Post St. Anthony's Review

What can I say, the weekend was awesome!  Made some great new friends, raced for a cause, and spent some time with awesome friends who came to visit from DC and Orlando.  Thank you all for making my weekend a special weekend.

A little constructive self-criticism.  I want to take some time to deconstruct the race, and talk about how I did.  I'm happy that I finished the race, you'll see why later.  I am a bit bummed, however, about my run.  The stats:

Placed 1295 overall out of 3193 triathletes
Placed 24th out of 69 TNT Men
Placed 1008th out of 2088 Men

1000m Swim - 18:05 - Rate of 1:40/m
T1 - 2:40
40k Bike - 1:13:24 - Rate of 20.3mph
T2 - 1:54
10k Run - 1:13:23 - Rate of 11:51/mile
Overall time - 2:49:25

Swim
Unfortunately, half way through the swim waves, the ocean became too rough to safely swim in, so the race organizers changes the course to be 1000 meters.  I must say, swimming in a pool doesn't compare to swimming open water in the ocean AT ALL!  The TNT coaches tried there best to prepare us for the ocean, and for that I am thankful.  The challenging parts for me, that I tried to work on the two days before the race was pace and sighting.  I didn't practice enough how to fit sighting into my swim rhythm.  For me, sighting expended too much energy, which ended up making me very tired.  I think I finally got the hang of it come race day.  Overall, I'm content with how I performed.  Things I need to work on is sighting and efficient swim strokes in open water.

T1
Not bad, but not great.  Once I got out of the water, I started to jog back to my bike, but the bike was so far away, and I was still trying to get my footing, so I ended up walking some.  Earlier that morning, I prepped my transition area with my bike shoes, rolled up socks in my shoes, race belt, and my sun glasses in my helmet on my bike.  First thing I did was put my race belt on and flip it around backwards.  Put my socks on, then my shoes, which I didn't even bother buckling the entire ride.  I then put my helmet on, clipped the helmet, and started running my bike out.  Once I got on the road, I put my sunglasses on.  Things I need to work on is being able to run from the swim to the bike rather than walk.  Also, have my cleats already clipped in, and not have to put socks on.

Bike
The bike ride was tough.  Head winds for most of the course made for a challenging ride, but the entire course was flat which was nice.  I cruised at an average speed of 20.3 mph, which is on the upper end of my performance.  I think I did 20.8 at my last mini tri, so to maintain a 20.3 for a 26 mile bike ride I was happy about.  Towards the end of the ride, I was cruising at 26 mph, if I can only maintain that speed like the pros, I would be set :).  I came in a bit too hot to the dismount line.  I got my feet out of my shoes before getting to the line, when I got off the bike and put my feet down to the brick ground, I started sliding because the brick had no traction, and I was going too fast.  I ended up crashing into two bikers dismounting at the line.  Luckily, the crash was minor.  No one was hurt, no one went down, they stopped me before I crossed the line, and I didn't get penalized.  Overall, I think I performed well on the bike.  I need to work on building strength into my legs, and consider a TT/Tri bike purchase with the proper fit.  My back was beginning to bother me towards the end of the ride.

T2
A good T2 time.  When I set up my transition area the day before, the bike was mounted by its seat with the front wheel down to the ground.  When I entered T2 to mount my bike in transition, the quickest thing for me to do was mount the bike my its brakes with the backwheel down.  This saved some time.  My bike shoes were already off and still clipped to my bike.  All I had to do was get my helmet off, put my visor on, and my running shoes, and off I was.

Run
The run was tough.  Not sure if I over did it on the bike, or if I wasn't hydrated, but my legs were just gone.  I jogged the first 2-3 miles, but at the U-turn, my right quad cramped in two places.  I tried to stretch the quad out, but then my hamstring cramped.  When I tried to stretch my hamstring out, my quad cramped again.  I seriously thought it was over then, but I managed to walk it off, and had to run/walk for about 2 miles, then ran the last mile, and sprinted in for the finish.  I know I need help in this area for sure.  I want to record my run, and see how to fix it.

The Bike is my strength.  The swim and run need work, just need to figure out how to get there.

Thank you everyone! For your words of encouragement, for your generosity, and support. 

Go Team!

ps. keep following the blog, I'm training for a September half ironman.

The Countdown Begins - 10 Days till St. Anthony's

So, the countdown begins.  We are now in taper mode.  We peaked last week.  This week, the amount of time we are running, biking, and swimming will drastically decrease in order to conserve our energy and heal our bodies for race weekend.  My special goal this week is to focus on diet and sleep.  That means no beer or alcohol, at least not a lot, no pizza, and no junk food.  That also means, trying to get about 8 hrs of sleep each night, and prepping my body to wake up at 4am in the morning.  So far so good.

Adjusting the diet is the easier part, believe it or not.  Sleep is the tough part.  My only suggestion to people on this front is, take it slow.  Changing sleep patterns in one day doesn't work.  My normal schedule before was sleep late (midnight - 1am) for 5 to 6 hrs.  My goal - sleep early (9-10pm) for 7 to 8 hrs.  This takes a lot of discipline and pushing yourself to get out of bed in the morning.  Your goal, should be to get out of bed earlier and earlier each morning by 15 to 30 minutes, baby steps.  Additionally, sleep and wake up at around the same time each day, don't eat too late, and avoid caffeine a few hrs before sleeping.

T-minus 13 days: 45min Interval Run

T-minus 12 days: Timed 1 Mile Swim

T-minus 11 days: 60min Interval Bike, Chiro/Stretch courtesy of Dr. Morris at Vitality Chiropractic

T-minus 10 days: 60min Swim, 60min Long Run

Race is quickly approaching!

Manassas Tri It Now Tune Up Tri

Sunday morning, I competed in a small mini triathlon in Manassas hosted by Tri it Now.  I had to be up at around 5am, then make my way to Manassas to get checked in, marked up, and my transition area set up.  The morning was cold, upper 30s low 40's and cloudy.  The race started off with a 1.4 mile run, then transition to a 4 mile bike ride, then to an indoor 250 yard swim.  The order makes for an interesting and challenging transition.

The race started late that morning, at around 7:50am.  About 252 participants of all levels came out that morning and raced.  The entire race took place in and around the Freedom Aquatic Center at George Mason University.  Three waves of about 100 athletes took off on the run.  I was in wave number two, I try to get up to the front with all the other runners who tend to be faster.  I knew I wasn't the fastest out there, but better to be up front and not have to dodge the slower runners.  The whistle blew, and we were off.  I probably started off way too fast, but the idea was to get some distance so I wasn't clustered with runners, then settle into a rhythm, but 1.4 miles is too short of a distance to do that, I almost felt like I was trying to run hard the entire way.  The route was windy, running on the main street, around a building, through a mulch trail, and back around for a total of 1.4 miles.

Next was the transition to the bike.  My transition area consisted of a towel, swim cap, goggles, cycling cleats and helmet.  Once I got to the transition area, I kicked off my shoes, and tried to quickly get my cleats on.  Ideally, you want to have the cleats already clipped into the bike, grab the bike, and start running to the mount point.  Unfortunately for me, my cleats are not that easy to slip on because of the buckle, vice velcro.  After getting my cleats on, I buckled my helmet on, then started clanking down the asphalt with my bike.  At the mount point, I clipped into the bike and took off.  The bike is my most comfortable event.  A few days before, I was refitted, which means a bike fitter measured my angles and legs to get the ideal bike position.  As a result, my seat angle was adjusted, moved forward, and raised slightly to give me a more aggressive and forward leaning position when in aero position.  During the race, the position felt great.  The only downside to being more forward is my head needs to lift slightly higher to look up, causing additional strain in the neck.  I'm wondering if my position would be more comfortable on a TT/Tri specific bike.  The bike course had 4 or 5 u-turns, which is a bit annoying since there was left over sand from the winter, and it causes bikers to slow down.  I ended up passing people on the bike around the u-turns because I would attack the curves fast, then slow down a lot and take the inside position on the turn, and push out hard.  I came in quick to the dismount point, so quick that the marshal asking people to dismount jumped out and started yelling at me to stop stop stop, which I was planning on doing, just at the last minute :)

I clanked my way back to the transition area, hung up my bike, took off my helmet and glasses.  I pulled my shoes and socks off, then my sleeves, then my bike top, then grabbed my goggles and swim cap and started running to the pool.  On route to the pool, I put my swim cap on, then my goggles so that I could just slip into the pool quickly and start going.  The pool swim was crazy, cause you just started swimming once you got there, so you could potentially start swimming with 3, 4 or even 5 people at the same time.  Definitely an experience, the closest to open water swimming with other athletes I've had to date.  People pushing, touching, elbowing - fun and scary.  After finishing the swim, rather than waiting for people to climb out using the ladder, I just pulled myself out and walked quickly to the finish.

Results
I finished 10th overall, 4/21 in my age group but got 2nd in my age group since the 1st and 2nd place overall winners were also in my age group.
Run - Ranked 25 with a time of 8:43 (6:13 per mile)
T1 - 1:13
Bike - Ranked 7 with a time of 11:30 (20.87 mph)
T2 - 1:30
Swim - Ranked 39 with a time of 4:51 (1:56 per 100yrds)
Finish 27:46

Lessons Learned
Run - Not sure I would change anything here.
T1 - Start off with my cleats clipped in, and slip my feet in while on the move (may need new cleats for this)
Bike - Happy overall with my bike performance
T2 - Should have unbuckled my cleats, and slipped my feet out while approaching the dismount point. I also should have worn an underarmour longsleeve, vice wearing single arm sleeves, for quicker shirt removal
Swim - I should have been a little more aggressive with my swim to try and pass people, there were slight bottlenecks at the walls though because of the number of people

Overall, the race was fun, and an added bonus was Christine was there to cheer me on, and other friends competed as well.

Manassas Tune-up Tri in 3 days!

The weather will be a cold 38 degrees, cloudy, with a chance of rain on race morning this upcoming Sunday.  I'm looking forward to the race, it'll give me a chance to practice with other participants in a competition setting.

I talked about buying some new apparel in a previous post, well, I ended up settling on the Sugoi Velocity Tri shorts - partly because the two stores I visited didn't have any of the others.  I did try on the Sugoi Velocity and 2XU Competition Tri.

My thoughts when trying them on:

Sugoi Velocity Try Shorts

The material of these shorts are very different than most tri shorts.  A blend of Nylon and Lycra make the shorts fit snug and comfortably.  I want to say these shorts have a 9" inseam, and is so thin that water will not stay long.  The pad inside is thin, like you'd expect in tri shorts and is comfortable.

2XU Competition Tri w/ Pockets

I've had 2XU shorts before, I like them because they fit nicely.  Though the inseam was a little shorter than I liked.  2XU continues to make quality products.  The strange thing about these shorts when I tried them is, the pad for biking doesn't really look or feel like a pad.  It looks like a soft piece of cloth sewn into the crotch area.  The shorts felt comfortable, just didn't think the padding would be enough to be comfortable on the bike.

In the end, I decided to go with the Sugoi, because the material was much lighter weight, I thought the shorts would wick away water and sweat more easily, and the padding was more substantial and didn't look like it would absorb water.

Almost time for Recovery week

This week was really challenging to get all the workouts in.  Swimming was probably the only event that I practiced for consistently this week.  I swam about 1000 yards in 20 minutes, even longer on Thursday when we swam for about 25 minutes.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT eat mexican late the night before an early morning practice.  I did just that, Wednesday night, and did not feel good in the water the next morning.

I'm hoping to make my weekend a productive workout.  The plan is a 110' bike and a 20' transition run on day, and a 60' interval run another day.

I still have yet to buy myself some new triathlon apparel for next weekend's sprint tune-up tri.  Will keep you all posted when I get myself some gear, and the results of my weekend workout.

What a week!

THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for your support.  The wine dinner at Maple Ave Restaurant in Vienna, VA was a success.  I am just so grateful for everyone who came out for the 4 course paired dinner.  A special thank you to Tim and Joey who hosted the event at their restaurant.  Tim and his kitchen were simply amazing, and Joey sure knows how to run everything!  I also want to thank Annie Schull from Raptor Ridge Winery who began her northeast wine tour sharing about Raptor Ridge wines by making Maple Ave Restaurant her first stop, as well as Al and Gray from Nice Legs Wines who worked closely with Tim and Joey to make the evening special with wine and the winemaker.  The wine was great, the food was delicious, and the company was awesome - thank you all for supporting me and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and for making the evening a night to remember.

Need some new Tri apparel!

So, I had one pair of Tri shorts, which I used two years ago for a sprint triathlon race.  Fast forward to 2010, I've worn my shorts outside, ran in them, and even trained in the pool with them and well, they aren't quite the fit they used to be.  I had a pair of 2XU Comp Tri shorts.  Great pair of shorts, for the 1.5 years I had them, but they don't fit well anymore.  They are all stretched out, and there seems to be some parts of the shorts that look like they are thinning out.  Perhaps my shorts are falling apart because of the pool, that is lesson learned #1: don't wear tri shorts in the pool on a regular basis, they will disintegrate.

Well, I have a sprint tune-up try coming up in 2 weeks, and I need a pair of tri shorts.  I've been looking at Sugoi Velocity Tri shorts, 2XU Endurance Aero Tri shorts, Orca, TYR and Zoot.  I plan to reserve these shorts for race days.  What I'm finding among most of the tri shorts is that the higher priced shorts use different technology, for example the Sugoi Velocity Tri shorts use a very thin,  stretchy, woven material, very different than their other products.  I'm kind of split, I don't know whether to try out a new vendor, or stick with 2XU.

I am also looking for a tri top.  During my first sprint tri, I had planned to put on a compression under armour t-shirt on, after swimming.  BAD IDEA, which brings me to lesson learned #2: don't try to put a compression top on when wet, you'll end up looking like a fool, which is exactly what happened to me.  I tried to put my top on, ended up ripping my bib, and looking like a fool trying to get the tiny shirt on.  Don't know what the criteria should be here other than I know I want a top I could swim in, but if I chose not to swim in it, a top that I could put on easily.  I don't want a full zip.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, or knows of any other vendor's that make some good tri shorts, let me know.  My criteria: comfortable, padding should be comfortable and the stitching not itch or scratch.  Shorts would preferably have pockets for some nutrition, and the inseam should be longer than 7".

What I'm thinking - any other ideas?
2XU Endurance Aero Tri
Sugoi Velocity Tri
Orca 226