Phil Kriss's Duathon Race Report (and training details)

This race marked the second race trying my new strategy. For the last few months Chris Blair and I have been sucking our thumbs about how slow we run. We figure we are slow runners because we are bigger than most other triathletes.That proved to be mostly true until this weekend.In January I decided my runs needed to be tougher. Studying my splits and analyzing the data mile by mile, I came to the conclusion I suck in the “dead zone”. For me that is between 16-18 and 20 miles. In order to be better at that, I need to train more in that zone and add 15% more running in 2009. To do that and still have time to increase time swimming and riding, I decided to run 2 days a week (except for the bricks). One tempo run on Wednesdays with the Maple Valley mafia, and Sundays with David “Marathon Diet” Spooner.

I had heard rumors Dave was running the Orting Loop (21 miles) every Sunday he was not racing. So, decided regardless of if he was a jerk or he didn’t like me I would run it with him anyway.

Meanwhile, he heard war stories about the triathlon from me and others that showed up to run. Next thing he owns a bike and a wet suit and shows up to play.

Oh Yeah, the duathlon. That is what this is about…I got some last minute advise on heart rate management from my hero Kent Sizer. I decided to target 160 BPM from start to finish.

8.1 run time: 35:24 or a 6:56 pace! For me Smoking Hot! Heart rate 160+

28.8 mile Ride time: 1:25 or 20.2 MPH. Fair. Heart rate 160+ until I cramped in the middle of the first lap.

I had some difficulty on the ride. I am not sure if it was from my heart rate being too high, or being too cold, or poor nutrition or a combination. Anyway, I cramped on the way up Mud Mountain road and had to slow for about 10 miles to minimize cramping. If my heart rate was below 150 I was fine. I think that slowed me by 3-4 minutes. But, a 20.4 MPH average doing 2 laps up that hill is not bad for a 50 year old old guy.

Second 3.8 mile run time: 28:57 or 7:37. Needs improvement. I got my heart rate back up to 160, and hit 170BPM at the finish.

2:33 was my time. 22nd overall. 2^nd in age, but only to the reigning national duathlon champ in my age group. 5^th master.

Other Notes: When Chris Blair rides his junky bike, we are pretty much neck and neck except on hills given the same heart rate profiles. His Cervelo P3C is an unfair advantage compared to my POS bike. His 24+ MPH average proved that in my mind J

David Spooner defeated the “big guys can’t run” theory. He ran 6:30s on his first run and 6:40s on his second. Considering he ran the Boston Marathon 6 days earlier, and had completed 4 rides on his new bike as a new biker, and had never done a transition before, his 2:37 time is very impressive. I better learn to run or he will soon be showing me who is boss.

I think my new run in the dead zone strategy is working. 7:37 pace is not that fast but it is improving. Next week is the Tacoma City Marathon. Time to test it again.

Ricky Bobby is right. “I wanna go fast!”

Life is like a Load of Laundry

Forrest had a box of chocolates - on Mondays the Swedbergs have laundry..And Life at the Swedbergs must be pretty good by the looks of it! I just hung up a load and as I stepped back to admire my domestic handiwork (with banana bread in the over, BTW) I was a little less depressed that our dryer broke last night...

I'm hoping we win the neighborhood award for "Coolest Laundry" thanks to the RTB sponsors, Rad Racing, and the Hagens Berman Cycling Team.

I'm not posting a photo of the next load...

Phil Spencer's Grizzly Triathlon Report

The first race of the season is in the books. I’ll file this one in the “mixed results category.” For those that don’t want to suffer through more details than anyone should have to read for a sprint race, the short version is as follows: I finished first masters and first in my age group. Also managed 7th overall taking a minute off my time from last year. Had you told me that going in, I’d have been thrilled but the way the race played out I actually think I could have done better.

So Montana’s Grizzly Triathlon is quickly becoming my favorite early season race. By April I’m starting to get a little race fitness and a lot of training staleness. I’m dying to mix it up again and this race provides the perfect opportunity to test my form against some crazy fast guys. Normally I wouldn’t drive all the way to Montana for a race that is over in an hour but this one is different. The Missoula Stampede triathlon team jokingly calls this the “Montana State Championships” as everyone shows up making it the areas biggest triathlon. To give you an idea how popular this race is, this year’s edition sold out in just 8 days! This team seems to have an endless stream of speedsters, many of whom go off to have successful pro careers and they all seem to come back for this race.

So the day before the race the heat sheet comes out and this year I was included in the Male Elite category. As if that’s not intimidating enough, I’m splitting a lane with none other than Ben Hoffman. Now the nerves really started kicking in but I was equally excited to be racing with these guys. The format is a 1000 yrd pool swim where everyone is seeded by projected swim times. The first heats go off at 8:00am and go all morning finishing with the elite women and finally the elite men in the last heat at 1:45 in the afternoon. Being in the last heat is nice as I got to sleep in on a race morning! Somehow, for the second year in a row, we got great weather as race day was dry, sunny and by the time our wave was set to go, about 62 degrees.

Waiting for the last of the elite female wave to finish I’m looking
around to see the rest of my wave looking ridiculously lean and fit.
Matt Seeley was apparently trying to fly under the radar as he was entered under the pseudonym “Calamity Seeley,” and showed up with a massive Goatee. I’m talking about an entire winters growth that you
could sit and stroke while contemplating the mysteries of the world.
If it were grey he could have passed himself off as a Jedi Master.
Surprisingly, Ben was one of the least intimidating looking. He looked so young, like he just came off the set of Mayberry. He was also really nice which helped calm my nerves a bit. One of the benefits of being in the elite wave was that, unlike the rest of the athletes having to fight with 5 per lane, we raced two per lane. By that time everyone else was done so the entire pool was full of people cheering us on. Once the gun went off, as always, the nerves are gone and you just do what you’re trained to do. Ben and I hit the first wall together only to find out that he comes off the wall on his left and I come off on my right side leaving us staring directly into each others face. We went through the 100 in 1:03 then settled into about a 1:10 pace and this is how it would go for the first 500. I considered making faces to try and throw him off but thought better of it. Meanwhile the swimmer in the lane directly to my right (17 year old age grouper Sean Niccolucci) is blasting off like he’s swimming an all out 100 and his lane mate (52 year old John
Weston), Montana’s version of Brad Williams, was not far behind.
Wonder boy hopped out with a time of 10:16 and John just behind in 10:40 for the first two out. By the 500 mark Ben had clearly tired of looking into my ugly mug and started easing away coming out in 11:34. I followed him 13 seconds later in 11:47.

Out on the road, Ben just slowly eased away as I knew he would. I caught the youngster just a few miles in and expected the evergreen Mr. Weston to come back so I could have my moment in second place before the masses caught me. Well, John was still well up the road but I made it to just before the turn around before Calamity Seeley went by, luxurious beard flowing in his slipstream. We hit the turn together and, much to my dismay, there were 4 guys together just behind us. I expected Matt to disappear up the road and the others to come flying by but Matt just sat out there about 100 yards up front the rest of the way back to transition. Adam Jensen and Matt Shryock finally caught me a couple miles before T2 and the three of us and John Weston all came into transition together with a couple more right behind. Finishing with those guys was a real thrill for me as I’ve never been in sight of most of those names after the bike.

So Ben was long gone, Matt had left T2 just a few seconds before we all pulled in and then there were about 5 of us all heading out at the same time. Adam looked comfortable as he slowly pulled away as did Matt who was flying. Brendon Halpin also went past me like I was running in cement. The run is along the Clarks Fork river on a loose gravel trail that makes it impossible to get into any rhythm as your feet slip around. Just before the turn, there is a detour that takes you straight up a single track hill that spikes your heart-rate to the max before an equally difficult descent that twists back down to the trail. To this point I hadn’t looked back but at the turn I got the chance to see three guys right behind me and they all looked like they were flying. I had about 1.5 miles to go and I went into complete vacuum cleaner breathing mode trying to hold them off and hang onto 6th place. As I lumbered along with about 400 meters to go, 22 yr. old Graham Meng came easing soundlessly past me…or quite possibly making all kinds of noise but with the God-awful racket I was producing at that point, I couldn’t have heard a train approaching. Everyone was screaming as we went by but sadly, I was already as deep into the red as I could go and had absolutely no response finishing 6 seconds in arrears at 1:04.12.

So for those of you keeping track...inspired by his awesome lane- mate, Ben went on to win handily coming in at 57:39 followed by the chia faced Calamity Seeley at 1:00.53. Local studs Mat Shryock and Brendan Halpin duked it out finishing in 1:01:03, and 08 respectively. Coming back from injury, Adam Jensen still killed it for 5th at 1:02:12. Finally that little bastard Graham pipping me at the line for 6th…Arnie, you need to teach me some of those blocking techniques!

As always, these early races give us a great barometer to gage what is going well and where we need to work. I was really happy to have taken over a minute off my time from last year and finishing 7th in that field was great for me…my run , however, was an absolute abomination.

Oh, Oh, one other thing...Lindsey Corbin was supposed to race but was still recovering from last weekends half-Iron so she was all over the course cheering us (really cheering ME) on. She was so impressed with my race she demanded she get a photo with me (it was really almost embarrassing for the poor girl the way she was following me around)! Cute as a button that one. And thus ends my Montana adventure. Special thanks to Leo for his great company!

Mary Hanna's Yakima River Canyon Marathon Report

Mary Hanna and Cliff Richards did the Yakima Marathon this weekend with some other RTB members. Great race report from Mary below. Congratulations to all of you!!

First the men's race: This was a very close race. Joe Darda (recent UW runner) won in 2:35:12, and second place was two-time Yakima winner, Manuh Santos in 2:35:32, a four or five minute PR for him. I for get who got third, but my friend and fellow SRC runner, Glen Weissman, was fourth in 2:46ish. My other friend and fellow SRC runner, Cliff Richards, finished fifth in 2:54. He was also the first master, because Glen won't be a master for two more weeks. :) There were three women highlighted in the paper as potential winners: Selina Danko (3rd last year, just minutes behind me), Amber Green (CWU runner, 2nd marathon, but shooting for 3:10-3:15), and me. I looked around when I started the race and found myself in the lead, but after a couple of miles, Selina joined me. I didn't know her, but guessed that was who this was. We ran together for about 13 miles. After a few miles, we started to hear a woman's voice behind us. It was Amber, and she slowly caught up to us. I really enjoyed having the three of us running together. I felt like the veteran, and I was counting on my marathon experience and YRCM experience to get me through. I knew that we were all three running under our goal time. I hung back a little, but stayed with them. Then Selina dropped back and told me to hang with Amber. I said OK. I ran along with Amber a couple of miles and noticed our splits were slipping. At mile 18, I decided to make my move. Not knowing what would happen, I picked the pace up just a notch and never looked back. I found out in the newspaper Sunday that Amber had hung within 30 yards of me for the next three miles! At mile 23, my calves started cramping, so I slowed down and took shorter steps. That kept the cramping at bay, and I was able to get to the finish before Selina (2nd) and Amber (3rd).
It was my slowest Yakima and the closest women's finish since 2001. The weather has never been better, though, and I had a lot of fun. :)