Half-assed Ironman Training

Apparently equals Half-Ironman training. Sunday morning/afternoon I raced in and completed the Amica Texasman Long Course Triathlon up in North Texas. Which consisted of a 1.2 mile swim in Lake Ray Roberts, a 56 mile bike ride through the ranch country of Valley View, TX, and a 13.1 mile run mostly through the trails of Johnson Branch State Park. I finished 33rd overall (5th in my age group) with a time of 5 hours and 34 minutes, way under the 6 hour goal I had set for myself. I was very pleased with the results, but ultimately this was a training race for the Ford Ironman Arizona (Nov. 21, Tempe) and a learning experience. So what did I learn along the way?

• There is a gigantic statute of Sam Houston about 70 miles north of the city on I-45


• Sam Houston had awesome Mutton Chops


• Everybody loves Buc-ee's, everybody.


• When a Texan tells you that a place has the best lasagna they've ever tried, it probably doesn't mean much.


• BBQ Chex mix is not as delicious as it sounds


• A pre-race dinner of Lasagna, a Greek Salad, and BBQ Chex Mix is apparently satisfactory


• Falling asleep at 8 or 9 is difficult for a 25 year old


• Staying asleep when you're worried about showing up late and you're staying in a cheap motel just off the interstate is impossible


• Showing up early is definitely the way to go


• I need a better way to transport my gear


• Doing the swim portion of the race in a Speedo makes you a crazy person


• But doing a half-ironman is a completely rational pursuit


• I weigh 79.4 Kg


• Lake Ray Roberts tastes smoky


• I should avoid drinking the water


• It is easy to get lost in a lake


• It is crazy difficult to change into biking gear wet and tired


• Hills suck


• Bananas are awesome


• Having too much water is impossible


• A mechanical problem during the bike portion would be the worst thing ever


• I need new pedals


• Hills suck


• The bike portion of the race is mentally devastating


• Long-course triathletes are incredibly supportive of one another


• At mile 50 I would have run an extra 6 miles just to get off of my god-forsaken bike


• I need a new saddle


• Changing into running clothes from biking clothes is a snap


• Mentally gearing up for a 13.1 mile run, less so


• Race supporters and volunteers are amazing


• Some people are machines


• I am not a machine


• Long-hair, headband, aviator combo was a hit with the crowd


• kids think you're awesome if you let them spray you with water


• kids that spray me with water are awesome


• Sport gels are not delicious, but they work


• Hills suck


• Seeing an athlete succumb to the heat/exhaustion is distressing


• Being handed water by an overweight volunteer smoking a cigarette is quite possibly the most extreme juxtaposition I've ever been involved with


• At mile 12 I'd have given anything to be back on my godforsaken bike


• That joke killed at mile 12


• Finish line announcers can make anyone smile, even after 70.3 miles

All in all I was incredibly pleased with my performance. My hydration strategy worked to perfection (I didn't lose a single pound during the race), but I need to consume more calories on the bike, and be better prepared for the isolation the bike portion demands. The more reps I get in transition the better, and again the biking portion is the most important for your overall finish. Don't believe me? I had the 11th overall best swim time, the 31st best bike time, and the 40th best run; I finished 33rd overall. Link to results below.

http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?orgID=216359&rsID=93195

Miles covered so far:

Swim: 52.2

Run: 257.16

Bike: 891.12

Dead Weather Advisory

Admittedly, I am a Jack White fan. Thoroughly enjoy the White Stripes and love the Raconteurs. His newest venture is a little band called The Dead Weather. They came to Houston this weekend at the House of Blues (my new favorite venue to see a show). I was a little skeptical at first, especially once I heard Jack was the drummer, but that quickly changed. That night I saw the greatest concert of my life.



Read that last line again, and know that I'm dead serious. Anyone dubious of my credentials or curious as to what weight to give such a bold statement here's a short list of the acts I've seen. Aerosmith, Beck, Counting Crows, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, Kiss, Fuel, The Bravery, Crash Kings, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Flogging Molly, Simon and Garfunkel, Better than Ezra, Everclear, Cowboy Mouth, Rush, Run DMC, Pearl Jam, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bruce Springsteen, The Kings of Leon, and plenty of other less heralded but no less talented musicians. All of the shows I've seen were good, but only a few of them approached what happened Saturday night. I suppose now I'll throw together a short top five of concerts I've been to.



5. James Taylor - I don't remember if there was an opening act for this show, but I do know JT didn't need one. Rain fell for nearly the entire set but the waterlogged faithful had enough enthusiasm to coax Jimmy out for 3 encores causing him to wonder aloud, " I don't know if I should love you, or be afraid of you".



4. Cheap Trick opens for Tom Petty - Standing 14 rows from the stage would help the ratings of just about any act, but I would've loved this show from the nose bleeds. Cheap Trick was great, and the Heart breakers were on fire. Something magic was in the air that night that made sure all of us had fun, my little brother described it as "cigarettes and burning leaves" which isn't too far off.



3. Robert Plant opens for The Who - This show had potential to be the best I would ever see it doesn't get better than this I can die in peace type concert except for one thing. Robert Plant. To say he disappointed that night is an understatement. He played a few Led Zeppelin songs between his own mindless drivel, but he was so out of it no one recognized the tunes until they were nearly finished. To this day I doubt he remembers the show, because though he knew he was in Central Pennsylvania he didn't seem to know where. The Who, however, were the cure to Robert Plant's wails. They were phenomenal, especially considering John Entwhistle had died only a few weeks before the show. A touching video memorial, and an inspired performances by Daltry and Townshend were a fantastic tribute to John, and made for a truly remarkable night.



2. Beck opens for The Rolling Stones - Worth the price of admission. This show easily quadrupled the cost of any show I had been to previously, and stretched the budget of a college student, but I couldn't in good conscience miss the Stones. So I bit the bullet, got in line, got decent seats, and waited. Beck was great, though nobody in Hershey seemed to care, and I left the concert that night knowing two things. 1) Beck is great, 2) Age is a number. The Stones were on all night. Rocking hard through the entire set and quickly dispelling any thoughts I had about them being too old to blow me away. The songs were great, the stage was cool, the show was awesome, and despite being close to 300 years old (in rock star years) Mic, Keith, and company showed everyone that "senior citizens despite being slow and dangerous behind the wheel, are still good for something."



1. The Ettes open for The Dead Weather - You've probably never heard of The Ettes, but they played an opener that was good enough to headline most shows... just not this one. As for The Dead Weather show I have never been completely transfixed by a band for an entire show. Moving or really doing anything other than watching slack-jawed and stupefied was out of the question. The music was great but the performance as a whole was mind-blowing. I would not shell out the money to see the Stones again, even after 4 years. I would shell out three times as much money to see The Dead Weather again tomorrow, in a heartbeat.



They fall into a short list of shows I will drop almost anything I'm currently doing to get to no matter the inconvenience along with Bob Schneider, and Rebirth Brass Band. Check all of them out, but seriously check out The Dead Weather. Awesome.



Oh yeah I've been training too.

Miles Covered so far:

Running: 220.56

Biking: 697.96

Swimming: 44

Of Puppets, Bad Movies, and Actors

I found myself watching "The International" the other night, I stumbled across it mid-way through and decided to watch it On Demand from the beginning. The movie was not that great, the writing was poor and the acting seemed forced. The shots were often really beautiful, lots of cool locations to shoot in, and that's what really kept me tuned in. I began to think about how terrible a job the actors did, I mean very few of the emotions were believable, the lines were delivered over the top or way way under the top (if that makes sense), but then I wondered if it was their fault. The dialogue was atrocious (cliché, cliché, cliché, predictable response, cliché), the plot wasn't really that great either, and actors are really not much more than puppets, needing a master puppeteer (great director) to get the best out of them. Some actors are better than others (See Daniel Day-Lewis), able to adapt to different roles and make you forget that they are Joe Hollywood making millions of dollars and not the starving artist/drug addict trying to care for his two children with music and bread stealing as he wins the heart of a beautiful heiress to a fortune (etc. etc.). Matched up against Paris Hilton, this is no contest, though to be fair I think Paris is only rarely considered an actor. In the same way some puppets are better than others. Take off your sock, insert hand, draw eyes, boom goes the dynamite you've got the Paris Hilton of Puppets. With some great direction and incredible lines your sock puppet can probably captivate an audience of a few kindergarteners for a while, but no adult is going to forget that you are merely a wierd, possible perverted, man with his sock on his hand and only one shoe on standing a little to close to their child. On the other end of the spectrum are the Muppets. Watch a Muppet's Christmas Carol sometime. Shortly into the film you begin to forget that Kermit is a puppet, the dude is articulate, shows feeling, and moves fluidly. Keep watching and you begin to forget that he's a walking talking frog married to a walking talking pig, he's Bob Cratchit and Michael Caine turns in his greatest acting performance of all time working and interacting with these puppets. Is this because Kermit is a great actor, no he's a great puppet, but the people pulling the string are some of the best in the world, and the adaptation of Charles Dickens's masterpiece is a masterpiece in itself. So I'll put the blame on the writers and the director for The International, for now.



Got in a good ride last weekend as the weather finally turned for the better, and found a nice little loop to ride on. I have been critical of riding in the city of Houston (the drivers are dangerous, the roads are awful, the bike lanes are narrow and laughably maintained) but biking in the Heights is pretty awesome. The 2.5 mile stretch of road on Heights Boulevard between Washington and 20th street, is lovely, and then from 20th back to Washington on Studewood/mont is also a treat. This loop is only about 5.75 miles, but it's the most enjoyable 5.75 miles I've biked in Houston yet.



Miles Covered So Far:



Biking: 303.7
Running: 84.85
Swimming: 23.2

Time is Fleeting

There are not enough hours in the day to train for an ironman, have a job, have a girlfriend, and have a life. At least it seems that way, an unemployed friend of mine joked about being lucky because he can hit the gym whenever he cares to, which would be really nice, however I think my biggest hurdle will just be to give up a little bit (or a lot) of fun on the weekend and get myself in gear with some long training rides and runs. The week just holds too many things that need to get done, and not enough time to do all of them.



I'm also a big fan of sports leagues, currently playing in a flag football league and a basketball league, however I'm not sure how to quantify the training benefits of such activities (if there are any). Which is giving me trouble, and will most likely result in me dropping them after this season, or maybe after the next, or the one after that, but definitely at some point. This same inability to quantify benefits is making it hard for me to decide to buy a Triathlon Bike. Here is a link to a decent article explaining the differences: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/difference.shtml

Well written, and semi-informative but the claims just seem vague to me. So my fellow ironman cohorts and I went to a bike shop to talk to some experts. I got pretty much the same sort of vagaries from him as I did from the article. This exchange summed it up pretty nicely:



Me: "So all in all, does a tri bike make a huge difference in a triathlon."

Bike Guy: "I wouldn't say it makes a huge difference."

Me: "Ok"

Bike Guy: "But the difference is drastic, you'll definitely notice"



Not sure how to quantify the difference between a drastic change, or a huge change in performance, but I can say that having a perfectly good road bike already is making me hesitant to drop about 2 grand on a tri-specific bike. Maybe I'll just train on the road bike and rent a tri-bike, or pull the trigger later in the year. At the distances we'll be covering a drastic improvement may be what I need to complete the event.



In other news, New Year resolutions continue to piss me off, my basketball skills are improving, and I'm enjoying bike riding around this city so far. Stay tuned, 3 weeks down 45 to go.

Miles covered:

Biking: 154.7

Running: 38.8

Swimming: 10.25

Just Like riding a Bike

Just like riding a bike is such an incredibly true statement that many of us take it for granted. "Just like riding a bike huh?" one quips to a friend as they sink a ball in pong, or beat Super Mario Bros. 3. I never really thought about it all that much until I got my bike back from the shop and went on a ride over the weekend. Wow, it really does come back quickly, after 2 miles it felt like I hadn't been away from my bike for nearly 2 years, but more like 2 days. Immediately comfortable jockeying for position against the ghastly driving skills of most of Houston as I made my way to the bar to watch the NFL playoffs over the weekend. Aside from some minor seat height adjustments I need to make I'm about ready to get some serious rides under my belt.

On the other side of the coin, do you know what is not just like riding a bike? Playing basketball. Being away from that sport turns you from a potential globetrotter into a 4 year old girl. Seriously one of the most difficult sports to pick back up after being away from it for a while. In my case it had been three and a half years since I played a serious amount of basketball, and it showed. Playing with a few other guys who've been away for about as long as myself didn't help matters any. Long story short we got trounced by a group of guys that had no business playing in a rec league, getting run out of the gym (in some hilarious cosmic joke being in half-marathon shape does not equate to being in basketball shape) and having the game basically decided at half time. In this situation "practice makes perfect", or at least "practice makes better", hopefully this proves true as the season progresses.



2 weeks down 46 to go



Miles covered so far:



Biking: 109.2



Running: 31.05



Swimming: 4.8