36 and still kickin'

A 5k? Really? You're Writing about a 5k? Yup! So I've never really focused on it, but I've always wanted to break 20 minutes at a 5k run. Ever since one attempt at the end of high school I've been between 20 and 21 minutes. Even as close as 20:03 once. Of course given that I only do 5k's once every 3 or 4 years I shouldn't be surprised I guess. Earlier this year I entered one at the last second with "The Phillips", but that one got cancelled due to ice storms around here. Then came the Bun Run. Up until last week I had never even thought about it, but my coach told me about it and said it would be a good "test of fitness" and "fun". I also recruited another of my friends (Mike Ray) to do it as well and with coach and friends on board I decided to take one more shot at Mr. 20 mins. Only this time he went down hard :)

The Course: Beforehand I looked at the course maps and the course was pretty flat, but it did have two small hills that would definitely slow me down. One at the beginning, but the bigger of the two at about 2.5 miles in (a tough point in the race). The day itself ended up being a little warm and humid, but the biggest factor was that it was windy and it was going to be a headwind from the 1.5 mile point to 3 miles.

Despite going for breaking 20 mins I didn't really have any expectations since I hadn't done any hardcore training in 4 weeks. So I had a goal pace of 6:20 min/miles that I was pretty sure I could keep for the first mile, but after that I really didn't know.

The Race: It was great to meet up with Jenn, Matt, Daniel, Chris and Mike before the race to do our warm-up and just generally chat and help everyone relax. Even for this 5k I was getting butterfly's and my stomach was acting weird right up until the gun went off. You'd think after all these years that would stop, but at least for me, it still happens every race, even the small ones.

The first mile I just tried to keep an easy fast pace. At Mile 1 I was at a 6:25 min/mile and knew I was off my goal already so I started pushing more. It also happened to be on a downhill which helped allow me to speed up a bit. Turns out that I did the next mile in 6:12 and decided to just try to hang on to that for the last mile. It helped that there was someone that resisted my pass on the last hill and started to try to repass me. I pushed harder and managed to keep him at bay. I found out later from Mike that this was "The Phillips" run nemesis, so Shawn, that one was for you!

The whole last 1.5 miles were painful, but coming across the last flat 1/3 of a mile I knew I had it if I could just keep it and that was the longest and most painful 2 minutes I think I've ever run. Anybody else find that bridge super long on the way back in?!

I hit the finish line in 19:24 and must have sped up at the end 'cause I ended up averaging 6:13's. It seriously took me 5 minutes of hanging on to the edge of the fence past the finishing chute to regain my breath, but after that I was all smiles. I'm still revelling in this small victory. After my last race I needed something like this to get my spirits up again and having my fastest 5k race now and being able to run faster than I did even in high school was definitely the ticket.

Now it's time to put the training hammer down and get ready for Boulder 70.3. I'm super motivated now though and ready for my next PR :)

Polar Cowboy

Galveston 70.3 2011 - Terrible, but Tolerable

I don't know where to start with this post so I'll probably just start rambling and hopefully some sense can be made out of it. Two weeks ago was the Memorial Hermann 70.3 Texas, or as I like to just call "Galveston". Despite having a great coach (thanks Shawn!) and training group (PAC), training leading up to the race was not what I wanted it to be with an injury that kept me sidelined until mid December, getting sick for 2 weeks and taking a week off for snowboarding (which I don't regret at all :)). So I really only had 8-10 weeks to lead up to it. Despite that I didn't feel too bad going into this race and thought I could still pull off a decent race. Unfortunately I was wrong.

I've analyzed this race so many times now that my brain hurts more than a slurpee freeze. So I'll try to boil it down to the highlights. My swim was decent and about what I had planned to do (33:09, 1:44/100m pace). It was on the bike that things started going wrong. It was pretty windy and about 45 minutes in my right hamstring started tiring and hurting something fierce. I forced myself to finish out the ride at an ok pace though and am pretty proud of that even if my time wasn't great (2:44:37, 20.4mph). Looking back, I probably overdid the bike and that was partially the reason I fell apart on the run.

Doing ok after the swim - In Pain on the bike

The bright side was that it was specific to the bike and on the run it went away. But then at about mile 4 of the run I started bonking in the heat and humidity of that day and then at mile 6 my stomach completely cramped up (from having too much salt I think, but no cramps!)and that finished me physically and mentally. My energy never came back and I had to start walking the aid stations and shuffling/jogging in between. The result was the slowest time I've posted since 2007 (2:02:46, 9:22min/mile). Despite this I'm proud of having stuck it out and finishing when all I wanted to do was just sit down and call it a day (Final time: 5:24:23). You get a really good sense of appreciation for the pros that still got the same kinds of times as if the wind wasn't there and there was no heat or humidity.

Yup, that's exactly how I felt :) - Very glad to be done, 5:24 total time

There's three good things that came out of the trip and race though and like this great post from Linsey Corbin goes on to say, it's best to focus on the positives sometimes. One was that I had some great friends there to enjoy the trip with, race with (my wife Chris and friend Mike Irwin) and cheer me on even when it was obvious that I was not doing so great. Mray, Jray, Maddy, Blake and Alisia were there cheering me on the whole race (including even from way out on Mile 20 on the bike! and again near mile 40 from a truck). There's nothing like doing a race and having your friends there to cheer you on. Thanks all!

The reason Galveston was still fun! Thanks all!

The second positive thing was that I learned what too much salt intake can do to you (stomach cramps) and how much too much salt is in a race. Electrolytes and salt have been an issue for me the last 2 years and this is the first time I took too much as opposed to not enough. It's hard to find that stuff out when training, so that'll be useful to know. Of course, I still have to find what the right amount is, but I'm that much closer now.

The third is that I got a trip to the beach with my wife and friends! I only wish I could have enjoyed it longer.

Boulder 70.3 is the next race on the agenda in August. I plan to enjoy the rest of April and have already planned a bunch of things (skeet shooting, motocrossing, remote control car'ing and video gaming). I'll jump back into things in May with a vengeance that only a bad race can instill in you. No matter how it goes in Boulder though I plan to enjoy it and hold on to the positives. Thanks once again to all my friends for having made a terrible race still tolerable :)

Sweet Revenge

As you may recall I got sick 2 weeks before the Boise 70.3 earlier this year and I tried to do it anyways since the flight and registration were non-refundable and after a very painful and long bike ride I had to pull out. That was my first ever DNF and it really didn't sit well with me. So within a week or two Austin 70.3 was in the books and a revenge plan was hatched.

I had 3 or 4 goals going into this race (yeah, I know I'm weird). Goal #1 was if the wheels fell off the bus I wanted to at least break 5 hours. Goal #2, if things were going as planned I wanted to hit 4:54 and if things were going great I wanted to try to break or hit 4:50. To achieve these things I really wanted to hit a 1:40min/100m swim, 22mph bike and a 7:40 pace run. All of which seemed like they could have been doable if all went well on race day.

It's so weird the range of emotions that I go through on a race day. Even 5 years into this it still happens every time.

- 4:45 am, Alarm goes off,emotion = dread (is that an emotion?) I roll over and tell my wife I don't want to do this and why in the world do we do this to ourselves?

- 5:30 am, emotion = dreaming of glory. I'm on the road and starting to get pumped up about the race while slightly worrying about how I probably forgot to bring something.

- 5:45 - 6:45am, emotion = stressed out. Traffic jam! now very eager to do the race, but totally stressed out that I'm going to miss this thing that 2 hours ago I didn't even want to do.

- 7:15am emotions = psyched, nervous and ready to kill it. Got my transition setup and time to go warmup.


Swim: 32:04 and a 1:40s/100m pace (wetsuit)
Nothing too crazy to report here except for over-heating. I started at the front and sprinted the first 100 meters, which has been working for me lately. As usual a few people bumped into me from behind and passed me. For the first time I was actually near the lead pack for the first 300 or 400 meters. Then I lost them and swam on my own most of the way. By the time I made the first turn I was beginning to overheat and had to wake myself up every once in a while and force myself to push. Didn't have too many issues with congestion, just hitting some of the groups in front every once in a while. Near the end someone from the wave behind passed me and I jumped on his feet to bring it home.

T1: 2:31
Awesome wetsuit strippers, my suit can be hard to get off sometimes and some of you know how crazy I look trying to get it off quickly, but they got it off in no time. I passed tons of people in transition, we all have different goals and I used to take my time in transition too. I hope no one got mad at me for yelling "on your left" and squeezing by them.

Bike: 2:29:40, 22.45mph
This is a PR for me on the bike by at least 1mph for this distance. The course was rolling and didn't have the best roads, but it was definitely better than what it was like just a few weeks before. They did a great job filling in some of the cracks. Despite it being rolling and a little rough it was a pretty fast course. The wind was behind us or non-existent for 80% of the ride and when it was a head wind it was pretty mild. I definitely pushed it on the bike, and kept humming some motivating tunes to myself. The thought of Boise and how I was off 5 hrs by only 4 minutes in my last 1/2 also kept me pretty motivated. Somehow I was low on electrolytes or under-hydrated though and I felt my legs cramping a bit at around mile 40 or 45. I had tons of sodium on the bike (I calculated 1400mg later) and quite a bit to drink. So I was either dehydrated from the overheating on the swim or not being hydrated enough before the race. This will bug me for months to come as I know I set myself up for a bad run before I even got off the bike just like last year, even though I had way more electrolytes this time. Oh and one last note, I wish they had more officials out there for the Age groupers. I've never seen so much drafting. I seriously got passed by two different "packs" at different times and had one woman blatantly drafting off the guy in front of her for a good mile or more. Us age groupers are supposed to be doing this for the love of the sport aren't we? Anyways, it's their choice I guess.


T2: 1:48
This went pretty smooth except I ran past my bike spot at first since they all looked the same with the clean transition.

The crazy smile on my face was from a combination of a great bike time and seeing all my friends and wife lined up to cheer me on with special "Run Fast Eh" signs.

Run: 1:50:23, 8:25 min/mile
Leg cramping started as soon as I got off the bike and they never quite went away. There were 3 miles after which I took the initial salt pills that they subsided for a bit, but then they came back with a vengence. Quads, hamstrings and at the end the higher groin area leg muscles too. I tried taking in as much electrolytes and fluids as I could, but the run ended up being just trying to control the damage. The run course had lots of rolling hills that made things "interesting" when my legs almost locked up completely on some of the downhills (quads) and uphills (upper leg muscles). Having all my friends there to cheer me on each lap made me look forward to the turn around each time though. That's the best part of doing a local race, having all your friends there to cheer you on.

A smile on my face despite the cramping legs. Having everyone there to cheer me on was priceless.

Total: 4:56:24 a new PR by about 8 minutes (coincidentally from a time on the same race last year)

EMS: "how do you feel" Me: "Huh, where am I? I must have taken a wrong turn after the finish"

After 15 minutes of thinking I was fine I finally gave in and admitted I wasn't so fine. They got me squared away with some ice and an IV and I felt better shortly after.

Some Final Words
Definitely happy with the overall result, but it now leaves me wanting more. I was about 5 minutes faster on the bike than I had planned, but 10 minutes slower on the run. I know I have it in me now to post an even faster time if I get my hydration dialed in. The cycle continues... :) Thanks to my wife, all my friends, my dog and coach for great cheering and an awesome season.

My number one fans!

Ironman CDA Race Report

Greg's First Ironman

Pre-race:



4:15 am arrived really slowly for the first time in my life, usually it feels like the alarm goes off as soon as I hit the pillow, but not today. This day I awoke at 3:15 and couldn't fall back asleep. Shoot! It would have been really nice to have that other hour of sleep today, but oh well, my nerves and the excitement wouldn't let me. I got up and went to the bathroom while being really careful not to stub my toes anywhere (I had just read a story of someone braking a toe the day before their ironman so I was a little paranoid! Also, it was pitch black in the basement I was staying in and I didn't want to turn on a light and wake up my brother). I made it safely back to bed then spent the next hour thinking of everything i'd need to bring down to the race and of course worrying about everything that could go wrong, and mentally reassuring myself that it was just a long training day, a popular mantra i'd heard before and that I decided to adopt.

The alarm finally went off and I got up, covered myself liberally with bodyglide (I've learned the hard way from a few half irons), then slipped into my race clothes and warm-up clothes. Then went upstairs and checked the weather outside. I was happy to see it wasn't raining or too cold or windy out. There had been storms throughout the night, but they looked to be passing now (phewphh!!!). Breakfast was next, usually that's a highlight of my day, but at 4:30 am I had to force myself to eat. The night before we had had a lot of pasta and garlic bread so I was not especially hungry. The menu for today consisted of (this is just for my own records so i remember) toast and peanut butter, a glass of gatorade, a banana and a bowl of oatmeal. I was originally planning two pieces of toast, but the second got burnt and decided that was a sign (I know....but the weirdest rituals and thoughts go through your head on race morning!). After that Chris and I put all our stuff together and...wait, while on that topic, if you've never done an Ironman one thing I'd recommend is to arrive early at the race city. There's sooo much to do and logistics to get ready. Making sure your bike is working well (one of my wheels wasn't balanced right), scouting out the bike course and run course, swimming some of the swim to get used to the water (which was 58F for us on the days before the race...chilly, but refreshing once you got used to it), registering, planning out and filling all your transition bags and special needs bags, buying any last minute things you've forgotten, etc. Anyways, back to about 5 am, we have all our bags ready and Mike, my brother, drove us down to the race start (thank you!!!).

One of the cool things about Coeur D'Alene in the summer (well, at least cool on race day) is that it gets light out at about 4:45 am, so that made it soooo much easier to do everything (including waking up that early - I'm not much of a morning person usually!). There were tons of people everywhere and we dropped off our special needs bags and then headed over to the porta-potty line before they got too long. Then it was off to our bikes to pump our tires and put last minute food and stuff on the bike. Then off to find body marking and finally over to the dry clothes drop off area (for your warm up clothes to have after the race). That completed the total to 6 bags we had dropped off with different stuff that we'd be seeing at different parts of the race. We put our wetsuits on and found Chris' friend Whitney by luck and then headed down to the water. I had a gu about 20 minutes before the start and then waded in a bit to get used to the chill and then waited for the anthem and announcements. We had decided to go wide to try to avoid the mass of people on the inside, although I'm not sure that helped in the end. I was talking a bit with some of the people in front of me and then the next thing I knew the cannon was going off and the craziest swim of my life began!

Swim: 2.4 miles

Whoever decided that it was ok to have 2300 swimmers all starting at the same time should have their head examined. I had by this point built the swim up to be so crazy in my mind that it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but only barely. It was pretty light in terms of the hitting for the first 5 minutes of swimming because we had started out on the sides, but then everyone came together and the craziness started. I think there was only a handful of times in the first ¼ of the swim where I actually took my normal 3 strokes before breathing. I did however find several people to draft off of and followed each for a few minutes before getting pushed off or sandwiched by people and having to find someone else. The worst was the turn buoy where everyone converged and I literally had to stop and half tread water and fight people off as we all tried to go around. This was probably the worst part of the swim and the most claustrophobic. Despite all the craziness I kept reminding myself of the day ahead and tried not to push myself too much. By the end of the first loop I was sure I had lost some serious time because of all the battling, but it turned out I was pretty much right on target with 33 minutes. I started the second loop knowing I just had to keep the same pace. The second loop was a little easier for the way out, but as soon as the turn buoy hit everyone clustered again and it was mad chaos. I kicked something pretty solid by mistake (probably someone’s head, sorry whoever you are!) and had multiple people try to swim over me before I had to strongly discourage them with some stronger kicking and high elbows (swimming IS a contact sport!!).

I was so relieved once I exited the water to be done with that part and also happy that I had a decent time of 1:06, completely even splits! I started worrying about Chris (my girlfriend) a bit since she had only been swimming for 2 years now, but was hoping she had a good swim too. I felt like I took it pretty easy effort-wise and this was also the time it took me in practice so I was pretty happy. The volunteers guided me to the right place as I grabbed my transition bag and they stripped off my wetsuit. Thanks volunteers! Oh and I forgot to mention, there were hot tubs set up! The water was so cold that they set these up to warm people up in case they wanted it after the swim. They really do think of everything at these races. I was continually impressed with the volunteers (all 3000 of them!) and organization, best race I’ve ever been to that way. I got my bike stuff on and went through a little sequence of things in my head to make sure I had everything, took a quick pitstop, had another gu and some water to wash it down. I also put on my gloves, which I hadn’t planned to do before I got to the race site, but it fit with the “just another long training day” theme I was going with and mentally it helped me to put them on and convince myself of the lie I was telling myself. Then it was off to the bike start. A terrible transition with almost 7 minutes, but I was feeling good that the swim was over and now the fun part about to start ( I like the bike the most).

Swim Stats:
Time: 1:06:52
Pace: 1:46/100m
Age Group Place: 39th /201
Overall Place: 277/1942

Bike: 112 miles

As I began to bike I started double checking everything, the adrenaline was so high that I know it’s easy to forget things sometimes. Food was there, tires were pumped, helmet on, sunglasses, race number…shoot…race number was really loose for some reason. It seemed to be staying there so I tried not to think about it at first. That only lasted 2 minutes before I decided I had to try to fix it as I was coasting on a flat part of road at 20 mph. Of course I pulled the wrong strap on the race belt and next thing I knew it was flapping in the wind and then down in my front wheel getting tangled between my frame and spokes. I was lucky enough to hit the brakes before it got completely tangled and not crash or anything and then spent 2 minutes untangling it and putting it back on. I got a little over-excited and started cursing at the belt when I couldn’t get it untangled, but the fans on the side helped me calm down as they reminded me that it was a long day and just to take my time.

The bike was a 2 loop course and the rest of the first loop I was determined to take it easy. Sounds weird, but it’s pretty hard to keep it easy when you’ve been training for this moment for 6 months and just want to go hard. I managed to hold back though and the first lap went by quick and easy. I did find Chris about halfway through the first loop and that relieved any worrying I had. She was only about 15 minutes back and looking strong! I also saw my brother at the halfway point with this awesome Canadian flag sign and this helped motivate me and give me some charge. There was one point that lasted for about 30 minutes with some decent wind, but I kept thinking back to the huge gusts we’d been having in Austin all spring and that kept my mind at ease. First loop took just under 3 hours at around 19mph average, and I began to aim for my 6 hour original goal. Around 70 miles was when I first started feeling uncomfortable on the seat, but it wasn’t too bad and was able to shift around and not notice it too badly. The second loop wasn’t much harder than the first. Felt strong, kept to my nutrition plan of 2400 calories on the bike and finished just a tad slower on the second loop due to some stronger winds. It helped that the bike was really scenic and that the weather was gorgeous, I kept looking around and trying to enjoy the moment.

Bike stats:
Time: 6:01:52
Pace: 18.6 mph
Age Group Place: 83rd /201
Overall Place: 584/1942


Run: 26.2 miles

As I went into the transition tent for the run one of the volunteers grabbed my bag and followed me into the tent. He opened my bag and set out everything for me. While on this note, I want to mention once again how great the volunteers were in this race. In transitions and out on the course they were so encouraging and organized, probably better than any other race I’ve ever been in. Ok, back to the race J I was out of transition a lot quicker this time (2 minutes) and started the run feeling pretty good. The first 4 miles flew by at around a 8:15 to 8:30 pace. I had originally thought I’d try for between a 9 and 10 min/mile first half pace and then just try to keep a 10 or slightly higher pace for the second half. So after the first 4 miles I calmed down and forced myself to slow down. I still kept a 8:30 pace for the next two miles, but finally was able to slow it down to 9 min/miles after that. I’ve had some bad meltdowns late in races before and was determined not to let that happen again. It still felt pretty easy around a 9 min/mile pace though so I decided to keep that for the rest of the first half (two loops). After that I still felt pretty good surprisingly, but was still dreading the crash that I knew would probably come. It started feeling a little harder to keep the pace but not too bad, so I tried to just keep the same medium effort level, but walk every aid station and see what pace that gave me. That stayed at about 9:30 for a little while and then went between 9:20 and 10 min/mile for miles 16 through 20. I was starting to get tired, but still hadn’t hit the crash I was afraid of. So I kept the same pace, but decided to only walk every second aid station. This reduced my pace to around 9 min/miles. I managed to get to mile 23 getting more tired, but still no crash. I decided to take the enervitene and push the last 3 miles a bit more. I felt like I was pushing it quite a bit however it turned out I was just doing around 9 min/miles. The finish line was a down hill ½ mile with the sun setting over the water behind it, a perfect finish setting. As I ran through the last ½ mile I began to smile and pump my fist, knowing that nothing could stop me now and that I had made it. I crossed the line in 11:20:41 and was extremely happy with this. Before I had started I had 3 possible goals depending on how the day went. Goal #1 was just to finish in case I had a bad day or some type of injury or mechanical problem. Goal #2 was to beat 12:30, the original goal I had thought about when I first started my training. The 3rd goal was breaking 12 hours based on the last few months of training and if everything went well. So 11:20 was definitely far above my expectations. The last run loop (last 2 hours) was an effort mentally at this point though so when I got to the finish line it didn’t really register that I was done and that all 6 months of training had ended with this. It was weird, but my excitement slowly grew over the next 2 days instead of happening all at once at the finish line. It reached its peak ironically when Chris and I were shopping for a book to have on the flight back. On the drive down the highway into town I rolled down the window and proudly yelled at the top of my lungs: “I am an IRONMAN!”

Run Stats:
Time: 4:03:38
Pace: 9:18 min/mile
Age Group Place: 47th/201
Overall Place: 347/1942

Overall:

Time: 11:20:41
Age Group Place: 46th/201
Overall Place: 336/1942

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Chris, my wonderful girlfriend, who was the best training partner and who kept me going when I didn’t think I could do it anymore.

To all my training partners, Shawn, Mike, Jose, Ed, Brian, and Noah for pushing me, teasing me and encouraging me.

To my training plan author/coach Brandon Marsh, for the awesome plan and race advice.

And last but not least, thanks to my fans, my brother and Chris’ parents, for cheering all day for us, making awesome signs, getting up at 5 am and making cool ironman trophies for us.