Monday, August 19, 2013

Off Course

Since the Music City Triathlon, I have had a little fire in my belly. I don't like to get beat, and I especially don't like to get destroyed like I was that day in Nashville by local pro Craig Evans. It was mostly due to his strength and my lack there-of on the bike. My training has been a little more race specific for the past 3 weeks and I have actually felt like I made some big gains in training over the past few weeks. It's amazing what a little speed work will do.

At the beginning of the summer, I made the decision I would do a few low key races and nothing that I would take too serious. I decided to do a few Nashville races and would do the Bowling Green race as its only 1 hour North and I could stay with my grand parents. Well, the 3rd tri of the year for me was the BG sprint tri where Craig Evans normally cleans up pretty easily. With it being a sprint race, I figured I could just bury myself and try to hang on for dear life to keep up.

It was a simple 400m pool swim, 14 mile bike, and a 5k run.

Race day came around, Casey and I both checked it (since she decided it was more exciting to race than spectate) and we were seeded 2 & 3 in the time trial swim format (normal for a pool swim tri). I just assumed Craig would be #1 seed and my plan was to keep him in sight coming into t2 and then run him down. If I crossed the finish line with him, then I would be the victor by 10 seconds. Well, when we lined up to start, it was a 13 year old age group swimmer who was seeded 1st. Craig was seeded 10th?? Not sure how that happened considering he is the reigning champ of that race for the previous 37 years (ok, not quite that long) and he always has the fastest swim split. I had to change my race plan. I would just go hard and race scared hoping to hold him off for as long as possible.

The swim was uneventful. It was 400 meters of long course swimming where we had to go under a lane line every 50 meters. I got out, had a good t1, and was off on the bike.

The first mile was uphill and I was cranking away. I looked down and had averaged 361 watts for that first mile. I backed off a little but was at the top of the hill and starting to go down so it was not going to stay that high anyways. I felt great on the bike, continued to push, and came into t2 with a nice little lead. I never saw Craig even when I was heading out of t2. We had driven the bike course and most of run course the following day so I knew exactly where to go. I was glad that I did too as the run course wasn't marked very well back in the little neighborhood for the first 1 - 1.5 miles. I got the the aid station at around the 1 mile mark, but it was set up on the far right side of the road and the volunteers were sitting in their cars as I ran by on the left side of the road. I didn't even see the aid station, because of where the cars were parked, until I was already by it. I made the left hand turn for home and was feeling pretty good. I ran through the 2.5 km mark of the run in about 8:20 and turned into the park about 1 minute or so later.

Here is where I got lost. The run course map for the race had you making a right hand turn once you were in the park and then getting on the running path that circles the park. I started to do that, but had a volunteer tell me to go straight through that intersection, so I did. And if I had turned right, that was the bike in/out so I'm not sure how they would have handled the crossing paths of runners and cyclists. So I ran straight, and kept running straight. I got to a stop sign and didn't see a single marking on the road or sign or anything. I knew that I was supposed to turn right at some point so that is what I did, then I made a right about 1/4 mile later at another stop sign. I found my way back to the running path in the park and made a right hand turn right as Craig came running by in the opposite direction. I knew that I had made a wrong turn and that my race was over. I turned around, followed Craig to the finish line and immediately walked to my car to change clothes and jog around for a cooldown. Apparently I was supposed to cut through the grass at some point to get over to the running path and follow that to the finish.

I was really upset at the time, but I figured that much worse things could have happened. There was no prize money on the line so I didn't really lose out on anything special. I cheered Casey on as she finished and we did a cooldown together. We ate some bbq that was catered, then went to my grandparents for a nap and some soft serve ice cream.

All in all, it was a great day. Casey finished her 2nd tri, and finished really well considering the trouble that she had with the crappy chip strap they gave her. It's hard to swim fast when the velcro doesn't work on your chip strap. I had a much better bike split than I anticipated and was running really well until I went off course. And I got homemade peach cobbler with soft serve ice cream for an afternoon snack.

I ended up 2nd on the day after adding on a few minutes of running. I can't say that I 100% would have won or if I would have ended up 2nd even if I had stayed on course until the results are posted online.

My focus for the next few months will be on running. I have a few running racing on the calendar and am looking to runs some personal bests at various distances. Then the base building for 2014 will begin.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Music City Tri

What?  2 triathlons this year?  crazy.

This past Sunday was the Music City Tri and with Nashville being my new hometown, I figured what better race to compete in than this one.  I toyed with the idea of the Chattanooga Tri a few weeks ago, but given my current fitness level on the bike, I knew Chattanooga would have been a rude awakening.

I love sleeping in my own bed and having an almost normal morning the day of a race.  I woke up right around my normal time, had some breakfast and coffee, packed the car, then hit the road for downtown.

I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I picked up my packet race morning, but the volunteers didn't steer me through the line so I left prematurely.  I realized later on I didn't have any race numbers, stickers, or a swim cap.  I jogged back over got that stuff and went back to the car to get everything ready.  Went for a little spin on the bike to make sure everything was good, then racked it in transition.  I should have listened to the pre race announcements as they discussed the flow of transitions and that would have benefitted me greatly.  Someone did mention the water was 72 degrees so I was extremely happy I happened to throw my wetsuit in the car "just in case."

After jogging to and from the car about 5 times, and making Casey extremely nervous, I was finally all set and went down to the river for the start.  It is a time trial start like most Team Magic races and all of the sprint distance athletes were starting first.  so about 450 athletes were starting ahead of me so I knew I had a while to wait.  I did find out that my buddy Bruce was starting right behind me and I know he's a fantastic swimmer so I would have some feet to chase once he flew by me.  At about 8:30, the Olympic distance athletes were finally started.  The race favorite, and local pro, Craig Evans was first in the water.  I timed the space between us, and it almost was exactly 2 minutes exactly.  I had a pretty solid start and swam consistently for the whole swim.  I did get on Bruce's feet for 100-200 yards but couldn't manage to hang on for much longer.  The rest of the swim was uneventful and I came out of the water in 3rd behind Craig and Bruce (I started 24th, not sure how they seeded the swim and how Bruce and I was 24th and 25th).  I ran to transition, ran down the wrong aisle, and spent 5 seconds or so looking around for my bike.  Once I found it, I took off and got a pretty solid start to the bike.


The bike is 2 laps and I held about the same wattage for both laps.  I was afraid to push too much as I haven't done many brick workouts and really haven't biked much at all this year.  I kept a solid pace and was able to catch Bruce about 20 miles into the bike.  The only thing I would have changed is taking a 2nd bottle.  I figured that 1 bottle would have been plenty of fluid for me, but it definitely wasn't.  I came off the bike in 2nd, behind Craig, with Bruce right behind me, and again, ran down to the wrong rack.  After another 5 seconds or so, found my spot, racked my bike, slipped on my shoes, and was off.  Well, I ran to the bike out which was the opposite corner of T2 from the run exit.  I had a volunteer yell at me as I was heading out that I was going in the wrong direction.  I turned around, ran to the other side of T2, and started my run.  Looking at the results, Craig put 45 seconds on me just in T2 if that tells you anything about how lost I was in T2, haha.  well, I had already given him a nice lead from the bike and that mishap just added to it.  I felt really good on the run for the first 3 miles or so.  No idea what pace I was running as I didn't see a mile split until I hit 3 miles.  I know my 4th mile was about a 5:42, and then the 5th mile was brutal.  It had 2 pretty challenging hills in it and was where the wheels started to fall off.  I managed to salvage my run on the last 1.2 miles but the damage was already done and I was 4 minutes out of 1st anyways.  I do know is that I ran the last 3.2 in 18:40 and looking at the results I was around 35:40 so I ran around 5:40 pace for the first 3 miles.  not terrible considering the lack of speed work, tempo, anything faster than easy pace really.



Overall I was happy with my effort given the swim and bike prep.  I felt I swam really well, biked well given my current fitness level, and ran pretty well.  if it were a flatter course, I may have broken 35 min. for the 10k run off the bike so I would have been really happy with that.

It was really nice having Casey, my mom, sister and her fiance all there cheering me on.  And I even ended up with some great pics thanks to the local tri guys.  Onto the next one.