Eagleman 70.3...only 2 months late

Well I figured it was about time to write my race report from June 9th Ironman Eagleman 70.3. It's funny how life always seems to get in the way of some of the most simple tasks. Lately, I've been putting in some big workouts so whenever I do have some downtime, writing and thinking about triathlon is the last thing that I want to do. But I started this blog for a reason so here it goes...

We started the 650 mile trip out to Cambridge on Friday morning. We decided to rent a car because my Jeep is on it's last leg and it also costs an arm and a leg to fill up. Man was that a good decision. Filling up a tank of gas for less than $40 was nothing short of awesome. The drive was pretty standard, rain and traffic the entire time. We arrived on Friday night and joined follow Wattie Inkers Roger Thrall and Jon Miles for a few drinks. For some reason, I like having a beer or two the days leading up to a race, it helps calm my nerves and makes me feel "normal" again.

Saturday was spent at packet pickup and going for a light jog...but that wasn't after going to the pro panel
and meeting Meredith Kessler and Mirinda Carfrae (as well as Greg and Laura Bennett). Both girls have won this race before so Sunday was going to be a shootout. SPOILER ALERT: Neither girl wins, or even finishes! Kessler collided with an AG'er on the bike, knocking her unconscious and Carfrae had cramps on the bike. Nothing else was too exciting about Saturday, it's usually pretty low key and trying to get off my feet as quickly as possible. I spent the evening preparing my water bottles and going through my mental checklist of things to do.


Pre-Race
Well my wave was 2nd to last to go, around 8:30am and unfortunately transition closed around 6:30 so I had to still get there at normal time. The alarm went off at 4:30 and I had my traditional bagel with peanut butter and banana. I also try to get down 1 full water bottle of PowerBar Perform to get my electrolyte levels higher. Eagleman was known for being hot, and it was raining the previous several days so I knew it was also going to be humid.

We got to transition and I went through my regular routine of throwing in my headphones and checking everything 3 times. Although time spent in transition becomes less of a factor the longer the race is, I still want to have everything organized and easily accessible. Once everything was in its proper order, we headed down to the swim start...where I had another hour and a half to wait...and wait...and wait.

Lauren and I watched the pro's go off then headed down to the swim exit to watch a majority of the pro's and AG'ers come in out of the water. This was by far the longest time I had to wait for my wave to go off. We watched most people come out of the water then I headed to the swim start to get a quick warm up in before the 1.2 mile swim.

SWIM
There were about 100 guys in my wave. The gun went off and as usual, I started out at a quicker pace than I wanted in order to get settled in. I found a guys feet and drafted off of him for about 1200 meters. The pace was pretty steady and I was feeling good. At the 1/2 way point, I got smacked upside the head by a guy who didn't know how to stroke but it didn't throw me off that much. We came to the final turn buoy and had about 1000 meters to go. I then saw that several people were standing up and walking...in the water! Because our wave went so late, low tide had approached and we were able to stand in water up to our knees. I stood up, got my bearings, took a few steps forward then went back to swimming. I exited the water at 35:53, good enough for 27th in my age group. Most of the top 10 guys swam 30-31 minutes and after even talking with Andy Potts he said that for whatever reason, the swim at Eagleman was traditionally long. There isn't much I would change about the swim, I felt pretty comfortable the whole time. I just need to get it down to a sub 30 minute swim.

T1
The run to my bike was fairly short which is always nice. I quickly found my bike and off I went. My shoes were already clipped in so it was a quick transition. The 2 days prior to the race it had been raining almost all day. There was about a 25 yard stretch from transition to the bike mount that was completely mud, like ankle deep mud. There was no way around it so I decided to make it into a cyclecross-like event. I couldn't imagine trying to walk through the mud with my cycling shoes on. I glanced at Lauren real quick, said hi and made my way to the mount line. T1 was 2:43





BIKE
The bike felt fairly good the entire time. My goal was to average 22 mph which would put me around 2:30-2:35. The course was incredibly flat, basically as flat as you can get and most of the road was newly paved. I kept thinking to myself "this smooth road has got to end at some point"...but it never did. I found a pack of 3-4 guys and 1 girl that I determined were about my same level. We all didn't say anything to each other, but we kept looking at each other and we knew we were feeding off of one another quite a bit. We kept jockeying back and forth and there might've been a little bit of drafting here and there but when your wave goes last and you pass someone every couple of yards, its difficult not to draft. I did my best though to not make it a habit or stay in the draft zone for too long. I managed to get my average mph to 22 within the first 20 miles so I just had to settle in and enjoy the ride. I kept my nutrition in check and swapped out water bottles at every aid station. I felt good the entire time. I finished the bike in 2:32, 22.1 avg mph.

T2
I did a fly dismount, picked up my bike and through the swampland I went. I got to my rack and my feet were completely caked in mud. I knew I couldn't run like that so I grabbed some random guys water bottle and quickly hosed off my feet. I threw on my K-Swiss Kwicky Blade Light's, grabbed my flask, hat and race belt and off I went. T2 was 2:41.










RUN
My goal before the race started was to finish in 4:45. I started the run in 3:15 so if I wanted to make my goal, I would've had to post a 1:30 half marathon. That was certainly doable, but I knew I had to have an awesome run. My goal for next year is to easily have a 1:30 run split for every race. At mile 3, I saw a teammate, Denise Hiller, who ran up and smacked my ass as I passed. That certainly gave me a little boost of energy so for that...I thank her. The run zig-zags for 3 miles through town then its 3 miles in open marshland to the turnaround. Although I've never done Kona (yet), but there was a part of the run that reminded me of the Energy Lab...no trees or spectators, just open roads and blistering sun. I grabbed water or Perform at every aid station, even though it was sometimes hard to grab because there were only 3-4 volunteers at each stop so there were even points where I had to stop at the table and grab my own water. I know that sounds snobby of me but I just wasn't expecting that. I made it to the turn around knew that 4:45 wasn't going to be attainable so I just wanted to do a sub-5 hour race. Around mile 8 I was about to get chicked so I used her to pace me and we were elbow to elbow for about 3 miles. Long story short...she eventually dropped me. I couldn't quite settle into a comfortable pace for most of the run. I don't think I over-biked but I kept getting nasty side stitches. I'm usually good at working them out but this time I couldn't get over them. I finished the run in 1:44, a 7:59/mile pace. On any given day, that would be an easy stroll for me so I was disappointed with my run. I found the girl I got chicked by (Sylvie Mullins) and thanked her for the extra motivation. I ended up crossing the finish line in 4:57:58. I ended up 26/100 in my age group and 304th overall.

NUTRITION
My morning nutrition consisted of a Red Bull, full bottle of PowerBar Perform and Base Performance Electrolyte Salt. I also had my usual bagel with peanut butter, banana and drizzled with honey. I don't do anything fancy or complicated with my race day nutrition. Before the swim I had a PowerBar Green Apple gel.

Nearly every single triathlete will also say "don't try anything new on raceday" but I decided to roll the dice and try a 2.5 hour nutrition bottle on the bike. I did this because I only have 2 water bottle cages on my bike. I wanted to reduce my bike weight and not have the 2 bottle setup behind my saddle like I did at 70.3 Racine, instead I just have one cage behind my saddle and one cage on my seat tube. In my nutrition bottle, I had 4 scoops of CarboPro, 3 scoops of PowerBar Perform and 3 scoops of Base Performance Electrolyte Salt. I marked my bottle with a permanent marker indicating where the level needed to be so I can easily pace myself and not drink too slow or fast. This actually worked out really well. The potent mix wasn't hard on my stomach and it was easy to pace my nutrition intake. I also took in 2 PowerBar gels at miles 20 and 40 that I had taped to my top tube.

During the run, I also tried something new...using a flask. I get too annoyed with carrying 2 gels in my back pocket and having to tear them open and get sticky gel all over my hands. Carrying a flask turned out to work really well. I put 2 PowerBar Tangerine Gels in my flask along with some Base salt and water. The tangerine isn't the best tasting stuff in the world but it has 2x caffeine for an extra kick. Carrying a flask turned out to be simple and easy and I'll absolutely do that for any future races.

To be honest, I sort-of just wing it with my nutrition. I've been fairly lucky thus far with no major nutritional issues, but when I step up my training for next year, I'll need to treat my nutrition plan like the 4th discipline of triathlon that it is.

THOUGHTS
Although I didn't hit my overall goal, coming in almost 15 minutes late, I'm still overall satisfied with my performance. The swim was very decent, the bike was solid and my run could've been worse. I know it really all came down to my training. My training had some peaks and valleys...nothing too consistent. This winter, I am going to be taking some Computrainer courses as well as putting in some serious gym time to work on getting some more power in my legs. I'm still playing around with some things, but I might be hiring a coach in the Spring. I need more focused training if I want to qualify for 70.3 Worlds (which is the goal for 2014) and I know that an experienced coach will be able to provide me with the focused training I need. I've made some major strides in my performance from this point last year but I know I need to buckle down for next year. Next up on the schedule is Rev. 3 Cedar Point 70.3 then I'm putting the bike and goggles away and focusing on a marathon in the Fall.

I need to thank some people for getting me to where I am today: All our great Wattie Ink sponsors: K-Swiss, PowerBar, ISM Saddles, 454 Tattoo, Blue Seventy, Scott Bikes, FuelBelt and Kask Helmets. I also had some awesome help by Base Performance. All my kick-ass teammates for creating a ton of pressure to get my ass up at 5am to get in the pool and put in some major training sessions. Most importantly I would like to thank my wonderful girlfriend, Lauren. She's put up with so much of my tri-dorkiness, time apart from each other because I was on training rides and me having the ability to fall asleep at night in 30 seconds because I'm so damn tired from working out. She was the most amazing sherpa a guy could ask for and she absolutely contributed to my success. She has been amazing throughout this whole journey and I can't wait to be there for her when she steps up to the longer distance racing that she wants. Any ladies in the 30-34 AG better know that there's a new threat on the horizon!

Muncie Olympic... short and sweet

Well I usually like to write very in-depth race reports, but the Muncie Olympic race doesn't deserve too much of my time or thoughts. The Muncie Olympic race was more-so just a "fitness check" to prepare for Eagleman 70.3 that's now exactly one week away. For non "A" races, I usually sign up for them the week of, but mainly because I'm stingy and don't want to financially commit to a race. The weather was  predicted to be in the 60's with a small chance of rain, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger and signed up.

Swim

The race was delayed 30 minutes because it was drizzling, 45 degrees and miserable. The delay actually really benefited me because I was already running late. The water temp was also 58 degrees, which actually feels really good to me. The start was good, I did a couple of dolphin dives in the shallow water to get going. I've never done dolphin dives in a race before but it actually really helped. The first 500 meters to the first buoy was a madhouse. I was swimming next to a guy who's never heard of a high elbow in swimming, so he literally was smacking the back of my head for several strokes. I quickly decided to drop him. The rest of the swim was decent, I felt ok but nothing exciting. At the exit, there was nothing good to sight towards so I kept having to bring my head way out of the water to see where the heck I was going. It wasn't until I saw the results that saw how bad my swim was. I finished the swim in 25:28, 1:42 average. I was aiming for at worst a 1:30 average.

Bike
THE most miserable bike ride I've ever done. After spending what seemed like 20 minutes getting my wetsuit off, I finally got onto my bike. I knew it would be rough within the first 100 feet of riding. I was only wearing my race kit so being wet and riding in 45 degree air wasn't a good combination, especially for someone who already has bad circulation to their hands and feet (thank my genes for that). It seemed like the only people I was passing were people from the sprint race, which wasn't the biggest confidence booster. At about mile 15 is when I really started to become miserable, I couldn't get my legs to work and my entire body was literally numb. I even contemplated DNFing because I was so miserable, but I just told myself that I would get to T2 and then decide. I knew I would keep going though. When I was approaching T2, I flew by the dismount line because all the volunteers just stood there without directing anybody to where the entrance to T2 was. I was quite pissed. During T2, I was telling Lauren about how miserable I was, I just wanted to get the run over with a get the hell out of Muncie. I finished the bike in 1:15, 20.3 mph average.

Run

I knew I could make up some of my lost time from the bike, on the run. Although, about 1/2 mile in, I felt a weird, dull pain behind my knee that I was forced to stop and attempt to rub out. It never really went away and I still don't know what caused it. When I was rubbing it, a guy passed me which I actually turned out to like. I sometimes feel like Seabiscuit in that I often have my best run splits when I'm chasing someone. I felt very good during the run, but not great. I knew that my pathetic bike hadn't set me up for a good run. I was running side by side with the guy that passed me until I dropped him around mile 4. There wasn't a single person in sight so it made it a little more difficult to push it. Even the finishing chute wasn't well marked so I slowed down a bit during the last 1/8 mile just so I could figure out where the heck I was going. I finished the run in 41:06, 6:38/mile average. I wanted to be around a 6:15/mile average but with a crappy bike and stopping one time, I guess I can't complain.

Recap
Dumb race, it wasn't a complete waste of time but it didn't really do anything to help me gauge my fitness. I knew that I loved my K-Swiss K-Ruzz 1.5's and my PowerBar gels but that wasn't news to me. Almost every time I do any Muncie race, I ask myself why I did it because there isn't really anything about it that I like. That's all, nothing exciting to share. It was a PR from last year but that isn't saying much. It was just a miserable 2/3 of the race.

I want to thank Lauren for coming (even though I literally had to drag her there) and being my little cheerleader for the day. I also wanted to thank my amazing Wattie Ink sponsors ISM Saddles, Powerbar and K-Swiss. Now its time to get my head back into the game and prepare for a solid week of tapering before Ironman Eagleman 70.3.

Carmel Spint Triathlon: Dusting off the cobwebs

Well it's been 3 weeks since the Carmel Sprint Tri and I'm just now getting around to creating a race report. It won't be fun and flashy, especially because it was just a sprint tri and the damn race is over before you even begin to warm up. I was excited for this race because 4 years ago, this was my first ever triathlon, so I was excited to do a pilgrimage to my first race.

The Carmel Sprint Tri is a great race to start the season with: It's a 400 meter pool swim, 10 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. It's just fun because it's often the season opening tri and tons of peoples first tri ever. This was Lauren's (my girlfriend) first tri too. The pool swim is sketchy though because it's a self-seeding swim. Meaning that when you register, you put down your estimated 100m swim time in order to get seeded at the start. That just means that everybody takes their 100m (not their average 100m for 400m, but 100m flat) swim time, and they subtract 15 seconds. So what does that all mean? It means that unless you're in the very front of the pack, you're swimming over people the entire time.

Well the day started pretty typical, the race started at 8:40 so we woke up at 6am. Most races have me getting up at 4am so the extra sleep was nice. I had my typical bagel with peanut butter and banana slices and almost an entire water bottle of PowerBar Perform. The race was going to be less than an hour so I wasn't too concerned with my nutritioin. Lauren and I had everything in the car the night before so we just woke up and left.

We drove to Carmel  High School to transiton to get set up. I did a simple walk through with Lauren about how to set everything up then I did my own. Nothing's too complicated about my transition setup. Once we got everything set up, it was picture time...

We then headed to the Gym to wait for our wave to be called. I seeded myself in the 1:25/100m group so I was the first wave. Quick good luck kiss goodbye and I headed to the pool, leaving Lauren behind. I was super nervous for her but she's a competitor at heart so I knew she'd do great.

The swim was sub-par. It's fairly difficult to pass people before the wall so I only passed 1 person. I was aiming for a 6 minute swim but exited the water at 6:30. When I came out of the water I knew that I had sandbagged the swim. I know I'm capable of a 5:45 400m race swim but oh well, it was my first race in almost 8 months.

T1 went well. Although, I was running with my bike towards the mount line and the volunteers didn't direct me to the right area because it wasn't marked. I only lost 2-3 seconds but it was a mental derail. I did a fly-mount for the first time in a race and almost bit it because there was a sharp turn as soon as I hopped on. I was passed by my friend Noah when I was slipping into my shoes. He's a stronger cyclist than I am so I just looked at him like a 'Rabbit': Someone to chase the whole 10 miles.

The bike was pretty uneventful. The course was new from 4 years ago and there were a lot of turns so it was hard to really get into a groove. I kept Noah in my sights the entire time and picked off 3 people. Around mile 7 I was passed once. The guy was on the bigger side so I wasn't surprised he was a good cyclist, I knew I would catch him on the run though. By this time, I could barely see Noah.

I pulled into T2 after doing a fly-dismount. Of course there was another voluteer who wasn't watching where he was walking and I had to swerve out of the way to avoid him. I'm always thankful for the volunteers but there should be a screening involved.

I threw on my K-Swiss Kruuz 1.5's, grabbed my race belt and off I went. I was careful to put on bodyglide on the lip of my shoe to avoid any chafing because I would be going sockless. Sprints are the only distance I go sockless. The 2 seconds it takes to throw on socks for an Olympic distance race are worth it.

I had a lot of time to make up for my sub-par swim but not a lot of real estate. It's difficult to catch people in a sprint race when you're in the first wave because it's only 3 miles and your pace per mile usually isn't much more blazing fast than theirs. I wanted to have sub-6 minute miles for the entire 5k. I quickly knew that wouldn't happen though. I started to have side-stitches and stopped about 3 minutes into the run to rub it out. I was pretty pissed because I usually don't get them in races. I was passed by some young kid. After massaging it for 10 seconds, and feeling 100% better, I continued on. I knew I was a faster runner than Noah so that became my goal, to catch him.

 

By that time I was up to my normal 5k pace, pushing 5:45 splits, I knew it was too late to hit my sub-18 minute goal. For the remaining 2.5 miles, I was all alone. Nobody to chase, or at least thats what I thought. At a point where the course splits, I saw that Noah wasn't too far ahead. I started booking it and I knew I was rapidly gaining on him, but I was quickly running out of road. I was about 20 feet behind him when he crossed the finish line. Sucks to know that if I didn't have to stop in the beginning that I would've easily caught him. I finished in 54:33.

My splits were 6:35 swim/26 min bike/19:17 run.

I finished 20th overall and 5th in my AG. I was 15 seconds off of a podium finish so that was a kick in the nuts. I guess I was happy with how I finished, but knew I could've gone much faster. My training had been going well, but not great so to finish how I did was satisfying.

At the finish line, I found Laurens parents and waited for her to finish. Her wave didn't leave until 45 minutes after mine so I knew I would've been waiting a while. She crossed the finish line in 1:03:59,which was good enough for 4th in her AG! Not bad for a soccer player turned triathlete. Overall I was happy with the race. I've never been a huge fan of Sprint tri's because they don't necessarily favor the runner, which is where I make up the most time.

The two biggest things I was excited for were to see Lauren complete her first offical tri and also to race in my new Wattie Ink kit. The past several months of being on the team have been the most exciting of all my 4 years of doing tris, combined. I've never met a better group of people to support, encourage, make fun of and badger in my life. Sean Watkins has done an amazing job of hooking us up with the best sponsors in the industry to put us in a place to make it a very realistic goal to make it to the top of each podium.

 

After the Carmel Tri, I'm stoked to see how far I can push  my body and see what sort of goals I can crush this year.