New life for an old nail.

Not me. (The old nail that is.) A 1990 Specialized Hard Rock. Allegedly a contemporary mountain bike, but one not really equipped to stand up to much hard use. The bottom bracket alone was a serious weak point.

For a long time it was a light-use bike. It would go to the racetrack with my motorcycle. Racetracks are miles long and the pit areas can be vast. A bicycle is a great convenience. When I stopped racing the bike was rarely used. When I decided to start riding for fitness it wasn't hard to decide to get a newer, lighter, better bike -- one that is well built enough that it may be the last road bike I need to buy.

The new bike (Felt Z35) is great and a joy to ride. But recently it became an objective of mine to do more brick workouts. The optimal bike->run session would involve riding up into the Oakland hills from the house to the trails up top, and parking the bike there during the run. Leaving the "last road bike I need to buy" locked to a post just seemed like asking for trouble. Leaving a crusty old mountain bike is another story.

However, riding up an 800' climb on a 20 year old drivetrain (yes, the original chain, chainrings, cassette, derailer, etc.) was frustrating. The cranks wobbled, the chain jumped, the rear derailer walked across the gears on its own. Finally the shifter for the front derailer stopped being able to access the big ring.

A bit of internet shopping and a Deore crankset, new chain, new cassette, new Alivio rear derailer and shifters and some Park tools and it was time for a DIY update to the old bike, making it into a very functional sleeper. [Not to mention it taught me a ton about bicycle maintenance.]

It not only worked and made the thing fun to climb on again, but the parts are robust enough that you can cyclocross it if you dare and it can take it. Good times. This has really opened up my options for a greater variety of workouts.



Some knobbies might be a good idea for the steeper parts of the trail though (15% grade and up). It was a bit exciting with the street tires as seen above.

One last bonus pic just because the slight movement of the camera mid shot gave an impressionist quality to the trees.

[As always, click the picture to see a bigger version]

swimsense

This:

http://www.finisinc.com/equipment/electronics/swimsense.html




Kind of a cool device. At a high level, it relieves you of the burden of having to count laps, which can be kind of a drag after 30, 40 minutes plus. You can look at extra stuff like stroke count per length, and time per length.

First impression is that the hardware works but the software that lets you view your activity is still fairly beta. It confuses yards and meters frequently. If you swim in a 25m pool it will record your activity in meters and then display it in yards. Here is an example. Today I swam 2000m. (Lack of familiarity with the buttons meant I missed the first lap, so it recorded 1975m).



Note how it shows summaries in yards. And then on a goal I defined in meters, it put the number of yards I swam and labelled the unit as meters. Bah.

They seem pretty interested in improving the product. Hopefully this stuff gets sorted out soon.

Even as is, it looks like it will encourage me to swim more often and try more experiments in the pool since I'll be able to evaluate their impact clearly. Plus it will probably make me swim sets at different paces, etc. rather than just one long plod at a steady speed.

Will report later on the H20Friendly modified iPod shuffle I tried in the pool today as well.

Lucky

It's a good thing I've blogged about most of the June workouts, practice for the race, and the race itself. Why? Because all month long I'd been uploading data to my laptop from the Garmin and never clicking "save" on Rubitracks. Most Mac apps autosave when you make changes. This one does not and something crashed the app and 3 weeks of activity disappeared. Bah.

Today's ride was pretty good. Went to compare it to last week's ride on the same course. Nothing to compare it to.

Rage guy is appropriate once again.

Rest day

Was very tired yesterday after a hot bike ride in the hills. The short night of sleep before the race on Saturday was catching up with me.

Even so, it was hard today to not do anything. Maybe I could go to the pool and try out my H2Ofriendly kit. It can wait a day.

So instead there was browsing of new gear on the web and a drive over to Sports Basement to check stuff out. Picked up a race number belt, a few new water bottles for the bike, a few packets of HEED to test out, and a Brooks technical cap. Thought about getting a visor but this hat is very light, and my hair is super short (and or thinning to the point of gone) so a little extra protection seemed like a good idea. Plus those in the know say you can put ice under a cap which you can't do with a visor.

Rematch with Shadow Cliffs

In August 2009 I completed my first sprint triathlon, the Tri For Fun held in and around the Shadow Cliffs regional park. The Tri For Fun races are a series of three identical races at the same venue with one race each in June, July and August. It makes a good, timed (somewhat) and supported brick workout. Plus it is well attended so no matter your level it is likely you'll have lots of people to race with.

Since I hate all things early morning, I got a hotel room a few minutes away from the park, which would allow sleeping in an extra hour. Got out of bed at 5:30 and put the gear and the bike in the truck and drove to the park. The coach of the Berkeley Y team I met at Lake Temescal earlier in the week had reserved a whole rack for her group and I crashed their party, said hi to her and met some of the team.



Pointed out to a few of them that they probably didn't want to come out of T1 in the big chainring as the bike course immediately climbs the access road out of the park. "That's just the kind of stuff we need."

Got registered, body marked, and remembered to pick up a T-shirt this year. Took some pictures and checked out the vendors.



Near the end of the pre-race meeting (like so)



I got into my wetsuit so I could warm up in the lake before my wave. This took a few minutes more than expected and the race had started with the "competive" wave already rounding the first buoy as I took my first plunge. That only left one other wave to warm up and get over to the start.

Forgot ear plugs but decided it would be OK. The water was warmer than Lake Temescal. 72 they said.

Started outside right mid pack swim. Definitely hadn't acclimated enough yet. Had a bit of panic about 50 yards in but knew it wasn't serious and breast stroked for about 10 seconds and regrouped. It was kind of tight quarters to the first buoy so a bit of breast stroke would have happened anyway. There wasn't room to move faster. One guy drifted over to me and it was like we were siamese twins for like 20 yards. Finally he looped his arm over my head and realized I was there and veered off. Took the inside line from buoy 1 to 2 and sighted well and tracked straight! Amazing. Maybe it was because the Baby Shampoo anti-fog treatment I learned about works really well and I had clear goggles for the whole swim. What a difference that makes.

Was able to crawl with decent form and pace and even relaxed a bit, to the point where I was saving some effort so the bike and run would benefit. There was no crowd at buoy 2. Rounded the corner at speed and followed feet to the exit. Hit the shallows and walked out. Pulled the Garmin out from under the swim cap and saw about 8:20. Not bad. Almost 20% faster than last time. Still room for improvement but it may take starting closer to the front, properly warmed up.



Had the wetsuit off the shoulders by the time I got to dry ground. Removed cap and goggles. At that point I was right about here:



[Kind of a cool feature in RubiTracks that is sort of hidden. You have to go into track log view and click on a track point to see it. It makes it pretty straightforward to go through your data and cut multi-sport events into their individual pieces.]

Walked to mid transition while I evaluated how I felt. Answer: pretty good. Jogged to bike. Changed gear carefully figuring it would save time in the end. Shirt was a bit of a struggle to put on even though it was rolled up beforehand, but not bad. Put gloves on just to be safe. Bike did not want to come out of rack. Too tall for the hang-by-the-seat method. Should have hung the bars over the top. Sat down to put shoes on. Socks were a little crooked, and the right shoe ratchet did a thing I would call cross threading if it was a screw, but those were minor problems.

Passed like 6 stationary guys at the mount area by just stepping on the left pedal and throwing a leg over the bike as it rolled. Spun up the hill and began passing a lot of people. Heading down Stanley (flat and straight) one guy came out of my draft and started eking away. I was trying to hang at his pace and we were leaping from one slower rider to another. HR was kind of high. In a range I don't think I was able to use last time. Didn't feel really strong but felt like I had a 30 minute pace I could hold. Drank maybe 5-6 ounces of gatorade. Drink. Wait. Wait. Burp. Drink. Repeat.

It was a different bike segment than last time for sure. Starting in the right wave (M40+) meant that only the "competitive" and M15-39 athletes were out front. Still passed too many people to count though. Bike course is here:



On the back half of the 10 mile lap another couple of guys played the drafting game and popped out from behind me right before the steep little hill where you cross Old Vineyard. I hung with them and repassed one on the hill and hung back from the other one. Again, could have drafted him in but decided not to. Wanted to compare my effort to last time and there was no one to draft last time. Got him in T2 though. [Apparently, because he passed me for good later on the run.] Dismount was good. Shoe change was pretty quick. Ditched glasses and didn't bring any drink. T2 was much nicer this time being in one of the early waves. Things hadn't gotten messed up yet. My spot was the way I had left it.

The run course:



Starting out on the run the mantra was simple. Remember to pick the knees up and try and keep the cadence up and wait for the legs to feel proper. HR was still up (considered this a good sign) but I was able to relax a bit and open up by about 1/2 mile. Was able to stretch it out and go faster on the level/downhill stuff. Powered up the little climbs and recovered on the back side. Tried hard not to let the pace slack anywhere. Got passed by more runners than last time but also passed plenty myself. Will be interested to see run splits.

Two guys passed me in the last quarter mile but I was so close to popping I couldn't speed up and hold it, and I had to wait for the sprint in the chute to try and out kick them. Got one but missed the other by about 20 yards.

Cold oranges sliced into quarters were good.

The data:

Swim 8:19 (~36:00 mile)
T1 3:32
Bike 28:13 (9.5 miles @20.2 mph)
T2 1:10
Run 27:22 (5k@8:49/mile) [8:50, 9:00, 8:20. Last 1/4 mile was ~7:00 pace. Last 10 sec was ~4:00 pace !]

Last time:

Swim ~40:00 mile
Bike 20.1 mph
Run 9:30/mile

Felt pretty good in this event. Mostly I was pushing max sustainable effort but overall felt like it was well in hand. In the first go round the swim and bike felt a lot harder and took it out of me for the run. Now I need to work on being able to stomach some useful nutrients. Frappucino in a can is a very likely suspect. Sugar, caffeine and some protein in a small palatable container sounds worth trying.

For your edification, there's one more thing I learned this weekend. Had to improvise a bottle opener for a frosty beverage in my hotel room because I forgot to pack one.

T minus 8 hours

Lying in the hotel room waiting to get tired. Learned that the clipless pedals on my bike can be used as bottle openers if need be. Good to know.

The situation is pretty much the same as I described the night before doing this tri in 2009. http://fastheartslowfeet.blogspot.com/2009/08/t-minus-12-hours.html

This time I'm not worried about eating in the morning because I'm not even going to try. Staying at a hotel means about an hour more sleep. There will be gatorade on the bike for a bit of sugar but this event is so short there should be no need for a full belly beforehand.

Had some spaghetti with clams for dinner tonight to carbo load and that will have to last.

This year I'm planning on getting in the right age group wave at the start and seeding myself mid pack. Feeling a bit more bullet proof now that I've got the wetsuit! If things go well the swim could be 3-4 minutes faster than last time. Not bad for just 400 yards.

Race fever

Currently procrastinating about everything non race related. Spending lots of time reading triathlon forums and race reports. Researching what race to do next (yeah this helps. Lather, rinse, repeat). Donner lake in July looks tempting.

Today's OWS practice went very well. No fogging of goggles. No panic. Practiced sighting. Kept away from the rope lines as much as possible. Can sight every 3-4 strokes without disrupting forward progress or breathing.

The lake was actually quite crowded. It isn't lifeguard season yet so people were doing stuff that will not be allowed when lifeguards are on duty, most relevant to this post would be the people treading water and playing around in the lap lane. Just extra practice for me today. The scene from the trail on the west side of the lake:



.8 miles. 1400 yards. Good times.

More practice, more better.

OK maybe a 400Y warmup is not necessary.

Hit the lake again today. Floated around a bit to acclimate to the temperature. Did a few push and glides face down to get my face wet and breathe out gently. After a minute of that it was not difficult to start swimming without overdoing the pull and turnover like last time.

Went out into deeper water and followed (ok, crashed into frequently) the rope line. Concentrated on taking full pulls and made sure the hands were still hooked up and not too fast down by the hips.

Worked on sighting every few strokes and it went OK. Not a problem as long as I am not going unreasonably fast in the first place. Should focus on this in the remaining 1 or 2 OWS practices this week. That left turn I'm prone to can be pretty severe. See example below.



The bit where I switched from the shallow rope line to the deep one was not intentional. Oh well. Needed to get out there anyway. Fortunately the course in the Tri this weekend turns left. I'll just try and set up on the right of everyone at the start and use the line of people as the reference.

open water swim; threat or menace?

Got the wetsuit out of the closet and headed over to Lake Temescal again for some open water swim practice. Conditions should be very similar to the Shadow Cliffs lake. The water was the clearest I've ever seen it. You could still see the bottom at about 4' of depth. That's where I swam today as there is a rope line there. It made it a bit easier but it was good practice as the other fear triggers were still abundant enough to set off a few minor panic attacks. Nothing major. Breast stroked for a few seconds to feel like I was getting more air.

It is pretty clear that to warm up for this 400 yard swim I'll need to, yep, swim 400 yards. By then I remember how to breathe out properly and there no longer seems to be an air shortage.

Took an extra second or two at each end to hit the lap button on the Garmin.



Interesting results. Laps were about 85 yards each. [Oddly the rubitracks software doesn't interpret use of the stop button to signal the end of a lap.] So when there was a stop/start to separate the two 4 lap segments, it combined laps 4 and 5.



Had very little focus left to think about stroke or body position or anything technique related. Was fairly pleased at how straight I was going and how I was able to sight the end of each lap pretty well. Definitely need one or two more trips to the lake before the race though.

Rematch with Mount Diablo

Took over an hour off the time to ascend from the Athenian School to the summit of Mount Diablo compared to last time. To be fair, last time was a) the first time up the mountain and b) the base of the mountain was 3 hours of riding from my house where we started.

This time we transported the bikes and parked near the school and started fresh. It was a lot easier, but still harder than our typical Sunday ride. About 50% more climb and no real break in it.



There will be further rematches. Would like to get down to 1:15 or so.



Lol > 100% grade! It is steep but not that steep.

Ways to go faster in future attempts:

Press harder in the easy bits.
Eat better the night before and get some rest (curry, ale, 2am bedtime not recommended)
Keep working on early-morning nutrition that the stomach can tolerate. Strawberry poptarts ?!?

Signing up for a race is always good motivation.

Having a rematch with the sprint tri in Shadow Cliffs that started it all a few years ago.

Need to re-read the race report from that and come up with a new time estimate for myself. Vague recollection says the bike/run parts had decent times but the swim and transitions were horrible.

OK, just read the report and saw 5:30 in transitions and 10:00 swim. Pretty sure that can improve to 3:00 and 8:30 respectively without much trouble. Would like to get the run down from 9:30 miles to 9:00, saving another 1:30. So 7:30 better...

Let's call 1:08:00 the goal time.

And in the lessons learned department:

Not going to try and eat before the finish. This is a pretty short race and food in the early AM just messes with my stomach.

Got a hotel room minutes from the venue to save myself having to get up ridiculously early to drive an hour to get there. This should make it easier to skip solid food before the race.

Gonna use my wetsuit so I can get a warmup before the race and not be cold standing around soaking wet at 6:45 am.

Gonna start with the proper wave so hopefully my transition spot won't be completely trampled by the time I get to it.

Mojo back?

Went for a run tonight without doing anything else hard first, like, say, bicycling up 1200 feet of climb. Much easier.

Managed my best 4 mile time in like 2.5 years. Heart rate was lower than last week. Have been playing around with surges of speed in the run lately rather than trying to grind out a steady pace regardless of incline/decline. It's more fun, and hopefully will condition me to processing lactic acid better.