A chat with Linsey Corbin and Tim O’Donnell

You are invited to join Clif’s Facebook chat Monday, August 25 at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT hosted by triathlon elites Linsey Corbin and Timothy O’Donnell. 

Linsey and Timothy will answer any and all questions related to triathlons, running, cycling and swimming (from first-timers to seasoned veterans). Ask questions and win prizes, including a CLIF SHOT Toolkit packed with SHOT products and gear for training and race day. Anyone who posts a question during the chat will have a chance to win a Toolkit as well as gain valuable information from these triathletes.

Save the Date and start thinking about the questions you would like to ask.

These are a lot of fun and there is always some valuable information to be had…and doesn’t need an excuse to spend some time on Facebook!

Ironman 70.3 Vineman

Well actually it was Vineman 73.3!

I have written and read enough race reports to (hopefully) be able to keep this brief…so here I go.

 

Becca and I arrived at T1 and dropped off our bikes, she had other issues to deal with, you can read about them here. My set up was pretty simple, I had opted to go with my road helmet rather than my aero helmet as I hadn’t worn it in over a year and I was twitchy enough about my lack of Tri bike time. The biggest issue was going to be the mud as the Transition area is a dusty parking lot and when you add 2000+ wet swimmers the dust turns to mud and well you can see the issues. My shoes were on my bike as I planned to run out of T1 and up the short hill at the start of the ride rather than mounting on a slope and toppling over. So with my number/race-belt, helmet and sunglasses hanging off my bike, some gels on my towel I was done…like I said simple.

I pulled on my wetsuit and was able to see Becca’s wave start and the first Pro’s out of the water and with that I headed to the waters edge for my Wave start which was next. As soon as I could I was in the river, getting wet and used to it. I had had a practice swim the day before and my wet suit was nicely stretched out and felt actually pretty good. I hovered at the back and with a countdown we were off.

My swim went really well. I focused on form and sighting and pretty soon I was passing people in my wave. I knew the turnaround was past the halfway point but it seemed a lot longer than that. The turnaround was very shallow and I walked round it. Swimming back was fine and I was mixing it up with others in my AG without issue. I reached the Exit and was on my way to my bike.

My swim measured 1.3 miles and while my sighting wasn’t great I felt good as Becca’s swim was the same distance. Swim Time; 43:11 (a “Good” swim was 42-44:59) given the extra distance it was almost a “Great” swim (40-41:49), this was 3:39 faster than in 2012!

T1; pretty straight forward, wetsuit off, fuel in pockets, helmet and glasses on and run! 3:31 significantly faster than in 2012 which was 6:08!

So far I was over six minutes up on my 2012 and less than an hour into the race. I settled into the bike. I took the first 10 miles a little easier covering them in 34:33, I wanted to not redline too soon and save more for the second half of the bike and the run. The next 10 miles I picked it up covering them in 30:26. So 20 miles in 1:04:59, not super fast but in the right ball park for around a 3 hour ride which by my previous goals would be a “Good” ride 2:55-3:04:59, especially as the second half of the race would be slower as it had the two climbs in it (M31, M47). I was riding along on the hard shoulder minding my own business and picking off other riders as I went when there was a sudden bang and hiss. I looked down a saw my back tire go flat, why always on the back?! I gingerly pulled over and rolled to a stop without issue.

Side note. I rarely flat, really rarely, so rarely I can count the number of times since writing this blog (7 years plus); three times (here’s two of them here, and here), this time was the fourth! On this occasion I was riding deep section (80cm) Mavic Cosmic Carbone Tubular wheels. Significantly more fussy to deal with than regular clinchers!

I spun my wheel and sticking out of it was inch long section of what looked like a 1/8 inch broken drill bit. On board I had a can of Hutchinson Fast Air which is a dual sealant and inflator and 2 Co2 cartridges. After some fussing I managed to get some of the sealant into the tire although I noticed it was bleeding out of the seams, then I added the Co2 and in a hiss the air was in the tire and out again, mostly through the newly created hole which was too big to get a solid seal! And like that I was stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire.

Time to start walking!

After a mile or so I reached a road Marshall who then called for the SAG Wagon to come and help. And so I waited and watched a stream of riders roll by. To be honest I lost track of time but eventually the SAG Wagon pulled up. Unfortunately for me they had no spares that could help me so I loaded the bike and climbed in resigned and disappointed that my day was over. The driver Nick then asked if he could get me back on the road was I interested…hell yeah! So off we sped to Healdsburg a nearby town to a local bike shop where they took my wheel as collateral. Nick left a Credit Card number with them just in case I decided not to go back! They fitted the wheel on the bike and I was back in the van heading back to the course. The plan had been to drop me off where I was picked up but someone had crashed and needed assistance so they dropped me off there and I got to ride an extra couple of miles on the bike course…did I care, no! I was happy to be back on the road and all things being equal would finish albeit in a horrible time!

Somewhere around 90 minutes or so had elapsed since flatting so my “race” was over, that being said I pushed through on the bike and got to the end in an earth shattering 4:23:58 when you take off the extra hour and half it wasn’t so bad but the clock is the clock. Even with the flat my timing mat splits show that I moved up 59 places in my AG Division.

T2; this has a bit of a run in and I was trying to pass someone who was walking, I decided to not be a jerk and rather than edge past I would wait for it to open up into the school’s Quad where there would be plenty of room to pass. I got to my rack, which of course was full, ditched my Bike, donned my Shoes and was out on the run. 5:54 for T2, some 1:21 faster than in 2012

The run was hot, the first four miles were ok the rest just went downhill from there, many, many walk breaks later I finished in 2:30:30 (24:24 slower than 2012) wiping all gains from the Swim and T1/T2 away! Looking back on 2012 I finished at 12:35pm, this year I finished at 2:53pm so I really had the heat of the day to contend with. That being said my run should have been stronger. More thoughts on that to follow.

Here’s the data;

• Swim 910
• Bike 500
• Bike 910
• Run 910

So a disappointing time; yes, but the upside was I finished and did not DNF thanks to some quick thinking from the SAG Monkey support team. My swim was much improved as were my transition times, keeping things simple helped and now things feel more settled and I know more what to expect. But best of all I got this awesome finisher’s photo…which is one I have purchased and is as they say a “framer”!

As for what’s next…watch this space!

Review; The Sufferfest Chrysalis

Chrysalis is a departure from the usual Sufferfest format. It’s a workout specifically aimed at Triathletes and is based around a series of “Bricks” bike/run intervals with narrow transition time in between.

You still get the awesome footage that we have all come to love and hate but now you get footage of running, all of the race footage comes from Challenge Roth, one of nine of the Challenge-Family races and most likely the most well-known one; in July 2010 Chrissie Wellington defended her Challenge Roth title in Germany in a new “ironman-distance” (not Ironman as per WTC) world record time of 8:19:13, placing seventh overall and bettering her own record by more than 12 minutes. Anyway I digress! It does provide some great footage of household, well Triathlon focused, household names; Dirk Bockel, Caroline Steffen and, Yvonne Van Vlerken as well as some course and crowd views…this race is well supported!

Originally designed for someone who has a treadmill next to their bike trainer (I don’t) it also has been modified to allow you to run on the road off of the bike and that’s my review methodology. Additionally I used the TrainerRoad Version of this workout which obviously focuses only on the Bikes segments. To facilitate the ride/run I used my Garmin 500 on my bike set to AutoPause. My Garmin 910xt which would allow me to switch from Run to Bike and back. I also wrote out all the run workouts on PostIt notes which I would carry for each run segment, they are all different and too complex to remember!

After the modified 4 minute warm up I skipped the first transition and then hopped on my bike, for me transitions are a challenge as I wear no socks for cycling but do for running so it’s an additional challenge (no pun intended) especially as my feet warm up etc. The first bike section lasted another 17 minutes which included the bike warm up and the first Brick. The Bricks are a 4 x 8 minutes bike/4 minutes run, with a 30 seconds transition in between each time. Every single interval across the bikes and runs are built out from micro intervals including surging accelerations, steady state and climbing.Now because I ran on the road I cannot comment on the run footage but I assume it contains much the same in the form of directions and footage of well…people running! For my transitions I placed a chair next to my bike to make things easier per my sock issue!

 

As usual you get the on screen prompts that provide you a Cadence, RPE, countdown clock and new for this video and “up/down” indicator which tells you what’s coming next up being more work and down being an ease off

When using TrainerRoad and my Stages PM I simply followed the on screen power-line, of course there is no line for the run but you can see it was still picking up my heart rate as I ran in and out of my garage! These are the first two intervals and the warm up on TrainerRoad;

The intervals on the bike translate into the following zones and you can see the percentage of time spent in them to get a feel for the level of effort across this ride.

Not sure about the 2060 Power!

Because I was using two Garmins I was able to generate two files, this is the overall bike file from Strava, you can clearly see the transitions;

For the running I generated one file using 910xt but when uploaded it created multiple entries into everywhere I tried (Strava, GC, SportTracks) so it looks like this;

So to give you an idea this is one Brick segment;

And this is a bike segment;

So enough of the all the screen shots, data and quantitative stuff, what about the qualitative info? Well the race footage is great, in the more than three years I have been using ‘fests the video quality has gotten better each time, this is clear in your face race footage that you would expect to see on the TV. The soundtrack is as usual kickass, a good mix of indie rock and techno, which is right in my ball park!

The workout was put together by Neal Henderson from Apex Coaching, the same sick minds folks who came up with ISLAGIATT and Violator…and yeah the same guy that coaches Taylor Phinney from Pro team BMC and head coach at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, Side note; here’s a link to an excellent article about data driven training he is quoted in.

The Bricks are hard, not impossible hard but they make you work, the micro intervals keep you engaged and focused on what’s going on, of course using TrainerRoad makes your life easier as the intensity is based on your FTP. As my running has not been anything to write home about this year I was interested to see what an my perceived levels of effort would turn out to be and pleasantly surprised that I was, albeit for a short distance, able to get my pace easily(ish) into the mid 6’s!

In total the video lasts just over an hour and it’s an hour of quality work, no junk miles here!

Need a teaser…here you go;

The Sufferfest - Trailer - Chrysalis (Triathlon) from The Sufferfest on Vimeo.

Chrysalis is available online now to download for $12.99, in a sport that is renowned for it’s expensive kit, this could be the best three Starbucks lattes you can miss!

This product was purchased (yeah sick I know). Other Sufferfest Reviews are available to read here.  If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.

Sherpa thoughts…

Last weekend I was out Sherpaing for TriBeccaTO while she raced the Breath of Life Tri in Ventura, being a Sherpa can be lots of fun, you get to help someone, which takes a lot of the stress of them. I would say that on the whole triathlon is a pretty selfish sport and giving yourself over to run around after them, carry bags take pictures and tell them to “hurry up, I want to go home” is a pretty neat way of supporting them…well maybe not the last one, (joke)!

Of course you get to see a whole bunch other folks doing some pretty cool stuff and some pretty crazy stuff too!

Here’s are some thoughts and observations on stuff I think is cool, wish I had thought of or is generally awesome and of course stuff which is stupid, crazy or just plain dangerous

• Riding and running in a tutu and insect antenna!
• Wearing an aero helmet and a cotton t-shirt?!
• Running with your friend who is having a really tough time…the last two ladies on the course!
• Smiling and enjoying it…unless you are competing in which case it’s game face all the way!
• If you want some crowd support wear a kit with something on it that people can shout, I usually generate “Go Hammer” from my kit and I like it, it’s also easier to shout that as a spectator rather than “go blue Orca kit with white trim and yellow shoes and red visor”, plus that’s a horrible clash!
• We’re all familiar with the “nearly there” but I heard it being shouted at mile 1 on the run…only 5.2 to go!

This is when you say nearly there!

• Four 32 ounce water bottles on a bike for a 24 mile ride on a cloudy and cool day; that’s an extra 8lbs you just added in weight after you spent $5,000 and another $3,000 on Zipp wheels to get the bike to less than 16lbs!
• Mounting the bike and then stop 10 yards into the ride to squeeze your tires to check the pressure
• Causing a crash and then riding off…yeah that happened!
• 
• Following the course markings, I saw someone riding on the wrong side of a divided road into head on traffic
• Finally as a competitor thank all the volunteers! No volunteers no race!

So if you get a chance be a Sherpa, it’s almost as much fun as racing…almost!

Vineman Monte Rio Olympic Triathlon

So I did this race last weekend and you know what it actually went pretty well!

My partner, TriBeccaTO, (wait you knew that right? Oh well buy me a beer and I will tell you all about it one day) had signed up for this way back in February. It’s a new race put on by the group that organizes the Vineman 70.3 and if you signed up early enough it gave you a guaranteed spot to the 70.3 race in 2014, this is a real bonus as that race usually sells out within 10 minutes on line, and as we are both thinking about doing another Ironman next year this is a perfect work up race, any way I digress.

I will spare you all the pre-race and travel details but suffice to say much fun was had during the 600miles, find my Facebook or Instagram feed and you’ll see what I mean!

Anyway race day morning came and thanks to our VIP enrollment when we signed up we got a primo parking spot right next to the start, so it was just a case of final bike prep which always takes longer than you think, a quick, well actually a lot of wriggling into the wetsuit (an additional 10lbs or so has crept on since IMAZ last year and no real training this year hasn’t helped any!) and we were off to the start!

Our plan was for me to be passed by Becca on the swim (she’s a much better swimmer than me) , I would catch her on the bike and then we would run it in together...that was the plan!

Anyway my swim wave went and she was 5 minutes behind me, I splashed my way up the Russian River lamenting that my previously bad swim was now worse! As planned I was passed and finally I exited the water in around 45 minutes, I wasn’t too unhappy as my best Olympic swim time is just over 40 minutes. The run up to T1 was a little challenging, through a parking lot and up a rough road made it a ginger and long run, but finally I was there, wet suit off etc and off on the bike.

We had driven the bike and run course the day before so we knew that the section from M2 to M8 was a pretty rough road and it was. It was here also that I had to stop and adjust my brakes as they were not properly seated on my race wheels and were rubbing, not really a “mechanical” but something that cost me a couple of minutes and evident in my bike splits. Better to stop and fix it rather than lament breaking my wheels etc further in. After this I settled in to the ride and despite a lack of any real aero training it was all very familiar. I saw Becca heading back the other way and she was about 3 miles ahead of me as I approached the 13 mile mark so it was going to be a challenge to catch her at this point. I managed to escape off the bike only being passed by three riders and passing many more although . A reasonable T2 and I was out on the run.

The run was a simple out and back and was along a very shady lane. Despite any real running of late (are you detecting a theme?) I stuck to a pace that was comfortable and just ran, my Garmin 910 was suffering from technical issues and was not displaying any data and so all I had to go with was RPE which turned out to be just fine. At my 2.5 mile mark I saw Becca at her 3.5 mile point so it was unlikely that I would catch her and as my goal was simply to run the entire run section I was happy to stick at my pace and keep going. Again I was picking off people although that thinned out towards the final mile and I was only passed once on the run. With a kick at the end I finished and was done. Of course one advantage of having a faster than you girlfriend is that you stand a good chance of an awesome finishers photo!

So despite any real training I was pleased with my overall performance and now I have a slot for next years 70.3 if I want it.

A few words on the race itself. It’s very well organized as you would expect from folks that put on one of the most popular 70.3s in the country, you get a nice tech shirt and medal. There is a hot breakfast post race which is so welcome! It’s a pretty laid back vibe and while they are very professional they don’t take themselves to seriously. The volunteers are great and there is pretty good sponsorship with Cliff laying on the “on course” goodies. The Russian River is at best shallow. If you are weak or wary swimmer it’s perfect and there are lots of places where you can touch the bottom, in fact some of it is so shallow you have to walk. The ride is pretty with some rolls but no real hills, it’s a bit bumpy in places, but the bulk of it is on freshly laid blacktop and the run is shady and pretty the former, in my mind, is much more important than the latter!

So here are all my details;

As you can see, the swim was meh, the bike better and the run pretty good! Overall from the swim exit to the end of the race I passed over 150 people…it’s not a real surprise but it’s given me food for thought for the next time; duathlon!?!

Onwards…

Ironman Arizona; kit list

A couple of people have asked so here it is, I think this is everything;

Dinner the night before;

• Orecciette pasta from Green’s Vegan Restaurant in Tempe; “Grandmas’ favorite pasta (little earlobes) with your choice of mock meatballs in our homemade tomato sauce with fresh vegetables”

Breakfast the morning of;

• Bowl of Granola – homemade but see this link for an idea, coconut milk
• Coffee
• Tea
• Sipped on water
• S!CAP

Race Kit;

• Hammer Nutrition Tri Shorts and Top made by Voler

Morning Clothes; over my Race Kit;

• Orca Fleece
• Adidas run leggings
• Saucony Kinvara shoes (flip-flops are an accident waiting to happen)
• Headtorch
• Took my track pump to top up tires

Swim;

• Synergy Hybrid wetsuit
• Yellow “Have a Nice Day” TYR swim cap, race cap over this
• AquaSphere Kayanne goggles with smoked lenses
• Garmin 910XT and HR strap, worn for entire race and down to last bar of battery by the end

Bike;

• Lazar Tardiz aero helmet with fitted smoked visor
• Time Ulteam Tri shoes, with SpeedPlayZero pedals/cleats
• FuelBelt Race belt with race number
• 2011 Cannondale Slice, you can see the modifications to it in this post
• ISM Adamo Breakaway saddle 
• XLab TT frame mounted bottle
• XLab Rocket Pocket
• XLab Turbo Wing with 2 Gorilla Cages
• Torhans Aero 30
• Mavic Cosmic Carbone 80 wheels
• Profile Design Universal Computer Mount (Long)
• Garmin Edge 500
• Two Hutchinson Fast’ Air canisters; my tubular tire are glued on, if I flatted this would have been my only hope!

Tre sexy, no?

Run;

• Newton socks
• Newton Distance shoes with Garmin Footpod
• Yankx Laces
• CEP Calf sleeves
• Headsweats/Hammer Visor
• Oakley Flak Jacket XLJ with Ice Iridium Lenses

Hydration/nutrition;

• TT bottle had 20 ounces of water and 4 scoops Gu Roctane (approx. 1000 calories), goal was to drink this all on the bike primarily during the second half
• Torhans bottle was filled with 30 ounces of water, goal drink one bottle an hour, I probably drank around 4.5 bottles in total
• S!Caps, kept in a baggie and stuffed up my shorts leg, goal was to take one an hour every hour on the bike and run
• Gu Roctance Gel/Bonk Bar these were handed out on the bike I grabbed 2-3 each hour and had one every 30 minutes
• Power Bars I had one in my T1 bag and one in my Special Needs bag, I ate them both, I find them to be easier to chew than more “grainy” bars, but they are a bitch to unwrap!
• Cliff Shot Bloks two packs of these in my T1 bag, less messy than gels
• Note, the PowerBars and Shotblocks were pre opened, that is I cut the ends to make the unwrapping easier

Special Needs;

• Bike; Power Bar, Single Serving of DZ Nuts, very welcome at mile 65, I should have put this in my T1 bag and applied earlier
• Run; Long sleeve running shirt, gloves, spare Headsweats/Hammer Visor. I wasn’t sure how cold I would get and how annoying a sweaty visor would be

Not used;

• My T2 bag also had a FuelBelt R20, this was not taken on the run

Should have packed;

• BodyGlide, I “Glided” myself pre swim, (ankles, wrists, neck) could have done with some in T2 for the run
• DZ Nuts into T1 bag for the start of the ride; prevention is better than a cure
• There should have been a carton of coconut juice in each bag and spare S!Caps , these were forgotten and left in the hotel fridge in the morning…oops!

Looks like a lot right! Well it is kinda and I prided myself in keeping it simple! Pretty much everything was well used and practiced, the only exceptions to this were;

• My helmet, it only arrived the week before and I had only ridden 30 minutes in it 2 days before the race
• The Hutchinson Fast Air; never needed in training so never used!

Finally here is the race day video from Ironman.com, the swim looks way worse that it was or maybe I just got off lightly?

Want some “free speed”…it’s on sale!

There is, apparently, no cheaper means to free speed in a Triathlon than an aero helmet. Given that it’s your noggin that is the largest thing that is on the front end of the bike cutting the wind having something that makes that more aero dynamic makes perfect sense. There are several very in depth studies about this and numerous articles have been written about this for websites and magazines.

The one big thing that they all have in common is to maximize the benefit you need to have an optimized bike position and be able to maintain that throughout the race. What does that mean? Well in a nutshell it means you have to keep looking forward! Why? Well this is what happens when you look down or anywhere else;

Your helmet basically turns into a sail and creates even more drag than your bare head (my speculation). With that in mind and knowing what I know about my own positioning on the bike, which while good is not perfect and of course the reality is that from time to time I do look down I did some research and ordered one of these;

The Giro Air Attack, yeah it’s kinda funny looking but it provided the three things I was looking for;

• It was an aero helmet; free speed!
• It allowed me to move my head around (and minimize the side impact from cross winds)
• It had a visor, it stands to reason that this must be more aero dynamic than an open face and sunglasses (although I was unsure how hot it would get)

Delivery from Amazon was scheduled for the end of October, that gave me roughly three weeks before race day to make sure it worked. I was happy to see some Pros wearing it recently at Triathlons and it has been seen on the cycling circuit for quite some time now. Then I got an email saying delivery was delayed until March! March!! In fairness I got the email a week or two ago and so back to drawing board I went. The only other helmet that was available was the Kask Bambino (as worn by Bradley Wiggins) but I really couldn’t justify the $500 price tag…trust me I tried!

There were some other that I tried along the way that I ruled out as they didn’t fit or were self-excluded as they were out of stock. Then I got an email from PBK saying that Lazar helmets were on sale; happy happy joy joy! So I opened a browser and set about shopping, and here is the end result. Sure I look a bit funny but I’ll take fast over funny any day!

If you want one yourself, they are still on sale with 40% off, check them out here!

One outta two ain’t bad!

With the best will in the world I really can’t say I am tapered, a whole not of lot of training has been going on over the last month! A jacked up back and hips followed by a vacation and a messed up knee for the last two weeks has resulted in more of a falling of a cliff than a taper proper!

So this weekend’s word of the day is complete and not compete…to be honest this is a stepping stone to IMAZ in November and while I did have some prior aspirations of performance this is a good opportunity to dial in some new race day things; it’s the first opportunity to race test the new drive train on the bike and the new wheels. Ironically for a runner the run will be the tricky thing this weekend, not surprising given the aforementioned knee and the complete lack of running miles this year!

If you want to track me this weekend you can follow me on Ironman.com live tracking my number is 93. If you have a smart phone you can download the IronTrac app and plug in my number as it will bring my splits etc to you where ever you may be! Lucky lucky you!

Some other peeps you might know @punkrockrunner #133 @tribeccato #390 @sheswimbikerun #1199 @Whamxbamxpow #1760 the Vineman twitter account is @VinemanTri

June Gloom!

I had every expectation that June would be a good month; an easy couple of weeks in May, a solid Olympic race at the end of the month followed by a new PR in the 10k looked to set me up to get to the half year point with some serious miles behind me. Then I put my back out and twisted my knee and before I knew it the month was over.

So here are the deets;

• Swim; 13,640 yards (7.75 miles) 6:40 hours
• Bike; 242 miles 14:06 hours
• Core/PT 4:00 hours
• Walking; 15 miles (Seaworld, San Diego Zoo and Safari Park) 11:00 hours
• Running; 35.55 miles  4:50
• Total; 300.3 miles 16:36 hours

I need to remind myself that it’s not all gloom and doom here are the numbers for the first 6 months or the year, it leaves just under 400 miles short of where I wanted to be but that was an arbitrary target. I expect these will double and more over the coming 5 months.

• Swim; 158,400 yards (90 miles) 73:23 hours
• Bike; 2141 miles 130:41 hours
• Running; 358 miles  51:52
• Other; 32 miles
• Total; 2621 miles 275:16 hours

As you can tell I am having my own little pity party in Miseryville; population one. I am sure once my knee clears up and I start a new training program everything including my mood will pick up. I have pretty much decided on a plan that will get me to IMAZ, it’s a 20 week plan that I will cut 3 weeks out off, one thing that it does include specifically which appeals is strength and core work. It should be no surprise that both of these things are needed to to maintain form over a long day and hopefully they will also help keep me from falling apart on they way.

May done…and I nearly was too!

May seems like a distant glimmer in the rear view mirror right now, I think that speaks to the velocity that I am travelling through this year. As the title eludes to it was nearly the month when I was was done, done in that is! My volume of training had been steady over the last 5 months and so it’s almost inevitable that something had to give and the signs were pretty clear, physical fatigue combined with being mentally tired and looking for excuses not to train. So much as it hurt to back off and spoil the lovely graph that I had been building it was the sensible thing to do.

Miles	Time

I eased off for a couple off weeks mid month which also coincided with travelling to St George to watch IMSG and then to Tempe (post to come) to ride the IMAZ course loop and also gave me a pseudo taper for the OC Olympic Tri which was in the last third of the month. The race went really well, that with the rest recharged my batteries to finish the month strong and start June solidly, So here are the May digits in more detail:

• Swim; 22,688 yards (12.88 miles) 9:32 hours
• Bike; 231 miles 13:24 hours
• Run 50:73 miles 7:08 hours

So as you can see the swimming is still getting lots of attention, it as as Joe Friel would say, my limiter and there is no point working my strengths, especially if I never get to finish the swim! That being said despite PR at the Love Run 10k my running is pretty…let’s be honest; shit right now!

Looking forward over June I recently picked up Swim Workouts for Triatletes by Velo Press from Amazon and I love it, simple (but not easy…big difference!) workouts designed around race distances. Of course in typical fashion I am having to carve up the program to fit in with my schedule but having gotten through nearly two weeks worth, I think it’s having a positive effect, assuming hanging onto the end of the pool gasping for air is the effect you are looking for! I am sure I will write up a review soon…maybe!

My Cannondale Slice has undergone some radical surgery too and a lot of the parts have been upgraded I will have more to say on that this coming week but here is a teaser…

So with Vineman 70.3 only 36 days away is it too early for a prediction? Ah what’ ev! Here’s my goals:

	A	B	C
Swim	<44:59	45-50	>51
Bike	<2:45	2:45-59	>3:00
Run	<1:45	1:45-52	>1:52
Race	<5:20	>A/C<	>6:43

I am sure my math is wrong so feel free to correct me!I think in reality that it will pan out to be a B/A/B if I can have a good bike, so somewhere around 5:30-5:40 inc transitions.

So with that on with the day!

Official photos…

Not great but the best of the official ones!

OC Tri
Love Run 10k

Orange County Olympic Tri

I have been a bit absent on the interwebs in the last month so this race report is coming before I have had a chance to write up my trip to Tempe and a couple of reviews but as it is fresh in my failing mind…well you know!

This was to be my second ever Triathlon and to be honest after a disastrous swim at the Desert Tri in March when I stood on the sand with 30 seconds to my wave went on Sunday morning to say I was a little nervous was an understatement. Added to which was the distance of the swim 1500m (1640 yards or 0.93 of a mile) would be longest swim without any toys, (pull buoy etc), my longest open water swim ever (and only my third OWS) and the first swim in a new wet suit…so yeah about that nothing new on race day thing!

I got to the start in plenty of time, I had dropped my shoes and visor at T2 the day before, and set up my bike, it really didn’t take that long as most of the stuff I had done the night before. So with an hour to go I headed to the water to get wet and acclimatized to the temperature etc. I was very pleased that the water was pleasantly not cold, almost warm and with a wet suit it was perfect, most people were wearing wetsuits although there were a few hardy souls not bothering.

I waded out and swam out and up and down, there was no one in the water except me and that was fine. After a while other racers arrived and we made nervous conversation with each other as we “warmed up”. The water was clear and there was a sharp drop off once you got to the “beach swim line” bouys which was a little off putting but I tried to stay well within myself and focus on the space I was occupying only and really not worry about anything else. I felt based on all the time in the pool that the first couple of hundred yards would seem dreadful but once I got into a groove I could just keep going.

I stayed in as long as I could, try to get used to the water, making sure I got it down the back of my suit so as not to get a nasty shock later and playing with the floatation of the new suit. Finally I waded out as we got the brief of the course, fuck those buoys looked a long way off I kept thinking!

Finally the first three waves went and it was my time to stand in the lapping waters. With an airhorn we were off and I waded back out till I was up to between my waist and chest, I floated up and was off. For the first 10 or so stokes I sighted and then I hit my my 4:1 pattern and was off (I prolly need to work on the bilateral thing but one thing at a time). I wasn’t too worried about ongoing sighting as I figured that as long as I could see someone or better still more than one person on my right I would be ok. The course was a clockwise square with a left turn at the end. I will spare you a stoke by stroke account but my line was fine and I managed to get away with very little contact. In reality I was actually pretty comfortable, the suit worked really well. I was overtaken a bit and then overtook some others, a few who even had caps from earlier waves.

I made the second turn and was surprised how quickly I got there, without wanting to get ahead of myself I just kept moving towards the big red buoy on the distance. On thing that had happened right from the very start was one lens was leaking, by around the 1200 meter mark I decided to empty it and broke into a breast stroke and rolled onto my back. My right hamstring teetered on the edge of cramping and I made an effort to relax it off, (stretching it for me only makes it worse), with some of the water gone I continued. It was a bit of a bun fight at the end and the last 200 meters took forever. I missed the turn and went past the buoy then over compensated as was outside of the buoys to the left of the exit boat ramp. Eventually I could see sand then the ramp and then my fingers could feel the bottom and I was done…I was so happy!

I ran out towards T1 and instantly misshit my Garmin effing up the data for the whole day but I didn’t care. I pulled off my wetsuit and to my joy it slipped off easily, so much better than in March when I had sat on the floor and wrestled with it for 5 minutes. Bike kit on a short run out of T1 and I was on my way.
I’ll be honest that my focus had been so much on the swim that I hadn’t thought about the bike at all and I was expecting (for no real reason) a flat course, oops! Here’s the profile, yeah about that flat!That being said my biking is pretty good and this year I have racked up close to 2000 miles already. I was pleased that there was some climbing to be honest as I like it. So I dug in and started passing people, a lot of people. In fact I was overtaken on the bike only three times and each one I caught back up to, of course with the ups come the downs and most all my hesitancy I have about descending at speed disappears on race day, I topped out at 37 mph, which is pretty respectable.

The nothing new on race day continued as I flew into T2 with my feet out of my shoes for a flying dismount, I almost nailed it but my feet are pretty big and my shoes caught the ground so I simply picked up my bike and ran…easy! Socks, running shoes and Visor on and I was off! The first couple of mile clicked by sub 8 minute miles and then the fun began, we were directed into a housing community and with a couple of sharp terms there was a park to cross, a dirt bank to run up and then a horse trail to run along…no really! Then there was the hill, OMFG, it was steep and then a bit steeper. Yeah I walked! I topped out ran down and out of the weirdness onto a road, back up and down and then back up, I walked a bit more, fending off a cramp. At the top I ran and didn’t stop until I finished!

Done!

Official stuff:

• AG 29/46
• OA 221/490
• Gen 191/330
• Swim 40:36
• Bike 1:21:25
• Run 54:01
• No transition times so I guess they are baked into the Bike and Run

Here is all my Garmin Data:

• Swim with 910xt http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180550286 no I did not stop!
• Bike with Edge 500 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180562430
• Bike and run with 910xt http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180550293

Some after thoughts:

• Needless to say I am super pleased with the swim, while I still have a long way to go to get to 2.4 miles (4200 yards or 3480 meters) this has boosted my confidence in my ability to do it, I do need to work on my endurance and speed and still focus on my form but I will get there
• My bike could have been better, I am still wrangling with how hard can I go on a bike and get off and run. I think this is something that will come with experience, time and more brick workouts. While I am a pretty good climber I need to get comfortable in that 40mph + zone and also in the aero position for a long period of time which IMAZ will need. My bike is going into the shop this week to be refitted with a new grouppo and new wheels are next so that will all make a big difference I think
• My run was pretty crappy and that is testament to amount of time spent not running, I need to work on that and throw in some trail time to toughen me up some
• I need to work on my hydration and nutrition, I can bluff it over this distance but anything longer and it’s critical
• Getting to grips with the technology, I love my 910xt so I need to use it properly
• And of course a big thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me on this journey so far. I look forward to sharing my ongoing adventures with you!

So with 54 days to Vineman 70.3 and 180 days to Ironman Arizona it’s time to get my shit together!

Here are some more photo’s from the day…

Orange County Olympic Tri VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL