Race Report - Buffalo Trails Triathlon

Or, "Charlie Brown vs. Big Hiney Hill"

Friday night, Meredith and I made the trip down to the Ohio/Kentucky border for the Buffalo Trails Triathlon (and the 5K for her). After all the work I've done in the pool this winter, sign in pre-race was a little bit of a downer. Because of poor water quality, the swim had been cancelled. Instead, a half mile run was substituted. From previous years' results, I was sort of counting on the swim to pick up a couple minutes on my competition. The best I could do now was to go with the flow and do my best on race day.

We drove the course, both for the run and the bike, and realized that neither would be as easy as we had envisioned. We knew there were steps in the run course, but didn't know that we would be running on grass for half the 5K distance. The bike course had a lot more roll to it than it looked like from tracing the course online, and a couple patches of gravel. And "Big Hiney Hill", the defining feature of the bike course, was indeed imposing in person. It curves up over the Ohio river valley wall up to the farms on top, and thanks to the curve you can't see where it ends until you're almost there.

Since Maysville is a pretty small town, there was no Olive Garden there, so we had to go local for some pasta. The place we found was... well... let's say it was geared to an "older" crowd. The pasta was pretty bland, and the garlic bread may not have actually contained any garlic. I suppose there are worse things to eat pre-race than bland pasta.

On race morning, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and had a pretty short drive down to transition. Since this race was so small (49 competitors), setting up in transition was a breeze. The host hotel was even open for bathrooms and water fountains - nice change of pace from the usual start line facilities! Meredith's race didn't start until after mine, so I was first to toe the line, and a little after 8, we were off!

Per coach's instructions, I tried to take the first half mile run easy, and not burn myself out. I seemed to be the only one doing that, as everyone else sprinted away. I wound up not last into T1, but not too far from it. No big deal - really, how much time can you gain in half a mile? (Answer: The overall winner gained 1:06) Not really worth flooring it for that amount of time, unless you're trying to win the thing. And I ended up going faster than intended anyway. :)

Run 1 - 3:32 (7:04/mi)

Going from run to bike is really a lot easier than swim to bike. For one, there's no wetsuit!

T1 - 0:47

After a little bit of iffy pavement on the way out of town, the bike course starts out with some long gradual roll along the Ohio river valley. Coach gave me the goal on the bike to pass 10 people, and I had hoped to average somewhere around 20 mph for the course (though that was before actually seeing the course). And in the first 8 miles, I had already passed my 10 people! Another bonus of taking that first run slow - you get to pick off a lot of people who went out too fast. :) My legs felt pretty good coming out of town, and I was excited about what the day might hold.

Around 9 miles in is "Big Hiney Hill". I was glad we had driven the course, because you come down a little bit of a hill, make a sharp left, and then you CLIMB! There's no time to be downshifting, but because I was prepared, I got in my small ring coming down the previous hill. Even so, my gears were grinding a bit as I got down to my smallest gear at the base of the hill. I loved that the organizers had painted messages onto the road all along the hill. At the base was "Welcome to Big Hiney Hill", and shortly into it was "Who loves pain?"

Big Hiney Hill - 1 mile of fun!

I picked off rider number 11 near the base, and as I was passing number 12 on the hill, he asked me if we were almost to the top. I answered honestly that I wasn't sure (it was wooded and a steady curve, so who knew?), and then I noticed out the "Halfway up!" on the road. I don't think he was very happy about that. Eventually, it did end, and I cruised past a thirteenth rider at the top. There was one more guy in view at that point, but that's where he'd stay - too far away to catch, but never quite escaping my vision.

The top part of this course was very beautiful; it curved up and down through farms. Meredith and I had joked before that it was like the Tour De France - a 1 lane road winding up through fields, and I could almost see people out waving flags in my face. Other than a couple steep little rollers, I was able to stay in my big ring for the majority of this part. And then, what goes up must come down! The last major section is a steady wooded downhill, but not so steep that I ever felt out of control or that I couldn't pedal. I just held a nice steady cadence and enjoyed the ride. Finally, the course dumped you back on the first road along the river, and it was a nice smooth ride back into town. I was happy with my effort on the bike, and the legs still felt good!

Bike - 1:17:36 (19.4 mph)

Also an easy T2. I was happy to only see 2 bikes back on the rack, after being the last of 5 out in T1.

T2 - 0:42

I hadn't really thought about it on the bike, but there was really no breeze to be felt. And it was turning into a pretty warm day (Afterward, we saw a bank thermometer at 91) . When I first left transition, everything was feeling pretty good. However, in the first half mile, I started getting some stomach cramps. I had hoped to run under 8 minute miles, but I had to back off the pace a little to keep everything in working order. I had also planned to take a salt tab on the bike, but I think I dropped it, because it wasn't there when I had looked.

So, the run turned into a bit of damage control instead of the strong run I had envisioned. I made it to the turnaround, walked up the stairs, and had to walk a few more times over the last mile and a half. My heart rate just felt through the roof, and I couldn't keep it under control. So, I'd give myself a 10 second walk break to cool down, and then get back to the run. This seemed to work okay, though I wasn't setting any speed records.

When I got in sight of the finish line, I was happy to see that I'd crack 2 hours, which was sort of a goal pre-race. And when they posted the results, I was happier to see that I had placed in my age group!

The big finish. The guy ahead of me was a duathlete, so I had no real reason to try and chase him down. :)

Run 2 - 26:23 (8:39/mi)

Total - 1:49:03
22/49 Overall
2/2 Age Group

I had thought that I placed 3rd out of 5 in my age group, but now that the results are out, I'm actually listed as second in my age group of two total. I see that one of the guys registered as a clydesdale, but I'm not sure what happened to the others. Unfortunately, this race only gives out awards to a certain percentage of finishers for age groups, so only the first place guy got an award. Also unfortunate? The hot pink cotton t-shirts from this race. Not sure I'll be wearing that one anytime soon. Other than that (and obviously the swim), I thought this race was run very well. It was organized, the course was pretty well marked, and there were a lot of volunteers.

I'm really happy about the way I raced, and encouraged by the results. This race was intended as a tune-up for Coeur D'Alene, and I think it served its purpose well!

Pregame

We made it down to Kentucky, and are hanging out at the hotel after getting some pasta in our bellies.

There was bad news when we arrived: the swim has been cancelled due to bad water conditions. And with it went probably my best event. Just have to make the best of it.

We also had a chance to drive the course. The run has a fair amount of grassy terrain, and a couple flights of steps. The bike course looks a little tougher than anticipated. I knew there was one big hill (and it is big in person), but the rest has some pretty decent roll to it as well. There are even a couple of patches of gravel I'll have to ride through. At least I will know they're coming - glad we drove it.

As for goals, the change in race day have sort of thrown them for a loop. So I'll just leave it at:

1. Finish
2. Have fun
3. Do the best I can under whatever conditions race day brings.

And if all else fails, there's a $25 prize for the last finisher. :)

T-Minus 1 Month

...and it all comes down to this. Really, it's something less than a month because of the taper, but here we are.

Biggest Challenge This Month:

Peak miles! There have been some really long workouts this month - multiple century rides, including one to 115 miles. Some long runs, some swims beyond IM distance, and one giant bike-run brick last weekend. It's taken some work to fit them all in, especially with Meredith's photo booth business booming and spending time helping with that. Somehow, I managed to get nearly all my workouts in, though a few got shaved down here and there when I just couldn't fit them in.

There was one run in there where I absolutely blew up. It was only a 50 minute run, but I crashed and burned pretty hard. Zone 3 was more like zone 1, and recovery was a slow walk. That was a pretty tough day mentally, but because it was sandwiched in between some pretty successful days, I have laid it aside as an anomaly. There have certainly been other days where I wasn't at my "best", but that one took the cake.

Biggest Success This Month:

It would definitely have to be time management and dedication to get in all those hours. It helped to know that I was in the last full build cycle of training. This week is race week (yay!), and after one more tough week, it'll be time to taper down for the big day!

How I Feel About Training:

Like it's all paying off. Minus a few bad days, I've felt consistently stronger as the month has gone along. I've gone over the full IM distance in both the bike and swim, which has given me some mental confidence in my ability to do a long race.

And on the other hand, I'm SO glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's been tough to keep this intensity up, and I'm looking forward to some other activities once the race is through.

How I Feel About The Race:

Ready. I know it'll be tough, and there will be struggles, but I really think I can do this thing.

What's Next?

Racing this weekend at the Buffalo Trails Triathlon! It's just a sprint, since there aren't really any longer races in the area around this time of year. I wanted to get in at least one race where I could work out the pre-race jitters and do a practice run of transitions and such. (Like I'm not going to be nervous on June 21. Hah!)

1 Month Out Theme Song(s):

U2 seemed a little cliche. I can't decide.

The amount of time until the taper?



Some upbeat classical?



Or some more...serious...classical?

Open (Water) Season

It's not exactly what you'd call "swimming weather" yet here in Ohio, but this week I decided it was good enough to get out and get ready for this weekend's triathlon.  I had heard really good things about COTT, the local triathlon club, and so I headed down to their Monday open water swim.  Meredith even came along for a piece of the action; she did a short run from the "beach".

The lake where the open water swims take place is large enough to have a 1.2 mile triangle that most of the people were swimming that day.  I was scheduled for 2000 meters in the pool, so that was perfect!  The water was chilly at the start, but manageable.  And it got chillier as I swam into the shade of the cliff...that I wasn't really supposed to be next to.  Right turn.  Swim for a while.  Left turn.  Okay, sighting needs work.  Good to know.

On the long stretch on the back side of the triangle, I noticed the water get rapidly shallower.  I looked up above the water, and there was another cliff wall about two yards from my face.  Sighting DEFINITELY needs work.

For being the first time out this year, though, I felt really good.  One shoulder was a bit tired from the wetsuit sleeves, but overall it was a strong swim.  It wouldn't have been any trouble to do another loop, which was a great feeling!

Caution - May make wide left turns.

Coming in to shore!

Sun salutation, swim-style.

Explosions and Inspiration

Training is an absolute frenzy right now! Every day feels like a huge step toward this race, and I feel more and more physically ready for the demands I'll be putting on my body. At the same time, I'm realizing more and more details that I need to figure out.

How far apart are the water stops?

Do I need my rear bottle cage?

How many tubes should I carry?

Do I want a separate outfit for the run?

Am I wearing a watch? What about my Garmin?

But I know that I'll have time to settle all these issues. Heck, it might give me something to do when I finally start tapering. (I do get to taper, right? Right?)

On Wednesday, I had what has to be the toughest swim to this point. 4200 meters (that's 2.6 miles, if you're scoring at home), with the majority of it in a descending interval set. It was all based off of my latest swim test: I had 400s a little above my average pace, 300s a little less above it, 200s at my test pace, and then a final 100 of all-out-everything-you've-got effort.

One thing I've learned about Ironman training, at least for your first time, is that very little of it is at max effort. Lots of aerobic, zone 2, sustain a comfortably uncomfortable pace work. But I haven't hit the track, I haven't been sprinting on the bike, and other than swim tests, most of my long swim sets have been at a moderate pace. Not this one. This was a gut-wrencher. And it didn't help that in my IM-addled state, I didn't remember my swim pace time correctly. I was thinking 1:32/100m. And I thought, "Well, instead of doing math in my head for 1:32s, let's just round it to 1:30".

My swim test pace was 1:35/100m.

So now I've just inadvertently made my goal 20 seconds faster per 400. My first 400 came in at 6:55. That's a 1:43 pace, within what I really should have been doing, but too slow for my poor math. So I doubled my efforts for the rest, and brought them all in between 6:42 and 6:46.

Now I was feeling better! (Though a bit tired, those seemed hard! Go figure.)

On to the 300s. Should be shooting for 5:00 flat, but wrote it down as 4:45. And I hit 4:46!

Once.

Then it was 4:57. Then 5:05. Uh-oh. Now I'm supposed to step it up again? I must have been feeling bad, because I couldn't even manage to hit the stopwatch correctly for the first 200, and then the second one was 3:25. Pop! There went my arms. Kerpow! And my legs.

One last 100, and I did manage to bring it in in a 1:35. I'm pretty sure that was 35 seconds for the first 50, and 1:00 for the remainder. I remember making the last turn and not quite knowing if I could even make it back to the other end. :) But other than a little cool down, I was done! A blow up, yes, but another big step in pushing myself and growing.

That wasn't the only explosion this week. After the mishap during last weekend's ride, I had to replace Charlie Brown's tires and tubes. It wasn't fast, but I got the front tire changed, inflated, and set aside. Then, while I worked on the rear tire, POW! The front one exploded, just sitting there! I hadn't even put it on the bike yet! I did realize after the fact that the new tires have a much lower max pressure, so I'm thinking maybe I overinflated this one. Still, a disturbing trend.

And finally, a bit of inspiration. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love this video. I watch it multiple times per week, and enjoy it more than any IMCDA videos I've found of actual racing. Maybe it just captures the feel of the whole event the best.



Thanks for reading this far, have a great weekend! I'll be off for my longest bike ride of the whole training plan on Sunday - 7 hours!

Second "Century"

Sunday morning, I set out for my second century ride. While the first one was about surviving 100 miles, this one had more purpose. That's a nice way of saying "This one will push me to my limit". Four of the six hours were to be intervals where I'd have to push hard to get my heart rate up.

Hour 1: Warm-up. Little bit of a headwind, but not bad. My legs took a bit of warming up, probably because I had 3 hours of workouts the day before. :)

Hour 2: Start of the intervals. Uphill rollers for a lot of it, but by now my legs were with me, and I was having fun and moving! The wind wasn't bad at all through here, and I was banking a lot of time at a high (for me) speed. Starting to get excited about the day.

Hour 3: Through Mt. Vernon, and onto the bike trail. Lots of folks out, it was a beautiful day for a walk, ride, or anything! Made for a few times I had to slow down to get around people, but that's okay. I hit 50 miles, and still had some time to go before my turnaround! Got really excited, since 100 miles took me well over six hours last time. Pulled out the phone to call Meredith, but no service way out there in the countryside.

Hour 4: Turned around and headed back. Got stuck behind a pair of rollerbladers. I called out "on your left, please", but they didn't hear. Tried again a little closer, and the woman jumped from surprise and almost fell. The guy (who was the one blocking the left side of the trail) said, "Good thing she didn't fall." Well, yeah, good thing. It would have been your fault. :P Back through town, holding my water bottles in over some rough roads, and started the ride back home. Still holding a great average, somewhere around 17.5.

Hour 5: As I climbed out of Mt. Vernon, I noticed that I was finally having trouble holding my speed. I chalked it up to pushing hard on the intervals, and the fact that I was hitting the biggest uphill parts of the course, but it sure came on fast! Then, just before I made the turn to head back downhill for basically the remainder of the day, I heard it.

Pssst.

Pssssst.

PsstPsstPsstPsstPsst...

I pulled off the road, and sure enough, my rear tire was leaking air. Why does it always have to be the rear one? I found the spot and stuck my finger on it, which seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, it's hard to ride with your finger on your rear wheel, so I figured I better find another way. Before I lost all the air, I managed to limp another quarter mile to a landscaping company and staked out a spot on their lawn, right next to the fence where their animals were kept. I had a very interested crowd (two donkeys, a scary dog, and numerous goats) as I got my old tube out and put in the new one.

First annual meeting of my fan club!

Everything looked good, so I got out the CO2, pushed it down, and the new tire inflated and

BANG!

Oh. That's not good. (The animals didn't like it much either)

I'm no expert, but I think I may have found the issue.

Poor Charlie Brown. :(

That was my only spare, so it was time to call for a rescue. Fortunately, I was back in cell phone range at this point, so Meredith was able to come get me. Coach said maybe I didn't have the tire seated properly...I didn't realize one CO2 cartridge had enough pressure to pop a tube. Guess it's a lesson learned.

After all was said and done, I had done 74.16 miles in 4:19. That's about a 17.2 mph average, which is a big improvement over the 15.7 from my first century! I had looked a little earlier, and it was around 17.4 before the flat issues. Provided that it was, in fact, the flat that was slowing me down and my legs weren't blowing up on me, I think I could have held pretty close to that the rest of the way - most of it was downhill, and I usually cruise through that section. Frustrating to have the day end that way, but sometimes that's the way it goes.

Here's to taking what good we can from days like this, and surviving to train again another day! For me, that day will be Sunday, when I get to bump it up to a 7 hour ride!