Week 6 Results

M - Swim (1 mile - 36 min)
T - Missed
W - Run (6 miles - 51:53 min)
H - Swim (1 mile - 37) / Run (4 miles - 38:00 min) - Brick
F - Swim (1 mile - 35:55 min)
S - Missed
S - Rest

Total Workouts: 4 (1 brick)
Total Hours: 3 hrs 19 min

Swim Total 3 miles /1 hr 49 min
Bike Total: 0 miles / 0 min
Run Total: 10 miles /1 hr 30 min

Ending Weight: 198 lbs.

Another challenging week for working out. Camille's two grandparents passed away within two days of each other. We ended up loading up the family on a plane and flying out to Utah for the two services. With all the travel, it has been difficult to get in all my workouts. I was able to get in a couple good swims down in St. George and even one brick. I was also pleased to see that I've lost another couple lbs. Friday (May 1st) marked the 1 year mark until SGIM.

IMSG Bike Course Report

Courtesy of my friend, Jim Moss, following is a report on the St. George Ironman Bike course. . .

Jim's Bike Setup: Cervelo P2C, SRAM Red 53X39, 11-26 Cassette

Road Conditions (overall): On a scale of 1-5 I'd rate it a 3. There are some sections on Old Hwy 91 between Ivins and Gunlock that are pretty rough, lots of sealed up cracks and several cattle guards to navigate. This section of road is hammered and a little uncomfortable. There's some chip-seal in other places but it really isn't bad at all. Miles 1-20 and then 50-65 (backside of the 1st and 2nd loops) are in good shape - minimal road debris and some of it has been repaved recently.

Miles 1-31 are rolling, flat and some good sections where you can get into a solid cadence and cruise without much variability in power. However, SR-9 from 5-9 has a very long climb in it. I had it down to 39X25-26 most of the time but in the aerobars the whole way up.

Miles 33-52 involve a lot of climbing and this is obviously the hardest part of the course. People who don't have the proper gearing and don't stay focused on keeping their power in check will be sorry on the 2nd loop when they do this route again. Some climbs are steep and short and some are long and steady. Mile 46 there's a nice steep one that is pretty long and then there's a nifty switchback that starts out steep and gets steeper towards the end. And when you roll into Veyo it isn't over yet...going up the side of the volcano is a good climb and one that St. George marathoners know well.

Miles 53-55 are deceiving. You finish the Veyo hill and think you're going to hit the top and descend. After a very short-lived descent and a little bit of false flat you will find yourself fiddling with whether to stay "Big Big" or go "Little Little" in your gearing choice.

Miles 56-66 are also a bit deceiving. You're definitely running big gears and taking advantage of the downhill. But as many St.George marathoners will probably tell you, this section is an area where you feel like you should be just going down, down, down and instead you are being hit with an occasional roller uphill section that can throw your cadence off. Still, it is fast and fun. On race day it will no doubt cause a pile up or two of out-of-control athletes.

Miles 109-112 are downhill or flat. Nothing real interesting to mention here.

Scenery: It is fantastic, unique and interesting. The ride from Ivins through Gunlock and Veyo is rustic and it feels like you are out in the old wild west riding through a canyon around an old mining down or livestock ranch. Very cool. The views of the red rocks and mountains as you exit T1, head out on Telegraph and then onto Red Hills Parkway are fantastic. Riding out to Ivins along Snow Canyon Pkwy you'll see some amazing vistas and red rock cliffs and mountains as you pass by Snow Canyon - the sun at that time (if its a clear day) will hit those red cliffs and it will be an amazing sight.

Weather: I rode the course on April 26th, one year and one week before the inaugural event. I had to "wait it out" for a couple of days here on vacation and do some running and shorter rides to avoid dealing with some serious winds. On the morning I did the ride it started out sunny but cold with temps around 48 degrees. I had winds from the west/southwest at about 10 MPH. The wind funneled down the canyon around Gunlock and made it a bit colder in the shade. Arm warmers, knee warmers, gloves and a long-sleeve jersey. It warmed up to about 72 in the late afternoon. The Run course is going to face the afternoon and evening sun and there is no shade, none at all.

Final Thoughts: I'll probably flip for a compact crankset for xmas this year. That or throwing on my 11-28 cassette and seeing if that will help. My watts going up those hills was way over FTP and cadence dropped below my personal comfort range and there was little I could do about it aside from turning around and heading back downhill or stopping. The bike course will be challenging and fun and I have to say after riding it I'm pretty excited about the experience we'll all have on race day.

Thanks for the great report, Jim!

As I told Jim in an email, I feel like he is speaking a whole different language (cranksets, 39X25-26, 11-26 cassette). Biking is definitely my weakest area of the tri and where I need to do the most work.

Week 5 Results

M - Run(4.0 miles - 31:47 min)
T - Spin (9 miles - 30 min)
W - Spin (9 miles - 30 min)
H - Run (7 miles - 58:34 min)
F - Spin (9 miles - 30 min)
S - Run (7.5 miles - 64:47 min)
S - Rest

Total Workouts: 6 (0 bricks)
Total Hours: 4 hrs 01 min

Swim Total 0 miles /0 min
Bike Total: 27 miles / 1 hr 30 min
Run Total: 18.5 miles /2 hr 31 min

Ending Weight: 200 lbs.

Spring break vacation week with the family (NYC, Washington, Williamsburg). I was able to work out everyday, if only for a short amount of time. Had two good 7 milers through Colonial Williamsburg.

Week 4 Results

M - Swim (1 mile - 34:30 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 30:47 min)
T - Spin (18 miles - 60 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 30:24 min)
W - Swim (1 mile - 36 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 34:47 min)
H - Spin (9 miles - 30 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 30:14 min) - Brick
F - Swim (1 mile - 36 min)
S - Missed
S - Rest

Total Workouts: 8 (1 brick)
Total Hours: 5 hrs 22 min

Swim Total 3.0 miles /1 hr 46 min
Bike Total: 27 miles / 1 hr 30 min
Run Total: 16 miles /2 hr 6 min

Ending Weight: 200 lbs.

Down 10 lbs! Good progress on swim (34-36 min/mile) and run (7.5 min/mile). Heading out on vacation next week for Spring Break so I don't know what I'll be able to do by way of swim/bike. Most of my training will need to be running.

Week 3 Results

M - Swim (1 mile - 43 min) / Run 4.0 miles - 32:47 min)
T - Spin (13 miles - 45 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 32:11 min)
W - Swim (1 mile - 38 min) / Run (2.0 miles - 18 min) / Weights (20 min)
H - Spin (9 miles - 30 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 33:55 min) - Brick
F - Swim (1 mile - 37 min)
S - Swim (1 mile - 37 min) / Spin (11 miles - 35 min) - Brick
S - Rest

Total Workouts: 9 (2 bricks)
Total Hours: 6 hrs 22 min

Swim Total 4.0 miles /2 hr 35 min
Bike Total: 33 miles / 1 hr 50 min
Run Total: 14 miles /1 hr 57 min

Ending Weight: 204 lbs.

Another good week. Happy to see some progress with my swim time (took 16 minutes off my mile). Still need to bring that down even more to below 30 minutes. I also adjusted Week 2 results down to 9 workouts as I will count Bricks (back-to-back/combo legs - e.g., swim + bike, bike + run) as one workout going forward. Not a great week eating wise as I had a lot of junk food with the Easter holiday. Still managed to lose 1 lb.

T-minus 383 days!

Triathlon Overview

Triathlon 101
A triathlon consists of three sports-- swimming, biking, and running. There are several race distances:

- Sprint (.5 mile swim, 13 mile bike, 3.2 mile run)
- Olympic (.93 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run)
- Half-Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run)
- Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run)

The race starts at the shot of a gun as athletes begin their swim. Races can start off a dock with the athletes diving in. They can start with the participants already in the water behind the "start line." Races can also start on the beach with triathletes running in to the lake, ocean, etc. The swim is usually very crowded with alot of pushing and kicking to get ahead.

At the end of the swim, the athletes exit the water and start on the first transition, T1. They run to the bike racks, put on sneakers, and hope on their bike. Biking is the best time in the race to refuel on sports drinks and energy bars/gels. After the bike segment is complete, the triathlete comes back into the transition area for T2. They drop their bike off and leave for the last leg of the race, the run. Next comes crossing the finish line!

History of Triathlons
According to triathlon historian and author Scott Tinley, the origin of triathlon is anecdotally attributed to a race in France during the 1920s-1930s that was called variously "Les trois sports", "La Course des Débrouillards", and "La course des Touche à Tout". Nowadays, this race is held every year in France near Joinville-le-Pont, in Meulan and Poissy. In 1920, the French newspaper "L´Auto" reported on a competition called "Les Trois Sports" with a 3 km run, 12 km bike, and a swim across the channel Marne. Those three parts were done without any break. There are also articles in French newspapers about a race in Marseille in 1927. There is a 1934 article about "Les Trois Sports" (the three sports) in the city of La Rochelle, a race with: (1) a channel crossing (c. 200 m), (2) a bike competition (10 km) around the harbor of La Rochelle and the parc Laleu, and (3) a run (1200 m) in the stadium André-Barbeau. Its also known to be one of the worlds most dangerous sports.

Modern Triathlon
Triathlon’s roots can be traced back to 1974, Mission Bay, Southern California where a group of friends began training together. Amongst them were runners, swimmers and cyclists and before long training sessions turned into informal races. Directed and conceived by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan the first Mission Bay Triathlon was held on September 25th, 1974 and welcomed 46 athletes. Triathlon’s foundations had been set!

Ironman
The first modern long-distance triathlon event was the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. It included a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. It was conceived during the awards ceremony for the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay (a running race for 5-person teams).

Among the participants were numerous representatives of both the Mid-Pacific Road Runners and the Waikiki Swim Club, whose members had long been debating which athletes were more fit: runners or swimmers. On this occasion, U.S. Navy Commander John Collins pointed out that a recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine had declared that Eddy Merckx, the great Belgian cyclist, had the highest recorded "maximum oxygen uptake" of any athlete ever measured, so perhaps cyclists were more fit than anyone.

Collins and his wife, Judy, had taken part in the triathlons staged in 1974 and 1975 by the San Diego Track Club in Mission Bay, California. A number of the other military athletes in attendance were also familiar with the San Diego races, so they understood the concept when Collins suggested that the debate should be settled through a race combining the three existing long-distance competitions already on the island: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 mi), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 mile) ; originally a two-day event) and the Honlulu Marathon (26.2 mile). No one present had ever done the bike race so they did not realize it was a two-day, not one-day, event. Collins calculated that, by shaving 3 miles off the course and riding counter-clockwise around the island, the bike leg could start at the finish of the Waikiki Rough Water and end at the Aloha Tower, the traditional start of the Honolulu Marathon. Prior to racing, each athlete received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation:

"Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life!”
- Commander Collins (1978)

With a nod to a local runner who was notorious for his demanding workouts, Collins said:
“Whoever finishes first, we'll call him the Ironman.”
- Commander Collins (1978)

Of the fifteen men to start off in the early morning on February 18, 1978, twelve completed the race and the world's first Ironman, Gordon Haller, completed it in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds.

The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon now serves as the Ironman world championship, but the entity that owns the race, the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), hosts other triathlons around the world that are also called Ironmans. Long-distance multi-sport events organized by groups other than the WTC may not officially be called "Ironman" or "Iron" races. Such triathlons may be described as Full distance triathlon or "Half distance", but the "Ironman" and "Iron" labels are the official property of the WTC.

The St. George Ironman is an official WTC Ironman event.

Triathlon and Fitness
Triathletes tend to be spartanly fit, and many amateur athletes choose triathlon specifically for its fitness benefits. Because all three events are endurance sports, nearly all of triathlon training is cardiovascular exercise. In addition, since triathletes must train for three different disciplines, they tend to have more balanced whole-body muscular development than pure cyclists or runners, whose training emphasizes only a subset of their musculature.

Each element of the triathlon is slightly different from those sports if encountered alone. While amateur triathletes who also compete in individual swimming, cycling or running races generally apply the same techniques and philosophy to triathlon, seasoned triathletes and professionals have specialized techniques for each discipline that improve their race as a whole

Week 2 Results

M - Swim (.75 mile - 40 min) / Run 4.0 miles - 32:58 min)
T - Spin (12 miles - 40 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 33:26 min)
W - Swim (.75 mile - 35 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 33:53 min)
H - Spin (11 miles - 35 min) / Run (4.0 miles - 33:59 min)
F - Missed
S - Swim (1 mile - 53 min) / Run (4.5 miles - 38:07 min) - Brick
S - Rest

Total Workouts: 9 (1 brick)
Total Hours: 6 hrs 15 min

Swim Total 2.5 miles /2 hr 8 min
Bike Total: 23 miles / 1 hr 15 min
Run Total: 20.5 miles /2 hr 52 min

Ending Weight: 205 lbs.

A great workout week! Felt good on all fronts. Not quite as tired this week. Increased my swim distance, finally able to now swim a mile (albeit very slow). Hoping for another successful week starting tomorrow.