My first Olympic distance triathlon.....triathlon distance basics

Well the last opportunity for an Olympic distance triathlon (often referred to as an "oly") anywhere near home coincided with the weekend we rode the MS 150 the second week of September.  Other choices were slated to be states away and I'm not to the stage of travelling to race.  I've heard the Nash Vegas tri in Nashville is a good one.  Hoping to hit it next year if it doesn't conflict again with the MS 150.  That said, I felt it was time to get creative....  I'm pleased to announce the 1st annual Doktirbob's Homegrown Oly tri September 16th, 2011 went well.  Participants.....um 1.  Since it was my first time to do these distances together, my time of 3 hrs 17 minutes was my best.  Had hoped to break 3 hours, but now I have a definite goal. 

The Olympic distance (1.5km/0.93 mile swim, 40km/24.8 mile bike, 10km/6.2 mile run, total distance 51.5km/31.93 miles) is the shortest standardized distance triathlon.  "Sprint" distance tri's have each segment's distance set at the discretion of the race organizer.  The swim can range anywhere from 150-800 yards in a pool or open water (usually 750 meters), a bike ride of 3-15 miles (usually 20km/12.4 miles) and a run of 1-5 miles (usually 5km/ 3.1 miles).  Beyond Olympic there are two other standardized race distances the "Half Ironman" or Ironman 70.3 (being 70.3 miles total distance) and the grand daddy "Ironman" distance (at 140.6 total miles).  The Half Ironman distance includes a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a half marathon run of 13.1 miles.  The Ironman is double these distances.  Please see the Wikipedia review of the sport for more details  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon

I review these things for you to say that triathlon and cycling have been great motivators for me in an organized approach to weight loss/control and general fitness.  It is vital that you do something that is reasonable to start with and advance as you are able.  As an example, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a great way to get in shape, but it's not for me.  Regardless of the fitness option you choose, I would suggest setting both short and long term goals.  Shoot for something just out of reach and work toward it.  Once that goal is reached, reassess and set another goal to maintain or reach further.  Many people set an "end goal" with nothing between.  Without short term goals, if the "end goal" is not reached anything short can be seen as a failure.  My "end goal" is to complete an Iron distance triathlon (hopefully within 2 years).  Christmas 2009 my goal was to complete a sprint distance tri in May of 2010, and so on.  I realize my body, schedule, life may not allow me to reach my end goal of an Ironman, but with the intermediate or short term goals victories can be won along the way hopefully making me a better person in the process. 

A friend of mine is considering an exercise regimen with little or no aerobic activity going on right now.  I suggested that they start walking in place in their living room walking in place with larger than normal swings of the arms and lifting of the legs for 5 minutes a day 4-6 days a week.  First goal: do this CONSISTENTLY 4-6 days/week to establish the habit of exercise.  If they can establish that routine for 1-3 weeks, it will be easy to build up to 10 minutes and later 20, then increase intensity.  When I started riding my first road bicycle in the winter of 2009 I thought I was going to die after 7 miles at 10 miles/hr.  But I had to start somewhere.  We all do.  Once a consistent pattern is developed, the sky is the limit.  Remember it's not complicated: Eat Right and Exercise (or as my Dad says Eat Less and Move More).  Good success to you!!!

Riding mountain bikes at Hillman Ferry (Land Between the Lakes, TN)

Another ride under our belt

Well, per my previous post, I was a bit worried about not having enough recovery time from our first century ride in Clarkville, TN 9/3.  We were already signed up for the Multiple Sclerosis society's Rock N Roll 150 the following weekend.  We did this ride last year and "survived" it much like we did this year's century ride.  Last year we had only ridden about 20-30 miles max on the tandem and did not have it "dialed in" which was a big factor.  I had a racing saddle (Fizik Arione) mounted for me which was a big mistake as I'm not that flexible....so my butt was screaming by the end of day one with only 74 miles done.  My wife's knee had been giving her trouble and he seat was set about 1-2 inches too high compounding the issue (she later had the knee scoped and is doing much better with it).

This year with that ride and Clarksville under our belts, I was able to tweak the seating around and get the fit just about right.  We finished the first day of 74 miles with beautiful weather and a decent rolling average speed.  Unfortunately the group was smaller by almost 150 from last year, I presume from economic and time restraints (each rider is responsible for raising $300 to participate).  Needless to say, after the previous week's ride and dehydration/cramping experience, I was pouring the Gatorade down until it was coming out of my eyeballs!  We took advantage of every rest stop, although I feel we could have passed some of them up this time around (maybe next year).  The following day looked as good or better weather wise (getting into the mid to upper 80's by the end of the ride).  I would consider myself an "advanced novice" rider at this stage of the game with a few group rides and many 10-30 milers done.  I say this because more advanced group riders are quite comfortable with drafting (riding wheel to wheel to save some energy).  I have drafted only a few times on my road bike but have never had the opportunity on the tandem.....until day two of the MS150.  We were riding several miles of nice flat averaging 16-20 mph with moderate effort.  A large group of riders from Hernando, MS came up on us and allowed us to join their peloton (group of riders).  They were a gracious and fun group of riders who communicated very well with each other.  For any non cyclist readers riding in a group gives you an several advantages (drafting, multiple sets of eyes looking for trouble, someone to talk with, someone to help you if you have a malfunction/flat, you get there or get lost together) and some disadvantages (if the lead rider misses a hazard or wipes out, the domino effect can be good only when seen on YouTube, motorist tend to get aggrivated by being held up by a group or riders, some riders are more aggresive than you may be and end up way inside of your personal space).  That said, this group was great!  The lead rider slid in front of me and I almost felt the tandem bike lurch forward from the loss of wind resistance.  I found myself backing off from pedaling so hard/fast and stil able to maintain 18-20 mph with much less effort.  I had to explain this effect to my wife at the next rest stop as she kept feeling me slow the pedaling pace again her push.  Unfortunately, their rest stop was shorter than ours and they rode on.  At about mile 30 we got to "The Wall" a roughly 1/2 mile fairly steep climb (the toughest of the ride).  Approximately 40-50% of the riders end up walking part of the way.  Last year we were able to pedal the whole way (toward the top at a whopping 4mph).  This year we topped the Wall at 6mph...yee haa!!!  I will try to add below a photo of us at the top of The Wall with the hill behind us and another cropped shot showing some perspective and some of the "walkers" coming up the hill.  It was a great experience overall and any pain or fatigue we experienced along the way, certainly pales compared to the struggles those with MS deal with everyday.  We were honored to be able to participate again this year and hope to for years to come.

A belated update and my first Century ride

I have held off with updates, hoping to add photos (as well as being a chronic procrastinator).  Enough good things have happened (and a few not so good), so here we go.

First, I've now done several mile swims (unfortunately none open water) and my times are getting better.  It's a total of 66 laps down and back, initially with a 2-4 minute rest every 5 laps, now down to about a minute rest every 10 laps.  My biggest concern regarding swimming is technique.  I've had no formal training and suspect my form is not what it needs to be.  Obviously as the distances get longer, the need to be efficient becomes more and more important.  I just got a dvd from http://www.triswimcoach.com/ that seems to have gotten many good reviews.  More feedback to follow on that.

Second, my wife and I have "geared up" our tandem bicycle riding in preparation for the Multiple Sclerosis society's MS 150 ride 9/10-11/11 from Southaven, MS to Tunica 75 miles/day for two days.  Last week at my local bike shop, I encountered a recent retiree who logged 130 miles the day before and had ridden 80 miles "so far" at 10:30am.  Needless to say, this guy was a cycling beast.  I casually mentioned that I was looking to do my first century ride (100 miles) soon, to which he replied "check out the Sunrise Century in Clarksville, TN this weekend! (check out their website at http://clarksvillecentury.com/ ) 

This ride includesin addition to the 100 miler, a 33 mile "fun ride", and a 62 mile "metric century" (100km).  The normal sane person (or couple) would have signed up for the 62 mile ride considering the 150 mile ride coming up the following weekend.  But those sane people don't live at our house!  I ran it by my wife who says "let's do it!".  Another idea hits me.  I'm wanting to find ways to get/keep my kids moving, so I ask my 14 year old son if he'd be interested in the 33 mile ride (his previous longest ride was 13-15 miles).  He gives the thumbs up when the next phase of my plan goes into movement....calling his 20 year old sister to see if she'd drive in from college an hour or so away to join us for the ride (her previous longest ride being 12 miles this summer) and I'm tickled to say, she joined in too.  Everything is looking great, until we watch the weather.....95-100 degrees for the next several days with 70-80 degrees the day AFTER the ride.  We are up until midnight or later driving 2.5 hours to Clarksville Friday night after our local high school homecoming game (hint: not enough sleep), and up at 5:30am to get registered for the 7am start.  With approximately 1,000 riders present, you can cut the excitement with a knife.  This ride is touted as the flattest and fasted century in cycling, lending itself to an option to join the "elite peloton" which is a group of riders that must be able to maintain 25mph+ for the total distance! In 2008, the group broke 3 hrs 45 minutes! That group gets to lead off at 6:45 followed by the tandems (bicycle built for two)...that's us, and then the rest of the riders.  We take off like greased lightening (in our minds) in the cool morning air averaging 18-24 mph without too much effort.  At mile 25 or 30 we have our second rest stop and my first time to pee (hint: not enough to drink before the ride).  I'm feeling good and pouring the gatorade down like gangbusters.  At mile 50, it's starting to get HOT and where did these hills come from?  I'm making a mental note to mention to someone that this IS NOT FLAT (which I discover later is a relative term among cyclists and organizers).  At mile 60 I'm feeling like I've got 20-25% battery left for 40% more riding (make that 50% given the hills and heat) and did I mention I'm still not making any more urine?  I'm trying to be smart and take a long rest (shoes off, sitting down, helmet off, eating and drinking).  While I'm sitting on the ground I feel a couple of small localized cramps in the sides of my legs.  "Hmmm" I say to myself, "it's time for more bananas and gatorade", which I take care of and off we go.  250 yards down the road from the rest stop....POW!!!!  I suddenly feel like I've been hit in the leg by a sledge hammer with first one cramp, then another unlike anything I've ever felt in my 47 years.  We stop and I stretch my legs, with the cramps easing...that is until we try to pedal again.  The cramps are bad enough that I'm having difficulty even unclipping from the pedals, much less considering getting my leg over the top of the bike to dismount.  What to do, what to do???...so I hollar out to my copilot to pedal while I steer with my legs stretched out to the sides.  Now I've got a real dilemma: be conservative and smart and turn around to go back to the rest stop 300-400 yards away or try to ride 10-12 miles further and hope the cramps ease up and we don't end up stranded in the middle of corn and tobacco fields in 100+ degree heat.  Time to "call a friend", I say back to my wife, "what do you want to do?", "let's see if we can press a little further and see if the cramps ease up."  Sure enough after about 5 minutes of cheering on her part, easy pedalling and me praying and singing made up songs to God like a little kid, the pain slowly eases from my legs and off we go.  From my perspective 60 miles should have been the end of our journey that day.  We struggled through several other rest stops with cramps that were less severe if I didn't sit down.  I'm trying to drink gatorade, eat bananas, raisins and pickles to get my potassium and sodium up. At mile 86 (our last rest stop), I'm actually feeling some better, but hot and really tired (and still no urine out).  I'm searching for electrolytes, but the 800-900+ riders before us had depleted all of the gatorade, pickles, trail mix, bananas...there was only water and some cookies.  I'm feeling a little desparate at this point, now with only 3-5 riders behind us and 14 miles ahead.  I finally spotted a gallon jar that held the pickles served earlier, swallowed hard and in a soft voice asked for a cup of pickle juice. The volunteer pours me up about 6 ounces of the green stuff which I start to drink and discover that it is now at the same temp as our surroundings......desparate times call for desparate measures.  I found a tablet to mix with my water to add electrolytes, poured cold water over my neck/shoulders and off we go.  We get to the last 3 miles to discover what felt like a one mile plus shallow but constant UPHILL grade with us running on fumes.  If my cadence went above 45 rpm, my legs would start to cramp again and my wife was DONE.  Along the last 25-30 miles we met a young man obviously fit, but emotionally spent who was ready to catch a ride with the support (SAG: support and gear) truck.  We had some great conversation which included him being miserable riding by himself.  He joined us as we poked along 8-15 mph, getting a little more positive with each section we reeled in. 

The good news: we finished the ride being some of, if not the last ones in.  As we wearily rolled into the parking lot, there stood two of my children whooping and hollaring for us and grinning ear to ear.  Eventually we got the bikes loaded into the truck and off to Longhorn steakhouse for a celebratory supper.  It was as much or more of a joy to hear the tales of my kids and their 33 mile ride together encouraging each other and bragging on each other than it was to survive our 100 miles.  Definitely a proud moment as a parent.  As a side note, my wife at 105 pounds burned over 2,000 calories and me at 180 burned over 3,000 according to our Polar monitors.

The bad news: my hamstrings are fairly messed up.  I'm hoping and praying I can rehab them enough for our MS 150 ride this weekend.  Urine didn't come until 3-4 hours AFTER we finished the ride.

The quick life lessons: 1) On a possibly hot day, PRE-hydrate thoroughly and hydrate like mad during.  I thought I was drinking enough, but apparently not leading to some dehydration and severe cramping as a result.  2) Get PLENTY OF REST before a big physical event. 3) Pace yourself! I planned to take it easy at first and build up slowly if we felt good, but fell prey to the excitement of the moment.  4) Don't stack big physical events too close together.

I've known all of these things for years, and have usually followed them closely.  I'm now paying the price for not heeding my own advice.  Hopefully with rest, stretching and anti inflammatories we will be ready for a somewhat slower than planned pace ride in Tunica this coming weekend......stay tuned!