Weekly Mailbag–July 31st, 2010

Here’s this week’s edition of the weekly mailbag.  This is a weekly series where I feature a handful of the e-mailed questions I received from the previous week or so.  I try and pick a wide variety of questions. Some are technical in nature, some sport related, and sometimes all sorts of other randomness – as you’ll see below.

Ok…this week is a full one…lots of stuff going on that I figured would be best to include in the mailbag.  Here’s the deal-e-o:

1) DCRainmaker.com featured on IMTalk
2) Strands iPhone and Android App
3) Draft Legal Age Group Racing
4) Me in a Fox News TV clip for the NYC Triathlon
5) More discussion on drafting penalties
6) Reminder: Garmin 310XT Rebate Program Ends Today!

Mail #1: DCRainmaker.com featured on IMTalk
From Jason-

Just wanted to drop a note because I was not sure if you were aware but your blog won website of the week on a very popular podcast called IM Talk (a weekly podcast dedicated to ironman discussions)....  I can give you the exact episode if you need as well but congrats!!!!! Thanks for all the useful info you have put and continue to put on your blog.

Hey Jason!  Holy cow, I wasn’t aware.  I’ve been so busy the last three weeks with travelling I just didn’t catch it.

For those of you not aware, IMTalk is a popular hour long podcast that focuses on all things triathlon.  Two Kiwi’s put it together (the country, not the fruit) and it’s a fairly lively show with a both a ton of good information and a lot of energy.  I was featured in Episode 218, right around the 55:30 marker into the show.  Pretty cool!

You can grab the free podcast here, or check out their site – lots of good stuff.  Thanks Jason for the heads up, and thanks IMTalk for featuring me!

Mail #2: Strands iPhone & Android App

A while back I mentioned Strands in one of my weekly mailbags.  They are one of a growing number of iPhone & Android apps that allow folks to track their outdoor activities and share them with friends.  While I still have on the bucket list a iPhone Running/Training App shootout post, in the meantime, the Strands folks are giving away some nice t-shirts for anyone willing to try it out (free of course) and give them feedback on how to improve it.  And let’s me honest – it’s purely due to free clothing for anyone that I’m passing it on.  It’s super-simple:

1) Download the app
2) Test it out
3) Click the Rate button on the navigation page of the app
4) Send an email to iphone@strands.com with t-shirt size and mailing address

Of course, because all ya Android folks are feeling left out – I poked back and was hooked up with the lead Android developer for Strands, and he would love folks to test it out as well, so those folks with the little robot can do so here.

Mail #3: Draft legal age group racing
From Dan-

Dan sent in a short e-mailing letting me know that there’s a draft-legal sprint race here in the DC area in a few weeks.  I figured this might be of interest to a few others as well.  It’s called the Manassas Super Sprints, and they have a a draft-legal format for AG elites.

Regrettably, I’ll be out that weekend racing in Canada – or I sure as heck would have done it.

Now – I realize this might not apply to everyone, but the real point in mentioning this is that I’m hoping that either A) They’ll do it more often (or more of them, like some other monthly races done around the country during the warmer seasons) B) That someone else will start more draft-legal ITU-style racing.  Not familiar with draft-legal racing?  Well, it’s what non-Iron distance pro’s race, the same as the Olympics.  Here’s a big post I wrote up on it back last summer when they visited DC.

Personally, I would love to see this area of the sport expand.  I think it adds a whole new dimension to the sport, and really changes the dynamic of it.  I think it would also introduce more new folks to the sport (namely, cyclists).  Plus, long term it would actually increase the level of our pro triathletes, as athletes would ‘grow-up’ racing that format, and thus be more competitive in that format (which is where the money and recognition is).  Finally, I love that actually increases camaraderie amongst athletes – for example, working together to try and get back into the race (in a legal fashion). Anyway…enjoy!

Random Note #1: I’m in this Fox News NYC Triathlon news clip/story:
Thanks to Steven for sending me the link that includes a short video of me heading to the Elite AG wave at the NYC tri two weeks ago.  You can check it out on Fox News here.  I’m at 2:35, and Steven also points out (correctly) that watching Matt Reid run into a pole/ramp during T1 at around the 8:00 marker (just after the commercial section ending the first chunk) is well worth the time (in a Nascar crashing kinda way).

Random Note #2: Great lively discussion on draft penalties post:
If you’re typically a lurker via RSS type of person, you may not read many of the comments.  Well, my penalty post stirred up all sorts of good comments and discussion – so feel free to either lurk that page, or jump into the fray, you don’t need anything more than a keyboard to comment – no account required!

Random Note #3: Garmin 310XT Rebate Program Ends tomorrow (Aug 1st)!
Just a quick reminder, if you plan to purchase a Forerunner 310XT anytime soon, then today be the day to do it!  The $50 rebate program ends August 1st.  Note however that it’s unfortunately NOT applicable to any orders via Amazon.com.  But works basically everywhere else.  You have until the end of August to actually send the rebate form in.  Form’s here.

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Recent Mailbags:

Weekly Mailbag – July 24th 2010
- What I eat prior to a weekend of workouts 
- Compatibility of Nike+ and Garmin ANT+ 
- What to do with fading Garmin Forerunner 305 battery

Weekly Mailbag – July 17th, 2010
- Wheels and training/racing
- How to use Google Bike Routes to create Garmin Course Maps
- Whether to buy a bike trainer or Garmin Forerunner 305

You can find all past mailbags here.

Swimming into a policed compound…in a foreign country

I arrived under cover of darkness into Santo Domingo on Tuesday night, after my 48 hours in Guatemala City.  When I left nearly two weeks ago, the Dominican Republic wasn’t actually on my travel itinerary, but a last minute change occurred and it made sense to take care of things there now, as opposed scheduling a separate trip later for it.  After all, it is sorta on the way from Guatemala City to Washington DC…well…ignoring the fact that I first swung through Costa Rica.  But those are just details…

When I got up early on Wednesday, I found that my hotel was actually just across the street from the ocean.  At that time of the morning, the water looked pretty inviting.  But, I was in a hurry to get into the office and didn’t get a chance to really check it all out.  Nonetheless, I sent a ‘Yup, there’s swimmable water’ message to Coach and went about my day.

Later on that day I’d get my swim workout as well as a chance to go check it out. 

Upon crossing the street, I found one little challenge: No beach.  Just a short drop down lava rocks into the water.

This didn’t deter me too much, as I’ve been to countless places with similar beachfront geography around the world, Palau being one of the more recent ones.  Generally speaking, if you poke around enough you’ll find little sandy passages into the ocean – and this was no different.  A short walk later I found my little beach.

After watching some random bottles float by to get a rough idea of the current (downbeach) I stashed my t-shirt and sandals under some lava rock formations and set out.  There were scattered little fishing boats out and about as well a bit further off shore, so I stayed relatively close to shore.

My swim was a 10 minute warm-up, and then building for 5 more minutes.  After that, I’d do 3 x 10 minutes hard.  I figured I’d go down-beach about 20-25 minutes, and then do the same coming back up.  I knew there was a slight current down-beach, so I assumed at worse I’d end up swimming a touch long.  I stashed the Timex Global Trainer in my swim cap, and got busy swimming.

(Oh, I use the Optio W60 for all my swim-related photos, as it’s fully waterproofed, details here)

Every once in a while I’d stumble through some light floating debris, such as plastic bags, a bottle, or kelp-stuff.  No matter how many times I did it, kicking a filled floating plastic bag scares the crap out of you.  It inflates like an airbag, and thus feels like you’re kicking a huge fish.  But aside from that, I just watched as the beach world wandered on by with each stroke.

At my turnaround point, I started heading back up-beach.  I was roughly equal to the Hilton hotel at that point, which like most beach front stretches, made it easy to not only sight – but also pace.  However, in this case, after a few minutes I noticed that I wasn’t really making any up-beach progress.  Sure, I could easily swim closer to shore, but as far as swimming back to my sandals…not so much.

Suffice to say, after 20 minutes of hard swimming, I ended up a bit short:

No worries though, I’d just walk the street.  Oh…crap…that’s right…no sandals.  Or really anything other than a swimsuit.

But now is when you must apply the ‘no money to cleanup beach’ clause, which dictates that anything that floats, will end up on the beach…until the next big storm.

And in this case, that means three things were present: Plastic bottles, foam, and sandals/shoes.  Interestingly, glass was no present, as it sinks. Note, you can click on any of these pics to expand to larger ones.

I had my choice of hundreds, if not thousands of wayward sandals.  So I rounded up a few and made my selection.

They roughly matched.

So I finished up and took a few beauty-pics for the Timex Global Trainer review, and then made my way towards the street, which was just beyond a small sliver of trees.

Well, what I thought was a small sliver of trees anyway.  And technically I was right.

Except, for this short little stretch of a hundred yards where I decided to ‘land’, it wasn’t the road.  Unlike the other like 90 miles of beachfront roadway, this was apparently not only privately owned, but also guarded by the local police.

(I was on the other side of this little wall)

Which…resulted in me now being effectively locked into the property…in a Speedo…with mismatched sandals…standing in front of two non-English speaking armed guards.

…who were laughing.

At me.

I attempted to communicate my desire to go through the half-locked gate that I was standing in front of, and they clearly understood that.  But, what was less clear was what they were asking me to do.  I pointed at the sea and made a motion of swimming, yet he responded back with doing a little disco move shaking his hips and swinging his arms.  Like dancing.

The Girl will tell you I can’t (nor do) dance.

I swim-motioned again.  He dance-motioned again.

I gave confusion.

He gave dance.

I’m still standing in just a Speedo.

He eventually looks at me inquisitively and starts laughing again: “Americano!?!”

I ponder for a second…and then respond back…”Nope, Canadian”.

(Ok, not really, I sheepishly shrugged and laughed…yes…Americano)

To which he gave me the laughing look of ‘figures’…and finished letting me out of the gate…and onto the road, where I walked all the way back in my mis-matched sandals and Speedo, and nothing else.  Much to the amusement of virtually every person, vehicle and dog that passed by me…at rush hour.

And thus…my trip to Santo Domingo.

I pretty much saw nothing else besides the hotel, that little stretch of beach, the office, and the airport.  Less than 36 hours after arriving, I boarded a jet plane bound for home, The Girl and my awaiting birthday cake. :)

Have a good weekend all!

Thoughts on triathlon bike penalties (USAT & WTC)

I’ve always thought the USAT and WTC penalty system does little to deter racers from committing penalties, in particular – – on the bike.

And just to be clear why I care primarily about the bike - the penalties on the swim and run pretty much fall into the ‘stupid mistake’ category of either disposing of litter, wearing a music/headphone device, or having someone pace you on the run.  And penalties being given for most of these in my opinion these are extremely rare  (though having an outside pacer would can a significant advantage, but it’s still a rare penalty).

But the bike, the bike is full of places for people to cheat (yes, I said it – cheat) and gain an advantage – with the most common being the drafting penalty.  The other common penalties on the bike (all relating to position) while annoying, don’t typically give the rider committing them a significant advantage.  Sure, a blocking penalty could and on occasion does offer an advantage to the rider – but nowhere near the same ballpark as a drafting penalty.  Btw, if you aren’t fully familiar with the different penalties, see my earlier post on them.

The problem with today’s penalties is that they don’t do much to adversely/negatively impact the athlete committing them.  Instead, they simply apply a time (2:00 for standard USAT rules) penalty.  But a time penalty doesn’t take away the fact that the drafter is working less than everyone else.  Typically drafting will save you 20-30% effort on the bike.  Imagine cutting your heart rate or expended effort down by 20-30%.  That’s huge.

Further, look at WTC races.  In an Ironman, a drafting penalty will only cost you 6:00 minutes.  That’s nothing over the course of a 5 hour Ironman bike leg.  Especially on courses like Florida.  In the case of Florida, folks will (and do) draft for hours on end.  That effectively makes the 112 bike leg more like a 70-80 mile bike leg.  Wouldn’t you like to do an Ironman and only have ride 75 miles?  Oh – and the kicker is, that four minutes they get to spend relaxing, as WTC rules dictate the penalty is served in a roadside tent just hanging out.

Now, before I get into my proposal, note that licensed Pro’s in a non-drafting event (such as those that might compete at the NYC Triathlon) instead do what’s called a ‘stand-down’ – where they have to stop and stand on the ground (both feet) for 60 seconds before being allowed to continue.  During this time their bib is marked with a slash, representing a penalty.  Subsequent penalties get additional slashes.  This of course breaks the rhythm of the race for them – and is better than the AG system, but I don’t think it goes far enough.

In my opinion – a penalty should truly penalize your race and your performance in the same manner that cheating inversely helped your performance.  As such, I would suggest that at the start of the run leg, a quarter mile segment be set up.  Basically, the same length as a single 400m track.  This can be as simple as an out-and-back on the normal run course itself, making a 400m segment.

Using the pro-based system of bib-slashes, the athlete would have to complete one lap for each lap (Oly distance, two laps for Iron distance).  For most competitive age groups, this would likely take about 1:30-1:45 per lap.  While this is less than the 2:00 penalty system, this truly penalizes the athlete from a performance standpoint.  It tires them out, in the same way that everyone else is more tired from not cheating.

The level of suck for the cheater greatly increases in this scheme, and thus the incentive to draft greatly decreases.  I can guarantee you that those AG elite folks earning multiple drafting penalties at the NYC triathlon race would have been far less likely to draft if they knew they had to run an extra half a mile.

And as you move to long course (Ironman) – if you rack up a mile’s worth of penalties, that makes a far bigger dent in your day than just 6-24:00 worth of tent time.  And I’m not the only one that thinks Ironman penalties need to be more strict, so does a longtime and high-up USAT ref.

Now, some might say that this would add complexity.

Yes, it would.

But, triathlon is an inherently complex and messy sport to begin with.  Adding a cone 200m into the run course with a sign that says (Penalty Lap Turnaround), isn’t hard.  Nor is adding a single volunteer to check in/out penalty folks as they start their laps.  A volunteer must already be stationed at the penalty tent today anyway, this just moves that tent/location (or in the case of an Oly, adds one volunteer).

From a ref’ing standpoint, this does indeed add a level of suck as well as you’d have to ‘stand-down’ the athlete to mark their bib.  But, I think this would also INCREASE the validity of penalties.  Ref’s would be more sure that they were catching a drafter due to the extra steps taken.  Further, drafting penalties aren’t appealable now anyway, so waiting until after the race to tack on time doesn’t change the appeal process any (as there is none).

So, what do you think – am I off my rocker?  Or is there hope here?

-

Note: The above represents my opinion alone, and not that of being a certified USAT Official/Ref.

48 Hours in Guatemala City

After leaving Mexico city on Sunday, I caught a flight some 670 miles south to Guatemala City, Guatemala.  Now, it’s fully understandable that you may not know much about Guatemala City, or for that matter – exactly where it is in a map.  So, let’s do a quick visual geography lesson, via the red circle below:

As may be obvious, Mexico being to the north, and a slew of smaller Central American countries to the south.

Guatemala as a country has a hugely rich cultural history, being home to some of the most amazing Mayan ruins in other parts of the country.  The landscape is a lush green that’s incredibly apparent the moment you break through the clouds.

Less than a marathon’s distance away from the airport/city is a towering Volcano…regrettably one that has a bit of gas…with ash.  It’s been puffing away for the past few years, but has picked up activity in recent weeks (notably, last week).  The last time it spewed significant ash, the airport and city were shut down for weeks, with some areas taking months to recover.  So, our trip would be as fast as possible to get the work done, before getting out of dodge.

However, the volcano is really the least of one’s worries when in Guatemala.  As I noted above, the country is known for some incredible cultural sights.  But over the last 18 months, its also become known for being one of the most violent and deadly countries not only in the Americas, but also the world.

The situation worsens on a near daily basis.  Attacks are generally divided into two groups.  The first, is against bus drivers (as an aside, all city/country buses are recycled US school buses).  As of earlier this week, there were 179 bus drivers killed this year alone here in the city – that’s practically one per day.  See, local gangs require bus drivers to pay a ‘security fee’ of approx $100 per day (often more than they make in a day).  If said fee isn’t paid, then grenades are tossed into the bus – usually killing not only the driver, but passengers as well.

The second focal point of violence…is everyone else.  Unlike in Mexico and some other Central/South American countries where the point is to kidnap for ransom, the majority of the crime here is focused on getting a physical asset (such as money/valuables).  However, they are unafraid here to kill on the spot for something as simple as a cell phone.  Within the city – and country in general – you don’t drive at night.  You don’t walk at night.  You don’t go anywhere at night.  Even the locals I worked with said simply that “It’s not worth my life”.  Even daytime driving out to popular tourist spots must be done with an armed escort.  Simple trips like the short 5 minute drive from the airport to the hotel/downtown area are specifically targeted at night, with fake roadblocks aimed at carjacking.

Thus, as a resultant of what I just outlined – I didn’t leave my hotel.  Well, except to go via car to the office a few blocks away.  While in the US you would have walked that short 4-5 minute walk, you wouldn’t here.

On the bright side – I got in some really solid workouts.  The hotel had a pool, which was a huge plus.  Although it wasn’t a lap pool, it was big enough (about 23 yards).

The only oddity was on one end, I didn’t have a fully flush wall – but rather one with steps and some hole thingies.  This made flip turns a very exacting science, as it really sucked to miss and get your foot in the hole in the wall.

The hotel also had a great gym, it was packed with everything you’d find in a full rec center elsewhere.  In fact, even more stuff than some rec centers.  Like…random statues in the hallways:

Though, it also had tons of equipment too – this is just a third of it:

It even had a full spinning studio, which also turned into a Yoga studio, where they offered half a dozen classes a day.

I however, spent the majority of my time on the bike and treadmill.  Sunday evening after arriving from Mexico I had a two hour bike to do…indoors…on a stationary bike…without a fan.

Nothing that three episodes worth of Top Chef couldn’t fix though.  I also created my biggest sweat-lake to date.  I could actually create legit waves – yes, tidal action – if I pushed the water/sweat around.  Astounding stuff.

Oh, speaking of Top Chef – I did have one non-hotel meal here during lunch yesterday.  We went with some locals to a great little place that served Guatemalan food.  Good stuff!

Tuesday before my flight I had another multi-hour bike-run brick.  The little gym man was wondering when I’d stop running, kinda looking at me like he was worried.  Sorta funny.

(Sorry for blurry-cam, sometimes it’s hard to run/bike and take pics inside…falling off the treadmill at 5:54/mile would have been a serious failboat)

After that, I headed straight to the airport, where I waited as it poured…again.  My plane was missing in action.

Fortunately, it finally showed up across the way and I was good to go. 

Hopefully at some point in the future the local situation in Guatemala will become better, allowing me to come back and actually see what is I’m sure an amazing country.

(Quick administrative note: For those eagerly awaiting the Timex Global Trainer review, I’m close – but a combination of very-limited time on my part, and waiting on a few final updates from Timex is holding things back…almost there!)

Training at 7,500 feet

As I talked about yesterday, I’ve spent the previous week in Mexico City, Mexico – which has an elevation of 7,500 feet above sea level.  That’s roughly 2,000 feet higher than Boulder, Colorado…or, for those Floridians, that’s about 7,498 feet higher than the highest point in your state.

But elevation wasn’t my only issue.  Unfortunately, over the past few years, and in particular the last 12-18 months, the situation in Mexico City has slowly spiraled southward with respect to violent crimes.  While not anywhere near as bad as near the border or other locations, there are many many places in Mexico City where one doesn’t go after dark…or daylight.  I was advised by some of the locals I was working with as to what areas were safe and when – and after getting the lowdown, that didn’t leave me a lot of ground to work with.

So, my training grounds were drastically reduced to basically one main street during daylight…and the gym at the hotel.

The good news is that the gym had all sorts of newfangled machines that I could connect an iPod/iPhone to and gather lots of interesting data.

The bad news: These applications are completely useless and don’t gather any data at all.  While the Nike+ pieces are good on a treadmill, my experience on the stationary bike was disappointing.  Especially given that it actually showed wattages on the bike itself.  Just didn’t record it (or anything else for that matter).  So instead, I just used a simple Garmin to record my heart rate.

I also spent a bit of time trying to retrofit one of the stationary bikes with a Garmin Speed/Cadence sensor – mostly for the cadence (no flywheel).  Unfortunately, that was also a failure, as there wasn’t enough clearance there between the crank and the bike itself.  I think I could fashion some sort of bracket system though and a piece of Velcro to attach to a running shoe to make it work – just need to go back to the drawing board.  Industrial strength Velcro and other items didn’t quite work.

However, I did have some very solid workouts on the machine.  Including a two-hour brick that started on the bike and then finished on the treadmill.  That made a massive lake below the bike.

But – let’s get outside, ok?

My first outdoor run was on Wednesday, and it was just a brief affair to see where I could go and get the lay of the land.  Luckily I was staying on a main thoroughfare, so I was able to start right in front of my hotel and run from there down a large tree-lined road.  Unfortunately, I chose rush hour, and I was constantly dodging and weaving not only a sea of cars, but also people.

It was simply more effort that it was worth as I wasn’t able to maintain pace due to constant starts/stops.

So…back indoors I went.  That’s my workout written down on a hotel envelope.  That had the added advantage of being a great place to stash one’s keycard.

However – Sunday morning when I woke up to head down to the treadmill for the last time, I happened to look out the window and noticed something strange:

Huh?  Why are there cyclists everywhere, where are the cars…and what is that massive blob of people?

I quickly got changed and ran down to the front desk to get the details.  They explained that they close down a stretch of one of the main streets in Mexico City every Sunday – about 6 miles round trip to cyclists and runners.  The street (the Reforma) is the main avenue in Mexico City.  I can’t think of any other city worldwide that closes that big/important of a street every week (many cities closer smaller streets, but nothing like this).

So out I went – ready to brave the new streets – without the fear of being kidnapped.

It was pretty awesome.  The Reforma is closed to traffic every Sunday from 8AM to 2PM, and I got out there shortly after it closed.  So at first it was just a trickle. 

But soon – there was a TON of folks out there.

They even had free Gatorade, water and granola bars.

Of course, if you wanted to rent a bike you can do that at tons of street corners, or via their subscription bike system, below:

Along the way a cyclist that spoke English (and was from DC) chatted with me briefly and noted that because it was the last Sunday of the month, they actually closed down 32K of streets in round-the-city circuit – and that the big group of folks I saw earlier was the local police, all out in a bike exercise program.

As for my run – I had an awesome ten-miler outdoors – my last workout before heading to the airport. 

Later that night I’d arrive at my current destination…unfortunately, I can’t even step outside the hotel here due to safety reasons. :(

Gym bound I am…