Archive for category Race Reports
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 Report: Marine Corps Marathon
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Marathon, Race Reports, Running on November 1, 2009
It’s been a week now since the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM), and I’m finally getting to my race report. The trip to DC was awesome. It was a beautiful city and I took tons of pics! Unfortunately, I think I walked around way too much in the days leading up to the marathon, and I felt that fatigue in my legs about halfway through the race. I think this will be one of my last destination marathons where part of the trip is to see a new place. I don’t think it’s a wise idea if you’re trying for time in a race.
The race started out in Arlington cemetery. It was a beautiful morning, about 50 degrees, and I’ve never seen so many people ready to run. Adrienne was with me the entire time (in the AM), and she did an awesome job with the camera. She’s a trooper, getting up early with me for these races! FYI, Adrienne learned quite a lot spectating this event. She could have a blog post to herself with the experiences she went through. Good stuff!
My Pit Crew
The morning kicked off at 5 AM. I got up, did a 10 minute warmup on the treadmill, stretched, ate, went to the bathroom (3x – BEFORE leaving the hotel), and then headed down to the metro. Man the metro was crowded. It took nearly 25 minutes to get off the metro to the race. Luckily, we gave ourselves enough time. I was very nervous, and I thought I needed a porta potty run. The lines were packed, so I avoided it, and I didn’t have any stomach issues during the race. I realized that this pre-morning bathroom trips (usually 5+x) is pretty much a case of the nerves. Knowing that may help me in future races.
So the race started in Arlington Cemetery, and then we went around the Potomac river, which is absolutely beautiful with the fall colors, and then through Georgetown. The crowd support was awesome in this area. I’ve never heard anything as loud as the people in Georgetown. Thank you – you are awesome!
After Georgetown, we went through potomac park, which was pretty quiet, and then the mall (washington monument, congressional building, smithsonian, Lincoln memorial, etc…), then over the Potomac and through Arlington again. The end of the race was pretty gnarly, with a steep .2 mile hill, and running over the freeway at mile 21 was rough given the lack of scenery, but the rest of the race was beautiful with incredible crowd support.
Handing off the bottle to my crew
For fuel/hydration, I decided to carry a water bottle with me for the first 10 miles, hand it off to Adrienne at mile 10, then pick it up from her around mile 16. This worked perfectly. I never had an issue with hydration, and I drank at every water stop after the first two (powerade when i had water, and water/powerade when I was without the bottle). I must admit, I was COVERED with powerade at the end of the race, but I didn’t get any in my eyes/nose, which is the benefit of sipping into the side of my mouth. For fuel, I GUed at mile 7 and mile 19, and I took Clif Blocks from mile 10 to mile 18 and one more at mile 23 along with an enduralyte pill. Normally I don’t think I would need this much fuel, but I was DYING towards the end and looking 
for any pick me up possible to maintain pace. I do attribute this food to keeping my time under 9 minute pace for the last 10 miles.
As far as my performance, I wasn’t thrilled. I had a goal of 3:20, which I highlighted in my race strategy post, and I missed it pretty badly (3:37:24). I got off on the wrong pace, and as I tried to speed up, I just couldn’t maintain pace. My legs were tired from about mile 12 on, and after mile 15, it took all my effort to just keep moving. I wanted to stop and walk, and I could feel my legs tense up and prepare to cramp if I tried to speed up, so I had to slow down often. Each time I tried to push below that 8 minute pace, the legs just stiffened. It was a tough race, but I was really stoked that I just fought through the mental desire to bonk.
You can see in my splits above the come split 9, the pace slowed by nearly 30 seconds, and from that point forward, it was a battle to stay under 9 minutes. I did push at the end, but the steep hill at mile .2 put another dagger in the sub-8 minute pace.
The one thing I will take away as a positive in this race aside from the mental push to not quit was that my level of fitness was great. My heart rate barely got above 160 the entire time, and I realize that I can get to these times (Boston Qualifying and Sub 3 hour) if I just improve my form and work on my leg strength/flexibility to prevent the leg pain in later miles.
Since the marathon, the only run I did in the last week was a barefoot treadmill run, and I was amazed how my cadence improved by 10 (between 90-95 at goal race pace) and the muscle pain shifted from hips to calves. After watching the NYC marathon today, I know the move to forefoot striking from heel striking will be great in the long run. It will be a sore road to get there though.
As usual in my race reports, here are my key takeaways from this race:
- DC is a beautiful city
- My pit crew is the best on earth! Thanks for your help Adrienne!
- I need more time off my feet in the days prior to a marathon
- Good fueling/hydration through the race
- Work on forefoot running to reduce leg pain at later stages of the race
Here are a few more pics to help remember my third marathon!
I had to pee 3x before the race. This is one of them, beautifully captured by Adrienne.
Here are some misc race pics, along with me at the airport finishing my Aunt Aunnie’s pretzels before the flight home
Marine Corps Marathon: Race Strategy
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Marathon, Race Reports, Running on October 18, 2009
Marine Corps Marathon is one week from today, and I’m excited but also a bit indecisive how I want to approach the race. This will be my third marathon and my second this year. My last marathon was San Francisco at the end of July. On a jet lagged body, I ran a 3:36, which I was really happy with. Since then, I stepped up my training, took a VO2 test, focused entirely on heart rate training, and really stepped up my cross training since I did the SD triathlon last weekend.
My mindset is that my time should improve by 5 minutes because of a flatter course then SF. That puts me at about 3:30, and I believe I want to cut out 10 minutes because of my training. My goal is to beat 3:20, which is 7:38 pace. It’s a pretty big step up from the 8:16 pace of my last marathon, but here’s why I believe I can improve:
- My half marathon time in the OC marathon, a flat course, was 1:39:51, or 7:37 pace. In that race, I got horrible cramps around mile 8 and had to walk for a minute (you can see this elevated heart rate and spike in this graph). So I know I can do this pace
- Since the OC marathon,I’ve run 90 times for 659 miles. That excludes the number of times I rode and swam. My body can certainly handle distance
- The SF marathon was hard, but I had negative splits. I didn’t push it because of the jet lag, but I finished with a lot more tolerance than my previous training runs or races.
- I did a training run of 19 miles at 7:45 pace, but nearly passed out at that point. It was also in 90 degree heat. I also did a 23 mile run at 8:40 pace with ease
- The weather should be cool. I perform much better in cool weather
- My music playlist is AWESOME!
- I’ve become more comfortable with eating on a run, which should help with fueling through the race, improving my chances of overcoming the wall
Ok, so that gives me some confidence in breaking 3:20. Here are some of my concerns:
- I don’t know the course. I really think this has an impact in my mind of knowing what’s beyond the curve ahead and feeling out the distance. Yes there are mile markers. Yes it’s always 26.2. But there’s a different sense of confidence in knowing a course.
- I’ve never run on the east coast before in a race. Yes, this seems simple, but I remember when I used to travel for golf, it always took me a few days to get used to weather, the feeling of a new place, etc…
- Triathlon last weekend may have damaged my body a bit more than expected, but I’m hoping two weeks is enough time to heal. I am still a novice in racing, having completed only four races so far, so I think I’m still a year away from recovering quickly from long distance
- 3:20 is effen fast
So now that you can read my mind 
, here’s my strategy for race day.
- Race starts at 8AM. Will get up at 6AM, eat a peanut butter granola bar, a banana, and a bare naked bar. I’ll begin to stretch. I’m hoping for my usual stomach clearing before leaving the hotel. Prep with body glide and race wrist band for timing
- Warm up for 10 minutes to get my heart rate up to 140. Run around the hotel on the way to the race
- Get in an early wave to avoid crowds. Find the 3:20 pace person and introduce myself. Find Matt to start the race with.
- Go out at a 145 heart rate, hoping for about 7:50 pace. Don’t get caught up in the rush. Go out easy and stay to the inside track of the course.
- At 2 miles, speed up to 7:35 pace. Check heart rate. If heart rate is less than 150, maintain pace. If more than 150, switch to tempo style running where run 2 miles at heart rate of 150-155, then cut back to slower pace at 145. This can change up my pace
- At mile 13, check times to see how I’m doing. If legs feel good, mind is right, and I’m still pumped, take it to 155 heart rate consistently
- At mile 18-20, heart rate will begin to creep. This is where I’ll dig deep within, feeling my body, focusing on finishing, visualizing that 3:19:59 time.
I’ve had some tightness in my hamstrings, so that’s my biggest concern in failing to meet my time. If they tighten up around mile 22, I’ll have a tough time achieving negative splits and beating 3:20. Worse comes to worse, I have a rough “wall” stretch from pushing too hard and do a 3:50 marathon. But I’m hopeful for the best.
For hydration, I’m debating on whether I want to carry a water bottle and give it Adrienne when empty and pick up another from her since she’ll be following me on the course. I will definitely get water at every station, but I will run through the stations this time, pinching the cups and pouring it into the side of my mouth. I plan to GU at mile 8 and mile 16, and CLIF Blok every 3 miles or so in between and after. I have to figure out how to carry it.
I also want to mentally have fun in this race because I will be seeing DC on foot with blocked off streets – not many opportunities to do that. Given my science training, having fun is sometimes the hardest thing to achieve. Then again, achieving goals through study and perseverance is pretty satisfying.
Good luck to all those racing this weekend and next!
Race Report: San Diego Olympic Triathlon 2009
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Reports on October 11, 2009
As sherry main put it in her tweet, I finally put the “tri” in “triadamlete”. Today I finished my first Olympic tri, the San Diego Olympic Tri in Point Loma. It was awesome!
My goal time was 2 hours, 45 minutes. My final time was 2 hours, 22 minutes, 11 seconds. I was stoked. The winning time was 1:51:02 (how would I ever pick up 30 minutes???). They haven’t posted splits yet, but I know I came in about 100th overall and 14th in my age group (30-34, out of 39 people). Out of my goals, I think I accomplished everything I wanted to. I overcame my open water fear and got comfortable with swimming in crowds. Despite my transition mistakes, I learned how to do it quickly. I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were. I learned to eat during the workout. I figured out how to bike in a race (e.g. passing, staying to the right, being vocal). Most importantly, I got hooked on the triathlon and how awesome the tri community is. I had fun!
My splits are below. I was pretty stoked with my numbers, but I do think the run was a little less than 10k distance. I actually didn’t think these times were possible heading into the race, but given my heart rate and how comfortable I was on the run, I think I could do much better. I could probably improve transitions a minute, and I know there is a lot more I can do on the bike.
Here’s a quick synopsis of my race and some of the things I’ve learned about triathlons:
- Pre-Race
- I was nervous: 5 bathroom trips before the race – beat my previous best of four before my second San Francisco marathon
- Transition was on grass, and I used a balloon to mark my place. I was the only one with a balloon. Several athletes around me thanked me for helping them locate their bike J very surprised with how few people do this. Business opportunity at expos?
- I need to drink more water before I race, especially with that many bathroom trips
- Swim (00:24:04)
- No pauses on the swim. Had a little trouble sighting, but I followed the bubbles (thanks Rod).
- Shoulders were very tired and I need to work on my endurance.
- Heart rate of 175 by the time I got on my bike. Kinda crazy
- T1 (00:02:13)
- Wetsuit half off on the way to bike – slipped right off when I got there. Thanks Rod for the Pam suggestion (spray legs before putting on wetsuit)
- Quick drink of water, grabbed my bike, and I was gone
- Improvement: run faster to bike, don’t take time for water, improve flexibility J
- Bike (1:16:08)
- Slipped feet into clipped in shoes, buckled in during first mile
- Drank a lot on the first leg, especially during the first 2 miles to makeup for my lack of drinking during the swim
- Took a few miles to catch my breath, but I eventually lowered my heart rate and felt comfortable
- .75 miles at about 8% grade – BRUTAL, especially on the second loop
- BEAUTIFUL views through the naval base on top of the cliffs. Downtown San Diego on the left, Pacific Ocean on the right. Advantage of having no headphones: I definitely took in the views more. There was a military graveyard next to the road at the top of one cliff, and it was a bone chilling feeling to ride by that in the overcast weather.
- After the cliff, there were several miles downhill – going about 35 mph in aero. Fun but a little nerve racking
- Ate GU for the first time in a race. No stomach issues
- Making turn near dismount, pulled feet out of shoes to get ready for dismount. Then told that
wasn’t dismount area and had another 3 miles, so I had to put my feet back in. Definitely wasted some time here. I could really feel the loss of power without the clip-ins (riding on top of the shoes) - About 200 feet from dismount, pulled feed out and rode on top of my shoes
- T2 (00:01:06)
- Dismounted barefoot and ran bike to my position (easily discovered by balloon)
- Flipped on running shoes, took off
- Got out of transition and down the straight away and realized my helmet was still on
- Sprinted back and dropped off helmet. Probably lost 30 seconds here. I think this got lumped in with my run time though since I passed the T1 chip reader
- Took off running
- Run (00:38:40 – 5.55 miles, 6:58/mile)
- Average 6:14 miles for 10k – I believe the run was about .3 miles to short, but nice after the marathons I run that are 26.7 miles
- They miscalculated the distance – notified in a follow up email; race distance was 5.55 miles
- Legs felt heavy for first half mile, but great after that
- I’ve been working on my running cadence, taking shorter strides but more of them. It really helped in this race as my legs never really hurt after the first half-mile.
- Didn’t push it all during race except to keep a steady heart rate (155-163) and steady pace. Heart rate was much higher than I expected, but my heart rate on the bike was the highest it has ever been (150-170), so it was tough to bring it down on the run. Plus, I felt good and went with it
- Did not sprint finish to save legs for marathon in a few weeks
That is my first triathlon. I had awesome support from my girlfriend Adrienne and my parents, Mike and Mary (you can see them in my Flickr pictures). It was such a great feeling to complete this race, have fun, and feel good after the race. I’m happy with my level of fitness and training. I realized that the science of sport that I’ve been studying has a lot of value, and I’ll continue to research and work hard at it. Based on my
Me with the pit crew
performance and splits, here are the things I need to work on:
- Swimming endurance
- Bike force
- Bike muscular endurance
- Running cadence
- Expand my triathlon community – everyone I’ve met in this sport is awesome
If you have any tips or questions, please post a comment. I’ll get back to my regular posts this week, especially when it comes to putting together a training schedule and some more on workout impacts and workout variation (volume, intensity and frequency).
Some of my bloopers:
Out of my shoes too soon
Running out of transition with my helmet
Realized it fortunately here, not a mile into the run
Had to run back
Race Strategy – First Olympic Tri Tomorrow
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Heart Rate Monitoring, Race Reports, Races, Running, Swimming, Triathlon on October 9, 2009
Sorry for my lack of responses to my previous blog post. I will follow up later with a final list of elements that can impact workouts, but work has just picked up so much lately that I haven’t had a chance to think it through!
Tomorrow is my first triathlon – the San Diego Tri. I’m a bit nervous, and I can really feel it in my stomach today. Had trouble eating breakfast this morning – one of those, I know I’m hungry, must force down food mornings.
I’ve always believed in coming up with a race plan / strategy and goals. I feel like it makes every race meaningful for an individual irrespective of where you place against the competition. This triathlon is a “C-Priority” race for me. I’ve defined priorities as
A-Priority: I expect to peak for this race
B-Priority: This race is a training step for an A priority race
C-Priority: This race is practice to learn and improve
I gave this a C-Priority because it is my first triathlon and I don’t want to obsess over time goals. To be honest, I have no idea what times I could achieve, but I’m going to set some high level time goals based on reviewing the mission viejo triathlon results and my general training. Given this is my first triathlon, my goals are simple:
- Total transition time of less than 4 minutes – thank you Rod Clark
- Overcome open water fear – swimming without vision is a challenge for me, especially with people all around. Plus, I have general fear of the ocean (the “unknown underneath”). I want to be comfortable with this after 7-8 minutes of swimming
- Learn biking in a race – learn the norms and etiquette. This is my limiter and I must learn to improve it
- Finish the race in under 2 hours, 45 minutes (true goal is 2 hour, 30 minutes, but I must be realistic) – split goals: 30 minutes swimming, 1:20 biking, 50 minutes running, 4 minutes transition
Those are my goals. My strategy to achieve those goals are the following:
- Take it easy on the swim. Enter the water on the outside of the pack and slowly with a willingness to lose a minute or two to get comfortable
- Switch to breast stroke when tired on the swim
- Transition quickly
- Eat on bike to avoid eating on the run
- Ease into first two miles of the bike to settle into a low heart rate – small ring, easy gear – high cadence (90-100)
- By mile 5 on the bike, start pushing into higher gears while keeping a high cadence – keep cadence between 85-95
- Settle into my run for two miles at 140 bpm – push to 150 bpm by mile 3. Do not exceed 159 bpm to save legs for marathon in 2 weeks – this is NOT a high priority race
So there are some specifics there, but I want a plan to stick by so I make sure I learn what I need to in this race. I hope to do another tri or two before my half ironman in March, so I will have other opportunities to learn. I know I’m much weaker in swimming and biking than running, so I must expect those two sports to also impact my running performance, which is why I’ve lowered my running goal. These goals assume no hiccups (leg cramps, flats, etc..).
My long run goals for the off season are to improve my cycling force and endurance as well as my swimming technique and endurance. I want to improve my run cadence, but this is third priority. This race will be a good benchmark of a starting point, and I’ll move forward from here.
I have trained enough to survive this race. FYI: in my last 30 days as of yesterday, I’ve run 20 times for 155 miles, biked 12 times for 212 miles, and swam 13 times for 7 hours. I love Garmin Connect! Next time, I won’t put a marathon two weeks after because i know that really limited the amount of time I could put into the bike and swim since I spent so much time running.
T – 2 hours until San Diego departure!
UPDATE: thanks @jpitkin – another goal: have fun
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