Cincy One World Triathlon...scratch that, Duathlon

Me with my medal (35th overall)

Brian receiving his M30-34 medal (4th overall)

Two AG victors after the race

Intense triathlon discussion

Me on run leg 1

Brian just looks fast on his bike...and he is

Me heading out on the bike

Brian on Run leg 2

Susan catches my attention on Run leg 2

Well, this is my last one of these for a little while since I don’t race again until late August (Chicago Accenture Oly). Now I just have to focus on the rest of my build phase and more importantly, my wedding in just over a month. Onto the race report:

The event was the Cincinnati One World Triathlon in its inaugural year. It had the option of either a sprint or an Olympic distance, and I opted for the Oly. I hadn’t heard anything about the race until about a month ago, but wanted to use it to see where I was with my swimming, clearly my limiter thus far. I figured, what better way to see how I am training in regards to swimming a 1.5k than swimming a 1.5k. Unfortunately, there was one small snag in my plan…there was no swim.
Storms moved through Friday evening and all throughout the night into Saturday morning. The race was scheduled for Sunday morning and the Ohio River, being the glorious body of water it is, gathered too much runoff bacteria raising it beyond swimmable levels. There was already a good deal of apprehension to swimming in the Ohio from other competitors, so I’m sure this didn’t raise their confidence for future events. I have swum in the Ohio in Louisville 2x in Oly tris (before IMLou shut them down), so I was fully prepared to make the plunge, but oh well. As disappointing as that was, my money was still sunk in the event, so I decided to show up and compete in the duathlon that was made at the last minute to substitute. A 2 mile run replaced the swim leg (not exactly comparable obviously). Here’s how it went down:

Well, first…I accidentally set my 3 alarms for 5:15, 5:25, and 5:35pm instead of AM, so 6:25AM rolls around and I happen to notice in my sleepy stupor that it’s way too light out to be pre-5:15. I panic, but luckily had prepped most of my stuff the night before and was out the door with the fiancé in less than 10 minutes. Got to the race site at 6:45, still plenty of time since transition closed at 7:15…whew!

Run 1—2 miles
With running being my strength, I had to remind myself that there were 2 legs to go and not to go out like I’m doing a 2 mile time trial. Being in the Clydesdale division and starting in a separate wave along with the 50+ males, I assumed I’d be near the front of my wave, though…so I thought pacing might be tough. Ended up since the first leg was actually a mile loop repeated 2x, so it didn’t matter b/c we got swallowed up by the earlier waves on their 2nd lap. I ran a pace that felt comfortable and definitely held back. My main concern was not injuring myself since the course had been thrown together on a semi trail/slanted cobblestone path that could have been dangerous if you weren’t being careful. Anyways, a couple 50somethings were ahead of me at the end of the run, but I was fairly certain I was the first Clydesdale to hit T1. Time: 15:12.8

T1—Nothing exciting to report, except that it’s much faster of a transition from run to bike than swim to bike. Time: 1:34.9

Bike—40k (24.8miles)
Based off of no actual experience or evidence, I assumed the bike would be flat despite the fact that Cincinnati is a hilly city (as far as the region goes). I guess it was the fact that the majority of the ride was on a 4 lane highway that follows along the river. Either way, I was wrong. The Parkway we were on was basically extended rolling hills the entire time and the on ramp we used to access it was like hitting a wall. The course was a double looped course for the Oly, so we had to do it all twice. The second time I hit the on ramp, I went from 22.5mph to 7.5mph in about 25m or so…however, I passed plenty of people who were struggling worse than me to get up (Yay for road bike geometry I guess). All in all, I was glad the bike was tough since it should make Chicago feel very flat come August. I was passed by one Clydesdale from what I could tell in the last 5 miles. I didn’t try and chase him down, just kept him in eyeshot until the last mile. I figure if it took him that long to pass me I must have had a substantial lead on just a 2 mile run, so catching him on a 10k wouldn’t be an issue as long as I didn’t blow up. So I spun it in and prepped for the run. Time: 1:11:54.1

T2—Nothing exciting again. Time: 1:30.0

Run 2—10k (6.2 miles)
I took off with baby steps to keep the cadence high, and was actually moving pretty well. Soon enough I found my stride and was cruising along. I passed the clyde before the first mile, so was pretty certain I had AG in the bag…now to focus on my time and being consistent. I was moving along pretty good until I rounded a corner under a bridge and realized that a staircase was part of the run course…a steep staircase that climbed up to a bridge to KY. I hit it hard trying to keep going at my pace, then almost tripped, caught myself and realized how badly my legs burned. I walked the rest of the steps. That took a lot out of me and my pace slowed for the entire 2nd loop until I hit the stairs again. I didn’t attempt to be aggressive this time and just walked them. After that it was about .5 miles to the finish so I pushed since I could see the light. I met up with 4 other guys about 200m to go and we all looked pretty beat. I swung around from the back like I was pulling off a slingshot maneuver and took off to start up a dash to the finish. Everyone started coming with me, but 2 backed off pretty quick. I then dueled with the other guy who had longer legs than me and a larger cheering section since he’s part of the local tri club. Needless to say, he won the duel, but it was fun anyways. All done. Time: 47:47.5

Official stats:
Run 1: 15:12.8 (7:36/mile)
T1: 1:34.9
Bike: 1:11:54.1 (20.7mph)
T2: 1:30.0
Run 2: 47:47.5 (7:32.5/mile)

Total: 2:17:59.4 (1 of 9 in AG, 35 of 213 overall)

A friend of mine also competed and took the M30-34 AG victory (and 4th OA, he’s fast), so it was a good day all around.

Indianapolis Sprint Triathlon Race Report...Susan's 2nd tri

This past weekend my fiancé competed in her second tri ever. My sister and I also participated as did one of her (my sister) friends, completing her first ever. The race was a super-sprint distance in Indianapolis (500m swim, 10mile bike, 3 mile run). Here’s my RR plus as detailed a summary of everyone else’s performances as I can give.

The race is part of the Indianapolis Sprint Series…3 identical races held at Eagle Creek Park and Reservoir in June-August. 2 years ago, Susan (fiancé) and I did this same race and it was her first ever triathlon. This year, she decided she would make her triumphant return to the sport after missing last year with a recurring foot injury from an improperly healed broken toe (still an issue, but pain is now controlled through orthotics and more supportive shoes). Either way, we also were able to get my sister to travel from St. Louis over to participate and she convinced her friend to borrow a bike and give it a shot for her first. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect at 65-75 degrees and sunny throughout the entire event. That mixed with heavy shade on much of the course made for an enjoyable racing experience…

My race report:

Swim: Decided to go with the wetsuit even though the swim was short to practice transitioning with it and since I figured most people wouldn’t wear them so I might be able to be further up heading into T1 than usual. Completed the swim of 500m in 10:54. Not bad even though it felt longer and harder than it actually was. I have an Olympic distance this upcoming week and am feeling nervous about the swim after these past 2 race performances. Nothing too out of the ordinary for an OW swim, I did get punched in the face for the first time ever…been kicked plenty of times, but never punched. It spun my goggles all the way around, so there was a stop to adjust worked in too.

T1: 2:20 or so…pretty quick considering I was wetsuited when compared to rest of field

Bike: Course was more difficult than I remembered. With this race being shorter than my training focus, I was hoping to go all out on the bike and see what I had left for the run. Even with aggressive riding my avg was only 21.4mph for the course. After seeing the technical difficulty of the course again I was pretty pleased with it. The course winds and is up and down hills the first 2 miles through the park…then is straight on a bumpy road up and down hills for the next 3 to the turnaround…then repeat backwards.

T2: In and out in a relative hurry…they have a weird system with the way the transition areas are setup so I had to basically wind through the entire area with my bike instead of being able to go directly to my rack…time was 1:40 or so

Run: Just out of the transition area you start up a slight hill to get out to the course, I did not feel well at this point as I expected. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was able to maintain a decent pace, though and felt pretty good again about .5 mile into it. It was an out and back, so I could see the runners ahead of me who were past the turnaround. I counted 4 clydesdales ahead of me, so figured I was in 5th place…a little worse than I was hoping at the time. Luckily, especially for a Clydesdale, I have a strong run leg and was able to pass 2 in the last mile to take 3rd in the AG.

I grabbed water and talked to my parents as we waited for Susan and Liz (sister’s friend) to come in on the bike. Luckily my wave took off 10 min before Susan’s so that mixed with my faster speed led to me being able to be done before she took off on the run. She was hoping I’d be able to do the run (or run/walk) leg with her and this setup allowed me to be able to.

She came in ahead of when I expected her to. She definitely was going to improve her time from 2 yrs ago, awesome. I walked ahead and waited for her on the hill at the beginning of the run course and off we went. We walked sections in the sun and the few up hills we came across. Plus here run pace has improved so even with more walking her run time was about equivalent to her previous race. She was in good spirits the entire time, telling me about different people she had seen on the course and what not. She was also excited her parents were able to come…they’ve never seen a tri before and were a little overwhelmed by all the activity, but seemed to find it interesting and fun. We crossed the finish line and only had 1 more person to wait for on the course (my sister was already in…we passed her on our way out on the run). Liz was about 10 minutes behind Susan to cross the line and had a smile on her face which was good since she had made a comment about dying when we passed her on the run course.

Here are the stats:

Jeff (me):
Swim-10:54
T1-2:20ish
Bike- 28:04 (21.4 mph avg)
T2- 1:40ish
Run- 20:01 (6:40/mile pace)
Total-1:02:56 (3rd of 41 in AG, 71st of 575 overall)--~6min improvement from 2 yrs ago

Susan-1:36:?? (7min better than 2 yrs agos time not counting the penalty she received last time for kick-standing her bike next to her full rack)
Kelley(sister)-1:15:??
Liz-~1:40

I will update the more exact times when I can access the results again as well as post any pics if they turn out well.

I race the Cincy One World Tri Sunday the 29th (this coming weekend) as my last training race for my A race in August…RR to follow.

St. Peter's RecPlex Triathlon Race Report

Finally I got to do another race. I know it’s only been a month, but my excitement after the success of my first race had me making more aggressive goals and raised the anticipation level for the upcoming races. However, now I get 3 races in 3 weeks…which should tide me over for a while since I have almost a two month layoff after the third before my first A race in late August. Enough setup…onto the RR.

The St. Peter’s RecPlex Triathlon is a kind of strangely proportioned sprint race just outside St. Louis. It is a non-USAT event that has some weird quirks to it, but is a generally fun event that I have been doing the past 4 years now. It usually consists of a 500m pool swim, 21 mile mostly flat bike, and 4.8 mile park path run. It’s a non-swimmers dream tri. As I mentioned earlier, it is the 4th year I’ve done it as well as the 4th year my dad and sister have participated as well…which has made it a solid father’s day tradition.

Race Morning: We arrive to see the transition area has been moved from previous years to behind the RecPlex…it’s a smaller area which leads to more congestion in a growing event. Due to the move, the pool swim will start on the opposite end and snake the other way leading to a shorter T1 run…not too bad. The bike course has also been changed last minute due to flooding, but the updated map is confusing, so we just decide to go with the flow once we’re out there. The run course was back to the way it was 2 years ago since the construction is complete in the area.

Swim: One of the quirks of this race is that the swim is started on a first come first serve basis from a registration stand-point (the earlier you register the earlier you start). This makes some weird congestion problems at times since there is no speed arrangement. We finally registered properly this year getting an early start time (7:00 AM) and in the correct order based on our relative speeds (my sister first, then me, then my dad). Everything is running smoothly so we start on time. My swim feels awful and I post my worst time here in 3 yrs at 10:44, I was hoping to be 9:30 so obviously I need some work on my swimming. Either way it’s over quickly and I’m into and out of T1 in about a minute.

They don’t do chip timing here so transitions are both added to bike time, I estimated 1 minute for each to get a better idea of my bike time, which would be about correct based on my CPU avg speed.

Bike: In my initial race plan I was hoping to break an hour on the bike (~21.5mph avg), but with the course change wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I figured it was still a reasonable goal. I felt strong once I got over the interstate overpass and used an early downhill to cruise along at 27mph for about 1.5 miles which felt great. I was passing people like crazy which is also fun…especially on my roadie with clip-ons and stock wheels. I got to the farmland area, the bulk of the ride, and was easily pushing 24.5 mph on the flats on the way out…there must be a tailwind. Hit the turn around and it turned against me. I was still able to hold close to 20mph on the way back in (and pass a high end tri-bike with a zipp disk and aero helmet…awesome), got to the next turnaround (since the course was shortened to avoid flooding there was a loop section) and had to come to a complete stop around the cone because it was basically people on their first loop coming thru and people turning for loop 2 merging in…kind of annoying. Second loop same story with the tail/headwind. Came back in noticing my time was already over 1hr so switch to check distance…pulled into T2 at 23.5 miles. They forgot to tell us they added 2.5 miles to the bike course, oops. Average was slower than I wanted but the addition of 3 180 degree turnaround points, one with oncoming traffic was a large contributing factor.

Got into T2 to find that a bike was in my spot on the rack and there was not space for mine to fit in…very annoying. Another quirk of the race is that with a staggered start in the pool they only tell you to get to the course 1hr before your start time to setup and get marked. So a guy who was starting 2hr+ after me saw my spot as open while my bike was gone and took it. I slid bikes along the rack with the help of someone nearby and crammed mine in. Quick shoe change and off on the run

Run: Wanted to make sure to not go out too fast as it was getting hotter and I knew I’d regret it later. Had to hold myself back since I felt very strong. Kept pushing along and before I knew it I was at the turnaround heading for home. I picked up the pace a bit and pushed on. Since it was out and back, I got to see my dad and sister both on there way out on the run as I was coming in, which I always like to do to keep tabs and make passing comments. I think I just yelled “Bike was long” between breaths at my dad as I passed. I had a little pain in the last mile from side stitches but was too close to slow down at that point. Crossed the finish line, found my mom and waited for the rest of the family.

Dad passed my sister on the run and came in about 3mins before her…both were pretty close. We didn’t hang around to see final results since we were pretty sure no AG placings among us and there were people still just getting on the bike course.

The breakdown:
Swim: 500m in 10:44 (bad)
T1: ~1 minute
Bike: 23.5miles @ 1:07:04 (21.0mph avg)
T2: ~1 minute
Run: 4.4 miles at 30:54 (7:01/mile)
Total: 1:50:43 (5th of 17 in M20-24 AG, 30th of 473 overall)

The official results had adjusted to the correct distances. Dad finished in ~2:14 and sister finished in ~2:17. Well done by all. The highlight of my day which I had been looking forward to all year was the Sonic breakfast burritos at the finish. Since I improved, I upped the ante and ate 2 of them this year (and now you know why I’m a Clydesdale).

Next race is a super sprint with the fiancée, my sister and her friend in Indy on Saturday. Race report to follow