BigSkiesMentorGroup - COMPLETE! (Page 42)

Hey everyone, our great mentor asked me to post his race report from last sunday. Yall have a great mentor, he has taught me a lot in the last 8 months.RACE REPORT -West Point Triathlon, Sunday, Aug 14 This was a return for me, having done the rce last year --and been sabotaged by (a) a flat tire, and (b) my own inability to change it efficiently (the change took between 9 and 11 minutes!!). I was in absolute peak form, so it was a very bitter pill to swallow --and live with for 52 weeks! I drove down Saturday, taking about seven hours to cover the 350 miles to Camp Bruckner, which is part of the training grounds for West Point cadets. I was quite worried about the ability of my problematic left hip to handle the drive, but it behaved and i managed it quite well, and it presented no onerous problems. Whew! I picked up my packet stuff, and in talking with a couple of cadets manning the tables, was told the most recent water temp in Lake Popolopen was about 76 degrees. I wouldn't've been surprised to hear ~80, but the recent rains this way worked their wonders. i did two quick swims in my speedsuit, just in case, and my sense was also that the water was within wetsuit-legal limits. And with rain due that evening and well into Sunday, it indeed boded well for the wetsuit. Halleloo! I ate a big spaghetti dinner at Alexis Cafe, then headed to my room at Howard Johnson. Got to sleep about 11, which is very good for me on the road. However, I awoke at 1:30 and immediately could hear the heavy rain and started thinking about how I could maybe get a big garbage bag to cover my gear with in transition. I then slept fitfully until clsoe to 4 o, when I awoke and headed the 30 minutes to WP --and apparently limited and distant parking. I grabbed a bagel and tea and apple juice along the way, and got to WP at about 5:05. They were just beginning to let people into Camp Natural Bridge, and I was the fifth car to enter. I took a long time getting my stuff together, just because I was more than a mile from T-zone and sure didn't want to return for missing gear. I then rode the bike to T, which was good becasue the road is the major part of the run course, and it was helpful to refresh my memory from last year. I grabbed the end spot on my number-range-assigned rack, which was close to swim in and bike in. Overall it is a very compact T zone, so no spot is all that bad. The announcement that wetsuits were legal was mafde fairly early --music to my ears. And, it was raining --either a steady drizzle or actual rain. Warm, though, so wandering around damp was not too bad. I drank some HEED mixed with Carbo-Pro and had part of an Power Bar, and ate a gel about 30 minutes before my swim start, which was Wave Five. I felt good, and felt ready, and was only slightly concerned about having another flat! SWIM --15:15 (2/11 M60-64, 93/462 overall) I positioned myself perfectly amongst the 40 guys in M55+, which was at the far right and at the front. My plan was to hug the headland around which we would do a 90-degree turn before heading out in what would be a long rectangle. I saw a couple of red caps bolt away from me, but was surprised that that seemed to be it --and it stayed that way for the rest of the 800m. I never saw another red cap, and pretty soon began passing light orange caps oif the previous wave. My goal here was to employ my new tactic of a faster turnover, and I executed it almost perfectly. The only thing I would've liked to be able to do was to breathe less every other stroke, and more of every fourth; I only did that a few times during the swim. Oh, well. Towards the end I began to pass a few bright orange caps of the wave two in front of mine, and that made me feel even better. My exit was good, and I did a brisk run to transition, about 45 seconds of brisk running away. T1 --1:42 Wetsuit came off easy and I thought my time was good, but only partially --it was 2/11 in a.g., and 138th overall. BIKE 45:58 (4/11 a.g., 94/ 462 o.a.) The crash report is a few posts above, so you all know that happened in the first minute of actual riding. My mount was good and I immediately built a high cadence and was likely at about 20mph when it happened. Given my "history" from last year, this was a big blow, and once the getting-going process went beyond a minute, I knew high USAT points would probably be lost. When I finally got the flat fixed last year, I rode like a bat out of hell to gain back all that lost time. I hated having my pacing strategy being blown through the roof, but that was all I could do. So for this year I wanted to be on complete control of my effort.......but losing thsoe 3-4 minutes put me back to where I was last year. Bah! The rain was heavy at this point, so risks were very, very risky. I took a huge one going down a long hill, topping at 65kmh, praying through puddles and sheets of water running diagonally across the road (which was clsoed to traffic). During that I relaized how stupid that was, so for the rest of the ride I didn't take such a big risk again. It's a tough course, with the "signature" bit of nastiness being a very long climb coming back from the second turnaround, so all momentum is lost starting back up the mile-long grade. I handled it okay,,and overall my ride was good --except for the crash and those long 3/4 minutes. Flying dismount was crisp, but running my bile back to the rack I could hear the rear wheel rubbing against thr chainstay, so that is something I should've quickly checked after the crash; that runbbing sure didn't help my ride any! This was a huge disappointment. It is a course that is tailored to some of my better cycling strengths, and once again my overall performance was undermined by fate or bad luck --and my own dopiness. Ack! T2 -1:02 This was crisp, but again I thought it would be ebtter than 131 of everyone (even though it was best in a.g.). My new Xtenex laces made getting my Newtons on very fast, so that was pleasing. RUN -22:46 (1/11 a.g., 70/ 462 o.a.) The run course starts with a climb, and then the climbs continue scoming at you --mostly short, but still taxing. I got into a so-so breathing rhythm, but my cadenc ewas 90+ so I was content to keep at ragged breathing as long as I could hold the cadence. There were no mileage markers, which as with the absnece of them last year, too, was a let-down. About halfway through is a wicked steep climb, and I ran it but not with any ealn or even dignity. I was pelased to see the turnaround after the top of it a fair bit closer than it was last year, when the run course was quiet a bit long --about 1/4 mile or snd I kept passing people with no one passing me, and coming off the big hill my breathing was where it should be and I was feeling good. The run apsses beside transition before doing another out-and-back, and that is good for crowd support. The final turnaroudn was also placed clsoer than last year, and I knew that the run results would reflect a near=perfect 5km measurement. My finish time suggests that, and was a great time for me on a rump-biting course. Oh. I had to stop three times to tighten my left lace at the top; gotta rethink those new Xtenex laces, it seems! POST-RACE Grabbed food and tried to avoid shivering before hading back down to transition, only to be told that it wouldn't re-open until eleven --and at that time it was about 9:45. Yikes. It turns out they re-opened it by 10:30, and it was great to get some warm, dry stuff on, compliments of a big garbage bag that the clerk at an al-night convenience store gave me when I stopped there at 4:30. I owe him! I learned I finished second a.g., by about 3:20, so had I not crashed it would've been a nifty finish between me and Mark Andrews, who I beat last September at Lake George oly. The third palce guy was 10:10 behind me. Worse, though, was the realization that I again lost a shot at high USAT rankings points, and that WP will do nothing to help me achieve All-American or A-A Honorable Mention status for this season. Hell's bells! Since Sunday I have been nursing those thorn splinters --and a bit of plantar fasciitis in both feet, but greater in the left one which had a bad bout of it in early '08. I am monitoring this somewhat anxiously! I am sure it was the result of digging in too much on the hills, probably just trying to get too far forward with my uphill lean. Doh! Good race, big improvements over last year which, although it was the 21st year of the race, as the first time it was USAT sanctioned. All finsihers got a dog tag on a chain, with the race logo on one side. Pretty neat thingy, a new one for me! And, I WILL be back next year to FINALLY get the bike ride right! (It's ironic that my two swims there have been stellar [for me], but the rides have been tainted. Grrr!) 1:26:41 2/11 M60-64 68/462 finishers

GANG!

I asked George, from my other group, to post my race report here so I wouldn't have to write it twice. That's what's up above. In the original, on the other site, it is formatted in a more sensible way, with line breaks and all. So, if you want to view it more easily, go to the Mentor Archives page and click on "Got Your Mojo Workin'!", and it should be on the most recent page there.

As for photos -- just one! Wah! They didn't get one from the bike, just the finish line one. Wahhh! I will now have to go through lost and found and try to find a bike one, but that's always ultra-laborious with out dial-up connection. Wahhhhhh!

JEFF -

It was two things, and you have one of them -- increased stroke rate. This was all part of my thinking about how high cadence helps me on the bike and run, and so why shouldn't it on the swim? For me, as a poor-kicker/non-kicker, I think I suffer from "dead spots" if we stroke gets too low. Great kickers can handle a long and extended stroke, as their kick can carry them into the next stroke cycle. But if I aim for a low stroke count, without a propulsive kick I'm just slowing down each stroke as I wait for one hand/arm to catch up to another. I think.

Historically, two things have happened as I tried to increae my stroke rate -- either I would get somewhat winded, or my mechanics would fall apart. So in the past off-season I just plugged away at both of those, and I've been pleased with almost all OWS since the end of May that I am able to conquer both of those previous problems. Well, maybe "conquer" is too strong, but neither seems to be a big problem anymore. At West Point, anyhow, I felt that I kept my ideal cadence for the whole thing, and I'm sure part of that is that I have gotten into the habit of making most of my OWS a bit over a mile each. So I went to WP feeling that if I can maintain a decent strioke rate for a mile, 800y/m ought to be pretty easy. And, I think, it was.

The other aspect I worked on was what I once called "breathing-on-demand", or something like that. I'm sure I mentioned htis to you, but if not, the concept is simple (in theory, that is.... ) --- not commit to breathing every other stroke, right-side only, but rather breathe when I feel the need. I am still not good at bilateral, so the next best thing is every fourth stroke, or every other time I have a chance to breathe to my right. I got really good at this, and even every sixth stroke at times, in the pool, but that is sort of skewed by being able to grab a "cheat" breath every 25m at the walls.

I have been able to work this quite well on my mile-pus OWS........but fell short of executing it at West Point. I think I only broke from my standard breathing pattern 3 or 4 times, so I need more work to gain more confidence so that I can breath-on-demand in races. The goal here is simply that by breathing less I will be able to sustain a better aquadynamic position that doesn't involve anything my had is doing as creating more drag.

As for getting winded, I treated that the same way I do with running or cycling. That is, when I push at those too hard for too long and feel that I'm about to bonk or something, i just dial it back a bit. That is behind my "surges" on the bike, to be sure. So with swimming, I remind myself that at any point I can slow things down until I have it together, and then pick it again. The option is my time-honored practice of staying comfortable at all times, but that means I sacrifice any chance of decent speed. Make sense?

Finally, I am really trying to convince myself to do an oly in CT on Sunday. The regular spots at $100 sold out two days ago, and now all there is are charity ones at $150. I balk at that cost, sort of, but really want to do the race. It is a very nifty venue (www.teammossman.com) that has a saltwater swim and outstanding chances at wall-to-wall speed on the bike AND run. Beyond that, I think I need to exorcise some of the disappointment from West Point -- well, the crash and the loss of those valuable USAT points!! On the other hand, i'm a big boy now and shouldn't need to keep chasing the rainbow of race rewards. Right?

Thanks Steve.  Yes, you did mention breathing on demand earlier. 

I have worked countless hours on my swim technique and honestly I don't know that working countless more hours on it is going to make it that much better.  As a "non-swimmer" I have come a long way but.......  Outside of getting a swim coach I have just decided that "it is what it is" and I'll go with it.  So, I guess the next step for me is to work on my overall swim endurance (so at least when I get out of the water I'll feel better for the bike & run) and stroke rate.  I'll see what happens.

You mentioned that during your races you try and stay comfortable and if you feel like things are a little too hot you dial it back a bit.  Do you ever have a swim strategy going into a race of changing your paces during the race (i.e... swim the 1st 100 (distance or stroke count) hard, back off to a Steady pace for 200, back to hard for 100, then Steady for 300 etc., etc., etc.)?

Edited by junthank 2011-08-19 9:27 AM

JEFF -

I have never dared try a plan or specific strategy, as (a) it is too much to keep track of, and (b) there is too much that can hapen during a race swim to make mincemeat of a plan. I think it might work for a true FOP swimmer, or maybe a true BOP swimmer as well, but as one who is MOP in the water, well, that's where all the action is!

I am seriously considering doing minimal swimming during the coming off-season. I too have spent gazillion hours swimming in pools between November and June, and the progress has been so pedestrian that I am curious if anything would be lost by swimming hardly at all. I honestly think not, or that what has been lost will fairly quickly be regained with regular swimming from, say, mid-May on.

Going back to startegy, the only othe one I use aside from dialing it down some, is to dial it up when I'm feeling good. I think I did that a couple of times at WP....but I'm not all that sure! So, maybe I didn't, and settled instead on just keeping the stroke rate consistently elevated.

I am off to a race on Sunday, in CT, that has the swim in Long Island Sound. It is an oly, so 1500m in saltwater is something I'm really looking forward to. I think all the recent mile-plus swims should enable me to keep my stroke where I want it, but if the water is choppy or worse, that might be hard(er) to do. The website is www.teammossman.com, and the race is Park City Mossman. (Did I mention this to you earlier today??)

DENISE -

Yeah, it kind of snuck up on me. I had been thinking about Orange County Tri, a new one out of Newburgh, NY, but it didn't resonate. I then came across Mssman, which I ahve considered in the past, and Lynn was thinking of coming and Jane was thinking of taking MetroNorth from NYC to be there.....and then neither materialized. I missed the regular sign-up fee and had to settle for $50 more for a "charity" spot, but I'm fairly psyched. It's a swim in Long Island Sound, and I love swimming in saltwater. The bike and run have repeat loops and are very flat and fast, so it could be some kind of fun!

I have all sorts of misgivings about getting about Nationals, which are happening tomorrow only about 3:15 from home. I may have mentioned here that I suspect it will not run smoothly, and while I still feel that way I wonder if I should've done it anyhow. But I have no intention of doing Worlds in New Zealand next year, so there was no point in gumming up the works for someone who was really keen to go.

As for oly preparedness.........not perfect, but hopefully enough to be presentable! I will be content with 2:32, very pleased with 2:29, thrilled with ~2:25. So, I do not need real rowdy water in L.I. Sound, and I DEFINITELY don't need any mishaps on the bike. I feel spooked by the two tumbles in the past 10 days, and of course there is always the spectre of a flat. Please keep fingers crossed for me!

Finally, the race report is sequence to be more easily read at the other site where it was first posted. I think I mentioned that above, though, didn't I? (Did I??)

DENISE -

Your daughter sure knows how to lure you in, doesn't she? That sounds like a great event, and I think all three of you will have a blast.

Where exactly is it happening?

GANG!

I'm off early tomorrow morning for CT and the Park City Triathlon in Bridgeport on Sunday morning. It's an oly, and info is at www.teammossman.com. I'll be back here Sunday evening or, more likely, Monday morning. Have good weekends, all!

Ditto on the improvements.  I have kind of hit a plateau on speed in the water.  However, there are still things to work on like...

Swim endurance, stroke rate, sighting, breathing on offside.  Enough to keep me from getting totally bored while doing my swim workouts.

I have never joined a Masters group.  Don't know if this would help or hurt?  I know that often if I just get a faster swimmer in the next lane I easily turn into a ticking time bomb!!!  Ready to explode myself at any moment 

Edited by junthank 2011-08-20 10:03 PM

DENISE -

"Duh"? Okay, Ms Samrty Pants, I'll bet I can find lots of races that take some obscure name (to their locale) that pertains to something more exotic -- as an attention-grabber, you know?

And then there could also be the more specific aspect, as in WHERE EXACTLY in Bermuda. So, there!



You know, I taught lots of kids like you.....and I know your type!

Race Results from PARK CITY MOSSMAN, Bridgeport CT

SWIM (1500m, ocean....and asterisked!)
24:25 (1:37/100m)
2/6 a.g.
56/243 o.a.

T1
1:15
1st a.g.
52nd o.a.

BIKE (25 miles)
1:07:09 (22.2 mph)
1st a.g.
33 o.a.

T2
1:20
1st a.g.
138 o.a.

RUN (10km)
47:48 (7:42/mile)
1st a.g.
38 o.a.



2:21:58
1/6 a.g. (2nd place 11 min. back)
34/243 overall



Great day, and only one minor bike mishap. Stay tuned for more details!






Edited by stevebradley 2011-08-21 10:06 PM

JEFF and DENISE -

I know all three of us are wondering how beneficial it is to swim-train off-season, but today's swim was my second overall strongish one in a row and I juts want to say to both of you to not give up hope yet.

Why my swim was in the top 23%, I would drop it down a fair bit to reflect the "asterisk" nature of a lengthy run to get to where it was actually deep enough to be swimmable. Some did this, some didn't, and of those who didn't there wwere doubtless a couple dozen who could pur-swim it better than I could. But still, I figure I was deservedly in the upper 30%, and that is mostly unprecedented for me (West Point last week was about the same.)

Keep the faith in swim growth over time, you two!

DENISE -

It was minor, but it was also a BONAFIDE mishap, and so I am counting it as the third of the things that come in threes.....and moving on!

The final stretch to the dismount line had a little reverse twist to it, and just as I was approaching, an old man (Older than me! Older than you!) doddered across the roadway. The women at the finish line yelled at him, and I did a swerve around him, and then I think I didn't have quite enough time to fully execute my "flying dismount" -- but tried anyhow. Maybe because my body was going one way and the bike the other, I think I caught the edge of my shorts in the top of one of my bottles, and that brought me spilling over to my left. My right (the swinging) foot hit the ground hard, but that prevented me from doing a full fall. One water bottle and one cleat went flying, and just behind me were three other riders, so I had to wait for about 15-20 seconds for one of the women to fetch them.

So, that was the time that was lost -- just 15-20 seconds. I could feel the right foot real early in the run, and then it was fine. But last night it was sore, and this morning quite sore. I may have bruised the heel, and possibly strained the peroneal tendon; I have had trouble with this before. Bah.

DENISE again -

As for T2, that might've been why - just trying to collect myself some. But I also took time to put some BodyGlide on my feet, and then with my first steps into the run (but still in transition) I realized I hadn't changed my sunglasses --- which in turn made me realize I hadn't taken off my helmet!! Thank god I figured THAT out, as I would've crawled in a hole had I begun the true run wearing my geeky pointy-backed aero helmet. Ack! Ack!

DENISE once more -

And while I've got you here......

About the asterisked swim, here's the story (along with a maybe-sexist comment):
The course is an irregular trapezoid, with the parallel sides being the shore and the long edge about 100 yards out. The start was in ankle-deep water, and then it was supposed to be a long diagonal swim, about 40 degrees, to the first buoy maybe 200-300 yards to the west. I was in the third wave.

The first wave was men 44 and under, and they began ---- and immeidately some popped back up and ran over unsuspected shallows, then dove again and swam, and then popped; this went on for a while. A few guys had figured this out, and they proceeded to run in the shallows parallel to the shore, and just off the beach edge, for a ways before angling in to begin thier actual swim.

So we got to watch this, "we" being the M45+ and aqbk and relay people. By the time we began six minutes later, a mass of us took off down the beach, romping through the shallows, working very hard -- but cutting that long first angle. My run was not the longest at all, and it was about 1:30, I think was waht I saw on my watch. The downside to this is that it is tremendously draining and really spikes the heart rate, so when I finally stopped running and decided it was time to swim.....I stood in place for 5-10 seconds just letting my HR come down a beat or two.

I think I gained maybe 60-90 seconds in total "swim" time doing what I did -- which, by the way, is pefectly legal. But it does give the swim an asterisk, which is too bad because overall I swam really well.

As for the "sexist" comment....
The second wave was all-women, and not one of them took the run-the-shallows option -- everyone dutifully swam the straight line from the start to the first buoy. Of course, many had to bop up and down over the bars that made swimming well nigh impossible, and some ran short distances, but it was all in that "direct" line with none of them doing what a few in wave one and many in wave three did, which was run parallel to the beach (but still in water) to cut the angle.

Or, maybe, is it that old guys are really just a bunch of bad boys?



Moi??

Best first-place award? I think yesterday, where it was 100% discount to next year's race. Of course I have to get there and all (420 miles each way, and if it's the same weekend it will be Jane's wedding, too), but the face-value will be at least $100, which was this year's entry fee. Pretty generous, I think!