Posts Tagged training

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!

questions, training, triathlon, triathlon 101

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A brutal three weeks in the bag

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Ironman Training, Running, Swimming on July 9, 2010

Base 2 – DONE! It certainly wasn’t easy, and per my last post, it could even be thought of as hell, but I completed my base 2 and feel like things are getting, wait for it…EASIER!

Ok, easier is relative, but after putting on a lot of miles over the last three weeks, I feel like adding an hour here or there really isn’t too bad. My body is recovering faster, and although I’m suffering from recurring blisters and constant hamstring pain, I’m getting through the workouts. I keep training at this level because I know in an Ironman, I’m not going to feel 100% through the entire race, so training tired is critical.

See below for a weekly recap of what I did the last three weeks. The big workouts were a 6:30 workout on the Saturday of the 6/28 week (5 hour bike, 1:30 running) and a 6 hour workout during the Saturday of the 6/21 week (4 hour bike, 2 hour run). The moment I was most proud of though was getting up the Sunday after the 6:30 workout and doing a 3 hour workout (1:10 swim and 1:50 bike). It shows I can workout tired and still perform. I also ran to work once each week (18 miles round trip) and biked 1-2 times per week.

I’m in a rest week now, which is SO NICE! My body is recovering. It’s strange to workout about 8-9 hours in a week and consider it resting, but when you see the mileage / time above, I think you can understand why. During these down weeks, I try to get in a few tests to see how I’m improving. Last night I did my swim test and lowered my 100 meter swim time by almost 10 seconds. WOO HOO!!!

I do a test that includes a 10 minute warm up, primarily kicking. I then do 3×300 meters with 30 seconds of rest in between. Then I just swim to get in more time. I average the three 300 meters together to get an average 300 meter time, then divide by 3 to get my average 100 meter. The reason for this is to get my general average 100m for pacing when I do my swim training. The key is to not just do these tests on a 100M because it would be much faster and not factor in any endurance. Also, the 300s have to be within 10 seconds of each other or they don’t count. This prevents you from killing yourself on 1 or 2 of them and sacrificing the other. I did this test when I started seriously swim training earlier in the year, and I was at a 1:41 100M. Not fast at all. Last night, I was at 1:32. A noticeable improvement. Something is going right in the pool

The issue I’m debating now is whether to shorten my run mileage from the 30-40 miles a week I’m doing to about 25 and add another 2-3 hours on the bike. I know my bike is the weakness, and I also know that no matter how much work you put into running, the marathon of your first ironman is going to be hell. Given these things, I’m thinking of trying to get in two long rides a week, one of 5-7 hours and one of 3-5 hours depending on my weekly requirement. I’ve even thought of doing some of this on back to back days, with the 5-7 hours being aerobic and the 3-5 being slightly harder with a few more hills. I’ll try it out this next (and final) base period and see what happens.

For those of you training, I hope it’s going well!

base, base 2, cycling, ironman, long ride, marathon, training, tri, triathlon

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Hell week

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Workouts on June 28, 2010

I begin the peak week of my second base period, and I’m in for a doozy. Assuming all goes to plan, I will have worked out more this week than any other week in my entire life. Crazy when I put it that way (and maybe a tad too dramatic).

I will workout 16 hours this week. I’m going to do a lot of heart pounding anaerobic (or at least, more than aerobic) working out over the next three days. I’ll then swim in the ocean on Thursday with a co worker, and shortly after jump on the bike for one-legged biking drills. I’ll follow that up with an easy swim on Friday before the Saturday doozy: a 7 hour love affair, 5 hours with the bike and 2 hours negotiating with myself to complete a painful run. Finally, I’ll end with a 2-3 hour workout on Sunday, consisting mostly of a swim, but probably some more riding as well. I’m hoping to get 4-5 bike rides in this week. It’s my weakness, and I need to start treating it as such. So here’s how it breaks down

Monday: 30 minutes strength, 1 hour muscular endurance on the bike
Tuesday: Run to work – Fartlek style, Run home – Zone stepping
Wednesday: More bike pain, in the form of 3, 3, 3s – which are 4 x 3 minute intervals in some hard gears. I’m determined to build this leg strength
Thursday: Ocean swim at Corona Del Mar followed by 40 minutes of those lovable one legged drills
Friday: More strength training tied in with an easy swim
Saturday: I’m taking it home with this one: 5 hours of low heart rate, pure aerobic love on the bike followed by more zone stepping on the run. Hopefully some run goals will make that two hours seem shorter than the 2 this past Saturday
Sunday: Another lap swim, most likely focusing on upper body strength with an aero position trainer ride to continue to get used to the “lounge chair”

And that’s about 16 hours my friends. In base 3, i get up to 18 hours for the peak week, and in the three build periods, I’ll be hovering around 15-16 hours each week for 3 of 4 weeks of each month. So this is pretty much the norm for the next five months. I promise you that July 5th is gonna feel damn good. a DAY OFF!!! WOOOO

I’ll try to post more workout summaries, and even attach my garmin workouts for those who want to upload them. I find that Garmin is one of the best motivators – nothing like a beep/vibrate to push you along. Have a great week!

base, hours, ironman, pain, tired, training

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Ironman Training has Begun

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training on June 5, 2010

The two months in between my half ironman and the start of my ironman training was incredible. I actually didn’t realize how great it was until I started training again. I had some more time to enjoy my weekends. My body recovered. I could spend time with my girl and family. I even spent an extra weekend in Hong Kong while on business travel to hang with one of my college roommates. Well, that time has come and gone, and the real work has begun.

The past three weeks have really been a struggle. I forgot what it was like to train long hours while working a very busy job. And these training hours are starting to get long. I just finished a 14 hour week (that I completed in 6 days since I’m leaving for Stockholm tomorrow at 4AM and lose my Sunday), and that very long difficult week is going to start being the average or even the low end of what I’ll be doing for the next few months.

I’m in a constant mental battle as to why I’m doing this. With each long workout and as each week’s hours cumulatively build, the workouts become a mental battle of quitting versus pushing. Today, I worked out for 5.5 hours, and from the 10 minute mark, I was wondering how I was going to finish. I just kept pushing on. With workouts like that, I end up doing them slower, but I get the time in and I feel like I am victorious against that part of my mind that tells me I can’t, that tells me my body won’t do it. As these workouts build, I can only imagine that battle getting fiercer, but I’m determined to win it. And with each victory, I really feel accomplishment. Even if it is only a workout, there’s something special about overcoming fear, anxiety, and exhaustion. I realize how much more I can do when my mind says it can’t.

My base is building (when i say base, i mean my base level of endurance – the number of hours I can continue to workout). I’ve decided to take these base periods and build distance, and then take my build periods and work on making those distances faster. I enter a step back week now of about 8 hours of training, and I feel like I got over that big hurdle of getting back into training. I think my body is slowly adjusting, and I’m hoping I’m in slightly less pain in the weeks to come.

One thing that really is keeping me going is my girlfriend Adrienne. After just the first of six main training periods, I’ve realized how lucky I am to be with someone who supports this hobby of mine. If there’s one person who bears the brunt of my complaining and who I’m definitely sacrificing some time with, it’s Adrienne. I’m thankful for her support through this process. Her understanding of my desire to do this is great, and despite the hours of wah wah wahing she’s heard from me in the past few weeks, she just ignores it and provides compassion. Thanks Adrienne! You are awesome!

With that, I’m off to Stockholm. I hope to get back to this blog as my travel schedule dies down. After this trip, I will have flown nearly 60,000 miles since March 6th. Crazy, huh?

On a side note, I love June gloom. It was so cool this week in my AM workouts. I loved it. As the heat of summer rises, I’m interested to see what my body can handle.

Here’s a summary of my mileage/hours for my first three weeks. 37 hours in 20 days – not too bad. Base 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 (in order of 10-12-14 hours approximately)

base, fully employed triathlete, girlfriend, gloom, ironman, june, support, training

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Hills vs. Rolling Hills

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Ironman Training on May 2, 2010

Not all hills are created equal. That’s what I’ve learned in the past week. Ever since the monstrous hills on the Oceanside course, I keep thinking to myself why I had so much trouble with them. I’ve trained on hills for the past year, climbing at least 2,000 feet each time I go over 40 miles. I would even venture to say that hill climbing was one of my strengths. So why did those damn hills take so much out of me (and if you know me personally, you know I’m not going to let that happen again)?

Then it hit me yesterday. As I resume my training regimen, I’ve decided to focus a lot on hills for both my bike and run. I figure that hills develop leg strength, and they also push your anaerobic threshold, so when I’m not building my base, why not build my power. I’ve been riding San Joaquin Hills, which is about a 4 mile trek from the back bay to newport coast. The thing about it is that there’s barely zero downhill in the entire climb. It does level out at points, but leveling is very different than going downhill. It’s 4 miles of a fairly stead upgrade, with some serious 10% grades, a lot of gradual 4-6% grades, and very few flat areas.

This is different than Pacific Coast Highway, which is a series of ups and downs, AKA rolling hills. With rollings hills, you build momentum going down a hill and into the upswing, and the real challenge isn’t until you’re about halfway up, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the length of the hills. Well, I realized I’m good on rolling hills. I can attack the upswing and I’ve learned to actually attack the downhill too in order to get a few more MPHs out of it. However, I suck at well, hills.

Hills don’t have the benefit of having significant momentum going into it. Yes, you can ride fast on a flat into an uphill, but it’s different. My guess would be that you have 50% more speed going on a downhill than on a flat. That’s quite a bit more momentum. Plus, what’s killer is that in some hills, it goes up, then flat, then up, then up a little steeper. You never get to chill, so the heart rate stays high, the lactic acid builds, and it hurts. At one point of the 10% grade hill yesterday (into the wind on a windy day), I thought my heart was going to bounce out of my chest. And then how was I rewarded by completing that 10% grade, a 10 meter flat across a street and then an 8% grade.

I’m not complaining, I’m just distinguishing. If you think you’re training on hills and you’re doing rolling hills, then trust me, it’s very different. The challenge is signficantly harder and I recommend finding hills that just go on and on without declines if you want to get better. I was awesome on rolling hills, which I originally thought were hills, but I learned the hard way in Oceanside. When studying elevation charts for a race, keep in mind the descent before an ascent. If you don’t see one, then that climb is going to be much harder. Not all climbs are created equal, so 2500 feet of ascent on one course could be very different than 2500 feet on another. Study what comes before those hills. Also study the length of the incline. Climbing 200 feet in .3 miles versus 1 mile is VERY different. Think grade %. That’s the difference of a 5-7% grade versus a 12-14% grade (roughly).

So back to my workouts…I’ve been ambitious the last two weekends, hoping I could handle San Joaquin, chill down Newport Coast and then PCH to Laguna, then climb back Newport Coast (1.5 miles of 5-7% grade with no give). I haven’t been able to get my psyche up to go back up Newport. In time I guess…I did add hill sprints this past weekend though, which are 30 seconds bursts up a 12-14% grade, then back down and all over again. This was actually great work. It really teaches you power. Now I just need to turn those into 1 minute bursts.

Anyone else hill training? How is it going?

By the way, some random training pics from this week…i’m wearing some SHORT SHORTS, but man they are comfortable.

grade, hills, lactic acid, pain, power, rolling hills, training

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Preparation: What it means in a long training cycle

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training on April 25, 2010

Preparation seems funny when you’re thinking about a race in November and it’s mid-April. Technically, isn’t every day a prep day? Well, preparation in “periodization” is actually a predefined stage of training. The best way to think of this prep period is in the four variables of a training stage or workout:

- Frequency – how many times you workout
- Duration – the length of any one workout
- Intensity – how difficult the workout is
- Volume – the amount of working out in a given cycle

In the prep phase, you have high frequency, low to medium duration, low intensity, and low volume. This is essentially a maintenance time where you try not to lose too much fitness. In addition, when you get to the base phase, your duration and volume pick up, and it picks up fast. So you have to maintain that fitness so when the base starts, you’re ready to go.

Since I’ve been traveling for work and have been quite busy, I’ve de-emphasized working out for the time being. I’ve worked on my strength (thank you TRx, particularly since I can travel with you) with a focus on my core and general resistance strength. I’ve stretched a little more. And when possible, I’ve done one of the three sports. All short workouts. Some high intensity at times when I’m bored, but rarely. It’s really a time to work on form, but mostly to recover. And not just have the body recover, but the mind as well. I’m using this time to realize the importance of days off and get motivated for my upcoming training cycle. The focus of this period is rest, strength, and cadence (both running and biking).

This week, I did about 5 hours (see summary below). I’m slowly building this prep phase so when I hit 10 hours the week ending May 23rd, I don’t want to kill myself. I also bought a pedometer I use for running – check out that run cadence!! Slowly improving. I hope to be mid 90s by mid summer. The road biking and lap swimming workouts were brutal. Pretty amazed at how quickly fitness disappears. During both workouts, it took a lot of mental prowess to keep going. My body was tired. But I guess that’s why these are training cycles…the rest is worth it

I’ve also been working on the schedule for that cycle. I’ve decided to not schedule any races until Ironman Arizona in November. I want to have flexibility so I can travel for work, make time for my family, and focus exclusively on this Ironman goal. I’ve worked on my schedule, and man it’s brutal. I have several workout weeks of 15-20 hours, which is actually low for an Ironman, but all I can afford with, well, life. I’ve got my hours set, and now I just need to plan my weekly workouts.

My workout focus is going to be mostly on endurance, but I plan on having hill workouts and speed workouts every week, particularly during the week when I don’t have the time for endurance workouts. And I plan on KILLING THE HILLS! I know there aren’t hills in Arizona, but that doesn’t matter. Hills make your heart stronger, and I’m going to go up and down them, over and over, for 6 months. The hills will be friend. I will love the hills…

One last note before I sign off – I’ve finished the book It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong. All I can say is WOW! I knew the Lance Armstrong story, but not like this. What an inspiration. I seriously cried when he wrote about winning the Tour de France the first time. The beauty of this book was it gave you a psychological perspective of cancer, both pre-cancer when you start to experience symptoms, when you find out you have it, when you go through chemo, when you beat it (if you do), and the precious few months after when you hope you don’t relapse. Lance is my hero.

Happy training everyone

Weekly Summary

periodization, preparation, rest, training

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Is a healthy addiction, healthy?

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Life on April 2, 2010

It’s been nearly a week now since my half ironman. As it’s set in what I actually did, I come back to this feeling of, “WHAT AM I DOING?” I work full time, and lately, considerably more than full time. I have a great girlfriend. I have a family. I have an awesome puppy and two cats. Friends. I have interests…AND I’m training hours and hours and hours. And starting the week of May 17th, I will begin the Ironman journey that is going to make this last race feel easy. That thought is scary. If I was busy before, imagine what the next 8 months will be like?

The last 6 days have been great for learning about myself and my addiction. Yes, I think I have an addiction. Despite being tired and having fairly extreme exhaustion in my legs, I wanted to get out and workout nearly everyday this week. I would say I was even compulsive about it, often feeling kind of down for not being able to get out there. And this is week 1 of rest. What will week 4 feel like?? (Side note: I rode my bike for the first time today. 16 miles in about 50 minutes. Is it weird that I worked out for 50 minutes and I felt like I didn’t even workout? I’m doing a 10 mile run tomorrow, and I think, this is an easy workout? What happened to me in the last year? I think this is good, but I’m starting to realize I’m not normal. I like being not normal…)

I try to think of why is it that I feel compelled to workout when my next even is nearly 8 months away. I come down to a few reasons:

Vanity
Health
Stress relief / Emotional Pain Relief
Competitiveness

When I look at those four reasons, I think, are those good reasons to do this? Let’s go through them.

Vanity – Hmmm. I guess it’s cool to have a good body. To be defined in my muscles. To have a six pack. But seriously, who gives a shit? When I have kids, working out is going to come behind work / family, and although I think I’ll maintain a healthy life style, I will certainly never be as fit as I am now. And will it matter? Does the joy of raising kids and having a family outweigh the feeling of being fit? But I keep coming back to the fact that I care about vanity. I wish I could admit that I do not, but there is something about the feeling of being fit, not necessarily the feeling of looking good in a mirror or to others. By the definition of being anorexic, I almost thing this is a form of anorexia. It’s not that I want to be super skinny, but it’s a general fear of gaining weight. Instead of eating very little, I eat what I want, and I work out more than most people feel is humanly possible (for at least a person who works full time). And people think it’s great what I do. Is it? Is a healthy addiction, healthy?

Health – Of course it helps to exerise to improve the heart. I enjoy life and I want to live longer. I want to be the 60 year old doing half ironmans. I want to enjoy life even at 100 years old. A lot of people say they don’t want those extra years. I do. I want to keep learning and enjoying life till the day I die. But I could also probably live as long working out 4 hours a week. At some point, is my active lifestyle going to impact my health. I have more recurring pain in my legs than ever. It hurts nearly EVERY time I go up and down stairs. I don’t think health qualifies, although it’s a good excuse.

Stress Relief / Emotional Pain Relief - When I was going through my divorce a year ago, I could say that I worked out to deal with pain. When things are tough at work, I like to run to clear my mind. I love biking to work because it feels stress free for those 30 minutes before and after work. In a car, there’s really not a lack of stress, especially in Southern California. However, as I train for these endurance events, it’s not about relief. No way is a 5 hour workout about stress relief. It’s about something else.

Competitiveness – Of all the reasons mentioned above, this is the one that seems the most likely. I’m ultra competitive. But I am at a stage in my life where I don’t like competing with others. Since this is a hobby and not a full time gig, I don’t think it’s right to compete with others. Everyone has their own circumstances, and it’s not right to say that we’re all fully dedicated to something and therefore training is comparable across people. But damn, I love beating my times. I am tired as hell when I get up, but when I put on those running shoes and head out the door, I love knowing that today I can try to run faster than last time, or longer, or even different. I love getting in the pool and trying to work on my stroke so that when I do my swim test every month or so, I can try and get better. I don’t think I’m completely normal in this category because I have this inner competitiveness that pushes me to do things I didn’t know were possible.

Sidebar: when I was a freshman in high school, I started playing golf. My parents told me to pick a sport (to keep me out of trouble I’m sure), and I chose golf since I lived on a golf course. Well, here, I was competitive with others since all high school players were comparable (for practice time, etc…, although some cared more about school than others). So I worked hard. I mean harder than probably anyone in high school. I golfed before school, after school, in my room (putting/reading) at night, all day on weekends. I got a net for my back yard so I could hit balls at night. I was driven to shoot lower scores. I love numbers (I’m an analyst). So when I can be competitive and see measured results, I’m in heaven. Well, when anyone told me I couldn’t do something, it just pushed me to prove them wrong. When everyone told me I wasn’t going to make varsity because I cussed out my JV coach (longer story here), I worked harder. I beat everyone my sophomore year except one guy. By senior year, I was top in my county, and one of the top 10 juniors in California.

Through golf, through my sister telling me I wouldn’t do well in school, through some of these adverse moments in life, I never got down. Something in me, that competitive spirit turned these negatives into positives, and I motivated around it. I do it today. The Ironman for example. This is competition against myself, since one year ago, I felt there was absolutely no way I could do one. Well flash forward a year, and I’m proving myself wrong. I have a long way to go, but I think this is my main reason for working out. If this energy was in something else, like drinking, video games, drawing, whatever, I’d find ways to excel in it. Fortunately, this addiction is healthy.

So I think healthy addictions are good. But only if you channel it constructively. By that I mean to not obsess and be ok when I have to rest, be smart about the limits so I know when I need to stop, and make sure that trade off decisions of giving up time with others are made by the loving person inside, not the competitive animal that lives within.

addiction, competitive, healthy, ironman, irvine, training, working out

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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

70.3, hills, IM california, ironman, nutrition, oceanside, race, race report, salt, training, triathlon

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Ironman California 70.3 in a few days

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Time Constraint on March 24, 2010

It’s just a few days until Oceanside half iron, and I’m starting to get nervous. I was fine until last night, and then I noticed I’m not sleeping as well, my stomach is turning a bit more, and I’m starting to think about a swim with 2500 other people. Plus, there’s that thing about trying to meet goals – why do I do this to myself???

My training was going really well, but work really picked up and I found it a struggle to find time to be with family, handle life’s duties, work, and train. In the weekly summary for this year below, you can see that I was sticking to the plan until the last week of February. I had to go to Greece for a management meeting for work, and I lost both weekends, which is where I usually get about 60% of my weekly training time from. Why I lost BOTH weekends is another story (thank you German airports – you SCREWED ME/US).

I tried to pick it back up last week before tapering, but I definitely lost some of my fitness. I can handle the distance, but the speed at those distances that I was becoming accustomed to was much more difficult. I feel comfortable in finishing, but I think I need to lower my expectations for what time I can achieve. Prepare for the worst but accept the best!

The one thing I’m really looking forward to after this weekend is a much needed break. I’ve been training pretty hard since last March when I started training for the July 2009 SF Marathon, and I’ve been going nonstop since. That’s over a year of training without a break, and a huge ramp up in the winter when most people take time off. After this race, I’ll be working out, but not really training. I hope to pick it back up in May/June when I start the long road to Ironman Arizona! I hope to have more time at that point to really detail my progression towards Becoming Ironadam.

If you have any interest in checking out the official Ironman event on Saturday, click on the link above. There is also an athlete guide that breaks down the rules, the places to park, the course, etc… I’m the last swim wave, starting at around 7:40 AM. Transition closes at 6:30 AM, so that may be a long hour If you have any interest in meeting up with me after the race, send me an email/text and I’ll let you know where we can meet! If time permits, I’ll follow this post up with my race strategy before Saturday.

One last note: in that athlete guide, check out the rules in biking related to passing, drafting, etc… Gnarly! I wonder how much those are enforced. 20 seconds to pass…20 seconds if passed to move back…no clipped in pedals for transitions. I guess I hope I don’t get penalized for anything (imagine sitting in a tent for 4 minutes)

70.3, fitness, ironman, oceanside, training

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Why social media isn’t good for….me

Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Life, Time Constraint on March 11, 2010

The downside of being a fully employed triathlete is that there is a lot less time for social media, including writing this blog. I’ve taken on a lot more responsibility at work, and I’ve seen my free time slowly vanish into oblivion (yes, that happened slowly). I’ve broken down my time into work, training, girlfriend, dog, and sometimes there’s a little leftover for [insert something fun here]. And definitely not in that order (right, Adrienne ). Given these time constraints, I’ve simplified my life and really focused on what’s important.

And with that….I’ve struggled a lot internally with the benefits of this blog and of social media in general. I keep coming back to what is the point – if this is a journal, why does it need to be public? Are others learning from what I write? I know I read other blogs because I learn a lot from those people – about workouts, about new products, and about how to go about a daily life. But why should I feel I’m that important?

And what about social media? I didn’t realize how much time social media took up until I gave it up for the past month and realized how much more time I had, how I could finally focus on things that were important and not get distracted every 10 minutes with incoming facebook posts or twitter feeds. I should note that I am continuing to avoid it even after my month hiatus ended, which should be the clearest indicator of how I felt that month went.

But it’s more than just gaining time. Because of the lack of deep meaningful relationships built over social media, I found that I was becoming someone I didn’t like. For example, I was extremely active in dailymile before I left for my Greece trip nearly two weeks ago. Daily mile was the one site I was continuing to update/check despite my social media break. I haven’t posted since that trip, and damn I feel good. I found that I was often working out just to see what others thought of my workouts. I even would venture to say that I’d workout for other people’s critique. I was even calling out other people’s embellishments because of that inner baby, i mean competitive spirit, within me. I lost sight of what training is about, of what I set out to do when I decided to do an Ironman last summer. Yes, community is great. But when I start doing things for others or what others think, I’ve fallen off the path I set.

In addition, I think social media is very self interested with the appearance of being social and for the betterment of the community. I convinced myself that I was doing social media for myself and trying to help others, but then I realized that I created a feeling of self importance. Do people really care? Or do people care about you because they want you to care about them? And let me clarify: I’m referring to the people too that you don’t know in real life. I really care about what my friends are doing, and to be honest, since I took my social media hiatus at the beginning of February, I’ve missed knowing what those people are doing on a day to day basis.

But going back to my point, I want to clarify this. I stopped interacting with a number of people online because I felt they were in this category, and they drove me nuts. To illustrate, let me give you a “real life” example rather than an online one. A friend of mine in high school would always want people to come to him. Everything was at his house. If things took place elsewhere, somehow it seemed to end back at his place. The parties came to him, he didn’t go to the parties. When I look back at these events, I’d say I ended up at his house for nine things for every one he came to mine. But it always appeared that he was just being social and fun and his place just happened to be more of a cooler place to hang. To me, this is narcissism. Why do I make the efforts to go to you when things aren’t reciprocated. That is not community.

What I found in social media is that many people possess this – they communicate and talk to others because they want those same people to follow them and come to their site and check out what they have to say. It’s very self interested, although it appears to be “community building”. I found myself creeping into that category. I could give you examples of these people, but I think you’d know them if you think about your interactions in this context. Do they really care about you? Do they really want to help you or do they simply want to tell you how great they are and thank you for supporting them? Or do they talk to you because they want you to read their blog? This type of person has left a sour taste in my mouth for social media, and I can be hard on myself because at times, I’ve slipped into this category.

So what’s been my answer – giving up on social media. I still check out blogs of the people I enjoy following. And I plan to continue to blog as soon as work dies down a bit (which may be never, but somehow I’ll figure out how to do both). Based on what I’ve said, one could argue that I’m continuing to go down this narcissistic path by blogging, but this is one area I disagree. I blog for those close to me who want to find out what I deeply care about. I blog so that I can have a journal of what I do, and maybe that journal of training and life can help others on their chosen path. But with a blog, people can choose to read. They can find me possibly in a search engine on a topic they care about. They don’t have to follow me or friend me. It’s a one sided option.

I know many of you may disagree with this, and I’d love to hear about it. But for me, my interactions have become more meaningful since I gave up social media, and I’ve found the time to keep in touch with those I need to keep in touch with. Surprisingly, I’ve even discovered how to use the phone again! Crazy!

negative, Social Media, training

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