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.

Regarding yesterday's post...

So I'm looking for another gig and part of that process are the inevitable rejection letters..

Some of them are clearly form letters while others are individually tailored. I don't have a preference for either.

Yesterday I got something that I thought was hilarious.

_________________________

Hi Joe,

I would like to thank you for applying for the position here at XYZ. Although you could certainly bring a lot to XYZ, we are pursuing other candidates that fit our needs more closely. We enjoyed reading your resume and we wish you the best in your job search.

By the way, if you know anyone who might be interested in learning more about our company, then we will present you with a $500 bonus for each referral who becomes a client - perhaps a family member or friend who is involved in sales, marketing or management. Just ask them to watch this sample movie at something or other URL.

I know that this sounds weird, but it might be an easy way to earn some quick cash without much effort.

I wish you the best. Take care.

Stephanie

________________________

Ok, first of all I don't know this person who may (or may not) have reviewed my resume and then responded with this note.

If I did know her then the request might seem less strange. But still.

I found it in massively poor taste to ask me to send out their URL to anyone and everyone I know.

Here's why:

- If it is an easy way to make quick cash then why doesn't she send the URL out to her entire network? After all she's better positioned to explain what their value proposition is.

-What is the value proposition of this organization? That wasn't articulated in her note and we haven't chatted so how would I know?

-Of all the bios on the "About" section only one person appears to have a role that is not biz development orientated, seems to me if you're asking a person who's applied for a job that isn't a biz dev role to drum up business for you in a rejection letter through their network your sales force is doing a poor job.

-Finally, isn't it just really stupid to ask a person you rejected via a form letter to promote the company to their associates? It seems, well, inappropriate and wrong.

Incidentally, this was how I responded:

_____________________________

Hi Stephanie,

Hmm, that's an interesting "thanks but no thanks" response.

I have to wish you best of luck with your efforts because I've never quite seen anything like this before.

When Malcolm Gladwell contacts me to write a chapter for the next addition of "The Tipping Point" I will be using this as example in the chapter where we cover the "stickiness" factor in advertising.

With your permission of course.

Kind Regards,

-Joe Tysoe

______________________________

So, I don't think she got the joke, since Malcolm Gladwell posits in the Tipping Point that to spread your message you need "Connectors", "Mavens", "Sticky messaging" and "Context" to successfully create awareness around your value proposition.

Connectors are folks who are widely associated with many people, Mavens are subject matter experts, Sticky messaging is a message that catches and keeps a persons attention longer than usual and Context of course is where & how a person will receive the info.

Obviously the sales folks they have aren't doing their job as Connectors if they need to rely on the networks of rejected candidates, they must be poor Mavens if they can't (or don't) articulate the value proposition of their service (which, ironically enough is a high value added ROI tool for marketing !), Sticky messaging? Well she did get my attention, as for their other strategic efforts to market their "value added marketing tool"? who knows .. And naturally the context was totally inappropriate.

At anyrate here was her response:

_______________________________

Run that by Mike Jingozian, CEO. At the very least he’ll be intrigued and want to talk further which could be good for all parties.

Stephanie

______________________________

Jeez Stephanie, good idea. I think I will reach out to Mike.

On that note, I'll let you all know how that goes.

The legal definition of idiot

Some state constitutions still contain suffrage laws that ban "idiots" from voting.

Here is the historical definition which lawmakers used as context:

"In 19th and early 20th-century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very severe mental retardation or a very low IQ level, as a sufferer of cretinism, defining idiots as people whose IQ were below 20 (with a standard deviation of 16); Mongolian idiot (or Mongoloid idiot)"

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie "Tri the Cookie" (Bellingham)

Ok, it's confirmed I'm racing this one Saturday, should be a fun (sorta) Olympic Distance race, featuring a calm swim, very hilly bike and run on crushed limestone paths..

Looking forward to it actually.

Good luck to all the Pac Crest'ers and obviously congrats to the IM C'da finishers, see you guys in town soon.

"Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical"

- Andrew Coggan, PhD

No other words need pass.

FTP work, Bronchial spasms, Albuterol, Swimming fast to swim faster.. Life is changing.

My mom is moving end of the month, it's a stressor. Arizona is not a bad place for me to visit in winter months but not having her around for those long training weekends when I'm in weekend dad mode will be interesting.

Not to mention the pressure it puts on me to stay in Oregon with zero to few job prospects. Hey, no pressure right?

Training has been going ok though.. About two weeks ago just before Issaquah my chest freaked out and filled up w/junk and was totally inflamed. Visiting Seattle and racing up there relieved everything.

So, I'm punching in really controlled solid training.. 1x a week intervals bike & run plus hitting the swim as hard as *I* can (which is to say, not hard enough by true swimmer standards).

And along those lines I get to the pool yesterday and bang out the best set of 500 repeats in awhile, holding low 1.20's.. good for me. On top of the world and I go for an evening run later.

Shortly after the run I have a glass of wine and I have really serious bronchial spasm. Chest feels really tight and I hit the albuterol..

I got some relief but slept pretty awful last night. Argh. It was pretty bad and I haven't had this kind of thing happen since I was as young as my kids. I've been laying off alcohol almost entirely over the last week or so; perhaps the wine was a mistake.

Today my afternoon run was iffy and the early evening FTP work on the trainer after I dropped off the kids was pretty awful, the perceived effort for normal output was out of whack.

What a roller coaster ! I like to pretend training through the seasonal allergies and the asmtha like symptoms is like training at altitude. It sure feels like it, however this has been trying.

So, I've got one more week of hard training in front of me, then cutting some volume and racing soon thereafter. With the chest so tight I'm wondering if the best thing to do is just work the aerobic base, keep the volume high.. Swimming is really going to hurt unless this lets up.

In the meantime my mother is gone and I'm off weekend dad duty, back to single dude status.

The family life piece is pretty roller coaster-y too, no doubt about that.

All that said, I'd be in a spot of discomfort even if I was alot less training so I figure if I'm gonna suffer it may as well be the full monte.

Triathlete Magazine and physiology...

Oh boy. Apparently there is a piece in Triathlete that strokes the ego of the tri-tard community in that it suggests the community "checks each other out" at races to admire one another and to see who's fit..

Now I've been hearing people I know say, "Oh sure, I check people out to see how fit they are.. that tells me if they are gonna go fast at the races."

Barf.

Guys, c'mon. It's bad enough Bikesnob and Bike Lemming ream the community for easy stuff, but this is bad.

What a person looks like on the outside, assuming all other things are equal, comparing two folks is just stupes.

Everything that you need to know is happening *under* the skin. We're talking about historic training load, acute training load and how that would impact power numbers, which is in turn driven by LT and Vo2 numbers. On the bike of course.

On the run? Almost the same deal. Vo2 is the only number that really matters because it's an expression of oxygen uptake relative to body weight, so you can theoretically compare different body types fairly.

Triathletes seem to be fooled into believing that improving performance is external to their physiology.

To a large degree improvements can be gained through mechanical efficiencies e.g. cleaner swim stroke, optimizing bike position relative to power.

However, special running shoes; clinics where you learn how to run (didn't we do this in grade school?), and specially formulated nutrition are not things we had as a population even 15 years ago.

Age groupers are not going statistically significantly faster across the board now (vs. 15 years ago) in spite of the advancements which mostly boil down to marketing hype. Nutrition for example is not formulated any differently. The top aero bikes then still test as well as the top bikes now. Running shoes? Not much has changed.

To sum up: Fitness is mostly internal, potential to maximize fitness is governed by genetic makeup. Once you have managed the external mechanical issues (which, to be fair takes time) then the rest is optimizing your gifts.

Good track session yesterday...

My L pace is still a bit off what it was when I was doing stand-alone running (like 15sec a rep over an 800!)..

M Pace? I won't even go there! that might leave me in a hole for a few days. :)

L & T pace though is where the bulk of the work for racing really works for me. Can I get it down? Yes but it's a painful process but what the heck? It's mostly out of pride, somebody asked me why I just don't outsplit the field everytime out a year or so ago and the answer was that I hadn't really been doing the work to run decently fast, I'd spent too much time messing around.

Needless to say after a 17.45 5k off the bike in Issaquah on totally crud surface I'm jazzed to keep this form and apply it to something more suitable.

On that note I've seen Triathletes over at Duniway doing all manner of strange workouts; most of it doesn't involve actual running, like 8/10ths of it were drills, strides and the like, seems bizarre to me since, unlike swimming where drills are helpful to fine tune mechanics the only way to get faster running is to, well, run.

Oh well. I won't give away the secrets..

O.k. maybe a little bit, but you'll have to work for it.

Find Greg Bennett's interviews on some of the Tri podcasts.. Or look at Mr. Whitfield's run sked.

They train like the local ringer 10k guy does, same for the girls. Ironman distance folks? Alexander and McCormack are doing the same thing with a long run done at tempo every couple of weeks as a "marker" workout.

My template/protocol for getting FTP up (or maintain it)

I use three types of workouts per week to boost my FTP:

-1 threshold workout (2x20 genre: 1x40-60/ 2x20-30/4x10-15, etc....40-60 minutes at 95-105% of threshold)

-1 VO2 workout (6-10 reps of 3-5 minutes at 115%+ of threshold, equal rest to intervals)

-1 long ride of 2.5+ hours at 70-85% of threshold. (Just did one today...)

- 2-4 hour easy riding twice a week

I don't rely on any one on of three regularly, but will default to really long and moderate if that's all I can do.. I'll drop something based on my planning & race sked, focus on something specifically if need be.

Right now in the middle of a build I usually do all of these. In the past I've gotten away with distance only.. (Still works pretty darn good if that's all you like to do)

I know alot of folks in the sport that sub in a bunch of threshold riding to the exclusion everything else..

That'll get you pretty far (plus that's hard work, no question), but it has sharply diminishing returns in the form of reduced run and swim performance, it takes some folks longer then others to see this. (it happened to me over 6 months)

If you only swim 2x a week, and run 3x a week on the "threshold all time" sked you might never see this happen. If you can perform well off that volume you are probably a good swimmer and decent runner and a genetic outlier as well. :)

Long Chain Carbs vs. Short chain as endurance racing nutrition..

I have no official opinion on one being better then another; tried both, like/tolerate both.. A friend uses both in their drink (CarboPro, scoop of gatorade, plus Nuun)...

Love the press for both..

Hammer uses Malto base:

http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=ARTICLE&ARTICLE.ID=1252

Gatorade Endurance uses Dextrose:

http://www.gatorade.com/products/#/performance/endurance/instantmix

Pros & Cons are pretty obvious for both..

Long chain: easier on GI Tract, longer lasting, processed slower, tastes generally strange

Short chain: Causes some GI issues, spiky energy delivery for some, some folks report feeling more alert more quickly using it, tastes generally really strong

On that note, I'm going to eat pizza as recovery food. Chomp.

In case you're wondering what happened at Issaquah..

Course profile... 400m swim, 15mile bike, 5k run on random grass & bark chips..

Signed up for the race a week ago but then found out at packet pickup they eliminated the elite wave which was too bad, apparently USAT sanctioning doesn't allow for it now..

At anyrate I was at the front of my wave 35-39 thinking a winner for the overall would come from it..

I tracked everybody in front of me on the bike through T2 so just a few guys.. just prepping to run them down over the 5k.

Got into T2, couldn't find my shoes at the bike rack.

Thought they'd been moved or taken, but nope, I was #753 but racked my bike @ #653 that morning, finally found it..

T2 = 3min.. should have been 30-45 secs.. That cost me the win in the AG.

Unfortnately the winner came from another wave w/a very fast time so I would not have contended for Overall even assuming I didn't screw up T2.

However, if we'd had an elite wave I'd have had to rack in the "elite rack" and maybe had a chance since missing my stuff in a single rack marked "elite" would have been next to impossible, but who knows? :) ..