Jun 10

Lost Valley Luau

Posted on by

My Quantum Mesa cycling team put on the Lost Valley Luau mountain bike race this past weekend. I volunteered to help out with the race, but I kind of really wanted to participate in the race as well. The organizer was kind enough to put me on registration duty so after registration closed I’d be able to hop into the race.

I’ve never done a mountain bike race before. The closest I came was in the Tracks N Treads off road duathlon last spring, but in that race the run came first and I had a huge lead going into the bike leg. This was going to be a mass start mountain bike race with everyone making a mad dash down a gravel path in order to get to the single track trail first. I was quite curious how this would play out, yet utterly terrified at the same time. Complicating matters was the fact that I missed the beginner race earlier in the day due to my volunteer duties, so I was racing in the sport class (above beginner level, but below expert). Also, I’ve only ridden my mountain bike once in the past 14 months.

What’s the worst that could happen?

My expectations were low. I wanted to finish the race. I didn’t want to crash. I didn’t want to cause someone else to crash. I didn’t want to have a mechanical. I believed there was a realistic chance I could finish dead last, but that didn’t bother me. I was there to have fun and to learn.

The start of the race was much faster than I expected, and rather than go into oxygen debt at the start of a 2 hour race I just let the fast guys go. After the scariest steep gravel descent I’ve ever ridden (my arms were shaking violently from side to side, which is not what you want when you’re traveling 30+ mph) we made it to a long ascent–Rob’s time to shine. I passed a lot of people who had gone out faster than me and I got into a good position for the single track.

It was immediately obvious I was outclassed by the technical skills of the riders around me. I tried to stay in contact with them for as long as possible. A couple riders passed me in the early miles, then a couple more a bit later. We came out of the woods onto another gravel road and I cranked up the speed a bit and gained some ground back on my fellow riders. In the next two section of single track I did a bitter better, and my confidence grew a bit.

The whole time we were constantly passing people on the side of the trail who were stopped with mechanicals, or picking themselves back up after a crash. I expected to see a few mechanicals, but there were far more than I would have guessed–dozens, I’d say.

I passed another handful of riders on the gravel road leading to the finish line at the end of the first loop. I headed back out for my second 11 mile loop with nobody in sight ahead of me.

088
Photo courtesy of Karen Einig

090
Photo courtesy of Karen Einig

I was cooked at the bottom of the long gravel ascent, so I took it much slower than the first lap. Just before I reached the single track I felt raindrops. Then a few minutes later it began to pour. I was stuck behind a guy going a little slower than I would have liked and I thought about passing him. But the dark skies made it difficult for me to see (my transitions lenses got me again) and the muddy trail slowed me down even more. I eventually took off my glasses, but then I had to deal with mud in my eyes, which was almost as bad. I stuck with him for several miles until we reached the gravel road again, then I finally passed.

The last two sections of single track again went fairly well for me, though they were much slower on account of the mud. I passed 1-2 more riders in the final gravel road section before the finish line. It was still pouring down rain at the finish so I had to wait until later in the day to find the results online. I finished 13th of 43 in the sport race, and 4th of 12 in the 30-39 age group. So it went pretty well (even if it did end my streak of 11 consecutive top ten race finishes).

Muddy

Another rider in the sport race captured his first 20 minutes on video, which was fun to watch. About 1 second into this video you can see my orange jersey on the far left side about two rows ahead of the camera. Enjoy.

Jun 02

Runs on Plants

Posted on by

(I stole the title of this post from No Meat Athlete).

FriscoRob
Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

As of May 2013 I’ve been a vegetarian (eating plants, dairy, & eggs) for 14 years. I try not to mention it much because I don’t like to evangelize about it. My diet works for me, though it may not work for you. I have many, many reasons for eating the way I do, but you may or may not agree with any particular one of them. Big whoop.

As of June 2013 I’ve been a vegan (eating solely plants) for 1 full year. I never really even mentioned the change to anyone (partially because I didn’t think it was a big deal, and partially because I wasn’t sure it would stick) unless they happened to be preparing food for me. I was vegan-curious for quite some tome, but I put off making that leap for two reasons:

1. pizza
2. milk chocolate

I honestly didn’t think I could live without pizza (although I think Imo’s Pizza here in St. Louis is awful enough to turn anyone vegan). I gave it a shot and after about two weeks I didn’t even want pizza any more. That was easy. I’ve eaten vegan pizza a couple times in the past year and it’s so-so. Restaurants tend to use too much Daiya cheese substitute (a little Daiya goes a long way). Melissa makes the best vegan pizza. I used to eat pizza once a week and now I eat it once every three months.

Milk chocolate was another staple of my diet. I’ve since discovered what many people probably already knew: milk chocolate sucks. Semisweet and dark chocolate taste way better. Ditching milk chocolate also made it easy for me to cut out a lot of types of junk food from my diet. I used to eat crap like Nutty Bars for a snack, while now I eat apples and grapes. Real food trumps shit every time.

Becoming vegan was far easier than I ever expected, though a lot of that had to do with having an already-vegan spouse. I have fewer options at restaurants, but that just means eating more real food at home. I typically eat more food, I eat healthier food, and I feel better.

SCAN0004

Anyone who follows my usual posts about endurance athletics my be wondering how this diet affects my performance. It turns out the past 12 months have been the most successful 12 months of my life for endurance racing: 21 races, 17 top ten finishes, 12 podium finishes, 4 wins. All with a plant-based diet.

There is certainly a strong correlation between my diet and athletic performance, but there’s far from enough proof to suggest my diet is responsible for my performance. So I’m not going to suggest everyone start eating the way I eat. On the other hand, it would be pretty difficult to argue that a plant-based diet is hindering my performance, wouldn’t it?

In 3rd

As for the question everyone is thinking, how do you get enough protein, the answer is simple: from all the food I eat. It’s a non-issue.

Jun 02

You must do a lot of running

Posted on by

Saturday I participated in the USO Mud Run. It is a 5K cross country obstacle course race. I’ve never done an obstacle course race before, but I’ve run plenty of muddy trail races. I thought, I can run a good 5K, I love cross country, I love muddy races. The obstacles were the unknown here for me, but I figured I could probably do them as well as anybody else.

Making the event even more interesting was the heavy rainfall on Friday night, and continuing rainfall during the race. Without the rain the course probably would have been pretty dry except for the mud mountains. With the rain the entire course (except a gravel road section) was wet and muddy, and there were a few sections of deep water.

The ~900 participants started in three different waves. I was in the first wave with all other individuals. The other categories of participants were female teams, male teams, and co-ed teams. Each team had five members and they had to finish together.

As was typical in a road race, a handful of slower runners sprinted off the starting line to get a big lead for about 200 meters before slowing drastically. After working my way through them I was alone at the front with a high school aged boy.

We stayed together for the first half mile through the wet and muddy grass until we reached the first series of obstacles, about six mud mountains in a row. Each one started with about 20 meters of thigh-deep water, followed by a steep pile of dirt/mud we had to climb over and down, followed by another 20 meters of thigh-deep water. It was impossible to run through the water, we just had to walk quickly and hope our shoes didn’t get sucked off our feet by the mud at the bottom.

9056 586428744712455 623825022 n
Photo from here

Next there was a runnable section of shin-deep water for about 100 meters. After that was the easy section of the course, which was a long straight gravel road. I had a small gap on the other guy after the obstacles and I tried to open it up on this fast part of the course.

At the end of the road we had to make a sharp left turn and go down into a big steep ditch filled with water and back up the other side. I had to laugh. I was the first person of the day to reach this part of the course and as I made the turn one of the volunteers said to me, “Be careful. We actually have no idea how deep the water is.” So I used a bit more caution. It up to my chest and wide enough that I could have swam across.

Once up the hill there was a mud crawl where (I think) we were supposed to go under the flags strung across the mud pit. I don’t know for sure because nobody explained it before or during the race and I didn’t have anyone in front of me to watch.

The final mile had some more muddy cross country, a few more ditch/water crossings, and one more mud mountain. The final obstacle was a huge plastic tarp slip-n-slide. Which was great.

I finished 1st. It was a super fun race. I was done before the 2nd and 3rd waves even started, so I was able to go back out to watch (and film) a lot of the team participants, which was just as fun as running the race myself. The vast majority of the people there weren’t really competing, they were just there to have fun. And I can see the appeal of that. This was not the typical crowd you see at a road race. There were a lot more smiles here.

I ran another 5-6 miles after my race. After the Nth time I passed one of the race volunteers (before, during, and after the race), he says to me:

You must do a lot of running.

He had me pegged.

Jun 01

May 2013

Posted on by

Running

Sure, 40% of my monthly mileage came in one day, but I recovered from Berryman pretty quickly and I’ve been getting some good training in since then.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 131.5 Mile 13 10.1154 Mile
February 87.4286 Mile 10 8.74286 Mile
March 162.84 Mile 17 9.57882 Mile
April 169.12 Mile 16 10.57 Mile
May 133.61 Mile 12 11.1342 Mile
Total 693.749 Mile 69 10.0543 Mile

Running 2013 5

Cycling

I certainly got off to a slow start with cycling this year, but the last week of May things really started to come together for me. I should be in race condition in no time.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 3.7 Mile 1 3.7 Mile
February 15.2 Mile 4 3.8 Mile
March 123.14 Mile 16 7.69625 Mile
April 114.22 Mile 12 9.51833 Mile
May 157.33 Mile 14 11.2379 Mile
Total 413.59 Mile 47 8.79979 Mile

Cycling 2013 5

Swimming

My times keep getting better, though they may be reaching a plateau. I’m approaching the point where I can swim 1000 yards at nearly the same pace as 200 yards. So in order to keep dropping my 1000 yard times I’m actually going to have to do speed work. Yuck.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 3950. Yard 3 1316.67 Yard
March 18900. Yard 11 1718.18 Yard
April 15600. Yard 10 1560. Yard
May 13200. Yard 8 1650. Yard
Total 51650. Yard 32 1614.06 Yard

Swimming 2013 5

Walking/Hiking

I did lots of walking and hiking as active recovery from Berryman, and it seems to have worked really well. I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from an ultra this quickly.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 37.64 Mile 12 3.13667 Mile
February 50.6 Mile 21 2.40952 Mile
March 92.9 Mile 37 2.51081 Mile
April 41.5 Mile 21 1.97619 Mile
May 91.75 Mile 33 2.7803 Mile
Total 314.39 Mile 124 2.5354 Mile

Walking 2013 5

May 23

Berryman

Posted on by

I’ve lived here in St. Louis for almost three years now and I still had never run an ultra put on by the local SLUG running group. That was going to change this spring. Registration opened January 1st and I tried to sign up for the Double Chubb 50K. The race filled up in 20 minutes and I missed out. Without really thinking matters through I instead signed up for the next SLUG race, the Berryman 50 mile in May. Berryman is farther than Chubb, the trail is more difficult, I had never run the trail before (so I wasn’t as familiar with it), it was later in the spring (so it would interfere more with my cycling/triathlon schedule, and it would be much hotter). It would be a bigger challenge, but I was ready.

After a brief recovery period following Fuego y Agua I focused all my attention on this race, and aside from the silly fall I had just before the Frisco Railroad Run everything else went perfectly. I had my biggest months and several of my biggest weeks of training as far back as my records go. I made two trips down to Berryman to train on the course and familiarize myself with it.

During the three week period between Frisco and Berryman I intended to do a bit more moderate training and a short taper. It didn’t work out that way. My knee hurt so much after Frisco I didn’t run for 10 days. By that point, only 10 days out from Berryman, I was freaking out about the problem. I saw a doctor who took X-rays and assured me it was just a bad bruise. I should be fine to run as long as I could take the pain. After Frisco I knew I could race through almost any pain.

My first training run back was a disaster. It was like I forgot how to run. I couldn’t get comfortable. My pace would vary from 10:00/mile to 6:40/mile completely unintentionally. My knee hurt. A lot. But each successive run went better, and after a week the knee pain was slight enough I could completely ignore it.

IMG 7834
The start (photo courtesy of Shannon Drohan)

I’m not an expert at running 50 miles. I have covered that distance one time previously, but it was on a much easier course with more frequent aid stations. I planned for the worst but hoped for the best. I made a point of starting the race extra slowly. If I start a short race too fast I might have a half hour or hour of misery before it ends. If I start a 50 mile race too fast I could have 5-6 hours of misery. For the early miles there were seven people in front of me and I was at the back of a pack of four. I was running very comfortably, breathing through my nose for the first 7-8 miles. The temperature was in the low-mid 60˚s, but it was rising rapidly.

IMG 7849
7.5 miles (photo courtesy of Shannon Drohan)

I skipped the first aid station, passing my three companions in the process. I had plenty of water and I would have had to wait behind the first three guys in my group to get any food… and I had plenty of food. Every mile divisible by two I ate a Medjool date. Every mile divisible by three I took an S!CAP. I had my only real mental lapse at the mile 16 aid station where I completely forgot to pick up more dates from my drop bag. I was out by that point so I had to switch to my backup plan of Clif Shot Bloks and Hammer Gels, and I had a few of each with me. The first loop was mostly uneventful. I continued on at a steady effort (though not a steady pace, due to the hills on the course). I gradually passed three more runners to move into second place at the end of the first 25.7 mile loop, which I completed in exactly 4 hours.

Race food

I was hot and starting to fatigue rapidly. I had been hoping to finish in 8 hours, but I knew that was out of the question. It wasn’t a very realistic goal. I had to slow down. The first 5 miles of the second loop took forever and I ran out of water. My mouth was too dry to effectively chew the dates I picked up at the start/finish line, so I had to switch back to my backup foods. The first half of the second lap was just brutal. I was baking in the sun.

Halfway through the second lap I started walking up some of the hills. Walking up hills is pretty standard procedure in ultramarathons, but I had been running them all. The weird thing about the Berryman trail is that despite the numerous hills, none of them are very steep. They’re all completely runnable. And since several are quite long, and there’s often not a clear start or end to the hill, it’s a bit awkward to arbitrarily start walking and then later arbitrarily start running again. But I did it anyway. I still had enough energy to run, but I was overheating.

Melissa found her way out to three of the aid stations on my second loop, and it was nice to see her and Will. I feel bad for not paying more attention to them, but I was really focused on getting this thing finished.

In my tired, dehydrated state I had a couple of hallucinations (this happened to me 5 hours into my very first ultra as well). Through the trees I would see fragments of a shape and my brain would fill in the missing bits with what I thought should be there. One time I saw a couple of mountain bikers on the side of the path that weren’t really there. Unfortunately, since I really wanted there to be an aid station up ahead, that’s the thing I hallucinated multiple times. I even got so excited to see one of the aid stations I opened up my water bottle and dumped the remaining contents over my head to cool down (knowing I would refill it at the aid station), only to look up and realize the aid station wasn’t really there.

The last 5 miles of the loop are a roller coaster of constant ups and downs. Knowing I was so close to the finish line I began running the hills again. I still had energy left. After I came out of the woods and approached the finishing line I even noted to myself that I still had pretty good form. I finished in 2nd place in 8h59m. The winner was almost an hour ahead of me, and much to my surprise the 3rd place finisher was only 2 minutes behind me. It’s a good thing the race ended when it did.

Rob finishing Berryman 50
The finish (photo by Melissa)

IMG 7997
The finish (photo courtesy of Shannon Drohan)

So it was quite an experience. A few things went wrong, but most things went right. I’m quite pleased about that. I started out very conservatively, and I still had energy left at the end. My nutrition plan went quite well with the dates, and even my backup plan of Clif Shot Bloks and Hammer Gel worked for me. I never had any stomach problems. I stayed on top of the S!CAPS and I never had muscle cramps. There were times when I struggled in the heat, but there was never any doubt in my mind that I would finish the race. I did have a bit of residual knee pain in the first couple miles, but it went away and didn’t return. Despite one close call I managed to stay upright the entire 51.4 miles on a very rocky trail. The race was well organized and the volunteers were great.

If I searched hard enough I could probably find things to complain about, but I’m not going to. The race went as well as I reasonably could have hoped. This was the race I’ve been looking forward to all year and I’m not a bit disappointed with it (which is as close to pride as I’m willing to publicly admit).

Dirty car

May 03

April 2013

Posted on by

Running

Most miles in a single month since 1996-1997.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 131.5 Mile 13 10.1154 Mile
February 87.4286 Mile 10 8.74286 Mile
March 162.84 Mile 17 9.57882 Mile
April 169.12 Mile 16 10.57 Mile
Total 550.889 Mile 56 9.8373 Mile

Running 2013 4

Cycling

Moving the wrong direction here, mostly due to terrible weather.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 3.7 Mile 1 3.7 Mile
February 15.2 Mile 4 3.8 Mile
March 123.14 Mile 16 7.69625 Mile
April 114.22 Mile 12 9.51833 Mile
Total 256.26 Mile 33 7.76545 Mile

Cycling 2013 4

Swimming

Several new 1000 yard PRs in April.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 3950. Yard 3 1316.67 Yard
March 18900. Yard 11 1718.18 Yard
April 15600. Yard 10 1560. Yard
Total 40100. Yard 25 1604. Yard

Swimming 2013 4

Walking & Hiking

Down a bit on account of more running and bad weather.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 37.64 Mile 12 3.13667 Mile
February 50.6 Mile 21 2.40952 Mile
March 92.9 Mile 37 2.51081 Mile
April 41.5 Mile 21 1.97619 Mile
Total 227.24 Mile 93 2.44344 Mile

Walking 2013 4

Apr 30

Catharsis

Posted on by

I limped to the starting line. Literally. I’ve never been in this much pain at the start of a race before. This was a bad idea.

I haven’t run a road marathon in over three years. I suppose this isn’t a road road marathon, as it is on a mostly gravel rail trail, but it’s definitely not on single track. Melissa found the Frisco Railroad Run and wanted to do the 50 mile race. They also had a marathon, which was around the distance I planned to run for training at this time leading up to the Berryman 50 mile race next month. I’ve already done two training runs this distance.

I didn’t taper for the marathon, but I did ease up a bit on my training a few days beforehand. Then on Thursday, two days before the marathon, I was doing one last easy four mile run when, for no discernible reason, I tripped on a straight, flat, smooth sidewalk and face planted. I bruised and scraped my left knee, hip, and elbow. I also managed to tip over the jogging stroller in the process, which scared me far more at the time. I got up, calmed Will down, and dropped him off at daycare, trying very hard not to think about how badly my knee hurt. A quarter mile from home I had to stop and walk the pain was so bad. There goes the marathon.

Banged up

I couldn’t walk the rest of the day. The next day was a little better, but not much. I decided to make the trip down to Springfield, MO anyway so I could be there to crew for Melissa. And maybe my knee would feel better by race time. Who knows?

I gave myself a 50% chance of starting and a 25% chance of finishing. My knee didn’t really feel any better by Saturday morning, but maybe it would be better running than walking. I already paid the entry fee. If this was a running injury that would threaten future events I wouldn’t have considered racing. But since it was just bruises and cuts… I’ll go ahead and start, then drop out after a few miles if it doesn’t improve. It didn’t improve.

FriscoStart
Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

Pre-fall I figured I could easily cruise to a 3 hour finish, so I started around that pace. I kept a close eye on my heart rate to make sure I didn’t overdo it early. The pain in my knee was intense, but the rest of my body felt superb. I was still breathing through my nose comfortably at mile 7.

FriscoRob
Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

FriscoRob2
Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

Until that point I had been slowly catching up to the leader, but then he picked up the pace and started to pull away. Ignoring common sense I went into race mode and sped up to catch him. I passed him around mile 11 and he stayed with me. I sped up to try to drop him, but he remained. I continued to lead until mile 18-19 or so when I needed him to share some of the wind breaking duties. So we took turns in front for a few miles.

IMG_1780

It was raining hard now. I was anaerobic, but nowhere near my red zone. I started to have some serious muscle fatigue in my legs around this time and the pace which was previously downright easy for me was becoming more and more difficult to maintain. When I started to notice other pain in my body besides my knee I knew I was in trouble. I slowed. He slowed as well. I slowed more. He slowed slightly less. And that was all it took for him to pull away from me. I chased him the last 5-6 miles, while he gradually gained.

Weaving through half marathon finishers I eventually crossed the line in second place at 3:02, about 1½ minutes down on the winner. Despite averaging 6:58 per mile my last two miles were over 8:00. I’m a little disappointed at my spectacular collapse at the end of this race, but I’m not too concerned. I didn’t train for this race, I didn’t taper for this race, and I was in excruciating pain the entire time.

My time of 3:02 was good enough for a new marathon PR. Here’s a comparison of my splits compared to my previous PR. What I find most striking is my significantly faster pace at a consistently lower heart rate.

Rockford Marathon 2009 Frisco Railroad Run 2013
Time Split HR Time Split HR
Mile 1 00:07:24 07:24 145 00:06:57 06:57 142
Mile 2 00:14:48 07:23 153 00:13:51 06:53 148
Mile 3 00:21:59 07:11 156 00:20:41 06:50 151
Mile 4 00:29:20 07:21 156 00:27:34 06:53 152
Mile 5 00:36:45 07:25 158 00:34:28 06:53 155
Mile 6 00:43:51 07:05 159 00:41:15 06:47 157
Mile 7 00:51:00 07:08 161 00:48:07 06:51 158
Mile 8 00:58:04 07:04 159 00:54:49 06:42 159
Mile 9 01:05:11 07:06 160 01:01:23 06:34 161
Mile 10 01:12:22 07:11 160 01:07:58 06:34 164
Mile 11 01:19:38 07:15 158 01:14:30 06:32 163
Mile 12 01:26:48 07:10 161 01:20:59 06:29 161
Mile 13 01:34:03 07:14 164 01:27:29 06:29 161
Mile 14 01:41:11 07:08 165 01:34:04 06:35 169
Mile 15 01:48:18 07:06 167 01:40:46 06:41 169
Mile 16 01:55:17 06:59 168 01:47:30 06:43 167
Mile 17 02:02:29 07:12 167 01:54:10 06:40 167
Mile 18 02:09:28 06:59 169 02:00:58 06:47 166
Mile 19 02:16:30 07:01 172 02:07:53 06:55 164
Mile 20 02:23:33 07:02 170 02:14:43 06:50 167
Mile 21 02:30:43 07:10 169 02:21:49 07:05 165
Mile 22 02:37:46 07:02 172 02:28:58 07:08 164
Mile 23 02:45:06 07:20 172 02:36:29 07:30 165
Mile 24 02:52:10 07:03 174 02:44:00 07:31 164
Mile 25 02:59:38 07:27 174 02:52:02 08:02 162
Mile 26 03:07:04 07:25 175 03:00:10 08:08 162

And now for a dark turn. Why did I bother racing so hard for so long through so much pain? I don’t really know for sure. It was dumb. But I was in a very bad place emotionally last week. I lost a dear friend to colon cancer. He was in his mid-thirties, the prime of life. I was thinking about him throughout race. I don’t recommend contemplating issues of life and death while running a marathon. But running is my coping mechanism. I was so distraught that all I wanted to do was run. And I was enduring so much emotional pain that all I wanted to do was suffer physically to try to mask that pain. I guess I just did what had to be done. I had to face my demons. I don’t know if I will ever get over the tragic loss of my friend, but at least now the healing process has begun.

Apr 24

Race Condition Podcast

Posted on by

I made a podcast. It’s called Race Condition and it’s about endurance training and racing: running, cycling, triathlon, and perhaps a bit more.

In the first episode I interviewed my running buddy Chris Migotsky about his recent Umstead 100 race. How did it go for him? Listen to find out.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. Or you can subscribe directly to the RSS feed in some other podcast client or RSS reader.

You can follow Race Condition on Twitter and Facebook. I encourage anyone to submit questions or feedback via these services or via email to info@racecondition.me.

Mar 31

March 2013

Posted on by

Something has to give. In order to increase training time in one endeavor I typically need to decrease time in another. For example, this past winter I ran more and biked less. At least I thought that was the case.

I’ve broken the rules. By taking time away from other activities (mostly watching TV) I’ve been getting in some good (if brief) swiming and running workouts during my lunch breaks. Furthermore, by multitasking (walking while working, more on that below) I’ve gotten a few more low-impact miles on my legs.

So in March I was able to achieve the largest total walking volume of any month since I started recording it, the second largest total running volume, and a local maximum in swimming volume (more than all of last year). All with lousy Smarch weather.

Good month, or best month?

Running

Fully recovered from Fuego y Agua and training hard for the Berryman 50 mile in May.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 131.5 Mile 13 10.1154 Mile
February 87.4286 Mile 10 8.74286 Mile
March 162.84 Mile 17 9.57882 Mile
Total 381.769 Mile 40 9.54421 Mile

Running 2013 3

Cycling

Weak, but at least the trend is moving in the right direction.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 3.7 Mile 1 3.7 Mile
February 15.2 Mile 4 3.8 Mile
March 123.14 Mile 16 7.69625 Mile
Total 142.04 Mile 21 6.76381 Mile

Cycling 2013 3

Swimming

I swam as far in March 2013 as I did in all of 2012 combined.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 3950. Yard 3 1316.67 Yard
March 18900. Yard 11 1718.18 Yard
Total 22850. Yard 14 1632.14 Yard

Swimming 2013 3

Walking/Hiking

I bought a cheap treadmill to go under my standing desk and I’ve been walking (sloooowly) a couple extra hours most days while I work.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 37.64 Mile 12 3.13667 Mile
February 50.6 Mile 21 2.40952 Mile
March 92.9 Mile 37 2.51081 Mile
Total 181.14 Mile 70 2.58771 Mile

Walking 2013 3

Mar 26

Swim Tech II: Garmin Forerunner 910XT

Posted on by

I’m a data junkie. I have a log of every workout I’ve done for the past 11 years, not to mention years worth of GPS tracks. When I run or bike my GPS records my distance and time. Even if I have technical difficulties and the GPS malfunctions for some reason I’m still pretty good at estimating distance. I don’t have that skill with swimming.

My new waterproof iPod Shuffle has been great for my swim training. It helps me deal with the boredom of swimming laps in a 25 yard pool. I can just let my mind go while the laps fly by. But I still need to know how far I’ve gone. I just can’t not know. That’s where the Garmin Forerunner 910XT
comes in.

Swim mode

The reason I bought this GPS watch was for running very long distances (it has much longer battery life than Garmin’s other GPS watches). I didn’t need it for cycling, I have a different Garmin GPS for that. I didn’t need it for swimming, I can count laps (though that does become difficult past 400 yards) and look at the timer clock on the wall. But now that I’m listening to music and swimming longer intervals (up to 1000 yards), not to mention I’m getting old, I can’t reliably count laps.

I really just stick to the basic swimming features of this watch. I tell it I’m swimming. In a pool. Which is 25 yards long. Then I swim. At the beginning and end of each interval I press the Lap button. The watch uses a built-in accelerometer to determine which stroke and which direction I’m going, from which it keeps track of how far I’ve gone.

(I tested the distance features a couple times last year and it was occasionally incorrect, but after a firmware update this year it’s always been correct for me).

One neat feature I’ve just started using is the distance alert. I have it set to notify me (the watch vibrates) every 200 yards. When I feel the vibration right before a turn I take a glance up at the wall timer clock to get my 200 yard split during a longer interval.

When I get home the data uploaded to Garmin Connect shows the distance and duration of each split, and duration, stroke type, etc. for every individual 25 yard length of the pool. If you’re into efficiency you can see your stroke count for every length. It’s a remarkable amount of data. I can easily pinpoint the lap that was 1.5 seconds slower due to a botched flip turn.

The downside is the high price. This has been my go-to watch for running for the past 14 months, and now I use it for my swims as well. I’m not sure I’d buy it for the swimming features alone (GPS would be overkill for indoor swimming), but since I already owned the watch I’m glad to be extracting even more value from it.

Highly recommended.

★★★★½