Showing posts with label triathlon photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label triathlon photos. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Human Side of Triathlon

These are a few pictures from some races I've been to this year. I hope you enjoy them.










Sunday, July 13, 2008

Perfect Paces Make Perfect Races...


I only want to say, "Let it be known that I do on rare occasions actually race triathlons, versus simply writing about training and taking pictures."

So going into the first race of the season for me, I was thinking about the phrase "Perfect paces make perfect races" a lot. I decided I wanted this race to simply be a dress rehearsal for the pace I would like to hold for the 70.3 race I'm signed up to do in October. As such even though my first race of the season was a sprint which would normally be a license to push as hard as I possibly could, I decided I would work on a little self discipline and maintain more moderate intensity levels. I set some heart rate goals and wore a monitor to insure I stayed within my preset limits for each event. I also would not use the big ring on the bike unless my cadence got above 110 RPM. So basically no big ring, no mashing of gears, and no heart rate above 157. This heart rate is about 10 beats below aerobic threshold so I would be able to sing while racing if asked. Fortunately for all concerned, I wasn't asked.

What did happen however was that as I was stretching prior to my swim start one of the race volunteers saw me do a Deep Prayer Squat, which is basically squatting down between your knees, with the feet remaining flat on the ground and your bottom as close to the ground as it can go without falling over. You can bring your hands to a prayer position and use your elbows for some leverage against the shins to really open things up. So anyway, the volunteer came up to me and asked me about the stretch so, I explained its benefits of opening the hips, loosening the shins and ankles as well as being a nice stretch of the piriformis muscle. At which point, he proceeds to tell me, and I'm not kidding you, the stretch reminds him of a jingle on a kids TV show in the 50s that went something like, "Plunk your magic 'twanger' Froggy!"

Now I don't know about you, but that was probably the last sentence I expected to hear come out of his mouth. Now understanding the context of this reference, I can honestly say I find it a little bit funny. But I have to admit before learning of the phrase's meaning, I thought it was some sort of secret agent code signifying a shared agenda. You know like, "Don't eat the red strawberries." And then you respond, "Of course, everyone knows they taste better when they are blue."

And if that first meeting wasn't funny enough, this eager volunteer proceeded to greet me with said secret phrase each time I entered or left the transition area as well as at random spots on the race course if I happened to go by. I do have to admit it did help to break the single minded focus that can be a two edged sword on some multi loop courses.



So at any rate overall I think my race went pretty well. I maintained a very even effort from start to finish that felt "quick" though not fast, and gave me a sense of the type of pace I want to have in my first 70.3 attempt. The swim went really well for about the first 75 meters or so to the first turn. In fact I felt so good I actually sprinted out to the first buoy and backstroked around it in a flash. It was so quick and I saw so much open water in front of me I sort of freaked for a second. Then I settled into my stroke but for some reason I was having a really hard time sighting the buoys to the next turn so I had to breast stroke to get my bearing a lot more than I would have liked. (To be honest I would have liked to have not breast stroked at all). But it was what it was and after the awesome start I was a little disappointed with my swim time -- it was off by about a minute and a half of what I'd predicted. I pretty much assumed I was well behind everyone else in my age group at this point. But given my meager swimming this year, I was happy to be swimming at all.



My transition was uneventful, except for the volunteer screaming about "Froggy." I opted not to attach my shoes to my pedals so I didn't really have any issues mounting and riding. The ride was pretty flat but it was a little windy. I kept my cadence at about 100 and my heart rate as averaging 155. About a third of the way into the ride I started noticing I was riding my way up into the age group ahead of me. By the turn I had ridden well into the next age group also. I was feeling pretty good on the bike and it was cool passing all these folks even though I was also remaining deeply aerobic.

I came into the transition area with two guys in the age group just before mine. The bigger of the two took off like a rocket, while the other opened up a 30 meter gap which would hold to the turn around. Off the bike my legs felt OK but my turnover was a little slower than I would have expected. But I just kept telling myself that I wasn't running distressed and that soon that idea should creep into my legs. Just before the turn around it did. At this point the challenge became not speeding up but slowing down to keep my heart rate goal. I caught the first guy I left the transition with and then started passing anyone in sight at will. I came across the line with a lot left in the tank and feeling pretty good.



I have never done a race at completely aerobic pacing so the feeling of not being spent at the end of a race was new though not unwelcome. I must say it was really hard to let some folks go and stay focused on my larger goals. But I learned a lot from it and I do feel like the workout/race made me a stronger triathlete in a couple of ways. The biggest is the sense that I race for me and my own reasons. Not to prove anything, or beat someone. I can race just for me and that too is satisfying. And I did learn there is some truth in the whole "Perfect paces makes for perfect races" thing.


Friday, May 30, 2008

Cap Tex Tri Pictures

This past weekend I got off work late (around 7:30 AM -- due to someone not finishing their job, so I had to do it for them) but I still went down to the Cap Tex Tri. I've never done this race largely because of all the races I've been to, this one is the most fun to watch. It is a very, very spectator friendly course. One of the few I know of where the swim, bike and the run can be watched simultaneously from the bridges that cross Town Lake at either end of the swim course. This years' race was amazing with local favorite Brandon Marsh leading the race into the first 2.5 miles of the 10k run where he was caught by Mexico's Francisco Serrano. Brandon was able to hold on to second place though coming in about a minute behind Serrano.

Truth be told, I should never be allowed near any event with a camera. When I got home I had taken almost 700 photos. And I left long before it was over. So anyway here are a few of the more interesting pix...




Swimming in tandem.


Brandon Marsh cruising in the lead on the first lap. That speck over his right shoulder would be Francisco Serrano, the race's eventual winner.




'En masse' on the bike.



Drafting anyone?


Ladies with very bright futures!


Alone in a sea of bikes while the race goes on...


Somehow he swerved into her lane?

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

So Much To Blog, So Little Time....


I honestly have a lot of stuff to write about. You would think that last week would have been a good week for it -- being a recovery week and all. But as I've mentioned before, recovery is hard work. These are typically lighter weeks in terms of volume, but they tend to have some intense workouts scheduled for benchmark purposes. Last week was really important because it was the first time I would be able to really assess my current "level of fitness" and make some decisions about what direction I would take my training given my bike accident and the unexpected time and energy commitment involved in becoming a certified Yoga Instructor.

I sort of highlight the term "level of fitness" because as I'm writing this, just as I was deciding to bench mark it last week, I sort of have to laugh. I'm laughing because when I decided to do the testing I still hadn't seen the last, and probably most important, person on my wellness team (more on this later). So basically what I'm saying is my arm still hurt. But in order to move forward I needed to know exactly where I was -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. So to speak.

This meant testing in each of the 3 sports. The run was easy. Just run and hold my arm at an angle that didn't involve it hurting. Sometimes I do this type of test on the track. But that is more important with actual speed assessment. Since I'm not fast at the moment both due to 3 months of nonstop Yoga and the bike accident, I decided the "truth" of the track wasn't necessary. This time I did a run test similar to a T-30min in the pool. Except my run test had a heart rate ceiling of 154 which is approximately 15 beats below my aerobic threshold. The point of the work out was to see how far I could run at that pace in exactly 1 hour. I ran about (I was on the trail without the footpod - my shoes fit better without it) 7.5 miles with an average heart rate of 148. This averages out to about 8:00 per mile pace.

There were actually two bike tests. One with a heart rate ceiling of 150 and one with a higher ceiling done 3 days later. Both test were done on the same 8 mile course. This is the same loop that is used by the RunFar Time Trial folks. My average heart rate for the test was 146 and I completed the 8 miles in 23:42. This gave me an average speed of 20.25 mph. The second test was done with a heart rate ceiling of 165, or 5 beats below aerobic threshold. My average heart rate was 162 with a time of 22:15. My average speed was 21.56 mph. The coolest thing about the bike though was discovering aerobars hold my arm in a completely pain-free position!

Last was the swim test. Though I had regained the ability to bend at the elbow, it was still too painful to swim for any amount of time over 3 minutes. As such, I opted out of the planned swim test.

Conclusions from last week: 1. Aerobically running and biking I'm ok. 2. I need to do more power sets on the bike for some speed and efficiency. 3. I can't swim yet. And 4. For the time being, I suppose I'll be a duathlete.

Monday, April 14, 2008

I Just Discovered A New Tri Blog!!

So, I'm surfing the web looking for pictures of Dave Scott (aka The Man) while he is running. I can find video on YouTube, but I want pictures. Specifically I want pictures of his feet. I'm writing a blog post about running form and choosing shoes.

Anyway, somehow I run across this blog I've never seen before and the next thing I know an entire hour is magically disappeared (I love the internets). At any rate, if you haven't done so, check this guy out. I'm not really sure why but I found his blog really exciting. Sort of like the Real World of Tri Blogging. He provides an a very intriguing glimpse into the world and work of an elite professional triathlete, complete with song lyrics and cd covers. Priceless.

"And in this corner!!!! BOY-SPANDEX!!!!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

We Roll Real Fast...



Every spring here in Austin, Tx Raul Najera and the folks at RunFar Racing Services are kind enough to set up some timing mats down on S. Mopac, hand out some timing chips and let the speed obsessed cyclists in the area see how fast they roll. Everyone is welcome and the results are posted on the web later in the evening. Depending on who you ask the course is somewhere just over 8 miles (13 kilometers) long and "mostly" flat. I say "mostly" because this is Austin and "flat" is a pretty rare description for the local terrain.

The time trials are free providing you supply your own chip, or costs $5.00 to borrow one. The RunFar Time Trials are held twice monthly on Tuesdays starting at 6:00 PM and go on through September.

If you aren't inspired yet, here are some pictures. Because I don't know about you but I'm thinking "It's GO time!"


















Tuesday, December 25, 2007

A Very Merry (Triathlete) Christmas!!


One of my friends on my MySpace page has the right idea about the true spirit of Christmas. And an excellent tree decorator as well....

Monday, November 19, 2007

My Dog Ate My Race Photos...


That's what I should call this post. Or my best friend was smoking crack! Looking around the internet at other triathlete blogs, everyone's has race photos but mine.
Heck, some actually even have race photos with the blogger in them. Anyway I think this first shot is of the awesome race venue. As you can see the lake is just HUGE! No wait, I think that's a tree.

Here I am running into the transition from the swim. Obviously the time I've spent working on my speedy transitions is paying off. Take a camera to the race and give to a friend to get some pictures for my comeback race is what I was thinking. What I should have been thinking was give my camera to a 5 year old, couldn't have been worse. Or could it?





By the timestamp this is supposed to be me exiting transition. No wait that's just my friend's finger over the lens. Or a really nice shot of Mars. Not that I have anything against the god of war or the planet mind you, but I did have something else a little different in mind when I thought of getting a few snapshots of my return to racing.



As you can see it was a very flat, fast bike course. There was really no need to worry about traffic as the race director obviously had his little section of road pretty well isolated. Needless to say this would also make for an ideal run. But just between you and me, I will say the bike might have been a tad short.





Finally I made it to the run. Due to the "cloverleaf" loop nature of the course and the excellent spot my buddy was located with the camera, I passed within 5 feet of him 5 times on the run course. How many shots of me did he get? One. And this is it. Enough said.




Crossing the finish line is the moment of truth for any triathlete no matter what the distance. That's where the emotions of the day and what you've just accomplished are on display for all to see. And I was lucky enough to have my best friend there with my camera to catch it. Can you imagine how happy I was to complete my first race in five years? And to have it captured forever? Well if not it'll have to wait until next year. My friend was obviously imagining something else when he took this shot.