November’s numbers…

November was all about race days and keeping it all together in between. As you may have read the Santa Clarita Marathon didn’t go quite to plan, that being said I did PR by 15 minutes with a 3:31 but was 16 minutes short of my goal of 3:15. Somebody suggested to me that a reducing it by 30 minutes was a bit much but if your goals are small your achievements are usually the same…either way I am over it and moving on.

Two weeks later I “re-newed” my ultra passport and had a wet, wild and wonderful time running the PCTR SMM 50k, you can read, well look at the pictures as I did not write a long report here. Recovery in between was as expected and was running 4 days after the marathon, albeit gingerly, and I spent the two weeks really just keep the wheels ticking over. I am a huge fan of compression clothing (during and after), chocolate milk and coconut water and I would say that these all contributed to my recovery…much more so than stretching of which I did none! After the 50k race I stayed out of my running shoes and donned fins and cycling shoes through to the end of the month

So as for the numbers, well down as expected.

• 214 total miles (-174 over October)


• 28:11 time, so about 7 hours a week (around a 3 hour per week loss)


• 86 miles running in 15:26 (September 160/21:26)


• 123 miles cycling in 7:52 ( September 219/13:40)


• 8,350 yards (11,200 in October, 5150 in September)


• Remaining time was stretching, foam rolling, P90X Ab Ripper and a bit of yoga! oops!


• Longest ride 51 miles – 3:21 not the fastest ride but a nice hilly one


• Longest run 31.6 – 7:35!


• Starting weight 168lb ending 171.2b (from 187 at end of April)


• Overall with tapers and recoveries I had 10 rest days, so when you consider that the above is only really for 3 weeks it isn’t quite so bad!

So onto December, as mentioned in a prior post this is a focus on the pool and bike I have a goal of 20,000 yards and 500 miles respectively between now and the end of the year. My first Triathlon is in 93 days!

Wordless Wednesday…yours is not the same?

Really…?

Swim, Bike and Clif Bar winner

All thing considered this was a quiet week…my legs found there way back to normal form around Wednesday after last weeks 50k. I avoided my running shoes and spent some time in the pool; 4000 yards and on the bike 51 miles (only one ride though), my climbing was steady but I need to work on my confidence descending and more importantly I need to get more miles on my Tri bike.

Still it was a pretty good lead into next week and in fact every week between now and the end of the year. I am aiming for 5000 yards in the pool and 125 miles on the bike a week to take me into Tri Training proper…I am still reviewing plans and trying to formulate my whole 2012 strategy but seeing as my weak area is the swim followed by the bike I think this is a sensible course of action, that and the fact that I have pretty much been on a running plan for the last 6 months and my legs need a rest.

I have also mapped out my 2012 races, my critical A race entries are secured; Vineman 70.3 and Ironman AZ and as it stands I have roughly a race every 60 days…but more on that later!

In other news Thomas is the winner of the Clif Bar giveaway, 4 tweets and blog comment gave him 5 out of a possible 6 entries so the odds were in his favor, congrats!

Get off your ass/arse!*

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Thanks to Lindsay for the original Posting

*apply as applicable in the US, Canada, NZ vs. UK, Australia and thanks to Kelownagurl, (Canada) JayDub (Australia) and Louise (New Zealand) for confirming what get said where! Gotta love Twitter!

Cyber Monday come early…

Just a few things that arrived in my in-box, I thought I would share the love…treat someone you love, treat yourself…hell, treat me!

Click on image to go to site

Review; Clif Bars (Apricot, Peanut Toffee, Coconut Choc Chip)

As is the usual way I am behind the curve, in other words late these have been in the stores for a while but you may have missed them and if so let this be the prompt you need. And so on with the review.

So we have all heard of Clif Bars right, chewy, yummy goodness, great for on the go, road, trail, good for pre run, post run, day time, night time, any time! OK enough of that.

So apparently the flavor distilling techno weenie geeks in at Clif have been distilling flavor goodness down (I said distilling twice didn't I), sealing it in little bars, putting the bars in little bags and then sending them out to lazy ass bloggers like me! (oops sorry guys)!

So this was what was sent to me:

Apricot; has that late summer flavor and always reminds me of some time spent relaxing and vacationing in Greece and Turkey but you can use them for crushing it on the bike or run! Moist, yummy and tart!

Peanut Toffee; Friday night at the movies or walking through the County Fair, this one is mildly crunchy with that caramel (not "carmel" which is a small town in California!?!) flavor, almost like nutty buttery popcorn but much much nicer

Coconut Choc Chip; OMG last year I went mad for the Iced Gingerbread which is also available right now and was reviewed here, well this is as good as that, Coconut, chocolate need I go on!!!

So here is the upside I have a sample box of two of each of these to pass on , if you are reading this you stand a pretty good chance of winning. Usual rules apply.

Mention this competition on your blog gets you 1 entry

Tweet “I just entered the @Quadrathon giveaway for some @ClifBar yumminess you can too at http://tinyurl.com/7ol29u3” will get you another, tweet it once a day for up to 4 entries between today and Sunday

Leave a comment here telling me what you have done and you’ll get another 1 entry, so there you go, up to 6 entries to win and if you’re lucky I “might” throw in one of my prized Iced Ginger bars which are in stores now!

I will draw the winner on Sunday!

Talking of stores, something I found out if you buy bars at Whole Foods by the box you get a 10% discount… I didn’t know that, that’s actually a better deal than at Trader Joes!

This product was provided by Clif Bar If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com

PCTR Santa Monica Mountain’s 50k

This is the 4th time in 5 years I have run this race (albeit once was the 30k) and the missed year I volunteered! It was my first ultra back in 2007 and this year it marked my 10th ultra start (first in two years) and 8th finish!

The race is pretty simple 5 hills looping over two valleys and a plateau, each hill is 3 miles up and 3 miles down for an elevation gain/loss of roughly 1000’, in between the hills you accumulate a mile of flat to get your 31 miles or 50k and that is basically it, you start, you run, you walk, you finish..simple.

PCTR as always put on a great event, well organized but low key, professional but friendly…and a chance to catch up with some friends; Emil, Billy and Dave were there along with some local Ultra glitteratti include Jimmy, Keira and Dom.

I’ll spare you the 1000 words race report, suffice to say, it was wet, dirty, fun and lasted a good seven plus hours, four or more of which were in the rain!

This is the same as 30%, 20%, 10% chance of sunshine right???

My camera lasted two hills and died so I have stolen photos along the way, non credits are my photos.

Race brief from Sara; Gortex to flesh, it’s very colorful crowd!

Me; clean, tidy and cold! (pic Emil)

The start of Hill 1

Back down Hill 1; Trail or River Run (pic Dave)

My friend Yoli going down Hill 2; it was a bit muddy here (pic Deo)

A break in the weather on the plateau of Hill 4…it didn’t last!

PCTR Santa Monica Mountains Highlights from Billy on Vimeo.

More Video from Dave

It wasn’t an easy day but like anything if you have the right mindset you can make it fun…as you tell by all the smiles!

Onward…

OMFG!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the Time Stamp on the email…it sold out in less than 10 minutes!

Wordless Wednesday…first this, then that!

 

Sunday…

2012…

Friday funnies…

Santa Clarita Marathon

Usually things come in halves, this race came in roughly quarters, three on the front end and one on the back end…and so on with the show!

Pouring rain, not LA Marathon 2010 pouring but nevertheless wet enough to merit a NorthFace jacket for at least the first two hours of the race accompanied me as I wound my way along, up, over, back, down, through and around Santa Clarita. Ironically the rain didn’t make it cold, it was the wind that blew the rain away that then made things cold, but wasn’t the weather that killed my race.

Nor was it my nutrition or hydration, in fact I was so well hydrated that I stopped to pee, although it did cross my mind to just go while moving but I avoided that. I am not sure but I do think I took on several liters through absorbtion!

Nope what got to me was the good old fashioned classic wall!

My target was sub 3:15 a BQ, my training plan predicted a 3:08 which was always going to be too fast so I was aiming for a 7:15 pace which would give me a 3:10 finish and some wiggle room for the 3:15 which was a 7:26 pace.

Miles 1-8 in 57: 03 an average 7:07 pace; no problems, my pace was solid, it varied according the terrain, which was deceptively rolling.

Miles 9-16 in 1:56: 21 pace dropped to an average 7:16 still on target, rain had eased and stopped, I stopped to take a stone out of my shoe.

Mile 17-20 in 32:36, now the pace was slowing fast; for average for these four miles was 8:09 and overall I was at 7:26.

Then BOOM! the wall…I plugged away for another couple of miles to 22 and with that I was toast!

Mile 23…8:58, Mile 24…9:13…Mile 25 9:40 and with the smell of the finish Mile 26 11:28 (WTF!!!) a couple of wiggly bits to make up the .20 and it was all over bar the screaming…mostly from my quads, with some background from a hip.

So what went wrong, well let’s talk about that, truth is I went out a bit fast, but only a bit, yeah the weather was bad, but not that bad and maybe an extra gel might have helped…maybe.

The truth is, as best I can tell, is my long runs were not as many or as long as they should have been, I did three 20 milers, one slow to cover the distance and two at not race pace (one was +20 and the other +15). The success I had with the Half Marathon training had me training at either race pace or race distance albeit that was my own deviation from the plan but one that paid off and I just didn’t have that this time around, I personally believe that at least one more 20 ideally a 22 miler and a 23/24 was needed, the bridge from 20 to 26 at the pace I want/need is just to0 big a gap to bridge without training runs.

Now the question is what to do in the Spring (or sooner) now I know (think I know) what the problem was! Surf City is an option in early February, given that potentially my first Tri is not until March…ugh well right now growing my legs back in time for my 50K in two weeks is my priority!

Anyway it was not all bad news, I did PR, taking nearly 15 minutes off of my Marathon PR which I have had since June 2007 and I was 47/390 OA and 14/44 in my AG!

That's three PRs out of the last three races so I must be doing something right!

Onwards…

Nuts!

I knew I would have to register early, last year this race sold out in four days, this year the organizers guessed at 48 hours…registration opened on November 1st at 9am, I was done by 9:30am by noon it was sold out; three hours THREE HOURS!!!

When I looked again around 3pm there was 750 people on the waitlist! Like I said Nuts!

This has me really worried about being able to register for IMAZ the day after race day on November 21st…oh didn’t I mention I was doing an Ironman next year? Lets hope Nuts is an adjective not an expletive come the 21st!

October’s training; the last big push…

October was really the last big push for my two November races, the first of which is this weekend. While the numbers may not look huge the month really consisted of three build weeks with a rest week in the middle and my taper started last week so the training was pretty intense in the “up” weeks.

Distance vs. Time for the last five weeks

• 388 total miles (+63 over September)
• 42:29 time, so about 10 hours a week (around a 3 hour per week gain)
• 160 miles running in 21:26 (September 151/20:47)
• 219 miles cycling in 13:40 ( September 171/9:45)
• 11,200 yards (5150 in September) what is worrying is this what I have to look forward to on a weekly basis
• Remaining time was stretching, foam rolling, P90X Ab Ripper and a bit of yoga!
• Longest ride 41 miles – 2:28 not the fastest ride but a nice hilly one
• Longest run 19.00 – 2:21, this was a real confidence booster, Marathon Pace +15 seconds
• Starting weight 167lb ending 168lb (from 187 at end of April)
• Two rest days…last one was 9/8!

With race day on Sunday I have one more run, an easy three miler, a massage and packet pick and then I am done and not a moment soon enough, I can feel my body starting to flirt with overtraining symptoms so have eased right off the gas this week. Of course everyone in the house is semi sick so I am in full on germ paranoia  mode too!

My immediate concern is to free off my neck, I am hoping to see a chiropractor today or tomorrow…other than that the hay is in the barn!