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!

A terrific idea

Sat 23 April: My good friend Andrew Lockton calls me up to reminisce about one of our favorite races – the Avia Wildflower Long Course Triathlon. Over the course of the conversation, we realize that I don’t have any major plans for the upcoming weekend. Uh oh…

Sun 24 April: I email the good folks at Tri-California to verify that I can still register as an Elite this close to race day. I know that it is poor form to do so, as races like to promote the size and awesomeness of their elite field… but they were still gracious.

Mon 25 April: after a rather productive day at work, I check with my boss about taking Thursday and Friday off

Tue 26 April: I register for the race and cash in a free ticket on Southwest

Wed 27 April: I ride my TT bike for 20 minutes in order to make sure that there are no glaring mechanical issues. I’d been on this bike once since the 2009 Scott Tinley’s Adventures race. I had a long email thread with five friends about whether I’d be better off just riding my road bike at Wildflower, in order to be more comfortable. But in the end we decided that racing is racing and I should bring my fastest bike for that race. Possibly a mistake in my case.

Thu 28 April: fly to San Jose. My bicycle makes it there with me but somehow my suitcase does not. I decide that “Plan B” is to race in a Speedo. Luckily Andrew hasn’t left his house yet and is able to bring some extra clothes for me, too.

Fri 29 April: shakeout ride & run, race meeting, and a perennial favorite: the Elite Introductions. Julie Moss and Bob Babbitt ran the show this time

Sat 30 April: Race Day

As soon as I got away from the San Jose airport and into the rolling hills, I knew I’d made a great decision. The beautiful scenery always brings back a lot of memories of good times on the Tri-California circuit.

I had no idea what to expect on the swim or bike, but I hoped that my run would be solid. I’ve been doing my GeekFit workout regularly to build strength and aerobic capacity within my muscles, and I’ve done just enough swimming to maintain some feel for the water… but my volume was *way* down from previous years. I’d done eight or ten hard bike rides so far this year whereas in past years I’d do at least that many each month. Only my run volume is comparable to past years – mostly at a social pace, with a long run and a workout maybe every other week, on average.

Race mornings are pretty much automatic for me at this point – my bag is already packed, I instinctively know how much warm-up I need, I can socialize a bit while still being one of the first athletes into the water for swim warm-up.

Swim: I surprised myself by getting out quickly and sitting near the front of the race as we approached the first turn buoy. Things broke up a bit more over the first 1000m but I swam smart and tucked in behind another guy for the second 1000m rather than continuing to swim side-by-side. I was pleasantly surprised to exit the water in roughly 12th place.

Bike: I tried to build into the ride and to just enjoy myself. I stayed in aero on the flats & downhills but wasn’t shy about sitting on the tops for the many climbs. I didn’t worry about trying to keep up with riders who passed me. I just tried to enjoy the ride. Andrew caught me around mile 37 and we rode side-by-side until Nasty Grade, cracking a few jokes as we rode. We were totally out-of-contention at this point. I’d never rode side-by-side in a race for this long before, and it was a fun change of pace. (BTW- such positioning is completely legal in races that are following the USAT Elite rules.)

 

Run: I really hoped to light up the run after running 16:01 for 5k on the track back in March… but my legs and back felt *terrible* in the first few miles of the Wildflower run. The felt so bad that I thought I might DNF. But I managed to work through the tightness and crampiness and soreness and settled into a good pace, picking off a runner about every half mile for the first 4-6 miles. My quads *hated* any uphills or downhills, but I was smooth and comfortable on the flats. Sadly this course has lots of hills! I was probably running low-1:20s pace through 11 or 12 miles, but Wildflower veterans know that the last mile is steeply downhill, and my legs blew apart on that descent. I had to shuffle backwards at times just to make progress, and I got passed back by an athlete who I’d passed four miles earlier. Argh… But eventually I limped over the finish line and was done!

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my friend Jesse Thomas managed to win the race, with Clayton Fettell taking second! Jesse and I volunteer together on the PROTA board of directors and Clayton and I took part in a memorable after-party for last year’s Ishigaki World Cup.

All in all…

• It was great to be out there racing again.
• It was great to catch up with a bunch of friends.
• It was great to be one of the few Seattlites to get a sunburn on April 30th!
• It was great to find that my swim is still very respectable in spite of focusing a lot of my energy elsewhere lately.

But I did see the difference between focusing most of one’s energy on racing and focusing most of one’s energy on other things. That said, it was very validating to see that I can still have a fantastic time with a race without needing every moment of my home life to be about racing. We’ll see what the next few months and years hold for me, triathlon-wise, but I do expect to be out there at the Monroe and San Francisco ITU races with a giant smile on my face!

(Thanks to the good folks Brightroom for allowing athletes like me to use their thumbnails on our blogs, free of charge!)

Pacific Grove 2010

About 10 days ago I raced in the Triathlon at Pacific Grove for the fifth time. I took 7th place there in 2009 and I was hoping to have another solid result in 2010 despite a somewhat stronger field.

PG is known for the kelp forest that you have to “swim” through. In fact, that swim leg is commonly referred to as the “kelp crawl.” The kelp can make or break your race, based on a mix of sighting, kelp-specific technique and pure dumb luck.

My swim fitness seemed to be very good in the pool and I hoped to be able to hang onto a fast group of swimmers. As it played out, I couldn’t do that. The kelp can be unforgiving, and I didn’t stay immediately behind the swimmer in front of me. INstead I swam side-by-side with another guy, sharing the draft, and found myself fighting a bit of extra kelp. The margin of error proved to be small with a rather talented group of swimmers, and 500m into the swim I found myself alone.

Things got a bit weird after that. I got tangled in the kelp here and there and took some “interesting” lines to try to avoid it… but I also got a bit demoralized, thinking that any chance of an in-the-money finish had just swam away from me. There is a lesson in there somewhere!

Dan MacKenzie caught up to me during the second lap, as I was swimming laterally across the course in an effort to avoid some kelp. I had made the silly decision to cut a tangent right through a giant kelp patch, then changed my mind. It was a weird swim for me.

Dan & I exited the water in 9th and 10th places but what we saw on the bike course made us believe that we were in 11th and 12th. They pay the top ten, so this is a rather critical difference! Apparently two juniors were riding with two of the elites and we didn’t get a good enough look at them to know the difference.

The bike course was four laps of an out-and-back with a *brutal* headwind on the way out, and a correspondingly rippin’ tailwind on the way back. We didn’t realize quite how strong the wind was and the first 5km were a struggle. I took less than my share of pulls as I felt super-weak whenever I was in front and figured I was doing more harm than good. We cruised during the second 5km and I finally found some legs. About 20km into the bike, we were caught by a group of three. The new bunch of five didn’t work all that well together. Two guys kept skipping pulls and one guy looked like he was about to crash at any moment – either into somebody else or all by himself! So I took a few extra pulls and felt like one of the strongest guys in the group. Coming out of the 25km turnaround, Kenny Rakestraw put in a solid effort and strung out our group. I was sitting second wheel and started feeling like the effort to just stay on his wheel was too much, so I pulled off and tried to go to the back of the group … only to find that there was no more group! The two guys who’d been skipping pulls were maybe 30m behind me and Dan was not even in sight! I sat up for a moment and then tucked in behind the other two … and was surprised to struggle to stay with them. Maybe I stayed with Kenny too long? Maybe I’m just weak? Somehow I got shed off the back and could only watch as the two pull-skippers eventually caught Rakestraw as I pedaled alone. It was amazing how quickly I went from comfortable and in-control to off-the-back. Maybe 3-5 minutes? Very discouraging.

I waited up for Dan and we rode the last lap together. The impetus was gone, however, and our lap split was 60-90 seconds slower than on all of the other laps. Ouch.

I came into this race with a lot of run fitness, too, arguably the best of my career. So I wanted to try for a new PR on the fast (and possibly short) PG run course. I’d run just over 34:00 there two years ago, so 33:30 sounded like an awesome goal. I pushed the pace right out of the gate and got a quick gap on Dan. He clawed his way back to me around 2km and took the lead for 30sec, but I thought he appeared to be struggling a bit (uphill and into the wind) so I made a bit of a countermove and got away again. I ended up holding a lead on him for the rest of the way and never came close to catching the bike threesome. I crossed the line with a 33:31 run split, which is a solid new PR for me. Can’t complain about that! But it would have been awesome to stay with that swim group or to stay with that bike group, as those three guys finished in 8th, 9th and 10th positions ahead of a fading new daddy, Kevin Everett.

So 12th place. Run PR. Moments of brilliance and moments of struggle on the bike.

After the race my host family, the Kintzes, took my friend Andrew Lockton and me to the famous Monterrey Aquarium. I’d never been in there before and was really looking forward to checking it out this year. (I thought it was kind of lame of me to have raced there four times without ever visiting the aquarium. It is practically on the course!)

This giant overhead tank was filled with sardines, mostly swimming in the same direction in a giant shimmering school.

It is hard to capture the cool lighting effects with my camera, but if I turned off the flash then you sort of get a feel for it.

     

Posing in front of the jellyfish:

Lots of jellyfish!

       

This last guy is called a Bat Ray, as in “Nana nana nana nana Nana nana nana nana  BAT RAY!!”

   

Mark Kintz took me surfing on Sunday morning before I headed off to the airport. A few harbor seals weren’t shy about swimming with us – I almost bumped into them a few times.

Next up: USAT Elite Nationals at the ITU Tuscaloosa Pan American Cup. One last chance to try and get some ITU points this year!!

Scott Tinley’s Adventures

I was fighting a cold for about 9 days leading up to the Long Course race at Scott Tinley’s Adventures.  As late as Thursday I wasn’t even sure if I’d race … but I feel like the sickness was gone by Friday and that I was therefore clear to race on Saturday.  Sweet.  I went in with a pretty good attitude and an uncertain physical state.

I stayed with my friend Chris Stehula in San Luis Obispo. He convinced me to go for a run on some gorgeous trails around a hill near town immediately upon arrival. My head cold was nearly gone at that point and I could tell that it wouldn’t be an issue on Saturday.  Friday we went for an easy ride and I could feel that the sickness was gone.

In the past, Tinley’s has been an Olympic-distance non-drafting event with a deceptively hilly bike and a less-deceptively-hilly run.  I should make it clear that the run is quite hilly but does not deceive you in any way.  There is a brutally steep climb each lap.  This year Tri-California altered the course to make it a “long course” race – 1.5mi swim, 48mi bike, 9mi run.  So we got to run up the hill three times.

We had a rather small pro field – 13 guys and the top ten get paid – so Stehula and I both hoped/expected to make it into the money and to have a good chance at the top five if we had a good day.

We didn’t.

I never felt terrible in the swim but I just didn’t seem to have as much “go” when I needed it.  I did feel sort of terrible when I exited the water 60-90 seconds behind guys that I usually swim with…

On the bike I just tried to stay within myself and to let the legs come to me, knowing that there were still a few guys behind me.  With the back issues that I’ve had all year, I was hoping to ride just hard enough that my back didn’t flare up and to pick up the pace as the race went on and as the others came through.  Nick Thompson caught me around mile eight and Stehula caught me around mile 10.  I tried to stay near each of them for awhile but I each of them slowly pulled away.

I was far enough back on the run that I just tried to stay smooth and relaxed, pushing it enough to catch anybody who exploded. 

So all in all, it wasn’t a great day for me but I figure that I was probably a bit off physically after being sick … so I’m glad that I was able to get out there and race and kick-start my next big training block.

Triathlon at Pacific Grove – Extras

Here are a few more items from Saturday’s race.

 

Race video, courtesy of my homestay hosts, the Kintzes.

 

Chris and Friends at P.G. Tri, 2009 from The Kintzes on Vimeo.

 

Splits, as shown on the Tri-California website:

Swim:
First Group: Fleischmann @ 19:59, Leto @ 20:00, Dahlz & Brandon @ 20:03
Second Group: Piland @ 20:53, Stephenson @ 20:54, Huerta @ 20:58, Brown @ 21:07, Tremonte @ 21:09
Third Group: Balzer @ 21:24, Plata @ 21:26
Young @ 21:59
Lockton @ 22:38
Rodic – not listed

T1: Dahlz @ 1:04, me @ 1:05, Flash @ 1:09, everybody else @ 1:11+ … I really made up some key time here

Bike:
First Group: Fleischmann/Dahlz/Leto @ 1:22:25
Second Group: Huerta/Stephenson/Brandon @ +2:00. (Barrett had a rough T1 and lost the lead group.)
Third Group: Balzer/Tremonte @ +3:30
Piland @ +5:10
Fourth Group: Piland/Lockton @ +6:50
Plata @ doing his own thing
Rodic – not listed

T2: Leto @ :24, most of us @ :28-:32, a few above that

Run:

Run times looked a bit slower than usual, possibly due to fatigue after a windy bike … and possibly due to the wind continuing while we ran.  I felt pretty smooth/relaxed/fast out there but my time was 2:40 slower than last year.

0:32:36    Fleischmann, Brian
0:33:50    Brandon, Barrett
0:34:21    Leto, Kyle
0:34:27    Huerta, Manny
0:35:39    Dahlz, John
0:35:40    Stephenson, Jamie
0:36:45    Tremonte, Chris
0:36:46    Young, Scott
0:37:37    Brown, Brett
0:38:04    Piland, Jeffrey
0:38:05    Balzer, Matthew
0:39:58    Lockton, Andrew – stopped to deal with a hamstring cramp
0:50:45    Plata, Victor

Pac Grove

After a rough August and an especially sad effort at Chicago it would have been easy to get down on myself.  But within hours of the finish I had decided that Pacific Grove would go well.  I knew the course.  Tri-California races are practically “home” races for me.  I knew I was fit even if I couldn’t show it in races.  Then I saw that only 16 guys were registered.  They pay 10.  I decided that I would finish in the money.  Somewhere in my heart and mind I had some doubts but I just tried to push them away and say, “PG will go well.”

It did.

I had a great start and made the early swim break with Brian Fleischmann, Kyle Leto, John Dahlz and Barrett Brandon.  I took a knock in the head about 200m in and almost lost my goggles.  I didn’t stop to adjust them at all and the kelp kept grabbing at them.  So eventually I skipped a stroke or two to make sure that I wouldn’t lose my goggles altogether and then lose a minute or more while swimming blind.  I was in no-man’s land for a bit but just kept my stroke long and relaxed, and figured some guys would catch me.  I actually stopped and secured my goggles once I saw that I would get caught.  Good call #1.

Jeff Piland and Jamie Stephenson caught me and I swam comfortably with them for the rest of the first lap and almost half of the second.  Then I went into some kelp that Jamie missed and Brett Brown (who had been right behind me) passed me like I was sitting still.  Don’t mess with the kelp.  It means business.  I lost Brett a bit on the way back in as we took different lines through the kelp, but we came back together just before the swim exit.

I got my wetsuit off quickly and got out of transition cleanly.  I passed Brett in transition and almost caught back up to Jeff and Jamie and Manny Huerta.  I quickly bridged up to them on the bike and we started a rotation.  Things were a bit jumpy and I kept having to close gaps and catch back on … another rider let a small gap open up and I couldn’t quite close it down. 

So rather than kill myself to bridge back up, I tried to relax a little and catch my breath.  In my past few draft-legal events (San Francisco and Kelowna) I’ve buried myself early on, trying to catch onto a group, and then a group would catch me from behind and I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  So I kept looking over my shoulder and hoping to see the third group, but never saw anybody.  My former group caught Barrett Brandon and I was still alone.  Oops.  But when I hit the turnaround I could see a that a hard-charging Matt Balzer was the next guy on the road.  Woohoo!  Matt is very strong on the bike.

I sat up and waited for Matt, pedaling a bit easier and trying to ensure that I would recoever enough to be able to go with him.  Good call #2.  I got on Matt’s wheel and we worked together for the rest of the bike ride.  I was diligent about getting through 1.5 bottles of CeraSport but I didn’t get into my gels.  Matt is definitely stronger than me on the bike but I was able to contribute a bit here and there.

Matt “attacked” a bit coming out of the turnaround at 25km and I had to work hard to get back on his while.  I “retaliated” by refusing to pull through when it was my turn.  My explanation at the time was a bit more colorful, but all in good fun.  I resumed trading off once he had served his time.  We caught and passed Jeff with about 10km to go, putting us in 7th and 8th place in the race.

My T2 was quite efficient, too.  I got out ahead of Matt and tried to find my legs while expecting him to come flying by.  I was happy to find that my legs were right where I’d left them – securely attached to my hips – and I felt really good for the first mile.  I was in seventh place on the road.  I would almost certainly finish in the money.  I thought that I had some chance of catching 6th or 5th, too.

The rest of the run wasn’t terribly eventful for me.  I continued to feel good for almost the whole run and kept pushing the pace while trying to stay light on my feet.  I was sad to see my friend Andrew Lockton disappear on the final lap after charging hard for the first 5km.  Apparently his hamstring cramped and he had to stop to loosen it up.  He would have made the top ten.

I will post splits, pictures and video once all are available.

Next up – Scott Tinley’s Adventures and Longhorn 70.3.  Keep your eyes peeled for a big announcement from me on Monday or Tuesday.

I will write down and back-date a Chicago report one of these days, too.

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.

DNF

Yesterday I raced in my fourth Avia Wildflower Triathlon.  The 27th edition of this race featured the largest pro start list the race has ever seen at 57 men.  You can see a short summary video right now on Tri-Cal TV.  They’ll post a longer video in the next few days.

The swim went reasonably well for me but I cut my foot on a sharp rock or piece of glass in T1.  At the time I figured it was just a bruise and I continued onto the bike, trying to follow the plan that Matt had sketched out for me.  Unfortunately my back got a bit sore again and I didn’t ride as strong as I would have liked.  I need to spend more time on the TT bike and to also devote (even) more time to the right core strength work to get me comfortable again.

I noticed a good deal of soreness in my foot during the T2 run-in, so I took a quick look at my foot before putting on my bike shoes.  I saw about a one-inch gash that was maybe half an inch deep, oozing a bit of blood.  I was already rather far back in the race so I had the paramedics look at it before continuing onto the run.  They recommended that I show my injury to the race doctor in the medical tent before proceeding and, well … he said that I needed stitches and shouldn’t run.

So my perfect record of eighty- or ninety-something triathlons without a DNF is over.  I suppose it was bound to happen eventually.  There is a bit of luck in racing, both good and bad.

At least the trip was still rather enjoyable.  I got to catch up a bit with the Tri-Cal crew and I spent a lot of quality time with fellow racers Brad Zoller, Courtenay Brown and the Locktons.  Brad was kind enough to drive me to the hospital, despite having to wait a very long time before we could leave the race site and therefore missing out on most of the post-race festivities.

The folks at Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, CA, were both friendly and helpful, although they did manage to inflict a good deal of pain upon my injured foot.  Brad tells me that their efforts to dig out sand/etc. with a long single-ended Q-tip on a wooden stick were unsuccessful.  So they broke the Q-tip in half and used the sharp/broken end of the stick to poke around instead.  I gripped the table in white-knuckled agony and practiced my Lamaze breathing.  They did inject me with a numbing agent after some digging … but I felt rather hardcore when Brad told me about the broken sticks.  I’ll add a picture here once I can get it from Brad.

Thanks for your support, everybody, and I promise I will deliver some more positive race reports before the season is through!

Swim: 24:14 (23rd, first was Clayton Fettell of Australia at 22:17)
Bike: 2:47:58 (55th, first was Bjorn Andersson at 2:17:08)

San Francisco

Here is a rather detailed report on Saturday's race.  I had plenty of time at the airport and on the airplane so you, the reader, get a nice verbose write-up.  I hope to right up a second post tonight that talks about the rest of the trip.

This past weekend I raced in the San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island, which is the final race in the Tri-California Series and also an ITU Pan American Cup.  I was third in the Tri-California Series heading into this race, behind Victor Plata and Brian Fleischmann and with Jeff Piland very close behind me and Ethan Brown within striking distance if he had a good race.

The swim course consisted of two triangular laps.  I thought that I got out to a pretty good start in the swim and hit the first turn buoy near the front of the race, ahead of a lot of the carnage.  But that backstretch brought a lot of "interaction" with my fellow racers.  I thought that I gave it as well as I took it but I must have moved back a bit b/c at the next turn buoy I could see a pack strung out ahead of us.  I surged and moved up when I could and felt like I stayed in the draft most of the time, but I exited the water in 23rd place -- in a pack with Reto Waeffler, Chris Stehula, Jason Wilson, Adam Truex and Brian Hague.

The "A" swim pack had put about 75 seconds into us but the trailing end of the "B" swim pack was only ten seconds up.  With a good transition and a quick start on the bike we could have caught them.  But that didn't transpire.  Our group didn't work all that well together, with Brian Hague doing the bulk of the work early on and me taking the lead for much of the last two laps.  Reto flatted at the beginning of the second lap and we caught Mark Fretta on the third. 

I could see Jeff Piland in the group ahead of us and knew that I needed to catch him in order to retain third place in the series.  I tried to organize the group a few times but the TI course has so many corners that it is hard to maintain a rotation.  I was happy with the speed that I carried through the corners, especially after getting used to things on the first lap.

I led most of the last lap as everybody wanted to have their running legs but I couldn't afford to lose any more time on Jeff.  I had a rocky bike dismount and my feet were totally numb as I ran into transition.

I grabbed me shoes and left transition just behind Brian Hague.  Jason Wilson and Chris Stehula must have been first out and Fretta really took off.  I stayed near Brian for awhile but then he started gapping me a bit.  I threw in a few surges to try and claw my way back and eventually caught him on the second lap.  I should note that the run course is three laps on an out-and-back course.

At the turnaround on the first lap I could see that Jeff was hurting and that I *should* be able to catch him if I ran strong the rest of the way.  I steadily closed the gap and passed him after the turnaround on the second lap.  On the third lap I started to see John Dahlz up the road and tried to count guys and see if I could snag some ITU points.  I needed to catch Dahlz & Jason Wilson and to beat Brian ... but then Ethan Brown caught us.  I tried to go with Ethan for a little while in order to get away from Brian but it didn't quite work.  So Ethan got away and Brian caught me again.  I tucked in behind Brian but lost him before the turnaround. 

On the way back, I saw Brian catch Dahlz and clawed my up to them. They slowed down in order to save up for the final sprint so I decided to try and get away right then -- similar to Lake Stevens where I really didn't want to have to sprint to the line.  But Dahlz worked to catch me again w Brian sitting on.  I made 3 more moves and Brian made one before the final 600, when I went for broke.  At about 300 or 400 to go the other guys came past me and I couldn't keep up.  Oh well.  It was a hard fought race and I definitely made some steps forward in my biking.  I need to figure out why I didn't swim a bit better.  I felt pretty good out there but just missed the move, I suppose.

So I took 23rd of maybe 33 guys who started.  No ITU points as they stop at 20th and I was 26 seconds away from the 5% time cutoff.  Close, again!

Swim: 20:02 (23rd, first was Fleischmann in 18:36)
Bike: 1:01:51 (21st, first was Matty Reed in 1:00:11)
Run: 37:15 (21st, first was Mark Fretta in 33:04)
Total: 2:00:32 (23rd, first was Victor Plata in 1:54:30)

Race Report: Pacific Grove

Last weekend I raced in the Triathlon at Pacific Grove.  I was feeling really good about my swim & run fitness coming in and I expected/hoped to make the main swim group, then break out a new run PR.  As it played out, I didn't swim quite as well as I hoped but my run was pretty solid.

I settled in to fifth place in the swim pack until about 600m when I got tangled up in the kelp.  A kelp rope went up around my neck and I had to stop for two strokes to pull the kelp off.  I lost two spots and then went into a bit of a sprint to try to re-establish my position.  I hit the run-out in seventh and re-entered the water right next to Steve Sexton.  My second lap was a bit of a disaster...  I suddenly felt a bit overcooked and started losing ground.  I kept swimming over kelp while the other guys were in clean water and I lost four more spots.  By the backstretch I was dangling off the back.  I hit a bit more kelp and was on my own.  The lesson in all of this: when you are swimming in a kelp forest, stay behind somebody!!

I had a solid T1 and saw a few other guys grabbing their bikes, so I knew that with a strong first mile I should be able to get into a good bike group.  Of course everybody up ahead of me was sprinting to catch the fastest possible group, too, and I didn't make much headway.  Reto Waeffler caught me from behind and the two of us caught Ethan Brown and Dave Kuendig.  We couldn't bridge to the next man up the road, Kevin Everett, before he caught on to the "B" pack.  So we were a "C" pack of 4 behind "A" and "B" packs of 6.  We worked well together at times but I had to skip a few pulls and that hurt us.  Dave dropped and that hurt us, too.  We ended up losing 4 minutes to the "B" pack and 5 to the "A" pack.

Reto and Ethan picked up a few seconds on me in T2 and went out on the run together.  I tried to pass Reto "authoritatively" around mile one but he knew the trick and picked up his pace, too.  He stayed right there until mile two and then passed me back.  Of course by then I knew that he'd try to surge past me so I was prepared to keep it close.  I re-passed him at mile 2.5 and was finally able to get a bit of a gap.  I kept pushing it the rest of the way, mostly out of pride and the desire to get a new PR run split... I was also motivated a bit by seeing Haven Barnes and Scott Young trying to chase us down from the "D" cycling pack. 

check out my hot new top with a USProTri.com logo!

All in all... I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't hang with the pack more effectively in the swim, but I was happy with my effort and time on the run.  Victor pulled away from me in the Tri-Cal series by winning the race and Jeff Piland pulled ahead of me with his 8th-place finish.  Brians Fleischmann and Lavelle also picked up some healthy piles of Tri-Cal points with their swim & bike primes and respectable finishes.

Overall: 13th place, 1:59:36
Swim: 12th, 19:13
T1: 4th, 1:02
Bike: 15th, 1:04:41
T2: 14th, 0:32
Run: 13th, 34:05

The Woodstock of Triathlon

Leading up to this Saturday's Avia Wildflower Long Course race I had a bit of bravado about how far my run has come.  I told anyone who would listen that I was hoping to get out there and log a sub-1:20 run split.  I didn't show enough respect for the brutality of that bike and run course, and I felt plenty of remorse for this oversight on Saturday.

My result at the race was actually pretty solid, but I had to push pretty hard to get there.  Things rarely felt smooth and relaxed like I'd planned.  Even when I was able to run at a good clip it was with tired legs and an beaten, overheated core.

At the swim start I found it rather easy to position myself in the middle of the front row.  Enough of the guys knew that they wouldn't swim all that well and stayed in the back.  Nice.  As the swim strung out I decided not to bury myself to move up, and eventually tucked in behind three other swimmers who turned out to be Chris Lieto, David Thompson and Victor Plata.  The lead swim group of about 8-10 exited a minute ahead of us (Bozzone, Andersson, Sexton, Brandon, Hackett, Cotter, ...) and a straggler or two (Macca) were in between.

I took the bike out at a moderate pace, wanting to give my legs and back some time to warm up.  My back still started hurting about five miles in but the pain wasn't quite as severe as last year and I tried to not let it bug me.  About eight riders passed me while on the bike (Hoffman, Legh, Nelson, Stehula, Jensen, ...) but I caught Jeff Piland and Barrett Brandon on Nasty Grade.  Neither was having a great day at that point -- Barrett pulled out two miles into the run and Jeff endured a painful third leg of the race.

I didn't take in enough fluids while on the bike.  Somehow I got a slow start with my drinking and eating and couldn't really "catch up."  I didn't finish my first bottle until 15-20 miles in and I didn't take solid food until mile 30.  This probably hurt me a bit on the run.

Exiting T2 I glanced at my watch and saw a time-of-day of 11:01am.  With the ~8am start I was on pace to hit my goal of 4:20 if I hit my run goal.  I tried to stay smooth and relaxed for the first three miles and ticked off 12:00 and 18:00 at miles 2 and 3.  I knew that the hills of miles 4 and 5 would be a challenge and I lost two minutes during that stretch.  I also had to fight through a crampy left quad but I manage to hobble past Chris Stehula and one other runner.  Bombing down the hill after mile 5 I could see Adam Jensen in the valley ahead.  I expected to pass him based on our past running experiences but he stayed strong in the second half while I faded a bit, despite getting some encouraging words from Ray Maker and Jim Levisky as they biked past.  The mile through Redonda Vista campground was also uplifting, as always, with all of the people lining the route.  I caught another guy around mile 10.5 shortly after Victor Plata came flying past both of us.  I closed on Victor a little in the final two miles but he stayed ahead by 20-30 seconds and I took 19th place.  My run split was 1:23 and my total time was either 4:20 or 4:23, depending on whether I believe the finish line marquee or the printed results.

Given the strength of this year's field I feel pretty good about my result.  I can see opportunities for improvement in each of the three legs but I think that I set myself up well for this year's Tri Cal series.  Most of the guys who beat me at Wildflower won't be doing the series.

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.

Blue70 wetsuits at Tinley's Adventures

While going through our day-before-race routines for Scott Tinley's Adventures last month, we noticed that 6 out of 7 guys were wearing Blue Seventy Helix wetsuits.  Check it out:

 

From left to right: Dave Messenheimer, Haven Barnes, Steve Sexton, Barrett Brandon, Matt Chrabot and Chris Tremonte

Pac Grove

Today I effectively used a new strategy in draft-legal racing: I biked with the main group! 

The swim at today's Pacific Grove triathlon was a bit on the casual side but I positioned myself well and worked when I needed to work.  I got out of the water in the top ten and didn't lose too much ground climbing up to T1.  I had to work a bit out of transition to latch onto the bike group but once I was there I was able to relax a bit.  Thanks to my gracious homestay host, Patty Kintz, for taking the pictures below.

It's a lot easier when you're in the group!

My 2007 Raleigh Prestige performed marvelously out there.  I love the stiffness of the chainstays - I really feel the bike jump ahead when I tap the pedals.  The carbon fiber gives a smoother ride than my old aluminum rig.  It's a pound or two lighter... and everything is brand new so it just feels clean and crisp and efficient.

A group of four got up the road towards the end of the second lap so the main field got organized (or at least tried to) and did some rotating pacelines for awhile.  There were a few guys accelerating too hard and there were a few guys getting blown off the back (or maybe trying to conserve for the bike).  In retrospect, those of us with minimal hope for winning the race should have made Victor and Thompson and Messenheimer do a bit more of the work.  But we are all Men of Honor, right?  You want to do your part...

My stomach was a bit unsettled at times on the bike and it got worse on the run.  Not sure exactly what I did to induce this problem... but I may try taking less caffeine next time around.  The scenery is always nice in PG, though... check this out:

I'm not moving all that fast but at least the view is nice.

After the race Mark Kintz and I drove over to the beach just to check out the surf.  It's really an awesome part of the country to live in - easy access to as much surfing and mountain biking as you can handle.  Maybe that's what drives the property values so high!  Heh...

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.