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It has been a couple weeks since posting about this race and I still have to write about the run portion. Besides that, I just completed my second Triathlon of the season and it wouldn’t be right to wright about that one until I finished this little saga.
Well, the transition from Bike to run is a bit easier. They make you dismount a little ways away from the transition area so people aren’t flying in on their bikes dodging other racers, that are hopping on one foot trying to get their running shoes on. So, I stopped, swung my leg over the seat and with my bicycles cleats making the clickity=clackety noise they always do, trotted across the rows of bikes (that had already been racked by the hundreds of other racers up to nearly an hour ago), and hung my bike on the rack where I picked it up, 90 minutes ago. Off with the helmet, and gloves (although I was tempted to keep those on), off with the bike shoes, on with the running shoes, my little white hat I like to run in and off I went. 6.2 miles to go.
I wz as a little wobbly for a few minutes as my leg muscles adjusted from pedaling in circles for an hour and a half to actually taking steps and pounding on the ground. there was still a little numbness in my right foot and it felt wierd running when I couldn’t feel the ground beneath them, totally. After about a mile, I warmed up a bit and it went away.
I started off on a pace I figured I could maintain. About a 9:30 mile and ran along side another guy that sounded like he was struggling a bit more than me. Sure enough after about 10 minutes he had to walk and I left him behind. I was encouraged that I was able to keep going at this pace which would put me at about just under an hour.
I slowed down at the first aid station for a little water and I remembered from the 10K run back in Boise that to avoid splashing the contents of that little cup in your face, you pinch the top of the cup and basically fold it closed, and then sip it out of the creased top of the cup. This worked much better. Just one more tip to add to my list of what to do and what not to do.
At 3.1 miles was the turn around, and another aid station. More water. I was starting to feel it now, this was getting tough. About this thime I mostly caught up to a woman who was running/walking alternately. I would catch up to her and then she would start running again and drop me by about 100 yards, then I would catch her after she had been taking a walking break for a minute or two. All I could think of was ‘”why don’t you just slow down a bit and you wont have to walk. You are averaging about a 10/min mile like me”
With a bout 1.5 miles to go I starting falling apart. I was instinctively trying to keep up to a certain level but every time I looked at my watch it told me I was slowing down. It sure didn’t feel like it. My heart rate was staying at about 165 bpm but my pace was slowly dropping. 10:05 10:10 10:15. There was not much I could do. I would get mad for a minute and step up the pace, only to check my watch again and see that I was STILL not going any faster.
This effect got worse for the last mile or so and the run/walker stepped it up and slowly ran away from me. There was a little stretch where the course went up hill a bit and there was no way I could keep running. I had to walk the 50 yards or so to get over it. After that it was back to running and I could hear the celebration at the finish line.
I crossed at 3:10 even, a little over what my goal was but I was OK with it for my first race. Immediately after crossing the finish one of the officials clipped off the strap that attached the timing chip to my ankle. However, the wire snips he was using were pressed against my instep a bit too hard and hinge of the pliers crushed my skin at that spot. Leaving a very nice little pinch/bloodblister/cut thing. He noticed about a second too late and said “sorry” but I was so exhausted I didn’t care and told him “no problem”. its been 3 weeks now and I have a nice little scar there.
My split times were 23:17 for the swim, which remember was only half of the scheduled course length, 1:30:07 for the bike which averaged out to just under 17MPH. The run was 1:01:26 which worked out to a 9:53 min/mile pace. Acceptable, and I felt tired but pretty good after. I little BBQ chicken and relaxing time while listen to other people win raffle items and I was done. My cousin and his friend showed up about then and we decided to meet for a burger and and a beer before I headed home.
A good race, and a good day.
Next up, MagicMan Triathlon in Twin Falls, ID, 20 days down the road.
So, “T” stands for “transition”. So named because it is where you transition from a swimmer to a cyclist, or from a cyclist to a runner. I suspect that many times, for many people, it stands for transition from “hey a triathlon sounds like fun” to “I feel like I am going to die and I still have over 30 miles to go ?!?!? “. This was not me however and after 3 or 4 months of pretty rigorous training, I was fine and the swim portion was not nearly as draining as I expected, or feared. In no small part because of the miracle that the race director announced minutes before the start.
I had plenty of time to organize my “transition bag” the night before, which actually was a large duffel with multiple zippered pockets and a custom OnionMan logo embroidered on it. These were handed out during the participant check-in the afternoon before and I was a bit surprised I didn’t see more people using them. I sure as heck was.
By the time I got to where I had carefully placed my bike, which was easy to find by the way, as there was only about 20 of them left on the racks, I already had my wetsuit unzipped but getting my arms free of it was harder than I thought. I would pull one sleeve mostly off and it would be hanging inside-out from my wrist, the last 6 inches of it still tight on my wrist. I didn’t have the strength to fully pull it off over my hand like you would peel a sock off from the top. So I stuck my finger under it along my wrist and palm and tried to lever the last few inches off. It was so hard I seriously thought I was going to break my finger doing that. This, I decided is where wetsuit lube, “Body-Glide” as it is known by its most popular trade name, comes in handy. It is stick form, like deodorant, and you put it on your lower arms, legs and neck to reduce chaffing and to help your wetsuit slide off a bit easier. Oh well, lesson learned.
The legs of my wetsuit were just as hard, pulling it over my feet finally meant I was in the clear and the suit that kept hypothermia at bay the last 30 minutes, was off. It was a lot colder out here now, all of a sudden…. I pulled my cycling shoes and socks out of my bag and spent the next 3-4 minutes pulling thin stretchy short white socks over cold wet feet, with nearly numb fingers. That was a real treat. I have a thing about socks, if they have a wrinkle under the toes, or if the seam is not nearly straight across the tops of the toes, it drives me crazy. It is unlikely that anyone in that race spent as much time as I did adjusting socks.
It was a bit of a trick to put on my heart-rate monitor, which is basically a elastic strap that goes around my chest. I call it my “manssiere’. I couldn’t wear it in the swim, so I had to take off the top of my tri-suit which is just a one-piece, stretchy ultra-thin sleeveless top and mid thigh…thing, and wrap that strap around me then put my arms back through the top of my tri-suit. That took me more time than it did just to put the stupid thing on earlier that morning. Bike computer gets clipped on my handle-bars, shoes went on, and I was reminded to walk my bike another 50 feet or so out of the transition area before I climbed on. Clipped in my left foot, swung my leg over and had to pedal with one foot while I fought with my right foot to get it clipped in the pedal. Then I was off.
Well sort of. As I mentioned before, the little road that leads in and out of this recreation area was freshly chip-sealed. And the gravel they used was big. Like 1/2 or 3/4 inch. My 23mm wide tires at 100psi didn’t exactly absorb much of the millions of sharp little bumps I had no choice but to ride over. I was afraid to go too fast for fear that my bike computer would bounce off like it did in the Sprint several weeks ago in Boise. A common funny thing is to see bicycle water bottles on the ground in bumpy areas of the bike course. Today was no exception as I noticed a few along the road during the first 1/4 mile or so. I actually wondered what the rules were about “finding” and keeping something like that. As it turned out, it might have been a good idea to actually stop and pick one up because it was about then that I realized that water bottle that I made sure was attached….was empty. I had totally forgotten to fill it up that morning at the house or during the pre-race prep time. Oh well….another lesson learned.
It was about a half mile down this extremely bumpy, jittery road complete with a few sets of speed bumps that you just about had to slow to a crawl to get over without banging your wheel against them. During this stretch I realized that I hadn’t’ started my timer on my speedometer/computer. The official race clock tracks my time but I wanted to know my speed and distance as I went along so I knew how much longer each part was. I spent a few hundred nervous yards, pressing buttons, looking up at the road, pressing more buttons, looking up a little more, starting the timer etc, until I was satisfied that the clock was rolling and estimated that about half a mile and about 3 minutes had passed.
A short time later the course flattened out and turned out to be a gently rolling country road that didn’t have any real hills per-say, but at the same time you couldn’t stay in the same gear for more than a minute or two if you wanted to keep your cadence up and relatively consistent. I was constantly, it seemed, switching between the middle 4 or 5 gears of my rear cassette, essentially gears 2-7 and was a bit discouraged that my speed was wavering around 15-18 mph. I was seriously hoping for 18-19. I suspected I was slowly gaining elevation as well. At least I hoped I was, as that would explain my slower than expected pace.
With no water at all, I was a bit worried, but it was so cold, that it was at least 20 minutes or so before I even got warm enough to feel like I had achieved “critical mass” and got my body core temperature up. Another 10 minutes or so before I could feel the first little dribbles of sweat trickle down into my eyes.
I had picked out a couple “gels” at the bike store the previous afternoon where we checked in for the race. “Gels” are basically gatorade with 90% of the water taken out. About 100 calories of sugar in a little squeeze packet. The idea is that you can get a little fuel without gumming up your water bottle with sugary drinks and keeping just plain water in them. If you remember to fill them up before the race that is.
My “fuel” plan for this race was to replenish a bit during the bike leg. This is a common triathlon strategy because it is kind of hard to carry and drink from a bottle as you are swimming, and on a bike you can sit up and coast a little and eat or drink with relative ease when there is still half or more of the race to go. An Olympic length race is only about 3 hours for us amateurs, so replenishing fuel stores is not as big of a factor, but I still stuck to this strategy, as it would be good practice. So after about 20-30 minutes, when I knew I was nearly a third the way through the bike portion, I reached back into one of the built in pockets in my tri-suit and pulled out the first gel pack, tore of the corner with my teeth and sucked down the ounce or two of sugary gel. It was Banana flavored and it didn’t really matter. I felt like that guy in the Jack London story “Love of Life” that nearly starves to death on the Alaska tundra and finds a nest with a couple of baby birds in it. I suspect that the gel was not nearly so crunchy, though.
It was like eating toothpaste, except for the part where your mom tells you not to swallow it. It did feel a little better after a few minutes as my energy seemed to increase a bit. Maybe it was just that I expected to feel better and so I did. Other than wishing I had a drink to wash it all down with, I didn’t feel dehydrated, which was good, so I pressed on.
Let me just say that there is an advantage to being a very poor swimmer, and it is this. When you get on the bike, there are literally dozens of slacker amateur “athletes” on their bikes ahead of you, and they are ahead of you only because they suck as swimming a little less than you do. It was time to real them in now. Even though my average speed was less than I had hoped I was passing cyclists nearly every couple minutes. I would catch up to someone, pace them for a minute or so, gauge their speed, decide that I could maintain 1 or 2 mph faster than this, let my heart rate settle back down to 155 or 160 and then check my 6 for cars and pull out and slide right by them. I tried my best NOT to look back but typically I would glance over my shoulder to make sure they didn’t push harder to keep up with me.
This “race within a race” would happen every few minutes, as I said and it kept my mind occupied. Watching my computer, I knew that the turn around or the half-way point of the bike leg should be coming up soon. Sure enough I could see a little road-block consisting of a pick-up truck and several cones that I was supposed to go around. The road was pretty narrow and I had to slow way down to make the hairpin and the next few miles were the best. I knew then that I was right, I HAD been gaining a little altitude leading up to this as I was able to maintain over 25mph for the next 10-12 minutes. I was in full aero position and in nearly the highest gear pedaling for all I was worth, feeling the wind rush past my face, keeping my head down as long as I dared before I would glance up and take a look.
My feet were warm now, my new glasses I bought a few days before, specifically for racing were working great keeping the wind out of my eyes, I wasn’t feeling very thirsty and I felt like I was flying. More victims were harder to come by now and it was 15 minutes or so before I caught the next one. I was a woman and I starting pacing her a bit. When I felt ready I kicked it in gear a little and passed her. I forget what her comment was but it was something encouraging like “go get ‘em” and it made me push harder. Maybe too hard. I didn’t look back that time and after a few minutes I decided to “eat” the other gel I had. This one was chocolate an it was like eating frosting. Now I REALLY wished I had that water, but I knew I only had another 20 minutes or so on the bike. As I was coaxing the last few specks of frosting out of that packet, the same gal I passed 10 minutes ago, passed me back. I couldn’t maintain as fast of a pace while I was fighting with that energy gel-food thing and she took advantage of it. . I stepped up my efforts and a few minutes later, passed her again, muttering “..passed me while I was having a snack…!!!??”
The turn in to the rec area meant that we had to negotiate the half mile or so of that crappy road and speed bumps. There was a lot more uphill this direction and I was up out of the saddle standing up on the pedals just trying to make sure I didn’t have to endure the ultimate disgrace of getting off and walking the bike up the hill. I made it though, and coasted back down into the same transition area I went through 80 minutes or so ago, feeling a lot more spent this time. I was tired, but felt good and was ready for a 6.2 mile run that would cap my first real triathlon.
The race was being held at a rather modest “lake” and recreation area called Lake Bennington. The lake was basically a mini reservoir used for flood control and I was told that a few weeks before it had been nearly empty. So I guess that meant that the water it had in it now was relatively “fresh” and had a lower percentage of duck poop in it than I was used to back in Boise at ClockTower pond. The freshly chip-sealed road leading down to the area would be lots of fun riding my bike up it. Just make sure you don’t fall on the hairpin switchbacks as the surface would basically be a giant cheese-greater on whatever part of your body had the misfortune to scrape against it.
The little parking lot was filling up fast and I figured that about 50 cars were already there and I parked in about the middle. It was only 7:15 and there was supposed to be a pre-race meeting at 8:30, a half an hour before the start. there would be a few rules reminders and last minute updates about where to enter and exit the check-points so your timing chips would work properly and how nudity was grounds for disqualification. Apparently there are sometimes one or two that change from their swim-suit to their bicycle outfit with no regard to who might be getting a free peep show. Anyone who is that serious would certainly be way ahead of me and be doing that long before I would be getting out of the water, so I was like…”hmm OK, whatever”.
It was cold. And raining. And a little windy. Pretty much miserable weather. I walked around and got the lay of the land a little and then headed back to my truck and got the heater going. At about 825 I got out and spent nearly 10 minutes putting my wetsuit on over my trisuit. The zipper in the back stuck about half-way up, like it always does and I didn’t feel like asking a stranger for help. So I fought with it and fought with it, and probably ended up embarrassing myself even more looking like some kind of an epileptic contortionist. It was warm though. I felt like a seal. Walking around in the drizzling rain and low 50′s temperature and it was totally fine. I overheard a couple others jokingly wondering aloud if they were allowed to wear his on the bike leg. I actually considered this for a second.
We all gathered near the start line and the race director made a few announcements. He announced that the water temp was measured yesterday at 59degrees and a collective groan went up among the participants. “And so..” he continued ” the medical staff has advised and we have agreed ….that the swim portion of today’s race would be one lap around the course instead of 2…” That was the moment I went from “what am I getting myself into” to “this is going to be a blast !” The hour leading up to this point, I was never considering chickening out, but the feeling of dread about slogging for nearly a mile in that lake for nearly an hour was feeling more and more like a death sentence. I had only found out about a week before that it was a 750 yd course that would require two laps closely followed by the startling realization that this would mean I would likely be LAPPED by 2/3 of the field. Talk about a real confidence booster. All this was coming to a head and when the director said that the swim would be half as long as previous planned, I nearly cried with relief. there were a few that expressed their disappointment at this development, and if they had been near me, I probably would have attacked them with my bicycle pump.
Looking back, that emotional lift I think is what carried me through that swim. The countdown started and I strategically positioned my self near the very back of the herd and when the gun went off I slowly walked to the shore and waded in until it was deep enough to start swimming. I figured I was in about 230th place out of the 250 person field already. My plan was playing out perfectly.
There were two “waves” of people at the start. The guys took off at 9:00 and the women started at 9:03 That meant that unless I wanted to steal and wear a pink swim cap instead of the orange one i was given, I HAD to start with the guys and deal with 50 or so women passing me about 4 minutes after I started. So, that’s pretty much what happened. I made sure I knew where each of the rescue kayaks were while I was swimming along and thought to my self, if I did give the “I need help” sign, which is basically a frantic thrashing wave, how long it would take for them to paddle over and grab me. I concluded that they would be more aptly called “recovery” kayaks. Better pace myself and stay out of trouble.
I felt surprisingly strong and relaxed. I was nearing the first of the 3 buoys and by now the first pack of gals were passing me. I wanted to just stop and tread water and watch them one by one just motor along, their smooth rhythmic stokes, their face just barely clearing the water as they took such relaxed effortless breaths. Didn’t they realize this was HARD ?! Just for “fun” I tried to keep pace with one of them for as long as I could. That lasted about 20 seconds immediately followed by me telling myself what an idiot I was for even trying that stupid stunt. So I settled back into my 10-15 freestyle strokes, tread water for a few seconds, back stroke for 10-20 strokes, tread water, re-orient myself, make a course correction and start again.
I got to the second buoy, more women were passing me but I still felt like I had a lot of energy. My breathing was under control, I had decided a few minutes before that I was not feeling like a SIPE episode was coming on, which made me push a little harder. I kind of have this sense that it is either going to happen, or it isn’t. And it didn’t feel like it was so I put in a few more strokes each time before I stopped to rest and look around. The last 200 yds was probably my fastest and my tendency to hyper-ventilate and have a mini panic attack was totally far from my mind and I concentrated on just working as hard as I could to get to the shore. I was so anxious to finish strong that I was still swimming when others were standing up and walking in knee deep water. I stopped and was surprised that it was so shallow.
I stood up and had enough energy to actually jog up the boat ramp wearing what I’m sure was a huge grin. The worst, and I mean BY FAR the worst part was behind me and not only was it half as long as I thought it would be, it was easier than I expected, halved distance not withstanding. I asked out loud to the couple dozen bystanders cheering us on “Did I win ?! “ and it got a few surprised chuckles. I got to the top of the boat launch ramp about 50 feet up the hill and turned around and yelled as loud as I could “Lake Bennington…IS THAT ALL YOU GOT ?!?! “ and stumbled to the transition area, known as T1, where my bike and carefully packed duffel bag were waiting for me. In it I had my bike shoes, socks, sun glasses, helmet, gloves, bike computer etc,. At least I was pretty sure it was all in there. I checked it eleventy-billion times the day before.
T1 was next……
This past Sunday was the first of what I hope and what I plan on being several Triathlons for me this season. This event was the race that I had set as my goal for my 10 week exercise program that I have frequently mentioned. It would be my first real test of putting together all the running, riding and swimming I put my self through since late January. A little over 4 months of regular, persistent, frequently grueling workouts, including probably worst hills I have ever had the pain and agony of trying to ride a bike over, hundreds of exhausting laps at the local YMCA pool, and a 6am 5 mile trail run, barley 18 hours after suffering a pulmonary edema and coughing up blood, in a lake the afternoon before.
In the process I have made my “skinny” pants that I couldn’t fit into last year, unwearable (in public) without a belt, impressed some people, inspired some others and possibly amazed a few, (myself included) and generally felt better about myself as a person. I have seen changes in my appearance, attitude, self-esteem, and gained a lot of respect for others that have undertaken a similar challenge. My body is starting to feel like a machine that has been designed by a higher power, not just to run faster, but to perform at a high level, efficiently, economically, and for hours without stopping. It is like being given a gift, and finally using it to its potential, or closer to it anyway. I think of food as fuel, and think twice before I pick up that greasy cheeseburger or go to all-you-can-eat pizza for lunch.
I am not celebrating a victory. This is not the end of something. I haven’t “arrived”. I am not talking about how great I am, but simply how much less crappy than I was before. As I have mentioned earlier, the easiest time to win “most improved player” is your first year. The next level, whatever that means, will be much harder and gains will come with a lot more work than they did before. But that is OK. The last 4 months have taught me that there ARE gains to be had and some of those gains are the learned attitude to work harder to get them. If it takes 2 more months to shave 30 seconds off of my mile time, I’m going to do it, even though I saw that same amount of progress every 3 weeks in the beginning.
But I digress….back to the OnionMan..
I was fortunate enough to have some friends that live in Walla Walla and even though I didn’t know that all that well, they were excited to have me visit for a short weekend and use their place as a sort of base camp. I arrived Friday night, pretty late and had most of the day Saturday to check in at the bike shop that was a major sponsor, to pick up my race information packet and what turned out to be a very nice SWAG item. A large dufflebag with several pockets and a custom embroidered OnionMan logo on the side. Usually these things give out T-Shirts or a hat but this was pretty sweet. Certainly I would be using this tomorrow. I then decided to tour downtown Walla Walla
It turns out that Walla Walla is wine country and my tour of the town pretty much consisted of a couple of wine tasting shops. Chit-chatting with the owner about my trip and what I was in town for…blah blah blah..”this wine is very tasty”…blah blah blah… “…absurd, yet flaccid, and a certain earthiness with hints of tobacco, oak and pomegranate…” blah blah blah… and move on to the next one. The roughly 1 and a half city blocks I managed to see explored was quite nice. BBQ hamburgers for dinner back at the house with my hosts, organized all my gear and equipment for the mornings race, for the 4th time, and to bed before it got too late.
Turns out that it didn’t matter as even though I felt tired, I couldn’t fall a sleep until after midnight. Checking every 20 minutes that I did in fact set my alarm clock correctly, didn’t help. The guest bed was comfy and eventually I fell asleep and woke up at 6AM. Hit the snooze button and dozed off, then jerked up in a panic, not remembering if I hit the “snooze” or the “off” button. It was only 6:09 and so I was fine, and the shot of adrenaline, pretty much guaranteed I was not going to fall asleep again.
I was going to be swimming in a murky lake and then sweat like a hog the rest of the morning so I didn’t bother showering. I had decided the minute I tried it on, that the one-piece triathlon suit that arrived 3 days before, from an Ebay purchase was a bit too thin and sheer, to not require an “under layer” of compression shorts. This was a family event after all. I know the die-hards will go “commando” in these things, sometimes but that was a bit beyond my comfort zone…your welcome.
So, shorts, tri-suit (was it this tight the other day?) some baggy shorts over that and a T-shirt to be a little more normal. Checked that all the stuff and gear I would need was still in the bag. Cooked myself a little oatmeal, and was out the door right at 7am. Put my bag in the back of the truck, checked that all my stuff and gear was still in there, and headed off to the lake a couple miles away, where the days race would begin… and end.
I got out of work about 30 min early, and spent an hour and a half packing all the things I needed for the trip. Even though I spent twice that long already the night before doing the exact same thing. Going through the checklist twice should reduce my chances of forgetting something important, from about 90% to about 30%. The only question now is what critical item I left at home, 250 miles away. Ive been here for half a day and haven’t thought of anything I forgot yet. Maybe I’m good.
The drive was no problem, it dumped rain and hail on me near the Oregon/Idaho border but after that it was smooth sailing. A light “dinner” at the Safeway in Baker City and a “coffee” at Dutch Brothers in LaGrande. I figured out the deal with them, by the way, they have premix mochas that they just steam and heat up. I saw the gal open the carton and pour my vanilla latte in the stainless pitcher and heat it up with the steam wand. I was back on the road in a flash though.
Today is a free day, mostly. Exploring downtown Walla Walla. And when I say “Exploring” I mean hit the first wine tasting place, loving it, hitting a brewpub, loving that too and staying there for 2 hours sampling everything they have and blogging. That is my “tour” of Walla Walla. What can I say, it worked for me.
So, here I am at Laht Neppur brewing co’s tap room hammering away on my laptop in the corner. Their beer is pretty good. The Strawberry Cream Ale is nice, even though it is a bit of a “chick” beer. The IPA is a bit soapy but the Stout is nice. The peanuts are $.50 a basket but you get to toss the shells on the floor. Which is nice. So I got that going for me.
This is a nice little town. A quiant downtown area that i am told has a cool farmers market. If that wince tasting place hadn’t lured me in I might have made it. As it is, I will update this blog with my thoughts an ovbservatiuons so far, before I head over to the bike shop in town that has my race packet for tomorrows triathlon. Evidently you can pick up your packet, containing your race number and stuff, starting at 3PM so I have an another hour or so to kill.
The butterflies are kicking in a bit. this beer is helping some and I just need to not take myself so seriously and just go for it. I have met a half dozen people already at the to places I have visited here and everyone of them wished me luck tomorrow. I told them my main goal was to just stay out of the local newspaper, as I would not be in there for winning the thing….
I have owned a wetsuit for 3 months now and have yet to use it. Buying one so early in my training program presented a bit of a challenge as they need to fit well, and snug. When I ordered it back in February I planned on losing 10-15 more pounds, which I have done. So it worked out pretty well. It has been a couple weeks and 5# since I tried it on last but I think my guess was about right. The problem is that I need to try it out in real open water before I actually race with it on.
You cant wear these things to the pool at the “Y” because the chlorine that is usually common in the water there is not kind to the rubber material that they are made of. Also you might get a lot of weird looks dressed in a skin tight black rubber suit, and swimming laps next to the other swimmers.
I am interested to see how this piece of equipment affects my swimming. They add some floatation which is nice and the smooth streamlined surface helps you glide through the water a little better. Not to mention that they are a necessity when the water temperature is below. Below 78F wetsuits are allowed by the US triathlalon governing body USAT. Some early season races are in water much colder.
The drawback on them is that they can restrict your movements around your shoulders somewhat. The significance of this factor is mainly what separates the $100 suits from the $700 suits. Needless to say I went with a more conservatively priced model that was still recommended. Like other major parts of my tri-stuff, I may upgrade if and when my performance warrants it.
Open water swims are being organized by the local Tri club this week and I will likely get in on one coming up this weekend.
I must confess, there have been times when I felt like that when my training has gotten sidetracked but this title is only meant to very slightly allude to the new hardware I got for my bike.
In an earlier post (or two) I described how I was at TriTown and was fitted to my bike more exactly. A replacement seat post was required to finalize this and I finally got to try it out in action. Basically this new part allowed for my saddle to be positioned more forward. This allowed for better angles and geometry of my legs and shoulder position especially when I am in the tucked in “aero” position that I need to be in for most of the time I am riding in a race.
The post is made of carbon fiber. A material that I thought I would never get for this bike. Kind of a pearls before swine thing. CF is the super light, very strong (read “expensive”) material that a lot of structural material is gong to these days in cycling. it just doesn’t make much sense to swap out the parts that I have for CF counter parts that save 15 grams for a bike that weighs 23 pounds. I would be much more sensible to trade up to a modern Tri-Bike and save several pounds in one fell swoop than try to polish a turd, as it were. Maybe for the 2013 season I will go that route.
Well, I can certainly feel the difference. The increased saddle height (about 3/8″) was noticeable and the nearly 2″ of forward moved position was very noticeable. But it worked pretty well. Not that I didn’t trust Antonio at TriTown, because I totally did, it was just that I felt more like I was precisely installed as another part into a machine and was better able to put out the modest power that my body could produce.
I am still having an issue with the length of my aero bars. If I put the rear of my forearms (my elbows) on the pads, my arms are too long and my hands go past where the bars are designed to offer an hand-hold. If I scoot my forearms back an inch, so I can comfortably grasp the handles at the ends, but I feel like my elbows cannot support my upper body weight very well. I mentioned this to Antonio and he suggested, and I agreed that this was just a limitation of a set of non-adjustable bars. I need ones that will adjust or lengthen an inch or so. It is a bit late in the game though and if I replace them with something better, it would have to wait until after my first race. I can’t go like this for long though.
After nearly 2 weeks of pathetic “training” I got back on it yesterday with a 1 hr ride on the trainer and pushed it pretty hard. Today was a swim day and the schedule called for 1200 yds. When I set up this 10 week training program it required me to type in my “pace” or speed for each activity so it could calculate distance and time spent for each exercise. So today’s swim said 1200 yds/51 minute. Well 8 weeks ago, I could hardly make it to the other side of the pool without stopping and gasping for air. Now I am much better. So I knew that the 1200 yds would only take me 35 minor so. Even though I knew that time spent exercising is more important that distance covered, I had already decided that I would be sticking to the distance and if I finished quicker than 51 min…so be it.
The night before I had a pretty long (for me) ride and it was the first time I spent more than a minute or two with the new set-up on the bike. As such I was in the aero position about 90% of the time and different muscles were sore from it. Specifically my neck and shoulders. I was worried that this would bother my swim a bit but it’s not like it mattered because I was going to go for it anyway.
I got to the “Y” at my customary early afternoon time and started the back and forth “laps” with a more determined relaxed, smooth, fluid motion this time. I spent about half the time breathing every 3 strokes and the other half, every other stroke. Some of the time I would take a breath every left side instead of my usual every right side. About midway through the session I even got brave and skipped a rest stop at the end of one of my 50yd round trips. It made it tough and I was so winded and breathing hard that I was coughing a little and checked for the foamy pink evidence of a pulmonary embolism. All was good so I kept up my efforts and managed several of these 4 width trips. Most of my “rests” at each 50yds were kept to about 20 sec and I had a couple full 1 min rests after those 4 width sessions.
I finished the 24 “laps” in 31 minutes. That works out to a 2:35 pace per 100 yds. My best so far by a significant margin. Especially considering that a little over 2 months ago when I started this insanity, I was half as fast. “OnionMan” is 11 days away and the swimming part is keeping me awake at night. Today’s pace works out to a 40 min 1500m which I would be very happy with if I could pull that off next weekend. That would put me ahead of about 15% of the pack. That means out of about 250 participants, about 20 people getting out of the water after me. Quite frankly, I would take that at this point.
Saturday was the Famous Idaho Potato Marathon . There were multiple distances as well, a Half-Marathon, a 10K and a 5K. I did the 10K and it was a new experience.
I had a little oatmeal breakfast a few hours before the start, and stopped at Starbucks on the way down for my double-tall 2 pump mocha. Race Fuel !
I parked near the finish line and was reasonable certain that the back of my truck was not hanging over the no parking sign enough to get it towed. Hid my key on the spare tire under the bed and walked a block or so to where the shuttle buses were taking participants to the start line a few miles away. I only had to wait a few minutes, which is good because it was already only an hour before the scheduled start time. When the buss dropped us off, I made my way to the check-in tent and picked up my race number and fumbled with the microscopic safety pins they gave me and got it pinned to the front of my shirt. Then took the number off and started all over again only this time centered a bit more. It was nearly 60 degrees and had rained a little earlier and my shorts and sleeveless T-shirt were going to be perfect and I didn’t need to wear a warm up jacket or sweatshirt while waiting for the start.
The crowd was pretty big. About 1200 people and I squeezed in to what was about 1/3 the way back in the pack. the gun went off and it took over 30 seconds to cross the start line. Next time I will get a little closer to the front. After only a few hundred yards the course took us over a bridge and the lane we had to run on was only wide enough for 3 runners across. I was really starting to wish that these people that are already so tired they are walking, had not clogged up the front of the pack. My first mile was nearly 12 minutes due mostly to slow traffic and hard to pass situations.
The pack started to string out and I settled into my 9min/mile pace and started passing people. The race organizer announced over the loud speaker just before the start, that there would be water stations at the 1, 3 and 5 mile markers. My pace was pretty good. sustainable but not too comfortable. After a mile or so I start to catch up with a couple that were dressed up like potatoes. I said loud enough for anyone around to hear me that there is no way i am getting beat by a couple of tubers. That got a few surprised chuckles from a couple runners near me. As I caught up to them I mentioned that they were making me hungry. Its part of my mental tactics, keep ‘em guessing.
The last mile or so was along the river and this time of year the Boise River is near flood stage and a couple of places along the course had a few inches of water on them. One spot went under an overpass and there was a gas powered pump running trying to clear some of the water. The problem was that the close quarters of the little tunnel you ran through was choked with exhaust from the pump that was running. It was enough to make you gag. And you cant just hold your breath even for a few seconds when you are running as fast as you can. Each gasp for oxygen drew in just as much carbon monoxide. I would have rather ran through a foot deep puddle that have to breath that crap.
The last water station was at the 5.3 mile mark. 3 tenths later than they promised..I wanted to stop and complain but that seemed counter productive. they were offering Gatorade type stuff at this one as well. I grabbed a cup of water as I ran by and like an idiot tried to drink from it while running. About 20% of the contents made it into my mouth and able half of that I managed to actually swallow as my labored breathing made me choke on it a bit and I ended up coughing most of it out. Forget it, I have more important things to worry about. Like the challenge that was coming up behind me.
With about a half mile to go, I noticed him coming up along side me on my left. Little bit older guy but small and skinny. It sounded like he was breathing as hard as I was and we ran together like that for a few minutes with him just hanging on my 7 o’clock. I figured he was pacing me and waiting until he was ready to make his move. You don’t run this far and catch up to someone only to follow them to the finish line. He wanted to pass me. I picked up the pace a little, lengthened my stride, tried to take deeper breaths focused on keeping my heart rate under control as I knew I would be asking a lot of it in a few minutes.
He was still there, and now he knew that I knew this was going to be the race within a race. A slight uphill to go over a footbridge and I made sure that I didn’t slow down for it. I glanced at my watch and saw I was at 186 BPM but I couldn’t slow down now. I could see the finish line and that there was a little turn-around right before the last 100 yards or so. Runner “X” and I made this last corner and we both picked up the pace even more and the last 100 yds was the fastest of the race. I made sure he didn’t pass me and the clock said 56:24 officially and I glanced over as we crossed the finish line and it looked like we tied. (later as I checked the official results online, he finished .1 sec behind me)
I was so tire and so wrung out that the first thing I did was walk a little ways away looking for a relatively unpopulated place in case I had to throw up…which I felt like was very possible. A sip of the bottled water handed to me helped and I knew I would not be showing the other finishers what I had for breakfast.
I started my watch/timer as I crossed the start line so my time was about 30 sec faster than my official race time. Even still, I was right at 9min/mile which is near my best time and if I could have run the pace I wanted from the very beginning, I could have shaved 2 minutes off of that and maybe finished at 54 min flat.
Judging from my position in the start pack and figuring that nearly half of the people in front of me when it started were doing the shorter 5K race, I figure I passed 150 people and I am pretty sure I remember only a few passing me after the first 10 minutes or so of jockeying for position.
I didn’t notice much shin pain during the race and the day after it was sore but not too bad. Maybe I have found the amount of miles I can put on it w/o it getting worse.
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It had been 3 days since my last run when I diagnosed myself with early “shin splints” or “medial tibial stress syndrome” and with an extra day or two of rest I hoped would help. I had a 10K race coming up the following Saturday and wanted one more tune up over the same distance.
I set off on my usual 6.1mile route and made a conscious effort to reign it back a little as setting a new personal best was not as important as just avoiding injury and just settling in for a more comfortable hour workout. I mad the halfway turn-around at 30min and figured that was a little too slow and stepped it up a little and did the last half in 27:30 finishing at 57:30 and a 9:28min/mile. It was definitely more comfortable and I felt that shin pain in the beginning again but as my pain receptor stated to turn off and my adrenaline started to surge a bit, that faded after 10 or 15 minutes.
After I got back I could feel the sore spot in the same place on my shin again and it was a little worse this time. This worried me a bit more as it was not a fluke now and was technically becoming chronic. there is some debate about what the physiology and the exact cause of this condition is, but most agree that it is increasing mileage to quickly and running on very hard surfaces. It sounds strange but cement (sidewalks) are much harder than even asphalt, as sidewalks have been much of what I have been running on lately since the better weather has gotten me to move outdoors and off of the much more forgiving treadmill at the “Y”.
I figured I was not in bad enough shape to cancel my first running race of the year, the famous Idaho Potato Fun Run 5 days later. It was mostly asphalt and some trails so it would be a more forgiving surface most of the way, plus I would be getting an extra couple days of rest before. I’m sure I will pushing hard on that run and we’ll see how the max effort affects this condition that it looks like I will be battling for a while.
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