NJ State Tri Race Report

I was anticipating this race all week, since last year I had a really good result and had a blast, too. When I rolled out of bed at 4:45, the bedroom was periodically lit up by lightening flashes...not a good sign. I had set everything up in the car last night so that I could literally grab some food, cold water, and hit the road for the 15 minute drive to the parking spot. I grabbed the food and cold water, hit the road, and watched the heavens glow with flashes. After wolfing down a pair of brown sugar cinnemon pop-tarts (the best food ever), I reached over for a swig of water. It was then that I noticed something awry. I pulled back a wet hand, and realized in the darkness that my entire Nalgene of water had spilled all over the passenger seat, both potentially soaking my cell phone, and more importantly, leaving me with no clean water for the race. So, I shook my fist at the gods, spun around, and thankfully hit an open Wawa that was about 500 yards away. Bought some water, and off I went. Got to the parking lot of a child daycare place that is about 1 mile from the lake/race site, and pulled in to park. Met two guys who had the same idea, one of whom I rode in with and then saw again for the rest of the race. I did not catch his name, but he was a really nice guy, had just raced IM CDA and was doing this as a tune-up for IM Pucon. We rode in, got marked, and then went to find our racks. Mine was perfectly placed, three rows from the bike exit/entrance and easy to spot. Chatted up my rack neighbor, a Lutheran minister and super nice guy, and then CB and I headed out to swim practice. Water was warm, rocked some new Tyr goggles that worked well, and I felt good. Before I knew it, the star spangled banner was being sung, and then off we went in wave 2.

The Swim: Have a drink on me!
I used the same strategery I did last year for the race, lining up way to the right and outside of the pack. Front row. Gun went, and off we flew. First strokes were good, got into an immediate rythm, and felt great. Then, about 50 yards from the turn buoy, I approached a breast stroker to my left (breathing side). Just as I was passing him, he saw me and decided to being a rabid crawl at the approximate time I was breathing- now drinking and breathing water. Took about 15-20 seconds to get my breath back, and then I rocked on, passed him and others, and exited clean and relatively fresh.
Time: 9:09, 143/1050- about 10 seconds slower than last year, but thats cool...

Transition: In and out with alacrity. The only flub was on my flying mount when a guy swerved and I lost my footing on one pedal, but I recovered quickly.
Time: 1:32

The Bike: Whammer Jammer
I had decided that I was going to hammer the ride, and I did for the better part, but my HR was hitting close to 180 at points, so I backed off for the final 2 miles. I saw multiple breakdowns and guys on the shoulder, more than I have ever seen in a race before. Passed multiple people, got swallowed by some young guns, but only one AG guys passed me, and we went back and forth the whole ride. Bike felt great.
Time: 30:08, 22.2 Ave, 58/1050

T2: Clean dismount, clean drop-off, and I hit the ground running with good legs for a change.
Time: 1:11

The Run: Time to dance!
As I left T2, my legs felt good, but I kept my pace conservative. By the time I hit the 1 mile mark, I was in a good pace and feeling cool. Put an ice towel behind my neck and that was awesome. Passed CB going the other way in turbo mode. Before I knew it, I was at the turnaround, so I started to push it. Caught the heels of a 50-55 AG guy who rocks and stayed with him for about 1/2 mile, and then let him go and cruised in feeling great. Nothing like the long straight going to a finish with stands on either side! Very cool!
Time: 24:00 flat, 7:45 ave, 165/1050

Total: 1:07:14, 60/1050, 7/54 AG SWWWEEEEETTT

The best part, though, is this: There were 3 guys in my AG in the top 10. And, they aged me up for some reason- If they had me scored as my current age, I would have finished 4th AG. Very pleased with the result, and now I have my sights set on the Maine State next weekend. Hope to show some similar gains there.

Thanks for reading! Pics to come!

Sport Beans

With the NJ State Tri coming up this weekend, I have been training with the thought of tapering later in the week. I did a solid 1000m TT on Monday (19 minutes at a cruise) and then did a 1000yd TT yesterday and clocked a 16:45 with alittle more effort by not pushing too hard. Went for a CRAZY ride with CB on Sunday. 99 degress, high humdity, and we did 30 miles starting at 2 PM. Rode the NJ course easy and then rode home with the (hot) wind. Not taxing in terms of effort, but definitely in terms of hydration. Feel pretty good going in to the weekend.

I think I zeroed in on my bonk at the DQ. I ate a Clif Bar on the ride over, but did not hydrate very much other than half a mug of coffee. I had pre-hydrated the day before, but I think the combination of the super-dry Clif and then having flat coke in the aerobottle and not drinking much water before race did me in. So, this race I am going to continue to hydrate more, and I am going to try a powerbar gel before the race, and then another on the bike. Water only in the bottle. I will test out the gel this week on a brink to see how it feels.

I also dropped some coin on both a USAT lisence (shame on me for not doing it sooner) and also put down the money for the Sport Beans club membership. I like sport beans, and our previous club has died out. There is another one in the area that is starting up, but it is mostly a masters swim group with some tri folks. Once the new pool is in here at Peddie, we will have a monster training facility, so I am hoping that maybe starting a sport beans club in the area might get people more excited. We'll see. Plus, they have great schwag for the price. Also found another pair of shoes on ebay to try out to see if they fit ok. My current Tri R3s are slightly too big and a pain to get on pre-clipped. Got a good deal on a once worn pair of the new Tri Fly2s, so we'll see if they both fit and work in a race.

All quiet on the crazy sister front....meaning bad moon rising!

DQ Tri race report

While I am not as prosaic with my prose as Tigerchik, I will try to do justice to my first race back after surgery this March. This race came up as a surprise when CB suggested it as a "training tune up" before the NJ State race in two weeks. So, wanting to race, liking that it was local, and feeling good about my training, I plopped down the active.com surcharge and signed up.
We woke to the humid haze after a sleepless night for me. Late yesterday, my ex-brother-in-law called to inform me of the recent antics of my sister, who is doing everything in her power to convince everyone around her that she has more than just a substance abuse problem. This was weighing heavily on my mind, since she is no longer talking to my mother or father, and my younger sister is too far removed and has her own baggage to carry around. The again, don't we all. So, when I beat the alarm to the 4:30 wake-up, I was far from refreshed. Still, it promised to be a hot and sunny day, a good day to race, and I was excited to race the new bike with the 404s, the aero lid, and run in my new mizunos.
We stopped off at a local guys house who was also racing with his wife, and they, a friend of theirs who is on their masters swim team, and we carpooled to Vincentown. Stopped at double D to pick up coffee, but CB and I already had some. On the road agian after a long line, and we made it to V-town at about 6. CB and I then drove one loop of the two loop ride course to scout it out. Flat and fast. Perfect. We then parked a ways away from registration, and shuttled our gear over early. Got a great transition spot right at the bike exit/entrance, so we both opted to put shoes on rather than pre-clip. We had to run a total of 10 feet to the mat, so why not! All looked good, until we saw the...ahem...lake.
What best way to describe the swim site? A kids dream fishing spot, perhaps? The good news was that it was short. The bad news was a long list starting with algae, and ending with mud. The shutes and lanes going out and back were narrow, too. We resigned ourselves to another paddle in chocolate milk, and got ourselves ready. 2nd wave, 35-44. Did a quick warm-up swim, and I immediately started to hypervent. The lack of vision was bad. The good news was that after swimming 100 yards in warm up, I settled down, and then I stopped swimming and looked up. There was CB about 100 yards further up, standing. Standing in the swim course. More than halfway through the swim course. Up to his waist. In muddy water. Yes, the deepest the "lake" got was 3 feet. Literally.
So, I line up behind CB and Derek, who runs the masters swim group, knowing that they are both fast and I can catch their feet. 2nd row outside center. Big mistake. Within the first 25 yards, I am cudgelled by everyone from the outside trying to angle in for the first bouy. That would be after about 50 yards. Started hyperventing again, breaststroked, settled in to some clean water, and tried to get a rythm. Finally, after walking around the turn bouy, I got in a rythm, but I couldn't see a blessed thing, so I had to sight on every other stroke. Walked the last 20 yards because it was 2 ft there and totally black, and off I went to transition: Swim time: 6:30 (46th OA)- not a good swim for me.

T1: Got in, too car of business, and got out. Time: 1:13.

Bike: Hit the ground screetching, and rode hard for the first 7 mile loop. Pavement was bouncy going out, but flat and fast, and the pavement was good coming back. Motored by lots of AGers form the wave in front of us, and reeled in some of my AG. Felt great. Bike was crisp and predictable. On the second loop, my plan was to ease up, which I did, but I got caught by the faster legs of the next wave and the disc brigade (at least a few of them). Caught up to Derek and we chatted during the last few miles, then sped on and hit T2 feeling great. Time: 40:07, 22.7 ave, 44th OA.- a solid bike.

T2: Fast: :52.

Run: Crap! The wheels fell off the wagon again on my run. I felt ok for the first mile as my legs adjusted, then I felt like I had no legs anymore. Lungs burned. Got swallowed by anyone with a heartbeat. By the final mile, I resigned to just cruise in as this was a training race anyway. Let a couple of young guys catch me at the line (they were 3 minutes behind me anyway) and tried to smile for the camera. I have to figure out the run recipe, as I tried to use flat coke on the ride, but I was burping and felt sick on the run. Run sucked: Time: 27:03, 8:44 pace (my worst race ever) 90th OA.

Total time: 1:15:10, 51/200, 9/28 AG.

What did I learn: I have to get some better nutrition plan in place before and during races so I have more kick on the run. I do not think I went too hard on the bike, but I was anxious before the race, and I did have some adrenaline on the swim due to getting slammed around, so maybe that did me in. I think I will try some Shot Gel or some SHot Bloks for NJ State. Bottom line: I had fun, raced well on the bike, but I have work to do on my running, though maybe it is only a reflection of nutrition and poor adrenal management. We'll see in two weeks when it is SHOWTIME! (Oh, and CB won AG and got 7th OA- He's an animal- but he was on the US Tri team back in the day) Pics to follow when they are posted!

Tick-tock

My sister was delivered home from her stay at her facility on Monday. She seems to be settling in to her new outlook fairly well, but she knows (and we know) that she has to take it one day at a time. There are a lot of issues laying under the surface there, and time will tell if she can handle them or if they send her spiraling back to the dark place.

I just got back from checking on our place in Maine. House was in good shape, weather was pretty nice, and I was able to do two really nice, hilly rides and a good run and a good swim while there for three days. Rode my touring/training bike, and I am glad I did since the frost heaves did havoc to the roads up there. Lots of monsta pot holes. It was nice to ride, though. Got back and signed up for my first race post surgery next Saturday. So far, I have:
DQ Tri in Vincentown, NJ (July 12th)
NJ State Tri later in July
Maine State Tri on August 3rd
Timberman Sprint on August 17th
A new race in our town in early Septmeber. Not sure of the date or details.

I am excited to get to race, but I am also nervous. Feel good, running well, cycling well, swimming pretty good, so I may as well go for it and see what happens. I will zing a race report after the DQ tri. Later!