Thunder in the Valley

My race on Saturday went smashingly. Going into the race, I had a bit of a grudge to settle on the bike, as my race time from St. Anthony's wasn't where I wanted it to be. So my race plan for this one was to go like hell on the bike and hold nothing back. I would either be able to run, or I wouldn't. Since it was a small C race for me, it was a good way to experiment a bit.

The bike distance is the same as an olympic, and the run is 8k instead of 10k. Close enough to do it as an olympic distance race sim.

Warmup

Started out really early. Was one of the first people at the race site. It was open racking, so getting there early was good. I had a primo bike spot.

I ran for 15 minutes, came back, biked for 15 minutes, then started the process of putting on the wetsuit for the swim. Definitely a wetsuit required swim. The water temp was about 62. Brrrr! Got in the water, and did a couple pickups. Was supposed to swim more, but it was too cold, too crowded, and not enough time.

Swim

It was a wade start, so we're all in about chest deep water. I was in the first wave, with all the fast and crazy kids. The horn went off, and it was chaos! This was worse than a beach start. Instantly I was getting clubbed in the head, feet grabbed, knocked in the side. Just a big melee until the first buoy. I pulled off a trick turn ( flip over to backstroke through the turn ) and was able to break out of the main pack a bit. The fast swimmers were already gone, so I had no one to draft off. I just settled into a hard pace and swam for the finish.

Came out of the water, started taking off wetsuit. We had a little run back to where the transition was, across some sharp asphalt, so I stashed a pair of flipflops at the swim. I found those, finished taking off my wetsuit, which got hung up and cost me some time. Made it to transition area at last, and got my bike.

Bike

As I mentioned, I had a grudge to settle here. I also had some new weapons to employ. My race wheels ( Zipp 404s ) had finally come in, so I had those on the bike. I also have a Rudy Project aero helmet. Not that those are going to amount to a whole lot of time, but they sure made me feel faster!

I set out on the bike, and since I was in the first wave and swam pretty well, I didn't have a lot of people to chase. I had a couple though, and made it my mission in life to pass them. I managed to get a couple. It was rolling hills through part of the course, and the hills are where I attacked. Out of the saddle, climbing in the big ring. Ohh yeah. It felt good.

The course was an out and back, so once I hit the turnaround, it was a straight shot back the way we came. I saw only a handful of people in front of me, and most were just before the turnaround. I got my split at the turnaround, and wasn't happy with where it was. I wanted to be faster than that. So I hammered even harder on the way home. I caught a pack of 4 riders, and we took turns passing and repassing each other. With about 5 miles to go, I made a big push and passed them, and kept on going.

Run

I wasn't quite sure how the run would go. I threw on my socks and shoes, grabbed my hat, sunglasses, and race number and took off. My legs felt like logs. My feet were numb from the cool temperatures on the bike. I suppose that was a good thing though, as they couldn't hurt.

I felt like I was going really slow, and my HR was a lot lower than I wanted it. It was sitting at about 158. "Crap" I thought, I guess that's what I get for hammering on the bike. Imagine my surprise when I saw the first mile marker roll past at 6:57. I thought I missed the lap button on my watch. Okay, maybe I'm not running too badly after all, but there's no way I'm running that fast! Lo and behold, mile 2 comes up at 6:45. Holy crap, I know I hit the timer right. Mile 3 was blazing, clocked in at 6:23. I missed mile 4, so my next split was mile 4.5 at 10:55 ( uphill on a section of trail ). My HR was still in the 162-162 range. Came up to the finish line, and sprinted it in hard, as there was a guy close behind me. Didn't let him pick me off, and crossed the line going all out.

Results

This wasn't chip timed so I don't have exact transition splits. T1 was counted in bike time, and T2 was counted in run time. I estimated the times and subtracted them out, so here's how the race broke down:

Swim (800m): 11:24
T1: 2:30
Bike (40k): 1:05:29
T2: 1:00
Run (8k): 34:24

Total Time: 1:54:42

I had an unofficial goal going into the race of beating 2 hours. I completely smashed that goal to pieces. I've got a newfound respect for my ability to run after pushing the bike hard. And the best thing about the race was that I qualified for the AG National Championships in July.

This is definitely starting off to be a great season.

Running in the Mall

Nope, not what you're thinking.

I took a last minute trip to DC this weekend to watch some friends race and accrue a few more flights/miles ( yeah, I'm a status goober ). After watching them race on Sunday, and while they were all napping, I went for a little jog around DC.

My route started near the Capitol building, where I ran in front of the steps. Went along the Mall on the pedestrian path, past the Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian, innumerable memorials ( WWII, Korea, ). I ran a lap around the Washington Monument and reflecting pool, then headed further along to the Lincoln monument, and across the Potomac to Arlington Cemetary. Walked through there a bit ( no running allowed ). Then retraced my steps back to Lincoln, where I ran up the steps and snapped the following:
















Continued back down the Mall, on the other side this time. Ran another loop around the Washington Monument. Saw the White House, and gave W a one-finger wave hello. Then finished up back near the Capitol building and headed back to where I was staying.

That was a pretty awesome run. I'm jealous of my friends that get to run that everyday, but then again, I'm sure that like most things once the novelty wears off it isn't quite as exciting. But it was awesome to me!

Well, it was a fun weekend getaway, and I still managed to squeeze in all of my training. Back to the grind this week, and an upcoming sprint triathlon ( 800 m swim, 40 km bike, 8 km run ) on Saturday. Fun fun fun!

St. Anthony's Race Report

The executive summary:

Swim: 25:09
T1: 1:21
Bike: 1:09:45
T2: 1:21
Run: 46:56


Total: 2:24:30
Place: 311th overall, 28th AG

Race Morning

Got the site, prepped everything in transition, did about a mile warmup run. Got my wetsuit, and started walking over to the swim start ( about a mile away ). I misjudged the timing, and I barely made it to the swim start in time. I was in the second wave to go, and I was putting on my wetsuit when the first wave went off. Doh! So I hurried up, got suited up, and had just enough time to get into the water to get wet.

Conditions were perfect temperature and sun-wise. The wind, now that was a different story. It was blowing pretty strong, about 15 mph from the East. More on this in a bit.

Swim

I lined up in the first row, just inside the buoy line. As I stand there, I get my first real look out at the water. There's a good 3-4 foot chop due to all the wind. Uh oh! And the first leg of the swim is headlong into the waves.

The horn goes off, and we hit the water. I go hard with the rest for the first hundred meters or so, and then decide it's time to start finding some feet to follow. I see a pack off to my right a bit, so I drift over to them. I see some feet in front of me, so I start to follow. I watch as the feet move upwards, and disappear over my head. WTF?! We just hit the big chop, so everyone was now moving up and down with the waves. It was impossible to draft, so it was everyone for themself.

I fight the waves the rest of the way around the course, and finally make it out. I got off course pretty badly a couple times. I just didn't sight enough, or take into account how much the waves would push me off course. Oh well, I still beat my swim time from last year, and in much tougher conditions.

T1

Get up the stairs from the swim exit, to the transition area. Start peeling wetsuit top off, and running for my bike. Grab a cup of water, and rince the saltwater out of my mouth. Wetsuit came off easy. I threw on helmet and sunglasses, and took off for the bike.

Bike

Pulled off a perfect flying mount, of which I was very proud. Passed two guys in front of me in transition who were slower mounting up. Never saw them again either. Pedalled with my feet on my shoes over the cobblestone/brick road section. Once on the normal pavement, I put both feet in the shoes, and then it was time to work.

I was running with a disc cover on my rear training wheel, so that I would have power data ( and feedback ) on the bike. I had a borrowed zipp 404 in the front. The shop that is building my 404s with the Powertap hub didn't get them done in time. So I had to improvise a bit. The rear wheel was a lot heavier than a 404 would have been, but since St. Anthony's is mostly flat, that didn't matter too much. The main thing was that it was aero, thanks to the disc cover.

I cranked hard on the bike, and just pushed it at around my power threshold for the whole ride. It was windy on the bike too, so there were a few sections where we were pretty exposed to it that really blew ( hah! ). Finally came around the last bend to transition, and pulled my feet out of the shoes, to get ready for T2. I managed a great dismount, slamming on the brakes last minute and jumping off and hit the ground running with my bike. Passed another 2 guys coming into T2 as they were slower at the dismount line. Woop!

T2

Ran bike back to my rack, got it racked, helmet off. Put on hat. Look at feet. Realize they are covered in grass. Try to wipe the grass off on my towel. Realize that isn't doing anything, so I decided to just screw it, and put on my socks and shoes and take off running.

Run

I felt like I was running slower than molasses. My Run LT is around 170, so that's where I wanted to get my HR. I just couldn't seem to get it out of the low 160's though. Never had that problem before! I tried to speed up, but I was stuck. Just couldn't make the legs work any faster. I was afraid that I was running 8-9 minute miles, and I was hoping to run 7's. Imagine my surprise when I hit the first mile marker and saw a 7:30 split. Okay, that's not bad, I can live with that. I was actually quite shocked as I felt like I was going very very slow. It's a good feeling to be that fast, and be well under my LT.

The run course was an out and back, so as I was heading out, all of the pros were coming back in. It was really cool to see all of them just a couple feet away, on the same course. Most of the men passed by in the early part of the run, but I didn't see many of the women pros until I was nearing the 1/2 way point!


The rest of the run was steady. I held onto the 7:30'ish pace, and even split the run. I saw 2:34 on the clock as I came around the last bend to the finish, and knew that I had a new PR by a couple minutes. The clock started with the pro's 10 minutes ahead of me or so. Subtract 10, and I was in the low to mid 2:20's.



With a little work and slightly more favorable conditions for the swim and bike, I expect that I'll be hitting sub-2:20 before the end of this season! Never in a thousand years did I think I'd ever get this fast, when I did my first olympic distance race 2 years ago. It's really true. You don't have to be a genetically gifted athlete to succeed. It takes hard work and consistent training and you can find out that your body is capable of some amazing feats.

Here's a picture from a warmup ride the Friday before the race, so you can oogle at the race bike setup. I love how it looks with the disc in the back.

IM Descision

I've decided that I'm going to drop IM Wisconsin completely from the sched. I don't want to DNF it, I think that'd be too difficult mentally to do. I know that I would want to get out there and finish it, which would be bad for Kona. So, now that that's out of the way, I can look at doing some other 1/2 IM distances this summer.

The new race schedule for the rest of the season looks something like this:

• 20 May - Terre Haute - Sprint
• 29 May - 11 Hills Kirkland - Century Bike
• 17 Jun - HHH - 200k Bike
• 25 Jun - BSLT - 1/2 IM
• 23 Jul - Spirit of Racine - 1/2 IM
• 13 Aug - Lake Zurich - Oly
• 27 Aug - Mideast Regionals - Oly
• 16 Sep - USAT National 1/2 Championship - 1/2 IM
• 21 Oct - Ironman Hawaii - IM

Should be a lot more fun, as I've added 2 more 1/2 IMs to the mix. It'll be a much bigger mental boost to kick ass at a 1/2 IM, than to DNF an IM prior to Kona. And I think I stand a shot at getting pretty darn close to the 5:00 mark for the 1/2 distance this year. If I break it down, I should be able to do pretty close to the following:

• Swim: 30m
• Bike: 2h40m
• Run: 1h45m
• Transitions: 5m

That's 5h on the nose. Any improvements on the bike or run, and I'll be under that. Ohhh yeah, bring it on baby!