December 7, 2009

Post Ultraman Race (Editorial)

Last year the Kotland crew used this blog for more than just updating the world on Peter’s performance. In a backward spirit of Aloha they made sure that no ridiculous antics went unmentioned. I would hate to break tradition.
This year the antics started, predictably, with Shanna Armstrong and her crew. Sure she was the women’s world champion, again, and sure Peter has been coaching her for years, but that doesn’t make her exempt. (It probably puts her more in the line of fire really.) Despite the easy going and lighthearted atmosphere we kept around the condo this year, leading up to the race I saw the Ultraman as nothing but a serious endeavor that required nothing but serious attitudes where the race was involved. Johnny showing up in his grass skirt and coconut bra to the swim transition changed all that. Dean, catching sight of this serious looking man in a ridiculous outfit yelled, “Back in uniform again I see Johnny!” The resentful reply came back, “I had to be”. Shanna Armstrong is the best female ultra endurance athlete in the world, but if you want the privilege of crewing for her, you’ll have to put up with any music she wants blasting all day- likely Britney Spears; you’ll have to dance to said music, in your mandatory coconut bra of course. All of this on top of the already taxing job of supporting an Ultraman athlete. There is no shortage of color and character at the Ultraman Race.
At least Shanna’s antics are good natured and well intended. Rip Oldmeadow’s story on the other hand is almost too hot to touch, even here. Details are scarce and I would be walking in murky waters to speculate much, but what is known is that Rip did not seem to be in Hawaii to make new friends. For antics unknown, two of his team members left his support crew emotionally shaken, effectively tearing the lid off a twisted can of worms. After leaving, Rip’s support team confessed to Richard Roll (affectionately known by us as Mr. Hollywood for his glamour shots and impeccable sense of style)
that Rip had talked about, and I am paraphrasing here, emotionally destroying Rich during the race. Apparently Rip didn’t know that one of his disenchanted crew members is a friend of Rich’s, who also happens to be coached by him. I am not sure whether it was that sort of attitude, his series of technical infractions while racing or the cumulative picture of the two that led to his disqualification. Whatever the situation was, having completed all three days of the event and to then not be considered a finisher is certainly punishment enough.
It wasn’t all gloom of course. After all, the entire reason d’ĂȘtre of the Ultraman is to get together a group of people and give them an ultimate challenge while bringing them, in every way possible, to heart and nature of the sport they love. Of course, as is the case with anything that people are passionate about, there are some individuals who stand above all the rest when it comes to expressing their Aloha spirit for the Ultraman. Steve King is one of these people. There are unbelievable views of natural beauty around the island, the race itself is something on a scale illogical, unbelievable and entirely hard to comprehend, and of course I have already told you about Peter’s run in with the frantic garden gnomes. Yet, by far, the most surreal experience I had during this Ultraman weekend was listening to Steve diligently, highly professionally and entirely inexplicably commentating the race over a loud speaker, even though there was usually no one around to listen.

At the first marathon point, Steve had set himself up and was announcing the day’s progress. Dean and I knew that he was taking time splits so Dean decided to go up and ask him how far back Peter was from Miro and Alejandro. But ever the professional, Steve could not interrupt his announcing to answer us immediately- despite the fact that Dean and I were the only two people even close to being within ear shot. The entire scene was taking place in an incredibly remote, miles long straight stretch of desert along the Queen K highway. Sitting there in beautiful nowhere, Steve did eventually give us our answer over the loudspeaker, “And I now have Peter’s time split here, Peter’s crew will probably appreciate this information, he is currently four minutes and fifty seconds behind the leaders, Alexandre Ribeiro and Miro Kregar who are setting and incredible pace.” Nobody can say this race doesn’t have character.
Perhaps one of the most notable ways that the Ultraman goes back to the roots of triathlon, besides being held in the birthplace of the Ironman of course, is that the athletes really are more than just numbers. During the race, nobody even thought about numbers. While each athlete did have one, I don’t think anybody new anybody else’s number- in fact, I couldn’t even tell you Peter’s for sure. The down side to this is that you have to keep track of athletes by their names; the upside of this is that nobody could remember everybody’s name, so nicknames got to be developed on the fly- I have already introduced you to Mr. Hollywood. As another example, during most of stage two Peter was being pursued by a man whose only defining characteristic we knew was that he was from Germany. Thanks to our limited knowledge of him, Jochen Dembeck has been known as “die German” for the entire race. “Peter, you better get climbing, die German is gaining on you.” “Peter, ignore the gnomes, die German is behind you.” (If you find this in any way offensive you may want to know that my nickname is Pecker (a long story that doesn’t involve what you think), Peter’s, who is the ex-Pecker, is now Sparky (also a long inside story which can be summed up by the fact that Peter is definitively not a “Sparky”) and Dean’s is Scuba thanks to an never forgotten incident with some oversized swim goggles.) Of course we weren’t the only ones throwing around nicknames. A fact best explained in a whole different story.

When Peter got up to make his finishers speech at the post race dinner everyone was left reeling a little when he broke the trend of references to spiritual experiences by saying the weekend was a good excuse to act like an asshole to Dean and I and get away with it. Little did they know that Peter was just warming them up for the Ultraman World Champion Alexendre Ribeiro’s speech.

Of course Alexendre included the usual sentiments about it being a great race and he talked about the particular challenges he faced this year and so on. But this national hero of Brazil took it upon himself to elaborate when it came to the details of the third day’s double marathon. As he and Miro ran together he explained, they casually chatted about having to keep up their fast pace because Peter and “the desert guy” were chasing them. Apparently in the middle of their great effort, they had forgotten Mike Leroux’s name but still chose to consider him a serious threat because it was a hot day and Leroux was experienced at running in the desert, and “it’s hot there” as Alexendre liked to make known. So at one point he decided to announce to the crowd that “Miro needed to take a shit, so I thought, o.k good, I can stop to pee while he shits.” (Part of the beauty of this exclamation is the fact that he likely knew no other English word for defecating.) That was not then end of his story though, he still had purpose he was leading towards. Later in the day the tables turned and now Alexendre had to “take a shit.” Only now Miro was not willing to return the favor and wait up during the pit stop because “Peter and the desert guy are coming.” Likely a little distressed that his day’s partner had left him, he was now alone, squatting down next to the road “taking a shit” – a position he reenacted for us on stage – while a stream of cars and the media vans rolled by to watch.
Even though I think I am now completely gossiped out, I can’t end this blog without mentioning that beautiful a moment before the start of the third day during the Hawaiian conk shell ceremony. The Pu ceremony, as it is called here, involves the athletes standing in a circle holding hands while a lone Hawaiian sounds a conk shell and says a Hawaiian prayer. Except for perhaps working in the daycare of a cruise ship or returning to live in a communist country, I can think of nothing so perfectly not Peter than standing in a circle, holding hands around a ritual spiritual ceremony. It was beautiful moment of perfect awkwardness I am not likely to ever forget.
Congratulations to all the athletes and my apologies to anyone whose quirks and blunders failed to make it on this post. I will be back next year, so you’ll get your chance.

November 29, 2009

Stage 3 - Ultraman 52.4 Mile Run


Our morning started with a 4am wake up call at the Hapuna Beach Resort (about 20 miles from the start line for the double marathon). It was another great night of sleep, and after some coffee and cleaning up, we drove to the start line at the Hawi Inn. Peter started the day knowing that he would need to post a 6 hour double marathon to have any shot of winning the championship AND Ribiero would have to crash and burn on his run. BUT, with the world record in his reach, a crash was not out of the question for Ribeiro who might go out hard in order to "bask in the glory." Also, in 4th place, 2 minutes behind Peter was Miro Kregar, who won the double marathon in 2008. In an expected replay of last year, Kregar and Ribiero took off at a blistering pace from the start.It was Peter's plan to let them go and then, hopefully, rope them back in on the second marathon.

The morning temperature was rather warm at 67 degrees and quite humid in Hawi. The gun went off in the pitch dark and the boys went flying by as if they were being chased by the police. The 10k (6.2 mile split) was ridiculous! Kregar and Ribiero at 38 minutes and Peter at 40 minutes. The half marathon (13.1 mile) time for Kregar and Ribiero was 1hr26m and Peter was 2 minutes back at 1hr28min- on pace for a sub three hour marathon. An unbelievable pace when you consider this is a 52.4 mile race. Ryan and I were pacing Peter and providing him with an assortment of hydration including First Endurance EFS (an excellent sports powder), water, red bull, coke, water with NUUNS electrolytes, diluted grapefruit juice, and water with alka seltzer. Most of Peter's calories were liquid however we also had First Endurance gel. We would hand Peter 6oz. gel containers with his liquids in it and he would take down 6oz. at a time. We would run next to Peter (at 6:35 min/mile pace) until he finished and then drop back for a refill.

Peter posted his first marathon in 3hr4min, only 4 minutes behind our friends. A situation almost identical to last years race. The question was whether Peter could repeat his split knowing full well that Kregar and Ribiero would fall off on the 2nd marathon. As we made it through the next several splits, it became apparent that Ribiero and Kregar were pulling away and Peter was struggling and slowing his pace. Over the last 9 miles, we pulled the crew van 1-mile ahead of Peter and waited for him with an assortment of band-aids (i.e. First Endurance powders, gels, grapefruit juice, etc...) to get him enough hydration and energy to push to the finish line. When you run this fast for this long, when the tank goes empty, it goes EMPTY! Unlike last year though, where Peter was dehydrated and sick, this year was mostly leg pain and muscle tightening. The legs just wouldn't turnover like they did earlier. However, he was still running sub-8 minute miles. He was definitely in survival mode on the last 6 miles. However, Peter stuck to the plan, would run a mile, then take in fluids at the car and start back up again. But even stopping to hydrate couldn't keep away the gnomes. With two miles to go, the fast paced, back to back marathons had brought Peter to such levels of dehydration and exhaustion, he began vividly hallucinating a swarm of garden gnomes which scrambled out of the pavement and scurryed away from him.

3 miles remaining, I ran with Peter for most of the way into the finish line. We were pacing very comfortably and more importantly, not stopping. We made the turn with 1-mile to go and Peter found a new pair of legs and started pushing the pace back around 6min30sec pace. Peter teaches all of us to FINISH STRONG, and he practices what he preaches. It was a damned hard pace on fresh legs, no less after 51.2 miles of running. Ryan followed us in the van and then pulled into the airport and joined us for the last 1/2 mile run to the finish line. We all crossed together, and Peter finished the day with a run time of 6hr47min.

Two things we learned after finishing. Alexandre Ribiero started puking with 10 miles to go and Peter gained back 50% of the time on Ribiero in the last 10 miles. Anything can happen on a race this long. If our crash hadn't come first, and we had achieved the six hour double we were looking for, Peter would have won. That time was not in the cards today, but it was a possibility that Peter gave his all to pursue.

There was also one last bit of business waiting for us as Mike LeRoux, an Australian Ultra Athlete (who started the day in 2nd) was staying within range to steal 3rd place from Peter. He was 14 minutes up on Peter going into the run. He crossed 16 minutes later and Peter took 3rd place by only 2 minutes. Had we stopped a few extra times or had Peter not buried the course with everything he had in last few miles, third place would have slipped away to LeRoux. Thankfully, we did not leave with regrets about wasted minutes that could have been avoided in the race. Peter put it all out on the road today and showed why he is one of the elites in the world of ultra endurance sports. Peter was beaten by two men today; men that are national heros in their home countries; men who Peter will dedicate himself and his training to once again rival at the top of the sport.


We have tried to offer blogs to give our followers a real inside look at this sport, and more importantly this event (Ultraman Hawaii). This is one of the worlds toughest races, and those who compete at the level of a Kotland, Ribiero or Kregar are truly special athletes. We are very proud of Peter's performance and are honored to be a part of his team.

Run Results:

1. Miro Kregar (Slovenia) - 6hr20m
2. Alexandre Ribiero (Brazil) - 6hr39m
3. Peter Kotland (USA) - 6hr47m

Overall Race Results:

1. Alexandre Ribiero (Brazil) - 22hr10min12sec
2. Miro Kregar (Slovenia) - 22hr39min14sec
3. Peter Kotland (USA) - 23hr04min56sec


ULTRAMAN STAGE 2 (171 MILE BIKE RACE) FROM VOLCANO TO HAWI



It was still anybodies game after day one, with today’s 171 mile bike and tomorrow’s double marathon still to come. The day started with a 20 mile descent which the athletes appreciate as a great chance to warm up their legs- how much warming up actually happened is still up for debate as the temperature was in the 50’s and the clouds gathered around the volcano were drizzling cold rain.
From the start the main contenders found their way to the front. A group of seven or eight riders were still close together by the bottom of the first decent with the pack only being dwindled by two or three riders in the next two hours. It was not until the race hit the hills that any serious damage was dealt to the field. On a deceivingly large climb, taking the riders from sea level to 1500 feet, Alejandro Rebeiro made his move and would give an incredible performance staying ahead of the all other riders for the rest of the day. This meant that the day for Peter was about limiting any time losses without over taxing himself for tomorrow.
There was quite a bit of jockeying for position between riders with Peter staying in either second or third position all day with only the names of the riders immediately in front of him changing throughout the day. Where yesterday there was some question at times about how Peter was feeling as he cranked into the wind, today he stayed steady, smooth and strong and aerobic all day.
Once again, for Dean and I, the day was about rushing back and forth in the car, providing Peter with constant nutrition and hydration and informing Peter of splits or anything he might require. Early on this task was made difficult by the group of close riders and all of the traffic of their accompanying support cars, media cars and officials made getting in front of Peter more difficult than usual. At one crucial point the road got so busy and the opportunities to pull over became so few that we missed Peter’s feed before a fifteen mile feed zone; after half an hour of worrying if we just got Peter dangerously behind on his nutrition, we made sure to stock him up at the end of the no feed zone.
The race was very fast with the group clocking 100 miles in 4-hrs. and we spent much of the day riding with Dembeck (Germany), Kregar (Slovenia), Oldmeadow (USA), Cokan (Slovenia), and LeRoux (Australia). However, as the heavy climbing began, the groups continued to get split. Peter ended up with Kregar and Dembeck for quite awhile, until Kregar took a spill and fell off the pace. Peter pulled away from Dembeck, caught LeRoux and headed for the last brutal ascent 6.5 miles up to Hawi starting at mile 150.
Despite a dog trying to commit “hairy” kari in front of us –unsuccessfully thanks to my expert evasive maneuvers- the most interesting part of our day did not come until the final 6.5 mile climb starting 20 miles from the finish. We had just gave Peter a feed off going up this beast of a final climb when a pleasant gentlemen pulled up, stopping in the middle of the lane, and proceeding to berate Dean about what is going on with all the bikers. When Dean calmly explains that it is a race, the man informs us that these roads are the worst place on the entire island to have a bike race- despite that road being the calmest most beautiful road we had been on yet. Then as a racer who had been chasing Peter up the mountain started getting close, the man still parked in the middle of the road says, “This is dangerous, someone is going to get creamed.” Annoyed and worrying about the rider who is about to run into the back of the car I yell back, “Yeah, you’re about to get creamed.” After watching the racer get forced into the other lane as he passed, the man finally drove off allowing Dean to get back in the car and ask, “Why are you mouthing off to a cop?” I missed the introduction where the man told us he was with the Hawaii Police Department.
Peter danced on the pedals, and was feeling very good starting the climb. However, Dembeck showed some real grit and climbed very quickly on the final ascent, catching Peter and securing his second place finish for the day.
We followed Peter down the fast and winding 13 mile descent to the finish- where thankfully no handcuffs were waiting for me. Alejandro Ribeiro had gotten there 17 minutes earlier putting us 38 minutes behind the leader going into the double marathon tomorrow- a lot of time to make up. But 52 miles is a long way to run.
At the end of the day, Peter finished in 7hr47min, and is well positioned for a great day tomorrow. Peter’s heart rate averaged only 139 BPM @ 22mph average for the day. He stayed aerobic, and he managed the day very well! He is full of energy, recovering well, and looking forward to a nice little run in the morning.

November 28, 2009

ULTRAMAN STAGE 2 (171 MILE BIKE RACE)

We are resting after a long and fun day. We will post the Stage 2 blog this evening (Hawaiian time). Hopefully the live twitter updates have been a good source of live information regarding the progress of the race. As a reminder, the live updates are located at (www.twitter.com/ultraman21). Thanks for all of your interest and support!! Peter is now in 3rd place after 2 days of racing and looking forward to the run. Details to follow.

ULTRAMAN STAGE I (6.2 MILE OCEAN SWIM, 90 MILE BIKE)



NOTE: YOU WILL NEED TO CUT AND PASTE THESE LINKS INTO YOUR BROWSER.

RACE RESULTS: http://ultramanlive.com/2008-ultraman-world-championships/2009-main-results-page/

ULTRAMAN OFFICIAL STAGE 1 RACE REPORT: http://ultramanlive.com/2008-ultraman-world-championships/2009-race-report-day-1/

The first day of the Ultraman started at 430am in the morning. We downed the customary and necessary coffee cups filled with espresso, diligently preparing all the last minute details and were rewarded with a full hour of down time which could have been spent sleeping but instead was spent trying to stay awake. The upside of our extra down time in the morning was that we could keep everything low key and not rush anything.

Fromt the time we woke up until the Swimmers were under way, the day was without a hitch (as far as the race was concerned, however I did manage to break our only camera, which was "borrowed" in a manner of speaking.) Showing up at the swim start, it was incredible between the pomp and circumstance between this Ultraman race and and Ironman. Had I just been walking by perhaps, I probably would have just assumed it was some early morning swim club and not given it a second thought. The streets that would have been inaccessible and packed with thousands of athletes and specators during the Ironman were nearly empty;the only actvity that was noticeable was a small crowd of people surrounding and even smaller crowd of forty-four athletes. So it was with almost complete anonymity that somewhere in the middle of the pacific, one of the most grueling races in the world got underway.

While Peter set off to swim a 6.2 mile open water swim in the Pacific Ocean, Dean and I went back to Wal-Mart. Dodging threw Black Friday shoppers, we managed to find the smallest screwdriver in the store, which was the used to pry, chip, scrape and pound our broken camera back into working order. Already filled with confidence from this first success our morale was boosted even further when we snuck the back of a resort at the 2 mile marker of the swim. Peter and a few swimmers had already completed 1/3 of the swim in 45 minutes, on track for a potential world record. Richard Roll was the only person to hold pace when the currents turned against the swimmers with 1-mile to go, finiishing 6 minutes shy of the world record with a time of 2hr21m.Peter got his chance to perform the long distance swimmers hobble while running into the transition area twenty minutes later in a close sixth position. More important than his position however, his time of 2hr45m was a full 30 minutes faster than last year and everyone in front of him was within a comfortable distance.



The bike course is quick to remind you exactly what kind of race you are running with a 5-mile climb that starts the moment you mount your bikw and takes you from sea level to 2000ft. Rocking awkwardly from nearly 3-hrs of swimming, but still looking strong, Peter headed up the hill to start the final 90-miles of the day. Dean and I followed behind, leap frogging up front to stop and give him either his scheduled nutrition or, more often, whatever he felt like at the moment; after so many miles, food starts to get too dry, too warm, too caloric, and if he were to eat the wrong thing, it might "Give me Gag" (as Peter so elquently puts it!) The locals were nice enough to contribute to our dialogue as well, one of them asking us " are you with the biker? As we just feeding Peter. And after giving him confirmation that we were in fact crew, he logically followed with: "do you want some hashish?"


At forty miles into the bike, Hawaii started to show her temper. The wind blew at an unrelenting 15-20 miles per hour, head on, until the athletes made the final turn that pointed them towards the last one hundred meters to the finish. Peter spent all day chasing, ultimately catching 1-man and beikng passed by only 1 man (Ribiero), the mand who stands to pose the biggest threat of taking te world championship on the podium in Kona.At the end of the day, after posting one mile splits as slow as 14mph, Peter ended the day 32 min back from a splendid performance by Richard Roll. While 33 min is a lot of time to give away, Peter stands a good chance to make up chunks of time on his front runners at stage-2 (171 mile bike race from Volcano to Hawi). Then of course there is the 52.4 mile run, which we all know is where Peter will choose to fight his battle to win the Ultraman.

November 27, 2009

TWITTER LIVE UPDATES

WE ARE OFF TO THE RACE. I WANT TO REMIND EVERYONE FOLLOWING THAT WE WILL BE POSTING PETER'S LIVE HOURLY UPDATES ON TWITTER.COM. WWW.TWITTER.COM/ULTRAMAN21. WE WILL POST ANOTHER BLOG THIS EVENING FROM VOLCANO AFTER GETTING PETER SITUATED AND IN RECOVERY MODE FOR THE NEXT DAYS 171 MILE BIKE RACE.

November 26, 2009

It's All Over but the Crying


Still on mainland time, Dean and Peter were up early again this morning. While Peter was out for an easy morning run - four miles at 6:30 minutes per miles, you know, a casual jog – Dean was swapping out our little red Dodge for a big white Chevy Tahoe, giving us more room to stage our mobile race HQ.
After waiting diligently and unconsciously from the comfort of my bed for Peter and Dean to return, we all headed out to the prerace breakfast, which was our only official function for the day. We put in our time appeasing the officials with our presence. Peter made the best of the time, taking glamour shots and interviewing with Tim Carlson from slowtwitch.com. Once introductions had been made, the law of the land was laid down and 200+ miles of bike course was reviewed in a powerpoint presentation we set out to make the final race preparations.
First we stopped at our go to place for all of our Ultraman supplies and nutrition, Wal-Mart. We paced down every aisle taking our best guesses at what we might need. Operating on a whim we would buy some things because we could get 100 of them for $2.54 but would nix others because, as Peter put it, “they give me gag.”
Returning back to our condo we added our haul to our growing collection of Wal-Mart crap that has been slowly accumulating each day and is now beginning to take over the place. Since we have been back the day has been non-stop vehicle and nutrition prep. After hours of deliberation Dean and I have settled on Reese’s, M&M’s and Goobers jelly; Peter will be racing on nothing but whiskey, but as backup has trained himself to eat lava rocks in case we can’t find anything over 100 proof.
We will all be in bed early tonight because we want to spend as much time lying awake in bed nervous for tomorrow as we possibly can. Peter will sleep fine tonight of course, he’s ready, but Dean and I still have to worry about messing the rest of it up.

ULTRAMAN REGISTRATION AND BIKE INSPECTION DAY

This morning started with another round of Kotland’s espresso, which couldn’t jack you up anymore than sticking your tongue onto a car battery. It is the “secret sauce” of an endurance athlete! After polishing off several shots of motor oil, we moved on to a gourmet oatmeal breakfast piled with peanut butter and nutella. Meals become a source of fuel first and foremost, and as sad as it is to say, this delectable breakfast is a very effective source of energy and calories.
The mood remains very light, and we are really relaxed and having a great time. Most importantly, Peter is relaxed and well rested so far. However, the task at hand is upon Peter (who obviously has the hard job this weekend) and his crew (who will execute a 3-day nutrition and hydration plan, work on nightly recovery, and get him ready for the next stage). Once the race starts, we have 21-22 hours of racing over the 3-days! Pre-race, hydration has become a priority. Peter is drinking a minimum of 4 liters of water minimum, and NUUNS electrolyte tabs.


After breakfast, Peter and I ran a 4 mile out and back to Kona Pier. After returning, we packed up the bike and took it down to the bike shop for the mandatory bike inspection before registration. We ran into A. Ribiero at the shop. As the reigning World Champion and 3X Ultraman champ, Ribiero is clearly the front runner and one of the main competitors for Peter (and a great guy). It should be a very exciting competition between these two great athletes (and others).
After the bike inspection, we registered at the Outrigger hotel. It was a quick and painless registration and very good to see our friends from the race. We took some photos and Peter did a quick interview with the Slovenian media. Then we bolted pretty quickly from registration and went down to the Java Lava for re-fueling before the afternoon training. Java Lava’s is a great hangout in Kona. It’s right on the water and gives you huge entertainment as the tourists from the cruises scamper around the Kona village like rabid dogs looking to wear out the magnet strips on their credit cards.
Ryan took a swim in the bay, and Peter took one hour on the bike this afternoon after re-fueling. Daniel and Egi (our guests from Czech) spent the day with us and left this evening for Honolulu to continue their 4-month world tour. Being from Czech, they do not celebrate Thanksgiving, however they have volunteered to serve Thanksgiving meals at the Salvation Army in Honolulu tomorrow. Then they move on to Korea. They have a great spirit, and are truly amazing people and definitely new friends. After Daniel and Egi left, we ate 2 pounds of pasta for dinner with tomato sauce and watched the Biggest Loser.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO OUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, SPONSORS, SUPPORTERS, FOLLOWERS, ACQUAINTENCES, COMPETITORS OR ANYONE WHO READS OUR BLOG UPDATES! WE WISH ALL OF YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES THE BEST OVER THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY!!

November 25, 2009

Ultraman 2009 - Here We Go Again!



It was inevitable that our flights to Hawaii would be packed full of screaming children and excited foreigners making their way to the islands. The only thing missing were the farm animals running down the isle of the plane! Ryan and I waited for Peter to get off his plane. He approached our car with a series of f-bombs and a lecture about the "Little Johnny" sitting next to him that crapped in his pants and the soccer Mom apparently lacked the abilty to smell what the entire plane had been gifted with earlier in the flight. We picked up our race car red Dodge Magnum rental car and worked our way to the condo. We are set up in the Alii Lani condo complex less than 2 miles from Kaihula Kona. Our conditions this year are much better and will make a huge difference in our race preparation and ability to keep Peter rested, relaxed and ready to take on this brutal 3-day race. We took a quick trip to the grocery store, picked up some race supplies and have our meal plan set for the week. Our staples for the week consist of espresso, oatmeal, bread, peanut butter and pasta. We woke and spent the majority of the morning getting the supplies for the race, assemblying Peter's bike, setting up the blog, and setting up Twitter. We also fit in a morning swim at the Kona pier. This afternoon, Peter took the bike out for a quick spin and Ryan and I made our way to the City of Refuge for a bit of site seeing.



After returning home, Peter had his best friend from Czech, Daniel and his Wife Egi visiting. They are traveling the world over 4-months and happen to be in Kona at the same time of the race. We cooked 2 pounds of pasta (jacked up with enough hot sauce to kill a small child), ate bread, and watched an outstanding Matt Damon documentary called "Running the Sahara" for the third. This documentary is about 3 guys who ran the entire Sahara desert, 7500KM over 111 days. That's 12hrs of running and 2 marathons a day in temperatures ranging from low 30's to 140 degrees. Incredible. It makes running a double marathon (52.4 miles) in sub-7 minute pace seem like a cake walk. (Not really!) Our only limitations are in our own minds. I guess when you get in the world of Ultra Endurance eventing, this group of accomplished athletes ask the question... "why not?" Many of these athletes have their own personal missions, however all of them contain an internal drive and confidence that quitting in not an option, and are wired to meet whatever goal and challenge stands in front of them at the time.


Our goal is clear, win the world championship. Peter is relaxed, and no doubt ready. Tomorrow, we will check in for the race, get the bike inspection completed and loosen up with some swimming and running.

Maholo to all of our local sponsors in Greenville. We would not be ready and able for this race without the help of our local sponsors: Signature Patio and Pools, Orthopedic Specialists, Metro Reproduction, Dhillon Cosmetic Dentistry, Carolina Foot Care, Joe at Raymond James, and of course our friends at Run In.

Maholo to all of our merchandising sponsors including Jim at Beyond Fabrications, Blue Seventy, First Endurance and Rudy Project for supporting Peter.

To our special friends Stan and Paula Bilkulege, Ashli Gaines, Ben Renfrow, David Godwin, and Cliff Brown for their personal donations and assistance to this race preparations. Your gifts were generous and Peter is grateful for your support.

Finally, a special thanks to WYFF 4 (Mark Dopher and Geoff Hart) for following Peter and the race, and to Richard Osbourne for his great story on Peter in Go Magazine and offering visibility to this great sport we all love.

November 24, 2009

ARRIVED IN KONA / GETTING READY TO GO

Aloha!

Well, we arrived in Kona on Sunday and Monday. We are getting organized and prepared for the race which starts on Friday morning. This blog will give daily updates as to the pre-race experiences and nightly updates during the Ultraman World Championship. The first article has hit from Slowtwitch.com. You will find a link to the odds for the race at the bottom of this blog. Unfortunatley, Jonas Colting is not in Kona this year, so the race has already changed before it even started! Also, during the race, I will be updating our progress live through Twitter. My twitter account is: ULTRAMAN21. Please feel free to follow me and you will received updates during day 1, day 2 and day 3 of the race.

As you can see by the picture, Peter's tapering is going GREAT! This picture is translated to "everyone have a great Thanksgiving." This is a term of endearment in Czech. It's the Peter we all know and love!! Ryan and I will start the daily reports tonight. We are glad to be back in Kona and looking forward to a great week and a great race!

http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Ribeiro_Armstrong_favored_at_25th_Ultraman_1120.html

Ultraman 2009 Following

To anybody who wants to keep up with the Ultraman 2009 World Championship updates:
1) this blog - it will be updated by Dean; Ryan - my crew
2) http://twitter.com/Ultraman21

Ultraman 2009 Training Part 4 – October 31-November 1, 2009

Last weekend was a shorter recovery weekend. On Saturday I completed a “short” 95mile ride with a 4 mile brick run and on Sunday I “only” ran 22 miles at brick run pace. The Ultraman training is coming to the end, its almost race time! This weekend is probably the last pure training weekend, next week I'll follow by an iron-distance race (Beach 2 Battleship) or by a regular long ride/long run weekend. Now to the Halloween Business at hand.

SaturdaySince the race is getting close the typical long power interval ride was replaced with some fast cadence interval sets. OF COURSE the weather gods kept their consistency…rain and pretty steady rain it was almost pouring. Sometimes I feel that these workouts should count as swim workouts as well. Also if I hear one more time that “we need the rain” I think I'll tie that person behind my bike, and will drag them around for 100 miles and of course I will make them wear a speedo!!! I do not have a corn field behind my house so I do NOT need 10 inches of rain per week. In case you are wondering my bike looks like a fighter jet in the cockpit with various computers and information gathering devices. Because it was raining so hard it was hard to see my navigational instruments so I ended up basically doing the entire ride as one big interval

Bike/swim workout was done, and yet again followed by a short brick run.

SundayAhhh…Are you ready for some football running. Again to not break consistency Sunday is long run day. However not being sure of my plans for next weekend…I know you are suppose to decide less than 6 days out whether or not you are going to compete in an Ironman but then again who is sane that does Ultraman…I set my plan to do a 33 mile run. I planned to push the pace for the first 22 miles (2x11 mile loop) and then ease up to a moderate effort on the last 11 mile loop. The first 22 miles went great, sub 6:40's felt very comfortable to almost easy, the consistency is working! When I started the last 11 mile loop – the mileage felt still easy/moderate and I hit the marathon point in the mid 2:50's, so that wasn’t bad either. After that; as usually; the miles and mental games started to set in. I realized how much of this is mental and that it is almost easier to keep up the faster pace. However, I didn't want to over do it so finished the last loop in just under 7 minute pace. This as the fastest long run to date for my Ultraman build so it really boosted my confidence.

After this long run I checked the weather report, it supposed to be in the low 50's to upper 60's next weekend , so “I'll just race an ironman instead of training”, it seems a lot easier.

Nutrition Report for the long run: 3 Red Bulls (to see if I can stomach all the stimulation drinks during the run); 1 liter of EFS Grape Prototype; 1 liter of “Kotland Cocktail’; 1 liter of water. No liquid shots this week – it would make it for too many calories for this run.

Well the next update will be from the island (or from home afterwords). Aloha and Mahola.



November 17, 2009

Ultraman 2009 Training Part 3 – October 17-18, 2009

Well, I must report that nothing new and exciting this weekend happened in my training. I know you would to like to read some crazy story from my training or a wild/totally different workout I completed, but my experience and from chatting with other elite athletes I know – consistent training is the key to success!!!

Saturday – Nothing new here – just like last weekend, the long ride consisted of some hill repetitions in the hardest gear my legs would allow. This weekend even the weather was consistent…consistently raining! In the last hour of the ride I gave myself credit for a swim workout; it was raining so hard I could barely see the road surface. However, it was little bit warmer than few weekends ago and I was able to feel my hands and my feet when I finished the ride. As my tradition has become I followed the ride with a shorter brick run.

Sunday – I am CRAZY, I must admit I was actually looking forward to my long run on Sunday. It has become a challenge…to go farther and/or faster than the week before. The first 5 miles were surprisingly easier than last week. I guess that was a good sign, but I was still treating this section as an easy warm-up. When I was planning this weekend's run, I wanted include more hills and longer loops that I could use for future comparison. The loops ended up being slightly over 11 miles, with a stop after the loop to measure my Lactic Acid (LA) and to put some nutrition and hydration in the engine. About halfway into the loop, at 6.3 miles, I had another hydration stop set up. These loops help to eliminate any GPS miscalculation, from now on these loops will be standard and I con compare the splits instead of stressing over the exact distance. The first loop felt pretty easy and I stayed right around 7 minute pace and a LA of 2.7 which verified that it was a comfortable pace. The second loop was purposefully a little faster and harder than the first. I help around 6:50 pace with a LA of 3.5 which is sustainable. Then the hard stuff kicks in, the miles get long and I start expecting the leg soreness to come out to play and I go into survival pace. The GREAT news is this survival mode set in 5 miles later than the week before, it set in this week at about mile 28. I was pushing for 3 loops which would allow me to finish with 34 miles. The last 6 miles were not much faster than my overall pace but I was able to push through the last section. In conclusion my overall pace was in the mid 6:50s and the final LA was 4.7. That’s a pretty high LA number but I really didn’t feel that bad. I completed my longest run in preparation for Ultraman 2009 and the good news was I was 1 second per mile faster than the previous week and had to really work for the last 5 miles.

My run nutrition included: 2 liters of EFS grape flavor, 200 calories from liquid shots, 1 liter of the infamous “Kotland” cocktail, and 2 liters of water. It came out to be 250-260 calories per hour which is a little on the low end.

To be consistent I followed the run with the slowest bike spin of my life to just to loosen up my legs. ***It should be noted that my athletes hate when I give them this ride after their long runs, but it really helps.

October 31, 2009

Ultraman 2009 Training Part 2 – October 10-11, 2009

Well I took a “recovery” week after the South Carolina Half last weekend; therefore, I was heading into 2 weeks of hard training, with 2 long runs on the weekends. This is a synopsis of the first of those weekends.

Saturday – Like 2 weeks ago I planned on riding about 120 miles with some sustained intervals. This weekend I was lucky that the weather was actually playing nice. The weather report was temperatures in the mid 60's to low 70's with some rain, but fortunately the rain never materialized. So under humid conditions I headed out for my long ride w/6 hill repeats in the hardest gear as I could push up the climbs. By the time I was done with last one – the legs were fried!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The feeling in my legs brought back memories..it was similar feeling to the second day of the Ultraman in 2008 – while climbing the last 6 mile mountain – about 1 mile from the top I almost felt over from my bike.

I jumped off the bike and went on a moderate brick run. My reason for this is just to keep the ironman muscles/mentality together in case I decide to race Beach 2 Battle Ship – an Iron distance race in November.


Sunday – Ahhhh…another week another long run. Like in weeks past, my long run this week was not overly structured. I just wanted to run a slightly faster pace and hopefully a couple of miles farther. Before I started my run I drank one Red Bull – just to mentally wake up. As in prior weeks the purpose of the first 5 miles were just to warm up the muscles and mind, I did not worry about the pace – I was not sure how yesterday's hill repeats would feel on my legs and wanted to really open up the blood flow before I started pushing the effort. After the first 5 miles I was trying to pick up the pace to my “comfortable fast” pace, keeping the distance of the run in mind. The plan was to check my Lactic Acid levels around half way through and at the end of the run. Also this week my nutrition plan was to take in more First Endurance EFS drinks, as well as their Liquid Shots. I had stops set up about every 5 miles to take in my nutrition. At mile 18 I stopped by my house and took a Lactic Acid reading and my LA ended up being 2.9. I was surprised it was this low since I had been pushing a 6:50 pace for the last 12 miles. During this stop I had the “Kotland Cocktail” of ½ grapefruit juice/½ water, and about 100 calories from Liquid Shot. I will probably start adding Vodka to it and sell it to college kids. The next 3-4 miles were still easy and comfortable, but after about 24 miles of running it was simply turning into a LOOOONG run! At the next stop at mile 25 the pace was still in the low 6:50’s so I was still in good spirits. However, the weekend of training was starting to play its toll, but mentally you never want to slow down too much. That’s where I have to start playing the mental games and win them. Earlier I decided that I will make the run 32 miles, with one extra stop for hydration than the week previous. So I convinced myself that I needed to speed up a little bit each mile for the last seven or until I had given everything I had. I managed to average only 6:50 but I was getting sore. After the run my second Lactic Acid reading came to 3.9. Looking back the run was a little bit better than expected, since the overall back came out to be in the mid 6:50’s.

Nutrition for this run – 1 Red Bull; 1 liter or EFS – grape flavor; 28oz of the grapefruit mixture; 200 calories of Liquid Shots

I followed the run with probably the slowest 20 miles ride in my life.

October 1, 2009

Ultraman 2009 Training Part 1 – September 26-27, 2009

This, and the following reports will be only the interesting parts of my training towards the Ultraman Worlds 2009 in Hawaii.

For Ironman training I ride a lot of miles on my bike each summer, this year it was about 4,500 miles from the beginning of June to the end of August. So with that base my main focus is to now prepare for the running portion of Ultraman.

To prepare for the run I consistently complete several key workouts. On weekly basis I complete 2 track workouts a week – one of them is usually contains shorter, fast intervals (time doesn't matter as much, but I rather focus on the leg turn-over), and second workout involves longer intervals ranging from 1,000 meters up to 1 mile intervals (time is more of a factor and I recover with shorter jog between efforts).

This past weekend was the first big step toward the Ultraman with this run focus. My weekend looked something like this:

Saturday – I rode 120 miles with some longer uphill intervals followed by a longer (than normal ironman training) recovery. It was really nasty weather, the first cold day since April. The temperature was in the low 60's with some drizzle for the first 6 hours of the ride, and really heavy rain (it probably could have fallen under the MONSOON category) for the last hour. Needless to say I froze on my bike and the temperature reflected my nutrition plan too. I started out with 2 bottles of EFS mixed with ½ a scoop of Pre-race in each, and some liquid shots. That was all the fuel I took in, so by the end of my ride I had only consumed about 500 calories from the drinks and 400 calories from the liquid shots. After I toweled off I went for a short 5 mile brick run, I think it took about 3 miles before I was able to feel my feet.

Sunday – The training plan was to go for a long run. Over the summer I've been running a long run between 20-24 miles every week, so this weekend the plan was to go at least 24 miles to get the Ultraman miles in. I didn't know what to expect after Saturday and how my body would respond to the run after the calorie depletion during the previous days ride so I just tried to relax, and did not set a maximum mileage goal for the workout. As usual the start was pretty slow, and I didn’t even look at my watch for the first 5 miles. I started feeling pretty good, and not as sore I had expected, so I tried to pick the pace up after realizing that the first 5 miles were REALLY slow. Then somewhere about ½ way through the run, the mileage decision was made… “I'll try to run 30 miles this weekend, without slowing down too much.” On all of my long runs the nutrition plan is about the same I try to drink every 5 miles, stay away from too many carbs. Since this was the longest run so far this year, I wanted to include some energy source, and prevent bonking. For the first 15 miles I only drank water. At mile 20 I had 1 bottle of Fruit Punch EFS – it tasted REALLY good, and then the final nutrition stop included a mixture of 1/3 grapefruit juice, and 2/3 of water. There was something about the bitterness of the juice – it was good, and my stomach was OK with that too. So the first long run towards Ultraman successfully accomplished. I took splits every 5 miles (this offsets the mile to mile variation due to the rolling hills, but makes the 5 mile sections should be very similar and valid comparisons) and the recap yielded that my pace was good, it got progressively faster, and I managed to run harder on the last mile. ALWAYS FINISH STRONG.

The 5 mile sections splits: 39'23; 36'22; 36'11; 35'50; 35'59; 35'01 with the last mile 6'34.

I followed this workout with a short recovery spin on my bike.

September 11, 2009

IM Wisconsin

Today sucked!! After sleeping about 4hrs - yes even after 35+ IM races I still get all anxious about IM races.
We got to the race site @ 5:50AM - plenty of time to get everything done before the start. Put the wetsuit on, and got ready for the race.
Swim - somehow I ended up swimming with only one other Pro - we swam next to each other for the first 1.5 loops, after that either she sped up or I was getting tired, so I just got behind her, and finished the swim. The swim felt effortless which showed in little slower time I was hoping for, but..58 minutes.
Bike - usually it takes about 5-10mi for me to get comfortable, and another 50-60mi to start feeling really good. Well today just wasn't the day. From mile 1 my legs were MIA - was trying to find them for the first 60-70mi, but it was actually getting lot worse. One of the days where you just don't have anything in them - nothing at all.
So at mile 90 (location of my home-stay) I just had to call it a day. Usually we think about it the next day, and say well - I could have - no NOT today - there was nothing.

There will be another day.

August 11, 2009

Mid-Summer Update

Just a quick update for my friends and sponsors.

I can truly say that summer is my favorite part of the year. Especially here in South Carolina. To get ready for training one doesn't have to think twice what to wear. To go run - just a pair of shorts and sunglasses. To go for a bike ride – shorts, jersey, socks, sunglasses, and that's it. The heat doesn't bother me a bit. Just the memories of winter months bring chills to my skin.

With the year being focused on 3 important races – IM Louisville, IM Wisconsin, and Ultraman Worlds, the biggest training has to be done during the summer months. So after a minor bike crash back in May, I decided to do the best I can with my preparations for these races. No messing around, no excuses, no feeling sorry for myself when I get tired. The last 13 weeks of my training have been the best, and the most consistent in the last 15 years of me racing triathlons. The goal is to be standing on a starting line and not being able to find even one thing that I would want to change about the preparation.

Well – now I have to get rested and see how it works.

On another note…I’ve started to work with Robert from First Endurance and testing/using their new Prototype Optygen. Just to compare it – it's like having an Espresso, and then somebody comes with a Double Shot Espresso, so when you think that's the “Shit” – then somebody else shows up and has a Triple Shot Espresso. All I can say – the new Prototype Optygen is the “Shit”.