Month: November 2007

First, the disappointment: due to a 58,000 gallon oil spill in San Francisco Bay a few days prior, the swim portion of the triathlon was canceled. This technically makes it a more like a duathlon than a triathlon. The sense of triumph for having completed the event is muted because the swim was canceled. I’m certain that I would still have finished had the swim taken place; I’m a fairly strong swimmer.

I feel great having done it. Having done sufficient training it was not nearly as hard as I had figured it would be to complete the event. The running part of the race was what I was the most concerned with and I fairly readily met my goal of running the entire way (as opposed to walking).

 

Highlights of the event:

• achieving my goal of running (not walking) the entirety of the run
• trading positions with the same guy at least 10 times in the cycling stage

 

One of the most interesting aspects of the race for me was the affect of others cheering me on as I went by. I’m usually not one to go in for enthusiasm; in many cases it makes me uncomfortable. In this case however, the cheering of strangers made an incredible difference for me. It really inspired me want to push harder.

 

The Stats:

• Overall time: 1:14:01
• 246 out of 336 overall.
• Bike Rank: 187
• Bike Speed: 18.6 mph
• Bike Distance: 12 miles
• Run Rank: 272
• Run Speed: 10:29 per mile
• Run Distance: 3 miles

 

Overall, my impression is that triathlons are an awful lot of fun. Whose with me for the next one?

The triathlon is this Sunday.

Subjective:

I feel prepare and scared at the same time. I know I can do the swim and bike easily. The run will still be the most difficult part. The last week I focussed my training on “running through the pain and the tired” rather than specific fitness goals. It seems like the trick to running distances is to just keep running. If I keep the mental toughness (I’ve been working on this as part of the training) then this should not be an issue.

Objective:

I can run 3.5 miles at a 5.7 mph pace. I can swim 1k in a pool with capacity to go farther. I can easily cycle 12 miles on flat ground. By all metrics I am in sufficiently good fitness to complete the triathlon.

Analysis:

Keeping the right pace while running is going to be hard. With a treadmill it’s easy since it regulates your speed for you. On the ground it will be harder. I was not clever enough to get myself a heart monitor. (For it to be interesting for the triathlon, I wanted to be able to put it on at the beginning of the race and not worry about it, but I didn’t find one that would survive the swim. I don’t really want another thing to mess with in a transition.) This means I must pay attention to how hard I’m breathing while running. I may end up running down the path talking to myself under the guise that if I can carry on half a conversation, I’ve got headroom to keep going.

I still have days where running is harder than others. If I’ve done any run the day before, the run workout is easier. Since swimming is so different from every other type of training I’m doing, I am counting it as a rest day.

Plan:

Use the following training schedule leading up to the triathlon:

• Wednesday: Strengthening run. 1-1.5 miles, ran fast
• Thursday: Distance run 3.5 miles
• Friday: Swim .6 miles
• Saturday: short relaxing run.
• Sunday: Triathlon

The race strategy is essentially to save as much energy for the run at the end as possible.

• swim at a recreational pace. Any time lost will be made up by not having to walk in the run phase of the race.
• Use cycle as a recovery. For last lap of cycle (course is 3 laps of 4 miles) get heart rate down low to recover for upcoming run.
• Run at slow pace to keep stamina up. Finishing able to run another mile is good; Walking across the finish line (as opposed to running) is not so desirable.

Final point of the plan: do not forget to revel in how cool the whole experience is.

To recap, the plan is to outsource some business research using elance.com to determine if the business is worth getting in to.The executive update is: things have gone awry, we’re getting back on track.

My initial choice didn’t send me anything after three days of waiting for the business terms. Elance suggested that 24 hours was the right way to go about things. After three days, I decided that this particular bidder likely was not reliable and canceled acceptance of their proposal.

I was now ready to pick it back up with my second choice. This seemed like a great strategy until, after 24 hours, they responded saying that they were no longer interested. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that things were getting just a bit screwy.

I certainly believe that this is what Seth Godin would refer to as a dip (if you are not certain what this means, check out his book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) )

So what have I done about it? I’ve re-written the project description and re-listed the project. Things this time around seem to be better. The pricing is more competitive with a much smaller standard deviation. I’ve selected two of the 7 bidders to pursue the project in parallel, for the same price as my original bidder.

This has certainly not gone as expected, nor has it been as easy and fun as it sounds like I when I read about it in books and blogs. That said, I’m going to stick with it and see if I can make a go of it.