Product Review – Kiwami Amphibian Tri-suit.

A few months ago, I won a raffle for a free Kiwami Amphibian tri-suit. It’s Kiwami’s top-of-the-line short course suit. Due to a printing error, Kiwami was kind enough to send me TWO suits, which basically sums up how awesome their customer service is. The least I can do is write up a review of this product for all the Internet to see.

To start, this suit is TIGHT. I’m right in between their size small and medium (I’m 5′8″, male, 145lbs), and they suggested I go with the small as they tend to stretch a bit with use. When I put it on for the first time, it took me a while to get it positioned on my body correctly. Not as long as putting on a wetsuit, but longer than a normal one piece tri-suit. My “massive” pecs and lats spill out of the top of the suit, and there is no “jiggle” whatsoever in the spare tire region of my midsection. NICE.

The crotch area on this suit is designed differently than most other tri-suits. There is no chamois padding. Instead of taking the traditional “let’s lock everything in place” approach to genital engineering, the Amphibian offers freedom to move through careful positioning of the seams. It’s a slightly weird feeling going for your first run in the suit and experiencing the freedom the Amphibian has to offer.

The suit has a small zipper placed in the back to conform to ITU regulations. I cannot zip it up myself, I have to have someone else zip me in. I can, however, easily unzip it with the attached pull-cord-thingy. Unzipped, the suit holds its shape decently and allows for a bit more ventilation.

Inseam length is perfect for me. It’s shorter than most cycling shorts, but not so short to look funny. Of course, inseam length is mostly a personal preference, but if you’re a short dude like me you’ll probably be pleased. The silicone leg grippers are nice.

The suit is very, very, VERY light. It almost feels like paper when you’re holding it. Kiwami advertises the dry weight at 100g, and I’d believe it. My underwear weighs more than this suit. Now, usually suit weight is not super important to one’s performance, but if you’re a speed demon like me (HA!) every last gram is important.

Okay, now for a sport-specific review of the suit.

SWIMMING

This suit is FAST in the water. The fabric actively repels water and sometimes little bubbles form, which may provide some buoyancy. I’m not sure how much faster I am in this suit compared to a speedo, but I felt slippery in the water. For non-wetsuit swims, I’d certainly have a small edge over those wearing just a tri-suit, and I’d probably be on relatively even footing with those wearing a swim skin. The cut in the shoulders does not hinder my range of motion in the slightest.

The suit simply does not retain water. I did a swim and then immediately went out for a run, and after 2 minutes of running, the suit was completely dry. This thing is just ridiculous. Not having 400g of water on your body when you start the bike can probably make at least a small difference in both your speed and your core temperature (especially if it’s cool outside).

CYCLING

The suit doesn’t flap around in the wind at all, which is awesome. However, the lack of any pockets and a chamois pad mean that this suit is really only suited for short rides. I would personally not want to race in this suit at anything over Olympic distance–maybe Half Ironman if I worked my way up to it.

However, keep in mind that this suit is explicitly NOT designed for long course–if you want a long course suit, Kiwami’s Kaiman is much better suited for the task. So the above criticisms are admittedly misplaced. The Amphibian is just fine for short course cycling, which is exactly what it was designed to do. You don’t need pockets or a chamois pad when you’re only riding for an hour or less.

RUNNING

I love the feel of this suit while running. It’s compressive, yet allows for freedom of movement, particularly in the crotch area. There are no chafe spots, as all of the seams are placed in non-critical areas. I’m told that the suit is also very flattering, which is important for us age group athletes.

I chose the Nero/Savoia/Bianco color combo. The black (I guess that’s the “Nero” part) is flattering, but it does get a bit warm at times on the run. However, this is not a big deal, especially considering the duration of the races in which you’ll use this suit.

SUMMARY

The Amphibian is an amazing suit for short-course racing. It’s a serious piece of equipment designed for a specific purpose. Use it for anything else (long course racing, weightlifting, tea parties) and you will probably be disappointed. But if you’re a short course athlete looking for every last bit of speed, the Amphibian is absolutely, unquestionably the suit you want.

RACE REPORT: Duathlon in the middle of nowhere.

I love living in Florida.  It’s the middle of November and it’s still warm enough for multisport racing.  In fact, the weather this morning was perfect for a duathlon, with temperatures in the high 50s and low 60s during the racing hours.

The advertised distances were 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run.  I hadn’t done any short course racing in a while, so I was looking forward to seeing how fast I could go.  I was also looking forward to testing out my new Blackwell One Hundred wheel, a super-fast, super-deep, super-badass race wheel.

As I racked my bike, one lady asked me, “wow are you a pro?”  She must have seen my bike and spazzy tri-suit and thought I was an elite athlete.  I loled and said, “no–I just pay a lot of money to look like one!”  She approved of this comment.

There were about 150 racers at the start today.  The RD started the men in the first wave, and the women in the second.  At the gun, I was not surprised to see that my fellow Y-chromosone athletes did not get the memo on pacing.  I was passed by at least half of the men’s field, including three boys under the age of 10.  I finished the first run in 12:18.  There’s no way it was 2 miles–I’m guessing it was closer to 1.8 miles, which would have put me at just under 7 minute pace.  Fine, good conservative start.

T1 was flawless.  I had been practicing.  Shoes off, helmet on, grab bike and GO.  Shoes were clipped into the pedals already.  Got those on my feet no problem heading out of transition.

I played the bike cool for a number of reasons.  One was that the course was actually kind of tricky.  It wasn’t hilly, but there were subtle elevation changes and lots of windy roads.  Two was that there was a LOT of congestion.  The course was a “T” shape–basically we went up the bottom of the “T”, did TWO LOOPS of the top of the “T” and then back to transition.  Two loops in 10 miles makes for a lot of bike traffic to negotiate. This was the only “slop” in an otherwise very-well-run race by <a href="http://www.drcsports.com">DRC Sports.

The first loop was relatively clean.  I spent most of my time passing the guys who went too hard on the first run.  At one point, I was going about 28 on a slight downgrade and passed a dude who was going about 22.  He was clearly working hard and I guess I emotionally obliterated him with my monstrous pass.  I heard “aw come on, you gotta be kidding!” as I blew by him.  I hit the end of the first loop in 6th place.

The second loop was an adventure to say the least.  I was now not only passing the back of the men’s field, but the entire women’s field as well.  I literally passed almost the entire women’s field on the second loop.  It was one “on your left” after another.  Fortunately, there were times I was going almost twice their speed so the passes were quick and painless.  There were a few minor traffic incidents, and one close call when I went to pass a chatting twosome at the same time as someone else was passing in the opposite direction, but all was good.

I rolled into T2 in 7th place, having been passed in the last mile by another guy who was coming through the field.  My time was a conservative but strong 29:19 for what my computer said was 10.6 miles.  If T1 was flawless, T2 was even better.  Helmet off, shoes on, get out of there.  I entered T2 in 7th place, 5 seconds down, and left T2 in 6th place by about 20 seconds!  (Who says transition times don’t mean anything!)

The second run was a huge pain cave.  For the entire first 3/4 mile, I could hear 7th place gaining on me.  I kept my pace steady and tried to control the side stitch that was developing in my left side.  Just before the turnaround, he passed me and opened up a gap of about 30 meters.  With a mile to go, I began to push the pace a bit and noticed that the gap was not increasing!  Though this was encouraging, I was starting to hurt.

With 3/4 of a mile to go, I decided that it was time to try and close the gap.  I knew from my pre-race warmup that the last 200 yards were on a narrow, windy path and there would not be room for a sprint, so I figured my best shot was to get in front of him with about 800m to go and execute a long burn to the finish.  I also knew that I had decent middle-distance speed thanks to the track work I’ve been doing recently, so if I was going to beat this guy I was going to do it at around 800 meters.

With the 1/2 mile to go sign within sight, I got behind him.  He knew I was there.  I waited until after he looked behind his shoulder, and then I sprinted.  I gave the initial sprint more effort than I knew I could sustain for the whole 800m, but I wanted to make sure that he couldn’t follow.

At 400 meters to the finish, I looked back and there was a sizable gap between us.  I beat him to the line by 8 seconds for 6th place overall.  Total race time was 52:49.  The second run time was 10:09.  Since there’s no way I can run 5:05 pace for 1 mile (much less 2 miles) I figure the distance was closer to 1.6 miles, which would put my second run pace at 6:20–a more reasonable figure.

It felt really good to actually *race* as opposed to slogging through the “survivathlon” that is an Ironman or ultra-distance event.  It was a huge rush to blow past that guy and kick it in to the finish.  I’m happy with my fitness and my speed is improving.  I’m going to continue to work on my speed (especially my run speed) during the winter season so that I can hit the ground running for the early 2010 races.

Stats:
Run 1 (1.8ish miles): 12:18 (6:50 pace) Rank: 26/156
T1: 0:33
Bike (10.6ish miles): 29:19 (21.70mph) Rank: 7/156
T2: 0:30
Run 2 (1.6ish miles): 10:09 (6:20 pace) Rank: 9/156
Total: 52:49 Rank: 6/156 (2/4 age group)

My Ironman Wisconsin 2009 race strategy.

I’m currently tapering for Ironman Wisconsin. What I mean by “tapering” is that I’m basically reducing the amount of training I’m doing significantly (30-60%) in order to remove the built-up fatigue in my body before race day.

One of the side affects of tapering is that, by suddenly going from 22 hours/week of training to 12-14 hours/week (and that’s not including shower/dressing time, breaks during the workouts and pit stops, btw) is that I have a lot more time and energy to think about things.

So, one of the things I’m doing is making a detailed plan of how I’m going to execute my race, starting with the day before the race itself. This is what I have so far.

Style note–I’m writing this as a “letter to myself,” i.e. in the second person, with occasional comments addressed to you, the reader, in italics. So, as you read, don’t let this unusual writing style throw you off

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Cliffs Notes version:

1. Avoid stress before the race.
2. Give yourself plenty of time before the race starts to compose yourself.
3. Swim easy and to the outside.
4. Bike easy, especially in the first 50 miles. Let the bike superstars go–you’ll catch them on the run.  Maintain a constant power output except for on a few hills. Stay aero.
5. Run easy for the first loop, then push and give it all you have left toward the end.

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Long version:

Day before race:

Wake up early (6 or 7-ish). Have a big breakfast, similar to what you’ll have on race day. Head over to the race site.

Workout: Swim a portion of one loop of the swim course wearing your wetsuit. Cut the loop short to make it about 20 minutes of swimming. The key to this workout is swimming the start and the exit out of the water at the completion of the swim. Get an idea of what sighting will be like on race morning.

Workout: Immediately following, perform a short bike/run workout. 10-15 minutes each, just to get your legs moving a bit and make sure all equipment is in order. On each leg, do 3-4 accelerations to race pace (zones 2 and 3). If biking is not available due to logistics, no big deal–just do the run.

After the workout, drop off your bike and transition bags. (At Ironman, athletes assemble everything they’ll need in each of the two transitions into a bag–one for T1 and one for T2.)

In your T1 bag will go:
- Helmet
- Shoes (I’m using normal bike shoes instead of tri shoes for Ironman)
- Race Number and Belt
- Chamois cream (hey, it’s an 112 mile bike ride! Gotta lube up!)
- Arm warmers
- Socks
- Sunglasses

In your T2 bag will go:
- Running shoes
- Running socks
- Body glide
- Visor
- Spare sunglasses
- Race Number and Belt

Once the bike is dropped off, you’ll head back to the hotel and get away from the crowds and stresses of the race site. You don’t want to spend any more time around the loud noises, heavy traffic and testosterone-filled athletes than you have to. Take your parents (who are awesome and driving up from suburban Chicago to see me race) out to see a movie!

After taking care of any social obligations and returning to the hotel, assemble your “special needs” bags (bags of stuff that are available to me halfway through each of the bike and run legs).

In your bike special needs bag will go:
- Bottle of special Infinit Nutrition carbohydrate mix
- Spare flat fixing equipment
- PBJ sandwich

In your run special needs bag will go:
- Socks
- PBJ sandwich

Early dinner, shave down (legs, face) and get into bed by 9pm. Take two Benadryl tablets to help you get to sleep. (I’ve used these in training with regularity, they make me very relaxed and drowsy with no adverse side affects.)

Race Day:

4am: wake up. Breakfast is your normal fare: large bowl of cereal + bagel w/cream chese OR a PBJ sandwich + fruit OR yogurt. Probably about 800 calories. No coffee. Dressed (race attire under street clothes) and out the door by 5am.

5:30am: enter the transition area. Drop off your special needs bag and your dry clothes bag (which is just the stuff I was wearing to get to the race site that I’ll wear once I finish), get bodymarked, pump your tires, fill up your aero bottle with water, put on your timing chip, take an Immodium tablet (to avoid GI issues) and perform any other last-minute preparations.

6am: If all goes well, you’ll be finished with your pre-race prep by now.  Relax.

I’m giving myself *plenty* of buffer time before the race starts at 7am for several reasons:

1. I want to be able to hang out with my friends and family before the race. They are taking the time to come see me and I want them to be actively incorporated into your race experience.
2. I want to give myself extra time in case something goes wrong (flat tire before the race, missing equipment, bad weather, long lines, etc).
3. I want some time to myself just to relax and unwind.

6:30am: put on your wetsuit and swim gear, say goodbye to friends and family and start moving toward the race start. Take your first No-doz tablet (200mg caffeine, equivalent to two cups of coffee) at this time.  The pros start at 6:45, and then us mortals start at 7am.

7am: Ironman Wisconsin 2009 starts with a 2.4 mile swim. All 2300 athletes start at the same time, which can be a chaotic experience. Unfortunately, you suck at swimming and will be swimming right in the middle of the pack, around 70-75 minutes. That means you’ll have to deal with a lot of traffic. Start the swim to the *extreme* outside (the shore side), but somewhat toward the front. It’s better to get swam over by faster swimmers trying to get around you than kicked in the face by slower swimmers that you’re trying to pass.

With each of the 7 left hand turns, move closer and closer to the turn buoys. The first and second turns (at 800 meters and 1000 meters after the start respectively) are going to be the most crowded, so if you can get through those turns safely you should be OK.

In terms of pace, swim easy. Your HR will be high due to nervousness and the general stress of open water swimming, but your effort should be very, very low. Make a good effort to find some feet to draft and generally take it very easy. Even split the two swim loops.

Transition 1: the transitions in Ironman Wisconsin are long, due to some long runs between the swim exit and bike/run areas. Run out of the water, get your wetsuit stripped off, and run into one of the big rooms at the convention center. Pick up your transition bag, put on your helmet, apply chamois cream, put on arm warmers if necessary, put on socks and go get your bike (carrying your shoes in your hand as they’re hard to run in). Once you get your bike, run up to near the mount line, put your shoes on and head out on the bike.

The 112 mile bike leg consists of a 16 mile outbound trip from Madison to Verona, followed by 2 loops of 40 miles clockwise to the north and West of Verona, and then a 16 mile inbound trip back to transition.

Split the ride into four sections:

Mile 0-30: this roughly corresponds to the outbound leg from Madison to Verona, plus another 15 miles toward the town of Mt Horeb. This is actually a very difficult part of the bike leg. Many people, feeling good after the swim, ride this section too hard. The terrain is also tricky, as there’s a very slight elevation gain throughout the first 30 miles, and it’s easy to get impatient with the slow pace of the beginning of the Ironman bike leg.

Keep a medium cadence (85-90) and don’t be afraid to lose some speed and shift down to the small chainring on the false flats. I’m using 50/34 chainrings and an 11-26 cassette, which gives me a very nice range of gears from which to choose, on rollers, flats and downhills.

Get started on your nutrition as soon as you get away from transition, as well. In addition to your Infinit carbohydrate mix, take a PowerGel and water at most aid stations (every 10 miles or so).

Most importantly, LET THE BRAINLESS TESTOSTERONE MEN PASS YOU.  DON’T CHASE THEM. Everyone feels like a champ 20 miles into the bike course.  Let them go.  You’ll probably catch up with them again in a few hours when they blow.  (And if you don’t catch them, no big deal–they’re probably Kona qualifiers and well out of your league anyway.)

Miles 31-60: this roughly corresponds to the rest of the first loop of the bike course. This features the most technically challenging terrain of the course, with many steep rollers and a few more significant climbs. It’s OK to go just a tiny bit harder on some of these climbs than on the flats (especially if you catch a glimpse of your friends and family!), but with your low gearing (34/26 is a pretty short gear) you have no excuse not to keep a high cadence up these climbs.  Do NOT play “catch-up” games with the other athletes.  Race your own race.  Continue to be consistent on your nutrition, and aim to finish the first bottle of Infinit by mile 50, and pick up the second bottle of Infinit at special needs around mile 55.  Take your second No-doz tablet after three hours of racing.

Miles 61-90: this is most of the rest of the second loop. This will be mentally challenging because you’re going to start to feel some fatigue at this point. Put out a bit more effort during this portion of the bike, drop cadence a bit (80-85) and focus on maintaining good pedaling technique and staying in the aero position. Remain seated on all climbs and don’t waste any energy. It will start to become more difficult to consume nutrition, but suck it up (literally).

Miles 91-112: aside from one medium climb around mile 100, this is all downhill to transition. Finish up your bike nutrition, shift down a gear and spin nice and fast (93+ rpm) into transition. This is the easiest part of the bike leg, but keep your focus so you don’t lose time for stupid reasons.  Take your third No-doz tablet after 6 hours of racing.

Transition 2: KEEP MOVING! Shoes remain attached to the pedals heading off the bike. Run into the convention center, remove your helmet, put body glide on your feet, put on socks and shoes, grab visor and race belt, and head out. It will be tempting to dawdle. Don’t do it.

The run course is 6.55 miles out, 6.55 miles back, performed twice.

Split the run course into four sections:

First three miles: Get into some kind of slow, easy rhythm. These first few miles will probably suck a lot, but just take short, easy, confident strides and get through the first 3 miles in about half an hour. These first three miles are critical for nutrution, as well–take in a gel at almost every aid station to “bank” calories for later in the run, when digestion becomes more difficult.

Rest of the first loop: Stay conservative. Don’t push the pace. Continue to hydrate and take in gels. Run on the grass when possible. KEEP RUNNING! Don’t walk unless there are serious problems (such as an injury or serious chafing). Aim to finish the first loop in around 2:05, which is a brain-dead slow pace for you.

First half of second loop: This is where the race gets batty. you’ll be tired and your mental energy will be at its lowest. Again, KEEP RUNNING and do not let your pace drop. You should have the energy to run the same speed or hopefully slightly faster at this point. Nutrition will become more difficult, but it’s still necessary to keep your energy up for the last hour of the race.  Take your fourth (and final) No-doz tablet at the start of the second loop.

Second half of second loop: These last 6.5 miles will be a yo-yo between “it’s almost over” and “oh man this still hurts for seriously.” Mentally, hopefully things will be getting easier, but your legs will be pretty dead. Hopefully you’ll have enough energy to maintain your previous pace and finish up the race even-splitting the run.

After the race, drink and eat what you can, get one of the brief free massages that they offer, catch up with friends and family, clean up and eat again.

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Chances I’ll remember all of this stuff during the race? Minimal. But I find that writing it down and organizing it into something coherent helps me focus on the task at hend.

Last big training week before MOO – complete.

I’m exhausted.

4,000 yards swimming, 230 miles biking, 43 miles running. 21 training hours. (3 flat tires. WTF? I bought new tires this weekend.)

Biggest training week to date.

Key workouts were: 112 mile ride Tuesday, 11 mile run w/threshold intervals Wednesday, 18 mile steady run Friday, 65 mile hard group ride Sunday.

This week, I have two more key workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday (60 miles tempo Tuesday, 12 miles steady Wednesday, then it’s recovery/taper time. Workouts will be shorter. More rest days. More recovery days. More sleep.

Two weeks of recovery/taper, then it’s time for race week. Ironman. 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running. All in one day. With luck, will finish in between 11.5 and 12 hours.

After Ironman, life returns to “normal” again. I’m gonna miss the epic training days and sweet tan lines. But I won’t miss the 5am wakeup calls.

Another nice training week!

19 hours on the nose this week, with 4k swimming, 220 miles of cycling and 36 miles of running.

Still kinda bored with swimming. My technique is fine and I have plenty of endurance. With Ironman Wisconsin being a wetsuit swim, it’s hard for me to get motivated to do anything other than maintain my current fitness level in the water. Still planning on swimming around 1:15 at the race.

Bike is feeling really strong. I kept up with the group ride today, did a really strong tempo ride on my tri bike midweek, and threw in a few other good rides as well. As long as I can keep it rubber-side down in the next few weeks, I should be looking at a comfortable 6:00 bike split at Ironman with plenty left for the run. Planning on doing a 112 mile solo tri bike ride on Tuesday of this week to test my fitness, as well.

Run is feeling strong as well. I’m building mileage, but not speed, which is what I need for the race. I’m not particularly fast (most of my runs have been in the 9:30 pace range), but I’m getting strong, which is what’s required for the running portion of the Ironman. Going to try and hit 40+ miles next week, including my longest pre-race run, which will be in the 17 mile range.

This coming week will be my last full-volume/high intensity training week. I’ll try to hit 20 hours (probably about 4k swim, 230M bike, 42M run). After that is a half-week of high volume/high intensity, with about 3-4 days of recovery after that. That leaves two weeks to taper and peak for the race, which is on Sunday, September 13.

Pretty freaking solid training week this week.

I am definitely liking training in Gainesville so far. The heat/humidity is definitely manageable–as long as I get my run workouts done before 8am and my bike workouts done before noon, the heat is not a problem at all.

In total, this week I swam 6000 yards, bikes 204 miles and ran 31 miles in just over 18 hours.

I did a variety of rides, including a three-hour hard tempo ride, a threshold interval ride, a group ride and two recovery rides. It’s so much easier to put in big miles on my tri bike here compared to Bloomington–the hills in Bloomington made it difficult to get in a lot of steady-state training.

My runs were pretty solid–a bit on the slow side, but I’m really nervous about combining speed and intensity on my runs with my injury history. I found a nice park to run in that has a distance-marked crushed gravel trail, two water fountains along the way and lots of pretty scenery to look at.

Swimming was alright, but swimming feels kinda boring for me these days. Unfortunately I have no excuse for low swimming volume, what with the pool being 50 yards from my front door and freely available at any time.

Body composition is going well, also. I’m hovering at 143-145 pounds, which is a really good weight for me. At a lighter weight, I’m more vulnerable to sickness and can’t put out the same power on the bike. I’d still like to drop a little bit of body fat before the race, though. If I can replace any fat lost with lean muscle mass, that would be the best scenario.

All in all, I’m looking at 2.5 more weeks of this type of training, and then it’s time to recover and taper for Ironman Wisconsin, which is 5 weeks from today (September 13). As long as I can stay injury free for the next few weeks, I’ll be as fit as I’ve ever been when I get to the starting line!

In other news, Lana is super excited about starting school. She’s over in her new office in the Physics building all the time. I bet the other Physics graduate students will be excited to be in a class with a real life attractive female!

Triathlete does fast group ride, hilarity ensues.

This morning, I did my first group ride here in Gainesville.  Though most of my riding is done solo in preparation for triathlons, I’m going to make a good effort to do more group riding while in Gainesville, for two reasons.  One is to increase awareness of my coaching business (I have a sweet jersey with my business name and logo printed on it).  Two is that group rides are awesome training that is very difficult to replicate on one’s own.

Keep in mind–I’m a triathlete.  So I’m not used to riding around people very often.  I was slightly apprehensive of my ability to ride safely, and my ability to keep up with the changes in pace.

We met at about 8am on the SW side of town.  There were about 30 of us that would eventually split into two riding groups.  I decided I’d try to stick with the faster group.

The first hour or so of the ride was quite easy–we were cruising in a double paceline at around 20-22mph.  I had planned to sit on the back, just to get a feel for things, but I was feeling good and decided to work carefully into the rotation.  I took a few pulls and got to know some folks.  I was staying safe and predictable.  I even bridged a gap when one of the faster riders decided to put in a mini-surge!  I was kicking ass and feeling way too good about myself.

After about 1:15 of riding, the faster group split from the slower group.  I followed the faster group.  They set a slightly faster tempo (22-23mph), but this was still easily manageable.    The paceline was tight and everyone was riding well.  I took a pull, and though it was tough, I fell back into the group just fine.  Again, I’m the best at cycling ever.

Then, instantly, BAM a surge.  OH SHIT.  My speedo read 28mph and I was falling off the back quickly.  I was riding harder than I ever thought possible in an attempt to stay with the group.  I tried to hold last wheel but at 31mph (on the flats) I got dropped.

Fortunately I had one other guy with me who knew the route, and we continued on to the planned rest stop.

At the rest stop, I reminded the other riders that I was simply going easy on them, and informed them that they would have difficulty keeping up with me once we got going.  They laughed.  No doubt I had intimidated them with my big talk.

Well unfortunately my big talk was not backed up by any actual substance.  I got dropped again shortly after the rest stop.  This time they were averaging about 28mph up and down some little rollers.  No chance to get back on.

Me and the other guy from before decided to set a medium tempo back to Gainesville, which by this time was like 20 miles away (DANGIT).  He and I got to chatting.  Evidently a bunch of the guys who were surging are very strong riders (Cat 1, the fastest amateur category), and that today’s ride was especially hard, so I didn’t feel too bad for getting dropped.  I did feel bad that, on two occasions, they waited for us at a turn for a few minutes.

Group riding is something that is relatively new to me.  Mostly I was just happy that I was able to stay safe and not screw up anyone else’s ride.  I also learned a few things about my cycling ability:

1. My ability to put out a “steady-state” power is good.  Riding at a constant pace up to about 23-24mph or so, I’m just fine.  I’m small, relatively aero in a road position, and can put out a decent amount of power for my size in a tempo setting.
2. I have ZERO ability to put out huge power over a short period of time.  NONE.  I simply couldn’t respond to the surges.  Whether I needed to bust a nut for 30 seconds or 2 minutes, I just couldn’t do it.  I thank my triathlon training for this.  I rarely train for the sort of riding that’s required in a group situation.
3. My group riding skills are just fine.  I was a bit worried about this, having not done a lot of group riding before.  I found that if I just stayed alert, on the wheel in front of me, remained predictable and called out road obstacles, other riders didn’t have any issues.

I’m definitely gonna ride with these guys in the future.  Perhaps I’ll ride with the slower group, which I’m told remains at that 20-22mph pace for the majority of the ride.  Then again, maybe I’ll catch the faster group on an off day and I’ll have a chance to stay on.

Regardless, I definitely have a new training goal–get good enough at road riding so I can keep up with the faster group!

Some thoughts now that I’m settling in Gainesville.

It’s been two full days since Lana and I moved into our apartment in Gainesville.  We’ve actually been in Gainesville for four days, but due to complications with the landlord and previous tenant, we had to kill time while the previous tenant vacated and the landlord cleaned up his mess.  Fortunately, we’re now moved in and mostly unpacked.

Our apartment is pretty nice.  It’s in a neighborhood full of other similar apartment complexes.  It’s a 2 bdrm/2 bath first floor unit, very spacious, slightly old and has ceramic tile flooring everywhere except the bedrooms which are carpeted.  The carpeting in the bedroom sucks, we’re going to try and get the landlord to replace them (ideally with more tile).

Our AC works well.  Our apartment doesn’t retain the cool air as well as our old apartment.  This may be due to its large size and the slightly crappy windows in here.

We bought a second bed for the second bedroom.  That way, you (yes, you) can come visit and you’ll have a place to sleep!

We have to drive over 9 speed bumps to get to our apartment.  That’s a giant sack of crap.  So we park in a lot that is slightly farther away from our apartment, walk the remaining distance, and only drive over two speed bumps.  (WTF you ask?  The apartment complex is laid out in a J shape, and our apartment is at the –>J end.  We park in the middle (J<–) and cut across on foot).

Our apartment turns out to be strategically located.  Most importantly, it’s close to the Physics building (an easy bike ride of 1.8 miles for Lana).  It also happens that it’s super easy (and safe) to get out of town on a bike from our apartment!  The former was a major factor in choosing this place, the latter was a nice surprise.

It’s hot here.  Temps in the upper 90s, high humidity, heat indexes well over 110.  We’re already getting into the habit of doing our outside stuff before 10am.

It rains a lot here.  It’s rained every day we’ve been here so far, but rarely for longer than 30 minutes at a time.  It’s really off-and-on.  Weird.

Gainesville is a huge, sprawling town.  Driving across town takes forever, both in terms of time and miles.  I didn’t realize Gainesville was so big!

Buildings in Gainesville generally look ghetto, but that’s probably because (a) it rains a lot here and (b) buildings don’t need to be as weather-proof as they do in, say, suburban Chicago.

Streets in Gainesville are really nicely laid out.  Gainesville is split into four quadrants (NW, SW, SE, NE).  With a few exceptions for major roads, streets are numbered outward from the “origin,” with E-W streets having the suffix of either Avenue, Place, Road or Lane (just remember APRiL) and N-S streets using all other suffixes (Street, Blvd, etc).  The origin is Main Street (N-S) and University Avenue (E-W).

So, for example, I don’t need a map to tell you where “802 NW 13th St” is–I just travel to 13 blocks west (to get me to NW 13th st) of Main Street and 8 blocks north (to get me to the 800 block of NW 13th st) of University Ave!  I visited 8 different places this afternoon in my car, and navigated successfully to all of them without a map or GPS.  Why can’t other cities do this???

Cycling in Gainesville seems to be generally good!  The major roads in town have intelligently-designed bike paths.  The roads out of town are safe and well-paved, with minimal traffic on the county roads.  The only negatives seem to be the heat and the lack of hills.  I rode 56 miles this morning and averaged a full 3mph faster than I would have over the same distance of typical Bloomington terrain!  I was ready to quit at the end, though–it was just too hot.  I imagine that during the wintertime Gainesville will be a great place to ride.

My apartment complex has a pool that I could, in theory, swim laps in.  It’s about 25 yards long, with no lane lines but very little use.  I will see if this works, as this could be a nice way to save on a gym membership!

Pointy Helmet stuff is going well.  I’m going to concentrate on getting the stuff ready for the free triathlon clinics I’m doing starting in September.  I’m also going to flyer the campus very soon, and network with people on group rides and Masters swims.  Hopefully I can spread the word about my coaching service!

I’m also applying for some part-time jobs just to have some additional income though.  Gotta hedge my bets on this one.

RACE REPORT: Muncie Endurathon (half Ironman), 11 July 2009.

Going into the race, I figured that I had a shot at breaking 5 hours. The Muncie course is FAST, I’ve been nailing my training, I’m dropping weight and generally feeling good about myself. All I needed was a good weather day, perfect execution and no injuries and 4:59:59 would be mine. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen today, but just the same I had a good, smart race and a decent time to boot.

We stayed in the Lees Inn in Muncie, and this was definitely a great hotel for what we paid. I somehow booked the “executive suite,” which ended up being a bedroom with a separate living room–nice! The hotel was even nice enough to put the continental breakfast out for the racers at 4:30am! Great service from Lees Inn Muncie.

Arriving at the race site, it seemed that the weather forecasts (which had predicted thunderstorms for most of the day) were wrong. It was a clear and pleasant morning as I did my race prep. I met up with Nathan and Brandon, my age group compadres. Nathan is a very strong cyclist, and ended up with the 20th best bike split out of all 507 long course athletes. Brandon is one of my coached athletes over at Pointy Helmet Coaching, and a strong overall athlete himself. My time goal was to break 5 hours, but my competition goal was to be close on time to Brandon!

We went off in the 6th wave. The wind was starting to kick up, and created some difficult cross-chop to navigate on the 1.2 mile swim. I actually put together a strong swim–about 35 minutes out of the water–and was off on the bike.

Immediately, I had some problems. First, the strap on my bike shoe came out as I was trying to strap in rolling out of transition. I actually had to stop on the side of the road, fix my damn shoe, curse a lot, and get going again. Second, about 20 miles into the bike, I started getting some serious cramps in my right quad. It was a weird pain that I’d never felt before, and it didn’t go away with stretches and some angry self-massage. It hindered my power output on my right side, and I spent most of the bike “limping” on my left leg.

In addition to those issues, the weather played a significant factor on this bike ride. The 54.5 mile course is fast and flat (and 1.5 miles short of the standard 56 miles), but the winds today were tough. They swirled around, starting from the S, then moving to come from the NW by the end of the ride. This resulted in a headwind for about 1/2 of the course, a crosswind for 1/4 of the course, and a tailwind for a mere 1/4 of the course (the first 1/4). The forecasted thunderstorms eventually started at about mile 45, and though this didn’t really affect my time, it was annoying.

As a result, my bike time was a disappointing 2:39. Under better conditions, and no cramping, I should be able to ride 2:35 for 54.5 miles without too much trouble. Today, it just wasn’t in the cards.

As I ran out of T2 with Brandon, who had made up his swim deficit to catch me right in transition, I realized that I’d have to run 1:41 for the 13.1 mile run course to break 5 hours. Not gonna happen. So, I decided to run tempo, not take any risks, and just put in a solid time. The first two miles were tough, as my quad was still cramping. I stopped to stretch twice and it eventually simmered, but my first two miles were abysmally slow.

I eventually got into a good rhythm clocking 8:20 miles. The thunderstorms continued on the run, though this was alright as the rain and wind helped keep me cool. I was feeling pretty good at mile 8 so I decided to press a bit. I surged to 8:05-8:10 pace and put in a solid last 1.1 miles to stomp the timing mat in 5:09:58.

Brandon finished up about 30 seconds before I did (not bad for either of us), and Nathan put in a really solid 4:57. Only 21 women beat me (meaning, I got double-deca-chicked).

This was 21:32 better than last year’s effort on the same course under similar conditions. So I’ve improved quite a bit since last year–yay! I need to work on my run, as it was comparatively weak compared to the rest of the field, but my swim was strong compared to the field. However, this is probably because triathletes generally suck at swimming, so I can’t take too much stock in that.

Special props to all of the race volunteers who stood out in the pouring rain to hand us water, gatorade, gels, etc. They made this race enjoyable for us all. Thanks, guys.

My training goals now turn toward preparing specifically for Ironman Wisconsin. This means long bike rides, more run mileage and no injuries. Judging by today’s performance, 11:30 at MOO would be stellar, and I should get under 12 hours if I don’t screw up the marathon.

Stats:
Swim (1.2 miles): 36:41 (Rank 138/507)
T1: 1:25
Bike (54.5 miles): 2:39:01 (21.1mph) (Rank 170)
T2: 1:43
Run (13.1 miles): 1:51:10 (8:30 min/mile) (Rank 228)
Total: 5:09:58 (Rank 168) (14/28 in M20-24 Age Group)

Some misc notes:

• Why don’t more people use disc wheels?  A wheel cover costs $90 and saves several minutes on 98% of triathlon courses, especially a super-flat course like this.
• Lana took a bunch of pictures of racers, mostly women, for my Pointy Helmet website.  I noticed that most women have simply HORRIBLE bike positions.  Sorry for the generalization, ladies, but it’s true.  Seat too high/low, aerobars too high, cockpit too short/long, etc.  Why?  Plenty of manufacturers make a decent women’s tri bike…  Are women really that hard to fit?  (The answer, by the way, is not really.)  Sarah Sanders, you’re excused–I’ve seen your bike position, and it’s better than the positions of most men.  Keep kicking ass, Sarah.
• Why don’t more people wear their wetsuits?  Yes, the water was warm today.  But, you’ll save 3-6 minutes over 1.2 miles whenever you wear it.  So, if they let you, do it!
• Very little drafting today, which was great to see, especially on a flat course.
• I saw a VI (Visually Impaired) athlete competing today, tethered to a sighted guide on the swim and run, and riding stoker on a tandem bike.  Very cool.  I think one day, I’ll see if they’ll let me be a VI guide–I already have a tandem!

I Rode the Ironman Wisconsin Bike Course Yesterday.

The course is a “lollipop” style course with a 16 mile stick and a 40 mile loop. During the race, the loop is done twice for a total of 112 miles. Yesterday, I rode the loop once for a total of 72 miles. No pictures–I was busy trying not to get lost–but I learned a lot about the course regardless:

The hills of Bloomington are more than adequate prep for the “MOO” bike course. The “stick” is relatively flat, but the loop has some nice challenging rolling hills. The base of the loop (County Route G and Route 92) is possibly the most challenging part of the course pace-wise, with plenty of small rollers and false flats that are tempting to try and power through. There are several more challenging rollers spread throughout the rest of the course, however, some of them come immediately after downhills (so one can use the momentum from the previous downhill to get part of the way up), and none take more than 4 minutes to climb. This is almost exactly like riding around Bloomington.

The roads are not in the best of conditions right now. Many of the county roads haven’t been paved in a while, so they’re quite bumpy. I am concerned about getting flats on race day. I did get one flat during my ride going over railroad tracks (which I fixed without incident) but especially if it’s wet on race day, the likelihood of a flat is much higher due to the bumps.

Tri bike, disc wheel and 50/34 and 11-26 is the correct bike setup for me for the MOO course. When I’m not trying to figure out how to navigate the 87 turns of the bike course, I can spend 95% of the ride in the aero position, which means that full aero setup is the correct choice. Regarding gearing, I rode the course (accidentally) with an 11-23 cassette, and that was fine. However, on the first loop during the race I’ll appreciate the extra low gear to spin up the rollers.

This course has some aspects that suit my strengths and some aspects that don’t. Thanks to my good aero position and descending skills, I’m best on the flats, downhills and uphills of less than 2% grade. There is plenty of that on this course. I’m also decent at forcing my way up rollers, as I’ve had plenty of practice doing that here in Bloomington. However, I’m poor at turns and poor at low-speed climbing. This will probably cost me a few minutes on the MOO course.

I am now familiar with the “big” climbs on the course. There are five significant climbs:

1. Under the overpass approaching Mount Horeb. This is about 1/4 mile at maybe 6%. I should be able to spin up this in my 34×26 no problem, especially since it’s early in the loop. Don’t want to burn any matches here, even though the riding immediately after this is flat or downhill.
2. Old Sauk Pass, about 1/2 mile at 6-7%. This is the most challenging climb on the course. It’s tree-lined and a great spot for spectators.
3. Timber Lane. This short (1/5 mile maybe?), steep (7%?) roller comes just minutes after Old Sauk Pass, which increases its difficulty slightly. 34×26 will be useful here, especially on the second loop when my legs are really starting to burn.
4. Midtown Road. The last major climb on the loop is not too different from Old Sauk and Timber Lane.
5. Heading toward Madison on Whalen Road. Though it’s not particularly difficult on its own (maybe 1/4 mile at 5%), it comes right at the 100 mile mark on the course. It’s all downhill from the crest of the hill back to transition, though, so this will be where the last bike matches are burned.

All in all, it was a very informative ride, and a good workout as well. I rode moderately hard, taking the climbs at “loop 2″ effort, being cautious on the downhills, and hammering the flats. Ended up putting in about 4:20 of riding for the 72 miles. On race day, I’m sure I’ll go faster than that–full aero setup always gives me at least 1-2mph, and I’m hoping I can get another 1-2mph from tapering correctly, race day adrenaline, etc.

Now all I have to do is get through my “build” phase of my training without injuring myself and I’ll be good to go for the race.

Dear Marty’s Body,

Marty’s Brain here. It’s about time we had a little chat about what you’ve been up to recently. I will try to be nice.

I know things have been hard for you lately. I decided to increase your stress by entering the “build” period of triathlon training. I also know that Triple T was a tough thing to put you through, and that riding 200 hard miles in the Jura mountains a week later was probably asking a lot.

However, there’s no excuse for your recent conduct.

First off, you strained our back a mere four days before Triple T, one of my two “A” races of the year. I had to spend countless hours (and a lot of dollars also) frantically trying to undo the damage you did to us before Triple T. In the end, I was able to take care of most of the pain, but we were still not 100% ready for Triple T. A big EFF YOU on that one.

Then, during Triple T, we somehow strained our MCL. Whatever. I knew that we’d probably slightly injure ourself during this race, that’s par for the course for Triple T. I decided not to run for a week, in the hopes that the MCL strain would fix itself. It didn’t.

However, cycling seemed not to bother the MCL, so I made the decision to keep cycling all during our trip to Switzerland. I put you through some hard rides in the Juras that maybe I shouldn’t have put you through. But you know what? The oweness was on YOU to give me some indicator that I was doing damage to you.

What did you tell me? Nothing. We rode almost every day with no signs of trouble from you. Our MCL was staying the same, and everything else in our body felt fine. How was I supposed to know that there were problems when you didn’t give me any signals that maybe we shouldn’t have been riding so hard?

That makes me irritated.

Anyway, that brings me to today’s events. Today was one of the 10 mile time trials up in the State forest, and I was feeling confident (thanks to our rides through the Juras, probably). Conditions were ideal for a PR, and so I decided that we were gonna go for it. We rode hard for the first 5 miles, and then pressed even harder on the return trip.

During the sprint finish to break my PR, I felt a sudden onset of pain in the area of our left LCL (the collateral ligament on the *other* side of the knee which was giving us pain). We got the PR (25:30, a 15 second improvement), but the pain in the leg was so great that doing even a cool-down spin was out of the question.

What the fuck, Marty’s Body? Where did this come from? Strained LCL and MCL in the SAME KNEE? That doesn’t even make sense!!!

You have jeapordized my Half Ironman in a month with this crap. The burden I chose to place on you was pushing the limits of what you could do, but was by no means excessive.

So, Marty’s Body, next time try to give me some warning signs that I’m pushing us too hard. A 10 mile TT shouldn’t have been that unreasonable a request of you, especially with the strength gained from riding in the Juras, and ESPECIALLY with the lack of warning signs you gave during those rides. Now I have to sit around trying to heal you for a while, losing fitness and becoming slightly irritable.

Also, quit hurting yourself. Ironman training is hard enough without you failing to operate correctly in key places at key times during training.

Don’t make me have another conversation with you again. Next time, I won’t be so pleasant.

Sincerely,
Marty’s Brain

Triple T 2009 – an Epic Race Report for an Epic Triathlon Weekend.

WHAT IS TRIPLE T?

Triple T consists of four triathlons of various distances over three days: Friday through Sunday, May 22-24. Here are the four races:

Race 1: Friday, May 22 5pm. 250 meter swim, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run.
Race 2: Saturday, May 23 7:30am. 1500 meter swim, 24.9 mile bike, 6.55 mile run.
Race 3: Saturday, May 23 3pm. 24.9 mile bike, 1500 meter swim, 6.55 mile run.
Race 4: Sunday, May 24 7am. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run.

The primary attraction of this race, besides the unique, challenging format, is the difficulty of the courses. The bike courses, in particular, are a non-stop barrage of hills. All four courses have a different profile, and all are extremely challenging. Though the total distance is approximately equal to an Ironman, and the distance is spread out over three days (giving athletes some chance to recover), the winning man’s time is typically 60+ minutes slower than the winning time at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawai’i.

In fact, everyone I talked to that has done both Triple T and Ironman said that Triple T is harder, due to the course difficulty and the higher intensity at which all races are contested.

PREPARING FOR THE RACE

I made a few blog posts detailing my preparation for the race. To summarize, everything was going well until I strained my back two and a half days before the race. I immediately went into damage control mode, visiting the chiropractor twice and the health center once. I was constantly icing my back and taking Aleve in an effort to keep the pain in check. I was not feeling confident heading into Friday.

FRIDAY MORNING: DRIVING TO THE RACE

After packing just about everything swim/bike/run related that I own into my car on Thursday night, I set out toward Portsmouth, but not before stopping at the chiropractor for one last massage session. It helped a little bit.

The drive to the race site would take about 4.5 hours from Bloomington, going through Cincinnati and then along the Ohio Scenic Byway until reaching Shawnee State Park in Southeastern Ohio. It was a very pretty drive along the Ohio river, and I could already tell that I was entering a very hilly part of the country.

Eventually, I got off the byway and realized that I still had about half an hour of driving on small, windy roads to reach the race site. The race was in the middle of nowhere! There was no cell reception, very few houses and no towns or stores to speak of. Pretty cool!

FRIDAY AFTERNOON: ARRIVING AT THE VENUE

I reached the race site at around 2pm. It was already very warm, in the mid-80s with very high humidity. I picked up my packet, which consisted of some really cool swag, including a singlet that all competitors were required to wear during competition.

After the brief stop at the race site, I headed up a huge, mile-long hill to the cabin at which I would be staying. I was greeted by Sheila, who I had met Sheila a few years ago when I was up in suburban Chicago more often. Sheila is 52 years old and has the energy of someone half her age. She’s also an awesome long-course triathlete and a Triple T veteran.

I also met Jostein, who is also a very accomplished triathlete from the Chicago suburbs. He is a very nice and knowledgeable guy as well, with a very cool Norwegian accent!

As I was unpacking all my stuff, Julie and Rob arrived at the cabin. Hailing from Lafayette, NY, they represented Team Kilo-Jul, and were looking to defend their Co-ed Team title from Triple T 2008. They are both super nice and easygoing, not to mention being among the best athletes at the whole race.

After preparing my nutrition bottles for Saturday’s races–450 calories of Infinit in each bottle–and icing my back (which was starting to feel a bit better), we drove from the cabin back down the big hill to the race site. I unloaded my gear from the car and headed to my transition rack, which was assigned to me based on my race number (#179).

The first thing I noticed is how awesome everyone looked in their matching Triple T jerseys. I think this helped boost everyone’s morale, as the identical jerseys represented the identical physical and emotional journey that we were all about to undertake. The jerseys immediately set the tone for the coming weekend. I wish more races would do this.

The second thing I noticed was how fit and ready everyone was. The men were all tall, thin and tanned, with huge calves and quads, with chiseled faces and 6% body fat. The women were toned and beautiful, with great legs and strong shoulders. There seemed to be proportionately more women at this race than at other triathlons, as well (maybe I was just noticing the women more, can you blame me). Never before have I seen such a collection of fit people before, and I would wager that no other race, except for Ironman Hawai’i, has such a fit field as Triple T.

The third thing I noticed was how “blingy” everyone’s bike was. It seemed like everyone there had spent more money on their bike than I had, and I haven’t exactly been a budgeteer with my bike stuff. I saw so many Cervelos, Powertaps, disc wheels, carbon fiber doo-dads and other expensive thingers. They say that you can only buy so much speed, but I had a feeling that most of these athletes had figured out exactly how much speed was possible to buy, and then went out and bought it all.

Before the start, I was happy to see my Bloomington friend Sue for the first time. Sue and I had done many workouts together last year, and we raced the local 10 mile time trials as well. Sue was looking fit and ready, and was as cheery and positive as she always is!

FRIDAY, 5PM: RACE 1 – 250m SWIM, 3M BIKE, 1M RUN

I did a short bike warm-up before this race, just to make sure that everything worked and that my back would be okay. I could feel my back when I got down into the aero position, but since today’s race had only a 3 mile bike leg, I figured I’d just deal with it and ice it a lot tonight.

I also did a short run warm-up, and felt a bit slow. I decided to pop a 200mg caffeine pill before this race to make sure I performed to my potential.

After warming up on the bike, I put my wetsuit on and headed to the start. The water was warm (70ish degrees I think), and I was in the minority of the people using a wetsuit for the short 250m swim.

The swim course is in a beautiful lake in the state park. We went off two-at-a-time in a time trial start in order of seed number. It took me about 8 minutes to start swimming after the first competitor went in the water.

I felt strong on the swim. My swim has improved a lot over the winter, thanks to a lot of hours spent in the pool over winter break and early in the spring semester. I came out of the water in just over 4 minutes, and made the 100 meter run up to transition.

The bike course was basically an out-and-back straight up the hill toward the cabin at which we were staying. This hill was about a mile long at a relatively steep grade. I immediately geared down to 34×26 (BTW, this refers to the number of teeth on the chainring and cog I was using–34 teeth on the front chainring and 26 teeth on the rear, a very “small” gear that allows me to keep a high cadence at a slow speed going uphill) and let everyone pass me. I didn’t want to “burn any matches” today, so I just took it easy up the hill.

Coming down the hill, the main goal was to stay safe. During warm-ups, I hit 40mph easily coming down the hill. I came close during the race, but there were so many cyclists on the short course that I didn’t want to take any chances. I arrived back in transition in about 14 minutes and set out on the run.

The 1 mile run course was a sampling of the full run course we’d see on Saturday and Sunday. It was a half mile out and back on the Lampback Trail. The beginning of Lampback is relatively flat, so the run was not challenging at all. I ran an 8 minute mile to cross the finish line in 29 minutes without feeling at all tired.

FRIDAY EVENING – AFTER THE RACE

After getting some food and sitting in the cool lake for a while, I ate the post-race dinner, cleaned up my stuff, chatted with Sue and Sheila some more, and headed back to the cabin, where I met my remaining two cabin-mates, Erik and Carl. These two guys are members of the UW-Madison triathlon team. I believe this was Erik’s first attempt at Triple T, while Carl was looking to repeat last year’s high placing in the Male Junior division. (The picture of Carl perfectly captures the essence of Triple T, in my opinion–beer in one hand, bottle of some nutrition concoction in the other, wearing compression socks and an Ironman shirt, while half asleep in a chair.)

Turns out, we’re all nerds. We all had a great time geeking out over triathlon stuff and other miscellaneous nerd topics. Talking shop with other triathlete geeks like me was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.

We spent a lot of time stretching and icing ourselves, then we had had yet another meal–burgers a la Jostein off the grill. I spent a lot of time icing my back, which seemed to be helping.

As an aside: if it’s not obvious already, eating is the unofficial fourth discipline of Triple T. With so much racing taking place over 3 days, eating enough was important. When we weren’t stretching or sleeping, we were eating. No joke.

After patching up some holes in my wetsuit with Sheila’s wetsuit glue (thanks, Sheila!) and making a trip back to the race site with Jostein to look at the race results, I started prepping my stuff for the races next day. I got my nutrition in order, repacked my transition bag, cleaned my race outfit, and headed to bed very early, around 9:30pm. I couldn’t sleep, so I hung out on the porch until I got tired, which was around midnight (oops).

SATURDAY MORNING – THE REAL FUN BEGINS

We woke up just after 5am on Saturday and began to load up on breakfast. I had a peanut butter and honey sandwich, a banana and some cereal. I also took 800mg of Aleve and 200mg of caffeine. The healthy way to start the day. Everyone had their own pre-race rituals, so we all just kinda stayed out of each other’s way.

We all knew what was in store for today–two Olympic distance triathlons on two brutally difficult course, followed by an even tougher challenge tomorrow. We were fit and strong, but the apprehension and anticipation of what was to come was noticeable in the cabin.

I headed down to transition at about 6:50 and set up my stuff. I met up with Sue, who reminded me to have patience today. I reminded her not to give out obvious advice, and then reminded her to be patient today also.

SATURDAY, 7:30AM: RACE 2 – 1500m SWIM, 24.8M BIKE, 6.55M RUN

I didn’t do much of any warm-up today, as I knew I’d need to conserve energy for the races. After putting on my wetsuit, I headed down to the swim start for the 1500 meter swim.

I felt strong on the two-loop swim. I was sighting well, and keeping a fast, but controlled cadence. I was even passing some people! I even split both loops for a total time of about 27 minutes.

In transition, I pulled off my wetsuit and headed out on the bike. Immediately, the course threw a huge, long hill at us. I found myself mashing my 34×26 very quickly, and tried to stay out of the way of all of the strong people passing me. The course was almost all up or down, with few flat sections. There was one hill comparable to Boltinghouse hill here in Bloomington–very short, but incredibly steep. I climbed that one pretty much at walking pace.

The rest of the bike course was more of the same, with false flats, lots of climbing and some chip-seal roads thrown in for good measure. or the Bloomington riders, there were lots of climbs and descents comparable to Low Gap road out north of town near the Touchables. I stayed steady, didn’t burn any matches and kept on top of my nutrition. FI completed the 24.8 mile bike loop in about 90 minutes.

The run was our first real taste of the famed Lampback trail. Lampback, a hard-packed dirt and gravel trail, is slightly uphill for the first 1.5 miles, and then pitched significantly upward for an additional 1 mile, reaching a crest and then pitching steeply downhill until the turnaround at 3.275 miles. Then, we do it all again, but in reverse.

The uphills are hard because they’re so freaking steep, and the downhills are hard because of the beating the quads take when striding downhill. I use the word “ridiculous” to describe the run course.

It is also a beautiful course, with lots of drop-offs, vistas and natural wildlife. Speaking of beauty, there were also a lot of fit, attractive ladies on the course. This was good motivation to stay strong (or at least give the appearance of being strong).

Anyway, on this first attempt at the 6.55 mile run, I concentrated on maintaining a constant effort, staying hydrated, taking in nutrition in the form of PowerGels, and not beating up my quads on the downhills. With temperatures approaching 80 degrees, I would pour water on my head at every aid station, in addition to consuming as much water as I could. On the downhills, I increased my cadence, kept my arms low and pumping (to keep my legs low and steady) and concentrated on maintaining proper form. After cresting the big hill after the run turnaround, I coasted into the finish in about 64 minutes, for a total race time of just over 3 hours.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON – AFTER THE RACE

I went straight from the finish chute to the food line, where I force fed myself some pasta stuff, and then immediately went and sat in the cool water back at the swim start, to relieve the heat stress from my legs. After swapping stories with the other folks doing the same thing as me, I went back to the transition area to prep for the race later in the afternoon.

I returned to the cabin briefly for some more eating, stretching, ice and a quick power nap. I went out in search of some cell reception to call Lana, but didn’t find anything. So, I went to the nearby lodge and shot her a quick email, and then headed back to the race site for the afternoon race.

SATURDAY, 3PM: RACE 3 – 24.8M BIKE, 1500m SWIM, 6.55M RUN

When I arrived at transition around 2:20pm, it was hot. The temperature was 88 degrees with significant humidity. It was going to be tough out there.

This race marked the beginning of the “team” portion of the race, for those entered as a team. In this race and during Sunday’s race, the teams of two would start at the same time, and be allowed to draft off each other during the bike legs. Team members were required to finish together, as well, as both team members would receive the slower of the two teammates’ times.

Additionally, this race had an unusual sport order–bike/swim/run instead of swim/bike/run. This presents the small problem of putting on the wetsuit before the swim, as wetsuits are not designed to be put on easily (though they come off quite easily).

I could already notice a shift in the attitude of athletes. Everyone had their game faces on, and everyone was moving a little bit slower than 24 hours previous. No one was warming up–it was not necessary with the heat and the work done in the previous race just hours earlier.

I finished my pre-race prep, which consisted of applying lube to my *entire* wetsuit (in the hopes that it would go on easier in T1), loosening my shoes (in anticipation of my feet swelling a bit), taking 200mg of caffeine and getting my bike ready. I lined up with my bike at the start, and about 10 minutes after the first athlete was away, I set off on the bike.

Today’s run course was an out-and-back on SR 125, a challenging route with several major climbs and descents, including the two toughest single climb of the entire weekend at miles 1 and 18 respectively. One descent was actually quite dangerous, with two riders crashing out at high speed against the guardrail just minutes up the road from me.

I kept my effort in check, drank all of my Infinit, controlled the climbs and rolled into transition in 91 minutes, only slightly slower than the morning’s effort on a slightly easier course. I noticed that I was getting some creaking from my crankset, and I made a mental note to tighten my chainring bolts after the race.

T1 went really well–I got my wetsuit on quickly and headed down into the water, where I avoided the famed “race 3 cramps” that many people seem to get going from biking to swimming. My swim of 27 minutes was controlled and strong, and honestly it felt really nice to swim after getting hot and sweaty on the bike. I concentrated on sighting well and staying in a straight line, and even split the two loops of the swim.

After applying lube directly to my feet in T2, I set out on Lampback for another 6.55 mile run. I started slow, unsure of what my legs were capable of in the sweltering heat, and then pushed the pace a little bit on the last half of the run. I finished in 62 minutes, just a tad faster than the morning run.

My total race time was 3:08, about 5 minutes slower than the morning’s effort, but 3 of those minutes were taken up in transition putting on my wetsuit, so really my pacing was pretty darn close to even for the two races.

I again went straight from the finishing chute to the food line. After eating, I sat in the lake for a while again, tightened the chainring bolts on my bike and headed back to the cabin. I was actually feeling a bit chilled, even though it was still 85+ degrees outside. This made me a bit nervous, but Erik smartly reminded me that my body was probably just shunting heat away from itself continuously after the hard afternoon effort.

SATURDAY EVENING – AFTER THE RACE

After cleaning up, I made my bottles for tomorrow’s race–750 calories of Infinit in each of two bottles–and did a bunch of stretching and icing. Everyone in the cabin was doing the same thing. There was not as much chit-chat as there had been earlier. Everyone was physically and mentally tired from the long, hot grind of today’s races. Even Sheila, who is normally on crack all the time, was quietly preparing dinner and only cracking about 50% of her normal innuendo-filled wise. Every once of energy was being spent on preparing for tomorrow’s Half Ironman.

At this point, we were all getting a feel for how we were doing in terms of our competition. Julie and Rob were sitting in second place in the co-ed team division, just a few minutes out of first place. They were pretty much kicking lots of co-ed ass. Carl was *winning* the Male Junior division, and was sitting in 6th place overall! Wow! Sheila was near the top of the Female Grand Master division, as well! I was comfortably in 248th place or so.

After eating, prepping, stretching, icing, eating and hydrating, there was little left to do but sleep. We were all ready for bed at 9pm, so we all went to bed and we all slept like babies.

SUNDAY MORNING – A MENTAL CHALLENGE

We woke up at 5am on Sunday. I knew that this morning would be a mental challenge, and in a sense I was looking forward to it, but when the morning finally came I was not fully prepared for the physical and emotional sensations I’d experience. I was sore. I was tired. I was mentally exhausted. But it was time to get ready for another race, so I got out of bed and got dressed.

My stomach did not want me to eat, but I knew I had to take in some fuel. So, I ate. It was nauseating, but I ate anyway. I managed to consume my normal bowl of cereal and a PB&H sandwich before the white flag of nausea. I did some stretching in an attempt to persuade my muscles to start working properly. I took some extra Aleve and caffeine this morning, for the same reasons. I also took an Immodium A-D tablet to insure that I didn’t have any GI problems during the long, hot race today.

My cabin-mates all had the “death look” all over their faces during breakfast. No one preps for a Half Ironman by doing essentially a Half Ironman the day before! We were all tired, but knew what had to be done.

SUNDAY, 7AM: RACE 4 – 1.2M SWIM, 55.5M BIKE, 13.1M RUN

I arrived at transition only about 25 minutes in advance of the 7am start time. No one else seemed to be in a hurry to start the race, either. With much less enthusiasm than yesterday, I prepped my transition area, chatted with Sue (who was doing well and feeling as good as one can, considering) and put my wetsuit on for the swim. No one was warming up, no one wanted to waste the energy. Even the low-numbered competitors (who generally were the strongest athletes) looked tired and apprehensive.

The race finally started at about 7:15, and I was in the water by 7:25. I stayed steady on the swim, concentrating on form (not speed) and sighting correctly. I even split the two loops of the swim to finish in 37 minutes, which was a bit slower than I would have liked, but oh well. What can you do after two days of racing, anyway.

The bike today was two loops of 28 hilly, challenging miles. My goal was simply to even split the two loops without burning too many matches, to save energy for the two brutal loops of the Lampback trail. The bike course was not as physically challenging as the first two bike courses, but was much more technical, with lots of long, steady climbs and technical descents. There were no flat sections–literally everything was either up or down.

I stayed steady on the climbs and used my aerodynamic position on my tri-bike to make up some ground on the downhills. This strategy got me to the end of the first loop in about 1:50, where I picked up my second Infinit bottle, refilled my aerobottle with water, and started it all again.

This time, I pushed a bit harder, knowing that I’d have to have a higher perceived exertion to accomplish the same time on the second loop. I noticed that fewer people were passing me, though this may have been because there were fewer people on the course. I increased my effort a bit on the climbs, and continued to descend with controlled, safe aggression. I completed the second bike loop in about 1:50, 3 seconds faster than the first loop. Even bike split: accomplished. My total bike time was just over 3 hours 40 minutes.

Onto the run–this was it. All I had left had to come out at this point. After lubing up my feet, grabbing a handful of PowerGels and bidding good luck to Julie and Rob (who were starting their second run loop as I was heading out of transition), I started running. My legs felt shaky and slow, but in control, and proceeded to clock consistent 10:30 miles for the first two miles.

Nutrition-wise, I knew it would be important at this point to continue to stay on top of my nutrition, even with the race more than half over. I forced myself to eat PowerGels whenever my stomach could accept them. I also was pouring water and ice on my head at every possible opportunity.

Mile 3 was slower due to the huge hill, and I arrived at the turnaround in about 35 minutes. After nailing the last uphill of the loop and staying in control on the downhill, I arrived at the finish in 1:08.

But wait! I didn’t get to cross the damn finish line. Instead, I had to run around a stupid orange cone a mere 50 feet from the finish line, and head back out onto the run course. THAT was demoralizing.

With basically an hour to go, I knew that I had to give Lampback everything I had left. I abandoned my strategy of taking it easy on the uphills, and instead decided to burn my last matches on the uphills. I was making frequent passes at this point, and managed to crest the hill at mile 2.5 well ahead of my pace on the loop previous. I felt the pain through my quads as I dashed down the hill to the turnaround, and then again in my calves as I pushed back up the same ridiculous hill.

When I hit the crest again at mile 4, I knew that it was downhill to the finish. I set aside the pain in my quads and sprinted for home, though I don’t think a casual observer would have called it a sprint per se–9 minute miles isn’t sprinting by any definition of the word.

With half a mile to go, I could see the first signs of the transition area. With a quarter mile to go, I could see the finishing chute. In one last burst of speed, I passed one last team (of 40 year old ladies, WAY TO GO ME!) and crossed the finish line. I split the second run loop in 1:01, my fastest run split of the weekend, for a total run time of 2:09 and change, and a total race time of 6:30:26.

And was I ever happy to be done!

SUNDAY AFTERNOON – AFTER THE RACE

They draped the finisher’s medal around my neck, and handed me the finisher’s shirt. I laid on the ground for several minutes, and then got back up and waddled around aimlessly for a while. It was raining at this point, which was a welcome respite from the heat of the weekend.

I tried to eat some food, but my stomach was having none of it. No bother, I was done racing and didn’t care if I paid for it later.

I waddled back to transition and packed my stuff up. I then waddled with my stuff to the car, dropped it off, and waddled back to the finish area to watch Sue finish. Sue put in a strong performance, particularly on the run, to finish in good time shortly after me!

After all of the weekend’s festivities, I was eager to get out of there and head home. I returned to the cabin, packed up my things, swapped race stories with Julie, Rob and Carl (Team Kilo-Jul had placed second in the co-ed team division, and Carl won the Male Junior division, frickin awesome to both of them), and headed for home.

I finally found cell phone reception after driving for an hour, so I called Lana and shared with her my experiences over the course of the weekend. I also ate a huge plate of chicken at KFC, perhaps the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.

I finally arrived back home around 9:30pm, where I unpacked some stuff, including what felt like 100 pounds of stinky, smelly dirty laundry, and promptly slept for 14 hours.

REFLECTIONS

Triple T was an amazing race, in no small part thanks to the great folks at HFP racing. They put on a fantastic, top-notch event. The support on the bike and run was great, the transition area was well-organized, and the swim course was layed out so that at no time were we ever swimming straight into the sun. All kinds of little details were carefully thought out and planned for. The courses were safe and well-marked. Considering the amount we paid for FOUR races, I don’t know how they were able to afford everything they did.

I was particularly happy with my pacing throughout the weekend. I did not use a heart rate monitor or power meter. I ppaced myself solely off of my perceived exertion levels. I always felt in control of myself, and at the end I felt like I had left it all out on the course. I never had to walk on the run, and I didn’t spend any time sitting around in transition. For my first attempt at this race, I think my effort was pretty good. Considering how strong this field is, I am very happy with my mid-pack finish.

With the completion of this race, I am particularly pumped about my Ironman attempt later this season. As I mentioned earlier, most consider this race more difficult than Ironman. This gives me a huge load of confidence that I can complete Ironman in a respectable fashion.

I am satisfied with my equipment choices. Many people chose to use a road bike for this race, but I did not want to sacrifice my run ability–I run so much better off of my tri bike than my road bike. My gearing (50/34 chainrings, 11-26 cassette) was perfect for this course–the 34/26 combo was great for climbing at a high cadence, and I rarely spun out the 50/11. If I had to do it again, I may go without the disc cover on the rear wheel, but otherwise I stand by my decision to use my tri bike.

I am also satisfied with my health and nutrition. The lower back issues I had earlier during race week did not affect my race times in any substantial manner. I stayed on top of my nutrition before, during and after racing. I am particularly happy with my nutrition execution on Sunday, when ingesting nutrition was as much a mental challenge as a physical one.

Staying in the “Crack House” cabin with six other awesome geeky triathletes was the “icing on the cake” for the weekend experience. All six of my cabin-mates were super cool and super good athletes. I enjoyed the company of each and every one of them, and I hope we can stay in touch.

My final reflection is this: I will DEFINITELY be doing this race again. I’m not sure when, as Triple T is a 13 hour drive from Gainesville, but this race is just too cool to leave behind. Next time, I think I’ll try to find a teammate, as the team strategy of this race seems like something that would be interesting to explore.

Here are my times for the weekend:

RACE 1
- SWIM: 4:47 (rank: 134/345)
- T1: 1:30
- BIKE: 13:54 (rank: 254/345)
- T2: 1:00
- RUN: 8:09 (rank: 273/345)
- TOTAL TIME: 29:17 (rank: 241/345)

RACE 2
- SWIM: 27:06 (rank: 198/344)
- T1: 1:23
- BIKE: 1:30:23 (rank: 257/344)
- T2: 1:06
- RUN: 1:03:48 (rank: 283/344)
- TOTAL TIME: 3:03:44 (rank 252/344)

RACE 3
- BIKE: 1:31:46 (rank: 261/339)
- T1: 4:20
- SWIM: 28:16 (rank: 106/337)
- T2: 1:57
- RUN: 1:02:19 (rank: 213/335)
- TOTAL TIME: 3:08:35 (rank 217/335)

RACE 4:
- SWIM: 36:53 (rank: 202/324)
- T1: 1:37
- BIKE: 3:41:03 (rank: 204/314)
- T2: 1:40
- RUN: 2:09:15 (rank: 133/305)
- TOTAL TIME: 6:30:26 (rank: 160/305)

TOTAL RACE TIME: 13:12:02 (rank: 125/200, 62/79 in Male Senior division)

race photos (of me):
link

race photos (not of me):

http://davidsavoiesports.blogspot.com/

http://michaelbutcherphotos.shutterfly.com/ (pasword: hfpracing)

detailed results:

http://www.hfpracing.com/results

Triple T – Last Minute Prep Not Going as Planned.

The last few days of preparation for Triple T have not gone well. Two days ago, I spent an hour and a half cleaning my bike. Before the cleaning, I felt great. By the end of the cleaning, I could barely stand up. My lower back was cramping and I couldn’t bend over from the waist at all.

Later that day, I tried to go for an easy swim/run. By the end of the run, I was having a hard time even walking. I made it back to the apartment and spent the rest of the day on the couch.

I went to bed hoping that I could “sleep it off.” However, when I woke up yesterday, my back wasn’t any better. I started in on the pain meds–ibuprofen and Icy Hot back patches. I also paid a visit to the IU Health Center, where they x-rayed my back and confirmed that I had a muscle strain in my lower back due to overuse.

Evidently, cleaning my bike was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.” I’ve ridden approximately 7,000 miles in my current bike position, and never had any problems until now. I was very disappointed, as Triple T was in two days and I couldn’t really ride my bike at all!

When I got back from the doctor, I continued with the pain meds (switching to naproxen sodium) and started to ice my back. The ice helped a bit, and by the end of yesterday I felt somewhat better.

I woke up today and went straight to my chiropractor. He did some work on my back which helped a bit more. He recommended I go for a run this morning, and I did. The run actually felt pretty good! I returned home and continued with the ice and Aleve, which continued to help.

And, here I sit, less than 24 hours from the races. My back still hurts, though it’s less than two days ago. I did a test trainer ride for about 10 minutes just now, and though there is some pain, I’m not 100%. I have another appointment with my chiropractor tomorrow.

I’ll get through my races this weekend, I am sure of that. The biggest negative in all of this is that the last few days have been spent desperately trying to fix my back, instead of making the necessary physical and mental preparations for the event.

Additionally, I’ve missed out on possibly the coolest part of any event–the anticipation and excitement building to the race itself!

Basically, I’m disappointed that I allowed myself to get overtrained to the point where I injured myself like this. It’s frustrating and I am pissed about it. I will race this weekend, and I’m sure I’ll do fine. But it will probably hurt, and there is a very real possibility of doing even more damage to my back.

Triple T – Nerdy Tech Post.

Taper

Triple T is the first time I have actually attempted to execute a full taper for a race. Excluding the week of the race itself, the two weeks before that have seen a reduction in my training volume. Two weeks out was approximately a 15 hour week, while one week out will be approximately a 12 hour week. Race week will consist of just a few brief, relatively intenst workouts and much rest.

So far, my taper has been going well. I feel generally strong for my workouts. Motivation is a little low right now, but that generally happens when I put myself through caffeine withdrawal. Also, I haven’t had a complete rest day in a while, which can help me to regain some motivation.

Additionally, I have no distractions this week or next. Lana is out of the country (she is the most awesome, beautiful distraction a man could ever have) and work doesn’t start up again until June 8. So, it’s just me, Majel and my training.

Race week

Monday and Tuesday are light workouts with a few race pace accelerations. Wednesday is a total rest day. Thursday is a quick S/B/R tune-up and a packing day. Friday morning, I’ll drive to Portsmouth. I’m planning on arriving at the race site at around 12:30 on Friday afternoon, to unpack my stuff for the weekend and have a bit of time to de-stressify before the race starts at 5pm.

I am staying in a cabin right at the race site with my friend Sheila Crackhead Lobster Fefe Plemich and a bunch of other triathletes who I am looking forward to meeting. It should be a nice environment to concentrate on having a good race, but also have a good time!

Equipment – Swim

The main point of concern for the Triple T swim is the water temperature. The water temperature will probably be in the low 60s, which is a bit on the chilly side, though I have swam open water in colder temperatures before. I will be sure to wear two swim caps, and I will consider having light cotton gloves ready in transition for the morning races, so my wet hands don’t go numb early on during the bike.

Also, race 3 has the swim coming *after* the bike. This is awkward because I have to put on my wetsuit while I’m all sweaty. Though wetsuits are designed to come *off* quickly, they are not designed to come *on* quickly. Mine takes a good 5-10 minutes to put on properly, and requires a second person to zip me up in the back! Hopefully a volunteer will be able to zip me up as I head toward the water.

Equipment – Bike

Though the bike courses are all very hilly, I will be riding my tri bike in this race. I put in 98% of my miles on the tri bike, and it’s the bike on which I am most comfortable and fast. I have a good aero position and a steep seat angle, which helps me tremendously on the run.

According to SCIENCE I am faster if I run a disc wheel and a deep (50mm) front wheel compared to my training wheels, even with the numerous hills. My race wheels are tubulars, and so I will carry Vittoria Pit Stop and a spare tire with me during the races.

Though I am a relatively strong cyclist, I have switched my gearing so that I will have a maximum gear ratio for this race. I am running compact cranks (50×34) with an 11-26 9spd cassette. This is the setup I use in training, and I have never had any issues. Hopefully, come Sunday, the 34×26 will be small enough for me not to completely blow myself!

Equipment – Run

Nothing special here. My running shoes have about 250 miles on them, which is perfect. They’re broken in, but not falling apart. My orthotics are comfortable. I will bring my TrigerPoint gear, and work on my legs after each race. I also plan on returning to the cold lake after each race and giving my legs a nice “ice bath.”

Nutrition

When I’m not racing or sleeping, I will be concentrating mostly on eating. I have a pretty robust stomach, so I’m pretty sure I will be able to go through a lot of food over the course of the weekend. Here is my plan:

Lunch and post-race dinner on Friday will be nice and big, in a sort of carbo-load for the weekend.

Saturday breakfast will be my normal affair–cereal, bananas, a Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich and some Infinit drink mix. I will probably avoid caffeine this morning, as I don’t want to crash today.

Saturday between races I am going to try to eat some solid food, perhaps a Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich, some bananas or something else that is easy and delicious.

Before the second Saturday race, I’ll take a Caffeine pill, have some Power Gels and drink a bunch of Infinit.

After the second Saturday race, Sheila is making a huge dinner for us all. I don’t remember exactly what it is but I am going to eat it all.

Before the race on Sunday, I’ll try to have my normal affair as I did on Saturday. Hopefully I can stomach it at this point.

After the last race, anything goes. OM NOM NOM NOM.

Now, during each race, I will start my nutrition on the bike leg. I will use an aero bottle of water between my aerobars, and a bottle on my downtube with an Infinit mix. I’m gonna aim for about 450 calories during each of the olympic distance races, and 1200 calories during the half distance race.

During the beginning of the bike portion of the last race, I’ll pop one last Caffeine pill, to give me a bit of a boost on the last part of the bike and run courses.

During the run portion of each race, I’m going to grab some Power Gels as I leave T2. I’m not sure what they’ll have on the run course, and if they have gels on course I’ll just eat those. But taking in plenty of calories on the run is going to be extra important during these races.

Strategy

At Triple T, the only thing more important than nutrition is pacing. Though the total distance is approximately the same as an Ironman race, the overall intensity is higher. The course can also dictate pace, as the hills on the bike and run courses can get very steep, necessitating a higher power output at times.

Therefore, I am going to take a very conservative approach to pacing, to ensure that I don’t blow the Sunday half:

Prologue: I’m going to race this relatively hard, probably somewhere between Sprint and Olympic pace. The whole race takes less than half an hour, so it’s not too difficult to recover from.

Saturday races: I’m aiming for a pace somewhat slower than half Ironman pace for each of these races. On the bike, I will attempt to stay seated for all climbs, and coast/softpedal the downhills when possible. I am shooting for very conservative run pacing, probably closer to Ironman pace for my run splits. I want to finish each race knowing that I still have plenty of energy left.

Sunday Half Ironman: From reading other Triple T race reports, pacing goes out the window on Sunday and it becomes a Survivathlon. I’d like to avoid this, if possible. If I can successfully execute a conservative pacing approach on Saturday I should be able to hit Ironman pace for his race. The run is two loops of the Saturday run course, so my “long shot” wish is for me to negative split these two loops on Sunday, and my even “longer shot” wish is for me to go under two hours for the Sunday half marathon.

Triple T is a challenging race that rewards good preparation and strategy. I think my plan is focused, but reasonable, considering my abilities, background and schedule. Here’s to hoping that I can race this race the way I want to!

Triple T – What the Heck Is This Race??

This year, I have chosen to peak for two big events–Ironman Wisconsin (in September), and a race called “Triple T,” which is next weekend. Ironman Wisconsin is easy to explain (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run, all in one day), but I wanted to take some time to explain exactly what this “Triple T” race is.

Triple T (TTT) stands for “Team Triathlon Tour.” Think the Tour de France for triathlon. However, in addition to allowing teams of two to compete, they accept registration from individuals as well (that’s what I’m doing).

Triple T consists of four triathlons of various distances over three days–Friday through Sunday, May 22-24. Here are the four races:

Prologue: Friday, May 22 5pm. 250 meter swim, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run.
Stage 1: Saturday, May 23 7am. 1500 meter swim, 24.9 mile bike, 6.55 mile run.
Stage 2: Saturday, May 23 3pm. 24.9 mile bike, 1500 meter swim, 6.55 mile run.
Stage 3: Sunday, May 24 7am. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run.

For the teams of two, during the last two races, teammates are allowed to draft off of and receive some other kinds of assistance from each other. Since I am doing the race as an individual, I am not allowed to draft or receive assistance from any competitor at any time during the race.

The primary attraction of this race, besides the unique, challenging format, is the difficulty of the courses. The bike courses, in particular, are a non-stop barrage of hills. All four courses have a different profile, and all are extremely challenging. Though the total distance is approximately equal to an Ironman, and the distance is spread out over three days (giving athletes some chance to recover), the winning man’s time is typically 40-60 minutes slower than the winning time at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawai’i.

Triple T will be a true test of endurance, recovery, mental focus and nutrition. The best Triple T racers are the ones who can recover quickly and stomach large volumes of food before, during and after intense physical activity. Experienced TTT’ers say that waking up on Sunday is the most difficult thing to do, ever, knowing what has happened over the past two days and what is about to happen tomorrow.

Triple T takes place in Shawnee State Park in Portsmouth, Ohio. It’s in the middle of nowhere, but fortunately it’s only about a 4.5 hour drive from Bloomington. The weather tends to be cool in the mornings and hot in the afternoons, making for challenging weather conditions at both times.

I will try to post Twitter updates in between races, but no guarantees. There is limited cell reception in the State Park, so I’ll see what I can do.

I’m going to follow this post up with a very nerdy post about my race plan, tech details, nutrition strategy and other awesome things. Stay tuned.

So I Just Got the Illini Triathlon Results in my Email,

and it turns out that I didn’t do that bad actually! I got 38th place out of 300 finishers, and 8th in my age group out of 63. It seems that everyone had problems with the bike, not just me. Only a handful of folks broke 30 minutes (22mph) for the 11 mile bike course, which is unusual. My run was a little weak compared to the field, and my swim was about what I expected.

After sleeping for 11 hours last night, I did a nice long brick (bike/run) workout today–83 miles in 5 hours, and then 3.4 in 30 minutes, with a slightly modified bike position from the race. It felt a lot more powerful, and it’s probably just as aero. The only soreness I have in this position is that my neck gets sore after about three hours, due to my low aero position. My run felt good off the bike, as well.

I think the extra sleep I got last night really helped my workout today. I’ll have to really try to get more sleep this summer, to maximize the quality of my workouts in my build toward Ironman.

I’m going to take tomorrow off (or do an easy swim if I feel good after work) and see how I feel on Tuesday, and make a determination as to whether or not I’m going to race on Saturday.

RACE REPORT: Sprint Triathlon, Champaign, IL.

I raced a triathlon in Champaign, IL today. It was a sprint race with a 300 meter pool swim (with racers going off in 10-second intervals), an 11 mile bike and a 3 mile run. The weather was around 50 degrees and sunny–a bit nipply on the bike, but nice for the run.

The race organizers only anticipated about 100 racers, but there ended up being over 350 participants! This created some long lines at registration, a cramped transition area, and a crowded course for the MOPers. All in all, the race organizers did well to manage the race though, especially since this was the race’s inaugural running!

My swim felt great. I gave the race organizers an “anticipated swim time” of 4:59, so that they could seed me appropriately. I ended up checking my watch as I was climbing out of the pool, and sure enough, it said 4:59 right on the nose! Haha, I am awesome.

I felt sluggish on the bike. The course was very technical with a lot of turns and crappy holes in the pavement. There were some small rollers and false flats, as well. I couldn’t get into a rhythm at all during the 11 mile ride, and I couldn’t keep my power output up. Oh well.

Onto the run, I felt a bit better, but still not super. I had to pee, but since it’s a sprint I just held it. My time was about average for 3 miles for me, but on a good day I could have gone 30 seconds faster. We ran through the U of I quad, which was interesting because there were approximately 1,456 high school students wearing groups of identical shirts parading around the quad. I’m sure they thought we were cool, running around them in our vibrantly colored Spandex suits.

I crossed the line in about 1:02, missing my goal of breaking an hour in this race. I gave it my all, but I was still dissappointed that my “all” today was less than what it should have been.

All in all, I think a number of factors contributed to my lackluster performance today:

1. I have a bunch of built-up fatigue in my system, both from training and from the stress of the end of the school semester. This was most noticeable on the bike, when my legs simply wouldn’t output like I wanted them too. I am going to tweak my bike position ever-so-slightly (moving the seat back a bit) to give me more power, we’ll see if that “band-aid” helps or not.

2. The long lines at registration prevented me from doing a proper warm-up. By the time I got through the lines, got my area set up, and visited the bathroom, it was 15 minutes until 8am, the supposed start of the race. I only had time for a quick jog and a few laps of the 50m pool before I had to get in line for the start. However, I could have avoided this problem by arriving at the race site earlier..

3. I did not eat properly before the race. I had my normal breakfast at home, but then the three hour car ride before the race left me hungry at the start line. I thought I had consumed enough calories of my Infinit mix during the 30-45 minutes before the race, but I guess I was wrong. In the future, I will need to eat more before the race.

4. I still need to lose weight. I think I’m on the right track here, but I really still need to turn about 5 pounds of fat into muscle and lose another few pounds of fat to have the optimal body composition for long-course racing.

I am considering skipping the race I had planned for next week (a sprint tri in Mattoon, IL) to concentrate on recovering for my A race, Triple T, in three weeks. If my performance today is any indication, I could use some recovery and reduction in overall training volume in the next few weeks.

Swim: 5:00:00
T1: 1:30ish
Bike: 31:38
T2: 1:30ish
Run: 22:18
Total: 1:01:56

RACE REPORT: Purdue Duathlon, 4/26/2009.

I got my multisport season off to a good start this morning with a 2/12/2 mile duathlon in West Lafayette, IN. The weather was great (70s and overcast at the 10am start), the course was challenging and I did pretty well.

The run course was challenging, with a steep climb and descent half a mile in. I split the first run at 15:45, slightly slower than I had wanted, but acceptable. My legs were not feeling 100% during the warm-up (maybe about 90%), so this was not unexpected.

I got on the bike and started to spin, spin, spin! I was surprised to find my comfort zone at about 110rpm today. Good thing I run compact cranks–I would have had to make some awkward gearing choices on a 53/39!

The bike course was deceptively challenging, with shifty wind conditions, shady road surfaces, unmarked turns and two significant climbs, one about 1/6 mile long, one about 1/3 mile long, each at about 6-7% grade. This forced me out of the aero position on both occasions, and also got rid of any shot I had at breaking the hour for the race. In the end, I finished the bike in about 36 minutes, including both transitions. I was never passed, and passed about 10 people on the bike leg.

The second run was on the same course as the first. I slowed over the climb more than I wanted, but was able to kick it in with a slight (30 second) negative split on the two runs. I was never passed, and passed one person with about one mile to go.

My time of 1:05:56 was good for 8th overall (it was a small field of about 30-40 racers), which I believe is my highest overall finish in a multisport event to date. However, I learned today that I have some work to do in the next few months to get my body ready for Ironman Wisconsin:

1. I need to lose weight. I don’t like what I see in the pictures that Lana (awesomely) snapped of me. I’m strong and fit right now, but the extra 10-15 pounds I’m carrying around hurt me, most noticeably on the bike and run climbs.

2. I need to do more intense training. All winter, I piddled along at 16mph on the bike and 9:30 miles on the run. My base of Long Slow Distance is sufficiently built. It’s time to bring on the pain if I want to get faster.

Check out the pictures Lana took of me on Facebook!

Training Update.

I’m at the beginning of my “base” period for this year’s training. The “base” period consists of a dramatic increase in total weekly volume (20-30%/week), with a recovery week every fourth week or so. Most weeks are very high volume, with several weeks of over 20 hours of total training volume! By the way, this is *actual* training volume, not counting driving to the pool, breaks by the side of the road, etc.

Most of the training in this “base” period is low intensity, in heart rates Z1-Z2, with occasional Z3 work. Basically, I’m training my body to be able to complete the longest distances in my race season comfortably. I do occasional “speed skills” workouts, where I practice the motions of swim/bike/run at high speeds, with high mechanical efficiency, in short intervals with long rests. This helps to train my body to maintain it’s form during long races, when the body weakens and starts to lose coherence.

I’m increasing my run mileage 2-3 miles per week. I’m going to hit about 30mpw this week, hopefully by the end of the base period I can be close to 50mpw without any injuries. However, I’m not going to push the running, as running well at Ironman is really all about bike efficiency and less about run speed.

Cycling mileage is going way up. Most of my increases in volume come on the bike. My long rides are currently at 4.5 hours and getting longer each week. I try to do two other medium-length rides per week, and maybe a fourth ride if the weekly volume requires it.

Swimming is in maintenance mode. I had a great swim-focused off-season, where I improved my swim significantly. I’m now swimming 4-5 times per week, for about 12,000-15,000 total yards.

I feel pretty good about my training right now. I hope I can have the motivation to get these high-volume weeks in, as I’ve never done anything with this much volume in training before. I also hope that my other life activities–studying, moving to Florida, etc–are low-stress enough that I can get this training done. I’m sure I’ll make the time, but you never know.

Alright, time for afternoon training–2:20 on the trainer, 1:00 run, 1:00 swim! Mega Tuesday!

Spring Break and Florida Trip!

I haven’t updated here in a while, because I have pretty much fully embraced the beauty of Twitter, the microblogging service that allows me to update the World on the mundane details and witty witticisms of my life, 140 characters at a time.  Checkout my twittert:  http://twitter.com/martinmccrory

Lana and I did our spring break last week.  We rented a beautiful romantic cabin (at a rediculously awesome price from a company called Sunset Cottages, I have to recommend them if you’re heading to the Smokies) in the outskirts of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest.  Our cabin had a nice view of the Appalachian foothills, and also included a hot tub AND a jacuzzi.  Awesome.  We spent most of our break sampling the “local cuisine,” relaxing, doing a few touristy things and some cycling, though it was a bit hilly for the tandem bike.

Oh yeah, I forgot–right before we went to the Smokies, Lana and I made a stop in Champaign, where I ran a DDR tournament!  We attracted some of the best players in the world, including Kevin Boddy, one of the greatest dancers ever.  Everything ran smoothly, the new format I tried worked reasonably well, and I think that everyone had a great time.  It was good to see my Champaign friends one more time.

Training is going okay.  I took two weeks pretty much completely off before and during spring break, only cycling for about 8 hours total and taking a complete break from swimming and running.  I’ve been a bit under the weather with a cold the past few days, and that combined with the “flatness” that comes from taking two weeks off has resulted in some pretty awful workouts in the last few days.  My blister on my left foot is acting up again, as well.  I hope I can recover completely before the 13.1 race next weekend!  However, I am confident that I will return to full strength by the time my real races come around in May.

Lastly, right now Lana and I are in the Indianapolis Airport, waiting to board a plane to Florida!  Lana has meetings with personnel from the University of Florida physics department all day tomorrow, and I’m tagging along to look at potential places to live down there.  I am cautiously optimistic about the likelihood of us going there–barring any catastrophe, Lana’s offer is so good (full ride, tuition, awesome stipend) that it would be tough for any other school to match it.  Year-long summer, here we come!