Catching Up

Well, after St. Anthony’s we had a two week turn around to the next qualifier, The Peachtree City International Triathlon.  I was hoping for improvement here but apparently racing hard twice in two weeks is not in the cards for me.  The swim was a bit long (at least we all felt so), but I had some sighting issues and probably swam 1700 meters when all was said and done.  Its when I got on the bike that I could really feel my legs no there.  I struggled to bring the bike in with a decent time, then rand a fair 10K for how I was feeling.  In the end I finished up 25th of 56 in my age group, so not close like St. Anthony's to the 33% cutoff.  Total time for the race was 2:40:07, and I was hoping for something close r to 2:33.  Oh well.  When I can only muster a 19mph average on an Olympic distance bike leg, it just is not my day.  2:40:07 is still my best time, so I will take it.

I was thinking of doing a few other Olympic races in June and early July, but it looks like we are going to shut it down as far as racing goes until August.  The next event will be the Sandestin Triathlon in August, and I am going to aim for an aggressive time here with tweener distance this race is.  After that either Rev3 Anderson Half, or Augusta Half.  I am also still considering the Lake Lanier 5150 event on September 11th.  There is a lot to choose from.

Over the past month i have been doing a lot of speedwork at the track and a few longer (2h plus) rides over the weekends to get the legs back.  We just finished the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th so after a full recovery this week, we are looking at part 2 of this season kicking into high gear to get primed for August and September’s events.

On a little bigger note, it looks like next year I am going to take on the full distance and tackle Ironman France in Niece.  This is two days before my 40th birthday, so lets see where that goes!

St. Anthony’s Race Report

As we arrived to transition to setup for the day the first thing we heard on the loudspeaker was something about the swim course.  With the history of cancelled swims that was a jolt to the 6am morning air, which was considerably windy.  Because of the windy conditions the swim course was moved to a beach on the other side of transition and shortened to a 1000 meter swim only.  In the end probably a good move as the water in the basin we would have normally swam in was like a washing machine, and could have easily thrown weaker swimmers into the bulkhead wall at the exit stairs.  Still felt good and looked forward to the challenge of the wind on the bike course.  Another tweak this added was about a 1/3 mile run to T1 from the swim exit, all on concrete sidewalks.   A bit smoother than Alcatraz, so no need for additional shoes.

With our wave starting almost 2 hours after the pros we had a lot of time to kill, and were able to actually see a lot of the pro racing.  The field included big guns like Matt Reed, Andy Potts, Cameron Dye and was very deep with ITU racers that I did not know very well.  Looked like about a 30 deep men's field.  I was able to get down to the waters edge and watch the gun go off and the pros sprint straight to us and into the water for the swim start.  We watched them exit, headed to the bike start for, and also were on the road for the run start.  Cameron Dye had a huge lead over Matt Reed, Andy Potts, and Filip Ospaly to start the run.  At this point it was time to start getting ready for the swim start.  They sent our all the women’s AG before the men started, and we were group 2 of the 35-39 AG.  As we were on the beach queued up, we were able to peek over the beach wall and watch a dead sprint between Reed, Dye and Ospaly down the last mile stretch, and Ospaly broke free right in front of us for a 15 second win over Reed.  Those guys were flying.

Goal for the race was something close to 2:35:00 and with the swim shortened that could be adjusted to 2:26, however the extra couple of minutes for the T1 run from swim alters the equation a bit, so really a 2:28 is what I thought I needed to get into the top 33% and a Age Group Nationals Qualifying Time.

Swim was in a pretty shallow area, but was very choppy.  It has been a while since a mass start for me, but I always enjoy those.  There were a few moments with the chop that you took some water in the face on a breath and once or twice where you could not see much other than a swell around, but once you turned right at the first buoy the current was not in your face anymore and it was a little easier.  Took the 1000 meter swim in 17:38,  which on a 1500 meter course would have come out right under 26 minutes, a good start for me.  T1 run and transition went pretty well but the extra 1/3 mile run made this a 5:04 transition.

The bike course was a little technical at parts, and the first few miles were the only actual downwind portion to the first turnaround.    Winds were gusting probably up to 20mph, and the flags were at full flap all morning long.  Coming back to downtown St. Pete was dead into the wind then the majority of the course was all cross winds which helps nobody.  Lots of turns and a few busy roads contributed, but I felt good and thought I hydrated well.  Goal was a 21 mph ride, but the wind hurt and I ended up with a 20.1 mph average for a time of 1:14:08.  T2 was going well until I was about 15 seconds away from the bike and realized I still had my helmet on.  Big mistake and had to turn back and get rid of the helmet at my transition spot.  I think this cost me close to 30-40 seconds.

The run course is a fantastic, flat route through a great neighborhood on the water in downtown St. Pete.  This is the area I thought I was prepared for, and was really gunning for a sub 50 10K in a triathlon for once.  My splits went 7:51, 7:42 then had a hamstring issue similar to Augusta and had to stretch and add fluids during that third mile.  For a minute or two I thought I may not keep the pace, and had some funked up strides.  It showed on my 3rd mile split of 8:17.  However I was able to close out the second 5K with 7:56, 8:06, and 7:50 splits for a net 48:32.

Total race time came in at 2:27:46.  This was good for 84th out of 239 in the age group so 35th percentile.  81st place was the last slot for Age Group Nationals so I just missed the cut. 2:26:49 was 81st place so I missed by 57 seconds.  As good of a race as I had, that is still disappointing to get that close.  Two areas cost me here:  First was the 30 seconds in T2 when I had to return to my bike to drop-off my helmet after running with it still on.  Second, I probably left a little out there in the last 5K.  I was trying to manage my hamstring cramping so my mile 3 and 5 splits that were over 8 minutes cost the second 30 seconds.  There were a few seconds to be shaved in each transition, so if I maxed out everywhere I may have had it.

Aggregating out my time and comparing if with a full swim and normal T1, I am guessing add about 8:15 to the swim and take off 2 minutes for the T1 run.  That would take me out to a 2:34:01 for my best Olympic Distance time by 9 minutes over a 2:43:01 at Tugaloo 2009.  Disappointed I did not max out for the minute missed on the cut, but have to be happy with the continued performance improvements.  Next up, Peachtree City International Triathlon on Saturday May 14th.

St. Anthony's Day

Sent from my iPhoneBloodied the shoes up pretty good.

St. Anthony’s Setup

Ready to go for tomorrow.  Below are some photos of the race setup, a great area in downtown St. Petersburg.  This is a cool downtown area and will be great for tomorrow.  We will be hitting the road around 5am tomorrow, so shooting for anything from 2:32 to 2:35 to get AG Nationals Qualification.  Weather will be warm in the 80’s and the swim is not going to allow a wetsuit.

This is a view of the city and course from the north end of the run course and also the swim course from the exit angle.

Swim Course

Transition

Sent from my iPhone

Big Transition

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Expo under the trees

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Check In

Sent from my iPhone

2011 Season Kickoff

This weekend marks the 2011 kickoff and the St. Anthony’s Triathlon in St. Petersburg Florida.  Heading down tonight and will be a fun race with 4,000 of my closest friends Sunday.  This years running races produced another 10K Best of 45:42 in the Chattahoochee Challenge in February and a Half-Marathon of 1:47:00 in the Publix Georgia Marathon. 

In attempting to qualify for USAT Age Group Nationals later this summer I have picked two regional qualifiers over the next two weeks in St. Anthony’s and the Peachtree City International Triathlon.  To qualify, I need to finish in the top 1/3 of my age group in these two very competitive fields.  Based on past years and field histories, it looks like a 2:35 should get me there.  That’s going to take a solid (21mph avg) bike split with a sub 50 minute 10K off the bike.  I will update and see how the race goes!

Augusta 70.3 2010

Year two for me in the Augusta 70.3 race.  Once again this was my peak race for the year after Alcatraz, and the fitness work up over the last month went very well.

Overall race conditions this year were much different than 2009.  On Saturday before the race the sun was out, temps were in the mid 90’s and it was brutally humid.  The forecast called for a front to move through overnight and bring rain all day on race day.  The rain did come (mostly on the bike), but the main front did not get into town until later in the day so we ended up with mid-80’s temps along with high 80% humidity + rain showers.  A good learning experience for hydrating when you don’t feel the need, more on that later.

The goal for this year was to bring in a time under 5:30, and with a great run maybe 5:15-ish.  That would require shaving some Transition time off last year as well as a little quicker bike, but most importantly a much faster run.  I felt like I could turn in a 1:55-2h run in this race based on my training.

The swim was almost identical to last year.  I did the course in 25:07 and it was a very easy swim.  Other than vision problems with my goggles fogging up all was good.  I did lose about 20 seconds off of last years swim time, but nothing to worry about.  T1 time dropped to 3:55 from last years 5min plus.  Considering the fact we had everything covered in plastic and it was raining pretty steadily at that time I was very happy with the times.

Out on the bike I felt very strong this year, and the times improved to show it.  Total time was 2:45:38 which came out to a 20.3 mph average for the 56 miles.  This part of the race was where the majority of the rain came down.  It was a pretty light drizzle for the first half, but between miles 30-50 it was really coming down hard.  We had some hairy descents and turns, and a few packs to deal with who were drafting, but it was a pretty clean ride.  I did lose my computer close to mile 45 when I hit a big bump in the road, so I was blind as to speed the last 10 miles.  Not sure if that hurt or helped but I pulled in a 6 minute improvement over last year’s time.  As for nutrition, this is also where I was hurt the most.  I did take my GU every 45 minutes like I prefer to, but I ended up only drinking about 1 and 3/4 bottles of water and sports drink on the bike portion.  Riding in the rain I felt hydrated and did not notice the humidity.  That would come back to bite me on the run.

T2 was 2:34, so I lost about 10 seconds off last year, but I had some unique packing to deal with.  With the rain I had bagged my running shoes and changed into dry socks as well, so not too shabby for all the extra work to do.

With all of my offseason running and pace improvements the run is where I was expecting to improve the most.  My goal here was a sub-2hour half marathon and my conditioning (I thought) was there.  First three miles clicked off some 8:30 miles while feeling like I was taking it easy.  Legs and heart felt great and I was feeling a good setup for the run.  About mile 5 I felt some quad cramping but was able to maintain a steady pace, however it took two to three aid stations to get enough fluids in me to get rid of the cramps.  Pace was good as I passed the finish line and entered the dead zone of the course before you loop the second time.  This is where I started to feel some fatigue and ended up taking two 30 second walk breaks.  This is where my run was broken.  From here on out I probably had a minute of walking every 10 minutes and just could not get a rhythm going.  We don’t have the 7 mile split times available yet, but I am very curious to see the actual pace on first half and second half to see how much I lost.  Anyhow, this is one mentally draining run because the straits are sooooo long and monotonous and I just struggled to feel good the entire second loop.  I was pretty pissed but it happens.  My final time on the run came in at 2:11:48 for a 10:04 min/mile pace on the run.  Not at all what I was expecting after the past year of run improvements.

I finished 14 minutes and 42 seconds ahead of last years pace and the finishing percentages were a bit better (except the bike).  Overall I finished in 1,061st place of 2,536 total finishers, so in the 41st percentile overall.  That was a five point percentile drop over last year.  Swim rank was 276 overall (15%), Bike was 986 overall (38%), and run was 1450 overall (57%).  I did get into the top half of my age group this time finishing 178th of 380 in the M35-39 group (46%).