Thursday, August 30, 2012
Superior Man II
I am officially signed up for the second annual Superior Man triathlon on 25AUG2013. I am looking forward to see what improvements Clint and the Duluth Running Co. Team come up with. See everyone there.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Superior Man Race Report
Superior Man Race Recap
Short Synopsis:
Slow but steady swim in 38:XX. About what I expected.
Solid bike pace, until I got a flat (10 minutes to change)
and then got stung by a wasp: 2:45. Take
away the break for changing and I am pleased with my bike time.
Run… Not so
good. Over two hours of run, shuffle,
walk. Problems with a side stitch right
from the get go. Need to figure this
out.
Long Version:
With a 6:30 start for the first boat, it was going to be an
early morning. I rolled into transition
about 5:30 am and set about getting the bike and transition spot ready. Being indoors made this very easy as it was
well lit. It cleared out as the first
boat folks went to board and I took care of the last few things and headed out
to watch them jump in and get my chip.
Swim:
I will be the first to say I was a little disappointed when
they changed from a straight in swim to the rectangle arrangement. After watching the first boat start, and then
swimming it myself I will say it was a great decision overall. From a safety perspective the kayakers and
medics on the breakwall were able to watch both
of the long legs of the rectangle with ease. Also, the spectators were able to watch
everything happen right in front of them.
Once on the Vista Fleet boat I went up top as I wanted to start
DFL. I figured since I got roped into
the “faster” wave it would be better to start last in the time trial start so
any of the faster folks would not have to navigate around me. It also worked out well as myself and Adam
Swank, the other guy to jump last (two jump doors…) were “allowed” to dive
in. They said for safety purposes
everyone needed to jump in feet first in case there was any floating
debris. Adam coaxed Clint into letting
us dive by saying after 300 other folks have gone in, it should be clear of
debris. So I gave it a good jump, and
realized mid air that with the height I jumped, and the door height above the
water I was going to go pretty far under.
No biggie… It was a pretty sweet
way to start. Kudos to Clint, SuperiorMan, and the Vista Fleet for the boat start.
It was a highlight point of the race.
My swim was uneventful, as it should be. With the time trial start for each boat load,
and the two boat loads, there was very little crowd on the swim. Of course, it was tough to catch a draft
though. The chop was a little rough for
your average swim. That really was to be
expected as Lake Superior is a little larger
than your average lake. I had no problem
with the chop overall, I just drank a little lake a couple times; this should
test if the lake really was clean enough for us.
T1:
Once out of the water, it was a little bit of a jog to the
arena door. I made a point of running as
I did not want to waste a minute of race time.
Once in the arena they were warning folks to walk as the smooth concrete
floor and wet feet did not mix. I kept
rolling though. Bottom line, in a
straight line no problem. Simply slow
down when you need to turn the corner…
Saw story with the bike in hand out to start the ride.
Bike:
The bike started simple enough. Kept it easy on the out and back over the
railroad tracks. Continued to take it
easy through the first miles in town.
Once onto London Road ,
I tried to get in a groove. With the
tail wind on the outbound leg, I figured I had to be careful to push but not
too hard. Take advantage of the wind
while we had it.
I was passing lots of people the entire bike ride. I saw absolutely no drafting. However, there were a couple guys that need
to work on their position foul understanding.
I am guessing they thought since they started so late there would not be
any strong bikers behind them. Sorry
guys, there is someone who swims worse than you do…
Everything was going to plan until I turned the corner at
Two Harbors. This pavement was brand
new, finished only two weeks ago… Yet
for some reason my bike seemed to be bouncing a little. I checked my tires and it appeared my rear
was a little low. I pulled off and sure
enough it was probably at 50 psi and going down slowly. Better change it…
I took my time because I still had 23 miles to go and did
not want to miss some small chunk of whatever that was causing a problem. Ten minutes later I was ready to go. Once back on track, I really started to
notice the head wind. It was really
making us work. I paid special attention
to my Quark so that I would not be frying my legs before even getting on the
run.
Things were going smoothly and I was staying smooth as I
traveled down London Road
again. Just before I get to the bike
trail with about 5 miles to go in the bike a wasp/hornet/bee stings me in my
right leg below the knee. A few curse
words later and no mishap of bike handling later and my leg hurts like a
sonofabitch… Nothing to do here, so I
keep rolling and make my way towards T2.
T2:
I made my way through T2 with my normal quickness. Nothing good can come of sitting in a nice
cool hockey arena when your run is out in the sunny 85-90 degree heat. Total time was 1:13 in T2. Only the relay folks were in and out faster
than me. That would be the end of things
that went well for me…
Run:
Starting out my legs felt great and I headed out. I knew the heat would be tough, but I think I
started the run a little dehydrated. Add
to that the side stitches that flared up right away, and the fact that my right
leg was a little numb from the knee down from the wasp/hornet/bee sting and I
knew I was in for a rough afternoon.
I tried to make the best of the run. When the opportunity arose I chatted with
other athletes. I tried to thank the
volunteers when I could, and even had the luck to be coming under the aerial
lift bridge when there were big boats coming in on two of my three laps.
Finish:
Once I finished I grabbed a cool bottle of water and laid
down on the grass. My side stitch was
still pretty bad. It was so bad I could
not breathe in very deep at all. I said
hello to the family and thanked them for cheering me on. They asked if I wanted to go out for lunch,
but I was a dirty, sweaty, salty mess so I said they should just go. I then chatted with a bunch of other athletes
and had my complimentary brat from Canal Park Brewing Company. Based on the brat alone, I cannot wait for
them to be open so I can try the other food and beer they will be offering.
Overall I will say I thought the race was well run. Sure, there were a few things they could have
done a little better; maybe some carpet for the smooth concrete floor in
transition, slight tweak to the run aid station placement, improve the stairs
out of the swim. All of those things
were minor issues and for transition they were adding carpets as they could and
had a slew of volunteers telling us it was slippery. For the run aid stations, on the longest
hottest stretch without an aid station they had bikes and a golf cart going up
and down the road handing out water on the later laps as it got warmer. So they were doing a good job of identifying
these items as they happened and doing what they could to improve them on the
spot. Kudos…
The highlights were many though:
- Swim course – starting from the boat was cool and the course was easy for safety personnel and spectators.
- Transition – indoors was neat, but the overall organization and assigned rack spots was nice.
- The volunteers were everywhere and did a very good job overall. People were all over in the water and on the breakwall for the swim, every corner in town had people and signs telling us where to go on the bike, and the run aid stations had smiling volunteers along with many more at the turns and areas where we would be crossing over popular tourist walkways. If you volunteered, thanks. I tried to thank many of you, but I know I missed many.
- Bike – I may be an unfair opinion on the course as I rode it four or five times in its entirety prior to race day so when I say it was easy to follow, well… I thought they had well educated volunteers telling you about the turns and the areas to take a little extra caution though… I did see a few flats out there, but since I was starting from the back I probably saw almost all of them, along with getting one. When you factor in there were 246 finishers, that means there were a total of 13776 miles biked on the day. Many of those miles were on slightly more fragile tires than your average training tire. So, I cannot say there was really a flat issue. I am sure everyone who got one may beg to differ though…
- “Big”
Time Race Feel – this is my own interpretation I guess. The whole venue choice from the arena
for transition, to using a boat to start, and having the wonderful
- Logistics – ever go to a race and have no place to park? Well, if you were willing to pay $5 you could park no more than 100 yards from the front door to transition. If you did not want to pay, there was a lot one block away that was less than 100 yards from the finish line that was free. Both had plenty of open spots because they were designed for events with 1000’s of people instead of 100’s of people.
- Cool finishers medal...
Overall, a good race to have as a late season goal
race. See everyone next year,.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Race Weekend Approaching
With Sunday fast approaching, and with it Superior Man, I have been trying to keep my workouts light this week. I have also been going over the bike to make sure it is ready to go also. In addition to that, I finalized the bike course preview video I had been working on (check it out below).
This evening I did the final prep on my bike and cleaned the bike and helmet. I plan on taking it out tomorrow for the final short ride prior to race day.
The rest of my time prior to race time will be spent watching the weather so I can plan what to have for race day. I will also be making the final nutrition decisions and having them prepped for transition setup.
I look forward to seeing all of the inaugural Superior Man athletes at check in day on Saturday as I am volunteering. Best of luck to anyone racing.
This evening I did the final prep on my bike and cleaned the bike and helmet. I plan on taking it out tomorrow for the final short ride prior to race day.
The rest of my time prior to race time will be spent watching the weather so I can plan what to have for race day. I will also be making the final nutrition decisions and having them prepped for transition setup.
Superior Man Bike Course Video
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Duluth Triathlon Race Day
This morning I got up bright and early to volunteer at the Duluth Triathlon. Today was the inaugural event for the Duluth Triathlon. The day started off with wonderful weather for a triathlon. It was in the low 50's as the racers prepped their transition areas, and they hit the mid 70's by the time the run was underway.
Pre-Race
I started my day as a body marker. Like I said yesterday, I got to ask women to take their (long sleeve) shirts off so I could get their (race) number, and write it on them. I am pretty sure I did not write the wrong number on anyone. It was fun to ask people their age, USAT age no less, so I could put that on their calf. One gentlemen did a triple take before he settled on the age I would end up writing on his calf. Only one lady had the misfortune of having USAT age her up a little early...
Swim
As the mens wave took off, there was one lady who had the wrong color swim cap. For some reason this seemed to cause her concern, so with about 4 minutes prior to her wave I ran back to the registration area to grab her the proper green colored cap. I hope this helped her start her race off on the right foot.
Once all of the swimmers were in the water I was able to relax for a little bit and watch them churn their way through the water. Something I have never noticed before was the wonderful sound a group of swimmers makes as the take off at the start of a race.
As the swimmers made their way towards the end of lap two, I prepared to man the water/gatorade station at the swim exit. Not the most popular aid station, in fact more than one athlete turned the water down because they had enough of Island Lake to keep hydrated.
Bike
After all of the swimmers were out onto their bicycles, I headed over to help out with the bicycle turn around aid station in front of transition. The course was a fourteen mile out and back that the athletes did twice. As they came around the turn around, we were there to get them a fresh water bottle if they needed it. After a few of the athletes came through, the sag truck pulled up with an athlete and her bicycle. I headed over to see what was wrong, and the athletes rear tire was in sad shape. A simple tube was not going to help her out. Since I had my bike in the back of my truck, I ran and got my rear wheel and swapped it our so she could keep racing. I was happy to see her make it in off the bike with no further problems.
Transition
As the bikers started returning to transition to head out for a run, I moved over to help manage traffic as the runners had to cross the road from transition to the run course. Luckily this portion of volunteering went without any issues.
Run
After directing traffic for a while, I jogged out onto the run course to help man an aid station for a little while. When I got there, they had enough folks so I headed out to the turn around since there was only one volunteer there. At the turn Sara and I got to hang out cheering the runners on as they were starting there half marathon out. Shortly, another volunteer stopped out to tell us the last of the runners had gone by. Once that happened, we packed up the cones and headed back in. When I got to the finish line I helped cheer in the finishers and also helped them with removing their timing chips.
All in all, I got to see the race from a little bit of everywhere. I had a fun time chatting with the various volunteers and athletes as the day went by. I hope I was able to help a few athletes have a better race in some way. I am looking forward to helping out at check in on Saturday for the Superior Man Triathlon. Sunday will be race day, and I think I am ready to put up a solid time.
Pre-Race
I started my day as a body marker. Like I said yesterday, I got to ask women to take their (long sleeve) shirts off so I could get their (race) number, and write it on them. I am pretty sure I did not write the wrong number on anyone. It was fun to ask people their age, USAT age no less, so I could put that on their calf. One gentlemen did a triple take before he settled on the age I would end up writing on his calf. Only one lady had the misfortune of having USAT age her up a little early...
Swim
As the mens wave took off, there was one lady who had the wrong color swim cap. For some reason this seemed to cause her concern, so with about 4 minutes prior to her wave I ran back to the registration area to grab her the proper green colored cap. I hope this helped her start her race off on the right foot.
 |
| Ladies Swim Wave Ready to Go |
As the swimmers made their way towards the end of lap two, I prepared to man the water/gatorade station at the swim exit. Not the most popular aid station, in fact more than one athlete turned the water down because they had enough of Island Lake to keep hydrated.
Bike
 |
| Do you remember where you parked? |
After all of the swimmers were out onto their bicycles, I headed over to help out with the bicycle turn around aid station in front of transition. The course was a fourteen mile out and back that the athletes did twice. As they came around the turn around, we were there to get them a fresh water bottle if they needed it. After a few of the athletes came through, the sag truck pulled up with an athlete and her bicycle. I headed over to see what was wrong, and the athletes rear tire was in sad shape. A simple tube was not going to help her out. Since I had my bike in the back of my truck, I ran and got my rear wheel and swapped it our so she could keep racing. I was happy to see her make it in off the bike with no further problems.
Transition
As the bikers started returning to transition to head out for a run, I moved over to help manage traffic as the runners had to cross the road from transition to the run course. Luckily this portion of volunteering went without any issues.
Run
After directing traffic for a while, I jogged out onto the run course to help man an aid station for a little while. When I got there, they had enough folks so I headed out to the turn around since there was only one volunteer there. At the turn Sara and I got to hang out cheering the runners on as they were starting there half marathon out. Shortly, another volunteer stopped out to tell us the last of the runners had gone by. Once that happened, we packed up the cones and headed back in. When I got to the finish line I helped cheer in the finishers and also helped them with removing their timing chips.
All in all, I got to see the race from a little bit of everywhere. I had a fun time chatting with the various volunteers and athletes as the day went by. I hope I was able to help a few athletes have a better race in some way. I am looking forward to helping out at check in on Saturday for the Superior Man Triathlon. Sunday will be race day, and I think I am ready to put up a solid time.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Duluth Triathlon in the Morning
Tomorrow morning I will get to ask women to take their shirts off and tell me their number. And they will!
Race recap in the evening...
Race recap in the evening...
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Northwoods Tri Recap
Summary
So in my pre-race post I noted the following goals:
bike - maintain a 250 watt average
run - run sub 7 min/mile pace
overall - top 10 placement
Check, check, and triple check...
Swim - 7:29 (1:42/100 yard)
The swim was about what I can expect from my swim. Standard pace for me, and with the small number of folks in the waves minimal contact with other swimmers. As I hit the shallow water and stood up, I had a little trouble with my wetsuit zipper. So instead of pulling the suit off in the water I ran to my bike with it on. Once in T1, I tried to move quickly. Ditched the wetsuit, threw the helmet on and got my socks and bike shoes on. Onto the bike...
Bike - 34:37 (24.3 mph)
Once on the bike I had some work to do. I really wanted to work hard to see if I could still run solid afterwards. I started off well with only a little trouble getting around some slower traffic in the first couple miles. After a bit I caught up to another biker that began to leapfrog with me. He was the only biker to physically pass me while on the bike, and even then I came into T2 before him. Overall, the second fastest bike split and I was pleased with my effort and average of 269 watts which met my stated goal. Into T2 I took it a little easier running in trying to make sure my shoe did not clip the ground and cause my bike to bounce around like the last couple races. It worked and then I tried to quickly ditch the helmet and don the running shoes. I had a bit of a slip with my left shoe, but on the second try got it and off I went.
Run - 20:32 (6:37 min/mile)
As I went out for the run I tried to count the bikes in transition, and there were not many. This had me feeling good about the potential for a top 10. As I hit the extremely flat run course I tried to get a good pace going and hang on from there. The first mile marker showed a 6:3X on the watch which had me feeling good. As I approached the turn around I had only counted 5 or 6 runners heading at me. After that I tried to make sure I was keeping the pace up. At the second mile marker, I once again saw a 6:3X. So far so good... On the last mile, one runner did catch me, but he was from the wave ahead, so no loss of placement if I could keep running strong. I did start feeling a little bit of a side stitch in the last half mile, but I made it to the finish with no issues. As I approached the finish line I could see it would be close to come in under 1:05 for a total time. So I put on a little extra push and hit the line in 1:04:59. Personal best overall finish time on this course for me.
Overall - 1:04:59 (4th overall, 3rd age group)
Yup, I was in the fast age group. Fourth overall and barely snagged an age group award... Overall I was very pleased with the race. I set a new bar for how hard I can really push on the bike and still be able to run strong for a sprint type event. Now, I need to put in a few last good workouts prior to Superior Man and nail my taper.
So in my pre-race post I noted the following goals:
bike - maintain a 250 watt average
run - run sub 7 min/mile pace
overall - top 10 placement
Check, check, and triple check...
Swim - 7:29 (1:42/100 yard)
The swim was about what I can expect from my swim. Standard pace for me, and with the small number of folks in the waves minimal contact with other swimmers. As I hit the shallow water and stood up, I had a little trouble with my wetsuit zipper. So instead of pulling the suit off in the water I ran to my bike with it on. Once in T1, I tried to move quickly. Ditched the wetsuit, threw the helmet on and got my socks and bike shoes on. Onto the bike...
Bike - 34:37 (24.3 mph)
Once on the bike I had some work to do. I really wanted to work hard to see if I could still run solid afterwards. I started off well with only a little trouble getting around some slower traffic in the first couple miles. After a bit I caught up to another biker that began to leapfrog with me. He was the only biker to physically pass me while on the bike, and even then I came into T2 before him. Overall, the second fastest bike split and I was pleased with my effort and average of 269 watts which met my stated goal. Into T2 I took it a little easier running in trying to make sure my shoe did not clip the ground and cause my bike to bounce around like the last couple races. It worked and then I tried to quickly ditch the helmet and don the running shoes. I had a bit of a slip with my left shoe, but on the second try got it and off I went.
Run - 20:32 (6:37 min/mile)
As I went out for the run I tried to count the bikes in transition, and there were not many. This had me feeling good about the potential for a top 10. As I hit the extremely flat run course I tried to get a good pace going and hang on from there. The first mile marker showed a 6:3X on the watch which had me feeling good. As I approached the turn around I had only counted 5 or 6 runners heading at me. After that I tried to make sure I was keeping the pace up. At the second mile marker, I once again saw a 6:3X. So far so good... On the last mile, one runner did catch me, but he was from the wave ahead, so no loss of placement if I could keep running strong. I did start feeling a little bit of a side stitch in the last half mile, but I made it to the finish with no issues. As I approached the finish line I could see it would be close to come in under 1:05 for a total time. So I put on a little extra push and hit the line in 1:04:59. Personal best overall finish time on this course for me.
Overall - 1:04:59 (4th overall, 3rd age group)
Yup, I was in the fast age group. Fourth overall and barely snagged an age group award... Overall I was very pleased with the race. I set a new bar for how hard I can really push on the bike and still be able to run strong for a sprint type event. Now, I need to put in a few last good workouts prior to Superior Man and nail my taper.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Northwoods Triathlon Pre-Race
Tomorrow morning is the tenth edition of the Northwoods Triathlon in Nevis, MN. It is a sprint distance triathlon with 1/4 mile swim, 14 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run. I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Park Rapids relaxing as I make final preparations for the morning.
As with last week, it looks like it will be a cool morning. Low to mid 50's for pre-race prep, and low to mid 60's for race time. I am sure it will be a little cool on the bike, but that is great run weather.
My goal for tomorrow will be to see just how hard I can push on the bike portion; I am planning on a minimum of a 250 watt average. Then follow it up with a sub 7:00 pace on the run if all goes well. If I can pull that off, I think I might have a chance at an age group top three.
After racing on Saturday morning, I will be getting a run in later in the day. Sunday my plan is to ride the Superior Man course one last time prior to race day followed by one or two laps of the run course. Then I will start easing back over the last two weeks prior to race day.
As with last week, it looks like it will be a cool morning. Low to mid 50's for pre-race prep, and low to mid 60's for race time. I am sure it will be a little cool on the bike, but that is great run weather.
My goal for tomorrow will be to see just how hard I can push on the bike portion; I am planning on a minimum of a 250 watt average. Then follow it up with a sub 7:00 pace on the run if all goes well. If I can pull that off, I think I might have a chance at an age group top three.
After racing on Saturday morning, I will be getting a run in later in the day. Sunday my plan is to ride the Superior Man course one last time prior to race day followed by one or two laps of the run course. Then I will start easing back over the last two weeks prior to race day.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Brewhouse Race Report
So I have not posted in a little while, and I thought writing up a race report for the Brewhouse Triathlon would be the perfect return post.
Synopsis
A real quick run down: cut your foot, swim slowly, fight the wind and rough roads, run like you are being chased, and relax with a smooth root beer...
Details
I woke up early so that I could get to the race site right at 6:30 am to get a good transition spot. Based on my recon on Saturday at packet pick up, there are better spots even though everyone is assigned a group of racks by number. It is nice that they group you by numbers to a rack, but it would be better if they had put the same number of bikes on each group of racks. On Saturday I looked through transition and found that each row was four racks with a sign for which numbers should rack there. Some rows has 20 numbers assigned, while others (including my row) had 30 numbers assigned. So, since it would be crowded I figured I should get there early and get a good spot on the rack.
Once I had everything setup in the transition area, it was time to wait. With the short and long course sharing the same course, they had the short course race start first and then had a very long gap before the long course got going. The race starts at 8:30, and my wave did not take off until 9:06 or so. With the cool weather we were having, I basically shed my warm ups and then put my wetsuit on to stay warm as I sat on the beach watching the short course waves start, and even finish the swim portion.
It was fun hanging out on the beach chatting with other long course athletes waiting for our start. I chatted with a couple and another young lady. Both of the ladies were competing in their first long course triathlon. I don't think any of us was a good swimmer and we all were discussing our plan for making our way out of the lake. The urge to empty my bladder came over me so I decided to wish them all good luck and that a warm up swim was in order. Emphasize the warm up... Once that was taken care of it was getting close to the long course wave starts so I stayed in the water waiting. While waiting I was chatting with another athlete. Right as the elite wave left he commented that he just missed his wife start. Turns out they were on their second race of the weekend and his wife had won at Graniteman the day before. We wished each other luck as our wave was getting ready to go and we both found our spot on the start line.
Swim: 24:46 (74th)
Once the count down was over and we started, I took one step and my right foot found a very sharp rock or zebra mussel and I was immediately swimming... On the outbound leg of the new swim course we were swimming directly into the waves and wind. With my poor form, this does not really affect me other than that I took in quite a few mouthfulls of Pike Lake when I would happen to breathe right as a wave was cresting in my face. When we turned left at the far end of the outbound leg, we turned into the sun and the field immediately spread out searching for the next buoy. Being the lazy ass that I am, I took a second to sight the next buoy and picked my line and it was way left of the majority of the field. After the next buoy, we turned left towards the beach and now the waves were coming over our left shoulder and rolling us a little. Soon enough I was able to stand up and I yanked the wetsuit off and jogged to my bike.
Transition was a little hectic as long course athletes were running one way to their bikes, and the short course athletes were running the other way with their bikes or out on the run. When I got to my bike I quickly sat down to put my socks and shoes on after putting my helmet on. I then flipped my Garmin Edge 500 and ContourRoam on and headed out.
Bike: 56:31 (10th - 241 watts, 22.6 mph)
Note the discrepancy between my swim and bike performance... Couple that with starting in the second to last wave and not a single soul passed me on the bike. As much as I would like to think that is because I am a great biker, I know it has a lot more to do with my slow swimming... The new bike course was better that last years course for racer flow. I passed a lot of bikers, both short and long course, and I never had trouble with the course being crowded or having tight turns. The wind happened to be in our face on the section of pavement that was the smoothest. This of course then meant that we had a tail wind on the roughest section of pavement. All in all I was happy with how the bike section went for me. I pushed hard and set myself up well for the run.
Coming into transition I did my standard flying dismount and for the third time this year my drive side shoe caught the pavement and popped my bike in the air as I was running to my rack. These instances have all happened since I began using the wheelcover this year and it seems it rubs the cassette just enough to spin the crank and put the shoe closer to the ground after I jump off the bike.
Run: 34:07 (45th - 6:50 min/mile)
Leaving transition my plan was to run hard and see how long I could hold on. The cooler weather had me feeling confident I could run strong the whole way. Immediately out of transition I passed my plant manager who was having a solid race. Once out of the AAA grounds and onto Midway road I tried to lock onto a strong pace and go. There were a couple racers up the road that I set my sights on and went after. They were running strong, so it worked well. As I rounded the corner onto the old hwy 53 I saw race leader Brian Bich heading in for the win. He was looking strong and had a big lead. I grabbed a water at the aid station and kept running. Mile 2 was kind of boring in a good way. I held my pace but did not catch or get caught by anyone. As I turned the corner and headed down to the turn around I was getting closer to the two runners ahead of me. I managed to catch one just as I hit the turn around. Once heading back I also saw that there were a couple runners not too far behind me. As I powered up the hill I wanted to stay smooth and keep ahead of the runners I saw at the turn. Once back onto the old hwy, I got back up to pace and knew I had two miles to go. At this point I was feeling the start of a side stitch but kept pushing the pace. I wanted to see how hard I could push it. As I turned back onto Midway road with about a mile to go I was doing everything I could to keep the pace high. The side stitch was starting to be noticeable, but I was confident I could handle one more mile of it. At this point I could not catch the runner up the road, so I simply focused on running as fast and smooth as I could to the finish line. In the end, it was about 40 seconds faster than last year on the same run course.
Overall: 1:57:46 (26th)
Once finished, I made a point to congratulate the racer who finished just behind me. Seeing him at the turn around kept me focused on the return leg of the run and helped push me to a very solid run split. He made a similar comment that he was trying to chase me down the whole way and it helped push him also. I then made a beeline to the signature of the Brewhouse triathlon, the free Brewhouse Root Beer they have. Next to a cold beer, a cold Root Beer is a great after race refreshment.
I wanders around after the race and chatted with fellow racers and familiar faces from the Tuesday night Duluth Running Company tri training nights. I then cleaned up my gear and loaded it in my truck and headed back for awards.
All in all I am very pleased with my race. My time was slightly better than last year with a more challenging swim and a longer bike course. My race execution left me feeling pretty good as I look forward to Superior Man. I really pushed on the bike and ran very well afterwards. If I can get some solid workouts in over the next week before my taper I will be ready to roll come August 26th.
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| Ready for the race in the morning. |
A real quick run down: cut your foot, swim slowly, fight the wind and rough roads, run like you are being chased, and relax with a smooth root beer...
Details
I woke up early so that I could get to the race site right at 6:30 am to get a good transition spot. Based on my recon on Saturday at packet pick up, there are better spots even though everyone is assigned a group of racks by number. It is nice that they group you by numbers to a rack, but it would be better if they had put the same number of bikes on each group of racks. On Saturday I looked through transition and found that each row was four racks with a sign for which numbers should rack there. Some rows has 20 numbers assigned, while others (including my row) had 30 numbers assigned. So, since it would be crowded I figured I should get there early and get a good spot on the rack.
Once I had everything setup in the transition area, it was time to wait. With the short and long course sharing the same course, they had the short course race start first and then had a very long gap before the long course got going. The race starts at 8:30, and my wave did not take off until 9:06 or so. With the cool weather we were having, I basically shed my warm ups and then put my wetsuit on to stay warm as I sat on the beach watching the short course waves start, and even finish the swim portion.
It was fun hanging out on the beach chatting with other long course athletes waiting for our start. I chatted with a couple and another young lady. Both of the ladies were competing in their first long course triathlon. I don't think any of us was a good swimmer and we all were discussing our plan for making our way out of the lake. The urge to empty my bladder came over me so I decided to wish them all good luck and that a warm up swim was in order. Emphasize the warm up... Once that was taken care of it was getting close to the long course wave starts so I stayed in the water waiting. While waiting I was chatting with another athlete. Right as the elite wave left he commented that he just missed his wife start. Turns out they were on their second race of the weekend and his wife had won at Graniteman the day before. We wished each other luck as our wave was getting ready to go and we both found our spot on the start line.
Swim: 24:46 (74th)
Once the count down was over and we started, I took one step and my right foot found a very sharp rock or zebra mussel and I was immediately swimming... On the outbound leg of the new swim course we were swimming directly into the waves and wind. With my poor form, this does not really affect me other than that I took in quite a few mouthfulls of Pike Lake when I would happen to breathe right as a wave was cresting in my face. When we turned left at the far end of the outbound leg, we turned into the sun and the field immediately spread out searching for the next buoy. Being the lazy ass that I am, I took a second to sight the next buoy and picked my line and it was way left of the majority of the field. After the next buoy, we turned left towards the beach and now the waves were coming over our left shoulder and rolling us a little. Soon enough I was able to stand up and I yanked the wetsuit off and jogged to my bike.
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| After effects of stepping on a rock/zebra mussel. |
Bike: 56:31 (10th - 241 watts, 22.6 mph)
Note the discrepancy between my swim and bike performance... Couple that with starting in the second to last wave and not a single soul passed me on the bike. As much as I would like to think that is because I am a great biker, I know it has a lot more to do with my slow swimming... The new bike course was better that last years course for racer flow. I passed a lot of bikers, both short and long course, and I never had trouble with the course being crowded or having tight turns. The wind happened to be in our face on the section of pavement that was the smoothest. This of course then meant that we had a tail wind on the roughest section of pavement. All in all I was happy with how the bike section went for me. I pushed hard and set myself up well for the run.
Coming into transition I did my standard flying dismount and for the third time this year my drive side shoe caught the pavement and popped my bike in the air as I was running to my rack. These instances have all happened since I began using the wheelcover this year and it seems it rubs the cassette just enough to spin the crank and put the shoe closer to the ground after I jump off the bike.
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| Power File w/Elevation |
Run: 34:07 (45th - 6:50 min/mile)
Leaving transition my plan was to run hard and see how long I could hold on. The cooler weather had me feeling confident I could run strong the whole way. Immediately out of transition I passed my plant manager who was having a solid race. Once out of the AAA grounds and onto Midway road I tried to lock onto a strong pace and go. There were a couple racers up the road that I set my sights on and went after. They were running strong, so it worked well. As I rounded the corner onto the old hwy 53 I saw race leader Brian Bich heading in for the win. He was looking strong and had a big lead. I grabbed a water at the aid station and kept running. Mile 2 was kind of boring in a good way. I held my pace but did not catch or get caught by anyone. As I turned the corner and headed down to the turn around I was getting closer to the two runners ahead of me. I managed to catch one just as I hit the turn around. Once heading back I also saw that there were a couple runners not too far behind me. As I powered up the hill I wanted to stay smooth and keep ahead of the runners I saw at the turn. Once back onto the old hwy, I got back up to pace and knew I had two miles to go. At this point I was feeling the start of a side stitch but kept pushing the pace. I wanted to see how hard I could push it. As I turned back onto Midway road with about a mile to go I was doing everything I could to keep the pace high. The side stitch was starting to be noticeable, but I was confident I could handle one more mile of it. At this point I could not catch the runner up the road, so I simply focused on running as fast and smooth as I could to the finish line. In the end, it was about 40 seconds faster than last year on the same run course.
Overall: 1:57:46 (26th)
Once finished, I made a point to congratulate the racer who finished just behind me. Seeing him at the turn around kept me focused on the return leg of the run and helped push me to a very solid run split. He made a similar comment that he was trying to chase me down the whole way and it helped push him also. I then made a beeline to the signature of the Brewhouse triathlon, the free Brewhouse Root Beer they have. Next to a cold beer, a cold Root Beer is a great after race refreshment.
I wanders around after the race and chatted with fellow racers and familiar faces from the Tuesday night Duluth Running Company tri training nights. I then cleaned up my gear and loaded it in my truck and headed back for awards.
All in all I am very pleased with my race. My time was slightly better than last year with a more challenging swim and a longer bike course. My race execution left me feeling pretty good as I look forward to Superior Man. I really pushed on the bike and ran very well afterwards. If I can get some solid workouts in over the next week before my taper I will be ready to roll come August 26th.
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