COVID-19: First Virtual Race (of the Season?)

Week 3 of the COVID-19 situation here in the US is wrapping up and there is no immediate end in sight.  Already, one race of mine was cancelled and it is very likely June races are in jeopardy.  As far as Worlds in August, it is anyone's guess.  It is highly questionable as Canada has shut their borders to international travelers until June 30th. 

So... I went ahead and threw my hat in the ring on a virtual race that I learned about through the forums at Slowtwitch.com.  Here is the link to the thread introducing PenguinMan!!  It is by far NOT an official race and is fraught with possibilities of cheating, but who cares... I needed to race!  I chose to race the duathlon because right now all pools nearby are closed.  I also chose to do the entire race in one attempt in my pain cave.  I decided that if I choke, I'll live with the results.  Fortunately, I had a decent effort for the 5k run, 20 mile bike, and 5k run.

To set things up, I needed to make sure I had an accurate method to measure my treadmill speed.  I have a Zwift foot pod, a Garmin Tri Heart Rate Strap, and of course the treadmill itself.  Over the past few years I have figured out that the best option is to just go with my Garmin 735XT and the Tri HR Strap.  However, it does vary and I figured this race would motivate me to finally invest in something more accurate.  I elected to purchase the Runn Smart Treadmill Sensor from the Zwift Store.  Here is a picture of it installed on my treadmill. 

It was so easy to set-up and to get started.  It also quickly connects to Zwift and my Garmin!  Best of both worlds now!  The beauty of this is that it actually captures top end speed on the treadmill.  My foot pod and the HR strap never seemed to really capture my pace above 9 mph on the treadmill accurately.  The Runn Smart sensor actually measures the physical speed of the belt itself so it is very precise and accurate!

Fortunately, that was the only investment needed for this race!  There was no early wake-up to travel to the race, no packet pick-up, no packing everything under the sun in case something went wrong, etc.  All I had to do was roll out of bed, get through my morning routine, warm-up in the comfort of my basement (and not in the rain outside), and get after it!! 

After warming up for ten minutes with several 30 - 40 second pick-ups, I was ready to go.  I have never tried to run a 5k time trial on a treadmill before so this was a first for me.  I knew I would not attempt a PR today, but wanted to go as close to the red line as possible.  The first mistake I made was I started the Zwift run at a dead stop on my treadmill.  So the time it took my old pal to rev up to my opening pace crushed my first mile by nearly 30 seconds per mile. This led me to push it a little harder than I had planned on the second two miles.  It felt a little like cheating that all I had to do was speed up the treadmill to negative split the run.  However, there was a lesson in that in the second run that I'll explain later.

There is a bit more to do in transition during a virtual race than a real one.  First, you have to end your run on Zwift.  I hate opening up Strava afterwards to change the name of the workout so I went ahead and labeled it appropriately, "PenguinMan Run 1".  Then, I had to dismount from the treadmill and set-up Zwift for my trainer set-up.  While I waited for the spinning circle of death to advance to the sensor screen, I woke up my trainer and put my cycling shoes on.  With that, I was connected and was able to mount up and get a course selected and start.  Unlike the treadmill, you can start hammering out of the gate when cycling.  I thought about having things set up with another device but I realized that everything would go to sleep by the time I finished the first run regardless of what I would do.  Therefore, there really would not have been much time saved. 

As I started the ride, I was hurting a little more than anticipated.  I did not taper for this effort at all (except for the fact that I have not been able to swim for nearly two weeks now!).  I was a little worried that this ride would not go well.  After about ten minutes, I was finally feeling reasonable and settled in to a nice upper Z3 effort with some Z4/Z5 pushes up some inclines.  My target power was 3.8 W / kg.  I ended up at 3.61 W / kg... not stellar but I am happy with it.  I did have some nutrition on this ride.  I used one scoop of UCAN Superstartch mixed with one scoop of Advocare Spark and water.  I was very happy that I did because the caffeine boost from the Spark really helped me push through the end of the bike and set-up the run. 

Now, T2 was much like T1 with a lot of negotiating with Zwift to get set-up on the treadmill.  I also started the treadmill at 6 mph while I was getting ready so that I was already jogging by the time I started the run.  This helped cut the time down to full speed and closed the gap with my per mile average early.  I really wanted to push hard and go sub 19 minutes on this run.  While executing it, I thought by watching the paces that I was going to get it.  Alas, it was not there.  What I didn't realize was I did not do as much increasing of the speed as I did in the first run to make up for the losses at the beginning.  Ultimately though, I pushed hard and really benefited from the treadmill pushing me to keep going.  If this was a dry-land race... I am not sure I would have been able to push mentally through the run as I did with this one.  One nice take-away for me here is that I learned mentally I can push through it. 

Overall, I am pretty happy with the results.  Here are the stats:
5k Run 1   19:08    06:09 min / mile
T1 ~3:00
20 mile Bike    50:15     23.8 mph    3.61 W/kg     515' Elevation
T2 ~3:00
5k Run 2   19:23    06:14 min / mile

TOTAL TIME: 01:34:46

After the effort, I posted my results on a website provided at registration.  On April 1st, the race director is uploading all the statistics from each registrants results into an algorithm that will virtually race everyone on a race course that he plotted out in Antarctica!  We also posted our results to Strava for validation of the data.  As a good "Zwifter", I posted pics of my before and after weight so all can know that I did not cheat my effort.  As I noted before, I am going with one complete effort and sticking with it.  There is no limit to the number of times you want to try each of the legs.  You can do them independently or together... they don't care.  However, I care... this is my one true honest race day result and I am sticking with it. 

UPDATE:

The results are in and a whopping sixteen people participated and I finished first.  I'll take it!

COVID-19: Cancelled Race / Mock Adjustment

These are certainly unprecedented times we are living in right now.  COVID-19 is certainly wreaking havoc with local, regional, national, and international racing right now.  My heart and prayers go out to everyone impacted by this pandemic. I hope our local race directors and event companies are prepared to weather the storm.  I for one will be more than willing to leave my race registration fees with them to keep them "whole".  The registration fee is simply my party fee for all the training I put in to prepare for the race.

My first race casualty of the year was the B&A Trail Half Marathon in Severna Park, MD.  We learned of the cancellation earlier this week.  Fortunately, a running race is easily replaced with your own run on your own course somewhere.  Therefore as soon as I received the news, I started planning my own mock race on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail (aka NCR Trail).

Enter my amazingly dedicated father!  At 77 years old, he is always up for an adventure.  He first suggested that he would love to drive to each of the roads that cross the trail and cheer me on.  That would be four different spots that would require him to drive over 50 miles to accomplish.  But after a few discussions, he decided that he would like to ride alongside me on my old bike.  "Are you sure dad?!"  He said he would ride for as long as he could, stop, rest, and ride again.  Ok... let's see where this goes.

Saturday morning arrived and it was a brisk cool morning, about 42 degrees at 6:00 AM.  I had set up my old mountain bike by lowering the seat and swapping out the pedals so my dad did not have to deal with the old foot straps.  We met at 6:15 AM in my driveway.  As it was still dark, we both made our way to the trail with our head lamps on.  I could tell my dad was nervous about this but he did not say a word.  I commenced with my warm up as I would have and left him there in the dark for a while.  When I returned, he was set and ready to go.  Of course, I wanted a selfie before we started.

The sign behind us captured our plan perfectly.  I would run out in front and he would follow at his own pace.  At about 6:45 AM, at first light (as you can see in the background), "the race" started!  I am not going to go into much detail about my effort, as I met all my goals that would have been before me if the real race had taken place.  I wanted to PR my half marathon and test my mental capacity to handle the "hurt locker" I was prepared to go into in order to achieve it.  This blog is about my memory of spending time with my dad.  This story is the best way to explain the relationship and dedication we have grown to have for each other since I started racing five years ago. 

As I approached the turn around point on the trail, I did begin wondering how dad was doing and if he would be right behind me as I turned around.  Alas, he was not.  In a way, this encouraged me to remain steadfast on my pace and know that I would encounter him soon.  About a mile or so after the turn around, I saw him in the distance.  As I approached and he realized I was coming towards him, he decided to dismount and offer me the water bottle as we had planned.  When I was about 100 yards away, he proceeded to tip over and fall to the ground!  I said, "Oh s#&t, are you ok?"  He quickly said, "Yes!"  He dusted himself off and still offered me a drink!  I said, "Are you sure!?" as I was quickly approaching and preparing to stop if he was not.  He said, "Yes!!" again and in a way that told me not to ask again... his pride might have been hurt.  I totally understood this!

So off I went, marveling in the fact that at the point I saw him he had ridden over five miles and only stopped twice.  Keep in mind, dad told me it may have been over fifteen years since he had ridden a bike!  I pretty much knew by now that he would not be keeping up with me on the way back, but his presence was never forgotten and helped propel me to push harder towards a negative split on the run. 

In the final miles, I was in pure darkness trying to push as hard as I could the whole way home.  I had passed several folks I recognized on the way back with little more than a grunt or even a peace sign.  Though, I had comfort in knowing if dad was in trouble there were many folks available to help.  I soon reached the finish and immediately turned back to walk towards where he would be riding.  It was less than two minutes before I recognized him coming down the trail.

As he approached, I could tell he was suffering.  He was suffering far worse than I was during the final miles of my run.  He glided towards me and I basically caught him and the bike to steady him.  He had ridden the entire way back without stopping once, another five or so miles!  He had stopped one time previously, so this totally pushed him past his comfort zone.  He was shaking like a leaf and said,  'I am alright.. my legs are just numb... my heart rate is fine though!"  Through all of that, he kept the presence of mind to maintain an understanding of how he was feeling.  He could hardly stand on his own and I helped him dismount.  We stood there and I was far more proud of his accomplishment than mine.  His willingness to exhibit his suffering, to accept the help, and to take the time to recover demonstrated so much to me.

We slowly walked back from the trail to my house.  By the time we were halfway, he was feeling fairly well and we just chatted about the experience.  He even helped me stop and fix the kid's bounce back in the yard.  I invited him into the house to warm up, taking the chance that my wife would be upset being seen in her PJ's.  Indeed, everyone was awake in their PJ's in the kitchen.  My dad was so happy, excited, and talkative with the kids.  I could tell he felt so alive!  I was so happy for him!  March 14th is now memorable for three reasons, first it was his mother's birthday, this would have been here 101st.  Second, it is the day I proposed to my wonderful wife.  Third, it is the day that dad and I suffered together and loved every minute of it!

I reflect now that this man is the example of strength, perseverance, stubbornness, adventurous, dedicated, passionate, and craziness that has created me.  His silence is not anger or frustration but of constant deliberation with himself and on subjects that are close to his heart. By learning who my father is, I have learned more about who I am.  I will forever be grateful for this memory and the many we have created together on the road to my races.  I love you dad!  Thank you for all the support!