Ironman New Orleans Race Report

Mardi Gras, Not the Race Finish, but Close

Just got back from what turned out to be the Ironman 69.1 New Orleans (the 1.2 mile swim was canceled due to high winds), my first race of the year and a good chance to judge my fitness so far.

I was looking forward to being in New Orleans again, having spent a year there in my late teens on an athletic scholarship at Tulane. That was just long enough ago to be more than  a bit sobering and for me not to disclose how long ago that was...but some things never change, and the Big Easy is just the same way I left it many years ago; drive thru daquiri's, take out drinks, gorgeous latin archetecture, jazz everywhere, parties, drunks on the sidewalk, strip bars, palm trees, lazy moorish courtyards,  18th century antiques, fantastic food (although a bit hard to find healthy choices pre-race and definitely the home of fried, fatty, spicy food and simple carbs; case in point, the waiter at Luke's assuring me there is no butter or cream in the grits and bingo, the grits arrive and they are cream of heart disease on a plate, but really, really good)...New Orleans is a fantastic combination of what is best and most profane about life, and a place that everyone who can should visit. It is probably not the best race destination for those prone to austerity or over-seriousness about anything.

beignetes: not your usual pre-race meal

We stayed downtown in what was a converted masonic hall, a beautiful old and quaint building.they played old style jazz in the elevators, which particularly tickled my daughter's fancy. we never felt unsafe. people were friendly and helpful. Favorites for this trip were: Luke's restaurant, the Food court at Riverwalk, the Royal Street cafe (which had a couch for my one year old daughter to laze about on while we had lunch and eclectic music played on the original juke box on the wall), Jackson Square, Rousse's Grocery, red wine in bed , the coffee at Antoine's and that fantastic combination of rich humidity, wind, fine spicy food, and just the right amount of garbage, cigarette smoke and stale alcohol in the air. Not your usual setting for a triathlon.

Stone Masonry in the Lobby of the Hilton St. Charles

The trip started with some stress making our flight and then my bike did not make it there with us. We spent 90 minutes in the airport entertaining my daughter (not actually that hard) waiting for the baggage person just to show up. In the end, the bike did come, 36 hours, and a few millimeters of diastolic pressure increase later ( air canada should apologize to my arteries). All of this made race prep alot more lax than usual. Two runs by feel alone (i kept forgetting to wear my watch, blame it on NOLA!), and a short bike ride. I suppose you count several miles of walking in the French Quarter carrying my daughter on my shoulders  as race warm up also... but that was to much fun. I really did not feel like I was at a race, and that was good in most ways.

the most inconvenient part of the race was the fact that transition was a 20 minute drive from downtown which made dropping and picking up the bike a pain, and also complicated getting to the race site in the morning. this would not stop me from going back though. 

Race day: everyone was talking about the water and how it would make us all vomit. well, race morning was windy windy windy and cold.  i caught a ride up to the race with a really nice couple from indianapoulos (thanks randy) and we were a little let down to be greeted by various athletes telling us the swim had been canceled.

what ensued was a long wait, several pees, a few short jogs, and a headache waiting for the time trial start of the now half ironman duathlon. lots of good tunes though. sabbath. free. zeppelin. squeeze. saw lots of pros also; dibens, bozzone, bockel, mckenzie, rhoads...kept things interesting.

Bike: a little cold at first. quickly warmed up. it was windy as hell. the course was quite beautiful to start, riding beside lake ponchartrain, which is more like an ocean in appearance. the scenery quickly gets quite ugly, industrial, even slummy, before heading onto a highway (yes, a dream of mine come true, biking on an actual freeway, past a derelict amusement park, cool).
the first half was full of brutal headwinds. the second half was like flying.  the course is mostly flat with several small bridges in the first part and at the end. not the most beautiful bike course. the roads are quite bumpy and not the best quality for most of the course. it was not swept and there were plenty of opportunities to flat, although i did not see too many people pulled over.  not the most rewarding for personal best times, given the wind this year. i put out my best watts ever at this distance but was still two minutes slower than my best bike time.

me on the pretty part of the bike

Run: what the bike lacks in terms of scenery, the run makes up for. it starts beside the lake and then meanders past million dollar homes, and beside a waterway before going into a long sojourn through audobon park.  i was running like hermes for the first 7k, my shoes were wings and then reality set in and i started to suffer a bit. no negative split here. i held on pretty strong with a couple brutal splits in the last 3rd, but still was able to PR for the distance in a half ironman...not bad.


there were plenty of aid stations along the way and they were all well stocked with sponges, water, gatorade, food, ice etc. there were also lots of people cheering most of the way.
the best part of the run was coming into the old city and turning a corner and there is the french quarter there in front of you. suddenly you are running past centuries old buildings on cobbly roads and there are hundred of people cheering you on, police on every corner, horses, jazz music, a melange of color, sound and excitement. definitely the most exciting finishing chute i have ever run.

high energy finishing chute

overall: a great experience. new orleans is loads of fun. it does take some discipline to remind yourself you are there to race and not to party! at least for me it did. the race was well organized. it was a bit inconvenient getting to the race site but other than that, everything went real smooth. expect high winds and so even though the course is mostly flat you may not get your best bike time. i would recommend this race to anyone. would i go back? yes...but there are so many other places to race!

 not a fanstastic day for me, but a solid first out fitness test. the least serious i have ever felt at a race, but the most fun i have had, and also a fair scoup of suffering on the run to remind me it was half ironman race. my best combined bike/run time, top 15% overall out of 2200 people and top 15% in my age group (which had over 300 men), so not too bad for a start to the year.

"LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULEZ"

GPS throwdown: Global Trainer vs. 310XT

A GPS THROWDOWN!!!

okay, so i watch food channel. probably too much.  hence, i am calling this a throwdown, although no-one really officially  challenged anyone; i would say, that garmin are akin to  the local, ethnic guys who have mastered the traditional dish, and timex are definitely Bobby Flay here. ie. they are the challengers trying to beat the originals at their own game. but enough of food channel references.

what follows is my head to head review of the garmin 310XT and the Timex global trainer.
why do i have both? a good question. but no real good answer. i like toys.

COST:
the Global Trainer lists at 375 bucks with HR monitor. the garmin is listed at 349. no real difference.

come to think of it,


you could buy a large take out pizza for the price difference. or it could put you in starbuck's for close to a week, depending on what you drink. come to think of it, i am liking the garmin here.

ASTHETICS:

this is personal, but i start with it, because the look of the watch is the first thing you will notice and it does impact on how and when you may use it. the garmin is more colorful, smaller, more square. it does not look like a watch. it looks like a gps device on your wrist. a little boxy. a little bit like a miniature tv set or laptop, whereas  the timex, looks like one of those giant ironman watches at a swim exit in your local triathlon. it is, in reality, almost that big. that might bother some,but not me. it is, in my opinion, more masculine, more attractive, and much more suited to daily wear. it looks like a giant wristwatch. if you ever had one of the ironman digital watches it will be instantly familiar to you. it is his big brother...on steroids. if hulk hogan had a gps watch, this would be it. no way would he be caught dead in an orange and gray boxy garmin.  and giant wristwatches are kinda cool right now, just watch MTV. 
winner: TIMEX

FUNCTIONALITY/FEATURES:

this is like comparing a navigator to an escalade. both are ridden with features one would expect. waterproof. multisport ready. choices of metrics per screen. scrolling functions. virtual pacing.  both watches can sync with a power meter and provide power data. both can be mounted on a bike.  no real difference in features. not enough to choose one over the other.
winner: TIE


EASE OF USE:

i am a techno dummy, and i never read user manuals. both units can easily be figured out using the intuitive techno dummy approach by me, and that is saying lots.
there are a few differences to point out however:

1. transferring data: the garmin uses a wireless ANT device, like a flashcard that sits in a serial port on your computer. when you are done your workout, press reset, and the data will magically transfer automatically to your computer and your garmin connect account. pretty cool.
except: getting it to work is not always seamless. the ant device takes up valuable port space on my computer, and i am paranoid about losing it. over the past a year i have lost several key workouts for no explicable reason. a bit of a pain. the transfer times for long workouts can be mind-numbing and the connection can sometimes break down. this is one situation where i prefer a cable to wireless.

the timex uses a cable which connects to the watch and data transfer is almost immediate. i have never lost a workout. no waiting. the data transfer cord is also the power cord, so, great. it is bigger, not so easy to lose. doesn't need to sit in the computer.  it synchs with Training Peaks which gives you a nice platform to view things on, and is quite convenient if you have a coach and use TP alot. i don't like the interface quite as much as garmin connect, but that is just me.

2. the buttons on the timex are bigger. they require less force to trigger them. they are easier to find while running. easier to use with gloves.

3. the wristbands are different. the timex is bigger and easily fits over my base layers and gloves in winter. the garmin is often stretched to the max and cannot quite get over my biggest, fattest, warmest pair of run in minus 10 gloves. after six months the wristband clasp on the garmin broke off and i now use an elastic band. (see below)

4. the screens: the garmin wins here. the screen writing is bigger and more bold making the characters are easier to see. the timex gives way too much information when you are using automatic splits by time or distance and the text is so small i don't even try to read it while running, so i never really do. and the frustrating thing is they give you no way to dummy it down. you can't choose what info you get on the screen when you hit the lap button, and that kinda sucks. with the garmin, what  i get is the time of my split. period. easy. i know what pace i just ran for 1k. that is ALL i want to know while i am running.

5. the warning chimes:  the garmin is louder and easier to hear. i ran with both watches on  my arm the other day and this was quite apparent. half the time when the GT is telling me a split i don't even hear it. this never happens with the garmin. nice, loud chime.

6. use as a daily watch: near impossible with the garmin. the battery burns out faster. it takes more work to get the gps off. it is just not set up to be a daily watch.
 the timex battery can last 5 days with GPS off. it is much easier to use with GPS off, in the pool, for example. it is quite easy to get your swim splits with the global trainer in the pool. not so with the garmin. the global trainer works just like a basic timex ironman watch for the preset alarm functions, which is nice, and better than the garmin.
 the timex is just basically more like an every day watch, but really big, and with gps when you need it.

7.open water: i have yet to use the GT in open water. (lake ontario is pretty cold right now). however the garmin has a new software update that will allow you to estimate swim distance and pace without putting the watch in the top of your swim cap. nice. no more buzzing on my head to let me know i went 500m! the timex has no such function, so i imagine it will suck in the water and give no reliable GPS data.given how it struggles to find satelites on cloudy days (see below), i wonder if it would lose signal in the water.

8. GPS: i will say more about this in the next section, but basically the timex takes way too long to find signals at times, which leads to lots of standing about, stretching, and getting cold. if it is mid-winter, it leads to freezing your ass off and starting your run without gps because you are so fricking cold.  it also has the irritating habit of turning off and going to sleep mode if there is no gps signal for a while. it will ask you if you want to continue without gps, but when you are on the move do you have time for this? i am really paranoid about struggling with this watch to find signals during a race.


EASE OF USE WINNER: i would say a tie, with a slight edge for the garmin on the things that really matter to me race day. i prefer the Global Trainer as a watch i can wear every day, so no need to switch watches between workout and office and i can use it as an alarm. the garmin is not so user friendly in that regard. so i would probably like the gt for day in day out wear and just be prepared for a long pre-run stretch while it calibrates. for a race, i am too anxious. give me the garmin. 

HEAD TO HEAD ROAD TEST:

yes, i have done a couple of road tests head, to head. i am that deprived of things to do, and this in spite of being too busy all the time. go wonder.

first off, both runs were on cloudy days. the garmin found satellites within 1 m. ready to go!
the timex was struggling.  this has been my experience with the GT almost every time.
i have done more stretching since owning the global trainer than ever before. i stretch, i point  the watch to the sky. nothing. i start getting cold. nothing. five minutes into the run. the garmin is fine. the timex. no signal.
this happened on both runs. the fact is that the garmin just finds the signals faster and more efficiently. and, it is a major pain to be standing there on a frigid morning waiting for your gps to kick in. (let alone stressing about this at a race) and i can tell you this happened many times this winter with the timex. and it doesn't find the satellites once you are moving, so you have to stop and wait. and press off and on again. and then it finally kicks in. PITA! (and i don't mean mediterrannean bread!)

in terms of the data generated, perhaps the most depressing revelation was that they actually keep slightly different time. wow. i thought all digital watches gave perfect times, but they can actually disagree by several seconds, even with careful synchronized button pressing. it certainly says something about how literally you can take the data from either watch. 

they were pretty close in terms of estimating distance. however, the garmin will start to generate data before it locks into all the satellites and can inflate your pace a bit at the beginning of a run.
my impression is that the garmin estimates faster times overall. 
friday's run, for example, was a tempo progression run. my last set was 20m long and the  garmin estimated a 4:33 pace, while the timex gave me a 4:36 pace for the same exact split. that is a small but significant difference.

in terms of feedback, the timex does give you the choice to adjust smoothing for gps. with the lowest smoothing setting, i found the feedback closest to the garmin. however, both watches tended to give me quite different moment to moment feedback on pacing during random checks. there were also times when they read the same. there was no real pattern i could define. overall, i would say that the feedback numbers fluctuate less with the garmin. i tended to trust them more moment to moment because they were jumping around less.

OVERALL WINNER:
this is tough because i like different things about each. however, i am racing Ironman New Orleans 70.3 next weekend and i am pretty sure it will be with the garmin on my wrist. i just trust it more. more reliable moment to moment data. perhaps better swim data. i don't worry about losing satellites or not finding them.
so the winner of the GPS throwdown?   GARMIN 310 XT for racing. i will still use the GT for daily training and for runs where i don't mind standing around in the nice sunny weather waiting for 10 minutes for the gps to kick in.

A Dog's Life

on monday mornings I don't work. a small luxury for which I pay dearly in other ways: on call hours, late hours etc.

but, i prefer it that way. it is nice to be off on a monday morning. it cures the sunday night blues.

monday's are for hanging out with my baby girl a bit in the morning. they are for lunch at home with my family. they are for walking to work in the afternoon. nice.

of course, they are also for long runs.

speaking of which this past monday was a cool, but nice sunny day and quite perfect for a long run through the park system that dissects downtown toronto. which brings me to the point of this blog.

who else is out there on a frigid monday morning enjoying the sunshine? who else is exercising while everyone else is at their desk on the second cup of coffee? who is breathing in the fresh air? who is urinating and even defecating outside?(besides me, i mean).  who is visiting with all their friends in the park???? who is having a freaking party in the park at 10 am on monday morning????

DOGS. THAT'S WHO.

Dogs really have the right idea about life. If you are nice to people, they are nice back to you. if you bark loud enough you can stop anyone in their tracks.  If you let people believe they are in control you can get them to do all kinds of things for you; like even take you for long walks, bathe you, feed you, stroke your belly and pick up your poo.

dogs are master maniupulators. they are masters of the "sub is really the dom"  formulation of life. that is why they are the only people walking in the park on a monday morning. they have life figured out.

I can't remember how many dogs i met on monday. 20 maybe? i remember all their faces. i don't remember the people tagging behind them. they were like the blah blah blah parents in peanuts. barely accessible to consciousness. the dogs, i remember.

some ran after me. some stopped me in my tracks. some didn't care. some were old and short.
i remember charlene: a baby doberman who was such a good girl cause she sat there and let me pass by; her mommy's voice reminded me of how i praise my baby girl for doing something good.
i met owen. a large black lab. he thought me tying my shoelaces was worthy of a sniff and a nice tail wag. we said hi. he sniffed tights. licked my hand. nice guy.

why is it that if you are running you are soooooo much more intersting to a dog than absolutely anything else?

dogs hold onto something that we lose as we grow out of infancy. i see it in my baby girl. a curiosity. a friendliness. a "joi-de-vive". an ability to laugh at stupid things and to repeat them over and over and laugh some more. dogs are like furry babies that never grow up.

why is their no religion with a dog diety? i mean we have cats, cows, dragons, all kinds of animal type dieties and supernatural beings, why not dogs?

and dogs are good swimmers and runners. if they could ride bikes then they would be the happiest and most entusiastic triathletes on the planet.

i was glad to share the trail with these happy, zen-like creatures.

i pledge to become more dog-like. more zen like.

24 HOURS

time...

the last track of led zeppelin's album "presence" is a sultry blues number that begs the question "how come 24hours somtimes seems to slip into days?". great song. so, where does 24 hours go in the life of a triathlete?
how do my hours slip into days? why am I singing the blues???? again???

05:30: wake up, ninja/stealth breakfast so as not to wake the wife and baby.
06:00 drive to the pool
06:30 swim 2700 meters
07:30 drive back home, the sun is up, listen to slayer in the car "world painted blood; no sanctuary", feel awkward like i am too old for that kind of  thing, but what the hell, switch to metallica. "obey your master"
07:50: shovel the snow (yes...snow...20 cm of it, in spring)
08:00: back in the house. stealth on some stale bike shorts and onto the trainer for a ride (gross)
09:00 work
12:45 eat in the car between offices (or else swim at lunch)
13:00-18:00 ENDLESS WORK ( or else sneak out for a mid-week lactate threshold workout)
18:00-30: errand on way home (drug store, hardware, grocery, gas, whatever)
18:30-19:30: play with baby, bathe baby, change baby, cook dinner, try to find time to change clothes, maybe even take a dump (if at all: learning to dump on demand)
19:30: eat
19:30-20:00 this is my quality time with my wife (assuming the baby fell asleep ok)
20:00 american idol/ trigger point roller on the coach, massage wife's neck (still multi-tasking); get ready for bed during commercials to save time. so, more up and down. i have sat still for maybe 5 minutes.
21:30 or 22:00  get ready for bed, dump, hopefully, and sleep in post dumping bliss.


of course their are variations like mondays: wake up, change baby, long run, make lunch, work, walk home, make dinner, bathe baby, off to night master's swim class, home at 9:30 and fight off post exercise insomnia and then bed.
or sundays: wake up, baby care, long brick, birthday party, shopping in the mall, home, cook dinner, bathe baby, eat, go to bed.

or else, on call overnight, so more work, sometimes even 50-60 hours of it in a week. run from work, shower in on call room, back to work, swim at lunch, work some more, go home, cook. etc.

but, generally, you get the picture.

if you played the video you no doubt heard robert plant groan " a minute seems like a lifetime, baby, when i feel this way"

i have the opposite problem. " a lifetime seems like a minute, when i live this way".

hence, i don't listen to led zeppelin too much these days. too slow. gimme some thrash.

there are 168 hours in a week.

i sometimes spend 50 hours working. 50 hours sleeping. more than half of my waking hours working.

if i sleep 8 hours per night (ya, right); then once my real ironman training kicks in, i will spend the equivalent of one full waking day per week training. it is already pretty close.

conclusion:

a)i should stop being a wimp.
b)24 hours is not enough
c)no-one really needs more than 4 hours of sleep.
d)all of the above


p.s.
tea for one really is a great song. and it speaks of a time when one could indulge 12 minute tracks whilst doing nothing on the couch. a time when a guitar solo lasted a full minute.
so, if you clicked, and you have more time than i do, give it a listen. you won't be sorry

Self Indulgence Part Two:

12 hours later.

i slept for 9 hours...need i say more?

i must have watched too many Rocky movies growing up because now i want to follow up last night's rock bottom pit of pseudo free associative negative self talk with a montage.

"Eye of the Tiger" is playing in my head right now as i write this.

click below and then read to get the full almost montage effect:

i have rallied. i believe. i am mobile.

if i was more techno-savy and i didn't work, you would have your montage. lord knows that anyone who actually read yesterday's blog deserves one.

but instead, here is what the montage would be; sort of like a movie script:

sunrise, penticton, mountains, arid warm air, me training, runnig stong on gravel in summer
emerging from lake okanagan looking like a radiant G-d.

dave scott; just him, being dave scott.

me riding my first bike on lakeshore drive in burlington fantasizing about being dave scott.

the pool. no-one is coughing or sick the water is till at 6 am and warm and nice

the richter pass in b.c. i am on top of the mountain. i put out 240 watts avgerage. i feel like a speed demon, i am cruising down the mountain like schlek, like contador...
doing push ups
crunches


julie moss crawling across the finish line in hawaii.



changing a diaper and laughing.
the baby cheering me on as i ride on the trainer, admiration in her eyes.

my wife cheering me on as i run on the treadmill.

my wife meeting me on the porch after a 7 hour brick with a fresh lemonade. she is smiling.

me, running 3:45's in the taylor creek trail. floating on my racing flats. no pain. perfect minimalist running form!

dave scott.

rocky himself.




rick and dick hoyt out on the queen k




normann stadler.



macca.



no, this one:



yes, i like that one, macca running with his daughter...i can't wait.


my heroes, juxtaposed with images of me training so i can be like them

me, my wife, my baby. all smiling at the finish line.

my, my wife, my baby, all smiling as i sip my lemonade on the porch after a 7 hour brick.

ok, make that a protein shake with extra glutamine.

ahhhhhhhhhh. nice.

FREE ASSOCIATION...

is a psychoanalytic term, generally used to refer to a technique whereby the subject/patient says whatever comes to mind. the concept is to become free of the usual restrictions that surround our desire to be liked, seen a certain way, make sense, etc.

the idea is to thereby reveal the contents of the unconscious mind...the unconscious mind, so it is believed, is the source of real data about the self. everything else is smoke and mirrors erected by the ego.

well, my ego has sustained enough damage lately that i thought i would try my hand at free associating here. enough of smoke and mirrors. lets find the real person under this road to where??? penticton, oh ya.  self indulgent? yes, but what is more self-indulgent than blogging in the first place? oh, i know, DOING AN IRONMAN:

here it goes:

in the past week is the fist time it has occurred to me that i won't be able to do this.
i am exhausted
it is very very hard to juggle huge work stress, being a new dad, a husband and training for an ironman
i am exhausted
my body doesn't feel right
my immune system is fucked
i won't do as well as i could
i hate people who have upbeat blogs bragging about how much training they do and what equipment they use, who cares?
who cares about my negativity?
it is real. that is why people read blogs.
what,they don't have enough of real?
i will lose all my sponsors if i am too negative.
wait, i don't really have too many sponsors anyways.
i was mad at that guy who came to the pool when he was sick. i mean, stay home buddy, we are all trying to get healthy here.
i don't want to swim in someone else's  germs
i need to give up on having a good race. april is too soon, i won't be ready.
august is too soon. i won't be ready
i am a bad father because i want to work out
i am a bad husband because i am rigid about working out
my priorities are fucked

i haven't run outside enough, this winter sucked, my shins hurt, my heel hurts
i am bored with myself
triathletes are mostly assholes
so is everyone else
usually everyone who is not suffering in some way is an asshole in some way
people who suffer are usually nicer until their suffering ends, then they become assholes again
if i am suffering then why am i not a nicer person?
most of my suffering is self induced
so what does that make me?

oh my, none of this would inspire me. i need to be inspiring. don't I???
it is supposed to be inspiring when someone overcomes previous tragedy to live out their fantasies of omnipotence at an ironman finish line, isn't it?


i will never fit in

i am not going to give up.
 my dreams do matter
i am important
it will be ok.

maybe i need to compromise....


sorry about that. if you want inspiration, look at last week's blog.
too much thrash metal in the car.
that is my excuse
and i am not so sure that last line was my unconscious, i think that was my ego talking.
good thing he is the one in control most of the time...

ROUGH PATCH

very few words this week.

instead, a picture that says quite a few things, and maybe different things to each of us, depending on who we are...

this is aron ralston. after he cut off his own arm with a dull knife in order to survive being pinned by a boulder during a solo canyon hike. he kept climbing afterwards. he became a father.  he broke a record by being the first person to ever climb every colorado mountain over 14 thousand feet, solo, during winter, after losing his arm.

lately, i feel i have hit a rough patch.

i guess i better think again...