Music City Triathlon ----- Again?

So this past week ended up yielding some good training.  The intensity seems to be picking up, TT efforts are getting longer, track work is getting longer, the weeks are in the low 20 hr window, and I LOVE IT.  So long as I can get recovered, I’d much rather train at an intense level than pure aerobic.  It really just keeps things interesting as I try to think about every aspect to get the most speed with the least effort:  Nutrition, hydration, form, breathing, cadence, everything is being constantly checked over and over and over and over and then again during training sessions to drill in what works best.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thinking “B2B” in my training.  In my mind, I’m doing all of these workouts on the race course and visualizing the entire atmosphere.  This leads me to my next thought…

Music City Triathlon

Well I guess you saw the results?  37:21 swim, 1:04:41 bike (~23mph), 43:52 run (~7:05 pace).   Did a 2:29:48 that got me 47/393 OA and 12/39 AG.  Not my best race.  I say I’ve never raced an Olympic before but that’s not entirely true.  I went to age group nationals in 2009 when I won my AG in a tiny little tri that barely even had a swim (my biggest weakness).  I had no idea what I was getting myself into and just suffered for well over 3 hrs… so, this really was my first Olympic distance to race.    

Keep on reading for Music City details….   

Last week in training - RECOVERY?

Last week makes the first recovery week that my coach has given me since we started up 5 weeks ago.  4 weeks on a 1 week “active rest”.  It’s a good thing I now have a coach because apparently, I didn’t understand what “active rest” meant.  Turns out, active rest is still a little rigorous (as in nearly 15 hrs of training).  Actually, it wasn’t that bad given the buildup we’d had over the 4 weeks leading up.  I could get used to the easier paces… hope I’m not getting soft!

It's a GIRL

No, I did we have a baby.  My sister, Catie, had her baby girl yesterday.  Paris Capri was born on Monday, 7/11/11, and weighed 7lb and 5oz.  My mom likes the photo below because she says “it’s Jonathan in training.”  While I do train a lot, I don’t think I'm ready for this endurance event.  I’ll stick to something easier for the time being.  Congratulations Catie and Jeremy.  Love you guys and proud to be your brother and brother-in-law.  I didn’t include any pics of my sister with her new baby because although she looked like she hadn’t just given birth, she might still not like it. 

Week of 6/27

Nothing too interesting from this past week of training.  It marks the 4^th week of training with a coach and now I only have 17 weeks (or about 119 days) from this past Saturday to get myself into shape for the race.  I spent the majority of my training in KY where it is a bit more flat but the humidity was like training underwater the entire time.  I really enjoy riding back home.  I get to see family and spend time out on the roads I grew up around.  Plus, there’s nothing like doing hard workouts around power plants emitting pollution in the air (seriously, they find it more economical to pay the fines than to install the appropriate equipment/scrubbers to reduce pollution).  The sulfuric air is sure to make my lungs stronger.  I also enjoy the compliments I receive, names I get called, and the horn honking I receive on KY roads.  I guess they’re not as used to a 30 yr old man with shaved legs who is wearing spandex as he rides his bike in what looks like a laying down/humping position as Nashville folks are huh?  LOL.   Anyway, I had a lot of fun being around family for the 5 days we spent there. 

Last Week's Training Update

Since it’s already Wednesday, I’m a little late updating on last week’s training.  Other than racing my first triathlon of the year, there really wasn’t anything spectacular going on.  My coach was making me train right thru the Old Hickory Lake Triathlon (race report posted somewhere below), so I was focused HARD on recovery after everything.  Even though I always focus on recovery, I was extra taking naps, taking ice/hot baths, massage, rolling, drinking/eating perfectly, etc. all to make myself as fresh as possible for Saturday’s race.  I’m hoping that some of that extra recovery attention trickles over into future weeks, too.

The Vanderbilt View

This is an article that was published in a Vanderbilt magazine called the Vanderbilt View.  I got a cover story (well, back cover).  Anyway, they wanted to write something about training for an Ironman and working at Vanderbilt.  The whole concept is to highlight things that people around campus do outside of work.  It is a monthly article called "The last word" since it's the last word of the publication (i.e. back cover).  I'd forgotten about it but stumbled upon it today so I thought I'd post it here. 

http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltview/articles/2010/10/01/jonathan-minton-has-the-last-word.124381

Old Hickory Lake Triathlon

Nicknamed the “Hulk Piss Tri” for its neon green tinted swim, The Old Hickory Lake Triathlon is a 400 meter swim, 1 mile run, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run.  It’s a rather different race due to the run from the lake to the bike, but that run seems to get the legs warmed up for a nice bike.  It usually fills with about 350-400 athletes.  This would be my first real race of the year.  With an expected finish time of about an hour or so, my coach had me train right through this event… meaning I hadn’t had a day of rest in over 20 days and actually had a 2.5 hr workout the day before.  Even though it is a race, it’s not "my race" this year.

Open Water Storm

I’m gonna try to keep a weekly post summarizing the prior week’s training.   For the most part, rain storms made it hard to get everything in, but I did; including an open water swim from hell.  I believe I ended up training for 15hrs and 59 mins.  Figure I’ll cut it short one minute to keep it under 16 hrs right?  Anyway, I’m racing this coming weekend.  My coach said “this is a gut check for you because I’m definitely not taking it easy on you leading up to it.”  Hmmm, guess I’ll see what I have on tired legs.  My guess is I’ll have something; you can always dig down and find something when you need it.

Racing to Qualify for Kona

This is a great article. No, i'm not trying to qualify for Kona this year; even the thought of that is beyond my fitness reach right now. But as Double D always says, It's all about the run!

RunTri: Never Settle: Racing to Qualify for Kona -- Motiva...: "By Raymond Britt The Journey. It's the extraordinary test of endurance: the Ironman Triathlon. It's the ultimate test of will, determin..."

Harpeth River Ride

The Harpeth River ride (HRR) might be one of the biggest organized rides in Nashville. It happens once a year and caps out around 1500 people. It’s not a race…. It’s a ride that offers many different course options. As with any large ride, it turns into a race for some. Last year, I did the 100 mile loop with Chechu Rubiera. This year, my coach indicated I didn’t need to ride more than 3.5 hrs, so I did the Metric instead. As luck would have it, Lance Armstrong showed up to do the full century. Well crap, finally when someone fast enough to ride with me shows up, I’m not doing the same course… I can only assume that he’s too scared to ride the metric with me (if you couldn’t tell, that was a joke). That’s ok because I had Robert Reeves and a guy from Memphis, John Owen, with me today.

The day started as most events do; Robert showed up at my house at some ungodly hour and we packed up and started driving. Fortunately, the HRR start/finish isn’t that far away, so maybe it wasn’t all that early. Once we exited the interstate, traffic to the start/finish was a mess. Like many others, we pulled into the first parking lot we saw. As we were getting ready, I got a flat. Just sitting there… flat. I fixed that, called John to find him, ran into my buddy Patrick, and then we finally made our way to the start.

Rebirthing of a Champion

How about that post title? LOL i'm so full of crap. This past week was this first week I’ve ever had a tri coach. Bruce Gennari is going to be coaching me on what to do, and most importantly, what NOT to do. He warned me that I’d feel like I was training for a sprint and would be VERY frustrated doing my WOs in heart rate zone 2 (for me, that’s a max of 148 beats). Boy was he ever right, especially about running. Turns out, I can’t walk to my car in the garage without maxing out my HR at 148. The thought of running jumps it in the low 140s. In all seriousness, it seems that I can currently expect about 9 min miles on a flat terrain if I want to keep my HR at 148 or below (64%, not the traditional 70%; which makes it even harder). This is good news for all the guys I ride bikes with because it pretty much caps my speed at around 21mph (tested on an out/back on the Trace).

CRAM Century

A couple friends of mine that I’ve been spending some fast miles with over the past few weeks convinced me to hook up with some even faster dudes in town for the CRAM Century ride on 5/28/11. So about 10 minutes before the ride started, I searched around for Bruce and Kevin. I knew Kevin but had never met Bruce. Anyone knowing these dudes would be rightfully intimidated by the idea of spending 100 miles with them. At any rate, I hooked up with them.

Blog about Blogs

Not sure if anyone actually cares, but I wanted to do a post of blogs that I keep up with. These are mainly friends that keep me motivated and are definitely more insane than I am.

First, you’ve got my man crush, Rusty McCain. I’ve been a little Rusty heavy on my post lately but that is because Rusty has had several things going on right now. Follow him and his partner in crime, Ray "Razor" Ashworth", as they rides bikes across America from 6/6/11 to 7/30/11. http://rustymccain.wordpress.com/

Second, Trace Bikes Race Team. Everyone on this team is important to me, but without a few key individuals (you know who you are, and in fact, some of you aren’t on the team), I wouldn’t be a decent bike rider. These guys are top notch. Scott Turner would do anything for anyone… and if you don’t have a bike, he might help you too (kidding, he’d help anyone). Get all your bike needs from Scott. http://www.tracebikesraceteam.com/ and http://www.tracebikes.com/

Next, you’ve got the guy that made me a fast runner and taught me how to drop weight. Johnny Pryor put the hurt on me during 2010. I remember doing one crazy workout late last fall. 14x800s @ 2:45. May not be fast to some, but that’s a LONG speed session for me. Johnny took me from a wannabe runner to a real runner. He managed to squeeze 4 sub 1:30 half marathons out of me last year. I’m not the fastest, there’s always a person faster, ALWAYS. I’m just better now because of him. http://www.johnnypryor.blogspot.com/

This next one has nothing to do with training but everything to do with adventure. Bryan and Jennifer Meurer might be the bravest people I know. They packed up everything they had, dog and all, and moved to Alaska so that Bryan could learn how to be a CFO. Jennifer was pregnant, they had nowhere to live, they still owned a house here, but they went anyway. And talk about building up a pain threshold (as one does for endurance events), Jennifer must have the highest pain threshold of anyone… heck, she puts up with Bryan (well, Kiki might have good pain tolerance, too). Trust me, this blog is funny. http://southerninalaska.blogspot.com/

There are two guys I know in town that don’t know when to stop running. I met one on the bike and met the other during one of my sub 1:30 halfs last yr. Ashly Dewberry and Jayden Stevens are nuts. They are both training for a 100 mile ultra run. They top out around 100 miles a week running. Most people can’t do that on a bike. These guys probably don’t realize the impact they have on my motivation. Ashly says things like, “Work hard and suffer now and live like a champion later”. Reminds me of John D. Minton…. “the more you hurt now the less you suffer in a race”… something like that. Ahsly http://ashlydewberry.blogspot.com/ Jaydn http://jadynstevens.blogspot.com/

Last by not least, there’s Patrick Allen. I think Patrick and I adopted each other last year. Patrick had Ironman experience and was in the process of building up his coaching resume’ and knowledge. Well, I’m sure I drove him nuts as I was his high maintenance client (that didn’t pay). I don’t think a day went buy during tri season 2010 that I didn’t send him a question. A good bit of what I know came from him. He is a racing machine that never stops. I’ve never seen anyone be more dedicated to the sport than Patrick. Thanks for everything bud. http://tripikapp.blogspot.com/

So, there’s many others out there that I keep up with from time to time, but these are the ones I check up on regularly. Maybe I’ll figure out how to add them as links on this blog.

McCain Tenn

This past week was pretty easy and full of recovery. However, even with training only 3 out of 7 days, I managed to cover 130 on the bike and nearly 30 running. But, this past week was not about me. It was about all my friends who were racing on Saturday. I’m glad I did not race; I’d hate to compete against all those fine athletes….which leads me to me next thought.

Rusty McCain. I believe Mach Tenn has been around for 29 yrs. I know Rusty has raced it for 28 yrs (missing one to race in Hawaii, which is probably excusable). Rusty was doing this race back when “transition didn’t have carpet back in 1983.” For that reason, and because his son Lucas and friend of mine destroyed the course with a screaming 8th overall, Mach Tenn will be renamed McCain Tenn…in my mind anyway. Go MaCains.

I know I’m gonna leave someone off, but all my friends raced well. Duane ran like a machine and he won an award, JJ’s swim improved incredibly and he destroyed the bike, Rob Allison came in 6th in his age group (having changed a flat), Troy Dover had to set a PR, Mark Miller placed in his age group with a swim beyond my comprehension, K-WOW (Special K, or Kristine) had a wicked bike leg with a minimalist approach to training, Janet (pres of BEAT which I must join) had a great race, Jamie Fohl completed his first tri (with still a better swim that I could ever crank out), Howard raced like a wild man, and where the hell did Heather Livingston come from? 2nd Female overall? She must be training with the Hopfenspergers. I know I’ve left someone out in my rush to type this up before a meeting this morning at work. I apologize.

Anyway, McCain Tenn was fun to cheer. Coming to support my friends is something I haven’t done a lot of the past few years but I intend on doing a lot more of it. Cheering on your friends might be as much fun as actually racing. It’s great to see people out there racing. I love it.

I’m not sure what I have planned for this week. Looks like I’ll be staying in an “easy” recovery week for a few more days. I’m really trying to soak up all the good training I’ve had so far this year. I do know that I’ll be swimming a LOT, maybe twice a day.

Welcome Back to my Blog

So, after getting drilled by some friends, I’m gonna start keeping this updated. Lot’s has happened since my last post. I managed to ride my bike a little bit. I’ve managed to run a few times. I haven’t managed to swim yet. I lost a little bit of weight. I’m on the lookout for a Coach.

I’ve renamed the blog. “Going Long” was stupid… “Going Smart” may have been better. A good friend of mine gave me a nickname having something to do with a Labrador. He said I just like to go out and have fun; I’m always happy, I run off but always come back, and typically have way too much energy. So, there you have it. This will now track a Labrador’s story. I thought Labs could swim?

Not much else to say right now. I’m taking it easy this week. I might gear up with something serious next week. I have several friends racing this weekend who I know will do great. I have a couple friends about to ride across the country. I couldn’t imagine doing that. They are incredible.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m going to go swim. I might swim a whole bunch. Keep your eyes out for routine post going forward. I won’t disappoint.

1 wk down, 30 to go

I can already tell that updating this is going to get annoying. Anyway, this week was pretty good. Only one little hiccup in my Wednesday workout with Jasper where he left me in so much pain I could still feel it Sunday. I think I ended up covering about 225 miles on the bike, ran only about 22, covered an astonishing ZERO meters in the pool, and was in the gym a couple times. All very good workouts at target efforts/HR and I can really tell my endurance is where it was at the end of last year. Anyone that knows me knows that it is so hard for me to ride at low efforts. Not really physically hard, obviously, but my personality is to just GO all out at everything. So, this is challenging for me but I can already see huge returns. I woke up this morning feeling way to good; almost as if last week had been a recovery week (which is a good thing and I hope to continue this). This is a typical week for this period of my training:

Monday – Rest (yoga and light weights)

Tuesday – Todd’s class and run for 60 mins HRZ2

Wednesday – Jasper/Gym for 2:00 and ride 60 mins HRZ2

Thursday – Run 60 mins HRZ2 and Todd’s class

Friday- Gym and run for 60 mins HRZ2

Saturday – Ride 4-5 hrs HRZ2

Sunday – Run minimum 1:45 in HRZ2 and ride 1:30 at HRZ2

Right now, this is yielding about 16-17 hrs a week, which is a little higher than I want to be, but since it’s mostly zone 2 base training, it’s a really a piece of cake. I will do this for 10 weeks before I start layering in a lot of speed and alternating weekends with very challenging bikes and runs. My easy zone two paces are already getting faster. I’m hoping that by spending goods bits of time in low HR zones, my natural easy paces will continue to get faster. Then, with about 20 weeks to go, I’ll be back on the track a couple times a week and weekend long work will become much faster. It feels so good knowing that I could do an Ironman tomorrow if someone asked me too. I feel like I’m literally where I left of a couple weeks before last year’s race. I think a lot of people would disagree with me for having high volumes right now, but I’ll be honest; this doesn’t feel high at all. It feels good, I recovery overnight, and when it comes race day, 112 miles on the bike is just going to feel like a warmup to a fast marathon. Plus, I love riding with my friends and making fun of each other.

I also want to point out that my buddy Patrick Allen is a changed athlete this year. He already has two races under his belt and is racing so fast. I can't believe his bike and run times already this year. Way to go Patrick. Keep kicking ass!

Also, our little B2B group is getting strong. So strong that it's harder to maintain HRZ2 that i'd like it to be. We all just want to ride fast right now. Iron Father is keeping us all in check. I'm not sure wha't we'll do when he and Ray leave us to ride across America. http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11620181

Ironman Starts Today

Today is the first official day of my training plan for the Beach to Battleship ironman distance triathlon. In 31 weeks from this past Saturday, I will be racing my second iron distance race. Unlike last year’s race season of 17 races (including 3 sub 1:30 half marathons, an Ultra Marathon, half ironman, a sub 12hr Ironman, and much more) this race will be the only thing I’m focusing my training on for 2011. I have created this new blog to log my progress towards knocking around 1:30 off my finish time. This is a bit huge to say the least. In just one season, I’ve learned that training in all three sports is very far from what it takes to “racing” a successful Ironman distance triathlon and I hope to share those things here. This race is also special because of the group of friends I’m doing it with (all the way from first timers to Hawaii finishers). I have more to learn from them than I could ever share here. I’m very fortunate to friends and family who support these things I want to do. Unlike the 22-24 hr training weeks last year, I will be training about 35-40% fewer hours and not out wasting miles and unnecessary energy. Every workout this year will have a specific purpose and every min of those workouts will be accounted for with specific goals. Without my friend's and family’s support, I could not do this. Therefore, my biggest goal for Ironman is to not let the training interfere with my family and friends as it may have last year. I’m also fortunate to have a great career at Vanderbilt where the people I work with support my obsession. Without the flexibility they offer, training would become harder to manage. One of my other goals is to not take advantage of this flexibility. I’d be lying if at the end of the day I didn’t admit this race is only a stepping stone to a much bigger goal. One day, I will qualify for Hawaii. I intend on doing this in 2012. There, it’s out there, now I have to do it. As of today, I feel like I could race Ironman next weekend. Seriously. I took this past Dec and Jan completely off and spent Feb and March getting endurance back. Right now, I’m already stronger and about 5 pounds leaner than I was on Ironman race day last year. Going forward, my post probably won’t be as serious as this one; I just wanted to acknowledge my commitment to family and friends, work, and then finally an epic ironman race. Last year, I finished Ironman and said, “That wasn’t hard at all”. This year, I will RACE the ironman distance without an ounce of anything left in my body.