Another 69.1 RR

Steelhead, which is one of my favorite races, was unfortunately turned into a TT start on the bike just like New Orleans 70.3 was this year.

I arrived on Friday afternoon to make sure I would be able to hop in Lake Michigan to get in a little open water swim in my wetsuit. I did a nice and easy 25 minute swim and then met up with my homestay before heading to down town St. Joseph to grab some dinner with Nick Waninger and his friend. The swim seemed a little choppy, but nothing that seemed to hint at the fact that the swim might be cancelled.

Saturday morning, Nick gave me a call and we met up to go for a little bike/run warmup before going to grab some lunch with Eric, Beth, and Jamie at Panera. We heard a little talk going around that there were rip current warnings for Lake Michigan and that the swim was looking very doubtful for Sunday's race. Later in the day at the Pro meeting, they told us more of the same and that if the swim was cancelled, we would start in TT order on the bike in reverse order of our race numbers. After the meeting, I hit up a blueberry farm with my dad and brother, who were in Michigan for work and just stuck around to watch me race, and bought 5 pounds of blueberries and one of the best blueberry scones I've ever eaten.

After a good dinner at Chili's with Dad, Ben, Jamie, Eric, and Beth, I went to my homestay's, got everything set out for the morning, and was off to bed.

Sunday morning actually seemed kind of calm when I woke up but I guess it was the calm before the storm. When I arrived at the transition area, the Lake looked like a washing machine and the winds were howling. They had already cancelled the swim when I got there at 5:30. So, instead of setting up my transition area and then walking 1 mile down the beach to the race start, I just hung out with the other pros that arrived WAY too early for the TT start from the transition area. At 7:15, the first pro was off. Since I was #12, I had a little while before I was to start since there were 39 guys on the start list.

Somewhere around 7:25, I was sent off. I had a few guys up the road that I was aiming to catch pretty fast, but with the wind direction, I knew I shouldn't push too hard too early because we had a head wind for the first 10 or so miles. But I knew this meant we would have a tail wind for the last 15 miles of the ride. About 12 miles into the ride, Daniel Bretscher caught me who started 30 seconds behind me. When he passed, I bumped my wattage up 5 - 10 watts and kept him close without drafting. I passed him back and shortly afterwards Chris Legh and Zack Ruble both passed me. Again, I bumped up my effort to keep them close, which I was able to do. We passed a few guys over the next 10 - 20 miles and a few of those guys jumped in and started to ride "a little close." Before we knew it, we were in a group of 8 or so guys. Chris Legh was the strongest cyclist in the group and was pushing the pace up until 35 miles or so. He actually gapped the group several times, only to have one guy chase him down and bring the rest of the group with him. I made sure to ride at a legal distance behind the guy in front of me, and I would pass them when I felt they were slowing so that I could push the pace. I never knew when an official was going to ride by us so I made sure to keep my distance. After catching some more guys, and having a group of almost 15 or so coming into T2. I was off my bike, had a good transition, and was off on the run. Here is my Garmin file for the bike.



Once on the run, I came out just behind Chris Legh and I was wearing my Garmin 310Xt for the first time in a 70.3 race so I made sure to pace myself instead of going out too hard. I was also wearing my HR monitor so I made sure to keep that in check on the hills. I ran a good pace for the first few miles but let Legh get a little up the road. I was running with Bretscher and Jeff Paul for a few miles before Paul fell off. Bretscher and I ran side by side and really pushed each other. It took us a few miles before we were able to reel in Legh but we held about the same pace for most of the run. Right around the 9.5 - 10 mile mark, Bretscher put a little gap on me and I wasn't able to answer. Legh then pulled away a little but nothing significant. It stayed that way for the rest of the run and that is how we crossed the finish line. Unfortunately, they both started behind me so I knew they had beaten me by more than just that small distance between us at the finish. And there were also some guys that started minutes behind me that crossed the line within seconds of me, so I was just hoping to finish inside the top 8. Here is the Garmin file from the run.



My dad and brother weren't far from the finish and my bro had his iphone with the results pulled up. I quickly saw that I biked a 2:06 and change and ran a 1:15 and change, but that only got me 12th place. I was extremely happy with the effort as I averaged over 300 watts for the first time in a 70.3 and also ran my best 13.1 miles off the bike. There were some fantastic finishes by some of the guys that beat me and congrats to all who participated. Beth, Eric, Jamie, and our Master's swim coach Meagan all had fabulous races and no doubt would have finished even better if there were a swim.

Now I'm back to training and working on my normal schedule. My next "big" race is the Rev3 South Carolina race and I'm not exactly sure what is next up. Thanks for reading.

Tony

Giant Eagle Tri RR

This past weekend was the inaugural Giant Eagle Tri in Columbus, OH. They offered 30k prize money to the Pro's which was paid out to the top 7 athletes. I was excited to race an Olympic distance race which I haven't done since Rev3 Knoxville in May. I also decided to make it a short travel weekend like I did for Muncie 70.3 since this race is so close to Lexington.
I just chilled out Friday here in Lex instead of driving up 2 days early. Saturday I woke up and did a little shake out run before hitting the road to Columbus. I practiced my aero position on the way up and made it to Columbus in record time.

Once at the park, I picked up my packet, chatted with our team director, then hopped in the water for a little swim. It was crazy warm and super shallow but no big deal. I grabbed a little lunch at Panera, came back for the Pro meeting, then headed to my homestay's house. I stayed with Dan Wesley who just opened up a Retul bike fit shop in Columbus and he and his wife were super nice and helpful and I was very grateful to be able to stay at their house. If you life in that area and need a bike fit, check it out. www.triformancesbr.com

After some light conversations and a little dinner, I was off to bed. Unfortunately, it didn't mean I was going to sleep. I had one of those nights where you are wide awake and you can't do anything about. It may have been the 3 large teas I had at Panera for lunch, but I just could not fall asleep. After managing a few hours of sleep, I woke up at 4 to get my usual pre race breakfast down. With the unique set up of a point-to-point triathlon, I had to drive to the finish line/T2 area to park and then take the shuttle up to T1 which was roughly 15 miles away. After a late departure and a very slow drive, the shuttle made it to T1 at about 6:15 only leaving me 45 minutes to do ALL of my usual pre race stuff including bathroom, prep bike/nutrition, body marking, pick up chip, pump up tires, check in swim bag gear, swim warmup, etc, etc, etc.

Anyways, I made it and at 7am we were off. They had to change the swim to a 2 loop swim due to the small swim area in the lake. We only had about a 50 yard swim to the first turn buoy but there were only 20 - 25 of us so I figured it wouldn't be too horrible. When we hit that buoy, it was nothing like an ITU swim and I didn't have anyone grab my head and push me under which was nice. The bad part was I was on the feet of several super swimmers and I didn't need to be there. After swimming a 200 yard PR (I'm guessing), I maxed out and was in trouble. The next turn buoy was roughly 250 - 300 meters into the swim and I had already lost contact of the lead pack. Luckily, when we made our 3rd left turn, it was in about 2.5 - 3.5 ft of water so I started to dolphin dive to try and catch back up. I did 10 - 20 dolphin dives and caught back up to the group as they were all still swimming. Unfortunately, all of those dives spiked my HR once again and I did not stay in that pack for long. The 2nd lap was just about the same and I came out of the water just over 18 minutes with several guys in my sights. I had a good T1 and was off on my bike.

It took a few miles for me to get my HR down from the swim and for my legs to come around, but after about 5 miles I felt fine. I pushed roughly 320 watts and tried to keep it in that range. I figured I would be able to go a little harder but that just wasn't in the cards. I focused on staying in the aero position and not wasting too much energy by spiking my wattage out of turns or by pushing a little too hard on hills. I believe this helped as I caught 4 guys in the first 10 miles and then another guy at around the 20th mile. I wasn't sure what place I was in or how far back I was but I just kept pushing. Here is the Garmin file for my ride.

I came off the bike, had a great T2 (missed the fastest T2 by 1 second) and took off on the run. I heard the announcer say that I was rounding out the top 5 so I figured there had to be a few guys close, but I wasn't sure.

I was wearing my Garmin 310XT for the first time in a race so that I would "pace" myself a little better as opposed to just taking off and then holding on for dear life like I usually do. I could see someone up the road but there was also a 2k walk / 5k run going on at the same time and when I caught that person, it was someone who was doing the 5k run (walk). So as I saw more people, I just figured it was all people in the 5k, but I did see 1 guy who looked like he was wearing a tri suit and I was barely gaining ground on him so I pushed to catch him. I was right, and right at about the 5k mark, I caught him. I was now in 4th and could actually see 3rd just up the road. I kept pushing and gained a few seconds per kilometer on him but the wheels started to fall off with about a mile to go. My HR jumped up a few beats higher and I was slowing down. I never got that close to 3rd place and I crossed the finish line in 4th. This was equal to my best placing at a Pro race and I was very pleased with my effort. Here's my Garmin file for the run.

After the race, I got my award then headed back to my homestay's to clean up then hit the road. Once I was ready to leave, I figured it had been too good of a day so I figured I would back into a sewage drain and give myself a flat tire. I have never changed a flat before (on my car) and this happened to be right in front of my homestay's house. Dan came out and happily gave me a hand. Luckily, this happened where it did as I did not have a jack and he did. We put my spare on and I was on my way at the max speed of 50 mph (I only drove 60 - 65 the whole way back). So, I got back in Lexington about 1.5 hours later than I had planned but I did make it back so I wasn't worried about it.

Next up, Steelhead 70.3 and then.....

Thanks for reading.

Tony