James Gilliard – Page 10 – No Crappy Excuses

Naperville Sprint – 8/7/16

(Photo courtesy of Diane Gilliard)

This is truly one of my favorite races Not just because it’s put on by an amazing Race Organizer (RO) and Race Director (RD), but also because it gives me an opportunity to thank those who have and continue to support me. Between the Tri kit, hat, body marking and race belt, all of them got a shout out.

As with last year, I suspected that I would be the only ParatTriathlete (PT). I was surprised to see two of my Dare2Tri teammates that are headed to Rio soon and the Executive Director of Dare2Tri show up! Very nice surprise, and I found out that they all did it last minute.

The swim played out pretty much like last year. We entered the water right after the Elite athletes, had assholes trying to swim over us and through the tether, and having to fight said assholes off. I understand competitive drive, and it’s a race. But FCTFOL, you have decent vision; USE IT and observe the fact that we’re tethered.Even with getting tied up twice in the water because of these ‘lovely’ people, we still made it out in about 12 minutes (4:15 decrease from 2015).

T1 and the bike mount went well, and we were off for 12 miles. While I still don’t have clips, I was trying to consciously pedal the way I would if I was clipped in. It seemed to work a bit better than bike has in the past. While everything went well for us, we did see someone completely total out on the course.

Back to transition and then out on the run. We walked for about 3-4 minutes before starting to run so I could get the legs stretched out. And when we started to run, instead of doing the 5/1 interval, Terri did it with a distance interval. The run still wasn’t perfect, but it seemed to go a lot better. During it, I had a lot of people encouraging me on, and even had a few people recognize me from last year. One of them commented that I was looking better than last year.

We finished about 20 minutes faster than 2015, including a sprint of the last 100 yards. Great to see this improvement, but still much more to do. I would like to shave a few more minutes off of that before Chicago at the end of August.

This was an amazing day and only possible because of the help and support of so many. Thanks to those who came out to cheer us on, and expecially to Terri Hayes of Artistic Creations Salon for guiding me along with everything else she does, and Art Black of Oswego Cyclery for letting us use his tandem.

And while my focus is on Chicago Tri for now, I will also be stalking 2017 Naperville Tri registration. Yeah, it’s that damn good of an event…

Failed Brick – 8/3/16

Knowing the schedule for the rest of the week, this was our final work out together before the race. For it, we had a swim/run brick planned out. The swim went well, with us getting about 800m in. However, the run did not. About 1/2 way though, my ankles started to hurt. We made it back without any real incident; just not the brick that was planned.

I will be taking it easy (RICE) between now and the race on Sunday. I am confident that things will go well on Sunday!

One and Done – 8/1/16

Last summer, Terri and I made it out to Oswego many times to practice on the tandem which Art Black of Oswego Cyclery has generously let us use. This summer, the timing just hasn’t worked. We were supposed to get in at least two sessions, but Mother Nature had other plans about that…

So yesterday was our one and only practice session on the bike before the Naperville Sprint Tri. While we were waiting for the previous pair to return the tandem to the bike shop, we went for a walk along the path. During this time, we experienced this very odd situation. We were walking against traffic and a bicyclist was going with traffic (both as we should have been). But instead of doing the normal thing and going around us, the bicyclist kept heading towards us. Terri saw her and had to put her hand out to physically stop the bicyclist. We saw that same bicyclist on the way back, and she apologized for being an ass. 🙂

When we actually made it out on the bike, things went very well. While the Fox Valley path still needs a lot of work, it was nice to see they had patched a few places. We did have a couple of issues with the 2nd restart (having to dismount/remount after crossing at light). But for not having ridden together since last August, it went very well.

While we didn’t get much bike practice in this summer, I know we will starting next spring. I am extremely grateful to Art for letting us borrow his tandem for the last two years. I will hopefully have my own tandem before year’s end (still working with Comotion).

Pushing Forward – 7/31/16

As bad weather had scrapped a couple of workouts, a bike/run brick became just a run on Sunday with Terri. This time, I remembered to do the pre-run warmup that I should be. And while it adds more time out there, it seems to be helping. I’m still failing on the intervals before we get through the entire workout. But it does seem to be getting easier in the later parts.

I know it will all come together in the near future. In the meantime, all I can do is just keep pushing forward…

Amazing, Simply Amazing – 7/26 – 7/27/16

Having seen and met a few of the younger Dare2Tri athletes at the May/June PT camps, I had some idea of what I was in for at the Kids PT Camp. But what I saw and experienced while volunteering was even more amazing.

At the beginning of camp, several of the attendees were nervous — whether from being in an unfamiliar environment, from not knowing how to do one of the disciplines, from being uncertain of the adaptive equipment, or something else. But before long, that nervousness seemed to disappear and they got into it. We had several that had never swam before out in Lake Michigan as part of our first group, and they seemed to be doing well with it. And after lunch, they seemed to be getting into the run/push and bike with adaptive equipment.

During the 2nd day, the kids had a chance to demo the course in the AM before racing it in the afternoon. As a ‘human cone’ on the run/push course, I got to see and encourage on many of them. And during the race, I could tell that a few first timers were really pushing themselves. All of the photos from camp are available here.

Truly an amazing couple of days, and an event I plan to volunteer at in 2017! For more information on Dare2Tri and to see how you can help, visit their web site.

Lake Michigan Brick – 7/26/16

After Day 1 of the Kids PT Camp (more on that later), a group of us gathered at Ohio Street Beach for the weekly Open Water Swim (OWS). As with the last OWS I made it for, we had the Life Time Fitness training groups (about 500 people) with us as well.

Two weeks ago, we had more time for swimming, and we were out in the water for about 45 minutes. But since it seemed a storm was close, we only had time to do a 1/2 mile. Once we got out of the water, I thought my evening workout was done. However, I was told by my Coach that it was time to go for a run.

So an Achilles runner and I set off down the beach path for a run. I almost forgot to do the new routine that my Coach had asked me to do, which helps with endurance. But I remembered before we had gone too far, and it really helped. We got in 1.5mi after a 1/2 mile swim and then headed home.

Dr. Seuss Meets Triathlon – 7.24.16

Growing up, one of the things I heard a lot of was Dr. Seuss books. I specifically remember The Sneeches, The Sleep Book and Horton Hatches the Egg. As a nod to the last, I think the following pretty much sums up my Wauconda experience. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.”

For those of you who haven’t been reading my blog in the past, what that refers to is no DNFs. I’ve said it, and I meant it. And unless I’m physically injured, I’ll stil finish even if means walking the bike back (see Pleant Prairie blog).

Peter and his wife Carol were very kind to let me stay at their house so I didn’t have to mess with Chicago transportation fun. So I was thinking Wauconda would be a great race for me, especially since I’d have a full night’s rest going into it. However, at about midnight, I woke up sick. What immediately went through my head was ‘how do I get back to passable so I can race?’ 3 hours of ‘fun’ in the bathroom later, I was feeling better. We headed off to the race, and Todd and I set up transition. This included adding a flat kit to the bike after Pleasant Prairie.

While the walk over loose gravel in bare feet wasn’t fun, I thought we were all set for a great race once we got to the start area. And the swim went really well – out in about 20 min range. We moved to T1, then the bike without issue. That is until we were about a mile out. At that point, the rear tire went flat. As we had a flat kit, I thought we’d only lose a couple of minutes. But when Todd looked in the saddlebag, the tool that the CO2 cartridge goes into wasn’t there. So we lost at least 15 minutes waiting for the support vehicle to come along with a bike pump.

We got back on the bike course to finish the last 13+ miles, and I know I pushed it too hard. We had lost a good deal of time from the flat, and I wanted to try and make it up. But by doing so, I overstretched/pulled something in my lower back. This made it hard to run throughout the run portion overall, and near impossible at times.

We did finish, and while I don’t see official results yet, there was still improvement from Leon’s (subtracting out the flat time). And as frustrating as yesterday was (especially to have flats 2 races in a row), there were still several learning points.

1) Always check and triple check everything in your gear. And once you’ve done that, check it again.

2) While you may gain a little back by overexerting yourself, you’re going to lose 2-3 times as much in a later discipline. Nothing wrong with pushing it, but if you go too far, you can ruin a day.

3) That there are always going to be some challenge during a race. Whether it’s wather, a course change or something else. Deal with it, find a way to move forward and keep racing.

And while it’s frustrating to have a flat issue two races in a row, it’s just that. I’m not upset or disappointed. I am grateful that I’ve had great guides to help get things back on track and support me. The support of my teammates also helps greatly when these things happen. And yes, I would have walked the bike another 13 miles to finish if the support vehicle hadn’t had a pump.

Even though things didn’t go as planned, I am grateful to everyone who helped to make this race possible. Especially the person who provided the sponsorship so I could race.

Back to training and back to focusing on the next race. Naperville on 8/7 is the next Tri on my schedule.

More Media Coverage – 7.15.16

Last week, I was asked to do an interview as part of the Chicago Triathlon race. As one of my goals is to get more AWD/PT competitors out to races, I immediately agreed. The article by Bill Bird of the Naperville Sun is below.

Naperville Sun – 7.15.16 (Bill Bird)

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Back in the Lake – 7.12.16

It’s been about 9 months since I’ve been in Lake Michigan. And with the Chicago Triathlon in less than 2 months, it was time to get back in it. Dare2Tri hold Open Water Swim (OWS) sessions in it, so I went downtown to take part Tuesday night. What I didn’t know was that Life Time was also doing one of their five training sessions at the same time.

So instead of it being the handful of us in the lake, we had several hundred people along with us. Even with those crowds of people, the swim still went well. With Eric Robb guiding me, we made it through a 1/2 mile swim. The time was about 2 minutes faster than my ITU time, so something to build on / from.

I’ll have a couple more chances for OWS practices before the Triathlon.

Dare2Tri Elite Camp – 2.19-2.21.16

At this time last year, I knew nothing about Dare2Tri – or even that it existed. And it had been at least 15-20 years since I had done any serious swimming. But the dominoes fell, starting with me deciding to do a local Triathlon because the TV coverage made it look fun, to Keri being the Shamrock Shuffle AWD coordinator. Once Keri shared Dare2Tri with me, I was hooked. Because of my coaches continually pushing me, I was given the opportunity to apply for, and was selected to the 2016 Dare2Tri Development team.

This weekend in Chicago was an opportunity for the team to meet, get baselines and training in, and take care of all the other necessities. Because sessions started early Saturday, me and several others were in the city Friday night. It was great to have an opportunity to meet several of the team in a relaxed atmosphere, and we had a good time.

While Friday night was fun, things got serious Saturday morning. After warm ups, our group (ambulatory) started on the run testing while the other (wheelies) started on the bike testing. After a 10 minute warm up, they would then start pushing you further and further until you hit your limit. During the training Terri and I have been doing, the pace had been somewhere between 12:45 and 13:00. During the testing, I had to tap out at 5.3, which is about 11:35 pace. Once done, I went and walked around the track and it took about 4 laps before I was ready to go again. I jogged laps with a guide while the rest of the group did their testing.

Once everyone in our group was done testing, we headed to the bike testing. I have never done a CompuTrainer ride before, so this was an entirely new process for me. For those of you who’ve never done it, the process is that your bike is put onto risers (one of which is connected to the computer) and the computer fluctuates th tension. About 3/4s of the way through the testing, my right calf started hurt enough that it was hard to ride. I think that the bike I was borrowing was too tall. Ice, Gatorade and stretching helped to make it feel better by lunch.

During lunch, I got to learn a lot of what’s expected and received my first piece of team gear. I also learned the lesson that I need to go up a size in all of my Tri gear, even when other clothing of the same type fits right. I’m glad I learned that at the start instead of finding it out after everything had been ordered. Dare2Tri has and will be putting a lot behind me, so all of the gear needs to fit right and well.

The afternoon started with our turn in the pool, during which Coach Stacee brought out a new pool toy for me to try. It’s a figure 8 folcrum, and the purpose behind it is to force your fingertips into the water first like they should. I think it helped, and will continue to work with it.

After finishing in the pool, it was back to the bikes for another CompuTrainer session. In the morning, the issue had been the bike seemed too tall; in the afternoon, the issue seemed to be with the seat. After about 15-20 minutes, my ass hurt so much that I could only do a minute or two before having to stop, stand up and then start again. While it was painful, I struggled through it until we went to Yoga.

The day wore me out so much that after dinner (with us next to the noisiest group of teenagers ever), I collapsed. I knew that Sunday would be more of the same, and needed the rest.

For us, Sunday started off with a pyramid run (2/4/8/4/2 200s). The 2/4/8 piece wore me out (although I was able to finish the mile in 11:46), and I had to walk a good chunk of the 4. We then headed to the pool for another swim workout.

After doing several sets of warm ups, Coach Stacee took us through ‘the gauntlet’. That consisted of up/down each lane, then into open water, around a human buoy, through the whirlpool and then backwards up the lazy river. Being in lane lines wasn’t bad, since I could see the bottom of the pool. But the other pieces were a challenge since I wasn’t tethered (shared guide). But I made it work, and that was a fun experience. Once changed, we headed to functional strength, which was the last workout of the camp.

While it was an exhausting weekend, I learned a lot, had an opportunity to meet a lot of my teammates, and had a good time. And while there were frustrations during it, I now have a baseline and an idea of where to be pushing towards. I know that it will all come together, as I’ve got a strong group of coaches to help me, and a strong group of teammates to push, support and help me.

A huge THANK YOU to the entire Dare2Tri staff/Coaches and volunteers who helped to make this weekend possible! And another huge THANK YOU to Dare2Tri for this amazing opportunity! I am excited for the 2016 season and everything to come for all of us!