Squatch RR

“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

Nothing more to say.  I still smile when I think about the race.  I have pictures that I’ll post at some point.  For now this will have to do.

Race Month

June was race month, and it is now over.  I did four tri's in June, a sprint, a half, an olympic, and an Xterra event.  The first two I've already posted race reports for, the olympic and the xterra will see reports coming soon.  Both were good races, finish times within a minute of each other.  Odd.

Training in June was decent, could have run more and swam more, but it was still solid.  July however, is going to suck.  Final build going into IMMT.  I sat down last week and put togther my training schedule for the month.  I get tired just looking at it.  It doesn't help that the weather forecast is 90+ as far as I care to look. 

Four more weeks until taper.  Seven weeks until race day.

I think I can, I think I can.....

Kansas 70.3

Race #2 of June.  To sum up the conditions:

- 30 mph winds, gusting to 36 mph
- 94 degrees, a new record for June 10, in Lawrence, Kansas
- not a cloud in the sky for duration of race
- Water temp. race morning of 76.8 degrees, i.e. non wetsuit swim
- Above mentioned winds put a nice 1-foot plus chop on the water

Fun.

Most of the above was foreseeable well before the race start.  Water temps Friday and Saturday were already above the 76.1 cutoff.  The winds were howling, and it was hot.  As a result, I had no desire to even start this race, didn't feel like swimming in the wetsuit wave (last wave of the race), didn't want to bike in the wind, and certainly didn't want to run under the noon day sun.  I honestly would have been content to just pack it in and go home.  If asked at any point Saturday afternoon I would have put my odds of starting at maybe 25% and the odds of finishing at maybe 10%.  The drive just wasn't there.

The only upside of my shitty attitude, no prerace nerves, I just didn't care.

Swim

Until about 6:30 - 6:45 race morning I wasn't entirely certain what I was going to do.  First decision was wetsuit, no wetsuit.  Without I get to start with my wave at 7:00ish (and later get plucked from the bottom of the lake), with I have to wait until 7:30ish ( and feel like a putz for not being able to swim).  The wind and the waves made it an easy decision.  A calm morning and I may have given it a go sans wetsuit.

Second decision, swim or back to bed.  In my head I honestly didn't know if I'd suit up when the time came or go back to bed.  I think the mental ramifications of pulling out prerace eventually led me to "give it the old college try" and I suited up.

Swim wasn't terrible considering my rude awakening in the water from last week.  Tuesday I did a 1-hour continuous pool swim just for a mental confidence boost, just to prove to myself that I could.  It helped.  I should have done it through a water exercise class, may have prepared me better for the waves/contact.

Couple of gallons of water swallowed, couple of coughing spurts brought on by my trying to suck air through a wave, some unpleasant boat exhaust at times.  I've swam in worse conditions, but not much.  I did discover that my blue tinted goggles are not ideal when you have to breath into the sun.  Ended up swimming most of the first half with my eyes closed.  The out seemed to take forever, once I hit the second turn buoy I mentally felt like I had it licked and could relax a little.  Time was 47:17.  By comparison, my 2009 time was 46:20.  I'll take it.

Bike.

Bring on the winds.  Brutal.  Brutal.  Brutal.  The only good things about starting in the last wave, and being a slow swimmer, it's easy to find your bike and lots of people to pass on the bike course.  Miles 35-38ish absolutely sucked, turned directly into the wind on one of the hilliest sections of the course, took almost 20 minutes to cover those three miles.  Saw several walking their bikes up hills in this section.  I pedaled down a hill on this section at 13 mph.

Ended up with a decent ride, was able to keep the spikes in power to a minimum.  Was able to stay seated and spin up all the hills.  Couple of times I felt myself getting out of the saddle to hammer up a hill before the "what the hell" moment came and I sat back down.  So for that I am happy.

Finished the bike in 3:07:12.  Just over 5 minutes slower than 2009.  Given the conditions (heat/wind), I'm happy with it even though I should be in much better bike shape this year.

Run.

Holy hot batman.  I don't deal well with heat.  Especially if you combine heat with direct sun.  I quickly found out that if I attempted to run more than one or maybe two cones at a time I'd start getting dizzy and/or get a major side stitch.  For the first loop I ran at least part of every mile, even if it was just the last 100-feet to the mile marker.  The second loop found the running much more sparse.  I think two or three short attempts which did not go over well.  At some point (likely very early in the run) finishing upright and healthy became more important than pushing and ending up in the med tent.

Given my mental state prerace, I'm pretty happy just to have finished.  The run was 3:01, total time of 7:01:40.  I've read in various spots that over 400 either DNS or DNF.  I believe it, there was a lot of suffering out there on the run, I was not the only one walking.  Not by a long shot.

Conclusion

Suffice it to say.  I'll doubt I'll ever do this race again.  I love the venue, love the course, race director and volunteers were awesome.  Everything within control of the RD or volunteers was handled perfectly.  Absolutely no complaints.  I came back for a reason, loved it in 2009 as well.  But I just won't risk weather conditions like that again.  I know it can happen anywhere, but Kansas in June, have to expect hot and windy.

Horrible Hilly this Saturday.  100k or 150k of up down repeat on the bike.  Have not decided on the distance yet.  Following weekend I may hit Lake Geneva for the Bigfoot Olympic.  Then Xterra Dairlyland the last weekend in June.  June apparently is race month.

Lake Mills Sprint Tri

Maybe 3-4 weeks ago I decided to sign up for the Lake Mills Sprint Triathlon.  My reason was singular, I have not done an open water swim of any sort since Ironman Wisconsin in 2009.  With Kansas 70.3 looming a week from today, I wanted at least one test run before dropping in for the 1.2 mile swim.

Couldn't be happier with the decision.  Within maybe a 100 yards of the swim start I started to freak out, panic maybe.  Combination of going out to hard, a little contact, coldish water, and a couple of not so clean breaths.  Bobbed a couple times, took a few strokes, bobbed a bit more, and resumed swimming.  Was a little hairy there for a moment,  wasn't sure I was going to be able to recover.

Remainder of the swim was largely uneventful, did swim square into one dude doing the elementary backstroke.  Made it out just shy of 8-minutes for the 1/4 mile swim.

The rest of the race was gravy, wasn't real concerned about anything else today but the swim.  Enjoyed the bike, said hi to most that I passed, thanked the volunteers.  Did have to swear at one rider who out of nowhere decided to do a u-turn right in front of me (after I had already moved left preparing to pass her).  Was a very close call.  Just shy of 48-minutes for the 16 mile bike.

Run was an uneventful out and back on a gravel trail.  No watch, just ran at what felt like a decent pace.  25:23 for the run.

Overall time was 1:25:xx.  Which put me just back of midpack in my age group and just up from the midpoint among the men.

Wife took a bunch of pics, but these are the only two I like:

Floating, just after the bike dismount.





Coming into the finish, maybe another 10-yards.

I really like that second photo, even more so because of the back story.  The dude behind me, #541, passed me maybe 100-150 yards before this point.  On any given day, and especially today, I wouldn't have given it a second thought and just let him go.  But as he went by I happened to look down at his calf and noticed he was in my AG.  So for shits and giggles I decided to sit on his heels and try and take him at the line.

About the point where the women in yellow is standing I picked it up, went to the outside, and ended up holding him off by a second.  I sit here looking at the picture and still laugh, pretty much at myself just for doing it.

So Kansas 1-week from today.  Should be interesting, if the swim doesn't kill me the run just might.  It's supposed to be hot, I don't deal with heat well.  But I like the Kansas 70.3.  Of all the races I've done, this was my favorite venue/course.  Looking forward to getting back.