Downtown Columbia Triathlon - Belated Race Report

Disclaimer: Blinding hazard! You may want to wear your darkest sunglasses when reading this report. Due to the early-season nature of this race, there are pictures of severly untanned skin ahead:

The triathlon season kicked off for me last month with the Downtown Columbia Triathlon, which is a short and very popular (400 entries sold out) sprint race (500m, 10mile, 5k). I was the defending champ but didn't have a lot of confidence that I could come back with another win as I was just coming back from some run injuries and feelinig fairly slow with my training emphasis on preparing for ironman. Being a early season race, this is an indoor swim hosted in the USC Blatt PE Center’s 50 meter pool. The transition area is in the Blatt’s parking lot on Wheat St. and the bike course, which was changed from year’s past, was a 3 loop affair from Wheat St. to Main St. to Pendleton St. to Bull St. to Gervais St. to Harden St. to Blossom St. to Pickens St. then back onto Wheat St. There’s a bit of climbing (up Wheat St. and Main Street) but for the most part it is fast with a lot of turns, traffic, and pedestrians to navigate while at full gas in your aerobars! The run is just as complicated as the bike as it involves running on roads, sidewalks, multiple foot bridges, up flights of stairs and through narrow fenced construction areas. It’s really more triathlon’s version of an urban assault! This year the race was held at 1:30 in the afternoon (which added to the traffic problems) amid intermittent rain showers and temperatures in the high 40s (felt colder on the bike, wet from the swim).

The swim: It seems I may have made a stragic error here. I was seeded in the same lane as my friend Chris. Chris always out-swims me, usually by 1min in a ½ ironman and 20 or so seconds in a Sprint. But I’ve only ever raced him in open water events. I offered him the inside of the lane thinking that he would swim a slightly faster pace than me and I would draft him for a faster swim time. Well, I did draft off him the whole way but I was thinking, “Man, this feels too easy … should I pass? Na, save your energy, it just feels easy cause I’m drafting”. Well it turns out we weren’t going that fast. By the time we crossed the timing mat at T1 I was like 0:15 secs behind last year’s time where I didn’t draft. Talking with Chris after the race he mentioned that he felt like he couldn't get going in the water. But it didn't stop him from getting the win!!

T1 was slow. Getting bike shoes on was not smooth. I was trying to go too fast which made me clumsy. I blame it on not having raced a tri since last september.

Out on the bike it was cold but I was able to ride hard (but not hard enough) and stay out of trouble. This was the first year where I wasn’t almost hit by a car at this race (although I just about ran over a pedestrian that walked across the road into the course without looking). Unfortunately when I came onto Pendleton on my second lap I say a tt bike against a tree with and a few cars and ambulance tending to an athlete that had been hit by one of the cars. By the time the second lap had passed and I still hadn’t caught Woody (he started 15 seconds ahead on the swim), I knew I wasn’t in as good of a position as last year. Last year I passed him for the lead before the end of the first lap and never looked back. But once again the Scott treated me well delivering me to the 2nd fastest bike split of the day behind Chris, my lane mate from the swim. As I arrived at T2 Chris was leaving and Woody was also just arriving. Looking at my HR data from the race I can see that I didn't push hard enough for a sprint race; I must not have been in the right mindset to really suffer.

T2 was slow also. Having gotten out of my bike shoes before the dismount I slipped when me bare feet hit the wet timing mat and nearly wiped out badly. I got my balance back and proceed to get my run gear on. I had a hard time unfastening my helmet strap since my fingers were totally numb. The numb fingers also prevented me from fastening my bib number belt around my waist … I eventually just tucked the ends into the back of my shorts which worked fine.

Off on the run I had no feeling in my feet. I remember listening to the pat-pat-pat of my feet as they struck the ground but with no feeling with each thud … strange sensation. With no feedback on toe-off, foot strike, etc, I just concentrated on keeping my turnover quick and my aerobic effort high and closing the gap to Mark (he got out of transition way before me and put in about a 25-30 second gap). By the turnaround I’d closed the gap to Marc down to about 15 seconds, which put us dead even. Once Marc saw the gap at the turnaround he surged and opened it back up. At that point I was on the rivet so to speak and couldn’t respond to his surge.

Chris went on to win the race with Mark coming across the line next then me. One of the college team guys (Clemson I think) was able to beat both Mark and myself but due to the TT start neither of us had him on our radars during the race. It was a really fun local race and I look forward to getting back in short course shape next year after I live out some ironman dreams this year! Now with 5 local short course races (DT Cola, Lake Murray, Tri Midlands, Tom Hoskins, Dam Tri) I’ll have a goal of winning several of them in 2012. For this year they’ll just have to be hard training days with the ultimate goal of being long-course fast for Ironman St. George and Kona or Rev3 Anderson / Beach 2 Battleship if I don’t go to Kona.

Results: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=2277

It's 2011

and I’m really overdue for a post …

There’s not a whole lot going on here at the moment. The holidays were super nice. Having 11 consecutive days with my family and not having to go to work was the absolute best. I think that was my favorite gift!

The 8 week winter training block (Nov 1 – Dec 26) that I wrote about in my last post went off without a hitch. Training was frequent and consistent with just enough volume to get back into the swing of things without needing a day off for rest or recovery. Each week was only about 12 hours’ worth of work with almost all the bike sessions done indoors on the trainer or rollers (much to my wife’s liking) because of the unseasonable cold weather we had in December. The only downside was the 5k race at the end of the training block didn’t go that well. I ran a disappointing 18:23, 15 seconds slower than last year at the same race. Conditions were worse this year (sleet/snow mix) but I still expected a sub 18 min result.

On the plus side, I’ve started to lose some of the off-season pounds and I’m on my way to getting nice and lean. Also, I’m pleased that my swim volume is building back up, although I’ve yet to see the benchmark paces to give me confidence for the early season short course races. Hopefully the speed will come back around during the next 8-10 weeks.

So now my focus shifts to specific preparations for the ironman in May and all that entails. I have 18 weeks until race day to get myself ready mentally and physically for the performance of a lifetime. Both Jennifer and I are excited about the trip and we’ve already started planning our flights and hotel. The kids aren’t hiding the fact that they want to go to Hawaii in October to see flowing lava and go snorkeling and they’re expecting me come home with a Kona slot (no pressure, eh?). I’m really looking forward to my “Big Fridays” every other week where I’ll do the specific work to simulate the conditions I expect to face in Utah (as much as SC weather and terrain allow me).

I’ll try to blog a little more regularly with updates, pictures and video from my journey to St. George as well as race reports for some of the smaller races along the way.

Peace out -

Back in the saddle again

Starting out ... feeling like a rockstar

I've put together a mixed up post with some pics from our recent trip to the mountains (which was an endurance event itself) intermingled with an update about my plans for Ironman St. George.

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Monday kicked off my return to formal training and quest a great race at St. George. I was just a little tiny bit anxious to get moving again so started training a bit more frequently last week. On Wednesday I was on my 4th run of the week on the trails of Harbison Forest when I sprained my ankle on a rock or root disguised under fall foliage. It's healed enough to run again now although the foot is still a colorful with purple/green/yellow hues. Ah, the colors of Autumn.

The crew at the base of a waterfall near Chimney Rock

During my 8 week hiatus from structured training I managed to put on 6 pounds!! And that was with still training about 5 hours per week (my sanity training I call it). So that shows you just how lax I'd become with my diet! When people (generally non-athletic folk) ask me about losing weight I tell them that (in my non-expert opinion) to lose weight and then maintain an optimal weight they need to commit to a moderate and balanced diet AND a minimum of 1 hr per day of aerobic work of some kind. I think I've just proven that theory correct.

Kids at a Lake Lure overlook

So now the work begins. The next 8 weeks will be "training to train" for St. George. The actual training for St. G will begin in earnest on Jan 1, exactly 18 weeks from race day. The next two weeks will be devoted to re-establishing frequency and consistency at a mostly steady effort level. I will sprinkle in some intensity here and there each week and will gradually increase the frequency of high intensity work as the 8 week block progresses. As the weight and pace come down (as they often do in parallel) I'll begin to do some of the local winter run races that I use each year as a measure of fitness with the hopes of setting all-time 5k and 10k PRs before the longer work begins. If I could break 17 minutes in the 5k I would be thrilled! The hope is that I'll carry a good deal of that speed all the way to the Ironman.

A triple waterfall

As for the ironman specific training, I'm going to experiment with completely different approach than any I've done before. In the past I've used a fairly standard periodization approach where I would build volume for 3 weeks and then recover for 1 week. Each cycle would build on the previous one until I had no more time available and I was good form. While I can't argue with the race results that have come from this approach, my complaint comes from the plateau I reached earlier this year. The level where I plateaued was good enough to win some races and generally be competitive every time I toed the line, but we're not really looking for "good enough" are we? No, we are hoping to become the best possible. My goal is to race ironman on the world stage against the world's best. And I'm not "looking for clues", I truly believe I can get more out of this mind and body (and also spend even more time with my family) by taking a different approach. That's the goal.

Here are the primary principles that I'm basing my St. George training on:

• Consistency: Nothing new here, I'm a big believer that consistency leads to great performances, and as such, I like to operate on a "basic week", which is a repeatable weekly schedule. This year I'm calling it my "basic cycle" because it's a two week cycle that I'll repeat with the two weeks being quite different from each other.
• Running Frequency: Nothing new here either, it builds durability in the body. I like to run just about every day even if only 20-40 minutes.
• Specificity: This is where I failed in the past. If you know me you've probably heard me say that I usually race faster than I train. That's great, but what if I trained as fast as I raced? Then how fast would I race? For St. George, specificity means hills, hills, and more hills at race intensity. While it will be a challenge to duplicate the terrain of Utah on the bike a, I've already scoped out some very hilly run routes that will give me nearly the elevation change as the St. George marathon.
• Recovery: This is another area where I've failed badly in the past. Not surprising since specificity and recovery tend to go hand in hand. Lack of recovery left me in a state of grey for many consecutive months ... unable to push as hard as I should in training (e.g. specificity)
• Getting Lean: I'm 5'11" (180.3 cm) and spent most of last season at 158 lbs (71.8 kg) at around 9% body fat. Losing 5lbs from last years race weight (that's 11 lbs from my weight today) would put me around 153 lbs /69.5 kg and 6% body fat. I believe this would pay huge dividends on a course like St. George that has such a massive amount of climbing on the bike and run.

I'll get more into the specifics in a later post. For now it's back to "training to train"!

Resting on the trail. The hard work is done. I love that feeling!

Unplugged

Yep, I've pulled the plug on the 2010 triathlon season. Since the SC Half ironman I haven't done any training ... only exercise. While exercise for me is still swim, bike and run, it differs in some ways from training: 1) There's not so much of it 2) it is not purposely focused on a race and 3) it's done when I want, for fun, with whatever equipment I choose. For the first week or two it was easy, but because I love to swim, bike and run so much I've had to force myself not do it so much!

With all the extra time I've mainly been spending loads of it with my family (which has been very special). And I've been eating lots of whatever-I-want and putting on some weight (or at least I feel like it). I've also been putting a lot of time, thought and energy into preparing to move. With a family of 5 with 3 little ones this is no simple task! I'm not 100% positive where that will be yet (only about 90%) but one thing is for sure ... we're movin'! I should have something more concrete on this soon and I'll let you know.

But there are a few other reasons besides time-with-family and moving that helped me decide to take an early off season ...

For one, I'd hit a plateau. I was in a rut and in order to bring my racing up to a higher level in 2011, I needed to take some rest mentally and physically and prepare for the work ahead. I believe I know what my program was lacking this year and look to address it for next year. But I can't do that without first unloading. When I look back I don't think I've taken any breaks except for 2 weeks after Clearwater last year and maybe 2-3 weeks after Beach 2 Battleship in 2008.

Secondly, I'm happy to have met the objectives (and exceeded some) that I set out for 2010. The foremost was actually winning some triathlons. So there's nothing that I feel is left undone with the 2010 season (which is a great feeling!). I've worked hard, learned some things, made memories, shared awesome experiences with friends and family, and managed to get the results I was after. That's what it's all about.

Thirdly, my next high priority race is Ironman St. George on May 7, 2011. This race will demand more of me mentally and physically than any other race to date. After all, it's being called THE most difficult Ironman. With my preparation for St. George beginning in November, if I'm going to take some down-time it needs to be now.

I'll save the 2011 goals for another post :)

SC Half Race Report

It's been just over two weeks since I raced the SC Half so a report is overdue!

Result: 6th place overall in a time of 4:30:18

The day started out early at 4:00 AM and was a very peaceful morning. I made the 1hr drive to the state park in Ninety Six and arrived at 5:30 AM with plenty of time to get my packet, number my gear and body, catch up with friends, and warm up.

Swim: 30:26, rank 10th

Not a good swim for me; I expected to be at least 1 minute faster. The start was slow and easy. Too easy. At about 200 meters a small group switched gears and got a sizable gap. I was too slow to react and they were gone. I had one pair of feet until the first turn but let them go which was a big mistake. Once on my own I got terribly off course. By the time I made my way back on course to get around the final turn I joined with a group that included folks that I'm usually in front of at this stage of a race. A little stumble coming up the boat ramp and I was glad to put the swim behind me.

T1: 0:55

Bike: 2:24:22 Rank 9th.

The plan was to ride the bike at a conservative pace so I would have plenty in the tank for run when the temperature would rise. My strategy was to ride by heart rate, keeping it in the mid 150s, and take in 3 full bottles of fluid - each containing 220 calories and 200 mg of sodium chloride plus other electrolytes.

Heading out of the park Cameron and I were together and he waved me up to him to work together (legally of course) to try to bridge the gap to the front. This didn't fit my plan for the race so I let him go hoping he would come back to me later, instead focusing on getting my heart rate settle from the swim.

I never really felt good on the bike. I guess it was just one of those days. There was a section of about 10 miles where my HR actually fell lower than I wanted and I had to force myself to increase the intensity to get it back where it needed to be. This is typically not the case with me, especially in race! At some point before the halfway mark I started dry heaving. Sometimes I have this happen in Sprint races because of the intensity but that certainly wasn't the case today. But what can you do? Nothing but press on, keep trying to take in nutrition and hope things turn around

Then around the half way mark Jose Fuentes came past me. I could tell that he was riding above his ability and had no hesitation in letting him go assuming I would see him again on the run. Soon after that encounter the dry heaving turned to full-on puking. First it started out small but when we took the turn onto the bumpy cut-through road I lost a belly full. From there I stopped taking in nutrition for the most part. Soon after I was overtaken by Vavre and then around mile 52 I passed Mike Wendt who stayed with me for the last few miles coming into transition. As you can see from this picture taken on the way back into the park I still had a full bottle on the seat tube. Not good!

For the ride my average HR was 152 with an average speed of 23.27. This was exactly how I'd planned to ride.

T2: 1:00 (put on socks)

Run: 1:33:37, rank 8th

That steep hill at the finish is a killer!

The temps were starting to rise as we began the run and it felt especially apparent coming from the bike where you have the cooling effect of the wind. Fuentes had about a minute on me at the start of the run but I was able to run him down before the first mile. That put me 5th place with my sights set on the $$ and a podium spot. To make that happen I'd need to run down both Cameron who'd built a 4 minute lead over the bike and T2 (3:30 bike, 0:30 t2) and one other.

Again I stuck to the plan and tried to pace it evenly, starting out easy and letting the HR and RPE build throughout the run while maintaining pace. At mile 5 the lack of salt caught up with me and I got a major hamstring cramp just as I was crossing paths with Jeff Allums. He saw (and heard) the agony and yelled "Stretch it out" which is just what I did and was able to get moving again. I was able to close the gap to Cameron a little by the halfway turnaround and then by the turnaround at mile 9 it had come down a lot. Unfortunately around this same point I was passed by a flying Mark Render and pushed back to 6th place. As much as I hate getting passed, there is something cool about seeing a natural runner do their thing.

When I look at the data I see that the first mile was at 158 HR and it rose by 2 or 3 beats every few miles up to 171 giving me an average of 165. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to run down Cameron who managed to keep a 30 second gap between us. Upon crossing the finish line Cam looked awful and was taken straight to the med tent for an IV. Congrats to Peter for the win.

My thoughts on the race:

I'm mostly pleased with this race! This wasn't a PR or a podium and I didn't earn any money but it was a solid performance.

I'm most pleased with the fact that Peter Kotland (the winner) and I were the only two guys that ranked in the top 10 across all three disciplines. That shows a well-rounded and balanced approach to the sport that I can be proud of. Most of others either had obvious weaknesses in a particular area or paced the bike above their fitness level and blew up, sacrificing their run.

I'm most displeased with the swim. Had I swam how I should've I theoretically would have beat Cam by 30 seconds instead of the other way around. But that's all theory!

Thoughts on the course:

This is a fair course. I love swimming in Lake Greenwood! The chip-seal on the bike course is a little rough but the terrain is perfect rolling hills. The run is challenging, partly because of the terrain but mostly because of the heat.

I'm very thankful to God and my family for my health and the ability to do this sport and the support they give me. This sport is hard and it hurts but it is also extremely fun and rewarding and I'm very privileged to be able to participate.