Lawrence Triathlon Race Report

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I decided to compete in this race.  I had registered back in June since it was a free race offered by to those who were signed up for the KC Tri, which was cancelled due to thunderstorms. Once Brian and Dane registered, I decided to make it official and add another race shirt to my collection.

As mentioned in my race preview, the plan was to go easy on the swim, hammer the bike, and see what happened on the run.  Let's see...

Pre-Race

We got to the race site around 6:30 or so.  Brian pulled in right behind us in the parking lot. Surprisingly, the transition area was right next to the parking lot. It seems there is normally a half mile to mile walk to the transition area.  Some races even have buses for participants/spectators to ride to the race site.

Working on my transition.

They had 3 rows of racks that were pre-marked by bib #.  After getting setup, Dane had shown up and we chatted about how there were quite a few people putting on wetsuits.  Really?  The water was 80 degrees (probably more).  Then again...  are they really enforcing it?  How are they checking numbers when your wetsuit is covering your number?

Swim - 1500 Meters

After dipping in the water for a bit, Brian and I went over to the start corral.  Our wave (35+ males) was to start at 7:30.  The weather was overcast and, naturally, my goggles were fogging up.  This was going to make for an interesting swim.

Once the start horn blew, we ran for the water.  We then continue to run for the water and continue, and continue.  I felt like I was about 150 meters before finally diving in.  Clinton lake was pretty low and shallow.

The wave wasn't huge so I didn't have too much trouble finding free space; however, I noticed I was really close to the safety boats on the right.  I kept trying to swim to the buoys but they just seemed far off.  I knew I was in trouble.  I had taken a poor line at the start.  It didn't help out it was cloudy with foggy goggles and then the buoys were very far apart. When there are probably 20 buoys used for the 1000 meter swim at Shawnee Mission Park Tri to roughly 6 used for this 1,500 meter swim, it becomes a challenge to sight.

Once I got past the first turn, naturally I was concerned I would eventually miss the turn back to the beach. Fortunately there were a couple guys with me (one in a wetsuit, by the way) and we managed to figure it out together.  Similar to the start, about 150 meters to the beach the water got shallow again.  I could walk faster than swim but eventually it got waist deep again so I dove back in.

Not sure if I'm in this photo, but you can tell how shallow the lake is

Time: 35:46 / 2:24 per 100 meters

Age Group: 8 of 17

Poor sighting killed my time, but when you consider I was still 8th of 17 in my age group, the course may have been long.

Transition 1

Relatively short run to the transition area but it was muddy at times.  No real issues with the transition.

Time: 1:19

Age Group: 5 of 17

Bike

Tucker did some recon on Saturday and drove the bike course with his Garmin to record the elevation.  It didn't look horrible but not good.  I knew hammering it on this course probably wouldn't reflect in the average miles per hour.

Only a few hills would be considered steep but the ones left were long and tiring.   I just tried to push through it.  The only reprieve to the pain was the view.  With the sun peeking through the clouds, it was really a pretty sight.  

I ate a couple chomps on the course when I knew I wouldn't need to grit through the pain of the hills.

The course wasn't closed to traffic and there were a few precarious moments when it got congested with cyclists and an RV.

Jump!

Time: 1:10:34 / 21.1 average mph

Age Group: 5 of 17

Transition 2

This was longer than normal because I brought my Mizuno Inspire shoes, which weren't prepped for triathlons.  It had regular shoe laces so I had to actually tie them.

Time: 1:10

Age Group: 10 of 17

Run

The heat was definitely rising at this point and the humidity was rearing it's ugly head.  

The two loop run course was part trail, part road through a campground, and part crushed gravel/dirt road.  

Brian, being an awesome open water swimmer, naturally beat me out of the water and I had finally caught up with him in transition 2.  But my lead on him only lasted about one minute as he caught me in the run. After about a mile, Dane caught up with me as well.  Dane even started 10 minutes after me.  I was just hoping to hold him off a little longer!!

There was one aid station on the course which was passed a total of 4 times on the two loop course.

The legs were not as snappy as they had been in the past.  I was expecting this and figured I would hit 8 minute miles.  I actually managed to average 7:50 minute miles.  

Time: 48:31 / 7:50 minutes per mile

Age Group: 6 of 17

Overall

Time: 2:37:17

Overall: 33 out of 121

Age Group: 5 out of 17

I didn't exactly go easy on the swim and, according to Garmin, I probably added 150 meters to my distance with all the poor sighting.  I'm also hoping that maybe the course was long as it appeared that many people were over 30 minutes.

I got the results I was expecting on my test to crush the bike and see what happens.  I still enjoyed the bike considering my plan and the hills.  My average heart rate was 159, which means I probably could have pushed it a little more.

Compared to my plan:

Swim: 6 minutes over goal -> Poor sighting

Bike: 5.5 minutes over goal -> Didn't account for the hills but still hoped to get on target

Run: 1.5 minutes under goal -> Fine with me

Post-Race

Decent post-race food options.  Fruit, fruit cups, granola bars, Power Ade, water, finishers pint glass, and immediately available printed results were waiting for participants.  Otherwise, this was pretty bare bones.  It seemed like only a few volunteers out there but it didn't detract from the race.  It was a first time event although experienced race director.  I actually liked the experience.

Proof

Brian, Me, Dane

TKB's partner-in-crime today.  Dane's Dad!

Dane starting his run.  He'll catch me in about 3 steps even though I started 10 minutes before.

Brian coming in for the finish!

TKB calls this guy my tri-doppelgänger.

Race Preview: Lawrence Triathlon

This is a new race put on by an experienced race director.  Since KC Tri got rained out, they offered free registration to KC Tri participants.  I highly doubt this pleased the KC Tri people but all it does is benefit area triathletes!

I signed up for this race back in June but didn't decide to actually participate until a few weeks ago when Brian and Dane had both registered.  I've decided to change my race strategy quite a bit for this because:

• It's a new race.  Yes, it's an experienced race director who does multiple triathlons at Clinton Lake but it is a new site in terms of location on the race.
• It's a FREE Race.  'nuff said.

So my strategy?  I'm going to ride a unicycle!!!  OK, maybe not, but that would be pretty hard core.

Something I've discovered and enjoyed during my training are my brick workouts (bike ride immediately followed by run).  In fact, my favorite workout is my Wednesday morning session.  I get to the downtown airport at 5 am and ride the 3.66 mile loop around the airport four times.  I then hop off the bike (throw it in the back of the truck... gently) and do one loop running.  I generally have to hold myself back when I start running.  I just want to take off hard.  During the run my heart rate is usually in the 140s even though I'm pushing 7:40 minute miles (FYI, that's very fast for me considering the HR).  This isn't just at the start but near the end.

As I mentioned in my race report for Shawnee Mission Triathlon, I just wanted to fly out of transition 2.  I'm sure it has a lot to do with my improved running but also the bike makes a huge difference since it's forces you to ride in a position that mimics running.

SO... here it is...

Swim: 1500 Meters
No goals.  I will probably just treat it as a training swim at around 70% to 80% perceived effort
Time: 30 minutes

Bike: 40k (24.8 miles)
Time trial and PUSH HARD.  I want to push my legs to the limits.  I don't know what the elevation map looks like yet but I hear it's annoying rolling hills.  Let's just say I'm hoping for 23mph+ average.

Time: 1:05

Run: 10k (6.2 miles)
The purpose of this is to simply see how my running reacts when I push the legs to the limits on the bike.  I'll simply listen to the body and see what happens.  I'm not expecting anything amazing here.  In fact, I won't be surprised if I jelly-leg walk the first mile of the run and end up with +9 minute pace.  I just simply want to see how my body reacts after a hard ride.

Time: 50 minutes (8 minute miles)

Total: 2 hours, 30 minutes (adding some time for transitions)

So there you have it.  I'm going to give my running a skills a... run for its money.

Race Report: Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon - Long

Well, it's been way too long since I've posted.  The last month has been a really busy time at work and home computer projects.  I'm in the process of simplifying things in my personal projects, so I've been shedding some projects and that is taking some time to do.

The key is that I'm still keeping up with my ironman training program.  Well, not hitting every workout but just about considering the traveling and racing I'm doing.  Speaking of racing, this past Sunday was the Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon.

It took a while to put this on my list but after a little bit of nudging from Ryan on twitter and Facebook, finally made the plunge.  #SMPShowdown was ON.

This would be my 5th triathlon at Shawnee Mission Park.  KC Corporate Challenge uses this stage for their triathlon.  I did SMP Triathlon in 2011 and KC Corporate Challenge in 2011, 2012, and 2013.  The Corporate Challenge races are sprint distances but I did the long distance in 2011 with the SMP Tri.  

My hopes were to improve on those times and get under 2:00 hours but let's be honest, Ryan pushed me over to the registration site, so my ultimate goal was to beat his time.  I didn't really make that very known until the Saturday before the race with this tweet:

Just to make sure I got his attention, why not post on Facebook too:

OK.  So we've both got some tired legs.  Fair enough.

Race Week

Due to my crazy work week leading up to the race, I actually didn't do my normal carb loading meals.   With only a 2 hour race, I figured I could manage my fuel during the race day but I did have a huge serving of pasta on Friday and a bunch of pizza on Saturday.  That counts, right?

Saturday I tried to keep a bottle of water in my hand the entire day and stuck with that instead of beer Saturday night while spending time with Joe VI and crew.

Race Day

I wasn't real pleased with being rushed at Tinman and KC Corporate Challenge Tri for my pre-race setup early this year, so we got to the race site around 5:45am.  Transition closed at 6:45, so that should give plenty of time to prepare and mingle.  As expected, there was a bag check.  They didn't bother with my bike bag this time, thankfully.

The transition spots were marked by Bib # and I got a nice spot right in the middle of the row.  Since there were two racks per row, this gave me a little extra room plus I was able to put one of my bags on the end of the rack structure as a nice little flag to find my bike.

Brian and his wife Jill came over as I was setting up and we chatted a bit.  This was Brian's first triathlon since moving to KC as well as Jill's first long distance triathlon!  They started in the first 2 waves while I was in the last wave of the long distance race.

I ended up racking up a few spots from Ryan, so we chatted a bit.  After a bathroom break, it was about time to head to the boat launch, where I waited with Drew.

Wow.  Checkout that sun.  That surely won't be a problem on the swim.

By the time we got to the boat launch, the race had officially started with the Challenged Athlete division.  There was an athlete missing a leg and another missing an arm.  I'm sure their swim times would be better than mine.  It's really inspiring.  In addition, there were two teams in which the swim was pulling a child in a boat.  After exiting the boat, the child was transferred to a trailer to be pulled by bike and then pushed in a running stroller.  These were children with Cerebral Palsy.  This year United Cerebral Palsy become the title sponsor of the race. 

Eventually we took off for the swim to the beach start.  

Swim - 1000 Meters

Just like KC Corporate Challenge, there was a time trial start.  Drew and I had lined up together but there was an odd person in line before us, so I stepped up and started about five seconds in front of Drew.  Ryan ended up taking off about 20 or so seconds before.  He's a faster swimmer, so my hope would be to catch him on the bike or run.

The swim wasn't too bad in terms of bumping into people.  I had to contend with a few people but soon got into open.  I tried to push the pace but not too hard where I'd be dizzy coming out of the water.  After about 750 meters, I could tell the water had gotten a bit choppy.  Nothing horrible but not as stable.

We soon turned back to the the marina where I quickly realized I was in trouble.  Sighting for the beach was horrible due to the glare of the sun.  Looking forward wasn't possible so I kept the line of buoys in sight on my right.  I naturally breathe on my right; however, I decided to look on my left side to see where the marina docks were.  They were probably 100 meters from the finish.  At one point I looked and was about 5 yards from the shore line!  ACK!  It was actually just a narrow part of the course but freaked me out a bit.

I soon caught sight of the swim exit flags and pushed for it!  

Made it!

Time: 19:06 / 1:45 per 100 yards

Age Group: 12/23

Transition 1

Super long run up the parking lot to the swim.  I found my transition area easily with my bag on the transition rack.  What else was on the transition rack?  Ryan getting ready for the bike.  I thought about yelling at him but decided I'd see if he would notice me.  Didn't want to motivate him any more than necessary!

I thought my transition was pretty fast, so very happy with it.  

Getting started on the bike.

Time: 2:07

Age Group: 9/23

Bike - 18 miles

By the time I was running to the mount line with my bike, Ryan was gone.  Not sure how quickly he got out but TKB yelled to say I was less than a minute behind.  Fortunately, Ryan wears a KU Jayhawk tri kit, so he's pretty easy to spot.  I probably shouldn't give him that information!

The bike is four laps around the SMP lake.  I figured my first lap would be slow, second lap faster, third lap will be pushed to the limits and fourth lap preparing for the running.

I ended up catching up with Ryan in the first major hill of the race but kept my distance.  After about another mile, I pushed past Ryan.  I hoped to not see him until well after the turn around on the out and back portion of the run.

Now it's time to focus on something I should have been doing the whole time, swim/bike/run MY race.  

Waving at TKB after lap 2.

Whether it's good or not, I've noticed I do something different than most people on hills.  When in the rolling portion of the hills, I tend to pedal through the downs HARD in order to garner enough speed to push me most of the way to the top of the next hill.  Sure, going downhill is free speed but I feel that the energy expended pushing on the downhill is less than if I were to crush my pedals on the uphill.  Maybe that's just me but it seems to work.

I ate a quarter of a Cliff bar on the flat portion of lap two and a chomp on the flat portion of lap four.

I successfully completed a flying dismount and off to transition 2.

Flying dismount!!

Time: 52:32 / 20.6 mph

Age Group: 9/23

Transition 2

I feel like the only thing I can do after dismounting my bike is run hard.  I love it.   Racked my bike and off to the run.  There is a 90 degree turn out of the transition and during this triathlon and KC Corporate challenge, I almost fly out too hard and hit the barrier that keeps people on track out of transition.  I'm probably burning too much energy here but it feels good.

Loving my post-bike legs.

Time: 0:51

Age Group: 9/23

Run - 4.5 miles

Still pushing hard and trying to setup myself for the dam(n) hill.  We are talking about an 18 precent incline that you ride four times and then run it.  I simply kept pushing and kept passing a bunch of people.  In fact, no one had passed me yet in the first mile.  Let's see how long I can keep this going.  I had even passed someone in my age group!

At around 2 miles you start an out and back.  After quite a ways on this, I hadn't see anyone in my age group coming back from the turn around.  Nice!  Eventually I saw some heading back from the turn around and immediately counted 3 people.  So I am not getting a podium.  Again, let's focus on my race.

I hit the turn around at roughly mile 3.  It was at this point I got passed for the first time.  It was someone in the youngest age group.  He was crazy fast.  He was also decidedly wearing running shorts, so I wondered if he was part of a team?  Either way, there was no way I was catching him.  So as long as no one else passes me, then perfect.

After the turn around I started keeping my eyes open for that KU tri kit of Ryan's.  After about a minute and a half I saw him.  Gave him a wave and just kept booking it because there was still another battle ahead.  Leaving the SMP trail system requires another huge hill to be climbed.  In the past I have even walked this section thinking I could walk it fast than run it but I kept moving.

Eventually it leveled out and had about half a mile to go.  There was another uphill and then a nice downhill.  About a .10 of a mile before the finish there is a 30 foot incline.  There were about 8 or 10 people in front of me and I just kicked it HARD.  I passed everyone in that group and finished the race alone.  I had heard about 3 or 4 people cheer me on as I finished, which was pretty cool but I was so narrow sighted I don't remember who all it was.

This is what 5:30 pace looks like after racing for 1 hour and 47 minutes.
#PoopFace

One of those voices was Drew!  I had forgotten about him on the course.  I had passed him in the group of runners.  As it turns out, even though I crossed the finish line before him, he actually beat me by 1 second.  Remember when I mentioned he started in the set of swimmers behind me for the time trial start? That means his chip time started 5 seconds after me. I had crossed the line only 4 seconds ahead of him so I didn't make up those 5 seconds of chip time.  Now if anyone questions me spending $$$$ towards my gear to gain a few seconds, now you know why!

That guy that passed me around mile 3?  I saw him writhing in agony at the top of the hill out of the trail system.  From what I could tell it was some MAJOR cramps.  That's what happens when you pass me.  You've been warned!

Time: 33:56 / 7:33 pace

Age Group: 8/23

Overall

The weather turned out to be perfect so that helped out with my race.  I remember it being crazy hot two years ago and pushing myself on the run only to get to the next shady spot.  Since I had my selfish goal of finishing ahead of Ryan, I managed to meet that goal but I also stayed under 2 hours.  In fact, I beat my time from two years ago by 13 minutes.  The bike and race wheels (which Ryan set me up with) definitely helped even though the hills on the bike course.  My run time improved by 4.5 minutes simply because I am a much stronger runner these days.  This is definitely attributed to my marathon training from last year, but I also feel STRONGER on the run.  This is attributed to my focus on strength training this year (Thanks Sam!).

Time: 1:48:30

Overall: 44 of 230

Age Group: 8/23

Ryan is a great guy so I hope he takes my ribbing as tongue-in-cheek. We're both in the middle of ironman training (he's doing the new Ironman Tahoe in September).  I'm sure that if we both trained specifically for the same race, he'd have me easily.  But... for the record... in triathlons I am 2 and 0, but who's counting?

Ryan has started a triathlon coaching business and doing this full time, so check out him out if you are looking for some coaching!

Set The Pace Triathlon Coaching and Consulting

Post Race

After engorging on post race food (banana, chocolate milk, gatorade, pop), I met back up with Jill and Brian.  Brian managed to wait for Jill in the water.  They had raced together the entire time.  Talk about triathlon chivalry!

On our way over to the post-race pancakes by Chris Cakes, I saw Mark from twitter.  He managed another podium spot in the short distance race, which he has done every year he's participated in this.  Two 2nd place and a third place.  They have a nice looking trophy, so his mantel is getting pretty full.  His fiancee participated in her first triathlon here as well.  Plenty of triathlete couples representing this day.

Side Note

In a story of what could have been, my sprint distance time for KC Corporate Challenge a few weeks earlier was 1:02:02, which would have placed me 2nd in the age group of the sprint distance triathlon on Sunday. This baffles me since I didn't get anywhere close at KCCC.

The Proof

Pre-race - Brian, Jill, TKB, Dork, Frenemy - Ryan

Me and Drew post race

Post-race... evaluating Ryan's banana consumption technique.  OK, maybe not.

Brian and Jill.. on the bike!

Jill and Brian.. on the run!

Race Preview: Air It Up Run

Race day tomorrow and so I figured I'd put out my race goals.  We are doing the Air It Up Run.  It's a 2.5 mile run with 8 bounce house obstacles intermixed at Shawnee Mission Park.

Goal:

• Don't get injured.

That is all.

Race Report: KC Corporate Challenge Triathlon

Saturday's Topeka Tinman went so well, why not do it again on Sunday!

I knew this was going to happen.  After agreeing to do Tinman with Dane and Joe VI, I had a feeling Corporate Challenge would be on the same weekend.  Since the race I actually paid for was first in the weekend, I didn't mind doing a free race second.

This new year brought some new rules.  Instead of allowing two participants per age group, each company could only designate 1 person.  One of the age groups could have a second participate.  In theory this would cut down the number of participants by roughly 45% (my non-scientific estimate).  Apparently the organizers must have gotten complaints that there were too many people on the course.  Keep in mind that the duathlon was also taking place at the same time.

Here's the deal.  I'm sure many companies have a hard time trying to field a full compliment of participants.  I did some research and it only reduced the number of participants by 18%.  That's 146 people, so it's still sizable.

I'm not sure why I care so much but I think I know another reason why they tried to limit the participants, which I'll get to.

Saturday
After Tinman, we took it easy.  We went to a party at a friends house and an early dinner of Mac & Cheese at Granite City.  Once we got back I messed around with my bike.  I actually took the tires and tubes off to see what I needed to do to allow it to take air.  I basically reinstalled everything and filled it up.  It was just fine so I put everything back on the bike and packed up for Sunday.

Sunday
We took off for the park around 5:45am after the normal morning ritual.  Everything was going to be the same except I didn't bother with my bento box.  Parking was out in the grass of Shawnee Mission Park and it was a mess.  It had stormed on Saturday so everything was still muddy.

I took my bike off the car rack and started to top off the air, just like Saturday.  No go.... or should I say "No flow".  I decided it was still pretty full plus there should be bike support at the start so I can have them help.

It was a long trip to the transition area (probably a mile or more), so I hopped on the bike and rode to the transition area while TKB was taking a bus.  While riding I started hearing a rhythmic "thumping" noise on my back tire.  Was it mud?  No big deal, I'll check it out in the transition or have the onsite bike mechanic review it.

Once I pulled up to the transition area, I noticed something else quite odd. Something I've never seen at a triathlon (granted, this was only my 8th and 4th at Shawnee Mission Park).  There were lines leading into the transition area.  Sure, you normally have body markings creating lines but we had tri-tats for this one.  Most people applied those before arriving and  I already had them on.  No.  They were checking bags!!!  As in going to a sporting event and the event crew check the contents of your bag.  I have this HUGE transition bag.  So large it probably won't work as carry on.  This was going to take forever.  When I finally got to the front, the person asked me to open my bike bag too.  What?  This tiny bag is holding two tubes, tools, 4 CO2 cartridges, tire levers, CO2 adapter.  It was going to explode when I opened it. This was going to be a headache.

Fortunately she just wanted me to open the bag, not purge the contents.  It didn't add too much time but it was a little annoying.  I'm sure they are going to do this for SMP Triathlon in 3 weeks.  This may also be why they wanted to limit participants.

I found a transition spot near the swim exit and run start.  I got everything set up and met up with TKB.  We chatted with coworkers and then headed over to the marina for real bathrooms.  I took note of the port-a-potties and they seem to have twice as many as normal.  Nice!

After the bathrooms it was 5 minutes from closing the transition.  Once they called the transition area closed, I noticed I didn't have any of my swim stuff.  So I got my warm-up run in by sprinting to the transition and getting my cap, goggles, and watch.

My swim start wasn't until another 40 minutes.  If you remember from my comments about Tinman, I enjoyed starting almost right away because apparently I get fidgety.  So fidgety that I dropped my Forerunner 310xt and it hit the concrete so perfectly it smashed the screen.  Crap.  It obviously serves no purpose during the swim, and I have my bike computer for the 2nd leg.  But I was going to be running blind.  That's not necessarily a bad thing because the last time I did a race without the Garmin, I got my personal record in the 5k.

As usual, we have to swim about 200 meters to the beach from the marina.  This provides a nice warmup.

Getting ready for my warm-up swim, sans-digitalry clockage.

Swim - 500 Meters
The swim was also a little different this year.  They did a time trial start where they released two triathletes at a time about 5 seconds apart. I do like this because you don't have the washing machine effect at the start; however, you never really get a good "pocket" to get comfortable in the swim.  Since they don't line people up by swim capabilities, you continually run into swim slower swimmers.  If you are lucky, you get paired with someone slightly faster so you can draft off of them.

I felt like I took a good line because I was consistently swimming against the buoy line.  It also led me to swim real close to the dock at the boat launch where TKB was waiting.  I tried waving a few times on my recover stroke.

Me in the middle trying to wave

Swim, swim, swim turn, swim, turn, swim, swim, BEACH.  I felt pretty strong on the swim considering I didn't use my wetsuit.  The race was wetsuit legal.  Actually, this race is always wetsuit legal regardless of water temps.  I felt strong because I was passing a lot of people and I also passed a guy who chose to wear a wetsuit.

Time: 10:18
Overall: 57 out of 218

Because this was a beach start instead of a water start, I probably added some time because we started earlier in the lake.  I wonder if they accounted for this?

Transition 1

I caught TKB by surprise as I was running out.

Another long run to the transition.  It's longer than Tinman and also uphill most of the way.

Time: 1:54

Bike - 9 Miles (2 loops)

Traffic Jam!

After getting on my bike we were led to the road via cones.  About 50 feet before I could merge I heard Eric yelling at me as he passed (he was doing the Duathlon and starting his second lap).  I hollered back and met up with him after a while and wished him luck (I think, I can't remember!).

Shawnee Mission Park is decidedly hilly.  The first half is nasty while the second half is pretty flat.  I was ready to push it hard on the ups and downs.... until I heard that rhythmic thumping noise on my back tire again.  Crap!  All the bag check hoopla distracted me from checking it out.  I decided to push the ups and be semi-cautious on the down hill.  One of the downs has a turn at the bottom, so I kept it real easy there.

While riding on the dam the first time, I saw Brian running with his wife Jill.  They came out to SMP to do a run and managed to avoid the mass of corporate humanity.  So I yelled down to him and gave them a wave.

The first lap went quickly.  I couldn't believe my time.  My second lap also went pretty fast.  For some reason I told TKB it'd take me 30 - 35 minutes to complete.  It took me 25!

Feet out of the shoes for a jumping dismount.

Time: 25:02 / 21.5 mph
Overall: 18 out of 218

Successful flying dismount!  No flying shoes!

Transition 2

I ran my bike to my transition pretty hard, so I was feeling good on the legs.

Time: 55 seconds

Run - 3.2 Miles

Also new this year was an extended run course.  You still have to run up the dam hill (sucks) but fortunately the additional mileage was a relatively flat section.  There were plenty of people on the course since the duathlon had started 40 minutes before me.  Plenty of people to pass.

No Garmin so no splits to check.

I counted two or three people pass me.  Unfortunately, the two that I remember were in my age group; however, I didn't know the division.  These people were speedy.  One was so speedy, a part of the bottom of his shoe flew off in front of me!

I hit the uphill section from the trails onto the road and then up to the finish.  The last hill wasn't as bad as I though, considering I had pushed hard 7.5 miles the day before and I was pushing hard all day.  But the last hill is exactly that, the last hill.  The finish line was at the top!

Time: 23:52 / 7:28 pace
Overall: 38 out of 218

Overall

Time: 1:02:02
Overall: 28 out of 218
Company Division: 13 out of 52
Age Group (30 to 39): 12 out of 74

I was pretty thrilled with my bike leg.  I was .6 mph average faster than at Tinman.  While this was half the distance, it had the same amount of elevation gain in those 9 miles versus 18.  My run was quite a bit faster but I think being a shorter distance helped.  The lack of humidity helped as well!

I was surprised I was still 10+ minutes on the swim but that is what it is.  I will need some actual instruction to seem some decent gains there.

Post-Race

Interesting.  I just realized I didn't wear my sunglasses, not that they were necessary.

While cooling down and taking a team photo (well, only a few of the 15 coworkers there), I caught up with Brian and Jill.  I hadn't met Jill yet, so it was great to see them both.  Brian is the triathlete that just moved here from California and we've been doing some weekend bike rides together.

Eventually we got home and I took full advantage of my post-race(s) meal: Five Guys Burgers and Fries!

Later on Sunday I did some research and it turns out the bike tube was keeping the tire from seating correctly.  Check out this post for more info.

Proof

Some of the company Du and Tri participants!  Photo courtesy of Scott Ellis, third from the left.

The course setup for the team triathletes as they were doing 1,000 meters.  Suckers

Sexy breathing photo shot

Flipping the shield into position.

Week in Review: Ironman Training Week 11

Another week and another week(end) full of races.  I posted my report on Topeka Tinman and will be working on KC Corporate Challenge Triathlon in the next few days.

With a big race weekend coming, I kept to my training plan as much as possible until I decided it was time to  taper, which was Thursday.  Instead of my normal bike/swim, Joe VI and I did a super-duper sprint triathlon at Shawnee Mission Park. 250 meter swim, 4 mile bike, 2 mile run... all at an easy pace.  I then took Friday off.

Swim: 4750 yards / 1 hour, 39 minutes
Bike: 62.4 miles / 3 hours, 22 minutes
Run: 23.64 miles / 3 hours, 15 minutes
Strength: 1 session / 1 hour

Total: 89 miles / 9 hours, 22 minutes

I came out of the weekend with a sore right lower leg.  It almost reminded me of shin splints.  I'm hoping it is a high ankle sprain because I rolled my foot while on the run at Tinman.  I got a bit too close to the side of the trail and rolled it; however, it didn't start bugging me until Sunday afternoon.

Because of that, I am keeping it real light on the running this week.  Today (Wednesday), it didn't hurt when I got up this morning so I did a brick workout.  I did 4 laps at the downtown airport and then 1 lap (3.66 miles) by foot.  I actually ran at a pace that was faster than prescribed and the leg still held up.  Hopefully that's behind me now.  Plenty of icing and rolling is being instituted though.

With starting the middle third of my training, I'm starting to incorporate some speedwork in my runs, so that's a nice change up.

As I mentioned in my Tinman race report, I got some new "shoes" for my triathlon bike.  Based on some recommendations from fellow twi-athlete, Ryan from twitter, I had been eyeing a set of Karbon Speed 88mm deep dish rims.  Back when I started looking at these they were priced upwards of a couple grand but with a two day sale and using a coupon code from Ryan, "MVT" for an additional 10% off I was able to snag these for a super cheap price.

Even standing still the bike is blurry.. it's that fast.

I had actually planned to rent them for the races this weekend but when this offer came around, I took advantage of it.  Based on Ryan's tests, they aren't the fastest race wheels out there but what they lack in seconds over the course of a race, they gain in price.

They arrived on Friday before the races, so I left work a few hours early and got them installed.  I've learned a few lessons about race wheels like these:

• Deep dish rims require valve extenders so you can air them up. The normal tube valves aren't long enough to peek through the rims so they come with extenders.  I knew this going into it and was prepared to do the necessary work but it made it challenging on Saturday when I removed the valve cap and accidentally unscrewed the entire extender.  Oops.
• I never did "top them off" with air on Saturday because I couldn't get it to take any air.  What I learned on Sunday afternoon (still didn't figure it out for Sunday's race) was that I need to actually let air out so the valve would let new air in.  There may be plenty of air pressure in there, but there is some level of comfort seeing it hit 120psi before you head into transition.
• Making sure your tires are correctly seated.  I had an issue with a bulge in my rear tire around the valve stem.  The problem was the tire was partially sitting on top of the inner tube so it didn't get fully seated on the rim. That allowed the tube to push it a little further out when fully filled.  I had to deflate the tube and make sure the tube was fully inside the tire before starting again.  The sympton of this was my tire made a 'thump' every rotation.

Ironically enough, I thought I had ordered the rims with tires installed but when I opened the box there were none.  I checked my order and, sure enough, I didn't.  That turned out to be a blessing because it's given me the opportunity to learn all this stuff while in the confines of my pain cave and not in transition or on the road.

I have an order in for Continental Grand Prix Attack / Shield tires to put on there permanently.  I have to install different brake pads when using carbon aero wheels, so it's not necessarily an easy switch-a-roo.

Upcoming

We have another race this weekend.  It's a fun run called "Air It Up Run"  It's a 2.5 mile course with 8 "bounce house" type of obstacles.  I always said I'd hold off on doing any sort of Warrior Dash or Tough Mudder because I'm a big wuss and don't want to get injured.  This is a bounce house, what could go wrong? 

Race Report - Topeka Tinman 2013

33rd Annual Topeka Tinman (Yes, this is older than Ironman... as they like to point out)

I signed up for this race back in February 2013 with Dane and Joe VI.  I took advantage of a "sign up for a race, get $10 gift card" or something like that.  Good deal and good race.  I enjoyed doing it in 2011 with the short course.  I'm stepping up to the long distance this year but it's more like a medium distance swim (1000 meters) and bike (19 miles) but a super long run (7.5 miles).  Fortunately, none of this scared me.

I never did put my race goals out there but I did have one.  

Swim: 18 minutes

Bike: 55 minutes (~21 mph)

Run: 57 minutes (~7:30 minute miles)

Transitions: 4 minutes

Total: 2:14 Minutes

Those numbers were more or less pulled out of the air.  I would be totally fine with sub-2:20.  It all depending on how I paced myself since it was my first triathlon in almost 1 year exactly.

Unfortunately, Dane will be missing from this report as he had to pull out of the race due to injuring his quad a few days before the race. wah wah!

Pre-Race

I did my normal week long carb-loading of 3 small meals of pasta and chicken mixed in with my normal meals.  I probably could have put down more water though.  Joe VI stayed with us on Friday night since Lauren and the kids were going to stay at home for the race (or so Joe VI thought!)

Our bikes making friendly.

We hit the road about 5:15am to get to Lawrence by 6:00am so we could stop for some pre-race energy of brewed fuel (coffee).

We finally arrived around 6:45 with about 30 minutes to get unpacked and transition setup.  The half mile trek from parking to transition slowed things down too.  

I finally got my chance to try out my new race wheels.  I bought some Karbon Speed 88/88 race wheels a few weeks prior when they were $350 off plus I used the coupon code "MVT" to get an additional 10% (you can use that code too.... thanks Ryan!).  I got them on Friday, so I really only got a small bike ride in to try them out.  Not really having the opportunity to air them up the before a real bike ride, I had a problem.  While I topped them off the night before, I couldn't get them to take any air at the race site.  I figured they may have lost a little bit of air pressure but still in acceptable reasons.  I guess I'll spend Saturday afternoon figuring out what I did wrong.  First race issue experienced, no more!

We arrived with barely enough time to get the transition setup, chipped, and marked.  No time for a warm-up swim or run.

The race was wetsuit legal so I brought mine along.  It was already getting hot and humid out so I waited as long as I could before suiting up.

Joe informed me goggles around the neck means swimmer OK.  Goggles on forehead, swimmer distress.  OK, that may be more for SCUBA and snorkeling but better practice etiquette.

While Joe VI signed up for the long course (granted Ultramax ran out of registration forms, so they gave him the Columbia Triathlon form causing much confusion), they registered him for the short course.  He decided to stick with it.  His swim started at 7:30 while mine was 7:51-ish.  

While waiting, I met up with Travis from twitter.  I also saw Tucker, who is the husband of a high school friend.  They were in the last wave of the day.

Travis!

Start - Swim

I was in the first wave of the long course which was nice because it kept me from thinking through my start too much.  Before too long they gave the countdown and off we went.  I knew before we started I was having a problem with my goggles.  They were all fogged up from the humidity.  I dove into the water from the beach start but it was too foggy to see anything.  After a few strokes I stopped to rinse them in water.  Much better except they still had water inside, so I floated on my back for a few moments to let them drain more.  Now I had perfect vision!  Well, as perfect as prescription goggles can get.

It was crowded in the water but not crazy.  After about 250 meters it was fairly open.  I tried to find someone to draft off of but I don't have enough experience to do that.  I felt pretty strong in the water and the wetsuit definitely helped me with speed.

After about 10 minutes it seemed like they were simply adding buoys out there to keep us going.  Where was the turn! My wetsuit was starting to feel a bit compressed around the chest.  It wasn't suffocating but it wasn't comfortable.  Eventually we turned back towards beach, which was nice because I was getting tired of sucking in the exhaust fumes from the safety boats.

Before too long I had that happy feeling of my fingers scraping against sand and pulled myself out of the water and off to say hello to my bike.

I love how this photo makes me look like I'm first out of water.

And there is 2nd - 4th place behind me... or probably 32 - 34.

Time: 17:57 / 1:48 per 100 meters

Transition 1

It was a long run up the beach to the transition area.  I had my wetsuit halfway off and it didn't seem to take too long get it all the way off.  I definitely miss those wetsuit strippers from Beach2Battelship.

Kung fu'ing my T1

Time: 2:45

Not bad considering the wetsuit and the long run.  Definitely glad I used my wetsuit.

Bike

Here we go!  I FINALLY am getting my bike out in a triathlon race situation!  I've come a long way from aerobars on a road bike to a time trial bike with 88mm deep race wheels, aero bottle, aero bento box, aero helmet, and wearing my tri-suit.

Let's go!

To leave the transition for the bike you cross over some grass to the road.  I safely get on the bike and push it easily up the hill out of the beach area before getting in position to push it.

The bike course is a semi-closed course but it's very low traffic as it is.  I really wanted to push it hard in the first quarter but held back.  There was quite a bit of congestion actually and a bit of a pelaton of about 15 cyclist formed.  I was expecting it to stretch out but after a quarter of a mile they kept together.  There was a headwind so I don't doubt people kept together for that reason; however, I'm not having that.  Illegal?  Yes.  Saving energy?  Yes.  Going fast enough?  No.  Once there was a clearing in the road I took off around them.  

Eventually we hit some rolling hills and I quickly learned I need to work on hills.  I felt I was slowing down too much on the hills.  I played leap frog with a guy before he finally took off.  I was probably past by about 4 or 5 guys around miles 10 - 15 but I was able to stay with the last couple guys for the last four miles.  Hitting 28 - 30 mph during a long stretch with a tailwind was nice.

Eventually you wind back into the park with some sharp corners, so didn't take them very hard.

During the last mile I was debating on doing a flying dismount.  I had probably done it 5 times with this bike before with only 1 of those times keeping both shoes attached to the bike.  All other attempts had my left shoe flying off when I jumped off (and in a couple cases, the water bottles attached to my saddle).  I decided to give it shot and make sure I was really slow by the time I jumped off.  Success!

Time: 54:35 / 20.9 mph

Transition 2

Nothing too horrible but could be a bit faster.  Rack bike, helmet off, socks on, shoes on, visor on. GO!

Time 1:06

Run

I had no clue what this was going to be like.  It was literally a trail circling the entire lake, which is why it's an odd 7.5 miles.

Travis gave me a tip to prepare for hills around mile 5.5.  I would say I didn't.  My first two miles were 7:36 and 7:38.  I had a couple people to pass, so that kept me motivated.  Once I hit mile 2 there was no one.  I was all alone.  Mile 3 was 7:48.  About this time I heard footsteps of someone.  I was just hoping he wasn't in my age group.  Luckily he wasn't. He also didn't accept my request for a piggy back ride.  Lame.

I tried to keep him in my sights for a couple miles but as soon as he was out of my sights, I caught another guy.  By now I was starting to get into those hills.  My pace was suffering quite a bit. I tried to take advantage of the down hills.  It wasn't so much the hills but the humidity.  I couldn't keep cool.  The aid stations about every 1.5 miles did provide some relief.  I took either 1 water and 1 gatorade or 2 waters. The waters were to cool me down and they did provide some relief.

Eventually I caught up to the short course turn around, which meant 1.55 miles to go!  By now I got passed by another guy (still not in my age group).

I was on the final stretch to the finish.  About a quarter mile to go!  Or so I thought.... when I did this course two years ago, you entered the finish chute from the south but now they made you run around the transition area and enter from the north.  I had started my kick too early!  OH no!  

Smiling just before I realized I had another 300 meters to run to hit the finish line.

I could hear footsteps behind me again!  I could also hear the announcer say that the first overall female finisher was coming and to give her some cheers.   Naturally, I tried to act as if it were for me.

Let's just get this over!

Time: 1:02:51 / 8:04 pace

Overall

Time: 2:19:11

Quite happy with my time considering I missed my first goal by a few minutes.  I didn't hit the 7:30 pace on the run like I had hoped, so most of my time was lost there.

The humidity was horrible.  It took me a good 5 - 10 minutes to cool down.  I took in as many fluids as possible and had a slice of pizza while waiting for results. When you consider I saw only 5 guys out on the run course (being passed by 2 and passing 3 myself), I was very interested in my place.

Age Group: 6 out of 21

Overall: 31 out of 215

I'll take 6th place any day with a crappy run like that.

Just like in 2011, this was a great race.  I always enjoy races that Ultramax is a part of.

Proof

The new ride and new wheels

Getting everything strapped on

Getting marked

TKB's reason for attending triathlons.  Dogs!

Survivor!

Joe VI coming in to the finish!

Joe VII watching Joe VI

Lauren and the kids surprised Joe by showing up to cheer him on!

Henry The 8th (aka, Maddie) and Joe VI