Longhorn 2009 - Final Test

I started this entry as a season wrap up, but thought it was a bit premature. This season has been a fantastic success but I'm sure that Sunday afternoon my perspective of the season will be substantially altered by the results of Longhorn 70.3. I have two big season goals which hinge on my performance this weekend. This season has been GREAT, but I'm not getting into the water on Sunday morning to have a "good" race, finish the distance or set a PR. I'm showing up to take 9m31s out of Benjamin Ryan* (#1599) and to podium in my AG. I've got the fitness and have done the work. Its time to execute the race plan and do a little old fashioned suffering.

*Mr. Ryan is a nice guy, but he has the unfortunate position of being in first place and 9m30s ahead of me in the Texas Tri Series standings and so I've been gifted for 6 weeks with an abundance of motivation. His wave will also be starting 10minutes ahead of mine which means I must pass by the finish line to scratch one of the race goals. I love playing catch up.

Game On

Austin RR - Kill'in It

Austin Tri is one of my favorite races by far. Swimming in town lake, hammering Cesar Chavez/Congress and running the looped course on Riverside is such a great atmosphere. The training in the weeks leading up to the race went great although I battled a little fatigue from the harder workouts. My parents finally made their mind up about down for the weekend which always a treat. I have to give my parents credit, they are very easy going and let me do my pre-race workouts, rituals and keep to a comfortable pattern. Thanks Vicki and Mark!

My goals for this race were to push the bike (in a controlled manner) and then let it hang out on the run. Also I was hoping to take back a large portion of time from the 8 people ahead of me in the Texas Tri Series standings.

Swim:
I picked up a swimskin from Rocket Science Sports as the swim was not wetsuit legal and I need every help I can get in the water. The gun goes off and the water polo begins... well it was actually swimming but in the middle of the pack it feels like a battle. Swishing feet and swinging arms from all degrees. I pulled around a couple guys and got into some open water in the front(ISH) of the pack. The swim felt fantastic, I was in breath the entire time and never felt like I was pushing myself. Since i was in the front of the pack with only a few lime green caps ahead of me I thought we were cruising at a good pace. The reality was that we all were going slow. That fantastic feeling swim was actually because I was noodling along.

Swim: 27:16

Bike:
So, I came out of the water feeling great and thinking I was killing it so far. Time to do some damage with my one and only ace. The bike started off at about 280 watts which was a tad to hot to for the entire leg, but wouldn't hurt me for a couple minutes while I got up to "speed'. On the start of my second lap I caught up to some of the pro/open wavers who were on their 3rd loop. I was in cruise mode - legs hurting a bit but my breathing was relax-o-easy. Passing the other fast guys and pros was BANANNAS. Not much else to say, I killed it without killing myself.


Bike 58:57 (3rd fastest split of the day!)
Avg Speed: 25.2mph
Avg watts: 251w
Normalized Watts: 254

Run:
Being an Olympic distance event the run is 6 miles which means you gotta run hard but you still need to run smart. I'm still working on the smart aspect. Coming into T2 I got a little too excited to see that no other bikes were present which means that I would be the lead out on the run course. This rush resulted in me running sub 6 for the first mile AND forgetting my race number in transition. Technically I could be disqualified for not displaying the race number on the run. Ooops. Anyways, i cooled off the pace around the first mile mark and settled into a steady rhythm concentrating on a quick foot turn over race. I finished with the fastest "10k" split I have ever ran. I put 10k in quotations as I think the course was a bit short which resulted in an inflated pace.

Run: 38:31 (6:13 average pace)

Overall
Finish time: 2:08:37
1st 30-34M
2nd Overall Age grouper
20th Overall

Pros:
I'm riding FAST on modest watts
Run was solid and on the fast side of what I thought was possible
Bike nutrition was spot on, one 300cal bottle worked great
Leading the AG race is fun

Cons:
The whole swim, failed to pick the pace up or swim smart
My run split could have been significantly faster had I paced the first mile better.

I ended up moving myself from 8th to 2nd Overall Standing in the Texas Tri Series and lost 45 seconds to the first place guy. 9m30s to make up at the Longhorn Half Iron, that's a lot of time but its a long race and I've got time to prepare. Game on.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

River Ranch Triathlon July 25, 2009

This wasn't really a A or B race for the season and actually only signed up for it three weeks ago. It turned out to be a very well run small race right on the San Marcos river in a loted out subdivision (lots and infrastructure but no houses yet). I knew going into this race that if I had a decent performance I could be in the running for an overall win. With the smaller races (~175 people) the fast people don't normally come out which leaves some room to us fast age groupers to shine. The training has been pretty solid lately and the biking has been great after I made some small tweaks to my bike (1.5mm more seat height, 3mm front end drop and a switch from 172.5mm to 170mm cranks.).

I got about 6 hours of sleep and race morning went normally with a almond butter english muffin and a big bowl of organic raisin bran with a banana, strawberries and honey. Packed up and headed to the race site. Picked my packet and chip up and got a big surprise. For whatever reason they assigned me BIB #1. Dang, it is officially on. In reality it was a bit embarrassing and they many comments from races and spectators about having big shoes to fill and living up to #1 didn't help to let me relax.

I warmed up with a 5minute swim in the ski pond and got out just in time for the instructions for the time trial start. Time trial start going by bib #. Which means that I should have gone off first but they placed some guy in front of me who was a "really fast swimmer, you'll be glad he goes first". I didn't care about the fast swimming, but not having to jump in the water first was a relief.

Swim: 400m - 8m28s
The ski pond we were swimming in was around 3-7 feet deep and surprisingly cool/clean for what it appeared to be. It hit the water and went full on gas for 2-3 minutes but the guy in front of me still pulled away and the guy behind me caught up around that time. I pulled in behind him and finished the course with a hard yet reasonable effort. Overall I was top 5 in the swim which is not too shabby [for me :-) ]. I came out of the water behind the #1 and #3 guy.

Bike: 15.7m - 38m52s
267w avg / 271w normalized (37:38 before the incident)
24.7mph

I had a slower transition as I took time to clean my feet off. Since the transition was in the not yet finished community park the ground was mostly packed fill dirt with some green sprigs. I raced out of the transition ahead of the #1 guy which left only #3 to chase down. Man on a mission. I was determined to give it full on gas till I caught (and passed) #3 dude. I caught him about a mile out as he had flatted and looked to be walking back to transition. Bad luck for him. I'm now in first place WITH A LEAD OUT CAR clearing opening the course for me. I settled in and put the hammer down which turned out to be a good strategy as the course was mostly headwind/hilly out with a great tailwind back. I let off the gas a tad on the return tip so I didn't completely trash my legs.

Everything was going great until I get within site of the transition area and open my shoes to get my feet out. About the time I got my left shoe undone my rear tire blows out with a firecracker caliber POP. If you are wondering... Yes I said the F-word and I'm not really sorry. After a lightening assessment of the situation I decided to take my shoes off and run the last 200 yards barefoot while holding the rear wheel of my bike off the ground. I hope these race pictures come out well as I am sure it looked ridiculous.

Fastest overall bike split of the day by ~45 seconds including the impromptu warm up run before the real run.

Run: 3.1miles - 19m55s (6:38 pace)

I knew this was going to be a tough run when I got up at 4:30 that morning. On Thursday I had a fantastic but exhausting 7mile track workout and I still had some DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) race morning.

Anyways, I took a SIU pull and got over it. I'm gonna keep this part short. I ran hard and keep the pace up even though a couple times I knew I could have gotten away with a walk break. The finish line came rather quickly despite the high amount of pain I was feeling.

First finisher, bib #1, fastest time. It was a great feeling to be the big fish in the small pond for a couple hours.

Final Thoughts:
I had four glasses of beer in an hour after the race and didn't get a buzz. Wtf?

I was a little disappointed that when they announced the results and had me come up they didn't have ANY sort of award to give me. They told me to come by the shop and get fitted for the pair or newton running shoes I had won. Nothing to pose for the cameras with, i felt silly just standing there by myself for the photo.

The finish line was great!!! It was in a shaded grove right next to the San Marcos river with a constant breeze the entire time. No hiding under tents in a crowd of sweaty people like most of the other local races.

Stickers and bad luck

2009 Couples triathlon is more of a beginners event which put a majority of its focus on 2 person teams and the respective combined time for the two. I didn't have a team mate so i entered the individual male category (no AG glory here). I've had been feeling decent the week leading up to the race and the softer recovery based schedule has been making me feel a little guilty in my training. I ended up going to visit family for a short camping trip fri/sat which took a good bit out of me with the long drive and time spent in the heat/sun. Since this wasn't and A race i wasn't that concerned about being rigorous with my pre-race prep.

Race day morn, up bright and early to make my 1 cup of raisin bran + almond milk + crushed walnuts, banana, wheat pancake + honey + almond butter. This (or something like it) has evolved into my standard pre-race meal and works very well providing I get this down 2+ hours before race start. Loaded up and picked up a McDonalds latte on the way to the race site.

I was the next to last wave to go off so I had plenty of time to visit, warm-up and cheer on the first racers. I did Light stretching and 10 min of easy jogging to break a sweat just before race start.

In the water I lined up front-middle of the pack and went off like normal and planned to punch it for 200m, settle in and get on some feet. Right off the bat I was hit in the face by something which unsealed and flooded both goggles. I was able to somehow clear one side and get the other halfway decent and keep swimming to the turn around bouy. At that point I had to roll onto my back and reseal the goggles as they were leaky as heck. This didn't really help and they continued to leak and required clearing every couple min. The water was pretty warm and overall I never got my breathing under control after the hectic start. I need to get into the water, simple.

Swim: 15:21 (poor poor poor)

In the bike transition went well aside from getting one of the abundant stickers on my tender feetsies. Got onto the bike and started pushing it hard. Never really felt good, but the watt numbers were decent and I was hoping once warmed up I could come unglued and really smack it. Halfway or so I heard the sizzling/whooshing sound of a blown tube. This turned out to kill my entire race... I stopped and ripped the wheel off the bike and went to work jimmying the tire off in order to extricate the punctured tube. Couldn't do it and I must have messed with it for 3-4 min. Lucky for me course support came by and stopped to assist. This guy even had a hard time but we got the tube changed and the bike back together. Damage 8m20s. My "race" was over. I biked a little angry to the bike finish. Bike power was a little low, but my time would have been very competitive with no flat.

Bike: 37:37
Pre Flat watts - 251 (23.9mph) @ 16m20s
Flat time: 8m20s
Post Flat Watts - 261 (22.9mph) @ 12m53s

After that flat BS I decided to run steady-hard as i really didn't have the will or desire to destroy myself for 1-2minutes which wasn't going to get me on the podium. On checking the result the run time was very good considering I didn't push it and that I stopped to remove a sticker and fully walk one aid station.

3.1m Run: 20:49 (6:43 pace)

Total Time: 1:16:57

On investigation of my tire problem I found out that the latex tube developed a pin size hole at one of the spoke holes of the rim. The tube looked to be chaffed from the rim strip, but examining the rim strip everything appeared to be just dandy. BSS will be put on this case to figure out what the issue was/is. I refuse to race on something I can't rely on.

I also found out that changing the tube of my rear wheel is a holy mother-&*%#( with the wheel cover bolted on. Not sure how I am going to fix this.

Hopefully this can be my race of firsts and lasts and the rest of the season will get ripped up.

This is RACING!

2009 Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon Race Report

I drove up to Lubbock, Tx on Friday morning which turned out to be a fairly pleasant drive. I purchased the complete volumes of This American Life 1-370 and put them all on my iphone earlier in the week. Credit has to go out to Ira Glass as my co-pilot for the round trip. Arrived in town and checked into my "economy" HoJo accommodations which turned out to be decent at only 60+tax a night. I still can't believe I drank coffee from the maker in the room... i got a little grossed out after I considered how often that thing is cleaned and not even considering what fluids people have possibly run through it. Yuk. Picked my packet up friday and retired to the room for the first 8 hours of sleep in maybe 2 weeks. I've not been deprived of sleep lately, but i normally only get 6.5-7. Saturday I went to the race site and swam in the lake for ~15min and got in a easy 45min spin along with driving the run and bike course.

3:00am Sunday - Wakeup and eat 2 bowls of cheerios + chocolate soy milk, 1/2 english muffin, 1 cliff bar, 1 20oz bottle of gatoraid G2. Pack up and head out to the race course blasting Journey - Don't stop believing, Toto - Hold the Line and Fleetwood Mac - Go your own way!!!! Classics baby. As Derick told me, getting to the race course early and before the masses is very important. Post-race I talked to 3 people who very narrowly made it to the transition in time for their wave due to the traffic. Anyways, did all the pre-race transition stuff and chilled for a while people watching.

6:30am Sunday - Exactly 10mins before my wave I need to use the restroom. Actually I HAVE to use the restroom and place myself in queue.
6:38am Sunday - I finish using the restroom exactly 2 min before my wave start (6:40). I dash madly to the start line and make it with a full ~15seconds to spare.

Swim: 34m53s
I had a little too much adrenaline flowing from the mad dash and put down a pretty hot pace for 200yd or so. I settled in after that to a comfortably brisk pace and found some nice feet to follow to the first bouy. At the bouy this dude proceeds to roll over into a backstroke so I have to leave him to his 2000yd medley antics. After making the turn I got back into pace and found myself alone and in between packs. The goggles I was wearing were also a little too tinted which made sighting the bouys and distinguishing them from the orange swim caps hard. I swam the entire back stretch alone, unable to catch the small pack ahead and unable to latch onto a couple of fast swimmers from the wave behind mine who came ripping past me. Sigh. I make the left turn into the final stretch and battle my way through the 6:35 wave floatstam. Overall a fairly disappointing swim, this effort level should be producing better times.

Bike: 2h32m09s
This bike course varied from screaming fast to mind numbingly laborious. The first 2 miles include a couple of steep climbs about 1:30-2:00 min in duration before you get to about of 8 miles of flat farmland riding. At the bottom of the second climb I witnessed a guy violently ejecting the contents of his stomach at the side of the road and another dude 10 feet up the hill and lying under his bike. Needless to say I cranked up my level of vigilance while ascending this little monster. I settled into a good rhythm and began listening to the pace which my body wanted to run. Most of the course consists of out and backs were you traverse the same roadway South, hit a turnaround and proceed back north. This provided for two long tailwind sections and two long headwind sections. I was pulling down 30-35mph on the flats with a tailwind and then with a 180 degree turnaround that speed went to 18mph with a headwind. This route is also characterized with 8 steep climbs mostly in and out of the Ransom Canyon. On the steepest downhill I hit 46.7mph in a tight tight tuck. Overall the bike was very good, I biked smart, controlled the effort while pushing my limits reasonably.
Stats:
Avg watts: 219
Norm watts: 227
KJ: 1983 (~cals burned)
Avg Speed: 22.3mph

Run: 1h37m
Ouch.... well... Ouch at 11miles. BTW it rained the last 10 miles of the bike in a steady drizzle which also means that the transition area got a lot of rain and this my shoes played the role of rain gauge. Judging from the 1/4 cup of water I poured from my shoes and the 1/4 I rung from my socks I'd estimate 0.2" of rain. I love running in the rain... simply love it. I've gotten out of the bed at night to put on my running shoes and go for a jog during a storm. BUT I do not like running in wet shoes. Odd huh? I like even less having to start a run with water laden shoes. It was like running on a leaky undulating water bed for 2 full miles untill they squished sorta dry.

I ran the first 3 miles maybe a tad hot, but I wasn't running irresponsibly. Races are all about coming as close to your limits without degrading performance and running is where being able to endure a little pain and suffering can pay huge pace benefits. This is also where you can blow yourself to absolute bits, crash and burn, explode, lose the wheels to the wagon etc. I stayed on the green side of this line through all three of the torturous climbs and the long out and back false flat section. I wasn't running strong and had to place considerable effort into maintaining turnover rate and general form. All fine and dandy till mile 11. It hurt, my hip flexors were quivering and running like frankenstien fleeing the villagers had taken a toll on my quads. I can only estimate but I think the last two miles were probably in the 10min/mile range which probably cost me 4-6min on my total time comparing to a even run split. I ended up suffering and making deals with myself. Run to the mailbox and you get 5s walk break. Jog to the driveway and you can have pizza on monday. You get the drift. Amazingly in these last two miles no one in my age group passed me.... but there were SEVERAL people ahead of me which I should have been able to catch and pass. But that is racing and i wasn't stronger than them today.

Final Time: 4h47m56s - 8th place in my AG and lucky 77th overall
A 4:39 would have gotten me 3rd and 4:24 1st place... A podium is 100% within my abilities given another year of training.

I finished and sat down for 30 minutes while being delivered gatoraid by the most purty Texas Tech nurses in the med tent. Grabbed a powerbar, beer, a melon portion and headed home.

Overall I loved the race, great weather (except for the headwinds on the bike), challenging course all done by a very good race group. The finishers T-shirt is also pretty kick ass. Photos to be posted when they come available.