The American Triple T - Race Report

Holy Cow!  First response, but I will digress to give you my race experience.  I flew out Thursday to see my sister and her family.  I awoke at 5am to catch my Chicago flight and final flight to Columbus.

I arrived around 3:30 and called Chelsea to let her know I arrived.  I spent the evening with my sister and brother in law Joe and my nephew and niece, Spencer and Schaeffer.  Wow incredible!  Dana and I are looking at kids in a few months.  But Chels and Joe are really in the thick of it and it is awesome.  We dropped Schaeffer off for soccer, then saw Spencer get recognized for his all A's report card, smart little dude,.  Then we went to baseball practice for Spencer.  Reminds me of T2, switch out and get ready to roll.  Then we headed back and helped Schaeffer with her history test, I hope my New England Patriots analogy helped.  Family dinner at 8pm, wow I eat at 8 after training.

I woke up in the morning and everyone had to roll.  I loaded up the car and headed out for Portsmouth, OH.
1.75 hours with some wrong turns and a Wendy's chicken sandwich (same sandwich as before my 1st Ironman in Couer d'Alene so seemed appropriate) but I made it.  I headed over to pick up my race packet.  Then on to the Comfort Inn, Wheelersburg, OH.  Check in was no hassle.

I go up to unpack and check out my race packet.  Apparently a SINGLET is a race top.  There were no bottoms.  WTF!  Oh man sick to my stomach as my first race is now about and hour and a half away.  So singlet to my uber tri friends Scott and Barb means a top.  To me, my wife and Chris (former MSU wrestler turned triathlete) a singlet means a one piece uni (uni means you are good to go).  I brought no bike shorts.  The problem was when I packed, the race rules said MUST WEAR SINGLET AT ALL TIME OR YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.  Ugh!!!

I wanted to go home but I tried to find bike shorts.  I called 2 sports stores but no love.  So then to Walmart Super Store.  This was backcountry.  I asked for bike shorts and the first dude looked at like me like I had 3 eyes.  Do we have bike shorts?  Um I don't know let's ask bobby?  Bobby we got bike shorts?  Um I don't know let's ask Billy. Wow.  So my panic says find shorts or race the first triathlon in running shorts which means no pad for on the bike, ouch.  The first race is so short this would be manageable. But for the weekend, I need to drive to Chilicothe or worse Columbus.   I had emailed my mental support Barb and she said hopefully there would be a race expo.   No race expo but there was a dude in a van with some stands set up.  Oh, jackpot I bought a pair of 50 dollar shorts, but that dude probably could have got close to 200, 100 easy.

 Race 1:  ready to roll, 250 yard swim, 5 mile bike ride and 1 mile run.  Before the race I met my friend Ben, who told me about this crazy weekend.  Swim was in this disgusting muddy water, given all the floods in southern Ohio recently.  The whole weekend was like this, swimming in a mud puddle and happy I had a recent Tetnus shot.  I finished race one in around 29 minutes.  I didn't bother with nutrition during the race, given the length.  Back to the hotel I decided to order pizza for take out.  I got enough for Saturday night as well.  Off to bed.  BLARING SIREN at 4am, well before my alarm, tornado warnings.  I went back to sleep.

Race 2, 1500 meter (1 mile) swim, bike 25.2 and run 6.5.  Before the race I recognize Joe, from Facebook who knows the aforementioned Chris from Chicago.  We chatted briefly, and he was still deciding whether to gut it out with his injured soldier (side note he did, and did well).  The weather was still cooler but starting to warm up.  I got out of the swim in around 31 minutes.  Hopped on my bike and begin to learn what the hills of the TTT were all about.  Wow, crazy long grinding hills.  My bike took about and a half, around 16 mph.  I've averaged 20mph for 2 different half Ironmans (56 miles) in Colorado if that hints at the grueling nature of these hills.  I was a little bummed but realized there was a lot to go.  Later my GPS would show close to 2,000 feet of climbing.  I hopped of the bike and begin my run on a rocky muddy trail through the woods, which was also, wait for, friggin hilly.  GPS showed this close to 1,500 feet.  I ran around an 8:15 per mile pace, so I felt pretty good, getting done in about 3 hours.  Fuel for this race was a mixture of Heed, Cran-Grape Juice, EFS Gel, and Hammer Gel.

I drove back to the hotel to prep and rest for race 3.  I had some coffee, some fruit and some Ultragen recovery drink.  Got my same fuels prepped and headed back to the race.

Race 3.  Same as race 2 but this will be bike, swim and run.  I am faster in my events but slower in transition.  Putting a wetsuit on after a bike is ridiculously hard even with plastic bags over your feet.  Swim was seriously scary, leg cramps left me sort of swimming with my legs forced straight to try and uncramp my hamstrings.  I make it out of the water and headed up to T2 to get ready to run.  I hammer the run at 8:04 pace and finish about 1 minute slower than Race 2.

Back at the hotel I finish my pizza, nicely microwaved.  I barely sleep the last night.  Oh well.  The alarm goes off at 4:45 (that's 2:45 to me being in Colorado).

Race 4, Half Ironman 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.2 mile run.  I've done 4 halves and 1 full.  So the half iron started out fine and I have reasonable expectations.  No way.   6,000 feet of climbing or there bouts.  Ironman California - 2800, Ironman 70.3 distance Harvest Moon - 2300 feet.  Oh my god, first race I thought about bailing.  Primarily because I thought I would miss my flight home.  So I decided I would miss my flight and finish the best I could.  I got out of the swim in about 36 minutes.  Transition is uneventful.  On the bike I realize I am missing a water bottle, ugh need to conserve and the temperature is rising.  It would get to be 85 degrees with 80% humidity.

First lap of the bike registers 28.5 miles so seems long (lots of distances this weekend seemed inaccurate).  It takes me over 1:50 this is not going well, the hills are killer and the downhills have switchbacks u-turn style that kill your speed.  2nd lap I get more water and fuel and have further fuel issues as the humidity builds and my other fuel bottle splits open.  Oh well, keep grinding.  About another 1:45 for lap 2, slow as my first FULL Ironman speed-wise.  I hop off for T2 and the run.  My legs are beat.  I start out the run and struggle on the hills.  First 3.25 miles I am pushing on my thighs to go up hills and hitting a 10 minute mile pace, wow I haven't run this slow in awhile.  Legs aren't working and I am wondering why I am doing this, it's so hot and muggy.  Finally I start to get some turnover and push myself.  I bring my average for the whole half marathon down to 9:14 pace and crack the 2 hour mark.  Not too bad, I'll hang my hat on the effort.  3 days, 4 tris, 140+ miles and 15,000+ feet of climbing.  My official time was 13:00:14.

The best part of TTT is the camaraderie.  You are in the same transition area all weekend based on your best half IM time.  So you see all your neighbors running back and forth during the races and setting up and breaking down their areas afterward.  Also the way the run course is set up I got to see my friends Ben and Joe multiple times through the weekend and exchange words of encouragement or fist bumps.  Very cool setup.

I rush through the finish and say bye to Joe and his crew as I now have to run and break down my bike and quickly pack.  I grab a shower and head for the 1:45 drive to the airport.  I arrive 30 minutes before departure.  Crap I figure I am stuck.  But Southwest late checks my bags not promising they will be on my flight and let's me board.  YEAH!  We get to Chicago for my transfer to Denver.  I grab a slice of pizza and inhale it then snag a sandwich for my backpack and go to board my last flight.  I quickly fall asleep.  Wake up eat my sandwich and we get back to Denver.  Happily all my bags and bike arrive.  You rock Southwest!  Great experience overall, crazy hard.

Happy Training!

Ironman California 70.3 Race Report

The well laid plans of mice and men…not.  So I signed up for this race and made it a B priority for 2010.  Then I decided from a periodicity standpoint that it would work better as an A  race to gear up now and then have a long base build period for the big boy, Ironman Lake Placid.  This was a risky strategy particularly for bike training since I would be dependent on the Colorado weather, which was the worst I’ve seen in our 3 years here.  Lots of snow and cold down in Denver Metro.  This meant lots of time on the trainer.   Anyway everything in my prep and taper went well.  I felt strong.

We arrived in San Diego on Thursday March 25 and got the bike and luggage and headed to the rental car.  All was relatively smooth, and no the rumor that Southwest flies bikes for free is not true, 50 bucks each way, which is cheap and respectable relative to some of the price gougers out there.  And the rest of your luggage is indeed free of charge.  We drove up 45 minutes to Oceanside, in about an hour with some traffic.  It seemed like there were a lot of chain restaurants on the web and once we checked into the hotel, the girl at check in confirmed our best bet were chains.  So we had some Mimi’s Café for dinner, salad for Thursday.  Friday we did Macaroni Grill with a build your own pasta.  The chain restaurants were made up for with a Trader Joe’s where we stopped for supplies, including coffee and filters for the tiny coffee maker in the room.  I went caffeine free for 3 days leading up to the race but no Starbucks would be open at 4:45am for my wakeup on Saturday.  But this plan fit the bill and will be utilized going forward.

Saturday morning, up and at ‘em at 4:45am.  I slept great actually, a solid 7 hours.  I felt great and the coffee was gooood and worked it’s digestive magic (yes you know what I mean).  I ate 2 bananas and a cliff protein bar at 5 giving me 2 hours before my race start.  We packed up the car and headed over to the race start.

We arrived to the parking area no problem, topped off the tires and headed by bike to the transition area.  Dana took a shuttle bus.  The swim to bike transition had a quarter mile run in the wetsuit.  Then you quarter mile coast into it off the bike to the run and still have a solid 300 yards or so back out the start so reallllly long transitions.  There were tons of race waves (3 for my age group alone).

Swim 1.2 miles – 40 minutes

The swim is cool.  An out and back and my first deep water start.  Also my first salt water swim.  Hard to site into the sun on the way back in though.  I puked after about a mile in the water.  Dana read some funny stories about triathletes swimming through the puke of their fellow racers on slowtwitch.  I wonder if anyone swam through mine, haha.   I wasn’t really sure what that all meant but I knew I should hit my spare water bottle in transition.  I ran through transition with my legs feeling a little wobbly.  Got situated and downed the water.  I was a little bummed I was slow but I figured no biggie, 35 minutes would be good 33 optimum, but plenty of time to make up 5 minutes.

T1 – 5:42 minutes

It was long, 2 minutes probably just running around.  I was wobbly and tried to get the puke and salt taste out of my mouth.  

Bike 56 miles – 3:00 hours

So the first half of the bike is pretty easy in terms of hills, but this is where I knew there was a problem.  My riding on Friday had me sailing up slight inclines at 21 mph with no discernable effort.  I was struggling to keep over 18 mph and my rpe was through the roof.  It just felt like nothing was working.  I was getting depressed and couldn’t figure it out.  Then it dawned on me I was sucking down water and not needing to pee at all which is uncommon for me on the bike if I drink too much fluid.  I realized that the puke was all salt water and I was dehydrated so I just kept downing water and not sure how the race would turn out.  About mile 40 I started feeling better but I knew at that point even a PR would be tough.  Because even feeling better your bike legs are tired and there isn’t much room to go.  The course is beautiful, but windy, hilly and humid.  I saw people walking up some hills.  I used my triple on 2 hills.  It is the first time I was ever scared of being blown over on the bike.

T2 – 3:08 minutes

Long again but feeling less wobbly at this point and my head is feeling better, now I’m sort of just mad.  I decide I will go for broke on the run.

Run 1 hour 44 minutes – 7:56 min/mile pace

So I rolled out of T2 not sure where my total time was but thought maybe I can eke out a PR but I planned to run till it hurt and just keep going.  It did hurt.  So seawater over ingestion works like this.  First response, puke.  Lots of folks end up pulled out of the water and day over.  Dana says I should be happy just to finish.  Next step, your body sucks water out of your bloodstream and muscles to neutralize your stomach, thereby dehydrating everything else.  RPE increases but performance rapidly declines.  Your muscles don’t fire.  That’s what the first 40 miles of the bike felt like, just like your riding through really thick fog.  Once you start to rehydrate you can feel the bloating which feels like cramps.  I did feel that and thought I was cramping on the run.  I did pee a tiny bit at a rest stop which helped a little.  I just kept running and every time I looked at lap or avg pace I was seeing 7 handles so I just said keep pounding this out at least get a 7 handle pace and call it a day.  The run course is awesome, two out and backs, jammed with crowds cheering.  Music blaring definitely keeps you fired up.  I strolled across the line and saw 1:44, happy with that but spent.  The run saved my day, but it was tough.

I had some pizza and water in the tent.  Started to feel the full effects of that bloating.  Decided time to get moving.  Well run race except transitions are too long and getting back to parking was a pain.  Some lessons learned, March is early for a race if you live in Colorado.  Never underestimate humidity, wind and hills on the bike.  A trainer won’t prep you for that.  Lots can go wrong in a race.  We are fortunate to do each and every race.  I appreciate all the more finishing my first full Ironman last year.  Goals for future race...Goal 1: Have Fun, Goal 2: Finish, Goal 3: PR.  Anyway IMCA70.3 served its purpose.  I finished in the top 3^rd overall and the top half of my age group.

We met my buddy Scott and his family (Trish, Cassie and Nick) for dinner Saturday night down in San Diego at World Famous Seafood. That was great.  On Sunday our friend Gary showed us around San Diego.  We got to check out Coronado Island and the Navy Seal training grounds.  Very cool stuff.  Had a nice open air lunch at a Greek restaurant.  All in all a nice vacation.

Happy Training.