Kinetic Half Race Report

Race: Kinetic Half
Location: Spotsylvania, VA
Date: 05/09/15
website: www.vtmts.com

Better late, than never....usually when I step back and reflect on my race for this long, I tend to polarize my overall reaction (either the race of my life or the worst sufferfest ever). But with all of this procrastination I think I've kept a level head on my overall performance.

I like this race because of the time of year and because it was my first triathlon (technically 2nd). Its a challenging course that really helps evaluate how your early season training has served you. Unfortunately, every year I always tend to lose a bit of tenacity in my training as the race approaches. I think its because its the first triathlon of the year, I have lower expectations, and I have bigger race performances planned for the rest of the year.

I have a lot of excuses for how this race went and I'm not going to bore you with them, because they are just excuses. At the end of the day, I set a PB for the course and I did achieve several of my goals.

Quick report, so I don't dwell on excuses:

Overall: 4:42:12 - (OA 25/416; AG 2/34)

Swim: 33:04
Bike: 2:30:35
Run: 1:34:46

Swim - Average time, but finished the swim feeling strong. My swim time may not be significantly improving (actually a little slower than last year), but my level of perceived fatigue getting out of the water is much lower. I tried something different this year.... I stayed in the pack. Usually I start far out to the outside and I stay there, avoiding any contact or interference. But this year I wanted to join the party, so I threw myself into the mix. All went well, I was able to stay on feet for at least the first half, but I had one guy to my left who would not get off my shoulder. He was swimming off course (to the right) and, I think, he was using me for sighting. The only problem is that I had feet in front of me and I couldn't get him to go left. Every time I gave him a little space to go around, he would follow me to the right. Every time I slowed, he would slow. It got really frustrating for a while, but finally the feet in front of me pulled away, so I was able to make a surge and get past him. About half way through the swim, I lost any feet so I was left alone. I was surprised when I finished that there were only 1 or 2 later wave swimmers that passed me.

T1 - I couldn't find my bike. Wasted a lot of time. Apparently there were three of us riding Cervelo P2C's and the bike next to us all had a Zipp disc wheel. The transitions only had the numbers facing one direction (opposite from the entrance into T1), so I thought I correctly counted my rack as the 5th rack. Oh well, probably lost a good 60s (no big deal).

Bike - Just weak. I felt "powerless" the whole ride. Its a rolling course and I just had a hard time getting into any sort of groove. Felt like I was on the verge of cramping in my obliques (!?!?!), couldn't get my HR up, normal cadence felt way to hard to maintain on the flats, etc, etc, etc....boo whoo. I'll stop with all the complaining. I improved my bike split by a few minutes from last year and I ran better off the bike. Moral of the story = I probably had too high of expectations going in.

T2 - uneventful, surprised to see that there weren't too many bikes on the rack already.

Run - This was my number one goal for the race. This run course is tough (for me). Its a 3 loop course with multiple long climbs and descents. Its a complete mind F@$*, for those of you who stare at your Garmin for the whole race because its really hard to settle into one pace. After 2 consecutive years of cursing this death march, I was determined to have a solid effort on the run. I got off the bike and immediately switched my self pity into motivation. I paced myself up the first uphill mile and then tried to settle into a perceived effort. Overall, I was really happy with my time. A little disappointed that I didn't have anything left to kick for the last loop, but I was able to produce a consistent effort.

Final takeaway - decent swim, rough bike, solid run. Happy with 2nd in AG and improvement from last year.

Thanks, as always, to Trisports.com for all of the support. First race rocking the 2015 uniform. Contact me for Trisports.com discount codes!

VA Duathlon Race Report

Race: Virginia Duathlon
Location: Suffolk, VA
Date: 3/29/15
Website: www.virginaduathlon.com

Last season was the first time I participated in this race and I was definitely excited to race it again. It's not really a race where I assign an "A" or "B" priority, just more of an early season tune up. Last year I was a bit shocked at the temps, which were in the low 40's (F), and the extremely gusty winds. This year made last year seem like a tropical paradise. The official average race temp was 30 degrees, but I don't think we broke 30 degree's until the second 5K. My wife (6-mo pregnant), mom and dog came along for some moral support. I can't believe they even attempted to get out of the car. Sub 30 degrees isn't necessarily mind blowing, but the wind gusts were treacherous.

When I was gearing up before I drove over that morning, I was actually considering wearing my TriSports.com triton with arm warmers. I'm so glad that I brought more layer than that. In the end, I was wearing tights with cycling shorts and knee warmers. On top, was a Under Armor thermal long sleeve, cycling jersey, arm warmers and gloves. Some of the guys lined up next to me where wearing tri-tops or 4" running shorts. Not sure how that bike ride felt, but I hope you have regained feeling in some of your more sensitive areas. I'm certainly not averse to the cold, but as I've gained more experience in cycling, I've learned that its much better to prioritize comfort over style. My entire get-up was solid black (by design), which matches my TT bike. Had a pretty sharp look with the white cycling shoes and aero helmet.

1st 5K: 19:55 (6:25/mile) (6/9 AG, 21/130 OA)

I didn't get a great warm up in, as the weather had me contemplating how many layers to wear for too long. I was able to get a quick 10 min jog. Just enough to realize that there was a solid head wind for the first 0.75 miles of the initial 5K. I hopped on my bike just to get the gearing settled in. This would  only be the second time I've ridden my bike outdoors since November.

On shorter runs, I always start out too fast and this race didn't prove to be different. During the brutal first mile, it was too cold and I was putting out too much effort against the wind to really focus on my Garmin. But I was at least trying to pace myself. There were a lot of stud runners out there and I quickly dropped back behind their pace. I tried to find someone similar to my pace to tuck behind, in order get a bit of a draft. At mile 1, I looked at my Garmin - 5:30/mile. I just about stopped running at that point. I don't even train intervals at that pace, because I know that my run fitness is nowhere near that level. Ideally, I should have been around 6:00 - 6:15/mile. At this point, I knew it was going to be a day of surviving.

After the first mile is a really steep hill, which definitely slows your 2nd mile pace. The back half of mile 2 is down hill, which allows you to catch your breath before a few short climbs during mile 3. The rest of the race was me surviving. Paying close attention to the race kits of all the guys passing me as my pace suffered.

Bike: 1:03:26 (4/9 AG, 6/130 OA)

Unfortunately, this was also the first race I was using the multisport feature on my Garmin, so my timing was all screwed up before I even left T1. I think with the lack of oxygen flowing to my brain, I didn't recognize the change in the screen and tapped the lap button a few too many times. When your gasping for air, riding with a disc and the winds are ranging 11-15mph, you don't really take the time to go through the reset of your watch. I decided to just race by feel.

I was really happy with my bike split. I have no idea what my power output was, but I knew I was doing well because my cadence was high and I was passing a lot of people. Turns out, that it is really hard to be a strong cyclist and a strong runner.

Overall, this is a relatively challenging ride. It's a short ride, but with the rolling hills and head wind, it will definitely challenge your ability to suffer. I didn't see a tremendous improvement from my split last year (1:05), but I think the conditions were a lot tougher this year. My effort and comfort on the bike has drastically improved.

2nd 5K: 20:59 (6:46/mile) (5/9 AG, 19/130)

Nothing spectacular, but realistic. I imagine these splits were a bit more even. My legs felt as expected. I don't think I was overdone from the bike, just didn't have much for run legs on this day.

Overall Thoughts:

Fortunately, the top 3 guys in my age group (2 pros) were the top 3 overall, so I walked away with my first AG win in my new 30-34 division. I didn't have a lot of expectations this year, in regards to competing within the AG, because I know these guys are fast.

I know I have more in my run legs, but I won't be focusing on getting much faster this year as the races only get longer from this point out. I'm extremely happy with my bike effort. I have put a ton of work on the trainer over the winter and I really liked how it translated to outdoors. I will continue to spend a lot of time on the trainer, as it is more convenient, but I hope to get some more outdoor riding data over the next few weeks.

It's always nice to walk away with a trophy, but even better to eat the post race BBQ. Beautiful country side scenery and a nice hearty meal make all of it worth it. It's always special to have my wife and now it's even greater thinking about how much the race routines will change when the little one arrives.

Thanks again to Trisports.com for the support. Sorry I didn't have any cold weather logo gear to wear during the race :)

2015 update

Life is crazy. I am undoubtedly embracing the mayhem right now.

So a little update.....6 weeks after IM Chattanooga, as the excitement of Kona was still lingering, we found out we were pregnant! This was the greatest news. This was not a surprise, we had been planning, but we never thought it would happen so fast. Especially since I had just finished 9+ months of triathlon training, ending with an Ironman. Nothing about my recovering body felt fertile. We did the math and it looks like 1.5 weeks after Chattanooga, my ducks were realigned and I was ready to go.

Fast forward, the start of 2015 has been moving fast. Of course, I didn't take much of a break after Chattanooga. You qualify for Kona and the first thing you want to do is get back to training. But after a few weeks of flailing around, I decided I needed a short term goal. Our hometown, Newport News, VA, announced they were going to be holding their inaugural One City Marathon on March 15th. I typically train to race an early season marathon, so I instantly set my sites on this race. How perfect would it be to race and set a PR in my home town?

Unfortunately, after some really consistent and well structured training through November, December and into January I had an injury pop up. One day, after a steady medium-distance run, my achilles just lit up. I was hobbling around and could barely walk. Of course, I did as all triathletes do, I rolled it out every night and continued to train. I wasn't too concerned with the injury, as I had been doing pretty consistent cycling on the trainer throughout the winter, so I knew that I could always fall back to cycling to keep my fitness while this achilles calmed down. Well the achilles never really calmed down. I kept resting a day or two, then testing it and couldn't seem to get rid of the underlying discomfort. I was able to run, but I knew I wasn't going to PR with a bad achilles.

At the beginning of February, we took a trip out to the west coast (Vancouver, BC) to visit the in-laws. BTW, this is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I would certainly live there in a different life. I digress. The 5 day trip, forced me to take a mini-recovery ( I did manage to get a hill repeat session in for 2 of the days I was there). But the rest and Tim Horton's seemed to quiet my achilles down. I decided while I was on the trip, that the marathon was going to be a wash. I didn't want to create a lingering injury that would jeopardize the rest of my season. My training buddy Matt was also having ITB issues so we both decided to back off on the run training, in order to heal up.

I did manage to work one of the water stations for the marathon last week. It was both humbling and inspiring. Given that my leg hasn't been hurting for over a month, I was so tempted to sign up for this race last minute. It was hard to watch some of my buddies go by. Congrats to Jason (3rd OA) and Steve (4th OA). Also, congrats to Adam on his PR/BQ. These guys have been training all winter in some horrible weather, kudos to you on your accomplishments. Every single participant that passed by Mile 12 Aid Station was truly inspiring. The determination was palpable.

So looking forward to the rest of the season, I have the VA Duathlon next week (3/29/15) as a little tune up race. This race has the best post race food - home cooked BBQ! They also have these hand carved wooden trophies. Hopefully, I'll be fortunate to take one home this year.

My first A race of the season is SetUp Events Kinetic Half (5/9/15). I call this an A race because its one of my only races this year. I don't expect to PR, but I want to actually throw down a decent run. This was my first 70.3 distance 3 years ago and last year I improved by almost 18 min. The run is a hilly 13.1 miles, that I just can't seem to grasp. The bike is fast, so I know that part of my problem is overshooting the bike. But I think my run prep has been a bit lazy going into this race the past two years. I'm hoping that my improved run structure will help me settle into the hills a bit more easier this year.

I've got a few more races planned before I get to Kona, but my main priority is my baby girl! She's due June 24! The nursery is half way done and the rest of the house is pretty much finished ( oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we also bought a house this past January -- no need to ramble on anymore).

Looking forward to this upcoming year, stay tuned.....