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.