My computer desk sits directly under my "Wall of Shame" (a term I freely admit was stolen from Larry Moffatt), and every time I write about exercise topics I look up to see my smiling face in the running portions of races. They seem forever ago, a moment of perfection frozen in time, halcyonic images of fitness bliss, real or imagined. The times associated with the pictures are not earth-shattering - they certainly weren't good enough to win the races - but they represent milestones of my personal athletic achievements. I knew even at the time my athleticism was fading, and it was now or never. Still, at those moments, I was invincible.
Flash forward 4-5 years, and there are precious few examples of similar performance to be had. What I considered to be routine only a few years ago seems mostly unreachable now. But occasionally things do swing my way, the stars align, and it's like the old days again.
Tonight was one of those nights.
Lately I've been pushing my luck somewhat. I've stacked workouts together in a way that should have been disastrous, but have come out on the winning side. It's not that I'm 100% healthy - I'm not - but maybe I've gotten a better understanding of what my present limitations are and how to manage them.
My overall fitness goal at the moment is 130-150 miles of biking, 45-50 miles of running, three days of weights, and a couple of swims a week. To make it all fit I must double often, sometimes tripling. This is the life of a triathlete, nothing special there. What complicates matters is Jimmy.
Jimmy has a way of upsetting my plans. I lay out a week, then Jimmy needs to make an adjustment. I don't have to change my schedule, but dangit, he's so charming, how could I not? The result is sometimes I get to do a hard run one night and a 20-miler the next morning, or a hard ride and a hard run on the same day.
Tonight it was the latter. I needed to ride in order to make mileage for the week; Jimmy decided to run a 10-miler at 6:50 pace. This is pretty aggressive for me right now because we haven't much practiced this pace or distance, and certainly not together. I knew for sure it would be a hard run. I made it harder with the ride.
The ride was a thing of beauty. The Truth, how I lover her! She's getting dialed in, oh yes! my Precioussss! My conditioning is starting to reap results, I'm finding my rhythm, and I've done this course so many times I know every nuance, every place to gather a little energy, where to expend it, how to maximize results from effort.
Today there was a southeast wind of about 10 mph. This makes a headwind for the trip out, the southern leg comprising a little over 10 miles. This portion was accomplished at a bit over 19 mph through efficient riding. I wasn't pressing hard, but I wasn't giving up any advantage I could take. And, other than the truck hauling the trailer which nearly ran me off the road by the recycling center on Old 37, I didn't have to slow down for much.
Once turned north, and with a quartering tailwind, things really took off. The segment to Lighthouse Books went 30+ mph. After that things got a bit weird as I began to feel gusty bursts in my face, which slowed me to 24 mph or so. Regardless, the ride finished with an average pace of 21.2 mph. That would mean I averaged around 23 mph all the way home, including the cut. Not bad.
Obviously there was a danger the ride took something out of me, either my legs or fluids or both. I drank a bit of Gatorade, ate a Cliff Bar, grabbed a couple of carBooms, and headed to the track. At this point, whatever happened happened.
We had a large group tonight, and notably present were Aaron Ritter, Tim Miller, Josh Anderson, and Nick Tyree. Yikes... that was going to put pressure on us. Me. Whatever. A couple of these guys have GPSs, not that it ever really helps, but there was a chance, a slim chance, that perhaps tonight it would help. Then the question was asked and my hope was dashed.
"Who wants to lead?"
I guess it isn't so much the question that killed my hope as it was the response. None. Nada. No one jumped up to volunteer to lead. So I did. I knew I could get us to the mile on or around pace. I would take it one mile at a time.
So we kicked off, and since I knew where the quarter was, I got an early assessment of our pace. 1:37 for a quarter was 20 seconds per mile faster than we needed. This was confirmed by Miller's GPS. So what did Miller and Josh do? You guessed it, they sped up. That wasn't going to help us very much! I held the pace I was running, and my breathing was quite labored. I knew we were ahead of pace, I know where the mile mark is (I laid the course out years ago), but a minor "discussion" with one of the runners in the loose pack resulted in a recorded time that was slower than our target. 6:57 to be exact.
Ok. We'll get back on pace then.
I decided the best course of action would be to catch the two guys ahead of us that were supposedly on pace. I didn't really mash the pedal, I just pressed only slightly harder than we were running until we caught them. Slightly. The second mile? 6:20. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.
Okay, so I didn't plan to run that pace the rest of the way, so I backed off to a more controlled pace. It so happened I'd gapped Ritter and Jimmy, Nick was with me, and Josh and Miller were still ahead. I didn't want to wait on the others, that would be giving up hard-earned time. I didn't necessarily want to run at the front, because I didn't feel it was a pace I needed. I was just going to let the gap slowly open.
Nick and I held the gap, running basically the same pace as the front two, until we hit Industrial. Then, as we started the downhill, I became curious. Josh never runs the downhill tangent, ever. I wondered if I could close the gap by the time we turned onto the next road. So, by using tangents, we closed the gap down completely by the turn. Miller decided to get back on the plan and slid back to Jimmy; Josh continued on. As we rounded the corner, I was side-by-side with Josh. We hit the mile mark under 6:30, and I said again I didn't need it, and backed off.
Then Nick passed me. What? He started to close the opening between us and Josh, and the competitive juices boiled over. If he could do it, so could I, and we slid up on him. By the time we were on Washington we had caught him, and around the circle Josh and I ran together. Nick was with us, staying until the mile 5 turn, then he headed straight back. Josh and I were alone.
This back-and-forth continued as Josh pulled ahead a bit as we left the circle the second time, and once again, he ignored the tangent. By running the tangent I was on him again before the turn onto 39th, and we remained together until Industrial. I told him then I would be careful to slow down on Industrial so as to avoid spiking my heart rate (thus ending the run). At the base of the first pitch, about a quarter mile from the top, Josh dropped. His hip has been giving him trouble, and it flared up. I was feeling fine enough to continue, and I did.
Now it was a mile-to-mile game. 6:50 was over; now it was a matter of extending the effort as long as it could last. My competitive nature pushed me up where I didn't belong - my pragmatic nature understood I was doing something I hadn't been able to do for a long time. I had to see where it could go now.
After topping Industrial and as I was preparing to turn onto 35th, I heard talking close behind me. It was Aaron passing Josh, maybe 20-30 meters back. Aaron was clearly making a move to catch me. This was of course exactly what I needed to motivate me to keep up the effort... could I hold him off?
Mile 7 was 6:33, which included Industrial, so it was a good indication I still had something left. Relax, get into rhythm, stay loose, relax... mile 8 was 6:38. This was good because this is a notoriously slow mile (for whatever reason). Up the final long, grinding hill and into mile 9 at 6:53 - okay, I was beginning to fade, but the gap between Aaron and myself was growing. Mile 10 was back to 6:50, and the final time of 1:06:20 was a perfectly acceptable reward. The goal had been 1:08:20, so I'd beaten it by 2 minutes. Considering I didn't know if I could do the original goal, I'm very pleased it went the way it did.
Aaron came in quickly, and about a minute after came Miller and Jimmy. Josh struggled in with his hip hurting like mad. Too bad, he had a good one going. Everybody beat the time, so that was a major positive overall.
The second group comprising Allen, Rand, John, Kathy, and Ryan also beat their 7:50 per mile goal. I don't know if they fragmented as much as we did - I think they may have based on the times we crossed one another on the course.
It was confidence boosting effort for me. I had a great ride and a great run on the same day. That bodes well for triathlon season coming soon.
Tomorrow will be a run only I think due to a staff meeting. I will try to lift and swim later if time allows. Needless to say I didn't lift tonight after the run - I looked like a french fry with all the salt covering me. I was concerned about muscle spasms and passed.
Flash forward 4-5 years, and there are precious few examples of similar performance to be had. What I considered to be routine only a few years ago seems mostly unreachable now. But occasionally things do swing my way, the stars align, and it's like the old days again.
Tonight was one of those nights.
Lately I've been pushing my luck somewhat. I've stacked workouts together in a way that should have been disastrous, but have come out on the winning side. It's not that I'm 100% healthy - I'm not - but maybe I've gotten a better understanding of what my present limitations are and how to manage them.
My overall fitness goal at the moment is 130-150 miles of biking, 45-50 miles of running, three days of weights, and a couple of swims a week. To make it all fit I must double often, sometimes tripling. This is the life of a triathlete, nothing special there. What complicates matters is Jimmy.
Jimmy has a way of upsetting my plans. I lay out a week, then Jimmy needs to make an adjustment. I don't have to change my schedule, but dangit, he's so charming, how could I not? The result is sometimes I get to do a hard run one night and a 20-miler the next morning, or a hard ride and a hard run on the same day.
Tonight it was the latter. I needed to ride in order to make mileage for the week; Jimmy decided to run a 10-miler at 6:50 pace. This is pretty aggressive for me right now because we haven't much practiced this pace or distance, and certainly not together. I knew for sure it would be a hard run. I made it harder with the ride.
The ride was a thing of beauty. The Truth, how I lover her! She's getting dialed in, oh yes! my Precioussss! My conditioning is starting to reap results, I'm finding my rhythm, and I've done this course so many times I know every nuance, every place to gather a little energy, where to expend it, how to maximize results from effort.
Today there was a southeast wind of about 10 mph. This makes a headwind for the trip out, the southern leg comprising a little over 10 miles. This portion was accomplished at a bit over 19 mph through efficient riding. I wasn't pressing hard, but I wasn't giving up any advantage I could take. And, other than the truck hauling the trailer which nearly ran me off the road by the recycling center on Old 37, I didn't have to slow down for much.
Once turned north, and with a quartering tailwind, things really took off. The segment to Lighthouse Books went 30+ mph. After that things got a bit weird as I began to feel gusty bursts in my face, which slowed me to 24 mph or so. Regardless, the ride finished with an average pace of 21.2 mph. That would mean I averaged around 23 mph all the way home, including the cut. Not bad.
Obviously there was a danger the ride took something out of me, either my legs or fluids or both. I drank a bit of Gatorade, ate a Cliff Bar, grabbed a couple of carBooms, and headed to the track. At this point, whatever happened happened.
We had a large group tonight, and notably present were Aaron Ritter, Tim Miller, Josh Anderson, and Nick Tyree. Yikes... that was going to put pressure on us. Me. Whatever. A couple of these guys have GPSs, not that it ever really helps, but there was a chance, a slim chance, that perhaps tonight it would help. Then the question was asked and my hope was dashed.
"Who wants to lead?"
I guess it isn't so much the question that killed my hope as it was the response. None. Nada. No one jumped up to volunteer to lead. So I did. I knew I could get us to the mile on or around pace. I would take it one mile at a time.
So we kicked off, and since I knew where the quarter was, I got an early assessment of our pace. 1:37 for a quarter was 20 seconds per mile faster than we needed. This was confirmed by Miller's GPS. So what did Miller and Josh do? You guessed it, they sped up. That wasn't going to help us very much! I held the pace I was running, and my breathing was quite labored. I knew we were ahead of pace, I know where the mile mark is (I laid the course out years ago), but a minor "discussion" with one of the runners in the loose pack resulted in a recorded time that was slower than our target. 6:57 to be exact.
Ok. We'll get back on pace then.
I decided the best course of action would be to catch the two guys ahead of us that were supposedly on pace. I didn't really mash the pedal, I just pressed only slightly harder than we were running until we caught them. Slightly. The second mile? 6:20. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.
Okay, so I didn't plan to run that pace the rest of the way, so I backed off to a more controlled pace. It so happened I'd gapped Ritter and Jimmy, Nick was with me, and Josh and Miller were still ahead. I didn't want to wait on the others, that would be giving up hard-earned time. I didn't necessarily want to run at the front, because I didn't feel it was a pace I needed. I was just going to let the gap slowly open.
Nick and I held the gap, running basically the same pace as the front two, until we hit Industrial. Then, as we started the downhill, I became curious. Josh never runs the downhill tangent, ever. I wondered if I could close the gap by the time we turned onto the next road. So, by using tangents, we closed the gap down completely by the turn. Miller decided to get back on the plan and slid back to Jimmy; Josh continued on. As we rounded the corner, I was side-by-side with Josh. We hit the mile mark under 6:30, and I said again I didn't need it, and backed off.
Then Nick passed me. What? He started to close the opening between us and Josh, and the competitive juices boiled over. If he could do it, so could I, and we slid up on him. By the time we were on Washington we had caught him, and around the circle Josh and I ran together. Nick was with us, staying until the mile 5 turn, then he headed straight back. Josh and I were alone.
This back-and-forth continued as Josh pulled ahead a bit as we left the circle the second time, and once again, he ignored the tangent. By running the tangent I was on him again before the turn onto 39th, and we remained together until Industrial. I told him then I would be careful to slow down on Industrial so as to avoid spiking my heart rate (thus ending the run). At the base of the first pitch, about a quarter mile from the top, Josh dropped. His hip has been giving him trouble, and it flared up. I was feeling fine enough to continue, and I did.
Now it was a mile-to-mile game. 6:50 was over; now it was a matter of extending the effort as long as it could last. My competitive nature pushed me up where I didn't belong - my pragmatic nature understood I was doing something I hadn't been able to do for a long time. I had to see where it could go now.
After topping Industrial and as I was preparing to turn onto 35th, I heard talking close behind me. It was Aaron passing Josh, maybe 20-30 meters back. Aaron was clearly making a move to catch me. This was of course exactly what I needed to motivate me to keep up the effort... could I hold him off?
Mile 7 was 6:33, which included Industrial, so it was a good indication I still had something left. Relax, get into rhythm, stay loose, relax... mile 8 was 6:38. This was good because this is a notoriously slow mile (for whatever reason). Up the final long, grinding hill and into mile 9 at 6:53 - okay, I was beginning to fade, but the gap between Aaron and myself was growing. Mile 10 was back to 6:50, and the final time of 1:06:20 was a perfectly acceptable reward. The goal had been 1:08:20, so I'd beaten it by 2 minutes. Considering I didn't know if I could do the original goal, I'm very pleased it went the way it did.
Aaron came in quickly, and about a minute after came Miller and Jimmy. Josh struggled in with his hip hurting like mad. Too bad, he had a good one going. Everybody beat the time, so that was a major positive overall.
The second group comprising Allen, Rand, John, Kathy, and Ryan also beat their 7:50 per mile goal. I don't know if they fragmented as much as we did - I think they may have based on the times we crossed one another on the course.
It was confidence boosting effort for me. I had a great ride and a great run on the same day. That bodes well for triathlon season coming soon.
Tomorrow will be a run only I think due to a staff meeting. I will try to lift and swim later if time allows. Needless to say I didn't lift tonight after the run - I looked like a french fry with all the salt covering me. I was concerned about muscle spasms and passed.
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