have to carry them. I tried this technique and had no problem getting my wetsuit off and leaving the swim cap and goggles in the arm but, when I checked a couple seconds later my goggles were gone. They only cost $15 so I decided it wasn't worth the time loss and definitely wasn't worth pissing a bunch of people off...I still wonder if anyone found them on the beach later that day. I ran up the beach, across the parking lot, across the road and to transition. Not an easy task, if I had a heart rate monitor I'm sure it would have been off the charts.

Total Swim Time: 14:30 which includes the 300-400 yard run. 110/154 for the men.

T1 time was pretty slow as usual...1:57...Everything goes smoothly except I can't do it quickly since my heart is racing. I managed a flying squirrel mount and was off. The first mile was decently slow since I had problems getting my shoes on. Speedplay shoe cleats on Shimano tri shoes are next to impossible to run in.

Once I got my feet in my shoes I picked up speed very quickly. Since the course was flat I figured this would be my fastest bike ride yet. The first loop went by pretty quickly and I passed a good number of people. I was also lapped on the first loop by a decent number of people. I'd love to know how fast they were riding. I averaged 20 mph but hit 25 mph at a few points and still wasn't able to keep up with people on tri bikes. The bike part of the race is probably my least favorite of the three. I have very strong legs but, I'm weak on turns and hills. I probably just need to get out and ride more often rather than taking spin class twice a week. The second and third loops went by a bit slower than the first. Most of my time was spent either passing people smoothly or slowly passing someone and having them pass me after making a turn. I was very pissed off on the second loop when someone decided to pass me on the right side during a turn. He had enough room on either side but, I'd never expect someone to cut me off on a turn from the right side. No one had a penalty assessed the whole race. On the third loop I had just passed someone and I suppose he didn't like this and started to speed up after I passed him but hadn't gone all the way back to the right. There was another group coming to lap up and he sped up and yelled "on your right." I don't think I'll repeat what I yelled back but, he stopped trying to pass me. No one needs to be passed on the left and the right at the same time. Then, the fourth loop seemed like forever but, I did pass one of the girls on the beach cruiser whose chain had come off. I felt pretty bad for her but what can you do.

Total bike time: 38:34 and 100/154

T2 was much slower than T1 considering I had problems getting both my socks and shoes on. The Yankz really help save time but I've decided I have them too tight.

T2: 2:39...WTF was I doing? I could have made lunch faster than that.

I don't have a lot to say about the run other than it was boring and I ran it. I said "good job" to everyone I passed and everyone who passed me. One guy about my size but a bit taller said " You too! It's hard for us big guys." FINALLY! Someone set me up..."It's hard carrying around all this muscle" I said as I passed. Then the last person to pass me told me about how he had been picturing in the finish line in his mind since he got off the bike. I told him I just hope it comes sooner than I think it will.


I rounded the turn for the finish and heard "Here comes Brian J from Alexandria, VA and crossed the finish line in 1:29:07. I tried to talk my body into sprinting to make it under 1:29:00 but my body said Hell No and I slogged along, I should have transitioned faster. Not bad, 10 minutes faster than my previous two. Considering the run on the last tri was .4 miles too long. (Admitted in a reply from the race director to an email I sent about the problems with the course)

Run time: 31:29...much slower than I thought it would be and 127/156 for the men.

Total Time: 1:29:07 -126/154 and 4th (last) in the clydesdales

If I knocked a minute off each transition my place would have only dropped two spots. I was very happy with this race and feel much more confident about doing an Olympic distance in July...Rockett's Landing in Richmond, VA.

I wear Tri Tats during the race since I think they look much better in pictures than magic marker. I'd advise taking them off after the triathlon if you're going to spend anytime in the sun like...at the beach.

Otherwise you'll have 16 year old playboy bunny sticker-like tan lines.

It's still there as of this posting...no one has asked about it...other than people who do triathlons

Lazy Thursday

This morning I could not get out of bed. I woke up to go to the bathroom at about 7am and wasn't sure if I would make it there. I was accused of having Mono and making out with random girls. Anyways, I finally dragged myself out of bed at 11 and made it to work at noon. Luckily I have a flexible schedule so no one cares.

My present state of body is more than likely due to running at the track last night. I didn't drink any Gatorade during or after like I normally do so I probably needed electrolytes...because Brawndo's got electrolytes...Anyways, this week has consisted of swimming on Monday which went very well. I finished my first workout of more than 2000 yards with 300 and 200 yard sets. I really hate kicking drills though, they seem to take forever. Tuesday was Abs and Spin class. No 6 pack yet but, I'm not sore anymore and I can make it through the whole class without having to stop. Also, if you've never used Gliders for an abs workout I recommend giving it a try, they're pretty tough. Spinning went as it always does, I power through without any problems and left a puddle of sweat on the bike and mat. We did a few sprints and hills which was challenging, mainly the sprints since my legs seemed to tighten up after them. I always wonder how much resistance other people in the class are using.

Track was great last night, not a lot of people. We were trying to decide if the lack of people was due to Boston or the threat of major thunderstorms (which never happened). I doubt that many people from the track groups ran Boston on Monday. The workout was 4-5x1000 @ 5K pace with a 400m rest. I chose to do 4 as did a lot of other people since I still didn't finish before them. I think my average pace was around 8:25/mile which isn't bad considering all this muscle I have to carry around...I've been dying to use that line but haven't had the oppotunity. After track I was talking with the fast people and one of them was telling me about the Krispy Kreme Challenge in Raleigh, NC which I considered doing this past year. If you don't know what this is, I suggest you google it...you'll either be sick or thank me. Basically, it's 2 mile out and 2 mile back but, after the 2 mile out you have to eat 12 Krispy Kreme donuts then run back. The guy I was talking to said it wasn't that bad until the masses of people showed up at the donuts. He managed to keep them down on the way back, I was impressed. Then we were talking about costumes during races and how one guy runs this marathon every year dressed as a lighthouse made of wood with a functioning light...read that again if you have to. I have problems running a marathon in running clothes and this f-ing guy is doing them faster than me wearing a wooden box.

Very First Duathlon

Yesterday I "raced" my very first duathlon with the D.C. Triathlon Club and it was a success. It started off as a 3.2 mile run, 16.5 mile bike and a 3.2 mile run however, the weather didn't cooperate. The small race was being held at Hains Point in Washington D.C. right along the Potomac River. If you've never been around DC, Hains Point is a small peninsula near the Jefferson Memorial right near the 14th Street Bridge. It used to be known for a very incredible sculpture called "The Awakening". Sadly this moved to National Harbor.

Anyways, the majority of Hains Point was shut down due to flooding concerns since the water was already up to the bottom of the benches along the shore. (I meant to take a picture but I forgot.) The race was shortened to a 3.2 mile run and about an 11 mile bike, fine by me since I was not looking forward to being soaked. Luckily the rain held off long enough to finish the bike without everyone getting completely soaked.

I've never run or biked with this club before so I had no idea what the competition level would be. Considering I'm around 255 pound with a lot of muscle it's usually safe to assume I'll be slower than most people. I think there were about 20 people in the "race." I managed to finish the run in about 28 minutes and finished before 3 people, much to my surprise. I've never cycled for time before and I've never ran before biking. I feel as though I did pretty well for my first time. The 11 mile or so bike took me around 38 minutes but, I passed 2 people along the way...the course was 3 loops and I was passed by two or three people but, they did finish the run a lot sooner than I did.

Definitely a great time and I'd definitely do it again. Now all I need to do is add the swim portion which will more than likely be at the first triathlon.

Today was a little different. It was such a nice day so I decided I would do a bike/run since the second run didn't happy yesterday. I biked about 15 miles on the Mt. Vernon Trail along the other side of the Potomac River...I'll never be biking this trail again unless it's early in the morning. It's narrow with a lot of turns and very busy. It was by far the slowest ride I've been on. At one point it was impossible to pass someone for about 5 minutes because of all the people and not being able to see around turns. I got sick of this and detoured on to the road and finished the last mile that way. It turned out to be a great idea since it ended up being a 22 mph mile. Anyways, I finished the bike without incident unless you count falling over when I was stopped because there is so much play in my pedals I couldn't turn my left foot far enough to unclip my shoe.

The run was fairly brutal but I ran about 3 miles and felt out of breath the whole time. My legs didn't hurt but they were definitely tough to move. I'm very interested to see if they get used to this transition.