Day 3 Complete

Yeah, so Day 3 is done. What I'm thinking is that days 7-14 are going to be the toughest. Then my body will begin to adapt and recover from the first 10 days worth of workouts and begin to make changes. Those changes will allow me to run faster and at a lower heart rate. In order to stress my body, I will need to up the ante on the workouts by adding more hills, more speed etc.

Another thing I was thinking, 3 miles a day isnt that big of a deal. 21 miles a week? 80 miles a month? Ive done marathons before, where I did 50 miles in one week, but one of the aspects that makes this a challenge is that I'm giving myself no recovery days, and I havent done much running in the last few months.

The goal is that, at the end of this month, I will be at a place where my base is decent, and I can comfortably add long runs into the week (6-10 miles) as well as speed work (10x800's)

Today, it was windy and grey, and I went a new route that led me down and along the Willamette river. There was some hillage, which the picture above shows in green.

Day 2: 5k a day

Day 2 is complete for the running 5k a day for 30 days plan. I ran around the waterfront of downtown Portland.

I also checked out my Huki, down at the "boathouse". Its still there and looks good, although dusty.

The run went fine, a little better than yesterday, but yesterday's "course" was a little tougher ie hillier. Today was super flat and on cement, which isnt too great, but it was very pretty.

Only 28 days to go. The main goal is to get faster, the main concern is staying healthy, so all my free energy will be going into refueling, stretching and keeping the mental reserves topped up.

5k a day for a month?

Can I run 5k everyday for a month? Is it even a good idea? I'm going to try to do it, but might bail at any time.

getting it back

yeah so ive been gone for awhile, gone from this blog at least. its cyclocross season now and i was training for that, and i still am i guess. I still gavent found a good ride that i like yet, and i havent tried too hard to find it either. I kinda miss the SAC bike trail, that thing is sweet, and im spoiled by it, but it is flat and that kinda sucks.

My Zero G brakes kinda suck and I'll be swapping them out for the Ultegras i have sitting in a box. I like raw stopping power. Maybe i can get the Zero G's tuned or something?

Yeah, so the Thanksgiving turkey trot is going down next month, a 4 miler here in pdx, and i plan on racing, not just running, but hopefully racing too. The road to the great race starts tomorrow, and im excited, now off to bed.

The bike

So, just finished building up this Soloist. Came in at 16.4 lbs (i wasnt overly concerned with the weight at this point, sacrilege I know) I was more concerned with aerodynamics and not breaking my wallet.

Frame: Cervelo Soloist 56c
Fork: wolf
Cranks: KCNC
pedals: Speedplay X1 with alu bowties
BB: American classic
bars: Deda 215
saddle: Flite TT
STI: Ultegra
RD: Dura Ace
FD: Ultegra
Stem: Forte 110
bar tape: black generic
Front wheel: Zipp 440
Rear wheel: Corima
Cassette: KCNC
Chain: KMC 9sl
Brakes: Zero G

I was happy with the weight. I plan on dropping some more grams here and there over time. Also I have an idea on how to make the KCNC cranks aero like those FSA cranks Basso was using.

The bike hasnt been ridden yet, as the seatpost is a medium and I need a large (so the height is right but theres on like 2 inches into the frame) so the angles and height will be off still.

Also I plan on putting more modern stickers on the Zipp's and maybe some new stickers for the Corima cause theyre a little tired.

new aerobars by next feb

Not right now, cause i got no job and no money. But by next february, I'm going to be rocking some new aerobars. At this point, im looking at getting the Oval A910's. They look to be as adjustable, and they weigh 295 grams or so. My current Profile bars weigh 579 grams. almost 300 grams heavier! thats a lot, i didnt want to make weight the focus of this bike, but 300 grams is pretty insane amount of weight loss.

the a910s can be had for as little as $150 new, if i sell my T2's for like $60, im only paying $90 for 280 grams, thats a great $/gram ratio.

needing to ride

so my boat is in the "boathouse" now. Actually its just a bunch of kayak racks with shade over them under a freeway. But theyre locked up, out of the sun and any rain, and near the water.

Also, went on a very short commuter ride yesterday, up to the local hollywood video to get a DVD, and got to ride my orange commuter bike. It was a fun trip, but made me want to build up my Cervelo so i can go on a real ride and start training again.

Theres a duathlon on Sept 2nd, that I'd like to do.

Some new brakes

Im dropping some quid lately, but I just picked up some Zero Gravity Ti Brakes for a good price.

Theyre light and look bad ass, and at the price I paid, I can sell them on Ebay and still cut a profit.

I think they'll look cool on the new rig though.

the frame arrived

Yeah so, the FEDEX guy brought the frame to my door today, a day early.

Its pretty sweet. Fairly light (although thats not the focus of this bike), its got a massive and narrow downtube thats super aero (the focus).

Internal cable routing, carbon fork with carbon steering tube, carbon seatpost as well.

Im excited. Once I move, I'll strip the parts off of the current road bike (Cannondale Caad7) and swap them over, then sell the Cannondale.

It looks like everyone who owns one and is excited about their Soloist is excited for a reason, this is a sweet frame. I hope it fits me and rides sweet too.

Got the front wheel in the mail

The Zipp 440 came in the mail today, pretty cool looking. Feels light, Dura Ace hub. 990 grams w/o the skewer (and with the tire). Compare that to my training front wheel (Mavic Open Pro with Ultegra hub, clinchers with tire liners) which weigh 1300 grams, thats a pretty big drop (almost a pound off the front wheel alone). Plus the 440 is aero.



Some more pics:




The frame should be here by wednesday, the rear wheel who knows?

my new rear wheel

is going to be a pretty sweet Corima 4 spoke tubular race wheel. I was thinking of a disc, but decided against it in favor of something like this. These 3 or 4 spoke wheels are better in cross winds, which is nice.

$$$

Ebay's a great thing. I just sold $1126 worth of bike stuff on Ebay, in order to purchase some different stuff. The focus is Eppies. Got the new frame for $610 plus $30 shipping. The only thing I truly need is a rear wheel and some bar tape. I will be using everything else I already had on my Cannondale. Once the Cannondale gets stripped down, I'll sell it too.



I might look into another set of training wheels. But probably not. Theres nothing wrong with my current set, they're beefy and easily serviceable which is a nice combo.

Im thinking of maybe a HED trispoke rear wheel, ofcourse tubular. Seen em go on Ebay from $220-$400.

Im hoping to get $300 ish for the Cannondale frame/fork. I'm already up $486, so I got that to spend on a rear wheel. I might save the rest of the money in a piggy bank to spend on bike part stuff later, I do lust after Zero G brakes, but dont know if I can rationalize them. As Ultegra brakes work pretty darn good.

Got my frame

So I decided to save some $$$, and buy a used Soloist frame. This way, I can use the money elsewhere on other fun things like a cool rear wheel.

So I just won this Soloist off of Ebay for $610. Retail on the Soloist is $1200. So about half off. The other bonus for saving a bundle on this is that, I will buy another Cervelo seatpost, one that is set up for TT's. With the nature of this bike, the post head can be flipped around to make this either road geometry or time trial geometry. If I have another seatpost with saddle pre-mounted, making this switch will be really simple.



The only major issue with this used frame is it has some tire rub with wore through some of the metal in the seat stays, but I dont think this will be an issue, other than cosmetic. The only other thing is that I really wanted the anodized black frame as they sell it now. But with the amount I saved on this, I could get this custom anodized, but I probably wont.

a bridge to nowhere...

just a pretty cool song title to title this post.

If I run 6 min miles next year, That would give me a run time of 33:32. Or....5 minutes faster than this years run time. I avg'd 6:56 min/miles this year. So yes 56 secs faster per minute, but ive been close to that pace before in my life. With a lot of hard work, i think i can be back there.


All the Eppies champs have been great runners. Lin Feil, Mike Ammon, Don Hicks, Leonard Veare, Vic Vicari. They could all run.

Run: 33.5
T1: 1.5
Bike: 29.5
T2: 1.5
Kayak: 39

Thats a 1:45 exactly. Winning material. And honestly, I think I can bike under 29.5 and paddle under 39 on a good day.

I dont just want to win my division, I wanna bring the under 40 crew back to a respectable position. This year was the first year (i think) I beat ammon on the run, but he's 61! No under 40 ironman has gone under 1:50 since Veare. Thats the mark, going under 1:45 now that is the stuff.

"If this is a race, then you hope you come last. put it in the past." Sam Roberts Band

A new bike soon...

Next year, I'll be sitting on the Cervelo Soloist. Sexy! and Fast. No more gifts.





Im cleaning out a lot of my other bike stuff to make way for this beast.

Ill be running this on the front

No messing around, I sold my time trial wheels a year ago or more to buy other stuff, well Im buying the stuff back now, or even better stuff.

No more messing around, next year ill be rolling this front wheel:






No more free seconds will be given away.

i got 3rd

Yeah so this was the plan:

Run: 39 mins
T1: 1 min
bike: 30:30
T2: 2 min
kayak: 39

would be like a 1:51 or so.

The run was pretty good actually. I ended up actually beating mike ammon, which was a first for me.

Yeah so that was cool, also it was cool that i went 38:40. cause thats faster than my goal time.

The T1 was fast, i hopped on my bike and thoguht i had a rear flat tire! AArgghhh! it felt like a slow leak, but then i realized that it was my tire liners that i installed the day before to prevent thorns. they slowed me down a lot!

I got on a good draft, and we went up the course pretty good. It was me, Larry Feldhaus, another 40+ ironman, and two team guys.

The two team guys just kept switching off drafting, which left us to jusst hang on. Larry let a gap form and i came around him to cover the gap. in doing so, larry was dropped.

We caught a lot of cyclists, in that draft! like maybe 30 guys or so. I kept expecting to see Nick (the guy i barely beat last year), but i never did. Our group did catch Craig MccMannis, I yelled at him to hop on the draft. He rode with us for a few miles, then another gap formed as we maybe that hard left bend (where Vic went off the road in practice).

I finished the bike, had a good cyclocross dismount, ran across the bridge, and down to the boats. as soon as i hit the water and started paddling steve wilson shot out in the center of the river, and there was no way i could cover that draft. he was fresh, and my abs and core were fried.

then craig mcmannis came by me, and again i couldnt match his speed. my dad had told me that there were 12 ironmen ahead of me (which is a lot, last year it was like 5). I began to feel okay, by Rossmoor, but still didnt never really got the pace jacked up too much. I caught another ironman at the last corner, which was good. The water flow was like 3900 or so, a little down from last week, but still pretty high. That didnt help me.

I ended up 3rd. 36 secs off of first, 18 secs off of 2nd, and 25 secs ahead of 4th.

it was a close race in my division, but the old guys kicked our ass hard again, Don won the overall at like 1:45 something. I went 1:53

next year will be a different game.

my prediction? my time: 1:46:06

My Aero Drink

So I want to drink a bottle of fluid on the bike this year. Last year, as mentioned previous, I didnt manage to do that. You get caught up in the moment, your drafting 1" behind a guy you've never met, hands on the brake levers ready to squeeze and also pumping massive amounts of blood throguh your heart and veins and drinking just seems to slip my thoughts. Especially because I dont want to take my hands off the bars.


Now, I have my aero drink.

It is a 50 cent bottle from the thrift store. and $2 of tubing from the hardware store. And 4 zipties.

faster transitions

I got a little faster today, and i didnt have to do anything but think a little.

I got faster in the transitions.


In the kayak, I am going to leave my running shoes on. Ive always paddled in a "aqua sock" type shoe, but this time, I will be using a pair of racing flats that have a small enough heel that they fit in my boat. I tried it out the other day and it was fine. I will race tomorrow in the pre race with them.

Time saved: 8-9 seconds

I will be using my waist pfd which I think will save some time. It will keep me cooler (not sure how much or what kind of time will be saved there?) But it is easier to put on, just one clip.

Time saved: 4-7 seconds

I will be doing a cyclocross style dismount at T2. This will be a much faster dismount than I have done in years past. Because I raced cross all last year, I'm very comfortable doing this now.

Time saved: 6-12 seconds

So total time gained: 18-28 seconds

Say, 30 seconds. Thats a lot of time. Especially on the water. 30 seconds is a lot of time to make up, that I wont have to make up this year, because I threw some smack down in transitions.

Notice, these gains were all made in T2. Im still thinking about how to take some precious ticks off of T1.

hydration will be key

before


after


Last year, i didnt even think about hydrating during the race. As a result, I suffered and im sure my performance did too. If nothing else I was thinking about how thirsty I was and how much I wanted water. In the boat, i almost stopped to scoop some river water into my mouth, i went through rapids with my mouth open hoping to catch some spray etc. I was thinking about it, if nothing else.

This year, im thinking about it. I'm going to carry a small bottle on the run filled with a Clif/Gatorade type drink. When the bottle is empty, I'll chuck it down. The small bottle filled 5/6 with water weighs 13.9 ounces. So not too bad, less than a pound, which is good.

I bought two Calistoga bottles, then switched their lids (because the big one came with a "sport top" and the small one came with a screw off top.)

Only a $1, and I think it will work well. Also, ill have a hose hooked up to my bike bottle, so i can drink out of the aero position. That will come shortly. The first prototype wasnt as perfect as I wanted.

kicking my own ass

Yeah so i planned a paddle and a bike today. Instead, this AM i did a 2 mile tempo run (which was harder than it should have been.) bricked with a 17 mile ride.

Then in the PM I did a 37 min paddle or 3.63 miles.

The run was done at an all-out pace but that pace was only like 6:48 min miles, which isnt good enough. Yes Im sore from yesterday, where i did the track workout (8x400, 3x1000's) but i need to avg 6:22 at Eppies to run a 37 min run split. A 38 min would be about a 6:33 min mile.

The goal was:
Run:37
T1:1
bike: 31
T2:2
kayak:38

which would give me 1:49.

Im thinking of doing a run workout tomorrow again, focused on intensity. Maybe a tempo again, this time like 4 miles.

my new pfd

The latest in cool. Is this waist belt pfd------which inflates via a CO2 cartridge when you tug on it. It weighs only 12.5 oz (less than a pound), is easy to put on, and will keep me cooler as I wont be wearing this heavy/thick foam vest around me. This last point is I think very important for this area, and for the Great Race especially, it can get very hot on the water.

Vic got one, and he liked it and I knew I "needed" one too.

Side shot:

the weeks plan

monday:
20 mile bike
7 mile paddle

Tuesday:
run with the Chips

Wednesday:
AM: bike 30 miles
PM: paddle

Thurs:
4 mile tempo Run

Friday:
off (going camping til sunday)

Saturday:
9 mile long run

Sunday:
off, or a 20 mile bike (if time allows)

yesterdays workout

Yesterday, Don Hicks, vic vicari and I met up at Sunrise blvd, left our boats up there and then drove down to Vic's house thats right near Gristmill. From there, we took off on our bikes down to guy west bridge, with the intent to time trial at race pace up to Sunrise and hopefully go under 30 minutes.

The ride was hard and fast, we were working pretty hard. Don at one point dropped off the pace, and wanted us to go on without him, but we stopped and waited for him to get back on. (He did the full marathon the day before and then ran at night after the race). We ended up going 29:53.



Then we hopped in our boats and paddled down to Vics house. My muscles just didnt have race pace in them, so Steve Streng and I paddled down together and chatted about various things and tested out different routes down the course. We went pretty slow, and my time was 40:03.

But I think it was good to just get out there and practice some.

the mini marathon

So yeah yesterday was the mini-marathon (Sailor bar down to Goethe park, 8.3 miles).

I was like one of 6 that were doing the mini version with everyone else going the full 16 or so miles. I got a bit of teasing for this at the paddlers meeting, and felt like, well i have to at least win my race.

The race started, i got a good jump, a good start, and i was like 6th after the first 1/4 mile.

I really wanted to take my split at the sunrise footbridge, so that I could compare my time. but using my GPS device, i figured out my time was around 38:20 or so. Not the fastest Ive done that course, but the water was lower today at around 4800 cfs.

At San juan I jumped onto John and Kathy Hollands OC2 draft and just sat on them the rest of the way down the river. I tried passing and going around a few times, but couldnt really, so i just sat on them.


Yeah so i took 1st overall in the mini, but the comp wasnt too tough.

HR observation...

So ive owned my Garmin 301 for a bit now, and have used it on the last two Davis TT's.

My time in those two TT's has dropped about 20 seconds or so. But what is more interesting, is that my HR has dropped as well.

On 6/7/06 my avg HR was 173 bpm with a max of 180

On 6/21/06 my avg was 166 with a max of 176

This is a really good trend. It means Im going faster, and its easier on my body.

The heart cannot sustain hugely high bpm's for a long duration...so you want it to be as efficient as possible. There's one more tt before the great race, it would be awesome if my time was lower at that one, with an even lower HR. Im happy that the next TT is a week before the GR, and not on the same week. Thats good.

Wednesday's paddle

So a tough workout with vic and i was sore from my race paddle the night before...

Yesterday...

In the am I did a 30 mile ride. From Goethe up and around Lake natoma. The plan was to keep it easy, not to get the heart rate up too high, and call it a "long ride".



Then in the pm, I went out with the tuesday kayak crew, and did a time trial down the river. I couldnt keep up with johnsrud, kevin, mcmannis or feldhaus. They were off the front and I couldnt hang with them. But the good news is that I went down the course in 36:37----one of the fastest times I've gone down that course. The water level was at like 5500 cfs.



Getting spankd yesterday was good motivation, I guess. it was a little dissapointing, and not ego boosting, but I gotta do some more work before that happens.

This week is a crash week. The idea of a crash week, is that you throw an unbelievable amount of work at the body----more than a lot----and it will adapt to it. This cant be done on a weekly basis, but cna be done for a short period of time like 1-2 weeks.

This week's plan...

Yeah so the plan this week is:

Monday: 8 mi long run
Tuesday: AM bike ride, PM kayak with the tuesday crew
Wednesday: 3mi run/davis tt brick
Thursday: AM track workout with Vic PM paddle
Friday: AM: bike
Saturday: either the Shriners 5mi run or run 4 mi by myself as a tempo workout
Sunday: kayak mini-marathon

Update:

So, last wednesday I did that track workout.

Thursday was a bike ride (my muscles were really tired).

Friday was a day off

Saturday: I set up a race among some buddies to run from Goethe up to sunrise and then kayak back down to goethe. Vic Vicari, Caig McMannis, Larry Feldhaus, myself and Bob Lambrose showed up.

Vic took off and we never saw him again. My run wasnt so great. I got 3rd on the run...avg'd like 7:40 min miles---not good enough.

My paddle was pretty good, 37:20 mins. A pretty good time considering that the week prior I went 36:30 with Vic and the water was lower on this day.



Sunday: off

Monday: 8 mile long run. Ran slowly. 9 min+ pace, avg HR was like 150 ish. I ran from Estates up to the 15 mile mark (between goethe and cordova park). It was actually a really fun run for me, which was nice and unexpected.

upping the run mileage...

Today I ran 7.5 miles. The goal is now 23 miles a week. Starting next week. But I still I think I can get in 16.5 miles this week. The mileage is the trick to the speed.

3 workouts a week----1 tempo, 1 track, 1 LSD (70-100 mins)

He kicked my ass

monday: 20 mile bike, 7x1 min intervals with enough recovery to let my heart drop down to like 153bpm in between.

tuesday: I made a bed for Rachel.

Wednesday: 6:30am track workout with Vic. 2x400, 1x800, 1x 1 mile, 1 x 800, 1 x 400, All in all about a 7.5 mile run. My heart rate was through the roof--pushing mid 180's I think, I havent yet downloaded the data though. vicari can run thats for sure. that guy was way out there. I wasnt even close to him. I knew that was my weakness and I was right. I was right there with him on the bike and kayak last friday, today no contest not even close.

Heres the data----pretty interesting----192 bpm max HR, I ran a 6.07 pace for the 1 mile interval, thats pretty crap. It needs to be in the 5:45 just to be competitive.



vic suggested I get my miles up, and hes probably right. I might go for another run tonite, just for fun.

last week was good

so im getting into the final swing, and last week was a good one:

Tuesday: run with the Chips
Wednesday: Davis time trial
Thursday: Ran San Juan 3 times
Friday: Raced the kayak course with Vic---I finished a little ahead of him in 36:30 or so. Then we got on our bikes rode easily from goethe to CSUS, then raced from CSUS up to sunrise---ie eppies bike course. We avgd around 23mph or so. I was sore from the davis tt.
Saturday: off
Sunday: 4 mile run by myself, easy but it hurt too much for an easy run.


My running isnt where it needs to be and I need to work on that some more. It suks that the tuesday night kayak sessions are starting up tomorrow, but thats the same day as the Chips sprint workouts. And i wanna do both.

This weekend, i helped organize a new run for the boats. Were running from goethe to Sunrise and then kayaking sunrise to goethe. It should be fun, and hard.

Davis Time Trial

Well, it was a little windier today, a headwind going out, tail coming back. I was sore because I ran with the Chips yesterday, I dont like a few people there, but I do it for the training, and they kicked my ass. It was hot, we did 2x800 and then 8x400. Very tough, very hot.

Today, I was feeling it when I woke up. Back sore, abs sore, legs sore.

Also I have a duathlon this weekend so, I wanted to wear what Im going to use at the du. Meaning I didnt wear cycling shoes, I wore my toe clips and racing flats. toe clips with running shoes is supposed to be slower in a tt because the shoes flex robbing you of power---but you make that up in the duathlon transitions because your faster with no shoe changes.

Well, I think I went my fastest yet out there tonite. I've stepped up the training, like I said I was going to, and with the extra wind and the funky shoes, I went about 26:45, about 10 secs faster than my best and 25 secs faster than last time. I have the HR data from this workout and my heart avgd 173bpm for the almost 27 mins---thats pretty high. Especially for a bike workout, my bike HR max is probably in the 190's. I pushed it to the max at the end there and only got my HR up to 180. So maybe my bike HR max is 180? If so, I was on full throttle the entire course. Heres a pic of what my heart was doing over the distance.



Its interesting to look at the 5mile mark cause thats where the turn around point is, and my HR jumped up there to 179 bpm. I got out of the saddle there and sprinted to get my speed back up. Its interesting to see how the body reacts to small changes like that.

Well, it wasnt the sub 26 min that I was hoping for, but maybe next time...my avg speed was 22.3 mph with the wind and all alone. I need to get that up though. I'm going to rest for the DU this weekend, then ramp back up big time in the final weeks heading into Eppies.

Davis Time trials

So i did another time trial and i got slower. By 8 seconds. Not a big deal, but its not faster. I averaged 22.18 mph over the 10 miles. For a time of 27.03. Next week I'm going to kick it down under 26 mins.

The training's slipped lately. Not sure why. Im primed though and ready to drive hard the last 6 weeks that are left til Eppies.

Had a paddle today, Goethe up to Hoffman and back down, got up part of Cordova rapids and then couldnt make it all the way, so had to do get out and do a short walkaround. I did the paddle with my new training partner. Now I have two training partners. Their bad ass. One of them sings to keep up the intensity and the other tells me how fast were going. I'll talk more about them soon.

Anyway, I'm doing a run race this weekend. 10k or 5k im not sure which yet.

Almost a race every weekend in June, so thats cool.

The comp...

So, this last weekend, i did a little 5k fun run on Sat. Looks like my comp (almost all of them) did a 5 mile race on Sunday.


Vic Vicari: 8th overal 30.11 or 6.02 per mile
Mark Barrett: 9th overall 30.33 6.07 mile
Mike Ammon: 25th OA 33.57 6.47 mile

some pretty fast times, especially since I want to come in with the lead Ironman to have some sort of a shot at the overall ironman win. that means a 6.02 or so mile. I dont think I've ever ran that fast for that long in my life.

Since eppies is only 5.8, these guys times are going to be in the 34 min range, but i guess thats my goal as well.

the goal is 6 min miles at eppies. that'd give me a 34:55, very respectable.

Elk Grove 5k fun run

Well do you want the good news or the bad news first?

The bad news is that I ran 21.15 last week at the Elk Grove 5k fun run.

The good news is that thats like a 1.15 faster than the zoo zoom 5k a month earlier.

Can i get my 5k time down to the 18's? Can I get a 10k around a 39 before Eppies?

Well I dont know. I hope so. More than hope though. I long to? I feel like im on a new ride at Disneyland. I hope its going to be a fun ride, I hope its going to end in a wonderful way, im doing everything in my power to steer the ride in that direction. but in the end, I feel like a lot of it has to do with just how the ride's been made. Maybe thats foolish though---it assumes the future has already been written--when obviously it hasnt and what I do today has a direct impact on what happens tomorrow, and what happens a month from now etc.

Did a run Monday with my girlfriend (well we started running at the same time from the same place) and it was good, a good confidence booster. 1.5 times around Hoffman minus the entry hill.

Race for the Cure 5k is this weekend. Mid 20's? that'd be nice. stay tuned.

Davis TT #1

So today was my first Davis TT, second of the season. I drove out to West Davis, parked, suited up, then rode the 5 miles to the start of the time trial. The time trial is 10 miles long, 5 out 5 back. Whats nice is that it seemed pretty competitive but it was free. I could have seen them charge like $1-$3 for it to create a prize etc, but still im glad they dont.


It took me awhile to get signed up. By signed up, I mean that a guy with a clipboard was walking around and taking people's names down and gave you a starting place number. I was 27. When you crossed the line, you yelled out your start number. Simple.

I was expecting a whole lot (story of the season thus far eh?) but hoped to not get beat by any girls, dont die, and beat some people.

My start went fair, didnt get clipped in too quick. The course is mostly flat and straight, but ofcourse featured some of the wellknown Davis wind. This time it was blowing from the south---oh and it was a little warm too at about 75F in the shade. Its been raining for the past few weeks it seems.

I caught the person that started 2 places in front of me within the first 3 miles. And i was steadily pulling back the woman that started in front of me. I finally caught her with like 3 miles to go, then she drafted off of me the entire way back. It was very annoying. The rules state no drafting and if you are caught you must drop back and then resume your pace. She felt that it was my fault that I caught her and couldnt not up the tempo---the reason she felt this way was because she was drafting off me. Its really hard to drop someone when theyre in your slipstream and your going into a headwind. Most of all it was annoying and distracting.

I finished well, somewhere in the high 26's i thought, averaging around the 22 mph mark. Not bad considering that I really havent put in any real hard cycling efforts. I am going to continue to do these biweekly tt's to see my times drop.

The results came out today, and i finished 18th out of 42, didnt get beat by any women (except for the ones in a team trial) and I didnt die. So i guess it was a success.

Official time: 26.55 mins avg'd 23.15 mph. Fastest time 21.18 mins 28.17 mph

April Spring Kayak race

So today was the next installment of the RCP kayak series. The weather was a little nicer than the last race, which was good. But i still wore long pants and a long sleeved shirt (it was a little cloudy at race start). Not a lot of people showed up today, I was wondering if there was another event this weekend, to account for that? The guys who beat me last month didnt show today, and the guys who beat me today werent there last month, so that kinda sucks.

So, did a little bit of a warmup, and the nice part was the race started right on time---11am. Which is a great time to start a race---it lets me sleep in a bit.




So my goal was to go out hard on the start, cause i really got trapped behind a lot of people last month. The start went well, i pulled into about 3rd place with a tandem canoe on my right. The tandem had a faster pace than me, and i tucked in behind it. So there were 3 boats in front of me. As we came to the Ranger Rick island, i was unable to hold the draft, and the group of three kept going. As I rounded the Ranger island, 2 boats came up on my left side (Gary Johnsrud was one of them). Now, the guys in the front, hugged the right side of the lake, trying to stay out of the faster water. I took a look over my shoulder and mike ammon and an OC2 began to cut directly across the lake. I began thinking that their line was better and said so to the two guys i was with. Gary cut over across the lake, and the other guy blocked me so that i could get over. The front of his boat was at my hip, i told him i wanted to get over but that didnt do anything. About 4 mins later i got in front of him, and began cutting over as well. When i finally came to the other side, Gary was now like 25 ft in front of me, and mike ammom and OC2 were just behind me, as well as the guy that had blocked me. At this point, i really tried to turn up the pace and pull gary back in. I was digging very deep and felt like i cut down his gap a little. what i really needed was for the guys behind me to take up the charge and come to the front. So i slowed down, but they didnt come around me. At that point, i decided that i could kill myself and maybe pull gary back, and then be dead and not be able to beat him OR the guys that just sat in and let me work, so i decided to race the guys behind me. I dropped my pace. It was about this time that we came up to china hat island. the oc2 kept going as did the guy that blocked me in (and kept hitting my tail in the draft) and who else but mike ammon was right on my tail at the turn around, just like last month.

However, last month, when i made the halfway point, i felt dead even though i got a good draft all the way out there. This time, i worked all by myself with virtually no draft at all, but when i made the turnaround i felt very strong. I basically did a time trail (with ammon drafting) the whole way back. 1st and 2nd place never made any more time on me after the half way point, and i got 3rd overall. More impressive to me is that my time was like 2 mins faster than last month (the current was stronger than last month, but that would have an ill effect on my time on the way out as well).

I felt stronger and faster, and i didnt even get a good draft. If i had been able to jump on gary's draft as he began cutting across the lake, i might have been in that front group. Because he really didnt make any time on me after the halway point.

Theres always next month----and maybe more people will show.

an old friend...

Well, today I had lunch with an old friend (and former paddler), Theo Michel. We began discussing kayaking and the Great Race and such and it wasnt hard to pump each other up, although it never has been very hard to do with the two of us.

The training plans began to get developed, and it sounds like he's onboard with my "2006: the year of the win" philosophy. 5am Natomas paddles are just part of that plan.

As the weather is getting nicer, I'm starting to amass my "team" for the Great Race. I put team in quotations because I'm going to be racing all by myself, but its going to take a village to get me there, or at least a handfull of accomplished athletes.

The Davis 10mi TT's are another part of that plan----I found out today, the next one is April 26th, and they repeat every other wednesday after that. I'm planning on doing all of them (ive missed one already). I was doing this same thing in my 3 month stint in New Zealand and found that it really helped my top end bike speed.

Run: Zoo zoom 5k

So not that i expected much, but my first 5k didnt go so well. (maybe i have more of a natural talent for kayaking, because i had about as much training in the boat as i did on my run, and my kayak race went much better than this 5k race)?????

anyway, back to the race.

5k April 9th zoo zoom through land park.

it was nice to see some of the old peeps from my running team (River City Rebels), i was sportin the singlet, so that was cool, as was the weather in the morning.

The race went something like this:
1st mile: 6.22
2nd mile: 7.11
3rd mile: 7.44
total time: 22.33
pace per mile 7:16

Overall, i was number 69.

The main Eppies Ironman threat was Mark Barrett at 17.46. Thats 4min and 47 seconds ahead of me on a 5k!!!

For an eppies length course (5.8 miles) that'd be closer to like 8 mins or so. Damn, that means I got a lot of work ahead of me.

Being I'm an optimist: Im going to be training with the Rebels in the near future, and that'll improve my running. My 5k PR is 18:26 which would have only put me 45 secs off of Barrett which is good. But not good enough for 2006. 2006 is the year of the win, not the year of the good.

Next 5k race: Elk Grove Fun Run (May 6th) and Race for Cure (May 13th)
Next Kayak race: April 23rd at Lake Natoma again.

Kayak: St Pats 5 mile kayak race

So, my first race of the season is done---the St Patricks Scramble.

I did the short course, as I've only been out in my boat maybe 5-6 times in the last 6 months. I had a horrible start, getting caught behind a number of inexperienced paddlers whom were apprehensive about the wakes created by the other boats. Next time, I'll line up on the line, or behind the guys I know will be out front like Don.

Got a good draft off of a tandem canoe, then jumped ahead of them at the Ranger Rick island and got on the draft of an OC-2. There were two draft trains running, I was in one, behind the OC-2, which was behind a junior flatwater boater, whom was behind someone else. And I could see Mike Ammon behind a couple guys off to my right. We had a more inside shot going into the next turn after we cut across the lake, and Mike lost his draft, and tucked in behind the junior flatwater boater--as the two draft lines now came into one.

As we were paddling, we were catching an OC-6, Mike went around the right side and the OC-2 and me went around the left side. I was having problems holding the OC2 draft as I was in danger of colliding with the OC6, but I got back on their draft shortly. Then shortly later, I lost their draft. Better I figured anyway, because I was coming up to my turnaround point and it appeared they were going to continue onto the long course. As I was approaching the China Hat island, I saw Don Hicks in front going the opposite direction, followed not too far behind by Eric Reynolds and then some other guy. I was in 4th and Mike (5th) was on my draft.

As I made the turn, I felt a lot of fatigue set into my body, as I no longer had that great draft which pulled me along thus far, and expected ammon to come up around ans pass me. But he didnt. He came up my side a few times, but didnt have the strength to take me. So, I got 4th. 1st in the open surf ski division. 4+ minutes behind Don. Not bad for my first race. I'll be at least 2 mins faster by next month.