Spectating IMAZ

Spectating an iron distance race doesn't come without its own challenges. One must consider weather, nutrition, locations for viewing and basic comforts. While you are there to support a loved one or friend who is constantly moving forward, sometimes you stand in the same place for an hour, just to see them for 5 seconds. I have friends out there today who plan to finish in a range of time from under 9 hours to 16 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds. Care is needed to endure your own personal iron day. 

That doesn't mean I can slack on my own training today and there is no better motivation than watching 2,000 people in an ironman. I expect at some point I will be walking or running for several miles giving moral support to those that need it. I will have my mountain bike to move around the course to take pictures. Add to that volunteering at aid stations and meeting up with friends. What I try to do today for my personal fitness has to intergrate seamlessly in some else's much bigger occasion   

Let start with some added weight, 28lbs according to my hanging weight scale. That is the ruck weight I will be starting with for the day. The pack will not leave my back much during the day. This will make every thing I do physically that much more difficult which will help in obstacle course racing for when I do and do not need to carry a similar sized pack. As some of this is food, beer and water, The weight will drop as the day progresses. Which is fine because later in the day I will probably be running some miles with it. 

The mountain bike will certainly get several miles on it today. Riding the course between aid stations and potential friend meet ups will demand speed that driving around the course will not provide and walking will be too slow. 

A jacket and running pants for the chill after sunset, sunblock and lipbalm, advil, baby wipes, throat lozenges for long hours of yelling, pepto, bandaids, sharps, headlamp, some duct tape, plus several other items are stored inside. Along with my camera, portable iPhone charger and assorted other items I personally think are required daily carry. 

The day is all about the athlete, but don't forget about yourself. 

Its not enough to exist. I am going to live. 

Race Report: Mad Mud Run

I woke up the morning of the race feeling pretty crappy. I was officially ten days into a sinus, throat issue that leaves me with a hoarse voice and feeling about 75% as long as I am taking cold medicine. Even after the ritualistic snorts, hacks and gags and clearings I still felt like making it through the Mad Mud Run 4 mile race was going to be a greater effort than I wanted to deal with. But I went, because ya know what, we can’t always race or train in the world of unicorns and glitter. Often times you have to dig deeper than perfect world.

I will admit once the race was over I drove straight to the Minute Clinic next to my house and then waited 3x longer than it took to finish the race to see the doctor. After my co-pay, probing and questioning, I was told I probably had allergies and try over the counter Sudafed.

After all is run & wet

A face in the crowd. When I got to the race, I kept looking for a familiar face but none were to be seen. As this is mostly a team event, there were lots of people in happy little gaggles able to dissipate their nerves among their friends. When the time came for my heat,  the solo’s, not many males or females were lined up, comparative to teams, which meant that these people were here to get it on.  I was hoping for mud early and often, as I train with heavy muddy shoes on purpose. I know when thick mud is stuck to your shoes and socks, it’s much harder physically to hold a normal pace if you haven’t trained for it and that starts to affect you mentally. Alas not to be, not much mud in the Mad Mud Run.

It always feels good to pass a CrossFitter. These people are pretty cocky before endurance and obstacle races but when it comes down to the running of the clock, they gasp and flop around like fish out of water between ¾ -1 mile into the lightening pace they set for the group off the line. Totally gassed and wondering why all the double under jump roping they did over the last month wasn’t enough to handle a 7 minute mile pace in dirt and sand for 4 miles.   It wasn't even the end of the first mile about 20 people dropped suddenly from the pack like planes shot out of the sky, nose diving into the scrub to cough, dry heave and put hands to their hips.

Training and genetics, the age old story. I never stopped running as fast as I could, mouth breathing all the way with my nose congested, but I won’t pretend that I kept my sight on the front pack for longer than about half way. There were some genuinely fast guys in the front, yes a few wearing CrossFit shirts (they are not all slow, ya know).  The trail was some desert hard pack but mostly very soft dirt and sand which put desert runners on an equal footing. I may train for trails but I don’t have the natural fast running pace some people are born with and those guys at the front were easily running low 6 minute pace.  So my goal was to just not let anyone that looked within about 5 years of my age passing me and try to take down a couple of guys along the way.

 

Obstacles are an equalizer. I was able to see each obstacle about 50 yards before I reached it and got to see the three guys in front of me tackle them. This is where I was really happy about the training I have been doing because at every obstacle I easily gained ground on the competition. On climbing walls it would take guys 8-10 seconds with lots of wasted foot and hand placements, I would vault them in 2-3 seconds. One man in front of me was half way through the low crawl obstacles when I entered and I passed him and completed it before he got back up. But he was just a bit faster than me and would catch up between obstacles staying 20 yards ahead until the next challenge.

Overall the obstacles were good, not as many as I would have liked but this was designed as a fun team building event with friends. The final obstacle and only mud bath on the course in front of the finish line. And I made sure to give it my all to show the crowd, along with some competitors waiting for their wave to start, a good high speed base stealing slide into the goop.  After finishing, I overheard a mother telling her son that he was about the 20^th person to finish. I came in right behind him. So I think I made the top 25-30 overall for solos. The results will get posted later with the photos.  Based on my watch I ran 3.89 miles in 30 minutes or a roughly 7:40 pace through a lot of sand and dirt and of course overcoming several obstacles including the long mud pit along the way. I don’t think anyone in front of me was in my age or older.

Any chance to get muddy and push the pace on a run is a plus in my book, sinus issue notwithstanding.

It's not enough to exist. I am going to live. 

Stomach Flu

The house was full of excitement Saturday and Sunday, why I am stating that on the following Friday I will get to in less than a minute. Saturday morning I finished first overall in a race for the first time in my life. Later that day Mighty Mo's flag football team went 12-0 for the entire season and won their divisions championship. By the time we collapsed in the house we were jubilant and exhausted. 

On Sunday I was physically wiped out, still feeling the effects of the previous days red zone 5k on my lungs, scrapes and burns on my forearms and knees from obstacles and 4 hours of photography in consecutively more adrenaline fueled football games. By mid day Sunday my lower torso was having stabbing pains and by the end of the day I decided I either had food poisoning or my head cold had turned into a stomach flu. Whatever it was I was pretty much banished to the bedroom through Wednesday. 

I was very disappointed in the sudden turn of health. Here I had been healthy all year long, nary an issue and then the week before my winter race season I get a head cold and then the week before I have a guest, another race this weekend and have several friends flying in for Ironman Arizona I get a stomach issue. My greatest fear was not that I would be sick during all the appointments I had made but that I would infect someone prior to their race effort on Sunday and they would not have the ironman they deserve. What really pissed me off is that my training partner, who is also my chiropractor, is also racing in ironman this weekend and if I went to see him for my rib, I might have got him sick. I couldn't risk that so I've been dealing with this probably popped out rib in my back for over a week now. Self adjustments using the foam roller have been somewhat successful. 

Man, this post sounds like a Debbie Downer. But hey, I am an optimist. I started feeling better Thursday. Anything is possible with the right combination of cold medicines. I do not believe that I will affect anyone's race and I shouldn't miss any of the festivities this weekend. In my circle of friends the ironman fun starts Thursday night with a team dinner and ends probably middle of next week when the first time finishers get their tattoo. And I have a mud run Saturday. I am not going to push it on this one, just enjoy the mud. I don't want to waste myself for the weekend again. 

It's not enough to exist. I am going to live. 

Race Report #4 2011: Toro Loco Challenge

Having a head cold is often times the worst way to enter a race. That was my thoughts driving south last Saturday to participate in the Toro Loco Challenge, a 5k obstacle race in the flat middle of nowhere between Phoenix and Tucson. 

I felt very rushed. The race was planned as my first winter race and it was a little over an hour away. Due to rain the weekend before my sons football playoffs were rescheduled to take place at the same time as the race. And they were the number ranked team. And I am the team photographer. I was also going to this race all by myself. I haven't been to a solo event in a long time, where I knew no one, I drove with no one. So I felt divided and alone. Once I got there I chatted with several wonderful volunteers and a few other racers and became more relaxed. Everyone was very nice. 

The race itself was not the best marked, nor the best volunteered for that first wave but I had a lot of fun. Enough fun that I never unjustified in the investment of time driving there and back, how much gas I went through or the time away from my son's first play off game of the day. It was fun enough that I did it with a head cold and sore rib after falling off a practice obstacle at the park the week before. 

In a slight change of my normal race recap, instead of discussing all the nuances and obstacles during the event, I want to just state that I was the first across the finish line.

Its not enough to exist. I am going to live.  

My scale is a damn Greek Siren

I hate my scale, and I don't use the word Hate very often because its a really powerful and yet overused word. When discussing my scale, I can't help but utter the strongest terms possible to describe it. It does not matter if the scale gives me the number I want or the number I dread, it still ends up screwing with my day. 

First off, I wait till I feel at some point I am the lightest I have felt since the last time I stood on the scale. And then I look down as if my feet are planted over a sliver of chasm leading straight to hell and I am standing over it looking in. If the number is favorable, I feel that I need to celebrate the success and want to make it a cheat day. If the number is 'the Devil' then I feel like nothing I've done in the past few days/weeks has mattered and I want to make it a cheat day because, "...watching my portions and food choices ain't working."

I put standing on a scale up there with getting a shot. Complete misery. And don't get me started on how every scale reads just a bit differently than the one you want to trust and of course the average body fluctuates weight on the scale based on what is being worn, what has been consumed that day and all sorts of other real and  ephemeral possibilities. 

I know, I know, don't listen to the scale. Throw it out. Go on how you feel, not what you weigh. How your clothes fit, not the scale. But like the Greek seductress, I am compelled to listen to its words. 

I am not going to exist, I am going to live. 

Sometimes I need supervision

I have nothing against personal trainers. Hell, I've been one personally and professionally over 15 years of being in the fitness industry. Yet I rarely use them for my own results. I see all the benefits, yet call it hubris or experience but I don't see the reasoning of a long term training package for myself when I can still kick my own ass in a workout. 

Man did I kick my own ass last weekend. I am still paying for it a few days later, much to the pleasure and pocket of my licensed massage therapist. Her remark yesterday that my right side felt like it had been hit by a truck, don't ask how she knows how that feels, needed no response from me except for the grunts she produced loosening a the larger muscles of my back. 

There are times when I bite off more than I can chew writing up workouts. Instead of changing it from a physical workout to a mental workout to get through it half way through, I should have just pulled up on it. This is one of those situations when having a trainer would have come in handy. (See I can play both sides of this).

Another lesson learned, one I'll put in the same category as brain freezes from eating something too cold really fast. 

It's not enough to exist. I am going to live. 

Winter race season

Normally this time of year is devoted to marathon or Ironman training for events like the PF Chang Rock N' Roll marathon in January, Lost Dutchman Marathon in February or the former April Ironman Arizona date. This year however, I've been able to cobble together a decent and diverse Winter racing season that incorporates fun, speed, challenges and the distances balance my training time. Lets take a look. 

11/12 Toro Loco Challenge. A 5k obstacle course race in Eloy, Arizona. I think this is an inaugural event as far as I know. The date fit and I look forward to racing in an area of Arizona I have not spent much time. 

11/19 Mad Mud Run 4 mile course in Scottsdale, Arizona. These are always fun events. The trick with events that are 'mud' runs in Arizona is that they are usually running on desert trail, navigate a few obstacles and then a mud pit at the finish line. The event host, Sierra Adventure Sports, is a company that I have followed for a few years and they have impressed me with their risk taking in putting on events in sketchy desert areas. 

12/10 Sally Meyerhoff 5k road race in Tempe, Arizona. Sally was an amazingly gifted local athlete who was killed in March 2011 in a cycling accident. Just months before her death she had won a half ironman, became the Xterra world champion and won the PF Chang marathon, the first American female to do so. This race is supporting a foundation in her name and her friends from the endurance community, worldwide and locally, plan on making this race a true gem. 

12/10 12k of Christmas in Gilbert, Arizona. It has been a very long time since I have done a real 'Christmas' run with lots of costumes and season spirit. I look forward to just enjoying the scenery. It is not a typo that both Sally's 5k and 12k of Christmas are shown a 12/10.  Sally's run starts at 8am, I expect a rather fast 5k time, then hop in the car and drive to the 12k that starts at 10am. I have never done two different races in different locations on the same day so that will be good fun. 

1/14/12 Tough Mudder in Wickenburg, Arizona.  I drove 28 hours round trip to do the first Tough Mudder in Bear Valley, California in October 2010, thankfully this is much closer. I have been an obstacle course enthusiast for years, since my time in the Army and finding something similar in the civilian world was sorely lacking. TM let me see this new category of racing really start to be taken seriously. 

2/11/12 Super Spartan Race, Chandler, Arizona. This company absolutely rocks, it will be my second time doing this race at this location and I expect the obstacles and the course to be taken up a notch. While this may be only my only Spartan race for the winter, I expect to travel to a few of their other events throughout 2012.  The brilliance behind Spartan is that they have four levels of races and my goal is to complete all four, including the Death Race, a once a year race that the race directors only provide a mandatory gear list and do not tell the contestants what the events are or how long the race will last. 

2/18/12 GORUCK Challenge, Phoenix, Arizona. Hosting 'classes' around the world almost every weekend of the year, this company has brought the military conditioning mentality to the public. It is not a race, it is a team building event that is run by former and current members of the US Army Special Forces. Each city event has two classes that start in the middle or the night and last 15-20 miles and between 8-10 hours.  The mandatory equipment is a GORUCK pack, bought or borrowed from the company as these events are really designed to be product testing of the packs. And based on body weight each person carry's three or four paver bricks in the pack for weight. 

I have an open weekend on 12/3 that I may try to fill at the last minute. There is a half marathon I have given a soft commitment to running in Las Vegas. Its actually a Sunday night (12/4) run on the strip. I have a few team mates from AZTRICLUB that are already committed. However on 12/3, there is a 5-8 hour adventure race only a couple miles from my house at Saguaro Lake called Desert Rage Adventure Race. I would rather do that event for many reasons. 

I am pretty excited to pack the next few months with these races and be able to add to this schedule as peer pressure and personal satisfaction demand like turkey trots, New Years races, maybe the odd super sprint triathlon. I'd really like to open up my season in the Spring and Summer for destination events where friends live, combining good friends and healthy racing. 

It's not enough to exist. I am going to live.