Black Diamond Half Ironman Race

Swim 1.2 miles,  Bike 56 miles, Run13.1 miles.  Half the distance of the full Ironman triathlon. 

Over my many years of doing triathlons I had always entertained the idea of going longer than Olympic and Sprint distances races but for whatever reason never pulled the trigger for the longer distances until this weekend.  Yesterday I competed in my first half ironman distance triathlon in Black Diamond, Washington.

I had registered for the race about 3 weeks ago just after completing Scoggins Valley Olympic triathlon.  Considering all the training I have been doing for Ironman Arizona, I knew I had the fitness level to complete the race at a pretty good pace for me.  What I didn't anticipate however was my lower back issues resurfacing the day before the race.  I believe the back pain occurred at some point during the 4 hour drive up to Washington as I was fine when I left Oregon.  I got to the park the afternoon before the race to set up for the bike transition area and felt a slight twinge/pain in my back.  I chalked it up to sitting in the car for the last 4 hours.  As I completed my packet pick up and bike transition, the pain grew stronger.  I knew instantly that this was not just a sore back but rather my ongoing back issue reoccurring at the most inapprorpriate time.  I had no other option than to deal with as best I could. 

I was staying with my friend Kelly who lives in Black Diamond.  While at his house I kept taking Advil and tried to stretch that lower portion of my back.  I applied a heat pack to it and hoped it would subside the next morning in time for the race.  No such luck.  I believe this condition may be hereditary as many members of my family have the same issue.  Again the only thing I could do is deal with it.  Race morning was upon me, I had no choice.

We woke early on Saturday did some stretching, applied more heat, popped my Advil, ate oatmeal and bannas and headed off to the lake once I found my missing car keys.

We got to Nolte State Park around 7:30am and the race was to start at 9am after our 8:45 race briefing.  I finished setting up my transition zone with my bike gear and running gear.  Around 8:15 I put on my wetsuit and headed down to the lake for a little warm up swim in the 64 degree water.  I was very comfortable in the lake warming up until a team swimmer warming up ran head on into me  in the lake.  Crash!  I asked him if he was ok and mentioned something about it being his fault and his nose has been broken before.  In fact it wasn't anyone's fault, we were warming up in cold dark water, these things happen.

The swim start would be a mass start with all the males swimming first at 9:00.  We all lined up for the count down.  After counting down the final 10 seconds the gun sounded and we were off.  What happened next was total mayhem for the next 3 or 4 minutes as I had bodies all over me in the churning water.  I kept running into and over people and then wham!  One of the many swimmers in the pack hit me square in the face and knocked my goggles off.  That hurt but it got me pissed as well.  A quick readjustment of my goggles and I kicked it out of the pack and settled into my place on the lake.  I quickly calmed down and settled in for 2 laps around the lake for 1.2 miles of swimming.  I came out of the water at  32:47 which is a good swim for me.  That placed me 49/253 in the overall standings for the swim.  Nice thing about the swim is I didn't feel the back pain.  Off to the 56 mile bike portion of the race.

I was pretty happy with my swim and there were a lot of bikes in the transition zone when I headed out.  I knew that the bike would present a real challenge for my back as I would be in the aero position for a couple of hours and the course had a few rolling hills that I would face.  I decided again to put the pain out of my mind and focus on keeping my cadence.  I wanted to have decent ride.  This bike course is fantastic.  The country setting is perfect for this race and you can really open it up out there.  As this was my first long course race, I kept reminding myself to temper the pace as I still had a half marathon to run after this.  I held back to about 80% of my full effort.  The course consisted of 2 loops and an out and back portion.  I really enjoyed myself on the bike.  I should have watched my nutrition more though as I only ate 1 chocalate GU and one kids Cliff bar along with 1 1/2 bottles of Cytomax and water.  In retrospect, that wasn't enough.  I need to force myself to take in more nutrition on future races.  I finished the bike portion of the race in 2:46:07 with and average pace of 20.23 mph placing me 69/249.  I did this by focusing on the cadence and ignoring the lower back pain which by this point has been exacerbated and elevated from bike ride.

I racked the bike after in getting back into the transition area.  I did several deep squats to try to eleviate the pain before setting off on the run.  Nothing worked.  I pulled the brim of my hat down and put one foot in front of the other for a shuffled run.  After 3 miles I couldn't take the pain any longer and began to run/walk as best I could.  There is a portion of the run that takes place on a gravel deep pitted road and that section was hell on my back.  I decided to try to run from aid station to aid station.  That's what kept me going for the most part.  Several points along the way I saw a fellow triathlete that is doing Ironman Arizona as well and Greg gave me the motivation to try to regain the focus.  I am sure he doesn't know it, but he pulled me a long at several points as I tried to catch up to him to talk.  I wouldn't be able to talk with him until the race was over.  I saw Greg at the 6.5 mile turn around a top the hill and around mile 10.  We were re-routed to the gravel pitted road for miles 10-11 and I walked a good portion of that section.  I had to remind myself not to get discouraged by the throngs of runners passing me as I continued to drop in the rankings.  One thing about triathlon is the unexpected can grab you at any time during the race to ruin your day.  You just deal with it and perservere.  I finished the 13.1 mile run in 2:32:17 which is a far cry from my best half marathon time of 1:52.  Oh well.

I finished my first half ironman triathlon in 5:58:07 which placed me 131/226 finishers and beat my expected of time of 6 hours.  In spite of my back issues, I had a great race out there today.  The course was great and the fellow athletes are not only inspiring but very supportive of one another.

After the race I signed up for a massage to try to work out the back pain.  I was presented with the option of trying accupuncture which I gladly accepted.  It's amazing what 5 needles placed in the hand did for my lower back pain.  It almost instanteously eliminated the pain.  I guess my CHI is off balance!  Seriously though the accupuncture truely worked.  I am going to look into incorprating it into my training and life.

On the drive home I had time to reflect again on how truely blessed I am in life.  I couldn't wait to get home to my wife and sons whom I love dearly and share with them my second love, the love of triathlon yet again.

Suffering..

I have had a lot of time to contemplate various topics during my long rides and runs while training for Ironman.  One topic that keeps surfacing is the amount of "suffering" one endures when training for and racing an Ironman.  During this morning's 13.5 mile run in the rain I had a lot of time to contemplate this issue. 

Does one really suffer in Ironman?  Let's analyze this a little closer shall we.  Those that compete in Ironman triathlons have put in a lot of miles and time training to be certain.  The have swam, ran and cycled ad nauseam by the time the event takes place.  On race day they will be out on the course anywhere from 8 to 17 hours trying to complete the 140.6 mile course as quickly as they can.  Most assuredly these athletes are exposed to a great amount of physical stress.  But are they suffering?

To further review this question consider these few facts.  Many of these competitors are financially secure.  They spend a lot of money on equipment.  The bikes used in triathlon alone can range anywhere from $1500 to $10,000.  Then you need to upgrade components and add wheel sets and other fine accessories.  You'll need pedals, shoes, helmets, sunglasses, hydration systems, pumps, extra tires, tubes and various other goodies to enable you to get the speed you desire out on the course.  When it's all said and done another $1000+ is easily dropped on this equipment.

You'll need a wetsuit for the swim which run anywhere from $200 to $700.  What good is a wetsuit without a pool to train for the swim?  Pool membership!  How much does that cost?  Goggles?  Swimsuit? Fins and hand paddles?  You get the point.

Running gear.  Just shoes right?  Wrong.  Socks, shoes, shorts, shirts, hat, fuel belt, several pairs of shoes, GPS watch to track your workouts. Etc etc.  Again you get the idea.  Several hundred dollars dropped again.

Coaching?  A lot of people hire a coach to train them to reach their goals.  How much does that cost?  Entry fees for these events?  Several hundred dollars easily.

I could go on and on but you get the idea by now.  All this equipment prepares us to endure and meet the demands of the Ironman and starts to dimish any thought I have of "suffering".

Suffering to me means the children in third world countries who are malnourished and go to bed each night not knowing if they are going to wake up.  Suffering to me is the cancer patient who is battling that dam disease as hard as they can ever day enduring the pain and fighting for their lives.  Suffering to me is the athlete that suddenly finds out they have ALS or MS and their joy in live of movement is soon going to be stripped away from them forever.  Suffering to me is the homeless kids that attend school everyday fearing that their classmates will find out they have no home to go to after school.  I could go on but I think you get the point.

So I ask myself again will I really experience suffering in the Ironman?  Compared to the real suffering that others face in the life, the Ironman is going to be a walk in the park.

My thought from today's long run in the rain.

Weary Week...

The magical number is now 10.  Ten weeks from today is Ironman Arizona.  This week the training really started to put the strain on me.  It's not due to the volume of training but rather trying to squeeze in  training between being a Dad to two very rambunctious young boys, working 55+ hours a week and remaining cognizant not to take my lovely wife's generosity for granted.

Monday was my RDO (regular day off) as usual.  Tuesday morning I awoke early to go to the pool for the first time since the week long maintenance closure.  I wasn't the only one eager to get back in the water as there was a line at the counter at 5:30am.  For whatever reason, the line discouraged me as I knew there would be many people lap swimming and I would undoubtedly have to share a lane.  I turned around and went home.  Tueday night after work I ran for an hour and covered 7.22 miles.  In retrospect, skipping the lap swim on Tuesday started the training strain on my body.  I should have just "nutted up" and swam.

Wednesday morning I went to lap swim and shared a lane as usual and could only muster enough energy to knock out 1600 meters.  I just wasn't into the continuous back and forth.  I knew I was going to pick up my road bike that afternoon from the local bike shop so I was anticipating putting some effort into my hour ride.  I got home a little later than expected that night, dressed and hit the road.  I was going to ride up into the canyon and push the pace harder than most of my mid-week rides.  I rode 20.1 miles in 59:49 averaging 20.2mph.  I felt good with that session which put me back into the right frame of mind.

Thursday morning came and I couldn't get my lazy butt out of bed to get to the pool.  Dam it! Another opportunity wasted.  Get with the program Quigley, you're running out of training time!  Ran after work in the heat and covered 3.64 miles in 30:13 or 8:13 avg/mile which is fast for me.  Again I felt like I regained the training focus.

Friday was another day off but not planned.  I told my boys I would take them to the local harvest festival which featured tractor pulls and MONSTER TRUCKS!  The boys had been chomping at the bit all week to go see the trucks and Friday was opening night.  We had to go on opening night so we could see the inital set of junked cars get mowed down by those Monster Trucks!  The boys loved it and it was well worth missing my scheduled ride as we left for the festival as soon as I got home from work.

Saturday morning came early and I decided to go for my long run on a challenging route that I had ridden plenty of times before but never run.  I knew it involved a long climb with a grade of 7% but I was feeling good and thought it would be a fun challenge.  My training called for a 2:15 run.  I ended up running for 1:45:00 and covered 11 miles.  I was disappointed with myself for not running the entire 2:15 but then I realized how challenging the course was that I chose and accepted it.  Not too bad for a mostly hill work out.  I got home in time to go to lap swim and had a decent time in the pool as I covered 2400 meter (1.49 miles).  Again I felt liked I refocused.

Sunday morning called for a 3 hour ride.  Again I took the road bike out and rode for 3:15.  I rode a course that was a mixture of hills and rolling terrain.  At 30 miles into the ride the wind started blowing directly into me.  One thing I cannot stand is wind on the bike ride.  I tried alternative routes to get it blowing with me or sideways.  At mile 45 it started to rain.  No big deal, it is Oregon afterall.  Rode the last 15 miles home at a decent pace after downing a chocalate GU.  Flushed a pheasant out of the farmer's field along the way and enjoyed getting to the end of the ride.  60.2 miles in 3:15 avg/18.5 mph.  Not too bad considering the weather, the terrain and my struggling this week.  105 miles of total training.

Again I have to acknowledge the support of my wife and sons.   If they didn't give me the latitude they do, I would in no way be able to pull this off.  I love you guys!

Ten weeks baby, ten more weeks.

11 Weeks to Go!

My second week of my 13 week Ironman training is behind me.  It was a week that presented a mixture of challenges.  To start with our local pool was closed for the week for maintenance.  It's an annual closure and I anticipated it.  No big deal, I will just improvise and head over to the YMCA in Salem to use their pool.  A check of their schedule quickly confirmed they too were closed for the week for maintenance.  My third option was to use the municipal pool in Salem, except they were abruptly closed due to lack of funding.  So I scraped my pool workouts this week.   No harm, no foul there as I can swim fairly well.  No real set back.

Monday was regular day off from training.  Tuesday morning I got my 1 hour run in and ran 7 miles before work.  Wednesday had me riding after work and I rode the reverse route into the Santiam canyon.  A 23.1 mile route of which 9 miles was climbing.  I took the road bike out on this work out and quickly discovered that I damaged the rim on last weeks blow out.  My rear tire is extremely out of true and wobbled like a weeble.  To compound matters on that ride, the local farmers were burning their grass seed farms and the air was thick with smoke and ash.  But I made do and rode on for 1:19:00

Thursday called for an easy 30 minute run.  Again I ran in the wee morning hours before work and knocked out 4.31 miles in 38:42.  Thursday night I also succumbed to the prodding of my buddy Trevor and decided to race an Olympic distance triathlon on Saturday.  The triathlon would consist of a 1500 meter swim, 24 mile bike and 6.2 mile run.  I signed up for it at the last minute even though the weather forecast called for RAIN!
See my race report on the blog - Scoggins Valley triathlon.

Friday's schedule was for an hour bike session which I was hesistant to do because of the race on Saturday, but being the stubborn type, I decided a quick spin couldn't hurt. The quick spin turned into 23.1 mile ride after work completed in 1:11:28.  I returned home that night just as the rain was rolling in.

Saturday morning started early as I woke at 4:30, ate and prepared to drive up to Hagg Lake in the pouring rain for the race.  I made the trek north and competed in the race.  After it was all said and done I pulled off a 2:51:13 on this challenging hilly wet course.  In true Oregon fashion, we ignored the rain and had a blast playing outside. 

Sunday called for a three hour ride.  On Friday I dropped off my road bike at the shop to have the chain replaced - nearly 3,000 miles on it - and have the rear wheel trued.  So I would be without my relaxed ride and forced to ride my tri bike. Normally not an issue for me, but the weather was still crap outside!  Rain, WIND, rain and WIND!  I caught a brief break in the weather around noon and managed to squeeze in a 15.4 mile ride in 50 minutes.  The head winds were freaking ridiculous so I called it a day and came home to chill out with the family.

104 miles of training for the week admist some challenges and some weather!  Still a decent training week and another step towards the big show in November.

Scoggins Valley Triathlon

Oregon rain.  It can show up at the most inapporiate times and put a real damper on things.  Such was the case yesterday.  On a somewhat last minute whim and with some prodding from my buddy Trevor, I decided to race - a term I use loosely - in the Scoggins Valley Olympic triathlon.  I had been contemplating doing this race since the beginning of the triathlon season but never got around to planning my full triathlon season as my sole focus has been on training for Ironman Arizona in November.

My training has been going relatively well up to this point and I am in pretty good shape.  I figured why not incorporate a race here or there into the training schedule.  The summer has been a busy one and it seemed to pass by very quickly to the point of missing a lot of triathlons.  So I had to bite the bullet, ignore the weather forecast that called for rain and temperatures in the 60's and take on one of the last opportunities of the season to race an olympic distance triathlon by registering for Scoggins Valley.

True to the forecast it was pouring down rain on race morning.  I left the house at 5:30 in the dark miserable morning to make the hour and half drive north to Hagg Lake.  The rain was just dumping the entire drive and on numerous occassions I contemplated calling it a day before I even got started.  I kept reassuring myself that I was going to use this race as a training day and would take it easy on the course.  Afterall I don't know what the weather will have in store in Arizona come November.  Once I settled down and accepted the fact is was raining and I was going to race in the rain, I was good.

Hagg Lake is a cool park and I have participated in multiple triathlons out there as well as multiple trail runs so I am very familiar with the terrain.  The only thing I knew for certain was that the water didn't effect the fact the hills were still there to be climbed and the challenges would still need to be faced.  The water on the roads would increase the level of caution needed on the bike portion of the race.  To suffer a crash today would be nasty and jeopardize my Ironman event.  I am going to take it easy - no need for speed today or to prove anything.

I arrived at the park to be greeted by a less than normal size field of participants.  It seems the weather kept a lot of people indoors.  No worries.  I put my race number on my bike and helmet, loaded up my gear bag and made my way over to the transition zone.  I ran into Trevor just after getting my body markings with my race number and age group written on my legs in black marker.  As I found my assigned location on the rack, I laughed as Trevor was on the same rack next to me.  Trevor is a stud - the guy can really race and he is a hell of a nice guy as well.  All around good dude.  I shared a laugh with him when I asked if I could  be humilated anymore by having to be racked next to him!  It was all in good fun.

The race director was discussing the challenges of the event today related to the rain.  He told us to pressure down our tires to around 90 psi because 120 psi was too much.  You could instantly hear the air valves releasing air all around the transition zone.  He mentioned the buoys would be hard to see on the swim because of the gray skies.  I would soon be able to attest to that point as well.  We donned our wetsuits and headed down to the lake for a brief swim warm up and more course instructions.

The swim was two laps around the orange set buoys and a return to shore.  Trevor and I confirmed the directions with each other one last time and wished each other the best.  I told him I would see him well after he finished.  The countdown was on; the gun sounded.  I settled into the swim in the front half of the pack and quickly made it to the first orange buoy.  Not too bad.  Then we had to make our way to the furthest buoys and that's where I had a bit of a challenge sighting them in.  No big deal as I was still drafting off a couple of guys in front of me and just followed them.  The second lap proved a little bit more challenging on the sighting as I got a little sidetracked headed towards the first orange buoy for lap two.  I probably lost a couple minutes not swimming in a more direct line.  Oh well it's a training race right?  Twenty six minutes after the gun went off and five minutes behind Trevor I finished the swim.

I made my way up the long carpeted path to the transition zone to get my bike.   Trevor was long gone by then.  There were still a lot of bikes racked so I felt good about my swim.  Threw on my helmet and shoes and ran with my bike through the transition zone to the bike mount line.  I was off.  The first thing I noticed as I headed counterclockwise around the lake is that I had no power in my legs at all for the first section of climbing.  Now I was getting pissed off.  What the hell posessed me to ride 23 miles the night before and tire my legs out?  It's called stubborn stupidity, but I digress.  I was here now and had to make the best of it.  I tried to refocus and tell myself to calm down.  Settle in Quigs, settle in.  I got past the first climb and started on the descent.  Started to really pick up the speed and apprehension about crashing and burning.  I looked down to see the speed odometer posting 37mph.  I remember the words of caution from the race director and tempered myself.  Crossing the dam and heading out on Scoggins Valley road would give me the only glimpse of Trevor on the bike as he was well on his way to making the climb on the second half of the first loop.  Go get em Trev!  I made the turn on the out and back portion and started my climb. 

My triathlon bike is different than my road bike and at several points along the climb, I was sucking wind hauling my 205lbs up that incline.  I reassured myself it was almost over and that I only had to climb it once more.  No sweat, I motored on.  I really held back on my bike as I really didn't want to crash and my overall bike time reflects it.  About 2 miles out from finishing the bike leg, my saddle becomes loose and is shifting back and forth under my weight.  Not good, but another thing I have to deal with.  I just keep clenching my thighs against the seat to prevent it from moving anymore.  At about 1.5 miles to the bike finish, I hear Trevor say "nice work Quigs"!  Trevor is well on his way in the run. After a 1:21 bike split,  I make it back to the transition zone, rack the bike and head off for a 6.2 mile run.

Running has never been my forte and something I have really worked at for years to try and improve.  My legs felt suprisingly good on the run after the challenging bike.  I settled into a training pace for me with the goal of just knocking out the 10k without too much effort.  This portion of this race has always been my nemesis in the past.  The run course has several rolling hills and I have always ended up walking sections in the past.  I was determined to not let that be the case today.  I pulled down the brim of my hat down and focused on the task at hand.  As I was coming over the rise of one of the hills at mile 2, I met Trevor on his return at mile 4.  A quick handslap and  effort acknowledgement and we continued on our way.  I made it to the turn around and knew it was only another 3.1 miles until my training race was over.  I settled in with several other runners on the return for a nice pace, slammed down an gel pack and before I knew it pass the 6 mile sign.  A quick .2 mile sprint into the finish line ended the day with a run of 56:35.  My overall time was 2:51:13  Much to my surprise, that time is a course PR for me by well over 10 minutes! Not bad for a training race on what turned out to be a fun filled day regardless of the rain.

I caught up with Trevor briefly at the end of the race to find out that he took 3rd overall and 1st in his age division.  Great effort bro!  Nice work!

All in all it's just another great adventure in my blessed life.

Ticket in Hand!

Well I am yet another step closer to competing in Ironman Arizona 2009.  Tonight I purchased a plane ticket that will get my ass to Phoenix, Arizona 11 weeks from this Thursday.  Whoa! 

Each passing day of training increases the excitement and compounds the anxiety of the evernt for me.   Visualization helps relieve the anxiety as I continue to see myself crossing the finishing line and hearing Mike Reilly utter those infamous words....Brian Quigley you are an Ironman!

How I will react to hearing those words is unknown.  It won't be the words spoken but rather the accomplishment itself which will generate the greatest emotion.

Almost time for the test!