Taylorsville 1/2 Ironman

Well, another sub 5:30 half ironman and I basically just trained through this one as it was not treated as an “A” race for me. I’ll try to keep this short and focus only on the funny, terrible, and important things.

Friday Morning, EARLY: 2AM, I get an “urgent” work email for something Board of Trust related. It never fails that if I take ANY time off, something urgent comes up that causes me to stress about getting out of work on time. Anyway, came in early, knocked out the request, and was OUT by noon.

Road trip down: Patrick picked me up at work, so that was convenient. We got some Chipotle and hit the road. About half the way down, Patrick realized the Race was on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Course review: We got off the interstate and drove about 10 miles on a nice, flat, smooth road. I made the comment that once we hit the race course, it will start some massive rollers…. and it did. We drove about 15 miles of the course to get to the Swim and Transition areas. The course was visually brutal and I know Patrick’s hybrid car was NOT in hybrid mode. HAHA. We took our bikes out on the run course (which was THREE out and backs of the first couple miles of the Bike course). Terrible climb out of transition. We then ran about 14 mins and swam about 10 mins. We noted a few things: the lake was flooded, the bike (that we’d seen thus far) was gonna suck, and the run was gonna suck. Anyway, we packed up, drove the remainder of the bike course and noted the entire thing was “rolling” hills (i.e. hard climbs).

Dinner: Since Taylorsville and Shelbyville didn’t have much of a restaurant choice, we just randomly picked a place in the Garmin. “Claudia Sanders’ Dinner House”. This ended up being in an elaborate white house in the middle of nowhere with HUGE columns and rather fancy. Claudia turned out to be the wife of Colonel Sanders and she still had the 8 piece bucket of fried chicken on the menu. We didn’t try it; not the best prerace meal.

Race Day: (I’ll keep this on central time since that’s what we’re used to) Patrick woke up at 3:30AM, had breakfast, and stayed awake. Not sure how the man can do that. I got up at 5AM. Packed car, lost cell phone, searched for phone, gave up, left hotel with ONE hour before the 7AM race start. Patrick hauled ass to the race (about 12-15 miles away). We arrived with about 35 mins to check in and setup. I sat up my transition, went to the bathroom, put on my wesuit, and got to the swim start about 3 mins before 7AM. Race started about 15 mins late.

Swim: mass start (but no bigger than a typical wave in a larger race). Tried to draft, most people that were my speed couldn’t swim straight. Two loops. My wetsuit started rubbing my neck raw on the first out (it now looks like a nasty hickey on my neck). I’ve never experienced that before. Oh well, keep swimming. Nothing exciting here. Typical Jonathan Minton swim… just get through it. Turns out, based on calculating an expected pace for me and a few other racers, the swim was about 500-600 meters long. Swim Time: 51:20 (was hoping for 40:00, but OK since the swim was long).

T1: flew through in 1:00. Felt good and warmed up from the swim. Tried to mount my bike with the tri shoes attached (which I hadn’t done since Augusta nearly 8 months ago) and literally fell to the ground. Imagine this… the sweet ass bike you see photos of in previous post, coming out of T1 pretty late since I’m a terrible swimmer, and then the racer can’t even get on it.. he falls to the ground. That was me. Anyone knowing me pretty well knows that falling like that is a HUGE blow to me mentally. Anyway, got up and took off.

Bike: CLIMBED out of T1. Could not get my average over 18 the first 10 miles. Based on the terrible swim time (that I didn’t know was long until later in the day), crashing my bike out of T1, and knowing this was just training for me, I was already done mentally. I saw Patrick at about that point (10-12 miles in), discussed the day’s events thus far, found out the swim was long, and got the drive back that I needed. I dug deep and got into the best rhythm anyone could on a course like this. I was riding at 24+mph over the next 14 miles. Then, on an out and back, I managed 26mph out and about 21mph back (out was down, back was up). This put me at about mile 30 and a 22mph average. The course got even harder at this point. After getting my “drive” back on the bike, I knew I had to get that 22mph average before this point if I was going to get and overall good bike split. UP and down, UP UP UP, and down. That’s all the last 26 miles were… well, except for the 1.5 mile climb that caused me to find the easiest gear on my bike and set up and climb (I never stood). Got over that long climb, back into a decent rhythm, and turned onto the last few miles “the run course”. I counted the runners on my way to T2… only 23 runners. I knew I could get at least 24th place at this point. It sucks to come out of the water and see only about 20 bikes left in T1 (since everyone else is already on the bike), but it does feel nice to pass 80% of the field on the bike course, and get back to T2 with only about 20 bikes back. It makes me feel good to pass all those people who can swim better than me. HAHAHA. Bike time 2:39:57, 21mph, SUB 2:40!!! P.S. I love my new Real Design Disc... looked like a tool crashing out of T1, but road like a machine.

T2: Flew through in 53 seconds.

Run: another big climb out of transition. A very BORING out and back three times. First one was getting used to running, the second one was hot, and the third one was just so mentally boring that I was ready to just stop. I didn’t want to stop because I was sore or tired (neither of which I was). I actually felt great; I was just incredible bored. Ended up with a 1:54:22 half marathon (8:44 pace I think). Not really a good time for someone who PRed with two sub 1:30s early this year, but given the hills, the fact that this wasn’t an “A” race, and that I was just ready to be DONE, I’ll take it.

Total time: 5:27, 6th in age group, 18th overall. Not bad for a training race that I tapered two days for. Plus, this makes the 10th race/event this year… with only one weekend off, not a very tri friendly course (the t-shirt reads “at least the swim is flat”) and my first Triathlon of the season. I’m happy with a 5:27. This gives me two sub 5:30 ½ Ironman races in the 11 months leading up to IML.

Lessons: Since this was mainly about learning where I was for IML, I learned that I need to do LONGER/HARDER bricks. I need to swim intervals in the pool. I need to practice mounting my new bike and tri shoes. Nutrition was fine, endurance was excellent, everything else clicked just right.

"I got the poo on me"

FINALLY! I got an open water swim. We went out to Percy Priest Lake (Hamilton Creek Marina) early this morning where we swam long OW swims last year. The lake was still very flooded even though it’s been nearly two weeks since the big flood. Kristin didn’t want me to go because “there’s still raw sewage spilling into the freshwater”. Surely there wasn’t enough in there to hurt us right? It’s a big lake. It was a big COLD lake too. First 5 mins were cold, but the wetsuit allowed me to warm up quick. We only spent about 20 mins out there since we’re racing on Saturday (and because there may have been poo in the water).

Hmm, first tri of the year… in two days. I am a little nervous, only because I haven’t really trained for the half ironman distance. I’ve been completely focused on ironman, so I’m not really sure how hard to go (or if I can even go at a faster than my planned IML race pace). I know some would say that a half should be easy if your training for a full, but I get all caught up in my splits. See, I should just have fun with it right? I’m not sure why I always get caught up in time and placing. Part of me wants to go “ALL OUT” and see what happens (obviously after I get out of the water) and the other part just wants to treat it like a hard brick workout so that I don’t need recovery time. I should keep IML as my focus and just enjoy this, but I know once I get out of that water and onto that bike, I’ll want to “make up time”. I honestly won’t know if I’m going to “race” this thing until I get warmed up on that bike and see how I feel. I went into the second half marathon of the year with that same mentality and ended up racing and incredible race (age group winner and 13th overall). So, I’ll post next week whether or not I decided to “race”.

TTX got an Upgrade

I’m terrible at keeping this updated. Here’s what’s happened since CMM. First, stats to date are as follows: 18 weeks in, 16 weeks to go, 210 hours and 1,965 miles of training. With a three week taper, that only give me 12 weeks left. YIKES!

TTX got an upgrade. Check out the pick…. Got some new race wheels from www.real-design.com. Everyone should buy their races wheels there. Hand built by Philip Martindale right here in Nashville. I got a rear disc and a front 90mm tubular pair. They are faster than they look too.

Rest weekend – last weekend was a rest weekend… NO RACES. I’ve been racing every weekend since the middle of March (the Tom King half marathon, first PR of the year). So, I rode an easy 30ish miles at a 20.5mph average and then knocked out a 10 mile brick run at a 7:32 pace. Great workout. I used Sunday as a rest day and got a LOT done around the house.

Three States Three Mountains. This is always a fun weekend and the rain help off for the entire 100 miles. We had a good group of guys going down and had a lot of fun on the course. We ended up sprinting down the mountains and chasing each other down.. not the smartest thing to do 60 and 70 miles in with another mountain, Lookout Mountain, to climb. Lookout wasn’t that bad, but after stopping at the rest stop at the top, my knee got tight and hurt a little all the way in. I’d say it was the combination of riding too hard, racing the past several weekends in a row, and running a PR the weekend previous. Just too much volume. Anyway, I cut back some and it feels good now.

Upcoming Events: Well, half ironman this weekend. First tri of the year too. My bud Patrick is treating this as one of his A races and will probably PR this weekend. I’m a little nervous about it. My swim is NOT where it needs to be and I still haven’t had an open water swim this year (well, since Augusta’s half ironman about 8 months ago). I think we’re hitting the lake tomorrow morning which will help. After that, I have a couple centuries and some smaller tris. I really start focusing on IML now, so weekend racing is very limited.

1/2 CMM = 1:29:04 (97th Place)

So, it’s been like three weeks since I posted. I’ll try to keep this short and just keep it grouped by races and special events. So far though, 16 weeks of training down and only 18 weeks of training left. I’ve hit 191 hours and 1,760 miles of training, PR’ed twice, done a century, and raced a couple road races.

Country Music Marathon (4/24/2010) -Well, I finally did it. I broke 1:30. This is where the Clementine Experiment all started. Mark and I wanted to break 1:30. I ended up running a 1:29:04 (6:48 pace) and came in 97th out of 24,636 runners. Paced with Johnny for the first mile, made my way to the 1:30 pace team over the next mile, paced with them until around mile 8, then my buddy Wim surprised me at mile 8. I wasn’t expecting him. So, we ran together for a couple miles and realized we’d left the 1:30 pace team altogether. He calculated that I could PR. So, around mile 11, we picked it up. Sure enough, I did. Thanks Wim. Ohh, I also did a 54 mile bike (19mph, LOW HR 129) and a 2 mile run (7:33 pace) the very next day. All of this took place on the fourth weekend in a row of racing, and NO taper (256 miles of riding, 27 running and 5 swimming in the 10 days leading up to this race). Am I ready for IM now?

Cheaha Challenge (4/17/2010) - 102 miles, 8,000 feet of climbing, and a 17.5mph average. This was awesome. If you take all the weekly mileage (and Jeff’s dirt road AL experience) all into account, we ended up with 210 miles over 6 days. Anyway, this was a rough ride. The big mountain climb (about 3 miles up each side) was nothing compared to the steep rollers that wore you down on both sides of it. Plus, at around mile 80, we turned directly into a terrible headwind. After 22 miles of fighting the wind, we found the finish line. I hoped off and ran about 3 miles at a 7:16 pace. Felt good too. Am I ready for IM?

RR in North GA (4/10/2010) - 32 mile, two-loop, relatively flat road race. The first lap was so slow that the official pulled up and said he was going to “neutralize” us and let the girls pass us. Well, after averaging about 19 during the first loop, we kicked it up to where we averaged 23 over the entire course distance (first loop included). Nobody on our team made the podium, but we avoided two large crashes, including one as the final sprint came across the finish line and nailed the pace car (a cop) who stopped AT THE FINISH LINE. We all climbed a nearby mountain for fun after the race.

Infinit – I’m trying a new sports nutrition. This is a custom blend of carbs, calories, taste, protein, sodium, etc. that you mix with water and consume during endurance events. So far, this is working out well. You don’t consume anything solid when using this product. I like it. I kinda miss some solid items, so I sneak some GU Chomps in there sometimes. So far so good. 18 more weeks of testing before race day.

Other – Weight is staying about the same. Still around 163. I’d hoped to drop some so that it would be easier to pack myself around for hours and hours of racing, but no such luck. I picked up a one-piece tri suit from Endurance Sports and Rec in Cool Springs. Sugoi. Love that stuff. It fits well and I’m pretty sure I’ll race IM in this suit (gotta do anything to save time in transition to make up for my crappy swim time). I also got in my Xterra speedsuit. While I am far from “needing” a speedsuit in a swim, IML will be a non wetsuit legal swim. So, I wanted something to protect me from the nasty Ohio river. Plus, it will smooth out my body surface and I won’t have pockets trying to slow me down in the water. Again, anything to make me a bit faster in the water.

Question – Why is the sport of triathlon so expensive? Tires, tubes, bottles, nutrition, bars, bikes, wheels, suits, training, coaches, race fees, etc.

On the 13th wk, I won 13th Overall (and 1st in age group)

13th week in: 153.5 hrs and 1,280 miles of training so far (165 miles this week). 21 Weeks of training left. This week has honestly been the best week so far. Great pool swims, incredible track workouts and age group half marathon win, and a crazy bike ride (for me anyway).

Swim: Swam nearly 4 miles this week. It’s getting easier and better. I finished the week of swimming with a 1 mile swim, short course, in just under 32mins. This was the best swim so far this year.

Bike: I went out Wednesday for and out and back to Ashland City with the expectations of averaging somewhere around 17-18mph (a typical base/endurance pace for me). I ended up Knocking out a near 32 mile ride at 21+mph and kept my HR in the 150s. CRAZY! On Thursday, I showed up for the group ride at Trace Bikes and headed out for the 25 miler. However, due the track workout earlier in the day and knowing I had to race the weekend, another guy and I broke off and finished the 18 mile route. Felt a little guilty/bad, but boy did it every pay off during the weekend. On Sunday, after having raced a half marathon no more than 20 hour prior, I did an 85 mile ride in KY (what was supposed to be a base/endurance ride) and averaged 20.8mph. Two loops: first loop was 20.4mph and second was 21.2mph (a negative split time… HOW?). Cadence was 88, HR was exactly 150, and I had 3,200 feet of climbing and two 12 mile stretches of incredible headwind. So, the cadence and HR both suggest a base building endurance ride yet the speed and wind indicate a challenging ride. Has my endurance paced increased? I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m on my TTX and not the road bike, but would it make that much of a difference or am I really getting stronger? Anyway, the people in Livermore, KY looked at me like I was from another planet when I stopped in at a gas station for nutrition. I guess I was on a funny looking bike, wearing a crazy aero helmet, and in full spandex (probably not something they see every day). Ended up downing 7 bottles of Gatorade, 1 payday, and two Cliff Bars.

Run: On Tuesday, Brett and I met up for a tempo – 8 miles with 4 @ 6:36. Thursday was 200s on the track with Johnny at 28-29 seconds. Saturday, race day, was truly a remarkable day. I went to the Oak Barrel Half Marathon with Mark and had no intensions on “racing”. In fact, I had not tapered, carb loaded, and knew I had at least a 4 hour bike ride the following day. Plus, the week leading up was crammed full of hard workouts. Anyway, the race started and ended in the rain. It even included periods of terrible crosswinds and rain slamming you in the face. When they said “GO”, I started at what felt like an easy pace. Within seconds, I was running in the top 5-6 places. Then, about 2 mins in, I decided I was going to race. I ran the first mile in a sub 6:30 pace. I continued to follow a couple hundred yards behind the top 4 runners and was leading the second group of runners until we reached THE hill around mile 4.5. This hill was incredible. It would have sucked on a bike. I lost two minutes, and a few places, on this switchback climb. I just dug deep and kept on climbing. It felt as if rain was trying to wash me back down the mountain. Once I got to the top, all the endurance training proved to pay off as I quickly recovered and took back off. Except for the first mile and the hill, I kept a 6:48-6:52 pace. I had never been so glad to see a finish line in my life. The mile leading up to it was miserable and wet. As I wondered why I was doing this, I could hear a guy’s feet slapping the wet pavement just feet behind me, so my body’s first reaction was to dig as deep as I could to not let him pass me. As the finish shoot came into view, I heard someone yell “GO Jonathan”. I didn’t know them, so it had to be the guy behind me. I wasn’t going to let a guy with the same name beat me. I knew I was in at least the top 20. So, I somehow took off like a rocket (legs were screaming with pain). I crossed the line in 1:32:13. The other Jonathan crossed in 1:32:17. I found out later that day that I won 1st place in my age group and 13th overall. The other Jonathan happened to be in my age group and got second place by 4 seconds. FOUR SECONDS. I pushed my body into a level of pain I hadn’t ever found to end up winning my age group by only 4 seconds. I’m glad it was only 4 seconds; it makes it that much better. Racing like this will only make Ironman more manageable. Mark came in 3rd in our age group with a 1:42:04. Even though this wasn’t a PR race (1:29:15 in Tom King just three weeks ago), it was the best race I’ve ever ran. 1:32 was so much stronger than 1:29 at Tom King.

Gosh this week was awesome. Like I said, great swims, great race, and great bike. I don’t know where I got the power and energy for such a rewarding week. I think the intense attention to nutrition, stretching, sleep, and listening to my body is starting to finally payoff. I have to thank Kiki for putting up with all of this. I love you!

First Real Endurance Week.

12th week in: 140 hrs and 1,114 miles of training (149 miles this week alone). Finally broke 1,000! (Just FYI, last week was crazy at work, so I’m just now posting from two weeks ago). This was the first real endurance week I’ve had with very little interruption or deviation in the overall training plan. Two swims, three runs, three bikes, and two strength training sessions and everything was long and at a base building pace.

Swim: I ended up swimming two nice 1 mile swims in the pool. One long course and one short course. Felt good to get out and swim long (as bad as I hate to admit it). So, I’ve totally given up on alternate breathing. I can breathe on both sides; I just can’t go three strokes without a breath. Oh well, I’m not looking to kick ass in the water anyway. This decision turned my crappy swims into nice, long, easy swims. Finally able to build distance.


Bike: On Wednesday, we decided to time trial Percy Warner Park (the 11.2). After warming up and cooling down, I ended up with about 20 miles. My TT time was just under 37 minutes. I think Jeff came in somewhere around 35 or just under, so I feel pretty good about my workout. On Thursday, I actually did 16 miles on my TTX on the trainer (since it was storming outside). This was the longest “ride” I’ve done on the TTX since buying it last year. Saturday ended up being the first very long bike ride of the year (75 miles in Jan was previously holding title to the longest). I finally broke the TTX in by putting 91 miles on it. Patrick and Robert came out and we went to Fly via the trace and back via other roads. Once we were backed, I hopped onto hwy 100 and crossed over the hill and did another 30 out on a decently flat course to Fernvale and a few other places. Turns out I love this bike (imagine that). It was incredibly comfortable given the 5+ hours I spent bent over the bars on Saturday.

Run: This week, I decided to start swimming on Tuesdays during lunch instead of hitting up the track workouts. I did this because I really need to be swimming 3 days a week and it’s the only schedule that works with the pool hours. Anyway, I’m supposed to be doing tempos and track workouts on Tues/Thurs, so I can do my tempo runs by myself on Tuesday AM and I’ll save Thursdays with Johnny to kill myself on the track. However, due to legs being tired from racing and my work schedule consuming nearly every minute of the day, I just ran 6 easy miles Tuesday and Thursday. I ran 8 on Sunday after the long ride Saturday. Total running miles was 20 (which will surprise you as being one of the longer weeks I’ve had over the last 12).

So, as you can see, this weekend ended up really falling into the endurance pattern that I am attempting to transform my workouts into. The first part of this year was all about base and building workout quantity volume; now I’m adding on the distance.

Hell of the South

11th week in: 127 hours and 965 miles of training. This week turned out pretty awesome with the Hell of the South bike race. Ended up raining all day Sunday, so training got cut short 5 hours (no long bike and run). That was cool though since the race effort Saturday was on the 13th day in a row of doing two-a-day workouts (with a couple 3-a-days in there too).

Swim: Back in the pool. 4 workouts, one of which was long course, and I hit a mile (which unfortunately was nothing last year). Swimming still sucks… and so do I… so nothing else new to report here.

Bike: Got two good workouts and a race in this week. Tuesday was about a 22 miler at 20+mph on the trace. Thank god for Jeff and Matthew to drag me in the last few miles as I was struggling. Wednesday was hill repeats in Cool Springs (not a great idea a few days out from a race). I saw more of Lynnwood and Hollytree Gap than I have over the past 6 years of living here. Saturday marked the first bike race I’d ever done. Sure I’d raced my bike in triathlons and done some group century rides, but never a pure bike race. WOW was this fun.

Hell of the South: This race was put on by Swiftwick, SVMIC, and several other sponsors and volunteers. Jeff, Matt, and I went to race for Trace Bikes. It turned out to be an incredible event for its first year. The course was meant to be rough and mimic the old world style European type of racing; it even had about a mile stretch of dirt road. The course felt fast. I spent about the first 8 miles in the front half of the group. Jeff and Matthew held tight the very front and did a lot of work. About 8 miles in, Rachel pulled past me and said, “let’s go”. We sprinted to the front then she pulled off behind me and we kept going up the road. Unfortunately, this was a false flat, but the good thing was, it broke the pack in two. About 20 riders went with us and 30+ were in the second group. Rachel, and especially I, paid dearly for this move. It took 5 miles to bring my HR back down in the 160s. We sat on the back of the lead group and recovered as the course entered a moderate rolling section. At around 20 miles in, the pace picked up a little and Rachel and I moved forward in the group (keep in mind, Jeff was still on the front). We road along there making sure nobody really got away from us, but weren’t in any rush to move to the very front. Nobody seemed to worried with a get away (surprisingly). Anyway, we came up to the last turn, Jeff had sprinted off the front and Rachel and I took off after him. We had intensions on giving him a draft for recovery and keeping that break; however, Jeff had done way to much work on the front and was about done for the day… so Rachel and I moved ahead only to find out it was NOT the last turn… there was about a mile left. We were then swallowed up by the lead pack (but stayed with them). The pace continued to grow as we hit the 1k to go mark and then again at the 200M. Next thing I knew, Matt crossed the line in third and the rest of us crossed with the lead group. The second group crossed a few minutes behind us. It was SOOO much fun to race like that. The distance ended up being 25.65 miles, total ascent was 1,212 per my Garmin, my average HR was 170 (max hit 184), average speed was 22.1mph (max hit 39.1mph). I would like to have helped Jeff and Matt more, but I'm happy with how I performed considering I'd race a 1:29 half marathon the weekend before.

Lift: This will probably be the last time I mention lifting as I have really scaled back. I'm currently only going one day a week and a second day here and there when rain causes me to miss key outside workouts. I will say that the last 3 months has built a great foundation. It has put about 4-5 pounds on me though that I hope to lose as my workouts get longer. The goal is to keep the power and lose the bulk.

Race Schedule is in full swing now. Second race weekend in a row. Next weekend off for training (hopefully ride my bike to my mom’s house in KY) and then 5 race weekends in a row to follow. It’s exciting!