DNF

Not the race I was hoping for. My first DNF (did not finish) ever and a pair of crutches to finish the weekend… I’ll post a longer report but suffice to say that after 8 miles of running the pain was just too strong and I just had to stop. The problem was that I could barely walk then and it took me more than hour to get back to the transition area only two miles away.

I can’t put any weight at all on my leg. The pain is very sharp, knee ligaments seem involved now. It does not look good at all. I had too get a pair of crutches to be able to move, and to go, as promised, to Legoland with the kids…

Brain freeze

Brian and I went for an ocean swim this morning at 7.30. The sun was out but the water was very cold. We both had "brain freeze", you know this pain you get when you eat icecream too fast... Well same thing but without the pleasure of having icecream. After 5 minutes everything was okay though.

For those willing to follow the race on line tomorrow there will some live coverage at www.ironmanlive.com
My bib number is 393.

Old but ready to race...

The bike not me! I did a test run today and did not feel any pain. I did not want to push my luck and stopped after 5 minutes. Tomorrow I'll do an ocean swim early in the morning followed by a 30 minute ride and then we will all drive down to Oceanside.

Race preparation

Half Ironman California is approaching fast. The bike is ready. I did a 45 minute ride this morning with the race wheels. Everything is fine. Thanks to the taper my legs feel great on the bike. I don’t know about the run, as... I don’t run. I decided to save my legs until Saturday. I’ll see if my injury is healed during the race. I saw a PT and an ART specialist. It seems to help but the area is still very sensible.

I bought a Giro aero helmet. Free speed they say… Now I’ll definitely look like a dork but every second counts!

I am curious about my swim Saturday. I feel very good in the pool and spent much more time swimming than the previous years. Volume is decreasing in the pool also, on Monday I did a 4700m session, 3500 on Tuesday and 2500 today with some fast intervals.

X-Ray...

I went to an orthopedic clinic on Friday but don't know much more about my injury. It does not seem to be a stress fracture as my X-rays came out clean. The doctor wants to check with an MRI to be totally sure. It seems that sometimes stress fractures are not visible on X-rays. In the meantime I can't run. I also got a prescription to see a Physical Therapist. Let's see what will be his version of my injury story... The race is is less than 7 days... Not good at all.

To improve my morale here are somes highlights of the Las Cruces Camp:

1/ The Sofa, also called the "PS Triathlon International Training Center recovery machine". Only one rule, implemented forcefully by Paulo: "no seating on the sofa if not showered". Below, the recovery machine being used by Jonnyo and Sergio.

2/ Hydratation: because of the altitude and the desert dry air I was constantly dehydrated. I needed a bottle by me even to watch TV! On my last day, we went for a two hour ride and Khai realized Sergio had no bottle: "He Sergio, you forgot your bottles!", "I don't need bottles, it is just a two hour ride...". Sergio is a camel.

3/ Nutrition: as Jonnyo said "we are athletes, we can eat a lot", and we did, Italian, Mexican... The skinny rapper in the middle is Paulo, in between Sergio and Danny.
4/ The Purse: Lyndsey now knows that showing up at the pool for the morning workout with a "red-crocodile" purse is a good way to get a new nickname, Miss Purse (here with, from righ to left, Khai, Jonnyo and me).

5/ Zone 3: riding Zone 3 with Sergio and Jonnyo with a tailwind, flying at 50kph, definitely a highlight for me. The way back was less glorious...

Water, water...

Paulo and Jodi before the torture session in the NMSU long course pool

Not being a swimmer (at all) the numbers are very impressive for me, I swam approximately 22km in 5 days in Las Cruces. On top of that Paulo prepared a 4700m session for today (in LA for me) so it is about 27km now! I really suffered from the altitude during the camp, especially in the pool where I had the impression to be out of breath all the time, being surrounded by fast swimmers did not help.

But as Sergio's swimsuit says, HTFU...

Back from HTFU Camp

I am back home after 4.5 days in Las Cruces for the HTFU training camp with Paulo's posse. It was a lot of fun and hard work. The bad news is that I injured myself before the camp (right lower leg) and cannot run. I am going to see a Physical Therapist tomorrow. I hope it is nothing too serious and I'll be able to race in Oceanside as expected...

I'll post more later about the Camp but for me it was 22 hours of training packed in 4 days and a half! If you want to know how it is to ride behind Jonnyo (2nd at Ironman Canada 07) and Sergio (2nd at Ironman Florida 07) check this video (a bit long)...

Las Cruces

The bike is packed. Plane tickets are ready. I fly tomorrow to Las Cruces (New Mexico) to spend 4 days with the HTFU crew for a short training camp. Some pros, some age-groupers and of course coach Paulo should make things interesting!

Need motivation?

If you need motivation to get out on your bike that should do the trick! Simon Whitfield behind the camera...

Winter?

Great week and great week-end. I rode 2h25 this morning with few steep climbs. It was foggy at 6am but ended up a perfect morning. After our usual Sunday morning walk to the farmer market to buy our vegetables and fruits for the week, we all went to the beach (Point Dume beach). We had lunch there and the boys played in the waves for a while. I went for a 20 minute open water swim to get used to the wetsuit again and test the water before the race in Oceanside. It is cold! My hands and feet went numb for a while but after few minutes everything was fine and I had a good swim.

It was a good week as far as training goes: more than 20 hours in total, 15000 meters of swimming, 9+ hours of biking and 6+ hours of running.

Yerba Buena

Beautiful 5 hour ride today, the weather was great with temperatures up to 75d. I even got sunburned! I climbed Yerba Buena (picture above), my favorite climb in the Santa Monica mountains. I finished very strong and then ran 30 minutes.

Swim Start

Swim Waves are up for Half Ironman California! This race is slightly different than many Ironman races because the swimmers start by age group waves and not all together. The main reason for that is the narrow channel in which we swim for the first 500 meters.

I'll have the pleasure to start at 6.57am, that's pretty early to jump into 55 deg. waters (less than 15 Celcius)!!!

Running

A lot of it! Monday the plan called for 50 minutes in Z2 followed by 8 strides, tuesday 1h20 including the dreaded 5 x 8 minutes in z4 and today 1 h 45 in Z2. My legs are stiff!

Solid week.

Last week was solid with 18h45 of training despite a day trip to Phoenix:

Running : 5 hours
Cycling: 8 hours 45 minutes
Swimming: 5 hours

Sunday, my 5 hour ride (160km) was done in almost perfect conditions, slightly cold at the start (48 degrees) but warm after a while (70). A strong wind started to blow after few hours, of course it was a headwind and it made up for a very hard last hour. The transition run felt good.

And now I just have to start again for a new week…

27 days...

It had been a while since I could find the time to swim four times in a week for a total of 15000 meters. I did it this week and it is obvious that under that I maintain my (low) level but don't really improve. But on thursday on my fourth session of the week I had a great 3800 meter swim with 8 x 200m in Z4 at a speed I was very happy with! Few weeks at this volume and intensity (Z4 in the water in painful for me) and I should see some pretty good results.

This morning I went for a 2 hour ride with 60 minutes tempo (z3). I felt very strong and Watts were often in z4 for a low RPE. Tomorrow 5 hour ride (with 4 x 20 minutes tempo) followed by the usual 30 minutes transition run.

And by the way today is March 1st which means that my first race of the year is approaching fast: Half Ironman California on March 29th in 27 days and few hours!!!