Akron Road Runner Marathon

Yesterday, along with several coworkers, I participated in the Fifth Annual Akron Road Runner Marathon's team relay. This is actually the third time in four years that I've run this event (I missed last years event due to the birth of William), each time running the same 10k (6.2 mile) leg (the one that runs through the University of Akron and finishes up in Sand Run park). I enjoy this route because it gives me the best of both worlds, one being running through downtown with all the crowds and excitement and the other running on the trail in nature and solitude.
So this race kicks off early. 7:00 a.m. start time. Not too bad but considering that we wanted to meet at 6:30 downtown for some group pictures made it an early wake up. Running competitively is something new to me. I have what I need to do to prepare myself for a bike race down to a science, whether it is a criterium or road race. Running I just don't have figured out yet so I figured a safe bet would be to try to utilize the portions of my pre-race preparations that I could for this one which would be my pre-race meal, oatmeal and juice. I knew oatmeal is probably a little heavy but with my start time somewhere around 8:15 I assumed eating it two hours early would be perfect timing for when my body needed that fuel.
After the start, I went with two of my coworkers down another block to watch the runners go through downtown and cheer on my teammates Bob Medziuch and Ben Rantilla (Hasenstab Architects fielded two teams, a 'competitive' team that I was a part of and a 'fun team'.) Once we saw them come though as scheduled, we began the long walk to our start point for our warm up and stretching. At my start point, the place is littered with runners of all shapes and sizes. It's amazing to see how many people come out to partake in this event. It's been fun to be running in the parks and just seeing the mass of runners out doing their training runs as well. After a thorough stretch and last minute run to the bathroom, I waited in the mob for my teammate, Ed Paine to come through. We had loosely calculated times so we knew when to expect them to get there, but with the mass of people, it could get very confusing so we wanted to be safe and make sure we were attentive really early so we didn't loose any time trying to find each other in the transitions. (I noticed several teams have this issue this year). Once I received the bracelet from Ed I was off. Within the first few hundred feet I heard the shouts of support from several coworkers who came out to cheer us on. I'm glad they saw me then because who knows how lousy I will look at the end of this thing. The last time I ran this I completed it in 43 minutes, 20 seconds. This year my only goal was to complete my leg in under 45 minutes as I wasn't real confident in my fitness this year. Straight out of the gate I was running fast, too fast in hindsight but our office was having a competition against another architect in town and I knew those guys had a four minute head start on me....I was hoping to close that down and ideally gain some time in my leg. Running through the University and downtown I felt great. One thing about bike racing is that besides the few supportive spouses that come out, there's nobody to cheer you on. At this event, there are literally thousands of folks out there cheering you on and being supportive. If only cycling could capture some of that fan base....I digress. I'm running through downtown and I finally find my stride, somewhere I thought to be around 7 minute per mile pace. I'm finally feeling good and passing tons of people like they're marching in the Macy's Day parade. As I make the right hand turn onto the towpath trail by the Mustill Store I look at my watch.....just over 13 minutes. OK, this is about two miles in and I'm at 13 minutes....6 minute, 30 second pace...too fast. I might pay big time for this early effort as I know there is no way I can sustain this effort for the next 4.2 miles. It's probably best to slow it down a touch so I don't completely explode out here and leave my teammates in a bind trying to collect the thousands of little pieces that will be me stretched out over the trail. As I'm running on the trail I find myself trying to focus on the task at hand. One part of me is wondering how Nicholas is doing in the kids fun run another part of me is wishing I had my iPod with me and the last part is beginning to realize that I'm beginning to hurt a little bit. Focus Miner, focus. I switch back to the mode of concentrating on nothing else but my breathing and my stride. If I could stay focused on that I wouldn't focus on the pain that was settling in. At the halfway point I took one last look at my watch and saw just under 21 minutes. Perfect. I had slowed down a little bit too much but if I could pick it back up a little I had a legitimate shot of finishing this thing somewhere around 42 minutes. The next two miles became difficult. In cycling I know what it's like to suffer and work through this. I can honestly say that I have never suffered like I did that day running that leg. That oatmeal was settling right with me and I learned that if I didn't throttle things down a little bit, I would be getting sick. So, the trick became run as fast as I can until I feel like I'm going to get sick and then slow up a tad until that feeling goes away. It worked, I didn't get sick but next time I'm going to stay away from the oatmeal and find something a little lighter, at least for a fast 10k event. Knowing I needed to slow down a little bit I was really worried about my goal time of 45 minutes. I figured it was totally lost now because I felt like I was running a 10 minute per mile pace between miles 3.5 and 5. Once I hit that last mile I knew I was virtually in the finishing stretch and I pushed it as hard as I possibly could. Finally emerging from the towpath on Akron-Peninsula road I had several coworkers and teammates there to cheer me on which was huge because at this point I felt like (and probably looked like) the walking dead. One last tough section of my course to finish, the hill up Portage Path to finish in Sand Run parkway. After 6 miles of running, any slight change in elevation seems huge but I felt like I was trying to climb up Mt. Everest at this point. Fortunately I had another coworker further up the road to cheer me which helped carry me through to my transition point. As I made the last turn onto the parkway, I took off that bracelet in anticipation of the exchange but also as a sign of get this thing off of me...I am done. Nevermind I still had a few hundred feet to run, if only I could take off these few additional ounces maybe that would lighten the load on my feet and get me there quickly. Safely making the exchange to Chris Betts I stopped my watch, 43minutes, 33 seconds. Wow, for as badly as I felt in those last few miles, I never would have imagined that I would have finished up with a time like that.

So, there it is, my running performance and finally another blog post for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations to all my teammates and coworkers for putting in an amazing performance. In the end, Hasenstab Architect's competitive team finished with a time of 3 hrs, 10 minutes and 49 seconds. The best ever performance by our group and good enough to put us in seventh place overall in the Men's Team Relay division. I've said it before but for a bunch of non-runners who don't train more than a few months prior to the race, I think that's really an incredible effort. I also begin to question my ability. Given that I trained for this, but not intensely, would I make a better runner than cyclist? Should I consider switching my focus? Who knows. One thing I do know is that at some point in the near future, I would like to complete a marathon. Maybe next year.

brian

Fall Challenge

I awoke Sunday morning to the sound of rain drops falling outside. There’s something about lying around in bed listening to the sound of rain outside, it’s another thing knowing that you plan on actually racing your bike outside in it. Living only about 5 miles from the course, my intent was to get up early and ride over to the course to get my warm up in, that was until I saw the ark floating down the street with all the animals in it. Better just drive over there, take the trainer and setup under the entrance canopy to get a little bit of a warm up. There was no doubt that I would be getting wet for the day, no reason to get a jump start on it. After my quick warm up, I was off to the start line in the Cat 4/5 race. The rain unfortunately kept a lot of people away as our field only looked to be about 20 deep and the maters field didn’t look to be much bigger. It’s really a shame that more people didn’t come out to race. Although the weather was less than ideal, the course is challenging, scenic and most of all safe. I was impressed by the amount of support that Summit had for the course. Every corner was well marshaled and the amount of support vehicles that they had was amazing, almost seemed like one vehicle per rider. The only thing that was missing was the overhead helicopters but maybe they were grounded because of the rain.

As we rolled out at the start, I was able to count jerseys and Summit definitely had the numbers with what appeared to be 6 riders. After that, it was Orrville with 2 and Stark with Jason Leaman and me. I knew going into today that if I could hang onto wheels for the entire race; that would be a substantial victory for me. As I said earlier, this is a challenging course. You’re either climbing or descending, nothing in-between. Granted, the majority of climbing besides the first climb up Quick Road is false-flat but there are some rollers in there up by the humane society that I thought could be decisive depending upon how much recovery you were able to get through the false flats. The first lap went as well as could be expected. The first true attack came from Joel of Orrville on the decent on Wetmore road. It was in the little valley section right before the little climb that takes you back down to Akron-Peninsula road. I was sitting second wheel behind a rider from Summit and knowing that this was very early in the race for any moves to stick, I made no effort to chase. I also figured with Summit having the numbers, it would be up to them to control the race which is what happened. The rider I was following brought him back and I comfortably rode wheels back up. The big test for me was just about to come as we made the right hand turn to head up Quick Road. I knew this would be where the selections were made; I was just hoping that it wouldn’t be on lap 1. Still sitting up front, I found myself almost comfortably spinning a nice cadence while sitting in the group. I knew it wasn’t going to be this easy and as the road started to level off, the attacks came from Summit. Not so much of a hard effort but they picked up the pace enough that it strung out the field and tested my legs. Fortunately, I was at the front of the group and as the field came by me, there were enough of them that I could slightly recover by the time the back of the field came by. Although my legs were stinging, I slipped in and safely began making my way back up to the front of the group again. One lap down, 3 more to go. Not sure if I can make 3 more of these with the group or not. Turns out I couldn’t. On the next lap heading up Quick Road, my strategy of starting in the front and then slowly drifting back failed as I started the climb near the back. By the time I made it to the top of the bump, the group was just a tad too far in front of me as I just couldn’t close the gap back up. I was on my own now. I thought about quitting when I got back up to the school but figured I’d ridden this course enough times solo in practice; I could at least finish it up solo during the race. After all, I paid my money and was already soaking wet, it couldn’t get much worse than this. So I joined up with two other riders who were also off the back and we finished the race together, I’m sure much faster than I would have finished by myself.

So, the road race season for me has come to a close, thank goodness. In the next month or so, I plan on writing a post on my 2007 season, the high points, the mostly low points, my training plan (or lack thereof) and what I could have done better. In the meantime, I plan on still riding to build my fitness back up so I can hope to be somewhat competitive in cyclocross this fall which will all be new to me.

brian

Data from today's race

Entire race:
Duration: 1:32:37 (1:34:20)
Work: 1250 kJ
TSS: 134.5 (intensity factor 0.934)
Norm Power: 271
VI: 1.2
Distance: 32.646
mi Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 225 watts
Heart rate: 117 183 160 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 0 42.4 21.1 mph
Pace 1:25 0:00 2:50 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 383 82 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 837 199 lb-in

Lap#1
Duration: 22:02
Work: 290 kJ
TSS: 37.4 (intensity factor 1.01)
Norm Power: 293
VI: 1.33
Distance: 8.209 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 220 watts
Heart rate: 117 183 158 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 99 rpm
Speed: 0 41.3 22.3 mph
Pace 1:27 0:00 2:41 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 318 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 837 186 lb-in

Lap #2:
Duration: 23:29
Work: 315 kJ
TSS: 35.2 (intensity factor 0.949)
Norm Power: 275
VI: 1.23
Distance: 8.41 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 868 224 watts
Heart rate: 130 179 161 bpm
Cadence: 31 141 97 rpm
Speed: 10 42.4 21.5 mph
Pace 1:25 5:60 2:48 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 311 83 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 808 194 lb-in

Lap #3:
Duration: 22:27 (24:10)
Work: 303 kJ
TSS: 28.8 (intensity factor 0.879)
Norm Power: 255
VI: 1.13
Distance: 7.774 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 692 226 watts
Heart rate: 127 171 159 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 0 39.8 20.8 mph
Pace 1:30 0:00 2:53 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 319 81 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 712 204 lb-in

Lap #4:
Duration: 24:38
Work: 342 kJ
TSS: 33 (intensity factor 0.897)
Norm Power: 260
VI: 1.12
Distance: 8.251 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 720 232 watts
Heart rate: 140 176 163 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 4.6 39.5 20.1 mph
Pace 1:31 13:03 2:59 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 383 90 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 813 212 lb-in

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful….

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to sneak in a bike ride in between working on the renovation of our bathroom. Because my time was limited, I decided to roll down into the Valley to get my biggest bang for the buck and tackle some of the climbs down there. One of my favorite descents there is Wheatley Road. For those who are somewhat familiar with the Valley, Wheatley will tie into Everett Road which is where the classic Covered Bridge Series is held each year. Wheatley, unless it’s an evening where there’s a concert happening over at Blossom, is lightly traveled by cars, smooth and has a fast descent which includes some s-curves on it. My point of this apparent rambling? Only to introduce the meaning behind the title of this post. When I made the juncture onto Everett, I noticed I started passing quite a few cyclists going in the opposite direction. Seeing cyclists in the Valley isn’t uncommon, in fact on the weekends the place is packed with overfilling lycra. However, the numbers of riders I was seeing was way more than the common group ride heading out from Szalay’s Farm. Turns out, these riders were taking in the morning’s charity ride called STOMP. I wish cyclists were like motorcycle riders in terms of their customs and traditions. Next time you’re out riding, take notice when you see two bikers passing each other. Without hesitation, you see their left arm drop down to the ground for a way cool sign of….hey. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 20 something on a crotch-rocket or a member of the Hells Angels passing each other, they recognize that there is a commonality between them. Even if its only riding on two wheels, they know that they’ve found a secret that most of society hasn’t, traveling through life on two wheels is just more fun. A quick google search on this even found tons of articles and discussions on this subject alone. Back to my point and all the riders I was seeing. I like to be friendly when I’m out riding, but I don’t quite get what others are thinking. I’m passing dozens and dozens of riders, I’m waving, nodding my head, saying good morning, everything but the majority of my fellow cyclists don’t respond at all. I could understand if they were in the middle of a race, but this is a charity ride for Christ’s sake, riding for the pure enjoyment of it without all the suffering. Maybe it’s my goofy smile like a virgin on prom night that scares them away. Maybe it’s my shaved legs or matching kit that they seem to think makes me “so-pro” that they mistakenly get the impression that we’re not the same. Well, we are. Just like the motorcyclists, cyclists have found out that riding through life on two wheels is just more fun.

brian