Austin 70.3 Race Report

Austin 70.3 overall was a fun event for me on a number of fronts. The highlights began on Friday when I was able to reconnect with a family friend who I hadn't seen in 15 years.

I first learned that Ian Mikelson was a triathlete when he made a cameo on Hillary Biscay's blog. Ian's older brother and I swam together (same team as Hillary) in middle school and high school, played water polo together and spent a lot of time together as kids in our formative years. Ian was my brothers age, and while he didn't swim, we saw him all of the time at meets and pretty much every kid I knew did Jr. Lifeguards in the summers, including Ian. Ian was always a short stocky middle linebacker looking guy, so to see him completing what I think he'd describe as a successful first season as a pro is real fun for me and generally amazing. He's got one more big race in IMAZ next month, so we're pulling for him.

I hope some day he gets interviewed by Bob Babbit and Paul Huddle on Competitor Radio so Huddle can ask him his standard "how much you bench" question. He usually gets these endurance beans who aren't sure, but think they could put up 100. They'd be impressed with Ian's numbers!!!

So we caught up with Ian and his mom Gaye, who as swim team moms go, doubled as many of our moms over the years keeping us out of trouble when left to our own devices for hours on end at swim meets. We had a great meal, caught up on the past, talked tri shop for a while. It was a really good time!
I also took the bike out for a short 45 min spin on Fri. I'd had the bike in for a tune up the weekend before and was able to get on it once mid week out on the road, so this ride was to keep the legs loose but to also make sure the bike was dialed in.

Everything seemed fine but I was getting a new sound like popcorn coming from the rear derailleur. I made some subtle adjustments after the ride, took it up and down the street to test it out but while I fixed the rear derailleur, something strange happened to the front and I was no longer able to shift to the big chain ring from the little. Some more tinkering with the front derailleur, another test ride, and I was pleased as it appeared dialed in. More later...

Sat was pretty low key. My dad and I went out to the venue to rack my bike and drop off my T2 bag, got home quick to watch the UT game, and kicked me feet up a bit, packed up my gear, etc. My buddy Tim from Houston was coming up to the house to stay with us for the night and join me in the morning out at the race site to spectate. We had a nice dinner on Sat and hit the sack pretty early.

Sunday morning was the normal pre race routine. Get up early, eat, stretch, hit the road. Tim was able to drop me off at T1 (this race had split transitions about 1.5 miles apart) so I didn't have to mess with the shuttle bus from the parking lot/T2 to T1. I had plenty of time to get my bike situated, chill, stretch, use the pots, etc. It was nice have a friendly face with me all morning, and it was so easy not to have to mess with a morning dry clothes bag, etc.

My wave started 50 minutes after the pros went off, so I was able to catch Ian and the other guys make there way in to T2.

Swim (27:49, 8th out of ~334 in AG)
The swim was alright. I was looking for feet and as we set out, was surprised by the number of guys who seemed to be pushing a solid pace. I settled in with a descent size group. We were about 2-3 wide and there must have been about 12 of us, so I was pretty content. I settled in and was glad to be in the draft. At about the 300 yd mark, I could tell the two guys in front of me were losing the guys at the pointy edge of the group, but their pace was still fine, so I stayed put. At about the 500 yd mark, both of the guys in front of me slowed considerably. I had no choice but to come around, and that was the end of my draft for the rest of the swim. We began catching waves about 7-8 minutes in. I definitely saw 6-7 different colors of swim caps out there, so with 5 min staggers between waves, I had a lot of traffic to deal with. I realized about 2/3 through the swim that I was likely leading a pack as I was getting slight taps on the feet every now and then and it wasn't from people I'd passed. Turns out there were at least 2-3 guys back there who got a great ride. I think I probably would have been better served swimming a little more conservatively as I didn't feel fresh by the end of the swim. But all in all, a good swim. 4 mins off my PR from '08, but that swim was easily 4-5 mins short so this could have been my best swim.

T1
I took a bur in the foot as I made my way to the racks. stopped to pull it out, but other than that, it was pretty much biz as usual in there.

Bike (2:41.14, 20.8 mph, 102 out of ~334 in AG):
I set off on the bike and tried to settle in. The course is a little more hilly at the beginning and the end, but all in all, it is a course with little distinguishing it. I got off really well, was averaging about 21.5 mph through the first 15 miles when I came up to the top of one of the bigger hills that forced me down to the small chain ring. As I crested, I went back to the big ring and threw my chain right over the top of the big chain ring and on to my foot. It was 1-2 revolutions before I realized what had happened, and in those 1-2 cranks I twisted the chain up around the crank. I was able to reach down and pull the chain back on the chain ring without slowing (I was impressed I could pull off - I've seen guys in TT stages of the TdF do this before when they came out of the start house) but the first revolution I made with it back on revealed to me that I'd damaged the chain. This happened earlier in the summer so I knew immediately what happened. One of the links actually gets slightly twisted and as that link passes through the rear derailleur, you get a reaction. For me, it ranged from a small dead spot in the pedal stroke where you weren't putting pressure on the rear cassette, to full on half shifts out of the gear on the rear cassette. Every revolution for 41 miles, I had this irritation. I could move in and out of gear and felt like I could control the severity of the shifting, but the longer I stayed in any one gear, the worse the problem got. I was afraid of any further problems so I stayed in the big ring for the rest of the ride. My pace slowed after the problem developed and it was mentally taxing. Not having the small ring also was annoying as I could have used it 3-4 times.

The only other highlight of the ride was seeing Gordo Byrn three times on the ride. Once when he flew by at mile 30 (I had a 20 min start on his AG), again at mile 32 when he was in the ditch changing a flat front, and again at mile 40 when he blew by again. He was rocking it old school in the Australia speedo. God bless him!

T2
Vaguely remember dropping my bike off, but we found it after the race so I must have put it in the right place

Run (2:21.32 10:49 pace, 172nd out of ~334 AG)
I had high hopes of laying down a good run. My conservative goal was to run a 2:15, but my runs in training had been going so well I had dreams of running under 2:10. As I made my way out on the run course, I felt okay, was running some good low 9 min miles and felt fine. I wasn't hot, HR felt low, all was good. Then the rollers came. I had forgot how this run course is a beat down. Either always up or always down. You need to be strong to run well here and I am not. Put me on a flat, point me in a direction and I can go. Force me up and down and my muscles turn to jelly. As I topped each roller, I could feel some mojo leaving my legs. by the time we hit the off road section, I was starting to slow a bit. I walk/ran up Quadzilla and felt like crap after the hill as I made the round about exit out of the trails. I came good back on the roads and thought I might be okay, but by the end of the first loop, I could tell running up the hills was not going to last much longer. by the second loop, I was walking the hills, running the flats and down, and was shuffling a bit and had slowed considerably. It only got worse, and the walking increased. So the run continues to be my achilles heal.


I was hopeful that the increased run volume in this build up would manifest in a better time and this was a 2 min run PR for me, so I guess you could say it did, but come on man! Get it together. I need to take a blank slate approach to running. So something a little more aggressive. It might result in injury, but I need to challenge myself more in my run training.

So my time was 5:37.17. Though I didn't PR, if you adjust the short swim from my PR in '08, I think this is probably my best race. I am content with how it went. I felt very prepared going in to the race, and I owe that to my coach David. He put together a great plan that got me to the start line healthy, as fit as I've ever been since my college swimming days, and motivated. To think about where I was back in June when we first started putting the program together to where I am now is truly amazing. Thanks bud!


So I'm still jazzed about training. In fact, I had visions of doing a Sprint Tri a week later (tomorrow) but thought better of it this morning when the weather rolled in today, plus I still have a slight hot spot in my hamstring that I didn't fully notice until I went out for a run this morning.

I'm doing the White Rock half marry in 6 weeks, so we'll see if I can pop a half PR there. Beyond that, I'm trying to rope Patrick into doing a June 70.3 with me. We're looking at Kansas and Boise. Onward and upward!

Disco Triathlon

The Disco Triathlon is in the bag. This was my 3rd time doing this race, ('05, and '07) and the 3rd time taking on this course out at Lake Ray Roberts in North Denton (the '05 Disco was in Grapevine, but the '07 Texas Man was on the current Disco course).

This course has owned me in the past, and while my goal was to prevent that from happening this time, I'd give myself a "B" in my efforts today. I've come to understand I have a pacing problem. I can't hold back and I absolutely wilt on the run. This course is not the place you want to be wilting on the run. It is undulating the entire time, and is usually very hot.

The swim went as well as possible from a time perspective. I was in a wave with 39 and under men, and while I was the 4th guy out of the water, I was out first for my age group. I paid for it though. I was gunning it from the start and by the time I realized I was trashing myself, I couldn't settle down.

The swim started off right into the sun, so we couldn't see the buoy until we were right on top of it. Other than that, it was a fairly normal swim. I was on my own for a bit, with a guy for a bit, then got dropped by that guy in the last 400 yards or so.

Swim: 19:23, 1st AG (out of 27), 8th overall (out of 273 men and women)

T1 was brutal. I was so tired running up the beach, along a path, and into transition. I thought I was going to pass out. More evidence that I blew my wad in the swim. I took my time trying to settle down in there, put my bike jersey on inside out (on accident) and was off.

T1: 2:45

The bike was alright. I've decided now that this bike course is deceivingly difficult. It never really is flat with many rollers, lots of chip seal roads, and a few chewed up roads that slow you down a bit. No one ended up putting up a blazing time, and I just managed to hold better than 20 mph out there, a little off from my last few efforts. I tried to keep it calm on the bike, and was favoring my right leg injury from the bike crash the week before just a bit choosing to stay in the saddle when there were a couple of climbs and accelerations I'd have preferred to stand up on.

Only 3 guys in my age group passed me on the ride.

We got lucky with the weather today. There was cloud cover for the first half of the ride, and the highs are a good 10 degrees off the mid 100s we had earlier in the week.

Bike: 1:08.47 10th AG, 83rd overall

T2 was quick and easy 1:01

The run was the part of this race I anticipated the most. As I said, I've run terrible on this course in the past. Early on off the bike I could tell that I'd probably already been anaerobic a bit too much earlier in the day, and that it was going to be lactate buildup in my legs that was going to be the limiter on the day, not HR, and probably not heat.

I tried to settle in to a decent pace. The course is out and back, part on paved paths in tree cover, and part out on an open road with no shade. I was really trying to hold back on the out thinking best case, I could negative split the run, but the more likely scenario was that it would be conserving energy to keep me from walking later (a problem every time I run out there)

I believe I was able to average around 8:50 miles on the way out (the way out is a little longer than the way in). On the way back, it was a struggle. I hung in there pretty tough, walked some aid stations, and literally shuffled up the big hill on the paths, and average around 9:35 back home.

I got passed by 4-5 guys in my age group in the last 10 minutes of the run which was disappointing, but tried to hang in there as best I could.

Run: 56:36 18th AG, 122 overall

Time: 2:28:29, 13th AG, 72nd overall

I believe this is the first time I've been under 2:30 in an Olympic race, but the bike was 1.8mi short of an official Oly distance race, and I actually think my 2:32 in Galveston this year on a 450 yard shorter swim, but 5 mi bike, and 0.3 mile longer run is a better time. It was much cooler then, and a much easier course than Lake Ray Roberts, so I think it is a solid effort today.

The family came up to the State Park to watch the race, and got to enjoy a really cool beach on the lake. My kids and the McClain kids had a blast swimming around, though no one brought suits so we had to improvise a bit.

Here are a few photos our friends the McClain's took. Katie (the photographer) is one of Ingrid's girl friends, our kids play together several times each week, and Patrick did the race with me (and did quite well in his 2nd tri ever, and 1st Oly ever)

Truck'n it into the finish shoot

Family photo, Jake and his dong

Florida 70.3 Race Report

The morning started with a 4:30am wake up, then 30 minutes of trying to put down 800 calories with no appetite. I had a bottle of ensure, yogurt parfait, half a clif bar, a banana, half a cup of coffee, and a bottle of Gatorade endurance. Pretty gross to be putting that all down that early.

By 5:15am I was headed down to the lobby to see about getting a taxi or courtesy car over to the race. The courtesy car picked me up and we were at the race drop off to catch a shuttle bus in to Fort Wilderness where the transition area and race venue were.

The race was on the Disney property, but Disney had no further involvement than that.

I decided to hit the restrooms first, then go in and get my transition area set up. The race started at 6:20 and my wave would go off at 7:21, but transition closed at 6:15, so I had just enough time to get things set up. As I mentioned, my transition spot wasn't ideal. It turns out that the run out of the swim was very long, but it was because we basically ran around the outside of the transition area all the way around and entered very close to where my stuff was located, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After getting squared away, I made my way over to the beach. They weren't letting people into the water, so I had no warm up prior to the race. Instead, I found a patio chair and sat for about 40 minutes until my wave got closer.

The swim started in about knee deep water, and you could run about 20 steps before it got too deep. As the gun went off, I took off and tried to find feet. After 2-3 minutes I came across some and decided to settle in. I figured if they were ahead of me after 2-3 minutes, they were decent swimmers, but once back there, I really felt like we were going slow. I didn't think there was any way I was catching that good of a draft. I stuck with that swimmer for about 2 minutes until we first began to hit slow swimmers from the previous wave, and we got separated while working around a bunch, and I pulled away from that guy and moved on on my own.

The swim was very hectic. There were masses of people in large clumps that were very hard to get around. I found myself having to stop, pop up, pick a line, then shoot a narrow gap until I was clear, then do it again.

It wasn't a wetsuit legal swim, and there were lots of people struggling with that fact I believe. I can't tell you how many people were doing breastroke. There is nothing more dangerous to swimmers behind you than to do a breastroke kick. It is a wide kick, and in murky water, very hard to see coming, and is extremely dangerous for those around and behind you. I must have dodged half a dozen breastroke kicks headed right for my nose that missed by inches. Really scary.

The swim seemed to have been long. I thought so based on feel and time, and I overheard others with the same sentiment post race.

Swim: 31:33, 8th out of 239 AG, 104th overall

T1 was as I mentioned very long. You run about 300 yards from the swim exit to swim entrance. I spent only a few seconds at the racks before I was off to make my way through the length of the transition racks to the exit, again about 200 yards. I clipped in on the bike, and did not make the same mistake I did at Lonestar.

T1 4:34

The bike was a 1 loop bike course. We left the Disney property soon into the ride and didn’t return until the final miles. The course was pretty non descript. I recall seeing some cows and orange groves, and a few new track housing neighborhoods, but I really wasn’t paying an awful lot of attention.

My plan was to stay controlled and I think I was able to do that despite setting a bike PR for myself. The roads where very smooth and fast, and the course had about a 20 miles section of gentle hills in the middle. I only switched out of the big gear one or two times.

My plan was to find someone riding a little slower than I was comfortable riding, and to sit behind them at the legal distance, and make my progress that way. That way I was sure I was staying conservative. I pretty much rode the entire way behind 3 different guys.

It was getting to be hot, but the breeze on the bike masked it pretty well. I did notice salt on my shorts and face from the sweat, and knew it was going to get ugly on the run.

I took down 5 gels, 3x500mg sodium tablets, 3-4 bottles of water, 1 bottle of Pure Sport, and about 2 bottles of Gatorade Endurance. I felt the urge to pee about half way through the ride so I was confident that I was absorbing fluids, and was pretty much on the edge of feeling bloated the entire way.

Bike: 2:40:14 (21.0 mph), 88th out of 239 AG, 693rd overall

T2 went pretty well. This was the first time I saw Ingrid on the day. I had to make the long journey through the racks to my row, got switched over quick, took a swig of water and got my GPS synched, and was on my way.

T2: 2:32

The run was a 3 loop course. It was flat, hot, and much of it was on grass. Not scenic in the least despite being on the Disney property. We were in a pine forest for the first half mile, on back roads the next mile, then on grass next to a canal for 2+ miles before getting back on to roads to finish off the loop. The grass was very difficult to run on, and there wasn’t much shade out there.
First thing I did out on the run was find a port-o-john to relieve the bladder. After that, I tried to settle in to a slow and comfortable pace that I thought I could hold. I tried to ask myself very frequently if there was any way I could run slower, and if the answer was yes, then I slowed down.

My HR however was climbing and climbing and wasn’t stopping when it reached the Z3 spot I hoped it would stop at. After about 25 minutes, I was well into Z4, and was burning up.

At around the 3 mile mark, I broke the seal and had to walk. I would walk/run the rest of the race. By mile 5 I was doing 2 min/1min run/walk, which eventually fell down to 1min/1min. On a couple of occasions I would try to run as long as I could, but never could go more than 3 minutes, and would be wrecked for the next 10 minutes or so barely able to do 1/1 run/walk to recover.

With about 2.2 miles to go, I figured I had 29 minutes to keep my time under 6 hours, the only thing left to salvage the day after all of my other goals were long gone. I bore down and upped my run/walk splits to 90 sec/30 sec to up the overall pace.

With about half mile to go, I had to run carefull as my right calf was twitching as it would near a cramp on certain steps. It nearly seized up within 25 yards of the finish line, but I managed to cross without making a scene.

It was brutally hot out there. Lots of carnage on the course. I saw lots of people walking, people puking, people fainting. I ended up with the worst sun burn I’ve had in a long time despite putting on spf 30 the night before and morning of the race.

Run: 2:38:53 (12:08 pace) 182 out of 239 AG, 1476 overall

Time: 5:57:44, 124 out of 239 AG, 965 overall

After crossing the line, I just felt terrible. My ears were popping, I was woozy, and I had to search hard for some food and drink. I don't feel like going on the WTC rant, but they are terrible race organizers. It was so corporate, not designed for what was best for the athletes, and the post race support was cheap. They ran out of things out on the course and in the post race tent well before the later waves had crossed the line. It was really disappointing. This race was run by NAS until WTC bought all of the NAS races except for IM Canada at the end of 2008, so this may be a bad sign of things to come for these biggest of races in the US under the new management. I'm certain they made a fortune on the merchandising however, so I don't expect any changes.

So overall, not all that great of a race. I’m not disappointed because I pretty much got over the disappointment when the training fell apart back in March and April. It just sort of was what it was. I finished. It wasn’t as slow as my first 70.3, and wasn’t as fast as my last.

I came away from the race with 5 immediate notes on things to focus on for my next 70.3 in Oct. In no particular order, they are:

1. Increase the running as a percentage of my total tri training, more and longer long runs, more weekly volume, more running off the bike.
2. Do core work. My abs and low back are really sore after I race, which means I am using them and they aren’t up to the task. Maybe yoga is the answer.
3. Detail the objectives of each workout further. In base, go slower. Add more specificity to each workout.
4. Test more. Identify strengths and weakness and adjust training accordingly.
5. Stick to a diet, and get down to 165 by Oct.

The plan going forward is to take it easy for the rest of the month. I probably won’t train until after Memorial Day weekend. I’ll probably use the WKO+ software to monitor my fitness loss over time, and will start training when it is off 20-25% of the level it was at for the race.

I’m going to do a 6 week strength training block that will start up in a week or two. The purpose will be to add back some muscle, strengthen the tendons, and get myself ready for the Oct 70.3 training block.

I’ll build up the run volume in the month of June and would like to get up to around 100 miles of running a month by July.

I’ll do a 20 week build up to Long Horn, and will do a proper 12 weeks of base work before I start to take the governor off. That means the program will start in the second week of June.

2009 Lonestar Qtr Iron Triathlon - Gavleston, TX

Let me try to bang out a quick race report.

Overall, a pretty good day for me. The effort level was there, fitness was in check, and the speed wasn't bad. I was a little rusty with the race stuff. Transitions were a little loose, had some goggle problems, and a blunder or two, but I'll learn from them.

Not much to report prior to the gun going off. We were a bit rushed this morning despite leaving the house at 5:15am this morning. We had to get gas, and the drive was almost an hour. but I hit the pier with a couple of minutes to spare ready to go.

My age group was in the first wave with the Pros and Elites. I didn't see any pros with all of the races going on throughout the world this weekend, but there were several collegiate tri team including the Naval Academy team who I believe is the defending NCAA National Champions.

So the gun went off, and the kids all took off with me in tow. I tried to hang with some, but couldn't find a pair of feet to sit on that didn't require me to hammer it, so I ws on my own most of the way. My right goggle was leaking like crazy and I must have swam with it full more that I didn't, and probably cleared it 5 times over the 13 minute swim.

The water was colder that I ever remember it being, and it was dark and overcast at the start. Really wasn't all that pleasant, but it was over quick.

It turned out that all of the guys who dropped me in the swim were elites, and not guys in my AG so I ended up with the top swim time.

Swim (0.6mi): 13:52 - AG place 1st out of 69

T1 was okay. I was pretty beat coming out of the water and took my time trying to get my bearings

As I rolled out of T1 and began to slip into my shoes already clipped into my pedals, I realized I'd put the right shoe in the left pedal, and the left in the right. I had to stop, dismount, unclip them, slip into them, remount, clip in, and go. I probably burned 45-60 seconds futzing with it, and saw several people ride by me while I straightened them out. I'll never make that mistake again.

The ride is a grind. It is pancake flat, and you just have to stay aero and push a big gear hard. There are no breaks to descend, or turns you can sit up through once you get out on the seawall.

There was a slight headwind on the 14 mile stretch towards the SW end of the island, but it wasn't bad.

My back grew a bit tired which tells me I need to spend some time on my core over the next few weeks. You can have the strongest legs in the world, but if your core is weak, they have nothing to push off of on the top end. You can't fire a canon from a canoe!

Bike (28mi): 1:19.42 (21.1 mph) - AG place 11th out of 69

T2 was pretty uneventful. Just a little messing around with my Garmin, but not really any time lost.

The run was a two loop course through Moody Gardens. I got out pretty quick, had a good turnover and was clicking off some decent miles. I fatigued a bit as the run went on and don't think I negative split it, but hung tough, dealt with the demons and the heat that was mounting and did fine.

Run (6.55mi): 54:57 (8:27/mi) - AG place 34 out of 69

Overall: 2:32.07 - 13th in my AG, 79th out of all guys, 117th overall

This is the 4th time I've done this race, and the third time it has been a quarter iron distance race. I PR'd by 11 minutes, and took time out of each discipline, so it was a balanced attack.

My buddies Tim and Darren also did the quarter with me and did real well. They finished within a couple of minutes of each other, didn't get hurt, and still have the fire to get after the next one so it was a success all around for us.

I just got back into town after the drive back up from Galveston, and am sitting back watching the opening night of the MLB season, so life is good. I've had my compression socks on since I got out of the shower, and my legs feel pretty good. My back is sore and I'm tired from the long day, but hope to get a spin in tomorrow.

I have 3 big weeks of training ahead of me as I prepare for Florida 70.3 on May 17th. This three day weekend coming up will help with this week's volume. I can chill out for a few days and use the extra day to get a couple of big rides in. I'll be in Austin so I'm looking forward to a few rides in hill country, and a big Saturday morning run at Town Lake with my wife Ingrid. We haven't run together in years it seems. I can't wait.

The Texas Half

Okay, race report time.

In the days leading up to the race, I came down with a head cold. I've noticed that with my improved fitness over the past year, I've had a good string of avoiding the 2-3 major colds I had traditionally been getting every year that would knock me out of commission. When I have caught a bug, I've been able to shake them off pretty easily.

This cold was sort of lingering, but hadn't knocked me out. It just wouldn't go away. Terrible sore throat, and a real stuffy nose, but it didn't move to my chest.

On race morning, I woke up feeling how I had the prior morning, really sore throat, and lots of head congestion. I spoke with David the day before and we'd decided not to take any meds. I hadn't been taking anything in the days prior, and we figured it didn't make sense to experiment on race morning.

I had a mini bagel with peanut butter, 1 vanilla ensure, a bottle of G2 gatorade, and about half a cup of coffee.

I rode to the race with David and Sarah. Sarah was doing the race with me along with 3 of David's other athletes (Fred, Katie, and Patrick).

It was unseasonably warm that morning. 63 degrees at 6:30am on our way over, with a forecast in the 70s with lots of wind. Not great, but better than 30 for sure. I wore shorts and a short sleeve dri fit.

I hit the porto-john, did some stretching and a light jog and was ready to go.

The course was a loop and change around White Rock Lake. With the wind to start, and against the wind to finish.

I wanted to get out in the 8:40s and sit there for the first 3 miles or so before dropping down under 8:30s, but only managed that for the first mile before my pace crept up. I thought some of it was due to the tail wind, by my HR would suggest that I was working too hard at the beginning. The RPE didn't correlate so I'm lead to believe some of it is elevated HR due to the respiratory infection, but who knows.

Here were the splits (HR):

1. 8:41 (170)
2. 8:26 (175)
3. 8:34 (177)
4. 8:24 (177)
5. 8:25 (176)
6. 8:24 (176)
7. 8:27 (176)
8. 8:37 (175) turned into the wind here
9. 8:27 (175)
10. 8:32 (175)
11. 8:53 (175)
12. 8:55 (174)
13. 9:20 (172)
13.1 8:58 pace (174)

Time was 1:53.39 (175 HR).

Things never really felt right. I could feel my lungs working real hard the whole way. I didn't have a cruise control I could sit in in the first half of the race and just commute and conserve.

Right at the 10 mile marker was where things unraveled. I was uncomfortable as I had been the whole way, but didn't feel as if I was coming undone. I'd just popped my last gel as I was approaching the aid station, and was looking for a lot of water to help wash it down, and because the heat/humidity had me pretty parched at this point. So I find my volunteer and plan to take two waters, but she only had one (the other hand had gatorade in it). No problem, hopefully it is a full cup, but I looked in the water cup she'd given me and it had about an inch of water in it. I had taken 6-7 steps past the station when I realized this, and decided it wasn't enough, and turned around to go back to the table and grab another cup. I walked a bit during this detour, and as soon as I stopped running, my quads immediately locked up something terrible. I couldn't get them going again, and the lactate just continued to build for the last 3 miles.

I was very close to walking a few times, but found that I could keep moving at about 9min miles, and that is what I did.

In looking back at my HRs, I think getting up over 174 so early in the race probably put me out of my aerobic zone too early, and too often, and I couldn't get rid of the lactate fast enough, and I was essentially a ticking time bomb that blew at the 85 min mark. In San Antonio in November, I didn't hit 175 HR mark until mile #9. Infections elevate the HR as does dehydration and I think I was impacted a little by both.

That all said, I think I did pretty well on the day. Had I gone out a little slower, I probably could have got closer to my PR (I missed it by 29 seconds), but I wasn't there to match a PR, and so I went for it from the beginning.

I'm very sore the day after in the quads. Ironically everything else feels fine. Hamstrings, calfs, etc are ready to go, but the quads are completely shot. And the little head cold has blossomed into a full on whopper of a cold, which will shut me down completely for at least another day or two and hopefully no more.

David's other athletes all did well. They are training up for the Lonestar Half Ironman in Galveston and seem to be progressing well.

Sarah's dad got some good pictures out on the course. Unfortunately I was in a world of hurt for many of them and don't look too good in any of them.

Any how, good experience, my running has jumped leaps and bounds this winter, and I'm eager to apply it to tris this Spring.

Bold N The Cold Race Report

Bold N The Cold 15K is in the books. The race lived up to its name for sure. We had another seasonably warm day yesterday, but a front came in over night and we woke up to mid 30's weather, and 20+ mph sustained winds out of the NNW. It was around 37 degrees at race start, with a wind chill of about 20 degrees. It was F'ing cold to say the least.

I rode over with David and did my best to stay in the car when I wasn't picking up my race number or hitting a port-o-john.

The race was held in Grapevine just on the South side of Lake Grapevine on a course I've done a number of runs and bikes on, so I was very familiar with the winding course, all of the hills, and the areas where I thought I'd be exposed to the wind coming off of the lake. I wore tights, a long sleeve dry-fit shirt, a wind breaker jacket, hat, and gloves, and didn't shed a bit of it as the race went on.

I probably got off to a bit of a fast start, but it was down hill with the wind for the first mile and it is hard to tell. I settled in at mile 2 and 3 pace wise, but never really got comfortable with the effort.

I was planning on taking in a gel on the course, but the water stops were unpredictable, and the amount of water they were offering in the cups would not have been enough to wash down the gel, so I was a little leery of stomach problems. I pushed on with out it.

Here were my mile splits:

1: 8:07
2: 8:24
3: 8:27
4: 8:18
5: 8:17
6: 8:27
7: 8:23
8: 8:14
9: 8:31
9.3: 7:47 pace

Overall I was 1:17.44 ish (8:20/mile) with a 173 HR. The race had just under 1,000 feet of ascent.

Heart rate was pretty low, but I think the cold weather had a lot to do with that.

The race did give out sweatshirts, and a skull cap (a toque for you Canadians out there) which was generous given the modest $25 entry fee.

Overall, I'm modestly pleased with the effort. I'm not sure what it tells me about myself. An 8:20 pace is about where one would guess you'd be if you are around 8:06 for a 10K, and 8:38 for a half marry. When I plug the time into this pace predictor, it tells me the effort correlates to a 50:46 10K (52 secs off my PR) and a 1:51.35 half marry (1 min 35 secs better than my PR), so who knows.

The conditions were miserable which will be good practice for whatever gets thrown at me at the half marathon I'm running next month. We'll hope for something more pleasant however.

San Antonio Rock'n Roll Half Marathon

The SAT RNR Half Marathon is in the books. I'm back at home on my couch getting caught up the USC game from yesterday just trying to enjoy the rest of the Sunday.

The race went very well for me. I managed to exceed my expectations again which I've been doing a lot of lately for a change.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with my buddies Tim and Darren from Houston. We met up for the race expo on Sat, grabbed lunch and dinner together afterwards, and carpooled to the race together this morning.

The race had over 30,000 people in it, with 20K doing the half marathon, and 10K doing the full. Packet pickup was at the Alamo Dome and as you'd suspect with that many people, was chaos.

Race morning went pretty smooth. We got dropped off real close to the start, got in a few pit stops in the bushes near by, a small jog in, and we just chilled out. It was about 38 degrees, but it didn't feel too bad.

The gun went off, but it took us over 12 minutes to hit the start line. They were good about staggering the corals, so we were able to get up to pace straight away.

The three of us ran together for the first mile, then everyone started doing their own thing. Tim took off, and I slowly pulled away from Darren. By about mile two, I lost sight of Tim, and just settled in to a good clip while trying to force myself to hold back a bit.

The highlight of the race for me came early on as we ran right past the Alamo. There was a 20 piece mariachi band banging away out front, huge crowds, picture perfect back drop. It was awesome. I'm Texan!

The course was nice and fast. Pretty much flat the hole way with only one small rise around the 4 or 5 mile mark as I recall, but benign in the grand scheme of things. The scenery was pretty good, and it was well supported as you'd suspect.

I started off with a couple of low 9 min miles before dropping under the 9 pace for miles 3-5. At mile 5, I took in my first gel, then dropped the pace down below 8:30.

I felt real good at mile 8 and 9 where I clocked my fastest miles, both 8:11. Mile 10 is where I first started to feel some of the pain. My pace crept up to the low 8:20s, and I had to slowly layer in additional effort just to hold it there the rest of the way.

I came through an aid station at about 10.5 miles and caught sight of Tim about 30-40 yards up the road for the first time since the opening minutes of the run. I just held my pace in the low 8:20s and he slowly came back to me. I know he'll read this so he'll get a kick out of this.

I probably fully closed the gap to Tim at about the 12.5 mile mark, but didn't want to pass him for fear that he would drop the hammer, and I'd have no choice but to go with him. I decided I had about a quarter mile of giddy up in my legs, so I wouldn't say hi to him until I felt we were within the last quarter to go. I didn't want to smack it, but probably could have at the expense of the rest of the upcoming training week.

We hit a slight hill right at the very end outside of the Alamo Dome, Tim slowed a bit, and I pulled up beside him and mumbled something like hello to him. I think he said "shit" or something like that.

I wasn't going to drop the hammer on Tim, and he was kind enough not to drop the hammer on me. We rolled across the finish line side by side. It was pretty awesome. A PR for both of us.

Darren PR'd too with a 2:05 and a solid effort.

Here were my mile splits:
mi 1 - 9:11
mi 2 - 9:07
mi 3 - 8:48
mi 4 - 8:54
mi 5 - 8:53
mi 6 - 8:26
mi 7 - 8:24
mi 8 - 8:11
mi 9 - 8:11
mi 10 - 8:22
mi 11 - 8:21
mi 12 - 8:21
mi 13 - 8:21
mi 13.1 - 1:43 (8:03 pace, my watch had the distance at 13.21, probably due to weaving)

Time: 1:53.10 official (1:53.19 on my GPS)
HR: 173 avg

I'm pretty happy with the pacing. The goal was to negative split the run, and while I don't have a half way point split, my last 6 miles were 3 min 32 secs faster than the first 6, so that is good.

My sciatica in my left leg is pretty painful post race. It was nagging and sapped some of my power starting at about the half way point of the run. I'm going to have it looked at pretty soon, just to see if I can start managing the discomfort a bit better. I've had the pain for years, but with the recent focus on running, it is more of a nuisance than it has been.

Other than that, I feel okay, just a little beat up from the hard roads and the fast miles.

The trip was fun, it was good catching up with my friends. We'll have to get some of those other Houston guys out at the next one.

Four Seasons Cool 10K

This morning I did the Four Seasons Cool 10K in Las Colinas, TX.

My friend and coach David and I headed over there this morning, and the race went well for me. I hadn't done a stand alone 10K road race since I did the Peach Tree Road Race on July 4, 2002, so I didn't really know what to expect, other than it would probably hurt like hell, and it did.

I ran a 49:54 averaging an 8:06 pace and 180 HR for the event. I sort of figured I'd be somewhere in the low 8 minute mile area, but probably thought 8:15 was more likely, so this was a pleasant surprise. Cracking the 50 minute mark was satisfying as well.

David and I were hoping to use the race to get a good benchmark we could use to set up pace and HR zones that will guide my training over the fall and winter. We'll test every month, so this is the first stake in the ground.

I had no idea what the course would be before hand, but it turned out I was very familiar with it and I am glad that I was. About 80% of the course was on my Wednesday night Dallas Athletes group ride. We basically started out with a steep climb, then it is pretty flat until mile marker #1. Then it was down hill for the next 11 minutes dropping about 110 ft. I looked across the street as we headed down and saw cones across the island, and knew I had to climb back up this thing at the end of the race. This climb is hell on a bike when hammering on my group rides with the DA studs, so I knew it would be worse on foot. Once your at the bottom of that hill, it is pretty flat until you hit some sharp rollers at the turn around before you are at the base of the climb at mile 4.1 ready to head back up to the finish.

I've got great graphs of my pace and the elevation, but can't figure out how to import them to my blog. I'll add them later if I can figure it out.

My splits were:
mi 1: 8:02
mi 2: 7:53 (lots of downhill)
mi 3: 8:06
mi 4: 8:12
mi 5: 8:33 (lots of uphill)
mi 6: 8:02
mi 6.2: 1:03 (7:04 pace)

Not much to report. It was weird having the race over so quickly. I paced it pretty well, didn't really die anywhere, ran with some folks for a while, and seemed to pick up more people at the end than there were people passing me.

I feel pretty good this evening. We'll see if I'm stiff or sore tomorrow morning, but I'm not anticipating it being too bad. The weather has been nice this weekend, so I'm looking forward to getting in a good ride tomorrow.

Official Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

What a freaking week. Actually, what a freaking last two weeks. I am just now back home and sitting on my couch with my feet up for what seems like the first time in years. I promised a more detailed race report, so here we go.

We'll back up to the week leading up to the race. It was one of the longest weeks of work I've put in, and to be honest, it could have been much worse. I had analysts on my team working well into the morning hours most nights, was eating lunch at strange hours while at my desk putting down whatever I could find. I was missing planned taper workouts right and left. It was the worst possible week leading up to a race you could imagine.

I didn't have a minute to even think about the race, my nutrition plan, logistics for me or my family on race day, nothing until I got on the plane to fly down to Austin on Friday night.

Saturday came and it was packet pickup and bike drop off day. I did a short 20 minute ride around my parents house to make sure the bike was in working order, and to shake the rust off of my legs after not working out in a couple of days.

Packet pickup was at the Sheraton downtown on 11th street and it was a zoo. Lines, cramped quarters, etc. This was the second year of the race, but first as a 70.3 branded race, which means the entrants doubled year over year, so there were some organizational challenges experienced throughout the week that I'm sure Keith and Endorfun Sports will have ironed out by next year. I've got the race survey in my inbox and am waiting for some time to provide meaningful feedback.

I ran into David in line and we met up in the Pro Q&A for a bit. The panel was a good one. Kieran Doe, Richie Cunningham, Tim DeBoom, Bjorn Anderson, Simon Lessing, Bree Wee, Pip Taylor, Michellie Jones, and Lisa Bently. The questions were sort of boring, but the crowd was big.

I left the pickup to make the 20 minute drive east of downtown to the race sight, and while I was dropping of my bike, I noted how freaking hot it was, and that it was 2p, the time I thought I'd be finishing my race the next day. 90 degrees. So much for the low 80s Austin had earlier in the week. I took a big sip of gatorade and figured I'd better step up the hydrating.

I was in wave 12 of 14, so my race morning started off around 5a, not too bad. Parking was a zoo, but I found a good spot on the side of a road an easy walk from transition.

Body marking went smooth and I entered transition and started setting up. David was racked a couple of rows away from me and found me right away. We talked and got settled and it went smooth. A quick trip to the port-o-johns and I was ready to go.

Two weeks ago, we got an email from the race director saying the lake was in the high 80s, so wetsuits weren't likely to be legal, so I didn't even bring mine. By some amount of magical influence (ie icing down the thermometer, or dropping it in the deepest point of the lake) the temps were measured at 78 making it wetsuit legal for age groupers to the satisfaction of the slow swimming masses. There was no way this thing was 78.

So the waves set off in 3 minute increments and eventually I was up. We waded into the water, and the gun was off. For the first minute I was swimming through weeds and recall them wrapping around my neck and shoulders. Some even managed to latch on to my timing chip around my ankle and stay with me well into the first half of the swim.

In these 70.3 races, the competition is very good. You get the most serious of triathletes so I wasn't surprised when there were several swimmers up around me as we made our way to the first buoy. It took only 4 or 5 minutes before we'd caught the waves ahead, and it was chaos the rest of the way. I found a few feet to swim on for a minute or two in the first half of the swim and tried to take advantage when I could.

Before long, I was sighting the finish buoys and was up and running into transition. I looked down at my watch when crossing the first timing mat and saw 23:0x and thought, oops, someone measured this thing a little short. Another nod to the slow swimming masses by the race director. I figured I was going to swim about a 28 or 29 minute swim, so I'd say it was 5 minutes short at my swim pace.

Swim 23:28 (AG - 6th out of 224)

T1 was cake. I took my time, put my shoes on there rather than on the bike because so much of the transition area was dirt.

T1 3:33

Right after mounting my bike, some idiot was trying to get clipped in and was looking down at his pedals and not where he was going. He took a nice 90 degree left hand turn right in front of me and I had to slam my brakes throwing me off my saddle and headed for the ground. I managed to get a foot out of my pedals milliseconds before I was headed over and managed to stay upright, though I drove my chain ring right through the back of my leg opening up a pretty good scrape.

I told the guy he was an idiot, and went on my way.

The bike course was a blast. Rollers, wind, lots of turns. Because it was so variable, you were never doing any climbing or fighting the wind too long. It wasn't too hot that early in the morning and it was a pleasure. My meal plan for the bike was to take a clif shot block every time my stop watch hit a 20 min and a 40 min, and to take a gel when it hit the hours. I sipped water from my aero bottle whenever I felt like it and to wash down my gels and blocks, and tried to sip from my gatorade bottle every 10 minutes. I'd started putting just a few grams of whey protein into my first bottle of gatorade to promote digestion, and it seemed to work well.

The course was packed with riders, and I was overcoming people the entire way. It seemed a little like riding in the MS150 (more on the MS150 in a minute) because you are blowing past riders at a rapid rate all day wondering where the hell they are coming from. I guess that is a result of being the 12th of 14 waves and having such a short wetsuit legal swim.

I found myself riding with a few people for long stretches of the race. I'd pull ahead on flat or downhill sections, they'd pull away on climbs or when I was eating. Having that constant made me feel good. I rode through the first half of the course in 1:26 and was pretty pleased with that pace. I didn't have a computer on my bike, just my polar wrist watch (no HR strap) so I could occasionally look down at my speed, but the recording was intermittent so I knew the odometer wasn't going to be right. When I felt fast, I'd look down and be cruising at around 25 mph, when I felt slow, I'd only see 17 mph, so I knew I was moving well.

I tried to hold back a little on the climbs in an effort to save some legs, but other than that, was just riding comfortably. My cardio felt good the entire way. Legs did too. Back grew sore from being aero the entire way, but there were plenty of opportunities to stretch your back on downhills that had a sharp turn I'd have to break for anyways at the bottom.

Around mile 30, I was riding along up a slight hill when I dropped my chain. I thought about trying to pull it back on while still on the bike like I'd seen David Millar do at the start of the Prologue of a Tour de France a few years ago, but thought better of it. So I hopped off, spent a minute or so pulling it back on, then hopped back on and grinded my gears for a bit while trying to get going again before things were reset. I finished the climb and was cruising again.

During the second half of the ride, I looked around and felt like the scenery was very familiar. I figured the only way it could be was if we were on the same roads the MS150 used to roll into austin, and it turns out they were. Probably a good 7-10 miles toward the end was an overlap.

I ended up splitting a 2:43 which meant I brought the second half back in a 1:17 despite the chain incident. If I've learned anything in triathlon, it is that distances are never right, so who knows if the half way point was in the right spot.

Bike 2:43.04 = 20.6 mph avg (AG - 46th out of 224)

T2 was uneventful as well. I think I ran right past my spot on the bike rack for the 3rd or 4th consecutive race, but no big deal. Socks, socks, shoes, shoes, hat, number belt, go!

T2 2:39

I guess the run is where this thing got interesting. When does it not for me. I had to pee pretty bad, had tried to on the bike but couldn't relax enough to do it, and didn't think pissing all over my bike to save a minute was worth having a pissy bike I'd have to clean up when I got home. So I hit a port-o-john. One word of advice, if you have to pee after sitting in an aero position on a bike seat for 2+ hours, make sure your mouth is closed. You never know.

My plan for the run was to try to get comfortable as soon as I could, and hang on. I had no illusions of feeling golden at the end, so it was just a managed damage control march to the door steps of purgatory.

My HR shot up in the first few miles of the run from the excitement and change in motion. I think this may have led to my stomach shutting down a bit, because I noticed I slowly bloated as the race went on, and don't think I was absorbing as much of the fluid as I was putting down, but other than that, the GI track was good. No pain or cramping like last time.

The course was a 2 loop 6.5 mile track with about 4 miles on a long out and back on asphalt, and a 2.5 mile loop on grass/dirt trails. Let me tell you, this thing was hilly. Ups and down the entire way, including Quadzilla which was on grass/dirt at miles 4.7 and 11.2. The course had over 2,600 feet of elevation gain and loss on it according to my GPS watch.

Eventually I settled in and was ticking off 9:45 miles, was just trying to quiet my mind. Don't think about the heat, the hills, the people, anything. Zone out, hit the aid stations, and snap out of it twice a loop when I ran past my family.

After the first 4mi on asphalt, I was feeling okay, but as we hit the grass, the steep sharp hills started, and my legs started to load up with lactate acid.

I hit Quadzilla and there was an aid station at the bottom. I had no plans of running this thing, so I loaded up on fluids and started the climb up it. My GPS watch had the entire climb half a mile long at a 9.0% grade, with the steepest part 0.3 miles 13.9% grade.

At the top of the hill, there was a timing mat and a guy reading out names. About a second after my name was read, I hear the guy call out Female Pro Bree Wee from Kona Hawaii.

As she approached me from behind, I turned around to her and told her I loved reading her blog (http://breeweehawaii.blogspot.com/). She slowed a bit as she got next to me and gave sort of a sheepish laugh and said something I couldn't make out. I couldn't tell if she was laughing at me, so I asked her if I was coming across as a stalker, and she laughed harder. She said, "no, I'm just having another really bad day, and I'm sure you're tired of reading about my bad days on my blog." I told her to hang in there, and she looked over at me, stuck out her hand and said, "thanks, my name is Bree, what is yours?" We shook hands at the top of Quadzilla, she asked if I was on my last lap, and we talked about the weather a bit. She started to pull away from me, so I said goodbye to her, and she said "bye Greg, it was nice meeting you!" Pretty cool. The next thing I know, she turned the juice back on a bit and was gone.

As the run went on, my legs just started to lock up. At the start of the 2nd loop, I could feel my form going, and my power was gone. I started taking walk breaks on the uphills, which was very frequently. I tried to stick to the plan of running the flats and downs, and walking part of each hill, and all of the aid stations.

I was doing math in my head and knew no matter what, my swim and bike had set me up for a PR, even if I walked the second loop. I really wanted to go under 5:40, and started doing split calcs to make sure I was on track. When I got back on the trails for the last loop, I was hurting. It was hot as hell, and my legs were loaded. I ran down to the bottom of Quadzilla and started my march up it. At the top I had about 1.5 miles to go, and I was doing a run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute run/walk to bring it home. I cycled through about 5-6 times, and on the last few cycles, really had to dig deep.

I crossed the line with one arm in the air, proud of my PR.

Run 2:21.31 = 10:48 avg (AG- 129th out of 224)

Overall 5:34.17 (AG - 76th out of 224)

Usually when I finish, I am in terrible pain. I always leave it all out there. Normally within a few minutes of finishing, I start to feel better. For some reason, after I finished I didn't start feeling better. I actually started feeling worse. I made my way over to the medical tent and sat down for a minute. Someone found me a gatorade, and Ingrid found me and we just sat for a few minutes. My diaphragm started to tighten up and breathing started to become an effort. The volunteers at medical took me to one of the 50+ cots they had laying around in there as soon as one became available and hooked me up to an IV bag of saleen. I started to feel good in a matter of minutes, and the breathing was fine as soon as I lied down. Another bag (this time of electrolytes) and I was in good shape.

Ingrid and I left the kids with my parents that night and went to the post race BBQ that evening at the Hills Cafe in Austin. The food was good, the beer was cold, and the live music was outstanding as it always is in Austin.

I loved the race, and look forward to doing it again next year. I know I need more power to have a good run on that course. I'll probably need to hit the weights, and drop my weight a bit more (I lost 11 lbs in training for this thing, racing at 171lbs) to improve my power to weight ratio.

I've been out of town all week and am just now ready to go for my first run (or workout for that matter) since the race. I'm going to start with the running this week with the help of David, and hope to improve their a bit.

Off I go.

Racing in New Hampshire Again

Its been a while since I raced, but I got back out there today at the Timberman sprint. My intentions were to do the 70.3 race, but the Europe trip and a crazy few weeks at work wiped the month of June out, so I down gauged to the sprint, ramped up my training for the Longhorn 70.3 in Austin in Oct., and trained through my race this weekend.

It fell at the end of the a rest week, so I wasn't completely trashed like I was at the beginning of the week, but I'm confident I can train through and be ready to go long in early Oct.

The course was perfect. The swim was flat and fast, the bike was extremely hilly, but the wind wasn't bad, and the run was a steady climb up for 1.5 miles, then right back down. The weather was a dream in the low 70s after weeks of 100+ temps in Dallas.

I'm pretty happy with the results.

The swim went well. It was only 600 yards, so it was nice and short. I only saw 2 guys get away from me, and had some feet to follow for a bit of the way. I pushed it hard, but didn't let it get out of control.

Swim 7:28, 21st out of 988

This bike course is a tough 15 miles that takes you up to a mtn pass. Right out of T1 you climb for about a mile, then get about a mile of down and flat before heading straight up. I was hurting early on, but tried to settle in. I recall this course well from the 70.3 race I did here last year. The 70.3 race is a bunch of climbing for the first 14 miles, then mostly flat with small rollers to the turn around at 28, then back over that same Mtn pass. The Sprint course takes you about halfway up the pass, then turns you around and sends you back down to the lake.

I felt great on the flats, did my best on the climbs, and bombed the downhills. The new Zipp 404 front and 808 rear felt great, and my glue job on my tubulars worked out okay.

Bike 46:40 (19.3 mph), 129th out of 988

The run is beautiful. It should be since it is held on "scenic drive." It winds right around the lake. It is a pretty steady climb up to the turn around then back down to the finish.

I wasn't really paying attention to my splits, but felt good and had a decent turnover. Most importantly, I wasn't getting passed like I was standing still which is mostly the case.

At the turn at the top of the course, I flipped it up a gear and held a real hard pace back down to the finish line. It hurt like hell, but I welcomed it.

Run 22:50 (7:37 pace), 322 out of 988

So I went a 1:21.14, finished 15th out of 56 for for my age group, 111th (out of 499) for the men, and 131st overall.

I'm a bit sore, but should be fine tomorrow. I need to get a couple of hours in on the bike, so that will help lossen things up if a good nights sleep doesn't do it.

We've got some decent photos and should have more after our vacation wraps up.

Thanks to our friend Chikako who came up from Connecticut for the weekend to hang out with Ingrid and I, watch us race, and play with the kids.

We're off to our favorite restaurant we found last summer called The Camp over in Meredith for a nice dinner!

CapTex Tri Race Report

I know it has been a while, but I'd like to log a proper race report from the CapTex Tri back on May 27th.

I'll try to keep it brief, so I'll just say that this race is a huge production. Over 2,700 athletes raced this year, and for that many athletes, the organizers do a good job. It doesn't have much of a personal touch, but it makes up for in it spectacle.

I swam the morning before at Barton Springs, which is a spring fed pool that feeds Town Lake, where the race was held. Town Lake is really a dammed up river. When I got to Barton Springs, I found myself at the back of about a 200 person line of Team in Training triathletes from all over the country. the group in front of me was in town from NY.

I've raced with TNT in the past, and for all the good they do, I feel like a schmuck complaining, but every time I looked up in the swim and bike course, I found a TNT athlete in the way. I blame this as much on the race organizers sending the typically slowest age group waves first, and the faster ones last. I guess the idea was to clear the roads sooner, but it make for a crowded course all day long.

Swim:
Since my wave left about an hour after the elites went off, I watched them all roll up into transition. I did a 19:06 swim at this race back in '05, and while I was in better shape for the swim last time, I figured I'd be within 2 minutes of that time. well the top guy was out of the water in 20 minutes, Andrea Fisher was out of the water in 20:30, and Desiree Ficker was out in 23 mins, so I knew straight away that the swim was long.

The gun went off, and I took off with a guy and we swam together for the first 5 minutes. I was soon on my own, not feeling special, and about 10 minutes into the swim, I had caught several of the waves in front and was dodging people and getting swatted in the face the rest of the way. The swim felt like it took FOR EVER, and it did. Not happy about it. I need to swim more.


Time: 24:10; Pace: 1:37/100M; Place: 28/1442 (overall)

T1:
Transition started off uneventful. Transition area was all dirt. No grass to be found near my age groups racks, so I made sure to get out of my wetsuit back in the swim swim exit shoot which was on grass.

I grabbed my bike, and headed out. As I made my way out of transition, my aero bottle fell off my bike and onto the dirt, spilling lots of water. It turns out, when I secured it in the mount, I didn't realize the Velcro was facing the wrong way and I never got a 'seal.' threading the Velcro through the holes is a challenge with the bottle in, and I spent a good 60 seconds trying to reattach it. I lost about half of the water, and it was hot, so I was pissed.

Time: 3:53

Bike:
This 4 loop bike course is fun, scary, and crowded. Fun because it has great long downhills. Scary because it is very technical, and many of the turns are at the bottom of hills where you either can take alot of speed into the turns, or have to break alot. And is this thing ever crowded. Luckily they give you 2 and sometime 4 lanes of traffic to work with so you can pass, and avoid drafting by moving over rather than back. With so many people on a 6.25 mile loop, you could stack bikes from front to back wheel, and you'd have more than 6.25 miles of bike.


I did a good job of accelerating at the top of hills, and out of corners. I also did a good job of staying aero when I was going fast or into the wind, and stretching my back when I was climbing.


In the last 4 or 5 minutes of the ride, I was feeling a strange sensation in my front wheel in turns, and realized when I stood up to stretch my back in the last downhill and felt the front rim bumping along the road with no air in that front tire, that I'd flatted. I finished the ride, and was no worse for ware.

Time: 1:10:10; Pace: 21.2MPH; Place: 317/1442

T2:
I don't recall T2, so it must have been uneventful. Transition area was huge, so it was hard to be fast.

Time: 2:46

Run:
I hit the 2 loop run course a little fatigued. I probably pushed a tad too hard on the bike, but I've been worse, and should have been fine. It was just really effing hot. My wave left about an hour after the first, and the race started about 20 minutes late, so it was late morning by the time I hit the roads, and it was steamy.

The first lap started off okay, but I wasn't doing anything exceptional from a pace perspective, and could feel it unraveling. I was able to get ice at some of the aid stations, and I took it with me to pour on my head as it melted.

On the second lap as I climbed Congress up over the bridge towards the capital, I popped and was reduced to a walk. It was demoralizing, and was hard to motivate to get going after the pop. I walked ran the last mile and a half.

Time: 1:02.25; Pace: 10:03; Place: 691/1442

Overall:
Time: 2:43.26
AG Place: 62/178
Gender Place: 275/849
Overall: 336/1442

Cap Tex Tri

I don't have time for the full race report. We're trying to get ourselves and the kids fed so we can hit the road back to Dallas. We've got to pack for our trip to Europe tomorrow, and are anxious to get back.

I will say this on the race. The swim was measured long, the bike was fast and hectic until I flatted at the end, and the run was a scorcher (the weather, not me). No PR. It wasn't meant to be. I believe I did hold off my amigo Alberto in the run, but we both had issues, it was just so damn hot.

2700 athletes were in the race, and with a 4 loop bike course that was as technical as they come, there was lots of braking for turns and passing.

I did find myself having fun on occassion, but there were lots of little things that bugged me too.

More later.

Lonestar Qtr Iron Triathlon - Gavleston, TX

Everything about the build up to this race was weird, and then the gun went off and it was very calm. Strange.

I was actually writing this blog post in my head with the title, "What Not to do Before a Race." Except, the race didn't match my expectations, but went surprising smooth. Strange.

I'm going to try to keep it brief, so we're going to jump around a bunch. Stay with me.

We'll start in the 4 weeks leading up to the race. I really haven't been training at all. I have been in the water once (3/1) and logged a total of 1800 yds in the pool, 129 miles on the bike, and 36.5 on the run. About 4 hours of training a week. Not enough.

I decided to drive down to Houston on Sat morning. I was going down by myself and wanted to minimize the time away from my family. I'd jump in the car, make the 310 mile trip to packet pickup, and then head to my brothers where there was a couch waiting for me to sleep on.

As I packed up the car, I realized that I didn't have my shoes or HR monitor. It was in the back of our other car, which my wife had. No problem, figure out where they are, and head over to pick them up. 30 minute set back, but no big deal.

Off I go, but 90 minutes into my trip, I get a frantic call from Ingrid saying I'd left my wet suit, suit case, and tri shorts in the laundry room. I turned around, she jumped in the car, and 45 minutes later, we met in a liquor store parking lot in South Dallas, a rough part of town.

I figured that was 2 mishaps, and one more would be a sign, and I'd turn around and head back home.

I was afraid packet pickup closed at 5p, and according to my GPS, I would arrive at 5:20. I had to make up some time, which meant no time for lunch. Not smart the day before a big race.

So I made it to packet pickup, headed back up to Houston to grab food, and settle in at my brothers. I knew sleeping on a couch the night before a race wasn't conducive to strong performances, but then again, neither is not training.

We played some Wii that night, and I found myself breaking a sweat while playing Tennis on the Wii. This was going to go in the "what not to do the night before a race" section of my blog post.

Off to bed, so-so sleep, and up the next morning to head down to the race venue.

This race is a quarter iron distance race. So .6 mi swim, 28 mi bike, 6.55 mile swim. Similar to an Olympic distance, but a bit longer.

Turns out there were a few well known pros at the race. Simon Lessing, Andrea Fisher, Michael and Amanda Lovato to name a few. I'm a fan of all sports. I follow the teams, the players, etc. Triathlon is no different. I follow these guys like I do my players on the Dodgers. So I still get a kick seeing these guys.

Just prior to the gun going off, my wave (M30-34 + pros and elites) made its way to the end of the peir, but the race director said it might be a while, so we could get in if we wanted. Two people jumped in, me and Simon Lessing. Turned out we waited about 10 minutes before the rest of our wave jumped in the water. So Simon and I talked. It was great, we talked about his race schedule, his health, my goggles. He talked about him doing the new Muskoka 70.3 race, which will be the first time he's raced up there since the ITU World Championships in 1992 (a race Simon won!). This is what is great about Endurance Sports, you are on the same course, sometimes in the same swim wave as the best in the world.

So everyone entered the water, and Andrea Fisher quickly came over to get next to Simon so he could pull her around the course. I think she decided I had a better spot to draft off of Simon than she did, because she was all up in my personal space. I backed off, but it was humorous. She was all business. So it was Simon, Andrea, and some other guy and me in a group waiting for the gun to go off. Simon is telling jokes and stories about racing in France, etc., and I'm just soaking it all in.

The gun goes off, and away we go. I hung with this group to the first turn, but they were moving real fast, and I had 1 workout under my belt in the past month. I was expecting to blow up, but wanted to wait another 5 minutes before doing so if possible.

Another group of 3 moved up and through me, and I let them go. For the rest of the swim there were no feet to be found. I could see people behind me out of the corner of my eye, but didn't feel as if I was pulling more than 1-2 others around the course, and was okay with that.

At the last turn, I see one of my drafters try to come around me. I cut her off as I round the buoy and she drops back for a bit before coming around just yards from the swim finish. We stand up to exit, and I realize the swimmer who benefited from my draft was none other than Amanda Lovato. She ended up being the 2nd woman overall.

Swim 15:15 (1:25/100 pace)

This is the third time I've done this race, and one thing I was banking on was a terrible headwind for the first 14 miles of the out and back bike course along the Galveston Seawall. Last year, the delta between my pace into the wind versus with it was 12 mph. It can be just brutal.

It turns out the wind was shifted a bit, coming in from the SE, which made for a nearly perfect crosswind for both directions of the bike. Still frustrating, but not demoralizing.

The ride was rather uneventful save for me realizing I put my aero bottle on backwards and had to really stretch to reach the straw, and for the plethora of road kill out there, both in terms of quantity and variety. Dog, Cat, Possum, Rabbit, Bird, Raccoon, Miscellaneous. Easily 3 kills per mile. Easily!

Something strange was happening however. I wasn't really too uncomfortable. I was laying down good power, which was equating to decent speed, and I never really faded.

Bike 1:24.11 (avg 20.0 mph)

I haven't run more than 4.5 miles at once since Feb 23rd, so I figured this is where I would unravel. As I hit the transition, my buddy Tim gave me a high five and I was on my way. Didn't feel great, but wasn't hurting too bad. I could go, but just didn't have much speed. I had my Garmin 205 on and was running between 9:05s and 9:30 for most of the way. In the mile 5 range, I started to hurt as the heat was catching up to me, and my legs were starting to feel loaded. I began to slow to around 10:10s and wondered if I was coming apart with 1.5 to go.

One reality about my abilities is that my best discipline is the swim, and my worst is the run. With that combo, I pretty much start off the race near the top of the field, and get passed all day long until I cross the line. It doesn't matter if I finish in the top third or the bottom half of the field, I get passed. So I rarely catch runners on the run, only people who have bonked and are walking.

During my race today, I passed 2 people on the run. The first was someone who had bonked and was walking, the second provided for a decent story.

As I was going through that slow spot around mile 5, I looked ahead and realized someone in a PlayTri jersey (Playtri is a North Dallas Tri Team) was coming back to me, and he was running. I kicked my pace up about 30-40 secs per mile back into 9:20 range and began to bring him in. He was about 100 yards ahead when I first spotted him, so it took a while to close the gap, but I made up about half of it at the last aid station as he took a few steps to drink while I ran through. I ran up to him with about .75 mi to go, and went around him. About .2 miles later, my pace slowed a bit, and he came back around me. I hitched on to the guy and matched him stride for stride for about another .2 mi. We've got about a third of a mile to go, and we passed a spectator who said, "Dallas Athletes vs PlayTri, battle for Dallas, who's it going to be" and I new it was going to be on with this guy. With about a minute to go, I put on a surge and came around him again for good.

My HR was 185 in the finish shute, which is about as high as it gets.

Run 1:00.37 (9:19 pace)

Transitions were pretty fast and uneventful.

Total time was 2:43.47. A 5 minute improvement over my PR on the course. Not sure how I managed to keep it together, but I did, and am glad I made the trip.

I finished:
192 out of 616 overall
150 out of 363 for men
26 out of 69 in my age group

My hopes were that this would motivate me to train a bit more, and I think it will.

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!