The important things to note in the week leading up to this race were:
- I felt MUCH more mentally prepared than before New Orleans 70.3. I think that just knowing I was capable of completing the race really helped me a lot.
- On Wednesday and Thursday we had to do some stuff at work that I think actually affected my race - especially the swim - and that was something that made me a little anxious leading up to Saturday. All afternoon Wednesday and Thursday I had to haul 30-40 pound buckets of dirt (literally hundreds of them) to level the ground underneath a crawlspace and that task left my shoulders/neck/arms extremely fatigued and sore.
- It's become increasingly clear that the wetsuit I have is just a little too small. I think if I were a little shorter it would fit me fine but alas, I am not. I haven't felt good in a swim that I've used it for (only 3 as of now but the feeling is telling) and that also made me a little apprehensive given the likelihood that the swim would be wetsuit legal.
- The past 2 weeks have seen a very reduced volume in my bike mileage and an increase in my swim yardage. The week of Lake Murray I only biked 80 miles (with the only really hard effort being the race itself) and the week of White Lake I totaled 144 but the bulk of that was on Saturday and there were NO hard efforts that entire week. This left my legs feeling very fresh, something that I think was lacking before New Orleans.
- I was much more hurried before this race as it was on Saturday and I had to work on Friday. I don't think that mattered at all, but it was something that was a little different than New Orleans where I had a ton of time to prepare for the race.
Swim 1.2 miles. Bike 56 miles. Run 13.1 miles. Sounds hard.
4:33:58, 6th overall
Swim (31:59, 40th)
I barely got my wetsuit on before I had to jump in the water and make my way towards the swim start. The lake itself was totally flat and the conditions were great (minus the fact that the water was 77 degrees; that's a little hot for a full-sleeved wetsuit...) and I was pumped to start another race. I made it to the pack of 'open' racers as the director was counting down from 15, so that wasn't really ideal. I didn't have any time to warm up, although I wasn't as concerned with this as I was at Lake Murray because the race is so long you have time to warm up during the swim itself. The whistle blew (or whatever it was) and I dove into a long day. I felt pretty good at the start, there was no contact but there was definitely a 'group' for the first 100-200 meters. On the way to the first turn buoy I was right in the middle of what I felt was a group (although I am still awful at sighting so I'm not really sure what it looked like...) but I started to feel really tired and short of breath. My arms and shoulders ached and I felt as though I was constantly having to breathe. In New Orleans I settled almost instantly into a pace and was completely comfortable the entire way, but that was definitely not the case at White Lake. I think the chest of the full-sleeved wetsuit I was wearing is tight and that made me feel restricted (mentally or physically, who knows) and I could never get into a rhythm. I started to fall off the pace just after the first turn buoy. I did some breaststroke as I made my way around the buoy and saw the endless line of sight buoys ahead of me leading to the next turn and I mentally crumbled. At that point I really wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to finish the race. I started swimming again and got into a decent rhythm but a little after that I started getting short of breath again and my shoulders continued to ache. I fell off the group I was with and just continued to struggle through the swim until I realized I was TOTALLY by myself (at least in my quick glances it appeared as though no one was immediately around me) - a fact that would later prove to be untrue - but it definitely made me feel much more desperate. I also began to feel extremely warm at this point, something that unfortunately lasted through the rest of the swim (and race for that matter). At the last turn buoy I expected it to be a 90 degree turn (I'm not sure why, given the fact that I knew what the course was like) but it was more like a 150 degree turn so I started off going in the wrong direction but soon realized my mistake and headed in the general direction of the dock that marked the swim finish. I was zig-zagging all over the place throughout the home stretch. The sun was right in my eyes every time I breathed to the right, which was super annoying. I started getting pretty close to the dock and was really angry because in the second half of the swim I had managed to convince myself that EVERYONE was in front of me (at least, the people that were part of our group from Charlotte...) and that the swim was only the beginning of a long walk of shame. I got to the ladder to climb onto the dock and my time was around 31:00 or so, which didn't make sense because I felt like it was SO slow and I walked for a little while down the dock towards T1 before snapping out of it and jogged the rest of the way while starting the process of removing my wetsuit. I came across the mat that marked the end of the swim right at 32:00 so it wasn't an awful swim, but I KNOW that I can do better than that.
Transition 1 (2:27):
I kept jogging through transition - all 'open' athletes had the first rack, which meant that we were furthest from the swim finish/run start but closest to the bike start/bike finish - and got my wetsuit off down to my waist and got to my spot and took the rest off while also taking off my swim cap/goggles. I saw Carrie at her bike was and realized that I wasn't all by myself during the swim (but I had no idea what kind of swimmer Carrie was so I didn't know whether it was or was not a good thing...). I put on my shoes and stuffed my gels/salts into my pockets and grabbed my bike before heading to the bike start right behind Carrie. I also saw John coming in to his bike as we were leaving. A long transition, but it was mostly because of the long run to get to it...
Bike (2:20:35, 5th):
I passed Carrie right out of transition and pretty much settled into the ride immediately. I had forgotten to put Chamois Butter on before so I was a little worried about how that would affect me (it was noticeable later on, but not all that bad...) and I was really thirsty so I had almost an entire bottle of water in the first 20-30 minutes. My computer wasn't working so I had no idea how fast I was going but my HR was pretty high and I was just counting on the fact that it would eventually settle down to a more reasonable bpm later in the ride. About 15 minutes into the ride John caught up to me and suggested that we work together, meaning that we rotate positions throughout the ride.
Now, the rules obviously and with good reason forbid drafting (and there are a number of penalties associated with the practice besides the obvious one of 'drafting') as Triathlon is a test of individual fitness. That does not mean, however, that athletes cannot 'work together' as both a motivational and physical tool to go faster. So what that boils down to is that John and I rotated positions throughout the bike; so we would maintain proper distance behind each other then pass, repetitively. It's said that the benefit of this (beyond the mental aspect of having someone around and providing incentive) can be 1.5 mph. Of course, you also induce the ire of everyone that sees you because, on the off-chance that they see you as you're making a passing move it could be (improperly) assumed that you are drafting, which is both illegal and not cool. So I'm basically going to get endless crap about this bike split as everyone will say that I drafted, which I did not. Anyways...
I took my first salt tab around 30-45 minutes into the ride but in the process of extricating it from the tube it was in I spilled about half of the pills, meaning I only had 6 or so for the rest of the day. I wasn't sure how much salt was in the e-gels I had brought with me and I knew it was going to be really hot by the time the run started so I was a little nervous about that. At about mile 10 we started catching people and that continued for the next 30 miles. I saw Scott around mile 20 and was pretty surprised as - since I had decided during the swim that everyone was ahead of me - I didn't think Chris would be ahead of him given that Scott is such a good swimmer. I assumed that Scott would jump on to pace with John and I but he did not so I assumed that we were either a) going really fast or b) he wasn't feeling that great. We got to the 25 mile marker in JUST over an hour so we were flying through the first half of the bike course. I don't remember when but we passed the female in first (Nicole something) and I remarked on the fact that she was both attractive and not likely to finish in first as Colleen and Carrie were both gunning for her. The halfway point was reached in 1:10 and change so I realized that I was on the way to a great bike split, which was a HUGE relief because I definitely felt as though I was working hard and I wanted to be rewarded with a good time. My average heart rate started settling in at about 157 or so by this point so I know that the work I've been putting in is starting to show a little bit. That was the same average(ish) that I had during New Orleans but the bike was slower and I felt way worse. We got to the little out and back spur and saw Kevin in the lead as we turned on to the out and back, so that was cool, although a little depressing because I figured if I could see him the out and back spur must be really long... This was the one chance to see who all was in front (and behind) so it was cool to see the guys that could put down monster bike splits (and/or swim splits) all pushing really hard. We saw Kevin, Alex Mcdonald (top Kona age-grouper and member of Team Timex) then Cid Cardoso Jr (masters racer who can drop some sick times), a guy I didn't know but who had a sweet bike and ended up coming in third (22 years old, not bad), then Ashley Ackerman, then one or two other guys that I didn't recognize and that was it. We'd ridden ourselves to what was basically the front of the race at that point, which was awesome. On the way back I saw Steve, Scott, Chris and Murph all on the 'out' spur of the outback. I was impressed that Ryan was up there since his wave started behind ours; just showing that being a good swimmer matters a lot more than most people think. The last 15ish miles were probably the most boring of the whole race as the terrain was flat and endless. I felt a sudden onset of right hip-flexor cramps with about 8-10 miles to go so I popped my second to last salt pill and pounded an e-gel and stood up a little bit more to try and work it out and all of that seemed to make it go away over the course of a mile or so. Got back into town and I could see the turn into transition and I took off my shoes and dismounted. I knew that I was somewhere around 2:20 based on my watch but I was apprehensive because of how it might affect the run.
Trantition 2 (1:24):
I couldn't really tell how hot it was on the bike; I knew that the forecast had called for ~92 degrees that day but when you're biking the wind makes the actual temperature a bit deceptive. I could tell I was sweating a decent amount because everytime I looked down it rained from my helmet and chin but beyond that I had no real knowledge of the temperature. In T2, I knew. It was HOT. I put my bike back on the rack, put on my socks, running shoes and visor then grabbed a last drink of water from my bottle before heading out towards the run start right behind Behme.
Run (1:37:36, 6th):
The first 200 yards of the run were shaded as we made our way back around transition then out towards the road before turning right and heading out on what was a long out and back (run almost all the way around the lake then run back). We turned right onto the highway and I remarked to John that it was going to be a hot one today and I was not wrong. I started pulling away slowly and went through the first mile in 6:30something and ran through the aid station while grabbing some water and settled in for the long haul. The next mile was a little slower as my HR went up and I consequently brought the pace down, but I could see several guys up ahead of me so I just kept at my pace, knowing that I would catch them eventually. In the next 2 miles I caught two guys and was catching a third when I just had to stop at the aid station at the mile 4 marker to hit the porto-john for a pee break. It felt AMAZING. You never really realize how bad you actually have to pee until you get the relief of peeing. I had tried peeing on the bike several times as I definitely needed to but was only able to get partial relief (and that was 2 hours and 50+ ounces of water ago at this point). After the aid station I managed to pass the guy I had been catching and was rolling along pretty nicely but I felt some tightness in the muscle just above your knee (sort of below and besides your quad) and tried striding it out (sort of kicking my knees up a little higher) and my left hamstring locked up INSTANTLY. I had to stop immediately and stand on the side of the road with my left leg stretched out; if I tried moving it the hamstring would just seize up again. Everyone I had passed returned the favor to me as I was standing beside the road. One guy offered me a salt, which was nice but I said no thanks as I had no way of taking it since I didn't have any water (plus I had one of my own). It felt like forever, but in reality was only a couple of minutes, before I started running again. It took a lot of willpower to try running because I was so worried about how my leg would react. I didn't want to stand beside the road in painful misery for a long time waiting for the pain to subside so I just hoped that running would work the cramp out the rest of the way and luckily, it did. I kept on chugging along except that from that point on I walked through every single aid station to make sure that I got enough water (well, you can never really get enough but the point is made) and took gels if I felt as though I needed them. I began catching the guys that had re-passed me and got to the turnaround point and I honestly felt pretty good other than the tightness where I had cramped. I would have thought that the way back would be more interesting than the way out due to the fact that I was going to see everybody in the race but unfortunately I was wrong as it was almost depressing to see the long lines of people stretched out in front of me running the other way. I saw everyone on the way back, literally. There were so many Custom Coach jerseys out there that were easy to spot and we were all doing well (relatively speaking, the heat was killer for everyone out there...). The whole way back was exactly the same as the 'out' portion: no shade, tons of heat, walking through the aid stations and suffering. With 3 miles to go I started to let myself get excited a little bit and with 1 to go I actually picked up the pace (to just over 7 minute miles pace, exciting!) and was extremely relieved to turn left into the park and cross the finish line in 4:33:58, a 15 minute PR.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Lake Murray Triathlon
I was pretty excited to do this race as it was a) only my second triathlon, b) guaranteed to be less of a suffer fest than New Orleans because it was 'only' a sprint, and c) racing is just plain fun...
750m swim (in Lake Murray)
16mi bike
5.1mi run
14th overall, 1st in 25-29
Swim: 12:21 (23rd overall, 4th in age group)
The swim felt pretty rough at first. I didn't warm up before the race (smart of me...keep making these rookie mistakes) so the first 100-150m felt pretty awful. I got a claustrophobic feeling which was a little weird. It was a little chilly with a light breeze in the morning and everyone was wearing wetsuits so I decided to go ahead and wear mine. I was in a front pack of ~5 from my wave from the best that I could tell but apparently I didn't even have a top 20 swim time. According to my watch, my swim was 11:58 and my T1 was longer than setup is saying it is. Oh well. Arms were a little tired towards the end. I was surprised that I was this slow given the amount of work I felt I was doing. I'm going to put that on the number of yards I've swam this week and the tough workout Friday.
Transition 1: 1:50
Couldn't get my wetsuit off and my timing chip was falling off so I had to take off the timing chip; struggle to get the wetsuit off; put the timing chip back on and get on my way. I was pretty pissed.
Bike: 40:41 (20th, 1st)
Got going on the bike with a nice flying mount and my legs didn't feel too great. Tight and not really responding well to the work I wanted them to do. I had lost so much time in T1 that I was pushing pretty hard from the get-go to make up time. People in front of me were pretty spread out but there were a couple of groups clumped together. My legs finally started coming around at about mile 10 and I pushed well to the finish. Unstrapped the shoes 200 yds before T2 and made my way back into transition. Went through maybe half a bottle of water on the bike, but it wasn't hot yet.
T2: 1:04
I have my T2 at :40 so I guess something was wrong somewhere. Not sure how it can be inaccurate with the chips but oh well. Threw on my shoes (no socks) - I was going with the Piranhas today, it's been about a year since I've worn those - and got underway.
Run: 17:19 (3rd, 1st)
Had a really fast transition (at least compared to my first one) and got going on the run feeling pretty good. My stride was nice and loose and my breathing was totally under control. I found a rhythm almost immediately and started picking off people in front of me and went through the mile at 5:30. Kept going and grabbed some water at the first aid station then hit the first turnaround. My legs felt great on the flats and downhills but fairly useless on the uphills; I tried to counteract this with shorter strides and that seemed to help a bit (more hill repeats?). My right calf started getting a little tight and I went through mile 2 in 11:45 (I think mile 1 was short). I finished pretty strong and felt like I had a good amount left in the tank as far as the run went. My legs definitely felt good today; I was pleased with that. According to my watch, my run time was 17:38; sadly I don't think I PR'd in the 5k today but I still felt strong.
All in all I'm pretty pleased with this race. Yes, my bike wasn't that fast considering the amount of work I've been doing but it's all about exercising patience when it comes to getting faster. I'll begin to see the effects of my base training and good work sometime (maybe not soon, but someday it'll happen). Yes, my transitions could have been faster but that comes with inexperience. Like I said before, it was only my second triathlon and placing 14th overall isn't a bad thing.
White Lake Half (Ironman) this Saturday. It's basically the Charlotte Half Championship as virtually every triathlete is doing it, so we'll see how it turns out. All I'm looking for is going under 4:49 and maybe running a little better. Luckily for me, those two things probably go hand in hand...
750m swim (in Lake Murray)
16mi bike
5.1mi run
14th overall, 1st in 25-29
Swim: 12:21 (23rd overall, 4th in age group)
The swim felt pretty rough at first. I didn't warm up before the race (smart of me...keep making these rookie mistakes) so the first 100-150m felt pretty awful. I got a claustrophobic feeling which was a little weird. It was a little chilly with a light breeze in the morning and everyone was wearing wetsuits so I decided to go ahead and wear mine. I was in a front pack of ~5 from my wave from the best that I could tell but apparently I didn't even have a top 20 swim time. According to my watch, my swim was 11:58 and my T1 was longer than setup is saying it is. Oh well. Arms were a little tired towards the end. I was surprised that I was this slow given the amount of work I felt I was doing. I'm going to put that on the number of yards I've swam this week and the tough workout Friday.
Transition 1: 1:50
Couldn't get my wetsuit off and my timing chip was falling off so I had to take off the timing chip; struggle to get the wetsuit off; put the timing chip back on and get on my way. I was pretty pissed.
Bike: 40:41 (20th, 1st)
Got going on the bike with a nice flying mount and my legs didn't feel too great. Tight and not really responding well to the work I wanted them to do. I had lost so much time in T1 that I was pushing pretty hard from the get-go to make up time. People in front of me were pretty spread out but there were a couple of groups clumped together. My legs finally started coming around at about mile 10 and I pushed well to the finish. Unstrapped the shoes 200 yds before T2 and made my way back into transition. Went through maybe half a bottle of water on the bike, but it wasn't hot yet.
T2: 1:04
I have my T2 at :40 so I guess something was wrong somewhere. Not sure how it can be inaccurate with the chips but oh well. Threw on my shoes (no socks) - I was going with the Piranhas today, it's been about a year since I've worn those - and got underway.
Run: 17:19 (3rd, 1st)
Had a really fast transition (at least compared to my first one) and got going on the run feeling pretty good. My stride was nice and loose and my breathing was totally under control. I found a rhythm almost immediately and started picking off people in front of me and went through the mile at 5:30. Kept going and grabbed some water at the first aid station then hit the first turnaround. My legs felt great on the flats and downhills but fairly useless on the uphills; I tried to counteract this with shorter strides and that seemed to help a bit (more hill repeats?). My right calf started getting a little tight and I went through mile 2 in 11:45 (I think mile 1 was short). I finished pretty strong and felt like I had a good amount left in the tank as far as the run went. My legs definitely felt good today; I was pleased with that. According to my watch, my run time was 17:38; sadly I don't think I PR'd in the 5k today but I still felt strong.
All in all I'm pretty pleased with this race. Yes, my bike wasn't that fast considering the amount of work I've been doing but it's all about exercising patience when it comes to getting faster. I'll begin to see the effects of my base training and good work sometime (maybe not soon, but someday it'll happen). Yes, my transitions could have been faster but that comes with inexperience. Like I said before, it was only my second triathlon and placing 14th overall isn't a bad thing.
White Lake Half (Ironman) this Saturday. It's basically the Charlotte Half Championship as virtually every triathlete is doing it, so we'll see how it turns out. All I'm looking for is going under 4:49 and maybe running a little better. Luckily for me, those two things probably go hand in hand...
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Monday, April 27, 2009
Duathlon National Champs RR
I took the week leading up to the race pretty easy as I was feeling burnt out from the heavy volume the week before; I wanted to feel pretty fresh for the race on Sunday.
The race itself was a 10k run, 38k bike and 5k run.
10k - 37:07
I did some strides before the 10k and I was worried because I didn't feel that great just in that short bit of effort. It was SO hot out there; while we were standing at the start I was just sweating, it was awful.
The 10k started with a steep downhill and then was rolling the rest of the way with little to no shade. I started realizing that it was going to be a really tough day around mile 2. My HR never dropped below 180 and I was frequently above 190 going at what I felt was not a super hard pace. I was happy to see the end of the run but also nervous because I was worried about how much I had exerted myself in that run; I was hoping I could do 38-39 at LT (around 180 average) and that obviously did not happen. The course was pretty tough; there were some actual climbs but the worst part was the heat. There were stretches where we were just baking.
38k bike - 1:05:12
Started out and felt pretty good on the bike course which is 3 loops (mildly confusing loops with no distance markers but I did ok) and was pretty hilly. There were pretty much zero flat sections. I actually got into my smaller gears in a couple of spots, shameful (but I needed to). I really expected to be MUCH faster than this but I totally underestimated the difficulty of the course. I expected to catch Chris L maybe midway through the second loop but I didn't end up seeing him until the bike dismount, which means he had a really good bike ride. I caught Cody with 3-5 miles to go. I never felt zapped on the ride in terms of my power. I cramped pretty bad 2 or 3 times but that's b/c I made the mistake of only bringing 1 water bottle when I could have easily run through 2 or 3. Each time I cramped (both calves and my right hip flexor) I took some hammer gel and water and I had 2 lava salts on the bike. It really just wasn't enough water.
5k run - 17:39
Whew, this 5k sucked. It was SO hot and I was already dehydrated. My legs didn't want to go fast at all (and they didn't the course was short...). I had goosebumps all over (those actually started midway through the bike) and I felt pretty miserable. Oh well.
Overall time:
2:02:07
65th overall (65th male)
14th AG
Things I learned:
- I can hold a really high HR for long periods of time. (I AVERAGED 183 for 2+ hours)
- My bike LT might be closer to my run LT than I thought
- My max HR is at least 199
- I underfuel consistently
- Never go into a race without desire. I had basically written off this race after the half because I was no longer interested in duathlons and look what it got me. I get the feeling I would have been disappointed in this race no matter what my results were. I had no interest in a Worlds spot.
- Duathlons are MUCH harder than triathlons. Leaps and bounds.
The race itself was a 10k run, 38k bike and 5k run.
10k - 37:07
I did some strides before the 10k and I was worried because I didn't feel that great just in that short bit of effort. It was SO hot out there; while we were standing at the start I was just sweating, it was awful.
The 10k started with a steep downhill and then was rolling the rest of the way with little to no shade. I started realizing that it was going to be a really tough day around mile 2. My HR never dropped below 180 and I was frequently above 190 going at what I felt was not a super hard pace. I was happy to see the end of the run but also nervous because I was worried about how much I had exerted myself in that run; I was hoping I could do 38-39 at LT (around 180 average) and that obviously did not happen. The course was pretty tough; there were some actual climbs but the worst part was the heat. There were stretches where we were just baking.
38k bike - 1:05:12
Started out and felt pretty good on the bike course which is 3 loops (mildly confusing loops with no distance markers but I did ok) and was pretty hilly. There were pretty much zero flat sections. I actually got into my smaller gears in a couple of spots, shameful (but I needed to). I really expected to be MUCH faster than this but I totally underestimated the difficulty of the course. I expected to catch Chris L maybe midway through the second loop but I didn't end up seeing him until the bike dismount, which means he had a really good bike ride. I caught Cody with 3-5 miles to go. I never felt zapped on the ride in terms of my power. I cramped pretty bad 2 or 3 times but that's b/c I made the mistake of only bringing 1 water bottle when I could have easily run through 2 or 3. Each time I cramped (both calves and my right hip flexor) I took some hammer gel and water and I had 2 lava salts on the bike. It really just wasn't enough water.
5k run - 17:39
Whew, this 5k sucked. It was SO hot and I was already dehydrated. My legs didn't want to go fast at all (and they didn't the course was short...). I had goosebumps all over (those actually started midway through the bike) and I felt pretty miserable. Oh well.
Overall time:
2:02:07
65th overall (65th male)
14th AG
Things I learned:
- I can hold a really high HR for long periods of time. (I AVERAGED 183 for 2+ hours)
- My bike LT might be closer to my run LT than I thought
- My max HR is at least 199
- I underfuel consistently
- Never go into a race without desire. I had basically written off this race after the half because I was no longer interested in duathlons and look what it got me. I get the feeling I would have been disappointed in this race no matter what my results were. I had no interest in a Worlds spot.
- Duathlons are MUCH harder than triathlons. Leaps and bounds.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Bike for sale
Giant Trance 1 18" full suspension mountain bike. I bought this in the winter of 2007 when I thought I wanted to get into mountain biking but unfortunately it has mostly languished other than the occasional (once every 6 months) ride here in Charlotte. It got 90% of its use in Williamsburg on the campus trails and I'd roughly estimate that it has between 20-30 hours on it. It needs a good cleaning and a tune up but other than that it's like new.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Lots of racing coming up...
Weekly Summary:
Swim: 3500 yds
Bike: 206 miles
Run: 35.8 miles
Only got in 2 swim workouts this week, but the one on Monday was a real eye-opener. I did my first 1000 yd time trial just to kind of see how I could push myself over a longer distance and I really surprised myself with the results. I did the 1000 in 14:30 with the first 500 in 7:22 and the back half in 7:08; so that's a huge negative split. I know I could have pushed the first 500 a little better and probably come closer to going under 14 minutes but I'll save that for another time. I definitely didn't expect a time quite that fast so that was a real bonus.
A lot of bike miles under the belt this week for sure; that is something I'm really pleased about as I was disappointed with my time at the New Orleans half. I really felt that I could go sub 2:30 in that race and I just...didn't so I'm hoping to continue to improve my biking performance. I got in all my miles in 4 rides which is great because that means my average ride was above 50 miles, something that I always strive to do (I'd much rather have 3 bikes of 50 miles each than 5 of 30 miles...).
I ran a little bit more than I really wanted to this week given that last week's mileage was so low but I think it's ok as 35 miles isn't a tough volume for me to handle. I had 2 good workouts this week, one a stand-alone run of 6 800m repeats and the second a 12 minute tempo off a 75 mile ride. Both of those felt comfortable and manageable.
I also found out this week that I was able to get into the White Lake (NC) Half Ironman on May 9, which is really exciting as a lot of of the people that I train with will also be participating in that race. Luckily for me, non "Ironman" events are significantly less expensive so it doesn't break the bank to race in the setup events series. I'm hoping to "race" this half a little more than New Orleans and once again I have some pretty ambitious time goals. The nice thing about a slower performance is that you can always look to improve upon it, which is exactly what I plan to do in 3 weeks.
This coming weekend I have Duathlon National Championships on Sunday in Richmond, VA (10k run, 38k bike, 5k run); I'd definitely like to go under 2 hours there. The weekend after I have Lake Murray (SC) Triathlon (750m swim, 16mi bike, 5k run), which will basically be a threshold workout (I'm going to try and hold LT the whole race which means about 165-170 bpm on the bike and ~180 bpm on the run). Then the next weekend is White Lake (NC) Half (1.2mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run) where I would just like to go under 4:49. We shall see.
Swim: 3500 yds
Bike: 206 miles
Run: 35.8 miles
Only got in 2 swim workouts this week, but the one on Monday was a real eye-opener. I did my first 1000 yd time trial just to kind of see how I could push myself over a longer distance and I really surprised myself with the results. I did the 1000 in 14:30 with the first 500 in 7:22 and the back half in 7:08; so that's a huge negative split. I know I could have pushed the first 500 a little better and probably come closer to going under 14 minutes but I'll save that for another time. I definitely didn't expect a time quite that fast so that was a real bonus.
A lot of bike miles under the belt this week for sure; that is something I'm really pleased about as I was disappointed with my time at the New Orleans half. I really felt that I could go sub 2:30 in that race and I just...didn't so I'm hoping to continue to improve my biking performance. I got in all my miles in 4 rides which is great because that means my average ride was above 50 miles, something that I always strive to do (I'd much rather have 3 bikes of 50 miles each than 5 of 30 miles...).
I ran a little bit more than I really wanted to this week given that last week's mileage was so low but I think it's ok as 35 miles isn't a tough volume for me to handle. I had 2 good workouts this week, one a stand-alone run of 6 800m repeats and the second a 12 minute tempo off a 75 mile ride. Both of those felt comfortable and manageable.
I also found out this week that I was able to get into the White Lake (NC) Half Ironman on May 9, which is really exciting as a lot of of the people that I train with will also be participating in that race. Luckily for me, non "Ironman" events are significantly less expensive so it doesn't break the bank to race in the setup events series. I'm hoping to "race" this half a little more than New Orleans and once again I have some pretty ambitious time goals. The nice thing about a slower performance is that you can always look to improve upon it, which is exactly what I plan to do in 3 weeks.
This coming weekend I have Duathlon National Championships on Sunday in Richmond, VA (10k run, 38k bike, 5k run); I'd definitely like to go under 2 hours there. The weekend after I have Lake Murray (SC) Triathlon (750m swim, 16mi bike, 5k run), which will basically be a threshold workout (I'm going to try and hold LT the whole race which means about 165-170 bpm on the bike and ~180 bpm on the run). Then the next weekend is White Lake (NC) Half (1.2mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run) where I would just like to go under 4:49. We shall see.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
First week of being a (half) Ironman
So this week has mostly been about making sure I'm recovered (or at least on the road to recovery) after the half last Sunday. Immediately following the race I felt incredibly sore, tight, fatigued (add any number of adjectives synonymous with miserable and you get the idea) and couldn't contemplate swimming, biking, or running again anytime in the near (or distant) future. Luckily for me, however, I started to feel better fairly rapidly. Monday I was still sore, but definitely much less so than the day prior. We did a lot of walking around that day in NOLA and I could feel the shadows of the pain in my legs but it wasn't overwhelming. On Tuesday, the day we drove back up to Charlotte, I still felt a little tight but I was no longer sore. Wearing the compression tights on the drive up - while overly warm (plus the obvious sex appeal) - helped a LOT. On Wednesday I felt totally fine, but just to make sure I only swam that day and went really easy. Thursday and Friday both had a little more intensity and Saturday was a huge test of the legs with a 101 mile bike ride followed by a 5.7 mile run. That definitely trashed my legs although I made sure to eat a lot the rest of the day and I think that helped a lot with my recovery as today I rode again and felt mostly fine (albeit tired). So, a good week and I feel like I'll be very ready to race by the time Du Nationals comes up on the 26th. I'm hoping for a sub hour 40k bike split.
Swim: 4150 yds
Bike: 198.3 miles
Run: 20 miles (I think I really have to start picking up the run volume if I want to be a better long course racer)
Swim: 4150 yds
Bike: 198.3 miles
Run: 20 miles (I think I really have to start picking up the run volume if I want to be a better long course racer)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Ironman New Orleans 70.3
Race Report
This might take a while, but here goes... We left at 8am on Thursday morning for the ~11 hour drive to New Orleans from Charlotte. Having done that drive many times previously, I was worried that it might be very long and very boring but it actually went by pretty quickly. That's probably the product of traveling with 3 people instead of just by myself. Scott and I discussed our plans for the race in pretty great detail, but that's normal considering that we didn't have much of anything else to discuss.
We got to New Orleans around 6pm and went for a run with May who met us at my house. We ran to Audubon park and twice around it to get in a little over 5 easy miles. At the time, my legs felt pretty loose and the 3 strides at the end of the run felt good.
On Friday morning we all went for a swim in the lake right next to the swim start. The waves were intense as the wind was coming from the North so the chop along the seawall - and even further out into the lake - was a bad omen for race day. Scott and I were both pretty nervous about the potential for the same thing happening on Sunday as the RD had said that if the winds were 20+ mph out of the north the swim would be canceled. Neither of us were too keen on the idea of a duathlon. Not one bit. The swim itself was pretty uneventful beyond the huge waves. The water was murky for sure but there was nothing wrong with it. Not cold at all. I went for a short bike ride later on in the day after some touristy stuff to make sure the wheels were working ok. There was definitely a lot of wind when I was up on the levee but the deep front wheel + disc didn't seem to be an issue. The bike was definitely not as stable as with my training wheels but it was nothing that would make riding unsafe (or make me slower).
We all went to the mandatory briefing in the early afternoon where the main point was: don't draft. I heard a lot of people outside after the briefing talking about how it would be 'impossible' not to draft and it struck me as slightly annoying that they would think that. It's not hard to follow the rules. Sometimes it's annoying and/or frustrating but that's just the way it is. Don't draft, pass in 15 seconds, ride on the right. Three things that are easy to accomplish, yet so many had problems with it on Sunday...
I pretty much did nothing all day Saturday. Allison and I threw the frisbee for a little while in the park and my calf felt a little tight as I was running around but I wasn't really worried about it. Bike check-in was no problem and went very smoothly. A lot of people seemed to be bringing all their stuff with them to bike check-in, which I was definitely not doing; all I put in transition that afternoon was my bike. No bottles, no Gu. I tried to get a feel for the way the transition was set-up and that was difficult because of how huge it was. It was going to be a long run from the swim finish and to the run start.
On race morning I woke up at 4:30, ate a bagel with PB and had a glass of milk. I had slept pretty well the night before and didn't feel particularly nervous so I was pleased with that. I met Scott and May at her house at 5:30 and we all left to drive to UNO and the transition area. We got body marked and went to find our spots in transition to get set up. I put my helmet on the aero bars with the sunglasses inside them, my race belt around the aero bars, and all of my bottles on the bike (1 gatorade, 2 water, 1 gu bottle with 2 e-gels + water). I laid out my bike shoes and my run shoes on my towel and put the 4 e-gels and my salts down beside them. I also left a water bottle right beside my mat for a quick drink in case I needed it in transition. I checked my tires and made sure the wheels spun smoothly and that was that. I didn't feel the need to debate too much as I hadn't brought any options along with me, which was a good thing. I put a handful (literally) of chamois butter on and put body glide all over my feet, shoulders, under arms, and neck. I sprayed some sunscreen on my back and hoped it would all be enough.
Once we all finished setting up we began the walk to swim start of 1 mile. They only had 3 shuttle buses for 2500 people, which was ridiculous. It wasn't bad to walk at all it was just kind of silly that the planning was so underwhelming for that particular aspect of the morning. Scott and I both walked barefoot which ended up making my feet a little tender, something I noticed in the latter parts of the run (although that probably had as much to do with my shoes as with this walk...). May stopped to use the porto as her race didn't start until 7:58 so Scott and I grabbed our chips and found a place to put on our wetsuits. I was a little nervous at this point mainly because I hadn't been able to take a morning #2, which DEFINITELY came back to haunt me on the run. We slipped on our wetsuits, liberally applied cooking spray, and then walked over to the start corral.
We were both in the first wave of 25-29, starting at 7:28am. They told us to get in the water and started the countdown. I was using a brand new pair of goggles (blue seventy, awesome), which is on the top ten things of what NOT to do on race day but they ended up working ok. I didn't really feel nervous at all and that was one of the most positive things that I can take away with from this race. I expected a ton of pre-race jitters but they just weren't there. I accepted the fact that I had put in a lot of work and at that point I couldn't do anything else. I was just going to go how fast I was going to go (if that makes any sense...). The director counted down from 30...15...10...5, 4, 2, 1 and then the horn blew and we were off! I started right behind Scott but I knew that he would be going a lot faster than me so I didn't plan on trying to stay with him. I got into a pretty good rhythm almost right away; it wasn't as tumultuous as I had expected, although I did get a hard kick on my left eye that left my goggles slightly awry and - thoguh I didn't know it at the time - a burst capillary in my left eye. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to get behind anybody throughout the swim. It was so spread out and I'm so bad at swimming in a straight line that I was pretty much pushing my own water that whole time. We came around the pier and headed for the beach and the water was only thigh height for the last 50 yards, which was annoying because it wasn't deep enough to swim but it was too deep to run so I kind of dolphin dived for about 20 yards before making it to a runnable depth. Scott and I had surmised that the swim was long because before our start the announcer said that the pros were about 100 meters past the halfway point in 16 minutes and that would be super slow for them so when I hit the mat and saw my watch at 33:47 I was super pleased. Going 35 was my goal so being able to be more than a minute under that on a long course was pretty sweet.
1.2 mile swim in 33:47 (1:46/100m) putting me in 24th place in AG (on a long course, nice)
It was a little disorienting to start running after swimming for so long and I consequently almost tripped and fell twice on the run in to transition. I got stripped by a volunteer and carried my wetsuit, cap, and goggles for what seriously must have been 200+ yards. It was kind of ridiculous. I put on my bike shoes, sunglasses, and helmet then stuffed my pockets with the gels and salts; grabbed the bike and started running toward the bike start, hopped on the bike and was off.
T1 in 2:49
The bike course started out with a short out and back just to add on some mileage and that particular section of the course was packed with people. Slow people. I pretty much immediately got up to speed and into my aerobars, unlike a lot of them. One guy that I was passing lost control of his bike and veered off to the right to crash into the curb. What an idiot. My HR monitor wasn't working right away due to the large amount of water so I just got going based on my RPE and was averaging around 23-25 mph. After about 15 minutes it started registering and I was sticking around 170 so I kept going at that bpm because I knew that it would start to come down slowly. The first 10 miles or so were flat with the exception of the two bridges we had to cross, but at both of those I just clicked into my small chain ring and sat up because I knew that my back would likely be suffering later so why try and push a big gear in the aerobars when I can go slower and not really lose much time. I kept cruising and passing tons and tons of people, all of whom were in the age group waves that started before mine. I didn't really get out on the bike course around other 25-29ers and I knew Scott was a couple of minutes up the road so I just kept going and waited for my HR to settle. Scott and I had discussed (endlessly) our nutrition beforehand so I went in with the strategy of 2 e-gels per hour (basically 1 every 30 minutes), 1 lava salt every hour, and basically blow through my water and gatorade as fast as I could think. So I pretty much followed that verbatim throughout the ride except for in hindsight I'm almost positive I didn't get enough fluids. Potentially not enough calories either, but I don't know enough about what was going on with my body on the run to get a really good analysis. I was passed by some people and I passed some people and everything was pretty ho-hum through mile 25ish and the 2nd turnaround at the end of the 2nd out and back on the course. At that point, I realized that the second half of the race was going to be MUCH harder than the first. I had seen Scott at each turnaround and that I was probably only about 2 minutes behind him but when I turned at the second and encountered a stiff headwind I realized that I just had to race my own race at that point. I needed to focus on putting whatever power I could down to the wheels and stay aero. For the most part I did that but I started experiencing a good deal of lower back and shoulder pain (aching really...) starting at about mile 40 so I had to stand up and crank out a low gear for a couple of pedal strokes every couple of minutes. I don't think that slowed me down but it wasn't the best feeling dealing with that. Went back over the bridges, back along Haynes boulevard and back on Lakeshore Dr where the UNO campus became visible. With about 1/4 mile to go I unstrapped my shoes and took my left one out and tried to place it on top of the shoe but for whatever reason I couldn't manage (it probably had to do with the hundreds of people lining the road leading up to the dismount line and all that pressure...) so I tried my right and was pulling on it really hard but I just couldn't get it out of the shoe. Finally I had to stop and get off normally but I felt my right hamstring lock up; I thought to myself "Oh crap, is this going to be the end of my race?"
56 mile bike in 2:31:54 (22.12 mph) putting me in 26th place in AG (fast bikers)
I started walking with a very irregular stride - it's difficult when you can't bend your leg to walk - to my rack in transition. It was a long, slow process that involved stretching out the hammy a couple of times but eventually it faded a bit and I was able to walk normally and start putting on my socks, shoes and hat. I grabbed a drink of water and started running to the T2 exit. My hammy started feeling a lot better and when I crossed the mat I felt pretty much back to normal.
T2 in 2:58
The run began with a short bit under some trees until we got back on Lakeshore Dr heading west for an out-back section that was COMPLETELY unshaded. I felt totally fine to begin with and went through the first mile in 6:40, which is about the pace I wanted for the run, and my HR was just hovering around 170, which is the bpm I wanted to hold for the run. I grabbed some water and solidered on down the road, passing people left and right (literally, I passed SO many people in the first 5 miles). I came up on a bunch of other 25-29ers between miles 3 and 4 and still felt pretty good. My splits were slowing down a bit but I was still under 7 min/mile. I grabbed a drink at every aid station and kept my HR at 170, which wasn't difficult to do. At the first turnaround I saw Scott going the other way and he looked pretty good and I still felt pretty good so I was thinking it would be nice to catch him, but I didn't speed up I just thought about how nice it would be... Once we turned off Lakeshore Dr the route was a little more shaded as we went towards City Park but not all that much more so; my miles continued to slow down as I realized that I was probably suffering a slow death and that the next 8 miles were going to be pretty painful and mentally challenging. Running down Wisner was excruciatingly boring as the road was very flat, very straight and very uninteresting. I drove the opposite way down Wisner every single day to get to high school so I knew just how long that road was at 60 mph (speed limit of 45, nice) so I was just thinking to myself how long it would feel a little over 1/10th of that speed (demoralizing). From mile 6 on the thing I wanted most in the world was to just stop running and start walking. It was the most mentally challenging thing I have EVER done...forcing myself to continue and slog through the miles. I kept telling myself how mad I would get if I walked portions of the half marathon and that kept me going when the going got tough. I kept getting at least 2 water cups per aid station and sometimes threw in a gatorade cup as well. Running through City Park was a nice reprieve from the hot sun of Wisner, but not much of one. I was still passing people a good bit but the number of runners had thinned out a good bit so it was getting a little boring. I snagged a powergel at one of the aid stations along with some water but inexplicably didn't take it for at least another mile or so. It really didn't help much. I got out of City park and turned right again on Wisner only to make a quick left onto Esplanade for what would be the most insanely boring and challenging road I have ever run on in my life. It was the last road besides the finish and it was 4 or 5 miles of torture. The only positive thing I can get from it was that it is mostly shaded. It was so hard to be able to see down the entire length of the road and realized that it never f***ing ended. I saw people all the way down the road and I could see the aid stations far ahead of me. I kept running though. The first, and only, girl that passed me all day got by me on Esplanade. I was surprised (and mortified) at first but then I looked down at her calf and saw an R, signifying a relay runner. So that lucky you-know-what only had to run 13.1 miles and that made it completely okay for her to pass me. The story is pretty much the same until the turn on Decatur; at the mile 12 marker I finally told myself that I was going to finish and that I was going to run the whole way...no walking at aid stations, no walking in between aid stations, and no walking anywhere else. I let out a little sigh of relief and that spurred my stride a little bit and the crowds started picking up about 1 or 200 yards from the right turn on Decatur. I turned right and encountered a stiff headwind. Great, I thought. But then I looked up and saw the finish chute and realized it was only a short distance ahead of me. I picked up my stride a little bit more until I was probably running about the same pace I was in mile 1, although it felt much faster. I began to hear the announcer and people around me were clapping and telling me to finish strong. The last 200 yards were amazing and are probably what made me want to sign up for the race again. The crowds were 5 deep on either side and everyone was yelling and cheering. I actually got pretty emotional when I hit the carpet with 50 or so yards to go and I realized how awesome an accomplishment it was for myself to finish the race. I crossed the finish line, stopped my watch, and just stopped.
13.1 mile run in 1:37:34 (7:26/mile avg pace) putting me in 12th place in AG.
I saw Scott ahead of me and went over and we both looked like hell (I'm assuming I looked like hell, although I'm sure it's a safe assumption) and congratulated each other. The race was over.
I really thought I was going to be able to run faster than this, but there were two huge firsts that took place on this day so I'm not really bent out of shape about it. It was my first half-marathon and my first triathlon, so killing both of those birds with one stone was pretty huge for me. In my pipe dream of what this race would have been like I envisioned myself finishing the swim in 35 minutes (I actually accomplished that, yay), biking the course in 2:25 (pretty sure I could have done this with less wind), and running a 1:25-1:30 half marathon. I also, in my head, gave myself 4 minutes for transitions. That would have given me a solid 4:29-4:34 race. In hindsight, that would have been an AMAZING race. I'm not sure how I expected to accomplish that last weekend but still, I had the dream in my head. I think, with better fueling, I could have cut some time off the run, but not 7+ minutes. Of course, it's really all just hypothesizing and dreaming until you go out there and you LAY DOWN a fast time. Gotta walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Or at least, to be able to back up the smack.
This might take a while, but here goes... We left at 8am on Thursday morning for the ~11 hour drive to New Orleans from Charlotte. Having done that drive many times previously, I was worried that it might be very long and very boring but it actually went by pretty quickly. That's probably the product of traveling with 3 people instead of just by myself. Scott and I discussed our plans for the race in pretty great detail, but that's normal considering that we didn't have much of anything else to discuss.
We got to New Orleans around 6pm and went for a run with May who met us at my house. We ran to Audubon park and twice around it to get in a little over 5 easy miles. At the time, my legs felt pretty loose and the 3 strides at the end of the run felt good.
On Friday morning we all went for a swim in the lake right next to the swim start. The waves were intense as the wind was coming from the North so the chop along the seawall - and even further out into the lake - was a bad omen for race day. Scott and I were both pretty nervous about the potential for the same thing happening on Sunday as the RD had said that if the winds were 20+ mph out of the north the swim would be canceled. Neither of us were too keen on the idea of a duathlon. Not one bit. The swim itself was pretty uneventful beyond the huge waves. The water was murky for sure but there was nothing wrong with it. Not cold at all. I went for a short bike ride later on in the day after some touristy stuff to make sure the wheels were working ok. There was definitely a lot of wind when I was up on the levee but the deep front wheel + disc didn't seem to be an issue. The bike was definitely not as stable as with my training wheels but it was nothing that would make riding unsafe (or make me slower).
We all went to the mandatory briefing in the early afternoon where the main point was: don't draft. I heard a lot of people outside after the briefing talking about how it would be 'impossible' not to draft and it struck me as slightly annoying that they would think that. It's not hard to follow the rules. Sometimes it's annoying and/or frustrating but that's just the way it is. Don't draft, pass in 15 seconds, ride on the right. Three things that are easy to accomplish, yet so many had problems with it on Sunday...
I pretty much did nothing all day Saturday. Allison and I threw the frisbee for a little while in the park and my calf felt a little tight as I was running around but I wasn't really worried about it. Bike check-in was no problem and went very smoothly. A lot of people seemed to be bringing all their stuff with them to bike check-in, which I was definitely not doing; all I put in transition that afternoon was my bike. No bottles, no Gu. I tried to get a feel for the way the transition was set-up and that was difficult because of how huge it was. It was going to be a long run from the swim finish and to the run start.
On race morning I woke up at 4:30, ate a bagel with PB and had a glass of milk. I had slept pretty well the night before and didn't feel particularly nervous so I was pleased with that. I met Scott and May at her house at 5:30 and we all left to drive to UNO and the transition area. We got body marked and went to find our spots in transition to get set up. I put my helmet on the aero bars with the sunglasses inside them, my race belt around the aero bars, and all of my bottles on the bike (1 gatorade, 2 water, 1 gu bottle with 2 e-gels + water). I laid out my bike shoes and my run shoes on my towel and put the 4 e-gels and my salts down beside them. I also left a water bottle right beside my mat for a quick drink in case I needed it in transition. I checked my tires and made sure the wheels spun smoothly and that was that. I didn't feel the need to debate too much as I hadn't brought any options along with me, which was a good thing. I put a handful (literally) of chamois butter on and put body glide all over my feet, shoulders, under arms, and neck. I sprayed some sunscreen on my back and hoped it would all be enough.
Once we all finished setting up we began the walk to swim start of 1 mile. They only had 3 shuttle buses for 2500 people, which was ridiculous. It wasn't bad to walk at all it was just kind of silly that the planning was so underwhelming for that particular aspect of the morning. Scott and I both walked barefoot which ended up making my feet a little tender, something I noticed in the latter parts of the run (although that probably had as much to do with my shoes as with this walk...). May stopped to use the porto as her race didn't start until 7:58 so Scott and I grabbed our chips and found a place to put on our wetsuits. I was a little nervous at this point mainly because I hadn't been able to take a morning #2, which DEFINITELY came back to haunt me on the run. We slipped on our wetsuits, liberally applied cooking spray, and then walked over to the start corral.
We were both in the first wave of 25-29, starting at 7:28am. They told us to get in the water and started the countdown. I was using a brand new pair of goggles (blue seventy, awesome), which is on the top ten things of what NOT to do on race day but they ended up working ok. I didn't really feel nervous at all and that was one of the most positive things that I can take away with from this race. I expected a ton of pre-race jitters but they just weren't there. I accepted the fact that I had put in a lot of work and at that point I couldn't do anything else. I was just going to go how fast I was going to go (if that makes any sense...). The director counted down from 30...15...10...5, 4, 2, 1 and then the horn blew and we were off! I started right behind Scott but I knew that he would be going a lot faster than me so I didn't plan on trying to stay with him. I got into a pretty good rhythm almost right away; it wasn't as tumultuous as I had expected, although I did get a hard kick on my left eye that left my goggles slightly awry and - thoguh I didn't know it at the time - a burst capillary in my left eye. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to get behind anybody throughout the swim. It was so spread out and I'm so bad at swimming in a straight line that I was pretty much pushing my own water that whole time. We came around the pier and headed for the beach and the water was only thigh height for the last 50 yards, which was annoying because it wasn't deep enough to swim but it was too deep to run so I kind of dolphin dived for about 20 yards before making it to a runnable depth. Scott and I had surmised that the swim was long because before our start the announcer said that the pros were about 100 meters past the halfway point in 16 minutes and that would be super slow for them so when I hit the mat and saw my watch at 33:47 I was super pleased. Going 35 was my goal so being able to be more than a minute under that on a long course was pretty sweet.
1.2 mile swim in 33:47 (1:46/100m) putting me in 24th place in AG (on a long course, nice)
It was a little disorienting to start running after swimming for so long and I consequently almost tripped and fell twice on the run in to transition. I got stripped by a volunteer and carried my wetsuit, cap, and goggles for what seriously must have been 200+ yards. It was kind of ridiculous. I put on my bike shoes, sunglasses, and helmet then stuffed my pockets with the gels and salts; grabbed the bike and started running toward the bike start, hopped on the bike and was off.
T1 in 2:49
The bike course started out with a short out and back just to add on some mileage and that particular section of the course was packed with people. Slow people. I pretty much immediately got up to speed and into my aerobars, unlike a lot of them. One guy that I was passing lost control of his bike and veered off to the right to crash into the curb. What an idiot. My HR monitor wasn't working right away due to the large amount of water so I just got going based on my RPE and was averaging around 23-25 mph. After about 15 minutes it started registering and I was sticking around 170 so I kept going at that bpm because I knew that it would start to come down slowly. The first 10 miles or so were flat with the exception of the two bridges we had to cross, but at both of those I just clicked into my small chain ring and sat up because I knew that my back would likely be suffering later so why try and push a big gear in the aerobars when I can go slower and not really lose much time. I kept cruising and passing tons and tons of people, all of whom were in the age group waves that started before mine. I didn't really get out on the bike course around other 25-29ers and I knew Scott was a couple of minutes up the road so I just kept going and waited for my HR to settle. Scott and I had discussed (endlessly) our nutrition beforehand so I went in with the strategy of 2 e-gels per hour (basically 1 every 30 minutes), 1 lava salt every hour, and basically blow through my water and gatorade as fast as I could think. So I pretty much followed that verbatim throughout the ride except for in hindsight I'm almost positive I didn't get enough fluids. Potentially not enough calories either, but I don't know enough about what was going on with my body on the run to get a really good analysis. I was passed by some people and I passed some people and everything was pretty ho-hum through mile 25ish and the 2nd turnaround at the end of the 2nd out and back on the course. At that point, I realized that the second half of the race was going to be MUCH harder than the first. I had seen Scott at each turnaround and that I was probably only about 2 minutes behind him but when I turned at the second and encountered a stiff headwind I realized that I just had to race my own race at that point. I needed to focus on putting whatever power I could down to the wheels and stay aero. For the most part I did that but I started experiencing a good deal of lower back and shoulder pain (aching really...) starting at about mile 40 so I had to stand up and crank out a low gear for a couple of pedal strokes every couple of minutes. I don't think that slowed me down but it wasn't the best feeling dealing with that. Went back over the bridges, back along Haynes boulevard and back on Lakeshore Dr where the UNO campus became visible. With about 1/4 mile to go I unstrapped my shoes and took my left one out and tried to place it on top of the shoe but for whatever reason I couldn't manage (it probably had to do with the hundreds of people lining the road leading up to the dismount line and all that pressure...) so I tried my right and was pulling on it really hard but I just couldn't get it out of the shoe. Finally I had to stop and get off normally but I felt my right hamstring lock up; I thought to myself "Oh crap, is this going to be the end of my race?"
56 mile bike in 2:31:54 (22.12 mph) putting me in 26th place in AG (fast bikers)
I started walking with a very irregular stride - it's difficult when you can't bend your leg to walk - to my rack in transition. It was a long, slow process that involved stretching out the hammy a couple of times but eventually it faded a bit and I was able to walk normally and start putting on my socks, shoes and hat. I grabbed a drink of water and started running to the T2 exit. My hammy started feeling a lot better and when I crossed the mat I felt pretty much back to normal.
T2 in 2:58
The run began with a short bit under some trees until we got back on Lakeshore Dr heading west for an out-back section that was COMPLETELY unshaded. I felt totally fine to begin with and went through the first mile in 6:40, which is about the pace I wanted for the run, and my HR was just hovering around 170, which is the bpm I wanted to hold for the run. I grabbed some water and solidered on down the road, passing people left and right (literally, I passed SO many people in the first 5 miles). I came up on a bunch of other 25-29ers between miles 3 and 4 and still felt pretty good. My splits were slowing down a bit but I was still under 7 min/mile. I grabbed a drink at every aid station and kept my HR at 170, which wasn't difficult to do. At the first turnaround I saw Scott going the other way and he looked pretty good and I still felt pretty good so I was thinking it would be nice to catch him, but I didn't speed up I just thought about how nice it would be... Once we turned off Lakeshore Dr the route was a little more shaded as we went towards City Park but not all that much more so; my miles continued to slow down as I realized that I was probably suffering a slow death and that the next 8 miles were going to be pretty painful and mentally challenging. Running down Wisner was excruciatingly boring as the road was very flat, very straight and very uninteresting. I drove the opposite way down Wisner every single day to get to high school so I knew just how long that road was at 60 mph (speed limit of 45, nice) so I was just thinking to myself how long it would feel a little over 1/10th of that speed (demoralizing). From mile 6 on the thing I wanted most in the world was to just stop running and start walking. It was the most mentally challenging thing I have EVER done...forcing myself to continue and slog through the miles. I kept telling myself how mad I would get if I walked portions of the half marathon and that kept me going when the going got tough. I kept getting at least 2 water cups per aid station and sometimes threw in a gatorade cup as well. Running through City Park was a nice reprieve from the hot sun of Wisner, but not much of one. I was still passing people a good bit but the number of runners had thinned out a good bit so it was getting a little boring. I snagged a powergel at one of the aid stations along with some water but inexplicably didn't take it for at least another mile or so. It really didn't help much. I got out of City park and turned right again on Wisner only to make a quick left onto Esplanade for what would be the most insanely boring and challenging road I have ever run on in my life. It was the last road besides the finish and it was 4 or 5 miles of torture. The only positive thing I can get from it was that it is mostly shaded. It was so hard to be able to see down the entire length of the road and realized that it never f***ing ended. I saw people all the way down the road and I could see the aid stations far ahead of me. I kept running though. The first, and only, girl that passed me all day got by me on Esplanade. I was surprised (and mortified) at first but then I looked down at her calf and saw an R, signifying a relay runner. So that lucky you-know-what only had to run 13.1 miles and that made it completely okay for her to pass me. The story is pretty much the same until the turn on Decatur; at the mile 12 marker I finally told myself that I was going to finish and that I was going to run the whole way...no walking at aid stations, no walking in between aid stations, and no walking anywhere else. I let out a little sigh of relief and that spurred my stride a little bit and the crowds started picking up about 1 or 200 yards from the right turn on Decatur. I turned right and encountered a stiff headwind. Great, I thought. But then I looked up and saw the finish chute and realized it was only a short distance ahead of me. I picked up my stride a little bit more until I was probably running about the same pace I was in mile 1, although it felt much faster. I began to hear the announcer and people around me were clapping and telling me to finish strong. The last 200 yards were amazing and are probably what made me want to sign up for the race again. The crowds were 5 deep on either side and everyone was yelling and cheering. I actually got pretty emotional when I hit the carpet with 50 or so yards to go and I realized how awesome an accomplishment it was for myself to finish the race. I crossed the finish line, stopped my watch, and just stopped.
13.1 mile run in 1:37:34 (7:26/mile avg pace) putting me in 12th place in AG.
I saw Scott ahead of me and went over and we both looked like hell (I'm assuming I looked like hell, although I'm sure it's a safe assumption) and congratulated each other. The race was over.
I really thought I was going to be able to run faster than this, but there were two huge firsts that took place on this day so I'm not really bent out of shape about it. It was my first half-marathon and my first triathlon, so killing both of those birds with one stone was pretty huge for me. In my pipe dream of what this race would have been like I envisioned myself finishing the swim in 35 minutes (I actually accomplished that, yay), biking the course in 2:25 (pretty sure I could have done this with less wind), and running a 1:25-1:30 half marathon. I also, in my head, gave myself 4 minutes for transitions. That would have given me a solid 4:29-4:34 race. In hindsight, that would have been an AMAZING race. I'm not sure how I expected to accomplish that last weekend but still, I had the dream in my head. I think, with better fueling, I could have cut some time off the run, but not 7+ minutes. Of course, it's really all just hypothesizing and dreaming until you go out there and you LAY DOWN a fast time. Gotta walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Or at least, to be able to back up the smack.
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