“I think there may be a squatch in these woods.” – Bobo
Way back in June, I decided last minute to do the Bigfoot Olympic Triathlon in Lake Geneva. Several reasons, mostly to get more open water experience under me this summer , but it was also the very first triathlon I ever signed up for, and the only other Olympic I’ve ever done.
There is the backdrop. Race plan, swim strong, hammer the bike, survive the run.
A little foreshadowing: I’ve never felt better start to finish about how a race went down, at any distance. Everything just came together, good swim, strong bike, great run.
Swim.
Swim is an out and back, one line of buoys. Swim 750m out, turn around and come back. Clockwise. I breath on the left, away from the buoys. IMMT in clockwise as well, good practice.
Never had a straighter swim. Period. Held the buoy line the entire way. Water was cool but not cold, clear(ish), and relatively calm. Only issue was the Mad Breaststroker (MB).
For some reason I couldn’t get away from this guy on the way out. MB would randomly break into breast stroke, go back to freestyle, then break it out again at contact with any other swimmers. I lost him at the turn buoy, but up until that point we seemed to be connected by a bungee cord, always coming back together. I never took any serious contact, but it was still an experience dodging the kicking.
Swam in until my hand hit bottom and felt good. G gave me a swim split on the way to transition, and although I was not at all happy with my time, I let it go pretty quickly as I was thrilled with how the swim went.
Bike.
Some time before this race I had read a quote I couldn’t quite let go of. It went something like:
“It’s not how fast you go fast, it’s how fast you go slow.”
So my mantra for the bike was to go slow as fast as physically possible. In other words, hammer the hills (the slow), then hold a reasonable pace for everything else. I thought I could get away with this for two reasons: 1) Unless you are from Illinois and have no perspective, the course is flat. There are a couple small hills, but nothing steep, and nothing long at all. 2) The last 5 miles or so are generally with the wind (if there is any), and trend in the downward direction. This I thought, would allow me some recovery time before running.
And that is what I did, shortly out of transition I put it in the big ring up front and left it there for the duration. It was fun, hammering the hills, standing on the pedals attempting to keep every ounce of speed, then settling back down to a reasonable rhythm back on the flats.
Nearing the half way point I was beginning to detect some wind, but I couldn’t quite put a finger on where it was coming from. A couple of flags confirmed that it was indeed in our face, which was great, because it meant a slight tailwind for the second half of the bike.
At this point I was almost giddy, I had been around my goal pace so far, and with the tail wind and downhill nature of the second half, I knew I was on track for a great bike split. The last 3-4 miles I really dialed it back and took it easy. I knew within minutes of when I was going to come in, and it was a good 4-minutes faster than I could have predicted, so I figured my best course of action was to relax, catch my breath and prepare for the run.
Run
With this race, the swim and the bike are setup for very fast race times. The run is set up to take all that back, and maybe more. Trail run. Two loops. Not incredibly hilly, but not flat, and not nice smooth roads.
But I think I may have figured out triathlon running. I used to come out of T2 head down, running hard, and blow up. Today, similar to Lake Mills way back on June 1, I came out easy, way easy. First lap was run almost entirely this way. Easy up the hills, easier down. No stopping, no blowing up. Easy pace. No watch, no GPS, no pace. I think this is key for me, nothing to fixate over, pace by feel and nothing else.
Second lap I began to build throughout, pushing the down hills a little more, strong pace on the flats, but still easy up the hills. Trail was really starting to get to me on the second lap. Very rooty course, and my ankles were getting very sore. Everything else was fine. Finish line still couldn’t come fast enough, and I was thrilled to make it through an entire triathlon run course without walking a single step.
I don’t know that I’ve ever done that before (even in a sprint) so I’m just going to say it again. I made it through an entire triathlon run course without walking a single step. I still can’t think of an instance where I’ve done it before. No aid station walking (didn’t take anything), no walking up hills, nothing.
Like was said earlier, it felt really good to have a race come together the way this one did start to finish.
The Stats.
Swim: 33:32 (2:02/100yds)
Bike: 1:07:16 (21.06 mph)
Run: 54:50 (8:50/mile)
Total: 2:40:59
191/511 Overall
30/71 Age group
169/362 Men
