Sunday, May 19, 2013

2013 Kinetic 70.3 Race Report - Redemption

This past weekend, I kicked off my 2013 triathlon season with possibly my best race since starting the sport three years ago. It was my second time doing the Kinetic 70.3 in Lake Anna, VA. If you read my race report for last year’s race, you know it was one of my worst races ever so I feel a bit of redemption transforming my worst race into my best.

Kinetic 70.3 is my second race on the path to Ironman Lake Placid in July, my third Ironman distance and my “A” race for the season.  In my previous Ironman distance races, my goal had been to finish.  This year, I set a goal to finish in 11 hours or less, quite an ambitious time since my PR is 14:43:38 at IM Florida last year, a flat course race. Of course, I had run the Marine Corps Marathon the week before...

Ironman Lake Placid is arguably one of the toughest Ironman races on the east coast due to its hilly terrain on both the bike and run.  Still, I feel I have a good chance of meeting this ambitious goal with a more structured and disciplined training plan in place this year - despite doubts from some of my DC Tri MoCo Mafia compatriots who placed some friendly betting odds on me.  (That’s okay, proving people wrong just motivates me more.  If I were in their shoes, I probably would have similar doubts about my chances.) 

What is different about this year over the previous two? First, I opted to follow a structured training plan from the book “Be IronFit”.  For IM Louisville, I loosely followed a beginner’s training plan to just finish, and last year I sorta just winged it. This year, I have made a considerable effort to cut out junk miles and not overtrain which can be as bad as under training.  Second, I significantly cut back my race schedule this year so I can concentrate on training, at least until Placid. I scheduled races that will help me gauge how my training is coming along and help me determine where I need to concentrate my efforts as the season progresses. (I have one Olympic distance race up in Michigan in late June I plan to do mostly for fun.) First up was the Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon in March to help me gauge where my running was. Originally, I was going to do the full Marathon like the last two years, but eventually I decided it was smarter to stick with the half since my training hadn’t reached longer distances yet. My goal was to complete the race in 1:30:00, which I did.  Next up was Kinetic 70.3, with similar conditions to IM Lake Placid (especially the run).  My goal was to complete in 5 - 5 1/2 hours. 

Last year’s Kinetic 70.3 was plagued with problems, including three flat tires and a run course that caught me unprepared with three loops of hills.  I was determined that this year would be different.  Kinetic implemented a new bike course for the race this year, so I led a 75-mile bike ride on the new course the weekend before the race so I would know what to expect.  (I was already at Lake Anna to support the Peasantman Triathlon where I had the pleasure of seeing my wife complete her first OWS sprint-distance triathlon.)  To my surprise, I found the new course to be extremely fast. While some rolling hills were sprinkled throughout the course, they did not compare to the hills I have been training on for Placid. I also participated in an OWS clinic in the lake to get a feel for the swim and ran the course to remind myself what a pain-in-the-ass those hills were.  I also decided to rent 404 Zipp wheels from Bonzai. I wanted to see firsthand if Zipp wheels really made a difference before I plopping down a large sum of cash to purchase some. I will tell you that the Zipp wheels really do make a difference. It’s up to you to decide if that difference is worth the money they cost but they really do work, better than other race wheel brands I have tried in the past.

After returning home from my training weekend, I was feeling pretty confident about this year’s Kinetic race. In the week leading up to the race, the weather seemed to deteriorate with every day calling for rain including race day. Though on a reduced training schedule the week leading up to the race, I ended up doing most of it indoors on the treadmill and trainer.  That didn’t bother me too much, but I really did not want to race in the rain. I kept looking at the extended forecast hoping for improvement, but it never materialized.

DC Tri Club MoCo Mafia
My wife and I headed down to Lake Anna the evening before the race.  We shared a cabin with fellow MoCo Mafia members also racing the next day.  Friday had very nice weather although it looked like rain would return for Saturday’s race.  Although we had to slog through traffic, we arrived in time to pick up my race packet and join the others at the cabin a pre-race pasta dinner.  We prepped our stuff for the race and headed to bed.  I wasn’t nervous about the race but still did not sleep well.  This is something I’ve become accustomed to the night before a race.   

Eggs, bagels and OJ for breakfast, then we headed to the lake. It had rained some during the night and we saw a flash of lightning on the way to the lake, but it looked like the rain might hold off for the race.  The morning was fairly uneventful; no one forgot their equipment this year (including me) and so far it wasn’t raining.

I used a garbage bag to protect my transition stuff.  While the rain was holding off for the moment, it could start raining at any moment and I didn’t want to come back to find my stuff soaked. I was concerned the bag would blow away if I laid it over my stuff, so I laid the garbage bag flat and placed my stuff inside the bag the same way I would lay it out on the towel.  It seemed to work pretty well. I also added an extra pair of socks in case my feet got soaked on the bike. Nothing is worse than running in wet socks.

After donning my wetsuit, I headed down to the beach for the race start. I was in the second wave, so I wanted to make sure I had some time to acclimate to the cold water before the race start. I had done some open water swimming in Lake Anna the weekend before and the water wasn’t too bad once you got in, but that first hit of the water was definitely cold. Despite the rain, the water temperature had warmed up a bit from the weekend before, from the lower 60’s to the upper 60’s.

I hoped to complete the swim in 45 minutes.  The run start from the beach took us over some pretty jagged rocks on the lake floor (kinda painful on the toes).  As soon as the water got deep enough, I opted to start swimming to get off the rocks.  The swim course is basically an inverted triangle with six orange buoys going out and a yellow one at the turn. A swim across the lake is followed by another turn back towards shore. With the overcast sky, the sun was not a factor. My swim was fairly uneventful although I probably stuck my head up to sight too much which slowed me down a bit. I finished the swim in 48:26, a little off my goal time but still a PR over my 51 minute swim last year.

Swim Time: 48:26


My T1 time was 4:33.

I was trying out a new aero helmet and the Zipp 404 wheels I rented the week before.  I was going for a 2:30 time on the bike. Up to this point the rain had held off but the moment I mounted my bike, it started to pour. My first thought was “really?” For those not familiar with Kinetic, the bike course starts off at the bottom of a big hill. I wasn’t happy that it was starting to rain just as I was getting on the bike, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me. Last year on the bike I had to deal with three flat tires, so I wasn’t going to let rain affect me. An unexpected advantage of the aero helmet is how it kept rain off my face and glasses.  By the time I had gotten to the entrance to the state park, the rain had pretty much tapered off. The roads were still wet though, so some extra caution was called for. From riding the new bike course the week before, I knew there were no bad turns and that overall it was a pretty fast course.

I ended up passing more people than passed me. For the first half of the course, I ended up passing and getting passed by two other guys. We all traded off for awhile. Eventually one of the guys dropped back, and the other managed to get a substantial lead. For the last half of the course, I ended passing and getting passed by another guy in green. We ended up joking with each other as we kept passing each other so much. In the last 14 miles of the course, we hit some pretty hard headwinds.  By the time we got back to the park, I was ready to get off the bike. Up to this point, I was still doing the whole pass and getting passed by the guy in green but finally managed to get a good lead on him heading back into the park. I did the bike in 2:33:12, a time I was very happy with.

Bike Time: 2:33:12
Once back in transition, I discovered the guy next to me had left his wetsuit where my bike goes and his bag was laying on my stuff on the ground. I grumbled, moved his stuff over, and got ready for the run. My socks had gotten soaked, so I decided to take a few extra minutes to change them so I didn’t get blisters. The garbage bag worked, and all my stuff was still dry.

My T2 time was 2:35.

I headed out for the run with dry socks and ready to take on the hills. The run portion of the race is a three loop course filled with a lot of hills including the big one from the bike course.

Last year, I didn’t do my research and the run course caught me off guard. Not only did I remember the hills from last year, but this year I ran the course multiple times the weekend before the race. I was hoping to do the run in 1:45. As I started to run, my lower back was bothering me quite a bit. Sitting in the aero position for 2 1/2 hours had taken its toll. Still I was having a good race, and I wasn’t going to let the hills on this course to mess that up. Even if I wasn’t going to be able to run my fastest, I refused to let the hills beat me and cause me to walk. A lot of fellow DC Tri Club members were out on the course during the run, and everyone was very supportive of one another. During the second loop of the run, the sun finally started to come out. Unfortunately, multiple portions of the course had no shade and it was already a bit humid, so the sun beating down on me was not something I was happy about. By the time I started the third loop the sun had gone back behind the clouds, thank god. I got up the big hill for the third and final time and my back started to feel better, so I started to run as hard as I could. I didn’t want to look at my watch to see how much time had passed in case it was bad and would discourage me. I just ran and planned to check my time after crossing the finish line. As I approached the finish line, I saw the race clock which said 5:22. This meant I had accomplished my goal of finishing the race under 5:30. My official finish time was 5:18:59. Not only a PR for Kinetic (which wasn’t saying much since I had such a horrible race last year), but an overall 70.3 PR for me. For my division I came in 14th out of 46.


Run Time: 1:50:04 - Overall Time: 5:18:59


I didn’t have a perfect race and I didn’t meet all my time goals, but I did meet my main one. I know I need to continue working to improve my swim times and I also need to work on riding in the aero position to strengthen my lower back muscles so they aren’t so tired when I get off the bike for the run. But this race has given me a renewed confidence in my training and ability. When the year started I thought it may be possible to do IMLP in 11 hrs or under, but now I know I can do it.



Red Rockette With Her New Zipp 404's
Oh and I decided I liked the Zipp wheels so much I went out and got my bike it's own pair. I have given my bike a new name. Red Rockette or Red for short.