Race Report: First HTFU Half Indoor NothingMan of 2008

Pics are here.

OK, so I didn't announce I was doing this because, well, the way things have gone the past few months, anything could happen. But I was pretty sure it was going to be game on. I figured as long as I was hitting some decent training amounts, I may as well do a HIM. I scheduled it about 4 weeks ago just to give myself something to look forward to. Hard to believe, but I haven't raced since last September's NothingMan!

I knew that my bike fitness was there, and probably also my run fitness. As far as swimming, I still haven't been swimming enough to pick up any appreciable speed yet, but that should start happening in a few weeks. The investment of time for me to noticeably improve at swimming is just not worth the time, although my body certainly appreciates swimming as cross training and recovery.

Why a HIM? Why the hell not? I do need to get ready for Triple T, and it's not like I did a winter marathon or anything, so may as well combine the long bike and run and just get it done.

It was interesting yesterday taking a rest day. I stretched. I worked, but it wasn't a difficult work day. I did a few Dominatrix activities. But mostly I felt pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I did laugh, though, because I had to fix bottles. Today was my first time in 2008 using my custom Infinit mix (with CAFFEINE!) and Ultrafuel prior to racing and deciding what I wanted to use on the run, which turned out to be mostly Coke. I am not yet feeling the need for the old Ultra Violence. Actually, today was the first time in 2008 that I have even used caffeine during a workout, and I must say, I still love the stuff. Especially when you know you are going to bore yourself to death by doing a HIM all indoors, all by your lonesome.

As is usually the case, I felt compelled to really load up at dinner--really mostly post-dinner. I had some mahi-mahi and peas. Then saltines with romano cheese. Then I decided I deserved one of the Fannie Mae creme eggs (available only near Easter). I had bought 2 of them, and after polishing off the first one figured I may as well eat the other one, too. They were both good. Also, whereas the day before I thought maybe no beer the night before the "race," I reconsidered and had 2. So I was plenty carbed up to go.

I slept really well except for a few anticipatory bouts of hotness. My metabolism still senses when it's going to be asked to kick in bigtime, and this is why I think it's sometimes difficult to sleep the night before a race. Although lately at the rate I've been training and well, just living, my metabolism has been pretty high, and I've been careful to keep the house fairly cool at night (67 seems about right for me).

Since I didn't have to travel far to swim, I set the alarm for 5:00AM. No biggie there--on M/W/F when I swim I've been getting up easily at 5:30 lately. I messed around with my training spreadsheet for a bit, drank coffee, ate my usual Power Bar Triple Threat, and around 5:45AM I drank the Ultrafuel. Well, one thing that never changes is the stuff makes me gag. I just chug it all down and wait for the inevitable insulin coma, as my body quickly tries to do something with the giant sugar bomb I have just drunk.

I felt pretty good getting up this morning, and as the sun came up, I saw it was snowing. Fucking excellent! And only about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Couldn't have picked a better day to do this, I say!

When I got on deck at the pool, some guy flagged me as a triathlete--I have no idea how--do I just look like one? Anyway, we chatted a bit, and it turns out he's doing his first HIM at Steelhead this summer. At this point I hadn't told him what I was doing, but eventually I told him I was doing a HIM RIGHT NOW and it was just to "see where the fitness is." Of course then he asked me what other triathlons I've done, and then I said I hadn't raced since last September, and he figured I did IMWI, but I told him no, me and a guy did it unsupported. Now he's probably thinking I'm a little nuts, but I'm used to that. He swims on the Masters team and I know many of them. I ended up sharing a lane with this guy, and he did try and "race" me every now and then, not that I was going very fast--I was just cruising.

Swim time: 41:09 for 2200 yards. Pretty crappy, but not as crappy as I thought I might do. I really wasn't trying at all, and I felt solid the entire time. I mean, 2200 yards, even though I'm not in IM shape yet, is still nothing as far as my endurance goes.

Out of the pool, quick shower, and change into biking clothes. Make some woman who speaks broken English take a photo, and I drive back home to get on the bike.

T1 time: 24:11. Long, I know, but hey, I was in no hurry.

I used my road bike, as that's all I've been riding this winter. I had pegged my FTP at 205 (I think it's really closer to 210 now, but let's prove it today, eh?), and decided to hold myself between 80-85% of FTP for HIM pacing. Actually mostly closer to 80%, because I had no idea whether I'd blow up on the run. I have done HIM rides anywhere from 78-88% of FTP. I think I'm good at about 85%, but I'll save that for a "real" race.

I warmed up easy at 70% for 30 minutes and then kicked it in. After about an hour, I noticed my legs were protesting a bit, and I just told them to STFU. This is the first time I've done a HIM simulation ride wholly on the trainer. It ain't easy. At 80% of FTP you are definitely working, but without an opportunity to coast or get a slingshot from passing someone (which is legal), it's tough to just keep pedaling, pedaling, pedaling at the same power output. I changed my gears here and there and stood up a few times, but that's about it. I couldn't tell if the reason my legs hurt a bit was because I effectively didn't taper (and I did 2 fucking hard bike workouts earlier in the week) or because I am just a wuss. Nevertheless, periodically I'd look in the mirror and tell myself to just HARDEN THE FUCK UP because it had to be done. Actually, it was kind of nice to feel the old pain of a good, hard effort. I'll take that any day over work, death, a boring, useless life, or being out of shape. Being in shape requires pain, no?

Since I was on the road bike which has a very different position than my Bitch, I expected my speed to be slower than I would normally do. Below are the bike statistics:

Elapsed Time: 3:05.38
Ride Time: 2:59.52
NP=160, IF=.78 (yay), TSS=202

God damn, I sure hope I can ride faster than that on my tri bike!

T2: 25:29 I fucked around with the camera, dumping the pics on it in case it got full, and then I had to WAIT for a treadmill at the Y.

Luckily, I got the endo-treadmill which is right under a nice ceiling fan, and it's a little cooler there because there's some airflow in from the track/basketball court area. I decided I'd try and do a progressive run, where the speed increases. I started in Z1 and only went up to Z3, which is fine for my first time out at a HIM this year. For the first 20 minutes, my legs felt like shit, and my stomach did, too. I have only done 2 brick runs before this! But I tried to forget that I had been on a bike before this and just think like I was doing my long run, and after that first 20 minutes, my legs felt pretty much OK. I was sweating bullets, which cause many onlookers to look at me funny--I sweat a lot normally during a long run, but as soon as I got on the treadmill today, I already felt like it was really humid in the room, and it wasn't going to get any better.

What can I say? The run was boring. Boring, boring, boring, and then more boring. But I was happy that I didn't feel too bad and that I could run off the bike at all!

Run stats: 13.1 miles in 2:01.45, or 9:18/mile, which is fine by me. I feel like I can bring that down to 9:05 or even 9:00 in a HIM, or at least I should be able to do that.

Total elapsed time: 6:38
Net moving time: 5:50.46

Not too bad for my first HIM in a long time. I'm happiest about how well I ran, since I totally changed up my run training this winter--up until 2 weeks ago, I've only been doing 3 runs per week, but still holding down decent volume. And only having run off the bike twice (for 30 minutes, no less), makes the run even sweeter. The bike I'm not worried about, as it was the road bike, and I think I biked pretty hard earlier in the week and should have rested a bit more. Oh well! As far as the swim goes, well, my endurance is there, and my speed is returning in bits and pieces over the last 2 weeks. So all in all, this was a solid effort for me, all things considered. I have 2 more of these (assuming my body holds up with the training) planned before Triple T. I'd always wanted to do a HIM per month over a summer, but this is as good as it's going to get right now. I can't plan any away time just yet, but I can still get my fix and feel the pain.

After I showered and got some Endurox R4 in me, I headed to the Chicken Basket for my post-race meal. On the way there, man, I wanted every form of food--candy, burgers, fish, you name it. Every restaurant was calling my name. I always figure that I need the 4 basic food groups after a race--salt, fat, beer and meat. Chicken Basket serves it up in spades! I ate 2 biscuits with butter and tons of honey, a cup of chicken dumpling soup, a giant Warsteiner Weiss beer, half of the coleslaw, half of the fries, a leg and a wing. The rest of my meal is waiting for my next hunger attack, which will be any time now.

Oh and when I got home, guess what had been delivered? My custom Splish Crackhead suit, which I'll wear at my next "race." Any of you ladies out there are welcome to order my design to show a little solidarity. The design is here.

Time to put my legs up and wait for my stomach to command me to eat again, but for now, it's time for another beer!