Fat Kid’s Ironman Fitness Blog

Run Leg of Lake Samamish Triathlon

Running as “buddy/coach” for my sister in her first triathlon.

Race report to follow… but here’s a hint, I’m so proud… I came in just behind her in the race, she sprinted in a Chariots of Fire-esque manner for those last 50 yards…

Here’s a photo of me, crossing the finish line, applauding her victory!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/23/2008
• Time: 09:30:00
• Total Time: 00:55:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 114
• Distance: 3.2 miles
• Average Pace: 17:11.52/mile

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Bike Leg of Lake Samamish Triathlon

Rode as a “buddy/coach” for my sister in her first triathlon.

Race report to follow.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 08/23/2008
• Time: 08:15:00
• Total Time: 1:12:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 92
• Max Heart rate: 131
• Distance: 14 miles
• Average Speed: 11.67 mph
• Max Speed: 27 mph

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Swim Leg of Lake Samamish Triathlon

I participated in the Lake Samamish Triathlon as a “buddy/coach” for my sister Cynthia this weekend. This was a great time, which I will write a much more detailed report of. But I want to capture the detailed facts and stats about the race in this post.

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 08/23/2008
• Time: 07:55:00
• Total Time: 00:13:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 110
• Distance: 402.34 m
• Average Pace: 3:14.52/100m

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Faster than a McNugget? Able to Drink Sewage?

Here’s a couple of random links I found on the web today… they both struck me as worthy of being shared…

First off, a fascinating piece in the  New York Times Magazine about how Santa Ana California is transforming their sewage water into clear potable drinking water. It’s really quite amazing to me that we’ve built the technology to do this. It’s even more amazing when you consider that the idea of keeping your sewage separate from your drinking water has really only become common place in the last 150 years.

Apparently the biggest issue facing the plant is not technological at all… but psychological.  Gee, I wonder why?

Speaking of putting crap in your body… Usain Bolt — arguably the worlds fastest man, and olympic gold metalist says he eats McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets before the race.

In this article on People.com, Bolt admits that mcnuggets are one of his favorite pre-reace food…. like he’s eating them while at the track! 

“I got up at the same time pretty much [as I did for the 100 meters], no lie, at noon,” Bolt said. “My masseuse brought me the nuggets. I went straight to the track and then my masseuse brought me more nuggets. I just ate two though because my coach said I should not eat so many nuggets.”

Oh boy… I hope he doesn’t test positive for PEDs… how would McDonalds explain that?!

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Last “Practice” Ride Before Their First Triathlons

In the words of my youngest daughter… “Tomorrow is your big day!” That’s the message at our house today, as my sister, Aunt Cynthia, and my oldest daughter, are preparing to race their first triathlons tomorrow morning.

My sister, will be doing her first Sprint distance triathlon, 400m swim, 14 mile bike, and 3 mile run. My daughter, will be doing her first Kids triathlon, 75yard swim/wade, 2 mile bike, and .5 mile run.  I will be tagging along with my sister to give her moral support along the route.

It should be fun. Today was a beautiful day in Seattle, and the weather is expected to be the same tomorrow. I’m looking forward to both of them having the great experience of crossing that finish line!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 08/22/2008
• Time: 17:00:00
• Total Time: 00:20:00.00
• Distance: 3.8 miles
• Average Speed: 11.4 mph

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Food & Weight - Aug 21, 2008

Bad food day..

• Breakfast - 500+ - Bagle, Cheese, Turkey, Egg Substitute - the only good thing about this meal is that I didn’t add mayonaise.
• Lunch (3pm) - 200+ - Spaghetti Pesto
• Dinner - 1200+ - Nachos, Greek Yogurt instead of Sour Cream, Guacamole, Salsa, Margarita
• After Dinner - 100+ - Scotch, M&Ms

I also broke my rule of drinking water before each cup of coffee.

Health:

• Date: 08/21/2008
• Weight: 144.5
• Mood: Normal
• Sleep Hours: 4
• Sleep Pattern: Normal
• Calories: 2000

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Hill Simulation - Medium Distance Run

I got out and ran my “Race Profile Hill Simulation” course today. This run was just under 11 miles, and included a very similar hill profile to the Silverman Ironman course. Although the Silverman has to repeat the course twice, and my course is about 2.4 miles short… but the hills are very similar if not steeper.

I feel really good about the run, and am starting to feel a little less nervous about the course for this Ironman. I am really pleased that I was able to run this course in 8:18/mile average. Although a 154 Avg HR and 178 Max, clearly is not viable for race day.

I felt really good though, and since my watches audible zone alarms were turned off, I was just running by feel, and since I felt great, I didn’t see the need to slow down. I definitley got up some nice free speed on the down hills. I guess the key really is just relaxing and letting gravity do the work. It’s a little unnerving at first, but I think I could get used to it.

My splits were:

• Mile 1 - 7:31 - 160 avg - Down hill 160 ft
• Mile 2 -8:56 - 161 avg - Up hill about 240 ft
• Mile 3 - 7:35 - 154 avg - Down hill - 150 ft
• Mile 4 - 7:42 - 155 avg - Down 80ft then up 160ft
• Mile 5 - 8:53 - 154 avg - Up then flat/down-ish
• Mile 6 - 8:14 - 157 avg - flat
• Mile 7 - 8:17 - 154 avg - flat
• Mile 8 - 8:21 - 152 avg - flat
• Mile 9 - 8:33 - 147 avg - up then down
• Mile 10 - 8:08 - 149 avg - down then up
• Mile 10.8 - 7:31 (9:23/mile pace) 155 avg - up then down…

Clearly, I went out a bit too fast… but I held on till the last mile… although I really fell off the pace there… I had considered running down the street to make it an even 11, but my brain said no.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/21/2008
• Total Time: 1:29:44.00
• Average Heart rate: 154
• Max Heart rate: 178
• Distance: 10.8 miles
• Average Pace: 8:18.61/mile
• Ascent: 700 ft
• Descent: 700 ft

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Fixie Commute

Car dealership (to get the Prius checked out) to home.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 08/21/2008
• Time: 08:30:00
• Total Time: 00:20:00.00
• Distance: 5 miles
• Average Speed: 15 mph

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Food & Weight - Aug 20, 2008

Lessons learned so far — yeah, it’s only 3 days in to this new routine can I really say I’ve learned lessons?

• Drinking water is easier to do if I have a “process”… the idea of using it as a gate before I can get a new cup of coffee seems like an easy thing to remember. But I am also going to try adding, drink a glass of water before and after all meals. I’ve tried the trick of “keep a bottle of water with you at all times”… but that doesn’t really force me to drink. If I just get a glass of water and just drink it right away, then I’m done…
• I like to have a breakfast routine. I am not very clear in the morning, so I want to just go through the motions and make something… so, this Greek Yogurt + Fresh Fruit seems to be my new routine. My old routine was an “egg white sandwich”… which ain’t bad, except it has two side effects: first, it requires some sort of bread, and that means lots of extra calories and carbs… the “cheapest” (calorie wise) alternative I found was an English muffin around 120cals per muffin; second, I really want to have cheese and/or mayonnaise on it… and that means even more calories mostly fat.

Food for today….

Breakfast - 125 cals

• Water
• 1/4 cup Peaches - 16 cals - 3g Carbs
• 1/4 cup Strawberries - 12 cals - 2g Carbs
• 120g Greek Yogurt - 61 cals - 12g Protein, 4g Carbs
• 10g Go Lean Crunch - 36 cals - 2g Protein, 1g Fat, 6g Carbs
• Coffee

Lunch - 395 cals

• 2 Slices 9 Grain Bread - 202cals
• Turkey Slices - 140 cals
• Mustard - 3 cals
• Feta Cheese - 13 cals
• Grapes - 37 cals

Snack - 93 cals

• Turkey Slices
• Carrot

Dinner - 588 cals

• Chicken Pesto Pasta
• Green Beans
• Glass Red Wine - 4oz

Snack - 232 cals

• Yogut, Banana, Peanut butter Smoothie

Summary:

33% Protein, 21% Fat, 46% Carbs

Health:

• Date: 08/20/2008
• Weight: 145.6
• Mood: Normal
• Sleep Hours: 5.5
• Sleep Pattern: Normal
• Calories: 1432

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Running Hill Profiles

The Silverman Iron distance triathlon has a great website with a lot of detailed information about the race. For me, the most important thing right now is getting comfortable with the profile (hills) of the running course. I found a profile chart, and have used a rather crude method of “estimating” the grades I will be faced with on this run.

The good news is that I do have some hills near my house that may be good simulations oft this course. And in fact, there may be a very similar hill plus relatively flat 4 mile loop that would be very similar in profile to the grades of D, E, F.

Here are some candidates:

• My house down to BG trail - .5 miles - 150 ft
• Wallingford Ave from 34th st to 45th - .9 miles - 190 ft
• Stone Way from 34th st to Green lake - 1 mile - 200 ft - then .6 miles flat to down
• Fremont Ave from Nickerson to the Zoo - 1.3 miles - 310 ft
• Around Greenlake - 3 miles - flat with some hills.

So, one idea would be to use the Stone Way from 34th to Greenlake, then around Greenlake, then back down to 34th street, as a simulation for D,E,F. The problem with this is just that the distance for D and F is actually longer, so these local grades are actually harder. Now that might seem like a good thing… as it means I’m working harder to go up these hills as they are steeper. But I wonder… is it harder to run up a steeper shorter hill, or an equally steep just not as steep hill that is 50% longer. So, I will keep on the lookout for a longer (not quite as steep) hill.

One possible course would be…

• A - My house down to BG trail…
• B - Then up Wallingford to 45th
• C - back down to 34th then to Stone Way
• D - Stone Way, 34th to Green Lake
• E - Around Green Lake
• F - Back down to 34th & Stone
• G - 34th & Stone to 34th & Wallingford then up to40th.
• H - 40th & Wallingford to my house.
• – REPEAT — (Since the Ironman course actually does this twice.)

The distances aren’t exactly the same… the course comes to 10.5 miles. But the profiles are pretty close, with this Seattle course maybe being a little harder. Certainly this would be one heck of a workout… and it’s actually on relatively safe streets with good sidewalks and or dirt trails (around the lake).

Here’s a profile for this potential 10.5 mile hill course.

Well I am due to run a long run this week… Dare I attempt this as the first 10 miles, and then do a 4 mile out and back tacked onto the end?

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