Track Workout

Yesterday was a track workout. We started with a mile warmup with drills mixed in, then everyone got their assignments. Mine was fairly easy, 5x400 with 400 rest in between. Try to keep all 400s around the same time. My times: 2:07 (too easy, I was feeling things out), 1:57 (better), 2:01, 2:01, 1:58. Not bad. I was told to walk the rest laps, and I did, but I think that's too easy. Next time I'll try and jog them. I'd also like to get all laps under the 2 minute mark. The goal over time is to work that time down. It's kind of sad that I'm running the equivalent of 8 minute miles, only I'm doing it with lots of rest in between. I would have expected better. Heck, some of the other people on the track were just cruising, and their cruising pace was roughly the same as my running hard pace. Needless to say, that's a little discouraging. Even with this relatively light workout, I'm a little sore today. What the heck?

Inside joke

New training group

Yesterday I trained with a new group, Amy Bennett's "Camp Bennett." I'll be joining them for Mountain Man training, but that doesn't start until the 31st. Since I could use all the workouts I can get, she's letting me tag along with her current group. What she didn't mention is the current group is training for Honu, a Half-Ironman, and that race is in two weeks so these people are at their peak. Imagine an Oxen standing amidst a herd of Gazelles and the Gazelles suddenly take off, leaving the Oxen lumbering in their wake. Yes, I'm the Oxen. Every one of these people are covered in muscles and have no body fat. Even the girls! I was waaaay out of my league.

Still, they're a really nice group a people, and thankfully the workout was set up such that no one <cough>me<cough> got left behind. It was a timed run of 50 minutes where you do as many loops as you can in that time. The loop had some rolling hills, which I really needed, and it's good shifting practice as well. I think I got in four loops (with one potty break).

The workout was on the Marine Base, which I've never really had the chance to explore. We went past the airfield and did a loop near there. The problem for me was that I kept getting distracted. The place is GORGEOUS. Seriously, this has to be some of the most stunning scenery in the country. Everywhere I looked I saw mountains and oceans. The sun was setting behind the mountain and the sky was turning shades of orange and pink which was being reflected in the water. Just stunning.

As if this wasn't enough of a distraction, an airplane pilot was practicing takeoffs and landings, and not far from that was a helicopter practicing pickup/drop-off maneuvers. I really just wanted to stop and watch. How cool! As it was I kept catching myself slowing down as I lost focus and looked around at the happenings and scenery. Still, what a fantastic place for a bike ride.

Saturday bike ride to Waimanalo

From ocean to mountain.

Lanikai Triathlon

So, on April 19th, I volunteered again at the Lanikai Traithlon. It's near my house, so it's the only one that I can make myself wake up early for when I'm not doing it. Anyway, I got there around 4:30AM or so, and since I knew the drill, went straight to body marking, meaning writing race numbers on peoples arms. So, basically I wandered around for an hour yelling "Who needs to be numbered?"

There was a new twist this year in that we were also writing the person's age on their calf. The men don't hesitate to give their age, but about the half the women go "Why?" when I ask them how old they will be by the end of the year. Some didn't look too happy when I tell them it's so they know who their age-group competition is, but they all coughed up the sensitive information.

I still can't get past how weird it is to write on people, but honestly, I enjoy it. Triathletes are generally a pretty fun and happy (not to mention good-looking) group, so there are a lot of entertaining comments made. Besides, I find it amusing when people see me and immediately start stripping. It's so I can get to the spots to write on, but it still looks funny. I wound up in more pictures this year. Some ask me pose with them, others just had family and friends taking pictures while I marked them up.

Since the race was timed with a chip this year, it dispensed with a lot of the jobs from years past. No writing down numbers as people came into transition, no grabbing their numbers when they finished, etc. Instead, we had to make sure everyone picked up a timing chip. The drill is that there's a big board on one side of the transition area that has everyone's timing chips velcroed to it. The athletes walk up, say their number, and a volunteer hands them a chip.

After a while, it seemed like most people had been marked and their were enough volunteers covering that, so I shifted to handing out timing chips since the volunteers there were getting swamped. When things slowed there, I wandered around transition marking on some late-comers and scanning ankles to make sure they got their chip. Most people put the chip on the moment they get it, so if they don't have a chip on their ankle, odds are they didn't pick it up yet. Whenever I spotted a bare set of ankles, I'd remind them to get a chip. Most times I'd get a stunned look, meaning they didn't realize that was something they needed to do, and they'd ask where they needed to go to pick it up.

It's kind of weird to wander around staring at half-clad people's ankles. I got a few strange looks and I'd have to explain I was checking that they were marked and chipped. At one point, I saw a set of nude legs, looked up, and it was my local bike shop technician looking back at me bemusedly. We both busted out laughing. Somehow blatantly checking out people's legs is not normally socially acceptable.

At this point, everyone headed over to the beach. The horn went off and the first wave of swimmers rushed into the water. There were about 350 athletes participating, broken up into three waves, so a little over a hundred people per wave. I had a little time before my next job was starting, so I watched for a bit. The first wave contained the elite athletes among others, and these guys were impressive.

What I found amazing on the swim was how fast the first few swimmers put a gap between them and the rest of the pack. These guys were obviously elites. While I was marveling at this, I noticed that even more impressive was how fast the first place swimmer was gapping the second place swimmer. The first place guy was just smoking, he had a huge lead before finishing the first 200 meters (the swim is only 500m), and he was pulling away with each stroke. To see one person be that dominant is unusual. I commented to another bystander about this and discovered that the guy was an olympic level swimmer. I think the name was John Flanagan. Well go figure.

I kind of had to feel sorry for the second place swimmer. Whomever he is, he's likely normally the fastest one among all his training partners, and here he is just getting whipped. Must be an unusual experience for him and likely not easy to take.

A few minutes later the first guys were flying through the chute to the bike transition and I got to watch and cheer everyone on. I love watching all the different types of people in these races. All ages (80 to 8 I think), all fitness levels, etc. Everyone is just out doing the best they can. It's so motivating. I cheer everyone on and think they're all fabulous for even trying, even the last one out of the water.

After watching the last of the swimmers, a bunch of us jumped into a van and headed out to set up the aid station on the run course. We set up some folding tables, mixed up some gatorade, and filled umpteen paper cups with gatorade and water. Not long after, the first runners blew by.

I noticed an interesting trend with the run. The really fast guys don't bother with the aid station. I guess they're all finishing the race in under an hour, and they haven't been going long enough to require the extra hydration or nutrition. As time passed, a few started taking some water, but no gatorade. Later, some started taking gatorade and eventually it seemed that more were taking gatorade than water. As people are out on the course longer, their bodies have burned up the energy stores and it needs to be replaced, hence the reliance on gatorade amongst the slower athletes. Or some researcher could try to claim that Gatorade makes you slower :)

Finally the last of the athletes passed by, so we picked up all the used cups and garbage from the ground, packed everything up, and went to the finish line. Once there, I was asked to help with the awards. Sure! I got to hand out all the third-place awards, which are my favorite since there's the least amount of stuff to deal with, just put a medal on their necks, direct them towards the photographer, and you're done.

Overall, I had a great time. I knew a lot of the athletes, and it was fun being able to cheer them on from different parts of the course (the swim and run). It's so much fun watching people push themselves and accomplish something they're really proud of. I'm happy I got to be a part of it.

Swim/Run loops at Ala Moana

Last night we did this: swim 200 meters (from one lifeguard tower to the next, get out and run around the lifeguard tower, then swim back), run 1 mile, repeat 3 times for a total of 4 iterations.

I seemed to average 8 minutes per swim, 10 minutes per run including transition times. I was at 57 minutes at the end of the third run, and 1 hour and 16 minutes at the end of all 4. The key was the transition. Since the run was so short, I didn't bother with socks or even lacing up my shoes. Instead, I just rinsed off my feet with my water bottle, shoved them in my shoes and ran. I think my shoes are still soggy a whole day later.

We've done this workout in each of the last two years I've done this clinic, and this is the first time I feel I really did all I'm capable of. Both times before only had three iterations total, but each time I had stomach and/or breathing issues. This time, nothing went wrong. I felt as strong as I ever have.

I don't know why it went so well, but I'm happy about it. It's always frustrating when you know you could have done better. Still, I'm wondering why I felt particularly strong today. I did make an effort to drink lots of water throughout the day, which is something I've been rather bad about lately. As for food, let's see: I ate a Subway ham & egg on flatbread sandwich for breakfast, then a chicken wrap with lots of veggies in it for lunch, and I split up an Odwalla bar eating half before the workout and half after. Maybe the Odwalla bar made the difference, it's usually a few hours between when I eat and when I workout, so maybe I need to snack to carry me through.

On a side note, there are some really amazing athletes in this class. I was stunned when I finished the first swim and the fast pack was already gone and out of sight on the run before I even got out of the water. I know they're fast, but dang, it's such a short swim I didn't expect to not even see them. Very impressive.

Oh yeah, I've been putting on some weight lately (vacation, got sick, but mostly eating badly and not training enough). On Monday (yesterday) I was 127 (eek!), this morning I was 126.2. I'll be watching what I eat and working out more until I get back down to the happy range.