Race Report - Head for the Cure 5k

In true peak-Ironman training, I'm neglecting some not so crucial things, which is getting this posted finally.  I wrote it back on August 28 but never put it in blogger.

Ever since my 2011 Head for the Cure race I have had this desire to break the 20 minute barrier in a 5k.  I never even knew it was a possibility until I crossed that finish line in 20:02.  Those 2 seconds have been annoying me for a long two years.

In 2012, I tried to break the 20 minute barrier in various races but focus on running a fast marathon just didn’t allow for that level of training.  My best attempt was a 20:53 finish that year was at the HFTC 5k.  Interestingly enough, I got 3rd in my age group that year!

My analysis between the two years is in 2011 I was training for a half-ironman and that the benefit of cross training helped strengthen my legs to get me to 20:02.  In addition, I didn’t wear my Garmin in 2011 so I wasn’t constantly watching it, which can actually increase the heart rate.

So I’m back into huge cross training mode but with the focus being on super-long distances, I wasn’t sure if that would translate to sub-20.

Leading up to the race I continued my training plan but adjusted it for the fact that I was losing Sunday due to the race.  This meant a 6 hour training block on Saturday (3.5 hour bike, 2 hour run, plus 30 minutes post-race stretching of me laying on my back trying to ignore the pain).  Not the best recipe for running hard on Sunday.

Race Day
We arrived at Corporate Woods around 7:00am after stopping for my pre-race go-go juice.  After meeting up with our team (At The Helm), TKB and I met up with our friend Erik (who is Kyle’s bother.  Kyle has made a few posts around this blog, notably the Krispy Kreme Challenge).  Erik has started running 5Ks this year and increasing to 10Ks and half-marathons!

Pretty soon Shane and I took off for about a one mile warm-up jog before fighting our way into the start corral.  I managed to get about 4 or 5 feet back from the line.  After they let a wheel chair racer go, we soon took off!

The course is mostly flat with two noticeable inclines.  The first happens within the first mile.  I charged it pretty hard (and probably too hard).  It curves a bit and there were a few people running side by side.  I had plenty of room but when I went between two guys, I heard him quip a bit.  Whatever.  Talk to the soles.

According to my watch, the mile markers were off a bit but I knew with all the trees, buildings and turns it was quite likely my watch was the one off.  I should have been doing manual laps because all my splits are rather messed up.

I didn’t really look at my watch the entire run.  If I glanced down, I don’t remember what any of it read.  I just knew that it was telling me the markers were off a bit when it beeped.

I just kept pushing.  The second hill came near the end of the second mile and it was tough.  I was trying to stay with another runner but lost her on that hill.  By the time the third mile came around I felt like I was moving around an 8:00 minute pace.  It just felt so slooooooow.  I just tried to push it as hard as I can so I wouldn’t regret leaving anything on the course.

Once we made the last turn and the finish line was in site, I tried to pick up the pace.  About 100 yards from the finish another guy had just passed me so I caught up with him and crossed the finish line a half a step ahead of him!  I was exhausted, sweaty, and stanky.  This was only 3.1 miles, right?

After having my timing chip removed, I realized I hadn’t stopped my watch.  *Beep* and then walked away.  It suddenly dawned on me I was running a timed race that I had a pretty serious goal for and I had yet to even look at the clock!  Even though I actually stared at one heading to the finish line!

My Garmin 910xt was staring back at me: 19:57.

WTF!  19:57!?!?!?!  I turned to look at the race clock and it was reading 20:47.  Could it be possible?!  Not only did it say 19:57 but I stopped my watch late!  I also noticed my watch read 3.0 miles instead of 3.1.  Was the course really short? Determining that was going to have to come later but for now I had done it, I just didn’t know by how much.

After everyone had finished I went hunting for results.  Last year I got third place with a much slower time, what might happen this year?

As it turns out, I finished in 19:39, crushing that 20:02 for 2011!  I also placed 24th overall and 6th in my age group.  I was a pretty darn happy!

That's the guy I beat by a step but he still finished in 5th before me with a 19:32 race.

So what now?  Do I leave 19:39 alone or work to improve?  I think it will all depend on what else is going on.  I'm liking going to be somewhat disappointed if all my future 5ks don't end under 20 minutes but knowing that I was doing massive miles on the bike and swim will likely come into play.

So back to the course showing .1 miles short?  I looked back to 2012 and it was the same route.  Others I talked to indicated it was pretty right on, so I'm going to say this is because of the trees and buildings and my ability to run a good route.

Pigman Triathlon - Long Course 70.3

I first heard about this race back in February while bowling with Karie.  She mentioned her boss's wife was doing this race, as well as Beach2Battleship.  Frankly, the timing was pretty perfect for a "dress rehearsal" for Beach2Battleship 140.6.

The only issue was it was 5+ hours away in Cedar Rapids, IA.  I guess that further helped the dress rehearsal of packing.  That being said, I didn't start parking until 2 hours before we left for Cedar Rapids.

Side note: About 6 weeks ago I decided to start searching for people in KC doing Beach2Battleship.  The main reason being that I was driving down there and had two open spots on my bike rack.  If I could save someone a few hundred dollars shipping their bike, then awesome!  I found a couple people and searched for one of them online.  I found one on Facebook and noticed we had two mutual friends, Karie and Dane!  I then realized it was Karie's boss's wife, Vicki.  The next day I get a Facebook message Vicki explaining she was looking for other area Beach2Battleship people!  Totally random!

So after talking with Vicki and some convincing from her, I finally signed up 10 days before the race!

As it turns out, Jason (from my Tour de Lakes report) was also doing Pigman and had being urging me as well.  Jason is Dane's (Kari's husband) training buddy.  So if you aren't able to keep track, I was headed north to Cedar Rapid to race with Jason (Dane's training buddy) and Vicki (Kari's boss's wife).  The only thing missing is our match maker couple, Dane and Kari!

Race Goals
I never posted race goals but this is what I was targeting:

Swim: 40 minutes
Bike: 3 hours
Run: 1 hours, 45 minutes
Transitions: 5 minutes
Total: 5 hours, 30 minutes

To be honest, I never believed that.  I just assumed my total math was off but my individual time looked doable!


Pre-Race: Saturday
TKB and I left for Cedar Rapids around 9:30am and arrived around 1 - 2 pm.  We got checked into the hotel and walked to the "expo" for packet pickup.  The expo was a Gear West (a bike shop who sponsored the race) booth and the packet pickup.  We finally met Vicki in real life and then waited for Jason to arrive.

When Jason and his brother, Ryan, arrived we loaded into his truck and took off for the race site.  It's always good to know where to go before you have to do it half asleep in the dark.

For dinner all 5 of us went to the recommended Italian restaurant.  It was good and they had some awesome garlic bread.

We went back to the hotel and participated in one of Vicki's pre-race tradition: beer!  A nice Boulevard Wheat to ease the nerves.

Finally in bed around 9pm.

Speaking of nerves, I really didn't have any.  It's funny how once you do an event/distance, it's not as big of a deal.  My first half-ironman was HUGE.  This one, not so much.  I was already doing 2 mile swims and 70+ mile bike rides.  Interesting enough, my longest run over the previous 5 months was 13.1 miles at Hospital Hill.  In fact, that was my ONLY double digit run in the last 5 months.

Race Day
Up at 4:45am.  I ate a couple bananas and started some water intake.  We stopped at Starbucks on the way to the race site, which opened at 6am.




Body marked and leg chipped, I racked up my bike.  We were grouped by wave, which I was second to last, so I was close to the bike/run out.

The first wave was at 7:30am with the Olympic distance.  Jason's brother Ryan was doing the Olympic so he was in the water first.  Finally about 8:10am I was swimming.  The start was a time trial start (one swimmer starts every 3 seconds), which seems to be what most races are going to these days.

Swim Start
I used a swim alert on my Garmin.  It would beep every 200 yards and so I tried to keep track of them if I wanted to know where I was.  Even though I swam into the sun for the first part of the swim, I was able to sight ok.  In fact, I swam right next to the buoys almost the entire way.  Perfect!



First turn (right) and after swimming for about 100 yards I got startled by seeing swimmers in my wave going THE OTHER DIRECTION.  The course was mostly a rectangle but with the Olympic distance starting before, I think some people turned at the wrong buoy and got turned back.  Oops.

Overall the swim went great.  I felt strong the whole time and sighted pretty well.  I got a little off after the 1st turn but not by much.

It took me a good 50 yards just to find my zipper pull.

Time: 36:27  (ahead of my goal by 3.5 minutes!)

T1
There was a relatively long run up to the bike.  I was definitely worn out from the swim so walked a bit in transition.  I needed to settle the heart rate.

Time: 3:35

Longer than it should be but there was probably a minute burned getting out of the water to the bike.  I also spent a little extra time sending my GPS tracking so TKB could watch me.

Bike

I spent a lot of timing making sure my race wheel decals were aligned.

There is about a two mile bike out of the park before finally hitting the two lane highway.  Jason passed me on this two mile stretch (he started in the last wave and caught up to me).  We rode in tandem (but not illegal) until we hit the flat of the highway and he was GONE.

The bike course wasn't super hilly but had 2,000 feet of elevation gain throughout.  The hills were enough to keep it interesting but not too challenging.  Fortunately the weather wasn't too bad.  It started in the low 70 but hit 80 by the time I was done.  Humidity wasn't bad at all.  Wind was low but at times there was a headwind just enough to be noticeable.

It was an open course with aid stations about every 10 miles.  They gave out Heed in bike bottles, which was great because I had lost one of my bottles over some "rumbles" in the road prior to some train tracks.  I don't train with Heed so it was going to be used as a last resort.

My splits were looking great with all but two 5 mile splits averaging over 20 mph.

When I was about 15 miles out I realized I was going to slaughter my 3 hour estimate on the bike.  For the first time those 5 mile splits were just flying off.  Unfortunately, what also flew off was that Heed bike bottle at one point during the ride.  Oh well.

The last mile was a bit crowded, when it shouldn't have been.  I thought the park was suppose to be closed during good chunks of the race but there was an SUV in front of me going too slow.  There were runners heading out on the left and so I finally just passed the SUV.  "Something" happened behind me but I never looked back.  It sounded like my last bike bottle flew off and hit the vehicle but I didn't care.  They shouldn't have been there.  (For the record, I didn't lose that bike bottle)

I did a flying dismount and was soon to be off on the run!  You can watch the flying dismount above.  I start with my feet already out of my shoes and balancing on one side of the bike.  Just as I cross in front of the guy near the fence I step off the bike and keep moving.  All in one fluid motion!

Time: 2 hours, 39 minutes! (20.7 mph)  21 minutes UNDER my goal!!

T2
Relatively simple T2.  I did not put quick-tie laces on my shoes for the race, so I had to tie them.  That's pretty much the main reason for the long transition (other than the super long transition area).

Time: 1:45

Overall I was over my transition goal time by 20 seconds.  Not bad.

Run
I took in about 60 fluid ounces of water/gatorade on the bike, as well as chomps/cliff bars.  My stomach was a bit uncomfortable but it really didn't seem like GI issues.  It soon subsided.

I mentally focused on breaking the race into 4 5k segments, which would require about another mile of focus.  The first two 5k segments flew by.  I was in a pretty good 8:15 minute mile zone.  Unfortunately, right at the 6 mile point there was about a half mile incline to reach the turn around point.  I made this my 1 mile segment outside of my 4 5k segments.  I started slowing down at this point and "enjoyed" the aid stations a little longer.

The run was on an open two lane highway and it wound around some farmland.  I cut the corners whenever I could, which meant cross the highway.  Just have to watch for cars.

I walked all aid stations to make sure I was getting in plenty of water.  I always took two cups with half of one over my head.  There wasn't much shade on the run and the temps were starting to rise.

At one of the aid stations I ended up with a cup full of ice.  Down the tri suit it went!!  It kept the boys pretty cool until the next aid station.

When we hit mile 10.5, the road had a pretty large incline but I refused to walk..  I hit the park entrance and finally finished the two miles back to the finish line!



Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes (9 minutes over my goal)

I had two gels on the course.

Finish

Time: 5 hours, 16 minutes!!  Killed that 5:30 goal plus my previous PR of 5 hours, 54 minutes!!
Age Group: 10/33
Overall: 73/293

Massive PR and a top 10 age group finish!

Whoa.  That shocked me.  I'm still shocked, which makes sense when you consider I doubted my 5 hour, 30 minute goal time.

Jason finished sub-5 hours and he had some GI issues out there on the run but that is simply amazing.  Vicki finished strong in 5:34 and won 3rd in her age group!!  She's a rockstar!

Jason and Ryan took off for home but we waited for the awards and door prize giveaways (they were giving away a bike, speed suit, and a bunch of running stuff).  After scarfing down pizza, pop, pretzels, candy, and other goodies we took off for home.  Fortunately there was at least an outdoor shower to wash off the stank.

I would definitely recommend Pigman Tri.  For one,  I registered 10 days before the race and it only cost me ~$120.  Given that, there wasn't a frilly expo or even a massive medal.  They probably had about 7 or 8 course marshals on motorcycles as well during the bike.  Post-race meal options were large with chocolate milk, candy, cookies, crackers, chips, pizza, spaghetti, pop, water, gatorade, beer, and a bunch of other things.

Dress Rehearsal Analysis
This does NOT mean I'm going to do a 10 hour, 32 minute ironman in October.  If I did that at some Ironman-branded races I would qualify for Kona.  Not. Going. To. Happen.

What I've realized is that I hit the bike hard enough to overcome the deficit it created on my run.  I'm not going for 21 mph splits at Beach2Battleship.  In fact, I will probably do my best to keep my average pace under 20 for the first 56+ miles.

The swim is going to be great but only because of the ocean current and not my abilities.

The run is going to be what it is going to be.  It will be over 4 hours and I will just hope I can run it the entire way with aid station walks.  If I end up walking most of the second half, then cool.  I'm just going to enjoy it.

Proof

Vicki with her 3rd Place Award!

Jason on the left getting ready for the swim.

Me in the middle with my hand on my chest.  I apparently got it stuck there after the National Anthem.

I'm pretty much right in the middle... the tall guy; however, you can see a guy in the exact same tri suit not far from me either.  Glad he got the memo.

Jason jumping on the bike.  This looks like it's about to get painful real quick.

Pre-race prep.  The rack was mostly empty the entire day.

Pretty sun.

Suited Up!

Blind

Heading out of T1

Jason finishing his sub-5 hour half ironman.

Stick a fork in me, I'm D.O.N.E.

Ironman Training Update

Long time, no training update.  My last update was back on June 19 for Week 11.

Since then I have done:

Swim: 20.4 miles / 12 hours, 12 minutes (it's more impressive to put miles than yards, right?)
Bike: 587 Miles / 34 hours
Run: 138 Miles / 20 hours, 30 minutes
Strength: 11 sessions

Total: 745 miles / 77 hours

Overall Training
Training has gone fairly well. Since I started week 11, my swim workouts went from two per week to three per week.  I've only been able to keep those three sessions per week a few times but I justify that with the swim for Beach2Battleship being "downhill" (ie, fast with a current).  If I miss one session per week, no big deal.. right?

I've had a concern with my left foot for a while now.  It doesn't appear to be anything structural (stress fracture, ligament issues) but maybe a pinched nerve causing some annoying discomfort in the ball of my foot.  I should probably see a doctor about it.  I actually took last week off to give it some time to heal and returned to using my more cushiony and roomy Mizuno Inspire's.  This week it is definitely doing better.

Two Months of Events
As I have posted, I participated in the Shawnee Mission Triathlon and the Lawrence Triathlon.  I also participated in a couple other events that I didn't put together any race reports.  Here is a quick synopsis:

Air It Up Run
Basically a 2.5 mile course with 8 bounce houses.  It's about as close to an obstacle course I'm willing to do since I'm a big wuss and don't want to get injured.  TKB, Lauren, and I did the course once while VI was watching VII and then my Sis-in-Law Amanda brought the niece and nephew out and I took Ella and Sam around the course as well.

TKB and Lauren geting read for our wave

First Obstacle

Still learning her technique

This is just plain awkward

Jumping over the scary pit of nothing.

I wore compression shirt with long sleeves and wore tri shorts under my running shorts.  #brilliant!

Ell and Sam starting their wave.  Sam has quite the leg kick.

Sam and Ella learning aid station etiquette.  Make sure you thank your volunteers!

Sam climbing the mountain!

Ella exits first!

Love the happiness!

Ella swinging over the pit.

Finish!

Tour de Lakes
Dane invited me to do this with him and a couple other triathlete friends.  It's a supported bike ride with 10, 32, 55, and 65 mile courses.  We signed up for the 65 mile course (which turned out to be about 63 miles).   When Dane told me about it, I asked how fast they were planning to ride knowing that he and the other guys were much stronger riders.  He said around 22-23 mph.  Ouch.  Whatever, I'm game.

The question was what bike to bring.  Dane's training buddy, Jason, had planned to bring his tri bike.  It took me right up to the day before to leave the road bike at home and bring mine.  Dane brought his.  I'm not real knowledgeable with group rides but I do know there is a certain level of taboo to ride with something other than a road bike.  We had numbers supporting us, so I joined in.

The start was a bit of a cluster and I immediately lost all the guys.  I just assumed they were ahead of me so I pushed it a little hard at the beginning.  After about 10 miles, Dane caught up to me (I thought he was way in front).

I mostly stuck with Dane.  This was both our first group ride, although Dane knows a lot more about the "rules of the road".  Around mile 25 we rode with about 5 other cyclists.  I had my first real opportunity to ride in a draft line.  Dane stuck to the wheel of a guy who was leading our pack but never gave up the lead, so I just stuck to the middle.  I tried the best I could to keep my line and just follow the guy in front.  Coming up to the aid station, the guy I was stuck to slowed up, so did I.  The guys behind me slipped around not realizing the slow down and one guy quipped about wanting notice.  Maybe there was notice, I just didn't know what it was.

Dane and I only stopped at one aid station for a bathroom break and I grabbed a PB&J and refilled the bottles.  Once we left, that aid station it was pretty much just Dane and me.  The strength of Dane shone through as I was having trouble keeping up with him.  We hit some real nasty hills and I couldn't keep up.  I last saw Dane around mile 55 but we were headed "home", so I did my best to just push it.  I could tell that my legs lacked any power on any sort of hill by this time.

I the last guy of our four that car pooled down to finish (which I was expecting).  Jason and a couple other guys had led the ride pretty much the whole time.  It sounded like the lead pack wasn't too appreciative of having them there (maybe because of the tri bikes?) but they had Jason and folks lead the pack the entire time doing all the work.

By the time I had gotten back I saw someone with a Cervelo P5.  So I felt better bringing my Felt B12 TT bike if someone brought their $10,000 bike.

All said and done I logged 62.5 miles in 3 hours, 23 minutes for an average of 18.4 miles.  My longest ride to date!

Dane checking to make sure I'm still there!

Our aid station stop.

Upcoming
My next race isn't until Labor Day weekend where we head to LA with Joe VI, Lauren, and Sister-in-law Rebecca to run the Dumbo Double Dare and earning our Coast-to-Coast Run Disney medals. I have also been eyeing the Pigman Tri 70.3 on August 18.  I need to make a decision on it asap.  I think the biggest concern is giving up too many weekends to races but I really need a practice triathlon since I don't have any other opportunity for a 70.3 race before Beach2Battleship.

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!