Here I am, a few days from the last tri of the season. I am just going to train through this one though, so it’s kind of anti-climatic for me since my A tri was over a month ago now. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be an exciting weekend. I mean, it’s the wife’s 2nd tri of the year (3rd ever) and almost twice as long as her previous ones. She’s pretty nervous, and although grad school kept her from getting a full training schedule completed, she’s covered the distances in each individual sport so she’ll be fine. Also, my mom is doing the Du at the same time. This will be her second du ever and first in over 2 years. Combine that with my dad, sister, and myself racing, and needless to say there will be a lot going on Sunday morning.
The race is the Tri for Sight in Lexington, KY. It raises money for eye research at the University of Kentucky. It also happens to be the same event where my dad, sister, and I got our start in triathlon…so that makes it a little more meaningful. The race is an 800m pool swim (2 mile run for the du), an 18 mile light rolling hill bike, and a 4 mile run. It’s a very well run event, so I highly recommend it to people in the area. Plus, it has the best door prize raffle I’ve ever seen at a tri after the race. They raffle off stuff like $50 gift cards and Oakley sunglasses and the like…very exciting.
I will write a race report as usual, but can pretty much guarantee no pictures since the photographers are both racing…but oh well.
Anyways, I’m also about 3.5 weeks out from my other A race of the season, the Marine Corps Marathon. I think I’m ready for this too and am starting to get excited about it, although I have one more long training run to go (~21mi). My training for this one has been much more consistent than for Arizona in January, maybe because now that I’ve done a marathon, I have a greater understanding of the importance of the long run days, or maybe it’s just easier to train for a marathon through the late summer/early fall than it is through the winter. Either way, hopefully it will pay off and I can break 3:30…we shall see.
Alright, just for goals sake…I’m going to post my Tri for Sight race plan…then we can see how well I execute on Sunday:
Swim (800m pool)—16:30, my swim training has been pretty poor and there’s no wetsuit to help me here
T1—3:30, there is a .25 mile run from the pool to transition, thus the longer time
Bike (18.4 miles)—50:00, that’s around 22.5mph avg…we shall see
T2—1:30, some built in cushion there…hopefully will be less than a minute
Run (4 miles)—28:00, we’ll see how much my legs have left
Total—1:39:30, I’ll be very happy with a sub 1:40 performance
Previous course best (2006): 1:48:22
Results to come after the weekend
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Just an update
I said I’d try and update before my next race and would really like to get in the habit of posting on a more regular basis, so here’s a little progress report. We’ll see how long I keep these up.
The weeks since Accenture Chicago have been packed. I know it was only just over a month ago, but the race feels like a distant memory now. In the middle of my recovery week from Chicago, we finally made the move into our first house. The wife and I had been anxiously awaiting this. Her parents came down with a large service truck to help with the move early on a Wednesday morning. I was at work when they arrived, but luckily my job allows me to flex my schedule when I need to, so I took off at noon and headed to join the moving party. We also had a small but effective support group consisting of Susan’s cousin, and my two best men from the wedding. All three are rather strong guys, so they were able to move a lot of heavy furniture before I even got there (and then gave me hell about it). We worked all day until about 6:00 making trips b/w the apartment and the house and finally got the apartment cleaned out (mostly). It was exhausting, and the house now looked like a mess with boxes and bags everywhere.
We picked at the boxes, unpacking a little at a time throughout the rest of the week until my parents and sister came in to see the place on Saturday. Needless to say, we put them to work. They had been warned, so were good sports about it. We worked all day and basically got everything unpacked with the exception of one room. To reward ourselves in the evening, we cooked out (on my new grill) and relaxed outside with the fire pit. Hurray for wedding gifts.
Since then, we’ve been working through the early joys of homeownership. It certainly keeps you busy, especially at the outset. In less than a month, and with the help of some hired college students (for a fundraiser) and family…we have successfully unpacked 99% of the house, removed wallpaper and mold from bathroom, redid entire bathroom (light fixtures, faucet, and paint) with the exception of décor, removed wallpaper from the kitchen, cleaned the garage, and bought/assembled our new dining room set. Not too bad, eh.
In the more active side of life, I had my parents bring my old hybrid bike up from Louisville. I retooled it some by replacing old rusted parts and adding a rear rack and lights to turn it into my commuter dream. I have only ridden to work twice unfortunately so far since my work schedule has been somewhat erratic of late, but I’m still glad to have it. It’s also my little project, since I’m no bike expert. I feel like I can work on this bike to teach myself how to be a good enough bike mechanic to do most of my own maintenance.
Also, I’ve been riding more hills and think I’m addicted. I never knew bike riding could be so painful, it’s awesome. Hopefully my future bike splits will pay me back for the hard work. And the payoff of long descents is pretty sweet.
Most importantly, though, I’ve been running getting ready for DC in just over a month. I’m up to 16 miles for my long run and feel pretty good about where I am. I could/should probably be getting shorter runs in during the week, but overall I’m pretty confident. I did, however, skip my most recent 18 mile scheduled run to do a 45 mile bike ride instead. It was about the same amount of time to complete, but obviously easier on the legs. So, I will do 18 this weekend instead of the 20 I hoped to be at by this point. I’d still like to get 2 20 milers under my belt before this race, but it’s more important to have a good taper, so I may drop one. We’ll see.
Anyways, that pretty much catches things up. So, until next time…
The weeks since Accenture Chicago have been packed. I know it was only just over a month ago, but the race feels like a distant memory now. In the middle of my recovery week from Chicago, we finally made the move into our first house. The wife and I had been anxiously awaiting this. Her parents came down with a large service truck to help with the move early on a Wednesday morning. I was at work when they arrived, but luckily my job allows me to flex my schedule when I need to, so I took off at noon and headed to join the moving party. We also had a small but effective support group consisting of Susan’s cousin, and my two best men from the wedding. All three are rather strong guys, so they were able to move a lot of heavy furniture before I even got there (and then gave me hell about it). We worked all day until about 6:00 making trips b/w the apartment and the house and finally got the apartment cleaned out (mostly). It was exhausting, and the house now looked like a mess with boxes and bags everywhere.
We picked at the boxes, unpacking a little at a time throughout the rest of the week until my parents and sister came in to see the place on Saturday. Needless to say, we put them to work. They had been warned, so were good sports about it. We worked all day and basically got everything unpacked with the exception of one room. To reward ourselves in the evening, we cooked out (on my new grill) and relaxed outside with the fire pit. Hurray for wedding gifts.
Since then, we’ve been working through the early joys of homeownership. It certainly keeps you busy, especially at the outset. In less than a month, and with the help of some hired college students (for a fundraiser) and family…we have successfully unpacked 99% of the house, removed wallpaper and mold from bathroom, redid entire bathroom (light fixtures, faucet, and paint) with the exception of décor, removed wallpaper from the kitchen, cleaned the garage, and bought/assembled our new dining room set. Not too bad, eh.
In the more active side of life, I had my parents bring my old hybrid bike up from Louisville. I retooled it some by replacing old rusted parts and adding a rear rack and lights to turn it into my commuter dream. I have only ridden to work twice unfortunately so far since my work schedule has been somewhat erratic of late, but I’m still glad to have it. It’s also my little project, since I’m no bike expert. I feel like I can work on this bike to teach myself how to be a good enough bike mechanic to do most of my own maintenance.
Also, I’ve been riding more hills and think I’m addicted. I never knew bike riding could be so painful, it’s awesome. Hopefully my future bike splits will pay me back for the hard work. And the payoff of long descents is pretty sweet.
Most importantly, though, I’ve been running getting ready for DC in just over a month. I’m up to 16 miles for my long run and feel pretty good about where I am. I could/should probably be getting shorter runs in during the week, but overall I’m pretty confident. I did, however, skip my most recent 18 mile scheduled run to do a 45 mile bike ride instead. It was about the same amount of time to complete, but obviously easier on the legs. So, I will do 18 this weekend instead of the 20 I hoped to be at by this point. I’d still like to get 2 20 milers under my belt before this race, but it’s more important to have a good taper, so I may drop one. We’ll see.
Anyways, that pretty much catches things up. So, until next time…
Monday, August 25, 2008
Chicago Accenture Triathlon Race Report
I finally made it to my A race. My wife and I had gone to Hamilton, IN on Friday night to stay at her parents’ lake house since it was her dad’s birthday along with cutting our Saturday driving time down a couple hours. Saturday morning, I woke up and got a short ~2 mile run in at an easy pace to stretch my legs out. I was at my desk all day Friday, then in the car for 3+ hrs, so I wanted to do something active before getting into the car again Saturday to drive the rest of the way. The run was easy, but I could tell my energy levels were high, a good sign.
My family had planned to meet at the Hilton (host hotel) at around 2-3 to check in and go to packet pick-up. Amazingly, with 3 cars coming from different places, (us from Northeast Indiana, parents from Louisville, and sister from St. Louis) we all managed to arrive within 15 minutes at the hotel lobby. The place was a zoo, with hundreds of bikes littering the lobby and people with body markings coming and going. We managed to get checked in and into 1 (of our 2) rooms within an hour. Packet pickup, body marking, expo were all pretty straightforward. We then walked down to the swim start, which was about .5 mile from the hotel, and along the route to the exit, and then to find transition. Transition was much farther from the hotel than the race site had made it sound. After recon we all had dinner and prepared our gear for the next morning. I was ready for bed by 9:30, but wasn’t tired, so watched the Olympics until 11:00.
Sunday morning, woke up at 4:10, got my water/Infinit bottles ready. Dad, sister, and sister’s friend (participants) all met at my room (aka the bike storage room) to pick up the bikes and head down to setup transition. We had found our wave numbers and start times the day before and knew we’d have time to return to the hotel before race, so we weren’t dressed yet, and left our swim gear along with our support crew (my wife and mom) so they could get a little extra sleep. The transition area was super-busy, and we all split up to setup our areas. It only took me 10 minutes or so to set up, but then I ran through my transitions in my head to make sure I had everything about 5 times. I’m real paranoid about that.
Got back to the room about 6AM, my sister’s friend was the first to start at 7:53, so we had some time. I had breakfast consisting of a banana, a protein bar, and lots of water (I usually can’t eat much prior to start). By 7, we were heading out of the hotel to the swim start. I had never been to a race of nearly this size, so it was pretty impressive seeing all the triathletes as well as spectators lined along the harbor. I had a gel at around 7:40ish. My sister’s friend got in the start corral for her wave at around 7:40, she started at 7:53. My sister went off at 8:01, and I was 1 wave behind at 8:05. Unfortunately, my dad didn’t take off for another hour, so he had time to wait for it to get warmer and windier.
The swim: I am not the most confident OW swimmer in the world, but this swim didn’t bother me. You swim parallel to the shore of the harbor only about 20 feet from the wall at the farthest and you can see the bottom for most of the swim. The start was kind of a train-wreck as we were in a pretty narrow “lane” with people everywhere. I did my best to get in a groove, but could only go a few strokes at a time for the first 150m or so without running into multiple people. At 300m or so you hit the turnaround and head back. We had spread some by then, so I got moving better. Then after you pass the start area again, the lane is opened up (not divided) so there is all of a sudden twice as much space to work with. This was easily the best OWS I’ve ever completed. Since I breathe to both sides, I was able to keep an eye on the wall where the spectators were. This allowed me to: 1)Distract myself by watching them and looking for family, and 2) Spot off the wall to stay in a straight line so I didn’t have to pull up so often to see where I was. I got out of the swim and didn’t see the clock, but could tell that since I was with the back of the wave in front of me it must have been pretty good for a not very strong swimmer like myself.
Time: 30:53…Raceplan (from early June) goal time: 32minutes (-1:07)
The run to T1 didn’t seem as long as it looked Saturday when we walked it. Considering how big the transition area was and the fact that my setup was right next to the swim in corner (I had to run my bike all the way across the area), I had a pretty solid T1.
Time: 2:53…Raceplan goal time: 3minutes (-:07, -1:14 total)
The bike: I took off northbound on Lake Shore Drive for the bike leg. I assumed it was going to be in terrible shape considering the talk overheard at the expo and warnings the morning of. It was actually worse than what I was expecting, potholes everywhere and random patches and bumps all over the place. This didn’t bother me as much as the fact that very few of these hazards were marked with spray-paint, and the ones that were probably didn’t need to be. I wanted to try and average around 22mph for the ride, and was spinning along with a slight burn in my legs trying to get my fluids and was only about 15 minutes into the ride, but had only been riding around 19mph. I could tell I was going into the wind, but couldn’t tell how strong it was or how much effect it was having. I just decided to race it by feel instead of speed and hope for the best. Every 5 minutes I would drink, alternating b/w water and Infinit (custom 255 calorie mix). I was consistently passing people, so assumed it wasn’t just me struggling to hold speed. At the turnaround, I got the wind at my back and realized the difference. I cruised back to the 2nd loop turnaround averaging around 24.5-25mph for that leg. On the 2nd loop, the headwind seemed worse, so I just kept my thoughts positive and focused on how nice it would be after the turn. I pushed pretty hard northbound to try and keep my avg speed in the 21s (where it was when I turned). Finally on the home stretch, I geared down and spun, knowing the wind would give me the speed I needed. I focused on getting fluids and staying relaxed for the run as the wind pushed me steadily along at around 24mph.
Time: 1:07:41 (21.9mph counting mounting/dismounting etc…my CPU had me at 22.6mph)…Raceplan goal: 1:08:00 (-:19, -1:33 total)
The run to T2 was awkward as I was trying to adjust my legs to being on the ground again while running downhill across the transition in my bike shoes. I made it w/o mishap, but took longer here than I’d hoped. I switched shoes, got my # belt and hat, and was off.
Time: 2:37…Raceplan goal: 2minutes (+:37, -:56 total)
Run: The run was flat and I took off feeling pretty good, but I was wary since I knew we’d be heading south for the first half or so of the run. This meant the final 2+ miles would be into the headwind once the pain had really start to set in. I went along, carrying my 2 fuel belt bottles in my hand (1 water, 1 Infinit) so I was able to gain time by not having to stop at the aid stations, at least for the first 4 miles. I got some light spasms in my quads early in the run, but just drank more fluids tried to increase my leg motion to work them out a little. I moved steadily along until the turnaround, where the headwind hit me like a punch to the face. From there I just ducked my head and shortened my stride to keep progressing along steadily. My pace slowed noticeably around the 5 mile mark and I was just trying to think “Just 10 more minutes.” I hit the 6 mile mark and was still running, so knew I’d make it. I picked up the pace a little, but didn’t have anything left for a finishing kick. Two guys sprinted past me in the final straight, but I could see the big clock and knew I’d reached my goal so I just coasted in smiling and weakly raised my arms as they announced my name at the finish.
Time: 45:43 (7:22/mile)…Raceplan goal: 45minutes (+:43, -:13 total)
Overall time: 2:29:47 (4 of 49 clydesdale 200-224, 284 of 4089 overall)
I got water and went around to the sidelines to do some spectating. My sister’s friend was already finished (in around 2:23) and was there as well. My sister came across about 25 minutes later in 2:59:04, breaking through the 3 hour wall in her 5th international distance race. Her previous 2 attempts, both this year were completed in 3:00:xx, so that made breaking the mark even more rewarding. My dad came across nearly an hour later at 3:06:00. He wasn’t sure at the time, but later we found out it was a 6+ minute PR for him as well. So, overall it was a great racing weekend for all of us.
In general, I was glad to have participated in this event, since it is the largest triathlon in the world (as far as I know). That being said, I would not want to do this race again. It’s just too large scale and somewhat chaotic. Along with that, it isn’t good for family and friends that came to watch as they really only have a good view on the run course, but with everything being so spread out have a hard time getting to good viewpoints. My wife and mom didn’t see any of us getting out of the water, and so weren’t sure where we were until they caught a glimpse of us passing on the run course. Needless to say, there aren’t any good action shots to post. If I locate some decent pics otherwise, I’ll post them up later.
I don’t race again until the first weekend of October, which is fine since I need time to prepare for my next A race, the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October as well as time to work on this new house we are officially moving into this week. Hopefully I’ll remember to update this between now and then.
My family had planned to meet at the Hilton (host hotel) at around 2-3 to check in and go to packet pick-up. Amazingly, with 3 cars coming from different places, (us from Northeast Indiana, parents from Louisville, and sister from St. Louis) we all managed to arrive within 15 minutes at the hotel lobby. The place was a zoo, with hundreds of bikes littering the lobby and people with body markings coming and going. We managed to get checked in and into 1 (of our 2) rooms within an hour. Packet pickup, body marking, expo were all pretty straightforward. We then walked down to the swim start, which was about .5 mile from the hotel, and along the route to the exit, and then to find transition. Transition was much farther from the hotel than the race site had made it sound. After recon we all had dinner and prepared our gear for the next morning. I was ready for bed by 9:30, but wasn’t tired, so watched the Olympics until 11:00.
Sunday morning, woke up at 4:10, got my water/Infinit bottles ready. Dad, sister, and sister’s friend (participants) all met at my room (aka the bike storage room) to pick up the bikes and head down to setup transition. We had found our wave numbers and start times the day before and knew we’d have time to return to the hotel before race, so we weren’t dressed yet, and left our swim gear along with our support crew (my wife and mom) so they could get a little extra sleep. The transition area was super-busy, and we all split up to setup our areas. It only took me 10 minutes or so to set up, but then I ran through my transitions in my head to make sure I had everything about 5 times. I’m real paranoid about that.
Got back to the room about 6AM, my sister’s friend was the first to start at 7:53, so we had some time. I had breakfast consisting of a banana, a protein bar, and lots of water (I usually can’t eat much prior to start). By 7, we were heading out of the hotel to the swim start. I had never been to a race of nearly this size, so it was pretty impressive seeing all the triathletes as well as spectators lined along the harbor. I had a gel at around 7:40ish. My sister’s friend got in the start corral for her wave at around 7:40, she started at 7:53. My sister went off at 8:01, and I was 1 wave behind at 8:05. Unfortunately, my dad didn’t take off for another hour, so he had time to wait for it to get warmer and windier.
The swim: I am not the most confident OW swimmer in the world, but this swim didn’t bother me. You swim parallel to the shore of the harbor only about 20 feet from the wall at the farthest and you can see the bottom for most of the swim. The start was kind of a train-wreck as we were in a pretty narrow “lane” with people everywhere. I did my best to get in a groove, but could only go a few strokes at a time for the first 150m or so without running into multiple people. At 300m or so you hit the turnaround and head back. We had spread some by then, so I got moving better. Then after you pass the start area again, the lane is opened up (not divided) so there is all of a sudden twice as much space to work with. This was easily the best OWS I’ve ever completed. Since I breathe to both sides, I was able to keep an eye on the wall where the spectators were. This allowed me to: 1)Distract myself by watching them and looking for family, and 2) Spot off the wall to stay in a straight line so I didn’t have to pull up so often to see where I was. I got out of the swim and didn’t see the clock, but could tell that since I was with the back of the wave in front of me it must have been pretty good for a not very strong swimmer like myself.
Time: 30:53…Raceplan (from early June) goal time: 32minutes (-1:07)
The run to T1 didn’t seem as long as it looked Saturday when we walked it. Considering how big the transition area was and the fact that my setup was right next to the swim in corner (I had to run my bike all the way across the area), I had a pretty solid T1.
Time: 2:53…Raceplan goal time: 3minutes (-:07, -1:14 total)
The bike: I took off northbound on Lake Shore Drive for the bike leg. I assumed it was going to be in terrible shape considering the talk overheard at the expo and warnings the morning of. It was actually worse than what I was expecting, potholes everywhere and random patches and bumps all over the place. This didn’t bother me as much as the fact that very few of these hazards were marked with spray-paint, and the ones that were probably didn’t need to be. I wanted to try and average around 22mph for the ride, and was spinning along with a slight burn in my legs trying to get my fluids and was only about 15 minutes into the ride, but had only been riding around 19mph. I could tell I was going into the wind, but couldn’t tell how strong it was or how much effect it was having. I just decided to race it by feel instead of speed and hope for the best. Every 5 minutes I would drink, alternating b/w water and Infinit (custom 255 calorie mix). I was consistently passing people, so assumed it wasn’t just me struggling to hold speed. At the turnaround, I got the wind at my back and realized the difference. I cruised back to the 2nd loop turnaround averaging around 24.5-25mph for that leg. On the 2nd loop, the headwind seemed worse, so I just kept my thoughts positive and focused on how nice it would be after the turn. I pushed pretty hard northbound to try and keep my avg speed in the 21s (where it was when I turned). Finally on the home stretch, I geared down and spun, knowing the wind would give me the speed I needed. I focused on getting fluids and staying relaxed for the run as the wind pushed me steadily along at around 24mph.
Time: 1:07:41 (21.9mph counting mounting/dismounting etc…my CPU had me at 22.6mph)…Raceplan goal: 1:08:00 (-:19, -1:33 total)
The run to T2 was awkward as I was trying to adjust my legs to being on the ground again while running downhill across the transition in my bike shoes. I made it w/o mishap, but took longer here than I’d hoped. I switched shoes, got my # belt and hat, and was off.
Time: 2:37…Raceplan goal: 2minutes (+:37, -:56 total)
Run: The run was flat and I took off feeling pretty good, but I was wary since I knew we’d be heading south for the first half or so of the run. This meant the final 2+ miles would be into the headwind once the pain had really start to set in. I went along, carrying my 2 fuel belt bottles in my hand (1 water, 1 Infinit) so I was able to gain time by not having to stop at the aid stations, at least for the first 4 miles. I got some light spasms in my quads early in the run, but just drank more fluids tried to increase my leg motion to work them out a little. I moved steadily along until the turnaround, where the headwind hit me like a punch to the face. From there I just ducked my head and shortened my stride to keep progressing along steadily. My pace slowed noticeably around the 5 mile mark and I was just trying to think “Just 10 more minutes.” I hit the 6 mile mark and was still running, so knew I’d make it. I picked up the pace a little, but didn’t have anything left for a finishing kick. Two guys sprinted past me in the final straight, but I could see the big clock and knew I’d reached my goal so I just coasted in smiling and weakly raised my arms as they announced my name at the finish.
Time: 45:43 (7:22/mile)…Raceplan goal: 45minutes (+:43, -:13 total)
Overall time: 2:29:47 (4 of 49 clydesdale 200-224, 284 of 4089 overall)
I got water and went around to the sidelines to do some spectating. My sister’s friend was already finished (in around 2:23) and was there as well. My sister came across about 25 minutes later in 2:59:04, breaking through the 3 hour wall in her 5th international distance race. Her previous 2 attempts, both this year were completed in 3:00:xx, so that made breaking the mark even more rewarding. My dad came across nearly an hour later at 3:06:00. He wasn’t sure at the time, but later we found out it was a 6+ minute PR for him as well. So, overall it was a great racing weekend for all of us.
In general, I was glad to have participated in this event, since it is the largest triathlon in the world (as far as I know). That being said, I would not want to do this race again. It’s just too large scale and somewhat chaotic. Along with that, it isn’t good for family and friends that came to watch as they really only have a good view on the run course, but with everything being so spread out have a hard time getting to good viewpoints. My wife and mom didn’t see any of us getting out of the water, and so weren’t sure where we were until they caught a glimpse of us passing on the run course. Needless to say, there aren’t any good action shots to post. If I locate some decent pics otherwise, I’ll post them up later.
I don’t race again until the first weekend of October, which is fine since I need time to prepare for my next A race, the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October as well as time to work on this new house we are officially moving into this week. Hopefully I’ll remember to update this between now and then.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
I haven't forgotten about this place
Well, it’s certainly been a while. I have been busy at the training. Haven’t raced since late June, but I certainly haven’t been wasting my time. July was easily my biggest training month ever and I was surprisingly consistent. To help things, a friend and cyclist just recently moved to the area and got me out on the hills of Cincy along with another UD alum. It opened my eyes to untapped bike potential. Now I can’t wait to get into the fall when I can really start hitting the hills. Also, I’ve been able to push up my run endurance in preparation for October’s marathon without dropping off on the speed as of yet. I’m still pushing sub 8 minute miles for up to 10 miles with hills. Not too shabby. I will finally have another race report coming early next week, and hopefully it’s a positive one considering this is my A triathlon of the season. I’ve never had an A race before, so let’s see how well I tailored my training plan in my first year of periodized self-coaching.
I race Chicago Accenture International Distance triathlon this Sunday. I don’t know my start time as of yet and guess I won’t find out until packet pick-up Saturday afternoon, no big deal though. For those non-triathletes out there (assuming anyone reads this other than myself), the international distance is in km so I will translate (1.5K (a little less than a mile) swim, 40K (24.8mile) bike, and 10K (6.2 mile) run). It’s my first race of this distance in 2 years, but it’s really not a huge leap from sprints so the distance doesn’t bother me. I’m just hoping I’ve gotten as much faster at this triathlon thing as I think I have.
If anyone does read this and is bored Sunday around mid-day…you can track me (or other members of my family) at www.chicagotriathlon.com by going to the race tracker link. From there, if you know me personally you can search by name. Otherwise, my race number is 4760, my sister is number 4468 and my dad is number 7339.
My goal for this race is to finish under or as close to 2:30:00 as possible and to be top 5 in my age group (clyde 200-224). I’m guessing there will be about 70 in my AG, and 2h30min will be a 20+ min drop from my PR at this distance.
That’s what’s up in the world of triathlon…now on to the more exciting stuff.
Obviously training and racing is an important part of my life, but I’ve been busy elsewhere as well. First and foremost, on August 2, 2008, my beautiful and always understanding fiancé, Susan, became my beautiful and understanding wife. The week of the wedding was pretty rough since I had to work long hours while she was in her hometown stressing about all the unfinished odds and ends of wedding planning. However, as things often do, everything worked out great. From the rehearsal on…it was basically smooth sailing. It was great to see so many people come out to celebrate with us, a lot of family and friends I hadn’t seen in a while and it seemed like everyone had a great time. The reception dance floor was very active all night and we haven’t heard a negative review of the weekend as of yet. The Delphos Microtel, which opened just in time to house our college friends, is probably regretting not waiting until after our wedding to open. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to post at this point, so maybe I’ll add them later.
I learned throughout the wedding weekend why people take honeymoons…weddings are exhausting. The honeymoon went amazingly as well as we ventured to St. Lucia (one of the Windward Islands in the west indies of the Caribbean if you don’t know). The only drawback was getting stuck a day in Atlanta on the way down. However, Sandals was great in their customer service and bumped our reservations back a day, so we still got a full week in all-inclusive paradise. There are a million pictures of the honeymoon, but I don’t have them with me, so sorry again. Highlights included: zip-lining through the rain-forest, snorkeling, learning to captain a catamaran (not difficult), candlelight dinner on the beach, tropical golf, being witnesses in the wedding of a couple we met in the airport on the way down (they were stranded with us), and pina coladas among so much more.
In other exciting news, the new wife and I close on our first home this afternoon, so needless to say my life is not lacking in excitement. We will need to bring the home into the modern age, but working on it will be a lot of fun. I’m already trying to figure out how I’m going to make my half of the garage into a heavenly bike garage/indoor training center (sorry car, you’re parking outside).
I guess that’s it for now. Race Report will be coming sometime next week. Until then…
I race Chicago Accenture International Distance triathlon this Sunday. I don’t know my start time as of yet and guess I won’t find out until packet pick-up Saturday afternoon, no big deal though. For those non-triathletes out there (assuming anyone reads this other than myself), the international distance is in km so I will translate (1.5K (a little less than a mile) swim, 40K (24.8mile) bike, and 10K (6.2 mile) run). It’s my first race of this distance in 2 years, but it’s really not a huge leap from sprints so the distance doesn’t bother me. I’m just hoping I’ve gotten as much faster at this triathlon thing as I think I have.
If anyone does read this and is bored Sunday around mid-day…you can track me (or other members of my family) at www.chicagotriathlon.com by going to the race tracker link. From there, if you know me personally you can search by name. Otherwise, my race number is 4760, my sister is number 4468 and my dad is number 7339.
My goal for this race is to finish under or as close to 2:30:00 as possible and to be top 5 in my age group (clyde 200-224). I’m guessing there will be about 70 in my AG, and 2h30min will be a 20+ min drop from my PR at this distance.
That’s what’s up in the world of triathlon…now on to the more exciting stuff.
Obviously training and racing is an important part of my life, but I’ve been busy elsewhere as well. First and foremost, on August 2, 2008, my beautiful and always understanding fiancé, Susan, became my beautiful and understanding wife. The week of the wedding was pretty rough since I had to work long hours while she was in her hometown stressing about all the unfinished odds and ends of wedding planning. However, as things often do, everything worked out great. From the rehearsal on…it was basically smooth sailing. It was great to see so many people come out to celebrate with us, a lot of family and friends I hadn’t seen in a while and it seemed like everyone had a great time. The reception dance floor was very active all night and we haven’t heard a negative review of the weekend as of yet. The Delphos Microtel, which opened just in time to house our college friends, is probably regretting not waiting until after our wedding to open. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to post at this point, so maybe I’ll add them later.
I learned throughout the wedding weekend why people take honeymoons…weddings are exhausting. The honeymoon went amazingly as well as we ventured to St. Lucia (one of the Windward Islands in the west indies of the Caribbean if you don’t know). The only drawback was getting stuck a day in Atlanta on the way down. However, Sandals was great in their customer service and bumped our reservations back a day, so we still got a full week in all-inclusive paradise. There are a million pictures of the honeymoon, but I don’t have them with me, so sorry again. Highlights included: zip-lining through the rain-forest, snorkeling, learning to captain a catamaran (not difficult), candlelight dinner on the beach, tropical golf, being witnesses in the wedding of a couple we met in the airport on the way down (they were stranded with us), and pina coladas among so much more.
In other exciting news, the new wife and I close on our first home this afternoon, so needless to say my life is not lacking in excitement. We will need to bring the home into the modern age, but working on it will be a lot of fun. I’m already trying to figure out how I’m going to make my half of the garage into a heavenly bike garage/indoor training center (sorry car, you’re parking outside).
I guess that’s it for now. Race Report will be coming sometime next week. Until then…
Monday, June 30, 2008
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 2Well, 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.
Monday, June 23, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, June 16, 2008
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
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
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