Core 4 got er dun!

These four amazing athletes (and more importantly, good friends) finished the Chuckanut 50k this weekend. John, Scott, Mike and John ran in the rain ALL DAY. The rain started about 6:30 am and did not stop until the evening. I went and watched the start and got a ride up to aid station 3 and 4 (Ridge Trail area) that I was volunteering at for the day. After sending the runners out into the light showers and a quick cup of joe, made our way up to the top of Chuckanut Mountain. We setup the aid station and made PB&J wraps, cut fruit and candy bars into bite sized portions. The first runner came through about 9:45 or so, still raining.

As the runners came up the hill many seemed glad to see us and many just happy for a little break before heading out for one of the toughest sections of the run. This upper loop follows the ridge trail, generally down hill for about 2-3 miles and then turns onto the Lost Lake Trail. This Lost Lake trail can be muddy in the middle of the summer. After days (weeks) of rain and raining all day, I heard it was mud bog after mud bog and I can only imagine how much water and mud they had to run (or walk) through. After suffering through this mudfest, they come around the south side of the mountain, only to have to go up a trail called Chinscraper, due to the grade your chin can scrape the dirt off the trail. I imagine this section, after 250+ runners was very muddy making it extra tough and slippery.

Once finished with Chinscraper they come back to the aid station I was at. Some runners just run past, while others take their time and get another rest before finishing the event. I was surprised to see some runners with pretty clean legs, some were definitely covered in mud, but some found a clean way around or through the mud bogs.

I'm truly inspired by these guys and think very highly of them.

CONGRATULATIONS!

I did get a run in on Saturday, after my duties at the aid station were done, I ran down the ridge trail and the lower Lost Lake trail connecting to the Interurban at Arroyo Park to run back to the finish area at Fairhaven Park. I felt a bit bad getting 'good jobs' and 'well dones' from others on the interurban trail. One person photographing the runners asked me if I was in the race and I said no, she said she didn't think so because I was running to fast. This is at the 30 mile mark for the runners and I had only come down the hill.

I took the day off (from training) on Sunday, Debbie got in a good run and we later went on a family bike ride. We borrowed a trail-a-bike for Alex to ride. His feet just touched the pedals, so couldn't pedal, but could hold on and he LOVED it. We rode around Boulevard Park and think we will get a trail-a-bike for him to grow into.

The Final Four

Stop filling out your March Madness brackets. I know the Final Four... personally! I ran with them on Sunday morning. John, Mike, Scott and John are the survivors and will be running the Chuckanut 50k next week while the larger portion of our Sunday trail running group are recovering and possibly watching and supporting them on this great run.

We met at Lake Padden in the middle of a wind and rain storm, but once underway and in the trees it was not raining and I didn't even hear much wind. I say it was not raining, but it was not dry, my feet were soaked through within minutes and my shoes and legs were covered in mud minutes after that, but it was fun to be running again with these guys. We ran for less than an hour total. After we met at Starbucks and I thoroughly enjoyed the good stories.

I'll be volunteering at the 50k this year. I volunteered in 2005 at aid station 3/4 and will do the same this year. This aid station is at the top of the mountain, I get to see (and help) the runners not once, but twice, both times after they have climbed Chuckanut Mountain. They go for a 7.5 mile loop after I see them the first time, during that loop they will go around the mountain dropping elevation, coming back up the back side and dropping more elevation only to have to climb back up to the top.

This week is a recovery week for me, so only about 8 hours of exercise planned and lots of rest, I need it. On my plan, I switch from two weight workouts a week to one and really start to ride the bike more and more. While loosing a weight workout I will gain 1-2 bike workouts and 1-2 running workouts each week. Swimming will remain mostly constant at 3 workouts, but I will incorporate a 'longer' swim each week so my time in the pool should be up as well. My biggest weeks have been constant at about 12-13 hours for the week. I will hitting at least an 18 hour week and most of that time is bicycling. I'm looking forward to it!

Good luck and have fun to all the 50k runners this lucky Saturday! I will see you there. I'll be the one in green ;-)

Great Weekend and Monthly Update

It was a wet and muddy weekend, but I had a very good weekend of training.


I met another triathlete on Satuday morning for my annual ride out to Everson to run in the Honeywagon fun run put on by the GBRC. No rain on the ride out or back, but the roads were wet to whole way. Lots of road grime from all the sand and dirt they put down during the few snow storms we've had this winter. We took it nice and easy on the way out and back. It was great to not be riding in the garage on my trainer.


I wanted to run fast as I was going to run the 4 mile event (last year I ran the half marathon). These events are run on very flat farmland around Everson. I started out fast and at the first mile marker checked my watch and hit 6:31. I kept on moving along and hit 13:04 at the 2 mile mark. I was hopefuly that I could keep up this blistering pace. Just past the two mile mark is the turn, 4 milers turn left and the half marathoners turn right. I was suprise how many half marathoners were running 6:30 miles turned to the right. The field thinned out and I was hopeful to be in the top ten. There was no 3 mile marker and I think that just helped me continue on strong. Being such a flat course it can be difficult to keep the speed, hills even small ones help to break up the pace and let you relax a bit. I just kept trying to maintain my pace. Coming back to the start/finish always gets my adrenalene up another notch and was able to kick around the school to a finish in 25:38 for a 6:25 average pace!


I met up with some of the 50k runners for a muddy run on Sunday morning. They are in the second week of their taper and the planned two hour run was just right for me. We met at the Vet clinic and ran up to the Lost Lake trailhead and back. Boy o Boy was the trail muddy. This is part of the 50k race and will get even muddier after 325 runners come through in a couple weeks. Great run and was great to get back to a run with some friends. The group has gotten smaller due to a lot of injuries this year. We had 10 in our 50k group for last years event and it is down to 4 50k runners this year. Hopefully we will all be back running strong in the future.


February 2007 Recap: 42 hours and 26 minutes of training. My percentages are starting to even out, but I will need to get in more and more cycling so that should continue to rise.

Going Strong

Still going strong. After last weeks recovery/test week I was able to get in two workouts each day this week except for Thursday and Friday.

My tests last week went great. My swim test on Friday was 3x300 with 30 seconds rest in between. I was able to average 5:27 per 300 (1:49 per 100), which is very fast for me. My bike test was a 5 mile square just north of Bellingham, the sun came out so I was able to do the test outside and on my test route. I completed the 5 mile rectangle in just over 15 minutes about 20 mph. Not too screaming fast but I felt good about the ride this early in the season. I did my run test on Sunday on a track. After warming up I ran 2.77 miles (10 laps in lane 6) in 17:57 or 6:30 per mile. Again this was fast and felt great.

This was a tough week though, Alex got sick last weekend and after a few days of not really eating or drinking was very dehydrated, Debbie took him to his doctors office on Wednesday (21st) this week and he was down 5 pounds (that's over 15% of his body weight - imagine you or I loosing 15%) since his 4 year checkup a few weeks earlier. They had us take him to the hospital. We was put on an IV on Wednesday and spent the night at the hospital with Debbie. Hopeful to come home on Thursday, he still wasn't eating enough so I spent the night with him on Thursday night. He came home Friday and is almost back to his normal kid self.

I did my first 'brick' workout of the year today. A BRICK is a Bike ride followed by a Run, people have come up with the BR -ICK label cause they are tough. I've always been able to quickly get into my running legs after my bike rides and today's first BRICK was the same, I did the bike on the trainer in the garage and had a fairly quick 4 minute transition into dry running clothes and shoes and felt like my normal running legs within a quarter mile or less. For some, this change from biking legs to running legs can take a lot longer, but it is important to get this down because in a triathlon you need to be ready.

Nice and easy 2 hour hilly trail run planned for tomorrow!

New Bike Course for IMCDA

The new bike course for the Ironman Triathlon in Coeur d'Alene has been posted to the race web site. It can be found here.

The course goes north through Hayden instead of west through Post Falls.

On the bike I ride about 3 blocks from our Hotel 4 times. The course uses the same first out and back section where the riders head south along Lake Coeur d'Alene which is about a 14 mile loop. The large loop goes north and is about a 40 mile lollipop the stick section connects Couer d'alene with Hayden and then the loop is to the north of Hayden. Looks like beautiful countryside up there.

Family Weekend

I got up early (well normal time for me about 6) on Saturday and rode 2 hours on the trainer before we loaded up and went to the race. I put in my new Spinerval 26.0 Hardcore 100 DVD and did the first two hours of this 5.5 hour workout. Two hours was my plan, but Coach Troy said on the DVD many times that if you start this workout you need to finish, but I didn't have time for all 5.5 hours. I will have to build up to that. I thought the part that I did do was good and am looking forward to extending and possibly finishing the full 5.5 workout.

After finishing my 2 hours, I loaded the car and we went to a running event that the GBRC puts on this time each year called the "Two for the road" where you run with a partner and finish together. Debbie Ran with Jacob and I ran with Alex. Jacob did great finishing the 5k in about 50 minutes, the course runs through Whatcom Falls park and has a nice long downhill, but you have to come back up. Alex did great too, issuing many "Good Job" and thumbs up to lots of other runners from his seat in the stroller. The course is two out and backs so he got to see lots of people and lots of smiles. We were the first Parent/Stroller pair and Alex went up during the awards to get his blue ribbon and a box of candy, he was very surprised and happy to share the candy with the whole family.

After the race we drove to Edgewood to visit and let the kids play with their cousins.

Sunday morning I went for a run, I went from Edgewood down the hill into Puyallup and followed East Main into Sumner and then back up the hill into Edgewood and made my way almost to Milton and back to Debbies parents house. Nice tour of cities. I was hoping for almost 2 hours and took about 1:37. My GPS had troubles so guesstimate about 11.5 miles. I was particularly happy about running with no stops or walks up the hill from "The Cannery" in Sumner to Edgewood.

After showering and an awesome breakfast, we started North to Seattle to visit and exchange birthday gifts at my parents house with my extended family. We were celebrating birthdays ranging from December through March and included Alex, my Grandma, my Dad and my brother Marc. My Mom made a lunch that I remembered from growing up, country style spare ribs, VERY good.

The Durango made it home just about dusk and Debbie and I relaxed while Jacob helped Alex play with his gifts.

Caught the Bug

Well I had to sit out a couple days this past week because I caught the bug thats going around. Not too bad, stayed home from work one day and in the other, but skipped out on all training for those two days. I think this worked out well.



As part of my training plan I schedule recovery days. These recovery days may not mean total rest and relaxation, but a lighter workout and not as long. It is when you rest and recover when your body can regenerate and actually realize some of the hard work your putting in.



I did get in my key workouts for the week, my long bike and my long run. I got about 2:15 on a nice bike ride with Kevin. We went to Lynden and back at a relatively easy pace. No rain until the final 10-12 miles or so. As I'm out of the 50k, I ran alone and from the house up Galbraith and then down to Haggens and home, just over 2:00, perfect, no pain in my injured area.



January 2007 Recap: 51 hours and 24 minutes of training. As you can see only 18% of my time was on the bike. I need to get more bicycling in. It will come.