RACE REPORT: Terre Haute, IN – Olympic Distance Triathlon.

Distance: 800m swim, 24.8 mile bike, 5 mile run
Total Time: 2:03:44 (Rank: 95/339 Overall, 9/23 Age Group)
Swim Time: 11:53 (Rank: 101)
Swim Pace: ~1:28/100m
T1 Time: 3 minutes? (no T splits today)
Bike Time: 1:07:37 (Rank: 72)
Bike Speed: 22.04mph
T2 Time: 45 seconds?
Run time: 40:31 (Rank: 94)
Run Pace: 8:06.2 min/mile
HR Pacing (Friel Scale): Z4 swim, Z5 –> Z4 bike, Z4–>Z5 run
Weather: 60 degrees/85% humidity –> 80 degrees/85% humidity

After getting my standard 3 hours of pre-race sleep, eating my pre-race meal of PBJ, Cereal and some Infinit, I drove to Terre Haute, IN to compete in the well-organized Terre Haute Olympic Distance Triathlon.  Lana came with me, which was amazing because she took some really neat pictures (link to photo album) and videos (link to Youtube) of me and the Bloomington Tri Club crew.  Pre-race went smoothly.  We drove in on the bike course, so though I only rode a few miles in warmup, I had a good idea of what was coming, which was FLAT FLAT FLAT, except for some rollers about 3-5 miles out of transition.  Warmup was a 15 minute bike, a 10 minute swim right before our wave went off, and 3 jogs to the portapotties.

After the pre-race meeting, some kind of sermon and prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ (which I didn’t appreciate, not everyone is a Christian at triathlons), we were ready to go.  The water temp was 71 degrees, perfect temperature for a wetsuit swim.  First wave was Men 30-39, second wave was all women, third wave was Men 20-29.  After the first two waves, I got in the water and was actually chatting with a BTU buddy when the gun went off, haha.  The swim was FAST.  I found feet to draft off of for about 50% of the swim, and came in at a nice fast pace.

T1 went poorly (I need to figure out how to get my wetsuit off quicker).

I’m learning quickly that the bike is absolutely my strongest of the three disciplines.  I was calm and confident for the first half of the course, averaging 24mph heading out.  Until we turned around, and realized we now had to navigate a 10mph headwind.  I instantly realized that I had gone too hard on the first half, and needed to take it down a notch.  After taking it easy for a few minutes, I got back in gear and continued on at my high Z4 pace.

Unfortunately, the second half of the bike was a draft-fest.  I tried several times to pass a group of about 6 riding in a close formation, but I couldn’t do it.  Eventually, though, the drafting police came around and broke the group up (don’t think any penalties were handed out, though).

After conquering the rollers out of transition, I rolled in and got set for the run.  I felt okay, not great, but ok starting out the run.  The weather and humidity were ramping up pretty quickly, and I was on the verge of a side stitch, so I had to go a bit easy the first mile.  However, when mile marker 1 came, my watch had me at a 8:13 split, which is pretty good for me for “taking it easy”.  The next two miles were similar, mile 4 was about 8:00, and mile 5, which included 3/4 of a mile of SURPRISE CROSS COUNTRY MUD RUN WITH STUPID GRASSY MOUNDS, was definitely under 8:00.  I came in at 2:03:44, good for 95th place and 6th place in my age group.  Though the official results aren’t in yet, that puts me firmly in the Front of the Middle of the pack at a race that was well-attended by some big Midwestern triathlon dawgs.

I have to give a HUGE shout-out to my coach, Chris Palmquist via trainingbible.com.  Her workouts really got me motivated the past few weeks to really concentrate on getting faster and stronger.  She has put me through the Gauntlet of Swimming Hell, with results that make the 3000 meter workouts 3x/week almost worth it.  Plus, I’m riding and running harder than I ever would have thought to on my own.  The results of these changes to my workout schedule speak for themselves.

I also have to give a HUGE shout-out to myself, for losing a bunch of weight and making the bike and run a lot easier on myself.  And also for bearing down and getting the work done the past few weeks.

Also, HUGE shout-out to BTU regular Ryan Shanahan (link to Youtube), for taking 3RD OVERALL, and being the first in on the bike!

And one more HUGE shout-out to my GI tract for not crapping out on me, either.

This next week will be all about recovery, rest, and weight control.  I tend to balloon after every race, so I’m gonna be really careful with what I eat this week, to stay at 145 pounds or less for Rockman on June 8.

When race day comes, I know I’ll be ready to “flip the switch” to race mode and go hard for 70.3 miles.  Even without really tapering for today’s race, I was able to “flip the switch” with extremely satisfying results.

Cute Video of Majel :)

We had just gotten Majel spayed, so as per doctors orders she had to stay inside for several days. However, Majel had other ideas…

“Peak Week” 1/2 Ironman Simulation Brick – Report.

(FYI: A “Brick” means a bike workout, immediately followed by a run workout. It’s called a Brick because “BR”ick –> “B”(ike) + “R”(un) + “ick”. Also, it’s what your legs feel like when you start running.)

Bike distance: 51.31 miles
Bike elevation gain: approx. 3500 feet
Bike time: 2:56:39 (not including 3-4 minute natural break at 1:15)
Bike avg. speed: 17.4mph

Run distance: 6.5 miles
Run time: 59:43
Run pace: 9:18 mins/mile

Nutrition: Breakfast/lunch: about 1000 cals of my normal fair over a few hours (cereal, fruit, PBJ). 15 minutes pre-ride: 200mg caffeine. Bike: 1 bottle with approx. 900 cals Infinit blend (including in total about 12g protein and 200mg caffeine) Drank about 80% of the bike bottle, and 1,5 aerobottles worth of water. Run: 1 flask of approx. 150 cals of the same Infinit blend, 1 flask water. Drank about 50% of the Infinit and all of the water.

Bike: I knew within the first 5 minutes of riding that this was going to be a STRONG, MANLY RIDE. I felt confident, in control, and well rested (not overtrained at all). My heart rate was actually quite *high* for most of the ride, possibly due to the caffeine, or general manliness. I ended up doing my normal ride, taking the “long way” to get there, and then doing a double loop of the “nicest” part of the ride (relatively flat, scenic, no traffic).

The intervals I was supposed to do went well (5×15mins HR Z3 w/5 min HR Z1 recoveries). I had trouble getting my HR *down* into Z1 for the recoveries, again perhaps due to the caffeine and/or being well rested. I felt quite comfortable doing the Z3 intervals at a HR of about 151-156, and recovering around 140-145 (which is actually my Z2).

My aero position felt fast and comfortable. I would take periodic breaks about every 15-20 minutes to stretch my shoulders and neck, which helped a lot. I am getting better at drinking while in the aero position, as well.

Run: Since buying my sweet Giant tri bike, I have had ZERO issues running off the bike, and this was also true for my run today. I attribute this mostly to my position on the bike, which is steep and aggressive, my cycling cadence, which is up around 100rpm at Z2/Z3 effort, and my running cadence, which thanks to my short legs is usually at least 90rpm.

HR slowly accelerated from about 148 at the start, to 173 at the end. I did 20 mins high Z1, 20 mins high Z2, and then finished off with about 20 minutes at Z3. I ended up running almost exactly half of the half Ironman distance–maybe I can break two hours at Rockman!!

ZERO knee pain. No IT band pain, no “general knee pain,” nothing. I’m excited about that. However, I did have some minor stomach cramps during much of the run. Nothing major (didn’t have to stop or anything), but I think I’m going to tweak my bike nutrition to see if I can avoid this at Rockman. Perhaps less bike calories? Perhaps Immodium AD (which I usually take before races, but I didn’t take today)?

Conclusion: this key workout gives me some SUPER MANLY CONFIDENCE heading into Rockman. If I can put together 17.4mph over 50 miles on very rolling terrain, surely I can average 19mph, with aero gear, on the pancake flat Rockman course! And as I rest (and lose a bit more weight), my run will only get stronger. So, I’ve definitely got my eyes on a sub-6 hour finish at Rockman!

Marty’s Naive Political Question of the Day.

Obviously, the Democratic primaries that occurred earlier in the year can’t count, because Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan, and didn’t campaign in Florida.

Obviously, the voice of the voters in Michigan and Florida deserve to be heard–their *party* was the one that broke the rules that discounted their votes.

So: why not have another, completely new primary in both states in a few weeks? There’s still time to get the primary in before the convention, the Democratic party could pay for it (since they are the ones who messed up the primary in the first place), and the voters’ voices could be heard.

Even though I’ve been trying to keep up with all the hubbub and hellaballoo, there are many people who know more about this situation than I. I call upon these people (Lana) to tell me why this idea has not been even mentioned in the discussions of how to resolve this situation.

Yesterday was a Sad Day.

Yesterday was the day we took Majel to the vet to get spayed. She was meowing all the way to the vet, and when I picked her up again later that afternoon, she was not herself at all. Growling and hissing, she just looked sad. Lana had been through this with her previous kittens, but for me it was the first time taking a pet to be spayed or neutered, so I was pretty dejected about the whole thing as well.

Of course, it’s for the best. And Majel is feeling a lot better today. She climbed all the way up the screen door (in an attempt to get around the screen door to get outside, I guess), ate a bunch of food (cat and human), and ate all of our computer cords. So basically she’s starting to do all of the things she normally does!

Also, last night I discovered wcsn.com, a webcasting website that offers live and on-demand coverage of a plethora of sporting events, including DIVING and TRACK CYCLING! So I paid my $5 for one month (a reasonable price, IMO) and I’ve been watching diving and cycling all day yesterday and today. It’s pretty awesome!

Driving Safety Scenario #1: Cyclists and Stop Signs–How Can I Screw This Up?

Let’s say you’re an important guy. driving along in your shiny car, on a straight, relatively flat road in a semi-residential area, and you see a cyclist up ahead. The cyclist is riding in the right tire track, about 2 feet from the white line. You’d really like to pass the cyclist, because it’s important to pass cyclists as quickly as possible, to minimize the inconvenience to your busy schedule. After all, you’re an important guy, who owns a shiny car.

Let’s also say that there’s a STOP sign coming up in about 150 feet. Maybe you see it, maybe you don’t. You’re more concerned about passing that damn cyclist, who by now has added SIX SECONDS onto your commute time. Jesus Christ! What a stupid cyclist. So you pull out in the other lane to attempt to pass the cyclist.

Since you’re a nice guy in your shiny car, you accelerate gently, take most of the opposite traffic lane, and start to overtake the cyclist. However, at this point you have arrived at the stop sign. The cyclist is in the correct lane of traffic, coming to a stop at the stop sign, and you are in the opposite lane of traffic, coming to a stop at the stop sign, in the opposite lane of traffic.

Did I mention you were in the opposite lane of traffic? Coming to a STOP sign?

The cyclists comes to a complete stop to allow you to merge back onto the proper side of traffic. You, on the other hand, roll the stop sign at 15mph and show your frustration by honking at the cyclist, who of course caused the whole incident by being on the damn road. As you honk you finish merging onto the proper side of the road, just in time to avoid a car approaching from the opposite direction (the car is in the correct traffic lane).

Incidentally, the same cyclist catches up to you a half mile ahead, when you are forced to wait at a long red light for two minutes.

Lana Just Bought Me The Most Awesome Shirt.

Thanks to beautiful and intelligent Lana, I am now the proud owner of this shirt:

Also, remember that digital camera I said I was tempted to buy but didn’t because I knew better? Welllll, I bought it anyway (oh well).

This Week is Peak Week for Rockman!

Tomorrow starts my “Peak Week” for RockMan, the 1/2 Ironman I’m doing on June 8th. Basically, a “Peak Week” is a very hard week of training designed to get my body in peak physical condition for the race. The following two weeks, I’ll gradually decrease the amount of time I spend training, and focus more on rest, recovery, and speedwork (but not as much distance/endurance).

This will be a 15.5 hour training week. I’ll be doing 3 long rides for a total of 8 bike hours, 3 runs for a total of 2.5 hours (I would be doing more if not for my stupid IT band in my knee), 3 (maybe 4) swims for a total of 3.5 hours, and 2 weight room sessions totaling 90 minutes. Hopefully I won’t be collapsing in a heap on the floor on Sunday!

Obesity Contributing to Global Warming??

I just read an interesting link via Slashdot concerning the link between obese people and global warming. I’ve been seeing this argument around the Internets a bunch recently. Basically, the point that the author makes is that obese people, by consuming more food (usually processed), they use more resources, both food resources and other resources (i.e. driving to places instead of walking, possibly due to their weight).

I think that there are many lifestyle choices that contribute to the current energy crisis. Choosing to be overweight (for some people, admittedly, it is not a choice) is one such lifestyle. Being an athlete is another such lifestyle (I fully admit that riding a bike for three hours, only to end up back where you started and having consumed 100 calories while riding is wasteful).

Basically, any lifestyle except sitting on your butt all day and conserving energy in every way possible is “contributing” to global warming in some way. So, any lifestyle choices we make beyond being completely sedentary are always a *conscious compromise* between its impact on the environment and the enjoyment we get out of that lifestyle choice.

With regard to the article, I think it’s unfair to say that “obese people are contributing to global warming by overeating (paraphrase),” because for some it is genetically difficult to lose weight. Also, a fair share of blame lies on the food manufacturers and their lobbyists, for aggressively pricing and marketing packaged and processed food that is devoid of much in the way of adequate nutritional value.

Regardless of whether we’re obese or not, I would hope that we all consider what enjoyment we get out of the foods we eat, the lifestyle choice we are making by eating that food, and its impact on the environment. Especially if the food we’re eating is heavily packaged and processed.

Oh Well.

So I bought the damn camera anyway. Oh well. I am selling my old phone and my old suit on eBay to subsidize this purchase. Oh well. I have no E-self control. I do, however, have an awesome camera now.

What Does Marty Do on his Off Day from Training?

That’s right, you guessed it. I bought a bunch of stupid shit off the Internet.

Let’s see, I bought some rollers for my bike, for getting my rides in on rainy days. I already have a trainer, but I can’t stand riding it for more than 20-30 minutes (that’s what she said?).

I bought some more amazing custom nutrition from Infinit nutrition, enough to get me through the rest of the summer hopefully.

I bought some more tri clothing, including two trisuits I don’t even need yet (I already have two, but who knows when those will wear out? I like these, and the price was right).

I made an appointment to take my car into the dealer for its 50,000 mile tuneup. Who knows how much that frickin thing is gonna cost. I bet they’ll replace the glow plugs again.

And lastly, I was sooo close to buying a digital camera that I don’t really need. But just look at it, it’s possibly the most amazing digital camera money can buy without buying an digital SLR. Fortunately I didn’t buy it, perhaps because I already have a perfectly adequate digital camera.

Pretty Pumped about my Time Trial Performance tonight.

I did a 10 mile bike time trial this evening, like we always do every other Tuesday. It’s on a technical, somewhat hilly course, but there is no traffic and the roads are impeccable. I’m proud to say that I beat my personal record on the course by 78 seconds! I rode the 10 miles in 26:36, for a 22.6mph pace!

I imagine part of my performance increase was a change I made in my tire pressure (I finally figured out the optimal tire pressure for my race wheels), but I definitely can feel that my training is increasing my speed and endurance as well, as I was able to ride significantly harder and hold a significantly higher heart rate than my last effort on the course.

Also, steroids.

Cutest Picture of Majel Today!

I took a cute picture of Majel today that I thought I’d share, she’s mid-yawn

RACE REPORT: May 10, 2008 – Sprint Triathlon in Mattoon, IL.

Distance: 400m swim, 13.6 mile bike, 3 mile run
Total Time: 1:16:07.2 (Rank: 32/80 Overall, 6th Age Group)
Swim Time: 9:40.8 (Rank: 23/80)
Swim Pace: 2:25/100m
T1 Time: 2:37.9 (Rank: 56/80)
Bike Time: 38:48.65 (Rank: 18/80)
Bike Speed: 21.03mph (yess!)
T2 Time: 00:43.10 (Rank: 21/80)
Run time: 24:16.80 (Rank: 42/80)
Run Pace: 8:05.6 min/mile (not bad!)
HR Pacing (Friel Scale): Z5 swim, high Z4/low Z5 bike, Z5/Z6 run

Pics: Facebook album (publicly viewable)

As usual, I didn’t get much of any sleep the night before. It’s “christmas” syndrome for me, I can’t help thinking about what’s gonna happen tomorrow morning. But eventually I did get some “sleep” and woke up at 4:30am. I picked my friend Yushen up at 5:15. Today was his first triathlon ever! As a long-time runner, he was looking forward to the challenge of adding two new disciplines to his talents

We arrived at the race site with plenty of time to spare, thanks in part to crossing into Central time and gaining an hour. Mattoon’s races are always laid back and enjoyable, well run without taking themselves too seriously. Today there were 80 participants in the triathlon and a dozen or so in the duathlon (we were both doing the tri). The weather forecast was for 50 degrees and sunny at the start, and if anything it was a few degrees warmer so it was altogether quite a nice day for an early season event.

We set up our gear, warmed up, and got set to start the 400 meter swim in 62 degree water. I was doing my first race in my newly obtained (but not new) wetsuit, and boy was I thankful to have it.  Poor Yushen had no wetsuit, and it must have been quite a shock to step into that cold water for the first time!

All of the men and teams started in the first wave, so about 60 of us squared off to get going. I tried to seed myself in the middle and off to the left side (we were swimming a clockwise loop). Unfortunately I didn’t seed myself far enough left and I ended up bring RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of every freakin one. So I got bopped on the head a bunch, couldn’t find any good feet without getting clobbered by someone else trying to take them, and probably ended up swimming an extra 20 meters due to following swimmers who were also swimming extra.

All in all, I did feel strong on the swim, and I was expecting a sub 8 minute performance as I checked my watch when I reached dry land. However, my watch said 9:40, so I was kinda pissed about that. (Note: all of the swim times were very slow–the fastest was barely under 7 minutes–so I hypothesize that the course was longer than 400 meters.)

T1 was a freaking NIGHTMARE.. On the “to do” list for my T1 today:

- remove wetsuit
- dry upper body to facilitate application of Warm Shirt
- put on Warm Shirt
- socks and shoes went on in T1 today, due to poor bike exit ground conditions
- sunglasses
- helmet
- gloves for warmth

This took 2:38, or about 1 minute more than it should have, even considering all I had to do. 30 seconds or so of this was spent getting my wetsuit off, which is longer than I’d hoped.

The bike, however, was freaking awesome. I passed 11 men (no women, HAH), got passed by three, and repassed one of them. I was running my tubulars at a slightly lower air pressure (105 front, 115 rear), this made a huge difference in both ride quality (like BUTTER) and speed (like the NON-PERSCRIPTION MEDICATION). The course was out and back, flat, fast, and just a bit of wind that gave a headwind/tailwind to half the course.

T2 was better. I almost launched my bike doing a flying dismount. Didn’t tie the left shoe properly, it would come loose with half a mile left in the run. Oh well.

I was relatively happy with the run. I split the 3 miles approx. 8:05, 8:30, 7:40 in that order. After the first half mile, my legs wanted to run faster, but I was getting cramps and stitches that pretty much capped me at 8 minutes/mile. However, the last mile the cramps and stitches subsided and I was able to bust a ball to the finish line.

My total time was 1:16 and change, good enough for 32 out of 80 overall and 6th in my age group (one place away from getting some hardware!) I was particularly happy with my pacing and my overall time splits. This was the first time I’ve averaged over 20mph on the cycling leg of a triathlon, and the first time I’ve gone under 9 minutes/mile on the running leg of a triathlon.

This, for me, says a lot of good things about my fitness. Specifically, my swimming is feeling much stronger. My form is improving, and even though my time was poor (if the course was marked with the correct length), I was still passing a lot of swimmers in my wave. My bike is really strong right now. I was comfortable, aero, powerful and I like where I am with my equipment. If I can average 21mph for 13 miles, surely I can average 18.7mph for 56 miles (which is what it takes to break 3:00 on the cycling leg of a half ironman)!  My run has improved a lot since last year. In fact, my pace today was only 5 secs/mile slower than my pace during an OPEN 5k I ran at the end of last year!

However, I have a long way to go before I can graduate from “Middle Of the Pack” status. Specifically, my big limiters are my swim and run speed. The swim speed hopefully will come as I do more swim workouts, but I was depressed by my run performance as compared to the rest of the field. 8:0x/mile on the run was bested by more than half of the field. I need to work on doing less “junk” running mileage at a medium distance and pace, and instead focus on quality: fast and strong short runs, with steady long runs.

Yushen performed admirably on his first try at a triathlon, coming in at just over 1:31! Way to go, Yushen! Especially for just starting at swimming and cycling a matter of weeks ago! He also posted an impressive run split of about 22 minutes for 3 miles!

Okay, that’s enough long-winded self-indulging writing about a silly sprint tri. Haha, just kidding. Since I’m awesome, I made a list of miscellaneous details about the race, for those who find this dorky stuff interesting (i.e. me in two years, maybe my coach, that’s about it).

Equipment Details:

Wetsuit: Quintana Roo Superfull (2003)
Heart Rate Monitor: Polar something something
Bike: Giant Trinity Alliance CF Triathlon Bike
Wheels: 50mm carbon deep dish wheels w/rear disc cover
Helmet: Giro Advantage II Aero Helmet w/taped vents
Aero Water Bottle: Jetstream aerobottle
Jersey: Under Armour Coldgear longsleeve
Tri shorts: tri shorts
Running Shoes: Mizuno Wave Nirvana 3
Sunglasses: sunglasses
Socks: yea I wore socks
Gloves: shaddup my hands get cold easily

Nutrition Details:

7 hrs before race: PBJ
4.5 hours before race: Bowl of Cereal
2.5-1 hours before race: 1 serving Infinit Custom Blend
30 mins before race: Hammer Gel, 200mg Caffeine (caffeine is amazing btw)
15 mins before race: 1 Immodium AD Tablet (worked perfectly, no GI issues at all)
Nutrition on swim: none
Nutrition on bike: 20oz water in aerobottle
Nutrition on run: none

Miscellaneous Details:

Warmup: 15 mins bike, 8 mins run, 5 mins swim, bike with two race pace accelerations, others with one
Swim breathing: every second stroke, usually to the right side
Bike cadence: almost always between 100-110rpm
Run cadence: 95 left foot strikes/minute at mile 1

Leaving for my First Tri of the Season!

I’m leaving right now to go do my first triathlon of the season (a sprint) in Mattoon, IL.  Starts at 8am central time, necessitating a 5am departure from Bloomington to get there with an hour to spare.  I’m going with my colleague and friend Yushen, who will be doing his first triathlon ever!

Wish us luck!

Got A Job!

I heard back from the folks at MyStrands today.  They want to hire me to do some work with their recommendation system for the summer!  Basically, it’s still up in the air at this point, but it’s looking like for now, they want me to develop a Facebook extension/application for their recommendation service.  MyStrands has spent a lot of time making their API super-easy and intuitive, and the Facebook API seems to be at least tolerable, so hopefully this should turn out to be a successful project.  AND I get to work from Bloomington, so that’s a MAJOR plus for me–no moving or extended travel.

So basically what this boils down to is that this should be a really sweet opportunity for me to get some real-world experience doing software development, while being able to finance my triathlon and travel expenses this summer

A Funny Story From Voting Yesterday.

I went to the retirement home to vote yesterday wearing my Barack Obama t-shirt.  I was hesitant to wear it at first, but Lana eruditely pointed out, “what other day are you going to get to wear this shirt?”  Not being one to argue with a Woman, I wore the shirt.

I arrived at the voting place, and just outside of the building I was greeted by a man who introduced himself as being “with the Barack Obama campaign”.  He said, “We appreciate your support today, but I’m afraid that you’re not allowed to display any political signs or propoganda inside the polling place!”  So I asked if I could just turn the shirt inside out, and he said “Yeah, that would work–just remember to turn it right side out when you leave today!”  So I turned my shirt inside out and proceeded to vote, sans my fabric-based political message.

So for once in my life, a Woman was wrong–evidently the time and place I chose to wear the shirt is, in fact, against the law!  Hah.  So the moral of this story is Thumbs Up for Barack, and Thumbs Down for wearing his shirt to polling places.

Can Obama Freakin Finally Close The Deal? (Yes?)

I’m sitting here in my apartment, frantically refreshing the nytimes.com home page, waiting to see if Obama can pull out a victory in Gary, IN (and possibly carry the state).  Regardless of whether or not he can, he’s definitely clobbered Hillary in North Carolina, and frankly I don’t see how Hillary will be able to continue.  Thanks to our controversy-loving media completely overblowing the Rev. Wright situation, Hillary had a golden opportunity to gain some ground on Barack, but evidently she couldn’t get Democrats (read: people who will actually vote Democrat in November, not just Republicans who happen to be allowed to vote in the Indiana primary) to vote for her.

Oh also, I did another 10 mile cycling time trial today, and got the exact same time that I did two weeks ago–28:03 on a relatively hilly TT course.  I guess I’m not getting any worse…  Tomorrow is an easy day for me, a short run and some strength work, I’ll probably be bored all day again since I have no summer work yet (it’s on the way, though).

I Start My “Real” Triathlon Training Tomorrow!

I decided that this summer, I’m going to get serious about these triathlon thingers.  So, I got myself a real coach (aka not myself, and not my friend who says “oh yeah, you should swim 3x/week”).  My training plan starts tomorrow, and kicks off with a 14 hour training week that includes 5 bikes, 4 swims, 4 runs, 2 races, 2 time trials and 1 tired Marty at the end of the week.  And this isn’t even a super-hard build week!

It’s gonna be a tough summer.  But hey, what else is the summer for but to enjoy the sun?

Expanding the Popularity of Triathlon, One Athlete At A Time.

Today I went with my Informatics colleague Yushen, a long-time runner, to the bike shop.  Last semester, Yushen and I struck up a conversation about running (we had both recently done a local half marathon), and he mentioned that he was having some knee problems from all the running.  I told him that I do triathlons, and he seemed intrigued by the idea that one could enjoy running along with other sports, at the same time, without doing all that damage to one’s knees

So today, we went to the shop to pick out a nice road bike for Yushen to use in races this summer!  The bike shop had just what he wanted–it fits great, comes with easy-to-use toe clips/straps, and as a plus it even has compact cranks and nice STI shifting–and we were able to walk out with it same day.  I got a lot of pleasure out of helping Yushen with this, perhaps because he’s exactly where I was just a year earlier (except that he is way awesome at running, and I still suck at it).

We’re planning on doing a sprint triathlon together next Saturday.  It will be a good race between us, as we both suck at swimming, I’m a better cyclist than he is but he’s much faster on the run than me.  Race report to come!