The KodaFit Blog

I woke up this morning with a bit of anxiety.  My approach to most races is to try and put them out of my mind.  If the race isn’t too big, usually I’m pretty successful at this, which inevitaby leads to running around on race morning, like a mad-man, trying to make sure I have everything.

I don’t think I’ll have this problem with IronMan in May.  I’m already far more stressed out about it that I have ever been for a race, and the plan right now is to arrive in St. George 3 or 4 days in advance of the race.

I woke up dreaming about the race this morning, particularly about getting my bike and my special needs bags checked in.  The situation I found myself in was one where my race bike was somewhere else.  I think this is a subliminal message from myself that I need a dedicated race bike, since right now, my training, road, time-trial and race bike are all the same machine….

With the bike somewhere else, I was trying to still get it checked in, and I couldn’t find my id either.  It was a weird dream.

At that point I woke up.

It’s my day off work.  My day to sleep in.  It was a little before 5:30am.

If dreams mean anything, perhaps I’m worried that I’m not going to be ready for the race.

And so with that, I hopped out of bed, brushed the old chompers, grabbed my swim bag and headed off to the pool.

2700 yards, dodging the old ladies doing aerobics and I’m ready to start the day!

I may need to rethink how I write my race reports, or perhaps I need to rethink my choice of races - and then again maybe not.

I link to this race report on an Xterra down in South Africa though Conrad Stoltz‘ blog.  Words by me cannot do this piece justice.

Xterra Grabouw

I finally finished up my report on the Red Rock Relay late last night. It’s only taken me 6 months to do! I’m afraid it’s a little long, but hopefully I can make up for the length with interesting details and lots of pictures!

The inaugural Red Rock Relay was held over the first weekend of September this year.  I can state unequivocally that it was the funnest event I’ve done to date.  I’ve had some pretty awesome races, but there’s something about completing a challenge like this with a group of friends.

This journey began with a few folks from my tri-club talking about getting a team together.  I found myself team leader, and the quest to find 11 other people began.  Initially we kept it closed to Sharks only, but as time marched on we recruited friends, family members and anyone else who we could.  With just days before the dead line we reached our full team, and then the wheels fell off.  Two members had to drop for work commitments, another had to pull out for school commitments, several simply fell off the face of the planet, and before we knew it, there were 2 of us.  Not the best idea when contemplating a 180 mile race.

Fortunately as things looked bleakest, I got an email from Tanya Boyer, Editor extraordinaire over at TriHive - now Rocky Mountain Running and Triathlon magazine.  They were trying to organize a couple of triathlon specific teams for the race and were wondering if I would be interested…

 WOULD I?!!?

We ended up joining forces with two teams organized by Keena Schaerrer, a pro triathlete and coach from Utah County.  If you live in the area and you need a coach, I’d highly recommend Coach Keena.  She’s an incredible athlete, and her personality and optimism are second to none.  She hasn’t coached me, but if I lived closer, I would have no reservations at all about subjecting myself to her expert coaching.

Keena had organized two teams, a fast team and a fun team.  Not being an exceptionally fast runner, I opted for the fun team, as did fellow sharks Chuck and Jim.  We had a quick meet & greet at Keena’s studio the week before and with that we were all set for race day.

I took the family down to St. George a day or two before, and grabbed our box of stuff the night before the race at Brian Head resort.  It was a little nippy when we got there, and so I was a little nervous as to how it would be the next day.  Brian Head is up above 10,000 ft - which factors in later on.

The next morning, I woke up early, grabbed Chuck and some emergency donuts and headed up to Parowan to meet the rest of our team.  This is where things go interesting…

Google maps gave us some great directions to get to the meeting point, all of County maintained roads.  One of the roads though looked a little less that impeccably maintained.  In fact if we’re being honest it was little more than a washed out dirt track, although much of the washing was still taking place.  After some mis-communication - mostly on my part, Chuck and I headed down the track, bouncing in and out of the ruts and splashing through puddles.  All fun, until we got halfway down, and figure that we couldn’t make it any further.  We turned around well enough and headed back the way we came.  About half way back, we hit a rough section and took the right side of the road, instead of left, and then came the two worst feelings in the world.

THUMP!  As the van slid into a very large rut, and the bottom of the chassis hit the road…

And then the sick feeling that we were stuck.

We tried to pull it out, by any means necessary, all without success.

The remainder of the team arrived as well, and all had a good chuckle.

Fortunately Jim kept his wits, and left to find a tow truck and to try and get our start time pushed back.

15 minutes later, a jeep and 2 trucks arrived, although with a handful of the good old farmer types, making smarts comments like….  “Why were you trying to drive down this road anyway?”  and “I think the problem is that you got yourself stuck in the mud!!”

We tried the first truck without success.  I drive a Ford Windstar and one of the reasons I got it, is that it weighs about 1,000 pounds more than most other vans.  Good in an accident, not so good for getting out of mud.

Then we tried the jeep, complete with winch and we managed to drag the jeep closer to the van, but no progress with the van at all.  At this point, I was about to cry and the rest of my awesome team were having a great time taking pictures.  Huge thanks to Sherri and Chuck for most of the pics below!

After trying both the jeep and truck, a mechanic looking type told them to move and pulled up his big truck.  He tried to pull slowly and slid around, tried a few other moves, and then finally just got lined up and hit the gas.  Mud flew!  I wished I had closed the windows, and that big old truck just dragged my van all the way back onto the road.

Words cannot quite describe the relief!!!  I handed the guy almost all the money I had in my wallet, practically hugged him and cried on his shoulder like a little boy, and then rounded everyone up and headed up the mountain.

These are most of the runners for the first vans for both teams.

Fortunately the Race Director pushed our start time back, and I think it was finally about 9:40, and me, Keena, and another runner hopped on the ski lift and headed up the mountain to start the race.

The weather was perfect, and while mentally I was spent, it felt great to sit on the ski lift and enjoy the scenery.

Up the top, we hopped off and began our descent.  First off, as I hopped off, I felt a twinge of pain in my left foot.  I’m not sure what I did, but it developed into a nasty pain which got worse as the race wore on, and stuck with me for 6 weeks following.  I followed Keena and the other runner down the mountain, but started to slow because it felt like we were going to fast.  I check my Garmin and saw that I was barely at 9 min/mile pace, and I was going downhill, which was fine except my heart rate was 30 beats above normal, and I couldn’t breathe, and that’s when Keena mentioned the altitude.   Running at 11,000 feet is quite a bit different from running at 6,000!

I took a break after the first mile for a quick bathroom break - I think altitude makes you need to pee too - at least that’s my excuse, and then continued down the mountain.  The views were phenomenal, but I really struggled with the altitude.  4 miles down I came into exchange 1 and handed off to the next runner on our team.

While I was up the mountain, Sherri and Anita had taken to decorate the van, complete with nick names.  I was hereafter known as MudBogger, for reasons which I’m sure you can all guess.

The remainder of the morning was spent moving from place to place, swapping out runners and supporting them as best we could.

Here we are at the second exchange, complete with awkwardly placed Gatorade bottle by Yours Truly!

At one point we had to drive through an entire flock of sheep and all along we were treated to absolutely incredible views.

If you happen to run leg#4, I would highly recommend taking a small detour as you pass the viewing platform for Cedar Breaks!

Our final runner go to run 6 miles down a rather steep, narrow mountain road, which had some scary traffic, and which I stopped half way down to find the brakes smoking something fierce.  It’s amazing the difference between having small kids and full grown adults in the car!

We finished leg #6, and handed off to our second van.  Having a couple of hours to kill, we headed down the Cedar City and spent a couple of hours hanging out in the parking lot of Subway.  We ate, we laid around, I learned that a BLT from Subway will go really soggy if left overnight, and after a couple of hours it was time to head back up into the mountains.

On our way to rendezvous with the second van, we followed the runners route up three sections, known as the diablos.  They were only 2 miles legs, but were very steep and absolutely relentless.  At the top we merged onto a dirt road, and found after 5 or 6 miles had caught up to the rest of our team.  It was raining, and the dirt road was pretty slick.  At one point right before we passed our other vehicle, a nice big truck, we hit a sharp incline, and the van started to slide off the road.  Flashbacks of the mud bogging incident earlier in the day flashed across my mind, while the remaining occupants of the van all shouted encouragement.

My second leg began at Kolob Reservoir.  It was pretty flat for the most part, and I was fortunate enough to get behind a runner from another team.  I always run better with a rabbit in front of me, and finally at mile 4, I passed her.  It was also starting to get dark, and so it was time to done the reflective vest and the head lamp.

I believe this section of the race goes through some incredibly scenic country, unfortunately night fell very fast, and it was really black outside.  Sections of Zions required us to transport our runner from one spot to the next as well.  We suspect that Zions Park itself hadn’t issued permits or something.

We also started to notice lightning on the horizon.  Legs 16 and  17 were an out an back section along a relatively flat section of road.  I ended up running part of section 17 with one of the runners to help pace and provide a little extra support.  The final section involved some hilly parts of the highway, and then a long drop down into Hurricane.   The thunder was getting more and more intense, and at times, it seemed like we were the only vehicle for miles and miles.

As we hit the change over in town, the heavens opened and it was poor Chuck from the second vehicle that got to bear the brunt of it.  We headed into Washington City, to the rec center where showers and floor space were available.  I tried to sleep a little in the van, but was too pumped up on adrenaline to do much.  Finally around 4 or 5 am, we received word that the other half of our team was getting close, and so we packed up and got ready to head out for our final section of the course.

Unfortunately for the other runners, the Rec Center closed right as they got there, but I believe they found themselves a Denny’s and sat down to a good breakfast.  My final leg ran through Washington City, past the In n’ Out burger, which is unfortunately closed at 5am, and then down to the Virgin River.   After a couple of miles it joined a path which ran along side the water, and all of a sudden I found myself alone.  No vehicles, no other runners and a rather dim headlight.  The rain had cleared and had been replaced warm and damp humidity.  It was my last leg, and I pushed it hard, coming into the change over, as a rather sweaty, mess of a man.

Our second runner was one of the ladies on our team, and unfortunately for her, this next section continued on the rather lonely path, probably not the best place for a single female runner to be, and at one point she found herself right in the middle of a group of SWAT officers, apparently out trying to find the perpetrator of an assault on the path earlier than night.

The next few hours we tracked and followed our athletes up through St. George, into Santa Clara, and then up through the canyon to Gunlock.  This particular part of the race was interesting, since we crossed paths with a series of road races coming down the canyon, and Sherri got to meet up and run her leg with her brother.  It was also interesting, as this is part of the 2 loop bike course for the St. George IronMan.

Our runners did really well, particularly the second to last, and last runner, who got a number of kills on the hills leading up to Gunlock.   The last guy made such good time, that he arrived at the changeover to find the next runner still a little way off, but sprinting like a mad man to make it in time.

We took some photo’s each with our 3 stripes representing our three legs and then headed down into St. George for Breakfast.

The finish line was at a local school and next to a splash pad, although at this point it was starting to get hot, and lack of sleep was really catching up with me.  It was great to see my wife and kids again, and stinky hugs were exchanged all around.  An hour or two later, the second part of our team arrived, and we all ran in together.

With that, we celebrated a little, took some pictures and within the hour were all packed up, organized and ready to head back to wherever it was we came from.

A couple of thoughts…

Organizing a team can be pretty rough.  Last year all the leaders got a nice running jacket with the Red Rock logo on it. 

If I had to do it all over again, I’d get money up front from everyone, and make plans well in advance of the race.

Being it’s first year, I thought it was remarkably well done.  There were a few areas for improvement, but given that it was a brand new race, big old thumbs up to the race director.

A couple of ways they could improve the race…

1 - each team was supposed to provide 2 volunteers.  We really struggled with this seeing as we didn’t have a full team until a week before the race.  We did find one, my brother-in-law, but when he got to his check in station, no one was there to sign him in, or direct him or anything, and so he drove himself to where he thought he was supposed to be and did the best he could.  Unfortunately when my wife asked him if he would ever do it again, he responded with a solid “No way”.

It would take a bit of organization, but I think if the race organizers could find local community organizations to volunteer at the check points, that would be awesome.  I also think it would be great to have some system of checking athletes in and out of the change over spots and perhaps even provide feedback to the teams as to how everyone is doing.

2 - There are sections of this course which probably should not be run alone, particularly female runners - I’m not trying to be sexist here, but since female runners tend to be smaller, running alone on a trail in the dark, is probably not a wise decision.  Specifically the spots along the Virgin River.  Either require pacers at these points, or perhaps station some volunteers at regular intervals along the trail.  Perhaps a local scout troop could be roped into doing it, in exchange for a small donation to their troop.

However, that is about the extent of my complaints or suggestions for improvement.

We’re doing it again this year…We’ve putting together an ultra team and we’re planning on tackling the race with just 6 of us, running about 30 miles a piece.  It will be exhausting, but I think it will be fun at the same time.

We’re going to be The Red Rock Sharks!!

Stay tuned for more information as September approaches!

I was thinking it might be irony, but then I watched a video by comedian Ed Byrne and I’m thinking it might be more of just a unfortunate turn of events, with a funny twist.

First, a couple of things you might need to know…

1. The video I’ve embedded below is targeted at an adult audience.  The language isn’t extremely bad, but it contains adult themes and that kind of thing.  Figured I should put that in, just in case my audience is younger than I think it is!
2. Don’t worry, I’m fairly confident that I’m just fine!

So here’s what happened…

I went trail running on Friday. I’ve got a 50k race coming up in 4 weeks and then IronMan in about 8 - Actually it’s exactly two months from today!!!

I’ve been trying to work on my form and running injury free, and I must say that I considered the run Friday to be a phenomenal success in both areas. I ended up running 22 miles (although to be completely honest, there was some walking mixed in there, but that’s why I like trail running), and I actually still felt pretty good when I was done.

I grabbed some lunch and then took the kiddo’s to the pool for a great afternoon.

Saturday, still feeling good, we took the kids down to the park. There was supposed to be a snow storm, but the weather guy got it wrong again (Although no complaints this time!).

We walked the perimeter a few times and then I played Frisbee with the little guys. We finished it off with some soccer type game, which didn’t really have a point, but those seem to be them best.

Somewhere during the soccer though, I think I tweaked my calf a little. I don’t think it’s serious, more likely just a cramp, but I got to thinking…

I ran over 20 miles with no problems what-so-ever, and then I tweak my legs screwing around at the park with the kids?!?!

On a related note… I ran into a herd of bison midway through the run. The main group on the trail seemed to be a group of bulls, and the herd in the distance behind them included a number of brand new calves. I ended up doing the cross country thing to get around them.

Just a quick post tonight…  I’ve spent the last couple of weekends working on an idea for a side business, but I’ve found when you get close to a project, it’s hard to be objective, and a little outside help is always handy to have.

So…

I need a couple of volunteers, preferably people with a good eye for detail, and with an interest in triathlons, running and/or other endurance sports.

I promise you, that there is something in it for you, and that something is free!

So, if you’re interested in helping me out, just let me know in the comments below, and I’ll get hold of you later this week!

Ben Greenfield is the guy I purchased my IronMan training plan from. So far so good, although if I blow it in St. George, I need to state that…

• I started on the plan late, since I already needed to be on week 15 of the plan when I purchased it.
• I haven’t been the most diligent follower of the plan because… Well, simply because life get’s in the way sometimes.

But that aside it’s appears to be an excellent plan, and I’ll likely plan on using it for my next Iron Distance race, assuming I survive this one. Perhaps Silverman in 2012!

I bring this up because, yesterday, Ben sent out a link to an article he wrote, entitled - 6 Things They Don’t Tell You About IronMan. You can read the article here, and I’ve posted a summary below. Most of the points need explaining though!

1) The Volunteers Don’t Have Built-In Auto-Banana Releasing Switches.

2) For The First 5 Miles of the Bike, Drafting Rules Don’t Really Count.  out.

3) All Your Pacing Rules Get Broken In Transition.

4) Your Special Needs Bag Isn’t Always At The HalfWay Point.

5) Wetsuit Strippers Aren’t Necessarily The Fastest Way to Go.

6) Don’t Plan on Seeing Your Expensive Tubular Again.

The Clearfield Aquatic center has hosted a mini indoor tri for the last 3 years.  I had a conflict 2 years ago, and last year it was so popular, it was sold out by the time I heard about it.  This year as I left the pool one friday morning, I saw the sign and was signed up an hour later.

I took the extra hour, because I wanted to see if my sweet wife wanted to do it with me, knowing that she would likely laugh in my face, and then using a combination of hand gestures and descriptive language, might inform me as to the best place to put such a crazy idea….

But she said yes, “I’m sorry….  WHAT?!?!”

So off we went to register.

We ended up in the last heat, just a few minutes after our neighbors - who were doing the team thing as well.

I did a couple of laps warm-up in a spare lane and then got ready to go.  We were in the final heat, and there were three of us racing.  The other two guys were in board shorts, and arguing about who would finish last - so much for the added adrenaline from some friendly competition!

BEEP!!!

And I was off.  First lap went well.  I flipped, came home, flipped again, and got to glance back at my lap time.  42 seconds.  Since I’ve been averaging 50s a lap in practice, that may be a little fast, but I got to rest after the swim so I tried to push it.  Each lap got a little slower, until around lap 8, my time finally popped over 50s.

The last lap about killed me.  I had absolutely nothing left…  I could see my wife running along the side of the pool to meet me at the other end.  I hit the wall, reached up to slap her hand (twice, since the first attempt was pretty pathetic), checked my time 7:55 and then collapsed on the side.

I’m not sure how long I was there, but I finally dragged myself out, and check on the kids.  Huge thanks to our other friends who came to watch the little guys.

The nice thing about the team thing was that I got to get changed nice and slow.  I stretched a little, made sure my laces were tights and headed back out to check on Ann.

She was doing well.  The bike portion was on the spinning bikes, and she was already about half-way through, spinning at a nice steady cadence.

We took photo’s, joked around, and before I knew it she was done, and staggering to the door to tag me…

I shot out the pool area, up the steps two at a time, and began my laps.  27 laps around a track about 200 yds long.  With a track that small it’s like step, step, step turn, step, step step turn…  You get the idea.

First lap I came up on a guy in a camel bak.  He heard me come up behind, and sped up.  Finally some competition!!!

Suddenly he came up on another lady, pulled up along side and slowed to her speed…

DUDE!!!!  WTF!!!

It’s a real narrow track, and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid piling into the back of them.  Right then we hit the corner and I saw a gap…  I broke into a sprint, passed them both, and kept going so Mr. camelbak wouldn’t feel tempted to follow and box me in again.  No worries though as he started walking shortly thereafter.

I tried to keep the pace going and did so fairly well.  My only regret was not taking my lap timer in with me, so I could count my laps and check my time.

It may have been my quickest 5k to date, but it’s hard to tell just how fast it was.  Finally I hit the final lap, zipped around, mostly by myself and then headed out the door and down the stairs.

Just so you all know, if I can be a warning to anyone here…  Running a blistering 5k (at least for me, and then hitting the stairs at full gallop - NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!

I made it down the first flight without incident, only by the grace of God though I think, grabbed Ann’s hand before hitting the last flight and crossing the line.

Our time ended up being a hair over an hour.  Good enough for 5th overall in the Novice couple division.

Swim: 7:55

Bike: 28:35

Run: 25ish?!

Not sure on the transition times of any of that, but we had a great time together and that’s what really counts!!

Thanks Hon!  We’ll have to do it again next year, only let’s plan on kicking some serious butt!

Yikes!  Has it been 3 weeks since I last sat down and wrote something?!?   Today I bring a quick shout-out to the Mrs, a wrap-up of the past 3 weeks of training and lessons learned, and then some plans for the future.

First, HUGE shout out to the wife!!!  Back when we first got married, she used to be able to out run me, and then she started having kids.  I don’t care what anyone says…  Having kids is not natural!  5 kids later (Supposed to be 4, but another one snuck in at the last minute) and we’re now staunch advocates for “Just have 2!!” and Ann is trying to regain her youthy figure.

Last weekend we did the Sweatin’ with your Sweetheart mini-triathlon in Clearfield.  I’ll post more on this later (meaning I’ll write it up tonight, and the post it tomorrow!)  We entered as a team, with me swimming, handing off to her on the bike, and then me finishing off with the run.  She was nervous as anything prior, and almost bowed out on a few occasions prior, but on the day…  SHE DID AWESOME!!

So with that feather in her cap she was excited about getting fit again, and then she also happened to way herself, and got a little bit of a shock on the size of the number.  I know I gain a little weight after a race, and I suspect this maybe it, but it was a nasty reality check.

So she set her mind to it, and in the last 10 days or so has dropped over 10 pounds.  Most of that is likely water weight, since she isn’t doing anything too extreme other than working out daily and watching her calorie intake.

For Valentine’s Day I got her the small cousin of the Body-Bugg.  It’s the GoWear Fit, and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it.  It tracks calorie usage based on a number of physiological factors and from why I understand is pretty accurate.  It’s become another great motivational tool in her quest to become fit again.

For me, I’ve been doing some pretty intense training the past few weeks.  I’m not sure if it’s the smartest approach, but it seems to be improving my endurance, as well as seriously dropping my times in all 3 disciplines and I’ve started to drop some additional pounds as well.  The downside is that after a really intense workout, I usually need a day or two to recover, but I’m willing to give those workouts up in exchange for better times.

This weekend I have a half-iron simulation, which looks like it may be on the trainer, due to snow - UGH!!  But then hopefully Sunday I can get out and do a long and slow trail run, and then launch into my final base training segment before IronMan St. George.

I know I’ve been slacking with this blog, but it wasn’t until I checked to see when my last post was that I realized that it has been over 3 weeks…  ACK!!!

Things have been pretty busy of late.  Work has gotten a little more involved, and my training has really been ramping up.  Both of which are things which I’m counting as positive changes in my life.

Good things have been happening however…  I’ve noticed a pretty significant improvement in all aspects of my training, from my swimming to the intensity and duration of my run and cycling sessions.

There are some other exciting things coming on the home front as well - which I hope to announce in the next few weeks (And it DOES NOT involves any more little Mike’s - just so you know!).

A rather small, but none-the-less exciting event occurred last week.  WARP -a local racing company which puts on the BAM and BASH triathlons did a twitter give-away.  It was something I was ready for, and which I almost missed at the last minute.  As luck would have it, I happened to refresh my twitter page, just seconds after it was posted, and after some blazing fast internet searching and a quick email to the organizer…

I WON!!!

The prize was a gift basket from TriSwim, which I may write about more in the future - They have awesome products!!  But included in the basket, which arrived Friday, was a can of TriSlide - their lubricating spray to assist in wetsuit removal and help ward off chaffing as well.

I did a 64 mile bike session on Saturday night, and prior to beginning, sprayed my inner thighs with the TriSlide.  It didn’t look like much, and I couldn’t really feel it, but I also didn’t feel any chaffing or rubbing, so I’m thinking that’s a pro on both counts.

Last night as I was brushing my teeth, my sweet wife commented about how our floor seemed really slick in one particular spot, and that a couple of the kids had wiped out on it when walking over said spot.

I thought that was a little strange and then I remembered the label, and a small warning at the bottom of the instructions, describing how surfaces could become incredibly slippery when sprayed.  I walked over in my socks to check it out, and almost lost it myself.  It’s really slick stuff!!  Apparently my aim wasn’t as good as it should have been when applying the product the night before.

A couple of things I learned from this:

1. It’s a good idea to read labels and take them seriously.
2. TriSlide is easy to remove from floors with soap and water (thankfully!).
3. TriSlide should probably be applied outside or on carpet - not on laminate flooring!
4. TriSlide is slicker than snot!

I had a great deal planned for the New Year, particularly related to updates to my online presence related to this blog, but I’m afraid to report, that not as much has happened as I had hoped would.  Never-the-less, stay tuned because change is coming sometime in the future.

2009 was a great year for me.  I raced more than I have in the past, in a season which lasted from February through November.  I did my first half-ironman, as well as a second half down at Silverman and a second marathon.    The season was almost too long, but hopefully I can change that in the year to come.

I’m STOKED for 2010 though.  Here’s what I have planned!

First ultra-distance race in March - 50k trail run

First IronMan event in May

A couple of other races through the summer, including the Bad-Ass at BAM in August.

I’m going to finish off the season as being of an Ultra Team at this years Red Rock Relay, and then I’m hoping to break 7 hours at the Silverman Half in Las Vegas.

And I’ve saved the best for last…

The season kicks off for me in February again with an indoor triathlon in Clearfield.  It’s the “Sweat with your Sweetheart” event and I managed to talk my sweet wife into entering as part of a team with me.  I’m going to swim, where after she’ll bike and then I’ll finish it up with a run.  Should be an absolute blast!!