The week before the week....

And now the anxiety has started to settle in a bit. I have started to work on my Steelhead 70.3 race plan, pacing strategy and equipment prep list. Now, I am not a nervous person by nature but the closer this race gets I suddenly find myself getting nerved up a bit. Yesterday I found out my bib number and starting wave (bib 1754, wave 11). Suddenly it is not about talking, it is real and it is about doing! I know my fitness is there to complete this race, that is not the issue here. I think what it all boils down to is this. Last December after going through my shoulder surgery, I signed up for this event even before I could lift my arm above my head. I wanted a goal in front of me that scared the crap out of me so I would not just go through my physical therapy but I would push my physical therapy and come back stronger than ever. Call me crazy but that is how this guys works, haha. Well, now that big scary goal is almost over and yes my shoulder is fine, yes I am physically fit enough to do it, but I haven't made any major goals beyond this one. It is like this is the end of a great big long journey and I have no idea what lies beyond it. Well all that stuff and this is the biggest freaking race I have ever been in, in my life!!

Once Steelhead is over I have a couple of product reviews I plan to do. One I plan on doing will be about my experiences with a can't live without product called Body Glide. In the interest of full disclosure, I was sent a couple of sticks of it last week to write a review. On a personal note, I already love the product so it won't be hard to write about. If anyone out there has any other products they would like me to try just let me know. I also have another fun project involving work that I will be announcing shortly that everyone here can follow along with. So, I guess I have some things to look forward to after Steelhead after all.

As for my review of the Interlochen race. I have gone back and forth on what to actually say about that event. I love the race venue. I love camping in the State Park which hosts the event. I think the course is a good one and very challenging. Unfortunately I have a lot of negative feelings about the race organizers. I don't want to use this forum to air a bunch of negativeness and I surely want to encourage anyone who has thought about doing this race to go do it. Believe me the positives far outweigh the negatives in this case, for me. I have heard many things I did not witness from this race. The only thing I will say is this. 3 Disciplines as a race company works their rear ends off to put on a quality race. I am, however, tired of excuses and disappointment at everyone of their events. They have been in business long enough to get it right EVERY time they put a race on. Enough excuses. In this case they advertised "tech T's" for anyone registered by a certain date. There were no "tech T's" they had "moisture wicking" tshirt's and not a consistent message from the volunteers. Some people were told there weren't any "tech T's" and some were given the moisture wicking line. Either way most people know the difference who run these races. They ran out of finishers medals long before I even crossed the finish line, we'll see if it show in the mail like they said it would. Lots and lots of other little stuff at every one of their races. If your budget is that tight Kenny, then you need to raise your prices, plan better, cut costs or stop letting so many people sign up the day before or day of a race! You could even put a cap on the day of day before registrations so you don't go over your available capabilities. I could go on and on about the petty things that annoyed me at this and every 3 Disciplines race but I will stop for now. I will continue to do their events but I am thinking that next year I will try a couple of other ones for a better comparison. I have been told there is a huge difference in quality of race organization so we will see. In the mean time, I am already planning my return to Interlochen for next years race.

Until later, happy training and everyone needs to go on over to the Kodafit blog and tell him congrats on his new addition in his family that should be arriving today.

Read more...

Interlochen Race Report

Where to begin? I guess I'd like to start by saying I have a great wife and friends. We all arrived on Friday to the race site. Last year we had 4 of our core group racing. This year I thought we would have at least 2 or 3 of us. I knew a couple of our group hadn't really been training but I was sure they would give it a go. As of Saturday afternoon it was decided that I was the only one and my support crew would be awesome! We had about 10 other people from our hometown coming in to race their first ever triathlons and they would need all the support we could give them. Ok, on with the race report.

This was to be my second Olympic distance event of the summer. After my Motor City race, I was anxious to redeem myself and do well in front of my friends and family. Friday evening, after we had camp setup, I took a shakedown ride to preview the Olympic bike course. It was enjoyable to return to the bike course from my first ever triathlon a year ago. The first 10k seemed to fly by, this was my turn around point from last year and all I could think of was "is that it?". Life is good with a heightened fitness level. I enjoyed the rest of the ride and made a lot of mental notes for race day. On Saturday I rode the run course and found out what they were talking about with "the hill". This hill starts when you make a left hand turn from a tree lined, greatly shaded dirt road at about the 2.1 mile marker. Suddenly there it is rising up for the next mile right in front of you. I was instantly dreading the run. I made the climb on the bike and enjoyed the quick decent back. I also threw on the wetsuit Saturday and did a little swim warm up of about 700m. Just enough to get the blood flowing and see how the stroke felt. Mission accomplished on the course preview and race prep it was time to just rest and prep the transition bag/bike. It was also time to lay out my race goals and plans to friends and family. I have to say it's one thing to put my goals here on the blog where it all feels like I'm just writing for myself, it's quite another to make my goals public to my close friends and family where I will be held accountable. Time for the race.

Sunday Morning we wake to blue skies and warm weather. Unfortunately we hear the wind whipping in the trees. It is announced at the pre-race meeting that the wind is expected to be 20mph steady gusting to 30mph. UGH!! on a positive at least it would be a headwind on the way out on the bike and pushing on the way in.

Swim: goal time: <30 minutes Actual: 29:22

PERFECT!! The swim course was a clock-wise triangle. My favorite kind. I am a right side breather and this is the easiest way for me to keep the buoy's sighted without lifting my head much. The only problems I had were that I got stuck in no man's land for most of the swim without a person to draft off and when we made the last turn for home I could have sworn I was feeling like I was swimming into a headwind. The water got pretty choppy for the last 300 or so meters. All in all I felt like I had a good strong stroke the entire way with no real problems. This is my best event and once again I proved it with a 4th in my age group and a 29th out of 200 overall.

T1: goal time: <3 minutes Actual: 3:01

Not bad given the distance from the beach to transition and the fact that I put socks on this time. I'm right on my goal pace at this point.

Bike: goal time: 1hour 20 minutes Actual: 1:23:11

The out on this out and back route was BRUTAL. I don't know how the riders I saw with rear disc wheels stayed up on their bikes. I was almost blown over more than once on the way out. I worked hard to hammer when I could and just hang on when I had to. I knew the course and I knew I'd make up some really good time on the way back in. The ride back was, dare I say it, FUN! The wind made holding 20+ mph feel like I was coasting. I hammered it until I was into the last few kilometers when I finally backed off and let my legs rest a bit before the run. My nutrition and fitness were both finally just right on a hard ride. My legs still felt great as I dismounted for T2.

T2: goal time: <1:30 Actual: 1:40

No issues, just had to get some crap out of my sock. Threw on the number and took off.

Run: goal time: <1hour Actual: 1:01:35

I set a goal of running the entire way, having fresh legs and not pushing the pace too early. I'll take this time. I had NO issues with cramping like Motor City. I even held back a little early on knowing I had "the HILL" to deal with. I went past the first 2 miles thinking I felt really good. Then I turned the corner and could see the trail of ants ahead me climbing that blessed hill. I stuck with my goal of running the entire way, I wasn't fast but I managed to keep running. This was my last real challenge of the day. It would have been so easy to just walk as I watched person after person do on that climb. In case you're wondering it was about a 9% grade and coming back down hurt almost as much as going up. Every step was putting on the brakes coming back down. By the time I got to the bottom I was starting to feel twinges of cramping in my hamstrings. Fortunately, this evened back out again once I was on the flat again. I hit the 4 mile mark seeing my pace was holding steady to break my overall goal of a sub 3 hour race. I felt pretty strong all the way in and with a half mile to go I saw that I could shatter my 3 hour goal with a hard effort. A couple of roller hills with a little bit of cramping starting to set in but at this point nothing was stopping me. I sprinted hard the final 50m down the finish chute.

Overall goal time: 3 hours
Actual: 2:58:47

Overall I was excited to not only run a good race by my standards. I also hit almost every goal time I set and most importantly I beat my overall goal time by over a minute en route to setting a new personal best by over 12 minutes.

Look for my race evaluation and review in the coming days.

Read more...

Interlochen, pre-race expectations

This week I would like to take a minute to discuss my pre-race expectations for the Interlochen Music Festival Triathlon. I will be competing in the Olympic distance event. This is my second Oly and I'm excited to see my progress from a month ago. As some of you might recall, I had a less than ideal race in Detroit. I personally felt that my bike fitness and nutritional plans were both inadequate. I have spent the past few weeks working on both. On the nutrition plan side I have adjusted my strategy to include both Infinit and Hornet Juice. In my testing with both of these products on my long rides (30+ miles) I have come off the bike still feeling like I have some legs left. Last weekend I went for a hard 46 mile ride with extreme hills including about a 2 mile climb to finish (the last half of which was out of the saddle barely able to hold 7mph). I used Infinit, Hornet Juice and water only on the entire ride and felt good afterwards. I'm not sure I had enough in the tank for much of a run but I certainly had more than when I came off the bike in Detroit. On the bike fitness side, what can I say? I have been riding my tail off. In blowing wind and hard hills I've pushed and right now I feel pretty comfortable in that area again.

Pre-race, my goals for this weekend will be pretty conservative. This is a B race for me and only 3 weeks before my main A race for the season. I want to rev up the motor a bit and see what I've got but I don't want to blow it up either. Here are my goal times for this weekend.

Swim: goal <30 minutes
I really laid back at Detroit in the swim. I want to push this one a bit more. I really think a sub-30 swim is must. I also want to practice drafting off the fast guys in this one. This is my strongest discipline and it's hard to hold back but I still need to go easy on the shoulder a bit.

T1: goal <3 minutes
I know, very conservative. The transition area is quite a ways from the timing mat on the beach and I am going back to socks for the bike, I'm still healing from the blisters I got in Detroit.

Bike: goal 1hr 20 minutes
This course is pretty flat, a couple of rollers and if I average 18mph I'll nail this goal and should still have enough left for the run. The plan will be to ride conservative the first 1/3 of the race, check the overall feeling and if it feels right hammer it right up until the last 1/2 mile. I want to spin easy the last half mile and should be able to maintain my speed coming in because its flat and downhill. (side note, the dismount here gets interesting because you are flying in on a down slope to the transition area) If it all comes together I really think a sub 1:15 is possible without ruining my run. Nutrition wise I plan on using my Profile Design Aerodrink bottle loaded with Infinit and my second water bottle a mix of Hornet Juice and water. The goal is to finish BOTH of these on the bike and start taking in Clif Shot Bloks as I come into transition.

T2:goal <1 minute 30 seconds
It better be fast, the timing mats are at the bike entrance and run exit and it's a small transition area. Nothing special here, drop the bike, slip on the shoes and hat and off we go. Nutrition plan here? Have a pre-made bottle of Hornet Juice and water to take a swig of just before I go along with more Clif Shot Bloks.

Run: goal <1hour
Not too hard for me to hold a 9:40 pace if I have some legs off the bike. This is a conservative goal but hey after Detroit, where I walked more than I ran, this goal has to be conservative. I want to run this time only walking aid stations if needed. I want to start slow and build my intensity throughout on this one. Nutrition, just water or Gatorade if they have it.

overall goal: sub 3 hours.
If I accomplish this I'll have made significant improvement from Detroit. If things go well and I feel good through out, my ultimate goal for this race would be a sub 2:50.

Were making this a family camping weekend. Staying at the State park where the race is held with a bunch of friends who are racing and their families. On Saturday morning I'm thinking of taking my son into Traverse City (about 20 miles away) where they are having their Cherry Festival 5k and 15k races. This is a big race and if he is up for it I think I'll let him run the 5k. So, we might have a couple of race reports next week. I won't be back until at least Monday so the race reports won't be up until Tuesday or maybe Wednesday.

As a side note, we had a wonderful time in Frankfort last weekend with family and friends. I didn't train as much as I planned but sometimes we need to remember to enjoy life a little with those we care about. They put up with our training and non-stop talking about our sport so we do need to just let it go every once in a while. I got in one great ride, a monster sand dune climb, a round of golf with some pals and a ton of walking on the beach. Does life get any better than that?

So, unless I come up with something genius to say again this week, good luck to everyone racing this coming weekend and check back next week for my race report.

Read more...