Uphill and Downhill Running Made Easy from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Forefoot vs Heel Striking and Over-Pronation from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Consecutive Days Run: 24

Runner: Brandon Wood

Shoes: Sir Isaac Guidance Trainers

Location: New York, NY

Type of Run: Hard

Time of Day: 6:17 PM EST

Distance Run: 13.1 miles

Time Run: 01:35:20

Average Pace: 7:13 per mile

Weather Conditions: Cold-ish (37 degrees Fahrenheit), overcast

Disposition: Good

Link to Run Detail: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23138087

About the Run: Today was the New York Road Runners Manhattan Half-Marathon, part of the NYRR Half-Marathon Series presented by Continental Airlines. If you’ve been following my posts, you know that my goal time was 1:35:00. Well, I am happy and proud to say that I ran a PR of 1:35:19! My previous PR was set in the first half of the 2009 Philadelphia Marathon in a time of 1:44:38. That makes toda’s half-marathon a PR for me by OVER NINE (9) MINUTES!!

First and foremost, I must give massive thanks to my support team. My coach, Jeff, who kicked me into gear in relatively little time. And also an enormous thank you to the one and only Laminator who paced me the entire way, keeping me going the entire time.

The race course was roughly two and a half loops of Central Park. For those that have run the full loop of Central Park before, you know that to call it a challenging course is somewhat of an understatement. This particular race began at roughly West 63rd Street on West Drive heading in a counter clockwise direction. This means that the runners got to feel the full fury of Cat Hill as well as Harlem Hill, and ALL the little bastard hills in between.

The goal for the race was to maintain a consistent effort for the entirety of the race. I honestly don’t have too much to say for the first half of the race. Cat and Harlem Hills seemed to cruise by, though the smaller hills just after them definitely reminded me to be humble. Lam maintained such a poised, relaxed posture that it really rubbed off on me, keeping me calm.

Once we got into the second loop, Cat Hill came up fairly quick. The weather held together nicely and was nice and cool, but by the second loop, I was definitely feeling hotter than I would have liked. I opened the zipper of my shirt (Sugoi Mid-Zero Zip) to let some air in and felt a lot better. At about mile seven, I took my Gu Roctane as I had planned. I felt decent through Cat Hill, but definitely felt the effort. The hills following the Cat though, ate their way into me. I noticed my breathing becoming much faster than I would have liked and at the same time, while my technique held together well, my stride turnover slowed considerably, thus making my legs work more than usual.

As we dropped down the hill in the Northeast corner of the park, by Lasker Pool, feelings of trepidation and a small touch of dread came over me know what lay ahead. As we hit Harlem Hill, I did my best to take deep, full breaths to get my heart rate as calm as possible. The first part of the hill was OK, but as we got to the small plateau-ish area before the next rise, I could feel my heart going into my zone 5 rate and my breathing speeding up accordingly.The next rise was pure agony and I have honestly never come so close to vomiting during a race. The next couple of miles, until we got to about mile 12, I honestly don’t remember much, except keeping my eyes on Lam and just moving forward.

Once we hit mile 12, Lam told me to count my strides to 100 to make it go by easier. I tried this, but my brain wasn’t working so well and I kept losing count after about 20 or so. I guess Lam noticed this and he began counting out loud so I could hear him and it really helped. As we entered the last half mile, he was pushing me to really go for it and, to be honest, I just didn’t have anything left. At some point, eve though I refused to look at my watch, I knew I wasn’t going to go sub-1:35:00, but I just kept pushing as much as I could. As we crossed the finish line, I thought I was going to fall over but held on to Lam (Thanks!) and managed to keep myself upright.

I had a great race, and I made (for the most part) my goal time. I truly believe that, had this been a less difficult course, I could have gone much faster and not felt like I was dying late in the race. Lam was an absolutely amazing person to take me to the line and I cannot thank him enough.

Brunch afterward was fantastic, with so many new friends having a great meal together and a great time. Thanks to Michelle for handling the reservations for our get together! So many PR’s were set by so many friends, and all were celebrated, PR or no. What a fantastic race!

Official Results Link

How to Calculate Your 5 Heart Rate Zones from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Training for Relays from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Runners and Triathletes are Special from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

BMI/RMR/Caloric Needs and Balance from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Building pace for marathons and triathlons from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Over-Pronation, Support and Good Form from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Tapering Nutrition from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Some helpful information on Protein from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

A little about heart rate training from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Running with Turnover from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Holiday Greetings from Jeff Kline on Vimeo.

Ironman Florida – November 7th, 2009 Panama City Beach, FL, USA

Race Totals: 9:35:13
Swim: 1:04:05
Bike: 4:45:10 (23.6 mph avg)
Run: 3:33:44 (8:09 per mile avg)
16th M30-34
Complete race results posted here.

Panama City Beach set the stage for what I wanted to be a standout performance.  Everything to have a fun fast race was in place.  A rough ocean swim, mostly flat bike course, followed by a run course that was full of spectators to cheer you on.  My training was a question mark however.  IM Louisville was only 10 weeks previous and the weather had gone downhill in Michigan making it tough to do any 6-7 hour long brick workouts.  Most of my long bike rides were done on a trainer and were shortened so my overall fitness wasn’t as good going into the race as it was in Louisville.  Nevertheless, Ironman is more mental than it is physical so I still felt prepared and confident going into the race.
Pre-Race Breakfast:
My usual pre race nutrition for any race of any distance has always been the same but since becoming a member of Team First Endurance I have changed things up a bit

• 4:00am: 2 Scoops of Prototype First Endurance EFS, 1 Scoop CarboPro, 1/2 Scoop First Endurance Pre Race, 1 EFS Bar.  From that point on I just sipped on water until the swim start

Swim (3.8km / 2.4mi):
The swim at IM Florida is a mass start ocean swim in the Gulf of Mexico.  This is the first time for me doing both a mass start with 2500 athletes and doing an ocean swim.  I had swam the day previous doing a lap of the course and noticed a lot of jelly fish and some quite large swells at the turn buoys.  On race morning the water had actually gotten a bit rougher.  The surf coming in toward shore was larger as the winds had picked up.  When the cannon went off it everyone went crazy.  The water became a total washing machine as everyone raced into the ocean.  Getting out to the first buoy was pretty tough with all the athletes and surf.  There were jellyfish in the water too but they were probably pretty scared with all the swimmers so they stayed pretty deep.  Everything was pretty good till the first turn buoy.  When I made the left the swells seemed much larger and now the sun was in my eyes.  I was trying to ride the swells and do my sighting to the next buoy as I was coming up over the top of swell.  Made the next left and headed back toward shore at the end of my first lap.  Now Florida is a 2 lap course and you get out of the water after the first lap and go out diagonally to the first buoy.  This really slowed everyone down.  Just about everyone’s second lap is 3 minutes slower than their first because of this.  You had to run down this line they had put in the water but it wasn’t deep enough to dolphin unless there was a swell coming and wasn’t shallow enough to run so it was just a pain.  The 2^nd lap had much less congestion than the first and overall I feel I swam it faster although thanks to the way it starts my time doesn’t reflect that.  I did manage to punch a jelly fish on the second lap which felt really strange but luckily I didn’t get bit.

Swim Total: 1:04:05

After the swim they had the strippers there and they had some trouble getting my wetsuit off.  I appreciate the help but I could have done it faster myself.  The transition for this race literally ran through my hotel and into the convention center. I was a little upset that I had to put my helmet and shoes into my T1 bag as I like to leave that stuff at my bike but for this event they didn’t allow shoes clipped into the pedals.  Basically a non event transition, grabbed my 3 flasks of Liquishot and M&M’s container of Suceed Caps and took off.

T1 Time: 5:34

Bike (180km / 112mi):
Onto the bike I started with a bottle of 2 Scoops First Endurance EFS Prototype, ½ Scoop First Endurance Pre Race, 1 Scoop Carbo Pro.  Also I downed half of a EFS Liquishot flask immediately following the beginning of the bike.  For the remainder of the bike my nutrition plan was to drink half a flask of Liquishot every hour and drink Gatorade and water as needed.  I really didn’t keep count of the bottles I drank but probably around 3 Gatorade and 2 water.

The first 10 miles of the bike were very windy but the wind was coming from the south so I just leaned into and put the hammer down on the flat course.  I was averaging about 25-26 mph till I came to the first and only hill on the course which is a freeway over pass.  Continued on course averaging around 25-26 mph.  I was through the first 40k in about 57 minutes.  After the first 40k I looked back and could see the draft pack coming.  I thought that I could hold them off but the course became windy and my speed slowed to about 22 mph.  They got closer and there wasn’t much that I could do.  Eventually I was caught and was forced with the decision to either ride with them or slow down to 15 mph.  I decided the best for me and my Kona chances were to ride with them and keep it as legal as possible which was tough to do with 40-50 riders in a group and nowhere to go.  Every time a draft marshal would show up, everyone would hit the brakes.  I tried about 5 or 6 times to make a breakaway off the front but then the draft marshal would leave and the pack would speed up and catch me again.  I didn’t want to blow up knowing I still had a marathon to run after this ride so I just did my best to stay legal and safe throughout the remainder of the ride.  It was a very dangerous ride as well with 3 major injury crashes during the course of the ride all happening right in front of me and I was pretty upset with the fact that my safety was in jeopardy due to these idiots around me.  I almost had to run someone’s bike over during one of the crashes.  I could go on about the stupid things in the pack but I won’t.

At one point the pack slowed as I was drinking Liquishot and head referee Jimmy R snuck up behind me on a motor bike.  I guess I was drinking for more than 20 seconds because I got pinged for drafting and had to serve a 4 minute penalty.  I tried to explain everything to him but he was so upset by the drafting he wasn’t interested in talking to me.  In total  there were 200 drafting penalties given that day and 21 DQ’s for people not showing up to serve them.

At about mile 90 I went to reach for my Suceed Caps and didn’t realize the container was opened.  I ended up spilling every single capsule I had on to the course and I did it right in front of a marshal.  I was cussing like a sailor and the marshal must have seen my frustration because they didn’t give me a littering penalty.

Eventually we came up to the freeway bridge about 12 miles from the finish.  With receiving the penalty and losing my caps I was so upset I decided I was done with pack and figured I could drop everyone on the climb and that’s what I did.  Everyone slowed going up the hill and the pack broke.  I stood up, downshifted and redlined myself off the front, down the hill, and continued to hammer to keep my distance into the finish.  I had to serve my 4 minute penalty before I could go into transition.

Bike Nutrition:

• 24oz of 2 scoops First Endurance EFS, ½ scoop Pre Race, and 1 scoop CarboPro
• 3 bottles of on course Gatorade Endurance
• 2 bottles of water (I don’t know the oz in them)
• 3 flasks of EFS Liquishot
• 2 Suceed Capsules

Bike Total: 4:45:10 (23.6 mph)

T2: 6:40

Run (42.2km / 26.2mi):
Going into the run I felt quite confident about my speed.  The few long runs I had done were done a pretty good pace and I thought I was capable of a sub 3:20 split.  My only question mark was my overall fitness but I thought I could mentally push myself through that.  Obviously still quite upset from the bike ride I went out in rage.  I don’t feel I went too hard but I was upset and ready to push.  Within the first few miles I began cramping.  Usually at this point I would take in salt capsules but I didn’t have any since I dropped them on the bike.  Next time they will be in T2 bag as well.  Also by the nature of the bike split I had, there weren’t too many other people on the course to ask if they had any salt and 1 ounce of Gatorade at an aid station isn’t even close to one salt pill.  I had a small Fuel Belt bottle of concentrated EFS in one hand and a flask of Liquishot in the other.  I was hoping between that my special needs of the same thing I would have enough salt.  During the run I had to walk quite a few times and even had to use the bathroom once.  I also had to stop completely for a couple of minutes to stretch out a cramping left quad.  I was pretty frustrated because my fitness actually seemed to be ok and when I was running I was doing a high 6 to low 7 minute pace but with the cramping I was having I wasn’t able to even run 3 miles without stopping.  I continued to eat Liquishot and drink Cola, Gatorade, and stretch out the EFS I had in the run bottles.  Coming around to the finish I wanted to start celebrating but my calf muscles had other plans.  I almost locked up just before the finish chute, which would have been terrible.  I made it across the line with a 4 minute run PR so I was still pretty happy but things could have been really good if I would have had the salt pills.
Run Nutrition (very rough estimate):

• 2 8 oz Run bottles of First Endurance EFS Prototype
• 2 Flasks EFS Liquishot
• Various amounts of Water, Gatorade, and Cola

Run Time: 3:33:44 (8:09 per mile)
Finish Time: 9:35:13 – 16th Male 30-34

Overall I am very pleased with my performance at Ironman Florida.  Sure there’s a lot of shoulda coulda woulda’s but this Ironman so you have to deal with what you got and I am happy with how I dealt with everything on the day.

A huge thank you to my wife for supporting me at another one of these endeavors, your support means the world to me.  Also thank you to Jeff Kline for the training assistance you have provided me for the last couple months.  It really helped out getting me through post IM Louisville and rebuilding for Florida, Brian at PBN for all the nutritional product guidance and, First Endurance for the support of the best nutritional products on the market.

Sure I didn’t get the Kona slot but there is always another race, in this case IMLP 2010!!!