Timberman Relay

Yesterday was the Timberman Ironman 70.3 race up in New Hampshire. It’s always a great race put on by Keith Jordan and Endorfun, and this year proved to be no different. For the first time though, I was there to do a relay instead of tackling the whole distance solo.

My brother would do the swim, I would handle the cycling responsibilities, and my sister-in-law would bring it home in the run. Given that my training for the past several weeks was almost 100% focused on running, I was a little concerned going in that I would not have enough time in the saddle. 56 miles may not seem like a lot, but when your long ride since June is about 30 miles, you might be in trouble.

Woke up at about 5 or so and drove with Geoff and Kat down to the transition area. There was really no reason for us to be there that early, except that we wanted a good parking spot for later on. The motel we were in was only about a mile from the start of the race, so if we needed anything, it was in close proximity. Got a bagel with some peanut butter and choked it down with a cup of coffee to get the plumbin’ hummin’. Sure enough, no worries there, so I jogged back to the motel to take care of business while simultaneously warming the legs up. Gotta love multitasking.

So anyway, the race was supposed to get underway at 7am. Most races start a little on the late side, and this was no exception. Probably 15 min or so past 7, the first wave went off. The relays were in wave 11 which meant a good long wait before I’d be riding. So much for the warm-up. The bullpen where relay participants were corralled was filled with BTT folks - we had 4 or 5 relays in the race, which meant that we had some friendly faces around us. Geoff came out of the water in about 31 minutes - not bad, and in looking at the splits for other folks, pretty respectable. I bent down to remove his chip, put it on myself and was off.

Being in a wave so near the back of the race meant one thing - TRAFFIC - and lots of it. I was passing people basically from the start of the ride until the end. Played leapfrog with a couple guys almost all day long, careful not to draft, but always keeping them in site.

The first half was fast - there were times when I felt like I was softpedalling, going 32-34mph. Hit the turnaround and discovered why, as we had a nice tailwind on the way out. Speeds dropped like a stone because of the wind, and also because it’s a lot of uphill back into town. Had to stop and take a leak at around mile 50… so many people flew by me, I questioned that decision afterwards. Came into transition and racked my bike, ran to the bullpen and handed off to Katherine.

Kat had a great run - PR’ed by about 4 minutes, on a really difficult course no less, all while on antibiotics that are making her nauseous all the time. It will be interesting to see what she can do in a stand alone Half-Mary at some point.

Had a great time after the race hanging out with BTT folks and cheering on all of my fellow competitors. Ran into Leslie and some folks from the GMM team, who I can imagine would be some great training partners if I lived up north.

Alas, the day had to come to an end - packed up the car and headed home for a nice dinner with Jenn. I mentioned to her that the fire is burning again - that the past several months that I have been unintentionally taking off must have been good for me. Now I just need to carry this enthusiasm through the winter - this will be of vital importance to a good race at Placid next year.

Rough week

This week was a big one, work-wise, with a new biz pitch on Wednesday in Salt Lake, which required travel on Tuesday and a late night Wednesday night trying to get home. Then, Thursday was supposed to feature another client meeting, followed up by a Friday afternoon meeting with yet another client. Turns out the Thursday meeting was postponed, which ended up being a godsend, as I’m not sure I would have been able to get any work done this week at all if I had lost that day too.

The one nice thing about the trip to Salt Lake was the most excellent run I went on Wednesday morning. About 6 miles up and down Canyon Road, which sits in a beautiful little park just outside the downtown area of SLC. This was after 5.5 miles of track work on Tuesday, and before a 5 mile tempo run on Thursday. Was supposed to swim this morning, but could not motivate to make it happen. Probably not a bad idea to take a day off, especially with Timberman this weekend.

I’m not racing the whole thing, just participating in a relay with my brother and sister-in-law. I’ll be doing the bike leg, and will be all geeked out with aero helmet and all. Should be good fun, both at the race and just hanging up in NH with friends and such.

Jenn’s in New Jersey visiting a friend who’s pregnant with her first child - must be super exciting times! With the house empty except for my two cats (who are sparring right now) I’ll take the opportunity tonight to get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s 9 mile long run.

Good progress

I’ve been following a basic marathon training plan that I found in Runner’s World, of all places. For so long, I’ve been focused on balancing a training plan with swimming, cycling, running and rest. Now, to only really have to focus on running is kind of nice. Sure, I’ve been blowing off my “rest” days by making sure to swim or ride, but hey, it does not feel like I need a rest day yet. So I figure as long as I still feel energized to get up and work out, I’m doing just fine.

Since beginning the plan at about 217lbs, I’m down 16 pounds in about 4 weeks. The first 2 weeks saw about 10lbs melt off, which is pretty standard for me. Now, things will slow down and I’ll probably lose a more conservative 2-3 pounds per week. Jenn said I was looking “really good” tonight, which made me feel pretty good. But I need to stay focused. I’ve somewhat arbitrarily picked 165-170 as a good weight for me. OK, not so arbitrary: right now, I’m 201 with 24% body fat - about 48lbs of fat - which means my lean body mass is 153. With about 17lbs of body fat to get to 170, that would give me about 10% body fat, which is supposedly square in the middle of an athletic build, according to the American Council on Exercise. (whoever the hell they are…)

I have to go to Salt Lake City tomorrow for a new biz pitch/brainstorming session. Should be a quick trip, as we’ll only be there for 3 hours in the meeting, but all told the trip is going to take about 36 hours. It’s amazing what business travel does to your time spent at home, with family, out training, relaxing, etc.

In order to make sure I stay on my plan, I’ll do a quick track workout tomorrow morning, followed by a easy 3-4 miles in SLC on Wednesday. Running there is always fun - there are no flat sections - all up or down. Plus with the thin air, it feels like you’re sprinting at 8:30’s. Thursday may be the biggest challenge, with a client meeting all day after arriving home at almost 1am Thursday morning. Then, Thursday night, it’s car shopping time.

2006 Year in Review

I talked in my blog entries from 2006 (you don’t have to look too far to find them) about what a big year it was going to be for me. Basically, I worked a lot, trained not nearly as much as I should have, and got married in the fall. All in all, it was a pretty wild ride.

Work was crazy for most of the year, with big interactive projects happening for my main client. Got promoted in March, which was good, and then shifted accounts around the turn of the year, focusing on smaller accounts and developing them into larger ones. It’s been different not being on the “biggest and best” account anymore, but definitely more fun as I really enjoy bringing in and selling innovative ideas to the smaller clients.

Additionally, I was pretty involved with the BTT Executive committee last year, handling the uniform responsibilities and also helping with volunteers and other projects. I was nominated to succeed Maggie as the president of the team for 2007, and was elected since I was running unopposed. Either people really thought I was the right guy for the job, or no one else was stupid/crazy enough to want the responsibility. All in all, it’s been fun being the prez, but it is certainly a good amount of work to keep the team moving along.

Ran the Boston Marathon in April – well, ran 20 miles of it and then hit that mythical 20 mile wall that people talk about. Limped home (literally) over the last 10K – my last 5K split was about 1:03 if memory serves correctly.

Then, it was on to IMUSA in July after putting in a pretty half-assed training effort as I slowly recovered from Boston. In 2004, I went 11:55:28 – 2006 found me 30 min slower. I had some back issues in training and during the race, but the simple truth is I was just under-trained.

For most of the rest of the summer, Jenn and I were focused on planning the wedding (October 28th, 2006) and trying to have some fun down on the Cape. Jenn is so accommodating with my training schedule in Ironman years, but once the race is over, I’m pretty much on her schedule on weekends for the rest of the summer. It’s a trade I am more than willing to make – I’m really lucky to have someone like her in my life.

The wedding was awesome – best day of my life. Marrying an event planner was the right choice as the day of the wedding went off basically flawlessly, despite the monsoon that occurred that day. Having everyone you know and love all in the same place having a great time together is really amazing. After the wedding, Jenn and I spent a week in Maui and another 4 days in Sonoma and Napa Valley. Man, did I get fat and happy over those 2 weeks!

This year has been relatively tame in comparison. No big races, no wedding to plan, work is busy, but not overwhelming… overall, pretty quiet.