Winter

Off-season training is difficult this year. Every wish I made as a kid for snow cancellations is finally being answered. The roads are slushy and the trails are pulling double-duty as a beautiful winter wonderland. I’ve been spending some quality time in the toasty gym – working on swimming and strength while putting in time on the treadmill and in spinning classes. But I really want to hit the trails.

The National Duathon Championship is just around the corner and nothing can prepare me like riding and running on the trails. Conditioning in spinning class is great, but it doesn’t get me ready for the tough, technical climbs or the subtleties of the course. I won’t feel ready until I can ride the actual course on my actual bike with ease – without the motivating music, 5-minute cool-down and hot instructor. But, for now, I’m at the mercy of this crazy winter weather. Maybe I can improvise a hill training program workout using a sled for the downhills.

Freestyle Swimming

The National Duathlon Festival’s Off-Road Sport race was my first multisport event.  The event I raced consisted of trail running, mountain biking and more trail running.  I have become very aware of my abilities (or lack thereof) and limitations in both trail running and mountain biking.  I spent a lot of time on the trails to prepare for the race and my hard work paid off.  I was very happy with how I did in the race and I had a blast.  I’m now hooked on multisports.

Now I’m getting ready for the XTERRA Sport triathlon.  If I maintain what I have with running and kick up my mountain biking a bit, I will be good-to-go with those. Swimming, however, is a big unknown. So I spent some time in the pool at my gym recently to get a feel for my ability.

I’ve found that I’m terrible at swimming.  I’m honestly surprised by how much I suck at it.  None of the cardio benefits from biking and running seem to have transferred to swimming and I definitely feel like I’m starting from ground zero.  My race is a month away and I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off.

The swim portion of the race is 500 meters of open water in the James River.  I think that if I can finish 750 meters non-stop in the pool, I’ll be able to deal with the current and getting kicked in the face by other swimmers.  And I don’t need to be able to swim it fast.  Getting the swim done in a certain amount of time is something I will worry about next year.  This year I want to focus on not getting hauled out of the river by a rescue boat.  750 meters may not seem like much, but currently the most I can swim without needing to rest (gasp desperately for air) is 50 meters.

My brute force approach of just getting to the other end of the pool seems to be wasting more energy that I have to spare.  And no amount of conditioning will make up for my complete lack of technique. Watching other swimmers glide though the water lap after lap makes me realize that I’m missing some key pieces of information that would make my life a lot easier.  Some quick googling gave me the answer:

I am doing everything wrong.  This is just one of the guy’s videos. Click here to see more. He does a great job of explaining it so simply that a complete newbie like me can understand. I have a lot of work to do.

Hopefully I can remember all of these pointers when I’m in the pool.  As long as I keep finding time to train (spring is such a busy time of the year) and get this swimming thing down, my first triathlon will be a success.

Course Preview – National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race

Yesterday my buddy and I spent the morning (Easter Sunday) exploring the National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race course. The race consists of a 5k trail run, 11k bike (mountain) and a 3k trail run. The National Duathlon Festival website had maps of last year’s courses, but the race organizers definitely needed to change them due to repairs being done to the Belle Isle vehicle bridge. So we were exploring the area trying to guess how the course would be revised.

Following last year’s course maps we ran from the Tredegar parking lot, along the Northbank trail to the turn-around point for the 5k section, and then back to Tredegar. It was not quite as challenging as I thought it was going to be. The trail is very narrow in sections, which wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that any quick divergence from the trail could result in a long fall down an embankment.  It’s really difficult to image people running both directions on the trail at the same time.  But this trail has been used before for the race, so we figured that this section wouldn’t change because access to the trail isn’t affected by the Belle Isle vehicle bridge issue.

Next we tried to figure out which bridge the race organizers would use for the biking course to get from the transition point to the Buttermilk trail. We rode our bikes along the same course as the James River Scramble 10k which brought us east to the 14th Street bridge and west along the floodwall. Using this bridge to get to the south side of the James River was more out of the way than we had expected and was obviously not the route they would pick. After looking around we realized that the Lee Bridge would be the best choice. But how they would make up for the mileage lost by bypassing Belle Isle?

Well, today we got our answer (opens pdf).

Run #1

The 5k run course leaves transition and takes runners to Belle Isle via the footbridge. The course will loop the gravel road around the base of the island and turn left to the top of the island. On top of the island the route will do a complete loop of the top of the island before descending a trail off the south east side of the island. The missing trail on the east end of the island will bring the runners back to the footbridge and back to transition.

It’s pretty disappointing to see that the Northbank Trail run got axed completely. Running over the footbridge to Belle Isle is boring, and running on Belle Isle is also boring. There are a few singletrack sections on the hill at Belle Isle, but the course is now only about 10% trail. The rest is the footbridge (concrete) and gravel road (booo). Here is the track of the new Run #1 course

Bike

The bike course will leave transition and go across the Lee Bridge on the vehicle portion (which will be coned off from the cars) of the road. The course goes parallel to Riverside drive and then goes down the stairs at 22nd street. The course goes west along a gravel road until the 42nd Street stairs. Go up the stairs and stay to the right. This trail will do a cloverleaf and head back toward the east. Stay on the Buttermilk trail and take a right turn into Forest Hill Park just after crossing the Reedy Creek parking lot. You will make a right turn across the concrete bridge and around a parking lot before heading down the lake. Once at the lake, take the trail back to the pipes under Riverside Drive. Head east on the Buttermilk trail until the Lee Bridge. Take the Lee Bridge back to transition.

The original course for the biking course used Belle Isle. While running on Belle Isle is pretty boring, biking on Belle Isle is slightly less boring. The gravel road parts go by faster and the challenge of the climbs and the singletrack section are a lot more fun. The new course completely bypasses Belle Isle and compensates by adding in some of the trails in Forest Hill Park. Adding these trails instead of Belle Isle definitely makes the biking section a lot more challenging. I’m not 100% sure about how the course will work going in to Forest Hill, but I plan on checking it out this coming weekend.

After riding the Buttermilk this past weekend I’ve realized that parts of it are a lot more technical than I remember. I’ll definitely need to spend some time down there to figure out which technical sections I can complete in the saddle and which ones I will have to bail on and walk. There are a few that I might master before the race but I’m definitely not too proud to hoof the rest.

Here is the track of the new Bike course

Also, here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube of Forest Hill and the Buttermik. The Forest Hill video also includes some footage of the Buttermilk trail.

(YouTube blocked the audio from the first one due to copyright issues. Just play some music while you watch it.)

(The music on this one is kind of cutesy. You might want to mute it and listen to some Rage Against the Machine instead.)

Run #2

The 3k run leaves transition and goes to Belle Isle via the foot bridge. After a short loop on Belle Isle the runners will cross back on the footbridge and return to transition.

There is nothing cool about the second Run secition of the race. It just burns off some mileage. I’m still baffled by the fact that they cut out the Northbank section. It would have been so much fun.

Here is the track of the new Run #2 course.

Hopefully next year the courses will be back to normal. I’m a little nervous about the biking section of the race, but I’m sure that I’ll feel better once I spend some more time on the trails. But I’m not too proud to walk sections and I’m not afraid of being last. I just want to get my first multisport race under my belt.

I also want to get my grubby hands on the slick backpack they give to the participants:

Changing it up

Around this time last year I ran the Shamrock half marathon.  It was my first half marathon and I finished with an average pace that, while not fast by any stretch of the imagination, was a lot faster than I had anticipated.  At the time I felt that the obvious next step for me would have been to complete a full marathon.  It’s now a year later I’ve finally come to grips with the fact that I really have no desire to run a full marathon.

Since that first race I’ve run a few more half marathons, a 15k, some 10k’s and a bunch of shorter races.  Training for these races has become my hobby.  Running is relaxing.  It’s a nice break from my daily stresses and a great time to think about stuff without distractions.  And afterwards I’m left feeling a lot better about life than I did before the run.

But it’s also tedious.  Hanging out drinking beer on Friday night isn’t as fun when you have a 10 mile run the next day.  I might as well write off any chance of hanging out by the fire pit with my buddies until the wee hours of the morning.  Having these long runs hanging over my head every weekend gets old quick.  The thought of multiplying the tedium to get ready for a full marathon gives me a knot in my stomach.  Which brings me to my point.  A full marathon, while still not out of the question, is definitely not my next step.  My next step is multisports.

Don’t get me wrong.  The commitment required for multisports training isn’t any less than for full marathons.  In fact, it’s probably more of a commitment.  But at least it doesn’t consist of running, rest, running, rest and more running.  I can feel better about going to bed early if I know that I’m doing it for a reason other than just being ready to run really far the next day.

My legs and cardio are ready for my 2nd running of the Shamrock half marathon.  My only goals for the race are to beat my time from the year before and to avoid injury.

The thing that excites me most about the race is that once it’s over I will start training for some multisport races.  I’m going to ride the local trails with a purpose, start looking at upgrading my road bike, and spend some time figuring out the whole swimming thing.  I’ll still enjoy running but I’m happy that it won’t be the main focus.