Mountain Lakes Triathlon Race Report

Aug 6 - Aug 12
S:  12,597 yds - 2hr 54min
B:  121.45 mi - 6hr 29min
R:  27.78 mi - 3hr 38min
Total:  13hr 1min

On Friday afternoon, I headed up to Guntersville, AL for one of my favorite races of the year: the Mountain Lakes Triathlon.  I headed straight to packet pickup, got my stuff, and then the weather was so awesome outside I decided to take a quick nap in the shade of a monster tree down by the lake:

"nap time"

After a short nap, I headed to one of my favorite out of town home-stays; the Gibsons!  As usual, they provided me with a huge home-cooked meal of spaghetti and a fabulous cherry pie for desert.  Thirty minutes after dinner, I was in bed dreaming of big things.  4:45am came early the next morning.  After the usual breakfast of coffee, bagel/peanut butter/honey, and a banana, K & S and I headed to the race site.  The race was a "600 yd" swim, 16.2 mile bike, and a 3 mile run; here's how it unfolded:

Swim: 10:22 (23rd)
While warming up in the water before the race, I noticed 2 things: 1) the course was wayyy longer than 600 yards, and 2) the last half of the swim was going to be impossible to see anything, as it was straight into the sun.  At least I knew what to expect.  Luckily, I was with a small group of swimmers on the way back in, so it seemed like we were swimming somewhat straight.  Coming into T1, I saw Kendrick and Sara 10 seconds in front of me.  They are both pretty good swimmers and had started 20-30 seconds in front of me, so that was a confidence boost.

Bike: 37:47 (1st)
Coming onto the bike, I knew what I had to do; be very aggressive and try to make up as much time as possible.  Although there were a few others in front of me, I was only really worried about 4 guys: Huntsville pro Andrew Hodges, Bruce Gennari, Jonathan Krichev, and Jacob Shults.  With the swim being slightly long, these guys (all superb swimmers) were going to be even further ahead so I had my work cut out for me.  I settled into a rhythm quickly and things were feeling good.  At the 8 mile mark I caught Krichev but could not get rid him (which is a problem because he is a great runner).  2-3 miles later I caught Shults.  After doing so, I tried to push it pretty hard and drop them, but they hung with me.  Coming into 2 miles to go, I still could not see Hodges or Bruce, which is not good because Hodges is an excellent runner.  The rest of the bike played out with me leading Shults and Krichev in not far behind Hodges and Bruce.

Run: 18:09 (12th)
After a quick T1 I was out on the run course.  10 seconds later, Krichev BLEW past me.  It was pretty impressive.  10 seconds after that, Shults did the same thing!  I could not find my run legs.  Mile 1 was a pathetic 6:23.  I was pretty mad at myself, because I know I can run faster.  Then, all of the sudden, things started feeling better.  Shults had established a lead but had quit gaining on me and I actually started reeling him in.  close to the turnaround I could see that Hodges had a pretty good lead.  Bruce was not too far ahead, and Krichev was likely going to catch him.  I then focused on catching and dropping Shults.  Since he started 30 seconds behind me, I knew I had to pick it up.  After the turnaround I had almost made it up to him.  Mile 2 clicked by in 6:09 right as I caught him.  I went by and tried to pick it up but he stayed with me.  A couple minutes later I was able to finally establish a gap and then just went as hard as I could to the finish.  Mile 3 clicked off in 5:48 as I crossed the line.

finishing the run

Total: 1:08:22 (5th)
I ended up 5th overall with a consolation prize of fastest bike split and 1st in my age group.  It wasn't a perfect race, but I definitely left it all out on the course.  Hodges cleaned up with Krichev a little bit behind him for the top 2 spots.  Bruce took the 3rd spot (43 sec in front of me), and Shults edged me by 13 seconds for 4th.  In general, I just need to swim faster if I want to have a chance at any of these races.  All 4 of these guys hung 1-2.5 minutes on me during the swim.  My training is on track, it's just that getting faster at swimming is a long progress.  I'm headed int he right direction, but it will take time.  I also need to be more consistent with my run.  Starting off with a slow first mile in a sprint tri is NOT going to win you anything...although I *may* have left some run speed on the table due to an aggressive bike. 

All in all, it was a great day with great friends.  Although competition is pretty important to me, there's a lot more that draws me to triathlon than that alone.  It was great to see the host of Birmingham athletes up at the race, and crushing it at that!  Walking around and seeing familiar faces after the race - rehashing the race play-by-play - that is almost more fun than the race itself!  It was also superb to share the M25-29 podium with 2 of my fiercest competitors and also 2 of my best friends.  I have gone head to head with Kendrick and Jeffrey at least 20-30 times during the last 5 years.  We have had epic battles and we have all been at the top and the bottom multiple times.  Also, props to Sara for bringing home the overall female title, and congrats to my mom for 2nd place in the F55-59 age group!

sharing the M25-29 podium with Jeffrey and Kendrick

Southeast Regional Time Trial Championship Race Report

July 30 - Aug 5
S:  13,550 yds - 3hr 9min
B:  108.69 mi - 5hr 48min
R:  36.48 mi - 4hr 43min
Total:  13hr 39min

On Friday afternoon I headed down to Montgomery, AL to participate in the Southeast Regional Time Trial Championship that would take place the next day.  The race was set to be 40k in distance on a flat-ish course.  Jeffrey and David Shelley (local B'ham triathletes who were also racing the next day) afforded me the luxury of a home-stay at their parents' house...complete with all the cookies that I could eat!  I of course refrained from the cookies, although I must say that it was tough to do so.  We arose the next morning and went through the standard routine of drinking coffee and eating bagels with peanut butter, honey, and fresh fruit...all while watching the women's olympic triathlon.  Our start times were at 9am, so we planned on getting over to the start line with an hour to spare to ensure a good warm up.

The race itself was pretty uneventful.  There isn't too much strategy in an individual TT besides just "going as hard as you can without blowing up."  If that sounds painful, then you are right.  This course was relatively flat and non-technical, so the goal was to go flat out for ~60 minutes and try not to die.  I started out pegging around 300 watts, but after 15 minutes or so this turned out to be slightly ambitious.  Luckily, I realized this soon enough not to completely trash myself, and overall I was pleased with a pretty high and constant effort.  As it turned out, this "pacing strategy" turned out to be a good one.  The course was actually a slight elevation rise into a headwind for the first half and the latter half was a slight net downhill with a tailwind, so it actually paid off to start out hard for the first half (24mph) and then cruise/hold on the back half (27mph).  The course itself was slightly longer than 40k at around 25.6 miles, so I ended up just barely squeaking under an hour for 1st place in the Cat 5 category.  All in all, it was a solid effort with nothing left on the table, and it's always fun when you can stand on one of these things:

on the podium looking at the wrong camera

6 Weeks, 5 Races

July 23 - July 29
S:  14,691 yds - 3hr 31min
B:  165.34 mi - 9hr 16min
R:  23.20 mi - 3hr
Total:  15hr 46min

Slightly lower run volume due to a day off on Monday coming off the Nashville race, but pretty standard stuff other than that: lots of hard biking during the week, a handful of swims, some running, and a brutal bike workout on Sunday.  The season really is coming down to the end here with only 6 weeks to go, but there is still plenty of racing left to be done!

Aug 4 - USA Cycling Southeastern Time Trial Championships
Aug 11 - Mountain Lakes Triathlon
Aug 26 - Rocketman Triathlon
Sept 2 - Hy-Vee Triathlon 5150 US Championship
Sept 8 - Alabama Coastal Triathlon

Music City Triathlon Race Report

July 16 - July 22
S:  7,994 yds - 1hr 51min
B:  88.01 mi - 4hr 45min
R:  33.43 mi - 4hr 20min
Total:  10hr 56min

I last did this race 2 years ago, and after having a complete meltdown in 105 degree Tennessee heat I vowed never again to return.  However, as this year rolled around I figured it was time to quit being a coward and man up.  My brother and his wife live in Nashville, so it was a good opportunity to see them as well.  The race was of the standard intermediate distance - 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run - here's how it unfolded:

Swim - 16:12
The swim was shortened to 1,000 meters due to a pretty strong current.  The first leg of the swim was upstream against the current, with the latter half being downstream.  As usual, it was pretty uneventful and I came out of the water ready to hop on the bike and reel some people in.

Bike - 1:03:59
This bike course didn't look too tough on paper, but the hardest part was that it was on a completely-wide-open-to-sunlight highway.  If it's hot and sunny, you are going to cook; and it was, and I did.  I passed a handful of people, but it was hard to figure out what position I was in because there was a sprint race going on at the same time so the course was littered with people.  Coming into T2 I saw 4 or 5 bikes around mine so I figured I was in a decent spot.

Run - 43.55
This run was a brutal, hilly, and hot 2-loop-5k course.  I felt alright coming off the bike, but I could tell that the heat was getting to me.  At the end of the first lap I saw my brother and wife cheering for me so that helped a lot.  During the 2nd lap I slowed down a little bit, constantly pouring water over my head to keep from overheating.  In the end I crossed the line with a slower than expected run split, but given the heat and seeing as how only 4-5 people cracked the 40 minute barrier, I guess I can't be too disappointed.

Total - 2:07: 25
I ended up with an 8th place overall out of around 330 finishers, with a consolation of 1st in my age group by a couple of minutes.  Local pro Craig Evans and Huntsville pro Andrew Hodges beat down the field, with the rest of the top 10 coming in 10-15 minutes later.  In summary, I'll say that racing in the heat is tough and painful.  It also seems that extremely hot and humid conditions really decreases your margin for error in pacing on the bike.  Or maybe I just suck at racing in the heat, but that's what it feels like to me.  All in all, I felt like I executed as well as I could, and at least I didn't blow up like 2 weeks ago!

Humidity...

July 9 - July 15
S:  15,050 yds - 3hr32min
B:  127.40 mi - 6hr 52min
R:  22.33 mi - 2hr 50min
Total:  13hr 14min

Well, it seems that the 105 degree heat has cooled off a little bit, but the humidity is outrageous.  If I had to guess, my weight probably fluctuates +/- 5 to 7 pounds a day, potentially multiple times per day.  Crazy.  Anyways, enough complaining...it was a pretty standard week except for lower than normal run volume.  After a dismal performance at Chattanooga, a much needed rest day was in order on Monday which subsequently made most of this week's workouts pretty stellar.  I probably felt the best that I think I've ever felt on the bike on Sunday's grueling threshold/tempo set, so that was pretty encouraging after getting my butt whooped last week in Chattanooga.  Next up is the Music City Triathlon in Nashville this coming weekend.  It has always proven to be pretty hot in this race (July in the southeast, duh).  The bike is on a wide open highway (allowing you to get baked), and the run is super hilly with pretty much no shade (allowing you to get baked again).  If history holds, it should be a fun day!

Chattanooga Tri - Anatomy of a Blow-up

July 2 - July 8
S:  8,741 yds - 2hr
B:  87.85 mi - 4hr 33min
R:  38.18 mi - 5hr 2min
Total:  11hr 34min

On Saturday, I headed up north to participate in the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon, which consisted of a 1500m swim, a 42k bike, and a 10k run.  This would be my 5th year to race this race, and without a doubt it is always very hot and humid.  This year was no different, and as the title states it was perfect for a blow-up.

Swim - 21:05
I was pretty pleased with the swim.  About 1/4 of the way through I was able to find some feet of a guy slightly faster than me and draft off him for a good ways before he dropped me.  Besides that, it was a pretty boring 21 minutes.

Bike - 1:06:29
About 5 minutes after starting the bike, I knew my legs weren't there.  Wattage was way too low and HR was way too high.  It was super windy out on the course, but that really wasn't a problem.  One of the worst things was that we were riding on a highway in a lane completely closed to traffic...but cars were still going by in the lane next to us.  There were a handful of times where I was passed by an 18-wheeler, and the gust would almost knock me over!  Overall, my bike split was good and within the top 10 in the race, but it was nowhere near my potential.  Even worse, my legs felt awful and I knew I wasn't starting the run in a good state.

Run - 49:55
Embarrassing, to say the least.  A small consolation is that only 1 person out of 958 finishers went under 40 minutes for 10k, which is pretty astounding and speaks to the tough conditions.  Immediately after starting the run, my ears felt like they were clogged and ringing, which usually indicates to me that I'm shutting down and that it's T minus 15-20 minutes until some sort of blow-up.  Mile 1 was a 7:13 and mile 2 was a little slower at 7:23, but at that point things started to get bad and for the rest of the race all I cared about was crossing the line without passing out.

Total - 2:20:52
27th overall out of 958 finishers doesn't seem too terrible, but it doesn't meet my standards and I know I'm capable of much, much better.  The swim was the only discipline where I think I reached my potential.  I left at least 20 watts on the table on the bike and 5-10 minutes total on the run.  The heat and humidity definitely had an impact, but some days you just don't have it, and this was one of them.

Alabama State TT Championship

June 25 - July 1
S:  11,841 yds - 2hr 47min
B:  144.07 mi - 7hr 12min
R:  33.17 mi - 4hr 20min
Total:  14hr 19min

Last weekend was the Alabama State Time Trial Championship.  The course was just short of 40k..about 23.5 miles total.  It was a very hilly out-and-back route with about 1,600 feet of climbing, and temperatures at the 9am start time were close to 100 degrees with a heat index of closer to 105 degrees  The short of it is that I won the Cat 5 race by 5min 30sec.  Things started out well for the first half of the race; power was high and steady...but the weather really started heating up on the way back and it was pretty much survival mode for the last half of the race.  Power didn't drop off too much but I felt like my head was about to explode in the heat, and on top of that I figured out how to drop my chain with around 3 miles to go, which cost me around 45-50 seconds.  I figured I was handling the heat better than most though, which turned out to be true based on the carnage in the parking lot after the race.  All in all, it was a good training day.

On top of the podium