Weekend Fun

No races = no new blog posts. So maybe I'll change it up with a training update.

I'm less than 6 weeks away from my next Half-Ironman race - the Texas Man Triathlon on May 16. So I thought I'd do a "full" workout on Saturday to gauge where I stand. Started with a 7-mile run - 3 miles by myself and then met up with the Keller Running Club for the first 4 miles of their 7-mile route. After that I went to LA Fitness for a 3,000 yd swim + 2.5 hrs on the spin bike (15 min warmup + 2 spin classes with 15 minutes in between). I had skipped breakfast (was running late for the phase 1 run) - Big Mistake: I was starving by last hour of spin. Pretty solid workout - 1.5 x Half-Iron Swim, 5/6 of Half-Iron Bike, 7/13 of Half-Iron Run - which makes for a nice confidence booster.

On Sunday, I put in some more time in the spin room. (Unfortunately, even though the weather was pretty nice, I didn't have time to do a properly ride outside - we have 11:00 AM reservations for Easter brunch. :-) In total, 2 hours and 15 minutes completed - call it about 40 miles of riding. Normally, I would estimate it as closer to 45 miles (assuming a 20 MPH average) but I was definitely moving a little more slowly today and the intensity was down a notch (especially for the first 1:15 which was self-paced) - some recovery from yesterday's efforts. But even though the bike ride wasn't optimal, it still counts as time in the saddle and back-to-back days of riding ("50 miles" + "40 miles"). This is definitely welcome as my other big upcoming event is the Sam's Club MS-150 - a two-day 150-mile from Frisco to Fort Worth on May 1-2 (less than a month away).

Finally, today, I did my longest swim over six months - 4,000 yds in 1:28:16. This is about 4 minutes slower than my equivalently-matched "PR while wearing baggy swim trunks" (and nearly 13 minutes slower than my overall PR of 1:15:23). A little disappointing, but now I know where I need to improve. I'm going to try to get in my some more long (4,000+ yd) swims, and hopefully some open-water swims as well, before May 16.

St. Patrick's Day Triathlon 2010

My St. Patrick's weekend tradition - a sprint triathlon in Keller. :-)

Another Dallas Athletes St. Patrick's Day Sprint Tri is in the bag. This was my third time doing this race and the sixth time that I've raced this course - a 300 meter pool swim in the Keller ISD Natatorium, a 12 mile bike ride, and 5K run on the Bear Creek trails.

I finished in 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 9 seconds for 5th out of 58 in the men's 40-44 age group, 56th out of 393 men, and 61st out of 601 finishers overall (though I'm pretty sure the 34th place finisher only did one loop on the bike - 27.2 MPH is kind of a giveaway).

Here are my splits:

• Swim: 5:42.8 (123rd)
• T1: 1:23.9
• Bike: 34:48.9 (20.7 mph average, 41st)
• T2: 1:08.4
• Run: 24:05.7 (7:46/mi pace, 159th)
• TOTAL: 1:07:09

Another finish in the top 10% of the field and this is a new course PR by over a minute - my previous best time was a 1:08:16 at the 2008 Monster Tri. Needless to say, I am very pleased.

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1846565&pubID=3

Garmin Connect info - Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26991954

Garmin Connect info - Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26991962

I arrived at the transition area fairly early (one of the benefits of living very close to the race venue) and was able to get into transition and get bodymarked without delay. I saw Melissa (doing her first triathlon) and Tyler as she was getting set up in her bike rack and met with Elizabeth, Steve and Archie as well.

After grabbing my chip and a last-minute transition area check, I headed to the pool for a warm-up swim. Said hello to spin-classmate Eddie and did 4 laps (200m). Was winded despite trying to keep the pace nice and easy - still too fast! Another reminder that perhaps the best reason to do a swim warm-up is to remind yourself how painful it will be if you go out too fast at the start. :-P

On to the actual race. After waiting for the approximately 200 swimmers before me, I got into the water at about 8:06 - about 27 minutes after the first swimmer.

The swim itself went very smoothly (except for the approximately 27 minute delay before I got into the water :-P). I was almost perfectly seeded - I only got passed by one person and passed two people myself - and experienced very little congestion in the swim lanes so I guess the wait was worth it.

T1 was pretty fast for me. The weather was cool, but not cold enough (for me) to have to take the time to put on a top. Grabbed two SaltSticks so that I wouldn't experience cramping, but decided to forgo taking a gel.

The bike out/in was laid out a bit differently versus in past years - winding past Keller Town Hall before the right turn onto Bear Creek Parkway. I think it actually made it a bit slower to get onto the main part of the course (and for the reentry back into transition) so I'm pleased that my bike time was only 30 seconds slower than my personal best for this course in light of the changes. Other than that I pushed hard on my bike - was only passed by one person (who ended up in 32nd place and was the female masters winner) - and overall it was a smooth ride as road conditions were good. I did run into a little traffic on Bear Creek Parkway around around Mile 5 as two police motorcycles were parked in the middle of the road with flashers on - they were helping a runner (? - not part of the race?) on the sidewalk - but it ended up being a non-issue.

T2 was also smooth. Unlike last fall's Monster Tri where I lost my shoe, I had no such mishaps this time. Racked my bike, put on race belt and running shoes, grabbed my "green leprechaun hat" and was on my way. As I started off on the run, I got a "go get 'em" from Archie (18th overall at 1:00:22) who had already finished!

I thought I had a decent run. Not a bad run, but not a great run either - or so I thought. Turns out that I PRed the run course by almost a minute (previous PR was 24:54). I guess that marathon training paid off. :-)

After crossing the finish line, I got to see Eddie finish a few minutes later (131st overall) and then met up with Tyler to see Melissa come in on the bike and head into T2 and subsequently out on the run.

Some more good finish times by Elizabeth (84th overall and 3rd in her age group), Faith (125th and 4th in her age group), and Steve (158th overall). And congrats again to Melissa and Leslie on their first triathlons!

After a little recovery and checking preliminary results postings, we enjoyed some pancakes hot off the griddle and listened (and maybe danced a little jig as well) to the band playing some Irish tunes while basking in the sun of an almost-springtime Texas morning. What a great day for a race!

2010 Texas Motor Speedway Duathlon

Rain on Race Day - Boo! I woke up this morning to cloudy skies and some drizzle. A glance at the weather/radar map showed the current rain subsiding, but a second storm cell to hit in a few hours - right around our 8:30 AM start time.

Oh well, I've raced in the rain before, so I headed out to Texas Motor Speedway to do the 6th Annual TMS Sprint Duathlon - my third time attending this event.

The race field was definitely sizeable - bolstered by collegiate teams from Texas Tech and Univ of North Texas. Ironhead Jack said that over 375 people had registered for the race. Some of them didn't show up - probably scared off by the weather - but there were still 300+ participants (301 finishers).

I got to TMS a little after 7:00 and ran into Lee and Serena heading to the transition area. Always nice to see my tri buddies! We got our bikes set up, picked up our timing chips, and relaxed a little in and around the transition area. On the next bike rack over, I was welcomed by Archie, whom I hadn't see in almost a year (since last year's St. Patrick's Day Tri). Melissa arrived a short time later and set up for her first multi-sport event. The standard pre-race meeting at 8:10 and then a little more waiting for the first wave to start.

Unfortunately, as feared, torrential rains (accompanied with thunder and lightning) hit around 8:25, but thankfully the start was delayed until 9:00. Aside from water on the course and a little wind, race conditions were almost perfect. No rain during the actual race. Very nice.

I crossed the finish line in 1:17:05 - 2 minutes & 42 seconds faster than my time from last year (which was already pretty darn good for me). I'm extremely happy with my performance - especially since my legs have felt so tired and sore the last few days. (I did an 8-mile run on Friday afternoon - my last longish training run for the Cowtown Marathon - and my legs just never seemed to recover from it).

My official results:

• 4th out of 21 in my age group
• 55th out of 205 men
• 59th place overall (out of 301 finishers)

• Run 1 (2 miles officially): 15:05 (7:33/mi, 143rd place)
• T1: 01:11
• Bike (16 miles officially): 44:20 (21.7mph, 43rd place)
• T2: 00:45
• Run 2 (2 miles officially): 15:43 (7:52/mi, 119th place)

Compared with last year, I was faster in every part of the race except for T1 - I took some extra time to ditch my long-sleeved DRC Half running shirt (got warm after the run and I needed to be more aerodynamic on the bike).

Here are my stats as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 305 (split times very close to the official chip-timed results):

My average heart rate was 2 bpm lower than last year despite the faster finish time. Below is my heart rate and elevation stats for the race. I'm not sure why there is a crazy elevation fluctuation during the first run leg (between the 10 and 14 minute marks) and the heart rate spike at 12:00 (which means my max heart rate for the first run leg and overall should be 180 instead of 185).

Unlike last year, when Lee passed me at Mile 1.25 of Run 1 (because I had a 2:00 head-start on his wave), this year he passed me right at the start since we started in the same wave. I didn't feel great during Run 1 (or Run 2), so I was shocked to discover later that my run pace for both legs was my solidly faster than the last two years.

For the bike, I also felt that I wasn't pushing as hard as I should, so I was surprised that I shaved 1:24 off of last year's bike time. Part of it was probably due to the aero Louis Garneau Rocket Air helmet that I picked up a couple weeks ago on clearance. Nonetheless, I was very happy to have a strong bike performance considering that I haven't really ridden my bike since last October (see Monster Triathlon) aside from a few times around the block on Thursday.

The final run leg was also difficult but uneventful. As I rounded the final turn, I saw Lee, who had finished a little earlier; he shouted words of encouragement and jogged me in to the finish line. Done! After catching my breath, I did the same and cheered on Melissa and Serena as they worked on their Run 2 efforts.

So in the end, it was a day that didn't look that great for a race, but it all ended up quite well.

Congrats to Lee (who placed 3rd in our age group - I was in 4th, but finished over 4 minutes behind him so it wasn't even close :-P), Archie (3rd in his age group as well, and 31st overall), Claudia (3rd place in her age group in her first multi-sport event) and Melissa (also doing her multi-sport event).

Full results at: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=4070

Next up: The Cowtown Marathon - my next 26.2 in only 6 days!

Iron Distance Challenge

During the month of January, I participated in the Iron Distance Challenge on Serena's team ("Me, Myself & Tri"). Our team did great (final results won't be out later this week, but we were in first place with a comfortable margin as of Jan 24) and I did pretty well, too. My goal was to complete the distances of 4 Ironman triathlons (4 x 2.4 miles swim/112 miles bike/26.2 miles run) in 31 days. As you can see, I made it! (click to enlarge chart):

Not only is the Iron Distance Challenge a great cause (a donation is made to the charity of the winning team's/individual's choice) but the perfect motivator to kick-start the new year.

I had been taking it easy during the latter half of December - recovery/recuperation from White Rock Marathon and lots of well-deserved rest during the holidays. The IDC got me in the pool on January 1 ... and I finished up today with a long spin session to get the final 64 miles that I needed for the bike. (IDC counts stationary cycling at 18 miles/hour so that was 3 hours and 35 minutes on the spin bike!)

I look forward to re-joining my teammates next year for the 2011 Iron Distance Challenge.

Monster Tri "One"

This morning, I participated in my second Monster Sprint Triathlon of 2009. Monster Tri "One" (in Keller) was actually the weekend following Monster Tri "Two" (in Denton). I had a pretty good race today though not quite a PR - more on that later. I completed the 300 meter pool swim at the Keller ISD Natatorium's 50-meter lanes, "12 mile" bike (12.5 miles per GPS), and 5K run in 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 43 seconds for 11th out of 42 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 42nd out of 541 total finishers overall. With over 600 participants, turnout for this race continues to grow (last year, there were just over 500 entrants) even with the addition of the Denton event. Apparently, the recession has not damped triathlon event interest in the DFW metroplex.

Jack was 5th in our age group with a 1:06:25, and Lee captured 15th place with a time of 1:05 flat and grabbed 2nd place in his age group. My friend Eddie from spin class finished 4th in his age group as well. My splits:

• Swim: 5:46 (1:47/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:30
• Bike: 35:22 (20.4 mph average, 21.2 mph per GPS)
• T2: 1:11
• Run: 24:56 (8:03/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:08:43

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1805631&pubID=3

As I alluded to earlier, this is actually 27 seconds slower than last year. I would have guessed that my run would have been my weakness, but it was actually my bike time that was slower - by over a minute! My T2 was also a little slower - I think the reason for that was because my costume today (a "Hugh Heffner" robe) took a little longer to put on than last year's caveman outfit. Oh, well - the sacrifices one must make for art :-).

Last year's splits for comparison:

• Swim: 5:51 (1:47/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:34
• Bike: 34:12 (21.1 mph average)
• T2: 1:00
• Run: 25:40 (8:17/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:08:16

The weather seemed to be about par for this race. Cool - a little chilly at the start of the bike when wet from the swim, but perfect for the run.

Lee actually beat me into transition - surprising since I live so close to the venue - and greeted me as I entered the bike racks. After we set up our bike & gear and grabbed out timing chips, we headed out for a short warm-up run.

Back inside the Keller Nat ... and more waiting. We watched the LONG line for chip-pickup. So glad we got there early. By some miracle, the race didn't start TOO late - only 10-15 minutes after the scheduled 7:30 AM.

My bib number was "454", but since the first swimmer into the water was actually "325", I only had about 100 people in front of me for the pool. The swim was uneventful and my time was decent - I probably could have shaved a few seconds off of the 5:46, but I hit some traffic about two-thirds of the way through as well as at the ladder for the pool exit.

T1 was pretty smooth. I was slower than everyone else on my rack, taking in an AccelGel and putting on socks, but that's just how I roll. Mounted my bike fairly smoothly upon exiting the transition area and headed down Bear Creek Parkway to start the bike leg.

I felt a little tired on the hills, though my (GPS) speed was still about the same as last weekend. There was a little bit more discourteousness/cluelessness from fellow racers today with regards to blocking ("On Your Left, guys!") but that honestly didn't mess me up. I did do a spin class yesterday and ran 3 miles yesterday, but I can't really use that as an excuse when comparing with last year because a year ago I did 15K worth of running at the Four Seasons Cool Run event the day before Monster Tri 2008!

As I finished the bike leg, I got a cheer from my friend and fellow Keller Running Club member, Melissa. I had a small mishap at bike dismount - couldn't unclip my left shoe out of the pedal (I really need to take a look at that pedal/cleat) - so in the end I had to just pop my foot out of my bike shoe, dismount, and run through the transition area with one bike-shoe and one sock-foot. Fun stuff. :-P

Aside from being "left-shoeless", I had a fairly smooth T2. As mentioned earlier, the robe costume is a little more involved than the caveman outfit. It was hard to get my arms into the sleeves and tying up the "belt" took a few extra seconds, too. I grabbed a gel and snapped on my race belt and headed out on the run course.

I had neglected to take a SaltStick before the bike and about a 1/8 mile into the run, I started to get some small cramps in my calves. Uh-oh ... Luckily, they disappeared after another 1/8 of a mile and I turned onto the Keller running trails. Since the course is part of the normal Keller Running Club route, I can pretty much run these trails in my sleep. The run went fairly smoothly. I didn't think I was having a very good run - every time I looked at my Garmin, my pace was listed at 8:10/mi or so - but it wasn't terrible either.

My costume wasn't too unwieldy, but it kept slipping off my shoulders. It was also a little warm - I wasn't wearing any top at all during the bike and its 21+ MPH speed - and now I had on an extra layer while going slower and at a higher heart rate! Hmm, something to think about for next year ...

Speaking of costumes, my "side goal" for the last few Monster Triathlons has been to be the first person to cross the finish line in a costume. There was a "referee" who had a 1/8 mile lead on me at the start of the run. We were pretty evenly matched; we were nearly to the turn-around until I finally passed her. After making the U-turn, I saw an "Elvis" and a "Wonder Woman" but they were 1/8 and 1/4 mile behind me, respectively, so I thought I was okay as long as I could keep a steady pace. However, as I neared the Mile 3 marker, I heard a volunteer/fan shout out "Way to go, Wonder Woman". Uh-oh, I guess my cushion is gone. I kicked it up a notch for the final sprint through the grass, around the corner and to the finish line - finishing only a few seconds ahead of her. Actually, Kristina (Wonder Woman's alter-ego) started the swim & race about 45-50 seconds after me and bested my chip time by 52 seconds (and took third place overall female)! Oh well, I guess I was still the first costumed finisher by clock time. :-P

All-in-all, a great race and a nice end to the 2009 triathlon season. Okay, now it's time to get serious about White Rock!

Monster Tri "Two"

My legs were definitely a little tired from yesterday's century ride, but I still finished strongly in the inaugural Dallas Athlete's Monster Tri "Two" at the Denton Natatorium this morning. I still find it weird that Monster Tri "Two" is a week before Monster Tri "One" (this coming Sunday in Keller), but I suppose the latter is the original race.

I can't believe that it's been six months since I last did a sprint-distance triathlon. Between doing the Olympic distance for Texas Man, PlayTri, and Disco (and of course the PrairieMan 70.3) - and skipping the TWU Power Sprint (I never liked that pool swim and Dallas Athlete's charged $20 more than Ironhead did!), Old College Tri (also too expensive) and Take On The Heat (Las Vegas vacation) - I missed out on doing the shorter events. Anyway, maybe the time away was a good thing, because I had a blast at this race and a great performance to boot!

I completed the 250 yd swim, 16 mile bike, and 3 mile run course in 1:19:52, which netted me 6th place out of 25 in my age group and 24th out of 289 overall. This is one of my best performances ever - top 10% - and to think I did it only 24 hours after a hard 100-mile bike ride - needless to say, I am ecstatic! Here are my splits:

• Swim: 4:52
• T1: 1:26
• Bike: 46:51 (20.5 MPH, 12th fastest bike split!) - 21.1 MPH for 16.5 miles per GPS
• T2: 1:15
• Run: 25:30 (8:14/mi pace) - 8:13/mi for 3.1 miles per GPS
• TOTAL: 1:19:52

Full results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1804210&pubID=3

Garmin Connect map & data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16600918 (bike) & http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16600936 (run)

The swim went relatively smoothly, though the 10 x 25-yds set-up made passing difficult. I did pass three people (and got passed by two as well) in the swim including the young woman who went immediately before me; however, she must not have appreciated that because on the final lap she swam up beside me and basically crowded me against the pool wall. Not cool! (I see from the results that she got first place in her age group so maybe there is a competitive streak trumping sportsmanship ... ). Anyway, I finished the final lap and hopped out of the pool a lot more gracefully that I would have expected and sprinted out the open doorway to the transition area.

T1 was okay. I got to the race site relatively late so I had a bad rack position and had to run in my bike shoes the maximum distance to Bike Out. However, despite the cool morning weather I opted not to put on a tri-top so my swim-to-bike transition was pretty fast except for my normal AccelGel & water break.

The bike leg was great. The course was an out-and-back from the Denton Nat with a turn-around at the Aubrey Middle School. There were definitely some hills along the way (~400 ft of elevation change over 16.5 miles) and my still-tired legs were complaining during the climbs. Here is the elevation profile:

However, FM-428 (Sherman Rd) had a very nice road surface - a huge contrast from 70+ miles of chip-seal the day before - and that got me motivated to get some speed. In fact, between getting warmed-up on the bike and the fact that the climbs were more gradual on the return leg, I was actually faster during the second half of the bike (21.5 vs. 20.8 MPH). Speed and other stats below (I ended "Lap 1" as I entered the Aubrey Middle School parking lot for the turn-around):

T2 was very smooth. I had no problems putting on my caveman/Tarzan costume and made it out of there quickly.

My run was not my best, but still pretty good. We had nearly perfect running weather. I'm sure that if I hadn't done such a long bike ride the day before that I could have gotten closer (or perhaps beaten - one can dream :-) my tri-5K goal pace of 8:00/mi. Here is my run speed (blue) and heart rate (red) charts:

The heart rate looks a little funky. I'm thinking those spikes are in accurate. Probably a bad connection between the strap and my chest during the run.

The drop in speed at Mile 0.4 is because I had to stop to redo my timing chip strap which was falling off (bad initial Velcro job on my part, I suppose). The slowdown at Mile 3.0 was a near-collision with the runner in front of me - he was circling around the cone (and me) for his second lap of the run course, while I was making a "hard right" to head to the finish line. Luckily, no serious incident occurred.

Following that I sped up again for the final push (though the hill up to the parking lot did slow me down a little) and crossed the finish line. My streak (2 for 2) of being the first finisher of those wearing costumes is intact! (though a girl in a Twister outfit was probably only a few minutes behind me :-)

With the standard disclaimers ("Hindsight is 20-20"; "If 'if's and 'but's were beer and nuts, oh what a party we'd have!"), I think that if I hadn't ridden yesterday, I probably could have shaved 90 seconds off my time (say a minute on the bike and 30 seconds on the run) which would have gotten me 4th place in my age group and 17th overall. Oh well, no biggie, though - 4th is still not award-worthy, and since this is my first time (okay, everyone's first time) doing this race/course, it is automatically a PR. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to a repeat/better performance at "Monster Tri One" this coming Sunday - a familiar course (will be my fifth time doing it) right in my backyard in Keller.

Race Review: The bike and run courses (the small mishap with the "second loop turn-around" notwithstanding) were great. The pool swim was a little annoying with the 25yd "short lanes", but manageable and over before you knew it. Overall, I definitely would do this race again.

Ironhead PrairieMan 2009

Oh yeah! I have finished my third Long Course (Half-Ironman distance) triathlon! I completed a rainy and soggy (but FUN!) Ironhead PrairieMan "56.3" on Sunday in 5:01:24. (The bike course was re-routed and shortened to 42 miles due to flooding on some of the roads. It's been raining here for four straight days.) I finished 12th out of 28 in the men's 35-39 age group, 59th out of 134 male finishers, and 62nd out of 170 finishers overall. Needless to say, I am ecstatic about my performance.

Here are my splits:

• Swim: 43:20 (48th place)
• T1: 3:12
• Bike: 2:03:36 - 20.4 MPH (25th place)
• T2: 1:07
• Run: 2:10:07 - 9:56/mi pace (96th place)
• TOTAL: 5:01:24

Full results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1796401&pubID=3

Garmin Connect info - bike (3 loops on Lake Ridge Parkway): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13238704

Garmin Connect info - run (out-and-back course): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13238709

From the Garmin Forerunner 305 info, it appears that the distances were longer than advertised. I had the bike course at 42.97 miles (20.9 MPH average speed per GPS) and the run course at 13.37 miles (9:43/mi pace per GPS). Fellow finishers also commented that they thought the swim was a little long too.

Random thoughts:

Pre-Race: Loading up my car the night before, driving to Lynn Creek Park in the rain, setting up my gear in a downpour ... I was seriously questioning my sanity. Luckily, I had brought along an extra trashbag - a staple of winter running pre-race wear - couldn't believe that I was actually using one in the summer! My cardboard bike number had already eroded away (along with everyone else's) and there was no body marking. Except for the race belt & bib - no numbers today.

I ran into Steve, who was doing his first tri ever, Sabrina & Tim, and Tara in transition ... and Melissa at the pre-race meeting. Nice to see familiar faces. On a day like today, fan support is pretty much limited to fellow racers and the great race volunteers. The "sprinters" started 30 minutes before the Long Course so Melissa and I huddled under Sabrina's umbrella to try to stay dry (well, drier) before our start at approximately 8:00 AM.

Swim: Not too bad. The water of Joe Pool Lake was in the low 80s and actually felt much warmer than the air temperature! There was a little chop in the water, not sure if it was because of the rain or the boats out there. Regarding the boats, I really wish they could stay further away so their wake wouldn't affect the swim course. Also, the motor fumes were horrible - between that smell and the chop, I was getting nauseated. Ideally all boats near the swim course would only have exhaust-free electric motors!

T1: Wasn't feeling the greatest after the swim so I pretty much just walked from the lake to the transition area. I actually missed my rack and had to backtrack 2 or 3 aisles to get to my bike. Helmet, glasses, wet socks, wet bike shoes ... the trash bag I had set over them helped a little bit, but on a day like today it's pretty much a lost cause.

Bike: Not as tough as I thought it was going to be. Though, you know how you're supposed to spit in your swimming goggles to keep them from fogging up ... I should have done that to my cycling glasses! I must have wiped my glasses lenses at least 10 times during the 42-mile 3-loop bike course. Not the safest thing to do when riding at 21+ MPH down in aero and in rain.

Actually, the most treacherous part of the course was occasionally having to move from the right lane to the left lane to avoid large pools of water collecting on the side of the road. The changing of lanes itself wasn't too bad, but Lake Ridge Parkway like many suburban concrete roads had "turtles" on the white lane markings. Those bumps might not seem to bad in a car, but when going over them on a road bike, there's a possibility of catching some air and there is definitely some jarring of the hands.

Because of the cooler weather I didn't drink very much - just going through about 20 oz of water from my AeroDrink. I had grabbed a Gatorade at the aide station but ended up not needing it at all - I guess I will count that as a race souvenir. Because of the danger of the ride, I didn't eat much either - just one AccelGel about an hour into the ride. Hopefully, my lack of nutrition won't hurt me ...

T2: Uneventful. I had already resigned myself to soggy running shoes and was not "disappointed". Ditched my helmet and glasses, switched shoes, and grabbed my hat and I was off.

Run: Having done the F1 Duathlon earlier this year, I was familiar with the course (PrairieMan run = F1's 2-mile run + 11-mile bike) which is always a nice feeling. The rain felt great, but the puddles on the road were annoying. Luckily, those were mostly just at the beginning 1.5 and (since it was an out-and-back course) final 1.5 miles. The road on the dam (being elevated) was fairly dry. I started at a steady 9:30-10:00/mi pace and my heart rate was in the mid to high 150s, which is pretty good for me.

I had two AccelGels with me - I took the first one at the 0.5 mile water stop and the second at the Mile 7 aid station. It was around Mile 3 that I realized that I had forgotten to put on (well, actually, forgotten to even set out in transition) my PattStraps - they were sitting safe and sound in a closed Ziplock bag in my tri-bag. D'oh! (Luckily, as I write this Monday night, I appear to have escaped any IT Band issues - phew).

There was a short, but fairly steep hill to get to the turnaround at Mile 6.63, but after that I think I actually accelerated on the return. At around Mile 7.5 I saw Melissa (at her Mile 5.5) and she shouted "Don't let me catch you!" - I think that may have helped me for the final 5 and half miles as well . Yep, the stats confirm this: 1:05:39 for the first 6.63 miles, and 1:04:28 for the final 6.74 miles. Woo-hoo, negative splits! (Thanks, Melissa :-)

After another water and walk break at the Mile 10 aide station at the base of the dam, I knew I was getting close. I ran past the lot where I had parked my car and once again waved at the one hardy fan standing under an umbrella and cheering as loudly as she could (I saw her going out and coming back in on the bike, and going out on the run as well - 5+ hours standing in the rain - wow!) Aside from her, the only cheering section on the run course were passing fellow athletes on the out-and-back and the great aid station volunteers.

A final loop at the eastern park of the park road and there I saw it, the finish line. Oops, nope, have to do the final loop down by the water - only about another 1/4 mile, but that was a little deflating. Oh well, just a little bit more running and then a charge up the hill from the water to the finish. Done!

Nobody at the finish line except the volunteers to collect the timing chip and hand me my finisher's shirt and mug. No finish line photo - the photographer had long since left - and the only other people were fellow Long Course triathletes sitting under a canopy eating pizza and drinking Gatorade & Vitamin Water. But that's okay. Today was the kind of race (and kind of weather) that is just for the athletes. And it was great. Out of the three half-Ironman distance races that I've done, this one was the most enjoyable despite the lack of festivity and fanfare.

In fact, the ONLY regret that I have about the race is that the bike course had to be shortened. Unfortunately, I still have not done a true 70.3 distance. At last year's Lone Star Half (completed in 5:59:01), the bike and run courses were 55.09 miles and 12.55 miles respectively per GPS. And then at Ironman Longhorn 70.3 (5:46:32), the bike and run were pretty much spot-on (55.94 and 13.03), but the swim about 500 meters short - there is no way I can do 1.2 miles in 33:45. I figured if we had done another loop (~13.5 miles) on Lake Ridge Parkway, even at a more conservative 19 MPH pace, that would have added about 43 minutes to my time ... for a 5:44 total time ... definitely would be a PR and at a true (even slightly longish) 70.3 mile distance to boot. Oh well, there's always next year - right?

Post-Race: Water, water, everywhere. As I detached my AeroDrink, I was initially surprised by how much "remaining" water I had to dump out of it - "gee, I thought I drank more than that on the bike?!?" ... seconds later I realized that it had collected "a wee bit" of rain during my 2+ hours on the run and time spent for post-race refreshments. Ditto for my super-heavy backpack, it was only when I got home that was reminded that the water-proof lining of my tri-bag was in serious decline (note to self: order a new one) and discovered that my towel and spare clothes had absorbed 10+ pounds of water.

The morning/night after, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that my body bounced back pretty well - my knees (no IT band issues), feet (no Body Glide and wet shoes & socks and yet no blisters - what are the odds?) and legs in general survived pretty much unscathed. The only sore parts are my shoulders (I gotta keep my upper body loose on the run!) and back (not enough long bike rides!), and they should be good to go in another day or two.

Okay, so when's the next one? :-)

Disco Tri 2009

Completed the Olympic-distance course - a 1,500 yard open-water swim, a 23 mile bike leg, and a 10K (6.2 mile) run - at my second Disco Triathlon. My time was nearly 6 minutes slower than last year (which was my PR for the Disco/Texas-Man course) - finishing the course in 2:34:38 (vs. 2:28:49 in 2008), but I'm still quite pleased with my performance.

I finished 20th out of 40 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 103rd out of 273 overall. Here are my splits:

• Swim: 26:57 (111th place)
• T1: 2:56
• Bike: 1:03:56 - 21.6 MPH (23rd place) - 21.9 MPH for 23.3 miles per GPS
• T2: 1:20
• Run: 59:32 - 9:37/mi pace (157th place) - 9:40/mi for 6.16 miles per GPS
• TOTAL: 2:34:38

Full Results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1773386&pubID=3
Garmin Connect map & data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9184530 (bike) & http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9184584 (run)

For comparison, here are my splits from last year's PR:

• Swim: 26:53 (133rd place out of 277)
• T1: 2:12
• Bike: 1:03:38 - 21.7 MPH (54th place)
• T2: 1:10
• Run: 54:59 - 8:52/mi pace (151st place)
• TOTAL: 2:28:49

As you can see, the difference was mainly because of a much slower run pace this year - along with slower transitions (mainly T1). It's also interesting that my bike time was slightly slower than last year, yet I improved to the top 10% vs. top 20%. Maybe the bike course was a little long this year, the road conditions worsened or the overall field was weaker.

The swim went smoothly. I really want to get the new swim-proof Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch so I can see exactly how close the distance is to the advertised 1,500 meters. I just need to keep improving and do more long swims in preparation for the Ironhead PrairieMan 70.3 in September.

T1 was non-eventful - a little slower than I would have liked, but I took extra time to down a SaltStick and AccelGel before taking off on my bike.

Very solid bike ride. I'm very happy with placing 23rd overall - though I still would like to cross the 22 MPH threshold one of these days. I definitely felt stronger today than back at May's TexasMan race. As I was loading up my bike the night before I noticed that my rear tire was quite low and probably had a slow leak. So even after reinflating it before heading to the race, I had the Bicycles Plus crew take a look at it in the morning and replace the tube just in case. I think it was worth it!

In contrast, today's run wasn't my best. Running the 15K yesterday definitely had some detrimental effects on my legs. However, in addition, I just plain haven't been running enough in my training. In fact, the 15.5 miles that I ran over this weekend is the most running I've done in a 27 hour period (or less) in quite a while. Oh well, this is a good jump start to get my running up to snuff before PrairieMan.

Crossing the finish line, I met up with Lee, who had finished about 10 minutes before me, and Jenn who had finished her sprint race an hour earlier (thanks for waiting for us!). Lee crushed the race - especially the run (10th overall with a 6:47/mi pace) and took 37th place overall and 4th in his age group. And to think he could have been even faster if he hadn't do the 15K with me yesterday - hmmm.

Jenn shaved 6 minutes off her time in the Texas Man sprint race. Jenna did her first open-water swim tri (success in Lake Ray Roberts) and continued with a solid bike and run. Charlie also did the sprint and finished 48th. And last but not least, this was the first Olympic tri for Serena and her friend Roxanne; they finished strongly and were all smiles after the finish ... simply awesome!

2008 USAT Ranking

By way of some semi-random web surfing last week, I came upon the USA Triathlon Rankings web site.  After playing fairly close attention to the rankings in 2007, I had all but forgotten about/given up on them last year because USAT had (and acknowledged) some ("technical") problems getting the rankings published in a timely manner.

Anyway, here are my tri results from 2008:

Not bad at all.  My overall score of 71.78625 gave me 4,674th place out of 11,382 in the men 35-39 age group (41st percentile).  And much improved from 2007's score of 65.30078 (5,125th out of 8,150 = 63rd percentile). 

Let's see if I can keep it up in 2009!

2009 Fast & Furious F1 Duathlon

I participated in the 8th Annual Fast & Furious F1 Windfest ... er, Duathlon this morning at Lynn Creek Park on the shores of Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, TX.  I believe the "F1" refers to the race format of 2 mile run, 11 mile bike, another 2 mile run, another 11 mile and then a sprint to the finish line (with your bike helmet and cleats)!  With a 24+ MPH average windspeed this morning, biking across the dam (especially on the return trips) was challenging at best and a little unnerving at worst.

Here are the stats from my Garmin Forerunner 305 (click to expand):

and these were very close to my official splits:

• Run 1: 16:11.9 (a solid 7:52/mi pace to start off; Roberto, along with the other speedier runners, passed me early on, but that was expected so I didn't try to go too fast and blow up)
  
• T1:  1:20.8 (a little slow; decided to shed my gloves and then had a little trouble getting on my bike shoes and my helmet and sunglasses had blown over; also took my normal extra time to down a SaltStick and AccelGel)
  
• Bike 1: 30:46.8 (20.2 MPH is more than 1 MPH slower than my time for the Texas Motor Speedway Du, but not too bad considering the stiff wind during nearly of the ride).
  
• T2: 0:53.6 (missed my bike rack - but just by a few rows - so overall a passable bike-to-run transition)
  
• Run 2: 16:43.7 (still an 8:05/mi pace - not much a drop from Run 1; I'm very happy about that!; Lee passed me just before entering transition - darn, I'm now officially 4 minutes behind him)
  
• T3: 0:59.0 (much faster than T1 even though I again took a salt pill and gel)
  
• Bike 2: 31:41.8 (30 seconds slower than bike 1 - getting tired, wind picked up, or both!  Passed Lee about 1/4 mile into the bike - gotta try to get some of that time back ...)
  
• T4/Finish: 0:19.6 (rack bike and then sprint to the finish line - just outside the transition area -- while still donning helmet and bike shoes!  I finished just behind the 1.4 seconds behind the guy in front of me - who placed second in the Clydesdale [men over 200 pounds] division - no wonder he was pushing so hard at the end. :-P)
  
• Total Time: 1:38:57.4

I placed 42nd out of 150 finishers and 7th out of 18 in my age group.  Lee took 28th place overall (about 2 1/2 minutes faster than me) and got an award for 3rd place in his age group.  I believe this is his first multi-sport award.  Way to go! Roberto was there with his friend Nick(?) and ran a solid race (top third) as well.

After the finish, we grabbed a (rather Spartan) post-race breakfast of Gatorade, bagels and bananas (Ironhead Jack said that the caterer didn't show up - not sure if that was a joke :-P) and waited near the beach at Lynn Creek Park for the awards ceremony.  Overall, it was a good event and a great course.  And the F1 format is interesting (and I heard that it used to include a third 2-mile run leg at the end).  I look forward to doing this race again in the future (especially if it is without the wind).

Full results at http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1725091

2009 St. Patrick's Day Triathlon

A solid performance at this morning's St. Patrick's Day Triathlon.  This is the fourth time I've completed this 300m swim-12mi bike-5K run course (prior efforts: Monster Tri 2007, St. Patty's Tri 2008, Monster Tri 2008), which is right down the road from me in Keller.

I completed the now very familiar course in 1:10:48.5 which placed me 14th out of 42 in my age group and 82nd out of 477 finishers.  (The cold/wet weather kept a lot of people away - there were around 610 total registrants - but even with the more than 100 no-shows, the attendance was still greater than the original 450 field cap).  This time is 2 minutes and 32 seconds slower than last year's Monster Tri finish (1:08:16, which is my PR for the course) but as I'll explain below is still quite good considering the external factors which slowed the bike and T1.

Results for fellow triathletes: Lee captured 89th place with a 1:11:26, slowed somewhat by a calf cramp during the bike (having gotten two of those during the TMS Du, I knew exactly what he was feeling). Sarah, a fellow VOWS resident, took second place in her age group with a 1:13.49.6.  Jeff (from Irving LA Fitness spin - reunited before the race), Derek (recovering from a cold this past week), and Jenn also turned out solid performances with times of 1:16:45.9, 1:19:32.7 & 1:24:27.3 for 164th, 207th & 276th place, respectively.

My splits tell my story for the day:

• Swim: 5:33.3
• T1: 2:17.2
• Bike: 37:03.6 (19.4 mph average)
• T2: 0:56.9
• Run: 24:57.5 (8:03/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:10:48.5

I had a pretty good swim - a 300 meter PR, in fact - the short distance masking my recent lack of training in this area.

My T1 time was a lot longer than it should have been.  It was already going to be slow because I took my normal pre-bike AccelGel and had decided to take some time and towel off from the swim and put on a shirt, but the real mistakes were: (1) my long sleeve shirts for the bike were turned inside out so it took me extra time to get dressed (that'll teach me to be lazy when setting up my transition area), and (2) my timing chip strap was way too long and as I was exiting the transition area with my bike it nearly came off - I had to set my bike down and reattach the Velcro.  So all-in-all, I probably lost nearly 30 seconds in T1.  (For reference, my T1 time was 38 seconds slower than Monster 2007 when I also toweled off and put on a shirt for the bike).

As mentioned, the weather was cold, but not the temperature itself was not too painful.  However, heavy rains for the last several days left the roadways quiet wet.  And so with the wet roads, the cycling was on the slower side.  The two-loop bike course had 11 turns of 90 degrees or more and everyone had to slow down for them for safety's sake.  Thankfully, I believe the race finished without any wrecks.

Actually, when I first jumped on my bike past the Mount Line of the transition area, I had a lot of trouble clipping in and almost ran front wheel into a curb.  Luckily, I was able to regain my balance and avoid a (time-consuming and embarrasing) crash.  After that episode, I was on my way.

Compared with last year's Monster Tri (my PR for this course) bike time of 34:12, I spent nearly three more minutes out on the bike course.  Obviously, slowing down for the turns really added to a loss of momentum and speed. However, this is something everyone had to contend with, and my bike time was about 40th ... in the top 10% of the field - so no complaints!

After the bike, things were pretty smoothly.  My 0:56.9 T2 is a PR for this course even if just by a few seconds and my 5K run was just a few seconds shy of the PR I set in my first race on this course (Monster 2007 - 24:54).  I still haven't been able to break the 8:00/mi tri-5K barrier (darn!).

Took SaltSticks before the event, at T1, and at T2.  Despite this I felt a cramp in my calf coming on at the start of my run.  So I don't know if the SaltSticks didn't make a difference in this area ... or perhaps prevented a full-blown (disasterous) Charlie Horse.

After the race, I caught up with fellow racemates, took some photos, and had some pancakes with Lee and Jenn.  (Wisely, back inside the Natatorium to warm up.)  After learning that Sarah had taken 2nd in her age group, I decided to stick around the awards ceremony and was rewarded for it ... My bib number was picked during the door prize drawings and I went home with a new Rudy Project Kontact+ helmet!

So even though it wasn't the best weather, it was still a good fun race and a nice surprise at the end.

Full results at: http://www.racechiptiming.com/files/ST.PADDY'STRIRESULTS.HTM

2009 Texas Motor Speedway Sprint Du

Great day for race this morning. I thought the weather might be on the cool side when loading up my bike this morning, but it turned out not too bad and very little wind (yay!) Big crowd – 350 participants. Ironhead Jack said it was the biggest duathlon in DFW since he ran the Du National Championships back in 1996(??)

I ended up finishing with a 1:19:47. I’m very happy with this result because I shaved over five minutes off my time from 2008's race - despite that last year the run legs were only about 1.8 miles each and this year they were the full 2 miles. Granted the lack of wind (which was very strong in 2008) also helped.

My official results:

• 16th out of 30 in my age group
• 87th out of 219 men
• 94th place overall (out of 319 finishers)

• Run 1 (2 miles officially): 15:36 (7:48/mi, 162nd place)
• T1: 00:58
• Bike (16 miles officially): 45:44 (21.0mph, 57th place)
• T2: 00:54
• Run 2 (2 miles officially): 16:33 (8:17/mi, 191st place)  

(Obviously, my running is still the weak link.)

Here are my stats as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 305 (split times very close to the chip timed results):


I'm pretty happy with my level of effort as my heart rate was fairly consistent and not out of control (keeping my speed down for first run leg helped):

Lee passed me at Mile 1.25 of the first run leg – the 2:00 head start that my age group had over his evaporated. I trotted into transition and was changing my shoes as he was heading out on the bike course. My 7:43/mi run pace was a little slower than last year’s 7:35/mi, but not by much. First run leg speed chart:


After a sub-minute T1 (nice, smooth transitions), I started the three loops around Texas Motor Speedway for the bike. I passed Lee at about Mile 3 of the bike (south side of the Speedway) knowing full-well that he’d pass me again back on the run. The lack of wind really helped my speed (and maybe those new tires that we got last summer). My bike avg was 18.4 MPH last year ... this year, 21.3 MPH (per GPS). Woo-hoo! I might have been able to go even a little faster I hadn’t gotten two Charlie Horses – right calf during loop 2 and left calf during loop 3. Yep, I had forgotten to take my SaltSticks. Live and learn.

Bike elevation:


Fairly consistent bike speed:


Luckily, the cramps had pretty much subsided after T2 and the start of the second run leg. As expected, Lee re-passed me at about Mile 1.75 for a strong push in the final stretch. My run pace was 8:23/mi per GPS (vs. 8:37/mi in 2008) so while still lumbering, it was actually a stronger finish than I felt it would be.  Second run leg speed chart:


In the final results, Lee finished in 67th with his great runs. My friend Archie, who I saw at many races in 2007, is back in DFW after moving out of state last year and obviously has been training hard ... he crushed us both at 36th place and a 1:13:49 time. Jenn, my spin LA Fitness instructor, had a good race as well and finished in 5th place in her age group.

Full results at: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3396

Next up: The Cowtown Half Marathon

Monster Triathlon 2008

This morning, I participated in my second Monster Sprint Triathlon with its 300 meter pool swim at the Keller ISD Natatorium, 12 mile bike, and 5K run.  I finished the race in 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds for 10th out of 52 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 59th out of 463 total finishers overall (actually 58th because I assume the person in 53rd place with a 29.3 MPH average cycling speed only did one loop of the bike course :-P).  With 512 entrants (the race was supposed to be capped at 400), turnout at this year's race was much higher than last year (when there were only 230 finishers).

Lee captured 51st place with a 1:07:02, besting me by over a minute on the strength of his 20:01 5K. Derek and Matt also finished strongly as well with times of 1:13:26 & 1:16:44 for 106th & 151st place, respectively.

• Swim: 5:51 (1:47/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:34
• Bike: 34:12 (21.1 mph average)
• T2: 1:00
• Run: 25:40 (8:17/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:08:16

Full results at http://www.doitsports.com/results/page.tcl?id=195714

Compared to last year (times below), everything was faster except for my run and that may have been because I ran over 10 miles the day before (so much for resting up/tapering). In any case, my overall time was 3 minutes and 15 seconds faster - quite an improvement!

• Swim: 6:02 (1:51/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:39
• Bike: 37:52 (19.0 mph average)
• T2: 1:07
• Run: 24:54 (8:02/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:11:31

Since I live less than 10 minutes away from the venue and got to bed early last night (super-tired from the Cool October Runs and two days at the Great Wolf Lodge water park), I was parked and ready to go at 5:30 AM.  Since the transition area wasn't open yet and I literally hadn't been on my bike in three weeks (since the Ironman Longhorn), I spent 10 minutes riding around the parking lot and practiced clipping and unclipping my cleats from the pedals.

I ran into Lee about 20 minutes later as the line for body marking and bike check snaked out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk along Bear Creek Parkway.  We chatted and traded business travel stories and then set up our transition areas.

The morning weather was cool but definitely warmer than yesterday - taking off my shirt for body marking was uncomfortable but not painful.  So I made the decision that unlike last year, toweling off and putting on a shirt after the swim before hitting the bike wouldn't be necessary.  That definitely improved my T1 time compared to last year.

Like last year, the pre-race mood was festive with the songs like "Monster Mash" and "Abracadabra" playing over the transition area PA system and the fog machine running at poolside.  I was well-seeded in slot 162 for the swim.  I passed 3 people in the pool and didn't get passed by anyone en route to a smooth 5:51 split as I headed into T1 to put on my bike shoes and grab my bike.

Exiting the transition area, I clipped into my bike pedals without a problem - the pre-race refresher definitely helped.  I am now very well familiar with this bike course and its hills - especially the two big ones on Bear Creek Parkway.  Keller is a lot hillier than you would think - my GPS shows 650+ feet of elevation change for the two-loop ~20K mile bike course.  However, I was able to crank away pretty well and had a solid 21.1+ MPH official average speed.  This is a new PR for my average bike speed in a tri (and it probably was even faster since my GPS recorded 12.59 miles for the course distance - which would make for a 22.09 MPH average)!

MotionBased bike data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7051596 (Note: Started the Garmin late, so time and distance are slightly undermeasured)

As I came in from the bike leg, I was pleasantly surprised as a heard a familiar voice saying "dismount here" as Don T (who is tapering for this Saturday's Ford Ironman Florida) was a volunteer for the event.  Unfortunately, no time to chat right now, so just a quick hello after dismounting and a jog back to my bike rack.  T2 was a breeze and even putting on my costume for the run went smoothly.

The out-and-back run course was the same as previous races except for one part of the trail which was being redone.  Unlike last year, I didn't have any cramps, so the run was quite smooth albeit a little slower than 2007's split.

MotionBased run data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7051597

Even though I only took 59th place in the race (note to self: top 13% is nothing to sneeze at) and 10th in my age group, I take some pride in that I believe I had the fastest time of every one who wore a costume - although there was a woman dressed as a belly-dancer (complete with jingly metal on her skirt) only a few minutes behind me!

All-in-all, a great race and a great way to end to end my 2008 triathlon season.  A new PR time for a sprint tri - 1:08:16 vs. the Old College Tri's 1:08:42 (and that race had shorter bike and run courses).  Really nice weather and a chance to see friends and coworkers. 

Okay, time for running season 2008-2009 to hit "full stride"! :-)

Ironman Longhorn 70.3

(Initial race report. Will post more details and photos later.)

Second Half-Ironman race complete!  Almost 13 minutes faster than my first - Lone Star Tri at Galveston back in March.

Swim: My plan was to be in the front but along the side. I was just to the left of the right start buoy (there are two start buoys between which the swimmers are supposed to line up), but a bunch of people went to the right (outside) of that buoy so I ended up kind of in the middle. Not the best place because I got "run over" by about 20+ people in the beginning. After the initial flailing, I slipped into a decent rhythm. The water in the lake was a great temperature - 77.9 degrees - just barely wetsuit legal. I think the swim course was short - I find it hard to believe that I had a swim pace of 1:45/100M pace (without a wetsuit - I decided not to bring mine - FAILED) when I was trying to hold back for the rest of the 70.3 miles.

T1: Felt pretty good on the run up from Decker Lake. Hated the fact that my feet were all dirty from the grass/dirt transition area. Had to take extra time to clean them off before putting on socks and also to put on my TNT tri-top (no bare torsos for Ironman events). My bike rack was very close to the Swim In entrance and directly opposite of the Bike Out/In so I had a long way to run with my bike to get to the Mount line.

Bike: Despite two mishaps, I had a great bike - 20.5 MPH and I literally passed hundreds of people over the 56 mile course. Overall, it was a decent course, although there was a bit of chip seal and a stiff headwind from the west which came into play in the second half of the route.

Mishap #1: My chain popped off when downshifting up a steep hill at Mile 6. Since I was going up a hill, I quickly lost speed and couldn't unclip from pedals, and fell to the side of the road. Luckily, no injuries other than to my pride. I got up and put the chain back on, but didn't think I would be able to mount my bike on the steep hill - so I ran with it the rest of the way to the top. There was a race photographer up there too, so I may get a photo of this glorious moment.

Mishap #2: Around Mile 42, came up on a bumpy bridge, a lot of debris (water bottles, etc.) on the road and bunch of bike traffic. The jostling caused my water bottle to become loose in its cage. Reached down to adjust it and ended up clipping my finger in my front wheel spokes instead. Ouch! Kept rinsing out the cut by sipping water from my AeroDrink and then spitting it out on my finger. Adrenaline is an amazing pain-killer and eventually the bleeding stopped.

At Mile 54.5 as we neared the end of the bike, we hit a big hill - really big. I looked over to my right and beyond a chainlink fence was what looked like a running trail. A running trail with runners and volunteers on it. I guess this must be "Quadzilla - The Hill of Truth".

Speed (note my stop at 0:15 when my chain popped off):

Heart Rate (averaged at 156 BPM - probably on the high side, but fairly reasonable):

Elevation (2,396 ft - not flat!)

MotionBased data for Bike leg: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6921403

T2: Not much to report except that I was dead-tired coming off the bike. Didn't even bother jogging with my bike to my rack. Still, 2:02 is decent bike-to-run transition time.

Run: Very painful.  There was hardly any flat terrain on the entire run.  My quads cramped up while going up a hill at Mile 1 and I started my first of many walks.  At the top that hill, I started feeling better - a combination of my lower heart rate and good music from a live band.  I ran past a guy and girl dressed in disco outfits (and thought of the Disco Tri) who pointed the way to the next rest stop.  After the first turn-around I headed down that I had walked up a 15 minutes earlier.  At Mile 3, I saw Jarrod exiting the park grounds a couple miles behind me.

At Mile 4.5 the run course turned onto a grass and dirt trail and I headed down a long hill.  Although it was fun to run down the hill, the entire time I kept thinking to myself "What goes down must come back up."  Sure enough, after passing through a festive aid station hosted by superheroes - including Batman (oddly, dancing to the Superman theme), Mr. & Mrs. Incredible, and a guy dressed as (I assume) one of the Super Mario Brothers - I came up to Quadzilla.

For my first trip up "The Hill of Truth" I ran about the first third of the hill, walked the middle third, and jogged the rest of the way to the top.  The second time, I walked almost the entire thing - defeated!  There was an announcer at the top of the hill greeting passing runners as we cross the chip timing mat (there was one at the bottom of the hill too - the fastest male and female runners up the hill got a special award) - that was a nice touch.  There were also signs with amusing quotes along the path up in an attempt to keep our minds off the painful climb.  A few I remember:

• All power corrupts, but absolute power is pretty neat
• Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
• Suburbia - where developers chop down the trees and name streets after them

After passing by the transition area (and passing the finish line - so close yet so far), I started the second loop of the run and headed out on the now familar course.  At Mile 7.5 or so I waved at Derek who was about two miles ahead of me on the course (but doing his first loop) and at Mile 10 I saw Jarrod for the second time, but I don't even know if he heard me shout his name.  He was in the zone!

Along with my leg cramps (first it was quads - those loosened up - and then I had Charley Horses in my right calf intermittently throughout the entire run) my bladder was hyperactive and also slowed me down.  I was eating a lot of PowerGels and I think the caffeine (and it's diuretic properties) in some of the flavors caught up to me.  The "zero mph" dips in the speed chart below were portolet stops (4 of them!).  A few of my more experienced friends told me that I need to learn how to "go" on run, but those "rest stops" were a welcome relief for legs as well as my bladder.

Fairly consistent heart rate on the run - cardio was still strong.  My overall speed was definitely limited by my tired legs.  If I could just build up my legs more, my run time would greatly improve. I'm sure I left running legs on the bike course.  I joked to my tri buddies that I need to either switch to Aquabike or get a tri-bike so at least I'll save my hamstrings.  Or I guess I can just train harder. :-)

Elevation profile (Hardly a flat stretch on the entire route.  Quadzilla at Miles 4.75 and 11.25.  900 ft of elevation over 13.1 miles ... hillier than the bike!)

MotionBased data for Run: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6921404 

Race Review:

Pro: Well-supported race. "Big race atmosphere" with 2,400 registrants. Decent lake for the swim.  Four live bands on the run course (and other music) and great rest stops (8 of them!) - which were all hit twice.

Con: Trail/Dirt run course is knee-friendly, but totally ruined my fairly new running shoes. Didn't like the grass and dirt transition area either.  The shuttle buses from the parking to the race site were totally inadequate so I ended up walking the 1.25 miles in the morning (after the race, I rode my bike).

Stats:

• 1.2 mile Swim: 33:45 (1266th place)
• T1: 03:39 
• Bike: 2:43:34 (20.5mph, 359th place)
• T2: 02:02
• Run: 2:23:29 (10:57/mi, 1042nd place)
• Total Time: 5:46:32 

Overall Place: 735 out of 1929 finishers (1376 M / 553 F)

Gender Place: 581 out of 1313 (age group Men)
Division Place: 140 out of 306 (Men 35-39)

Full Results: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventLinkageID=89178