Given to Tri: Running

Race Report: 2025 Hole Half Marathon

2025-09-28T11:00:00-06:00

I was pretty bummed out when I had to pull out of the Hole Half Marathon at the last minute last year. It’s a fun fall race and a great way to close out my season before winter sets in, so I look forward to it every year, but with last year’s Fish Creek Fire sending the AQI into the stratosphere—235 on race day—I really had no choice but to skip it.

We’ve been much more fortunate this year with a low-key fire season and good air quality most of the summer. I was once again looking forward to completing this race—not just to close out my season properly this time, but because it’s also the first time I would finish all three of my local half marathons. It feels like a neat little personal milestone.

The Hole Half Marathon is the third and last half marathon of the year in Jackson Hole, after the Jackson Hole Half Marathon and the Grand Teton Half Marathon, both in the spring. It sits in the middle in terms of participation, with about twice as many runners as the former, but nowhere near as many as the latter. (It’s also run concurrently with the full Jackson Hole Marathon, which I’ve never done—maybe someday, though.)

The course is almost the reverse of the route for the Jackson Hole Half Marathon. It starts in the parking lot of the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, follows the community pathway across the Snake River for a quick loop to Wilson around the Stilson Lot, and then continues north on the pathway along the Moose-Wilson Road towards the finish line in the lawn of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village. It starts mostly flat, but the last 12 km are at a mild grade, ending at 1,930 m with a total elevation gain of about 90 m. It’s a beautiful route, with gorgeous views of the mountains most of the way, and the fall foliage and crisp fall weather add to the beauty of the landscape.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

With fire season finally over, the AQI wasn’t a concern at all this time—it was firmly in the “good” range on race day. As is typical for this time of year, the day started chilly, with a barely-above-freezing temperature of 1°C shortly before the 9:00 AM start. With clear blue skies and the sun shining brightly, I expected it to warm up quickly, so I didn’t bring too many layers. In previous years I’ve made the mistake of wearing heavy tops and long running tights and ended up overheating. This time I wore a lighter-weight Tracksmith long-sleeve top and half tights. It was the right decision; I was a little cold at the start but perfectly comfortable towards the end.

After last week’s result at Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities, where I finished the run within five minutes of my personal best in an open half marathon, I wanted to try for another PR to truly close out the year on a high note. I gave myself a very aggressive—and probably unrealistic—goal of 1:35:00 and set it up using the PacePro feature on my Garmin watch (I had never used this feature before, so I was curious to see how it worked). It gave me a target pace of 4:30/km, which seemed tough, but worth a shot. At the Jackson Hole Half Marathon back in May, I felt like I was underfueled towards the end; this time I planned to fuel my effort with a Maurten 160 bar before the start of the race and three Maurten 100 gels spaced about 25 minutes apart, with the last one caffeinated for a little boost at the tail end of the race. This race is cupless, but I didn’t want to slow down at the aid stations or carry a bottle, so I didn’t worry about hydration.

Kate dropped me off at the Presbyterian Church at 8:30 AM. This gave me just enough time to get my bib, do a quick warmup, and use the porta-potties before the start. I placed myself near the front, and hit the ground running as soon as the gun went off. I did my best to follow the pace guidance from my watch, but admittedly let the race adrenaline get the best of me; the first couple of kilometers were a little faster than I intended, and certainly near my limit. The PacePro feature worked well, though—it gives you a special data page on the watch with the current target pace, current pace, and how far ahead or behind you are from the desired finish time. It also provides alerts whenever the target pace changes. I’m not sure if I can use this in triathlon mode, but it’d be convenient if so.

The first half of the race went well, and I stuck pretty closely to my target paces, although I was actually ahead of my target finish for most of this time. However, once I rejoined the community pathway for the uphill portion of the race on the Moose-Wilson Road after looping around the Stilson Lot, I started feeling some pain in my right knee. It’s the same damn IT band pain I had a couple of years ago in St. George, which hadn’t recurred since then. It wasn’t bad enough to cause me to DNF or even slow down to a walk, but it was definitely painful enough that I couldn’t sustain the pace I had been running. By the end it had fallen closer to 5:00/km.

Roughly halfway through the race, in the Stilson Lot. Credit: Jackson Hole Marathon Races

Those remaining 8 km were uncomfortable as hell, and the last couple in particular felt interminable, but I managed to finish the race in 1:38:14, with a final pace of 4:40/km. I was 3rd out of 23 in the M40–49 division and 15th overall, out of 345. Not quite the personal best I was hoping for, but still my third-fastest half marathon to date—I’ll take it. My knee is a little sore, but I have plenty of time to nurse it back to health before my next race, whenever it may be.

And with that, this year’s race season is finally over. With four successful Ironman 70.3s and all three of the local half marathons done, it’s safe to say this has been my best season so far. But now it’s time to rest and relax, enjoy some fall bike rides and runs just for fun, and start dreaming of next year’s races. Onwards.

Race Report: 2025 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2025-06-09T08:00:00-06:00

Last year I surprised myself on the run at Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene—I came out of T2 like a bat out of hell and it ended up being my fastest run split in a 70.3 to date. There were probably multiple reasons for that, including the shortened swim, but I think one factor was the Grand Teton Half Marathon, which I had raced two weeks prior. That was also my fastest half marathon to date, and I suspect that strong run kicked my running fitness up a notch or two just in time for the race.

This season, I’m putting that hypothesis to the test by racing not one, but two half marathons before this year’s edition of Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene. The first one was the Jackson Hole Half Marathon two weeks ago, so without further ado, here’s a quick race report about the Grand Teton Half Marathon, my last running race before heading back to Idaho later this month.

With over 2,000 participants, the Grand Teton Half Marathon is the biggest of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole, and it’s become my favorite as well, with great organization, cool swag and medals, and a chill course with lovely views of the Tetons.

This year’s course was exactly the same as last year: It starts at the Stilson Lot next to Rendezvous Park, heading west toward Wilson on the Jackson Hole Community Pathway for about a kilometer and a half before looping back towards R Park. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, it continues along Wyoming Highway 22, then turns onto Spring Gulch Road around halfway, finishing at the Jackson Hole Golf Club. The first half of the route is fairly flat and on the Community Pathway; the second half is at a slight grade and on the road, but with cones and ample separation from car traffic, it never feels even remotely dangerous. The total elevation gain for the course is about 98 m, most of it on the second half, on Spring Gulch Road, which has an average grade of about 0.5% according to this Strava segment I created. I know a lot of people travel for this race, so it’s also worth mentioning that the average elevation at this race is 1,905 m—if you’re planning to do it, make sure you know how to prepare for racing at altitude.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

The parking situation for this race was more complicated than in previous years due to the ongoing construction of the new Stilson Transit Center near the start line, so I asked Kate to drop me off instead of taking one of the shuttles provided by the race. It was a brisk but beautiful 2.8°C morning, with clear blue skies that guaranteed gorgeous views of the mountains from Spring Gulch Road and at the finish line. I got there shortly before 6:00 AM and did a short warmup to shake off the cold before seeding myself near the front for the start.

I didn’t have specific time goals for this race; last year I finished fourth in the male masters category with a time of 1:37:09, so finishing faster than that was more of a stretch goal than anything else, although I did hope to get on the podium again. The past two times I’ve done this race, I’ve started too fast and then blown up a little bit towards the end, so I wanted to try to pace more evenly and finish stronger. I also wanted to see if tweaking my nutrition would help—last month at the Jackson Hole Half Marathon I felt like I could have used one more gel, so my nutrition for this race was a Maurten Gel 160 before the race start, another one about thirty-five minutes in, and a Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 about thirty minutes later, for a final caffeine boost. The aid stations, roughly every 5 km, had plenty of Honey Stinger gels and waffles, along with bananas and oranges, but as always, I prefer to use Maurten, since it’s what I’ve trained with and what they have at the Ironman aid stations. Train like you race, as they say, although in this case maybe it’s the other way around.

The race started at 6:30 AM on the spot, and even though my goal was to not start too hard, it quickly became obvious I didn’t have much of a choice—I just didn’t feel strong at all. Maybe it was poor sleep or accumulated fatigue from my previous workouts, but some days you just ain’t got it, and that’s the exact thought that crossed my mind almost as soon as I started: “Nope, I ain’t got it today.” Oh, well. Still, I did my best to hang on and managed to hold an uncomfortable pace of 4:30/km through the first half of the race, until the turn on Spring Gulch Road, where I expected to slow down a bit due to the slight grade. Right after the turn I started feeling some pain in my left calf, but I dug deep—I didn’t want to let my pace get slower than 5:00/km. It was a struggle and I got passed by a few people, but despite the niggling pain in my calf, my pace for the second half of the race was a steady 4:47/km. I think the second gel helped; at least I didn’t feel myself fading towards the end, like I did two weeks ago.

Almost there. Credit: MarathonFoto

I crossed the finish line in 1:37:49, just forty seconds slower than last year. I got third place in the male masters category and twenty-second overall, out of 2,166 finishers, so even though I was slower than last year, I moved up a spot on the podium. Considering I wasn’t firing on all cylinders, I’ll take that as a win.

After sticking around for the awards ceremony and collecting my medal—in an all-Wyoming podium for my category, interestingly—I rewarded myself with breakfast and pastries from my favorite bakery in town, the biggest upside of racing at home.

And with that, it’s almost time to start my taper for Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene, where I’ll find out if doubling up on these half marathons was a brilliant strategy or a stupid, reckless idea. Stay tuned!

Race Report: 2025 Jackson Hole Half Marathon

2025-05-25T14:30:00-06:00

This will be a short one: I just raced this year’s edition of the Jackson Hole Half Marathon, the first of the three half marathons organized in Jackson Hole every year (the other two being the Grand Teton Half Marathon in June and the Hole Half in September).

Of these three half marathons, this one is usually the smallest, with only 166 runners this year—less than a tenth of the size of the much-bigger Grand Teton Half Marathon. And yet, for some reason it feels like the most competitive of the three—I’ve podiumed at the Grand Teton Half Marathon every time I’ve done it, but have never come even remotely close at this race (I’m not sure why this is, but I suspect this one is simply composed mostly of locals who are acclimated to the altitude). In any case, this race always feels deceivingly challenging, although I planned to take it easy, and run it at a conservative pace in place of my weekly long run in my training plan.

The route for this race starts just outside Teton Village and heads south on the Moose-Wilson Road towards Wilson. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, it continues on the community pathway along Wyoming Highway 22. Then, it takes the Tribal Trail Road, loops around Colter Elementary School, and continues on the pathway along Flat Creek and Russ Garaman Park (one of my favorite places to run in Jackson) before heading on Snow King Avenue towards the finish line at Phil Baux Park, at the base of the Snow King Mountain Resort. It’s a very pleasant route, mostly downhill until the last 4 km, with just 67 m of elevation gain. They also had aid stations stocked with water and Gatorade roughly every 5 km. You won’t get much of a view, though—you’re running away from the Tetons the entire time.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

Kate dropped me off at the start line in the Teton Village at around 6:40 AM, twenty minutes before the start of the race. It was a chilly 2.2°C, but with much-welcome clear skies after a couple weeks of almost non-stop rain and storms, so I spent a few minutes warming up with some leg swings and light jogging, and ate a Maurten Gel 160 before getting in line for the start. It wasn’t very crowded, given the small size of the field, so I put myself near the front, even though, again, my plan was to take it easy and treat this as my long run for the week.

That plan lasted approximately… three seconds after the race started. Maybe it was just the slight downhill grade of this portion of the race, or the rest day I took the day before, or maybe I was just being a competitive ass, but my legs felt good, and I quickly found myself at the front of the race—as far as I could tell, there were only about five people in front of me. Well, maybe this would be the day I would finally podium on this race, so I said fuck it, and went for it.

I went hard. My pace for the first 10 km or so was 4:24/km, slightly faster than my running threshold pace, according to Garmin Connect. I felt pretty great until then, but then quickly started to struggle—there are a couple of punchy climbs on the community pathway after crossing the WY-22 highway that knocked the wind out of me, and my pace started to slow down. I had a Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 at around the halfway point of the race, hoping to get a little boost. I wish I had timed it better; by the 16 km mark I was suffering again, and I was all out of gels. I could feel myself fading in the slight grade of the last 4 km and got passed by two or three people, but I gave it everything I had left in the last kilometer and crossed the finish line with an official time of 1:36:43, and a pace of 4:35/km.

It’s my fastest half marathon to date, but I was even more surprised when I looked at the results and found out that not only had I podiumed, I finished first in the M40–49 age group, and eighth overall. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Yee-haw.

Not gonna lie, this feels pretty good. In 2017, I ran the Army Ten-Miler in DC, one of my first races, and at the time, my longest one. It was awful—it took me 2:16 to finish, and I probably walked half of it. Today, I got a PR in the ten-mile distance of 1:11:48; it’s wild to me that I’ve shaved over an hour off of that time since then. I’m getting older now and I’ve had some setbacks with my running training this year, so it’s very heartening to think that… maybe my fastest days aren’t behind me just yet.

Runna acquired by Strava

2025-04-17T07:00:00-06:00

Disappointing news. I like Runna—it’s the most TrainerRoad-like running app I’ve used, and Strava is, well… they forbid their customers from disagreeing with their “business decisions” in their community forum, which probably tells you how much they care about their customers’ opinions. In the announcement post on Reddit, Runna’s CEO says they’ll continue to operate independently both as a team and as a product, but nothing in the history of corporate acquisitions makes me think that is anything but temporary. I hope I’m wrong. (Via The Verge.)

Send Runna workouts to Zwift using Intervals.icu

2025-03-21T07:30:00-06:00

I’ve been using Runna since last fall for all my run training, and so far it’s been great, except for the fact that it doesn’t sync its workouts to Zwift, which is where I do all my treadmill running in the winter. I’ve been told that’s coming soon, but in the meantime, I’ve been using Intervals.icu as a middleman to send Runna workouts to Zwift. The trick is to rewrite Runna’s workouts into Interval.icu’s workout builder plain text format. It’s a bit laborious, so to make that easier, I created a custom GPT that can do that—just paste the workout description from Runna (or just upload a screenshot of it), paste the output into a new workout in Intervals.icu, and presto, it should sync to Zwift.

Automatic treadmill incline control may be coming soon to Zwift

2025-02-13T12:00:00-07:00

According to Zwift Insider, it’s been in testing for a few months now for a small set of Zwift subscribers using the Wahoo Kickr Run treadmill, and now there’s a support article about it. Will they support other smart treadmills, like the Technogym MyRun? Who knows, but Zwift’s response, quoted in Zwift Insider’s article, makes me hopeful that they will. (If anyone at Zwift is reading this, I’d love to beta test that when the time comes.)

Race Report: Carrera San Silvestre 2024

2024-12-31T21:00:00-06:00

Kate and I visited Mexico City for the first time in 2015. We were here for the holidays and to visit family, but one of the things I remember from that trip was standing in the middle of Paseo de la Reforma on New Year’s Eve during some kind of race, photographing the runners. I had no idea what race that was and didn’t particularly care—I just thought it was a cool thing to photograph, since many of the runners were in costume, such as this guy dressed as El Chapulín Colorado.

“¡Síganme los buenos!” Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City. December, 2015.

This year we’re back in Mexico City for the first time in almost a decade, and now that I am very much into running and triathlons, I thought it’d be cool to find out if any races would be happening while I’m here, and if I could do that same one, even better—what better way to close out the year than running on New Year’s Eve? I found an event called Carrera San Silvestre, a 12 km race near where I took those photos all those years ago, so I signed up for it almost as soon as I booked our trip.

A San Silvestre, as I learned after signing up, is a running race done on December 31st, which is Saint Sylvester’s Day (hence the name). It started in São Paulo in 1925, and despite spending the first 29 years of my life living in Venezuela, I had no idea they’ve been commonplace in Latin America and Spain ever since. That goes to show how little I cared about any of this stuff when I lived there, I suppose.

In any case, signed up I did, so I needed to get ready for it. After wrapping up my triathlon season at Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities in September I’ve focused my off-season training primarily on cycling, and neglected my running for most of the fall. Before traveling to Mexico City I did an abridged plan from Runna to build my mileage back up, but once I got here I simply went out for runs every morning to enjoy the city and get acclimated to the elevation (at 2,250 m, Mexico City is only about 300 m higher than my home in Wyoming, but that still left me feeling surprisingly winded the first few times I went running). I stayed in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, so my usual route started on the wide promenade of Horacio Avenue. From there, I took the Cuernavaca Railroad, a railroad line that’s been repurposed into a gorgeous paved multi-use pathway, to Chapultepec, crossing the first section of the park before heading back to Polanco, for a total of 10 km on a nice looping route.

Running through Polanco and Chapultepec was awesome, but the highlight of my week leading up to the race was running on Paseo de la Reforma the Sunday before the race. This wide avenue running through the heart of Mexico City is closed every Sunday to motor traffic so people can recreate on it. On the last Sunday of every month, an even longer 62.5 km route is closed for what they call a “Ciclotón,” a more cycling-focused event with bike repair stations and aid stations giving away water, electrolytes, and chocolate milk along the way.

I should have been tapering for the race at this point, but it was such a wonderful way to spend a gorgeous Sunday morning, I ended up running over 16 km, and it made me wish I had thought to rent a bike to ride the entire route.

There’s no better way to spend a Sunday morning in Mexico City, in my opinion.

Shutting down one of the busiest avenues in one of the biggest cities in the world every single week for the enjoyment of people instead of cars—talk about having your priorities straight. This made me even angrier about St. George not renewing the contract for Ironman 70.3 St. George after 2025, leaving $42 million on the table, because closing a few roads a single day each year is apparently too much of an inconvenience for drivers. Car brain is a hell of a thing, but I digress.

On race day, I woke up early enough to make some coffee, take a COVID test as I usually do before a race, and have enough time to get to the start line on Paseo de la Reforma, about 2 km from my Airbnb in Polanco. It was a clear but brisk morning, at 6°C, so I jogged there to get a good warmup before the race start. When I got there, the area around the start line was absolutely packed with people, so I stayed out of the way at the back of my corral, the last one of the three, eating a Maurten 100 Caf 100 gel a few minutes before the scheduled start of the race.

The 12 km course started near Torre Mayor on Paseo de la Reforma, heading west until just past the Fuente de Petróleos, then making a U-turn and proceeding to an out-and-back on Calzada Chivatito alongside Chapultepec (with a few short out-and-backs along the way) before getting back on Reforma towards the finish line. The course is entirely on paved roads, with about 90 m of elevation gain, most of it at a mild grade with a handful of steeper sections. The pavement was smooth for the most part, but some segments had huge potholes which, due to the crowds and lack of markings, were hard to see until the last second. Luckily I was able to avoid them—I could have easily twisted my ankle again on one of them. The course had three aid stations, at kilometers 3, 6, and 9, but they were extremely crowded (and according to comments on social media they didn’t have enough water or staff), so I skipped them.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

The crowds were the theme of the day. The course was so packed that although the gun went off at 7:00 AM, I didn’t actually cross the start line until 7:18; even before the start I was completely blocked and couldn’t pass anybody. I don’t know how many people were running, but my results page says there were 1,819 male finishers in front of of me and 1,964 behind me, so if I had to guess I’d say there were about 7,000 participants—and every single one of them was in front of me. Based on my half marathon pace, I had set myself an arbitrary goal of finishing in under an hour, but it was obvious from the start there was no way for me to hit that pace. I was doing this for fun, so I wasn’t upset about it; I simply zig-zagged to pass people when I could and slowed down when I couldn’t, especially on the shorter out-and-backs, which were on narrower side roads and caused serious bottlenecks. Some people apparently took the race way more seriously, though—around the 10 km mark, I ran past two dudes squaring off, cursing at each other, about to get into a fistfight, while a bunch of people tried to separate them (I have no idea what that was all about and I didn’t stick around to find out).

By the time I made the last U-turn on Calzada Chivatito I had passed tons and tons of people and the crowds had thinned out somewhat, so once I got back on Reforma I sent it. I pushed the pace as hard as I could for the last few kilometers, finishing the race with an official chip time of 01:02:59.71 and an average pace of 05:15/km. I finished in 2,846th place out of who knows how many. The finish line photo is hilarious; I’m in there somewhere, I think. Good luck finding me.

Where’s Waldo? Credit: Emoción Deportiva.

After crossing the finish line, I grabbed my bag of swag (which is top notch, by the way, the race shirt is a very nice Reebok long sleeve running shirt and the finisher’s one is the softest t-shirt I’ve ever had) and walked back to Polanco for a much needed coffee and pastry.

This will make a fine addition to my collection.

And with that, now my race season is over for this year, and what a great way to end 2024 on a high note and set the tone for 2025. Happy new year!

One last race this year

2024-12-20T17:30:00-07:00

I’m spending Christmas and New Year’s in Mexico City, so what better way to close out the year than a chill 12 km race around Chapultepec? It’s just what I need after a couple of months of exclusively indoor training. I only regret not arriving there in time for this Sonic the Hedgehog 10K on Sunday—I need that medal.

Well, I had to skip the Hole Half

2024-09-28T10:00:00-06:00

I look forward to this race every year—a chill fall half marathon at the base of the Tetons is usually a great way to close out my season before winter sets in, but at this moment the AQI in Jackson Hole is 235, firmly in the “very unhealthy” range. Instead, I’m reading a study on the impact of air pollution on running performance to reassure myself I made the right decision.

An update on my ankle

2024-07-23T11:00:00-06:00

It’s been a little over a week since my ankle injury at the Wild 15K and I just came back from my ortho appointment. Everything looks better than I feared last week, X-rays look clean and my examination went well. It’s still a little swollen with some pain, so I’ve been told to schedule some PT, wear compression socks to help with the swelling, and maybe tape my ankle for additional stability while running. The biggest question on my mind was “will I make things worse if I go for a run?” and the answer is no; I’ve been given the all-clear to start running again. Which is great, because I threw caution into the wind and ran 11 km on the treadmill on Sunday with no issues. We’re so back.

Race Report: Teton Mountain Runs Wild 15K

2024-07-15T08:00:00-06:00

Last summer I learned about the Rendezvous Mountain Hill Climb, a trail running race in Jackson Hole that’s considered “the most demanding hill climb running event in the West.” It looked like a fascinating challenge, with 1,250 m of elevation gain over 9.8 km, and until last year, it had never been done in under an hour.

Needless to say, I’m nowhere near prepared to do something like that; I have little experience with trail running, and most of it is on flat terrain. But it got me intrigued about trail running races, so I looked at other less-demanding events in the area and discovered the Teton Mountain Runs series, which offers 50K, 30K and 15K races, all run on the hiking and mountain biking trails of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village, Wyoming.

The Wild 15K race, with about 550 meters of elevation gain and no technical terrain or scrambling required, is described as “a great beginner option for those who don’t want to reach the elevation or distance of the 30K,” so I signed up for it earlier this year. I thought it’d be a good introduction to trail running races and add some variety to my training; I’d do it in place of one of my long runs and have a little fun. I knew I was taking a risk doing this with Ironman Canada coming up; I was specifically worried about hurting my knee again on the downhill portion of the race, but I had a plan. The race had a time cut-off at the top of the course, before starting the descent, so I’d run up the hill to make the time cut, and then take it easy and hike down at a leisurely pace to reduce the risk of injury. It felt like a calculated risk, but as it turns out, I’m pretty bad at math.

The night before the race, I considered skipping and sleeping in, but after a bad bout of insomnia, I got up at 4:00 AM and got ready. I had also thought about skipping if the air quality was bad—we’re starting to get the seasonal wildfire smoke from the west coast in Jackson Hole. My personal AQI limit to exercise outdoors is 75, but on race morning it had dipped just below moderate, at 48. With no excuse to skip the race, I headed out the door shortly after dawn.

I got to Teton Village at around 6:30 AM and spent a few minutes warming up in the parking lot before heading to the start line, downing a Maurten Caf 100 gel before the start. The race started at 7:00 AM on the dot; I stayed near the back and let the faster, more experienced runners go first, but soon after I started I got stuck behind people who were hiking up the trail. The race guide warned that walkers would not make the 9:45 AM time cut, so I started passing people, running at a pace that felt comfortable in terms of RPE and heart rate. This was a big mistake—I quickly realized my fitness exceeded my skills, so that “comfortable” pace was too fast for me to navigate the trail safely, especially in the downhill portions. By then the trail had narrowed down significantly to a singletrack barely half a meter wide through dense vegetation with steep drop-offs in some sections, and I was blocking people who wanted to pass me and couldn’t because I had no space at all to step aside, so I felt pressure to keep the pace up. I tripped a couple of times, but luckily was able to keep my balance and continue without falling. My luck would soon run out, though—big time.

I had made it almost 5 km into the run when I tripped again on something—a root, I think—that was hidden from view by the foliage on the sides of the trail, and because I was going downhill, I was carrying too much momentum to recover and crashed hard on my shoulder, sliding along the trail a few feet and narrowly missing the steep drop-off to my right—I don’t know where I would have ended up if I had fallen off the trail. Fortunately, other than scrapes on my hands, arms and legs, and a mouthful of dirt, I wasn’t seriously hurt. I say “fortunately” because not a single person stopped to help—the guy behind me asked, “You good, bro?” but disappeared down the trail before I had a chance to answer, and three or four other people walked past me while I was on the ground. Nobody even gave me a hand.

Maybe I should have just quit right then and there, but after dusting myself off and using my water bottle to rinse off my scrapes, I kept running, albeit at a slower, more careful pace. About 2 km later, the trail intersected a steep gravel service road running perpendicular to it. I was almost across when I stepped on a rock, which rolled to the side, and my foot went along with it. I heard a crack and felt blinding pain as my ankle stretched more than I thought was physically possible, and I hit the deck hard. The only thought that went through my head as I fell was shitshitshitshitIjustbrokemyfuckingankle but what came out of my mouth was the most bloodcurdling scream of my life, which this time did make a few people stop to check on me. I was on the ground clutching my ankle, certain that it was broken, when one of them kneeled next to me and started examining it. She seemed to have first aid experience, and noted it wasn’t swollen and nothing looked obviously broken. I was surprised I didn’t feel any pain as she examined my ankle, and I could still move my foot; I hoped the crack I heard came from the rocks I stepped on and not from my ankle. After I stood up and confirmed I could put weight on my ankle, she took off, telling me that we were close to the next aid station and that she would let them know I was coming (I regret not getting her name or bib number so I could thank her).

At this point I was done with this fucking race, but the race guide said that dropping out was only permitted at the aid stations, except in case of a serious emergency, which would require calling Jackson Hole Ski Patrol; I figured this wasn’t one because I could walk and wasn’t in terrible pain. I couldn’t remember the exact distance the race guide said the aid station would be at, but I was almost at the halfway point of the race, so I thought it would be close and set off for it.

It… wasn’t close. I ended up walking 5.1 km with 258 m of elevation gain on my twisted ankle, all banged up and covered in dirt and scrapes from both falls. My ankle didn’t hurt too much when I walked, and I even ran for a few seconds just to see if I could, but it was definitely tender so I didn’t want to take any chances. I went slowly and carefully, avoided putting too much weight on it, and watched my step to make sure I didn’t twist it again. On top of everything else, the mosquitos were an absolute menace and were driving me insane. At least I got to see a pika while I was crossing a talus field, the only thing that came even close to a highlight of my day. I love those little yodeling critters.

I wish I had spent more time enjoying the view at least; this was the only photo I made.

I had been hobbling along the trail for an hour and a half when I saw a man walking in the opposite direction. He came up to me and asked, “Do you know how far back is the injured guy?” I laughed and said, “You just found him.” We were less than 400 m from the aid station, so he walked me the rest of the way.

The colors on this map denote pace; the black & white dot is the spot where I injured my ankle.

After stopping there for a minute to eat a few Oreos and refill my water bottle, Ski Patrol drove me down to the urgent care clinic at the base of the mountain (ironically on the same service road where I tripped, so I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had just called them). There, they ran X-rays and confirmed that my ankle wasn’t broken, although it is sprained. Given that I was able to walk over 5 km on it, the doctor thought it wasn’t serious and that I’d probably even be able to return to training this week, but now that I’m home and it’s more swollen and painful than before, I’m worried the crack I heard was actually my ligaments snapping. The doctor said I should call an orthopedic specialist if I don’t see improvement in a week but I’m not going to wait that long; I’ll get an ortho appointment as soon as possible and get in front of this. With some luck it’ll turn out to be nothing serious and I’ll be able to race Ironman Canada next month, but I’m not feeling optimistic about it.

I normally try not to beat myself up too much when I make mistakes during training or racing; it’s all part of the learning experience. That said, getting injured during a triathlon or during training is one thing—it sucks when that happens, but at least it’s in service of a goal. This… is not that. This race was a completely unnecessary risk that wouldn’t have advanced my triathlon goals in any way even if it had gone perfectly, but it didn’t and now I’m paying for it with a potentially season-ending injury. Why did I think this was a good idea?!

I feel like such a fucking idiot.

Race Report: 2024 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2024-06-15T08:00:00-06:00

A couple weeks ago I raced the Grand Teton Half Marathon, the first of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole this year. I wasn’t planning on writing a race report for it because it was a quick and uneventful race, but since I didn’t get to write one for Ironman 70.3 Boulder, which I had to skip due to COVID, I might as well do it.

I ran this race last year for the first time and it quickly became my favorite of the local half marathons, not just because it’s the most well-organized and has the most scenic route, but also because I unexpectedly podiumed last year, so of course I wanted to race it again.

This year’s course was basically the same as in previous years, with the slight difference that the first couple of kilometers are now on the new pathway along Highway 22 instead of running on the shoulder of the road, a much welcome improvement. From there, the course rejoins the existing pathway in Wilson before heading back to Jackson over the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, and then turning north on Spring Gulch Road, where you get to enjoy scenic views of the Teton Range all the way to the finish line at the Jackson Hole Golf Course. This final stretch of the race is on the road, but there’s not a lot of traffic and runners are given plenty of space from cars with traffic cones so it didn’t felt particularly dangerous. The total elevation gain for the course is about 100 m, most of it after the halfway point, once you turn onto Spring Gulch Road.

See this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

On race morning I got up at 3:00 AM after a terrible night of sleep, which was convenient, since parking at the start line at the Stilson Lot closed at 5:00 AM and I didn’t want to take a shuttle. I arrived there shortly before parking closed, which left me with an hour and a half of waiting before the start of the race. At 6:00 AM I gave up on trying to get some more sleep in my car and figured it might be a better use of my time to stretch and do a thorough warm up—the weather was much better than last year, with clear skies and gorgeous views of the mountains, but it was freezing, at -1°C, which made me wish I had worn warmer gear.

I seeded myself conservatively towards the back of the blue wave, behind the 1:50 pacer; while it was cool to podium last year, I didn’t want to overdo it or risk an injury, given that I had a 70.3 planned for the following week. Rather than target a specific pace or time, my plan was to simply run at a pace that felt comfortable, treat it as a my long run for the week, and see where that landed me.

To my surprise, when the race started at 6:32 AM, the pace that felt comfortable was… fast. I ran a pretty sluggish 6:54/km at Ironman 70.3 St. George last month and I’ve rarely run faster than 5:30/km in my training runs since then, so I really wasn’t expecting to run as fast as I did last year. I’m not sure if it was the race adrenaline or the fact that I was coming off of a recovery week in my training plan, but I was pretty surprised when I comfortably passed the 1:40 pacer a few minutes after starting the race, so I just kept going. I was holding a pace of 4:30/km through the first half of the race, although I knew I’d probably slow down a bit once I started going uphill on Spring Gulch Road.

Crossing the Gros Ventre river, a few minutes away from the finish line.

Sure enough, that was exactly what happened, and the last few kilometers were a real struggle, the kind where I start doing all kinds of mental math to bargain with myself, but at least the mountains were out and I enjoyed the view to distract myself from the suffering. At least I didn’t make the same mistake I made last year with my socks, and wore my normal Darn Tough running socks with my Hoka Rocket X 2 shoes, so I had no problems with chafing this time around (and the shoes may have contributed to my faster pace). The aid stations were pretty well stocked with Honey Stinger gels and waffles, bananas, and oranges, but I didn’t really need any fueling besides the Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 I ate right before the start, so I just skipped them all. (The chocolate milk at the finish line really hit the spot, though.)

I finished the race with a final time of 1:37:09.6, my fastest half marathon ever. My final pace was 4:36/km, and I finished 28th overall, out of 1,720 participants, and fourth male finisher in the masters category, with a shiny bronze medal to show for it. Not bad! I haven’t really put a ton of effort into my outdoor training runs so far this year since winter just barely ended, so it’s pleasing to see some progress in my running fitness nonetheless.

Gotta savor these small victories; this one almost makes up for missing my race in Boulder.

Race Report: 2023 Hole Half Marathon

2023-09-24T10:00:00-06:00

This year’s race season didn’t go the way I hoped at all. After a strong start at Ironman 70.3 St. George in June, I failed to finish Ironman Coeur d’Alene and had to drop out of the Echo Triathlon in July to deal with my knee pain. My make-up race, Ironman Canada, was canceled at the last minute due to the wildfires in British Columbia. After all that, I was looking forward to this year’s Hole Half Marathon, so I could at least get one more race in the books this year and finish the season on a high note. It went pretty well, so without further ado, here’s my last race report of the year.

Just before the finish line at Teton Village.

This summer in Jackson Hole has been the wettest in 25 years, with frequent storms and rainy spells, and this week was no exception. While race day wasn’t as cold as last year, I woke up to blustery, overcast weather with chilly 6°C temperatures and a light drizzle that made me want to stay in bed. Still, I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed and to the start line at the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole. By the time the race started, at 9:00 AM, the weather had begun to clear up, and it ended up being a lovely sunny day, albeit maybe a touch too warm for the long-sleeve shirt and long running tights I wore. The race was cupless, but I didn’t feel like carrying a bottle, so other than a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and a Maurten Caf 100 gel with a few gulps of water right before the start, I didn’t have any nutrition or hydration for the duration of the race. I targeted a pace of 5:00/km or faster, but my priority was to finish without injuring myself, so I planned to back off at the first sign of trouble.

This year’s route was slightly different than in previous editions, replacing the loop on the side of WY-22 in Wilson with an out-and-back on Boyles Hill Road. I assume this change was made due to the ongoing construction work to replace the Snake River Bridge, but I hope they keep it for future races—it’s far, far better to run on this quiet, bucolic country road than on the shoulder of a busy highway with cars zooming by just inches away.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

After this out-and-back on the road, the route followed the Jackson Hole multi-use community pathway for the remainder of the race, with a slight elevation gain of 94 m and the finish line at the Teton Village. Almost immediately after joining the pathway, I had an altercation with a cyclist in a narrow section of the route; despite the pathway being packed with runners, this guy refused to yield to anybody and instead rudely cursed everyone out while riding through the crowd and almost crashed head-on into me. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only inconsiderate cyclist I saw during the race: shortly after the halfway point, another cyclist almost crashed into a pack of runners ahead of me while trying to pass them at high speed without announcing himself. A few miles later, I had a near miss with someone going at full-speed on an e-bike, despite me running all the way to the edge of the pathway. Incredibly, every driver with whom we had to share the road today was more patient and considerate than most cyclists I saw on the pathway—sometimes, it’s no wonder people hate us.

Thankfully, the rest of the race was uneventful, although I had to dig deep in the last few miles to hold my pace. I’ve cut back on my training since Ironman Canada was canceled and, in particular, reduced my running mileage to give my knee a break. I can tell I’ve lost some running fitness since then, but on the upside, my knee felt pretty good; it’s still not 100%, and I had some minor niggles here and there, but it feels much better than it did in St. George back in May. Despite that loss of fitness, I was able to finish the race in 1:46:10, with a pace of 5:02/km, not quite as fast as in the Grand Teton Half Marathon earlier this year and just shy of my target pace, but still over a minute faster than last year’s race, and my second-fastest half marathon ever. I even finished third in my age group. Not bad!

Despite my race season fizzling out this summer after only completing a single triathlon, I’m glad I did this race and managed to end the season on a higher note than I would have otherwise. Now it’s time to relax and enjoy the rest of the fall before kicking it back into high gear in January to prepare for next year’s races. With any luck, things will go better than this year.

Race Report: 2023 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2023-06-04T10:00:00-06:00

Recently, I’ve been debating if it’s worth it to keep writing race reports for running races because I’ve done a few now, running is not my specialty, and I simply treat them as part of my triathlon training. But this one is a little special because I podiumed for the first time in my life, so here it goes.

Just before the finish line. Credit: Grand Teton Half Marathon

After my painful run at St. George, I visited Dr. Bullington at Teton Orthopaedics to get my knee looked at, which thankfully revealed it wasn’t a serious issue, but a simple patellar tracking issue—a muscle imbalance between my quads and hamstring or possibly a tight IT band pulling my kneecap out of alignment. He said I wouldn’t cause any damage if I kept training but referred me to Peak Physical Therapy in Wilson to get started on some PT and get it resolved.

While I’ve been doing that, I’ve been taking it very easy on my runs, so my plan was to still do this race, but treat it as my long, easy run for the week. For the most part, I’ve been capping my runs at one hour out of an abundance of caution, but I did a 1:30 brick run the week of the race and the knee felt great, so I was optimistic I’d be able to run a half marathon without issues.

The Grand Teton Half Marathon is the largest, and in my opinion, the most well-organized of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole, with over 1,800 participants. The course starts at the Stilson Lot next to Rendezvous Park, heads towards Wilson for a couple of kilometers before heading back over the Snake River on the community pathway, and then turning on Spring Gulch Road about halfway through, where it’s mostly uphill until the finish line at the Jackson Hole Golf Club, with great views of the Tetons along the way (if they hadn’t been completely socked in, which they were on race day). The entire course is on paved paths and roads—although the photos on the website show a segment on gravel, that section of Spring Gulch Road is now paved.

The weather had been pretty wet in the couple of weeks leading up to the race, with storms almost every day, so unsurprisingly, it was chilly, drizzly, and overcast the morning of the race. Kate dropped me off at the Stilson Lot at about 5:30 AM, and I did a lot of stretching and warming up while I waited for the race to start at 6:30 AM. I got placed in the “blue wave” based on my expected sub-2 finishing time, and they had various pacers within that wave.

In the tumult at the starting line, I got mixed up and accidentally seeded myself with the 1:40 pacer group, but rather than wait for the next group, I just went with it, even though it was slightly faster than my past half marathon paces. To my surprise, the 4:45/km pace felt great so… I sent it. I managed to hold that pace for most of the race with no pain or discomfort in my knee, only slowing down a little bit towards the second half of the race, since it was slightly uphill.

While my knee felt great the entire race, I did run into a few small issues. A few months ago I got a free sample of Compressport running socks, and liked them enough that I recently ordered a few pairs of the no-show version. They’ve been fine with my cycling shoes and the Hoka Clifton 8 running shoes I use on my treadmill, but I hadn’t tried them with the Hoka Carbon X 3 shoes I wear to run outside. Boy, was that a mistake. The shoes chafed right in my ankles badly enough that both shoes are now covered in blood. At least I didn’t find out in the middle of an Ironman.

Separately, I missed the fact that it was a cupless race, so I didn’t bring a bottle or a reusable cup, and as a result I didn’t have any hydration for the entire race. I had a Maurten 100 Caf gel right before the start and that was about it for nutrition. Thankfully, I didn’t need any more than that, although the aid stations were pretty well stocked with Honey Stinger gels and waffles, bananas, and oranges.

Despite those two minor mistakes, I was able to finish the race just fine. Per my GPS, the distance was slightly short of the 21.1 km of a half marathon, at 20.89 km, and I finished in 1:42:16, for a pace of 4:54/km. My official time and pace were 1:42:11.7 and 4:44/km. More importantly, I finished first in my age group (male 40-44), out of 51, and 45th overall, out of 1,858, so I managed to get on a podium for the first time in my life. Not bad!

Needless to say, I am beyond happy with this result, considering a year ago I had never done a half marathon, and a couple years ago I could barely run more than a minute without stopping. Can I do this again next weekend at the Jackson Hole Half Marathon? We’ll see.

Review: Technogym MyRun

2023-02-10T08:00:00-06:00

Last fall I started shopping for a treadmill so I could continue training over the winter for the races I have scheduled this year (Ironman 70.3 St. George in May, Ironman Coeur d’Alene in June, and Echo Triathlon in July), and after much consideration, I settled on the $3,750 Technogym MyRun. I don’t usually write reviews of things I buy, but while researching treadmills, I didn’t see many reviews of this particular model, so I thought it’d be worthwhile to share my experience with it, if nothing else as a cautionary tale for others who might be considering buying one.

TL;DR: It’s an awesome treadmill backed by an excellent iPad app, but unfortunately marred by Technogym’s abysmal customer support, which makes it hard to recommend.

As you can see out the window, I really needed a treadmill to continue training over the winter.

Why the MyRun?

There were a few things I was looking for in a home treadmill:

I don’t have a ton of space left for workout equipment in my home office/fitness room, so I needed something compact. I didn’t want something with the Starship Enterprise viewscreen in front of it, or an overbearing console full of crap I don’t need, such as puny fans and tinny speakers. I also ruled out non-motorized treadmills like the Assault Runner, which are large and heavy. The ability to fold it was a nice-to-have, but not a requirement, since it doesn’t seem to save that much space in most cases (I think it’s mostly useful for vacuuming under the treadmill.)
I needed something with a durable motor. Based on my research, for the type of training I do, with lots of intervals and long endurance runs, I needed a treadmill with at least a 3 hp motor.
I wanted something that didn’t require a lot of maintenance. A lot of the cheaper treadmills require lubricating the belt at regular intervals, and with the amount of running I do, I knew I’d get frustrated with that very rapidly.
I get bored very quickly on a treadmill, so support for Bluetooth FTMS for Zwift integration would be welcome. This was a nice-to-have, not a hard requirement, since there are other ways to use Zwift with a treadmill.
I did not want to get locked into any subscription services, which ruled out things like NordicTrack and Peloton treadmills.
I didn’t have a specific budget in mind. I wasn’t planning to spend $14,000 on a Woodway (as much as I’d love to have one), but in general I’m happy to pay more for a good product that does what I need and lasts a long time. I’m a firm believer in “buy once, cry once.”
Warranty and support were also considerations, but those are harder to gauge. Most treadmill manufacturers offer similar warranties, but how they’d respond when things break is hard to figure out ahead of time (as I learned the hard way).

Based on that criteria, I narrowed my search down to a few choices:

Echelon Stride: It’s very compact, folds down, and I love the minimal console. However, it has a weaker 1.75 hp motor. Reviews seemed to indicate it’s more suitable for walking, and wouldn’t be durable enough for long and/or fast runs.
LifeSpan TR5500i: It’s compact, folding, and has a powerful 4 hp motor, but the UI seems kind of crappy, lacks Bluetooth FTMS, and the belt requires maintenance.
Sole F85: It’s folding, has a powerful 4 hp motor, and Bluetooth FTMS, but has a big, ugly, cheap-looking console, requires belt maintenance, and folks on the /r/treadmills subreddit seem to really dislike Sole.
Xterra TRX5500: it’s folding, has a 3.25 hp motor, and Bluetooth FTMS, but requires belt maintenance, and looks straight out of the nineties.
Horizon T303: It’s folding, has a strong motor, and Bluetooth FTMS, but requires belt maintenance, and has a large console, although it’s the least offensive-looking of the bunch.
Precor TRM 223: It’s not folding or in any way “smart,” but it has a decent 3 hp motor and a maintenance-free belt. I considered Precor treadmills because I read great things about their reliability and durability, although I’ve also read concerns about Precor’s future since they got acquired by Peloton.
Technogym MyRun: It’s not folding, but it’s very compact, has a decent 3 hp motor, a maintenance-free belt, and lots of “smart” features, although it’s more expensive than the others.

After much hemming and hawing, I discarded the ones that require frequent belt maintenance and have oversized consoles, and narrowed it down to the Precor and the Technogym. Despite costing almost twice as much, I settled on the Technogym because it’s more compact, it’s easier to move (it has wheels, the Precor does not), and has the smart features I thought I would enjoy. The uncertainty around Precor’s warranty and support after Peloton’s acquisition and subsequent financial issues gave me pause as well; I thought the Technogym would be a safer buy in that regard, especially considering the price—I was wrong, but I’ll come back to this later on.

Buying & delivery experience

I ordered the treadmill online from Technogym’s website in early November. A customer support representative emailed me a couple days later to confirm my address, get some details about the location (such as the presence of stairs and such), and let me know that there’d be a lead time of 3-4 weeks for delivery.

The “white glove” delivery took a little longer than that, which didn’t surprise me since it was the holiday season, and happened at the end of December. Scheduling the delivery was easily done online, and two men drove a truck from Salt Lake City to deliver the treadmill, arriving exactly when they said they would. They unpacked the treadmill outside my apartment, carried it inside, and set it up. The entire process took about 30 minutes in total, and setting up the treadmill itself took maybe 10 minutes, tops. They took all the packing materials with them, wore masks and shoe covers the entire time, and left my place immaculate, which I appreciated.

Assembling it was a matter of unfolding and locking the console in the upright position, attaching the handrails and bottle holders, and plugging it in. They mentioned it was the first MyRun they had ever delivered, and seemed impressed by how easy it was to set up; they said they’re used to delivering NordicTracks, which are much harder to assemble. An unexpected benefit I hadn’t considered is that if I ever move, it would be easy to reverse the process and pack the treadmill.

GPLama has a good video demonstrating the setup process:

Using the treadmill

Using this treadmill is extraordinarily simple—it’s always in a low-power sleep mode, and wakes up as soon as you step on it. It has three buttons: the middle button starts and stops a run, or pauses it if you long-press it; the left paddle button changes the incline; and the right paddle button changes the speed. There are a couple of settings you access by pressing the middle and speed button simultaneously, to change between imperial and metric units, and between speed and pace on the display. The display itself shows time, incline, speed or pace, distance, and Bluetooth status. Additionally, the console has an emergency stop cord you clip to your clothes, a shelf at the front for a phone or tablet with a rubber grip to hold them in place, a retractable tablet stand at the top, and a USB-A port in the back to power your phone or tablet. Finally, there’s a power switch at the front of the deck, next to the power cable, in case you want to turn it off completely.

Say what you will about this treadmill, it is beautifully designed. I love the minimalism of its display.

That’s it, that’s all there is to it. Step on it, press the middle button, and start running.

Running experience

I’m not a treadmill expert, but I have no complaints here at all. It has a max speed of 20 km/h, and responds to changes quickly—when doing intervals I can go from 10 km/h to 16 km/h in about 8 seconds, and vice versa. The incline goes up to 12%, and it doesn’t decline at all—that’s fine by me, I rarely change the incline anyway.

The motor has no problem keeping up with me, and I can’t feel the belt slipping, sticking, or slowing down at all, even on an all-out sprint. So far it’s been able to handle everything I’ve thrown at it without issues, including workouts with lots of fast intervals, and long endurance workouts, the longest of which has been 2.5 hours.

Comparing it to the commercial treadmills I’ve used at the gym nearby, I feel like it has less cushioning, but I’ve been able to do long endurance runs without any pain or discomfort. I haven’t measured the noise, but it’s definitely quieter than those other treadmills (at least my neighbors have yet to complain about it). However, I’ve noticed that stuff in the room tends to move around when I’m running; I might need to get a mat to put under the treadmill to dampen some of the vibrations.

The treadmill itself is solidly built. Nothing about it feels flimsy or loose, and I don’t hear any squeaking, creaking, or rattling when I’m running. It’s just a simple, elegant, good-looking piece of equipment. The belt feels pretty thick, and as you can see in the photo below, it’s very grippy.

The belt is robust, with a substantial grip.

The running surface is 143×50 cm, which is a little smaller than other treadmills, but I’m 1.71 m tall, so I’ve never felt like I didn’t have enough space to run. The deck is just 15 cm off the floor, so it’s easy to step on and off.

The Technogym Live app

While the minimalism of the MyRun’s console and controls might seem limiting, using it with the Technogym Live app on a tablet is when it really shines. Although I haven’t used some of its features, such as the coach-guided, Peloton-like “Sessions,” which require a paid subscription, the app includes a large variety of recorded outdoor runs, preset workouts, and a myriad ways to set up custom workouts on the treadmill, all of which are available for free.

The main screen of the Technogym Live app.

You can set up completely custom workouts with varying speeds and inclines, and even better, import them from TrainingPeaks. The app is able to control the treadmill, so once you start your workout, it’s essentially “set it and forget it,” although you are still able to tweak the speed and incline with the hardware buttons.

You can set up a completely custom workout from scratch from within the app…

…or import one from TrainingPeaks (although as far as I can tell there’s no way to set the incline in TrainingPeaks).

Other workout options include:

Time goal
Distance goal
Calories goal
Constant heart rate, which automatically adjusts intensity to keep you at that heart rate
Weight loss, which automatically adjusts intensity for increased fat burning
Training zone, which automatically adjusts intensity to stay within a specific heart rate zone
High-low blocks, which is sort of like interval training, I suppose, with various levels of intensity, from 1-25
Hill intervals, with smoother changes in intensity, and levels from 1-25
Speed shift, which lets you preset up to four speeds and toggle between them with the speed button

Once you decide what you want to do, you simply place the tablet in its holder, start the workout, and hit the center button on the console to get moving. One quirk about the Technogym Live app is that you must put the tablet on the holder to use it; it has an optical sensor that detects if the tablet is placed there, and will not let you start a workout from the app otherwise. What I really don’t like about this is that if you move the tablet, the treadmill will stop, show an obscure HF 701 error code, and end your workout. I suppose it’s trying to stop you from potentially hurting yourself if you trip while messing with the tablet, but it should pause the workout, not end it altogether. What’s worse, the sensor is so sensitive, it’s possible to trigger this simply by tapping on the tablet. I’ve had a couple workouts abruptly end that way, and it’s so infuriating I ended up covering the sensor with gaffer’s tape.

If you haven’t done this by the time the countdown runs out, it goes back to the main screen of the app.

When a run is in progress, the app shows a pretty detailed dashboard that includes time, pace, calories, cadence, stride length, and heart rate, which you can get from a paired Bluetooth heart rate monitor or an Apple Watch. You can also swipe to the right to see charts for pace, incline, and heart rate; and to the left to see a “swiftpad” with eight configurable buttons for preset speeds and inclines (four of each). The swiftpad is not available during structured workouts, though, only on open runs; I wish it was always available, and I’d also love to have a number pad of some sort to be able to dial in specific speeds or inclines.

Most of the widgets on the dashboard have alternate views that you can swipe through.

This is my favorite view when doing a structured workout. It lets you see upcoming changes in pace.

You can customize the swiftpad with various speeds and inclines of your choosing, but it’s only present during open runs, not structured workouts.

After finishing a workout, you get a nice summary screen with metrics and graphs. I wish I had the option to continue running, though, since sometimes I have some gas left in the tank, but the treadmill simply stops once you complete a workout.

I have no idea what MOVEs are.

The app includes a built-in music player, and Spotify and Apple Music integration, with some custom playlists put together by Technogym. I haven’t used this very much; the buttons are tiny, so I prefer to use my phone to control my music.

Controlling music within the app is neat, but I wish the controls were bigger.

On an iPad, you can set up Siri for voice commands to start and stop workouts or change the speed and incline, although it works better in theory than in practice—good luck getting Siri to understand you over the sound of the treadmill while you’re huffing and puffing; and just like the swiftpad, it doesn’t work during structured workouts. Interestingly, these actions are available in the Shortcuts app, which is cool. For example, you could set up a shortcut that increases your speed and turns on a fan on a smart plug.

This is nice to have—if you can get Siri to understand you.

The app works perfectly in the background on an iPad. It’ll show a push notification about 10 seconds before any change in speed or incline, so you can start a workout and then switch to Netflix or some other app without being caught off guard by changes in the workout. I wish it supported split view, though; you can’t have the app open side-by-side with something else.

You can connect the Technogym Live app to Strava, Garmin, TrainingPeaks, RunKeeper, and MapMyFitness. Connecting to Strava lets you simulate routes on the treadmill, and sync completed runs. Connecting to TrainingPeaks lets you import your planned workout of the day, and sync completed runs. Connecting to Garmin doesn’t seem to do anything as far as I can tell. (I don’t use RunKeeper or MapMyFitness, so I didn’t test them.)

While the pace reported by the treadmill is likely more accurate than what my watch (a Garmin Forerunner 955) estimates, I still prefer recording my runs on my watch because it calculates metrics like running power and training effect, so I ended up disconnecting Strava and Garmin from the app. However, I left the TrainingPeaks connection in place; being able to set up my workouts in TrainingPeaks ahead of time, sync them to the treadmill, and do them without me having to control the treadmill at all is so, so, so good, I don’t know how I ever trained without it. I find myself nailing workouts in a way I never have on other treadmills: on workouts with lots of fast intervals, if I’m not controlling the treadmill manually, I’m less likely to “cheat” by turning down the speed before the interval is over; and in long endurance runs, being able to break them up into chunks at varying paces (a similar structure as endurance rides on TrainerRoad), helps make them far more tolerable. Technogym Live’s TrainingPeaks integration makes it painlessly easy to set this up.

I’ve noticed a couple minor bugs with the app: the “high heart rate” alert keeps popping up even though I turned if off in the settings; and there seems to be a timezone issue importing TrainingPeaks workouts—past a certain time, importing a workout pulls the next day’s workout, not the one scheduled for that day. That said, I’m impressed with the level of polish of this app, and the sheer customizability it enables on the treadmill. I’m not exaggerating when I say it has made a real difference in my training.

Zwift

While there’s no integration between the Technogym Live app and Zwift, you can pair the treadmill directly to Zwift. Zwift recognizes the treadmill as both a speed and cadence sensor, and it only takes a few seconds to set things up for a run. The treadmill only supports a single Bluetooth connection, though, so you can only connect it to one app at a time.

It’s easy to connect the treadmill to Zwift—just make sure it’s not already connected to something else.

Unfortunately, unlike the Technogym Live app, Zwift is not able to control the treadmill, so you have to do it manually, following the prompts given by Zwift. My understanding is that there is far less standardization in the industry for controlling treadmills than there is for bike trainers, so I don’t think either Technogym nor Zwift are to blame here, and I believe this is also the way other treadmills with Bluetooth FTMS work. Hopefully this is something that can be added through a software update in the future, but I do wish the treadmill supported more than one Bluetooth connection, so I could at least let Technogym Live control it in the background while using Zwift. It feels silly to get a Runn sensor for a treadmill that can already connect to Zwift, but I may end up getting one just so I can use both apps at the same time.

Another quirk of the treadmill is that the speed it reports over Bluetooth is not the actual measured speed of the belt, but the speed the treadmill is set to, so speed changes appear instantaneous instead of reflecting reality, which is that it takes a few seconds to arrive at the selected speed. This makes pace graphs in Zwift and Strava somewhat odd, since it looks like I jumped from, say, 10 km/h to 16 km/h during intervals instantaneously instead of ramping up to speed.

Update, April 10th, 2023: I ended up putting a Runn sensor on the treadmill after all. It works pretty well and now I can use both apps at the same time without any problems, which is nice. It also confirmed that the treadmill’s speed is fairly accurate, with the belt moving within 0.2 km/h of what it’s set to (and I do like that Zwift now accurately records the actual speed of the belt instead of just the setting).

Note the instruction to “run at 12 km/h for 15 minutes.” It’s up to you to follow it, but Zwift does a good job of getting your attention when you need to change speed.

Unlike in Technogym Live, you can dismiss the report when a workout is finished, and continue running.

I’m not going to do a full review of Zwift running, but I’ll just say it’s fine. Compared to Technogym Live, it’s not the game-changer I thought it would be for training, especially since it can’t control the treadmill. It’s fun when I need a bit of a change in (virtual) scenery, though.

Customer support

This is where things have gone sideways with Technogym. A month after taking delivery of the treadmill, I started having a serious issue with it: it randomly shuts down whenever I use the speed or incline buttons.

Here’s a video demonstrating the issue:

I’ve done a ton of troubleshooting on this thing and reached some conclusions:

It’s not a power issue. The power cord is firmly plugged in, and the treadmill is on a 15 amp circuit, which is what Technogym recommends. The breaker doesn’t trip when the problem happens, and everything worked well for the first few weeks of use; a power issue would have been apparent from the moment I got the treadmill.
The treadmill works properly as long as I don’t use the buttons. I’ve done runs of up to 2.5 hours continuously without the treadmill stopping, as long as I don’t touch them.
The treadmill works properly if the Technogym Live app is controlling the speed or incline. If I set up a custom workout with varying speeds, or import one from TrainingPeaks, or use the swiftpad or Siri to change the speed or incline, everything works fine. It only stops when I change speeds or incline with the hardware buttons.

That leads me to believe it’s most likely a hardware problem, perhaps some faulty connection somewhere that loosened with the impact of my running over the course of a few weeks, and now causes the treadmill to randomly crash when the buttons are pressed. It’s also possible it’s a software bug—the treadmill got a firmware update a few days before the problem started. Firmware updates are handled by the Technogym Live app, but it happens silently and automatically—there’s no way to check for updates, and as far as I can tell, there are no release notes, or a public changelog, or a way to see which firmware version it has or when it was installed, so I can’t check if the timing of that update lines up with when I started experiencing the problem.

In any case, sometimes things break, sometimes you just get a lemon. It happens, I get it. What matters to me is how companies respond—when I got my indoor bike, a StagesBike SB20, it shipped with a dead power meter, but I contacted Stages, and a couple of days later they overnighted me a new crank with detailed instructions to replace it, and gave me a workaround so I could still use the bike in the meantime. A few months later, my cat chewed on the power cable, and again, Stages immediately shipped me a new one under warranty. Stages customer support has consistently been responsive and excellent.

In contrast, I’m sorry to report that Technogym’s customer support has been abysmal so far. There’s no public customer support email, or a support portal where I can create a ticket; messages sent through the generic contact form on the website go unanswered, and calling the phone number results in long waits on hold (there is a contact option using Whatsapp, of all things, but I do not have Whatsapp). I even tried emailing the customer support rep that reached out when I placed the order to see if she could put me in touch with someone who could help me; she never replied. I eventually managed to reach someone on the phone, an extremely curt person who made no attempt to troubleshoot or gather details about my issue, and did no more than ask for the serial number and start a work order with “MYRUN SHUTTING DOWN” as the entire, verbatim description of the problem. When technical support finally emailed me, their only suggestion was that “the power cord may not be properly inserted,” with a diagram in case I didn’t know how to plug in a cable.

That’s the last I’ve heard from Technogym. I replied with a full description of the problem and the video above, and never got a response. After two weeks, and multiple follow-up emails without a response, I’m nowhere near close to a resolution. I don’t know if or when they’re going to repair or replace my treadmill, so my hope is that it is a software issue, and a future update somehow fixes it.

At least the treadmill still runs, and although I am limited in what I can do without using the buttons (Zwift is out of the question, for example), I can still train as long as I set up my workouts in advance in TrainingPeaks. But come on, this is an absurdly bad level of customer support. At this point I’m inclined to return the treadmill just so I never have to deal with Technogym ever again, but I’m not sure how I would even go about initiating a return when they’re so unresponsive.

Update, March 14th, 2023: After a month and a half of no response whatsoever to my emails, I ended up sending an actual written letter by certified mail to Technogym HQ in New Jersey, basically giving them 30 days to resolve my issue before I sought legal remedy, and I got a call back the same day it was delivered. The person I talked to was very apologetic for the delay, and promised to send a technician as soon as possible to determine if the treadmill could be repaired, or they’d replace it. The next day I got a call from Fitness Machine Technicians, out of Salt Lake City, to schedule a visit from the technician. We’ll see how it shakes out, but this feels like progress at last.

Update, March 21st, 2023: Just got a visit from the technician. He replaced the control board and the console, and lubricated the belt in case it was a friction issue, but the malfunction still persists, unfortunately. He thinks the problem is the buttons themselves or the harness that connects them to the console, so he’d have to order those parts and come back. Technogym told me they would replace the treadmill if the technician wasn’t able to fix it, so I hope that’s the next—and final—step in this saga.

Update, April 17th, 2023: It’s been almost a month since I had the visit from the technician and I haven’t heard a word from Technogym, despite multiple requests for an update. Today, I got this:

Here’s some feedback, Technogym: how about you fix my fucking treadmill before you ask about my “satisfaction.” Unbelievable.

Update, April 20th, 2023: Two technicians from Fitness Machines came over today, and replaced the buttons and harness; the treadmill appears to be in working order now. They explained that it took them a while to come back because Technogym had to ship the parts from Italy. Now, why couldn’t Technogym just say that at any point in the past month, perhaps as a reply to one of the many emails I sent asking for an update? I’m not upset that the treadmill started malfunctioning after only a month, I’m not even upset that it took three months to get it repaired, I’m upset by how bad Technogym’s communication has been through this whole process. This is far and away the worst customer support experience I’ve had in my entire life, and now I’m at a crossroads with this treadmill—it seems to work, and I genuinely like it, but the last thing I want is to have to go through this ordeal if it breaks again in the future. I’m wondering if I should sell it, even if I have to take a loss on it, and get something else.

Update, April 21st, 2023: I got a nice email from someone at Technogym Italy this morning. He was very apologetic about the poor communication from Technogym USA, was glad to hear the treadmill was fixed, and said he was going to follow up with them to figure out the cause of the delays and miscommunication. I thanked him for reaching out, and thought that was the end of this journey.

I was wrong. A few hours later, I got a separate email from Technogym USA to let me know that they’re working on my “MyRun extraction and refund.” In the letter I sent to their HQ in New Jersey I said that repairing, replacing, or returning the treadmill were all acceptable outcomes for me, so after having the treadmill repaired, and confirming it worked, I considered the matter closed. So I don’t understand why, literally a day after having the treadmill repaired, they’re now working on a return and refund I didn’t ask for. I thought about telling them a return wasn’t necessary now that the treadmill is fixed, but I’m so fed up, I just replied “great, keep me posted.” I’ll start shopping for a new treadmill if and when they follow through with this return. I don’t believe for a second that they will, though.

This is officially the most deranged customer support experience I’ve ever encountered.

Update, May 10th, 2023: They’ve ghosted me once again, so I don’t think this return is happening.

At least the treadmill works correctly again, so this is, as far as I’m concerned, the end of this saga.

Conclusion

Pros

Compact, elegant, and easy to use
Easy to assemble and disassemble
Pretty much maintenance-free
Powerful enough motor for long, hard runs
Highly programmable; the Technogym Live app is excellent and TrainingPeaks integration is a game-changer for me
Zwift running is fun

Cons

Expensive
Zwift can’t control the treadmill
Only one Bluetooth connection; can’t use Zwift and Technogym Live at the same time
Developed a pretty serious issue in just a month
Technogym customer support is bad, and they should feel bad

So, is this thing worth almost $4,000? I’d really love to be able to say “hey, if you can afford it, you won’t regret it,” because I love the treadmill itself. It’s pricy, but exactly what I wanted: an elegant, compact, low-maintenance, highly-programmable treadmill on which I can do long, hard structured workouts and connect to Zwift. However, taking into account the problems I’ve had with it, and in particular my experience with Technogym’s customer support, I just can’t recommend it. For this amount of money, you’re just taking too big of a gamble with Technogym.

If, after reading this, you’re still considering this treadmill, my advice would be proceed with caution. Call Technogym, and inquire about what level of support they can provide and who provides servicing in your area, and then call that company and make sure you feel confident you’ll get the necessary assistance if you ever need it. Then, you can make an informed decision. This is probably a good thing to do, no matter what brand you’re considering. In hindsight, it’s what I should have done—it might have saved me a lot of grief.

Race Report: 2022 Hole Half Marathon

2022-09-24T17:00:00-06:00

This will likely be a short one: Today I raced the somewhat confusingly-named Hole Half Marathon, which is entirely unrelated to the Jackson Hole Half Marathon I did earlier in the summer. It went fine.

About halfway through the race. Credit: Jackson Hole Marathon Races

I went in without any goals other than get a good workout; my training plan had a 2:30 run today, and this seemed more fun than running that long. If anything, I just wanted to do my best and have some fun, and with that in mind, well, mission accomplished.

The race started at 9:00 AM from the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, and followed a route very similar to the other Jackson Hole Half Marathon, albeit in the opposite direction, ending in Teton Village, which meant a slight grade for most of the course. It was cold at the starting line, just shy above freezing, at 1°C, but as is normal this time of year, I expected it to warm up quite a bit, so I didn’t bring gloves or a lot of layers. The race was cupless this year, so I brought a bottle of Maurten Drink Mix 320 Caf 100; that was my only fuel and hydration for the entirety of the race (I also had a couple gels just in case, but didn’t use them).

The race course for the Hole Half.

After running through a few quiet neighborhood streets, we joined the full marathon course and headed towards Wilson on the community path. From there on, it was… completely uneventful, I really don’t have much of anything of note to write about. I kept a steady pace of around 5:00/km for most of the race, and had no issues, pain, or stitches at any point. Towards the last five kilometers or so, Ian, one of the marathon runners, tagged alongside me and helped me push my pace a little faster, which I appreciated. I ended up with a finish time of 1:47:28, slightly slower than my previous half marathon, but I’m confident I left nothing on the table so I’m feeling pretty good about it. I finished 4th in my age group and 20th overall, which was a definite improvement since last time.

On the equipment front, I swapped my Wahoo Rival watch and the Stryd pod for my Apple Watch for this race. For whatever reason, the Rival has become very unreliable lately, crashing frequently during workouts, sometimes randomly factory-resetting itself, and has stopped connecting to the Stryd pod altogether. Thankfully, the new running features in watchOS 9 meant I could just use my regular Apple Watch today, and it worked just fine. Its implementation of running power, in particular, seems to track very closely with Stryd’s, which helped me with pacing; I tried to stay between 230 W and 240 W for most of the race. It’s definitely good enough I don’t think I’ll keep using Stryd going forward (although I’ll need to replace the Wahoo; there’s no way I’m doing an Ironman with an Apple Watch).

Overall, this was a fun day; I got a pretty good workout and I’m feeling pretty good about my performance, considering I only started running consistently in March. Next up is my final race of the year, Ironman 70.3 Arizona. As of today, I’m feeling strong and ready to start tapering. I’m excited to see how I do in Tempe in a couple of weeks.

Race Report: 2022 Jackson Hole Half Marathon

2022-07-02T17:00:00-06:00

Today I raced in my second B race this year, the Jackson Hole Half Marathon, as part of my prep for Ironman 70.3 Arizona in October. I went in with a few goals:

Test my nutrition strategy.
Test how the pace suggested by Stryd felt.
See if I could actually pace myself properly.

Timewise, I didn’t have any specific goals. Anything under two hours would have been fine, with 1:45 as a stretch goal.

The race started at 8:00 AM on the dot on the bike path just north of Teton Village. I started way at the back because I was trying to stay socially distant, so I was stuck behind everybody for the first couple of kilometers, but after passing that initial group, I ran by myself most of the way. The course followed the multi-use pathway downhill until the Stilson Lot, then turned west towards Wilson for about a kilometer before turning around and heading through Rendezvous Park. After crossing the bridge over the Snake River, it continued on the pathway alongside highway 22 before turning on Tribal Trail Road towards the finish line at Colter Elementary. However, the course wasn’t exactly 21.1 km, with my GPS reporting 20.42 km.

For nutrition, I relied on Maurten gels since it’s what they provide on Ironman courses, using their recommended fueling guide for half marathons as a starting point. Instead of using their drink mix, I had a Maurten Caf gel 15 minutes before race start, then a regular gel at kilometers 5 and 10, and one more Maurten Caf at around kilometer 16 (which gave me a pretty good boost at the end, they’re really caffeinated). I started feeling some slight stomach cramps around kilometer 8, but they went away quickly after having some water at the aid stations. Other than that, I had no GI issues, and ended the race feeling strong.

The Stryd app suggested I hit a target power of 230 W for this race, with a projected time of around 1:51, and I did my best to hit that target. To help with that, I set up my watch to auto-lap every 1 km, and set the data fields to average 3-second power, heart rate, and average power and pace for the entire workout and for the current lap; that way I could shoot for target power for each lap and adjust on the next one if I missed it. In the end, I nailed it, ending up with an average power of exactly 230 W and a finishing time of 1:46:38. At my average pace of 5:13/km, it would have taken me about 1:50 to do the actual half marathon distance, almost spot on what Stryd predicted. It felt like the right amount of effort; I’m not sure I would have been able to sustain a faster pace. Good job, Stryd.

Me, arriving at the finish line. Credit: Jackson Hole Half Marathon

With that total time of 1:46:38, I finished 8th in my age group (male 30-39) and 26th overall.

Although I didn’t hit my stretch goal, I’m pretty happy with this result, considering it’s my first half marathon ever, and also because check out how cool the finisher medal is:

As for my initial goals:

I seem to be able to easily stomach multiple Maurten gels without any GI issues. They're… not cheap, but they’re worth it.
Stryd’s suggested pace seems to work very well. I’m not sure if I’d have been able to hit that pace after the swim and bike legs, though, so I’ll probably need to account for that for Arizona.
My pacing strategy worked, I was able to hit my targets perfectly. Can I do the same for the bike?

Next up, let’s see if I can shave off a few minutes from my run at the Hole Half in September, my last race before heading to Arizona.