It's on!

I've done a lot more learning in the past 24 hours about the Club national Championship race, and I'm really excited to say I made a hotel reservation yesterday.

The race itself is kind of interesting in how it works. As with state and regional club championships, anyone can sign up to do the race as if there were nothing special going on at the race. if you happen to be a member of a team, and register with your team information, your team gets participation points for you being involved. Then if you get on a podium (or in this case are in the top ten for your age group), you are given additional points for doing well.

Because the nationals are held in different locations each year, the local clubs have an advantage in that they can bring a boatload of team members, rack up a bunch of participation points, and win without necessarily doing well in the actual race. To counteract that, USA Triathlon came up with the idea of distance points. That way, member clubs from further away who send smaller delegations have a way of evening the playing field.

For example, based on the fact that my flight will be approximately 723 miles, I fall within the category that receives 40 distance points. That, plus my 1 participation point means I can do no worse than 41 points. Of course local clubs with just 5 or 6 members competing who manage to place can easily do better than that. But it is kind of an interesting way of approaching competition and finding a way to be fair to all teams, especially those that have to travel a good distance to participate in this already expensive sport.

And that's not my only excitement. I've decided on mountain biking instead of cyclocross, at least for this year. Theres a very short local race in a little over a weeks time. It's only a 6 mile ride, and it's at the campground where Rach and I stayed the weekend we came to pick out our apartment. It's got some climbing, but I'm told it's not overly technical, and according to the race promoter I should be able to walk or run over any obstacles I can't handle riding over. He said for someone who's done an half-ironman it shouldn't be too much of a workout. I told him you should see who they let finish HIM's these days. (*rimshot*) I'm not the worlds fastest or stongest climber, but I think this should be pretty fun. Maybe I'll be terrible, but it looks like something I'd enjoy trying and a fall/winter/spring of this kind of riding has to be good for my climbing.

Now I just have to get a bike. I've got one I'm looking at off Craigslist, and if it fits me, it's probably the best deal for the money I'll find. I'm hopeful that adding in some challenging cross training that's still on a bike will help me to get stronger from a cardio standpoint which will help me immensely with climbing in races, and just being stronger, lighter, and faster.

Speaking of getting lighter, my weight is now only about 5 pounds more than race day. I'm eating better, and went for my first short run yesterday. I jumped into the C25K program at week 3, and am using an app on my phone to track progress. it doesn't measure distance, just time. So it will be interesting to see how I progress in this manner. It was an 18 minute workout, and it only calls for you to run half the time. Based on where I am in recovery it feels like the right amount of work, and it grows in strenuousness each week.

Notes:

- I've updated my results for the year to include all of the races. I got a little lazy on updating the details. I still need to add a few folks to readers who write, so I'll be doing that this weekend.

- Tomorrow, there will be a reader poll, somehow, I think. I need your guidance in deciding something, and it is well beyond time I use the sounding board you're becoming to help me make a decision you folks will wind up reading about.

- Last but certainly not least, I heard back from WTC yesterday. I am told to expect my Timberman finishers medal in the mail in the next 2-3 weeks. It takes them a couple weeks to make them and get them sent out.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Two big races yesterday and some even bigger results.

First, Tyler Wright tackled IM Canada. Let's set aside for a moment that this is a guy who is a former professional hockey player. His first triathlon is an Ironman, and he truly proved he was worthy of the title. His 2.4 mile swim was a mere 1:12. Let me spell that out; one hour and twelve minutes. That's exactly 10 minutes longer than my 1.2 mile swim. I guess his second mile was really fast, because 1:02 is the physical human limit for the first mile. His bike was a mere 6:14, meaning he averaged almost 18 MPH over some brutal climbs. 

He put up just terrific numbers all day long, and continued it all the way into the run. His first half-marathon split was just above a 10 minute/mile pace. So he tore up the swim, he tore up the bike, and then went out and hit my dream pace on the first half of the run. He finished it up with a 2:35 second split for a marathon time of 4:48. His first marathon was sub-5 hours, and his total time was 12:29:59. That's only 3 1/2 hours more than it took me to do the half-Iron. 

And to think he did this all for charity. Last I heard, Tyler had raised over $40,000 for the Blue Jackets Foundation. While that's terrific work for one man doing one race, I'm sorry to say it isn't enough. It won't be enough until childhood cancers and other diseases are eradicated. So if you're even close to as impressed with what he did as I am, I urge you to donate. Just follow the instructions on the Team Tyler link up on the tool bar to give.

So now, let's move from the efforts of one man to the efforts of one team. Specifically Team Wheelworks in the USA Triathlon New England Regional Championship held today at the Cranberry Triathlon Festival. Specifically, for going all out and winning the Division III club championship. 18 team members raced, and multiple team members came early and stayed late to cheer with a singular goal; getting enough points to bring us the win. We had a few podiums, and most importantly we had a lot of fun. There were a lot of competitive teams this weekend, but we were able to pull out the win on a hot, humid day with little breeze to cool the racers. Rach even overheated just hanging out while we watched and cheered our teammates on.

So what does this success mean to me? It means that for the first time in my life I'm a regional champion at something. It's not like I've never been a part of a winning team; In little league baseball, my team won our league one year. In Odyssey of the Mind, we won a district in our state for a really funny skit. I was thrilled to be a part of our winning today, but I had really hoped to be on the course racing for points of my own. So when I learned there's a National Club Championship, I thought "Ooh, that sounds fun! I should do that". I figured we won our region, we should go to Nationals.

Then I found out the race is just over a month away, and it's South Carolina, near where Rachelle's sister goes to school. And then I found out it's a weekend when Rach is out of town, so doing the race is a lot better than me sitting around playing video games and taking it easy as fall sets in. WheelWorks is a pretty laid back club for the most part, so it's not like we set our sites on a national championship when the season starts. We're out to have fun, get better as triathletes, and enjoy each others company.

This trip to the national championship offers me an additional opportunity to continue to do all of those things. I'll spend time with my sister-in-law, do a nice fast race, and then relax in the warmth of South Carolina for another day before flying home. There are 3 distances to choose from, all with a lake swim, completely closed roads, and most importantly totally flat. I'm doing the sprint, mostly because with my running training plan it's the race I'll be most prepared for. By prepared for, I mean "totally going to PR". 

I still need to do some confirmation with USA Triathlon, but if it all works as I think it does, I'm going to do this. It's just the kind of thing I will enjoy, no matter how well I do. But I'm going to do well. I have time to train and finally a race that suits me.

Finally, back to the efforts of a single man. This time, it's the effort of my friend Derek A. who kicked some butt at Cranberry today. He mumbled something about missing "his goal" after the race. I know what it feels like to miss a goal, but what I saw was him slaughtering a very hot course and looking strong even at the end. He definitely beat my likely Olympic distance time, which hopefully we'll figure out what that is next year. 

New Challenges, Kind Words, and a shout out to Tyler Wright

Yesterday, I started laying out the next years goals. I'd like to share some of that feedback.

From my wife: (on her facebook account) "Four Days after our HIM, Benny said the 'I' word.". Because she's waiting on a knee exam, she's obviously a little less enthusiastic than her normal competitive self. But she later sent me a text message saying "I'm starting to warm up to the idea of doing *Race name withheld until we learn the date in a few weeks*".

From my mother: "That is too far. 140.6 miles is just too far. I don't want you having a heart attack on the course". I explained to her that I'll be training for about a year, and that we'll potentially be doing a race that will be close enough to spend time with them. "You can't spend time with me if you're dead".

So, now that I've started exploring what we're going to do next and how we're going to train to get there, the next step was to stop laying around and at least try to do a little physical activity. Last night, I decided to take the bike to my Bikes not Bombs instructor class. It's only a few miles away on mostly flat city streets and it's in a well lit area.

The total climbing for this ride is probably about 15 feet. And yet every time the road went up, my legs complained. What wouldn't have even have seemed like a speed bump during the race is just flat taking my legs out right now. It took me about 30 minutes to go the 3 miles to the shop. Some of that was me getting lost, but the rest of it was my legs having no juice. The way home was a little better as it goes mostly downhill, but I still wasn't close to 100%.  I'm going to ride over there again tonight, because I feel like doing a little bit each day will help things along.

On to another subject. To those of you who read my race day emotional outpouring thank you post, you know how much all the kindness has meant to me. I've had a real outpouring of congratulations from family, friends, and mostly complete strangers as well. Not all of it is here on the blog, but a lot of it is. And I wanted to take this time to say thanks again, and not only are your comments always welcome, but as I look to tackle new challenges, your input will definitely be even more appreciated as I start trying to figure out what the next year will look like.

Finally, Sunday is the Ironman Canada race. It's finally time for Team Tyler to tear it up! 140.6 of prime Canadian soil (and water) will be traversed all in the name of charity. In his recent daily emails to supporters, Tyler has mentioned his first bike crash (in the week before the race no less), long hours of training (and some long massages to follow them), and even getting down to his lowest weight in over 10 years. Now, he's gone through packet pickup and is at the end of his taper, with race day just a couple days away. I'll be at Cranberry cheering for our teammates, but I'll have my Nexus One pointed at the Ironman Live site, getting updates on Tyler's progress.

If you haven't already donated folks, now's the time.

Guts, Glory, and a medal...so what's next?

Before we get to the future, let's iron out a tiny bit more about the past.

- Some folks may be asking "Where's the traditional picture of Ben with his finishers medal?". As I mentioned in yesterdays post, the official photographer was no longer in attendance at the time of the my completing the race. Plus, they actually ran out of the official finishers medal for the 70.3 race before I finished, so they gave us the finisher medals from the sprint distance.

Rachelle's medal on left, mine on the right

The fact that I currently only have the smaller medal isn't a big deal, as it's a nice medal and it doesn't say "sprint distance" on it. It also doesn't say 70.3 or Ironman, so it doesn't exactly feel right either. The race organizers have promised to send everyone who finished and got the smaller medal the proper medal, and it should arrive within the week. So shortly, there will be a picture of my correct medal filing the empty nail in the wall of the bedroom. The smaller one doesn't belong there, so I've got that hanging on my desk at work next to one of my race numbers.

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Now for the new stuff:

Timberman has now come and gone. I fought through pain, exhaustion, and negative thoughts with the help of family, friends, and total strangers to finish. About 8 months of serious training has been validated and I've proven I can go beyond anything I've previously done to reach a lofty goal.

The first two days after the race I didn't want to think of riding or running even a little. Once I got past that I started feeling a bit empty as there was no longer a significant goal out there for me to reach for. I realized the competitor within me was not satisfied with just that one accomplishment, as I still have many goals in terms of competition and health that I have yet to accomplish.

So the question that came next is: what do i do now?

The answer to that question is both simple and complex. First let's start with what I'm not doing.

• Working out this week. Rach and I are both taking a much needed break from pushing ourselves physically. Rach is going to get her knee looked at before she gets back to training, and I'm taking some much needed rest and recuperation. I may take a couple of very short bike rides over to the bike co-op for class, but that would be strictly at a very relaxed pace.

• Cranberry Olympic Triathlon. When Rach and I did our race schedule this year, we really wanted to provide effort that benefited the team as much as we have benefited from it. We signed up for Cranberry with the idea that even though neither of us would win, we'd provide some points for finishing that could help win the regional club championship. Plus, as we're the defending champs, I wanted to take part in a race where I might actually win something as opposed to coming in last on a regular basis. Sadly, with Rach's knee and my generally slow recovery, providing any kind of effort in regards to this race just wouldn't amount to much. I keep wanting to do it, only to think about the 10k at the end of the race and realize there's no way my body is ready for that. Sunny, our club prez, did Timberman as well and she's going to Cranberry strictly to cheer on the team, and encouraged us to do the same. We'll be joining her, and helping with the team tent. We didn't defer our registration, so we'll get our shirts and goodie bags and can partake in the post race food, but we'll be on the sidelines for this one, rooting for WheelWorks Multisport to take home the trophy.

So now for what I am going to do. I've outlined some specific projects I want to work on, and the goals I'm associating with them.

Couch to 5k. On Saturday, I'm re-starting the running program I was working on this summer. My running needs work, and without a triathlon to train for, I can focus almost wholly on my running. My goal is to run a 35 minute 5k sometime this fall. And it might seem like I'm reaching, but I really want to do 10 minute miles before too long. First things first.

Cyclocross or Mountain biking. Rach has talked about the idea of winter triathlons. Frankly, the idea of running in snow and even crazier, snowshoeing, is something she can keep to herself, thank you very much. But the idea of doing some mountain biking (part of winter tri's) or perhaps cyclocross (sort of halfway between a mountain bike and a road bike, with some running mixed in) are ideas that are tantalizing to me. There may be no races in my future in either discipline, but there are places to do that kind of riding not too far from home. Plus it gives us the excuse to go bike shopping again. The goal in expanding to either of these disciplines is to give me a good way in the fall to work on my climbing. I'm not sure which direction this will go, but it's something I'll be working on in the next couple months.

Losing Weight. In doing any of the items I have listed here, my ultimate physical goal is to lose weight and get in better physical shape. There can be no doubt I'm stronger, a little lighter, and faster than I was a year ago. But I'm still at least 80 pounds overweight, and I intend to make a big dent in that this year. I've got some goals in this area I'll be outlining in the next few days once I figure out the exact dates and plans.

Another 70.3. Rach and I participated in the Minuteman Sprint associated with the Patriot Half-Ironman earlier this year. Even before Timberman, Rach was talking about wanting to do the Patriot Half next summer. Once Rach graduates, we aren't sure where we'll be living, as she's going to have to find a job. Ideally we'll be in Boston, but that isn't clear. The Patriot looked to be a less difficult course than Timberman, and it's at a time of year that should be early enough that it won't be affected even if we need to move. My goal with this would be to reduce my time for this distance by at least an hour, and ideally shooting for Rach's time at Timberman of 7:30.

Oh, and one last small thing.... I want to do an Ironman. 

More on that tomorrow.

Timberman: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Now that I've had a couple of days to celebrate learn how to walk again following my successful completion of Timberman 70.3, I've been doing sort of a post mortem on both how I did and the experience of participating in the race as a whole. I'm going to break this down as best I can in a minute, but first I want to take a quick second to update you as to my current status:

 I think art is my true calling

In the above picture, you see 2 drawings of me. On the left is me normally. On the right is me right now. Everything inside the red line hurts. The soreness and associated other ailments have subsided over the past couple of days, but I'm still at least 2 days from feeling like a human being rather than a test subject for torture devices. As an example; I don't have feet, I have blisters on the bottom of my ankles.

Also, I've been eating like someone who just got out of prison. While the initial motivation to begin competing in triathlons was to further my weight loss, I have come to understand it's natural to be ravenous following a race like this, and that it's best to go with the flow for a couple of days. I have gained about 8 pounds since race morning, but I've read that once you start eating normally (so, today) and your body recovers from the race experience, weight loss resumes in earnest. So I'm looking forward to that.

I'll have more on my plans for the future tomorrow, but today I'm going to focus on the recent past that was Timberman Weekend.

The good:

Yeah! It's 5:00 somewhere. Oh, that's supposed to be PM?

• The Lake Winniepesaukee region. This part of New Hampshire is absolutely breathtaking. Definitely a place we'll return to, regardless of racing. The mountains, the trees, the lakes, the houses and all of the beautiful blue skies (except during the run, of course). 
• The participants. Such phenomenal, courageous, amazing people. From the folks who kept asking about the blog (seriously, you people acted more excited to meet me than I was to meet you, which is completely untrue), to the people I didn't know who kept encouraging me when they passed me as I walked up a hill, or just plain walked on the run course. I feel honored to have been among you for that race. Special shout out to Henry, who has the courage of 10 men for pushing through 9 1/2 hours to finish that race. 
• The volunteers. I thought about what helped me the most in getting through this race, and while a ton of things are right up there, nothing was more physically beneficial than the "snowballs" provided at the aide station manned by the junior hockey team. There's simply no way I could have run that last mile if I hadn't been doing my best to cool down with the ice they provided.
• The race organizers. 2500 people in a single race is a gigantic undertaking and frankly they made it seem like it wasn't hard at all. We've done a few races this season and volunteered at another. This was the only race of the season I attended that actually started on time. Transition was well organized, the packet pickup was beautifully engineered, and the on site festival was simple but nice.
• The fans. If I hadn't been running, I would have stuck around until the pros finished, and then scuttled off to do some relaxing in the water or have a few drinks at Patrick's. The fans we saw were die hards, including the guy (pictured above) who parked next to us when we pulled in the lot at 4 AM. He opened his first Bud Light at 4:05 AM, and was fun to talk to up until it was time to hit transition. 
• My Run. I never EVER expected to put this segment of my race on the "Good" list, but seriously, a negative split in a half-marathon at the end of 9 hours racing is an accomplishment I can really hang my hat on.

The Bad:

Chest hair is making a comeback, right?

• My swim. So yeah, 1.2 miles in 1:02 isn't that bad, but it should have been at least 5 minutes shorter. I took a bad line to start the race, and then I kept going left, which is really weird. I never swim like that, and the fact that it happened when I was swimming out and in tells me it wasn't caused by the water. I'll have to work on that for next race for sure.
• Selection at the Timberman shop. Technically, it wasn't the selection so much as the stock levels. We arrived on the first day, just a few hours after the race festival opened. And by the time we got there, a majority of the stock for the best items were already gone. Let me rephrase; the stock for the best items for people bigger than size XL was already gone. The people who run events like this (in this case WTC) need to realize that the Clydesdale set is a growing (see what I did there?) part of their customer base and need to stock appropriately. There were some awesome cycling jerseys that were down only to XL, and a specific T-shirt that there was only a single shirt left in any size. 
• The rain during the run. As much as my effort went into the good, the rain during the run was definitely bad. It rained hard enough to make it uncomfortable and fill my shoes with water, but not enough to pull any humidity out of the air. It just made the run generally feel worse.
• Missing out on dinner with the Beginner Triathletes. When we got to the restaurant, they told us there was no way they'd be able to seat the whole party, and if they did it would be a long wait. So Rach and I went elsewhere because we were starving. Turns out, they seated everyone and a great time was had by all. Except Rach and I who weren't there.
• The Race photographer. They left before the race ended. This is not the first time this has happened, but I seriously wanted an official picture of me crossing the finish line and with my medal, and I didn't get one. They sent out an email asking for feedback about the race pictures,  and I shared this with them, and will be sharing it with the race organizers as well.

The Ugly:

• I believe I mentioned my blisters once already.