AUGUSTA RACE REPORT

Geepers!  Can’t believe it’s been so long since I have posted anything.  BUT – now that Augusta is over, I want to give an accounting for what I felt was an outstanding race for me.  I felt great going in, had ‘stretch’ time goals that I met, and had a great time doing it. 

The raw data: 

Total Time: 5:58:02 (1:19:48 PR from same race last year)

Swim: 32:13 (1 min PR from same race last year)

Bike: 2:51:07 (17 min PR from same race last year)

Run: 2:25:35 (32 min PR from Kansas 70.3 this year)

Unlike Kansas, the conditions for the day were PERFECT!  Overcast, cool, and slightly misting near the end of the run.  And obviously, the current of the river helped a lot as well!  And these conditions, no doubt, had a hand in me being able to set these PR’s.  But in addition to that, the training and execution guidance of Endurance Nation along with fairly significant body composition improvements also contributed HUGELY to these time improvements.  I can’t say enough about EN and the coaching, guidance, and pure knowledge of everything from how to plan race nutrition, what works best to prevent nipple chaffing during the run, what to carry on the bike, encouragement and support from other members, and on and on and on.  Nothing quite like it!

So here goes… the day before the race, I had pancakes, syrup and some egg whites for breakfast.  I then picked up my training/racing buddy, Kourey to head out on our 5 hour car ride to Augusta from Birmingham.  Along the way, we stopped for a snack of gummy bear goodness to hold us over along the way.  

Once in Augusta, we went to the Athlete check in and picked up our race packets.  We then headed to bike transition to drop off our bikes before going to get some lunch which consisted of a 12” sub from Firehouse Subs (yum-o-la!).  After that, we had to go back to Athlete Check in because we both needed new race belts (his was broken, mine was still in Birmingham) – and hey, what better place to buy some gear than at the Ironman Expo!  We then went back to the grocery store for our evening meal and morning breakfast supplies before going on to the hotel.

Dinner consisted mainly of Naked Juice, chocolate milk and sports drink – nothing solid.  This was key to an “uneventful” morning and worked perfectly for both of us!  We also treated ourselves to 1 beer from the hotel bar to help calm us so that we could sleep.

On race day, we woke at 4:30am and I promptly had 1.5 cups applesauce with 2 scoops of protein powder plus 1 banana.  This was purposely less than Kansas, and worked well.  We left the hotel at 5am and drove towards the host hotel to grab a shuttle bus to transition. 

Once in transition, I set up my area, pumped up my tires, checked everything over, and we grabbed another bus to the swim start.  Because we were so rushed at Kansas, we planned on being extra early, so when we got to the swim start, we still had 1-1.5 hours to kill before starting.  So once there, we just chilled until ‘go time’.

THE SWIM:

I was in the 7:56am wave with the other old guys, but I got to wear a pink swim cap!  One thing to note, here, is that in prior races, I have found that I often get a little freaked out and panicky at the start of the swim.  Feel free to read some older posts about that – but suffice it to say that I have found a Xanax or 3 works wonders for this situation.  Sadly, I failed to pack any Xanax, so ….

At the start of the swim, I hung near the back as I always do because I am a slow swimmer and didn’t want to get in the way.  Once I started, I immediately had issues catching my breath.  I also found that my wetsuit felt like it was choking me.  This led to the 1^st of two full on panic attacks.  For both, I just stopped swimming, floated in my wetsuit, tried to stay out of the way (I was already in the back, so not very hard), and relaxed to catch my breath.  This seemed like an eternity to me on both occasions, but given that my swim time wasn’t too bad, it must not have been that long.  At one point during the 2^nd attack, I honestly thought my entire race was over as I began to look for a canoe to go hang on to.  I then said “F#$@ THAT!!”, forced my face into the water and just started swimming.  After a few minutes, I began to relax, remembered that I was supposed to count my strokes (thanks again EN) and just cruised along in my slow, but steady pace.

T1:

I came out of the water, jogged up the ramp, down the road, along the side of transition to the wetsuit strippers, plopped on the ground, and let the stripper do her magic!  Once freed of the wetsuit, I jogged to my bike, tried to get the grass off my feet, put on my shoes, donned my helmet and race belt (that fancy expensive one from the Expo) and headed out on the bike.  The only thing to note is that at this point of the race that I noticed my watch was not tracking correctly.  It had an error message displayed and I had no idea if any of the swim got captured.  It also would not let me do anything until I turned it off and back on which I did before starting it back for the bike portion.  I wasted time messing with this and am annoyed I let that happen.  

THE BIKE:

After getting my watch to work, I got settled in on the bike and felt GREAT!  I was wearing the EN Arm Coolers which actually made me a bit chilly the entire ride because it was overcast and fairly cool (70s, I think).  But after maybe 30 minutes, I noticed my watch had stopped – the timer had just stopped.  I restarted it, but am guessing as to how long it was down.  This happened again later in the ride, so my sense of time on the bike was completely off – I had no idea how I was doing in terms of time or pace and had to use the mile markers to determine my feeding schedule rather than time.

Speaking of feeding, I went into this race with an entirely different nutrition plan than in the past.  Prior to this, I used Gu and supplemented with salt sticks for sodium.  This time, however, I used 2 different formulas of Infinit – one for the bike, the other for the run.  The bike formula consisted of 300 cals, 412g sodium, 71g carbs, 3.42g protein, no caffeine per hour.  I switched to this Bike formula for all of my training rides that were longer than 2 hours after I got back from Kansas earlier this summer.  This worked perfectly for me in training and on race day!  No cramping, no hunger, no bonking, plenty of energy!  I will stick with this and only adjust as I lose more weight. 

I started the day with 1 hours’ worth of formula in my aero bottle and  a “2 hour bottle” on my down tube that I used to refill my aero bottle every hour.  I refilled the aero bottle prior to each aid station and used water from the station to top it off.  Again, this worked perfectly and I will continue this approach going forward.

Back to the ride – all I can say is: FAST!  There were definitely some very fast sections to this bike course.  Granted, there were some hills as well, but lots of flats and plenty of downhills!  That made for a very fun and exciting ride!  One thing that was concerning to me, however, was the lack of control people had with their bikes.  I saw a TON of people weaving all over the place and darting in and out of other riders.  Needless to say, it is a bit scary to have someone weave in front of you while you are approaching them at 35 mph going downhill.  I also noticed a lot of people coasting down the hills!?!  But since many of them crushed it going up the hill, I guess they were resting.  Anyway, I made up a lot of time on the downhills.

Because I don’t have a power meter, I use heart rate and RPE to determine my effort.  My “zone 3” pace is 151 – 158 bpm which I easily maintained for the duration of the ride.  Unlike last year where I hammered along for much of the ride, I maintained a steady, consistent effort regardless of hills, flats, or traffic.  This, I am certain, made a HUGE difference in how I felt on the run (thanks again, EN).

I was still feeling great as I got closer to the end.  I consciously pedaled a higher cadence in the last 10-15 miles just to help with the transition to the run.  Don’t know if that helped any, but I felt good, so I’ll keep doing it.  I came in “hot”, braked hard, and jumped off the bike.  

T2:

I ran to mount my bike, put on socks and shoes and had to replace my race number.  My number got torn and I knew it would not last for the entire run.  So I had to search my transition bag for my other race number to use.  At this point, I decided not to wear my newly purchased race belt for the run and use my Fuel Belt to hold my new number instead.  I had to use the Fuel Belt anyway because I was carrying my Run formula of Infinit nutrition.  This formula consisted of 245 cals, 406g sodium, 61g carbs, no protein, and added caffeine per hour.  Like the bike formula, I used this extensively for most workouts that were less than 2 hours and it worked perfectly!

THE RUN:

I had two “1.5 hour” bottles in my fuel belt that I knew would last long enough to get through the run, even if I blew up and it took 3 hours.  But I was feeling good and knew I wouldn’t take that long.

I started out and immediately noticed that my watch had lost GPS and was not tracking my pace.  UGH!  I fiddled with that for the 1^st mile or so and gave up.  I just used the mile markers and hit my “split” button at each marker to note my pace for each mile.  My goal was to hit an 11:00 per mile pace for the 1^st three miles then speed up to 10:30 per mile the rest of the way.  But based on my manual tracking, I was all over the place – as fast as 10:00 min miles to as slow as 11:55 min miles.  This seemed to coincide with how long I spent at each aid station (go figure).  Lesson learned – don’t spend so much time at the aid stations!  The clock doesn’t stop!!

In addition to manually calculating my pace per mile, I also watched my heart rate and it hovered around 164-166 the entire run.  This is a little higher than I would have liked, but my paces were a little slower than I wanted, so I just kept going.  I was so worried about not having enough left in the tank at the end that I wanted to do everything I could to keep a decent, steady pace going so that I wouldn’t have to walk.  And it worked!  This is the 1^st time I have EVER been able to run the entire 13.1 miles except for the walks at the aid stations.  Other than those, I ran every mile! 

The run was fairly uneventful in terms of the actual run.  But the crowd support was amazing!  It was like a huge party in downtown Augusta and I really got a boost every time we looped back towards part of the crowd.  Truly fantastic!

THE END:

As I neared the finish, I was able to make out the time at the finish line which I knew started 26 minutes before my swim wave started.  I crossed as the time was around 6:24 – so I knew I had finished in less than 6 hours.  Prior to the race, I had set my BHAG goal (Big Harry Audacious Goal) as sub 6 hours.  That, I felt, could be accomplished if everything went perfectly and I pulled off a 30 min swim, 3 hour bike, and 2.5hr run and fit in transitions somewhere.  My realistic goal was sub 6.5 hours.  So… I am ecstatic to have finished in 5:58.  Without the training support of Kourey, the materials inside Endurance Nation, and a supportive wife and kids, I could never have pulled this off!  But a year after doing this race and “just finishing” as a BOP-er (back of pack-er), it is damn nice to finish as a MOP-er (middle of the pack-er).  Next year…. FOP-er baby!!

And now – the season is officially over.  I am doing NOTHING for a week, and then will start to add in some alternate exercising for a while.  Perhaps take a BodyPump class.  Maybe yoga or tennis.  I’ll surely take my son mountain biking.  But I’ll lay off the swim/bike/run for a while. At least until November!  :)

Kansas Race Report

Disclaimer – this is fairly lengthy.  And goes into more than just the race.  You have been warned…

Wow!  What a race!  I must say, I am both excited by the finish, but disappointed as well.  I had time goals that I did not make – but after reading below, you will hopefully have a full understanding of why.  Also, I must say a big “Congrats” to my racing/training buddy, Kourey, who raced his heart out and finished as well – beat me by 8 minutes in fact!  So – I have more work to do if I am to beat him at Augusta.  Also, “Congrats” to my fellow Endurance Nation brethren who finished – Matt, William, Stephanie, and Randy with Matt and William earning spots to the Vegas 70.3 World Championships!  Awesome!!

Anyway – back to my story.  The raw stats are as follows:  Total Time = 7:28; Swim = 1:00; Bike = 3:23; Run = 2:57.  Details of each leg, of course, are below.  Before that, however, I must point out that prior to the race, we were all hoping for a wetsuit legal race.  Meaning temps 76.1 degrees and below.  The temp was hovering so close to the cut off all week we literally didn’t know what the reading would be until race morning.  So I packed the wetsuit just in case.  When we arrived, we learned the temp was 76.8 degrees meaning no wetsuit.  And being a fairly weak swimmer, this was the 1^st mental challenge I had to overcome.  Next was the wind – my goodness!  It was frickin’ WINDY!!!  This caused the water to be extra choppy (sure would have been nice to have that wetsuit).  And made the bike portion quite challenging and often, very scary!  And the run was – well – HOT!  I looked up the temperature after we were done and it appears Lawrence set a record for the day with a 94 degree high.  No shade either.  Needless to say, for a newbie to this distance and a guy wanting to set a PR (Personal Record) at this race, there were a lot of mental obstacles to overcome!  The training mantra of EN (you will hear a LOT about that below), knowing everyone was dealing with the same things, and the recent addition of mental fitness to my daily routines all helped to get through it.  (Plug here:  check out http://www.mental-fitness-challenge.com/ for more information on the mental fitness stuff!)

Nutrition wise, I woke at 1:30am and had approximately 3 scoops (495 calories) of protein shake with water and went back to bed.  At 4am I had a cup of applesauce with a scoop of protein powder, banana, and 1 piece of toast with peanut butter.  I think this set me up fairly well for the day.

The Swim (1:00)

Before the swim started, I downed 2 Gu’s.  And Wow!  Tough swim.  My goal for the swim was 45 mins – but VERY choppy water and no wetsuit made for a slower than desired result.  I know of at least 8 professional athletes who did not finish the swim.  And have heard up to 60 total who didn’t.  So, although the swim was slower than I had hoped, I am glad I finished.  And honestly, I felt great during the swim.  Some lessons from EN are that you should only focus on your “box”, or what you can control.  I could not control the chop, other swimmers, or anything outside of me.  So I focused on my stroke form, my sighting, my breathing, and pretty much counted my strokes the entire time.  This allowed me to NOT focus on the chop, the occasional gulps of water, or the other athletes grabbing my ankles at times.  And with the conditions, I actually felt calm and relaxed and somewhat enjoyed the swim.  Well – maybe not enjoyed – but at least didn’t really mind it.  

The swim was an out and back where we started in waves based on age/gender.  To start, we had to swim maybe 30 yards to the 1^st buoy and tread water until the horn went off.  I stayed in the back of my group as I knew I would be slower than most.  That kept me from others for a while until the next group caught me where I ended up swimming with them for the rest of the time.  We went out, turned in a counterclockwise direction, swam parallel to the docks for a bit and then turned back towards to docks to finish.  Total distance was 1.2 miles.  When it was over, we ran up a slight hill into T1 (transition 1) to get our bikes.  Because of no wetsuit, I swam with only my tri shorts, so I had to put on my shirt, don the rest of my bike gear, and then headed out on my 56 mile bike journey.

The Bike (3:23)

Nutrition wise, I think I overate a bit.  I had planned on taking in 250 calories per hour, but ended up taking in 300 per hour.  Because I use Gu for my calories, and each pack has 100 cals each, it was just easier to remember to take one every 20 mins.  But later in the run, my stomach seemed to shut down making me think I over did the calories.  I’ll have to figure that out for next time.  Also, I took in 1 sodium pill (Salt Stick) every 30 mins which seemed to work well.  The problem, however, is that I only packed enough for the bike – so I had NONE for the run!  That came back to hurt later in the day.  I used empty Mentos containers to hold my salt pills and some ibuprophen which I also took while on the bike at the halfway point.  My back and hands were starting to bother me, so the ib was helpful.  

My goal for the bike was 3:00 based on my training and the course elevation that was online.  However, that elevation said there would be appx. 1100 feet of climbing, but in reality, my GPS says I did appx. 2600 feet of climbing.  This, considering most training rides I do are between 2000-2500 feet, would not have been a big deal.  But the winds!!  Oh my!!  Weather reports said the sustained winds for the day were between 16-20mph with gusts over 30mph. That made for some sssslllloooowwww and often scary sections.  But again, the EN training got me through this tough spot.  What could I control?  My HR (my effort), my nutrition on the bike, my attitude, climbing hills smart, and sticking with my plan.  What could I NOT control?  The wind and how slow it would make me, the hills themselves and racers pushing up them too hard, other racers crashing, the heat.  Based on the conditions and the fact that I was able to stick with my plan, I feel good about the bike portion of the race.  Still have improvements to make in my overall power output (speed), but race execution wise, I am happy.

The bike started out simply enough – nice big hill at the beginning and some rollers getting out of the park.  Once out, the road somewhat leveled off, but the wind was a bear!  It was either pushing directly against us or blowing at us sideways.  And yes, at times (especially on the return back to the park) it was pushing us.  The hardest for me mentally was during a stretch at miles 35 – 40.  Nice rolling hills and a constant wind blowing at our faces.  My speed was a low of around 5 mph and got up to as high as 30 on the downhills.  But man!  That stretch was brutal.  BUT – when we turned around, the wind was at our backs for miles 40 – 43 (where we turned onto another road where the wind was blowing at us sideways) and that stretch was FUN!  I was cruising 24 – 26 mph for most of that.  But then the fun stopped and reality hit again as we turned and the wind was pushing us sideways.  The scariest part was the downhills where we would hit 30 – 35 and a gust would just blow us over – or come close to.  Very difficult to keep the bike upright and not wreck.  I saw at least 3 ambulances on course and numerous people sitting on the sides of the road.  Not fixing anything, just sitting there.  There were also a few who I saw walking their bikes up one of the last hills at mile 50.  That hill was tough – but if you had raced properly it was manageable.

By racing properly, one of the things EN has taught me is to NOT charge up hills and NOT push my heart rate up too high.  Their manta is “there is no such thing as a good bike with a poor run” and that kept going through my head.  My goal was to keep my HR in the high Zone 2 based on my projected finish time so that meant trying to keep it in the high 150’s to low 160’s.  I averaged 159 for the entire ride and was very watchful of it during the hard stretches and the hills to keep it low.  As we re-entered the park, most people seemed to slow way down – as in, I easily passed many.  And the closer we got to the finish, the slower people were going.  And as we got to the part where the runners were, some people almost seemed to stop!  Come on, folks!!  Giddy-up and go!!  The race aint over yet!!  Anyway, I managed to get around those folks, get into T2 and rack my bike, put on my running shoes and hat and hit the road.

The Run (2:57)

Alright – the run is where I have mixed feelings about my execution.  I want to start by saying I PR’d the run by 27 minutes from last year’s Augusta 70.3, so that is an improvement.  But… Let’s talk nutrition first and get that out of the way.  As mentioned above, I ran out of salt pills, so I was a little freaked out which got me out of my element.  I allowed this to affect my mind more than I had hoped which resulted in some poor decisions during the run.  I took water at every aid station – and ice at most stations.  I used the ice to put inside my hat and to either hold in my hands or dump down my pants.  That was the good.  But because I had no sodium, I ended up also trying IM Perform at one stop, Gu Chomps at another, and Coke at another.  This combined with over eating on the bike ended up locking up my stomach and by the time I was at mile 6 or 7 I was pretty much done.  In retrospect, I should have again concentrated on what I could control and not what I couldn’t.  At this point, I am not sure what I could have done to get in the sodium, but I do know that what I did do didn’t work.  I’ll have to consider that a little more before figuring that out.  But at this point, I think my best bet would have been to just stick with the water and ice and not try and compensate.

Now, for the actual run.  After swimming in the choppy water, surviving the wind on the bike, we were treated with record highs for Lawrence, KS with a high of 94 degrees.  And maybe 10 feet of the 13.1 mile run course was shaded.  Yeah – it was HOT!!  Oddly enough, our spring and summer in Birmingham has been fairly mild, so I have not had the opportunity to train much in the heat.  And I think this affected me as well.

 My 1^st mile was way too fast!  I could not run slow enough right off the bike and ended up running around a 10 minute mile – BAD!  Based on my vDot, I was targeting a 12min mile for the 1^st 3, so doing a 10 to the 1^st aid station probably hurt me later on.  But after walking the aid station, I was able to slow down and averaged 12’s for the next two.  But when it was time to crank up the speed and hit my target of 11:30 pace for miles 3-13, I simply could not.  I steadily got slower and slower – and ended up walking more than I had hoped during the last half of the run.  The good is that I did run a whole lot more than at Augusta last year.  The bad, I screwed up my nutrition and allowed it to affect my mind and allowed that to slow me down.  And the heat messed with my mind as well.  So again, mixed feelings about this performance.

One of the things the EN folks talk about for race execution is that when things get tough, you need to have your “1 thing” – your inspiration or your ‘why’ to help get us through when the pain and desire to stop gets high.  For pushing ourselves to the limits and putting ourselves inside that dark and painful place.  Well, I am still trying to figure that out.  I was asked over the weekend why I did triathlons.  At first, it was just to see if I could and it seemed like a natural progression from spin classes to cycling and then triathlon.  Now I know I can do it.  So why keep doing it?  Well, I do enjoy it – love accomplishing something many can’t or won’t do.  And my “BHAG” (Big Hairy A** Goal) is to qualify for Kona.  But at this point of my journey, that is a long way off and easy to dismiss when things get tough.  And some could say that is unlikely based on current performance.  But – that is the goal.  So I have to figure this stuff out b/c I do plan on achieving it.

The next ‘reasons’ would be so that my kids could see me, their dad, finish something I have started and endure through tough challenges.  But just finishing these things is an accomplishment and not really something that can get me through the toughest of times.  They just see the medal and don’t really understand the difference in ‘just finishing’ and ‘pushing to the limits’.

Another, and probably the most likely, is because I want to see just how far I can push myself.  How deep and how painful I can go and still endure and fight and finish.  I know I have more inside that I just need to find.  I’ve come a long way since last year – and most of that has been since training with Endurance Nation.  And with more training, more knowledge, and more discipline I will keep finding more and more of it until I get there.  And knowing I will not grow until I pass the next test, I have to keep going.  (Not sure if what I am typing here makes sense to anyone other than me – hopefully it does).

I know that what I experienced at Kansas in no way will be close to what I will feel at a full Ironman – and not even close to what I will feel on the day I do qualify for Kona.  I have to learn how to go deeper, learn how to focus, how to stay sharp when things don’t go as planned, how to execute all portions of the race including nutrition and transitions.

The Finish

As I ran (yes, I ran the end) towards the finish, I was quite happy to my lovely wife there to greet me and put the medal over my head.  She was able to volunteer because one of her brothers and sis-n-laws took the boys to the lake so she could stay long enough to see me at the end.  That was pretty cool to have her put the medal on me.  And after flashing the EN gang sign for a finisher’s pic, I headed to the beer tent and – well – drank some water and just sat.  Not sure how folks drink beer that quickly after laying it all out like that, but I couldn’t.  Granted, I would later that night – but right after?  Nah!

Anyway – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Overall I am pleased but know that I have much more to improve on for Augusta.  I did learn a lot that will help me in the future which is also good.  I guess that’s the good thing about doing multiple races per year – there is more opportunity to learn and then execute.

For those who have stayed with this story to the end, well, thanks.  I hope it wasn’t too dull.  It is helpful to write this out to get it out of my head and onto something I can refer to later.  And with that, I bid you a good night and farewell until next time!

Race Rehearsal for Kansas Half Ironman

Today's training session was a "race rehearsal" as I go through final prep. for the Kansas 70.3 Half IM in 2 weeks.  I did a full 3hr bike followed by an hour run that was to simulate race day so that I could learn and improve.  Well - I make plenty of mistakes that I can fix which means, for the purpose of this session, it was a success.

The mistakes started right away by not getting enough nutrition in before I started out.  Again, I was doing a 3 hour bike ride and an hour run - so ideally I would have had some nutrition/calories prior to starting.  But I was meeting a Kourey at 5am, so I got up, drank some egg whites and Powerbar gel, then headed out.  Yeah - that's it.  WTH was I thinking?? 

Rode 4 miles to our starting point and headed out.  Rode 54 miles in 2:58 and felt pretty good actually for most of the ride.  I ate a Gu every 30 mins at the top and bottom of the hour and a Salt Stick capsule every 30 mins on the 15's and 45's.  About 2 hours in, though I started getting hungry and I could tell my legs were starting to get a bit tired.  That's when I realized my morning nutritional mistake.  But at that point, there's not much to do other than suck it up and finish.  Lesson learned:  remember race day (and race rehearsal) nutrition - ALWAYS! 

As I was riding, I noticed my HR was jumping all over the place - as low as 150s and as high as 210 (while I was cruising in Z3)  This has happened before when the battery was getting low on my HR strap.  I can only assume I was in Z3 based on RPE.  Lesson Learned: ensure new batteries before racing.

We broke off when we got back to our meeting point and I rode the 4 miles back to the house.  By this time, I was out of water (carried 4 bottles with me) and Gu, so I refilled a bottle to carry with my hand bottle holder thingy and 1 Gu (another mistake).  As I started off, for the 1st 20 mins or so, I found it quite difficult to run as slow as I was supposed to and had to walk a few times to slow my average down.
 
After about 20 mins, however, my mistake mentioned above caught up with me (only taking 1 Gu with me on the run).  My last Gu on the bike was taken at the 2:30 mark of the ride - almost an hour prior to this point of the run.  Since was in a nutritional deficit anyway as mentioned above, I started getting nauseous and very fatigued - not quite "bonking" but close.  I wanted that Gu, but knew that I needed to wait at least until the 30 min mark (halfway).  So - I just kept going as best I could and counted down the minutes until I could have it.  At 30mins I took it, but at only 100 calories, it didn't really do much.  I ended up walking a bit and my average pace dropped to about a minute slower than my target pace.  Lesson Learned:  take more than enough Gu (or other nutrition) for every leg of the race or training session.  Better to have a bit more than needed than to run out.

Then about 45 mins in, I emptied my water bottle.  I had been nursing it for the last 15 mins or so, but it finally ran out.  Most of my runs are either short or early in the morning when it is still cool.  By the time I did this run, it was pushing the upper 80s and I was in direct sun most of the way.  The finish was less than stellar due to lack of nutrition and water - but I got through it.  Lesson learned:  find a way to carry more water training in heat.  Not sure the solution when running since my bottle holder thingy only holds 1 bottle - perhaps getting a Fuel Belt??  But for race day, this will not usually be a problem because of the aid stations.

Overall I think this was a successful RR in that I did learn a lot and have a lot to correct.  And as mentioned, better today than on race day.  I think doing this will make be better prepared for KS and for future training sessions as the summer gets hotter.

Lastly, I ended up making some changes to my bike fit prior to this RR based on feedback from some Endurance Nation folks.  I moved my seat forward, moved the aerobars forward, dropped my handlebars and adjusted the angle of the aerobars up.  This proved to be a much more comfortable position and I think I'll keep it this way for a while.  Lesson Learned:  don't be afraid to experiment - but be smart when doing so.  IE - this could have turned ugly if, 1 hour in, I realized I had made a mistake and couldn't do anything about it.  BUT - I did mark everything before moving so that if it did mess things up, I could put it back. 

Ok - that's about it.  Thanks for reading - if nothing else, it helps to write this out so that I can process it in my little brain for future improvements.

Lake Guntersville Race Report

This past Saturday was the 1st race of the season - the inaugural Lake Guntersville Olympic Triathlon.  Finish time was 3:22:51, which, compared to last years Chattanooga Olympic race, was 38 minutes faster!  This was the 1st race where I actually felt somewhat prepared.  If you read any of the reports from last year, you know that I did a poor job of race prep. as well as race execution.  This year, however, things have changed dramatically and I feel better about my fitness and race 'potential' than ever before.  And with that - here are the details from the race.  Before - during - and after.

Going in to the race 
I felt I was in a good place.  My goals at the beginning of the season were to be in the 230's weight wise, and the Monday before the race, I weighed in at 234 lbs.  My lowest in probably 10+ years.  My nutrition has continued to be outstanding (see recent posts below) and I have learned so much from Endurance Nation that I felt like I had a good race execution plan.

The Saturday before the race, the local Tri club (Vulcan Triathletes) held a 'practice' race for another Sprint tri that will be held next month.  I signed up for the practice mainly so that I would have an opportunity to race in a wetsuit in open water at least once before Guntersville.  The bike portion of this practice was appx. the same distance as G-town, and the run was about half.  Overall, I felt this practice served its purpose and I felt good about it.

One thing that did worry me was that a few days before this practice race, I injured by left achilles (no idea how) and it was bothering me big time!  I mainly just sucked it up during the practice but had to cut my ride short on the next day (Sunday) due to the pain.  I then skipped the next scheduled run to give myself 2 full recovery days to rest it before G-town.  I then did a long run on Thursday which aggravated it again forcing me to basically dose up on ibuprofen for the race.  As I type this, it is feeling much better - but I have had 2 days completely off of it since.  I will run again on Wednesday, but I will say I am slightly concerned about Kansas in 3 weeks. 

Pre-race
I arrived at G-town Friday night and met up with Kourey, my training/racing partner who was also doing the race.  We checked into the hotel, went and picked up our race packets and then had Subway for dinner.  I got my usual and we then went back to our respective rooms to chill for the night.

Race morning, my goal was to wake up around 3am and quickly get some calories in before going back to sleep.  But when the alarm went off, my mind did a VERY quick mental calculation and told me that for an Olympic distance, race, I would not need the extra calories - and I went back to sleep.  Not sure that was the right call, but the mind has a funny way of doing things at 3am!

I finally got up around 5am and had a protein shake, banana, and some coffee before meeting Kourey in the lobby.  We loaded up and left for the event at around 6:20am.  The swim start didn't start until 8am, so we had plenty of time.

Once there, we got settled into transition and got our timing chips.  We basically hung out until about 30mins before the start when we then started putting on our wetsuits.  The water temp was appx. 75 degrees, so it was just barely wetsuit legal! :)  After donning the wetsuit, I went to the lake to do some swimming to get warmed up and loose.  After a few race announcements I had 1 Gu and we were ready to go.

The swim + T1 (44:33)
The 1500 meter swim was a wave start from the water.  Meaning the different waves would go to the end of the dock and jump in and wait for the siren to sound.  Being a 'Clydesdale' (fat guy >200lbs), I got to start in the last wave which did not please me.  I am not a strong swimmer and the thought of starting last on my weakest sport did not sit well.  But...  ya' gotta' roll with it, right?  Anyway, the siren went off, and so did we.  I felt pretty good, actually, on the swim and was surprised at how many folks I passed.  But as I came around the next to last turn and started going for the buoy at the final turn, things got a little sideways.  As I was swimming and sighting the buoy, it seemed to me that one of the rescue boats was slowly creeping into our lane because it kept getting closer and closer to blocking the buoy.  And then the buoy finally disappeared.  Once I got up to the boat, I literally stopped, removed my goggles, and asked the boat where the buoy was.  It was then that I learned that it had blown off course, and they pointed me to another which lined me up with the finish.  I knew I had swam off course, but have no idea how far off I was.  The GPS on my watch says I swam 1.8 miles (for a 1500m swim).  But I have a hard time believing that.  But either way - given the buoy and my lack of swim speed, I am pleased with the time.

T1 was not officially timed, so the time is included in the swim time (T2 is included in the bike time).  No major things to report for T1 other than having help with moving our wetsuits.  That was a very pleasant surprise!  After that, I had a smooth transition to the bike with no issues.


The bike + T2 (1:24:03)
The 24.9 mile bike ride was a little hillier than I had expected.  But after pouring through the Endurance Nation race execution materials, I had a good plan to deal with whatever the course brought.  I do not have a power meter, so I raced with heart rate.  One of the things EN has its athletes do is test for the bike lactic threshold heart rate and then bases training/racing zones on that value.  I had re-tested my zones 2 days before this race, so I had a very clear idea on where I wanted my HR to be during the race.  The EN materials suggested racing an Olympic distance race in the high Zone 3 HR for the 1st 20 mins, then bump it up to the mid to high Zone 4 the rest of the way. 

After the swim, my HR was hitting the high zone 4 and it took the entire 20 mins to get it settled down into zone 3.  At this point, however, I got caught in a traffic jam.  There was a portion of the race course on a winding, narrow road.  It was at this point that a slow racer was basically blocking a few cars and a few us were trapped behind the cars.  There was nowhere to pass - this lasted about 5 mins and I was extrememly frustrated.  But... we eventually got to an opening and all cars and the rest of us could go around.  Buy this time, my HR was easily in zone 2, so I started to hammer away - quickly getting into the low zone 4 range.  BUT - at this point, I kept thinking about all of my races last year where I hammered the bike and stunk up the run and the EN mantra of "there is no such thing as a good bike with a bad run" kept going through my head.  So, in order to conserve for the run, I consciously lowered my intensity and raced most of the rest of the bike in the high zone 3's. Lastly, I ended up dropping my chain within 3 miles of the finish which cost me a little bit of time.  Fortunately I was able to get it back on very quickly and cruise on in to T2.

Nutrition wise I drank 2 bottles of water (44oz) and had 3 Gu's on the bike.

I felt very pleased with the bike portion of the event considering I took it a little easier than suggested, getting stuck in a traffic jam and dropping my chain.  I ended up having the 3rd best bike split of the 'fat guys' (and very respectable overall) which I am happy with.

T2 was also very uneventful.  Dropped the bike off, changed into my running shoes, donned sunglasses and visor and was off.

The run (1:14:14)
The 6.2 mile run was, well, much hillier than expected!  But before I get to that, I need to explain how EN trains/races with pace on the run.  As with the bike tests, I did a run test where we do a 5k time trial in order to calculate our vDot (Google it).  This vDot is then used to calculate our run zones based on pace.  My vDot gives me a zone 3 of 11'24", zone 4 of 10'52", and zone 5 of 10'28".  Based on the EN race execution for an Olympic race, I should race in the zone 3/4 for the 1st mile and then zone 4 for most of the rest - zone 5 all out for the last mile or so.  Unfortunately I was not able to do this.  But, unlike last year when I either pushed to hard on the bike, or was unprepared, it had nothing to do with dead legs or fitness.  I honestly felt pretty good and thought I would run well.  But (not to make excuses)...

Here is where I must share with you my run while trying not to sound like I am complaining or whining (although I am surely doing both!).  While this was a 'less than optimal' run performance, I did learn a lot and it is a valuable lesson going forward.  And because this was a "B" race, I am glad to learn the lesson at G-town rather than later at an "A" or "AAA" race (Kansas or Augusta).

Coming out of T2, as I said, I felt pretty good.  We ran back the towards the same bike route so I was not surprised at these hills.  Nice and rolling, but not too bad.  After about a mile or so, I came upon the 1st aid station.  I was not really in need of much, so I just got a small cup of water and kept going.  I still had 1 Gu in my pocket and felt pretty good.

After a little bit longer, the race turned onto an unpaved (well, it may have been paved at one time - maybe?) road that was covered in pea gravel.  While I wouldn't really mind running on pea gravel under normal circumstances, I was a bit unprepared for it during a regular triathlon.  I almost felt like I was at the Xterra races at Oak Mountain that were being held the same day.  The most difficult part, however, was that this portion of the run was also the steepest.  2 (maybe 3, I lost track after going up and down going and coming).  Again, I was unprepared for this and had a hard time.  My fault, however, for not being prepared for anything and not scouting the course well enough in advance.  Lesson learned!

Back to the aid stations where I felt the race really lost something for me in terms of my overall satisfaction of the event.  At the 2nd station, I was really ready for some more water as it was hot by this time of day and I had taken little water at the 1st.  Here, however, there was no water.  Only ice and Powerade.  huh??  While I know most racers do fine with PA, I do not.  Sports drinks just do not sit on my stomach AT ALL and if I drink them, I get knots in my stomach and I go downhill fast.  I use Gu for my calories.  So... I skipped the PA at this station and got a cup of ice that I dumped down my pants (don't laugh - try it!  It works at keeping you cool!) 

At the 3rd station, there again was no water - only ice and Powerade.  At this point, I had to have something, so i took some PA and drank it.  I drank very little so that it would not mess up my stomach (which it didn't), but I really was wanting some water - and my Gu.

I got to the turnaround point (which was at the bottom of a pretty steep and long hill) and started back the way I had come.  At some point along the way was a 4th aid station, but I honestly do not remember where it was or what I would have gotten there, if anything.  (dang, turning 40 sucks!).  But I do remember passing #3 (or maybe THAT was #4) again and they were completely out of everything!  Really??  It wasn't as if I was near the end of the pack - I wasn't winning, but there were many more folks behind me who were going to be depending on that station.  I cannot believe it ran out - and I felt bad for the volunteers because they obviously felt back for us. 

Anyway - continuing on, I went by station #2 again and by golly, they had large cups of water!!  Woo hoo!! I felt like I was in heaven - took a cup, ate my Gu, and felt pretty good almost immediately.  I was also back on pavement at this point and was getting excited about the finish.  As I passed station #1 again (last one before the finish), I just grabbed some ice for the pants again, and ran on to the finish.

I felt pretty good at the finish - definitely left something on the course.  Not happy at all with the run - but as stated earlier - I am glad to have learned these lessons on this race rather than an A race.  All that said, I will not be doing this race again - there are too many other early season races to choose from (Rev 3 Knoxville, Nola HIM, IM Texas).


Conclusion and finish
After the race was over, I got a couple of cookies and a bottle of water.  I was again surprised by the choices of post race food - no Coke that I could find, all fruit (watermelon) was gone, and some rice + sausage dish that didn't look appetizing.  So - 2 cookies and water for me. 

Kourey finished a couple of minutes ahead of me (congrats!), so we were able to pack up and leave together.  We returned to our hotel, got cleaned up, and then headed to Pizza Hut for our post race lunch!  And that, my friends, was my race day!

Special Thanks!
I want to give a special thanks to:  
- My wonderful wife, Crystal, who puts up with my training schedules, out of town races, non-stop talk about everything triathlon, etc.  Without her, I would not be able to do this and I love you for it! 
- My 2 sons, Levi and Rylan who also put up with me when I tired and cranky from lack of sleep or tired from a long day.  And for giving me hugs whenever I get home no matter what!
- Kourey for training with me and pushing me while we are out there and keeping me honest
- Joe, Geoff, and everyone at Bike Link Birmingham for keeping my bike in tip top shape and for fitting me in at the last minute for a quick repair for my rear derailleur cable and front brake cable a couple of days before the race.
- Endurance Nation for the incredible knowledge and resources that have improved my training in more ways that I can count and given me the race execution tools I need to make huge gains in my performance.

If I missed anyone on that list, well, sorry.  It is getting late and this post is MUCH longer than I had anticipated.  And I have to get up in 5 hours to (what else) go train!  I hope you have a wonderful week... and until next time...

 
 
   

Wish List

Okay - as I get closer and closer to turning the big four-o, I figured I would make a list of preferred items I would like for my birthday gifts.  In case you were not aware, forgot, or never really cared, the date is May 12.  Any item below would be suitable and would guarantee a lifetime (or at least a few minutes) of gratitude:

1.  Powertap wheels
2.  Zipp 404s
3.  Cervelo P5
4.  Pimpin Road Bike
5.  12mo Membership to Craft Beer Club
6.  Entry fee to the 2013 Ironman Louisville

That should be a good start for now.  As you can see, I included a handy hyperlink for each item to help expedite your purchase.  Aren't I so thoughtful!! :)

Many thanks in advance!

Geeky Update

Very good stuff in the last couple of weeks since my last post.  At that time, I had lost a total of 29 pounds.  Since then, I have dropped another 14.6 pounds for a grand total of 43.6 pounds in 8 weeks putting me at 243.6 pounds this morning.  Pretty darn pleased with that!

I have maintained my "eat healthy" lifestyle that, quite frankly, is quite liberating and is becoming easier to follow.  The liberating part is that I am not on some funky diet where I have to mold my food choices to match - I can each (almost) anything I want while adhering to some basic guidelines.  And if I have an indulgence - well - instead of eating a BOX of cookies, I can have 1.  Anyway - I've beaten this to death in prior posts, so I'll move on.

I have also continued with the Fastcamp mentioned in prior posts from Endurance Nation.  That has no doubt had a positive influence on my weight loss as well.  Last week I actually set a new "high" for calories burned in a week at 11,202!  That's a ton of calories to burn and I am feeling great about it.

Now - enough of the basic update.  Now for the 'geeky' stuff.  I did some calculations on weight and % body fat to try to figure out where my goal weight should be.  Now keep in mind that our scale I use has those metal plates that runs a current through me to calculate the % body fat.  This is no doubt not that accurate - but interesting to look at week to week nonetheless.

I started at 287 lbs – today was 243.4 lbs = 43.6 lbs lost total so far

I tested % body fat at the beginning of week 2 when I weighed 276.2 lbs and it read 42.9%.  That equates to 118.49 lbs of body fat.

Today when weighing 243.4 lbs, I was at 33.1% body fat.  That equates to 80.57 lbs of body fat.

Subtracting 276.2 lbs – 243.4 lbs = 32.8 lbs total lost since tracking % body fat.

Subtracting 118.49 lbs fat – 80.57 lbs fat = 37.92 lbs of fat lost.

So….  I have lost a TOTAL of 32.8 lbs since I started tracking % body fat.  BUT – I have lost 37.92 lbs of fat.  And gained 5.12 lbs of muscle (or something) during this time.  I like the idea that it is muscle, so I'll stick with that.

Taking that a little further, let’s say I get down to 11% body fat.  Given that I have 80.57 lbs of fat now, if I lost another 60 lbs of fat (leaving 20 lbs), that would put me at 183.4 lbs.  So... that's what I am shooting for.

Anyway - again - pretty happy with what I am doing and feeling like I will definitely be ready for Augusta this September.  I think Kansas this June won't be too bad either.  But I have a lot more training to do for long rides and long runs.  I did my 1st long ride of the season this past weekend (3 hrs/46 miles) and felt it the rest of the day.  Definitely need to improve my endurance.  And I have not done any run longer than 6 miles so far this season - that'll need to change as well.  But... I still have time.

Guess that is all for now.  Here's hoping you have a great week!