Post Marathon Excitement

Ok, ok...I was warned. All of you can say, "I told you so!" - go ahead. I deserve it. It's been 2 days now, and my resting HR is still over 90 bpm. Luckily it's raining today, again, and I've got no lawns to cut. So here I sit, blogging, worried that I won't get better quick enough to start training again any time soon. I certaintly feel better. If I had the heart for it, my legs could go out and do a jog or a bike ride right now... I can feel it.

The legs are still sore, but I had a good race for lower-extremity injuries - no blisters, no sprains, no phantom pains. Yea me.

So this weekend's 12 Hrs of Sebring is not going to happen. That's for sure. Nice donation to the Sebring fund. I feel bad about leaving Curt, aka Excel Man high and dry for the race - but I'm totally not healthy.

Anywho...on the brighter side, I submitted my video for the Evotri Team today. It's totally HORRIBLE! Ha! It's comical how crappy it is, especially compared to some of the other submitters that I parused. For example, there's a woman who's putting together a team of folks with diabetes to finish an Ironman. Nice. There's another woman who's lost a hundred and some odd pounds who put together a top-notch video production. Great stuff. Then there's The.Bigun:




I had to cut 11 minutes out of the video I made to parry it down to 3 minutes or less. I've only got Quicktime Pro - undoubtedly the most useless video editing software known to PC users. I had a version with music added...I did figure that out, but youtube would not accept it for some reason. I tried putting in text, but that just didn't work either. Oh well. But, really, sincerely, I think I'd be a great addition to the Team, granted, if I can ever train again.

PSA to all you Neanderthals out there (and you know who you are) - tomorrow is Valentines Day! 'Nuff said.

Does anyone else have NO SPELL CHECK on thier Blogger, like me? I'm possibly the world's worst speller, except for, perhaps, the dude who accused Wintzy of streatching the "trooth". What a maroon!

And hey, we need callers for our podcast - so we are starting up a new feature called the Hallowed Hall Library, and in the Library, we have the Hallowed Dictionary - in it, we will store new words and thier meanings as told to us by fellow triathletes. These should be words not normal in usual circles - they can be made-up words, but we have to have the specific meaning.

Also, not yet approved by the League of Triathletes Tri Councel, but an issue nontheless...our esteemed collegue and tri-partner Commadore has expanded the rules governing the wear of race Bling (brought to us initially by TriDummy in Episode One) to include times of intimacy with the opposite sex (or in some instances...well, lets not go there Kahuna). There are a miriad of issues surrounding this contravercial rule expansion - we want to hear your side! The Tacboy 'n Bigun hotline is 813-990-0951. Weigh in, people!

Gasparilla '08 Marathon

Ug. It was Clobberin Time alright...'sept the Bigun was the one gettin' clobbered. Super-huge thanks to Diana and Bob for getting up early with us and coming to watch and Sherpa. I'm sure watching a Marathon is about as exciting as watching paint dry. My Sis Allie and her hubby Sam came out later to watch the finish as well. Thanks!

It was pretty ugly. All notions of sub-4:30 were out the window at mile 18. At that point, I was just hoping to come in under 5hrs - which I didn't do. 5:05 was my time. It was a long day.

I guess there's a difference between just getting over a cold, and being better from a cold. So lesson #1 from this experience - when your HR is in the hight 150's and your only running 10:30's - you may still have some lingering problems. Before I got sick, I could run 10:30 - 11:00 at a HR of under 130 in warmer temps than we had on Sunday. So that was a red flag that I should not have ignored.

Lesson #2: Don't try to make up time on a Marathon. There were NO porto-potties at the start of the race, so at mile 1 I had to wait in line 3 back for the first blue bucket I saw. I had hydrated well enough. Mom kept running, and I told her I'd catch up. I didn't think I'd have to wait so long! When I got out of the john, my average pace had dropped to 12:00. I cought back up to my Mom in around a mile and a half, right at the 10:45 pace I had left her at. But I had to run hard to catch her. So that was dumb.

Lesson #3: Even when sick, use your HR as your tachomoter. I should have seen right away that my high 150's and 160's HR was gonna keep me from getting that 4:30 goal and I should have adjusted. Instead I plowed ahead, from mile 7 to mile 13, running sub 10's to try and get my average pace down to 10 per mile; the pace needed to reach my goal. I got down to somewhere around 10:11 average pace, but I really paid the price. I was cooked, done, stick a fork in me, kaput, shoot me in the face at mile 20. It was a suffer fest for the last 10k....and for what? A crummy 5:05, when I could have slowed it down early and possibly had the same outcome but without the agony for the last 10k.

Lesson #4: Landmark running. When it really got bad, I was walk-running for as long as I could stand the running, and I think sometimes I walked too far. For the last 2 miles, I remembered to pick a light pole and run to it, then walk the next set of poles....I made some serious ground on the group of fellow sufferors I had been walking with by doing that, and concentrating on the landmarks instead of the pain was a great help.

Lesson #5: More run volume. I was averaging just at 30 miles of running a week in the 10 weeks prior to this race (not counting recovery weeks), and I don't think that was enough. In the time I have left for CdA, I'm going to try to up that to 40 miles per week. On the flip side, it is very true that of the three events, the run is the one event in an Ironman that if you have to, you can walk. You still have to bike the whole bike, and swim the whole swim.




Mama Bigun did great - busted her 2:30 half marathon goal with a time 2:27. I took some video along the way - of course it's disjointed and hard to understand...I wanted to film more at the end, but just didn't have the heart left for anything but finishing. I'll tell you what - half marathons are WAY more fun than the full. I've heard from more than one person that running the marathon after swimming and biking, for some reason, is easier than a stand-alone marathon. We'll see about that....

Clobber Time!

So the marathon is in 2 days, and I've thankfully stopped blowing my nose every hour. Actually, I didn't have to drain the sinuses once today. No headache. No fatigue. I'm just about there.

Before the sickness, my goal was a sub 4:30 mary. Can't say as though I've changed my goal all that much. Using the Merv Scale and subsequent servey from 1997, revisited in 2003, my predicted Marathon time based on a 50 min 10k and 30 miles average running per week is 4:34 (using a factor of 5.5). Not sure if the folks in the survey took 2 weeks off prior to thier marathons, but hey, what the heck!

Looking forward to seeing my Mom run her half marathon, and Excel Man's wife Green Eyed Lady running her first half marathon with Team in Training. They'll be undoubtedly enjoying a cold one or two before I cross the line a couple hours later. The weather is supposed to be perfect - 50 or so at sunrise, highs in the 70's, clear and low humidity.

One of the cool things about this race route is that the last 6 miles are run along Tampa Bay, and from 21.5 miles out you can probalby see the finish line across the Bay. There's nothing soft about that road, however - it's all concrete, if I remember correctly. I had wanted to (planned on) getting some new running shoes 2 weeks ago, before I got sick. I've got 407 miles on these puppies now - I know, I know - but I'm not about to wear new, unbroken-in shoes to run 26 point 2.

So...it's time to take on the persona of my alter-ego - my personal super-hero - The Thing, put my head down and HTFU! I'm fighting the residual cold, the historical data, and my 250 lb belly to break into my sub 4:30 goal. The race plan - go out slow and steady with Mom; I think her plan is to run 11 min miles. I'm kinda hoping she can go 10:30's, but if it's 11's, so be it. Then pick up the pace after 6 miles when we go our seperate ways to 10's for a while. Somewhere in that mix, I'm going to have to run a few 9:30's. I'm planning to have to back it off at the end to 10 again.

The feel good plan is to drop it in gear and hang at 9:45 or so for as long as I can hold it. When it all goes to s$it, I'll be happy to finish under my 1st Marathon time of 4:55.

Tacboy n' Bigun Episode 3

Here's another one for you - Episode 3: Sherpa Salute. I really wanted to call it MetroSerpual, but I think I was the only one who thought that was funny. Anywho. It was fun to make; hopefully you'll have fun listening! Everyone we poked fun at this Episode has got thick skin and hopefully realizes that we fully expect to get it back with both barrells. "Don't dish it out...." and all that.

Thanks for listening!

Show Notes:

Intro
Cold riding
TriSaratops man crush
Dress for success
Project Runway
Biking metro-sexually
Spokane Al blast from the past
Poo shuffle
Sponsor the Funny Show!
10k PR or "Earthquakes rock Tampa"
Boots in Bed
Commodore Eviction
KT suggests "Bling for Dummies" book for the Hallowed Hall Library
Comment Vault!
Blink condemned to the Tomb of Shame
TTK thinks we royally suck
Experienced beyond our episodes
More charming than the Kahuna!
What's a Sherpa?
TriDummy Speaks (grab some coffee...)
TriSherpa extraordinaire - Di
Wrap up
Amaising Adventures of Taconite Boy
Vato speaks from Las Vegas
TriDummy interview teaser
Outtakes

That big picture logo on the right side of my blog will take you to the I-Tunes download or subscribe window.

If you'd just like the MP3 file, well, you can get it here:

http://media2.podbean.com/37029/u/Episode_3_Sherpa_Salute.mp3

Bad

I've been a bad blogger. I've been sick. Sorry. I've had this crud in my sinusus now for a week and I was hoping for a reprieve today, Monday, but alas...no such luck. Still not quite 95% - I got to doing some lawn work and got winded pretty quickly, so the prosopect of a swim or run is just not in the cards.

I'm a bit worried about the Marathon scheduled for this Sunday. I'm keeping in mind Iron Jenny's probable cause for her heart issues; ie, endourance event on the heels of, or actually during a sinus infection. Her head cold may have lead to a virus attacking her heart, and she's had issues ever since IM Switzerland becasue of it. I certaintly don't want to go down that road for a "C" race like this Marathon. If it ain't CdA, BTW, it ain't more than a "C".

So if it seems like I've been in hiding - not much comment love lately either, sorry to say - it's just temporary, due to the constant running of my nose, and not my legs.

As a teaser, Episode 3 of The Taconite Boy 'n Bigun Podcast is due to hit I-tunes soon....most likely tomorrow...entitled "The Sherpa Salute". Or "Metro-Sherpual" - but probably not the latter.

So this is a big week. Marathon decision. Mom coming on Friday - she's running the half marathon race the same day as the full for me. Still doing taxes. Still cutting lawns. Life goes on. Diana's really pretty sick too - as these things tend to be household affairs, so we may need to fumigate or quarantine the Bigun house!

Oh, and like a dumb-ass, I signed up for the 12 Hrs of Sebring scheduled for 6 days after the Marathon. 12 hrs on the bike. What was I thinking?

Iron Week 21 - Peer Pressure

Oh...you guyz....you guys! I needed to bike on Sunday. It was 57 degrees. 3 below my "don't bike below 60" rule. Since the sun wasn't up yet, I figured it would warm up, and I was tired of everyone thinking I was such a big baby. Well I am a big baby, and should have stayed that way.

It never warmed up above 58. One lousy degree. Remember, I don't have toe warmers, leggings or some nifty hat that fits under my helmet. This is Florida. We don't need stuff like that here. Right. After 50 miles, I could not feel my toes anymore, and my body objected my riding decision so badly that it gave me this nasty cold/flu - thanks guys and gals - last night was NOT pretty!

So Iron Week 21 is dedicated to you - my bloggie peeps - this wonderful concept called peer pressure. HA! It's the same pressure we've come to rely on to get us out the door when we don't feel like training. It's the same comments and support we get for good workouts or races. It's the good natured ribbing and smack talking that keeps the competitive juices alive in each of us. I can't believe I'm going to write this....thanks for 4 trips to the bathroom last night! Sincerely. From the bottom of my heart, which, by the way, I think I flushed at 3am.

For your enjoyment, we took some video of the Fishhawk 10k:

Kind of a light week last week. Horrible swim - one time, 1500 meters. Just couldn't get into the pool last week, for whatever reason. Bike - not too shabby; two 50 milers and a 24 miler. All very "base". Lots of wind. The run - well, the Bigun PR'd this week at the 10k distance with a 50:08 - and just had that one other run of 11.6 that was preempted with a bathroom stop. Story of my life. 10.66 hrs of training total, with one week left in this base cycle. Feeling like I do now, it's hard to imagine that I'll get any quality training in - it's supposed to be a swim/bike week, tapering the run for the marathon in 2 weeks. We'll see.

Fishhawk Ranch 10k Race Report

Ta-daa! 2008's first race for the Bigun on the chart. Done. Completed. A nifty little 10K road race with a couple hundred competitors - a great way to start a Saturday morning. Temps in the 50's....while that breaks my biking rule, running has a much lower temperature threshold before the Bigun says no.

No need to really get into too much detail. My goal for the race was a PR and sub-50. PR - check. Sub-50....not so much. Garmin time was 50:12 - we'll soon see what the chip time was. I went out WAY.TOO.FAST! But it was fun...my Dad and nephew came out to cheer, and Excel Man's wife Green Eyed Lady (GEL) ran the 10k as well to her own PR. So it was a great race all around.

What I found most horrific about the whole experience was that GEL actually grabbed a couple safety pins for her race number. I know! Excel Man has to have a couple of extra race number belts floating around the casa, don't ya think? If' I'd have known, I'd have grabbed one for her, but in the registration line, it's a bit too late. Now in his defense, Excel Man is in Iraq for a week, so he may have intended to take care of her before his hasty departure thwarted his plan. Right.

So, it's good to know my HR can get above 147 and I won't explode. Base Training is still awesome - even pure base training, at a heavier weight (I was 250 lbs this morning...) than my previous 10k PR - netted a 1:35 improvement at this distance. On legs with an 11.6 mile long run and 2 bikes totalling 75 miles in them. I feel pretty good about the whole experience.

Edit: Chip time was 50:08. I ran nearly the last 3 miles with a guy who beat me in the last mile...well, came across the finish line 3 seconds ahead of me. But my chip time was faster then his. Yea, baby yea.

Sherpa Salute!

Folks, Episode 3 will feature the venerable Sherpa! That trusty support, untiring, unwavering, and ever-present at races around the globe. We'll be interviewing some dedicated Sherpas and speaking of the topic - we could use some input from you, our loyal fans!

Call the Tacboy 'n Bigun hot line - 813-990-0951 - and enlighten us with your comments about Sherpas, sherpa-ing and any other hawt Sherpas you may have seen out on the course. Wildflower stories are more than welcome.

Of course if you have other comments, say, you want to tell us how great we are, how much better looking we are compared to other podcasters, etc...etc...by all means, please do!

Tacboy 'n Bigun!

Episode 2 - Hallowed Hall is done and ready for your workout entertainment pleasure. If you are new to our Podcast - just click the logo to the right and it will take you the right spot in I-tunes (of course, you have to be an I-tunes user).

Shownotes:

• Poptart/Fig Newton Discussion
• Trimama's on-the-scene reporting of PF Changs with Commadore
• Hallowed Hall
• Our Sponser's new Commercial
• Tri-Dummy interview (part 1)
• Adventures of Taconite Boy
• Clydesdale Corral
• Cda news
• Outtakes!
  

Especially cool is that now the show is listed when you search Triathlon in the I-Tunes store. Technically for this podcast, I lowered the compression rate to 32 kps - cutting the file size in half, without noticeably changing the quality of the audio. Tacboy added our logo so that it is displayed on your I-Pod throughout the show, like album cover art. Also, I didn't use noise reduction so that annoying "click" from Episode One is gone.

Here is the link to download or listen if you don't have I-Tunes.