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Tugaloo Triathlon
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Tugaloo Triathlon - Triathlon
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 Swim
Comments: The chute ran out in to the water and then we immediately had to make a hard ninety degree left turn to head toward the first buoy. It was still pretty shallow and I was hitting my hands on the bottom, but we cleared that and were in deeper water within about 10 seconds or so. I settled in quickly, but within 100 meters I started getting these weird little cramps in the arches of my feet. I started flexing my feet downward at the ankles to try and shake them, but soon my ankles started getting little twinges in them. And then my calves were cramps, and finally my hamstrings. It was the strangest thing ever - in all my racing I have never experienced anything like it. It wasn't debilitating, but every time I would point my toes the twinges would start, and I would have to flex my feet back down. So I wasn't kicking much, and instead I just focused on really "pressing my buoy" and getting my head down in order to keep my legs up. Other than that weirdness I felt like I was swimming OK - nice and straight buoy to buoy without much sighting at all. At about 700 meters the left-hand shore turned away from the course a bit and I think that played a little trick on me as I did find myself having to work a little bit to not pull left. It was strangely disorienting. That lasted about 100 meters or so, but then I was fine and back to swimming straight and true. This was a nice, clean swim with almost no contact, and at the last turn buoy I picked up a nice pair of feet and got towed all the way back to the swim exit, which was nice as were were headed directly back in to the sun which was juuuuust trying to burn its way through the overcast.
What would you do differently?: This felt like an OK swim - effort was good despite the little periodic cramps. Not sure what was up with that, I was hydrated and tapered well - I think it was just the result of sitting in the car and on airplanes so much lately. Who knows? And while I don't think it had anything to do with the mysterious cramping, After the race Jennifer pointed out that I really should warm up ALOT more in the water before a race. She noted that I always warm up 1000~1500 yards before really getting going in masters, and wondered why I don't ever do that before a race. Good point, I think - I have always just warmed up running. Next triathlon (next year!) I am going to give that a shot and see how that goes - don't figure it could hurt....
 Transition 1
Comments:  I stood up and pulled my cap and goggles off, and took a peek at my watch. 28 minutes!??! WTFudge?!? I have always heard this is an "uphill" swim course (and looking at previous years times it is obviously so - the fastest time is always around 22:30, and this year it was 22:50) but still, even knowing that it was hard not to let that swim time get in my head. As I ran by JT she shouted out that I was 29th out of the water. Now I know that doesn't mean anything as it was a time trial start, but at least I knew it wasn't a complete disaster. Plus it helps me mentally to keep the chase on as I count folks down as I pick them of on the bike. The run was a relatively long one to the transition area, so I hoofed it a quickly as possible. I did skip quickly through the kids wading pool they had set up as we had to run a good ways through sand on the way. What would you do differently?: Don't look at my watch - I know better.  Bike
Comments: This is one. lumpy. bike. nothing too terribly long or steep (it is aerobats all the way and I only needed to get out of the big ring a couple of times) but it is just constant up and down. I nursed my constantly legs as best as I could for the first 5 miles, but I also stayed after it the best I could between the waves of cramps. I jammed some salt in and drank, drank, drank. So long as I didn't try to power over the top I was OK, but when I would my calves would try and go south on me, so I didn't do that much. Pushed a slightly smaller gear than I would have liked and kept the cadence up. I picked a bunch of folks of early, then went through a dry spell where I couldn't see anyone up the road. Around mile 10 picked up about 6 guys who were relatively close together and rode through them quickly. Around mile 12 I finally actually started to feel pretty good, even though my legs were STILL twinging here and there. At this point I kinda figured out my legs were going to be completely trashed and locked-down preventing me from running, so I decided to go for broke and murder the bike, sort of go out in a flame of glory sort of decision. There was one guy waaaaaay up the road and I made it my single life's mission to reel him in. I kept creeping up and creeping up, and then finally caught him looking over his shoulder - and I thought "dude - never look over your shoulder!" I finally eased up on him, and we exchanged a few pleasantries and I assured him that I was not going to have any run left in my legs and that he could just sit up and not worry about running me down. As I made my way down the road I was fairly certain we were going to meet again, but I didn't worry too much about that as he was only 31 years old. What would you do differently?: Nothing really, maybe have a few more electrolytes stored on board? Very happy with my ability to not fade late mentally and really keep the hammer down in the waning miles of the bike. As bad as I felt physically (and quite candidly mentally as well) at the beginning of the race I gotta always remember to just work through it. This was a very good bike for me and probably right at the edge of my current ability. Transition 2
Comments: I caught one more dude rolling down the hill into T1, and slipped out of my shoes with about 75 meters to go before the sharp U-turn to the dismount line. I hit the ground running and darted into my transition spot, and quite efficiently destroyed my sun glasses by rolling my bike right over them. Ignoring that little snafu I quickly slipped on my shoes, took off my helmet, grabbed my visor and race belt (and my electrolytes this time - I was bound and determined to not lose them this race as I had in the previous two) and darted. I caught one or maybe two more guys on the long run out of transition, and as I passed my coach he shouted out that I was "flying." I responded that I was cramping like crazy as now my hamstrings were trying to fail me on the uphill out of transition. In about 100 more meters I passed Jennifer and always the angel she yelled that I had moved up inside the top ten - sweet! Shut up legs! What would you do differently?: Don't run over my sun glasses?  Run
Comments:  On the long, steep climb out of transition I just focused on keeping my strides short and leg turn over quick, and before I knew it I was at the top and starting the first descent into the camp ground. So now my hamstrings laid low while my quads took a turn trying to lay me low. And that would pretty much be the story of the day: hamstrings seizing up on the ascents and then quads on the verge of locking up on the down hills. Soak, wash, rinse, repeat. It was a real game of riding the razor's edge the whole 10k. Near the bottom of the first out and back (and there were a lot of them for a 10k) my 31 year old friend caught me, and he was moving well - I did my best to keep him in sight, and he eventually towed me past two more guys over as many miles before I lost him for good up the road. Running on fumes, I was grabbing a Gatorade along with each water stop. But because I usually just drink water on the run course AND my body was evidently on automatic pilot, I kept reflexively dumping the Gatorade over my head. If you have never experienced that, let me tell you: it stings when you get it in your eyes. I can't believe we actually drink that stuff. At mile four I got caught a second time by another young guy that apparently had rockets in his pockets and wheels on his heels - he was flat-out rolling, and I didn't even give a thought to chasing. But just as I turned the next corner I saw him catch the NEXT dude up the road, and he wasn't so smart: he sat on for about 100 meters, and then proptly popped. I caught him in short order, and turned to finish the last 1.2 mile out-and-back. At the turn around I could see a small gaggle of guys charging down the hill toward me, and channeling Nicole, (but not getting it quite right) I shouted in my head, "Now billy goat up this fucker!" Making a clean getaway to the top of the last incline I was partially relieved that they wouldn't catch me, but being a time trial race I also knew I couldn't take my foot off the gas and continued to charge down they hill to the finish. What would you do differently?: Boy, oh, boy I wish I didn't have the whole cramping thing going on, but in light of that this was a fairly good run all things considered. The run had so many hills and so many turns it was bound to trash my legs anyway. This was easily the toughest run course I have raced on all year,and while it doesn't look like it from the time I was full gas the whole way - I just don't know how I could have been quicker. Post race
Warm down: Finally got straightened up somewhat and staggered around for a few minutes with JT. looked at the food (it was a bountiful spread!) but couldn't really think about taking a bite of anything yet. Jen dragged me over to the massage tent and I was happy to see that my regular doc was there, so he worked me as best he could in amongst my continued cramping. Jen got a little work done too as the crowd of racers in need of work had not yet begun to assemble. After that I went back to the starting line to cheer in my team mates, checked out the results and while I knew I had most likely nicked inside the top ten overall based on a very good bike split, I was still very surprised to have beat out the big crowd of 40-44 year olds to win masters. So we stuck around for awards, and I finally got. Little hungery. Best of all for first place I won a Timex Global Trainer - and even though I don't need it nor do I know what I will do with it, that is the best prize I have ever received in a race!  What limited your ability to perform faster: Mystery cramping. At some point I really need to unpack the week leading up to this race and make sure that never happens again. Event comments: This is one of the old, venerable races in the region and while I have always wanted to do it, but it comes so late in my season (which is greatly dictated by the school year) I have never been able to fit it on my calendar. Even though it was not really a target race for me I am very glad to have made it this year, and will try and do it again next year - aside from the long swim with all of the hills on both the bike and the run it really is a course that suits my abilities. Last updated: 2014-04-08 12:00 AM
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 2014-09-17 6:08 PM |
Master  2912    ...at home in The ATL |  Subject: Tugaloo Triathlon |
| 2014-09-17 6:33 PM in reply to: #5051448 |
Elite 7783  PEI, Canada | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Great report Rusty and congratulations on the result! Way to persevere through all the cramps - it would certainly have been easy to throw in the towel with all that going on! Love the upside down bib number on the run pic. |
| 2014-09-17 6:39 PM in reply to: axteraa |
Master 2912 ...at home in The ATL | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Ha-ha Arend I actually forgot about that. This is the second time this season I was assigned "lucky" race number 13, and I think it was actually YOU that busted me out for not being pro and wearing it upside down. So see I DO listen to your advice! |
| 2014-09-17 6:45 PM in reply to: #5051448 |
Master 6834 Englewood, Florida | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Awesome job as always. Congrats on working through the cramps to get on the podium. What a billy goat! |
| 2014-09-17 7:38 PM in reply to: #5051448 |
Pro 4482 NJ | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Rusty, great race report as always. Billy goat'ing up a hill is prob an Alabama thing. Congrats on racing tough and the win!! Perhaps you can trade in the Timex for a new supply of sunglasses ;-) |
| 2014-09-17 7:46 PM in reply to: #5051448 |
Master 3058 South Alabama | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Great report....as always. Awesome result considering the cramps. Come down here and race sometime. Swimming in the Gulf guarantees plenty of salt intake....and that should help with the cramps. |
| 2014-09-18 8:52 AM in reply to: cdban66 |
Master 2912 ...at home in The ATL | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Originally posted by cdban66 Awesome job as always. Congrats on working through the cramps to get on the podium. What a billy goat! Thanks Chris! |
| 2014-09-18 8:55 AM in reply to: kcarroll |
Master 2912 ...at home in The ATL | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Originally posted by kcarrollRusty, great race report as always. Billy goat'ing up a hill is prob an Alabama thing. Congrats on racing tough and the win!! Perhaps you can trade in the Timex for a new supply of sunglasses ;-) Ha-ha, now that is a GREAT idea Kim, thanks! I actually should have mentioned it but I was able to put my glasses completely back together- they are oakleys and because of their modular construction they are apparently almost indestructible. |
| 2014-09-18 8:58 AM in reply to: slornow |
Master 2912 ...at home in The ATL | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Originally posted by slornow Great report....as always. Awesome result considering the cramps. Come down here and race sometime. Swimming in the Gulf guarantees plenty of salt intake....and that should help with the cramps. I PROMISE we are going to come down at some point in the not-too-distant future. And you are right - us guys that swim mostly in fresh water are down-right pickled when we come out of the ocean - we just haven't learned how to keep our mouth closed when we swim... |
| 2014-09-18 9:44 AM in reply to: #5051448 |
| Master 10208 Northern IL | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Nice going Rusty! |
| 2014-09-18 1:29 PM in reply to: #5051448 |
Veteran 1677 Houston, Texas | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Very nice race, Rusty! And I have to say, I am flattered to have made your race report and inspired you to billy goat your way up that f&*%er |
| 2014-09-19 5:27 AM in reply to: ligersandtions |
Master 2912 ...at home in The ATL | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Originally posted by ligersandtions Very nice race, Rusty! And I have to say, I am flattered to have made your race report and inspired you to billy goat your way up that f&*%er Well in all seriousness reading your race report just before heading out the door for this race really helped get my head in the right place. Reading BT race reports might just become one of my favorite new pre-race strategies. Just knowing you all are out there putting in the work and racing hard sure helped me to suck it up and push through the tough bits in this race. There were definitely a few moments here and there when I thought about pulling the plug and shutting it down, but you didn't, so how in the world could I??? I owe thanks to every single one of you for that. |
| 2014-09-19 10:13 AM in reply to: #5051448 |
Elite 3779 Ontario | Subject: RE: Tugaloo Triathlon Great RR and Race Rusty - Podium Mutlisport seems to aptly describe your performances. Really well done on managing the razors edge with the cramping. |
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United States
Georgia Multisports
Overall Rank = 10/366
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 1/38
This race was just a little too far away for us to want to get up n the morning and drive, so we got a hotel about 10 minutes from the park and drove up the night before. The past two weeks have been really busy with a lot of work travel and deadlines, and friday afternoon was no different. I didn't finish up with work until about 7pm and wasn't packed or anything. So Jennifer coordinated dinner while I quickly threw all my stuff into bags. We ate quickly and headed out on the road in the pouring down rain - ugh.
The rain slacked off about 30 minutes into the trip, and we stopped by a store to get some food for breakfast in the morning. We got to the hotel, got settled in for the night, and were asleep by 11pm. I slept well and popped up wide awake at 5pm. I made tea, ate a few pop tarts, and checked through my transition bag to determine what I had forgotten in my haste. Surprisingly, nothing - I suppose there really is a first time for everything!
I had a little extra time to kill while JT was taking her wake-up shower, and while I was eating my 3rd (AND 4th!) pop tart I read Nicole's race report from IMMT 70.3. I love my BT mentor group, and they never fail to get me jacked up for racing well. Nicole commented that when the going got tough on the very hilly sections of the world championship run course she commanded herself to "mountain goat your way up this fucker." I thought that was equal parts awesome and hilarious and being a big believer in internal dialog I filed it way mentally to unleash later in the day.
At 6:15 we hopped in the car and made our way for the park. once there I got my transition area set up quickly and efficiently, talked to a couple of team mates and my coach, then went to check out the course and warm up with JT.
Walked and stretched for about 15 minutes, then ran really easy for about 15 more minutes and finished up with a few strides. I got back to the transition area and checked through things one more time, then slipped in to my skin suit and realized I was absolutely drenched with sweat - it was already warm and almost 100% humidity. I caught up with JT one more time, stole a quick kiss, then headed down to the lake to swim around a little and get stretched out. The announcer was reporting the lake to be 84 degrees, and it was every bit of it - yuck. I swam out to the first turn buoy, feeling pretty good. The course was laid out very well - lots of big orange sighting buoys and bright green ones on the turns. It was a clockwise course which is not my favorite, but ah, well. Swam back in just in time for the National Anthem, then lined up for the time trial start. We were going off two at a time, self seeded roughly by race number, and since I was a low one (lucky #13 again!) I wound up in the 3rd pair to go. Then we actually had to wait a few minutes for the start - I like it when a race is on time.