I’m a goal oriented person. I needed a way to objectively say whether or not this triathlon season was a success. I’ve been using Training Peaks to log my workouts and used the Annual Training Plan (ATP) to set a course for this year. When you make an ATP, you first layout your season goals and training objectives. Here are mine.

Season Goals

1. Run a 3:17 marathon

This was my goal time for the Eisenhower Marathon and amounts to a 7:30 min/mile pace. I was on track to hit this until my knee started giving me issues. I ended up running a 3:43 marathon and currently don’t plan on running another marathon this year

2. Complete sprint triathlon in less than 1:20

My first triathlon is coming up on July 15^th and will be the Papillion Mayor’s Sprint Triathlon in my hometown of Papillion, NE. This tri has a 500m swim, 13.5 mile bike, and 3 mile run. If I complete the swim in 10 minutes, bike in 40 minutes, run in 22 minutes, plus 2 minutes for transitions, then I should be able to meet this goal.

3. Complete Olympic distance triathlon in less than 2:30

I am competing in two Olympic distance triathlons this year, one in August and one in September. If I can complete the swim in 32 minutes, bike in 73 minutes, run in 43 minutes, plus 2 minutes for transitions, then I would just barely meet my goal. Currently, those are my fastest times completing each of those events individually. It’s going to take some tough training in order to be able to obtain those times consecutively.  

Training Objectives

1. Run 10k in less than 40 minutes

This comes out to be a 6:26 min/mile pace, which would be pretty quick for me, but not out of reach.

2. Swim 1500m in less than 32 minutes

When I first started training, I imagined this would be my toughest goal. I couldn’t even swim the full length of the pool without stopping. I didn’t think I had accomplished this goal yet, but looking back on my training, I swam 1500m in 31:48 back on June 6^th! It was just during a 3000m training swim, so I had no idea I had done it.

3. Bike 25 miles in less than 70 minutes

This comes out to be a 21.4 mph pace. I currently ride somewhere around 20 mph, but it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly because I usually ride with the wind going out and against the wind coming back.

4. Lower body fat below 10%

I used to measure my body using one of the hand held body fat readers (electrical resistance). Those said my body fat was somewhere between 13% and 15%. I had a skin fold measurement taken recently and that said I was at 6.3% which I think is more accurate. (I’m really skinny, you can see my heart beat)  

Overall, I think my goals and objectives are realistic but will push me really hard. Currently, I’ve accomplished 2/4 of my training objectives and have six months to finish off the rest. I’m really excited for my first triathlon and can’t wait to compete!

Over the weekend, I went on three bike rides. I had ridden through a storm Friday evening and figured that biking through a light drizzle on Sunday would be no problem. Plus, my bike was already horribly dirty so there wasn’t much worse I could do to it.

No more than a half a mile into my ride I had somebody pull out in front of me. No problem, I got on the brakes and avoided rear ending them. Half a mile later, another SUV almost hit me. This driver apparently thought that we could share the lane and would have run me off the road if I didn’t yell at him at the top of my lungs. It was at that point that I wished my bike was equipped with one of those air horns that my first tricycle had. With that crisis averted I hopped on the Keystone Trail. No sooner than I had forgotten about my near collision I found my self on my side with aching pains. I had made the turn onto the first bridge, a wet wooden bridge, when the wheels slid out from underneath me. Thankfully, I wasn’t badly hurt and my bike wasn’t missing any pieces. However, I did end up with some pretty mean road rash on my arm and hip.

Once my brain started working again, I put my chain back on and started wondering if this ride could get much worse. It was raining, I had almost gotten hit by two cars, and I had crashed my bike, all in the matter of two miles.  I subscribe to the camp of ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ and continued on for an uneventful 20 mile ride. The moral of this story is that you shouldn’t make sharp turns on slick surface, common sense to most, a hard learned revelation for a newbie triathlete.

Coming into this marathon, I had no idea how I would perform. About 7 weeks ago, my knee started bothering me so I took some time off. One day off turned into one week off turned into one month of very limited running in hope that my knee would stop bothering me. About 3 weeks ago, it became do or die time and I did a crash course 21 day training which peaked with an 18 mile run the weekend before this race; an 18 mile run which I struggled to complete with an average pace of 9:09 min/mi. Needless to say I was worried coming into this marathon that I might run 10 minute splits or not even finish.

The race started off really relaxed. There were a total of about 500 competitors for the full and half-marathon combined. The first 4 miles went off smoothly. I set out with an 8:00 min/mi pace and tried to keep my heart rate below my Zone 2 limit of 162.

Split	Time	Avg HR	Max HR
1	07:54.8	149	166
2	08:01.0	162	169
3	08:05.2	161	167
4	08:00.6	160	168

Unfortunately, after mile 4 my heart didn’t want to cooperate anymore. I felt great, but my heart rate was consistently around 165, peaking at 170. I kept telling myself that it was going to be a long day if I ran with that intensity the whole way so I slowed down, and slowed down, and slowed down over the course of several miles until I was running a 9:00 min/mi pace at mile

Split	Time	Avg HR	Max HR
5	08:09.6	168	175
6	08:15.5	164	171
7	08:27.2	165	172
8	08:24.2	164	170
9	08:36.6	166	170
10	08:40.2	164	169
11	09:01.8	165	171

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, the stars aligned. My heart rate monitor went on the fritz displaying really low numbers and I started consuming some of the EFS Gel that I had been carrying with me. That combined with passing the lead men who were on their way back into town (it was an out and back course) gave me a huge boost. I started cheering on everyone who was in front of me on their way back and then everyone behind me after I made the turn at mile 13.1. I got a huge rush of euphoria, the ‘runner’s high’ as they say, for 6 miles. Everything seemed to click, and it showed it my splits.

Split	Time
12	08:25.8
13	08:07.5
14	08:12.9
15	08:16.5
16	08:14.4
17	08:13.7

I was ecstatic. I was passing people left and right and cheering on anyone and everyone. But then, out of nowhere, the wheels fell off. My stomach got a sickening feeling and I threw up once, and then twice, and then a third and fourth time all while trying to maintain pace. I finally decided to stop and empty out my stomach for a solid 30 seconds before getting back at it. The last 9 miles were rough. I had planned on kicking up the pace for the last 6 miles but my legs didn’t agree with that plan. Every water stop seemed like a good place to walk and the finish line seemed like it would never come.

Split	Time
17	08:13.7
18	08:56.9
19	08:38.0
20	09:00.8
21	09:27.2
22	09:05.3
23	08:56.1
24	09:18.8
25	08:45.4
26	08:27.4
26.2	02:01.5

I gutted out those last miles and finished with a final time was 3:43:32, or an 8:32 min/mi pace. That time put me at 31/127 for males and 7/11 for my age group

Overall, I was satisfied with the way I ran. Considering that 4 months ago I wasn’t even running but was able to put up a respectable time gives me hope for the future. The conditions and course for this race were perfect and the only thing holding me back from a faster time was my preparation and determination. My only regret is that I didn’t run 2 seconds faster. Why’s that? Well I had bet a 58 year old guy that I work with that I would finish 35 minutes before he would (the difference in BQ times for our respective age groups). I finished with a time 3:43: 32, and he ran a 4:18:31, 34 minutes and 59 seconds slower than my time. I wasn’t pleased, but kept my end of the bet and bought him a chocolate malt (I know high stakes).

I think the Eisenhower Marathon was a perfect race for me. The weather was perfect and the course was really flat. Not enough can be said about how well this race was put together. It’s definitely a smaller race, but you lose nothing in quality. If you decide to run this marathon, make sure to show up the night before for the spaghetti dinner. It’s put on by the Knights of Columbus the Daughters of Isabella and provides great food and a friendly, small-town atmosphere to meet some fellow runners.

One last thing, apparently running a marathon is similar to playing sports as a kid in that everybody gets a medal for participating

Friday was a jam-packed day. I lifted weights in the morning, broke my goggles during my after work swim, MacGyver’d them back together, and then sped over to the Orpheum Theater to see Jerry Seinfeld perform stand up comedy.

The first thirty minutes of the show were tortuous, not because the routine wasn’t funny, but rather because the architects who designed the Orpheum forget to put space in between the rows of seats. After contorting my legs into the shape of a pretzel, I really enjoyed myself. The routine was very good and I’d highly recommend seeing him live. Afterwards, my friends and I headed downtown to do a little bar hopping and ended up at a joint that has my favorite drinking entertainment: The Lobster Machine.

The lobster machine is similar to those claw games at arcades, except instead of grabbing a stuffed animal, you try and catch a live lobster. At $2 per attempt, a lobster can get pretty expensive really quickly. This machine takes advantage of two of my character flaws:

1. I’m super competitive and will keep trying something until I succeed, and
2. I’m loose with money, especially when I’ve been drinking

Luckily, it only took 6 attempts to nab one

As you can see, I was pretty proud of myself. I’ve poured a lot of money into that machine over several bar visits and finally accomplished my life long dream. The waitress gave us the choice of throwing him back into the tank or boiling him to death for dinner. Looking into his beady eyes, I started to feel kind of guilty, but then I remembered how hungry I was.

That lobster was DE-LI-CIOUS! I I felt like quite the hunter-gatherer nabbing that crustacean and providing sustenance for all my drunken friends. Overall, a very successful night. Not triathlon related, but entertaining.

Welcome to the blog! I decided to start blogging for several reasons. First, I think it will be useful to have a ‘diary’ of sorts that I can look back on to see what works well in my training. I currently keep track of my workouts in an excel spreadsheet, but that doesn’t provide a lot of technicolor for my workouts, just the bare bone numbers. I believe that this blog will also be useful for others who are beginner triathletes. I’ve relied heavily on others blogs in order to shape my training and to find great resources. There is a lot of great information out there, and I will try to share what I find to be relevant for people like me who are new to the sport. I look forward to the experience and hope that this little journal can be beneficial to myself and others.