It is official. I am now a half Ironman! My unofficial time is 6 hours and 8 minutes. I feel great and am happy with my time. My personal goal was 6 hours and 15 minutes so I beat that. My only disappointment is that I was on target for a
sub 6, but the weather just didn’t want to cooperate and I was slowed down by a 15 mph head wind on the last 15 miles of the bike. Overall, it was a lot of fun and it very well organized. I can’t wait to do it again. A full report is coming as soon as I can get in front of a computer.
Stay tuned!

We made it to Benton Harbor without incident except having to turn back to get my water bottles. We parked about a mile away and I biked to the transition area to get setup. Very well organized so far. After setting up, we headed back to the car for a pb&j and banana before heading down the beach to the swim start. My wave doesn’t start for over and hour, so I may catch a couple of z’s before we start.
Stay tuned!

I was at the pool this morning and I ran into a familiar face.  I started talking to the guy in the next lane, “D”, and realized he was at Tri Del Sol.  I recognized him from the start of the race because he was cracking jokes about his wetsuit.  We talked for quite a bit.  He is off to great start to his life as a triathlete.  (“D”- If you find the blog, it was great to meet you).  Two months ago, he couldn’t even swim and has now completed two triathlons in the past couple weeks.  I may run into him this weekend at Steelhead where he is going to be cheering on friends or at a couple other local triathlons in the next coming months.

As for training, this week is a light week as I taper down for Steelhead.  One of the criticisms (actually the only criticism I have heard) of the Matt Fitzgerald plans I have been using is that they don’t have much taper before the final race (only one week in this case).  However, I am not big on a long taper so this suits me just fine.  Last week was a full week of training, albeit a bit less intense than some previous weeks.  This week however, is much lighter with just enough activity to get my legs moving each day.

Still finalizing the logistical plans for Steelhead.  Yes, I know I am way behind schedule.  The monkey wrench is the fact that Benton Harbor is drivable from Grand Rapids (about an hour and half) on race morning.  However, there is no race morning packet pickup which means I will have to drive in and back on Friday as well.  On the bright side, it will give me a chance to check out the course and everything beforehand.  That should hopefully make Saturday a little less hectic.

Finally getting around to posting about my long bike ride yesterday.  I did a 3 hour ride out the White Pine Trail past Rockford and back with a few laps around Reeds Lake to add on some distance.  I got a late start to the morning; the prospect of being able to sleep in until 10:00 got the best of me, so I didn’t head out on my ride until around noon.  When I started the ride it was cool and overcast, but the sun came out about a half hour into ride, reminding me that I forgot to put on sunscreen.  I did get a little red on my shoulders, but it isn’t too bad.

This way my first ride with my new water bottle holder.  I bought a Profile Design saddle mount water bottle holder the other week in preparation for Steelhead.  I usually go through a water bottle per hour, so I figured I would need at least 3 bottles for the bike portion.  This would give me an extra two water bottles – or so I thought.  With the way it mounts, my saddle bag (which hold my spare tube, tools, CO2 cartridge, etc.) no longer fits under the seat.  So, in order to carry the essentials, I stuffed everything into an old water bottle and put it in the mount.  I still get the one extra water bottle, which is all I really need, so I am happy.  Other than the issue with the saddle bag, the water bottle holder works great.  Each holder has a rubber band around it which holds the bottles securely so that they don’t rattle around.  The bottles are in there pretty tight and I didn’t attempt to try and pull one out while I was riding, but may have to try that this week.

My ride on the White Pine Trail was much busier than it was last time; probably because it was later in the day.  I was very surprised at the number of people riding without helmets.  And they were more than just casual riders.  I saw riders on triathlon bikes in aero with no helmets.  I know it’s relatively safer on the trail rather than the road, but still, there are quite a few cross streets (that no one stops at) and lots of other traffic on the trail itself.  My biggest concern was the kids on bikes (or more to the point – their parents) who weren’t paying attention to others on the trail and would drift from side to side without a care in the world.

It was busiest the closer I got to Rockford, but was quite peaceful at other portions of the trail that were further from the trail heads.

One of the quieter sections of the trail.

In the end, it was a 50.14 mi ride in 2:52:37 averaging 17.4 mph.  I felt pretty good at the end which is a good sign for next weekend.  If I could keep the same pace for the bike portion, that would get me in under 3:15 under the bike.  I’d like to get a bit closer to an even 3 hours for the bike, so I may try and push my average closer to 18mph.  It may be fairly easy to meet that goal because I won’t have any of the traffic stops during the race, but I’ll just have to see how I feel.

The full course

Post-ride with Green Lightning and the Red Bullet in the background

I hope you are comfortable and have a drink, because this is going to be a long post.  It has been nearly a week since my last post and I really don’t have any excuse for not posting other than being busy.  Throughout the week, I would have all sorts of good blog post titles pop into my head, but then I never get around to posting.  So, I’ll make up for it here and cover as much as I can remember.  Also, I have a lot more pictures in this post.  Now that I have my fancy schmancy iPhone, I have a camera with me all the time.  On top of that, my camera-happy wife has a new purse that allows her to have her camera at the ready at any given moment (even when I try to run her over).

Brick Workout

I have now done two brick workouts this season.  The pictures below are actually from my first brick last Sunday, and then I did another yesterday.  Both were basically an hour ride with a 30 or 20 minute run.  My next brick will actually be a race – the Grand Haven Tri – on Sunday.  It will be my first Olympic distance triathlon.  I am going to be treating it as a workout more than an actual race as I am making Steelhead my main focus.  I do have a secret goal in mind, but I’m not going to be too disappointed if I don’t make it.

 
Attempting to run over my camera-happy wife.

 
After my first brick workout of the season.

Doesn’t my lovely (and clean) wife look thrilled to get a sweaty hug and kiss??

 Ok, she looks a bit happier now!

Cleaning Green Lightning

After about 800 miles on my new bike (about 300 or so on the trainer), I have done two important things: given my bike a full cleaning and named it.  I have decided on the name Green Lightning.  The pictures make it look sort of yellow, but the bike is actually more of a lime color, hence the name. 

As for the bike cleaning, I am still getting used to having my camera with me and forgot to take before pictures.  All I have are after pictures, so you’ll just have to trust me that it was filthy.  On top of being dirty, I was noticing a few clicking noises that were giving me a few worries.  The sounds were coming from the crank area, and I found I sometimes felt the rubbing in my foot.  Along with cleaning the bike, I took apart one of my pedals and re-greased it.  I’m not sure if it was the grease or simply the cleaning, but the bike is riding like new now.  No noises, no rubbing, and it feels even faster than before.

I even scrubbed the handle bar grip down.  Whoever came up with the
idea of gray handle bars was looking at form rather than function; it gets
filthy quickly.

 My bike, Green Lightning, all clean and shiny

Flipping Out at the Pool

No, not flipping out in an angry way, but flipping out as in doing flip turns.  Up until this week, I would do all of my turns at the pool by simply touching the wall and turning around.  I never did flip turns out of fear of hitting my foot on the edge of the pool or simply embarrassing myself.  However, this past week was a pretty slow week and I had the lane to myself, so I decided to give it a try.  It wasn’t that bad, and I got the hang of it quickly.  Nowhere near as fluid as some swimmers, but there is always room for improvement.

Now that I have had a couple of workouts with the flip turns, I have realized a couple things.  First, they are fun.  It makes me feel like a real swimmer (which I am not).  Second, I think it will make me a better swimmer and improve my swim breathing.  My old method of turning around would give me chance for a long breath each time I reached the wall.  With flip turns, as with open water swimming, you don’t get that luxury and have to rely on getting the most out of breathing while you swim. 

Week Totals

I’m still not quite used to the low (relatively speaking) miles I am putting in running.  I am usually more comfortable getting 30-35 miles a week.  After the tri this weekend, I may up my run workouts or even add on another day with running to up my mileage.  That said, I really can’t complain about getting over 9 and half hours of training in this week.

June Totals

Tour Time

I am watching the Tour de France as I write this: Stage 3 replayed (of course I am checking on the Tigers score during commercials).  Despite the montage or TdF crashes they just showed, it makes me want to go out for a ride.  The riders all seem so powerful and graceful as they weave through the streets.  It amazes me how they all ride together in such a tight pack; like a bunch of ants as my wife said.  As I watch, I try to pick up ideas on how to improve my form and overall cycling.

Reason to Exercise

Jennie and I spent Sunday at a Whitecaps minor league baseball game.  Their latest publicity stunt this year was to introduce the Fifth Third Burger.  It is $20 of heart attack inducing pleasure and you can see the rules and nutritional facts below (click on the picture for a full sized view).  Basically it is 4889 calories and nearly 300 grams of fat.  Keep in mind that the average 180lb runner only burns 3573 calories in a marathon.  If you take the challenge and are able to finish the burger by the end of the game, you get immortalized with your picture on the wall and a T-shirt.  There were probably 50 or so people that have already met the challenge.  My favorite part of the rules is “Burger reversals result in disqualification.”  I’m fairly confident that I would have a “burger reversal” if I attempted the challenge.

If this isn’t a reason to go out for a run,
I don’t know what is.

Here is video of the burger being made.
12 inch bun, 5 burger patties, chili, sour cream,
Fritos (yes, Fritos), and much, much more.

Tricking Google

I got an interesting email from Stuart over at RunSaturday.Com this week.

"I just Googled "avoiding runners stomach on the ironman run" – and your blog came up as the top hit! Sadly though I think it was because of a Freudian typo – it’s the bit in your bio that says "My name is Kevin Neumann and I am an avoid runner" – I think you meant avid – although I guess it could have been deliberate "

While it is kind of cool that my site popped up so high on an organic Google search, I decided to fix the typo rather than to continue to trick Google.

Words of Wisdom of the Week

Both of the following words of wisdom involve making it through the difficult parts of the bike.  The first is a mantra to chant over and over as you churn through the hills and even the long, flat stretches.  The second is the advice of cyclist Ignatas Konovalovas.  Feel the burn, use the burn, love the burn.

• KMF – Keep Moving Forward – Courtesy of Iron Trish
• You Must Be a Masochist – Courtesy of Carol at the Triathlon Training Blog

Hopefully you made it to the end. If you did, thanks for sticking around.  If you didn’t, I guess you probably aren’t reading this, so I could call you all sorts of names and harass you, but I won’t – this time.