San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island

After a fun-but-slow day at Monroe, it didn’t take much effort for Andrew and Lauren to convince me to jump into this past Saturday’s ITU race in San Francisco. I’ve raced there five or six times before and I <3 Tri-California.

I was a bit disappointed to swim in the back group at Monroe, so I actually swam five times in the two weeks between races – two hard swims with Dave in Lake Sammamish and three easy pool swims in three different cities/states – w Rusty & Lauren at the Bellevue Club, alone at Highland Park pool in Pittsburgh, then w Kenny, Andrew and Lauren at the Cal Berkeley pool before the race. Still not a lot of volume, by any means, but more than I’d been doing!

I didn’t get any real biking in as I spent much of the two-week interlude traveling to see my sister in Pittsburgh. I did ride around town a bit on an old road bike that I borrowed, and I went for two easy runs. Mellow training.

So, on to How It Went Down:

Swim: Before the race I told myself that I should still be a mid-pack swimmer. I was correct. I swam relaxed/fluid/strong most of the way and exited the water 31st out of 50, in a group of about 15. There were twenty athletes ahead of our group and 15 behind our group, so it is safe to say I was in the middle. I was happy to see Manny Huerta next to me as we exited the water, as he’s had solid World Cup swims before and I hoped that his presence meant that we were in a decent position.

T1 was uneventful, except for running about 10 meters past my bike and having to double-back for it.

Once onto the bike, Manny and I easily got into a group of 8 or 10 riders that was forming ahead of us. After negotiating the first few corners, I went to put my left shoe on and disaster struck. I got my foot about halfway into the shoe and then accidentally unclipped the shoe from the pedal. Now I had the shoe half-on my foot but not firmly attached to anything. It is hard to fix such an issue while riding! Somehow I managed to get the shoe back onto my foot, but I lost my group. I dug deep and caught up to a smaller group of riders, only to have issues getting my other shoe on, too. The little things… so I lost another group and tried to ride smart/steady/relaxed as I knew there were still plenty of riders behind me.

I rode with a few different groups over the last 5 laps, and found that I didn’t have much margin for error out there – likely a sign of low bike fitness. If a guy ahead of me hit a traffic cone and flipped it up in the air, I lost the group. If we caught a sketchier rider and he disrupted our cornering and rotation, I lost the group. Lame. It was almost like I was looking for excuses out there. Gotta work on that.

T2 was interesting again, as I apparently threw my helmet into the wrong bin. The official tried to help me and yelled after me, but I had a hard time figuring out what I’d done wrong in the heat of the moment.

I was happy to not have debilitating leg cramps on the run (yay! better nutritional prep this week!!) but I was disappointed to have a bit of stomach discomfort for the first 6-7km. I just couldn’t push the pace that I wanted. This was actually a rather familiar feeling, and this tells me that I have something very specific to work on during my preparation for future races. Who cares what kind of open 10K you are capable of running right now if your angry stomach or crampy legs won’t let you run. If I make it out to Myrtle Beach in October or to the mythical South American Double in January (Vina del Mar and La Paz) then I should do a bit more analysis into what drinks, concentrations and timing are causing such issues. I went with a rather straightforward approach at TI, but it looks like I need to tweak that approach.

After the race, we had a fun evening in Berkeley with some of the athletes and friends. I left SFO with a bit more inspiration to increase the priority of triathlon training within my busy life, and to put on a more impressive showing at one of the fall or winter races. We’ll see what life brings!

San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island

It took me a week to write this up, so it must have been a fantastic race for me, right?

I had high hopes leading into TI. If I could swim aggressively then my recent criterium practice in Seattle would set me up nicely for the flat, twisty bike ride.  Then I would just need to run well, which I’ve done more often than not this year.  I figured if I raced hard and got a lucky break or two then I might just make the top ten.

Well, that didn’t happen.

I had a solid start to the swim, successfully minimizing the inefficient rubbing of elbows with the other guys … even crossing over a guy to my left to get into better water at one point.  I felt like I had that needle just below the red line. Perfect.  I felt like I was in about tenth position 200m in.  The turn was chaos, of course, but I slipped through and tried to stay on feet for the backstretch.  I wasn’t always successful and I felt like I lost a bit of ground.  On the homestretch my cap started falling off.  Does this happen to anybody else?  This is like the third time this year that has happened to me.  I wear my goggle under my cap ever since a goggle-loss incident at Alcatraz three years ago.  Could that me the problem?  Or do I just need a haircut?

The second lap of the swim is where I screwed up.  I spent way to much time bashing into a guy on my right instead of just crossing over to his right.  I am pretty sure that’s where we lost contact with the main group.  At the swim exit there were three guys off the front, about 15 tightly bunched from 19:15-19:25, then my group of 7 at 19:45-20:00.  There were at least six guys behind us, plus a few more who DNF’ed, I reckon.  40 allegedly started.

T1 was fast.  Lap one of the bike was madness!  We were all riding in “groups” of one or two as we tried to chase down the riders ahead of us before they could mass up and start working together.  I saw Matt Balzer and knew that I needed to go with him.  He’s usually strong on the bike.  But when we built a group of four, the rider between Balzer and me let a gap open up and I couldn’t close it.  Lame.  It was very windy that day, which added to the difficulties of riding alone or with one wheel-sucker.  Another guy and I *almost* caught the Balzer group while turning left in that tight parking lot near the end of the first lap … but not quite.

I TT’ed most of the second lap solo, hoping to catch a break.  Eventually I was caught from behind and was able to work with Scott Young for awhile.  I thought we had a chance to catch somebody up ahead but it didn’t happen.  Another group caught us from behind on maybe the fourth lap.  I should have been able to hang but I must have spent too much energy in the first two laps … and my trusty back was getting hella sore again.  Lame.  So they got away.  Then Stehula’s group caught us.  We rode with them for awhile but then I got dropped.  Not sure how.  So basically I moved backward throughout the bike and started the run alone after Jimmy Archer stepped on some glass in T2 and had to pull out.

The run just wasn’t there for me.  I salvaged some pride with a good effort on the final lap … and Simon Whitfield didn’t lap me.  It’s sad when that’s the most positive thing that you can say about your day.

Full results are on the Eternal Timing website.

Argh … glad that’s done.  Next up I have the local BRI Triathlon at Seafair tomorrow (a sprint!) and I depart for the big bike ride to San Francisco this Thursday.  I’ve been working on putting together a new bike just for this trip.  I’ll also race this bike in cyclocross this fall.  I’ll post some pictures and descriptions once it is ready.  It’s been a fun, educational, time-consuming project.

TI & Tri-Cal Results

Yesterday's race was a painful battle of attrition.  More than a quarter of the field dropped out due to crashes or flat tires and a quarter of those who finished ran their second 10k slower than 40 minutes.

The first run was rather brisk, as expected, but I managed to start picking guys off on the second lap and entered T1 with a reasonable group - Branden Rakita, Jeff Piland, John Dahlz...  Rakita got away from us in transition but we caught Steve Sexton shortly onto the bike and assembled a group of 6.  Of the guys with series and/or personal relevance to me -- Ben Collins, Adam Truex and Dave Messenheimer were up the road while Barrett Brandon and Kevin Everett were somewhere behind us. 

We saw Barrett's group at the hill on the first two laps and they were gaining on us.  They finally caught us early in the third lap.  It also started raining on the third lap and the combination of wet roads, a larger group and higher speeds spelled doom for my meager cornering abilities.  I lost the group in a series of 90-degree turns and then couldn't chase back on.  Grrr...  I tried to put my head down and grind it out but my sore back made things less than fun.

Meanwhile there were at least four crashes and more flat tires.  A guy in blue almost went down right in front of me on the bumpy section just after transition on the second lap.  At least two guys in other groups weren't so lucky on that stretch.  I heard that a guy from Venezuela broke his collarbone on there, and a guy from the Riptide team in Colorado went down there and took Yoni Doron out with him.  One block away from there but on the other "side" of the lap, there were at least two more crashes that took out Scott Young and Michael Orton.  Orton managed to get back on his bike and soft-pedal his way home while I heard Scott was cut up pretty bad and wasn't around after the race.  Sexton crashed out somewhere, too...

As for the flats, I know that Ben Collins had one and Matt Chrabot had TWO!  Chrabot was in the lead group with Hunter and Jarrod when he had his first... after getting the wheel swap and chasing back onto the second group he got his second flat.  A very tough day for Matt since he could have had a chance to win the series and fight for a podium finish in the race otherwise.  Joe Umphenour flatted somewhere on the back of the course and pulled out of the race.  The most unique DNF award goes to Dave Keundig, whose pedal unscrewed from the crank just as his bike group caught mine.

The second run was a death march.  It was raining and everyone was hurting from that first brisk run.  I passed five guys and I was only going about a 6:00/mile pace.  I was hoping to reel in Ben towards the end -- I picked up a minute on him during the penultimate mile but it wasn't enough.

Hunter Kemper won the race after pulling away on the bike with Arturo Garza and then running away from him.  There was a battle for second thru fourth as Jarrod Shoemaker, Derek Kite and Victor Plata ran together for about four miles before Jarrod made a decisive move to pull into second and then Derek dropped Victor with maybe half a mile to go.  Mark Fretta, Garza, Doug Friman, Brain Hague, Matt Chrabot and Dave Messenheimer rounded out the top ten.

As for the series, Brian Fleischmann held on for the win after a painful 13th-place finish at TI.  Victor Plata moved into second, ahead of Chrabot.  Kevin Everett stayed ahead of Jeff Piland by the slimmest of margins for 4th leaving Jeff in fifth. Barrett Brandon held onto sixth by finishing ahead of me.  I was seventh and Adam Truex held on to eighth.  Branden Rakita took ninth followed by Haven Barnes in tenth.  Dave Messenheimer finished on the bubble in 11th - 60 points away from another paycheck.

All in all it was another exciting year of competition on the tri-cal circuit.  While we're all looking forward to next year, we're looking forward even more to a few weeks off before jumping into next year's training.

fun with results

The great thing about data is that you can always slice and dice it to prove whatever point you're looking to prove.  For example, go look at the results from yesterday's Escape From Alcatraz (http://www.tricalifornia.com/alcatraz/2007/results/dvpro.cfm).  Scroll to the far right column for everyone's times up the Sand Ladder.  I felt a bit slower there than last year - more of the "rungs" were exposed leading to more difficult footing... and it was just steep and tough...  but it looks like I had the fifth-fastest time.  Yeah, there were lots of guys within six seconds behind me, but unlike the total race results I was at the front of the herd this time!

Now if I could just find a triathlon that is nothing but Sand Ladder, I'd be all set.

Name	Time
BEVIN DOCHERTY	0:01:39
ANDY POTTS	0:01:45
GREG BENNETT	0:01:52
MATTHEW SEYMOUR	0:01:54
CHRIS TREMONTE	0:01:58
DAVID THOMPSON	0:01:59
THOMAS TAYLOR	0:02:00
GREG REMALY	0:02:01
ANDREW STARYKOWICZ	0:02:01
MICHAEL SIMPSON	0:02:02
JONATHAN SALERNO	0:02:02
MATTHEW REED	0:02:03
CAMERON WIDOFF	0:02:04
BRIAN FLEISCHMANN	0:02:10
JEFFREY PILAND	0:02:10
BARRETT BRANDON	0:02:10
NICOLAS BECKER	0:02:11
CHRIS STEHULA	0:02:11
BRANDEN RAKITA	0:02:11
STEVEN SEXTON	0:02:11
DAVID GETTLE	0:02:12
ADAM TRUEX	0:02:14
VICTOR PLATA	0:02:15
MATT CHRABOT	0:02:16
HAVEN BARNES	0:02:16
BRENDAN O'BRIEN	0:02:19
LEWIS ELLIOT	0:02:20
TODD MENZEL	0:02:21
JAN SIBBERSEN	0:02:22
KEVIN EVERETT	0:02:22
SCOTT YOUNG	0:02:25
JOHN SHELP	0:02:26
DAN COHEN	0:02:30
ANDREW KELSEY	0:02:31
MARCO CAMPAGNA	0:02:33
YU YUMOTO	0:02:45
ANDY BALDWIN	0:02:54

Alcatraz

I had two races on my schedule this week: the Capital of Texas Triathlon on Monday and the Accenture Escape from Alcatraz today.  Unfortunately Cap Tex got rained out but I did get to race today.

Alcatraz is an incredible race and I highly recommend that you try to race there at some point.  The 1.5-mile swim is epic, starting from a ferry that parks next to the island.  The foghorn sounds and the pro field jumps off the boat together... then the age-groupers get herded through the chutes in what must be quite a flurry of nervous energy and excitement.  The long swim (yay!) takes you to the St Francis Yacht Club, a short jog from the transition area in Marina Green.  You get about a four-minute run to wram up before the bike.  Did I mention that the water is usually about 55 degrees?  The 18-mile bike leg is quite hilly, taking you past the Golden Gate Bridge, an art museum where The Thinker resides, the Cliff House restaurant and Golden Gate Park.  The 8-mile run is epic with multiple stairways (including the infamous Sand Ladder) and more than a mile of running on the beach.

Coming in, the field looked a little weaker than last year but there were a few strong last-second entries including Bevan Docherty and Greg Bennett.  I hoped to have a strong swim and run and to exorcise my cycling demons from Wildflower.  Top Ten and a cash prize would take a remarkable race on my part, but the crowd from 10th to 25th looked like the kinds of guys that I should be trying to race these days.

My swim was pretty strong.  It was very rough at times, but eventually I found myself in a swim group that was making reasonable headway.  I coulda gone a little faster on my own, but it was great to not have to sight.  I worked my way up to the desirable second row of the group and saw that I was swimming next to Linda Gallo.  (At least I hoped it was Linda Gallo - a total badass swimmer - and not a slower lady.)  I was a little worried about our line as we continued to head towards the "gold dome" even 90% of the way in, but we were right on target to exit at the Yacht Club.  As we exited, I saw that my swimmate was indeed Linda.  She was 3rd or 4th out of the water at IM Kona last year so that has to be a good swim for me, right?

T1 was a little rough for me.  I had a hard time finding the shoes that I'd left for the short run.  Learning: next time yell your number right away.  Once I did so, the spectators were very helpful.  My right quad cramped up a little as I took my wetsuit off - uh oh...  but I got my shoes on and took off, passing the guys who'd passed me when I couldn't find my stuff.

The bike started a bit rough for me, too.  The cramping continued and I couldn't get my shoes on until about a mile in.  i tried earlierbut my hammy seized up.  Urgh...  then I heard/felt some brake rubbing so I opened up my brakes a few increments...as we hit the first climb, I'd been passed by 3-4 guys but I was rolling along without brake-rub and without cramping.  I kept Starykowicz in my sites as we went up the first hill but couldn't seem to pass anyone.  On the first descent two more guys went by.  C'mon - keep it close!  On the longer climb up to the art museum I passed one or two guys but in retrospect I wish I woulda caught two more.  Those two got gapped on the following descent and we lost "psychological contact" with the big group.  Oh well.  I continued to be a bit conservative on the descents but hit the flats and hills hard.  Golden Gate Park's rough surface didn't trouble me but I missed one of the turns in the park and gave up some time...  even worse, I gave up position on Haven Barnes and another rider... grrr...  I had worked a lot to pass Haven the first time and wasn't able to get him again.  Too bad - he didn't seem to be on his "A" game on the bike today so I thought I shoulda taken him.  One more guy passed me on the descent near Robin Williams's house and I headed into T2 with some work to do.

T2 was uneventful.  I grabbed a gel to eat on the run... I took the time to put socks on per my pre-race plan.  I figured I wanted to really light up the run course and I didn't want to have sand-chafing issues on the beach... a few seconds here can sometimes save a minute or more later.  I saw three groups of three guys each starting their run as I neared T2.  Those were the guys who I'd like to consider my "peer group" - or at least the next group ahead of me that I'm striving to compete with - Jon Salerno, Jeff Piland (quitting the day job helped a bit, eh?), Andrew Starykowicz, Branden Rakita, Barrett Brandon... that's most of 'em.

The start of the run wasn't what I'd hoped for, either.  My stomach was a little sloshy and Haven was not the kind of guy I wanted to be chasing.  He's a strong runner and I couldn't close the gap.  Remarkably, I didn't catch *anybody* the entire run... and nobody caught me.  Barrett was hurting a bit at the turnaround and I thoguht I'd pick him up on the way back but he started feeling a bit better and picked it up.  Scott Young wasn't too far behind me at the turnaround and I thought we might end up battling it out a bit too... as it was, I never got within 30 seconds of the guys ahead and Scott didn't get close enough to challenge.  I got within sight of at least 3 guys in the last mile but they were too far up.  I thought that I was capable of running faster but the body just didn't have it today.  Mostly the stomach, although those hills took their toll on me today.  The sand ladder was tougher than last year, too - a good number of the logs were totally exposed above the sand, leaving us with some difficult footing.  It really was a "ladder" of exposed round logs in a few strretches.

Overall... I don't know my final placing yet but I expect it was in the mid-20s.  I thought my swim was very nice and my bike & run were good but not great.  A much better race for me than Wildflower... but I need to figure out some gastro & cramping issues... and gain some mental toughness on the bike...  definitely the kind of race that motivates me to get out there and train hard - I'm within striking distance of lots of guys right now.

a week of training, a week of produce

Last week was a bit of an easier week since Jessi & I took a vacation to San Francisco.  It came at a good time since I was due for some recovery days and my right foot has been hurting since last Sunday's long run.  Anyhow, first the summary of last week, then the produce, then today's workouts.

Mon 5 Feb: 8-mile ez run in bridle trails

Tue 6 Feb: 9.5-mile ez run in bridle trails; masters swim workout

Wed 7 Feb: 45-minute ez spin on trainer; group run workout: 6x stairclimbs up Capitol Hill.  Roughly 300 stairs per rep.  Fun times!

Thu 8 Feb: 3k ez solo swim; airplane ride

Fri 9 Feb: 30min ez on the exercise bike, some strength work

Sat 10 Feb: fun ride on a rented tandem w/ Jessi - we went over the Golden Gate Bridge and whatnot...

Sun 11 Feb: ez 4-mile run with Jessi, some core strength work, another airplane ride

Sunday Night I made what is becoming my weekly Produce Run.  Every since reading Loren Cordain & Joe Friel's Paleo Diet for Athletes I've been eating a lot more produce.  So every week I buy about 10 pounds of whatever looks good.  Always lots of bananas... then usually some apples and oranges - Fuji apples have been good this year...  then maybe some pears or strawberries or avocados...  I may make the Produce Picture a weekly feature on here and see where it goes.

  

Alright, with that out of the way, today's workout:

Mon 12 Feb: woke up early to get in a 4500yd swim & 2hr bike ride before work...  then I got to buy a new set of tires for my car - they're more expensive than bike tires - and set up an appoinment with the doc tomorrow to check out my foot.  Hopefully it will be something minor that will heal quickly.