Races and such

Greetings to all,

 

It seems that I can only find time to write aproximately every quarter or so, so here's the obligatory e-mail.  Today I am going to talk about two things, mainly: road races I have participated in during the "summer" (it's always summer here in Hawaii!), and then a little bit about what I am doing for the next 6 months or so.

 

First, racing.  It has been a tremendously successful string of races for me, starting back in August.  Building up to the Honolulu Marathon each December, the local running club, the Mid-Pacific Road Runners Club (www.mprrc.org) puts on a "marathon preparation series" of five races, starting off at 15k, building through 30k, then culminating with a half-marathon about a month before the December marathon itself.  Here's a spreadsheet breaking down the information:

 

Date	Race distance	Finish time	Pace per mile	Previous PR	Pace per mile	Race
8/20/2006	15k	1:03:44	6:50	1:07:51	7:17	2004 Governor's Cup 15k (Lincoln, NE)
9/5/2006	3 mi	0:17:59	6:00	0:17:40	5:53	Aug 2005 Marine Corps physical fitness test
9/9/2006	10k	0:39:37	6:23	0:39:50	6:25	2005 Harvest 10k (Dam Neck, VA)
10/1/2006	13.1 mi	1:31:23	6:59	1:34:44	7:14	2002 Lincoln Half Marathon

 

If it looks like the 3 mile time is not a PR, you're right.  I ran faster last year for that distance.  The reason it's here is because I combined the 17:59 time with perfect scores on the other two aspects of the Marine Corps physical fitness test (pull-ups and crunches) this year, with the end result being me getting a perfect score of 300 points, the first time I have ever done that in almost 12 years of trying!

 

All in all, running is going very well for me.  I will compete in 3 more races over the next month and then call it quits for the year, no more racing.  Next weekend is that 30k race I alluded to earlier (the longest non-marathon event I will have ever run!), the week after is a sprint biathlon (yes, I still try to do some multisport events as my schedule allows), and finally another half marathon at the beginning of November.

 

So why the abrupt planned stoppage of racing?  Well, I am heading back out.  Duty calls and I will be leaving on my 5th deployment in service of this great nation (my second in support of the global war on terror) in early November.  I will pass along my mailing address once I find out what it will be.  I'm not heading to Iraq; "been there, done that."  This is a different mission in a different place.  Sorry, can't say much more about it than that.  Right now, it's scheduled to last about 4 months (subject to change, as always).  That means another missed Christmas.  Again, par for the course.   

 

Well, those were the two big issues I wanted to get the word out about.  Regarding the Sampsons in Hawaii, everyone is doing well.  John celebrated his 5th month "birthday" yesterday (he's getting to be so big!).  I suppose I will hardly recognize him by the time I return.  Everyone is getting much more sleep as of late; John very nearly sleeps through the night every night now.  Barb has her hands full taking care of John full-time.  I'm busy getting my platoon of Marines ready for deployment.  We are expecting Dave and Kellie visiting from Nebraska this week and looking forward to sharing our beautiful island paradise with them for a few days.

 

Best regards from Hawaii,

 

Gary, Barb, and John Henry

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Leave is over

Today I am going to work for the first time in 10 days. At the beginning of my 9 days off (5 days of leave sandwiched in between two weekends = 9 days), I felt like that amount of time would be forever! Not the case. Isn't it always this way? I feel like these 9 days have been just about the fastest 9 days of my life.

John had his much-anticipated "2-month" check-up last week. I say "2-month" because the visit was late as originally scheduled (2 months plus a week or two), and then it was re-scheduled from the previous week because the doctor was out sick. So he was closer to 3 months than two when we went last week, but we're still calling it his 2-month check-up. What did we find out? Nothing we didn't already know: we've got a healthy, robust baby! The numbers:

13 lbs, 6 oz. (!) - in the 75th percentile
25 inches long (!!) - in the 90th percentile

John is a big kid! When I see other parents around with babies who are about the same age as John, it almost invariably turns out that they are about half his size. I think that he is going to end up being much taller than his daddy! (currently ~6' tall)

In othe news, there was recently an important addition to the iTunes music collection. Metallica has released its music for sale there. Upon dicovering this, I immediately "corrected myself" for allowing a gigantic hole in my music collection to exist - I purchased "Kill 'Em All" posthaste. I have owned this record in the past, but I think that it was on cassette (in other words, it's been a while), never on CD. Now I've got it, although it seems to me that it doesn't have the complete original track listing. It seems to be missing "Am I Evil" from the original track listing. It attempts to make up for this by including two bonus live tracks, "The Four Horsemen" and "Whiplash," purportedly recorded during a 1989 concert in Seattle.

Finally (for today), I've been reading a book by Dean Karnazes recently. Titled "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner," it tells about how he went from a work-obsessed San Francisco corporate ladder-climber to a crazy guy who runs marathons for fun (those are his easy days). When he really wants to challenge himself he goes 100+ miles at a time! This is mind-boggling - how the heck does he do that? Read the book to find out. It's certainly motivating to me in my modest-by-comparison endurance training. If this guy can go 135 miles through Death Valley in the middle of summer, I can probably motivate myself to get out the door for a 10-mile run in Hawaii. I hope to finish the book today, then post a review on Amazon.com (see all my reviews here).

The Latest Triathlon, etc.

I didn't really let anybody know ahead of time, but today I ran my latest triathlon. It was a Olympic distance race here on O'ahu, across the island over at Kapiolani Park (near Waikiki). It was a quality endeavour, to be sure! I really had a good race (no, I didn't take home any hardware - at least, not that I know of). I felt really good, very strong. The official results are not posted yet, but once they are, you can see them here (scroll down to July 2006; it's the Tinman triathlon).

My recap of the race:

Swim: started ~0545, and the sun wasn't quite up yet. I was concerned that we would be swimming in the dark! To add to this, I have tinted swim goggles, which made it seem even darker. Fortunately, there were some "technical difficulties" that delayed the start about 5 minutes, which was just about enough time to get a little bit of light in the sky. Besides, I am never going to be the guy out in front of the pack on the swim, so I guess it's not critically important that I can see where I am going! I just follow the people ahead of me! I was out of the water in about 15 minutes, a pretty good swim for me (it was 750 meters long).

Bike: I felt that I had a fairly quick transition to the bike and it only took me about 10 minutes to get into a good rhythm. I downed a PowerGel and had some Gatorade. The course went east out to Hawaii Kai (against the tradewinds, which is good - they were behind me on the way back in to the transition area) and up a killer hill right before the turnaround point. I averaged almost 20 mph to the base of the hill and was at just over a 19 mph average when I got to the turnaround. I was consistently clocking 23+ mph on the mostly flat course back in to Waikiki, and when I finished I had an overall average speed of ~20.5 mph. I was hoping to average at least 20 mph on the bike today, so that was a good showing! The ride was 40k (just under 25 miles) and I wanted to do it in 1 hour 15 minutes or less. I accomplished that today.

Run: It took about 10 minutes to get my legs to feel decent for running off the bike, and there was a pretty good uphill grade for probably 1.5 - 2 miles on the first half of the run, climbing up and around Diamond Head crater. I got into a good rhythm once again and tried to push myself to catch the runners I saw in front of me. I pushed a good pace back up and over Diamond Head on the way to the finish and came across the finish line in 2:13:46 (unofficial - this is the time on my watch), feeling good and asking myself if that was it - wasn't there more to the race? This was a 10k (6.2 mile) run. My goal was 45 minutes or less; I think that according to my watch I did it in about 43.

Maybe I am starting to see some of the payoff for all the training I have done this year. I am sore now writing this several hours after the finish, but I felt fine earlier. Maybe it's because my last race (the Honu Half Ironman) was approximately twice as long as this one. Well, whatever it is, I like it! In a few days I might have some race photos to post here to go along with this.

Hmmm, let's see, what else is going on? There are some rock shows of coming up out here next month. Tool is coming to town. I will not be there. I will be here on-island when the shows are taking place. However, I was slow on the uptake in buying tickets. Now, there are none left. Two shows, both sold out. Darn. Tool is a good time, right Dave? Maybe I can dig up a spare ticket somewhere in the next few weeks...

Later in the year, U2 is playing here. Pearl Jam is opening for them. Since when does Pearl Jam open shows? The Cone? When? I would think their days of doing that were long past! Won't be going to that one either. Probably won't be here when that one goes on.

This upcoming week is the last one of my current graduate school class. It has been a good experience; I have learned lots! The professor, Allan R. Millett (see his bio here), has been great. Truly a wealth of knowledge, lots of relevant stories, and he seems to know personally just about everybody in the high echelons of the military and government. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take any classes this fall nor in the spring, so it will likely be a year before I am able to continue my graduate education. That is depressing, but it's the way it is. I have to live with it.

John is growing like a champ. Not sure what he's weighing nowadays but should know this week (he's got a check-up on Tuesday). I'm not sure if it's possible, but the little guy seems to get cuter and cuter by the day! New pictures will be posted soon, I promise!

Last for tonight, Grandma and Grandpa Sampson are coming to visit this week and next. I'm sure John is just going to blow them away! It seems like he is gaining new abilities every day, from holding up his head on his own, to holding up his full weight in a standing position (obviously he needs lots of help with the balance part) to scooting across the floor on his tummy if you brace his feet so he can push. Amazing!

Of Book Reviews and Blogs

I have mentioned in past posts that I am taking a class right now, on the Korean War. I have the first product of said class for your viewing pleasure today, it's a book review I wrote and you can see it here on Amazon.com, posted exactly as it was submitted for grading. Is it perfect? Certainly not. But it's not bad, particularly in comparison with its' "competition;" the submissions of the other students in the class. How do I know about them? I had to read all of them! In fact, we all had to read everyone else's review and critique them. We, in turn, are graded on our ability to critique the reviews of others. Not a bad idea at all! Anyhow, as I read some of the other reviews, I realized that mine was pretty good! Probably not the best in the class; there were some really good ones! But better than many, most perhaps. I must admit, I am a tad biased towards myself. I think that I write pretty well, most of the time. Some other people think that I do, too. After class tomorrow I will know what the instructor thinks of how I write, and then, next week, perhaps if my fellow classmates judged my review to be either one of the two best or two worst they read, then I will also know what they thought of my review! (We submit only the two reviews we thought the best and the two we rated as the worst to the professor for review of our critiquing; those will then be returned to us next week. Like I said, a rather ingenious regime that will allow many in the class to receive much feedback on their work!)

If I have time later I will write about my car. Off to study! The midterm exam is tomorrow!

Rock Show

It's come to my attention that it has been a while since I've posted anything here. That's plainly true. I've been a bit busy. Please accept my apologies and read on!

So I went to a rock show this evening. Staind, a rock band, was playing. This was a notable event for 2 reasons. First, I walked to and from the event. No, I don't mean that I drove to someplace, parked far away, and then walked. I mean that I left my house, walked briskly for about 30 minutes, and I was at the venue. The show was on base! There's this big "fest" going on called, oddly enough, Bayfest (the link is here). There are bands every night for 5 nights. Tonight was Staind. They put on a good show. Going to their show made me aware of some gaps in my record collection, namely their last 2 records. Luckily, in this day and age, I can remedy that right now! iTunes, here I come! Don't think that I forgot about mentioning the second reason that this concert was a notable event. The second reason is that now there is one less band that I have to see at some point in my life. I have had several "near-miss" occasions where I almost saw Staind live but it didn't work out, but that is no longer the case. There really aren't that many bands on the list anymore. In fact, the only one I can think of right now of fthe top of my head is Slipknot. I'm sure there are more, but not a whole lot more. I have seen most of the biggies.

I have been going to school for a few weeks now. Graduate school is demanding! There is a lot of reading and writing (go figure). Good thing I like those things. There are about 4 weeks left in the summer session.

I am training in preparation for a half marathon on October 1. I know, I know, I just did a half Ironman race, how is a plain old half marathon going to measure up to that? Well, quantitatively, it's not going to, plain as that. Qualitatively, I think that if I train properly and consistently, I could very well be looking at a new PR (that's personal record for you non-runner types out there) for that distance. The training plan that I started on this week will take me right up to the race. I have also "impressed" many of the Marines in my platoon to give it a go, too. They are going to be following a much simpler plan that I am, but that's OK, and it makes a lot of sense - they are all going to be doing their first half marathon. Me, I've been doing these events for a few years now and am ready for a bit more advanced training plan. Besides, I don't think they would want to try the plan that I am on - it's challenging! I ran nearly 30 miles on it this week, probably my biggest week of running in at least 2 years!

There is more to write about but it will have to wait at least until tomorrow. It's rack time!

Post-race

A lot has happened since the race last Saturday. I wish I had been able to sit down and write about some of it before now. At this point, some of it has escaped forever! I will probably have to re-learn some of the lessons that I took away from the race because I didn't take the time to note all of them. You can see the race results here. (2006 results are the default; enter "Sampson" into the "search for" box in step 2; click on "All" in step 3 to see all data fields; scroll down and click on "Get List" and you'll have it! Or you can select "All Finishers" in step 2; sort the list by by finish place and see me in the context of my finish - I was 315th overall.) I thought the race went very well for me and that I paced myself so much better that at my last half-iron distance race, where I hammered the bike leg and ended up with massive leg cramps all throughout the run. Not the case this time! I ran clean through the whole run after pacing myself well on the bike. And the swim - easiest 1.2 miles I have ever swam! I purposely tried to stay aerobic and even "drafted" (it's legal to draft in the water and on the run, just not on the bike!) of other swimmers to save energy for a good bit of the course! The water was the clearest bit of ocean I have ever swam in! Crystal clear all the way to the bottom, which at some points was 60+ ft (they told us at the pre-race meeting how deep some of it was; I don't have a "metric eyeball" or anything like that!). At the post-race awards ceremony, one of the top pros who finished the race, Australia's Michellie Jones (the overall female winner), mentioned that this race covered the toughest part of the bike course for the Kona Ironman World Championship race, and I believe her! It was a heck of a climb into a stiff, stiff headwind to get to the turnaround point. And boy did it get hot out on the lava fields and Queen K Highway as the day wore on! I can just imagine what it is like to cover double the distance for each leg on essentially the same course! The race was well-supported, well run, and if I'm lucky I'll be able to do this one again next year (actually, if things go as I hope they might, I might be running an Ironman race next year instead of this one, but if I can't do that, then I'd like to do this one again).

I just finished posting a bunch of new pictures of John's first month to Yahoo Photos. You can see them here. The little guy is growing right along, up to 10 lbs and 23 inches as of Monday!

I have been resting completely since the race - no exercise at all. That ends tomorrow when I take the Marine Corps physical fitness test for the second time this year. This time it's not for score, though - thank goodness! Next week I will start training again in earnest, preparing for a July 23 ~Olympic distance race. Beyond that, I will start getting ready for the Honolulu Marathon in December. I think that I am going to try and get some of the Marines in my platoon to run it with me. They think that running 26.2 miles is an insurmountable task, and I will show them that is not, especially if you prepare yourself the right way over enough time!

From the race start

I was a bit behind schedule getting out of the hotel
this morning, but not by much, and arrived at the race
start at 0520 vice 0500 as I had planned. No matter,
though - I still had plenty of time to get everything
taken care of. I staged my bike and associated
accoutrements, got my race number marked on each
shoulder, took a few photos, and then got out of
Dodge, so to speak. I went back to my car to escape
the buzz of nervous energy that invariably surrounds
competitors before a race, particularly a big one like
this. They said yesterday at the pre-race meeting that
there are something like 850 athletes here today.

The gusty wind shaking the car reminds me that I
wanted to talk about race day weather conditions. At
the pre-race meeting they also mentioned that it was supposed to be windier on race day than the relatively calm conditions the day before. Looks like they were right!

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Pre-race jitters

The day before a big race is always hectic. This one
was no different. I was busy all day running errands,
taking care of this or that. Im finally done now and I
can rest. Hopefully Ill be able to get some sleep.

Its completely natural to be nervous before a big
event. I remember being nervous before my wedding,
before John was born, and sometimes before big
deadlines at work. This feels about the same. Ive read
that in this situation, before a big race, its good to
think back and go over all of the hard workouts that
got me to this point. There are many of them.

So what did I do today that kept me so busy? I got up
early and had a big breakfast, then hit the road to
scout out the swim venue. After that I drove the
entire bike course and annotated the major hills, etc.
Then I went to the host hotel (not whereI am staying)
and did pre-race registration. This includes signing
all manner of liability releases, getting race
numbers, timing chips, etc. By the way, you can follow
my progress at home online at www.ironmanlive.com. Its
the Honu 70.3 race, and my number is 849. Then I had
to drive back to Kailua-Kona to pick up some equipment
that the bike shop failed to return to me yesterday
when they built my bike, such as some Allen wrenches
and my cycling computer. After I got some lunch, went
to Starbucks for another tasty green tea, and got some
groceries for my pre-race breakfast (for some reason,
none of the hotel restaurants will be open tomorrow
morning at 0400!), I had to return to the host hotel
for a mandatory pre-race meeting. Then I was finally
able to come back to my hotel and finish preparing my
gear. A fine meal of chicken and pasta followed (carb
loading!), and then I made up my timeline for in the
morning before the race. Now I am watching a little
TV, relaxing a bit before trying to get some rest.

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Arrival on the Big Island

Youll find it hard to believe that I am writing this
from a Starbucks location in Kailua-Kona. Ive got a
venti green tea and Ive got a couple of hours until I
can check into the hotel, so this should take care of
some of that time.

The trip over went fine. Even though this was not my
first inter-island trip, it still surprises me how
little time it takes to get between the islands. I
almost spent more time waiting at the airport in
Honolulu than it took to get to Kona.

I dropped my bike off at the bike shop and they said
it should be done by about 3 PM. I figure I will while
away the time in town here while waiting for the bike
instead of making multiple trips between here and the
hotel, which is something like 30 miles up the coast.
Gasoline here is expensive! The service stations I saw
here in town have low-test unleaded (87 octane fuel)
for $3.59/gallon. Yikes!

I got lunch at the Kona Brewing Company, a
(no-kidding, right) brew pub here in town. Barb, you
will recall that we went to the sister location of
this establishment in Hawaii Kai a while back. Quite
honestly, I think that the Oahu location is superior.
After all, its right on the water. The one here (the
original, mind you) is land-locked and pretty hard to
get to. You have to go down a bunch of side streets
and then park in a back alley here.

The food was good, though, and so was the beer. Beer -
what am I, crazy! Drinking beer the day before the day
before a big race! Arent I going to ruin all my hard
preparatory work? In a word, no. I had a mere 24 oz.
of brew, liberally interspersed with water. And I ate
a 10 inch pizza with it. Its carb loading! Seriously!

So there are a few things that I already know that I
didnt pack and should have. First, water bottles for
my bike. And CDs to play in my rental car (or some
kind of adapter cable that would allow me to plug in
my iPod). Im sure I will discover more items later.

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Blogging from the airport

Im going to get pretty good at typing on the miniature
thumbpad keyboard on my Treo 600 smartphone in the
next few days. (By the way, I apologize in advance for
misspelled words that will undoubtedly result - no
spell-check.)

Im on the way to the big island for Saturdays Honu
Half Ironman Triathlon. Did I mention that there are
only 2 days until race day?!?

The logistics of getting me to the airport this
morning were greatly assisted by Grandma Mackeprang.
If she wasnt here, the trip might have had to include
a cranky baby! But since she was here, it went much
more smoothly than it could have.

I arrived early enough to allow me to write a bit, sip
some complimentary Kona cofee (one of the nice things
about flying Island Air), and jam out to some Godsmack
playing on my iPod. Im sure I look like quite the tech
geek right now! I do like electronic gadgets, for
sure.

About the Godsmack tunes, I am listening to their new
LP, titled IV. Its worth a listen. I guess this new
album has been out about a month now, and Id estimate
that Ive spun it, oh, about 25 times, at least. No,
that is not a typo! Maybe Im a weirdo (Barb, dont
answer that!), but when Im really into a record like I
am with this one, I listen to it over and over again.
Then eventually I get tired of it and move on to
something else (I have the new Tool record but have
barely listened to it - I just cant get past this
Godsmack record!). My personal favorites on IV
include, in order, Mama, One Rainy Day, Hollow, Speak,
and Livin in Sin. What a solid record!

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From the Field

Our exercise today has gone very well. We are just
about ready to pack up and head home. Certainly, not
everything has gone perfectly, but overall this has
been a useful evolution. Ive still got to pack for the race!

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4 Days Until The Race...

...and I'm tired. I ran 5 miles this morning and then swam for 33 minutes at lunch. In between all of that, I worked hard getting my platoon ready to go to the field tomorrow. We're in for a long day of exciting stuff here on the island. There's a lot that goes into making even a little one day exercise happen, most of which I was not privy to when enlisted. I guess they will get easier as we go, practice makes perfect, as they say. We've got an early show time tomorrow morning so this will be short. Then, after a long day out in the bush tomorrow, I've got to come home and pack up for my trip over to the big island. No doubt I will be tired then, too! Off to bed with me.

5 Days Until The Race

The race is what I think about almost all of the time now. Hard not too, I guess. No, that does not mean that I neglect my fatherly duties or my job or my marriage, I am just almost always thinking about pacing strategies, fueling tactics, rest and recovery leading up to the race, the trip over to the big island, etc. I took apart my bike today and cased it up for the trip (thank goodness I don't have to put it back together! I leave that to the professionals, in this case, at HP Bike Works in Kailua-Kona. Dave, remember how much fun it was helping me take my bike apart and box it up for the first time back at your place in November? It was twice as much fun doing it all by my lonesome, let me tell you!). The good part is that taking the bike apart now is good practice for when I will take it apart again after the race on Saturday; it should be easier then, having done it twice in less than a week at that point.

On another front, I'm happy to note that I am not sore in the least from yesterday's brick workout, which is a good sign.

Also, we're happy to welcome Grandma Mackeprang to the house for the next week or so. She's here to visit her new grandson, of course, and to help Barb and I adjust to our new roles, much like Aunt Kristine did when she was out here a week or so ago. Welcome!

The Obligatory Cute Baby Photo

Here is the latest and greatest, I'm-the-cutest-baby-in-the-whole-wide-world photo taken earlier today. What day's postings could be complete without that? :-)

One motivated baby!

Yep, that's John just cranking out a set of push-ups, all in a day's work for a nearly 3-week-old infant! At the moment the shutter clicked, he was on the down-stroke of his 137th repetition, not too bad for somebody so young.

The Final Brick

So what's this post about? Masonry? Building some type of wall or foundation? Nope, not even close. A brick, to triathletes like me, is a workout combining two (usually) of the sports associated with triathlons in sequence with each other. Most often, the bike-run brick is executed as an excellent way to simulate the not-entirely-pleasant sensation of running off of the bike, which, of course, is a big part of any triathlon.

(By the way, this photo is NOT from today's workout; it's from the Honolulu Marathon in December 2005. Why did I put it here? I don't know, I don't have a good recent photo of me racing or running or biking, that's all. The blog needs more photos!)

This morning I did a 2-hour bike-run brick as my last major workout before the Honu race on June 3. Sometimes brick workouts are referred to as "breakthrough" (or BT, for short) workouts. They're called breakthrough workouts because they are really taxing and (hopefully) result in a breakthrough to greater levels of conditioning once you complete them (and recover from them, of course). I did it in full racing gear (the cycling jersey, shorts, hat, etc. I plan to use in the race) and set up and used a transition area (this is the place where in the race you switch over from swim to bike and from bike to run ) to make it as close to the real deal as I could.

For the bike, I did 26.37 miles in 1:30:37 (read hours:minutes:seconds) for an average of 17.46 mph. Then I ran for 33:45, negative-splitting (17:45 out, 16:00 back) the out-and-back 4.3 mile course (overall pace, ~7:50 per mile). (By the way, how do I know it was a 4.3 mile run course? Well, everything is an estimate, but when I am not sure how far I have gone and want to have a better idea, I use the Gmaps Pedometer to figure it out.) Best of all, I experience no cramping on the run! I think that the non-cramping can largely be attributed to a better race nutrition plan executed properly. In yesterday's post I talked about race fueling and not being sure how I would do it on race day. Well, on days like these, it's time to try out different ways of doing it and figuring out what works and what doesn't. Here's what I did:

• Only clear water for the first 20 minutes on the bike.
• At 20, 40, and 60 minutes, I ate one PoweGel. The first was one spiked with 50 mg of caffeine*, the second had 25 mg, and the third was "unleaded" - no caffeine.
• Follow each PowerGel with clear water, and also had a bottle of Gatorade to drink during the ride.

Each gel has 110 calories. The Gatorade (20 oz.) has 130 calories. 110 x 3 = 330; +130 = 460 calories. I took in about 460 calories during the 1.5 hours on the bike. That averages out to about 306 calories/hour on the bike. I had no stomach upset at all and ran well off the bike. Then, on the run, I took one gel with me and ate it between minutes 10 and 20, for an additional 110 calories. That means I had a total of 570 calories during the entire workout (2 hours and about 4 minutes), for an overall average of about 275 calories/hour, all with no upset stomach. This is great information for race day. I now know that I can handle this level of intake and operate at a pace that is about as fast as what I plan to do on race day.

* Regarding caffeine, I use it. Every day. I have read quite a bit about the substance and know that it is a powerful ergogenic aid (look it up if you don't know what it means), but only when not habitually ingested. I still think it is an aid, even taken every day (even if only as a placebo). I plan to use it on race day. And, even better, before the workout, I had a venti brewed coffee from Starbucks (~20 oz. of delicious black coffee!), delivering, according to some estimates, up to 700 mg of caffeine (I'm not sure if I believe that estimate; see this article about a 2003 study showing quite a bit of variability in the caffeine content of various tested coffee house brews). And look here for an interesting article published in the Wall Street Journal (which is, by the way, probably my favorite newspaper - no I don't currently subscribe, but a friend of mine who does just recently began giving me his copies once he is done with them - YES!) in 2004 that I remember reading regarding caffeine content in coffee house coffee. Anyhow, I had quite a lot of caffeine before the workout, but like I said, I am habituated to it - I drink 2 cups of strong, black, home-brewed drip coffee every morning, so don't stay up at night worrying about me taking in too much caffeine.

Some thoughts on race fueling

No, this has nothing to do with NASCAR, Indy car, or any other type of car. This is about fueling the human body while racing an endurance event, such as a triathlon. Specifically, a half-ironman triathlon. A race of this length is going to take most people a significant chunk of their day to finish. When I tell people that I am going to be doing a half-ironman triathlon, they always ask what the distances of the various portions are. Actually, before that, they ask if it is going to be a "full" triathlon (referring to an ironman-distance event). Well, no, it's going to be half of that. Then the question about the lengths. So here they are: a half-ironman triathlon is a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride followed by a 13.1 mile run. Taken individually, each event could take a person anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes (for the swim) to several hours (the run and bike). Add it all up and you've got 5+ hours of endurance excitement! I have done one race of this distance before, in 2002. A race called the Pigman, held in the vicinity of a small town in Iowa called Palo. (You can see the results here.) I finished in 5 hours 37 minutes 54 seconds. Since I am always trying to improve my times, I would like to finish the upcoming race in 5 hours 30 minutes, a modest improvement, and definitely a real possibility, in my mind.

But 2002 was probably my best year of cycling ever, I've come to decide. I started off the season with the Ride for the Roses in Austin, TX in April (see the website here) . Doing a century ride like that early in the year sets you up for great fitness throughout, and is a great building block for future training (that was also my first century ride ever). Then, later that year, I rode RAGBRAI, the Register's Great Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa. I treated it almost like a stage race; it was a week of riding 60 - 110 miles a day, and it was great! My biggest week on the bike ever, over 400 miles total (OK,not exactly huge numbers for people who like to do what I do - triathlons, cycling, etc. - but I haven't come close to matching it since). That was in July. Then the Pigman was in August. The point is, I was very well-prepared for the bike at the Pigman. I was quite fit. I am fit now, too; I just wonder if I am as fit. I've only had about 3 months of solid triathlon training since I returned from Iraq. Will it be enough?

This post is supposed to be about race fueling, so let's get to that. I've been doing a lot of reading on the topic coming up to my bike race next weekend because I want to do it right. In most long endurance events I have done, I have had problems with cramping late in the game. It happened to me at the Pigman on the run; it happened to me last December at the Honolulu Marathon. I would like to do what I can to prevent/stall it happening at Honu. People who should know (exercise physiology professors from my alma mater)I have spoken with about the cramping seem to think that it is from inadequate nutrition. Nutrition is a huge piece of long-course racing, and I am getting educated about it.

On one web page I read on the topic, top professional triathlete Peter Reid gave his thoughts on nutritional strategies for a half ironman. Here's what he said (I have added the highlights):

My bike bottles are filled with a carbohydrate drink. The solution is not too strong. I found that if the mixture is too strong it is hard to digest. Too sweet and I won't drink enough of the mixture. It is better to be too weak than too strong. This way you will drink all of your solution. The first few miles of the bike I typically eat a whole PowerBar for an Ironman event and half a PowerBar for a half-Ironman event. Halfway though the bike section I will down a PowerGel along with some water from an aid station. I will try to get water from all the aid stations until I run out of my own carbo solution, and then I will grab some energy drinks from the aid stations. A few miles before the end of the bike section I will down another PowerGel with some water. During the run I will have a PowerGel one-third and two-thirds of the way through along with some water.

Now, keep in mind that this is an elite triathlete testifying as to how he would fuel himself during a half-ironman race. Contrast that with what Dan Empfield says on his excellent website, www.slowtwitch.com regarding race fueling in a post called "The Mathematics of Race Fueling." (Go ahead, read it all. It will take you all of 10 minutes, and you'll be that much smarter. Make sure to take a second to marvel at the photos of the bike top tubes from the bike corral at Kona - look at all those gels taped on there!) Anyhow, the gist of what Empfield says is that you need a lot more fuel that what Peter Reid said above, on the order of 8 or more gels for the bike portion of the half ironman-distance race alone!

Me, I don't know the answer. I think I am probably somewhere between the two extremes. Empfield's math makes sense to the exercise scientist in me, but I don't think that I would be able to keep all of that down! And I know that I would be bonking like crazy if I went with only what Reid advocates. It's all about knowing yourself and what your racing requirements are. I plan on taping gels to my top tube and writing the exact times into the race that I need to be eating them so that I am on schedule and don't get behind. I think that that will take me a long ways toward being able to run all the way through the half marathon without cramping. After the race, I'll write in this space how things went and exactly how I worked my race fueling plan.

"I need your hand for an experiment..."

Supposedly you can submit postings to this blog via e-mail, so that's what I am doing right now, or at least trying to do right now (hence the title of this e-mail: this is an experiment).

 

By the way, if somebody ever says those words to you ("I need your hand for an experiment"), run VERY FAST away from them - you want no part of their experiment, trust me!  (Dave, does any of this sound familiar?  )

 

 

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A new baby picture

It's what you really want to see, anyhow, isn't it? Of course it is, you can admit it! You won't hurt my feelings. Maybe I can at least jump in on the picture holding John or something...ah yes! How about a picture of John getting his first bottle? Yes, that would be a great picture! So here it is!

But wait a second...this boy is nearly 3 weeks old (on Monday he will be), how can it be his first bottle? John is breastfed, is the obvious answer, because "the breast is best," as all the healthcare folks will tell you. I tend to agree. :-)

John had his 2-week well-baby check-up this week and all is well. He was being too ornery for the nurse to get an accurate weight, but she estimated he is at 9 lbs 5 oz, which would be good, because that means he is above his birth weight.

"No rest for the wicked"

So, I'm a tired guy right now. I ran over 10 miles today (this was in 2 sessions, one in the AM and one in the PM) and rode just over 25 miles on the bike. I'm a triathlete, by the way. I am preparing for my second half-ironman distance race coming up on June 3. Am I ready? I could be more ready, that's for certain. You see, having a child kind of upsets even the best laid (training) plans. Your quality and quantity of sleep definitely suffers. I'm just a busy guy right now! Did I mention that I'm starting graduate school next month? Yeesh!

This morning's run was a 4 mile "fun run." It cost $1 to enter - one of the cheapest races ever! Even with that, several members of my platoon scoffed at the prospects of paying their own money to do a run. I didn't tell that that I routinely spend much more than $1 to run races! (For example, I think the half ironman race I am getting set to do cost something like $200 to register for.) But that's what I like to do. It makes me feel good to run races. Back to this morning - 4 mile course (I think it's really a bit more than that, maybe 4.5 miles). I ran it in 26 min and 37 seconds, good for 3rd place overall. But wait - I thought I said it was a fun run. What's this crazy "overall place" business? Some of us are a tad competitive when it comes to running, that's all. If there's a time being kept, I am going to treat it like a race! So if you run the numbers on my finish time, it comes out to about a 6:40/mile pace. This is one of the main reasons that I think the course was 4+ miles - I sure felt like I was cooking along at at least my 10k race pace (about 6:25/mile, from a race within the last month). And I know that I did the last 1.5 miles in just over 9 minutes (the course covered part of our measured physical fitness run course on base). I was a mere single second behind the lad who finished in 2nd place. The sad fact is that I tried to wear him down over the last mile or so of the course, but I apparently didn't do a thorough enough job of it, for in the last 100m when I tried to kick in my kick, his young legs were able to easily propel him across the finish line just ahead of me. Darn it. Still, 3rd place isn't bad. Especially when you consider that the 1st place finisher was also from my unit! We nearly had a 1 - 2 finish!

This evening's workout was a "breakthrough" workout in preparation for the aforementioned half ironman race. This is the second peaking week. Next week is race week. I have been doing a lot of reading about how to do the peak and race weeks properly, notably "Going Long" by Joe Friel and Gordo Byrne. This book is very useful for long-course triathletes or triathletes who want to become the same. I am still working on getting better at longer races like the half ironman-distance (and someday, the full Ironman-distance race!). This book is one of the tools I am using to get the job done.

I'll write more about triathlons and exercise training another day. Right now, it's time to hit the rack - growth sleep!

Back to work...

Today will be my first day back at work since baby John was born. Also, today he will be 2 weeks old! Hard to believe he has been here this long already! Mom and I are still getting used to having the little feller around. Young infants eat a lot! Eat, sleep, poop...and a little bit of awake time after some of his daytime feedings. Here's a picture of John with his aunt Kristine (who was kind enough to bless us with a week-long visit to help us get going as new parents - thanks Kristine!) and his mother. What a photogenic bunch!

Let's give this a try!

Hmmm...I am intrigued by the concept of blogs, so I have decided to start one! It remains to be determined if I will continue to use it, but I am going to try it out. But what will I write about? If you know me, you know I can think of something to write about! I can write about triathlon training and racing, being in the military, about our new son (born less than 2 weeks ago!), living in paradise...there are many possibilities!