Back in Oregon
A few words to sum up my couple weeks back in Oregon.. wild, awesome, fresh, perfect, beautiful, amazing, necessary, motivating, adventurous, busy, and just overall brought me back to life! I took advantage of every minute I had. CAMPING - I camped in the mountains, I camped at the beach, and camped at friends houses in Portland and Eugene. HIKING - Hiked Mt. Hood a couple days, Hiked the Columbia Gorge a couple days, Hiked around the beach for a couple days, and hiked around Portland and the UO campus. ACTIVE - Trail-running in Portland and in the Columbia River Gorge, Kayaking and SUP Columbia River, Jumping in waterfalls. FOOD - Craft Beer & Coffee count as eats, right! Camp fire eats, Wild fruit eats, Restaurants eats around Portland and Eugene, good ole Home cooking at Friends' houses.
That's all I can remember right now. Here are just a few pictures that capture just a bit of my adventures.
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| Hiking and beach time Oswald State Park |
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| View at the top of the Oswald hike |
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| Beach walks, good beer, and a perfect sunset with a special person |
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| Running through the halls of the Shinning's "Overlook Hotel" We found the scary room (actually it doesn't really exist) |
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| The start of a very long day hike around Mount Hood |
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| Great time hiking with this dude, WATERFALLS!!! |
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| I visited during that magical time of the year.. sunny days, low tourist population, and wildflowers in action |
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| Can't get enough of this place!!! |
Race Recaps
I am a Spartan!
I did three races in the span of 6 weeks. First up was the Virginia Spartan Super 8 mile obstacle course race. Not really a "race". Did this with my cousin and his buddies as a team just for fun and to try something new, while getting in some cross-training. I definitely enjoyed this event! Its a tough course that involved something like 6,000 feet of elevation of running/walking/crawling and about 30 strength obstacles. I can't say I loved every minute, since I spent a good hour stuck waiting behind people (9,000 participants!) that preventing me from actually "racing". Other than that it was a fantastic challenge and allowed me to put all this strength and endurance training I do to good use. Also, tested a lot of my weak areas such as upper body strength (not something I need for cycling and running or even swimming.) Despite the time delays during the event I placed well. Next time I do one of these I will sign up with the elites who go off before everyone else and avoid the delays - and then maybe go back and run with a team of friends - because racing and helping a team is a lot of fun.
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| It was a muddy good time! |
I thought the timing was perfect for me to finally race one of the long course 140.6 triathlons aka Ironman triathlons. I had a couple solid years of racing half ironmans and I was definitely ready to go longer. So not only was the timing right but the location was right. Ironman Maryland took place in Cambridge, MD, which is only an hour and a half away from where I live in Baltimore. This provided me a rare opportunity to train on the course throughout the summer. And I made it out there a few times for long Bike-Run sessions on the hot, humid, flat race course. The training went great and I was expecting to race reasonably fast. My bike practice had me projected to complete the flat race course in a comfortable 4:35 hours and longest brick practice gave me confidence I could run 3:15 hours after that bike effort. I did not practice open water swims, but practice race simulations in the pool gave me confidence I get through 2.4 miles in 1:05. All in all these training numbers gave me confidence I could be pretty competitive in the race overall. But, if you race triathlons then you know a race can be very unpredictable and anything can happen. The biggest hurdle for racing these Ironman events is Mental. For me, I needed to except and embrace the fact I would be swimming for an hour, cycling for some four hours and running for some 3 hours. There is a lot to the mental game and I could write a book about it, but a large piece of the puzzle is to be positive and to simply spend very very long solitary hours training. Good thing for me is that I love training long hours, probably too much - but that's another topic altogether.
In regards to my inaugural Ironman race - it was actually a bit of a let down. I love racing and pushing myself to my limits. I feel like I didn't get the opportunity to really do that here. Mentally it was very challenging for sure, no doubt. But the unfortunate events on the bike took me from "racing mode" to "participating, just cross the finish line mode".
The SWIM was interesting and I actually thought I was swimming quite well. I had no idea I lost so much time with that rolling start and then getting caught behind people on the second loop, so I was surprised I was 10 minutes slower than projected.
Only a mile or two into the BIKE ride I got myself in big trouble - I tried to pass a group taking up the road by passing on the right side, then got bumped, accidentally, hit a pothole and went crashing off into a grassed ditch. It happened fast and I was back onto my bike fast after collecting my nutrition only one of the two bottles that fell out. Unfortunately, I quickly realized my seat post had been pushed down a bit and my seat angle was way off (post-race I found my carbon frame took a bad hit and has a small hair-line fracture). I didn't think too much of the seat issue at first, I just continued to hammer the rest of the way working my way to the front. Truth is - when the seat post and seat angle get messed up during a 112 miles cycling there is going to be consequences. I felt it after about 60 miles of hammering 25-26 mph, it was like I hit a wall. The "new" bike position forced me to bike using just quads. Generally my cycling power comes from a balance of quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Long story short - I struggled to finish the second half on the bike and came in nearly 20 minutes off projections.
I was excited to start the RUN. Besides the quads cramping up throughout the bike, I had good energy left for the run. I felt good through the first 8 mile lap, but then the wheels just started falling off. Problem was that my quads were kinda toasted from the bike effort and I demand a lot from my quads on the run. Physically I had the energy, but my legs were kinda done and I walked quite a bit through the final 16 miles. I was a little over 30 minutes slower than projected on the run. I finished in around 10 hours. It felt GOOD to cross that line though! Good is obviously an understatement. All the hours of training, all the time sacrificed from family and being social, its all such a huge commitment and sacrifice. It's worth it though! I love the TRILIFE!! Its great to finally have an Ironman race under my belt. But as soon as I crossed the finish line I was ready to sign up for another one. I want to get this distance right, redeem myself, and race as good or a little better than the training sessions. Thanks to all the family members that came out to support me. I appreciate it so much! Here are a few pictures that cover my race.
I don't know if is good or bad thing, but I wasn't too sore from the Ironman effort. OK the soreness lasted about two days, but by the next weekend I was ready to race again. I was probably more sore after the Spartan event. Anyways, I was in good race shape and I wasn't very satisfied with the Ironman effort so I decided to race a local half ironman a week later. Unfortunately, the cloak of bad luck was still with me on the bike. Shortly after taking the lead about 35 miles into the 56 mile bike ride I get a flat. "That's okay, I have a spare tubular for this, I lose a few minutes, no worries, I will just hammer to the front again" I thought. Not even a minute later my rear tire goes flat. My race was over right there. This particular bike support crew do not carry spare tubulars or spare wheels. The bike roads were less than favorable.. gravel, potholes, speed bumps. I shouldn't have been surprised when I found myself holding on for dear life going 28 mph over these raggedy roads on the race course. Maryland Roads are incredibly bad. (This is a hot topic for me!).. I'll leave it at that.
Frustrating is the key word for my two triathlons this year. Things will change next year. I finally have all the endurance+ that I lost from my year+ off from triathlon racing. It's difficult to predict where I will be racing next year, but plans are definitely in the works. One thing I do know is that I will be shooting for a marathon PR early 2015 :) .
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