70 days and $3185 to go!

Because I have agreed to be an assistant coach for the TNT Greater Cleveland Triathlon Team, several weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to learn triathlon coaching from the master, Dave Scott. It took a little creativity, however, to get to the venue because I had already scheduled a trip to Florida on the preceeding week. So, after spending the week in Florida, I returned to Hopkins Airport in Cleveland at around 2:30PM on friday, 3/19. With no time to get home, I waited in the airport for about 5 hours to catch a 7:15PM flight to Washington, D.C. I was travelling light with my customary one "carry-on" so I managed to stuff bathing suit and exercise chords in with my running shoes and shorts.

The flight to Washington, D.C. was uneventful and the plane landed around 8:30PM. My plan was to take the Metro to "Foggy Bottom" (I love that name) which would leave a 10 minute walk to the hotel. After puzzling over the fare machine for several minutes, I finally solved the riddle with a little help from another rider and managed to purchase a one-way ticket. The ride from the airport was a straight shot on the blue line. But, I accidentally got on the yellow line. My error wasn't apparent for several stops since the trains parallel each other for several miles. After seeing 2 or 3 stops that I didn't recognize, I decided to get off and take a closer look at my map. Backtracking for several stops on the yellow line and heading in the opposite direction on the blue line eventually got me to "Foggy Bottom".

The weekend with Dave Scott was a great experience and I spent time with a number of great TNT coaches, including Dea, of whose courage I spoke last week. It was a very busy and exhausting weekend, but I learned a lot about triathlon coaching.

I returned home on Sunday and crashed! My training this week was back on schedule, with three mile runs on tuesday and thursday and a 6 mile run on wednesday. After a day of on friday, I tackled my longest distance so far, 13 miles, on saturday. The weather was perfect and I covered the distance in about 2 hours, 15 minutes. I'm still walking 1 minute out of every 10. That seems to keep my calf cramps at bay. However, I have had to work on them with "The Stick", massaging every hour, to loosen them up again. Yesterday, I took my first bike-ride of 2010, covering about 12-13 miles. It felt very good to get back on the bike. And after the long run on saturday, it was a good change of pace.

75 days and $3185 to go!

I'm not going to talk about training this week. I did spend the weekend in Washington, D.C. learning from Dave Scott, one of the truly great Triathletes. But, while I was there, I met a truly inspiring woman who reminded me why I am part of Team in Training. And, she is happy to let me share her story with you.

Dea is a young mother of two lovely little girls, Lauryn and Jordyn. Two years ago her then 4 year old daughter, Lauryn, was diagnosed with Leukemia. It has been a difficult 2 year journey for Dea, Lauryn, and Jordyn, but in a few short weeks they will be able to throw Lauryn's meds away. She is truly on her way back to full health. Dea is raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society by training for the Steelhead half-ironman triathlon. She knows first-hand the good that the society does for people who are battling cancer.

You can see Lauryn's very touching story of tragedy and hope here.

84 days and $3235 to go!

My schedule called for a light week. And, that's exactly what I did. After last week's 31 miles, I dropped back to 18 miles this week. After a rest day on monday I ran 3 miles on tuesday, 5 miles on wednesday, and 3 miles on thursday. I'm fighting a little muscle tightness just below my right calf - probably as a result of the high mileage of last weeek. So, the easier week should help to resolve that.

A rest day on friday, which consisted of my 15 minute yoga routine was followed by yoga and a 7 mile run on saturday. The 40 degree temperature accompanied by a very cold drizzle seems to have aggravated the muscle tighness below my right calf. So, today I went for a walk. It's feeling better now.

This week, I plan to up the mileage to 24 and end the week with my longest run to date, 12 miles. I will be in Florida for the week and the morning temperatures should be in the 50s. Next weekend, I will be in Washington, D.C. to be certified as a triathlon coach. The training will be conducted by the legendary Ironman Dave Scott. Well, he is certainly legendary to triathlon wonks like me. :) I can't wait!

91 days and $3460 to go!

This week I stepped up the mileage, covering a total of 31 miles. My strategy of walking about 1 minute out of every 10 is working well to keep my leg muscles from cramping up. Monday I took the day off. The schedule I am following includes two days a week of rest, usually monday and friday. Depending on whether or not I am travelling, I may rest on different days. The rest days are an important part of this schedule, allowing my body to recover from the long runs.

Tuesday, I covered 9 miles. The long runs are typically done on saturday. But, since I did not have the time to do the run on saturday, I determined to get it in at the first opportunity, which was Tuesday. I felt strong throughout the run and even though I was a little weary at the end, my legs felt good afterward. I covered the distance at about an overall 9:30 pace. Pretty good, considering that includes the walking intervals.

Wednesday and Thursday were shorter days for me. I covered 3 miles on each of those days. The weather in Florida was unusually cold this week, averaging in the low 40s for the mornings, which was the time I did my running. Luckily, I heeded my wife's advice and took my long sleeve pullover with me on the trip.

Before I left Florida on Friday, I ran 6 miles. I'm still waiting to pick up my new shoes. I called the store on my way home on friday to discover that they had received the wrong size. Not what I ordered. So, I will have to wait a little longer.

Saturday was a day off, and today I ran 10 miles. I covered the distance in 1 hour, 33 minutes. This averages just under 9:20 per mile. I will slowly work my way up to a 20 mile run by increasing the distance of my long weekly run by a little each week.

98 days and $3610 to go!

I was in Salt Lake City two and a half weeks ago. I went for a couple of 30 minute runs while I was there. The weather was nice, but the combination of the thin air - Salt Lake City is at an average elevation of 4,226 feet - and the hills just about killed me. Still, as Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.". And, I'm still here. :)

One week ago, I was in Florida. Since I need to step up the mileage for my race in June, I added a couple of 6 mile runs to my scheduled 3 milers. I have been cautious about increasing my mileage this time, not wanting to endure a repeat of the leg cramps and muscle injuries that have plagued my previous endurance training. My current practice is to walk 1 minute out of every 10 minutes of each run. This seems to help, buy giving my muscles a chance to recover during the run. It's also useful on race day to walk each of the water stops to make sure to get enough hydration during the race. Strategy, strategy. We'll see how it holds up.

This past week, I was back in snowy Mentor. The image above was taken out my front door. Snow always makes the running a real challenge. Slipping and falling is definitely NOT a good thing for me to do. If the roads are clear and the traffic light, I can easily get out and cover the 3-6 miles which are part of my current schedule. This past Tuesday morning, I thought the conditions were right. But, overnight the temperature had dropped significantly, freezing a thin sheen of ice at the foot of our driveway. I headed out the door and promptly slipped and fell into a puddle as soon as I hit that patch of ice. That was the end of my morning run. Throw the wet clothes in the dryer. Later in the day, when the ice had melted, I was able to get out for a three miler.

I had planned on attempting a longer, 9 mile, run this weekend. But, we have had a good foot of snow over the last 3 days. It's not worth the risk to try it here. I'll be in Florida this coming week. That will be a good opportunity to work in a long run. Training for an early Spring race is definitely a real challenge.

I went shopping for a new pair of running shoes yesterday. I decided to go to a regular running shoe store this time to get fitted properly with a good pair of shoes. Of course, they had to order the shoes. That's ok, I want to make sure they fit properly and feel good. That's the most important thing. I don't much care how they look. I'll wear pink shoes if necessary to get the best fit. :)

The big race!

We arrived in Washington, D.C. around noon on Friday and spent the rest of the day checking in to the hotel, attending a briefing for the race, and registering. The hotel was awash with Team in Training athletes. There's something really cool about seeing a bunch of grown kids lugging gear and bicycles around the lobby of an upscale Washington hotel, the Hilton. Most of the 585 Team in Training members who were registered for the race were staying in the hotel. The day before I had started saturating my body with vitamin C to combat an incipiant cold.

On Saturday, we took the bus to the race start/finish/transition area to get our bikes, which had been shipped earlier that week. I fastened my number, 5396, to my bike and found my spot on the bike racks in the huge transition area, which was big enough to hold the over 4,000 bikes which would be ridden in the race. By shear luck, I had been given a spot at the edge of the route I would be running through the transition area. I would be able to position my bike and equipment right along that path! We then collected for a short Q and A with Dave Scott, 6 time Iron Man World champion. While he was speaking I noticed that a boat on the Potomac, which was a short distance away, seemed to be drifting fairly quickly with the current. Since we would be swimming about half of our 0.9 mile distance going upstream on the following day, that made me a little nervous. So, I was keen to test the water when we entered the Potomac for our warmup swim a short time later. While I was swimming, I stopped a couple of times to see how quickly I drifted with the current, only to find that I was barely moving. That gave me a big boost of confidence for the swim. Now, if only it will be "wetsuit legal" tomorrow.

My Sunday started bright and early at 4AM. We loaded onto buses at 4:30 with all our gear to ride to the transition area, lay out our gear, and wait for our race starts, which were from 7AM to 8:33AM. At 6:45AM we left the transition area and collected in the "swim pen", all 4,000+ of us. The race was wetsuit legal, so all but a very small number of us had wetsuits. It was a surreal sight in the shadow of the Washington Monument as 4,000+ "penguins" watched the sunrise and waited for their chance to jump into the Potomac to begin the race. I waited for an hour and a half as the crowd of penguins gradually thinned and it got closer to my race start time.

Finally, 8:30AM came and I jumped into the water with the rest of my "wave". The gun went off and we were on our way. In my two other triathlon experiences, the initial "crush" at the swim start thinned within a short while. In this case, however, since waves of people had been starting every 3 minutes for the previous hour and a half the crowd never really did thin out. For the next 37 minutes I had to swim around slower and dodge faster swimmers. Finally, I completed the circuit and was making my way out of the water, stripping off my wetsuit and heading for the transition area.

I easily found my bike at the edge of the path through transition, removed my wetsuit and continued out onto the bicycle course. The course was a beautiful combination of rolling hills with plenty of shade. But, my cold was beginning to sap my strength. I could tell this immediately when I began riding. For the next hour and a half, my energy would wax and wane as I struggled to maintain my pace.

I finally returned to the transition area to begin the final run leg of the race. I felt strong when I began the run with no sign of muscle cramps. Walking through the water stops to make sure I remained well hydrated was proving to be a good strategy. At about mile 4, however, my cold was again sapping my strength. I had to slow down a bit and walk for maybe a half mile at a time to save something for the finish. My overall time for the race was 3 hours and 26 minutes. Not my best effort, but reasonably good given my struggles with the cold.

It was a great weekend and an amazing experience. Our group of 10 from northern Ohio raised over $58,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Most impressively, the 585 TNT participants in this one triathlon raised over $2.4 million for the Society.

I am hoping to join Team in Training for the Wildflower Triathlon in California next May.

5 days and $0 to go!

Spent most of last week in Florida where I made several 3 mile and one 6 mile run. I think I'm ready for the run leg on Sunday. I'll take one salt tablet before each leg of the race. That should help me fight off the leg cramps.

On Saturday, several of my team in training friends were getting together for a swim at Headlands Beach. Since my wife had the car, I decided to bike to Headlands to meet my friends for the swim. It's an easy 20-25 minute ride from my house to Headlands... usually. The swim was at 7:15 AM, so I left home at 6:30. Plenty of time. I was about half-way to the Beach when I realized that I wasn't wearing my helmet! That never happens since I am very careful to always wear my helmet when I am riding. Well, it happened this particular morning. So, I hurried back to my house to get my helmet. Now, I am definitely running late. I slapped my helmet on my head and hurried back out to the Beach. I was half-way to the Beach again when I realized that my rear tire felt a little mushy. A short time later, it was flat. Of course, it's always the rear tire. Becuase that is the hardest to change. It was a struggle since I had both saddle bags on my bike to carry my gear for the swim. Well, I finally arrived at Headlands at 7:30, about 15 minutes late. Happily, my friends were still waiting.

We had a nice swim and I rode with them for a short time after the swim then headed for home.

On Friday, I'm off to D.C. Wish me luck!