Scoggins Valley Tri

Posted on 2:47 PM by Tweedle Beetle Tri-Athletle | 0 comments

Alright, alright...

I have been terribly negligent.  I haven't posted in months and actual raced two more tri's at the end of the summer.  The final one, I actually placed second!

Yes it took puking all over the shoes of some poor person who stood too close to the finish corral (sorry but I barely could keep putting one foot in front of the other) and then puking again on the finishing mat.

All said and done though, I left it all out there and I finally feel like I am back in form!

My second place run!


2010 Amica Mid-Summer Olympic Distance Triathlon

Posted on 1:35 PM by Tweedle Beetle Tri-Athletle | 0 comments


Blue Lake Olympic  6/6/10
Hagg Lake Olympic 7/10/10
Amica Mid-Summer Olympic 8/1/10
PLACE (OVERALL):
178 / 406
64 / 203
54 / 186
NAME:
H, JENSEN
H, JENSEN
H, Jensen
AGE:
33
33
33
SEX:
M
M
M
TIME:
2:35:03
2:42:17
2:25:58
BRACKET PLACE:
25 / 41
13 / 25
11 / 21
SWIM TIME:
0:32:13
0:30:53
0:28:35
SWIM 100 YD:
1:58
1:53
1:45
PLACE AFTER SWIM:
318
126
84
TRASITION 1:
3:58
3:27
3:24
BIKE TIME:
1:09:22
1:15:25
1:06:48
AVE MPH:
21.11 MPH
19.77 MPH
21.42 MPH
BIKE RANK:
162
52
54
PLACE AFTER BIKE
224
77
61
TRASITION 2:
2:57
2:40
2:02
RUN TIME:
0:46:33
49.52
0:45:09
AVE MILE SPLIT:
7:29
8:02
7:16
RUN RANK
125
60
49
PLACE AFTER RUN:
178
64
54


Waiting for my wave while the sprinters were getting
warmed up.
There are a few times in ones career when everything seems to fall into place, to come together into a perfect day, perfect presentation, perfect work of art or perfect race.  These days are not just for the rich, the artisans or athletic pros - they are for all of us and while they don't happen very often, rest assured they do happen.   August 1st, 2010 was one of those days for me.

Waking at 5:15 the alarm was just loud enough to not waking up the wife and kids.  My steps were soft enough as I got ready as to continue this trend and leave everyone in the house smiling in their sleep - rather than grumpy with Dad for waking them. Everything was just as I had left it the night before and with a perfect cup of coffee in my hands, I rolled out of the drive way.  Getting to Blue Lake at about 6:30 gave me plenty of time to realize my first and only mistake of the day... (my complete lack of bug spray). In true spirit of the triathlon community, it only took me about 45 seconds before I found someone totally willing to lend me theirs.

The comradely of the event, of which you only have to be a present to experience didn't stop at the bug spray.  I have really only been doing this for about 6 months but in that time, I have made good friends and make new friends at every race.  Amica was not exception.   Within minutes of finding my place on the rack in the transition area a conversation had begun between a couple and I.   Both were down from Seattle and I must admit, I was a bit startled when the husband began pulling not just running shoes and bike shoes out of the duffel bag but a true carbon running leg, biking leg and swimming leg!  A leg for each event.  I truly was inspired, especially after I learned that he will be participating in the Lake Steven's Half Iron man.


With my wave just about to start, I was trying not to focus on
burning sensation on the inside of my left bicep... oh, and the
3" teeth about to tear into my lower abdomen.
My wave was set to start at 8:37 AM.  A few fellows and I sauntered down to the waters edge as we started on what now has become a pre-race ritual of pulling on our wet-suit tops and helping each other with finding the "perfect" zipper pull placement.  As I pulled the suit up I felt a sharp burning sensation on the inside of my left bicep, as I jerked the suit down again to look at what had impaled me - I was not to happy to find a bee stinger handing out of me, pumping away.   While this was an annoyance, I decided to take the Lance Armstrong approach and just let it piss me off so I would be motivated to go faster.


Jeremy Wade (of River Monsters) holds
his prise Tiger Fish on the shores of the
Congo River in Africa.
Aside from bee sting anger, I picked up yet a new source of motivation.  A few nights ago, while on the floor stretching as I watched Animal Planet.  I was lucky enough to find myself engrossed in a new episode of "River Monsters". In this episode our fearless fisherman (note the use of fearless and also the fact that he generally remains safely on the shore) was hunting the "Demon Fish" or better know as the Tiger fish.  Well, while it hadn't occurred to me that this "fish" may have made its way out of the Congo to the shores of Blue Lake Oregon, as I watched the show - it did occur to me that it was a near certainty - as I stood waist deep putting on my swim-cap and goggles.   I decided that the slowest swimmers were most certainly the prime target of such a carnivore and I scared my way into a new 28:35 PR!


Turning Right onto Marine Dr (Approximately 1/2 mile from
Transition Area)
With the exception of a slight debachle in the Swim to Bike Transition area (where I literally fell over my bike) - the ride was smooth.  I felt powerful through the entire ride where as in June, I felt a fade in the last 6 miles.  There were a few instances where I had to break my aerodynamic position to stretch my butt and lower back but overall I I was able to hold a fairly constant 21 to 22 mph.   Recently I have been working on "explosive power" - the ability to reach the foot of a short hill or in process of climbing, explode with a burst of power.  In theory, this will allow me to both maintain my speed when I encounter a short hill or pull away from drafting competitors (or simply make a strong pass where I firmly plant in my competitors brain... "I can't keep up that pace" and allow me to pass unchallenged).   I felt successful on both accounts.  There are two short, shallow hills on Blue Lake Bike course which tend to slow the pace of the riders.  On both hills I passed 6 to 8 competitors and while I brought my HR up to the 190s was able to get it back down once I settled a comfortable 30 yards past them.  I was very happy about this performance and will continue this additive into my endurance program.


8 Miles in to the 40K TT.
The transition from Bike to Run was smooth and fast.  Again, I felt the need to pee upon exiting the transition area and had to burn up 30 seconds in the bushes.  I am not sure how to avoid this.  I can only imagine that being dehydrated and not peeing would result in a substantial drop in performance (much more than my 30 sec pee).  That said, I still kept my first mile under an 8 min/mile pace and continued to average 7:16 s through the rest of the run.  


One of my absolute mental pet peeves is that guy who settles in behind you and uses your pace to pull him along.  Not that there is anything morally or ethically wrong with the practice - just hearing the constant footfalls behind me and the breathing, increases my anxiety and prevents me from racing with a clear head.  While this is probably something I need to  "shift" my thoughts around, I wasn't in the right frame of mind on this run to do it.  I do believe that I mastered my thoughts and was successful at developing a plan to use this annoyance to my advantage.  As we neared the overpass on mile 4 I planned my last and potentially fatal burst on the uphill side of the overpass and then a stride out on the way down - trying to put some distance between me and my two pace leaches.  It was successful to a point.  For Mile 4 I posted a 6:26 split, a 50 second increase in pace.  I maintained it until mile 5.5 (about 3/4 mile to go) at which point I couldn't hold it and my paced slowed significantly to 7:45 for the last mile or so.  Due to the slackened pace my two friends caught me and passed me (grrrr).  Hind sight being 20/20, I should have waited 1 mile to surge and maintain the surge through the finish.  2 1/2 miles at 6:30 was simply too much.


While the racing was great, the outstanding energy of the event was fantastic - what meant the most to me on this day was the fact that my wife and two boys had come out to support me.  The night before as I put my son down, he gave me a red, white and blue silicone wristband that he got for being the "Star Student" at his school, so that I would remember him during the race.  This was so touching that no less than a dozen times, I looked down at my wrist and felt a surge of energy to increase my pace.  It really, really meant something to me and then to have that reinforced as I came out of the transition and have him give me a "high-five" made me feel so blessed.  


My wife told me a little story after the race... As they were waiting for me to arrive on the bike, she said something to the effect of "Is that Daddy?", upon further investigation - it wasn't me but Aidan then piped up with "No, it is probably Lance Armstrong".  




Location: Blue Lake, Portland, OR 97024, USA

New Team Kit for North Lake Physical Therapy Tri Team

Posted on 4:00 PM by Tweedle Beetle Tri-Athletle | 0 comments

I love this!!!

My "real" job is to work with various corporations and help them spread and grow their brand equity via promotional items.  I recently worked on a project for Google where we did a Chrome Cycling Kit and a Maps Cycling Kit.  I used this same vendor to create a two piece Tri Suite for North Lake Physical Therapy Triathlon team.



Hopefully we will have it by the end of the season!!!

2010 HAGG LAKE OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON

Posted on 3:09 PM by Tweedle Beetle Tri-Athletle | 0 comments






Blue Lake Olympic  6/6/10
Hagg Lake Olympic 7/10/10
PLACE (OVERALL):
178 / 406
64 / 203
NAME:
H, JENSEN
H, JENSEN
AGE:
33
33
SEX:
M
M
TIME:
2:35:03
2:42:17
BRACKET PLACE:
25 / 41
13 / 25
SWIM TIME:
0:32:13
0:30:53
SWIM 100 YD:
1:58
1:53
PLACE AFTER SWIM:
318
126
TRASITION 1:
3:58
3:27
BIKE TIME:
1:09:22
1:15:25
AVE MPH:
21.11 MPH
19.77 MPH
BIKE RANK:
162
52
PLACE AFTER BIKE
224
77
TRASITION 2:
2:57
2:40
RUN TIME:
0:46:33
49.52
AVE MILE SPLIT:
7:29
8:02
RUN RANK
125
60
PLACE AFTER RUN:
178
64


***http://www.racecenter.com/results/

*** PLEASE NOTE CORRECTIONS TO BLUE LAKE OLYMPIC DISTANCE (I READ THE RESULTS WRONG...) WHOOPS! ***


The day started in stark contrast to Blue Lake Triathlon just a little more than one month ago.   The sky was blue, I pulled on my shorts and drove (enjoyed the windows rolled down the entire drive) out to Hagg Lake.  I arrived early and things went as smooth as they possibly could - I even had time for some meditation and visualization.


We were in the water at 8:00 AM sharp my my wave was second at 8:01.  The water was brilliantly warm and the toughest part of the swim was the elbow which clipped my nose about 3/4 of the way out to the first buoy.  I felt strong throughout the swim, although hindsight being 20/20 - I should have pushed it a bit harder.  I swear there was a current... somebody mentioned it but I can't be sure.


My "imaginary" Hagg lake.
Okay... the bike leg..
That was really hard...really, really hard..  I feel like I did well but... DAMN!!! That was really hard!  Lets remember that "Hard" is relative and I suppose that being "relative" it has to be compared to a reference point.  Lets call this my "expectation".   Compared to my expectation, Hagg Lake was really, really hard.   The course was described to me as rolling hills (the start of my reference point troubles).  This is how "I" expect rolling hills to look.


I sort of pictured grassy plains with, well... rolling hills, maybe 50 or so feet of elevation change - maybe even a hundred feet.  The kind of ride where you stand up to peddle and maintain your speed, but for the most part, maybe even the entire part, you are locked onto your aerobars, cranking out 20+MPH speeds, mile after joyful miles.  Let me be very clear... THIS IS NOT HAGG LAKE.
Stage 8 Tour de France


Brutal climbs...
Leg and Lung punishing accents...
Terrifyingly fast descents....
Riders and runners dropping like flies in the heat of a blistering summer day...




Okay, Okay.... this is actually the profile for stage 8 of the 2010 Tour de France.   Sorry Lance, I know you are reading this and I hate to bring up bad memories.  I guess the good news is my ride was MUCH better than yours.  It really looked like this from my vantage point!!! Honestly... It did!


Actually, what the bike leg really look like with this:


For the Olympic Distance the race was two loops around the lake with a bit of a dog leg mid way.  Total distance was nearly exactly 24 miles.  Personally, I went out too strong - finding myself really having to push on the second loop and then struggling through the run especially on the uphill sections.  


On the first loop, after crossing over the damn, there was a hard right hand turn which I nearly went down on as I came into the turn way too fast.  It is one thing to be sliding sideways on a mountain bike and something entirely different to be sliding sideways on a road bike with 120 psi tires chattering through the corner.  After a quick and very lucky recovery I reentered the group, nearly colliding with a rider who saw an advantage and went to take it on my right side (I was a bit annoyed by this) whom I never expected to be there.  I got back on the bars fairly quickly but was seriously shaken - if my heart rate wasn't already at 180 - it quickly found its way there during the slide and it was tough to get it back down to where I needed it.  The race wasn't without a bit of blood though - one woman went down hard and required the use of emergency medical (fire and paramedic).  Lets hope she was all right! The rest of the bike leg was without event and I finished with a decent time of 1:15:25 and average speed of 19.77 mph.  


The run leg of the course was a 3.125 miles out, 3.125 miles back on road course.  The same course as the bike leg (yup, this was hilly too!).  I was stiff coming off the bike and felt like it took forever for the gels to kick in that I scarfed down at the bike to run transition.  Each hill seemed to slow me more (even though my splits were within seconds of each other).  Where I felt like I struggled was both legging it out and recovering on the downhill section.  This has always been a strength of mine and a strategy (shorten my stride and grind a consistent pace on the uphill side, then maintaining the same cadence - lengthen my stride, increasing my speed on the downhill).  Not being able to do this really shows that I should have slowed things down on the bike so I could take advantage of my best leg (the run).  My run time was 49:52 with ave mileage splits of 8:02.  This is really where I am looking for improvement at Scoggins Valley Olympic Distance next month.


Did I do well?  Ya, I think I did.  I have to keep reminding myself that when the race was ran (July 10, 2010) I was less than 6 months out of spine surgery.  There is really no question though that this race was really special to me because it was to be the first opportunity for my two boys and my wife to watch me race.  I can't describe the feeling of passing the three people you love the most in the world, hearing them cheer you on as you run or cycling past them.  The feeling of picking up my two boys after crossing the finish line.  Its really amazing and makes me feel so grateful.



Thanks North Lake Physical Therapy for sponsoring my involvement in the race, but most of all - thank you to my wife, Shannon for sitting on the side of the road, breaking up fights between our two toddlers in 80 degree temperatures for 2:42:17.  She gets first place for dealing with a much tougher race than I had!


Location: Henry Hagg Lake, Coast Range, OR 97119, USA

SPONSORSHIP!

Posted on 7:20 AM by Tweedle Beetle Tri-Athletle | 0 comments

North Lake Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation has agreed to provide me sponsorship for the 2010 Triathlon season!  

Setting the Stage - The timeline:

Last December, 2009 - I made the decision that I was going to begin my training for the Pacific Crest 1/2 Iron Man in Sunriver Oregon.


December 19th, 2009 - Beautiful December day - 20 mile light ride. Tingling in my left hand.

December 21st, 2009 - Woke up to the most intense pain ever radiating down my left arm. (http://tweedlebeetletriatheletle.blogspot.com/2009/12/locked-up.html)

January 21st, 2010 - Complete Artificial Disk Replacement surgery, to replace the badly herniated Disk between C6/7.

Febuary, 2010 - Cheryl Kosta agrees to ignore my ridiculous insurance and provide to me the very best in physical therapy.  Thank you!!!!



The Badly Herniated Disk between C-6 and C-7.
The Group:

The North Lake Group, lead by Physical Therapist and North Lake founder Cheryl Kosta, took me under their healing wing back in February 2010 - after my C6/7 artificial disk replacement surgery.  This surgery corrected my badly herniated disk which resulted in excruciating pain, muscle waisting on my left shoulder, pectoral, bicep and triceps, numbness in my left hand and paralysis in my left triceps.

What They Did:

Rather than just rehabbing my cervical spine and shoulder area, the group took on a holistic approach - viewing the body and a system of interconnected subsystems.  I completed my rehab with two sets of ortohotics (one for daily use - the other for running/cycling), a professional and complete bike fit, and I am ecstatic to report that I have made a complete recovery.  The orthotics are designed to not only align my bone structure preventing some of my most chronic injuries (Achilles Tendinitis and IT Band Tendinitis) but also increasing performance!  By aligning my structure I increase efficiency and power transfer.
Post Surgery - Notice the artificial disk between C-6
and C-7.

The Result:


On May 15t,h 2010 (less than 4 months after my spine surgery), I returned to competing at the Pole Pedal Paddle. (http://tweedlebeetletriatheletle.blogspot.com
/2010/06/first-race-of-year-2010-us-bank-pole.html)

On June 6th, 2010 I competing in my first Olympic Distance Triathlon at Blue Lake, finishing 125th out of 405 finishers.
(http://tweedlebeetletriatheletle.blogspot.com/
2010/06/2010-blue-lake-olympic-distance.html)

My Sincerest Thank You!

There is no question that North Lake's direction during my recovery not only helped my physical recovery from my spinal injury but also returned me to a stronger, more limber and faster place.

To Cheryl and everyone at North Lake, thank you for your guidance, your support and your financial assistance!

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