Fussen 10k

Much more fun than a stressful Ironman triathlon - on Sunday I compete in the Fussen 10k.

The accompanying picture provides a sense for the day's frivolity - here we are having a PRE-RACE banana-split loading lunch in Fussan's charming central square.

Fussan is a postcard perfect Bavarian town at the base of the Austrian Alps.  The 10k entailed 3-loops each involving dashing through the cobblestone streets of the town followed by opening it up along a long, riverside bicycle path.

My times for the three loops were -  12:25, 12:45, and 12:42, for a total of 37:52 was good for first place in my age group  and 11th overall.

We were cheered on by the throngs of people relaxing at the outdoor cafes that line the course.  On each loop through the city's main street I got a nice boost to hear the crowd yell when the announcer called out my name and that I was coming all the way from America.

I seemed to be recovering reasonably well from the Ironman two weeks earlier and all the cycling I had been doing in between through the Bavarian countryside and along the Rhine.  And the banana split seemed to work.

Ironman Frankfurt

A week ago Sunday I did my long race of the year, ironman Frankfurt, my second full ironman event.

My start was not auspicious -  8 minutes before the gun went off for the swim, a fellow triathlete tried to zip up my wetsuit and then sheepishly handed me a broken off zipper.  It was a disconcerting sight, but I simply did not have time to be too distressed, I just ran to the official tent to see if someone could fix it - pins?  tape? but the officials merely suggested that I swim without a wetsuit which I knew with absolute certainty would not work for me.  So I plunged back in the water at the last second and begun swimming from the back of the pack with an unzipped wetsuit.  Swimming 3.8k in an unzipped wetsuit did not prove to be the end-of-the-world despite the discomfort, friction, drag (and I suppose as usual for me I looked really stupid).  The more pressing challenge was the massive wall of swimmers in front of me because I started at the back. I expected to be kicked in the face at the start, but I was battling crowds throughout, and had my goggles knocked off twice, both times in the second lap.  Somehow I passed much of field and was pretty happy with my 1:16:02 swim split. 

Four years ago, on a sweltering Tokyo July day I read teammate Mika's Ironman Switzerland race report and I  felt so baffled and (admittedly) disdainful that she could drop out of a summer bike race because of cold.  Last Sunday I felt like I might need to drop out of the bike ride because of cold. The other 2,500 triathletes at Frankfurt however did not seem to be having too much problem with the rain and wind during the first 90k of the ride, but I found myself shaking like a leaf (and i was wearing arm warmers while most guys were just wearing singlets).  I kept wishing for uphill sections which allowed me to warm up a bit, and I kept dreading downhills.  Finally at around 90k the sun came out and my pace picked up above 30k per hour.  The countryside was beautiful, I felt great and i grew confident that I could realize my goal of breaking 6 hours.  But then somehow I slowed dramatically on the final 20k of the ride.

After that my run was just a mess.  After a weak start I picked it up to 5 minute pace around 5k to 15k, but then I just deteriorated into a death slog.  

My overall time was 11:50:28. 

I kept trying to keep in mind the advice teammate Chris always told me - "it does not matter how much you actually train, what matters is that you believe in your training".  Well, hmmm, self-delusion can only carry you so far -  in retrospect it appears that I had done good training for the short, fast running 5k time trial I did 10 days earlier.  I always intended to do minimalist training for the Ironman, but then incorporate longer bike and run training in the month or so before Frankfurt, but in the end it seems I repeatedly cut my longer workouts short.

After the race our friend Stephane emphatically said to me "for us guys after doing the Ironman distance, of course we never have desire to go back to a shorter distance like a half-ironman".  I just looked at him kind of blankly thinking, "Huh, wtf?  All I have been thinking about is how much I would prefer to do a half-ironman."

The Ironman race was really just an excuse to travel to Germany with my bike where I have enjoyed cycling up Rhine to Cologne and visit teammate Matthias, then down to Augsburg to visit teammates, Joachim and Christiane where I did interval workout with their running club and cycled through the Bavarian countryside.

Oshima Triathlon 2012

I compete in the Oshima Triathlon again this year and just like in 2011 the swim is cancelled, and just like in 2011 I capture 12th place overall and a place on the podium (5th place age-adjusted).

My time of 2:18:35 for the 5k run / 40k bike / 10k run is a full 11 minutes slower than in 2011. The slower time is due to the big theme of this year's event - a brutal headwind which slowed everyone's bike
times. In fact I seemed to have performed relatively better versus the (larger) field in 2012, an improvement which I would like to attribute to my better training in 2012. But the improvement may be largely due to my not being so ridiculously inept on the transitions this year.


Swim -
In the weeks leading up to Oshima I just presumed the swim section might be cancelled as usual. When our overnight boat pulled into the
island harbor on Saturday morning and the waters were glass calm I was a bit concerned -- "we may actually have to swim" Then, as expected,
the winds start to pick up as race time approached and the waves started getting larger. Still there was no announcement of swim cancellation and the participants all dutifully marched down to shoreline shivering in our wetsuits in the fierce pelting rain, staring at the
dark, angry roiling ocean. Only at the last second did the race officials announce the swim had been replaced by a 5k run.


Run 1 -
So I tried to follow my strategy of trying to pretend the first run is the only race of the day -- be tough and forget about the subsequent bike and 10k run. As you can see from the adjacent picture I did struggle pretty hard on this 5k run... however my time of 19:42 hardly represents a great time for me compared to numerous other 5k runs I have done in the last six months.

Bike -
I found myself struggling into the wind on each of the 4 outbound
loops of the bike course, but then passing other cyclists on the
faster return section. Maybe my silly, waste of good money, aero
helmet helped after all.




Run 2 - Then the start of the 10k run was unusually tough - my first
kilometer took close to 5 minutes. Somehow, thanks to support of
teammates, I managed to settle into a decent pace into the wind and
finish reasonably solid.


Total - 2:18:35 (12th overall out of 346)
Run 1 - 19:42 (13th)
Bike - 1:18:24 (25th)
Run 2 - 40:29 (12th)

Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon

I compete in the Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon near Seattle last week.  The course is flat and fast, and remarkably scenic -- winding through farmland at the base of the Cascades near the small town of North Bend.

I had dreams of breaking 80 minutes but I was not able to come close, despite the good conditions and my effort and pacing on race day. I was advised to stay behind a CNW runner, Laura, who ran like a metronome at 6:10 per mile pace.  I ran in this pack of six for miles (picture). The pace felt so amazingly easy for the first 4 miles, and I really thought I could run negative splits. 

But somewhere around mile 8 the pack split up and my strength faded despite all the bike training.  I guess there is no substitute for event-specific training.  My finish time was roughly 1:21:30.

Asia Triathlon Championship

The Tateyama Triathlon race officials mercifully cancelled the 1.5k swim sparing us from the 14-degree C ocean water followed by biking in sub-10 degree air temperature.

The swim was replaced with a 3-kilometer run which seemingly should have helped my competitive performance. And I was competitive on the 3k run, leading my wave with a 10:28 sprint. I was pretty competitive on the 40k bike too - I pushed myself through the crowded 6-loop course in 1:07:56, which was another decent bike effort for me. However my final 10k run time of 41:25 was abysmal. Conditions were perfect for running and I felt OK, I just could not find the speed.

Still my overall time of 2:02;25 was good for 21st overall in the Citizens division and 5th in my age group. It was a wonderful weekend with my teammates including a spectacular scenic ride around the tip of the Boso Penninsula.

And I am in the official race photo gallery with this sponsor friendly shot of me totally gassed at the finish line.

Sole Runner T1 Allrounder

Several teammates and I had the extraordinary good fortune to be chosen to test the very latest in cutting edge, minimalist running wear - the T1 Allrounder by Sole Runner.

Our mission was to see for ourselves whether the T1 Allrounder could actually out-do mother-nature in providing a natural, barefoot running experience. We were all pretty excited when our teammate Cory brought the shipment of T1 Allrounders to our track workout a month ago, and even more excited when we tried the shoes on and saw just how stylish they are (see picture).

In fact the Allrounder is just so fashionable that rather than run in them, I chose to wear them to the big party on my street the following weekend. The other wannabe urban hipsters were struggling to look cool in their heavy combat boots, their ballet flats and their tired old black-and-white check Converse. When I walked in wearing my T1 Allrounders conversations stopped as people looked admiringly at my shoe selection; numerous people asked me what they were and where they could buy them. I continue to wear them when lounging at various coffee shops, Harajuku clothing stores, and trendy bars. They even match my urban hipster bike messenger bag and gives me that random, ironic and eccentric look that we all are working so hard to achieve....

Vegetable Half-Marathon

I ran the Vegetable Half-Marathon Sunday finishing 15th overall among the 1,504 participants in 1:20:38. 

This race appears like it will be one of my few pure running events during what has become my "running season" -- the winter months from January to April.

I had fantasized about running 1:18 again, but that was a bit self-delusion given my condition these days (and the fact the course had a dozen 180-degree turns).  The start on a track contributed to an over-zealous first 4k. I started to think negative panicky thoughts around the 4k mark and begun wimping out and slowing down.  Fortunately I was able to man up and maintain roughly 19 minute per 5k pace for the next two loops.  Here are my splits:

5k -  18:32

10k - 37:38

15k - 56:40

20k - 1:16:25

Half - 1:20:38

The run seemed like quite a struggle for me with many surges and slowing down -- relative to most all my other half-marathons in recent years, Chiang Mai, Arizona, Kanagawa, in which I seemed to cruise along straighter courses.  Ultimately though I am pleased with the effort and will assume it represents my best possible time now.  

Calfman Duathlon

I compete in my debut duathlon on Sunday (Calfman - a 5.05k run, 29k bike, 5.3k run) and finish 43rd overall out of 399 finishers.

RUN ONE - 17:47 / 21st

The first run segment is stupendously fast for me. Keren had advised me to go out hard on the initial leg and I was determined to stay with teammate Ishida-san, a top, Kona-level triathlete who I felt confident I could keep up with on the run. In fact I desperately struggle to hang with Ishida-san and am thinking my run sucks, but then towards the end I realize I am maintaining a fast 3:30 per kilometer pace on a winding, cross-country type course. My first transition after the fast run is surprisingly smooth for me.

BIKE - 55:35 / 92nd

My bike effort is decent. I generally seemed to hold my ground with guys around me which was my goal, but my accelerations off the numerous 360-degree turns is poor - other riders consistently pull away from me (and apparently my equipment is not aerodynamic enough and I should go spend lots more money on gear...)

RUN TWO - 21:13 / 27th

My second transition is comically inept. My hands are cold and I just cannot get my running shoes back on. It seems like hours and hours go by as I fumble with my helmet strap and gloves and velcro shoe straps and laces..

The second run effort is mediocre. I start at 4 minute per kilometer pace which is an acceptable run start for me in a Half-Ironman or even Olympic Distance triathlon, but for a short duathlon I would hope to be able to launch back into the run at 3:50 pace. Some of the duathlon competitors obviously do a lot of brick training - I have never been in such a fast run in a triathlon, usually I am passing all other triathletes on the run, but not so much on Sunday. I do manage to pick up the pace toward the end of the 5.3k.

As I expected I place in a similar position as in a triathlon. One might think that substituting running (my strength) for swimming (my weakness) would enable me to be more competitive. But it seems that the caliber of runners and cyclists who cannot or will not swim is strong.

Teammates Ishida-san and Chris are near overall front, while Geraldine and Keren capture first place in their age divisions, Keren finishing a few seconds behind me (but in a different wave).

I wish for an opportunity to do another similar duathlon right away and improve on the second two legs of the event, but I see no other chance for a duathlon until Calfman rolls around again next February.

2011 Run Mileage

I have dutifully tracked my running mileage this year on the Running Ahead website. One of the benefits of this effort is that the technology can generate various graphs which might somehow illuminate training patterns and future training strategies. So below is a chart showing my monthly mileage for 2011:

The Running Ahead site requires me to classify each run (even though many of my runs are just random blend of mostly slow running with maybe some hills and speed thrown in). As I look at this chart it is apparent I do very few "long runs". My longest runs are usually races - like in February when the 42-kilometer Tokyo Marathon represents a big chunk of the 176 kilometers I accumulated for the whole month.

Apparently my running dropped off in May amidst my journey to South Africa and Turkey; and never really picked up during the summer of triathlon training. The encouraging thing is how much I have managed to pickup my run training in November, December and January to-date in spite of much travel, races, continued swim workouts and increased cycle workouts.

Laguna Phuket Triathlon

I finally competed in the Laguna Phuket Triathlon last week after years of dreaming of doing this luxury resort triathlon event. And it was amazing - amazing accommodations, amazing food, and amazing organization (the organizers provided more police escort and support for the PRACTICE bike ride on the Friday morning before race than most events do for the race itself..) Of course before the race I said that Phuket event was just an excuse to visit Phuket, but when the race starts it was totally serious. And just like my last triathlon (Murakami in October) I performed great on the bike, slogged through the run in mediocre but acceptable fashion, and have a puzzlingly disappointing swim result:

Swim (1.8 kilometers in ocean and lagoon) - 40:34 / 359th place of 672

Unlike Murakami I felt I executed the swim really well. In the pre-race, pre-dawn darkness I grew increasingly stressed-out at the thought of my first real triathlon swim without a wetsuit. But my sighting was

good, my form felt smooth, and I had plenty of space even though I took an inside position around the buoys. It was only after the race when I saw my relative results that I felt disappointed with my swim. Swimming has been my main training focus and yet I am placing worse that I did several years ago.

Bike (55 kilometers with a few steep hill sections) - 1:42:37 / 112th place
When I see the bike results though I am ecstatic. I actually out-splitted Keren(!) on the bike. The Tim Smith Carbon Bike and my limited indoor training rides seemed effective again. I passed other cyclists on the steep hills from 5k to 10k and on several long straight sections toward the end. I seem to be the only cyclist with only one water bottle (most participants are carrying three!) - and yet I don't even finish drinking my one bottle before exchanging for a full water bottle and the two aid stations. Teammate Jack Byrd passes me around the 50k mark and I am inspired to chase after him the last 5k.

Run (12k on pavement, dirt and golf course) - 53:37 / 45th place
I slog through the run as best I can. Since it is "only" 12k, I do not bother with run/walk strategy. The run is not as miserably hot as I feared it would be - running on a golf course seems to alleviate some of the heat effect we suffer doing triathlon runs on pavement.

Total - 3:21:24 / 92nd overall, 8th out of 100 in age group

Pumpkin Push 5k

I completed the epic Pumpkin Push 5k this past weekend in Seattle. I ran the hilly course in 17:36 and placed 6th out of 636 competitors. Actually I don't know if I should call them competitors - many of the other participants were small children in Halloween costumes. Certainly the top dozen guys were competitive though -- I went out for a 5:25 first mile with a pack of 5 which broke up on a brutally steep short hill at the half way mark. As you can see in these pictures from the race photographer I was struggling to maintain a massive kick that I launched with 500 meters to go in an effort to crush some guy who had been running next to me the whole way. I did manage to beat him but could not overtake the 5th place guy. Well the cash prizes only went to the Top 3 overall finishers. Next year I will have to wear a costume.

Murakami Triathlon

Last Sunday's Murakami Triathlon was my big "A" race of 2011 -- it was not supposed to be, but it worked out that way.  The race was an Olympic Distance PB for me, and arguably my fastest overall triathlon performance to date. The bike leg was great, my swim was poor, and my run was acceptable.

SWIM - 31:09  (185th of 542)
It was a pleasant morning for a swim in the ocean. But despite all my training, I did not seem to execute well.  I got off to a slow start (partly by plan), and then just seemed to never get comfortable. Through the first half I had hopes that I was going faster than it felt, but when we ran up onto beach at the halfway mark I despaired to look at my watch and see spit of over 16 minutes.  (I had hopes of a swim time closer to 25 minutes). But open-water swim conditions are variable - my veteran swim teammates Chad and Keren estimated their swim times were 3 minutes slower than usual, so my effort was not as bad as I feared at that point.  And thanks to all the training I was not nearly as drained from the swim as I used to be several years ago.   

BIKE - 1:10:50 including transitions (51st place of 542) 

The bike distance of 40k is short enough that (unlike Vineman Half Marathon) the lack of long training did not seem to matter.  The short sessions on the indoor trainer did seem to help. And I have to admit again that my new bike really helped.  I simply outroll people on the black beauty.  I was amazed to pass so many people on the fast, flat out-and-back course.  It felt exhilarating cycling back with a tailwind at speeds over 40-kilometers per hour. 

RUN - 39:18  (23rd of 542)
I did OK. My unusually fast run at this course in 2008 (36:48) created unrealistic expectations. Sunday's 39:18 run time is in line with my other recent triathlon run times -- and my training.  In running my race result times and training effort are much more closely correlated. I guess that is a nice aspect of running - the justice, the simple payoff for the preparation involved.   

TOTAL -- 2:21:17  (49th place of 542)

Here are the overall results --

http://www.iwafune.ne.jp/~triathlon/2011/2011results-k.pdf

Sweltering in Singapore

Two years ago I did the Singapore Safra Bridge Run in 84 minutes which was good for a Master's 3rd place and an assortment of lavish prizes.  I recall feeling comfortable in the pre-dawn Singapore air and the equatorial humidity did not seem to affect me until late in the race. 

So I returned this past Sunday to hang out with my good friends in Singapore, do extensive swim training, and attempt to win enough marathon prize money to cover months of living in some Laotian jungle.  

The half marathon started at 5:15am, seemingly early enough to avoid the heat.  But before we had even covered 800 meters, I looked over to my teammate from Tokyo, Omar, who started with me, and exclaimed, "My god it is hot - it is so humid I cannot breathe".  I felt like I did when I ran in the high altitude of Denver, Colorado last year. Somehow I still managed to settle into a reasonable 4 minutes pace and start passing people.  

The marathon course is good for us people with background in urban planning and real estate development and I pointed out to Omar the whole new amazing skyscraper office district that the Singapore government is constructing at Marina Bay.  I am not sure that Omar really cared about the Marina Bay development project -- rather he kept replying about his lack of training and concern about melting.  Soon  Omar dropped back a bit, and by this time I had lost interest in the splendid sights of Singapore. For a while I concentrated on staying with a pack of Thailand team runners and then when I lost contact with them I concentrated on maintaining good form, then finally I  simply concentrated  on not giving up.   Increasingly I found myself cursing at my expat friends for living in Singapore.  

In the end I was pleased to finish in a time of 84 minutes just like two years ago (I am choosing to completely ignore several runners who claimed the course was short).   Somehow I seem to run 84 minute half-marathons when I am in sub-optimal conditions or sub-optimal training - Cape Town, Singapore, Katsunuma, Cambodia in 2007..

After the race I told myself that the next time I come to Singapore it will be only for swim events, but likely I will forget about Sunday, and find myself running in Singapore again. 

Vineman 70.3

A decade ago when I first started struggling to do a triathlon I was told of the Vineman Half-Ironman where the swim venue was so shallow that competitors could actually walk during the swim. This sounded great to me. Then a few years ago, teammate Adam York did Vineman and spoke of cool conditions throughout the day. This also sounded enormously appealing to me. So when my friend Arturo happened to mention the window of opportunity to sign up for Vineman 2011 way back last October I seized the opportunity to sign up, figuring I could always cancel and get the bulk of my registration fee back. Suddenly the event was upon me - it was only last month when Mika T pointed out that I should be doing half-ironman level training sessions, at which point it struck me that my Olympic Distance training was not optimal preparation for 5-hours of what is presumably my "A race". But Vineman was more of an A "trip" and I did not feel moved to alter my OD training plan. I would just wing it.

So it did prove true that the Russian River swim was so shallow that I could actually walk. Of course after ten years and hundreds of hours of swim training, this was no longer such a big deal, but it was kind-of interesting to stand up and look around during the swim. Unfortunately what I discovered when I looked around was that a lot of the people in my age-group wave were way, way ahead of me. I find that I do not get off to fast starts in swimming. My time at the turn-around was a distressing 22 minutes. But then we swam downstream rather than against the current and suddenly my speed was much faster. Faster not just versus the first half of the swim, but faster than the other competitors, I was passing people like crazy, apparently I am like a leaf and get carried along by the current. Carried back to the transition for a time of 36 minutes.

My bike time was 2:53:03, my 90k bike PB. I did not try to leave some strength for the run. In fact I barely seemed to have energy to make it to end of bike. At 80k a guy passed me and asked me if I was OK. I did not think I looked bad at that point, but its true I was tiring a bit toward the end of the ride. I tried to eat as much as I could, but I have been in more of a run/short triathlon mode the last few years and have lost some of the high calorie consumption while racing skill-set.

So my run was a survival thing and went OK. I ran 1:40:25 and was still passing people like crazy. It seems that in China, the spectators uniformly yell "Jar-yo" (literally "add gas"), while in Japan they invariably yell gambatte - which roughly seems to mean "hang in there" or "persevere". I thought Americans had a variety of random exhortations to cheer athletes on, but it seemed like the only thing I hear now is "good job". Though when I was passing some other faster runners Sunday, they commented "niiiiiiiice" which I thought was pretty cool. So over the last couple miles when my pace slowed to 8 minutes per mile and a couple other runners passed me I tried to reply in kind, but it just came out as a gasp.

Overall I was pleased with my Vineman effort given my training. Moreover it was a nice weekend amidst the scenery of Sonoma Valley and having the chance to see my classmate Gordon at his nearby Coppola Winery and enjoy post-race barbecue with Arturo after the race. Here are results -

Swim - 36:01 828th
Bike - 2:53:03 746th
Run - 1:40:25 400th?
Total - 5:17:44 354th

So (comparing apples and oranges), Vineman is my PB half-marathon to date:

2011 - Vineman - 5:17:44

2008 - China - 5:45:27

2007 - Lake Stevens - 5:33:28

2006 - Sado - 5:39:04

2003 - Wildflower - 6:14:48

Swim Relay Night in Singapore

I join the evening training swim workout with the Yellowfish Swim Squad in Singapore.

After months of swimming indoors and sharing one lane with 10 other swimmers, I find it glorious to swim in the open air on this typically tropical Singapore evening, surrounded by palm trees and towering residential blocks. The 16 club swimmers share 4 lanes in the spacious 50-meter pool.

When I arrive the coach, David, asks me about my swim level. Since I really have no idea about my pace, I mutter something about being OK in longer-distance freestyle, but lacking speed, and completely unable to do other strokes. So David assigns me to lane two, which is one of the slower lanes, and he has us do numerous sets of 200 freestyle. When it is my turn to lead the 200s, I swim them in around 3:45 and find myself over 30 seconds ahead of even the group in the faster lane 3 (though I am quite a distance behind the 3 guys in the faster lane 4 who are doing a different workout).

Then David informs us that tonight is a relay night and I find myself the anchorman for one of the 4 teams. This is the first race I have done in a swimming pool in my life, unless you count some informal childhood competitions dog-paddling against friends across a small neighborhood pool. I am the slowest of the 4 anchormen, and our team is crushed in the 4 x100. But then amazingly I manage to hold onto the lead and we win the 4 x 50. And then, even more amazingly I find myself doing the butterfly leg in the medley relay.

Now, I really cannot do the butterfly stroke, but I frequently do a "butterfly drill" for 20-30 meters as part of my training. The other three members of the team were adamant that they could not even do a single stroke of the butterfly, so being the team player I am I agreed to give it a shot. When the gun went off I gamely powered halfway down the length of the pool, windmilling my arms underneath me, and at this point, yet another amazing thing - I am actually ahead of the other 3 swimmers. Unfortunately I have not mastered my "butterfly" technique well enough to thrust my head fully up out of the water and get much air (I suppose this is one of the reasons I am ahead at halfway). Naturally I find myself gasping, sputtering, and reflexively holding onto the side of pool to get air. For the remaining 20 meters I am forced to revert to doing a hybrid dog-paddle, butterfly like flail. Somehow I make it to the hand-off, and my teammates seem pleased with my effort (or just happy that they did not have to do the butterfly). This being an informal affair we are not disqualified for the numerous infractions I would have incurred. My first pool competition of my life is great fun, though I probably should remain focused on open water competition.