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The Distance April 29, 2008

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I was going through things this evening and realized I’ve never posted this here…one of my poems from a few years back. I always like revisiting this to remind myself of the joys I can take from running…

Formatting is a bit funky and I’m tired, so a simple link will have to suffice.

Catching up April 28, 2008

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It’s so easy to let oneself get caught up in the hurricane surrounding every day…to imprint upon your mind and thoughts that this and that need to be done now, that you’ll get back to that email or phone call sometime later, that one more week…or two won’t make a difference in the trip you’re planning on taking.

It’s easy to forget to slow down, and ensure you make the phone call, write a quick note, let a friend know you’re thinking of them - simply slowing down and enjoying things.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours catching back up with a friend. Time of nothing but talk, coffee, and realizing how much I don’t keep in touch when I should, especially with those people who mean a lot in my life, whether I’ve known them for years or found myself newly remaking their acquaintance after too much time.

It was a good day - one of the better ones I’ve had in a while.

Humans as Distance Runners April 7, 2008

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An interesting article on why humans make good distance runners .

4 weeks to Coeur d’Alene May 27, 2007

Posted by riverbrady in : General, Training , 4 comments

…and feeling pretty good about things. Had a nice half marathon run last wed, and a good ride this sunday. Looking forward to it actually being here.

Aqua Runner March 13, 2007

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My first time back in the pool in an aquajogger…in how many years? It’s always been one of those things you fear - coupled with injury, boring minutes that tick by like molasses, a needed crutch so you can get back out there on the road where your feet truly belong.

With these thoughts in mind, with trying to remember how to actually run…in water, I dutifully headed to the pool. The thunderstorms had kept me from changing my supposed run into yet another bike ride. The thought of the indoor pool closing had me charging out the door.

In retrospect, there’s a certain freedom bobbing along in the water. You become intimately reunited with just how much your buoyancy changes as you breath out…as your chin and mouth dip underwater and the urge to immediately take a breath in has to be surpassed with keeping even breathing pattern. You recall, as you push through, how it seems so hard to get yourself moving down the lane, or along the side, despite the fact that you don’t need to do anything buy run in place…and how it seems you careen into the other end of the lane, turning yourself as you run another lap.

Then there are the quirks; taking 40 minutes to run the equivalent of about half a mile, being drenched in sweat in the water…and realizing it, noticing your thighs burning far more than your quads or hamstrings, watching the lifeguards watch you with that look of, “what is he doing!” sitting on their faces…of one of simple bemusement.

In all, it is a good feeling. It’s comfortable knowing that even though I still yet can’t run, I can, and that I will be back out there among the crowds at some soon future point.

Tuesday (6pm)
Aqua Running Workout (40 min)
10 min steady warmup
6x (2min steady, 1 min sprint, 2 min easy)

Elliptical
20 minutes steady at 80-95 cadence

10 minutes stretching

Kona, Hawaii February 22, 2007

Posted by riverbrady in : General , 2 comments

Yesterday was the 1 week mark since I had to leave that wonderful place and learn to live again in Austin. For a week I was snorkling with the family, enjoying exploring the beaches and volcanoes of Hawaii, and living in the south downtown part of Kona, a mile from the bay where the Hawaii Ironman starts and a few hundred feet of Alii Drive.

It was one of those weeks I’ve needed for a long time to recharge and remember how fun this all is, despite any obstacles that come my way…something that I’d been keeping myself from these past months: dealing with a flare up on the knee, not being able to run, yadda yadda, blah blah blah.

On the training side, it has been a nice kick in the pants that I need to simply shell out some money for a few choice items. I need a seat that’s comfortable, wider in the back, and comfortable up front. I’ve been through 8-9 different seats the last 2 years with nothing being very comfortable…which has dulled my enthusiasm for the bike (which I love). I’m currently trying out the SMP Strike Plus for a week from my bike shop. Just had one 20 min test ride on the trainer, but so far it feels much better. We’ll see how it is with a couple hour ride on Saturday. It’s a bit wider than my previous Profile Design, which should accomodate my sit bones and general structure much better.

Otherwise, I’m just getting myself back into keeping up with my regular blogging (or lessen the irregular blogging) and tracking training better again. Tomorrow marks hitting the tri shop for a new compact crank and aerobars, for better spinning through hills and a better fit on my bike, respectively…effectively the last couple things I need to fix the incorrect fitting I had to my bike when I initially bought it.

Swimming Breakthrough December 11, 2006

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You know those times when you’re working on something in the pool, and your coach nudges you about a bit of technique, and despite what you do you can’t get it to feel right?

My reach has been like that for the last 10 months or so. I’ve had this tendency to dive my fingers into the water at the apex of my reach. It wasn’t much, just the last few inches or so. Still, it was enough to slow me down just slightly, start my stroke downward rather than pulling back, and probably 4-5 other little things that I’m yet aware of at this stage.

A couple swims ago I finally got it. I wasn’t slapping the water like I hear some swimmers where you hear, “clap clap clap,” as they work their way down the lane, but I wasn’t nosediving my fingers either. Jamie described it as reaching out, over a log. In essence, I’m remaining comfortable and streamlined as I’m holding my hand out of the water until the end of my reach, where I place it on the water and start to pull back…and does it feel different.

I good different, and a fast different, though. Generally my 100s range around 1:45 - 1:55 on average. The past couple days they’ve been averaging more around the 1:36 - 1:42 range, a marked difference from before for what feels like no change in effort. I am, however, noting that my arms are not used to this newfound experience…and I’m now continually playing around, trying to figure out what feels and works the best without getting to any stage where I’m extending myself too much and setting up for a shoulder injury.

Burnet Tri-HARD Challenge Race Report September 18, 2006

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Pre-Race

Burnet was an interesting race for me this year. It’s the first real effort I’ve outputted since surgery a couple months ago. When I signed up, it was primarilly to actually do *some* race this year before getting into simple, needed base work for next year. It was also a way to test myself to see where I might be after nearly six months of jacked up training throughout the diagnosis and treatment of my knee.

In the short of things, I’m very, very out of shape compared to what I’m used to. That said, I’ve a good idea of where I am and where I need to be…now it’s just covering the middle ground.

We woke up at 4am this morning to eat, pack up the car, and head up there…the assumtion being (incorrectly) that transition would open at 6 when packet pickup did. On the way up the sky ahead up us kept flashing white with lightning, but despite a 10 minute downpour we drove through the weather behaved. As Luisa noted, maybe it was a good thing we were getting lightning and rain now, as Texas weather changes so quickly and it’d be nice by the race start.

Arriving just after 6, we ended up wandering around until 6:30 when transition opened. At that point I headed over to transition, and due to being one of the people there way too early, nabbed a bike spot one bike in from the end of the row, right at bike exit. The next hour ran through various stages of drinking, surveying the course, pictures with fellow Texas Iron’ers, and finally heading down to the beach for the swim start.

My thoughts before the race were pretty scattered. I haven’t trained consistently since right after the Rookie Tri. I had about a month period where I had little actual training, and more just physical rehab stretching/strenghtening, I had the flu a couple weeks earlier, and had been dealing with allergies for the past week. Essentially I was simply happy to be here, though I had no idea if I’d be able to go through the race at a decent clip, or would be granny gearing my way through the entire bike. Going into the race I did know that I had been able to swim enough to keep my conditioning, if not improve it…so walking into the water I had one goal. Blue caps were next, 5 minutes behind us…I’d be out of the water before any of them (and that included my coach, Andrea).

 

The Race

The swim start itself was a shallow, rocky affair with most of us wading 10-20 feet before plunging in. As usual the first 200M was a chaos of turbulence, seeing as I’d managed to start in the middle due to not paying attention to the crowd. After a bit I was finally in a paceline of sorts. Shortly before the halfway mark I tried increasing my own stroke to see if the line was slowing me down, and after finding myself simply swimming alongside people, decided that I slightly easier pace, and the benefit of drafting, was much nicer, and I would remain in this position through the swim finish. The last 400M made me happy for the open water practices we’d had at the lake. There was one fellow who kept swimming beside me. I couldn’t tell if he was weaving back and forth or trying to cut into the paceline, but every minute or two he’d be trying to work himself onto my pair of feet. We hit a couple times as we were stroking, but I managed to hold him off…a victory all the sweeter after taking one of his elbows to my shoulder (and subsequently watching less where my elbows went he’d try to swim up my side).

T2 was a quick job up the mats, to the bike, and off onto the road. The only real thing of note is that it was muddy, and a bit of extra water in my bottle went to cleaning my cleats so I could clip in.

The bike was an 18 mile course with hills the first/last 2 miles and a lot of flats and false flats inbetween. Hopping on my bike, my outlook was positive: I’d just finished a swim in a reasonable time and felt completely fresh, I was spinning easily, the achiness I’d been feeling in my legs the past week wasn’t present. The first miles flew by at a moderate pace, and about mile 5 or 6 Andrea, Fred, and another TexasIron person passed me (I had been waiting, wondering how l’d be before one of my coaches came flying by). Their determination, and a few quick words from Fred, spurred me to picking up my pace and for a time keep the four of us lined up pedalling down the road.

The great part of the bike…the first 8-9 miles was a series of orange jerseys…TexasIron wherever you looked, everyone pounding away, everyone up in the front part of the race, everyone cheering each other on.

It was about mile 10 when things became interesting for me. I was pedalling along up a short roller when suddenly my right pedal simply slipped off it’s axle. Looking down, a little jarred, completely confused, quite a bit upset, was my crank with a skinny axle sticking out (see picture below), and the pedal still attached to the bottom on my shoe (see picture below). Thankfully coasting down the other side of the hill by this time, I found out I could slide the pedal back onto the axle, but I had to hold some inward pressure as the axle tip was skinnier than the base, forming a slight slope off if I simply pushed down. Simply looking at things from atop my bike, it appeared broken. Though I found out after the race that there was part of the casing that came unscrewed such a thought didn’t register as I was on the bike, so I simply continued riding. The next six miles were still a pretty decent ride. Every now and then I’d forget, let off the inward pressure, and my foot would go shooting off. It wasn’t until the hills that I started to get frustrated and mutter choice words at my pedals…not only did I have to keep the inward pressure, but I couldn’t stand up for better leverage. The times I’d try to adjust things mid hill would leave me pedalling up the rest of the hill one-legged as I tried to keep my shoe centered on a grease-covered axle well enough to exert some force. Still, each pedal stroke was one bit closer, and there wasn’t anything for me to do but keep my seat and trudge onward.

The turn into the park and dismount line were a wonderful sight after coming over that last hill. I ended up in a sliding stop at the line and noticed a couple people point at my pedal with a “what in the world” face. But, I was happy, and trotted my bike into T2…in 52:49, though I didn’t know it at the time.

18.8 seconds later I was running. There is something to say about being near the entrance/exit. Perusing through the results it turns out I had the 2nd fastest T2 time (the fastest being 15.8 seconds). Needless to say that’s the fastest T2 I’ve been through, and probably will be, for some time to come.

The run was simply painful. I didn’t know how my legs were going to do after dealing with the pedal, didn’t know how my knee was going to do after pushing it on the bike, considering it was my surgery knee that was doing the single pedalling up some of the hills. The beginning of the run was smooth, though I felt incredibly slow. I ran past Jamie and Crew, looped, and past them again, yelling about my bike pedal part in frustration, part in amusement. From the first loop I had a decent idea of how far ahead Andrea and Fred were. Heading out into the second loop I kept looking for them around each bend, not really knowing how fast or slow I was going, simply knowing when I saw them I’d be a few minutes from the turnaround. What felt like ages later I finally crossed them again. A few minutes later I was through the turnaround and heading back. Between miles 2 and 3 (guestimating) my legs started to really go on me, and getting up each hill was a chore, though it was done. At the final water stop I nabbed a mouthful of liquid, spit out most, and picked up the pace just a little as I headed downhill into the transition and finish area. I passed a group of TexasIron people at the transition swim entrance, rounded the corner, and as I could see the finish line I realized that my stomach had finally said “no more!” Those last 40 meters were by far the most difficult, slowing my shuffle down to a near walk, still going forward as my stomach tried to get me to heave and as my mind said, “just across the mat”. I ended up crossing in a walk-stumble and immediately got the few strides across the road to land in all fours on the grass. Dry-heaving on an almost empty stomach hurts, though Fred and Luisa were there within seconds with water and getting me back to my feet. After a bit of walking around and a moderate amount of liquid, in my mind the race finally ended.

 

Thoughts

Running this race was far from one of the smartest things I’ve done. I went in knowing I was out of shape, though admittedly part of the reason for the race was to guage just where I was shape-wise, and be able to plan from there. I think it would have been less of an issue if I hadn’t been sick due to flu/allergies the 2-3 weeks prior. My primary, overriding thought at the end was, “I’ll never run another race while out of shape like this again.” That said, it was overall a wonderful race, and being removed enough from collegate sports I had forgotten how nice, and how helpful it is to have teammates alongside you on the course. The entire deal with the pedal…I was happy to see that I didn’t let it stop me, and that I ran a pretty decent race despite it.

I went into the race intending to push myself, but not to really race. I came out with a swim that was a little slower than normal, but left me full of energy (thanks to it being my first race I was able to keep myself drafting for most all of it), a bike that was faster than normal, despite being hilly and having mechanical difficulties, and a run that while slower than normal, still kept a respectable pace right around 8 minutes per mile. In all, decent times that give me a good idea of where to go from here.

On a funny note, Luisa and Fred were talking after he crossed the line…from Luisa’s perspective:

Luisa: Hey, did you hear that Jeremy’s pedal came off around mile 10.
Fred: No way, really? It came off?
Luisa: Yeah, that’s what he said. I guess he was doing some one- legged pedaling for a while, I dunno. He finished the bike somehow.
Fred and Luisa: communal chuckling in disbelief.
Luisa: (thinking, he didn’t look so hot when I saw him in the run…has he even run this far yet without walking? he hasn’t with me…and after his pedal came off? dear god he must be hurting).
Luisa: I was a bit flustered when he signed up for this race.
Fred: Oh, no…really, no need for concern. He’s not pushing it at all. He looks really good out there. Really, strong on the bike, nice strides running…
Luisa: (thinking an unconvinced, really?)

We go back to watching the race. I walk away and acquire some fire ants in my sandels. Thirty seconds later Jeremy comes around the bend and nears the finish line. I take one look at him and think, nope, he feels like hell…and, I go back to de-fire anting my sandels. Jeremy crosses the finish line and does the fast-stagger off to the side of the road, bends to pray to the ground, and Fred, who is much closer than me, immediately runs over to him. Because I’m a bad girlfriend (and because I knew at the end of the day, Jeremy would be fine), I stood there momentarily watching this scene, laughing my bum off inside. Realizing I was an evil human, I ran over to Jeremy, gave Fred the “wink, wink, see?” look, and Fred ran off to get him more water.

 

Bike Pedal Pictures

The Pedal Axle
The Pedal Axle

Axle Closeup
Axle Closeup

The Pedal Attached to it's Shoe
Pedal Attached to it’s Shoe

Pedal Closeup
Pedal Closeup

Side Pedal Closeup
Side Pedal Closeup

A New Year January 1, 2006

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The first day of the new year, the first day of training.

Looking back at this year, it feels like things passed much more quickly than intended. On the whole, though, it was a good year. My first Ironman finished, a better general plan, and a happier me overall.

My first sprint triathlon was my junior year in high school at the end of a week-long running camp before our season started. It was one of those random events where our coach was going to have us run it as teams, for fun, and I decided to do the entire race myself. I got first in my age group that year…on my mountain bike and sidestroking the entire swim. Only afterwards did I find out that I was the only boy there under 18.

The following year I repeated the race. Afterwards, life turned to varsity track in college and tris seemed out the window. It wasn't until about a year and a half ago one of my dancer friends mentioned that she was getting in shape for triathlons, as the guy she dated ran them.

As I had just started my new job a month later I gifted myself with a new Cervelo Dual…my present to me for my first real salaried position.

…and now I'm here…starting training for the Pacific Crest Half IM and the Vineman IM. Right now it's just a general plan. Base work primarilly on the bike and run…swim work with Andrea Fisher once their clinics run again.

I'm very much looking forward to this year.

Dancing Dancing Dancing November 21, 2005

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It was a good weekend overall. When everything came to a close there was a total of about 34 hours of dancing, 300-400 dancers, and just barely enough sleep.

It was fun, though it’s also helped me put some perspective on
priorities of certain things of late. Namely, that I’d like a break
from dancing to pursue other aspects and activities I’ve been missing
the past bit. If I still had my students around I’d stay in the
scene…they are, after all, a large part of what’s made this so
enjoyable over the years. It’s also not a complete break from the art,
just some time off. I’ve already promised some friends still at Trinity
at I’ll come to visit a few weekends when they need someone to fill in
for the performances.

Next…it’s looking like some adventure racing, hopefully that Iron distance offroad triathlon
at some point, more stained glass work, and hopefully a little
travelling for races or to see friends, especially getting back to the
west coast more often to see the family and all.

Now to try to get back to a normal sleep schedule.