Crested Butte Bank XTERRA, July 2007

I wrote this right after the race, just getting around to posting it now.

What a day! What a weekend! First and foremost let me say, this was a blast!

I wanted to die often during the course of the day. I questioned my sanity, my motivation for doing triathlon in the first place and my future in the sport several times, but overall, I can't wait to sign up for next year.

First the overview. I almost managed to come in DFL, I only missed it by one in my age group (22/23) and overall by seven, (103/110.)

Swim 1200 meters/.75 mile: 24:19
T1: 3:04
Bike 24k/14.9 miles: 2:00:22
T2: 2:02
Run 9k/5.6 miles: 1:07:27
Total: 3:35:15

Breakfast was oatmeal, bagel with peanutbutter at about 6 a.m. A banana about 7:30 and a gel 15 min before the swim.

We stayed at a little hostel in Crested Butte. Got up about 5:30, ate, packed up and were down to the race site about 7. We were pretty early it seemed, there were very few people in transition. I picked out a spot and got marked.

After packet pick-up the day before we had a Q&A session with Seth Wealing, the XTERRA US champion and Melanie McQuaid, the world champion, and a couple of others including Jennifer Smith. Smith ended up winning the women's race, Mcquaid was second. Wealing was second for the men.

The Q&A was fun, they had plenty of good advice. Tire pressure for the mountain bike, shoes for trail running, etc...

Setting up.



The swim was supposed to be 1000meters, then it was supposed to be two 600 meter laps with a beach run in the middle. It turned out to be a deep water start (treading water) with two laps around a 600 meter course, then exit. It was all because of an unexpected abundance of seaweed in the lake. I actually ran into a bank of seaweed and it was so thick it stopped me. I often had seaweed hanging from my goggles when I turned my head to breathe. That didn't bother me that much. I wish I could blame my slow time on the seaweed, but I'm just that slow.

Here you can see the start. In the foreground is the bank of seaweed.



The race volunteers worked for days to clear the channel out to the course and the course itself in time for the race. They did a great job. There was much trepidation beforehand and very little complaining afterward.

**** this wetsuit!



Transition was uneventful.

The bike was a tough. The first about 4 miles included about 2 miles of pushing the bike up steep, muddy, rocky, rooty singletrack. Did I mention steep? Followed by an equally steep decent, which was a blast. Then we hit a dirt road for a mile or so. Then the killer. A long, slow (for me) slog up about 5 miles worth of jeep trail, and the inevitable decent down the other side.

Now I've only been mountain bike riding for a couple of months, but this was a great trail. I'm so happy we didn't come up the other side. The downhill was super technical. I was cursing at the top of a few sections and then laughing out loud when I got through them in relief. The end of this section was a stream crossing through about knee deep water. I'm hoping they took pictures, I'll buy it.

The end of the ride. I'm smiling on the outside, but I'm crying on the inside.



I'm glad I brought an extra pair of dry sock for the run. At the start of the run I was hurting. I had taken a gel before the swim and another during the bike. I drank a bottle of gatoraide and some water. My stomach was pretty upset. I hit the three aid stations on the run and drank gatoraide and water at each. But I ended up walking a good part of the first three miles of the course. It was the same course as the first part of the mountain bike ride, at least this time I didn't have to push my bike up it.

By the end of the run my quads felt like stone, but I stumbled in.



I'm going to have to figure out how to eat. I also figure that just getting faster will help. I think if I had finished in 2:40 instead of 3:30, I would have been fine. And I think that is a doable thing if I train well over this offseason.

I know my training was poor, and my conditioning for all three sports, (not to mention my technique,) needs much work. But now I know where I stand, and what to expect. I'll be back. Good times!

Boulder Stroke and Stride

This was a 750m swim and a 5k run back in June of 2007. There is an option to do a second lap for a 1500m swim. They have these every Thursday night during the summer at the Boulder Reservoir. This was my first open water swim, first swim in my wetsuit and first multisport experience. Wish I could say everything went great.

My goal for the swim at the start was to see how fast I could go. My goal after about 200m was just to live through it. I had a bit of a panic attack after I got out into deeper water. I couldn't put my face into the water and do a crawl stroke. Every time I put my face into the water I had to lift it right back out. I finished with a modified breast stroke with my head up out of the water.

I went through an interesting thought process during this time. I started thinking about how I could return my wetsuit, get my fees back for the races I've entered, where the heck are those lifeguards, etc... After a while, when I realized I was going to make it, I started thinking about how to fix this. I need to come back to the res and do laps where I can't touch and learn to deal with it. I will come back for a couple more of these races before my first tri.
My time was 20:19.

My heartrate was sky high in transition and for the first mile of the run. Transition:2:33.

The run was fine after my hr came down a bit. Finished in 26:19. Not bad for me, I'm usually slow. It will get faster when I can train myself not to panic on the swim.

Overall, 63rd out of 100. AG 9th out of 10. But I'll get faster.


UPDATE: I did several more of these races over the summer and didn't panic on the swim. I enjoy these enough to do more next summer.

Think I'm ready to start posting again

I'm going to start by posting a bunch of my race reports from last summer. Wanted to get this in before I start racing again next year.

Merry Christmas, too!

My first Triathlon was the Table Mountain Tri in June of 2007.

Here are the stats:
Pool swim, 500m: 10:41
T1: 1:44
13 mile bike: 39:22
T2: 1:07
3.1 mile run: 29:07
Total: 1:22:02

I wrote all this out just after the race.

This race was all about lessons learned for me. I managed to overtrain and overtaper at the same time. I trashed my legs with too much mountain biking last weekend and an overnight backpacking trip mid-week. I also somehow managed to not do any tri training for about 10 days leading up to this race. I think I need a written plan for the last week leading up to the race.

I had a very late wave start time: 10 am. So I had way too much time to sit around and wait to start to begin with, then the race start was delayed. The police closed part of the run course for an investigation, so the organizers had to reroute. My wave started at 10:40, the temp was about 80 degrees.

I was worried about the swim, because I'm not a swimmer (or cyclist or runner for that matter). But it was over before I knew it, and I didn't stop or backstroke at all.

My son took pictures and caught me with my head up.



So on to T1.



I'm big into visualization, so I have run through the transitions many times in my head. I hope I will get faster with practice, but I'm happy just because I didn't forget anything and I didn't have to go back for anything.

Headed out for the bike:



I rented a road bike for the race. I planned to ride my mountain bike, but I'm very happy I got this one. It's so much lighter. I adjusted the seat height and handlebars, but the seat was still too low and the handlebars in the wrong spot. The chain came off twice while shifting. I'm still glad I used this bike just because I know I worked a lot less than I would have with my heavier MTB. The time I lost fixing the chain, I more than made up for by pushing less weight, and I know it helped on the run.

I had water and gatoraide on the bike and drank about half of each. My biggest problem on the bike is my lack of experience. I shift the wrong way sometimes and I don't trust the bike around corners. I hit the brakes and slow down through most corners.

So I headed out on the run. No problems in transition. I tried to drink some water since the temp was getting into the high 80's by now.



The run was two laps now instead of one and about a tenth of a mile longer. Still a good run with two water/gatoraide stations. As usual for me my second lap was faster than my first. It takes me a long time to warm up and settle in to a pace.

Here I am, proud survivor of my very first Triathlon:



All in all a good day. Could have done without the heat and the almost three hour wait from marking to start, but still a good day. The race was pretty well organized and the volunteers were great. I've pretty much got my 17yo son convinced to do this with me next year. Hope we get the chance.