Pacific Crest Olympic Distance Race Report

Firing on all cylinders, still slow on the swim! And I'm happy with how things went.

Since I didn't have results yesterday afternoon I had to judge based on how I raced on the course, it felt great, I was really moving well the entire day and when I got to the finish there weren't many people in the finish tent. A friend came in to congratulate me and she mentioned I must have done well overall since there weren't many people in front of me, but at that point I didn't know.

Third in my age group, (probably the toughest of all age groups...)

I just missed the top ten overall, had a top run spilt even though I actually I split slower than the Boise 70.3 (it was 13.1 vs. 6.2mi) on the run! And had a top bike split (15th overall) though people were bunched closely in the results..

This race was no Olympic Distance as the swim was measured long for sure, most of the top 1/3rd were bunch around 22-23min which is about where I swim (or think I should).

The swim was the big concern (and still is) but I had a good start, but lost momentum as I always do in the pack around the first buoy. I didn't tie up or run out steam, but I'm not sure I pushed the envelope the way I should, and that's because I'm still a novice in so many ways in the water. Still, I swam good tangents, but didn't have a good group to swim with. And, shockingly, caught slower swimmers in the first wave.

The bike went well.

The course had alot more hill than advertised. According to the official results only three people broke 20mph avg.... My Powertap says different (20.8mph avg & 199w avg).. I tried to ride my threshold most of the ride and felt pretty good the whole way. It was almost 30miles vs. 28mi as advertised.

Most importantly I rode the second fastest split in my age division (good sign for IM Canada) and out spilt a buddy who consistently crushes me on the bike.

The run was hot, low 90's F. The goal given my current track work was to come off the bike and run 5.45s. It was not an option in the heat, but again I had top result here and it shows I am on track for Canada.

I was short on my time goals by alot, but I imagine everyone else was too based on the times. The important thing was that I was at the front of my division and gave myself a chance to catch people.

I am excited for IMC, the marathon gives alot of time to catch people!

Local Flavors: Fuji Tom

Tom rides around Portland all day long, yet he is not a professional bike racer. What keeps him going and motivated? Find out here in this interview with the famous Fuji Tom.

Mystery Anon Poster finally identified...

We think may found the anonymous mystery poster, (see pic below):

As you can see, she is clearly a rival!

She out kicked me at Shamrock. ;)

Mystery poster, please step forward to claim your prize and reveal the size, shape and precise description of your belly tattoo.

Week of 6/22

Good week. Managed four swims, five runs, five bikes..

Left Achilles got a little tight, but that's not a surprise with the big bikes miles, plus long run, plus hard track session. Back to normal this week, lighter track session, no long run, and no huge bike, just a "normal week". :)

Monday

Swim- mainset 6x200, z2. (3.02-3.04 most, a couple a tad slower depending on who I was sharing the lane with)

Run- 1h 22min Long run day. Trying out the Nike Hayward.. seems to have fixed the wonky foot issue.

Tuesday-

Run 42min lunch run from Msft campus to BG & back

Bike- 2 hrs 37 miles approx.. Out to Bothell, then out on East Lake Samm.

Wed-

Swim- Mainset- 300, 200, 100 (2.34, 2.57, 1.25) 200, 200, 200 (all 3.02-3.04) on 30 seconds rest

Track- 3 x 1 mile, 400 rest jog. (5.32, 5.28, 5.32)..Flying...Not sure what happened but this was on the dirt track at Green Lake. The weather was perfect, ran w/shirt off in the Diadora flats and channeled Herb Elliot. Did not have to force the L pace envelope at all to get this.. It must have one of those days.

Thurs-

Swim- Mainset 3x300 (4.45's).. Pretty fatigued, and the pace of the sets was meant to be a tad slower.. Had something for dinner that is still giving me some digetive issue.

Bike- 1hr 55min, 35miles Out to Bothell, then out & back on East Lake Samm

Friday

Bike- 63miles, 174w avg. 20.3mph avg. Sauvie.. Just over 3 hrs.. Was a "dry run" at Ironman pace riding... Felt fine (although the 3 hr drive over might have worn me had some impact on the legs), Was around 80F +/-.. Trying to ride at exactly 200w but enough fluctuation that avg was lower. Sauvie felt windy as well, but mostly feel pretty good.

Run- 43min easy on McM roads...

Sat-

Bike- 2+ hrs, 37mi, hilly route past Coleman Vineyards

Swim- Mainset.. drove to SWCC 10x100 on 30 sec, all 1.25, a couple 1.22,23, 26.. Felt fine though allergies out here were bugging

Run- 62 min easy/steady run on farm roads. Allergies were bad, felt like breathing through a staw.

Sun-

Bike- 3hrs+ 49 miles

Update from Oregon

Have been down on here since Friday (headed back to Seattle tommorow).. Allergies are in full-force this spring.

I managed some decent workouts Friday and Saturday, but they've been hampered by alot of sneezing, a headache and I'm guessing inflamed tissues in my chest.

Last night on a really beautiful I ran to Youngsberg Hill (near Youngsberg Winery), it felt like I was breathing through a straw. I hit the turnaround point a tad slower than usual.

Not really surprised w/the solid volume over the last couple of weeks and the work I'd done earlier in the day, but still...

Local Flavors: Randy the Recumbulator

I think Randy rides the Burke Gilliman, and may also drive his Segway around Msft campus.

Week of 6/15

Summary

Swim- 4

Bike- 5

Run- 4


Monday-

Swim- Main set: 300, 200, 100 (4.36, 3.02, 1.26), 300, 200, 100 (4.40, 3.02, 1.28)

Run- 62min out and back on BG

Tuesday

Run- early afternoon 45min steady on BG

Bike- took about 25min break from run, then steady ride, 29 miles, 166w avg

Wedneday

Swim- Must be pretty fatigued. Lost track of what rep I was on.. Mainset 4(?) or 5(?) x200 (3.01-3.04) on 30sec rest

Track- 5x1000 w/2min rest (3.40, 3.36, 3.31, 3.30, 3.29) L pace. Felt good and economical.

Thursday

Run- wake up run.. out & back on BG 32min

Bike- 27mi, 1hr 36min


Friday-

Swim- Mainset 4x300 steady/easy (right on 4.30-35)

Bike- 37miles, 2hrs, 168w avg. Trying to keep a lid on the output in anticipation of the century Saturday

Saturday-

Bike- 102 miles 6hrs. very hilly century, felt fine. Did long threshold pulls on flats, and rode threshold pace/watts last 5-6 miles (about 20min)

Sunday-

Swim- 200 pull, 200 pull w/paddles, 300,200,100 200 pull, 100, 100. (4.35, 3.04, 1.26, 1.26, 1.26)

Bike- 29 miles, 1hr 45min, pedaling *very* lightly~!

Flying Wheels Summer Century. Redmond/Carnation/Snohomish

Well, I may just ride long this weekend, the ride starts basically near my place (I’ve moved but still am a stone’s throw from Marymoor Park)..

The truth is I’ve ridden a lot of the route before but c’est la vie, it’s supported and that’s cool.

There is a sprint tri on Sunday, I don’t think I need to race it to find out I can swim well for 400m in open water, I already know that.. So, I will most likely skip it and focus on unpacking what few things I have, and getting squared away Saturday and Sunday.

It’s gonna be an exciting weekend, let me tell you.. with evenings spent reading at Borders, and gasp, no microwave oven. I will have to listen to the radio or podcasts.

Anybody have a bed they want to sell? I don't think I can take this futon anymore.

Ironman Boise 70.3 photos

So much fun, eh? :)

Note to self: Stop pouring copious amounts of water on head, body, etc.

http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?32517118

So much for rivals...

Hillarious. See the comments to the previous post for a good laugh.

In the mean time, maybe I should see a mental health professional about medicating, re rival related paranoia. :)

Week of 6/8

Summary

Swim- 4

Bike-4

Run-2


Mon

Travel from Boise, really tired.

Swim- easy set, just got in the pool to loosen up..

Tues

Run- still tired and sore. 30min easy out and back on BG

Swim- Mainset 4x200 3.01-3.05

Wed

zilch.. did nothing was very tired.

Thurs

Swim- mainset- 300, 200, 100, easy, medium, hard.

Bike- easy on the trainer, 30min or so

Friday-

Still a bit tired

Bike- 45min easy spin on trainer

Run- 30min very, very easy jog

Sat-

Bike 4hrs, 65 miles, hilly route. And it was pretty rainy. Felt pretty good the whole ride, finally felt pretty fresh and legs had good punch all the way through.

Sunday

Swim- 5x200 on 30sec (3.00-3.06)

Bike- 2hr 20min, Carnation ride. 37 miles.

Rivalaries are good

I mean,obviously. If you have a rival you'll push yourself in the heat of a race like you might not without that person there to push you.

I haven't had a real rival in ages. Probably since freshman year of high school. Since then my only rival are stretch goals, times I've trained for mostly.

I'm not sure I want one (or need one)..

As far I'm concerned I'm my toughest critic, the standard I apply is one that a woman who coached my run workouts ten years ago in California applied..

It went like this:

I said, "I want to run x for 5k, I've run that before I want to get back there and under it."

She looked at my workout log and said, "Those are great if you're training for an 800m race, but you're going to do longer workouts."

Then she told me what the pace was for the workouts..

I guess I'd forgotten how fast I'd have to run the longer stuff because when I balked, she said, "Look, if you want to run that in a race, you have to do this pace and faster on the track before you get to the race."

Presently, I always ask if I'm fooling myself into thinking I'm going plenty fast or long or both.. I ask others who hopefully wouldn't lie to me, because I don't want to be lied to.

All that said, I had an Anon comment recently (and at least one other in the past) that I didn't publish.. It was a little strange, and potentially mean-spirited.

What's weird is that I would be on any one's competitive radar.

The truth is, at least in a triathlon, I have to get lucky to place well and my guess is that it's a dude in my age group who trolls it here and there.

Well, that's cool. Look, here's the deal, we all do about the same things.. We try minimize our weaknesses and emphasize our strengths.

It's no secret that I'm going to try run the stronger swim/bikers down in Canada, so there you go, that's my race strategy. Get closer to 3hr shape and hope to run you down.

Oh, I'm pretty sure I'm doing the 5 mile Lake Sprint Triathlon in Federal Way in about two weeks.. It's only a 400m swim, 14.5 mile bike, 3mile run. Should be some good speed work.

Here's my strategy:

Swim like hell. Bike like hell. Run like hell. :)

Speaking of Rivals

Perhaps one of the more famous in the sport..

Week of 6/1/08

Summary:

Swim- 5
Bike- 4
Run-3

Monday-

Bike-

Out to Glacial Erratic; 17 miles. Route is most def rolling w/some good hills.

219w avg. 50min flat/20mph- new benchmark . Rode at threshold on flats (220-240w)

Run- 30min easy later in afternoon

Tuesday-

Swim- Mainset- 4x300 on 30 sec rest

Bike- 26miles to Bothell. 1hr 30min

Wed-

Swim- 5x200. On 30sec w/1min prior to last two. (All 3min flat except, 5th one-2.57); felt good.

Track- 3x800, 2.48, 2,46, 2.43 w/2min rest

Thursday

Bike-90 min easy spin on BG

Friday

Travel. Off, kicked around the idea of doing something but decided to leave well enough alone.

Sat

Easy day.. rode around town in tennis shoes taking care of last minute race prep

Easy swim at the Res

Sun-

Race, Half Iron, Boise 70.3. 5.04

Now what? The rest of the season through Canada

In my previous post I might have (but didn't) ponder whether or not the race indicated my training protocol is effective.

I have some thoughts about how I'll proceed.

-I feel I need a benchmark for open water swim performance, so I'll keep the workouts the same and look for an opportunity, either in a race or an open water race.

-While the bike did feel fine, I think I need some longer, harder rides for IMC. What I have been doing is fine, but I need longer rides to be able to outlast the course, and still ride well. From a power perspective I think I can attempt a 70-75% Intensity Factor and still run well.

-I believe I'll need to do more frequent long and fast(er) runs, I was waiting for warmer weather and I essentially have it, so I will probably begin to alternate weeks of track w/long runs.

The schedule is pretty open, so I will look for a couple more opportunities to test the fitness out, and make sure all systems are go in time for Canada.

Up next is:

Pac Crest Olympic in late June.

Oh goals and actuals from Boise-

S- 30-35, actual- 44
B-2.30, actual 2.42
R-1.22-24, actual 1.30
Goal race time= (including 4min of Tranistions)= 4.25

Actual race time- 5.04 (6min of transitions built in here)

Current Half Iron PR- 4.55 (42, 232, 135)

I earned a slot to Worlds 70.3

I just found out from a friend who went to the awards ceremony..

And......(drum roll)

I didn’t go to the awards ceremony!

So, I don’t get the slot. Grr

Oh well, even with the “bad” race I still achieved a goal that I set out to, even if I didn’t intend to take the slot.

Well, I would have taken the slot and then maybe not done the race in November.

Boise 70.3 Race Report

As I gather my thoughts, I think I wanted a couple of things from the experience:

-A fast time & pr.

Somewhere around 4.20.. potentially faster.

As crazy as it sounds I thought if I did it all amazingly well plus some good luck I could dip even lower.

-To work out the glitches that only come with doing a Triathlon, you can't work those things out in a single-sport event

Also, I did taper for this event, and treated it as an "A" race because I didn't want any excuses should I not perform well.

Here we go, let's evaluate my race against the above metrics:

-Fast race time- Sorta.

Yeah, the official results are what they are. But, the swim seemed to be measured long, that is, the buoys blew wider from the time they were set at 6am until my start at 7.35am.. The swim had considerable chop as well. Finally, the water was so cold I cramped a couple of times.

I don't think the pool workouts are fibbing about my swim fitness and everyone else except the first two pro waves swam really slow, the times got slower as you get further and further from the first wave, I was one the last waves, oh well.

There were a ton of swimmers getting pulled from the lake, yes, it was that bad actually.

Goal here was 30, I was nowhere near it in 42 (? my watch) min ~!

T1- I usually eschew wetsuit strippers because they are known to be slower than yanking your own suit off. I'm pretty slow anyhow in T1, usually 2.30 or so..

Stupid mistake on my part to give the strippers a whirl, I was in T1 for 4min friggin minutes. Strippers could not pull off my suit and lost my chip to boot. I finally got it before I left.

I won't ever use the strippers again.

Bike-

The goal here was 2.30-35 or better, and I've biked that before so why not?

Get to my bike and the Powertap mount is broken off my bike.

Great, I went through all trouble of converting my wheel to a disc and this thing is screwed before I even get started.

So, I ride anyway..

Get to mile 15 aid station jump off and calmly ask for Duct Tape. Fortunately they had it and I figure that was at least 3 min, maybe more.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Did the usual w/nutrition, really had to pee by mile 35 or so, and I knew that I would need to just hold it until T2.

My goal w/the ride was to ride as fast as possible using the least wattage.. That's what pure bike racers do, and I wanted fresh legs for the run.

Course measured exactly 57.1,

I did 2.42.02 (21mph avg) for the 57mi.. Take off 3min for the extra mile and 3min for the duct tape, and I net out at 2.36.xx.. Still 21mph but where I thought I was going to ride.

So, I partially met the metric for the bike portion.

Run-

Run was flat and fast.. Though somewhat twisty and turn-y, a bit like Pac Crest, those turns on a multipath will actually slow you down a bit, unlike flat open road because of the accelerations involved.

I went over my spilts from the watch.. I could spill them but basically, they were between 6.10 and 7.20 (strange). Some miles might have been a little long. The balance of them were 6.45 or so.

I went throught the first 6.5miles loop in 42min, so I figured I would roll a 1.24..

Initially I wasn't sure I how managed not to, but then I realized I had a potty break that was about 2-3min and I walked through two aid stations.

That could have been the difference there. Again partial success for the run metric, and it felt very comfortable, the spilt was one the fastest for my age, which bodes well for Canada.

In the end, w/the stops I "only" split 6.50's officially. 1.30 even officially.

Not terribly unhappy posting a time a tic or two over 5 hours but the standard isn't 5 any more in my age-group

Ah, for the numbers geeks, direct from the Powertap:

57.1miles = 2.42.o7
Avg wattage 183
Avg speed- 21.1

I would guess my normalized wattage was closer to 193 as my two hour avg was 192, and there was some descending that gets chunked in there too.