IM Arizona

I'll attempt to make my race report from IM Arizona a short and entertaining one!

Racing in Grandpa's backyard in Tempe, AZ was good fun as I had the ex-collegiate cross country coach yelling for me all day. It meant so much to have Emmy at the bike turnaround and under the bridge on each lap of the run for motivation! I know she hates being a spectator but it helped speed up my day out there.

I was racing with a new set of equipment (high tech goodies) including Zipp 808's, a Powertap, and a disc wheel cover from Wheelbuilder.com. They worked their magic and performed but my legs didn't have their usual pep out there on the bike course. But, I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Despite getting a full night sleep (8pm - 3am), I was still scrambling to get into Tempe Town Lake as the last of the 100+ total pros to get in prior to race start. After a quick warm up, I got a speedy start and found some open water with an inside line. The fastest swimmers started closer to shore and took a tangent and were gone, but I tucked in behind a few specialty colored-caps (all pro men wore yellow, but athlete's who they want to spot wear different colors). I was in a small group with four different cap swimmers so I knew I was in good shape. And, the swimmer I was directly behind was a big dude (Chris McDonald, 185lbs) and was providing a great draft.

I was locked into a safe position in this group until Chris got annoyed with me tapping on his toes and gave me a swift kick smack into the middle of my face. It busted my goggles which I promptly threw off. I learned very quickly Tempe Town Lake is the same consistency as mud and visibility was zero feet. I lost the group and the next group looked to be 30 seconds to 1+ minutes back, so I settled down and just kept on with the best pace I could. I lost over one-minute in the final half-mile to the group that ended up including Paul Amey, Jordan Rapp, Scott Curry, Chris Martin and McDonald. Still, the clock read 51:50 at the swim exit which meant the cool water led to some quick times (and the course may have been a bit short).

Out on the bike I was quickly joined by Ben Hoffman and the defending men's champ, Jozef Major. I rode behind them as Ben was pushing a strong pace and I figured he would pull us up to the main chase pack of pro men. For better or worse, I began listening to my Powertap which said we were pushing 340+ watts and since it was Ben's first Ironman I thought he would be cracking with that pace. I chose to back off so I would not pay the price later on. My goal going into the race was to finish with a solid marathon and I was prepared to let my bike split suffer as a result. While the bike is my stongest suit, I knew I needed to back off to have the chance at a solid run. (Ed note: to Ben's credit, he biked a 4hr 30min bike and ran an impressive 2:56:00 to finish 6th in his Ironman debut....he was just very strong!).



Anyways, since it's my blog, I'll go back to talking about me and my race (isn't that what triathletes do best!).

On lap two of the three lap bike, I sat on my 270-280 pre-ordained wattage limit and could tell I was losing a bit of time to the group who looked to be legally riding in their pack. The third lap, my watts fell off a bit and I rode between 240-250 which meant my pace slowed. I was okay with this since I knew I was just trying to get into transition, take in nutrition, and mentally prepare for the run.

In all my run training going up to the race, I wore a waist belt with a water bottle. My strategy was to avoid having to stop at aid stations which in the past provided me an excuse to walk and rest up a bit. This strategy paid off and despite a few porta-potty stops, I ran the whole blasted course! It wasn't fast, but I kept moving one foot in front of the next. That was a huge mental hurdle to get past! I wasn't too concerned with my overall placing or finishing time as those weren't my goals but did run the final two miles faster than all the rest. It was a relief to see the finish chute and realize I could now enjoy a nice, long off-season. My first tri race was in March so that makes nearly 10 months of racing. It's time to put the bike, goggles and shoes on the shelf and dust off the nordic skiis for a bit of a break. I can't wait.

Swim (2.4mi): 51:51 (25th)
Bike (112mi): 4:45:27 (22nd)
Run (26.2mi): 3:29:47 (25th)
Finish: 9:12:03 (29th overall)

Thanks to all my family and supporters out there in Tempe yesterday and to all others for you help throughout the season. I hope I have thanked most of you at some point individually throughout the year, but if not, thank you.



Cheers,
Lars

yesterday

swim: 4,100-m, complete, very smooth, finished workout with a controlled set of 100's. Opted to swim workout with wetsuit for race day simulation.

bike: 6 x 10 minutes at race day pacing with 3 minutes easy in between intervals, very smooth on flat and rolling terrain out towards carter lake and rabbit mountain. 2.5 hours total. got some funny looks riding around in my spiuk aero helmet...can't say i blame them. i'm only a tri dork for one more week though!

run: 6 miles after bike, 30 seconds/mile faster than race day pace, very smooth.

------------------------------

today is off besides sunday swim workout at flatirons w/ jane's squad.

off to the pool

today is high on quality and no BS, 8 days out from IM AZ race day:

Swim: 4,100m: 200 warm up, 800 pull, 3x800 with 15 sec rest, 5x100 @ 1:30, 200 cool down

Bike: Carter Lake route with 4x10 min at race pace w 5 mins recover

Run: 5 miles off the bike

will follow up tonight with how the day went

(Ed note: that's Thorskie looking pissed that I'm walking out the door without him)

goodies for race day

Arizona travel day is one week away and taper time is now upon the Finanger household. This is the time when the volume of workouts starts to drastically decrease and your appetite remains on high alert. Tapering is like an annual, or semi-annual, ritual for endurance athletes and thank god for that. Because tapering sucks. I have never felt good during a taper, am constantly restless, and want to devour everything in sight. The only problem is, I'm not training with the same volume as usual throughout the season so I'm not burning the same amount of calories. This means unless one remains diligent about their nutritional intake, they can put on some extra pounds during this time.

The other problem is experimenting with your body to get the timing of a taper down right. Tapering for a 50 or 100 meter swim race is vastly different than tapering for an Olympic Distance triathlon which is vastly different than tapering for an Ironman. I've tried three week, two week, and ten day tapers in the past and the magic number for Arizona this year will be nine days. Honestly, there is not much rhyme or reason for why I decided on this, merely that I've wanted to keep my running miles higher than usual so I can tackle my main goal next weekend which is to finish my day with a 3:20 marathon or better. Might sound easy to most, but the best I've gone so far has been 3:30 at Kona in 2006.

I've incorporated a few cheating devises to help reign in my usual plan of a blitzkrieg bike split in order to help save my legs for the final leg -- a Cyclops PowerTap. I opted to build this nifty power measuring devise into a Zipp 808 rear wheel....but behold, another secret weapon, a disc wheel cover from the famous cycling engineer, Richard Sawaris of Wheelbuilder.com, will fit over the 808 rim and power meter to employ the advantages of a disc wheel on the possibly windy AZ course. My final secret weapon is the skull & crossbones of the Avia tri kit that good friend Julie V sent my way for race day. I opted to wear a time-trial skin suit during the cycling portion of IM Canada in August but paid for this decision by retaining a lot of heat on a warm day. The only way I'd go that route again is if Torbjorn Sindballe let me borrow his all-white Craft kit but that would be kind of gross.

Enough rambling...see, another side effect from tapering....the mind just races and has nothing better to do but think stupid thoughts.

Best of luck to everyone else training out there (yup, talking to you MarkyV) and suffering through a taper too.

LF

How much are you getting out of your body?

45 miles per gallon

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golf w grandpa

12 more days until my last race of the 08 season. I'm quite motivated for a good result as I've had some of my most consistent run training of the last few years. At this point all the long, hard miles are done and in the bank and now it's time to recover, freshen up, and get to the starting line healthy.


I know the Arizona course quite well as my Grandpa Kent has lived in the western Phoenix suburb of Goodyear and I've gone out for training camps the last four years. Two times we've gone out during IM week and in 2006 I raced the swim and bike portion but pulled out while leading all amateurs at mile 9 of the run due to a foot injury.

Emily told me while she was cheering on the sidewalk with Grandpa, he kept saying "Go Lars, Go Lars" to every single person cycling past. Because it is a three-lap bike course, there are lots of chances to get motivated by the crowd. Emily kept a rough time split going so she could tell Grandpa when I actually came riding by. It is great to have family at the race and this year Emily will be towing Grandpa & Grandma around for some more action (I know she is bursting with anticipation). Luckily she will have Amy Marsh (she is injured but her husband Brandon is racing) at the race so they can place bets on the battle between husbands!



After the race is over, I'll be ready for a juicy burger, french fries, and maybe I can track down a Das Boot (the enormous German beer stein in the shape of a boot) to have with dinner. But, of course, the main reason I love going to Arizona is so I can go golfing with Grandpa on Monday afternoon! The former collegiate cross country coach and all around stud athlete back in his day is 76 years young with two knee and two hip replacements, but can't go a day without his two mile bike ride, two cups of coffee, two remote controllers to watch college basketball games on two different tv's and his weekly golf game. He continues to be one of my greatest inspirations.

Cheers,
Lars

fantasy football freakshow

...yup, that's me. rewind one year and i was the laughing stock of my college friends as i didn't once check or update my fantasy football team. i finished last and only won one game. i was ridiculed by many and considered a "bye-week" by all within the league. two weeks before the this year's draft selection, our league commissioner and my old roomate, Jimbo, emailed and said the league members had voted me out of the league since i didn't even participate. i promised him if he allowed me to stay, i would turn the page and dedicate the appropriate attention to the season.

i may still be ranked 7th out of the 11 teams but no one in the league can accuse me of not trying. i am tops in the league in total number of transactions - which basically means i follow the stats way too often and try and find the best players not originally selected in the draft.

i have also given the game way too high of a priority during my weekend schedule. sunday's are spent cranking out my ride/run brick workouts then zooming back to the house to catch all the updates on how my players performed. i find myself yelling at players i never previously knew existed and have become the #1 fan or #1 worst enemy of players. in other words, i've been getting much more recovery time and spending way too much time in front of the tv on sundays.

luckily there are only six weeks left in the season so i can soon take my life back and spend some more time outdoors! until then, my best friends from college have six weeks left as my worst enemies!

LOL fellow Lincoln Manorites,
LF

He-Man and She-Ra

It's been awhile since the last post and I have some incriminating evidence to present to you - the Finangers blog reader. This was snapped last Friday night on Halloween for a party at one of Emmy's co-worker's house. I will leave her name anonymous but will divulge that she and her boyfriend ordered Juno and Pauly Bleeker outfits for their costume while Emmy and I spent many a sleepless night slaving away to make our perfect costumes. I'll let you be the judge.....