Iron Serenity....

I am officially changing the name of my blog to Iron Serenity.  In honor of The Clash and Ironman...

Simple as that....  In the middle of this song, Alan Ginsberg says the words "Iron Serenity" and that is what I think about when I do Triathlon....

DT

El Tour to Tucson - 2013

I have been remiss in getting this event up on my blog.  Lifetime Fitness in Tempe does a 'Tour TO Tucson' every year in April and what an event it is!  Since moving back to AZ I have told Becky it would be great to ride to Tucson from our house but, of course, I didn't know the route I should take and it is about 118 miles of desert so you better be prepared!  Tucson has a lot of significance given my wife grew up there and it has some awesome Mexican food.  It is also fun to visit and close.  All reasons to make the trip and add a little fitness.

Then I heard about this event...  For $50.00, you ride with a group from the Lifetime Fitness in Tempe to the Westin La Paloma Resort in North Tucson.  Fully supported with SAG crews basically riding out in front of you and setting up tents, massage tables (YES!), food, drinks, music, etc. every 20 miles.  Incredible value and so much fun!  Then, you have the option of coming back home that day (they will provide transport) or staying the weekend at the Westin (which is an awesome resort) at a discounted rate.  I signed up in a flash!  Becky decided to meet me down there and we would stay over after the ride.  It ended up to be an absolutely wonderful event!  Really a highlight of my year.

 This was us getting started at the beginning of the ride.  One of the SAG wagons getting setup in the parking lot of the Lifetime in Tempe.

This was one of the race coordinators going over instructions and how were were going to operate.  Octane even had freebies to distribute during the ride.  Others did too, including TriSports and Clif products.

Our first stop at the Bashas in Sun Lakes....

This is me at the beginning of the ride.  It ended up getting much hotter over the course of the day so the arm warmers came off!

 Did I tell you they had a massage girl at every SAG stop!  Pure luxury.  I am thinking they need to have this setup for IMAZ!

 This is me at the end.  118 miles at 6:01:00 later!

 These are all of the Westin La Paloma resort.  We had a great time!

DT

Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness - REVIEW

I just finished my latest book off the bookshelf, "Eat & Run" by famed ultramarathoner, Scott Jurek.  Overall, the book was good and fairly entertaining.  Not like some of the others I have read like "The Secret Race" or even Chrissie's book.  Scotts was more simple.  More down to earth.  Not a lot of scandal or intrigue.  Some good stories about races - nobody can deny this guy is one of the greatest endurance athletes in the world today.  His story is remarkable in a plain way - which made it interesting.  His upbringing in Northern Minnesota resonated with me, in the sense that I made Minnesota my home for more than five years.

The root of Scott's story, though, revolves around his diet - he is a vegan - which is unique in the endurance athlete world.  Throughout the chapters he builds up, not only in his ability to race and win incredible long distance contests, but at the same time he builds up his advocacy for eating vegan.  He sprinkles in some interesting vegan recipies at the end of each chapter.  He has some soul searching throughout the book - trying to recapture what made him desire to run.  All of it was interesting and entertaining and made for a good read.

DT

AZ Open Water Swimming Series - Canyon Lake 4000 Meters

In my quest to psychologically prove I can do the Ironman distance sports in each of their distances, I decided to sign up for the Canyon Lake AZ Open Water Swimming Series Race - a small group of people that get together in AZ to swim various distances in open water.  This particular race had a 1000 meter, 2000 meter and 4000 meter distances.  When I saw that I could do what amounts to a Ironman distance open water swim, in wetsuit, with buoys, medical support, etc. for $30 in my backyard, I jumped at the chance!

Jason Porter, his son Ren and Joel Betz and his son Bridger came along for the 4000.  Ren and Bridger are high school swimmers for Williams Field and promised to beat us old timers.  They were pretty low key, though, so we werent sure their hearts were really in it.

I think there were 88 swimmers for the 4000.  Some 60 to 80 for the 1000 and 2000 respectively.  Sign up was easy.  Accomodations were sparse but it was neat to see the cross section of athletes getting out.  Older folks, triathletes, younger swimmers.  Really neat.

The course was a big 1000 meter triangle.  4 laps for those of us doing the 4000.

I had some idea of my time - I had swam 3500 meters in a pool on Wednesday so I thought I would be somewhere in the 1.5 hour range.  I came out of the water at 1:34:17 and 19/23 in my Open Mens group.  The two high school boys got out at 3 laps....  Joel came in 17th at 1:14 and Jason at 1:45.  A lot of fun and good practice.

DT

Las Vegas - St. George - Frisco

I have really been traveling a lot lately for work.  I don't mind it, occasionally, but I have to get creative with my training and eating.  This last weekend I flew into Sin City on my may to San Franciso.  My good friend, Amy Benjamin, from high school, was in St. George visiting her aging parents.  Both are having some health problems and Amy was there helping out.  She lives near Ft. Collins, CO normally

so when she asked if I could come up and spend some time with her and her sweet parents, I jumped at the idea.  I flew into Las Vegas and rented a car and drove out to St. George.  What a wonderful place!  I handn't been to St. George since I was about 8 years old so I didn't remember much.  Visiting Amy and her parents was wonderful.  We were able to visit the St. George temple and drive up to see the IM 70.3 route in Snow Canyon, etc.  It got me very excited to do the race next year!  Now I have to figure out how to fit it into the the other 3-4 events I want to do Spring 2014!  This is a great shot of Amy and her mom at the St. George Temple.  Charles was out in the car being patient as we walked around a bit.






Amy made me some great chicken burgers at their place for lunch on Sunday......

Amy Benjamin and me....

When I got to San Francisco on Monday, I immediately went on a casual run around downtown and the Embarcadero and then past the AT&T ballpark.  What a great run!

DT

Run for Boston

Like so many others in the endurance and running community, we were shocked and outraged at the horrible and cowardly attacks at the Boston Marathon.  I had three friends running in the marathon - all had finished 10-15 min before the blasts occurred - none were injured, thank goodness.  Unfortunately, all came back with a very different perspective and experience than they had imagined.  The excitement of finishing this great event was overshadowed by a whirlwind of feelings and some depression.  

Mary Knott and Dan Beaver, owners of Cadence Running in Gilbert were two of those people.  They finished the race together only to hear bomb blasts minutes later from their hotel room.  Mary and Dan are two of my favorite athelete friends - they care and they give great advice to age groupers like me.  They organized this Run for Boston in conjunction with many other Phoenix area locations - ours happened to be televised by Channel 12 News including their helicopter!

We all wore Boston Marathon gear or at least some sort of a race t-shirt - I chose the Pat's Run 2013 shirt given Pat Tillman is a Sun Devil and died fighting this type of terrorism.  I sure appreciate the sacrifice our men in uniform give to allow people like me to spend their time swimming, biking, running or doing whatever.  I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

In honor of the three fatalities, we ran 3 miles - there I am in the middle having a great time meeting new friends and thinking about the events of Boston. What a great reason to run!  Let's hope we never have to do something like this again!

DT

Ironman 70.3 Oceanside 2013 - Race Results

Spoiler alert - this is one incredible race.  My favorite of all time - so far.  Last year I was late registering so didn't get in.  I signed up early this year and boy was I glad.  Great location, great support, great course.  You really couldn't ask for more.



I left on Wednesday prior to the race.  The race is a Saturday race, which I LOVE, but I needed to visit a client in San Diego so I tacked on time to get there early.  The trip from Phoenix to Oceanside is really easy - 6.5 hours door to door if you don't have any traffic.  It is all desert, though.  It brought back memories of growing up and driving to the coast to get out of the heat.  I really love the drive.  It also gave me some time to think about things - my recent heart test, etc. sort of hung over my head.  I needed to make peace with things and I did during the drive.



I stayed at the Residence Inn Oceanside.  Very nice place to stay about 15 minutes from the race starting line on "the strand."

This is a quick snapshot of the room and the proverbial 'setup before the race.'  This was my 6th half Ironman and 11th triathlon.  It is still exciting but it has become a familiar excitement - I found myself very calm before this race.  I was a little concerned about what to wear for the swim as it would be salt water and colder than usual.  The weather kept changing for race day but it looked like it would be a perfect day as we got closer.  I got a great nights sleep the night before race day, which is always my goal.  I was ready!

RACE DAY

Got up early and ate 400 calories of warm OatFit oatmeal.  It was what I used for the Phx Marathon about a month ago and it really worked.  I decided to try it again for this race.  I loaded everything into my car and was on my way.  This is a two transition race - point to point - the kind I like.  You bring your bike the morning of the race which is also something I like.  You arrive and part at T2 which is near the finish line, drop your T2 stuff off and then ride your bike to the swim and T1.  This was wonderful as it got your blood moving and warmed you up a bit for the swim.   

Did I mention there were 2700 participants!  This is the largest 70.3 in the States and despite being on the coast, and everyone being a bit casual (California style), it all went off without a hitch.  Well organized parking, transitions, etc.  I was impressed.

SWIM

There were 25 waves of participants.  I was wave 22 so I got to start a full hour after the initial starting time.  Water temp was 58 degrees and so I opted to wear a silicone cap with the latex cap over top of it.  I was pretty calm as we worked out way up to the starting line but I was a little worried about the taste of salt water combined with the cool water temps - I hoped I was prepared for the cold water shock.    You queue up at the edge of the water and then you swim out about 150 yards to the actual starting line.  It is an in water start.  As we entered the water, I took my $50 Sable goggles and swished them in the water to get them ready and then placed them on my head.  As I did so they snapped!  The rubber cord snapped!  I sat there looking at my goggles as the rest of my group started to get into the water and swim to the starting buoys.  My heart rate accelerated.  A quick volunteer said, "I have a spare pair right over there..."  I went over to the side and grabbed them - they were horrible plastic cheap goggles and they didn't fit my head.  I scrambled to adjust them - meanwhile my group is forming around the starting line.  I finally get them to fit my head.  I jump in and start swimming to the starting line.  Trying to keep calm, I find I can't see in these goggles!  They are fogged up and cloudy and the wrong color.  As I swim to the starting line, I pull them off my head, spit in them and swish them around to hopefully make it better.  To no avail. Just then the cannon goes off.  I am at least 50 yards behind my group and I  can't see!  It's funny how the cold water and other distractions go away when something like this happens....  I swim and swim and decide to just plug away.  I could see shadows of the buoys and could vaguely tell their color (red meant turn) but it was a nightmare...  On top of all this, the swim was very crowded - unlike any other I had attended.  No way to break free from the pack - a lot of kicking and hitting.  As I finished the swim and exited the water I looked at my watch and it said 38 minutes!  My fastest swim ever by a full 4 minutes!  How could this be!  It set the stage for a great race.

BIKE

As i jumped on my bike, I wasn't sure how cold it was gong to be.  I had put some arm warmers on the front handle bars in case it got cold - I ended up not needing them at all.  As we exited the T1 about a mile in, there is a steep but short uphill that is pretty crowed.  Unfortunately a woman was not in the right gear and fell in front of several of us.  I narrowly missed her but had to evade the crash.  That meant I had to jump off my bike and walk up the small hill.  Another challenge....  About 7 miles or so into the race a squirrel ran out in front of several of us and almost caused another crash!  Other than that, this is a great bike course.  Fairly fast the first 3rd, hilly the second third (with a very big and imposing hill) and back into headwinds for the last third.  I kept a great pace and kept thinking I need to dial it back - I was going to pay for a fast bike ride, I thought.  But I felt so good and kept my fuel and salt tablets flowing.  As I got off the bike at 3:08 (very solid for me on this course), I wondered how it was going to affect me in the run.

RUN

I exited T2 and quickly had to go the bathroom, cutting some time.  Then I started running - I was at a 5:30/KM pace (my watch is still in Canada mode - it makes me feel psychologically faster!) and I felt very good.  Adding much more nutrition than normal, which really made a huge difference coming off the bike and during the run.  The course is WONDERFUL.  All along the beach and packed but full of spectators and people.  In the neighborhoods you go through people are playing music, spraying you with a hose and cheering you on.  Wonderful participation and support.  The aid stations were perfectly placed and well stocked.  Two loops on the course and a bunch of steps and a ramp - twice.  Still, I just ran and ran and ran.  I didn't stop and I felt great!  It got hot but the cool ocean breeze cooled me down perfectly.  I smoked the run!  2:01 total!  My best 1/2 time ever and I did it after the swim and the bike!

SUMMARY

5:57:49 total time.  134 out of 243 in my division and 1516 overall in the race.  Personal best and a great race!

DT