My Problem Here Is With "The Noodle"

I recently read an article / post titled Dangers of Triathlon Competition: Tips to Increasing Your Personal Safety.  I have to admit I found this article really, really, annoying.

I know, opinions are like....well, you know...everyone has one.  And I'm not ranting here as a triathlete who's taken offense to someone criticizing the sport.  I'm annoyed because a number of the statements made are just so off the mark.

The main point of the article states that the swim leg of the triathlon is the most dangerous of the three, and that while training for a triathlon is a great way to get in shape and improve your cardiovascular health, the sport has a higher death rate than one might expect - mostly attributed to the swim leg.

I'm not going to go into all the details here, so you might want to give the article a read but as I said, some of the points made - allegedly to show how dangerous a triathlon can be - have almost nothing to do with the sport itself.  Some of the "widely known" deaths in triathlon races include:

* A man who died of a stroke, followed by a heart attack, during the swim leg.

* A man who died of cardiac issues during the swim leg.  He had recently lost 100 lbs, and was down to 300 lbs (from 400 lbs).  He was competing in his first triathlon and was unable to reach support before his heart gave out.

* A woman died near the end of the swim leg - complaining of chest pain.  An autopsy showed she swallowed too much water during her swim.

* A man was bit by a great white shark during a triathlon.

Is it just me, or are some of the deaths outlined simply the result of being in the ocean in general (ie. the shark bite), while others are examples of individuals who weren't strong swimmers - or weren't physically prepared - and perhaps shouldn't have been competing in the first place?

What really got me, however, were some of the suggestions provided to ensure that you don't become a statistic of the dangerous world of triathlons.  Granted, some were good:

"..confer with your primary care physician or sports medicine professional before entering triathlon competition..."

And some were just, well, you'll see what I mean:

"Some races allow less strong swimmers to use noodles.  It may not seem sporty, but it's better than drowning."

Wait.  Hold on......a noodle?  Really?  Then you can't swim!  Perhaps you should sign up for a duathlon.

Sorry, that last line was a little snarky.  But seriously, if you - even for a moment - think that you need a flotation device to get through the swim leg of a triathlon you shouldn't be anywhere near the water before a mass start is about to go off.

In summary:  If you can't swim, don't do a triathlon.

Additionally:   If you don't have your doctors approval, when you really should, don't do a triathlon (or any other sport for that matter).

Okay, I'm off my soap-box.  (Really?  A noodle?)

2010 End of Year Recap

2010 was an interesting season.  The main challenge for me this year wasn't any particular race or event, but rather it was staying healthy.

I had a summer full of medical adversity (you can read all about it here and here) that effectively ended my triathlon season in early July.  That's not to say that my early season racing was poor.  Quite the contrary, I was racing well and was feeling that I was going to have some good results later in the season.  I had a great pre-season and my running was vastly improved thanks to running with the maniacs.  My cycling and swim training was more quality and intensity focused - as opposed to quantity - and I was feeling strong.

But alas, it wasn't meant to be this year.  I never really got around to doing race reports for any of my early season races, so as I look back at the 'season that wasn't' I thought I'd do a quick recap of the events I was able to participate in:

The North Face Endurance Challenge 1/2 Marathon

This race was great. A half marathon up and down Bear Mountain, in Harriman State Park.  Lot's of elevation - both climbing and descending.  Weather that day was clear, but very cold and windy for the month of May.  My friend Tom had run it the year previous and I remember him detailing how crushing the course was.  The race organizers made it clear that they had made some changes to the 1/2 Marathon course this year, but I still went out cautiously at the beginning. 

Some great single track, some nice fire-roads, and some brutal climbs up rocks and boulders to a flat-top peak, and then down the other side.  Really great stuff.  I had one incident where my timing chip got ripped off of my shoe going through some scrub.  I wasted a couple minutes getting it knotted back into my laces, and watched 3 or 4 guys that I worked hard to pass earlier retake their positions.  In hindsight I should have just stuffed it in my glove.

Tragically, I left a lot in the tank at the end of the day.  Most everyone I knew there went out too easy.  Not a stellar performance.

Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon

My wife was originally signed up for this tri, but her knee was giving her some trouble and she had to back out.  Thankfully, the race organizers allowed us to swap the entry and I thought that this would be a great early season test.  It was early June, and I had an Olympic distance triathlon just a couple of weeks later.  I figured this would be a good fitness test.

This was my first sprint distance triathlon I'd done in years.  I've been focused on Olympic and 1/2 Iron distances for the past 2 years or so, so this was going to be a nice change - just red-lining the heart rate for an hour or so without worrying about pacing.

The swim was great.  I came out of the water 1st in my AG (all the M40-44's were in one wave) and as I came up the wood and dirt "staircase" from the river to T-1, my wife yelled out that I was the first out of the water from my wave.  That gave me a good boost and I figured I'd really try to keep the hammer down on the bike.

The bike course was actually quite a bit of fun.  Hilly (up-hill) for the 1st half of the loop and hilly (downhill) for the 2nd half.  I passed a handful of people heading out, and was passed by one person, the overall winner, just before the turnaround.  I heard him coming, took a look to my left, and saw a guy wearing a Speedo go cruising by.  Really?  A Speedo and no top?  Was this his way to give a shout-out to the guys racing at Kona in the 80's?

Yes, the photo is a proof

Anyway, I hit T-2 and was realizing that it was a perfect day for racing. Overcast, not too warm.  Quite ideal.  I headed out for a somewhat hilly 5K and finished feeling excellent.  I passed a few folks, but was just not 100% sure about my position.  I didn't think anyone passed me on the bike from my AG but I couldn't be sure.  Had a nice 5K split - 19:06, and when results were posted found that I did indeed hold 1st in my AG and had a 6th overall placing.

6  Dave Burgess  17:23    1:30    29:59    0:57    19:06     1:08:54

Stamford KIC IT Olympic Triathlon

This race had all the earmarks of being another great race for me.  And in reality it was.  However, as I posted previously, this was the race where I received my first time penalty. I'm still upset about it to some extent, but only because that 2:00 minute penalty kicked me off the AG podium!

I'll keep this report brief - The swim was more of a run / swim.  The tide was out at the start and there was about a 1/4 mile slog through the water, both at the beginning and end of the swim.  There were a lot of folks with cut feet from shells and rocks as I came into T-1..... It was a long run from the beach to the transition area, and there were lots of bloody footprints to follow on the way in.

I hit the bike and had a nice effort.  Not my best, but overall I was happy with it.  I had seen my friend Rodney before the start, and was wondering when he was going to catch up with me.  He's a stronger cyclist than I, and I figured it was only a matter of time.  Sure enough, with about 4 miles to go, someone smacks me on the left thigh (yes, while we're racing) and yells "OY".  There he was, the crazy Aussie friend of mine.  We were side by side for the remaining few miles and went into, and out of, T-2 together.

I hung with Rodney for the first 4 miles of the 10K.  We were running about a 6:40 pace and I was pretty happy with that.  He started to pull ahead and I had to let him go with one mile left.

5/56 M4044  D Burgess  2:17:33   21:36   2:04   1:09:40   0:59   41:15   6:40   2:00

Considering the penalty (that dreaded "2:00" at the end of the results line) it wasn't a bad day.

Gail's Trail Race

I wrote up a race report for GTR not long ago.  Great racing - always on my race calendar for a end of year romp through the woods.

I hope everyone had a great year of racing.  I'm now enjoying the holidays, as I hope you are as well, and getting my 2011 calendar in order. 

Gail's Trail Run Race Report

This past weekend (well, yesterday) was the annual Gail's Trail Run.  This is a great event, hosted by the Mossman Triathlon Club that, in honor of Gail Connor (wife of Team Mossman's first swim coach), benefits the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Normally this event is held at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Westchester New York - a 10K loop with 2 water crossings, a couple of challenging climbs (one aptly named 'The Anthill') and depending on the weather it can be muddy and wet, or snow covered - icy - and…well….wet.  (The second water crossing is about waist deep) 

Exiting the second water crossing at Gail's @ Ward Pound Ridge 2007

But for logistical and permit reasons, this years GTR was held in Huntington State Park, in Redding CT.  A bit of a shorter course (only 5.5 miles) but looking back, it was well worth the hour or so drive to get to the race.

Cut to: Dumping rain.  Temps are in the high 30's and the rain is just not letting up.  We (my good friends Tom O, and Greg S) hustle from the car to the registration tent, get ourselves checked in, and run back to the car (I know, wimps) where we waited for the race time to arrive - which we knew was upon us when one of the race organizers honked their car horn to get everyone out of their vehicles and to the start line.

We shuffled along with everyone else over to the start area and got out last minute instruction - basically telling us to watch for the flags marking the course, and to have fun with the water crossing.  With that we lined up and the race was on.

Immediately from the start there were about 5 of us out front.  As the first mile had us on a fairly well groomed carriage trail we were holding a pretty good pace.  Someone in our small group was wearing a Garmin and I heard him say "...6:20-6:30 pace" as he pulled back.  Ooops!  Anyway, at one point one of the runners surged just before we hit the first section of single-track.  I thought about going with him, but I didn't want to press the pace too much this early - and the guy who I was side by side with wasn't having anything to do with me passing him.  So I stayed on his shoulder and ducked behind him into the heavy trails.  Kind of a mistake.

Come to find this guy, while quick on the flats, wasn't too technical a runner (not that I'm all that great technically myself) and really slowed up on the up's and down's over rocks and roots in the single-track section.  I realized that the leader was suddenly nowhere in sight, so I yelled to the guy ahead of me  "…we're losing him - he's getting away"….but much to my chagrin he was content to hold his position.

Then we hit the water crossing.  I was about 5 yards behind the guy ahead of me and wasn't sure why he was entering the water so gingerly.  I decided that this is where I'm going to get around him and plowed into the water - Mistake #2.  There was a thin coating of water covering a nice layer of ice.  On the fast approach you just couldn't see it.  But as I hit it, I crashed through,gashed my shin open a little bit, and staggered to keep my chest above the water.

Post-race souvenir

Soon after came the first serious climb.  The climb went on for at least 3 or 4 minutes - about a 1/4 mile or so (it felt like more) and I realized that I was putting some distance on everyone.  As we were at about the half way point of the race I decided that this was the time to make a move.  While I sounded like a Sherpa in the Himalayas I kept my pace on the rocky, muddy, climb and was able to put a bit of a gap on the group.  By the time I hit the second climb I was finally able to see the leader about a minute ahead of me up the hill.  Still a little bit away, but at least I could chase him. 

At the end, while I kept my gap on everyone and held my position, the leader was too far away to reel in.  I crossed the finish line in 2nd place and was pretty darn happy with the result. 

Kudos to the Mossman team for another great race.  Gail's is one of those events where you wonder what the hell you're doing while you're in the middle of it, but you can't wait to do it again next year.

Running While on the Road

We've all been there - traveling for work, or personal, reasons and squeezing in a run (outdoors or on a treadmill) or ride (usually on a stationary bike in a hotel gym) in a desperate attempt to keep your training regimen on schedule.  The Type-A / OCD person trapped inside me finds it all very inconvenient.  On the other hand it's a nice way to shake up the normal routine that can sometimes settle in.

Sometimes it's a great opportunity: Running in San Diego along the waterfront doesn't suck.  Neither does running along the Embarcadero or in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

I've also done some running in London (not bad early in the day) as well as outside of london near Maidenhead / Ascot (very nice countryside).  Seattle was a nice place to run, although the day was a total cliche' and it was dumping rain the last time I ran there. 

I must say that my least favorite place to run (so far) is in Columbus.....in February.  Having grown up in the mid-west I knew what I was getting into when that work trip came along.  Day one was a 4 mile slog outside in frigid temperatures with snow and ice blowing at me from every direction.  Subsequent morning runs were performed on the treadmill at the hotel boring myself to death.

I've been lucky on occasion and have been in a city where there was a gym that my membership here in the North-East gave me privileges.  Taking a spin class in the middle of the winter while on the road was kind of nice.

That's all work (mostly) related running.  There are times when running while on holiday comes into play, and this can also be a difficult, albeit a somewhat fun, situation.  Take last week over Thanksgiving........

My wife JL and I headed down to Barbados to avoid the "Three F's" of Thanksgiving ("forced family fun").  Not that we don't love our families, but it's kind of our thing around Thanksgiving.  We do our best to escape, just the two of us, every year over this US-only holiday.  We love Barbados, and tend to stay in roughly the same area while there.  Having been there a handful of times, I've got a nice 5.25-ish mile loop that I can run.  The trick is trying to get out early enough to avoid traffic - most of the roads aren't the most friendly to runners as there's not much shoulder to speak of.  And the heat is an issue.  Getting out at 700a still provides sun, 75F temps, and about 70+ humidity.  But then there are the hills.

Now, truth be told, I could keep it simple and run up the H1 - along the coast - either north or south and keep it pretty flat.  But it does provide a challenge of traffic and safety.  Not to say that the drivers in Barbados are bad.  My experience has been that most drivers there are very considerate of runners (and cyclists that I've seen) and give a friendly little honk as they're coming up on you, and a wave as they go past.  Or it could just be the novelty of seeing a white dude running in the heat, sweating up a storm, in short running shorts and triathlon top.  But I digress.

The loop that I usually run is great.  Hills, some flats, more hills.  The downhill section is equally as tough, as my quads are usually barking at me by the time all is said and done.  But that first mile and quarter or so.....brutal.

In the graphic above - see all those nice, pretty, dark colors in the elevation chart?  yeah, tough way to start things off.  I think I averaged about 13-14 minutes for that first mile-plus up to the first left turn on each run.  My heart rate is cooking along at a nice average of 150+.  Oy.  Hill work for the month of December?  Check.

In the end, it's a good burn.  I can cook off some calories from the rum consumption of the previous day.  And it helps facilitate a nap in the sun later that morning.

Fun stuff, running in the islands.  Tragically the past few years we've missed the Run Barbados festival.  Full marathon, half marathon, 10K, and a 5K.  Very nice looking race weekend of events.  I took a look at the course maps (just in case we decide to schedule our retreat next year to incorporate the race weekend) and thankfully they're all along the H1 - nice and flat.

Getting out on the road, while on the road, is a pain.  But it seems much less so when on holiday in the sun with the ocean just a stones throw away.

Common Courtesy - An Endangered Species

What's up with motorists suddenly (or not so suddenly) ignoring pedestrians, crosswalks, and eschewing common courtesy?  I say "not so suddenly" as I've been seeing this lack of motoring etiquette for some time.  But lately it seems like it's moved on to another level.

I'm not even talking about the common, combative, vitriol laden relationship between cyclists and motorists.  That's a whole other post in itself.   I will say, after just coming into the house today from a Saturday AM ride, that it was event free.  And even with the mid-morning rush of a Saturday, with people heading to little league soccer, Home Depot, or wherever, it really wasn't too bad of a ride.

But when I'm running, or even walking (to the train station to commute to work, for example, which is only a mile away from our home), the idea of motorists actually stopping at a stop sign, yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk, or actually being aware of ones surroundings, seems like too much to ask lately.  Case(s) in point:

• While walking to the train one recent morning, I approached a corner where cars were waiting to turn right - I would have been approaching them from their right.  I made eye contact with the elderly woman in the lead car, and proceeded to cross.  She decided that it was more important to take advantage of the gap in traffic and - had I not jumped clear - her left front quarter panel would have clipped my leg.  Her dismissive wave of her hand was icing on the cake.

• During a typical morning run, I was coming up to a gas station where a car (I heard him before I saw him) came roaring up to the exit drive.  Thankfully I heard him coming and was able to stop short, because the dude behind the wheel never once looked in my direction and when I yelled a sarcastic "thank you", as I stood blocked by his car in the middle of the sidewalk, I was greeted with his middle finger.

• Walking home from the train station is just as bad as walking to it.  While crossing at a corner a car, thoughtfully, stopped and motioned for me to cross.  Giving a nice wave I proceeded to do so.  However, the car behind the nice young lady thought that this was a ridiculous situation and proceed to lay on his horn.  When I was clear, and the cars were rolling, he yelled out his window "get the fuck out of the way".

Now, as I said, this isn't the animosity that I see at times when I'm out on my bike on training rides.  That again provides enough ammunition for a whole other post (or three).  And I will say that there are "good cyclists" and "bad cyclists"....just as there are good drivers and bad drivers.  But when did the old saying "pedestrians have the right of way" go by the way-side?  Are people in that big a hurry that waiting for 10 seconds for someone to cross a street is such an inconvenience?

My wife and I have a saying that we commonly say at least twice on the occasion that we're out for a ride together.  It's not unusual for a car to tearing by us at a ridonkulous rate of speed - or for a car to ignore a stop sign, etc.  We usually joke that "...there better be someone giving birth in the back seat of that car..." as there's really no other reason to be so obnoxiously exceeding the speed limit in a residential area.  JL has also noticed this now more common phenomenon of motorists beginning to despise pedestrians.

And it really wasn't like this even 2 to 3 years ago.  It's been just recently (the past 12 months perhaps) that this behavior has been increasing to become more commonplace.  Even our early morning rides and runs (500a start time) now have risks - given by the example of the idiot coming out of the gas station.  It used to be that one could run down the middle of the road at that time of day and not encounter a car for miles.  Now, everyone is out earlier, in a bigger hurry, and patience is a rare commodity.

The encounters that I listed above should not be considered a complete list of transgressions by any means.  I could go on and on.  I just don't understand why common courtesy has been given up in lieu of trying to beat the rush at Starbucks on the way to work.