Jimmie Johnson Foundation Cane Creek Triathlon

Besides having one of the longest names of any triathlons I have had the great pleasure to participate in, this race was loaded with talent, intrigue and possibilities.  Besides taking place in the bustling North Carolina metropolis of Waxhaw, it was set to start at 6pm on a Tuesday evening.

It is not often one gets to participate in a triathlon (a real one) on a Tuesday.  It's not often that triathlon is also at 6pm.  So combining those two things, a beach start and the promise of shaking babies and kissing hands with some of the biggest motorsport names in the area was just too much for little old me.

At the CMS TT last week I got the chance to talk to Derek and he said he was going to race as well. So this meant we'd get to throw down again after going 1-1 at Stumpy Creek and Challenge NA.  The Big German was signed up as well as Zack Capets so I figured there'd be some good competition even on a Tuesday night race.

The day of the race dawned bright and relatively early and after most (most?) of a workday I made my way down to Cane Creek Park, which takes approximately forever to get to no matter where you are coming from (unless, by some awful coincidence, you LIVE down there! Sorry Starkey and Fletch).

It rained virtually the entire drive and while setting up it continued to rain.  Luckily, by the time the race started it had been clear and dry for about an hour which meant that the roads were, for the most part, dry.  This is a good thing as it means

1) Not unsafe
2) I don't have to clean my bike

I got to say hello to various people doing the race that I've gotten to know and got in the way of some of the shots the videographers were taking of Jimmie, who racked next to me.

He's won some stuff too

Actually, he was in transition first but I put my bike next to his just to make sure everyone saw how much better looking a Cervelo P5 is when compared to a Trek Speed Concept 9 series ;)

Obligatory Side Shot (OSS)

 I got to speak a little bit with Josh Wise, who did Ironman Cozumel last year (really well) and had just done a 4:40 at Racine 70.3 a month or so prior.  He has become quite internet famous lately through his sponsorship via Reddit and Dogecoin.  I am probably not getting the "chain of events" correctly but that is probably because I am bad at sponsorship searches and I don't quite understand cryptocurrency.

Unfortunately I don't have any candid shots of myself from pro photogs

Landon Cassil was also in attendance and doing his second ride (total) on his brand new bike, the Cervelo P5. In spite of having the most casually swiped aside haircut Landon is pretty fast and has a great position on his new bike.  In time, perhaps the student will become the master.  In the meantime, however, I will let him continue to drive his Sprint Cup car with little to no input from me on going fast in that realm.

Google image search is an amazing engine

After making my way to the front of the start line (beach mass start) the horn sounded and we took off like a shot.

Swim - 6:55 - 2nd

I knew Derek was going to go full gas and try and drop me with that extra swimmer gear he has. What I did not realize, however, was how much FASTER a guy to my right was going to take it out.  This guy had like a 10 yard gap in the first 10 yards.  It was pretty impressive.  Unfortunately for him, by the time we rounded the first buoy I was slapping him all over the place before moving around him to latch onto Derek's feet, who came past on my left.  That guy blew up, REALLY HARD.  Oh well.  Through the middle section I was able to stick on Derek's feet but by the time we rounded the last buoy he was putting some gap on me and I exited the water about 10 yards back.

T1 - :24.5

T1 was a pretty long run up a hill to a parking lot (I think the timing mat must have been past the beach due to how short T1's time was and how long the swim's time was) but both Derek and I made our way through it expeditiously.

Bike - 31:01 - 1st

Derek got out a wee bit ahead of me but I passed him as he was getting into his shoes.  Fortunately for me, Derek let me lead him a bit as we made our way around the rolling hills of southern NC.  He came past as we were going up a hill about 5 minutes (ish) into the ride.  I felt strong today, however, so unlike Stumpy Creek I did not "let" him get away from me.

For the next 20 or so minutes we made some turns, attacked some hill, and turtled some flat sections as we plowed our way through the bike course.

"Turtling"

I decided to pass Derek on a downhill, which is a bit silly but it seemed to be the place where I was most at an advantage over him.  What I did not realize, however, is that right after I passed him there was a right turn back onto Harkey Rd to signal the last 2 minutes of the bike course.  D'oh! I made my way up the climb and hopped off the bike (after bunny hopping two prodigious speed bumps) and made my way back into transition just ahead of Derek.

T2 - :19.6

I had a quick T2 and got out on the run course just ahead of the comp.

Run - 18:25 - 2nd

I headed out on the run at a good pace and it wasn't until the first turnaround (there were two turnarounds per lap and there were two laps) that I got a chance to see how much time I had on Derek.  It wasn't much, so I kept on pushing. Along the way I saw Steve Hall in 3rd, Binny chasing in 4th (on Ironman Legs), and then Chad sandwiched in between Josh and Jimmie (Nascar drivers apparently make for good athletes, in contradiction to the rumors).  I felt good throughout the first lap and continued on pace through the second. It was fun coming through transition area over 4 times throughout the run course as it made it a bit more interesting from a spectator standpoint.  Unfortunately for the Nascar drivers, however, there were multiple right-hand turns which meant that for each one they had to make 3 lefts.  It slowed them down some, I am sure.

Derek did not slow down, however, so I was forced to continue pushing throughout the second lap crossing the line with a relatively narrow margin of victory over DeKidwell.

Overall I finished in 57:05 to Derek's 57:42 and really enjoyed the race.  There was obviously more "attention" on this race due to the involvement of the JJF, JJ himself and his high profile driver/racer/crew buddies.  It was definitely pretty cool to see them get involved in the community itself.  Unfortunately for them, they don't get the chance to race particularly often (in triathlons) due to the fact that they have no off-weekends.

Hopefully this type of race can take hold but if it was something other than JFF I might be skeptical of its ability to draw a crowd.  Over 100 participants raced, which is definitely impressive considering the location and the timing.  Plus, the prizes were outstanding. Without going into too much detail, let's just say that the winners got loaded up pretty nicely and the category podiums did well also. Danielle and I also got the opportunity to spray champagne everywhere which is not something that happens often when you are a triathlete at a local race.  JJ himself even posted an instagram video on his own page on instagram AND on Facebook! Wow, the fame!!!

Powermeters have ruined riding bikes

Every good story draws you in some way, preferably within the first page or two.  I don't have a couple of pages to ramble on so I had to draw in my reader with a good title.  I've been riding a bicycle since roughly 2002.  In the scheme of things, that's not a particularly long time.  I have not been riding consistently that whole time either; there were times in college when I took a break from cycling to "focus on my academics" (hehe) and didn't ride with the team much.  There were times after college where I "focused on work" (hehe) and didn't exercise at all.

BUT, the point of it is that I've been riding a bike for ~13 years.  I have enjoyed all different types of riding:

1) Riding by myself
2) Riding with friends
3) Racing with friends
4) Racing with enemies
5) Mountains
6) Trail riding with friends
7) Trail riding with animals
8) Cyclo cross racing
9) Criteriums, time trials, circuit racing, road races, omniums, prologues
10) Naked mountain biking across the Sunken Gardens
11) Self contained long distance riding (camping+)
12) You name it

The common bond through ALL of that is that riding a bicycle is just plain FUN.  I remember one summer between freshman and sophomore year I wanted to get better at sprinting so I would ride my bike on the levee out and back almost every day (1-1.5hrs) and pick 3 or 4 signs and entertain myself by holding little sprint competitions...with myself.  Now that's fun. It's like playing with legos when you're younger but all of a sudden those crazy cool genius interlocking bricks become mad dashes across an imaginary line while on two wheels with shaved legs.  It's basically the same thing.

TDEA 2000something

Then there were those rides where you and your friends picked teams, sprinted for lines and "mountain" top finishes, attempted breakaways, attacked each other until your hands tingled and basically made it one huge "measuring" contest (I don't need to say what we were measuring, do I?).

Then a funny thing happened.  Everyone started buying powermeters.  Everyone started having coaches. The "level" of talent was still the same but the "level" of taking-it-seriously had jumped a couple of notches.  All of a sudden the normal weekend ride went from:

3.5 - 4hrs of "don't get dropped"

to

4hr - 50aer + 5x(12mins threshold + 3ez) + rest aer

On the surface those may not look too different to the average reader, but the underlying message became: this workout is more important than riding with friends.  Because your friends would have different workouts and maybe didn't want to do yours with you or maybe couldn't and maybe their intervals were different and the route you chose wasn't conducive to their intervals (say if they had vo2 instead of threshold or tempo instead) and blah and blah and blah.

blah blah blah right into holy sunburn!

Believe you me: I am completely aware of my own involvement in this trend.  Back when I got my first powermeter in 2010 I didn't really know what any of the numbers meant.  I didn't care.  It took several months of riding to begin to understand the implications of each number that popped up on the ol' Garmin.

And then, slowly but surely, things started to change.  I began to prefer the KNOWN quantities that were my OWN power numbers versus the unknown quantities of the group.  It is too "easy" to give in to one's own workout because you KNOW that workout.  You KNOW the intensities and the suffering and the duration and the difficulty.  You KNOW that. It is yours. A group, however, brings the unknown back on the table.  When will he attack? How strong is he right now? Can I actually hold the wheel? Hopefully she doesn't drop me...etc.

This has created a world in which - for us anyway - our group rides are:

50-60 minutes of riding "aerobic" together

1-3 hours of intervals where we will see each other every once in a while

50-60 minutes of riding "aerobic" together

That's great and all if your only goal is self-improvement. If YOU want to be the best that YOU can be then yes, you need to suffer by yourself at your exact zones with your exact workout for the exact length of time you need to be doing it. But for most people, they could maintain a greater level of enjoyment if they just pretended to not have a powermeter 50% of the time.

The other 50% of the time wear 100 layers because it is SO cold

Just act like it doesn't exist.  Ride 1 or 2 days a week without caring what it says or what it means. Turn Saturdays into a group ride day where you can either meander along and actually look at the stuff around you or drill each other into the ground until you're slobbering all over yourself.

Powermeters are fantastic training tools, but paying attention to it more than anything else is going to ruin your enjoyment of riding a bicycle for the reasons bicycles are so fantastic.  Trust me.

I'm a trustworthy guy, right?

To Pro or not to Pro

Here's your little story for the week.  I couldn't just let it lie at a video, could I?

Weekend of Trails from James Haycraft on Vimeo.

Shameless embed.

Now on to the original topic.  Triathlon is a fairly unique sport.  It accepts all comers. EVERYONE can find competition and the fulfillment of personal goals in triathlon.  The only requirement is a decently thick wallet and a willingness to work hard towards your goals.

I like that about triathlon.  I like that you get out what you put in.  People that don't reach their goals simply don't understand the right way to work and have consequently created a barrier or they just don't want to work hard enough.

Ashley zips me up B2B 2009

Want to qualify for Kona? Well, you gotta work your butt off. You may need to get a little lucky.  You need to have everything go right on one, long day.

Want to set a PB at an oly? Well, choose the right course and train hard.

Want to lose 30 pounds? Well, work your butt off and eat smart.  (or my philosophy: work your butt off and "if the furnace is hot enough ANYTHING will burn!)

Want to race as a professional against the best endurance athletes in the world?

White Lake Half 2011

Well, you can.  You've got to get really fast and then choose the right race and qualify for your elite card.

I qualified for my pro card at a race back in October 2011.  That year I had done a combination of things:

1) I trained, a LOT.
2) I picked good races
3) I got lucky

I was pretty happy, to say the least. When I first started working with Brian I listed racing as a pro as being one of my main goals. The dream of being able to "realize your potential" in the sport is a fairly tantalizing one.  Brian, in that year, had taken me from a decent age group athlete to a better than decent age group athlete who qualified for his pro card.

Being a "pro" in triathlon simply means that you can race in the professional field at a race that has one and that you are eligible to compete for prize purses.  So at your "regular" or "local" race where there is maybe an "open" division or just "age group" you are a pro but you race against everybody.  In a bigger race where there is a pro field you compete against the likes of Terrenzo, Starykowicz, McDonald, Limkemmann, etc.

Augusta 70.3 2011

You basically have three years of "eligibility" when you are a professional.  You renew your USAT Elite license every year just like a normal license but you have three years where your qualification results mean you don't have to "requalify." Now, most pros generally "requalify" without really thinking about it. The pros that make money in races, anyway.

Little old me, however, has NOT re-qualified to race as a pro (yet).  I have done relatively few races as a pro in my three years, due in no small part to the fact that it's just really expensive to travel around and race beyond our little "sphere."

2012 - Giant Eagle 5150, Rev3 Andersen SC, Rev3 Florida
2013 - New Orleans 70.3, Rev3 Williamsburg, Rev3 Florida, Ironman Cozumel
2014 - New Orleans 5150, Challenge New Albany, Miami 70.3?

Rev3 Florida 2012

As you can see, there are a few things in common here:

1) Races within driving distance (according to my standards of driving distance anyway)
2) Races in my hometown
3) Races in our region
4) Races that offer free entry to professional athletes
5) Races that are cheap to get to
6) Only 1 or 2 "IM" events in a year so side-stepping the exorbitant WTC Pro Fee (many hundreds of pros pay this but how many pros actually GET prize money, hmm?)

I DNF'd at Giant Eagle, Rev3 FL '12, IM Cozumel so obviously did not re-qualify there.  I have set personal bests at the half distance at Rev3 FL '13 and CNA '14 in non-wetsuit legal races for pros but didn't re-qualify at either of those (thanks Jesse Thomas and Eric Limkemmann!! haha). I beat all of the elite amateur racers at CNA '14 (who also got to wear wetsuits), all of whom qualified to apply for their pro card.

Shipwreck Sprinternational 2012

I have gotten to the point where I am not intimidated by racing anyone from North Carolina. I am confident in my strengths and weaknesses and how far I've come.

Yet if nothing changes after this year I will no longer hold an elite license.  I will be racing as Male 30-34 in every big race I enter. I can potentially qualify for Kona. I could qualify for 70.3 WC. I could qualify to race as a pro...again.

But...why?

Rev3 Florida 2013

At this point, with the changes announced recently by WTC, what is the POINT of me racing pro?

Let's start by listing some pros of racing pro (haha, see what I did there?)

1) First to start and first to finish - easily the best part as the course is the cleanest and I am done the quickest.
2) Best spots in transition
3) Ability to sign up for races as late as desired even when sold out (this only really holds relevance for Ironman events)
4) The prospect of free entries for elite athletes (really the only races that are truly "free" now are Challenge races and an odd race here or there depending on race director).

Cons:

1) Racing alone
2) More pressure on yourself
3) More pressure from others to live up to "pro" status
4) Having a relatively difficult time with "goal setting"

That last point is kind of nebulous, but in my mind it basically means that generally as a pro it seems difficult to establish concrete GOALS.  That's part of what I like about it but also part of what I don't like. I like just getting better, but sometimes it's hard to maintain direction, focus and motivation when there is nothing CONCRETE to your year.

I am sure I am forgetting some but those are some points that have been on my mind recently.

I am almost 100% positive I am going to sign up for and do Miami 70.3 because I would like to give myself the CHOICE of racing as a pro or not in 2015. I don't want to feel forced into one decision just because I resigned myself to my "fate."

IM Louisville 2010

At Miami (which has a prize purse greater than $5000) I will have to come within 8% of the winner's time to be eligible to "requal" for my pro card.  My guess is that will require a very, very fast time (the winner last year went 3:41 which would mean to be within 8% of that you'd have to go about 3:58 or so).  Is it realistic? I am not sure. Can I go 4 hours? I do believe that it's possible. If you think I am blowing smoke up my own ass, then you are welcome to that. I genuinely believe that if I put a good swim, bike and run split I am capable of doing at or very near 4 hours.  Then I just have to see where the chips fall!

If you COULD race pro, would you? I'll leave you with that.