Sunday, August 19, 2007

Timberman 70.3 - 8.19.07

So here is the story. All in all, a good race for me. I think I did about as well as I could have given what I took to the party.

We got here on Thursday, and I got in a short run before dinner, and I'll tell you, it was hot. Definitely in the mid 80s, which surprised me a bit. It was drier than Dallas though, so it felt pretty good.

By Sat morning, the hot weather was long gone, and it was 42 degrees with 15-25 mph winds. The lake had white caps and I was glad to not be doing the Oly distance race. By Sun, it had moderated. 50 at the start, and winds cut in half. Still cold if you ask me, but better.

The day before my buddy David and I went to the Q&A with the pros. Pretty cool. Simon Lessing (eventual winner), Michael Lovato, Bjorn Anderson (defending champ), Spencer Smith for the guys and Karen Smyers (defending champ), Kate Major, Desiree Ficker (eventual winner) and Dede Griesbauer were all there. Pretty cool. The girls were cool, the guys were clearly playing mental games with each other. Although not pros, certainly more famous were Dick and Rick Hoyt who did the race, and had a booth set up at the Timberfest raising money for Cerebral Palsy (http://www.teamhoyt.com/)

The swim was a wave start. I was in wave 9 of 12 with 200 of my closest friends. It was an out 0.5m, over 0.2m, and back 0.5m swim with right turns. Water was a nice 74 and was pretty calm. It was easy to get a good spot in the line, and we were off. It was hard to spot the turn buoy at the start given how far off it was, and the 2 mid way markers had drifted off course, so I don't think any of us had great routes to the first turn, but we made do. I started catching prior waves after about 8 mins, and it was dodging folks the rest of the way. The second leg was right into the rising sun, and was impossible to see the next turn buoy until we were right on it. I tried to stay calm and not race, and for the most part did so. Swim 30:59.

T1 was okay. Up the beach, over to the wetsuit strippers, and into the racks. I noticed I was breathing hard, which is normal for me. For some reason, when I go to standing from swimming, my heart rates skies. So I stopped running and tried to walk and breathe to lower it. It was cold, so I opted to wear socks on the ride, and arm warmers. I'm glad I did, though it took some time getting them on me while wet. T1 3:30.

My nutrition plan was to get in about 350 cals per hour on the bike, and as much as I could on the run. I stuck to the plan on the bike pretty well. 1 cliff bar (250 cals) at 45 mins, 1 gel (100 cals) every 30 mins there after starting at 1:15. Starting at 1:30, I did 1 cliff shot block (33 cals) and did this every 30 mins there after. Lots of water to keep the cals diluted in the stomach to keep GI issues at bay. And Gatorade endurance about every 10-15 mins as I could remember to drink it. No real problems on the bike. One 2 min period where I got cramps but I sat up straight, took some deep breaths, chased with some water, and they were fine.

The bike was pretty hilly. I knew it would be. You pretty much climb out of T1 for the first 12 miles, then you gradually give back most of that gain over the next 16 miles before you hit the turn around, the you go back up at mile 44, and down to T2. It is not that gradual of course. Lots of ups and down. One nasty climb on the way out. Probably about a mile long. I was pushing about 270 watts and was only going about 9mph. It took maybe 6-7 mins to summit. It hurt. Once we got over that hill, we made our way to a long stretch on RT 106 were about half of the ride took place. On the way out, we had a nice tail wind, that wasn’t overly apparent. I couldn’t tell from the grass blades if it was true, but knew that sitting at 22-23mph while only pushing 150 watts wasn’t normal. Plus, all of the pros coming the other way looked to be laboring a bit.

Course Elevation

After the turn, the wind was there but wasn’t bad until about 10am or mile 40ish. The wind picked up, was hard in our face, and it was miserable until we turned off RT 106 to go back into the mtns.

I think I averaged about 175 watts for the ride, and 18.2 mph. Harder than I wanted to put out, but it was hard not to with the hills. My buddy David passed me at about mile 14-16. He is a billy goat and I knew he’d be there not long after we came out of the hills. We chatted a bit, were both in good spirits and glad to be out of the mtn, and he went on his way. There were some fun downhills. I definitely saw 42mph on my computer, and am interested to see what I topped out at. There was one lost opportunity to crack 40 but I was behind cars with no shoulder to pass on. I ended up getting around them but played with fate a bit to do so, and would rather not gloat. What goes around comes around.

My legs were pretty tired by about mile 40, but I never remember feeling winded. My HR started off at 175 coming out of the swim, and sort of hovered in the high 150s low 160 depending on whether I was going up or down. Bike 3:04.53/18.2mph

T2 was cake. Gimped to my rack. Put on my shoes, dropped the arm warmers, grabbed some gel, and another pack of cliff blocks, and was off. T2 3:23.

So I was out onto the run course, not really knowing what to expect. My goal was to run the entire thing, with exception to walking the aid stations. I didn’t care how fast I ran. I just didn’t want to walk. But you never really know how you are going to feel. Heading out onto the course, I was tight, a bit bloated, and had some gas. I just tried to get my running legs under me, and to see what happened.

The run, like the bike was hilly. It was a 2 loop out and back course, so you basically passed the same spot 4 times. Going out, the first 1.5 miles is a gradual uphill, then a steep 0.5 mile downhill, then some up and down for a 0.5 mile, then down 0.5 mile, then flat for 0.25 mile. Then just reverse that and that is 1 loop. It was on roads, through neighborhoods along the edge of the lake.

I was hurting pretty bad when I sumitted the gradual hill at 1.5, but really recovered nicely on the downhill and was in better spirits knowing that I had the ability to come back from a bad spot. By the turn around, I was hurting again with some GI issues. I grabbed a banana at the turn, and it seemed to help with the cramping. I was going along okay until I got to the steep climb at mile 5. I told myself that I was going to let myself walk 60 seconds, and that I could choose where I wanted to use it, but that if I used it too early, it was tough luck. So I ran along and only at the steepest part, aloud myself to use the “walk credit.” Luckily, I was close enough to the top, that I only needed 30 seconds of it. I happened to see David during this 30 sec. spot, and he got me running again with some good encouragement.

Again, I recovered really well on the long gradual descent to the end of loop 1. At the turn, I saw Ingrid, Reagan, Jake, Chikako (friend from b-school), and Sarah (David’s wife) and was feeling pretty good.

I saw David again maybe around mile 8. I was feeling good, clicking off fast (relative is the key here) miles and gave him a return favor with some encouragement. I could tell he was towards the end of his rope, but he had a great race you can read about here http://gillens.net/

My first loop split was 1:08, or roughly 10:30s. I thought I might be in the hunt for a sub 6hr race, which in the back of my mind was my best case scenario goal. I thought it was a stretch, so I didn’t want to use it to dictate pace. But according to my hazy calculations, I thought I had a chance. I think I decided I needed to run a 1:11 second loop to go sub 6hrs.

I told myself not to look at my watch, run strong, and we would check again when I got to the base of the steep hill at mile 11. If I was still in range, I could make a go at it. But between mile 8 and 11, I just needed to give it to myself as best I could to put myself in a position to have a chance.

Things were going well. If I had to guess, the 3rd quarter of the run was my fastest, but again, I wasn’t looking. At the final turn before heading in, I was really hurting. I hoped my banana here might help, but my walks at the aid stations were getting longer, and it was taking more will to start back up again.

At mile 10, I decide to look and see what I needed to do for the last 3.1 to go sub 6hrs. According to my hazy math (it is amazing how difficult this was to figure out. With my swimming background, I’ve been doing on the fly pacing calcs since I was about 13. I can do this stuff in my sleep, but my faculties were clearly departing) I needed to run the last 3.1 in 30mins. Sub 10s was going to kill me, but I set out trying. I think I was about 9:45 from mile 10 to 11, but it took it all out of me. As I hit the hill at mile 11, my hams started to tighten up, and I was reduced to a walk. I mustered a few more good efforts, but it was clear I was not going sub 6. I did a 1 min walk, 1 min run for the last ¾ of a mile, and came in at 6:08.16. Run 2:25.33

The strange thing is that my watch had me at 6:05, so either the timing system was hosed up (not likely), I some how stopped my watch for 3 mins (not sure how this was possible), or the stop watch is bad. Go figure. Anyhow, it turns out I wasn’t as close to going sub 6hrs as I thought. But it sure kept my mind occupied on that last loop.

The finish was nice. I mustered a good run the last 2 mins or so and crossed at a good pace for the cameras. I saw Ingrid and Reagan right before the finish. It was awesome.

I of course was hurting badly, and immediately pulled some recovery powder out of my bag and mixed it in with some water, and sat down in an ice bath to start the healing process. It actually worked pretty well. I’m sore today, but I’ve been worse.

All in all, a good race. My swim, bike, and T1 and T2 were faster than planned. The run was 7 mins slower than planned, but overall was better than my worst case goal.

I am shocked at how fast this race was. I have never felt slower than running in this thing. Clearly something I need to work more on. Either that, or stick to races where the swim makes up more than 8% of the race.

The guys who run this race are first class. It was a ton of fun. They had things for kids and spectators all day long, bands, food, etc. I’m glad they do 2 races a year in TX. I’ll continue to race in these guys’ races.

So the best part about this race, and really my goal for the year was to get back in shape after a wasted 2006, not get too injured, and finish this race wanting to train some more, which was not the case after the ironman in 2005. I’m still motivated to race. I might slip in one more tri in Sept if I heal correctly over the next week or two, and am eager to tackle some half marathons this winter, and officially crack the 2hr mark there. Hopefully that effort this winter improves my running for next year.

As for NH. It is amazing. I’ve written this entire race report while sitting on the balcony of our condo over looking Paugus Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee. It is probably 68 degrees, and I’m sipping some Wing Walker Pale Ale watching wake boarders go by and water planes take off and land. Beautiful country. I didn’t intend to do this race again. I thought I would experience it, and then try another 70.3 like Lake Stevens or Vineman next year, but I’m having second thoughts. Might make this a ritual. We’ll see what Ingrid thinks when we’re home and the travel inconvenience has slipped away.

Thanks for reading!