Tri Insanity - Danville, IN - 6/20/2015

I know, I know, this wasn't the planned race. Here's how it happened:

We've been getting a lot of rain over the last week or so. A LOT of rain. As in, 15-24" of rain in some areas of the state over the last 7 days. A lot of rain. This has led to a lot of debris falling on roads, dirt and gravel piling up on the roads where water pools, formation and expansion of potholes, erosion of some country roads, and muddy/murky lake water with lots of debris as well.

All of these factors led to the decision of Heartland Endurance Sports on Friday to postpone the Cicero Triathlon weekend to August 1st/2nd.

A semi-quick note about cancellations approximately 24 hours before the race: For many people, this postponement was probably not that big a deal. Sure, it maybe caused a hiccup in their weekend plans, but I would imagine for most that it simply allowed them more free time early in the summer. For me, this postponement had the chance to completely destroy my weekend. As I have mentioned before, I live with a host of mental illnesses, and triathlon training and racing are my medication. I take prep for races pretty seriously, including mental preparation, which begins about 48 hours out from the race for me. On Friday morning when that email came in saying that the race was postponed, my brain went into a depressive mode, as all the mental energy I was using to focus on race prep now had no direction.

I understand the responsibility of Heartland Endurance Sports completely, and I appreciate that they took the physical safety of the participating athletes into consideration when making this difficult call. I'm sure it was not easy or cheap to make different arrangements for this race, and I commend them for making this tough decision. However, it is increasingly common for athletes to be using triathlon training and competition as a medication, and there needs to be some consideration of this when making these decisions. There were other races that Heartland was putting on that day, including a 5k race. With no refunds or transfers being offered for the triathlon (a COMPLETELY ridiculous policy, by the way), why were we not offered participation in one or more of the 5k races? Why hasn't the "no refunds/transfers" policy been amended for special circumstances such as this (especially since registration is being re-opened, and the make-up date is the same weekend as Tri Indy)? Why hasn't there been an email offering a discount on another Heartland race?

If the opportunity I received from Racemaker hadn't surfaced, this would have been a very different weekend, and the way my brain works, it could have ended very poorly. To further my frustration, I think Heartland has handled the aftermath extremely poorly, and has shown no effort to consider the repercussions this postponement may have that haven't been realized yet.

Anyway, back to some positivity here: I was able to race this weekend!

I was fortunate enough to be offered a bib at another local race this weekend with Racemaker Productions. If you've never raced with Racemaker, you should seriously consider signing up for one of their races. They do an amazing job of taking care of their athletes and volunteers, and they're fantastic members of the community as well. Their races are always top-notch, plus they serve beer at the end of most of them! Seriously, if you can't find a race with Racemaker, you're not interested in racing.

Tri Insanity was held in Danville, Indiana, and offered a Super Sprint (250 meter swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run) and a Long Sprint (500 meter swim, 20 mile bike, 4 mile run). I opted for the longer option, due mostly to the length of the swim and run being a little short for me in the Super Sprint.

I arrived extra early to the race, since I had to confirm my registration on site as a last minute entry. I got my body markings done, timing chip on, and headed to transition to get things set up. The Thursday before, I spent some time talking to my coach about warming up for races, at the time I was asking about warming up for Cicero, a much shorter race.

I ended up doing a 10-minute warm up ride on my bike first, as suggested. I rode out of the park where we were set up, and down the road a bit to find a small hill. I did a couple of pick ups, from some fast spinning to slow spinning, then eased it back in to transition. After that, I put my running shoes on and went for a quick jog. Maybe a mile total, enough to stretch out my legs, find my stride for the day, and do a few short
sprints.

After that, I set up transition the way I like it and took my cap and goggles with me as I left transition. I used the portajohn before I went to get a quick swim warm up in, same idea as the other warm ups: nothing too crazy long, just enough to get limber and do a couple of quick sprints. I climbed out of the water and right into the race meeting. I ate some Honey Stinger energy chews during the race meeting, and got amped up for the start.

The start was a mass start, which is pretty interesting on a slick boat ramp. I positioned myself at the front of the pack, as I knew a couple of the other swimmers up front and my speed in relation to them. We swam out through a pair of buoys and made a 90-degree turn to the left. My plan was to sprint/keep up with coach to the first big turn buoy, and that was about 100 yards ahead after the first turn. We reached the 180-degree turn at the big buoy, and that's when things got dicey with the water.

Being out in front of the swim is awesome, you don't have to worry about overly-choppy water, there are fewer people to hit and kick, and your sighting line is wide open. When it's not awesome, is when you are swimming a race where there are two 180-degree turns in the course, and you end up with all the chop of the swimmers behind you catching you off guard. As happened to me. I took a couple mouthfuls of lake water before I got out of it, but it definitely sank in my stomach a bit. Coach swam away from me and I settled in to my pace, all the way through the second 180-degree turn (took in a little more lake water, but better this time), and made my way back toward the "gate" to make the 90-degree turn back to shore.

It was at this point that the two female leaders behind me decided they had drafter long enough and wanted to make their break for the shore. The problem was, they decided that the best way to do this was by running over my lower half and kicking me in the face. Now, I don't have a problem with body contact while swimming in a race. I've been through it before, I've been on the giving and receiving end, and I know the unwritten rules both ways. I checked my line, and I was swimming the most direct route to the buoy possible. The first female to swim over me bumped me pretty good on my side at first, generally a good way to know someone is there and gauge how affected they'll be if/when you have to swim over them. She proceeded to not look up to check the line, and swim straight over my legs. Over my legs, not a big deal. Over my legs and kick me in the face, bigger deal. This is the story of the second female to swim over my legs. She also failed to check the line, and ended up kicking me in the face just before the turn. I was pretty nice and didn't decide to kick harder to punish them for swimming directly over the top of me, but I won't be so nice next time. Be warned.

Swim time: 6:42.60 Minutes/100m: 1:20.52 Overall swim rank: 4 Age group swim rank: 1

Transition was somewhat uneventful, aside from the fact that I stuffed my pockets with my nutrition. I pulled my socks and shoes on (new shoes!), sunglasses, helmet, nutrition, and off I went! It took me a minute to get on the bike once outside of transition, but once I was on I was off and spinning. In fact, I was out of transition before one of the girls who ran me over. Take that!

The bike went uneventfully. I got passed by a few people as expected, but I took back a couple of spots as well. Nutrition went as planned, a gel every 20 minutes (Clif gel, of course), and two licks of salt every 30. I had to squeeze the last licks of salt in, as I came in just under an hour on the bike. I'm really pleased with my bike performance, I didn't over cook it but I also pushed it to keep a decent pace.

Bike time: 59:43.80 Average speed: 20.1 MPH Overall bike rank: 19 Age group bike rank: 1

T2 went very well. The dismount line was a touch confusing, as there were two different "lines" at which to dismount. To avoid a DQ, I opted for the first line and ran a little further into transition. I did have to lift my front wheel in order to avoid losing control of my bike as I went into transition, but I was at the front rack so it wasn't that big a deal. I racked by my bars/brakes, dumped my helmet, slid on my shoes, put on my hat, and left for the run... without taking my watch off of my bike bars.

I realized pretty much as soon as I left transition that I forgot my watch, and cussed myself out a bit. I quickly realized that I needed to just move on, dump the strap and go by feel. Mile 1 was the usual "get used to running again" mile, and by the time I hit mile 2 I had picked up the other female in front of me as well as a couple of guys who passed me during the bike. Miles 2 and 3 were probably the worst of the day, as we ran in a place where the wind was blocked and it was a particularly muggy morning.

Mile 4 was back up the hill we went down in Mile 1, and a turn into the park and the finish chute. My parents were able to make it out to the race, and were there to cheer me on to the finish!

Run time: 27:11.70 Average pace per mile: 6:48 Overall run rank: 4 Age group run rank: 1

Total time: 1:35:09.05 Overall place: 8 Age group place: 1

Not a bad outing for the first tri of the year, especially considering I was racing, not racing, then racing again within a 24 hour span, plus I ended up doing a longer race than originally planned. A HUGE "Thank you" to Lee and Jamie O'Connor for allowing me to race on short notice, you guys saved my weekend, big time.

Next up is Winona Lake, I'll post another novel in mental preparation for that later this week.

Later on...

Opening Week

Here it is, opening week of tri season!

For some, the season has already started with cold swims and chilly runs, but this is the first weekend of the year where it's really going down. Summer is just around the corner, the water is getting warmer, it's sure humid enough outside, and those brick workouts are getting better and better.

This post is going to cover a few things: 1.) Cicero preview 2.) Park2Park relay race recap (surprise!) 3.) Training update

Cicero Preview:

FINALLY the new swim map has been released. I have been waiting and looking for it for several weeks, and it was finally updated a couple of weeks ago. In years past, this was a swim across the lake, starting at the boat docks on one side and swimming to the ramp on the other. Now, it appears we are starting at a beach/ramp and swimming an out-and-around pattern to transition. Only slightly longer than years past, it comes in at 500 meters.

The bike leg is pretty flat, with one short climb around a blind corner in the country. I fell off pace at that corner last year, I'm mentally preparing to handle it better this year. I'm also (after some discussions with my coach) planning on taking the bike a touch slower this year in an effort to not blow up on the run. A relatively short and very flat 10 miles should be easy enough.

The run is pretty interesting on this course. You wind through a neighborhood right out of transition, and if there's any humidity in the air, you'll feel it. There's not much room for a breeze through here, so the first mile and last mile are pretty isolated. The middle section is down a large hill and around a corner, looping on a cul-de-sac and back up the large hill. Run past Santa Claus and back toward transition for a downhill finish.

The goal: 1 hour or less. I was really close last year, but had an awful T1 and blew up on the run, averaging 7:25/mile thanks to some effort in the last mile and a half. Going for glory this year, I feel good already.

Park2Park Recap:

Surprise! I raced on Saturday morning! A few guys in the group had been talking about putting together a team for a few weeks, though we didn't really set any firm plans until a couple days before the race. The event was a relay, with each runner completing 5.4 miles total. Each runner would start by running one mile, then a leg of 3.4, then a final mile into the finish.

First mile went by pretty well, I was aiming to keep it low but reasonable. I came across the line right around 6 minutes, pretty good for the heat and humidity we were already experiencing at 7:30 AM. By the time 8:00 rolled around, we were already well over the 80 degree mark, and the humidity was on the rise. There was no cloud cover in sight, and the breeze was leaving us hanging. All this to say, it was HOT.

The second leg was the killer. I was our 2nd runner, and when I left from the timing chip handoff, we were behind a group of high school runners by about 25 seconds. I wanted to let the kid in front of me run his jitters off a little bit before making too big a push to try to catch him, so I let him lead out at that distance for about a mile. Once we got into the woods where there was no one around, he started fading a bit and I pounced. I caught him just before the turn around, and proceeded to extend the lead over him to about seconds, making up 50 on them over the course of the 3.4 mile leg.

The team ran really well, and coming into our last miles we had a pretty good lead. Their lead runner really hammered the first mile, and brought the gap down to where she and our runner came across to hand off the chip almost simultaneously. With experience comes advantages, and we had a better chip handoff, allowing me to get out ahead a bit from the transition. I knew the kid had legs, so it was important for me to keep my turnover high and focus on breathing and form. By the time I had a half mile done, I had put a bit of distance on him but could still see him around corners and over my shoulder. I put my head down and powered through the last half mile, and was able to earn quite a bit of space between he and I.

Our next runner ran strong, while theirs seemed to lose some steam and the gap widened to about 1:40 between us. Our final runner paced himself on the first half mile, making sure to leave some in the tank for the finish. Their final runner came out like a shot, picking up lost time the whole way. As our final runner came down the chute, there was only about a :05 gap between us, but we held on for the win. A pretty fun day, but definitely a lot more difficult than it sounds. Running a quick mile, then waiting for 35-40 minutes and running 3.4, then waiting for another 50+ minutes to run another mile is a taxing task, and made for a unique challenge.

On the day, my average was 6:34/mile, which I'm extremely pleased with considering the heat and humidity. I was able to try some Clif shots again, and confirmed that they just don't work very well for my stomach. They taste good, the consistency is nice, but they're just a little too heavy and I start to slosh.

Training Update:

Training is, well, training. I've been working hard at getting my cleats in my pedals and my tush on the saddle, and I've been doing much better. My speed work is coming along nicely, and I'm starting to feel confident about my ability to complete Muncie with some strength this year. I'm not going to kill myself for these two races before Muncie, but I want to do well at them too. They're good opportunities to practice my nutrition, feel out transitions and to get comfortable with the nerves that I'll have on race day.

Yesterday I completed my longest ride of the season at 3-1/2 hours. I was scheduled for 4, but with the clock reading 11 PM, it was time to get off and go to bed. That alarm clock seems to buzz earlier and earlier anymore... I was able to ride on the road for a good portion of that, but had to complete the rest of it on the trainer in the garage due to weather and darkness. It was humid and gross in the garage, and I'm convinced that the trainer sucks power. I went from averaging over 16 MPH on the road to under 14 MPH on the trainer. I did get 52 miles in though, and it was a fantastic opportunity to test my nutrition plan.

About 25-30 minutes into the ride, I encountered a pretty gnarly rainstorm. Heavy rain, which I thought had turned to hail at one point, and heavy headwinds made the going pretty tough, especially uphill. Once the rain cleared it got easier, and I started to dry out as I pedaled on. I stopped at a Dollar General in a small town to the west (Stilesville) and picked up some sandwich bags to keep my phone protected in case I encountered more rain on the way home. Heading back east I was riding with the wind, and managed to keep a nice high average pace without exerting myself more than I was before. I rode pretty much right up until it was too dark to ride, at which point I retired to the garage.

I consumed mostly gels on the ride, although I did eat some Honey Stinger gummies to break up the monotony. I think if I'm going to do that again though, I need to have a bento box. Trying to eat the gummies with one hand and ride with the other lead to slowing down and some near crashes. The gels were no problem, rip, spit and eat. I definitely figured out which ones I don't want to get anymore (Powerbar Kona Punch... blech!) and which ones I do (Clif Razz & Lemon Lime), as well as some good back up options. I've got to dig through my garbage today and figure out exactly which ones before I go back for more though, I went through quite a few.

In order to get my 300-350 calories per hour in, I made sure to eat 3 gels per hour, or 2 gels and one packet of gummies. The gels I had ranged between 100-115 calories each, and the gummies were 110 per packet. In addition to this, I took two 24 oz. water bottles, which each equal about 1-1/2 "regular" bottles, and I was trying to get through one of those per hour. In addition, I took my BASE Performance Electrolyte Salt with me, and I took two dips of that every half hour.

The short story on this: It worked like a dream.

Every time I felt like I needed a boost of energy, it was time for another gel or a lick of salt. I kept hydrated drinking every five minutes or so, and was able to keep a nice high cadence the whole time. By the end of hour number 2, I was still ready to go harder. Once I got into the garage and on the trainer it got considerably more difficult, but even then I stuck to the plan and was able to push through.

Earlier this last week I was able to get my first open water swim of the season. I was invited to swim at a local private lake, and was happy to get 1.1 miles of swimming in just under 40 minutes. We did some confidence training, sighting practice, and general training around the perimeter of the lake. I was even able to practice wearing a cap... I hate those stupid things.

All told, training is going well. I'm feeling more and more confident as time goes by, and I'm extremely happy with the quality of the miles I'm putting in. Time will tell if I'm as fit as I think, and the first test is right around the corner.

I'm really excited to see how the season shapes up, starting with this Saturday at Cicero. I probably won't post until next week, as I really hone in and get my mind right for Saturday and as training continues to ramp up. Later on...