Training Log Archive: hkleaf

Ironman Louisville as a spectator only.
So I drove down with Dan and Cathy Saturday afternoon, arriving at the DT Marriott at 5:15p. After checking-in and dropping off the bags, we headed out to an Italian place East of town to meet up with the gang for dinner. I stayed for about 40mins, chatted, ate some delicious bread, wished the IM participants good luck, then headed out to the Sprint and Night-O.

After the orienteering, I grabbed dinner (for real this time) with Mike and Matthew before heading back to the hotel. I was exhausted at this point. Getting little sleep Friday night because I was listening to the WOC Relays. Then running 17mi in the morning, drive to Louisville, and running yet some more in the Sprint and Night-O. It was midnight when I entered the room, and Dan promptly informed me that wake-up call was set for 5:20am! Yikes! I quickly took a shower, stretched, and went to bed.

5:20 came too soon! I was still tired. Plus the bed was really comfortable. I managed to get 5 extra minutes of sleep, then got up, packed my still sweat-soaked gears, and dressed. At 6a, we met others in the lobby and walked over to Waterfront Park, where the IM racers will jump into the Ohio. The morning temps was cool by recent standards. If nothing else it was certainly less humid. Passing by the swim-bike transition area, I was amazed to see the sea of bikes (all 2000 of them!) parked neatly on the lawn. 6:50, We found the gang (Joe, Laurie, Don, and Mike. Didn't see Jesse or Dave.) just before their swim start. Because of a last-minute course change, there was no mass start for the non-elites. Instead, they lined up single file on the dock and jumped in one after another (time trial start). The luxury of chip timing. It was a pretty cool scene to watch, though I cannot fathom myself ever jumping into the Ohio voluntarily!

After watching the swim start, we got back to T1 just as the first swimmers (2 guys and 2 gals) were coming out of the water! It was amazing how effortless they look, just gliding through the water. Everyone made it out of the Ohio alright. Mike finished with about 10min to spare on the 2:20 limit. Not a great start for him, but he was smiling all the same as we cheered him on at T1.

~9:30a, we walked back to the hotel for our cars, then drove NE to Sligo to watch the bikes. LaGrange was the designated spectator spot, so naturally traffic was heavily backed up at that exit. We patted ourselves on the back for doing advance scouting work, picking out a perfect spot all to ourselves (mile 48 & 78 on bike course)! We quickly got a shelter set up, pulled out our chairs and coolers, and sat at the top of a hill cheering on the bikers. All told, there were probably 20 of us, making up a rather raucous cheering section! The top Pros had already gone by on their 1st loop, but plenty more people were still making their way through. By now, the sun had come out in full force, with nary a cloud in the sky. Everything is warming up quickly. We were lucky to be under the shelter's shade, but the riders had to be feeling pretty toasty out there.

We stayed at our spot until ~3p, cheering non-stop the whole time. I was expecting bigger gaps among the riders, but there's always someone on a bike passing by. Occasionally a big pack comes through and we cheer louder. I don't have a lot of experience watching bike races, so it was interesting to observe - the bikes, the outfits, the expressions, and their ages (every racer has his/her age emblazoned onto the R calf!). I never knew the different tires can generate such different noises! The bikers were glad to see us. I was once again amazed to see how good they all appear at this point in the race. Some of them were powering up the hill like it was nothing. We waited anxiously for our IMers to ride by. One by one they'd come, once, twice. All but Mike made it through. We couldn't tell if we'd simply missed him, or something was wrong. But it was getting late, and we'd have to get going if we want to catch them on their runs.

So, we packed up and headed back DT to the marathon course. 3:45p, we had just missed the top 3 male finishing!!! Joe and Jesse had already gone out on their 1st run loop. The rest would all finish their bike portions in the next half hour. While we waited, we finally got an update on Mike. He had blacked out after a hill climb, failed to make a turn, and crashed onto someone's lawn. It was sad to find out his day ended short, but we were all relieved to learn that he's not hurt in the crash.

The next 5+ hrs were spent cheering on runners, though my voice was already half gone and my energy sapping by the minute. After seeing everyone came by at least once, Dan, Cathy, and I drove S ~2mi along the course, to the UofL campus. This was mile 4, 12, 16, and 24 of the course, so we got to see people during different parts of their runs. Some were running, others jogging, and still others walking, looking to be in pain. Whatever pace it was, they were all determined to keep going. Clouds moved in late afternoon, so the sun and temps were more tolerable. Still, most everyone were sweat-soaked and exhausted. A few incredible souls were smiling, looking relaxed, as if they were just out for a leisurely stroll/run! Don had some hamstring problems, and Jesse looked a bit dejected. But everyone else was moving well and looking good.

~8:05p, Laurie came through the aid station just before mile 24. Dave had just ran by a few minutes ago, and Don would be following Laurie soon. Looked like they're all going to make it without acquiring the glow sticks! Not wanting to miss the excitement at the Finish line, we ran with Laurie for a minute, then sprinted to our car and sped back DT to the finish chute. It was about to get dark, the floodlights were glaring brightly all along 4th St. A big crowd lined up tightly on both sides of the barricades, cheering, hollering, and ringing their cowbells. Some kind of music (I think) was blaring through the speakers, and an MC was announcing each finisher's name, hometown, and congratulating him/her by exclaiming, "YOU'RE AN IRONMAN!!!" It was quite an electric atmosphere. We made it back to the finish just in time to watch Dave and Laurie come across (~13h30m). Joe had finished a couple hours earlier, and felt good enough to join us in the cheering section. Dave's kids and wife Sally ran in with him. That was just very cool to watch! After some congratulatory words, hugs, and pictures, Laurie wasn't feeling so well and went to the medical tent. We stayed and waited for Don's finish (just before 9p). I don't know how, but after 14hrs of nonstop exercising, he looked fresher than us spectators!!!

They had planned a post-race celebration in the hotel room, but that didn't work out as some of us wanted to drive back, while the racers needed the rest. It was a super long day and we were all very tired. Overall, everyone (racers and spectators) enjoyed themselves thoroughly. It was inspiring and motivating to witness such an athletic feat up close. The amount of dedication training for an IM, then determination to finish in a hot summer day, and lastly exhilaration and triumph at the end, were simply incredible. It's hard not to get emotional, even if I was only spectating!

Got a tiny bit of running in as we ran alongside Laurie near mile 24, then sprinted to the car, sped back downtown, and sprinted to the finish to catch her again.

Other than the running, I did spend a lot of time on my feet all day though. This included walking from hotel to swim start and back. Then standing around cheering the runners for ~5hrs.

Event: OLOU Night-O and Sprint
 

80F and rising, partly cloudy - 7:30a run with the group from the Spot. More details later.
74:28, 51:03

Afterwards, while listening on the World Record's holder of 100mi run talk about ultra marathon racing.

Quick warm up by the start/registration before the sprint. This included 4 strides.

OLOU Sprint - E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park, Louisville, Kentucky.

Pretty straight forward and flat. I pretty much just followed the redline to every control. Because the whole course was out in the open grass, I didn't have any trouble reading the map on the run. The only problem was hitting my head on a tree branch right after punching #6.

Night O - We were given the map ahead of time so I was able to study it in detail and pre-plan my routes. The location and distribution of the controls made it so that there can be many different route options. I decided to go in a general cw direction and tackle the open controls first. Surprisingly, I was in the minority. But I was confident in my choice and decided to plough onwards. In general, I had a very clean run. Most of the time lost occured inside the circle, as there were no reflectors on the flags. My headlamp bounced a lot and made it more difficult to read map on the run. On several occasions, I had to slow to a complete stop just to read clearly. Since I had planned out my route ahead of time, the running was pretty simple, and I managed to sweep the course with time to spare. When I had finished, I was drenched in sweat. The temps were comfortable, but the air was practically saturated with water vapour. It was as if I had taken a shower in my own sweat... gross! All in all, it was a fun event, a good night-o practice. I was a bit surprised by how well I was moving, considering the 17mi run in the morning. :)

A bit of stretching at the park. Then some more in the hotel room before bed. An exhausting day!

Sprint - Splits

Level 11, Hills, 547c.
Didn't feel like doing battle with the sun and heat outside, so just rode at the gym. Still sweated a ton anyhow.

Searched without success for a replacement bulb on my Priceton Tec flash light. It seems no local stores sell this. I may have to try my luck online... meanwhile, I'll have to survive tomorrow's night-o without a backup. There's a 1hr time limit, so I should be fine.

C • Bulb for the Surge! 2

Warm up and cool down run between car and trailhead.

99F, sunny, light (hot) breeze, @7:15p - After Tuesday's debacle, I decided to get in another attempt at speedwork. Instead of the track, I went to the woods to counter the weather. Thought about going to Mt. Airy, but decided on England-Idlewild instead since it's much closer. EI has an abundance of MTB trails, and conveniently there's a half mile Beginner's loop on relatively flat clean surface - a perfect setup for my intervals. Before that, however, I ran on the Intermediate loop (1.7mi) to loosen up a bit first. Scared up a bunch of deers who were hanging by the creek enjoying dinner. The woods look pretty green all along the trail here, but visibility is getting better with all the shrivelled leaves from the dry spell.

This was my first attempt at trail intervals, so I wasn't sure what kind of time to expect. As it turns out, there's barely any climb or turns in the loop, so I was able to maintain a good speed throughout. The only real problems were running in the heat, and some kamikaze squirrels who kept dodging out right in front of me! That happened 4 times. For all I know it could've been the same one, on a mission to trip me up! Other than that, the intervals went well. I decided to stop after 4 (instead of the original plan of 6) just to play it safe.

Afterwards, I hopped onto the Technical loop (2.5mi) to finish out the run. Boy were there plenty of twists and turns in this loop! At one point I thought I was getting dizzy from following all the switchbacks. Overall, I felt really good. I tried focusing on my forms mostly, nice easy effort, and staying in control. It seems running on trails is getting to be more comfortable now. :)

The interval portion of the run.
4x 0.5mi loop (w/ rest):
3:02.16 (1:30.40)
3:03.50 (1:30.25)
2:59.11 (1:30.24) *faster b/c I was chasing a MTB!
3:02.16 (1:59.83)

Post-run stretch near the baseball field.

Ankles, some planks, plus push-ups and sit-ups.

80s, clear - Spent the early part of the evening teaching Kit how to drive. She's doing ok, but it was a bit nerve-wrecking at times, even if we were only in an empty parking lot! Anyway, to salvage some training out of the day, I opted for a late night ride. Over to the library first to drop off a book, then did some loops around the neighbourhood block. Breathing was much better tonight, thank goodness.

80s, overcast, humid - Fall Mara group run from Crossroads. The original plan was to do Yasso 800s at the Norwood track, but a soccer game was underway when we got there. So a change of plans to a tempo run instead. I tried keeping up the pace with Craig, but only lasted 16mins. It wasn't very hot, but the humidity was almost unbearable. It seems the air was so heavy I could hardly breath. Since I wasn't feeling well, I backed off the pace a bit to run with Heather the rest of the way. At the end, I was soaked thru top to bottom. Don't remember sweating this much in a while.

C • the not breathing part might b... 3

The "tempo" portion of the run, though now it seems I wasn't actually going very fast.

Scheduled rest day.