Nick Brown

I just wrote a kick ass blog, it took me about 2.5 hours.  It included a course overview, and my plan for race execution.  Then my fat fingers deleted it.   A common theme for me with the digital age.  So instead, I will just assure everyone that all is well, I’m prepared and confident in my fitness.

The goal today was a two hour run.  90 minutes steady and smooth, 30 minutes at tempo.  I don’t know the area well enough by foot to know any good routes, so I just went exploring.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11328323

It made for some inconsistent pacing, as I was stopping at lights, turning around, getting lost, etc.  But I am more familiar with the assortment of parks within running distance of my place and more familiar with OSU’s campus.  I’ll call that a success.

The tempo part was harder then I had hoped.  Yesterday, I was running 6:55 off of the bike like it was nothing.  Today, 6:30s seemed awfully difficult after 90 minutes on my feet.  I was attacked by a bush 18 minutes into the effort and I took that as an omen to call it quits.

Ok so maybe “attacked by a bush” is really “ran into the bush because I wasn’t paying attention”.  Regardless, I have to get use to plant life with teeth again.  Not to mention the poisonous varieties that I noticed while taking a piss at the side of the road yesterday.

Yesterday I mentioned that I might be capable of running the marathon at 7:10 pace at IM Louisville.  Today I’m thinking 7:30 is more realistic.  It doesn’t really matter.  I probably won’t make up my mind until I’m running out of T2 on the 30th.

Yesterday I found a tri/bike shop in Corvallis.  “Northwest Multisport” had a surprisingly nice setup and a good selection of bikes and gear for this sleepy town.  I met the owner, Gordo, and he set me up with directions for a 2.5 hour trip.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11213426

I loved the ride.  Rolling hills and then a flat section through Willimate Valley farmlands.  That’s right.  I live at the end of the Oregon Trail.  You are hard pressed to find light controlled intersections around here, and if it weren’t for the logging trucks, traffic would be non-existent.

Today, my Garmin 705 and www.mapmyride.com was a lifesaver.  I found a bunch of rides starting from Corvallis which random people have stored on line.  I figured out how to download the rides to the Garmin so that I had turn-by-turn directions., making it hard for direction challenged folks like me to get lost.  Score.

I picked the “80 mile” ride that somebody had called “weekend ride”, assuming that only a local staple of a route would deserve that name.  It started on the flat valley floor but started to roll through the first 20 miles.  At mile 22 I entered pine and moss forest and the first of two significant climbs.  2 miles of a 7 to 8 percent grade climbing about 900 feet.  I felt great, was digging the view, forest and switchbacks.  An organized ride was trickling past in the other direction and I had plenty of cyclists to wave and smile at.  Riders seem eager to greet and wave up here.

It took 15 miles to make the descent!  Sweetness!  The road narrowed and turned to one lane, but the pavement was great.  Forest canopy covered over head.  I snapped this pic on a “flatter” portion.

Yea, I’m diggin’ the trees. Corvallis smells like pinesol.

Two hours passed and I ended up in the town of Alsea.  Really its just an intersection and a “merchantile” store.  My bottles were empty so I stopped to buy some Gatorade and water.

I passed on the gizzards.

Any store with a picture of “The Duke” on the wall is alright in my book.

A big cat was guarding the beer.  I don’t need to run into one of these guys on my trail runs.

I left the store and continued on the valley floor.  After a couple miles this ominous view appeared:

It was alright though, I didn’t climb the big hill in the picture.  The road turned left and I got to crawl up a bigger one.  Over six miles I climbed about 1000 feet.  The road was straight and the grade pretty constant and not really very severe.  I could see the peak from a good distance away and I paced my effort up the hill accordingly.  I got the top and started to relax and descend when I noticed my Garmin squaking at me to turn left.  What left?

I doubled back, found the road, and was introduced to Mary’s peak.  This is where the climb really started.  I began the day looking for a steady ride over some moderate rollers, but the Garmin had laid out the challenge and I wasn’t going to back down.  IM or no IM.  The entire climb ended up being 8.6 miles and 1500 feet and included five miles at a 7% grade.  I turned around when the course I had downloaded doubled back on itself but get this….I wasn’t anywhere near the top.  I have found the Corvallis version of Palomar. Mary and I have some business to take care of after Louisville.

The decent?  Wow.  My knuckles haven’t been that white in a while.  Once I was back on the valley floor I kept it steady (I was pretty torched) until I arrived back at my place.  Sweet ride.  I was feeling pretty good about my 70 miles and 5K feet until I got home and saw a tweet from James Walsh claiming 96 miles and 8K+.  Somebody always has to bring it a step further.

Here is the whole ride:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11270057

Quick run after the ride.  A bit hot for IM pace, but maybe I can hold 7’s or 7:10’s?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11273822

I get more and more excited about training out here every day.  If anybody down in San Diego wants to make a 1K mile trip to get some training in a different climate, let me know.  Just try to avoid dysentery on the way up, and don’t let anybody steal your oxen.

Just before memorial day this year I got notice that I would be taking a two week trip through Iraq, departing a mere ten days after I was notified.  The pictures in the blog entry below of my memorial day run through a Pennsylvania forest are from just before I left.

The two week trip in Iraq ended up lasting five.  Of course I was unable to ride and swim in Iraq, so I ran at every opportunity, trying to salvage all of the training I had done this winter and spring for Ironman Louisville on August 30th.  “Every opportunity” was at about 10 PM every night when the temperature cooled to around 100 and again at 0500 in the morning, when the sun was up but the temperatures hovering in the 90s.

Running in Iraq was even harder then I had imagined.  I don’t know if I should attribute it to the awkward training hours, the dry heat, the hassles of life in a “contingency area” (Iraq is no longer a “war zone”), but my perceived effort of the slowest and easiest runs was always way to intense. My efforts to get a decent amount of training “hours” solely by running was probably to much to soon.  What felt like tendinitis in my left Achilles developed and I abandoned running about halfway through my trip. (In hindsight, I probably could have ran through what was more of an irritation then injury, but I was afraid, tired and overworked.  Taking a break just seemed like the right thing to do.)

I returned after two and a half weeks of training goose eggs and five weeks of no cycling or swimming with  eight weeks to prepare for Louisville.  I was busy at work, turning my job over with my relief and preparing for my departure from San Diego to Corvallis Oregon.  Regardless, I put my head down and worked through the initial frustration that came from the illusion of “lost fitness” that came with my first weeks of resumed training.

My last week in San Diego (last week) was one of the biggest training weeks I have ever attempted.  It contained two century rides and a 22 mile run.  I was gambling, overreaching to try to make the best of my limited window to prepare.  The gamble paid off because I felt great all week.  For the first time ever, I successfully hung on to the famous “Swami’s” ride all the way to the church and then continued on to complete a 108 mile ride. On Sunday I had an epic run AROUND Mission Bay and La Jolla.  I stopped four miles away from completing a full marathon and was on pace to run sub 3:25!  The numbers posted and feats accomplished have raised my self confidence to an all time high.

By the time I was leaving San Diego on Tuesday I was ready for a few well deserved easy days of driving.

Which brings me to the present.  The Navy has sent me from San Diego to Oregon State University to pursue a graduate degree in Ocean Engineering.  School starts on the 28th of September and I’ll be here for 18 months.  Until classes start, I’ll be settling in, getting used to the area and continuing to prep for Louisville.  I’m looking forward to racing (its been awhile).  I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t vying for a Kona slot, but I really just want to see that my fitness has increased since my Ironman Debut in AZ last November.

You can probably expect more blog posts over the next few weeks.  This town is just like my old home town, dead quiet until students return in the fall.  What a great opportunity to focus.