American TTT in Ohio

We can talk in more detail this week if you like. 

IMO, here are the keys.  First, respect it.  Don't try to kill it.  Treat it like a challenge.  You will emerge victorious...it will just suck along the way. Second, respect it.  The course (unless it changed) is brutal. 

Race #1:  It's too short to get too caught up in racing. Just prime the legs. 

Race #2:  If you are going to overdo it, this will be the race.  You will feel great in the morning and amped up.  But you body will hate you 8 hours later when you aren't amped up but need it to respond.  Hold back just a bit especially on the hills and the run. 

Race #3.  Bike-swim-run.  Your legs will feel beat up to start the bike.  IIRC, this course was easier.  Putting on a wetsuit in T1 is hard.  Have someone zip you up.  Your legs might cramp when you hit the water.  Prepare for it.  The run sucks.  Every minute of it.  You body will NOT want to run 

Race #4:  Half--You know the course by now.  Use the swim as an easy warmup.  You probably have ridden all the roads and can anticipate the climbs.  You will likely start struggling on the climbs.  Take them easy and enjoy the descents and flats.  Run--will make you want to cry.  And you have to do it twice.  You will know EVERY rock on the fire road. 

Tips:  Unless you are trying to kill it and be on the podium, enjoy the weekend.  It is really one of the coolest events around.  You will get to know everyone so make friends.

The biggest key is fueling yourself and recovering.  Expect the first race on Saturday to take you ~2:30 give or take.  That means you are done around 10:00 am.  What can you put in your body that is agreeable and allow you to race again at 3:00. 

Use the stream that leads to the lake as an ice bath.  And I mean immediately.  Cross the finish line, grab food and eat in the lake/stream.  This will help keep the swelling down. 

Eat like a pig on Saturday night.  Your glycogen is non-existent at this point and you need to top off your reserves for the next day.  Even consider a large breakfast.  I think I broke all the rules by this point. 

Sunday is just a survival fest.  Don't expect to be fast.  If you need to walk the hills, walk the hills.  The body has taken a pounding. 

Post race--SERIOUS recovery.  Given the terrain you might roll an ankle or have inflammation in odd areas.  Address these immediately and don't let them linger for a few weeks. 

Thanks Dollar and for the good wishes TankBoy. I'll give you a shout this week Dollar.

TankBoy-I started planning all my meals and nutrition for the racing and in between and just decided to just take in as much healthy stuff as I can in between and before races but keep things the same during them (ucan generation and nuun in separate bottles and carrying raisins and a banana), so that means a big cooler is going up with me loaded with lean proteins (probably deli meats and chicken breasts kind of thing) and healthy fats (avocados and nuts like walnuts and pecans), lots of veggies (bags of celery, prepped salads, carrots, etc), fruits (apples, bananas, raisins, probably craisins even though they are extra sugary), and some whole grains like low carb wraps and protein nut bars like the powerade version. Will also be hitting the mix1s, PB bars, whey powder for shakes, and low carb bars (I like carb conscious).

Thinking its best to feed as much as possible. Also love some powerade zeros, monster zeros, diet pepsi and cokes, coffee, and a few domestic type of lagers! Far from perfect but will get the job done I think. Its not the time to worry about my weight loss. Just need to do damage control and keep hitting it from everything I read.

Should note that I have done a couple of TTT type workouts now and learned alot about not restricting as I normally would.

Restricting calories during exercise?

Good luck to you Slayer. Is there a way to track you while you are racing or will you be posting some feedback as you can? Would love to hear some reports from this after you do it

Good luck again been to Portsmouth several times my wife lived there for 8 years and it is not the flatest town around

Thanks for all the support everyone! I am bummed that my knee suddenly started tightening up. I go 3-4 years since anything like this. Terrible timing and it was during a darn taper.

Worse case scenario I am hopping and walking to get done. NO DNF'ng!

Dare I say that I had a great race in grueling hot conditions and hilly courses? I may not have placed overall and there were no age groups but I was damn glad to be one of the best runners at the half after all that beat down beforehand. My 130 cals per race via Ucan generation held up again!

Haven't seen any results and it doesn't really matter. I know I slayed it all on the line! My body and soul tells me so.

kudos, Slayer - cannot wait to read all about it. I too am interested in your thoughts on Captin's question - I can only assume it had to seem more difficult.

Oh, and there is a BT'r (SEADOCHA) that did TTT as her first triathlon(s) ever. Now that there is down-right nutty! You can find her over on the Lake Placid thread if you feel compelled to give her a shout-out.

Done, I take cash and pay pal.

ok everyone, let me add to Dollar's review a bit what I recall while its still fresh. I am "that guy" that doesn't write many race reports anymore. It just got too narcissistic for me. I apologize but that's how I roll.

words of wisdom follow. DO IT! ITS AWESOME! Its like an ironman without the pomp and circumstance. very grassroots feel and great camaraderie. everyone wears the same singlet the whole weekend. try to get there Thursday if possible. Friday driving 9-10 hours than racing puts you behind the 8 ball but is doable. There is no cell service at all unless you are verizon, and then its only spotty (I am AT&T). you can get wifi at the lodge but you are in a pretty remote place so let folks know in advance. I stayed in the lodge in a decent room with some folks I just met. That was cool and it was affordable. The camping is plentiful, but having a real bed and shower made it a tad easier for these old bones. you really don't want a lot of extra worries so pack as much food and drink as you can. Again, the more hassle you have to deal with the harder the racing will be because once it hits, it hits furiously and relentlessly.

the swims are pretty normal. bikes: something to note is its really hot and hilly. Like the gaps in places. Lots of rolling bike courses with sharp descents and tight turns. the runs are all on the same gravelly rocky road that climbs mostly up for 3.25 miles and drops mostly down for the back half. You do this same course for all 4 races and can get by with normal running shoes, but I suggest socks on all runs, especially after getting blistered in Charleston. 

race 1 (supersprint): punch in the jaw! you've been driving all day, drop your stuff off, swim a minute then are off on a 250 meter lake swim (not too chilly but nippy nonetheless). then its a haul your butte up a 1 mile or so sharp climb and realize you are in for a massively challenging weekend asking yourself why you would seek these experiences out. dropping down the same hill into T2 is refreshing but then you have a one mile run time flattish (you don't hit the part that ascends) trial on your hands, the whole time thinking whatever am I doing to myself when I have to race 2 more olympics Saturday and a half on Sunday.

race 2 (oly 1): at 7am, the theme of asking yourself to hold back when you are racing too hard on a holy heck course continues!  You are a bit ragged from a couple of drinks and the fast race the night before and before you know it you are off on another olympic distance swim in nippy water with time trial start. fr me, this meant that you get your ego handed to you on a paper plate as they start you by your PR in a 70.3 putting me with all the fast swimmers who endlessly passed me. then you are off on a nasty 25 mi hilly bike with a chill in the air as you are in Ohio. back into t2 for your first full go of the gravel run up and down the hill. I crushed sub 7s on this race and knew it was going to cost me but I didn't care as I was being chased down by some youngster who needed a lesson in slaydom.

post race: quickly refuel and get feet up after sitting in the cool water to serve as a quasi ice bath. next thing you know its time to set up transition for race 3 again and race at 3pm! oh how i wished it started at 4pm.

race 3 (oly 2): you know the courses a bit now but thats no consolation. you do the bike first and swim second then you run. adjust your garmin multisport accordingly not at the start line for the time trial bike start like I did. everyone tells you to hold back but its a race, plus you are still a bit sore and worried about the next day (70.3).  and if you are competitive then you may need to make up some time that you lost in races 1 and/or 2. obviously, the bike course is hilly and tough but now you have full heat at 3pm so you are fully sweating into T1 and wetsuit dressing is near impossible. I suggest a sleeveless if you have one (use the full sleeve for the other oly and 70.3- no wetsuit at all for race 1). once that gets on you are back in the water, which is warm now, and thankfully has a bunch of fast bikers all bobbing up and down in various states of cramping. so if you can keep yourself hydrated and salty then you can glide by. if not, you will bob like they did. thankfully i didn't bob. off the swim you run to t2 to run and your sides stitch up because you were happy with your swim and not cramping as bad as the others were. you shake off the side stitches and get moving up the hill and down the hill finding it hard to keep pace with your earlier run. my pace was about 7:08 a full :10 behind my prior oly pace yet I felt I was working even harder!

post race: sit in the cold water to quasi ice bath. then refuel, get a few brews (a steak in the lodge pub with no lambchops accessible), and get your feet up asap, because the alarms are going off around 5 for most people at the 5am race. staying at the lodge or camping nearby is best so you can get up closer to 6am. the constant state of preparing to race again while recovering from the prior race is starting to get natural and you still curse how early you have to race. everybody wants to race at 8am but its best to get it over with before it gets too hot.

race 4 (70.3): dollar is right. you are friends with many on course now so its cool going into transition to set up and hanging out in the lake after each race. everyone helps each other out with powder, socks, or whatever you need. Lot of the racers look really rough this morning. blisters abound and people are limping all over. the swim goes easier for most. for me, it was hard as any 70.3 race swim. I needed to make up time. the swim was actually short so I didn't PR but it was great. then off on one of the hardest 56mi bikes of my life. quads are burning and the course, like the gaps in places, is just destroying your quads. its rough roads in some patches so your shoulders hurt too from rattling around in aero. just when you think you are feeling good, you feel bad, but you know you are getting closer to being a TTTer so you keep pedaling. Then you are done, and you slog off into the gravel. 

the run was where I was making up the most ground. for me, my run fitness is really good so I ran through the carnage of walkers and foul language shouters. finally, i broke down and took some dixie cups of coke (2-3 as I recall) and kept running. as its an out and back, you see the people you know lots and its great vibes, but many who were undertrained pay a deep price on this part. i should also mention that the 70.3 has folks that are fresh and are only racing the 70.3 (little smokies) so that confuses you a bit. you try to ignore that fact and carry on without a grudge. my pace was hovering around 8:00s and I wasnt crying like Dollar, but I did hurt by now. Tough tiddy, get on with it. The turnaround gets you some cheers near transition and then you get some measure of relief as you crest the top of the mountain and turn around to run mostly down (in a nasty twist of fate, the "downhill" starts with a nice .5mi ascent) as hard as you can to finish, as sweet as any finish of any race you ever did.

postrace: back in the ice bath, collect your medal and tshirt, and get your emails and phone numbers of your new lifelong friends. smile widely and be proud.

postpostrace: drive home is grueling. say your thank you's to those that allowed it to happen. your body hurts everywhere and that is a good hurt. i got a cold from being run down. i had a hard time concentrating at work yesterday. however, wear your smile and pride large! You did something magical. Thanks again everyone.

also, hit this website for some good input:

http://www.fexycoaching.com/blog/?p=290

Love your race report!  Especially the part about not cyring like Dollar!

Congrats Harvey!

don't believe a word he says.  he called me yesterday and was sobbing in fetal position.  His wife finally went out and bought him some tampons. no word if he has decided to man up today.