Earlier today, a friend sent me a link to a cute graphic about coffee. She sent it via email, because she thought I would like it. I did, when I came across it about a week ago and tweeted about it. I jokingly chastised her for not being on Twitter, to which she responded, "I don't have time for Twitter."

In my opinion, the beauty of Twitter is that it is gives us the option to pay attention to neat musings such as the coffee article, or not to. When she emailed me the coffee link, the option of whether to pay attention and spend time or not to on this article was taken away from me. With Twitter, if I have time to look at cool articles or blogs that pertain to my interests (mostly triathlon and entrepreneurship), I go on Twitter and see what interesting things people have posted. If I don't want to be bothered, I'm not.

Most people say they have no use for Twitter because it is mostly useless crap about what people are doing on a daily basis, and for the most part, most of what we do is not worth reading about. However, if my friends travel to interesting places or see interesting things and take pictures of them, or meet interesting people, or read interesting blogs or articles, I like to hear about it. If people post mundane things that aren't interesting to me, I don't 'follow' them. Either way, it is my choice on who I follow, and whether I even spend time looking at what they've posted or not. (This also differentiates it from Facebook, where if I don't want someone's "status" to show up in my "feed" the easiest way is to de-friend them, which is a pretty serious social faux pas.)

The other reason I use Twitter is that it gives you a glimpse at what people in a certain industry, or especially leaders in a specific industry are spending their time doing and reading. If I want to learn, say, about Kickboxing, within a few minutes of searching I can find out who the highest regarded people in the industry are, what they spend their time doing, and what information sources they value enough to spend their time reading (blogs or articles).

So stop knocking Twitter as a waste of time, or another social networking phenomenon that will die out. Stop using email for links to things you think are humorous or interesting, because chances are, if it is something that I'm really interested in, I've already seen it on Twitter. If not, put it on Twitter yourself, and I'll look at it when I have time.

Overall Goal: Be conservative, race my own race (don't chase others who pass me), run a strong marathon.

Time Goal: 10 hours, conditions willing.

Result:

BIB	AGE	STATE/COUNTRY	PROFESSION
150	24	BLACKSBURG VA USA

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	RANK	DIV.POS.
59:15	5:19:28	3:44:37	10:14:32	214	4

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV.POS.
FIRST SWIM HALF	1.2 mi. (28:26)	1:29/100m
SECOND SWIM HALF	1.2 mi. (30:49)	1:37/100m
TOTAL SWIM	2.4 mi. (59:15)	1:33/100m	54	2
FIRST BIKE SEGMENT	73 mi. (3:34:02)	20.46 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT	39 mi. (1:45:26)	22.19 mph
TOTAL BIKE	112 mi. (5:19:28)	21.04 mph	257	5
FIRST RUN SEGMENT	6 mi. (49:53)	8:18/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT	7.4 mi. (1:03:46)	8:37/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT	5.6 mi. (46:29)	8:18/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT	7.2 mi. (1:04:29)	8:57/mile
TOTAL RUN	26.2 mi. (3:44:37)	8:34/mile	214	4
TRANSITION				TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE				4:35
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN				6:37

The swim had some pretty serious waves, swam 3 minutes slower than last year, but 10 spots better with the 54th fastest swim on the day. I stayed pretty close to the front of the amateur group, and tried to avoid the jellyfish.

The bike was windy, so a bit slower going out, but kept the HR right where I wanted it, between 140 and 148, and let the groups go by. Drafting was definitely an issue. This video pretty much sums up the whole day on the bike, with echelons coming around you all the time. The rule for amateurs is seven meters, but if I slowed down every time somebody pulled directly in front of me, I'd have coasted half the race and been speeding up and slowing down the whole time. Instead, I just kept a steady speed and let the groups pass, for which I ended up with a drafting penalty (4 minutes, served in T2) for not dropping back quickly enough when one came by.

In the penalty tent in T2, I had a few minutes to calm down, stretch out, make an assessment of how my muscles were feeling, and generally collect myself before the marathon. I ran the first two miles at about a 7:30 pace, which felt very easy, though I knew I wasn't running a 3:15 marathon, and that if I kept that up, I'd be walking at the end. Even though it felt ridiculously easy, I slowed considerably to about an 8:30-8:45 pace, which I held quite comfortably through the half-way and up until about mile 19 or so. At that point, still feeling awesome, I decided to pick it up a bit. Immediately I felt my hamstrings cramp a bit, and dealt with this all the way to the end, having to walk a couple times for 30 seconds or so and take in some electrolyte, but still staying under a 9 minute mile until the end.

I've never run a race more conservatively, and the result was a 25 minutes PR and a strong, mostly even-split marathon. I missed the 10 hour mark, but not by much, and conditions were definitely a factor. Very happy on the day, and came home with some sweet m-dot hardware for 4th in the age group.

Below is some more specific thoughts on the race, for anyone interested:

Bike execution:
Only about 250 cal/hour, much less than I had the last two races, resulted in no gut issues. I ended up having two 500-calorie bottles of Cytocarb, 4 100-calorie Clif shots, and one 100-calorie sample-size Clif bar. Also, about 8 electrolyte pills.

This goes back to a bunch of research I did after doing so poorly in Louisville execution-wise, that resulted in this less-is-more take on nutrition. My plan there came from articles and blogs about how professionals take in up to 400 calories per hour on the bike and 300 per hour on the run. This is way too much for the average age-grouper. It also came from a discussion with my coach, Jim McGehee, on nutrition, where we talked about when trying to get in as much food as possible, you end up in a cycle where you have to keep eating to keep moving, but your gut is constantly full and uncomfortable. This happened to me in Louisville, where I couldn't stomach anything, and stopped eating completely, which worked fine for a while until I found myself walking the last couple miles at a 20 minute pace. We talked about how it is probably better to err on the side of too little food, which can always be fixed by just eating a tiny bit more, without the gut issues.

Effort-wise, I went by heart-rate, which I kept between about 142 and 148, spiking up to 152 a couple times on slight uphills, and letting it fall into the mid 130s as a group would pass and I'd feel the draft effect. For me, about 150 is my aerobic threshold on the bike, where I start breathing hard, which I stayed about at or below the whole day.

Run execution:
Brought no food with me (except electrolyte pills), and just took coke, Gatorade, water, a couple of bananas from the aid stations. If I started feeling the gut, I skipped a couple aid stations and just kept going. This worked great, and I never felt like I was close to 'bonking' or the digestive issues I had had in other races. The only thing I would change would be to have slightly more electrolyte (which I was wary of over-doing after my Louisville experience) to stay ahead of cramping. Also, I chugged a few ounces of beer some spectators who were really enthusiastic about Virginia Tech all day handed me with about a half mile to go, which after the immediate stomach discomfort, may have helped me run that last half mile at like 7 minute pace. (Not saying I'm going to start training with beer, just saying...)

HR-wise, it took a couple miles to come down from about the 165 I had right out of T2, but by about miles 2-3 had settled to a comfortable 155 at 8:30 pace. Running, my aerobic threshold is about 158, so again, could pretty much carry on a conversation at that pace. For the third quarter, I picked it up a tiny bit to about 157-158, and on the last 10k, allowed it to go 160-164 as I pushed it to the finish, though this did coincide with some hamstring cramping, where I had to walk a couple times.

Random tips that worked for me:
• Throw-away socks in the morning to wear out of transition and on the beach
• Cue sheet on the bike to tell you when to eat (see photos). This kept me from trying to do math in my head about what time it was and how much I had eaten, and trying to rationalize eating more or less. It takes the guess-work out what to eat when. It was actually my buddy Doran's idea, to give credit where credit is due.
• Bandage on neck during swim didn't cover enough, so next time I'll probably go with a bunch of athletic tape to cover the whole back of the neck
• Aero-drink on the bike only had water, and I had no plan on how much water to drink, and just drank with thirst. This worked fine, and decoupled calorie intake and fluid intake, which should be separate issues.

From cold, rainy Blacksburg, thanks.