This was an extremely difficult race. Much more difficult than I anticipated it being. The swim went very well. I started out on the edge of the mass and slowly worked my way into the main group, but was able to avoid the bumping and smashing that is typical of a big mass start. This was my first open water race of the year without a wet suit. It felt surprisingly easy considering I was used to the buoyancy of the suit. I had expected to finish under 15 minutes, but as usual, you can never really estimate an open water swim. I did screw up the final turn. The glare was really difficult and I couldn't see the finish line at first and am pretty sure I swam a huge arc instead of a straight line. About halfway between the turn and the finish I noticed the sight buoy about 30 yards to my left. I wound up finishing the swim in just under 16 minutes. Which was still good for second in my category.
T1 was easy and smooth. I tried the technique with the shoes locked in already and it finally went smooth. Still need work hopping on the bike fluidly. I had the fastest transition time in my category.
The bike was much tougher than expected. I had done the course a few times prior but not after a 750 meter swim. It was certainly a challenge. The first roller coaster type hill was a bear. I was close to my competition as we approached and I thought by letting them pass and resting a bit I'd hit the hill more rested. Well, it certainly didn't help me compared to them. They still pulled away even faster than I was able to make it up the hill. I'm hoping the new cassette will help me with the hills, since it seems i'm the only one out there mashing the pedals at 6 mph. I was definitely a lot slower than my prep rides. Not sure why. I don't think the swim wore me down substantially, but I was also holding back a bit for the run. Once again though, I was still worn down during the run, so I'm starting to think I should probably just go all out during each leg. The run is brutal no matter what, so next time I'm just going to attack the bike and hope for the best on the run. I wound up finishing the bike in 1:06:28, almost 2 minutes slower than my prep ride.
T2 was another very smooth, very fast transition. I had the 3rd fastest transition time, but I had one of the longest distances to traverse.
The run was a nightmare. I felt ok at first, but I quickly began struggling. I was passed constantly, but around mile 1 began a ridiculously steep hill. Another one of those hills were it would've probably been smarter to walk it since I was running at about the same speed that I walk. When I finally reached the top I felt a lot better and there was a nice sustained gentle downhill. The big downhill was somewhat helpful but so steep it wasn't all that helpful. The remaining mile and a half was just a fight. The wood chips, although soft, got in my shoes and hurt. I developed a massive blister on one of my toes, and every stride was agony. I was close to removing my shoes and finishing barefoot. Another lesson learned...never again will I do a hilly race without socks. But I did finally make it around and picked up the pace for the final quarter mile. I finished strong which is always important to me. The run time was 30:16. Easily my worst time by far for a sprint distance run. At least that gives me a lot of room to improve for next year.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Long Overdue Race Report for Over The Mountain
So I'm about a week overdue for writing up my report for the Over The Mountain Triathlon in Kings Mountain on May 21st. Last year I did the race in about 3:16. However, they changed the run, first off they added .2 miles to it and made it a lot more hilly. With all that in mind, my goal times were 3:07(dream time) and 3:12(realistic goal).
So, lets get to it. It was perfect weather to start the day. About 60 or so and sunny. It definitely had the feel of a hot day coming though.
1500 yard swim: The swim was actually a very small wave. There were maybe 20 of us, so there was absolutely no bumping and kicking. I like to avoid that, but I've actually been sort of wanting to get into bigger waves to get me prepared for Arizona. But oh well. After the previous week of struggling to breath in my suit I went for a different strategy. I started out a bit slower than I did before, gradually picking up speed. This worked well. I never felt winded at all on the swim. Was also given an incredibly helpful tip from another racer. He suggested sighting by where the land met the water, rather than the actual buoy. That made things a lot easier because trying to site a buoy from 800 yards away is nearly impossible. Anyway, I felt pretty much alone through the whole swim, the only other swimmers I encountered were from the wave that started about 5 minutes before us. That made me feel pretty good to catch up to some of them. But I exited the water about 28 minutes later. I was six minutes faster than last years time, so I was already way out ahead of my goal.
T1: Then began the torturous T1. You exit the water at the bottom of a very long, very steep boat ramp. The run up that thing is just nasty. One of the toughest parts of the whole race. But I just kept forcing myself to jog up it, knowing I could relax a bit and catch my breath on the bike. Finally made it to my bike and began the process of trying to rip that wet suit off. For some reason it got hung up on my timing chip on my ankle. But alas, I got it off, got my bike gear on with no issues, and was on my way.
45 Kilometer Bike(28 miles): So the bike actually felt pretty good. I was strong the whole way, the hills were not a problem at all for me. I felt much stronger than last year. I was only passed by a handful of people, but I think that was partly due to the fact that we were one of the last waves to start. My plan was to drink HEED every 10-15 minutes and a Hammer Gel every 45. I stuck to the HEED plan pretty well, but unfortunately was stupid with the Hammer Gel. I felt fine, so I wound up only taking one. This came back to haunt me later. More on that later. The heat was definitely picking up as the bike went on. When I finally was approaching the finish, I took the final mile fairly easy and cruised into T2 feeling pretty good. My final time was 1:32:51. Three seconds slower than last year.
T2: Not much to talk about here. I had a good dismount off the bike and cruised right in without slowing down too much. Popped on my running shoes, hat and number and was off after one last swig of HEED.
6.2 mile run: So, the run begins. Always the most grueling part of the race. However, I was fooled into thinking how good I felt. The first mile or so is mostly downhill, so it allowed me to relax a bit, get my HR down some, and foolishly believe that I was going to hit my dream time. Let me back track. Starting the run I was around 2:05. I not only had a chance to beat my dream time, but crack 3 hours with a really solid run. To do that I would need to average 9 min miles. I routinely do 8:10-8:15 min miles in sprint tri's, so it seemed conceivable that I would be able to maintain 9 for an Olympic. When I hit the 1 mile mark, it seemed even more doable. I was right at a 9 min pace, and I felt that I was going a little slow. Well, that's where the gradient and my feelings began to change. Around 1.5 miles I was feeling sort of like I wanted to die, and mistakenly thought about the fact that I still had almost 5 miles to go. "PUT THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND, JUST GET TO THE WATER STATION." That was the last time I had that thought and I kept pressing on. When I hit the 2 mile marker I had slowed to around a 9:30 pace overall(10 min pace at that point). What felt like an eternity went by and I finally began approaching the midway point. When I hit the turnaround I was right at 31 minutes. Now I'm down to a 10 min pace overall. Bye bye cracking 3 hours. However, the dream goal was still in my sights. I'd have to be faster, but that only meant picking up the pace a little bit to finish in just under 29 minutes. Certainly possible. However, forgetting that I had just come down a huge long hill, that goal quickly went bye bye as I very slowly trudged up that same hill. At this point it became a war of attrition between my mind and my body. This is the point where I realized how foolish it was not to take in all the hammer gel I had brought with me. I was out of energy, starving, and nautious. All signs to me that I didn't take in enough while on the bike. Anyway, I kept pressing on, with each water stop and mile marker encouraging me. Then two wonderful spectators told me and another guy how inspirational we were and that made me feel really great inside, despite wanting to die. I knew my speed was slowing badly as I could tell at each mile marker that I'd been slowing by about a minute per each mile. I hit mile 5 and knew I had to reach the end of the street, make the turn, and the final chute would be straight ahead. I finally got there, .2 miles to go. I saw the chute, and for those final seconds forgot about the pain, hunger, nausea and turned into sprint mode for the final 50 yards. I spotted Rachel up ahead on the other side of the finish line and couldn't wait to get there. I finally crossed the finish line at 3:10:05. Nearly 2 minutes ahead of my goal time and with a run time of 1:04:53. Absolutely terrible, but enough to get me in under my time.
Valuable lesson learned though...stick to the nutrition plan no matter what.
So, lets get to it. It was perfect weather to start the day. About 60 or so and sunny. It definitely had the feel of a hot day coming though.
1500 yard swim: The swim was actually a very small wave. There were maybe 20 of us, so there was absolutely no bumping and kicking. I like to avoid that, but I've actually been sort of wanting to get into bigger waves to get me prepared for Arizona. But oh well. After the previous week of struggling to breath in my suit I went for a different strategy. I started out a bit slower than I did before, gradually picking up speed. This worked well. I never felt winded at all on the swim. Was also given an incredibly helpful tip from another racer. He suggested sighting by where the land met the water, rather than the actual buoy. That made things a lot easier because trying to site a buoy from 800 yards away is nearly impossible. Anyway, I felt pretty much alone through the whole swim, the only other swimmers I encountered were from the wave that started about 5 minutes before us. That made me feel pretty good to catch up to some of them. But I exited the water about 28 minutes later. I was six minutes faster than last years time, so I was already way out ahead of my goal.
T1: Then began the torturous T1. You exit the water at the bottom of a very long, very steep boat ramp. The run up that thing is just nasty. One of the toughest parts of the whole race. But I just kept forcing myself to jog up it, knowing I could relax a bit and catch my breath on the bike. Finally made it to my bike and began the process of trying to rip that wet suit off. For some reason it got hung up on my timing chip on my ankle. But alas, I got it off, got my bike gear on with no issues, and was on my way.
45 Kilometer Bike(28 miles): So the bike actually felt pretty good. I was strong the whole way, the hills were not a problem at all for me. I felt much stronger than last year. I was only passed by a handful of people, but I think that was partly due to the fact that we were one of the last waves to start. My plan was to drink HEED every 10-15 minutes and a Hammer Gel every 45. I stuck to the HEED plan pretty well, but unfortunately was stupid with the Hammer Gel. I felt fine, so I wound up only taking one. This came back to haunt me later. More on that later. The heat was definitely picking up as the bike went on. When I finally was approaching the finish, I took the final mile fairly easy and cruised into T2 feeling pretty good. My final time was 1:32:51. Three seconds slower than last year.
T2: Not much to talk about here. I had a good dismount off the bike and cruised right in without slowing down too much. Popped on my running shoes, hat and number and was off after one last swig of HEED.
6.2 mile run: So, the run begins. Always the most grueling part of the race. However, I was fooled into thinking how good I felt. The first mile or so is mostly downhill, so it allowed me to relax a bit, get my HR down some, and foolishly believe that I was going to hit my dream time. Let me back track. Starting the run I was around 2:05. I not only had a chance to beat my dream time, but crack 3 hours with a really solid run. To do that I would need to average 9 min miles. I routinely do 8:10-8:15 min miles in sprint tri's, so it seemed conceivable that I would be able to maintain 9 for an Olympic. When I hit the 1 mile mark, it seemed even more doable. I was right at a 9 min pace, and I felt that I was going a little slow. Well, that's where the gradient and my feelings began to change. Around 1.5 miles I was feeling sort of like I wanted to die, and mistakenly thought about the fact that I still had almost 5 miles to go. "PUT THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND, JUST GET TO THE WATER STATION." That was the last time I had that thought and I kept pressing on. When I hit the 2 mile marker I had slowed to around a 9:30 pace overall(10 min pace at that point). What felt like an eternity went by and I finally began approaching the midway point. When I hit the turnaround I was right at 31 minutes. Now I'm down to a 10 min pace overall. Bye bye cracking 3 hours. However, the dream goal was still in my sights. I'd have to be faster, but that only meant picking up the pace a little bit to finish in just under 29 minutes. Certainly possible. However, forgetting that I had just come down a huge long hill, that goal quickly went bye bye as I very slowly trudged up that same hill. At this point it became a war of attrition between my mind and my body. This is the point where I realized how foolish it was not to take in all the hammer gel I had brought with me. I was out of energy, starving, and nautious. All signs to me that I didn't take in enough while on the bike. Anyway, I kept pressing on, with each water stop and mile marker encouraging me. Then two wonderful spectators told me and another guy how inspirational we were and that made me feel really great inside, despite wanting to die. I knew my speed was slowing badly as I could tell at each mile marker that I'd been slowing by about a minute per each mile. I hit mile 5 and knew I had to reach the end of the street, make the turn, and the final chute would be straight ahead. I finally got there, .2 miles to go. I saw the chute, and for those final seconds forgot about the pain, hunger, nausea and turned into sprint mode for the final 50 yards. I spotted Rachel up ahead on the other side of the finish line and couldn't wait to get there. I finally crossed the finish line at 3:10:05. Nearly 2 minutes ahead of my goal time and with a run time of 1:04:53. Absolutely terrible, but enough to get me in under my time.
Valuable lesson learned though...stick to the nutrition plan no matter what.
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