Wow, what a race weekend!

I went up to McKinney Texas this past weekend to participate in an Olympic relay triathlon.  It was an important weekend for me for a couple of reasons:  firstly it was the site of my first triathlon just one year ago and secondly I was doing the relay with my niece and father.  It was exciting for me as all I had to do was the run leg, and I could find out how much, if any, my fitness and speed had improved over the past 6 months.

While the relay race wasn’t until Sunday, I had also registered for a 1500M swim race on Saturday.  I figured I could see how fast I could swim when I didn’t have to save anything for the last 2/3 of a triathlon.  When it came down to race time I ended up not swimming for a number of reasons, including my distaste for swimming in cold-ish water without a wetsuit, and the deep water start (again sans wetsuit).

I stood on the side and watched my niece race the 750M, her first real open water race.  As you can see there weren’t a ton of people in the race, but this is very different than racing in a pool with your own assigned lane!

It was an odd preparation weekend for me, mainly because I was only running, and didn’t expect to start until 9:30 or so.  Compounding this was I my wife, my personal fan base and support team, wasn’t in attendance.  Fortunately these two issues worked together well as I took up the role of spectator coordinator.

This was my father’s first foray into the multi-sport arena in a number of years, and I think both parents would agree that while they had been to several of my races, everything changes when you have some skin in the game.

Once the race started, my Dad and I watched our wave complete the first of two loops.  Once several of them had headed out on their second loop we returned to the transition area to get ready for the bike leg.  We were supposed to get notified that Andrea (our swimmer) was headed in our direction so that we were really ready and not standing around day dreaming.  We got the call, with about 10 seconds advanced notice, so we were still fumbling with gear and didn’t see her arrive until she was trying to strap on the timing chip!

My Dad took off, so I spent a few minutes tending to Andrea.  Looking at how gassed she was I realized that I really held back on the swim.  I’ve never, been that tired looking after a swim.  I’ve got a lot to learn!

The bike course was four laps of about six miles each.  We positioned ourselves at the end of the lap and waited.  Dad waved as he passed by the first time.  The second time we got a nod and by the third time I don’t think he even noticed us.  I could tell he was hurting but giving it his best shot.  I left the spectators to warm up and position myself for the chip transfer.

I thought I saw him ride by on the last section of the course, but didn’t see him coming into transition.  Evidentially he dismounted early and had to walk an extra block to get to me.  When I spotted him I ran over, took the chip (which was probably illegal) and took off running, all before he got to our transition area.

The run started out almost immediately going uphill.  Since I hadn’t just come off the bike it didn’t bother me that much, but it did make it difficult for me to figure out my pacing.  We wound through parking lots, through underpasses, and up and down lots of hills.  I was breathing pretty hard when I hit mile marker #1, and still hadn’t gotten my pace going.  The hills (and wind) were so difficult I couldn’t tell if I was breathing hard from them or from the run itself.  I checked my watch and was just over an 8 minute mile pace, much slower than I’d hoped for, but I also wasn’t expecting this difficult of a course.

Disgusted, I decided not to check my watch again, and just enjoy the run.  I flew by a lot of people, and felt guilty for it since they had all done much more than I had up to this point.  That guilt probably made me run harder, knowing I should have been much fresher than all of them.  The turnaround was at an aid station.  Fortunately it wasn’t very crowded as there wasn’t much room, especially for the pace I was trying to keep.

I hit the last aid station, which was a mile from the end/beginning.  I checked my watch; 40 minutes elapsed.  I tried to calculate my finish time, but thought I had 1.2 miles left instead of 1 mile.  At an 8 minute/mile pace that put me at around 50 minutes.  Needless to say I was pretty disappointed.  Then I was caught from behind by some young kid, probably someone running the sprint, because he was really flying.  I stayed with him for a while, even caught up to him, but we hit the really hilly section and he pulled away.

All of a sudden the finish line was there.  I did one last check of my watch and it was 46 minutes.  I had run the last mile at a six minute/mile pace, hitting the goal time I’d set for myself and smashing my PR from just 8 months ago by 3 minutes.  It was a VERY hard race and I think I answered the challenge.

In Summary, all three athletes did as well or better than they had expected.  Andrea pulled in a 30 minute 1500M with only one workout a week, and my Dad beat his expected time by 20 minutes, riding much faster than he ever had in training.  Best of all two more people have been exposed to the thrill of triathlons.  My goal for next year is to get them both to do the entire race for themselves!

Equipment upgrades

I recently made a couple of equipment upgrades.  I’m not sure how much time difference they will make, but in my head they help a lot!

Upgrade #1

The first upgrade is to a set of racing wheels.  My local bike store wasn’t thrilled that I’d gotten them somewhere else, until I told them I got them from eBay and the price.  I saved hundreds of dollars this way.  I bought a pair of Zipp 606’s; a 404 front and 808 rear wheel.  I haven’t had a chance to get them out on the road yet because I don’t have a spare tube for the rear.  The rear wheel is so deep that an 80mm stem isn’t long enough!

I test rode a pair of 404’s at my last race, but as I suspected I couldn’t really tell any difference.  I was screaming fast on the downhill portions, and the flats were pretty quick as well.  I’m not sure if that is related to the wheels, but that’s what is getting the credit!

Upgrade #2

The second upgrade isn’t exactly for racing; it is a new pair of training shoes.  I’ve been using Saucany Omni 8’s since I started running again almost a year ago.  I haven’t really had any problems with them, so there wasn’t any reason to change.  I went to the local running store on a sale night because it was about time to replace my training shoes.  The store was out of the Omni’s in my size.  I tried a couple of other shoes and decided to try out a pair of Brooks.  As I was getting ready to check out, I made a comment to the Zoot representative about how I wished they had come out with their new shoes before I bought my racing shoes just a couple of months ago.  He told me the new shoes were training shoes, not racing shoes, and my curiosity was really peaked.

I’ve gotten blisters on every race I’ve used my Zoot racing flats.  I attribute them to going sockless, something I only do on race day.  With a pair of training shoes designed to be worn sockless I might be able to toughen up my feet and avoid that one race day discomfort.

I made the plunge and bought a pair of Zoot Kona’s, and I love them!  The feel like I’m running in slippers!  I’ve worn them several times now, the longest distance being 9 miles.  I did get some blisters, so I’ve modified my usage to wear my Omni’s with socks on my really long runs, and the Kona’s on everything else.  Once my feet get used to the Kona’s, I will switch to them exclusively.

With 4 more shorter runs before I my next really long one, that should be plenty of time to toughen up my tender feet!

My new toys will only do so much for me.  At some point I’m going to have to get out on the road and exert some serious energy, and for me that point is in 4 weeks at the Longhorn half Ironman.

A super new bike mechanic!

Coach told me about Philip Shama and Shama Cycles months ago.  I looked him up on the Internet and his shop was probably 30 minutes from my house, not a place I’d drive to Sunday afternoon to hang out.  A fellow triathlete introduced us at a race, but I’d already checked him out and he just wasn’t convenient.  Besides, I’ve got my local bike store with the employees I like.

That was until I needed a good bike mechanic.  I bought an SRM power system, and my local store didn’t know how to install it.  I took it to another shop, and they installed it incorrectly.  I decided to give Shama cycles a shot.  Not only did he fit me in as soon as I arrived, but he fixed the problem for free!

I haven’t really needed any mechanical help, until I had a problem with my SRM system and needed to send in the crankset to have the battery replaced.  It was going to take 3 days at my local store.  Three days for a job that should probably take them 15 minutes!

I called Shama, and they could take care of it right away, while I waited.  That’s what I needed to hear because with shipping and repair time my crankset was going to be gone for 2 weeks.

While they were replacing the crankset, I had a good opportunity to talk with Philip about bike stuff.  I told him that my local store had told me to change my chain to use with the new crankset on my race wheel.  He indicated that replacing the chain is something that should be done every couple thousand miles or so, or you will damage the chain ring and have to replace them both.  I’ve been riding bikes for years, bought two new bikes in the last year, and logged thousands of miles on them, yet no one bothered to tell me this before.

Aside from being irritated at two bike stores for not saying anything, I’m super pleased with Philip.  They changed my chain, and made a couple other suggestions for me.  While I was waiting, another guy came in needing an adjustment on his bike.  They stopped work on the currently racked bike, put his on, made the adjustments, and then sent him on his way.

He did all this work for me, including fitting me in and calling me by my first name, without me having spent a dime in his store.  Now that is customer service!  I’ll be back there in a couple of weeks to re-swap out my crankset.  While I’m there I’ll be replacing a few other parts and getting a bike fit.  Hopefully the fit will stop the neck problems I’ve been having.  The parts, well that will of course make me faster!!

Another great race!

I’m fresh from the Austin Triathlon, in you guessed, Austin Texas.  As I blogged last week, I had plans and high hopes for a couple of the legs, but no formal race goal.  That’s not really true, I did have secret hopes to set a new PR.  I didn’t think it was realistic since I’d just done that last week.  I really wanted to break the 2:45 barrier, but that was going to take a super race on my part and I just wasn’t sure I was up to it.

We start the day with a lousy night’s sleep, probably just a couple of hours.  I got up early because it was silly for me to just lie there waiting for the alarm to go off.  My wife slept in and planned to meet me later at the race site.  We forgot to set a meeting time and place, which was a real problem with the thousands of people there race morning.  I finally found her about 30 minutes before race time which saved me from having to abandon my shoes and bottle.

The race was wetsuit legal, which I always appreciate when it is a deep water start.  They said it was 75, but I swear it was colder than that!  The race starts and I almost immediately find myself boxed in.  I’m hitting the feet of two people in front of me, wanting to pass, but with racers to either side I was stuck.  The crowd dispersed quickly and I was alone for the rest of the race.  I pushed the pace a little bit, sometimes more than a little and had to drop it off so I could get my breathing back under control.  After the turn I started to pass people from previous waves.  With a 5 minute gap between waves I knew I was doing well when I started passing different colored caps.  I had some trouble with my goggles fogging up, making it hard to spot the end buoy.  Because I didn’t want to accidentally swim past the last turn, I had to look up much more often that I wanted, which slows me down.  I climbed out of the water just a shade over 30 minutes, almost four minutes off my best swim pace of last week.  I credit it to the wetsuit.  I think it is a bit faster than without, but it gives me the confidence to push harder knowing I can slow down if necessary.  It was a great swim though!

My spot in transition was dirt.  Coming out of the water my feet were wet and quickly covered with dirt/mud.  I took a second to try and clean them off, threw my shoes on my still dirty feet, grabbed my gear and took off running.  It was a long run to the mount line, but I ran it all, passing several people along the way.  Really, it was a long run, well over a minute.

I jumped on my bike and took off.  Natasha told me the course was pretty flat and mostly downhill.  I’m not sure how a loop can be mostly downhill, but it did seem that there were more easy parts than hard.  Just a couple miles into the ride I hit the first hill, and the rain.  The rain became the real story of the ride.  At times it was so hard I couldn’t read my bike computer.  There was standing water on the road, and the bikes in front of me were throwing up a rooster tail of water that was quite tasty!  I was very careful on the turns, as slow as usual on the uphill parts, but really went on the downhill.  It took a lot of concentration to stay upright, which messed me up a bit on my nutrition.  I saw several bikers on the side of the road being tended to after crashing, and witnessed one poor guy really wipe out.  He was just to my left on a right turn headed uphill, so I saw the whole thing in slow motion.  Parts went flying and he skidded across the road.  I was even more careful after that.

There was one rider, aged 50, that went back and forth with me.  He would pass me on the uphill, and I would pass him on the downhill or flats.  I passed him for good on the last straightaway and thought I would never see him again.  I was wrong.

I had one near crash, when I took my eyes off the road to yell out to my wife.  I looked back in time to see I was going to run into a big orange cone.  I was able to avoid hitting it straight on, thus avoiding a crash in front of a LOT of spectators.  I never saw my wife on the bike again.  She told me later that she left the bike watching because she didn’t want to see me crash!

The rain stopped about halfway through my last lap on the bike.  Then the sun came out, with the heat and humidity.  Perfect running conditions!

I jumped off the bike, and ran barefoot through the dirt for what seemed forever.  By the time I parked my bike my feet were a muddy mess, not exactly fun conditions for running without socks.  I wiped the bottom of my feet on the towel, threw on my shoes, and took off running.

My legs felt muddy, I was breathing hard, and I was going very slowly.  I remember thinking I didn’t really feel like running for the next hour, but just thought about keeping moving and how everyone else around me felt bad too.

It was a two loop course, with two small hills.  The first one hit me hard.  I passed people walking, determined not to do so myself.  I slowed down a tad to get up the hill, hit the first mile marker, and checked my time:  7:15!  I had forgotten to restart my watch at the run start so I knew the time wasn’t exactly accurate, but I was surely running sub 8 minute miles.  I checked the total elapsed time, did some extrapolation and determined that if I held this pace I would set a new PR for the run and race.  It was going to be close though, those long runs with the bike had really hurt me.

Remember the 50 year old biker I’d beaten on the bike and would close out on the run?  He passed me on the run like I was standing still.  I hoped he would fade and I would pass him later on, but that never happened.  He beat me by over 6 minutes!

At the start of the second loop there was an attractive lady in a bikini and hula skirt passing out lays.  I grabbed one and wore it for a bit until I felt it was making me hot.  Sorry Austin, I left it on the side of the road :(

I continued checking my time at each mile marker and doing the math.  At mile 4 my average pace was 9 minute/mile.  I had no shot of getting a new PR for either the run or race, so I stopped looking.  It was just causing me stress and not helping the cause any.  The funniest thing happened the next mile.  I knew I was on the second lap, had crossed the first mile marker already, but had to keep doing the math to verify I was approaching mile 5.  I can’t say how many times I said to myself:  one loop equals 3 miles, plus one mile already run, this next marker is mile 5.  I was so unconvinced that I almost asked another runner as I ran by.

My goal for this race was to run the entire distance.  I didn’t officially make it as I walked three steps at the last aid station.  Long enough to get a quick sip of cold water.  I had carried water with me, but it was warm from my hand and of little use.

All I remember of the last mile was the finish line.  I noticed that they were holding up the finish tape for each runner to “break”, but with one runner a short distance in front of me I knew they wouldn’t have time to put it up for me again.  That gave me only one option, pass the other runner and take away his crossing!  While he was almost 20 years younger than I, he had nothing left to retake me.  Hopefully it makes for a good photograph, as I doubt any of the others came out any good.

After crossing the finish I checked my watch:  I’d set a PR on the swim and run legs, and my race PR was 3 seconds over my aggressive goal of 2:45!  I was ecstatic!

It’s 24 hours later and I’m still exhausted.  Hopefully a nap, more food, and a day off from training will recharge me because I’ve got more fun coming soon!

What is the plan this time?

Here we go again!  It seems like just yesterday that I was packing for a race.  Well it wasn’t yesterday, but it was just a week ago!  These races are so close together that I’ve only been able to do one easy run since my race, with another VERY short run the day before the race.  With a recovery week this week, taper week last week, and my mini-mental-meltdown the week before, it’s been 2.5 weeks since I did any hard training.  Actually that isn’t quite true, I did have a race last weekend which should count as something!  I really want to write about my mindset and plan for this race, not my lack of training.

I am amazed to hear myself thing this, let alone write it down, yet it is a phrase I’ve repeated many, many times:  it’s only a three hour race!  The first time I told myself that was months ago before my first Olympic race of the season.  Thinking that kept me calm and relaxed going into the race.  I used it again last weekend because it was my first non wetsuit legal race, and it worked.  I haven’t told myself that much this week, because after all it is only a three hour race!

I raced last weekend, and set a new PR on a fairly flat and fast course.  Austin isn’t as flat and should be a bit hotter, especially considering I start later in the day.  Combined with the fact that I raced last weekend, I don’t expect to reproduce or exceed my record setting pace from last weekend.

If I’m not expecting to set a new PR, what do I expect and what is my plan?  I expect a faster swim split than last weekend because it will be wetsuit legal.  I plan to swim harder the return leg.  I’ve never swum hard enough to impact my breathing, but that is the plan.  I’m not going to change anything on the bike leg.  I’ll push a little bit; not enough to hurt but hopefully average close to 20 mph.  I expect a better run split than last week.  I’ve got a better nutrition plan (anything is better than none), and want to run the second half faster than the first.  I may also go out a bit faster than last week.

The key to this week will be to stay hydrated, keep my body temperature down, and stay mentally tough.  If everything goes according to plan I could end up with a new PR, but it isn’t my plan!