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Kinetic Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


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Spotsylvania, Virginia
United States
Set Up Events
68F / 20C
Overcast
Total Time = 4h 16m 32s
Overall Rank = 2/410
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 1/
Pre-race routine:

Very stressful few days leading into this one. Was running around pretty much non-stop from Wednesday night until the night before the race at about 9 PM. I just didn't have a free moment to take care of anything I needed to do for the race for "myself". It was all other stuff that needed to be addressed. New tires for the car, new cargo carrier for the car, service for the car and then a lot of running to the bike shop and just a whole bunch of other stuff. So needless to say I was not really relaxed and my pre-race routine was pretty hectic as well. But no excuses. That's my theme for this year. Sometimes life will get in the way. You have to make the best of it and manage through this stuff.

Race Morning. Up at 4 AM. Ate, shower, rolled out. 30 min drive to the race site. Stomach is a mess. Unloaded one pile of mess at the hotel and just didn't feel settled on the drive there. In fact I felt like I was pretty much about to $hit my self for the entire ride. Got to the site. Got parked, bike to Transition, all setup and then I only had about 30 mins until my wave. So I decided to pass up the bathroom and hold off. Probably not the best idea. Got the wet suit on and down to the hill to sit and chill for a bit.
Event warmup:

Did about 200 yards of swimming with some backstroke kick mixed in. Was not really feeling all that good in the water.
Swim
  • 26m 58s
  • 2112 yards
  • 01m 17s / 100 yards
Comments:

Started off feeling pretty solid. Put a massive gap on the 2nd wave in the first 50-100 meters and no one was near me. I started way left which was a straight shot to the buoy. Saw one guy in my wave off to the right and we seemed evenly matched. We were about 10-15 yards apart laterally so I was ok with this. Made it to the first turn and then had a tough time seeing the 2nd turn marker. Was swimming way off to the left, then the right I was just all over the place. I had the feet of the guy in my wave but he just was swimming so smooth and I was fighting with the water. He kept a line into the 1st wave and I didn't want to fight with the swimmers in front of me so I stayed left. Finally, I lost him at the 2nd turn back home. He pulled away for good. Came out and felt whoooped.... But was glad to be getting on the bike.
What would you do differently?:

Not sure. My swimming is the best it's been in years. I'll just leave it at being a bad swim. All things considered I was still in a decent position OA in the race and I didn't blow myself up.
Transition 1
  • 01m 43s
Comments:

A little slow here. Wetsuit was stuck on my wrist and my foot. Oh well.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing
Bike
  • 2h 17m 39s
  • 56 miles
  • 24.41 mile/hr
Comments:

Where to begin. It was a fun bike course but man it was IMO hard. I don't have roads like that where I live. Honestly, I'd love to see the elevation on this course. I bet it's more than Timberman. The entire course it up and down. A few decent climbs but mostly rollers that were pretty moderate. The wet roads didn't help things at all. Really worked the gears over on the bike. Very different layout from my goal race of Eagleman where I am going to have the power down for 2+ hours.

Starting off I got up the first hill out of T1 with no issues. Made the right turn for a short half mile out and back and saw what I thought was the race leaders from the wave that was 3 minutes ahead of me. I was shocked that they were that close. So at that point my plan was to ride comfortably out of the park and get my HR down. First race ever with my HR monitor and I was just checking it to see where I was based on feel. HR was in the low 160s to high 150s for the first 10 miles of the bike. Once I hit the main loop that you had to do twice I wanted to again ride controlled but pretty close to suicide pace but limit the really deep and strenuous efforts. By mile 12 I had the race leader and I blew past him like he was not even there. By the first water station I didn't even see him at all. At this point the race official on the motorcycle came up behind me. More than likely I was just passing through the water station and was to the left of the road to avoid any contact with the people handing out water. I must have stayed there to long for her liking and she gave me a position penalty. I am 100% certain it was not for 30 seconds but I may be wrong. I moved right and kept checking over my left shoulder. They were not passing me. So I just kept on riding. Finally they passed me that was that. No comments nothing....

Got to the 2nd loop of the course and I finally started to see people again. I rode pretty much the entire 1st loop by myself. Got to the back end of the course and the mist started to pick up a bit and there was clearly a wind in one direction coming from the east. Not massive but it was tough on the roller sections. I started to fade a bit somewhere between mile 30-40. In fact I almost lost a full gear during those 10 miles. At about mile 40 I regained focus and gave it all I had. Got the gears back and was glad to be nearing the finish.

Made it back to the park but knew I was losing time or suspected it anyway. I was watching avg speed and at mile 30 I was at 25.4 I lost about a full MPH over the last 40K. The taper should help with this in a month.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. It was fun!
Transition 2
  • 01m 1s
Comments:

Quick transition. Had a tough time getting my helmet off.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing
Run
  • 1h 29m 13s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 06m 49s  min/mile
Comments:

Run was fun. Let me first off with a comment. Running is my limiter. The 6 days a week of running I have been doing at easy to mod aerobic paces has really helped. No injuries. Another note. My longest run before this race was only 11 miles. I'd love to see what this run split would come down to if I was to bump up to 13-15 for a few weeks on end. BTW this was the fastest 13.1 I've ever run. So I am happy with it. Especially for May.

Back to the race:

First mile is all up hill. The entire mile. I felt good. HR was high but it's to be expected on that hill. Kept motoring along and was all by myself. Felt great until about mile 5. My stomach decided to take a turn for the worse. So I needed or thought I needed a bathroom or it was going to be a messy finish photo. A few safe rips and I felt a bit better. It was a risky move but I had to do it. The gamble paid off and my Tri shorts stayed clean. Back to running hard again and I saw the winner coming hard behind me. He got me at mile 6 and I had a quick chat with him. He had a garmin and said he was running 6 Min pace. I knew I was not going to be able to match that so I stayed with him as long as I could. Then he got about 200 yards on me and I held it there for a good bit. Finally I had enough and blew a bit up on one of the hills on the back of the course. I stopped for a quick sec, took a full drink of coke and dumped a water on my head. That felt great and I got back to work. The final 5 K was tough but no where as bad as it usually is for me. I didn't have that intense pain that I normally get in my quads. I really tried to motor home the last 5 K but that's all I had. I saw my watch and new it was going to be close to 1:30 so I just ran as fast as I could with out killing myself. The last mile has this insane down hill section through the woods thats paved. Its wet as hell and there were wet leaves on the ground. I just pictured myself slipping and laying in the woods for endless hours. Oh and I almost got hit by a deer at about mile 7.... Ran right at me on the back end of the course. That was fun.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing I am happy with the effort. Manage the ups and downs. I had a fair share of the downs out there. Talked myself out of it a few to many times. Need to really focus harder mentally. I think the hills had me a bit intimidated.
Post race
Warm down:

Sat in the lake, had plenty of water and fresh fruit. A bit of protesting to the USAT official as well. She was as cold as a witches tit...no luck there.

Chilled out with my wife and kids and was very glad to have the first race of the season done. Met some really nice people.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing... A solid training race.

Event comments:

Fun event. Crazy back woods VA. Dukes of Hazard type driving to get to the race. Lots of run and well run. Race organizers where great as well. Had a few nice conversations with them.




Last updated: 2011-02-16 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:26:58 | 2112 yards | 01m 17s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 5/410
Performance: Average
Suit: B70 Helix
Course: Clockwise Triangle
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 70F / 21C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Below average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Bad
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 01:43
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
02:17:39 | 56 miles | 24.41 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 3/410
Performance: Good
Wind: Little
Course: Lolli-Pop with 2 loops at the top end. The stick was the entrance to the park and a bit of another road.
Road: Smooth Wet Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:01
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Below average
Running
01:29:13 | 13.1 miles | 06m 49s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 19/410
Performance:
Avg HR 156 Max HR 170 6:42 6:24 6:40 6:32 6:50 6:30 6:43 6:50 6:51 7:22 6:38 7:21 6:51 :43
Course: 3 Loops of Hills
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2011-05-15 2:59 PM

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Subject: Kinetic Half


2011-05-15 3:10 PM
in reply to: #3500109

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2011-05-15 3:53 PM
in reply to: #3500109

Veteran
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100100100
Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Nice work man! Agreed it was hard to see the 2nd turn buoy. Hadn't thought about that.
2011-05-15 7:27 PM
in reply to: #3500109

Extreme Veteran
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Carrollton, Virginia
Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Saw the #2 had a position penalty.. Wanted to hear the story. Funny that the ref was so hard on you. She must have missed the massive obvious pelotons back with those of us in the 20-21mph average crowd.Great race as you know. Good luck at eagle man!
2011-05-15 7:48 PM
in reply to: #3500109

Master
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SMIBville
Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Solid work!  Killer splits!
2011-05-15 7:51 PM
in reply to: #3500463

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Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
sdanaher - 2011-05-15 8:27 PM Saw the #2 had a position penalty.. Wanted to hear the story. Funny that the ref was so hard on you. She must have missed the massive obvious pelotons back with those of us in the 20-21mph average crowd.Great race as you know. Good luck at eagle man!


Thanks Shane.  Yeah I was more angry that she would not even listen to me about the penalty.  I asked which official called the penalty and she proceeded to tell me that there were 4 on the course.  I told her she was the only one I saw and the only one on the motorcycle. I don't think she wanted to personal accountability of the call.  Honestly, I'd be more pissed if the race mattered to me.  I don't get paid for this sport and that's what I told her.  I said there is no use debating a call that I really don't care about.  At the time the call bumped me to 3rd place and I was a bit ticked about that.  I worked hard and felt I rode very clean.

In the end they must have adjusted all the times because I wound up 2nd again... Oh well.... I had fun! It was a great race and I love the area of VA.   Lots of fun! Will do it again for sure.


2011-05-15 10:35 PM
in reply to: #3500109

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Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Congrats on winning the unspoken race...I'm glad you had a good photo at the finish.  We've all been in that valley of darkness and you came out safely.

Also, it sounds like this was a bit of a tune up for you.  Really impressive bike segment.  I agree that the bike penalties were uneven.  I also saw at least two full fledged pelotons overtake me.  These were guys that I am certain were in our age group or who I had caught in the water.  They had no concern about riding 6-8 in a group.  

Good luck throughout the summer.

During the swim, I was a bit behind you in the same wave.  After rounding the first turn, I chose to pick a line and swim straight through the white caps guys in the first wave.  I saw someone out to my left swimming wide -- he got to the second turn 10 yards behind me but then when we had clear water again heading for the beach, he closed the gap in about :20.  We ended up coming out of the water only 2-3 seconds behind me.  It makes me wonder how much energy I burned up trying to navigate over and around the pack swimmers when I could have gone wide the way you did -- and that guy did.  I'm sure it wasn't you based on the splits, but your report gives me something solid to think about RE: swim positioning/strategy. 

Again, congratulations. 
2011-05-16 1:25 PM
in reply to: #3500109

Veteran
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Fairfax, VA
Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Congrats on a killer fast race!
2011-05-17 8:54 AM
in reply to: #3502025

Veteran
351
1001001002525
Bucks County
Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Good god man! Seriously! I don't know if people really appreciate what a dude with as much size as you have can accomplish during these races...I mean you're still close to 190 -200 lbs right? Sorry if I come off like a friggin' jock sniffer but you continue to amaze me with your dominance. You're just a freak...!
2011-05-17 1:35 PM
in reply to: #3503566

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Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
michael2_19030 - 2011-05-17 9:54 AM Good god man! Seriously! I don't know if people really appreciate what a dude with as much size as you have can accomplish during these races...I mean you're still close to 190 -200 lbs right? Sorry if I come off like a friggin' jock sniffer but you continue to amaze me with your dominance. You're just a freak...!


Thanks for the compliment.

To be honest though I got to a point this year where I am tired of being the big fast guy.  I've made a pretty solid effort to drop the weight down and I am about 183-185 on any given day.  I'd like to cut another 5-10 and keep it there.  175 is light enough for me.  But strong enough to do what I need to on the bike....  Thanks again.
2011-05-18 7:34 PM
in reply to: #3500109

Not a Coach
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5000500010001001001001002525
Media, PA
Subject: RE: Kinetic Half
Great to see you back, kickin' @$$ and  takin' names!  That was an impressive race! 


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