Lonestar Texas Two Step - race report
Lonestar Triathlon Festival
Galveston Island, Texas
("A whole weekend of triathlon at Spectacular Moody Gardens")
March 29, 30 2008
I had wanted to do these races to get over any "new/early season" triathlon race nerves (not necessarily of racing, but of packing the car, double- and triple-checking I had everything in transition, making sure I had a nutrition plan, etc.). Coach Jamie and Coach Andrea offered me two options: do the Halfiron on Sunday at IM pace, or do the shorter Two Step and have fun with it at a brisker pace -- either option allowed me to recover during the next two weeks of taper. So I chose to see what I had over the shorter/faster, two-races, option.
Saturday was the Short Course Sprint Triathlon (0.3 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, 3.1 mile (5K) run)(is there a recognized/standard "Sprint" distance? Is this that?)) From the empty racks in transition compared to the next day, clearly not everyone participating on Sunday also raced Saturday).
Texas Iron was well represented in the transition before the race (and on the podium afterwards, really cleaning up, I'd say). There was lots of handshaking, hugs and chatting.
OK, so disclaimer: fellow Texas Iron Mike Carter kept cropping up this weekend. I don't know that he races long, and I also think his forte is Xterra races, but he rocks the shorter, "regular" stuff too! I've just aged-up into 'his' Age Group (AG), and I've just trained-up to be in his ballpark:)
I racked bike and was next to Mike. We chatted, and when the time came, set off on the 0.3 mile walk over to the swim start. The swim start was described as a beach-start. There was a "corridor" from beach to swimmable water, marked off with lane markers to safely guide us through the oyster beds ... there was some talk about it being for the protection of the oysters, but Adam on the PA said that really they'd suffer very little if we trod on them and that our foot would be lacerated, so it was really for our own protection from them, despite us being the winners on the whole food-chain evolutionary thing. It quickly became apparent that wading out was going to be far too slow. So they routed us along the dock/jetty for a 6 foot drop into deep water as a quicker entry. Once in the water, I had room to float on my stomach gently moving arms and legs to "maintain my space, maintain my 'ready to swim' horizontal position". 5-4-3-2-1 ... We were off. I didn't sight for a while, just kept "bumper car"ing and going with the flow. After a while, sighted ahead, and got down to a good pace. Mainly falling back to just breathing on the right (!), but occasionally both sides. I think I maintained a fairly decent straight line, and kept up a good pace, but I didn't catch any toes. 0.3 miles, nearly 1/3rd mile, about 500m, is a short swim, but long enough to really make a lead on lesser swimmers :)
Dang, I wish I could find online the results they posted on the board at the race site, the one that showed rank-within-AG. I think I came out of the water 3rd or 4th. 1:44/100m.
I stood up, had a volunteer unvelcro my zipper and yank it down while I started running up the carpet towards transition. After crossing the timing mats to end the swim time and start the T1 time, I fell to a sitting position in front of three young lady volunteers: "strip me". They grabbed my half yanked down wetsuit, while I grabbed my still fully yanked up shorts and they pulled my wetsuit off in one easy, quick move. Dang, that went well. And what fun to have strippers at a Sprint!
The first step is admitting that you have a problem. It seems my transitions suck. I hadn't particularly noticed that before, but it has been a dawning realization just this past week with my locker room slothfulness, the transition training the other evening and now my accurate, measured race day transition times :( They don't stack up against my AG peers. Regardless, I quickly found my bike, threw down my swim stuff, donned helmet and sunglasses and was off. A reasonably mount then subsequent futzing with shoes and I was off. From the get go I started passing people. I was passed by a handful of people, but not by anyone with my AG written on their calf. Once through the bumpy maze of streets that got us to the main out and back seawall road I settled into a great pace. My bike computer was telling me high 24, low 25 mph. I didn't appreciate it, but we had a gentle, but present tailwind and I was flying. It's only going to be half an hour or so on the bike, so I flogged it hard. And kept drinking GE. At the turnaround the tailwind became a headwind -- nothing brutal, but gentle and present -- and my effort increased to maintain low 20 mph dipping under 20 on any ever so slight inclines. When we crested the rise and got back on the Seawall proper, next to the rolling breakers to our right, I picked it up. I was jostling with a Jack and Adams clad guy as we passed other riders, but once we turned into the maze of bumpy surface streets to get us back to Moody Gardens he out-technical-ed me on the bumps and corners to get a decent lead on me. I unbuckled feet from shoes a little early, not quite sure where the dismount was, and ended up taking two corners with feet on top of shoes, not ideal. But the dismount went well and I was running nicely through transition. I'd just placed 4th in my AG at 21.7 mph.
My T2 was 30 seconds slower than the other top-AGers. 30 seconds! Nearly double what they transitioned at. Gerf!
I had told
triman, as we waited to get wet for the swim, that my only time related goal for the day was that I wanted to run well off the bike. I had told him I wanted to run a 21 mins 5K and said a PR of under 20:15 would be my pie-in-the-sky goal. I exited T2 still futzing with my Garmin. I never did hit the Start button, but used the 'pace' display. I know effort level for running -- and anyway, it's a Sprint, I'd been red-lining for the last 45 mins! -- but used the electronics as a crux for pace. And the course was flat -- the sort of flat we don't have in Austin (well, maybe on the track!). Twisty and turny in places, but flat. And twisty and turny gives tangents to run! But I held a pace of ~6:30 min/mile. I didn't use the Mile markers for anything, just kept looking at my pace and trying to increase my effort. I lied: I used the Mile 3 marker to know I had 0.1 miles left. That's 160 meters. I opened it up a little (more), and damn if the Finish line wasn't in sight yet! That was, must have been, a long 0.1 miles, a misplaced Mile marker? That was the longest 0.1 miles in 3.1 mile running history (or do they all feel like that! :) I'd just run a 20:11 5K. My previous stand-alone 5K PR was 20:15. That ranked 3rd in my AG (the top two were 35 and 50 seconds faster!).
I recovered quickly, gathered with a mingling of other Texas Irons who'd all just finished. Wandered over to get the post-race vittles. And they'd posted the results. I was curious, as I'd swum with no watch, used the bike computer on the ride and ran with a Garmin so didn't have an idea of anything. I found my name. Huh, it was quite high (31st overall). I read off all the times, a little disbelieving in the run time! Liking the bike speed. Then, on a whim, I wondered where I was in the AG. I could only see two 45-49 above me on the list. wtf? Really? I was a little dumbfounded. And disbelieving. I re-checked. Walked around. Went back and re-checked. Wow.
Texas Iron had put lots of people on the Podium -- Coach Andrea for overall woman winner, Mike Carter for first in my AG, me for third; Chris McCambridge, Ali and Joe won their respective AGs, young Donny came third in his, young Carla won hers, ack there were others ...! I really enjoyed the awards, that was fun ... and it was right next to the beer truck handing out free Budweiser in Michelob cups (!).
The glitch was that it was not quite noon by this time, I'd already hung out a lot, but packet pickup for the next days races wasn't until 1:00pm. So I had to kill more time even after packing away all my transition stuff back into the car. What I really needed was lunch, a shower and a change of clothing rather than hanging out. Still, time rolled around and I picked up the packet for the next morning's Quarter Iron.
Sunday was the Quarter Iron (0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.55 mile run (shorter on the swim, but longer on the bike and run than an Olympic-distance race))
On Sunday morning the transition area was full (whereas it had been only 3/4 full on the Saturday).
I must confess, I got greedy. After placing on the podium at the Sprint I was a bit full of myself! I was trying to determine whether those in my AG who might also be eyeing a podium spot might be more likely to go Quarter- or Half-iron today. Or, with a bigger field, there were just more people out today than yesterday? I eyed those passing me a little more carefully today, mindful of whether they were in my AG or not!
The Halfiron started at 7:30. The Quarter not until 8:30. That would mean a "more leisurly" morning except that I wasn't sure we'd have our own transition or when it closed. So I got there and got set up in time for a 7:30 time -- as did all the Quarters, it seemed -- and this gave us a looooong wait before our race. Again, my dsignated rack spot was next to Mike. We mustered for the swim together and chatted. Jumped in the water together, but then I lost him (bobbing heads all in the same color swimcap all look the same ...). This swim was out to a left hand turn buoy then the majority of the swim was a stright line paralleling the shore a left hand turn at the other end and a short return trip back to the shore. I placed up front on the swim line, marking my territory arms and legs out wide skulling, and hit it hard at the buzzer. There was some contact but generally OK. After rounding the first turn buoy I was on some feet, in some toe-bubbles. After 20 or so strokes I decided I liked the toes I was following: they were a decent pace and headed in a striaght line in the direction I wanted to go. Then I realized that I was on Mike's toes! Whoa! He's quicker than me at the workouts. Oh well, I'll hang with him for another 20 strokes before he pulls away ... but he didn't, he sucked me along. I stayed on his toes, tapping him occasionally, and he dragged me all the way in to the swim exit! Wow! A 16:52 swim, 1:45/100m. What a swim, I was delighted! When we stood up, he vanished! He took off ahead of me so fast! By the time I flopped to the ground to be stripped, he was getting up and running to his bike, when I reached my bike, he was taking his bike off the rack and running to the mount line. He got from swim exit to bike mount 30 seconds faster than me, and I was one step behind him out of the water! My T1 1:52.
Again we wended our way out the Seawall road/highway. Today's bike route was almost identical to yesterdays except we were to go further out before turning around and coming back. I couldn't figure out where the wind was. It was either blustering or was a cross wind. Whereas yesterday I was doing 24-25 headed out, today I was doing 21-22. After the turnaround, my speed dropped to 19-20. My cadence had been high-90's and low 100's, so I tried getting it to low-90's by adding gear. The mph went up, but so did the heartrate. A little unsustainable I flip-flopped between gears yo-yo'ing speed and HR versus cadence. And it was here that I slacked off a little on the effort and was passed by two of my AG'ers in the same 5 minute stretch. After dropping out of their draft zone I tried to stay within striking distance of them, but both times that raced my HR and I couldn't. Bike time of 1:18:17, 21.5 mph. Did I mention I'd got greedy? I knew Mike was ahead of me, now I knew I'd been passed by two more. I needed another good run off the bike to catch someone to podium! At least one someone, I didn't know how many others were ahead of me out of the water.
Running into T2 I knew I'd used my legs harder on the bike today than yesterday. Re-racking the bike, trying to stand on one leg to put socks and shoes on, I could feel the legs complaining. And starting my run out of transition I had to do butt kicks (my own butt!) to shake it out. My T2 time was 1:40 -- 30-40 seconds more leisurly than the other top-10 in my AG! I fell into a decent pace on the run, but it was a 7:3x min/mile pace, rather than the 7:0x min/mile pace I wanted. Oh well. I didn't catch any of my AG'ers. At about the 5 mile mark I heard a confident footstrike come from behind to pass me. "Good job!" I said. As he pulled ahead, I saw his calf, he was in my AG "No, wait, you're in my AG ..." So that was Mike, two passed me on the bike, and one on the run ... I was, however, more process focused than outcome focused despite moments of counting heads and extrapolating finishing position. I finished well, egged the crowd on in the finishers chute for a good applause and Adam welcoming me in on the speakers. My run time for 6.55 miles was 49:53, 7:40 min/mile pace. A good race. 6th in my AG doesn't take home the hardware, but a step up from "bottom of the top fifth" perennial placings of running seasons and tri season past.
I did have a great weekend. It was fun, I enjoyed my level of performance. Ironfit and doing shorter courses clearly is overkill!
So, that's two races down this season, just need one more to get a USAT ranking ... :-)
Galveston Island, Texas
("A whole weekend of triathlon at Spectacular Moody Gardens")
March 29, 30 2008
I had wanted to do these races to get over any "new/early season" triathlon race nerves (not necessarily of racing, but of packing the car, double- and triple-checking I had everything in transition, making sure I had a nutrition plan, etc.). Coach Jamie and Coach Andrea offered me two options: do the Halfiron on Sunday at IM pace, or do the shorter Two Step and have fun with it at a brisker pace -- either option allowed me to recover during the next two weeks of taper. So I chose to see what I had over the shorter/faster, two-races, option.
Saturday was the Short Course Sprint Triathlon (0.3 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, 3.1 mile (5K) run)(is there a recognized/standard "Sprint" distance? Is this that?)) From the empty racks in transition compared to the next day, clearly not everyone participating on Sunday also raced Saturday).
Texas Iron was well represented in the transition before the race (and on the podium afterwards, really cleaning up, I'd say). There was lots of handshaking, hugs and chatting.
OK, so disclaimer: fellow Texas Iron Mike Carter kept cropping up this weekend. I don't know that he races long, and I also think his forte is Xterra races, but he rocks the shorter, "regular" stuff too! I've just aged-up into 'his' Age Group (AG), and I've just trained-up to be in his ballpark:)
I racked bike and was next to Mike. We chatted, and when the time came, set off on the 0.3 mile walk over to the swim start. The swim start was described as a beach-start. There was a "corridor" from beach to swimmable water, marked off with lane markers to safely guide us through the oyster beds ... there was some talk about it being for the protection of the oysters, but Adam on the PA said that really they'd suffer very little if we trod on them and that our foot would be lacerated, so it was really for our own protection from them, despite us being the winners on the whole food-chain evolutionary thing. It quickly became apparent that wading out was going to be far too slow. So they routed us along the dock/jetty for a 6 foot drop into deep water as a quicker entry. Once in the water, I had room to float on my stomach gently moving arms and legs to "maintain my space, maintain my 'ready to swim' horizontal position". 5-4-3-2-1 ... We were off. I didn't sight for a while, just kept "bumper car"ing and going with the flow. After a while, sighted ahead, and got down to a good pace. Mainly falling back to just breathing on the right (!), but occasionally both sides. I think I maintained a fairly decent straight line, and kept up a good pace, but I didn't catch any toes. 0.3 miles, nearly 1/3rd mile, about 500m, is a short swim, but long enough to really make a lead on lesser swimmers :)
Dang, I wish I could find online the results they posted on the board at the race site, the one that showed rank-within-AG. I think I came out of the water 3rd or 4th. 1:44/100m.
I stood up, had a volunteer unvelcro my zipper and yank it down while I started running up the carpet towards transition. After crossing the timing mats to end the swim time and start the T1 time, I fell to a sitting position in front of three young lady volunteers: "strip me". They grabbed my half yanked down wetsuit, while I grabbed my still fully yanked up shorts and they pulled my wetsuit off in one easy, quick move. Dang, that went well. And what fun to have strippers at a Sprint!
The first step is admitting that you have a problem. It seems my transitions suck. I hadn't particularly noticed that before, but it has been a dawning realization just this past week with my locker room slothfulness, the transition training the other evening and now my accurate, measured race day transition times :( They don't stack up against my AG peers. Regardless, I quickly found my bike, threw down my swim stuff, donned helmet and sunglasses and was off. A reasonably mount then subsequent futzing with shoes and I was off. From the get go I started passing people. I was passed by a handful of people, but not by anyone with my AG written on their calf. Once through the bumpy maze of streets that got us to the main out and back seawall road I settled into a great pace. My bike computer was telling me high 24, low 25 mph. I didn't appreciate it, but we had a gentle, but present tailwind and I was flying. It's only going to be half an hour or so on the bike, so I flogged it hard. And kept drinking GE. At the turnaround the tailwind became a headwind -- nothing brutal, but gentle and present -- and my effort increased to maintain low 20 mph dipping under 20 on any ever so slight inclines. When we crested the rise and got back on the Seawall proper, next to the rolling breakers to our right, I picked it up. I was jostling with a Jack and Adams clad guy as we passed other riders, but once we turned into the maze of bumpy surface streets to get us back to Moody Gardens he out-technical-ed me on the bumps and corners to get a decent lead on me. I unbuckled feet from shoes a little early, not quite sure where the dismount was, and ended up taking two corners with feet on top of shoes, not ideal. But the dismount went well and I was running nicely through transition. I'd just placed 4th in my AG at 21.7 mph.
My T2 was 30 seconds slower than the other top-AGers. 30 seconds! Nearly double what they transitioned at. Gerf!
I had told
triman, as we waited to get wet for the swim, that my only time related goal for the day was that I wanted to run well off the bike. I had told him I wanted to run a 21 mins 5K and said a PR of under 20:15 would be my pie-in-the-sky goal. I exited T2 still futzing with my Garmin. I never did hit the Start button, but used the 'pace' display. I know effort level for running -- and anyway, it's a Sprint, I'd been red-lining for the last 45 mins! -- but used the electronics as a crux for pace. And the course was flat -- the sort of flat we don't have in Austin (well, maybe on the track!). Twisty and turny in places, but flat. And twisty and turny gives tangents to run! But I held a pace of ~6:30 min/mile. I didn't use the Mile markers for anything, just kept looking at my pace and trying to increase my effort. I lied: I used the Mile 3 marker to know I had 0.1 miles left. That's 160 meters. I opened it up a little (more), and damn if the Finish line wasn't in sight yet! That was, must have been, a long 0.1 miles, a misplaced Mile marker? That was the longest 0.1 miles in 3.1 mile running history (or do they all feel like that! :) I'd just run a 20:11 5K. My previous stand-alone 5K PR was 20:15. That ranked 3rd in my AG (the top two were 35 and 50 seconds faster!).
I recovered quickly, gathered with a mingling of other Texas Irons who'd all just finished. Wandered over to get the post-race vittles. And they'd posted the results. I was curious, as I'd swum with no watch, used the bike computer on the ride and ran with a Garmin so didn't have an idea of anything. I found my name. Huh, it was quite high (31st overall). I read off all the times, a little disbelieving in the run time! Liking the bike speed. Then, on a whim, I wondered where I was in the AG. I could only see two 45-49 above me on the list. wtf? Really? I was a little dumbfounded. And disbelieving. I re-checked. Walked around. Went back and re-checked. Wow.
Texas Iron had put lots of people on the Podium -- Coach Andrea for overall woman winner, Mike Carter for first in my AG, me for third; Chris McCambridge, Ali and Joe won their respective AGs, young Donny came third in his, young Carla won hers, ack there were others ...! I really enjoyed the awards, that was fun ... and it was right next to the beer truck handing out free Budweiser in Michelob cups (!).
The glitch was that it was not quite noon by this time, I'd already hung out a lot, but packet pickup for the next days races wasn't until 1:00pm. So I had to kill more time even after packing away all my transition stuff back into the car. What I really needed was lunch, a shower and a change of clothing rather than hanging out. Still, time rolled around and I picked up the packet for the next morning's Quarter Iron.
Sunday was the Quarter Iron (0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.55 mile run (shorter on the swim, but longer on the bike and run than an Olympic-distance race))
On Sunday morning the transition area was full (whereas it had been only 3/4 full on the Saturday).
I must confess, I got greedy. After placing on the podium at the Sprint I was a bit full of myself! I was trying to determine whether those in my AG who might also be eyeing a podium spot might be more likely to go Quarter- or Half-iron today. Or, with a bigger field, there were just more people out today than yesterday? I eyed those passing me a little more carefully today, mindful of whether they were in my AG or not!
The Halfiron started at 7:30. The Quarter not until 8:30. That would mean a "more leisurly" morning except that I wasn't sure we'd have our own transition or when it closed. So I got there and got set up in time for a 7:30 time -- as did all the Quarters, it seemed -- and this gave us a looooong wait before our race. Again, my dsignated rack spot was next to Mike. We mustered for the swim together and chatted. Jumped in the water together, but then I lost him (bobbing heads all in the same color swimcap all look the same ...). This swim was out to a left hand turn buoy then the majority of the swim was a stright line paralleling the shore a left hand turn at the other end and a short return trip back to the shore. I placed up front on the swim line, marking my territory arms and legs out wide skulling, and hit it hard at the buzzer. There was some contact but generally OK. After rounding the first turn buoy I was on some feet, in some toe-bubbles. After 20 or so strokes I decided I liked the toes I was following: they were a decent pace and headed in a striaght line in the direction I wanted to go. Then I realized that I was on Mike's toes! Whoa! He's quicker than me at the workouts. Oh well, I'll hang with him for another 20 strokes before he pulls away ... but he didn't, he sucked me along. I stayed on his toes, tapping him occasionally, and he dragged me all the way in to the swim exit! Wow! A 16:52 swim, 1:45/100m. What a swim, I was delighted! When we stood up, he vanished! He took off ahead of me so fast! By the time I flopped to the ground to be stripped, he was getting up and running to his bike, when I reached my bike, he was taking his bike off the rack and running to the mount line. He got from swim exit to bike mount 30 seconds faster than me, and I was one step behind him out of the water! My T1 1:52.
Again we wended our way out the Seawall road/highway. Today's bike route was almost identical to yesterdays except we were to go further out before turning around and coming back. I couldn't figure out where the wind was. It was either blustering or was a cross wind. Whereas yesterday I was doing 24-25 headed out, today I was doing 21-22. After the turnaround, my speed dropped to 19-20. My cadence had been high-90's and low 100's, so I tried getting it to low-90's by adding gear. The mph went up, but so did the heartrate. A little unsustainable I flip-flopped between gears yo-yo'ing speed and HR versus cadence. And it was here that I slacked off a little on the effort and was passed by two of my AG'ers in the same 5 minute stretch. After dropping out of their draft zone I tried to stay within striking distance of them, but both times that raced my HR and I couldn't. Bike time of 1:18:17, 21.5 mph. Did I mention I'd got greedy? I knew Mike was ahead of me, now I knew I'd been passed by two more. I needed another good run off the bike to catch someone to podium! At least one someone, I didn't know how many others were ahead of me out of the water.
Running into T2 I knew I'd used my legs harder on the bike today than yesterday. Re-racking the bike, trying to stand on one leg to put socks and shoes on, I could feel the legs complaining. And starting my run out of transition I had to do butt kicks (my own butt!) to shake it out. My T2 time was 1:40 -- 30-40 seconds more leisurly than the other top-10 in my AG! I fell into a decent pace on the run, but it was a 7:3x min/mile pace, rather than the 7:0x min/mile pace I wanted. Oh well. I didn't catch any of my AG'ers. At about the 5 mile mark I heard a confident footstrike come from behind to pass me. "Good job!" I said. As he pulled ahead, I saw his calf, he was in my AG "No, wait, you're in my AG ..." So that was Mike, two passed me on the bike, and one on the run ... I was, however, more process focused than outcome focused despite moments of counting heads and extrapolating finishing position. I finished well, egged the crowd on in the finishers chute for a good applause and Adam welcoming me in on the speakers. My run time for 6.55 miles was 49:53, 7:40 min/mile pace. A good race. 6th in my AG doesn't take home the hardware, but a step up from "bottom of the top fifth" perennial placings of running seasons and tri season past.
I did have a great weekend. It was fun, I enjoyed my level of performance. Ironfit and doing shorter courses clearly is overkill!
So, that's two races down this season, just need one more to get a USAT ranking ... :-)