Ok. It's been too long since I've updated the blog. I'm going to make a committment to better document this process, starting off with posting race reports that I wrote for my friends from awhile back.
Pre-Race
Water temp mid 60s. Couldn't expect it to be any better. Took 1 gu and 1 S-cap 15 minutes before the race. Warmed up in the water for about... ~200-300 yards maybe?
I was in wave #6, the last of the 30-34 age group, so I knew I was going to have a lot of people ahead of me. Fun fun.
Swim
Rank: 47/822
Last year's rank: 22
The goal of this year's swim was to keep my HR down so that I wouldn't need to waste any time in T1 or the beginning of the bike for recovery. My expectations were that I would do better or as good as last year's rankings even though I put less effort in due to the technique improvements I've made.
Started off at the right edge of the wave, about 3 deep. When the horn went off, I went to the outer edge and actually entered the water close to the first row of swimmers. Unlike the previous years, I didn't go all out in the first few hundred yards, preferring for someone to take the lead so that I could hop on his feet. About 50-75 yds in, I noticed that the first line of swimmers were slowing dropping back. By the time I hit the first turn buoy (~100 yds in), I was pretty much half a body length ahead of anyone else. This was not a position I expected to be in, but I definitely was pleasantly surprised.
Heading to the second orange buoy, I gained even more time since the rest of the swim group sort of veered off further to the left to hit some of the yellow buoys that were set out of line. I ignored those buoys and went straight for the orange buoy. I knew I wasn't the only one since I knew there was a guy who had clung on to me by the constant tapping on my feet. But halfway through that stretch I began to have some doubts cuz there was a HUGE pack in my wave that was veering off towards the yellow buouy. For a second I started heading in that direction as well, but then decided that if I misunderstood the rules, then it was already too late. As a result, I was the first from our wave to reach the second buoy as well. However, by this time the water wasn't as clean since we had caught up with a bunch from the earlier waves.
At the last buoy I tried to hug it tight again but caught up by even more slower swimmers. That was when the guy who was drafting me swam wide to take the lead into the finish line. I decided not to give chase feeling that being second in my wave (I actually was 3rd, but I didn't notice one other guy pass me) wasn't such a bad accomplishment especially in light of the fact that I managed to keep my HR way down this time.
I got into T1 feeling pretty great about myself.
I have to admit that I didn't expect my rankings to hit that badly, but in retrospect, it probably made sense. I really didn't go anywhere as hard as I did the prior years. I probably could've gained about 30 seconds if I had gone all out (get myself to a top 20-25 rank) but would've been struggling with an elevated HR for the duration of T1 and part of the bike.
T1
Wetsuit off.
Put wetsuit in bag.
Put pill box in pocket.
Put 1 gu in pocket.
Glasses on.
Helmet on.
Towel and the rest of the crap into bag.
Tie up bag. (I shouldn't have done this, I bet the volunteers wouldve done that for us)
Walk bike to mount line.
Flying mount and off I go.
Bike
Rank: 30/822
Last Year's rank: 58
I felt that the bike was where I was going to make the biggest impact this year. Not only do I have much better equipment, my watts/kg are at a different level from last year. I've also been doing a lot of over-distances and nutrition experimentation to fix my cramping issues.
I started off riding on my shoes up the hill, and past some other riders who were somewhat bottlenecked at the starting stretch. It was probably about 45 sec - 1 min into the leg did I start working on getting my feet into the shoes. I'm glad to say that I didn't lose any positions while doing that. At this point I wasn't sure whether I was in front or behind the guy from my wave who had drafted me. (Turns out that he had a faster transition, and took off on the bike. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was actually #3 in my wave at this point. At the time I still thought I was leading my wave).
Bike felt strong. I don't know how many people I passed, but it was a lot. I was picking off groups left and right, and I didn't get passed once. No muscle twitching at all. It was greeeaaat. Headed into T2 feeling pretty fresh.
Nutrition: 4 S-caps, 3 gus
Totals: 330 calories, 1400mg NA, 120mg K
Run
Rank: 42/822
Last Year's rank: 78
I was unsure about how I'd do on the run. I felt that I had made huge leaps over the winter, and I really wanted it to reflect in the results.
There was a hill right off the bat, and that really pushed me into redline territory. I tried to tell myself to calm the f!@# down, but I kept pushing. My legs have never felt this fresh (and cramp free) heading into a run before, and I felt that it was my opportunity, nay- my DUTY to push my legs. Unfortunately, my heart wasn't hearing any of it. Before I knew it, I was deep in the red zone and I felt like I couldn't bring in enough oxygen. A side stitch was creeping up on me, which forced me to exhale really hard in an effort to control it. People I was gaining on could probably hear me exhaling from 10 paces back :)
But at that point I didn't really care how I sounded, I just wanted to push, push, push!
At about the 2 mile mark, I came upon this tall dude in a Get-A-Grip tri kit. Seeing that it was just the two of us, and that I wasn't exactly blowing past him, I decided to make conversation. I said something like "can't believe we're only halfway there", or something equally silly. He got philosophical and said something like "well, thats the glass half full". He probably meant "glass half empty" but I'll excuse his mistake cuz we both weren't thinking very straight at that point. I finally pulled away and he shouted some words of encouragement, and I think I said "you too!"... or something. Those memories are fuzzy now.
At the 3 mile to about 3.75 mile mark, the course wrapped back on itself. I go down this hill and see Chris running up it. He yelled something at me, I wasn't sure what, but I asked him how far it was to the turnaround point :) I don't think he replied. I know I was surprised to see him in this race at all, since he had a 15 minute head start. This is payback for putting the fear of god in my at Evergreen! :) That little encounter gave me a bit more pep in my strides. Went down to the bottom of the hill, turned around, and promptly about blew up running back up that hill. I wish I had a HR monitor on cuz I don't think I've ever hurt that much (actually, I have... at the pumpkin 5k racing to the fniish line with chris at my back 2 years ago was just as bad). My heart was basically telling me to lay off... or else. I started feeling some vomit rise up to my throat, which was as good a sign as any to ease off the pedal a bit.
I forced myself to relax a bit, and managed to hold form into the finish line. It was rough but I made it.
Post Race
When I was catching my breath, this dude came up to me and told me how great my feet were, that I was the only one going in a straight line, and unfortunately, some other dude passed the both of us at the last buoy where I got caught up at the cramped turn. I was like "DUDE! you were tapping my feet the whole time!!!". he said that he did it let me know he was there, or something like that. it didnt sound like a very good excuse, but he seemed like a friendly enough fella and I didn't think it affected me that much so I didn't pursue my accusations. He told me that I was 3rd from our wave in. Looking at the results, it seems that he was right. I have to say that his presence of mind is pretty impressive. I was lost in my own personal count of who was who in my wave, and what position I was.
Either way, I'm pretty happy with the results. I really was secretly hoping for something closer to a top 20 finish... oh well. I have my suspicions that this field was a bit stronger than last years, but I'll have to do more data analysis to confirm that.
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