I prefer the Oakland marathon that I ran earlier this year.  I like the warts and all course through Oakland much better.  There’s more people cheering at the Oakland marathon and the runners seem a little more laid back and a little more entertaining.  Whatever.  Just being cranky/Oakland prideful.

Anyway, SF marathon should be pretty fun.  Weather is always great, overcast, not too cold and not too hot and not windy, perfect running conditions.  The hills are tough though.

Nice infographic from Transition Four

I’m #813, for this second year of Ironman St. George.  While I swore never again to do this race — it’s that hard and miserable, I ended up signing up again.

A few reasons:

• I really liked the finisher’s shirt and I want another one
• The coach we work with is doing the race, among other friends
• the Utah bike course is gorgeous
• this course kicked my butt last year and I didn’t like that
• it’s drivable although this year I’m breaking up the drive into two, first LA and then Las Vegas
• needed a race to stay in shape

We’ll see how it goes.  Last year I did this race in 15:42:17 (fifteen hours and 42 minutes).  I’m going to see if I can do it in under 14 hours, but I’ll be happy to just finish and get my t-shirt.

I ran the Oakland Marathon last Sunday and I had a few notes:

• What a great event!  A challenging “warts and all” route through Oakland — from City Hall to Rockridge to Montclair to the Mormon Temple to International Boulevard to Jack London Square to West Oakland to Lake Merritt and back to City Hall.
• Great crowd throughout the whole course.  Very “homey/welcome” feeling, not like running the San Francisco marathon.
• There was no rain despite the threat of rain, it was pretty good running conditions.  Hoping next year will be the same.
• I used the day as a “training day” if that makes any sense.  I was strong through 20 miles, slowed down a little bit for the next two, and then put it into recovery mode.  Starting a marathon on tired legs is definitely an interesting feeling.
• A marathon is still a marathon.  I was hoping it was going to be easy but I was getting antsy around mile 17.
• The event was well run, some areas could be improved but not bad for their second time around.
• The Expo the day before was a little meager.  Could use some more vendors but the ones that were there were pretty good.
• The medal is nice.
• The shirt, long sleeve again, could’ve been better.  Needed a better graphic design and maybe a slightly higher quality shirt.
• The massage tent could have been managed better.

I’m hoping to get more people signed up for the race.  I’ll likely going to do it again next year.  It was definitely a lot of fun and it’s great to have a running event like this in Oakland.

• March 27 -  Oakland 1/2 or Full Marathon
• May 7 – Ironman St George
• July 30 San Francisco Marathon
• October 1 – Levi’s Gran Fondo
• December  3 – NorthFace 50k

I’d like to keep the Summer and Fall open for things other than races but may consider some races depending on who’s in.

My base workout locations are: my house in North Oakland near Children’s Hospital (bike/run), Temescal Pool, Sports Basement in San Francisco (bike/run), Mike’s Bikes Sausalito (bike/run), Tam High School (swim/bike/run), Lunardi’s (bike/run).

Will also be doing some trail runs in the East Bay hills (Skyline 50k routes) and in Marin (NorthFace 50k routes).

My fitness goals for 2011 are to maintain my fitness levels from last year, drop some weight, improve my core strength and flexibility, and become a stronger runner.  I’d also like to reconnect with friends/training partners and just have some fun on the road.

Parlee Z5 stock

My dream bike is a Parlee Z5 — an all carbon fiber bike that can be built as a complete bike at around 13lbs.  My current bike is not heavy at a little over 17lbs and bikes for racing have to weigh at a minimum 15lbs (thankfully I don’t race).  Shaving 2 to 4lbs off a bike would be really great though.  I could also just eat less and lose some weight.

Anyway, for the build I’d go with the SRAM Red group with ENVE seat post, stem, and bar, Fizik seat, Look pedals, and TRP brakes.  I’d also go with the Dura Ace 7850 50cm wheels because they’re carbon wheels with an alloy braking surface, otherwise would go with Lightweight or ENVE clincher wheels.

If all goes well, maybe in 2012?  I could use the time to think of a nice paint job, though will probably end up with something like the first picture above — a solid blue bike.

I’m in the camp of people believing that carbon fiber is the best material for road bikes.  Carbon fiber just sucks up the bumpiness in roads that it makes for really comfortable riding.  I’ve ridden maybe 10,000+ miles on my road bike and can’t complain — stiff, durable, comfortable, just solid riding.

Above Category bike shop in Mill Valley is teasing me with some of their current bike builds of the Parlee.  Here, here, and here.

I needed a new pair of prescription sunglasses (my prescription changed) for working out and I finally ended up getting the Daddy-O square Ray Bans — very comfortable and great lenses.  It’s darker than I’m used to and it’s just been a great frame for working out and cycling than what I’ve had in the past.

I was wearing Oakleys but my prescription got too high and none of their really nice (overpriced) frames would allow my prescription.  The ones I have now lean towards being normal glasses with sun glass lenses versus actual sunglasses.  It’s too bad because I really like Oakley.  Thankfully Ray Bans are just as stylish and they’re cheaper too.

I did a bunch of research as I usually do and ended up getting the glasses from SportRX Prescription Eyewear.  Rob T. hooked me up and was very patient with me as he made the initial suggestion.  I eventually emailed him my prescription and glasses came in soon after.  It was a very nice experience.

Anyway, it’s funny that I’m sporting Ray Bans since it seems like the wayfarers have made a come back.  Maybe us ’80s kids are on the attack.

Recommendation: Definite Buy

This is the Garmin Edge 500 and I’m super attached to this thing mostly because it works.  I bought this in December last year and it’s reasonably priced.  DC Rainmaker has this crazy long review.

I use this computer for cycling and running though it’s optimized for cycling.  I have a heart rate monitor for my heart rate and it comes with a cadence monitor to monitor rotations per minute (RPMs) or my legs around the bike crank.  It’s a Garmin so there’s a GPS so it measures distance and elevation.  It’s also an ANT+ product and so it works with other ANT+ products like power meters and such.

The computer also comes with Garmin training center software so I can download all the information from the Edge 500 onto my computer (Mac OS X but works on Windows too).  From there, I upload the data to WorkoutLog.com which records all my workouts.

From a technology standpoint, it’s pretty freaking cool — a total home run product.  It works, it’s minimalist by default, configurable to your needs, easy to get data in and out.  Even the battery power is pretty good, lasted me a whole Ironman race (well the bike and the run part…and I took a long time).

It’s a piece of technology that will actually tell you about yourself, what you did, and could actually make you faster, stronger, better because you have data to measure against.

Training for Ironman St George and Ironman Canada started in earnest for me in October last year.  I have this training log that I use to record my workouts.  It’s a pretty neat tool but could be a little faster and little more slick on the user interface side.  I upload my workouts from a Garmin Forerunner which I’ll talk about in another post.

What’s new this time around is that I’m working with a coach, Chris Hauth (a genuinely nice guy, an ’92 and ’96 Olympian representing Germany, and he’s *won* a few Ironman races).  He’s coaching a few of my friends as well.

The workouts have been/are super efficient in terms of time and effort, and I’m also working out strictly on heart rate and also interval training.  I just don’t have time for any bad workouts, and his philosophy of doing something every day and getting enough rest and recovery to move on to the next level is proving to be right.

I’m also doing a bunch of (cycling) spin classes but the spin classes are based on wattage.  We use a CompuTrainer in class which you attach to the rear wheel of your bike, and it adjusts the resistance on your wheel based on what watt resistance level you give it.  Training by watts and high cadence and going to a ton of spin classes is also new this year.

In any case, St George is coming up, May 1 and Canada is right around the corner at the end of August.

*Updated for Mike, (removing thingie which was just the CompuTrainer)*

Also, adding below, the difference in training with Chris vs IronTeam.

The differences:

• I’m training using time versus distance e.g. 2 hour run vs 10 mile run
• I’m doing lactate threshold tests to determine my workout zones and bike wattage
• I’m training on strict heart rate, at a “Zone 2″ primarily using a heart rate monitor
• I’m training on the bike using watts/power
• I’m training on bike focusing on cadence, less hill work, and sustained effort
• I’ve got a good bike fit

We’ll see if it translates into a better time.  It is translating into far easier and manageable (even pleasurable) workouts.

I’m signed up for Ironman St. George (Utah) scheduled for 5/1/2010.  The rest of the Ironman Series can be found here.

• It will be the first year for Ironman St. George.
• I like it because it’s drivable (about 10 hours away).
• I was lucky to be able to get some friends to sign up too, about 4 others so far.
• Ironman St. George will be my sixth race and I’d like to sign up for Ironman France in June to get my seventh race out of the way since the timing is so close.  I still have to get permission from the big boss lady and be successful with the sign up first.

Yea, looking forward to it but won’t really start training for it until November.

Gorgeous road bike from Trek.  It’s the Madone 6.9 Pro w/ Dura Ace components with the Aeolus carbon wheels.

Weight loss kit:

• tanita scale
• notebook or somewhere to record weight
• water bottle that you’ll actually use
• motivation (e.g. Sister Madonna, the Ironman biggest loser)
• nutrition plan (coming)
• exercise plan (coming)

Weigh yourself twice a day, morning and evening.  Record once a week, like a Wednesday morning until you get to your ideal weight.  Don’t stress if your body weight goes up or down, a scale is just a tool.

Weight gain/loss is a matter of fact — you gain weight by consuming more or exercising less and you lose weight by consuming less and exercising more.  It’s all energy and caloric management, the more you can take emotion out of it the better.

3500 calories is 1lb of fat.  Daily caloric intake should be around 2000 calories — maybe 400 breakfast, 100 snack, 700 lunch, 100 snack, 700 dinner.

Ideal exercise is about 5 days a week, 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hour workouts.  You know you’re in the right groove and right frame of mind when *not* exercising feels like you haven’t brushed your teeth in a few days and that you have to go exercise.

Some observations/learnings:

• The SF marathon is a beautiful run, we hit the Embarcadero, the Piers, Marina/Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Haight/Ashbury, and AT&T Ball park.  First half is harder/prettier than the second half.  I recommend doing it.
• A half marathon is probably all anyone really needs to shoot for.  A full marathon is quite a lot.
• I burned about 3600 calories for the marathon.
• My training schedule actually worked out ok.
• Experience does come with age — I had better pacing and my feet were already calloused up from years of running.  Muscle memory kicked in too towards the end.  It does become easier.
• Skip the post race massage (unless there’s no line) and do an ice bath as soon as you can.  That’s 3 or 4 bags of party ice in a cold bath tub.  You stay in there until all the ice melts.  Otherwise, you’re going to be all cramped up waiting in line and you’re not going to be walking well for next 3 or 4 days.
• Body Glide and Assos cream really help to prevent chafing — nipples, under arms, and thighs.
• Thermolytes or sodium pills were great in helping to absorb the water I drank and helped prevent cramping.
• Low fat chocolate milk is a good recovery drink.
• I’m amazed that women can run with no or bad sports bras.  It’s not cute.  There is a lot of eye candy at the SF marathon though, for guys and girls.
• Someone mentioned that within 30 – 45 minutes of an endurance workout, it’s free calories and you can eat as much as you want.  After that though, it’s the same or worse in terms of burning off those calories.  Seems to be right.

Next up is Cal International in December if I can make my running weight.  After that, I’d love some recommendations.  The 50 marathons in 50 States club is interesting I guess, about as cool as a Chess Club (yes, I was in a Chess Club).  International ones would be cool too.

[No more marathons until I reach 170-175 lbs or less fighting/running weight.  It's tough carrying around so much weight.]

• Northstar – (nice looking website too) really fun, long rides, quick lifts
• Sugarbowl – quickest access to snow from the Bay Area
• Kirkwood – great for learning

Useful links

• Ski Bonk weather conditions for Tahoe
  
• Bay Area Ski bus

Other resorts that look cool

Tahoe

• Alpine Meadows
• Boreal
• Heavenly
• Squaw Valley

Colorado and Utah

• Crested Butte
• Deer Valley
• Park City

Other

• Whistler

The diet is going to consist of the following:

• Setting up the environment
• Exercise – a lot of it, 6 days a week at least one hour, and pretty much all weekend
• Local food and just enough
• Motivation
• Tools

Setting up the environment is about hanging out with the right people, keeping the kitchen free from junk and temptation, setting up the home so that it’s conducive to exercise, and getting all the right equipment for working out.

Exercise.  If in California and in the Bay Area especially, we’ve got a gorgeous playground.

Just enough food and local and fresh is best.  Will start out with basics and expand.

Motivation – health, family, long life.  But seeing normal people lose crazy weight helps too.

Tools – a journal, a scale, a water bottle, exercise mat, etc.

——-

• The goal: 100lbs. in one year.  2 lbs a week.
• My goal is to drop 15-20lbs by July.

2005 Trek 5.2 Madone SL

This is the same road bike as below but with my new paint job and lots of stickers removed. Also has the Ritchey Carbon WCS Evolution bar, an X2 Thomson stem, Chris King headset, Fizik Arione seat, titanium water cages. The rest is the same from before, Ultegra double, Bontrager seat post, Aeolus 5.0 wheels, Keo carbon pedals, Mavic computer.

Definitely my dream set-up. Only other upgrades I can think of is to get a Thomson seat post and change out the Ultegra set when that’s worn down. I think it looks just as good as the new 2008 Madones.

2005 Trek 5.2 Madone SL Bike w/ stock paint job. Ultegra double. Bontrager components. Keo pedals, Aeolus 5.0 race wheels. Did four Ironmans on this ride.

2004 Trek 5200

My first road bike. Road my first Ironman on this one. Ultegra Triple. Bontrager stock parts. San Selle Marco seat. Frame busted because of chain suck.

Core workouts target the torso, or stomach, back, hip/upper thigh area. This is where all the power is in your body.

I quit my gym membership a long time ago because I’ve been swimming at the local pool and running or biking outside. And then doing these core workouts at home makes that $80 gym membership pretty pointless.

Running downtown into Oakland requires me going down Telegraph or Broadway.

What I’ve noticed, or thinking:

• There are a lot of condos and I mean a lot of condos popping up in downtown Oakland.
• The art deco buildings in Oakland are gorgeous and some just need to be polished. I hope some of the new buildings get some character too instead of looking San Jose-ish.
• A lot of people seem to be coming back to urban centers from the boonies. The commute I think has just been killing people.
• There needs to be a few more grocery stores in downtown Oakland. I’m guessing the new Ferry Plaza like market in Jack London Square will be it. But hopefully something pops up near the Sears building.
• Downtown Oakland was hit pretty hard with the ’89 earthquake. I think we’re just turning the corner.
• Temescal is really nice.  People will start taking notice as more businesses pop up.  Temescal is like an early phase Rockridge/Elmwood/Piedmont Ave.
• Every store in Emeryville should also be in downtown Oakland. And Downtown Oakland needs a few anchor tenants — Sears is not it. We need to go the urban boutique route to make some inroads. The Sean Johns and the Ecko need to set up shop downtown.
• Not downtown but new.  Trader Joe’s just opened up in Rockridge near Zachary’s Pizza.  Very cool.

Clearly, I love Oakland. Probably because, like me, we’ve got a chip on our shoulder to prove that we’re actually not bad. We got a lot more going on than people think.

I also like running to see my neighbors and to see what’s going on around the neighborhoods (like that 2 bedroom house that’s for sale for $789,000! yikes!).  It doesn’t seem like much crime happens in the mornings.  I’m not sure why that is, and maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what it seems like.

I’d like to think I can be Mayor of Oakland one day and run the streets surveying the City on my morning runs.  People will come up and say, “good morning, Mayor” and I’ll say “good morning” back.  Maybe when I’m 70 :-)

I do these good morning runs twice a week and then I try to do a longer run on the weekends.  That’s pretty much my run program.  Running can be good for the soul too.

Here’s some of the highlights:

– This year I drove (w/ Mom) and it was a stupid thing to do. We drove to Seattle and then headed up to Penticton. It’s just too long a drive and I was tired before and after the race. The drive was harder than the race itself but I love my car. The X3 aka Greta rocks.

– The race itself was good. Did it with IronTeam again. I know the course pretty well now and the people are great; Penticton is such a beautiful place and Canadians are really nice.

– I wanted to do the race in 12:30 or even 13:30 but ended up with a 13:51 time which is fine. I’ll come back again and do better one day. There was nothing different from last year except that there was more people, the weather was nicer (except for some wind), and I was able to run most of the first half of the marathon.

I’m glad I’m not doing another race for a while and I guess with five Ironman completions under my belt I can chill out for a few years and find something new. To think I’ve spent five days out of my life where that whole day was spent swimming, biking, running, in total it’s 12 miles of swimming, 560 miles of cycling, 131 miles of running for those 5 days. It’s a little crazy.

• Every time I get in the water, I think about drowning and potential for drowning whether it’s at the pool or at Aquatic Park or at an event.  When I swallow some water sometimes I remember that and when I first get in, I remember it.
• The bike is probably the most dangerous because at any time I can get hit by a car for no good reason.  I could also just fall off my bike and I do reach 50+ mph on descents.  My biggest fear is descending 30-40 mph on my bike and a car swerving to avoid a bicyclist on the other side of the road comes into my lane and we both hit each other.
• The run, well, I’ve almost lost my legs a couple times.  People don’t stop at stop signs when they drive, they do what’s called the California rolling stop.

Oh, and I could also die from over exertion, hyponatremia (basically drink too much water and drown my lungs), or just pop my heart from getting my heart rate up to redline (I get pretty close sometimes).

I’m not so cavalier about these things.  I’m careful and get pretty scared and do get into some close calls.  But, if I’m going to be alive I’m going to be alive and not half-ass or sleep through life.  Because for all those near death experiences:

• Being able to swim in the Caribbean (Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos) and swim and snorkel in Hawaii…pretty cool.
• Doing a 100 mile bike ride with friends in Marin where Levi Leipheimer trains and enjoy the sights, Tomales Bay, Redwood trees, as well as enjoying the Berkeley Hills and other beautiful places in the Bay Area bike…pretty cool.
• And to run through the streets of Oakland and Berkeley and Alameda and wherever and discovering new places to eat, places to shop, enjoying the sights, and just seeing people on the street…pretty cool.

So, I’m actually nearer to death when I don’t swim, bike, run, take risks, and live life.

Last weekend was intense but I’ve gotten used to it over the years, a 2 hour run and 1 hour bike ride (indoors) on Friday, a 4 hour bike ride up in the hills on Saturday, and then a 8-9 hour workout on Sunday which was 2 hours on the bike and 50 minutes of running times 3 in the heat.

I basically need to watch my weight and nutrition, stretch, stay injury free, and maintain my muscle memory.  The best part of taper and for the next couple months, I’m just a big ball of energy so *everything* else becomes so intense it’s pretty sweet.  There’s a reason why people keep doing Ironmans.  You can kinda guess why.

I’m in/registered.  This is my only race for next year.  Come and join me for the race or vacation!  Half Ironmans are easy.  Fine, easier than a full Ironman…but much, much easier than this or this.

Ford Ironman 70.3 Hawaii
Kohala Coast, Hawaii

Date:
May 31, 2008

Distance:
1.2 mi. swim • 56 mi. bike • 13.1 mi. run

Registration Status:
Open

Official Website:
http://www.ironman703hawaii.com

Here’s a view from top of Wildcat Canyon in the Oakland Hills. Didn’t notice the writing on the log until after coming home because it was dark when I took the photo and the flash unlocked the hidden message.

So anyway, Wildcat Canyon is a nice place to go to watch fireworks. I ride my bike up here too a bunch (like today) via Claremont ave.

I mentioned I don’t like to put photos up of people (friends/family/etc) but Joe (left) and Ferdinand (right) are cool. Plus I’m usually on the other end of the camera taking the pictures and I don’t photograph well. This is in Danville a couple weeks ago; we put in some good mileage — Morgan Territory plus Mt Diablo. About another six weeks of some hard training and then Ironman Canada in August, and then I’m done. Last Saturday, we did a 100 mile bike ride. That was fun too.

The hottest toy on IronTeam of late is the Garmin Edge 305.  It’s a pretty wicked bike computer/heart monitor/GPS device.  It’s about $275 at Amazon.

For runners, the hot item from Garmin is the Forerunner 305, which is more or less the same product but you wear the device on your wrist.  It’s about $215 at Amazon.

—

Anyway, I don’t actually want either of these.  I really don’t care about bike stats, kinda takes the fun out of riding a bike.  I do have a bike computer, which has ended up being a very expensive clock (not totally true since I do use it for knowing total distance but close enough).

Some people love bike stats and many bike computers are able to hook up to laptops and you can monitor a workout by distance, time, elevation, etc.  Pretty comprehensive.  Here’s an example.

Just when I thought there was nothing left to buy…here comes the 2008 model of the Trek Madone 5.2. I can get this in a frameset woohoo if I’m a good boy. Trek’s color choices lately haven’t been great (the top of the line bike is black and orange, WTF?) but luckily they make a blue.

I had a 2004 Trek 5200 that had a frame issue due to chain suck. My current Madone 5.2 ’05 bike has been through three Ironman seasons and will go through it’s fourth Ironman in August. I don’t even know how much mileage that is. I’m sure it has a few more seasons left, so maybe next year for a new bike. Maybe?

Usually when I set my mind to liking something I go get it. I need to start doing that with stocks and stuff more.