And now for some training talk…

This winter I have been mainly focusing on running.  I think this is going to be pretty important come early triathlon season.  My main goal this year is to qualify for the 70.3 Championship, and without a solid kick ass run there will be no chance.  A couple of months ago Eric put together a half marathon training plan based on the Daniel’s Running Formula and your VDOT.  It is a 22 week plan with 4 phases.  There is a lot of fitness theory behind Daniel’s Formula, and you can see that in his training principles.

Eric’s plan is demanding yet forgiving.  Once you figure out your VDOT, you do 2 quality workouts per week, with the rest of your weekly milage at you VDOT easy pace.  So no more running by feel.  Easy is exactly that.  For me my VDOT was calculated from my most recent race, the Frostbite.  With a time of 1:09:11 my VDOT calculates out to 49, leaving me an easy pace of an 8:36 mile, a marathon pace of 7:20, a tempo pace of 6:55 and an interval pace of 6:22.

Of course you VDOT will change over time depending on fitness.  So as you progress through the phases of the plan you may need to re-access your VDOT.

The goal of this plan is to run the Lincoln Memorial Half and peaking for the Illinois Half.   This really is an experiment in progress that I can hopefully reap the benefits of!

This marathon was somewhat stress free.  I didn’t have a whole lot of time and miles wrapped up in it, and didn’t really have any expectations.  My plan of attach was to run with HardyBreeed Eric and his wife Nicole.  Eric was in the same boat as me, and planned on pacing Nicole to a 3:45 marathon.

We headed up to Chicago Early Saturday morning before the race.  We were staying at the Palmer House Hilton which was just a couple of blocks from the start line.  When we got in town we walked to the Chicago Hilton, where there was a shuttle to the Expo at McCormick Place.  The shuttle wasn’t the quickest thing in the world. We had to wait at least a half hour for a bus, because the line stretched the entire block of the Hilton.

Walking into the Expo was amazing.  Thousands of people, all looking to get their packet and check out the exhibitors.  This is that largest Expo I have ever seen and by far the coolest.  Nike had the largest spot, and had a ton of 10-10-10 apparel.  I picked up a cool black track jacket, I had to have a souvenir.  Nike wasn’t the only one there though.  Asics, Newton, Saucony, North Face… you name it, everyone had a booth.  Selling shoes, clothes and anything else that had to do with running.  We were there more than a couple of hours, and could have easily spent a couple more.  Shopping all day was not conducive to running a marathon, so we called it a day and went back to the hotel.

Marathon morning, I walked to the start line in corral C. I met everyone at the 3:40 pace group, which Alex and Billy were proudly pacing.  The race started and it took around 3 minutes for use to make it the starting line.

We ran the race to stay on pace around 8:30 mile.  By mile 10 or so, we were off pace by a minute or so.  I think all of us had taken a bathroom break.  The race was still amazingly crowded with spectators and runners.  At mile 14 Eric dashed off the the bathroom again, and Nicole and i kept running.  About a mile later, Eric was still not on, and Nicole was having trouble.  At that point I was on my own, I had a good first half at 1:52, but wanted to catch back up the 3:40 group.

My legs felt great, and I had already been taking in plenty of Endurolytes, Gel, Gatorade, and water.  I quickly brought my pace down to 7:50s to catch them, and before I knew it I was back on and then passing them.  I don’t think my legs were ready to keep that pace up for the rest of the race though.  I quick got sucked back in by Alex and Billy.  At this point I decided I would just try to stay with them.

The last couple miles were the hardest.  My legs were getting tight, and cramps were setting in.  I stopped briefly to to rub my cramping quad, and to my surprise it subsided quickly and I was able to continue.  My pace slowed way down though.  I was off the back of the group and could not catch them.  I was happy to see the finish, and crossed in 3:41:09.  A negative split on the half  by a couple minutes!

After crossing the finish, I walked one of the longest finishing shoots ever.  Water, then Gatorade, then bananas, then BEER.  I think I hit everyone of the stops and made my way out to find my family, which was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  I eventually borrowed a phone from a volunteer to call, and only then was I able to find an meet up them.

What a day!  This was one of the most fun races I have ever done.  So many people from Springfield, really made it feel like a hometown race.  I will definitely do this race again and would encourage everyone else.  The big race was a different kind of experience.  HardyBreed congrats go out to everyone that ran! (You know who you are)

At first you would think, “Luck”  what the hell are you talking about?  I have been training for months, there’s no luck involved, it is all about the training.  Well in all honesty training will only get you so far.  In multisport there are just too many variables that could ruin a race.  This is where luck comes in…

I could eat the same pop tarts every morning for a year, but come race day, that pop tart mixed with nerves and a little coffee could cause you some trouble.  You just don’t know.  Every race is a crap shoot if you ask me.  You either have a good race or a bad one, there’s no in between.

So I will take all of the “Good lucks” you can bless me with.

And by the way you can track Me (my name will be David Friedman #7119 on Sunday), my sister Kim, Lunch with Eric and the whole Springfield crew online.

• David Friedman (Me)
• Kim Graves
• Eric Sommer
• Nicole Sommer
• David Egan
• David Drennan
• Alex Taft
• Mark Birtch
• Wes Wooden
• Jim Cinotto
• Matt Burns
• Bryan Glass
• Tracy Dowell
• Bill Owens

http://www.chicagomarathon.com/

Or get text messages sent

http://www.textinterface.com/pls/text/tf_bacm_dt

Good luck to everyone!

All my eggs in one basket.

That’s how to sum up Ironman Wisconsin.  Training for an ironman was one thing I had no experience at.  A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run, all put together in one event.  I remember watching the Ironman World Championship on TV 4-5 years ago when I just got into triathlon.  I thought to myself, there was no way I could ever do such that distance.  I mean think about it???  2.4 miles in open water, that’s like… 85 laps at Eisenhower (4224 yds) plus you have to throw in 2550 of your closest friends in a mass start event.  Just crazy stuff!

112 mile bike really didn’t’ scare me.  I came from a cycling background. But doing it in a TT position for 112, that’s another story.  And of course following it all up with a marathon.  I have completed 2 of those in my life and the pain I felt after those, I was pretty sure I couldn’t start or even complete one after the two previous events.

So I was headed into the unknown, with a years worth of training for a 1 day event.  Now that takes guts!  But I wasn’t going to do it alone.

Jason Beeler, Eric Sommer, Dan Dungan, Steven Graves, Joe House and Travis Schroll all dedicating and sacrificing their  lives, family and friends to become an Ironman.  But of the IMWI gang,  Jason, Eric and I were consider to be Ironman virgins, and would rely on the experience of everyone else.

My plan of attack went something like this:  Put in a ton of bike miles. Do a long run every weekend. Put in as much time as possible with the masters swim.  Sounds like a good training plan right?  Well I think it was a good base if anything.  But signing on with a coach really helped me focus in the 2 months preceding.  Eric Bean, professional triathlete took it upon himself to get Eric and I to the finish line.  Getting a plan on paper and worked with our life style and workout schedule was the key.  Most of the focus was on intensity.  There were several key workouts that we would have never done on our own.  Hell, my longest run was 16 miles, but everything was quality.  He built our confidence and that was all we needed.  I definitely advise you to work with a coach, such as Eric Bean of FFT (Fast Forward Triathlon).

We headed up to Madison Wisconsin Thursday morning before the race.  That would give us 3 full days to prepare for the race.  These were the quickest three days of my life.  I don’t think we ever really had any spare time.  Thursday we did packet pick up, and went to the Ironman Store.  I would advise doing this and buying any merchandise the first day.  All the good stuff and sizes sell out quickly.  And after spending $125 buck on Ironman Wisconsin gear, you start to think… What will do with this stuff if I don’t finish?

Thursday night the entire gang met up for dinner and enjoyed a few beers, Madison is such a cool place to hang out. Friday was going to be my last workout before the race.  We all met up for a swim at the Monona Terrace.  The water was choppy to say the least.  But we got in the water and swam a good 800-1000 yards.  After swimming, I felt dizzy and nauseous.  At this point I started to pray for glass on sunday morning, because I wasn’t sure if I could have swam 2.4 in those conditions.

Later that afternoon we loaded up our bikes in the van and headed out to a couple of the toughest climbs on the course.  We rode easy and got a good feel for the hills. That evening was the athlete pasta dinner and talk.  People  had traveled from over 20 countries, and all 50 states just for this race.  There were even 6 people there that had NEVER, I repeat, NEVER done a triathlon of any distance… talk about crazy!

Saturday was the day, we dropped off our bike and transition bags.  This was a huge weight off my shoulder.  Now I had nothing to do but go back to the hotel and panic.

Like any big race, I don’t think I slept a wink.  4am, shower, coffee, food.  Jason and I met Eric down in the lobby at 5am and we walked a few short block and dropped off our 2 special needs bags and then headed to transition to prep our bikes.

We had a lot of time that morning, or so it seamed.  I waited in line twice for the bathroom.  Then I suited up and we headed down the helix to the swim start.  At this point I really thought I was going to throw up.  I had never been this nervous before in my life.  We shuffled our way into the water with 2550 people (150 or so would not finish).

I positioned myself in the middle just between the buoys and the ski ramp.  The clock ticked down, three…two…one…. the canon went off.

It took a few seconds before I really started to move.  I was swimming, if you could call it that in a vertical position, with my head above the water.  Arms and feet everywhere!  I eventually was able to get my head in, and start to stroke.  It took a good 500 yards before I felt somewhat comfortable in the water.  With each turn of the rectangular course people converge on the inside buoy, and chaos was had.  I complete the first lap in 36 minutes, that sounded pretty good and keeping that up would put me at a good exit time.  The second lap went well, but there was still a few hundred yards back to shore.  I exited in 1:14:46

I was glad to be back on land.  I had my wetsuit stripped, and headed up the helix to transition.  My T1 was a little long, not sure where the time went but it took me 9:45.

Finally the bike.  This was what I was all about. But I donated first 90 minutes to JRA, just riding along.  Doing this was tough, but enjoyable.  I was hovering at 18mph or so, never really getting into my drops.  I sat up and watched everyone pass me.  It was like they were in a hurry.  Was this a race or something.   After 90 minutes, I got in my drops and put my Powertap to work.  175-200 watts was the plan for the day.  With all the hills, I knew that would equate going under 20mph.  But that was ok with me, I checked my cyclist ego bake at T1.

The course was a lolly pop.  16 miles out, 2 x 40 mile loop, then 16 miles back in.  I kept the total time up on my computer.  I wanted to consume the right amount of calories per hour, and stay hydrated, but error on the side of taking in less.  At the halfway point I stopped for my special needs bag.  A Red Bull and a Snickers bar.  I figured I trained with it I might as well race with it.  The second loop went pretty smooth, but the miles were not ticking away as quick as the first.  The last 16 mile we had a slight tail wind, and it was more than welcomed at that point.  My legs started to twitch here and there, and I am sure that it was due to the hills.  Once I spotted the Monona Terrace I really felt the race start.  I did it, I made it through the first 2 legs.  My time was 6:07:25 an 18.3mph average.  Not spectacular, that’s for sure, but I would have the next 26.2 miles to make up for my slow bike split.

Sitting down in transition, putting my shoes on, my hip flexors started to cramp.  This was not the point to start cramping.  Once I stood up and started moving my legs came back and I started feeling good.  I exited the transition with a big smile on my face, this is what the race was all about.  All those hours, for one solid marathon.

My run started off a little fast so I quickly pulled back and settled in at a 9 minute pace.  I promised myself I would keep it easy for the first 10k.  Mile after mile, I kept thinking to

myself, I feel way too good.  At some point the suffering is going to start, but until then I was going to enjoy the race.  I walked through every aid station at every mile  taking in a cup of Powerbar Perform, water, and cola.  Closing in on the first lap, I had not seen anyone I knew, but heading around the Capitol to the turn around, I spotted my wife Julie, sister Kim a Chad.  She yelled “you’re doing great!”  I was starting to feel real emotional at that point, but it was also a great pick me up.  But that only lasted so long as I left the Capitol for another 13.1 miles.

My legs were still moving quite good and I was just waiting for that unpleasant moment.  By mile 18 my legs were getting tired and I started getting some twitching again.  I just kept hitting the aid stations and taking in what my body could handle.  At this point, your start seeing a lot of people walking.  I even saw two guys talking about how fast they went on the bike, but were walking now.  I just smiled and laughed, the Endurance Nation guys were right.

My pace was still steady, but I was no longer smiling.  For the next 10k I would be suffering, fighting off the twitches, but never walking more than the water stops.  But with one last hill, I knew I had to walk it, to prevent my legs from cramping.  But once I made it to the top, I continued to run.  My pace was slowing, and all I could think about was trying to preserve a 4 hour marathon.  I came onto State St. one last time, people were yelling and cheering, I was on a high.  I started running around the Capitol and couldn’t believe I had made it.  Amazing!  I ran strong down the shoot with my arm up the whole way.  I could hear my name…. Dan Billingsley from Springfield, IL, a first time finisher… You are an Ironman!!!!!!!!

I completed the marathon in 4:11 flat.  That’s just 7 minutes off my first ever marathon time. I was so happy with that, and even more happy with my total time of 11:48:39.  504th place out of 2550.  That’s the top 20%

I had two volunteers grab me at the finish, they helped escort me out of the finish area, making sure I was alive.  I met my wife with a hug, and shuffled over to sit down.  My body temp started to drop and covered up with a solar blanket.  People were talking to me, but I couldn’t think.  My wife went to get my morning clothes bag, so I could get out of my wet clothes.  And I guess at this point I was starting to turn blue.  Travis and my wife helped me get out of my kit and into my clothes, and immediately started to warm back up.  They also went and got a volunteer and brought me to the Med Tent.  I entered and sat down.  The got me a cup of warm chicken broth.  I sipped it down slowly, it really hit the spot.  Next thing I know I hear my name, “Hey Dan”, I turned to my left, and Eric was sitting a chair away from me.  I think he said something like, “Never Again!”.  What the hell were we thinking…  At least now I didn’t feel so bad being in there, knowing Eric was there.

We both started feeling better, and we both exited the tent.  I made it about halfway across the street, and got light-headed.  Next think I knew I was throwing up on the curb.  There went the chicken broth and banana I just ate. So back to Med Tent, for a little while.  I just sat there, until my buddy Chad went to get our car.  He took both me and Eric and Julie back to the hotel.

It was like a terrible hangover, and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. But I managed to come around and make it into the shower. My wife went down to the bar to get a cheeseburger and fries for me.  I ate what I could and fell asleep.

My wife was awesome the whole weekend, she took care of me like a sick child.  She drove us all the way home from Madison and even got pizza and beer for dinner that night.  And I pledged never again! At least not for a couple of years

We topped off the recovery week with a little get together to celebrate that included beer and cake.  Be sure to check out all of HardyBreed’s Ironman Wisconsin photos on flickr.

It is amazing how quickly one year has passed since I registered for Ironman Wisconsin. Now the hours are trickling away and there is nothing else to do but wait for the gun to go off.

I am very nervous even though I know I am ready.  I have had a year of stellar training, and working with Eric Bean on a late season training plan has really reassured my readiness.

This week I will be preparing list of everything I might need, and packing into bags.  Reassuring myself with my equipment.  New chain, cleats, tires, deciding on shoes, clothes….  Ok I am freaking out…

The bottom line is to get to the race and execute my race plan of finishing.  It will be great to know that I have a ton of rabbits out there checking in on me and the rest of the HardyBreed Crew.

So I invite you join HardyBreed on Sunday at IronmanLive.com. Just plug in our name or bib number to find out how we are doing on the course.

• Dan Billingsley -  1057
• Jason Beeler – 978
• Eric Sommer – 1029
• Dan Dungan – 2043
• Steven Graves – 1043
• Travis Schroll – 808
• Joseph House – 812

I also want to thank everyone in advance, especially my family for supporting me in all my training this year.

The weekend started off early Friday morning meeting up a Starbucks.  Jason, Eric, John, Patty, Travis and I caravan-ed up to the race.  Packet pick up opened at noon and somewhere on the way, we realized that the race took place in the Eastern Time Zone and would not be early.  Lines had already formed by the time we made it there, so we had to stand and wait…  Immediately after we drove down to the race site to check our bikes in.

Holy Cow!  The transition area was huge.  It must have been over a 1/4 mile long.  My spot was probably a 1/3 of the way in.  I racked my bike and we headed out for dinner and good nights sleep.

4 am  came way too early.  We left the hotel by 5 so we could make it to transition to get set up.  A couple of steps into the parking lot and I felt some rain drops.  Immediately I checked the radar on my phone.  The green was coming, but we still had 3 and half hours til race time.  By the time we made it to the race parking lot and loaded the shuttle, it was pouring out.  I was thankful that I brought an umbrella.

The transition was a mess.  I put my cycling shoes in a grocery bag and tied it shut.  Then I put my running stuff in another bag, praying it would all stay dry.  My hope was for the rain to stop by the bike.

Once transition was set up we stood around and waited in line at the porta potties several times.  The transition area closed at 6:45, so you could not get back in.  My swim time was 8:28, and the swim start was a good 30 minute walk down the beach.  With 45-50 minutes to go we started the walk to the swim start.  When we got there, we checked out swim bags and realized that our group was already stage.  Jason and ran up to the start.  This meant no swim warm up. And we both had to pee, but we couldn’t get in the water.  I stood calmly in my wet suit and waited for a stream to reach my ankle.  With a minute to spare I had a peace of mind.  (BTW, Eric claims there are two types of people…  Those that pee in their wet suit, and those that lie about it.)

The swim was a 1.2 miles down the beach, about 100 yards off shore.  This was one of the easiest swims I have done.  The group had plenty of room, so there was no kicking and clobbering.  The swim seem longed.  Buoy after buoy, I kept waiting for the end.   Eventually  I turned and headed towards the beach. I swam until my knuckles dragged on the bottom then popped up and tried to run up the beach to the transition. Eric was just ahead of me coming out of the water, but he started in the wave 7 minutes behind me.   I was pleased with my time of 33:29.

The rain had stopped and it looked like it would be a good bike.  Once again I ran out just behind Eric. It took a couple of miles but I caught back up with him and didn’t see him again until mile 40 or so.  It was a good pick me up to finish the course with him.   I entered the transition in 2:27:17 averaging 22.8mph, feeling pretty good about starting the run.

Again I exited the transition with a Red Bull in hand with Eric just behind me.  About mile 2 Eric came running by me (He had stopped behind a porta potty.)  I had the worse stomach cramp in the world.  The more I ran the worse it go.  I tried to take the pain as long as possible, but I had to stop.  I jumped in the brush and tried to pee, thinking that might help. I was reduced to a slow jog.  Eventually it went away and I was able to start running again.

I went through a water stop and took some Gatorade and some Endurolytes.   I think the liquid actually made my stomach worse. So I tried to avoid taking anything in.  This was tough, it was getting hot, and I was getting thirsty.  I knew I couldn’t make it though if I didn’t take anything in.  I battled back and forth, watching my dream of sub 5 going down the drain.  Mile 10 came and I had calculated in my head I could still make it.  11, 12, one mile to go and I was reduced to a walk again.  My stomach was killing me.  I had given up.

I made it all the way to the crowds and did my best to compose myself and run strong the last 1/4 mile.  At that point all I could think about was taking in some fluids at the finish.

I was disappointed in myself, and didn’t know what my time was.  (I had the “auto pause” on, on my garmin, it will get you every time!)

It wasn’t til some time later that Patty was on the phone with Bagot, he was checking out times online.  4:59:23!  My mood immediately changed!  It wasn’t what I was hoping for, but it was the best I could have done with the circumstances.   So with all the walking I did, I was able to keep an average of 8:36 miles.

I think everyone had a really good day, at least until the Travis Shroll incident. (still alive and well!)

The rest of the night was spent eating and drinking with friends and celebrating our little victories.

Search all the 2010 Steelhead 2010 results

Registering for a race, you have never seen takes guts or maybe stupidity. Ironman Wisconsin is the only 140.6 race that is within a 4hr proximity of central Illinois. You would think that makes it the perfect option. Unfortunately for me the terrain of central Illinois is extremely different than that 4 hours north. This was the main reason for the Ironman Wisconsin reconnaissance.

I heard many story’s about IMWI bike course. Mainly that it was a 112 miles uphill, into the wind and on chip and seal. I joked about this, and thought…. how bad can it really be?

Friday evening Eric Sommer, Travis Schroll and I packed up the Jeep and headed north to Madison, WI. Our plan was to wake up Saturday morning and ride out to Fireman’s Park, meet up with Joe House, ride the two loop course, than ride back into Madison… An easy 112 miles…

We left the hotel at 8:10, a few minutes behind schedule.  We zig zagged through downtown trying to make it to John Nolan dr.  We passed some college student houses.  They all had balconies.  One had a sign… “Cool Guys Live Here”.  Oh, to be in college…  We eventually made it to the bike path on John Nolan, and started the IMWI bike course.  we went out pretty easy thinking we had until 9 to meet up with Joe.

The course on the way out really didn’t seem to hilly.  I started wondering what all the fuss was about?  We made it to Fireman’s Park. Joe was ready to go.  We snapped a few photo and headed out on the 40 mile loop.

Our pace was slow, and we were interested in learning the route.  We looked around, talked and waited for something to happen.  That something arrive soon enough in the form of some giant hills.  My experience from last year on hilly course was spin up and take it easy on the legs.  You have to save them for the run!  The hills started coming one by one, but with each hill was a decent.  I clocked over 40mph going down a few of them.

One major climb comes to mind, which was in the later half of the loop.  A couple of clubbers caught up with us, before the climb.  Eric and I had a hard time being showed up (or holding back).  We both started spinning up the hill to catch them.  Before I knew it I was in my 42-23.  That was all I had. Spinning, almost looking for one more gear.  Damn! this was a hill!  We managed to drop the crazy clubbers and their wool clothing, but slowed down at the top to wait up for our group.

The first loop took us over 2 and half hours and we stopped at Joe’s car for some refreshments.  We had a cooler full of Gatorade, Mt. Dew, Pepsi, and Red Bull, thanks to his wife!  I refilled my bottle and downed a Dew.  Our second lap was going to be a little more intense and everyone would ride their own pace, and meet back up at the end.

The four of us started out, but split up rather quickly with the first hill and decent.   I tried to get all the speed I could on the downhills to help power up the other side.  I really wanted to make this one hurt, hell I drove 4 hours for this…  Eric and I started pushing the pace.  The group kind of fell apart on the hills, but that was ok, we planned on meeting up later.

I tried to push Eric the best I could, but he was way too strong.  I could only hope that he wouldn’t drop me.

We flew through the second lap in 2 hours or so, and surprisingly knew the course pretty well.  We made it back to Fireman’s Park and started to wait for Travis to show up.  Waiting for 6 minutes, I decided to text him, and tell him we were at the car.  Seconds later, I get a text saying that he was heading back to Madison already, which would put him 2+ miles up the road.

We jumped on our bike reluctantly and started the chase.  I was trashed after that last lap, and I don’t think Eric felt any better.  We got back down in the aero position and gave it what we had left.  This sucked!  We made it to Whalen road, and got kicked in the face with another hill, not to mention a head wind on a crappy road.  All I could think about was getting back to the hotel.

Finally out of the blue Travis appeared.  Thank God we caught him.  We stopped at a light and texted Joe, telling him we were heading back.  Going back through town.  The local college kids were already having fun.  Riding down one street a whole house started chanting for us “U..S..A..”, “U..S..A”…  It was kind of funny, like having you legs ripped from your body and somebody telling you a knock knock joke.  That kind funny.  (I felt like ass!)

We made it back to the hotel, and realize that our nutrition was not spot on for the day.  We were starving to death and plan on heading out immediately to find some food.  But after 3 showers and some lounging, 5 o’clock rolled around pretty quickly.  We headed out the Dane.

All day I thought about BEER, but at this point, it was the last thing on my mind.  We ate dinner and headed back to the hotel, for a quick 45 minute rest before meeting up with Joe and his wife at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Two words: Ranger IPA on Tap!

We  planned on meeting up with Joe at 8 in the morning for a run on the IMWI run course, but there was a delay.  We did make it out on the course at a very slow running pace.  6 miles in, Eric and I called it. So much for a long run.

117 miles on the bike and 6 miles of running.  Much, much tougher than I thought it would be.  I am really starting to wonder why I registered for this damn race in the first place.  It will definitely be a challenge to finish.

Before heading out-of-town we stopped at Machinery Row.  A kick ass bike shop. They had everything, including two Trek Speed Concepts.  This was the icing on the cake to great weekend in Madison!  A big shout out to Joe for a great time in Madison!

I met up with Romanotto, for a brief warm up on the bike.  I think I talked him into doing the Capital City Biathlon on Saturday!

We met up with the group, which was rather large.  The speed started to pick up down Old Salem.  The slight tail wind made everyone feel a little strong.  Before I knew it we were pushing 30 plus.  This is where I got a wild hare.  A couple of guys took off (Andy and Justin?) and I choose to come from the back and attempt to chase them down.  Bad idea… You always feel so fresh on the first sprint…  Let’s just say I didn’t catch anyone, and got sucked back in to the peloton. I ended up taking it easy into the sprint, it was a wash.

#2 was a speedy mess until the group split up after the final climb.  It was strung out, and once again… I stayed out of contention, not by choice.  My legs were hurting.

The key hole is one of the worst, you are never sure if you will make it out alive.  The first turn North, and the shit hit the fan.  Now you could feel that wind.  We got strung out into the gutter, I hung on to Eric’s wheel while gritting my teeth.  I could only think how bad I was hurting and I wanted the pain to go away.  I took a quick look back.  There was no one behind me.  Never a good sign.  We took the turn back East, and that was all she wrote…

I sat up, and tried to recover as I watched the pack ride off into the distance.  Just then a few of the stragglers came up from behind, organized.  I jumped on and took all the help I could get.  We finished the #3 just behind and regrouped with the leaders.

Two more to go… I said to myself I was not going to get dropped on the way back in.  The Wind was just enough, to make it difficult.  I stayed in the front, 2-3 riders back.  I could pull though, but then again, no one behind me was all to eager either.  Robo pretty much towed the whole group back.  We stayed in formation.  It was kind of like a dream.  My head was down and I just kept peddling, never looking behind.

I was glad to make it through sprint #4.  It didn’t ease up there, someone attacked, and Lawyer countered.  I jumped on his wheel.  He chased and eventually overcame. I pulled through at 28mph, and gave him the elbow, But the peloton was back on.  Leading up to the final sprint we had to deal with cars coming from every direction.  We slowed way down and when the final car passed with about 1k to go, the sprint started.  I was still seated, and fell back.  I would not be participating.

It was a crazy wet night. I am now doubting how I will perform with the humidity on Saturday.

The rest of the week was devoted to cycling.  Sunday I did a solo ride to Petersburg.  Tuesday started off with the Octopus, at Lunch with Eric.  The legs were not all there, so the first 4 legs I took it easy.  The next 4 I put in a solid effort.

Later that evening was the Team Mack Training Race.  It was sprint night.  I made it out for a good 10 miles before the race started.  But when it started, it was balls to the walls!  Like I say every week this was the toughest ride to date.  It took a good hour after the ride before I was able to eat, and I was still feeling a bit queasy.

Wednesday was masters swim, and well that was all that I had energy for.

Thursday I made it out for a bike ride with Lawyer and Buzz to Petersburg.  John really stepped it up on the hills!  After the ride I bricked it for a 2 mile run, and the legs felt pretty good.

I didn’t make it out again until Saturday.  This had to be one of the windiest days of the year.  I had a good group ride planned with HardyBreed Racing.  Jason, Eric, John, Jeff, Steven, and Kirk.  All seven of us started out with a 6 am start time, in the close to freezing temps.  We lost a few people on the way out.  First Kirk, then Steven, and then Jason peeled off when we hit Petersburg.

After the Burg, we headed towards Jim Edgar State Park.  Eric was reluctant in continuing on, but couldn’t come up with an excuse to turn around.  We joked about the Mackers, and how they would probably do this ride and continue on to Chandlerville and Virginia.

We sucked up the 10 miles to the park, at a crawl of 13 mph.  It was miserable. On the return route, we were out of energy and could not enjoy the massive tail wind home.

Just under 85 miles we made it back to town, exhausted.  Nice ride boys!

On Sunday, it took all the energy I had to make it out on a long run.  No speed records would be broken, mater a fact I ran at an average of 9:00 min pace.  10 miles to the park and home.

Definitely a good week of training, totaling 195 miles, and I look forward to another good week of training.

Noon seems to be the standard for these indoor sprint races in the early spring.  The Sullivan Civic Center Triathlon started at 12:30.  It was a sprint race consisting of a 400 METER swim, a 13.5 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run.  I have never done this race before, so it was a first.  John Lawyer talked me into, and like Jason said, It sounded like a good idea at the time.  We had a good  caravan of people going over.  Jason and I met up with Eric and John and Andy (my former nemesis).  We left at 9:30 from Springfield.  It took just a little over an hour to get there.  We pull up in the parking lot and before you could say, “Every Damn Day“, Eric and John had their bikes out of the van and headed towards transition.  We went and found a good wet muddy spot next to a sidewalk and racked our bikes.

We walked in and checked out the pool.  The pool looked really nice and big.  It was the shape of a “T,” a lap pool with a diving pool on one side.  What made this so odd was they had the lane ropes going against the lines on the bottom of the pool.  The lanes turned out to be a good 10 feet wide.  John said this made it really easy to pass.  And with close to 300 participants, we were going to need all the space we could get.

Before the race, Eric and I headed out for a short run to warm up.  Then I headed back to the car to changed into my tri-suite, and head to the pool.  The water was pretty warm, hot tube-esq.  I really don’t even know how far my warm up was the lanes were just messed up.  The first two, part of the “T” were short, then the next 5 or so were long, then one more short one.

I got out of the pool and made may way to the line up.  300 people all self seated, made for a mess.  I had turned in my time of 7:15.  I thought that would be a little conservative.  I figured I could do 45 second 50′s, and at the conversion rate of yards to meters that would put me in at 6:45 plus some change.  I really didn’t think I could hold that pace.

My number was 73, which meant I had 72 people in front of me and a bunch behind me.  I was really worried about catching the people in front of me and having to pass. But in the line a lot of people started moving around, hanging back.  So I was probably up a little bit further than expected.  Andy Peterson was number 69 and was just 2 spots ahead of me.

The gun went off.  Eric Sommer was number 2.  Man, that is some pressure!  I watched him go up and back.  On his second lane he went to flip turn and missed the wall.  He lost several seconds, because he had nothing to flip off of.  This was the problem with the pool.  You are swimming perpendicular to the lane lines, and there is no black “T” at the bottom of the pool to indicated the wall.  Pretty crazy stuff.

I started getting closer to the start.  I joked with the guy in front of me about one guy that just jumped in plugging his nose.  That is not the kind of people you want in front of you.

It was my turn, I paused a couple of seconds, just to give the guy ahead of me a few more seconds.  Started my watch then jumped in.  Things seemed to be going pretty well the first few laps.  But by the time I got to my second long run, I was catching the guy in front of me.  I pushed to pass him off the wall.  I could feel my heart rate going up.  I kept the pace, and then I found myself passing 3 more people.  At one point I was swimming 3 a breast and worried about on-coming traffic.  At this point, I only had one and a half laps left.  I was thinking to myself, I have never been this red-lined in the pool, but I stuck with it, climbing out in 6:40.

I ran out of the pool to the outside deck, and saw no one.  There were some people standing there, but nobody was pointing which way to go.  I found myself just standing there with my arms up asking where do I go???  Then Andy came out the door and I was finally direct to the left, down the stairs.  This was a crazy set up, but totally my fault for not going over this pre-race.  Andy and I ran down to transition crossing the mat in 7:01.  I put on my helmet and ran out in 36 seconds.

I was excited to get on the bike, but it was windy out there.  The way out was a tail wind, so I want to ride somewhat conservatively, because I knew the headwind was going to SUCK!  I made it out to where the first loop intersected. Eric pulled out right in front of me, and was flying!  He dropped me in the next mile or so, I couldn’t keep up, and I was going 28-29 mph.  By the time I turned to meet the headwind, I couldn’t even see him, and my speed was reduced to a crawl of 19-20 mph.  Then I took a right hand turn to complete the first loop.  This was a killer crosswind section.  I found myself leaning at a 45 degree angle just to stay upright, and my deep dish wheels were not helping matters.  This was a short section, and before I knew it I had a tail wind again flying at 30+ mph.  On the way back in it started to rain.  It felt like needles being stuck in your arms.

I headed into T2 racking my bike and standing in a muddy puddle.  I tried to wipe my feet with my hand before I put my Zoots on, just to clear some of the mud and gravel off of my feet.  I ran out with my visor and race belt.  My  legs felt great!  Running in the grass, I had one guy just a few steps ahead of me.  We turned on to the street and his feet just slid out from under him.  That had to hurt.  From that point on I took it easy around all the corners.

I headed up onto a crushed rock/gravel pathway for the next 2 miles through the park.  I ran and ran, and did not see any mile markers, I tried to get my garmin to switch screens, I couldn’t get it to work.  (I realized later thatr I missed one of my splits out of transition.)     So I was unning by feel.  By the time I had exited the park, I had passed a few more people, and I thought I was on the home stretch.  But it turned out I had 1.1 miles left to go.

I felt a lot better on the pavement and did the best I could.  I wrapped around to the finish completing the run in 20:38, with a 6:38 pace.  My final time was 1:04 flat, good enough for 7th place overall and 2nd in my age group.

We (Jason, John, Eric, Andy, David and I) all regrouped after the race, and headed into the basement of the Civic Center to eat and collect some bling!  So… If it wasn’t for the crazy pool swim, the muddy transition area, the 30 mph gust, the rain, and the gravel pathway on the run that was poorly marked, I would say sign me up for next year!  We’ll see…  Even with condition, I think we all had a great time. Nothing beats racing with a bunch of friends!

You can see all the result from the Sullivan triathlon here.

I headed out to the race around 11.  I bumped in to a ton of people out there and chit-chatted for a while.  Then I got my act together and racked my bike, and regrouped with HardyBreed Racing for a warm up run. Jason snapped this photo on our way back in.  Have you seen Reservoir Dogs? For some reason we all had that calm look upon us…

After a mile or so on the road, I when back and changed into my Desoto tri suite and headed to the pool.  I did a 300 yard warm up in the pool then went out to sun on the benches.  I talked with several people on where they were lining up for the swim.  The gaps in the swim time staging were pretty large. 3-4 minutes, 4-5 minutes, 5-6 minutes, etc…  I was sure I wanted to be under 5, but really wasn’t sure where I would fit in with the crowd of people lined up against the wall.  I kept moving myself forward until I ran into Scott Harry and Dave Bagot.  Scott said 4:50, so I felt comfortable being right behind him.

The swim started, and took a few steps and jumped out, bouncing off the bottom of the pool to get some forward momentum. Down and back, down and back, I did a pretty good job this year getting under the ropes.  Half way though I found my self right behind Scott.  I tried to settle in, and relax hoping we didn’t bump heads on the flips.  The swim went really well, I ran out right behind him crossing the mat in 4:45.

Running straight to my bike I put on my glasses, helmet and grabbed my bike and ran out with a respectable T1 of 23.9 seconds.

The bike had a cross-tail wind on the way out, which felt pretty good.  I ramped it up without going red.  I wanted to save myself for the return.  Before the turn around I saw the top dogs, flying back.  Eric Bean, a professional triathlete with Timex was in the lead.  With Eric Sommer, John Lawyer and Tom Gerlach close behind.  I still had more people to pass to get up to the top ten.  I did what I could without blowing up my legs.  (I learned my lesson last year.)

Coming in to T2, I dismounted really early, and ended up running with my bike.  Racked my bike, dropped my Rudy Wingspan helmet, and glasses.  put on my shoes, and started to run out with my visor and belt, getting out in 25 seconds.

I had several people yelling at me that Dan Dungan just exited and was up the road.  They must have know that would be a good carrot for me.  My stride was feeling great, and I had Dan in my sites.  My garmin had me going through mile 1 in 6:44.  I had just passed Dan (he was running with a tennis ball sticking out of hip) and was looking up the road.  There was a couple more people that I thought I could catch.

I made it to the downhill section which really helped with my speed, running through the Square.  The final hill back to the school was a killer, I kept it steady and passed one more guy going up.  I got to the top and started pushing as hard as I could.  I was coming up to the hour mark and wanted to break it.

I crossed the finish in 59:41. 6th overall.  HardyBreed did pretty good itself, Eric was 3rd overall, John was 4th, D2 was 9th. But after clearing out the Pro and the Elite.  That really moved Eric up to #1, John to 2nd!

Totally excited about my race, I had nothing to complain about.  This was great prep for Sullivan next weekend.  Congrats to everyone that came out, it was a great day for a race!

[Abe's Mini & Pioneer Sprint Photos] [Abe's Mini Results] [Pioneer Sprint Results]

As for the training race (Team Mack ride), it was sprint night.  And for the first training race of the year, it is usually a good way to gauge your cycling fitness.  What I learn was I am in decent shape, that should come around in the next couple weeks.  In the chart below you can see that mile 9-13 someone put the hammer down, and I struggled to stay on. Mile 11 we averaged, 28.6 mph, 302 average watts and 97 rpms.  That is just crazy talk this time of year!  And I guess that is why it only lasted 1 mile.

Once I made it through the two sprints, which I did not contend for.  I flipped at the T-Bone with a few other guys and rode back in.  I was toast!  Almost 25 miles for the night.  I am looking forward to nothing but a swim on Wednesday and hopefully I will have some better results next week!

Swimming seems to the only of the three disciplines that you cannot afford to have down time.  Thing just seem to fall apart.  I guess if you were a high school or collegiate swimmer, things might be different.

My first Monday back went and hit the pool at fit club south.  Did a 500 warm up then 10 x 50, and a 300 yard time trial.  My time trial was better than expected for having time off.  5:10 was all I could muster.  That really was not what I wanted to see, but there was nothing I could do.  The most important part was just getting to the pool.

After work Eric suggested we head out on our TT bikes and do intervals.  We headed west on the training race course.  The plan was 4 x 4:00 with equal 4:00 recovery between reps.  Four minutes is a long time when going at 90%.  These really helped me get a new feel for the bike and the adjustments that I have made over the winter. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29884415 This was a tough but short workout.

So not over doing this week would be the key, but I am not sure the Pioneer is even a “B” more like a “C”.  Training may go as usual up to the race.  Next week at Sullivan, I may put forth more of an effort to be recovered.  Then the Illinois Half.

We made it out to Chatham and he decided to continue on to Auburn with use.  Once we hit the wide open country the head wind really took its toll.  We stayed together, thinking that the tailwind on the way home would be easy.

He struggled, so Jason and I would put in a tempo and then backtrack to him.  This really helped us get in the extra miles.  Eventually we got close to the west side of town and said farewell to Kirk.  We headed out for about 10 more miles to make a sweet 50 for the day.

On Sunday, Julie headed out-of-town for work, I was at home with the kids.  I tried to find someone to watch them for a bit, but was unsuccessful.  So the best thing to do was to occupy them.  We broke out our new tent, inside the living room.  Oh what fun!  We will be having a camp out for then next few nights!

With their imaginations rolling, I headed down to the basement for a  treadmill run.  I put in the Michael Jackson movie, This is It.  My goal: 13 miles on the treadmill.  Sounds kind of nuts, but it was my only choice.  (I skipped my long run last weekend.)  I started out at a 8:34 pace and planned to take 15 seconds off that every two miles.  Mile 2-4 was around a 8:15, mile 4-6 8:00, mile 6-8 7:45, mile 8-10 7:30, mile 10-12 7:15, and this is where I started to struggle.  The miles were not going that quickly anymore.  But I tried to stay focused.  Finally at mile 12, I went down to  6:58 mile completing 13.1 miles on the treadmill.

I sure hope this is easier come the Illinois Half, which I have not set a goal for yet.

Yes, I do use this website to help track my training, but it doesn’t count the miles.  And this year I want to see exactly what kind of yardage I put in the pool and how may miles I run and bike my heart rate, power, hours, minutes, and nutrition.  This is a ironman year (Steelhead 70.3 and Ironman Wisconsin) everything counts.

Currently my base training is consisting of 3 swims per week  2 being masters group swims.  3 runs per week, 1 speed workout (lunch w/ Eric), 1 tempo run, and 1 long run.  And for the Bike, well… a long weekend ride, and maybe 1 short trainer session.  And all of that can be translated to DONUTS on the DailyMile.

So what did I do last week?  Well it is all in the DailyMile.

• Monday, and had a easy swim of 1000 yards
• Tuesday, Lunch w/ Eric, a 2 mile time trial around the park.  11:51 was my time. My garmin actually said 1.9 miles. Plus I ran too and from the park, so the total was around 5.
• Wednesday, Masters Swim over lunch.  300 warm up, 4×100, then 4 sets of: 100, with 10″, 75 w/5″ rec, 75 w/10″ rec, 75 w/5″ rec, 75 w/10″ rec.  2300 yards total.
• Thursday, I ran tempo http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26739173 Tried to do 1 mile warm up, 4 miles at 10k pace then 1 mile warm down. Between my legs, the hills and the wind. I couldn’t keep it together.
• Friday, Master Swim over lunch.   Eric ran the workout on time. starting with 25 yards on the 20 increasing 5 seconds per length. Then increasing the distance 50s, 75s, 100s, and just as you got comfortable the pace increased. Not really sure on the 1200 distance, probably more but, I have trouble keeping count… Interesting workout, I would like to do it fresh because it was a tough workout after the tempo run yesterday. I just didn’t have the energy.
• Saturday, was the big ride.  Got out of the house early, just after 7am and headed to the park for laps until I met up with Eric, John, Dave and Eric, to do some more laps until the Team Mack ride. The constant drizzle soaked my gloves and made for a tough ride. When I got home I couldn’t feel my feet and my one pinky toe was blue. Got some good miles in on a crappy day! Manage 70.84 miles.  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26868091
• Sunday, was a long run, 14.01 miles on some tired legs. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/27027337

So what is all of this going to get me in the next couple of months?  Hopefully some good times at:

• Illinois Half Marathon
• Pioneer Sprint
• Sullivan Sprint
• Capital City Biathlon

I showed up to masters swim and started warming up. After a couple laps I stopped and took a breather. I was exhausted.

Tuesdays Lunch w/ Eric had taken its toll. We did 6 quarter mile hill intervals in Washington park. These were a long slow incline. Very deceiving. I had set my pace on the first interval staying just behind the elites. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep that pace up for the next 5.  But to my surprise I was able to keep up.

1:18, 1:20, 1:18, 1:19, 1:17, 1:18.  The last few I really try to stay on pace, trying to give the last 100 that little extra. But to my surprise the legs didn’t respond.  They were tapped out.

Now back to swimming on empty…  After a 300 warm up, we did a 500 at medium pace.  Then the main set of 3×500 was called.  I had my doubts, making it through 2 of the 3.  Using the pull buoy for half of that.

After 1800 yards, I looked at the clock and called it a lunch hour.  Skipping that last 500.

Needless to say I took Wednesday off.

We completed the course with a little extra I put a little heat on in the return loop in the park only to light matches I couldn’t put out.  (I will never learn!)  Jason, who must be doing so secret marathon training, dropped my ass on the final climb out of the park.  You can see my heart rate was out of control at 191bpm.  I did recover though and bridge back up for the finish.  Only to learn that Jason was going to run home another 4 miles.  Ouch!  I was spent, and was glad to get back in my Jeep.

Sunday, I went to master swim.  We had another busy session.  I placed myself in lane two with Peter Wise, Jim Cinotto, and Paul McDevitt.  We opted for Option 2.  The sets went pretty good.  Although I am not sure if we were meeting out times.  My take on these timed intervals is to swim hard and use the extra seconds for recovery.  Today I think we just swam easy with no recovery.  I am still new at this, so I wasn’t sure.

This was my 3rd masters swim of the week so those earlier sessions definitely helped with Sundays workout.

Later in the afternoon.  I met up with the IMWI Gang (+ Lawyer) to put in a few miles on the road bikes.  We headed northwest through Salisbury and Athens taking in a total of 35 miles. I was in full dress, but it was sunny and 40 degrees out.  It was a great wrap up to the weekend.

This was not the way to start of the weekend.

Sunday I decided to give masters swim another shot.  I have been swimming 2-3 times a week for the past 6-7 weeks.  I don’t feel fast by any means, but I have got some endurance back.  Anyhow…. Masters swim was packed.  I don’t recall seeing this many people at the pool.  Each lane had 4-5 people in it.  I took this as an excuse to join in on lane 1.  The slow lane.

When I say the slow lane, I really mean, slow.  I mean more recovery.  I probably swam close to the same pace as if I was in a faster lane, but I got much more recovery between sets.

I wish I could remember the exact workout.  I think I ended up with somewhere around 25oo yards.  I felt pretty good about this swim.

Later Sunday afternoon, I broke out my netflix dvd, Vision Quest.  Tim Deboom talked about some inspirational movies in his latest article in Triathlete Magazine.  I had never seen this movie, which was from 1985.

The movie had a great soundtrack, including Madonna, and Journey, which was really motivating when riding the trainer.  I ended up with a puddle of sweat and 25 miles.

I also got to test out my new ISM Adamo saddle and my first impression was good.

Today’s “Lunch with Eric” was one of those learning experience.  Maybe not so much during the main workout, but on the way back to the car.

I met up with Eric and Lawyer.  We headed to the park to meet up with the group.  It is always a surprise to see how many will show up.  It was a great turn out.  We had a wide range of runners.  The workout consisted of 5 x 2:00 intervals at 5k pace, with 90 second recoveries in between.

You can view my Garmin Connect activity here.

Lawyer looked like he was jogging the whole time, but don’t let that fool ya.  This was a tough workout, and some of the best runners always make it look easy.

My pace stayed somewhere under a 6:00 pace, and my heart rate topped out at 188.  Each of the intervals I had around a 30 bpm drop for the 90 second recovery.  This was more than enough, and I suspect at future Lunch outings that the recovery time will drop for the intervals.

On the way back to the car after the workout, I started talking with the guys about pacing for a race.  Do you go into a race and try to keep a consistant pace for each split?  Do you go and try to do negative splits for each mile? Or if you are competing do you just run your heart out?

Eric brought up the point that most people just go out and run.  They run, they get tired, they slow down.  And that is how they race too.  You need to go into a race with a plan.  Know what you can do.  Don’t plan on going out at a 6:00 pace if you can only hold that for the first mile.  Hold back and play it conservative and progressively get faster. Sounds logical right?

If you want to break 19:00 for a 5k, you have to chart it out for each mile, and don’t expect a miracle to happen that last tenth of a mile.

I woke up Saturday, to some crappy weather.  Not a chance in hell of me riding.  Although it turns out Team Mack still headed out.  I guess they are a little bit more of a HardyBreed than me.

I had to switch somethings up.   I decided to do my long run instead of a ride.  According to my marathon training plan, I was suppose to do 13 mile at 10% slower than marathon pace.  Seeing I have not decided on a marathon or what pace I would attempt to run it at, if I was doing one.  I just kept it steady.

I headed to Washington Park, did an extra loop and headed home.  Here is the path I took.  I ended up with an 8:21 avg page, which turned out not so bad.  My legs were still tired from Thursday nights tempo.

On Sunday, I skipped out on masters swim.  After taking November and December off in the pool.  I am still trying to build up my endurance.  I have made it to the pool 6 times in the last two weeks, so I am on my way.  Hope fully I will return in the next week or so.

Anyhow, Sunday turned out to be crap too.   Rain, rain, rain…  I paced by the window, just waiting for it to stop.  About 11:30 I deciced I better get on the trainer.  As I mounted my bike, I made a quick change of plans.  I was going to ride outside.

The rain had stopped, it was in the 40s, and we had a stiff wind out of the West.  I headed out towards the Waverly black top.  The head wind sucked.  I was crawling at 13-15 mph. Then I was able to turn and head South.  The cross wind was much better, my speed picked up from there.

I made it to the turn around with around 27 miles.  At that point I notice my rear tire was flat.  Changing tires in the cold is not that much fun so I tried to be quick about it.

Once I got the new tube in and tire back on the rim, I remembered that I didn’t check the inside of the tire for debris.  I pulled the bead off again and ran my finger around the inside of the tire.  I had a couple cinders poking through.  I used a tire iron to push the cinders back out.  I then had to use my teeth to pull them out of the tire, mainly because I could feel my fingers.

I got my act together and started heading back.  I was kind of worried about getting another flat and picked up the pace.  I guess I should have brought extra CO2 and tubes on solo ride in the cinder wonder land.

I made Mad it just past New Berlin and a huge Psssssss Psssssss.  Shit, another flat.  I pulled over by a farm house and made a phone call home.  Julie and the kids were on there way.

I was starting to shiver, and decided that I would ride up to Old Jack and try to meet them.  Riding on a rear flat, can ruin your tire and your rim, so I did it with caution.  I stood up and road with most of my weight on the front wheel.  I was not moving fast at all, but I was keeping warm.

Julie showed up and I loaded my bike and hopped in the car.  Thank you Julie!

At this point I had 40 miles in, and I was kind of disappointed because I never got to enjoy my tailwind that I deserved for that massive head wind on the way out.  Oh well…  I also forgot to hit the stop on my garmin, giving me a 71mph max speed.  Here is was my route.

I cant wait to get back out there, with a bunch of tubes, CO2s and a good set of 330tpi tires.

The first workout. 3×1.5 miles at tempo. I thought what a perfect night to start training. One week early, but nothing better to do.

I hopped on the treadmill for a 2.5 mile warm up. The the fun began. I started off at 8 miles an hour or a 7:30 pace. Manage 1.5 with ease and took a .5 recovery.

I then repeated 2 more times. I felt really good at a 7:30 pace. I actually think this is the best shape I have ever been in for January.

A total of 8 miles for the night.

That damn Tour Down Under coverage barely made it through my warm up and I was forced to watch the Kona coverage again. It never gets old.

I was really big on group training also. I started going to masters swim quit regularly on Sundays. Didn’t miss too many workouts at the track on Tuesdays (aka.. Lunch with Eric). And God forbid if I missed any of the Tuesday/Thursday training races (Team Mack rides). Oh and don’t forget those New City Time Trials, on every other Wednesday. Those four thing are what really motivated me this year. I really enjoyed going to each one of those every week and hated to miss, because of a taper. Outside of group training sessions, I also tried to put together some good long group rides over the summer too.

I had a bunch of really great guys to keep me motivated all year long. This coming year will probably be no different. So a big kudos goes out to my family, my wife Julie, Jason, Dan, Eric, John, Kim, Clarence, the New City Group, Team Mack, Effetto Coniglio, Wheel Fast, and many more… You can add you name in the comments section

So here are all the races I did this year, along with links to my race report for each one.

April 14, 2009
Illinois Half Marathon (my race report: Tagging Along):
Total: 1:55:04 an 8:47 pace

April 18, 2009
Pioneer Sprint triathlon (my race report: Fun at the Pioneer Sprint):
6th place over all, 2nd in age group, Swim: 5:25, T1: 0:24:8, Bike: 33:21 (23.4mph), T2: 0:30:6, Run: 22:49 (7:08 pace) Total: 1:02:31

May 30, 2009
Capital City Biathlon (my race report: Comfortably Painful Biathlon):
4th place over all, 1st in age group, Total: 57:09 (6:20 run pace, 24.3mph avg bike)

June 13, 2009
Scholastic Challenge 5k (my race report: The Reverse Danathalon):
37th over all, 2nd in age group, Total: 19:23 (6:15 pace)

July 18, 2009
Evergreen Lake Triathlon (Olympic distance) (my race report: Video Recap of Evergreen Lake Tri):
44th overall, 6th in age group. Swim: 30:16, T1:1:12, Bike: 1:02:49 (23.7mph), T2: 1:16, Run: 46:40 (7:31 pace) Total: 2:22:13.9

July 26, 2009

Iron Abe (Olympic distance) (my race report: “A” for Iron Abe)
7th place overall, 1st in age group. Swim: 21:06, T1: 58:05, Bike: 1:01:33 (24.2mph & best bike split!) T2: 42:10, Run: 46:10 (7:27 pace) Total: 2:10:30

August 15, 2009
Rail Splitter (1mile,36mile,7mile) (my race report: Cramping where Lincoln Cramped):
5th place overall, 1st in age group. Swim: 34:30, T1: 22:06, Bike: 1:33:56 Bike (23.0mph), T2: 1:30, Run: 1:00:37 (8:40 pace) Total: 3:10:58

October 25, 2009
Ironman 70.3 Longhorn (my race report: My Longhorn 70.3 report):
213/2091 overall, 33/340 age group. Swim: 39:19 T1: 3:41 Bike: 2:30:40 T2: 3:18 Run: 1:45:39 Total: 5:02:37

December 6, 2009
Frostbite Festival (my race report: Frost-bites):
19th overall, 1st in age group. 1:11:20 (7:08 pace)

It was a great year and I can only hope to improve on these results. If asked, what would my goals be? I want to become a more efficient swimmer, I want to become a stronger cyclist, I want to have a solid run without cramping, I want to become an Ironman!

I will have to focus on what it will take to actually accomplish all of these goals, because none of these will be easy.

I was actually kind of excited about doing this race.   I showed up just in time to get my packed and head back out to the jeep.  I was seconded guessing my clothes.

I showed up to the start line just in time.  Alex, lifted the tape and let me in the corral.  I spent a couple of seconds checking the pace with the guys around me.   My plan was to go out around an 8-8:30 pace and pick it up by the turn around.  But like every novice runner, the gun when off and so did I.  I looked down and my garmin.  I was doing a sub 7.  Not at all where I wanted to be.  Dungan and Leah Hulcher we just in front of me.  I figured I could hang just behind them for a while until they slowed down.

At mile 2, there was no change in pace.  Dungan actually started pulling away from me.  I kept thinking he was due to slow down, but it never happened.  I stayed on on pace, hovering around 7.  The hills on the way were not all that bad, but I knew I would think differently on the way back.  I made it to the final stretch before the turn around.  There wasn’t too many people ahead of me, just the usual.  A bunch of young kids, Wild Hare Jacob Klug, Alex Taft, some more young kids, Nile Robinson, Emily Zimmerman, Dan Dungan, and Tracy Dowell.

I hit the turn around.  This always seems to be one of the hardest parts of the race.  The minute I flip I am never sure if I will be able to get back up to pace. Catching any of the people ahead of me was going to be tough.  I really think I was just going to keep up the same pace and see what I had left for the last two miles. (This is not the way to race.)

By the last two mile I was closing in on Tracy.  She was running way too fast for being on the injured list.  With one mile to go, I tried to pick it up but the last two hills really cut into me.   I did what I could to get up it, recover and take as much free speed on the downhill.  The last couple of turns I knew I was there.  I gave it all I had crossing the finish in 1:11:20 with a 7:08 average. I finished 19th overall and 1st in my age group.

What a great way to finish off the year!

[My Garmin Connect] [Photos] [Results]

That’s what happened. I made through the first 4 laps at the 6 minute pace. Then recovered. Alex decided to run the track backwards on even laps. The next repeat got a little harder. I lasted 2 laps, recovered 1 and headed back for the final 1. So 800, recover, 400. This was all I had left for the next two repeats.

You can see my garmin connect workout here. I don’t think the garmin was meant to be used at the track. The gps has trouble doing circles…. It looks like a 2 year old traced my laps on the track.

By the way Wednesday is the last day to pre register for the Frostbite. $30 bucks! it then goes up to $35.

I hope the cost doesn’t hold too may people back from registering… what do you think?

My week started on Tuesday with a solo ride in the morning.  I did a decent size loop around Springfield only to ride the last 10 miles through town in the cold rain.  I ended up with 72 miles.

On Thanksgiving day, I went over to the park for the “Cold Duck Run”, a do as you please run.  The lunch with Eric group and a few others showed up.  We did a “5″ mile loop according to Eric.  The same 5 mile loop they have been doing for the last 10 years.  According to my Garmin it was just under 4 miles, but who are you going to believe Eric or my Garmin?

On Black Friday I met up with Team Mack to brave the cold temperatures. It was a small group, and we could only manage 40 miles and a foot in a dogs face (Mark S. did it).

Saturday was a day of redemption.  Everyone came out of the wood work.  We easily had over 25 riders.  Mr. Black from St. Louis was also able to join in.  The ride was interupted just after the start when Robo went down.  No one really knows what happened.  I reached down and pulled his bike off of him.  He didn’t move for several seconds.  But he cowboy’d up and got back on his bike.  By the time we got to Woodside Road, he realized he shouldn’t be riding, so he made a phone call.  Turns out he had a concussion.   The ride continued toward Auburn (for the 100th time) and we had a few good accelerations on the way back in.  57 miles for the day.

Sunday was the day after my sister Kim and Stevens (aka bushwacker) wedding, and I was not feeling up to par.  It took me until the late afternoon before I could make it out.  But I still did it, and feel better about myself for getting out.  An 11 mile run to the park, taking in a few extra hills to prepare myself for the FrostBite.

I am going to try to stay “dry” this week and nurse my UPI (definition 1, not 3)  from break-dancing with chap stick in my pocket.

Tonight after work, I headed to the Springfield Tri Club Social.  They had Bob and TJ from Bike Tek come in and talk about winterizing your bike (cleaning) and the difference between wind, mag and fluid trainers.

Tom, from R&M also came in and brought a giant rack of winter cycling clothes to take a look at.  A decent turn out, but could have been better.  Did you have something better to do? Come on Leah brought in Corona and limes!

Nice job, Leah and Brenda!

To make this ride as painless as possible, we met up with the Mackers for a 9:00 am ride.  What a turn out.  One by one, riders kept rolling up.  We even had an appearance form the Schleck brothers.

With 20+ riders we headed out towards Raymond, IL.  With the halfies turning around after Auburn.  We went out through town on the new bike trail.  If you haven’t been out there yet, it is a messed up trail.  I guess they developed the 3-4 flat switchbacks for retail development.  Let’s just say… it is not a quick way to get out of town.

By the time we made it to Chatham, I had 15 miles in already, and we didn’t even start the ride yet.

With a peloton of this size we had more than enough conversations going on. But before I knew it, we had hit the T south of Auburn.  Our small group with time constraints decided to flip.  A tail wind back home made for an easy ride.  We even picked up the pace on the way into Chatham. I will blame Lawyer for that!

By the time I made it back through town I had 50 miles in for the day.  Not bad for November!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hardybreed/sets/72157622711332480/

Saturday morning, we woke up and headed out to packet pick up at 11:30.  We then rushed back to our hotel to prepare our transition bags.  There were two transitions, located in different areas of the course.  We had to pace everything we needed for T1 and T1 into to separate grocery sized plastic bags.  The transition areas were what they call “clean transitions” meaning that you cant lay anything on the ground, everything has to be on your bike or in your bag.

After running around like a chicken with his head cut off, we finished up right at closing time, 4:30. On the way back to the hotel we grabbed some food and went back to relax.  Our alarms were set for 5am, with the intent of leaving at 6.

The alarm went off, I don’t think I slept a wink.

We drove to the course and boarded a bus that took up to the swim.  At this point we headed to the porta-potties and lost track of each other.  It was still dark, but I needed to get ready.  I wanted to get in a swim warm up before the pros went off at 7:30.  I started looking through my morning dry bag and couldn’t find my swim cap.  I started thinking…. I don’t even remember seeing it… I do remember getting it at packet pick up thought.  I quickly ran into T1 and checked my bag.  Nothing!  Fuck!

I stopped by the morning bag drop off, they sent me to volunteer sign in, who finally sent me to the swim start.  There was the lady with an envelope of colored caps.  I told her I totally forgot it or lost it.  She pulled one out and gave it to me.  What a sigh of relief.  She was a life saver!

I finished getting my wet suit on and headed into the water.  The water temp was actually warmer than the air.  I swam out to the first buoy and turned around.  I was ready.

Standing around for the next half hour or so, kind of sucked.  I was trying to stay calm and enjoy the moment.  I eventually bumped into Jason and said good luck.

The horn went off and we started swimming for the first buoy.  It was crowded and I took my fair share of arms and legs.  My stroke was solid and I kept a pretty good line.  The last couple hundred of yards was full of seaweed.  Every stroke, you caught a handful.  I actually found my self keeping my elbows event higher than normal to avoid grabbing so much.  My time was just under 40 minutes, I was 5 minutes off my predicted time of 35.

I ran up to transition, stopping to have my wetsuit stripped. then remembering where my bike was.  Row E, half way down this football field transition area, I found my bike, got my helmet on, put socks on, and packed my pockets with nutrition.  I then had to get my wetsuit back in the plastic bag.  I then trotted out of transition.

Heading out on the bike, I and quickly got in a rhythm.  Then a second later, I remembered to take it easy.  I didn’t want to go out too hard.  There were riders everywhere, and I would have to do a lot of passing, while making sure I wasn’t drafting.  The officials made their point clear about drafting and the last thing I wanted was a 4 minute penalty.

A mile or so into the ride, we came upon the steepest climb of the day.  I stayed in the big ring, but shifted all the way to my 23 and had to get out of my saddle to make it to the top.  I heard later that people were falling over, and walking up this hill.

What goes up must come down, and there was plenty more rolling hills through out the course.  With a course this hilly, I took it as easy as possible up every single hill.  I got passed myself up plenty of them, but I powered down the backside.  At one point I hit 39 mph in my tuck.

Besides the hills the wind was also starting to pick up.  I found myself loving the headwind.  It was those cross winds that you had to deal with keeping your bike on the road.  And with my deep dish HED’s I had to put in a little more control with my upper body.  But I am sure they made me faster.  I am glade I didn’t ride a disc.

I the last 10 miles or so,  the crowd let up, I think I was towards the front of most of the age groupers, it was kind of nice.  But soon I was playing can and mouse with 4 others.  people would pass and then slow down once in front.  The wind and even the slightest draft can play tricks on how strong you are and you don’t realize how hard it is at the front.

The final few miles I was able to shake most of the group, and found myself speeding up just to make the 2:30 mark.  I finished in 2:30:40 with a 22.3 mph average.

I ran into transition found my bag and empty spot. It almost seemed like slow motion.  I put my shoes on and ran out.

Once again I jetted out of transition, only to remember to start of slow.  I dropped the pace and let people pass.  My legs at this point felt great.  My bladder on the other hand needed a break, so I ducked into the potta-potty at the first water stop.

I felt like a million bucks after that, and started running.  This was all downhill til the corner. When you turned you hit a long climb, this was one of the worst hills, and I would have to do it 3 times today.  I was having trouble with my splits and the mile markers. My splits seem slow for one and then fast.  I think some of the markers were off.  So I could never get a solid read on my pace.  I wish I had a Garmin on. After running through the park, we headed back down that giant hill, and turn right back to the finish area.  Another long climb.  These sucked and were killing me.  At the top, a water stop.  I took my time through every water stop, walking a few seconds and taking in some fluids.

I completed the first loop, and saw Lance (support crew) cheering me on, with hundreds of others.  This really lifted my spirits. Two laps to go. The second lap, all I could think about was the mile markers for the third and final lap.  My legs also started feeling all those hills.  I put away most of my endurolytes and I couldn’t tell if I was starting to cramp or my legs were just hurting.  So I made sure I took in as much gatorade as possible at the water stops.  I was determined to finish this run strong!

The final lap I passed Lance again, holding up my finger (no not that finger) saying “one more”, I was getting kind of emotional at this point, just thinking that I was going to finish.  I kept my pace, walked through the stops all the way out. On the return, with just 2 miles to go, I tried to step it up a notch.  But there wasn’t as much there.  I did my best up the last hill and sprinted to the finish.  At the turn around point there were two shoots.  One for lap 2 and 3, and the other for finishers.  I was the only one in my area headed towards the finishing shoot.  It felt so great!  Emotional once again, I entered the stadium and and did a loop inside before the actual finish line.  I heard my name on the loud speaker.  “Dan Billingsley from Springfield Illinois”.  I put my arms in the air (I deserved a good finish line!) and crossed.  I finished the run in 1:45:39 with a pace of 8:04.

Immediately people started handing me stuff, a hat, a water bottle, a towel, a medal.  It was way too much.  I just wanted to sit.  I grabbed a Gatorade (I was really wanted a coke) and sat against a wall on the floor.

The emotions just hit me. (Yes I started to cry…)  Thank God they gave me the towel.  I took some deep breaths and tried to recover.  I really did it!  All the stress, time and training, all paid off.  5:02:37.  I had to be happy with that, I didn’t break the 5 hour mark, but came close in my first attempt and I had an almost perfect day.

Like all the races I have done, I immediately started thinking about my next race.  A race twice the length of this one.  Ironman Wisconsin is going to be tough, and I have no clue how I will finish it.  But with the right training and nutrition. I will finish it too.

So here is the breakdown of my race: (my results seem to be changing all the time. so here is the latest.)

Swim: 39:19
T1: 3:41
Bike: 2:30:40
T2: 3:18
Run: 1:45:39
Overall: 5:02:37
Place: 213/2091
Age Group 35-39: 33/340

View all the results

View all the photos Lance took of Longhorn 70.3 (Thanks Lance!)

I think I accomplished this this last week. This weekend I went out for a ride on Saturday, staying at half ironman pace, but only doing 40 miles. I finished with a brick run of 5 miles. Today I made it to Masters Swim. The workout consisted of a bunch of 50s. I started out the workout with my wetsuit on. I haven’t worn it since July and I don’t want any surprises next Sunday. This lasted the first two sets. I was hot! I jumped out stripped and got back in. I am not sure how many yard I got in, it all just kind of blurred together.

It was a great workout. I will probably try to hit the pool a couple times this week for some easy swimming. I will also try to get on the bike at least once this week and put in some short runs. Then we will be off to Austin.

Don’t forget to check out our homepage. We will be posting video from the road! The wonders of the iPhone.