Week 18 - Recap

Well Week 18 was eventful as you could tell from my previous post. This week was also my first open water swim in Stiles Pond in Boxford, MA. The open water swim had to have been the coldest swim I've ever been on. We were told the water temperature was 62 degrees, but it felt more like 52! I'll be looking forward to Week 19 and 20 with my 2 week taper for my 1st Half Ironman race on June 8th, Mooseman. Since I wasn't able to get my 60 mile ride in, my bike mileage is low this week. My running mileage is also low this week since I've been dealing with some achilles tendon tightness and soreness/tenderness. I was able to make it to the Orthopedic doctor on Thursday, May 22 and he told me that as long as I stretch it before and after my workouts and ice it after, I should be fine for my half. He told me that I'm just generally tight and that if I have tight hamstrings, then that will result in trouble with my achilles tendons. Along with stretching them out twice a day I was also taking ibuprofen for a few days to relieve any inflammation. As of this post, I'm back to my normal running and my achilles are much better. I'm back to the foam roller for my achilles tendons and since I'm using the roller again, I figured I should roll out my IT bands even though I haven't had any trouble with them for quite come time.

Here are the totals for Week 18:

• Swim - 5,850 yards
• Bike - 56.12 miles
• Run - 12.68 miles

Memorial Day Weekend - 60 mile ride....

Well, as I wrote about in my last post I was supposed to ride 60 miles this past weekend. I woke up on Saturday morning and meet up with TriFury for the scheduled 7:30am group ride at the Herman Youth Center in N. Andover, MA. I got there a little early at 7am, so that I could stretch out and pound my can of Monster Khaos for my ride. After stretching out, I felt great and the weather was turning out to be better than expected. The group ride started out a little after 7:30am and we were off. I took an early lead from the group and ended up pulling away from the group and was about 4-5 minutes ahead of the person behind me. I was having a great ride and I was averaging 21 mph. I made it 25 miles in and the worst happened......My new Visiontech TriMax Plus Flat aerobars ended up breaking. My left aerobar extension ended up snapping off causing me to loose control of the bike. The good thing was that I wasn't around anyone else. After loosing control of my bike going just over 20 mph, I veered off the road to the right, went up about a 4 foot embankment, which ended up slowing me down a bit. Once I was up the embankment I ended up flipping head over heals off the handlebars and rolled down the 4 foot embankment with the bike crashing on top of me in the middle of the road. Luckily, I crashed in front of someones house and they came running out to see if I was okay. Apparently, they called out after I crashed, but I was so concerned about how I was and taking an inventory of what happened to me and what happened to the bike that I didn't even hear them. All and all the only damage to the bike was the aerobars and everything else was fine. I ended up with a bruise the size of bike pedal on my left calf and a couple of cuts on my left knee and some road rash on my butt. I was happy that the crash wasn't that bad since things could have ended up much worse. I'd like to thank the good samaritan, whose house I crashed in front of, who gave me a ride back to my car, which was only 2 miles away after the whole incident. After getting back to my car I called it a day and went home to run 6 miles later that afternoon without incident.

Here are some pictures of what happened to the bike below.

Week 16 & 17 - Recap

Week 16 was a recovery week and I was able to get 2 - 20 mile rides in, not including my JCC race on Mother's Day. As of this post, I still have yet to get in a 50 - 60 mile bike ride, which will be happening this coming Memorial Day weekend. There isn't really anything significant to report for Week 16 other than the JCC Sprint Tri that I posted about previously.

Here are my totals for Week 16;

• Swim - 3,716 yards
• Bike - 53.24 miles
• Run - 15.6 miles

Week 17 was a complete disaster! Come Monday, May 12, I was fine when I went to work and as the day went on I seemed to feel worse and worse. I ended up taking the whole week off from training since I was sick with a bad head cold and running a fever over a few of the days last week. This really through a loop in my training plan since this week was my 2nd weak in the peak phase and I was hoping to get in my long ride and long run in this week. To finish off the week I decided to get a professional massage and ever since the massage I've been dealing with some morning stiffness in my right Achilles tendon. Hopefully this won't continue to bother me and I'll be able to continue my training for Week 18. I'll write more about this after I see the doctor this Friday, May 23.

Here are my totals for Week 17:

• Swim, Bike, Run - ZERO

JCC Triathlon by the Sea - 2008 Race Report

Official Results - 51:30, 3rd Overall out of 248, 1st M25-29 out of 10

Pre-Race: The day before Jess and I decided to drive the course, since someone from TriFury was kinda enough to send out a pre-race report on the road conditions, but I wanted to check them out for myself. Sure enough the roads were full of potholes and there were alot of turns. There were a couple of areas that were tricky if there wasn't anyone directing. The run also consisted of alot of turns, but was pretty flat except for one hill about 3/4 of a mile in. The swim was going to be interesting as well since it was a pool start. It started out that you swam down the first lane and then the next 4 lanes you swam both up and down and then the last lane you swam down and exited out the door and ran out to the transition area.

Well the night before we were in bed early at 9pm and up at 4:30am so we could be there by 6:30am to check-in and get my transition area set-up. I slept great for about 4 hours and didn't have the race on my mind at all since I've done a few of these last year. Then for some reason I woke up at about midnight and from then on I was having nightmares that I screwed up the swim and only did half the distance. Then, the next 2 dreams consisted of getting lost and taking the wrong turn and the last one being that I crashed hitting a huge pothole. My last dream then consisted that I took a wrong turn on the run. Needless to say after all these dreams last night I was a little nervous and anxious this morning.

Swim: 3:45, 6th OA, 1st AG

Well the swim was based on the seeded time that you had to submit when you registered for the race. The good thing was that I originally submitted a slower time of 4:30 and then changed it to 4:10, but needless to say that was to slow as well. Our race numbers were based on when we would be starting the swim. I was number 66 and I didn't enter the water for some time. They started people off with a 15 second gap per person so that you hopefully wouldn't have to pass anyone. Well sure enough, I caught the girl in front of me in the 2nd lane and then got tied up behind 2 people in the 3rd lane. I was able to pass them in the 2nd to last lane, but it cost me about 15-20 seconds if not more having to slow down behind them so that I could safely pass them since I had to pass them while people were swimming at me. I was also able to catch someone in the last lane as well. My enter to exit time from the pool was 3:38, but because the timing mat was so far from the pool, my official time was 3:45.

Bike: 31:08 (20.2 mph) 11th OA, 1st AG

I was worried how I was going to make out on the bike, not because of mileage, but because of the weather. It was cold this morning, but by the time I got out of the pool and back outside it wasn't that bad. I ended up wearing my tri top for the swim and I wasn't sure if that was going to cost me and leave me cold on the bike. Sure enough it was perfect on the bike with only my feet getting cold. My overall average speed is slow because this includes my transition time to my run. I ended up averaging 22.0mph according to my bike computer and finished the bike in 28:38. My transition time took me awhile because for some reason I tried to run with my aero helmet on, which needless to say, was pretty funny!

Run: 16:38 (5:33), 1st OA, 1st AG

Running has been my strong point, since this is the background I came from before starting triathlons. I had no idea I was going to dominate the run and have the fastest run of the day by almost a minute. (Beating elite triathlete Dean Phillips.) The run was mostly flat with only 1 hill at the 3/4 mile mark. This was where I caught alot of people before hitting the finish line. The only problem I had during the run was some cramping because instead of bringing water with me on bike, I brought with me my Cytomax drink. The cramps weren't bad enough to slow me down though.

All and all it was an awesome race since I was able to use some of my new gear. This was the first race that I was able to try out my new Vision Tech TriMax Plus Flat aerobars and the 2nd time I was able to use my Sidi T-1 shoes and my new Guru Advantage 2 Helmet. With it being Mother's Day, my parents were able to make it to the race today, which was great! Then afterwards the Ellis's were able to finally meet Jess's Parent's for the first time. It was a good day for racing and a great Mother's day for both Mom's.

Week 15 - Peak Phase

Week 15 is my first week of my peak phase and with next week being a recovery it was great to get through this week. I wasn't able to get in as much running or biking as I'd like this past week, but it's great knowing how far I've come with my training and what great shape I'm in right now. Despite my low biking mileage I still feel comfortable on the 30 mile rides, like I could go much longer, even though I still have yet to go on a 60 mile ride, I may have to wait till Week 17 to get in a long run and a long ride. I can't believe that Mooseman is only 5 weeks away. As I get closer to the actual event I find myself thinking about how the race will go and how I don't feel ready despite all the training I have done. What worries me the most is my actual race day nutrition. Thanks to Scott DeWire for some tips, I think I might be in good shape, but we'll have to see.

Here are my totals for Week 15:

• Swim - 7,832 yards
• Bike - 30.69 miles
• Run - 11.78 miles