Race Report: Tri of Compassion

I got up race morning feeling very tired, and had a bit of a caugh. I had worked the previous day for just over 17.25 hours outside, in the sun. I think that this was the first time I have gotten up race morning and not wanted to race. All the same I was commited to the race, as I had made sure to get the morning off work, and I would have a lot of explaining to do if for some reason I took the time off and did not race.

I was also commited to the race in that I had race goals that I wanted to accomplish. I know it is not good to base your performance on how others perform, but competition is what drives me to perform better. My goal this race was to best my fellow racer Mike Janes. Mike has been getting faster every year, and this year in particular has seemed to have made some big gains. Mike and I were not in the same swim heat so I would not be directly racing him, but more that I would constantly be pushing myself to race as hard as I could, as if he and I were racing head on.

500m Swim
Swim time: 7:55
I had given as estimated swim time of 8 minites where my previous best had been an 8:30 for 500m, and I was a little nervous because I was leading my lane. Also there were two others in my lane who had also estimated 8 minite swims. I probably should have let them go before me (and I'm not sure why I didn't), but I'm glad that I did not. Perhaps it was the drive of not wanting to be in anyones way, but when we were given the go I took off. My first 200m were done at sprint speed, which may have been a mistake, as I slowed down for the rest of the swim, but being a short swim I was not suffering for too long, and it resulted in a PB for the swim.

19km Bike
Bike time: 32:01
T1 was neither particularly good or bad, however it took until somewhere around Lampson St. (about 2.5km) to really get my biking legs going. Whenever I remembered, I reminded myself that I was racing Mike, and that helped to keep the push on. As I turned onto Esquimalt Rd. I was riding hard, and I knew that I was making good time. I was just about to complete my first lap of the bike when a motorbiker pulled out of a gas station in front of me. I was going much faster than he was and I pulled over to the left to pass, he too realised that I was going faster than he was and he decided to pull out of the way. Unfortunately he decided to pull over to the left just before I was to pass him, trapping me in between his bike and the center median. I hit his bike and went up onto the front wheel of me bike and went over sideways over his bike. I was able to get my right foot down, but my left leg was still over my bike and my bike and I landed hard sideways on the ground. My right shifter was damaged as was my rear wheel. The shifter still functioned, but would occasionally stick and would also occasionally change gears in the opposite direction, which proved to be extremely frustrating. The wheel caused my cornering to feel unstable, and also rubbed on my brake pads at the spot that it was most out of true. I was able to continue with the race though. And perhaps the accident gave me a bit of an adrenaline rush. One thing that definitely helped the next two laps of the ride was that just after getting back up to speed after the crash another rider caught up and he and I feed off each other. I kept the other rider behind me for all of the second lap, despite him trying to pass, but he was able to pass on the 3rd lap when I went right to go around some cars and was cut off by a bus and he went around on the left. I chased all the way to transition. I was wanting to ride a 30 min ride including transitions, but that did not happen, and even without the accident I doubt I would have done better that a 31.

5km Run
Run time: 18:09
T2 was fairly quick other than my left shoe getting stuck a little, and then I was out on the run. The first km was very slow going after working hard on the bike. I knew that once I got to Fraser St. that the run would be down hill for a bit and I knew that that would help me to get my run going. So I suffered through the first km and was able to pick it up on the down hill. I reminded myself that I needed to run fast to make up time from the crash and that kept me going over the flat. Near the end of the run I could feel my energy flagging, and I'm sure that I slowed a little in the last km, but being the last bit I knew I did not have far to go. I managed a sprint finish and was rewarded with a PB on the run.

It was a great race, and I am very pleased with the result which was a PB by almost 45 seconds (despite not beating Mike [Great race Mike if you're reading this!]), but I am not looking forward to the repair bill on my bike.

Food for thought

As I was hobbling around work today I got to thinking about yesterdays race...

I swam 1.9 km which is longer than I have ever swam continually. I biked 88 km which is also more than I have ever biked continually. And I ran 21.1 km which is the second farthest I have ever run. I did all that not only back to back, but also in race... it is no wonder I am sore today, I can't believe I can actually move.

Next time I think I need to train more.

One Long Race

It's the end of the day, and all I've done is raced and ate, and I am ready for bed. I guess that is to be expected for one's first Half Ironman.

I was pretty nervous leading into today, knowing that I had set high goals for myself and yet had not put in as much training as I would have liked to have done (it might have been nice to have run 21+ kms in training more than once before having to end a long race with that kind of run). Alt the same I was excited to get the day underway. Part of being excited led to very poor sleep last night, and it was tough to get up when my alarm went off.

Once at the race site I was rushed to set up transition, and I finished only about 3 min before the gun went off. Once the race started I fell into the groove, and despite having not quite as good a swim as I had hoped for (34:08 vs. 32:00) it was at least smooth and felt relatively easy. I came out of the water feeling good, and had my wetsuit top, goggles and cap off before getting to my bike. Everything seemed to be going well, and I was expecting a smooth transition. Unfortunately my wetsuit gave quite the fight as it seemed to prefer being attached to my body. And in the struggle to get it off I knocked my bike which caused my helmet to fall thus scattering my garmin and my race belt. Once I got the wetsuit off I started to put on my socks, which unlike my wetsuit seemed to want to have nothing to do with me. And despite having rolled my socks they still managed to get bunched, and I eventually gave up on fixing them and settled with having bunched socks. Following what was now becoming a theme for T1 my shoes, race belt and to a small degree me garmin all decided to be difficult. Basically for a transition that had started off so well, everything went wrong. And to top it off once out on the bike when I was getting into the rhythm of riding I discovered that my tasty carrot cake Cliff bar had decided to fall out of my tri-top pocket.

I didn't let that throw off my ride though, I pushed on and ate a power gel instead. I knew I needed to make time on the bike, but also that getting in nutrition and liquid was just as important. I stuck to a regime of eating one power gel per loop and drinking as much as I could without feeling like puking. It all seemed to work well as I put in the 8th fastest bike split of 2:27:58 and I came into T2 feeling well hydrated and as energised as one could expect o be after swimming 1.9km and biking 88km.

T2 was very unlike T1, everything went right, I came up to the dismount line with shoes off and standing on one pedal. As I hit the dismount line (still with speed from the bike I hopped off and ran down to my position at the bike rack, racked my bike, ditched my helmet, switched shoes and got out of there in 52 seconds.

The run was tough, and I expected it to be. I took water at every aid station and dumped it over my head, and only at the first one did I actually drink some gatorade, in doing so I was able to prevent myself from getting to hot or from being nautious from drinking on the run. But it was my legs that just did not want to run after already working so hard for so long. I did get into a rhythm after a few kms and was averaging just sub 4:30s. This lasted until about 15 km into the run, where despite having people to chase I was running out of gas. My pace dropped to between 4:40 and 4:55. I had been passing runners up until that point, but was re-passed by one and passed by someone else. Despite trying to pick up the pace my body just wouldn't let me. However, at the last km, after recently passing someone else in my age group, I heard them trying to regain their position. With only a km to go I was able to push the pace and keep my lead.

I am extrodinarily tired, but very satisfied with my first Half Iron. I finished in 4:41:39 placed 13th OA (including relay teams and elites) and 1st in my age group.

North Shore Report

Well, it's been a couple days since the race at North Shore. I meant to write this sooner, but have been busy with Ulti, etc and this is the first time I have been at the computer for more than 5 minutes.

My plan for the race was to go easy, and to not hurt myself for my race next weekend. Going easy also seemed to be in order as I woke up race morning with stiff/sore legs. All the same the race started off very well. I was feeling great in the water, which for me came as a pleasant surprise. At one point in the swim I was swimming stroke for stroke with a swimmer who on a normal day would have cruised by me. Unfortunately I lost count of my laps, and I ended up swimming an extra lap (adding 1:16 to my time). I almost swam another extra lap; I had already done my flip-turn, when I heard the swim co-ordinator yelling.

T1 was neither good nor-bad, although a little slower than normal as I decided to use socks to practice for the HI and also because the side of my foot had been rubbed raw in last weeks race. After transition it was out on the bike and time to make up some ground. I did not push as hard as last year, but I still rode a 30:54 (which includes T1 & T2). I was too busy passing a last couple of cyclists and forgot to pull my feet out of my shoes before transition forcing me to run in my bike shoes to rack my bike. Starting out after T2 my legs were feeling a little of that stiffness that they had in the morning and it took until almost half way through the run to get into my groove. Once I had my running legs, I managed to pick up the pace and I passed a good number of athletes finishing the run in 19:00.

My total time for the race was 1:03:46 which placed me 10th overall and 3rd in my age group. However, I am satisfied with the race as I know that if I had not swam the extra lap I would have done a 1:02:30 which is the same as last year and would have placed me 5th OA and 1st AG.

It has been a couple of days since the race and my body feels good other than a little soreness in my left knee. I will attempt to do only what I have to do in terms of exercise in order to rest my knee before Sunday.

First triathlon of the year

May 10, 2009

This is the second year I have raced Sooke Spring Triathlon. Last year I finished in 1:10:08 and this year I managed to cut more than 2 and a half minutes finishing in 1:07:28 to come 2nd overall out of the non-elites and first in my age group.
Although I had a great race, it did not start off well. I was lapped by 3 swimmers in my lane, luckily no one in my swim heat managed to gain much more than a minute before I too was out of the water. After T1 I was rapidly gaining on everyone with a strong bike that would become the 2nd fastest of all the bike times. The run too went well, the only downside being that after finishing I felt that I could have possibly pushed harder.
I want to say a big congratulations to my racing friend Mike Janes who won the race.

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