Tri for Sight 2009 Race Report

This past Sunday AM, I raced a last minute sprint tri, as did my wife. We were actually planning on her racing and me supporting, but she decided she’d rather me race as well and I’m not one to argue with that. Although it was a sprint tri while I’m focusing on 70.3’s this season, it fell at a perfect time to be able to fit into the schedule. This race, the Tri-for-Sight, in Lexington, KY is 2 weeks prior to Augusta 70.3 (my next A race). I am doing a 1.5 week taper, so some threshold work (the race itself) along with a long bike the day before this weekend’s race provided a solid last build weekend pre-taper. Oh yeah, and racing is fun.

A little background on the event...The Tri-for-Sight is a sprint tri with an 800m pool swim in Univ. of Kentucky’s natatorium, an 18.6 mile rolling hill bike ride through city and horse farms, and a 4 mile run near the football stadium (including 2 miles in the arboretum). This is probably my favorite sprint tri I’ve done for a variety of reasons. For one, it’s nearby to Louisville and Cincinnati so has always been easy to get to. Second, it’s the first tri I ever did 6 years ago (and this year was the 5th time I’ve been back). Third, other than the swim…the course is top notch as far as scenery and providing some challenging terrain, but well kept roads. Finally, the post race food selection and door prizes are usually awesome and this year was no exception.

With the races continued success, they have grown increasing the field size to near 400 tri competitors (including relay teams) and adding a duathlon. Unfortunately, the logistics of increasing the field in a pool swim race led to some serious congestion this year, but we’ll get to that.

Race Morning: Up at 5, at the course by 6, ready to go by 6:45…all pretty smooth. My wife and I set up our areas, then inspected each others to provide some piece of mind, then went out to talk with my parents before heading to the pool. I also downed my espresso GU about 30 minutes before starting.

Swim: I lined up to swim based on my number (numbers were given based on projected swim time, fastest to slowest)…I was 173, so stepped in line between 172 and…473? Obviously, this 473 fellow was in the wrong place, right…wrong. Apparently 473 was actually supposed to be 173, but since we had similar names I received his registration info. I was actually supposed to be in the 220s, which makes more sense with my lack of swimming skills. Luckily the RD had fixed the mistake already and I just waited and started in the place where I was seeded to. The pool was a war zone! They started swimmers every 10 seconds, instead of 15 as in years past. By the end of the first lane I was stuck in a pack of 4 swimmers and basically was in a similar situation the rest of the swim. In some of the fray of attempted passing, I had my watch ripped off my wrist, but didn’t find out until I exited the pool…I wouldn’t have wanted to see the swim time anyways. 800m in 16:36 (23/30 in AG)…ouch, but 20s faster than last year.

T1: There is a long run from pool to transition…then I stumbled a bit in transition, so not my best…3:47

Bike: I’ve gotten so much stronger on the bike this year and I know this course pretty well…so felt pretty good going into this leg. I just ticked off the miles, pushing pretty hard especially on the hills, and watched the time on my PC. I alternated water and my custom Infinit blend every 7.5-8minutes as was convenient. Only one racer passed me, on a roadie with clip-ons. He was a machine, so I just let him go. Before I knew it, I was in sight of the football stadium and transition, so started spinning and preparing for the run. 18.6miles in 49:44 (22.3mph avg, 5/30 in AG)

T2: Quick and gone…1:19…need to get quicker though

Run: Within the first quarter mile, I was surprised how strong I felt…let’s call it cautious optimism. I pushed the pace harder than I have in years passed, and my legs felt a little heavy, but cardio-wise I wasn’t hurting at all. I carried my nutrition with me (1 amphipod bottle each of Infinit and water) and alternated every few minutes. Without a watch, I really couldn’t tell how fast I was going, but it felt quick. In the last mile, I was pretty certain I had put a good race together. I approached the line, but didn’t feel the need to kick it in, so just coasted across with energy to spare…probably should have pushed it harder earlier. 4miles in 25:55 (6:29/mile, 6/30 in AG)

Total time: 1:37:22 (22/305 OA, 12/30 in AG, 4+min PR)

Can’t do anything about being in a stacked AG for this one, but was very pleased with the performance. More importantly, I was pleased I was able to push hard and still have plenty of energy at the end…good sign for the 70.3.

As for my wife’s race, this was her 2nd year consecutive in this event, so she had a time to race against. She’s been working hard this season on properly biking hills and her running speed…it paid off. Even with less swim training than normal, she managed to drop her times in every leg and PR by nearly 10 minutes. A very solid time and great motivation to see the gains she’s made this year. I was very proud of her.

My taper starts officially mid-week this week…the money is in the bank at this point, so now I’m just anxious to get to Augusta and see what I can do.

Where have I been

Wow! I kind of fell off the face of the earth in regard to my blog, and for no great reason, either. I had topics I wanted to devote posts to, but was either too busy or just lost the motivation to write temporarily. So, instead of full posts of some of what I’ve been up to, I’ll just do a quick recap and maybe (hopefully) post some pictures tonight or tomorrow to further bring this up to speed.

As of my last post, I was getting ready for some R&R post Steelhead…it was wonderful. The wife and I spent our first anniversary at the Garden Grove Bed and Breakfast in Union Pier, MI (part of Harbor Country). We were just a couple miles from beach access, near New Buffalo for restaurants and some shopping, but otherwise away from it all. Highlights included an all afternoon (12-5) winery touring trip on Sunday where we hit 5 local wineries and a specialty chocolate shop, seeing the movie Away We Go and a fun little renovated old dinner theatre, climbing a huge sand dune (and then sprinting down it to run from the rain), and in room massages at the B&B. We came home refreshed and 14 bottles of Michigan wine richer…not bad.

In mid-August, we celebrated the wife’s birthday with a trip to the lake (in NE Indiana) for the weekend, where we had invited some friends we hadn’t seen in a while. The weather was mild and cloudy, but that didn’t hold us back from plenty of skiing, boating, and the like. It was great to see everyone.

The last weekend of August was Ironman Louisville. The family and I all volunteered (3 finish line catchers, 2 finish line t-shirt booth workers) and had a blast. We spent almost 11 hours at the finish line, working the first 5 or so, and then enjoying a dinner before cheering on the late finishers until midnight. It was my first time experiencing an IM finish line atmosphere and it was electric. The next day, my dad, sister and I all took the plunge and registered for IMLou 2010. I finalized my registration a couple days ago, although I don’t think reality has set in that I’m officially doing this yet.

Last weekend was, of course, Labor Day weekend and marked the beginning of college football season. Seeing as how I live in Cincy and am a huge UK fan (Kentucky), I couldn’t miss an opportunity to see the Wildcats play their season opener in the Bengals stadium. After a solid opening victory, it was off to say farewell to the lake for 2009 for the rest of the weekend. It involved lots of reading and catching up on sleep.

So now, here I am, getting ready to start my taper for my 2nd A race of the season (Augusta 70.3) come mid next week. Training has been going well, this week especially, and I have a “for fun” sprint this upcoming weekend with the wife. I’m hoping to see how my swim is coming along as I feel like I’ve made great strides in a short time, but we’ll find out Sunday. I don’t have strict goals for this C race, just have fun and not get injured mostly. I’ll try and follow up the weekend with a race report.

All caught up, the challenge from here will be to not fall behind again…and to post a picture recap to supplement this update.