29:46:49!

Photo at the finish of Blake with our crew.

10th place overall. He killed it. And I had so much fun. I'll post a full race report (or as much as I can remember!) once I'm home and recovered. What a great experience!

F*** it's hot!

It's a beautiful day in Furnace Creek, Death Valley. We rolled in yesterday evening and have spent the last 20 hours getting to know each other and getting ready for the race. Blake's wave goes off in 19 hours (10am local time).

We've been getting to know each other on the crew, getting the supplies and cars ready and trying to learn as much about this race as we can. Blake looks good and seems really relaxed. I think that we, on the crew, are probably more anxious than he is!

I went for a short 4.5 mile run this morning. Went out about 7:15am and it was already over 100 degrees! The run felt good and it was great to get a very mini sense of what Blake's going to encounter tomorrow. This afternoon, we just drove a segment of the course - it's pretty crazy. It's so desolate. We passed a few "towns" but "town" out here means a gas station, restaurant and motel. At places you can see down the road for miles and miles.

There's absolutely no cell phone service here and limited internet service, so this is probably my last post until after the race. I'm psyched to write more about the race after it's done.

Bike - July 11
Distance: 44.5 miles
Time: 2:30
Average heart rate: 113
Course: Home to Hermosa via Ballona Creek +
Conditions: Sunny and nice, high 60s

Run - July 12
Distance: 4.5 miles
Time: 40 minutes
Average heart rate: 143
Course: Furnace Creek, Death Valley
Conditions: Sunny and hot! 7:15AM. 103 degrees, 13% humidity, some wind

Badwater, here we come!!

Tomorrow morning I'll be heading up to Furnace Creek, Death Valley for the pre-race preparations for the Badwater Ultramarathon. As I mentioned last month, I'll be part of Blake Benke's 6 person crew, helping him make it to the finish and - do I dare jinx him - compete for the win.

Blake's wave goes off at 10AM local time. If all goes well, he's hoping to finish 22-25 hours(!) later.


If you're curious, badwater.com has tons of information about the race - a map of the route, history of the race, race reports, etc. And if you're really interested, you can track the race's progress at through a live webcast at http://www.badwater.com/2009web/.

Finally, I'll hopefully be twittering and/or updating my facebook status from the race. I'm new to twitter (I just signed up on Wednesday) and am not sure (a) if I can figure it out or (b) if I'll be getting cell reception out there. If you're interested in that, my twitter username is spectorjosh.

As part of my "preparation", I just read "To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance" by Kirk Johnson. It's about Johnson's Badwater journey at the 1999 race. Two years ago I wrote a review of "Running on the Sun" a documentary about the same 1999 race. Johnson's book is interesting because of his perspective - this was his first Badwater; and his first race longer than 50 miles. In fact, he only ran his first marathon about eight months prior to Badwater. Johnson was a journalist who started running after his older brother killed himself. Soon after he started running, he found out about Badwater (because he was going to write a story about it) and one thing led to another and was able to get the race organizers to let him race (despite the fact that he didn't meet the usual qualifications). At first he was just going to experience the race - as much of it as he could in order to write his story - but the race quickly took over. It became a quest to learn more about his life, his brother and his family. The first half of the book - when he's learning about the race, talking about his family and describing his psychological and physical preparations - was a little slow. But really, you don't read the book for that part, you read it for the second half, where he details his race, mile by agonizing mile. No offense to Kirk Johnson, but I think I prefer the movie - watching the struggle, seeing the landscape and listening to the pain was just better than imagining it all through his writing. That said, it's a good read and he definitely earned my respect. And it definitely made me even more excited to be there on Monday.

Go Blake Go!

Swim - July 8
Distance: 3,171 yards (2,900 meters)
Time: 1:00

Indoor bike - July 9
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 123

Brick - July 10
Total Time: 6:07
Bike:
Distance: 96.3 miles
Time: 5:34
Average heart rate: 127
Course: PCH, Las Posas towards Camarillo, back, Mulholland, through Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Old Topanga, Topanga, PCH
Transition Time: 5:08
Run:
Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 28 minutes
Average heart rate: 149
Run Course: Ocean Ave
Conditions: Sunny and warm, going up to sunny and damn hot!

Broken toe? NO!

In a massive change of fortune, I am now assuming that I did NOT break my toe. I jammed it pretty badly and on Sunday it sure hurt like I did some awful damage to it, but I don't think it's actually broken. (I haven't had a X-ray, so I'm just going by "feel".)

By yesterday afternoon the swelling had gone down a lot and at this point almost all the swelling is gone. There's still a nice band of technicolor bruising around the base of the toe and a light bruise covering a good chunk of my foot. It's also still a little painful to walk on and tender to the touch, but so so so much better than I feared. I went to the Griffith Park Brick tonight and did the ride portion, but instead of doing the run I just stayed on the bike and rode about 15 extra miles. Cycling felt fine; the only times it bothered me was when I went over a hard bump, which caused a momentary stab of pain to shoot through my toe. Tomorrow is a swim. Thursday is scheduled to be a long run, but I'll play it by ear.

When I jammed it on Sunday, the first thing I thought of was how much it hurt. That thought was quickly replaced with a terrible fear that that was how my season was going to end. A broken toe, caused by walking into a wall? I would have been so damn pissed. Phew!

Swim - July 6
Distance: 3,171 yards (2,900 meters)
Time: 1:00

Bike - July 7
Distance: 36.7 miles
Time: 2:02
Average heart rate: 126
Course: Griffith Park
Conditions: Sunny and hot, mid 70's

Broken?

This was supposed to be a post about the new ocean swim workout I did on Friday and about the great long brick I did yesterday and about the 4th of July and about the fact that it's nine weeks until the Ironman. Instead, it's going to open with my probably broken right pinky toe. Dammit!

We bought a dining room table (finally) but I'm not used to it being in the dining room, so this morning after my ride I guess I mis-judged the space between it and the wall and stubbed my toe BADLY on the wall. This picture just doesn't do it justice:


(sorry if the picture was too gross)
It's badly bruised at the base of the toe (arrow) and there's another nice bruise extending about 2 inches down my foot (circled, you can't really see it, but trust me it's there). It hurts to put pressure on it. I'm icing it and buddy taping it to the next toe and trying to keep it elevated. Thankfully I don't have a run scheduled until Tuesday night, so I don't feel any pressure to run on it right away, but Tuesday's going to come quick and given it's condition right now, I'm worried that it will be longer than that before I can get back on it.

Anyway...

Up until I jammed my toe, it was a good first week of July. This was a high volume training week (even with Monday off, it was 16 hours), with some good, long runs, swims in the pool and ocean and a little over nine hours on the bike. I am (or was) feeling good and pain free and ready for one more big week before heading off to Death Valley next Saturday for Badwater. I'll be in Death Valley/Mt. Whitney from Saturday until Wednesday night and will be pretty busy during that time - and without a bike or a pool - so that was scheduled to be a recovery week. Either way, I'm still hoping that I'll be able to at least have a big swimming and cycling week before I go.

I did a new ocean swim workout last Friday. It was a coached workout, led by Gerry Rodrigues, the masters swim coach at UCLA. It was a good, intense workout. It was 90 minutes, with about an hour of swimming, a bunch of running on the sand between sets and not a lot of time standing around. It was a good workout that I'll attend again. While exiting from one of the first swims I got knocked over by a wave and lost my goggles; I figured my workout was over. Thankfully, a stranger (Keith) offered to loan me a extra goggles that he had in his bag. Thank you Keith for saving my workout! I'll be sure to pay that one forward.

LA Tri Ocean Speed Circuit - July 1
Distance: 2,500 yards (5 laps)
Time: 47 minutes
Conditions: Rough and tumble! Warm water.

Run - July 1
Distance: 2.5 miles
Time: 20 minutes
Course: Santa Monica
Conditions: Cloudy, mid-60's

Run - July 2
Distance: 11.5 miles
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 149
Course: West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Hollywood
Conditions: Sunny, 70's

Indoor Bike - July 2
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 118

Ocean Swim - July 3
Distance: ~3,500 yards
Time: 1:30
Details: Coached swim, 10 min. warm-up run, 12 min. warm-up swim, 4x600 yards with short runs between, 3x200 yards

Brick - July 4
Total Time: 6:08
Bike:
Distance: 75 miles
Time: 4:48
Average heart rate: 119
Bike course: PCH, up Decker, down Encinal, up Latigo, down Kanan Dume, PCH back
Transition Time: 4:45
Run:
Distance: 8.75 miles
Time: 1:16 minutes
Average heart rate: 128
Run course: San Vicente through Santa Monica and Brentwood
Conditions: Early (6:30am) start, a bit cloudy and low 60's to start, but burned off and got into low 70's and sunny by end

Bike - July 5
Distance: 43.6 miles
Time: 2:30
Average heart rate: 122
Course: Griffith Park, LA River
Conditions: Sunny, high 60's

Monthly Summary - June 2009

Here's June:

Swim: 26,731 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 575.15 miles
Cycling (indoors): 0:30 (hours)
Run: 66.1 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 1 session

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 51.25 hours

Weight: 164

I can't believe we're half-way through 2009.

Another good month of training. My body is holding up well (knock on wood) and I've been able to dedicate a lot of time to training. (unemployment sure helps in that department...) I now have about 8 1/2 weeks until Canada and I feel like I'm in a good spot right now. I've been able to get a lot of time on the bike - without looking back too much, I'm guessing that this was my biggest month on the bike ever. I've been able to mix up the cycling - spending relatively long periods of time in aero and also doing some really good, hard climbing. I'd like to continue that trend for the next 6+ weeks until my taper. My running is fine, but I've been speaking with Coach John about increasing the volume a little bit. For the last couple months, I've been running about 15-18 miles per week, with a hard effort on Tuesdays and two shorter runs on Saturday and Sunday. I'd like to add another mid-week longish run. I know I have a great base, but I want to get some longer runs in again.

This month's highlights were the Bonelli Triathlon and the trip to NY. The race was a nice intro to Southern California racing. I wish that I were doing another couple races before Canada, but scheduling - both in terms of training requirements and other commitments - makes that pretty tough. I might try to get some races in this fall after I recover from Canada. The trip to NY was fun. It was good to see family and friends and check out the old haunts. I didn't really miss a beat in my training. But it did help confirm for me that we made the right choice in moving.

Swim - June 27
Distance: 2,650 yards
Time: 50 minutes

Strength - June 27

Run - June 27
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 31 minutes
Average heart rate: 134
Course: Wainscott
Conditions: Sunny and warm, low 70's

Bike - June 28
Distance: 75 miles
Time: 4:10
Average heart rate: 117
Course: East end of North Fork Long Island
Conditions: Cloudy, some rain, 60's

Swim - June 30
Distance: 2,000 yards
Time: 49 minutes

LA Tri Club Griffith Park Brick - June 30
Total Time: 1:52
Bike:
Distance: 20.9 miles
Time: 1:14:11
Average heart rate: 135
Transition Time: 11:08
Run:
Distance: 3.5 miles (had to cut the run short to meet Elizabeth)
Time: 27:08
Average heart rate: 148
Conditions: Evening, mid 70's, sunny and clear

NY trip continued

It's been a bit of a whirlwind (and I don't just mean the weather) so far, but here's hoping for a nice, relaxing weekend, full of eating, reading, chilling and, of course, training! The weather has been up and down, mostly rain, humidity, and overcast, but there has been some sun - in fact, it looks pretty nice out right now.

I have managed to get in all my training, as well as doing some work and spending some quality time with Elizabeth and a few friends. Charlie's definitely NOT getting the attention he's used to, but he'll survive.

The highlight of the week was going back to the City for a couple nights. It was our first trip back since we moved and it was really nice to be back. The sights and smells were all so familiar and it felt fairly natural to be there. I stopped into my favorite triathlon store, Jackrabbit Sports, got my traditional summer haircut at my old Cuban barbershop

and walked and walked and walked, something I've definitely lost touch with since the move. We were staying in Times Square, which was a total trip - mainly because I avoided the place like the plague for the 9 years I lived in NYC. I wish this picture came anywhere close to showing the chaos that is Times Square. (BTW: these pictures were taken with my new iPhone! Just because I don't have a job doesn't mean I can't have new toys!)


I also got in a good, hard run in Central Park on Wednesday morning. I got a little later start than I'd planned, so I missed most of the running crowd, but there were still a bunch of people out there who I "raced" against to get that extra push. Even though training in LA has been incredible, I still think Central Park is one of the best places in the country for running. It has varied terrain with a few good, short climbs, there are enough cut-offs and side roads that you can run short or long, for the most part you can run protected from traffic, there is even some off-road running that you can do and there are always good runners out there. I ran a little too hard, but was having a blast and feeling really good.

We came back out to Wainscott last night and I went for a great run - my longest since the marathon. I ran pretty easy for the first 55 minutes, then pushed the pace for the last 25. I was cruising, but felt relaxed and calm. Very encouraging stuff. This morning I went for a ride. It was drizzling a little when I started, but the rain stopped pretty quickly. Then, on my way back, about 20 minutes from home, the heavens opened up and it began to pour! I mean torrential. I started counting between the lightning and the thunder to try to see how far away the lightning was striking and to make sure it wasn't too close! It was probably a little dangerous, but frankly it was mostly fun, particularly because I was on my way home anyway. I hope to get in one more ride out here on Sunday. That will make three good rides during this trip and would make dragging the bike across the country totally worthwhile.

Swim - June 23
Distance: 3,200 yards
Time: 1:00

Run - June 24
Distance: 6.9 miles
Time: 53 minutes
Average heart rate: 150
Course: Central Park
Conditions: 70 degrees, some clouds, humid

Run - June 25
Distance: 10.25 miles
Time: 1:20
Average heart rate: 137
Course: Wainscott
Conditions: Evening run, clear, comfortable low 60's

Bike - June 26
Distance: 45.0 miles
Time: 2:24
Average heart rate: 121
Course: Route 27 towards Montauk
Conditions: Cloudy and low 60's at start with a few sprinkles, POURING rain, lightning and thunder last 20 minutes