Thorp to Tieton

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Will

A friend had a piece in the 10 x 10 x 10 x Tieton exhibition, so last Saturday a few of us went out to see it. I still needed to get my training in for the day, though, so I asked them to drop me off in scenic Thorp, from which I’d ride my bike the rest of the way. I figured this would be a good test of how well my body now deals with heat (since starting hot yoga), as it was supposed to hit 95 that day.

I planned my route with Google maps, checking out supposed ‘bike trails’ online and eliminating most of them, as they turned out to be gravel. I wish Google would let you specify ‘road bike’ directions.

We were later getting to Thorp than planned, so it was already clearing 85 by the time I started out. I’d frozen all 4 of my bottles, and hoped they’d stay at least somewhat chilled over the course of the 60 mile ride.

The first 10 miles or so were quite flat, and flew by. I then found myself on Canyon Rd, which winds its way alongside the Yakima River. The next 30 miles were great fun, as I was in a gorgeous canyon next to a lovely river that was full of entertaining inner-tubers, drunkenly floating down the river. It wasn’t nearly as hilly as I expected, so I averaged 18mph, which is really fast for me. By the time I hit Selah, though, the temperature had hit 95 and I’d already burned through 3 of my bottles, so I stopped at a gas station to enjoy the A/C and reload the bottles with cold Gatorade.

I left Selah on the Yakima Greenway, a lovely, twisty, mostly well-paved bike trail. According to my directions, I didn’t have to make any turns until it ended, so I just pumped away until that happened. What I didn’t realize was that the trail actually splits East/West just as you reach Yakima, and of course, I went the wrong way. By the time the trail ended (and thank goodness it did!), I was in the SE corner of Yakima, 5 miles off course. Doh!

Once again thankful for a GPS-enabled phone, I was able to figure out where I was and how to get back on course. I didn’t yet realize how far off course I was, though, and thought I’d only added a mile or two (not 10). I also hadn’t bothered to map out the course on a site that would show the elevation, and HOLY CRAP did it ever go up, up, up from Yakima. That was a very unwelcome surprise, especially as I kept expecting to find Tieton at the top of each hill, only to find there was yet another hill to conquer first.

By mile 65, I was too damn hot, the last of my bottles was boiling, and the front outer quadrant of each foot was killing me. I actually started audibly swearing because it hurt so damn much. I thought about stopping, but I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to walk or stand, so I just kept going.

I finally reached Tieton, and about 5 feet from the welcome sign, my chain popped off the front gears. I had to laugh about it lasting 70 miles and coming off in the last 2 blocks.

I made it to the car, where I had very smartly stashed some ice cold water in my cooler. It tasted better than anything I’ve ever tasted, ever. EVER. I also had a towel and water with which to rinse myself off, so I wouldn’t stink up the car on the ride home. This was immensely gratifying, as I had so much salt built up I probably would have been licked to death had I wandered near any horses. My feet turned out to be fine to walk on, and were even fine to run on the next day. Weird.

In summary, I was pretty damn tired:

But hey, I survived the heat! Woohoo!

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Race Report: ChelanMan 2011

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Will

ChelanMan, Long Course, Chelan, WA – 7/16/2011
(seeing as I’m doing my next race in < 12 hours, it’s about damn time I get this one written!)

My anni-tri-versary! … or something. This is the race where it all started for me last year, except instead of a sprint distance, this year I bumped it up to the Long Course, or half-iron, or 70.3, or whatever you’d like to call it.

After learning some hard lessons with the heat and my own hydration needs, I decided to down a bunch of gatorade (and water) the day before, both to make sure I was hydrated enough as well as boost my salt intake (one quart is 20% your supposed daily requirement). I think I had three, but it may have been four.

Due to not remembering to make a room reservation until FAR too late, I ended up staying somewhere a bit nicer than I can usually afford. That is, I couldn’t afford it but didn’t have a choice. In any case, it was very nice.

For my carbo load the night before, I went to Sunset Bar & Grill, and had a truly fantastic chicken marinara something or other. It was huge, delicious, easily digestible, and did I say delicious already? Because it totally was.

I went to bed a bit later than planned, because the athlete’s meeting was at 7pm, and my motel was a 20 minute drive away, and I still hadn’t done all my night-before prep (mostly just arranging my gear in my transition bag and going over my list several times).

I still had at least 6.5 hours of sleep, which is pretty good, actually. Nerves can sometimes make it much less. I woke up at 4am, showered, sun-blocked, and scarfed my pre-race meal of pasta and chicken that I’d brought with me. I also downed another quart of gatorade, and set out for the park.

After setting up transition and checking that neither of my brakes were rubbing (as happened in Auburn), I warmed up in the lake and got ready to kick some ass. My own, mostly.

The first part of the swim went alright, but after the first turn it dawned on me that we were about a third of the way through and I still had loads of strength left in my arms. I picked it up a notch and ended up completing the swim in just 43 minutes, at least 5 minutes faster than I’d planned on.
I set out on the bike, and set a blistering average (for me, anyway) of 16mph for the first 30 miles. Things went rather uphill after that, and my pace slowed, but I ended up with a 3:43, which was 17 minutes faster than I’d hoped for. WOW!

I did a great job of following my plans for nutrition (alternating perpetuem solids and gels every half hour) and hydration (bottle of cytomax an hour). I was also very fortunate that the previously forecast 80+ degree sun turned to 70 degree clouds, so heatstroke was no longer a concern.

Somewhere in the first dozen miles I picked up a click-click-click noise coming from the bike, but couldn’t figure out what it was. I knew I should stop and investigate, but you get in this weird head space where you feel like, as long as you keep going, everything will be fine, but if you stop, it might be something that’s actually wrong and it could ruin the race.  At mile 16 I finally made myself stop and look, and found a staple half embedded in the rear tire. Thank goodness I’d stopped before it had pushed in enough to pop the tube! Moron…

When I set out on the run, I was pretty tired, but definitely felt like I still had a full 13.1 miles left in me. No walking this time! I knew where I was time-wise, and felt I had a pretty good chance of beating my 7 hour goal. By then, though, I was so pleased with my swim and bike splits that I didn’t really care of I blew out on the run and didn’t make it in time. It would still have been a damn good day.

After the halfway point, I started asking the aid stations for the time, and then did the math to figure out how I was doing. As long as I kept on pace, I’d make it, but hoo boy, was I ever getting tired! Everything hurt. To top it off, at mile 11 it felt like I had a pebble in my shoe. I paused, ripped off my shoe, and found nothing, so I kept going and tried to ignore it (I later discover it to be a pointy leaf that was stuck to my foot, inside my sock).

I still had enough gas left for my favorite part of every race: the sprint finish. I was going so fast, though, I broke the clock! Actually, it ran out of batteries right before I got there, but my final time ended up being 6:51:04.  WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

The again went to Cantina Caverna for my traditional post-race feast and pina coladas. Well, colada, actually, as I then had to drive the 3 hours home (because I couldn’t afford a second night in the motel). I am so never, ever doing that again, I don’t care what I have to pawn to afford the room.  That sucked!

In the end, I improved my half-iron time by almost 2 hours, and had a blast doing it. Now I have to get my ass to bed so I can do even better tomorrow!

Results:

swim: 43:03 / bike: 3:43:02 / run: 2:18:35

(distances: 1.2 / 56 / 13.1 miles)

total: 6:51:04.7

placed: 16/17 in my division,  141/190 overall.

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Hot Yoga, or, paying someone to cook you near to death and thanking them for it

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Will

I’ve long hated the idea of hot yoga (aka: Bikram). I’ve historically done rather poorly in the heat, and the idea of being in close proximity to people sweating in such volumes gave me the heebie jeebies.

I finally realized, though, that hot yoga could help with triathlons by teaching my body how to push itself in extreme temperatures. Sold!

I read some yelp reviews on local places, and found The Sweatbox. It had good reviews, and the honesty in the name appealed to me. I already had a big yoga mat from last fall, and I knew that I also needed a big towel to sweat all over, plus a big bottle of water.

I chose a 6am Tuesday class, because that’s really the only window I had in my already packed training schedule, and showed up super early so I could fill out paper work. Int he lobby, the instructor (and, it turned out, co-owner) was very friendly in warning me I would probably feel nauseous and that I should just lay down whenever it got to be too much, but to try not to leave the room. I nodded and smiled and thanked her or something pleasant, and then went in to pick my spot.

WHAM! The heat hits you like a two ton truck. At 105° and 40% humidity, it’s safe to say this was a pretty extreme environment for me. I went in, laid my mat and towel down, then went back out to the lobby to kill time before class started. It just didn’t seem like a good idea to subject myself to that heat any more than necessary.

As class finally got under way, I was very happy to see that there weren’t very many people, and there was plenty of room between mats. I made it through about half of the standing poses before I finally felt I had to lay down. That helped a little, but I was still stuck in that terrible heat, so ‘cooling off’ was not really an option. But, laying still for a while did help, and I was able to re-join for the first half of the floor poses. Then it was back to laying down again.

As I was leaving, the instructor asked me how I felt. I replied, “thorough,” which isn’t an adjective, but was nonetheless accurate.

For the rest of the day I had a weird pre-headache feeling, and I was generally irritable and grumpy. The next day I felt fantastic. Call it detox or simple dehydration, but whatever it was, I didn’t like it.

The next week, I went back, this time with a big bottle of Nuun water that I’d half-frozen the night before. I did a lot better in the second class, only needing to lay down for a couple of the standing poses, but I still had the angry headache thing happen for the rest of the day.

The night before my third class I downed a quart of Gatorade, which I’d started doing before my triathlons, and again froze some Nuun. Class went pretty well the next day, but even better, I didn’t get the headache or unexplained anger. Success! I’ll try that same recipe again tonight/tomorrow and we’ll see how it turns out.

In addition to helping with the heat acclimatization, the yoga is, of course, also helping my overall flexibility and core strength. I’ve only really noticed this on my runs so far, especially during hill sprints, in which I feel I have a more stable torso to push from.

So, yay Bikram!

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Will vs. Ironman and Alzheimer’s

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Will

Click here to lend your support to: Will vs. Ironman and Alzheimer

I’ve finally made the mental flip to officially try for a full Ironman. Woo-hoo! I’ve got my sights set on Ironman Coeur d’Alene (June, 2012), and I’ve started saving up for the registration fee ($600!).

For a while now I’ve wanted to do something in the way of fundraising for some sort of charity, but since I was going to do all these races anyway, it didn’t seem honest to say “motivate me with your moneys”.

For the full Ironman, though, I have no qualms about asking for extra motivation. In case you don’t know, an Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. All in a row. In 17 hours or less. Ouch.

I think what I’ll do is see if I can raise enough money to match my registration fee ($600), and then donate that match to a charity.

When I started running two and a half years ago (which eventually led to my entering triathlons), I was motivated in part by my grandfather’s failing health. Towards the end he was suffering from pretty severe dementia, and it was heartbreaking to watch him struggle to remember where he was, who he was talking to, or even form complete sentences. As such, I’ve decided to make the Alzheimer’s Association my charity of choice.

So, please motivate me with your moneys, and between now and next June I’ll train my butt off so I can survive Ironman and give a bunch of cash to a deserving charity!

Click here to lend your support to: Will vs. Ironman and Alzheimer

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Crash! (of fortuitousness)

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Will

I decided to try a new route for my evening ride the other day. I ended up with the choice of riding on a very busy road with no shoulder or bike lane, or on the ample and well paved sidewalk. I chose the latter.

Forgetting that I was on a sidewalk, and on a slight descent, my speed was a bit excessive for the conditions. Sure enough, at a blind corner about 20 feet ahead of me, a little kid on a BMX came round and a collision was imminent. I slammed on the brakes and veered to the right, but there wasn’t enough time or room, and I went down.

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Race Report: Ragnar 2011 – Northwest Passage

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Will

I’m still waiting for the “official” pictures from ChelanMan 2011 to come out, so meantime, here’s a quick recap of a running relay I did this past weekend, the Ragnar.

Ragnar is actually a series of races around North America, in a format similar to the Epic Oregon I did last month. I had some gut issue then, and I was determined not to have them this time. So, I hydrated the hell out of myself, had my last meal a solid 6 hours before my first run, and hoped for the best.

Drats. My abs still cramped up right in front and a bit to the right. I now think it’s not food related at all (although that can also cause gut issues in a different place), but something to do with sitting in a car for hours at a time, then jumping out and trying to run. I don’t know yet if it’s muscular weakness, inflexibility, or what, but hopefully as my overall fitness improves the problem will just go away.

In any case, I still had a blast. My average pace improved each leg, even though each one was harder than the last. I got to hang out with some very cool, very smart strangers for 30 hours (I was actually filling in for someone who had to drop out, and thus, didn’t know any of my co-runners until I met them for the drive up!).

I was able to take pictures of some of the exchanges, some of which went better than others. At the end is the requisite victory (beer) shot, and a pic of the kill count (73!), that is, how many people our team passed on the road.

 

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Heat Exhaustion

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Will

Every now and then I do something colossally stupid that probably ought to kill me but I somehow luck my way through and survive. Saturday was one of those days.

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Smokejumper

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Will

Back in high school I became interested in, and did a report on, smokejumpers. While writing the report, I learned that they have a weight limit of 200lbs (so that, should you become injured, your fellows can carry you out). At the time, it was generally agreed that I’d have to lose a limb to ever get under 200lbs.

Apparently, that just isn’t the case.

I’m now a hair under 200lbs, and still have plenty of gut to lose. I’m not sure I even still want to be a smokejumper, but I find it interesting that a door I once thought shut has now blown wide open.

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< 200!

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Will

I win.

 

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Lunch

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Will

Most Sundays, I get a 5lb, free range, organic chicken and roast it, then use the meat for lunch during the week.  I use the beer can method, putting lemon and garlic inside, and basting with olive oil, pepper, sea salt, oregano, and basil.

Before work each day, while I’m making breakfast, I cook up some whole wheat pasta. I combine that with the chicken and parmesan, olive oil, basil, oregano, and grape tomatoes.  At work I nuke it for 2 minutes and voila, lunch!

 

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