5430 Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Worst swim of my life.

I separated my AC in my last race in a bike crash on 06/21/09. I didn't miss any bike/run training but it hurt too bad to swim so I had to take a month off returning to swimming two weeks before this race. I had swam easily for two weeks before the race after taking the month off. During those two weeks I swam just one race type effort about which I wrote, "hurt a little". But I guess the real race effort was harder because it was very painful. It pretty much felt like someone was stabbing me with an icepick on every left arm stroke. I was worried that I was damaging the ligament further and I know when that ligament fully tears, the collarbone pops off the shoulder and surgery becomes mandatory.

My next issue was that just wearing my wetsuit bottoms made my legs float and pushed my head down. I breathe with my mouth so close to the water behind a tiny little wake so with my head forced downward I was breathing water constantly. Had to breaststroke many times to stop coughing. Because I was so slow, I got dropped by the normal group of guys that I draft off. Further back in the pack, I really couldn't draft at all because the guys were not swimming good lines so I was mostly just in "no-man's land".

For the first time in my life, I literally was not sure I could finish the swim. At one point I stopped, breaststroked and looked around to see how far away a kayak was just in case I needed a rescue. One of the many upsides to this experience was that now I can relate to those folks who are scared of the swim and have problems drafting, neither of which I'd ever experienced before.

Bottomline is that just finishing considering my shoulder pain was good, I guess. My shoulder doesn't feel worse today so I don't think I damaged it further but I'm very sore in my chest and neck which means I was either doing something weird as a reaction or I was just out-of-shape.

There was no way I could have worn my wetsuit top because I couldn't get it on/off without help and pain. But if I'd done my speed tests like I'd planned I think I would have noticed that swimming in bottoms only is slow and ackward. (I'm going to do that test very soon and very often).

To be honest the thought that bottoms-only wasn't good had gone through my mind a bit because I swam that way at Austin 70.3 last October. I beat a good friend by a couple minutes which I thought was odd because I thought I should have beaten him by quite a bit more. I just figured that he had a breakout swim because he had been obviously improving in training. The issue was confused further because my split in that race was super fast but that was due to a very short course. I do remember my head diving down during that swim but the water was perfectly smooth so it wasn't a major issue for my breathing. This race was pretty choppy due to a south wind which into my breathing side going out and therefore a drownfest.

Time above is from start to beach. Official time is 3:49 slower than last year. It took me 1:11 to run from the beach to the timing mat. So my official time should be 35:26.


In this race I should have just swam without a wetsuit which I know would have been faster, safer, and much more fun since I hate wetsuit swimming anyway. In any case, I'll never swim in just my wetsuit bottoms again except for testing. I'm going to swim a lot in my full wetsuit before California 70.3 on 03/29/09 to learn not to hate it. Then for warm races where I just dont want to wear the full suit, I going to buy another suit that's not as warm. I'm also going to work my swim very hard over the winter. It's been hard this summer due to my shoulder injury and the fact that our pool has been closed all summer for remodeling so I have to drive 30 mins to another pool. One thing is for sure, I never again want to come out of the water, look at my watch and think, "ok, there's no way you're going to even get close to your goal now."

18 seconds faster than last year and I didn't hurry at all. Earplugs have completely solved my T1 dizziness issues. I use these:
http://www.proplugs.com/swimming.shtml and they are PERFECT.

Wore my new Oakley sunglasses that have no frame at the top which is awesome. I have these:
http://oakley.com/pd/5727
The only drawback is they get a little sweaty at the top but it's still much better than staring at a frame for two hours which makes me dizzy. I'm going to experiment with some ideas to resolve this issue.

Ran in my shoes, jumped on my bike, clipped in and took off. I still think I'm done with fancy mounts/dismounts. I passed a lot of guys while they were trying to get into their shoes and get them tight. I have trouble getting my shoes tight while on the bike. I didn't do it in this race but I think as soon as I clip-in I can jump out of the saddle immediately, power ahead, and get those seconds back that I waste in T1 putting my shoes on. Plus I can get them perfectly tight.

I've put a lot of miles on my $99 tri shoes and I think I'm losing power from them. They feel loose and the sole seems worn out and not rigid anymore. So I'm getting new shoes from these guys very soon. http://www.d2shoe.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&...

I'll definitely get pure road shoes because of where I ride but their tri shoe looks interesting so I might get both.

Nothing.

One thing I'm so happy about is that while getting my bike tiptop on Saturday, I noticed that one of my speedplays was trashed and would barely spin. So I switched out to one of Melinda pedals. I'm sure that this pedal issue is why the Zipps felt "heavy" on my last training ride because towards the end of the ride when my music ended I could hear the pedal squeaking. I made a mental note to check it out which I remembered (surprisingly).

Ended up riding the 1080 on the back and my Bontrager on the front. I know weight doesn't matter much except on hills but this course did have about 2,600' of climbing over 56 miles which is not "flat". I weighed all the wheel combinations and came up with:

(Wheels with tires/tubes and 11/23 cassette)
Front 1080: 1160g
Front Bontrager: 1035g

Rear 1080: 1380g
Rear Bontrager: 1370g

Tire change kits:
Zipp kit with spare tire, flat fix can, and one CO2: 439g
Bontrager/Zipp kit with flat fix can, tube, one CO2, patch kit: 343g

So I saved 221g (0.49 lbs total, 0.28 lbs spinning) by going with the Bontrager front/1080 rear. With a 50% less chance of a tubular flat I didn't carry a tubular spare. That smaller flat kit was also much more comfortable in my small tri shirt pocket.

I think this is generally a good wheel combo for me so my front 1080 may be history. (I have a million things I need to sell on ebay anyway). I HATE my front wheel to blow around and I don't even like cornering in my front 1080 in calm wind because when I turn it, air hits it from the side and freaks me out. It was a good choice in this race because it ended up being windy from the south so on the fastest part of the course where I usually go about 42 mph, that wind would have been hitting my front Zipp from the side. I think I'll start shopping for another front wheel that's both light and with less profile like a 404 or something similar.

The only problem was I forgot to to move my magnet from the front Zipp so I had no bike computer for the whole race. This was a major bummer because since I'd ridden the course twice recently I knew exactly what speeds I wanted to average at each corner of the course depending on how I felt effort-wise. It's not easy to figure out on the fly because the first 6-7 miles is uphill mostly so average MPH starts out slow, then gets fast going downhill, then it drops a bit towards the end of lap due to some rollers. The same effect happens on lap 2 but the average mph is faster overall and slower to change due to the first lap. I had specific average mph speeds that I wanted to hit at all the corners of the big rectangle course but they became worthless.

I also had no other riders to reference off either. The fast guys in my AG dropped me on the swim so they were gone. Since I started early (wave 3), all that was ahead of me were pros and a wave of slow riders. Again, I was in "no-man's land".

Considering the cramping issues I've had in the past on the run, I could not afford to push the bike too hard. So I just rode at the comfortably hard pace at which I've been training lately hoping to average around 24 mph. My first lap came in at 1:08:57 (24.4 mph). I knew being under 1:10 was over 24 mph so I was happy. And I knew that the second lap should be faster because the last part "back" to the Rez is faster that "out", especially with the south wind at my back.

Because of that I didn't increase my effort. I thought I was riding the 2nd lap at the same pace but unfortunately I faded. If I'd had a computer, I think I could have maintained the 24.4 for the 2nd lap and still run fine. Would I have been slower on the run? I have no idea.

One cool thing about this ride was that on the first lap there really weren't many people on the course at all. The second lap I ended up passing mostly F25-29 because of how the waves were organized which was great for a distraction. Pretty girls on bikes, you can't beat that.

I usually start at the very back and I'm just passing people constantly.

First lap in 1:08:57 (24.4 mph)
Second lap in 1:11:15 (23.62 mph)

Total: 2:20:12 (24.0 mph).
(Time is from clip-in to completely off the bike so I should be a few seconds slower officially (offically 23.9))

3:30 faster than last year. After checking the results closer I was 33/1134 including pros (Top 2.9% against very good bike riders, being Boulder and whatnot). The slowest pro was 2:19:42 and Michael Hagen (the fastest triathlete in the US in my AG) was 2:18:49. I think I could have beaten both if I'd had my computer. (Both of those are minor goals of mine and I came close).

Have a bike computer so I can increase my effort on the second lap to keep my average up. Better shoes. I have it in my mind that my shoes are flexing too much and I'm losing power. Mental or not, it's time for new shoes. I'm now more confident about the HIM run so I'll be pushing the bike harder from now on at the HIM distance. My next race is a sprint which I'll push at an all-out effort. My last race this season is an olympic w/ a point-to-point bike. The normal wind direction is a tail wind. I want to post a fast bike split in that race so I'll be pushing very hard.

Last year it was 1:00 but I took my time, poured some water over my head which was 10 seconds well-spent. I don't like to be sweaty and sticky so rinsing is a good investment for me. I changed glasses, ate a caffeine gel and drank some G.


Nothing. Trying to be super fast in transitions injured me in my last race and so I'm not worrying about it anymore this year.

I still wasn't sure I wouldn't cramp up because after last year's bike I felt fine in the first few minutes of the run, then the cramping started. But after the initial weirdness of transitioning to the run, my legs felt great. Unfortunately, I dealt with some GI issues (both upper and lower) for the whole run. I had a bad stomach ache in the lower GI and really bad burping issues in the upper GI. I thought that I might have to stop and throw up a couple times. At this point fast guys started passing me from the M4044 wave behind me which was disappoining. Richard (started 5 min back) passed me early in the first lap and Dave (started 10 min back) late in the first lap. One thing I noticed is that many of the fast runners were very out-of-breath while I wasn't out-of-breath at all. Part of this was due to my stomach issues which kept my pace down (which may have been good). But my breathing fitness is still far above what my running legs can handle. I'm not sure if this will ever resolve living at 9600' where I can't push run workouts as hard as I need too.

After the first few miles I accepted that 1:49 wasn't happening. I knew I was going to come in around 4:55 OA which was fine, so I just ran a comfortable pace at which I knew I could finish. Until the last mile my legs felt good. I went hard for the last mile. But it wasn't any faster than my other miles so I guess I was crashing. The finish hurt pretty bad and for about 15 minutes after the race my legs ached very badly.

I ran with my new presription glasses. I've had a "lazy eye" (which docs called it) all my life and just dealt with it. I've only looked out of one eye my entire life because I can't get them to focus on the same thing. While my vision is 20/20 in both eyes I see in 2D using just one eye. It's so natural to my brain that I can't tell I'm doing it unless I'm super tired and my brain can't do it right, so I have to squint or close one eye to see clearly. People who knew could always tell how tired I was by how much Ii closed one of my eyes. Recently, my family discovered an eye doctor in Dallas that developed some lenses designed for this condition. So I flew down there immediately after my last race (and my crash), and got tested. My problem was beyond what his instruments could measure. So now I wear glasses. They are amazing. This doc believes that my brain's constant effort during waking hours to correct for my eye problem has caused me enormous problems my whole life and I agree with him. I felt better the instant I put them on. I recently misplaced the glasses and after about 24 hours I was right back where I was before with severe eye pain, headache, irritability, inability to concentrate, and exhaustion both mentally and physically. At that point my only option was to take a 2-3 hour nap. Like most of my life, when I awoke I felt much better because my eyes/brain was able to relax for a couple hours. During these naps, I'd sleep very deeply but they totally messed up my normal sleep cycle. For years, while writing my first commerical software product, I operated on a 24 hour schedule with 2-3 hours naps when I needed them. This is how my entire life has been and largely why I've never really held a regular job. I figured out how to make money in other ways which worked out well.

Now I feel like every second I'm without the glasses on, my brain is again overworking to correct my eye prolem and I'm basically deteriorating. I can't ride my bike with them on because of the frame at the top. So in the race I wanted to get them back on quickly after the bike.

Long story short, I now run with these glasses on. The biggest plus is that I can see so much better and in 3D. I think is why in the past, I've always been so terrible at descending on trail runs and on a mountain bike.

Beat my last year's run split by 17:20 so I have to be happy with that.

I need to figure out my stomach issues. It's been happening in training too so I think I can resolve it. Like clockwork, I start belching at 30-45 minutes into every workout and my lower GI starts cramping.

Walked slowly to some shade and laid down. My legs were KILLING ME for about 15 minutes. Then I walked to the beach to cool off. Then back to some shade to lay down and watch some finishers. Then to the beer tent to meet friends.


This was not the breakout race that I wanted but I'm still happy with it because:

1. Under 5:00 for the first time in my third HIM.

2. No muscle cramping at all. None after the race. No dehydration during or after either. I think this is an indication of improved overall fitness compared to my other HIMs in August and October 2008.

3. Hydration and nutrition was perfect and much less than last year. (On bike, 2.5 bike bottles of G and 4 gels. One doubleshot caffeine gel in T2 and a little G on the run). Only peed once on the run compared to at least five times in 2008 after taking 6.5 bottles of water on the bike.

4. Improved 20:50 on Bike/Run at an easier effort compared to last year. Last year's run was a sufferfest and I remember hurting pretty bad on the last part of the bike heading SW before the turn on 51st to the Rez. I felt perfect off the bike this year and most all of the run was comfortable. Now I think I can push both at higher effort and not be so worried about a total collapse on the run.

5. Good bike pace even without a bike computer which totally screwed up my bike pacing plan.

6. Actually enjoyed the run! On the first lap all the pros passed me which was cool to watch. Except for the last mile, I was running at a comfortable/conversational pace the whole time. The GI issues weren't too fun but that just limited my ability to push a harder pace which may have been good in the long run.

7. Raced with an injured shoulder that caused me to not be able to swim for a month before the race. I was in significant pain during the swim and I raced at a wetsuit disadvantage. Learned that I'll never race in just the wetsuit bottoms again.

------------------------------
2008 vs. 2009 Comparisons
------------------------------

2009
-------
Total Time: 4:55:09
Total Racers:
OA=1134
AG=72

Total:
OA=145 (12.8%)
AG=13 (18.1%) M4549 in Colorado is FAST.

Swim:
OA=279 (24.6%)
AG=27 (37.5%)

Bike:
OA=33 (2.9%)
AG=2 (2.8%) (Only beaten by Hagen in M4549. He's the next to fall...)

Run:
OA=323 (28.5%)
AG=23 (31.9%)

2008
-------
Total Time: 5:10:33
Total Racers:
OA=999
AG=68

Total:
OA=225 (22.5%)
AG=18 (26.5%)

Swim:
OA=69 (6.9%)
AG=4 (5.9%)

Bike:
OA=76 (7.6%)
AG=4 (5.9%)

Run:
OA=539 (54.0%)
AG=45 (66.2%)

Split Percentiles in OA
------------------------------

Split,2008 => 2009 (Comment)
---------------------------------
Swim OA, 6.9% => 24.6% (Unbelievablely Bad)
Bike OA, 7.6% => 2.9% (Very Good)
Run OA, 54.0% => 28.5% (Good Improvement but still needs work!)

The kicker is that in my AG, my run was stronger than my swim!
(Swim=top-37.5% vs. Run=top-31.9%). I NEVER thought I'd see that day!

Without my shoulder pain, gettting my swim fitness back (which will be easy once my pool opens on 08/12/09), full wetsuit that I don't hate, and having a bike computer, I think my fitness is now around 4:50 for this level of HIM course. IE. Fairly hilly bike course containing 2600' of climbing over 56 miles and the run being hot (Colorado hot, not Texas hot) on dirt with a few hills. That puts me about 10 minutes slower than my goal at this point in training, which is fine since I had no idea how I'd develop and my "goal" was just a guess anyway.

To get to IM Kona by qualifying at a 70.3 race in my age group, which I'm going to try for a couple years starting next season, I need 4:25 to be pretty much a sure thing if I do a few 70.3 races. One spot went last season to a lucky M4549 at 4:44 with only a one spot rolldown. But I don't want to be lucky. I want to be good. So I have quite a lot of work to do. But I'm pretty confident that I'll get there before 2012 when I move to M5054. When I was younger my tri ability improvement leveled off in my 4th season but I was already running sub-40 open 10k's before I started tri training. This time I have lots of room to improve at running. At 50, I'd rather concentrate more on pure cycling and just maintain my run/swim fitness for casual/fun racing.


Again 4 instead of 5 because they need to have more options for packet pickup instead of requiring 1300 people to drive to the venue on the day before the race while claiming to be so environmentally friendly that they have no trash cans and they even ask you on their website to not print the race instructions in order to save trees. I don't like hypocrties.