Running off the bike...

Thanks to Paulo Sousa I don't have to write a thoughtful cogent post on this.

http://thetriathlonbook.blogspot.com/2009/06/running-off-bike.html

You also might guess how often I "practice" running off the bike. Maybe once a month, if that. :)

Incidentally, how I approach "running off the bike" really hasn't changed this season vs. last season even though I'm not doing IM..

(Well, *maybe* I'll sneak into IMAZ but that's just a rumour ! )

Oh and hey.. those darn results got posted.

Yeah, I was a little off on how close to top three I was, no biggie.

I figured I'd point it out before the Anon poster, whoever he or she is points that out.

Incidentally, I'm having so much fun racing stuff that isn't iron distance this year.

Purposeful Training - Week of 7/5

In a nutshell this week looks "good" on the books as it were, but coming off Lake Padden last weekend I was hoping to hop back into the old routine: swim a ton, bike intervals and run track..

Turns out the weather and my schedule had a hand in my ability to get stuff done.

Yes, the frequency was good across the board; I did have a good swim set early in the week at Samena and did some fun riding in scouting out the Lake Stevens course (though I have not signed up yet) and a great ride to the top of Larch Mt on the fourth of July as the Corbett Country parade was starting and finishing.

My main purpose this week was to get through the workouts while the temps were about 95F all week and not blow it for the next session & day. Mission accomplished, but, I'm looking at the quality and it just wasn't there.

Well, we have some cool temps here over the next week, and in two weeks I'm off to race Seafair so I better buck up so that I have a good showing against those fleet Seattle boys.

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie "Tri the Cookie": Managing your race matters

Official results not up yet but I'm pretty sure I remember everything pretty closely so here goes..

At some point a few years back Bellingham was an ITU stop due to Erin Baker's sponsorship of USA Triathlon, this was the companion event for the non ITU crowd.

Chose this one because I didn't want to sacrifice family face-time and I was faced w/not racing and attempting to train out in Bend during Pac Crest weekend as "a big weekend" or racing Hagg Lake in two weeks time. None of those things were/are palatable when compared to racing at a cool venue with lots of history.

To sum up: Non-choppy swim in a really clean lake, very hilly and technical bike which reminded me of Escape from Alcatraz and run on semi-hilly trails around Lake Padden.

It helps to have it done this before, it's a locals affair at the pointy end and they clearly have the bike wired. At anyrate:

Swim

Standard goals here, get up front, good start, don't get blown away and hang on to the feet of the front to set up a smart bike ride.

Went off in the front "elite" wave of "fastest swimmers"... (sure there were faster swims in waves behind but whatevs)

Did pretty well through the halfway point (swim was 800m) then had sun coming back to shore, slowed a bit trying to navigate back to shore.

Got out and it looked like maybe 10-15 were out before me. Not bad, but not great.

12min and change. About what I expected.

Bike

First mile is up a steady climb. Passed five/six folks that were not going to be in the mix. A descent started and so did the drafting and worse, blocking..

What appeared to be the lead woman went off on the wheel suckers and they cleared as I yelled, "C'mon guys get out of the way" as I didn't want to break the yellow line rule and risk my life.

One doode latched onto my wheel directly after that just as I was putting down 320w to motor on a 2% grade. Lead woman who was riding behind cleaning balled this guy out and just as she was done tearing him a new one he comes out of my slipstream and pulls ahead as the hill crests.

I told him not to ride my wheel anymore, stood on the gas and didn't see that group for the rest of the ride.

Caught two more guys and asked one how many more were up the road, he said "Probably six"...

Hmm, ok no worries. So I worked my way up to two more who I thought were the lead bikers since they had an official van following them. The ride was hilly and twisty so I had a moment of doubt and wondered if I should breakaway and find the next group.. The next hill I did but they caught me toward the end of the next long descent.

This always happens, at a buck forty I'm not the quickest descender and no amount of power to pedals will trump physics. Well, it could.. But I'm not going to ruin my legs on a descent to do so.

So, rode a clean race w/these two guys and jockeying back and fourth, me climbing faster, both of them catching me on the descents.

And me wondering if I was doing the right thing.

Of course I knew what sort of split was fast last year (53-57min) so I figured I was ok w/a 57min split thinking I'd run fast off that..

Run

Got out of transition w/no problems this time (42 sec). Started the first lap of a 5.2mile trail run around Lake Padden.

Each lap was 2.8miles.. First lap I was confused about whether I was on the right trail since nobody else was around, trail was not marked and it was unclear how many more were in front (6 to 13 reported).. Figured I'd follow the trail closest to the lake and if I screwed up, such is life.

Fortunately I was on track and came round that first loop in a surprisingly quick 15min.. I was hoping to get out there and drill a sub 30min 5.2 miler, so it was possible and I was pushing at times to run this pace over the first lap.

Next lap was totally crowded with folks from several waves behind me, felt good and continued to motor figuring I'd be in at about 30min for the 5.2 miles.

Dah ! 32min high.. I guess that works out to around 30min for an 8k which is good off the bike but in the context of this race not good for me.. Don't know how I slowed 2min 40s on that second lap since I thought I was picking it up and it was not a race leading split.

__________________

10th overall (1hr 43? Odd mins).. But 1s-10th was separated by 3min. Argh.

Ok, so I made some mistakes:

Mistake 1: I imagine all those Bellingham boys came out of the water together and probably rode legally with the classic triathlon gentleman's agreement to fight it out on the run..

And me electing not to break away and looking for the next group up the road (and assuming there was none), turns out they rode about 2min faster then me and swam a min faster as I scanned the results..

Mistake 2: Out of sight out of mind part deux on the run.. I should have run like a meth addict until I started catching folks, if I'd split a rarefied run split I might have put myself in the winner's circle.

Net, I'm pretty happy with everything.. I'll be thinking aloud soon enough about whether I'm riding and running these things hard enough and whether I need to go longer this season (I will eventually but maybe not this month)...

Congrats to Pac Crest'ers and fellow Tri the Cookie athletes.