Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Columbia Triathlon - Hills, Hills, Hills

So it’s been a week since my last blog post, and with that I have another Triathlon under my belt. This time it was the Columbia Triathlon held by TriColumbia in Columbia, MD which took place this past Sunday 5/20. This was the first time I had ever done this particular triathlon but I had heard it was a good, tough race to do, so I signed up early in the year to avoid sell-out registration.  

For the week leading up to this race, I decided to really try and taper. Tapering is something I always struggle with because I don’t like to stop training. After doing the Kinetic 70.3 and Sprint triathlons last weekend and hearing that the run course on Columbia was really tough, I decided my legs could use a little RnR. That Monday I rested completely, no training at all. On Tuesday I ended up doing a pretty high-paced 30 mile bike ride followed by a 2 mile run afterwards. Wednesday, I ended up resting again with no training at all. On Thursday, I did some work in the pool for about an hour followed by an easy 60 minute ride down at Hains Point on Friday. Finally on Saturday I did an easy pace 3 mile run, again at Hains Point.





That Saturday, I also had to pick up my race packet, take my bike over to the race site, and rack it. For this race, they don’t allow you to rack your bike the day of the race. My plan was to drive over with my wife, drop the bike off, and be on my way. When we first arrived at the transition area, I learned that we had to head over to the Sheraton hotel about 2 miles away from the race venue. This is where the packets were being given out which we needed before we could take the bike into transition. So we hopped into the car and headed over to the Sheraton. Even though it was only 2 miles away, the local roads were struggling to deal with all the added pre-race day traffic so it was a little slow-going getting to the hotel. Once we finally arrived, I ran in and got my packet which went fairly smoothly or so I thought. With packet in hand, we headed back to transition. Again, slow-going due to heavy traffic. Once back at transition, I started to notice that everyone walking their bike over to the transition area was wearing a green wrist band. I had attended races before where you had to wear a wristband to enter transition, but no one at the packet pickup had said anything about a wristband and there was no wristband in my packet envelope. Before taking my bike off the car rack, I decided to go find an official for clarification. I had a sinking suspicion I was going to have to go back to the Sheraton but wanted clarification before I made the trip again. My suspicion was confirmed and a wristband was needed to get in. So with that we headed back to the hotel. Once there, I quickly ran in and found the table where the wristbands were being given out. Turns out it was a separate table from where you pick up the envelopes, and the person who gave me my envelope failed to mention that I needed to get a wristband. Of course, I do take some blame for this - mainly that if I had thoroughly read the athlete’s guide I would have seen that I needed a wristband and where the packets where being given out at. (My wife kindly did not point this out.)

With everything finally in hand we returned to transition and got the bike racked.

That night, I tried to go to bed fairly early. The race start time was 7 a.m. and transition opened at 4:45 a.m. I wanted to get there pretty close to when transition opened because they said the parking near the transition area was limited and expected to fill up fast, and I didn’t want to have to park far away and walk like 10 minutes from my car to transition. So I decided I would get up at 3:30 a.m. so I could leave the house by 4 a.m. It was a 40-minute drive from the house to the race. Despite going to bed early, I didn’t sleep well. Apparently, sometime on Saturday I was stung by a bee or something in my left arm, and it was starting to bother me. It wasn’t a horrid pain but more like an annoying pain, and with that and just the pre-race jitters I did a lot of tossing and turning.

The next morning, I woke up at 3 a.m. and decided to go on and get up. I may not have gotten a lot of sleep but decided I would cook some eggs and toast for a decent pre-race breakfast. After eating and getting dressed, I loaded up the car with my gear bags (I made sure not to forget those this time like I did at Kinetic) and hit the road.





I arrived at the race site at about 4:40 a.m., the parking was open and people were already arriving. After parking, I just hung out in my car listening to some good pre-race tunes to get me focused and relaxed for the race. Finally, I headed to transition with my gear bags and set up for the race.  Transition for this race had us pretty packed in, so there wasn’t a lot of space between bikes. I was fairly far back from the bike out area which was actually at the top of a steep hill. Unlike Kinetic where you had to mount at the bottom of a hill and then ride, this one you had to run your bike up a hill and then mount on a fairly flat area.





The weather for the day was expected to be quite nice. Sunny with temps in the mid 70’s. The water temp was a nice 70.6 degrees, so it was looking like a good day all around to race.

The swim portion started around 6:45 a.m. with the pros then kicked off with the age groupers in waves based on age and gender starting every 8 minutes or so. My wave was slated to start by 7:14 a.m. The Columbia Triathlon requires that you swim out to the start line with your wave and tread water till the horn blew. As we approached the final minutes of my wave’s race start, I swam out looking for a spot that was towards the back of the pack. My wave was large with at least 30 people in it. Finally, the horn blew for our wave to begin and we were off. It was very hard to get any kind of space to swim in the beginning. I am always afraid I am going to get kicked in the face when swimming so close to everyone, and I was particularly worried about getting hit in this race. I didn’t get kicked, but one guy kept swimming right next to me and hitting me on the top of the head like 4 times. Every time he would take a stroke, his hand would come out and over to hit the top of my head. Once or twice is one thing, but I was really getting annoyed at this guy because he seemed either completely clueless to the fact he was hitting me or just didn’t care. It was the first time in a race where I really had to restrain myself from wanting to hit someone. Finally, I managed to get away from the guy and tried to get into some kind of swim rhythm. For both the half and sprint tri’s I did the week before, I had swims that I felt pretty good with. I was hoping today I would be able to get under 40 minutes. I had not been able to get a good look at the swim course beforehand, and we started off swimming into the rising sun which was creating a glare on the water. I knew we essentially were swimming straight upstream then would be turning at some point to come back down, but I didn’t know exactly how far the turn was or how many buoys were in the water till the turn. I basically ended up just following the people in front of me and hoped they knew where they were going. This strategy worked for the most part as I don’t think I ever swam terribly off-course. I may have zig-zagged a little more than I would have liked but I have a hard time keeping my head in the water when I don’t feel comfortable knowing where I am going. I alway want to raise my head up and verify I am on course, even though the more you swim with your head up the slower you move.

Towards the end of the swim, we swam past a small little island right before the swim out location. This section of the lake was filled with lots of underwater plant life, the kind of viney/clingy plants that end up clingy on your arms as you’re swimming. Not a big deal but just another annoyance. My final swim time was 42:46. Not quite the time I was hoping for but still within the ballpark.

I decided to walk instead of run back to T1. Once I got back to my bike I quickly got my wetsuit off, my bike shoes on, grabbed my bike and made my way up the hill to the bike mount area. I had ridden the bike course of this race before so I was pretty familiar with it and knew what to expect as far as hills. It’s by no means a flat course but it didn’t have any kind of hills I wasn’t use to dealing with in more normal training routes. My biggest concern with the bike was making sure I didn’t get any flats this time.  Just in case, I packed 3 spare tubes and 3 C02 cartridges so I was well prepared.

The bike course was pretty crowded. There was really no point along the 26 mile ride where I was alone. For a good majority of the race, I kept playing the passing game with some guy who was 30. He was a bigger guy and seemed to have a similar riding style to mine, basically he was able to power up the hills which I’ve found to be my strength when my legs are fresh. I would pass him then he would pass me and as I mentioned this went on for a while. Finally at about mile 18, I got the jump on him with one of the bigger hills on the course and was able to pull away.

The bike course was pretty uneventful, no accidents that I saw and for me more specifically no flats. With the course being as crowded as it was, I was a little hesitant getting into the aero position as much as I would have liked. The course was not closed to traffic so you had to keep an eye on cars as well as other riders. I was shooting to get the ride portion of the race done in 1:15 but ended up doing it in 1:17:43. Again a little off from my goal time but still in the ballpark.

After dismounting off the bike and running back down the hill to transition with my bike in hand, I returned to my spot on the rack to find both my transition neighbors there. They had both gotten out of the water and were on the road when I first got to T1, but it would seem I made up some time on them during the bike portion. I quickly got my bike back on the rack and proceeded to change bike shoes for running shoes.

It was finally time for the last and likely the toughest portion of the race. I hadn’t seen the run course before but had heard it was one of the toughest 10k courses on the east coast for a triathlon. It also had a portion of the course with its own nickname, “The Gatorade Wall.” I normally feel pretty strong running on hills but my confidence had been shaken a bit after my lackluster performance on the Kinetic 70.3 run course. I knew a large part of my poor performance on the Kinetic run course had more to do with mental aspects than physical, but the fact is that run course had gotten the better of me and I did not want a repeat performance here.

As I started out on the run, the first thing I told myself was regardless of how bad the hills might be here, it was only 6.2 miles. Starting out I felt pretty good. My legs felt strong and had no noticeable cramps to speak of. The first mile was in the park with a pretty steep (monster) hill. I had actually run up this one a few weeks earlier during a bricknic held by the DC Tri Club. I made it up the hill and was still feeling good. Mile 2 was pretty flat and into mile 3, I was starting to feel as though the reputation of this run course was a bit overinflated. By this time, the course was taking us out of the park and through some nearby neighborhoods. This is where the real hills would be found. I started to see why the course had the reputation it did. Still, a lot of it was in shade and had people who would come out of their homes and cheer you on. At one point, a bunch of the neighborhood kids were on hand to cool us down with their Supersoakers. The one thing that did suck about this portion of the race was with the aid station. Apparently, they decided to fill up the water cups with a garden hose because I definitely got that gross rubbery garden hose taste when I drank the water there.

The hills on the course where pretty constant for the last 3 miles of the run. Even the last .2 leg of the race to the finish line they managed to get one more hill in, still I managed to finish pretty strong. Since I didn’t really know how bad the hills would be, I didn’t have a specific time goal in mind for the run. I figured unless things went really badly I could do it somewhere between 40-50 minutes. My final run time was 48:45.


Post Race Photo Op With Andy Steinfeld


My final time for the race was 2:56:20.17, This was a comparable time to the other olympic distance Tri’s I had done, but since this was the toughest olympic distance race I have done to date I was pretty happy with that time. I was also happy that I continued to build on the trend from last Sunday’s Sprint of having a issue-free race. Hopefully that trend will continue on to my next race in 2 weeks with the Hawaii 70.3 Half Ironman race. I do have concerns with that race -how well will I do a 1.5 mile ocean swim with no wetsuit?  Truth is, who cares cause I’m going to Hawaii :) Also thanks to my friend Sara who came out to cheer me on Sunday.


This is where I will be writing my next race report from :)

Monday, May 14, 2012

2012 Kinetic 70.3 - A Weekend Of Firsts

The Kinetic 70.3 and Sprint distance triathlons, held by Setup Events at Lake Anna State Park in Spotsylvania, VA for the Virginia Triathlon Series, saw a number of firsts for me and my would-be triathlon career this weekend.

This 70.3 race is my first half-distance Ironman race of the season and technically my first half-distance Ironman ever since the swim was cancelled at the Poconos 70.3.  I headed down to Lake Anna with my wife and several members of the DC Tri Club on Friday to avoid a long drive on the morning of the race.  Eight of us plus a dog stayed in a nice little cabin near the lake.  After picking up our race packets, we hit up the local grocery store for pre-race and race day nutrition - you know, those healthy foods like Krispy Kream donuts and chocolate chip cookies along with a nice pasta dinner to carb load.  Between the grocery run and dinner, I managed to get in a quick open water swim  to test out my sleeveless wetsuit.  I was getting tired of messing with the wetsuit sleeves, so I upgraded to a Blueseventy Helix sleeveless suit which is working quite nicely.   

After stuffing ourselves on carbs and hanging out for a bit while we got our gear prepared for the next day’s race, we all decided it was time to hit the sack around 10:30 p.m. to try for a good night sleep. Like the night before most races, pre-race day jitters, a strange bed, and a very warm room (in part thanks to one of the other guys in the cabin turning the air conditioner off during the night) made sleep difficult.

Race morning came early (4:30 a.m.), and we headed out around 5:10 a.m. after a light breakfast of eggs and cheese danish.  The race started at 7 a.m. and we were parked and ready by 5:30 a.m.  Imagine my horror when I realized I left all my gear at the cabin, 20 minutes away.  Talk about boneheaded mistakes.  My wife drove back to get my stuff while I checked in, got my body markings, and racked my bike.  She was back in plenty of time with my stuff, so the first mini-crisis of the day was averted.







The weather for the day was spectacular. The high was in the mid-70’s and sunny. The race start was delayed about 15 minutes while we waited for fog to clear over the water, but we got good pictures and made sure everything was ready for race start, including a quick jump in the lake to get that panic feeling from the first hit of cold water out of the way. Water temperature that morning was about 70 degrees. For this race, we would be swimming 1.2 miles in a triangular course with the swim buoys on our right following a beach start. I was in the fourth wave, males 40-44 years old.  


After the national anthem, the horn sounded and I was off.  For the first time, I actually passed people on the swim portion although breaking through the crowd in front of me was difficult.  Eventually the crowd began to thin, and things went pretty smoothly from there. Unlike the Olympic Distance race I had done at this lake two weeks before, this race was going quite smoothly - no fogged up goggles or breathing problems from a recent cold. My goal for the swim was 50 minutes, and I did it in 51:50. Not considered a fast time by most, but pretty good for me who sucks at swimming.





I came out of the water feeling pretty good and headed for T1 which is where things started to take a turn for the worse.  I tried to put on my bike jersey after peeling off the wetsuit.  I had decided not to wear the one piece tri-suit for this race and didn’t want to wear the jersey under my wetsuit. Turns out this was a mistake and a lessoned learned. Every time I tried to put the damn thing on, it would get twisted.  I literally had to try four different times before I finally got it on. After that and getting my shoes and helmet on I finally grabbed my bike and headed out of T1 with a horrid T1 time of 00:06:38.



The bike mount area for this race is at the bottom of a fairly steep hill so I made sure my bike was in a low gear. After getting on and clipping in, I began to pedal up the big hill still feeling pretty good and then it happened. Not two minutes into the bike portion of the race, I heard one of the worst noises you can hear in a race, a loud POP.  I was close enough to the transition area, that I thought some kind of starter gun had gone off.  No such luck, my front tire had just blown.  I had done a Century ride the weekend before where I first started experiencing tire problems.  It had been the back tire then, now the front tire wanted a turn. One good thing about having the flat the weekend before, I had practiced my tire changing skills.  About the time that I got the old tube off, a gentleman in a SUV pulled up and asked if I needed a pump. I don’t know how many of you have ever had to change a flat but I can tell you it is easier to do with a pump than those C02 cartridges, so I said sure.  At first I thought he was a SAG driver associated with the race, but as we installed the new tube I realized he was just someone there cheering on his wife. I was a little concerned I might get penalized for accepting outside assistance during the race, but at this point I wasn’t going to tell him to go away. After getting my first of two spare tubes on the wheel, the gentleman began to pump up the tire. Unfortunately he pumped it up a little too much and ended up popping it. Now down to only one spare tube, I quickly changed out the second busted tube and asked if he would mind if I inflated it.  After thanking the gentleman for his help, I was finally back on my way. My Garmin was set so that it would stop timing if I wasn’t moving so I didn’t know for sure how many minutes the flats had set me back.  What I did know was that I had no more spare tubes left, so if I got another flat I was going to be SOL.

The race course consisted of two loops and was fairly flat. A few hills were nothing I wasn’t used to in my regular training rides. My original goal was to complete the 56 mile bike portion in under three hours.  For the first portion of the ride, I ended up riding with some of the guys with the fancy disc wheels. They were already on their second loop while I was still on the first, but it gave me something to focus on. I would pass them then they would pass me. This went on for a bit - helps pass the time and beats riding out there all alone. The second loop got pretty lonely though. I was making good time on the bike but had a lot of ground to make up after the slow swim (normal for me) and dealing with the flats.  As I started on my last 15 miles of the bike ride, I noticed my front tire was feeling a little funny. It didn’t really feel like a flat, but it didn’t feel quite right either.  As I made the next turn, I realized it was in fact a flat. The tire wasn’t totally flat like before but it definitely had lost a lot of air. I was faced with the possibility of my first DNF. I had no more spare tubes and even though the tire wasn’t completely flat, could I honestly expect to ride 15 more miles on this thing? As I made the next turn, one of the cops directing traffic yelled out “Your tire is flat” as I rode by.  I thought to myself “no shit” but just kept on riding. I finally decided to pull over and fully assess the situation. It dawned on me that even though I didn’t have any spare tubes left I did still have some C02 cartridges, and since this appeared to be some kind of slow leak I decided to pump the tire up and hope it would last long enough to finish out the ride.

At this point, I really wasn’t concerned about time and just wanted to finish the race. I started riding again but at a moderate pace, especially on turns.  Going into the aero position was no longer an option either at this point. Amazingly though I was still able to pass people but with my focus on the tire and just finishing, I was no longer bothering with nutrition and apparently I even racked up my first penalty as I got dinged 4 minutes for some kind of position penalty. The best I can figure is that I was concentrating more on my tire and less on if I was riding too far left. In fact I stayed away from the right side of the road because it was bumpier road than in the middle.

I finally made it back to transition after taking the final downhill super-slow. I felt my tire again in transition and it was very low on air again. My official bike time ended up being 3:18:34 plus the 4 minute penalty. My Garmin, which didn’t count the time I was stopped changing tires, said my bike time was 2:53:25 including the slower pace for the last 15 miles.

Once I got my bike remounted and my running shoes on, I was off to complete the last leg of the race. My T2 time was 00:02:54. After dealing with all the flat tire issues, I was feeling mentally drained. I felt like my overall time goal in the neighborhood of 5 1/2 hours was now out of reach, so all I really wanted at this point was just to be done with the race. The run consisted of the same loop three times for a total of 13.1 miles. You start out by running up this monster hill which I knew.  Little did I know that this run course was nothing but hill after hill, much of it in the glaring sun. As I completed the first loop of the run, I started to experience some cramps in my upper back. I don’t know if this was caused from dehydration or by a new pair of Newton shoes which had been fine on shorter runs but now seemed to be bothering my feet on this longer run with all these hills. Either way, it was dawning on me that this was not going to be an easy run. Having done the first loop, I now knew exactly was to expect for the next two... hills and lots of them. Halfway through the second loop, knowing I had a bunch more hills to run and figuring my goal time was totally screwed, I was finding it harder and harder to convince myself to keep pushing myself through these back cramps. Finally, I started walking. This may be mental more than anything, but once I start walking in a race I find it that much harder to start running again. Things start tightening up and it just gets harder and harder to push myself. I spent a lot of the last half of the run walking. My final run time was 2:32:10 making my total race time a dismal 6:56:04.




This was not a time I was terribly happy with. I was very happy that many of my friends who also did this race had PR’s and very good races, but I couldn’t help feel a bit discouraged.

Many of the people who stayed at the cabin the night before headed for home on Saturday, but my wife and I stayed through Sunday with two friends.  That morning, I woke up around 5:30 a.m. and decided I wanted to do the Sprint distance race starting at 9 a.m. I originally had not planned to do this race but felt I needed some kind of redemption from the day before. It wasn’t really about the time, but more about I wanting to have a problem-free race. I was beginning to feel like I was cursed or something. Most my gear was still in the car, so I got up, kissed my wife, and headed off to the park to see if race-day registration available. I also needed to see if I could get my tire fixed. The answer to both was yes. The bike technicians were able to get my tire fixed up and gave me a new spare tube. This was the first time I had ever done a Sprint distance race which consists of a 750 meter swim, 18 mile bike, and 5k run. I didn’t really have any major time goals in place but wanted that problem-free race. My legs felt a little tired from the day before but overall I felt pretty good. The weather like the day before was fantastic. The water temperature was 68 degrees, a couple degrees cooler from the day before. I did the swim in 19:46 which I was pretty happy with.  Like before, not a fast time but good for me. I went with the one piece tri-suit for this race which gave me a better T1 time of 00:03:54.

The bike course was different from the day before. Obviously a shorter distance but they threw in more hills to make it a little tougher. I did it in 54:04.  More importantly though, I had no flat tires.

The run consisted of one lap similar to the laps from the day before. In other words, hills. I managed to do it 24:38. Not bad for a hilly course and considering I just did a half Ironman race the day before. My overall time for the Sprint was 01:44:38.

Obviously, a Sprint is not the same as doing a 70.3 race but it was great getting a problem-free race under my belt and will hopefully set the tone for the rest of my season. Next up is the Columbia MD Olympic distance triathlon next weekend.



For one final first for the weekend, I met four-time Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington at a book signing for her new book that afternoon. She was great and gave me some advice for my 70.3 race in Hawaii coming up next month.

Oh and a big shout-out to my wife for supporting me this weekend and for taking tons of great pictures.