How to Make a Hemp Mocha & Tiger Triathlon Race Report

Get To Be a Faster Open Water Swimmer With This Workout.

Ready to have some brutal fun? I actually assigned this workout to a few of my athletes this week (you know who you are!) This is a perfect race season workout for dialing-in power and speed...

Warm-up: 500m freestyle

Push-Ups to 50m Sprint Superset: On deck, 15 push-ups, directly into a 50m all out sprint. 60 second rest intervals. 5 times through.

50m Sprint Plus Time Trial: 50m all out sprint taken directly into 250m tempo effort just below race pace effort. Recover 1 minute and repeat 1x.

3x100m No-Stop Intervals: 100m at race pace intensity, but instead of resting at wall, swim 50m slow freestyle for recovery

3xLadders: Start away from the wall. Without pushing off the wall, swim to the center of the pool, turn 180, swim back towards the wall but turn at the T, not at the wall (no push-off). Now swim all the way down to the other end of the pool, and again stop at the T, not at wall and reverse direction again. At the center of the pool reverse direction one more time so that you end at the far end of the pool. Recovery is very easy breastroke or backstroke back to start.

10x25 Hypoxic Sets: No breathing. 15-20 second rest intervals.

Enjoy!

Sometimes I don't train.

Boise 70.3 Race Report - Camel Toes & Gelato

So of course, the big deal about this race, the Boise 70.3 Triathlon, was the unique 2:00pm race start. As a matter of fact, I think the race announcer must have mentioned this fact about eleventy billion times during the pre-swim announcing. The World Triathlon Corporation must figure this will up-sell race registrations to all those non-morning people triathletes.

Unsure about how to handle such a late start, I spent the day clicking through TV channels, checking my e-mail, drinking water, checking facebook, watching Hulu, dressing up as a woman in skin-tight white nylons, and generally just whittling time away. I had alot of time to cook up my pre-race specialty - yams. It goes like this: put them in the oven for about an hour at 375, then eat them when they cool off. Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart.


And at one point, I actually took my bike downtown and gently rode the run course, just to shake out the legs and do one last check-over on my Specialized Transition. Where else in the world can you go check out the entire run course on race day before the race starts? But FINALLY, 12:30pm rolled around and I headed out to Lucky Peak Reservoir in the boon-docks of Boise. Here's a video shot just before I took off.




Since my age-group wave would be the last to depart (at 2:55pm), I got to sit and watch all the other participants begin their swims. During this time, the weather became less and less friendly, the black thunderclouds began to roll in, the water became choppy and cold, and they actually began "yanking" hypothermic and exhausted racers from the increasingly difficult lake swim. What began as a nice sunny day turned pretty crappy, pretty quick.

When I got in, I immediately felt that the water temperature DEFINITELY dropped from my practice swim prior day, likely from the wind churning up all the cold water. Race organizers said water temp was 64, but I suspect it was 58-59. No wonder they were pulling people from the water!

But personally, I was pretty happy with my swim, even though I COMPLETELY swam off course in the first 500 meters. I thought I was being a smart and sneaky racer by cutting to the inside of the yellow buoys in a direct line to the first turn buoy, but I actually mis-sighted my line and swam a good 200 meters too far to the inside. I believe I was looking a red kayak rather than the red buoy.

However, with a focus on high stroke turnover and a lower head than usual, I really felt like I made up tim and fought the chop pretty efficiently, despite swimming like a drunk driver for those first few minutes.

I ended up exiting the water with the second "pack" of 18-29 year old division age-groupers, about 2 minutes behind the lead pack. My goal was to beat 30 minutes in the water, and I had a 29:18 on my watch as I was sprinting up the transition mat, so that was good. And a nice steady downhill out of transition let my heart rate settle down and gave me a chance to dine comfortably on my blueberry-pomegranate GU Chomps.

Most of the bike was...wet and windy. Very wet and windy. This was the most inclement weather in which I've ever raced in six years (perhaps aside from a snowy sprint triathlon in Lewiston, ID last year). There was sleeting rain, lightning, thunder claps and heavy crosswinds. I really had to push to make my goal time of riding the course in 2 and a half hours. On the bike, I went through two bottles of water, plus whatever rain ended up in my aero bottle, along with 4 Roctane's and 4 GU's.

So I A) rolled into town almost exactly 3 hours and 2 minutes after the official race start (fist pump: once again, I was almost right on the money with my goal time) and B) was successful in not exceeding a heart rate of 171 during all but the steepest hills (after "blowing up on the run" in my last two halves, I decided to hold back on the bike and not exceed lactate threshold). In sunny conditions, this bike course would not have been incredibly difficult. I haven't compared the bike times to last year's, but I imagine they were slower overall.

I was passed by two division age-groupers on the bike, and from what I could tell upon exiting the swim, there were three division age-groupers in front of me. So that would put me in sixth place starting the run. In addition to wanting to finish the race in 4 and a half hours and finish the race in the top twenty-five age-groupers, I also wanted to podium as a top three in my age-group. I knew at this point that the last goal was going to be tough.

However, my objective was also to stay aerobic for the majority of the run, until about 5K remained, at which I knew my training would allow me to push a bit to the finish line. From experience in my other two half-Ironmen this year, I knew that if I went anaerobic too soon in the half-marathon, my race would be over. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin a great race by having to stop and throw-up, walk, or drop out.

So by focusing on high cadence, forward lean, controlled breathing, and ignoring the single age-grouper that passed me, that's what I did. Rather than destroy my race by trying to run down rabbits, I just had to hope they would fade before me. And at 10 miles, I grit my teeth and dug in, passed one of the guys that passed me on the bike and managed to negative split the second loop of the run by 1 minute, pulling off a 1:28 half-marathon and my first "respectable" run of the year, at a 6:50 pace.

My goal for this race was four and a half hours, and with a 4:31 at the finish line, I was pretty satisfied. I don't have the official results pulled up, but I believe I was 21st, so I also broke the top 25. I would have been a bit happer if I would have to been able to pass another three guys on the run and podiumed, but I would have needed at least 5 minutes, and I'm not sure where I would have found that much time, as I really gave a solid, 100% effort as it was.

This is my first Half-Ironman this year where I felt like I had a really great time, enjoyed the race, and gave everything that I could give. So maybe there really is something to this afternoon start...

After a post-race massage, a cuddle in one of those silver space-age blankets, and a few Recoverease pills, I felt good enough for lettuce wraps at PF Chang's and...of course...my post-race treat whenever I can find it...GELATO.

Pre Boise 70.3 Frolicking in Seaside, OR

On vacation in Seaside, Oregon...will be following up soon with Boise 70.3 course preview and pre-race report...but in the meantime, here are some videos that involve a cute little green tandem bicycle...

My wife's biggest concern seemed to be that I might fart in her face. I don't know where she thinks of these things...

Walla Walla Onionman Race Report

Synposis: 7th place overall, 2nd place division.

Legs are bit sore today. I soaked in magnesium oil and epsom salts, took 4 Recoverease capsules, and went for a good walk. One day off, then back to prep for Half Ironman Boise on June 14...

The sun was shining, which, for the Onionman, is almost like a solar eclipse or a virgin birth. But it happened. Absent a dark, dreary sky, sleeting rain, or a fierce wind, it was actually a pleasant race environment.

Pre-race nutrition: 2 Delta-E and 6 Enerprime, 2 Hammer Gel Race Caps, 3 Cordygen VO2, 1 Bumblebar, 1 banana.

During the race: 1 GU Roctane pre-race, 300 calories GU20 sport drink on bike. Nothing on run.

Prior to the swim, I lined up behind Roger Thompson and beside Michael Gordon, two previous race winners. A few other really recognizable speed demons were scattered into the crowd - David Gettle, Jeff Smith, Jason Jablonski - kinda a Who's Who of the Northwest triathlon scene. I figured as long as I could hang with this crowd on the swim, I'd have a decent chance at staying in the game on the bike and run.

Initially, I ended in a pack *behind* the lead pack after losing the leaders at the first buoy. Then, on the second lap of the two-lap swim, I actually strayed inside and swam the remainder of the race solo, coming out of the water in 21 minutes and change, and about 60 seconds behind 4 or 5 leaders.

The bike was fairly windy, but didn't seem quite as bad as previous years on the way out. My Specialized Transition really performs well on flat or slightly rolling courses, so I felt comfortable for the first 1/4 or so of the bike.

But something just didn't feel *right* at about that point, when I'd really been pushing the wattage for about 15 minutes. Post-race inspection revealed my seat to be about 1-2mm low - a simple assembly mistake but enough to give me "Princess and the Pea" syndrome for most of the 40K bike. Ultimately, the quads just felt a bit over-utilized. I'm glad this wasn't anything longer than an Olympic or this could have really hurt me.

As it was, I don't believe it slowed me down at all. It just felt different.

On the bike, I passed two team racers and one of the individual leaders on the bike and settled onto the run in 6th place, after biking around 1:03. I had committed not to "lay it on the line" like I usually do in an Olympic distance bike split. This means that I tried not to exceed my lactate threshold heart rate by more than 10 beats. Post-race, I wish I would've pushed a bit harder going out on the bike, as it was relatively fast coming back (though still a bit more of a headwind than previous years).

The run was just tough. I was hot, my legs were heavy, and I wish I could say this was a race that "clicked" for me, but sometimes the body just feels a bit off. Despite having a "half-week" taper leading up, which is usually enough to have a little blast in the legs, I was simply a bit sluggish during the entire run. I'm going to go ahead and Blame it on Boise, and the fact that I don't really start my official race taper for another week and a half.

I passed one fella, but got passed twice, once just a hundred yards before the finish line. My 10K time was 39:35, a good minute slower than when I raced this same course in 2007. As a matter of fact, my overall time was 4 minutes slower (part of this could have been a bit different wind on the bike, and an assuredly longer swim).

As a "low-priority" race, I'm happy with what I feel was a solid performance against a stellar field. Hats off to Michael Gordon for taking the overall win with a speedy run.

Post-race wine tasting in beautiful downtown Walla Walla involved meandering through seven different tasting rooms and one fine cheese and salami purveyor. After filling our tummies with the reds and whites of one of the best wine regions in the United States, Jessa and I sat in the town centre and feasted on a New York pepper salami, peppercorn and herb encrusted goat cheese, a crunchy demi-baguette, and a dark chocolate, Kahlua truffle.

I'm spending Memorial Day in Moscow, ID, hanging out at my favorite coffeeshop and playing on Facebook (look me up!). Over and out!

My New Avia Bolts

Shh...don't tell my wife.