Malibu Triathlon Training: Week 12

August 24 & 26
This was a historic week for me, as I finally hit the triathlon distance of 18 miles. What's strange is that even though I've been slowly building up to this distance, my 18-mile rides have taken much more out of me than even the 16-mile rides I was doing in Week 11. I mean, I know it is 2 miles farther, but I've been surprised at how much more spent I feel at the end of my rides this week.
My times were a little slower than my previous rides -- and slower than I'd like them to be -- but just hitting that 18-mile goal is more important to me than hitting a time goal at this point. It's also getting to a point where the routes I'm coming up with are getting more and more ridiculous. In order to hit 18 miles while sticking relatively close to home (and well-lighted areas), my route follows this "pattern":

• 8 right turns
• 2 left turns
• 2 right turns
• 2 left turns
• 1 right turn
• 1 left turn
• 1 right turn
• 4 left turns

So that's 12 rights and 9 lefts. It's getting so confusing that I have to create the route in the morning and study it throughout the day so I can commit it to memory. In addition, I also pull it up on the computer at home and leave it up so Liz has at least some idea of where I'm going.
Here are the stats from my two 18-miles loops for the week:
August 24
Distance: 18.03 miles
Time: 1:18:34
Pace: 4:21
August 26
Distance: 18.02 miles
Time: 1:17:25
Pace: 4:18

Not too bad, and I even knocked 3 seconds off the pace (and more than a minute overall) the second time around.

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 28

August 19

Despite mapping out my ride before I hit the road, I only ended up going 15.75 miles last time -- and that was including a couple of unplanned, minor sidestreet detours along the way (hey, we all need to catch our breath sometimes). So on this ride I was determined to top 16 miles.

I altered the route ever so slightly, skipping the turn at Fairview that dumped me off on McBean, which allowed me to continue through to Newhall Ranch Road and then to McBean, which would give me the extra bit of distance I needed to push me over the top.

I felt pretty good on this ride and I was fairly certain I would be celebrating another Personal Record for both distance and pace when I was done. But I got stuck behind a jogger right before the Newhall Ranch Road turnaround around mile 14 (we were both the sidewalk going in the opposite direction of traffic, so I couldn't really just jump onto the asphalt to pass him) and had to slow down for a hundred yards or so. I'm not saying this screwed up my entire ride, but it did take me out of my rhythm, so I'm sticking with that theory.

I ended up going 16.19 miles in 1:08:00, which comes out to a 4:12 pace. This was actually 2 seconds slower than my last ride, but I blame the jogger for that (not really). On the plus side, I was able to make it all the way up Hillsborough (that's a 6% grade, people! Right on the cusp of a steep climb) without a sidestreet rest, and that made it a memorable ride for me.

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 27

August 17

The start of a new week means a new target distance. Since I'm riding at night, I try to keep my routes both close to home and in areas that either have sufficient bike trails/lanes or are relatively free of cars at that hour.

Planning out new routes that match the distance I need while meeting the above criteria is actually the most challenging part of this whole undertaking. After several unsuccessful attempts on my new friend Trail Guru, I finally found a 16-mile loop. All of my previous loops were just that --actual loops that followed a logical path -- but for this one I had to take what I could get. And I actually had to study the route and memorize all the turns and directions. I even had to include an out-and-back section in order to get to 16 miles.

For the first time since I started with these cycling shenanigans, I actually felt a big difference in the relatively modest(14%) increase in distance. And somewhere between miles 11 and 12, something strange happened. Well, nothing really happened, but I have no recollection of that 4-minute stretch. But I do remember snapping out of it -- whatever "it" was. I was in the industrial area of town and it was pretty much just me and the road; no cars, no pedestrians and really no sound other than the noises I was making. So maybe I found a perfect pedaling rhythm or got into a cadence that put me into some kind of trance, but either way it was weird.

Other than that, I had a good ride despite the fact that when all was said and done, Runkeeper informed me I had only gone 15.75 miles. But I did it at a 4:10 pace, which was a full 11 seconds faster than my last ride. I'm actually starting to be a little impressed with myself. That's OK ... right?!

Ode to Runkeeper*

I love sports, but the one sport that will always hold a special place for me is baseball. It was always my favorite sport to play growing up (probably because it's the one sport I excelled at) and even today I'll sit and watch a game on TV, regardless of who's playing.

But it's not just the action (yes, I use that term lightly when describing baseball) that appeals to me, it's the seemingly endless array of statistics that are kept: RBI, ERA, OBP, OPS, OPS+, SLG, BAbip, OWn%, RC/G. The list goes on and on, and I eat them up regardless of how ridiculous they are.

For example, OWn% is Offensive Winning Percentage, defined as: "The percentage of games a team with nine of this batter would win. Assumes average pitching and defense." I mean, come on. This is a meaningless and completely irrelevant stat, but I'll argue that Vladimir Guerrero's .684 OWn% makes him a first-ballot Hall of Famer until I'm blue (NOT Dodger Blue, though) in the face.

So when I started riding my bike in preparation for my part in the upcoming Malibu Triathlon, I was on the hunt for an iPhone app that would help me track my progress. I don't remember how (fate, maybe?), but for some reason I found Runkeeper and was instantly hooked. I could chart my time, distance, pace, mile splits AND see my elevation vs. speed on a graph?! Not only did Runkeeper fill my stats jones, it also worked great as a motivating tool, constantly pushing me to try and improve with each ride. And it was free.

So when I started getting screwy results (8.03 miles in 27 minutes??? WTF?!), saying I was frustrated would be understating it. Didn't they know I needed my Runkeeper fix to keep going? I gotta have my stats, man! Don't do this to me, not now! I even took my frustration out on Runkeeper via Twitter ... not my proudest moment, and I think that was my rock bottom.

Luckily, this was a temporary problem and deleting and reinstalling the app solved it (which apparently could have solved my problem much sooner if I was paying attention). Despite my bitching and whining when things weren't going right with Runkeeper, for a stats nerd like me, this app is a gift from the numbers gods.

* This is neither a sponsored nor solicited endorsement. It's just my way of showing my appreciation for the hard work that's put into this free app.

Malibu Triathlon Training: Week 11

August 11-15

After realizing I was off by a week with my distances and correcting it last week, I wanted to make sure this week I stayed true to my schedule. Which meant it was once again time for a new route that would cover a distance of 14 miles.

I played around with a site called TrailGuru, which has the functionality of Google Maps with a couple of minor tweaks to make it more user friendly. I wanted to change things up a bit -- actually, I had to change things up a bit in order to get to 14 miles-- but there were some sections of previous routes I wanted to include, mostly because they had really wide sidewalks and/or separated bike paths.

Against my better judgement, I included a tour of the industrial park that I first rode through on Day 21. I wasn't thrilled about it, but it allowed me to include almost the entire length of the best bike path I had come across up to this point, and it also included a very short, very, very nasty uphill climb right before the 10-mile mark.

On the second night following this route, everything was great until I got about 2/3 of the way through the industrial park. As I came up on a T-intersection, I noticed some random dude in the middle of the crosswalk, slowly pacing back and forth. At 10:45 pm. On a Thursday. Something didn't quite add up here, but I wasn't about to stop and ask, "Hey man, how's it going? So I'm guessing you're either waiting for a ride -- in the middle of the street -- or you're a lookout for the burglary taking place in one of these dark warehouses." So I stared straight ahead, wondering if I'd be able to outrun him and his cronies as they chased me down in their getaway car. I was thankful for that little boost of adrenaline, because that tiny hill I mentioned felt a lot like trying to ride my bike up a wall. To borrow a term from the Fat Cyclist, I shifted down into the Granny Gear and slooooooowly reached the top. But apparently I was fast enough to outrun the bad guys.

Other highlights from the week:

• 2 "cat calls" on two different occasions from random idiots driving by, who seem to get a charge out of screaming out their window, I'm guessing in an attempt to scare me. It does startle me, but I don't think it has the intended effect of making me ride into a bush. My reply to the first cat call was to scream right back, and the second elicited a scream of "DOUUCHEBAAAAG!!!" from me.
• Got screamed at by a hawk, had 2 flybys from owls and got cut off on Hell Hill by a coyote, who responsibly looked both ways while crossing the street.
• I've been using clipless pedals since I started riding the hybrid, which is something I'm still getting used to. One night, as I rolled up the driveway to finish my ride, I completely forgot to unclip and didn't think about it until it was too late, i.e., I had come to a complete stop. I fell over like those goats that pass out when they get scared. No harm done, but pretty embarassing nonetheless. I'm just glad that stupid motorcycle trailer wasn't there to mock me.

And the vitals:

August 11

Distance: 13.86 miles

Time: 1:04:43

Pace: 4:27

August 13

Distance: 14.12 miles

Time: 1:01:24

Pace: 4:21

August 15

Distance: 14.10 miles

Time: 1:01:16

Pace: 4:20

So far, after a week of riding the hybrid, I've knocked 31 seconds off the pace of my last ride on the mountain bike. I'm fairly certain I won't be knocking off 30 seconds every week, but if I can knock 20 seconds off over the course of the next four weeks, I'll hit my goal.

Four weeks from today!

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 23

August 9
In the week prior, I missed my weekly target distance. I didn't miss by much -- a 9.69-mile average when the goal was 10 -- so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss the mark two weeks in a row. But so far, I had gone 10.32 and 11.87 miles. Again, no math whiz am I, but that doesn't average out to 12 miles per ride.

So I knew that for this ride, I needed to add a little bit more distance in order to bring my average up and get closer to my target. With that in mind, I followed the same Frankenstein route as last time out, but thanks to a broken water main Hell Hill was closed. This actually worked out perfectly, because the added distance of going up and around the section of street that was closed added nearly another mile onto the route.

You'd think with an extra mile tacked on, my total time would go up. And it did, but by less than a minute. "But Josh," you're probably thinking, "That's, like, freeway speed to cover nearly a mile in less than 60 seconds."

But I didn't jump in my car and drive that last bit, I was definitely on a bike. It's just that the bike I was on wasn't mine. See, back when I first started training, my friend Nicole told me she has a 17.5" hybrid I could borrow if I wanted it. Not only was this bike a more appropriate size for me, but it also has thin road tires and is lighter than my bike. When you throw in the low-rolling resistance you get with the road tires, you've got yourself a lighter, faster and more efficient bike.

In other words, I was now a low-flying missile. Despite the fact that the gears needed to be adjusted (something I didn't find out until after I was several miles in), I shaved 15 seconds off my average pace, from 4:51 to 4:36. This was huge for me, because it meant I was right back in the thick of things in my self-imposed challenge to average a 4-minute mile on race day.

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 22

August 5

As race day approaches, I continue to incrementally increase my mileage and will eventually get to 20 miles the week before the event. After my most recent ride, I realized that I wasn't supposed to be at 10 miles, I was actually scheduled to hit 12 miles. So I had some catching up to do and needed to come up with yet another new route.

Which brings my to my current dilemma. I'm sure you've noticed by now that I do pretty much all my riding at night, which I really like because I basically have the sidewalks and bike paths to myself (except for the occasional raccoon and rabid dog, of course). But it also means that it's dark, and I'm not about to get rammed by some redneck in a monster truck whose blind spot starts at the 6-foot-high mark, so I try to restrict my riding to routes that aren't major traffic arteries and don't have bike or pedestrian paths. And I've found that even some of the bike paths aren't lighted, so I either have to know where I'm going or go on faith. And I don't have a lot of faith in my own sense of direction, so the last thing I want to do is get lost somewhere I'm not familiar with and end up being eaten by coyotes and discovered 4 days later by some kid walking to school -- and sadly, I was just blocks away from a familiar intersection.

But I digress. The bottom line is that I needed a new, longer loop, and I needed to stick to what I knew. So I Frankensteined it -- I took bits and pieces of all my prior rides and pieced together a nice 12-mile loop that featured some uphill, some downhill and everything in between (which I guess would actually just be flat land). I tried my best to avoid any backtracking, and save for a little over a mile-and-a-half, I was successful. This may not sound all that impressive, but I was able to work this out using an area that's only 17 square miles that met all my criteria (lighted, bike paths, no monster truck incidents, no gruesome discoveries by tweeners).

And the end result was pretty good: another Personal Record for distance (somehow came up short of 12 miles, with 11.87) at a decent pace (4:51). I've come to terms with the fact that I'm probably not going to hit my goal of 4-minute miles in the triathlon, but it's not going to stop me from trying ... I'm just not going to beat myself up over it.

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 21

August 3

The goal of my previous ride was to break the 10-mile barrier for the first time, which I thought I would be able to do with a couple of "sidestreet pitstops" thrown into the mix. And I'll actually never know, since Runkeeper and I were in a big fight, and the only record of the ride was a manually created map. I came close, logging 9.87 miles; I'm no math whiz, but 9.87 isn't 10, so I was determined to hit double digits this time.

Not being a fan of the out-and-back (did I mention that already?), I decided to try something a little different this time. When I hit my usual turnaround point, instead of actually heading back in the direction I came from, I took a left and followed the street around a fun downhill hairpin turn into an industrial section of Valencia.

Industrial areas are good places to ride at night, because most industries are shut down for the day and there's very little traffic. The downside is that there's very little traffic, meaning there's very little light on the road, and there are virtually no street lights. In other words, I had the road pretty much to myself (minus a few suspicous-looking parked cars with fogged-up windows -- don't worry, I averted my eyes), but I had a hard time seeing where I was actually going. And riding your bike on darkened streets when you're not familiar with the road you're on can be nerveracking. Check that ... it is nerveracking. Have I mentioned that I don't all that well at night? Yeah, so I had that going for me, too. In other words, I was pretty sure I was going to die on this ride, either from hitting a pothole, getting clocked by a car door opened by a lustful teenager, or simply by unknowingly riding my bike right off the edge of the Earth.

As I cautiously pedaled along, I thought to myself, "Self, I may die tonight, but I have a goal to reach ... so flat Earth be damned!" or something to that effect. Either way, I kept pressing forward, hoping at the very least for it to be painless if I was going to meet my demise.

Somehow, I did manage to make it out of the industral area in one piece and eventually found my way home again. When all was said and done, I had broken the 10-mile barrier (10.32 miles) in 48:44 (4:43 pace). At least, I'm assuming that was an accurate time, as once again Runkeeper and I got one step closer to breaking up -- for real this time. For the second ride in a row (and third time in five) the GPS tracking was all jacked up. But I didn't care too much, because not only had I finally hit the 10-mile mark, I was celebrating my 2-month training anniversary. So happy anniversary to me and the streets, sidewalks and bike paths of Valencia!

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 20

July 31

For this ride I took the same route as last time, but I added a couple sidestreet pitstops, just to increase the distance a little bit in an effort to hit the 10-mile mark (milestone!). The ride itself was fairly vanilla and I don't remember too much about it. Mostly, as you've probably noticed, because I didn't get a good GPS signal and lost my ride metrics.

Now I know this isn't about recording ride metrics and seeing how awesome I am. First of all, I'm not that awesome. And B, I am a huge stats dork* and I really like looking at the metrics and comparing my performance over time.

So I was (understandably?) pissed when I got home and looked at the deformed map Runkeeper spit out at me on its website. The only thing it did (possibly) record properly was my total time, which was 46:07. Over the 9.87-mile course, that works out to a 4:40 pace, which would be a new personal best. Unfortunately, the Croation judge didn't sign off on the accuracy of the Runkeeper time clock, so my record was stricken from the PRB (Personal Record Book).

While I lost my splits, actual recorded distance and calories burned stats, I was still able to track my ride thanks to another website, MapMyRide.com. The layout and map aren't quite as easy to read as Runkeeper's, but they'll do in a pinch. I just hope ths doesn't happen again, otherwise I'm going to have a beef with Runkeeper and its stupid free iPhone app self!

* I once organized and executed a full, 162-game Strat-O-Matic baseball season with 3 other guys one summer. If you're not familiar with Strat-O-Matic, think of it as the Dungeons & Dragons of sports. And then think about it: 162 games over the course of roughly 90 days. Yeah, it's sports. But it's still somewhat pathetic, no?

Malibu Triathlon Training: Day 19

July 29
While I was feeling the love of the Crazy 8's/Curly Q loop, I needed to step up my distance if I wanted to stay on pace with my training schedule. With just a little more than 6 weeks until the Triathlon, I didn't want to divert from the plan and find myself gasping for air at Mile 16 on the day of the event.

Since I had pretty much maxed out on what I could do with the Curly Q route, I decided it was time for yet another new map. For this one I took my very first training route (which was a shade under 4 miles) and added an extension. As you can see, this new route includes an out-and-back section, which I've said I don't really like. But since the entire Triathlon ride is exactly that, I thought it might be a good idea to at least work a few out-and-back rides into the mix. Also, I discovered one of Valencia's cyclist-friendly trails -- paved and nice and wide -- running all the way along Newhall Ranch Road out to Interstate 5.

I've driven along this route dozens of times, but I never realized it has a slight incline. Mostly because I don't have to pedal my car to make it go. It's a fairly gradual climb, but there's just enough uphill to make your legs wonder what the hell they did to deserve this drawn-out punishment.

Luckily, after the turn around at just over the 4-mile mark, the annoying incline becomes a smooth and relaxing downhill run. My splits for Miles 2-7 were all within 23 seconds of each other, which means ... well, I don't really know what it means. But I do know my pace for that stretch was about 4:23, and I like that. It means I've still got a long way to go to hit my target pace (4:00), but it shows signs of improvement.

The final tally wasn't quite as impressive, but I raised the bar for total distance (9.5 miles) and was able to maintain a 4:45 pace. In general, I was happy that I had passed the halfway point in terms of distance, but by the same token I had ONLY passed the halfway point. It's going to be an interesting 6 weeks as I try to more than double my current distance in time for the Triathlon!