To say that I'm nervous and excited is a bit of an understatement.
I arrived in Kona on wednesday afternoon. The dense air, the heat, the wind; everything that I was expecting was a reality.
Thursday was a little swim in Kailua Bay, the site of the big race. Clear water, coral, parrot fish, and cruise ships were a little different from my last Ironman in Tempe Town lake. The oxygen difference between Denver and here is extremely noticeable while swimming; this should make for a pretty quick swim.
Today was a little ride on the Queen K and a little transition run to follow. the Queen K is the major highway that runs up the coast of Kona, therefore it's an amazingly busy road. the shoulder is nice and big, filled with plenty of glass and debris to avoid. The Queen K is nice and rolling throughout the ride, the wind picks up as you head further north. The forecast is causing for 8-10mph here in town, with winds at 18-22mph at Hawi; the bike turnaround. The gusts of 28mph will be coming head on as I climb the hill up to Hawi; it should be interesting.
Just a few hours ago I headed down to the race site to drop off my bike. Bike checkin along with registration was extrememly smooth and organized. On the way to bike checkin I ran into Scott Montgomery, the head of Scott USA (I ride a Scott Plasma). We chatted a little bit, as I met him before while working at Bicycle Haus, and turned around to see who Luisa was chatting to and it was Gérard Vroomen, the founder of Cervelo. Here were two of the heads of the most dominate triathlon bike manufactures chatting with us about their bikes. They then went on to argue, in a fun manner, about who's bike was faster and how both Luisa and I should switch to the other brand because their bike is faster; it was pretty cool.
A little hawaiian lady guided me to the spot for my bike and answered all of my questions about the traffic flow within the transition area. I racked my bike, cleaned off my tyres, racked my bike and run gear bags, and headed back to the condo. The process was very painless and got me very excited for the day tomorrow.
It's really hard not to be nervous about the race, but the excitement surpasses the nervousness. Tomorrow will be a great day, follow my experience here.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Swimming fast in BlueSeventy's PointZero3 Speedsuit - Review
A few years ago Blue Seventy, a company known for its swimming wetsuits, set out to design the fastest, FINA legal swim suit in the world. In order to be FINA legal, FINA is the governing body for international swimming (world championships, Olympics, etc...) the suit cannot provide buoyancy to the swimmer. Therefore the suit they designed is neutrally buoyant and extremely hydrodynamic: The PointZero3, a swim suit, or speed suit, with a coefficient of drag equal to .032 (50 times lower than the drag of your skin).
I'm not a paid athlete of Blue Seventy, I'm not sponsored by them, and I actually paid full retail for this suit. It's one of the more popular speed suits on the market and also one of the most affordable at $225. Additionally, it's legal to wear at triathlons which don't allow wetsuits (if the water temp is able 78 degrees, wetsuits are not legal); Ironman Hawaii in Kona is one of those such races.
I've been a competitive swimmer since I was 7. In high school I posted a 50 free of 21.8, a 100 free at 48.7 and a 200 free of 1:48, so I'm not the fastest guy in the water, but I'm pretty quick and have millions of yards of swimming under my belt. Also, my fastest Ironman swim time is 51:58 which puts me up there with the faster swimmers in triathlon.
I tried the suit on at home prior to heading to the pool and the fit seemed a little snug in the chest, I have a larger than average chest for a guy of my height and weight (5'8" - 160lbs), so I figured it would feel similar to the constriction that a tight fitting wetsuit provides. I wasn't excited about this fit, but figure that I'd get used to it after a few hundred yards and wouldn't even realize it, hopefully.
Immediately upon diving in the pool, the suit expanded and felt extremely comfortable. On each wall the suit would let in a little bit of water through the neck and arms upon push off, but this wouldn't be a problem in open water. If I were using this suit for shorter, swimming events (500yds or less), I'd size down, but for open water and triathlon, the sizing is perfect (Men's Medium - I'm 5'8" and 160lbs...remember).
After a 50 I decided to count strokes, 12. I kept counting for about a 200 and each lap was at 12, usually I'm in the range of 13-14 strokes each lap. So yeah, the suit is faster and more efficient just based on stroke count, which for a swimmer like me is a pretty dependable measurement (over a 3000 yard workout that single stroke decrease per lap translates to 120 fewer strokes or a 250 yard increase in efficiency). The question still remains, HOW much faster is the suit? Blue Seventy claims 3-5% faster.
The workout was a good test for gauging pace times as it involved 100s and 50s with quite a bit of rest after each interval (about 30 seconds). Overall my times were not only faster, but I felt less fatigued at the end of the workout. At the beginning of last week, before I packed on the swim yardage, I was swimming fast 100s at 1:03-1:04, today I swam my fast 100s at 1:00-1:02 or about 5% faster. So it's not very scientific, but it's for sure faster and since more than half of the athletes at Ironman will be wearing one, I will be too. After the 1hr+ workout, the suit was still extremely comfortable with only a slight increase in body temp and a small section of chaffing on the right side of my neck (I'm a dominantly right side breather). A little cooking spray will solve the chaffing problem and the water temp in Hawaii is usually at 79 degrees (a degree or two cooler that the DU pool)
The PointZero3 speed suit allows me to wear my 2XU tri suit under neath, therefore once I get out of the water all I have to do is take off the PointZero3 speedsuit and I'm already in my gear for the bike and the run. It's extremely difficult to put on a spandex tri suit when you are wet, so being able to wear the suit under my speed suit will save another minute or so over the savings that I will get in the water.
In recap, the Blue Seventy PointZero3 is a well designed and extremely fast product for warmer water races. I will even be wearing this suit in future races where the water temps are wetsuit legal, but on the warmer side of being legal (78 degrees of below is the legal water temp). Wearing a wetsuit is fast, but there are trade offs as they can cause you to overheat at borderline legal water temps; the speed suit will be great for races where the water is 74+ degrees. The stated increase in speed of 3-5% seems valid in my experience, and the increase in efficiency will be huge for Ironman. I now understand why so many swimming world records have fallen in recent months. In a sport that is measured in hundredths of seconds, a 3-5% decrease in times is ridiculous; the Speedo Lazr suit (worn by many swimmers in Beijing) is a product identical in purpose to the PointZero3.
If you are considering a speed suit to add you your triathlon swimming arsenal, the Blue Seventy PointZero3 is a great suit and the pricing is better than any other speed suit out there. For those looking for a race suit for pool competitions, the Blue Seventy Nero is specifically designed to meet the needs of the pool swimmer and was used in the Olympics by many of the non-Speedo sponsored athletes...all 4 of them...
I love tapering.
F
I'm not a paid athlete of Blue Seventy, I'm not sponsored by them, and I actually paid full retail for this suit. It's one of the more popular speed suits on the market and also one of the most affordable at $225. Additionally, it's legal to wear at triathlons which don't allow wetsuits (if the water temp is able 78 degrees, wetsuits are not legal); Ironman Hawaii in Kona is one of those such races.
I've been a competitive swimmer since I was 7. In high school I posted a 50 free of 21.8, a 100 free at 48.7 and a 200 free of 1:48, so I'm not the fastest guy in the water, but I'm pretty quick and have millions of yards of swimming under my belt. Also, my fastest Ironman swim time is 51:58 which puts me up there with the faster swimmers in triathlon.
I tried the suit on at home prior to heading to the pool and the fit seemed a little snug in the chest, I have a larger than average chest for a guy of my height and weight (5'8" - 160lbs), so I figured it would feel similar to the constriction that a tight fitting wetsuit provides. I wasn't excited about this fit, but figure that I'd get used to it after a few hundred yards and wouldn't even realize it, hopefully.
Immediately upon diving in the pool, the suit expanded and felt extremely comfortable. On each wall the suit would let in a little bit of water through the neck and arms upon push off, but this wouldn't be a problem in open water. If I were using this suit for shorter, swimming events (500yds or less), I'd size down, but for open water and triathlon, the sizing is perfect (Men's Medium - I'm 5'8" and 160lbs...remember).
After a 50 I decided to count strokes, 12. I kept counting for about a 200 and each lap was at 12, usually I'm in the range of 13-14 strokes each lap. So yeah, the suit is faster and more efficient just based on stroke count, which for a swimmer like me is a pretty dependable measurement (over a 3000 yard workout that single stroke decrease per lap translates to 120 fewer strokes or a 250 yard increase in efficiency). The question still remains, HOW much faster is the suit? Blue Seventy claims 3-5% faster.
The workout was a good test for gauging pace times as it involved 100s and 50s with quite a bit of rest after each interval (about 30 seconds). Overall my times were not only faster, but I felt less fatigued at the end of the workout. At the beginning of last week, before I packed on the swim yardage, I was swimming fast 100s at 1:03-1:04, today I swam my fast 100s at 1:00-1:02 or about 5% faster. So it's not very scientific, but it's for sure faster and since more than half of the athletes at Ironman will be wearing one, I will be too. After the 1hr+ workout, the suit was still extremely comfortable with only a slight increase in body temp and a small section of chaffing on the right side of my neck (I'm a dominantly right side breather). A little cooking spray will solve the chaffing problem and the water temp in Hawaii is usually at 79 degrees (a degree or two cooler that the DU pool)
The PointZero3 speed suit allows me to wear my 2XU tri suit under neath, therefore once I get out of the water all I have to do is take off the PointZero3 speedsuit and I'm already in my gear for the bike and the run. It's extremely difficult to put on a spandex tri suit when you are wet, so being able to wear the suit under my speed suit will save another minute or so over the savings that I will get in the water.
In recap, the Blue Seventy PointZero3 is a well designed and extremely fast product for warmer water races. I will even be wearing this suit in future races where the water temps are wetsuit legal, but on the warmer side of being legal (78 degrees of below is the legal water temp). Wearing a wetsuit is fast, but there are trade offs as they can cause you to overheat at borderline legal water temps; the speed suit will be great for races where the water is 74+ degrees. The stated increase in speed of 3-5% seems valid in my experience, and the increase in efficiency will be huge for Ironman. I now understand why so many swimming world records have fallen in recent months. In a sport that is measured in hundredths of seconds, a 3-5% decrease in times is ridiculous; the Speedo Lazr suit (worn by many swimmers in Beijing) is a product identical in purpose to the PointZero3.
If you are considering a speed suit to add you your triathlon swimming arsenal, the Blue Seventy PointZero3 is a great suit and the pricing is better than any other speed suit out there. For those looking for a race suit for pool competitions, the Blue Seventy Nero is specifically designed to meet the needs of the pool swimmer and was used in the Olympics by many of the non-Speedo sponsored athletes...all 4 of them...
I love tapering.
F
Thursday, September 18, 2008
23 days away
3 months to Kona is no longer 3 months, but just 23 days. Yesterday I destroyed my last big training ride, 114 miles in 5hrs 55min or 19.3mph which on tired legs with slowing and stopping means that I'm pretty fast. From now until Ironman my long rides turn into more of medium length rides at about 80 miles, then shorten linearly as the race approaches. I know, 80 miles is still a really long way to ride your bike, but you have to see it in my eyes. For the past few months whenever I was on a long ride and hit the 2 hour mark, I still had to ride another hour before I even got to start going back home. Now, at 2 hours (or less) I get to start heading back, and that's kind of a big deal. Another way to look at it is my long ride this Sunday (4.5hrs) will take 25% less time to complete than my ride yesterday (that's like getting off work 2 hours early) Just like a long day at work, the last 25% of the ride is the part that hurts the most; your legs are tired, the fatigue settles in, your motivation drops and you just get bored out there.
So the remainder of the training isn't easy just because my long rides are over. I'm still logging more time working out in a week than most active people workout in a month. The difference is that my run and bike workouts are shorter and involve less intensity; they'll damage my already damaged body to a much smaller extent which allows me to actually recover a bit (you remember, two negatives make a positive...-1-1=2....the round peg goes in the square hole...still don't get it...Fannie Mae + Lehman Brothers + Freddie Mac = bankrupt ....). So my body is used to being pummeled with a high level of physical stress and now that physical stress is no longer as intense so I recover a become a stronger, faster, better human athlete: Francis 2.0
The excitement is certainly building for Kona. I'm swimming as good as I was back in 2000, my bike is steady and slightly improved from the Arizona edition of Ironman, and my legs still work while running. Beyond the good fitness, a bunch of my family and friends are sacrificing their time and money to make the trip to Hawaii to support me (not much of a sacrifice if you ask me). What more could you ask for? Your beautiful and insanely intelligent girlfriend to join you? Yeah, I got that too. Luisa is hitting top form for the race as well and should give the women's 25-29 age group a run for their awards.
Tonight I have a little swim, tomorrow is a run and swim, then Saturday is a day off as my mom is coming to town to visit. This is the home stretch, I love the home stretch.
So the remainder of the training isn't easy just because my long rides are over. I'm still logging more time working out in a week than most active people workout in a month. The difference is that my run and bike workouts are shorter and involve less intensity; they'll damage my already damaged body to a much smaller extent which allows me to actually recover a bit (you remember, two negatives make a positive...-1-1=2....the round peg goes in the square hole...still don't get it...Fannie Mae + Lehman Brothers + Freddie Mac = bankrupt ....). So my body is used to being pummeled with a high level of physical stress and now that physical stress is no longer as intense so I recover a become a stronger, faster, better human athlete: Francis 2.0
The excitement is certainly building for Kona. I'm swimming as good as I was back in 2000, my bike is steady and slightly improved from the Arizona edition of Ironman, and my legs still work while running. Beyond the good fitness, a bunch of my family and friends are sacrificing their time and money to make the trip to Hawaii to support me (not much of a sacrifice if you ask me). What more could you ask for? Your beautiful and insanely intelligent girlfriend to join you? Yeah, I got that too. Luisa is hitting top form for the race as well and should give the women's 25-29 age group a run for their awards.
Tonight I have a little swim, tomorrow is a run and swim, then Saturday is a day off as my mom is coming to town to visit. This is the home stretch, I love the home stretch.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The F#cking Water
On Saturday Luisa and I ventured out from our friends' place in Superior, CO (NW of downtown and SE from Boulder). It's a great place to start a ride as it's easy access to the Boulder roads which are some of the greatest rolling roads apart from Wisconsin. On our 5hr 45 min route we might have slowed down for about 6-8 stop signs and had to stop at lights 2-3 times, which puts the rides in Phoenix to absolute shame.
As I'm sure you can recall from my last post I was quite frustrated with this stomach issue that I was having while riding and the only thing I could think of was the tap water in Boulder county. Well, at our gas station stop around the 3 hour mark I picked up a "gallon" of Ice Mountain spring water instead of hitting the tap (i say "gallon" because it looks like a gallon, feels like a gallon, but it's only 3.5L or something absurd like that...does that extra little bit of water really make it that much more costly to produce? It's fucking water! but I digress). I was a little nervous about the bottled water because if it didn't work, I would have to scramble around to figure out a new nutrition solution for the biggest race of my life, which is now just 24 days away.
The 4 hour mark came and went, the stomach was holding up as I continued to fuel ever 20min of so. 5 hours and I'm still pushing the pace. 5hrs 45min and we're done, and no stomach issue for the first time since Mt Evans.
The ride was somewhat bittersweet since it did turn out to be just the water. Here I was thinking it was the altitude, my fueling, my hydration; ride after ride would finish horribly and after all of those shitty miles it turned out to be the fucking water. The water...the fucking water! Hundreds of training miles, countless hours in the saddle, diminished by crappy water...are you serious!? Wow, that really pisses me off...
Tomorrow is my last long training ride prior to Ironman Hawaii. One more solitary six, one more period of pain, one last devil day, and one final chance to gain a tick of extra fitness prior to my taper hitting its top gear.
As I'm sure you can recall from my last post I was quite frustrated with this stomach issue that I was having while riding and the only thing I could think of was the tap water in Boulder county. Well, at our gas station stop around the 3 hour mark I picked up a "gallon" of Ice Mountain spring water instead of hitting the tap (i say "gallon" because it looks like a gallon, feels like a gallon, but it's only 3.5L or something absurd like that...does that extra little bit of water really make it that much more costly to produce? It's fucking water! but I digress). I was a little nervous about the bottled water because if it didn't work, I would have to scramble around to figure out a new nutrition solution for the biggest race of my life, which is now just 24 days away.
The 4 hour mark came and went, the stomach was holding up as I continued to fuel ever 20min of so. 5 hours and I'm still pushing the pace. 5hrs 45min and we're done, and no stomach issue for the first time since Mt Evans.
The ride was somewhat bittersweet since it did turn out to be just the water. Here I was thinking it was the altitude, my fueling, my hydration; ride after ride would finish horribly and after all of those shitty miles it turned out to be the fucking water. The water...the fucking water! Hundreds of training miles, countless hours in the saddle, diminished by crappy water...are you serious!? Wow, that really pisses me off...
Tomorrow is my last long training ride prior to Ironman Hawaii. One more solitary six, one more period of pain, one last devil day, and one final chance to gain a tick of extra fitness prior to my taper hitting its top gear.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Something's in the water...
Today's 6 hour ride was the worst long ride that I've had during my Kona training. I dedicate so much time and effort to my training and to be struggling with nutrition at this point is ridiculous. I've tried tweaking everything and nothing seems to be working. On every long ride, with the exception of two rides (echo lake and Mt. Evans), I've had stomach problems about three to four hours into the ride. At first I just figured it was adapting to the altitude, then I figured it was dehydration, and now I have no clue. I'm doing nothing different from my Ironman training for Ironman Arizona; my breakfast is the same, my nutrition supplements are the same, my equipment is identical, my clothes are the same, my bike position is identical...nothing is different. Sure the routes are a little more challenging out here, but my legs are fine. Right now my legs are hardly sore, but my stomach is still going crazy. The last variable that I can think of is the water of Boulder County. An hour or so after refilling my bottles at a gas station or water fountain is typically when my stomach starts to go bad. Could it really be the water? For my sanity and my Ironman, I hope it is...
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Peak Training weeks
To start off I'd like to congratulate all my friends who competed at Ironman Wisconsin today:
Kristin (#103), Becca(#1899), Riley(#87), Blake(#10), Paul(#335), Mike(#211), and Christina (#230)-I'm sorry if I'm leaving anyone out...I swear I didn't know...so please comment below to inform me of how it went.
With 5 weeks to go until my Ironman, I'm preparing myself for a week and a half of ass-kicking training. This peak period is very important to any endurance athlete. It's the time of the year to see what your body can handle and to get in those last few key workouts before the taper hits. The peak is the culmination of your fitness. To this point the training has been hard, it has gone well on occasion and bad on others, but the peak is when everything should go right. It's the time to put into use all of the lessons that you have learned throughout the season of training because if you don't nail it during peak training, you won't nail it during Ironman.
My peak starts off in top gear: a 1.5hr run and 4500m swimming tomorrow, then right into a 6hr ride and a 3000 swim on Tuesday. Wednesday I use to recover and prepare for the rest of the week by spinning easy on the bike. Thursday I hit my longest training run at 2hrs and another 4500 in the pool. Friday is another recovery day (swimming) before another 6hr ride with a 30min transition run on Saturday...it's a big week and by the end of it I will have logged about 24 hours worth of training.
For the first time in about a month I'm really excited for training; this past week of recovery was needed so very badly. The end of Ironman training is in sight...Hawaii is almost here.
Kristin (#103), Becca(#1899), Riley(#87), Blake(#10), Paul(#335), Mike(#211), and Christina (#230)-I'm sorry if I'm leaving anyone out...I swear I didn't know...so please comment below to inform me of how it went.
With 5 weeks to go until my Ironman, I'm preparing myself for a week and a half of ass-kicking training. This peak period is very important to any endurance athlete. It's the time of the year to see what your body can handle and to get in those last few key workouts before the taper hits. The peak is the culmination of your fitness. To this point the training has been hard, it has gone well on occasion and bad on others, but the peak is when everything should go right. It's the time to put into use all of the lessons that you have learned throughout the season of training because if you don't nail it during peak training, you won't nail it during Ironman.
My peak starts off in top gear: a 1.5hr run and 4500m swimming tomorrow, then right into a 6hr ride and a 3000 swim on Tuesday. Wednesday I use to recover and prepare for the rest of the week by spinning easy on the bike. Thursday I hit my longest training run at 2hrs and another 4500 in the pool. Friday is another recovery day (swimming) before another 6hr ride with a 30min transition run on Saturday...it's a big week and by the end of it I will have logged about 24 hours worth of training.
For the first time in about a month I'm really excited for training; this past week of recovery was needed so very badly. The end of Ironman training is in sight...Hawaii is almost here.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The best shape of my life...maybe...
At this point in my training I've accomplished a lot, a lot of miles on the bike, enough yardage in the pool, and as many run miles as I can handle before getting injured (not a lot). Regardless of the numbers, I'm feeling fit physically and ready to race mentally, but am I really ready?
I know that I'm getting fit, and going crazy; this revelation came over the weekend when I knocked out a rough 95 mile ride that ended with dizziness, stars, and dehydration. I woke up the next morning feeling lazy; a product of skipping my transition run because I didn't want to risk passing out with the homeless people along side Cherry Creek. Also, as the big mileage piles in, I start to forget about the big workouts that I complete just days after their finished. It will be a Monday and I'll start wondering when my next big ride is because the last one seemed so long ago...like on Saturday.
In the past few months I've had a lot of great rides and a lot of rides that didn't go so well. This past weekend I established a new hypothesis for my shitty rides; there's always a reason, figuring it out is the hard part. Dehydration is my suspected culprit. Colorado is insanely dry, I'd actually go out on a limb and say that the typical humidity, when there's not a storm front coming through, is lower than Phoenix. So the dry air dehydrates you from the inside as your breathing rate increases, then you add some consistent sunshine, high altitude, and only drinking a bottle an hour and you are left with a dehydrated Francis. For some dumb reason I have only been averaging a bottle of water an hour on my long rides when I should be hitting 1.5 to 2 bottles an hour. Okay, so I think I have that resolved and will be able to test it out on the 3-six hour rides that I have left in my training. That's right, just three more really big rides, a few 4.5 "shorter" rides and then Ironman. That's exciting news, very exciting.
Since I'm in a recovery week, there won't be too much to write about, but the next two weeks are going to be big, really big. This week involves getting mentally prepared for the weeks to come; then it's taper time and I love taper time.
Go workout.
I know that I'm getting fit, and going crazy; this revelation came over the weekend when I knocked out a rough 95 mile ride that ended with dizziness, stars, and dehydration. I woke up the next morning feeling lazy; a product of skipping my transition run because I didn't want to risk passing out with the homeless people along side Cherry Creek. Also, as the big mileage piles in, I start to forget about the big workouts that I complete just days after their finished. It will be a Monday and I'll start wondering when my next big ride is because the last one seemed so long ago...like on Saturday.
In the past few months I've had a lot of great rides and a lot of rides that didn't go so well. This past weekend I established a new hypothesis for my shitty rides; there's always a reason, figuring it out is the hard part. Dehydration is my suspected culprit. Colorado is insanely dry, I'd actually go out on a limb and say that the typical humidity, when there's not a storm front coming through, is lower than Phoenix. So the dry air dehydrates you from the inside as your breathing rate increases, then you add some consistent sunshine, high altitude, and only drinking a bottle an hour and you are left with a dehydrated Francis. For some dumb reason I have only been averaging a bottle of water an hour on my long rides when I should be hitting 1.5 to 2 bottles an hour. Okay, so I think I have that resolved and will be able to test it out on the 3-six hour rides that I have left in my training. That's right, just three more really big rides, a few 4.5 "shorter" rides and then Ironman. That's exciting news, very exciting.
Since I'm in a recovery week, there won't be too much to write about, but the next two weeks are going to be big, really big. This week involves getting mentally prepared for the weeks to come; then it's taper time and I love taper time.
Go workout.
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