Archive for category Races
Triathlon 101: Some Basics
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Athletic Gear, Ironman Training, Triathlon on August 24, 2010
I get a lot of questions from people about the basics of a triathlon. What do I wear? How do I change? Etc…So I figured I would take a post to address several of these questions, and if you have any more, comment below or email me and I’ll be happy to answer based on my own experience (which obviously may not be everyone else’s).
What type of bike should I use?
This is a very open ended question. Depending on the budget and how seriously you want to take the sport, the more you might invest in some top notch equipment. There are some things that will make you faster, but what I’ve learned in my short triathlon experience is that the main issue with speed is generally related to your own weight, so you can save a few grams here and there, but if you don’t lose weight yourself, it’s not doing much for you.
With that being said, I have two bikes: a Scott’s CR1 Pro and a Scott’s Plasma 20. I think both bikes are awesome. The key thing to note is that one is a road bike and the Plasma is a triathlon bike. The main difference here is that triathlon bikes are like time trial bikes (and more differences are explained here). Your butt sits higher and you are meant to ride it in “aero” position where your arms are extended down the center of the handlebars, not on the sides like traditional bikes. Triathlon bikes are more aerodynamic and aren’t meant to ride alone. Keep in mind they are more difficult to climb in since the aero position is not the best for climbing, which is where a road bike really comes in handy. People can use either in triathlons, but if you’re doing fairly flat tris, an tri bike will be faster.
What goggles/running gear should I get?
For goggles, I wear Aqua Sphere Kayenne. I’ve tried a lot of googles from TYR to Barracuda’s, and the aqua sphere’s are the best. I like the Kayenne’s because they don’t fog up easily and fit my eye very well. I like aqua sphere’s because they generally have more peripheral vision and are very easy to adjust. I have three pair: clear lens, smoked lens, and a blue lens. I use each one in different light situations (smoked for heavy light, blue to simulate little light, and clear at night time).
For swimming trunks, I tend to swim in either Speedo long cut or Zoot’s tri shorts. I’ll talk more about tri shorts below.
For running gear, I wear mostly Brooks. I’m a Brooks ID member, so I get a discount on there stuff, but after wearing it for nearly a year now, I’ll buy Brooks forever. Their infiniti notch short is so comfortable (built in compression is awesome) and their HVAC tanks and shirts are so cool. I love their shoes as well. I wear the Brooks Ravenna. I’ve tried nearly 7-8 pair of Brooks shoes, and I’ve found these work the best. I’m a slight over pronator, and I need a mild stability shoe. I also wear Newton’s, and I just got the Newton stability racer, so I’m excited to try that one out. These shoes promote more forefoot running, which I think is key to staying injury free.
What is best to wear during a triathlon? Do people change?
In a triathlon, I like to wear tri equipment so I don’t have to change. In the ironman I’m signed up for, I am debating whether to change into more comfortable clothes for the bike and run, but to be honest, the Zoot tri shorts are very comfortable and have enough padding to use on a bike. I’m used to training in these. I swim in them, then hop on a bike (where they dry in about 10-15 minutes), then I run in them. It takes some time to get used to wearing such tight clothes in public, but eventually I learned that function trumps appearance 
I usually wear the tri shorts/tri jersey underneath my wetsuit, yank off the wetsuit in transition, and hop on the bike. If the tri is short enough (sprint or olympic), I even clip my bike shoes into the pedals and run out of transition barefoot. I hop on the bike and then slip my feet into the shoes. I use Shimano tri shoes to do this as they’re designed to drain water, wear sockless, and be easy to slip in and out. My race report from my first tri has some more info about this, but it’s not as specific as this.
Do you wear socks? If so, what kind?
I try to avoid wearing socks, but this depends on the event’s distance. In my first tri, I went sockless on the bike wearing the Shimano shoes mentioned above and I wore a pair of Zoot triathlon shoes for the run, which are designed to be sockless, breathable, and drainable. This was fantastic. No problems, no blisters, no pain. In my half iron this year, I went sockless on the bike but decided to put socks on for the run. I blistered by mile 8 and had a terribly painful last few miles. In my ironman, I plan to wear socks on the run, but wear my normal Ravenna running shoes and not the tri shoes. I also will debate putting socks on for the bike. I always like to calculate the time given up to do this RELATIVE to overall time. In a sprint tri, this is meaningful. In an ironman, it is not.
I believe in paying for socks. When you’re out there pounding out miles, it’s critical to keep your feet healthy. I mostly buy brooks socks, and I always buy the best performance socks I can get. I opt for the low cut, thinner socks. I have tried the Injinji socks with individual toes, and they’re ok, but I don’t notice much of a difference from regular socks.
Do I need a wetsuit?
No one needs a wetsuit. It’s not a requirement. But in water temps <70 degrees F, it REALLY HELPS! It also is great for buoyancy. Your hips will definitely sink less, which means you can swim faster due to less drag. If you do use one, try practicing in one. It’s definitely more restrictive when you swim, and if you swim a lot with your shoulders (like I have and many triathletes do), then you may get tired a bit faster from the restriction.
What do you eat? How do you fuel during training/racing?
I posted on this one here. Hopefully this helps. If not, let me know.
Thanks everyone for the great questions. If there’s anything else you want to know, please let me know!
Sport Testing: My new form of racing
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Endurance Nation, Ironman Training, Testing, Training Tips on August 1, 2010
One of the key elements of training is testing. Every 4 weeks or so, it’s good to test yourself in your rest week in each sport to see if your training is making you stronger. It’s a good way to test your training plan to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. That’s one of the key philosophies of Team Endurance. Test yourself, push hard, and set goals for yourself to use your training plan to improve your testing numbers.
This past week, I did my first series of tests, and I really needed it. The testing was awesome and something I recommend to ALL athletes out there. I surprised myself quite a bit with the outcomes. Particularly since I’m not racing, these tests give me feedback as to how far I’ve come. What I’ve also realized is that if I push myself harder then what I think is mentally possible, I can surprise myself with my capabilities.
Bike Test
My first test was on the bike. I did a 12:30 warmup followed by 4×30 spin ups with 1 minute rest after. I then did 3×2 minutes zone 4 (Z4) hard with 1 minute rest in between. Seems hard, right? That’s just the warmup. I then did 2×20 min interval (with 2 minutes of rest in between). This is HARD AS YOU CAN GO but last the full 40 minutes. That’s not easy to do mentally because you’re trying to push hard, but you also have to be reasonable. Anyways, I recently purchased an iBike power meter, and I was able to measure my watts. I have a feeling the watts were overestimated, as my FTP watts for the 40 minutes were 271 watts. My W / kg was 3.6, which was way better than what I was expecting (hence the belief the watts may be overestimated). However, in my ride yesterday, my wattage was significantly below this, so we’ll see what further testing brings. My experience on my rides with my power meter over the next few weeks should help me figure this out.
Run Test
My run test was two days later, and I was actually pretty pumped for this. I had to do a 15 minute warmup or so that consisted of 4×30 seconds at 5k pace to get used to running hard, and then a 5k for the test followed by a decent cooldown. The 5k is hard as you can go so that you finish strong and then walk. I’ve been dying to know my 5k time for a while, but I could never justify a race because it’s just not long enough. So now I have the excuse. I ran HARD, and halfway through, I was averaging 5:55 pace, and I’m thinking, I can do this…I can keep it under 6 minutes. I did, and I ran a 18:24, or 5:56 pace for 3.1 miles. This test surprised me the most. I was hoping to break 20 minutes, and I shattered this goal. I didn’t think that time was possible. I was stoked.
Swim Test
The swim test was a day after the run test, and this consisted of a 5ooM warmup of kicking and swimming, followed by a 1000M at race pace. It’s pretty boring swimming 1000M in a pool, but I’m used to it now, and it’s surprisingly pretty easy for me given my training. I swam hard and could of gone probably a bit harder. I did it in 15:52, which was about 1:35/100M. Not bad for an ironman swim time goal, but I’d probably want to go a tad easier than that. But it gives me something to build on.
What these tests established was that you don’t have to race to test your rate of improvement. I like to be competitive with myself, and these tests are the best way to do it. Now I get to work hard for several weeks to see if I can improve these test results based on my training. Trying to improve…hmmm, that’s a good motivator So here are my results that I can hopefully improve upon in 4 weeks, if that’s possible (note my heart rates - I don’t understand why I can’t get it higher. I’m hoping I can learn to keep my heart rate higher for longer periods)
Bike: FTP 272 LTHR 151 W/kg 3.6
Run: Pace: 5:56 LTHR 165
Swim: Pace: 1:35/100M
LTHR = lactate threshold heart rate
Team Endurance: my savior
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Endurance Nation, Ironman Training, Training Tips on August 1, 2010
Been a long time since I blogged and quite a lot has happened. Aside from work, the girl, training hard, etc…, I think the most important thing I’ve done with regards to training in the last few weeks was join team endurance. As you can tell from recent posts, I’ve been putting in a lot of hours. I’ve been doing this solo, and I’ve been tired and bored. Yes, it’s difficult, but it’s more difficult for me at least when I’m not part of something bigger and following a general training philosophy.
Insert Endurance Nation. Endurance nation is a community of people (400+) who train for half and full ironman races. They’re regular age groupers trying to make the most of their time. The team/business is run by two very awesome coaches on both sides of the nation, Rick Strauss and Patrick McCrann. It’s not cheap. It’s $99 a month, but with what you get, I think it’s worth it.
The most important element of team endurance is the training plans. They analyze your season based on the races you tell them you’re going to do , and they put you on one of their training plans. These training plans are in season 7, so they’ve been pretty well refined and I can trust that I’m in good hands. That’s critical because when a plan tells you to take a day off, you usually feel strange doing that. It’s important to trust the philosophy, and that’s a big deal when you think about their philosophy – it’s completely different than anyone else’s out there. But given how much people talk about their success following it, it’s hard not to trust experience.
Most importantly, they give you the option to ask for Macro feedback (e.g this plan isn’t working for me, or should I insert other races into the schedule) as well as Micro feedback (e.g. this week, I’m on business travel and can’t bike so what should I do). It’s good getting advice from some very experienced people when these situations come up.
So what is this philosophy. Well, the coaches realize the importance of life and that this tri thing is a hobby, but an important hobby. So they say, work HARD in every workout that you do, but do less hours. That’s right, LESS hours. Essentially, make the most of your time. In typical periodic training, 4-7 months before an Ironman, coaches recommend 5-7+ hour workouts to “build a base”. I understand that and get it, but to me, I found I struggled quite a bit with trying to do that and “live” the rest of my life. Team Endurance believes instead of working out easy for 6 hours, work out hard, and really hard, for 3 hours. Then, when you have to do the same even in a long course race, you do it at 70% of what you’re used to, it will feel easy, and the extra few hours won’t matter.
That brings me to the second thing you get with Team EN. A community of people who are following the same plans, are bought into the philosophy, and are willing to help you and talk to you via the Team EN forums. These forums are rich with tons of information, and anytime I’ve posted something, I’ve had a response within hours. AND the coaches almost always respond as well. Plus, you can email the coaches anytime and they’ll provide feedback. This community then comes out strong at your events. At each Ironman, there’s near 30 Team EN athletes. That’s an awesome support network during the race.
Here’s an article written by the coaches on active.com. It’s not specifically about Team EN, but as you can tell from their advice on 140.6 strategies, they’re quite different than the norm. I’m sold on their philosophy. I had one hard week under their plan, then a rest week with testing. This week is back to the hard stuff again, so we’ll see what I have to say about em next weekend
If you have any questions about Team EN or are interested in joining, comment below. I’d love to help you out with it!
Race Report: IM California – Oceanside 70.3
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Race Reports, Triathlon on March 28, 2010
I must admit that writing this report the day after is going to be a more positive review than yesterday when I questioned why the hell I do these events. I also had a HUGE sense of fear for competing in Ironman Arizona given how difficult this event was. When I woke up today, I couldn’t wait for IM AZ training to start. But for now, I’m on hiatus till May, with maybe a little strength work and fun rides/runs mixed in.
But back to the yesterday’s event. IM California 70.3 was much harder than I expected. The reason was the elevation climbs on the back that were unexpected (more unexpected because I’m an idiot and didn’t study the elevation chart), and these climbs really took the strength out of my legs for the runs. I accomplished my goal of under 5 hours, 30 minutes (barely), and i came in 94/240 in my field, with 74 DNFs (so really, 94/304, but that’s not the official stat). I’ll recap each event and then list my takeaways at the end
Pre-Race: Up at 4AM, ready by 5AM and not that nervous. Got to the race, parked, rode my bike to the start (and it was quite cold at about 5:15AM). Got to transition, found my spot, setup. Funny thing here is that I had to pee SO BAD. The type of pee where if you don’t go soon, it feels like you may have to pee blood because of the pain build up. Well, the bathroom line was about 40 minutes long, so I decided to pretend like I was doing a warm up run down the rocks of the harbor, and when I got to the end, I unloaded. I seriously think it felt better than having a first born child. After I got this out, I went back, setup my transition, put half my wetsuit on, and as the first wave went off, I got into the restroom line for my second potty trip.
Pre-Race2: Yup, last wave, so around 7:20 AM, I did potty trip #3. Fortunately, I saw my family and girlfriend right before I was ready to go out, as well as Zsolt, Cale, girlfriend’s Mom Marian, and Matt. It was very cool to have a mini cheering section!!!
Swim: As I ran down the chute to the swim start, I was excited. Not nervous at all, which is strange given how nervous I was for my last tri. When I got in the water and swam to the wave start line, I immediately realized I was in a bad position. I was behind two guys, sort of like a triangle, and two guys behind me. But there wasn’t enough time to find a better spot. When the horn went off, the two guys in front of me kicked me in the head, and then the guys behind me swam over me while hitting me. Not the ideal start position. I tried finding a good swimming lane while I got hammered over and over. After about 300-400 meters, I found that lane. From here, I got into my rhythm, my heart rate slowed, and I was truly starting the IM 70.3. After we made the turn around the last buoy and started our way back to the transition zone, we caught the slower swimmers from earlier waves. This made sighting a challenge because now I not only had to look where I was going but also the fastest way to get there without swimming over other people. I think I swam quite a bit extra distance as a result.
Sidenote: it’s extremely frustrating that some people who do these triathlons do not sight! I can’t tell you how many people swam diagonally across me as a result. Even one guy swam across me BACK STROKE! If you’re going to do a triathlon, read up on sighting! It will save you extra energy as well as the frustration of those around you
T1: Ok, so after 34:46, I came out of the water. I slowly ran to my transition spot. I mention slowly because I was tired. I had cramped trying to get on the ramp out of the harbor, and my shoulder hurt pretty bad from bumping into people on the swim, and that didn’t help in trying to get my wetsuit off. I thought I handled T1 ok, getting out in 4:03, which isn’t bad for those long IM transitions. I was quite amazed at how far you had to run to get out of transition. They said 75 yards per length, so 150 yards total per transition. That’s about 1/10 of a mile. The one thing I could of done better in T1 was not clipping my shoes into the pedals. I ended up getting behind two bikes coming out of transition that were almost walking with their shoes clipped in, so I picked up no time by being able to run clipless out. Then I struggled to get my feet into my shoes. For an event this long, I think having the shoes out of my pedals may be better.
Bike: Let’s just say that I wish my bike was stronger. The elevation climb was only 2500 feet, but it felt like 10,000 because the hills were sudden, short and steep. Sudden is my fault for not studying the course before the race, but I couldn’t overcome the short and steep. The first hill was an 11% grade for about .75 miles. I’d say 1/3 of the people were walking their bikes up the hill. This came at about mile 31. At mile 35 or so, we hit hill 2, which was about the same distance of 8% grade. Hill 3 came a few miles later and was nearly identical to hill 2. This didn’t account for the steady incline that accounted for miles 30-44. For those reading, you could say what goes up, must come down. I agree, but what hurt me was that I didn’t really expect the bike to be so difficult on the legs, so I used a lot of energy on those hills that really came out of my run. My legs even cramped at one point. Plus, the wind was opposite it’s normal direction, so although the last 12 miles we had a tailwind, all of these inclines were into the wind, making them that much more punishing. If I could do it again, I think I’d do a little more hill training, and do more running after hill training. More importantly, I needed to take in more calories on the bike. The 100 per hour was not enough, and I had no salt replenishment. My body was covered in salt by the end of the race, and that’s not a good sign.
The bike course was beautiful. I just was in a lot of pain and didn’t get a chance to enjoy it as much. I wish I could do the back side of Camp Pendleton for fun because it was truly gorgeous. Here’s the bike course:
Here’s the elevation chart (note the elevation increases aren’t great, but they’re sudden, and that made it tough):
My Cheer Squad
Gun to my Head
T2: After 2:58:06, or about 19 mph, I came into transition. It felt good to get off the bike. I was worn out and ready for it to end, but a half marathon remained. Here was the debate – socks or no socks? I loaded my bike, and said screw it, I’ll put on the socks. And this decision may have cost me about 5 minutes on my run. I never trained in these shoes while wearing socks, and I know the golden rule is to never do something different on race day than you’ve done in training, but socks make everything better, right? Not in this case. I was blistered by mile 5, and it was PAINFUL! The type of blisters I could pop the same night. So in transition, I took the extra 30 seconds to put on socks, I grabbed my Clif Bloks and Gu and ran out. Both the Bloks and Gu fell out of my pockets before I exited transition. Thank you Zoots for making crappy pockets in your tri jerseys. Total T2 time of 2:39
Run: The run splits are below (and note it’s 12.6 miles because my Garmin didn’t kick up until .5 miles in). These don’t account for the pee break I needed at mile 1 or the 20 seconds at each mile for walking through the water stations. The run wasn’t too bad, but as you can see, as the blisters settled in, each step got progressively harder and my time slowed down. There were so many times I wanted to stop, but I just forced myself to never stop running, even if I had to slow down. Just keep going. At one water stop, my legs cramped pretty bad, and this was the sign that if I did start walking, my day may be cut short. So I just took each painful step forward, gutting it out until I finished. You can see from the run videos below that the stride wasn’t too bad, it just hurt. And as you can see from the finisher video, I really wasn’t in a hurry to get across that finish line!
Total run time of 1:45:33. Run Splits (see how it got a little harder as time went by)
My total time was 5:25:05. As I posted in my race strategy, the only really disappointing time was the swim, and fortunately, although I missed it by about 15%, it only accounted for 5 minutes. So I like to recap what I learn from these events, and this one is not different. Here are my main takeaways:
The Ironman Arizona is going to be HARD. I knew it would be hard, but once I have half the distance as an example, I realize truly what’s in store. I will need to seriously train, and really build a good base of miles on the bike and run. Yes I would like to do it in under 12 hours, and 5:25 + 5:25 = 10:50 does make 12 hours seem possible, especially since I wasn’t thrilled with my time. But the key will be to finish. This race hurt so bad at so many times that the thought of dropping out happened constantly, and I haven’t had that in a race before. I can only imagine what a full Ironman is like. So I will train with more bricks and more endurance, building a base before I build speed.- I’m going to do more ocean swimming. I haven’t swam in the ocean since my last tri in October, and the wetsuit felt very strange for the first 500 meters. I plan on doing more ocean swims this summer simply to get used to the feel of a wetsuit
- I’m not that scared of the ocean anymore. I was deathly afraid before my last tri, and yesterday, it felt great to be out there. This is all about conquering fears, and I’m slowly breaking down barriers
- Transitions are important, but an extra 2 minutes in transition to get your head right is worth it in an event this long. Next time, I’ll spray sunscreen on too so I don’t end up with the sun blisters that I have this time around
- Races are fun, but I think I enjoy the journey more than the end. To truly master something, you have to enjoy the journey, and I’m thankful that a race is just part of that journey
- Do not break habit. Running in shoes with socks that I’ve only run in without socks is NOT a good idea
- Learn more about nutrition and what my body needs. Train that way and take in more calories on the bike. Buy salt replenishment pills
So thanks for taking the time to read my race report. If you have any questions or want to know anything about the race, feel free to comment below! Happy training!
Second loop of the run:
Across the finish line:
My photo set on Flickr
Race Strategy: Oceanside 70.3
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Race Strategy on March 25, 2010
Less than 48 hours from now, I’ll be half of Ironadam. Well, not really. Like 13.1 + 13.1 <> 26.2, I’m sure 70.3 + 70.3 <> 140.6.
Either way, I have a long endurance event to complete very soon, and I’m eager to have the experience. Here’s my strategy:
- PreRace: Transition opens at 4:45. I plan to get there around 5:30 since I have an hour to setup before it closes and another hour before my wave starts. Therefore, I’m going to get up at 4 AM, eat a granola bar, have some cereal, maybe have some muscle milk, and go through my usual 4 potty breaks before leaving the hotel. 15 minute drive, so I’ll leave around 5 AM.
- Transition setup: the rules said we cannot clip our shoes into the pedals and slide them in the first leg of the race. That sucks, but I’ll clarify this with the rules official tomorrow at the expo. This definitely impacts my transitions strategyI plan on having one towel, a bucket of water to wash my feet in very quickly to make sure no rocks get between my feet and the shoes, race belt, sunglasses, gels, bloks, water, cytomax, and running shoes.
- Swim: When the swim starts, I’m going to just try to avoid the chaos, but I’ll be aggressive as long as I don’t use up too much energy. Since I’m starting in the last wave, I don’t know how many people will be going slow from previous waves. I guess we’ll see. My goal is 30 minutes here, which equates to about 1:33 / 100 meter. I don’t think that’s unreasonable since I’ve been swimming a lot. My stroke has improved since my olympic distance tri where I did 1:36 / 100 meter. To be honest, even if I was a lot slower, 10 seconds, that’s only about 2 minutes 30 seconds more, so not a big impact on overall time. I plan on getting into a consistent groove and making a nice swim without a lot of hard grinding. I’m surprisingly not that nervous for the swim.
- T1: Pulling off my wetsuit as I run to transition, I plan on doing this in under 2 minutes assuming the in/out of transition isn’t too long. Wet suit off, race belt on, sunglasses on, helmet on, shoes on, bike and go. And this time, I won’t let my GU and Bloks fall out of my pockets
- Biking: 56 miles is no easy task, and due to the late start, we may get a little bit more wind then the other waves. Hopefully it’s not too bad. My goal here is to do 20 mph. I don’t know if that’s reasonable or not since I haven’t done this bike course, but my training dictates that if I didn’t have to stop, I could pull that off. I plan on having a heart rate in the mid 150s, and I’ll save most of my energy for the hills in Pendleton and try to maintain a cadence of 100 for the first 5 miles. Goal here is 2:45, but I’m expecting something between 2:50 and 3 hours
- T2: So the big debate is do I continue to go sockless? I’m bringing socks, but at this point, I plan on using my Zoots shoes and hoping for the best. I may even slip the socks into my back pocket in case it gets bad on the course. I hope to do this also in less than two minutes. Run in, park bike, helmet off, bike shoes off, running shoes on, grab more GU, GO….
- Run: This is where the race will get interesting. It feels like it will be over, but there’s a half marathon left. However, running is my strong suit. I was explaining this to a friend this week. Because I’m about 50 percentile swim, 50 percentile bike, and about 30 percentile run, then I end up being about 25 percentile triathlete because a lot of people are terrible in one sport, awesome in another, and mediocre in the third. I tend to be mediocre at all three but upper third on the run, but then again, I need more races to test my skills. My runs off the bike have all been under 7:30 minute miles. I’ve even had a number of them less than 7 minute miles. BUT, I’ve never had to swim before the bike, and I don’t know what that will do to my legs. I’m shooting for 1:45 minutes, but my goal is 1:40. That will put me at mid to high 7 minute pace. I think I’ll maintain a low 160s heart rate and really try to push it the last 5 miles. We’ll see what happens
- T3: CELEBRATION! Drinking, eating, looking forward to days off ahead, and a little massage at the resort before a wonderful evening with AK
That’s it. I guess we’ll see how it goes. Good luck to everyone participating. I hope for good weather, good competition, and a nice challenge.
Race Report: Surf City Half Marathon
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Reports, Running on February 7, 2010
What a beautiful day!!! Rain the past two days, followed up with the clearest skies and most beautiful views I’ve seen in quite some time. Weather was good, almost too good. Must have been mid 60s.
I beat my goal of 1:35 with a 1:33:13. Placement stats were:
I’m very pleased with my performance. I would have loved to push to break 1:30, but that day is in the future. It wasn’t today.
I stuck to the strategy, but my heart rate was much higher than expected (averaged 157 or so, and was north of 150 most of the time). I had to take a leak in mile 2, and it was much longer than I expected and took up about 40 seconds. Didn’t realize that how big of a deal those small bathroom stops are as that was the difference in breaking the 1:33 barrier.
Here are my splits:
I ran a bit more than the 13.1, so the pace on the Garmin was 7:05 but actual pace was 7:07. You can see the pee mile in mile 2 at 7:36, and then I basically sprinted to catch up on some of that time. Mile 4 was a big turning point for me. You can see here my heart rate average for that mile went up quite a bit, and my pace slowed from the prior mile. I noticed my pace getting slower with a higher heart rate. Not a good combo. Then, in the next mile, I was able to go downhill a bit and my heart rate recovered. From there, I didn’t look back, pushing my body harder and harder to get the pace down.
After I passed the slight incline in mile 10, I wanted to push hard, but the tightness in my right hamstring prevented me from pushing it until the last mile. I didn’t want to go out too hard in case it tightened up. I could feel my form compensating for the tightness, and it definitely made running a little harder. However, I pushed through and ran the last 1 mile and change pretty fast.
My evaluation:
- Very happy with my performance – enjoyed my new running style and kept digging through the pain I started to feel in my legs
- Would like to figure out the balance between drinking a lot of water before the race starts and peeing. Would love to do these races without having to stop in the first 2-3 miles
- Wear sunglasses if it’s sunny – last 4.5 miles directly into the sun was a little brutal
- Want to work on my stride so I glide more horizontally. I am happy with the improvements, but if I want to get south of 7 minute miles for a full marathon, I want to glide more and I have some things to work on. Videos my dad took on his bike can been seen here and you can see that I’m gliding somewhat, but not nearly as much as the guys who are doing those 5:30 /minute miles. Maybe one day…
- I love racing. Feels so good to be around a community of runners.
Hope everyone had a good race today! For more views of today’s race, see below. If you have questions or comments, I’m available as usual to talk with you! Have a great rest of the weekend!
Videos
Pictures
Race Strategy: Surf City Half Marathon
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Strategy, Running on February 6, 2010
Tomorrow is my first race since the MCM marathon at the end of October. I’m excited. This is a very low priority race for me, which means no taper, but it did fall within a rest week (meaning only 7.5 hours of training – wow, real restful), so I feel fresh relative to past weekends. I’m really looking forward to this. My running has been much faster since I switched to forefoot running, so this will be a good test to see if I can keep up some of this speed for 13 miles.
I haven’t done too many runs beyond 8 miles (two that I can count) in the past few months because of blisters from switching the landing spot on my foot, but given the endurance work I’ve done on the bike AND that I’ve put in 20-30 miles of running a week each week for the past few months, I think I’ll be ready. I’ve done a lot of speed work, tempo runs, and drills to improve my running, and I have seen a noticeable improvement in my pace. My 8 mile runs have been in the low 7 minute range, and when I push it, it’s been in the high 6s.
I feel like I could bring the 7 min/mile barrier tomorrow, but I’m not going to try to do it as a goal given the low priority status of the race. This year is all about endurance and triathlons, so that is my focus, but of course, it’s a race, and it’s not easy to, well, take it easy. I must be somewhat careful though since I have a century ride next weekend in Palm Springs.
I don’t have much experience in the half marathon category. My history in half marathons: one. I did the OC half last year, and I did a 1:39:52. One thing that is cool is that this will be my first race as a Brooks ID member. I’ll be sporting Brooks shirt, shorts, and shoes (the Ravenna’s, which are also known as AA – funny, my first/last initials – WOOO). I’ll try to post pics later! I love my brooks stuff. And although I like my launch shoes better, I still don’t feel comfortable doing a long race in a neutral shoes, and that’s why I like the Ravenna’s mild support (FYI – i’ve been in stability shoes forever, but now that I’m doing more forefoot running, I can handle neutral shoes without much pain).
So with that being said, here’s my strategy:
- 13.1 miles doesn’t seem difficult anymore. With 80 mile bike rides and 3 marathons under my belt, I’m not nervous about the distance. However, I still want to treat it with my usual race prep. I plan to leave at 6:30, so I’ll get up at 5, eat, walk the dog, move around a bit, and drink LOTS of water. I’ll have some bread with peanut butter on it. And hopefully have 2-3 bathroom visits before departure
- I plan to warm up by running from the drop off spot to the starting line. Mix it up with some strides but most of it will be an easy jog.
- I’m carrying a water bottle filled with cytomax. No GUs, no Clif Blocks. That should get me through all 13.1 miles so I don’t have to stop for water/food.
- I plan to start in wave 1 (<1:50), which I imagine may be crowded since a lot of people will be in this group.
- I’ll go out at about 145 heart rate or 7:10 pace. That is generally my heart rate at that pace. It may be higher from the crowd, so if it is, I’ll let pace dictate where I stand. If I do get in the first mile at around 7 min or a tad less, that’s ok, but I want to settle in at that heart rate and pace after mile 1
- I hope to keep up that pace until mile 9. At mile 9, there is a straight away for the next 4.1 miles with a slight elevation gain. If I’m feeling good and not too tired, I’m going to start pushing it. If I can, I’ll do it progressive style, increasing about 10 seconds per mile for the last 4 miles.
- If I can stick to the strategy, I should be somewhere between 92-95 minutes. That would be awesome
Of course, I’m not running on rested legs, especially after my rolling hills simulation on my trainer today, but I’ve achieved similar paces on tired legs, so I might as well give it a go. If I can’t keep up the pace or bonk in the last 2 miles, then hopefully I can beat my PR of 1:39:52.
Good luck to everyone running races this weekend, and if you’re in Surf City and see me running by, wave and say hello
Year in Review
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Goals, Life, Races on January 3, 2010
A year has past, and what a year has it been. I love these end of the year posts (last year’s post is here) because it gives me a time to reflect on things that went well in my life, things that didn’t go to well, things I want to change going into the new year, and that which is all good.
Entering last year, I wasn’t in the best place. I was in a struggling marriage, and this life struggle was disrupting the equilibrium with the other things in life. I was having trouble focusing on work, I had trouble focusing on my goals, and I had no idea what I wanted. I had trouble sleeping, and everything was cloudy. Was this what life was supposed to be like, I often questioned. I would often sit in front of my computer for hours, chatting, tweeting, stumbling (literally) endlessly with that awesome firefox plug in stumbleupon! I was distracting myself, constantly. If you want to see some of the dark places I reached and things I questioned, check out my posts on life (you can read here) for the first 3-4 months last year. Some of my most reflective/sad/interesting (heartbr8king, emotions – good or bad, alone, living with loss).
Once we decided to divorce, I started running. I ran a lot. It was my escape. I had run in my first marathon the previous year (2008), and I really enjoyed it despite the hellish pain of getting across 
the finish line. And yes, I never did a 5k, 10k, half marathon or any race for that matter…I jumped right into the marathon, and not just to finish, but to finish in under 4 hours (I finished SF, one of the harder marathons, in 3:52:42). It was a big accomplishment for me, and the feeling I got from overcoming those “impossible” barriers made me feel…made me feel, great!
So when I went through this struggle, I decided to run, and when I ran, I was at peace. I had a clear head. My buddy Matt suggested cycling, so I started riding too, but just for fun. When I was on that road though, I felt free. I could feel my body, my heart beat, my head sweat, my legs hurt. That feeling though was amazing, and for the first time in a while, I really felt alive.
So…I trained. I ran a lot. I started cycling a lot. I did a half marathon (OC)…I did a full marathon (SF). I picked up swimming and did my first triathlon…an Ol
ympic distance event in San Diego where I crushed my goal time by over 23 minutes (2:22 vs. a goal of 2:45). I started believing in myself. I started reading about running, about training, about pedaling, about cycling. I found a community on twitter that I learned so much from. I found something to be passionate about…again! It had been a while!
I also finished my MBA in June, and although I didn’t have the greatest experience in the classroom, I met some awesome friends along the way, and more importantly, I met a special someone the day before graduation. It was a random introduction from someone I just met, and that 5 minute intro turned into a facebook message, then a facebook conversation, then some text messages, then a few phone calls, text flirting for a week, a first date, a second date, and well…a great pick up to the second half of my year. It’s been an awesome six months now, and that is one of the things giving some positive momentum to this new year that I’m very excited about!
In June, I also got a new Abby kitten I named RED, which funny enough came from him being a pREDator, but also because he is a red abyssinian. I love animals (if you haven’t gathered), and if I 
had a bigger place, I’d probably have a full farm. J/K. Kind of. Red is awesome. I always believed in having two cats since I work full time, they can keep each other company during the day. I had Toby and Riley from the same litter nearly five years ago, and when I decided to give Riley to my ex-wife since he truly was always her cat, I wanted to find Toby a partner. Red was the perfect companion, being even more dog like than Toby. He follows me everywhere, fetches, growls at the door, and wants to go for walks (which I will avoid . Sadly enough, as I wrote about in this post, Riley passed on in October, which was also a down moment this year. This was hard for me to deal with even though Riley was now Jenn’s cat because of my attachment to animals. I keep telling myself he’s in a good place and it was his time, but I still get torn up when I think about him.
In December, I went on a sweet Hawaii vacation, my first week off since my honeymoon 3 years ago. Upon my return, the day of in fact, I got Kaila. Kaila is the first dog I’ve ever owned, and although she proved to be a handful at first, I’m really starting to love her. She is so damn cute, and although I’m still trying to find my groove with her between playing, training (training her, not triathlon training , and pure dominance training (yes I pin her and growl at her showing my teeth – must be the pack leader), I’m finally starting to see why dogs are so freakin awesome! Next August or so, she’ll be my new running partner. I can’t wait. I hope I can keep up with her!!!
So that is my year for you. I’ve been employed by the same company from start to finish, hired my first employee at this company, and made some big strides there developing the business analytics program. To be honest, 2010 will be the year that defines business analytics at my company. I’m excited to see what happens. But let’s get back to my hobby before departing. Below are two images that summarize my year:
This is a summary by sport of what I did in 2010. I started keeping track of the type of run, swim, and cycling ride in October, so that’s why you see somewhat of a sporadic summary. The totals are:
- Running: 1175 miles … this is funny, but in my post last year when I ran 666.4 miles, I said I don’t know if I’ll ever run this mileage again because I’m now swimming and cycling. And I nearly doubled that running mileage In 2010, I hope to get up to 1500 miles, which may be tough since I’ll do less run training than 2010
- Swimming: 22 hours … Difficult to get mileage here, but this isn’t very much. I’ll blow this away in 2010
- Cycling: 2017 miles … although this seems like a lot, it’s really not. I’m guessing I’ll at least double this amount this year.
This image is the the most interesting to me. This is a summary by month of all sports. The thing I find fascinating here is check out my total time and my heart rate. The number of hours has really gone up the last few months as I’ve taken training seriously. But what’s most fascinating is that my average heart rate has gone down over this period of time. There could be several factors at play here, but I think it represents two things 1) I’m getting in better shape and 2) I’m cycling more, which typically results in a lower heart rate. Either way, I’m really proud of the progression. The down month in October was the result of a taper for a peak marathon (MCM) as well as a slight taper for the triathlon I was in.
That’s my 2009. Here’s to a great 2010! Happy New Year everyone!
Running Drills
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Running, Training Tips on November 27, 2009
I’ve been wanting to post these running drills that I got out of Matt Fitzgerald‘s “Brain Training for Runners” because I find extremely helpful. I’ll try to get some video on here later of what these look like, or at least look like in my head Technique drills help you work on a specific aspect of your running stride outside of normal running. Matt recommends doing two to three of these after each run, and that’s what I’ve found to be helpful since they really don’t take a lot of time.
1) Running with no arms
In this drill, lace your fingers together and make a big circle (like you do with your kids when you make an imaginary basketball hoop with your head being the back board). Then run 100 yards or so quickly, jog slowly back to the starting point, and repeat. Drill benefits: activates deep ab muscles so you run more with your abs, less with your hips; maintains upright posture; takes away shoulder rotation if you’re a runner that moves the upper body left and right as you run
2) Steep Hill Sprints
Spring a VERY steep hill for about 20 seconds. I’m talking 10-20% grade. Benefits: develops ballistic running / force skills; applies great force into the ground and helps drive the swing leg forward.
3) One-Leg Hop
Run/hop on one leg as fast as you can for 20 seconds. Jog back to the starting point and repeat. Benefits: increases push off power; enhances stability of hips, pelvis, lower spine, and knees on impact by challenging muscles that stabilize these joints.
4) High knees
Run with a fast cadence and a highly exaggerated knee lift (thighs parallel to ground) for 30 seconds, jog back to starting point, and repeat. Benefits: teaches you to drive swing leg and helps the thigh participate in driving force into the ground.
5) Bounding
Run with long, leaping strides (think triple jump in the olympics), continue for 30 seconds, jog back, and repeat. Benefits: enhances push off power and stability on impact; exaggerates overstriding, so helps teach you to begin retracting your leading leg before impact
6) Stiff Legged Running
Run briskly for 20 seconds with knees locked as much as you can. Benefits: emphasizes the butt for forward propulsion and not the hamstrings; teaches you to begin thrusting earlier and helps stiffen your stride.
Pedaling – yes, even that has science to it
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Ironman Training, Training Tips on November 6, 2009
Physics does fall into the realm of science, right? For those of you who take cycling seriously, I don’t have to convince you that there is a lot you can do with your pedaling to improve your force, and therefore, speed. For those who do not cycle, I think you’d be surprised how much physics there is in pedaling. One of my themes for this winter is to get faster on the bike (along with endure the swim and run on the forefoot), and so I want to study the pieces to the biking puzzle. No better place to start with the simple motion we learned when we were three years old.
I came across this website, and they have this great article on pedaling. I knew there was something to pedaling – something more then getting into a fairly uncomfortable seat, bending in a strange position for several hours, and just pushing DOWN as hard as I can on these tiny little pedals. Well, striking down is exactly where I was doing wrong.
The article’s main point is that the additional leverage you get by striking forward and down (think 45 degree angle) is MUCH more powerful than striking down. It sounds confusing, but check out the diagrams in the article. Read it over a few times because I definitely had to study the diagrams to get a better understanding of what the author meant with additional distance / force from more leverage. You have a longer length to push when you use your pedals this way, which gives you more time to generate power. That’s why longer crank shafts give you more leverage and can generate more power.
The other key takeaway from the article was the pull up in the back half of the pedal (the part where you’re clipped in and the force of the pedal pulls your leg up – yeah, that’s NOT how it’s supposed to work). The article says your leg weighs about 15 pounds, and if you’re not pulling your leg up, then your other leg has to compensate for that on the push forward/down, meaning you have to overcome 15 pounds just to get to the zero power threshold. If you’ve heard of trying to make your leg feel weightless, this is what the article is talking about. You should at a minimum be pulling up your leg so that your other leg doesn’t have to work for that.
In addition, the area from 2 o clock to 7 o clock is a key area of power output. Here, the leg should almost be straight, and the feeling should be like wiping dirt/gum off the bottom of your shoe. Surprisingly, this swipe of the foot will account for about 25% of your power output. Crazy huh?
To summarize, here’s how your power breaks down:
- 65% on the downward push
- 25% on the swipe from the bottom to the beginning of the backswing
- 10% of the pull up (and mostly just to offset the weight of a free leg)
So how do you work on this? This is what I’m going to do
- One legged drills on an indoor trainer – get the feelings/leg positions right. The feeling should be smooth without jerkiness
- One legged drills while riding, but leave the other foot clipped in and just make it feel limp. In this position, don’t get jerky – it’s so easy to do
- Simulate the feeling in 2-3 mile intervals with both feet. In one interval, focus on the downward push with both feet. In another interval, focus on the scraping off gum feeling. In another interval, pull your leg up. The key is putting these all together, which is where the one legged riding comes in
If you know of any other good cycling articles, pass them on! I hope this one helps you get faster on the bike.
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