Training Log Archive: ebone

I'm quite sore today, mostly in my soleus (lower calf) muscles.

Ballard Bike Orienteering. I did course 3. I essentially navigated well, and I think my route was okay, but I forgot the letter of one of the controls, so I officially didn't finish. My legs are quite sore from yesterday's race, but biking didn't feel too bad.

Set controls for my Introduction to Orienteering class at NSCC. It hurt to jog.

Late night paddle at Green Lake. I was planning two laps, but I felt lethargic and was falling asleep, so I decided on one lap (plus the 7-minute roundtrip from the put-in to where I like to start and finish my laps at the Aquatheater/Shellhouse docks.) Also, it was a dark night (with very little moon), so I was somewhat concerned about running into bushes, piers, ropes, etc.

I walked the boat to the lake in 14 minutes using my new, homemade portage cart (which I made by chopping up a cheap handtruck). The cart worked fine and stayed in place on the hull of the boat with only a single ratchet strap. It even rolled over the grass okay.

3:39 to Aquatheater dock; 37:52 lap of the lake; 3:34 back to take-out point adjacent to Kirkwood Place.

Walked home up the hill towing the kayak. Tugging on the rope pulled my elbow toward hyperextension, so it hurt a little bit if I let my arm straighten completely. I don't know if this will be a problem during longer stints of portaging.

Warm up for Cougar Mtn. 10-mile trail race. My legs felt tired from the duathlon on Thursday.

Cougar Mtn. 10-mile trail race. I felt a bit tired but okay for the first 3-4 minutes (uphill), but I began to get progressively more tired as the hill wore on, and I felt like I would have to slow down. When the trail flattened out, my legs still burned, and I wasn't able to accelerate right away to a faster pace. I felt a bit better 10-20 minutes later, and I was able to run the downhills strongly throughout the race. Any uphill grade was a struggle, but I toughed it out. During the race I moved from an early 8th position to 3rd place, and I was only 1:21 slower than I ran on fresh legs last year (1:17:48), so I was very happy with my run.

It's interesting to me that my average heart rate for this race was 5 bpm lower than last my HR for last year's race (164 versus 169), and I only briefly exceeded 170 bpm this year.

Top 10
1 Haber, Ben 29 M 1:17:27
2 Crowther, Greg 31 M 1:18:05
3 Bone, Eric 30 M 1:19:09
4 Ireland, Justin 21 M 1:19:46
5 Gilley, Stephano 31 M 1:19:48
6 Richards, Cliff 43 M 1:21:27
7 George, Steve 39 M 1:23:37
8 Wigglesworth, Henry 46 M 1:24:06
9 Kerby, James 41 M 1:25:31
10 Myers, Kevin 45 M 1:26:28

Warm down jog with the two guys who beat me: Greg Crowther (2nd place) and Ben Haber (1st). My calves were quite tired from racing in O shoes.

Set course at Magnuson Park for "Land Navigation at Night" class. My heart rate went easily into the 150s for most of the time I was running, probably because of fatigue from yesterday's duathlon.

I competed in the Fort Lewis Triple Threat Duathlon Series event #2: 2 mile (flat road) run / "9" (about 8.5) mile non-technical mountain bike / 2 mile run (same as first run).

Besides adventure races (which are very different than sprint duathlons), this was my first multi-sport race. It took longer to get there (in what seemed like particularly slow rush hour traffic) than I expected, so I pulled into the parking lot with 5 minutes until the start. I jumped out of my pants and into my shorts, threw my shoes on, grabbed my transition gear tub and bike, and ran into the stadium with about 2 minutes to go.

Luckily for me, Ginger Fields had seen my car pull into the lot and had announced my arrival, so Jon Campbell was there at the transition area to help me. He fetched my chest and bike numbers and put the bike numbers on my bike and helmet while I pinned on the chest number, swigged some water and tied my shoes. My heart rate monitor strap had fallen out in the car, so I had to go without. The race organizer was nice enough (and the other racers amused and/or patient enough) to hold the start for me about 2 minutes. I arrived at the starting line to a round of applause and we were off.

During the first minute of the run, Jon briefed me on what I needed to know about the flow in and out of the transition area. I then sped up just a bit and started to work my way toward the front of the pack. I reached the mile mark and grabbed a cup of water--still in 4th place. A couple minutes later, I passed two guys and was in second but didn't seem to be gaining appreciably on the guy in front of me. I came into the transition area second in 11:06 and with a few guys not far behind.

I was pleased and somewhat surprised to be out of the transition in under a minute, and the guy in front looked pretty close--just a couple hundred meters ahead. We were on flat paved road, and I was gradually closing the gap. After 5 minutes into the bike, a guy on a cyclocross bike who had been closing in on me was very close behind, I was only 50-70 meters behind the leader, and I saw the leader slow way down and get pointed by the soldiers manning the course through a narrow gate and onto a dirt road. The guy on the cross bike passed me just before the gate, then he and I passed the run leader going up the steep hill before all of us dismounted and pushed our bikes to the crest.

When we mounted up again, the guy with the cross bike and I pulled away from the people behind us. He lead for a little while, then he let me lead, which was sensible of him, given that I had seen him fishtail a couple times, my dual suspension bike had better handling, and he could watch me to get an idea what was coming up on the curvy and rolling dirt and gravel roads. Every time I looked back, I saw no one behind us, and my legs felt okay, so I was feeling pretty good about my performance. About 2/3 of the way through the course, the other guy passed me and gradually put some distance on me after I slowed down for a few seconds to drink from my water bottle. By the transition, he had extended his cushion to about 20 seconds, and he transitioned very quickly.

I was determined to stay within striking distance, so I transitioned in 39 seconds--even more quickly than the first transition--and ran off after him. As I started running, I immediately noticed that my legs felt wierd from riding the bike and that it felt awful to run. My turnover was very good, but my legs felt totally flat. I looked at the guy now 200 meters in front of me, and I couldn't imagine catching him, the way my legs felt. However, I noticed that my stride frequency was greater than his, so perhaps there was hope.

At the mile mark, I took a sip of water and threw the rest on my head and chest. I could see that I had closed the gap significantly; at this rate, I would have a chance. A minute later, I saw that the leader was slowing some, and it looked like I would catch him. A sped up slightly just before I caught him, so he would see our speed differential and be discouraged from challenging me. This tactic was probably overkill, because I passed him and put about 30 seconds on him in a strong run to the finish. I'm a bit surprised and very happy to have won my first duathlon. Here are some statistics:

2 mile run: 11:07, 5:29 + 5:38
transition: 0:52
about 8.5 mile mountain bike: 32:04
transition: 0:39
2 mile run: 11:10, ~5:40 + ~5:30
Total time: 55:52

First 2-mile run of duathlon. I took my pulse a couple minutes from the finish, and it was about 170-175. The average of 170 is a guess. I felt somewhat clunky from not warming up.

The first and last few minutes of the course were on paved roads, and the rest were on various sizes of dirt and gravel roads. The course was rolling and had no big ups or downs, so it was possible to ride with a pretty steady, hard effort for probably 90-95% of the course. There were several sharp turns that required slowing down. The 165 average heart rate is entirely a guess.

Second 2-mile run of duathlon. I was surprised to run about 10 seconds faster on the last mile than on the first. I felt pretty strong at the end. The 173 average HR is totally a guess.

Jogging warm-down with Jon Campbell.

Easy pedal around the parking lots a couple of times to warm-down on the bike.

Ran via Latona to Green Lake, around and back. I felt pretty good this evening, which surprised me, given that I usually feel lousy running the day after a rest day. Anyway, it doesn't necessarily mean I'll feel good or have a good performance at tomorrow's duathlon.

I attended a kayaking stroke class today at NWOC (www.nwoc.com). The effort level was so low that I don't consider it training, but I did learn a few things, particularly about edging, bracing, back paddling, and rescue technique. Oh, and one of the instructors (Kyle) showed me how to use my new Simon River Sports wing paddle that I won at Appalachian Extreme.

Rode to Woodland Park (4:46), took 2:01 recovery between each hard rep, and rode home (6:13).

Rode the high school cross country course in three segments with 2 minutes very slow riding recovery between each segment. My legs felt tired.

Splits - 1st mile: 3:30 157 ending HR / 119 recovery HR after 1 minute rest; to top of 1st camel hump: 4:33 163 / 128; to finish: 3:40 162 / 125.

My intercostal muscle feels fine today--yay!

10:00 warm up to Ravenna Blvd., 3 x 1:00 jog between hard reps, and 8:45 warm down home. My legs felt quite stiff and sore at the beginning of the run, and my stomach was still full from dinner.

4 x ~1:00 on the grassy median of Ravenna Blvd. It felt okay, but not great, to run fast. My legs didn't feel particularly quick, and my heart rate didn't climb quickly, reaching only into the 160s at the end of each rep.