Tri For Fun – July 21, 2012

Tri For Fun – July 21, 2012

I was a bit nervous going into Saturday’s race since my right shoulder has been a bit tweaky the last two weeks and I didn’t know how well I’d be able to hold my swim form.  That’s sort of important for a sprint tri where you have to red-line the whole way.

I’ve been doing this race series since 1999 – for over 12 years now.  So that means I’ve done this sprint tri between 30 – 40 times !!!

Due to my somewhat competitive nature (who me?), I have pretty much always trained pretty intensely and with an eye towards trying to race as fast as my fitness level allows.

With that in mind, it took me several years before I could crack the 1 hour barrier at the Tri for Fun series.

Over the last several years, I’ve chipped away and to break 59:00.  A few seconds here.  A few seconds there.  Going into this season, my PR was 58:17.

I anxiously approached last month’s Tri for Fun, my first tri of the season, and the Gods were definitely in my favor.  I set a new PR – 57:57 – chopping 20 seconds off the old PR.

The weather conditions were ideal.  Warm but not hot.  And not much wind.  Got there early to get a good spot in the transition area.  Did a pre-race run warmup.  Jan arrived as I was getting ready to head to the water.  Got my kiss for luck.  I probably should’ve gotten another kiss…

Swim:  The start of the swim was fine and made it to the first buoy with no problem.  But after that first buoy this I got hit in the face on top of the left side of my goggles.  It didn’t hurt too much but it knocked the left side out of whack.  I hesitated and thought about readjusting the googles.  Then I thought since it wasn’t leaking and I only had 200 yards to go I would just gut it out.  Then, as I breathed to the left that same swimmer was kicking so furiously I gulped in a ton of water.  Then I was getting hit on my right side and someone was literally pushing down on my low back.  It was brutal.  I started to panic.  I suppose not being able to breath and then getting whacked will do that.  Got past the second buoy somehow and that’s when the panic really started to settle in.  I just couldn’t catch my breath.

At this point on was on the right side and wasn’t getting hit anymore.  I just slowed it down a bit and was able to get a bit more relaxed so I could actually breathe.  Normally I swim all the way to shore until my hands are literally brushing the bottom of the lake, but this time I was only too happy to stand up and run (yeah, right) my way out. 

I was pretty frustrated because I knew my time was slower.  In a sprint tri, there really isn’t any time to spare.  So I knew getting a PR was out and, frankly, I’d be lucky to crack 59:00 again.

Fortunately, I had a really quick T1.  I was on the bike and saw my time was like 8:00.  That really helped pick my spirits up.

Bike:  Getting the legs up to speed early is always tough.  Usually, the second half of the ride is faster than the first half.  For a chance at a PR, I’d need to be right at 20 mph from the get go.  And I was.

By the turnaround on Vineyard I could see I was in 10^th place.  Bummer.  No changes in position even after that, which I was a bit surprised about since there’s a spot on Vineyard that I normally hammer and pass people.  Not this time.  Oh well.  But the AV speed was good – and ended up at 21.4 mph.  Woo hoo!  As I was crossing the bridge back on Bernal, I saw Bryan running along on his was to watch the finish.   Hey – fancy running into you out here.

T2 was fast but not much faster than anyone else so I was still 10^th place as I headed out on the run.

Run:  Had a good leg turnover from the start.  Just kept my sights on the folks in front of me.  Picked off the first guy going up the first hill.  9^th place.  Picked off the next guy after the first downhill.  8^th.  Then passed another guy before the next hill 7^th.  Someone passed me.  Crap.  8^th.  Passed another guy.  7^th.  Then going up the last hill passed one more.  6^th.  Back across the parking lot and onto the grass area there’s two more guys up ahead.  I’ve been reeling these guys in for a while.  We’re now about 300 yards from the finish.  I’m getting close to one and he goes into his kick.  Then I hit mine.  I catch and pass the one and am getting close to the second, but he’s just a bit too far (or maybe I just didn’t want to turn myself even more inside out than I already was – which was a lot).

As we hit the last bend, I am waiting for the clock to come into view to see whether or not I’m going to be above or below 58:00.  I know my eyes were bulging out of there head from the intensity level, but the clock was saying 56 something.  What ?? !!

Despite the oxygen debt I just kept going through the line in 56:38 !!  Over 1 minute off my PR. 

And 5^th place to boot.  (Did a 7:10, 7:09, and a 6:57 mi. pace)

Once again, Jerry was there at the finish with his camera in my face as I’m ready to keel over. 

Pam showed up too. 

Pleasantly surprised and happy to be getting faster as I'm getting older.

TBF - Tri (Olympic Distance) at Rancho Seco

Sunday I participated in an Olympic-distance tri (1 mi. swim, 25 mi. bike, 6.2 mi. run) in the Sacramento area at Rancho Seco Park, next to the nuclear power plant.  (No joke; it’s next to the power plant which I think always helps keep the water temp warm).

I decided late to enter this race because I wanted to break 2:30 for an oly-tri and I only had one other on the race calendar.  So this would be a “B” race, but I still thought I’d have a chance to crack the 2:30 barrier since the training’s been coming along nicely.

Jan had ridden 67 miles with Audrey the day before, so I figured it was unlikely she’d be accompanying me, especially since I’d need to leave the house at 4:45 a.m.  I figured right.  No movement at all when the alarm went off.

Uneventful 1 ½ hour drive there, but always nice when you get to see the sun rise.

Got there early and set up my stuff.  It was already in the 60’s.  Most tris start at 7:00 a.m.  Not this series, however, as TBF starts their races at 8:00.   An hour later – in July – in Sacramento ???  Hmmmm.

The water temp was already feeling warm and comfy and I definitely did not need my wetsuit for that – just for floatation.  Oh well.

Swim:

You know, a 1-mi. swim sure seems far when you actually look at the buoys way, way, way out there.  I was in the 4^th or 5^th wave.  Away we go.  I got in the swim groove right away.  It was funny to me how many others were way off to the right since I was pretty sure I was swimming straight towards the first buoy.  (My Garmin later confirmed this.)  Anyway, after the last buoy I felt another swimmer drafting me since he kept touching my toes.  Not really a problem but occasionally annoying.  As we finish, we’re standing up to run out of the water and he thanks me for the pull.

To have a shot at sub-2:30, I really have to get somewhere in 26-28 for the swim.

Swim:  27:29.

Quick T1, and headed out on the bike.

Bike:

This is a pretty flat and fast course.  Just an out and back.   My best bike split on this course was back in 2008 when I was training for IM AZ.  Averaged 21.2 mph that day.  Anyway, I just focused on picking off one rider at a time.  Not too windy.  By the half way point, I was averaging right at 21 mph.  For some reason the pavement for several miles on the way back sucked.  Good thing I didn’t have any loose fillings in my teeth.  The ride back was just a bit tougher, but I kept trying to “work it” and not worry about how my legs would handle the run.

My prior bike splits on this course have ranged from 1:09 to 1:14.

Actual time: 1:12.  (Av speed = 20.6 mph)

Quick T2 and headed out on the run.

Run:

This run course is tough.  Dirt trails the whole way, and about 2+ miles of single track.  Constant twists and turns and rollers – and no shade at all!!!  Plus, this is Sacramento in July.  Someone turned on the light switch the moment I got on that trail.  And it was HOT – I think already in the low 80’s.  I had a nice pace going on the first couple of miles but then it was really sucky.  I thought I might have a shot at a top 5, and my legs actually felt ok, so I just kept going.  But I honestly thought I was going to crack at any moment.  People around me were running just fine and then all of a sudden were reduced to a walk.  Bamm.   After the mid-way point we get on the single track trails.  On the one hand, I liked that because it reminded me of the ridge and also helped give me something to think about – not tripping.  But that just slowed up the pace and I soooo wanted to be done.   There were moments that I was feeling light headed and really thought I was ready to crack.  But I dug down deep mentally and just kept going.  Strangely, my leg turnover was fine the whole time.

By my calculations at the start of the run, if I could break 50:00, then I would be able to go sub-2:30.   On the run, my math was getting more and more fuzzy.  After getting off the single track, I thought I still had a shot but wasn’t sure.  After the last of the rollers, I thought I might be out of range.  But I picked up the pace with a few hundred yards just in case.  Once the finish came into view, I saw that if I put the pedal to the medal, I might still get it.

Run time: 49:34  (Av pace  7:59 per/mi.)

Total time:  2:29:43  

Usually, within a minute of finishing a race, I feel fine.  Not this time.  I went looking for some shade.  There was a tent with some large ice chests, and this lady said I could sit on them.  She could tell I looked pretty bad and she got me some extra recovery drink cups.  She also filled up a plastic bag with some ice and put it on the back of my neck.  Ahhhhh  !!!!  That did the trick.  After about a minute, I was back amongst the living. 

Went to look at the result which were already posted.  I came in 6^th.  Ugh.  Boy those top 5 were speedy.  Number 5 was at least 3 minutes ahead of me.  Jeez.

Oh well.  Little post-race dip in the lake to wash off, packed everything up and just kept pounding the fluids as I drove back to P-town. 

Glad I met my summer goal of sub-2:30, but I don’t know that I’ll be signing up for any more races in July in Sacramento in the future.